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What They Mean When They Say America is `Indispensable’
Anatol Lieven – Responsible Statecraft
In his recent address concerning the wars in Gaza and Ukraine and U.S. involvement in both, President Biden quoted the famous line by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, that America is “the indispensable nation.” This is indeed the belief by which the U.S. foreign and security establishment lives and works. As Biden’s speech reflected, it is one way in which the establishment justifies to American citizens the sacrifices that they are called on to make for the sake of U.S. primacy … Indispensable for what? … And what have the American people themselves gained from this? Nothing at all, is the answer …
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What Really Happened on 7th October?
R. Inlakesh, S. Narwani – The Cradle
Evidence is now emerging that up to half the Israelis killed were combatants; that Israeli forces were responsible for some of their own civilian deaths; and that Tel Aviv disseminated false ‘Hamas atrocities’ stories to justify its devastating air assault on Palestinian civilians in Gaza / … Two weeks of blanket western media reporting that Hamas allegedly killed around 1,400 Israeli civilians during its 7 October military attack has served to inflame emotions and create the climate for Israel’s unconstrained destruction of the Gaza Strip and its civilian population … Other outrageous allegations, such as the story of Hamas “beheading 40 babies” made headlines and the front pages of countless western news outlets.
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… The path to how we got here was paved by western politicians and the establishment media. They have been giving the green light to Israel to do as it pleases … The credulousness of the media has been especially flagrant in relation to claims that Hamas beheaded 40 babies in last weekend’s attack. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence – but not, it seems, for media outlets when it comes to vilifying the Palestinian people … The claim of beheaded babies made the front pages of several UK papers, even though the source was discredited the moment it came under scrutiny … Western media have consistently failed to hold both Israel and their own governments to account – not just now, but for decades.
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The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly in favour of a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas. The 193-member body passed the resolution, drafted by a group of 22 Arab countries, by a margin of 120 to 14, with 45 countries abstaining. The United States and Israel voted no. Speaking before the vote, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that voting against the resolution “means approving this senseless war, this senseless killing”. Israel denounced the vote as “infamy”. The resolution is non-binding, but serves as a barometer of global opinion as fighting between Israel and Hamas nears the end of its third week …
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Joe Biden’s Hideous $106 Billion War Package
David Stockman
What a day for another $106 billion imperial boondoggle. There is not one dime in “Joe Biden’s” war package that enhances the safety and security of the American homeland, yet all of it is being blithely charged to Uncle Sam’s vastly over-extended credit card … The real curveball in Joe Biden’s pork barrel package, of course, is the $14 billion for Israel. They flat-out do not need another dime from Uncle Sam to do whatever they determine is necessary to cope with the barbarians domiciled in the hell-hole known as the Gaza Strip … The current Israel aid package is $3.8 billion per year in mainly military support, which accounts for nearly 16% of its current defense spending … The Joe Biden war package tells you all you need to know about Washington’s utter dysfunction.
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The House on Wednesday approved a resolution that expressed strong support for Israel, the first bill brought to the floor after Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected as the chamber’s new speaker. The resolution passed in a vote of 412-10 and says that the US “stands” with Israel in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack and as Israel is relentlessly bombing Gaza. The resolution reaffirmed the US commitment to providing military aid to Israel and said Congress will work to pass more. The bill says the House “stands ready to assist Israel with emergency resupply and other security, diplomatic, and intelligence support.” It also called for the US to continue enforcing sanctions on Iran and condemned the Hamas attack. Nine Democrats voted against the resolution … The sole Republican who voted against the measure was Rep. Thomas Massie (KY).
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Spanish Minister Calls on Europe to Sever Ties With Israel
Middle East Monitor
Spain’s acting Minister of Social Rights, Ione Belarra, called on European countries to sever diplomatic relations with Israel and impose an arms embargo and economic sanctions. Belarra said in a post on X yesterday, that it is still possible to stop the “genocide” and also called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and all other political leaders, who bombed civilians in the Gaza Strip, to be brought before the International Criminal Court … She also accused the EU and US of encouraging Israel to practice a policy of discrimination, racism and aggression that – according to the Spanish minister – seriously violates human rights.
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The US has carried out air strikes against two weapons and ammunition storage facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said the strikes were in response to recent attacks on US bases in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed militia groups. The US strikes were “separate and distinct from the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas,” he said in a statement. Iran did not immediately comment … “These Iranian-backed attacks against US forces are unacceptable and must stop,” Mr Austin said.
