Headlines

Eight months after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip, some critics observe that the Israeli military hasn’t met either of its goals of destroying Hamas and rescuing all of the remaining 133 hostages Hamas is holding. Yet two-thirds of Israelis still support their military’s aggressive approach in Gaza – including limiting humanitarian aid to Palestinians. While many Israelis support the military’s war in Gaza, most Israelis have also lost confidence in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and would like to see new political leadership … The story of Masada is still taught and remembered in Israel as a constant reminder that Jewish people cannot ever fully rely on the mercy or help of other countries – and that Jewish identity and independence are at risk of persecution.

The good news is that Americans overwhelmingly support freedom of the press. The bad news is that a good half of the population doesn’t seem to have the slightest clue what that means, favoring content controls even if they restrict free expression. How do you reconcile these views? You can’t, unless you accept that many people want freedom only for publications and ideas with which they agree. … “About half of U.S. adults (51%) say that the publication of false information should always be prevented, even if it means press freedom could be limited,” adds Pew … “Fifty percent of Americans feel most national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public,” finds the Knight Foundation in its most recent (2022) report.

… A protest movement against the violence in Gaza and U.S. colleges’ complicity in them has swept the nation, with encampments on college campuses in 45 of America’s 50 states. The crackdown has been swift; thousands of students have been arrested, charged, fined, lost their degrees, or even deported … Why have overwhelmingly peaceful demonstrations against a foreign power’s actions been met with such a heavy-handed response? A MintPress News investigation finds that those same elite institutions have deep financial and ideological ties to the state of Israel, are funded by pro-Israel billionaires who have demanded they take action to crush the student movement, are partially funded by the Israeli government, and exist in a climate where Washington has made it clear that the protests should not be tolerated.

The United Nations’ top court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. Although Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, it will ratchet up the pressure on the increasingly isolated country. Criticism of Israel’s conduct in the war in Gaza has been growing, particularly since it turned its focus to Rafah. This week alone, three European countries announced they would recognize a Palestinian state, and the chief prosecutor for another international court requested arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, along with Hamas officials.

… Months after some Israelis started to protest against aid lorries entering Gaza at the main Kerem Shalom crossing, the battle has moved to other key junctions, where rival groups of activists do their best to block or protect aid convoys. In recent weeks, social media has been flooded with images of aid lorries being blocked and ransacked. Right-wing activists, including Jewish settlers living in the occupied West Bank, have uploaded dozens of videos of crowds, including some very young children, hurling food onto the ground and stamping on boxes of aid … In one video, a group of jubilant protesters dance and celebrate on top of a looted lorry. In another, one of the stranded lorries is ablaze … Their faces are uncovered and they appear to be acting with complete impunity.

Right-wing [Jewish] activists obstructing trucks carrying aid to Gaza are operating like militias for all intents and purposes. The permissive attitude with which their activities are being received is evidence of the deep and spreading rot in Israel … Militia activists were filmed this week stopping Palestinian trucks in Jerusalem, demanding their drivers’ licenses and even conducting searches of trucks to verify that they weren’t carrying food … The sabotage has been constant and systematic, with some added physical violence … Israel has to renounce the extreme right and the person who has cultivated it into monstrous proportions – Netanyahu. As long as they continue to lead the country, it will decline morally and become an outcast country in the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu compared himself to Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Tuesday as he assailed the International Criminal Court for requesting an arrest warrant against him and his government’s top defense official for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip. In an interview on CNN, the Israeli leader slammed yesterday’s announcement from the Hague as “outrageous” and described the international tribunal’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan as a “rogue prosecutor that has put false charges and created false symmetries that are both dangerous and false.” … Khan “equates the democratically elected leaders of Israel with the terrorists, tyrants of Hamas,” Netanyahu told CNN anchor Jake Tapper. “That’s like saying that, well, I’m issuing arrest warrants for FDR, Churchill, but also for Hitler.”

… These cases make it clear that foreign bribery, in which representatives of one country pay money to manipulate the representatives of another, is still a serious problem in the United States. As the world’s most powerful and interventionist nation, no other government has more influence over the rest of the world’s affairs — influence which can be bought. The recent charges against Rep. Cuellar and Sen. Mendendez show how significant of a problem bribery and undue influence has been for the U.S. congress, while also drawing attention to the ongoing efforts to prevent this corruption from continuing … U.S. foreign policy should be dictated by the interests of the American people, not the personal financial interests of politicians, wealthy businessmen, and foreign governments.

In an overgrown field in the Bronx, a borough that has not voted red in a presidential election since 1924, Orthodox Jews, fraternity brothers, George Santos, Dominican immigrants, off-duty firefighters, and thousands of others are craning their necks for a view of Donald J. Trump … Though New Yorkers are famously Democratic, more of them seem to be warming to Trump’s America First message. Perhaps it’s the rising crime, or the migrants who are increasingly begging in the streets, or the fact that it now takes a family of four at least $318,000 a year to live here. Whatever it is, according to a Siena College poll this month, Joe Biden has lost 20 points in New York City, compared to his 2020 victory when he won 76 percent of the vote in Trump’s hometown. Meanwhile, Trump is up seven points, with Biden’s lead cut to single digits in the 2024 race for president.

