US embarks on proxy war against Iran
Aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower transits through the Suez Canal towards the Persian Gulf , November 4, 2023
A massive US naval deployment in a wide arc of the so-called Greater Middle East is under way — stretching from Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean, into the Red Sea and the Bab el Mandeb and into the Gulf of Aden and all the way into the Gulf of Oman. This deterrent display may transform as large scale offensive operations and aims to rework the geopolitical alignments and bring them back to the traditional grooves of intra-regional rivalries in the Gulf region.
Ship spotters first said that as of Thursday, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its escorts were sailing just outside the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf of Oman, and were approaching the Persian Gulf. A Pentagon official confirmed the location but would not say whether the carrier will enter the Persian Gulf passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The US naval build-up in the region consists of another carrier strike group as well — USS Ford and its escorts — which last week moved away from Israeli coast and is now re-positioned to the south of Crete, according to ship spotters, apparently beyond the missile reach of Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Apart from the two carrier strike groups, the US deployment also includes a three-ship Bataan Amphibious Ready Group with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and several guided-missile destroyers — USS Bataan and USS Carter Hall operating in the northern portion of the Red Sea, and USS Mesa Verde in the Eastern Mediterranean along with the command ship USS Mount Whitney.
Additionally, there are some number of US attack submarines in the region, but the Pentagon does not typically disclose their locations — except for a rare disclosure recently by the US Central Command of the transit on November 5 of nuclear guided-missile submarine USS Florida to the east of Suez.
The most obvious explanation for such a formidable naval buildup is that it is part of the US effort to keep the current conflict in southern Israel and Gaza contained. Hezbollah continues to fire rockets and anti-tank missiles into Israel from Lebanon; Iran-backed Shia militant groups are attacking US bases in Iraq and Syria; and Houthi rebels in Yemen are firing missiles towards Israel. During the period since October 17, there have been at least 58 attacks on US bases, mostly in Iraq.
The hardline opinion in the US is that the militant groups attacking the US forces are acting at Iran’s behest. This allegation is an old US-Israeli bogey and keeps surging whenever Iran is in the crosshairs and/or there is requirement of a blame game. Expert opinion, including in the US, has always been wary of it.
Longtime observers estimate that while Tehran is openly helping the various resistance groups operating in the Middle East to push back the US and Israel, that does not exactly make these groups “Iranian proxies”. Thus, it transpired that Iran was taken by surprise by the Hamas attack against Israel on October 7. According to Reuters, at a recent meeting in Tehran with Ismail Haniyeh, the chairman of the group’s political bureau, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei brought this up.
At any rate, it is a known fact that the US establishment is well aware of the ground realities of its state of play with Iran and has not hesitated to use back channels to lean on Tehran to use its good offices with the Shia militant groups operating in Iraq to exercise restraint. But the bottom line is that Iran too has its limitations in such extraordinary times such as today when hatred and anger towards the US and Israel has risen to a crescendo in the Muslim countries.
Interestingly, coinciding with the arrival of the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and its escorts in the waters off the Strait of Hormuz, the International Maritime Security Construct [IMSC] — a consortium of countries headquartered in Bahrain, whose official stated aim is the maintenance of order and security in the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Gulf of Aden and Southern Red Sea, particularly regarding maritime security of global oil supply routes — issued an advisory on Thursday for vessels travelling through the approaches to Bab al Mandeb and Red Sea and specifically advising that “when choosing routes, orient toward creating maximum feasible distance from Yemeni waters.”
Two days later, the Israeli military has said that Yemen’s Houthis had actually seized a cargo ship in the southern Red Sea as it was sailing from Turkiye to India; although the military added that the vessel was not Israeli-owned and had no Israelis among its crew, ownership details in public shipping databases associated the ship’s owners with Ray Car Carriers, which was founded by Abraham “Rami” Ungar, who is known as one of the richest men in Israel.
It doesn’t need much ingenuity to figure out that the US, which is already smarting under the humiliation of the Houthis shooting down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters recently, is moving against the Houthis. This needs some explaining.
The point is, IMSC is a US-led “coalition of the willing” outside the purview of the mission of the International Maritime Organization, the United Nations specialised agency “to promote safe, secure, environmentally sound, efficient and sustainable shipping through cooperation.”
It was established in 2019 against the backdrop of the war in Yemen and comprises, amongst others, the UAE and Saudi Arabia from the Gulf region. Its leitmotif was to counter the Iran-Houthi axis during the Saudi-Emirati intervention in Yemen — essentially, as part of the US’ containment strategy against Iran dominating the regional politics at that time.
Significantly, if the Biden Administration plans to hit the Houthis and makes it look as a retaliatory / punitive strike and to that end, it is invoking the IMSC platform, which belongs to a bygone era before the Saudi-Iran rapprochement brokered by China, that becomes a brilliant geopolitical ploy where the US hopes to achieve multiple objectives kill many birds with a single arrow.
These objectives range from bringing down Iran by a notch or two in the regional folklore of power dynamic; driving a wedge between Saudi Arabia and Iran at a juncture when the amity between the two traditional rivals is frustrating the US plans to “integrate” Israel; res-establishing the shock and awe of US power in the Middle East (and globally); keeping the Red Sea shipping lines open for Israeli vessels; and, in strategic terms, dominating the waterways of the Red Sea leading to the Suez Canal.