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A Majority of Americans Oppose Sending Weapons to Israel, New Poll Shows
Middle East Monitor
The results of a poll conducted in the US revealed that 52 per cent of Americans oppose their government sending weapons to Israel. According to the poll conducted by CBS News, between 16-19 October, 57 per cent of participants support sending aid to Gaza. Fifty-six per cent of Americans also expressed dissatisfaction with President Joe Biden’s policy regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. Eighty-five per cent of participants expressed concern about the risk of a wider war in the Middle East, while 79 per cent expressed concern about the possibility of terrorism in the US. Fifty-two per cent of Americans opposed Washington sending weapons and equipment to Israel, while 24 per cent said that Biden is providing too much support for Israel.
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UN Chief Rebukes Israel: `The Attacks by Hamas Did Not Happen in a Vacuum’
Washington Examiner
Israel’s bombardment of Gaza entails “clear violations of international law,” according to the top United Nations official, who called for an “immediate ceasefire” as civilian casualties mount in the war against Hamas … The statement represented a stunning rebuke of Israel at the outset of a high-profile U.N. Security Council meeting, convened as U.S. forces in the Middle East and officials around the world brace for a possible expansion of the war … Guterres argued that the crisis was rooted in Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians. “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum. The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation,” he said.
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President Joe Biden announced last week that the United States would be funding – and possibly fighting – three wars in three different parts of the world at the same time … Nearly every word of Biden’s speech was untrue, including the preposterous suggestion that “American leadership is what holds the world together. American alliances are what keep us, America, safe.” … After a brutal attack on Israel by Hamas earlier this month, Israel declared war not just on the terrorists who attacked its territory, but on the entire population of Gaza itself … By dragging the United States into this war, President Biden has planted the seeds of innumerable 9/11-style blowback attacks on the US. Yet he has the audacity to claim that all of this is keeping us safe.
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The World Cannot Stand By and Watch This Slaughter
Gideon Levy - Haaretz (Israel)
As these lines are being written, Israel has informed the UN that more than one million people in the northern Gaza Strip, including residents of Gaza City, must evacuate their homes. There is nowhere to go in Gaza – not for 10,000 people, not for 100,000 and certainly not for a million. To evacuate one million human beings within 24 hours is impossible, illegal, inhuman and impractical. In other words, Israel is threatening to commit a war crime the likes of which we have not seen since the Nakba of 1948. Very possibly, this is all talk and threats; Israel may not ultimately invade Gaza, and a million people may not be evicted. In any case, nearly half-a-million are newly homeless following unprecedented bombings of Gaza neighbourhoods by the Israeli Air Force. These are dark days.
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Germany `Must Deport on a Large Scale,’ Says Chancellor Scholz
Associated Press
Chancellor Olaf Scholz says Germany needs to start deporting “on a large scale” migrants who don’t have the right to stay in the country, adding to increasingly tough talk on migration since his coalition performed badly in two state elections earlier this month. Scholz’s comments in an interview with weekly Der Spiegel … In Friday’s interview, Scholz reiterated that “too many are coming.” “We must finally deport on a large scale those who have no right to stay in Germany,” he was quoted as saying, adding that “we must deport more and faster.”
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A State Department official has resigned from the agency over the Biden administration’s approach to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas … Josh Paul, who said he has worked in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for more than 11 years, said in his LinkedIn post that he resigned “due to a policy disagreement concerning our continued lethal assistance to Israel.” “Let me be clear,” Paul wrote … “I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response, and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people – and is not in the long-term American interest.”
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S&P Global Ratings said Tuesday it was lowering Israel’s credit outlook from stable to negative, citing risks that the Israel-Hamas conflict could broaden, with a more pronounced impact on the economy. In a notice, the credit rating agency said: “The negative outlook reflects the risk that the Israel-Hamas war could spread more widely or affect Israel’s credit metrics more negatively than we expect.” “We currently assume the conflict will remain centered in Gaza and last no more than three to six months,” it added … S&P’s decision comes less than a week after agency Moody’s Investors Service put the Israeli government’s A1 credit ratings on review for downgrade, pointing to the “unexpected and violent conflict between Israel and Hamas.”
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Israel to Consider Civilians ‘Terrorist Accomplices’ If They Stay in North Gaza
D. DeCamp – Antiwar
The Israeli military has told Palestinian civilians living in north Gaza that if they don’t evacuate to the south, they will be considered “an accomplice in a terrorist organization.” … Israel previously ordered the evacuation of northern Gaza, an area that’s home to 1.1 million people. Since Gaza is under blockade, the only option for Palestinians in the north is to flee to the south, which is also under constant bombardment … Israel ordered the evacuation of Al-Quds hospital, which is housing more than 400 patients and 12,000 displaced civilians. Since Israel has unleashed its bombing campaign on Gaza in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attack, at least 4,651 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including 1,756 children, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. On the Israeli side, at least 1,405 people have been killed.
