Global Research

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

First published on February 13, 2022

***

Through its Young Global Leaders program, the World Economic Forum has been instrumental in shaping a world order that undermines all democratic principles. For several decades, this program has nurtured compliant leaders acting as WEF agents in governments around the world. The consequences are far-reaching and may turn out to be devastating for humanity. 

I have to say then I mention names like Mrs Merkel, even Vladimir Putin and so on they all have been Young Global Leaders of The World Economic Forum. But what we are really proud of now with the young generation like Prime Minister Trudeau, President of Argentina and so on, is that we penetrate the cabinets… It is true in Argentina and it is true in France now… (Klaus Schwab)

Click here or image to access Video 

In 1992, Klaus Schwab and World Economic Forum launched a program initially called Global Leaders of Tomorrow.

In 2004, this program was turned into the Forum for Young Global Leaders (which I cover in my book The Global Coup D’Etat) –  a 5-year program of indoctrination into WEFs principles and goals.

The aim was – and is – to find suitable future leaders for the emerging global society. The program has since its inception has included politicians, business leaders, royalty, journalists, performers and other cultural influencers who have excelled in their fields but have not yet turned 40 years of age (originally 43 in order to include Angela Merkel). It has since grown into an extensive global network of dedicated leaders with enormous resources and influence, all working to implement the technocratic plans of the World Economic Forum in their respective nations and fields.

The network creates a force for worldwide influence through the combination of the individual skills and resources of its members.

As Klaus Schwab says in the introductory quote, it has become very successful.

Already in the first year, 1992, a number of highly influential candidates were elected. Among 200 selected were global profiles such as Angela Merkel, Tony Blair, Nicolas Sarkozy, Bill Gates, Bono, Richard Branson (Virgin), Jorma Ollila (Shell Oil), and José Manuel Barroso (President of the European Commission 2004–2014).[1]

More examples of influential Young Global Leaders [2]:

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden
Crown Prince Haakon of Norway
Crown Prince Fredrik of Denmark
Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Netherlands
Princess Reema Bint Bandar Al-Saud, Ambassador for Saudi-Arabia in USA
Jacinda Arden, Prime Minister, New Zeeland
Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister, Belgium
Emmanuel Macron, President, France
Sanna Marin, Prime Minister, Finland
Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President, Costa Rica
Faisal Alibrahim, Minister of Economy and Planning, Saudi Arabia
Shauna Aminath, Minister of Environment, Climate Change and Technology, Maldives
Ida Auken, MP, former Minister of Environment, Denmark (author to the infamous article “Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better”)
Annalena Baerbock, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leader of Alliance 90/Die Grünen, Germany
Kamissa Camara, Minister of the Digital Economy and Planning, Mali
Ugyen Dorji, Minister of Domestic Affairs, Bhutan
Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Canada
Martín Guzmán, Minister of Finance, Argentina
Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Minister of Energy, Pakistan
Paula Ingabire, Minister of Information and communications technology and Innovation, Rwanda
Ronald Lamola, Minister of Justice and Correctional Services, South Africa
Birgitta Ohlson, Minister for European Union Affairs 2010–2014, Sweden
Mona Sahlin, Party Leader of the Social Democrats 2007–2011, Sweden
Stav Shaffir, Leader of the Green Party, Israel
Vera Daves de Sousa, Minister of Finance, Angola
Leonardo Di Caprio, actor and Climate Activist
Mattias Klum, photographer and Environmentalist
Jack Ma, Founder of Alibaba
Larry Page, Founder of Google
Ricken Patel, Founder of Avaaz
David de Rothschild, adventurer and Environmentalist
Jimmy Wale, Founder of Wikipedia
Jacob Wallenberg, Chairman of Investor
Niklas Zennström, Founder of Skype
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook

The purpose from the beginning has been to “identify and advance a future-oriented global agenda, focusing on issues at the intersection of the public and private sectors.”

Public–Private Partnerships is one of the cornerstones of the World Economic Forum philosophy. That is, a merger between state and large companies (also known as corporativism) with the aim of solving global problems of in a more “effective” way. The choice of leaders clearly reflects this aspiration.

The Young Global Leaders group was initially instructed to identify the major challenges of the 21st century. These included peace, the environment, education, technology and health – areas which these upcoming leaders could exploit politically, economically, and culturally in the new millennium.

Partners for Global Leaders of Tomorrow in 2000 were large global companies such as The Coca Cola Company, Ernst & Young, Volkswagen, and BP Amoco. These could contribute to the agenda by “playing an active role in developing and implementing the concept of the GLT project. The partners can therefore actively participate in the development of GLT programs; representatives of the partner companies as well as their guests are invited to GLT meetings .. ”Since the Global Leaders of Tomorrow was turned into Young Global Leaders 2004, partners such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and JPMorganChase (with alumni from the program) have also participated as sponsors.

The ultimate consequence of both public–private partnerships and these target areas is the creation of a largely tyrannical  social contract in which the individual has become subordinated to these powerful interests. Noble goals of creating a better world have also been kidnapped. This is especially evident in the context of the partnership between the WEF and the UN and the implementation of the global goals (Agenda 2030) through the application of the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This means that the democratic principles and division of power of the 20th century have largely been completely undermined and instead replaced by a new global class that shapes our common future based on their own interests.

This has led to a de facto privatisation of both  national governments and international organisations, where lobbyists are no longer kept in the lobby but have moved into the seat of power, shaping policies directly affecting our lives. What this means has become particularly evident since the pandemic was declared in March 2020. In addition, leading multinational investment management corporations such as BlackRock, led by the World Economic Forum’s own Larry Fink, have constantly moved their positions forward.

German economist and journalist Ernst Wolff believes that many of the national leaders included in the Young Global Leader program have been selected for their willingness to carry out the tough agenda of lockdowns in recent years without asking any questions, and that their impending failure (as evidenced by in a growing dissatisfaction of the masses) will be used as an excuse to create a new form of Global Government where the old nation states become largely obsolete.

A new global digital currency with Universal Basic Income (UBI) can then be gradually introduced to replace our doomed monetary system.[3] This conclusion partly coincides with my own.

It is also supported by Paul Raskin‘s scenarios from The Great Transition Initiative on how  a totalitarian “New Earth Order” is established, to be replaced in the long run by a global democratic government (Earth Federation) with a World Constitution.[4]

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the catastrophic failure of an every-country-for-itself approach to public health, and national economic interests, rather than global needs, continue to dominate discussions of climate policy, paving the path toward climate chaos.

Under the tricameral World Parliament come the four main agencies of the Earth Federation government: the World Supreme Court system, the World Executive, the World Enforcement System, and the World Ombudsman.[5]

Glen T. Martin, The Great Transition Requires the Earth Constitution

The vision is that a peaceful and harmonious world in balance is created through the establishment of a World Federation with a World Parliament, World Government and a World Court. These are ideas that have long circulated in Club of Rome and closely connected New Age circles.

The question is how such a new global system of power would escape the fate of being kidnapped by the same interests that created our current corrupt and failing system?

This is in view of those who support projects such as The Great Transition (initiated with start-up capital from Steven Rockefeller). What is happening is rather a method of taking us to their ultimate solution in the form of a global technocratic control system.

However, it is highly unlikely that this plan will succeed. Awareness is spreading like wildfire and the panic of the elite increases as their narrative crumbles and people become more and more immune to the propaganda. Hence all the inquisitors and “fact checkers” who diligently gatekeep the narrative and help steer public opinion in the “right” direction. They are surely to be trusted since, for example, David Roy Thomson, Chairman of the Thomson Reuters Corporation, is an alumni of Global Leaders of Tomorrow, class of 1993.

It is now time to take control of our own destinies and to avoid falling into new traps.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram, @globalresearch_crg. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Thanks to investigative journalist Cory Morningstar for the clip that inspired this blog article. Follow her blog Wrong Kind of Green.

Notes

[1] World Economic Forum, GLT Class of 1993.pdf

[2] World Economic Forum, Young Global Leaders Community (searchable list over YGL alumni)

[3] Michael Lord, “Exposed: Klaus Schwab’s School For Covid Dictators, Plan for ‘Great Reset’“, RAIR Foundation, November 10, 2021

[4] Paul Raskin, Journey to Earthland: The Great Transition to Planetary Civilization.pdf, Tellus Institute, Boston, 2016

[5] Glen T. Martin, The Great Transition Requires the Earth Constitution“, Great Transition Initiative, November 2021

All images in this article are from Pharos

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

First published on February 4, 2022

Peter Koenig with foresight predicted what is happening worldwide

***

Introduction

Remember Bill Gates’ initiative, Agenda ID2020?

What we are confronted with now is much worse. It’s Agenda ID2020 on steroids. It’s the worldwide invasion of the QR code – QR coding of everything, including Agenda ID2020 – and all of your most intimate data, health, personal behaviors, habits – track records of where we have been and even where we may be planning to go. Nothing will escape the QR code. Nobody talks about it.

It’s been quietly sneaking into our lives, quietly, persistently – but by now almost unavoidably.

“What is the infamous ID2020?  It’s an electronic ID program that uses generalized (Covid) “vaccination” as a platform for digital identity. … The program harnesses existing birth registration and vaccination operations to provide newborns with a portable and persistent biometrically-linked digital identity.”

Agenda ID2020 aims at connecting everything with everything, eventually covering and connecting data from the planet’s 7.9 billion people, gradually building up individual, as well as societal data banks, including your highly personal data, bank account information, work information, behavioral trends, criminal records, relations with friends and family – an endless stream of everything that may be linked to an individual, or groups of individuals, and that may be watched and controlled.

See this and this.

An intense and as we know by now, coercive, even forced “vaccination” program against a virus that does not exist, accompanied by a well-studied psychological fear drive, day-in day-out, 24/7, attempting to bring people to their knees.

It’s been going on for two years. The media in charge of this campaign has been exceedingly subsidized and corrupted by the respective governments  and would one or the other of these bought media fall off the bandwagon, their existence would be wiped out in a flicker.

Forced mask wearing – dangerous, as the masks prevent the absorption of vital oxygen – and social distancing are lowering people’s self-esteem, making them even more submissive and obedient.

The government lies to the people in order to get them as soon as possible and as often as possible “vaxxed” with a so-called mRNA gene-modifying and electro-magnetic killer substance that contains graphene oxide.

This poisonous substance will literally kill people (see this –  Spanish “Fifth Column’s” findings). It is in itself a premeditated crime of unheard-of proportions, a crime against humanity. It reminds of the post-WWII Nuremberg trials of 1945-1946.

The tyranny and atrocity that has taken place over the past two years is unique in human history. It spans across the globe and, thus, in several regards surpasses the horrendous crimes of war.

The QR Code

While Agenda ID2020 has been silently adopted by most countries as a first phase of this monster surveillance program of the vaxx survivors, the time has come to universalize Agenda ID2020 into an all-encompassing uniform worldwide digitized platform called “Quick Response”, or QR code. Google calls it a barcode on steroids.

While the barcode holds information horizontally, the QR code does so both horizontally and vertically. This enables the QR code to hold exponentially more information than a barcode.

And here lays the danger: the QR code can accommodate literally all the information your life has ever produced or accumulated in a single square code, unreadable to the bare eye. It can be read only electronically by a digitized QR code reader which is set to read only specific data, as required by the authority concerned. Only the QR code central management system can read all the data.

