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“Collateral damage” is unintentional, but Israel’s bombing of Gaza kids IS INTENTIONAL.

2 Bombing Kids And Blaming It On Hamas


CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 16, 2023

There’s no “collateral damage” in Gaza. Collateral damage is when you unintentionally kill civilians. You can’t drop military explosives on places you know are densely packed with children and then call their deaths unintentional. It’s like calling the death and destruction caused by Hiroshima and Nagasaki unintentional.

The “human shields” narrative is just Israel bombing civilians and blaming it on someone else. That’s all it’s ever been.

The “human shields” argument is like if London had responded to an IRA attack by dropping thousands of bombs on Belfast, killing thousands of Irish civilians and hundreds of children, and justifying its bombing campaign by calling it an unfortunate but necessary measure to take out the IRA’s Belfast Brigade because they’re located in the same places as civilians.

It’s like if the western political/media class defended and supported the carpet bombing of Belfast, saying “All those thousands of deaths are the fault of the IRA, because they’re in Belfast where the civilians are. England has a right to defend itself, after all.”

It’s like if Belfast was walled in with nowhere for civilians to escape to, and London carpet bombed it targeting schools, churches and hospitals, and the western press framed this relentless assault on civilian buildings as “the UK-IRA war” in which London is exclusively bombing “IRA targets in Belfast”.

It’s like if the British spent a week dropping military explosives on locations it knew were packed with Irish children, and anyone who criticized this was accused of anti-Britishism and blood libel.

And to be clear this is not something I’d put past the British actually doing during the Troubles… if the Irish were Muslim and their skin was a little darker……………………….

Step 1: Abuse and kill Muslims

Step 2: Wait for Muslims to respond to those abuses with violence

Step 3: Cite that violence as justification for more killing and abuse to fight “radical Islamic terrorism”.

Works for the US empire’s bogus “war on terror”, and it works for Israel………………………………………..

Israel apologist translation guide:

“You’re an anti-semite” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You hate Jews” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You want Jews to die” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You love Hamas” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

“You side with the terrorists” = “I cannot defend Israel’s actions using facts and logic.”

Not that it really matters but for the record I personally have a great love for Jews and Jewish culture. Always have, since I was a kid. Most of my anti-war heroes are Jewish, and Jewish artists and thinkers have played a tremendous role in shaping my worldview. My criticisms are directed solely at the apartheid state which cannot exist in the way it exists without nonstop violence and war, which is falsely framed by the western empire as the monolithic source and stronghold of all things Jewish.

Conflating the abuses of that state with Jewishness and Judaism is profoundly anti-semitic. Jews are not anything remotely close to a monolith on the issue of Israel and Zionism. Most of what I’ve learned about Israel over the years I’ve learned from the brilliant Jewish people I follow who oppose it.  https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/bombing-kids-and-blaming-it-on-hamas?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137999931&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=emailit. #Israel #Palestine

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

ASEAN continues commitment to maintaining nuclear-weapon-free Southeast Asia

October 14, 2023  https://vietnamnews.vn/politics-laws/1595191/asean-continues-commitment-to-maintaining-nuclear-weapon-free-southeast-asia.html

NEW YORK – Ambassador Đặng Hoàng Giang, Permanent Representative of Việt Nam to the United Nations (UN), has reaffirmed ASEAN’s support for efforts of the international community for a world without nuclear weapons.

“The complete elimination of nuclear weapons is the only solution to guarantee against their use and threat of use,” Ambassador Giang, on behalf of ASEAN, said at a thematic debate on nuclear weapons of the UN General Assembly’s First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on October 13.

ASEAN upholds the importance of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in the global mechanism on disarmament, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. It calls on nuclear-weapon countries to fulfil their disarmament obligations and commitments with specific roadmaps and actions, and highlights the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as a historic agreement that contributes to this objective. Until nuclear weapons are completely eliminated, countries need to continue signing and ratifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) so that it soon comes into effect.

Ambassador Giang said ASEAN was committed to maintaining Southeast Asia free of nuclear weapons, while emphasising the bloc’s commitment to the work of the First Committee to completely eliminate nuclear weapons for peace, security and sustainable development.VNA/VNS #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 17, 2023 Posted by | ASIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Ex-CIA analyst ‘100% sure’ Hamas using US-supplied weapons

 https://www.rt.com/news/584665-hamas-weapons-ukraine-israel-johnson/ 16 Oct 23

Washington is expected to prioritize aid to Israel and put conditions on continued funding to Ukraine

Hamas is using US-supplied weapons to attack Israel even as Washington prepares to step up military aid to West Jerusalem, former CIA analyst Larry Johnson told RT on Monday.