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About 100,000 demonstrators turned out in central London to show their support for Palestine and demand an end to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The march in Marble Arch in central London followed the 7 October surprise terror attack by Hamas and the Israeli response. Protesters held signs that read “Freedom for Palestine” and “Stop bombing Gaza”. The Metropolitan police estimated that about 100,000 people had turned out by 2 pm on Saturday.
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Israel's Culture of Deceit
Chris Hedges
Israel was founded on lies … Israel is sustained by lies. The lie that Israel wants a just and equitable peace and will support a Palestinian state … The lie that Israel respects the rule of law and human rights. Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians are always greeted with lies. I heard them. I recorded them. I published them in my stories for The New York Times when I was the paper’s Middle East Bureau Chief … The brazenness of Israeli lies stunned those of us who reported from Gaza … These lies came reflexively and instantly from the Israeli military, Israeli politicians and Israeli media … Israel engages in the kinds of jaw-dropping lies that characterize despotic regimes … Expose Israeli lies and you are attacked by Israel and its supporters as an anti-Semite and apologist for terrorists. You are banished from mainstream media.
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How Much Longer Will Palestinians Be Martyr People
Eric Margolis
It’s not a real war. The bloody carnage in Israel and Palestine that we now witness is a large prison uprising being crushed by Israel’s military might … The US supplied warplanes, bombs and rockets pounding Palestinian fighters and civilians are being used in contravention of the US Arms Control Act which forbids use of American arms against civilian targets … The intensive punishment of Gaza, a crime under international law, began after its people voted in a free election for the Hamas movement over the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) … There are only two ways out of this bloody mess. Either drive millions of Palestinians into the desert in an act of genocide or create a long-delayed Palestinian state mandated by the United Nations but which has been long blocked by US vetoes and Israel resistance.
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Israel Can’t Imprison Two Million Gazans Without Paying a Cruel Price
Gideon Levy - Haaretz (Israel)
Behind all this lies Israeli arrogance; the idea that we can do whatever we like, that we’ll never pay the price and be punished for it … We’ll fire at innocent people, take out people’s eyes and smash their faces, expel, confiscate, rob, grab people from their beds, carry out ethnic cleansing and of course continue with the unbelievable siege of the Gaza strip, and everything will be all right … The threats of “flattening Gaza” prove only one thing: We haven’t learned a thing … Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears very great responsibility for what happened, and he must pay the price, but it didn’t start with him and it won’t end after he goes. We now have to cry bitterly for the Israeli victims, but we should also cry for Gaza. Gaza, most of whose residents are refugees created by Israel. Gaza, which has never known a single day of freedom.
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More than two-thirds of active duty service members are within the overweight or obese ranges of the body mass index, according to a report by the American Security Project released Thursday. Defense Department data shows that the obesity rate, calculated using a person’s age, height and weight, has more than doubled over the past decade, from 10% to roughly 21%. At the same time, more than half of young Americans now qualify as obese, and it’s the No. 1 disqualifier for recruiting prospects. “At a time when we are struggling to recruit an adequate labor force for the military, the growing rates of obesity are especially alarming,” said Matthew Wallin, chief operating officer of the American Security Project.
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On March 16, 1957, Israel withdrew under unrelenting United States pressure from all the territory it had occupied in the Sinai peninsula during its invasion of Egypt less than five months earlier … Eisenhower sent a forceful note to [Israeli premier] Ben-Gurion to withdraw. Again Ben-Gurion refused. At the same time, the influence of Israel’s supporters became intense. The White House was besieged by efforts to halt its pressure on the Jewish state … Ike did not depend only on words. While he expressed his principled position in public, privately that same day he sent a stern message to Ben-Gurion warning of punitive actions if Israel did not withdraw … America and Eisenhower emerged from the crisis with enhanced moral authority and prestige around the world.
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… Biden, Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin have made statements of unconditional support and further weapons shipments for expanding the bombing and destruction of Gaza, targeting homes, mosques, schools, clinics, hospitals, ambulances and critical infrastructure like water mains. There was no mention of the far greater destruction of innocent Palestinians using F-16s and U.S.-made missiles that was underway … No problem, said Biden, assuring Israel unlimited military support to do whatever it wants, thus greenlighting genocide by Israel’s extremist ministers with their long, open record of racist hatred against Palestinians. Having met the legal definition of Co-belligerency, Biden, knowing that the laws of war were being systemically violated, later expressed his hope that Israel would abide by them.