Data Management

Mind you, in an ever more neoliberal world, outsourcing or what is euphemistically called public-private-partnership (PPP) has become the order of the day. It is very well possible that a PPP arrangement is made by a government with a large private sector agency or agencies, such as private banking and/or the insurance industry. Imagine, your personal, including very intimate private data, in the hands of a bank or insurance company. Unbelievable. But no longer very far-fetched.

The private sector may even trade it for money. Never mind the type of contract they sign with their government, in a lawless world as we have reached in just about two years, everything is possible.

No legal system works, as we are seeing everyday. No lawsuit against the current tyranny is accepted by any judge, as they are afraid of “punishment”. They have all been warned. So have all the medical and science professionals who want to stay within the system – and keep earning their and their families’ sustenance. They are being blackmailed or coerced to betray us, we the People.

The law and ethics are gone. No illusions. We are alone out there. And in many ways, that’s good, as long as we are aware and awake, and start depending on our own ingenuity, not on a corrupt system, hoping senselessly their masters will help us. Instead, we must take our lives in our own hands, search for alternatives. Breaking out of The Matrix. Take the red pill.

The system we have today will never help Us, the People. Never. To the contrary, the tarnished tenants forming the backbone of the “system”, for their sheer survival, they keep betraying Us, their colleagues and co-citizens. That’s what makes it so hard to believe. The very people we pay with our taxes are so miserably betraying us. They are trying to sell us out to the compulsory and deadly vaxx machine.

Even though, most if not all the medical doctors and scientists who opted for the blue pill (the conformists of The Matrix, movie) and whom we consult for our health, know what these so-called vaxxes do – they know, these poison concoctions result in mortality and morbidity. Are they are part of a “depopulation” initiative? Are they complicit with the system, against us?

Over the past 10 to 15 years, the QR code has gradually and silently been stealing its way into every corner of our lives. The vaxx pass, whether “vaccinated” or healed from Covid, or by having to take – or being scared into taking – multiple PCR tests, at every occasion, has been an argument to give each one of us world citizens a personalized QR code.

No matter how invalid the PCR tests are, they are pushed on us – you can’t enter any restaurants, any supermarket, any cinema, any closed area, and the list goes on, without a PCR test. So, the multiple PCR test results will be put on our individual QR code.

Nobody is really interested in the PCR test, but they are perfect pretexts to expand the data base on our QR code – where and why did we take the test?

The inventor of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method, Dr. Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize winning biochemist, said way before Covid appeared on the horizon, that the PCR method was not meant to test for diseases and especially for viruses. On 7 August 2019, he was mysteriously found dead in his apartment.

This was only a few months before Event 201 (18 October 2019, in NYC) which effectively launched SARS-CoV-2, alias Covid-19.

Did the players of Event 201 already plan to use this useless test to drive up the SARS-Cov-2 “infections”, enhance the Covid statistics and spread fear – fear to facilitate the deadly vaxx drive?

The German virologist Dr. Christian Drosten, also known as the Coronavirus Czar, as part of the bought scientific clan, had indeed soon after the launching of SARS-CoV-2 decided that the PCR method was to be used massively, but massively, for the testing of the Covid virus in people, including in children as young as five years, no matter whether they had any symptoms or not.

According to real science, even including WHO and CDC, the test produces a 97% false positives. But the steamroller of the ruthless, inhuman and lawless governments pays no attention to the truth. The masters of deception continue pushing ahead with their PCR and vaxx drive, relentlessly – to increase the Covid statistics and eventually the “Covid death toll”.

The QR code is instrumental in perpetuating the lies about Covid.

By now, the QR code is everywhere

Virtually all citizens of at least the western world have a personalized QR code. It holds more, much more than health data. Payments can increasingly be made only through a QR coded message via a cell phone. Restaurants don’t give you anymore written menus. You have to scan a QR code on your smart phone. It’s all for your safety. You don’t touch potentially virus infected paper. In museums, parks, anywhere you go and want to read an information related to what you are watching, you have to scan a QR code.

The same with cash – in some places cash is no longer accepted. Official reason: Paper money and coins could be virus-infected. Digital money to be paid via QR code is the solution. People go for it. It’s so cool; just swipe your QR code in front of a payment device. The money is instantly deducted from your electronic bank account.

What (most) people do not realize is that every time you scan a QR code, it’s registered on your personalized QR code. In other words, you’re traceable wherever you go. They, the masters that be, know at every moment, real time, where you are, what you are doing, what you are buying, whether you buy an air ticket.

If you don’t behave according to the “system’s” values, they can turn off your money stream. They can indefinitely block your money or simply take it out of your account. You are totally at their mercy — enslaved. If not already, then soon, with the graphene oxide in your body, you are manipulable with the infamous and dangerous 5G ultra-short waves. Sooner or later, the QR code will be in our body, remotely accessible by artificial intelligence (AI) or robots.

You may then convert from a human to a transhuman, what Klaus Schwab – the WEF Czar — had already predicted in 2016 in an interview with Swiss French TV (first section of video below)

Video: Towards Digital Tyranny with Peter Koenig

Click here to link to bitchute version

What if you have taken the red pill and resist the mind manipulations? They may turn you off. Literally. Remotely. Your family would never know what happened.

We are not there yet. As it looks like today, it is almost impossible to get rid of the QR code. Yet we have to find ways to escape it. It may mean working towards an alternative society, detached from OWO slavehood that may descend on us, before we know it, if we keep going along with “mandates” and the all-encompassing QR code.

What can we do? We have to wake up, and those of us who are awake, help others to make that step forward and out of the comfort zone.

In parallel we have to bring the perpetrators to justice. This movement is already under way by Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, the head of the German Corona Investigative Committee. Reiner Fuellmich just announced that he and a team of lawyers, scientists and witnesses are about to launch a Grand Jury, either at the International Criminal Court (ICC), The Hague, or in a newly created Court of Justice with judges who are not beholden to the dark masters of crime.

And also simultaneously, we may have to start building a new civilization, with new societies, a new beginning, outside and totally detached of the current system. This may be the biggest challenge because it will require sacrifices. It may cause misery and famine, and even death for some. Such losses may be the price as part of winning the war, if we are to escape the current flow of things – the impending One World Order – and the consequential tyranny – and enslavement, the dehumanization.

Nothing is impossible. “Venceremos!” The tide is turning – and we are entering a period of light, a bright light of a transparent new civilization, with human rights, with respect for each other and in solidarity. We may succeed, if we all put into our heads the positive and relentless thinking of VENCEREMOS – we shall overcome. Willpower, an element of quantum science, is invincible.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share buttons above or below. Follow us on Instagram, @globalresearch_crg. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he has worked for over 30 years on water and environment around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020)

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Featured image: The CommonPass generated QR code is shown. Original image sourced from the Common Project

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name.

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Image: Netanyahu talks to Wounded Al Qaeda mercenary at Golan Heights IDF Military Field Hospital 

***

For those who have doubts concerning the criminality and insidious role of Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and his government:  

1. Netanyahu is on Record for Supporting and Financing Hamas:  

---

IMPORTANT UPDATE: GAZA HOSPITAL: THE DENIAL OF CRIMINALITY

6. Video: Israeli Air Burst Bomb Striking al-Ahli Hospital Grounds. New Evidence

Stunning new video evidence reveals that Israel is likely the culprit behind the al-Ahli hospital bombing which killed more than 500 Palestinians as they slept on the hospital courtyard grounds (right next to the parking lot that was bombed).

Most conservative media publishers in America are missing key, critical evidence that overwhelmingly points to an Israeli-launched air burst bomb being used, specifically to blame Hamas and justify further atrocities in Gaza.

VIDEO

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Just in from Al Jazeera – Zionist Defense Forces (ZDF) are raiding cash machines (ATM), banks and exchange outlets in the occupied West Bank. They are stealing millions of dollars, under the pretext that the money is serving to finance resistance groups.

When, in reality, they are depriving Palestinians of their means of survival – buying food and merchandise that has not yet been banned from entering West Bank Palestine territories. Click image below to view video .

There is no end in sight for Zionist atrocities. Hence, it might be unfair to call killer-war forces Israel Defense Forces (IDF). More appropriate seems to be the term Zionist Defense Forces.

Yes, they are soldiers and must obey orders. But really? 

Foremost they are humans and have a conscience. Their mind tells them no matter how deep down, that what they are doing is wrong, is not only against any human law and reasoning, but is against the Principles of the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal, laid out in the Tribunal’s Judgment of 1950.

In other words, these Israeli soldiers, many of whom do not agree with Netanyahu’s genocide policy, could leave the battlefield – legally. In fact, according to the rulings of the Nuremberg Charter, they MUST leave the battlefield, if they sense that orders they receive are against human rights and against the laws of ethics: 

It is not through “negotiations” with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Biden, both of whom are responsible for “crimes punishable under International Law” (See Principle VI) that we will be able to put an end to the genocidal attack against the People of Palestine. 

What is required is a campaign which enables Israeli, U.S. and NATO combatants To Disobey Unlawful Orders” and “Abandon the Battlefield”.

Principle IV of the Nuremberg Charter  defines the responsibility of combatants to refuse the orders of Government or a superior … “provided a moral choice [is] possible“. 

What is required is to initiate a campaign in Israel and Worldwide to make that “moral choice” possible, to enable enlisted Israeli, American, and NATO service men and women to “Abandon the Battlefield”. (Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, December 27, 2023)

Question, when and where does inhumanity stop and humanity begin?

What is the trigger – that starts Peace?

Is it a butterfly somewhere in Asia waving through the air that will bring a seed of Peace in the Middle East or Ukraine – or just about anywhere in the world – to start taking hold on Mother Earth’s soil and slowly grow?

It is called the butterfly effect. It obeys no rules, no digital commands, it is sheer incalculable dynamics at play.

Eventually, this growing seed may be helped by someone, who comes its way, and who will regularly nourish it with water, until the seed develops its own roots and finds its own water – and grows and grows autonomously, bigger than the tallest palm tree in the world – seeking water from deep down in the earth, so deep that no one can bar the tree’s access to its survival nutrition, WATER. 

Water is Peace – but humans MUST stand by and see to it that the seeds of Peace receive their daily portion of water to grow. It is a question of consciousness.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image is a screenshot from Al Jazeera

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

 

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

On December 20 the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) held national multi-party elections in a country with a population of approximately 100 million people.

Popularly known in the past as the “Heart of Congo”, the DRC is one of the richest areas in the world regarding its strategic minerals and metals along with vast swaths of rainforests and arable land.

However, despite the wealth in natural resources, a large section of the population remains mired in poverty and insecurity. Multinational mining firms and financial institutions which facilitate their operations dominate the economy of the country like so many others across the continent.

Official results from the elections indicate that incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi is heading towards being declared the winner. There are opposition parties which have already declared the elections as fraudulent, prompting demonstrations against the administration.

The government has prohibited any protest actions related to the results of the vote calculations and criticism of the process. Some news reports claim that dozens have already been killed and injured in election-related violence.

There are several historical factors which have contributed to the current political situation in the DRC. Since its national independence from Belgium in June 1960, the former colonial power, the United States and other imperialist powers sought to undermine and subvert the trajectory being established by the first democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and his party known as the Congolese National Movement (MNC).

