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NTI Releases New Paper on Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now

 https://www.nti.org/news/nti-releases-new-paper-on-global-effects-of-nuclear-conflict-implications-for-nuclear-policymaking-then-and-now/ 20 Oct 23

Forty years ago, findings on the global climatic effects of nuclear war first introduced the prospect of “nuclear winter.” In the decades since, the consequences of nuclear use have remained only incidental to considerations of nuclear policy. A new paper from NTI, “Global Effects of Nuclear Conflict: Implications for Nuclear Policymaking, Then and Now,” highlights the need for renewed attention to the catastrophic effects of nuclear conflict as a crucial step toward reducing the risk of nuclear use.

The paper provides historical context and describes how the scientific revelation of “nuclear winter” was first received by the U.S. defense community in the 1980s. It sheds light on the debate that emerged over how U.S. nuclear policy should account for the implications of the global effects of nuclear use, as many of the questions posed then are even more important to consider in the context of today’s interconnected and economically interdependent world. The complexity of modern global systems creates new vulnerabilities and introduces risks of cascading societal, economic, industrial, and political failures that countries are dangerously unprepared to address.

Both a reflective analysis and a forward-looking call for renewed investigation into and consideration of the global effects of nuclear conflict, the paper outlines several critical questions for experts and policymakers to confront, including:

  • How does the recognition of global nuclear effects change the role and perceived utility of nuclear weapons in national security strategies?
  • How should the cascading effects of nuclear war shape nuclear planning?
  • Why has research into cascading nuclear effects been neglected in nuclear policy discussions?

Without answers to these important questions, nuclear weapons policy will continue to be premised on an incomplete understanding of the consequences of nuclear use, risking catastrophic miscalculations and endangering national and global security.

October 22, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Does Israel have effective nuclear weapons? Chinese military experts have doubts

  • As Israel’s war with Hamas rages on in Gaza, international groups worry about potential for nuclear conflict
  • Chinese defence contractor says reliability of Israeli nuclear strike capabilities is ‘questionable’

SCMP. Victoria Bela,  20 Oct, 2023

“………………………………………………………………..  the extent of Israel’s nuclear capabilities – and whether the country could use them effectively in battle – remains an open question

Many international organisations and countries – including China – believe that Israel has nuclear weapons. But Israel has conducted few, if any, tests. The mystery that surrounds its nuclear programme has sparked questions among military experts about the nation’s actual deterrence capabilities.

Israel has long maintained a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” – meaning it has never directly confirmed or denied the existence of a nuclear arsenal.

Israel is universally believed to possess nuclear arms stored in a partially disassembled state,” Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association (ACA), told the Post via email on Thursday.

The nation is “estimated to have 90 nuclear warheads”, with the fissile material stockpiles to have over 200, he said.

Kimball added that the use of nuclear weapons, and even the threat of use, would make Israel “an international pariah and a target of foreign, conventional military attack”.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a 2017 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in a statement on Monday that “Israel is a nuclear-armed state, the only such state in the Middle East”.

Alicia Sanders-Zakre, ICAN’s policy and research coordinator, told the Post via email that “Israel’s possession of nuclear weapons significantly increases the risks associated with the conflict and contributes to regional tensions”.

“Escalation is a real danger,” she said………………………………..

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons considers the US, Britain, China, France and Russia to be “nuclear states”, because they built and tested nuclear explosives before 1967. Israel, Pakistan and India have never signed the treaty.

The five treaty-recognised nuclear powers “all have land, sea and air-based nuclear strike capabilities and maintain a higher level of nuclear combat readiness”, according to a paper published earlier this month in a journal run by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation Limited, an aerospace defence contractor for the People’s Liberation Army.

But according to the paper, the effectiveness of nuclear strikes based solely on land-based capabilities, which is all the authors believe Israel possesses, is “questionable”.

The nuclear nations that have not signed on to the non-proliferation treaty have conducted fewer than 10 nuclear tests each, compared to nearly 50 conducted by China and over 1,000 conducted by the US, according to the United Nations……………………………

Sanders-Zakre noted that Israel was suspected of conducting a joint nuclear weapons test with South Africa in 1979, which was picked up as a flash by the US satellite Vela in waters close to South Africa.

Israel is not known to have conducted any other tests. However, the country did not build its nuclear programme alone.

n the 1960s, France helped Israel establish the Negev Nuclear Research Centre near the city of Dimona, which was capable of producing nuclear weapons. The US only discovered the facility after construction began, according to researchers at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank.

Israel has US-made aircraft capable of delivering nuclear bombs and German-made submarines capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Israel’s own Jericho ballistic missiles are also capable of delivering nuclear warheads over 1,500km (932 miles) to nearby nations, according to an article written by Clive Williams, a visiting professor at the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.

While the exact details of Israel’s nuclear warheads and delivery methods are unknown, its US- and German-made vehicles could act as reliable delivery methods if fitted for nuclear warheads.

