Losing The Narrative War: Israel Illegally Raids and Shuts Down Al Jazeera’s West Bank Bureau
The Dissenter, Kevin Gosztola, Sep 23, 2024
Israel attacks Al Jazeera and its journalists because their reporting consistently shows the truth of Israel’s war and undermines its military occupation against Palestinians.
As the Israeli government struggles to maintain its preferred narrative in the global news media around the country’s brutal assault on Gaza, the Israeli military illegally raided Al Jazeera’s West Bank bureau in Ramallah on September 22 and said the news network would be shut down for 45 days.
Israel’s latest act of lawfare against Al Jazeera occurred several months after the Israeli military raided Al Jazeera’s office in East Jerusalem in May. In that raid, soldiers seized the network’s media equipment after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Knesset banned Al Jazeera from operating in the country.
“The Network vehemently condemns and denounces this criminal act by the Israeli occupation forces. Al Jazeera reject the draconian actions, and the unfounded allegations presented by Israeli authorities to justify these illegal raids,” Al Jazeera stated. “Al Jazeera reaffirms its unwavering commitment to continue reporting on the war on Gaza and the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territories and the regional escalation.”
Israeli communications minister Shlomo Karhi said the raid was launched to stop “the mouthpiece of Hamas and Hezbollah.” He added, “We will continue to fight the enemy’s channels and ensure the safety of our heroic fighters.”
Al Jazeera’s media license in the West Bank does not come from the Israeli government but rather the Palestinian National Authority, which released a statement denouncing the illegal raid.
According to reporting from Al Jazeera English, masked and “heavily armed” Israeli soldiers entered the Al Jazeera office in the early morning. A document reflecting a decision by an Israeli military general was shown to Al Jazeera media personnel. Every person in the office was given 10 minutes to grab their personal belongings and cameras and leave.
Israeli soldiers tore down a poster of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Palestinian American correspondent for Al Jazeera who was effectively assassinated in May 2022 by Israeli military forces while reporting on a military raid in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
Soldiers took the microphone from Walid Al-Omari, who is the West Bank bureau chief, as he tried to provide a live report on the raid. They confiscated media equipment and documents that had information potentially from confidential media sources. And the soldiers also welded shut the doors to the office.
Carlos Martínez de la Serna, who is a program director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, condemned the raid and said, “Israel’s efforts to censor Al Jazeera severely undermine the public’s right to information on a war that has upended so many lives in the region. Al Jazeera’s journalists must be allowed to report at this critical time, and always.”
“The policy of this Israeli government is to prevent any voice that might contradict its official line. They have destroyed all the media in Gaza, targeted and killed journalists because they were doing their job, and now they want to wipe out the media in the occupied West Bank,” declared Anthony Bellanger, the secretary general for the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
The National Union of Journalists in the United Kingdom called the shut down of Al Jazeera in the West Bank a “dangerous act clearly intended to silence truths and prevent journalists from carrying out their crucial work. The seizure of confidential documents is particularly alarming, as we know protecting sources will be of utmost priority to all journalists impacted by the raid.”……………………………………………………………………………
As of September 20, there were more than 170 deaths of journalists in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian Territories. The Israeli military has detained nearly 100 Palestinian journalists—with 52 journalist still “languishing in Israeli jails.”
Paired with the censorship regime that the Israeli government has imposed on international correspondents, the crackdown on Al Jazeera increases the Israeli government’s ability to commit atrocities without the world seeing them in real time. In fact, in the past month, Israel has significantly ramped up its acts of aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“Israel’s ongoing suppression of the free press is blatantly aimed at concealing its actions in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, in contravention of international and humanitarian law. Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, along with arrests, intimidation, and threats, will not deter Al Jazeera from its commitment to coverage,” declared the Al Jazeera news network.
Basravi recorded a video message in anticipation of the raid. “Where we are now in the occupied West Bank is the core of newsgathering hub from where Al Jazeera has carried out uninterrupted storytelling spanning three decades.”
“In that time, our journalists have worked to bring our viewers stories about the Palestinian experience—everything from home demolitions to airstrikes, raids, and assassinations, the construction of separation barriers and the absurdity of occupation in the 21st century, the expansion of illegal settlements and the terror of settler violence, the humiliation and economic burdens of checkpoints, the suffering of thousands of incarcerated Palestinians and the impact on their families, the pain and anger of a people that [United Nations] officials have described as living under apartheid.”
Basravi concluded, “Our teams regularly faced threats to their safety, and too many have made the ultimate sacrifice for telling stories about people fighting for their freedom,” and, “Al Jazeera has been accused of harming Israeli security, of inciting against Israeli soldiers.”
“But to quote our bureau chief here, all we’ve been doing is reporting on what the Israeli military has been doing to people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. And if they stop doing it, we can stop reporting it.” https://thedissenter.org/losing-the-narrative-war-israel-raids-and-shuts-down-al-jazeeras-west-bank-bureau-2/
Israel’s Tally of War Crimes in Lebanon Increases in Wake of Exploding Pagers
The Israeli bombing of a residential neighborhood in Beirut is also a war crime.
By Marjorie Cohn , Truthout, September 23, 2024
Israel escalated attacks against Lebanon on September 23, marking the deadliest day of Israeli bombings in that country since 2006. Israel’s strikes in southern and eastern Lebanon, as well as the capital city of Beirut, left a death toll of at least 274, including women, children and paramedics. The Israeli military targeted “medical centres, ambulances and cars of people trying to flee,” according to Al Jazeera, which cited Lebanon’s Health Minister Firass Abiad as the source for the information. Israel also targeted civilian homes, which it claimed were housing Hezbollah weapons.
This latest targeting of Lebanese civilians comes on the heels of Israel’s detonation of hand-held electronic devices in civilian areas of Lebanon on September 17 and 18, when Israeli forces remotely triggered multiple explosions of electronic pagers and walkie-talkies that killed at least 37 people, including a 9-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, and maimed or injured 3,250 people, 200 critically. About 500 people suffered severe eye wounds and others received grave injuries to their hands, faces and bodies. The blasts occurred in residential buildings, barber shops, grocery stores, cars and at funerals. Many civilians, including government and hospital workers, were killed.
Elias Warrak, an ophthalmologist at Mount Lebanon University Hospital in Beirut, treated several of those injured by the blasts. He told the BBC that between 60 percent and 70 percent of the patients he attended had to have at least one eye removed. “Some of the patients, we had to remove both eyes. It kills me. In my past 25 years in practice, I’ve never removed as many eyes as I did yesterday [September 17].”