“It’s probably 100% sure that the weapons were supplied by the United States,” Johnson opined, explaining that the only question was whether the Palestinian militant group’s weapons had come from US supplies diverted from Ukraine, Afghanistan, or the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. 

Noting there were “no effective controls” on the billions of dollars in arms and military financing funneled from the US to Ukraine in the last two years, Johnson observed that even weapons supplied by Israel to Ukraine might have made it back to Hamas via the black market, suggesting the war unfolding in Gaza “will tell us how extensive some of those weapons supplies have been

The burgeoning conflict will also force a reevaluation of Washington’s blank check to Ukraine, the ex-analyst predicted. “Congress is going to insist that Israel gets put at the front of the line and that Ukraine’s going to go to the back of the line. It’s also going to embolden and make happen inspections and accounting … in order to deliver, to allow Ukraine to have any more weapons.” 

Noting that “Ukraine’s losing on the ground,” he predicted “this is going to be portrayed in the media in the coming weeks as the fate of Israel” if the US fails to supply sufficient weapons and cash to its Middle Eastern ally.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | MIDDLE EAST, weapons and war | 1 Comment

It’s Not The ‘Israel-Hamas War’, It’s The Israel-Gaza Massacre

I used to think all genocidal massacres are bad but then some really smart Israel apologists explained to me that this genocidal massacre is completely different because this genocidal massacre’s perpetrators believe they are doing the right thing for a good reason.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE, OCT 15, 2023

Stop calling it the “Israel-Hamas war”. It’s the Israel-Gaza massacre. Calling it the Israel-Hamas war creates the false impression that this is a war that is directed exclusively at Hamas when it’s really an ethnic purge that’s directed at all Palestinians in Gaza. 

The child body count alone makes it clear that this isn’t a war against Hamas; I saw an anonymous account point out on Twitter that the number of children killed in this onslaught after one week already exceeds the total number of children killed after a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, per the United Nations.

Laying complete siege to a civilian population and bombing anything that stands would be an extraordinary abomination in any war. And this is not a war, it’s an enclosed shooting range with military explosives and human targets.

Americans should probably worry about the rapid legitimization of this idea that civilians who have a government that kills people are all legitimate targets………………………………………………

Israel has been struggling with a rapidly worsening PR crisis ever since Palestinians started getting internet access and smartphones with video cameras and exposing Israeli apartheid abuses. So if you’re wondering why they cut off Gaza’s internet and electricity, that’s why. 

Israel was 100% aware that cutting off power and internet to Gaza would prevent Palestinians from recording and publishing footage of its coming war crimes. They struck a fatal blow to citizen journalism in Gaza, thereby blinding the whole world to what’s happening there.

The mass media asked you to believe the Hamas attack was “unprovoked”. Then they asked you to believe blatant babies-on-bayonets atrocity propaganda. Now they’re asking you to believe Jewish kids were in school before dawn on a Saturday morning in Israel. Western journalism, folks.

The only reason so many Israel apologists scrambled to circulate unverified stories about beheaded babies and mass rapes instead of waiting for evidence was to make the real atrocities Israel is perpetrating and will continue to perpetrate in Gaza look reasonable and appropriate.

❖

After this current crisis is over I’m probably going to think a lot about the fact that MSNBC suspended three Muslim reporters during Israel’s Gaza assault because it didn’t want Muslims reporting on it.

I used to think all genocidal massacres are bad but then some really smart Israel apologists explained to me that this genocidal massacre is completely different because this genocidal massacre’s perpetrators believe they are doing the right thing for a good reason…………………………………………………………………………………..

The greatest trick white anti-semites ever pulled was getting Jews to leave western society in droves and move to a far away country to spend their lives beating up Muslims. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/its-not-the-israel-hamas-war-its?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=82124&post_id=137970619&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&utm_medium=email #Israel #Palestine

October 16, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

UK’s old nuclear submarines, dead for over 40 years, and a new plan for turning them into “tin cans and razor blades”.

BABCOCK International want to build a new industrial building at Rosyth
Dockyard for the dismantling of old nuclear submarines. If approved, and a
planning application has gone into Fife Council, the metal waste disposal
facility will go up at the corner of Wood Road and Caledonia Road.

Seven old nuclear subs have been laid up at the yard for decades, Dreadnought has
been there since 1980, longer than it was in service, and last year
councillors were told of a UK Government pledge to “de-nuclearise Rosyth”
by 2035. They were also informed of a world first in removing the most
radioactive waste and the overall aim of cutting up the vessels and turning
them into “tin cans and razor blades”.

Blyth and Blyth, of Edinburgh, have
been appointed by Babcock as civil and structural engineering consultants
for the Rosyth Submarine Dismantling Project and are agents for the
application. The plans say the building would be around 200 square metres
in size and the council are expected to make a decision next month.

