Day: June 10, 2024

African king says meeting Pope ‘like a miracle’ after his ‘staff of power’ is blessed  Catholic Herald Online

JERUSALEM — Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel’s three-man war Cabinet, announced his resignation Sunday, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of mismanaging the war effort and putting his own “political survival” over the country’s security needs.

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The move does not immediately pose a threat to Netanyahu, who still controls a majority coalition in parliament. But the Israeli leader becomes more heavily reliant on far-right allies who oppose the latest U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal and want to press ahead with the war.

“Unfortunately, Netanyahu is preventing us from achieving true victory, which is the justification for the painful and ongoing price,” Gantz said. He added that Netanyahu was “making empty promises,” and the country needs to take a different direction as he expects the fighting to continue for years to come.

The popular former military chief joined Netanyahu’s government shortly after the Hamas attack in a show of unity. His presence also boosted Israel’s credibility with its international partners. Gantz has good working relations with U.S. officials.

Gantz had previously said he would leave the government by June 8 if Netanyahu did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza.

He scrapped a planned news conference Saturday night after four Israeli hostages were dramatically rescued from Gaza earlier in the day in Israel’s largest such operation since the eight-month war began. At least 274 Palestinians, including children, were killed in the assault, Gaza health officials said.

Gantz called for Israel to hold elections in the fall, and encouraged the third member of the war Cabinet, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, to “do the right thing” and resign from the government as well. Gallant has previously said he would resign if Israel chose to reoccupy Gaza, and encouraged the government to make plans for a Palestinian administration.

On Saturday, Netanyahu had urged Gantz not to leave the emergency wartime government.

“This is the time for unity, not for division,” he said, in a direct plea to Gantz.

Gantz’s decision to leave is largely “a symbolic move” due to his frustration with Netanyahu, said Gideon Rahat, chairman of the political science department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He noted it could further increase Netanyahu’s reliance on extremist, right-wing members of his government, led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

“I think the outside world, especially the United States, is not very happy about it, because they see Gantz and his party as the more responsible people within this government,” Rahat said.

On Sunday evening, Ben-Gvir demanded a spot in the war Cabinet, saying Gantz and the smaller Cabinet had bungled the war effort due to “dangerous” ideological decisions.

Hamas took some 250 hostages during the Oct. 7 attack that killed about 1,200 people. About half were released in a weeklong cease-fire in November. About 120 hostages remain, with 43 pronounced dead. At least 36,700 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s dramatic weekend rescue of four hostages from the Gaza Strip, in an operation that local health officials say killed 274 Palestinians, came at a sensitive time in the 8-month-old war, as Israel and Hamas weigh a U.S. proposal for a cease-fire and the release of the remaining captives.

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Both sides face renewed pressure to make a deal: The complex rescue is unlikely to be replicated on a scale needed to bring back scores of remaining hostages, and it was a powerful reminder for Israelis that there are still surviving captives held in harsh conditions. Hamas now has four fewer bargaining chips.

But they could also dig in, as they repeatedly have over months of indirect negotiations mediated by the United States, Qatar and Egypt. Hamas is still insisting on an end to the war as part of any agreement, while Israel says it is still committed to destroying the militant group.

Here is a look at the fallout from the operation and how it might affect cease-fire talks:

ELATION, AND MOUNTING CALLS FOR A DEAL

The rescue operation was Israel’s most successful since the start of the war, bringing home four of the roughly 250 captives seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 cross-border attack, including Noa Argamani, who became an icon of the struggle to free the hostages.

The raid also killed at least 274 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, deepening the suffering of people in Gaza who have had to endure the brutal war and a humanitarian catastrophe. The ministry does not distinguish between fighters and civilians in its tallies.

The rescue was met with elation in Israel, which is still reeling from the Hamas attack and agonizing over the fate of the 80 captives and the remains of over 40 others still held in Gaza. Israeli hard-liners are likely to seize on it as proof that military pressure alone will bring the rest back.

But only three other hostages have been freed by military force since the start of the war. Another three were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces after they escaped on their own, and Hamas says others have been killed in Israeli airstrikes.

“If anyone believes that yesterday’s operation absolves the government of the need to strike a deal, they are living a fantasy,” Israeli columnist Nahum Barnea wrote in the mass-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper. “There are people out there who need to be saved, and the sooner the better.”