By the way, Red Sea is lately witnessing big power contestation — China has a naval base in Djibouti and Russia hopes to establish a submarine base in Sudan; Eritrea is a virulently anti-US littoral state on Red Sea; and, US is desperately trying for a regime change in Ethiopia, the largest country in the African continent, which is on very friendly terms with Russia.
A quagmire for the US?
Even more curious is the timing of the US aircraft carrier group in the Persian Gulf region. The Chinese foreign ministry announced on Sunday that a delegation consisting of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers will visit China from November 20 to 21 to hold “in-depth communication and coordination” with Beijing “on ways to deescalate the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict, protect civilians and seek a just settlement of the Palestinian question.” The delegation comprises Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki and Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Hussein Brahim Taha.
The above development is a Saudi initiative. There is no question that the collective outreach by the Muslim countries to China as their principal interlocutor at the present stage of the Palestine-Israel conflict is a diplomatic rebuff to the US. Succinctly put, the Arab unity is also becoming a thorn in the flesh for President Biden at a time when the US finds it increasingly difficult to block the Chinese-Arab push for a ceasefire in Gaza and counter the international condemnation of Israel’s horrific violence against the Palestinian people, especially in the Global South.
By attacking the Houthis of Yemen, the Biden administration’s game plan is to undermine the Saudi-Iran rapprochement by playing on the Saudi antipathy toward the Houthis on the one hand and taunting Tehran on the other hand. Basically, the US hopes to pay Iran back in the same coin.
As an opinion piece in the Hill put it, “It is time Biden and his principal advisers on his national security team… must assume an active defence by striking Iranian proxies hard and unapologetically, when they present a threat, not after they have already attacked. And probable cause must be good enough for protecting our service members manning remote bases in Iraq and Syria… bloody nose is the only response Iran understands, and precisely the response the US must deliver.” (here)
The Biden Administration must be sensing already that the Israeli operations against Hamas are not getting anywhere and may turn into a long day’s journey into night, thanks to the Zionist state’s stubborn refusal to confront its guilt and shame or accept a two-state solution to the Palestine issue. The American public opinion is becoming sceptical about Biden’s handling for the situation and the US’ allies feel troubled. Indeed, Israel itself is a deeply divided house.
Meanwhile, the US’ diplomatic isolation in the Middle East is touching an unprecedented level today. The big question is whether through coercion — “smart power” — it is possible to retrieve lost ground where the crux of the matter is that the US is not trusted anymore in the Middle East. Moreover, Iran holds the patent for “smart power,” which it has finessed as a diplomatic tool through the past four decades successfully to ward off existential challenges from the US.
The US risks getting entangled with the resistance groups, which have nothing to lose and everything to gain by creating a quagmire for Washington. The heart of the matter is that the resistance groups are operating in their native lands and enjoy vast networks of social support. This, therefore, becomes an unequal battle, in the final analysis. Whether it is worth taking the risk — all for the sake of boosting the sagging Israeli morale — should be a soul-searching question for the Biden Administration before embarking on yet another forever war in the Middle East.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/us-emba ... inst-iran/
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Israel copies Nazi methods towards Palestinians
November 20, 15:40
Israel is copying Nazi methods towards the Palestinians
The public opinion research center Istituto Cattaneo conducted a survey among students at higher educational institutions in Italy and found that about half of the students believe that the Israeli authorities behave towards the residents of Palestine in the same way as the Nazis behaved in relation to Jews.
It is noted that 46.3% of students at universities in Milan, Bologna and Padua consider this statement to be true.
In turn, among students who share left-wing political views, 59.7% of respondents expressed this point of view. The results of the study were published by the Milan newspaper Corriere della Sera.
https://russian.rt.com/world/news/12336 ... os-italiya - zinc
We are waiting for cool stories about Italian anti-Semitic youth.
With each week of the war, the percentage of those who share the point of view indicated in the survey will increase simply due to the fact that Israel continues to commit war crimes. This, among other things, is one of Iran’s main strategic gains.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/8778484.html
Funny, just as I'm reading Losurdo's Stalin book wherein the Nazi 'program' is shown to be a mere variation on Western colonial practice. Hitler thought the US treatment of Native Americans particularly instructive.
Tired at work
colonelcassad
November 21, 16:30
When you want to complain that you are tired at work, remember this falling asleep doctor in a hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, through whom dozens of wounded people passed through the day, some of whom died in the hospital.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/8780563.html
Israel deliberately exterminated journalists in the Gaza Strip
colonelcassad
November 21, 12:15
Israel deliberately exterminated journalists in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli troops killed 59 and wounded dozens of Palestinian journalists while tracking their location using geotags on camera equipment, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor claims.
The organization's investigation states that the IDF sought to isolate the Gaza Strip in information terms.
According to her, journalists were attacked in offices, in their homes, and in press tents near hospitals.
The organization called this a war crime under international humanitarian law.
