While the World Burns, the Party Must Go On

If Biden has a line in the sand, this might be a good time to let us know

Much of my writing has a political bent to it. I can't write and not be affected by what is happening in the world, and one of the more awful things is the destruction of Gaza and the people who live there.

Gaza has a shadow government of sorts led by Hamas, a group of people almost as demented as Israeli leader Netanyahu. The leadership of both sides seem bent on the destruction of the other. There is no easy solution.

Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel was not only despicable, it was cynical. Its intent was to lure Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, who received intelligence reports warning of the attack and did nothing, into doing exactly what he's doing now.

The victims in this, as they always are when male testosterone levels reach DEFCON 1, are the poverty-stricken Palestinian people.

Netanyahu, who is determined to match the cynicism of Hamas, seems poised to celebrate Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), which was yesterday, May 6, but is commemorated throughout the week, with an attack on Rafah, at the southern-most tip of Gaza.

It's important to remember that when Israel retaliated against Hamas by attacking Gaza, where Hamas is based, the Netanyahu government told Palestinians who lived there to flee the northern areas if they wanted to avoid the bombs and missiles.

Hundreds of thousands of people did so. They fled south, as instructed by the Israeli government, which went on to kill an estimated 20-50,000 people (depending on various sources) in the north. Today, there is almost nothing left of northern Gaza. It is in ruins.

Now that the refugees have fled south, Netanyahu has declared that even if a cease-fire is reached, he will attack Rafah. In the south. Where he told Palestinians to seek refuge from the attacks in the north.

If you can understand this logic, let me know in the comments (paid subscribers only, sorry).

To compound all this insanity, the Palestinians have few patrons. The Egyptians won't allow refugees from southern Gaza into the Sinai and into Egypt (the most obvious route to a safe refuge).

The oil kingdoms have provided some money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which is a UN agency that has been dedicated to the cause of Palestinian refugees since the UN's formation shortly after World War Two, but no Arab nation outside of Jordan and Syria (mostly Jordan) has offered much in the way of settlement options.

And of course, advocates for Palestinian relief will understandably argue that Palestinians shouldn't need to resettle in the first place.

The point of all this is that an attack on Rafah would be incomprehensibly tragic. And if one must look at the horrors that are sure to result from a cold, tactical standpoint, if Biden simply watches Netanyahu's air show with folded arms, he may lose his re-election bid, which will very possibly result in America becoming a failed state.

The implications of an attack on Rafah are that huge.

Biden has options. He knows better what those options are than I do, but at a minimum, he can surely freeze further military aid to Israel. And he can, if he wants to, work with the International Criminal Court, which is rumored to be lining up arrest warrants against Israeli (and Hamas) leaders for war crimes, to bring Netanyahu to justice.

May I suggest to you, Dark Brandon, a state dinner for the Israeli Prime Minister, followed by delivery on a C-32 military transport to The Hague?

Meanwhile, at the Met Gala

If you love crazy fashion, then the party that must go on is the Met Gala, 2024 edition. The Met Gala gets its share of criticism for its ostentatious display of wealth and glitz, but I'm sorry to report that I'm a bit of a sucker for all the celebrity razzle-dazzle.

If you are, too, here's a gift link to the New York Times' coverage of 20 of the top costumes that showed up at this charity event designed to bring in some money to one of the world's cooler museums.

You'll be seeing more gifts and freebies like this as my transition to the new newsletter platform (Ghost) continues.

Have a happy rest of the week! And if you're the praying sort, pray for Gaza.

~ Charles