Even the Israeli army’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, acknowledged the limits of military force. “What will bring most of the hostages back home alive is a deal,” he told reporters.

Over 100 hostages were released during a weeklong cease-fire last year, in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, and reaching a similar agreement is still widely seen as the only way of getting the rest of the hostages back. Hours after Saturday’s rescue, tens of thousands of Israelis attended protests in Tel Aviv calling for such a deal.

U.S. President Joe Biden last week announced a proposal for a phased plan for a cease-fire and hostage release, setting in motion the administration’s most concentrated diplomatic push for a truce.

Biden described it as an Israeli proposal, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly questioned some aspects of it, particularly its call for the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and a lasting truce. His ultranationalist coalition partners have threatened to bring down his government if he ends the war without destroying Hamas.

That appears to have only deepened suspicions on the part of Hamas, which has demanded international guarantees that the war will end. It’s unclear if such guarantees have been offered, and Hamas has not yet officially responded to the plan.

NETANYAHU SEEKS TO GAIN

The rescue operation was a rare win for Netanyahu, who many Israelis blame for the security failures leading up to the Oct. 7 attack and the failure to return the hostages despite months of grinding war.

He has reveled in the operation’s success, rushing Saturday to the hospital where the freed hostages were held and meeting with each of them as cameras rolled. Recent opinion polls had already shown him making some progress in rehabilitating his image, and the rescue operation will help.

But as the elation fades, he will still face heavy pressure from an American administration that wants to wind the war down and an ultranationalist base that wants to vanquish Hamas at all costs. His main political opponent, the retired general Benny Gantz, quit the emergency wartime coalition on Sunday, leaving Netanyahu even more beholden to the hard-liners.

Netanyahu is already facing criticism from some of the families of deceased hostages, who say they received no such visits and accuse him of only taking credit for the war’s successes. Israel will also likely face heightened international pressure over the raid’s high Palestinian death toll.

“The success in freeing four hostages is a magnificent tactical victory that has not changed our deplorable strategic situation,” columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel’s Maariv daily.

It all makes for a tough balancing act, even for someone like Netanyahu, who friends and foes alike consider to be a master politician.

The operation could provide the kind of boost with the Israeli public that would allow him to justify making a deal with Hamas. Or he might conclude that time is on his side, and that he can drive a harder bargain with the militants as they grapple with a major setback.

HAMAS LOSES BARGAINING CHIPS

Hamas has lost four precious bargaining chips it had hoped to trade for high-profile Palestinian prisoners. Argamani, widely known from a video showing her pleading for her life as militants dragged her away on a motorcycle, was a particularly significant loss for Hamas.

The raid may have also dealt a blow to Hamas’ morale. In the Oct. 7 attack, Hamas managed to humiliate a country with a far superior army, and since then it has repeatedly regrouped despite devastating military operations across Gaza.

But the fact that Israel was able to mount a complex rescue operation in broad daylight in the center of a crowded urban area has at least temporarily restored some of the mystique that Israel’s security forces lost on Oct. 7.

The operation also refocused global attention on the hostage crisis at a time when the U.S. is rallying world pressure on Hamas to accept the cease-fire deal.

But Hamas has a long history of withstanding pressure from Israel and others — often at enormous cost to Palestinians. The militants may conclude that it’s best to use the remaining hostages to end the war while they still can — or they might just look for better places to hide them.

Over the weekend, a number of tributes to public intellectual Noam Chomsky were posted on social media, remarking on his life and career. But the 95-year-old linguist, by all public accounts, is not dead yet.

The outpouring came after U.K.-based outlet Media Lens posted on Facebook on June 7: “No doubt like many other people around the world, we have been surprised and profoundly concerned that Noam Chomsky has not commented publicly on current events; in particular, the Israeli genocide of Palestinians.” Media Lens followed with a series of purported updates on Chomsky’s condition, sourced to Reddit posts by Chomsky’s former assistant Bev Stohl, and concluding that “it is very unlikely he will return to the public eye.”

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Chomsky—who in one of his last media appearances said in April last year that he “first started talking publicly about the criminal nature of Israel’s actions in 1969” but that he regretted not speaking out earlier about the “repression” of Palestinians—has been noticeably absent from public eye over the past year. Some have also pointed out that Chomsky, who was well-known for regularly responding to emails sent to him, has not engaged in such communication since last June.