@parstodayrussian - zinc
Everything is fine, it's just "order based on rules."
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/8780041.html
Google Translator
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Craig Murray: Activating the Genocide Convention
November 19, 2023
There is no room to doubt that Israel’s bombing of Palestinian civilians and depriving them of food, water and other necessities of life are grounds to invoke the 1948 Genocide Convention.
Still from a U.N. film strip on the 1948 Genocide Convention, circa 1949. (U.N. Photo)
By Craig Murray
CraigMurray.org.uk
There are 149 states party to the Genocide Convention. Every one of them has the right to call out the genocide in progress in Gaza and report it to the United Nations.
In the event that another state party disputes the claim of genocide — and Israel, the United States and the United Kingdom are all states party — then the International Court of Justice is required to adjudicate on “the responsibility of a State for genocide.”
These are the relevant articles of the genocide convention:
“Article VIII
Any Contracting Party may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.
Article IX
Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or for any of the other acts enumerated in article III, shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.”
Note that here “parties to the dispute” means the states disputing the facts of genocide, not the parties to the genocide/conflict. Any single state party is able to invoke the convention.
There is no doubt that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Numerous international law experts have said so and genocidal intent has been directly expressed by numerous Israeli ministers, generals and public officials.
Definition of Genocide
Palestine solidarity march in London on Oct. 9. (Alisdare Hickson, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
This is the definition of genocide in international law, from the Genocide Convention:
“Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”
I can see no room to doubt whatsoever that Israel’s current whatsoever that Israel’s current campaign of bombing of civilians and of the deprivation of food, water and other necessities of life to Palestinians amounts to genocide under articles II a), b) and c).
It is also worth considering Articles III and IV:
“Article III
The following acts shall be punishable:
(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.
Article IV
Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.”
There is, at the very least, a strong prima facie case that the actions of the United States and United Kingdom and others, in openly providing direct military support to be used in genocide, are complicit in genocide.
The point of Article IV is that individuals are responsible, not just states. So Israel’s Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak bear individual responsibility. So, indeed, do all those who have been calling for the destruction of the Palestinians.
It is very definitely worth activating the Genocide Convention. A judgement of the International Court of Justice that Israel is guilty of genocide would have an extraordinary diplomatic effect and would cause domestic difficulties in the U.K. and even in the U.S. in continuing to subsidise and arm Israel.
Relationship of ICJ & ICC
The International Court of Justice is the most respected of international institutions; while the United States has repudiated its compulsory jurisdiction, the United Kingdom has not and the EU positively accepts it.
If the International Court of Justice makes a determination of genocide, then the International Criminal Court does not have to determine that genocide has happened.
This is important because unlike the august and independent ICJ, the ICC is very much a western government puppet institution which will wiggle out of action if it can.
But a determination of the ICJ of genocide and of complicity in genocide would reduce the ICC’s task to determining which individuals bear the responsibility. That is a prospect which can indeed alter the calculations of politicians.
[Related: Craig Murray: The Right of Self-Defense]
It is also the fact that a reference for genocide would force the Western media to address the issue and use the term, rather than just pump out propaganda about Hamas having fighting bases in hospitals.
Furthermore a judgement from the ICJ would automatically trigger a reference to the United Nations General Assembly — crucially not to the Western-vetoed Security Council.
All this begs the question of why no state has yet invoked the Genocide Convention. This is especially remarkable as Palestine is one of the 149 states party to the Genocide Convention, and for this purpose would have standing before both the U.N. and the ICJ.
I am afraid the question of why Palestine has not invoked the Genocide Convention takes us somewhere very dark. Anyone who, like George Galloway and myself, cut their political teeth in left-wing politics of Dundee of the 1970s has (long story) their experience and contacts with Fatah, and my sympathies have always very much lain with Fatah rather than Hamas.
They still do, with the aspiration for a democratic, secular Palestine. It is Fatah who occupy the Palestinian seat at the United Nations, and the decision for Palestine to call into play the Genocide Convention lies with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Abbas at the Muqata in Ramallah, West Bank, on Nov. 5. (State Department, Chuck Kennedy)
It is more and more difficult daily to support Abbas. He seems extraordinarily passive, and the suspicion that he is more concerned with refighting the Palestinian civil war than with resisting the genocide is impossible to shake.
By invoking the Genocide Convention he could put himself and Fatah back at the centre of the narrative. But he does nothing. I do not want to believe that corruption and a promise from the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken of inheriting Gaza are Mahmoud’s motivators. But at the moment, I cannot grab on to any other explanation to believe in.
Any one of the 139 states party could invoke the Genocide Convention against Israel and its co-conspirators. Those states include Iran, Russia, Libya, Malaysia, Bolivia, Venezuela, Brazil, Afghanistan, Cuba, Ireland, Iceland, Jordan, South Africa, Turkey and Qatar. But not one of these states has called out the genocide. Why?
It is not because the Genocide Convention is a dead letter. It is not. It was invoked against Serbia by Bosnia and Herzegovina and the ICJ ruled against Serbia with regard to the massacre at Srebrenica. This fed directly through to ICC prosecutions.