Israel’s weaponization of 3,000 to 4,000 pagers and walkie-talkies programmed to explode simultaneously constituted “terrifying” violations of international law, according to 22 independent United Nations experts, including 13 special rapporteurs.
The radios and pagers were reportedly distributed to people associated with Hezbollah, which includes both military and civilian individuals. “At the time of the attacks there was no way of knowing who possessed each device and who was nearby,” the experts noted. “Simultaneous attacks by thousands of devices would inevitably violate humanitarian law, by failing to verify each target, and distinguish between protected civilians and those who could potentially be attacked for taking a direct part in hostilities.”
A booby-trap is defined as something designed to kill or injure unexpectedly when a person performs an apparently safe act like answering a pager. International humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby-traps that are disguised as harmless objects when they are constructed and designed with explosives. They breach the principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions.
War Crimes of Murder, Attacking Civilians, Indiscriminate Attacks, Violence to Spread Terror
“These attacks violate the human right to life, absent any indication that the victims posed an imminent lethal threat to anyone else at the time,” the U.N. experts wrote. “Such attacks could constitute war crimes of murder, attacking civilians, and launching indiscriminate attacks.”
The U.N. experts declared, “It is also a war crime to commit violence intended to spread terror among civilians, including to intimidate or deter them from supporting an adversary,” adding, “A climate of fear now pervades everyday life in Lebanon.”
Amal Saad, an expert on Hezbollah, told Drop Site News, “Everyone’s scared to send text messages, to make calls, and they’re afraid to open laptops. It’s definitely led to some level of complete disorientation, fear, confusion, paranoia. It has huge psychological effects.” Saad noted that the purpose behind the explosions “was to terrorize and paralyze and demoralize.”………………………………………………………………………………………………..more https://truthout.org/articles/israels-tally-of-war-crimes-in-lebanon-increases-in-wake-of-exploding-pagers/?utm_source=feedotter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=FO-09-23-2024&utm_content=httpstruthoutorgarticlesisraelstallyofwarcrimesinlebanonincreasesinwakeofexplodingpagers&utm_source=Truthout&utm_campaign=097274f518-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_09_23_08_53&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bbb541a1db-097274f518-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
Fears of ‘Imminent Catastrophe’ Mount as Hezbollah Hits Back Amid Israeli Airstrikes
“It cannot be overstated enough: There is NO military solution that will make either side safer,” said one U.N. official.
Brett Wilkins, Sep 22, 2024, https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-lebanon-escalation-rockets
Fears of an all-out Middle East war mounted Sunday as Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, whose military continued bombing targets in southern Lebanon while moving troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the northern border.
During a Sunday funeral speech for three members killed in Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared an “open-ended battle” with Israel was underway. Hezbollah is reeling from last week’s unprecedented surprise attack on communication devices that killed dozens of people and wounded thousands more, as well as Israeli airstrikes on Beirut suburbs that have slain dozens of Lebanese including women and children and injured scores more.
The dead include senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
“We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained, you will also be pained,” Qassem told mourners at Aqil’s funeral, directing his remarks to Israel.
In Israel, air raid warning sirens blared warnings of incoming Hezbollah rocket fire that penetrated further south in Israel than at any time in nearly two decades, sending residents scrambling for shelters. Israeli media reported 13 people injured—one of them seriously—and heavy damage to homes and cars.
As officials closed schools, limited gatherings, and ordered hospitals to move patients in the north, the Israel Defense Forces moved troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the border with Lebanon. Numerous social media posts said Israeli reservists had received emergency call-up orders, known as Tzav 8s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his far-right government would “take whatever action is necessary to restore security” in the northern part of Israel.
“No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” he said. “We can’t accept it either.”
Hezbollah said it would not stop fighting until Israel stops its assault on Gaza, for which it is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations envoy for Lebanon, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “with the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: There is NO military solution that will make either side safer.”
Fears of an all-out Middle East war mounted Sunday as Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, whose military continued bombing targets in southern Lebanon while moving troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the northern border.
During a Sunday funeral speech for three members killed in Israeli airstrikes, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem declared an “open-ended battle” with Israel was underway. Hezbollah is reeling from last week’s unprecedented surprise attack on communication devices that killed dozens of people and wounded thousands more, as well as Israeli airstrikes on Beirut suburbs that have slain dozens of Lebanese including women and children and injured scores more.
The dead include senior Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
“We admit that we are pained. We are humans. But as we are pained, you will also be pained,” Qassem told mourners at Aqil’s funeral, directing his remarks to Israel.
In Israel, air raid warning sirens blared warnings of incoming Hezbollah rocket fire that penetrated further south in Israel than at any time in nearly two decades, sending residents scrambling for shelters. Israeli media reported 13 people injured—one of them seriously—and heavy damage to homes and cars.
As officials closed schools, limited gatherings, and ordered hospitals to move patients in the north, the Israel Defense Forces moved troops, tanks, and other equipment toward the border with Lebanon. Numerous social media posts said Israeli reservists had received emergency call-up orders, known as Tzav 8s.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that his far-right government would “take whatever action is necessary to restore security” in the northern part of Israel.
“No country can accept the wanton rocketing of its cities,” he said. “We can’t accept it either.”
Hezbollah said it would not stop fighting until Israel stops its assault on Gaza, for which it is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the United Nations envoy for Lebanon, said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “with the region on the brink of an imminent catastrophe, it cannot be overstated enough: There is NO military solution that will make either side safer.”
European Union foreign policy chief and European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell said on social media Sunday that “the E.U. is extremely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon, following Friday’s attacks in Beirut and the increasing cross-border violence between Israel and Hezbollah.”
“Civilians on both sides are paying an enormous price,” Borrell added. “An immediate ceasefire is needed.”
In the United States, White House national security spokesman John Kirby toldABC‘s “This Week” on Sunday that the Biden administration—which supplies Israel with billions of dollars in arms and diplomatic cover—is “involved in extensive and quite assertive diplomacy.”
“We want to make sure that we can continue to do everything we can to try to prevent this from becoming an all-out war there with Hezbollah across that Lebanese border,” he added. “We still believe that there can be time and space for a diplomatic solution here.”
Israel Unleashes Hell On South Lebanon With Giant Mystery Bomb As War Escalates
Zero Hedge, by Tyler Durden, Sep 22, 2024
Massive escalation along the southern Lebanese border is very clear at this point, as Israeli jets have pounded Hezbollah positions through much of Saturday.