Stohl, who worked as Chomsky’s office manager at MIT for 24 years until her retirement in 2017 and is the author of a 2023 memoir Chomsky and Me, responded in September on Reddit to a user asking about Chomsky’s condition: “He was active through mid June. I know it’s hard not knowing for sure what’s happening. He is taking a much-needed rest after a very stressful time.” Stohl commented in January on another Reddit discussion that her former boss “remains out of commission” due to “a medical event last June [that] has necessitated his pulling back completely. I wish I could be more specific.”

On Feb. 5, Stohl posted on Reddit that she was in contact with a close family member and that Chomsky “is still with us, now watching the news (he doesn’t look happy about what he’s watching). I will answer basic questions and give you updates as the family member I’m in touch with feels comfortable.” Stohl commented on the post on April 23 to add that “Noam has not made significant progress, I’m sorry to say. I doubt he will be able to return to the public eye, as he is not communicating much if at all.” In a since-removed April 25 comment, she added: “His ability to speak is complicated by factors I can’t yet disclose. When the relative I’m in touch with visited him a month ago, he did not communicate with her. He is not ambulatory. I’m not sure for how long this will go on. He is not in pain.” Stohl later edited the post to say that Chomsky’s “family is very private” and she will “no longer be adding to this discussion.”

Stohl did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment, nor did Chomsky or his wife and correspondence manager Valeria Chomsky.

How social media users have reacted

While Chomsky’s health status has yet to be confirmed, the speculation about his deterioration has been met with both praise for and condemnation of him.

Nathan Robinson, the founder and editor of socialist magazine Current Affairs, is one of several leftist media figures who paid homage to Chomsky. Robinson, who is the co-author with Chomsky of the forthcoming book The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World, said on X: “So many thousands of people have stories about how he has changed their lives. He certainly changed mine.” (Robinson also did not immediately respond to TIME’s request for comment.)

British-American journalist Mehdi Hasan posted to his 1.5 million X followers: “Sending prayers Noam’s way. There has been no one else like him in our lifetime.”

Jon Schwarz, a former senior writer at The Intercept, described the Facebook post by Media Lens about Chomsky’s condition as “extremely distressing” and urged people to “focus on gratitude for everything he’s given us for so long.” Meanwhile, Aaron Maté, a Canadian journalist for far-left site The Grayzone, thanked Chomsky “for a lifetime of immeasurable service to humanity.”

“An intellectual giant in an age of confusion, misinformation & soundbites,” Scottish activist and publisher of literary journal Rebel Inc. Kevin Williamson posted on X.

“Chomsky is best we’ve ever had or ever will have,” Sam Haselby, senior editor of Aeon Magazine, added. “Toni Morrison wrote it’s great good fortune to miss someone before they’re gone.”

Others, however, have used the newfound attention on Chomsky to criticize his controversial stances. James Rushton, a Ukraine-based policy analyst, posted on X: “Incredibly sad to hear Noam Chomsky has apparently denied his last genocide.” And Australian political activist Drew Pavlou added, amid the flow of premature eulogies, that Chomsky “managed to outlive most of the victims of the Cambodian Genocide by about 45 years.” Chomsky has been accused of defending the brutal regime of Pol Pot as well as of downplaying the massacre of Bosnians.

Who is Noam Chomsky?

Chomsky, born Avram Noam Chomsky to Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia in December 1928, is one of the most cited scholars in modern history. He joined the staff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1955 and became an emeritus professor in 2002 until he moved to the University of Arizona in 2017 as a laureate professor. Though Chomsky is credited with revolutionizing the field of linguistics, he became better known to the wider world as a prominent anti-war activist and prolific social and political commentator, noted for his criticism of capitalism and American imperialism.

Chomsky “has described his own politics variously as anarchist, anarchosyndicalist, and libertarian socialist,” according to a biography on his website. He rose to prominence as an outspoken opponent of the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam war and went on to write or co-write dozens of books, including his Orwell Award-winning 1988 critique of mass media Manufacturing Consent. In 2005, Chomsky was voted the world’s top public intellectual in a global poll.

Chomsky recently came under scrutiny for his reported association with financier and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whom Chomsky said he “met occasionally” to discuss geopolitics with and consulted for help moving money between his own accounts.