In August, the IAEA’s director general wrote in a report that there was a “long-standing and fundamental difference of views” between Israel and other Middle Eastern states regarding the regulation of nuclear activity.

Kimball pointed out that Israel only has agreements to allow the IAEA to inspect specific facilities and does not – unlike most non-nuclear states – have a comprehensive safeguard agreement “to ensure that civilian nuclear activities and materials are not being diverted for nuclear weapons use.”

Kimball said that while Israel had a nuclear arsenal, the country had “no justification nor any military need to employ nuclear weapons”.

The ACA is “deeply concerned about a further escalation of violence against civilian populations,” Kimball said. “But we are not concerned that this might involve the use of nuclear weapons.”

Although Israel has insisted that it has no interest in “introducing” nuclear weapons to the Middle East, it has continued to avoid signing comprehensive safeguard agreements with the IAEA.


In a vote at the UN General Assembly last year, a vast majority of member states called for Israel to place all of its nuclear sites under IAEA supervision and to get rid of any nuclear weapons it possessed.

more https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3238708/does-israel-have-effective-nuclear-weapons-chinese-military-experts-have-doubts #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 22, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

China expanding nuclear arsenal much faster than predicted, US report says

Guardian, 20 Oct 23

Pentagon report also says Beijing is intensifying pressure on neighbours to push back on US efforts to contain it.

A Pentagon report on China’s military power says Beijing is exceeding previous projections of how quickly it is building up its nuclear weapons arsenal and is “almost certainly” learning lessons from Russia’s war in Ukraine about what a conflict over Taiwan might look like.

The report released on Thursday also warns that China may be pursuing a new intercontinental missile system using conventional arms that, if fielded, would allow Beijing “to threaten conventional strikes against targets in the continental United States, Hawaii and Alaska.”

The China report comes a month before an expected meeting between Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

The annual report, required by Congress, is one way the Pentagon measures the growing military capabilities of China, which the US government sees as its key threat in the region and America’s primary long-term security challenge.

But after Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel, the US has been forced again to focus on the Middle East, instead of its widely promoted pivot to the Pacific to counter China’s growth. The US is rushing weapons to Israel while continuing to support and deliver munitions to Ukraine in its 20-month struggle to repel Russia’s invasion.

Still, the Pentagon’s national defense strategy is shaped around China remaining the greatest security challenge for the US, and that the threat from Beijing will determine how the US military is equipped and shaped for the future.

The Pentagon report builds on the military’s warning in 2022 that China was expanding its nuclear force much faster than US officials had predicted, highlighting a broad and accelerating buildup of military muscle designed to enable Beijing to match or surpass US global power by midcentury.

Last year’s report warned that Beijing was rapidly modernizing its nuclear force and was on track to nearly quadruple the number of warheads it has to 1,500 by 2035. The US has 3,750 active nuclear warheads.

The 2023 report finds that Beijing is on pace to field more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030, continuing a rapid modernization aimed at meeting Xi’s goal of having a “world class” military by 2049.

After the previous report, China accused the US of ratcheting up tensions and Beijing said it was still committed to a “no first use” policy on nuclear weapons.

The Pentagon has seen no indication that China is moving away from that policy but assesses there may be some circumstances where China might judge that it does not apply, a senior US defense official said without providing details. The official briefed reporters on Wednesday on condition of anonymity before the report’s release

The US does not adhere to a “no first use” policy and says nuclear weapons would be used only in “extreme circumstances.”………………………………………. more https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/20/china-expanding-nuclear-arsenal-much-faster-than-predicted-us-report-says #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 21, 2023 Posted by | China, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Biden to America: “Give me $100 billion for perpetual wars in Ukraine and Gaza”

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 20 Oct 23

Last night President Biden doubled, tripled, quadrupled down on squandering US treasure on US provoked, enabled and perpetuated warfare. A piece of that cool hundred billion goes to Taiwan in furtherance of America’s potential nuclear confrontation with China in an area having not the slightest connection to American security interests. Combined with potential nuclear war with Russia that could erupt any day, Biden reminds me of a Samsonite strongman struggling to pull down the pillars of human existence.

But that hundred billion is D.O.A. as long as House Republicans continue their circular firing squad preventing any significant action in Congress on funding those perpetual wars Biden relishes with every second of his dwindling time in power. Keep fighting amongst yourselves Republicans, you’re gumming up the perpetual war works.

In his 51st year promoting US exceptionalism worldwide which is collapsing before our eyes, Biden remains blind to the horrific death toll his policies have promoted and enabled. Apparently, there will be no Biden epiphany inspiring him to pivot toward peace. Instead of going out in a blaze of glory, Biden risks us all going out in a blaze of mushroom clouds.

Only thing more frightening? There is no one remotely in contention for president likely to change Biden’s self-destructive war policies. #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 21, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Thousands of Jewish Americans and Allies Demand Cease-Fire in Gaza

“We as American Jews believe that ‘never again’ means never again for anyone, and that includes Palestinians,” said Jewish Voice for Peace.