Robert E. Lee was the most prominent and formidable military commander of the southern Confederacy during the Civil War of 1861-1865. Although he was once widely admired by Americans, today he is denounced for having owned Black slaves. In a 1960 letter explaining his high regard for the Confederate commander, President Dwight Eisenhower wrote: “General Robert E. Lee was, in my estimation, one of the supremely gifted men produced by our Nation … He was a poised and inspiring leader, true to the high trust reposed in him by millions of his fellow citizens … From deep conviction, I simply say this: a nation of men of Lee’s calibre would be unconquerable in spirit and soul … I proudly display the picture of this great American on my office wall.”

On August 25, 1941, British and Soviet military forces invaded Iran – a neutral country. Their main goals were to secure a land route for military aid to the Soviet Union from the United States (still nominally a neutral power), and to ensure British control of Iran’s oil. The greatly outnumbered Iranian military forces resisted, but were quickly subdued. US President Roosevelt approved the invasion, and US troops later arrived to strengthen Allied occupation of the country. British forces deposed the Iranian leader, Reza Shah Pahlavi, and installed his son as a pliant new ruler. (He was himself overthrown in the revolution of 1979.) The 1941 invasion brought terrible privation to the Iranian population. It also generated broad Iranian scorn and distrust of Britain, the Soviet Union, and the USA. Runtime: 18:17 mins.

The New York Times instructed journalists covering Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing,” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept. The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases,” and to steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab wars … While the document is presented as an outline for maintaining objective journalistic principles in reporting on the Gaza war, several Times staffers told The Intercept that some of its contents show evidence of the paper’s deference to Israeli narratives.

In 2023, the Israeli military censor barred the publication of 613 articles by media outlets in Israel, setting a new record for the period since +972 Magazine began collecting data in 2011. The censor also redacted parts of a further 2,703 articles, representing the highest figure since 2014. In all, the military prevented information from being made public an average of nine times a day.

For the past six months, Israel has put a lot of effort into covering up its genocidal crimes in Gaza. One of the most brutal ways it does this is by routinely threatening, targeting and assassinating Palestinian journalists. The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported that at least 90 Palestinian journalists have been killed since October 7alongside two Israelis and three Lebanese. This is the highest death toll of journalists in any modern conflict that CPJ has monitored. Another 25 Palestinian journalists have been detained by Israeli forces, and four are missing. Israel also bans foreign media outlets from entering Gaza, forcing them to report from Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or southern Israel. On Israeli territory, they must comply with the rules and censorship of the Israeli Military Censor …

Norway, Ireland and Spain said Wednesday they would recognize a Palestinian state, a historic but largely symbolic move that further deepens Israel’s isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel denounced the decisions and recalled its ambassadors to the three countries. Palestinian officials welcomed the announcements as an affirmation of their decades-long quest for statehood in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip — territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and still controls. While some 140 countries — more than two-thirds of the United Nations — recognize a Palestinian state, Wednesday’s cascade of announcements could build momentum at a time when even close allies of Israel have piled on criticism for its conduct in Gaza.

Europeans view immigration with increasing suspicion. Seven out of 10 Europeans believe that their country takes in too many migrants, according to a survey … as part of the countdown to the European elections in June. The survey shows that 85% of respondents feel the European Union needs to take more action to combat irregular migration. And only 39% believe that Europe needs immigration today. The countries where most people consider immigration a problem are Bulgaria (74% of respondents), the Czech Republic (73%), Hungary and Cyprus (68% in both cases) … Beyond the data on migration, health is the biggest concern for Europeans (41%), followed by the war in Ukraine (38%) … In the population as a whole, only 9% admit to feeling more European than their own nationality.

Jeremy Carl is a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute, served as deputy assistant secretary of the interior under President Trump, and has been associated with the Hoover Institution … That a writer with solid connections to “respectable conservatism” is publishing a book [The Unprotected Class: How Anti-White Racism is Tearing America Apart ] with “anti-white racism” in the subtitle is a sign of changing times. Moreover, the author does not try to tell us that the problem with hostility towards whites is merely “divisive” or supposedly incompatible with Martin Luther King’s “dream.” He states forthrightly that it leads to injustices against whites, and that whites must fight back … It is whites’ failure to organize in defense of our own interests that had made the anti-white regime possible.

As Ukraine’s defeat in the war moves closer, the neocons are desperate to draw the US further into the fight … The whole US involvement in this proxy war has been based on lie after lie. They said we had to help Ukraine defeat Russia because democracy itself was at stake. Then Ukrainian president Zelensky cancelled elections, so they told us we have to help Ukraine defeat Russia because Putin won’t stop there … The fact is the neocons and warmongers lie constantly. They will do whatever it takes to get their wars and sadly we do not have an independent media in the US to challenge them on their lies. Our media is so closely tied to the military-industrial complex that it is also a stakeholder in war profits, so they aren’t about to rock the boat … The fact is we live in a deeply corrupt society dominated by individuals who do not believe in truth.

