Update on How the Blogging is Going

 As with previous updates - it's going as we predicted. Fucking terrible, and getting worse.

The big news I guess is that Israel managed to rescue 4 hostages. And while this should be good news, it was really only welcomed by the handful of racist sociopathic monsters who have been cheerleading the genocide from day one - like the Biden Administration. And why is that? Over 270 Gazans killed and several hundred more injured. Reports that the high risk IDF mission involved disguising themselves as humanitarian aid workers and then using the joke of a pier to escape. IOW, a death toll so disproportionate that only the most racist fuckheads could celebrate the mission - one filled with war crimes and US complicity.

Incidentally - this occurred at Nuseirat Refugee Camp - in central Gaza, about halfway between Khan Younis and Gaza City. An area the IDF said they cleared months ago. And that pier? Still not operational. It's going to take a bit of effort to "repair" the pier since that sucker was not designed to withstand waves (FFS) and they will need to make fundamental changes to it before trying to use it again.

As per the Institute for the Study of War, Hamas is still attacking IDF positions in the Netzarim corridor. Rockets have been launched at IDF positions inside Gaza as well as Israeli communities near Sderot. So Hamas has clearly not been destroyed. We're getting leaks about how some in the US genocide support machine are worried that maybe tens of thousands of civilian casualties might be helping Hamas with recruiting new fighters. That kind of genius, 8 months in, is why they get paid the big bucks. That said, the people getting paid even bigger bucks are intent on ignoring this obvious truth. Such is life when your job is enabling genocide.

The US is still pushing their "Israeli ceasefire deal" - a deal that Israel has now repeatedly said they do not support. I had originally believed that this deal was basically the same as the one Hamas offered a month ago - but it looks like I missed something. The US position isn't for a permanent ceasefire, like they have been claiming. The permanent ceasefire would only occur if Hamas is destroyed. How you can have a "ceasefire" with something that no longer exists is an exercise left to the imaginations of the racist genocidal ghouls at the US State Department. Anyways, even this glimmer of hope that the genocide might end sometime soon has been snuffed out.

Now you may be asking why Israeli would oppose a deal that gives them what they want - continued violence until Hamas is destroyed. I believe that it is the framing - it's how it is being pitched. The US has been adding in "constructive ambiguity" to imply that it is a permanent ceasefire deal (when they intend nothing of the sort). The issue is that if it takes, then the six week "negotiation" period with the expectation of a ceasefire deal will prevent it from restarting. The earlier "humanitarian pause" was always framed as temporary and played on our desperate optimism for an end to the violence. But it was always going to end with more bombing to come. This deal is not being framed as temporary. Restarting the genocide will be met with a steep high barrier. Imagine - after six weeks where Hamas abides by the ceasefire but refuses to stop existing, what is the excuse for the bombs to start falling again? It might end up being a "trap" where the impetus for additional slaughter of civilians has been sapped of all urgency - and the current genocidal monsters running this show cannot allow that to happen.

That rescue mission was so fucking bad that it managed to buy only one single day. Benny Gantz had provided a June 8 deadline for a Gaza plan or else he would leave the Israeli War Cabinet. He delayed his decision on news of the rescue - a delay of one day. He's now out. The War Cabinet is now only Netanyahu and Gallant, two people with current ICC warrant requests due to the commission of war crimes.

Israel also now has the dubious honour of being listed as a country that harms children. Israel joins an rogue's gallery that includes the Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, and Syria and groups such as Al-Qaeda and Boko Haram. I'm sure this listing is going to help them loads as the genocide case works it way through the International Court of Justice. South Africa's case which has had other countries joining - Nicaragua in February; Belgium in March; Colombia in April; Turkey, Libya, Egypt, the Maldives, Mexico, and Ireland on May; and Chile, Spain and Palestine this past week. 

So - it's not going well. In fact, it is going quite badly. But also too - there's no signs of it coming to close anytime soon. So I guess Israel's silver lining is that it could be much worse - a fact they seme intent on proving to be true.