All posts tagged "gaza"

This secret greedy deal proves Trump's summit is a cynical farce

This is what happens when cynical, greedy, amoral billionaires and psychopaths run a country.

The Times of London (Murdoch-owned) is reporting that billionaire Steve Witkoff, billionaire Donald Trump, and billionaire Vladimir Putin have worked out a model behind the scenes to solve the Ukraine problem: just make it like Gaza.

They’re planning, according to this reporting, to fully respect the borders of Ukraine and the country’s sovereignty, but with one catch. Just like Israel did with Gaza, Ukraine can “self-govern” but all political and economic decisions will be made or approved by Moscow, all funds flowing through Moscow, just like the governments of Gaza and the West Bank are subservient to the whims of Netanyahu and the Israeli Knesset.

It's essentially a plan to return Ukraine to the subordinate status it had when it was part of the old Soviet Union, which Putin appears committed to reestablishing, country by country.

Trump’s Senior Director for Counterterrorism, former Sinclair Broadcasting commentator Sebastian Gorka, went all “peace for our time” Neville Chamberlain with his apparent endorsement of the idea:

“We recognize the reality on the ground and we have one priority above all else, whether it’s the Middle East or whether it’s Ukraine. It’s to stop the bloodshed. Everything else comes after the bloodshed has been halted.”

Meanwhile, NBC News reports that Netanyahu is now moving to Stage Two of his apparent Gaza plan: shipping the citizens of Gaza, who’ve lived there for millennia, to the hellhole of South Sudan.

I say “hellhole” from personal experience. I was working in South Sudan about a decade ago with an international relief organization, 15 miles from the Darfur border, distributing food, medicine, and tents to refugees fleeing the Janjaweed murderers.

We could see the villages burning on the horizon as desperate people — nearly all women, children and the elderly, as the military-age men had all been killed — flooded into the region. Here’s an excerpt from the diary I kept during that trip:

“The land here in South Sudan is vast and flat. The 45,000 people around me share one single hand-pumped well (drilled a decade ago by the United Nations), and no other infrastructure beyond that. No buildings, no roads, no septic or sewage, no schools, no clinics or hospitals, no stores or even storehouses, nothing. Most live on a patch of hard-packed reddish dirt about ten feet square with a few of their possessions marking the perimeters of their ‘home,’ sleeping on the dirt, or on a ragged piece of cloth or, the lucky few, a piece of salvaged tarp from some previous relief mission. Stick-thin women and children with bellies swollen by malnutrition outnumber the men, whose peers were murdered by the Janjaweed or taken as slaves to the north.

“The air is so hot and dry that even smells of body odor vanish. My nose is encrusted with dust. The land is barren of any vegetation at all other than the occasional large tree with roots deep enough to reach into the water table thirty or so feet below us. Dust devils blow up and around, tiny cyclones that seem to erupt from nowhere amidst air that is so hot and dry it feels as if we’ve been wrapped in glass wool insulation and tossed into a furnace’s heating duct.

“One relief worker I met on the way here, who was leaving the Darfur area via Juba (the capital city with only three short paved streets) on the same small plane that brought us in, said, ‘If there is a hell, it is much like South Sudan.’

“This being a refugee community, it is thick with disease, as refugees not only bring diseases with them but are among the most vulnerable of all populations to disease. There’s Buruli ulcer, a flesh-eating and incurable (other than by surgery) disease caused by a bacteria related to leprosy: I saw a case of it yesterday in a little girl who had just arrived from Darfur. She had a hole in the side of her shin that was about four inches long, two inches wide, and three-quarters of an inch deep, nearly down to the bone.

“Ebola was first discovered here and in nearby Zaire. Eighty percent of the world’s cases of Guinea Worm disease are here in Southern Sudan: the microscopic eggs are in the guts of tiny, almost invisible sand fleas that infest food and water, and about three months after eating one, the worms hatch. Over the course of the next year they grow throughout the body, often boring out through the skin causing an ulcer that can take months before the worm fully emerges, causing dreadful and incapacitating pain. There is no cure.