Common Dreams JULIA CONLEY, Oct 14, 2023

As the Biden administration’s intent to silence dissent against the United States’ backing of the Israel Defense Forces’ onslaught in Gaza became increasingly clear Friday night, at least 80 Jewish Americans and other supporters of Palestinians’ human rights were arrested for protesting outside the homes and offices of a number of Democratic lawmakers, where they demanded the U.S. government join growing calls for a cease-fire.

The U.S. group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organized the mass action, along with calling on Americans to contact their representatives in Congress and demand that they speak out against the air assault Israel launched this week in retaliation for Hamas’ brutal attack last weekend.

At least 2,215 Palestinians have been killed in airstrikes this week, and at least 8,714 people have been injured. The death toll in Israel has reached 1,300, according to Al Jazeera.

Human rights advocates have warned that a looming ground offensive by the IDF in Gaza could rapidly push civilian casualties far higher.

On Friday, JVP led more than 2,000 protesters in five U.S. cities—New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle—in demanding that senators and members of the U.S. House act to halt the “genocide of Palestinians.”

“We as American Jews believe that ‘never again’ means never again for anyone, and that includes Palestinians,” said JVP, referring to the refrain repeated by the Jewish American community regarding the need to prevent genocide. “‘Never again’ is this very moment.”


Thousands of people gathered at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and marched to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) home, where they blocked the road. Approximately 60 people were “dragged away by police,” JVP said.

New York state Assemblymembers Zohran Mamdani (D-36) and Marcela Mitaynes (D-51) were among those arrested……………………………………………………………………………………. more https://www.commondreams.org/news/jewish-americans-protest-gaza

October 20, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Jewish Voice for Peace Holds Massive Rally at Capitol for Israel-Gaza Ceasefire

Israel’s government “is on the brink of genocide against Palestinians,” a member of the group organizing the event said.

By Chris Walker , TRUTHOUT, October 18, 2023, https://truthout.org/articles/jewish-voice-for-peace-holds-massive-rally-at-capitol-for-israel-gaza-ceasefire/?utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=431d0bc2ba-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_3_20_2023_13_41_COPY_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-431d0bc2ba-650192793&mc_cid=431d0bc2ba&mc_eid=73e1cd43d0

A massive protest is being held on Wednesday at noon in front of the Capitol building in Washington D.C., organized jointly by Jewish-led anti-occupation groups Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and IfNotNow, in which participants are demanding that lawmakers pass a resolution calling for the U.S. to facilitate a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

According to a press release from JVP, the event is part of a broader effort to have “ten thousand American Jews…lead a week of massive protests” in the nation’s capital in reaction to the violence that has been perpetrated by the Israeli military in Gaza.

Earlier this week on Monday, a similar event took place in front of the White House, with hundreds of demonstrators engaged in acts of civil disobedience (including blocking entrances to the White House grounds), carrying signs and chanting demands to end war, apartheid and genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Around 30 individuals were arrested during the protest.

The Wednesday demonstration demands that lawmakers in Congress adopt an already-drafted resolution, authored by Rep. Cori Bush (D-Missouri) and endorsed by other progressive members of Congress, to compel President Joe Biden to “facilitate deescalation and a cease-fire” agreement between Israel and Hamas. It also calls on the Biden administration to “promptly send and facilitate the entry of humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” which has been blocked by the Israeli government since the start of hostilities.

Biden is currently in Israel to demonstrate the United States’s official support for the country, including its aims to completely destroy Hamas. While he has advised the country not to occupy Gaza when the fighting ends, Biden’s comments have largely been supportive of Israel throughout its military campaign and blockade of food, water and electricity to the strip. Other American diplomats have also expressed support for Israel while its leaders have said the conflict “will be a long war.”

In addition to demanding the U.S. change course and facilitate a ceasefire, JVP is specifically calling out Israel for its retributive and indiscriminate violence against innocent Palestinians, which began after an attack by Hamas earlier this month resulted in hundreds of Israeli residents being killed or kidnapped by the organization. While they have shown support for Israel after that attack, several international organizations have accused Israel of a number of war crimes in Gaza, including collective punishment, use of the chemical weapon white phosphorus, , and possibly illegal evacuation demands that have led to the displacement of thousands of residents in the territory.

On its website, JVP has also decried Israeli and American leaders for “dehumanizing Palestinians with vitriolic rhetoric that calls to mind the most hysterical days of Bush’s War on Terror.”

“We know where this will lead: genocide,” the website’s description of the planned Wednesday rally says. “President Biden and every American political leader must demand a ceasefire now.”

“The Israeli government is on the brink of genocide against Palestinians,” Jay Saper, a JVP member, said in a press release from the organization promoting the planned protest. “It has never been more important for Jews and all people in the U.S. to rise up with literally everything we have — the way that we would have wanted others to rise up for our ancestors.”

