Palestine

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Jul 25, 2024 11:37 am

Jaffa Operation’s Message to Tel Aviv: This Is the War for the Liberation of Palestine
JULY 23, 2024

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Photo composition showing the Yemeni drone that struck the zionist-occupied Palestinian city of Jaffa and the aftermath of the drone strike (inset). Photo: X/@WaslAbw35019.

By Michael Awad – Jul 22, 2024

The resilience and resistance of Gaza for nine months have inflicted losses on Israel, its army, and its society, exposing its falsehoods, restoring the centrality of the Palestinian cause, toppling Israel’s narrative about the Holocaust, and igniting a historical movement among youth and students in the US and Europe demanding the return of Palestine to its people.
The Lebanese Islamic resistance fine-tuned the support and engagement front, achieving strategic gains, altering the balance of power, turning Galilee and Golan into a single front under unified military command, securing operational control over a theater extending from Tiberias and Safed to Acre, and revealing a stockpile of sophisticated, precise, and destructive weapons and drones capable of targeting any valuable military objective across all of Palestine.

Yemen, the jewel of the Axis of Resistance, is waging war as a central power, closing seas and straits, reaching the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, engaging with the Americans, NATO, and their allies, proving legendary competence and capability, and achieving gains that alter the conditions of nations, empires, and global trade.

Iran has engaged, confirmed its seriousness and capabilities, and readiness for battle if imposed upon it or decided by the axis.

Iraq is present as a partner, selecting its targets at the right time, enhancing participation in coordination and integrated operations with Yemen. Syria is a support front, although itself in a state of war, and has completed preparations for the hour of action.

Nine months of the miraculous Al-Aqsa Flood and the legendary Gaza war are immensely valuable and will be the most precious in the history of Arabs, Muslims, the region and the world for the events, developments, and historical and strategically transformative changes they will produce.

The Jaffa (Yafa) mission carried many messages when it struck a sensitive building as a strategic target in the heart of Tel Aviv, in the most important and heavily guarded area with security, electronic, and air defense systems.

The messages from Yafa to Tel Aviv are:

1. We are serious and capable; from Yemen, over 2,000 kilometers away, we reached Jaffa (Yafa) and struck 100 meters from the US embassy, despite NATO naval forces, missile shields, and bases in Arab countries, perhaps with some participation—imagine if the Yafa drone had launched from Lebanon or Syria, how long would it take, and who could intercept it if it flew for ten hours and arrived.

2. The resistance axis is one body and mind, conducting the war through a joint operations room, creatively distributing roles and tasks. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah raised the stakes, Yemen executed, and certainly, the reverse will happen if Yemen is subjected to aggression and risks. All of Israel is now a hostage to the axis.

3. If Yemen is capable and has acted, placing its threats into execution without hesitation, what about the other fronts with their geographical proximity, theaters, drones, and weapons no less significant than those Yemen possesses? Any weapon held by one party reaches the hands of all, each enhancing and developing.

4. The unity of arenas and fronts is solid, resilient, combative, principled, and ideological, with no challenge capable of breaking it; each challenge strengthens its bonds.

5. Netanyahu’s stubbornness and folly in committing massacres in Gaza, his bravado, blocking ceasefire possibilities, and challenging Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s warning result in catastrophic outcomes for Israel. The resistance in Gaza is proficient and fortified, managing its war with control and command, creatively fine-tuning in Lebanon, and with high capabilities and morale in Yemen, reaffirming victory for Gaza and Hamas in every instance, otherwise, let the war rage.



6. Yafa told Tel Aviv bluntly and with fire: there is no escape. You declared it a war of existence; if defeated, you have no place in the region. This message will defeat you, so prepare and hasten your departure.
7. The Yafa mission is a slap in the face of rulers, regimes, governments, factions, and silent and timid forces that squandered trillions of dollars buying weapons to save their factories in the West but only used them against their people and the resistance axis. Meanwhile, starving Yemen and besieged, devastated Gaza create miracles with almost negligible resources.

The most important and valuable message is that the Yafa mission and the power of the axis and its fronts, the revealed capabilities and types of weapons, and what its leaders say about these capabilities now obligate it to fulfill its promise of liberating Al-Aqsa and praying there. If the axis does not act after the war has proven its position and capabilities, it will lose its legitimacy, the justification for its arms and wars, and be responsible for prolonging the war and suffering, leaving a weak and incapacitated Israel to kill, destroy, and annihilate with cold blood.

The axis has no excuse or pretext to delay fulfilling the promise. The war has imposed itself, Gaza has been devastated and made tremendous sacrifices, Israel is incapacitated and troubled, its army suffering, America is preoccupied with its elections and crises, Europe is engulfed in its crises, Eurasia supports the axis, and global public opinion is matured and now besieges Israel and disavows it. It is illogical for the axis to waste the opportunity and give Israel time to catch its breath.

Jaffa’s message to everyone: It is time to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea, and the task must be completed.

Bravo, Yemen, and your Jaffa (Yafa) mission, how precise and multi-messaged it was.

https://orinocotribune.com/jaffa-operat ... palestine/

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Netanyahu will prolong the war on Gaza until Trump takes office

Steven Sahiounie

July 23, 2024

Biden’s blind support of Israel has angered many Americans, including the staff of the White House and U.S. State Department.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has arrived in Washington, but he was not met at the airport by the U.S. President, Vice President, or even the U.S. Secretary of State in an official snub.

Netanyahu will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday while speaking from a position of power in the political sphere of America because of the incredible influence of AIPAC.

Netanyahu has successfully postponed the Gaza ceasefire deal he previously agreed to, kept himself in power and out of jail, and contributed to the decision of U.S. President Joe Biden to leave the race for a second term as president. Netanyahu is betting on Trump.

A meeting between Netanyahu and Biden is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, but insiders believe the meeting will be called off, and the blame will be diplomatically placed on Biden’s case of Covid-19. Biden had been low in the polls, and faced mounting criticism. But, very recently he and his advisors had made a firm decision to stay in the race and prevent President Donald Trump from a second term.

Biden was counting on being able to stop the war in Gaza. Had he successfully ended a war which has taken the lives of some 38,000 Palestinians, with 60% of whom are women and children, and secured the release of Israeli hostages, he had a good chance of winning votes from Americans who see the Israeli military brutality on unarmed civilians as completely contrary to American core values of human rights and justice.

Biden’s blind support of Israel through weapons transfers, despite war crimes and atrocities committed by the Israeli Defense Forces, has angered many Americans, including the staff of the White House and U.S. State Department. Biden pinned his re-election hopes on his ceasefire deal, which Hamas and Israel agreed to. But then, Netanyahu reneged on his agreement with Biden on the ceasefire, and this is when Biden and his advisors decided to throw in the towel.

Experts are pointing to an intelligence assessment provided to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi which concludes the ceasefire talks in Doha may not progress until November because of Netanyahu’s belief that Trump will win. Netanyahu and his Jewish extremist administration will then likely enjoy a free hand in Gaza, which includes plans to annex Gaza and the West Bank.

On July 11, Biden proudly announced his imminent cease-fire deal, saying his proposed framework was “now agreed on by both Israel and Hamas.” Biden added, “We’re making progress, the trend is positive, and I’m determined to get this deal done and bring an end to this war, which should end now.” On Monday, according to the White House, Israel “affirmed its full support for the deal as outlined by President Biden and endorsed by the UN Security Council, G7, and countries around the world.”

But, in a shocking betrayal, Netanyahu turned course and decided to buy time until Trump, “the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House” takes office.

Netanyahu has consistently delayed the Gaza cease-fire talks in Doha by preventing his negotiating team from travel, and now he has created new demands, despite Hamas agreeing to big concessions.

He must appease two far-right cabinet members, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who have threatened to dissolve his government if he signs a cease-fire deal with Hamas.

Regardless of enormous pressure from the Israeli public, who demand a deal to release the Israeli hostages after 10-months in captivity, Netanyahu has stuck to his policy of buying time at the expense of the hostages, their families, and the future of Biden.

Even before Biden’s current political troubles Netanyahu was engaged in regular slow-walking of the cease-fire talks

Israel agreed to the Biden cease-fire proposal on May 27. The came the bombshell, which even shocked Netanyahu’s chief negotiator, Mossad head David Barnea. Netanyahu insisted on keeping an Israeli military presence in two corridors: along the border with Egypt, the so-called Philadelphi corridor; as well as along the Netzarim corridor that cuts through the center of Gaza. Both sides had thought that issue was not an obstacle.

“The hostages are suffering but they are not dying,” Netanyahu said. Barnea, has warned that the female hostages in particular may not survive much longer.

The Israeli public is outraged that Netanyahu has left Israel without completing the cease-fire deal which would ensure the release of Israeli captives.

Ben-Gvir said in a cabinet meeting recently, “Making a reckless deal now would not only endanger Israel, but would be a slap in the face of Trump, and a win for Biden.”

Netanyahu angered Trump when he congratulated Biden for winning in 2020 at a time when Trump was trying to overturn the election. Later, Trump would say in an interview referring to Netanyahu, “F**k him”.

In 2018, Netanyahu hit the jack-pot when Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. In his last speech to Congress in 2015, Netanyahu infuriated Obama by urging that the nuclear deal be scuttled. Israel’s longest-serving premier has virtually made his career in Israeli politics by billing himself as the only one who can manipulate the U.S.

Biden had insisted that opening up negotiations toward a two-state solution is necessary. Netanyahu and his administration refuse to consider a peace plan, and voted overwhelmingly on July 18 to oppose a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu and his coalition allies who are Jewish extremists have a powerful allied segment of the American society: the Republican Evangelical Christians. When Netanyahu came to office, one of his two main goals was to increase Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and finally to annex the whole Occupied Palestinian territory. Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are settlers.

Many of the Jewish settlers in the illegal settlements in the Occupied West Bank are American citizens who migrated to Israel. The have many organizations promoting solidarity between Evangelical Christians in the U.S., who are overwhelmingly Republicans and Trump supporters, and the settlers. These groups host Republican politicians on trips to the West Bank settlements, including U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, who visited prior to becoming Speaker.

On Friday, the top UN court ruled the settlements were illegal, and it has been U.S. policy to regard them as illegal, and an obstacle to a two-state solution.

Israeli Jews and American Evangelical Christians, who both hold extreme right-wing political views, have formed grassroots alliances while working to convince Trump and the Republican Party to drop longstanding U.S. support for a Palestinian state, arguing it rewarded the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

A May poll in Israel revealed that just 33% of Israelis support a two-state solution and 32% of Israelis favor Israel annexing the Occupied West Bank.

The settlers are betting on Trump and his right-wing Evangelical Christian supporters to annex their homes into Israel, thus displacing permanently the 3 million Palestinians who live there, and permanently depriving the Palestinians their freedom and human rights. Netanyahu is betting on Trump to keep him out of jail.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/ ... es-office/

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Israel quietly funnels millions to illegal West Bank settlements

The funds come as part of a budget to ‘bolster security’ in illegal West Bank settlements

News Desk

JUL 23, 2024

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(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Israel has allocated millions of dollars to the protection of illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli Peace Now watchdog reported on 23 July.

Documents obtained by Peace Now show how Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has discreetly funded the unauthorized outposts – some of which have been linked to Israeli settler violence against Palestinians.

Some of these outposts have also fallen under US sanctions.

Peace Now also says that in 2023, the government allocated over $7 million for security in illegal outposts established in violation of Israeli law.

This was disclosed by Hoshaya Harari, the director general of the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization, during a conference held in June by Israel’s Religious Zionist party, which is headed by Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Peace Now recorded the June conference and released its details on 23 July.

The funds came as part of the government budget for boosting security in both settlements and illegal West Bank outposts. According to Peace Now, they were used for vehicles, drones, cameras, generators, electric gates, and other items.

Over half of the funds were given to outposts built over large tracts of Palestinian land. The watchdog adds that the security budget for illegal outposts is expected to rise to more than $17 million by 2024.

“Not only does the Israeli government allow settlers to take over lands, establish outposts and farms in violation of the law, and attack and displace Palestinians without any response, it also funds and assists them,” Peace Now said.

Last year, the Israeli Ministry of Settlements and National Mission announced a $20 million budget for settlement security.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has, since the start of the war, headed an initiative to provide weapons to Israelis residing in West Bank settlements.

A number of settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank are unauthorized under Israeli law. However, all settlements in the territory are considered illegal under international law.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-qu ... ettlements

Leaks reveal Israel killed 366 UN staffers, family members in Gaza: Report

Israel has continued to target UN facilities across Gaza as part of its genocidal campaign in the strip

News Desk

JUL 24, 2024

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(Photo credit: Karam Hassan/AA)

Hundreds of UN staff members and their family members have been killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, according to an unreleased UN report obtained by the Drop Site news outlet on 24 July.

At least 195 UN staff and 172 of their dependents had been killed by Israeli forces by the end of June, the unreleased UN report states. The UN defines dependents as persons belonging to a staff member’s family who are formally recognized as financially reliant on that staff member.

The UN Crisis Coordination Centre found that five UN Development Program dependents, four UNICEF dependents, three World Food Programme (WFP) dependents, two World Health Organization (WHO) dependents, and 158 UNRWA dependents have been killed by Israeli forces.

It had been reported in May that Israel had killed 188 members of UNRWA. UNRWA regularly releases situation reports detailing Tel Aviv’s targeting of staff members and facilities.

UNRWA facilities have been the sites of numerous massacres committed by Israeli troops.

However, these are the first numbers indicating the extent to which Israel has targeted the families of UN staff members.

According to Drop Site, the report was circulated internally at the start of this month. The UN did not respond to a request for comment.

Over the weekend, on 21 July, a UN convoy came under heavy fire by Israeli forces despite prior coordination with the army.

An Israeli airstrike on the UNRWA-run Abu Oreiban school in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Camp a week earlier, on 14 July, killed at least 15 people, just a day after the strike on southern Gaza’s Al-Mawasi that killed at least 90 and injured hundreds on 13 July.

Tel Aviv has accused UNRWA members of involvement in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October but has yet to provide evidence for its claims.

UNRWA staff members have reportedly been tortured in Israeli detention centers. Israel proposed a plan to dismantle the agency in late March.

https://thecradle.co/articles/leaks-rev ... aza-report

Eighty-three percent of Gaza under forced evacuation as massacres unfold in Khan Yunis

No shelter remains for millions of Palestinians in Gaza as the Israeli army continues to wreak havoc across the strip

News Desk

JUL 24, 2024

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(Photo credit: X)

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said on 24 July that the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis is one of the “bloodiest” attacks yet.

According to the monitor and to authorities in the strip, the ongoing attack on Khan Yunis has killed at least 89 people and has injured over 263 others. The death toll is expected to continue rising.

“The Israeli forces threw leaflets in eastern parts of Khan Younis and then started shelling in a very crazy way all parts of the city,” an Al Jazeera correspondent in central Gaza reported on Wednesday, adding that paramedics have been unable to reach certain areas to treat the wounded.

The correspondent said people in Khan Yunis are moving from place to place with nowhere to go, looking for shelter as Israeli attacks on crowded streets continue.


The last hospital in the city, the Nasser Medical Complex, is facing a mass influx of casualties and is urgently calling for blood units to treat wounded people arriving at the facility every minute.

Israeli troops reentered the southern city on 22 July after issuing evacuation orders to residents, less than two weeks after forcibly displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza City in the northern strip. According to Al-Jazeera, around 150,000 Palestinians in Khan Yunis are now on the run.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned in a situation report on Monday that “as of 22 July, nearly 83 per cent of the Gaza Strip has been placed under evacuation orders or designated as ‘no-go zones’ by the Israeli military.”

“Frequent evacuation orders and relentless hostilities continue to further devastate Gaza’s health system and make it increasingly difficult for repeatedly displaced populations to access essential services, particularly people suffering from chronic diseases,” the report added, coincided with the outbreak of the poliovirus across the devastated enclave.

As Israel relentlessly targets the strip’s civilian population, the Israeli army continues to face fierce resistance from the fighters of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and other resistance factions, both in Khan Yunis and in the southernmost city of Rafah.



The Qassam Brigades announced several operations targeting Israeli tanks and bulldozers east of Khan Yunis over the past two days.

https://thecradle.co/articles/eighty-th ... khan-yunis

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The Stunning Audacity of Yemen’s Drone Strike on Tel Aviv
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 24, 2024
The Cradle’s Military Correspondent

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Yemen’s unprecedented drone strike on Israel’s economic powerhouse has further shattered the occupation state’s perceived invulnerability. Moreover, it announced the launch of Ansarallah’s fifth phase of war: ‘Target Tel Aviv.’

On 19 July, a low-altitude drone breached Tel Aviv’s airspace from the sea and detonated, causing one fatality and injuring ten others.

The incident sent shockwaves through the occupation state, with a panicked populace and bewildered policymakers grappling with the Israeli army’s “mega-failure” to intercept a single drone amid prolonged aggression against Gaza and the mounting tensions with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The attack’s impact was magnified by its direct hit on Tel Aviv, the heart of Israel’s governmental and economic power, starkly exposing inadequacies in its defense strategies and further alarming a population that has for months been questioning the effectiveness of its military preparedness.

It wasn’t long before the de facto Yemeni authorities in Sanaa claimed responsibility for the attack, calling the strike a retaliation for Israeli massacres and threatening more to come.

But how did a Yemeni drone reach the heart of Israel’s most fortified region and strike a blow to Israeli military pride?

Tactical evolution of suicide drones

Suicide drones, as they are known, are a relatively modern weapon, posing significant challenges even for technologically advanced states like the US and Israel. These drones vary in range, warhead size, speed, and guidance methods.

Analysis of the wreckage revealed that the “Yaffa” drone, an enhanced version of Yemen’s Sammad drones, was employed in the operation. The name is deeply symbolic as it references the ancient port city of Jaffa, also known as Yaffa in Arabic, which now forms part of modern-day Tel Aviv.

Yaffa Drone

Its rectangular wing shape and V-shaped tail distinguish it, but it is notably the more powerful 275 cc (16 kW) engine that sets it apart. This engine enables the drone to cover distances exceeding 2000 kilometers – sufficient to reach Tel Aviv from Yemen.

Unlike with ballistic missiles, the difficulty in tracking drones lies in their ability to take unconventional paths, maneuver through winding routes, and hide behind terrain features, making them hard to detect by radar systems.

This detection challenge is a daily issue in northern occupied Palestine, where drones operated by Lebanese resistance groups often go unseen by the increasingly blinded occupation army.

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Moreover, drones are typically constructed from lightweight materials such as fiberglass, carbon fiber, or various reinforced plastics that do not reflect radar waves effectively, which is crucial for detection and tracking.

Their low speeds reduce the need for the metallic compositions necessary in constructing conventional military hardware like missiles and fighter jets. Consequently, drones can be mistaken for birds by radar systems. This confusion has occurred regularly in northern occupied Palestine since the war’s onset, with Israel’s Iron Dome defense system spotted expending its limited supply of $50,000 projectiles shooting at birds during this conflict.

Yaffa’s route to Tel Aviv

The suicide drone likely took an unconventional path to evade detection. Previous Yemeni attempts have been intercepted in Egyptian Sinai airspace, with Israeli-allied Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt contributing to these detection and interception efforts.

On the night of the attack, however, no US aircraft carrier groups were in the Red Sea, and the nearest carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was positioned in the Indian Ocean. Israel’s air force has suggested that the drone may have taken a non-traditional route via Eritrea, Sudan, and Egypt, crossing near the Suez Canal before entering the Mediterranean and turning east toward Tel Aviv.

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Possible path of Yaffa drone that targeted a building in Tel Aviv

Some aspects of that route seem unlikely: the Suez Canal area is heavily patrolled by Egyptian air defense, with its 8th Brigade stationed there, so the Israeli announcement may have been an attempt to pressure Egypt.

Israel’s response: Bombing Hodeidah

On 20 July, Israeli aircraft launched punishing airstrikes on the besieged Yemeni port of Hodeidah, specifically targeting areas designated for fuel and oil storage, as well as destroying port cranes used for loading and unloading cargo and a power station.

But these were civilian targets in a country already suffering from the effects of the Saudi-led coalition blockade, which has caused severe shortages of fuel and essential resources needed for power generation and transportation.

The strike at these particular target banks, which killed at least six and wounded dozens of others, appears to be primarily aimed at creating significant explosions and large fires to help Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu score points at home.

But the Israeli response against civilian targets also reveals that Tel Aviv suffers from a dearth of intelligence on potential Yemeni military targets. It was also evident that the selected targets were ones that Saudi Arabia and the US have refrained from striking due to fears of Yemeni retaliation, which could strike Saudi commercial ports or oil exports in one of the world’s most vital energy passages.

Indeed, Riyadh was quick to deny any involvement in the assault, fearing reprisals from Sanaa, although reports that Israeli jets used Saudi airspace for this attack suggest otherwise.

Video footage shows that Israel used F-35 and F-15 fighter jets, as well as Boeing 707 tanker aircraft, due to the distance involved – a range exceeding 4,000 kilometers round trip. Israeli-released footage suggests that the strikes were carried out using Spice guided missiles launched from outside the Yemeni air defense range.

Some of these missiles are equipped with boosters that extend their range up to 150 kilometers, which only showcased Israeli operational limitations against Yemen in a broader conflict, in which Sanaa’s air defenses will be surely activated against enemy aircraft, drones, and projectiles.

Yemen’s retaliation

Yemeni officials, led by Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi and Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree, quickly announced a decision to launch retaliatory strikes against Israel, in which they declared Tel Aviv to be an “unsafe zone” and warned of Yemen’s readiness for a “long war” against the occupation state.

Given the targeting of vital civilian infrastructure, this places several Israeli targets on the list of potential Yemeni target banks. These include fuel tanks in Haifa, clearly shown in video footage taken by a Hezbollah drone weeks ago, as well as fuel tanks in Ashkelon and the power stations adjacent to these tanks.

What concerns Israelis the most, however, is Yemen’s potential targeting of vital gas platforms in the Mediterranean Sea, stationary targets highly susceptible to significant ignition and explosion. While there are currently only three active Israeli gas fields – Karish, Tamar, and Leviathan – in operation, these fields have become essential to Israel’s energy independence.

Underestimating Sanaa’s resolve

The damaging Israeli strike on Hodeidah Port was based on an assumption by Tel Aviv that it would deter a Yemeni counterstrike. But Yemen’s Ansarallah Movement, which has endured years of punishing Saudi, Emirati – and now US and UK – military attacks, has shown no inclination whatsoever to halt its operations in support of Gaza.

While the Israelis may have felt an obligation for a quick military fix by striking Hodeidah – the port, incidentally, has already reopened for business – it comes at the expense of any logical assessments of losses and gains. Already facing strategic defeat in Gaza and unable to follow through with its threats against Lebanon, Tel Aviv has cracked open a new front with Yemen, the most fearless component of West Asia’s Axis of Resistance.

The Israelis are between a rock and a hard place, desperately trying to cleave to old narratives of regional military superiority to keep domestic faith in the Zionist project, yet unable to score victories anywhere.

Based on Yemen’s oft-declared resolve not to retreat from any escalation, it is expected that the outcome of the Hodeidah strike will lead to a compounded retaliatory operation against the occupation state. Israel, however, has limited operational freedom due to issues related to geographic distance – such as the airspace and uninterrupted refueling access required – which makes waging war against Yemen a nonstarter.

Harsher strikes on critical Israeli centers are likely to drive Israel into greater missteps and strategic errors, especially at a time when escalation and the further weakening of its deterrence are counterproductive to its interests.

By targeting the Yemenis directly, Israel has underestimated the resolve and capabilities of a formidable adversary, potentially choosing the worst possible opponents in this round of conflict.



https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/07/ ... -tel-aviv/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Jul 26, 2024 11:31 am

The Strategic Intelligence of Ansar Allah’s War Strategy
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 24, 2024
Aymun Moosavi

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Emergency personnel walk outside a US Embassy branch office situated near the site of an explosion in Tel Aviv, Israel on July 19, 2024. Ricardo Moraes/Reuters

The commander of the Ansar Allah has made clear that Yemen has more to give and escalations will not end, should the imperial powers continue their aggressions.


After 9 long months, Ansar Allah has proved itself as a force to be reckoned with. A country that has been inflicted with poverty, famine, and war at the hands of the imperial powers and their Arab collaborators, has chosen to put the rifle before itself. It has taken the lead as a supportive wing to the Palestinian Resistance during the genocide of Gaza, carrying with it a few locally sourced weapons and ample amounts of willpower.

From their domination of the Red Sea to now a direct attack on Tel Aviv, their war effort has been unprecedented, bringing to life the historical truth which inevitably resurfaces during every anti-colonial endeavour; nothing is more capable of bringing down empires than a united resistance. By continuously bypassing both the occupation entity and its US sponsor, it has also dismantled the occupation’s supposed untouchability, and effectively minimised the brunt of the attack on Gaza by forcing the entity to shift its focus beyond its borders.

In this article, we look over Yemen’s ‘phased’ operations, with a specific focus on its 5th phase, analysing its strategy and significance.

Destroying the myth of untouchability: a run-down of AnsarAllah’s strategy so far

“Our operational path from the beginning was directed in stages, adding a new operational scope to each stage and developing weapons to perform combat tasks.” – Abdul-Malik Al Houthi, July 21st, 2024 speech via RNN [1].

The development of AnsarAllah’s strategy had 5 key phases:

Phase 1: Naval operations in the Red Sea

This phase marked the beginning of Yemen’s domination over the entity’s maritime relations. It pitched Yemen against long standing normalisation efforts, directly challenging the status quo by preventing the occupation entity from functioning as a legitimate state in regional waters. At the time, more than 90% of container ships bound for the Suez Canal had to be rerouted, adding a dozen days to travel time.

Here, Ansar Allah effectively gained control over the Bab Al Mandeb Strait, which meant control over a worldwide economic chokepoint, as it is one of the most important routes for oil transportation.

Phase 2: Blockade expands to non-Israeli vessels

As the entity continued its blockade of Gaza to starve the population, phase 2 of Ansar Allah’s strategy sought to tighten the chokehold. This included blocking ships from any country seeking to approach the entity’s ports. The makeshift US-led Red Sea coalition of non-Arab states failed to stop Ansar Allah, as these countries did not see it in their interest to be dragged into a US fight, further highlighting how the US is losing its legitimacy as the world’s ‘global police.’ US escalation only exacerbated attacks on its own ships, including the US ‘Eisenhower’ aircraft carrier.

Phase 3: Operations expand to the Indian Ocean

If not already clear by their domination of the Red Sea, Ansar Allah extended its blockade to the Indian Ocean. This move spotlighted Ansar Allah’s consistency and well-planned strategy– a foreshadowing of its ability to sustain itself throughout this confrontation. As Ansar Allah began closing in on the entity, their only path was through the Mediterranean Sea.

Phase 4: Operations extend into the Mediterranean Sea

In this phase, the entity risked losing access to its final maritime waterway, forming another obstacle which challenged the entity’s high economic dependence on sea trade. Escalating into the Mediterranean Sea was particularly impactful, as this area has long been considered NATO’s territory. By extension, it was a direct challenge to the US which planned to create an ‘aid port’ that sought to covertly facilitate further control.

The coordination between the Iraqi Resistance and Ansar Allah strengthened, with reports of the establishment of a new coordination and communication office in Baghdad. Though their coordination began much earlier, its levels increased in preparation for phase 5. Along with tightening alliances, Ansar Allah began creating new locally made weapons such as the Palestine ballistic missile, to account for the technical, operational, and long-range requirements in this phase.

It is worth noting that AnsarAllah’s consistent strategy has cost the Eilat port more than 50 million shekels ($13,680,805) as reported by the CEO of the port, Gideon Gobler. 8 months of blockades has meant that the port is effectively non-operational, bringing in zero revenue.

Phase 5: Scope of operations expand into the heart of the entity

In each stage, Ansar Allah carefully measured the Zionist strategy, which depended on isolating the Palestinian Resistance to exert full material force on a confined area. Ansar Allah effectively turned this strategy on its head; it is now the entity that has become the isolated one in the region, one blockade at a time.

After its recent attack on Tel Aviv, Ansar Allah has positioned itself among the growing list of Resistance Axis members that have been able to bypass the Iron Dome, exposing its fragility. The occupation has suffered a major psychological blow with the economic heart of the entity coming under attack. As anxieties spread over Sanaa’s increased capabilities and range, the occupation is forced to prepare itself for the possibility of direct attacks from outside of Palestine in future.

“The Yafa drone is an advanced UAV with clear tactical and technical capabilities, long-range and good destructive power surpassing any other drone.” – Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, July 21st 2024 speech via RNN.

In his recent speech, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi made clear that the weapons Ansar Allah uses are both manufactured in and launched from Yemen, contrary to the popular belief that all of its weapons are supplied by Iran. This has served the Ansar Allah to not only sustain itself for more than 8 months, but to actively escalate the battle on its own terms as well, proving, with its own locally sourced weapons how highly effective and capable the group has grown to be. This also points to the strategic intelligence of the Axis as a whole; by choosing to strengthen each individual member of the Axis rather than mirroring traditional US alliances built on dependency, the Axis has been able to subvert the Achilles’ Heel of imperial alliances where each member is dependent on the imperial core to function.

Ansar Allah’s careful preparation is partly because this confrontation has allowed them to engage the US and Zionist entity directly, rather than fighting them through their agents which the movement had been doing for 8 years; Saudi Arabia may have been the one to wage the war, but it was American bombs that rained on Yemen. In the past, the terms of engagement were set and controlled by the US – now they are determined by the Axis.

The success of Phase 5 is another indication that the illusion of the Iron Dome is failing, and with it the prestige of this colonial project. The occupation entity is losing its apparent deterrence capability, because strategy cannot be bought. This is a sentiment that is shared even among Israeli officials:

“Those who do not prevent missiles at Kiryat Shmona and Eilat should not be surprised when they receive them in Tel Aviv.” – Avigdor Lieberman, Leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party.

Here, the age-old historical truth has resurfaced, that amassing material power is not the guarantor of success against a motivated resistance force. We see this even in the occupation entity’s response to Sanaa’s attack. In typical colonial fashion, the Zionist target was the civilian infrastructure of Yemen’s western port city of Hodeidah, as Yemen announced its attack on another US ship in the Red Sea. This was followed by a series of airstrikes carried out by a US-UK coalition against the Governorate.

Yet here lies another major miscalculation – Yemen cannot be hit with anything it has not yet experienced, so these threats have little effect. From imposed famine to international isolation, all imperial strategies have been exhausted to attempt to break a population that refuses to crack. 8 years of war have prepared them for this moment, and the line has already been drawn by its leader – any aggression on Yemen will only risk escalating Yemen’s operations further.

Synergy within the Axis

There are layers to Ansar Allah’s strategic intelligence. Not only has each phase built on their previous capabilities, but each one has been established with careful consideration of the wider Axis’ broader goals and capabilities.

In his speech on the 21st of July, Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi did not identify the stages of Yemen’s operations since October 7th independently of the wider resistance. He started with an homage to the operations carried out by the Lebanese Resistance which dampened the effectiveness of the Zionist strategy:

“The first thing that impacted Zionist strategy was the support front in Lebanon where Hezbollah continuously exerted pressure. Hezbollah’s front is hot and influential, targeting Zionist sites, bases, and settlements, and contributed to alleviating the pressure on the Palestinian people.” – Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi, July 21st 2024 speech via RNN.

The occupation entity could not exert its usual strategy of full military force on a geographically isolated area because attention was pulled to the northern border. Ansar Allah built on this strategy, by pulling the entity’s attention toward their maritime borders as tensions built from the South. Month after month, the occupation entity became increasingly isolated; in collaboration with the Lebanese Resistance, Yemen turned the Zionist strategy on its head. The primary purpose of opening up a ‘supportive front’ was from here defined as alleviating the pressure on the Palestinian people; Yemen is fully aware that their actions will turn attention towards them because that is the goal – the Zionists have once again played in Ansar Allah’s hands by pulling their focus away from Gaza.

This collaboration has culminated today in Yemen’s largest attack to date in the heart of the Zionist entity. By attacking Tel Aviv, Yemen is essentially building on one of the Lebanese Resistance’s main goals, which is to dismantle the pristine image of safety that the occupation entity has sought to protect, and encourage settlers to never return.

In this way, each member of the Axis fills the gaps of the other; coordination is based on who is best placed to do what. Since Ansar Allah cannot be threatened with all-out war as it is not geographically possible, it was best placed to take the most radical action in a way that would not be strategically sound for the other members of the Axis (at this point in time) that border the entity.

Through its attack, Ansar Allah is also effectively building on the Lebanese Resistance’s forms of psychological warfare. The perceived omnipotence of material power is sustained only by those who fear it; The perception of safety only solidifies where there is never a threat to peace. In coordination with the Axis, Ansar Allah’s strategy is uncovering these realities which colonial projects seek to mask, and it has become too difficult to ignore.

