Aaron Menenberg

Author of Good Vitis wine blog. Political hack. Massive @F1 @Spurs @Seahawks fan.

[Tommy McFLY @TommyMcFLY]

Hey 👋 Hi…

👎 If you left trash in Dupont Circle yesterday … maybe come back and help clean it up today?

🗑️ The men and women who work hard to keep DC clean ain’t your momma and shouldn’t have to deal with this level of trash, or litter.

[Secretary Pete Buttigieg @SecretaryPete]

Congresswoman, in what way do you believe that your support helped this project? We chose it because it's a good project, and funded it using President Biden's infrastructure package, which you voted against.

[Terje Helland @terjehelland]

🇬🇪 As Georgia prepares for its parliamentary elections in October 2024, it's crucial to understand how the ruling Georgian Dream party operates.

🧵This thread will explore their financing, campaign strategies, voter manipulation, and more.
https://t.co/jvaN5yOjfN

[Sondra Cosgrove @SondraCosgrove]

All three LV Mayor's race candidates said ranked-choice voting is too confusing. If you order groceries online and pick one or more substitute items if your preferred items are unavailable, congratulations—you understand RCV.

[John Arnold @johnarnold]

Just to confirm:
- Climate change is unprecedented risk
- Mass adoption of EVs is vital
- Adoption has slowed bc lack of low-priced options
- US companies unable/unwilling to make low-priced EVs
- China is global leader in low-priced EVs
- US to hit China with 100% EV tariffs

[Andrew Fox @Mr_Andrew_Fox]

The IDF are conducting another assault in the North of Gaza, around Jabalia (see @2023gazawar’s excellent map, below). Critics are asking why the IDF are repeatedly going into areas they have already cleared and claiming this is a flaw in operational design. These critics have totally misunderstood what Israel is trying to do. Here’s what I think:

The answer is simple: the IDF have absolutely no intention of using the clear / hold / build counterinsurgency tactics the West tried in Afghanistan. Why would they? Those tactics were a disaster in Afghanistan.

The flaw in Western analysis is always the same: “we wouldn’t do it that way”. See Russia in Ukraine for another example of another country catching out Western analysts (me included).

If you look at what’s possible, what the best version of “success” looks like, and what Israel are doing… I put it to you that in Gaza we are seeing a masterpiece of operational design.

Ignore the “destroy Hamas” political rhetoric. The IDF are not *trying* to clear Gaza.

So what are they doing? What’s possible? Any kind of political solution? Definitely not. No-one on the international stage has expressed any interest in helping with governance in Gaza. According to polling, 2% of Gazans support an Israeli-backed administration. The majority want Hamas back. Israel’s solution? Let them have Hamas.

But the version of Hamas they’ll get is one heavily degraded militarily, but most importantly, with vast swathes of their tunnels and civilian-embedded infrastructure destroyed.

“Never again is now” isn’t just an empty slogan. Israeli operational design isn’t built around destroying Hamas, or regime change, or political change in Gaza. Those things aren’t possible. The operation is built around making sure 7th October can never happen again. Absent the possibility of any enduring political solution, that’s what success for them looks like for Israel.

Israel have methodically razed what civilian-embedded Hamas infrastructure they could find in Gaza City, Khan Younis, and now Rafah.

They have secured the Netzarim corridor (middle of the map) to control freedom of movement from South to North. It looks like they are trying to do the same thing along the Philadelphi corridor and Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, to cut off the inflow of weapons and supplies to Hamas (see the blue, bottom right corner of the map as the IDF break in to Rafah).

Facial recognition software in controlled areas allows the IDF to stop known Hamas commanders moving around. This also allows the IDF to strike as and when concentrations of Hamas are identified, to degrade their manpower, then withdraw again (see the Shifa hospital operation and the current Jabalia operation).

At the same time they have destroyed buildings to create a 1km buffer zone around the Gaza border. This will prevent any repeat of 7 October. Nobody in Gaza is getting anywhere near the border.

The operational end state here is significant infrastructure destroyed, Hamas fighting capability degraded, and the border secure; with the IDF retaining the capability to strike into Gaza at will. All whilst shifting hundreds of thousands of civilians out of harm’s way and minimising innocent casualties (Hamas’ human shield tactics aside).

The downsides: the destruction of Hamas-infested civil infrastructure has caused enormous damage. Urban warfare always comes with civilian casualties. The Egyptians look very twitchy about Israeli control of the Southern border. This isn’t a long-term political solution. The destruction has, of course, drawn huge international condemnation. Failure to communicate the plan has damaged Israel’s international standing, and they have been crushed in the global information war for the narrative. But: none of these are show-stoppers yet, strategically speaking.