… Behind all the clamor about antisemitism, films about the 1940’s Jewish Holocaust and western politicians chanting about Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’ lie some ugly facts that are not spoken of in polite society … As pro-Palestinian students demonstrate across the US and the rest of the world demanding the massacre in Gaza end, we see growing efforts by pro-Israel groups to silence the students, curb the internet, and unseat politicians who dared criticize Israel … Big financial donors to academia are using their tax-deductible donations to stifle criticism of Israeli tactics and strategy in Gaza. The US Congress is worse. The Israel lobby seats and unseats senators and congressmen depending on their Mideast votes. It’s no wonder Israel is the world’s largest recipient of US aid. The Israel lobby is feared and obeyed.

Last week, President Joe Biden amplified a dangerous myth when he claimed that the Middle East has long harboured an “ancient hatred for Jews”. This assertion, made during Holocaust Memorial Week, suggests a fundamental misunderstanding of the region’s history … Biden’s statement effectively transposed the historical anti-Semitism prevalent in Europe and the ancient animosity toward Jews within Christendom onto the Middle East … In fact, for centuries, Jews found sanctuary and co-existence in Muslim-ruled lands while facing persecution in Europe. This fact is attested to even by some of the staunchest critics of Islam and Muslims … Perpetuating the myth of an “ancient hatred” between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East not only distorts history but also fuels the very conflict it claims to explain.

In a video statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that the “absurd and false” warrant from the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor is “directed against the entire State of Israel.” … ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan has not issued arrest warrants but, rather, announced his intention earlier today to seek them from the court for Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, alongside Hamas’s three top leaders. “With what chutzpah do you dare compare the monsters of Hamas to the soldiers of the IDF, the most moral army in the world?” Netanyahu asks … Netanyahu says he rejects “with disgust” Khan’s ostensible comparison, calling it “an utter distortion of the reality,” and says it is an example of “the new antisemitism” that has moved from college campuses to The Hague.

Gaza Strip residents criticised on Monday the International Criminal Court prosecutor’s decision to seek the arrest of Hamas leaders, saying it falsely equated them with the Israeli leaders waging war in the Palestinian enclave since October … When asked about the Oct. 7 attack, Gazans say the causes of the current conflict go back much further, to the wars around Israel’s foundation, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in 1948. The ICC Prosecutor’s move equated “the victim and the slaughterer”, said Sameeh, a 45-year-old accountant from Gaza City displaced with his family to Khan Yunis. “The injustice and massacres against the Palestinians didn’t start on 7 October, they started in 1948, and 7 October was a response to all the crimes conducted by the Occupation,” he said.

Bands of extremist [Jewish] youths halted trucks in several places around the country [Israel] Sunday night in what appeared to be the continuation of a coordinated, often-violent campaign to halt the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza for as long as Israeli hostages are still held captive by Hamas in Gaza. Trucks — not all of which were actually carrying Gaza-bound aid, according to the police — were stopped by vigilantes on Route 1 in northern Jerusalem, at the Latrun interchange and in several spots in the West Bank … Far-right activists took to Twitter and WhatsApp to call attention to sites where trucks were passing through and to coordinate efforts to block them. Ultranationalist activists and settlers have attacked aid convoys from Jordan, passing through the West Bank and destined for Gaza since the beginning of April …

As war rages in Gaza, the intensifying debate over the US-Israel relationship spotlights a glaring political paradox: Those Americans who view George Washington with deepest reverence — that is, would-be “conservatives” — are often the ones who most zealously violate the central tenet of his foreign policy philosophy. Specifically, their fierce devotion to the State of Israel defies Washington’s admonition against “passionate attachments” to other countries — attachments that, he said, inevitably lead America “astray from its duty and its interest.” … Regardless of your position on the political spectrum, Washington’s foreign policy advice merits your attention, and the US-Israel relationship serves as a case study that validates his warnings about the many evils that spring from “habitual fondness” for a foreign nation …

The House of Representatives passed the “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” on May 2, by a vote of 320-91 in reaction to demonstrations on numerous university campuses and elsewhere against the brutal and genocidal policy of Israel in Gaza. The Act has now been sent to the Senate, where it seems certain to pass. This is an extremely dangerous bill that could criminalize the Bible, many Christian Churches, as well as any negative remarks about Israel and Jews. … One of the examples the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Association’s definition of anti-Semitism is to say that Jews have a strong influence on American foreign policy. But it’s the simple truth … One of the oddest aspects of this whole deplorable business is that the Act bans statements that the Jews have a lot of political power.