Al Jazeera correspondents have confirmed that “Israel’s military launched 400 attacks on Lebanon on Saturday and Hezbollah fired rockets at the Ramat David base near the city of Haifa, in their largest exchange of fire since the war on Gaza began.”
Another indicator of the escalation is that Israel is apparently beginning use much bigger bombs compared to much of the past nearly year of internecine fighting. The below widely circulating footage shows a large flash and skyscraper-size fireball, resulting in some viewers speculating it was likely a heavy bunker-buster bomb, or possibly even a tactical nuke of some sort. Whatever it was, there’s never been anything like it used on Lebanon (that we know about).
……………. Since Thursday and the deadly chaos of the two-day pager explosion attack, southern Lebanon has seen the most intense exchange of fire between Hezbollah and Israel since the conflict began after Oct.7.
On Saturday the expanded pace of fire has continued, with Hezbollah having launched at least 90 rockets on northern Israel, and the IDF saying it has mounted at least 80 raids on weapons installations belonging to Hezbollah…………………………………..
The death toll from Friday’s Israeli airstrike which killed Hezbollah special forces commander Ibrahim Aqil has risen to 37, after a day-long rescue operation and workers picking through rubble of a residential building, according to the country’s Health Ministry. Reports say that a meeting of Hezbollah leaders was taking place in either a garage, or a tunnel underneath the building in south Beirut.
“According to source, the meeting was being held in a tunnel under a residential building, a location that was being used for the first time, which has raised Hezbollah’s concerns about the extent Israel has infiltrated its ranks,” Middle East Eye reports. Hezbollah has since confirmed that 16 of its members were killed in the attack.
Lebanon’s government says three children and seven women were among the victims. Over 60 others were injured. The White House has still called the Israeli strike “a good outcome”.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan described Aqil as having “American blood on his hands and has a rewards for justice price on his head.”
He has long been sought by the US for his alleged role in the 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, and well as kidnapping of Westerners in the the later 1980s. He had a $7 million bounty on his head issued by the Justice Department.
“He is somebody who the United States promised long ago we would do everything we could to see brought to justice,” Sullivan said. “You know, 1983 seems like a long time ago,” he added. “But for a lot of families and a lot of people, they’re still living with it every day.”
Some Middle East pundits and commentators expressed “shock” at the celebratory statements by the Biden administration, given the Israeli operation resulted in a high civilian death toll. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/idf-says-180-targets-eliminated-southern-lebanon-us-lauds-good-outcome-beirut-strike
With US $billions and diplomatic support, Ukraine and Israel are destroying themselves.
Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 22 Sept 24
Joe Biden began his presidency doing a great thing for peace. Three years ago he ended America’s illegal, immoral, criminal war in Afghanistan.
But Biden is no friend of peace. He’s spent the last three years instigating and funding proxy war in Ukraine to weaken Russia, and funding and enabling Israel’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza.
Neither of these murderous wars could continue without America’s endless billions and fervent moral support in word and deed.
But both Ukraine and Israel have fallen for US support to head down the path to failed state status.
Ukraine is already there. A fifth of their land gone. Economy shattered. Military largely destroyed. Millions displaced internally or fled to o other countries. Dependent upon on massive, unrepayable loans from the US and NATO countries simply to function. Cancelled elections spell the end of Ukrainian democracy. It could hardly be worse.
This all could have been avoided had the US not demanded Ukraine join NATO to isolate Russia from the European political economy, and supported a coup toppling the Ukrainian president who sought economic relations with Russia. Nor would it have happened had Ukraine President Zelensky rebuffed Biden’s NATO membership overtures and provided regional autonomy to Donbas as promised under the 2015 Minsk II Accords.
While not the basket case Ukraine is, Israel appears hell bent to join it as a failed state. By exploiting the October 7 Hamas attack to initiate all out genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Israel is destroying itself as well. Outside of the Biden administration, it has lost worldwide support as a moral nation. It has greatly weakened Israel’s economy, overtaxed it military, irrevocably divided its populace, forced over 60,000 citizens to flee northern Israel, and embarked on a self destructive war it cannot win.
Make that 2 wars. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign in Gaza has provoked blowback in northern Israel from both Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Like Hamas in Gaza, neither of these two additional opponents can be defeated by Israel alone. Just like with Ukraine, endless billions from Biden will not turn the tide.
Both Zelensky in Ukraine and Netanyahu in Israel have one Hail Mary toss to fling….bring the US directly into the battle on their side. Zelensky has been promoting this explicitly since his losing war with Russia began 31 month ago. Netanyahu, is more discreet, simply taking provocative actions like bombing Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and Syria, engaging in terrorism using explosive cellphones and pagers, all designed to ignite regional war involving Iran that the US would feel compelled to join.
So far President Biden has resisted direct US involvement in both senseless wars. But either could blow up in his face at any moment, triggering direct US involvement. Should that occur, we’ll see much worse than Ukraine and Israel self destructing. America and the rest of the world’s 193 countries might well join them.
Israel’s Collapse Is Imminent Amid Escalation In Lebanon
September 22, 2024, By Mnar Adley / MintPressNews, https://www.mintpressnews.com/scott-ritter-lebanon-pager-attack-hezbollah-brics/288312/
It sometimes feels like the world is on the brink of war. Israel has just escalated the conflict in the Middle East with a massive attack on Lebanon, implanting bombs in hundreds of pagers and other electronic devices, killing many and injuring thousands.
Around the world, the action has been condemned as an act of terror.
Today’s guest, Scott Ritter, unequivocally denounced the move. “This is something that is unjustifiable under any circumstances. There is no element of the law of war that would allow this kind of indiscriminate attack,” he said. Ritter is a former United States Corps Intelligence Officer and UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq. He is an author and a geopolitical analyst, whose work you can find at ScottRitter.com. He has closely followed the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The attack, he said, will have widespread implications, not least for Western corporations, who were caught unaware. “This is going to create a crisis of confidence among consumers that could end up costing Western companies billions of dollars,” he explained, adding:
Anybody with any shred of common sense will immediately throw away their Western-made electronic device and source one from a country such as China, where Israel is not going to be able to infiltrate and corrupt the integrity of the electronic device to achieve either intelligence collection goals or assassination [goals].”