Conclusion

“If the airstrikes, attacks, and targeting of civilian installations in our country had an impact on our people, then the American agents’ [Saudi Arabia and their coalition] raids would have affected them over the continuous 8 years.” – AbdulMalik Al Houthi, July 21st 2024 speech via RNN.

Over the course of 8 months, Ansar Allah has proven itself to be one of the most competent strategic powers in the region. Against all odds, including a hostile government which is still subservient to Saudi interests and the lasting effects of an imposed 8-year war, they have chosen the path of the rifle for the sake of Palestine.

Ansar Allah not only sets its own terms, but increases the shape and scope of the battle when it sees fit. Coordination across the Axis is as strong as ever. New phases are established while manufacturing new weapons to go hand in hand, which have increased range and defensive capabilities than the previous. Blow after blow, the entity’s lack of deterrence force is being exposed, which has long been its main source of pride. The commander of the Ansar Allah has made clear that Yemen has more to give and escalations will not end, should the imperial powers continue their aggressions.

Once again, it is Ansar Allah that is setting the terms of engagement.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/07/ ... -strategy/

The Uncounted Gaza Victims: Why Hundreds of Thousands Are Being Allowed to Die
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 23, 2024
Eva Bartlett

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Palestinians carry a body of a dead child who was found under the rubble of a destroyed house after Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Abed Khaled)

Earlier this month, the Lancet published an article estimating that the total number of Palestinian civilian deaths caused directly and indirectly by Israeli attacks since October 2023 could be nearly five times higher than the official death toll, and could reach “up to 186 000 or even more.”


It noted that “this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.”

According to the piece, the latest available count of Palestinians killed – 37,396 – is far too low, based on the fact that it is still unknown how many more lie under the rubble, how many are missing but not accounted for among the dead, and how many will perish due to starvation, dehydration, or diseases.

“Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases,” it noted.

However, even this Lancet estimate of nearly 200,000 dead might be only half the actual number of Palestinians killed, according to some counts.

Norwegian Dr. Mads Gilbert, who has worked extensively from Gaza over the years – notably during times when Israel was waging wars on the Palestinian enclave – recently outlined the manifold preventable conditions which contribute to such “indirect” deaths, estimating the number dead or soon to die could be over 500,000.

As causes of indirect deaths, he details “the lack of food entering Gaza and the destruction the agriculture, the fisheries, the poultry, the dairy farms, and so on. The lack of water, which leads to dehydration and infections.”

The third component of the “triangle of death” is common diseases, Gilbert notes. “There are maybe as many as 10,000 or more cancer patients in Gaza. The Israeli army bombed the Rantisi hospital for children with cancer and they bombed the Turkish friendship hospital for adult cancer patients. They do not allow cancer drugs to come in.”

More than 1.2 million people, he says, are getting infected because of the bad hygiene conditions.

Gilbert points out that in the high temperatures in Gaza now, the uncollected garbage, destroyed sewage pumps and resulting flooding of streets with raw sewage, “it makes a hell of parasites that can spread diseases.”

Then, there are the pregnant women giving birth in unsanitary conditions, their bodies weakened from starvation. He estimates that more than 50,000 children have been born in Gaza since October 7, 2023, adding that “all these women need clean water and good food in order to take care of their children. There is massive over mortality among pregnant women who have difficult deliveries, who need cesarean sections.”

The nearly 40,000 dead is already an appalling number, but these recent estimates are absolutely horrifying.

Planned starvation and diseases

Having lived three years in Gaza (over the period of late 2008 to early 2013), I saw (and lived) the brutality of the Israeli siege, the severe power outages (16-22 hours a day when I lived there) after Israel destroyed the only power plant and how those power outages impacted hospitals (dialysis and emergency room function; incubators; refrigeration for medicine, etc.).

The power outages impacted the ability to treat sewage, or at the least pump it into the sea. When sewage over-accumulates, it overflows into the streets (including at least one horrific case where five civilians drowned in a northern Gaza village when sewage overflowed).

The Israel lockdown itself severely restricts what is allowed into Gaza, including medicine, cooking gas, fuel, food products, livestock, seeds, fertilizers, and much more. Likewise, it severely limits exports, contributing to the killing of economy.

As I wrote a few years ago, the power outages, fuel and cooking gas shortages, dramatic food insecurity, stunted growth in children, 50% unemployment, and 96% undrinkable water have been Gaza’s reality for years.

In fact, already back in 2008, I wrote (from Gaza) about the dearth of food aid allowed into the enclave:

“UN figures reveal an average of less than five truckloads a day have been allowed in, compared to 123 in October and 475 in May last year. On 27 November, the UN announced that it had run out of food supplies and essentials in Gaza.”

Back then, there was already a drastic shortage of “300 different kinds of medicines, 95 of which (including cancer medicines) are no longer available in Gaza.” 220 machines used for dialysis and other vital procedures, like CT scans, were not serviceable.

Likewise, the relentless Israeli attacks on Palestinian farmers and fishers, killed and maimed with bullets and shells, abductions of fishers and theft of their boats, have been going on for over a decade and a half, meaning a severe impact on Palestinians ability to grow or catch their own food.

Other Israeli army tactics include burning Palestinian crops, cutting down or otherwise destroying olive trees, and demolishing farms throughout the border regions. The Israeli government went as far as to calculate the minimum number of calories needed to keep Palestinians not quite fully starving.

In 2010, I wrote about Israel’s systematic destruction of wells and cisterns from the southeast to the north, visiting farmers and witnessing the destruction. Many resorted to trying to irrigate their land via donkey cart with jugs of water. For over a decade, 95% of water from the Gaza’s sole aquifer has been unfit for human consumption.

Add numerous Israeli wars on Gaza to the unrelenting siege, and you can see how Israel long ago set the stage for chronic disease, stunted growth, anemia, and so many more diseases and afflictions – long before October 7, 2023.

Remember, in October, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared, “I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

Remember, also, how Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on starving Palestinians lined up for what meagre food aid did enter Gaza, the worst such massacre in February, killing at least 115 civilians and wounding over 750.

Some months before the Lancet’s warning, back in March, Ralph Nader likewise questioned what he believed was a severe undercounting of the Palestinians killed in Gaza, writing, “From accounts of people on the ground, videos and photographs of deadly episode after episode, plus the resultant mortalities from blocking or smashing the crucial necessities of life, a more likely estimate, in my appraisal, is that at least 200,000 Palestinians must have perished by now and the toll is accelerating by the hour.”

More recently, Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, a doctor with Med Global who is working in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, said in an interview:

“This ICU is full of diabetic patients who get a very treatable disease but they are dying of the most simple thing: because the insulin is unavailable, because they’re not allowed to bring it in, and refrigeration is gone. As many amputees from the trauma, there are amputees of diabetes uncontrolled.

“The numbers are vastly higher, I would say four, five, six times higher easily. Let alone the ones who will die in the decades coming from both the psychiatric trauma and the physical disabilities associated with what’s happened in the last nine months.”


‘Safe zones’ are not safe

Palestinians tortured to death in Israeli prisons should also be included in the “indirect” death count, as Israel has abducted over 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza, including children, journalists, doctors, women (this is in addition to the nearly 10,000 non-Gaza Palestinians in Israeli detention).

Virtually no coverage in Canadian legacy media, scant coverage in the US. In fact, the New York Times’ heading unsurprisingly removes Israel as the reason behind the deaths, with its, “Fighting Isn’t the Only Killer of Gazans Amid the War, Researchers Say,” and otherwise writes Israel out of responsibility for the starvation it deliberately has caused in Gaza.

It is always worth it to point out the hypocrisy of Western press and talking heads’ reactions when it is Israel committing atrocities, compared to when the West claims Syria, Russia or another state allegedly did something similar. Meanwhile, Israel continues to massacre Palestinians in what were supposed to be “safe zones,” notably the recent repeated bombing of al-Masawi refugee camp (with least 1.5 million displaced Palestinians), killing at least 71 civilians and injuring nearly 300 more. Then, Israel re-bombed that same camp just days later.

It is mind-boggling that this slaughter of Palestinian civilians continues, with some hand wringing and mild condemnations. As Ralph Nader wrote,

“It matters greatly whether the aggregate toll so far, and counting, is three, four, five, six times more. It matters for elevating the urgency for a permanent ceasefire.”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/07/ ... ed-to-die/

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On the release of ISIS militants in Syria
July 24, 2024
Rybar

The Internet continues to actively discuss the resurgent threat from the Islamic State terrorists : this is evidenced by both the increase in the number of attacks by militants over the past year and their accumulation of the necessary resources to renew the confrontation in the Middle East .

In particular, recently well-known jihadists have increasingly begun to sound the alarm, painting a rather unfavorable future in their works - and here we are not even talking about the hackneyed publications about the Afghan branch of ISIS ( Wilayat Khorasan ), but about Syria and Iraq , where the activity of militants has increased significantly over the course of this year.

However, a significant deterioration of the already, to put it mildly , dangerous situation occurred literally the other day - in the north-east of the SAR, the Kurdish "Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria", with the assistance of Arab clans, adopted a law on a full amnesty for persons in the "low threat" category and who had served prison sentences.

At least 1,200 people were included in the amnesty, according to the latest estimates , about a third of whom were from Iraq and the rest from Syria. A significant number of those released were convicted of involvement in terrorist attacks as part of ISIS , but the justification for their amnesty was that they had not stained themselves with the blood of Syrians.

All those granted amnesty were released from the largest prison for members of the Islamic State in the Gweiran area of ​​Hasaka , where violent clashes between militants and Kurdish security forces took place in January 2022. Several thousand more ISIS terrorists are currently being held in the prison.

And although the US-affiliated “Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria” tries to explain its actions as humanitarian, such measures are primarily aimed at creating tension in Turkey and the rest of Syria, hindering the process of normalizing relations between the countries.

In addition, the Kurds have previously repeatedly resorted to releasing militants (who then re-joined the ranks of terrorists) in order to attract the attention of the Western coalition fighting ISIS. Such a maneuver to create an additional terrorist threat with their own hands allows the Kurds to negotiate various preferences with their allies.

Meanwhile, for Syria and Iraq, this will mean an even greater strengthening of the terrorist Islamic State , which will certainly affect the overall security in the entire Middle East. However, for the international community, coverage of the Afghan branch of ISIS will still remain a priority, at least until ISIS militants in Syria and Iraq show themselves “ in all their glory .”

https://rybar.ru/ob-osvobozhdenii-boevikov-ig-v-sirii/

Google Translator

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Extremist Israeli minister granted authority to raze Palestinian homes in 1948 territories

Israel has been destroying Palestinian homes for years under the pretext that they are ‘unlawfully built’

News Desk

JUL 25, 2024

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(Photo credit: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP/Getty Images)

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has been granted the authority to demolish Palestinian homes in the lands seized by Israel in 1948, now considered Israeli territory under international law.

The Knesset approved on 25 July the transfer of the Israel Land Authority from the Finance Ministry to the National Security Ministry, according to Hebrew media.

This is in line with coalition agreements between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party and Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The Land Authority is responsible for “demolishing illegal buildings and enforcing planning and construction violations,” the outlet reported. Ben Gvir had previously demanded that the authority be placed under his jurisdiction.

The Knesset passed the bill with 55 in favor and 51 against.

“The powers and work of the Land Enforcement Authority give Ben Gvir responsibility for demolishing homes in the Arab community within the 1948 territories on the pretext of unlicensed construction … the enforcement of these powers has never been applied in the Jewish community,” Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on Thursday.

For years, Israel has been demolishing Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank under the pretext that they were built without permits. Yet Tel Aviv systematically limits Palestinians from obtaining building permits and generally only allows the building of new homes in majority-Jewish neighborhoods.

“These [demolitions] are done under the guise of law enforcement – as if it is a bureaucratic measure – but it is actually a form of state violence and it serves as a mechanism of Palestinian displacement to drive them from the city,” Amy Cohen of the Israeli non-profit activist organization, Ir Amim, said in February this year.

Israel also typically uses home demolition as a punitive measure against people engaged in resistance against occupation in the West Bank, detonating homes of fighters or people who have carried out operations against soldiers and settlers.

Since the start of the war in Gaza, Israel has stepped up its demolition of Palestinian homes.

Israeli forces destroyed seventeen Palestinian homes in the West Bank in a single day late last month.

https://thecradle.co/articles/extremist ... erritories

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‘Guilty of Genocide’: 135 Congress Members Boycott Netanyahu’s Speech to Congress
Posted on July 25, 2024 by Yves Smith

Yves here. Lambert will have ample coverage of the horrible Netanyahu speech in Links and probably Water Cooler today. Nevertheless I am also running this post to provide further witness to US complicity in the genocide in Gaza, plus the fact that things have become so patently horrific that even normally AIPAC-captured-or-cowed Congresscritters are engaging in visible disapproval. Far less action than needed to stop these war crimes, but nevertheless an important sign in the US that public sentiment is moving more and more away from Israel.

Unfortunately, this process took nearly two decades to produce regime change in South Africa. And the Israelis know, on current trajectories, they can exterminate or ethinically cleanse all Palestinians in Israel by then.

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer at Common Dreams. Originally published at Common Dreams


Following her call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrest during his visit to Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib protested the right-wing leader’s Wednesday address before a joint meeting of Congress by holding up a sign reading “war criminal” and “guilty of genocide.”

“They will not erase us. Palestinians exist and we deserve to live. Our presence today will be a reminder that we aren’t going anywhere,” Tlaib (D-Mich.) said on social media. “I will never back down in speaking truth to power. The apartheid government of Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians.”

Tlaib—the only Palestinian American member of Congress—brought a guest: Hani Almadhoun, “who has lost over 150 members of his extended family in Netanyahu’s genocide” in Gaza.

“After witnessing his sister forced to eat animal feed, he and his family were determined to start a soup kitchen to feed their starving neighbors,” the congresswoman said. “The Israeli apartheid regime is using starvation as a weapon of war, a war crime.”



More than 135 congressional Democrats, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) boycotted Netanyahu’s speech.

“Netanyahu is not only a war criminal. He is a liar,” Sanders said on social media. “All humanitarian organizations agree: Tens of thousands of children face starvation because his extremist government continues to block aid. Israelis want him out of office. So he came to Congress to campaign.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said, “Just so we’re clear, Netanyahu has lost so many people that he is addressing just a fraction of Congress.”

“When this happens, they fill the seats with nonmembers, like what they do at award ceremonies, in order to project the appearance of full attendance and support.”

Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said on social media: “I won’t attend Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech today. His military has reportedly killed over 39,000 Palestinians. He hasn’t brought the hostages home. He hasn’t made Israel any safer. We need tangible actions to end this war and all the suffering—not performative gestures.”

“It’s *because* of my Jewish upbringing and values that I cannot attend Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address today,” she explained.

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Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said in statement: “I am boycotting Netanyahu’s address. Today, families of Israeli hostages called the prime minister’s speech a ‘PR stunt’ intended to cover up his own failures.”

“Not only has Netanyahu failed to safely return the hostages—he has killed, harmed, or displaced nearly every Palestinian in Gaza, has failed to keep Israelis safe, and is risking the United States’ own security by trying to drag us into another endless war in the Middle East,” he continued.

“The United States must end unconditional military aid to the Israeli government, and instead secure an immediate cease-fire, a return of the hostages, and long-term peace,” Casar added.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) wished Tlaib a happy birthday in a social media post saying, “To my sister Rashida: You were born for a time like this.”

“The only Palestinan in Congress during a genocide of your people,” he added. “Sitting through a speech of that war criminal as colleagues applaud. You stand strong. We love and honor you.”


Stephen Miles, president of the peace group Win Without War, said in a statement that “we are grateful to the many, many members of Congress who chose to not attend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to Congress today.”

“This was a political stunt dreamed up by a House speaker trying to score political points and embraced by the prime minister as a desperate ploy to try and blunt the massive global condemnation and domestic political opposition he faces,” Miles added. “It’s a speech that never should have happened.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Senate president, did not preside over Wednesday’s meeting. Harris, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the wake of President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the race earlier this week, is scheduled to meet privately with Netanyahu on Thursday.

Netanyahu’s speech—which was met with frequent uproarious applause from lawmakers and other attendees—took aim not only at Hamas “monsters,” but also against “Iran’s axis of terror,” which he said “confronts America, Israel, and our Arab friends.”



I only regret that an arrest warrant for his war crimes has not yet been issued by the ICC, as I would have gladly served it to him on the House floor.

Unfortunately, Netanyahu doesn’t stand for peace in the Middle East. pic.twitter.com/6mNEfSsrif

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) July 24, 2024

“This is not a clash of civilizations, it’s a clash between barbarism and civilization, between those who glorify death and those who sanctify life,” said the leader of a nation whose armed forces have killed or wounded more than 130,000 Palestinians in Gaza.

Netanyahu condemned what he called the “slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal” that are “meant to demonize the Jewish state and demonize Jews everywhere.”

Taking aim at pro-Palestinian protests across the United States— many of them Jewish-led—Netanyahu lamented that “many anti-Israel protesters choose to stand with evil. They stand with Hamas. They stand with rapists and murderers.”

“For all we know, Iran is funding the protests that are taking place outside right now,” Netanyahu said, citing unsubstantiated Biden administration claims. “When the tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting, and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

“Some of these protesters hold up signs proclaiming, ‘Gays for Gaza,'” he mocked. “They might as well hold up signs that say, ‘Chickens for KFC!'”

“These protesters chant, ‘From the river to the sea,’ but many don’t have a clue what river and what sea they’re talking about,” the prime minister added.

Hundreds of Jewish-led demonstrators were arrested inside a congressional building on Tuesday while protesting the U.S. government’s continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza and Netanyahu’s then-forthcoming address. Thousands more protesters took to the streets of Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, where peace groups planned to surround the Capitol.

“There is a war criminal in town,” Council on American Islamic Relations national executive director Nihad Awad saidin a speech to protesters. “This war criminal Netanyahu has a long history of crimes against humanity.”



During his speech, Netanyahu also thanked Biden “for his heartfelt support for Israel after the savage attack on October 7,” which the prime minister said was “like 20 9/11s in one day.”

Biden has expressed his “unwavering” support for the key Middle Eastern ally and has approved billions of dollars in new military aid and more than 100 arms sales to the country since October. The Biden administration has also vetoedseveral United Nations Security Council resolutions calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Netanyahu implored the U.S. to give even more, saying, “Give us the tools faster, and we will finish the job faster.”

“The war in Gaza could end tomorrow if Hamas surrenders, disarms, and returns all the hostages,” added the prime minister, who for years facilitated massive financial support for the militant resistance group—whose political arm rules Gaza—in order to weaken the Palestinian National Authority.

On Monday, Tlaib said that Netanyahu should be arrested while in the United States.

“Netanyahu is a war criminal committing genocide against the Palestinian people,” she argued. “It is utterly disgraceful that leaders from both parties have invited him to address Congress. He should be arrested and sent to the International Criminal Court.”

ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan has applied for arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity including extermination committed on and after October 7.

During his speech, Netanyahu accused the ICC of “blood libels” against Israel, saying the tribunal “shamefully accused Israel of deliberately starving the people of Gaza”—allegations echoed by the South Africa-led genocide case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), United Nations experts, and human rights groups.



U.N. World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain said in May that there is “full-blown famine” in Gaza, where dozens of Palestinians—mostly children—have died due to malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of medical care, and hundreds of thousands of others are on the brink of starvation.

Netanyahu also accused the ICC of lying about Israeli forces “deliberately targeting civilians,” over 39,000 of whom including 16,000 children have been killed since October.

The prime minister claimed that Israel “has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history, and beyond what international law requires.”

“The ICC is trying to shackle Israel’s hands and prevent Israel from defending itself,” Netanyahu said. “And if Israel’s hands are tied, America’s are next.”

“The hands of the Jewish state will never be shackled,” he added. “Israel will always defend itself.”

Netanyahu further claimed that civilian casualties during Israel’s recent Rafah offensive were “practically none,” ignoring hundreds of Palestinians including many women and children who died in Israeli attacks on the city and its environs, including multiple massacres of refugees in tent encampments.



Israeli forces “should not be condemned for how they’re conducting the war in Gaza, they should be commended for it,” Netanyahu asserted.

Israel Defense Forces troops have been accused of torturing, raping, and summarily executing Palestinian civilians, including children. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres last month added Israel to his so-called “List of Shame” of countries that kill and injure children during wars and other armed conflicts.

In addition to its ICC woes and the ICJ genocide case, the latter tribunal ruled last week in a separate case that the 57-year Israeli occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end “as rapidly as possible.”

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/07 ... gress.html

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Netanyahu’s Speech Was As American As It Gets

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, but simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.
Caitlin Johnstone
July 25, 2024

Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech before Congress was everything you’d expect: packed full of lies and propaganda spin, yet simultaneously very illuminating and revealing.

The Israeli prime minister received no fewer than 58 standing ovations while speaking before both houses of Congress and spewing the most despicable lies you could possibly imagine in his conspicuously American accent. Depending on how politically aware you are, this spectacle could be perceived as either deeply un-American, or as American as it gets.

Netanyahu repeated evidence-free atrocity propaganda about what happened on October 7, falsely asserting that Hamas “burned babies alive” and killed two babies in an attic. He falsely claimed that Hamas “butchered 1,200 people”, pretending it’s not a well-established fact that many of the 1,139 Israeli deaths that day came from both indiscriminate IDF fire and deliberate targeting in implementation of the Hannibal Directive.


He made the completely baseless claim that Iran may be paying the anti-genocide demonstrators outside the Capitol Building during his speech, saying, “When the Tyrants of Tehran, who hang gays from cranes and murder women for not covering their hair, are praising, promoting and funding you, you have officially become Iran’s useful idiots.”

Netanyahu spent minutes ranting and raving about protests in America against his government’s atrocities in Gaza, during which he received a standing ovation from Congress that went on for nearly a minute.

He accused the International Criminal Court of “antisemitism” and “blood libel” for saying that Israel deliberately targets civilians, as though this hasn’t been conclusively established by mountains of evidence like the IDF’s Lavender AI system and statements from doctors describing what can only be deliberate sniper executions of children in Gaza.

He repeated Israel’s evidence-free claim that the only reason people are starving in Gaza is because Hamas is “stealing” all of the aid Israel allows in for itself.

Netanyahu went out of his way to frame Israel’s plight as civilized people against uncivilized barbarians, which only works if you harbor a supremely racist worldview. He kept repeating the word “civilization”, contrasting this with the “barbarism” of Hamas and its supporters, calling Israel’s US-backed military violence “a clash between barbarism and civilization” and saying “Israel fights on the frontline of civilization”.

He made these appeals to the racism that westerners harbor toward middle easterners in the same speech wherein he decried the “outrageous slanders that paint Israel as racist and genocidal”.



Netanyahu said Israel “must retain overriding security control” over Gaza “for the foreseeable future”, an open admission of plans for indefinite military occupation.

This deluge of lies and racist invective received dozens and dozens of standing ovations. The same political class that’s spent the last eight years shrieking about the threat of misinformation, disinformation and foreign propaganda just normalized and applauded a foreign genocidal war criminal as he stood before Congress telling lie after lie after lie.

You couldn’t ask for a better example of everything Washington stands for than this. Both houses of Congress rising to feverishly applaud one of history’s worst genocidal monsters dozens of times as he lies over and over again is a much better representation of what the US government is about than anything you’ll see during the presidential race from now until November.

This is everything Israel is, and this is everything the US empire is. They’re showing you who they are. Believe them.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/07 ... s-it-gets/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Jul 27, 2024 11:33 am

How the Palestinian Authority Abets Israel’s Colonial Project
JULY 25, 2024

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Palestinians inspect the damage following a raid by Israeli forces in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank on 23 July. Photo: Mohammed Nasser/APA images.

By Tamara Nassar – Jul 24, 2024

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority held a secret meeting with American and Israeli officials in Tel Aviv earlier this month to conspire on “day after” plans in Gaza that would involve the collaborative body in reopening the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

“Egypt wants personnel from the Palestinian Authority to operate the crossing,” Axios reported. The crossing, when open, is typically operated by Hamas personnel from Gaza’s side, as the political and armed organization governs the interior of the Strip.

“Israel wants people who aren’t affiliated with Hamas to do it, but objects to any official involvement of the Palestinian Authority – mostly for domestic political reasons,” Axios added.

The Palestinian Authority rejected a proposal that would involve it in reopening the crossing in any unofficial capacity, the publication said.

The meeting reportedly included White House official Brett McGurk, the head of Israel’s domestic spying agency Ronen Bar, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee Hussein al-Sheikh and head of the PA’s military intelligence Majed Faraj.

This was the first time that Palestinian officials have met with US and Israeli counterparts “to discuss the day after the war ends in Gaza,” reported Barak Ravid, the Axios writer who is frequently fed information by Israel’s military and intelligence apparatus.

The United Arab Emirates also appears eager to conspire for a day-after plan in Gaza.

The Gulf state, which formalized relations with Israel in 2020, is looking “to deploy a temporary international mission” in Gaza that would establish “law and order,” the UAE ambassador at the United Nations, Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, wrote in the Financial Times last week.

“A temporary international presence in Gaza can only result from a formal invitation from the Palestinian Authority,” the ambassador wrote.

The Palestinian Authority was created in the early 1990s following the Oslo accords to act as native auxiliary on behalf of the Israeli occupation. It has performed that role – one that PA leader Mahmoud Abbas calls “sacred” – without interruption since day one.

It wouldn’t be surpring if Israel and its Arab allies sought to copy this model in a post-genocide Gaza Strip.

But in order for Israel to execute its vision in the wrecked coastal enclave, the Israeli military would have to achieve its stated goal of eliminating Hamas as a governing and military presence in Gaza.

This doesn’t appear close to happening.

Meanwhile, Fatah and Hamas agreed to “end the Palestinian national division” after the rival factions held negotiations in China this month alongside other Palestinian political parties.

Notably, the factions “underlined the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and to end it in accordance with international law,” according to Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen, which obtained a copy of the declaration.

This is not the first time that the parties have made these declarations, and there is no indication that this one will be different.

A Palestinian Authority official said over the weekend that the Palestine Liberation Organization is the sole legitimate representative of Palestinians.

“Leaked news indicating that Washington is discussing plans on the future of the Gaza Strip with some parties will not have any legitimacy and will not be accepted by the Palestinian people,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh is paraphrased to have said, according to Wafa News Agency.

Echoing Israeli propaganda
Following an Israeli massacre in al-Mawasi earlier this month that killed at least 90 Palestinians and injured hundreds of others, the Palestinian Authority issued a statement effectively blaming Hamas for Israel’s slaughter.

“The presidency sees that by escaping national unity, and providing free pretexts to the occupation state, the Hamas movement is a partner in bearing legal, moral and political responsibility for the continuation of the Israeli war of genocide,” PA leader Mahmoud Abbas wrote in a statement.

Another PA official actually used an Israeli propaganda talking point against Hamas.

“Hamas is actually hiding between the residents to protect and save itself,” PA official Munir al-Jaghoub reportedly said.

“If Hamas wanted to fight face-to-face with Israel, it would’ve done so in areas where the army is located, and not in places where there are people.”

We were joined by writer and Birzeit University lecturer Abdaljawad Omar on 17 July on The Electronic Intifada livestream to talk about the situation in the West Bank.

Omar said that the Palestinian Authority “is trying to echo Israeli psychological warfare.”

It is doing so “by attempting to kind of de-link the Palestinian society overall from its resistance, and serving through this severance, serving Israeli war aims, which is to defeat the resistance and render Gaza unlivable.”



“We have this model in the West Bank: that’s what is in the fantasy of every military and political leader in Israel, to replicate some sort of system, a political system, a native authority that serves it, that cooperates with it and collaborates with it and makes the occupation inexpensive,” Omar said.

“Not an authority or a governance structure like the one that Gaza had at least before 7 October,” Omar added, which binded armed resistance with the party governing the interior affairs of the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority is “most responsible for the continuation of war, for empowering Israel to think that it can defeat the Palestinian people,” Omar added, by producing “this docile, ineffective, corrupt leadership that is running now the West Bank.”

The successes of multiple factions of Palestinian resistance forces on the ground in Gaza are agitating the collaborationist body in Ramallah, Omar suggested, pointing to how the Palestinian Authority did not rise to the occasion following the Hamas operation of 7 October.

“The national challenge that has been opened on 7 October,” is for the Palestinian Authority “to actually participate and attempt, at least, to the best of its capacity to not allow Gaza to go through this war alone,” Omar said.

Not only did the Palestinian Authority abandon Gaza, he added, but it must be blamed “for even the continuation of the war.”

The elite of the collaborationist PA and the comprador class in Ramallah “is betraying the nation in the name of the nation,” Omar said.

“This elite has extreme anxiety over Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all the recent resistance groups in Gaza, coming out with significant strategic results from this war.”



Meanwhile, the resistance in the occupied West Bank has been developing and refining its tactics, but this uprising is not happening in all corners of the West Bank.

Omar said he would confine the description of a “third intifada” to specific areas.

“I would confine it geographically to the north of the West Bank. So the areas that surround or go from the Jordan Valley upwards to Tubas, Tulkarem, Nablus, Jenin,” Omar said.

“These are the areas that have active militant formations that are engaging in the buildup of [improvised explosive devices], the capacity to resist, and refining tactics,” Omar said, making “it hard for the Israelis to enter freely into these areas.”

Israel responded with devastating revenge on entire communities where resistance emerges from, wreaking widespread devastation, severely damaging electricity networks, water and sewage infrastructure, uprooting roads and destroying homes.

More than 550 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, including at least 539 by Israeli forces, according to UN monitoring group OCHA.

Israeli settlers have killed at least 10 Palestinians, and another seven were killed by either Israeli army or settler fire.

Of those killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, 138 were children.

But the “Israelis have not been able to really shock that resistance into a place where it’s defeated or raises the white flag,” Omar said.

On the contrary, “the resistance has been able to actually develop, evolve and and ensure that its defensive posture, or offensive posture has become more deadly for the Israeli forces entering the area.”

Watch the full interview with Abdaljawad Omar on The Electronic Intifada’s YouTube channel, or by clicking on the videos above.

(The Electronic Intifada)

https://orinocotribune.com/how-the-pale ... l-project/

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Israel Economy Bleeding Out as Damage Compounds
Posted on July 26, 2024 by Yves Smith

This post relies heavily on fresh and detailed report from Mondoweiss, The end of Israel’s economy, which appears not to have gotten the attention it deserves. Some initial observations:

Israel has locked itself in a long-term, resource, credibility and morale draining conflict, and no willingness to climb down. Israel cannot “win” in Gaza save exterminating and ethnically cleansing its population. It lacks the power to prevail over Hezbollah (save via nukes with literal blowback risk). More and more commentators are pointing out that while Netanyahu and his claque have been saying they will attack Hezbollah soon (in July was the last promise, and admittedly July is not yet over), the IDF has been opposed and so far, the IDF has prevailed. New developments confirm the IDF’s reluctance:

⚡️⭕️ #Lebanon :
For the second time in 24 hours, an Israeli warplane is chased from Lebanese airspace with air defense missiles – Hezbollah confirms in a statement moments ago :

The Islamic Resistance fighters in the Air Defense Units launched anti-aircraft missiles at enemy… pic.twitter.com/DOwo54camc

— Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) July 25, 2024

Israel and the US have been unable to beat back Ansar Allah attacks, even as Ansar Allah is successfully escalating, as its strike on Tel Aviv demonstrates.

A new story in Haaretz suggests why Israel got itself in the mess of over-committing in Gaza. Recall how the US and Europe got in over their heads in the Ukraine proxy war. They were convinced the shock and awe economic sanctions would send Russia reeling, in an upside scenario leading to a quick ouster of Putin, or at least so damaging the (incorrectly presumed to be weak) Russian economy and military so as to assure battlefield success with existing Ukraine resources. They did not have a Plan B when Plan A failed. They defaulted to pouring weapons and men into the kinetic war, not just draining their weapons stocks but increasingly their economies.

Israel may also have believed it could land a knockout punch to Hamas. If it had succeeded, flooding the tunnels in Gaza could have killed many Hamas fighters, and even if not, would have destroyed much of their weapons and stores. Most important, it would have eliminated their big asset of being able to move and operate nearly entirely out of the reach of the IDF, yet able to launch guerrilla attacks when opportunities arose.

From the Hareetz story, Atlantis Is Lost: How the Israeli Army’s Plan to Flood Hamas’ Network of Tunnels Under Gaza Failed:

It was supposed to be the game changer, a new, relatively quick and lethal solution to one of the more complex fronts in the Gaza Strip. Or as the army described it: “A significant engineering and technological breakthrough for dealing with the underground challenge.” Behind all these descriptions was “Atlantis,” a system that was supposed to take out the Hamas tunnels and to kill senior Hamas officials, by pumping in seawater at high intensity…

The question of how it happened that a project described by the Israel Defense Forces as a “tie breaker” turned into a steadily growing failure has a complex answer. One of the main causes is the backdrop. During the first days of the war, says a defense source, “The achievements on the ground against Hamas officials were insignificant. Most of the Hamas forces, mainly the military arm, entered the tunnels and that created pressure on the senior IDF command.”

