One less fascist theocrat. Good. Sadly, there will be a long line of others to take his place.

And you are not going to take the opportunity to note that Nordstrom sold expensive clothes for upper-middle class people who were no doubt NIMBY gentrifiers and failed to pay their share of taxes? The Stranger is slipping.

On the other hand, helicopters are notoriously easy to crash and there was really terrible weather in the area. Occam's Razor says it was an accident, but there will always be some doubt no matter what the investigation shows.

Specific crimes by Sinwar, Netanyahu, et al are listed in the prosecutor's statement.

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state

The apologia brigade has been uncharacteristically quiet this morning.

The ICC needs to put out an arrest warrant for Joe Biden as he is responsible for arming and funding Israel. Netanyahu doesn't care that he is committing war crimes. Joe Biden has willfully and repeatedly violated United States' law and international law by arming and funding war criminals. Biden (and The United States) needs to be held accountable for every single part played in the slaughter and starvation of the Palestinian people (mostly civilians, mostly babies, children, and women - and men, too) and the total and complete destruction of Gaza. The destruction alone will take 100 years to repair. The trauma caused by the slaughter and starvation will never be repaired, ever. Biden and Trump deserve to share a prison cell. And then maybe we can elect a competent president under the age of 50.

What does this mean for the boxed Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix? Am I still going to be able to get my biscuit fix at home?

Another win for the christofascists! Leviticus says that the number of all-you-can-eat shrimp is none.

Who will be left to speak out for the bacon cheeseburgers?

@3: Why on earth would anyone apologize for rape, murder, and hostage-taking?

Oh wait, Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the organizers of the “United Front” protests at the UW, did just that:

‘The main national umbrella group for campus pro-Palestinian protests is Students for Justice in Palestine. SJP takes a violent eliminationist stance toward Israel. In the wake of the October 7 terrorist attacks, it issued a celebratory statement instructing its affiliates that all Jewish Israelis are legitimate targets:

"Liberation is not an abstract concept. It is not a moment circumscribed to a revolutionary past as it is often characterized. Rather, liberating colonized land is a real process that requires confrontation by any means necessary. In essence, decolonization is a call to action, a commitment to the restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. It calls upon us to engage in meaningful actions that go beyond symbolism and rhetoric. Resistance comes in all forms — armed struggle, general strikes, and popular demonstrations. All of it is legitimate, and all of it is necessary."

'SJP likewise directed its members to join the struggle directly: “This is a moment of mobilization for all Palestinians. We must act as part of this movement. All of our efforts continue the work and resistance of Palestinians on the ground.”'

(https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/columbia-protest-anti-semitism-campus-israel-jewish-students-justice-palestine.html)

The difference between the charges against members of Hamas, and members of the Israeli government, is intent. Rape, murder, and hostage-taking were all obviously intentional by Hamas, as is their continued abuse of Gazans for human shields. The Israelis can argue their intent is to destroy Hamas, and that Hamas was complicit in causing the civilian suffering and death which resulted.

@7 Well, you did show up after all. Just a little late. Now go and read the statement from the ICC prosecutor laying out the intent behind Israel's crimes, in particular causing a famine.

@8: I was merely noting that one set of crimes will be harder to prove than the others, even though the Stranger presented the harder-to-prove ones first. All war crimes should be investigated and prosecuted, of course; I have been very consistent about that.

Also, in the spirit of your comment @3, I noted @7 how the Stranger let a violently eliminationist stance towards Israel pass completely without notice — let alone criticism — when it came from protesters the Stranger supported. Apparently, murder, rape, etc. can indeed form a path to a just and lasting peace; it just depends upon who assaults whom.

Right on tensorna! I'm actually quite disturbed by UW agreeing to an expanded "Palestinian Studies" program. It will no doubt offer a lopsided and distorted view on this conflict. Why not an expanded Mideast Studies program where students are offered a balanced understanding? To boot, since the protesters had demanded that new faculty hires be "anti-Zionist," let's have all new hires for any mideast area studies explicitly state Israels right to exist. I wonder then how many takers for Palestinian Studies positions would apply.

Dave Meinert ruined Burien.

@10 Ooooh, that's a good idea. UW should establish a Mideast Studies program. With a variety of perspectives from Israel and the Arab world. And they should /definitely/ teach a bunch of the languages of the region. You know what would be a great name for that department? Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. Oh wait, that's taken.

https://melc.washington.edu/

Did UW actually agree that any new professors would be anti-Zionist, or was that one of the many requests left on the cutting room floor?