Lumumba was heavily influenced by the national liberation and Pan-Africanist political currents which took control of their governments from imperialism during the late 1950s. When the Ghana government under the Convention People’s Party (CPP) and its then Prime Minister Dr. Kwame Nkrumah convened the First All-African People’s Conference in Accra in December 1958, Patrice Lumumba (image right) was in attendance along with more than 60 other political parties and mass independence movements. Figures such as Guinean President Ahmed Sekou Toure, Frantz Fanon of the Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN), Tom Mboya of the trade union movement in Kenya, among others played important roles during this period of transition from colonialism to emergent independent states.

After winning the largest bloc of votes in the June 1960 elections, a series of events occurred leading to mutinies within the Belgian-dominated security forces; the house arrest of Lumumba by the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces which had been invited into the Congo by the MNC government; Lumumba’s flight to the eastern region of the country; and the eventual capture, torture and execution of the prime minister and two of his cabinet members by the Belgians, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and their agents under the supervision of Mobuto Sese Seko and Moise Tshombe.

Mobutu’s control of the country beginning in October 1960, later named Zaire, continued the process of economic exploitation of the land and labor of the Congolese people. When Mobutu was overthrown in May 1997, Laurent Kabila, a former fighter with the Lumumba forces, became the head-of-state. However, the fallout between Kabila and the governments of Rwanda and Uganda led to a protracted military conflict which lasted from 1998-2003. The intervention of Rwanda and Uganda prompted the deployment of tens of thousands of troops from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) led by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola.

A negotiated resolution to the war after 2003 brought about the involvement of UN peacekeepers and the eventual joining of the SADC by the DRC. Over the last two decades the instability in the eastern DRC has continued.

At present the two most formidable rebel groupings, the M23 and Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), continue to terrorize the population. The M23 has been accused of enjoying support from neighboring Rwanda while the ADF, which has its origins in Uganda, is patterned on the ISIS-affiliated organizations which arose in West Asia more than a decade ago.

Consequently, the further fracturing of the political parties contesting the recently held elections does not bode well for the future stability of the DRC. In a report published by Al Jazeera it says:

“The vote has been marred by accusations of corruption and chaotic organization since it kicked off on Wednesday, with authorities extending the poll into Thursday after some polling stations failed to open and some voters could not find their names on registers. While electoral authorities officially extended the vote only until Thursday, ballots were still being cast on Saturday in remote areas. The unscheduled extension prompted fierce pushback from opposition candidates, some of whom labelled the move unconstitutional and called for a new election.” 

Until the crises of governance in the DRC can be effectively resolved in the interests of the majority of working people, farmers and youth, the heart of Africa will continue under severe duress. An emphasis on Pan-African unification and socialism provides the only pathway towards genuine freedom and social emancipation.

SADC and Political Unity

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) was founded in 1992 in the newly independent Republic of Namibia. Previously known as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC), founded in 1980 in Zambia, this sub-continental organization grew directly out of the necessities of the struggle against white-minority rule in the region during the 1980s and early 1990s.

After the overthrow of the apartheid system in South Africa in April 1994, the SADC region was poised to make progressive strides towards economic integration and political unification. Most of the member-states have periodic elections and avoid the military seizure of power. However, there have been exceptions in the case of the Kingdom of Lesotho in previous years. In addition, a rebel Al-Shabaab grouping has waged a terror campaign in the northern Cabo Delgado province of the Republic of Mozambique.

In the case of Mozambique, the government of Rwanda along with SADC military forces have been deployed to Cabo Delgado to fight the insurgents. In previous years, the rebels were able to disrupt the development of a liquified natural gas project jointly operated between the Mozambique government and the French energy corporation Total since 2017.

Nonetheless, reports emanating from the SADC during 2023 revealed that due to the intervention of the regional organization with Rwanda, the stability of northern Mozambique has been re-established. Modern Diplomacy wrote in a July article that:

“Mozambique now enjoys relative peace due to the SADC regional force. President Filipe Nyusi has been sharing this valuable experience about the use of well-constituted regional military force for enforcing peace and security in his country. Creating regional military forces to fight threats of terrorism will absolutely not require bartering the entire gold or diamond mines for the purchase of military equipment from external countries, he emphasized several times at different conferences. Now, Mozambique has relative peace and stability after the 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) had finally approved the deployment of joint military force with the primary responsibility of ensuring peace and stability, and for restoring normalcy in the Cabo Delgado province, northern Mozambique.” 

If this stability in Cabo Delgado proves to be sustainable it could very well serve as a model for similar crises such as the DRC. The capacity of the African Union (AU) and regional associates to resolve their own problems would mark a tremendous leap towards full unification and sovereignty.

U.S. Imperialism and the 21st Century Cold War

Washington and Wall Street are vying incessantly to reclaim influence within AU member-states in light of the public sentiment which is far more favorable towards the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. The myths of the “Chinese debt traps” have been refuted even by western media outlets.

The positions taken by the majority of African states towards the Russian special military operation in Ukraine has been geared towards a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement of the conflict. These views on Ukraine conflict with the administration of President Joe Biden.

Palestine has become the towering issue on a global scale. The U.S. posture at the United Nations has exposed for the world to see its support for genocide in Gaza and the commitment to expand the already regionalized war in West Asia. Key states such as the Algerian and South African governments have ensured that the Israelis are kept out of the deliberations of the AU.

AU member-states must be resolute in solving internal conflicts including establishing a development framework which is continental in scope. These are the lessons of the present century which must be internalized and implemented.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Former Assistant U.S Attorney for the District of Delaware Lesley Wolf did not tell lawmakers why she protected Joe Biden from a planned search warrant ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Wolf testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 14 and declined to discuss an email she sent in August 2020 instructing FBI Agent Joshua Wilson to take Joe Biden’s name off a draft search warrant during the Hunter Biden investigation, according to a transcript reviewed by the Daily Caller.

“This is an email chain between you and FBI Special Agent Joshua Wilson. In the last sentence of the email that you sent, it states, ‘There should be nothing about political figure 1 in here.’ Can you tell us who political figure 1 is?” Wolf was asked.

“Looking at page 2 of the document, it would be, well, who’s described as former Vice President Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., now President Biden,” Wolf responded.

“And can you tell us why you wrote ‘There should be nothing about political figure 1 in here’?”

“So I am not able to answer questions about this particular search warrant or this particular draft,” Wolf replied. She proceeded to give a lengthy explanation of how drafting search warrants works and the requirements to obtain one.

“So in this instance, you stand by your statement that there should be nothing about political figure 1 in here?”

“I’m not able to speak to this particular warrant” Wolf said.

She insisted political bias did not play a role in her decision to have Joe Biden removed from the search warrant and referred to her opening statement where she defended herself. Throughout her testimony, she claimed her actions on the Hunter Biden case were in line with Department of Justice (DOJ) policy.

“Okay. But in your opening statement, I think you indicated that none of these decisions were made for political reasons. Is that fair to say?”

“That is reflected in my opening statement, and I agree with that,” Wolf stated.

“Okay. So to extent you didn’t you asked the agents to take out political figure 1, there was no political motivation in requesting that?”

“I refer back to my opening statement where I said at no time there was politics playing a role in those decisions,” Wolf answered.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler have accused Wolf of giving Hunter Biden special treatment by slow-walking and shutting down investigative steps, such as searching Joe Biden’s Delaware guest house and Hunter Biden’s northern Virginia storage locker.

She recently left the DOJ in the wake of the IRS whistleblower accusations. Wolf similarly refused to address a memo written by Shapley detailing how she ignored potential campaign finance issues surrounding Hunter Biden’s financier Kevin Morris.

The House Ways and Means Committee released a trove of documents in September provided by the IRS whistleblowers to support their initial testimony.

Among those documents was the email Wolf sent Wilson in August 2020 referring to “political figure 1” and telling him to remove the figure from the Blue Star search warrant. A draft copy of the search warrant shows “political figure one” was then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Read the email here.

“As a priority, someone needs to redraft attachment B. I am not sure what this is cut and pasted from but other than the attribution, location and identity stuff at the end, none if it is appropriate and within the scope of this warrant. Please focus on FARA evidence only.  There should be nothing about Political Figure 1 in here,” Wolf emailed Wilson.

When he first testified in May, Shapley explained how Wolf and the DOJ’s stonewalling of the Blue Star search hindered the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) aspect of the Hunter Biden probe.

“On September 3rd, 2020, the slow-walking of process continued when AUSA Wolf stated that a search warrant for the emails for Blue Star Strategies was being sat on by OEO,” Shapley told the House Ways and Means Committee.

“She indicated it would likely not get approved. This was a significant blow to the Foreign Agents Registration Act piece of the investigation.”

Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings hired Blue Star to lobby the Obama administration in late 2015 ahead of then-Vice President Biden’s December 2015 trip to Ukraine. Blue Star sent Burisma Joe Biden’s talking points for the trip a few days before it took place, a memo released by the Ways and Means Committee shows.

The year before, Joe Biden used an alias to exchange dozens of emails with Hunter Biden’s business associate Eric Schwerin, with most of their communications happening around Joe Biden’s June 2014 Ukraine trip, email metadata released Dec. 5 by the Ways and Means Committee revealed.

In late 2016, Blue Star and Schwerin celebrated a “victory lap” when it appeared Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky was going to be cleared by Ukrainian authorities, emails show. Blue Star also did lobbying work for the Ukrainian prosecutor who decided to go easy on Zlochevsky, according to internal State Department emails.

The Ukrainian prosecutor who let off Zlochevsky replaced Viktor Shokin, a prosecutor who was fired after Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion of funding for Ukraine. Burisma considered Shokin a “threat” to the firm’s business, former Burisma board member and Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer told Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson in August.

Ep. 13 Part 2. Devon Archer pic.twitter.com/R1sxSuPrKq

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) August 4, 2023

Archer testified before the House Oversight Committee in July and recalled how the Biden family “brand” protected Burisma from scrutiny. He also told lawmakers about a spring 2015 dinner Joe Biden attended alongside Burisma executive Vadim Pozharskyi.

Burisma paid Hunter Biden over $80,000 per month when his father was leading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, bank records indicate. His salary from Burisma dropped significantly when former President Trump took office, a federal indictment leveled against Hunter Biden in California shows.

Hunter Biden is facing nine federal tax charges in California in addition to three federal gun charges in Delaware as part of special counsel David Weiss’ ongoing criminal investigation. Weiss, the Delaware U.S. Attorney and Wolf’s old boss, defended her when he testified in November before the House Judiciary Committee, according to a transcript reviewed by the Caller.

In September, Attorney General Merrick Garland declined to answer questions about Wolf when he testified publicly before the Judiciary Committee because of alleged physical threats to her safety.

Garland appointed Weiss special counsel in August after the IRS whistleblowers first came forward and Hunter Biden’s guilty plea deal in Delaware for two tax misdemeanor charges collapsed in federal court.

Delaware U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika derailed Hunter Biden’s guilty plea arrangement by scrutinizing a prosecutorial immunity provision inside of a pretrial diversion agreement for a felony gun charge tied to the guilty plea arrangement.

Wolf declined to answer specific questions surrounding the diversion agreement and instead made general claims about her understanding of pretrial diversion agreements.

