Sunday, December 10, 2023

News bits: US-Israel policy; DJT's legal war update; Israel-Hamas poison update


U.S. plans to sell more weapons to Israel 
after vetoing cease-fire resolution

The United States drew criticism from rights and aids groups for blocking a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as well as the unconditional release of all hostages, on Friday. The resolution had near-unanimous support from member states. The State Department is selling $107 million of tank supplies to Israel and subverting congressional approval to do so.

Human Rights Watch said the United States was at risk of “complicity in war crimes,” and the Palestinian Authority’s president said the United States was responsible for the bloodshed of Palestinians. A U.S. envoy defended the veto, calling the resolution “divorced from reality” and noting that it did not condemn the Hamas attack. Israel’s ambassador, characterizing the resolution as “distorted,” praised the U.S.

The Biden administration has approved a $107 million sale of Army tank ammunition and equipment to Israel after invoking an emergency declaration that will bypass Congress’s typical review period for weapons sales.
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DJT continues to argue that the lawsuits against him are politically motivated, based on false allegations, DJT broke no law, the judges are totally biased against him and everyone ignore all the evidence of his obvious innocence. As he keeps publicly shooting his filthy, lying mouth off, his attitude is being spread, normalized and accepted by growing numbers of Americans. In my firm opinion, this is extremely dangerous and extremely damaging to the rule of law. From what I have seen so far, this is a point the MSM rarely raises. When it does come up, its importance and urgency are either misunderstood and/or downplayed for whatever reason(s) the MSM is failing us. ABC News reports about how extreme DJT's antics now are:
Judge denies defense's 4th request to end trial

The second day of testimony from the defense's expert accounting witness prompted an argument between attorneys for the two sides over the basic question of what the case is about -- leading defense lawyers to make their fourth unsuccessful request for a directed verdict to end the trial.

The arguments came toward the end of direct testimony by accounting expert defense Eli Bartov, who asserted the New York attorney general's case lacked merit because there was no evidence of any fraud on Trump's statements of financial condition, and that any errors about the values of Trump's properties were unintentional and therefore immaterial.

When the defense attempted to question Bartov about those values, state attorneys objected -- prompting defense attorney Christopher Kise to leap from his seat.

"If they don't call anyone to dispute our values, how have they proven their case?" Kise said.

Judge Arthur Engoron, in a pretrial ruling, already decided that Trump conducted a decade's worth of business using fraudulent financial statements, and state attorney Kevin Wallace suggested that Bartov's findings do not change those findings.

"You can't use false statements in business. That's what the summary judgment decision is all about. I think it is pretty much what the rest of this case is about," Engoron said in response to Kise's question.

Kise argued that if the attorney general doesn't prove what Trump's asset values should have been, the case is a "completely rudderless ship" that needs to be "moored to some sort of standard."

"You can't just say it's a misstatement because you feel like it," Kise argued.

"The standard is truth," Engoron responded.  
The exchange prompted Trump's legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, to make the defense's fourth motion for a directed verdict, arguing that Engoron is "wasting our time" if he won't consider their expert testimony.

"They have not proven their case. They haven't," Habba said in her request for a directed verdict.

"Denied," Engoron said within seconds of the request, without hearing a response from lawyers for the New York attorney general.
DJT's supporters are absorbing his lies and coming to believe they are truths. This is like the stolen 2020 election propaganda tactic all over again. Just keep repeating the lies and denying the evidence, and eventually significant public opinion will shift in the liar’s favor.

If one considers this carefully, one can see a serious weakness inherent in the law. All a defendant has to do in court is find a witness who will lie and then use that false testimony to undermine the entire legal system. This is what DJT is doing right now. There is no shame or morality in it. This is pure politics intended to poison and rot society and then use that fertile poisoned ground to rot and kill democracy and the rule of law. 
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The NYT reports about Israel’s use of Hamas and a bad miscalculation about how much control Israel had over it:
‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gambled that a strong Hamas (but not too strong) would keep the peace and reduce pressure for a Palestinian state

For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not only tolerated those payments, he had encouraged them.

During his meetings in September with the Qatari officials, according to several people familiar with the secret discussions, the Mossad chief, David Barnea, was asked a question that had not been on the agenda: Did Israel want the payments to continue?

Mr. Netanyahu’s government had recently decided to continue the policy, so Mr. Barnea said yes. The Israeli government still welcomed the money from Doha.

Allowing the payments — billions of dollars over roughly a decade — was a gamble by Mr. Netanyahu that a steady flow of money would maintain peace in Gaza, the eventual launching point of the Oct. 7 attacks, and keep Hamas focused on governing, not fighting.

The Qatari payments, while ostensibly a secret, have been widely known and discussed in the Israeli news media for years. Mr. Netanyahu’s critics disparage them as part of a strategy of “buying quiet,” and the policy is in the middle of a ruthless reassessment following the attacks. Mr. Netanyahu has lashed back at that criticism, calling the suggestion that he tried to empower Hamas “ridiculous.”  
In interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli, American and Qatari officials, and officials from other Middle Eastern governments, The New York Times unearthed new details about the origins of the policy, the controversies that erupted inside the Israeli government and the lengths that Mr. Netanyahu went to in order to shield the Qataris from criticism and keep the money flowing.  
Even as the Israeli military obtained battle plans for a Hamas invasion and analysts observed significant terrorism exercises just over the border in Gaza, the payments continued. For years, Israeli intelligence officers even escorted a Qatari official into Gaza, where he doled out money from suitcases filled with millions of dollars.
What is ridiculous here is Netanyahu’s denial that he and his Israeli government propped up Hamas for years. His denial is an outrageous insult. Again, when authoritarians are up against inconvenient facts, truths and reasoning, their go-to tactic is to shamelessly lie, deny, deflect and distract. Dictators like Netanyahu will do and say anything to avoid accountability for their bad or illegal behavior, corruption, and/or embarrassments. That's just like the dictator DJT in America today.
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