@9 And the prosecutor will point out (as he did in the request for arrest warrants) that he repeatedly told Israel to knock off the war crimes, and they didn't. Which is a clear marker of intent.

Dr Duchin put up with a lot of nonsense from the MAGA types/anti-fax nutjobs during the pandemic. He deserves a long and healthy retirement.

@14 You keep talking about how war is politics by other means, and you keep ignoring the fact that sometimes the war impacts politics within one of the warring nations. In this case, if an ICC arrest warrant is issued against Netanyahu, there will be several immediate issues for Israel:

Netanyahu will be under pressure to step down as PM. He can't be an effective PM if he can't go to any of the nations that will respect an ICC warrant.
If he doesn't step down, then it's one more reason for a variety of nations to cut off Israel's arms supplies. In particular, the EU (especially Germany) has been a big arms supplier. They will be under enormous pressure to cut Israel off.
It's possible that the issues will go on past arms supplies. Nothing makes sanctions politically easy like an ICC indictment. You would expect sanctions on (at minimum) people and organizations involved in West Bank settlement. Worst case, they sanction everything from Israel and there goes the Israeli economy.
If Netanyahu does step down, he's likely to be replaced by someone who just saw what happened and is interested in not getting indicted. It's nice to be able to go to Paris, you know. So they're likely to change the approach to the war. A change of management is a great time to blame everything on Netanyahu and change stuff up.
In all of this, Benny Gantz looks more and more like a voice of reason. It's already likely that he's going to pull his party out of the governing coalition because Netanyahu can't articulate a post-war Gaza plan without losing pieces of his fragile coalition. If even one or two parties pull out after that, the government falls and there are new elections. Given the Israeli right wing's published role in propping up Hamas pre-10/7, it's likely that Gantz wins that election. Again, there's a change in course.

Will any of that happen quickly? Of course not. But you do neglect to mention the quickest way to stop Gazans from being killed. That would, of course, be Israel stopping pulling the trigger when pointing their guns at civilians. But you don't admit that Israel has any agency in their war crimes, so that's not a big surprise either.

As for when an ICC indictment saves lives, that happens because many nations aren't willing to sell arms to nations under indictment. Those that do (or smugglers) charge inflated prices, reducing the total arms available.

@13: The protesters added the “anti-Zionist” hiring practices to their demands, after the UW stiffed them on their initial demands. (Because that’s how negotiations work best: make more demands as you go.) Blatantly curtailing academic freedoms per political pressure is no longer McCarthyism, but progressivism. Screw the Palestinian Studies; these students need a lesson in Horseshoe Theory.

“And the prosecutor will point out (as he did in the request for arrest warrants) that he repeatedly told Israel to knock off the war crimes, and they didn't. Which is a clear marker of intent.”

Well, yes, it would be, if a court of competent jurisdiction had actually found Israel guilty of war crimes. But none has, so now you’ve created a wonderfully circular example of simply assuming what you needed to prove.

You really have no idea how any of this actually works, do you?

@18 Did UW agree to anti-Zionist hiring practices? Because it doesn't matter what the protesters added if UW didn't agree to them. Go ahead and read the statement from UW here and tell me where the part about anti-Zionism is in the agreement.

https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2024/05/17102808/Joint-commitments-05-17-2024.pdf

How do you think this little play will turn out?
Cop: Get out of the street!
Tensorna: [stays in street]
Cop: I'll arrest you if you don't get out of the street!
Tensorna: [stays in street]
Cop: You're under arrest for obstructing traffic.
Tensorna: But you can't prove that I meant to obstruct traffic! And you haven't convicted me of obstructing traffic yet, so you can't arrest me for obstructing traffic! Mens rea!!

The various war crimes laws say that states cannot do X, Y, and Z. Israel was warned by the ICC prosecutors that it was doing X and Y, and if Israel didn't stop, the ICC would refer for prosecution. Israel didn't stop, and somehow now the ICC can't issue arrest warrants because they haven't already been convicted? And you say that I engage in circular logic.

https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/2024/05/17/rsa-talk-obscured-ends-and-amoral-means-the-flickering-moralism-of-machiavellian-approaches-to-rhetoric/

@19. Tensorna can't make arguments in good faith so resorts to conflating an entire ethos with a pet straw man of trees and misses the entire forest. The McCarthyism projection is a laugh.

@21 How hard is it to get through your thick skull that if Netanyahu is indicted, the next prime minister might plausibly decide to handle things slightly differently so they don't get indicted too? Or that Benny Gantz and the coalition that he could lead would have different priorities in Gaza than Netanyahu? Like maybe coexistence as opposed to new settlements?

