Nabih

Middle East bureau chief for @latimes. (RT's & likes not endorsements or agreement; used to mark tweets.) Covers a lot of places. Can play violin. A little.

[Nabih @nabihbulos]

So I guess it's official: I'm an @latimes staff foreign correspondent. Too many to thank, like @PmcdonnellLAT @LATlands @kimmurphy & many many others for taking a chance on a two-bit fiddler. Excited for a new chapter at a great paper.

[UN News @UN_News_Centre]

It's the start of the school year on Sunday in Gaza, where 98% of learning facilities are either damaged or destroyed.

Many facilities "are in any space that we can find that is as safe as possible for children and young people," @UNICEF told UN News.

https://t.co/FlGAd6V0Xi

[Bruno Maçães @MacaesBruno]

I am shocked, this never occurred to me

[Dr. Nika Soon-Shiong @nikasoonshiong]

It took 24 hours for readers to raise $50,000 needed to support @DropSiteNews contributor Huda Skaik’s journey from Gaza to the University of London. She had until Weds to raise the funds, and it's hard not to get emotional at the messages supporters shared. https://t.co/RjfKeGudPd

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Rep. Nancy Mace: "This narrative that there is a genocide in Gaza, there's not."

Me: "Let me educate you... the vast majority of human rights groups, including Israeli human rights groups, say it's a genocide; the vast majority of genocide scholars, including the International Association of Genocide Scholars, say it's a genocide; all of the UN investigators that have looked into this, including the Independent Commission of Inquiry, say it's a genocide; the former deputy head of Mossad says it's a genocide; the former prime minister of Israel says it's a war of extermination. The evidence is overwhelming."

[Eli Clifton @EliClifton]

Odd for the CEO of FDD, a think tank claiming to be committed to “strengthening U.S. national security” to advocate for US-Israel “intelligence & economic integration to such an extent that inflicting financial harm on Israel would also carry a significant cost for Washington.”🤨

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

Israel’s propagandists are distorting a statement by Motaz to imply all journalists in Gaza are either Hamas-affiliated or report what Hamas dictates

He NEVER said any of this!

What he said was that some journalists in Gaza would choose to not film anti-Hamas messages. How many Israel journalists would keep their cameras rolling if an Israeli says “the IDF is a criminal organization”?

It's not uncommon that during wartime, some local journalists would avoid amplifying messages that play into enemy propaganda. Israel itself even explicitly bans news that harms the home front or state security.

Israel’s military censor banned & redacted 8,000 articles in 2024 alone. Any Israeli journalist that violates those censorship orders is immediately imprisoned!

In an active genocide zone, where Israel is desperate to use any anti-Hamas messages from Gazans to whitewash its massacres, local journalists understandably become vigilant.

Israel's genocide doesn't discriminate between "Hamas" & "anti-Hamas", "civilian" & "combatant." Gazans quickly understood that no amount of condemning Khamas would spare their lives.

That's why even anti-Hamas Palestinians have been cautious to voice harsh criticism of Hamas during the genocide, b/c the only outcome of their criticism is that Israel would use it to whitewash & prolong its carnage & destruction.

Israel's official pages & platforms consistently post any anti-Hamas footage coming out of Gaza with captions like "Look, Gazans agree with us, Khamas is the problem, not Israel."

Just because Gazan journalists weren't willing to be Israel's stooges, doesn't mean they're Hamas or untrustworthy, or that it's okay for Israel to kill the highest number of journalists in any war in modern human history!

If the genocide stops today & Israel stops exploiting the least bit of anti-Hamas criticism to launder its atrocities, more Gazans would more openly & strongly voice criticism of Hamas.

Motaz also said that a Hamas-affiliated activist operated a Whatsapp group followed by many journalists in Gaza, & that said activist encouraged people to call Motaz out on social media after he criticized Hamas.

That is a credible claim. But how does that delegitmize Gazan journalists?

The Israel right operates what is known locally as the "poison machine" (mehonat ha-ra'al). It's a vast network of orchestrated propaganda, harassment, & disinformation that includes top Israeli politicians, government leaders, journalists, pundits & activists.

Its purpose is to spread conspiracy theories, vitriol, & character assassination to intimidate & silence critics (like we see now with the campaign against the filmmakers of NAZA). Does that mean there are no independent journalists in Israel? that all Israeli journalists are Likudniks or reporting what the Likud party dictates? that any reporting coming from Israel is unreliable?

Gazan journalists showed unparalleled courage & selflessness. They slept on the streets, starved, worked around the clock for over two years of genocide. Israel murdered & maimed them one after the other, yet they continue to report.