Long after the current administration passes from the scene, President Joseph R. Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken … will likely be remembered as the abettors of Israel’s transformation of Gaza into an abattoir, and will leave a legacy as bloodstained as Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger’s. … This week, after acknowledging that five Israeli military units had engaged in gross human rights abuses, the Biden administration signaled it will not apply the Leahy Law — which prohibits aid to militaries that have committed human rights abuses — to Israel. … If Blinken and Biden were serious about stopping the carnage, they could have applied section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits security assistance to countries blocking humanitarian aid.

John Mearsheimer, an outstanding specialist of US foreign policy, explains how and why America’s policy of ardent support for Israel harms authentic US strategic interests. The US, he says in this interview, is complicit in Israel’s “murderous” campaign in Gaza. America’s decades-old pro-Israel policy, he says, is dictated by the powerful “Israel Lobby.” The bizarre US-Israel “special relationship,” he says in this interview, “has no parallel in history.” He also talks about the prospect of Israel’s future and the prospect of a regional war involving Iran. Mearsheimer, a professor of international relations at the University of Chicago, is the author of several books, including the influential best-seller, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy(with Stephen M. Walt). Runtime: 68 mins.

A document uncovered by The Daily Beast shows that Soviet mole Kim Philby was hampering his British intelligence colleagues in their efforts to defeat the Zionist movement … Radical factions of the Zionist movement, some of whom openly described themselves as terrorists, were waging a relentless underground war to drive the British out and establish an independent state of Israel … What he did not guess and probably could not have imagined was that a Soviet mole high in the upper echelons of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, had played a critical role distracting Sir Gyles and his staff … This revelation adds a new chapter to an extraordinary tale of treachery that has been at the center of many a spy novel, and offers a fresh perspective on the Soviet Union’s complex relationship with Israel.

Fraudulent quotations attributed to Hitler and other Third Reich leaders have been widely circulated for years. Such quotes are often used by polemicists — of both the left and the right — to discredit their ideological adversaries by showing that Nazis held similar views. This tactic works because people have been educated to believe that anything Hitler and other Nazi leaders thought or said was malevolent, wrong-headed or evil, and that no reasonable or ethical person could hold similar views. Here’s a look at a few of the many remarks falsely attributed to Hitler and other top Nazis.

… Has history – Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza — killed Jewish comedy? … That split consciousness – insider/club member; outsider/Jew – is the stock in trade of American Jewish humor… The world of entertainment – especially comedy – reinforced my Jew-centrism. In the ‘60s and 1970s, according to Time magazine, 80% of American comedians were Jewish … Israel’s response to global criticism has turned Jews everywhere into pariahs, but not like the itinerant schlemiels and schlimazels of traditional Jewish humor. By insisting the war is being fought not just on behalf of Israeli Jews, but the entire diaspora, Jews everywhere are made accessories to crime.

… Half of the 35,000 Palestinians killed by Israel were children, their bodies littering the overwhelmed morgues and mosques of Gaza. The former United Nations assistant secretary-general for human rights Andrew Gilmour told BBC Newsnight that the Palestinians are experiencing “collective punishment” … Meanwhile, in the West Bank section of Palestine, Human Rights Watch shows that the Israeli military has participated in the displacement of Palestinians from 20 communities and has uprooted at least seven communities since October 2023 … Over the past six months, newspapers and television shows in the United States have generally written about the genocidal violence using passive voice: bombs fell, people died.

The U.N. General Assembly voted by a wide margin on Friday to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine and called on the Security Council to reconsider Palestine’s request to become the 194th member of the United Nations. The 193-member world body approved the Arab and Palestinian-sponsored resolution by a vote of 143-9 with 25 abstentions. The United States voted against the resolution, along with Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau and Papua New Guinea. The vote reflected the wide global support for full membership of Palestine in the United Nations, with many countries expressing outrage at the escalating death toll in Gaza and fears of a major Israeli offensive in Rafah, a southern city where about 1.3 million Palestinians have sought refuge.

At a military base that now doubles as a detention center in Israel’s Negev desert, an Israeli working at the facility snapped two photographs of a scene that he says continues to haunt him. Rows of men in gray tracksuits are seen sitting on paper-thin mattresses, ringfenced by barbed wire. All appear blindfolded, their heads hanging heavy under the glare of floodlights. A putrid stench filled the air and the room hummed with the men’s murmurs, the Israeli who was at the facility told CNN. Forbidden from speaking to each other, the detainees mumbled to themselves. … Reports of abuse at Sde Teiman have already surfaced in Israeli and Arab media after an outcry from Israeli and Palestinian rights groups over conditions there. But this rare testimony from Israelis working at the facility sheds further light on Israel’s conduct …

… The United States is the most over-propagandized nation on earth. Americans are barraged around the clock by government propaganda, commercial messages, internet agitprop and pro-war movies. Even the old Soviet Union was not so flooded by non-stop propaganda … Politicians and generals who lose wars and trillions of dollars should admit their folly and resign. The media that promoted the colonial Afghan war should be rid of the propagandists infesting its ranks. Today, we see CNN, the New York Times, and Fox, the twin voices of America’s neocons, cheer-leading for the massacres in Gaza. Instead, those newscasters who shilled for the Afghan War are now busily promoted President Biden’s wars.

