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Nuclear-armed Israel is at war. What might this mean?

Both Russia in its war in Ukraine, and Israel in its war in Gaza, possess and have threatened to use nuclear weapons. Regardless of the much debated root causes of either war, this reality alone heightens the possibility of a nuclear war.

“Is the US, blackmailed by the threat of a Middle Eastern Armageddon, now forced to allow Israel to pursue ‘victory’ at any price

By Kate Hudson, 28 Jan 24, https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/2024/01/28/the-unthinkable-looms/

The attack on Yemen by US, Britain and other forces is a dangerous escalation of the war in the Middle East. The attack is intended to halt the Houthi support for the people of Gaza that has taken the form of attacks on Israel-bound shipping. But as the Houthis have made clear, the attacks will not end their support for the Palestinians.

The only way to stop this unfolding and escalating conflict in the Middle East, is to stop the war on Gaza: to implement an immediate and permanent ceasefire and to ensure freedom and sovereignty for Palestine, as enshrined in UN resolutions and international law.

The alternative to this course of action is the further spread of war, to Yemen, Lebanon, and even to Iran. This is the most dangerous time for more than two decades in the Middle East and it clearly raises the spectre of nuclear weapons use.

Because not only is Israel heavily armed with the most up-to-date conventional weaponry, it is also heavily armed with nuclear weapons. Its nuclear arsenal, which it refuses to formally acknowledge — its policy of “nuclear ambiguity” — comes under no international controls or inspections. Yet it has an enormous killing capacity — and Israel is the only nuclear weapons state in the Middle East.

Recent rhetoric from a number of Israeli politicians suggests a willingness to use their nuclear weapons; if the conflict were to extend to Iran, who can say that Israel would not use its nuclear weapons on non-nuclear Iran?

So what does the Israeli nuclear arsenal look like? Israel’s lack of transparency means that figures are uncertain, but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) outlines estimates between 90 and 300 nuclear weapons. Sipri also reports that since 2021, according to commercial satellite imagery, there has been significant construction taking place at the Negev Nuclear Research Centre near Dimona, in southern Israel.

Some may remember that the great Israeli nuclear whistle-blower, Mordechai Vanunu, worked as a technician at Dimona, before revealing details of the secret Israeli nuclear programme to the British press in 1986. The purpose of the recent works isn’t known.

Sipri information indicates that Israel has air, land and sea-based delivery systems for its nuclear arsenal. Bombs can be dropped from planes, either the F-161 or the F-15 aircraft, and are likely to be stored near air force bases such as Tel Nof airbase in central Israel, or Hatzerim air base in the Negev desert. 

Reportedly, when Israel sent six F-16s from Tel Nof to Britain for an exercise in 2019, a US official referred to this as Israel’s “nuclear squadron.”

Israel’s nuclear weapons can also be launched on land-based Jericho ballistic missiles. The site of these missiles is thought to be the Sdot Micha air base near Zekharia, about 25 kilometres west of Jerusalem. And Israel also operates five German-built Dolphin-class diesel-electric submarines which operate from the port of Haifa on the Mediterranean coast. Some or all of these subs may have been equipped to launch a nuclear-armed cruise missile.

By any estimate, this is a formidable array of weapons of mass destruction and it gives Israel the capacity to inflict catastrophic damage on its neighbours. Of course the impact on Israel of any regional use would be considerable too, but there is absolutely no guarantee that would deter an Israeli government from nuclear use if it considered its existence was under threat.

How such a threat would be defined is also unknown. The fact remains that nuclear-weapons possession allows Israel to act with impunity, in Gaza, and in the wider region. And that possession is also impacting on how others are willing to relate to Israel.

The questions posed in a recent issue of New Left Review, are highly relevant: “Is the US, blackmailed by the threat of a Middle Eastern Armageddon, now forced to allow Israel to pursue ‘victory’ at any price? Does Israel’s capacity for nuclear war bestow on the Israeli radical right a sense of invincibility, as well as a confidence that they can dictate the terms of peace with or without the Americans, and certainly without the Palestinians?”

And what can be done about this? Both the US and Britain helped Israel to develop its nuclear weapons, against all international law. In 2005, it was revealed from Whitehall documents discovered at the National Archives, by BBC Newsnight investigators, that Britain had secretly supplied the 20 tons of heavy water to Israel nearly half a century before, which enabled it to make nuclear weapons.

Britain has known for decades about the Israeli nuclear arsenal, clearly supporting and condoning it, while taking an outraged and aggressive approach to the possibility of nuclear proliferation by other countries. The double standards and hypocrisy displayed by successive British governments is deplorable and is absolutely to be condemned.

Britain has supported numerous resolutions from the UN general assembly and security council, calling for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, without owning up to its role in Israeli nuclear proliferation.

