TALIBAN

• In the wake of the shocking invasion of southern Israel by Hamas militants on Oct. 7, 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to destroy Hamas.
• On that same day, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant went further, stating, “We will wipe this thing called Hamas, ISIS-Gaza, off the face of the earth.
• The immediate goals were to force the Taliban from power and destroy al-Qaida.
• Very little thought or resources were put into what happened after those goals were attained.
• That’s what happened in Afghanistan, and that is what could happen in Gaza.

A war of weak results

• The U.S. invasion toppled the Taliban from power by the end of 2001, but the war did not end.
• Nongovernmental and international relief organizations began to deliver humanitarian aid and reconstruction support, but their efforts were uncoordinated.
• U.S. trainers began creating a new Afghan National Army, but lack of funding, insufficient volunteers and inadequate facilities hampered the effort.
• The Taliban entry into Kabul in August 2021 merely put an exclamation point on a campaign the United States had lost many years before.

A goal that’s hard to achieve

• An Israeli invasion of Gaza could well lead to an indecisive quagmire if the political goal is not considered ahead of time.
• Israel has invaded Gaza twice, in 2009 and 2014, but quickly withdrew its ground forces once Israeli leaders calculated they had reestablished deterrence.
• The newly declared goal of destroying Hamas as a military force is far more difficult than that.
• Israel has the capacity to level Gaza and round up segments of the population, but that may not be wise.

• "It's been a watershed year for legal tech innovation and there are so many accomplishments from the entire Relativity community to celebrate at Relativity Fest," said Phil Saunders, CEO at Relativity.
• Relativity Fest brings together the brightest minds in the industry and attracts expert speakers for three days of transformation, education and connection.
• Relativity Fest comes on the heels of another significant conference for the legal industry, ILTACON , which took place August 20-24.
• Relativity plans to continue to build on the momentum with additional product launch announcements at Relativity Fest.

• Since then, Afghan women have been denied the most basic human rights in what can only be described as gender apartheid.
• The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has been dissolved and the country’s 2004 constitution repealed, while legislation guaranteeing gender equality has been invalidated.

Women targeted

• Of the approximately 80 edicts issued by the Taliban, 54 specifically target women, severely restricting their rights and violating Afghanistan’s international obligations and its previous constitutional and domestic laws.
• The Taliban appear undeterred, continuing where they left off 20 years ago when they first held power.

International crime

• Karima Bennoune, an Algerian-American international law scholar, has advocated recognizing gender apartheid as a crime under international law.
• Criminalizing gender apartheid would provide the international community with a powerful legal framework to effectively respond to Taliban abuses.
• While the UN has already labelled the situation in Afghanistan gender apartheid, the term is not currently recognized under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as being among the worst international crimes.

South African support

• Most remarkably, Bronwen Levy, South Africa’s representative at the Security Council, has urged the international community to “take action against what (Bennett’s) report describes as gender apartheid, much like it did in support of South Africa’s struggle against racial apartheid.” Elsewhere, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, as well as the head of its Delegation for Relations with Afghanistan, have described the “unacceptable” situation in Afghanistan as one of gender apartheid.
• Whenever and wherever apartheid systems emerge, it represents a failure of the international community.
• Recognizing Taliban rule as gender apartheid is not only critical for Afghans, it is equally critical for the credibility of the entire UN system.

• The inaugural Caring For Women Dinner raised over 3 million dollars.
• This year, net proceeds will benefit the Malala Fund, National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV), and New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault.
• Since 2008, the Kering Foundation has worked toward a world free from gender-based violence by partnering with local, feminist NGOs in six countries.
• NNEDV tracks and reports survivors' payments to the three credit bureaus to help build a good credit history.