David Karger (hci.social/@karger)

Professor of CS at MIT
Moving to Mastodon, user @karger at server hci dot social

[David Karger (hci.social/@karger) @karger]

Given the crazy new rule forbidding linking out to other sites, you can find me at

[David Karger (hci.social/@karger) @karger]

A shame Israel isn't controlled by the moneyed classes

[Eylon Levy @EylonALevy]

Socioeconomic status was key indicator of voting in Israel's elections.

Among Jewish voters, in the lowest socio-economic cluster, Netanyahu's coalition won North Korean levels of support. In the top cluster, 81% voted for the Change Bloc.

via @YediotAhronot

[Gadi Eisenkot - גדי איזנקוט @gadi_eisenkot]

מה שקורה ביו״ש זה טרור יהודי בחסות ממשלת ישראל.

פעם נוספת, בתוך יממה אחת בלבד, חוליות של פורעי חוק אלימים תוקפות אזרחים זרים - והפעם דיפלומטים ובעלי תפקידים רשמיים.

מול עינינו מתרחש פיגוע מדיני וביטחוני חסר תקדים. קומץ עבריינים שורף את מעט הלגיטימציה שנותרה למדינת ישראל, מסכן את כוחות הביטחון ופוגע בהתיישבות ביהודה ושומרון ובביטחון הלאומי.

אף אחד בהנהגה לא יוכל לטעון שלא העירו אותו בזמן ושלא התריעו בפניו.

[Haviv Rettig Gur @havivrettiggur]

I think we're long past that. The Netanyahu government knows. It doesn't care. And part of it -- mostly the Ben Gvir-Smotrich wing -- actually wants an isolated, introverted Israel.

Before right-wingers rush to their defense, try to work through the specific things this government has chosen to do, the details of their failures, and then explain them in any other way. A serious exploration of how this government handled last year's hunger crisis, or the constant violence they've deliberately refused to stop (and which Smotrich has actively defended) in places like Qusra, or the endless posturing to the base with insane rhetoric that each time, bit by bit, chipped away at the ability of even our best friends to expend any more political capital on standing with us, even when they knew in great detail the nature of our enemies and the need for us to defend ourselves -- all these phenomenon were either allowed to continue or were deliberately driven by Netanyahu and his ministers.

When I said these Israeli extremist assailants are far fewer in number than the anti-Israel propaganda claims but are still a real and disturbing phenomenon, that this violence is textbook terrorism and is having a terroristic effect on the Palestinian populations they're targeting -- each time I made these points, right-wingers, usually from overseas, rushed in to explain to me that it's all a mirage, a propaganda fiction, a libel.

Some even offered to introduce me to right-wing Israeli leaders to hear firsthand how everything is okay and there's nothing to see here. As if I'm new here. As if I get my information from the New York Times.

I know participants in these attacks. I've met and argued with planners of some of these attacks. I've watched this space for years and I have a pretty good handle on their psychology and religious ideas. And I'm telling you this is exactly what I say it is -- and the thousands of emails and angry tweets calling me "leftist" won't make the reality go away. They'll only enable this cruelty to fester and grow.

Reality doesn't care about your feelings. It doesn't notice your fears. The more you try to avoid it, the harder you'll crash when reality eventually claims its due. That's Zionism 101. As I've said every time I've spoken about this, if we don't act against this phenomenon now, aggressively and urgently, the damage will only grow -- to the innocents targeted by it, to the IDF weakened by it, to our ability to hold on to even our closest friends. And then it'll grow more, and then some more. Until eventually none of you will be able to pretend there's nothing to see.

I've written and talked for years about the deep and visceral bigotries of the anti-Israel campaign. It's from that vantage point that I say that this government has nevertheless done and is doing everything possible to make the bigots' claims seem reasonable even to our friends, even to people who know that our enemies are bad and know why we must defeat them.

And no one in this government is even remotely troubled by any of it.

Feel free to flood the comments with insults. But maybe also, if you can, try to squeeze a cogent explanation in there that actually grapples with these failures. We will be paying the costs of this folly for a long time to come. And what portion of those costs comes from the above will be our own damn fault.

[יואב סגלוביץ Yoav Segalovitz @YSegalovitz]

החלטתי להצטרף לרשימת רע"מ לכנסת.

אחרי התלבטות ארוכה ושיחות רבות עם ד"ר מנסור עבאס, החלטתי שנכון לעשות מעשה- להצטרף לרשימת רע"מ. דווקא בעת הזו, בזמן של קיטוב חברתי בין יהודים לערבים.
רע"מ רוצה לקחת חלק בעשייה.