That’s why, says another source who spoke to Haaretz, [head of Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yaron] Finkelman demanded solutions; ways of striking at Hamas activists in the tunnels. “There was frustration because during those stages the forces didn’t really think that we’d start to enter all the tunnels,” recalls the source. “They also began to realize the dimensions of the tunnels that Military Intelligence didn’t know about.”

The article contains a great deal of information about how Hamas changed its tunnel structures over time to make it even more resistant to an IDF clearance operation.

As the extract above indicates, Israel was eager for a quick, decisive victory over Hamas, or at least some early successes they could use to restore the illusion of Israeli military superiority in the region and at home. As Alastair Crooke and Scott Ritter have often pointed out, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran recognize that Israel is set up to wage short, fierce, air-power heavy conflicts, and not slow, resource and will-sapping slogs.

The BDS campaign may be starting to wear on Israel. 135 Congresscritters boycotting the Netanyahu speech is a sign that it is becoming acceptable, even respectable, in the US to criticize Israel’s genocide, which is a meaningful shift. Even though the Houthi campaign against Red Sea shipping has been the most effective initiative so far, Israelis are starting to worry that the sanctions are starting to escalate. From another new Haaretz story, Biden Has Let the Israel-sanctions Genie Out of the Bottle:

Many may not know that on Tuesday, Japan imposed sanctions on four Israeli settlers for violence against West Bank Palestinians.

Japan as a country is off the Israeli radar screen, and a fairly large number of settlers and far-right groups are already being sanctioned by Western powers. What difference does it make that Tokyo is joining in?

In fact, Japan’s decision is a worrying one. It is friendly to Israel and traditionally doesn’t entangle itself in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict any more than it needs to. That Tokyo is acting now is because its partners in the Group of Seven countries have been doing the same since the United States announced its first set of sanctions against four violent settlers on February 1….

To date, the sanctions that have been ordered are minor…

But the trend is unmistakably pointing in the direction of more sanctions imposed by more countries.

Confirming this concern, a tweet flagged by guurst:

This is huge: The Canada Revenue Agency has notified the Jewish National Fund "that it plans to revoke the group’s charitable status in Canada over support for military infrastructure in Israel." This is long past due! https://t.co/o6YcYJJyHD

— Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (@CJPME) July 26, 2024


It’s not clear how much depth and resilience Israel’s economy (and society) have. Some on the anti-war right assert that Israel is a fake economy, more an imperial outpost than a reasonably self-supporting country. This is a topic I’d like to examine further but lack the bandwidth at this juncture. Any reader data points (better yet data sources) are very much welcome.

On the surface, Israel’s import and export statistics don’t indicate much US dependence. From the OEC, using 2022 data:

The top exports of Israel are Diamonds ($10.5B), Integrated Circuits ($7.83B), Refined Petroleum ($4.08B), Medical Instruments ($2.51B), and Potassic Fertilizers ($2.31B), exporting mostly to United States ($20.3B), China ($5.53B), Palestine ($4.6B), Ireland ($3.86B), and United Kingdom ($3.18B).

Imports The top imports of Israel are Diamonds ($7.3B), Cars ($6.67B), Crude Petroleum ($3.73B), Refined Petroleum ($3.7B), and Broadcasting Equipment ($2.56B), importing mostly from China ($14.4B), United States ($11.6B), Turkey ($7B), Germany ($6.46B), and India ($4.86B).

Admittedly, the US despite its distance is a surprisingly large export partner. Integrated circuits could be taken as a signifier for high-value military-related products, something which many Americans would assume it a top Israel export category.

To flip the question: what becomes of Israel if it continues to suffer an exodus, particularly of highly skilled, highly mobile professionals and experts? Many argue that the US and wealthy Zionists can continue to prop Israel up on an open-ended basis. But what if enough “talent” leaves and businesses shutter so that the support goes into what increasingly looks like a welfare queen? And how does a state that has become that much of a dependency defend itself in a neighborhood that it has united against it?

Now to some of the highlights from the important Mondoweiss story, which I encourage you to read in full. Critically, it describes severe, potentially irreparable damage all across the economy:

The economic indicators speak of nothing less than an economic catastrophe. Over 46,000 businesses have gone bankrupt, tourism has stopped, Israel’s credit rating was lowered, Israeli bonds are sold at the prices of almost “junk bonds” levels, and the foreign investments that have already dropped by 60% in the first quarter of 2023 (as a result of the policies of Israel’s far-right government before October 7) show no prospects of recovery. The majority of the money invested in Israeli investment funds was diverted to investments abroad because Israelis do not want their own pension funds and insurance funds or their own savings to be tied to the fate of the State of Israel. This has caused a surprising stability in the Israeli stock market because funds invested in foreign stocks and bonds generated profit in foreign currency, which was multiplied by the rise in the exchange rate between foreign currencies and the Israeli Shekel. But then Intel scuttled a $25 billion investment plan in Israel, the biggest BDS victory ever.

The crisis strikes deeper at the means of production of the Israeli economy.
These are all financial indicators. But the crisis strikes deeper at the means of production of the Israeli economy. Israel’s power grid, which has largely switched to natural gas, still depends on coal to supply demand. The biggest supplier of coal to Israel is Colombia, which announced that it would suspend coal shipments to Israel as long as the genocide was ongoing. After Colombia, the next two biggest suppliers are South Africa and Russia. Without reliable and continuous electricity, Israel will no longer be able to pretend to be a developed economy. Server farms do not work without 24-hour power, and no one knows how many blackouts the Israeli high-tech sector could potentially survive. International tech companies have already started closing their branches in Israel.

An aside: the loss of Colombia’s coal supplies clearly would have a serious impact, if nothing else on prices as Israel scrambles for substitute sources. Whether the result is Ukraine-style daily outages has yet to be seen, but if so, for an advanced economy, the impact would be devastating. These are the top coal exporters in 2023, per Tradeimex Solutions, so Israel is not bereft of alternatives.

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But how quickly can it line up replacement supply agreements? And to what extent would these new shipments be vulnerable to Houthi attacks?

The flip side is this section may somewhat understate the deteriorating condition of Israel’s businesses. In a July story, the Cradle cites CEO of Israeli information services and credit risk management firm, CofaceBdi, who said 60,000 businesses are expected to have closed by year end 2024. The tweeted video below claims (without sourcing, but its other stats echo those from mainstream accounts) that 50% of startups are on track to closing within six months:

(Video at link.)
Israel’s Economy is falling apart from so many angles pic.twitter.com/2iPeLPipyB

— Gaza Under Attack_🇵🇸 (@Palestine001_) July 17, 2024

Back to Mondoweiss:

Israel’s reputation as a “startup nation” depends on its tech sector, which in turn depends on highly educated employees. Israeli academics report that joint research with universities abroad has declined sharply thanks to the efforts of student encampments. Israeli newspapers are full of articles about the exodus of educated Israelis. Prof. Dan Ben David, a famous economist, argued that the Israeli economy is held together by 300,000 people (the senior staff in universities, tech companies, and hospitals). Once a significant portion of these people leaves, he says, “We won’t become a third world country, we just won’t be anymore.”…

The two sectors of the Israeli economy that do not report a crash are the arms companies, which are reporting high sales (although most of them are domestic, arming the genocide), and the “exits” — as international corporations scavenge the carcasses of Israel’s tech sector looking for bargains. Even Google expressed interest in buying the Israeli cyber security company Wiz, founded by Israeli intelligence officers who are eager to sell their company to Google in order to be able to leave Israel…

In the age of the information economy, the economic prospects of states are neither determined by raw materials nor the quality of the workforce. Instead, we live in an era of an “economy of expectations.” The hype of Israel’s “startup nation” has turned into a #Shutdownnation. Two senior Israeli economists, Jugene Kendel and Ron Tzur, published a secret report in which they predict that Israel will not survive to its 100th year. The report is kept secret because they do not want it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, but they gave interviews about it.

However, even if this trajectory continues, or even accelerates due to a disastrous foray against Lebanon, it will do little to help Gaza. As we pointed out some time back, all Israel need to do is starve out the enclave. And that plan is proceeding apace.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/07 ... ounds.html.

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US delivers over 20,000 'dumb bombs' to Israel since 7 Oct

Benjamin Netanyahu has been lobbying US lawmakers to speed up weapons transfers to Israel during his trip to Washington

News Desk

JUL 26, 2024

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(Photo credit: Eric Clement)

The US has sent tens of thousands of bombs to Israel since the start of its genocide in Gaza, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 25 July, citing data compiled this week by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America.

The data shows that Washington has sent over 20,000 unguided bombs, around 2,600 guided bombs, and 3,000 precision missiles.

Unguided bombs, also known as “dumb bombs,” are typically less precise and kill larger numbers of civilians, especially in densely populated areas like Gaza.

Aircraft, air defense systems, and ammunition have also been shipped to Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.

Many of these shipments have been classified or kept under the table. What had been delivered by March this year already constitutes “an enormous number and variety of weapons,” according to an analysis by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

The report came as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was on a visit to Washington, where he met with Joe Biden and his vice president on 25 July and gave a speech in front of the US Congress a day earlier.

It also coincided with a report by Politico, which said, “Israel is privately ramping up pressure on the Biden administration and lawmakers on Capitol Hill to greenlight weapons it says it needs to protect itself from an increasingly aggressive Iran and its proxies.”

Netanyahu’s delegation is circulating a list of weapons systems to US lawmakers that it wants to be delivered faster, according to an informed source. The source added that Israeli representatives gave the list to members of Congress after Netanyahu’s speech on 24 July.

Israel “needs the weapons to bolster its stockpiles,” the source said. “The fact that Israel is pushing for the weapons now indicates that it is attempting to solidify the transfers and bolster its stockpiles before the US election in November,” the Politico report adds.

According to the source, the weapons on the Israeli list being sent around differ from those held up by Biden’s government in May over “concerns” about the situation in Rafah, which Israel invaded that month in defiance of months of international warnings.

On Thursday, House Foreign Affairs Chair Michael McCaul confirmed to Politico that Israel was trying to garner approval for the weapons transfers this week. McCaul said they include weapons that the US government asked lawmakers to approve months ago.

Both he and the informed source declined to identify exactly what weapons are included on the Israeli list.

“The four corners have all signed off on these seven weapons systems, and then after that our experience is with Israel, particularly in an emergency, we would have a formal notification where we sign it, and then the weapons are good to go. That hasn’t happened, and it typically would be a matter of days, and now it’s been two months, so it’s obvious they’re withholding them,” McCaul said.

“Give us the tools faster and we’ll finish the job faster,” Netanyahu said at the Congress speech, reiterating comments he made in a controversial video in June, criticizing Washington for holding back several weapons shipments from Israel. The Biden administration has denied holding back weapons other than those paused in May.

Over 100 shipments of US arms have been supplied to Israel since the start of the genocide, which has killed over 39,000 people – the majority women and children.

A US-made bomb killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in an Israeli strike on a tent camp in Rafah in May. US-made bombs have also been dropped on the south of Lebanon.

https://thecradle.co/articles/us-delive ... ince-7-oct

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China throws clout behind Palestine

The Beijing Declaration cements the idea that global conflict resolution is now Made in China. But it also throws a wrench in US–Israeli efforts to manufacture a collaborator Palestinian government after the war in Gaza.


Pepe Escobar

JUL 26, 2024

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(Photo Credit: The Cradle)

HONG KONG – The Beijing Declaration, signed earlier this week, constitutes yet another stunning Chinese diplomatic coup, but the document goes far beyond affirming China’s pull.

The gathering of representatives of 14 Palestinian factions to commit to full reconciliation showed the entire world that the road to solving intractable geopolitical problems is no longer unilateral: it is multipolar, multi-nodal, and features BRICS/Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member China as an inescapable leader.

The concept of China as a peacemaking superpower is now so established that after the Iran–Saudi Arabia rapprochement and the signing of the Beijing Declaration, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba chose to tell his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing that Kiev is now finally ready to negotiate the end of the NATO–Russia proxy war in Ukraine.

Palestinians who came to Beijing were beaming. For Fatah Vice Chairman Mahmoud al-Aloul, “China is a light. China’s efforts are rare on the international stage.”

Hamas spokesman Hussam Badran said the Palestinian resistance movement accepted the Chinese invitation “with a positive spirit and patriotic responsibility.” All Palestinian factions have reached a consensus on “Palestinian demands to end the war,” adding that the “most important” part of the declaration is to form a government that builds Palestinian national consensus to “manage the affairs of the people of Gaza and the West Bank, oversee reconstruction, and create conditions for elections.”

The “three-step” Chinese proposal

Wang Yi cut to the chase: the Palestinian issue, says the Chinese foreign minister, is at the core of everything in West Asia. He emphasized that Beijing

… has never had any selfish interests in the Palestinian issue. China is one of the first countries to recognize the PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] and the State of Palestine and has always firmly supported the Palestinian people in restoring their legitimate national rights. What we value is morality and what we advocate is justice.

What Wang did not say – and didn’t need to – is that this position is the overwhelming BRICS+ position, shared by the Global Majority, including, crucially, all Muslim countries.

It’s all in a name – everyone in the foreseeable future will note this is the “Beijing” declaration unequivocally supporting One Palestine.

No wonder all political factions had to rise to the occasion, committing to support an independent Palestinian government with executive powers over Gaza and the occupied West Bank. But there’s a catch: this will take place immediately after the war, which the regime in Tel Aviv wants to prolong indefinitely.

What Wang Yi left somewhat implicit is that China’s consistent historical position supporting Palestine may be a decisive factor in helping future Palestinian governance institutions. Beijing is proposing three steps to get there:

First, a “comprehensive, lasting and sustainable” ceasefire in Gaza as soon as possible, and “access to humanitarian aid and rescue on the ground.”

Second, “joint efforts” – assuming western involvement – toward “post-conflict governance of Gaza under the principle of ‘Palestinians governing Palestine.’” An urgent priority is restarting reconstruction “as soon as possible.” Beijing stresses that “the international community needs to support Palestinian factions in establishing an interim national consensus government and realize effective management of Gaza and the West Bank.”

Third, help Palestine “to become a full member state of the UN” and implement the two-state solution. Beijing maintains that “it is important to support the convening of a broad-based, more authoritative, and more effective international peace conference to work out a timetable and road map for the two-state solution.”

For all the lofty aims, especially when it is patently clear that Israel has de facto buried the two-state solution – as witnessed in the Knesset’s recent vote to reject any Palestinian state – at least China is directly proposing what the Global Majority unanimously considers as a fair outcome.

Also important to note is the presence of diplomats from China’s fellow BRICS members Russia, South Africa, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, alongside diplomats from Algeria, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Turkiye at the signing of the declaration.

Genocide as a wellness treatment

Now compare China’s diplomatic coup with the US Congress giving 58 standing ovations to Israel’s psychopath-in-chief peddling the notion of genocide as a wellness treatment.

Bibi Netanyahu’s hero’s welcome in Washington takes the notion of collective psychopathology to new heights. And yet complicity in the Gaza genocide is not exactly an exception to the rule when it comes to American political leadership.

The Hegemon’s political “elites” – with Franco-British help – have also been active collaborators and weaponizers of the oppressive Saudi and Emirati bombing and blockade of Yemen, which, over nine years, collectively caused even more civilian deaths than in Gaza. Famine in Yemen is far from over, yet this has been a completely invisible war to the collective west.

At least karma ended up intervening. China promoted the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and Riyadh has become a BRICS+ member and deeply engaged in the de-dollarization drive, in which the petroyuan is emerging.

Moreover, the Yemeni resistance movement Ansarallah managed to single-handedly humiliate the US Navy. The US–UK “revenge” was to open another war front, bombing Yemeni installations to protect Israeli shipping in the Red Sea and waterways beyond.

As much as Yemen remains at war on two fronts – against the Hegemon and Israel while keeping an eye on potential Saudi shenanigans – Palestine continues to be decimated by a fully US-backed Israel. The Beijing Declaration will not mean anything if not implemented. But how?

Assuming a partial success, the declaration may be able to put a spanner in the works of the absolute impunity of the Tel Aviv–Washington agenda because after the Beijing deal, finding a collaborator Palestine government to perpetuate the occupation could be much more difficult.

All Palestinian factions now owe China a serious debt; internal squabbling will have to cease. Otherwise, it would amount to a serious loss of face for Beijing.

At the same time, the Chinese leadership seems very much aware that this bet is a Global South bet – laying bare the Hegemon’s hypocrisy for the whole world to see. Much like the Saudi–Iran deal clinched in Beijing, the optics could not be more auspicious, especially when compared to the Israeli–American refusal of a meaningful ceasefire.

Real Palestine unity will also give extra bite to each and every global initiative at the UN, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and other global forums.

All of the above, though, pales in comparison to the dire facts on the ground. The ideologically genocidal Israelis – fully supported by US political “leadership” – continue to get away with what they really want: the outright mass murder-cum-ethnic cleansing of millions of Palestinians, something that, in theory, should lead to an absolute demographic majority for Israel’s expansion into all Palestinian lands.

This tragedy will not stop anytime soon. The Beijing Declaration won’t make it stop. Only the Hegemon severing its weapons funnel to Tel Aviv can force it to stop. Yet today, what we’re instead seeing from Washington is 58 standing ovations for genocide.

https://thecradle.co/articles/china-thr ... -palestine

Washington gives Netanyahu ‘full backing’ to expand war on Lebanon: Report

Hebrew media reports that the army is urging Tel Aviv that ‘now is the right time’ for escalation against Hezbollah and Lebanon

News Desk

JUL 25, 2024

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(Photo credit: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO)

Former Israeli intelligence and security official Yuval Malka told Hebrew media on 25 July that Washington has greenlit a wider war on Lebanon.

“According to the information I received from the delegation and what I know, Netanyahu has received full legitimacy in the United States to wage a war in Lebanon,” Malka told Israel’s Channel 14.

“When he arrives in the country, he is expected to head to the ‘Al-Bur’ in Al-Kiryah, and from there he will start the war in Lebanon,” he added, referring to a military complex that houses the headquarters of the Israeli army’s different corps.

Netanyahu visited Washington this week for a speech in Congress and talks with officials.

The Israeli army has reportedly signaled to the government that the time is ripe for an expanded war against Lebanon, according to a defense analyst for Hebrew media.

“The Israeli army is prepared for a major ground maneuver in Lebanon and warns: Any delay will be in Hezbollah’s favor when there is progress in the background in negotiations to release the hostages,” said Amir Bohbot, military editor and senior defense analyst for Israeli news site Walla, on 24 July.

“The Israeli army is sending a signal to the government – we are at the height of preparations for war in the north, and now is the right time,” he added.

Citing sources, Bohbot says, “postponement for another year or two will lead to the rehabilitation and alignment of Hezbollah and all parties,” and that “the achievements of the Israeli army will be in vain … Hezbollah will have difficulty launching a campaign against Israel without the two division commanders [recently assassinated by Israel].”

“The IDF confirms that the forces trained for the ground maneuver mission in Lebanon, including forces that have gained significant experience in the Gaza Strip, raise the IDF to a very high level of competence.”

Meanwhile, Hebrew newspaper Makan reported that the Israeli navy held a reception ceremony on Wednesday for two new US-made landing ships at a naval base in Haifa.

Combat systems will be installed on the two vessels before they enter service on “several fronts.”

Despite Bohbot’s comments, Maariv newspaper reported on Wednesday that the Israeli army is losing its readiness to launch an all-out war against Lebanon and Hezbollah because its forces have been worn out from almost 300 days of fighting in Gaza.

Hezbollah released the third episode of its “Hoopoe” series on 24 July, revealing recent drone footage of the sensitive and strategic Ramat David Airbase and several other important sites it is capable of striking in the event of all-out war with Israel.

The Lebanese resistance group has recently struck new Israeli settlements not previously targeted in response to assassinations and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on south Lebanon.

Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has warned Israel that it is prepared to fight “without limits, rules, or restraints” if a wide-scale war is waged against Lebanon.

In a speech on 17 July, Nasrallah responded to increased Israeli threats against Lebanon and to a recent Hebrew media report that Tel Aviv faces a significant shortage of tanks due to losses in Gaza, saying, “If your tanks come to Lebanon and its south, you will not suffer a shortage of tanks because you will have no tanks left.”

https://thecradle.co/articles/washingto ... non-report

PA lays siege to West Bank hospital in failed arrest attempt of resistance commander
The popular commander of the Quds Brigades’ Tulkarem Brigade, Abu Shujaa, has been targeted in two previous assassination attempts

News Desk

JUL 26, 2024

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(Photo credit: X)

The popular resistance commander in the Tulkarem Brigade of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades, Abu Shujaa, escaped capture on 26 July after being besieged by Palestinian Authority (PA) forces in the city’s Thabet Thabet hospital.

Video footage shows Abu Shujaa being escorted out of the hospital by Palestinian residents in Tulkarem, who prevented PA forces who had stormed the medical facility in his pursuit from arresting him.


Residents of Tulkarem were filmed carrying the young commander on their shoulders, chanting: “With our souls, with our blood, we are at your service, Abu Shujaa.”

Upon storming the hospital, PA forces attacked women and other civilians with tear gas, according to recorded audio testimonies circulating Telegram.

Abu Shujaa was being treated in Thabet Thabet Hospital for an injury when the PA besieged the building and stormed the facility.

The residents of Tulkarem mobilized in and around the hospital in huge numbers to prevent him from being detained by the PA.

“If the [Palestinian] Authority's forces do not withdraw from the city of Tulkarem, the response will be harsh and explicit. If Commander Abu Shujaa is arrested, all the Authority's headquarters will be burned. Consider this a warning,” the Izkihim Nafe’ group in the Tulkarem branch of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said in a statement.

“We are fighting against two occupations: the Palestinian Authority and the occupation forces,” the statement added.

“Any attempt to capture our fighters by the [Palestinian] Authority forces from Tulkarem to Jenin will be met with a severe response. Any attempt to defuse a planted explosive for the occupation forces will be met with a response. This means you are collaborating with the occupation,” it said in a statement later that afternoon.

Abu Shujaa, born Mohammad Jabir, was previously targeted in an assassination attempt when PA forces opened fire at a group of wanted resistance fighters in late March. Weeks later, in April, the Israeli army attempted to target him in a drone strike.

Hebrew media reports at the time claimed that Abu Shujaa had been killed in the strike.

Friday’s siege on Thabet Thabet Hospital comes during an all-time high of PA suppression of the West Bank resistance in coordination with Israel. Tel Aviv and Ramallah have had deep security coordination for decades.

Israeli forces have also stepped up their violent raids across the occupied territory, particularly in Tulkarem, as the resistance in the West Bank continues to grow.

https://thecradle.co/articles/pa-lays-s ... -commander
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sun Jul 28, 2024 11:39 am

Mother Nature Says Adios to Rube Goldberg U.S. Military Pier in Gaza
By Ann Wright - July 26, 2024 0

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A satellite image shows U.S. military-run humanitarian aid pier in Gaza before its removal, June 12, 2024. [Source: edition.cnn.com]

Sea delivery of U.S. humanitarian aid will be transferred to the Israeli port of Ashdod to never be delivered in Gaza
Well, I told you so. Mother Nature with her not-so-big wind and waves tore apart the multimillion-dollar temporary pier that took the U.S. military two months to be transported from a U.S. Army base on the U.S. East Coast and another two months to construct like Lego blocks.

Mother Nature had to intervene not once, not twice, but three times before the U.S. government finally got the message.

The pier idea was reportedly sprung on the U.S. military in President Joe Biden’s January State of the Union address. The risk assessment for success was probably never started, much less completed, or if it was completed, it was probably hidden in a desk drawer as the predictions would not have matched the political demand of “Do something to help get us out of this mess.”

Military Finally Cries “Uncle”; Mother Nature Wins
Trying to put lipstick on a pig (sorry pig-lovers), Deputy Commander of U.S. Central Command Vice Admiral Brad Cooper told a press conference on July 17 that the pier had accomplished its mission in a “historically unprecedented operation” that transported “the highest volume of humanitarian assistance that the U.S. military has ever delivered into the Middle East.”

Called Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, pier pundits had other names for the Rube Goldberg idea: Just Ludicrous Way to End Starvation, or JLWES; Just Tell Israel to Open the Gates, or JTIOG; and many others that you can imagine!

Admiral Cooper confirmed that use of the U.S. pier is finished but, remarkably, called the mission successful: “Now that that maritime surge mission was successful, it’s now transitioning from a temporary pier in Gaza to a port in Ashdod, Israel.”

Cooper said U.S. ships and military personnel that supported the pier will stay in the area: “We expect to use the same vessels that have been transporting aid from Cyprus to the pier to transport aid from Cyprus to Ashdod.”

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Admiral Brad Cooper [Source: en.wikipedia.org]

Malnutrition and Starvation Rampant in Gaza and the U.S. Is Still Not Using Its Considerable Leverage on Israel to Open the Rafah Gates
While malnutrition and starvation are rampant in Gaza, the Biden administration still has not used its financial and military equipment leverage on Israel to force the Israeli government to let food and medicines through the Rafah gates and other points.

There are at least five million pounds of humanitarian aid in the port of Cyprus awaiting delivery to Gaza, as well as hundreds of large, loaded cargo trucks awaiting entry into Gaza at the Rafah, Egypt, crossing point stalled by Israeli control of the checkpoint.

On July 17, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director Dr. Hanan Balkhy revealed at a media briefing that, in the past four weeks, only 16 WHO trucks have been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom crossing. Some 44 WHO trucks full of health supplies sit at a standstill in Al Arish, Egypt, and another 40 trucks in Ismailia, Egypt, are waiting to enter Gaza as soon as the Rafah border crossing finally reopens.

Large numbers of trucks from many other organizations also remain stalled in Egypt.

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A U.S. Army landing craft is seen beached in Ashdod on Sunday, May 26, 2024, after being swept by wind and current from the temporary humanitarian pier in the Gaza Strip. [Source: military.com]

Netanyahu Not Welcome in Washington, D.C., or Anywhere in the U.S.

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[Source: Photo by Ann Wright in Washington, D.C.]

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives in Washington, D.C., to meet with COVID-infected President Biden on July 20 and, unbelievably, invited to address a Joint Session of the U.S. Congress on July 24, the citizens of the U.S. will definitely give him a decidedly unwelcome to the Nation’s Capital, with an estimated 186,000 Palestinians dead from the Israeli genocide of Gaza.

Busloads of citizens from all over the country will converge on Washington to protest the July 24 speech.

Over 100 members of the U.S. Congress are planning either to not show up for Netanyahu’s speech or to walk out during the speech.

Some 230 House and Senate staffers from 122 Democratic and Republican congressional offices signed a letter this week calling for Congress to protest or boycott Netanyahu’s speech, stating it was an “issue of morality, not politics.”

Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson (R-LA) is threatening members of Congress with arrest if there are disruptions during Netanyahu’s speech.

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Mike Johnson [Source: foxnews.com]

Will Any U.S. Military Personnel in the Pier Project Resign, Having Been So Close but Unable to Stop the Genocide
I would hope that the U.S. military and civilians on the ships off the Gaza shore have reflected on the incongruity that, while they are in sight of Palestinians on the shores of Gaza, and while they were eating three full meals a day, drinking all the water they wanted, and taking showers any time they wanted, hundreds of Palestinians were being killed each week and hundreds of thousands who had escaped death so far were suffering from malnutrition and starvation.

I cannot help but think there were U.S. military and civilians on those ships that wanted to do more than attach a pier to the shores of Gaza. I would hope that some of them would have wanted to help in some way to stop the Israeli genocide.

One wonders how many U.S. military will develop psychological problems watching the endless Israeli aerial attacks up and down the coast of Gaza, killing hundreds of Palestinians and blowing up the remaining medical facilities, schools and homes, and being unable to do anything to stop them.

Coming face to face with U.S. complicity in the genocide of Gaza, one wonders if any of these military personnel will file for conscientious objector status or resign.

As Netanyahu Arrives in Washington, D.C., the Memorial to Aaron Bushnell Was Removed from the Sidewalk in Front of the Israeli Embassy Where It Had Been for Five Months

One U.S. military person who took a dramatic step to signal his non-complicity with the genocide of Gaza was U.S. Air Force Airman Aaron Bushnell who, on February 25, 2024, took his own life by setting himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. His last words were: “I will not be complicit in the genocide of Gaza! Free Palestine.” Within days, a memorial to Aaron was set up on the sidewalk immediately in front of the Israeli Embassy and a 24-hour vigil organized for every day since then.

Aaron’s full statement is: “Hi my name is Aaron Bushnell, I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force and I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided, will be normal.”

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Image of Aaron Bushnell adapted by Ayo Walker, via Truth Out. [Source: truthout.org]

Much to the outrage of the Washington community, on July 17, in anticipation of Netanyahu’s visit to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., U.S. Secret Service officials, with Israeli Embassy personnel, removed the memorial to Airman Bushnell.

Other U.S. Military Have Resigned over the Israeli Genocide of Gaza

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Ex-U.S. Army Major Harrison Mann. [Source: europeannews.com]

U.S. Army Major Harrison Mann, who is Jewish and served 13 years in the Army, and U.S. Air Force First Sergeant Mohammed Abu Hashem, who is Palestinian-American and served 22 years in the Air Force, have both resigned from the U.S. military, in opposition to U.S. complicity in the Israeli genocide of Gaza.

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Larry Hebert went on a ten-day hunger strike in Washington, D.C., due to his concern for the children of Gaza and terminated it only when his annual leave from his base in Spain was cancelled by his command and he was ordered to return to Spain. He has filed for conscientious objector status.

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Larry Hebert [Source: Photo courtesy of Larry Hebert]

Civilians Resigned from the U.S. Government in Opposition to U.S. Complicity in the Israeli Genocide of Gaza
The following civilian U.S. government employees have also resigned. Here is a link to articles of most of those who have resigned in which they explain their resignations:

Josh Paul, Director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, resigned on October 18, 2023;

Tariq Habash, a Department of Education political appointee, resigned on January 4, 2024;

Annelle Sheline, a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, resigned on March 27, 2024;

Hala Rharrit, a career diplomat and the State Department’s spokeswoman for the Middle East and North Africa, resigned on April 25, 2024;

Anna Del Castillo, Deputy Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility at the White House, resigned in April 2024

Stacy Gilbert, a senior official in the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, resigned on May 10, 2024;

Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff at the U.S. Department of the Interior, resigned on May 16, 2024;

Alexander Smith, a contractor working as a Senior Adviser on Gender, Maternal Health, Child Health, and Nutrition for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), resigned on May 27, 2024;

Andrew Miller, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs, resigned on June 22, 2024;

Maryam Hassanein, a special assistant at the Interior Department, resigned on July 2, 2024.

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2024/0 ... r-in-gaza/

*****

Patrick Lawrence: No More Silence
July 27, 2024

If Zionist ideology ever fit into the modern world, and I will leave this an outstanding question, it no longer does.

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Die-in protest of the Israel Independence Day celebration, Washington, D.C., May 23, 2024. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

By Patrick Lawrence
ScheerPost

I do not know how it is in your household, but in mine we have developed the practice over the past nine months of reciting to one another the most appalling of the news bulletins from Gaza that come our way from a great variety of sources. It is rather miserable to think life has come to this, reading aloud daily accounts of atrocities, but there is no turning away from the depths to which terrorist Israel has dragged the whole of humanity.

The subtext of each of these recitations is, “Can you believe this is happening? Can you believe the U.S. participates in this? Can you believe this is normalized?”

It is indeed difficult to believe the things we read of are part of life in the third decade of the 21st century, and may this remain so: When it is no longer difficult to read or watch videos of the Israelis’ merciless barbarities, the Zionist army will have bombed and bulldozed our consciences as thoroughly as it has any Gazan or West Bank village.

Over the weekend my partner told me she had read something that was simply too much even for our recitation routines. It was a piece Politico had published on July 19, and it had arrived courtesy of Jonathan Cook, the estimable British journalist.

“We Volunteered at a Gaza Hospital. What We Saw Was Unspeakable” was written not by journalists, but by two American surgeons who had volunteered last spring for humanitarian work in Gaza by way of the Palestinian American Medical Association. Mark Perlmutter is an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina. Feroze Sidhwa is a trauma and critical care surgeon who practices in Northern California.

“I haven’t been able to mention this until now,” my partner began, her voice cracking. Then, holding back tears, she told me about the Politico piece. She related the stories of two Palestinians the American surgeons treated during their time at the European Hospital. The European Hospital sits at the southeastern edge of Khan Younis, the city in central Gaza where the Israeli Occupation Forces earlier directed Palestinians to evacuate, then bombed, then left, and now, Khan Younis having been resettled, is now being bombed again.