Dunfermline Press 16th Oct 2023

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/23853192.rosyth-babcock-plans-new-metal-waste-disposal-building/ #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 16, 2023 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel’s nuclear weapons and their history

Does Israel Possess Nuclear Weapons?

Greek Reporter By Philip Chrysopoulos, October 14, 2023

Israel is generally understood to possess nuclear weapons, yet the country has never officially denied or admitted it has a nuclear arsenal.

Instead, Israel has maintained a policy of deliberate ambiguity on the issue throughout decades. Nevertheless, experts estimate that the country’s stockpile ranges between 90 and 400 warheads………….

Furthermore, the middle-eastern country is able to deliver nuclear missiles by aircraft, as submarine-launched cruise missiles, and via the Jericho series of intermediate to intercontinental range ballistic missiles.

According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Israel has 90 plutonium-based nuclear warheads and has produced enough plutonium for 100-200 weapons…………….

The History of Israel’s Nuclear Weapons

Israel’s interest in nuclear weapons has started in the end of the 1940s. The country’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion spoke of the urgent need for obtaining nuclear weapons to prevent the Holocaust from reoccurring.

In 1948, even before the Israeli-Arab War, Israel began recruiting Jewish nuclear scientists and forming scientific institutes in order to create a nuclear arsenal.

Ben-Gurion had stated, “What Einstein, Oppenheimer, and Teller, the three of them are Jews, made for the United States, could also be done by scientists in Israel, for their own people”.

………………………………………….. Nuclear Weapons Production

It is believed that Israel began full-scale production of nuclear weapons following the 1967 Six-Day War, although it had built its first operational nuclear weapon by December 1966.

In 1969, U.S. President Richard Nixon in a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir pressed Israel to “make no visible introduction of nuclear weapons or undertake a nuclear test program”, so maintaining a policy of nuclear ambiguity.

……………………………….. In the 1980s the CIA estimated that Israel had 100-200 nuclear weapons. In 1991, after the Soviet Union dissolved, nearly 20 top Jewish Soviet scientists reportedly emigrated to Israel.

By the mid 2000s estimates of Israel’s arsenal ranged from 75 to 400 nuclear warheads.  https://greekreporter.com/2023/10/14/israel-nuclear-weapons/ #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 16, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Drone Warfare in the Nuclear Age

Tom Dispatch, OCTOBER 15, 2023

When it comes to war, increasingly autonomous drones are now, it seems, the name of the game.  Only the other day, in its stunning surprise attack on Israel, Hamas claimed to have launched 35 explosive-laden al-Zawari “kamikaze” drones that it had produced, destroying Israeli tanks and other equipment. Hamas videos also showed “multicopter drones dropping explosives on Israeli security towers, border posts, and communication towers.” And mind you, Israel was already using swarms of drones as early as 2021 to strike targets in the Gaza Strip.

Of course, in the present world of war, they are anything but alone. The conflict in Ukraine, for instance, has become remarkably drone-ified on both sides. In drone terms, however, if there was one ominous thing about the recent reactions of Israeli officials to the Hamas attacks that took their country by surprise, it was the comparison of them to al-Qaeda’s assaults on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.  (“This,” an Israeli military spokesman typically said, “is our 9/11.”) The disastrous American response to those events, the Bush administration’s “Global War on Terror,” has never truly ended and, from Afghanistan to the Middle East to Africa, it introduced drone warfare to the world (in the process killing countless innocent civilians)……………………

Swarms vs. Swarms

How Intelligent — Artificial or Otherwise — Is Any of This?

BY MICHAEL KLARE

A war with China may not be inevitable, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks observed recently, but it’s a genuine possibility and so this country must be prepared to fight and win. But victory in such a conflict will not, she suggested, come easily. China enjoys an advantage in certain measures of military power, including the number of ships, guns, and missiles it can deploy. While America’s equivalents may be more advanced and capable, they also cost far more to produce and so can only be procured in smaller numbers. To overcome such a dilemma in any future conflict, Hicks suggested, our costly crewed weapons systems must be accompanied by hordes of uncrewed autonomous ships, planes, and tanks.

To ensure that America will possess sufficient numbers of “all-domain attritable [that is, expendable] autonomous” weapons when a war with China breaks out, Hicks announced a major new Pentagon program dubbed the Replicator Initiative. “Replicator is meant to help us overcome [China’s] biggest advantage, which is mass. More ships. More missiles. More people,” she told the National Defense Industrial Association as August ended.