And do you think it's possible, just barely possible that the Israeli public might change their minds after an indictment? And that possibly, just possibly, the Israeli public is not monolithic and that a plausible cease-fire plan might actually gain support? And that support might be enough to swing a change in government? Naw, can't be that.

Iran President Ebrahim Raisi was a murderous piece of shit - the world is a better place without his existence. Why on earth Nat (and I’ll bet other progressives) give a fuck that this dude is dead, let alone posit the conspiracy theory that someone from the west bumped him off, furthers my low opinion of them and their ilk. You all take the saying the enemy of my enemy to absurd heights. JFC

@19: Of course the UW did not agree to McCarthyist (oops, sorry, it's "progressive" now) political restrictions on hiring academics. No one here has claimed the UW agreed, so why you're so incredibly hot & bothered about that point is lost on the rest of us. You seem to believe that if the UW didn't agree, then the students demanding it shouldn't face ridicule for having so demanded it. Wrong.

"How do you think this little play will turn out?"

As it demonstrates your utter failure at making meaningful analogies, I'm guessing it will end without your understanding any difference between "police" and "prosecutor."

You really have absolutely no idea about how any of this works, do you?

It's not 1948. Israel has made it clear it has chosen total destruction by any and all means necessary.

Any worldwide war that happens in this day and age will not end well for anyone, anywhere.

White supremacist and Zionist delusions will literally kill everyone and end humanity, but hey, as long as Israel (and those who enable Israel, like the United States) doubles down in the face of worldwide alienation, who cares, am I right?

It only takes one delusional nutjob to instigate nuclear war and the minute that happens we are all going to kiss our assess goodbye and when humans are dead and gone they will see there is no motherfucking god and the earth will breathe a huge sigh of relief and get to the work of recovering from humanity.

@21 Netanyahu stepping down would very likely result in an Israeli Prime Minister who actually listens to Biden when he tells them that Israel's actions have seriously erroded support for Israel among large swaths of the American people. Good heavens, they might even get someone smart enough to understand that the Israel will suffer greatly if it causes a famine in Gaza that rivals the Ethiopian famine.

@4 xina: Cutting off U.S. funding of Boeing supplied bombs would be a start.
and @26: No arguments. I'm amazed the Orange Turd isn't being cornholed in federal prison, and permanently barred from running for reseized control of the White House. This is what the lack of a fair and impartial judiciary system looks like, and it's truly going to be the death of us, corrupt white male RepubliKKKan neofascists included.

@11 (re @4 xina): Resorting to mockery as well as projection, raindrop dear? Tsk tsk!

@15 Catalina Vel-DuRay +1 Amen.

@27: "...Biden when he tells them that Israel's actions have seriously erroded support for Israel among large swaths of the American people."

What good would come from the US President baldly lying to the Israeli Prime Minister?

'Three-quarters of respondents said Israel should move forward “with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid casualties even though there will be casualties.” A quarter picked the other option — that Israel should “back off now and allow Hamas to continue running Gaza.”'

Now, Biden himself shows trouble in this poll:

'“Biden’s ratings have weakened each month in the Israel-Hamas conflict as Biden has shifted his positions and most see his shift as political. Support for Israel remains unchanged,” said Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.'

(https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4675669-joe-biden-israel-approval-lowest-mark-new-poll/#:~:text=Three%2Dquarters%20of%20respondents%20said,Hamas%20to%20continue%20running%20Gaza. )

So, the problem for Biden is not American voters' support for Israel continuing military operations in Rafah -- 75% still do, a number unchanged from last month. The problem is Biden's wishy-washy, conditional support of Israel. He needs to stop listening to eliminationist 'protesters,' people who don't know what 'genocide' really means, and people who refuse to recognize Hamas as the primary reason casualties in Gaza are so high.

You know, people like yourself, the Stranger, and the rest of the peanut gallery here.

(Bonus question: name any other topic on which 75% of American registered voters agree. Name just one. Go ahead, take your time...)

@25 @10 brought up the issue of anti-Zionism standards for professor hiring. I was just showing that was a red herring because UW made no such agreement. You went on to double down as if it had actually happened in @18. And then when you got called on that, you pulled a switcheroo and said that it was all about ridiculing student demands even though you hadn't ever brought that up before. So 2/10 for reasoning, but 7/10 for logical fallacies.

And you also said in @18 that in order to prove that Israel intended to commit war crimes, they'd already have to be convicted of committing war crimes. Apparently in TensornaWorld, convictions come before arrests and trials. And somehow that means that you know how things work in this reality.

One terrorist dead in a helicopter crash.

10 more terrorists show up to take his place.

Life goes on.

