Maarten Dirkse retweeted
No charge. No trial. No food.
Walid Ahmed was 17.
Israel illegally imprisoned him in Megiddo Prison. Without charge. Without trial.
There, he was tortured and, in March 2025, starved to death—in the words of an Israeli judge.
Then Israel withheld his body for a year.
Only after a Supreme Court hearing did Israel agree to return him to his family.
First, their son was starved to death. Then they had to fight for the right to bury him.
Israel to release body of Palestinian teen who died malnourished in prison haaretz.com/west-bank/2026-1…
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
What are they referring to here?
The flooding of the tents in which Gaza’s surviving civilians live.
Little kids living in apocalyptic conditions.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
A group of Israeli settlers have seized eight Palestinian homes on Wednesday in Jericho, located in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinian sources reported that the settlers, accompanied by their families, stormed the eight homes, which were empty at the time of the raid
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Congratulations to Dr @AbdulElSayed and to all US candidates who have defeated pro-aparheid lobby’s effort to elect politicians that support Israel’s ethnic cleansing and atrocity crimes in Palestine.
May this be the beginning of the end of the rule of lawlessness brought upon us
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Vance posting as if he’s an online pundit or commentator and not the vice-president in the administration that launched this war and then defended this war.
One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.
So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."
Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.
There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.
Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)
In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.
If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.
But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
🚨 “Why aren’t you arresting them? They’re right here!”
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian olive pickers and foreign solidarity activists in Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, on Friday, beating and injuring several people. Israeli soldiers arrested one of the activists while leaving the settler assailants untouched.
In footage filmed by Drop Site contributor Mutasem Sqf Elhait, another activist confronts the soldiers while the settlers remain at the scene: “If you’re making arrests, then can you arrest the people who hit him and beat him up? There are videos of everything.”
Jaafar Hamayel, Fatah secretary in Ramallah and al-Bireh, told Drop Site that settlers attacked the harvesters from multiple directions while soldiers protected them. “One Jewish solidarity activist stood in front of them to protect a woman who was picking olives. He was assaulted and injured in his face and mouth, and his teeth were damaged,” he said. “The army should be forcing the settlers to leave, not forcing us off our own land.”
The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission has documented more than 500 settler attacks on the olive harvest across the occupied West Bank since the harvest season began in early October.
🎥 Mutasem Sqf ElHait
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Here is an Israeli judge making it clear that Israel is not a ‘state of all its citizens.’
Good luck spinning that ADL and AJC and AIPAC.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
In the pro-Netanyahu demonstration today, one of his supporters threatens left-wing Jews: "We’ll beat you. You’re the first enemies we’ll send far, far away, to Birkenau, to Auschwitz, and we’ll rebuild Sobibor for you!" Israel 2026. The Jewish state.
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Author Benjamin Moser on Israel's election: "There were also elections in apartheid South Africa, there were elections in French Algeria, there were even elections in the Confederate States of America... We're talking about really who's going to run the concentration camps."
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Veteran Israeli actress Chelli Goldenberg was left shocked after she was caught ripping into Israel's policies towards Palestinians on air. Goldenberg was a guest on Channel 13 and did not realise the segment was being broadcast live.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Israeli police arrested overnight into Thursday social media influencer Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, known online as Andrey X, and American freelance journalist Jasper Nathaniel after they were assaulted and detained at gunpoint by Israeli settlers near the Carmel settlement in the West Bank's South Hebron Hills.
Video courtesy of @AdeleShoko
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
“We moeten niet over links, want dat kost ons stemmen” is geen overtuigend VVD argument als het alternatief — het kabinet laten vallen — waarschijnlijk óók stemmen kost.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Waarom spreken alleen @D66 en @cdavandaag zich uit tegen de eisen van @JuisteAntwoord , @BoerBurgerB en vooral @SGPnieuws en de @VVD niet, @rubenbrekelmans ?
nos.nl/l/2637208
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
alzresearch.org/giving/
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
alzfdn.org/donate/
Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Israel allows 2 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship (who did not become refugees in 1948) to vote and run for office while it denies that right to 6+ million it has kept under a brutal illegal occupation for nearly 60 years.
That is not democracy. It is Apartheid.
Israel’s Arab citizens, men and women, are turning out in historic numbers to vote. They can vote, run for office, and serve in the Knesset, rights denied to many Arabs and women across much of the Middle East.