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US Vetoes UN Security Resolution Calling for ‘Humanitarian Pauses’ in Gaza
D. DeCamp – Antiwar.com
The US on Wednesday vetoed a Brazilian-proposed UN Security Council resolution that would have called for “humanitarian pauses” to allow the delivery of aid to Gaza. The US was the only member of the Security Council to vote against the proposal, which is enough to veto the resolution since the US is a permanent member. Nine out of 12 members voted in favor of the resolution, while the UK and Russia abstained. The vote came two days after the US and its allies on the Security Council rejected a resolution proposed by Russia calling for a ceasefire. … US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the US vetoed the resolution because it “did not mention Israel’s right of self-defense.”
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Hamas’s Victory
Ron Paul
Those who called Hamas’s attack on Israel “Israel’s 9/11” were more accurate than they realized. Just as the US reacted to 9/11 by fulfilling Osama bin Laden’s wish that the US would get bogged down in no-win wars, Israel’s reaction to the Hamas attack fulfills Hamas’s likely goal of radicalizing more Palestinians. The result of Hamas’s attack will be to strengthen the most extreme elements on both sides of the conflict. Given the strong support for Israel among both major political parties it is not surprising that, following the attacks, many politicians rushed to microphones to proclaim their support for US assistance for Israel … Even most of the growing number of representatives who oppose military aid to Ukraine will support spending “whatever it takes” to defend Israel.
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An elite law firm has rescinded job offers for three Ivy League students associated with letters that expressed support for Palestinians and blamed Israel for the Hamas attacks. Davis Polk & Wardwell said the views “are in direct contravention of our firm’s value system”. It added that student leaders who signed onto the statements are “no longer welcome in our firm”. The students, who have not been named, attend Harvard and Columbia … The backlash was immediate, with some university donors threatening to stop giving money and a Harvard Jewish centre calling the statement antisemitic … Davis Polk & Wardwell is not the first law firm to revoke a job offer over the statements.
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Gaza, What Future?
P. Howlett-Martin – CounterPunch
The Gaza Strip is under quarantine since 2007, subjected to a commercial and naval blockade at the arbitrary discretion of Israel. It has been the target of three Israeli military invasions in 2009, 2012, and 2014 … In less than two months (July 8 to August 26, 2014), 1462 civilians were killed, including 551 children. During that latest offensive, 136 schools were destroyed or damaged, 15 hospitals and 43 healthcare centers were destroyed. Nearly 20,000 homes were bombed, leaving 105,000 people homeless … The victory of Hamas in the 2006 elections is inseparable from the radicalization of Palestinian society, in the face of the Israeli blockade … There have been more than twelve offensives against this territory with a heavy human toll: on the Palestinian side, 7600 killed, including 2800 civilians; on the Israeli side, 123 killed, including 23 civilians.
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For Years, Netanyahu Propped Up Hamas. Now It’s Blown Up in Our Faces
The Times of Israel
For years, the various governments led by Benjamin Netanyahu took an approach that divided power between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — bringing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to his knees while making moves that propped up the Hamas terror group. The idea was to prevent Abbas — or anyone else in the Palestinian Authority’s West Bank government — from advancing toward the establishment of a Palestinian state. Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.
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Israel Fostered the Rise of Hamas, Even After It Turned To Terror
Brian McGlinchey
In the aftermath of Saturday’s terrorist and military attacks on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared, “The forces of civilization must support Israel in defeating Hamas … In fighting Hamas, Israel is not only fighting for its own people, it is fighting for every country that stands against barbarism.” Those sentiments are quite different from ones Netanyahu privately shared in 2019. “Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told Likud Party legislators. Doing so would help prevent the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) from ruling Gaza and giving Palestinians a relatively moderate, unified voice at the negotiating table.
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US Should Have Rigged the 2006 Palestinian Election That Put Hamas in Power, Hillary Clinton Said
The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
In a recording released by The [New York] Observer on Wednesday [Oct. 2016], Hillary Clinton is heard suggesting the 2006 Palestinian Election should have been rigged. The quote is from a 2006 interview between Clinton and Eli Chomsky of the Jewish Press during her campaign for reelection to the US senate, and was part of a previously un-aired portion. Regarding the election, in which Hamas beat Fatah by 74 to 45 seats, Clinton said “I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”
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What Does Israel Expect?