… The American public has long thought of the Allied effort in World War II as a “great crusade” that pitted good and decency against Nazi evil. Even after all these years, it is likely that the last thing the public wants to learn is that vast and unspeakable wrongs were committed by both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union during the war and its aftermath. It flies in the face of that reluctance for MacDonogh to tell “the brutal history” at great length [in his book, After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation]. That willingness is commendable for its intellectual bravery

It’s been almost seven months since the start of the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, which has claimed – at minimum – tens of thousands of Palestinian lives, including at least 15,000 children. There is mass starvation in the north, countless mass graves are being found every day from where the Israelis have withdrawn … Despite all this and the growing domestic pressure on the U.S. government to change course, Joe Biden and his administration have shown no desire to choose a different course. Instead, unlike the media narrative that puts blame squarely on Netanyahu, this administration is showing what Joe Biden has shown throughout his career: complete deference to and support of the state of Israel. Presented by Sana Saeed. Runtime: 16:29 mins.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, took a sharp turn in 2021 when it began endorsing candidates and contributing directly to campaigns. Since then, this powerful pro-Israel lobby group has been among the top spenders in politics, contributing to the campaigns of 342 Congressmembers. Presentation by Ali Velshi. Runtime: 6:16 mins.

Christian groups are seeking innovative ways to bring the Gospel to Americans as church attendance and belief in God are on the decline in the country … According to a new Gallup poll, only “three in 10” U.S. adults (30%) attend church once a week or almost once a week. This represents a significant decline from attendance 20 years ago, when 42% of U.S. adults would still attend church regularly. The drop-off doubled in the last decade, where regular church attendance, which was at around 38% percent between 2011 and 2013, plummeted to 30%. Gallup noted this decline is represented not just among Christian denominations, but in nearly all faiths in the United States.

Traditionally Catholic Italy is facing a catastrophic collapse of the faith as Mass attendance falls precipitously to 10 percent of the population and even less in some areas. The steady, even accelerating, decline in the practice of the Catholic faith among Italians is detailed in a new study published by Professor Luca Diotallevi of the University of Rome … In the book, Diotallevi examines the numbers, demographics, and possible causes of the sharp collapse of Sunday Mass attendance in Italy over the last 30 years. According to his findings, Italian Catholicism is on the cusp of disappearing … In 2017 for the first time, the number of Italian Catholics who “never” attend Mass exceeded the number who said they attended “at least once a week.”

Sunday church attendance is just 80 per cent of what it was in 2019, Telegraph analysis has revealed, despite the Church of England claiming that it has “bounced back” after the pandemic.‌ The figures reveal that church attendance has more than halved since 1987, prompting clergy to warn: “This is a doom spiral of the church’s own choosing.” ‌In 2023, The Telegraph published an investigation which revealed that parishes are closing at a record rate, prompting fears that the Church had been “dealt a death knell.” The investigation found that almost 300 parishes have disappeared in the past five years alone – the fastest rate since records began in 1960 … They also came amid declining congregation numbers, leaving many clergy afraid to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.

Russia on Thursday wrapped itself in patriotic pageantry for Victory Day, as President Vladimir Putin celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II by hailing his forces fighting in Ukraine and blasting the West for fueling conflicts around the world. Even though few veterans of what Russia calls the Great Patriotic War are still alive 79 years after Berlin fell to the Red Army, the victory remains the most important and widely revered symbol of Russia’s prowess and a key element of national identity. Putin has turned Victory Day — the country’s most important secular holiday — into a pillar of his nearly quarter-century in power and a justification of his military action in Ukraine. Two days after beginning his fifth term in office, he led the festivities across Russia that recall the nation’s wartime sacrifice.

The worldview that prevails in the US and western Europe is based in large measure on the premise that that World War II was a battle of Good vs Evil, and that American intervention was unquestionably an admirable achievement. Even to question that premise is to risk being hounded and vilified. But there are good reasons to call the “good war” into question. The great justification for the British and French declarations of war against Germany in 1939 was to defend Polish independence. At the end of the war, British and American leaders agreed to hand over Poland and the rest of eastern Europe to brutal Soviet control. Eastern Europeans feared Soviet hegemony much more than German domination. Here’s a skeptical look at the “official,” prevailing narrative of “the good War.” Runtime: 11:28 mins.

For many in Europe, the end of the Second World War meant peace and healing. But for millions of Germans, “liberation” opened a new and terrible chapter. This hour-long British documentary reveals the appalling violence meted out to the defeated, especially to those ethnic Germans who had lived peacefully for centuries in neighbouring countries. Using rare and unseen archive film, this documentary tells a harrowing story of vengeance against German civilians. The Savage Peace includes the unique testimony of eyewitnesses and victims, who recall the horrors with searing clarity, their memories undimmed 70 years after the events took place. As the writer George Orwell said, the treatment of the defeated Germans was a terrible crime that has gone unpunished.