“What we know from past Israeli state atrocities against Palestinians is that the bombs only stop once there is a sufficient mass outcry from the international community,” said JVP member Eliza Klein. “It’s on us to build that outcry — as fast as we possibly can.”

In a video message she posted on Monday after the event at the White House, JVP board member Naomi Klein urged her followers on X to attend the rally at the Capitol on Wednesday.

We’re calling for a ceasefire, we’re calling for an end to the war crimes in Gaza,” the writer and activist said, adding:

We cannot simply watch the collective punishment, forced displacement and ethnic cleansing that is happening now in Gaza. Gazans are not human shields, they are human beings, deserving of as much care, dignity and protection as the Israeli civilians in whose name this vengeance-fueled onslaught is being unleashed. #Israel #Palestine

October 19, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israeli Military Has Killed 1 Child in Gaza Every 15 Minutes: Rights Group

“Additional children are unaccounted for and missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings, indicating the true death toll is much higher,” said Defense for Children International–Palestine.

By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams,  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/17/israeli-military-has-killed-1-child-in-gaza-every-15-minutes-rights-group/

Israel’s relentless bombing campaign in the occupied Gaza Strip has killed more than 1,000 Palestinian children—roughly one every 15 minutes—since it began on October 7, according to the latest tally from Defense for Children International–Palestine.

Children have faced some of the most horrific impacts of Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, where roughly half of the population is under the age of 18. Israel has dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza—home to 2.3 million people—in the wake of Hamas’ deadly attack.

Mohammad Abu Rukbeh, senior Gaza field researcher at DCIP, said in a statement Monday that “the repercussions of this war will not only affect the victims we have lost, some of which are still trapped under the rubble of their homes, and not only the residential areas that have been completely destroyed, including our own homes, but the psychological impact on us civilians and our children will be catastrophic.”

Research released before Israel’s latest bombardment of Gaza found that four out of five children in the Gaza Strip reported living with depression, grief, and fear amid a yearslong Israeli blockade and frequent outbreaks of deadly violence.

Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza is its deadliest to date, and the unlawful total blockade it has imposed on the strip has further deprived children and the rest of the civilian population of food, fuel, electricity, and clean water. Some Gazans have resorted to drinking seawater and water contaminated by sewage, and hospital staff have reportedly had to drink from IV solution bags.

“Israeli authorities cut water supply to Gaza on October 9, and since then, all three water desalination plants in Gaza have been forced to cease operations,” DCIP noted Monday, citing the United Nations. “Even though Israeli authorities claimed to resume water supply to southern Gaza yesterday, there is no electricity to operate water pumps, Israeli airstrikes have damaged many water lines, and very little water in Gaza is drinkable in the first place.”

“Israeli authorities cut water supply to Gaza on October 9, and since then, all three water desalination plants in Gaza have been forced to cease operations,” DCIP noted Monday, citing the United Nations. “Even though Israeli authorities claimed to resume water supply to southern Gaza yesterday, there is no electricity to operate water pumps, Israeli airstrikes have damaged many water lines, and very little water in Gaza is drinkable in the first place.”

Al Jazeerareported that more than 70 people were killed in their homes on Tuesday “after Israel conducted air raids on Gaza’s Khan Younis, Rafah, and Deir el-Balah.”

Last week, the Israeli military ordered the entire population of northern Gaza to evacuate to the south ahead of an expected ground invasion and was subsequently accused of bombing supposed “safe routes” that civilians were using to flee.

Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement Tuesday that “appalling reports that civilians attempting to relocate to southern Gaza were struck and killed by an explosive weapon must be independently and thoroughly investigated, as must all allegations of serious violations of international humanitarian law.”

“Those who managed to comply with the Israeli authorities’ order to evacuate are now trapped in the south of the Gaza Strip, with scant shelter, fast-depleting food supplies, little or no access to clean water, sanitation, medicine, and other basic needs,” said Shamdasani. “We echo the U.N. call for a humanitarian pause to enable aid delivery and to prevent further suffering and deaths of the already much beleaguered civilian population of Gaza. Urgent immediate, unimpeded humanitarian access needs to be ensured.” #Israel #Palestine

October 19, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Existence of Nuclear Weapons Creates Temptation, Risk of Use, First Committee Hears as It Unpacks Assumptions about Complex Path to Peace

United Nations, MEETINGS COVERAGE, GENERAL ASSEMBLY, FIRST COMMITTEE 17 Oct 23

Thematic Debate Begins on Other Mass Destruction Weapons 

Disarmament is not a lofty ideal, but a practical imperative, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it concluded its thematic debate on nuclear weapons and began debating other mass destruction weapons.

Nuclear weapons, the most inhumane and indiscriminate weapons ever created, remain a constant spectre of destruction, Namibia’s representative warned.  Their sheer existence, capable of unimaginable harm to humanity and the planet, creates a temptation and risk of use.  Decisions made today will impact the planet left to future generations, she cautioned.