In June 2023, British journalist Piers Morgan asked Chomsky, during what may have been his final media appearance, “If you could write your own heading on your own tombstone: ‘Here lies Noam Chomsky. He—’ What would you like the rest of that sentence to say?”

Chomsky replied: “He tried his best.”

Happy birthday, Donald Duck! 

The iconic cartoon Disney character turned 90 on Sunday. To celebrate decades of the boisterous icon entertaining us on the screen, here are 10 surprising facts about everyone’s favorite duck.

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Donald Duck initially started as a minor character

The notoriously grumpy made his first cartoon appearance on June 9, 1934 as a supporting character in the short The Wise Little Hen.

“Donald Duck started as a minor character, but immediately they realized that he was a perfect foil for Mickey Mouse,” Becky Cline, the director of Walt Disney Archives, said in a video promoting the character’s 90th birthday. “He could do anything.”

There’s some discrepancy about his birthday

Although June 9 is listed as his official birthday, some of the films Donald Duck appears in list other dates as his birthday.

In the film The Three Caballeros, his birthday is said to be “Friday the 13th,” a nod to how Donald Duck experiences a lot of bad luck in many films, according to the Hollywood Walk of Fame website. In Donald’s Happy Birthday, his birthday is said to be March 13.

He was in the military

On May 1, 1942, Donald Duck made his first appearance in the military in the film Donald Gets Drafted, according to Military.com.

Cline told ABC7’s On The Red Carpet that the U.S. government asked Disney to use Donald Duck in short films that tried to motivate people to pay their taxes to support the war effort during World War II.

Read More: Mickey Mouse Is Now in the Public Domain After 95 Years of Disney Copyright

Donald Duck has a middle name

In Donald Gets Drafted, viewers can see his draft card, which lists his middle name as Fauntleroy, according to Military.com.

Famous voice actor may have inspired character’s creation

Clarence Nash had a talent for animal imitations, film historian J.B. Kaufman told NPR. The voice actor had already been doing some freelance work for Disney before he took on the iconic—and often unintelligible—role of Donald Duck, according to Kaufman. Kaufman said that Nash is partly to thank for the creation of Donald Duck—the voice actor had a “parlor trick of putting on this baby goat’s voice” to do “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” and when Walt Disney heard this, he imagined a talking duck.

Nash also voiced Donald Duck’s nephews, Uncle Scrooge, and sometimes even Mickey Mouse, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society. While Nash retired from Disney in 1971, he often performed his duck voice for children who were in hospitals. He voiced Donald Duck one last time for Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1983, before he died of leukemia in 1985.

Since 1985, Tony Anselmo has been the main voice behind Donald Duck. He was trained by Nash himself for the role, according to the Hollywood Walk of Fame website.

Donald Duck has a twin sister

While most fans know that Donald Duck has three nephews—Huey, Dewey, and Louie—some may not know that he has a twin sister. Della Duck, Donald Duck’s twin and a mom to Donald Duck’s three nephews, appears in the TV show DuckTales, which debuted in 2017 as a reboot of the previous show, according to the Associated Press. Part of Della Duck’s storyline in the show is about her crash landing on the moon, which caused her to lose a leg.

He was in TV Guide’s 50 greatest cartoon characters of all time

Donald Duck ranked at 43 in the 2002 list, sharing the list with other beloved characters like Bugs Bunny, Homer Simpson, The Grinch, and SpongeBob SquarePants, CNN reported.

Donald Duck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

The beloved Disney character was granted Hollywood stardom in a ceremony on Aug. 9, 2004. His star is located at 6840 Hollywood Blvd, according to the Hollywood Walk of Fame website.

He was in a movie that won an Oscar

In 1943, Donald Duck appeared in Der Fuehrer’s Face, an anti-Nazi political satire short film, according to ABC7. The film won the Academy Award for best cartoon short.

Donald Duck has inspired a school mascot

Donald Duck is the inspiration behind the University of Oregon’s mascot, though the official mascot is known as The Oregon Duck. In an informal deal, Disney allowed the university to use the beloved cartoon character’s likeness for its mascot for free, so long as “it was used in a reputable manner,” according to the university’s website. When Walt Disney died in 1966, his estate and the university realized there wasn’t a formal contract over the mascot, so the two parties “worked to create a written agreement outlining the terms of Donald’s continued use as Oregon’s official duck representative,” the university said on its website.

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