Israeli nuclear weapons pose a particular risk to peace and security in the Middle East region and internationally; not surprisingly they are seen as a significant threat by neighbouring non-nuclear states, and the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza and the extending war is exactly the situation in which they are likely to be used.

There can be few clearer examples of how nuclear weapons are actually weapons of terror and weapons of impunity, as well as being weapons of mass slaughter and destruction. The war on Gaza must end; it must end with a ceasefire, and with peace and justice for the Palestinians. And it must end, to stop the unthinkable risk of a nuclear war in the Middle East.

Kate Hudson is the General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. This article first appeared in The Morning Star and in the CND magazine, Campaign.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US will station nukes in Britain for the first time in 15 years, as West escalates conflicts on multiple fronts

  • Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil

 https://www.sott.net/article/488290-US-will-station-nukes-in-Britain-for-the-first-time-in-15-years-as-West-escalates-conflicts-on-multiple-frontsBy PIRIYANGA THIRUNIMALAN and MARK NICOL 27 January 2024 |

The United States is planning to station nuclear weapons in Britain for the first time in 15 years to counter threats from Russia, it emerged last night.

Pentagon documents reveal the US is intending to place warheads three times the strength of the Hiroshima bomb on UK soil. Moscow said it would view the move as an ‘escalation’ that would be met with ‘counter-measures’.

Procurement contracts for a new facility at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk show the US plans to house B61-12 gravity bombs ‘imminently’ at the site. 

US warheads were last stationed in Britain in 2008, when it was judged that the Cold War threat from Russia had decreased.

The plans come as part of a Nato-wide programme aimed at developing and upgrading nuclear sites in response to rising tensions with the Kremlin. 

The unredacted documents from the US Department of Defence’s procurement database show the Pentagon has ordered equipment, including ballistic shields, for Lakenheath, and state that construction of a housing facility for US soldiers at the base will start in June.

Nuclear weapons were stationed at RAF Lakenheath during the Cold War. Activists held protests outside the site in 2022 when it was reported that US warheads could be stationed there.

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said: ‘In the context of the transition of the United States and Nato to an openly confrontational course of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia, this practice and its development force us to take compensating countermeasures to reliably protect the security interests of our country and its allies.’

Comment: ‘An openly confrontational course’; because, whilst the West’s aggression against Russia has been brazen, the intention behind this move is undeniable.

Notably, back in August 2023: Poland’s President says Russia’s moving tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus ‘shifting regional security’

The Pentagon insisted the documents ‘are not predictive of, nor are they intended to disclose any specific posture or basing details’. 

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: ‘It remains a longstanding UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.’

Comment: This comes amidst the escalation of the US-UK-Israel genocide in Gaza; repeated air strikes against Yemen; and NATO’s largest military exercise (also since the cold war) at Russia’s borders; all the while on its Ukraine front it faces looming defeat:

January 29, 2024 Posted by | UK, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Commemorating A Past Holocaust While Cheerleading The Current One

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, JAN 28, 2024,  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/commemorating-a-past-holocaust-while?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=141114199&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email

The US and eight of its allies have suspended funding to UNRWA, the primary humanitarian agency in Gaza, following Israeli allegations that a dozen employees of the 30,000-staff organization were involved in the October 7 attack by Hamas. The allegations conveniently sprung up at the same time as the International Court of Justice rulings against Israel in the genocide case brought against it by South Africa, quickly supplanting the ICJ ruling in western mass media headlines. The US has continued to dismiss the South African case as unfounded.

A senior Israeli official told Axios that Israeli intelligence agencies came upon the information about the UNRWA staffers largely through “interrogations of militants who were arrested during the Oct. 7 attack.” Israel has an extensive history of using torture in its interrogations, and there’s no reason to believe it hasn’t been used on captured Hamas fighters in recent months.

So to recap — 

Accusations of genocide deemed credible by the International Court of Justice: Preposterous lies. Not worth opposing a single massacre over.

Unsubstantiated claims about UNRWA staff extracted via torture: Gospel truth. Worthy of ending humanitarian support to Gazans for.

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How does ANY unproven claim by the Israeli government get treated seriously by ANYONE anymore? There ought to be a limit on how many lies you can get caught circulating before the entire political/media class just starts laughing at you whenever you make any claim about anything.

It’s been so surreal watching empire managers issue solemn words in honor of Holocaust Memorial Day while enthusiastically facilitating a modern-day genocide in Gaza. 

Commemorating the Holocaust while cheerleading for the current holocaust is next-level dystopia.

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The IDF shot and killed a Palestinian man who had a white flag in a designated “safe zone” right in front of an ITV News crew, drawing headlines around the world.