Zambia’s speaker warned of a “probable risk” of nuclear war, as long as retention persists.  Nuclear weapons have no place in the modern world, and there is no justification for their proliferation, testing and stockpiling.  Their destructive power has fueled international tensions and created an uncertain, unsafe world.  Relying on deterrence for security only perpetuates a cycle of fear, where mutually assured destruction looms over the world community, he said.

The representative of Colombia echoed the deep concern about the fragile premise that nuclear defence and deterrence systems provide security. “We are on the brink of an abyss”, she said.  Two major nuclear Powers have suspended bilateral strategic dialogue and disagreements are increasing.  The risk of a nuclear war is not zero, and the assumption that it would be possible to contain the fallout is a “pipe dream”.

As the Committee concluded its thematic debate on nuclear weapons and proceeded to discuss other weapons of mass destruction, several speakers reiterated that all such weapons — including biological and chemical weapons — must not be used by anyone, anywhere, under any circumstance and at any time.  All those responsible for their use must be held accountable………………………………………………… more https://press.un.org/en/2023/gadis3720.doc.htm #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 19, 2023 Posted by | politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Yellen Says the US Can Afford to Fund Wars in Gaza and Ukraine

The administration may also request funds to spend on arming Taiwan.

SCHEERPOST, By Dave DeCamp / Antiwar.com October 17, 2023

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen insisted on Monday that the US could “certainly” afford to fund the war in Ukraine and Israel’s onslaught on Gaza as the White House is looking for more military aid for both conflicts.

Yellen’s comments came a day after President Biden said the US could fund both wars. “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world. The history of the world. We can take care of both of these and still maintain our overall international defense,” he said on 60 Minutes.

Yellen said the House needs to elect a new speaker so the new funding could be authorized. “We do need to come up with funds, both for Israel and for Ukraine. This is a priority,” she said. “It’s really up to the House to find, seat a speaker and to put us in a position where legislation can be passed.”

The White House has also discussed the possibility of rolling funding to arm Taiwan into the potential spending package. But Yellen did not mention Taiwan, and other Biden administration officials have made clear this week that Ukraine and Israel are the priority……………………………………..more https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/17/yellen-says-the-us-can-afford-to-fund-wars-in-gaza-and-ukraine/ #Israel #Ukraine

October 19, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel asks US for ‘emergency’ $10 billion military funding– New York Times

Rt.com 18 Oct 23

The White House has been working on a package that would combine aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, the newspaper said

srael has requested $10 billion in emergency assistance from the US, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing three unnamed officials. The White House and members of Congress are working on a package that would combine military assistance to Israel with aid to Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as funds to fortify the US-Mexico border, the paper said.

Speaking during a visit to Tel Aviv on Sunday, US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said lawmakers had discussed supplying Israel with new and replacement ammunition, precision-guided bombs and Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) kits, which convert standard munitions into more accurate ones, according to the NYT…………………………………………..

On Monday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Washington could afford to support Israel’s military needs as well as Ukraine’s. She insisted that the financial resources of the US are sufficient to back its allies abroad. However, the official acknowledged concerns over the potential economic impact of a wider conflict in the Middle East.

While top US officials insist that both Israel and Ukraine can be supported, CNN reported last week that the Pentagon had called on defense manufacturers to ramp up production to make up for shortfalls in stockpiles due to arms being transferred to Kiev, in order to ensure it can supply Israel.

On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that his country was prepared for a “long war” and would fight until it completely defeats Hamas. He added that Israel is willing to retaliate against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah if it attempts to interfere in the conflict.  https://www.rt.com/news/585154-israel-asks-us-10-billion/

October 19, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Russia takes the first step towards revoking ratification of the nuclear test ban treaty.

 Russia has taken the first step towards revoking ratification of the
nuclear test ban treaty. The country’s lawmakers today voted on the
Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty and their decision has moved them
closer to abandoning the landmark agreement. The vote comes after President
Vladimir Putin said earlier this month he was ‘not ready to say’ whether
Russia needed to carry out live nuclear tests – which they promised not to
do when ratifying the treaty in 2000.

 Daily Mail 17th Oct 2023

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12640363/Russia-takes-step-revoking-ratification-nuclear-test-ban-treaty.html #nuclear #antinuclear #nuclearfree #NoNukes

October 19, 2023 Posted by | politics international, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel postpones ground operation in Gaza – NYT

https://www.rt.com/news/584962-nyt-israel-postpones-operation-gaza-weather/ 16 Oct 23

The offensive had been planned for the weekend but was rescheduled due to adverse weather conditions, the newspaper claims

Israel has decided to put off the start of its ground operation against Hamas in Gaza due to adverse weather conditions, the New York Times has claimed. The newspaper is also reporting that the incursion will likely come at quite a price for the Israeli military, given its scope as well as the fortifications built by the militants.

In an article on Saturday the media outlet alleged, citing anonymous Israeli officers, that the “invasion was initially planned for the weekend but was delayed by a few days, at least in part because of weather conditions.” These are so far precluding Israeli pilots and drone operators from providing ground forces with air cover, the NYT explained.