While the Israeli military is vastly better armed and funded than Hamas, Ritter claimed that it was actually the Palestinian force that has come out on top after 12 months of fighting, stating:
“Hamas right now, in my opinion, is winning this conflict. They are winning it strategically. They are paying a horrible price for it. But on October 6, nobody was talking about the creation of a Palestinian state. Today, it is on the tip of the tongue of so many people around the world. Why? Because the world has seen the truth about Israel.”
Not only that, but Israel is eating itself from within. Its military is seriously depleted; its economy has been shattered by rocket attacks, and by 12 months of war economy; and its society is beginning to fragment.
The United States, too, has been damaged. It is increasingly isolated on the world stage, and its prestige is slipping. Fewer nations look to Washington for leadership and, instead, see organizations such as BRICS as the future.
Later this month, a BRICS summit will be held in Kazan, Russia, bringing its core member nations together with its new invitees. Palestine will be a key issue, and no doubt countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will be put under pressure to stop covertly aiding Israel and come to a solution to end the war.
BRICS has already succeeded in helping to lessen tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, and it is possible that the new bloc can act to bring about peace in a manner that many hoped the United Nations would be able to do.
Whatever happens, it is clear that October 7 fundamentally changed the situation for Israel and Palestine forever.
World demands end to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, in landslide UN vote
The vast majority of the world voted at the UN General Assembly to demand an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestinian territory within 12 months, with 124 countries (64%) in favor, 14 (7%) against, and 43 (22%) abstentions.
GeoPOliticalEconomy, By Ben Norton, 19 Sept 24
The countries that voted against the resolution, in effect supporting Israel’s illegal occupation, were the United States, Israel, Argentina, Czechia, Hungary, Malawi, Papa New Guinea, and Paraguay, plus the tiny Pacific island nations of Fiji, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Tonga, and Tuvalu.
These small island countries that consistently echo Washington’s unpopular votes in the UN are essentially unofficial US colonies, and mostly use the US dollar or Australian dollar as their currencies. Together, the six have a combined population of just over 1 million people, making them some of the smallest nations on Earth.
Among the large countries that abstained were India, Australia, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia.
However, in a break with Washington, a few longtime US allies voted in support of the resolution, most notably Japan, as well as France, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain…………………………….
The resolution was not controversial; it simply called for the implementation of a decision by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN’s top legal body.
On July 19, the ICJ issued a historic ruling stating:
– the State of Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful;
– the State of Israel is under an obligation to bring to an end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as rapidly as possible;
– the State of Israel is under an obligation to cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
– the State of Israel has the obligation to make reparation for the damage caused to all the natural or legal persons concerned in the Occupied Palestinian Territory;
– all States are under an obligation not to recognize as legal the situation arising from the unlawful presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by the continued presence of the State of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The US government is essentially the only obstacle standing in the way of the implementation of international law, and the recognition of Palestine as a full UN member state.
In May, 143 countries voted in the General Assembly to admit Palestine as a full UN member. At present, it is only an observer state.
This May General Assembly vote came after an April session of the Security Council, in which the US used its veto power to kill a resolution that requested full membership for Palestine.
Since war broke out in Gaza in October 2023, Washington has repeatedly vetoed Security Council resolutions that call for peace and a ceasefire.
US President Joe Biden has strongly supported Israel as it has brutally bombed civilians in Gaza, in what UN experts say is a campaign of genocide.
In a press conference in Tel Aviv in October, Biden asserted that “if Israel didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it”, given how strategic the colonial state is for US imperial interests. https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2024/09/19/end-israel-occupation-palestine-un-vote/
The World’s Chance To Confront US-Israeli Genocide
Popular Resistance, By Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies, Consortium News., September 18, 2024
As nations come together in the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, they face both a serious challenge and an unprecedented opportunity.
On Wednesday, the General Assembly is scheduled to debate and vote on a resolution calling on Israel to end “its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” within six months.
Given that the General Assembly, unlike the exclusive 15-member Security Council, allows all members to vote and there is no veto in the General Assembly, this is an opportunity for the world community to clearly express its opposition to Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestine.
If Israel predictably fails to heed a General Assembly resolution calling on it to withdraw its occupation forces and settlers from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the United States then vetoes or threatens to veto a Security Council resolution to enforce the ICJ ruling, then the General Assembly could go a step further.
It could convene an emergency session to take up what is called a Uniting For Peace resolution, which could call for an arms embargo, an economic boycott or other sanctions against Israel — or even call for actions against the United States.
Uniting for Peace resolutions have only been passed by the General Assembly five times since the procedure was first adopted in 1950.
The Sept. 18 resolution comes in response to an historic ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on July 19, which found that “Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law.”
The court ruled that Israel’s obligations under international law include “the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements” and the payment of restitution to all who have been harmed by its illegal occupation.
The passage of the General Assembly resolution by a large majority of members would demonstrate that countries all over the world support the ICJ ruling, and would be a small but important first step toward ensuring that Israel must live up to those obligations.
Israel’s President Benjamin Netanyahu cavalierly dismissed the court ruling with a claim that, “The Jewish nation cannot be an occupier in its own land.”
This is exactly the position that the court had rejected, ruling that Israel’s 1967 military invasion and occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories did not give it the right to settle its own people there, annex those territories, or make them part of Israel.
Settler Violence
While Israel used its hotly disputed account of the Oct. 7 events as a pretext to declare open season for the mass murder of Palestinians in Gaza, Israeli forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem used it as a pretext to distribute assault rifles and other military-grade weapons to illegal Israeli settlers and unleash a new wave of violence there, too.
Armed settlers immediately started seizing more Palestinian land and shooting Palestinians. Israeli occupation forces either stood by and watched or joined in the violence, but did not intervene to defend Palestinians or hold their Israeli attackers accountable.
Since last October, occupation forces and armed settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem have now killed at least 700 people, including 159 children.
The escalation of violence and land seizures has been so flagrant that even the U.S. and European governments have felt obligated to impose sanctions on a small number of violent settlers and their organizations.
In Gaza, the Israeli military has been murdering Palestinians day after day for the past 11 months. The Palestinian Health Ministry has counted over 41,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, but with the destruction of the hospitals that it relies on to identify and count the dead, this is now only a partial death toll.
Medical researchers estimate that the total number of deaths in Gaza from the direct and indirect results of Israeli actions will be in the hundreds of thousands, even if the massacre were to end soon.