It’s been undeniable that the IDF routinely kills Palestinians who are waving white flags ever since last month when they killed three escaped Israeli hostages who were waving a white flag mistaking them for Palestinians. This was just the first time the western press filmed it.

A re-election campaign year for a Democrat president coinciding with an active genocide backed by that same president is exposing the true face of the Democratic Party clearer than anything I can remember.

Biden is preparing to send Israel 50 child murder jets and 12 child murder helicopters, but oh no no we mustn’t focus on this too much because it’s an election year and Trump is a very bad person.

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I understand the logic of lesser-evil voting. I just don’t understand the logic of designating a president who backs a literal genocide and engages in nuclear brinkmanship a “lesser evil”.

A political establishment which tells you you have to choose between two presidential candidates who both want to help Israel murder children by the thousands is a political establishment which must not be permitted to exist.

January 29, 2024 Posted by | Israel, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine uncovers another $40 Million in weapons fraud


SOTT, Melanie Sun, The Epoch Times, Sat, 27 Jan 2024

he war-torn nation has announced a clean-out of its weapons procurement process amid ongoing corruption.

Ukraine’s National Police and Security Service on Ukraine (SBU), alongside the country’s Ministry of Defense, announced on Saturday they have uncovered an insider network that has been charged with embezzling almost $40 million in funds marked for weapons purchases.

Five individuals who formed a suspected criminal organization have been served “notices of suspicion” — the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings — for “appropriation, embezzlement of property, or possession of it by abuse of official position,” the SBU said.

Four of the suspects are current or former employees of the Ministry of Defense, including the head of the Department of Military and Technical Policy, Development of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defense, and the head and commercial director of the Lviv Arsenal company.

Another suspect is an ex-official from the ministry, who has been detained while trying to leave the country at a border crossing point.

A businessman representing a foreign company, presumed to be the arms supplier, has also been charged………………………………………………………………………………

To date, the United States has provided more than $44 billion in military aid to Ukraine since February 2022. But the Pentagon has run out of funds to replenish its stocks, so most military aid to Ukraine, for the time being, has halted.

Congress is currently debating a $105 billion supplemental spending package, proposed by the Biden administration in October 2023, that packages together defense funding for Israel, Ukraine, and the U.S. southern border.

Analysts previously told The Epoch Times that Ukraine doesn’t have a viable pathway for victory without foreign arms shipments and monetary support amid the waning U.S. support, as the Pentagon spreads its resources over increasing threats to the international rules-based order in the South China Sea as well as the Middle East.

Without international arms shipments, Ukraine would most likely be forced into a brutal stalemate with Russia and, at some point, would need to cede some of its territory to its aggressor, analysts say.

Comment: It brings to mind the old saying: “A fish rots from the head down”. So perhaps they should take a closer look up to uncover their “problems”. When a country’s leadership is completely corrupt, we can’t be shocked when more corruption is found lower down the ranks.

See also:

January 29, 2024 Posted by | secrets,lies and civil liberties, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

As Civilians Starve in Gaza, Israelis Block Humanitarian Aid Convoy for Third Day

“The hostages must be released,” said one Palestinian rights advocate, but Israel “must also ensure continuous entry of lifesaving aid to Gaza.”

JULIA CONLEY, Jan 26, 2024,  https://www.commondreams.org/news/kerem-shalom-crossing-protests—

With nearly the entire population of Gaza now regularly forced to go without food for an entire day due to Israel’s total blockade of the enclave, protests by hundreds of Israelis at a crossing between Gaza and Israel over the past three days have put residents at even greater risk of starvation by blocking the passage of humanitarian convoys.

Demonstrators displaying Israeli flags have stopped trucks from entering Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing since Wednesday, forcing some to go through the Rafah crossing in Egypt or preventing them from delivering the aid altogether.

Some of the protesters have been identified as relatives of the reported 132 hostages who remain in Gaza after being abducted by Hamas from southern Israel on October 7, while others are related to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers and some are right-wing activists who want the return of Israeli settlements in Gaza.

On Wednesday, members of the Tzal 9, or Order 9, movement—named for the emergency notice received by Israeli reservists to mobilize—said, “No aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment [will] be transferred to the enemy.”

As the protests began that day, the demonstrators stopped more than 100 aid trucks from entering Gaza and allowed just 153 in, according to the United Nations—far below the amount of aid that’s been permitted in on a daily basis in recent weeks. Before the current war, many Palestinians in Gaza relied on the delivery of aid via an average of 500 trucks per day.

“The hostages must be released and Israel must respect the right to protest, but it must also ensure continuous entry of lifesaving aid to Gaza,” said Tania Hary, executive director of Gisha – Legal Center for Freedom of Movement.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Wednesday that by holding up humanitarian aid deliveries, Israel is “using this as a pressure tool on the people of the strip,” despite claims by officials and the protesters who have mobilized at Kerem Shalom that they are only trying to keep deliveries from “aiding the enemy.”