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

Joe can you (1) outline a Palestinian state's borders (2) detail whether you think it can have armed defense and bilateral military alliances/trade deals with any country it wants. When people do this it becomes clear they do not want a Palestinian "state" in any meaningful sense

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

"We are not like everybody else & that is why all the laws that apply to everyone else don't apply to us... the Jewish people are a high-born people"

Israeli MP Hanoch Milwidsky, Chair of the Knesset's Finance Committee, senior leader in Netanyahu's Likud party suspected of r@pe

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

This was in Amsterdam. All she said was "Free Palestine" at a pro-Israel rally. She was arrested within a second.

I have seen hundreds of videos of Palestinian protests being disrupted by pro-Israeli activists. Not once have I seen them be arrested for simply shouting a slogan.

What is it about these two words, "Free Palestine," that terrify so many in the West? The echo of complicity?

[Jonah Valdez @jonahmv]

NEW: Patriots Owner Robert Kraft said he has spent years “building bridges.” So we counted every dollar Kraft’s foundation has donated to the Friends of the IDF (+ other Israeli military groups) over the past 20 years, as well as to several pro-Israel groups known for espousing Islamophobia and denial of Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

✍️@theintercept

https://t.co/FjiajAh6WH

[Nada Homsi @NadaOHomsi]

"We're stuck inside the village, we can't leave," a resident of Deir Mimas told me this morning.

Israeli forces seized a Lebanese army checkpoint at the entrance of Deir Mimas today, preventing residents from entering or leaving the village for hours & raiding homes before eventually returning to their position at Tel al-Nahas. When LAF reinforcements arrived, Israeli troops threw stun grenades to warn them off.

After telling me they were stuck, the resident added pointedly: “I can’t say much because they’re still there right now.”

“They” = Israeli forces. Residents of the few remaining populated villages inside occupied south Lebanon are often too afraid to speak openly over the phone, fearing Israeli retribution for talking to the press. It’s always “they” did this, “they” did that.

The Lebanese army is reportedly back at their checkpoint. The LAF did not respond to my request for comment

It's the closest the LAF & Israeli army have ever come to a standoff.

(screenshot from liveuamap)

[The Tennessee Holler @TheTNHoller]

🔥 @AymanM: “Question — what is the approved way to support Palestinians? What is an acceptable method? Which protest is quiet enough? Which boycott is gentle enough? Which flag is small enough? Which act of solidarity is ineffective enough to earn your approval?”

[Mouin Rabbani @MouinRabbani]

A crucial point is raised here by @AymanM
Many years ago I had a discussion with a European diplomat who spoke about the importance of Palestinians engaging in exclusively non-violent opposition to Israeli policies.
I responded by asking him to identify one such form of opposition his government was prepared to publicly support.
He predictably responded with a bemused and very silent stare.
It was never about Palestinians taking up arms.

[Adam Johnson @adamjohnsonCHI]

Correct, the overarching liberal FP orthodoxy is the US slipped on a banana peel and destroyed Vietnam, Iraq and killed 20K+ Palestinian children in a bumbling good faith attempt to “defend democracy.” Does it make sense? No. Is it a necessary fiction to maintain empire? Clearly.

[Nada Maucourant Atallah @MaucourantNada]

Israeli forces have raided homes in the Christian-majority village of Deir Mimas, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported.
Deir Mimas is one of the few towns still inhabited inside the Israeli-occupied area of southern Lebanon.
While Shia villages have been razed, residents of a handful of Christian and Sunni villages have been allowed to remain under strict Israeli military control, including house searches and, in some cases, detentions and abductions.

[derek davison @dwdavison]

this is in marked contrast to American munitions, which actually give their targets a beneficial spinal adjustment before sending them on their way

[Gregg Carlstrom @glcarlstrom]

Probably the most honest note anyone has issued yet: JPMorgan throws up hands, says it has no clue what happens next.

"For the first time since the start of the Iran conflict, we don't have a baseline view. We simply don't know how to model the endgame." https://t.co/FZo9rY3XEX

[Evan James @evanjmez]

Did we just forget the U.S carpet bombed Laos and Cambodia, deployed agent orange in Vietnam, dropped 2 nukes on Japan, supported Iraq’s invasion of Iran, and toppled countless governments across the world in favor of brutal dictators.

[Mairav Zonszein מרב זונשיין @MairavZ]

Israeli leaders called to flatten Gaza.
The people enlisted and carried it out, the country enabled and some even cheered.
Anyone who came out against it is a traitor.

Now they are denying they flattened Gaza and anyone who says they flattened Gaza is a traitor.

Make sense?

[Dr. Annelle Rodriguez Sheline @AnnelleSheline]

🚨The Biden admin officials responsible for enabling Israel's genocide must not return to power
@dropgenocide20

🙏 @justfp @PeaceAction @palyouthmvmt @DemSocialists @TrackAIPAC @adamjohnsonCHI

🔗 https://t.co/5NSG31GcFS

📰 @prem_thakker @zeteo_news
https://t.co/WHX1ntTq3p