“In South Sudan sleeping sickness — caused by a parasite named trypanosoma that’s transmitted by the bite of local flies — kills more people than AIDS. This is also the world epicenter of onchocerciasis — another worm that grows more than 1 1/2 feet long inside the body and spreads thousands of eggs to all the organs — soon to become more worms — over the decade or so it takes to kill a person. Sometimes the smaller worms work their way into the cornea, causing blindness which gives this parasite its common name: ‘River Blindness.’

“There’s also visceral leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, leprosy, yellow fever, dengue fever, various bacteria and mycoplasma that cause severe and deadly forms of pneumonia, and many, many of the people in this village are infected with malaria (a particularly nasty, drug-resistant, and usually fatal form, P. falciparum, is the most common here in Southern Sudan).”

Following Netanyahu’s advice, Trump is also negotiating with South Sudan to take in America’s “illegals” in exchange for cash. They’ve already taken in eight people — none of them even Africans — who Trump shipped over there last month.

Nice guys, those two leaders of Israel and America. Along with Putin, “the three caballeros” show what happens when countries are run by entirely self-interested and morbidly rich sociopaths.

Forget about commitments, duty, or loyalty: Trump has never, in his entire life, been big on keeping a promise; just ask his three wives or the thousands of small businesses, workers, and customers he’s screwed.

So, it makes perfect sense that he and his billionaire land developer buddy Witkoff, who’s now negotiating with Putin and Netanyahu even though he has zero diplomatic experience, would go along with Putin’s Great New Idea to Gaza-ize Ukraine.

In fact, in 1994 the US, Ukraine, Great Britain, and Russia signed the Budapest Accord, an agreement that promised America and Britain would defend Ukraine’s borders in exchange for them giving up to Russia what was then the third-largest nuclear weapons arsenal in the world, left over from the old Soviet Union. Putin violated it when he took Ukraine’s Crimea region, and Obama doubled down on the betrayal by largely ignoring the annexation. Biden only reluctantly gave Ukraine aid, and Trump has blocked US military aid for eight months now.

Thus, for the first time since Germany invaded Poland and kicked off World War II in 1939, one European nation has invaded another, seized territory, and claimed it as their own.

This violation of international law and national sovereignty clearly doesn’t bother Trump or his Republican toadies; just look at his talk about annexing Greenland or making Canada the 51st state in a dime-store imitation of Hitler and Putin.

Neither Trump nor the GOP that enables him have any moral compass or core values beyond reestablishing white supremacy, enriching the morbidly rich, and moving women, racial and religious minorities, and the queer community into second-class status subordinate to white “Christian” men.

How else could you explain their behavior?

I get it that Trump’s former lawyer just this week acknowledged that Katie Johnson had alleged Trump raped her when she was only 13 years old, and he helped deep-six the case. As an adult, she gave sworn testimony in multiple court cases, one transcript published by Politico:

“Defendant Trump initiated sexual contact with Plaintiff at four different parties. On the fourth and final sexual encounter with Defendant Trump, Defendant Trump tied Plaintiff to a bed, exposed himself to Plaintiff, and then proceeded to forcibly rape Plaintiff. During the course of this savage sexual attack, Plaintiff loudly pleaded with Defendant Trump to stop but with no effect. Defendant Trump responded to Plaintiff’s pleas by violently striking Plaintiff in the face with his open hand and screaming that he would do whatever he wanted.

“Immediately following this rape, Defendant Trump threatened Plaintiff that, were she ever to reveal any of the details of the sexual and physical abuse of her by Defendant Trump, Plaintiff and her family would be physically harmed if not killed.”

(After her testimony, Johnson received a series of death threats from Trump supporters and has since vanished.)