Right-wing Israeli groups are reportedly planning a march in Jerusalem next week to protest aid entering Gaza.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini condemned Israel’s “baseless” claim that Gazans are currently facing starvation because Hamas is diverting aid deliveries.

The protesters at Kerem Shalom have said Gazans should receive no more aid until the hostages are released.

But negotiations between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Qatar, were stalled this week as Israel refused to agree to a permanent cease-fire in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages.

According to the BBC, Israeli and American officials including Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns are expected to hold “critical” talks in Europe with Egyptian and Qatari mediators.

A senior Palestinian official told the outlet that they may discuss a proposal to initiate a “phased release” of the remaining hostages in exchange for a “renewable” cease-fire, more aid, and the release of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

Since Israel began its bombardment of Gaza on October 7 with officials saying the IDF should “release all restraints” that would otherwise protect civilians, at least 26,083 Palestinians have been killed in the densely-populated enclave, including at least 11,500 children.

The “complete siege” Israel declared on Gaza, with deliveries of food, potable water, fuel, and other aid severely curtailed, has left “half a million people literally starving” nearly four months into the assault, the World Food Program’s (WFP) chief economist said earlier this week.

“We are one step away from a disease outbreak,” WFP’s Arif Husain told U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a livestreamed conversation, noting that a lack of sustenance has left thousands of displaced people living in overcrowded shelters and camps more susceptible to disease outbreaks that have been partially caused by a lack of safe drinking water.

The blocking of aid at Kerem Shalom also comes days after the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the IDF launched an attack with artillery shells, live ammunition, and drones on “hundreds of starving civilians” who were waiting near Gaza City for “U.N. trucks carrying limited aid supplies.”

Health officials in Gaza said at least 20 people were killed and 150 were injured in the attack.

Humanitarian officials in the enclave have reported seeing Gaza residents mobbing aid trucks when they arrive due to the “systematic limitation” Israel has placed on convoys even before the protests at Kerem Shalom began.

“It’s difficult to get into the places where we need to get to in Gaza, especially in northern Gaza,” WFP spokesperson Abeer Etefa told Reuters. “I think the risk of having pockets of famine in Gaza is very much still there.”

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January 29, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

International Court of Justice Rules That Israel Must Stop Killing Palestinians

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 26, 2024

The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel must cease its warmaking in Gaza — cease committing and inciting genocidal acts — and that the case charging Israel with genocide must proceed.

DETAILS OF THE RULING:

  1. By 15-2: Israel shall take all measures within its power to prevent all acts within the scope of Genocide Convention article 2
  2. 15-2: Israel must immediately ensure that its military does not commit acts within the scope of GC.2
  3. 16-1: Direct and punish all members of the public who engage in the incitement of genocide against Palestinians
  4. 16-1: Ensure provision of urgently needed basic services, humanitarian aid
  5. 15-2: Prevent the destruction of and ensure the preservation of evidence to allegation of acts of GC.2
  6. 15-2: Israel will submit report as to how they’re adhering to these orders to the ICJ within 1 month

This is Article 2 of the Genocide Convention:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Therefore, Israel must cease killing Palestinians.

This was a make or break moment for international law, or rather a break or make-a-first-step moment. There is hope for the idea and reality of international law, but this is only a beginning.

The president of the International Court of Justice, who read the ruling, is Judge Joan Donoghue, former top legal advisor under Hillary Clinton at the U.S. State Department during the Obama Administration. She previously was the lawyer for the United States in its unsuccessful defense before the ICJ against charges by Nicaragua of minining its harbor.

The court voted for portions of this decision by 15-2 and 16-1. The “No” votes came from Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda and Ad Hoc Judge Aharon Barak of Israel.

The case presented by South Africa was overwhelming (read it or watch a key part of it), and Israel’s defense paper-thin. And the case just grew more overwhelming during the bizarre delay (yes, courts are slow, but this genocide is swift).

People all over the world built the pressure to move South Africa to act and other nations to add their support. Over 1,500 organizations signed a statement. Individuals signed a petition by CODEPINK, and sent almost 500,000 emails to key governments’ United Nations consulates through World BEYOND War and RootsAction.org. Click those links because more emails are needed now. While several nations have made public statements in support of South Africa’s case, we need them to file papers officially with the International Court of Justice. To reach out to additional national governments, go here.

Governments that have made statement in support of the case against genocide include Malaysia, Turkey, Jordan, Bolivia, the 57 nations of the Organization of Islamic Countries, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Maldives, Namibia, and Pakistan, Colombia, Brazil, and Cuba.