Pete McCloskey, a pro-environment, anti-war California Republican who co-wrote the Endangered Species Act and co-founded Earth Day, has died. He was 96. A fourth-generation Republican “in the mold of Teddy Roosevelt”, he often said, McCloskey represented the 12th congressional district for 15 years … He battled party leaders while serving seven terms in Congress … “McCloskey was a rarity in American politics — his actions were guided by his sense of justice, not by political ideology,” Joe Cotchett, his law partner since 2004, said … McCloskey joined the Marine Corps as an officer and led a rifle platoon during some of the most intense fighting of the Korean War. He was awarded the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism, the nation’s second-highest honor, a Silver Star for bravery in combat, and two Purple Hearts.

A former US Congressman tells how his long career in law, politics, academic life, and the US Marine Corps led him to mistrust governmental official history, and to esteem the mission of the IHR. McCloskey relates what he has learned in his role as lead attorney in a class action lawsuit that targeted the ADL’s secretive large-scale spy operation against American citizens. Inside information on how the Zionist lobby torpedoed his political career (and those of other loyal Americans); on how Jewish pressure prevented Stan­ford University from hiring world-class historian Norman Davies; on how, and why, the Lobby works the way it does. A witty, wise, enlightening presentation — from an IHR Conference — by a contemporary rarity: a coura­geous, thoughtful, and independent man in public life.

… 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!

In a conversation with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) acknowledged that banning TikTok has such strong support in Congress because the social media platform has hurt Israel’s public relations battle … The official justification for targeting TikTok is the unfounded allegation that it’s a Chinese spy tool because its parent company, ByteDance, is based in China. But Romney’s comments suggest the real purpose of the renewed push to ban the app after a similar effort failed years ago was to censor news coming out of Gaza and pro-Palestinian content. Blinken blamed social media in general when asked by Romney why Israel was losing the global PR war.

A group of influential Republican senators has sent a letter to International Criminal Court (ICC) chief prosecutor Karim Khan, warning him not to issue international arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, and threatening him with “severe sanctions” if he does so. In a terse, one-page letter … signed by 12 GOP senators, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Florida’s Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz of Texas, Khan is informed that any attempt by the ICC to hold Netanyahu and his colleagues to account for their actions in Gaza will be interpreted “not only as a threat to Israel’s sovereignty but to the sovereignty of the United States.” “Target Israel and we will target you,” the senators tell Khan … Rather ominously, the letter concludes: “You have been warned.”

Over the last six decades, America has rapidly become a multi-ethnic, multiracial, and multicultural country. We take this for granted today, forgetting it was not always true … The original Nationality Act of 1790 specifically restricted American citizenship to “free white persons” … If whiteness is an advantage, it is strange that so many whites have been clamoring to obtain a nonwhite identity … This change in racial attitudes is happening amid a breathtaking demographic transformation. As of 2020, nearly 53 percent of Americans under the age of 18 were “minorities.” Within 20 years, whites are projected to be a minority in America and one older than most other racial groups on average … As people who, for better or worse, are soon to be just another patch in the American quilt, whites need to be able to speak up unapologetically for their own rights.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Antisemitism Awareness Act Wednesday [May1]. It comes as campus protests are taking place across the country. While the protests have the support of many Jewish college students, many others have said they feel intimidated and unsafe … The Antisemitism Awareness Act directs the Department of Education to use the definition promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance when enforcing federal anti-discrimination laws. “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” the definition says. It goes on to define examples of antisemitism, and some of the heated rhetoric heard on college campuses lately would be included.

A bill that would enshrine a popular and contentious definition of antisemitism passed the US House of Representatives by a wide margin on Wednesday [May 1]. The Antisemitism Awareness Act mandates government civil rights offices to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which has been endorsed by hundreds of local governments, corporations and universities. But the definition has also drawn criticism because most of its examples of antisemitism involve criticism of the state of Israel, including calling it a “racist endeavor.” … An identical version is under consideration in the Senate, and while it is in its early stages, it too is likely to pass.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) labeled the House antisemitism legislation as a “ridiculous hate speech bill” ahead of the vote Wednesday. The House approved a bill that aims to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses amid ongoing pro-Palestinian protests taking place at U.S. universities across the country. Gaetz voiced his opposition to the bill ahead of the vote, saying some excerpts of the Bible would meet this bill’s definition of antisemitism … “Antisemitism is wrong, but this legislation is written without regard for the Constitution, common sense, or even the common understanding of the meaning of words. The Gospel itself would meet the definition of antisemitism under the terms of this bill!” he continued.