But will sabotaging Ukraine with a Gaza-like deal (and possible eventual resettlement to South Sudan) be enough to get us to stop talking about the possibility that the current President of the United States is a child rapist? Or is Trump just selling out Ukraine to get another billion-dollar real estate deal, this time one in Moscow and St. Petersburg?

With this administration and the entire Republican Party having lost any semblance of a moral core, commitment to democracy, or respect for the rule of law, the responsibility for the preservation of American values falls to us and the Democratic Party.

Join your local Democrats to shift the Party toward activism, join Indivisible, and any other groups dedicated to restoring democracy to the United States and defending our allies, including Ukraine.

Get out in the streets this Saturday.

And let your elected officials know where you stand (the Congressional switchboard number is 202-224-3121).

Tag, you’re it!

'Clearly that's his opinion': Mike Johnson swatted down by Trump admin

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) did not receive resounding support from the Trump administration over this week's comments regarding Israel and Gaza.

During Tuesday's Pentagon news briefing, a reporter asked, "Today, Speaker Johnson was in the West Bank, which he referred to as 'Judea and Samaria,' and said that it rightfully belongs to the Jewish people. Is that official U.S. policy, and if it's not, what is U.S. policy toward the West Bank?"

Johnson visited a settlement in the occupied West Bank as part of a private visit to Israel, according to Axios. He traveled with other Republican members of the Friends of Judea and Samaria caucus in Congress, "which supports Israeli settlements and advocates for annexation of the West Bank," according to the report.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce replied, "Uh, well, I've said this about other diplomats who've spoken their minds, including Ambassador Huckabee. Certainly that's not — if there's a policy in that regard, you would hear it from me. So, I think I can say that. I'm not going to speak for him or characterize his words in any ways, but clearly that is his opinion."

The reporter then asked, "But it's not the opinion of the U.S. government?"

"Well, I'm not going to speak about opinion of the government, and if there's a status in any region of the world, certainly in the Middle East, I would wait to hear it from Secretary Rubio and President Trump."

Watch the clip below via the U.S. State Department.

Trump is going to need a cellmate. I've got just the man

Israel has become a global pariah — “increasingly isolated,” the New York Times recently reported. Polls in the U.S. and around the world reveal growing opposition to Israel’s actions in Gaza, particularly since Israel has no obvious plan to end its war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has himself, and his right-wing government partners, to blame. He doesn't give a damn about Palestinian lives or the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. He primarily cares about expanding his power and staying out of prison on corruption charges. He thinks that extending the war in Gaza will help him do that. Sound familiar?

I'm proud to be Jewish. I'm proud of the fact that Jews have disproportionately been involved in all the major American progressive movements since the 1800s. I believe in the core Jewish value of tikkun olam — repairing the world and ending human suffering.

I support Israel's right to exist. I've been to Israel three times — the first time in 1965 and most recently in 2015. I have family members there. But I am 100% opposed to Netanyahu's government, its war crimes in Gaza, its support for Jewish settlements on the West Bank, its racism, its attacks on the country’s progressive organizations (which I wrote about in 2016), and its efforts to undermine what’s left of Israeli democracy.

I support Palestinians' right to a sovereign homeland, but not one run by Hamas, a theocratic, fascist, anti-woman, anti-gay terrorist organization.

I'm pleased that most American Jews, and a small but growing number of American Jewish organizations — including, most recently, the Union of Reform Judaism, the largest and most liberal of all Jewish religious movements — oppose Israel's atrocities in Gaza, including thwarting food, water, medical, and other aid from reaching those who need it. (Yes, Hamas stole some of the aid that was sent there, but not much of it. That's Netanyahu's lame excuse for blocking all humanitarian aid. That's an outrage).

I believe, along with a majority of Democrats in the Senate, that the U.S. should end military aid to Israel until there is a ceasefire and ultimately a peace agreement.

I know there's been an upsurge of antisemitism and hate crimes against Jews in the United States. And yes, some of those incidents have occurred on a handful of college campuses. But the overall number is quite small — not close to the level that the Anti-Defamation League wants you to believe, which they falsely quantify by equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism.