Germany has backed Israel’s defense against the charge of genocide, which has been denounced by Namibia, victimn of a German genocide. Prominent Jews have denounced Germany’s shameful action.

Mass demonstrations in the streets of the world have continued in support of peace and justice, and to a far greater extent than major media outlets have reported.

Here’s a discussion of this campaign for justice with Sam Husseini on Talk World Radio.

Prior to today’s ruling from the International Court of Justice, the U.S. government pointedly refused to say whether it would comply with ruling, despite insisting that other nations comply with rulings by the ICJ.

Hamas said that it would cease fire if Israel does, and release all prisoners if Israel does

Germany, to its credit, reportedly said that it would comply……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. https://worldbeyondwar.org/international-court-of-justice-rules-that-israel-must-cease-fire/

January 28, 2024 Posted by | Legal, politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

“Doomsday Clock” Kept at 90 Seconds to Midnight for 2024

The Sentinel By Karl Grossman., Jan 25, 2024 

The “Doomsday Clock” of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists was kept at 90 seconds to midnight this week—the closest to midnight that the clock has been set since it was created in 1947. Midnight is defined by The Bulletin as “nuclear annihilation.”

The hands of the clock were initially moved forward to 90 seconds to midnight last year. In moving the clock forward in 2023, The Bulletin, founded by Albert Einstein and scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, issued a statement declaring it was: “A time of unprecedented danger.”

“Largely” but “not exclusively,” said The Bulletin in 2023, the clock was moved “to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been”—because of the war in Ukraine. It went on: “Russia’s thinly veiled threats to use nuclear weapons remind the world that escalation of the conflict—by accident, intention, or miscalculation—is a terrible risk,” said the statement. “The possibility that the conflict could spin out of anyone’s control remains high.”

On this Tuesday, January 23, The Bulletin, in keeping the clock at 90 seconds to midnight issued a statement that said: “Ominous trends continue to point the world toward global catastrophe.”

Said Dr. Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of The Bulletin, “Make no mistake: resetting the clock at 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the opposite. It’s urgent for governments and communities around the world to act.”

The hands of the Doomsday Clock are set every year by The Bulletin’s Science and Security Board which includes 10 Nobel laureates.

Last year, The Bulletin’s statement quoted Antonio Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, as saying it had become “a time of nuclear danger not seen since the height of the Cold War.”

Since, there have been additions to that nuclear danger.

Take North Korea……………………………………………………………………………..

Consider Iran…………………………………………………………………….

Consider China and Taiwan. ………………………………………………….

As to Russia and Ukraine,……………………………………………..

Meanwhile, the organization Beyond Nuclear (I’m on its board) ran an article on its Beyond Nuclear International website this month headlined: “’Steadfast Noon’ spells doom.” Its subhead: “US prepared for nuclear war at foreign bases.” The article was written by John LaForge, co-director of the organization Nukewatch.

It told of how in October 2023, “the alliance” supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia “began its annual nuclear attack rehearsal dubbed ‘Steadfast Noon.’ This practice involves air forces from 13 countries, the ‘exercising’ of fighter jets and U.S. B-52s [which] roared over Italy, Croatia and the eastern Mediterranean.” It quoted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying: “Our exercise will help to ensure the credibility, effectiveness and security of our nuclear deterrent.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. is in the midst of a nuclear weapons “modernization” program. Notes the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation: “The United States plans to spend up to $1.5 trillion over 30 years to its nuclear arsenal by rebuilding each leg of the nuclear triad and its accompanying infrastructure. 

The good news: the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been enacted, taken force and is moving forward. This month an additional two nations ratified it. The treaty, providing a legally binding agreement to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading to their total elimination, was adopted by the UN General Assembly—with 122 nations in favor—in 2017. The treaty bans the development, testing, production, stockpiling, stationing, transfer, use and threat of use of nuclear weapons.

“Let’s eliminate these weapons before they eliminate us,” Secretary-General Guterres has said of the treaty, an initiative “toward our shared goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.”

Leading in the drive for the treaty has been the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). As it declares on its website: “Nuclear weapons are the most inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created. They violate international law, cause severe environmental damage, undermine national and global security, and divert vast public resources away from meeting human needs. They must be eliminated urgently.”

A big problem: the so-called “nuclear weapons states” including the U.S., Russia, China, France and Great Britain have not signed on to the treaty.

This is where pressure must be focused—through grassroots actions and through politics, and by media—directed at the “nuclear weapons states.”