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Screenshot from Tasnim News Agency footage of an ambulance on Oct. 7, 2023, operated by the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip, after it was heavily damaged by an Israeli military airstrike. According to the report, at the time of attack the ambulance was in front of Nasser Hospital, carrying three injured people. (Tasnim News Agency, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

Here are the stories.

Juri

One is about a 9-year-old girl named Juri. She was malnourished, unconscious, and in septic shock when Perlmutter and Sidhwa came upon her at the hospital. They operated immediately, and when they did, they found, among other things, she was missing part of a femur and most of the flesh on one thigh. Her buttocks were cut so severely her pelvic bones were exposed. As they proceeded, maggots fell in clumps from Juri’s body.

“Even if they saved her,” my partner said, “she will live a life of severe disability and constant pain.”

Tamer

The other story concerns a nurse who was serving at the Indonesian Hospital last November when Israeli terrorists raided the facility. Tamer, a young man with two children, was assisting the orthopedics staff in the operating room at the time. When he refused to leave an anesthetized patient, an Israeli soldier shot him point blank in the leg.

After the orthopedics team treated him, leaving external rods to stabilize his leg, terrorist soldiers went to his room, dragged him away, and held him —somewhere, Tamer did not know where — strapped to a table for 45 days. No medical care, one glass of juice most days, though sometimes not even that. His bone became infected — this is called osteomyelitis — and he was beaten so severely one eye fell out of its socket.

Perlmutter and Sidhwa:

“Later, he said, he was unceremoniously dumped naked on the side of a road. With metal sticking out of his infected and broken leg and his right eye hanging out of his skull he crawled for two miles until someone found him and brought him to European Hospital.”

The Politico piece is illustrated with many photographs taken by Feroze Sidhwa. One showed Tamer during his treatment just after he was shot: a strapping, vigorous man lying in a hospital bed. Another showed Tamer after he returned from his 45 days in captivity: emaciated, looking 20 years older, stripped of all vitality, his face set in what psychiatrists call flat affect.

“When it is no longer difficult to read or watch videos of the Israelis’ merciless barbarities, the Zionist army will have bombed and bulldozed our consciences as thoroughly as it has any Gazan or West Bank village.”

My mind snapped as my partner offered summaries of these two stories. “That’s it!” I shouted. “It’s impossible to go on this way any longer.” I began asking in desperate tones what someone trying to be human can do while a nation run by terrorists disgraces all of those now living but for the Palestinian people and the Perlmutters and Sidhwas who give of themselves to them. I thought of Randy Kehler and all those honorable people who started the famous — back then, anyway — tax revolt during the Vietnam War. I thought of Camus and his invocation of Sisyphus: the futility of all action, the necessity of any.

I eventually returned to the headline atop the Politico piece. Yes, what Perlmutter and Sidhwa saw was unspeakable, there is no arguing this. If you read what they have written, and I urge everyone to do so, you must brace yourself for your reaction to it, as my own case may suggest. These two surgeons saw unspeakable things during their time in Gaza, but now they speak of them. And when they speak of the unspeakable, there is the potential for transformation in what they say. We must not miss this. We must not fail to see the power of language when put to its highest purpose.

“What can we do?” is surely a question on the minds of millions of people as apartheid Israel proceeds with its genocide in Gaza — and now escalates its criminal conduct in the occupied West Bank. What makes this question so serious a conundrum is that the Gaza genocide and America’s direct participation in it have pushed in our faces the reality that, American democracy in ruins, there are no mediating institutions any longer available to us through which to express our will.

As I sat to write this, Caitlin Johnstone, the Australian journalist, sent around a message posted on “X” by someone going by ThePryingEye, who makes a point that simply takes my breath away. “What is happening in Gaza is awful,” ThePryingEye has it, “but asking people to give up what they need to survive for morals is an unfair card to play. People are suffering here already, and when it can possibly get worse, it’s not that people don’t care about Gaza or we are selling the[sic] out for a taco.”

I hope my editors and readers will forgive my French, but what kind of fucking drip would say such a thing? ThePryingEye is, first, the lumpen exemplar of Western humanity’s long decline into moral slovenliness and what I call consumer nihilism. In this I would love to learn ThePryingEye’s idea of what people “need to survive” — apart from tacos, of course.

But there is something else here we must not miss: Whoever this pitiful person is, he or she is the victim of decade upon decade during which power has cynically abused language and images to strip eyes of the ability to see, ears of the ability to hear, minds of the ability to think, and — these most of all — tongues of the ability to speak and bodies of the ability to act. ThePryingEye is exactly how this is intended to turn out: a taco-eating dolt perfectly at home with “Nothing” as the answer to “What can we do?”

When we face at last the reality that we have been deprived of any institutional means to mediate our politics, it follows that we are forced back upon ourselves. And when we become self-reliant in this way, it will come to us that, as Perlmutter and Sidhwa have very clearly demonstrated, there is power in language, in speaking of the unspeakable.

“When they speak of the unspeakable, there is the potential for transformation in what they say. We must not miss this. We must not fail to see the power of language when put to its highest purpose.”

I am not at all surprised that the Israelis and the Biden regime — along with the Germans and others — have radically escalated their long-running attack on clear language, most obviously but not only in their patently nonsensical effort to condemn as “antisemitic” even simple expressions of sympathy for Palestinians. Isn’t the objective here obvious? Isn’t it plain that these people understand the power of language and the necessity to control it if Western populations are to remain in ThePryingEye’s condition?

Among the many striking things in the Politico piece, two now come to mind. One is Perlmutter’s and Sidhwa’s description of their Palestinian colleagues: Many were jaundiced, suffering from hepatitis, malnourished; all were physically and mentally unwell, and — most striking, this — devoid of all empathy for those they were treating. “Several staff members told us they were simply waiting to die,” the two Americans write, “and that they hoped Israel would get it over with sooner rather than later.”

The other image I mention here confirms this impression: It is a photograph of a wall in the pediatric wing of the European Hospital, where one of Perlmutter and Sidhwa’s Palestinian colleagues has scribbled: “#Gaza We don’t care anymore about anything.” An illegible signature follows.

Isn’t this the kind of thing we read in accounts of Holocaust survivors? Giorgio Agamben went long on just this topic in Remnants of Auschwitz (Zone Books, 1999), wherein he examined the reduction of those in the camps to dehumanized ghosts — psychologically destroyed, many of them beyond retrieval.

“I will be satisfied if Remnants of Auschwitz succeeds only in correcting some of the terms with which we register the decisive lesson of the century,” he wrote in a preface, “and if this book makes it possible for certain words to be left behind and others to be understood in a different sense. This is also a way — perhaps the only way — to listen to what is unsaid.”

Let us take some inspiration from the Italian philosopher and correct some terms while understanding others differently. This is my reply to “What can we do?” It is to refuse any longer to let our opinions and our expression of them be either policed or self-policed. Perlmutter and Sidhwa can liberate us in this way if we let them.

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Giorgio Agamben, 2009. (Et sic in infinitum, Wikipedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Read their piece again if you need to do so, think about what these past months of terror have done to Gazans, then join me in asking what we are not supposed to ask: Is what Israel is doing in Gaza worse than the Holocaust? I insist we now pose this question instead of flinching from it. Waiting to die? Getting it over with? I am not much for keeping scorecards of atrocity-committing regimes, but there seems an argument that the Reich’s camps were less terrorizing than the Israeli camp called the Gaza Strip.

After reading Perlmutter and Sidhwa, I went back to that remarkable essay Pankaj Mishra published last March in the London Review of Books, “The Shoah After Gaza.” I wanted to read again of all those prominent Jewish writers and thinkers, many of them Holocaust survivors, who rejected the Zionist project in the early years after its inception.

Yeshayahu Leibowitz, who won the Israel Prize in 1993, warned 25 years earlier of “the Nazification of Israel.” Jean Améry, the Austrian writer, after reports of torture in Israeli prisons began to surface in the 1970s:

“I urgently call on all Jews who want to be human beings to join me in the radical condemnation of systematic torture. Where barbarism begins, even existential commitments must end.”

And then the case of Primo Levi, the famous survivor of the camps and author of, among other things, If This Be a Man, his account of his time at Auschwitz. A couple of years into the regime of Menachem Begin, who was not Israel’s first terrorist prime minister and not the last, Levi dismissed the Zionist project altogether. “The center of gravity of the Jewish world must turn back,” he wrote, “must move out of Israel and back into the diaspora.” He later told an American audience, “Israel was a mistake in historical terms.”

To turn back. I stand with Levi. I take courage from him and conviction from Perlmutter and Sidhwa to say now in the clear language we can admire in these three: Israel, an artificial construct misguided from the first, has to go. Some way or other it can no longer be permitted to exist—not as it is now constituted, and not in any hopeless notion of a two-state solution. We cannot tolerate the unceasing, systematic, criminal cruelty of a human population to which Israel has committed itself. Only a single, secular state that recognizes the equal rights of all has any promise of civilizing the Zionist presence in the Middle East.

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Pankaj Mishra at PalFest 2008. (PalFest, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

I do not know how the project of ending this failed experiment may begin, but it should be set in motion as soon as possible. I see nothing shocking in this judgment once the paraphernalia of geopolitics is stripped away and the fraud of marking this thought down to “antisemitism” is dismissed. Eliminating the Nazi regime was a global project on the grounds of sheer humanity. Again, I am not much interested in precisely how Israel stacks up against the Reich, but we must acknowledge the similarities now such that the same principle obtains.

It will be 46 years this November since the U.N. passed Resolution 3379, wherein the General Assembly “determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.” I am struck once again at the clarity of language that was once prevalent in public discourse and conclude that the immediate project is to recover it. Resolution 3379 was revoked in 1991 after the U.S. applied heavy and extensive pressure among the General Assembly members. “And to equate Zionism with the intolerable sin of racism,” George H.W. Bush said as he introduced the motion, “is to twist history and forget the terrible plight of Jews in World War II.” It is interesting to note how the Holocaust was leveraged, even then, in a way I have always thought a dishonor to the 6 million victims.

Bush got one thing very right that day. “To equate Zionism with racism is to reject Israel itself,” he said. It is many years later now, and Israel’s conduct in the interim seems to me to prove out this equation. This is the diabolic things about the Gaza atrocities. The Israeli military does not understand its operation there as cruel or immoral or in any way wrong. As Israeli leaders make clear again and again, they believe they are righteously doing God’s work.

“To turn back. I stand with Levi. I take courage from him and conviction from Perlmutter and Sidhwa to say now in the clear language we can admire in these three: Israel, an artificial construct misguided from the first, has to go.”

Here is Bibi Netanyahu reacting to the International Court of Justice’s judgment last week, perfectly obvious in itself, that Israel’s occupation of all Palestinian land— not just the West Bank — is illegal.

“The Jewish people are not occupiers in their own land, including in our eternal capital Jerusalem nor Judea and Samaria, our historical homeland. No absurd opinion in The Hague can deny this historical truth or the legal right of Israelis to live in their own communities in our ancestral home.”

This remark, openly defiant of decades of international law, openly indifferent to the legal commitments Israel made at its founding and many times since, can be read as a useful prelude to Netanyahu’s monumentally dishonest, reality-warping speech Wednesday to a joint session of Congress. His reiterated dismissal of the ICJ’s ruling — “utter and complete nonsense” — takes a minor place among the Zionist leader’s offensive distortions. Civilian deaths in Gaza have been minimal, the Israeli army should be commended, not criticized, Americans demonstrating for the Palestinian cause “stand with murderers” and are “Iran’s useful idiots,” the Palestinians are comparable to wartime Germans and Japanese: Netanyahu’s hour-long speech was end-to-end with this kind of thing.

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Netanyahu addressing a joint session of U.S. Congress on Wednesday. (C-Span screen shot)

The Israeli leader’s markedly assertive oration was revealing, at the same time, of the psychological injuries that lie deep within the Zionist project. He offered a generous recital of the centuries of antisemitic persecution across Europe and, of course, the great, indelible hurt of the Holocaust. Netanyahu’s world is one of we-they, us-and-them. You can hear in his these sentences the Zionists’ addiction to permanent victimhood and (especially interesting to me) the paranoia attaching to the feeling, common among Israelis, that the Jews of Europe appeared weak and unmanly as the Reich sent them to the camps. “The Jewish people are no longer helpless in the face of our enemies,” Netanyahu asserted proudly — confirming to my satisfaction that the Zionist project is in one dimension unhealthily, even dangerously compensatory.

“Jerusalem will never l be divided,” Netanyahu declared — an assertion he made in just these words when he last addressed Congress nine years ago. “The land of Israel, of Abraham, Jacob, and Issac, has always been our home and it will always be our home.” There you have it, as baldly stated as possible: Zionist Israel has no intention of entering talks of any kind to settle the Palestinian conflict and insists that the Old Testament is the only law it will observe.

And here we come to Netanyahu’s true purpose in Washington this week: It is to bind the U.S. fully into the Israeli cause even as it reaches egregious extremes.

“We meet today at a crossroads in history,” he said. “This is not a clash of civilizations. It is a clash between barbarism and civilization.” This is beyond preposterous if you keep Perlmutter and Sidhwa in mind as true witnesses to history. But to go by Netanyahu’s reception Wednesday afternoon, the U.S. will buy his story and invest ever more deeply in it. I counted 72 ovations as this de facto war criminal spoke, all but seven of them of the standing variety.

The great majority of those in Netanyahu’s audience, let us not forget, have accepted one or another form of bribe from the Israel lobby. As John Whitbeck, the Paris-based international attorney, put it in a privately circulated note Wednesday afternoon,

“Anyone watching this spectacle could only conclude that the United States of America has ceased to be a respectable independent state, as, indeed, it has been for many years already, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the State of Israel, with shared values rightfully rejected by the overwhelming majority of mankind.”

Bibi Netanyahu is what Zionism sounds like in 2024. There is nothing in it to work with, nothing to honor, nothing to respect. If Zionist ideology ever fit into the modern world, and I will leave this an outstanding question, it no longer does. Intent on dehumanizing the Palestinian people, Zionists have succeeded in ennobling them while making themselves deformed creatures, nothing more or less than humans without humanity.

I do not seem to be the only one deeply affected by the Perlmutter–Sidhwa piece in Politico. Over the weekend Perlmutter gave a lengthy interview to CBS Sunday Morning, during which he reflected further on what he saw while at the European Hospital:

“All of the disasters I’ve seen, combined — 40 mission trips, 30 years, Ground Zero, earthquakes, all of that combined — doesn’t equal the level of carnage that I saw against civilians in just my first week in Gaza…. I’ve seen more incinerated children than I’ve ever seen in my entire life, combined. I’ve seen more shredded children in just the first week … missing body parts, being crushed by buildings, the greatest majority, or bomb explosions, the next greatest majority. We’ve taken shrapnel as big as my thumb out of 8-year-olds.

And then there’s sniper bullets. I have two children that I have photographs of that were shot so perfectly in the chest, I couldn’t put my stethoscope over their heart more accurately, and directly on the side of the head, in the same child. No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the ‘world’s best sniper.’ And they’re dead-center shots.”


It is time to say certain things, readers. It is time to put aside the policing and self-policing of our views of the things we see and hear. Time to make good use of language to say what we mean. It is time to see in ThePryingEye all those “good Germans” who saw what was going on around them during the 1930s but turned the other way and went about their business. Time to say, “Actually, what we need to survive is to utter the truth and determine to act on it.”

This is the first thing we can do. Much stands to come of it.

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/07/27/p ... e-silence/

*******

Palestinian Resistance Leader Dies in Israeli Prison

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Sheikh Mustafa Abu Arra, Hamas Leader, July 2024 Photo: @BenzBe68064

July 26, 2024 Hour: 8:04 pm

Palestinian organizations issued a statement stating that the victim was a leader of the Hamas movement and had been detained on at least 12 occasions since 1990.

The Committee on Prisoners’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club confirmed the death of Sheikh Mustafa Abu Arra, 63-year-old, after being transferred from Rimon Israeli prison to the Soroka hospital because of his deteriorating health.

Palestinian organizations stated in a statement that the victim, who had come from the town of Aqaba in Tubas, West Bank, he was a leader of the Hamas movement and has been deprived of liberty on at least 12 occasions since 1990.

Abu Arra was among the prisoners of Marj al-Zuhur, in southern Lebanon in 1992. For the last time, he was arrested on 30 October 2023, when he already had health problems and needed medical care all the time.

Since his deprivation of liberty he has faced torture, starvation and neglect in medical care, which are the main causes of death inside Israeli prisons.

Regardless of his illness, he was forced to slow death without health care, as is the continuing war of extermination and systematic killings carried out by Israel.

The Commission and the Prisoners’ Club held the Israeli prison administration responsible for the death of Abu Arra and for the fate of all prisoners and detainees in its prisons, That adds up to more than 9,700, not including the detainees from Gaza.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/palestin ... li-prison/

******

Hezbollah and the Escalation Ladder
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JULY 27, 2024
David Miller

Image
Israel Occupation Forces graphic from 2016 showing that Hezbollah missiles can reach way beyond the territory of occupied Palestine. Source

This arsenal, they write “can cause massive fatalities and critical national infrastructure destruction to civilian and military targets in Israel.”

In a full-scale war with Hezbollah, they say that “not all … can be intercepted,” and they “could overwhelm” air defenses. This “represents a military and civilian threat that Israel has never experienced.”

Laughably, however, the report claims that there have been only 29 civilian and military fatalities as a result of this. Hezbollah claims more than 2,000 military operatives have been eliminated.

Image
INSS graphic Source

While the onslaught in Gaza continues,s the INSS say that “Israel” should not attack Lebanon. Whatever happens, they say, “There should be significant coordination of expectations with the public.” So far, they conclude “no steps have been taken to prepare the public for this severe scenario.”

The military establishment in the settler colony is scared of being defeated by Hezbollah.

Image
The CSIS, a Washington DC base think tank historically very close to the CIA gives its assessment. Source


Hezbollah and the Axis of Resistance

From the outside, it seems incomprehensible to many why Hezbollah and the other elements of the Axis of Resistance don’t just actively target and collapse the whole Zionist entity. Even Zionist think tanks appear to suggest that Hezbollah alone may be capable of such a feat.

The answer is the escalation ladder.

While it is plain that the various elements of the Axis of Resistance are not proxies of the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is also clear that the period since October 7 has molded the Axis of Resistance into a functioning regional military entity. The fact that all of these many groupings work together is increasingly recognized internationally.

It was claimed in 2021 that officers from Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps coordinated the military confrontation in Gaza in that year. The center certainly involves Hamas, and we can assume that Saleh al-Arouri, the recently murdered Hamas leader in Beirut, participated. It is also reported that as many as 12 Palestinian factions also participated.

Additionally, it seems likely that there is information and intelligence sharing with the government of Syria, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, and of course the Yemeni Armed Forces under Ansar Allah. Recent reports indicate that “the Armed Forces of Yemen… have established a communication and coordination office in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.” Sanaa’s forces “announced their first joint operation with the IRI on 6 June. The operation targeted weapons shipments in the port of Haifa. The second operation, announced later that month, also targeted vessels in the port of Haifa, as well as in the Mediterranean Sea.”

The creation of a formidable and quite new regional army has been a remarkable achievement of the Zionist genocidal strategy in Gaza.

Since October 7, the so-called escalation ladder has involved very significant restraint from Hezbollah. All of the data on the military struggle show first that the Zionists have expended much greater firepower and confined themselves to a far wider geographical area, not to mention extensively targeting civilians. Hezbollah has by contrast focused almost exclusively on military targets and within a 5km distance of the border.

Image
Source: The Council on Foreign Relations

The strategy of Hezbollah has been to systematically destroy the Zionists’ vast array of espionage equipment rendering the occupation forces blind and making it much easier for Hezbollah (or others) to target the north and other areas of the interior of the occupied lands.

Escalations from Hezbollah have only occurred when Zionist provocations called for increased deterrence.

Two examples are when Hezbollah deliberately responded to take out Iron Dome batteries, following a Zionist escalation, in order to show that they could do it at will.

A second response was the fire bombings that set large areas of the northern occupied lands ablaze.

Psychological warfare tactics have included circulating three long clips of footage filmed by Hezbollah drones at close range over scores of Zionist military installations and bases. The drones have been dubbed the HudHud.

The more recent responses to Zionist escalations hold out the prospect of further significant escalatory exchanges, which will seriously challenge the stability of the Zionist entity.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/07/ ... on-ladder/

*******

Top Israeli negotiators refuse joining next round of ceasefire talks citing govt 'sabotage'

The Israeli prime minister is making a 'dangerous bet on the lives' of the Israeli captives by continuing to block a deal

News Desk

JUL 27, 2024

Image
Relatives and supporters of Israelis taken captive by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza during the October 7 attacks, hold placards during a demonstration calling for their release, in Tel Aviv on May 9, 2024. (Photo credit: Jack Guez/AFP)

Two top Israeli officials have refused to travel to Qatar for talks with Hamas regarding a Gaza ceasefire, citing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to sabotage the negotiations, Israel's Channel 12 reported on 27 July.
Head of the Prisoners and Missing Persons Administration, Nitzan Alon, and the head of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, stated they “do not intend to travel to Qatar next week.” Both officials believe that “there is no point in traveling,” because Netanyahu “wants to make changes to the deal that Hamas will not accept. Therefore, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen will travel alone.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu is demanding that conditions be added to the current proposal for a ceasefire deal with Hamas in an effort to “cause a crisis” in the negotiations that will cost the lives of Israeli captives still in Gaza, Israeli media further reported Saturday.

“He thinks that if he hardens positions, Hamas will break, but he’s taking a dangerous bet on the lives of the hostages,” said sources quoted by the Kan broadcaster and the Ynet news site.

“There is no more time,” the sources said.

“Netanyahu is single-minded, and his position does not allow for negotiations to begin,” the sources continued. “It's not clear if he wants a deal.”

The prime minister is currently in the US, where he gave a speech to Congress on Wednesday, met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday, and visited former US president Donald Trump in Florida on Friday.

Netanyahu's effort to stall the talks comes amid claims by White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby that a deal is near. He told Kan on Friday that “we're as close now as we've ever been, closer I'd say.”

Before speaking to Congress, Netanyahu delayed the departure of the negotiating team for talks in Qatar while claiming during his speech he was doing everything in his power to bring the captives home.

Einav Tsengaoker, the mother of a captive held by Hamas, told Channel 12: “Instead of declaring in Congress that Netanyahu accepts the deal on the table, he is preventing its implementation for personal reasons. Even if we are informed of more abductees who died in the tunnels, he will continue his PR campaign in the US and will continue to drag his feet.”

Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz also criticized Netanyahu's refusal to accept a ceasefire deal and captive exchange that was proposed by Israeli negotiators and accepted by Hamas two months ago.

Gantz emphasized: “The abductees do not have another day, and there is not another minute.” According to him, “we have lost a quarter of the living abductees” because the ceasefire proposal has not been accepted.

Israeli affairs expert Hassan Marhej told Al Mayadeen that talk of a prisoner exchange deal “has become very distant” after Netanyahu's speech in the US Congress.

It is estimated that 111 of the 251 Israeli soldiers and civilians taken captive by Hamas on 7 October remain in Gaza. This includes the bodies of 39 captives who were likely killed by the Israeli bombing of the strip that has killed over 39,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinians held captive in Israeli prisons. Hamas released four Israeli captives before that. Israeli troops have rescued seven captives.

https://thecradle.co/articles/top-israe ... t-sabotage

Netanyahu ends US trip with Trump meeting as pressure grows to 'finish up' Gaza war

The Republican presidential nominee affirmed his good relationship with the Israeli prime minister in their first meeting since Trump left the White House

News Desk

JUL 27, 2024

Image
Then-US President Donald Trump, right, meets with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, September 15, 2020. (Photo credit: AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on 26 July he has a good relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that he would finish Israel’s war on Gaza quickly if elected US president in November.

Trump made the comments after meeting with the Israeli prime minister on Friday at the former US president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

“If we win, it’ll be very simple, it’ll all work out and very quickly,” Trump told reporters.

Trump had urged Netanyahu to end the war during an interview with Fox News on Thursday, the day before their meeting. “I want him to finish up and get it done quickly,” Trump said.

Netanyahu has resisted international pressure to agree to a ceasefire with Hamas that would bring home the roughly 70 remaining Israelis held captive by Hamas in Gaza and see the release of hundreds or even thousands of Palestinians held captive and tortured in Israeli jails.

Israel has faced criticism of its war on Gaza based on its massacre of over 39,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, and displacing almost two million others.

However, Trump has criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the war for other reasons.

The war should end fast “because they are getting decimated with this publicity, and you know Israel is not very good at public relations,” Trump said during an interview with Fox News.

Vice President Kamala Harris also encouraged Netanyahu to end the war during her Thursday meeting with the prime minister.

“Let’s get the deal done so we can get a ceasefire to end the war,” said Harris, now the Democratic Party’s expected presidential nominee.

Trump’s Friday meeting with Netanyahu was the first between the two men since Trump left the Oval Office in January 2021.

As president, Trump was close with Netanyahu and strongly supported Israel. Trumped moved the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem, helped Israel normalize relations with several Arab countries under the Abraham Accords, and withdrew the US from the nuclear deal with Israel’s main enemy, Iran.

But Trump was allegedly angered after Netanyahu swiftly embraced US President Joe Biden following the 2020 election, which Trump says was stolen from him.

In an interview with Axios in April 2021, Trump said he was disappointed in Netanyahu, accused him of disloyalty, and said: “F**k him.”

However, on Friday, Trump claimed at the beginning of the meeting that he had never had a bad relationship with Netanyahu. “We have always had good relations,” he said.

During the prime minister’s speech to the US Congress on Wednesday, which was the main purpose of his trip, Netanyahu praised both Biden and Trump’s support for Israel amid lengthy and repeated applause from Congressional members.

https://thecradle.co/articles/netanyahu ... p-gaza-war
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Mon Jul 29, 2024 11:50 am

Israel invades Nablus refugee camp four times in 24 hours, West Bank resistance fights back

One Palestinian was shot dead by troops and another killed in an Israeli drone strike on the West Bank city on Saturday

News Desk

JUL 28, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: AP)

Palestinian resistance fighters engaged in heavy clashes with the Israeli army on 28 July during its raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

“Our fighters are engaged in fierce clashes with the Zionist occupation forces storming Balata camp from several fronts, and targeted them with machine guns and explosive devices, causing direct casualties among the enemy's ranks,” the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades’ Nablus branch said in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

Israeli forces stormed the city’s Balata refugee camp on Sunday for the fourth time in 24 hours, Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

The camp witnessed “heavy gunfire, the presence of snipers, and the arrival of additional reinforcements along with a bulldozer,” the outlet said.

Clashes between Israeli forces and resistance fighters had been ongoing for hours. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said at midnight on Saturday that its fighters engaged Israeli troops which stormed the camp “from all directions” earlier that evening. One Palestinian, 24-year-old Ali Bassam Hashash, was killed by Israeli gunfire.


An Israeli drone strike on Balata camp earlier on 27 July killed 17-year-old Luay Mohammad Misha. “An occupation drone bombed a group of citizens in the Jammasin neighborhood inside Balata camp,” WAFA reported.

At least 28 others were injured by the drone strike on the densely populated refugee camp.


An Israeli soldier had been wounded on Saturday morning after resistance fighters targeted a checkpoint near Nablus, according to the Israeli army.

The deaths bring the number of those killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since 7 October up to 591, 143 of whom are children.

Last week, a 56-year-old woman and paramedic, Iman Abdullah Salem, and her daughter were killed by Israeli forces during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Three resistance fighters, two of them commanders, were also assassinated in a drone strike that morning. Israeli drone attacks have become increasingly common in the occupied West Bank over the past year.

Prior to an Israeli operation in the city of Jenin last year, drones had not targeted the occupied territory since the Second Intifada.

Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed to dismantle resistance groups in the occupied West Bank at any cost, reiterating that he lifted restrictions on using drones there earlier this year in order to confront Palestinian fighters.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-in ... ights-back

Following Majdal Shams incident, 'full-scale war' with Lebanon is near: Israel FM

Israel blames Hezbollah for the attack on a soccer field in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights that killed 12 young people, but eyewitnesses said it was an Iron Dome interceptor missile

News Desk

JUL 28, 2024

Image
Local residents comfort each other as they gather at the site of a rocket attack on the Druze town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights, July 27, 2024.(Photo credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP)

Israel Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on 28 July that a full-scale war with Hezbollah and Lebanon is near following a mysterious missile strike on a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights the previous day.

"We are approaching the moment of full-scale war with Hezbollah and Lebanon," Katz told Israeli media.

The Israeli military said on Sunday morning that it had conducted overnight strikes in various locations in Lebanon, including Borj al-Shmali in the Tyre District and areas in the Bekaa Valley, allegedly in response to Saturday's bombing in the town of Majdal Shams.

The New York Times noted the "The Israeli strikes appeared to stop short of a major escalation" but that "there were strong expectations on Sunday morning that Israel still might mount a bigger response."

Twelve people were killed in Saturday's missile strike on the soccer field, including many children, while more than 30 were wounded.

Israel blames Hezbollah for the strike.

"We will pay a price on both the front and the home front, but by the end of the war, Nasrallah and Hezbollah will be crushed, and Lebanon will suffer severely. We will restore peace and security to the northern communities. I have instructed the Foreign Ministry to prepare for a comprehensive campaign worldwide to gain legitimacy for action in Lebanon," Katz explained following the attack.

In a statement, Hezbollah vehemently denied any involvement in the Majdal Shams bombing. The Israeli army rejected the statement, insisting that Hezbollah was behind the strike. Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari claimed on Sunday morning that “the rocket which was fired at Majdal Shams was a Falaq-1 rocket of Iranian production whose warhead carried over 50 kilos of explosives,” and even named the Hezbollah commander who guided the fire as “Ali Muhammad Yahya.”

Eyewitnesses at the scene, however, reported that it was an Iron Dome interceptor missile that fell on the field, according to an Al-Arabi TV correspondent who spoke with a member of the Israeli ambulance service, the Red Star of David.


Political researcher and military expert Dr. Hassan Ahmed Hassan stressed that “Hezbollah and the rest of the resistance factions have nothing to do with what happened in Majdal Shams, and the Israeli authorities must provide an explanation that convinces the mind instead of raising the ceiling of threats and intimidation."


Following the attack, Israel's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, Eli Cohen, warned that "Lebanon should burn" in a social media post.

The Israeli media and army have described the victims as Israeli civilians, but the residents of Majdal Shams are Syrian Druze living under occupation since the Israeli army occupied the Golan Heights in 1967 during the Six Day War.

Residents of the town have refused Israeli citizenship and continue to view themselves as Syrians. Protests in support of the Syrian state headed by President Bashar al-Assad were common in Majdal Shams during the eight-year war that erupted in Syria in 2011.

Druze in Majdal Shams were angered by Israeli military and financial support for al-Qaeda-linked groups fighting the Syrian government.

In contrast, Druze living in Israeli territory are Israeli citizens. Unlike Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, Israeli Druze joined the Israeli Army and Border Police in large numbers.

Nasser, a resident of Majdal Shams, recounted the moment of impact to Ynet. "This is the first time we were hit. There was a siren; I didn't have time to cover my head with my hands when the explosion happened," he said.

"Some children who were injured have no chance of being saved. This war needs to end. They're all little kids, playing around with scooters and bicycles, playing soccer. No one knows where their children are; no one is allowed to come near the area. There were over 30 ambulances and many Magen David Adom teams here. I've never been in such a situation in my life."

Ynet added that another local claimed that the Iron Dome missile defense system was not activated.

A US official told Axios that the strike could trigger a broader war between Israel and Hezbollah.

"What happened today could be the trigger we have been worried about and tried to avoid for 10 months," the official said. He added that Hezbollah officials told the UN the incident was the result of an Israeli anti-rocket interceptor hitting the soccer field.

Israeli military and political leaders have sought to launch a full-scale war against Hezbollah in Lebanon since the 7 October Hamas attack on Israeli settlements and military bases and Israel's subsequent war on Gaza.

Israeli leaders have threatened multiple times to "copy-paste" the war on Gaza, in which Israeli forces have destroyed large swathes of Palestinian cities and killed over 39,000 people, to Lebanon.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told reservist soldiers stationed near the Lebanon border in December that "What we are doing in Gaza, we can do in Beirut.

At the same time, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has stated that Hezbollah is fully prepared to defend Lebanon and use its vast array of rockets and missiles to inflict massive damage on Israeli cities if Israel attacks Beirut.

In June, Nasrallah stated that Israel's threats to launch a full-scale war in Lebanon do "not scare us" and that Israel is the party that should be "scared."