Some states may simply not have thought of it. For Arab states in particular, the fact that Palestine itself has not invoked the Genocide Convention may provide an excuse. EU states can hide behind bloc unanimity.
But I am afraid that the truth is that no state cares sufficiently about the thousands of Palestinian children already killed and thousands more who will shortly be killed, to introduce another factor of hostility in their relationship with the United States.
Just as last weekend’s summit in Saudi Arabia, where Islamic countries could not agree an oil-and-gas boycott of Israel, the truth is that those in power really do not care about a genocide in Gaza. They care about their own interests.
It just needs one state to invoke the Genocide Convention and change the narrative and the international dynamic. That will only happen through the power of the people in pressing the idea on their governments. This is where everybody can do a little something to add to the pressure. Please do what you can.
Hat tip to the indefatigable Sam Husseini, the independent journalist who has been pressing the Genocide Convention on the White House.
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/19/c ... onvention/
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Israel Propaganda Vs Palestine Propaganda
Israel propaganda looks like a music video featuring children singing “we will annihilate everyone” in Gaza. Palestine propaganda looks like an endless stream of raw video footage featuring children whose bodies have been ripped apart by Israeli military explosives.
Caitlin Johnstone
November 20, 2023
Israel propaganda looks like a music video featuring children singing “we will annihilate everyone” in Gaza.
Palestine propaganda looks like an endless stream of raw video footage featuring children whose bodies have been ripped apart by Israeli military explosives.
Israel propaganda looks like a music video of Israeli women doing yoga on top of images of the Israeli hostages in Gaza.
Palestine propaganda looks like satellite images of entire neighborhoods that have been bombed into rubble by Israeli forces.
Israel propaganda looks like the Israeli president waving around an Arabic translation of Mein Kampf and claiming it was found in a child’s room in Gaza.
Palestine propaganda looks like all the top western and Israeli human rights institutions declaring that Israel is an apartheid state.
Israel propaganda looks like posting cutesy pictures of female IDF troops and saying “when you’re mean to Israel this is who you’re being mean to”.
Palestine propaganda looks like statistics showing that Israel mostly killing women and children in Gaza.
[youtube]http://twitter.com/i/status/1726345295515058255[/youtube]
Israel propaganda looks like Israel releasing what it claims are audio clips of intercepted Hamas communications in an effort to exonerate itself from accusations of war crimes, after claiming that its intelligence services had no idea what Hamas was up to prior to October 7.
Palestine propaganda looks like a UN special rapporteur explaining that it is inherently illegal under international law for Israel to be bombing Gaza at all.
Israel propaganda looks like the IDF publishing a computer-generated video of a multi-level Hamas command headquarters underneath Al-Shifa Hospital.
Palestine propaganda looks like humanitarian organizations saying Israel has been bombing hospitals throughout Gaza and shooting patients through hospital windows.
Israel propaganda looks like an IDF soldier pointing to a normal calendar with the days of the week in Arabic at Al-Shifa Hospital and falsely claiming it was a shift schedule for Hamas kidnappers.
Palestine propaganda looks like social media accounts dedicating themselves to keeping a running tally of the thousands of children who are being killed by Israel.
Israel propaganda looks like the Israeli government sharing a bogus video of a woman falsely posing as an Al-Shifa Hospital nurse condemning Hamas for their presence there.
Palestine propaganda looks like Palestinian journalists working tirelessly to document Israel’s mass atrocities in Gaza while being murdered one by one by the Israeli war machine.
Israel propaganda looks like the Israeli government repeatedly posting things on social media that it then has to delete after people highlight the falsehoods and/or accidental confessions that they contain.
Palestine propaganda looks like Palestinians recording the suffering, displacement, death and dismemberment of their fellow Palestinians in real time.
Israel propaganda looks like screaming at people who oppose the ongoing massacres in Gaza, and accusing anyone who criticizes Israel’s actions of being an anti-semite and a terrorism supporter.
Palestine propaganda looks like saying true things and sharing factual evidence.
It’s not hard to see who’s in the wrong here.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/11 ... ropaganda/
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Israel’s Apartheid Regime is Illegitimate and Must Be Removed from the Community of Nations
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Paul Heywood-Smith
Israeli security fence near Jerusalem separating territory.
Israel’s membership of the United Nations was approved in 1949. Unlike other states, it was approved conditionally upon Israel complying with Partition Resolution 181 as to the limits of the Israeli State, and UN Resolution 194, allowing the return of refugees. Israel has complied with neither condition. It refuses to define its borders and is today governed by an Apartheid regime that has murdered over 4,500 children in Gaza in the space of one month. Israel’s membership of the UN must be illegal. It should be expelled from the community of nations.
Once a regime is accepted as an apartheid regime, consequences flow. An apartheid regime is illegitimate and must be removed from the community of nations.
Just as the UN General Assembly did of apartheid South Africa in 1974, member states must vote to suspend Israel from the work of the UNGA immediately and recommend to the UN Security Council that it be expelled as a member state. That Western permanent members of the UNSC may seek to shield Israel from expulsion, just as Britain, France and the US did for apartheid South Africa in 1974, should not deter UNGA members.