Israel and the United States are undoubtedly more and more isolated as a result of their roles in this genocide. Whether the United States can still coerce or browbeat a few of its traditional allies into rejecting or abstaining from the General Assembly resolution on Sept. 18 will be a test of its residual “soft power.”……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. more https://popularresistance.org/the-worlds-chance-to-confront-us-israeli-genocide/
‘Genocide Can and Should Never Be Just a Normal Story’CounterSpin interview with Gregory Shupak on Palestinian genocide
Janine Jackson, https://fair.org/home/genocide-can-and-should-never-be-just-a-normal-story/ 19 Sept 24
Janine Jackson interviewed the University of Guelph-Humber’s Gregory Shupak about the Palestinian genocide for the September 13, 2024, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.
Janine Jackson: The September 11 New York Times reports a fatal Israeli airstrike hitting part of the Gaza Strip that Israel had declared a humanitarian zone. On a separate matter, we read that Secretary of State Antony Blinken rebuked Israel for the killing in the West Bank of 26-year-old US human rights activist Aysenur Eygi.
While it relayed terrible news, the Times story also contained the mealy-mouthing we’re accustomed to. Blinken rebuked Israel’s killing Aysenur Eygi “after the Israeli military acknowledged that one of its soldiers had probably killed her unintentionally.” People did dig with their bare hands through bomb craters in the dark to search for victims, but “health officials in Gaza do not distinguish between civilians and combatants when reporting casualties.” And while it notes that the UN and other rights organizations have said “there is no safe place in Gaza,” the Times repeats that “Israel insists that it will go after militants wherever it believes them to be.”
What’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank is horrific, the possibility of an expanded war in the Middle East is terrifying, but for elite US news media, it’s as though war in the Middle East, and Palestinians being killed, is such a comfortable story that there’s no urgency in preventing the reality.
Joining us now to talk about this is media critic, activist and teacher Gregory Shupak. He teaches English and media studies at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, and he’s author of the book The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel and the Media, from OR Books. He joins us now by phone. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Gregory Shupak.
Gregory Shupak: Hi.
JJ: So the New York Times September 10 had a story about how health workers are trying to vaccinate children in northern Gaza against polio, but supplies of fuel and medicine are being obstructed by Israeli forces, including one convoy of UN groups that was held at gunpoint for eight hours. So the meat of the Times story is here:
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had intelligence suggesting that there were “Palestinian suspects” with the convoy, but did not say what they were suspected of doing. In another statement on Tuesday, it said that “Israeli security forces questioned the suspects in the field and then released them.” The episode highlighted the challenges facing humanitarian efforts, like the vaccination campaign, and what UN officials say is increasing Israeli obstruction of aid deliveries to Gaza.
So Israel holds up a humanitarian group at gunpoint for eight hours, and they don’t offer anything resembling a reason, and the upshot is “this highlights challenges”; “UN officials say” that this is an obstruction of aid. Knowing reporters, we know that some of them are saying, “Look how we pushed back against Israel here. We said they couldn’t say what the suspects were suspected of.”
But it doesn’t read as brave challenging of the powerful to a reader. And of course we know that that language is a choice, right? So what are you making of media coverage right now?
GS: Two main observations come to mind, not specifically with regard to the story you’re talking about–although that does continue, as you said, the longer-term trends of this mealy-mouthed refusal to just report what has flatly and plainly and obviously happened, and who’s responsible for it. But setting that aside, I would note a couple of other things that have troubled me.
One is that I think so much of the Palestinian issue right now has just been metabolized into US election coverage, so that most of what the public is getting on the issue is “how is the political theater going to be affected by the fact that a genocide is occurring in which the US is a direct participant?” rather than more urgent questions, such as “how can this genocide be immediately stopped?” So I think that that’s a real case of focusing on the wrong question.
I think, likewise, you get some attention to, “Well, how is the Harris campaign going to suffer because the Biden administration, of which she’s a part, has alienated so many Arab and/or Muslim voters in the United States because of the Gaza genocide?” Again, that just reduces the Palestinians and their supporters amongst Arabs and Muslims–not to say that there aren’t many other segments of American society that do support Palestinians to one extent or another–they’re just here reduced to, “Well, how’s this going to factor into the electoral calculation?”
And so that, I think, is, again, really not at all adequate to the challenge of responding to one of the worst series of massacres that we’ve seen since World War II. In fact, the UN special rapporteur just the other day, said that this is the worst campaign of deliberate starvation since World War II. So just treating this as a subset of US domestic politics is not proportional to the severity of what’s unfolding.
The second observation I was going to make is that I think, to a really, really depressing extent, the mass murder of Palestinians, the mass starvation of Palestinians, the total destruction of essentially every structure in Gaza by this point, it’s becoming a “dog bites man” story, in that it’s just become, and I hate to use the word “normalized,” because I think it’s totally overused these days, but this is sort of a case study where it’s barely even newsworthy, that really just shocking atrocities are dropping day by day.
So last week, Israel bombed a shelter within the compound of the Al-Aqsa hospital, I believe it’s the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir al-Balah, and this has, as far as I can tell, effectively zero coverage in major English-language American or Western media broadly. But, again, that is a real travesty to just allow this to not be a leading story every day because it keeps happening; in fact, the fact that it keeps happening ought to be in itself proof of how dire and urgent these matters are.
JJ: You wrote for Electronic Intifada back in July about how even after credible source after credible source confirms that Israel is carrying out a genocide against Palestinians, you said “we find ourselves living through a mass public genocide denial,” and without at all trying to be coy, I wonder, are we now at acceptance?
GS: Yeah.
JJ: Now it’s just kind of a factor. And I wrote down “dog bites man” because it very much gives that feeling of, “Oh, well, these folks are at war with one another. That’s just a normal story.”
GS: Yeah, and first of all, genocide can and should never be just a normal story, but that is very much what it’s being treated like. And second of all, it’s also: yes, brutal, violent oppression of Palestinians has been the case since Israel came into existence in 1948, and, in fact, in the years leading up to it, there were certainly steps taken to create the conditions for Israel. So it is a decades-old story, but there is a kind of hand-waving that creeps into public discourse, and I think does underlie some of this lack of attention to what continues to happen in Gaza and the West Bank.
In reality, this is a very modern conflict, right? It’s a US-brokered, settler-colonial insurgency/counterinsurgency. It’s got very little to do with religion and everything to do with geopolitics and capitalism and colonialism. But it’s easier to just treat it as, “Oh, well, these backwards, savage barbarian and their ancient, inscrutable blood feuds are just doing what they have always done and always will. So that’s not worthy of our attention.” But that, aside from being wildly inaccurate, just enables the slaughter and dispossession, as well as resistance to it, to continue.
