Palestine

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blindpig
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sun Dec 17, 2023 11:38 pm

Iranian Foreign Ministry on the situation in Palestine
December 17, 19:14

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Iranian Foreign Ministry on the situation in Palestine

"After 70 days, Hamas was not destroyed. The resistance was not disarmed. Zionist prisoners of war were not released during the war. The forced migration plan for Gazans was unsuccessful.

Despite continued war crimes against women and children, Palestine is now the final winner in this unequal field.

Zionist regime authorities continue to commit crimes more heinous than the actions of ISIS, but they must make progress and be able to compensate for their shameful historical failure." (c) Iranian Foreign Ministry

PS. Today, another major shipping company, OOCL, has stopped shipping to Israel via the Red Sea.
PS2. In the US, according to a Harvard-Harris polling survey, more than half of young people under 25 believe the creation of a Palestinian state led by Hamas is justified and the liquidation of the State of Israel.
PS3. The United States is trying to create a coalition in the Middle East to attack Yemen, but even if this succeeds, Yemen has endured 7 years of systematic bombing by the Saudi coalition, and the start of such attacks will only lead to increased attacks on ships in the Red Sea, where shipping may cease altogether.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/8834669.html

Google Translator

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When Genocide Is No Longer Genocide
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist 13 Dec 2023

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William Patterson was the driving force behind the We Charge Genocide petition.

Some of Israel's defenders want to do away with the concept of genocide in hopes of washing away its war crimes. Any redefinition would allow the U.S. to disappear the many genocides it has committed domestically and internationally.

“We maintain, therefore, that the oppressed Negro citizens of the United States, segregated, discriminated against and long the target of violence, suffer from genocide as the result of the consistent, conscious, unified policies of every branch of government.”
We Charge Genocide, Civil Rights Congress, 1951

Wall Street Journal editor Adam Kirsch recently penned an opinion piece entitled, “Is It Time to Retire The Term ‘Genocide’? The Meaning of Genocide “. Why would anyone want to stop using the word genocide? To make a 1,700 word story short, the goal is to defend Israel and argue that it is not committing genocide against the people of Gaza.

The tortured and long winded supposition just doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. Genocide was very clearly defined by the United Nations in its 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide .

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:

Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
These criteria certainly apply to the ongoing crime against Palestinians in Gaza, which includes bombing homes and hospitals, depriving access to water and electricity, extra-judicial killings, and arbitrary arrests and detentions. They also apply to U.S. wars ranging from Korea to Vietnam to Iraq and Libya and to the enslavement of Africans and the destruction of indigenous communities, theft of their lands, and the present day domestic mass incarceration system. There are a plethora of instances of genocide in United States and world history. Surely there is no logical reason to end the use of this very important word.

Unless of course the rationale for doing so is political. Nowhere in Kirsch’s piece does he reference the United Nations definition, which has been universally accepted since 1948. The truth is just too inconvenient for the United States and its close ally Israel, which was founded as a Jewish state and makes the World War II genocide of European Jews a defense for its very existence and for all of its actions.

The word genocide quite rightly conveys very grave violations of human rights. In this latest effort to silence critics of U.S. and Israeli policy the word itself is under attack. As such it is especially important for Black people to be part of this discussion and debate.

It was Black led organizations such as the Civil Rights Congress which dared to name the evil, to say that genocidal acts extended far beyond Nazi death camps in Europe.

Now Black people have been targeted in this latest wave of censorship and punishment. It is Black students at Harvard and other universities who were harassed and doxxed and lost job opportunities. Black members of the Congressional Black Caucus Cori Bush and Jamaal Bowman are facing primary opponents as punishment for being insufficiently pro-Israel. The liberation struggle is itself under attack if the word genocide is suddenly downgraded in importance.

The effort to defend Israel must be opposed for obvious reasons. The people of Gaza are under a brutal assault while the world watches as if nothing can be done. The U.S. is the one nation that could stop the carnage but won’t because it is on the same page with the Israeli state and its goal of ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

If the concept of genocide can suddenly be cast aside, if the concept of a settler colonial state is declared illegitimate for the sake of Israel, lies can be told about any crime. Rhetorical defense of oppressed peoples will be delegitimized and state terror will no longer be named as such.

It is not only correct but necessary for Black people to speak of ongoing genocides in this country. If one perpetrator is allowed to weasel out of culpability, even in language, atrocities of many kinds will be considered acceptable.

The word genocide is a useful and righteous weapon. That is why it is now being called into question. The guilty want to appear innocent and in the process disappear their criminality. So no, it is not time to disappear a word that is universally accepted and upheld as a necessity to protect humanity. Imagine how much worse the suffering will be if the ability to name a crime is removed from discourse.

Already the deaths of six million Congolese are rarely called genocide when they should be. Indigenous Americans and African descendants are sneered at when speaking of their experiences as genocides. The United Nations got it right in 1948. The intent to destroy a group was given a name and no one should be allowed to throw it out. Genocides have been committed throughout human history and they should be known as such.

https://blackagendareport.com/when-geno ... r-genocide

One State Reality
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 13 Dec 2023

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Pro-Palestinian protestors rally in support of Palestinians in Gaza

Recognizing the one state reality of Israel-Palestine instead of two-state dreaming would be a huge paradigm shift with huge implications.

On December 8th, the UN Security Council voted 13 to 1 for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The US cast the only no vote, exercising its veto power, while the United Kingdom abstained. All of those present, excepting the Israeli Ambassador, called for a two-state solution, but more and more scholars and activists are now saying that a two-state solution is no longer possible. It’s been under discussion for 57 years without any progress, so it’s time for a paradigm shift.

That paradigm shift is, put simply, acknowledging that Israel is the only functioning state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and that it’s a hugely unjust state keeping half its population, the Palestinian people, in miserable conditions, and all but 20% without citizenship and the rights that citizenship entails. Half of those, as we’re all now acutely aware, live in the concentration camp called Gaza that Israel has bombed for decades, more mercilessly than ever since October 7, 2023. The one-state reality is ugly, but continuing to imagine that there will finally be a two-state solution doesn’t make it any less so.

One hundred thirty-nine of the world’s 193 nations recognize the State of Palestine, but this is moral recognition, recognition of what should be, not of what is. Israel controls all the state apparatus, including the monopoly of force, and the Palestine Authority essentially plays the role of colonial administrator.

“The One State Reality ” is an anthology of essays devoted to this paradigm shift, its history, and its implications. Its subheading is, “What Is Israel/Palestine?” Its authors are scrupulously careful to say that they are trying to describe what is, not what should be, and that the Palestinian and Israeli people must ultimately make their decisions about moving forward.

The book is edited by George Washington University Professors Michael Barnett, Nathan J. Brown, and Marc Lynch, and University of Maryland Professor Shibley Telhami. It’s written by political scientists who use language and concepts specific to their academic discipline that are often difficult for the layperson to parse, but it’s full of insight for those with patience. As a layperson, I found it easiest to digest by reading the introduction and conclusion, then flipping through pages to chapter heads and subheads that particularly piqued my interest, and reading several every day rather than starting from page one and reading to the end.

Several chapters I found of particular interest were “What is Israel Palestine?” (the introduction), “Israel/Palestine: Toward Decolonization,” “Delegation Domination: Indirect Rule in the West Bank,” “American Jewry and the One State Reality,” and the concluding chapter, “Recognizing a One State Reality.”

I also found it helpful to search the index for key terms like “apartheid,” “settler colonialism,” “Oslo Accords,” “Security Council,” “West Bank,” and “Gaza.” To the layperson, this book may serve as an encyclopedia as much as a page-to-page read.

One of the central themes I found most important is that, as Marc Lynch wrote in his conclusion, “Negotiations toward two states were never sincere in this analysis, but merely cover for an ongoing process of colonization.” Another co-editor speaking at a book talk at the Middle East Institute’s Oman Library called the two-state solution an “opioid for the diplomatic classes.”

Speaking on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal , co-editor Shibley Telhamis said, “The reality of it is that you have in Israel a government that doesn’t really accept the idea of two states. You have ministers in that government that say, ‘All of the land belongs to us. Palestinians have to accept what they have, not equal rights, or at worse leave.’”

What are some of the implications of the paradigm shift from the two-state solution to the one-state reality? The academic authors of this book might be disturbed by my oversimplifications but these are the most basic implications that I derived from this book:

Accepting the paradigm shift would mean giving up on both the idea of a Jewish state and the idea of a Palestinian state, which some members of both communities might embrace while others would be alarmed.
Palestinian demands for full citizenship and equal rights might then supersede the now unrealistic demands for an independent Palestine.
If policymakers and institutions, including the UN Security Council and the General Assembly, were to accept the paradigm shift, they would be compelled to confront and deliberate the ugly one-state reality which Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli NGO B’Tselem have all labeled apartheid, a crime against humanity. (This of course motivates policymakers— including the US President—who have enabled Israel’s injustices and atrocities not to accept the paradigm shift.)
In his concluding essay, Marc Lynch considers “Prospects for Ideational and Material Change” (a subhead of his chapter titled “Recognizing a One State Reality). Here he describes three possible consequences of accepting the description of Israel as an apartheid state:

“First, naming Israel’s system as ‘apartheid’ might trigger such revulsion at home [in Israel] that it leads to a domestic demand for change.” This, he says, “seems highly unlikely, given the rightward trend in Israeli politics.”

Second, “it could trigger some form of international response by states or international organizations.” This he also describes as unlikely.

“Third,” he writes, “naming Israel’s system as ‘apartheid’ could trigger global normative action at the societal and individual, rather than at the state, level. This effort to link the apartheid label to the production of a global cultural boycott comparable to that faced by South Africa is both the most plausible theory of change and the primary objective of the BDS movement.”

He goes on to praise BDS for shifting the terms of the debate about Israel and Palestine by “effectively invoking norms against colonialism and analogies to the cultural boycott of apartheid South Africa.” He also says it could be “one of the most widespread instances of solidarity politics in the world.”

I believe he was saying that the paradigm shift and all its implications are rising from the grassroots.

https://blackagendareport.com/one-state-reality

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On 70th day of Israel’s war, Palestinian death toll hit 19,000

Ignoring global calls for an immediate ceasefire Israel claims the war in Gaza will continue for months to come, denies any possibility for peace now

December 15, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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Mass funeral in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on December 14, 2023. (Photo: Quds News Network)

At least 10 Palestinians were killed and several others were injured when Israeli strikes targeted an UN school and some residential buildings in Khan Younis in southern Gaza on early morning Friday, December 15, Wafa News Agency reported.

The UN refugee agency, UNRWA, has converted most of its schools in the besieged Palestinian territory as shelter camps for displaced people. Almost 80% of Gaza’s total population of 2.2 million is displaced due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombings and ground offensive.

Dozens of Palestinians were also killed in Israeli ground offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza where most of the displaced Palestinians are taking shelter.

Friday marks the 70th day since Israel started the war on Gaza on October 7. Over 19,000 Palestinians have been killed so far and over 54,000 people have been injured. Among the dead, nearly 18,800 deaths were reported in Gaza and at least 289 in the occupied West Bank. Most of the Palestinians killed are children, women and elderly.

The Israeli attacks on northern Israel’s Kamal Adwan school continued on the third day with more than 2,500 people who had taken shelter there were forced out. On Thursday, Israel had kidnapped 70 of its medical staff and caused the death of two injured Palestinians after preventing the medical staff from administering required treatment.

Israeli occupation forces also continued their aggression inside the occupied West Bank on Thursday and Friday. It bombed a refugee camp in Nablus moments after it announced the conclusion of its three days long raid on Jenin refugees camp, where at least 12 Palestinians were killed and over 500 were arrested. The renowned Freedom Theater in the Jenin Refugee Camp was also attacked by Israeli forces, who later arrested three of its members.

According to the reports, Israeli forces destroyed roads and other civic infrastructure in the camp and defiled the religious places on Thursday.

The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has written a report which is yet to be published demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. The report addressed to the UN Security Council says that, “the scope of death and destruction in Gaza (caused by the Israeli war) has been unprecedented and unbearable.”

The international aid agencies continue to express concern about the growing humanitarian situation in Gaza. According to the founder of the Palestinian Children Relief Fund, Steve Sosebee, Palestinian children are now dying of hunger.

The OCHA expressed apprehensions on Thursday about the possibility of spread of diseases in the overcrowded camps for displaced Palestinians due to lack of sanitation and solid waste management amidst the heavy rain.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during his meeting with White House National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan claimed that the war in Gaza will continue for a few more months despite the pressure created by the world community for an immediate ceasefire.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution with over two-third majority demanding immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages on Tuesday.

Israel does not only deny the possibility of a ceasefire in Gaza but its officials have been giving contradictory statements related to post-war status of the Palestinian territory. On Wednesday, one of the Israeli ministers said Israeli settlements can be built inside Gaza.

On Thursday, Israeli President Issac Herzog claimed that there cannot be any talks of a “two-state solution” with Palestinians now.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/15/ ... hit-19000/

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ACTION ALERT: NYT Misrepresents Zionism’s Opponents as Anti-Jewish Bigots
JIM NAURECKAS

“Is Anti-Zionism Always Antisemitic?” a New York Times article (12/10/23) by Jonathan Weisman asked. Trying to pinpoint the moment when “anti-Zionism crosses from political belief to bigotry,” Weisman suggested there were different kinds of anti-Zionism based on different visions of what Zionism means. But his effort to distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable critics of Israel painted principled supporters of equal rights as antisemitic bigots.

Weisman offered one definition of Zionism—the way it was “once clearly understood”—as “the belief that Jews, who have endured persecution for millenniums, needed refuge and self-determination in the land of their ancestors.” To oppose this kind of Zionism “suggests the elimination of Israel as the sovereign homeland of the Jews”—which he said to many Jews “is indistinguishable from hatred of Jews generally, or antisemitism.” Their argument is:

Around half the world’s Jews live in Israel, and destroying it, or ending its status as a refuge where they are assured of governing themselves, would imperil a people who have faced annihilation time and again.

On the other hand, wrote Weisman, “some critics of Israel say they equate Zionism with a continuing project of expanding the Jewish state.” This kind of anti-Zionism merely opposes “an Israeli government bent on settling ever more parts of the West Bank,” land that could serve as “a separate state for the Palestinian people.”

These two views of Zionism seemed to represent the poles of acceptable and unacceptable anti-Zionism. The piece quoted Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) explaining that “some anti-Zionism” isn’t “used to cloak hatred of Jews”; Nadler stressed, though, that “MOST anti-Zionism—the type that calls for Israel’s destruction, denying its right to exist—is antisemitic.”

The Nexus Task Force, a group associated with the Bard Center for the Study of Hate, has a definition of antisemitism that is more tolerant of criticism of Israel than that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, also cited by the Times. But it still insists, Weisman wrote, “that it is antisemitic to reject the right of Jews alone to define themselves as a people and exercise self-determination.”

Not ‘self-determination’
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Jonathan Weisman (New York Times, 12/10/23): “Virulent anti-Zionism and virulent antisemitism ultimately intersect, at a very bad address for the Jews.”
The phrase “self-determination” is doing a lot of work here. In international relations, it is generally used to mean that the residents of a geographical area inhabited by a distinct group have a right to decide whether or not they want that area to remain part of a larger entity. It’s a right that seems to come and go depending on political allegiances: When Albanians in Kosovo wanted to secede from Serbia, their right to do so was enforced with NATO bombs. If ethnic Russians who wanted to split off from Ukraine got help from Moscow, though, that wasn’t self-determination but a violation of Ukrainian sovereignty.

To call Zionism a belief in Jewish “self-determination,” however, perverts the concept to include moving to a geographic region and forcibly expelling many of the people who already live there, in order to create a situation where members of your group can have a “sovereign homeland” where they “are assured of governing themselves.”

Ensuring the dominance of a particular ethnic group through forced migration is not usually called “self-determination,” but rather “ethnic cleansing.” This is the older version of Zionism that Weisman seems to suggest can only be opposed by antisemites.

It’s true that there is another vision of Zionism, unsatisfied with expelling the indigenous residents to the fringes of Israel/Palestine, that insists on incorporating those fringes. Ever since the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel has occupied the remaining parts of what was the League of Nations’ Palestine Mandate, where many refugees from the establishment of Israel were forced to live.

But because Zionism requires a Jewish state, the people who lived in those occupied territories could not be treated as citizens. Maintaining Israel’s veneer of democracy requires the political fiction that these undesirables are not part of the country that rules them, but instead belong to non-sovereign entities—like the Palestinian National Authority and the Gaza Strip—whose raison d’etre is to provide a rationale for why the bulk of the Palestinian population isn’t allowed to vote in Israeli elections.

As it happens, this is precisely the strategy that white-ruled South Africa employed to pretend that white supremacy was compatible with democracy; it called the fictitious countries that the nation’s Black majority supposedly belonged to “bantustans.” This and other resemblances to white South Africa are why leading human rights groups like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Israel’s B’Tselem call Israel an apartheid state.

But both versions of Zionism involve the dismissal of one group’s rights in order to create a polity dominated by another group—a project that can certainly be opposed in either iteration without signifying animosity or prejudice toward anyone. (To be sure, there are antisemites who use “Zionists” as a transparent codeword for Jews. These are generally pretty easy to spot.)

A smear that needs correction
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Weisman relied on this New York Times article (12/4/23), which gives no indication of talking to any protesters, to smear protesters as antisemitic.
There is much to take issue with in Weisman’s article, but there is one point he makes that really warrants a correction. As an example of straightforward “Jew hatred,” he cites “holding Jews around the world responsible for Israeli government actions”—and offers as an example that this is what “pro-Palestinian protesters did last week outside an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia.”

But the protesters at Goldie, a vegan falafel restaurant, weren’t blaming “Jews around the world” for Israel’s assault on Gaza; they were holding Goldie’s owner, Israeli-born Michael Solomonov, responsible, because his restaurants had raised $100,000 for United Hatzalah, a medical organization that supports the Israeli Defense Forces.

According to the Guardian (12/8/23), which interviewed “protesters and current and former employees at Solomonov’s restaurants,” critics both inside and outside the staff were concerned that Solomonov hosted a fundraiser for prominent pro-Israel politicians, and had “booked and paid for multiple, lavish private dinners…for IDF members preparing to deploy to fight for Israel.” (The New York Times article—12/4/23—that Weisman linked to did not appear to be based on interviews with any protesters, but instead quoted numerous politicians condemning their demonstration.)

Obviously Solomonov and his critics have different views of his actions. But there is no evidence that protesters were targeting his restaurant simply because he was Jewish, and it’s an irresponsible smear for Weisman to assert that they were.

https://fair.org/home/action-alert-nyt- ... sh-bigots/

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WATCH: ‘They Stole a Country in Full Bloom’
December 15, 2023

Pro-Palestinian Israeli activist Miko Peled explains to a Melbourne, Australia audience Thursday how Israel stole Palestinian cities and farmland in 1948 and has continued its ethnic cleansing until today’s brutal operation in Gaza.


Video by Cathy Vogan for Consortium News

From MikoPeled.com: Miko Peled is an author, writer, speaker, and human rights activist living in the United States. He is considered by many to be one of the clearest voices calling for justice in Palestine, support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and the creation of a single democracy with equal rights in all of historic Palestine.

Peled’s maternal grandfather, Avraham Katznelson was a signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His father, Matti Peled was a general in the Israeli army and pioneered an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in the 1970’s which led him to meeting Yasser Arafat in an effort to convene him to recognize the State of Israel and adopt the Two State Solution. In 1997, Miko’s sister lost her daughter, Smadar, in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. This tragedy is what finally drove Miko to embark on his journey to discover Palestine.

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Audience at Peled talk in Melbourne. (Cathy Vogan)

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/15/w ... ull-bloom/

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The IDF Are So Good At Killing Israelis They Should Consider Joining Hamas

Friendly fire during October 7, friendly fire on the battlefield in Gaza, friendly fire executions of Israeli prisoners. The IDF are so good at killing Israelis they should start making GoPro videos with red triangles about it.

Caitlin Johnstone
December 18, 2023



Israeli forces reportedly drove bulldozers over hospital patients in tents and buried people alive. Palestinian officials are seeking an urgent probe into allegations of an IDF bulldozer attack on patients at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, killing some twenty people.

That’s one of those things where even after everything that’s happened you still look at it and go “I must be reading this wrong.” You’d be considered a monster if you killed livestock in that way.



IDF troops killed escaped Israeli hostages who were holding up a white flag, apparently because they mistook them for Palestinian civilians holding up a white flag (Israeli forces have a long and well-documented history of killing Gazans while they are waving white flags). The only reason they bothered to check if the abductees might be people whose lives they care about was reportedly because one of them had a “western appearance”, i.e. looked white.

Imagine being held hostage by Hamas for months, finally escaping, trying to make your way back home, and then getting killed by your own military forces because they mistook you for Palestinian civilians.



Israel supporters always say “Hamas just needs to surrender and everything will be fine.”

Surrender? You mean wave a white flag?



Friendly fire during October 7, friendly fire on the battlefield in Gaza, friendly fire executions of Israeli prisoners. The IDF are so good at killing Israelis they should start making GoPro videos with red triangles about it.




“Mossad discovers sinister Hamas plot to just sit back and wait for the IDF to destroy Israel via friendly fire.”



It’s not the Israel-Hamas War, it’s the Israel-Babies and Children And Women And Journalists and Healthcare Workers and UN Staff and Hospital Patients and Civilian Infrastructure and Israeli Hostages and Sometimes Occasionally Hamas War.



It’s interesting how outside the IDF Israel and its supporters are predominantly all about freeing the hostages, but within the IDF the attitude toward the hostages seems at best to be depraved indifference and at worst outright hostility.



Some weeks ago I saw a Hamas claim being circulated on Twitter that Hamas fighters had been luring IDF troops into ambushes by playing recordings of the sounds of children, and it was working because Israeli troops reliably go after kids. I didn’t pay much attention to the claim at the time, thinking “No way, that one can’t be true,” but now the IDF is indignantly complaining that “In an attempt to ambush our troops, Hamas terrorists connected dolls to speakers playing crying sounds and set them up in an area rigged with explosives.”


This keeps happening. Israel’s actions are so horrific and depraved that I keep thinking I must be misinterpreting what I’m reading or disregarding a claim as too implausibly over the top, only to find out that no, that’s exactly what happened. As bad as I know Israel is, it keeps finding new ways to show me I still don’t know the half of it.



It’s so hard to say who’s in the right in this conflict. On one side you’ve got facts and evidence and a nonstop deluge of raw video footage documenting massacres of civilians day after day after day, but on the other side you’ve got people calling you an anti-semite if you disagree with them. It’s very complicated.



It is not a coincidence that (A) video documentation of Israeli atrocities in Gaza has been extremely damaging to Israeli information interests and (B) journalists in Gaza are being killed by Israeli attacks at a rate which has no historical precedent.



If you follow the “They started it!”, “No they started it!” arguments of the Israel-Palestine conflict back to their source at the beginning, you come to “Palestinians should have laid down and accepted their violent mass displacement and theft of their homes by Israel in 1948.”



People are still yelling about “From the river to the sea” chants at pro-Palestine demonstrations, but you know if a different pro-Palestine chant becomes ubiquitous it will with 100% certainty be attacked as evil and anti-semitic too. Pro-Palestine slogans aren’t opposed because anyone sincerely believes they support genocide, they’re opposed because they are pro-Palestine.



Biden’s presidency has turned out to be everything anti-imperialists feared it would be, and so much worse.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/12 ... ing-hamas/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Mon Dec 18, 2023 12:56 pm

What is happening in Palestine and Israel: chronicle for December 17
December 17, 2023
Rybar

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The IDF continues its operation in the Gaza Strip. In the north of Gaza itself, the Israelis advanced in the area of ​​Al-Yarmouk Street and the stadium of the same name. Armored vehicles are actively operating at the training centerAl-Qattan.

Heavy fighting is taking place in the central and southern parts of the sector. Palestinian groups fire mortars and launch homemade rockets at IDF locations, including in the territory ofGaza.

The situation at the Lebanese-Israeli border has not changed. Hezbollah continues to carry out attacks on the border points of the Israeli army; in response, the IDF launched multiple artillery and air strikes, and strike and reconnaissance UAVs were widely used.

Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip

Clashes continue in Beit Lahia and Tal al-Zaatar. The IDF launches multiple artillery and airstrikes, while Kataib Izz al-Din al-Qassam militants fire mortars and make limited incursions in small groups with RPGs. The situation is similar inJabaliya.

In northwest Gaza, the IDF advanced to Al-Yarmouk Street, where heavy fighting ensued. There are also clashes, a large number of armored vehicles are reported.

To the southeast there is fighting in Shajaiya, where the IDF has advanced to the Marwani cemetery, where guides for launching missiles were discovered, camouflaged among the graves.

Center of the Gaza Strip

In Juhr ad-DikPalestinian forces launched another incursion into the positions of IDF forces with an unknown result. The sides also exchanged artillery strikes. In the areaAl-Mughraqian IDF tank was blown up by an IED, but it is not yet known whether it was a Hamas sabotage attack or an IDF attack attempt.

IDF artillery hits Al-Brej, the populated area Al-Maghaziwas hit by air strikes a>.. Fighting was reported southeast of Deir al-Balah. Based on reports from pro-Palestinian sources, Israelis are present in the area of ​​mills and rural areas south and southeast of Deir al-Balah

South Gaza Strip

In the southern part of the Palestinian enclave, fighting also continues unabated. IDF aviation and artillery are working closely onRafahandKhan Yunis. Palestinian forces are attacking nearby Israeli settlements, such as Sufa, Nir Yitzhak, Holithand Nirim, without forgetting, however, to try disrupt the IDF supply lines already in the Gaza Strip.

In the areas of Isnad al-Farhan and Az-Zana the Palestinians launched a mortar strike and carried out an incursion accordingly. InKhan Yunis itself there are urban battles, but there is no evidence of a significant change in the situation. All the different groups also report on the damaged equipment and soldiers of the IDF, without publishing, however, even a tenth of the “requests”, and the IDF launches multiple strikes on the Al-Maan area andAl-Qadisiya, which allows us to assume a further offensive after the destruction of the most important targets.

Border with Lebanon

There are no changes on the line of confrontation between “Hezbollah” and the Israel Defense Forces. The Lebanese group once again launched ATGM attacks on various border strongholds and IDF bases. According to some reports, one soldier was injured.

In turn, the IDF fired artillery and tanks in the vicinity of several settlements. The particularly active use of UAVs today is noteworthy. Various Lebanese sources reported the activity of reconnaissance and strike UAVs almost along the entire border.

West Bank

Israeli security forces conducted another police operation to detain possible Hamas supporters in Arruba, Yattaand itself > at a gas station there was an attack on a reservist with a knife. The attacker was detained, the victim is in the hospital.RantisCheckpoint the operation turned into large-scale clashes. The Palestinians managed to blow up, but not destroy, the armored vehicle, which was subsequently evacuated. In the area of ​​TulkarmaTulkarm to the east of Nur-Shams. In the camp Deir Ammarand Nablus ,

Actions of pro-Iranian formations in the Middle East

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After high activity last day, today pro-Iranian formations attacked only two US bases in Syria, Konoko and Al-Omar. There is currently no information about casualties or damage, we only know that the attack was carried out by a kamikaze UAV.

Political-diplomatic background
On a possible truce in the Gaza Strip

Agency Reuters with reference to its own sources reported that Israel and Hamas are ready to resume the truce in the Gaza Strip, but disagreements remain over the details of the deal .

At the same time, one of the Hamas figures, a member of the Politburo Khalil al-Hayya stated that the exchange of prisoners is possible only after the complete cessation of aggression, and then the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.

On the death of a French Foreign Ministry employee in the Gaza Strip

The French Foreign Ministry condemned one of the bombings of Rafah, which resulted in the death of a French diplomatic employee and called for an investigation into the incident. The man lived with his family in the same house as his colleagues and their family members. It was this building that became the target of the airstrike.

In addition, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who is currently in Israel on an official visit, called for an immediate truce to exchange prisoners.

https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... -dekabrya/

Google Tr[youtube][/youtube]anslator

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Israeli Occupation Admits to ‘Immense’ Amount of ‘Friendly Fire’ on October 7
DECEMBER 17, 2023

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Drone footage released by the Israeli military in November shows the extent of the destruction of the cars fleeing the Supernova rave on October 7, likely inflicted by Israeli drones and helicopters. Photo: RT/Israeli military.

The Israeli occupation army has admitted that an “immense and complex quantity” of “friendly fire” incidents took place on October 7.

The key declaration was buried in the penultimate paragraph of an article by Yoav Zitun, the military correspondent of Israeli outlet Ynet, published on Tuesday, December 12.

It is the first known official army admission that a significant number of the hundreds of Israelis who died on October 7 were killed by “Israel” itself, and not by Hamas or other Palestinian resistance factions.

An Israeli police source last month appeared to admit that some of the Israelis at the Supernova rave taking place near Gaza that day were hit by Israeli helicopters. A second police source later partially walked back the admission.

Citing new data released by the Israeli military, Zeitun wrote, “Casualties fell as a result of friendly fire on October 7, but the IDF [Israeli military] believes that… it would not be morally sound to investigate” them.

He reported that this was “due to the immense and complex quantity of them that took place in the kibbutzim and southern Israeli communities.”

The Ynet article also reported that “at least” one fifth of the Israeli army deaths in Gaza since the ground invasion began were also due to “friendly fire” incidents.

In recent weeks the occupation has faced increased internal pressure to investigate the failings of October 7.

On Monday, December 11, in Tel Aviv, family members of those Israelis who died on October 7 established a new group calling for an official Israeli government investigation into the events of that day.

One of the speakers accused the government of a “cover-up.”

An Extension of Nazism: How Did Zionism Collaborate With Hitler to Establish ‘Israel’?


The Israeli regime does indeed appear to be covering up a lot of the evidence.

The Jerusalem Post reported recently that cars containing the blood stains or ashes of Israelis who died on October 7 would be crushed and—in what the paper said was a first—buried in a cemetery.

The paper provided a religious pretext for all this. Nonetheless, this is a worrying development which amounts to a state-sanctioned destruction of what could potentially be some of the most important forensic evidence from October 7.

Since that day, there has been a steadily growing mountain of evidence that many, if not most, Israelis killed that day were killed by the Israeli army itself.

This evidence has been reported in English almost entirely by independent media, including The Electronic Intifada, The Grayzone, The Cradle and Mondoweiss.

In one of the most recent revelations, an Israeli air force colonel admitted to a Hebrew podcast that the air force blew up Israeli homes in the settlements but insisted they never did so “without permission.”

Colonel Nof Erez also said that October 7 was a “mass Hannibal” event, a reference to a controversial Israeli military doctrine called the Hannibal Directive.

Named after an ancient Carthaginian general who poisoned himself rather than be captured alive, the Hannibal Directive allows Israeli forces to adopt any means necessary to stop Israelis being captured alive, even at the cost of killing the captives.

(The Electronic Intifada) by Asa Winstanley

https://orinocotribune.com/israeli-occu ... october-7/

‘Israel’ Kills Al-Jazeera Journalist Samer Abu Daqqa in Gaza
DECEMBER 17, 2023

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Samer Abu Daqqa, Palestinian journalist killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Photo: Palestine Chronicle.

Samer Abu Daqqa, a Palestinian journalist and a cameraman for Al-Jazeera channel in Gaza, was killed on Friday in an Israeli military strike in Khan Yunis, while covering the war in Gaza.

Abu Daqqa was targeted, along with Wael al-Dahdouh, a Palestinian journalist who lost most of his family in a recent Israeli airstrike, which targeted the family home in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.

Other journalists and civil defense workers were also hit when an Israeli missile struck them in the vicinity of the Farhana Girls School in Khan Yunis on Friday, December 15.

Palestinian journalist and Al-Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa just pronounced dead after he was left bleeding for hours in the Farhana School in Khan Yunis, in southern Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/ClQED6Book

— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) December 15, 2023

While al-Dahdouh managed to reach the hospital despite his injuries, Abu Daqqa was critically wounded and could not be evacuated.

As al-Dahdouh was being treated at the Nasser Hospital, he kept screaming “Samer, Samer,” calling out his colleague Samer Abu Daqqa, whose body remained inside the school.

Samer Abu Daqqa bled to death
Israeli forces refused to allow the evacuation of the badly wounded Palestinian journalist, leading to his death six hours later.

Video images published by Al-Jazeera soon after the incident show Abu Daqqa’s mother and other family members crowding around his body, frantically screaming his name, as he was lying on the ground, dead.

A Palestinian medic, with a bloody medical uniform, stood in the midst of the crowd making the call for prayer while many of Abu Daqqa’s colleagues sobbed over his lifeless body.

Three other civil defense workers were reportedly killed in the Israeli strike.

Zionist war on the media
As of Friday, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said that 89 Palestinian journalists were killed while covering the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

The Palestine Chronicle expresses its condolences for the Palestinian people and the media community in Gaza for the loss of another precious life.

#BREAKING: Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa has died by an Israeli airstrike targeting a school in Khan Younis in Gaza. #GazaGenocides #Gaza pic.twitter.com/AHKPNvvEaA

— Wafa News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) December 15, 2023

“Another martyr of the truth has been assassinated by Israel in Gaza,” Romana Rubeo, managing editor of The Palestine Chronicle, said.

“Israel is doing everything in its power to mute the voice of truth, as it continues to systematically obliterate the Palestinian people in the besieged Strip,” she added. “But we will never allow this to happen. And we will continue to convey the truth about this monstrous war to the rest of the world. The message of Samer Abu Daqqa, Refaat Alareer, and Yousef Dawas will continue to echo and spread across the world, no matter what Israel does to isolate and besiege Palestine and her people.”

(The Palestine Chronicle)

https://orinocotribune.com/israel-kills ... a-in-gaza/

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Gaza: 9 Out of 10 People Do Not Get Enough to Eat, WFP

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There is not enough food for the people of Gaza. People are starving, said WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau.Dec. 15, 2023. | Photo: X/@CarlSkau

"I think with the efforts that have been made in the dialogue, we can now move forward and refocus on helping people," said Carl Skau.



On Friday, World Food Program (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau said that nine out of ten people in Gaza do not eat enough and do not know where they will get their next meal.

In statements to the press, the representative warned that half of the population in the enclave is starving, according to statistics from a WFP survey during the humanitarian truce.

“The program is ready to supply another million people in a couple of weeks in Gaza if conditions permit,” he said, recalling that the urgency of securing more crossings and an immediate ceasefire.

“We need to increase volumes and for that we need more crossings like Kerem Shalom,” Skau stated after recently visiting the Strip.


The representative acknowledged that the entry of commercial vehicles and trucks would also be valuable.

"I think with the efforts that have been made in the dialogue, we can now move forward and refocus on helping people, which is really what we need to do, given the urgent needs before us," he added.

Skau called for expanded funding to operate on the ground in the face of increasingly pressing needs.

"Countries in the region can step up in a more substantial way so that funding from some can be used elsewhere," he emphasized.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Gaz ... -0013.html

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Pope Francis says there are no terrorists in Gaza parish where church officials say IDF sniper killed 2 women
From CNN's Christopher Lamb in London

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Pope Francis leads the Angelus prayer from his window at the Vatican, on December 17. Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters

Pope Francis on Sunday addressed the deaths of a mother and daughter who were sheltering inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where church leaders say they were killed by an Israel Defense Forces sniper.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem — which oversees Catholic churches across Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the Palestinian territories — made the claim in a statement Saturday. CNN reached out to the IDF for comment when news of the deaths were first announced, and on Sunday renewed the request for comment.

“I continue receiving very serious and sad news about Gaza. Unarmed civilians are targets for bombs and gunfire. And this has happened even within the parish complex of the Holy Family, where there are no terrorists, but families, children, people who are sick and have disabilities, sisters,” Francis said during his weekly Angelus prayer.