Entities dealing with the apartheid regime of Israel expose themselves to criminal responsibility. Such entities may be a Head of State or Government, a member of a government, or government official. Indeed, on 13 October the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians, based in Harrow, England, gave notice to Prime Minister Sunak, and the Foreign Secretary and Attorney General of an intention to prosecute UK officials complicit in war crimes. Whilst complicity with the crime of apartheid was not directly relied upon, apartheid was cited as constituting the background to the current, more immediate, alleged criminal acts. The Rome Statute is relied upon to address complicity.
There can be no prospect of an acknowledged apartheid regime continuing and remaining a member of the community of nations. As with South Africa, the obligation would fall squarely on other states to boycott and sanction the subject regime. Article IV of the International Convention requires state parties to the Convention to take action to bring the regime to an end.
Article IV
The States Parties to the present Convention undertake:
(a) To adopt any legislative or other measures necessary to suppress as well as to prevent any encouragement of the crime of apartheid and similar segregationist policies or their manifestations and to punish persons guilty of that crime;
(b) To adopt legislative, judicial and administrative measures to prosecute, bring to trial and punish in accordance with their jurisdiction persons responsible for, or accused of, the acts defined in article II of the present Convention, whether or not such persons reside in the territory of the State in which the acts are committed or are nationals of that State or of some other State or are stateless persons.
Article VIII contemplates action to prevent and suppress the crime of apartheid.
Article VIII
Any State Party to the present Convention may call upon any competent organ of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as it considers appropriate for the prevention and suppression of the crime of apartheid.
International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the
Crime of Apartheid
Does apartheid Israel have a right to exist? The answer is no. The apartheid South African regime had no right to exist and ceased to exist, replaced by a non-apartheid South Africa. Israel or Israel/Palestine can continue to exist after the apartheid regime ends, in the same way that South Africa has.
That might happen in a number of ways. One way would be the two state solution. The occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza would end, (implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 242, passed in 1967). Israel would have to define its own borders, something which to date it has refused to do. So far as the new state of Israel is concerned, it would also be necessary for certain racist legislation applying to Israel to be repealed, presumably to be replaced with a constitution guaranteeing the rights of all citizens equally. It should be noted that presently Israel does not have a constitution.
Another way would be the one state solution – one country embracing all the above lands with a similar constitution based on coexistence and equality of all citizens, regardless of race or ethnicity, and guaranteeing a right of return for refugees. I emphasise that neither option requires even one Jewish Israeli to leave the country.
It is of interest to note that UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, in her first report delivered in October 2022 recommended that UN member states develop “a plan to end the Israeli settler-colonial occupation and apartheid regime”.
Francesca Albanese recently delivered the Edward Said Memorial Lecture in Adelaide on 11 November and a speech at the National Press Club on 14 November.
Conclusion
So where are we left? Here in Australia, I believe that we must press our Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to re-think the issue of both Israel’s “right to defend itself” and Israel’s “right to exist” and to accept that they are not bound to follow the dictates of the US/Israeli entity.
Host to an apartheid regime which has murdered over 4,500 Palestinian children in the last month alone, and in breach of the conditions of its recognition as a state set by the UN, Israel has no ‘right to exist’, and no right to wage a brutal war of collective punishment in an occupied territory in breach of international law.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/11/ ... f-nations/
Britain’s SAS Abetting Gaza Genocide
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Kit Klarenberg
Effects of destruction from Israeli bombing of the Al-Najjar family’s home, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, on 12 November 2023. (Loay Ayyoub for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
On October 28th, the DSMA’s chief wrote to editors of major British news outlets, demanding they not report or in any way mention the SAS is currently “deployed to sensitive areas” of West Asia.
It has been revealed Britain’s shadowy Defence and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee is suppressing news reportage on clandestine Special Air Service (SAS) operations in Gaza. The eagerness of London’s military, security and intelligence apparatus to censor such disclosures is an unambiguous indicator Perfidious Albion is doing the devil’s work in the embattled Occupied Territories, and wants inconvenient, incriminating truths concealed.
The DSMA is a little-known, rarely discussed and highly secretive body. Comprised of senior representatives of the British Army, Ministry of Defence, domestic and foreign spying agencies, major government departments, press associations and TV and print outlets, it has for decades insidiously imposed a quintessentially British form of press censorship. The Committee decides the subjects and events related to national security that can be reported on, and how, with devastating effect.
On October 28th, the DSMA’s chief wrote to editors of major British news outlets, demanding they not report or in any way mention the SAS is currently “deployed to sensitive areas” of West Asia, conducting “hostage rescue/evacuation operations” of Britons caught up in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, and Israeli genocidal counterattack. The Committee claimed such journalistic activity “could reveal details of operations or operating methods and techniques…which would bestow an advantage on an adversary,” and thus “endanger national security”:
“May I take this opportunity to remind editors publication of such information contravenes the DSMA notice code. I therefore advise claims of such deployments should not be published nor broadcast without first seeking [DSMA] advice. [The Committee] aims to prevent inadvertent disclosure of classified information about Special Forces and other units engaged in security, intelligence and counter-terrorist operations [in Gaza], including their methods, techniques and activities.”