Because we can’t match our adversaries “ship-for-ship and shot-for-shot,” given the prohibitive costs of traditional weapons systems (which must include space for their human crews), we’ll overpower them instead with swarms of autonomous weapons — unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs and UASs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), unmanned surface vessels (USVs), and unmanned subsea vessels (UUVs, or drone submarines), all governed by artificial intelligence (AI) and capable of independent action……………………………………………………………

After all, the Department of Defense has already awarded many millions of dollars to assorted AI start-ups and traditional contractors over the past half-dozen years to develop advanced UAVs, UGVs, USVs, and UUVs, and yet not a single one is in full-scale production. …………………….

questions about this country’s ability to deliver such systems on the tight timetable Hicks announced should be the least of our concerns. Far more worrisome is the likelihood that such a drive will ignite a major new global arms race with China and Russia, ensuring that future battlefields will be populated with untold thousands (tens of thousands?) of drone weapons, overwhelming human commanders and increasing the risk of nuclear war.

The Illusion of U.S. Drone Dominance

…………………………………….. China and Russia have no lack of smart, creative scientists and engineers and, far from trailing the United States in the development of autonomous weaponry, have actually taken the lead in certain areas…………………………………..

…………………the Pentagon’s own report also indicated that China is making rapid advances in the development of AI software for use by autonomous weapons systems in complex combat operations of exactly the sort envisioned by Deputy Secretary Hicks…………………..

many Western analysts do believe that China leads in certain areas of AI and autonomy. Its military has, in fact, regularly flown advanced UAVs in large-scale combat maneuvers around the island of Taiwan, demonstrating a capacity to employ such systems in complex operations.

Russia is thought to lag behind China and the U.S. in developing and fielding advanced autonomous weapons but has nevertheless demonstrated a significant capacity to use UAVs in its war on Ukraine. It has deployed large swarms of semi-autonomous Iranian-made Shahed-136 suicide drones in attacks on its cities and electrical systems, causing widespread death and destruction………………………………..On June 28th, the Russian government approved a “Development Strategy for Unmanned Aviation Until 2030.” It called for exponential growth in UAV output, which, according to reports, is expected to increase from approximately 13,000 per year between 2023 and 2026 to 26,000 annually from 2027 to 2030 and 35,500 after that.

……………………………………………… On the Future Great-Power Battlefield

Given all of this, it should be evident that going to war with China or Russia in the not-so-distant future on the assumption that the U.S. will enjoy a significant advantage in autonomous weaponry would be delusional — and very dangerous.

Yes, both of those potential adversaries currently trail the U.S. in certain categories of autonomous weapons like uncrewed surface and sub-surface combat systems, but they will still be capable of filling the skies with multitudes of drones and seeding any battlefield with hordes of autonomous combat vehicles, including uncrewed tanks and artillery systems.

It would, in fact, be reasonable to assume that any future great-power conflict — a U.S.-China war over Taiwan, for example — will be characterized by the concentration of approximately equal formations of traditional military mass (composed largely of crewed weapons systems) and uncrewed autonomous versions of the same, incorporating multitudes of AI-governed drones.

How would such a conflict play out? It seems unlikely that either side would achieve a swift, one-sided victory. Instead, both would be far more likely to experience massive losses of weapons systems and warriors, with vast swarms of drones only intensifying the destruction by attacking anything left unscathed by traditional weaponry. ……………………..

The toll of such a conflict would surely be colossal. …………………………………………………………………………………

 “how quickly a conflict could escalate, with both China and the United States crossing red lines.” The CNAS report further suggested that, in an actual war, “China may be willing to brandish nuclear weapons or conduct a limited demonstration of its nuclear capability in an effort to prevent or end U.S. involvement in a conflict with Taiwan.” (Nothing was said about the possibility that the Americans could do anything similar.)

………….. The result would likely be ever-spiraling losses and increasingly dangerous escalatory measures. As growing numbers of autonomous weapons become available, they, too, will be thrown into the fight, further magnifying those very escalatory pressures. With swarms of such devices battling other swarms — at sea, in the air, and on the ground — the risk of catastrophic defeat will loom ever larger and the temptation to employ nuclear weapons that much harder to resist. Whatever fantasies of American dominance Deputy Secretary Hicks might be harboring in promoting the Replicator Initiative, a safer, more stable world is not among the likely outcomes.  https://tomdispatch.com/swarms-vs-swarms/?utm_source=TomDispatch&utm_campaign=4cc10fe538-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_07_13_02_04_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_1e41682ade-4cc10fe538-308765045 #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 16, 2023 Posted by | USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

THE PLAN TO WIPE OUT HAMAS

As refugees crowd the border with Egypt, Israel prepares to hit Gaza City with US-supplied bunker busters

SEYMOUR HERSH, OCT 15, 2023

It’s been one week since the horrific Hamas attacks on Israel took place, and the shape of what is to come from the Israeli armed forces is clear, and uncompromising. 