The majority of Christian families inside Gaza have taken refuge inside the parish since the start of the war, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, adding that IDF tanks have also targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, which houses 54 disabled people and is part of the church’s compound.

“Some are saying, ‘This is terrorism and war.’ Yes, it is war; it is terrorism. That is why Scripture says that ‘God puts an end to war … the bow he breaks and the spear he snaps.’ Let us pray to the Lord for peace,” Francis said.

https://us.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news ... index.html

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Craig Mokhiber: The Hope of Ending ‘Israel’s Fever Dream’
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on DECEMBER 15, 2023
Jeff Wright

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Craig Mokhiber, Director, New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, center, moderating the event "Towards a Gender-Responsive Global Compact for Migration" at UN Headquarters on March 21, 2018. (Photo: United Nations/Flickr)Interest in the withering four-page letter that Craig Mokhiber, former Director of the New York Office of the UN’s High Commissioner of Human Rights, wrote on October 28 to High Commissioner Volker Turk—charging that the UN has failed in its mission to prevent a “textbook case of genocide” in Gaza—has not waned. Last week, nearly 1,000 people from around the globe attended a webinar with Mokhiber co-hosted by the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace (PCAP) and Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA).

Mokhiber, an attorney specializing in international human rights, worked for the UN in increasingly impactful roles for over three decades and lived in Gaza in the 1990s. Following last week’s webinar, he spoke with Mondoweiss. Here is a slightly edited version of our wide-ranging interview.

Mondoweiss: How do you explain Biden’s continued support of Israel’s devastating war on Gaza?

Craig Mokhiber: I have to say, it doesn’t surprise me. The U.S. has marched in lockstep with Israel throughout a whole series of attacks by Israel on Palestinian civilian populations for decades now. I’ve been saying in regard to the current situation, the U.S. is committing legal complicity as defined by the Genocide Convention. Complicity is a specific crime under the [1948 United Nations] Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. In the past, when genocides were emerging, the sin of the U.S. was that it didn’t do anything to stop them.

The U.S. is committing legal complicity as defined by the Genocide Convention.

When the genocide was unfolding in Rwanda, the case I saw very closely in my previous job, the U.S. gave instructions to its diplomatic missions not to use the word genocide. They understood that if they used the word, they would be compelled by international law to take action to stop it. They didn’t want to.

In this case, it’s not just that they haven’t taken action to stop it. They have been actively participating in it. While these atrocities have been happening in real-time, the U.S. has been arming, financing, and providing intelligence support and diplomatic cover—even repeatedly providing the veto to stop a ceasefire so that Israel can continue to carry on these acts. That amounts to complicity under international law. And it explains why there is now legal action taken by the Center for Constitutional Rights to hold them accountable for this specific crime in the Genocide Convention.

Biden is doing what every Democrat and Republican has done going back decades. In this case, where Israel’s actions amount to genocide, it is particularly remarkable because, one, it is exposing U.S. government officials to legal action regarding genocide. Two, there’s no question that Biden is paying a very high political cost. He is getting ready next year for a competitive election, presumably against Donald Trump, where they were neck and neck. He has now lost significant support because he has lost votes as a result of what Americans view to be his unconditional support for Israel’s activities. He’s lost support from the progressive Jewish community, from Arab Americans, from Muslim Americans, from African Americans, from young people. All of them lined up against the Israeli onslaught. I can’t imagine that Biden’s people were not aware of these political costs.

But the degree of political capture of U.S. political institutions is so absolute now that they don’t even care what the American people think. Polls have shown that the vast majority of Americans—Republicans and Democrats—oppose this onslaught and want a ceasefire and a cutback on aid going into this process. If you look not just at the rhetoric of the members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and the State Department and the entire Executive Branch on the one hand, and the position of the American people on the other hand—before you even get into a moral position or a legal position which are all on the other side as well—you see just how wide the disconnect has grown between what the American people want—human decency, morality, human rights, international law—and the position of elected officials and the administration.

There are people who benefit from this—weapons manufacturers, technology companies, and Israel lobby groups who are all in, 100%—who are using all of the influence they have, pressure, carrots and sticks, to make sure that the U.S. remains completely aligned with Israel’s ethnic purge of the Gaza Strip.

Talk about the conversation that’s had now between “the rule of law” and “the rules-based order.”

That phrase, the rules-based order, has been made up in the corridors of the State Department. It doesn’t mean anything in international law. What it has come to mean is a way to sidestep the specificities of international law, because U.S. obligations in the international arena are framed by international law just as the obligations of every one of 193 countries are framed by this same international law. The United States has not been a good friend of international law in general.

But there’s a long tradition of American disdain for international law. When it comes to international human rights law, the framework of the laws that has been built since the Second World War to make sure that states can’t abuse their power to subject people to violations of human rights like torture, summary execution, arbitrary arrest and detention, denial of health care, food, housing, water and sanitation, discrimination, the U.S. is a country that has one of the worst ratification records of international human right treaties. There are 193 countries in the world. Every one of them has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the treaty that protects the human rights of children, except one country, and that’s the United States of America, the only country on the planet that hasn’t ratified the main treaty to protect the rights of the children. It’s symbolic of their general attitude to international law.

The U.S. Constitution says that international law is the law of the land. Treaties that are ratified by the U.S. are the law of the land. But when you hear discussions in U.S. courts, for example—the legal tradition in the U.S. is very anti-international law—they refer to international law as “foreign law.” It’s not foreign law, it’s your law, you’re a part of it, you helped develop it, and then you voluntarily signed on to it. So, the U.S. is not a good friend of international law.

The United States refuses to ratify the Rome Statute. The U.S. opposes efforts to hold accountable perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and gross violations of human rights by international mechanisms if the perpetrator is a friend of theirs. They block, undercut, prevent, smear, and generally obstruct mechanisms that have been set up to hold Israel accountable for previous violations of international law. If the International Criminal Court ever tries to take action against any U.S. person or any of their allies, it may face U.S. military intervention. Congress actually passed an act, nicknamed the Hague Invasion Act, stipulating that the U.S. is authorized to use military force to attack the ICC in the Hague in order to grab a person that they don’t want to be prosecuted. In other words, to free a war criminal.

That absolute disdain for international law is expressed in other areas as well. The trend in the international community over many years now has been the abolition of capital punishment. The U.S. is an outlier with a small handful of states that still practice and defend capital punishment: North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and a few others. The U.S. aggressively defends that position in international settings and opposes action in the UN to advance the prohibition or the abolition of capital punishment—another example of disdain for the progressive development of international law.

There’s a myth projected in this country that the U.S. is a leader on human rights in the world. Forty years in the international human rights movement, I’ve never seen evidence of this. The U.S. has an official policy—Democrats and Republicans—of opposing the UN’s international program against racism. Absolutely remarkable, the UN program is a milquetoast program to oppose racism around the world. The U.S. actively opposes any action on the antiracism program. The United States was one of a handful—four states in the world—that didn’t agree when it was adopted to the International Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

The idea of U.S. leadership on international human rights is a lie that was created in Washington.

The idea of U.S. leadership on international human rights is a lie that was created in Washington, has been was parroted over and over again, but is giggled at by people outside of the U.S., by people who know the actual record of the U.S. And this is before you look at the violation of human rights inside the U.S., experienced by African Americans, Indigenous Americans, the prison industrial complex, the denial of health care to people, the whole range of human rights that are codified the universal International Declaration of Human Rights, rights denied to so many Americans. In fact, neither at home nor in its conduct abroad nor in its positioning in the international system, has the U.S. been a leader in human rights, at least not since Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the Human Rights Commission that adopted the Universal Declaration in 1948, and perhaps with a slight uptick under Jimmy Carter’s tenure.

What keeps you going?

Anger.

Look, I have zero tolerance for injustice. I grew up in a de-industrializing, economically depressed, racially divided, environmentally degraded atmosphere starting in the 1960s in a rust-belt city, a place famous for environmental catastrophes like Love Canal, famous for the chemical industries that were based there that degraded the environment and created a dependent local economy. When they moved away, they left behind a devastated workforce, a devastated tax base, and a degraded community. Police abuses in earlier decades, racism, and all the kinds of things that define injustice and deprivation. I think that made me very attuned to injustice. These things were not an accident of nature. They flowed from a system that privileges some and imposes burdens on others.

When I went to university in Buffalo in the 1980s, that local consciousness became an international consciousness as I learned more about what we were imposing on other countries. In particular, the impacts we were having, the negative impacts we were having on peoples around the world. This was an era when the U.S. was still supporting apartheid in South Africa. It was supporting death squads in Central America. It was even then supporting the persecution and dispossession of the Palestinian people.

And I discovered that there are like-minded people in the world who act in solidarity to fight for a different vision, one based upon a universal set of principles called human rights. And that they sometimes succeeded. That’s what keeps me going: solidarity with victims, with people who care, and with human rights movements all around the planet. This can be powerful.

I think of the JVP action that closed New York’s Grand Central Station, another that occupied the Statue of Liberty, and an action earlier this month that shut down a major intersection in Denver during the Global Conference of the Jewish International Fund.

In one fell swoop, the hasbara narrative that Israel put out—that it is acting in the name of the Jews—was wiped away.


In one fell swoop, the hasbara narrative that Israel put out—that it is acting in the name of the Jews—was wiped away by these principled Jewish human rights defenders. Israel is a state. It doesn’t represent the Jewish people. Its crimes are its own. It alone is responsible for them. This coming together of Jews and Muslims and Christians and agnostics and human rights defenders and peace activists and others, declaring that genocide is not something that can be allowed in the 21st century, that’s inspiring.

Do you see any signs of change in the UN?

Whenever I talk about the UN, I always want to be careful to say which UN. The UN is a complex net of organizations and bureaus. There is the UN that is the most visible, which is the political side of the house, things like the Security Council, other intergovernmental bodies, the Secretary-General, and the senior political leadership. That part of the UN is in trouble. That part of the UN has lost its way. It has given in to political expediency. It has given in to trepidation for fear that powerful states are going to punish them if they try to take a principled stand. That’s a very dangerous thing. That’s where the pressure needs to be brought to bear.

But there’s the other side of the UN, which is the engine of the UN, all those UN staffers who are workers in the humanitarian field and human rights field and development field, who are there because they hate poverty, they hate injustice, they hate war, and they are working to try to end these things. Those people—including more than 138 UNRWA workers in Gaza and their families who have been murdered by Israel just these past few weeks—these people have all of my solidarity, and they always will. I have no critique of them. But they have been abandoned by the political leadership of the United Nations.

And the compromises that the UN makes out of fear of the United States government, out of fear of the Israel lobby, out of fear of Western states like the UK and Germany and others, this is really compromising its moral position and weakening its ability to take action. The same is true of the International Criminal Court.

Can you say some more about the court?

The ICC is not a UN institution, but it’s an important international institution that was set up to try to provide an opportunity for justice for those who are victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Instead, it has become a mechanism that is only willing to focus on countries of the South, to prosecute African leaders and a few others, and that refuses to do anything that the West might not like. The most obvious example is the rapidity with which they acted with regard to allegations of war crimes by Russia in the Ukraine, within days initiating action, and the way that they have intentionally and corruptly dragged their feet to act to avoid taking action on Israeli violations in Palestine in spite of the fact that these cases were brought years ago.

The problem now is [the ICC’s] Prosecutor Karim Khan, who is thoroughly politically corrupted, who is eroding the entire reputation of the court.

The problem now is [the ICC’s] Prosecutor Karim Khan, who is thoroughly politically corrupted, who is eroding the entire reputation of the court due to his bias and his obsequious service of western interests. Which will be a real shame if the International Criminal Court doesn’t break free from the political capture and corruption to which it has been subjected, principally through the prosecutor’s office. It could become quickly irrelevant and then fade off into the background of history which would be a shame for people who mobilized for decades to create the court because they wanted accountability for powerful perpetrators. It would be a loss for everyone.

It’s the same thing we see with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If Israel gets away with massive war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, if the message is that these rules established after the 2nd World War don’t apply to the U.S. and its allies, this will be the beginning of the end of the entire international framework. Because who is going to dare to claim these mechanisms and instruments after they have heard from the United States that they don’t apply to them or their friends, but they do apply to everyone else. That will be the end of it. And that will be a loss for all of us.

Maybe a loss for decades…

Absolutely, maybe permanently. These mechanisms are among some of the few things that stand between individual human beings who want their dignity and rights to be protected on the one hand and the awesome power of states and their militaries and their police and their intelligence agencies on the other.

What do you see for the day after?

I think that Israel is expediting its action now to complete its original purpose of the ethnic purging of Gaza, which is part of the larger project that started in 1947. I think they are also expediting their effort at ethnic purges in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. I think this is a historic moment in which Israel wants to make as much dark progress as it possibly can to consolidate their ethno-nationalist settler-colonial project. You’re talking about two-thirds of Gaza already effectively destroyed, 18,000 dead, likely 20,000, there are still thousands under the rubble, many more who are going to die of disease and hunger and thirst, and physical infrastructure has already been destroyed to the point where all of the essentials that are necessary for life, that are necessary for food, for water, for electricity, cultural life, churches and mosques, schools, poets and authors—all are gone.

I think that Israel is expediting its action now to complete its original purpose of the ethnic purging of Gaza, which is part of the larger project that started in 1947.

I think they’ll try to finish as much of that as they can in the next few weeks, and then try to prevent any meaningful reconstruction or return, with the intention of having people, the survivors, forced to choose between remaining in the south of Gaza in miserable, unsustainable conditions or passing through the border at Rafah to live out the rest of their meager existence in tents in the Sinai or to be sent out in the diaspora to other countries so that the ethnic purging of Palestine will be advanced that much further.

What will happen? Will it be tolerated? Well, there are likely already deals being cooked behind the scenes between the Americans and others, trying to make sure that Israel succeeds in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. I think they will then, as they have already begun, start to speed up persecution in the West Bank. They have already ethnically purged a number of villages, locked up many, many more prisoners, imposed conditions that make it more and more unbearable in the hope of pushing more and more people out of the West Bank as well. So that their vision of an apartheid, supremacist, settler-colonial, ethno-nationalist state will be consolidated, as the saying goes, “from the river to the sea.”

They’re getting away with it because of the complicity of the United States, the United Kingdom, and a number of countries in Europe. They’re getting away with it because of the failure of the post-war international legal structures and international institutions like the UN and the ICC and the [International Court of Justice], and none of those things are going to suddenly stand up and take a principled position, which means that the hope of stopping them from getting away with genocide, the hope of ending their fever dream of an ethno-nationalist, oppressive, exclusivist state rests with ordinary people in Israel, in Palestine and around the world.

There is hope because people are standing up in their millions around the world, Jews and Christians and Muslims and, as I said, human rights defenders, peace activists, labor unions, and others. They are standing up and saying no. And if this continues, if people can be held accountable in courts, held accountable economically through boycotts and divestment and sanctions, through civil disobedience and mass demonstrations in countries in the West in a growing anti-apartheid movement, Israel will no longer get away with the crimes that it’s gotten away with now for 75 years. The victory of the human rights vision will depend on how successful we are in struggling against apartheid and the continuing Nakba.

Let’s hope that we’ll start to dismantle apartheid in Israel and Palestine, dismantle ethno-nationalism, and start working toward a state based on human rights and equality for Christians, Muslims and Jews. That’s what people around the world are demanding. And if we can put enough pressure through all of these peaceful measures, we might actually see a turning of the tide that will take a long time as it did in South Africa, we might see a change in the very dark trajectory on which the world now finds itself.

The great irony of 1948 is that the same year that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted, the same year that the Genocide Convention was adopted, was also the year of the Nakba in Palestine—the first genocidal ethnic purging of Palestine—and the year that apartheid was adopted in South Africa.

What have you noticed, what has surprised you since you sent your letter to the High Commissioner?

What I find striking is that there are actually people out there who are enthusiastically—what was it Yeats wrote, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”—and angrily declaring their support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza and in the Palestinian territory as you see the broken bodies of babies and women and men and the wholesale destruction of civilian life in Gaza. To see people actually organizing to support a perpetrator state against a defenseless civilian population and to hear the deeply racist ways that they are expressing that support, seemingly oblivious to the immorality of the positioning that they’re taking, is something that has hit me very hard.

And the other thing that I think is unique here, that we have not seen perhaps since the McCarthy era, is the organized assault on human rights defenders in the United States.

And the other thing that I think is unique here, that we have not seen perhaps since the McCarthy era, but I think is even more frighting at this stage, is the organized assault on human rights defenders in the United States that has now enlisted the U.S. Congress, the Executive Branch, universities who have given in to this horrific idea, legislation being passed both at the state level and the federal level levels to outlaw freedom of expression designed to defend Palestinian human rights. I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime. It is extremely dangerous, and it needs to be stopped and it is a violation of international human rights—an open assault on standards of free expression, free association, free assembly. It is a violation of the rights of human rights defenders, a violation of the fundamental rights of everyone in this country to oppose human rights violations. The way that this has been organized and proposed is unprecedented in our history and is extremely dangerous.

But it is also true that brave young students, government contractors, ordinary people are refusing to be intimidated and refusing to be silenced, that they’re marching in the streets in the thousands at the risk of arrest and police beatings—not just in the U.S., but also in Europe, where these things have been prohibited. It is a very scary thing that a foreign state—one that is practicing apartheid and settler colonialism and is involved in a full-out genocide—is able to affect law and policy inside the United States and some other countries in order to violate the human rights of people in these countries. The inspiring thing is people are not allowing themselves to be silenced. The number of those who are standing up is going to grow. And I think history will appropriately judge this era and those who participated in this kind of repression in the United States very harshly indeed. We need to work like hell to make sure this judgment comes sooner than later.

What do you see coming next for you?

I had planned to just sort of come home and settle in and write and think unconstrained. But as they say, If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. My plan is to continue to work in solidarity with human rights movements all around the world, especially here in this country. The frontline of human rights for so many people around the globe is right here in the United States, in the heart of the Empire. Those who live here have a particular obligation to raise hell when it’s necessary. That’s my plan.

Craig, your resignation letter was amazing. Did you hear back from your boss?

I never got a response of any kind. Complete silence.

(The video of the virtual briefing was disabled.)

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/12/ ... ver-dream/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 19, 2023 12:14 pm

What's happening in Palestine and Israel: chronicle for December 18
December 18, 2023
Rybar

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In the north Gaza Strip Israeli troops are systematically advancing in the development: today it became known that the hospital was surrounded Al –Ouda, where IDF forces began filtration measures. At the same time, there were battles in the vicinity of the schoolShadiya Abu Ghazala.

In the coastal area, the Israelis were able to reach the school complex Arafat in the area Ar–Rimal. Also, the parties continue to fight for control of the streetAl-Yarmouk, the most Intense clashes are taking place in the area of ​​the local stadium and training centerAl–Kattan.

In the south of the enclave, the IDF is trying to advance to a section of the route Salah ed–Din in the provinceDeir al–Balahfor subsequent encirclement of nearby settlements. InKhan Yunis The front line does not change much: the Israelis are fighting in dense urban areas and are still far from occupying the city center.

On Israel's northern border, Hezbollah fighters again attacked Israeli positions, while the IDF shelled populated areas in the south , where the funeral took place one of the members of the Lebanese group.Shaab-Aita ash. Also under fire wereLebanon

Meanwhile, the Yemeni movement “Ansarallah” continues to hit ships at Bab el –Mandeb Strait. Today they attacked the oil tanker Swan Atlantic and the container ship MSC Clara, which pushed oil and gas company British Petroleum to suspend all transportation in the Red Sea.

Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip

UBeit–LahiyaIsrael Defense Forces continue to deepen on the western outskirts, however, they have not yet been able to complete the encirclement of the settlement. The Israeli Air Force regularly bombs both the most difficult areas and places where Hamas militants are believed to be located. In turn, Palestinian formations are firing mortars at IDF armored groups: one of these episodes was posted online today by affiliates of Kataib Izz al-Din al-Qassam » media. They show both a missile hitting an Israeli jeep and the wounding of several Israeli soldiers.


IDF soldiers are also establishing a foothold on the northwestern outskirts of Jabaliya, where the main fighting continues in the vicinity of the school Shadiya Abu Ghazala. In addition, the Israelis surrounded the hospitalAl-Ouda, in which they detained several patients and employees, including the director of the medical institution, Dr.Ahmed Muhannu. At the same time, massive artillery and air strikes are being carried out on the populated area itself. To date, more than 150 people have died in the enclave, and at least 300 were injured. Most of the victims are residents of Jabaliya.


In the coastal zone, Israeli units are trying to expand the zone of control on the street Al-Yarmouk . For two days, violent clashes have been taking place in the area of ​​the local stadium and training centerAl–Qattan, where neither side has yet managed to gain a permanent foothold. Meanwhile, in the areaAr-RimalIDF soldiers were able to advance to school complex Arafat, on the territory of which several hundred refugees live.


The other day, the Israelis reported the discovery of the largest Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip, located just 400 meters from the checkpoint on the border of the enclave. Judging by the operational footage found, a roadheader was used to create it, and the passages were equipped with ventilation systems. The funny thing is that this is perhaps the first more or less detailed video from the underground structures of Palestinian groups.


All previous videos posted by the IDF press service were usually fragmentary recordings, from which it was not possible to assess the scale of such objects. By the way, the Israelis also still did not publish similar footage from the “main Hamas base” under the Ashhospital a>, the existence of which their propaganda persistently repeated for several months. Despite the fact that the object was captured by the IDF back in November. missiles camouflaged among the graves.Shifa–

Center of the Gaza Strip

Sporadic clashes continue in Juhr ad–Dik. Palestinian forces make regular incursions into IDF positions and also fire mortars at concentrations of Israeli troops. At the same time, the Israeli Air Force is bombingAl-Mughraq, . It is noteworthy that IDF soldiers practically do not conduct raids in the Gaza Valley. They probably left clearing this area until the next phase of the operation.NuseiratandBureij

South Gaza Strip

In Khan Yunis the front configuration remains unchanged. Israeli troops are bogged down in battles in dense urban areas and are still far from occupying the center of the settlement. Meanwhile, the militants, despite regular attacks and ambushes, are unable to seize the initiative. At the same time, Palestinian groups traditionally report dozens of units of IDF equipment damaged, and the Israeli command assures of the successful destruction of Hamas targets. There is no information about the advance of the Israel Defense Forces in the province ofDeir al–Balah , where the Israelis are trying to reach the highwaySalah ed-Din, so that then start forming another “cauldron.”


In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army continues to attack any buildings that the local General Staff deems a suitable target. This time it went to another hospital - the Children's HospitalMubarak in Khan Yunis (located in the territory of =4>Nasser Medical Complex). The footage shows that dozens of refugees, including a huge number of women, found shelter inside. In general, attacks on hospitals have become so commonplace in the Gaza Strip that perhaps few people pay attention to it anymore. What did Bibi Netanyahu say? In preparation for the third stage of the operation, the ultra-Orthodox allegedly managed to negotiate global approval for their actions. This is partly true: the protests are no longer heard so clearly.


In addition, the IDF continues to distribute leaflets in Arabic over Khan Yunis, calling on residents to immediately leave the southern quarters of the city and head towardsRafah< a i=2>. It is possible that in the coming days the Israelis will try to advance in this area. Previously, the scattering of similar leaflets in other areas of Khan Yunis was always followed by an offensive by Israeli troops.


For the first time since the beginning of the escalation of the conflict, humanitarian aid was delivered to the Gaza Strip through Kerem checkpoint-Shalom< /span>: trucks with food and medicine arrived at the enclave. Previously, lengthy negotiations were held between the parties to the conflict and their partners about the opening of this checkpoint.

Border with Lebanon

Interception of a drone near the city of Safed

The situation on Israel's northern border has not undergone significant changes. Hezbollah fighters again attacked Israeli strongholds and military bases, including inShlomi. . In addition, it was reported that a Lebanese drone was intercepted in the area of ​​​​the city of SafedYareand


Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces continues to shell the entire south of Lebanon, including populated areas Aitarun, Yaronand Nakura. In addition, this afternoon, Israeli troops attacked the center ofAit al-Shaab, where the funeral of one of the members of the Lebanese group was taking place. Despite the arrival, the funeral procession did not disperse and continued the ceremony.


In addition, Lebanese residents filmed the flight of an Israeli F-16I fighter jet over their country. Moreover, this is just one of many episodes of Israeli Air Force aviation activity. Lebanon's virtual lack of air defense means leaves the country defenseless against such attacks. Sometimes it even gets to the point where planes are demonstratively circlingright overBeiruton heights where even anti-aircraft artillery could theoretically reach them. Of course, the Israelis are successfully taking advantage of all this and have been using Lebanese airspace for several days to attack targets inSyria.

West Bank

Israeli security forces continue regular raids and mass detentions of dissatisfied people throughout the region. The most violent clashes occurred inAqaba,Al-< a i=5>Faraa, Nablus, Al< a i=10>–BireandBeit Ummare. There were some wounded in several settlements. In addition, over the past 24 hours, at least 40 local residents were arrested, all of them were suspected of having links with Hamas.


At the same time, this afternoon, near the settlement Ateret terrorists fired at two cars, in one of them there was a couple with two children. A 27-year-old woman was injured and was taken to a medical facility in Jerusalem with gunshot wounds. After the shooting, the militants themselves quickly fled in the direction ofRamallah.


Another incident occurred at Al-Faraa, where Palestinians attacked one of the IDF armored vehicles. According to Arab media, an explosive device was planted on one of the roads in the village, which militants detonated while a convoy of Israeli units was moving.

Actions of pro-Iranian formations in the Middle East

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The Israeli Air Force attacked the positions of pro-Iranian forces in the area Seyda-Zeinab Al–Dimas Syria. Air defense systems intercepted some of the missiles, but the rest hit their targets: two servicemen were injured, and there was some material damage.

Meanwhile, fighters of the Shiite movement “Ansarallah” attacked the oil tanker Swan Atlantic and container shipMSC Clarain the Red Sea. Amid an increased number of incidents, major oil and gas company British Petroleum has suspended all transportation in the Red Sea. Shipping companies Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Company, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA-CGM also previously stopped shipping through the region.

Among all the recent attempts by the Yemeni movement "Ansarallah" to attack ships in the Red Sea, theraid went almost unnoticed to the container ship Palatium III, owned by the Swiss company MSC. The peculiarity of this incident was that the Houthis hita cargo ship with an Iranian ballistic missile : This is actually the first case in modern history of a successful strike with this type of weapon on a moving ship in real combat conditions. Some countries showed interest in creating anti-ship ballistic missiles back in the last century. Compared to winged aircraft, they, among other things, have a much shorter approach time, which reduces the likelihood of detection and interception.

However, previously everything came down to technical difficulties - the existing control systems could not ensure an accurate hit on a moving naval target. China has achieved some progress in this, but it has never applied its developments in a combat situation. NowIranwith the help of the Houthis has proven in practice the possibility of successfully using ballistic missiles against enemy ships at sea. It can be used to combat various targets, including aircraft carrier groupsUSA, which have dominated the oceans for many decades.

Political-diplomatic background
About Lloyd Austin's visit to Israel


US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin arrived on an official visit to Tel Aviv to meet with Minister of War Yoav Galant, Prime Minister of Israel Binyamin Netanyahu and the War Cabinet. Later, footage of a meeting between the American and Israeli delegations appeared. In addition to the previously named persons, the head of the National Security Service Tzachi Hanegbi, and the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi were present on the Israeli side. Stephanie Hallettand Deputy US Ambassador to Israel. From the US side: Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Brown, Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense Kelly, MugsmanAvi Giland military secretary, Major General

https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... -dekabrya/

Google Translator

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RUSSIAN POLICY TOWARDS THE GAZA WAR & PALESTINE GENOCIDE IS MISTAKEN — JEWISH RELIGIOUS BELIEF, ZIONISM & ISRAELI STATE LAW DON’T ALLOW THE TWO-STATE SOLUTION – THEY VIOLATE RUSSIAN LAW

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by John Helmer, Moscow @bears_with

In the face of genocide, well-meaning people are obliged to ask themselves what they mean.

They must decide if they wish to be collabos and kapos with those whose well-meaning includes the elimination of the Palestinian people on the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea; attacking those who resist by word or arm; repeating the Passover prayer “Next year in Jerusalem”, invoking the Amalek commandment, blowing trumpets to celebrate the fall of the walls of Jericho; and lighting the menorah for Hanukkah.

In Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national address of October 28 (lead image) he erased all differences between the Jewish religion, Zionist ideology, and Israeli state policy. He invoked this trinity in the “chain of heroes of Israel that has continued for over 3,000 years, from Joshua, Judah Maccabee and Bar Kochba, and up to the heroes of 1948, the Six Day War, the Yom Kippur War and Israel’s other wars. Our heroic soldiers have one supreme goal: To destroy the murderous enemy and ensure our existence in our land. We have always said ‘Never again’. ‘Never again’ is now.” And finally, he invoked the benediction of the Jewish God. “On your behalf, on behalf of all of us, I pray for the wellbeing of our soldiers: ‘May G-d make the enemies who rise against us be struck down before them! May He subdue our enemies under them and crown them with deliverance and victory.’”

If Netanyahu were a Russian Israeli, these remarks would be a Russian crime.

In the constitution for the multi-ethnic and multicultural Russian Federation, every Russian has the Article 26 right “to determine and indicate his nationality”, and the Article 28 freedom of religious belief, including the right to no religious belief. Russians living in Israel and Palestine have the same rights, which is why the Foreign and Emergencies Ministries are doing everything they can now to evacuate them to Russia if that’s why they request.

However, the Russians in Israel, like the Russians in Russia, cannot exercise their Article 26 and 28 rights without accepting the Constitution’s Article 18(3): “The exercise of the rights and freedoms of man and citizen shall not violate the rights and freedoms of other people.”

Speaking jurisprudentially, the one million Russians of Israel – about 90% of whom have taken Israeli nationality under Aliyah, the law of Jewish return – are violating their Article 18(3) duty if they profit from, collaborate in, or defend state and settler terrorism against the Palestinians, wherever and however this is occurring between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Russians of Israel — if that is the nationality they choose in order to apply for evacuation to safe haven — may also be violating the Russian law against terrorism and extremism under Articles 205 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code depending on where they live, how they live, the arms and military training they have accepted, what they do for a living, and who they vote for in Israeli elections.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Russians at home and also abroad may not support or participate in terrorism propaganda, plans, or acts, whether of the Arab, Muslim, Israeli, Zionist, or Jewish variety. It is not yet settled in Russian foreign policy whether the rights of national liberation and self-defence apply as equally to Palestine state groups like Hamas, Fatah and their associated armed units as they apply to Israel state groups like the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and their associated armed settler units.

In the meantime, and until the contradictions in Russian policy toward the Gaza and West Bank wars, the Litani ultimatum to Hezbollah, and the Israeli Air Force attacks on Syria are settled, there is a moratorium on domestic Russian media debate and public demonstration on the contentious issues.

In the newly published book, Dunce Upon A Time, Chapter 3 is a memoir of religious conviction, Jewish and Christian; it was written before the start of the new Arab-Israeli war on October 7. The lessons learned were personal in a single life over almost eighty years.

They are republished now because they address the widely believed mistake, inside and outside Russia, that the central tenets of Jewish religious belief, Zionist ideology, and Israeli nationality are different when it comes to the genocide of the Palestinians. They aren’t different; they are one and the same. For this reason, and for the first time in its history since its tribal, biblical origins, the Jewish religion is cracking up now – and not because of Pharaonic, Babylonian, Seleucid, Roman, German, or Hamas attacks.

Read the full book here.

It is also a widely believed mistake that the genocide of the Palestinians is a uniquely Zionist idea implemented by the Israeli state since 1948. US President Franklin Roosevelt proposed the idea to Saudi King Abdulaziz in 1945; it had become US and UK policy earlier, albeit in secret. For the history of how, from 1943 to 2023, the US has implemented the destruction of Arab state leadership for US reasons, not Zionist ones, read this book.


Religion is not the opium of the people, as Karl Marx claimed in 1843. It’s a gun to the head. It’s the outcome of force, fraud and propaganda, so well organised as to convince believers, generation after generation of them, that in return for their compliance they will be rewarded in a divine heaven; but if they don’t believe and comply, if they have doubts, imagine alternatives, express resistance, or fight, they will be punished in a satanic Hell.

What Marx also said before arriving at his famous conclusion was: “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.” This was Marx’s sentimental mistake. What he ought to have said was that these conditions of oppression were Hell on earth – believing otherwise requires, not the power of God, but the power of man – his arbitrariness, his force, his deceit. As the son of my father and the pupil of Scotch College, I was already a committed believer in this Hell on earth. God and his religion were part of it.

Their force, their fraud and their propaganda – they have become the conditions in which grownups now understand that a state of fascism develops. I’ve had enough brushes with churchmen and their crusades to understand that the first fascist in history was God; the churchmen’s hell was the first Reich.

. . .

My grandfather was a rabbi; my step-daughter once planned to marry into the family of the Archbishop of Canterbury; my sister was murdered by a sect created by a woman claiming to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ; I have had dinner with the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. Familiarity like this breeds questioning of religiosity and of clerics when young; contempt when old enough to have learned the answers.

My father’s father died of typhus in a crowded tenement of Łowicz in 1916. That town, ninety kilometres southwest of Warsaw, had been a capital of the Polish Catholic Church and of the Polish kingdom in the 16th century. It passed between German, French and Russian control for two centuries. Napoleon stopped there overnight in 1806. When he and his army marched on, they left behind a blond green-eyed Danish soldier of fortune whose intimate embrace of a local Jewish girl started the family. A century later, the Helmers were so intent on being Jewish, they were obliged to keep his name as it had been recorded in the municipal register, but they had entirely erased the memory of their forebear. He appears still in my DNA.

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Left: Napoléon à Sainte-Hélène, painted by the Czech Frantisek Xavier Sandmann, but not from life; Sandmann did his watercolour copy in Vienna in 1820. Right: the author transposed in life, in his first greatcoat and too big for his boots, aged four in 1950.

My father was only four when his father died, and knew nothing of him except for a single miniature photograph of him which he kept with him until his death, and which sits still on my desk. My father bore no resemblance to his father – not so his first son. My blond hair and green eyes, wide forehead, large ears and ear-lobes, long pointed nose, thick lips, shallow cheeks, even the shape of moustache and beard – they are a replica of my grandfather’s, and of his grandfather’s.

For this inheritance I am indebted to Napoleon. For the attempt at destroying it, there were the Germans who bombed and shelled Łowicz in September 1939, then liquidated those who survived at Treblinka in 1941. Those of my family who had fled for refuge to the south were then murdered by the Ukrainians of Lvov.

For two years, aged twelve to thirteen, I studied with a tall, greying rabbi at his apartment. Herman Sanger was a cultivated German, born in Berlin in 1909, raised in Breslau (then German Silesia, now Poland), and educated at universities in Paris, Geneva, and Cambridge. He had escaped from Berlin to Melbourne in 1936.

He demonstrated European qualities I had never encountered before by the vastness of his reading in English, Hebrew, Yiddish, German, and French; also in his chain-smoking of Cuban cigars, the Beethoven and Rachmaninov playing on his gramophone, and his habit of closing the heavy plush curtains of his living-room so that the sun never penetrated. I had never known anyone in Australia not to let the sun through the window. I remember the skin of Sanger’s hands was translucent white, like my father’s.

In his pulpit he was recognised to be the greatest public orator in the country at the time. In his private lessons he spoke only of the culture of Europe and the history of the Jews there. Sanger’s Jewish history and culture included Russian writers he introduced to me like Isaac Babel and Sholom Aleichem. Sanger’s world drew me from his Paris and Berlin to Odessa, Moscow and St. Petersburg. I don’t recall he said a word about Palestine, Israel, or the Arabs.