Debate the morality in the comments. But, militarily, this is quite brilliant operational design within the bounds of what was realistically possible.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

The GOP lawmaker shifts from tea partiers to defenders of spending, tariffs, and industrial policy look so obviously half-hearted & calculated.

I doubt they had some economic policy epiphany - most just surrendered to lazy Trumpist populism and filled in the arguments later.

[Richard Hanania @RichardHanania]

Hillary has always had a deep disdain for leftists on her side, which stopped her from being captured by them. She should’ve leaned into it more. The Clintons look better as time goes on.

[Aaron Bandler @bandlersbanter]

More than 500 UC faculty members sent a letter to the Board of Regents today urging them to hold faculty and departments accountable for “promoting anti-Israel and activism and inciting antisemitism.”

The letter noted that the board is facing “enormous backlash” from faculty over a potential policy that would bar departments “from using their university websites for making political statements.”  They are the same faculty members whose  “anti-Zionist activism not only brazenly denies Jewish students and faculty their academic freedom, but alarmingly, seeks to purge them from campus life altogether,” the letter contended. “The university must take immediate steps to stop this.” The letter also claimed that these anti-Israel faculty members are playing “a pivotal role in encouraging, supporting and even participating in the pro-Hamas rallies and illegal encampments that are fueling vicious antisemitism on many of our campuses.” https://t.co/5ARLrUa3Vp

[Lawrence H. Summers @LHSummers]

I found this statement, In Our Name, by the Columbia University Jewish student community compelling. With the details changed it speaks for what I know are the views and values of Harvard's Jewish community and the Jewish communities at many other universities.

https://t.co/gwpHYGkYMb

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

We absolutely need broad fiscal limits, such as capping debt at current 100% of GDP. But a Balanced Budget Amdt - while well-intentioned:
-Will never be ratified,
-Its target cannot be achieved,
-Is too inflexible, and
-Permanent balance is not necessary to stabilize debt.

[Dalia Ziada @daliaziada]

❌The Arab League claims that Hamas accepted the ceasefire deal, but Israel decided to proceed with the Rafah operation anyway.

☝️This is one of the biggest lies that needs to be debunked before it is too late.

👉This is just another attempt to twist the narrative and make Hamas terrorists appear as the “peacemakers” while Israel, which is literally defending itself and the entire region of the Middle East against Hamas and fellow terrorist organizations, appears as the “war-maker.”

👇The truth is:

👉 If Hamas was truly considering the ceasefire, it would not have launched an attack on Kerem Shalom on the eve of Yom Hashoah, killing four soldiers and injuring ten. Hamas did so while mediators were running between Cairo, Doha, and Washington in search for a sustainable resolution.

👉 Hamas leaders did not announce that they accepted the ceasefire deal until last night when it became certain to them that the Israeli army was going into Rafah that night.

👉The ceasefire deal that Hamas leaders are talking about is way short of the ceasefire deal that Israel, Egypt, and Qatar have been proposing.

💡It is a game of deception aiming to win the sympathy of the ideologically biased Arab audience and the deceived Western audience. Do not be fooled!

#Hamas #Israel #IDF #Rafah #Egypt #Gaza #GazaWar #إسرائيل #حماس #غزة #رفح_الفلسطينيه #رفح #مصر #الجيش_الإسرائيلي

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Overt, clear, and undeniable antisemitism has sadly and horrifically escalated and is genuinely out of control. Some are ignorant and have little education, awareness, or information; their hatred is steeped in old tropes about the Jewish people. Others are unable to see how anti-Israel and anti-Zionism action, activism, and speech can sometimes easily devolve into antisemitism. Some, however, are absolutely willingly and knowingly cloaking their hatred for the Jewish people with pro-Palestine proclamations and pretenses and use the horrors in Gaza to demonize all Jews and Israelis and hold them responsible for what's happening in the war. The latest incident in Athens, where a mob attacked Israeli tourists simply for being Jewish, is part of a disturbing and relentless trend in which Jewish people and spaces were attacked, desecrated, vandalized, maligned, and demonized.

Antisemitism is wrong, evil, and completely unjustified - it does nothing to help the just and urgent Palestinian cause for freedom and independence. It's stupid to say, "I can't be antisemitic because I'm a Semite myself," nor is it enough to shield oneself simply saying, "I'm not antisemitic, I'm anti-Zionist," - that line has become seriously blurred, though I maintain that anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic. Advocating for the dismantling of Israel, an elusive/mythical one state, the armed resistance narrative, and "all means necessary" will inevitably invite and encourage hateful/violent individuals and antisemites who will taint pro-Palestine solidarity and activism. This must stop, and we have to confront it.

[Khaled Hassan @Khaledhzakariah]

Mehdi is a despicable liar. I am Egyptian, born and bred. I lived in Egypt until 2016. We never called the protests in 2011 an "Intifada". We called them a "revolution".