JJ: Finally, to promote the idea or to support the idea that this genocide is kind of OK, or par for the course, anyway, and that protesting it is misguided, or worse–that requires mental gymnastics, including charges of antisemitism against Jewish people. Jewish people are leaders in the opposition to Israel’s actions, including on college campuses. And I would encourage folks to read Carrie Zaremba’s piece on Mondoweiss about the lengths that university administrators are going to right now to crack down on and impossibleize dissent and political expression.
But the point is, we still see the dissent. So even the problems that we’re talking about, that media are ratifying and pushing out day after day, people are seeing through them, and there is dissent. And I just wonder what your thoughts are, in terms of, maybe not to use the word hope, but where do you see the resistance happening? You’re a college professor.
JJ: Finally, to promote the idea or to support the idea that this genocide is kind of OK, or par for the course, anyway, and that protesting it is misguided, or worse–that requires mental gymnastics, including charges of antisemitism against Jewish people. Jewish people are leaders in the opposition to Israel’s actions, including on college campuses. And I would encourage folks to read Carrie Zaremba’s piece on Mondoweiss about the lengths that university administrators are going to right now to crack down on and impossibleize dissent and political expression.
But the point is, we still see the dissent. So even the problems that we’re talking about, that media are ratifying and pushing out day after day, people are seeing through them, and there is dissent. And I just wonder what your thoughts are, in terms of, maybe not to use the word hope, but where do you see the resistance happening? You’re a college professor.
GS: Certainly on campuses and many other places as well. Labor organizations: there was a coalition here called Labor for Palestine, and I know there are similar outfits in the United States and other parts of the world. Religious organizations of all sorts, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, likely others as well.
I would, in addition, say that certainly, in terms of just getting out analysis and information, that one of the very few advantages or bright spots that we have, I think now as compared to the past, is that it is easier for independent sources like FAIR, Electronic Intifada, Mondoweiss and others to circulate quickly to wide audiences. And that, I think, has been a big reason why the Palestinian counternarrative has been able to puncture, I think, the public consciousness more so than it could in the past. I think it’s totally the independent educational efforts by the Palestine solidarity movement that has done that.
And one major tool at their–perhaps I will dare say our–disposal is independent media, because this is where you’re getting much more information, much more accurate information, and much more rigorous analysis than the fluff and pablum that you get on the editorial pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post, much less the blood-curdling racism you get on the Wall Street Journal and its editorial pages. So I think that this era does have one serious advantage, and that’s that outlets like those that I’ve mentioned have
a much greater capacity to reach people who might not otherwise be exposed to this anti-Zionist narrative.
JJ: We’ve been speaking with Gregory Shupak. He teaches English and media studies at the University of Guelph-Humber, and his book The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel and the Media is still out now from OR Books. Greg Shupak, thanks so much for joining us this week on CounterSpin.
‘An Act of Terror’: Israel Behind Pager Explosions That Killed 11, Wounded Thousands
“Each explosion constitutes an indiscriminate attack,” argued Heidi Matthews, an associate professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University.
Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, 17 Sept 24
Sep 18, 2024
Several news outlets confirmed late Tuesday what was widely suspected: Israel’s military and intelligence services were behind the explosions of pagers recently purchased by the Lebanese political party and militant group Hezbollah.
The explosions, reportedly set off earlier Tuesday by a message that appeared as if it was from Hezbollah’s leadership, killed at least 11 people—including an 8-year-old girl—and wounded thousands more.
Citing both an unnamed former Israeli official with knowledge of the operation and an anonymous U.S. official, Axiosreported that “Israeli intelligence services planned to use the booby-trapped pagers it managed to ‘plant’ in Hezbollah’s ranks as a surprise opening blow in an all-out war to try to cripple Hezbollah.”
“But in recent days, Israeli leaders became concerned that Hezbollah might discover the pagers,” the outlet continued. “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his top ministers, and the heads of the Israel Defense Forces and the intelligence agencies decided to use the system now rather than take the risk of it being detected by Hezbollah, a U.S. official said.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department publicly denied that the Biden administration was involved in the attack or aware of the operation in advance.
Heidi Matthews, an associate professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School of York University, wrote Tuesday that “each explosion constitutes an indiscriminate attack,” pointing to video footage of a pager detonating in a crowded market.
“Under these circumstances,” Matthews added, “this is an act of terror.”
The New York Timesreported Tuesday that Hezbollah ordered thousands of pagers from the Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, but the company denied making the devices. According to the Times, which cited unnamed officials, Israeli operatives “tampered with” the devices “before they reached Lebanon,” planting in them “as little as one to two ounces” of explosive material and a switch “that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.”…………………………………………………………. https://www.commondreams.org/news/hezbollah-pager-explosions
Israel Admits It Probably Killed Israeli Hostages in Gaza Airstrike in November
The Israeli military told the captives’ families at the time that they were killed by Hamas forces.
By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, September 17, 2024, https://truthout.org/articles/israel-admits-it-probably-killed-israeli-hostages-in-gaza-airstrike-in-november/
he Israeli military has admitted that one of its own airstrikes is likely responsible for killing three Israeli captives whose bodies were recovered from Gaza last year, confirming what Hamas officials had said about the hostages’ deaths at the time.
In a release on Sunday, the Israeli military said that an investigation into the deaths of the three captives found there was a “high probability” that they were killed by an Israeli strike carried out on November 10. This finding is based on the location of their bodies in relation to that of the strike and analysis of the strike itself. The military claims the strike targeted and killed a Hamas commander.
Two of the captives were soldiers, Corporal Nick Beiser and Sergeant Ron Sherman. The military also recovered the body of Eliya Toledano. They were all captured amid the October 7 attack, and their bodies were recovered in December.
At the time, Israeli forces told the captives’ families that they were killed by Hamas. But the results of the investigation confirms Hamas’s assertion that they were killed by the Israeli military.
Israeli forces have killed numerous hostages amid their genocide in Gaza, and released hostages have said that their top fear while in captivity was that they would be killed by Israeli strikes.
In December, Israeli forces shot and killed three Israeli captives who were traveling together in northern Gaza. Though the captives were shirtless and waving a white flag, Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. The military later claimed that the soldiers acted correctly to the best of their understanding, as they interpreted the captives’ cries for help as a ruse.