אני יהודי, ציוני,חילוני, קצין בצה"ל, וניצב במשטרת ישראל.

מנסור הוא ערבי, מוסלמי דתי, שמרן.
המחבר בין שנינו- כולנו ישראלים וזו הזהות המשותפת.הועם זוהרו של המונח ישראלי, ואנחנו עוסקים כל העת בביטויים אתנים מפרידים במקום המשותף.

האוכלוסייה הערבית בישראל היא 21 אחוז, פעילה ויצרנית- בתעשייה, בכלכלה, בתרבות, בחינוך, וברפואה. היא מנוע צמיחה כלכלי וחברתי.

כן, יש שונות בינינו, יש היסטוריה לא פשוטה לערבים ויהודים בארץ הזאת.
אבל יש עתיד משותף.
העתיד המשותף נמצא בכל תחומי החיים.

המודל העתידי למדינת ישראל, אותו אני רואה מול עיני, הוא המודל המוכר לכל מי שנכנס בשעריו של בית חולים בישראל. שם הוא משיל מעצמו נרטיבים וזהויות, שם נפגשים לפני הכל- בני אדם.

חולים, רופאים, אחיות, עובדי מנהל, משפחות, כולם שווים. שם הוא המקום בו כולנו בני אדם ומשם נתחיל.
כך אני רואה גם את עתידה של מדינת ישראל, עתיד אותו אני משרטט לעצמי בצורה בהירה וברורה.
מה שמוביל אותי היא התפיסה הציונית, יהודית ערכית, ממנה אני יונק.​​​​

מגילת העצמאות היא מצפן ולא רק טקסט כתוב על הקיר.

כתוב כך במגילת העצמאות:
"מדינת ישראל תהא פתוחה לעליה יהודית ולקיבוץ גלויות, תשקוד על פיתוח הארץ לכל תושביה תהא מושתת על יסודות החירות, הצדק והשלום לאור חזונם של נביאי ישראל, תקיים שוויון זכויות חברתי ומדיני גמור לכל אזרחיה בלי הבדל דת, גזע ומין, תבטיח חופש דת, מצפון, לשון, חינוך ותרבות, תשמור על המקומות הקדושים של כל הדתות, ותהיה נאמנה לעקרונותיה של מגילת האומות המאוחדות".

מבחינתי אלו הם העקרונות בהם אני מאמין ואיתם אני מגיע.
האם כל המפלגות שקוראות לעצמן ציוניות יכולות לחתום על מגילה זו היום? אני כלל לא בטוח.

האם ניתן ליצור שיתוף פעולה פוליטי בין אנשים כל כך שונים?
אני חושב שכן.
אני לא מתכוון לשנות את מנסור ואת רעמ והם לא ישנו אותי, אבל ניתן לשתף פעולה מבחינה פוליטית על בסיס אמון, הכרה בשונות, והירתמות לעשייה משותפת.​​

הממשלה המכהנת הביאה את מדינת ישראל למקומות בלתי נסבלים בכל תחומי החיים:
פשיעה משתוללת, חוסר ביטחון אישי לכלל האזרחים, ובוודאי לאזרחי המדינה הערבים, בהם הממשלה לא מתעניינת כלל.

כמי שפעל בממשלה הקודמת, במאבק בפשיעה, יודע שניתן לעשות אחרת, עם שיתוף פעולה בין כלל רשויות המדינה והרשויות המקומיות, אך תנאי לכך הוא שיהיה באמת אכפת.

החינוך נמצא בשפל, ובדגש על החברה הערבית. כך גם נושאים של רווחה, בריאות, תעסוקה ותחבורה ועוד.

לא ניתן להוביל תיקון במדינה ללא חיבור, כולל חיבור פוליטי.
קווי הגבול שנקבעו בשיח הפוליטי לא מקובלים עלינו. הן נקבעו תוך הדרה, שיסוי, וגזענות.
האמירה השגורה, שאחרי השבעה באוקטובר לא ניתן לקיים שותפות פוליטית עם מפלגות ערביות, היא מופרכת ושקרית.

ערביי ישראל חוו את המלחמה, ובמתקפה הנוראה בשבעה באוקטובר נהרגו למעלה מ-34 בני החברה הערבית, לעזה נחטפו גם אזרחים ערבים- 6 בני החברה הבדואית בנגב. במשך המלחמה, ישבנו כולנו, ערבים ויהודים, במקלטים בזמן מתקפת הטילים של איראן וחיזבאללה, תושבים פונו מבתיהם, נהרגו ונפצעו גם אזרחים ערבים.

