Crooked Media - What A Day: Now or Netherlands

Lawyers for Israel rejected allegations of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza on the second day of a high-profile international criminal lawsuit brought by South Africa.
 

• Israel called on the International Court of Justice to dismiss the case as groundless and reject South Africa’s request to order an immediate halt to the Israel Defense Forces offensive. “There is no genocide,” insisted a lawyer for Israel, Malcolm Shaw, in proceedings taking place at The Hague in the Netherlands. Israel said it respected international law and asserted its right to defend itself. “The appalling suffering of civilians, both Israeli and Palestinian, is first and foremost the result of Hamas’ strategy,” said a legal adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tal Becker. Becker said that if there “were acts of genocide, they have been perpetrated against Israel.” If you missed yesterday’s newsletter, we covered a full breakdown of South Africa’s arguments there. 
   

• The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday reported that Israeli authorities were systematically denying the agency access to northern Gaza to deliver aid. The Israeli Defense Ministry agency tasked with coordinating aid deliveries into the Palestinian territories did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters, but the country has previously denied blocking the entry of aid. Aid deliveries to northern Gaza have been limited since the war began, and in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack, the area was cut off from external aid altogether for weeks. 
   

• Andrea De Domenico, head of OCHA for the occupied Palestinian territories, said: “In particular, [Israel has] been very systematic in not allowing us to support hospitals, which is something that is reaching a level of inhumanity that, for me, is beyond comprehension.” A spokesperson for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said: “We’ve repeatedly highlighted Israel’s recurring failures to uphold the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law: distinction, proportionality, and precautions in carrying out attacks.

The ICJ is predicted to rule later this month on possible emergency measures, including South Africa’s request to order an immediate halt of Israel’s offensive. The accusations of genocide, on the other hand, will take years to litigate. The court’s decisions are final and without appeal, but it lacks the ability to enforce its rulings. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away, tremors from the Israel-Hamas war continue to spread throughout the region. 

• The U.S. and United Kingdom conducted a series of retaliatory airstrikes in Yemen against Houthi targets on Thursday and Friday, drawing condemnation from Iran’s allies in the Middle East. The Houthis, a Shiite rebel group that controls the northwest of Yemen, conducted a series of attacks against ships in the Red Sea earlier in the week, and claimed it is targeting Israeli ships and vessels in an effort to support Palestinians in Gaza. However, some Houthi targets have no logical connection to Israel. The Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah are all backed by Iran. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani called the U.S.-led strikes “a violation of international laws” that will “have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region.” Even close U.S. ally Oman expressed concern over the American strikes.

• Some analysts say that the airstrikes could play into the Houthis’ agenda and are “extremely unlikely” to stop the group’s attacks in the Red Sea. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said that the U.S. is aware that the militant group might try to retaliate and that Washington is “not interested in a war with Yemen. We’re not interested in a conflict of any kind here.” He added that the strikes had hit “valid, legitimate military targets,” all aimed at “the Houthis’ ability to store, launch, and guide drones and missiles.” More strikes were carried out than initially disclosed, according to a senior U.S. military official. President Joe Biden said during a stop in Allentown, PA that the United States “will make sure we respond to the Houthis if they continue this outrageous behavior.” 

The expansion of the Israel-Hamas war into a greater regional conflict is starting to seem like a worryingly-imminent prospect.

You all might have heard of the resignation of Harvard University's president Claudine Gay last week. On this week's Pod Save The People, hosts DeRay McKesson & Kaya Henderson dive deep into the details of how this situation marks the beginning of an avalanche of attacks on higher education from rich funders. They also cover Biden's negligent approach in his presidential campaign strategy for black voters. To hear the details, head to the Pod Save The People feed now.

Republican legislators are continuing their white-hot streak of not giving a shit about children. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new permanent federal program on Wednesday in which some 21 million children in the U.S. and its territories are expected to receive food benefits this summer while school is out. The program, dubbed the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer, or Summer EBT, is meant to supplement existing summer programs that have a more limited reach than academic-year programs like free and reduced-price school meals. Thirty-five states and four Native American tribes opted in. The 15 states that opted out, it will not shock you to learn, all have Republican governors, like Gov. Kevin Stitt (R-OK), who complained that the program is “duplicative” and creates “more bureaucracy.” Yeah God forbid we have a “duplicative” measure to fight against child hunger! Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said, “For the life of me I don’t see why 50 governors aren’t doing [Summer EBT], but we’re happy that 35 are, we’re happy that territories are in and we’re happy that the tribes are continuing to work with us.”

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a case and decide whether unhoused people have a constitutional right to camp on public property when they have nowhere else to sleep. It’s the most significant case on homelessness the Supreme Court has taken in decades. 

The Justice Department will seek the death penalty for Payton Gendron, the 20-year-old White man who murdered 10 Black people in a racist killing spree in a Buffalo grocery store in May 2020. 

A major blizzard has blanketed much of the American Midwest, closing schools, grounding flights, and disrupting daily life in much of the region. Bundle up, Iowa voters!

The state Supreme Court of Oregon decided on Friday it will allow disgraced former president Donald Trump to appear on the presidential primary ballot, opting not to hear the case while the Supreme Court settles a similar challenge in Colorado. 

After more than half a century, the iconic Fruit Stripe Gum was discontinued by its manufacturer. Turns out the gum, like its flavor, lasted only a fleeting moment on this earth.  

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) conspicuously visited New Hampshire on Friday and said it won’t become clear until after Super Tuesday whether there will be a “need” for a third-party candidate to enter the 2024 race. It will also become clear then whether I will find him and Joe Lieberman and flush their heads in a toilet.

Pity poor Mike, who must sip from the bitter cup. Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is drinking from the same doomed chalice as his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, tasting the wrath of his fellow House Republicans who are outraged that Johnson hasn’t yet halted funding for the entire U.S. government. Johnson reached a tentative deal with Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a $1.66 trillion top-line spending plan for fiscal year 2024. Since there isn’t enough time to pass their plan before funding starts to run out on Jan. 19, Johnson also seems prepared to agree to a short-term spending plan, known as a “continuing resolution,” or CR, in congressional lingo. Now he’s facing blowback from the same Freedom Caucus Republicans who brought down ex-Speaker McCarthy over anger about spending deals. They want Johson to use the threat of a shut-down to force cuts to federal spending and enact other draconian policies. But a lot of not-quite-so-right-wing Republicans worry that their party will (rightly) be blamed for a shutdown, and suffer in this year’s election, and lose their tiny majority. As one GOP House member, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), put it to The Washington Post: “We took weeks off last fall to elect a new speaker. I mean, there’s no way to spin a partial government shutdown as anything other than Republicans in the House of Representatives can’t govern.” Indeed, Rep. Armstrong. That would be one way to put it.

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The House Oversight Committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), sent a letter to disgraced former president Trump on Friday demanding the return of the $7.8 million his business received from foreign governments and officials while he was president. Raskin is also demanding a full accounting of profits accrued during his presidency. 2 Rask 2 Furious. 

A newly-disclosed 250-page report from scientists at the FDA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse says that marijuana is neither as dangerous nor as prone to abuse as other tightly-controlled substances, and therefore recommends it be downgraded from the nation’s most restrictive category of drugs (Schedule I) to a Schedule III drug.