Chris Hedges
The indiscriminate shootings of Israelis by Hamas and other Palestinian resistance organizations, the kidnapping of civilians, the barrage of rockets into Israel, drone attacks on a variety of targets from tanks to automated machine gun nests, are the familiar language of the Israeli occupier. Israel has spoken this blood-soaked language of violence to the Palestinians since Zionist militias seized more than 78% of historic Palestine, destroyed some 530 Palestinian villages and cities, and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in more than 70 massacres. Some 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1949 to create the state of Israel in 1948 … The Palestinians, like all colonized people, have a right to armed resistance under international law … What does Israel, or the world community, expect?
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Hamas’ attack against Israel being celebrated on the streets of Berlin indicates that Germany has let too many foreigners into the country, according to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. “It was a grave mistake to let in so many people of totally different culture and religion and concepts, because it creates a pressure group inside each country that does that,” the 100-year-old ex-top American diplomat said in an interview with Axel Springer CEO Mathias Döpfner for Germany’s Welt TV. Axel Springer is Politico’s parent company. German-born Kissinger — who fled Nazi Germany with his family in 1938, and went on to become the architect of American foreign policy during the Vietnam War — said that it was “painful,” in response to a question about seeing Arabs in Berlin celebrating last weekend’s assault on Israel.
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Secret 1969 White House Memo on `Dangers' of Israel Nuclear Weapons
Nixon Presidential Library and Museum - pdf document
In this secret internal memo of July 16, 1969, National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger explains to President Richard Nixon the “dangers” of Israel’s secretive nuclear weapons program. Israel has broken its pledge to the US not to “introduce” nuclear weapons in the region, he notes. “This is one program on which the Israelis have persistently deceived us,” Kissinger adds, “and may even have stolen from us.” Moreover, he warns, Israel is “probably more likely than almost any other country to actually use their nuclear weapons.” If the US tries to force Israel to live up to its commitment by withholding delivery of warplanes, he cautions, “enormous political pressure will be mounted on us.” This memo was declassified in 2007 after being “sanitized.”
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US Secretary of State Cites His Jewish Identity in Support of Israel
The Times of Israel
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged in Tel Aviv on Thursday that Israel will never have to defend itself alone for as long as America exists. Having flown to Israel in the wake of Hamas’s devastating assault Saturday on southern Israel, in which over 1,300 were killed — most of them civilians — Blinken expressed horror at the killings, invoked the Holocaust and his own family’s experiences in the Nazi era, and said he was working energetically to ensure the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict did not spread … The secretary, who is Jewish, told of his grandfather fleeing pogroms in Russia, and of his stepfather surviving concentration camps in the Holocaust. “I understand on a personal level the harrowing echoes that Hamas’s massacres carry for Israeli Jews, indeed for Jews everywhere,” he said.
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How Much Aid Does the U.S. Give to Israel?
C. Wolf - US News
… The U.S. commitment to aiding Israel has long-standing roots. The United States has given Israel more than $260 billion in combined military and economic aid since World War II, plus about $10 billion more in contributions for missile defense systems like the Iron Dome, a U.S. News analysis finds. That’s the most granted to any country throughout that time frame … For nearly three decades – from fiscal years 1974 to 2002 – Israel was the top recipient of U.S. aid, the longest-standing duration for a top aid recipient dating back to 1946 … On Monday, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told reporters additional funds from Congress would be necessary to aid both Israel and Ukraine simultaneously … Almost all U.S. aid to Israel recently has been military aid rather than economic aid …
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`There Is No Safe Haven’: Israeli Bombing Rampage Hits Gaza Refugee Camp, Homes, and More
Jake Johnson – Common Dreams
Israeli airstrikes rained down across the densely populated Gaza Strip on Monday, reportedly killing dozens at the enclave’s largest refugee camp, damaging the children’s wing of a major hospital, and hitting the occupied territory’s main university and residential buildings. “Everything ground up has been bombed,” Raji Sourani, a lawyer with the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza, told Democracy Now! as bombs could be heard falling in the background. “There is no safe haven in this place,” said Sourani. Tens of thousands of Gazans have already been displaced by the Israeli bombing campaign, which has killed hundreds of people thus far … Far-right Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted to social media a minute-long video of airstrikes leveling buildings in Gaza.
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Israel-Palestine War: ‘We Are Fighting Human Animals’, Israeli Defense Minister Says
Middle East Eye
Israel’s defence minister described Palestinians as “human animals” and vowed to “act accordingly,” as fighter jets unleashed a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip. Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip, an area of about 365 square km, and home to 2.3 million Palestinians, which has been under an Israeli-led blockade since 2007 … The Israeli air force has dropped 2,000 munitions and more than 1,000 tons of bombs on Gaza in the last 20 hours, the army said on Monday morning, having shelled 20 high-rise residential buildings, mosques, hospitals, banks and other civilian infrastructure. At least 500 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing raids, including 91 children. Another 2,700 people have been wounded.