A few anti-Israel protesters use rhetoric that can be described antisemitic and that understandably makes some Jews feel uncomfortable. But college campuses are not hotbeds of Jew hatred. That's a big lie that Trump and the ADL and groups like Mothers Against College Anti-Semitism use for their own overlapping purposes.

In fact, most people protesting Israel's actions are not antisemites. They just want the killing and suffering in Gaza to end. I've protested Israel's atrocities and I'm not an antisemite.

If colleges want to address antisemitism, limiting protest and free speech (and caving in to Trump's demands over curriculum, admissions, and DEI programs) is not the way to do it. Instead, colleges should do more to educate students, faculty and staff about the history and current reality of antisemitism — and how it is similar to and different from other kinds of bigotry, including racism, sexism, nativism, Islamophobia, and homophobia.

More courses, more speakers, more dialogue, and more opportunities for Jewish, Muslim, and Christian students to work together on regular academic, extracurricular, community-oriented, and social justice projects to build and foster connections and trust.

The biggest threat to American Jews are not on college campus. They are the right-wing hate groups who Trump has encouraged, emboldened, and pardoned.

These are the "Jews will not replace us" Nazis who marched in Charlottesville.
These are the insurrectionists who wore "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirts on January 6, as they invaded the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. to try to overturn the 2020 election.
These are the Trump supporters who shoot Jews in synagogues (in Pittsburgh and elsewhere), at public parades (like the one in Highland Park, Illinois), and at the Jewish museum in D.C.
These are the conspiracy theorists who spout antisemitic stereotypes about an alleged international Jewish cabal run by George Soros and others.

It is no accident that the upsurge of right-wing antisemitism began soon after Trump announced his first campaign for president in 2015. That Trump is himself a long time anti-semite is well-documented. He traffics in antisemitic stereotypes and he cultivates and encourages hate groups, including neo-Nazi groups. He has long admired Hitler.

Trump mainly cares about appealing to his base. Only 26% of Jews voted for Trump last year and few Jews support his policies or actions. A huge part of his base, however, are white evangelical Christians. About 80% of them voted for Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024, accounting for almost half of his total vote.

The extreme wing of the evangelical movement are the Christian nationalists (like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and several other high-level Trump appointees), who now account for almost 30% of all Americans.

They advocate authoritarianism. They are white supremacists and anti-semites. They believe that the United States is and should be a Christian nation, governed by Biblical doctrine and not by the Constitution. In that scenario, Jews are, at best, second-class citizens.

Trump doesn't give a damn about protecting Jews from antisemitism. His attacks, and those of the Republicans in Congress (led by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York), on universities for allegedly fostering antisemitism are really about intimidating a major bastion of liberalism and free speech. Trump is on a crusade against institutions he considers his enemies — unions, artists and performers (and institutions like the Kennedy Center), the courts, the media, and universities and colleges. He wants to intimidate and silence them. He is weaponizing antisemitism to gain more power and stifle his opponents.

And so is Netanyahu. But it is backfiring on both of them.

Israel has become a global pariah. And Trump is a laughing stock among world leaders for his authoritarian policies, his ignorance, his megalomania, and his pathological lies.

Trump’s declining support in the U.S. is likely to help the Democrats win a major of House seats next year, which would allow them to neutralize many of Trump’s policies, hold investigations and hearings to expose his corruption, and even put pressure on Israel by limiting or ending U.S. arms sales.

In my fantasy world of the not-too-distance future, Trump and Netanyahu share a prison cell. That would be equal justice under the law.

Peter Dreier is the E.P. Clapp distinguished professor of politics at Occidental College. He is the author of "The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame" (2012), an editor (with Kate Aronoff and Michael Kazin) of "We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism, American Style", and co-author of "Baseball Rebels: The Players, People and Social Movements That Shook Up the Game and Changed America" (2022).