‘Complete and Utter Nightmare'
This broadside was allegedly motivated by The Daily Mail and The Sun earlier that day revealing the SAS was “on standby in Cyprus to rescue British hostages held captive in Gaza.” Purportedly, 200 Britons remained “trapped by the bloodbath” after Egypt and the Israelis sealed the area’s borders, so London’s elite soldiers were “braced” to liberate them on British military and intelligence bases in Cyprus, which “offer a strategic presence in the eastern Mediterranean.”
Even at that stage, the true number of hostages captured by Hamas still alive was highly uncertain, given the Zionist assault on Gaza’s ferocity. US and Israeli officials profess ignorance about the total today. This raises obvious questions about the true rationale behind the SAS presence in Cyprus. Moreover, the prospect of a daring rescue raid in the Occupied Territories was judged suicidally insane and ill-omened by an SAS veteran consulted by The Daily Mail:
“This situation in Gaza is unique, in terms of trying to locate the hostages and find safe passage out. There’s a lot of confusion with what’s going on over there right now. Finding the right stronghold where hostages are being held will be tough – then you have to safely move to that location, find the hostages, then leave. From a planning perspective, it will be a complete and utter nightmare. It could end in disaster".
The DSMA letter’s reference to “security, intelligence and counter-terrorist operations” also points to a very different purpose to the SAS presence near Gaza. Such suspicions are compounded by a recent investigation by Declassified UK, which found 33 military transport flights have traveled to “Tel Aviv” from the same British bases in Cyprus at which the SAS operatives are posted, including every day for two weeks after the Israeli genocide in Gaza began. The outlet could not identify comparable flights before that fateful date.
DSMA letters are hugely impactful. Examples of journalists and editors failing to heed these requests are non-existent. Meanwhile, after The Guardian began reporting on documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2013, the Committee immediately fired off letters, stating British intelligence was “concerned further developments of this same theme” would compromise “national security”. The Snowden revelations were resultantly ignored by Britain’s media, with most outlets not mentioning the seismic, world-changing disclosures at all.
It is inconceivable the DSMA Committee is deeply worried about reports of the SAS being “braced” for courageous hostage rescue missions spreading. It is much more likely – if not certain – British special forces based in Cyprus are actively aiding and abetting Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) in the Zionists’ mission to “wipe Hamas off the face of the Earth”, and achieve Nakba 2.0. Which the British government would have every reason to cover up.
‘The Latest Massacre’
An official inquiry in London is scrutinizing SAS activities in Afghanistan, 2010 – 2013. It has uncovered reams of shocking evidence indicating British special forces squads tasked with locating and capturing suspected “terrorists” routinely murdered unarmed, innocent people, then fabricated evidence to falsely frame their victims as armed insurgents. Moreover, senior military officials were well-aware of rampant, lethal SAS criminality, but turned a blind eye.
On October 11th, a lawyer representing seven Afghan families whose relatives were killed by SAS soldiers, made his opening statement in the Royal Courts of Justice. He stated internal British Army documents and correspondence released to the prosecution exposed:
“Extensive contemporaneous evidence of apparent attempts to cover up wrongdoing, ranging from the destruction of evidence and the coaching of witnesses to the turning of blind eyes and the credulous acceptance by those responsible for military discipline of implausible and often wholly incredible accounts of events… [British special forces chiefs] failed to take any steps to investigate that wrongdoing and prevent its recurrence.”
SAS operatives implicated made a determined attempt to destroy incriminating evidence of their crimes, and defied orders from military police not to delete data from their computers. Yet, remaining material on servers used by a key SAS squadron accused of murder was found to include “indecent images of children and extreme pornography.” Many smoking gun emails between officers also escaped deletion.
On February 9th 2011, a special forces officer lamented to another, “whilst murder and the [SAS] have oft been regular bed-fellows, this is beginning to look bone!” They replied: “Depressing that it has come to this…Ultimately a massive failure of leadership…when the next WikiLeaks occurs then we will be dragged down with them.”
Mere days earlier, the SAS had killed nine sleeping Afghans, including a 14-year-old boy. A week later, an SAS night raid left four members of one family dead, among them a man British intelligence claimed was a Taliban military commander. His family counter that he was a mere student. The rest of the cold-bloodedly slain were conceded by the British government to be civilians. Commenting on the action, an SAS sergeant major internally described the episode as “the latest massacre!”
An official incident report on the killings authored by the SAS soldiers responsible provoked outcry and mocking from their fellow operatives, and superiors. A special forces soldier from another unit said their description of why the shooting started – two detainees were ordered to open the building’s curtains, and returned with an AK47 and a grenade – was the eighth or tenth time such a scenario had been posited as the cause of an SAS mass killing in the past fortnight.
“You couldn’t MAKE IT UP! [emphasis in original]” they sardonically signed off.