In the 1960s, the BBC set out to investigate local reports of secret, shocking World War Two experiments, dangerous contamination and unexplained animal deaths on a remote island off the coast of Scotland … The truth was that Gruinard Island had been the site of a clandestine attempt by the UK during World War Two to weaponise Anthrax, a deadly bacterial infection … Porton Down was charged with developing biological weapons that could be used against Nazi Germany to catastrophic effect, minimising actual direct combat between troops … The proposed plan would have decimated Germany’s meat supply, and triggered a nationwide Anthrax contamination, resulting in an enormous death toll … Five million linseed cakes laced with Anthrax were produced but the plan was ultimately abandoned …

In a secret wartime memorandum, Winston Churchill told his advisers that he wanted to “drench” Germany with poison gas. Churchill’s July 1944 memo to his chief of staff Gen. Hastings Ismay was reproduced in the August-September 1985 issue of American Heritage magazine … Churchill’s directive bluntly stated: “I want a cold-blooded calculation made as to how it would pay to use poison gas … One really must not be bound within silly conventions of the mind whether they be those that ruled in the last war or those in reverse which rule in this.”

Nearly 2,500 people have been arrested at pro-Palestinian rallies at college and university campuses across the US, according to media outlets. In a report released Sunday by CNN, the number of arrests made since April 18 has surpassed 2,200, while the numbers released in a similar report by Fox News show the total of arrests to be more than 2,400. Demonstrations are expected to continue over the coming weeks as graduation ceremonies take place, and campus officials are adding extra police security, or in some cases, cancelling commencement ceremonies altogether.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday that U.S. ally Japan was struggling economically because of xenophobia, along with other countries, including China and Russia. Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in Washington that marked the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Biden said the U.S. economy was growing in part “because we welcome immigrants.” “Think about it,” he said. “Why is China stalling so bad economically? Why is Japan having trouble? Why is Russia?” “Because they’re xenophobic,” he said. “They don’t want immigrants.”

Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Marie-Thérèse Kaiser has now been convicted for publishing gang rape statistics in response to news that Afghan migrants would be moved to her district. The 27-year-old politician was found guilty in the Verden regional court in Lower Saxony on Monday for “inciting hatred” against local Afghan workers. She is ordered to pay a fine of 6,000 euros and being charged 60 euros a day for 100 days. She will also have a criminal record … The politician linked an article showing that Afghans in Germany feature particularly high levels of gang rape activity … Kaiser had perhaps mistakenly believed resorting to data would protect her, which shows that foreigners are represented in half of all gang rape cases, according to official government statistics.

Israel’s attacks in Gaza reflect a “systematic disregard for fundamental principles of international law” and “raise grave concerns regarding the [Biden] Administration’s compliance with both U.S. and international law,” according to an explosive new report from a prominent group of former U.S. officials and legal scholars. “The Israeli government [has] demonstrated a clear pattern of negligent targeting along this campaign, [as well as] indifference and callousness to civilian harm and suffering and a disregard for international law,” Wes Bryant, an Air Force master sergeant and a targeting expert who contributed to the report, said during a Wednesday press conference.

Lawrence Wilkerson, a former high-ranking US military figure, discusses Israel’s  military assault in Gaza, which he says is being brutally perpetrated with the political, military, and financial backing of the US. The retired US Army colonel and former chief of staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell also addresses other significant foreign policy concerns, including the potential for escalating conflicts in Europe and the Middle East involving key players such as Israel, the US and Iran, as well as US policies towardsChina and Taiwan.

If the International Criminal Court in The Hague issues arrest warrants for Israeli political and military leaders over the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, it would constitute an “unprecedented antisemitic hate crime,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday. “The possibility that they will issue arrest warrants for war crimes against IDF commanders and government leaders is a scandal of historical magnitude,” said the premier … “If this does happen, it will be an indelible stain on humanity. It would be an unprecedented antisemitic hate crime that would add fuel to the antisemitic incitement that is already raging in the world,” he said.

German youth are shifting towards the Alternative for Germany (AfD) amid concerns over mass immigration, inflation, the economy, and the war in Ukraine, according to the “Youth in Germany” study, which was conducted on 14- to 29-year-olds. The results of the large-scale survey show that twice as many young people would vote for the AfD compared to 2022 … The study also notes that politically conservative, anti-immigrant and xenophobic statements have increased among youth … In just one year, the AfD has almost doubled its share of the vote among young people. At 22 percent, the party is now the number one party for those under 30 in terms of favorability.

Turkey has halted all trade with Israel, citing the “worsening humanitarian tragedy” in the Palestinian territories, which prompted strong criticism from the Israeli foreign minister. “Export and import transactions related to Israel have been stopped, covering all products,” Turkey’s trade ministry said late on Thursday. “Turkey will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.” Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, accused Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of acting like a “dictator” after the restrictions were first reported.