These captives could have been alive today if Israel had agreed to ceasefire agreements early on. Just days after Israel’s genocidal assault of Gaza commenced, Hamas had offered to release all of the captives if the Israeli military didn’t enter Gaza, former political adviser and leader of an advocacy organization for the captives’ families Haim Rubinstein told Times of Israel earlier this year.
Since then, Israel has rejected ceasefire deal after ceasefire deal, with Israeli leaders openly expressing their contempt for the very idea of stopping their genocide in Gaza at any point. There is widespread unrest among Israelis for the government’s failure to secure a hostage release, but Israeli leaders’ actions in the ceasefire negotiations have made it clear that a hostage release is not a top priority for them.
Just earlier this month, Israeli media reported that three captives whose bodies were recently recovered from Gaza were actually slated for release in a ceasefire deal discussed in July. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively single handedly killed that deal, introducing a number of last-minute demands that he knew Hamas and other countries’ negotiators would reject — like a permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Additionally, Israeli media have reported this week that Netanyahu is reportedly considering dismissing his defense minister Yoav Gallant and replacing him with a political leader whose party has helped cement Netanyahu’s power amid the genocide. Gallant has been a critic of Netanyahu, and recently called for a ceasefire after being in favor of the genocidal invasion last year.
Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel continue its genocide, even at the expense of the lives of Israeli captives, has led many in Israeli society to conclude that Netanyahu doesn’t care about the captives; rather, he relishes in their deaths as new opportunities to demonize Hamas and justify his genocide of Palestinians, as some commentators have noted.
It is clear, then, that Israel’s main goal in Gaza is death and occupation. UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine Francesca Albanese has warned that Israel is on track to wipe out the entire population of Gaza if it continues along this path, and that the true death toll of Palestinians could be estimated at 335,500 as of this month — with no end to Israel’s invasion in sight.
Opening Pandora’s Electronic Box
Assassination without Representation
Dennis Kucinich, Sep 18, 2024, https://denniskucinich.substack.com/p/opening-pandoras-electronic-box?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1441588&post_id=149073793&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=puo10&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
With assassination by pagers and electronic devices occurring in Lebanon, the weaponization of things electronic, the world has entered into a sphere of activity where there is no refuge, no safety, no security, and no privacy.
This weaponization, the booby trapping of, the hacking of all things electronic can make phones, laptops, computers, television and radios vulnerable to being blown up.
It affects all modes of communication, transportation, utilities, all local and state law enforcement, all national defense installations, including nuclear sites, the entire infrastructure of modern life. Nothing is protected and nothing is safe. Everything electronic is a weapon.
We have journeyed from the Internet of Things to the destruction of all things and all people connected to the internet. Turning electronics into personal bombing devices will have major economic and social consequences. It is both discriminate and indiscriminate, personal and impersonal, mass murder and mass injuries, calculated to induce fear, to break communication between people, to bring about a system of control by government(s) and to ultimately undermine our freedoms. We have just witnessed the opening of Pandora’s Electronic Box.
Who developed this technology? Where was it tested? How was it implemented? Why? Where will it be used next? That such murderous technology was employed, and detonated remotely, against the people of Lebanon, in the name of attacking Hezbollah echoes the genocidal fury against the people of Gaza in the name of wiping out Hamas. It is a mission which will only embolden the enemies of Israel and will erode its support in the civilized world.
This is appropriately a matter for the world community. But as an American and as a potential Member of the next United States Congress, I want it made known that if the United States is involved in either the development of, or the sharing of this technology, or in the attacks in Lebanon using devices booby trapped through an illicit incursion into a supply chain, I will seek the indictment for war crimes of every individual involved, no matter their rank or station. The world and everyone in it is at risk from a new type of terrorism.
2nd Wave of Explosions Hits Communications Devices Across Lebanon
By Owen Evans and Ryan Morgan, 9/18/2024
A Hezbollah official says walkie-talkies used by the group exploded across Beirut, a day after pagers blew up.
Electronic devices detonated across southern Lebanon and in Beirut’s southern suburbs for the second day in a row on Sept. 18, according to Lebanese officials and witnesses who spoke with Reuters.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says at least 14 people were killed and more than 450 were injured in the second wave of explosions.
Several of the Wednesday blasts were reported at funerals organized for those killed in a wave of exploding handheld electronic pagers the day prior. The Wednesday funerals processions were being held for slain members of Hezbollah; an Iranian-aligned Shia Islamist Lebanese faction designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. The funeral processions were also reportedly being held on behalf of a young girl and a young boy who were caught up in the wave of pager blasts.
Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported explosions in multiple areas of Lebanon, which it said were caused by detonating walkie-talkies.
Local reports indicated at least one car and a mobile phone shop were also damaged after devices exploded inside of them on Wednesday. A woman was also reportedly hurt when a home solar energy system blew up in southern Lebanon.
The Epoch Times has not been able to independently corroborate these claims.
22,500 Palestinians Now Have Life-Changing Injuries Due to Israel’s Genocide
At least 3,000 Palestinians have had their limbs amputated as a result of Israeli attacks, WHO estimates.
By Sharon Zhang , Truthout, September 12, 2024, https://truthout.org/articles/22500-palestinians-now-have-life-changing-injuries-due-to-israels-genocide/
srael’s genocide has inflicted permanent, life-changing injuries to about a quarter of the nearly 100,000 Palestinians reported injured by Israeli attacks in the last 11 months, according to an analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to a report using data up until July, roughly 22,500 Palestinians who have been wounded in Israeli attacks have sustained life-changing injuries that will require medical care for years into the future, WHO has estimated.
The majority of these are severe limb injuries, which are affecting roughly between 13,500 and 17,500. Of these, between 3,100 and 4,000 are limb amputations, the report says, though it notes that “anecdotal reports indicate this number may be higher.” It also notes that there will need to be an increase in prosthetic services in the region as a result.
The report also finds that there are likely about 2,000 spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries and at least 2,000 burn injuries, all of which require long-term and specialized care that is largely unavailable in Gaza, due to Israel’s systematic dismantling of Gaza’s health system.
The WHO made the estimates based on medical data reported from Gaza, and the types of injuries identified from those reports.
WHO says that the analysis is a show of the dire need for health care services in Gaza.
“The huge surge in rehabilitation needs occurs in parallel with the ongoing decimation of the health system,” said Richard Peeperkorn, a WHO representative for Palestine. “Patients can’t get the care they need. Acute rehabilitation services are severely disrupted and specialized care for complex injuries is not available, placing patients’ lives at risk.”