Why? Because an intifada is a wave of violence and suicide bombings.

Where was Mehdi in 2011? Was he in the US or UK?? He shouldn't talk about something he clearly doesn't understand. He's a fraud.

[SK Tedeschi @skedeschi]

I'm a left-wing Jew. I've never been to Israel. I've abhorred Netanyahu for years. I've always wanted peace to prevail. And here's how 7/10, yhe war, and the way "peace protestors" have changed the way I see things permanently....

(1)

[Kiyah Willis @kiyahwillis]

Another Pallywood production

The video was clipped to leave out where this woman attacked this man and his sign first

[Hillel Neuer @HillelNeuer]

Ken Roth non-stop: “ICJ found a plausible case of genocide in Gaza.”

ICJ President: “The shorthand that often appears—that there's a plausible case of genocide—isn't what the court decided.”

Ken, you and I worked at the same top law firm. You betrayed everything we were taught.

[Deputy Mayor Kaz Daughtry @kazdaughtry]

Everyone has a Constitutional right to protest, it’s one of the pillars our great democracy is built on. But kids also have a right to go to school without being harassed, threatened, intimidated or assaulted.  There is nothing “horrific” about protecting the safety of Columbia’s young students who are just trying to go to school.   

We’ve said it time and time again, the NYPD will always protect and defend your right to protest but just because you hold a sign while you’re threatening, harassing, intimidating and assaulting people doesn’t give you a free pass from criminal conduct.  Being anti-Semitic and spewing hate to kids will never ever be tolerated in our city.

Our officers are the best and most highly trained law enforcement professionals in the world.  Everyday, they have to endure insults, threats, and hate speech merely because the uniform they wear as they try to keep the peace and protect everyone’s rights.  I encourage you @AOC to visit Columbia and do a walk through; I promise our officers will, like always, do their job, and protect you like they have protected everyone on campus regardless of what your political beliefs are.  We’ll also take a report if you feel threatened.  
@NYPDChiefPatrol
@NYPDChiefOfDept

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

I'm disappointed & frustrated with the statement by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (who blocked me despite having never interacted with them). In it, they reaffirm the right of armed resistance, an explicit endorsement of Hamas and October 7 & the “all means necessary” narrative, reject the Two State Solution, and attack "normalizers" or anyone who's willing to talk to Israelis and engage in promoting pragmatic solutions to achieve coexistence and peace. They talk about Thawabit or redlines as if they’re a Palestinian “faction” instead of rational Westerners who are supposed to advance the cause and not cosplay as revolutionaries.

This is what losing the plot looks like: at a time of rising empathy & solidarity with the Palestinian cause, these students, heavily involved in the Columbia protests, decided that the best thing to do is take an extremist, maximalist, inflammatory, unreasonable, and totally illogical approach which is harmful to the pro-Palestinian cause. They brag about their extremist rhetoric and think it’s bad to expect that they work on improving messaging. There is nothing inspiring about their message or efforts, only rejections, calls for “escalations,” and attacks against anyone who doesn’t toe the party line. And not a word about Hamas and the deadly impact that the Islamist group’s program and decisions have had on the Palestinian people in Gaza.

What have 75 years of armed resistance achieved for the Palestinian people? Nasser’s Pan-Arabism, the PLO/PFLP, and now Hamas have all talked about “red lines” or “Thawabit,” which have not only failed to achieve self-determination & freedom but have gotten more Palestinians killed and more lands stolen.

Of course, there needs to be organized efforts to speak out against the war in Gaza, support real solutions to the unfolding horrors, and confront/challenge the military occupation of the West Bank. Without a doubt, there needs to be advocacy for Palestinians’ right to self-determination, independence, and sovereignty. But rejecting anything pragmatic that will actually help the Palestinian people or thinking that underinformed college students are going to dismantle Israel and eradicate it from existence is the height of pompous and vain “feel-good” activism that’s never going to do a thing for the just and urgent Palestinian cause.

Working towards a just and equitable resolution of the military occupation and the injustices facing the Palestinian people should entail a wide variety of audiences, especially Israelis, diaspora Jews, and those who identify as Zionists – yes, there you have it, Zionists must be engaged. Set a realistic goal using the Two State Solution framework for the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. You will have a significant chance of building a massive coalition that will create concerted political, diplomatic, academic, and geostrategic pressure to obtain and establish a prosperous and free Palestine, living side by side with Israel. Stop wasting your time, embarrassing the pro-Palestine movement, and alienating desperately needed allies from supporting the cause.

[Jessica Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 @JessicaBRiedl]

Yes, I agree that we should not copy the Iraq example by invading Ukraine, overthrowing its leader, and trying to set up a new govt.

None of which has anything to do with financially assisting a European democracy in resisting an unprovoked Russian invasion and slaughter.