Or about God. He wasn’t in the curriculum. My belief in Him wasn’t being tested or trained.

That came to an abrupt end in a brainwave which flashed while I was at a university lecture given by a visiting Christian theologian from Germany whose name I’ve forgotten and also what he said. Instead, I spelled out my interpretation of the difference between the Christian theology I had been listening to and the Jewish one I thought I knew. This appeared in a student newspaper essay in which I explained the words of the Jewish believer’s basic prayer, the Shema.

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The official portrait of J. Davis McCaughey, the Presbyterian churchman who was Master of Ormond College at the University of Melbourne during my studies and residence there. He was a pompous and hypocritical official who stripped me of my College scholarship because he didn’t approve my political activism and the editorial positions of the student newspaper when I was editor, though he lacked the courage of his convictions to say so. His portrait hangs in the College dining hall, and once I pointed out how, despite the clumsy draughtmanship, the painting accurately captures the nastiness of the character, my College hosts declined to invite me again. On the advice of the Victorian state government, Buckingham Place appointed McCaughey Governor of Victoria between 1986 and 1992. He didn’t understand that was a political, not a divine appointment: when he attempted to overrule me, a state ministerial adviser at the time, I ordered him to withdraw, and he did. The reversal of our authority obligated him.

When believers run amok like their mascots and golems, the outcome is every kind of race war, genocide, or holocaust. If the history is long enough, the names multiply and become interchangeable as the attackers and their victims reverse their places – the Christian crusaders and the muslims; the Germans and the Jews; the Jews and the Palestinians; the Americans and the Russians. When the theft of livestock, orchards, crops, men to labour, women to slavery, their houses, capital, and national territory are the rewards of the crimes; the cycle repeats over and over. Der Hungerplan, devised by Herbert Backe, head of the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture, was the name for Germany to seize Russian farmlands and starve the population to death after 1933. Sanctions became the new name for it at the US Office of Foreign Assets Control in Washington after 2014.

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Left: In the Prague version of the Golem story, a different rabbi does the sculpting, but the purpose and result are the same as in the Chelm version. God animates the idol so that he can take violent revenge on the Christians persecuting the Jews, and deter their pogroms. In both legends, the rabbis agreed the Golem went too far and they were obliged to destroy him, scratching off the first of the Hebrew letters on his forehead, turning its meaning from “truth” to “dead”. Right; the flag of the Israeli state which destroyed and replaced Arab Palestine since 1949. The flag symbols – the prayer shawl stripes and the six-pointed star come from the Jewish community of Prague at the same time the Golem was created. The rabbis no longer think the Israeli Golem has gone too far in its violence, nor has the US government which continues to animate it. The Palestinians and their Arab allies have been unable to stop it.


(More at link.)

https://johnhelmer.net/russian-policy-t ... more-89064

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Euro-Med Monitor Calls for Investigation Into Reports of ‘Israel’ Burying Victims Alive in Palestine
DECEMBER 17, 2023

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Palestinians bury innocent civilians killed by the Israeli entity's genocidal bombardment in a mass grave in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. Photo: Mohammed Dahman/AP.

The human rights organization Euro-Med Monitor has urged to probe Israeli war crimes after reports of Palestinian civilians buried alive at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

In a report published on Saturday, the Geneva-based group said that “an independent international investigation must be opened into these reports.”

According to Euro-Med Monitor, “Israeli army bulldozers drove into the hospital (on Saturday) morning and destroyed its southern section, leaving behind massive destruction following several days of non-stop attacks and siege.”

Horrific violations
This followed “several days of non-stop attacks and siege,” the group said, noting that “nine days ago, Israeli tanks had besieged the hospital, with Israeli snipers taking over the surrounding buildings and shooting at anyone passing by.”

During the nine-day siege, “horrific violations” were witnessed by the facility, according to the human rights group.

“Israeli forces directly bombed the hospital’s maternity ward on Monday, December 11, killing two women and their two babies and amputating a third woman’s legs,” the report stated, adding that Israeli forces detained the hospital director, Dr. Ahmed Al-Kahlot, “and transferred more than 70 health personnel from the hospital to an unknown destination.”

“Euro-Med Monitor received testimonies confirming that an elderly man was recently starved to death in the hospital, while another was killed after an Israeli military dog was let loose on him,” the report added.

Buried alive
On Saturday morning, before leaving the medical facility, “Israeli bulldozers buried Palestinian civilians alive in the hospital courtyard, according to testimonies (Euro-Med Monitor) received from media and medical crews on the ground.”

“At least one of the bodies could be seen amid the sand piles, witnesses said, confirming that the victim was injured before being buried and killed,” the report added.

Palestinian journalist Anas al-Sharif wrote on X after visiting the hospital following the withdrawal of Israeli forces, that “what the Israeli occupation did inside Kamal Adwan Hospital is a heinous crime against the residents and medical staff.”

The video taken by al-Sharif shows that the courtyard, which contained many tents housing displaced Palestinians, was deliberately bulldozed by Israeli occupation forces.

In the video, al-Sharif showed what looks like a dismembered limb, saying: “This is the body of an injured refugee who was in the hospital and was run over by Israeli bulldozers.”

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 18,800 Palestinians have been killed and more than 51,000 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

(Palestine Chronicle)

https://orinocotribune.com/euro-med-mon ... palestine/

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Israeli forces attack Palestinians protesting at the Gaza border on 11 September 2018 [Mohammed Asad/Middle East Monitor]

The list of shame. Countries supporting the genocide of Palestinians
Originally published: Defend Democracy Press on December 17, 2023 (more by Defend Democracy Press) | (Posted Dec 18, 2023)

Who voted against ceasefire in UN?

Israel
U.S.
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Austria
Czechia
Guatemala
Liberia
Micronesia
Nauru

Which countries abstained against ceasefire?

Argentina
Bulgaria
Cabo Verde
Cameroon
Equatorial Guinea
Georgia
Germany
Hungary
Italy
Lithuania
Malawi
Marshall Islands
Netherlands
Palau
Panama
Romania
Slovakia
South Sudan
Togo
Tonga
Ukraine
United Kingdom
Uruguay

https://mronline.org/2023/12/18/the-list-of-shame/

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Israel’s Gaza war has ‘spilled over into the Red Sea’: WION interview yesterday
December 18, 2023

As a commentator on current events, my general rule is to ‘stick to my knitting.’ By ‘knitting,’ I mean the field of my expertise, namely Russia and its relations with the world.

However, as the promotional spot for BBC business news tells us: everything is interconnected. As we know, Russia’s war with Ukraine affects and is affected by the Israeli war on Hamas, as both global attention and military supplies are redirected from Kiev to Tel Aviv. Moreover, in the past ten days the Israeli war has brought Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Turkey into intense face-to-face and virtual consultations on how to stop the slaughter in Gaza and to prevent its escalation into a regional if not global conflict.

Meanwhile, despite outrage on the Arab Street and the dismay of onlookers worldwide, even in the least tender hearted of Western countries, not much has happened to stop the genocide being perpetrated by Israel other than talk. Military action by the Axis of Resistance in the Muslim world has been symbolic, not strategic: token missile and artillery strikes across the Lebanese-Israeli border. And no economic sanctions have been imposed on Israel by any of its neighbors, not to mention by nations further removed from the region. Iran’s call for an oil embargo fell on deaf ears of fellow Opec countries.

In this context, it is quite remarkable that the Houthi ‘rebels’ in Yemen have in recent days come up with a military-commercial response that is making headlines in the West, namely their attacks on container ships plying the route on the Red Sea from the Suez Canal to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean. In the name of blockading Israel, these attacks have taken the form of missile strikes on ships serving Israeli ports or boarding parties making ‘inspections’ of ships passing through the Red Sea or taking them over and diverting them to Yemen, as happened with one tanker thus far.

This stretch of water is part of the main shipping route from Europe to Asia through the Suez Canal. It is a choke point which, if closed, as now effectively is occurring, interrupts the entire global supply chain. Major container ship operators like Maersk are said to be diverting traffic to the much lengthier route around the southern tip of Africa, which adds between five days and two weeks to the journey. And it is not only container ships that are affected. The Suez Canal is used by LNG ships and oil tankers delivering to Europe energy supplies that are vitally important to the Continent’s economy.

By activities that resemble piracy, the Houthis of Yemen, widely considered to be ‘non-state actors,’ have achieved what the major states of the Middle East have been unable to do thus far: impose potentially great economic cost on the industrial nations of the world for failure to stop the Israeli onslaught in Gaza.

The Houthis may well be ‘non-state actors’ in the sense that they are considered by the West to be ‘rebels,’ as opposed to what is called the internationally recognized government in Yemen that they toppled. But they are obviously in control of substantial parts of a strategically important nation with a population of 33 million. And they have substantial military means both in missiles and sea-borne attack drones. Some of this likely comes from Iran, but, if Russian military experts are to be believed, much of it is now produced in Yemen itself.

Yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin said that his staff is considering re-establishing order in the Red Sea, meaning entering into combat with the Houthis, which hitherto the United States had been doing by proxy, supplying arms to Saudi Arabia for that purpose. The Saudis abandoned their fight against the Houthis this past spring when they reached agreement with Iran, the Houthis’ backers, and resumed diplomatic relations under a China-brokered deal. If the United States now begins direct military action against the Houthis, it will quickly come up against Iran and the regional conflagration that so far has been averted by all parties may yet break out.

Is this a question that concerns Russia? It most certainly does, because just as China cannot afford to see Russia be defeated by NATO-backed Ukraine, so Russia cannot afford to see Iran be defeated by the United States and its allies inside and outside of NATO.

For my interview yesterday with India’s global English speaking television broadcaster WION, see



©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2023/12/18/ ... yesterday/

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“It is clear that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” UN-Panel concludes

While the ‘physical element’ of genocide is being documented and broadcast daily, the ‘mental element’ – i.e the intent behind the mass killing – which is more difficult to establish, has been repeatedly clarified by the leaders of Israeli government and military.

December 18, 2023 by Pavan Kulkarni

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Israeli forces in Gaza. Photo: IDF

Amid the growing international consensus that the atrocities Israel has been committing in Gaza amount to genocide, a UN panel ahead has also concluded that “genocide is already happening” in Gaza.

The UN-mandated Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) convened this panel at UN headquarters in New York City on December 12, ahead of the vote in the General Assembly on the resolution calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire”.

Tasked to “examine the legal implications of Israel’s military offensive against Gaza since 7 October and shed light on the applicability of key legal frameworks including those defining Genocide”, the panel was titled “2023 War on Gaza: The Responsibility to Prevent Genocide”.

“But sadly it is clear that genocide is already happening, so our question now is the responsibility to stop the ongoing genocide,” Hari Prabowo, Indonesia’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN who chaired the panel discussion, said at its conclusion.

On the same day, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) also adopted a resolution recognizing that “Israel’s actions against the Palestinian people constitute an unfolding genocide.”

From November onwards UN experts, including several Special Rapporteurs and members of Working Groups on various issues, have been warning that there was “a genocide in the making” in Gaza.

Consensus on the genocidal nature of Israel’s war on Gaza has been consolidating since its early days. As early as October 15, just over a week after Israel started its bombardment, nearly 900 “scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies” from around the world had warned of a “potential genocide in Gaza.”

In the two months since this warning, the death toll has increased by over seven-fold, with over 19,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) as of December 17. Thousands more remain buried under the rubble of the buildings Israel has bombed.

But the number of the killed is not the factor determining whether or not the mass killing amounted to genocide, Katherine Gallagher, Senior Staff Attorney at the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights, explained in her presentation at the UN panel discussion.

Pointing out that several Bosnian Serb political and military leaders were convicted of genocide for the “killing of over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica” in 1995, she added that it is the deliberate nature of the targeting of a group, “the intent, coupled with action”, that determines that a mass killing amounts to genocide.

By “killing” and “causing serious bodily or mental harm”, and “deliberately inflicting” on Palestinians in Gaza “conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”, Israel has committed three of the five acts listed under the Genocide Convention.

These acts, which constitute the “physical element” of the genocide, have been documented thoroughly, shared widely on social media and broadcast on television daily – even hourly. However, these acts qualify as genocide only when the “mental element” is also demonstrated – namely that they were “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

“The intent is the most difficult element to determine,” explains the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

“But in this case, the intent” has been made “explicit” in the statements “by the Prime Minister, the President, by senior cabinet members and by the military leaders. These statements clearly constitute the mental element of the crime of genocide,” Hannah Bruinsma, a legal advisor at Law for Palestine, said at the panel discussion.

“We have collected so far 500 statements that demonstrate” the genocidal intent, “often of those in the chain of command,” she added. Such statements of genocidal intent have been made since the early days of the war on Gaza and systematically repeated time and again.

“Not mere rhetoric, but an admission of criminal intent”
Army’s spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who bragged of dropping “thousands of tons of munitions” on Gaza within the first couple of days of Israel’s campaign, had no qualms admitting that “we’re focused on what causes maximum damage”, rather than “accuracy”.

Referring to Palestinians as “human animals”, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who prided in having “released all the restraints” on the military, had said in the early days of the war that “we will eliminate everything” in Gaza.

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Israeli tank in Gaza.

Doubling down that “human animals must be treated as such”, the army’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian told Palestinians in Gaza that, “there will be no electricity and no water, there will only be destruction.”

Legitimizing the mass killing of civilians in Gaza, Israeli President Isaac Herzog had declared that “an entire nation out there is responsible” for the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, arguing that the “rhetoric” about innocent civilians is “absolutely not true.”

“This practice of casting an entire population as enemies, as legitimate military targets, is a common genocidal mechanism,” Raz Segal, a prominent Jewish Israeli scholar of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, said in his remarks at the panel discussion.

Late in October, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went on to compare Palestinians with the biblical enemy of the Jews. “You must remember what Amalek has done to you,” he quoted from the Old Testament which prescribes, “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.”

These statements, which “have been given effect” must be understood to be “not mere rhetoric, but an admission of criminal intent”, Gallagher argued. “Israeli officials have done what they said they would do.”

Journalists guilty of inciting genocide
“These expressions of intent need to be understood also in relation to the widespread incitement to genocide in Israeli media since 7 October,” said a statement on December 9 by over 55 scholars in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.

From the calls to turn Gaza “into a slaughterhouse” and “violate all norms on the way to victory” to saying “let there be a million bodies” of dead Palestinians, there are “dozens and dozens of examples of incitement in Israeli media”, said Segal, one of the signatories of the statement.

“It is worth reminding” that in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, journalists who had been encouraging the crime when it was unfolding were “put on trial and convicted.. of incitement to genocide, which is a separate crime under Article 3 of the UN Genocide Convention,” he added.

“US is complicit in Genocide”
Also listed as a separate crime in the same article is “complicity in genocide”, of which the US is guilty, argued Gallagher. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which she represented in the panel discussion, has filed a legal complaint in a California District Court against US President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, for their complicity in Israel’s genocide.

“This unfolding genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza has so far been made possible because of the unconditional support given” to Israel by the US in breach of its “responsibilities under customary international law…to prevent, and not further, genocide,” states the complaint.

The US, which is Israel’s “largest provider of military, economic and political assistance, and I would argue, political cover.. has the ability to use its considerable influence and unique position to take all measures to stop Israel’s unfolding genocide,” Gallagher argued.

“Instead”, she said, it “has done the opposite.” Biden, Blinken and Austin have “pledged and continue to pledge all support to Israel. They have rushed military support, ammunition, precision-guided munitions, 2,000-pound bunker bombs, and they’ve been flying drones overhead. The US military advisers have been in (Israel’s) war cabinet sessions.”

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US is Israel’s biggest financial and military backer. Photo: IDF

In addition to the annual 3.8 billion dollars it hands out to Israel every year, it is now coughing up “an additional 14.5 billion dollars, without conditions.” US officials have reiterated in multiple press conferences that “there are no red lines or conditions for these weapons”, she said.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Israel has dropped more than 22,000 US-supplied bombs on Gaza within the first month and a half of the war. This amounts to almost one US bomb per every 100 of the 2.3 million Palestinians who are practically imprisoned in the 365 sq. km strip of land that Israel has held under siege for 17 years, which itself has been described by Jewish Israeli historian Ilan Pappe as an “Incremental Genocide”.

“Forced displacement…has figured in genocidal processes”

Situating “the ongoing genocide in Gaza” in the “broader context of Israel’s violent settler colonialism and occupation of Palestinian land,” Jehad Abusalim, Executive Director of The Jerusalem Fund, said “this process began in 1948” with the establishment of Israel.

The Nakba, the Arabic word meaning catastrophe, refers to the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their land within a year of the establishment of this settler colonial state on 78% of Palestine. The process of the Nakba, he said at the panel discussion, never stopped.

“The Nakba was not just an event in the distant past”, but “continues to unfold in Gaza today. It is a process of continuous displacement and ethnic cleansing.”

“Forced displacement, what is commonly called ethnic cleansing, is not in itself an act of genocide, but we know that historically it has figured in genocidal processes,” added Segal, who describes Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a textbook case of genocide”.

“It took the Nazis two and a half years… of experimenting with various schemes of forced displacement of Jews” before implementing the “Final Solution”, he said.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/18/ ... concludes/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Dec 19, 2023 11:22 pm

Over 25,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, hundreds missing: EuroMed

More than 10,000 Palestinian children have been killed since the start of Israel's ethnic cleansing campaign of Gaza

News Desk

DEC 18, 2023

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(Photo Credit: AFP)
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The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (EuroMed) released information on the statistics of Israel’s genocide in Gaza in a report on 17 December.

According to the information submitted by the rights group, 25,612 Palestinians have been killed, including 10,091 children. The group added previously that 92 percent of those killed in the Israeli air and artillery attacks were civilians.

The report adds that 89 journalists have been killed, and over 50,000 Palestinians were injured.

The numbers include the thousands of Palestinians trapped under the rubble of buildings. Hundreds more remain unaccounted for but are likely to be trapped or injured in the streets, the report adds.

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Other statistics provided by EuroMed include 1.85 million Palestinians who have been forcibly displaced and a combined 236,400 homes that have been either completely or partially destroyed.

This follows reports that have surfaced of Israel using so-called dumb bombs, which are typically less precise and kill larger numbers of civilians, especially in densely populated areas like Gaza.

EuroMed also called for an “urgent international investigation into the Israeli army's liquidation of Palestinian civilians after their arrest from various areas of the Gaza Strip.”

The Geneva-based organization pointed to the testimonies revealed to Israeli media regarding “field executions carried out against detainees, while others died as a result of severe torture and ill-treatment during their detention.”

The organization referred to conditions in the Israeli army camp Sedeh Timan, which holds Palestinian prisoners, as being “transformed into a new Guantanamo prison in which detainees are held in very harsh conditions, inside places that are more like chicken cages in the open, and held without food or drink for a long period of time.”

Despite the reports coming out of the abysmal treatment of Palestinians, Israeli officials have also been increasing their aggressive rhetoric against the Palestinians in recent days, despite increased calls for an immediate ceasefire.

"After October 7, instead of urging people to go south, we should direct them to the beaches,” Metula Council head David Azoulai said. “The Navy can transport them to the shores of Lebanon, where there are already sufficient refugee camps. Then, a security strip should be established from the sea to the Gaza border fence, completely empty, as a reminder of what was once there. It should resemble the Auschwitz concentration camp."

Earlier this month, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a non-binding resolution that demanded an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza during an emergency meeting.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/over- ... ng-euromed

From the River to the (Red) Sea: Why the US is forming a new naval task force

Yemen has shaken the trajectory of Israel's Gaza war by attacking ships en route to the occupation state. The US and its allies now threaten to establish a naval task force in response, a move that is likely to backfire and stoke even more conflict.


Khalil Harb

DEC 18, 2023

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Photo Credit: The Cradle

Instead of pressuring Israel to stop its brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration is now mobilizing Arab and western fleets - and perhaps an Israeli one as well - to safeguard Tel Aviv's economic, political, and military interests.

Amid heightened naval operations carried out against Israel-bound vessels by Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces, this US mobilization is taking place under the guise of upholding freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab.
Officially, Washington claims it is doing its utmost to prevent Israel's war from expanding into a regional confrontation, and has publicly urged Tel Aviv to tone down its indiscriminate attacks on civilians in the besieged strip.

In reality, however, the White House is employing empty rhetoric to buy Israel more time to achieve a victory in Gaza and eliminate the Palestinian resistance.

The US proposal to assemble an international naval force for Red Sea navigation protection can only be understood in the context of unconditional US support for Israel. When National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan announced discussions on 4 December about forming a naval task force, Tel Aviv promptly heightened its threats of military retaliation against Yemen over obstructing Israeli ships and those associated with Israeli interests in the Bab al-Mandab.

US seeks a greater role in Red Sea

Rather than heed Ansarallah leader Abdulmalik al-Houthi's repeated warnings for Washington to cease support for Israel's war on Gaza following the Palestinian resistance's Al-Aqsa Flood operation on 7 October, the Biden administration seems to have turned a blind eye.

Instead of pressuring Tel Aviv to prevent a regional escalation, Washington has opened a weapons air bridge to Israel that far exceeds its arms supplies to Ukraine during a similar period. The US has even expanded its military deployment in the region, and directly confronted the Yemeni missiles and drones targeting the city of Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat) in southern Israel.

Despite two months of unprecedented carnage against Gaza's civilians that has flipped global opinion against Tel Aviv, the US appears unwilling to confront Israel's decision to wage a protracted war. The White House's focus has instead pivoted toward protecting Israel's commercial interests in the Red Sea, and has entangled the US in forming a deeply controversial naval task force in West Asia.

Last week, after Yemen's military campaign to halt Israeli-linked shipping gained momentum, Israel's National Security Council Head Tzachi Hanegbi declared that “If the world does not take care of it, we will take action.” This followed US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's discussion with his Saudi counterpart Khalid bin Salman on the “Houthi threats to freedom of navigation in the Red Sea,” earlier in the month.

Sullivan made matters more clear when he announced ongoing talks to form a maritime task force of “some kind” to ensure the safe passage of ships in the waterway.
The expression “some kind” of force indicates that Washington does not intend to limit itself to the so-called “Joint Task Force 153,” which was formed two years ago to “combat terrorist and smuggling activities” in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. This force includes 15 countries, including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan, but does not include Israel.
In fact, the new ‘task force’ looks increasingly like an American move to confront Yemen more directly, after an eight-year war its Saudi and Emirati allies failed to win. It is also an opportunity to force Israel's regional integration on West Asian states, by involving Tel Aviv in a military mission with broader powers, greater armaments, and of a multinational nature.

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Ansarallah challenge for CTF 153

Washington intentions have been clear since at least February 2022, when the US supervised naval military exercises in which 60 countries participated, including Israel - the first time the occupation state participated in exercises alongside Arab countries with which it lacks formal diplomatic relations.

CTF 153 is the fourth force of its kind within the framework of the "Combined Maritime Force" (CMF), an alliance of multinational forces from 39 countries established in 2002 under the command of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, ostensibly to combat the activities of illegal actors and international terrorism in the seas.

The CMF includes three other task forces (150, 151, and 152). Among the participating countries are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, India, Iraq, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Kuwait, Portugal, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Britain.
But according to Defense News, the US “doesn’t need to create a new task force; there is an existing task force within Combined Maritime Forces, namely CTF 153, that can provide a running start.”

This is because the CTF 153′s existing mission is to “focus on international maritime security and capacity building efforts in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden.”

Indeed, US and French forces confronted drones and missiles launched by the Yemenis in recent days.

However, a potential escalation in targeting Israel-associated vessels by Ansarallah could pose a significant challenge for CTF 153. Due to the substantial volume of ships traversing the waters near Yemen, from the Gulf of Aden to Bab al-Mandab and the Red Sea, the naval force would need to contend with approximately 21,000 vessels.

Geopolitical goals and energy security

Bab al-Mandab, in particular, is identified as a vulnerable point through which 12 percent of total global seaborne-trade passes through annually. This raises some important considerations for parties intent on stymying Ansarallah's capabilities:

The US, for instance, will be compelled to provide a large number of multi-mission military ships across expansive water bodies. The Defense News report stressed the necessity of Israel's presence alongside Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain in the proposed naval force, in addition to the G7 countries that include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Britain.

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Washington will need to include a large number of regional countries - and even distant ones - into this force, which will effectively lead to the militarization of entire maritime areas from the Mediterranean Sea to the Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aqaba, the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, all the way to the Persian Gulf.
As the US competes with China and Russia, its overarching goal is to assert dominance over international corridors, fortify energy security, and manage geopolitical conflicts in West Asia. However, the US escalation to safeguard Israel's interests raises the specter of igniting a regional war, contradicting Washington's claims of seeking to avoid such a scenario.

This heightened tension raises concerns about potential US attacks on Yemen, jeopardizing the fragile truce that halted the seven-year war led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It also risks undermining the UN-mediated efforts to consolidate the ceasefire.

According to news reports, the US is already applying pressure on Riyadh to delay the signing of a peace agreement with Yemen. Washington is instead urging the Saudis to renew their confrontation with Yemen by joining the expanded maritime protection task force.

Such involvement implies US, western, Arab or Israeli military actions in the aggression against Yemen, amplifying regional resentment against perceived US bias in favor of Israel.

‘Containment coalition’

In response to the challenge posed by Yemen to the US-Arab-Israeli alliance, various ideas and proposals are emerging, including:

Targeting missile and drone launch sites and radar installations in Yemen; Reclassifying Ansarallah as a terrorist organization and imposing sanctions, including an arms embargo;

Strengthening the armament of the “Coast Guard” affiliated with the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC); Monitoring Iranian naval forces' movements and establishing an air and missile defense network in the region; Exploring the utilization of Israel and Saudi Arabia's capabilities to form a “containment coalition,” as suggested by The Washington Institute.

The Biden administration's moves, presented as efforts to safeguard international interests, makes one wonder about the real motives for creating a new naval task force and the possible impact on peace and stability in West Asia.

As the US chases its strategic objectives, there’s a genuine concern that it could destabilize an already unstable geopolitical situation, bringing in other great powers into the equation.

It is important to remember the maxim that no action goes without a reaction. Whatever the American and Israeli plans to confront Ansarallah, they will face a response. If history is any judge, Washington's foreign adventures are rife with unintended consequences that bolster its foes.

If the plan is to destroy Yemen's military capabilities, Sanaa will respond harshly and could well “close the Red Sea for years,” official Yemeni sources tell The Cradle. The sources say that Ansarallah sent its “defensive threats” to Washington in response to US threats they received through intermediaries. Accordingly, Washington and Tel Aviv's options appear very limited in confronting Yemen.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/from- ... task-force

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Israel’s targeting of Nuseirat refugee camp on 15 November caused huge damage. (Photo: Bashar Taleb APA images)

A last day in the life of a mother from Gaza
Originally published: The Electronic Intifada on December 15, 2023 by Hadeel Sbakhi (more by The Electronic Intifada) | (Posted Dec 19, 2023)

It was the 37th morning of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, when Hana, 39, woke up and started acting in an unusual manner.

“She prayed al-fajr [dawn prayers], started cleaning dishes and organizing our home. My aunts, their daughters, my brothers and I stared at her. None of us said a thing,” her son Aboud, 19, later said.

Her apartment, located in the central part of Gaza Strip, was filled with people who had been forced to move from the north to escape the Israeli bombardment. The Israeli army had ordered people to leave for the central and southern “safe zones.”

Like everyone else in Gaza, they had no running water. Israel cut off the water supply to the territory early in its attack. They instead went looking for water every day to carry it back in canisters and bottles.

Usually that task fell to Hana’s three sons, Aboud, Amr, 18, and Islam, 15. But this morning, as they carried water to their apartment on the fifth floor, their mother decided—for the first time—to help them.

“What is happening, mom? What are you doing?” Aboud stopped to ask.

“Nothing, darling. I just want all the displaced in my home to feel like they’re in their own homes,” she answered.

Saying nothing, Aboud walked up the stairs lost in thought. Hana was a very kind woman. She was also the last one her children had in this world.

The first loss
They lost their father, Shadi Alsbakhi, in 2008 when the Israeli army without warning bombed all the police stations across the Gaza Strip, signaling the start of Israel’s 2008-9 aggression that would eventually kill more than 900 civilians along with over 250 civilian police officers in those first moments of the assault.

Aboud was 4. Amr was 3 and Islam only 3 months old.

Hana decided not to marry again and to live for her kids. She was their mother, their father, their sister, their friend and their teacher.

Shadi’s brother, Majdi Alsbakhi, swore to help raise his nephews for his martyred brother. And he did. He raised them alongside his own children.

But on the 17th day of the current aggression, he too was murdered by the Israeli military. The boys felt they had lost their father again. But they had little time to grieve.

Just four days after Majdi’s death, they also lost their maternal uncle, Muhammad Alsbakhi.

Muhammad and his son Ibrahim had gone to the Abu Dalal shopping mall to find food when Israel shelled the mall.

Both were killed, alongside eight others.

“We couldn’t even get over uncle Majdi’s death, how are we supposed to deal with another one,” Aboud said.

Missile strike
Life isn’t fair. But at least they still had Hana.

Right?

Come here all, come here Aboud!

Hana had gathered everyone in the house, including all those who had sought shelter in their home.

“You don’t have to be scared,” she told them.

I’m a mother of three orphans. You’ll never get hurt in my home.

Then the walls suddenly caved in and they could see nothing but dust.

Aboud slowly came around but could barely stand. He started looking for his mother and brothers. He saw neighbors carrying Islam, who had been injured in his shoulder. Aboud was injured too but he didn’t feel anything and continued to look for his mom.

They told him that maybe Hana had run downstairs when the missile had struck. But he didn’t believe them.

Mom would never leave without us, without making sure we were fine.

He finally found her. She was on the floor; an angelic smile on her face. Time stopped.

“I’ve lived without my dad for 15 years, will I have to live without my mom now, too?” Aboud thought to himself, he later told The Electronic Intifada.

He carried her down the stairs. The ambulance took both of them.

When they arrived at the hospital, Hana was declared dead. Aboud cried but had no one to turn to for comfort. The rest of his family were injured and receiving treatment.

A goodbye kiss
Islam had been taken to another hospital. Aboud left his mom and went to see his youngest brother.

But he couldn’t bring himself to tell him what had happened to their mother.

“Where’s mom, Aboud?” Islam asked.

“She’s injured and she can’t come to see you,” Aboud had replied.

Islam knew he was lying but Aboud insisted.

Of course, he couldn’t continue the lie. When they went to bury Hana, Aboud knew he would regret not letting Islam give their mom a goodbye kiss.

“Mom was killed, Islam,” he told his younger brother. Then he swore, through his tears, that he would always look after him.

Don’t worry, brother, I’m here with you. I have your back.

Together, Aboud and Amr carried Islam to say a last goodbye to their mother. They kissed her and left her to meet their dad.

“Rest in peace mom,” they told her.

Tell our dad that we miss him.

Then they left, now bereft of family and home.

Hana Hassan Alsbakhi was killed in her home in the Salhi residential tower in the Nuseirat refugee camp after Israeli airstrikes targeted the building on 15 November.

Two others were killed in the strike.

Hadeel Sbakhi is a writer from Gaza.

https://mronline.org/2023/12/19/a-last- ... from-gaza/

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World faces days of “moral decay” as Israel bulldozes hospital grounds, detains more doctors

Israel carries out unprecedented attacks against health workers and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, bulldozing hospital grounds and detaining doctors

December 19, 2023 by Ana Vračar

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Al-Awda Hospital Manager Dr. Ahmed Muhanna was arrested by Israeli Forces and his whereabouts are currently unknown. Photo: People's Health Movement

“Moral decay,” as Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) put it, is possibly the best way to summarize the past weekend of Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) attacks on health in the Gaza Strip. Days of unimaginable horrors haunt health workers, patients, and displaced people in Gaza’s hospitals as violent raids and sieges of health centers continue over 70 days into Israel’s war on Gaza.

On Saturday, December 16, reports came in about Israeli bulldozers crushing those staying in tents on the grounds of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza. The raid turned the area into a mass grave, leaving many more injured behind. Soon after the event, Mai al-Kaila, Palestinian Health Minister, called for an urgent probe into the event.

Not only did the Israeli occupation bulldoze living people, but they also “released dogs on us in the courtyard of Kamal Adwan Hospital, and they mauled a wounded person before his martyrdom,” said the Ministry of Health’s statement.

Around the time the ministry’s statement was published, there were still 12 babies in the incubators of Kamal Adwan who health staff could not reach, leaving the infants without food.

The Israeli occupation announced it had detained dozens of people during the raid. According to reports, these also include health workers.

Health workers were detained and taken to unknown locations from Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalya, another health center that had been besieged for days. Among the 21 health workers who had been detained was Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, the director of the hospital, who had been one of the health staff to provide regular reports about the health situation in the Gaza Strip. All the health workers except for Dr. Muhanna were released after a three-hour interrogation, but the hospital director’s current location remains unknown.

A week ago, Dr. Muhanna reported that the situation in the hospital was “critical,” with the hospital under complete siege and snipers having shot two staff members. Shortly before he was taken away by the IOF, Dr. Muhanna had reassured media that the hospital staff remained steadfast and in high spirits despite the siege.

Among other hospitals attacked were the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, and Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa. Bombs damaged the maternity ward at Nasser Medical Complex, killing one and injuring at least ten. A new mission led by the WHO visited Al-Shifa on December 16, delivering much-needed supplies. The team found a “hospital in need of resuscitation.”

According to their report, there are no blood supplies at Al-Shifa, meaning that no surgical interventions can take place, and supplies needed for pain management are also virtually non-existent. The WHO described the “emergency department as a ‘bloodbath’, with hundreds of injured patients inside, and new patients arriving every minute.”

“Patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor,” the WHO reported, and “care must be exercised not to step on patients on the floor.”

On December 17, news came in that Hani Al-Haitham, the head of Al-Shifa’s emergency department, was killed in an Israeli attack, along with his wife, Dr. Sameera Ghifari, and their children.

Together with the increasing risk of the spread of infectious diseases and food deprivation, the escalating attacks against health services and health workers in Palestine are making Gaza completely unlivable, providing further evidence of the genocidal intention behind Israeli attacks.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/19/ ... e-doctors/

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Palestinian death toll rises to 19,453 in Gaza: ministry
Xinhua | Updated: 2023-12-19 03:21

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A view shows a damaged wall at Shadia Abu Ghazaleh school following an Israeli raid, amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, Dec 15, 2023. [Photo/Agencies]

GAZA -- The death toll of Palestinians has risen to 19,453 in the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Hamas-Israel conflict on Oct 7, the Hamas-run health ministry said Monday.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said during a press conference in the southern Gaza Strip that 52,286 Palestinians were wounded by Israel's air and artillery attacks since the conflict began.

He added that there was an urgent need to evacuate 5,000 wounded people from the Gaza Strip so that they can receive treatment outside the Palestinian enclave.

The spokesman said the health and humanitarian situation in the shelters in the southern Gaza Strip is "catastrophic due to the spread of diseases and the lack of health care."

He called on international institutions to provide the Gaza Strip with medicines and fuel in order to resume the operation of hospitals, especially those in the northern Gaza Strip, which have suspended their services due to Israel's attacks and siege.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20231 ... a8533.html

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Israeli attacks leave 200 Palestinians killed in Gaza

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The death of several people and dozens of injuries was also reported due to Israeli armed incursions in various areas of Rafah. | Photo: EFE
Published December 19, 2023 (5 hours 53 minutes ago)

An as yet unknown number of people were also killed and wounded in a series of attacks east and north of Khan Yunis.