Over the past week Israeli jets have conducted around-the-clock bombing of non-military targets in Gaza City. Apartment buildings, hospitals, and mosques were torn apart, with no prior warning and no effort to minimize civilian casualties.

By the end of the week Israeli jets were also dropping leaflets telling the citizens of Gaza City and its surrounding areas in the north that those who wished to survive had better start going south—walking if necessary—25 miles or more—to the Rafah border crossing leading to Egypt. As of this writing, it was not clear whether financially stricken Egypt will allow a million immigrants, many of them committed to the Hamas cause, to cross. In the short term, I have been told by an Israeli insider that Israel has been trying to convince Qatar, which at the urging of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a long-time financial supporter of Hamas, to join with Egypt in funding a tent city for the million or more refugees awaiting across the border. “It’s not a done deal,” the Israeli insider told me. Israeli officials have warned Egypt and Qatar that without a landing site, the refugees will have to “go back to Gaza.”

One possible site, the insider said, is a long abandoned chunk of land in northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, near the border crossing from Gaza, that was the site of an Israeli settlement known as Yamit when the peninsula was seized by Israel after its victory the Six-Day War of 1967. The settlement was evacuated and bulldozed by Israel before Sinai was returned to Egypt in 1982. The Israeli hope is that Qatar and Egypt will take the refugee crisis off its hands.

Israel’s obvious contempt for the well-being of the citizenry of Gaza amid the forced migration of more than one million starving human beings has captured the world’s attention and led to increasing international condemnation, much of it aimed at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

And so the next stage must come soon. Here is what I have been told, in my conversations in recent days with officials from Israel and elsewhere, including officials I have dealt with in Europe and the Middle East since the Vietnam war, about the Israeli plan for the elimination of Hamas…………………………………………………….

With the starved-out civilian population forced to leave, the Israeli operational plan calls for the Air Force to destroy the remaining structures in Gaza City and elsewhere in the north. Gaza City will be no more. Israel will then begin dropping American-made 5,000-pound bombs known as “bunker busters,” or JDAMs, in the flattened areas……………………………………………………………………….

The systematic destruction of the remaining buildings in Gaza City will start within days, the Israeli insider said. The bunker-buster JDAMs could come next. Then, in the planners’ scenario, I was told, the Israeli infantry will be assigned to mop-up operations: searching out and killing those Hamas fighters and workers who managed to survive the JDAM attacks……………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-plan-to-wipe-out-hamas?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1377040&post_id=137958833&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=false&r=98yko&utm_medium=email #Israel #Palestine

October 16, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Entrenched Belief in Nuclear Deterrence as Defence Keeps Fear of Annihilation Alive, First Committee Hears in Thematic Debate

United Nations, MEETINGS COVERAGE, GENERAL ASSEMBLY, FIRST COMMITTEE, SEVENTY-EIGHTH SESSION, 13 OCTOBER 2023

Mistrust Looms Large in Disarmament, Non-Proliferation, Speakers Say

Today’s world is one of “nuclear giants and ethical infants” that know more about war than peace and killing than living, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as it began its thematic debate on nuclear weapons.

In the face of “a bad propensity to flirt with suicidal tendencies”, the world is experiencing the worst aggression seen in recent times, Sri Lanka’s representative said. An entrenched belief in nuclear deterrence as a defence strategy, alongside a lack of progress on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is preventing humanity from reaching a world free from the fear of nuclear annihilation.

Trust has always been a scarce commodity in disarmament and non-proliferation, the Netherlands’ delegate noted, but it is now extremely low due to the current security environment. A mere call to rebuild trust would be too simple.  The international community must make use of mechanisms already in place, from the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).  Nuclear-weapon States and non-nuclear-weapon States alike should be more transparent about their arsenals, doctrines and risk-reduction measures, in order to rebuild trust.

Similarly, Malaysia’s representative urged States to overcome the deep trust deficit.  He went on to say the grand bargain underpinning the NPT cannot remain a distant dream and constantly deferred by considerations of strategic stability among nuclear-weapon States.  It is imperative that all NPT obligations and commitments are fully implemented.  He also urged the remaining Test-Ban Treaty’s Annex II States to sign and ratify the Treaty.

The representative of Belize, speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) viewed the nuclear disarmament imperative through a humanitarian lens, highlighting the need for accountability to victims and expressing support for positive obligations included in the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW).

The Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Adedeji Ebo, said in remarks to the meeting ahead of an informal interactive dialogue with delegations that to reduce the human cost of weapons, States must recommit to the humanitarian imperative underpinning disarmament efforts.  He encouraged them to universalize treaties banning inhumane and indiscriminate weapons, including the Conventions on Cluster Munitions and Certain Conventional Weapons, and the Mine-Ban Convention.

Joining the United Nations Director and Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs was Flavio Damico, speaking for the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.  He noted that more than five decades have passed since the international norm gave rise to the creation of nuclear-weapon-free zones, pioneered by the Latin America and the Caribbean region through the Treaty of Tlatelolco.  That norm, he said, holds even great significance given the current global security condition.

The Committee will meet again at 10 a.m. on Monday, 16 October, to continue its thematic debate on nuclear weapons.

Statements……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….more https://press.un.org/en/2023/gadis3718.doc.htm

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October 16, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

An Israeli lawmaker is urging her government to use ‘everything in its arsenal,’ including ‘doomsday’ weapons, against Hamas

Kwan Wei Kevin Tan , Oct 11, 2023

  • An Israeli lawmaker says Israel should use nuclear weapons against Hamas.
  • Revital “Tally” Gotliv wrote on X that she thinks it is time to fire “powerful missiles without limit.”
  • Benjamin Netanyahu previously said Hamas “will pay a price it has never known before” for its attacks.

An Israeli lawmaker has urged her government to consider using nuclear weapons in their war against Hamas.

“Jericho missile! Jericho missile! A strategic alert, before we consider introducing our forces. A doomsday weapon!” Revital “Tally” Gotliv, a member of the Israeli parliament, wrote in a post on X on Monday. “This is my opinion. May God preserve all our strength.” 

Gotliv’s post — which had been viewed over 2.1 million times at press time — referenced Israel’s Jericho ballistic missiles. Israel’s government has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of its nuclear arsenal.

The lawmaker said in a subsequent post on Tuesday that Israel needs to be merciless when dealing with the Palestinian militant group.

“Only an explosion that shakes the Middle East will restore this country’s dignity, strength, and security! It’s time to kiss doomsday,” Gotliv wrote in her post on X. 

“Shooting powerful missiles without limit. Not flattening a neighborhood. Crushing and flattening Gaza,” she continued. “Otherwise, we would have done nothing. Not with passwords, with penetrating bombs. Without mercy! Without mercy!”

Gotliv’s follow-up post received over 250,000 views as of press time. The post was, at press time, tagged with a disclaimer from X, stating that its visibility had been limited because it “may violate X’s rules against Violent Speech.” ……………………………

Netanyahu said on Saturday that Hamas “will pay a price it has never known before” for its attacks. And yesterday, the Israel Defense Forces launched over 200 airstrikes on Gaza.  more https://www.businessinsider.com/israeli-lawmaker-urged-government-to-use-nuclear-weapons-against-hamas-2023-10?r=US&IR=T&fbclid=IwAR23dypzT9Ijw99QoAJpr2-WwBSNj-zfJzbivYSy4UnyF2tfwnVR1XX_hpw #Israel #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Report From Gaza: Fears That Israeli Army Is Preparing for Ethnic Cleansing

As Israel massacres entire families and wipes out whole neighborhoods, the Israeli army’s calls for Gazans to flee to the Egyptian border are stoking fears of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

SCHEERPOST, By Tareq S. Hajjaj / Mondoweiss 13 Oct 23

The WHO put out a statement yesterday saying that medical supplies in all of Gaza’s hospitals have started to run out. At the same time, Dr. Ashraf al-Qidra, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, put out a press release saying that health services have entered a “critical phase,” and that medical supplies, tools, and fuel are about to run out. He added that the hospitals are at full capacity, and the injured are now forced to lie on the floor.

The scene at al-Shifa’ Hospital, Gaza’s central hospital, is bloody. Women, children, and the elderly, and even young people, are forced to lie down on the floor.

Yesterday, Gaza’s sole power plant said that within the next few hours, the plant would shut down completely due to the lack of fuel. Today, electricity has almost been completely shut off everywhere in Gaza; the only exceptions are places with commercial generators, which are also running out of fuel.

The Israeli army sent threatening messages to residential tower inhabitants instructing them to evacuate their homes in the al-Nada and al-Awda complexes in northern Gaza, which include approximately fifty residential towers, and are home to thousands of people.

The humanitarian situation in homes and at UNRWA schools, where many have taken refuge to escape the bombardment, is catastrophic. Homes are overcrowded due to the internal displacement of families to their relatives’ homes in areas they believe to be farther from the line of fire. But no place in Gaza is outside the line of fire. The crowding in homes and schools has led to inhumane conditions, including hour-long lines to use bathrooms.

