Week in Review
10/4/25
Roaming Charges: What’s the Frequency, Donald?
I gave up long ago on the utility of psychoanalyzing Trump. His pathologies seem so all-encompassing and theatrical as to defy interpretation, even by anti-analysts like RD Laing and Thomas Szasz. But watching Trump in quick succession at the Kirk memorial, the Tylenol press conference and the UN General Assembly, he seemed like a personality in the midst of physical and mental breakdown. Not a crackup, so much as a kind of psychological entropy that is finally beginning to splinter a subject that it’s pawed and scratched the surface of for decades.
Ecocide, Imperialism and Palestine Liberation
Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza and the West Bank & East Jerusalem, Lebanon, & Yemen September 27, 2025
Please read, share widely, and continue to raise your voice!
Americans’ Support for Israel Dramatically Declines, Times/Siena Poll Finds
Israel Is Flattening Parts of Gaza City
Any Gaza plan written by two war criminals and not involving the Palestinians who have to live with the plan is bound to be deeply flawed and ignores the facts of Israeli occupation and siege and the Palestinian right to self determination.
Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Noncitizens Over Pro-Palestinian Speech
The Kushner-Blair Gaza plan is a moral atrocity – and a policy catastrophe
First, and most fundamentally, there is the question of legitimacy and local ownership. Self-determination is not just a right under the UN Charter – it is a fundamental desire of all peoples to shape their own affairs, and to build their own societies.
The imposition of governance from the outside – a colonialist venture with a long history premised on the extraction of wealth through the repression of freedom – is simply not a sustainable path to a stable politics, because it is by nature lacking in popular support or buy-in, and incapable of an accurate and sufficiently nuanced understanding of local culture and dynamics.
Data from the independent conflict monitor ACLED shows that since Israel resumed full scale genocidal assault on 3/18, roughly 94% of the more than 16,000 Palestinians killed have been civilians, with about 15 civilians killed for every fighter. The report details Israel’s widespread demolitions, targeted strikes on government and internal security officials, and the use of US-backed aid to drive chaos, while Hamas adapted through guerrilla tactics and decentralized governance, maintaining municipal services and continuing to recruit fighters despite nearly 2 years of war. (Dropsite, 9/21)
More and More Evidence Shows – Most of the Gaza War Deaths Are Civilians
Israel no longer disputes the Gaza Ministry of Health figures, which show the number of civilians killed since October 7 is the highest of any 21st century war. The MoH doesn’t just publish headline numbers, but detailed lists including the full name (and those of the father and grandfather) and identity card number, issued by Israel, of the deceased. Thus, the MoH gave the Israeli government the tools to refute their lists’ reliability. The fact that Israel gave up trying testifies to their reliability.
PNGO Condemns the Israeli Occupation’s Bombing of Clinics Run by the Palestinian Medical Relief Society and the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme
9/22, the Palestinian NGOs Network (PNGO) reported that an Israeli airstrike on the 6-story Ash Shawa building in Gaza City destroyed several NGO offices as well as a Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS) clinic providing blood donation and testing services, trauma care, cancer medications, and chronic disease treatment. Also destroyed was a Gaza Community Mental Health Program (GCMHP) center that provided mental health and psychosocial services to thousands.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, representing about 100 lawmakers, endorsed the Block the Bombs Act to halt US weapons transfers for Israel’s war in Gaza, including JDAMs, 2,000-lb bombs, tank rounds, and 155mm shells, until human rights violations end. This marks the first time a major caucus has backed a bill blocking US arms for Israel
Trump Administration Asks Colleges to Sign ‘Compact’ to Get Funding Preference
Another assault on free speech, LGBTQI+ people, on the independence of higher education. I hope universities do not cave to this demand.
Democrats Pull Away From AIPAC, Reflecting a Broader Shift
Finally!
Pressley joins strikers, protesters at Gaza hunger strike rally
