Israeli Military Deliberately Kills World Central Kitchen Volunteers

Chances are slim and none there will be any consequences

On Tuesday, Israeli armed forces targeted and killed seven volunteer workers with the World Central Kitchen returning from bringing food to desperate Palestinians in Gaza.  They were traveling in a convoy that had dropped off more than 100 tons of food supplies at a warehouse in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

News of this tragedy reverberated around the world, making the front pages of major US papers, and drawing condemnations from elected leaders, including President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

The death of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza, including one American, is a devastating tragedy. The investigation must be swift, and steps must be taken to ensure this does not happen again. 

Israel must do more to protect aid workers who are bravely and selflessly working to alleviate the suffering in Gaza. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure food, water, and medicine get to innocent people in need. –Vice President Kamala Harris

Big whoop. Words count more than actions here, and all we’re seeing is blah, blah, blah.

It wasn’t that relief workers had been killed –over two hundred people have died in the course of trying to deliver aid to Gazans– it was that World Central Kitchen’s effort was targeted. They were the good guys, who’ve gone toward major disasters throughout the world since 2010. WCK has a reputation for playing by rules, adapting their assistance and its delivery to meet both cultural and government expectations. My family sends them money.

Chef Jose Andres, founder of the group, has become a worldwide celebrity. Billionaires and everyday humans have generously funded his effort to as much as $500 million a year. Plus, Andres is a genuinely nice person; his social media posts from world hot spots keep viewers up to date with the challenges that come with feeding people with nobody to turn to for their immediate survival.

From Al Jazeera, (the Qatari-funded agency which is in the process of being banned from Israel)

• The charity was on the ground after Hurricane Harvey hit the US city of Houston in 2017, and a month later after Hurricane Maria ripped through Puerto Rico.

• After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, WCK served millions of meals to refugees, starting from people fleeing across the Polish border. Founder Andres, alongside chefs from neighbouring countries including Romania, Hungary and Moldova, prepared the meals.

• This year, WCK responded to the wildfires in Chile in February, as well as the Japan earthquake in January that killed more than 160 people. It has worked in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Zambia, Peru, Cuba, Uganda, The Bahamas and Cambodia.

Independent observers have confirmed that a vehicle clearly identifiable as part of relief efforts was bombed; some survivors ran towards a second vehicle which was then bombed a half a mile down the road, and, a mile from that attack, the lead vehicle in the motorcade which likely had witnessed the attacks was bombed.

The World Central Kitchen had informed the Israeli military of its route and timing in advance. According to sources quoted in Haaretz, the Israeli operations center in charge of tracking the convoy was also the place from which the attacks were ordered. There is a better than average chance that military observers witnessed the attacks in real time through drone footage.

From the BBC:

• Chris Cobb-Smith, a former British Army officer and ex-UN weapons inspector, said the attack was probably the result of drone-launched Spike missiles.

• Spike missiles are a type of powerful weapon, usually launched against tanks and other armoured vehicles.

• Justin Crump, a former British Army officer who runs Sibylline - a risk intelligence company - agreed. He says the attack "was likely drone-launched and targeted".

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has admitted IDF forces killed the aid workers, but called the strike “unintentional,” saying “these things happen in wartime.” Spokespeople for the government have been repeating a script saying the strikes were a tragedy, unintended, and that a “completely transparent” investigation was underway.

Yeah, right. 

This attack, at last, should be a breaking point in US/Israel relations. The means don’t even come close to justifying the ends. 

The Biden administration has been slow walking any overt reprisals, in part for historical and strategic reasons. Israel has been the most reliable partner for the country in a very unstable middle east, where some nations with feudal political structures and economies seek dominance on the world stage.

The military capabilities of both nations are intertwined; some secrets are jealously guarded, others are available for field tests. Israel has long been about the only ally with a full blown intelligence structure in the US, capable of carrying out influence operations, penetrating government agencies, and even spying on dissidents.

People in the US and elsewhere have been schooled on the value of Israel as a refuge for persecuted people of the Jewish faith and on that nation’s value as a countervailing force against entities with intentions harmful to our national interests. First, there were the anti-colonial Arab nationalists, then the Russian Communists, and now terrorists sponsored by fossil fuel interests.

There is a politically powerful political arm aligned with Israeli government interests that poses a threat to incumbents and offers a leg up for upstarts. Neither political party can claim the desire to just walk away from the relations between the countries. 

In an ideal world, the Biden administration would be thrilled if Netanyahu fell from power. There is no guarantee, however, that any succeeding government would be more amenable. As is true worldwide, right wing forces are at the ready to help institute an autocracy.

Yes, there clearly needs to be a ceasefire, and has been for months. I’d be willing to venture a guess that a majority of (especially young) people don’t support what’s being done with their tax dollars in Gaza. I’m not sure if they’re willing to trade away democracy to make a statement.