Our critical ally in the fight against terror, Israel, is the only democracy in the region, and today shows it.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Faced with a PR hit from the disenfranchisement of Arab voters, who turned out bravely in surging numbers, how can Israel justify discounting their votes? Netanyahu now presents an evidence-free “scandal” tying the Arab parties to Israel's favorite bogeymen, Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. Meanwhile, there is far more evidence of Israeli attempts to suppress Arab votes:
1) On election day, Netanyahu posted that Arab voters were “Muslim Brotherhood supporters” who were “raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections.”
2) According to Reuters, Likud-branded cars drove through Jerusalem playing the Islamic call to prayer and warning that “Arabs are voting.”'
3) Haaretz reported that Likud paid teams “millions of shekels” to film Arab voters. Likud and Religious Zionism planned to send about 2,000 activists into Arab towns.
4) The Supreme Court refused to ban firearms at polling stations. The Mossawa Center documented settlers confronting voters in Tayibe, Majd al-Krum, Shefa-Amr, Haifa and I’billin.
5) Police checked IDs at Arab polling places, which is the job of election officials. In Segev Shalom, police and National Guard troops kept about 200 voters outside a school, some for up to five hours.
6) Arabic ballot slips were missing in Baqa al-Gharbiyye, Haifa, Nazareth, I’billin, Eilabun, Shefa-Amr and Nof HaGalil. Ra’am reported torn and destroyed slips.
7) Arab voters turned out anyway. By 6 p.m., Rahat had climbed from 59.5% in 2022 to 72.2%. Umm al-Fahm, Kafr Qasim and Nazareth had already passed their 2022 totals.
8) Two days later, the Central Elections Committee chair asked the Shin Bet to investigate suspected foreign funding of that turnout. His letter named no country and offered no evidence.
9) Netanyahu installed Shin Bet chief David Zini over the Attorney General’s conflict-of-interest objection. The conflict was that the Shin Bet was investigating Netanyahu’s own aides over work for Qatar.
10) On Tuesday, Zini called the election “secure, properly conducted and supervised in an inspiring manner.” By Thursday his agency was investigating whether Qatar had corrupted it.
11) The only bribery case, the Ra’am arrests, has produced no significant evidence, and police expect to close it. Police say there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
12) Likud branded it “Ra’amgate” and declared the election stolen. Ben-Gvir called for Arab party leaders to be arrested.
13) Netanyahu’s own aides were reportedly paid about $10 million by Qatar in the 2025 Qatargate affair.
Arab citizens were filmed, made to wait outside polling stations and denied ballots, and they voted anyway. Now the government that tried to keep them home is asking whether their votes were bought. The suspicion is run by Netanyahu’s handpicked security chief and rests on a bribery case the police are dropping. This is all part of a long-term play to besmirch the Arab citizens of Israel and deprive them of their voice and eventually take away their voting rights. Meanwhile, the real corruption by Netanyahu and his cronies, who genuinely took money from Qatar, goes unpunished.
הודעת הליכוד:
פרשת רע״מגייט היא רעידת אדמה. גנבו את הבחירות בישראל!
הדברים של השופט סולברג על מעורבות של גורמים זרים שהתערבו ושיחדו מצביעים לטובת המפלגות הערביות הם טלטלה חסרת תקדים.
מדובר בפיגוע בדמוקרטיה שמטרתו להוביל להשתלטות זרה על הכנסת, לאיסלאמיזציה של ישראל, ולהפלת שלטון הימין כדי להוביל לנסיגה ותבוסת צה״ל בכל הזירות - ובראשן איראן.
אחרי שהתברר שגורמים זרים ניסו להשתלט על הכנסת ברור שאסור לאף מפלגה ציונית לשתף פעולה עם רע״מ והמשותפת, להחליף את יו״ר הכנסת באמצעות קולות שנקנו במזומן, ולהקים ממשלה מסוכנת לישראל.
אנו דורשים לפעול מייד ובכל האמצעים הקיימים בידי השב״כ והמשטרה כדי לחקור את הפשעים הללו.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
This video is completely insane. Israeli state terrorism knows no boundaries.
🚨 TODAY: Settler-terrorists attacked Andrey, Jasper and me. This video shows the assault.
Andrey was severely beaten and lost consciousness several times in front of police. Despite this, he was denied hospital treatment. He was put in an ambulance—but instead of being taken to hospital, he was taken to a police station.
He is still there, arrested and being denied medical care.
Jasper and I were also beaten. Jasper was then pepper-sprayed and arrested.
Maarten Dirkse retweeted
Meet Israel's new Knesset members🧵
Moshe Feiglin: "As Hitler said, ‘I cannot live if one Jew is left.’ We can’t live here if one ‘Islamo-Nazi’ remains in Gaza"
"Every child, every baby in Gaza is an enemy"