@31: I didn't agree with @10's claim the UW had agreed to the protesters' demand for a Palestinian Studies program. I merely recounted that the protesters had indeed demanded it, and the problems with their demands generally. You seem really, really angry that commenters here describe the huge problems inherent to the protesters' demands, but not at all concerned about those problematic demands themselves.

"And you also said in @18 that in order to prove that Israel intended to commit war crimes, they'd already have to be convicted of committing war crimes."

No, I was specifically referring to your claim @13, "And the prosecutor will point out (as he did in the request for arrest warrants) that he repeatedly told Israel to knock off the war crimes, and they didn't. Which is a clear marker of intent."

His opinion that Israel has already committed war crimes is just that -- his opinion. It's not the verdict of a war crimes trial. Their ignoring his opinion means only that they do not care about his opinion, not that they're intentionally committing war crimes. Absent an extant verdict of a war crime, Israel hasn't committed one. You're assuming the truth of something which actually must be proven in court, and then using your assumed 'truth' as the basis for another judgment. I called it circular reasoning, but it's really more like an ascending spiral of guilts-by-assumption.

Tensorna: rigorous due process for every alleged war crime that is obvious on its face like forceably displacing and starving a civilian population by the millions.

Apocryphal claims without proof of Hamas human shields in every nook, cranny and hospital room for every civilian killed by 2,000 lb. bombs dropped by the IDF.

In-group favoritism and a double standard on its face. Tensor can't get around demagoguery.

"When we find the nuances, uncertainties, ambiguities, and complexities of policy argumentation paralyzing, we resort to believing that all we have to do is belong to the good group. We believe that, were everyone in this good group, we would never have injustice, cruelty, bad policies, crime, genocide.

That is so very, very comforting. It’s also a lie.

There is no group that is and has always been right. And so, when confronted with times that members of our good group (our in-group) have done extraordinarily terrible things, we find reasons they weren’t really in-group.

But, if we really want to make good decisions, we need to acknowledge that our group has done terrible things, and then we would have to acknowledge that making good decisions isn’t a question of being in the right group. We can’t be guaranteed that we’re making just decisions just because we’re endorsing the policy of our in-group. We actually have to deliberate those policies, and that means treating the arguments of other groups as we want them to treat our arguments."

https://www.patriciarobertsmiller.com/2022/04/26/how-in-group-favoritism-prevents-our-learning-from-history/

@34: "...war crime that is obvious on its face like forceably displacing and starving a civilian population by the millions."

Oh, look what just twenty seconds of actual research could have done for you! From the International Red Cross:

"Rule 129.
"A. Parties to an international armed conflict may not deport or forcibly transfer the civilian population of an occupied territory, in whole or in part, unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand.
"B. Parties to a non-international armed conflict may not order the displacement of the civilian population, in whole or in part, for reasons related to the conflict, unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand."

(https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule129#:~:text=Parties%20to%20an%20international%20armed,imperative%20military%20reasons%20so%20demand.)

The IDF's displacement of a civilian population, to get at the terrorists who have been shooting at the IDF from within/behind said civilian population, is not automatically a war crime. You've taken an attempt to protect the civilian population as a war-crime assault upon it, by (as usual) your simple expedient of ignoring Hamas' wholesale and longstanding violations of international law, which made this movement necessary.

(Also, your claim Israel is intentionally starving the civilian population might not withstand the reality that the US and Israel are now operating a relief seaport into Gaza. Just sayin'.)

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240324-forced-rafah-population-transfer-would-be-a-war-crime-macron-warns-israel

Lmao the security of the citizens would be best preserved by honoring the tenets of the ceasefire proposal Netanyahu reneged on when he risked losing power by honoring it over the manic extremists in his cabinet. Instead they moved a million people Trail of Tears style to toiletless emaciated squalor in tents in the sand "for their security" so they wouldn't be bombed and be in their housed when they blew them away. Your idea of Palestinian security is a joke. Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot and Hamas were demanding the Israeli settlers flee before they bombed them out of their homes with nowhere else to go but a beach of a million refugees without a functional economy or any infrastructure or sanitation. You would be frothing at the mouth with war crime accusations.

@29: As usual, your FOX TeeVee fueled MAGAt projections are infinitely weirder.
Golly, did xina or I strike a sensitive nerve? Did somebody's fwagile male ego get bwuised again?
Ever wonder why the number of women recently polled in the Seattle Times and elsewhere, asking if they were alone in the woods which would they prefer to encounter, an unknown man or a bear, and nearly every woman taking the survey chose the bear?
Now go eat your paste before you really start to crack up, raindrop dear.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/21/un-suspends-food-aid-in-rafah-over-lack-of-supplies-and-insecurity

Case in point:

"The United Nations has suspended food distribution in the southern Gaza city of Rafah due to lack of supplies and insecurity.