Around 200 Palestinians died in the last few hours in the Gaza Strip due to Israeli bombings and attacks during the early hours of Tuesday, December 19.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health indicated that the Israeli bombings have been concentrated in the areas of Rafah and Khan Yunis, in the south and center of the Gaza Strip, leaving a preliminary toll of at least 25 civilians dead, among whom is the journalist Adel Zorob, and several of children and women.

Israeli bombs fell on several civilian homes, killing 14 members of a family in the Palestinian territory.


The death of several people and dozens of injuries was also reported due to Israeli armed incursions in various areas of Rafah.


Five children were also killed in a missile attack. Palestinian sources said they are four brothers and an unidentified fifth, in the Al-Hasayna area, west of the Nuseirat camp.

Medical sources at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital reported that the remains of several civilians, most of them children, were killed.

An as yet unknown number of people were also killed and wounded in a series of attacks east and north of Khan Yunis and in Deir al-Balah.

In the midst of Israeli bombings against the south of Gaza City and against the Al-Bureij camp in the center of the Gaza Strip, causing the death and injury of several people.

Several civilians, mostly children, were killed and others wounded on Monday afternoon in Israeli shelling in the central and southern Gaza Strip.


According to Palestinian health sources, a total of 19,453 people have died and 52,286 have been injured since the start of the bombings against the Gaza Strip on October 7.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/palestin ... -0008.html

Google Translator

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Going Mask-Off About The Two-State Solution Lie

There’s been a surprising number of recent Israeli government admissions that not only is a two-state solution not on the table, but that it never was.

Caitlin Johnstone
December 19, 2023



There’s been a surprising number of recent Israeli government admissions that not only is a two-state solution not on the table, but that it never was.

Benjamin Netanyahu boasted at a recent press conference in Tel Aviv that he’s spent decades thwarting the formation of a Palestinian state, and that he is “proud” of doing so.

Netanyahu’s senior advisor Mark Regev told Piers Morgan that a true Palestinian state with its own military and true sovereignty was never an option for Israel, calling it “common sense” that Palestinians should at best have “less than a state”.

Israeli ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely told Sky News last week that there was “absolutely no” possibility of a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.


It would have been the easiest thing in the world for the Israeli government to keep up the generations-long lie that it had always supported a two-state solution but the Palestinians kept rejecting it, and claim that only now after October 7 has such a deal become impossible. But at this point in time Netanyahu is so politically desperate, and being oppositional to Palestinian rights is so politically popular in Israel, that these goons can’t resist telling the truth about themselves.



It’s actually pretty simple. Once Israel ruled out a true two-state solution on the justification that doing so could allow Palestine to become a military threat, and ruled out a true one-state solution on the justification that giving equal rights to everyone would end Israel’s existence as a Jewish ethnostate, the only options left on the table were genocide and ethnic cleansing.



The entire position of the pro-Israel side of the Gaza debate is hinged on the premise that there is no limit on the number of innocents you can morally kill when pursuing a military objective. From their point of view, not only is it perfectly acceptable that ten thousand children have been killed by Israel’s bombing campaign in Gaza, it would be perfectly acceptable if it was 100 thousand, or a million. As far as the Israel supporter’s moral framework is concerned, Hamas could have killed one-tenth the number of Israelis it killed on October 7 and Israel can kill ten times the number of children it has killed, and Israel’s actions in Gaza would still be justified.

For normal, psychologically healthy people, this position looks deranged. Of course there’s a limit on the number of innocent people it’s acceptable to kill while pursuing military objectives, especially objectives that could be resolved non-militarily. The only exceptions would be situations in which there is no other option besides either defeating your enemy by any means necessary or facing your own annihilation. Since there is no rational argument that Hamas poses an existential threat to the state of Israel, and since there were options for responding to October 7 without dropping a single bomb, there is no argument to be made that it’s acceptable to kill all these innocent human beings while pursuing the (completely unattainable) goal of wiping out armed resistance to Israel militarily.

Peace could be obtained by negotiating with the Palestinian resistance and achieving a deal that works for everyone. The uneasy, abusive status quo of October 6 could also be returned to by simply addressing the massive, spectacular failures of Israel’s military and intelligence services which let October 7 happen in the first place. When you weigh these two options against the option of killing a thousand children a week in a military offensive in Gaza, both of them are self-evidently superior in the eyes of any normal, healthy person.

A peaceful resolution isn’t impossible, it just isn’t desired. It isn’t desired because Israel has long sought to further expel Palestinians from their land, and the “war on Hamas” provides cover for that goal. The claim that Israel has no other choice but to snuff out tens of thousands of lives in the name of fighting Hamas is patently false; it doesn’t need to, it just wants to. Ultimately their argument is “We need to kill all those people because we really really want to,” which is not a valid defense.






After all the lies and atrocities we’ve seen over the last two and a half months, everyone should be reflexively disbelieving any claims by the Israeli government and begging the forgiveness of Palestinians for not believing everything they’ve been claiming for generations.



Newsweek has published an opinion piece by a former IDF soldier titled “Calling for a Ceasefire Is an Antisemitic Demand That Jews Endorse Our Own Genocide”.

That’s right, now calling for a ceasefire is antisemitic. Ceasefires are antisemitism. Pro-Palestine chants are genocide. War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.



As election season heats up Americans should not allow Biden supporters to draw a distinction between his “domestic policy” and his horrific “foreign policy”. Dead kids are dead kids. They’re just as dead regardless of where on earth they live and their lives matter just as much.

Saying a politician is relatively good on domestic policy but bad on foreign policy is like a woman saying her boyfriend cooks and cleans and treats her nice, and his only negative is that he also happens to murder a lot of sex workers. You don’t get to compartmentalize horrific acts of mass murder away from the sum total of the picture. Biden’s genocide in Gaza and nuclear brinkmanship with Russia are not separate or distinct from the rest of his presidency in comparison to Trump.

You’d only believe it’s legitimate to compartmentalize “domestic policy” from “foreign policy” when discussing how good or bad a US president is if you believed American lives matter more than non-American lives. That is not a morally defensible position to hold, and should be forcefully rejected.



“Come to Israel, it’s the only place Jews can be safe!”

Okay, I’m here. Hey! Who are those guys shooting at us?

“Oh they say we’re oppressing them. They’ll kill us sometimes but don’t worry, the IDF is here to protect us.”

Ah what the hell, now the IDF are shooting at us!

“Oh yeah they kill us sometimes too.”



Come and join the IDF, where the gals are pretty and the fire is friendly.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/12 ... ution-lie/

That last paragraph...I'm afraid that's the baseline for most Americans, at least the white ones.
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Wed Dec 20, 2023 12:23 pm

What is happening in Palestine and Israel: chronicle for December 19
December 19, 2023
Rybar

Image

In the north sector Gaza Israeli troops were able to advance from the area Al–Judaida towards the city center Gaza . According to Palestinian media, IDF units are located near the Baptist Hospital. This is also confirmed by footage of the Israelis demolishing the Hamas memorial in Palestine Square, which is located near the medical facility.

Meanwhile, in the south of the enclave, IDF soldiers continue to fight in dense urban areas in Khan Yunis. At the same time, Israeli troops resumed their offensive at the school Ibn an–Nafis —if they advance in this area, they will be able to take the populated area

Mutual shelling continues on Israel's northern border. Hezbollah fighters casually reported strikes on five Israeli settlements, including Kiryat Shmona, where one of the rockets hit a residential building. In turn, the Israel Defense Forces worked on ten targets in the south Lebanon.

The Israeli-Syrian border is also uneasy: in response to the launch from Syria of four ammunition at the Golan heights Israeli troops launched a strike from the Lynx MLRS on the province of Damascus. In addition,The Jordanian Air Force Worked on drug dealers' warehouses and drug laboratories in Syrian cities Baka and Dibina, as well as to the southeast of Es–< /span>.Suweida

Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip

Israeli troops continue clearing urban areas on the outskirtsBeit–Lahiya, as well as in neighboringJabaliya, where the main fighting continues to develop in the area of ​​​​the hospital AlAl a>. According to the local Ministry of Health, 240 people were detained at the medical facility, and access to the building itself was cut off from water, food and electricity. However, compared to yesterday, the configuration of the front in the north-west has not undergone significant changes.Auda–


At the same time, in the centerof the city of Gaza units of the Israel Defense Forces managed to advance from the area Al. Soldiers of the Golani brigade reached the Baptist Hospital, the last medical facility in the north of the sector Gaza, which, 70 days after the start of the conflict, at least somehow continued to work. It is possible that the hospital will cease operations in the coming days, as most other hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip have already done. Judaida–


In addition, the Israelis demolished in Palestine Square a monument in honor of Hamas’s military victories - a hand clenched into a fist, which pierces an Israeli armored personnel carrier.

Center of the Gaza Strip
Palestinian forces continue to carry out sporadic incursions in the areaJuhr ad-Dik, as well as conduct mortar fire on IDF positions nearby. However, Israeli troops do not undertake any visible activity in this area, responding only with massive bombings of Al -MughraqAl-Mughraq a>.Nuseiratand Bureij ,

South Gaza Strip

Israeli troops continue to fight in dense urban areas in Khan Yunis, but they have not yet been able to advance. Over the past week, the IDF command has adhered to the same tactics: with constant blows it turns difficult areas into ruins, and then paves a way through them with the help of bulldozers. Hamas militants set up ambushes and carry out incursions, but they fail to seize the initiative.


Meanwhile, the Israelis resumed active hostilities near the school Ibn an-Nafisa< a i=4>—if they advance in this direction, they will be able to take the settlement ofAs–Surej into the “cauldron” . Palestinian forces are doing their best to prevent this by mining sections of roads and also shelling concentrations of Israeli Defense Forces.


Consequences of the Rafah bombing

The Israeli Air Force continues to carry out strikes on residential areas and civilian objects in which, according to their information, Hamas militants may be located. In addition toKhan Younis, Rafah was under massive fire, where several dozen were killed people, and many houses were destroyed.

Israel Center

Palestinian forces launched rockets in the direction ofTel-Avivaand nearby settlements. Most of the missiles were intercepted by air defense systems, the rest fell either in open areas or in the sea. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

Border with Lebanon

The tense situation continues to exist on the Israeli-Lebanese border. Hezbollah fighters casually reported on attacks on targets in Israel, including IDF armored vehicles in Metula >one of the rockets hit a residential building, and a fire broke out at the landing site.ShmonaKiryat. And inBaram and Shlomi, as well as strongholds in


Meanwhile, the Israelis carried out air and artillery strikes along the entire southern Lebanese border, with damage to buildings reported in several localities.

West Bank

Israeli security forces conducted a series of police raids in several settlements in the region, during which again there were no casualties. The most violent clashes occurred inBeit Ummar, Surif, Yatte and Kafir Kaddume. Mass detentions of both participants in disobedience actions and persons suspected of connections with Hamas also continue: more than 30 local residents were arrested within 24 hours. And in the village ofAqrabaIDF units destroyed the empty house of militant Osama Bnei Fadel, who is accused of committing a terrorist attack at a car wash in the village of Hawarain August.

Israeli air strikes on Syria

Image

Despite the general focus on the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Syria has been and remains one of the main hot spots in the region. That night, Israeli troops located in the occupied Golan Heights launched an artillery attack on the Damascus province. According to the press service of the Israel Defense Forces, the attack was carried out in response to the launch of four munitions from Syria, which fell near Israeli positions. There are no reliable data on losses and results of strikes.

But more interesting is what happened on the border of Syria and Jordan. On the night of December 19, five Jordanian Air Force F-16 fighters from the airbaseAs–Salticrossed airspace with Syria and struck several targets inEs–Suweida< a i=10>, Bakke and Dibine. As it turned out, in the last three days, smugglers, taking advantage of the instability in the region, were intensively making their way south through the border areas with Syria. It even got to the point of armed clashes with Jordanian border guards, who suffered losses because of this. For this reason, aviation was called in, which attacked the warehouses of drug dealers and their drug laboratories, and border guard detachments, in turn, detained nine people with contraband and weapons.

Political-diplomatic background
On the results of Houthi activity in the Red Sea

The activities of the Shiite movement “Ansarallah” continues to have a significant impact onrestriction shipping: largest transport companiesAP Moller Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd,MSC and CMA CGM, which account for a>of global container trade volume, transportation through the Red Sea was suspended. They were soon followed by Hong Kong's OOCL, Norway's Frontline and British oil giant < /span>.. The Houthis outlined their goal - to prevent the passage of ships heading to Israel in order to put pressure on it to “stop the aggression against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.” However, even a ship whose destination is not Israel can be attacked. Yemeni militants either do not directly claim responsibility for such incidents or claim that these ships are somehow connected with Israeli business. Be that as it may, their Houthis, on the one hand, can also count as an asset in the form of another media victory, and on the other hand, maintain the necessary degree of tension throughout the entire Middle EastBritish Petroleum53%

However, today US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the formation to ensure freedom of navigation and security in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Gulf of Aden of the multinational coalition “Guardian of Prosperity”. In addition to the United States, participation in the operation will include Great Britain, Bahrain, < /span>Italy< /span>, < /span>. The tasks of ensuring the safe navigation of ships will be carried out by ships from the Combined Maritime Forces-153 (which we talked about < /span>. That is, in fact, no significant changes occurred. But the collective West, led by the United States, has demonstratively shown how it is allegedly strenuously fighting the Houthis.Languedoc, and also the French frigatePhilippine Seawith a cruiser Dwight Eisenhower. And in the Gulf of Aden there is an aircraft carrierMasonand Carney, Laboon in early December), which already operates in this zone as part of the protection of shipping from piracy. And at the moment there are three US Navy destroyers in the Red Sea in different parts: Spainand islandsSeychellesNorway, Netherlands, , France, Canada

Be that as it may, the Americans, who have long since withdrawnfrom what is happening in Yemen, are not going to enter into an open armed confrontation with the Houthis. The existence of Ansaralla does not contradict their current interests. Moreover, the activity of the Houthis is, to a certain extent, evenbeneficial for Washington as part of the pressure on the Israeli ultra-Orthodox government and some Arab states. And against this background, losses from the operations of pro-Iranian rebelsare borne not only by Israel, the damage for which currently ranges from several hundred million to several billion dollars, but also other Middle Eastern countries. Among them are Egypt, which is losing money for using the Suez Canal, as well as Jordan, which has the only port of Aqaba for container shipping on the Red Sea.

At the same time, the ultra-Orthodox would not be themselves if they had not benefited even from such a seemingly stalemate situation: thanks to the shelling of the Houthis, the Israeli Ministry of Finance will be enriched by 100 million shekels. How did this happen? And the answer is quite simple: currently, according todata Israeli media, four ships with more than 6.5 thousand electric and hybrid cars are moving to Israel, which from -due to the situation in the Red Sea, they go around Africa. Because of this, the date of their arrival has shifted to the new year, and not to the end of 2023, as was previously the case. And from January 1, Israel will increase the tax on cars of this type from 20 to 35%, which will be approximately 4 thousand dollars for each car. The population of Israel clearly will not be happy about this, but the ultra-Orthodox are already rubbing their hands.

On the influence of the United States on the pace of the IDF offensive


Western media are once again raising the issue of the American leadership's desire to restrain the Israeli government from disproportionate use of force in the Gaza Strip: The New York Timeswrites< /span>by its actions was losing international support.Aviv–Tel's team to push Israel to change its combat tactics in order to reduce risks to civilians. This was explained then by the fact that about the attempts of Joe Biden

So, after the visit of US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also visited Israel who discussed with Binyamin Netanyahu and other senior officials the format of the operation in the Palestinian enclave at the next stage. At the same time, inWashingtonthey note that they are not going to impose conditions on their colleagues there.

On accusations against Israel of improper detention of Palestinian prisoners

Six Palestinians in interview The BBC accused the Israel Defense Forces of committing illegal acts and violating the laws of war. According to them, during almost a month of detention on suspicion of belonging to Palestinian groups, Israeli soldiers brutally abused them and refused to provide medical care: one detainee was even shot and had his leg amputated. In turn, the IDF press service dismissed this information, saying that it did not have such data, and all the necessary conditions were created for the prisoners.

https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... 9-dekabry/

Google Translator

*****

They Can Wait at Leisure, Whilst Netanyahu Labours – and Errs

Alastair Crooke

December 18, 2023

Netanyahu is in the midst of ‘a campaign’. It’s not an election campaign, because he has no real chance of surviving an election.

In a small dimly lit room in Gaza, it was possible to discern first the museum-piece wheel chair, and then the crumpled, blanketed figure of the paraplegic figure who occupied it. Suddenly a high-pitched squeal seemed to emit from the wheelchair; it’s occupant’s hearing aid had gone wild, and was to continue to shriek at regular intervals during my visit. I wondered how much the chair-occupant could hear, with such a mal-adjusted ear-piece.

Settled into discussion, I realised that disabled or not, his mental state was sharper than a knife. He was as tough as nails; had a dry humour and his eyes perpetually sparkled. He was clearly enjoying himself – except when wrestling with the whistles and shrieks from his hearing aid. How was it that such charisma was packed within such a slight figure?

This man in the wheelchair and with the rickety earpiece – Sheikh Ahmad Yasin – was the founder of Hamas.

And what he said to me that morning has come to upend the Islamic world today.

What he said was: “Hamas is not an Islamic movement. It is a liberation movement, and anyone, be they Christian, or Buddhist – or even I – could join it. We all were welcome”.

Why was this simple formula somehow so significant and connected to today’s events?

Well, the ethos of Gaza, at that time (2000-2002), was predominantly that of ideological Islamism. The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood was deeply embedded. It was not then a resistance movement per se – it was capable of violence, but its prime focus was social work and uncorrupted governance. It wanted to show how well it could govern.

Yasin’s comment was revolutionary because liberation trumped dogma and the various ‘schools’ of political Islam. This ultimately was to become ‘Gaza Hamas’ – at odds with its conventional leadership resident in Doha. Sinwar and Dief are ‘Yasin’s children’.

‘Long story short’, a little while later, Yasin, on one of his Friday prayers’ wheel-chair trundles across the road to his adjacent mosque, was blown to pieces by an Israeli missile as he exited.

The Muslim Brotherhood wing of Hamas did get their chance to show their hand at governance: They (fairly) won the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections in Gaza, and took a majority of seats – some in the West Bank too.

President Bush and Condaleeza Rice were horrified. They had supported the elections … but they never once imagined …

Thus, PM Blair and President Bush put together a secret (unacknowledged to the EU) plan in response: Hamas leaders – plus the movements’ social support NGOs – were to be eliminated. And the Palestinian Authority would crack down on all and every Hamas activity – in close collaboration with Israel.

The West Bank, in this plan, would be the recipient of large financial aid to construct a prosperous western-style consumer/security state, and Gaza explicitly was to be impoverished. It would be made to ‘stew in its own juices’ under 16 years of siege; to wallow in poverty.

The Israelis gave the Blair plan its empirical basis – calculating exactly how many calories, per head, how much fuel and gas would be allowed to enter Gaza – that would just maintain a subsistence standard of living. And since this Blair-Bush initiative, Palestinians have been irredeemably divided, with no political project even faintly possible.

As Tareq Baconi writes in Foreign Policy:

“Hamas was stuck in … a “violent equilibrium,” whereby military force emerged as a means for negotiating concessions between Hamas and Israel. [Hamas used] missiles and other tactics to compel Israel to ease restrictions on the blockade, while [Israel] responds with overwhelming force to build deterrence and secure “calm” in the areas around the Gaza Strip. Through this violence, both entities operated within a framework whereby Hamas could maintain its role as a governing authority in Gaza even under a blockade that enacts daily structural violence against Palestinians”.

It is this siege paradigm for Gaza that blew up on 7 October:

“The strategic shift entailed moving from the limited use of rocket fire to negotiate with Israel into a full-throttled military offensive aimed at disrupting its containment, specifically, and the Israeli assumption that it could maintain an apartheid system with impunity”.

Hamas has transformed: It is now the ‘liberation movement’ that Sheikh Yasin foresaw – liberation of all living under occupation, and again, Yasin-like, is centred around non-ideological Islam on the civilisational icon of ‘Al-Aqsa’ mosque which is neither Palestinian nor Shia nor Sunni, nor Wahhabi, Brotherhood, nor Salafist.

And it is this – Hamas’ liberation framing – that chimes directly with the new global ‘independence push’ that we are witnessing today, and that perhaps explains the huge marches in support of Gaza, across the global south, as well as in Europe and the U.S. The punishment meted out to Gaza civilians has that unmissable ‘old colonial’ touch to it – one that evokes wide resonance and anger.

Hamas’ calculus is that its military resilience, plus the sustained international pressure from the Gaza massacres, ultimately may compel Israel to negotiate – and eventually reach a (costly, ‘all for all’) hostage deal with the Palestinian movement – as well as a paradigm-change in the political realm of endless ‘peace talks’ with Israel. In short, Hamas’ bet is that its military resilience will likely outlast the White House impatience to bring a speedy end to the Gaza war episode.

This approach underlines how Hamas and its ‘Axis allies’ have a strategy whose steps up the escalatory ladder are co-ordinated and proceed by consensus, eschewing impulsive reactions to events that might plunge the region into an all-out war – a destructive outcome that none of the ‘principals’ within the Axis wishes to see.

Ultimately, this careful Axis calculus relies on Israel making predictable mistakes that will permit a gradualist rise up the regional ladder of attrition versus Israel’s military capacities. The Israeli Cabinet’s exaggerated reaction to 7 October was in the calculus; Israel’s failure to defeat Hamas in Gaza was expected; as is the settler escalation in the West Bank, and a switch to Israel taking action to try to change the status quo in respect to Hezballah. This too is anticipated. (The inhabitants of northern Israel will refuse to return to their homes without a change to the status quo in south Lebanon).

All of these putative Israeli escalations may materialise in the form of a concerted Netanyahu ‘distraction from Gaza’, as the Israeli public begins to doubt that Hamas is anywhere near to defeat, and to doubt too, whether bombing Palestinian civilians is putting pressure on Hamas to release more hostages – as the government claims; or rather may be risking more Israeli hostage lives.

Even if IDF forces were to continue to operate in Gaza for a few weeks more, Haaretz’ military affairs commentator Amos Harel writes,

“it will be at risk of not meeting the public’s expectations – since the political leadership has promised to eliminate Hamas; return all the hostages; rebuild all the ravaged border communities – and remove the security threat from them. These are ambitious goals, and it is already clear that some of them will not be achieved …”.

Hamas leaders, by contrast, are aware that members of the present cabinet (Levin, Smotrich and Ben Gvir) have been predicting for some years that a full-blown crisis – or a war – might be required to implement the plan to cleanse the West Bank of its Palestinian population – which they want to achieve in order to found Israel on the Biblical ‘Land of Israel’.

Is it far-fetched then for the Resistance Axis to found their plan on Israel making strategic mistakes?

Perhaps not as far-fetched as some may imagine.

Netanyahu both has to keep the war going (for his own survival), because the end of it may spell disaster for the him (and his family). Netanyahu therefore is in the midst of ‘a campaign’. It’s not an election campaign, because he has no real chance of surviving an election.

On the contrary, it is a ‘campaign for survival’ with two aims: to hang on to his seat for two more years (which is feasible as the chance of government defections is far from assured), and secondly, to preserve, or even strengthen, the slavish admiration of ‘the base’.

‘Only I, Netanyahu, can prevent a Palestinian State ever coming into being in Gaza, Judea or Samaria”: “I will not allow it”. “There will never be” a Palestinian state. Only I can manage relations with Biden. Only I know how to manipulate the U.S. psyche’.

“I am leading”… not only on behalf of Jewish history, but also for western civilization.

“But what good is a long war”, Israeli correspondent, Haaretz commentator B. Michael asks,

“if at the end, or even while it’s still ongoing, the ‘base’ becomes bored and indifferent and disappointed? That’s not the kind of base that will rush to the voting booth with the right voting slip in its teeth. A base wants action. A base wants blood. A base wants to hate, to be angry, to be offended, to get revenge. To unload on ‘the other’ everything that is getting it riled up”.

“This is the only way to understand the stubborn evasion [by Netanyahu] of any serious discussion of an exit policy from the war. This is the only way to understand the groundless promises of everlasting control of Gaza”. The Base is delighted. Hopes coming true. “We’re really sticking it to the Arabs, pushing them toward the sea. And it’s all Bibi”.

“There isn’t a drop of logic to the massive bombardment in Gaza. Nor will a drop of benefit result from the killing of more Palestinians … the step is blatant foolishness and embarrassing grovelling to the base – lest it be at all disappointed by the leader. What will become of the hostages? The base is more important”.[/i]

Israel has seen this before – notably with the 1948 Nakba. The hubristic expectation that this would be the ‘end to it’ – Palestinians expelled, their property plundered and appropriated – ‘End of story’ (it was believed). ‘Problem solved’.

Yet it was never solved. Hence 7 October.

The Prime Minister and his cabinet are on a ‘campaign trail’ to seize and magnify the base’s trauma arising from the 7 October – and to mould it to their electoral needs.

Netanyahu has been repeating a single message: ‘We will not stop the fighting’. From his perspective, the war must continue forever:

“The vision of Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich and company is taking shape. And the messiah’s arrival must be just around the corner. And it’s all Bibi. Hooray for Bibi!”.

The Resistance understands and can see it all: How does Israel get out of this? Overthrowing Bibi? That won’t do it. It’s too late. The stopper is off; the genies and the demons are out.

If the ‘front’ remains co-ordinated, proceeds by consensus; eschews any Pavlovian over-reaction to events that might plunge the region into an all-out war, then:

‘They can wait at leisure, whilst (Netanyahu) labours’ – and errs (Sun Tzu)..

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2023/ ... -and-errs/

******

Discussion of the ‘Israeli-US bloodbath’ on Iran’s Press TV yesterday

Until about four months ago, I was a frequent guest on Iran’s global English-language news service, Press TV, mostly for analysis of Russia-related issues. Then there was a long pause during which my most frequent host has been the Indian television network WION. Yesterday, Teheran kindly invited me back to join Professor Anthony Hall of Lethbridge University in Alberta, Canada in a 24-minute long discussion of latest developments in the Israel-Gaza war.

http://www.urmedium.net/c/presstv/127826

My fellow panelist is quite passionate and no doubt many viewers will approve of his engagement. I fully agree with him that the scale of atrocities being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinians does not allow any of us to avoid taking sides in a very public manner.

The Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping was mentioned in passing on the show, as was the visit of US Defense Secretary Austin to Israel, though the two events were not linked in our discussion. Let me do that now, when the efforts during this visit by Austin to build a coalition of the willing to provide security to ships passing through the Red Sea were announced this morning.

I spoke yesterday about the caution that all state and non-state actors in the Middle East have been demonstrating since the early days of October to avoid escalation of the conflict to a regional or global level. This also applies to what has been said about Austin’s coalition for securing shipping in the Red Sea. Apparently the emphasis is on putting in place convoys to accompany the commercial vessels and so protect them against boarding parties, and also putting in place military vessels with capabilities to shoot down attacking missiles and drones. Note that there is not a word about directly attacking Yemen. And the reason should be clear: a U.S.-led attack on the Yemeni Houthis would be tantamount to a declaration of war against their backers, Iran. It would instantly escalate the conflict to a regional war that would swiftly escalate further to a global war in which the key protagonists would be the United States and…Russia, who are the allies in all but name of the Iranians.

As I said yesterday on these pages yesterday, everything is interconnected, as even the densest among us like Austin and his colleagues in the Biden administration understand.

©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2023/12/19/ ... yesterday/

******

"America is something that can be moved easily."

The cause:

Who Are Yemen’s Houthi Rebels Attacking Israeli Ships? - Declassified UK

The Houthis have pledged to target “all ships in the Red Sea bound for Israeli ports, regardless of their nationality”. Attacks, they say, will continue until Gaza receives the food and medicine it needs.


2010:

Tricky Bibi (archived) - Haaretz - Jul 15 2010

The real Netanyahu also brags about his knowledge of America: "I know what America is. America is something that can be moved easily."


A week ago:

Netanyahu tells Biden Israel will act militarily against Yemen's Houthis if US won't: report - MSN

Today:

US announces 10-nation coalition to combat Huthi attacks in Red Sea - MSN

Yesterday:

Israel tells U.S. it wants Hezbollah pushed further from border - Axios

Next week:

...

Posted by b at 9:22 UTC | Comments (67)

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/12/a ... l#comments

******

Video confirms tank struck home with Israeli captives on 7 Oct

The evidence continues to grow that many Israelis killed during Hamas' 7 October attack were killed by Israeli forces themselves

News Desk

DEC 19, 2023

Image
Israeli soldiers walk past houses destroyed in Kibbutz Be'eri, October 14, 2023. (Photo credit: AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Video from a police helicopter shows that an Israeli tank opened fire on a house where 13 Israeli captives were killed during Hamas’ 7 October attack on military bases and settlements surrounding besieged Gaza, Israel’s 12 News reported on 18 December.

12 News reported that the video from the helicopter showed the tank fire shells in the direction of a house where Hamas fighters had barricaded themselves with the Israeli captives.

The house, owned by Pasi Cohen, is located in Kibbutz Be’eri, which Hamas attacked in an effort to take Israelis captive back to Gaza.

The killing of the 13 captives by Israeli tank fire was already known due to testimony from 44-year-old Yasmin Porat, who was held with the captives in the same house before she was able to escape. But the video from the police helicopter that responded to the scene confirms this.

After Hamas fighters took over the house and gathered captives there, Israel’s elite counter terror force, Yamam, responded and immediately initiated a fire fight with the Hamas fighters.

While with the soldiers who had surrounded the house, Porat turned to one of the soldiers and asked if the tank shells would not harm the other captives still inside. The soldier replied that "they only do it on the sides to take down walls.”

Hadas Dagan, the only other captive besides Porat to survive, said that she herself was hit by a shrapnel from the tank shell. The report stated that soldiers who were in the kibbutz said that the shot recorded from the helicopter was a warning shot after which the tank was hit, and then another tank arrived and shot at the house once more.

Three of those killed in the home were 12-year-old Liel Hetzroni, her twin brother Yanai, and their aunt Ayla, who raised them. Israeli broadcaster Kan reported that Liel’s relatives held a farewell ceremony for her, rather than a burial ceremony, because there was nothing left of her body.

When the remains of Liel’s body were finally identified, only ash and bone fragments remained.

The police helicopter video adds to the growing evidence that Israeli forces themselves killed many of the 1,200 Israeli soldiers and civilians who died on 7 October during the Hamas attack.

Though Liel was killed by the Israeli army, Naftali Bennett, the former Israeli Prime Minister, blamed her death on Hamas, claiming “Liel Hetzroni of Kibbutz Beeri was murdered in her home by Hamas monsters.”

While speaking to members of the foreign press on 14 October, Lt. Col. Golan Vach of a military search and rescue team gave insight into why the army used tanks to target Israeli homes on 7 October.

During a briefing to journalists in front of a burnt and destroyed house, Vach claimed that Hamas had gathered 15 people inside, including eight babies, “and they killed them, and they burned them.” He also claimed he personally removed the body of a mother and her baby who had been beheaded inside the house.

But when pressed by a journalist how Hamas had caused such destruction, Col. Vach reluctantly acknowledged, “Our tanks attacked, because they [Hamas] were blocked in these houses, and we need[ed] to conquer back the whole settlement. And it couldn’t be happen [sic] without the tanks.”

This suggests anyone killed in the home was killed due to Israeli tank fire, rather than being burned alive by Hamas fighters who were themselves barricaded inside.

The helicopter video obtained by 12 News also recorded the many soldiers who had gathered outside the main gate of kibbutz Be'eri, but who for unknown reasons did not enter the kibbutz to join the battle which had been going on for hours since early that morning.

"Around 18:10 I discovered something,” described one of the residents, "Hundreds of soldiers, dozens of police cars” were present outside the kibbutz. The soldiers were heavily equipped. “I personally approached every officer I saw from the rank of major and asked him who was in charge of the incident. Nobody knew. It would have looked like total command chaos. I told them that families are fighting and being slaughtered inside and they must go in, but there was no one to talk to. These were times and hours when we had to flood the kibbutz with soldiers, and very limited forces entered. All day we fought alone.”

Yair Avital, a member of the security squad at the kibbutz, added that "500 soldiers were standing outside and no one was managing it. People here are losing blood every minute. And the army that was out here stood and didn't understand what was happening here."

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/video ... s-on-7-oct

'Stage set' for Israeli re-occupation of Gaza: Report

Western officials say they ‘don’t see a more likely scenario’ than Israeli re-occupation of Gaza

News Desk

DEC 19, 2023

Image
(Photo credit: AFP)

Israel is setting the stage for re-occupying post-war Gaza, the Times of Israel reported on 19 December, citing three western diplomats.

The anonymous officials, two of whom are ambassadors, acknowledged Israel’s public statements to avoid a re-occupation of the strip. However, they highlighted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rejection of a US proposition to see the Palestinian Authority (PA) govern Gaza after the war and “his failure to advance viable alternatives.”

Israel’s intention to maintain an indefinite security administration over Gaza following the war stands in the way of regional and international cooperation with the US in efforts “to rehabilitate the enclave after the war,” the unnamed officials said.

“Given these circumstances, I don’t see a more likely scenario,” the Times of Israel quotes one of the diplomats as saying.

“We will work to prevent the re-occupation of Gaza, but there aren’t any volunteers to govern there besides the PA, which the current Israeli government is determined to weaken, so where does that leave us?” another diplomat said, noting Israel’s continued withholding of hundreds of millions in funds meant for the Palestinian Authority (PA).

The sources added that Israel could potentially “change course” in the future, using as an example the 18-year-long Israeli occupation in Lebanon and its eventual withdrawal from the country.

The comments “exposed the limited degree of sway that some of the world’s most influential governments believe they currently have over Israel,” the Times of Israel wrote.

Netanyahu said at the start of last month that Israel will maintain security control over Gaza for an “indefinite period.”

“When we don't have that security responsibility, what we have is the eruption of Hamas terror on a scale that we couldn't imagine,” the prime minister said.

An Israeli official claimed in November that Tel Aviv does not intend to re-occupy Gaza. However, in late October, a Hebrew outlet leaked an intelligence document revealing a detailed plan to re-occupy and ethnically cleanse Gaza – which included pushing the entire population into Egypt’s Sinai desert.

Israeli officials have been openly calling for such mass displacement since the start of the war.

The leaked plan also calls for a military occupation and echoes the growing calls for a reestablishment of “Gush Katif," Israel’s name for the Jewish settlement bloc in Gaza that was evacuated in 2005 under the Disengagement Law.

An in-depth investigation by The Cradle details that plans for re-occupying Gaza date back to the evacuation of the Gush Katif settlement bloc.

In 2010, 2012, and 2014, Netanyahu proposed moving the Gazan population to the Sinai to the Egyptian presidents of the time. Still, the idea was shot down by Hosni Mubarak, Mohammad Morsi, and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi each time.

By 2018, reports of a new military plan to “create considerable change” in Gaza had surfaced, involving splitting the strip in two and “occupying significant parts of it.”

In July 2022, Religious Zionist candidate Arnon Segal wrote during his campaign announcement: "It is time to begin to plan a return to Gush Katif.” Such calls to resettle in Gaza have been echoed by dozens of extremist Israeli officials, figures, and Israeli soldiers alike.

“We returned; we were expelled from here almost 20 years ago … This is our land! And that is the victory, to return to our lands,” said an Israeli army commander after planting an Israeli flag in the sand on Gaza’s beach following the start of the military’s ground invasion.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/stage ... aza-report
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Dec 21, 2023 12:11 pm

What is happening in Palestine and Israel: chronicle for December 20
December 20, 2023
Rybar

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Israel continues its ground operation in the Gaza Strip . In Gaza itself , a large network of Hamas tunnels was discovered between Al-Shifa and Rantisi hospitals , indicating the extent of Hamas's preparations for hostilities. An entire neighborhood was blown up south of the sector's capital.