This horrific, hitherto hidden legacy has terrifying potential ramifications for all those who remain in Gaza. The IOF has demonstrated total contempt for Palestinian life young and old, obliterating civilian infrastructure and its occupants with callous impunity, and even slaughtering civilians attempting to flee to designated “safe” zones. Meanwhile, the fakery and dishonesty employed to justify or conceal these crimes against humanity plumbs fresh depths of depravity daily. In this genocidal mission, the Zionists couldn’t have a more perfect collaborator than the SAS.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/11/ ... -genocide/
US Military Supplies Weapons to Israel Using the UK Base on Cyprus
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on NOVEMBER 20, 2023
Matt Kennard and Mark Curtis
Flight path of a US Air Force C-295 military transport aircraft that flew from RAF Akrotiri to Tel Aviv on Wednesday. (Screengrab: RadarBox)
The US is moving arms to Israel from around Europe using Britain’s vast air base on Cyprus, but the Ministry of Defence refuses to tell Declassified what American aircraft are flying or what weapons are on board.
*Britain’s Cyprus base has become international military hub supporting Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza
*American C-25 military transport plane flew from UK base on Cyprus to Tel Aviv on Wednesday
*US Air Force is making transport flights from its huge bases in Germany, Turkey and Spain to the UK’s Cyprus base
*Half of US planes flying from British Cyprus said to be carrying weapons for Israel
Respected Israeli newspaper Haaretz has reported that over 40 US transport aircraft, 20 British transport aircraft and seven heavy transport helicopters have flown to RAF Akrotiri, Britain’s vast base on Cyprus, carrying equipment, arms and forces.
RAF Akrotiri has long been the staging post for British military operations and bombing campaigns in the Middle East. It sits 180 miles from Tel Aviv with a flight time of 40 minutes.
The planes have been loaded with cargo from strategic depots belonging to the US and NATO in Europe, Haaretz reported. Around half the US flights are said to be “delivering military aid”.
Declassified has found these US weapons and equipment are likely being delivered to RAF Akrotiri from US bases in Turkey, Spain and Germany.
On October 18 and 24, the US flew two huge C-17A Globemaster military transport vehicles to RAF Akrotiri from its air base at Rota in southern Spain. On October 25, the US flew another C-17 to Akrotiri from Ramstein air base in Germany, the site of NATO’s air command.
The C-17 is capable of transporting 134 personnel and many types of military equipment, including Abrams tanks and Black Hawk helicopters. The US military notes that the C-17’s role is to “rapidly project and sustain an effective combat force close to a potential battle area”.
On November 5, a US C-130J Hercules military transport aircraft flew from Adana in southern Turkey to RAF Akrotiri. Adana is home to the Incirlik air base, a major US facility with 5,000 American personnel. The Hercules can carry 128 combat troops and 19,600kg of cargo.
Declassified could find no US Air Force (USAF) planes arriving from these bases in the two months before the Gaza bombing campaign began.
US planes landing at Nevatim Air Force Base – located in southern Israel near the Negev desert – have delivered arms for the Israel’s military, Haaretz also reported. In addition, US aircraft landing at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv have carried, among other things, armoured vehicles.
A US Air Force C-17 military transport aircraft. These planes, operated by the US military, have arrived at RAF Akrotiri from American bases in Spain and Germany since Israel began bombing Gaza. (Photo: Creative Commons)
Delivering arms
Declassified also found four USAF flights that departed from RAF Akrotiri in the last 12 days destined for Israel.
The aircraft were the CN-35 and C-295 military transport planes jointly developed by corporations CASA of Spain and IPTN of Indonesia. Their military roles include maritime patrol, surveillance, and transport of personnel and weapons. The C-295 can carry 71 troops and a 9,250kg payload.
Another USAF aircraft flew late on the night of 8 November from RAF Akrotiri to Lebanon’s capital Beirut and then back to Akrotiri again an hour later. It is not known what was picked up and/or dropped off.
Declassified asked the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) what US aircraft were flying to Israel from its base on Cyprus—and what they were carrying.
An MoD spokesperson refused to divulge the information, telling Declassified: “In response to the situation in Israel and Gaza, we are working with international partners to de-escalate the conflict, reinforce stability and support humanitarian efforts in the region. Any use of UK bases will be in line with these objectives.”
But it is believed the British government knows what is on the US planes. The MoD recently told parliament: “UK authorisation would be required for any [US] operations involving the use of the Sovereign Base Areas” on Cyprus.
‘Most significant international deployment’
Haaretz writes that Cyprus provides “the most significant international deployment of forces and equipment” for military operations related to Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza.
Declassified recently revealed that 33 UK military transport planes have flown from RAF Akrotiri to Tel Aviv since 11 October, including every day for two weeks soon after the Gaza bombing began.
The MoD confirmed 17 of these flights but refused to give any details of the cargo or personnel on board.
It is possible that UK special forces, the SAS, have been brought to Israel on some of these flights. The MoD has issued a “D-Notice” – a request to media to not publish information that could harm “national security” – to deter the UK press from reporting on the SAS role in Gaza.
The Sun reported on 27 October that the SAS had deployed to Cyprus.
Other covert activity includes the US military flying surveillance drones over the Gaza Strip, the New York Times reported on 2 November. The drones were discovered by the paper on a flight tracker website and later confirmed by two US Defense Department officials.
The aircraft are MQ-9 Reapers, which are operated by US Special Operations forces, the paper noted.
