LIVE 12:00 noon Eastern, and then streaming whenever you wanna hear/watch it:
LIVE 12:00 noon Eastern, and then streaming whenever you wanna hear/watch it:
Tune in to the “DMZ America Podcast” as nationally-syndicated editorial cartoonists Ted Rall and Scott Stantis handicap the first phase of President Trump’s Gaza Peace Plan, kicking off a possible end to the brutal two-year Israel-Hamas war. Israeli forces pull back from ravaged zones, and now Hamas is expected to release all 20 living hostages—plus remains of the deceased—within 24 hours in exchange for 250 Palestinian life inmates and 1,700 Palestinian hostages.
Ted and Scott will also show and discuss their latest cartoons about the conflict, as well as those by some of their colleagues.
Daily aid trucks are rolling in, easing famine’s grip after 45,000+ Palestinian deaths and proving that Israel had been keeping out food and water. Both Israelis and Palestinians are celebrating.
But shadows loom: Will next phases—demilitarizing Hamas, deploying international stabilizers, and rebuilding the Strip—actually occur?
Who will rule Gaza after Hamas abolished all domestic opposition? Ted predicts a Hamas rebrand, as in Ireland after the Troubles. Will Netanyahu’s government survive? Genocide accusations from rights groups will be amplified as mass graves and other evidence of Israeli war crimes surface; can Israel’s reputation in the US rebound? Polls show young Americans souring fast, splitting the Jewish vote and pressuring Biden-era holdovers.
Ted and Scott have vehemently disagreed about the war for two years, while managing to remain respectful throughout. Now it’s time to consider what comes next.
1 Comment. Leave new
To misquote Preznit Clinton: it depends on what your definitions are.
Who’s in charge? Who runs the U.S.? Who runs Israel? Well, what’s meant by “run”? In theory, power derives from the people — the consent of the governed. That falls apart as soon as you examine health care. Who runs the U.S.? Who runs Israel? I suspect that the very rich and powerful run the country. That is the question to ask and to answer: “What do the very rich and powerful people want done with Gaza?” Because that’s what will happen.
The bulldozers will plow all the rubble (along with whatever bodies still remain buried within) into the sea. Contracts will go to the “right” people. A puppet regime will be installed with minimal input from the surviving Gazans. This will ensure that the next cycle of violence occurs, which will allow for the next round of retaliation. That’s necessary so that U.S. taxpayers can continue to fund universal health care in Israel while it remains communism here in the U.S. And every single step of the way, certain people will make a fortune.
Seriously, when you look at Israel as a highly useful distraction, it makes a lot of sense. It’s like the foreign policy equivalent of our domestically never-ending “debates” about abortion and guns.
It was either Maya Angelou or Toni Morrison (IIRC) who said that the purpose of racism was to keep the rest of us from our real work. And she was right. It’s the same with the endless nattering over guns and abortions and Israel, too. We’re all bickering, year after year, about issues that could be resolved in weeks.