קווי הגבול הפוליטיים שורטטו ע"י קיצוניים והפכו לנורמה פוליטית מקובלת בכלל המפלגות. אני לא מקבל קביעה זו.

זמן התיקון למדינה הוא גם פנימי-חברתי.
21 אחוז מהאזרחים הם חלק מהתיקון. החברה הערבית על גווניה ושונותה היא מנוע צמיחה כלכלי, חברתי ותרבותי למדינת ישראל, היא לא איום, היא הזדמנות למדינת ישראל וגם גשר לשכנותיה.
אנחנו נמצאים בתקופה של מערכת בחירות, אבל כוונתי, בחיבור שלי לרע"מ, הוא הרבה מעבר למערכת בחירות. הפוליטיקה היא אמצעי לשינוי.

אני רוצה לבנות גשר פוליטי אמיתי. גם אם יהיו בעיות, ויהיו. יהיו קשיים וגם אם הוא (הגשר) יהיה רעוע או מתנדנד הוא יונח ויהיה בסיס להמשך פוליטי אותו אני מקווה ימשיכו רבים וטובים, יהודים וערבים. יש משקעי עבר, יש היסטוריה מדממת במערכת היחסים בארץ הזאת, יש נרטיבים שונים וזה העבר של כולנו.

את העבר לא נשנה כי הוא עובדה קיימת. מדינת ישראל היא מדינה יהודית ודמוקרטית וחובתנו להביט אל העתיד ולשרטט אותו בצבע, לתת בו סימנים. כל אחד יחזיק בעמדתו על העבר, החובה ליצור עתיד משותף. לא די לשרטט ולדבר צריך לבצע מעשה.
תפקידה של הנהגה הוא לשנות מציאות ולברוא עתיד טוב יותר.

[Eliana Goldin @Eliana_Goldin]

Given that there was a time when I was negligibly popular on here for Zionist and pro-Israel activism at Columbia, I feel a duty to reach the same audience that followed and retweeted me, and comment on settler violence in the West Bank. I have lived in the West Bank myself and as such have seen both the good and the bad, up close and personally.

Like most of my tweets recently, this will probably only reach a few hundred people, but it will be worth it, for yesterday marked one year since Awdah Hathaleen was murdered in cold blood by an Israeli, Jewish settler named Yinon Levi, and hardly anybody in my pro-Israel circles knows about it.

Awdah Hathaleen was a peace activist from Umm Al-Khair, a Palestinian Bedouin village about a 40 minute drive from where I lived in Kfar Etzion. I had the privilege of meeting him one winter break when I went for two days to engage in protective presence. At the time, I had no idea what protective presence was, but I felt an urge to understand, as it felt disingenuous to engage in Zionist activism at Columbia without having ever experienced the consequences of Zionism first-hand. I had no interest in continuing to be the face of something, at least at Columbia, for something I hadn't completely considered.

So I met Awdah, and my world was changed, the same way most Religious Zionists' worlds are changed when they meet him. He was kind and inviting and shared my values. When he died, I was devastated, not because I would miss him -- we weren't friends -- but because the world was absolutely going to be a worse place without him, and there was nothing I could do about it. I pasted a picture of my reflections at the time of his murder below. I've also included two sweet videos of us juggling a soccer ball together. Apologies for my lack of skill!

All this is to say that unspeakable evils occur in the West Bank in the name of Judaism, and the religious and Zionist community stands by and watches.

I don't believe that my choice to live in Kfar Etzion ever changed or changes that fact. It is in Area C, in a historically Jewish village, in a historically Jewish area, that experienced violence at the hands of Palestinians and which continues to experience terror today. There have been numerous times where I missed terror attacks by mere hours because I had been at the bus stop at the right time, rather than a few hours later at the wrong one. I've seen friends and family lose loved ones to terror, I have lost friends myself. Yet my area of the Gush remains vibrant, indeed serving as the beating pulse for Dati Leumi Torah study.

Talk is cheap, but without talk, action is sparse. Say little and do much never considered Thomas Paine's Common Sense in the American Revolution or The Federalist Papers in ratifying the Constitution. Words must precede action in a world where what we wish for isn't a change in ourselves, but in society.

So perhaps my words will impact one person here, and maybe that person will talk to another, and that person another, and a chain-of-speech will normalize ideas until we've reached the ability to stimulate a chain-of-action without tearing Israel apart.