It quoted three unnamed Israeli officers as confirming that the imminent operation would involve tens of thousands of service members, including commando units, and tanks supported by warplanes, helicopter gunships, drones and artillery fired from land and sea. The alleged goal is the complete destruction of Hamas’ leadership, which has controlled the enclave since 2007.

The planned ground operation is expected to be the largest of its kind in over a decade, the NYT report continues, adding that it remains unclear if the IDF is planning to take control of only part of the densely-populated enclave or all of it. There is also a big question mark over whether Israelis are going to run Gaza or install a new Palestinian administration should they succeed in removing Hamas from power there, it wrote.

As for the imminent incursion itself, the anonymous Israeli officers told the NYT that it is likely to take months and to exact a large number of casualties on their side, as they will have to clear a vast network of Hamas’ underground tunnels.

Commenting on the ongoing Israeli air raids against Hamas on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that his country had unleashed “unprecedented force.” He stressed, however, that “this is just the beginning,” adding that “our enemies have only started paying the price.”

According to the latest estimates, Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7 has resulted in at least 1,300 people killed, with nearly 3,500 injured. Dozens of people, both Israelis and other nationals, were taken hostage by the militants.

In Gaza, at least 1,900 Palestinians, including 614 children and 370 women, have been killed in the ensuing massive Israeli airstrikes over the past week, the Palestinian Health Ministry has reported.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian warned on Saturday that his country would respond should Israel go ahead with a ground operation in Gaza. #Israel #Palestine

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine’s counteroffensive is over – Moscow

Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,

 https://www.rt.com/russia/584853-ukraine-offensive-failed-nebenzia/ 16 Oct 23

Kiev has achieved nothing and Russian troops have now taken the initiative, top diplomat says

The four-month “counteroffensive” by Ukrainian forces has failed to reach any of its objectives, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, told the Security Council on Friday.

“For several days now, Russian troops have switched to combat operations, practically along the entire front line. Therefore, we can consider the so-called Ukrainian counteroffensive formally over,” Nebenzia said.

According to the Russian envoy, four months of Ukrainian attacks resulted only in “hundreds of units of destroyed Western equipment” and “tens of thousands of lives of those conscripted by the Kiev regime, most of whom did not want to fight.” Some of the lucky ones surrendered and stayed alive, Nebenzia added.

Ukraine’s casualties have amounted to “over 90,000 people,” 557 tanks and 1,900 armored vehicles, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed last week at the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi. 

Instead of putting an end to the “massacre” of Ukrainians on the frontline, the West “continues to feed them weapons, like a drug to an addict, thus prolonging his agony,” Nebenzia told the UN Security Council.

“Let me emphasize that Russia is opposed not by the armed forces of Ukraine, whose resources are almost exhausted, but by the collective military machine of the NATO countries and their combined defense industry,” the Russian envoy added.

The cynicism of our former Western partners is simply amazing,” he said, bringing up the recent statement of Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren that arming Ukraine is “a very cheap way” to confront Russia.

A Ukraine that lives in peace with its neighbors and respects the rights of all of its citizens “had and still has a future,” the Russian envoy concluded. “The criminal neo-Nazi regime of [Vladimir] Zelensky does not.”

The head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, admitted on Thursday that the offensive wasn’t just “behind schedule” but “off the schedule entirely,” adding that the explanation for that is classified.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel:  Biden’s treasure squandering trifecta

https://heartlandprogressive.blogspot.com/ 13 Oct 23

President Biden has a weapons supply problem. In 20 months of the Russo Ukraine war, also US proxy war on Russia, he’s blown $113 billion in US treasure desperately needed by the Homeland. , National health care, infrastructure, clean energy, border security, migrant aid relief, education, crime reduction among other issues, go wanting.

The repetitive requests for more, more, more are weighing on Americans who increasingly see it as the boondoggle for the weapons makers it is. While congressional Democrats completely support is Biden’s spending spree, a small Republican House contingent is pushing back, sensing public disgust with Biden’s giveaways as a means of defeating him next year. They’re holding up current spending requests with both their opposition and current legislative paralysis due to the vacant Speaker’s chair.

But no fool Biden senses this Republican opposition can be neutered by combining his weapons aid for Ukraine with that for Taiwan and now Israel, both countries of which are favored by the anti-Ukraine Republican claque.  

All three countries earmarked for endless weapons deserve US attention.

We should be negotiating an end to the Russo Ukraine war instead of sabotaging every diplomatic effort that could have ended it in the first 2 months. We blew an easy opportunity to save 400,000 Ukrainian lives simply to weaken Russia. Nuclear confrontation with Russia looms.

We need to go back to a One China policy that kept Chinese reunification with Taiwan on the back burner for 50 years till first Trump, then Biden, blew it to smithereens. Some military leaders fear we’ll be at war with China by 2025.