Declassified understands the New York Times could not establish where the drones were taking off from. The flight path indicates that it could be RAF Akrotiri, among other possible locations.
The MoD would not confirm or deny if US drones were flying from the British base on Cyprus.
US secrecy
The nature of the US military and intelligence presence on British Cyprus is shrouded in secrecy. Britain has two “Sovereign Base Areas” on Cyprus – known as Dhekelia in the east of the island and Akrotiri in the west – which are large, highly secretive military and intelligence installations comprising 3% of the island’s land area.
The USAF has had a base on British territory on Cyprus for nearly half a century, but its size was long kept secret from the public on both sides of the Atlantic.
Declassified recently revealed that the US is expanding its deployment on RAF Akrotiri to 129 airmen and building a new 147-room installation across 1.5 acres to house its personnel.
Declassified also revealed that a US spy force, the 1st Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron (ERS), is permanently deployed at the British base despite Pentagon claims it only has one airman on Cyprus.
This squadron is the US military’s oldest flying unit and is responsible for training all high-altitude intelligence and reconnaissance aircrew for the U-2 spy plane, which was originally operated by the CIA.
The ERS, which is headquartered at Beale Air Force Base in California, also flies 2,400 hours of “combat support” missions annually with the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a surveillance drone manufactured by US arms company Northrop Grumman.
No evidence has so far emerged that the squadron, based 230 miles from Gaza, is supplying intelligence or combat support to aid Israeli military operations. The UK MoD would not confirm or deny when asked by Declassified.
The MoD also refuses to disclose the number of US military personnel on British territory. A Cypriot working on the UK base told us last year: “There is a big US presence, I don’t know how that works or why.”
The New York Times reported that the Pentagon has quietly dispatched to Cyprus commando teams from the Joint Special Operations Command, including the Army’s Delta Force and the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, “to stand by in case they are needed to help evacuate American citizens from the region”.
Intelligence
Edward Snowden’s leaks in 2013 revealed the extensive US National Security Agency (NSA) presence across the British territories on Cyprus. A top secret GCHQ document noted: “Cyprus hosts a wide range of UK and US intelligence facilities”.
These facilities were said to include the communications interception facility at Ayios Nikolaos in Dhekelia, which also hosts a measurement and signatures intelligence, or MASINT, component. This highly technical field detects and describes the specific characteristics of target objects and sources.
Two more MASINT locations operating in partnership with the US are found on the Western base, including an unmanned facility at Cape Gata, just up from RAF Akrotiri.
t RAF Troodos, a British “retained site” near the border with northern Cyprus, the US operates another listening post, which utilises covert electronic intelligence gathering.
The Troodos site, GCHQ noted, “has long been regarded as a “‘Jewel in the Crown’ by NSA as it offers unique access to the Levant, North Africa, and Turkey”.
The document added: “Weapons-related collection from Troodos is used to support technical [signal intelligence] analysts in the US and UK.”
It is not known if the NSA is now sharing intelligence gathered on Cyprus with its Israeli counterparts.
Dutch and German presence
In addition to UK and US forces, Britain’s base on Cyprus is being used as a hub for Western military operations, with German and Dutch governments believed to have deployed special forces units there.
The German army’s Special Forces Command (KSK), its Navy Special Forces (KSM) unit – also known as combat swimmers – and the federal police Special Forces unit, which specialises in rescuing hostages (GSG 9), have all reportedly deployed to Cyprus.
Germany has also sent four transport aircraft along with the special forces.
Haaretz reported that four Dutch military transport planes have also arrived on Cyprus along with about 200 Marines, rapid reaction forces and consular staff “to facilitate emergency evacuation of Dutch citizens from the region in case of a widespread war with Hezbollah”.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Air Force has sent several military transport aircraft in preparation for any possible rescue. Planes and forces from other countries have also trickled into the small island.
As Declassified has previously reported, the International Criminal Court, which has an open investigation on Palestine, should request information from the British government about how its military and intelligence services, and the role of US assets on Cyprus, may be aiding Israel’s war on Gaza’s civilians.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/11/ ... on-cyprus/
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Ceasefire to be announced in coming hours -- sources
Xinhua | Updated: 2023-11-21 13:30
A man checks the rubble of buildings destroyed in an Israeli military operation in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis Nov 17, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]
GAZA -- A Hamas official said Tuesday that a ceasefire agreement with Israel will be announced in the coming hours in Qatar.
The official, who requested to remain anonymous, told Xinhua, "We are close to reaching an agreement in the coming hours, and the movement has delivered its response to the mediators."
Another Hamas source said, "The agreement will be announced in Qatar, and it may be soon, and its success is linked to the commitment of the Israeli side."
The ceasefire deal, said the sources, will last for five days and includes the release of 50 civilians and foreign nationals held by Hamas in exchange for the release of 300 Palestinian detainees, including children and women, held by Israel.
The deal also includes the entry of 300 trucks of food, medical and fuel aid into the Gaza Strip.
The sources indicated that the release of prisoners will take place in stages, at a rate of 10 Israeli prisoners per day compared with that of 30 Palestinian prisoners.
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20231 ... ef493.html