In the central and southern parts of the Palestinian enclave, local battles are taking place without significant changes to the front line. At the same time, the IDF is conducting massive airstrikes in various parts of the Gaza Strip, including Rafah .

At the same time, in Rafah, as a result of an IDF strike in the area of ​​the Kuwait hospital , over sixty people were injured, about ten were killed, the rubble is being cleared and the search for victims is underway, the number of which will obviously increase.

Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip

The Israel Defense Forces continue to advance on several fronts. In the northeast there is fighting in the vicinity of the Al-Auda hospital . From the coast, clashes have been reported in the area of ​​the Yarmouk stadium , as well as Yarmouk and Al-Jala streets .

Footage from the south-east appeared online, showing the explosion of 56 houses in the Shajaya area (Al-Judaida) . It is in this area that the IDF has been fighting particularly hard for the last week and three prisoners were shot dead here.


In the evening, the IDF reported on the completion of search activities in the north of Gaza, in the area of ​​Rantisi and Ash - Shifa hospitals , as well as Palestine Square . The density of the discovered tunnel exits allows us to assess the scale of the problem the IDF faced during its offensive.

Center of the Gaza Strip

In the central part of the Palestinian enclave, the situation has not undergone significant changes. There are clashes in the Al-Mughraqi area . Artillery and aviation are operating in populated areas. In Deir al-Balah, the Israeli air force carried out a series of airstrikes in the area of ​​Al-Aqsa Hospital .

South Gaza Strip

In the southern Gaza Strip, the IDF continues to launch artillery and air strikes on various locations potentially linked to Hamas.

Thus, in Rafah , where the border crossing of the same name is located, the IDF launched a series of airstrikes in the area of ​​the Kuwait hospital . From footage taken from a nearby building, it can be determined that the strikes occurred north of the medical facility in the area of ​​schools and the Awad Shabana Ali mosque.

More than ten dead and at least six dozen wounded were taken to the Kuwait hospital. A search for victims is underway at the arrival site. It is also known that there were casualties in the nearby Al-Shavut refugee camp and the wounding of Al-Jazeera journalist Moaz Mohsen , and several other correspondents of local publications.

Border with Lebanon

The IDF and Hezbollah continue a formally violent confrontation on the Lebanese-Israeli border. The Lebanese group launched strikes from anti-tank systems and various missiles at five IDF strongholds. And they reported the launch of surface-to-air missiles at helicopters in the area of ​​the Shomera military base , which allegedly frightened off Israeli aviation. In turn, IDF artillery and aviation launched a series of attacks on various populated areas along the entire border.

One Hezbollah member was killed and a civilian was injured as a result of Israeli shelling of a vehicle near the border town of Kafr Kila . The town of Markaba was also heavily damaged by evening airstrikes .

West Bank

During the day in Kiryat Arba, the car of a local resident was shot at on suspicion of attempting to hit an IDF soldier. Last night, the IDF arrested 17 wanted Palestinians, 11 of whom are associated with Hamas. In Kafr Zurif, Israeli security forces confiscated about 40 vehicles, and in Naalin , four wanted persons were detained and weapons and ammunition were seized. In addition, clashes occurred during the day in the populated areas of Silat al-Dahr , Al-Yamun and Tamun .

Israeli Air Force strikes on Syria and the activities of pro-Iranian groups

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During the day in Damascus , several explosions were heard near the airport. At the same time, there were no reports of air defense or air raid alerts. In addition, in Iraq , unknown persons attacked the Ain al-Assad base , but contrary to custom, none of the pro-Iranian proxy factions has yet claimed responsibility.

Political-diplomatic background
On the postponement of the meeting in the UN Security Council

The UN Security Council will postpone the vote on the humanitarian resolution of Arab countries to Thursday, December 21, to agree on the wording. This was announced by Ecuador's permanent representative to the UN, José de la Gasca , since Ecuador is chairing the Security Council in December

On Blinken's statements at the State Department's year-end press conference

The United States is insisting that Israel move to targeted operations in the Gaza Strip and reduce the intensity of hostilities, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press conference at the State Department . He stressed the importance of focusing efforts on combating Hamas leadership, tunnels and other military installations to reduce damage to civilians.

Blinken noted that events in Gaza in recent months have been tragic and blamed them on Hamas. He expressed hope that the world community will unite around the idea of ​​taking measures to end the suffering of civilians. The US, according to the official, is working with partners in the Middle East to restore the humanitarian pause and release the hostages.

https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... -dekabrya/

The hidden toll: Is Israel downplaying soldiers’ deaths?

Faced with its longest and deadliest war to date, Israel is now under increasing pressure to transparently disclose its losses, going against the common practice of concealing casualties during wartime.


William Van Wagenen

DEC 19, 2023

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Photo Credit: The Cradle

“How many Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza?”

This is a persistent question that many are asking as the Israeli military’s ground campaign in the bombed and besieged enclave nears its second month.

If the army is suffering relatively low losses while inflicting massive Palestinian civilian casualties, this suggests Israel is well on its way to achieving its clear objective of eliminating Hamas, but also its unspoken goals: conquer Gaza, ethnically cleanse its 2.3 million residents, and rebuild the Gush Katif settlement bloc.

But if the occupation army is indeed suffering huge losses, this suggests the Israeli military and political leadership may need to soon end their genocidal campaign prematurely, while citing exaggerated external pressure from the White House as the pretext.

Secrecy surrounding Israeli losses

Israel's military claimed on 17 December that 121 soldiers had been killed since its delayed ground campaign began on 27 October, when tanks and infantry began to push into Gaza's cities and refugee camps.

But determining the true number of Israeli soldier casualties has always been notoriously difficult, as Israel’s military goes to great lengths to cover up its combat losses. A recent battle between Hamas and Israel’s vaunted Golani Brigade exemplifies this secrecy.

“We are heading to the most difficult and deepest place with a large number of enemy fighters,” boasted Israeli Lt. Col. Tomer Grinberg, commander of the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion, shortly before leading his troops on a ground operation in the legendary Shujaiyya (which aptly means “courageous”) neighborhood in northern Gaza.

He then added, “I promise you a resounding victory.”

But Grinberg is now dead.

According to Israeli sources, Grinberg was killed during the 12 December operation, along with nine other Golani soldiers, in an ambush by Hamas fighters.

After four of the brigade’s soldiers were injured in a firefight, others sought to rescue them amid fears they may be dragged into a tunnel. The second group was also hit by explosives, as was a third group that also tried to evacuate the wounded.

After the battle, Hamas issued a statement warning:

“The longer you stay there, the greater the bill of your deaths and losses will be, and you will emerge from it carrying the tail of disappointment and loss, God willing."

Resistance claims higher soldier toll

But there is compelling reason to believe the number of soldiers killed alongside Grinberg in Shujaiyya is much higher than the nine announced by the army.

Security expert and retired Israeli Colonel Miri Eisin told CNN that the 12 December attack was particularly painful because so many of the dead were high-ranking officers:

“We’re hurting today…It’s always hard when soldiers are killed, but when it’s this level of command, it hits you in the gut. These are commanders that commanded hundreds of soldiers.”

This led one former US soldier to ask on X whether Israel was hiding the true number of soldiers killed in the ambush. “Where are all the privates, and the corporals, and the lower enlisted?”

Hamas, through its armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, provides an answer.

Regarding the events on 12 December, the Qassam Brigades reported killing 11 soldiers in Shujaiyya, including members of a rescue team, in an apparent reference to the deaths acknowledged by the Israeli army.

But according to Qassam, on the same day, its fighters also killed or injured 10 soldiers east of the city of Khan Yunis, killed or injured another 20 soldiers barricaded inside a building in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City, and killed another 15 soldiers who attacked them in their make-shift base at the Abu Rashid Pool.

Censorship on the press and hospitals

Despite claiming to be “the only democracy in the Middle East,” Tel Aviv maintains a tight grip on information related to military casualties through the use of military censors, controlling what the press can publish concerning national security issues, including injuries and deaths of soldiers.

“The human losses announced by the security establishment are usually binding on hundreds of media institutions, and these are allowed to work basically according to this rule. The death toll always comes from one source, and no one questions it," Hassan Abdo, The Cradle’s Palestine Correspondent, reported earlier this year.

Abdo attributes this to preserving the image of the invincible Israeli soldier “who does not fall victim to a weak, primitive opponent.”

This is “one of the main pillars of the Zionist project based on the tripartite of security, immigration, and settlement,” he added.

As The Cradle noted, even before the outbreak of war on 7 October, Israeli soldiers have had a strange tendency to die in “accidents” during periods of heightened conflict with the Palestinian resistance, including in car accidents, plane crashes, suicides, gas leaks, and even falling from balconies.

But this invincible image was shattered with the operation Al-Aqsa Flood, when Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups broke out of the Gaza Strip to attack the Israeli military bases and settlements (kibbutzim) enforcing the brutal 17-year siege on the tiny and impoverished enclave.

During Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas killed 41 soldiers from Grinberg’s Golani battalion alone, in major battles at the Re’im and Nahal Oz military bases.

Hezbollah’s estimates and questions from within

Israel claims Hamas carried out a massacre at the Nova music festival, just a few kilometers from the Re’im base, but a major battle took place there as well. At Nova, 58 Israeli police were killed, including from elite combat counter-terror units of the Border Police, known as Yamam, who were the first to respond to the attack.

According to an Israeli police investigation regarding events at Nova, had there not been a substantial police deployment at Yad Mordechai, some 30 kilometers further north, “the terrorists would have been on their way to … Tel Aviv in 40 minutes.”

It, therefore, becomes more imperative than ever for the occupation state to hide the extent of its losses, both in the battle against the Palestinian resistance in Gaza and in the north in the battle with Hezbollah, to reestablish and maintain the myth of an overwhelmingly powerful military presence in the region.

Anecdotal evidence and estimates from Hezbollah suggest that the official count of 115 Israeli soldiers killed in the fighting in Gaza and near the Lebanese border following 7 October is likely much lower than the true figure. Reports from different sources indicate a significant discrepancy, with instances of mass casualties not officially acknowledged.

The Lebanese resistance movement estimates its attacks on settlements and military bases in northern-occupied Palestine have killed at least 35 Israeli soldiers and injured 172.

After just the first week of fighting in Gaza, the death toll, as announced by the Israeli army from fighting there, had reached 19. Among them were nine soldiers killed in just one attack. Hamas struck the “Namer” armored personnel carrier transporting the soldiers to the battle with an anti-tank missile.

Seven of the dead soldiers were 20 years old or younger, which seems to confirm the perception that Israel is sending inexperienced fighters into combat against Hamas’ battle-hardened fighters motivated by a cause, resistance to occupation, they firmly believe in.

But the occupation army spokesperson’s unit quickly learned not to announce the mass killing of soldiers of this sort.

Baruch Rosenblum, an Israeli rabbi, recalled a story from a senior officer in the army from the second week of the Gaza ground campaign. The officer explained that most of the fighting takes place at night, and that in just one operation, Hamas had killed 36 soldiers.

The rabbi explained that Hamas had attacked a convoy of three Namer armored vehicles, each carrying 12 soldiers, setting them ablaze. The army command watched via drone live feed as the soldiers abandoned the vehicles and Hamas eliminated them all with anti-tank weapons.

The senior officer chose not to disclose his name to the rabbi “to avoid arrest for revealing state secrets,” and the incident was never announced by the army or reported in the Israeli press.

On 18 November, in the third week of the ground operation, David Oren Baruch, the director of Mount Herzl Military Cemetery, provided another anecdote suggesting a soldier death toll much larger than what was publicly known.

He revealed that “We are now going through a period where every hour there is a funeral, every hour and a half a funeral.”

“I was asked to open a large number of graves. Only in the Mount Herzl cemetery did we bury 50 soldiers in 48 hours,” Baruch explained further.

Military control of the narrative

The Israeli military's reluctance to disclose the number of wounded soldiers further adds to suspicions of underreporting.

Unlike in past wars, the Israeli military had refused to make any statement about the number of wounded in Gaza. This finally changed on 10 December, just before Haaretz planned to publish its report on the number of soldier casualties based instead on hospital sources.

Haaretz noted “a considerable and unexplained gap between the data reported by the military and that from the hospitals.” The hospital data the outlet obtained showed the number of wounded soldiers was “twice as high as the army's numbers.”

The Israeli newspaper also highlighted the military's tight control over the data reported by the hospitals themselves, explaining that members of the army spokesperson’s unit “are in the hospitals around the clock. Every press release regarding wounded soldiers and replies to media queries must receive their approval.”

Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth similarly reported on 9 December that, “Every day, about 60 new wounded are received only by the rehabilitation department” and that “the cumulative numbers since October 7 are astronomical: More than 2,000 soldiers, policemen and other members of the security forces have been officially recognized as disabled.”

“We have never been through anything even similar to this," explained Limor Luria, head of the rehabilitation department at the Ministry of Defense.

"More than 58 percent of the wounded who are taken in by us have severe injuries of arms and legs, including those that require amputations. About 12 percent are internal injuries - spleen, kidney, tearing of internal organs. There are also head and eye injuries.”

In addition to thousands of horrific physical injuries, Israel is also facing “a tsunami of trauma,” the paper added. "I sat with a fighter who took three bullets. A physically torn person, a very serious injury,” Luria added, “but his main struggle is with the sights he saw.”

One injured soldier, Elisha Madan, recounted to a crowd how his fellow soldiers were killed in front of his eyes. “I came back from the dead alone. My entire squad died, and I was on the verge of death. I survived thanks to your prayers,” Madan said while seated in his wheelchair.

‘All warfare is based on deception’ – Sun Tzu

Since 7 October, the Israeli military leadership has reported falsehoods about almost every facet of that day’s events, and the war that followed.

They lied about Hamas beheading babies, they covered up burning alive their own soldiers and civilians with Apache helicopter and tank fire, and they continue to lie about pretending to care about the safety of Palestinian civilians, who they have mercilessly bombed for months with only the slightest pretext of targeting Hamas fighters and infrastructure.

As a result, while it is impossible to know the true numbers of Israeli soldiers killed in battle against the Palestinian resistance, there is there is ample reason to question the veracity of the information provided by the US-backed occupation army.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/the-h ... ers-deaths

Israel plans ground invasion of Lebanon: Report

Hezbollah has said that any attacks against Lebanese civilians will be met in equal measure

News Desk

DEC 19, 2023

Image
(Photo Credit: Reuters)

The Israeli army is allegedly drawing up plans for an invasion of South Lebanon, risking a complete cross-border war amid calls for restraint by Western allies, The Times reported on 18 December.

Israel’s army says it wants to drive Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance force to the north of the Litani River.

The British daily writes that the Israeli army fears a potential 7 October-like attack by Hezbollah, given their “much greater strength compared with Hamas.”

“What happened in the South is nothing compared to what they could do here,” a senior officer said. “Israeli doctrine is to take the war to the other side.”

Hezbollah’s retaliation against Israel on settlements near the border area with Lebanon has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of settlers, many of whom will not return after the war is over.

"We are under fire daily, and we continue to record injuries daily. Yesterday, a soldier in the reserve brigade was killed; we are recording injuries and fatalities daily," the mayor of the Kiryat Shmona settlement, Avichai Stern, said to Channel 13.

Speaking with the Israeli channel TOV, Israeli reserve general, Yitzhak Brick warned that Israel is not prepared for such a war; it did not make the proper preparations nor prepare a stockpile of weapons and ammunition.

Brick adds that cuts have been made to the size of the Israeli army, so much so that it is unable to fight on several fronts simultaneously. "Until we reach the required capabilities - there is nothing to enter into Lebanon,” the reserve general said.

⚡️Hezbollah published a montage edit showing resistance operations by Palestine, Hezbollah, Iraq and Yemen. It’s captioned as:

“The resistance factions will not abandon their responsibilities" pic.twitter.com/z4NLYQq840

— Arya - آریا 🇮🇷 (@AryJeay) December 18, 2023


"Hezbollah today is equipped with 150,000 rockets and missile shells, and the main problem is that some of [these are] precise and heavy, weighing hundreds of kilograms,” Brick warned, adding that Hezbollah "can hit targets such as power [plants], water [facilities], air force bases, and disrupt road traffic and [displace] the population."

However, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has recently made threats to Hezbollah, saying, "If Hezbollah wants to go up a level, we’ll go up five.”

The Israeli army has been ‘poking the bear’ by going beyond attacking Hezbollah posts, launching attacks against the Lebanese civilian population, a move that Hezbollah does not take lightly, warning in an official statement: “The Resistance affirms that any harm to civilians will be met in equal measure.”

“What is happening on our front is extremely important and influential,” Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah said in a recent speech. "It will not remain restricted for too long […] All options on the Lebanese front are open. All choices are on the table, and we may decide at any moment.”

Lebanese Parliament Speaker and Head of the Amal Movement, Nabih Berri, had – in a similar fashion to Nasrallah – also warned Israel that Lebanon is ready if Israel chooses to expand the ongoing conflict with Hezbollah.

Lebanon and Israel have historic tensions, with the Lebanese seeing Israel, in the words of Amal founder, Shia Muslim cleric and politician, Musa Sadr, as “an ultimate evil."

Hezbollah's attacks on Israel have been given a similar status to those of the Vietnamese on the US, having forced the Israeli army to retreat in 2000 in a similar fashion to the US retreat from Vietnam in the 1970s.

Speaking in 2006, the testimonies of Israeli army personnel show that Hezbollah’s fighting power bewildered Israeli forces.

“They’re good on their own ground,” Israeli army testimonies read. One of the generals of the Israeli army said that years of fighting against Palestinian guerrilla fighters eroded the army’s conventional warfare proficiency.

“It’s one thing to give the troops maps, target lists, etc. It’s another thing to be trained for the mission—they weren’t trained,” the general said.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israe ... non-report

*******

Israel’s Latest Weapon Against Palestine Is Egypt’s Debt
Posted on December 19, 2023 by Yves Smith

Yves here. Not long after the October 7 attacks, a friend with very strong Democratic party connections was pretty confident that Egypt would soon admit very large numbers of Gaza refugees, for the reasons suggested below: that they would be bribed via debt relief.

The fact that this development has yet to happen makes me think it is less, rather than more, likely to happen now. World opinion is hardening against Israel. From the New York Times on November 7:

Israel has quietly tried to build international support in recent weeks for the transfer of several hundred thousand civilians from Gaza to Egypt for the duration of its war in the territory, according to six senior foreign diplomats…

The suggestion was dismissed by most of Israel’s interlocutors — who include the United States and Britain — because of the risk that such a mass displacement could become permanent. These countries fear that such a development might destabilize Egypt and lock significant numbers of Palestinians out of their homeland, according to the diplomats, who spoke anonymously in order to discuss a sensitive matter more freely.

The idea has also been firmly rejected by Palestinians, who fear that Israel is using the war — which began on Oct. 7 after terrorists from Gaza raided Israel and killed roughly 1,400 people — to permanently displace the more than two million people living in Gaza.



With more Gazans badly injured, suffering from disease, and starving, it would be even harder to treat and house them. Again, never say never but I would not bet on this outcome.

By Alfons Pérez, a researcher at ODG and Nicola Scherer, a researcher on debt and financialisation; @NicolaKSch. Originally published at openDemocracy

A leaked document written by Gila Gamaliel, the Israeli intelligence minister, came to light in late October amid the devastating war in Gaza.

It set out a proposal to relocate the residents of Gaza to Sinai (Egypt) as a solution “which will produce positive long-term strategic results”. But how could Egypt accept such a solution when most of its population appears to be pro-Palestinian?< The answer can be found in the world of macroeconomics: debt. After being revealed by the Israeli newspaper Calcalist and WikiLeaks, the proposal is getting attention in the Israeli and Egyptian critical press. Tel Aviv appears to be in talks with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi about Egypt taking in Gazans and settling them in Sinai, in exchange for the cancellation of all its debts to the World Bank.

This could mean the Israeli government would take on the debts Egypt owes to multilateral creditors (such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund etc.) or that (with the support of the United States) it would convince allied Western countries to write off Egyptian debts to national institutions.

Meanwhile, potential financial aid for specific measures is being negotiated, such as US secretary of state Anthony Blinken’s proposal to fund a tent city (later to be upgraded to residential buildings), which he proposed to the Egyptian government on his October tour of the region.

Opening Egypt’s doors to the Palestinian population under the pretext of humanitarian relief veils the real objective of the Israeli government’s “solution to the crisis”: ethnic cleansing and the colonisation of territory in return for financial favours, in this case writing off the debt of a neighbouring country.

Egypt, Suffocated by Debt

From a macroeconomic perspective, the proposal could be a godsend for Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government. Egypt, a nation of 105 million people, is currently facing a historic debt crisis barely noticed by the West. Bloomberg Economicsranks Egypt in second place worldwide behind Ukraine in terms of its vulnerability to becoming unable to repay its debts. Two of Egypt’s principal sources of revenue, tourism and Suez Canal transit fees, have increased, but not sufficiently to repay its external debts, which total $164.7bn as of June 2023. Part of this debt is owed to local creditors, such as Egypt’s Gulf allies, the United Arab Emirates. The rest is owed to less forgiving creditors: Egypt needs to pay $2.95 billion to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and $1.58 billion to foreign bond holders by the end of 2023.

Egypt, which is one of the world’s largest wheat importers and also relies on imports of other basic foods and fuel, continues to face the impacts of the war in Ukraine, growing inflation, unprecedented price increases and limited access to affordable finance. As a result, the country is completely reliant on international loans from the IMF and the rich Gulf states. This dependency limits Egypt’s foreign policy options, making it difficult and unlikely that Egypt would act independently of the United States which, along with European countries, dominates decision-making in multilateral institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank.

There had been speculation that Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government yielding to the far-right Israeli government’s proposal for the forced displacement of the Palestinian people in exchange for the cancellation of its debts, would harm its popularity even further and al-Sisi’s chances at the ballot box. But he was announced winner of the elections today, although this “solution” clashes with the largely pro-Palestinian stance of the Egyptian population, which took to the streets on the 18th October in solidarity with the Palestinian people, shouting “No displacement, no resettlement, the land is the land of Palestine”.

The opposition and the Egyptian population are well aware that Egypt is an ally of the United States, and that the United States’ support of the authoritarian Egyptian government and its repressive measures largely comes down to the existence of Israel. The US counts on the Egyptian government acting as a containing dam against its overwhelmingly anti-Zionist population. If the country’s economic circumstances do not improve and Israel continues to bombard the Palestinian population in Gaza with the brutality it has shown over the past weeks – killing thousands of children and civilians – it is possible that Egypt will have no other choice than to accept de facto the displacement of refugees into its territory in exchange for financial aid and partial relief from its debts.

Debtocracy, a (Not Very) New Colonial Tactic

The principles behind the Israel government’s proposal – to offer debt cancellation in exchange for political favours – are not new. Sadly, this is an example of a practice frequently used by the rich countries of the Global North in a world characterised by neo-colonial financial power structures. This means that the impoverished countries which take out loans with the Global North and multilateral financial institutions (such as the IMF, World Bank etc.) are still largely identical to the ex-colonies. This means that debt is not merely a financial issue but can also be used as a tool of oppression and extortion: the creditor is able to wield power over the debtor, influencing their political decisions.

Taking Egypt as an example, this would not be the first time that the United States has used debt cancellation as a lever to make Egypt comply with the US’ political demands. In 1991, the US and its allies – rich governments from the Paris Club – wrote off half of the $20.2 billion that Egypt owed to them in exchange for Egypt’s participation in the second Gulf War as part of the anti-Iraq coalition.

Many social movements (starting with the Jubilee movement in the 2000s) began to denounce “debtocracy” and say that debt is a mechanism for subjugation and for spreading neoliberal policies which are severely harmful to the environment and human rights. As people living in rich Western countries, we should not stay silent in the face of financial proposals which support ethnic cleansing and the colonisation of Palestinian territories by the far-right Israeli government.

Luckily, not everyone in the international community is staying silent in the face of the massacre in Palestine.

Countries including Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, South Africa and Algeria have taken robustly critical positions against the Israeli attacks. Bolivian President Luis Arce has broken off diplomatic relations with Netanyahu’s government, and Colombia, and Chile and South Africa have recalled their ambassadors from Israel. This has accompanied Argentina and Mexico’s condemnation of the attack on Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza. Furthermore, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on November 9 that Colombia would support Algeria’s case in the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Israel. There are also critical voices inside the European Union. Three weeks ago, Spain’s president Pedro Sanchez and Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo spoke up during their visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, against Israel’s killing of innocent civilians, including thousands of children, which led to an ongoing diplomatic crisis.

Belatedly, the UK, Germany and France have also joined calls for a ceasefire in Israel. On 12 December, the United Nations passed a non-binding resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, with 153 countries voting in favour, 23 abstaining and 10 against. Ukraine, a country at war, fighting Russian invasion abstained from the vote. Israel and the United States, were among the countries who voted against ceasefire.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2023/12 ... -debt.html

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A smoke plume erupts during Israeli bombardment on the northern Gaza Strip near the border with southern Israel on 17 December 2023 (Jack Guez/AFP)

Israel should ‘level Gaza and make it look like Auschwitz’, says official
Originally published: Middle East Eye on December 18, 2023 by Middle East Eye Staff (more by Middle East Eye) | (Posted Dec 20, 2023)

An Israeli politician has called on Israel to forcibly eject Palestinians in Gaza to Lebanon, flatten the besieged enclave and turn it into a museum “just like in Auschwitz” concentration camp in Poland.

David Azoulay, the head of the town of Metula in northern Israel, made the comments on Israeli radio station 103FM, according to a report in the Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

“After 7 October, instead of urging people to go south, we should direct them to the beaches. The navy can transport them to the shores of Lebanon, where there are already sufficient refugee camps,” he said.

Then, a security strip should be established from the sea to the Gaza border fence, completely empty, as a reminder of what was once there. It should resemble the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Between 1940 and 1945, around 1.1 million people (of whom around 1 million were Jews) were killed by Nazi Germany in the Auschwitz extermination camp. Around six million Jews were killed in total during the Holocaust.

“The entire Gaza Strip should be emptied and levelled flat, just like in Auschwitz. Let it become a museum, showcasing the capabilities of the state of Israel and dissuading anyone from living in the Gaza Strip,” Azoulay said.

This is what must be done to give them a visual representation.

He went on to describe Hamas’ attack on southern Israeli communities on 7 October, which killed around 1,200 people–most civilians–as “a second Holocaust”.

Call for genocide
Azoulai’s comments were widely criticised on social media, and were labelled as a call for genocide.

The remarks were also described as “sick” and “hateful” by the Auschwitz memorial museum in Poland.

“David Azoulai appears to wish to use the symbol of the largest cemetery in the world as some sort of a sick, hateful, pseudo-artistic, symbolic expression,” it tweeted on Monday.

Calling for acts that seem to transgress any civil, wartime, moral, and human laws, that may sound as a call for murder of the scale akin to Auschwitz, puts the whole honest world face-to-face with a madness that must be confronted and firmly rejected.

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The museum added that it hoped Israeli authorities would react to such “shameful abuse”, adding that “terrorism can never be a response to terrorism”.

Israel’s military has killed nearly 19,000 Palestinians in attacks since 7 October, most of them children and women.

On Sunday, a new mass grave was discovered in Gaza, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

The makeshift graveyard was found near the Fahmi al-Jarjawi School in Gaza, according to Ramy Abdu, the Euro-Med chairman. It contained the remains of dozens of civilians, as options to bury the dead become increasingly limited in Gaza as a result of Israeli bombardment and the space in official graveyards runs out.

Israeli forces have also been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war against civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Human Rights Watch on Monday accused the Israeli army of “deliberately” blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while “wilfully impeding humanitarian assistance”.

It added that Israeli forces were “apparently” razing agricultural areas and depriving the civilian population of “objects indispensable to their survival”.

https://mronline.org/2023/12/20/israel- ... -official/

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The Atrocities In Gaza Are The Perfect Embodiment Of ‘Western Values’

This is western civilization. This is what it looks like.

Caitlin Johnstone
December 20, 2023

When Israeli president Isaac Herzog described the assault on Gaza as a war “to save Western civilization, to save the values of Western civilization,” he wasn’t really lying. He was telling the truth — just maybe not quite in the way that he meant it.

The demolition of Gaza is indeed being perpetrated in defense of western values, and is itself a perfect embodiment of western values. Not the western values they teach you about in school, but the hidden ones they don’t want you to look at. Not the attractive packaging with the advertising slogans on the label, but the product that’s actually inside the box.

For centuries western civilization has depended heavily on war, genocide, theft, colonialism and imperialism, which it has justified using narratives premised on religion, racism and ethnic supremacy — all of which we are seeing play out in the incineration of Gaza today.

What we are seeing in Gaza is a much better representation of what western civilization is really about than all the gibberish about freedom and democracy we learned about in school. A much better representation of western civilization than all the art and literature we’ve been proudly congratulating ourselves on over the centuries. A much better representation of western civilization than the love and compassion we like to pretend our Judeo-Christian values revolve around.

It’s been so surreal watching western rightists babbling about how savage and barbaric Muslim culture is amid the 2023 zombie resurrection of Bush-era Islamophobia, even while western civilization amasses a mountain of ten thousand child corpses.

That mountain of child corpses is a much better representation of western culture than anything Mozart, da Vinci or Shakespeare ever produced.

This is western civilization. This is what it looks like.

Western civilization, where Julian Assange awaits his final appeal in February against US extradition for journalism which exposed US war crimes.

Where we are fed a nonstop deluge of mass media propaganda to manufacture our consent for wars and aggression which have killed millions and displaced tens of millions in the 21st century alone.

Where we are kept distracted by vapid entertainment and artificial culture wars so we don’t think too hard about what this civilization is and who it is killing and maiming and starving and exploiting.

Where news cycles are dominated more by celebrity gossip and Donald Trump’s latest mouth farts than by the mass atrocities that are being actively facilitated by western governments.

Where liberals congratulate themselves for having progressive views on race and gender while the officials they elect help rip apart children’s bodies with military explosives.

Where Zionist Jews center themselves and their emotions because opposition to an active genocide makes them feel like they are being persecuted, and where Israel supporters who are not Jewish still kind of feel like they are being persecuted also.

Where a giant globe-spanning empire powered by militarism, imperialism, capitalism and authoritarianism devours human flesh with an insatiable appetite while we congratulate ourselves on how much better we are than nations like Iran or China.

These are western values. This is western civilization.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/12 ... rn-values/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Dec 22, 2023 12:31 pm

What is happening in Palestine and Israel: chronicle for December 21
December 21, 2023
Rybar

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The Israeli army continues its advance into the northern Gaza Strip in Jabaliya . The troops are preparing a stronghold to develop an offensive from the coast to the Old City , and are also launching multiple air strikes on various areas of the enclave.

No advancements were recorded in the central and southern parts of the sector. The IDF is methodically destroying infrastructure in Khan Younis , Rafah and other populated areas. A high-ranking Palestinian customs official was killed in an Israeli airstrike near the Rafah checkpoint .

The situation on the Lebanese-Israeli border has worsened significantly. Hezbollah launched kamikaze UAVs and launched various missile attacks. The IDF, in turn, shelled several populated areas, resulting in the death of a Lebanese citizen. Representatives of Hezbollah promised to take revenge for this.

For the first time in a long time, an attack was launched from the Gaza Strip on central Israel. The operation of warning and air defense systems was recorded in over 60 settlements, including Tel Aviv .

Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip

According to pro-Palestinian sources, the IDF advanced into the Al-Nazla area of ​​Jabaliya , where heavy fighting ensued, accompanied by heavy artillery and air activity. Heavy equipment activity was also reported between Al Jala and Yarmouk streets in the Ar-Rimal area . According to pro-Palestinian sources, IDF bulldozers are destroying various buildings. The IDF is likely preparing a new stronghold to continue the operation in Gaza.

In the Ar-Rimal area , fighting is taking place in the vicinity of the reservoir of the same name, where IDF forces previously blew up a house allegedly associated with militants. At the moment, the formation of a small cauldron at the junction of the regions of Ar-Rimal , Jabaliya and An-Nazla is emerging . However, the Palestinians are unlikely to remain in the cauldron and leave through ruins or tunnels. In this case, it can be assumed that a new line will appear in the area of ​​Al-Saftawi Street with the further development of the attack on the Ad-Daraj area after consolidation.

Center of the Gaza Strip
In the central part of the Gaza Strip, fighting broke out in the Al-Mughraq area. According to pro-Palestinian sources, members of Kataib Iz ad-Din al-Qassam and Saraya al-Quds carried out a joint operation, killing several IDF soldiers and hitting armored vehicles. Given the lack of footage and any details, it is difficult to say whether this was a Palestinian attack or an IDF offensive.

IDF artillery strikes east of Deir al-Balah and al-Maghazi. However, it is difficult to say whether it is preventive fire or accompaniment of the offensive.

South Gaza Strip

The IDF carried out an airstrike in the vicinity of the Rafah checkpoint , through which most of the humanitarian aid flows. Palestinian media reported four deaths, including the head of the Kerem Shalom crossing, Colonel Bassam Gaben .

Heavy fighting is taking place in Khan Yunis , but there are not many specific reports, and communication problems are again observed in the sector. Palestinian groups, however, routinely report on the defeat of accumulations of enemy equipment and soldiers, without usually publishing any confirming footage.

Israel Center

For the first time in recent days, Palestinian groups launched a massive attack on central Israel . Alarms and air defense systems were activated both in areas close to Gaza and in the vicinity of Tel Aviv .

In Ashdod and Kiryat Ono , rocket debris was recorded falling; in Tel Aviv, a fire broke out as a result of a hit, and another rocket fell into the sea. Operational services are searching for missile and debris crash sites, as well as casualties.


Border with Lebanon

The situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border has become somewhat tense today against the backdrop of an IDF airstrike on a former medical center (associated, according to Israel, with Hezbollah) in Buslaya : the settlement is located 45 km from the border, and this is one of the “deepest” strikes Israel Defense Forces. Lebanese channels also reported that Israeli fighter jets flew at low altitude over Beirut and Marjayoun .

In addition, during an artillery attack on the village of Maroun al-Ras in southern Lebanon carried out by the Israeli army, civilian Nihad Musa Muhanna was killed and her husband Majid Touma Muhanna was injured. This incident was used by the Shiite Hezbollah movement as a reason (along with support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip) to launch more active attacks on northern Israel than a few days earlier.


The Iron Dome was activated in the Kiryat Shmona area. According to Israeli media, eight rockets were fired from Lebanon, five of which were intercepted, and three fell in open areas. However, later footage appeared of a local fire. In addition, Hezbollah media announced strikes on Dovev and Avivim , during which, according to some sources, three Israelis were killed. It is unknown whether they were military personnel or civilians.

In addition, the Lebanese attacked IDF targets in the Shebaa farms area and at the Ramim base , and air defense systems on the border were repeatedly activated. In response, Israeli aircraft carried out strikes on the outskirts of the settlements of Kfar Qila , Khuraiba , Khiyam and Al-Mari in the southern part of the neighboring republic. There is material damage on both sides; the exact number of casualties is unknown.


One can many times notice the dubious from a military point of view and chaotic nature of Hezbollah’s shelling of Israeli territory. However, it is important that they successfully stress the Israeli population, and the government suffers reputational and financial losses from this: for example, in the Menara settlement alone, as a result of attacks by members of the Lebanese group, 86 out of 155 housing units were completely destroyed .