The latest round of state test results is raising alarm in Baltimore City Schools. Project Baltimore found that 40% of Baltimore City high schools, where the state exam was given, did not have any students score proficient in math. Not one student. “This is educational homicide,” said Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of People Empowered by the Struggle, a Baltimore-based nonprofit … Of the 32 high schools remaining, if 13 had zero students test proficient, that means 40% of Baltimore City high schools could not produce a single student doing math a grade level. The list of 13 schools includes some of Baltimore’s most well-known high schools …

… The Biden administration is providing over $14.1 billion in arms to Israel, including the deadly 2,000 lb bombs used to crush entire civilian apartment buildings and hospitals, plus tank shells fired at residential targets. All in clear violation of US arms export laws written by Congress. Why is Biden the key player in such mass destruction? Why is his UN delegation vetoing resolutions to stop Israeli laying waste to Gaza? It’s election time coming up. And because the Democrats get the lion’s share of their finances from pro-Israel sources. Big money talks. Human rights walk. The US Congress, a sorry collection of used car salesmen, has been bought and sold. What a disgrace for the USA … The Gaza massacre has revealed the US to be a deeply corrupt society. University students at least helped save America’s honor.

According to reports in several Israeli media, the United States is part of a last-ditch diplomatic effort to prevent the International Criminal Court from issuing arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials … Netanyahu is “under unusual stress” over the prospect of an arrest warrant against him and other Israelis by the UN tribunal in The Hague, which would be a major deterioration in Israel’s international status. Netanyahu is leading a “nonstop push over the telephone” to prevent an arrest warrant … The US, which, like Israel, is not among the 124 countries that signed the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, is already engaged in the effort to block the arrest warrants, according to Harel.

A coalition of lawyers domestic and abroad — including at least 20 that work in the Biden administration — are calling on President Joe Biden to halt military aid to Israel, arguing that its actions in Gaza do not comply with U.S. and international humanitarian law. They plan to send a letter arguing their case to Attorney General Merrick Garland and general counsels across the administration in the coming days. In the letter, obtained by Politico, the lawyers contend that Israel likely violated U.S. statutes including the Arms Export Control Act and Leahy Laws as well as the Geneva Conventions prohibiting disproportionate attacks on civilian populations. The group that drafted the letter includes current attorneys from the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

The most consequential falsehood in American public policy today is the idea that any racial disparity in any institution is by definition the result of racial discrimination …As a result of this falsehood, we are eviscerating meritocratic and behavioral standards in accordance with what is known as “disparate impact analysis.” … What is at stake in these changes? Future medical progress and, ultimately, lives … If we cannot acknowledge the skills gap and the behavior gap, we are going to continue destroying our civilizational legacy … As for interracial violence, blacks are a greater threat to whites than whites are to blacks … It is urgent that we fight back against disparate impact thinking. As long as racism remains the only allowable explanation for racial disparities, the Left wins, and our civilization will continue to crumble.

Half of Americans — including 42% of Democrats — say they’d support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. And 30% of Democrats — as well as 46% of Republicans — now say they’d end birthright citizenship, something guaranteed under the 14th Amendment of the Constitution … Amid a record number of border crossings, nearly two-thirds of Americans said illegal immigration is a real crisis, not a politically driven media narrative … “I was surprised at the public support for large-scale deportations,” said Mark Penn, chairman of The Harris Poll and a former pollster for President Clinton.

… The dreadful grip of the UniParty on national security policy has finally produced sheer madness in a single package. To wit: $95 billion of foreign aid boondoggles that do not benefit America’s homeland security in the slightest; An extension of section 702 of FISA that wantonly expands an already egregious affront to the Fourth Amendment  … Only fourteen Republicans voted against all four components of this wholesale assault on constitutional liberty and fiscal rectitude. As we have previously documented, America is now careening on fiscal automatic pilot toward a $140 trillion public debt by mid-century, but the overwhelming share of House Republicans choose to hammer the US economy with even more debt …

… An “insider’s account” of the discussions leading up to these [1947-1948] decisions has been published by former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, one of the few living parties to the discussions leading to partition … Clifford’s story once again disproves the assertion that American diplomatic or military personnel ever viewed Israel as a ” strategic asset.” The foreign policy establishment, 43 years ago as today, saw Israel as a geopolitical liability that owes its US support to the extraordinary clout of its apologists within the American Jewish community and the American political system.

Newly deciphered passages from a papyrus scroll that was buried beneath layers of volcanic ash after the AD 79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius may have shed light on the final hours of Plato, a key figure in the history of western philosophy. In a groundbreaking discovery, the ancient scroll was found to contain a previously unknown narrative detailing how the Greek philosopher spent his last evening, describing how he listened to music played on a flute by a Thracian slave girl. Despite battling a fever and being on the brink of death, Plato – who was known as a disciple of Socrates and a mentor to Aristotle, and who died in Athens around 348 BC – retained enough lucidity to critique the musician for her lack of rhythm, the account suggests.

… One major reason behind strong bipartisan support for the TikTok ban is the wish to engage in a cold war with China … Another major reason banning TikTok has strong bipartisan support is that the site is being used by many young people to share information on the Israeli government’s action in Gaza. The head of the Anti-Defamation League was actually caught on tape complaining about the “TikTok problem.” This use of TikTok made TikTok a target for the many politicians who think the First Amendment makes an exception for speech critical of Israel. The silver lining in the TikTok ban is it is waking up more Americans, especially young Americans, to the threat the out-of-control welfare-warfare-surveillance state poses to their liberty and prosperity.