Dear Progressive Reader,

The official death toll in Gaza has surpassed 20,000, with an additional unknown number of people still buried beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. The United States finally allowed a resolution to pass in the U.N. Security Council that calls for “immediate, safe, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance at scale directly to the Palestinian civilian population,” but stops short of calling for an immediate ceasefire. On two previous occasions, the United States had voted to oppose ceasefire resolutions using its unilateral veto power on the Security Council. Following the veto of the second resolution, it was passed overwhelmingly in the U.N. General Assembly, a body that does not have enforcement capability. Security Council resolutions (like the one passed yesterday) on the other hand carry the weight of law under Article 25 of the U.N. Charter.

Award-winning Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha wrote on Instagram earlier this week, “How can that soldier who presses the Fire Button sleep after seeing the children in pieces? (Maybe he does not see anything except for the Fire Button).” Abu Toha, whose work has appeared in The Progressive, is currently in Cairo, Egypt, with his immediate family, but members of his extended family remain in Gaza under threat from frequent bombardment. On Friday, Abu Toha was featured in an extended interview with host Amna Nawaz on the PBS television program News Hour. And last Thursday morning, I updated listeners on WORT-FM community radio about Abu Toha’s situation and then went on to speak with host Tony Castaneda about the number of journalists being killed in this conflict—many of them, according to independent investigations, clearly targeted because they were media workers. The Committee to Protect Journalists noted last week that sixty-four (and that number was just updated this morning to sixty-nine) journalists have been killed since October 7, three-and-one-half times the total number killed in Gaza in the thirty years prior to that date for which CPJ has been keeping records.

In a related story, the BBC reported Thursday that Hanan Elatr, the widow of slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi had final received political asylum in the United States after a lengthy process. Khashoggi, who had lived in the United States and wrote regularly for The Washington Post, was brutally murdered inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Türkiye, in October 2018. Since that time, Elatr has feared for her safety.

In election news, Wisconsin’s state supreme court ruled on Friday afternoon that the state’s gerrymandered electoral maps were unconstitutional—opening the door for a complete redraw of the maps prior to the 2024 election season. Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has threatened that the case will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but Vos, a Republican, also told Wisconsin Public Television’s Here and Now on Friday that, in spite of any maps, he believes: “We're gonna win again in 2024 because we have better candidates.”

And in another case that will no doubt be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Colorado state supreme court ruled on Tuesday, in a case brought by Republican plaintiffs, that “indictee-in-chief” Donald Trump’s name could not appear on that state’s primary ballot because he is ineligible under the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Similar cases are under consideration in as many as sixteen other states. Bill Lueders, however, writing in our December/January issue took a contrary position, stating: “Even if it were legally possible to keep Trump off the ballot, I believe doing so would be an affront to democracy. If the people of this country want to elect a President as manifestly corrupt and unfit as Donald Trump, that is their right. Letting voters make bad decisions is the essence of democracy.”

On our website this week Jeff Abbott reports on U.S. immigration policy that is causing a growing backlog in the Mexican state of Chiapas, and Miriam Davidson describes the desperate need for refugee assistance in a small town in Arizona. Plus, Eleanor J. Bader reviews a new film about a little known reproductive freedom advocate Bill Baird; Maurice Cunningham looks at the “Rise and Fall” of the group Moms for Liberty; Ryan Dudley takes aim at the suffering being caused by Texas abortion restrictions; and Jeff Spitzer-Resnick profiles the wide variety of opinion and tactics among various progressive Jewish groups opposing the war in Gaza.

Please keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.

 
Sincerely,

Norman Stockwell
Publisher

P.S. - Don’t miss a minute of the “hidden history” of 2024 – You can still order The Progressive’s new Hidden History of the United States calendar for the coming year. Just go to indiepublishers.shop, and while you are there, checkout some of our other great offerings as well. There is still time to get your items delivered for the holidays.

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