West Bank

A campaign of raids continues in the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. At dawn, Israeli units carried out operations in Tulkarm , Qalqilya , Ramallah , Bethlehem and Hebron : according to Israeli statements, 20 Palestinians were detained, eight of them on charges of belonging to Hamas. Arab media traditionally announced the arrest of ordinary civilians.

In Jenin and Nablus, clashes broke out between local youth and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces; explosive devices were used, but to no avail. The use of small arms was also reported, but there were no reports of casualties.

In addition, the IDF press service announced the confiscation by Israeli security forces of eleven illegal vehicles, weapons and ammunition. Homemade explosives and materials for their manufacture were also discovered: they were destroyed on the spot.

Political-diplomatic background
On Netanyahu's hawkish statements

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel will continue the war in the Gaza Strip until all hostages are released and Hamas is completely destroyed.

“The choice I offer Hamas is very simple: surrender or die,” Netanyahu said, clarifying that there is and will not be another choice. After the destruction of Hamas, according to the politician, he uses all his power to ensure that there is no threat from Gaza to Israel.

In fact, this statement, in addition to direct threats to Hamas, also carries a message for the domestic consumer. Until the active phase of hostilities is over, the Israeli public will not en masse question the responsibility of the far-right government in current events. Consequently, the only chance for Netanyahu to stay afloat is a triumphant victory over Hamas. Which, let's be honest, is extremely unlikely, especially in a short time.

About The Washington Post investigation and the Al-Shifa hospital scandal

The Washington Post questioned the veracity of the Israeli government's claims about the use of the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City by the Palestinian group Hamas and the appropriateness of the damage inflicted on civilians during a military operation on the territory of the hospital complex. Experts and the authors of the article came to this conclusion based on the results of their own investigation.

The newspaper provides the following conclusions: no direct evidence of the military presence of Hamas members was found in the rooms; none of the complex's five hospital buildings were connected to the network of underground tunnels; there is no evidence that these tunnels could be accessed from hospital wards. Be that as it may, the motives for creating this article could be broader than ordinary objectivity.

First, the WP investigation likely serves as leverage for the US to put pressure on the ultra-Orthodox government and the Jewish lobby. Secondly, it may be a manifestation of the conflict between the Democratic and Republican parties. And thirdly, behind these publications there may be Ukrainians who are dissatisfied with the redirection of military support to Israel.

https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... -dekabrya/

Google Translator

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Prisoners of Context
December 19, 2023

Despite Israel’s abusive behavior, Palestinian resistance is never seen as warranted, writes Lawrence Davidson. Israel must respond to that resistance as matter of self-defense.

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Krav Maga self-defense instructors training on the roof of the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, 2017. (Israel Defense Forces, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

By Lawrence Davidson
TothePointAnalysis.com

One of the first things they tell you in 10th-grade biology class is that we are all submerged in an ocean of air. That is an ocean made up of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and 1 percent other gasses plus water vapor.

Like a fish out of water, we can’t survive outside of this environment. However, what they don’t tell you in 10th grade, though they really should, is there are other environments just as pervasive that surround us and, for better or worse, help shape us by their content.

We are always living and behaving within a context: familial, fellowship circles, school-related, job-related, economic, political, religious and others.

If, like most people, you remain within the same relatively stable surroundings for long periods of time, your behavior will reflect your context. That is why someone born and raised in a racist environment will, barring meaningful countervailing influences, tend to be racist, etc.

There are, of course, degrees of attachment to different elements of longstanding context. For instance, a good number of people tie themselves to a local home/work environment and are disinterested in broader issues such as politics and government.

This does not mean they have escaped the political teachings of their national culture, but it does suggest that they will be less expressive about it compared to local happenings.

You might protest that this is just all too obvious. But that is part of the problem. Just like the air you breath, your default context is so obvious that most folks never give this shaping environment any thought.

That is a problem because to really begin to understand individual or group behavior you have to understand the context out of which the behavior comes.

Here are three examples of context-driven behavior.

No. 1: Teenagers Cheer Demolition of Bedouin Village

It was about 13 years ago that I ran across an article describing what, from my liberal American contextual setting, was really odd behavior among Israeli Jewish teenagers. Being Jewish myself this sort of reporting concerning “the only Democracy in the Middle East” interests me. The story went like this:

On July 26, 2010, Israeli police armed with tear gas, a water cannon, and two helicopters forced the 200 Bedouin residents of the southern Israeli village of al-Arakib (these were non-Jewish citizens of the State of Israel) out of their homes.

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Demolished house in Al-Araqeeb, 2010. (Emanuel Yellin, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

This sort of thing happens all the time in both the Occupied Territories and Israel within the Green Line. The vast majority of homes destroyed on a relatively regular basis are those of Palestinians.

This makes Israel’s “law of eminent domain” a weapon within a context of ethnic cleansing — so much for Israeli “Democracy.”

So far this story, within the Israeli context, is unremarkable. But then something new was added. The story actually warranted a report on CNN which included the following, “… the Israeli forces arrived in the village accompanied by busloads of civilians who cheered as the dwellings were demolished.”

Looking out from my own particular context — one that tells me racism involving young people is really bad news — this part of it all made me sit up and take notice.

As it turns out, the cheering civilians were Israeli Jewish high school students who had volunteered as “police civilian guards” to take part in this assault. And, they did more than just cheer.

According to CNN, “prior to the demolitions, the teens were sent into the villagers’ homes to remove furniture and belongings.” In the process, they vandalized the sites, “smashing windows and mirrors … and defacing family photographs.”

With the furniture piled up outside, the students “lounged around” on the now discarded sofas while waiting for the bulldozers. This was done “in plain sight of the owners.” Then, while the bulldozers were doing their work, the teens “celebrated.”

There is no way of accurately understanding the behavior of these teenagers apart from their context — which here means their upbringing in and absorption of the community narrative of Zionist Israel.

When we are raised to one specific worldview or storyline, via nationalism, religion, tribal aggrandizement, etc., it becomes difficult for most of us to objectively think about events touching on that story.

The Israelis are taught an historical story from early childhood that is reinforced in various ways throughout life. It is a nationalist story laced with a strong sense of victimhood. In some versions of the story it takes on a holy biblical aura. In all versions, the story becomes an identity-affirming narrative.

It provides an explanatory “moral” rationale — the claim of self-defense — for actions and policies toward real or imagined enemies. This narrative is so dominant in the case of Israelis that its adherents can no longer recognize the existence of cause and effect.

Despite Israel’s racist and prosecutorial behavior toward Palestinians, resistance to such policies are never seen as warranted responses, and Israeli reaction against that resistance is always a matter of self-defense. This is the sort of context that creates its own world.


That was the power of the contextual situation of the teenage “police civilian guards” cheering at the destruction of a Bedouin village thirteen years ago. Today, as bombs drop on hospitals and residential blocs in Gaza, the pattern repeats itself.

No. 2 — Sadistic Ridicule

On Oct. 21, the writer and journalist Patrick Lawrence posted an article entitled “Deeper Into Depravity.” In it he shows the reader video clips of a “Youtube” variety wherein

“Israelis record themselves sadistically ridiculing Palestinians in the most cravenly cruel manner. They imitate Palestinian children dying or starving. They apply racially offensive makeup. They laugh and dance while switching lights on and off and while ostentatiously drinking water from taps — this last to mock Gazans as Israel deprives them of power, potable water, food and much else. And I am describing the children in these videos, ranging in age from, maybe,6 or 7 to somewhere in their teens or early 20s. The mothers stand behind them, smiling with approval and delight.”

All of this is in apparent celebration of the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Lawrence comments that

“I am taken up now by the spectacle of human beings [the individuals on the video clips] who have allowed themselves to be destroyed in the name of an ideology that proves every bit as racist as it was when, in 1975, the U.N. General Assembly declared Zionism to be so. Resolution 3379 was revoked in 1991; it should not have been.”

Lawrence’s point here is that having been raised within the enclosed worldview of Zionism, these youngsters have become products (or perhaps victims) of that racist ideology. The making of such videos must seem natural and logical within these children’s own context.

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Child looking at representations of corpses of Palestinian children in shrouds at a demonstration to end Israeli bombings of Gaza on Oct. 28. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

No. 3 — Song for a Mass Bombing

On Nov. 19, Electronic Intifada managed to record a video broadcast on Israel’s national broadcaster Kan, of Israeli children singing a weirdly entitled “Friendship Song 2023,” against the visual background of the mass bombing of Gaza City. The first stanza went as follows,

“Autumn night falls over the beach of Gaza. Planes are bombing, destruction, destruction. Look the IDF is crossing the line to annihilate the swastika-bearers. In another year there will be nothing there. And we will safely return to our homes. Within a year we will annihilate everyone, And then we will return to plow our fields.”

It was removed from Kan perhaps because the station’s managers were “concerned that it could make [both them and] the channel complicit in genocide.”

There is a precedent for such a charge when officials of a station in Rwanda were convicted of incitement to genocide. “The song and video were originally created by Ofer Rosenbaum, a so-called ‘crisis-communication expert’ who heads a public relations firm called Rosenbaum Communication.” If nothing else it shows that, within the Israeli context, there is no necessary contradiction between the sweet faces and voices of children and vitriol.

Are there Israelis, young and old, who do not see the world this way? Yes, there are. And, for each there is one or more determining causes why they have escaped the dictates of their national culture. However, these folks are exceptions and usually not in a position to influence the national culture. The majority see them as outliers.

Biden’s Blindspot

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Biden in Israel, July 2022. (U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

The average Jewish Israeli is not the only prisoner of the Zionist worldview. U.S. President Joe Biden, a self-proclaimed Zionist, is also a captive. Raised in a pro-Israel American environment, he spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate acting in allegiance with the Zionist lobby.

Biden has held fast to a vision of Israel as “the only democracy in the Middle East” and one that “shares our values.” Occasional criticism of Israeli policies, such as settlement building, and his support for a two-state solution, while sometimes vocal, never went beyond rhetoric.

The result is a real blindspot; one that prevents him from telling the difference between the relatively brief terror of Oct. 7 (which Biden described as “utter evil”) and the ongoing wholesale destruction of Gaza and its millions of occupants (for which Biden is yet to offer a condemnation).

This blindspot follows, of course, from a persistent inability to consider an accurate and factual interpretation of Zionist history as one embracing racism and colonialism. It is an amazing act of self-deception for a politician who, we can assume, always had access to accurate information, but who could never seriously consider it because it disturbed part of the context that shaped his identity.

There are many things that go into shaping one’s personality and its expression in the day-to-day world. This complexity opens up possibilities for escaping the strong influence of one’s dominant surroundings. However, this is not going to happen in any significant way for most people. This fact is, for better or worse, what helps maintain stable community settings.

One can see this playing out in a recognizable and quite deplorable way with the youngsters in the three examples given above. Their family life, their education, their fellowship circles have certainly reinforced a racist worldview to the point where one cannot expect a whole lot of cognitive dissonance when they act out in the ways described.

They are but the tip of the iceberg. The vast number of Israeli Jews may not be mocking Palestinians on Youtube, but polls show they share the same sentiments.

Biden is their American counterpart. And, alas, he is also the president of the United States. Despite the tumult, most Americans live within a context that does not center on Israel or the fate of the Palestinians. Their context is much more local to their everyday lives.

Thus, in light of the present U.S. aid given for the massacres in Gaza, Biden is the one-eyed man in the land of the blind. And, with his jaundiced eye, he leads his fellow citizens, who are paying little attention to where they are going, down a road toward complicity in genocide.

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/19/p ... f-context/

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Registered Israeli Foreign Agent Driving Contrived Campus Antisemitism Crisis
DECEMBER 19, 2023

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A Jewish student denounces anti-Semitism on the campus. Photo: The Grayzone.

By Wyatt Reed · Dec 17, 2023

Lawsuits accusing top US universities of harboring antisemitism all originate from one source: a corporate law firm that fielded the pro-settler ex-US ambassador to Israel, and which was registered as a foreign agent of an Israeli principal as recently as 2021.

The firm now represents professional Israel lobby activists posing as victimized “Jewish students” and seeking to crush the free speech rights of Palestine solidarity activists.[/b]

The fallout from December 5 House Committee on Antisemitism hearings has already cost University of Pennsylvania president Liz Magill her job, while demands by billionaire pro-Israel donors and politicians for the firing of Harvard’s Claudine Gay have grown by the day. Both stand accused of refusing to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews, even though no such calls have taken place on their campuses.

Meanwhile, little attention has been paid to the forces orchestrating the carefully choreographed, heavily-funded campaign to crush Palestine solidarity activism on campus.

The law firm leading the assault on the universities has included David Friedman, the former ambassador to Israel under Donald Trump, among its partners. Until 2021, this firm, Kasowitz Benson Torres, was registered with the US Department of Justice as a foreign agent on behalf of an Israeli principal.

The firm’s clients include associates of a jailed Ukrainian billionaire who bankrolled neo-Nazi militias, along with a who’s who of corporations accused of defrauding and even killing consumers.

Meanwhile, the “Jewish student” witnesses who set the stage for the attacks on Magill and her fellow university presidents at the House Antisemitism Committee were employed on at least a semi-professional basis by Israeli lobbying cutouts.

They included Jonathan Frieden, a Harvard Law student who moonlights as president of Alliance for Israel; MIT graduate student Talia Khan, the president of MIT Israel Alliance; and Bella Ingber, co-president of NYU’s Students Supporting Israel.

Israel lobbyist moonlighting as UPenn student calls for Covid-style lockdowns on Palestine protests
The most harrowing — and clearly questionable — claims furnished during the December 5 congressional hearings came courtesy of Eyal Yakoby, an Israeli-American senior at UPenn.

“Over the course of the last few weeks, I’ve… read the statement, ‘Ninety-percent of pigs are gas chambered!’ on the pavement as I walked to class,” Yakoby moaned.

The most likely explanation for the appearance of this phrase on UPenn’s Locust Walk was not the presence of chalk-wielding neo-Nazis but rather, that of animal welfare advocates, who were presumably calling attention to the fact that most pigs are killed by slaughterhouses which employ a grotesque method of gas inhalation exposed by activists in late 2022.

“‘You’re a dirty little Jew and you deserve to die’ are not words said by Hamas, but by my classmates and my professors,” Yakoby claimed during a December 5 press conference convened by the House GOP leadership. Oddly, he neglected to name a single student or UPenn employee responsible for such inflammatory remarks.

Conjuring up images of a campus overwhelmed by Hamas-linked hatemongers, Yakoby seemed to call for imposing Covid-era lockdowns on students protesting Israel’s blood-drenched assault on the besieged Gaza Strip.

“During Covid, strict guidelines governed everything from class attendance and graduation walks,” he said. “But now, when students and faculty defy policies to intimidate Jewish students, where is the same resolute enforcement?”


Lawsuits target top US campuses with flimsy, unprovable allegations
Just hours after his appearance alongside members of Congress, Yakoby filed a lawsuit against UPenn, claiming the university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by failing to respond to antisemitism.

Yakoby’s lawsuit was filled with dubious, highly politicized accusations, including complaints about the chanting of “antisemitic slurs” such as “Intifada revolution” and “from the river to the sea.”

A closer examination of other incidents described in the lawsuit against Penn reveals a great number of them appear to have been seriously exaggerated or manufactured out of whole cloth.

The most ‘threatening’ episode described by the Yakoby, for example, consists of a man who “threateningly approached him” and “yelled ‘fuck you.’” As a result of this experience — and the agony apparently endured when the plaintiff observed other students removing posters showing Israeli captives — the suit claims that “Yakoby missed his next two classes” because he was “shaken by these escalating acts of hate.”

The vast majority of claims of overt antisemitism appear to consist of statements by students and professors who criticized the state of Israel but generally took pains to distinguish between the political ideology of Zionism and the religion of Judaism.

Elsewhere, the lawsuit accuses professors of antisemitism because they questioned now-debunked Israeli atrocity propaganda about the October 7 attacks, including a demonstrably false claim by Yakoby that the “killing of 40 [Israeli] babies” by Palestinian militants had been “confirmed.”

Many of the alleged incidents described as “assaults” fail to meet basic evidentiary standards, leaving the court with no option but to take the plaintiffs’ word that the contents of the complaint happened as described.

Claims that a Jewish student was taunted with exhortations to “keep walking you dirty little Jew,” for instance, are typical of the highly suspect claims found throughout the lawsuit.

Indeed, no proof of this alleged interaction was provided, nor did the plaintiff’s provide even a vague sketch of the assailant’s identity. Instead, the entire emphasis is placed on the supposed lack of “sympathy” subsequently shown to the student by a professor who decided not to award her an “extension on her class lecture note assignment.”

The plaintiffs also took aim at Palestinian academic and poet Refaat Alareer, who had been invited to a literary festival at Penn before being murdered in a December 6 Israeli strike described by human rights monitors as a “targeted assassination.”

The demands of the pro-Israel activists include “terminating deans, administrators, professors and other employees” who they say are “responsible for the antisemitic abuse permeating the school, whether because they engaged in it or permitted it; suspending or expelling students who engage in such conduct… the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism,” and “compensatory, consequential, and punitive [financial] damages.”

Israel lobbyists are also targeting America’s most expensive campus, New York University, leveling a litany of flimsy and unprovable antisemitism allegations to extract heavy financial damages, including a full refund of tuition. Bella Ingber, who also featured prominently at the House Republican press conference, is a leading face of the NYU lawsuit.

During the Republican presser, Ingber compared conditions at NYU to life under the German Nazi Reich.

“Since Oct. 7,” Ingber said, “the unmistakable anti-Semitism that I have experienced on campus is reminiscent of the Jew-hatred I’ve heard about from my grandparents, Holocaust survivors who experienced first-hand the deafening silence of their neighbors in Poland and Germany when the Nazis first rose to power.”

The plaintiffs of the Israel lobby-led lawsuit “request that a judgment be entered in each of their favor, and against NYU” which would see the university “terminating deans, administrators, professors and other employees responsible for the antisemitic abuse permeating the school, whether because they engaged in it or permitted it… suspending or expelling students who engage in such conduct,” and “compensatory and punitive damages.”

In other words, the lawsuit seeks campus-wide regime change, replacing any and all administrators with those willing to take instructions from the Israel lobby.

“Bibi Netanyahu’s guys in the Trump White House” lead legal assault on campus speech
If the language of the NYU lawsuit sounds familiar, that is because it was brought by the same high-powered corporate legal firm presiding over the legal action against UPenn: Kasowitz Benson Torres, best known for its work on behalf of former President Donald Trump. The firm’s leadership has been aptly described as “Bibi Netanyahu’s guys in the Trump White House.”

The law firm was known as Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman until 2017, when its partner, David Friedman left to become US Ambassador to Israel. Friedman has been credited with working alongside former presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner to pressure Trump into adopting more radically anti-Palestinian positions.

The firm was founded in 1993 by attorney Marc Kasowitz, who gained national notoriety for his work representing Big Tobacco, describing himself as one of the “most feared lawyers in the United States.” Though reports describe him as a strong Trump ally and a go-to source for the former president, financial disclosures show Kasowitz and his wife have donated thousands of dollars to Democratic politicians as well, including former President Barack Obama, current President Joe Biden, and Sen. Chuck Schumer. Also employed by the firm is former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a hardcore neoconservative who now serves as chairman of the pro-war United Against a Nuclear Iran. While in Congress, Lieberman advocated for moving the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as far back as 1995.

A quick glance at Kasowitz Benson Torres’ recent handiwork reveals a lengthy track record of defending Goliath from David. For example, its website boasts of successfully defending Comcast against a class-action lawsuit by angry customers. Other high-profile clients include Israeli pharmaceutical giant Teva, best known for causing the ongoing worldwide shortage of a vincristine — a crucial drug in treating most types of childhood cancers with no known substitute — after it deemed production insufficiently profitable.

In 2019, the firm signed on to represent the US-based co-defendants of notoriously-corrupt Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who now languishes in a Kiev prison and is known for bankrolling current president Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian military’s neo-Nazi Azov Regiment. Ukrainian financial giant Privatbank maintains that Kolomoisky and his associates defrauded the bank out of billions of dollars.

A year later, Kasowitz Benson Torres was required to register as a foreign agent with the US Justice Department after agreeing to represent an Israeli real estate developer specializing in building luxury condos for ulra-Orthodox Jews living in illegal settlements.


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From the 2021 FARA registration form by Kasowitz Benson Torres

This November, The Grayzone revealed a leaked letter signed by David Friedman and delivered to NYU administrators in advance of the lawsuit. The letter demanded NYU establish a position dedicated to “combating antisemitism,” and disband student clubs dedicated to Palestine activism.

Now, the law firm’s crusade to crush the free speech rights of Palestine solidarity activists is spreading across the country. This November, two of the firm’s partners revealed that the legal team plans similar suits for Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, MIT, Stanford, and UC-Berkeley, accusing them all of “deliberate indifference” to the supposed plight of Jewish students.

(The Grayzone)

https://orinocotribune.com/registered-i ... sm-crisis/

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WHO denounces that there are no operational hospitals in northern Gaza

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According to the entity, since October 7, 246 attacks on health facilities in Gaza have been reported. | Photo: EFE
Published December 21, 2023

"There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north," said the WHO representative in Palestine.

The World Health Organization (WHO) denounced this Thursday that there is no operational hospital in northern Gaza while only nine operate in the entire Palestinian territory amid incessant bombing by the Israeli Army.

"In reality, there are no functional hospitals left in the north," said the representative of the international health organization in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Peeperkorn, at a press conference.

The official noted that the Al-Ahli hospital “was the last, but now it is minimally functional” and no longer admits new wounded while he highlighted that the bodies from recent attacks “are crowded in its courtyard, since they cannot be buried safely.” and worthy.”


In this sense, he recalled that the occupation forces detained 20 members of the hospital's health personnel, of whom, although six were released, they were forced to move to the south of the Strip.

“Our staff are at a loss for words to describe the catastrophic situation facing our patients and healthcare workers,” he said.

Based on this, the WHO reiterated the call to respect international humanitarian law, especially regarding the protection of health workers, patients, health facilities and ambulances.

According to the entity, since last October 7, 246 attacks on health facilities in Gaza have been reported, of which 26 hospitals and 76 ambulances have been targets.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/oms-hosp ... -0007.html

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Israel advances with ethnic cleansing of southern Gaza

In October, Israel sought to displace over one million people from northern Gaza into the southern areas

News Desk

DEC 21, 2023

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(Photo Credit: Anadolu Agency)

In a press release on 20 December, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced that the Israeli army had sent an evacuation request to southern Gaza.

“The Israeli [army] designated a new area covering about 20 percent of central and south of Khan Yunis city for immediate evacuation,” the OCHA press release read. “Prior to the onset of hostilities, this area was home to nearly 111,542 people.”

OCHA’s statement describes the area designated by the Israeli army as consisting of 32 shelters that accommodate over 141,000 internally displaced persons, the majority of whom were previously displaced from the north.

Instructions on an accompanying map called on residents “to move immediately to shelters further south of Khan Yunis, specifically in Ash Shaboura, Tel as Sultan and Az Zahur neighborhoods in Rafah governorate, which are already overcrowded. The scope of displacement resulting from the order to evacuate is unclear.”

Khan Yunis has been the target of recent Israeli aggressions, Al-Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said from Rafah in southern Gaza on 6 December. Mahmoud described the city as “under heavy aerial bombardment, [and that] Israeli tanks had started pushing deeper and deeper to the center of Khan Yunis city … from the eastern side.”

One of the few operating hospitals in the besieged enclave, Al-Nasr Hospital in Khan Yunis, was the target of an attack by Israeli forces recently.

Speaking on Tuesday, spokesman James Elder said in a UN press briefing that "over the past 48 hours, the largest remaining fully functional hospital in Gaza has been shelled twice. That hospital is Al-Nasr.”

"The Gaza Strip remains the most dangerous place in the world to be [in for] a child and, day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced," Elder added.

Earlier this month, Israel expanded their ground invasion into southern Gaza. Eyewitnesses reported the entry of dozens of tanks, troop carriers, and bulldozers through the city of Khan Yunis.

During the early days of the war, Israel ordered over one million Palestinians living in northern Gaza to evacuate to the south.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israe ... thern-gaza

US base struck by rockets in western Iraq

Last week, Baghdad announced that Iraqi security services were involved in a recent attack on the US embassy in Iraq

News Desk

DEC 20, 2023

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(Photo credit: X)
US troops in the Ain al-Assad military base in western Iraq came under rocket fire on 20 December, an Iraqi security source told the Shafaq news outlet.

“The vicinity of the base, where forces of the International Coalition are stationed, was struck by two rockets early this morning,” the source said.

“The attack did not result in any injuries or material losses among the forces stationed at the base,” it added.

Al-Mayadeen’s correspondent also said on 20 December that “US forces were targeted at the Ain al-Assad base in Anbar Governorate, western Iraq.”

The attack is the first carried out by the Iraqi resistance since 17 December. A statement is expected to be released in the coming hours.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq coalition announced in a statement on Sunday its targeting of two US occupation bases in Syria.

“In continuation of our approach in resisting the American occupation forces in Iraq and the region, and in response to the Zionist entity’s massacres against our people in Gaza, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq attacked, with drones, two American occupation bases in the Al-Omar and Conoco oilfields deep in Syria, and caused direct casualties,” the statement read.

Following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the start of the Gaza-Israel war in October, Iraqi resistance groups banded together under a single coalition. They began near-daily attacks on US bases in both Iraq and Syria, in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance and in rejection of Washington’s support for the Israeli assault on Gaza.

The attacks also aim to hasten the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

On 8 December, a rocket attack struck the vicinity of the US embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone. A spokesman for Iraq’s armed forces announced on 14 December that Iraqi security services were involved in the attack.

“Our security services were able, after intense technical and intelligence efforts, to identify the perpetrators … Preliminary information showed that some of them, unfortunately, are connected to the security services,” said Major General Yahya Rasoul.

The Office of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said that day that an investigation into the embassy attack is ongoing.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/us-ba ... stern-iraq

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Israeli war on Gaza continues for 76th consecutive day, death toll over 20,000

Israeli forces reportedly leveled a cemetery and executed 11-12 unarmed men after separating them from their families, shocking international community

December 21, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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Devastation in Gaza Photo: Fuad Khamash/PRCS

Israeli airstrikes and ground bombardment devastated Gaza for the 76th consecutive day as the death toll surpassed 20,000, including 8,000 children killed, along with close to 54,000 injured, multiple news reports stated on December 21. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council vote on a ceasefire resolution, scheduled to be held on Wednesday, was delayed once again and is now expected to be held today. Airstrikes and ground shelling struck all parts of Gaza in the last 24 hours, killing and injuring dozens of Palestinians. Multiple violent military raids also continued across the occupied West Bank, leading to mass illegal arrests of Palestinians.

Meanwhile, talks between Hamas and Israel being mediated by Egypt and Qatar have also not progressed, as Israel refuses to agree to a complete and long term ceasefire. Hamas has said today that it will not agree to a hostage for prisoners exchange deal if Israeli aggression is not put to an end permanently.

At the same time, there is significant likelihood of a US veto on the UNSC resolution, despite increasing calls from the international community for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire, resulting in Israel and the US being completely isolated in supporting the continuation of this genocidal war.

The Israeli military bombed several locations in Rafah in Southern Gaza, including a number of homes and residential buildings as well as the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, killing at least four Palestinians and injuring several others. Israel today also ordered the mass evacuation of the central and southern parts of the city of Khan Younis, which is currently sheltering hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Palestinians.

Gruesome details also emerged from Gaza city of Israeli soldiers separating, rounding up and summarily executing 11 to 12 Palestinian men in front of other members of their families. The United Nations Human Rights Office has said that if reports of such an incident are true, they may “amount to a war crime.”

Additionally, Israeli forces destroyed a Palestinian cemetery in the eastern part of Gaza, an act which analysts have said has been done to “terrorize the population,” and to “break their will psychologically,” in order for them to stop resisting the occupation in the future.

Airstrikes and ground bombardment has also been reported throughout the day from various other parts of Gaza, with Israeli soldiers significantly continuing to lay siege on a number of hospitals and medical facilities, including at an ambulance center, in what the UN has described as “one of the most sadistic forms” that the Israeli war has taken. Latest reports from the World Health Organization say that only 9 out of the 36 hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza are currently functioning.

In addition to the intense bombardment and attacks in Gaza, Israeli forces have also continued to stage violent military raids across the occupied West Bank in the last 24 hours and today, with reports noting raids in and around Nablus, Jenin, Al Bireh, Jericho, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Tubas, and occupied East Jerusalem, among other places. At least 16 buildings and other civilian structures have been demolished, including two structures which were being used by Palestinians as shelters for farm animals. At least 25 Palestinians have also been arrested in the raids today, taking the total number of Palestinians arrested since October 7 to nearly 4,700.

Clashes between Palestinian residents and the invading Israeli soldiers were reported in the West Bank, with the soldiers reportedly attacking the resisting Palestinians with live ammunition fire and stun grenades. Since the beginning of the invasion of Gaza, in the accompanying escalation in raids and military violence in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces have killed at least 301 Palestinians and injured nearly 3,500 others.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/21/ ... ver-20000/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 23, 2023 12:22 pm

What is happening in Palestine and Israel: chronicle for December 22
December 22, 2023
Rybar

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In the north-west of the Gaza Strip, Israeli troops are conducting filtration measures and fighting in the An - Nazla area in Jabaliya . At the same time, the Israeli Air Force is subjecting residential areas to massive bombing.

In the coastal zone, the Israelis continue to “terraform the area,” leveling all high-rise buildings to the ground. In this area, the main clashes are taking place in the vicinity of the Sheikh Radwan reservoir - if the IDF manages to advance near it, then in the future they will even be able to cut off Jabaliya from Gaza .

In the area of ​​the isthmus between the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip, the Israeli command demanded the immediate evacuation of the residents of Al - Mughraq and Az - Zahra . Apparently, the Israelis intend to launch an offensive in the area in the near future.

In the south of the enclave, the Israel Defense Forces managed to complete the formation of the first “cauldron”, which included As - Surayj and Jarara . Israeli units also continue to fight in the residential area of ​​Khan Yunis , however, due to the lack of personnel, establishing the configuration of the front line in the city is quite problematic.

Last night, pro-Iranian factions in Iraq launched a drone attack on the Israeli port of Eilat , marking the first time Israel has attacked from Iraqi soil since the Gulf War. However, the drone never reached its target and was intercepted by Jordanian air defense systems .

Progress of hostilities
North Gaza Strip

Israeli troops continue to fight in the An-Nazla area in Jabaliya and carry out filtration activities in the controlled area in the north-west of the Gaza Strip. At the same time, the Israeli Air Force continues to subject the residential areas of Jabaliya to massive bombing. It was also reported that there was an ongoing siege of the Al - Auda hospital , near which gunfire continued unabated. Palestinian media reported that several civilians were injured in the area of ​​the medical facility as a result of shooting by Israel Defense Forces snipers.


Meanwhile, in the coastal zone, the Israelis continue to “terraform the area,” leveling all high-rise buildings to the ground. Thus, footage appeared of the explosion of buildings in the Ar - Rimal area , where IDF units intend to establish one of the strongholds for further advance deeper into Gaza . In addition, heavy fighting continues in the vicinity of the Sheikh Radwan Reservoir . If the Israel Defense Forces advance in this direction, they will be able to cut off Jabaliya from Gaza .

On the southern flank, Israeli units continue to clear the area near the Baptist Hospital . From time to time, Palestinian forces carry out incursions, but they fail to achieve any significant results.


In addition, footage from the Israeli side appeared on the Internet in which IDF fighters discovered a Palestinian launch pad on the territory of the Marwani cemetery .


It was also reported that the Golani brigade, which had been fighting in the Al - Judaida area over the past weeks, was withdrawing from the Gaza Strip . According to some reports, the withdrawal was associated with heavy losses of the brigade. It was reported that the unit would be reorganized and, after rotation, would again be transferred to the combat zone.

Center of the Gaza Strip

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In the Gaza Valley, the Israeli command demanded the immediate evacuation of the residents of Al - Mughraq and Az - Zahra in the direction of Deir al - Balah - this may indicate the possible intention of the Israel Defense Forces to become more active in this area. Another indirect confirmation of this is the Palestinian media reports about the transfer of armored vehicles and engineering units to this direction.

The area itself in the center of the Gaza Strip consists mainly of farms with dense gardens, where there is virtually no dense urban development. Moreover, it was from here that Hamas militants often fired at Israeli units located in the isthmus area between the northern and southern parts of the Gaza Strip.

South Gaza Strip

In the south of the enclave, Israeli units continue to fight in the Khan Yunis residential area . However, due to the lack of personnel, establishing the configuration of the front line in the city is quite problematic. At the same time, east of Bani Suheil, the Israel Defense Forces managed to complete the formation of the first “cauldron”, which included the settlements of As - Surayj and Jarara . Currently, the Israelis are concentrating forces at the Abu Hurayrah mosque , from where they are trying to expand their zone of control towards the Ibn an - Nafis school .


At the same time, artillery and air strikes continue throughout the southern Gaza Strip. Rafah was under massive fire , where, according to the Israeli command, three Hamas militants were eliminated. However, Arab media also reported civilian casualties.

Actions of pro-Iranian formations in the Middle East

Pro-Iranian factions in Iraq reported launching a drone at the Israeli port of Eilat , marking the first time an Israeli attack has been launched from Iraqi territory since the Gulf War. However, the drone did not reach its target and was intercepted by Jordanian air defense systems .

Border with Lebanon

Consequences of Shomer's shelling

The situation on Israel's northern border remains tense. Hezbollah fighters attacked strongholds and other military installations of Israeli troops: the barracks on the territory of the Shomera base were also under fire , where there were no casualties.


In turn, Israeli troops shelled more than ten settlements in southern Lebanon , damaging residential buildings and infrastructure. Among the affected settlements: Mays Al - Jabal , Maroun al - Ras , Aita al - Shaab and Jabal Balata .

West Bank

In the eastern enclave, Israeli security forces continue raids throughout almost the entire region. The most violent clashes occurred in Nablus , Surif , Qalqilya and Jenin . In this case, again, there was the use of firearms and casualties.


A car under fire in Jenin

At the same time, footage of a car being fired at by Israelis in Jenin , the driver of which was seriously injured, was actively disseminated on the Internet. Palestinian media presented the incident as further evidence of the brutality of Israeli security forces.


Weapons confiscated by the Israelis in the village of Dura

At the same time, mass arrests of residents suspected of connections with Hamas continue: last night alone, more than ten people were arrested. The IDF reported in the usual manner about the confiscation of their weapons. Nevertheless, the Arab media traditionally accused the Israelis of detaining innocent civilians.

Political-diplomatic background
On discussing the future of the Gaza Strip


The Washington Post published an article about a possible conflict between the administration of US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a discussion of the post-war structure of the Gaza Strip.

According to the publication, the ultra-Orthodox cabinet insists on the eviction of more than two million Palestinians from the enclave to Egypt. To this end, Tel Aviv turned to Washington to put pressure on the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to open the borders in the Sinai Peninsula and accept refugees. For Cairo, this decision is fraught with an increase in crime and terrorist activity.

In turn, the Americans, like the Egyptians, do not support this idea: in their opinion, control over Gaza should be taken over by the Palestinian Authority under the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas and the ruling Fatah party, which is a competitor to Hamas. Although the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in the West Bank is not a sustainable project for its time, its capabilities may well be sufficient to establish control over the Gaza Strip.

About US military assistance

According to The New York Times , since October the United States has sent more than 5,000 Mark 84 munitions to Israel as military aid. This is a type of 2,000-pound general-purpose aerial bomb capable of creating craters approximately 40 feet in size: in the southern Gaza Strip, such are on satellite At least 208 were found in photographs and drone footage.