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We’re seeing the western political/media class bleating the word “unprovoked” in unison again, this time in reference to the massive multi-pronged operation launched by Hamas against Israel on Saturday morning which reportedly killed hundreds of Israelis … There are all kinds of arguments you could legitimately make about it, but one argument you definitely cannot defend is that it was unprovoked … Multiple mainstream human rights organizations have accused Israel of administering an abusive apartheid regime which treats Palestinians as lesser people. Palestinians who live in the open-air prison known as Gaza are deliberately subjected to undrinkable water, food shortages, energy shortages and bombing campaigns. Those outside Gaza are subjected to racist, violent policing and land seizure and live under a different set of laws than Jewish Israelis.
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Horrific. Unjustified. Morally Wrong. But `Unprovoked’?
Common Dreams
After the Palestinian group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years — with many killed, hostages taken, and fighting raging — many US elected officials released statements Saturday condemning the “unprovoked” attacks. But many others took to Twitter Saturday to ask incredulously how Israel’s continued brutal occupation of the Palestinian people cannot be considered a provocation. 75 years of ethnic cleansing, 15 years of blockade, Confiscation of Palestinian lands, Pogroms on Palestinian towns, Desecration of Palestinian sacred sites, Daily raids into Palestinian homes, Constant humiliation of an entire people, Nothing about today is “unprovoked.”
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Israeli Apartheid: The Power of the Frame, the Shame of the Name
Robert Herbst - Mondoweiss
In the last two years, in a carefully researched and documented confluence of reports, UN, Israeli, regional and international human rights organizations have concluded that the facts on the ground – both in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and in the entire land of Israel- Palestine – amount to the crime of apartheid. B’Tselem, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Yesh Din, and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic have all adopted the apartheid name and framing, concluding that Israel is an apartheid regime, committing an international crime and a crime against humanity in its systematic oppression of Palestinians.
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Why the Israel-Palestine Issue Is Important for Americans
Mark Weber – Podcast
The way that American political leaders and the US mass media deal with the Israel-Palestine conflict is an expression of a corrupt, unhealthy society that ignores basic historical and political realities and betrays the principles it claims to uphold. America’s policy of ardent support for the Zionist state also puts the US increasingly at odds against the rest of the world. As the US ambassador to Israel acknowledged, US policy in the Middle East is driven by concern for Israel’s interests — and not by what’s best for America and humanity.
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Israel, Palestine, Peace and Apartheid
Jimmy Carter
The many controversial issues concerning Palestine and the path to peace for Israel are intensely debated among Israelis and throughout other nations — but not in the United States. For the past 30 years, I have witnessed and experienced the severe restraints on any free and balanced discussion of the facts. This reluctance to criticise policies of the Israeli government is due to the extraordinary lobbying efforts of the American-Israel Political Action Committee and the absence of any significant contrary voices. It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians.
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The disaster that befell Israel on the holiday of Simchat Torah is the clear responsibility of one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. The prime minister, who has prided himself on his vast political experience and irreplaceable wisdom in security matters, completely failed to identify the dangers he was consciously leading Israel into when establishing a government of annexation and dispossession, when appointing Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir to key positions, while embracing a foreign policy that openly ignored the existence and rights of Palestinians … Above all, the danger looming over Israel in recent years has been fully realized. A prime minister indicted in three corruption cases cannot look after state affairs, as national interests will necessarily be subordinate to extricating him from a possible conviction and jail time.
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The attacks against Israel have caused shock, horror, and outrage in Germany. Around 2,000 people joined a solidarity rally at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Sunday, a scene marked by a sea of Israeli flags … The leaders of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), as well as the Greens and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) made a rare joint statement expressing solidarity with Israel. “The security of the State of Israel is our obligation,” they said … Chancellor Olaf Scholz made similar comments in a statement on Sunday afternoon. He pointed out that the Israeli flag had been hoisted outside the chancellery, as well as in front of the Bundestag … “Israel’s security is a German reason of state. This is especially true in difficult times like these. And we will act accordingly,” said Scholz.
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A Year of Lying About Nord Stream
Seymour Hersh
… Senior officials in Sweden and Denmark, who still insist they had no idea what was going on in their shared territorial waters, turned a blind eye to the activities of the American and Norwegian operatives … The German government conducted an inquiry but announced that major parts of its findings would be classified … The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas — and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources. And thus followed the ultimate fear: that America would lose its long-standing primacy in Western Europe.
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One Year Later, Why Is the Nord Stream Attack Still a Mystery?