Christopher J. Clark, Hunter Biden’s defense attorney at the time, subsequently withdrew from the case because of his role in the failed negotiations.

Wolf played a central role in orchestrating the guilty plea and diversion agreement after spending years on the Hunter Biden case, Politico first reported. Clark submitted a court filing Dec. 11 confirming Wolf’s central role in the negotiations to support Hunter Biden’s attempt to get the Delaware gun charges dismissed. His legal team has argued the diversion agreement is still legally binding.

House Republicans released a lengthy report Dec. 5 detailing how testimony from Weiss and other DOJ, FBI and IRS officials confirmed significant allegations brought forward by the IRS whistleblowers prior to Weiss’ special counsel appointment. Shapley and Ziegler said in a statement after the Dec. 7 California indictment they had been vindicated.

The White House pushed back against the IRS whistleblower allegations and the House GOP in a Dec. 5 memo circulated by spokesperson Ian Sams.

Hunter Biden is suing the IRS for alleged illegal disclosures by the whistleblowers. Ziegler has accused Hunter Biden of trying to silence them with the lawsuit.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Henry Rodgers contributed to this report.

James Lynch can be reached on Twitter @jameslynch32.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Once upon a time, a man entered a store.

Behind the counter stood an angel, whom he asked: “What do you have to offer me?”

The angel replied: “Anything you want, and for free.”

Then the man called out:

“If so, I would like to have for myself and all beings in the whole world,

Good health, and enough to eat, and clean water, and freedom, and love,

and no one who is lonely and must endure pain or suffering,

and bright children’s eyes, and a smile every day,

and a healthy nature, and happiness, and good air, and no more poverty,

and no more war, and, and, and….”

Then the angel interrupted him:

“Dear person, we don’t offer finished products here.

We only carry seeds.”

Translated from German by Peter Koenig

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

The Ukrainian conflict would have meant a return to the Cold War between Russia and the US and a return to the Doctrine of Containment, the foundations of which were laid out by George F. Kennan ( image below) in his essay “The Sources of Soviet Behavior” published in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1947 and whose main ideas are summarized in the quote “Soviet power is impervious to the logic of reason but very sensitive to the logic of force.”

The stagnation of the war due to the arrival of winter and the lack of weapons and economic aid from the USA, would have provoked discouragement in the Ukrainian Army so it would be already brewing a peace agreement in Ukraine between the US and Russia that will try to be torpedoed by Zelensky, Britain and the Baltic States.

Thus, such actors would be desperately trying to involve NATO in the Ukrainian conflict, with which the jester Zelensky would already be for the US a burden from which it is appropriate to detach immediately, not being ruled out that he should be accused of corruption and forced into exile in the US.

The loss of control of Congress by the Democrats after the mid-term elections in November has meant that the Republicans are overseeing future arms aid to Ukraine, estimated to date at $90 billion and in effect until December, as well as a growing wave of political disaffection with Zelensky that would span the entire American political spectrum. Thus, Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in an interview in ” New Statesman” stated that “the US is sending 113 billion dollars to Ukraine when a quarter of American citizens go to bed hungry.”

On the Republican side, former President Donald Trump said in his networks that “we have never been so close to World War III” and that there must be a “total commitment to dismantle the globalist neoconservative power group responsible for dragging the world into endless wars.”

Likewise, the Republican candidate Ron DeSantis, affirmed that “Washington has many vital national interests, but getting even more entangled in the territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them.”

The coup de grace to Ukraine would be Congress’s recent rejection of Biden’s proposed aid of $80 billion more in military or humanitarian aid to Kiev, due to the frontal opposition of the radical Republican wing of Congress led by Donald Trump, with the avowed aim of stifling Zelensky from economic starvation to force him to sign a peace agreement with Putin. Moreover, military aid to Israel following the invasion of the Gaza Strip will absorb a significant part of the US military budget, so it could accelerate the personal encounter between Biden and Putin, which would lead in mid-2024 to a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia that ends the Ukrainian dispute, already considered by the US as a drag due to spending due to the unaffordable expense involved.

Netanyahu, the Last Jewish King

Netanyahu, a nefarious politician who tried to strike an autocratic coup to later establish a presidential regime and implement the atavism of Greater Israel, could face a criminal trial in which he will be accused of negligence and crimes against human rights, which could mean a criminal conviction and his definitive departure from the Israeli political scene.

Thus, taking advantage of the alleged security holes in the Israeli Defense caused by the schism between the reservists and Netanyahu, the armed wing of the Islamist group Hamas, launched the largest military offensive since 2007 with the infiltration of tens of its members in Israeli localities and the launching of thousands of projectiles against large areas, including Tel Aviv and Jerusalem with the result about 1400 Israeli victims and more than 200 hostages.

Netanyahu, using the invisible dictatorship of fear of the Third Holocaust, came from Hamas, Hezbollah or Iran, took advantage of the bloody incursion of Hamas to declare the State of War (defense of Israel’s security) and unleash a crushing offensive in the Gaza Strip that would increase his lost popularity with his failed legal reform and allow him to bypass the judicial process in which he is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust.

Thus, all basic infrastructure, schools, mosques, hospitals and 80 per cent of Gaza’s buildings would have been razed by the systematic bombing of Israeli aircraft, with the result of more than 20,000 Palestinian civilian casualties and several thousand more buried in the rubble, Massacre that will have as collateral a new nakba in which 1.5 million Palestinians will be forced to leave a Gaza turned into a mass of rubble and human remains that will make it impossible for the displaced Gazan population to return.

However, after the invasion of Gaza by Israel, the disaffection of a civil society that cannot forgive the security failures in the Israeli Defence that would have led to the killing of 1400 Israelis and the kidnapping of more than 200 months of people by Hamas would be exacerbated.Thus,the newspaper Haaretz would have become the champion of the defense of democratic values and in an editorial of October 8 directly accused Netanyahu of being “responsible for this war between Israel and Gaza”, so the Netanyahu government would have imposed a financial punishment.

Moreover, Israeli public opinion would already be holding Netanyahu responsible for the shocking Israeli security failure by belittling the Egyptian reports that 10 days earlier allegedly warned Netanyahu that Hamas was preparing a major offensive against Israel, which was denied by Netanyahu in a tweet in which he accused the intelligence services of negligence, getting to antagonize the powerful services of the Israeli Mossad. Thus, according to a survey by The Jerusalem Post, 80% of those polled say that “the Government is mainly responsible for the infiltration of Palestinian militias” and 56% think that “Netanyahu should resign at the end of the current war.”

Netanyahu would already be cornered by the international community’s repulsion of the flagrant violation of human rights in Gaza with nearly 20,000 civilian victims and the US as the only supporter before the UN, so the Biden Administration is desperately trying to get a declaration of “indefinite truce” which would allow the exchange of Jewish hostages still held by Hamas as well as restore the circulation of humanitarian aid trucks for about 1 million Palestinians confined in a space of 7 Km 2 next to the Rafah border crossing, with which Biden would aim an important diplomat and wash his image before the world.

In this context, we are witnessing the unfortunate death by the Tzahal of three of the Jewish hostages by confusing them with members of Hamas. As a result, the mobilizations of the relatives of the people kidnapped by Hamas at the residence of Netanyahu who are made “personally responsible for their return home alive” have increased. Consequently, the disaffection of Israeli society towards Netanyahu due to his nefarious management of the crisis with Hamas and the zero interest in rescuing the Jewish hostages alive, could provoke the resignation of his Government and the subsequent convocation of new elections that facilitate the formation of a new Government of Salvation, whose primary task would be to reedit the Oslo Accords that allow the coexistence of Two peoples in Two states.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Germán Gorraiz Lopez is a political analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Indian diplomacy is ending 2023 with a momentous turnaround. What began as a course correction necessitated by the torrential flow of events in West Asia is assuming strategic overtones. 

Truly, the aberration in India’s policies can be traced to the UPA rule (2004-2014) but it is under the period since then 2014 that they accentuated phenomenally and began creating contradictions undermining national interests. This aberration also led to a serious erosion of India’s strategic autonomy in a transformative international environment. 

India’s voting pattern in the United Nations with regard to the Israel-Palestine conflict is lately marked by a calibrated distancing from Israel. Only a few weeks ago, Israel’s ambassador in Delhi bullishly described the Indian stance as one of “100% support” to his country. But that is no more the case today. 

Delhi has rejected the repeated Israeli entreaties to declare Hamas as a terrorist organisation, marking its independent opinion regarding the ecosystem of resistance movements. Indeed, this is a highly significant distinction that Delhi is making vis-a-vis the Israeli and Western narrative about Hamas. Although India has not hesitated to condemn the violence directed against Israel on October 7, it refused to name Hamas. 

Considering that Hamas had a chequered past of receiving patronage from Israel, Tel Aviv has no right to expect Delhi to dance to its tunes. Equally, Hamas’ future is far from an open and shut case. The fact that Sinn Fein and Irish opinion has shown empathy towards Hamas, or that South Africa, which has itself been a victim of apartheid, has recalled its ambassador and diplomatic mission to Israel, calling the horrific Gaza killings as “genocide,” go to show that the embers of national liberation struggle are still burning.  

Although India expressed “solidarity” with the Israeli people over the brutal violence on October 7, it cannot condone the vastly disproportionate Israeli retaliation since then, blithely calling it a matter of Israel’s ‘right to self-defence’. On December 13, India voted in favour of a resolution in the UN General Assembly that demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict. 

This was the first time India supported such a resolution since the war broke out more than two months ago. Such a stance puts India on the right side of history, as the 193-member UNGA overwhelmingly adopted the resolution at an emergency special session, with 153 nations voting in its favour.

A third aspect is that from a geopolitical perspective, Delhi has marked its distance from the US-Israeli campaign branding Iran as the instigator of extremist groups acting against Israel. Interestingly, on December 19, India was one of only thirty states — along with Russia and China — who voted against a UN resolution on “the human rights situation in Iran.”

The running thread here is that India has reverted to its traditional stance on the Palestine problem and jettisoned the tilt supportive of Israeli interests. The unprecedented unity among the Arab countries, the close coordination between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the huge groundswell of opinion in the Arab world against Israeli atrocities against the Palestinian populations in Gaza and West Bank — all this has created a new momentum in Middle East politics that has pitchforked the Palestine problem to the centre stage, which is something India cannot afford to ignore. 

Nor can Delhi be oblivious of the new reality that something has fundamentally changed in the dynamics of the Palestine problem after the events since October 7. The Israeli ploys of dissimulation and evasiveness and deliberate wrecking of dialogue process and negotiations may no longer work. Indeed, Israel’s overwhelming military superiority vis-a-vis its Arab neighbours has lost its relevance. Coupled with the US’ loss of influence and America’s waning global hegemony alongside the sharp polarisation of opinion within Israel itself internally add up to create grave uncertainties regarding the future of the state of Israel as it exists today. 

Suffice to say, India feels the need to adapt to the new conditions in West Asia where regional countries prefer to settle their issues by themselves, which in turn undermines the rationale behind the creation of Israel as a cockpit of western strategic interests. The way out of this impasse lies in Israel reinventing itself. But the near civil war conditions in the country won’t permit that to happen. 