Despite issuing threats, Israeli leaders have not been able to gain US approval for a full-scale war in Lebanon and are hoping a Donald Trump win in the US presidential race in December will allow them a freer hand to launch a war.

Following Saturday's attack, Trump suggested President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris bore some responsibility.

"Today's attack on Israel cannot be forgotten. It will go down as another moment in history created by a weak and ineffective United States president and vice president. With time, this situation will only get worse for our country, Trump stated.

https://thecradle.co/articles/following ... -israel-fm

Rocket attack hits US occupation base in Syria's Conoco oil field

Local resistance factions in Iraq and Syria have recently reignited attacks on US occupation bases and Israeli targets in the region

News Desk

JUL 27, 2024

Image
(Photo Credit: AFP)

Rocket salvos hit the US occupation army base at Syria's largest oil field during the early hours of 27 July, according to local sources who reported the sound of explosions in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor in the vicinity of Conoco oil field.

The correspondent for Sputnik in Deir Ezzor confirmed the salvos, reportedly launched by local resistance factions, “achieved direct hits.”

Following the attack, US aircraft launched raids in areas adjacent to their occupation base, targeting positions of the Syrian army's auxiliary forces in the liberated regions northeast of the Al-Omar oil field. Local reports say the US raids also hit the Al-Joura neighborhood in the vicinity of the city of Deir Ezzor.

Saturday's attacks mark the second time in two days that US bases have come under attack by resistance factions, after Ain al-Asad airbase, the largest US military base in Iraq, was targeted by a rocket attack late on Thursday.

According to Al Mayadeen's sources in western Iraq, the air base was targeted by a drone and four rockets.

Attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) in support of Palestine came to a halt earlier this year. However, IRI leaders recently said that the armed coalition was considering renewing their operations.

Last month, the US army sent a large convoy of military reinforcements to their occupation bases in northeast Syria, as locals described that a convoy of 40 military vehicles carrying fuel tankers, medical supplies, and ammunition entered Syria from Iraq via the Al-Walid border crossing.

The US and its Kurdish proxies, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in 2017 conquered large swathes of northeast Syria, including its oil fields, in a mad dash [/img]to beat Damascus and its allies for control of the energy-rich region previously taken over by ISIS.


The US and its allies had previously supported ISIS and other Al-Qaeda-linked groups to topple the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad. US planners pivoted away from supporting ISIS and toward occupying Syria directly after the Russian intervention in the conflict in late 2015.

https://thecradle.co/articles/rocket-at ... -oil-field

Syria attributes deadly Golan strike to Israel, denounces attempts to expand war

Damascus said Tel Aviv is using the incident to ignite the region, warning that the people of the Golan Heights ‘will not be fooled’

News Desk

JUL 28, 2024

[img]http://thecradle-main.oss-eu-central-1. ... 2c055.jpeg
(Photo credit: Hassan Shams/AP)

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on 28 July that Israel is trying to ignite the region by blaming Hezbollah for the strike in the Syrian Druze town of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights a day earlier.

“As part of attempts to escalate the situation in the region, Israeli occupation entity committed a heinous crime on Saturday in Majdal Shams town and then held the Lebanese National Resistance accountable for this crime,” the Syrian Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.

“Syria condemns the continued massacres committed by Israeli occupation entity on a daily basis and holds it responsible for the dangerous escalation of the situation in the whole region,” it added.

“People in occupied Golan, who have refused for decades to give up their Syrian Arab identity, will not be fooled by the occupation's false accusations that Lebanese national resistance shelled Majdal Shams, especially since people in Syrian Golan were and still are an integral part of resisting the occupier and its aggressive policies that violate land and identity.”

Twelve Syrian children were killed when a missile fell on a soccer field in Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights on Saturday night. Israel immediately blamed Hezbollah and rejected the Lebanese resistance group’s statement on 27 July, categorically denying its involvement in the incident.

Extremist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, along with members of the Likud, were expelled by the local residents of Majdal Shams while trying to attend the funeral on 28 July.


Eyewitnesses at the scene reported that it was an Israeli Iron Dome interceptor missile that fell on the field, according to an Al-Arabi TV correspondent who spoke with a member of Israel’s ambulance service, Magen David Adom.

A military expert cited by Sputnik said, “the missile that exploded in Majdal Shams was 100 percent Israeli, and we are faced with two possibilities: either a malfunction in the performance of the Israeli air defense systems, or a deliberate launch to achieve specific goals.”

Tel Aviv has described the victims as Israeli civilians. Yet the residents of Majdal Shams are Syrian Druze living under occupation since the illegal occupation of the Golan Heights during the 1967 war.

Residents of the town have refused Israeli citizenship and continue to view themselves as Syrians. The Druze community in Majdal Shams called on Israel not to politicize the incident. However, Israeli officials have used it to reinforce calls for launching a broader war against Lebanon.

Israeli jets launched several strikes against Lebanon’s southern and eastern regions afterward, yet Israeli officials have vowed further escalation.

“Hezbollah will not escape punishment for this incident” and will “pay a heavy price,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Sunday.

The Majdal Shams incident has raised concerns that an all-out war between Hezbollah and Israel is imminent.

https://thecradle.co/articles/syria-att ... expand-war
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Tue Jul 30, 2024 11:57 am

How Hezbollah's advanced missiles challenge Israeli air dominance

Hezbollah's strategic use of its concealed air defense systems intends to effectively counter Israeli air dominance, forcing the occupation state to scramble to adapt to 'unknowns' that threaten its air force.


The Cradle's Military Correspondent

JUL 29, 2024

Image

Air defense has been a core strength of Israel's military strategy for years, able to mitigate any perceived threats from its qualitatively weaker adversaries. But that edge has deteriorated as members of West Asia's Axis of Resistance have rapidly developed military projectiles that can reach all parts of occupied Palestine, destroy its “eyes and ears,” and even cripple its air defenses.

In Tel Aviv, all eyes are on Hezbollah, Lebanon's resistance organization, which has kept its air defense capabilities shrouded in secrecy so it can maintain the element of surprise in a full-on war scenario.

Since the 1990s, Hezbollah has utilized Soviet-designated shoulder-fired SAM-7 or STRELA-2 MANPADS to protect against Israeli air encroachment into Lebanon. These missiles, which primarily targeted Israeli helicopters, also made sporadic attempts against warplanes. But, their uncooled thermal sensors and susceptibility to sun interference posed limitations to their effectiveness.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz notes that while these anti-aircraft arms are unlikely to hit targets like the Hermes 900 drone (which operates at medium or high altitudes), last November, an Iranian 358 SAM successfully targeted the Hermes 450.

In 2006, Hezbollah's air defenses included more advanced shoulder-fired systems and 23mm machine guns. During the 33-day July war that year, an Israeli CH53 helicopter was downed by a Chinese-made QW-1 Vanguard missile, killing four Israeli officers and damaging three other helicopters.

The Vanguard represents a newer generation of rockets equipped with cooled sensors, allowing for better heat detection and target differentiation. Newer missiles, such as Iran's Igla or Mithaq 2 and 3, reportedly in Hezbollah's arsenal, now feature multiple sensors. This technology improves their ability to distinguish between the aircraft and the thermal traps or balloons deployed to mislead incoming missiles.

Air engagement in Lebanon's south

Last month, Hezbollah’s armed wing, the Islamic Resistance, announced several attempts to shoot down Israeli aircraft, with several successful hits on Israeli drones, likely using 358 missiles. Identifying the specific missile used is challenging, however, as Hezbollah's military media typically edits out the missile explosion with the drone.

In the case of targeted warplanes in the south, evidence suggests that shoulder-fired guided missiles (MANPADS) were used, as indicated by several factors.

First, the rockets' speed in available footage was low compared to larger rockets, which are several times faster than the speed of sound. The average engagement altitude of these systems is only four kilometers, which makes it difficult to maintain high speed at a high altitude due to the limited size of the rocket propulsion and available fuel.

Shortly after these missile launches, Israeli planes were seen rising and breaking the sound barrier. This breach of the sound wall indicates acceleration and transition from subsonic to supersonic speeds, meaning the pilots were attempting to evade the missile by exiting its coverage umbrella, typically above four kilometers.

This maneuver coincides with Israel's deployment of various thermal balloons, which act as decoys to deceive the missile and hide the aircraft's heat signature. This tactic, however, is less effective against newer missiles like the Russian Igla and Verba, Iran's Charter-3, or the Chinese QW-18, which can distinguish between decoys and actual aircraft.

Currently, there is no confirmed Hezbollah use of medium-range missiles, which were rumored in western media to be in the Lebanese resistance's possession, such as the M-1 or Pantsir systems.

Israeli provocations and Hezbollah's air defense tactics

As engagements with the Lebanese resistance intensify - most recently with Israeli accusations that Hezbollah targeted non-combatants in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights on Saturday - it appears that the occupation forces are trying hard to provoke Hezbollah into activating its air defenses. This strategy, while risky, can yield significant intelligence benefits for Tel Aviv if successful.

Typically, two or more Israeli planes fly at low altitudes to entice Hezbollah's air defenses to engage. The objective is not to provoke the use of shoulder-borne systems but to draw out the more sophisticated systems capable of engaging targets at altitudes of up to 10 km and even 20 km. Low-altitude engagement limits the aircraft's ability to escape the engagement zone.

During these flights, other Israeli fighter jets may hover nearby, equipped with guided munitions or anti-radar ammunition, waiting for Hezbollah to activate their radars. If these radars are activated, the munitions can lock onto the radar signals and destroy the air defense systems, rendering them ineffective without their radar guidance.

Additionally, electronic warfare aircraft from the Nahshon Squadron or Heron TP Eitan drones may be used to pinpoint the location of Lebanese missile launches, preparing to target and disable the air defense systems.

Low-flying aircraft rely on sudden altitude changes to evade detection by radars, hiding in the terrain, or deploying defensive measures such as decoys and jamming systems to mislead and escape the missiles.

Hezbollah is currently using shoulder-fired missiles to target occupation aircraft, aiming to push them out of Lebanese airspace. These smaller missiles are chosen for several reasons related to operational secrecy and strategic caution.

The resistance aims to conceal its advanced air defense tactics and systems, preferring to keep hidden its comprehensive strategies, including geographical deployments and ambush plans for wartime. This approach means they only use systems and tactics that are already known to the Israelis, even at the cost of accepting some losses.

Between secrecy and engagement

Engaging Israeli aircraft with advanced systems before a full-scale conflict would expose Hezbollah's air defense capabilities and strategies prematurely. This cautious approach ensures that Hezbollah retains the element of surprise for critical situations.

Moreover, any plan to effectively counter Israeli air operations must include disrupting their broader operational support network, such as airbases, command centers, radars, and communication hubs – which Hezbollah has been doing since the launch of Palestine's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood last year.

Given the Israeli air force's advanced capabilities, backed by continuous technological advancements, western investment, and extensive operational experience, Hezbollah faces significant challenges. Thus, its strategy is driven more by operational needs and imperatives rather than the lack of either capability or courage to engage Israeli warplanes directly.

In one of the Israeli strikes on the southern Lebanese Zahrani area in May, a citizen accidentally filmed an unexploded missile, later identified as an Iranian-made Sayyad-2C missile. This footage, which circulated in Israeli and western media, inadvertently confirmed that Hezbollah possesses medium-range air defense missiles.

Preparing for potential full-scale war

The Sayyad-2C has a range of about 75 km and can reach altitudes of 30 km, capable of covering all operational altitudes of Israeli warplanes. Traveling at high speeds of around Mach 4.5, it can effectively chase and shoot down Israeli aircraft.

The missile features various guidance systems, including semi-active ground guidance that requires an engagement radar and active tracking with its own radar. This dual system allows the missile to engage targets without emitting detectable radar waves, providing strategic advantages.

The presence of the Sayyad-2C missile in southern Lebanon indicates Hezbollah's significant air defense capabilities. However, the decision to deploy these advanced systems on a large scale will likely depend on actions undertaken by Tel Aviv.

Given the complexity and advanced nature of Israeli air capabilities, Hezbollah is unlikely to fully activate its most advanced air defense systems except in the event of a full-scale war. Engaging in limited skirmishes without jeopardizing long-term assets is a prudent move, particularly when faced with an adversary as well-equipped as Israel.

In essence, Hezbollah's air defense strategy is about maintaining a delicate balance. It involves protecting its assets, minimizing losses, and being prepared to escalate its defensive measures accordingly.

A trademark strategy among the region's Axis of Resistance, Hezbollah's calculated restraint and readiness to leverage its advanced capabilities will continue to shape its operations in airspace confrontations.

https://thecradle.co/articles/how-hezbo ... -dominance

Arrest warrants dropped for Israeli soldiers accused of gang raping Palestinian detainee

News of the arrest of the soldiers from the notorious Sde Teiman prison enraged Israeli politicians including National Security Minister Ben Gvir

News Desk

JUL 29, 2024

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Palestinians detained in Gaza by the Israeli army (Photo credit: Israeli Defense Forces)

Israeli military police canceled the arrest warrants issued against the soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian detainee at the notorious Sde Teiman prison and limited themselves to interrogating them, Israel's Channel 14 reported on 29 July.

The decision came after Knesset members and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir traveled to Sde Teiman to join others in protesting the detention of the soldiers.

Earlier in the day, Military Police officers raided the notorious prison and detained nine Israeli reservist soldiers suspected of the crime.

The Israeli military issued a statement saying, "Following a suspicion of serious abuse of a detainee who was held at the Sde Teiman detention facility, an investigation by the military police was opened by order of the military attorney's office."

"According to a security source, the detainee was taken to a hospital with severe injuries in an intimate place – injuries that left him without the ability to walk,” a report by Haaretz stated.

Soldiers at the prison resisted arrest by verbally and physically confronting the military police officers when they entered the prison. Video of the confrontration spread on social media.

One soldier said: "The military police came to arrest us because we are responsible for Nukhba terrorists," referring to the elite unit of Hamas fighters who spearheaded Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October.


"To everyone, the nation of Israel, go out into the streets for us. I am not ready for this shame that they are arresting me - I gave my life for you, for my country," the soldier added.

In response to the incident, several Knesset members, National Security Minister Ben Gvir, and settler leaders rushed to Sde Teiman to protest the detention of the soldiers accused of carrying out the rape.

Ben Gvir stated, "the spectacle of military police officers coming to arrest our best heroes in the Sde Teiman detention facility is nothing less than shameful.

MK Zvi Sukkot stated, "I was just exposed to the shocking videos from Sde Teiman. This attitude towards our fighters who leave everything and go to fight for us in Sde Teiman must be stopped now."

Another MK, Likud party member Hanoch Milwidsky, announced a "voting strike" in the Knesset in response to the attempts to arrest the soldiers.

In the Knesset, MK Ahmad Tibi asked “To insert a stick in a person's rectum, is that legitimate?”

MK Milwidsky answered, “Yes! If he is a Nukhba (elite prisoner), everything is legitimate to do to him!”


In June, the New York Times published a report that included accounts of torture at Sde Teiman. Israeli guards used electric chairs to shock detainees and anally raped them with hot, electrified metal rods.

In May, CNN revealed that Israel was torturing Palestinians at Sde Teiman, including by strapping injured captives to beds in diapers, feeding them through tubes, and amputating limbs after inflicting injuries due to constant handcuffing.

CNN added that Sde Teiman and other military detention camps have been "shrouded in secrecy since their inception. Israel has repeatedly refused requests to disclose the number of detainees held at the facilities or to reveal the whereabouts of Gazan prisoners."

Since the start of the war on 7 October, dozens of Palestinians have died under torture by Israeli guards, including Dr Iyad Rantisi, 53, of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, in the northern Gaza Strip.

Rantisi was detained on 11 November at an Israeli army checkpoint while seeking to flee south to escape Israeli bombing in northern Gaza. Rantisi's family and hospital colleagues heard nothing more about him, leading them to worry he was killed in Israeli custody.

Rantisi was declared dead six days later at Shikma Prison, which is home to a Shin Bet interrogation facility.

https://thecradle.co/articles/arrest-wa ... n-detainee

Palestinian prisoners endure ‘Guantanamo-like’ conditions in Israeli torture camps: Report

The Washington Post interviewed Palestinians prisoners and accessed details of autopsies to document three deaths in Israel's Megiddo Prison

News Desk

JUL 29, 2024

Image
Palestinian prisoners were brought to Abu Youssef Al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah in south of Gaza (Photo credit: Firas Al-Shaer)

A new report from The Washington Post published on 29 July details Israel’s torture, starvation, and killing of Palestinians in its prison system in a manner resembling the notorious US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Based on eyewitness accounts from former prisoners and autopsies carried out by Israeli authorities, The Post reports that “One Palestinian inmate died with a ruptured spleen and broken ribs after being beaten by Israeli prison guards. Another met an excruciating end because a chronic condition went untreated. A third screamed for help for hours before dying.”

The three prisoners are among at least 12 Palestinians from the West Bank and Israel to die in Israeli jails since 7 October, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), whose members sat in on the autopsies.

An unknown number of Palestinians abducted by the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip have also died in detention camps outside of Israel’s formal prison system.


Previous reports published by CNN and The New York Times have documented the torture and rape of Palestinian detainees from Gaza at the notorious Sde Teiman camp in the Negev Desert.

However, similar conditions exist in Israel’s formal penal system.

“Violence is pervasive,” Jessica Montell, executive director of the Israeli rights group HaMoked, told The Post. “It’s very overcrowded. Every prisoner that we’ve met with has lost 30 pounds.”

Itamar Ben Gvir, Israel’s far-right national security minister who oversees the prison system, has been unapologetic about his “war” on Palestinian detainees and advocates executing prisoners to alleviate overcrowding.

The Post documented the death of Abdulrahman Bahash, 23, who died at Megiddo Prison.

Bahash, a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a Palestinian resistance group, was arrested in connection with armed clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Israel’s prison service said it could not detail what if any, charges were brought against Bahash.

Two of Bahash’s fellow inmates at Megiddo Prison said he died after guards severely beat him in December.

Guards went at Bahash and several other prisoners “in a crazy way,” one prisoner told The Post. “They used their batons, they kicked us … all over our bodies.”

After the beating, he said, Bahash and others were taken to an area of isolation cells.

“The noise of the screams was all over the section,” the prisoner said.

Bahash died about three weeks later, on 1 January.

The autopsy “revealed signs of traumatic injury to the right chest and left abdomen, causing multiple rib fractures and spleen injury, potentially the result of assault,” read a report from Daniel Solomon, a doctor with PHRI.

Septic shock and respiratory failure following the beating were listed as potential causes of death. The Israeli Prison Service has not provided the official autopsy results to Bahash’s family, nor have they returned his body.

The prison service did not respond to questions about why his body had not been returned to his relatives.

The Post also documented the case of Abdul Rahman al-Maari, 33, who died in Megiddo Prison on 13 November.

The father of four, Maari, had been in prison since February 2023, after he was detained at a temporary Israeli army checkpoint and accused of being affiliated with Hamas and possessing a firearm.

A PHRI report based on the autopsy stated that “Bruises were seen over the left chest, with broken ribs and chest bone underneath … External bruises were also seen on the back, buttocks, left arm and thigh, and right side of the head and neck.”

A fellow prisoner, Khairy Hamad, told The Post that prison guards kicked Maari down a flight of about 15 metal stairs while handcuffed.

Maari remained conscious, but was bleeding from the head. Guards then put him in an isolation cell. Fellow prisoner, 53-year-old lawyer Sariy Khourieh, listened to him wail in pain for hours.

“He was screaming all day and night,” Khourieh said. “I need a doctor,” he remembers Maari repeatedly shouting before falling silent.

The Post also documented the case of 21-year-old, Muhammed al-Sabbar who died after prison authorities denied him medical treatment.

Israeli police detained Sabba for a social media post that allegedly constituted “incitement.”

He has suffered since childhood from Hirschsprung’s disease, which causes painful blockages to the bowels and requires a special diet and medication. Sabbar’s stomach began to swell in October after he was denied his medication and he died on 28 February.

By the time he was rushed to an emergency room, “his condition was already such that the chance of saving him was slim,” a PHRI report concluded.

A policy of slow starvation accompanied the torture and medical neglect. Former prisoners told The Post that they had lost significant weight in jail, often between 30 and 50 pounds.

The food given to prisoners is “barely enough to survive,” said lawyer Aya al-Haj Odeh. Some of his clients said they received as little as three slices of bread a day or a few spoonfuls of rice and were given little water to drink.

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the Supreme Court in April over what it called a “policy of starvation" in Israeli prisons.

Another detainee, 37-year-old weightlifter Moaziz Abayad, could barely walk after his release. He said he lost 100 pounds while detained without charge in Israel's Ktzi’ot prison and was raped by a guard using a broom. “It is Guantanamo,” he said.


Some 9,700 Palestinian security detainees were being held captive in Israeli prisons in May, according to Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner rights organization. Some 3,380 were administrative detainees, meaning Israel holds them without charge or trial.

The numbers do not include prisoners from Gaza. The Post reports that Israeli authorities will not reveal exactly how many have been detained or where they are held.

https://thecradle.co/articles/palestini ... mps-report

******

SPEAKER JOHNSON: SUPPORTING ISRAEL IS “ONE OF AMERICA’S FOUNDING PRINCIPLES”
Posted by MLToday | Jul 29, 2024

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Speaker Johnson: Supporting Israel is “One of America’s Founding Principles”

BY DAVE DECAMP
July 21, 2024 Antiwar.com

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) described US support for Israel as one of America’s “founding principles” during a speech at an event hosted by the Republican Jewish Committee on July 18.

“It is an important principle that America and Israel stand together resolutely. That is part of who we are as a country. It’s one of our founding principles. I believe that we maintain peace through strength, and I think that the relationship with Israel is essential to who we are as Americans,” Johnson said.

Since the modern state of Israel was created in 1948, it’s unclear what Johnson meant when he said the US-Israel relationship is a “founding principle.” The most well-known Founding Fathers would also disagree with Johnson since they strongly warned against permanent alliances and “attachments” to other nations.

In his farewell address in 1796, George Washington said, “A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification.”

Johnson also threatened Democratic lawmakers with possible arrest if they protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, which is scheduled for this Thursday.

“There’s a number of Democrats in the House who have said they are going to boycott the event, and then some others are gonna protest,” he said. “We’re gonna have extra sergeants at arms on the floor, and if anybody gets out of hand the Speaker of the House will bang the gavel. We’re gonna arrest people if we have to do it. We’re gonna get the message out.”

https://mltoday.com/speaker-johnson-sup ... rinciples/

(The 'founding principles' Speaker Johnson was referring to are racism and genocide. Ask Native Americans...)

SEVEN NATIONAL UNIONS CALL ON BIDEN TO END MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL
Posted by Labor Network for a Ceasefire | Jul 28, 2024

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Seven National Unions Call on Biden to End Military Aid to Israel

BY NATIONAL LABOR NETWORK FOR A CEASEFIRE
July 23, 2024



Seven national unions with a combined membership comprising nearly half of all union members in the US have made public a letter sent to President Biden calling for an embargo on delivery of all military aid to Israel because of its continued violation of international law in its repeated attacks on civilians, including civilians who moved to “safe zones” designated by Israel itself and who sheltered in UN schools, hospitals and other facilities that international law says may not be attacked in wartime.

The letter was cosigned by the American Postal Workers Union (APWU), Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), International Union of Painters (IUPAT), National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), United Auto Workers (UAW) and United Electrical Workers (UE).

The text follows:
[quiote]
President Biden:
We write to publicly call upon your Administration to immediately halt all military aid to Israel as part of the work to secure an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

We all shared hope that the three-part ceasefire proposal you outlined in the final week of May would bear fruit, allowing for the immediate end of violence, the safe return of hostages, and the creation of space for a lasting peace.

As we write you today, however, neither Israel nor Hamas have accepted the agreement as proposed. Prime Minister Netanyahu and his cabinet members have publicly refused key elements of the deal, despite your characterizing it as an Israeli proposal.

As you said on May 31, the Israeli response has “devastated Hamas forces over the past eight months” and that “Hamas [is] no longer capable of carrying out another October 7th.” Yet it is clear that the Israeli government will continue to pursue its vicious response to the horrific attacks of October 7th until it is forced to stop.

Image

We believe that immediately cutting US military aid to the Israeli government is necessary to bring about a peaceful resolution to this conflict.

Recent reports only underscore the urgency of our demands. Large numbers of Palestinian civilians, many of them children, continue to be killed, reportedly often with US-manufactured bombs. Rising tensions in the region threaten to ensnare even more innocent civilians in a wider war. And the humanitarian crisis deepens by the day, with famine, mass displacement, and the destruction of basic infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. We have spoken directly to leaders of Palestinian trade unions who told us heart-wrenching stories of the conditions faced by working people in Gaza.

Furthermore, Israel’s refusal to minimize civilian harm and its demonstrated restriction of U.S. humanitarian aid call for a halt to U.S. military aid under the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Control Export Act.

Mr. President, the time to act decisively to end this war is now. Stopping US military aid to Israel is the quickest and most sure way to do so, it is what U.S. law demands, and it will show your commitment to securing a lasting peace in the region.[/quote]

https://mltoday.com/seven-national-unio ... to-israel/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Wed Jul 31, 2024 11:29 am

Did an Israeli Iron Dome Missile Cause the Majdal Shams Massacre?
July 29, 2024

By Ali Halawi – Jul 28, 2024

Image

The Majdal Shams strike resulted in the tragic loss of 12 lives, all natives of the occupied Golan. What insights can we recover from the evidence gathered following yesterday’s incident?

Israeli regime authorities claimed on Saturday afternoon that Hezbollah launched a rocket at the occupied town of Majdal Shams, killing twelve civilians, including 10 children, in the process.

The Israeli military command even specified the type of rocket artillery shell used in the alleged attack, which it claimed was the Falaq-1 rocket.

On the other hand, the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon – Hezbollah fully denied any involvement and responsibility for a deadly strike on the village in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan.


So where does the truth lie?
A brief analysis of the impact site and the video capturing the moment of the strike dismantles the Israeli narrative, bolstering Hezbollah’s account.

A few points must be made clear before analyzing the moment of the strike on Majdal Shams and the aftermath caused by the explosion.

First, Israeli officials said the Israeli occupation forces were able to identify the shell used in the attack as the Falaq-1 rocket, reportedly confirming their suspicions.

The Falaq-1 rocket is a rocket artillery shell with the following specifications:

• 240 mm caliber
• 1320 mm length
• Estimated 10 km range
• Maximum flight ceiling of 3.5 km
• 50 kg high explosive warhead
• Solid-propellant rocket

Second, high-explosive warheads usually contain a mixture of explosives alongside components that would act as shrapnel propelled by the pressure caused by the aforementioned explosives. Following the moment of impact with the surface, a crater should be formed.

The size of this crater varies according to several factors, which include the mass of the explosives, the pressure generated by the warhead into the ground, and the surface’s composition, among other elements.

Third, the Falaq rocket exhausts the solid propellant less than two seconds after being fired.

Israeli Iron Dome interceptors record multiple failures since October
Another important nuance that would aid Hezbollah’s denial of involvement is the failure of Iron Dome interceptors, Tamir surface-to-air missiles, on several occasions in the past months.

This includes a crash of an Iron Dome interceptor in Tel Aviv in early December 2023 and a fire caused by an Israeli interceptor in occupied al-Jalil following a failed interception of a Hezbollah drone on July 25, 2024.


There are many such incidents, with some being captured live on camera, including an event in which an Israeli Tamir missile struck a hospital in Tel Aviv on November 6, 2023.


Several technical issues related to an Iron Dome battery could result in a catastrophic interception failure. These issues include a malfunctioning engagement radar, a faulty radar seeker, a defective self-detonation sensor, and a compromised motor, among other potential problems. The most dangerous of these are faults in self-detonating sensors, which leave operators unable to destroy rogue surface-to-air missiles.
Did an Israeli Tamir missile impact Majdal Shams?
It is highly probable that faults in a surface-to-air missile fired from an Iron Dome launcher just behind Majdal Shams caused the grave massacre.

Majdal Shams, which is among the towns and cities occupied by “Israel” in 1967, hosts a vast majority of Arab Syrian Druze and a minority of Israeli settlers. The town and other similar demographics, where natives are significantly represented, have not come under the direct fire of the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon since October 8, 2023.

Although the Resistance has launched highly precise weapons such as an anti-tank guided missile and drones at Israeli military positions in towns such as Arab al-Aramshe, it never fired unguided rocket artillery weapons at these towns.



Specifically, Majdal Shams has never come under an attack by Hezbollah, throughout the nearly 300 days of intense confrontations near the Lebanese-Palestinian border.

The Resistance has also not been shy of taking responsibility for mishaps in the past, such as an incident in the 2006 war on Lebanon when a rocket launched by Hezbollah fighters impacted a home in occupied al-Nasirah.

The attack took place on July 19, 2006, and the Secretary-General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah took the nearest opportunity amid the ongoing war to apologize to the family.

“To the family that was hit in al-Nasirah — on my behalf and my brothers’, I apologize to this family,” he said.

“Some events like that happen. In any event, those who were killed in al-Nasirah, we consider them martyrs for Palestine and martyrs for the nation. I pay my condolences to them.”

A corresponding crater
As for evidence collected from the impact site, the crater formed by the projectile is around 2 meters wide and a few centimeters deep. This indicates that the warhead that detonated in the area is far less than 50 kg and closer to the 10 kg range.

Image
The crater formed by an explosive projectile in the Majdal Shams football field, in the occupied Syrian Golan, on July 27, 2024 (Social media)
In comparison, a crater formed by a Falaq-1 rocket in Kiryat Shmona ripped through cement and caused extensive damage to nearby infrastructure as seen in the video below.


The Falaq-1 rocket is among Hezbollah’s heaviest rocket artillery shells that can be fired from multiple rocket launchers and which can cause extensive damage to targets.

On the other hand, the crater seen in Majdal Shams could be more closely attributed to a Tamir missile.

The possibility that Hezbollah used a smaller caliber munition to conduct the attack is improbable, as it was Israeli authorities who claimed that the munition used in the attack was a Falaq-1 rocket.

Large flames produced by liquid propellant
Another aspect to examine is the relatively large amount of combustion that occurred as a result of the impact on the football field.

High-explosive warheads generally do not produce large fireballs upon detonation. Instead, they create a powerful blast wave and intense fragmentation. The explosion of an HE warhead primarily generates heat, shock waves, and shrapnel rather than a visible fireball. A large-sized and visible fireball is typically associated with the combustion of fuel, such as that found in rocket engines or fuel tanks.



BREAKING: DID ISRAEL KILL ITS CIVILIANS?

REPORTS INDICATE IT WAS AN IRON DOME INTERCEPTOR MISSILE

Israeli media reports more than 50 dead and injured in the strike on Majdal Shams in the occupied Northern Golan Heights.

Confirmed is 14 dead and 34 injured.

Hezbollah has… pic.twitter.com/nfzevLN9Wa

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) July 27, 2024


As seen in this footage, the projectile produced a large fireball.

A Tamir missile launched from a nearby position is likely to contain a substantial amount of fuel, as the air defense rocket was designed to fly for around 70 km. This means that the majority of the fuel meant for the missile’s flight after take-off detonated and produced the fireball seen in the video.

Despite Israeli assertions of a Hezbollah attack using a Falaq-1 rocket, substantial analysis points towards a malfunctioning Israeli Tamir interceptor missile as the more plausible cause of the explosion. The discrepancies in crater size, the nature of the explosion, and Hezbollah’s historical targeting patterns all support this alternative explanation. The true story behind the Majdal Shams explosion remains shrouded, but the evidence presented here offers a compelling case for reconsidering the initial narrative.

(Al Mayadeen)

https://orinocotribune.com/did-an-israe ... -massacre/

******

Israel Might Well Fall Apart

A somewhat premature comment on the conflict between the Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Minister of National Security (and convicted radical) Itamar Ben-Gvir:

10:36 AM · Jul 30, 2024 Hussein @EyesOnSouth1 - 10:36 AM · Jul 30, 2024
The disintegration of the Zionist society is happening earlier than expected. This will exacerbate the more Israelis become aware that war failure is inevitable. Civil war is very likely, but almost a third of the population (liberals & affiliates) would leave rather than fight.

This is not a clash between two officials, this is an ideological clash between two schools of thought who are at the complete opposite spectrum.

This will not stay between Ben-Gvir & Gallant/Halevi, it will become a conflict between the army and the police/militias.


The current conflict between Gallant and Ben-Gvir comes after the Military Police arrested nine soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner.

The Israeli investigation of the rape became necessary after reports by CNN, the New York Times (archived) and the Washington Post (archived) about prisoner abuse and murder in Israeli jails. The reports threatened to trigger international investigations:

Judicial officials told Ynet that the serious suspicions must be investigated. "An internal Israeli investigation is better than an international probe," the said.
"Abuse of prisoners could cause unprecedented damage internationally. Internal investigations protect Israel from the International tribunals in the Hague. If we do not investigate, we are ensuring the political and military leaders end up before those courts and Israel subjected to grave steps. The suspects were detained for questioning and not arrested. They will receive a fair and just due process."