We need to be a broker for peace between Israel and Gaza Palestinians, not a weapons supplier and cheerleader for massive bombing and destruction of Gaza to avenge Hamas’ recent attack.  Israel, the dominant military power in the Middle East, needs not a single US weapon to prevent further Hamas attacks. They just need better intelligence. Conversely, US support for the current bombing and impending invasion puts every remaining hostage, including Americans, at risk of imminent death.

Too early to determine if Biden’s proposed Ukraine, Taiwan, Israel weapons trifecta will overcome taxpayer and Republican opposition. If it does, it’s the weapons makers and perpetual war promoters that will hit the Trifecta. Everyone else will lose….and thousands will die.

October 18, 2023 Posted by | politics, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

 This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen

This is not a war. It is the obliteration of civilians trapped for 16 years in the world’s largest concentration camp. Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help. Nearly 600 children are already dead.

Israel, as it has in the past, will block the dissemination of independent reporting and images once some 360,000 soldiers launch a ground assault. It cut internet service in Gaza on Saturday. The brief glimpses of Israeli atrocities that make it out will be dismissed by Israeli leaders as anomalies or blamed on Hamas. 

By Chris Hedges / Original to ScheerPost, October 15, 2023  https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/15/this-way-for-the-genocide-ladies-and-gentlemen/

Washington and European governments are cheerleading Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza. The failure to intervene to halt the carnage threatens to ignite violence throughout the region.

I have been in urban warfare in El Salvador, Iraq, Gaza, Bosnia and Kosovo. Once you fight street by street, apartment block by apartment block, there is only one rule — kill anything that moves. The talk of safe zones, the reassurances of protecting civilians, the promises of “surgical” and “targeted” air strikes, the establishment of “safe” evacuation routes, the fatuous explanation that civilian dead were “caught in the crossfire,” the claim that the homes and apartment buildings bombed into rubble were the abode of terrorists or that errant Hamas rockets were responsible for the destruction of schools and medical clinics, is part of the rhetorical cover to carry out indiscriminate slaughter.

Gaza is such a small area — 25 miles in length and about 5 miles wide — and so densely populated that the only outcome of an Israeli ground and air assault is the mass death of those Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant calls “human animals” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls “human beasts.” Israeli Knesset member Tally Gotliv suggested dropping “doomsday weapons” on Gaza, widely seen as a call for a nuclear strike. Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Friday dismissed calls to protect Palestinian civilians. “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible … this rhetoric about civilians not aware, not involved, it’s absolutely not true,” Herzog said. “They could’ve risen up, they could’ve fought against that evil regime that took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.” He added, “We will break their backbone.”

The demand by Israel that 1.1 million Palestinians — nearly half of Gaza’s population — evacuate northern Gaza, which will become a free fire zone, within 24 hours, ignores the fact that given the overcrowding and sealed borders there is no place for the displaced to go. The north includes Gaza City, the most densely populated part of the strip, with 750,000 residents. It also includes Gaza’s main hospital and the Jabalia and al-Shati refugee camps.

Israel, by employing its military machine against an occupied population that does not have mechanized units, an air force, navy, missiles, heavy artillery and command-and-control, not to mention a U.S. commitment to provide a $38 billion military aid package for Israel over the next decade, is not exercising “the right to defend itself.” This is not a war. It is the obliteration of civilians trapped for 16 years in the world’s largest concentration camp. Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help. Nearly 600 children are already dead.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been forced to close 14 food distribution centers leaving half a million people without food relief. Gaza’s only power plant has run out of fuel. The United Nations says 12 of its staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes, 21 out of 22 UNRWA health facilities in Gaza have been damaged and hospitals lack basic medicines and supplies.

Israel, as it has in the past, will block the dissemination of independent reporting and images once some 360,000 soldiers launch a ground assault. It cut internet service in Gaza on Saturday. The brief glimpses of Israeli atrocities that make it out will be dismissed by Israeli leaders as anomalies or blamed on Hamas. 

The West refuses to intervene, as 2.3 million people, including 1 million children, are deprived of food, fuel, electricity and water, see their schools and hospitals bombed and are butchered and rendered homeless by one of the most advanced military machines on the planet.

The gruesome images of Israelis gunned down by Hamas is the currency of death. It trades carnage for carnage, a macabre dance that Israel initiated with the massacres and ethnic cleansing that allowed for the creation of the Jewish state, followed by decades of dispossession and violence meted out to the Palestinians. The Israeli army, before the current assault, had killed 7,779 Palestinians in Gaza since 2000 including 1,741 children and 572 women, according to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. This figure does not include Gazans who died due to drinking contaminated water or being denied access to medical treatment. Nor does it include the rising number of Gazan youth who, having lost all hope and struggling with deep depression, have committed suicide.