People should join in with ICAN, become members. Its website is: https://www.icanw.org/………………… ” — https://www.thesentinel.com/communities/doomsday-clock-kept-at-90-seconds-to-midnight-for-2024/article_baacc924-bbef-11ee-a494-23c8a77b6613.html

January 28, 2024 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

The Doomsday Clock is still at 90 seconds to midnight. But what does that mean?2 B1

THE CONVERSATION,  Rumtin Sepasspour, January 25, 2024

Once every year, a select group of nuclear, climate and technology experts assemble to determine where to place the hands of the Doomsday Clock.

Presented by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock is a visual metaphor for humanity’s proximity to catastrophe. It measures our collective peril in minutes and seconds to midnight, and we don’t want to strike 12.

In 2023, the expert group brought the clock the closest it has ever been to midnight: 90 seconds. On January 23 2024, the Doomsday Clock was unveiled again, revealing that the hands remain in the same precarious position.

No change might bring a sigh of relief. But it also points to the continued risk of catastrophe. The question is, how close are we to catastrophe? And if so, why?

Destroyer of worlds

The invention of the atomic bomb in 1945 ushered in a new era: the first time humanity had the capability to kill itself.

Later that year, Albert Einstein, along with J. Robert Oppenheimer and other Manhattan Project scientists, established the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, in the hope of communicating to the public about the new nuclear age and the threat it posed.

Two years on, the Bulletin, as it came to be known, published its first magazine. And on the cover: a clock, with the minute hand suspended eerily only seven minutes from midnight.

The artist Martyl Langsdorf sought to communicate the sense of urgency she had felt from scientists who had worked on the bomb, including her physicist husband, Alexander. The placement was, to her, an aesthetic choice: “It seemed the right time on the page … it suited my eye.”

Thereafter, Bulletin editor Eugene Rabinowitch was the gears behind the clock’s hands until his passing in 1973, when the board of experts took over.

The clock ha

The clock has been moved 25 times since, particularly in response to the ebb and flow of military buildups, technological advancement and geopolitical dynamics during the Cold War.

Nuclear risk did not abate after the collapse of the Soviet Union, even as the total number of nuclear weapons shrank. And new threats have emerged that pose catastrophic risk to humanity. The latest setting of the clock attempts to gauge this level of risk.

A precarious world

In the words of Bulletin president and chief executive Rachel Bronson:

Make no mistake: resetting the Clock at 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the opposite……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… more https://theconversation.com/the-doomsday-clock-is-still-at-90-seconds-to-midnight-but-what-does-that-mean-221871?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%202858829013&utm_content=The%20Weekend%20Conversation%20-%202858829013+CID_8a44781376868ca758fe734ea2dc1adc&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=The%20Doomsday%20Clock%20is%20still%20at%2090%20seconds%20to%20midnight%20But%20what%20does%20that%20mean

January 28, 2024 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

It May be Genocide, But it Won’t Be Stopped

The ruling by the International Court of Justice was a legal victory for South Africa and the Palestinians, but it will not halt the slaughter.

SCHEERPOST, By Chris Hedges 26 Jan 24

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) refused to implement the most crucial demand made by South African jurists: “the State of Israel shall immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But at the same time, it delivered a devastating blow to the foundational myth of Israel. Israel, which paints itself as eternally persecuted, has been credibly accused of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians are the victims, not the perpetrators, of the “crime of crimes.” A people, once in need of protection from genocide, are now potentially committing it. The court’s ruling questions the very raison d’être of the “Jewish State” and challenges the impunity Israel has enjoyed since its founding 75 years ago.  

The ICJ ordered Israel to take six provisional measures to prevent acts of genocide, measures that will be very difficult if not impossible to fulfill if Israel continues its saturation bombing of Gaza and wholesale targeting of vital infrastructure. 

The court called on Israel “to prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to commit genocide.” It demanded Israel “take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance.” It ordered Israel to protect Palestinian civilians. It called on Israel to protect the some 50,000 women giving birth in Gaza. It ordered Israel to take “effective measures to prevent the destruction and ensure the preservation of evidence related to allegations of acts within the scope of Article II and Article III of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against members of the Palestinian group in the Gaza Strip.” 

The court ordered Israel to “take all measures within its power” to prevent the crimes which amount to genocide such as “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”

Israel was ordered to report back in one month to explain what it had done to implement the provisional measures.

Gaza was pounded with bombs, missiles and artillery shells as the ruling was read in The Hague — at least 183 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours. Since Oct. 7, more than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed. Almost 65,000 have been wounded, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Thousands more are missing. The carnage continues. This is the cold reality. 

Translated into the vernacular, the court is saying Israel must feed and provide medical care for the victims, cease public statements advocating genocide, preserve evidence of genocide and stop killing Palestinian civilians. Come back and report in a month. 

It is hard to see how these provisional measures can be achieved if the carnage in Gaza continues.