Because I'm not a little b*tch, I will list my current actionable items: Equal access to water and just basic infrastructure, actual law enforcement against violent settlers, and a reformed work permit system. It's by no means peace, but it's a step in the right direction. I'm definitely not the person to solve the conflict in the Middle East, but I do have 6,000 followers on Twitter, so perhaps my words will change just a single mind, and that's better than nothing.

[Stephen E. Sachs @StephenESachs]

An outfit called "SunlightHub" has decided to build a list of supporters of Israel in the Greater Boston area. I was sad not to be included, so I wrote them a letter:

--
To Whom It May Concern

I recently learned that you are building an online list of “notable people in the Greater Boston area” who have “worked with and/or supported the State of Israel”—including politicians, professors, employees of the Israeli consulate, and even those who have just “appeared at an event where . . . Israeli flags are present.”

As the Antonin Scalia Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, a member of the Harvard Faculty for Israel, and a faculty coadvisor to the Harvard Law School Alliance for Israel, I am mortified not to be thought “notable” enough to be included.

Perhaps I shouldn’t seek to be in any club that would have me as a member. But the State of Israel, which provides a home and a refuge to millions of ordinary people, is now fighting a deeply moral defensive war on multiple fronts against enemies devoted to its destruction—and taking far more interest in the lives of the civilians outside its borders than their own governments have. If your goal is “to show who has supported the State of Israel,” I would certainly wish for my name to be counted among them.

I hope your list is updated to include me without delay.

Sincerely,

Stephen E. Sachs
Antonin Scalia Professor of Law

[Sen. Elissa Slotkin @SenatorSlotkin]

The President of the United States is taking his threats against the Iranian people to new extremes. Targeting civilians en masse would be a clear violation of the law of armed conflict as laid out in the Geneva Conventions, as well as the Pentagon's Law of War Manual.

This kind of focus on civilians is exactly what we accuse our adversaries of doing and what our military trains to avoid. It’s built into the rigorous drilling and routines that our military are trained on from their first weeks. If they are today or have been asked to do things that violate the law and their training, it puts them in very real legal jeopardy.

I know that our service members up and down the chain of command know their duty and the law to refuse illegal orders. Even as the Commander-in-Chief tells the world otherwise. It’s moments like these that are why we made the video to service members last year. And I hope and believe our troops — especially those in command — will have the moral clarity to push back if they are given clearly illegal orders.

[David Karger (hci.social/@karger) @karger]

@Seamus_Malek how do you get from "2 or 3 villages" to "every village in southern lebanon"?

[NEXTA @nexta_tv]

This is what true heroism looks like. This video will go down in history.

[Sarah Ettedgui @SarahEttedgui]

I read Amnesty’s report. The findings are serious. The organization still isn’t.

Amnesty has finally published a detailed account of the atrocities of Oct. 7. It confirms that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups carried out deliberate mass murder, torture, hostage taking and sexual violence. It goes further than any previous Amnesty document and classifies these actions as crimes against humanity, including extermination. The evidence is overwhelming and the legal conclusion is correct.

None of this restores Amnesty’s credibility. The report opens by returning to Amnesty’s political narrative about Israel before it even describes a single Hamas crime. That choice signals priority. Shape the reader first. Cushion the findings. Reframe the context. This is not what a neutral fact-finding body does when documenting one of the worst mass atrocities against civilians in the region in decades.

The most important finding, extermination, appears deep inside the text (pp. 18–19 and 151) instead of standing at the forefront of the Executive Summary. To my knowledge, this is the first time Amnesty has ever accused a Palestinian armed group of a crime against humanity of extermination. Amnesty knows how significant this is. It also knows how politically inconvenient it is for a movement that spent two years casting doubt on survivor testimony and minimizing the scale of the violence. Burying the central crime reveals Amnesty’s discomfort with stating it plainly.

Amnesty also acknowledges that its own evidence collection was severely limited. It lacked access to most survivors of sexual violence. Witnesses were reluctant to speak to an organization that had already cast doubt on them. These limitations only highlight how irresponsible Amnesty was when it spent two years questioning survivor accounts. The problem is Amnesty’s double standard, not the survivors who refused to engage with an organization that had belittled their testimonies for nearly two years.

Survivors, therapists and first responders have been consistent since the earliest days. Amnesty was not. It demanded verification. It treated reports with suspicion. It amplified doubt. And now it uses its own investigative failures as a way to narrow and hedge its own findings.