The scale and nature of the supply of these types of bombs contrasts with the ongoing calls by US officials for the Israeli government to help reduce the intensity of hostilities and the resulting risks to civilians. At the same time, the use of Mark 84 posed a widespread threat to Palestinians trying to find a safe place in the south of the enclave.

https://rybar.ru/chto-proishodit-v-pale ... -dekabrya/

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Israeli Commanders Reported to ICC
December 21, 2023

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant is at the top of the dossier of 40 commanders that Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

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Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant with U.S. counterpart Lloyd Austin in Tel Aviv on March 9. (DoD, Alexander Kubitza)

By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams

As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s obliteration of Gaza topped 20,000 — mostly women and children — a U.S.-based advocacy group this week published a list of 40 Israeli military commanders it says are “prime suspects” for international war crimes investigation.

Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), founded by Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his 2018 assassination, said it submitted a dossier on “the officers and commanders responsible for executing Israel’s war in Gaza” to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“These 40 IDF commanders who have been responsible for planning, ordering, and executing Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment, wanton destruction, and mass killing of civilians in Gaza should be prime suspects in any ICC investigation,” DAWN Executive Director Sarah Leah Whitson said in a statement on Tuesday. “While Israel has done its best to conceal the identities of many of its officers, they should be put on notice that they face individual criminal liability for the crimes underway in Gaza.”


Although Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the ICC, the court’s jurisdiction includes Palestine, subjecting anyone who commits war crimes there to prosecution.

DAWN’s list includes only Israeli officers “from the rank of lieutenant-general and up who command units no smaller than battalion level forces.”

According to DAWN:

“At the top of the list of suspects is Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. On October 9, 2023, Gallant ordered a complete siege on Gaza City, cut off the supply of potable water to the entire population of the Gaza Strip — over 2 million people — and blocked the entry of humanitarian aid. ‘We are fighting human animals and we’ll act accordingly,’ the defense minister said, explaining the decision. One day later, he told Israeli troops on the Gaza border: ‘I have released all the restraints… Gaza will never return to what it was.’

Also included is the head of COGAT (the Israeli military’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories), Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian. Maj. Gen. Alian is responsible for administering the siege of Gaza, and was responsible for cutting off the supply of water, food, and fuel in the early days of the war. On October 10, 2023, Alian said in an Arabic-language video message to the civilian population of Gaza that Israel was imposing a total blockade, ‘no electricity, no water, just damage,’ adding a chilling warning, ‘You wanted hell, you will get hell.’”


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Rasan Aliyan, Israel’s coordinator of government operations in the territories, in 2021. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)

“Intentionally depriving civilians of basic necessities, including by blocking or even impeding the provision of humanitarian relief supplies, is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the ICC,” DAWN noted. “Intentionally targeting medical facilities, ambulances, places of worship, places of culture, and most seriously the indiscriminate bombardment of civilian areas, are crimes in the Rome Statute.”

DAWN’s list comes as South Africa has reportedly submitted documentation to the ICC in pursuit of war crimes charges against Israel. Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, and Djibouti have also asked the tribunal to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Nongovernmental actors including the advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeerahave also requested ICC probes of Israeli — and, in the case of RSF, Hamas — killings of journalists.


Karim Khan, the ICC chief prosecutor, has come under fire by Palestine defenders, who say he has shown little interest in investigating Israel’s policies and practices in Gaza and beyond.

After visiting Gaza in late October, Khan noted the ICC’s ongoing Palestine investigation that goes back to 2014 and highlighted an online portal to which anyone can submit information on alleged war crimes.

The Palestine Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Committee last month accused Khan of being a “genocide enabler” for his “failure to prosecute Israeli war criminals.”

The ICC has long been accused of almost exclusively targeting African and non-Western individuals who commit war crimes.

While no longer with the ICC, Luis Moreno Ocampo, the court’s first-ever chief prosecutor, said last month that both Israel and Hamas — whose fighters led the Oct. 7 attacks that killed more than 1,100 Israelis and others — have committed war crimes including genocide during the war.

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/21/i ... ed-to-icc/

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Palestinian prisoner beaten to death by Israeli guards: Report

Thaer Abu Asab is the sixth Palestinian to die in Israeli captivity since the start of the war in Gaza

News Desk

DEC 21, 2023

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Palestinians families and supporters await the release of prisoners in Israeli jails (Photo credit: Getty])

A Palestinian man was beaten to death by Israeli prison guards last month, and an investigation into his death is being carried out, Israel Hayom reported on 21 December.

Thaer Abu Asab died last month after being held in Israel’s Ketziot Prison for 18 years. Israeli authorities issued a gag order preventing Israeli media from publishing news of his death until today.

Abu Asab was allegedly beaten to death in his cell by a group of nineteen guards, who have been detained for questioning on suspicion of assault and causing injury.

Abu Asab was imprisoned for attempting a resistance operation to bomb soldiers at a checkpoint near Nablus in the occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada in 2005. He was arrested carrying an explosive belt at the checkpoint.

Mahmoud Katnani, one of the prisoners released in the exchange deal between Israel and Hamas last month, was in the same prison cell where Abu Assab was held. 972 Magazine quoted Katnani as describing what happened: “On Nov. 18, at 6 p.m. during the security count, the forces [from the IPS’s rapid response unit, Keter] began to break into the room. There were 10 prisoners in the room, and we sat as usual: kneeling with our hands over our heads and heads down. Suddenly, the forces attacked us for no apparent reason, beating us with batons and kicking us.”

Katnani continued saying, “The beating continued violently … They slammed the prisoner Thaer Abu Assab on the floor and dragged him to a corner near the bathroom, beating him on his head and body for several minutes. Then they exited the room, leaving Thaer covered in blood flowing heavily from his head. We approached him [and realized that] his heart had stopped beating. We pulled him to the middle of the room; he had died.”

“We covered him with a blanket and began screaming at the guards for an hour and a half until a nurse, guards, and members of the same force arrived in the room,” Katnani continued.

“Abu Assab’s body was taken away. Shortly after, a member of the force arrived and informed us of his death.”

His family has demanded that Israeli authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI) responded to news of the killing on Thursday, saying:

“Since the war began, we have collected testimonies of beating and abuse, degradation, and sexual violence. Six prisoners have already died in prison, and the case published this morning raises serious suspicion that the IPS is being transformed from a professional incarceration body to a vindictive and punitive force.”

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/pales ... rds-report

Israel’s Golani Brigade turns tail from Gaza

A former Israeli general has revealed that the 'elite' Golani Brigade lost a quarter of its forces on the first day of the war

News Desk

DEC 22, 2023

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(Photo credit: AFP)

Israel's Channel 13 reported on 21 December that the army’s elite Golani Brigade withdrew from Gaza following 60 days of fighting to “reorganize its ranks” after facing unprecedented losses during the first weeks of battle in the strip.

The news comes days after it was reported that the elite infantry unit had suffered major losses during the ground assault on Gaza.

Retired Israeli general Moshe Kaplinsky said this week that the Golani Brigade lost 88 soldiers since 7 October. According to the retired general, 72 were killed on the first day of the war – amounting to a quarter of the entire brigade.

In late October, Israel expanded the limited incursions it was carrying out in Gaza into a full-scale ground assault. Since then, Israeli troops have fallen into bloody ambushes laid by the Gaza resistance daily.

The withdrawal of the Golani Brigade came one day after the Israeli army claimed in a statement that it had achieved “operational control” over the Shujaiya neighborhood in northern Gaza. While the ground war is now focused on the south of Gaza, battles continue to rage across the north of the strip – despite the army previously claiming to have dealt a significant blow to the Hamas presence there.

According to Palestine Chronicle, Israel announced control over Shujaiya “to reduce the shock of the news that its most elite fighting force had essentially been defeated, forcing it to an early retreat.”

The Shujaiya neighborhood in north Gaza is where the Israeli army has faced some of the stiffest resistance since the start of the ground war.

Footage released on 21 December shows the exact moment a force of elite Golani Brigade soldiers was attacked in Shujaiya. Screams are heard as the troops scramble to treat a wounded soldier, whose go-pro camera recorded the incident.


Israeli forces face such ambushes daily, as evident from the statements and videos released by Hamas’ Qassam Brigades via its media channel.


Seven members of the Golani Brigade were taken out in a single ambush in Shujaiya on 12 December.

Among the dead were Col. Itzhak Ben Basat, head of the Golani Brigade’s commander’s team, and Tomer Grinberg, the Golani Brigade’s 13th Battalion commander.

Grindberg had been filmed earlier in December promising the Israeli people “a resounding victory” in Gaza.

The Israeli losses being reported are only a fraction of the actual number of dead and wounded soldiers, as hospital data recently cited by Hebrew media indicates that soldier casualties are being underreported by half.

Qassam Brigades kill Ukrainian mercenaries in Gaza

The Palestinian resistance continues to inflict heavy losses on Israeli ground forces

News Desk

DEC 21, 2023

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A general view of destroyed buildings after Israeli attacks in a part of the Shuja'iyya neighbourhood in east Gaza City (Photo credit: EPA)

Fighters from Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, ambushed and killed at least seven Ukrainian mercenaries who were fighting with the Israeli army in Gaza, Quds News Network reported on 21 December.

According to sources speaking with the network, Qassam fighters targeted the mercenaries on 14 November after spotting them on Hassanein Street in the Shujaiya neighborhood, one of the main centers of Palestinian resistance to the ongoing Israeli ground invasion.

The sources added that "the occupation army did not include the dead among the numbers it acknowledges about its losses among soldiers in Gaza," and that the ambush killed soldiers from the Israeli army as well.

According to the sources, a video that circulated on social media of a unit of Ukrainian mercenaries in a Shujaiya school was recorded on the same day as the attack.

The video showed one mercenary writing in the Ukrainian language on a chalk board in the school.

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It also showed a group of Ukrainian mercenaries in a neighborhood of Gaza City, hiding behind a wall.

Ukrainians fighting for Israel is a reversal of a dynamic that appeared in 2022, as reports emerged of hundreds of Ukrainian-born Israelis and several native Israelis traveling to Ukraine to join volunteer units after the Russian invasion.

The Quds Network report comes as the Israeli military announced the deaths of three additional soldiers on Thursday, Lavi Gehati, Omri Schwartz, and Yacoub Elian, during battles in the Gaza Strip. This brings the number of Israeli soldiers killed to more than 136, according to Israel, since the start of its ground invasion in Gaza on 27 October.

However, as The Cradle has reported, Israeli military leaders seeks to hide many of their soldiers’ deaths, and the number killed and wounded is likely much higher than the military’s official acknowledgements.

Hamas has released a flurry of combat videos in the past week showing its fighters targeting Israeli troops, armored personnel carriers, and tanks. This indicates that while Israel has caused massive destruction in Gaza, the Qassam Brigades are still strong militarily and are inflicting heavy losses on the Israeli army.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/qassa ... es-in-gaza

Secrecy shrouds British military actions in Lebanon

The UK, perpetually dissatisfied with its status as a former imperial power, seeks to play an oversized role in Israel’s protection by setting its military and intel sights on Lebanon, Gaza, and Yemen today.


Kit Klarenberg

DEC 21, 2023

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Photo Credit: The Cradle

On 8 October, veteran British reporter Robert Peston published a remarkable post on the social media platform X. Citing insider information from “government and intelligence sources,” Peston asserted that the Palestinian resistance operation Al-Aqsa Flood would inevitably evolve into a full-blown regional war, one that will be “as destabilizing to global security as Putin’s attack on Ukraine.” The journalist forewarned:

“We are in the early stages of a conflict with ramifications for much of the world.”

What makes this revelation even more astonishing is the speed at which British intelligence gained certainty about imminent upheaval in West Asia, just over 24 hours after the unprecedented strike by Palestinian freedom fighters on Israel.

The urgency to prepare western audiences for the impending crisis hints at a deeper narrative — that London may have had a hand in igniting conflict across the region, a macabre plan that has been unfolding ever since.

Covert military alliances: SAS in Gaza

It goes without saying that Britain’s involvement in Israel’s genocidal assault in Gaza is shrouded in intense secrecy. In December 2020, London and Tel Aviv signed a military cooperation agreement described by Ministry of Defense officials as an “important piece of defense diplomacy” that “strengthens” military ties between the two countries, while providing “a mechanism for planning our joint activity.”

The contents of this agreement, however, remain hidden not only from ordinary British citizens but also from elected lawmakers.

Speculation arises regarding whether the agreement obligates Britain to defend Israel in the event of an attack, potentially explaining the visible involvement of the notorious SAS in the assault by the occupation army on Palestinians.

Mainstream media reports in late October hinted at the elite squadron being “on standby” at British military and intelligence bases in neighboring Cyprus, preparing to conduct daring hostage rescue operations in Gaza.

Subsequent articles suggested Britain’s special operations soldiers were “training in Lebanon to rescue Britons” in West Asia, should they get caught up in the war in Gaza, or “be taken hostage” by the Lebanese resistance, Hezbollah, or its allies.

A senior British Army official boasted that these forces had “built up a very close relationship” with their counterparts in Beirut, which “provides an insight and influence on Lebanese decision-making and seeing things from the other side of the northern border, which clearly concerns Israel.”

The secrecy surrounding these activities prompted Britain's Defense and Security Media Advisory (DSMA) Committee to issue D-notices to British news outlets, cautioning against disclosing sensitive information about SAS operations in West Asia.

True to form, there has been no further reporting on the SAS interest in Gaza by mainstream British media. Yet, the DSMA’s reference to “security, intelligence and counter-terrorist operations” points to a very different purpose to their presence in the region than mere hostage rescue.

Independent investigations by Declassified UK bolster this suspicion, revealing 33 military transport flights traveling to Tel Aviv from the same British bases in Cyprus where SAS operatives are stationed.

These flights, including daily ones in the fortnight following Israel’s attack on Gaza, are no mere coincidence. As recently as 12 December, the independent media outlet revealed how Britain secretly deployed 500 additional troops to its Cyprus bases in response to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

This information was disclosed to a parliamentarian by a UK government minister. It was also revealed that Britain dispatched additional troops to the occupation state and its neighbors Egypt and Lebanon, justified only by vague references to “operational security reasons.”

Unrestricted access to Lebanon?

On 21 November, The Cradle brought to light a covert initiative by Britain to secure unfettered access to Lebanese territory for its armed forces.

A leaked document on the proposals offered neither a rationale for London doing so, nor specified the specific mission British Army soldiers would be fulfilling in Beirut – deviating from customary transparency in such memoranda of understanding.

Had the memorandum been approved, it would have granted “all [British] military personnel” unprecedented access to Lebanon's ground, air and sea territory, bypassing the need for “prior diplomatic authorization” for “emergency missions.”

The nature of those missions was not specified. Essentially, British soldiers would have been permitted to travel in uniform with their weapons visible anywhere in Lebanon, while enjoying immunity from arrest or prosecution for committing any crime.

These audacious stipulations draw unsettling parallels with the NATO-drafted Rambouillet Agreement presented to Yugoslavia in 1999, where refusal became a pretext for a US-led military onslaught.

At the time, a senior State Department official gleefully admitted to “deliberately [setting] the bar higher” than could possibly be accepted by Yugoslavia’s government.

Yet, London had good cause to believe that Beirut would capitulate to its exorbitant demands this time round. As extensively documented by The Cradle, British intelligence has over many years run multiple covert operations to infiltrate Lebanese military, security and intelligence agencies at the highest levels, while inserting its operatives and allies into key state ministries.

Each of these operations was backed by a memorandum of understanding, the precise terms of which have never been publicly disclosed by either side.

Having designated Hezbollah, a prominent Lebanese political party, as a proscribed terrorist group, Britain maintains a watchful eye on the resistance group’s military wing from a listening post on Mount Olympus in Cyprus. This strategic oversight is justified by the anticipation of potential involvement in a conflict alongside Iran if a "war of annihilation" unfolds in Gaza.

East of Suez

That “war of annihilation” is now well underway. The exposed UK-Lebanon memorandum, if enacted, could have positioned British troops strategically in the Levantine state, potentially escalating tensions to the brink of an all-out war.

While the reasons for the memorandum's non-enactment remain unclear, a new theater of conflict in the Red Sea may be diverting attention. The US, joined by allies including Britain, has initiated a "maritime security mission" in response to operations by Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces against Israel-bound commercial vessels, leading to a significant disruption in vital shipping lanes.

The international coalition, despite its show of force, faces challenges, with Sanaa showing no signs of backing down. The operational costs of intercepting low-cost attack drones are raising concerns among senior Pentagon officials about the effectiveness of the mission.

For Britain, the US-led initiative aligns with its strategic goals outlined in the March 2021 ‘integrated defense review,’ a blueprint for ruling the waves again, ensuring "freedom of navigation in the Gulf of Aden."

This renewed naval focus serves as a stark departure from Britain's 1967 withdrawal from the region, known as ‘East of Suez’ – a move considered symbolic in the decline of the British Empire.

As The Cradle exposed in April, British intelligence ran secret psychological warfare operations to coerce Yemenis into accepting an iniquitous UN peace plan to end Saudi Arabia’s devastating air war against Sanaa.

With Ansarallah's resilience against neocolonial pressures, coupled with the failure of such psychological tactics, the stage is set for a conflict with potentially far-reaching consequences – an unsettling prospect foreshadowed by Robert Peston's intelligence sources on 8 October.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/secre ... in-lebanon

Was it "Putin's attack" that caused destabilization or was it NATO expansion? George Kennan knew...

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At This Point We Have To Always Assume Israel Is Lying Until Proven Otherwise

At this point the default assumption of any thinking person should be that all claims made by Israel are lies until proven otherwise by mountains of rock-solid evidence.

Caitlin Johnstone
December 23, 2023



Israel is killing children at a historic rate, is killing an unprecedented number of journalists, and is starving half a million civilians while raining military explosives on a giant concentration camp. No part of this is complicated. No part of this is two-sided.



On Tuesday Israel killed a Palestinian baby girl who was born during the IDF bombing campaign on Gaza. They’ve been killing children so aggressively for so long now that they’re starting to kill children who were born after the child-killing began.

Seventeen days. Al-Amira Aisha got seventeen days on this planet before being crushed to death by an Israeli airstrike on her home in Rafah, alongside her two year-old brother Ahmed and 25 others who’d been living in the same apartment building. She never knew a day of peace.



A Washington Post investigative report into Israel’s attack on al-Shifa Hospital has found that “the evidence presented by the Israeli government falls short of showing that Hamas had been using the hospital as a command and control center.” The Post reports it came to this conclusion after “analysis of open-source visuals, satellite imagery and all of the publicly released IDF materials.”

At this point the default assumption of any thinking person should be that all claims made by Israel are lies until proven otherwise by mountains of rock-solid evidence.



The belief that Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties is based on literally nothing. It has no evidentiary basis whatsoever. People believe it because they want to. Because believing it is more emotionally comfortable than facing the obvious reality.



There are two aspects to the war on journalism over Gaza. The first is a highly concentrated assault in Gaza itself where journalists are actively being assassinated, and the second is a worldwide assault where journalists who don’t follow the official line are being purged.



It’s so weird watching western rightists babble about how barbaric they think Muslims and their culture are while western culture amasses a mountain of ten thousand child corpses in Gaza.



When you see how effective the Houthis have been at using Yemen’s critical location to shut down Red Sea traffic, you understand why the US spent years backing a horrific genocidal military campaign trying to get rid of them.



It’s not okay for progressive Democrats to talk about how sad and bad the Gaza massacre is and how important a ceasefire is without naming Biden, as though it’s some remote foreign conflict that your president is just passively witnessing instead of actively facilitating.



Biden backed a genocide in Gaza, sabotaged peace negotiations in Ukraine to launch a world-threatening proxy war, and now we’re all praying that he doesn’t launch a new full-scale war with Hezbollah and/or Ansarallah. But you’re still meant to fiercely support his re-election.



Bush’s wars were dumb when they happened under Bush, and they’re even dumber now two decades later as they’re happening again after learning precisely nothing.



Claiming to support a “two-state solution” that Israel has never had any intention of permitting lets liberals pretend they can support Israel without supporting murder, tyranny, apartheid and abuse, and thus never need to experience any guilt or dissonance about their position.



There’s a single news story about international conflicts which keeps repeating itself again and again in different iterations, and that story is this: “US-centralized empire fights to secure domination of planet Earth, and some populations resist this.”

You’re seeing this story with Hamas, Hezbollah and Ansarallah today. That’s what you’ve been seeing with all the standoffs with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. That’s what you see when the US-centralized power structure terrorizes nations in Latin America like Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

It’s a giant empire attacking nations who have the temerity to insist on their own national sovereignty rather than being absorbed into the imperial blob. It uses full-scale wars, proxy conflicts, starvation sanctions and blockades, drone wars, CIA coups and deliberately fomented color revolutions to subvert any government which defies the US agenda of securing total planetary domination.

If you can understand this, you can understand pretty much any major international conflict in modern times.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/12 ... otherwise/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Dec 23, 2023 10:44 pm

Israel Puts Massive Obstacles to Aid Distribution in Gaza

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Palestinians in Gaza are starving due to the lack of sufficient food supplies entering the besieged enclave. Dec. 22, 2023. | Photo: X/@AJEnglish

Published 22 December 2023 (15 hours 23 minutes ago)

Intense Israeli shelling and active fighting in densely populated urban areas throughout Gaza threaten the lives of both civilians and aid workers.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Friday that the Israeli offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.

Many people are measuring the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza based on the number of trucks allowed to unload aid across the Egyptian-Gaza border. This is a mistake, said Guterres.

Speaking to the press, he said that the real problem is that the way Israel is carrying out this offensive is creating huge obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza.

Guterres added that an effective aid operation in Gaza requires security, staff who can work in safety, logistical capacity, and the resumption of commercial activity. These four elements do not exist, he said.


The UN chief noted that there is no security for the delivery of aid. Intense Israeli shelling and active fighting in densely populated urban areas throughout Gaza threaten the lives of both civilians and aid workers. The United Nations waited 71 days for Israel to finally allow aid into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing. The crossing was then attacked while aid trucks were in the area, he said.

The humanitarian operation requires personnel who can live and work in safety. Some 136 U.N. staff in Gaza have been killed in 75 days, unprecedented in U.N. history. Nowhere is safe in Gaza, Guterres said.

Every truck that arrives at the Kerem Shalom and Rafah crossings must be unloaded, and its cargo reloaded for distribution through Gaza. The United Nations has a limited and insufficient number of trucks for this. Many of the UN vehicles and trucks were destroyed or abandoned after the forced and hasty evacuation of northern Gaza. But the Israeli authorities have not allowed more trucks to operate in Gaza. This is greatly hampering the aid operation, he said.

Distribution in the north is extremely dangerous due to active conflict, unexploded ordnance and severely damaged roads. Everywhere, frequent communications breakdowns make it virtually impossible to coordinate aid distribution and inform the population how to access aid, he added.

The resumption of commercial activities is essential. Shelves are empty, wallets are empty, stomachs are empty. Only one bakery is operating in all of Gaza, Guterres said. "I urge the Israeli authorities to immediately lift restrictions on commercial activity. We are ready to increase our cash assistance to vulnerable families, which is the most effective form of humanitarian aid. But in Gaza there is very little to buy."



https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Isr ... -0014.html

Syrians Decry US Seizure of Oil Resources Amid Economic Crisis

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U.S. troops in Syria, 2023. | Photo: X/ @Antiwarcom

Published 22 December 2023

As of July, the U.S. occupation had led to economic losses of about US$100 billion in Syria's energy sector.


In the oil-rich eastern region of Syria, people are voicing their frustration and dismay over what they perceive as the United States' theft of their oil resources, which has exacerbated an already dire economic crisis in their country.

The U.S.-led occupation of the oil-rich areas in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour and the northeastern province of al-Hasakah has left Syrians grappling with the consequences of their dwindling resources.

On Sunday, agency SANA said that a 40-tanker convoy, carrying oil taken from Syrian fields, was witnessed departing Syria's al-Hasakah province for U.S. bases in neighboring Iraq. On the same day, a convoy comprising 55 trucks loaded with "stolen" grains, including wheat and barley, headed towards Iraqi territory.

The news agency said these are "systematic efforts by the U.S. occupation to deplete and exploit Syrian national resources."


Witnessing the U.S. blatantly steal their desperately needed resources, Syrians are both frustrated and angry.

"Why do they take our wheat? Why do they take our oil? Every day, 50 tankers and 70 tankers! Oh, you colonizers, you American criminals, the world's criminals," said Khalil Al-Bakr, a 63-year-old retiree from Al-Hasakah city.

Salem Al-Rahil, a 21-year-old student from the rural area of Al-Hasakah, lamented the lack of heating diesel for local people, while loads of oil have been continuously taken away by the Americans.

"We are suffering greatly as residents of the eastern region in general. We can't do anything except watch our country's resources leaving the borders," he said.


Masira Al-Hassan, a 50-year-old lawyer from Al-Malikiyah city, said that the struggle to meet basic needs, such as food and fuel, becomes even more daunting as Syria's wheat and oil are siphoned off by the United States.

"The Syrian people see with their own eyes that the American occupation is stealing natural resources that they desperately need during these harsh conditions of winter and the global economic crisis," Al-Hassan said.

On the government level, officials also have denounced the losses caused by the U.S. occupation of oil fields in Syria.

In July, Farhan Jamil Abdullah, head of the state-run Syrian Oil Company, said that as a result of the U.S. sanctions and military presence in Syria, oil production by his company had decreased from 385,000 to 15,000 barrels per day, while gas production had gone down from 30 million to 10 million cubic meters per day. Abdullah added that most of the energy fields in Syria have gone out of government control as a result of the U.S. presence.

Oil Minister Firas Hassan Kaddour said that the U.S. occupation had led to economic losses of about US$100 billion in Syria's energy sector.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Syr ... -0006.html

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Economic Costs of War: a Lesser Misfortune for ‘Israel’
DECEMBER 23, 2023

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Artistic Representation of Israeli occupation soldiers in front of chests filled with US Dollars. Photo: Al-Carmel News

Al-Carmel Editorial Team – Dec 17, 2023

Since the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7, 2023, economic experts anticipated a substantial impact of the war on the “Israeli” economy. Indeed, figures released by “Israeli” newspapers and media revealed significant economic losses compared to previous wars waged by the enemy. However, this wasn’t surprising.

The negative economic indicators of the occupying entity are deemed “natural consequences,” as markets and economic estimations are affected by general conditions in any country, especially during periods of instability, whether financial, security-related, or social. The instability resulting from a war initiated by the enemy, particularly one of the longest and most perilous in its history, exacerbates these effects.

Moreover, discussions about an economic and financial crisis, along with warnings of capital and emerging companies fleeing the occupied territories, preceded the war on Gaza. Since the disputes regarding amendments aiming to curtail the powers of the “Israeli” Supreme Court and restructure the judiciary, leading to deep divisions among “Israeli” parties and various factions, concerns escalated about the political crisis affecting the economic situation within the entity.

Today, there seems to be little left of the warnings about an economic collapse. All fears regarding the loss of capital and its repercussions on financial markets and currency value have receded. It appears as if the current economic situation is the “smallest misfortune” for the zionist entity right now.

This can be attributed to several reasons:

The support of the United States, Western nations, and global capital standing by the occupying entity, ready to provide various forms of support—financial, political, diplomatic, or military. This manifested in the halt of capital outflow from the Israeli market abroad and in additional funding provided by the “Israeli” government through bond issuances since October.
The strength of the Israeli central bank, represented by foreign currency reserves exceeding $200 billion.

Why does this matter?
Relying on an economic collapse in the entity to halt the war is a form of “selling an illusion” to the public. What can halt the war is the resilience of the people of Gaza, the capability of the Resitance to prevent the entity from achieving its goals, the support Gaza might receive from the West Bank or from fronts in Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq, or fundamental changes in public behavior in Jordan and Egypt and in other Arab normalization countries, as well as in Islamic countries allied with “Israel” or having good relations with it.

“Israel’s” losses according to the Israeli Central Bank since the beginning of the war:

Losses in the next two years are estimated to reach about 198 billion shekels ($53.4 billion), approximately 10.2% of the Gross Domestic Product.
War losses include direct military costs, compensations to companies and damages incurred by families, loss of tax revenues.
Compensations expected to be paid by the government for direct and indirect damages are estimated at about 47 billion shekels ($6 billion).
The expected loss in tax revenues is estimated at around 35 billion shekels ($9.4 billion).
The loss due to increased interest rates on government debt is estimated at 8 billion shekels ($2.15 billion), contributing to the rise in the cost of public debt.
The general budget deficit will rise to about 3.7% in 2023 and 5% in 2024. This deficit will be covered through borrowing, which means the cost of public debt will also increase.
The debt-to-GDP ratio will rise to approximately 63% in 2023 and 66% in 2024, compared to 60.5% in 2022.
Solutions to all these problems for “Israel” originate from the United States. The occupation government awaits financial “aid” packages from Washington, which have not yet received congressional approval due to political tensions within the United States.

Since the beginning of the war until the present:
The value of the “israeli” currency, shekel, rose from 4.08 shekels per USD at the start of the war to 3.7 shekels per USD currently.

The Israeli Central Bank had to intervene in the market to maintain the currency value.
By November 7, the foreign currency reserves of the Central Bank had decreased by an amount close to $8 billion. These reserves were utilized to maintain the shekel’s exchange rate.
The Central Bank secured $15 billion from reserves. Most of these reserves were used in October, whereas in November, according to Hebrew media, the Israeli Central Bank injected no more than $300 million.
At the outset of the war, the Central Bank announced the provision of $30 billion for sale in the market to uphold the value of the “Israeli” currency.
This implies that the rulers of the entity do not fear for their economy. Their concern lies in the strategic consequences of the war, which could potentially amplify if the occupying army fails to achieve the aggression’s set objectives.
Given this reality, it can be argued that the steadfastness of resistance in Gaza, the emergence of regional forces ready to support resistance in Palestine, and a decline of Jewish migration to occupied Palestine by 70% between October 7 and November 29, all pose more dangerous consequences for the entity than economic and financial losses which the West can compensate.

(Al-Carmel News)

https://orinocotribune.com/economic-cos ... or-israel/

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Is Iraq really divided on resistance operations against US targets?

Baghdad grapples with a dual challenge: balancing US threats to stop attacks on its bases in Iraq and Syria, with the unwavering commitment of Iraqi resistance factions to persist until Israel’s war on Gaza ends.


The Cradle's Iraq Correspondent

DEC 22, 2023

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Photo Credit: The Cradle

On 8 December, the US embassy in Baghdad was the target of a multi-rocket attack, marking a new phase in the actions of resistance factions against US forces in Iraq and Syria. This response was triggered by Washington’s unwavering support for Israeli forces in their war of aggression against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The operation was by no means isolated as Iraqi resistance factions have been conducting attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria since 17 October, utilizing drones and various missiles.

Missives rapidly arrived from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and CIA Director William Burns, with warnings that Baghdad will face "serious consequences" if measures are not taken to stop the attacks. Blinken announced that Washington would "respond to any hostile acts targeting American personnel or the armed forces of the mother government."

These strikes have placed Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shiaa al-Sudani in a confrontation – real or sham – against his country's resistance factions, prompting him to call the attacks "acts of terrorism" that "endanger Iraq's internal security." The comments were welcomed by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin who spoke with the Iraqi premier that day.

Although security forces swiftly apprehended those behind the attacks, Kataeb Hezbollah (KH), a major faction within the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), while not claiming responsibility, vowed further operations against US forces until the Gaza aggression ceased, calling the resistance acts the start of “new rules of engagement.”

Government response and ongoing investigations

After the embassy incident, Sudani issued a statement in which he emphasized that his government would continue to protect diplomatic missions:

“The perpetrators of these attacks are committing an insult to Iraq, its stability and security, and that these unruly, lawless groups do not represent ... or reflect the will of the Iraqi people, and it does not reflect the national Iraqi decision expressed by the Iraqi government on several official occasions.”

In the statement seen by The Cradle, Sudani added that “tampering with Iraq’s stability, abusing internal security, attempting to jeopardize Iraq’s political reputation, and targeting safe places protected by the force of law, customs, and international agreements, are acts of terrorism.”

On 14 December, the Iraqi government announced the arrest of individuals involved in the embassy attack. Major General Yahya Rasool revealed that “after an intensive intelligence effort,” security services made several arrests. However, the government remained tight-lipped about their identities and affiliations.

A high-level Iraqi security source informs The Cradle that 13 individuals were detained, including main executors and logistical support personnel. The detainees provided no information about their affiliations during initial investigations.

The source also reveals ongoing efforts to apprehend a group in Sinjar planning missile strikes on a US base in Syria's Hasakah city.

Economic and military threats from the US

Since 2021, Washington has stationed approximately 2,500 soldiers in Iraq as part of the International Coalition to Combat ISIS, extending their presence well beyond the timeframe of the terror group's defeat. Despite Baghdad’s assertion that this is only within an advisory capacity, these foreign forces have engaged in combat missions, targeting areas such as Abu Ghraib, Jurf al-Nasr, and Kirkuk.

Political sources close to decision-making circles in Baghdad tell The Cradle that Washington has delivered messages to the Sudani government, most of which were veiled threats that referred to international economic sanctions on Iraq and direct military intervention if the government was unable to stop resistance operations against US military bases in the country.

The sources also reveal that the US has been pressuring Iraq by manipulating the flow of dollars to the Central Bank, risking a severe economic crisis. Simultaneously, the US has threatened to withdraw US oil companies from Iraq.

Political analyst Imad al-Atrash characterized this dynamic, stating:

“America treats Iraq as its backyard, using economic leverage to coerce decisions in foreign relations, disregarding the preferences of the Iraqi government. This necessitates a robust government with effective tools to counter Washington’s aggression.”

Washington's threats and pressures have created a rift in the Iraqi political establishment – the question that remains is whether these divisions are real or merely to placate the US. One faction, associated with the Coordination Framework, the largest Shia political bloc from which Sudani emerged, aligns with political groups directly linked to the resistance factions.

The other faction opposes any confrontation with Washington, even diplomatically, seeking to neutralize the resistance factions and enforce a policy of silence and non-confrontation.

A divided house

Despite The Cradle’s attempts to obtain an official government comment, Prime Minister Sudani's team refused to divulge details of the steps taken to arrest the perpetrators or the government's stance on potential confrontation with armed factions. However, government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi, tells The Cradle:

“The presence of the international coalition in Iraq, including the American forces, has training and advisory missions, and any armed activity targeting those forces outside the military institution can be considered an act outside the scope of the law."

Yet, illustrating the political divide on the matter, Member of the Parliamentary Security and Defense Committee, Waad al-Qaddo, insists that:

“The Islamic resistance factions are an integral part of Iraq’s political and security structure. Without them, Iraq would not have been liberated from the terrorist organization ISIS … the factions’ attacks against the American forces would not have occurred.”

The Al-Fatah Alliance, led by politician Hadi al-Amiri, describes the resistance operations against US forces as “natural, and coming in response to Washington’s support for Israel.” As the leader of the coalition, Ali Hussein, explains to The Cradle:

“The strikes of the Islamic resistance factions on the American forces cannot be stopped, and they do not only come within the framework of supporting Gaza, but rather they are part of the plan to thwart the Israeli plan aimed at dividing the region, controlling it, and reaching the dream of a greater Israel.”

Diplomatic efforts to curb the resistance

Private sources indicate that efforts by the Iraqi government to mediate with the resistance factions, urging them to cease targeting US bases, have faced resistance. An undisclosed source informs The Cradle that during the initial days of the Gaza war, the Sudani administration mediated with various figures.

While some factions, such as the Imam Ali Brigades, were persuaded to adopt diplomatic methods, others, including Ansar Allah Al-Awfiyya, Al-Nujaba Movement, Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, and KH, rejected these mediations.