Saying we want a ceasefire and doing it are two different things. Netanyahu will simply flip the bird at any UN resolution that isn’t watered down. And, as the bullies always said in school, “you and what army?”

The dirty little secret complicating matters in the Middle East, and the reason government responses of nearby nations have been on the order of “tsk-tsk,” is a long standing dislike of Palestinians by those in power in many Arab countries. After the October 7 Hama attack, the UAE, Morocco and Bahrain didn’t even withdraw ambassadors.

A Politico interview with former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker gives insight:

• In Syria, you had the orchestration of a campaign against the PLO, and in Jordan, and the same in Egypt. It is noteworthy there is no Palestinian population in Egypt. Going back to the days of [former Egyptian leader] Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptians saw the threat. Again, the Palestinians contributed to their isolation through some spectacular acts like the assassination of a Jordanian prime minister in front of the Sheraton hotel in broad daylight in Cairo by two Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PLPF] gunmen, one of whom stooped down to drink the assassinated prime minister’s blood

• That is why Egypt just exploded when [U.S. Secretary of State] Tony Blinken proposed they give temporary sanctuary to Gazans. Again, there is an ideological overlay of enmity because of Hamas’ Muslim Brotherhood affiliation, but the deep antipathy and fear on the part of the Egyptian government toward the Palestinians predates that by decades.

• All in all, the Palestinians have been hamstrung by their so-called Arab brothers. That was a line I picked up in Lebanon — when someone calls you “brother,” you know you’ve got to watch your back.

It’s a politically difficult path to walk when claiming support for the Palestinian people while disavowing the only forces opposing their slaughter. (Yes, 30,000 dead people is a slaughter). It’s also difficult to claim support for the Israeli people when large swaths of the population would be ok with simply eliminating any institution connected with the very idea of a Palestine nation-state.

Meanwhile, according to USA Today:

• More than half the population of Gaza is on the brink of famine and the entire population of more than 2 million people is experiencing acute food insecurity and malnutrition, according to report released this week by the World Bank and U.N. Over a million people are without homes and 75% of the population is displaced, the report says. The cost of damage to critical infrastructure in Gaza was estimated at $18.5 billion − equal to 97% of the combined GDP of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022.

• "With 84% of health facilities damaged or destroyed, and a lack of electricity and water to operate remaining facilities, the population has minimal access to health care, medicine, or life-saving treatments," the report says.

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Wednesday News to Peruse

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On Sex and Moral Panics - Anthony Comstock and the Long Reach of His Perverse Obsessions by Kelly Mayhew at The Jumping-Off Place

• The leap from banning abortion to banning contraception emanates from a profound backlash to not just feminism and sexual liberation but to the 20^th and 21^st centuries, period. As happened in the 19^th century, the moral panic over sex is a stand-in for fears concerning massive and rapid change.

• The current changes—from AI, Instagram, and Pornhub to climate catastrophes, refugees at the border, war, and a besieged democracy—are real and profound. They’re similarly destabilizing as were the rapid transformations in the 19^th century to people then.

• So, the problem with powerful figures like Supreme Court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, and their willingness to revivify the Comstock laws, isn’t just that they’re patriarchal; they’re anti-sex and anti-pleasure in an era when we actually desperately need real connection and joy.

• We’ve got to see all of this for what it is so that we can combat it effectively for theirs is a cold, oppressive, and joyless world order. And history has shown us, it’s not the answer to what ails us.

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How Obamacare Could Take Down Trump by Dan Pfeiffer 

• Trying to repeal Obamacare has cost the Republicans multiple elections and it could cost them the 2024 election too.

• Proving for the umpteenth time that he is not a political genius, Trump revived his push to take access to health care from millions of Americans. In November he “Truthed” about his determination to repeal the law if he returned to the White House:

• Last week, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) released their budget, which included plans to gut the ACA. The RSC are a serious policy engine in the Republican House and their plans undoubtedly inform the agenda of a future Trump Administration

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The Idiot Box - The Rot in TV News Starts at the Top and Trickles Down by Nina Burleigh at American Freakshow

• All the networks and cables have periodically platformed scumbags - Corey Lewandowski, Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon. Big Lie supporting former RNC chair Ronna McDaniel bagged a $600,000 two-year contract as the voice of Trumpism on NBC. The suits only rescinded the offer after outrage from working journalists at the company - most of whom have fielded death threats and dodged spittle and curses at MAGA rallies. McDaniel has retained a prominent media lawyer. 

• Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt went on Fox to explain the game plan. “Ronna is going to sue everyone who defamed her for breach of contract, for intentional infliction of mental distress,” Hewitt said. “They’re going to sue for the destruction of her business opportunities that come from being on TV.”

• Mental distress. Because in Trump’s America, everyone who is anyone has a right to be on TV.