'No doubt!' Wolf Blitzer stunned as Israeli official calls CNN starvation pics propaganda

CNN's Wolf Blitzer continuously challenged Israel's Ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, for claiming the charges of Israeli-imposed starvation in Gaza were fabricated.

During a lengthy interview Tuesday, Blitzer confronted Leiter with a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denying reports of wide-spread starvation, and another of U.S. President Donald Trump admitting, "That's real starvation stuff, I see it. And, you can't fake that."

"Nobody could avoid seeing the pictures we're seeing coming out of Gaza, although many of them are in the service of Hamas propaganda and some of them are are doctored in A.I., but there is definitely a crisis in Gaza," Leiter said.

He continued, "I think what the president was referring to was the pictures of hunger. There is no large-scale starvation. There certainly isn't a policy of starvation; I think there's a lot of confusion on that issue."

Leiter then ripped CNN for broadcasting "pictures of children who are suffering from cerebral palsy or cystic fibrosis, not from hunger, and yet, we're condemned for it."

Leiter added that there's "a long history of pointing the finger at the Jewish state, and really has to stop."

Blitzer interjected, "Yeah, but but you heard the president of the United States, President Trump, say, 'There's no doubt that there is starvation unfolding right now in Gaza."

He then confronted Leiter with claims of "genocide" made by two Israeli human rights groups.

"As you know, ambassador, that's a very, very sensitive word for Israel and for Jews worldwide because of the horrors of the Holocaust. How do you respond to that?"

"We absolutely condemn these reports, which are fallacious," Leiter shot back. "Anybody is welcome to come and see the amount of aid that we're pouring into Gaza."

Watch the clip below via CNN.

These critical stories are getting buried by Epsteingate

The public conversation has become so distorted by the moral squalor of Donald Trump and his lackeys that I fear we’re confusing what’s exciting for what’s important.

“Epsteingate” is exciting. The story excites because Trump seems unable to stop it from growing — and it therefore offers a bit of hope that it will undermine his support or even topple him.

Yet I worry that it’s crowding out other stories that Americans need to know and respond to, such as:

1. Hunger in Gaza has reached new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row, according to the World Food Program.

The number of children dying of malnutrition has risen sharply in recent days. Many are literally starving.

According to Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency:

“People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses … One in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day. When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold. Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak & at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need … Parents are too hungry to care for their children. Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice. Families are no longer coping, they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened.”

America is directly implicated in this humanitarian crisis.

Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor.

The United States must stop all military assistance to Israel unless Netanyahu and the Israeli government allow relief organizations to bring immediate humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

2. Federal judges accuse the Trump regime of deliberately defying court orders by being slow to respond, misrepresenting facts in filings, and refusing to take action as ordered by the courts.

In an analysis of 165 court orders filed against the Trump regime, the Washington Post found that federal judges accused it of resisting court orders in at least 57 of those cases — approximately 34 percent.

This story needs far more attention. It’s the clearest evidence yet of the regime’s disregard for the U.S. Constitution.

It should form the basis for impeachment of Trump and his lackeys, and for criminal action against them once they’re out of office.

3. 56,816 people are now being detained by ICE, both in the United States and in El Salvador and other countries where there’s little or no control over the conditions in which they’re being detained.

Over 70 percent have not been convicted of any crime.

Many were abducted by ICE agents in plain clothes and wearing masks to prevent identification, from their places of work, court houses, or their homes and apartments. Families have been broken up and family members “disappeared.”

We have no way of ensuring that they are being held in humanitarian conditions. Venezuela’s Attorney General has announced that Venezuelan migrants held in El Salvador recently returned to Venezuela suffered torture and abuse while imprisoned in CECOT.

Because there’s been no due process — no independent verification of who these people are or even that they have been in the United States illegally — it is entirely possible that some detainees are American citizens.

This story continues to worsen. And it, too, hasn’t received the attention it deserves.