An immediate fallout of all this is going to be that India is unlikely to join the US-led alliance in the Red Sea gearing up to wage a war on terror against the Houthis of Yemen. This is despite the US efforts to involve the Quad countries in the Red Sea operations. By the way, both Japan and Australia have dissociated themselves from joining the US-led coalition of the willing. Once again, Delhi will be guided by the consideration that the US’s ill-fated move to use military power against the Houthis has no takers among the regional states. 

The US naval enterprise in the Red Sea is struggling to be born. The well-known ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson has written that

“On paper it would appear that Yemen is outnumbered and seriously outgunned. A sure loser? Not so fast. The U.S. Navy, which constitutes the majority of the fleet sailing against Yemen, has some real vulnerabilities that will limit its actions.”

Johnson cites the expert opinion of Cdr. Anthony Cowden, a US Naval Reserve Officer, that given the current configuration of the US Navy as a ‘forward-based navy’ — as distinct from an ‘expeditionary navy’ — “US Navy no longer has sufficient capability for sustaining expeditionary operations.” 

After all, the Chief of Staff of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Mohammad Reza Naqdi was not far off the mark when he warned last week that the US and its allies are “trapped” in the Red Sea and should prepare for the closure of waterways stretching all the way to the western gates of the Mediterranean Sea. 

The Indian defence and security establishments have been unabashed votaries of India’s strategic ties with Israel. Such excessive adulation of the Israeli model as worthy of emulation by India was built on sheer naïveté, completely overlooking that the two countries operate under vastly different conditions and national ethos. It is patently absurd that India can emulate Israeli methods of brutal repression or assassination as part of statecraft, apartheid policies and so on and get away with it. 

The incidents of October 7 have been an eye opener for Indians, which has exposed not only Israel’s frailties as a modern state but also its military’s bluster and intelligence’s failure. The acolytes of Israel in the Indian strategic community feel utterly disillusioned. Simply put, an influential constituency in India and the interest groups that it spawned are no longer calling the shots in Delhi. This is going to be consequential. 

At the same time, the entire ideological underpinning of the present government’s tilt towards the Israeli leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu is unravelling. In a brilliant essay recently, the well-known French scholar and author on right-wing politics in India, Christophe Jaffrelot wrote that the emerging India-Israel alliance during the recent years was anchored not only on the two ruling elites’ hostility to Islam but also on affinities between Hindutva and Zionism, characterised by “ethno-nationalist ideologies that prioritise factors like race, territory and nativism.” 

Going forward, such affinities are going to be hard for the Indian elite to sustain, leave alone openly flaunt, as Israel turns into an apartheid state and gets battered by the forces of history.  

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image is from India TV

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

The financial crisis of 2007–08, the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression, badly damaged the international capitalist system and led to further erosion of confidence in the United States among its allies. US credibility was already undermined by its completely unjustified invasion of Iraq in 2003, and over the past 20 years America’s position has been declining as the single global power.

Following the 9/11 (11 September 2001) terrorist attacks against America, democratic institutions within the country have been regressing further. American scholar Francis Fukuyama admitted in 2014 that the decline of democracy in the US was more advanced than in other affluent Western countries.

Fukuyama highlighted the worsening corruption and incompetence within Washington, which was resulting in growing levels of inequality and the accumulation of money in fewer hands. By 2014 chief executives of the biggest American companies were paid 331 times more than the typical worker. The concentration of wealth among elites was also enabling them to manipulate the political structures to their advantage.

In 2022 there were more than 12,500 registered lobbyists in the US, groups who try to influence government policy, whereas in 1971 a modest 171 lobbyists were in existence. Economics expert Nouriel Roubini, who is based in New York, said in January 2015 that it would be very difficult for the US to remedy its huge problems with inequality because the country’s political system was centred on “legalized corruption”.

The US is recognised to have the world’s largest economy, but living standards in Russia have improved much more so by comparison to America over the past two decades. In 1998 the number of Russians living below the poverty line was at more than 35%, mainly because of the USSR’s collapse and implementation in the 1990s of neoliberal policies endorsed by the West. This century under president Vladimir Putin’s government by 2013 the poverty rate in Russia was reduced to 11.2%, and in 2022 only 9.8% of Russians were impoverished. In addition, the average yearly wage of a Russian citizen by 2017 was almost twice larger than what it had been during 2005.

In America in 2002 the poverty rate stood at 12.1%, and by 2022 it was slightly higher at 12.4%, revealing that there are more poor people in America than in Russia. The poverty rate in Russia is also lower than in EU states like France, where 14.6% of the population was living in poverty in 2020. Relating to China it is predicted that its economy could become the world’s biggest before long; but consistently in recent years the average yearly income of a Russian adult has been quite close to double that of a Chinese adult, as outlined by annual UN human development reports.

Russia belongs to the very high human development category while China is placed a bit lower down, in high human development. In recent decades China has undoubtedly achieved significant social advances and wealth, but the country still has some way to go. Extensive media coverage has been given to China’s neighbour, India, often pertaining to the continued expansion of India’s economy over the past generation. Yet a Russian citizen earns on average per year almost four times more than an Indian citizen.

From the early 1980s under the neoconservative Reagan administration, inequality levels grew dramatically in America, and also to a slightly lesser extent in European nations. President Ronald Reagan’s economic policies went a long way to wiping out middle-income families in the US, while the most telling legacy of his British counterpart during the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher, was in the record levels of inequality that occurred in England when she was prime minister.

The lobbying groups in Washington have helped to craft legislation with the cash they give to politicians. Those with the financial means have a prominent role in dictating policy, as opposed to those who lack resources, which means the US is “not a true democracy, it’s a plutocracy”, Roubini noted.

Across much of America, factories were shut down and jobs shifted to cheaper sources overseas, resulting in deindustrialisation and urban decay. The two political parties, the Democrats and Republicans, have increasingly relied on the same sources of funding such as from Wall Street, the military-industrial complex, Israeli-linked groups, along with cash from energy and mining companies and agribusiness.

The system for funding elections in the US makes political candidates favourable to those with the biggest purses. Between 2007 and 2008, Barack Obama’s election campaign received millions of dollars from major banks and corporations like Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, JP Morgan Chase, and Citigroup.

The campaign of Obama’s rival, John McCain, received less funding from the same companies because they distrusted backing another Republican politician due to the unpopularity of the outgoing president George W. Bush, himself a Republican.

On 1 May 2008 an opinion poll by CNN/Opinion Research Corp stated that 71% of Americans disapproved of Bush’s performance, and that he ranked as the least popular president in modern American history. By mid-January 2009 Bush’s approval rating was at 22%.

Political and ideological differences between parties in the West have mostly disappeared since the 1980s, with many social democrat and communist parties having either fragmented or vanished altogether. The ideology that has persisted most of all in Western countries, liberalism, and which has become more entrenched with each passing year, is borne out by “movements” like lgbt, same-sex marriage, wokism, etc.

These activities have gained substantial public support in nations such as America and Britain, encouraged by the mass media and liberal philanthropists like George Soros. He has provided particularly big funding down the years for the above actions.

The general public is pressured into supporting lgbt and same-sex rights, which takes their attention away from important issues like unemployment, declines in biodiversity, and so on. A person’s sexual orientation should of course not be advertised like a company slogan but should be strictly a private affair.

Western leaders are fond of boasting about the supposed freedom and openness of their societies, but there are in fact severe and growing restrictions for example on freedom of speech. Any public figure who has the temerity to criticise lgbt organisations is likely to be condemned and isolated.

The spread of liberalism in the West has coincided with a sharp decline in church membership and support for Christianity. Thousands of churches permanently close every year in the most powerful Western nation, the US, and less than half of Americans say they now belong to a house of worship.

From 2010 to 2020, between 3,850 to 7,700 places of worship were estimated to have closed each year in the US, amounting to between 75 to 150 congregations disappearing per week. In 1937 US church membership stood at 73%. The figure was still as high as 70% in 1999 before falling to 46% by 2022. This downward trend is expected to continue.

There is a steep fall too in the number of Americans who regard themselves as Christians; in the early 1990s around 90% of Americans identified as Christians, in 2007 it was down to 78%, and by 2020 the figure had dropped to 64%. The declining influence of WASPs (white Anglo-Saxon protestants) in America, those who had traditionally run the country, seemed to be summarised by the 2008 presidential election victory of Obama, an African-American.

A considerable number of Americans belonging to the WASP category, and who may have had racist prejudices, struggled to cope in their minds with an African-American as the country’s leader. This was a key factor in the formation in 2009 of the hardline Tea Party phenomenon within the Republican Party.

Obama’s predecessor, Bush, enjoyed critical support from white evangelical Christians which helped him to win the presidency in 2000 and to be re-elected in 2004. Bush received 68% of the white evangelical vote in 2000, rising to 78% four years later. Karl Rove, the senior adviser to Bush, believed that the backing of white Christians was decisive in Bush’s election successes.

Racism has long influenced the opinions of some white Americans and a study conducted in 2011, with input from Stanford University and the University of Michigan, outlined that 51% of Americans had prejudices towards black people. This was an increase from 48% in 2008 when Obama was set to win the presidency.

The black community accounts for about 13% of the total American population, whereas three-quarters of the population is classed as white. Despite the disparity, black people in America are sent to prison at five times the rate of white Americans and by 2019 nearly a third of all inmates in US prisons were African-Americans; while the number of black people living in poverty in America is much higher than the poverty level of whites.

Regarding US imprisonment practices abroad, in 2006 president Bush signed the Military Commissions Act while the US Congress approved the National Defense Authorization Act, which effectively legitimised human rights violations including the imprisonment of “suspected terrorists” captured after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Already between 2002 and 2004, dozens of prisoners under the age of 18 were held in the US-run Guantanamo Bay military prison in south-eastern Cuba. By 2008 an estimated 21 children were still kept as prisoners in Guantanamo which has a notorious record concerning human rights.

Cuba itself had come under US control in 1898, when the Americans invaded Cuba on the pretext of freeing the island from Spanish colonialism. Washington’s aim consisted of assuming full authority over Cuba as part of its imperialist foreign policy. There were no historical or cultural links between the US and Cuba, as prior to 1898 Cuba had been under Spanish rule for around four centuries.

After the victory of the Cuban revolution in 1959 the US has to present times retained control over Guantanamo Bay, where the Americans have had a naval base since 1903. Continued US military occupation of Guantanamo is intended to undermine the Cuban economy, and to prevent Cuba’s government from developing that part of the island.

An American presence in Guantanamo is part of Washington’s encirclement strategy of Cuba and punishment of the country for its “successful defiance” of US hegemony over the Western hemisphere.

The US Supreme Court has stated that it can’t rule on the rights of prisoners held at Guantanamo, because the area does not fall under American jurisdiction as it is not part of the territory of America. The Bush administration and the US Congress had in effect said that Guantanamo is not under international law, so it has been a convenient place to send prisoners to.

Along with Guantanamo, the Americans established prisons in European nations such as Romania, Lithuania and Poland, and in parts of Asia and North Africa. The CIA extradited alleged terrorists to states like Pakistan, Thailand and Morocco, allowing the local security forces to interrogate the prisoners and in some cases inflict physical abuses on them.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Geopolitica.RU.

Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree and he writes primarily on foreign affairs and historical subjects. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Sources

“Do you happen to be a member of a church or a synagogue? Church membership among Americans 1992-2022”, Statista, 2 June 2023

Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The Second Cold War: Geopolitics and the Strategic Dimensions of the USA (Springer; 1st edition, 23 June 2017)

“George Floyd: How are African-Americans treated under the law?”, BBC, 21 April 2021

Keith Bolender, Cuba under Siege (Palgrave Macmillan, 5 December 2012)

John Pilger, The New Rulers Of The World (Verso Books, 20 February 2003)

Luiz Alberto Moniz Bandeira, The World Disorder: US Hegemony, Proxy Wars, Terrorism and Humanitarian Catastrophes (Springer; 1st edition, 4 February 2019)

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Dec. 28, 2023 – Archbald, PA – Amy Costanzo was diagnosed with Stage 3C Ovarian cancer. She has had to have extensive “debulking surgery” which included removal of all female reproductive organs and her omentum layer.

Dec. 24, 2023 – UK – 23 year old Caitlin Tomlinson Button is fighting a rare advanced ovarian cancer. “Up until June 2023 I was living a very normal life, looking after the elderly enabling them to stay in their own homes.”

Dec. 15, 2023 – Bradenton, FL – 31 year old Alyson Bermudez, a softball coach at New College of Florida and pitching instructor, was diagnosed with a 20cm ovarian tumor on right ovary and 13cm tumor attached to her left ovary. She also has cancer on “several surfaces of her abdomen”.

Dec. 14, 2023 – Hamilton City, CA – Gaby Chavez was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian cancer 3 weeks prior to her death on Dec. 14, 2023.

Dec. 11, 2023 – Johnson City, TN – 32 year old Porschea Elswick was diagnosed with a 30cm Ovarian Cancer (Mucinous Adenocarcinoma) in August 2023.

Dec. 9, 2023 – Tennis Star Chris Evert diagnosed with ovarian cancer for a second time. “Her cancer has returned.”

Dec. 9, 2023 – Great Falls, MT – Amber McAvoy was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer in July 2023. The cancer has already spread.

Dec. 8, 2023 – Avondale, AZ – 31 year old Ashlie Edwards was diagnosed with Stage 3C Ovarian Cancer on Aug. 17, 2023. One mass was the size of a basketball on her left ovary, another mass was on her kidney.

Nov. 11, 2023 – Bolivar, MO – 60 year old nurse Bobbi Nash was diagnosed with Stage 3 Ovarian Cancer end of Sep. 2023 and died one month later on Nov. 11, 2023.

Nov. 8, 2023 – 21 year old Destinee was diagnosed with a 32 by 15cm ovarian cancerous tumor in Jan. 2022.

Oct. 30, 2023 – Dayton, OH – 52 year old LAPD Police Officer Tara Kessop was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer in May 2023.

Oct. 21, 2023 – TURBO CANCER – 34 year old Colombian actress & model Alejandra Villafane Osorio died from a very rare cancer Oct. 21, 2023. She fought months against ovarian germ cell tumor (& also breast tumors).

Oct. 20, 2023 – Pompano Beach, FL – Jessica Christie died from Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer.

Oct. 12, 2023 – Calista had a family member develop a large Ovarian Turbo Cancer in 3 months after receiving a COVID-19 Vaccine.

Oct. 12, 2023 – Plainland, QLD, Australia – Tanya Arthur was diagnosed with Advanced Stage Ovarian Cancer.

Click here to read the full article.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.

Featured image is from COVID Intel

---

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Not many people have the opportunity to provide an oral and written statement to the United Nations Security Council. I had my chance on December 11, 2023, when I was asked as a retired U.S. Army colonel and a former U.S. diplomat to speak on weapons transfers in the Russia-Ukraine war.

I introduced myself as a U.S. taxpayer who was fed up with my tax money being used by the powerful and wealthy U.S. arms industry authorized by the U.S. government for sale to countries that are killing innocent civilians.

My statement to the Security Council was simple. Wars will never end as long as weapons transfers into the conflict area continue. I noted, as the Security Council well knows, that civilians will be the primary victims of the transfer of weapons.

I cited the two wars to which the U.S. is providing weapons: Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza.

I took the opportunity to look across the horseshoe U.N. Security Council table and say to the Alternate Representative of the U.S. for Special Political Affairs in the U.N. and Alternate Representative of the U.S. for Special Political Affairs in the Sessions of the General Assembly of the U.N. Robert Wood that I was horrified by “shameful” U.S. veto of the cease-fire resolution for Gaza the previous Friday, December 8, 2023. At that point over 18,000 Palestinians had been killed by massive Israeli bombing using U.S.-provided 2,000-pound bombs, U.S. hellfire missiles, and other U.S.-provided weapons.

Two weeks later, on December 22, 2023, after five days of wrangling with the U.S. on the wording of another resolution, the U.N. Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to starving civilians in Gaza. The United States refused to agree to a tougher demand for an “urgent suspension of hostilities” between Israel and Hamas. It abstained in the vote, as did Russia, which wanted the stronger language. The resolution was the first on the war to make it through the council after the U.S. vetoed two earlier ones calling for humanitarian pauses and a full cease-fire.

The U.S. has provided Israel $317 billion in military aid, making it the largest recipient of U.S. foreign assistance since World War II. The U.S. gives Israel $3.3 billion annually. The Biden administration wants to send another $10 billion to Israel.

As of late October, two months ago, the U.S. had delivered 36,000 rounds of 30-millimeter cannon ammunition, 1,800 M141 bunker-buster munitions, at least 3,500 night-vision devices, ammunition for AH-64 Apache helicopter gunships including about 2,000 Hellfire Laser Guided missiles, 57,000 155-millimeter High Explosive artillery shells, 20,000 M4A1 rifles, 5,000 PVS-14 night vision devices, 3,000 M141 hand-held bunker-buster munitions, 400 120- millimeter mortars, 75 of the Army and Marine Corps’ new Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, and 312 Tamir missile interceptors for the Iron Dome.

On the issue of the profitability of weapons transfers particularly in the Ukraine-Russia war, the topic I had been invited to speak on, I reminded the Security Council that in a December 7, 2023, press conference with the new U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that over the last two years, the United States has provided $70 billion to support Ukraine and European allies have provided more than $110 billion.

Blinken also said,

“If you look at the investments that we’ve made in Ukraine’s defense to deal with this aggression, 90% of the security assistance we’ve provided has actually been spent here in the United States with our manufacturers, with our production, and that’s produced more American jobs, more growth in our own economy. So, this has also been a win-win that we need to continue.”

I reminded the Security Council that the win-win is not for civilians in conflict areas. The win-win is for the military industrial complex and the politicians and retired government officials who are offered senior positions in companies immediately after their retirements!

And it’s certainly not a win-win for the innocent civilians who are killed in these conflicts.

At the end of my statement, I appealed to countries to not torpedo peace talks as the U.S. and the U.K. have done to efforts by Germany, Turkey, and Israel to bring the Ukraine-Russia war to an end.

In closing, I read part of a poem that describes how some parents in Gaza have resorted to writing their children’s names on their legs to help identify them should either they, the parents, or the children be killed in Israeli bombing.

It was written for the children of Gaza but is applicable to children in all conflict areas—in Ukraine, in Russia, in Israel, in Yemen:

Write My Name on My Leg, Mama.
By Zeina Azzam
Write my name on my leg, Mama
Use the black permanent marker
with the ink that doesn’t bleed
if it gets wet…
Write my name on my leg, Mama
and on the legs of my sisters and brothers.
This way we will belong together
This way we will be known
as your children.
Write my name on my leg, Mama
When the bomb hits our house
When the walls crush our skulls and bones
our legs will tell our story, how
there was nowhere for us to run.

On behalf of the people of the world who want to live in peace and safety, I said to the U. N. Security Council: “Stop the Killings! Cease-fires now!”

After the statement I gave in the U.N. Security Council, I doubt that I will be invited back to give another, as I feel quite certain the U.S. would Veto the invitation.

[From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.]

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Ann Wright is a 29 year US Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former US diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the war on Iraq. She served in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia and Mongolia. In December 2001 she was on the small team that reopened the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. She is the co-author of the book “Dissent: Voices of Conscience.”

Featured image: A screengrab shows Retired Army Colonel Ann Wright speaking at the U.N. Security Council on December 11, 2023. (Photo: U.N./Screengrab via CodePink)

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, are again publicly advocating the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Their proposals are being presented as voluntary emigration schemes, in which Israel is merely playing the role of Good Samaritan, selflessly mediating with foreign governments to find new homes for destitute and desperate Palestinians. But it is ethnic cleansing all the same.

Alarm bells should have started ringing in early November when U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Western politicians began insisting there could be “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.” Rather than rejecting any mass removal of Palestinians, Blinken and colleagues objected only to optically challenging expulsions at gunpoint. The option of “voluntary” displacement by leaving residents of the Gaza Strip with no choice but departure was pointedly left open. 

Ethnic cleansing, or “transfer” as it is known in Israeli parlance, has a long pedigree that goes back to the late-nineteenth-century beginnings of the Zionist movement. While the early Zionists adopted the slogan, “A Land Without a People for a People Without a Land,” the evidence demonstrates that, from the very outset, their leaders knew better. More to the point, they clearly understood that the Palestinians formed the main obstacle to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. This is for the simple reason that, to them, a “Jewish state” denotes one in which its Jewish population acquires and maintains unchallenged demographic, territorial, and political supremacy. 

Enter “transfer.” As early as 1895, Theodor Herzl, the founder of the contemporary Zionist movement, identified the necessity of removing the inhabitants of Palestine in the following terms: “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country … expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.” David Ben-Gurion (née Grün), Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, and later Israel’s first prime minister, was more blunt. In a 1937 letter to his son, he wrote: “We must expel the Arabs and take their place.” 

Writing in his diary in 1940, Yosef Weitz, a senior Jewish National Fund official who chaired the influential Transfer Committee before and during the Nakba (“Catastrophe”), and became known as the Architect of Transfer, put it thus: “The only solution is a Land of Israel devoid of Arabs. There is no room here for compromise. They must all be moved. Not one village, not one tribe, can remain. Only through this transfer of the Arabs living in the Land of Israel will redemption come.” His diaries are littered with similar sentiments. 

The point of the above is not to demonstrate that individual Zionist leaders held such views, but that the senior leadership of the Zionist movement consistently considered the ethnic cleansing of Palestine an objective and priority. Initiatives such as the Transfer Committee, and Plan Dalet, initially formulated in 1944 and described by the pre-eminent Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi as the “Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine,” additionally demonstrate that the Zionist movement actively planned for it. The 1948 Nakba, during which more than four-fifths of Palestinians residing in territory that came under Israeli rule were ethnically cleansed, should, therefore, be seen as the fulfillment of a longstanding ambition and implementation of a key policy. A product of design, not of war (historical Christmas footnote: the Palestinian town of Nazareth was spared a similar fate only because the commander of Israeli forces that seized the city, a Canadian Jew named Ben Dunkelman, disobeyed orders to expel the population, and was relieved of his command the following day).