Kelly Beaucar Vlahos - Responsible Statecraft
After news of the reported explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines broke a year ago today, the media was ablaze with speculation, mostly in the direction of the Russian government … A year later, however, the world still does not know “who done it.” … Since then there has been reporting by Sy Hersh that the United States coordinated the attacks, using a secret expert U.S. Navy diving team. This was largely ignored, refuted and scoffed at by the mainstream media and officials in the West … “It seems very strange” that NATO governments, with their massive intelligence capabilities — particularly Washington’s global reach — “seem unable to get to the bottom of this,” Jacobin reporter Branko Marcetic tells RS.
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Israel Police arrested five people Wednesday on suspicion of spitting towards Christians or churches in the Old City of Jerusalem, they announced, following an uproar a day earlier over Orthodox Jews spitting at Christian pilgrims … Father Matteo, a priest in the Old City, told CNN Wednesday there were sometimes 10 incidents of spitting a day near his monastery along the Via Dolorosa, the path that Christians believe Jesus walked to his crucifixion, with people calling it “an impure place.” … The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the spitting was part of a wider problem that leads to physical violence.
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`Spitting on Christians is a Jewish Custom,’ Says Israeli Settler, Far-Right Activist
The Jerusalem Post
“The custom of spitting near churches or monasteries is an ancient Jewish tradition,” far-right activist Elisha Yered wrote on Monday in response to a video of Orthodox Jews spitting on Christian pilgrims. The former spokesperson for MK Limor Son Har-Melech, of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, said that there is an even a blessing that Jews are supposed to say when seeing a church: “Blessed is He who has patience for those who violate His will,” which Yered described as a “blessing that praises God for not immediately punishing idol worshipers for their wicked deeds.” He continued: “Perhaps under the influence of Western culture we have forgotten what Christianity is, but I think the millions of Jews who experienced the Crusades, the [Spanish] Inquisition, blood libel, and mass pogroms will never forget.”
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The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has agreed to resume advertising on X (formerly Twitter), the platform it once denounced as a haven for hate speech, signaling an end to its dispute with owner Elon Musk in a statement released on Wednesday. “We appreciate X’s stated intent over the last few weeks to address anti-Semitism and hate on the platform,” the Jewish advocacy group said, calling X’s moves “useful.” … Despite Greenblatt’s complaints, X has actually stepped up its obedience to government censorship orders under Musk, fully complying with 83% of content takedown requests since his acquisition of the company, compared to 50% before, according to Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet Society. The ADL has a long history of financially pressuring social media platforms to comply with its ideological agenda.
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Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League
Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, Jr. - Institute for Historical Review
… I was in politics for fifteen years, and I think you should start with the assumption: never trust a politician … When people finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail. You are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you’re threatening the security of the state of Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck!
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The Dutch government has confirmed the authenticity of a Nazi party card held by Prince Bernhard, prince consort for decades after World War Two. A former head of the palace archives, Flip Maarschalkerweerd, said he found the card while going through the prince’s things after his death. Bernhard, a German aristocrat, repeatedly denied being a member of Adolf Hitler’s NSDAP political party … Bernhard von Lippe-Biesterfeld had married Dutch Princess Juliana in 1937 and escorted the Dutch royal family in exile when war broke out in 1940 … When Juliana became queen in 1948, Bernhard became prince consort.
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Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman warned on Tuesday uncontrolled migration poses an “existential challenge” to Western nations and called for the rewriting of a treaty which has influenced global asylum policy for the last seven decades. Addressing the American Enterprise Institute think-tank in Washington, Braverman said the United Nations refugee convention has expanded the definition of “persecution” and increased the number of people qualifying for refugee protection.
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In Britain, New Survey Shows 66% of People Believe Sunak is Failing to Get a Grip on Immigration
Express (UK)
Rishi Sunak [British prime minister] is failing to get a grip on immigration, according to a new survey. Public dissatisfaction is at its highest level since before the Brexit referendum in 2016. Two-thirds (66 percent) of people say the government isn’t doing enough to tackle the issue, the Immigration Attitudes Tracker survey revealed. The level is the highest it has been since 2015 when the survey began, and the latest figure is up from a low of 41 percent in 2020.
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Sweden’s prime minister on Thursday said that he’s summoned the head of the military to discuss how the armed forces can help police deal with an unprecedented crime wave that has shocked the country with almost daily shootings and bombings. Getting the military involved in crime-fighting would be a highly unusual step for Sweden, underscoring the severity of the gang violence that has claimed a dozen lives across the country this month, including teenagers and innocent bystanders … Sweden long stood out in Europe along with Germany for having liberal immigration policies and welcoming hundreds of thousands of asylum-seekers from the Middle East and Africa. Sweden has since sharply restricted migration levels, citing rising crime levels and other social problems.