Last night was bloody. The missiles used by the occupation seem to be new, and haven’t been used in Gaza before. We’ve noticed that there are missiles that explode without making a large sound, but that make the ground shake under people’s feet.

Fears of ethnic cleansing and second Nakba

People are now fearing the mass ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip to Egypt after an Israeli military spokesperson said that the Palestinians affected by the airstrikes can make their way to Egypt. Since the U.S. and Egypt are now working to open a “humanitarian corridor” for aid to enter Gaza, another Israeli military spokesperson said that civilians may all pass through that corridor to Egypt.

These statements have led Gaza residents to fear an impending second Nakba and mass ethnic cleansing. At the same time, rumors are spreading among people in Gaza that the Egyptian city of Sheikh Zweid and other areas in the Sinai have been prepared ahead of time to receive refugees, which many say is an old plan whose time has now come. Talk has also been spreading of how the eventuality of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to areas of the Sinai would be followed by the establishment of a Palestinian state on what remains of the Gaza Strip, in which Egypt would supposedly swap land with Israel. Yet these rumors remain unsubstantiated. 

What is certain, however, is that U.S. officials have started to discuss the possibility of the flight of thousands of families and civilians to Egypt through the Rafah crossing.

The Rafah crossing was targeted yesterday by Israeli airstrikes from the Palestinian side, but firefighters and civil defense teams have since cleared the rubble from the area and reopened the crossing………………………………………………………………… more https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/13/report-from-gaza-fears-that-israeli-army-is-preparing-for-ethnic-cleansing/ #Israel

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Israel, secrets,lies and civil liberties, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel orders 1 million Palestinians to leave within 24 hours

Rt.com 13 Oct 23

All residents of Gaza City may be forced to relocate, according to the UN

The Israeli military has urged over 1 million people to leave their homes in Gaza City and urgently move south. The UN has warned of “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) issued the evacuation order, calling it a “humanitarian step.” It did not mention any specific deadline, with a spokesperson acknowledging it would take “some time.” 

“The IDF calls on all residents of Gaza City to evacuate their homes, move south for their protection and settle in the area south of the Gaza River,” the military said in a post on X. “This evacuation is for your personal safety. It will be possible to return to Gaza City only after a notification confirming this.”

The UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Department of Safety and Security in Gaza (OCHA oPt) was notified just before midnight local time that “the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement to multiple media outlets on Friday morning……………..

The UN official emphasized that it is “impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.”

“This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people. The same order applied to all UN staff and those sheltered in UN facilities – including schools, health centers and clinics,” the spokesperson said. 

“The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” Dujarric added.

As of Thursday night, the number of people already forced to flee their homes amid the ongoing Israeli airstrikes has increased to 423,378, or roughly 21% of the entire population of Gaza, according to the latest flash update by the OCHA. About two-thirds of the internally displaced persons are taking shelter in facilities operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)……………. more https://www.rt.com/news/584797-israel-evacuation-order-gaza/ #Israel

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israel Accused of ‘Blatant War Crime’ as HRW Confirms White Phosphorus Used in Gaza

“Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” said one Human Rights Watch official.

By Brett Wilkins / Common Dreams,October 13, 2023

Human Rights Watch on Thursday said it has confirmed reports that Israeli military forces unleashed white phosphorus munitions during artillery attacks on targets in Lebanon and Gaza this week, including over a heavily populated civilian area of the besieged Palestinian strip—an apparent war crime.

HRW said it has interviewed witnesses and verified video footage shot in Lebanon and Gaza on Tuesday and Wednesday “showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.”…………

As HRW explained Thursday:

Upon contact, white phosphorus can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone as it is highly soluble in fat and therefore in human flesh. White phosphorus fragments can exacerbate wounds even after treatment and can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failure. Already dressed wounds can reignite when dressings are removed and the wounds are reexposed to oxygen. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal. For survivors, extensive scarring tightens muscle tissue and creates physical disabilities.

WP burns as hot as 1,500°F. Water does not extinguish it.

“Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” HRW Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said in a statement. “White phosphorous is unlawfully indiscriminate when airburst in populated urban areas, where it can burn down houses and cause egregious harm to civilians.”………………………………………………………………………..
more https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/13/israel-accused-of-blatant-war-crime-as-hrw-confirms-white-phosphorus-used-in-gaza/ #Israel

October 15, 2023 Posted by | Israel, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Israeli Army Bombs a Single Neighborhood in Gaza 450 Times in 24 Hours 

October 11, 2023, By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Al-Furqan neighborhood in the norther Gaza Strip is not a military base. But the Israeli army believe that many of the resident of the small area are supporters of Hamas. In Israeli military thinking, this made Furqan part of Gaza’s ‘terrorist infrastructure’.