“Without a ceasefire, the order doesn’t actually work,” Naledi Pandor, South Africa’s minister of international relations, stated bluntly after the ruling. 

Time is not on the side of the Palestinians. Thousands of Palestinians will die within a month. Palestinians in Gaza make up 80 percent of all the people facing famine or catastrophic hunger worldwide, according to the United Nations. The entire population of Gaza by early February is projected to lack sufficient food, with half a million people suffering from starvation, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, drawing on data from U.N. agencies and NGOs. The famine is engineered by Israel. 

At best, the court — while it will not rule for a few years on whether Israel is

committing genocide — has given legal license to use the word “genocide” to describe what Israel is doing in Gaza. This is very significant, but it is not enough, given the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. 

Israel has dropped almost 30,000 bombs and shells on Gaza — eight times more bombs than the U.S. dropped on Iraq during six years of war. It has used hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs to obliterate densely populated areas, including refugee camps. These “bunker buster” bombs have a kill radius of a thousand feet. The Israeli aerial assault is unlike anything seen since Vietnam. Gaza, only 20 miles long and five miles wide, is rapidly becoming, by design, uninhabitable.

Israel will no doubt continue its assault arguing that it is not in violation of the court’s directives. In addition, the Biden administration will undoubtedly veto the resolution at the Security Council demanding Israel implement the provisional measures. The General Assembly, if the Security Council does not endorse the measures, can vote again calling for a ceasefire, but has no power to enforce it. 

Defense for Children International – Palestine v. Biden was filed in November by the Center for Constitutional Rights against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. The case challenges the U.S. government’s failure to prevent complicity in Israel’s unfolding genocide of the Palestinian people. It asks the court to order the Biden administration to cease diplomatic and military support and comply with its legal obligations under international and federal law. 

The only active resistance to halt the Gaza genocide is provided by Yemen’s Red Sea blockade. ………………………………………………………………….

The ICJ was founded in 1945 following the Nazi Holocaust. The first case it heard was submitted to the court in 1947.

“Decisions that endanger the continued existence of the State of Israel must not be listened to,” Ben-Gvir added. “We must continue defeating the enemy until complete victory.”……………………………………………………

It is clear from the ruling that the court is fully aware of the magnitude of Israel’s crimes. This makes the decision not to call for the immediate suspension of Israeli military activity in and against Gaza all the more distressing.  

But the court did deliver a devastating blow to the mystique Israel has used since its founding to carry out its settler colonial project against the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine. It made the word genocide, when applied to Israel, credible.  https://scheerpost.com/2024/01/26/chris-hedges-it-may-be-genocide-but-it-wont-be-stopped/

January 27, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

US plans to store nuclear weapons in UK: report

Examiner  January 27 2024 –

The US is planning to station nuclear weapons in the UK for the first time in 15 years amid a growing threat from Russia, according to a report.

Warheads three times as strong as the Hiroshima bomb would be located at RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk under the proposals, The Telegraph reported.

The US previously placed nuclear missiles at RAF Lakenheath, removing them in 2008 when the Cold War threat from Moscow had receded.

Pentagon documents seen by the UK newspaper reveal procurement contracts for a new facility at the airbase.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “It remains a longstanding UK and NATO policy to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a given location.”

………………………….. Downing Street defended the government’s spending on defence, saying Britain has been Washington’s “partner of choice” in its strikes against Houthi rebels in the Red Sea because of its “military strength”.  https://www.examiner.com.au/story/8500518/us-plans-to-store-nuclear-weapons-in-uk-report/—

January 27, 2024 Posted by | UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Finland is a focal point of Nato’s largest exercise since the Cold War, and looks to siting nuclear weapons.

YLE NEWS 26 Jan 24

Nato’s largest military exercise since the Cold War is starting in Finland this week, reports Ilta-Sanomat.

The exercise, dubbed “Steadfast Defender”, is bringing Nato soldiers to Finland. The drill, which includes a total of 90,000 troops from 31 Nato countries, will span this winter and spring and involves thousands of troops moving massive amounts of material through Sweden.

Troops are practicing defending a European Nato ally that has come under attack. Swedish broadcaster SVT has reported that the exercise features a scenario where Russia attacks Finland and Nato invokes Article 5, its collective defence clause.

Nuclear reality

An editorial in Helsingin Sanomat suggests that Finnish leaders have not come to terms with the fact that nuclear weapons are a core part of Nato’s deterrence policy. The paper notes that some presidential candidates don’t support siting nuclear weapons in Finland. At the same time, Finland is reworking its nuclear safety laws. According to HS, these reforms must not impede Nato’s operational activities in a wartime situation in Finland.