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Flash Mob Robberies are Changing the Way America Does Business
R. Bridge - Strategic Culture
… In modern America, the need to lock up merchandise is due to flash mob heists that are costing retailers millions of dollars each year, while threatening the very existence of the big-box and small-box merchandisers … A flash mob heist is when a large gang of hoodlums, typically young and reckless, enter a store all at once and ‘smash-and-grab’ whatever merchandise they can before the police arrive on the scene, which almost never happens … The thieves are rarely caught; in the event that they are caught, liberal judges will set them free without punishment … Chicago, for example, has put a new twist on the phenomenon, introducing something known as ‘flash mob robbery crews.’ These gangs travel around the city in caravans and rob pedestrians in broad daylight on the street, sometimes eight or more people at a time.
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… The [US federal] government’s debt already exceeds America’s gross domestic product. In other words, the US national debt, according to the government’s own figures, is already worth more than the value of everything produced by American businesses. Americans should keep these facts in mind when the media attacks as “irresponsible” the small group of Republicans who refuse to vote for a continuing resolution or CR, and thus risk a government shutdown, unless the CR is accompanied by spending cuts and reforms that would take federal spending off autopilot … The best place to cut spending is the so-called “defense” budget that makes Americans less free and less safe.
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Government Should Not Be Held Hostage for Ukraine Funding
Rep. Rand Paul
Today I am putting leadership of the House, the Senate, and the President of the United States on notice. I will not consent to the expedited passage of any spending measure providing more American aid to Ukraine. Simply put: We have no extra money to send to Ukraine. Our deficit this year will exceed $1.5 trillion. Borrowing money from China to send to Ukraine makes no sense. Since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the American taxpayer has provided Kiev $113 billion … or $223 million per day … When will the aid requests end? When will the war end? Can someone explain what victory in Ukraine looks like? President Biden certainly can’t … With no clear end in sight, it looks increasingly likely that Ukraine will be yet another endless quagmire funded by the American taxpayer. That’s why public support for the war is waning.
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How J.R.R. Tolkien’s Novels Were Inspired by Medieval Poems of ‘Northern Bravery’
M. Killacky - The Conversation
… One theme that Tolkien picked up from his work in medieval literature – and which runs like a thread throughout his fictional worlds – is the reckless bravery and heroic courage that many medieval protagonists exhibit. Tolkien termed this kind of response to challenge “northern courage” … This type of courage is highly prevalent in the Old Norse sagas that Tolkien was so familiar with, and which grew out of the northern Scandinavian countries between the 9th and 13th centuries … Simply put, northern courage is when one exhibits the courage to keep persevering despite the knowledge that sooner or later defeat is inevitable … They insist that we must rise to the challenges offered in our time … That spirit of northern bravery endures as an alluring concept.
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A rare beetle named after Adolf Hitler is facing extinction due to its demand as a neo-Nazi collector’s item. Fascists have been collecting the tiny brown blind beetle since they can sell for up to 1,200 pounds [$1460] per bug. The creepy crawlies were discovered by German entomologist and Hitler fan Oskar Scheibel in 1933, who named it Anophthalmus hitleri. The first part is the Greek word for without eye and the second part was a nod to Hitler who had just become Chancellor in Germany. But over recent decades the insect has been sought-after by right-wing extremists which has led to its numbers dwindling in the wild and has sparked concern it could disappear altogether.
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… The ever more obvious symptoms of social decay are inevitable in a nation as unhealthy as today’s America. We understand that a nation guided by false principles, wishful thinking and unrealistic notions about society and history cannot and will not survive; that a society as inwardly sick as this one will not last … On this anniversary of American independence, it is altogether fitting that we recall the sacrifices and the outlook of the men who acted boldly out of principle, and risked everything in following the dictate of their conscience.
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Young Germans are among the ‘unhappiest in Europe’ as polls show a drift among Millennials to the far right. According to a report by Unicef, young Germans ranked second from the bottom in a poll on happiness and life satisfaction. Residents of the EU aged 16-19 and 20-24 were asked to give a score from one to 10 on their level of happiness. Between 2021 and 2022, Germany slipped from the EU average with 7.5 to 6.6, putting it only above Bulgaria. The figure comes as older generations lean towards the far right, with those in their 30s the most likely to consider voting for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) far-right party. According to a poll by Germany’s INSA institute for market research, 44 per cent of the demographic have thought about voting for the far-right party.