The Israeli military announced that its warplanes carried out raids on 450 targets in the Al-Furqan neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours.

The Israeli army explained that dozens of its warplanes bombed more than 200 targets at Al-Furqan at night, making it the third attack in the last 24 hours.

This brought the total number of targets throughout the neighborhood alone to more than 450……………………more https://www.palestinechronicle.com/israeli-army-bombs-a-single-neighborhood-in-gaza-450-times-in-24-hours/ #Israel

October 15, 2023 Posted by | weapons and war | Leave a comment

Australia might be better off to cancel the nuclear submarine plan

How many nuclear-powered submarines for Australia?

The Strategist, 12 Oct 2023|Peter Briggs

“………………………………………………………………………………..It takes three to four submarines to guarantee having one available for deployment. The ‘rule of three’ was validated by the Coles review, but that doesn’t include any spare capacity to cope with unexpected defects…………………………………………

Australia is planning on a three-year interval between delivery of submarines, driven by the time it will take to generate a crew from our small submarine personnel base and limited sea training capacity in operational Collins-class and US and UK submarines.

 Construction time doesn’t determine the drumbeat for delivery; rather, construction starts in sufficient time to achieve the delivery drumbeat.

Three years is a slow drumbeat industrially. Shorter would be more efficient but is currently not feasible because of personnel limitations. The personnel training limitation should ease once Australia has at least six SSNs at sea. The drumbeat could then be shortened. A slow drumbeat is more expensive due to idle production but is also likely to contribute to a loss of skilled workers; witness the UK’s experience at Barrow in Furness because of the slow Astute drumbeat.

A construction program building eight submarines at a three-year drumbeat would take 21 years. Submarines typically have a hull life of 25–30 years. Thus, this production line would have nothing to build for four to nine years, and would then be then back into stop–start shipbuilding.

A force of 10 SSNs at a three-year drumbeat with a planned 27-year life is the minimum to provide a continuous-build program, avoiding the stop–start situation. A force of 12 could achieve a shorter drumbeat in the later stages when the personnel restrictions are not so severe.

Decisions on the final size of the force must be made now, at the program’s inception. They drive industrial issues such as the size of facilities, production-line technology, the supply chains supporting the force and the ordering of long lead items such as the reactor. The decision cannot responsibly be left for a future government.

My study of British, French and US submarine-crewing policies, summarised in my 2018 ASPI report, concluded that a force of 10 SSNs with 10 crews was essential to generate the minimum critical mass of experienced personnel. A smaller force will not generate sufficient highly experienced personnel to oversee the safe technical and operational aspects of the program. That calculation assumed one base and one submarine squadron. Two-ocean basing with an additional 200 highly experienced squadron staff, a key link in the operational and safety chain, would require at least 12 SSNs.

Britain’s Royal Navy has six or seven SSNs and four SSBNs operating from one base in a single squadron. Its personnel situation is dire. High wastage rates and shortfalls in many critical categories have reportedly necessitated drafting non-volunteers to submarine training and cannibalising parts and crew to get even one submarine to sea. At times, the RN is unable to achieve even one. Is that where Australia is heading?

The issues are undoubtedly more complex than simply the size of the force, but it reinforces the point that a force of eight SSNs requiring six to seven crews is below critical mass, vulnerable to personnel shortfalls, will struggle to sustain two SSNs deployed, and won’t be able to sustain two-ocean basing.

Even more problematic is whether Australia can achieve an operational, sustainable and deployable SSN capability from eight boats made up of a mix of Virginia and AUKUS designs. The mix of classes adds to the complexity, cost and risk because it entails two supply chains and differing major onboard equipment, spares, and training systems and simulators.

Australia requires at least 12 SSNs to sustain two-ocean basing with two deployable on each coast in the good times. A force of 18—nine on each coast—would be more resilient, reliably providing two deployable SSNs, with three available in the good times.

Eight is plainly insufficient on all counts.

Leaving the decision for a later government will mean greater expense and increase the risk that the program doesn’t produce the needed strategic capability, while stripping funds from other key defence capabilities. A lack of decision, along with Australia’s failure to join the AUKUS SSN initial design effort, indicates inadequate commitment.

A ‘damn the torpedoes’ transition to SSNs could leave us with no submarine capability.

If Australia is not prepared to, or cannot, invest the resources to achieve a viable SSN force, we are better off not continuing down this path.

AUTHOR

Peter Briggs is a retired submarine specialist and a past president of the Submarine Institute of Australia.  https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/how-many-nuclear-powered-submarines-for-australia/ #nuclear #antinuclear #NuclearFree #NoNukes #NuclearPlants

October 15, 2023 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

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