Lawyers for the suspected reservists denied the accusations of rape and said the prisoner refused a search when he was moved to the Sde Teiman facility and was restrained by force.


To describe a brutal anal gang rape as "restrain by force" requires some chutzpah.

The arrest of the the rapists led to wild scenes at two Israeli military bases:

Israel experienced hours of chaos on Monday after far-right protesters encouraged by ultranationalist politicians from the governing coalition broke into a military base where Hamas militants are detained and another base hosting the Israel Defense Forces military court.
...
The incidents began when Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military police on Monday detained nine reservists who served in the "Force 100" unit at the "Sde Teiman" military base. Sde Teiman was used as a detention facility for Hamas militants involved in the Oct. 7 attacks, and suspects arrested by the IDF in Gaza have also been brought to the base for questioning.
...
The protesters then moved to another military base 30 minutes north of Tel Aviv that hosts military police headquarters, an IDF detention center and the IDF court. They broke into the court and tried breaking into the detention center to release the reservists.
...
The chaotic incidents indicate how much ultranationalists in Israel have been emboldened under Netanyahu's governments, especially after Oct. 7.
It is also a sign of the disintegration of the IDF chain of command and the military's internal law and order, encouraged by ultranationalist politicians who for years called the military a "liberal" institution and said it was part of a "deep state" that needs to be dismantled.


The police, under command of Be-Gvir, did not intervene in the attacks on the military bases.

It will be interesting to see how the conflict plays out if or when the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahoo orders an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon:

Israeli ministers authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense chief Sunday to decide on the “manner and timing” of a response to a rocket strike in the Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teens, and which Israel and the United States blamed on Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
...
Members of the Druze community held funerals Sunday for 11 of the 12 young victims of the strike on a soccer field in the town of Majdal Shams, amid fury and grief over the tragedy, which occurred just steps from a bomb shelter, and already sky-high tensions sparked by 10 months of nearly daily rocket attacks on northern Israel and tit-for-tat strikes in southern Lebanon.
The killed children where Syrian Druze in the Syrian Golan Height which is illegally occupied by Israel. It is doubtful that a Hizbullah missile would have intentionally targeted that community.

Any Israeli attack on Lebanon and Hizbullah will see an equivalent retaliation from the Resistance side. Netanyahoo will be careful. While under pressure from the right to attack Hizbullah Netanyahoo knows that Israel has no chance to win against it in a larger conflict.

Such a conflict would only accelerate the inevitable dissolution of the colonial entity.

Posted by b on July 30, 2024 at 11:48 UTC | Permalink

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/07/i ... .html#more

******

Gaza health ministry declares polio epidemic

The health ministry blamed Israeli forces, which have worked to systematically destroy Gaza's water, sanitation, and electricity infrastructure during 10 months of war

News Desk

JUL 29, 2024

Image
Palestinian children walk amid sewage filled streets in Gaza (Photo credit: Getty)

Gaza’s health ministry declared a polio epidemic across the Palestinian enclave, Reuters reported on 29 July, blaming Israel’s military offensive, which has destroyed large swathes of Gaza, including its sanitation infrastructure and health system.

Polio is a highly infectious disease affecting the central nervous system and can potentially lead to paralysis and death.

Polio and other diseases have spread among Palestinians in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands live in cramped tent camps where they are forced to drink unsafe water and are regularly exposed to raw sewage.

Last week, Israeli soldiers from a combat engineering unit used explosives to destroy the water reservoir in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood. One soldier posted a video of the explosion on social media, saying it was done “in honor of Shabbat,” the Jewish day of rest.

The UK-based aid group Oxfam released a report earlier this month showing Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s water, electricity, and sanitation systems. The report found that “Israeli military attacks have damaged or destroyed five water and sanitation infrastructure sites every three days since the start of the war.”

Israel’s destruction of water and electricity infrastructure and restrictions on entry of spare parts and fuel have caused water production to drop by 84 percent in Gaza, the report stated. At the same time, the amount of water reaching Gaza from Israel’s national water company, Mekorot, has fallen by 78 percent.

The report added that Israel has destroyed 70 percent of all sewage pumps and 100 percent of all wastewater treatment plants, as well as the main water quality testing laboratories in Gaza.

Oxfam Water and Sanitation Specialist Lama Abdul Samad explained, “We’ve already seen Israel’s use of collective punishment and its use of starvation as a weapon of war. Now we are witnessing its weaponizing of water, which is already having deadly consequences.”

In November, only a month into Israel’s assault on Gaza, Pedro Arrojo-Agudo, a UN Special Rapporteur on the right to safe drinking water and sanitation, warned that Israel “must stop using water as a weapon of war.” He noted the risk of Palestinians dying from thirst and diseases caused by the lack of safe drinking water after Israel cut off Gaza’s water supply.

Days after the war began in October, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that Israel was “imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly.”

https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-heal ... o-epidemic

Massive destruction, hundreds of casualties left behind by Israel in Khan Yunis

Israeli forces carried out an eight-day operation in the southern governorate, displacing thousands with its forced evacuation orders

News Desk

JUL 30, 2024

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(Photo credit: X)

Israeli forces withdrew from the east of Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis on 30 July following an eight-day operation, leaving behind a massive trail of destruction and hundreds of dead Palestinians.

At least 255 people were killed and 300 injured, according to Gaza’s Government Media Office.

“Thirty-one inhabited homes were bombed by the occupation over the heads of their residents, and 320 homes and residential buildings were targeted by the occupation's shelling,” the media office said.

“The occupation army obstructed dozens of rescue operations to reach dozens of injured and martyred people during the aggression,” it added. “We hold the Israeli occupation and the American administration fully responsible for the continuation of these massacres against civilians and the loss of hundreds of lives.”

Videos circulating social media show the extent of the destruction in eastern Khan Yunis. According to Gaza’s civil defense, 90 percent of the infrastructure was destroyed in the areas that witnessed Israel’s latest operation in the southern city.



The civil defense cited reports of at least 200 missing people in eastern Khan Yunis.

It also urged Palestinians “not to move in areas east of Khan Yunis due to debris and unexploded bombs left by the occupation, which could increase human losses.”

Israeli troops reentered Khan Yunis on 22 July after issuing evacuation orders to residents, displacing thousands. The Israeli forces went deeper into the city six days later, on 28 July, as part of a new operation in the towns of Al-Qarara, Al-Zanna, and Bani Suhaila.

Forced evacuations in Khan Yunis were still ongoing up until 29 July. Earlier in the month, tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians were displaced in Gaza City as a result of Israeli evacuation orders.

UNRWA said on 29 July that only 14 percent of Gaza remains not under Israel’s forced evacuation orders.

Eighty-six percent of the strip is now displaced as a result of Israeli attacks and evacuation orders across the strip, marking a three percent rise since just last week.

https://thecradle.co/articles/massive-d ... khan-yunis

The PLO’s rejection of Israel: A prerequisite for Palestinian unity?

As Palestinian resistance factions call for the PLO to withdraw its recognition of Israel, China and Russia are stepping forward to broker consensus among Palestinian political factions.

Ibrahim Al-Madhoun

JUL 29, 2024

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Photo Credit: The Cradlr

At a critical juncture for the Palestinian cause, following Israel's nine-month-long aggression against Gaza, Palestinian political factions are urgently deliberating new strategic directions

Resistance groups such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have emerged as the primary voices urging the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to withdraw its recognition of Israel, a statement made in reaction to “the Knesset’s decision not to recognize a Palestinian state” - a foundational tenet of the Oslo Agreement which Tel Aviv has long ignored.

These calls come in response to the Palestinian Authority's (PA) abject diplomatic and political failure to effectively halt Israeli annexation plans, the daily aggressions of occupation forces, the collapse of the decades long “peace process,” and the encroachment of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The PA's inability to achieve national liberation goals has sparked a wide debate on how to reverse the tide and establish a unified blueprint for Palestinians to regain their rights.

Last week, 14 Palestinian factions signed the 'Beijing Declaration' to end the division and achieve national reconciliation. The document, issued at the end of a conference held in Beijing from 21 to 23 July, called for comprehensive national unity among all forces within the framework of the PLO and the formation of a temporary national consensus government. However, the statement did not specify a timeline for implementation, which is considered a weakness.
The conference was attended by Fatah, Hamas, PIJ, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine(PFLP), the Palestinian People’s Party, the Palestinian Popular Struggle Front, the Palestinian National Initiative, the Popular Front - General Command (PFLP-GC), the Palestinian Democratic Union, the Palestinian Liberation Front, the Arab Liberation Front, the Arab Palestinian Front, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Palestinian People.

Positions of the Palestinian factions

Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, and leads the ongoing military confrontation with Israeli occupation forces, calls for non-recognition of 'Israel' and rejects the Oslo process, which it considers insufficient for achieving Palestinian goals.
In previous official statements, Hamas has described the agreements as 'betrayal' of the Palestinian people and emphasized their right to resist in all forms. However, the 2017 Hamas political document marked a clear shift in its political stance by accepting a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. But following the Gaza genocide, that position may well be redundant.
Leftist Palestinian parties, such as the PFLP, take a similar stance, having suspended its membership in the PLO and the Palestinian National Council in protest against the PA's security coordination with Israel, the monopolization of political decision-making by President Mahmoud Abbas, objections to the Oslo process and harmful PA policies. The PFLP believes that these agreements have only increased illegal Jewish settlement expansion and Israeli repression of the Palestinian people and calls for escalating resistance and increasing international pressure on Tel Aviv.

The PA's ‘Stockholm Syndrome’

PA President Mahmoud Abbas, it is important to note, does not have a mandate to represent Palestinians, as he remains unelected since his term expired in 2009. Despite Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, Abbas and the PA continue to emphasize the importance of maintaining recognition of Israel and adhering to previous agreements as conditions for any Palestinian political faction rejoining the PLO - irregardless of Tel Aviv's nonstop violations of said agreements and understandings.

In his UN General Assembly speech last year, the Palestinian leader continued to cleave to the notion of a “two-state solution,” saying A UN conference “may be the last opportunity to salvage the two-state solution and to prevent the situation from deteriorating more seriously and threatening the security and stability of our region and the entire world.”

At the core of the disagreement is the PA belief that withdrawing recognition of Israel could lead to catastrophic political and economic consequences, strengthening the position of the extreme Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet members like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, who reject the Oslo process and promote settlement expansion and annexation of territories.
Abbas's stance on the Gaza war has also raised suspicion among the factions, with his statements condemning the 'Al-Aqsa Flood' operation and justifying some of the occupation's crimes sparking anger among Palestinians.

On May 16, Abbas said that “Hamas carried out the Al-Aqsa Flood operation with a unilateral decision, giving Israel a pretext to attack Gaza.” He added that “Hamas's refusal to end the division and return to the Palestinian legitimacy umbrella served the Israeli plan that the occupation government was working to implement before October 7, to cement the separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and Jerusalem, preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state and weakening the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization.”
Furthermore, Abbas has taken unilateral steps, such as dismissing the government of Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and assigning Mohammad Mustafa to form a government without any national consensus - a move rejected by other Palestinian political factions.

International efforts for reconciliation

Despite these differences, efforts continue to achieve reconciliation between the various factions..

As one of the most complex issues in international politics, the Palestinian issue has inevitably undergone significant shifts over the decades, with a greater role emerging for Russia and China in recent years. The decline of US political influence in West Asia, due to repeated failures in peace agreements and Washington's strong-pro Israel bias, has opened the door for emerging powers to play more active roles in conflict resolution.

Russia has mediated between Palestinian factions in recent years. hosting several meetings between representatives of Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front in an effort to strike a consensus.

Although Russian initiatives have not translated into tangible agreements - largely due to the political calculations of President Mahmoud Abbas - they did revive discussion about the possibility of achieving Palestinian reconciliation and have resulted in political papers that can be used as a basis for any serious future agreement.
But Moscow rejects the idea of withdrawing recognition of Israel, as it supports the foundations of a two-state solution and follows international frameworks for the resolution of this conflict. Russia is notably part of the Quartet - a mediating group that includes the US, UN, EU, and Russia - which conditioned Hamas, after forming its government, to recognize Israel and accept Oslo and various international agreements. At the same time, Moscow emphasizes the need for international pressure on Israel to withdraw from the territories occupied in 1967.

China has also increased its involvement in the Palestinian issue, as evidenced by its hosting of Palestinian factions in Beijing under the supervision of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Unlike Washington, which promotes division between and the exclusion of Palestinian political parties, Beijing’s initiatives aim to promote Palestinian reconciliation as a first step towards a greater role in the peace process.

China's conflict resolution moved to center stage amid Israel's brutal assault on Gaza and the unwillingness of the US to play a constructive role in halting the shocking aggression.

Although China's movement is slow, it is carefully planned. Beijing focuses on Palestinian reconciliation as an essential first step to opening up China's role in advancing a peace process.

By inserting itself into the most intractable of international conflicts, China is also messaging Washington that it is capable of challenging US control over key global political issues, further consolidating its position as a rising international power.
After the signing of the "Beijing Declaration," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning noted that the meeting of 14 Palestinian factions in Beijing - a first of this magnitude in support of national reconciliation - represents a significant hope for the Palestinian people.

Importantly, China proposed a three-step initiative regarding Gaza: first, to enhance the achievement of a comprehensive, lasting, and sustainable ceasefire as soon as possible and ensure the smooth delivery of humanitarian aid and relief.
The second step is based on the principle of "Palestinians governing Palestine" and working together to strengthen post-war governance in Gaza. The third step involves encouraging Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations and beginning the implementation of the "two-state solution."
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman emphasized that the "three steps" are interconnected and indispensable, stressing that China and Palestine are brothers and good partners who trust each other.

Post-Oslo Palestinian politics

The call to withdraw recognition of Israel by Palestinian factions reflects growing frustration over the ongoing genocide in Gaza, continued Israeli annexation and settlement expansion policies, and international inaction in pressuring Israel to respect Palestinian rights.

But such calls face significant obstacles, namely, a lack of acceptance by the current Palestinian leadership and the challenge of achieving national consensus.

Hamas and PIJ are not under any illusions regarding this political reality and the reluctance of the PA to change course. Nevertheless, their goal was to register a strong stance to cement recognition that the Oslo Accords have been obsolete for decades. This approach may allow Palestinians to raise their demands and stimulate new dialogues, even if it does not lead to a radical change in the PA's official positions.

The increasing calls to withdraw recognition of Israel signal a shift in the popular and political mood within not just Palestinian factions, but a general population already deeply disillusioned with the PA and Abbas' leadership.

Looking ahead, it is likely that Russia and China will continue to support the Palestinian cause and seek to influence a political settlement that is not controlled by the US.

But, ultimately, success in achieving this will require unifying the Palestinian political system, reforming the PLO, and maintaining sustained resistance against the occupation state.

https://thecradle.co/articles/the-plos- ... nian-unity

Iraq condemns ‘heinous’ US airstrike against security forces

The US army killed four PMU fighters in their first airstrike on Iraqi soil in months, as Baghdad accused Washington of ‘undermining’ discussions for the withdrawal of US troops

News Desk

JUL 31, 2024

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FILE (Photo Credit: Hashd al-Shaabi Media Office/Anadolu Agency)

The spokesman for the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Major General Yahya Rasool, has condemned a US drone strike that killed four members of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) north of Babil on Tuesday, pledging to take “appropriate legal and diplomatic measures.”

“Despite extensive efforts through political and diplomatic channels … in the efforts [to end] the presence and operations of the Global Coalition against Daesh (ISIS) in Iraq and transitioning to a bilateral security relationship based on mutual respect and safeguarding Iraq’s sovereignty and security, the coalition forces have committed a heinous crime and blatant aggression,” Rasool said on 31 July

“Such serious and uncalculated transgressions can significantly undermine all efforts, mechanisms, and frameworks of joint security work to combat ISIS in Iraq and Syria. They also risk dragging Iraq and the entire region into dangerous conflicts and wars. Therefore, we hold the coalition forces fully responsible for these consequences following this flagrant aggression,” the military spokesman for Commander-in-Chief Mohammed Shia al-Sudani continued.

The Iraqi official also stressed that Baghdad “will also seek justice for the fallen heroes and hold those responsible for the attack accountable.”

Rasool’s statement came a few hours after the US army launched its first airstrike on Iraqi soil in months, killing four PMU fighters, including a field commander identified as “Abu Hassan.”

“The strikes resulted in the deaths of four members of the 47th Brigade: Commander Ahmed Najm Abdul Zahra (Abu Hassan), Hussein Karim Kazem Al-Daraji, Haider Hassan Hussein Al-Saadi, and Ali Sadiq Imran Al-Moussawi,” the PMU – also known as the Hashd al-Shaabi – announced on Tuesday night.

A US defense official told western media in a brief statement that “based on recent attacks in Iraq and Syria,” the Pentagon assessed that the activity constituted a “threat to American and coalition forces.”

“This action underscores the United States’ commitment to the safety and security of our personnel,” the statement said. “We maintain the inherent right to self-defense and will not hesitate to take appropriate action,” the unnamed official added.

The airstrike came days after factions within the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) – an umbrella group that includes groups allied with the PMU – launched several rocket attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria. US officials say the attack left “no damage or injuries.”

“Let the Zionist entity and its supporters from America of evil and the arrogant west know that the Islamic Resistance in Iraq is continuing its targeting of the usurping, occupying Zionist-American entity in support of our people in occupied Palestine. We also explicitly declare our readiness and full support for our brothers in Hezbollah, and indeed, Allah is capable of granting us victory,” the PMU-affiliated Nujaba Movement said in a statement earlier this week.

On 22 July, Iraqi Defense Minister Thabet Muhammad al-Abbasi led a delegation to Washington for meetings at the Pentagon to resume talks on the withdrawal of about 2,500 US combat troops that remain in Iraq.

US officials claim a US troop presence is still necessary to counter a threat from ISIS. But Sudani has stated that Iraqi forces no longer require US help to contain the terror group, which was largely defeated in Iraq and Syria in 2019.

“The justifications for the existence of the international coalition were to confront ISIS, and today, the organization does not represent a threat to the Iraqi state,” Sudani said in January.

https://thecradle.co/articles/iraq-cond ... ity-forces

Iran pledges response to ‘cowardly’ assassination of Hamas leader in Tehran

The murder of Ismail Haniyeh came hours after a deadly Israeli strike on a residential building in the Lebanese capital, which targeted a top Hezbollah commander

News Desk

JUL 31, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on 31 July that Israel will face a “harsh punishment” for its assassination of the chief of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran earlier that morning.

“Israel has secured a harsh punishment for itself by assassinating Haniyeh. Revenge for Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the sanctuary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is our duty.”

Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, “Iranian organizations are investigating the dimensions and details of the incident.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran will “defend its territorial integrity, dignity, honor, and pride, and will make the terrorist occupiers regret their cowardly act.”

Palestinian factions have also mourned the slain resistance leader. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement said on Wednesday that “the sinful assassination carried out by the criminal enemy against a symbol of the resistance will not deter our people from continuing the resistance to put an end to the Zionist crimes that have crossed all limits.”

The PIJ offered its condolences to Haniyeh’s family and supporters and emphasized its “cohesion with Hamas in resisting the usurping entity.”

The Popular Resistance Committees said in a statement that the loss of Haniyeh “will not weaken the resistance’s resolve and determination to continue its path of expelling this treacherous Zionist enemy sitting on our occupied land from its sea to its river.”

“The Zionist enemy has not learned from what happened during the ongoing confrontation since 7 October that the policy of assassinations will only increase the resistance on all fronts and in all arenas … the blood of the great martyr leader Abu al-Abd Haniyeh will be a curse that will shock and burn the entity of this Nazi enemy,” it added.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) mourned the top Hamas leader as well.

A Hamas statement earlier on Wednesday morning expressed its mourning “to the sons of our great Palestinian people, to the Arab and Islamic nation, and to all the free people of the world … We belong to God and to Him we shall return. It is a struggle of victory or martyrdom.”

Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement said, “The assassination of leader Haniyeh will not deter the Palestinian people, nor will it prevent them from continuing their resistance, but rather will increase their steadfastness and strength.”

In Lebanon, Hezbollah released a statement saying: “We in Hezbollah share with our dear brothers in the Hamas movement all the feelings of pain over the loss of this great leader, the feelings of anger at the enemy’s crimes, the feelings of pride that the leaders in our movements are leading their people and their mujahideen to martyrdom.”

Russia condemned the attack and referred to the assassination as “an unacceptable political murder.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said, “We are highly concerned about the incident and firmly oppose and condemn the assassination,” adding that it will lead to “further instability in the regional situation.”

Haniyeh was killed in the Iranian capital early on 31 July, after he had traveled to the country for the inauguration of its new president, Masoud Pezeshkian, a day earlier.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday morning that Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed when they were targeted in their guesthouse. “The attack is under investigation and the results will be announced later in the day,” it said.

Al Mayadeen reported, citing an Iranian source, that the Israeli attack was a cross-country guided missile strike rather than a drone strike.

The attack came hours after an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, which marked a serious escalation.

Three civilians, a woman and two children, were killed in the attack, and around 70 were injured. The target was Fouad Shokr, top military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the director of the entirety of the resistance group’s military operations.

“As it has become known, the Zionist enemy attacked the southern suburb of Beirut yesterday, Tuesday, 07/30/2024, targeting a residential building in one of its neighborhoods, which led to the death of a number of citizens, the wounding of others, and major destruction to a number of floors of the building,” Hezbollah said. “The great jihadist leader, Brother Mr. Fouad Shokr (Hajj Mohsen), was present in this building at the time.”

“Since the incident occurred, civil defense teams have been working diligently, but slowly, to remove the rubble due to the state of the destroyed layers, and we are still waiting for the result that those involved in this operation will reach regarding the fate of the great and dear leader and other citizens in this place, so that something can be built upon as required,” it added.

https://thecradle.co/articles/iran-pled ... -in-tehran

(The Zionists are trying to regain their rep for impunity.)

Hezbollah hits Israeli military barracks, repels warplanes over Lebanon

One Israeli from a local settlement security team was killed by a falling Hezbollah rocket

News Desk

JUL 30, 2024

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Smoke rises from Israeli shelling in Dahaira, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, October 16, 2023. (Photo credit: AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah carried out multiple strikes on Israel’s Beit Hillel military barracks on 30 July while using its air defense systems to repel Israeli jets flying over Lebanon, Al Mayadeen reported.

The Islamic resistance announced that it had targeted the Beit Hillel barracks, where the Israeli army’s Al-Sahl Battalion is located, in three separate attacks on Tuesday.

The first two involved the use of Katyusha rockets. The third attack used a squadron of suicide drones to target the headquarters of the Al-Sahl Battalion, killing and injuring several soldiers.

The Israeli Broadcasting Authority confirmed the death of one Israeli in the Hagoshrim settlement. A member of the local security team was killed when a Hezbollah rocket targeting the Hillel Barracks fell on the settlement.

An Al Mayadeen correspondent in southern Lebanon said that Israeli warplanes tried to intercept some air targets in the skies above the Israeli settlements of Beit Hillel and Kiryat Shmona.

Hezbollah launched another air attack with a squadron of suicide drones, which targeted soldiers near the Kafr-Yoval settlement, also resulting in casualties.

The Lebanese resistance said in another statement that one of its air defense units confronted Israeli warplanes “that broke the sound barrier over Lebanese airspace and forced them to retreat behind the borders inside occupied Palestine.”

Israeli media reported that air raid sirens were heard on the northern border with Lebanon in the settlements of Beit Hillel, Kfar Yuval, Kfar Gilad, Maayan Baruch, Dafna, and HaGashurim.

According to Israeli media, the Higher Galilee Council asked residents of the evacuated settlements to remain in shelters and asked settlers in the non-evacuated settlements to also stay near the shelters and reduce their movement within the settlements.

Hezbollah also announced the death of one of its fighters, Hassan Hussein Malik Badr, 29, from the town of Beit Lif in southern Lebanon. The movement stated Badr “was martyred on the road to Jerusalem."

https://thecradle.co/articles/hezbollah ... er-lebanon#
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Thu Aug 01, 2024 2:02 pm

Israel isn’t crazy, it’s just MAD

Since before its inception, Israel has very deliberately, very rationally pursued a ‘MAD strategy’ toward its foes and allies alike, training them to accept Tel Aviv’s bad behavior at all times.

Daniel Nammour

Sharmine Narwani

JUL 31, 2024

Image
(Photo Credit: The Cradle)

During the night hours between 30 and 31 July, Israel targeted two top Resistance Axis officials for assassination, both unprecedented in seniority during this round of conflict.

First, top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli air attack on his residential building in the densely populated Beirut suburb of Dahiyeh, leaving several civilians dead and over 70 injured.

The second target, at 2 am on 31 July, was Hamas political bureau leader Ismail Haniyeh – a central figure in ceasefire negotiations – who was in Tehran to attend the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s incoming President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Within the course of a few hours, Israel managed to strike at three Resistance Axis members: Lebanon, Palestine, and Iran. In doing so, Tel Aviv violated a whole slew of international laws, diplomatic conventions, and customary practices that prohibit political assassinations while glaringly violating the territorial integrity of two UN member states.

Since its war on Gaza, Israel has rapidly gained global pariah status, not just because of its live-streamed genocide that has killed at least 40,000 Palestinian civilians – 15,000 of them children – but also because of the unprecedented rulings and deliberations still underway at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over Israel’s war crimes.

Thus, Tel Aviv’s incendiary actions last night beg the question, is Israel just crazy? Does it not see the global censure brewing, the boycotts expanding, its alliances dwindling, the social media rage, and its growing and glaring isolation?

Israel is all about the MAD

The simple answer is no. Successive Israeli governments have been entirely rational, depending on a single overriding strategy from which the state has not veered.

Recognizing its geographic, population, political, and economic shortcomings from the get-go, the Zionist project – very calculatingly – implemented something we can call the ‘MAD strategy’ to attain its objectives and then punch well above its geopolitical weight class.

A weird but effective strategy, MAD actually derives from textbook deterrence theory:

Creating a threatening presence by having an aggressive reputation with the touch of madness will prevent your enemies from attacking you. They would not attack a person who takes his enemy with him if he falls.

This is the essence of Israel’s strategy with friends and foes alike, and once understood, it is hard to unsee these tactics in all the state’s dealings.

After the Palestinian resistance’s 7 October military operation last year – and just as US President Joe Biden was en route to Tel Aviv to lend his support to Israel – the occupation army struck Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, killing hundreds of civilians seeking shelter and medical attention. The hit was by no accident. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately sought those optics. He wanted to corner the US president into displaying support for his policies, no matter how awful the atrocity.

This is a long-practiced Zionist tactic to tame and groom targets to accept and expect Israeli bad behavior.

Netanyahu also played this dangerous game with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Syrian war. After every meeting with the powerful Russian head of state, the Israeli premier would launch hard strikes against Syria – again, to tame and groom the Russians to accept and expect Israeli bad behavior.

Today, Israel employs the full spectrum of its MAD strategy in its attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and across the West Bank – rape, murder, amputations, beheadings, torture – with impunity. Allies, foes, and global populations are expected to accept the images and data and be ready for even worse scenarios.

It is untrue that Tel Aviv acts irrationally. Implementing the MAD strategy is a rational decision for a small entity that needs to impose its oversized will on not only its neighbors but on global powers and international institutions, too.

MAD, before 1948

MAD is not a new Israeli strategy; its beginnings lie in the years preceding the state’s establishment when Zionist militias bombed and killed the very British forces that had enabled Jewish immigration to Palestine and launched military operations to ethnically cleanse the country’s indigenous population.

Israel instituted an offensive “threatening presence” right from its inception: terrorist acts by Jewish militias such as the Stern Gang and Irgun assassinating British Diplomats in Cairo in 1944; blowing up the King David Hotel in 1946; conducting the Deir Yassin massacre in 1947; followed by the Palestinian Nakba in 1948.

But instead of receiving punishment for their crimes, Zionists were rewarded with a UN vote that formalized the state of Israel in 1947. The bad behavior had reaped extraordinary rewards, so why quit the strategy?

The bulk of the early Zionist terror militias later formed the Israeli army. The politician who ordered the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was named the “father of Israel” and became the country’s first prime minister. Other militia leaders rose to that rank in quick succession – Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Yitzhak Shamir – some of them winning Nobel peace prizes. Again, bad behavior paid off.

After Israel’s creation, a series of wars with Arab neighbors in 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982 rewarded Israel with further territorial gains, more settlements, and a bigger seat at the international table. A steady stream of Israeli military and intelligence aggressions was launched on a region that spanned an area 250 times Israel’s size, covering Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, the UAE, Tunisia, Egypt, and Uganda.

All this was only possible through full spectrum western diplomatic, economic, military, and media support, which went to great pains to cover Israel’s audacious, illegal provocations, instead redirecting the narrative to Israeli peace process efforts, its ‘democracy,’ its ‘disciplined & advanced,’ and invincible ‘moral’ army protecting the ‘Jewish promised land.’ In short, by helping Tel Aviv “groom and tame” global opinion, Israel’s western allies set the stage for the international community to accept and expect Israeli bad behavior as an essential western ‘outpost of civilization.’

Taking off the MAD gloves

Then came the Palestinian resistance operation on 7 October, during which Israel witnessed the entire collapse of its deterrence status within hours.

To stem the hemorrhaging, Israel needed to escalate from active threatening presence to touch of madness.

That meant no more red lines and no more masks. The unhinged, Talmud-inspired, religious-extremist, genocidal diatribes spilling onto TV screens from a broad range of Israeli officials and influencers can only be seen as deliberate. The occupation state has a tight censorship grip on military details. But it saw no cause to stem the flow of incriminating, racist rants from its own officials.

For the layman or the average western news consumer, this ‘new’ Israeli behavior is surprising and erratic, and suggests Israelis are somehow being irrational. For strategic thinkers, this was just another escalation in Israel’s time-worn MAD strategy, intended to groom populations into tolerating ever-worsening behaviors and shocking them into inaction.

Netanyahu and Co are not mad men; all their cruel MAD moves are well-studied and coldly premeditated. Their main aim is to reach a state, genially summarized by strategy master Sun-Tzu in the 4th century BC:

When opponents are unwilling to fight with you, it is because they think it is contrary to their interests or because you have misled them into thinking so.

Counter MAD: the Resistance treatment

Since 1948, few have genuinely stepped up to counter Israel’s MAD strategy. In MAD terms, the textbook definition of a counter would be: “standing up to the madman and denying him victory.” But Israel’s much stronger allies have, to date, been unprepared to risk the relationship and its perceived benefits, while Israel’s regional foes lost their wars or were unable to impose solutions.

But the status quo shifted with the inception of West Asia’s Axis of Resistance, an alliance of state and non-state actors that include Iran, Syria, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Palestine’s Hamas, Yemen’s Ansarallah, Iraq’s Hashd al-Shabi, and others.

Over decades, this axis has carefully decimated the threatening power projection of Israel and, importantly, has implemented the practice of retaliating in kind, when possible. Some notable milestones:

Operation Accountability: As Israel was striking civilian villages in Lebanon in 1993, Hezbollah retaliated with new missiles against Israeli civilian targets. This counter forced Israel to accept a first-of-its-kind informal agreement to minimize civilian targeting.

Operation Grapes of Wrath: On a grander scale than the 1993 clashes, a formal agreement was struck in 1996, clearly stating that targeting civilians is a red line in conflict.

2000 withdrawal from Lebanon: After 18 years of attrition warfare in Lebanon, Israel was forced to withdraw from Arab land without any conditions. On the momentous occasion, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah delivered his famous, fiery speech declaring Israel “weaker than a spider’s web,” basically challenging all the foundational premises of Israel and its military power projection from atop Lebanon’s border with the occupation state.

The 2006 War: Following a border incident, Israel retries its luck by initiating a large-scale war on Lebanon but fails to achieve its targets. This time, the 33-day war was terminated by a UN security resolution that stated that neither civilian nor military attacks were permitted.

Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: On 7 October 2023, Hamas breached the most sophisticated wall that Israel ever built to control its Gaza border. This time, power projection, even inside Israel, was shattered, forcing Tel Aviv into declaring an unwinnable war, weakening internal security, draining its military assets, and destroying its economy. Israel was forced to go over and beyond its MAD strategy and has become an international pariah.

Operation True Promise: For the first time ever, Iran launches multiple drone and ballistic missile strikes on Israel in direct retaliation for Tel Aviv’s strikes against the Iranian consulate in Damascus. During the 13–14 April 2024 retaliatory strikes, Iran faced the air defense of Israel, the US, UK, and France but managed to penetrate and hit its three intended targets.