The nuclear deterrent is a central component of Nato’s security guarantees, under which Finland sought protection by pursuing membership in the alliance. For that reason, Finland must bear its own responsibility in preserving that deterrent, according to the national daily……………. more https://yle.fi/a/74-20070550

January 27, 2024 Posted by | Finland, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Doomsday clock stays at 90 seconds to midnight: What we know

The clock was set close to midnight due to worries about Russia’s nuclear arsenal, Israel’s war on Gaza and climate change.

Atomic scientists have kept their Doomsday Clock set at 90 seconds to midnight as they did last year, citing worry about Russia’s potential use of nuclear weapons amid its invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s war on Gaza and worsening climate change as factors driving the risk of global catastrophe.

Here is what we know about the Doomsday Clock and Tuesday’s announcement:

What did the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announce?

Scientists kept their Doomsday Clock close to midnight and the latest it’s ever been set in its 77-year history.

“Conflict hot spots around the world carry the threat of nuclear escalation, climate change is already causing death and destruction, and disruptive technologies like AI and biological research advance faster than their safeguards,” Rachel Bronson, the bulletin’s president and CEO, said, adding that keeping the hands of the clock unchanged from the prior year is “not an indication that the world is stable”.

What war and conflicts led to this announcement?………………………………………………………………………………………..

January 26, 2024 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

As Trump looms, top EU politician calls for European nuclear deterrent

Center-right leader Manfred Weber says EU needs to prepare for war without US help and must build its own atomic shield.  

Politico, BY JAKOB HANKE VELA AND NICOLAS CAMUT, JANUARY 25, 2024 

Facing the potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, the head of the EU’s biggest political grouping is calling for Europeans to prepare for war without support from the United States and to build its own nuclear umbrella.

Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) — currently tipped to come first in the European Parliament election in June — described Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as “the two who set the framework” for 2024.

Trump’s seemingly imminent coronation as Republican presidential contender after wins in Iowa and New Hampshire have spooked Europe, where he is remembered as a NATO skeptic, accusing EU countries of not paying their way and threatening not to come to Europe’s defense if it were attacked………………………………………… more https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-nuclear-warfare-detterence-manfred-weber-vladimir-putin-ukraine-russia-war/

January 26, 2024 Posted by | EUROPE, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel minister renews call for striking Gaza with ‘nuclear bomb’

 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240124-israel-minister-renews-call-for-striking-gaza-with-nuclear-bomb/

Israel’s far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu today renewed his call for striking the Gaza Strip with a “nuclear bomb.”

“Even in The Hague they know my position,” the Times of Israel newspaper quoted Eliyahu as saying during a tour of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, in reference to his previous call for using nuclear weapons in the Gaza Strip.

In November, Eliyahu said dropping a “nuclear bomb” on the Gaza Strip is “an option.”

The hardline minister also called for encouraging Gaza’s population to leave the enclave.

During the two-day public hearing at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 11-12 January, South Africa quoted extremist Israeli politicians, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have time and again called for erraticating Palestinians, resettling Gaza and blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state, as evidence that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

January 25, 2024 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | 1 Comment

Rare nuclear bunker hits the market as America’s wealthiest people prepare for the worst

Real Estate  Brendan Casey, Property Journalist and Editor, 23 Jan 2024, News Corp Australia Network

A rare bunker with roots in the Cold War era has found its way into the real estate market, carrying an asking price of $1.88m (US$1.24m).

Nestled in the city of Sprague in Washington state, this property, constructed in 1959, once safeguarded some of America’s most critical nuclear weapons during the tumultuous time, which spanned from 1945 to 1991, The Post reports.

The Cold War was marked by a strategic standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union, defined by political rivalries and the looming threat of nuclear warfare.

The intense global tension finally subsided in 1991 when Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and US president George H. W. Bush inked a historic treaty, putting an end to the conflict………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

In recent years, bunkers have experienced a surge in popularity, reflecting a growing demand for doomsday shelters in the USA.

According to Post sources, the scarcity of such shelters has led to a significant spike in prices.

Some of America’s wealthiest individuals, including Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, are investing in bunkers for their own doomsday preparations.

Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder and CEO of Meta Platforms, is building a $100m compound in Hawaii, complete with an underground bunker and self-sustaining resources.

Financier Peter Thiel is awaiting approval for a bunker project in New Zealand, joining the ranks of other notable figures such as Sam Altman of OpenAI, and Larry Ellison of Oracle, who are also constructing their own ‘end-of-days retreats’. https://www.realestate.com.au/news/rare-nuclear-bunker-hits-the-market-as-americas-wealthiest-people-prepare-for-the-worst/?campaignType=external&campaignChannel=syndication&campaignName=ncacont&campaignContent=&campaignSource=herald_sun&campaignPlacement=spa

January 25, 2024 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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