That the Nakba was a product of design is further substantiated by the Transfer Committee’s terms of reference. These comprised not only proposals for the expulsion of the Palestinians but, just as importantly, active measures to prevent their return, destroy their homes and villages, expropriate their property, and resettle those territories with Jewish immigrants. Weitz, together with fellow Committee members Eliahu Sassoon and Ezra Danin, on June 5, 1948, presented a three-page blueprint, entitled “Scheme for the Solution of the Arab Problem in the State of Israel,” to Prime Minister Ben-Gurion to achieve these goals. According to leading Israeli historian Benny Morris, “there is no doubt Ben-Gurion agreed to Weitz’s scheme,” which included “what amounted to an enormous project of destruction” that saw more than 450 Palestinian villages razed to the ground.

The understandable focus on the expulsions of 1948 often overlooks the fact that ethnic cleansing remains incomplete unless its victims are barred from returning to their homes by a combination of armed force and legislation, and thereafter replaced by others. It is Israel’s determination to make Palestinian dispossession permanent that distinguishes Palestinian refugees from many other war refugees. 

After 1948, Israel put out a whole series of fabrications to shift responsibility for the transformation of the Palestinians into dispossessed and stateless refugees onto the Arab states and the refugees themselves. These included claims that the refugees voluntarily left (they were either expelled or fled in justified terror); that Arab radio broadcasts ordered the Palestinians to flee (in fact, they were encouraged to stay put); that Israel conducted a population exchange with Arab states (there was nothing of the sort); and the bizarre argument that because they’re Arabs, Palestinians had numerous other states while Jews have only Israel (by the same logic, Sikhs would be entitled to seize British Columbia and deport its population to either the rest of Canada or the United States). More importantly, even if uniformly substantiated, none of these pretexts entitles Israel to prohibit the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes at the conclusion of hostilities. It is, furthermore, a right that was consecrated in United Nations General Assembly resolution 194 of December 11, 1948, which has been reaffirmed repeatedly since.

Ethnic Cleansing After 1967

In 1967, Israel seized the remaining 22 percent of Mandatory Palestine — the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Depopulation in these territories operated differently than in 1948. Most importantly, Israel, in addition to prohibiting the return of Palestinians who fled hostilities during the 1967 June War, and encouraging others to leave (by, for example, providing a daily bus service from Gaza City to the Allenby Bridge connecting the West Bank to Jordan), conducted a census during the summer of 1967 . Any resident who was not present during the census was ineligible for an Israeli identity document and automatically lost their right of residency. 

As a result, the population of these territories declined by more than twenty percent overnight. Many of those thus displaced were already refugees from 1948. Aqbat Jabr Refugee Camp near Jericho, for example — until 1967, the West Bank’s largest — became a virtual ghost town after almost all its inhabitants became refugees once again in Jordan. So many Palestinians from the Gaza Strip ended up in Jordan that a new refugee camp, Gaza Camp, was established on the outskirts of Jerash. The occupied Palestinian territories would not recover their 1967 population levels until the early 1980s.

Within the West Bank, there were also cases of mass expulsion. These included the town of Qalqilya, which was additionally slated for demolition but to which its residents were later permitted to return. Those of ‘Imwas (the Biblical Emmaus), Bayt Nuba, and Yalu in Jerusalem’s Latrun salient were less fortunate. They were summarily expelled (many today live in Ramallah’s Qaddura Refugee Camp), their villages demolished and annexed to Israel, and replaced by Canada Park, so named because the project was completed with donations from the Canadian Jewish community. Within Jerusalem’s Old City, the historic Mughrabi Quarter, abutting the Haram al-Sharif, was summarily razed to make way for a plaza astride the Wailing Wall. With many residents given only minutes to evacuate their homes, several were killed when the bulldozers went to work. According to Eitan Ben-Moshe, an engineer who oversaw the atrocity, “We threw out the wreckage of houses together with the Arab corpses.”

Depopulation Through Administrative Rule

In subsequent years, Israel employed all kinds of administrative shenanigans to further reduce the Palestinian population of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Until the 1993 Oslo Accords, for example, an exit permit from Israel’s military government was required to leave the occupied territory. It was valid for only three years and thereafter renewable annually for a maximum of three additional years (for a fee) at an Israeli consulate. If a Palestinian lost an exit permit or failed to renew an exit permit prior to its expiration for any reason (including bureaucratic foot-dragging), or couldn’t pay the renewal fee, or failed to return to Palestine prior to its expiration, that Palestinian automatically lost residency rights. Separately, Israel, over the years, deported numerous activists and community leaders, primarily to Jordan and Lebanon. During the late 1960s and 1970s, it also exiled Gaza Palestinians accused of resisting the occupation, along with their families, to prison camps in the occupied Sinai Peninsula. Among those who spent time there was the iconic Palestinian leader Haidar Abdel-Shafi.

A particularly notable case of administrative deportations occurred in 1992 after Israeli special forces botched an operation to rescue an Israeli soldier who had been seized by Hamas to exchange him for their imprisoned leader, Shaikh Ahmad Yasin. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the summary deportation of approximately 400 Palestinians, many of them prisoners affiliated with Hamas and Islamic Jihad (PIJ), none accused of involvement in the incident that led to Rabin’s frenzied rage. 

In contrast to previous deportations, which were considered permanent, these were for one- and two-year terms. In its rush to carry out the deportations under cover of night, Israel expelled a number of Palestinians who were not on its list and left behind others who were. Needless to say, the mass expulsion was, as always in such matters, approved by Israel’s High Court of Justice after minor modifications. It ruled, among other things, that this was not a collective deportation but rather a collection of individual deportations. Perhaps more significantly, the deportees were stuck in an inhospitable no-man’s land, Marj al-Zuhur, because Lebanon refused to facilitate the deportations by receiving them. During their involuntary residence in Marj al-Zuhur, assistance came primarily from Hezbollah, and it was during this period that relations between Hamas, PIJ, and Hezbollah were solidified.

Israel’s Strategies to ‘Thin’ Gaza’s Population

With the focus in recent years on the intensified campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, it is often forgotten that, for decades, the primary target for depopulation was the Gaza Strip, particularly its refugee population, which accounts for approximately three-quarters of the territory’s residents. Even before it occupied Gaza in 1967, Israel regularly promoted initiatives to achieve the “thinning” of its refugee population, with destinations as far afield as Libya and Iraq. Not without reason, Israel’s leaders felt uncomfortable with the presence of so many ethnically cleansed Palestinians within walking distance of their former homes. After 1967, it encouraged Palestinian emigration from the Gaza Strip to not only foreign countries but also the West Bank. 

In 1969, Israel even devised a scheme to send 60,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Paraguay with offers of lucrative employment. The plan was negotiated between Paraguay’s military dictator Alfredo Stroessner and Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency. It was, of course, purely coincidental that, shortly thereafter, Mossad discovered it no longer had the resources to hunt Nazi fugitives in Paraguay, which had been one of their destinations of choice. The scheme was discontinued when several of its victims, upon realizing the promise of a new life of comfort was all a sham, shot up the Israeli embassy in Asuncion, killing one of its staff. 

‘Transfer’ and Gaza Today

In the decades since, “transfer,” often presented as the encouragement of voluntary emigration either by providing material incentives or making the conditions of life impossible, has become increasingly mainstreamed in Israeli political life. In 2019, for example, a “senior government official,” quoted in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, expressed a willingness to help Palestinians emigrate from the Gaza Strip. 

Mass expulsion has been gaining its share of adherents as well, and it is a position that is today represented within Israel’s coalition government. As has the idea that “transfer” should include Palestinian citizens of Israel — Avigdor Lieberman, for example, who was Israel’s Minister of Defense several years ago, is an advocate of not only emptying the West Bank and Gaza Strip of Palestinians but of getting rid of Palestinian citizens of Israel as well. As one might expect from a minister who was in charge of the Israeli military, he is also an advocate of “beheading” disloyal Palestinian citizens of Israel with “an axe.”

Against this background, Israel saw the attacks of October 7 as not only a threat but also as an opportunity. Fortified with unconditional U.S. and European support, Israeli political and military leaders immediately began promoting the transfer of Gaza’s Palestinian population to the Sinai desert. The proposal was enthusiastically embraced by the United States and by Secretary of State Antony Blinken in particular. Hopelessly out of his depth when it comes to the Middle East, as ever, he appears to have genuinely believed he could recruit or pressure Washington’s Arab client regimes to make Israel’s wish a reality. Given Egyptian strongman Abdelfattah al-Sisi’s economic troubles, the fallout of the Menendez scandal, and the looming Egyptian presidential elections, it was suggested to him by the Washington echo chamber that it would take only an IMF loan, debt relief, and a promise to file away Menendez to bring Cairo on board. As so often when it comes to the Middle East, Blinken, armed only with Israel’s latest wish list, didn’t have a clue his indecent proposal would be categorically rejected, first and foremost by Egypt.  

‘Transfer’ as ‘Voluntary Emigration’

The fallback position is opposition to “forcible displacement” at the point of a gun, while anything else is fair game. This includes reducing the Gaza Strip to rubble in what may well be the most intensive bombing campaign in history; a genocidal assault on an entire society that has killed civilians at an unprecedentedly rapid pace; the deliberate destruction of an entire civilian infrastructure, including the targeted obliteration of its health and education sectors; the highest proportion of households in hunger crisis ever recorded globally and the real prospect of pre-meditated famine; severance of the water and electricity supply leading to acute thirst, widespread consumption of non-potable water, and termination of sewage treatment; and promotion of a sharp rise in infectious disease. One Israeli soldier has already died of a fungal infection resulting from the collapse in sanitation he helped bring about in the Gaza Strip. How many Palestinians have been consumed by similar illnesses, we do not know, but it is reasonable to assume that children and the elderly are hit particularly hard.

In other words, if desperate Palestinians seek to flee this seventh circle of hell to save their skins, that’s considered voluntary emigration — their choice. If they cannot remain in the Gaza Strip because Israel has made it unfit for human habitation with U.S. weapons, that is a voluntary choice that will be respected. And the U.S. and Israel are only here to help, like Mother Theresa, determined to assist every last one of them whether they like it or not.

Danny Danon, a member of parliament who was previously Israel’s envoy to the United Nations (the guy who sounds like Elmer Fudd), recently held up the mass displacement of Syrians to multiple shores during the past decade as an example to be emulated. “Even if each country receives ten thousand, twenty thousand Gazans, this is significant.”

Asked about Danon’s proposal at a Likud meeting on Christmas Day, Netanyahu responded, “We are working on it. Our problem is [finding] the countries that are willing to absorb [them].”

As an editorial in the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz put it on December 27: “Israeli lawmakers keep pushing for transfer under the guise of humanitarian aid.”

Not to be outdone by the politicians, the Jerusalem Post ran an opinion piece entitled “Why Moving to the Sinai Peninsula is The Solution for Gaza’s Palestinians.”

“Sinai,” its author Joel Roskin enthused, “comprises one of the most suitable places on Earth to provide the people of Gaza with hope and a peaceful future.”

Not individual Gazans, but “the people of Gaza.” Notably, such proposals consistently take it as a given that those departing will never return. One waits with bated breath, for the European Union is expected to respond to these calls for mass expulsion with further investigations of Palestinian textbooks.

While ethnic cleansing has been intrinsic to Zionist/Israeli ideology and practice from the very outset, it also has a flip side: the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians expanded what had been a conflict between the Zionist movement and the Palestinians into a regional, Arab-Israeli one. The second Nakba Israel is currently inflicting on the Gaza Strip similarly appears well on its way to instigating the renewal of hostilities across the Middle East. 