Yemen’s naval blockade: In response to Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza, Yemen’s armed forces launched a sustained campaign to halt the transit of all Israel-bound and -linked shipping in Asian waterways. Given that Israel obtains over 80 percent of its imports via sea, the Yemeni operations have delivered a gut blow to Israel’s economy, disabled its vital Eilat Port entirely, and driven up insurance costs for Israel.

In short, Israel’s MAD strategy can be defeated by friends or foes alike. One has to stare MAD in the face, hunker down, and fight back. The more Israel is countered, the more crazy it looks.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israel-is ... s-just-mad

Iran holds US responsible for Tehran strike as Washington denies involvement

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said Israel will face ‘harsh punishment’ for its illegal attack on the country

News Desk

JUL 31, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Salampix/ ABACAPRESS.COM, via Reuters)

Iran’s Foreign Ministry said on 31 July that Washington must also bear responsibility for the Israeli strike that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran that morning.

“This terrorist act is not only a flagrant violation of the principles and rules of international law and the United Nations Charter, but also a serious threat to regional and international peace and security,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran emphasizes the responsibility of the US government as a supporter and accomplice of the Zionist regime in the continuation of the occupation and genocide of the Palestinians, in committing this heinous act of terrorism,” the statement added.

The comments came shortly after US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington was not involved in the attack.

“This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It's very hard to speculate,” Blinken said during an interview with Channel News Asia while on a trip to Singapore, responding to a question on how this development could impact the region.

He added that the US would do everything possible to secure a ceasefire and exchange of captives.

Negotiations to reach a deal in Gaza, in which Haniyeh played a significant role, have been jeopardized by the assassination, according to regional officials.


“How can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said via social media on Wednesday.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on 30 July said that Tehran would retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing, which took place on its soil during a diplomatic visit – a flagrant violation of international law.

“Israel has secured a harsh punishment for itself by assassinating Haniyeh. Revenge for Haniyeh, who was assassinated in the sanctuary of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is our duty,” Khamenei said.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Iran and Axis of Resistance as a whole would respond to the assassination.

The attack came hours after an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, which marked a serious escalation.

Three civilians, a woman and two children, were killed in the attack, and around 70 were injured. The target was Fuad Shukr, top military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the director of the entirety of the resistance group’s military operations.

Fears of a regional flare-up are increasing as a result.

https://thecradle.co/articles/iran-hold ... nvolvement

Israeli shekel plummets in wake of Haniyeh assassination

Israel’s economy has already suffered significantly as a result of the Gaza genocide and the operations of the Axis of Resistance

News Desk

JUL 31, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Hadar Youavian/Flash90)

The Israeli shekel has taken a downfall in the aftermath of Israel's assassination of Hamas’ most senior political official, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran early on 31 July.

Bloomberg reported on 31 July that the shekel fell 1.2 percent on Wednesday “as traders worried the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Iran’s soil raised the danger of a broader Middle East war.”

The shekel’s cumulative decline of 3.3 percent in the last three days is “the worst in the world,” second only to the recently-floated Ethiopian birr, according to Bloomberg.

Israel’s 10-year sovereign yield has risen six points to 4.99 percent. “The latest events have eroded traders’ optimism in a quick resolution,” the outlet wrote, adding that the shekel is likely headed for its worst week in two years.

Nick Rees, FX strategist at Monex Europe Ltd in the UK, said, “It is hard to see a scenario where the shekel does not continue to trade under pressure, unless and until both sides step back from the brink.”

The shekel is trading at its lowest level since April.

“Its volatility is surging too: one-month implied swings, based on options prices, have jumped for five successive days, the longest streak since November,” Bloomberg adds.

The assassination of Haniyeh could also jeopardize ceasefire negotiations, previously led by the top Hamas official, essentially prolonging the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

The war in Gaza and the Axis of Resistance’s attacks on Israel have already had a significantly negative impact on the Israeli economy. Hebrew media reported earlier this month that 46,000 Israeli businesses have been forced to shut down due to the war in Gaza and the operations of Hezbollah, the Yemeni army, and other members of the Axis.

Following the killing of Haniyeh and the Israeli attack on Beirut the night before, which killed several civilians, including children, fears of a regional war have increased.

Israel’s attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs on 30 July was a response to the strike that killed 12 people in the occupied Golan Heights over the weekend, which Tel Aviv blamed on Hezbollah. Hezbollah has denied involvement, and many, including eyewitnesses at the scene, said an Israeli interceptor missile was responsible.

A Hezbollah official told Al Jazeera hours before the attack that the Lebanese resistance is fully prepared to respond to any Israeli escalation.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah warned earlier this year that Israel would pay “in blood” for killing Lebanese civilians. Several settlers and soldiers have been killed by the resistance group’s operations since then in response to indiscriminate strikes on Lebanon’s south.

Over the years, Nasrallah has repeatedly warned that attacking Beirut would push Hezbollah to strike Tel Aviv.

On 2 January, a drone strike on the Lebanese capital’s southern suburbs killed Hamas chief Saleh al-Arouri. No civilians were killed, and Hezbollah responded by targeting the strategic Meron airbase in the Galilee, which it has struck several times since then.

https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-s ... assination

‘Entire Resistance Axis’ will respond to Haniyeh assassination: IRGC

The assassination of the top Hamas chief came hours after a brutal Israeli strike on Beirut, which has raised concerns that a regional flare-up is nearing

News Desk

JUL 31, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters/Raheb Homavandi/TIMA)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) condemned Israel’s assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh on 31 July, vowing that the Resistance Axis as a whole will respond to the attack.

“This crime demonstrated that the criminal, murderous, and terrorist Zionist gang, disregarding international rules and regulations, spares no criminal action to cover up its humiliating defeats in the nine-month war in Gaza, which has resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinian women, men, and children,” the IRGC said on Wednesday, hours after Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran.

“Undoubtedly, this crime by the Zionist regime will be met with a severe and painful response from the powerful and grand Resistance Axis, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran … the blessings of the Martyr of Jerusalem Dr Ismail Haniyeh's efforts in defending the cause and rights of the Palestinian nation will help them,” it added.

The IRGC announced on Wednesday morning that Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed when they were targeted in their guesthouse. “The attack is under investigation and the results will be announced later in the day,” it said.

Tehran has declared three days of national mourning for Haniyeh’s assassination.

Al Mayadeen reported, citing an Iranian source, that the Israeli attack was a cross-border guided missile strike rather than an airstrike.

Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 said that the strike was launched from within Iran.

The attack came hours after an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, which marked a serious escalation.

Three civilians, a woman and two children, were killed in the attack, and over 70 were injured. The target was Fuad Shukr, top military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the director of the entirety of the resistance group’s military operations.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday morning that search operations are still ongoing. Shukr’s fate remains unknown.

The killing of Haniyeh and the escalatory strike on Lebanon’s capital have raised concerns that a regional flare-up is imminent. A Hezbollah official had told Al Jazeera hours before the Israeli attack that the Lebanese resistance was fully prepared to respond to any Israeli escalation.

Bomb shelters in Tel Aviv and in the Galilee have begun opening since Tuesday evening.

“We don’t want war, but we are preparing for all possibilities,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on 31 July.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene the security cabinet on Wednesday, the premier’s office said.

https://thecradle.co/articles/entire-re ... ation-irgc

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Israel Sure Looks Like It Wants To Prevent Peace And Start A New War

Conventional wisdom is that Israel would prefer to avoid a major new war while its forces remain tied up in Gaza, but it certainly isn’t acting like a nation that’s trying to avoid a new war.

Caitlin Johnstone
August 1, 2024


Israel has been on another assassination spree, killing Hamas political leader Ismael Haniyeh on Wednesday with an airstrike while he was in Tehran for the swearing in of the new Iranian president. Israel also claims to have killed Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in an airstrike on Beirut on Tuesday evening.

Iran and Lebanon will now have to decide how to respond to these incendiary aggressions. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has promised “harsh punishment” for the strike on Iranian soil, appearing to place the attack on the same level as Israel’s assassination of Iranian officials in Damascus this past April which drew a massive drone and missile retaliation from Iran.

“The response to an assassination will indeed be special operations — harder and intended to instill deep regret in the perpetrator,” reads an official statement from an Iranian government Twitter account.

According to Barak Ravid of Axios, Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant told US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin that “Israel does not seek war” but “the IDF remains prepared to respond to any attack by Hezbollah,” which is the sort of victim-LARPing only an Israeli official could perform after two straight high-profile assassination strikes.

Conventional wisdom is that Israel would prefer to avoid a major new war while its forces remain tied up in Gaza, but it certainly isn’t acting like a nation that’s trying to avoid a new war. Or like a nation that’s trying to wrap things up in Gaza, for that matter.

Some interesting commentary on this still-unfolding story:

“Political assassinations and continued targeting of civilians in Gaza while talks continue leads us to ask, how can mediation succeed when one party assassinates the negotiator on the other side?” tweeted the Prime Minister of Qatar, where Haniyeh had been living prior to his assassination.

“So Israel murders Hamas political leader and key negotiator, Ismael Haniyeh, and wants us to believe it is serious about negotiating a ceasefire?” tweeted Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin. “And it kills him at the inauguration of Iran’s new president Pezeshkian, who campaigned for better relations with the West. Instead of a ceasefire and a regional de-escalation, Netanyahu is gunning for a full-scale regional war.”

“Saying they want a ceasefire and then assassinating the guy they’d negotiate it with is a pretty clear sign of how serious Israel is about diplomacy,” tweeted Ajam Media Collective’s Alex Shams.

“Killing Haniyeh in Tehran immediately after bombing Beirut like… are they willfully instigating a regional war they’re absolutely not prepared to fight or once again radically failing to anticipate the possible consequences of their actions? Either way they are suicidally stupid,” tweeted Christa Peterson.

“There is a secret third option: they know they can’t fight this war but they can make it bad enough that Americans have to,” tweeted Matthew Petti in response.

After all the thunderous applause Netanyahu received for his deceitful genocide apologia speech before Congress last week, this does not at all seem like an unreasonable expectation. We’ve seen nothing from Washington these last ten months to suggest that it would leave Israel to defend itself should a series of escalations lead to a major war with Lebanon and/or Iran.

We shall see, I suppose.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/08 ... a-new-war/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Fri Aug 02, 2024 11:22 am

Iranian-American Group: Biden Must Avert War With Iran
August 1, 2024

The U.S. must make clear that “military assistance to Israel will be leveraged to secure an end to the conflict,” said the president of the National Iranian American Council.

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U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office. (White House/Adam Schultz)

By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams

A U.S.-based organization that represents Iranian Americans was among those urging the Biden administration to end its “feckless approach” toward Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip and urgently work to prevent an all-out regional war following the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

The assassination, widely assumed to have been carried out by the Israeli military early Wednesday morning, “killed immediate hopes of ending this war before it spirals into a regional conflagration that pulls in the United States,” Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said in a statement.

“Hamas has engaged in many clear and disturbing violations of international law, including in the October 7th attacks, but the assassination of one of its prominent leaders and cease-fire negotiators in Iran’s capital is a highly provocative act that tips the scales further in the direction of a bloody regional war,” Abdi continued.

“Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, fresh off dissonant applause in the U.S. Congress, must have felt a green light to engage in further reckless attacks to extend the war — and extend his own political career that is widely believed will end if and when the war does.”

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Person in “Seal the Deal Now” yellow T-shirt not clapping during Netanyahu’s speech to U.S. Congress last week. (C-Span still)

Abdi called on the Biden administration — which has backed Israel’s war on Gaza with diplomatic support and weaponry — to finally use its leverage to force the Israeli government to accept a cease-fire deal before the volatile situation descends into a full-blown military conflict potentially involving the U.S., Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and other actors.

U.S. President Joe Biden, Abdi argued, must “make clear that a regional war is unacceptable and that military assistance to Israel will be leveraged to secure an end to the conflict.”

The suspected Israeli killing of Haniyeh came hours after Israel launched an attack on the Lebanese capital of Beirut, killing a senior Hezbollah commander and amplifying fears of a wider war.

Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, pledged “harsh punishment” for Israel in the wake of Haniyeh’s assassination, which could further inflame tensions between the U.S. and Iran, whose newly elected president was sworn in on Tuesday. It’s possible that Iran could retaliate against Israel in concert with Hezbollah and other allies in the region.

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Haniyeh and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in 2012. (Khamenei.ir, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

While U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the Biden administration was “not aware of or involved in” Haniyeh’s assassination, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations wrote in a letter to the U.N. Security Council that the killing “could not have occurred without the authorization and intelligence support of the U.S.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will not hesitate to exercise its inherent right to self-defense, as enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, to respond decisively and promptly,” the letter added.

Axios reported Wednesday that, internally, the Biden administration is “very concerned” that Haniyeh’s assassination “could derail negotiations over the Gaza hostage and cease-fire deal and increase the risk of a regional war” — a concern that Middle East leaders also expressed.

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, May 25, 2021. (State Department, Ron Przysucha)

The Biden administration has been warned repeatedly that its continued support for Israel’s assault on Gaza has dramatically increased the likelihood of a broader regional war but has refused to cut off the flow of weapons.

In a televised address Wednesday, Netanyahu vowed to “exact a heavy price from any aggression against us on any front,” but did not specifically mention the assassination of Haniyeh.

Phyllis Bennis, a fellow of the U.S.-based Institute for Policy Studies, wrote in an op-ed for Common Dreams on Wednesday that “the U.S. has made clear by its actions — regardless of some politicians’ rhetorical support for ending the war—that it is not prepared to do the one thing that would result in a permanent cease-fire: stop sending Israel the weapons that enable the war in Gaza.”

“All the talk about Washington and Tel Aviv supporting a cease-fire or wanting the hostages returned means little when a top negotiator on the other side can be assassinated with impunity,” Bennis continued.

“The negotiations the Hamas leader was participating in will almost certainly be stalled, if not derailed entirely, as a result of Haniyeh’s killing. The resulting continuation of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza matches the goal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has resisted cease-fire efforts and pledged to keep fighting until Hamas is destroyed.”

“The likelihood of an expanding regional war is now exponentially higher,” Bennis added, “with the danger of a much more direct conflict between Israel and Iran, and the possibility of even greater direct U.S. involvement.”

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/01/i ... with-iran/

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Airstrike on Kataib Hezbollah headquarters in Iraq
July 31, 2024
Rybar

Image

At night, the US Air Force attacked a base of the Iraqi militia "Al-Hashd al-Shaabi" ("Popular Mobilization Forces") in the Jurf al-Sakhr area south of Baghdad . According to media reports, the facility was used to assemble attack drones for pro-Iranian forces.

According to preliminary data, seven Kataib Hezbollah fighters were killed and others were wounded in the strike. The US said the strike was carried out in response to threats to Americans and the International Coalition to Fight ISIS following recent attacks in Iraq and Syria .

Over the past week, the US air base at Ain al-Asad in western Iraq has been attacked by drones and missiles, and a US military base at the Conoco gas field in the Kurdish-controlled part of Syria's Deir ez-Zor province has been attacked three times .

There is nothing completely new or sensational about what happened. Such attacks have been going on for years: sometimes the Shiites strike, sometimes the coalition strikes back. Mutual aggression, but on a controlled scale - this is the most accurate description of the current confrontation in Syria and Iraq .

https://rybar.ru/aviaudar-po-shtab-kvar ... a-v-irake/

Google Translator

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Iraq boosts security on Syrian border after US proxies free hundreds of ISIS fighters

Officials from Mosul say the released ISIS fighters have been 'dispersed along the Iraqi borders' with no monitoring

News Desk

AUG 1, 2024

Image
(Photo Credit: REUTERS/Yaser Al-Khodor)

The Iraqi armed forces have increased security along the country’s border with Syria following the release of hundreds of ISIS fighters from prison camps controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

“The porous nature of the Iraq–Syria border, coupled with the ongoing conflict in the region, creates ideal conditions for ISIS to regroup and launch attacks,” Ahmad al-Sharifi, a strategic expert, told Shafaq News Agency on 1 August, adding that Baghdad has increased patrols along the border region and are “closely monitoring the situation in northeastern Syria.”

Sharifi also explained that the prisoner release is a result of the need by the SDF to “free up manpower for the frontlines” to face a potential confrontation with Turkiye.

In mid-July, authorities from the SDF-controlled Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) issued a general amnesty that has so far secured the release of over 1,500 Syrian ISIS fighters convicted of terrorism-related offenses, provided they “did not participate directly in combat” against the SDF.

The US-backed SDF holds thousands of ISIS fighters and their family members in around two dozen prison camps in occupied northeast Syria. These include 2,000 foreigners whose home countries have refused to repatriate them.

Kurdish officials said the amnesty was based “on the recommendation” of the tribal forum titled “Dialogue, Safety, Construction for a Unified Decentralized Syria,” held in Hasakah on 25 May.

“We, the Shabak, Christian, Yezidi, Kakayi, and Turkmen communities, are afraid of the resurgence of ISIS like the tragedy that occurred in 2014. Now that the SDF has released these fighters, where will they go? They will return to the border of Nineveh province or go to the Kurdistan Region, so the communities living in Nineveh are afraid,” Majed Shabaki, an activist from Mosul, told Kurdistan 24 last week.

“All those released by SDF have been dispersed along the Iraqi borders, and there is no monitoring. According to gathered information by the Iraqi government, none of these released ISIS fighters hold Iraqi citizenship and are all foreigners,” Mohammed Kakeyi, chairman of the Nineveh Provincial Council’s Security and Defense Committee, revealed to the Kurdish news outlet.

The mass release of ISIS fighters in northeast Syria coincides with an expansion of Turkiye’s military campaign against Kurdish groups on its borders with Iraq and Syria, plus renewed attacks by local resistance factions against US bases in both nations.

The move by the SDF also follows an ongoing resurgence of the extremist armed group in Syria, where they have repeatedly launched bloody attacks against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).

In 2022, the US military described the SDF-run prison camps as an ISIS “army in waiting.”

https://thecradle.co/articles/iraq-boos ... s-fighters

‘Entire Resistance Axis’ will respond to Haniyeh assassination: IRGC

The assassination of the top Hamas chief came hours after a brutal Israeli strike on Beirut, which has raised concerns that a regional flare-up is nearing

News Desk

JUL 31, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Reuters/Raheb Homavandi/TIMA)

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) condemned Israel’s assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh on 31 July, vowing that the Resistance Axis as a whole will respond to the attack.

“This crime demonstrated that the criminal, murderous, and terrorist Zionist gang, disregarding international rules and regulations, spares no criminal action to cover up its humiliating defeats in the nine-month war in Gaza, which has resulted in the massacre of tens of thousands of Palestinian women, men, and children,” the IRGC said on Wednesday, hours after Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran.

“Undoubtedly, this crime by the Zionist regime will be met with a severe and painful response from the powerful and grand Resistance Axis, especially the Islamic Republic of Iran … the blessings of the Martyr of Jerusalem Dr Ismail Haniyeh's efforts in defending the cause and rights of the Palestinian nation will help them,” it added.

The IRGC announced on Wednesday morning that Haniyeh and one of his bodyguards were killed when they were targeted in their guesthouse. “The attack is under investigation and the results will be announced later in the day,” it said.

Tehran has declared three days of national mourning for Haniyeh’s assassination.

Al Mayadeen reported, citing an Iranian source, that the Israeli attack was a cross-border guided missile strike rather than an airstrike.

Hebrew news outlet Channel 12 said that the strike was launched from within Iran.

The attack came hours after an Israeli airstrike on a residential building in the southern suburbs of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, which marked a serious escalation.

Three civilians, a woman and two children, were killed in the attack, and over 70 were injured. The target was Fuad Shukr, top military advisor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the director of the entirety of the resistance group’s military operations.

Hezbollah said on Wednesday morning that search operations are still ongoing. Shukr’s fate remains unknown.

The killing of Haniyeh and the escalatory strike on Lebanon’s capital have raised concerns that a regional flare-up is imminent. A Hezbollah official had told Al Jazeera hours before the Israeli attack that the Lebanese resistance was fully prepared to respond to any Israeli escalation.

Bomb shelters in Tel Aviv and in the Galilee have begun opening since Tuesday evening.

“We don’t want war, but we are preparing for all possibilities,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on 31 July.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to convene the security cabinet on Wednesday, the premier’s office said.

https://thecradle.co/articles/entire-re ... ation-irgc

Walid Jumblatt: Key Lebanese politico switches sides as war looms

Druze ‘kingmaker’ Walid Jumblatt has made yet another strategic turn in his long history of shifting alliances, throwing his considerable political weight – and that of Lebanon’s Druze community – behind Hezbollah as war with Israel heats up.


Ibrahim Chamas

AUG 1, 2024

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(Photo Credit: The Cradle)

Walid Jumblatt, the former leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, is a unique figure in Lebanese politics. Known for his ability to deftly maneuver Lebanon’s sectarian political divide, Jumblatt frequently shifts his alliances to protect his interests and those of his Druze community.

Jumblatt’s astute political intuition, which has him often described as Lebanon’s “weather vane,” has helped the Druze leader decide when to align with or distance himself from various political factions. His relationship with external powers – he is viewed as a close ally of the US – has also fluctuated over the decades.

In recent years, Jumblatt, aged 74, has tended to step away from the spotlight, once even expressing a desire to work as a New York City garbageman rather than continue to deal with Lebanon’s never-ending political turmoil.

Today, however, he has stepped directly back into the ring and emerged as a key player alongside Hezbollah in opposition to Israel’s regional aggressions. It is not a position that will fare well with his traditional allies in Washington, London, and Paris.

Supporting the resistance

Yes, I support the Lebanese resistance or the Islamic Resistance and Hezbollah.

So said Jumblatt during a phoned-in interview on Sky News Arabia in response to Israel’s deadly shelling of Beirut’s southern suburbs on 30 July.

The bombing took place in the direct aftermath of an incident in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights town of Majd Shams, in which 12 civilians – including 10 children – were killed. Tel Aviv immediately blamed a Hezbollah rocket for the deaths, while residents – mainly Syrian Druze – said the casualties were caused by shrapnel from an Israeli Iron Dome missile falling onto a football field.

On 19 July, Jumblatt even sent a letter to senior Druze Sheikh Muwaffaq Tarif in occupied Palestine, shaming him for receiving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the aftermath of Majd al-Shams, and warned that Israel was attempting to create rifts between the Druze and Shia communities.
During his meeting with Netanyahu, Tarif talked about the Druze listed in the Israeli army as brave men who fought against “terrorists” in Gaza and “defended the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip,” blaming Netanyahu for abandoning the Druze villages in the north. Tarif had also defended Israel after the Majdal Shams incident, saying that “no state can tolerate the ongoing aggression to its citizens and residents. This has been the ongoing reality for the past nine months in the northern settlements. Tonight, every possible red line was crossed.” This statement sparked a wave of anger against Tarif.

The Lebanese resistance immediately denied any involvement, and the Lebanese government sought to file a complaint to the UN Security Council following Israeli threats to retaliate.

But Tel Aviv used its version of the story as a pretext to launch a strike on Beirut, killing top Hezbollah war commander Fuad Shukr and six others, including three women and two children, and leaving over 80 civilians injured.

Jumblatt weighed in on the escalatory strike, saying that Tel Aviv’s claims and justification for its attack on Beirut were false, noting that “it is time for Israel to understand that they will not be able to eliminate the spirit of resistance.”

Jumblatt’s extraordinary stances prompted Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to send him a letter of acknowledgment.

The Lebanese Druze leader’s current position is consistent with his historical support for resistance movements. During a visit to Moscow on 11 February, he likened Hezbollah’s resistance to the national movement led by his father, Kamal Jumblatt, which united leftist and Palestinian factions against right-wing Christian factions and Israeli occupation forces during Lebanon’s 1975–1989 Civil War.

A complex relationship with Hezbollah

Despite that long-standing support, Jumblatt’s relationship with Hezbollah has remained fraught with tensions for at least two decades. After the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the rivalry between Jumblatt’s socialist party and Hezbollah intensified, particularly after he aligned himself with the anti-Hezbollah, US-backed “March 14” political alliance and took frequent pot-shots at the resistance’s military strategy.

Jumblatt went so far as to describe the arms of the resistance as a “weapon of treachery,” to which Hezbollah retorted: “If treachery embodied a man, his name would be Walid Jumblatt.” During the war with Israel that same year, in 2006, Jumblatt took a hard line against the resistance, blaming it for provoking Israel’s 33-day war.

He controversially displayed a 1962 map that challenged the Lebanese government’s claim to the disputed, Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, an area that Hezbollah insists must be returned to Lebanon. And his repeated demands for the resistance’s disarmament further strained relations.

In 2008, tensions exploded when Jumblatt supported the government of prime minister Fouad Siniora’s decision to dismantle Hezbollah’s private fiber optics communications network, leading to violent clashes in Beirut and elsewhere. The conflict was temporarily eased only after a political settlement was hastily brokered by Qatar.

That agreement included provisions for forming a national unity government and establishing a more balanced power-sharing arrangement, which helped to restore some stability to the country.

In the aftermath of the 2008 clashes, Jumblatt renewed his frayed relations with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2010 and improved relations with Hezbollah, then flipped sides again months later by publicly supporting the overthrow of the government in Damascus. And again, in 2019, Jumblatt picked a fight with Hezbollah by reiterating that the Shebaa Farms was not Lebanese territory.

Jumblatt’s political evolution

Jumblatt’s stance has now taken yet another turn, this time in response to Israel’s brutal military assault on Gaza and its 10-month attacks on southern Lebanon. Despite his reservations about escalating the war, his renewed public support for Hezbollah underscores the Druze leader’s pragmatic approach to Lebanese politics.

In a May interview, Jumblatt defended Hezbollah for “doing its duty” to defend Lebanon and criticized, in a recent Sky News interview, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bouhabib’s call for a proportional military response by saying that Hezbollah alone must decide on an appropriate reaction.

Jumblatt also took on US envoy Amos Hochstein, rejecting his proposal that Beirut needed to meet Israeli conditions to achieve peace, insisted that such demands were unrealistic, and affirmed his unwavering support for Hezbollah’s resistance efforts:

The ceasefire in Gaza has nothing to do with Lebanon, and that the war on Lebanon will continue until the Israeli conditions are met, namely the withdrawal of Hezbollah from part of southern Lebanon and other arrangements. We are telling him now and forever that this is impossible.

Jumblatt’s current alignment with Hezbollah is not just about short-term political gains. It reflects a broader strategy to maintain his influence in post-war Lebanon. By opposing Israeli actions and distancing himself from the controversial stance of Israel-based Druze leader Sheikh Akl al-Druze, Jumblatt seeks to preserve the national and Arab identity of the Druze community and reinforce his political clout.

Walid Jumblatt’s political journey has been characterized by strategic shifts and occasional reversals. Rallying behind Hezbollah now proves only his knack for adapting to changing circumstances and aligning with powerful allies to protect his and his community’s interests.

https://thecradle.co/articles/walid-jum ... -war-looms

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Sayyed Nasrallah Vows Revenge: War Entered New Phase
Posted by Internationalist 360° on August 1, 2024

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Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan NasrallahHezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech at the memorial ceremony of Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr. RNN has provided extended highlights below.

“We are facing a major battle where matters have gone beyond the issue of support fronts.”

“We are in an open battle on all fronts, and it has entered a new phase.”

“I tell the enemy: laugh a little, but you will cry a lot. You do not know which lines you have crossed and what kind of aggression you have committed.”

“The enemy and those behind them must inevitably await for our coming response, God willing.”

“We will respond, and they must wait, and the response will be in the hands of the battle field.”

“The decision now is in the hands of the battle field, its circumstances and opportunities, and we are looking into a real and calculated response, not a symbolic response.”

I extend condolences and congratulations to our brothers in the Hamas movement and the Al-Qassam Brigades on the martyrdom of brother Ismail Haniyeh.

We are partners with Hamas in resistance and martyrdom, and we will achieve the inevitable victory.

The targeting of the civilian building filled with residents in Harat Hreik in the southern suburbs (Dahiye) led to the martyrdom of 7 people.

We endure and face any calamity or disaster with beautiful patience, submission to Allah’s will, and reliance on Allah.

What happened in Dahiye is an aggression, not just an assassination operation.

The enemy marketed days before its aggression that what it would do is a reaction, and we do not accept this evaluation and description at all.

What happened is part of the “israeli”-American war on our region.

The enemy engages in the greatest deception and falscification by accusing our martyr of being a child killer in Majdal Shams.

The enemy rushed to accuse us in the Majdal Shams incident without providing any evidence.

We denied our responsibility for what happened in Majdal Shams. Our internal investigation confirms that we have no connection to what happened in Majdal Shams, and the enemy appointed itself as prosecutor, judge, and executioner.

We categorically denied our responsibility for what happened in Majdal Shams, and we have the courage and bravery to admit if it was our mistake.

“Israel” cannot accept the hypothesis that the cause of what happened in Majdal Shams was an “israeli” interceptor missile.

Accusing us of what happened in Majdal Shams is unjust and unacceptable and aims to exonerate the enemy’s army from what happened.

The aim of accusing the resistance of what happened in Majdal Shams is sectarian sedition. Thanks to the awareness and firm positions of the noble Druze community leaders, the sedition was buried and disabled.

What happened from the aggression on the southern suburbs (Dahiye) is not a response to the enemy’s claim about what happened in Majdal Shams, but it is part of the war and a response on the Lebanese support front.

We pay the price for our support to Gaza and our support for the Palestinian cause, and this is not new; we accept this price and pay it.

We entered this battle believing in its morality, legitimacy, and importance.

We were not surprised and will not be surprised by any price we may pay in this battle.

We are facing a major battle where matters have gone beyond the issue of support fronts.

We are in an open battle on all fronts, and it has entered a new phase.

Iran considers the assassination of Haniyeh an attack on its national security and sovereignty, and more importantly, it is an affront to honor.

Do they think they will kill Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and that Iran will remain silent?

I tell the enemy: laugh a little, but you will cry a lot. You do not know which lines you have crossed and what kind of aggression you have committed. For the enemy and the friend to know, we in the support fronts have entered a new phase on all support fronts, but its escalation depends on the enemy’s reactions.

The enemy must await the anger and revenge of the honorable in this nation.

The assassination of the martyr Fouad Shukr will increase our will and resolve, and make us adhere to the correctness of our choice.

I reassure the media and public of the resistance that when one of our leaders is martyred, we rush to fill the place with students of this leader who are ready to complete his path.

Martyr Fouad Shukr supervised the building of capabilities, considered one of the most important within the capabilities of the resistance.

The martyr Fouad Shukr was the leader of the group that went to Bosnia to support Muslims in the early 1990s.

We have entered a new phase, and pressure on all fronts to control the resistance in Palestine will not succeed.

There will be no solution except to stop the aggression against Gaza.

The scene of Netanyahu delivering a speech in Congress amid applause is the greatest scene of hypocrisy in the world.

From tomorrow morning, we will return to work normally within the Gaza support front, and this has nothing to do with the response to the assassination of Sayyed Fouad.

The enemy and those behind them must inevitably await for our coming response, God willing.

There is no discussion or debate on this issue, and between us and you are nights, days, and the battle field.

Our [choice to] respond to the attack on the suburb and the martyrdom of Sayyed Mohsen and the civilians is resolved.

I’m not saying that we reserve the right to respond in a specific time or place, but rather that we will respond, and they must wait, and the response will be in the hands of the battle field.

The Axis of Resistance has been fighting for many years with anger, reason, and wisdom, and has the ability.

The decision now is in the hands of the battle field, its circumstances and opportunities, and we are looking into a real and calculated response, not a symbolic response.

If anyone is concerned about preventing the region from getting worse, they must press for an end to the war on Gaza.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/08/ ... new-phase/

Palestine Resistance Issue Joint Statements
Posted by Internationalist 360° on August 1, 2024

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad Communiqué

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Hamas and Islamic Jihad held an important national meeting in Gaza in the context of the battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on its 300th day and the genocide war. The movements affirmed the following:

First: We extend our greetings, appreciation, and gratitude to our deeply rooted, patient, steadfast, and resisting people, and to our brave fighters everywhere, especially in Gaza, which continues to write a legendary narrative in confronting the most despicable enemy and the ugliest aggression. We also extend the obligatory greetings to our righteous martyrs, our free prisoners, and our honorable injured and wounded.

Second: The treacherous assassination crimes of resistance leaders, foremost among them the great national leader and fighter martyr Ismail Haniyeh, head of Hamas’ political bureau, and the jihadist leader in the Lebanese Islamic resistance, fighter Fouad Shukr, will not weaken the resistance. The resistance pledges to Allah first, and then to our people and our nation, to fulfill its duty to defend our people, our land, protect our sanctities, and safeguard our legitimate rights, no matter the sacrifices.