***

The question of whether Trump had sex with one or more of Jeffrey Epstein’s underage sex-trafficked girls is not unimportant, but I worry that its sensationalism is burying some of these other stories that deserve our attention and action.

We have little or no chance of rectifying the most serious wrongs if we’re captivated by the most exciting.

Robert Reich is a professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former secretary of labor. His writings can be found at https://robertreich.substack.com

Trump and Netanyahu are dishonest, duplicitous and worse

Meetings between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are more akin to a master class in posturing and duplicity than in diplomacy. This month’s meetings were no exception.

Both men are master manipulators, products of our media age. They create illusions that they insist are real. They repeat a lie over and over, and with such force, that it becomes real for those who trust them. Those who do not believe in the illusion are threatened, belittled, or shunned.

Both leaders have utilized their craftiness to achieve personal success in domestic politics. They have developed strong constituent bases, followers who believe that their leadership must be supported and protected. At the same time, they are polarizing figures who have contributed to creating deep fissures within their countries.

Because the illusions they project are based on lies, there are limits to their successes. In the first place, reality invariably presents a strong check to illusions. And ignoring reality can result in social unrest and political chaos.

For example, President Trump promoted his signature budget plan — which he called the “Big Beautiful Bill” — promising that it would be fiscally sound and bring greater prosperity to more Americans. Instead, it appears that it will dramatically increase the nation’s deficit while potentially causing 17 million Americans to lose their healthcare.

For his part, Netanyahu has prolonged his war on Gaza (and Lebanon, Syria, and Iran) promising that it would lead to “total victory,” making Israel more respected and secure. Instead, it has led to his being indicted for war crimes and Israel seeing its international standing diminished because of its genocidal policy.

Truth wins out. And so, we can expect the day to come when Trump voters lose their health care plans and see their rural hospitals forced to close and realize that the illusion of the “Big Beautiful Bill” didn’t include them. Much the same will occur in Israel when Israelis realize that “total victory” is a farce — the conflict with Palestinians will continue as long as they are denied rights — and as tens of thousands of young Israeli soldiers return from having served multiple tours of duty in Gaza with PTSD, wreaking havoc at home and in their communities.

With this as a backdrop, it was both fascinating and deeply disturbing to see the two master manipulators at work with and on each other last week: a bizarre exercise in log-rolling flattery. As we say in colloquial English: “They laid it on thick.”

Netanyahu, the indicted war criminal, gave Trump the letter he sent to the Nobel Prize Committee nominating him for the peace prize. And Trump returned the faux compliment calling Netanyahu “the greatest man alive.”

All of this can be dismissed as buffoonery or maybe even harmless puffery — just two manipulators playing each other. But where the efforts of these two become truly dangerous is when they and their acolytes come to believe the deceit and attempt to extend their efforts to supplant reality with illusion through policies that impact others.

From what little we know of what transpired in the meetings between Trump and Netanyahu, what’s clear is that the ideas driving both are not reality based. Trump’s plan was to evacuate Palestinians from Gaza to a location outside of Palestine where housing will be provided so they can live productive lives, making way for Gaza to become a Riviera-style resort. This was trashed early on as being based on illegal ethnic-cleansing and blatant colonialism.

Netanyahu appears to have nothing better to offer than a slight modification of Trump’s idea. He wouldn’t expel all of Gaza’s Palestinians. But he would force as many to leave as possible to other countries that would take them. Those who remain would be “relocated” to what the Israelis are calling “a humanitarian relocation site” where Palestinians can be provided for and “deradicalized.”

Both plans share three elements. First, to sell their ideas, both Trump and Netanyahu clothe them in humanitarian language. Second, no matter how they try to dress them up, both plans are designed and offered without consideration for what Palestinians really want. And finally, therefore, both are delusional and destined not only to fail, but to exacerbate an already volatile situation.