The report further acknowledges that Hamas leadership intended attacks on civilians and hostages. The patterns are explicit. Coordinated killings. Systematic abductions. Messaging from senior figures. Yet Amnesty cushions these findings with language designed to preserve a political narrative of spontaneity and chaos. The evidence contradicts that narrative, but the organization cannot let it go. Phrases like “Israel’s prolonged occupation,” “apartheid” and “blockade” function as contextual mitigation for the perpetrators.

The structure of the report tells the rest of the story. Political framing dominates the front. The most damning material is placed later. On p. 8 of the Executive Summary, before recounting a single Hamas crime, Amnesty repeats its own 2024 conclusion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. This ensures that supporters can cite the opening while ignoring the findings that follow. That is advocacy. That is intentional.

Even in the conclusion, a section that could have been dedicated exclusively to accountability for Oct. 7, Amnesty has to pivot back to its accusations against Israel and calls for pressure, sanctions and international action. The report becomes a pretext to restate its general political program. A credible human rights body separates findings from advocacy. Amnesty blends them.

Amnesty did not suddenly become rigorous. It was cornered. The evidence was too strong, the testimonies too many, the footage too clear. It may have finally documented some of these atrocities, but it did nothing to repair its credibility.

https://t.co/tM6fEPJ99T

[Daniel W. Drezner @dandrezner]

Coming soon:

OPERATION HUSKY FARMBOY

OPERATION THROBBING MEMBER

OPERATION STRAPPING MANSERVANT

OPERATION MORNING WOOD

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

The hostage release today - and the credit Trump is getting and taking! - is a reminder of just how bad the Democrats are at politics. Not only did Biden refuse to force this deal on Netanyahu and thereby help Harris defeat Trump, but most people aren’t even aware that Biden got way more Israeli hostages (over 100) released from captivity with his Nov 2023 ceasefire than Trump did with his. But that ceasefire has been memory-holed, including by many Dems.

The Democrats are often their own worst enemies, on politics, on messaging, on almost everything.

[Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby]

CNN’s Christine Amanpour: “The Israeli hostages have probably been treated better than the average Gazan because they are the pawns & chips that Hamas had.”

Evyatar David was quite literally forced to dig his own grave.

Absolutely unacceptable from CNN.

[David Karger (hci.social/@karger) @karger]

@BankofAmerica poor customer service. They signed me up for paperless statements with a promise to let me access them long term as needed. But when I paid off my loan they closed the account, and they don't let me access documents from closed accounts, so now I have no records.

[David Karger (hci.social/@karger) @karger]

A reminder that if you are on twitter you should get off. https://t.co/ENAqi5vhDl

[Joe G @EastEndJoe]

Why the change of heart?
@NancyMace

[Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick 🇺🇸 @RepBrianFitz]

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy need not, and must not, have any deal forced upon him by any outside nation that does not guarantee the security and the sovereignty of the Ukrainian people, the people who elected him with over 73% of the popular vote, in an election that was recognized as free and fair by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), where I served as a Commissioner and Congressional Appointee. Russia has never held such elections.

President Zelenskyy, and all negotiators, need to know this: There is an outcome-determinative number of Members of the United States Congress, from both parties and in both Chambers, who are ready, willing, and able to do whatever it takes to prevent Communist Dictator Vladimir Putin from being rewarded for his illegal invasion, raping, kidnapping, torturing and murdering of the Ukrainian people, including so many women and children. We will use every lever and every vote at our disposal, regardless of the personal or political consequences. This matter is that time-sensitive and it is that existential. It is legacy-defining.

We all want an immediate end to this brutal Russian invasion and killing. For a peace agreement to be fair and lasting, it must be done in a way that holds the Russian invaders accountable, protects the dignity of the Ukrainian victims, and provides for fair and equitable cost-sharing amongst all European nations. To do otherwise would be to encourage future invasions and to perpetuate future heartache and bloodshed.

This is about Peace Through Strength. This is about Patriotic Common Sense. And Patriotic Common Sense is what America must always stand for.

[James Martin, SJ @JamesMartinSJ]

In its simplest terms, the apparent demise of #USAID is the result of the world's richest man ending a program that helps millions of poor people. You don't need a Ph.D. in moral theology to see why this is an evil. You can just read Jesus's parables on the rich and the poor.

[Kelsey Piper @KelseyTuoc]

I think that Republicans are going to find that while "no trans people in women's sports" was a politically winning issue, "the passport office will seize trans Americans' documents and refuse to issue them a passport under any gender" is not.

[David Karger (hci.social/@karger) @karger]

@DavidRozado How did you differentiate between sentiment being expressed *about* the political figure, sentiment being expressed *by* that figure, and sentiment being expressed about some situation or dispute that involved that figure but was not directed at them?