I spent seven years reporting on the conflict, four of them as the Middle East Bureau Chief of The New York Times. I stood over the bodies of Israeli victims of bus bombings in Jerusalem by Palestinian suicide-bombers. I saw rows of corpses, including children, in the corridors in Dar Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. I watched Israeli soldiers taunt small boys who in response threw rocks and were then callously shot in the Khan Younis refugee camp. I sheltered from bombs dropped by Israeli warplanes. I climbed over the rubble of demolished Palestinian homes and apartment blocks along the border with Egypt. I interviewed the bloodied and dazed survivors. I heard the soul crushing wails of mothers keening over the corpses of their children.

I arrived in Jerusalem in 1988. Israel was busy discrediting and marginalizing the secular, aristocratic Palestinian leadership of Faisel al-Husseini and driving Jordanian administrators from the occupied West Bank. This secular and moderate leadership was replaced by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Yasser Arafat. But Arafat, very likely poisoned by Israel, and the PLO were also ruthlessly pushed aside by Israel. The PLO was replaced by Hamas, which Israel openly fostered as a counterweight to the PLO. 

The escalating savagery of Israel against the Palestinians is reflected in the escalating savagery of the Palestinians. The resistance groups are Israel’s doppelgängers. Israel believes that with the eradication of Hamas the Palestinians will become docile.  But history has shown that once one Palestinian resistance movement is destroyed, a more virulent and radical one takes its place.

The killers feed off each other. I saw this in the ethnic wars in Bosnia. When religion and nationalism are used to sanctify murder there are no rules. It is a battle between light and dark, good and evil, God and Satan. Rational discourse is banished. 

“The sleep of reason,” as Francisco Goya said, “brings forth monsters.” 

The Jewish extremists, fanatic Zionists and religious bigots in the current Israeli government need Hamas. Revenge is the psychological engine of war. Those targeted for slaughter are rendered inhuman. They are not worthy of empathy or justice. Pity and grief are felt exclusively for one’s own. Israel vows to eradicate a dehumanized mass that embodies absolute evil. The maimed and dead in Gaza, and the maimed and dead in Israeli towns and kibbutzim, are victims of the same dark lusts.  

“From violence only violence is born,” Primo Levi writes, “following a pendular action that, as time goes by, rather than dying down, becomes more frenzied.”

The Biden administration has promised unconditional Israeli support and weapons shipments. 

The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group has been deployed to the eastern Mediterranean Sea to “deter any actor” who might widen the conflict between Israel and Hamas. The carrier group includes the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford; its eight squadrons of attack and support aircraft; the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy; and the Arleigh-Burke class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney and USS Roosevelt, according to a Pentagon statement.

The U.S., as in the past, ignores the far greater death and destruction, as well as the illegal occupation, meted out by Israel to the Palestinians or the periodic military campaigns — this is the fifth major military assault by Israel on Gaza in 15 years — against civilians. 

Israel says it recovered 1,500 bodies of Hamas fighters after the incursion. This is a number greater than the 1,300 Israeli victims. Nearly all the dead Hamas fighters, I suspect, were young men born inside the Gaza concentration camp who had never seen the outside of the open-air prison until they burst through the security barriers erected by Israel. If Hamas fighters possessed Israel’s technological arsenal of death, they would be able to do their killing more efficiently. But they do not. Their tactics are cruder versions of those Israel has used against them for decades. 

I know this disease, the exaltation of race, religion and nation, the deification of the warrior, the martyr and violence, the celebration of victimhood. Holy warriors believe they alone possess virtue and courage, while their enemy is perfidious, cowardly and evil. They believe they alone have the right to revenge. Pain for pain. Blood for blood. Horror for horror. There is a fearsome symmetry to the madness, the abandonment of what it means to be humane and just. 

T.E. Lawrence calls this cycle of violence “the rings of sorrow.”

Once these fires are lit they can easily become a conflagration.

Israeli tanks and soldiers, to thwart an attack by Hezbollah in support of the Palestinians, have been deployed to the border with Lebanon. The Israeli forces killed fighters from Hezbollah, as well as a Reuters journalist, which saw Hezbollah fire a salvo of rockets in retaliation. Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir announced he would distribute 10,000 assault rifles to Israeli settlers, who have carried out murderous rampages in Palestinian villages in the West Bank. Israel has killed at least 51 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas launched its attack on October 7.

Psychologist Rollo May writes:

At the outset of every war…we hastily transform our enemy into the image of the daimonic; and then, since it is the devil we are fighting, we can shift onto a war footing without asking ourselves all the troublesome and spiritual questions that the war arouses. We no longer have to face the realization that those we are killing are persons like ourselves.

The killing and torture, the more they endure, contaminate the perpetrators and the society that condones their actions. They sever the professional inquisitors and killers from the capacity to feel. They feed the death instinct. They expand the moral injury of war. 

Israel taught the Palestinians to communicate in the primitive howl of hatred, war, death and annihilation. But it is not Israel’s assault on Gaza I fear most. It is the complicity of an international community that licenses Israel’s genocidal slaughter and accelerates a cycle of violence it may not be able to control. #Israel #Palestine

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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