Maybe the biggest illusion projected by both men is the notion that their “plans” will create the conditions for regional peace. Ignoring the reality that a root cause of tension in the Middle East is the Israeli dispossession of Palestinians, their proposals only add to that dispossession and the resistance it spawns in Gaza (all the while compounding the same dispossession in the West Bank and East Jerusalem).

As history has shown, it is perilous to ignore the humanity of Palestinians. It is also foolish for Trump and Netanyahu to assume that their projected illusions will be believed in the Arab world, making possible an “era of peace.” This fantasy only exists in their minds and in the minds of the sycophants who surround them.

As a great Republican president (may have) said 160 years ago, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

Dr. James J. Zogby is the author of Arab Voices (2010) and the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.

'Beyond parody': Critics left staggered by latest Trump Nobel Peace Prize stunt

Critics were quick to jump on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for re-nominating President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize after a Ukrainian official withdrew his recommendation, and Pakistani officials considered doing the same following the president's bombing of Iran.

Netanyahu "surprised" Trump with the nomination at a White House dinner on Monday.

The White House posted the moment to social media, recounting Netanyahu's words: "President Trump is 'forging peace as we speak, in one country and one region after the other. So, I want to present to you, Mr. President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize committee. It's nominating you for the peace prize, which is well-deserved.'"

Writer Linda Mamoun called the moment, "Beyond parody," while political commentator @SundaeDivine wrote, "International war criminal nominates convicted felon for Nobel Peace Prize."

Writer Brian Krassenstein wrote his own parody of the situation: "'Hey Donald can you bomb this sovereign nation for us?' Trump: 'Sure'. Netanyahu: 'You deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.'”

@BeckettUnite posted, "We are truly living in a time of imperial authoritarianism: A wanted war criminal, Netanyahu Who has murdered 20,000 children in Gaza presents a letter to the man who gave him the weapons for genocide...Sickening."

"I hope you find something you're as passionate about in life as these guys are about getting Trump a Nobel Peace Prize," posted journalist Aaron Rupar, along with a video clip of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) praising the nomination as "certainly warranted."

Others made some very harsh historical comparisons

The account of @BagdMilkSoWhat wrote, "Benjamin Netanyahu nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize… is like Joseph Stalin nominating Adolf Hitler for the Nobel Peace Prize."

@AntiTrumpCanada posted, "Netanyahu nominating Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize is like Benito Mussolini nominating Adolf Hitler for a Lifetime Achievement in Human Rights. Shameless, surreal, and an insult to the very concept of peace."

'Extraordinary imbecile': MAGA piles on over Greta Thunberg stunt

MAGA world set its sights on Swedish activist Greta Thunberg for claiming she was "kidnapped" in international waters on her way to protest the Israeli treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, and flown back to her home country.

David Harsanyi with the conservative Washington Examiner posted to X, "For years, youth shielded Thunberg from criticism. She is now a young woman, and so we can freely point out that she’s an extraordinary imbecile." The post linked to Harsanyi's article titled, "Greta Thunberg is the embodiment of progressive vapidity."

In response to a post by Collin Rugg with Trending Politics that said, "The Israeli government is describing Thunberg’s ship as the 'Selfie Yacht.' The activist reportedly left Tel Aviv on a flight headed for Sweden," MAGA commentator @GuntherEagleman wrote, "HA! Good riddance!"

"America First' lawyer @DC_Draino tied in Thunberg's actions with the anti-ICE protests going on in Los Angeles when posting to his two million followers, "How long until Greta Thunberg takes a sailboat to LA with crucial supplies like bricks, fireworks, and face masks?"

MAGA podcaster Tim Poole called Thunberg an offensive slur in his post, saying, "greta thunberg is r-------," while Australian journalist @OzraeliAvi wrote, "Good thing Greta Thunberg solved climate change—because the diesel yacht, the helicopters, navy ships, army patrols, and Israeli Air Force response she triggered (not to mention her flight home) just to achieve nothing would’ve been one hell of a carbon footprint otherwise."

