Yair Wallach

Al-Aqsa is the name of the entire compound - not just the southern mosque (which is actually called the qibli mosque)

Interesting poll. While there's a clear shift in support of Palestinians in UK public opinion, it cannot be mistaken with sympathy to Hamas: only 4-6% think 7 Oct attack was justified, and that's been constant over the last 22 months.

Judea Pearl has been a rare voice in academia cheering on the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education, so this really is a leopards eating faces situation. And it’s telling that his response is not to stand in solidarity with other academics, but to say, “Investigate them, not me.”

MK Tsvi Sukkot outside Dome of the Rock today

A complete Israeli takeover of al-Aqsa and the establishment of a temple there with ritual animal sacrifice is not unthinkable.

Magen Inon and Mira Awad

Stop starvation in Gaza

Standing togetherDemo at King's cross

6 more people died of starvation in Gaza in the last 24 hours

89 people died of starvation in Gaza in the last two weeks

Most victims are children

Via @nirhasson.bsky.social

Strong letter, but the demands are disappointingly timid

Displacement of Gaza residents in 2025. Copyright Jaber Jehad Badwan. Image is not linked to the letter but is taken from a post about the famine in Gaza by one of the letter's authors https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres/health-humanitarian-crises-centre/news/465306/famine-and-genocide-gaza-personal-view

UK-based academics: sign & circulate this open letter pub'd by @bmj.com to Starmer & Lammy to act to stop genocide & famine in Gaza
www.bmj.com/content/390/...
The letter was initiated by UK medical experts but UK academics of all disciplines are asked to sign
forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/respon...

What you see in this picture is the product of Biden's bombs.
Show some remorse yourself

Abducting civilians as hostages is a war crime. Out of 20 hostages held by Hamas and its affiliates, 18 are civilians. They should never have been abducted, they should be released without condition. There's no justification for this.
But we know the only way to get them back is by ending the war.

And what's Israel's plan for post-Hamas Gaza? At least since February 2025, it's the "voluntary emigration" of its population.

It's not "just release the hostages". It's "release the hostages, surrender, and accept your ethnic cleansing".
Not a great offer.

Israel's "conditions to end the war" include the release of the hostages, complete Hamas surrender, giving up arms and its leadership exiled.

The correct thing to say is that, according to Israel, Hamas could surrender and that would "end the war".
Releasing the hostages won't do it.

Dec 23: Israel resumes fighting after Hamas releases 85 hostages
March 25: Israel breaks the ceasefire after Hamas releases 30 live hostages.

Hasbara brain for 21 months now: all Hamas needs to do is to return the hostages and the war would be over

They are saying very clearly what they intend to do.

Retired Israeli general Amiram Levin, today:
... an order to shoot at hungry children and parents who are looking for a piece of bread because they are being ruled by Hamas militiamen - this is a crime. This is genocide, and this is what we are doing there.”

And here bsky.app/profile/godi...

See also: bsky.app/profile/godi...

Photograph by Heidi Levine / the Washington Post

My conclusion is that this Hiroshima-like image of Gaza City gives us a glimpse onto one of the areas that *less destroyed* by the Israeli campaign.

It is a manifestation of the scale of this annihilation.

The only area which is relatively less damaged in the Gaza Strip is Dir al-Balah, with damage between 0-40%.

I am not a professional in this field and I hope this will be examined by those who are.

But you can see here that the area of the image is the heart of Gaza city, where destruction ranges between 20-80%. Most areas seem to be orange - compared to the burgundy of 80-100% destruction of Rafah, Khan Youis, Jabalia, and Sheja'iya which you can see at the top of the WP image.

Gaza Strip. July 2025

This is a GIS map of the destruction of Gaza Strip, July 2025, by Adi Ben Nun (Hebrew University).

Google maps - satellite view before the genocide

Google maps - view before the genocide

With my very amateurish skills, I was able to geo-locate the image. We are above the neighbourhood of Rimal, looking south-east.

Photograph by Heidi Levine / the Washington Post

Yesterday, @washingtonpost.com Washington Post published an image of Gaza City which looked like Hiroshima.
It seems that this is one of the *least damaged* areas in the Gaza Strip. Short thread:

@leloveluck.bsky.social

This is as close as you get to an open announcement of genocidal intention, from a member of Netanyahu's cabinet.

Every take that says Bibi Netanyahu is just out for himself and isn’t a “real” genocidal monster like Smotrich is missing the point that this guy didn’t become a key part of his government through indifference. Bibi CULTIVATED this wing of Israeli politics, from the very moment he entered politics.

Ynet report, 30 July 2025

Bezalel Smotrich on French, British, Canadian recognition of a Palestinian state: "we just need to make sure there's nothing to recognise" (30 July 25)

To phrase differently, I think fantasising about military intervention, or pontificating about its merits, is a symptom of weakness, a deflection from our utter failure to stop our active participation and complicity in this genocide - let's start there

In fairness to Corey Robin, his question concluding the article is "would a military intervention by neighbouring [Arab] countries not be justified?" Which is somehow less silly a question (still pointless if you know anything about the region). Jacobin then turned it into "we"

Kind of, but it's left ambiguous enough by both yhe author and the editor