It also said no aid trucks have entered the territory in the past two days via a floating pier set up by the US for sea deliveries, and warned that the $320m (£250m) project may fail unless Israel starts providing the conditions humanitarian groups need to operate safely." Etc.

So much securing of Gazan civilians cosplaying as withholding aid. No war crimes here! Nothing but 100% legal killing with kindness.

@36, @38: Good to see you won’t ever mention Hamas’ complicity, even after being explicitly called out for it. Winston Smith would have been happy at your diligence in making his job easier.

You also obviously have no idea of my actual opinion of West Bank settlers, so your whataboutism here was an even bigger waste of your time than your usual whataboutisms are.

So, against the coming possibility the last few Hamas dead-enders literally hold up Gazan children and Israeli hostages between themselves and the IDF, you have your condemnation of the IDF already written, correct? It will save you time in a pinch.

@39. What are you even talking about?

Last I checked Hamas is under condemnation for war crimes from the ICC as well, and Hamas doesn't deserve to be the government of Gaza. Look what its leadership has wrought for the entire territory? But Hamas isn't our ally and I have no control over their actions, but we give Israel weapons in accordance with following international law. Hamas's use of human shields should be rightfully condemned, and they are just as responsible as the Likud and IDF for the situation on the ground. They should be removed from power, and rightfully so, but not at the cost of the civilian population starving to death and being collectively punished by the IDF. I understand that collateral damage is a consequence of war, and the result of the tactics Hamas uses by having tunnels and bases nearby sensitive areas that give Israel a PR hit every time they bomb any Hamas position, but the tactics the IDF is using have only boosted support for Hamas in the West Bank.

You have to understand that it's not a zero sum game. Holding the IDF accountable for its missteps is crucial for anyone who actually cares about Israel and wants it to survive the consequences of how it is handling this war. There can be no ethical or peaceful end with the current status quo, and Hamas already agreed to the ceasefire before Netanyahu took over and alienated his own cabinet now from any meaningful post-war reconstruction and management of Gaza. Hamas cannot be eliminated as an ethos if the IDF doubles down on civilian punishment and allows its settlers to seize land and interrupt aid shipments unchecked. I can't control what the IDF does, but Qatar, Iran, and anyone else who enables continued holding of power (Netanyahu included) should be subject to massive sanctions and have their supply chains cut off with an international coalition. It isn't mutually exclusive, however, and the Israeli government has to do their part and stop reverting to medieval siege tactics and religious manic zealotry in the face of perpetual war. Their rhetoric and actions are only pushing them towards long-term strategic defeat.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/21/israeli-soldiers-and-police-tipping-off-groups-that-attack-gaza-aid-trucks

Dissent is patriotic when one holds oneself accountable. Loyalty to identity and license to commit atrocities in kind is suicide.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2024/05/19/fareeds-take-israel-netanyahu-gps-digvid.cnn

https://youtu.be/rRcEgqo-5wQ?feature=shared&t=78

"There is but one assured path to peace, and that path is war."

@41: "But Hamas isn't our ally and I have no control over their actions, but we give Israel weapons in accordance with following international law."

And Israel obeys the United States, which has somehow given you control over Israel's actions? What, exactly, has happened in the last seven months to support such a claim? The US cannot even legally stop sending weapons to Israel, because US law requires American policy to maintain Israel's "qualitative military edge" in the region. (https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/15/biden-israel-weapons-policy-00158210)

Furthermore, what kind of moral judgement simply gives up because the target doesn't care? Hamas isn't an indigenous revolt in Gaza, it's an international terrorist organization, which depends completely upon supplies of money, men, and materiel from outside Gaza. It can be made to care, if the international community really wants to make the effort. How about protests worldwide against Hamas' long-standing policy of using human shields? How about publicly shaming the bankers who transfer the money? How about demanding the leaders of Qatar surrender Hamas' leaders, like the newly-indicted one, or lose their passport privileges in countries they prefer to visit? Where are the protesters who demand any of these actions?

@42 CDizzle (Garb Garblar?): It seems more like: "There is but one assured path to pieces, and that path is war."
Like the Taliban obliterating Afghanistan, Benjamin Netanyahu devastating Gaza / Palestine, Vladimir Putin wiping out Ukraine, and the Orange Turd and its enablers fucking up the Deeply Divided States of Confusion, this should prove once and for all that war is NOT the answer.