It is worth noting that the Imam Ali Brigades are one of the four pro-Sistani factions that split from the PMU back in 2020, purportedly over disagreements on steps the PMU was taking since the territorial defeat of ISIS.

The Secretary-General of KH, Abu Hussein al-Hamidawi, said in a statement seen by The Cradle, that:

“The Brigades are continuing with their approach against the occupation, unconcerned with the pressures and obstacles, bearing the cost of their resistance work, and steadfast on the path to breaking the thorn of the occupation and expelling it from Iraq.”

The leader of the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades, Abu Alaa al-Wala’i, commented to The Cradle through a response from his office:

“We in the Sayyid al-Shuhada Brigades respect all mediations and appreciate their [the government’s] keenness to communicate with the resistance factions and their leaders, and we believe in the movement of some political figures, but this issue cannot be discussed until the Gaza crisis ends.”

But Aqeel al-Rudaini, a leader of the Victory Coalition, says the Sudani government will continue to stick to a middle ground:

"The government has a firm position on the Gaza issue as announced at the United Nations, and is trying to exploit its relationship with Washington to push it to resolve the Gaza crisis and alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians, on the one hand, while lifting the embarrassment from them in front of the resistance factions, on the other hand."

He adds that Washington "should understand the anger of the Iraqi people, which was demonstrated through peaceful protests at times and with weapons at other times.”

Persistent resistance

Security and strategic expert Fadel Abu Ragheef describes ongoing negotiations between the Sudani government and Iraq's resistance factions. The objective, he says, is to persuade them to halt attacks on bases housing US forces, as Washington intensifies pressure on Baghdad.

Ihsan al-Shammari, head of the Center for Political Thinking, does not hold out much hope that these negotiations will succeed, saying:

“The armed factions’ escalation of their military operations against the American forces occurs for many reasons. The first stems from the nature of the accumulated hostility towards the US from these factions, and the second comes within the framework of the slogan of unity of the arenas with which it was launched.”

“These factions are to support Gaza, and a double pressure card toward America in two arenas: the Palestinian arena to limit Washington’s support for Israel, and the Iraqi arena with the aim of pressuring the exit of US forces from Iraq,” he explains.

As Shammari predicts, recent events suggest that US efforts to curb resistance faction attacks have failed, despite extraordinary pressure applied on the Iraqi government.

Pentagon sources have revealed that US force bases have been subjected to at least 102 attacks since mid-October, highlighting the resilience of the resistance factions against external pressures and their commitment to the Palestinian cause – along with other key members of West Asia's Axis of Resistance.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/is-ir ... us-targets

Vast majority of Saudis agree Arab states should cut ties with Israel: Poll

The findings also show that most Saudis agree the Hamas-led assault against Israel on 7 October 'did not target civilians'

News Desk

DEC 23, 2023

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(Photo credit: Saudi Royal Court)

A large majority of people in Saudi Arabia believe Arab states should swiftly sever diplomatic relations with Israel, a new poll conducted by a US think-tank has revealed.

The poll, carried out by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy between 14 November and 6 December, surveyed the responses of 1,000 Saudi citizens.

It indicated that 96 percent believe “Arab countries should immediately break all diplomatic, political, economic, and any other contacts with Israel, in protest against its military action in Gaza.”

The survey also reveals that 91 percent of Saudis agree with the statement: “Despite the destruction and loss of life, this war in Gaza is a win for the Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims,” indicating support for the Palestinian resistance.

Only 16 percent of Saudis believe “Hamas should stop calling for the destruction of Israel, and instead accept a permanent two-state solution to the conflict based on the 1967 borders.”

Additionally, 95 percent say that Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October did not target Israeli civilians.

“This view is widespread across the eight countries polled by TWI,” the think-tank writes. This is likely to be due to the amount of information that has become available regarding the Israeli army’s role in the destruction and loss of life that took place in the settlements and Kibbutzim of the Gaza envelope on 7 October.

“While the majority of Saudis continue to express a negative opinion of Hamas, the Israel-Hamas war has generated a significant boost in its popularity,” it adds.

Similarly, many Saudis expressed support for Hezbollah during the 2006 war in Lebanon, despite overall attitudes and the fact that the kingdom supported Israel’s attack on the country at the time.

The poll further reveals that 87 percent of Saudis agree that “recent events show that Israel is so weak and internally divided that it can be defeated someday.” Seventy percent believe that the anti-judicial overhaul protests earlier this year reflect a “weak and divided” Israel.

Despite these sentiments, the poll also reveals that a majority of Saudis believe an Israeli-Palestinian settlement is the only realistic option for the future, “regardless of what’s right.”

Before the outbreak of the war, Israel and Saudi Arabia were on the path of signing a US-sponsored normalization deal.

“Every day we get closer” to a deal, Mohamed bin Salman (MbS) said in September. Publicly, the kingdom demanded concessions and a state on 1967 borders for the Palestinians. However, the deal privately hinged on a defense pact with Washington, access to better weaponry, and a civil nuclear program.

Reports in October said that the talks were put on ice after the start of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign in Gaza.

US news outlet The Messenger referred to the findings of the Washington Institute poll as “a blow for the Biden administration” and its efforts for normalization.

A top Saudi official confirmed last month that normalization talks are still on the table.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/vast- ... srael-poll

Chances of war with Lebanon ‘increasing’: Tel Aviv

The general assessment in Israel is that diplomatic efforts with the Lebanese resistance 'will fail'

News Desk

DEC 22, 2023

Image
(Photo credit: AP)

Israeli journalist Nadav Eyal cited senior Israeli officials as saying that the possibility of war with Lebanon is “increasing.”

“All eyes are on the north. Tens of thousands of Israelis are internally displaced due to the war Hezbollah initiated immediately after Hamas attacked,” Eyal said in a social media post on 22 December, citing conversations with Israeli military leaders.

“The general assessment in Israel is that diplomatic attempts vis-à-vis Hezbollah will fail, and the chances of war are increasing,” Eyal added.

What I'm hearing from senior Israeli officials about the war:
1. This phase of the war, Phase 2, which includes taking operational control of Gazan towns and neighborhoods (yet not achieving full control enemy clearance), will end soon.
They are hopeful about specific…

— נדב איל Nadav Eyal (@Nadav_Eyal) December 21, 2023

The post by the Yedioth Ahronoth columnist came hours after Hezbollah carried out two operations against Israeli forces near the Lebanese border.

“In support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their brave and honorable resistance, the Mujahideen of the Islamic Resistance, at 9:35 a.m. on Friday 12/22/2023, targeted the Shomera Barracks (the occupied Lebanese village of Tarbikha) with appropriate weapons,” the group said in a statement.

Hezbollah had announced earlier that day an attack on a “gathering of enemy soldiers in the vicinity of the Shomera Barracks.”

Hezbollah began daily operations against Israel on 8 October, one day after the Al-Aqsa Flood operation was launched. Despite a brief pause during the seven-day truce in late November, the crossfire fire has been relentless.

As Hezbollah strikes Israeli military sites near the border, Israel continues to respond with indiscriminate targeting of southern Lebanese villages. The Lebanese civilian death toll is on the rise.

Tens of thousands of settlers were evacuated from the northern settlements at the start of the war, with many saying they will refuse to return until the Hezbollah presence is dealt with.

Pressure being exerted on behalf of Israel by the west has continued to build on Lebanon – as officials push Beirut to implement UN Resolution 1701.

The 17-year-old resolution calls for a Hezbollah withdrawal from the south of the Litani River. Still, the group has rejected adhering to it unless Israel itself does so, as Tel Aviv also violated Resolution 1701 by continuously encroaching on Lebanese territory in the years following the 2006 war in Lebanon.

The Times reported this week that Israel is drawing up plans for an invasion of south Lebanon aimed at pushing Hezbollah north of the Litani.

https://new.thecradle.co/articles/chanc ... g-tel-aviv
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sun Dec 24, 2023 12:18 pm

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The Indonesian hospital following Israel’s destruction. (Photo: Abdullah Obeid, via Eye on Palestine)

‘Patients will die slowly, painfully’ as Gaza hospitals stop functioning – WHO
Originally published: Palestine Chronicle on December 21, 2023 by Palestine Chronicle Staff (more by Palestine Chronicle) | (Posted Dec 23, 2023)

In a statement on Thursday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, warned that “without medicines and other essential needs, all patients will die slowly and painfully.”

He said,

until two days ago, Al-Ahli was northern Gaza’s last hospital functioning where injured people could undergo surgery.

“But our team learned today that its operating theaters are no longer functioning due to the depletion, or complete absence, of specialists, power, fuel, water, food and medical supplies,” Ghebreyesus said.

He added “That has left north Gaza with no functional hospital. Only four hospitals operate at a minimum level, providing very limited care.”

WHO and UN partners, he explained, undertook “another high-risk joint mission” to Al Ahli Arab and Al Shifa hospitals in northern Gaza, where they delivered medicines, IV fluids, and supplies for surgery, treating the wounded, and supporting women giving birth.


“Catastrophic Conditions”
The WHO chief said his colleagues “struggled to describe the immense impact recent attacks have had on these health facilities and the catastrophic conditions remaining patients and health workers face.”

In the courtyard of Al Ahli Hospital, “bodies were placed in rows as they couldn’t be given safe and dignified burials,” he explained.

About ten health workers, all doctors, and nurses, continue to provide basic first aid, pain management, and wound care.

He said,

80 injured patients, including older people and small children, are sheltering in a church within the hospital grounds and its orthopedic section.

They included a 10-year-old girl who lost her leg and had no family left to care for her, he said.


“And an older man awaiting surgery for a gun wound to the chest he may never get, whose entire family had been killed,” he added.

Ghebreyesus said the WHO will keep striving to supply health facilities in northern Gaza.

“More than ever, a humanitarian ceasefire is needed now to reinforce and restock remaining health facilities, deliver medical services needed by thousands of injured people and those needing other essential care, and, above all, to stop the bloodshed and death,” he stressed.


According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 20,000 Palestinians have been killed, including 8,000 children and 6,200 women, and 52,600 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7. Palestinian and international estimates say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

https://mronline.org/2023/12/23/patient ... oning-who/

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Normalization with Israel has been ended by its brutal war on Gaza
The US-led process of normalizing relations between Arab countries and Israel has stalled completely over Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza

December 22, 2023 by Vijay Prashad

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President Donald J. Trump, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Foreign Affairs for the United Arab Emirates Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan signs the Abraham Accords Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020, on the South Lawn of the White House. Photo: Official White House Photo - Shealah Craighead)

On December 14, 2023, the US Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, which included an interesting provision: for the US President to create a special envoy for the Abraham Accords, the Negev Forum, and other related platforms. This addition came at the same time as the government worried deeply about the collapse of its entire agenda in the Middle East, as well as about the threats posed to Israel from Lebanon and Yemen. Until a few months ago, high officials of the United States preened about their political maneuvers to get the Arab states to normalize relations with Israel and to dilute the influence of China in the region. All these schemes collapsed in the ruins of Israel’s aggressive bombing campaign against the Palestinians in Gaza. Now, all of the structures created by the United States—starting with the Abraham Accords—appear to have lost their solidity. Whereas the question of Palestine had begun to drift off the radar of the Arab states, that question is now forced back to the center by the actions of Hamas and the other Palestinian armed factions on October 7.

The Abraham Accords
US President Donald Trump was never interested in international law or the intricacies of diplomacy. As far as Israel was concerned, Trump was clear that he wanted to settle the conflict with the Palestinians—who seemed weakened by the Israeli policy of settlements and isolation of Gaza—to the benefit of Tel Aviv. In January 2020, Trump released his “Peace to Prosperity” plan, which effectively disregarded the claims of the Palestinians and strengthened the apartheid Israeli state. The emblem of this hardened policy was that Trump was going to shift the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a provocative move that upended the Palestinian claim that the city was to be central to their state. “I have done a lot for Israel,” Trump said at a January 28 press conference that announced this plan, with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu beside him. “No Palestinians or Israelis will be uprooted from their homes,” Trump said, although his plan noted that “land swaps provided by the State of Israel could include both populated and unpopulated areas.” The contradiction did not matter. It was clear that Trump was going to back the annexation of the Occupied Palestine Territory come what may.

A few months later, Trump announced the Abraham Accords, which were a set of bilateral deals between Israel and four countries (Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates). These Accords promised to continue the process of normalization by Arab states, a process that started with Egypt in 1978 and then Jordan in 1994. In January 2023, the administration of US President Joe Biden took this momentum forward by establishing the Negev Forum Working Group that brought together these states (Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates) with Israel into a platform to “build bridges” in the region. In fact, this Forum was part of the overall project of driving a process for Arab states to have a public relationship with Israel. What eluded Israel and the United States was Saudi Arabia, which is a highly influential country in the region. If the Saudis joined this process, and if the Qataris came along, then the Palestinian cause would be significantly diminished.

The Indian road
In July 2022, Biden went to Jerusalem to sit beside Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid to host a virtual meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. At this meeting, the four men announced the creation of “i2u2,” or a platform of commercial projects to be jointly developed by India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States. This platform brought India directly into the plans for the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab states.

The next year, at the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Delhi, several heads of government announced the creation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). This corridor had the stated intention of contesting the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative as well as being an instrument to bring Saudi Arabia into the drive of normalization with Israel. The IMEC was to start in Gujarat and end in Greece, with a route that would take it through Saudi Arabia and Israel. Since both Saudi Arabia and Israel would be part of this corridor, it would mean the de facto recognition of Israel by Saudi Arabia. Israeli diplomatic officials began to travel to Saudi Arabia, suggesting that normalization was on the cards (with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman telling Fox News in September 2023 that normalization was getting “closer”).

The war on Gaza stalled the entire process. Mohammed Bin Salman held a phone call with Biden in late October, during which he said that the US must call for a ceasefire, which was unlikely. As part of the call, Saudi officials said that the Crown Prince had noted the possibility of restarting the normalization dialogue after the war. But there was little enthusiasm in their voices. A few days after this call, Biden said, “I’m convinced one of the reasons Hamas attacked when they did, and I have no proof of this, just my instinct tells me, is because of the progress we were making towards regional integration for Israel.” The next day, the White House said that Biden had been misunderstood.

Ansar Allah and Hezbollah
Days after Israel began to mercilessly pummel Gaza, two new battlefronts opened. In southern Lebanon, Hezbollah fighters began to fire rockets into Israel, occasioning the evacuation of 80,000 Israelis. Israel struck back, including through the use of illegal white phosphorus. In early November, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah told his followers that their fighters had new weapons with which to threaten not only Israel but also its enablers, the United States. US warships sitting in the eastern Mediterranean, Nasrallah said, “do not scare us, and will not scare us.” His fighters, he said, “have prepared for the fleets with which you threaten us.” The presence of Russian-made Yakhont missiles certainly gives Hezbollah the credibility to say that it can strike a US warship that sits less than 300 kilometers from the Levantine coastline.

In the speech, Nasrallah congratulated Ansar Allah—also called the Houthis—for the missiles they fired toward Israel and toward ships trying to get to the Suez Canal. Those attacks by Ansar Allah have now stayed the hand of many shipping companies, who simply do not want to get into this conflict (Hong Kong’s OOCL, for instance, has decided that its ships will avoid the region and will not supply Israel). In retaliation, the US has announced a maritime coalition to patrol the Red Sea. Ansar Allah responded that it would turn the waters into a “graveyard” because this coalition was not about maritime freedom but about allowing for the “immoral” resupplying of Israel.

The actions of Hezbollah and Ansar Allah have sent a message to the Arab capitals that at least some political forces are willing to offer material solidarity with the Palestinians. This will inspire the Arab populations to put more pressure on their governments. Normalization with Israel seems to be off the table. But, if this pressure mounts, countries like Egypt and Jordan might be forced to reconsider their peace treaties.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/12/22/ ... r-on-gaza/

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Evidence Missing in ‘Mass Rape’ Charge Against Hamas
December 22, 2023

Jonathan Cook examines two articles in Haaretz that form the backbone of Western political and media claims about mass rape by the Palestinian resistance group.

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Elkayam-Levy, 2023. (Martine Hami, Wikimedia Commons,
CC BY-SA 3.0)

Significantly, the claim of systematic rape made against Hamas is being enthusiastically embraced by some Israeli and Western feminists as the latest MeToo moment — but on a far greater scale than ever before.

That seems to be the case with Elkayam-Levy, founder of the Oct. 7 civil commission and a former spokeswoman for the Israeli military.

She views the issue of Hamas rapes entirely through an ideological lens — and one designed to silence critics of her project, including women.

While claiming victimhood for herself and her commission, she celebrates that its campaigning helped pressure the University of Alberta to sack Samantha Pearson, the head of the university’s sexual assault centre, for requiring evidence of the rape allegations against Hamas.

She names Reem Alsalem, a special rapporteur at the United Nations Human Rights Council on protecting women from violence, as their next target for dismissal. She states: “Our intention is to expose the world to a figure who is just abusing — I have no other word for it — global public funds.”

Elkayam-Levy worries that Oct. 7 is being made to “vanish from the timeline,” even as she recounts the intense interest from western journalists in amplifying the commission’s evidence-lite claims.

And of course, she calls out as “anti-Semites” those who advise caution and believe evidence is important, especially when a genocide is being rationalised in Tel Aviv and Western capitals on the basis of the mass rape allegations.

Faced with the demands for evidence from U.N. bodies, she expresses outrage: “Am I the one who needs to provide the evidence for the terrorists’ deeds? What kind of travesty is it that they are imposing the burden of proof on me?”

The answer, of course, is that Elkayam-Levy imposed that burden on herself, by founding the commission at the centre of the campaign to accuse Hamas of carrying out systematic, mass rape.

‘Believe Women’

The dangerous consequences are all too clear. Crying “Believe women” — or largely in this case, “Believe Hamas torture victims and proven male fabulists from Zaka” — is being weaponised to mean “Kill Palestinians.”

Simply accepting these claims as self-evident when the evidence is absent is to participate in the abuse of rape allegations to justify subjecting Palestinians in Gaza — including many, many thousands of women and children — to atrocities on an even greater scale.


Yes, in theory it might be possible to give the benefit of the doubt to those claiming Hamas committed systematic, mass rape while still opposing the mass slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza as a response. But that is not the world our politicians and media inhabit, or allow us to inhabit.

Which is why the evidential bar has to be high. But in Israel’s case, the evidence is thin indeed.

That high bar is not just relevant for jurists and the law courts. It must apply to those reporting right now on events in Israel and Palestine. Yet, once again, the Western media has failed in its most basic duties.

Like doctors, journalists should strive to do no harm. We should record and explain, not smooth the path to genocide by peddling misinformation.

We should seek to hold the powerful to account, not make the commission of their crimes easier.

And at our best, we should want to strengthen society’s democratic impulses through the dissemination of accurate information, not trade in incitement and defamation.

None of this is happening. The same Western media that has suppressed testimonies showing that Israel carried out crimes against its own citizens on Oct. 7 is inflating the number and extent of Hamas atrocities, unsupported by evidence.

The only reasonable conclusion to draw is that the media are willing and active participants in the ethnic cleansing and genocide in Gaza. Those crimes are not just willed by Israel; they are willed by Western elites who view Israel as a projection of their power into the oil-rich Middle East.

https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/22/e ... nst-hamas/

*******

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Joe Biden, projected on screens, gestures as he addresses the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2013 Policy Conference, March 4, 2013, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington. (Photo: Susan Walsh | AP)

Blood money: The top ten politicians taking the most Israel lobby cash
By Alan MacLeod (Posted Dec 21, 2023)

Originally published: MintPress News on December 18, 2023 (more by MintPress News) |

As the Israeli attack on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria intensifies, the U.S. public watch on aghast. A new poll finds that Americans support a permanent ceasefire by a more than 2:1 ratio (including the vast majority of Democrats and a plurality of Republicans).

And yet, despite this, only 4% of elected members of the House support even a temporary ceasefire, and the United States continues to veto U.N. resolutions working towards ending the violence. Walter Hixson, a historian concentrating on U.S. foreign relations, told MintPress News:

Unfettered support for Israel and the lobby consistently puts the United States at odds with international human rights organizations and the vast majority of nations over Israel’s war crimes and blatant violations of international law. The current U.N. vote on a ceasefire in Gaza [which the U.S. vetoed] is just the latest example.

Here, Hixson is referring to the pro-Israel lobby, a loose connection of influential groups that spend millions on pressure campaigns, outreach programs, and donations to American politicians, all with one goal in mind: making sure the United States supports the Israeli government’s policies full stop, including backing Israeli expansion, blocking Palestinian statehood and opposing a growing boycott divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) at home.

Internationally, Israel has lost virtually all its support. But it still has one major backer: the United States government. Part of this is undoubtedly down to the extraordinary lengths the lobby goes to secure backing, including showering U.S. politicians with millions of dollars in contributions. In this investigation, MintPress News breaks down the top ten currently serving politicians who have taken the most pro-Israel cash since 1990.

#1 JOE BIDEN, $4,346,264

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Biden runs up a set of stairs to address the 2016 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Conference in Washington. (Photo: Cliff Owen | AP)

The largest recipient of Israel lobby money is President Joe Biden. From the beginning of his political career, Biden, according to his biographer Branko Marcetic, “established himself as an implacable friend of Israel,” spending his Senate career “showering Israel with unquestioning support, even when its behavior elicited bipartisan outrage.” The future president was a key figure in securing record sums of U.S. aid to the Jewish state and helped block a 1998 peace proposal with Palestine.

The support for Israeli policies has continued into the present, with his administration insisting that there are “no red lines” that it could cross that would cause it to lose American support. In essence, Biden has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a carte blanche to break any rules, norms or laws he wishes to.

This has included ethnic cleansing and war crimes such as the bombing of schools, hospitals and places of worship using banned weapons like white phosphorous munitions. The arms Israel is using come supplied directly by the U.S. In November, the Biden administration rubber-stamped another $14.5 billion military aid package to Israel, ensuring the carnage would continue.

For his staunch support, Biden has received more than $4.3 million from pro-Israel groups since 1990.

#2 ROBERT MENÉNDEZ, $2,483,205

The New Jersey senator has received nearly $2.5 million in contributions and, in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, has been a key figure in drumming up support for Israel. Describing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as “barbaric atrocities” that were an “affront to humankind itself,” Menéndez gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor where he addressed Biden directly, stating:

Mr. President, in the face of unspeakable evil, we must not mince words. We must not waver in our resolve. Every single one of us in this chamber has a moral responsibility to speak out–unequivocally and unapologetically–as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and her people. I’ve been staunchly devoted to this cause for 31 years in Congress.

He went on to claim that Israel and the United States are intrinsically linked and were founded on the same principles.

Menéndez also courted controversy after he demanded that the U.S. help Israel “wipe Hamas from the face of the Earth,” even as Israel was leveling Gaza by carpet bombing it.

In October, he co-sponsored a Senate resolution “standing with Israel against terrorism” that passed unanimously, without dissent.

#3 MITCH MCCONNELL, $1,953,160

The Senate Minority Leader is one of the most powerful politicians in America and has used his influence to attempt to force through legislation criminalizing BDS. He has described the peaceful tactic as “an economic form of anti-Semitism that targets Israel.”

McConnell is known to be very close to Prime Minister Netanyahu and supported a bill condemning the United Nations and calling on the U.S. to continue to veto any U.N. resolution critical of Israel. Last month, he strongly opposed steps taken towards applying basic U.S. and international law on weapons shipments to Israel.

Under current U.S. law, Washington is duty-bound to stop supplying arms to nations committing serious human rights violations. McConnell, however, said that applying these standards to Israel would be “ridiculous,” explaining that:

Our relationship with Israel is the closest national security relationship we have with any country in the world, and to condition, in effect, our assistance to Israel to their meeting our standards it seems to me is totally unnecessary… This is a democracy, a great ally of ours, and I do not think we need to condition the support that hopefully we will give to Israel very soon.

McConnell has received nearly $2 million from pro-Israel groups.

#4 CHUCK SCHUMER, $1,725,324

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Schumer, right, speaks as Republican Mike Johnson, left, and Democrat Hakeem Jeffries, listen at a pro-Israel march in D.C., Nov. 14, 2023. (Photo: Mark Schiefelbein | AP)

Next on the list is McConnell’s Democratic opponent, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had taken over $1.7 million from Israel lobbying groups. In recent weeks, Schumer has taken the lead in steering the public conversation away from Israel’s crimes and towards a supposed rise in anti-Semitism across America. “To us, the Jewish people, the rise in anti-semitism is a crisis. A five-alarm fire that must be extinguished,” the New York Senator said, adding that “Jewish-Americans are feeling singled out, targeted and isolated. In many ways, we feel alone.”

The idea that anti-Semitic hate is exploding across the United States comes largely from a report published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which claims that anti-Semitic incidents have risen by 337% since October 7. Buried in the small print, however, is the fact that 45% of these “anti-Semitic” incidents the ADL has tallied are pro-Palestine, pro-peace marches calling for ceasefires, including ones led by Jewish groups like If Not Now or Jewish Voice for Peace. (MintPress recently published an investigation into the ADL’s fudged numbers and its history of working for Israel and spying on progressive American groups.)

Schumer, however, has deliberately tried to conflate opposition to Israel’s bombardment of its neighbors with anti-Jewish racism, writing:

Today, too many Americans are exploiting arguments against Israel and leaping toward a virulent antisemitism. The normalization and intensifying of this rise in hate is the danger many Jewish people fear most.

He has even gone so far as to label Dave Zirin—a Jewish journalist who supports justice for Palestinians—as an anti-Semite.

As Senate Majority Leader, Schumer has used his influence to push through military aid packages to Israel, even as it carries out actions many have labeled war crimes, writing that:

One of the most important tasks we must finish is taking up and passing a funding bill to ensure we, as well as our friends and partners in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region, have the necessary military capabilities to confront and deter our adversaries and competitors.

He added that “Senators should be prepared to stay in Washington until we finish our work” and that they should expect to work “long days and nights, and potentially weekends in December,” until the deal was done.

#5 STENY HOYER, $1,620,294

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Hoyer speaks at the Jewish Community Relations Council’s Stand with Israel event on October 13, 2023. (Photo: House.gov)

The former House Majority Leader is one of Israel’s most vocal supporters in the House of Representatives. Hoyer has demanded that “Congress must immediately and unconditionally fund Israel,” thereby giving the Netanyahu administration the green light to do whatever it pleases.

An ardent Zionist, the Maryland native explained that he believes it is:

…[T]he world’s duty that set aside a land, a land that Israel has occupied for millennia, and said: this is your place of security, this is your place of sovereignty, this is your place of safety.

Earlier this month, Hoyer also voted in favor of a bill stating that anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic, thereby declaring all criticism of Israel to be invalid and racist.

Hoyer has received more than $1.6 million in donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups.

#6 TED CRUZ, $1,299,194

Over his career, the Texas Republican has received $1.3 million from the Israel lobby. After October 7, Cruz sprang into action, announcing that it was “critical” that every American supports Israel “100 percent.” “Israel is going to be demonized by Democrats in the current corrupt corporate media. We need to make clear that Hamas is using human shields and Israel has a right to defend itself,” Cruz said, hitting many of the classic pro-Israel talking points.

Cruz also went above and beyond in his defense of Israeli crimes in a bizarre interview with Breaking Points’ Ryan Grim. When asked if he opposes Israeli officials suggesting a nuclear attack on Gaza, Cruz replied:

I condemn nothing that the Israeli government is doing. The Israeli government does not target civilians; they target military targets… There is no military on the face of the planet, including the U.S. military, that goes to the lengths that the Israeli military goes to avoid civilian casualties.


When confronted with statements from the IDF directly refuting his point, noting that their focus is on damage, not precision, Cruz flipped his answer around, replying, “Yes, damage to Hamas, to terrorists.” And when Grim gave him more statements from senior IDF officials explicitly contradicting his previous statement, Cruz retorted, “That’s simply not true. They are targeting the terrorists,” thereby defending the IDF even from itself.

#7 RON WYDEN, $1,279,376

Senator Ron Wyden (D—OR) has long been one of Israel’s staunchest advocates in Washington, supporting President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and opposing BDS in all its forms.

In 2017, he co-sponsored a bill that made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, for Americans to participate in or even encourage boycotts against Israel and illegal Israeli settlements.

On the settlements, he was one of the most vigorous opponents of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which describes them as a “flagrant violation” of international law.

For his troubles, Wyden has received $1,279,376 from pro-Israel groups.

#8 DICK DURBIN, $1,126,020

In some ways, Dick Durbin owes his political career to the Israel lobby. In 1982, the then-obscure college professor benefitted enormously from AIPAC money to defeat incumbent Paul Findley, a strong proponent of the Palestinian people.

The Illinois Democrat has called for immediate military aid to Israel and co-signed a Senate resolution reaffirming Washington’s support for Israel’s “right to self-defense” in the wake of October 7.

Despite this, he has angered some in the pro-Israel crowd by supporting President Obama’s initiatives to reduce tensions with Iran and has now come out in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza.

#9 JOSH GOTTHEIMER, $1,109,370

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Gottheimer speaks at the American Zionist Movement / AZM in Washington, DC on December 12, 2018. (Photo: Michael Brochstein | Sipa via AP Images)

Despite only being in office since 2017, Gottheimer has already received more than $1.1 million from pro-Israel lobbying groups. The New Jersey Congressman has served as a pro-Israeli attack dog in Washington, co-sponsoring the bill equating opposition to Israeli government policy with anti-Semitism and introducing legislation to block and criminalize boycotting the state of Israel.

In the wake of October 7, Gottheimer has attempted to cancel a number of public figures. Earlier this month, for instance, he tried to pressure Rutgers University into calling off an event on Palestine featuring former CNN anchor Marc Lamont Hill and organizer and journalist Nick Estes, both of whom support Palestinian rights and statehood.

Gottheimer has even caused rifts within his own party, attacking the small, progressive wing of Democrats who have failed to toe the line on Israel and Hamas. “Last night, 15 of my Democratic colleagues voted AGAINST standing with our ally Israel and condemning Hamas terrorists who brutally murdered, raped, and kidnapped babies, children, men, women, and elderly, including Americans. They are despicable and do not speak for our party,” he wrote, making a number of highly incendiary and questionable assertions.

#10 SHONTEL BROWN, $1,028,686

Perhaps no other political case reveals the power of the Israel lobby than Shontel Brown. In 2021, Nina Turner, a democratic socialist, national co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 election campaign, and an outspoken advocate for justice in Palestine, ran for election in Ohio’s 11th congressional district. Her opponent was the little-known but strongly pro-Israel Brown.

Brown received more pro-Israel money than any other politician nationwide during that two-year election cycle, helping her overcome a double-digit polling deficit to defeat Turner. Over $1 million was spent plastering Cleveland with attack ads against Turner. In her acceptance speech, Brown praised Israel and later thanked the Jewish community for “help[ing] me get over the finish line”

Since then, she has supported Israeli actions in Gaza and rejected the idea of Israel as an apartheid state, writing:

Let’s be clear: Israel is not an apartheid state. Any mischaracterizations otherwise attempt to delegitimize Israel, a robust democracy, and will only serve to fuel rising antisemitism. I will always advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship founded on our shared values.

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A DARK FORCE IN U.S. POLITICS

The most well-known and likely most influential group in the loose coalition referred to as the Israel lobby is AIPAC. With a staff of around 400 people and annual revenues that frequently top over $100 million, the organization is a huge, conservative force in American politics, flooding the system with gigantic amounts of money. Worse still, the group does not disclose the sources of its funding.

AIPAC’s stated goal is:

To make America’s friendship with Israel so robust, so certain, so broadly based, and so dependable that even the deep divisions of American politics can never imperil that relationship and the ability of the Jewish state to defend itself.

Yet Israel is widely recognized by international bodies such as the United Nations and human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as an apartheid state. It has near total control over the Gaza Strip, which, even before the latest attack, was an “unlivable” “open-air prison.” It is this state and these injustices that AIPAC and others seek U.S. support for.

American intransigence on Israel has helped make it a pariah nation, one that constantly has to veto U.N. resolutions and has lost its voting rights at UNESCO.

Not only does it give more money to Republicans than Democrats, but AIPAC also floods conservative Democrats’ coffers with funds, especially when they are up against progressive, pro-Palestine challengers.

In 2022, it spent $2.3 million in a (failed) bid to stop leftist Summer Lee from being elected to Congress. However, it fared better in North Carolina, where $2 million was given to Valeria Foushee over Nida Allam, the director of Sanders’ 2016 campaign. Meanwhile, $1.2 million in donations to Henry Cuellar might have been the deciding factor in an extremely close win over progressive activist Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th congressional district. And a number of prominent Michigan Democrats have come forward claiming that AIPAC offered them $20 million each to primary Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress.

“Certainly the lobby can influence elections, but it doesn’t win them all,” Hixson, the author of “Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of U.S. Middle East Policy,” said, adding:

It targets the aforementioned House progressives every two years but can’t always dictate the outcome of localized elections. They do better with broader canvasses; hence, no one in the Senate other than Bernie takes them on. When it comes to Israel, most American politicians are craven hypocrites.

Yet Sanders’ recent refusal to endorse a permanent ceasefire (a position held by virtually the entire world) has earned him AIPAC’s praise.


IS THE TAIL WAGGING THE DOG?

As such, AIPAC acts as a bulwark against progressive political change. In such a divisive political environment, few political issues unite Democrats and Republicans, as well as Israel and shutting down anti-establishment figures. As Hixson told MintPress:

Other than a handful of progressives (Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, etc.), the U.S. Congress invariably gives the lobby everything it wants, namely massive regular funding for Israeli militarism and an endless series of resolutions condemning Israel’s international foes and domestic critics.

The question that arises from this is why? Why does Israel always seem to receive full support from Washington? Is the lobby really that effective? Why do so many U.S. politicians go along with it? Mazin Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem University, characterized Washington as full of amoral careerists, telling MintPress that:

They [Senators and Congresspersons] do not buy the Zionist argument. It is strictly personal interest: money and good media coverage and avoiding blackmail, as the Zionists have their dirty secrets which they could expose if they step out of line.

Yet Israel also serves a vital purpose for the American empire. The region is not only geographically strategic but home to the world’s largest resources of hydrocarbons. Washington has always made it a top priority to control the flow of oil around the world, and Israel helps them do this. Militarily, Israel serves as a conduit the U.S. can work through, farming out its dirty work to Tel Aviv. It, therefore, represents an unofficial and beneficial “51st state.” As Joe Biden said in 1986 and has regularly repeated, Israel is the best investment the U.S. makes. “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect our interests in the region,” he added.


Many other nations or industries have lobbied in Washington, D.C. But few have proven to be as organized or effective as the pro-Israel one. Nevertheless, public opinion, particularly among young people, has begun to drift away from it. The Overton Window is shifting; Professor Qumsiyeh told MintPress. “When I first went to the U.S. in 1979, the average citizen did not know anything about Palestine or knew only a negative, distorted picture driven by Hollywood and biased media. Things [have] changed,” he said.

Things have indeed changed. The streets of America have been filled with demonstrations against Israeli aggression. Millions of Americans have participated in Palestine solidarity protests, including hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C. alone. Celebrities have spoken out against injustice. And social media is filled with posts showing sympathy for Gazans. There, too, Israel and pro-Israel groups have attempted to use their financial clout to influence the conversation, but to limited effect.

Fortunately for Israel, for now, at least, they can still rely on the unwavering support of senior American politicians, their pockets filled with AIPAC money, turning the other way as Israel carries out another genocide against Palestine.

https://mronline.org/2023/12/21/blood-money/

Destruction in northern Gaza
December 24, 14:37

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Destruction in the northern part of the Gaza Strip in 2.5 months and destruction in Aleppo in 3 years.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/8848872.html

Google Translator
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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