"Greta Thunberg accuses Israel of 'kidnapping' her saying the IDF were 'keeping us in the bottom of the boat and not letting us out,'" wrote "anti-woke" content creator @OliLondonTV. "Meanwhile, this is Greta Thunberg getting off the boat and smiling as an IDF soldier offered her a Sandwich."

In an earlier post, the content creator wrote, "Meanwhile, 55 people who were actually kidnapped have been held hostage in Gaza for 612 days."

'Disgrace': Lindsey Graham slammed as he aims drowning threat at Greta Thunberg

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is coming under fire for what some called a "threat" he made aimed at Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Over the weekend, Thunberg joined other activists on a ship carrying aid from Sicily to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The supplies included baby formula, flour, rice, and diapers, and was described by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as "limited amounts, though symbolic".

Graham, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, retweeted a Times of Israel story showing Thunberg onboard the ship with the headline, "Greta Thunberg sets sail with Gaza flotilla that aims to break Israeli naval blockade."

"Hope Greta and her friends can swim!" he wrote.

Social media users immediately pounced on Graham's comment as a "threat."

ALSO READ: FBI silent as far-right podcaster demands Trump execution and Kash Patel torture

"Why is a 69-year-old U.S. senator joking about the drowning of a 22-year-old Swedish activist? Is this where American politics is now?" wrote journalist Brian McDonald.

"Why would a US senator be threatening a young climate activist?" wrote the account of @xIsraelExposedx to their 66,000 followers.

The account @Darkiora, followed by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie wrote, "Just casually threatening the life of a young girl that wants to feed a starving besieged population where half are children. How do Americans accept this behavior."

"Are you aware that you are a sitting US Senator??" wrote @DeTocqueville14.

"You are a disgrace to the dignity of the U.S. Senate and your legacy will reflect how you desperately misused your power in return for money," wrote @moorehn.

Free Speech attorney Jenin Younis wrote, "If I were a sitting congressman working on behalf of a foreign country and against Americans, I’d try not to make it so obvious."

Writer Patti Mohr posted, "That's a disgusting comment, Senator Graham. You might find starving millions of people funny but the rest of us don't. Real Americans are for human dignity, rights, and freedom. You've been in Washington way too long."

'Grotesque': ICE slammed for barring Columbia activist from meeting newborn

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials are not allowing detained pro-Palestinian activist and Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil to meet with his wife and newborn son, his attorneys told Mehdi Hasan's Zateo News.

Khalil missed his son's birth in April after being arrested by the Trump administration in March.

Reporter Prem Thakker posted to social media, "Mahmoud Khalil's legal team says ICE & private prison contractor GEO Group are refusing to let him have a contact visit with his wife & newborn baby. They traveled over 1500 miles—hoping Mahmoud could see and hold them for the first time since his arrest over 10 weeks ago."

The post included a screenshot of a press release from Khalil's attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, where he's being held at an ICE detention center.

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"Mahmoud Khalil deserves to hold his son. Noor Abdalla deserves to see her husband meet their child. And we, as a country, deserve better than policies rooted in cruelty," said legal director Nora Ahmed.

The release continued, "ICE's refusal comes after multiple requests from Mr. Khalil's legal team that points to federal policies that explicitly encouraging contact visits between detained parents and their children."

The American Civil Liberties Union said the denial "underscores the government's ongoing retaliation...in response to his support of Palestinian rights."

Baher Azmy, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said in the release that ICE leaders and elected officials "must act to remedy this grotesque and unnecessary inhumanity for Mahmoud — and for all others."

Khalil was a graduate student at Columbia and "one of the most visible leaders of nationwide campus protests against Israel's war in Gaza."

The Trump administration has accused pro-Palestinian demonstrators of promoting anti-Semitism and terrorism, which Khalil and other protesters have denied.

Khalil's immigration hearing is set for Thursday.