The report is a show of the severe impact of Israel’s genocide beyond just the death toll, and one of the myriad ways Israel’s campaign has permanently scarred the Palestinian population.
Because Israel is injuring more people every day in its relentless bombardments and attacks on Palestinians, it is likely that the number of severe injuries is higher now. And, because the report relies on data from emergency sources, there is likely much more life-changing physical harm from things like Israel’s starvation or disease campaigns that are not included in the count.
According to counts by the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 95,000 people have been injured amid Israel’s genocide, while over 41,000 have been killed. The true death toll, as many experts have noted, is likely far higher; UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese has warned that Israel is on track to exterminate the entire population of Gaza if international powers do not intervene to stop their genocide.
The report does not specify how many children have suffered severe injuries. But children make up nearly half of the population of Gaza, and Save the Children has previously noted that, in the first three months of the genocide, Israel caused over 10 children a day to lose one or both legs.
Opposed to Netanyahu, two-thirds of Israelis want to negotiate with Hamas
Voltairenet.org, by Thierry Meyssan 13 Sept 24
The recent general strike in Israel is not just a demonstration against the rhetoric that we shouldn’t negotiate with terrorists and that the IDF will release the hostages held in Gaza. It marks the beginning of a realization that Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu is not defending Jews. While Jewish Israelis are not yet aware of the ethnic cleansing in Gaza, they are becoming aware of the anti-Arab pogroms in the West Bank. Gradually, they are beginning to admit that their enemies are not their neighbours, but are among them. These are the revisionist Zionists.
Voltaire Network | Paris (France) | 12 September 2024
Israeli public opinion is changing. After having turned away from Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, ineffective during the October 7 attack, some Israelis rallied behind him again after the Iranian retaliation on April 11. About a third of them now support him. They are both settlers, illegally implanted in the West Bank, and citizens who perceive Arabs, Turks and Persians as enemies.
The remaining two-thirds are slowly opening their eyes. The execution of six hostages by Hamas on August 31, just as the “Defense Forces” (IDF) were about to free them, showed them that, far from allowing their release, the presence of soldiers in Gaza condemns them to death. They now see the Prime Minister’s obstinacy in invading not only Gaza, but also the West Bank, to the detriment of the hostages’ lives, as proof that he serves the interests of the settlers alone, and not those of all Israeli Jews. Yet they fail to see the suffering of Israeli Arabs, the pogroms in the West Bank and the ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
It was against this backdrop that Israel’s historic trade union, the Histadrut, which was the main Yichuv organization between the wars, called a general strike. ……………………………………………………the strike was well attended. It inscribed in the minds of Israelis that Benyamin Netanyahu did not defend Jews, that he had never defended them.
At the same time, one of the government’s 32 members, Defense Minister General Yoav Gallant, declared in cabinet that the Prime Minister’s new objective of occupying the Philadelphia Corridor (i.e., the small Egyptian-Gazawi border strip) violates the Camp David Accords without bringing the slightest strategic advantage. When the cabinet discussion turned to invective, General Gallant took the matter public……………………………………………………………………………..
At the time, no one understood the connection between the unionists and the general. However, we later learned that he had been dismissed for having exploded in the Council of Ministers and demanded an explanation for the Prime Minister’s lack of reaction to reports from the Shin Bet (counter-intelligence) and the IDF. Four months before the October 7 attack, all Israeli intelligence services were drafting report after report announcing the “Perfect Storm” (code name for the October 7 “Al-Aqsa Flood” operation) that the Palestinian Resistance was preparing. The Prime Minister refused to listen. He remained deaf to General Gallant’s outburst. He did not defend his country during the October 7 attack, but used it to ethnically cleanse Gaza and allowed anti-Arab pogroms to multiply in the West Bank.
As a result, the question we’ve been asking since mid-November [1] is also starting to resonate with Israelis: what if Benyamin Netanyahu wasn’t incompetent, but an accomplice in the attack?
This question is on the minds of many Israelis, who have called for a state commission of inquiry into all aspects of the October 7 attack, its preparation and response. Israel’s Attorney General, Gali Baharav Miara, who considers the issue relevant, has also called for this. However, Benjamin Netanyahu and his accomplices opposed it.
This question has been on everyone’s lips ever since the Israeli press revealed that the counter-espionage Shin Bet/Shabak had warned the Prime Minister of the imminent attack 10 weeks earlier [2]. This time, we’re no longer talking about foreign sources, but about one of Israel’s security agencies.
Gradually, the story of the current coalition government resurfaces. Jewish supremacists (the Kahanists) are not just another Jewish sect. Certainly, they militate for the destruction of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the rebuilding in its place of Solomon’s temple, whereas the Haredi rabbis, both Ashkenazi and Sephardic, in addition to the leading Israeli rabbis, consider such acts impure and forbid all Jews to enter the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa mosque. They thus seem to distinguish themselves from the revisionist Zionists of Volodymyr Jabotinski and Benzion Netanhayou, who campaigned for a Jewish state from the Nile to the Euphrates. In reality, Rabbi Meïr Kahane was an agent of Yitzhak Shamir (Jabotinky’s successor) in the United States, who financed him through Mossad, of which he was then one of the leaders. In fact, during his first term as Prime Minister, in 1996, Benjamin Netanyahu had a tunnel dug under the Al-Aqsa mosque.
No one in Israel would fail to recall that Volodymyr Jabotinsky and Benzion Netanhayou (the Prime Minister’s father) were allies of Benito Mussolini, who hosted their militia, the Betar, in Rome [3]. A fortiori, no Israeli dares question the links between these historic fascists and Nazism. It’s true that Jabotinsky died at the start of the war, on August 4, 1940, in New York, without having to comment on the latter’s racial ideology. But during the inter-war period, as a director of the (World) Zionist Organization, he had allied himself with the Ukrainian integral nationalists of Symon Petlioura and Dmytro Dontsov against the Soviets. Their men massacred Jews without eliciting the slightest reaction from him. When the Zionist Organization demanded an explanation, he resigned without reply.
David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first Allied Prime Minister, said that Jabotinsky was surely a fascist and possibly a Nazi, which is why he opposed the transfer of his ashes to Jerusalem.
The question arises for two reasons: firstly, revisionist Zionists conducted negotiations with the Nazis throughout the Second World War against the Allies. It was the Germans who refused to go any further in their collaboration, whereas the Jewish followers of Jabotinsky were for continuing……………………. more https://www.voltairenet.org/article221242.html
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