Third: Resistance is a legitimate right in the face of occupation, and it will remain and continue as long as the occupation exists, until our people achieve all their rights to liberation, return, and establish an independent state on the entire Palestinian land with Al-Quds as its capital.

Fourth: What the zionist Nazi occupation and the American administration call “the day after the war” will be a purely Palestinian day. The decision lies with our people, their active forces, and their brave resistance. We will not allow anyone to intervene or tamper with our independent national decision, and any force that agrees to be a tool in the hands of the occupation will be treated as we treat the zionist-Nazi occupation; there is no difference between them in our view.

Fifth: We call on our people in the West Bank and the occupied interior to escalate the resistance, thwart the zionist-Nazi occupation’s projects, and make the occupation and its allies pay the price for their crimes.

Sixth: The zionist-Nazi occupation has not and will not achieve any of its goals in the genocide war, except for killing children, women, and the elderly, and destroying infrastructure and civilian institutions. This will not weaken our resolve, and the resistance that created the Al-Aqsa Flood on the glorious seventh of October, which forever shattered the consideration of the occupation army and its leaders, and its deterrent system, which is gone and no longer exists in the dictionary of the resistance on all fronts.

Seventh: We call on our people, our nation, and the free people of the world to revive and intensify active movements in all cities, capitals, and Islamic, Arab, and Western countries. The Palestinian blood in the genocide war should not become a trivial event in their lives, and the martyrs should not be mere numbers on news screens.

Finally: The two movements affirm the continuation of joint work, ongoing effective coordination at the political, military, field, and humanitarian levels, and the protection of the internal front. They also call on the clans and families of our people to fulfill their social and national duties, confront all forms of aggression on public interests, and protect our people from the behavior of lawbreakers and outlaws. We call on the government and its agencies to take all necessary decisive measures against these groups and to strike with an iron fist at anyone who tampers with public order. We will be their support and aid in this.

Long live our free and dignified people.

Glory and eternity to our righteous martyrs, freedom to our free prisoners, swift recovery to our brave wounded, victory and empowerment to our resistance and our people.

It is a jihad of victory or martyrdom.

Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas
Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine
Thursday: August 1, 2024.

Resistance News Network


https://libya360.wordpress.com/2024/08/ ... tatements/
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Re: Palestine

Post by blindpig » Sat Aug 03, 2024 12:01 pm

Even in Palestine, the Birds Shall Return: The Thirty-First Newsletter (2024)

As the situation in Gaza worsens, Netanyahu was applauded for demanding more arms in Congress. In contrast, Beijing hosted Palestinian factions, pushing for unity and peace.
1 August 2024

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Rula Halawani (Palestine), Untitled XII from the Negative Incursion series, 2002.

Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 26 July, senior United Nations (UN) officials briefed the UN Security Council about the terrible situation in Gaza. ‘More than two million people in Gaza remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale’, said Deputy Commissioner-General Antonia De Meo of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). Within Gaza, the UN officials wrote, 625,000 children are trapped, ‘their futures at risk’. The World Health Organisation has recorded ‘outbreaks of hepatitis A and myriad other preventable diseases’ and warns that it is ‘just a matter of time’ before a polio outbreak spreads amongst children. In early July, a letter in The Lancet from three scientists working in Canada, Palestine, and the United Kingdom suggested that if they applied a ‘conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza’.

Two days before the UN Security Council meeting, on 24 July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed both chambers of the US Congress. Two months before this appearance, the International Criminal Court (ICC) said it had ‘reasonable grounds to believe’ that Netanyahu bears ‘criminal responsibility for… war crimes and crimes against humanity’. This judgement was utterly set aside by elected US representatives, who welcomed Netanyahu as if he were a conquering hero. Netanyahu’s language was chilling: ‘give us the tools faster, and we’ll finish the job faster’. What is the ‘job’ that Netanyahu wants the Israeli military to finish? In January, the International Court of Justice reported a ‘plausible claim of genocidal acts’ by the Israeli army. So, is the ‘job’ that Israel wants to complete its genocide of the Palestinian people, accelerated by the increased provision of arms and funding by the US?

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Shurooq Amin (Kuwait), The Moving Dollhouse, 2016.

Despite Netanyahu’s complaint that the US has not been sending sufficient weapons, in April the US government approved the sale of fifty F-15 bombers to Israel, worth $18 billion, and in early July said it would send nearly two thousand 500-pound bombs to be used in Gaza. Netanyahu wanted more then, and he wants more now. He wants to ‘finish the job’. This genocidal language is sanctified by the US government, whose representatives accompanied the call for mass murder with a standing ovation.

Outside the halls of government, tens of thousands of people protested Netanyahu’s visit to Congress. They are part of the phalanx of young people who have been involved in a cycle of protests against the Israeli genocide of Palestinians and against the US government’s total support of the violence. Netanyahu called the protestors ‘Iran’s useful idiots’, a strange statement made by a foreign guest of the citizens who were exercising their democratic rights in their own country. The police used pepper spray and other forms of violence to contain the protests, which were peaceful and righteous.

While Washington welcomed the accused war criminal, Beijing hosted representatives of fourteen Palestinian factions who came to discuss their differences and find a way to build political unity against the Israeli genocide and colonisation. Just before Netanyahu entered the Congressional chamber, the fourteen representatives posed for a photograph at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing. Their agreement, the Beijing Declaration, advanced their commitment to work together against the genocide and the occupation and recognised that their disunity has only helped Israel.

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Charles Khoury (Lebanon), Untitled, 2020.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a range of national liberation movements, such as those in South Africa and Palestine, were enfeebled and forced to make significant concessions in order to end conflicts with their colonisers. After several false starts, the apartheid regime in South Africa joined the Multi-Party Negotiating Forum in April 1993, which was the site of concessions made by the liberation forces (undermined by the assassination of communist leader Chris Hani that same month and by attacks from the neo-Nazi Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging). The negotiated transfer of power through the interim constitution of November 1993 did not dismantle structures of white power in South Africa. Meanwhile, in 1993 and 1995, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) agreed to the Oslo Accords, in which the PLO recognised the state of Israel and agreed to build a state of Palestine in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank. Edward Said called the Oslo Accords a ‘Palestinian Versailles’, a judgement that seemed harsh at the time but which, in retrospect, is accurate.

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Zaina El Said (Jordan), Ersin, 2017.

Israel used the Oslo Accords to press its advantage, mainly by building illegal settlements across Palestinian land and by denying Palestinians the right to free passage through the three non-contiguous territories. In 1994, leading groups in the PLO created the Palestinian National Authority to bring the factions together in the new state project, but the groups that had rejected the Oslo Accords did not want to manage the occupation on Israel’s behalf. In January 2006, Hamas won the largest bloc in the Palestinian legislative elections, with 74 out of the 132 seats, and by June 2007 Fatah and Hamas broke relations and ended the attempt to build a new, post-Oslo Palestinian national project.

In May 2006, from within Israel’s harsh prisons, five Palestinians who represented the five main factions drafted the Prisoners’ Document: Abdel Khaleq al-Natsh (Hamas), Abdel Raheem Malluh (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), Bassam al-Saadi (Islamic Jihad), Marwan Barghouti (Fatah), and Mustafa Badarneh (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine). These five factions include two left formations, two Islamist formations, and the main national liberation platform. The eighteen-point document called upon various groups (including Hamas and Islamic Jihad) to reactivate the PLO as their joint platform, accept the Palestinian Authority as the ‘nucleus of the future state’, and retain the right to resist the occupation. In June, all parties signed a second draft of the document. Despite attempts to create unity, including during the Israeli assault on Gaza known as Operation Summer Rains (June to November 2006), no such convergence was possible. The animosity between the Palestinian factions remained.

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Zhang Xiaogang (China), Blindfolded Dancer, 2016.

This disunity has provided ample space for the Israeli occupation to deepen and for Palestinians to flounder without a central political project. Several attempts to bring Palestinian political groups into a serious dialogue have failed to provide any forward motion, including in Cairo in May 2011 and October 2017 and in Algiers in October 2022. Since last year, the Chinese government has worked with various regional states to invite the fourteen main Palestinian factions to Beijing for reconciliation talks. These factions are:

1. Arab Liberation Front
2. As-Sa’iqa
3. Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
4. Fatah
5. Hamas
6. Islamic Jihad Movement
7. Palestinian Arab Front
8. Palestinian Democratic Union
9. Palestinian Liberation Front
10. Palestinian National Initiative
11. Palestinian People’s Party
12. Palestinian Popular Struggle Front
13. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
14. Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (General Command)

The Beijing Declaration, repeating the formulations in the Prisoners’ Document, called for a Palestinian state to be established, for Palestinians’ right to resist the occupation to be respected, for Palestinian political groups to form an ‘interim national consensus government’, and for the PLO and its institutions to be strengthened in order to advance their role in the struggle against Israel. Though the declaration of course called for an immediate ceasefire and an end to settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, its main focus was on political unity.

Whether this Chinese-brokered process will yield results when Palestinians sit down with Israelis is to be seen. Yet it nonetheless marks an advance in this direction and a possible turning point in the collapse of a unified Palestinian project that began in the wake of the 1995 Oslo II agreement. The Beijing Declaration is diametrically opposed to the vehemence of Netanyahu’s speech in the US Congress: the latter genocidal and dangerous, the former seeks peace in a complex world.

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Halima Aziz (Palestine), Praying Palestinian Women, 2023.

Fadwa Tuqan (1917–2003), one of Palestine’s most wondrous poets, wrote ‘The Deluge and the Tree’. The fall of the tree, beaten down by the deluge, was not its end but a new beginning.

When the Tree rises up, the branches
shall flourish green and fresh in the sun,
the laughter of the Tree shall blossom
beneath the sun
and birds shall return.
Undoubtedly, the birds shall return.
The birds shall return.


The assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (1962–2024) in Tehran (Iran) has made the situation deeply difficult, and will make it difficult for the birds to sing.

Warmly,

Vijay

https://thetricontinental.org/newslette ... claration/

******

Israel: Armageddon?
Posted on August 2, 2024 by Yves Smith

Since Iran, Hezbollah, and by many accounts, Syria and Iraq are deciding how to respond to Israel’s assassination of Hamas negotiator Ismail Hamiyeh in Iran, its assassination of Hezbollah commander Faoud Shakr, and air strikes on Syria, and events will play out soon enough, we’ll limit ourselves to a high level overview and some updates.

As we’ll explain, the risk of nuclear war is real and all too high.

The US and EU are trying to persuade Iran to engage in yet another symbolic retaliation of the sort it engaged in last April after Israel struck Iran via hitting its consular compound in Damascus and killed seven military advisers. Even though the Western media pooh poohed Iran’s response, which was to send a very large wave of slow-moving drones and then launch precision missile strikes, the missiles not only got through but made impressively accurate hits on a supposedly super highly protected Israel airbase. In other words, in textbook conditions, with both sides agreeing on the target, Iran demonstrate its ability to surmount Israel (and US and French, who were supporting this operation) defenses, and at very low cost compared to the Western defense ($80 million to $100 million versus $1.35 billion for Israel and an additional ~$1 billion for the US).


Yet Israel continues to escalate. What is going on here?

Consider these not-mutually-exclusive possibilities.

Israel has lost its mind. Norman Finkelstein for some time has, with supporting detail, depicting Israel as having gone crazy. Notice below how the interviewer keeps trying to shut him up by persistently interrupting: (Video at link.)


Israel believes the US can effectively protect Israel if it gets in serious trouble. Lloyd Austin saying that the US will defend Israel if attacked and the US being able to successfully defend Israel are two entirely different matters. Yet Israel confidence seems undiminished despite the US and Western failure in the test last April.

Recall Israel’s vulnerability is well known to the IDF even if the political leadership tells itself otherwise. Scott Ritter, who worked in Israel for many years and has contacts in the region, has repeatedly described how Israel lost both of its last two war games against a Hezbollah-like opponent. You are not suppose to lose your own war games. And every time they simulated Iran joining the fray, per Ritter, “Israel was wiped off the map.” And those war games included US support.

Israel believes the Axis of Resistance will not meaningfully escalate. Chatham House provides a version of this view: (Video at link.)

Events in the Middle East during July point to a striking paradox: Israel and the Iran-led ‘axis of resistance’ are inching closer to a catastrophic regional war – yet the war remains unlikely, because neither side wants it. Is that mutual apprehension enough to prevent the worst from happening?

Even the most seasoned observer of the region can’t answer that question with confidence. But one thing everyone can agree on is that Israel’s alleged killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran, and its assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon do nothing to lower the temperature.

The big factor favoring Iran and Hezbollah continuing to exercise restraint is that both their economies are weak, Lebanon’s disastrously so and Iran’s only now reportedly being able to deliver some improvements in living standards.

A second factor, as Chatham House points out, is that neither Hamas nor Hezbollah were hurt much by these attacks. Both organizations have a lot of bench depth in their leadership ranks. And they no doubt also recognize that Israel reverting to assassinations is an admission of weakness, of being caught in a Gaza quagmire and unable to prevail in northern border area despite launching strikes at a far higher rate than Hezbollah.

A third factor is that Iran and Hezbollah have both been calculated and measured in their responses, so Israel and the US may tell themselves that after they cool off, they were revert to form. But that ignores the Nassim Nicholas Taleb warning, that the turkey has the most confidence the farmer is his friend the night before he is killed, because that is when he has the most observations of the farmer feeding him.

Iran and Hezbollah are signaling this time will be different, that they will escalate. But even so, how serious will the ratchet up be?

This Iranian commentator suggests that since Israel is already losing, Iran and the Axis of Resistance merely need to inflict more, but not radical, pain: (Video at link.)

Some commentators have made much of Iran hoisting the red flag of revenge. However, the red flag by itself signifies retaliation, not necessarily escalation: (Video at link.)


Hezbollah is clear it will Do Something: (Video at link.)


Arab News reports the British Foreign Secretary and Defense Secretary flying to Beirut to try to talk Hezbollah out of its resolve. Such a senior delegation is meant to impress, but I am not sure that will cut much ice.

And Israelis seem pretty worried: (Videos at link.)

One consideration favoring a harsh Axis of Resistance response is active US duplicity. From The Cradle:

Senior White House Adviser Amos Hochstein led a “diplomatic disinformation campaign” and deceived Lebanese officials into thinking Israel would not attack Lebanon’s capital or its southern suburbs, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on 1 August.

Hochstein “informed officials in Beirut that the Israeli strike would be outside Beirut and the suburbs. He insisted on leaking this information under what he referred to as ‘the success of American diplomacy,’” according to the newspaper, calling the US official’s talks with the Lebanese state a “deception operation.”

The report adds Hochstein was trying to obtain a guarantee from Lebanese officials that Hezbollah would not respond to any potential Israeli attack in response to the strike on Majdal Shams last weekend, which Tel Aviv pinned on Hezbollah as a pretext for escalation.


Too many in Israel are itching to hit Hezbollah with a tactical nuke

Contrary to the idea above, that Israel is betting on the Axis of Resistance not moving much up the escalation ladder after the latest attacks is the idea that the Israel government is determined to gin up a wider conflict. From Middle East Eye: (Video at link.)

In killing Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ political bureau in Tehran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sent the clearest message yet to Iran and the resistance movements that he wants a regional war.

It’s not pretty to see commentators pumping for “do dumb shit and see what happens” moves like this:

Image

By all accounts, Iran has more than enough in the way of conventional missiles very well bunkered (and some claim set to launch on a dead hand basis) to destroy Israel. A strike like the one described above looks primed to trigger an Israel-devastating salvo.

It seems worryingly possible that if Hezbollah or a coordinated Axis of Resistance response were deemed by Israel to be excessive, Israel could respond by striking Hezbollah with a tactical nuke. Since Hezbollah’s operations are all in deep underground tunnels, that would result in disproportionate civilian deaths above ground.

Colonel Macgregor discusses this scenario in a disconcertingly calm manner below, starting at 16:15. He points out that Israel will face its toughest opponent ever in a full-bore conflict with Hezbollah and he therefore thinks Israel is prepared to make a strike with tactical nuclear bombs. He states matter-of-factly that a tactical nuclear weapon could be as small as 5 kilotons. That would be about 1/3 of the blast power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.



Macgregor continues by observing that if Israel were to make a nuclear attack on Hezbollah, that Iran would enter with vehemence and has more than enough conventional weapons to overwhelm Israel defenses and inflict great damage on Israel. He anticipates that Israel would then launch a nuclear attack on Iran.

Macgregor also mentions briefly starting at 6:00 that due to the conflict, Israel’s population has largely left the northern and southern border areas, making it even more concentrated than usual. This creates an incentive for Israel to engage in a pre-emptive attack.

This scenario may seem a bit linear, when the possible outcomes are bushier. Nevertheless, it seems too likely that if Hezbollah and/or Iran engage in anything more that a proportional response (and per above it is Israel and the US that sit in judgement of where a response is excessive), Israel could use that at a pretext to launch a war in Lebanon, or simply skip “Go” and strike a part of Lebanon it contends to a prime target, as it it claims the strike would significantly damage the Hezbollah tunnel network. If that does happen, it seems far too likely that, as Macgregor anticipates, Iran launches no-holds-barred missile attacks and Israel retaliates with a major nuclear attack.

Now if Macgregor and yours truly can work out this risk, so can Iran.

So the next question is: what is Iran’s and the Axis of Resistance’s ability to destroy, in a massive, tightly time-compressed attack, to take out all or nearly all of Israel’s ability to launch a nuclear attack? Remember, nuclear bombs don’t get up and walk to their targets. They are sent by ground or submarine launched missiles or aircraft.

Israel has five nuclear subs and they are believed to carry 200 kiloton nuclear missiles. The innertubes also report that Israel has nuclear weapons buried deep enough to be able to make a second strike even in the face of a nuclear attack. So the Axis of Resistance looks unable to make a successful preemptive strike unless they were also able to interfere with targeting, and they don’t look able to do that. The only option along these lines that could work on the scale needed might be an electomagnetic pulse bomb. But there’s no evidence Iran has developed, let alone tested, one, and it would be too high stakes to try a maiden run now.

So it looks all too likely that Israel not only will use nuclear, but even worse may be trying to set up events to justify deploying them. As I often say, it would be better if I were wrong.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/08 ... eddon.html


******

UN Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians
August 1, 2024
Save
Experts said the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers.

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Palais des Nations, the seat of the U.N. in Geneva. (UN Photo/Violaine Martin)

By Edward Carver
Common Dreams

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a report detailing torture and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli detention centers, including sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs.

Israeli security forces have also used electric shocks, burned detainees with cigarettes, and deprived them of food, water, sleep, and toilet access, according to the 23-page OHCHR report, based largely on interviews with released detainees.

Some detainees said they were held with their arms suspended from the ceiling; were forced to be naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers; and were blindfolded for extended periods.

The OHCHR report comes as a highly controversial case involving detention abuse unfolds in Israel. The Israeli military is investigating nine soldiers for alleged “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian detainee who reportedly had to be hospitalized [after being sodomized] and could not walk after they attacked him. [Far-right Israeli groups stormed the jail trying to free the soldiers.]

[Historian Juan Cole reported:

“Rejecting these charges against the soldiers, a right wing mob that included members of the Parliament from the Likud and the Religious Zionist and Jewish Power blocs, then attempted several times to storm through the gates of the facility and finally succeeded in breaching the military barricades, attacking MPs and reaching the area where Palestinians are held. One soldier said that no one seemed to be in control.

The unruly crowd chanted its support for torture and even called for the summary execution of the Palestinian prisoners. Journalist Haggai Matar observed, “In essence, soldiers are in open rebellion for the right to rape prisoners, and more and more coalition politicians are joining them – from Likud, Jewish Power, and more.”

The mob, including the parliamentarians, then attempted but failed to storm the Beit Lid base, where the nine detainees were being held for interrogation.”]


More Than 9,000 Detained

Israel security forces have arrested thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza since October, many of them arbitrarily; they held more than 9,400 “security detainees” as of the end of June, often in secret and incommunicado, without providing a reason for the detainment, the OHCHR report says.

“The testimonies gathered by my office and other entities indicate a range of appalling acts, such as waterboarding and the release of dogs on detainees, amongst other acts, in flagrant violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” U.N. Human Rights chief Volker Türk said in a statement accompanying the report.

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Türk addressing the General Assembly in December 2023. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)

Most of the detainees have been men and adolescent boys, though some are also women and adolescent girls, and there are many reported instances of sexual and gender-based violence, the report says, including

“the forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers.”

OHCHR also said it had video evidence of detainees filmed in “deliberately humiliating positions” while handcuffed and blindfolded, and noted it received “consistent reports” of Israeli security forces “inserting objects into detainees’ anuses.”

Some detainees also reported “cage-like” facilities and overcrowding. The report says that 13 to 20 male detainees were kept in cells designed for five people, forcing many to sleep on the floor. There were “poor living, hygiene, and health conditions, with reports of water running only one hour per day over several weeks” and detainees faced “exposure to cold temperatures due to the confiscation of blankets and removal of windows panes in cold weather.”

53 Dead in Detention

At least 53 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli detention centers since October, according to the report, which suggests that the detention system appears “to constitute a collectively punitive measure against Palestinians,” citing the words of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s minister of national security, who has said that “terrorists” deserve the most “stringent conditions.” Male detainees reported losing between about 55 and 120 pounds while in custody.

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Ben-Gvir, on phone, and radical right political activist Bentzi Gopstein in Sheikh Jarrah, East Jerusalem in February 2022. (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)

Concern about Israeli detentions of Palestinians has been high for many months. In January, a Palestinian watchdog group issued a report condemning the forced disappearance of Gazans, and The New York Times found evidence of detainees being stripped and beaten.

Not all of the alarms about the situation in Israeli detentions centers have come from abroad. In February, Israeli’s public defender’s office issued a report calling for improved prison conditions, including for Palestinians.

In April, local human rights groups called for a closure of the Sde Teiman military base detention center, due to its notorious conditions.

The calls were prompted in part by gruesome reports including amputations of detainees’ limbs due to handcuff injuries. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East then issued a damning report on detainee treatment, including of its own staff, some of whom had been detained and subjected to harsh interrogation.

Last week, Save the Children called for an end to the Israel’s arbitrary detainment of Palestinian minors, with a regional director saying that “these children are trapped, unable to move or see the sun, forced into crowded cells with appalling, unsanitary conditions, and subject to severe abuse and violence.”

Experts said Wednesday that the OHCHR report served mainly to confirm previous findings on Israeli detention centers.

Neil Sammonds, a campaigner at the U.K.-based progressive advocacy group War on Want, said on social media that leaders of the new U.K. government haven’t spoken up about abuses at Israeli detention centers. He also said that the report could be used as evidence by the International Criminal Court, which has sought arrest warrants for both Israeli and Hamas leaders.

The new report also addresses abuses of Israelis held by Hamas and affiliated groups. The Palestinian militants killed roughly 1,200 people in a horrific set of attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 and kidnapped about 250 Israelis, more than 100 of whom have since been released.

Like Palestinian detainees, the released Israelis reported “appalling” conditions, the report says, including beatings, receiving surgery without anesthetic, and sexual and gender-based violence. The Israeli government has reported that 44 of the remaining hostages in Gaza have died.

Both Israel and Hamas have refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit detainees or hostages. The OHCHR called for both sides to allow such independent monitoring.

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/01/u ... estinians/

******

White House pledges ‘new military deployments’ to protect Israel

Iran, Hezbollah, and Yemen's Ansarallah have all vowed to respond to recent Israeli attacks on their countries

News Desk

AUG 2, 2024

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(Photo credit: AP)

US President Joe Biden held a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 1 August, discussing efforts to protect Israel from an upcoming Iranian retaliation for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh on its soil just days ago.

The talks also touched on the response Hezbollah plans to carry out in retaliation to the brutal Israeli airstrike on Beirut on 30 July, as well as the threat from Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement.

The US president “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel's security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” according to the White House.

“The President discussed efforts to support Israel's defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive US military deployments,” the White House added.

Biden also stressed the need for “de-escalation.”

“The Biden administration is convinced Iran is going to attack Israel within days in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier this week and is preparing to counter it,” US officials told Axios.

Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed a “harsh” response to Israel for the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran early on Wednesday. According to the New York Times, Khamenei has ordered the retaliation.

Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah also said in a speech on 1 August that the response to the strike on Beirut is coming. The attack on Tuesday killed top Hezbollah war commander Fuad Shukr and six others, including women and children, and injured over 80.

Last month, Ansarallah and Yemen’s Armed Forces said a response to the Israeli strike on the country’s Hodeidah port would be “inevitable.”

Washington has vowed to protect Israel from any attack.

The phone call between Biden and Netanyahu came on the same day that the US President told reporters that Haniyeh’s assassination negatively impacted ceasefire talks.

“It doesn't help,” he said when asked how the killing would affect the talks. The talks have been significantly hindered, as Haniyeh was among those leading the negotiations.

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on 31 July that Washington was not involved in the attack that killed Haniyeh. “This is something we were not aware of or involved in,” he said.

Many have speculated that during his recent trip to Washington, Netanyahu received a US green light for the attacks on Beirut and Tehran.

https://thecradle.co/articles/white-hou ... ect-israel

West Bank villages come under heavy attack by Israeli troops, settlers

Over 570 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank since 7 October

News Desk

AUG 2, 2024

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(Photo credit: AFP)

Several Palestinians were wounded in raids launched by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank on 2 August.

Israeli troops and settlers stormed the Umm Safa village north of Ramallah on Friday, WAFA news agency reported.

“Colonists raided the Jabal al-Ras area east of the village. An Israeli army force subsequently broke into the village, firing stun grenades and tear gas at residents and their homes. The use of tear gas and stun grenades resulted in two homes being set on fire in the village,” Marwan Sabbah, head of the Umm Safa Village Council, told WAFA news agency.

Several residents of the village suffered from the inhalation of smoke resulting from the Israeli incursion.

Israeli troops and armed settlers demolished a Palestinian home being built in the Raihiyeh village south of the city of Hebron. “Bulldozers destroyed a 150-square-meter house and a well belonging to resident Musa Muhammad al-Harsh,” locals told the Palestinian news agency.

The home was destroyed near the illegal Israeli settlement of Beit Hagai.

For years, Israel has been demolishing Palestinian homes in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank on the pretext that they were built without permits. But Tel Aviv systematically limits Palestinians from obtaining building permits, generally only allowing the building of new homes in majority-Jewish neighborhoods.

Three Palestinians were wounded earlier on 2 August during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Al-Bireh.

Israeli forces stormed the city’s Satah Marhaba and Um al-Sharayet neighborhoods.

Palestinian resistance fighters also clashed with invading Israeli troops in the city of Nablus on 2 August.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Nablus Brigade:

We engaged in fierce clashes with the zionist enemy forces that stormed the city of Nablus, with machine guns and explosive devices. pic.twitter.com/yKRgN1W5t6

— RF News 🇵🇸🇾🇪🇱🇧🇸🇾🇮🇶🇮🇷 (@RFN3138) August 2, 2024
Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has surged since 7 October. Over 570 Palestinians have been killed by soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has also stepped up its efforts to suppress resistance in the occupied territory.

Last week, PA forces besieged Tulkarem’s Thabet Thabet hospital in pursuit of a commander belonging to the Tulkarem branch of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement’s Quds Brigades.

Civilians inside the hospital were attacked and subjected to tear gas fire by the PA. With the help of local residents, the commander managed to escape.

https://thecradle.co/articles/west-bank ... s-settlers

‘We are unprotected’: Israeli settlers brace for Hezbollah retaliation

Hezbollah resumed its operations against Israel on Thursday and vowed that its response to the brutal Israeli airstrike on Beirut is coming

News Desk

AUG 2, 2024

Image
(Photo credit: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)

Amit Sofer of the Merom Hagalil Regional Council in the Galilee has warned that there is no protection for Israelis and their settlements up to five kilometers from Hezbollah’s forces on the border with Lebanon.

חשופים בצפון | עמית סופר ראש מועצת מרום גליל התרעם נוכח העובדה כי עדיין אין מספיק מיגון גם בישובים שנמצאים 5 ק"מ מהגבול: "לא לגני ילדים, לא למעונות. לא ייתכן שתושבי צפון לא יכלו ללכת למכולת כמו שצריך, לעמוד בתחנת אוטובוס או ללכת לקופת חולים"@Ronkofman1 @eldadarieh
צילום: איל… pic.twitter.com/2PLcUafPTP

— 103FM (@radio103fm) August 2, 2024
“There is still not enough protection, even in settlements located five kilometers from the border,” Israeli radio cited the settler official as saying on 2 August.

“Not for kindergartens, not for daycare centers. It is impossible that the residents of the North could not go to the grocery store properly, stand at a bus stop or go to the health fund,” Sofer added.

Hezbollah launched its first strike on Israel in 48 hours on 1 August, two days after the brutal strike on Beirut, which killed a top commander, Fuad Shukr, and several civilians, including children.

The Lebanese resistance group announced firing dozens of Katyusha rockets at the Israeli Mtsova settlement. The operation was a response to a massacre in southern Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, in which Israeli jets bombed the town of Shamaa, killing several people.

Israeli Broadcasting Corporation:

60 rockets launched from southern Lebanon towards the Western Galilee, and 15 of them were intercepted. pic.twitter.com/o0epL3MLXw

— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) August 1, 2024
“Three people were killed and five people were injured, amid expectations that the toll will rise as rescue teams are working to remove body parts from the place,” Lebanon’s National News Agency reported on 1 August.

Hezbollah also fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli warplanes over the south on Thursday night, forcing them to withdraw from Lebanese airspace.

Resistance leader Hassan Nasrallah announced in a speech on 1 August that Hezbollah’s operations would resume normally but stressed that the resumption of operations is entirely separate from the response to Israel’s attack on the capital.

“We are beyond the stage of being a ‘support front’; we are now in an open battle against the Israeli enemy, on all frontiers – we have entered a new stage … We will carry out a real, practical response – it will not be a symbolic response or a formality,” Nasrallah said.

“You do not know which red lines you have crossed,” he added, referring to both the attack on Beirut and the attack that killed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.

Iran has vowed a “harsh” response to the attack on its capital.

Israel is on high alert and is bracing itself for retaliations, which could include attacks from Yemen as well as Lebanon and Iran.

Yemen’s Sanaa government vowed late last month to stand by Lebanon in the event of an Israeli escalation against the country. It had also previously pledged retaliation to the Israeli strikes on the Yemeni port of Hodeidah in July.

https://thecradle.co/articles/we-are-un ... etaliation

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Promoting Peace And Stability In The Middle East By Unconditionally Backing Its Worst Aggressor

“In reality, the US isn’t vowing to defend the state of Israel, the US is vowing to help Israel attack other countries.”

Caitlin Johnstone
August 2, 2024

President Biden — if you feel like pretending Biden is still serving as president and still making the decisions in the White House — has pledged to support Israel against any retaliations for its recent assassination spree in Iran and Lebanon which killed high-profile officials from Hamas and Hezbollah.

A White House statement asserts that Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday and “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” and “discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments.”

Hilariously, the statement also claims that “the President stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region.”

Yep, nothing emphasizes the importance of de-escalating broader tensions in the region like pledging unconditional military support for the region’s single most belligerent actor no matter how reckless and insane its aggressions become.


This statement from the White House echoes comments from Secretary of “Defense” Lloyd Austin a day earlier, who said “We certainly will help defend Israel” should a wider war break out as a result of Israel’s assassination strikes.

All this babbling about “defending” the state of Israel is intended to convey the false impression that Israel has just been sitting there minding its own business, and is about to suffer unprovoked attacks from hostile aggressors for some unfathomable reason. As though detonating military explosives in the capital cities of two nations to conduct political assassinations would not be seen as an extreme act of war in need of a violent response by literally all governments on this planet.

In reality, the US isn’t vowing to defend the state of Israel, the US is vowing to help Israel attack other countries. If you’re pledging unconditional support to an extremely belligerent aggressor while it commits the most demented acts of aggression imaginable, all you’re doing is condoning those acts of aggression and making sure it will suffer no consequences when it conducts more of them.

A kevlar vest stops being a tool of defense when you wear one to prevent yourself from being stopped by police while conducting a mass shooting.

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Washington’s position is made even more absurd after all the hysterical shrieking and garment-rending from the Washington establishment following the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. Israel murdered the leader of the Hamas political bureau, not a military commander, and he was the primary negotiator in the mediated ceasefire talks with Israel. This was a political assassination just like a successful attempt on Trump’s life would have been, but probably a lot more consequential. And yet the only response from Washington has been to announce that it will help Israel continue its incendiary brinkmanship throughout the middle east.

Washington swamp monsters talk all the time about their desire to promote “peace and stability in the middle east”, while simultaneously pledging loyalty and support for a middle eastern nation whose actions pose a greater obstacle to peace and stability in the region than any other. These contradictions are becoming more and more glaring and apparent before the entire world.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/08 ... aggressor/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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