As importantly, the 1948 Nakba did not defeat the Palestinians, who initiated their struggle from the camps of exile, those in the Gaza Strip most prominently among them. It would take a Blinken level of foolishness to assume the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would produce a different outcome.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image: Yosef Weitz (center right), “the architect of transfer,” with Yitzhak Rabin and Haim Laskov in the Yakir forest in the Naqab area. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

The number of journalists killed in Gaza by Israel since the outbreak of war has reached 105, according to the government media office in the strip.

Among them are Mohammad Khair al-Din and Ahmed Khair al-Din who were killed by “Israeli treachery” in Gaza, the office was cited as saying by Turkish news agency Anadolu.

It means more than one journalist has been killed a day on average since the launch of Israel’s war on the strip.

Israel’s relentless military campaign has killed more than 21,300 people in Gaza, with over 55,600 others injured.

Places of worship, residential buildings, ambulances, and hospitals have come under attack.

Israeli forces also detained Diaa al-Kahlout, the Gaza bureau chief for ­The New Arab’s Arabic-language edition, earlier in December.

The senior al-Araby al-Jadeed journalist was rounded up alongside hundreds of other Palestinian men, including his brothers and other relatives, in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

The newspaper called for his freedom in a statement posted to social media on Tuesday.

“We in the al-Araby al-Jadeed family demand the immediate release of our colleague Diaa al-Kahlout, correspondent and bureau chief for the al-Araby al-Jadeed website and newspaper in Gaza, who has been detained by the [Israeli] occupation army since 7 December 2023,” the pan-Arab daily said.

“We also condemn and deplore the assassination, arrest, abuse, and torture journalists are being subjected to as they carry out their duty to convey the truth about the war crimes and genocide the occupation is committing in the Gaza Strip.”

On Sunday, The New Arab reported that a young Palestinian recently released from Beersehba Prison had said he saw al-Kahlout in the Israeli detention facility.

The reporter may be transferred to Jerusalem like other Palestinians held in Beersheba.

Al-Kahlout was arrested at gunpoint, then stripped and beaten by Israeli forces.

He was forced to abandon his seven-year-old daughter, who has special needs.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image: Funeral for Palestine TV journalist Mohammad Abu Hattab. Credit: X/@MuhammadSmiry

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

On December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court banned former president Donald Trump from running for presidency under the pretext that he led the so-called “January 6 insurrection”. Despite the fact that Trump was never formally charged (let alone convicted) for that highly controversial event, the Court made its decision based precisely on that premise. However, what the DNC-aligned judges probably didn’t expect is that this obviously partisan decision would open up a political “Pandora’s box” that is now spreading like wildfire, threatening to consume the entire country. Namely, in response to the ruling, Lieutenant Governor of Texas Dan Patrick suggested taking President Joe Biden off the ballot in Texas due to his disastrous immigration policies.

Obviously, the Democrats are completely incapable of using basic common sense, so they probably never expected the “red states” to respond in kind. The “woke” extremist ultra-liberal ideology that the DNC subscribes to prevents them from seeing their political rivals as equal. The Democrats simply feel that they are the “indispensable party”, just like they think the United States is an “indispensable nation”. The boomerang effect of their dangerous delusions is already there, as three more states are now seriously contemplating the possibility of banning Biden’s presidential bid. Namely, congressmen Aaron Bernstine of Pennsylvania, Cory McGarr of Arizona and congresswoman Charlice Byrd of Georgia released a joint statement about this initiative.

“I am joining with PA Rep. Aaron Bernstine and AZ Rep. Cory McGarr to introduce legislation to remove Joe Biden from the ballot in response to the absurd ruling by radical Democrat judges in Colorado, removing Donald Trump from their ballot,” congresswoman Byrd posted on Twitter (now known as X).

I am joining with PA Rep. Aaron Bernstine and AZ Rep. Cory McGarr to introduce legislation to REMOVE Joe Biden from the ballot in response to the absurd ruling by radical Democrat judges in Colorado, removing Donald Trump from their ballot. Read my full statement here: pic.twitter.com/9Ltw2nzUpv

— Rep. Charlice Byrd (@charlice_byrd) December 22, 2023

Judging from their other statements, Republican lawmakers are trying to get ahead of the Democrats who are aiming to push other “blue states” to follow Colorado’s example.

“Today, we are joining forces to introduce legislation to remove Joe Biden from the ballot in Georgia, Arizona, and Pennsylvania,” they said in a joint statement, adding: “The absurdity of radical Democrat judges removing Donald Trump from the ballot in Colorado will be a stain on the American political system for decades. By their very own interpretation of the law, Joe Biden is 100 percent not eligible to run for political office.”

“Democrats’ insane justification to remove Trump can just as easily be applied to Joe Biden for his insurrection at the southern border and his corrupt family business dealings with China. Colorado radicals just changed the game, and we are not going to sit quietly while they destroy our Republic,” the statement reads, further adding: “To be clear, our objective is to showcase the absurdity of Colorado’s decision and allow ALL candidates to be on the ballot in all states. To do that, we must fight back as Republicans against the communists currently running our great country.”

Trump himself is claiming that the Democrats are “destroying America”. While the statement may seem highly politicized, particularly in the context of the most intensive part of the 2024 presidential election campaign, the consequences of the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision can surely lead to such an outcome. With “blue” and “red states” diverging along all lines, the functioning of the country is certainly at stake. The DNC controls most federal institutions, including the State Department and the Senate, while the mainstream propaganda machine and the so-called “Big Tech” are firmly on their side. Still, the GOP dominates in the House of Representatives and has already made decisions that have spoiled the plans of the troubled Biden administration.

Since the so-called “Russiagate” conspiracy theory that has been the main go-to scapegoat for the countless internal and foreign policy failures of the DNC, be it the 2016 presidential or 2018 midterm elections, American politics has become more disastrous than ever before. The Democrats have pushed the country into an escalating confrontation with Russia, based on an entirely fabricated premise of Trump’s long-debunked “collusion with Moscow”. For well over half a decade, the mainstream propaganda machine has been parroting the supposed “Russian election meddling” narrative. And yet, things took a turn for the worse in recent months. Apart from the highly politicized prosecution of Trump, both the 2016 and 2020 elections have been marred with controversy, as evidenced by the latest findings.

However, the poll proving that 20% of mail-in voters effectively committed fraud during the 2020 presidential election isn’t the end of America’s political troubles. Namely, President Biden is now faced with an impeachment inquiry in connection to his son’s criminal activities. The White House has been trying to torpedo Congressional subpoenas and demands for transcribed interviews with Biden family members since they were launched back in September. This was based on the grounds that the existing impeachment probe was invalid because the House didn’t vote to authorize it. However, with a 221-212 vote in favor of the inquiry, the Biden administration can’t use this pretext anymore. House Speaker Mike Johnson even directly accused the White House of impeding the investigation.

Coupled with the shameless weaponization of the Justice Department, FBI and other federal institutions that are supposed to be entirely impartial, what is actually going on is the effective dismantling of the said institutions, now even on the level of individual states. If these aggressive policies aren’t kept in check, they will inevitably result in further polarization along ideological and political grounds. The DNC-dominated federal center will try to impose its ultra-liberal extremism on everyone simply because it’s politically beneficial.

Logically, the GOP will respond, resulting in a sort of blockade of both federal and state institutions. This leads to the same path the former USSR took in the late 1980s. And indeed, the US is increasingly reminiscent of it in that regard. In the meantime, American leaders keep looking for ways to launch new wars and coups, particularly in an attempt to slow down or even prevent the expansion of BRICS+. Terrified by the advent of multipolarity, they’re either sweeping mounting problems under the rug or outright ignoring them.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“2023 has been a challenge for Global Research, but we know 2024 will be no different. That’s why we need your support. Will you make a New Year donation to help us continue with our work?”

*

I don’t have anyone whom I would consider a friend who supports the genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza. But my occasional interaction with the psychopaths who infest the US government and media and who are intimately connected by virtue of their political instincts as well as their personal interests in campaign donations and/or elevated salaries derived from Israel and its powerful lobby have plenty of sound bites to throw out to demonstrate their love of the Jewish state in all its manifestations.

They mouth the Pelosi-Schumer-Biden assertion that “Israel has a right to defend itself” and that Israel is “America’s closest ally” and “best friend,” all of which can readily be exposed as a series of self-serving lies and deliberate misinterpretations of international law. Beyond that, they inevitably cite their view that critics of Israel are fully responsible for what they choose to refer to as the ultimate evil of “surging anti-semitism.” In so doing they conveniently ignore the obvious fact that anger towards Jews collectively speaking is nearly always derived from the crimes against humanity committed by the Zionist political entity that now legally defines itself as Jewish.

I sometimes ask the friends of Israel what interest the United States has that would warrant our country becoming complicit in committing war crimes that, collectively speaking, amount to precursors for the complete expulsion or killing of millions of Palestinians from what remains of their homes. They try to weasel word their way avoiding the implications of that question by observing that the United States is not directly engaged in the conflict, an evasion that I belittle by pointing out that Washington is providing funding, arming and political cover for the more powerful and lethal party engaged in the conflict while also blocking attempts to bring about a ceasefire to comply with orders from that same party, which sure looks like direct involvement to me. I also point out that Israel is working hard to get the US military engaged against Hezbollah in Lebanon and also against Iran and is likely to be able to maneuver the stoneheads in and around the White House to do its bidding vis-à-vis both objectives.

So the big question has to be “Why does the United States engage in a conflict that inter alia has utterly ruined our country’s reputation worldwide and for which there is no real compelling national interest?” The answer is, of course unpalatable to many, but has to be that the US government is in many respects and vis-à-vis some of its designated national policies completely under the control of Israel and its powerful domestic as well as international lobby. This habitual bowing to force majeure has warped the thinking of the ambitious scallywags who seem to be present wherever one turns in places like Washington. How else does one explain the infamous and quite frankly ridiculous comment delivered at the 2018 Israeli American Council meeting by leading politician Nancy Pelosi, who said that

“I have said to people when they ask me if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid…and I don’t even call it aid…our cooperation with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.”

The delusional Pelosi, who appears to have no “fundamental” attachment to the interests of the American people whom she represents, is unfortunately not unique in the halls of Congress, even less so in the Joe Biden White House, which might be regarded as the illustration of what happens when you appoint Zionists to nearly all key positions running your foreign, economic and national security policies. The degree of direct Zionist/Israeli control over the hapless Biden can best be illustrated by reviewing the course of the recent redrafting of a UN Security Council resolution authored by the United Arab Emirates that sought to bring about a suspension of the fighting and the urgent resumption of humanitarian supplies for Gaza. The US forced the revisions after coordination with Israel to permit the Israelis to continue to attack civilian targets and avoid entering into anything like a ceasefire, changing the word “suspension” in the original draft to the less demanding creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” Language authorizing the lead UN role in monitoring and delivering the assistance to the Gazans was also expunged leaving to belligerent Israel the task of completely controlling the distribution of any supplies allowed entry into the areas inside Gaza, which it is also simultaneously continuing to bomb, thereby slowing the stream of urgently needed supplies to a trickle while also killing hundreds more civilians.

To be sure, it was the United States blindly supporting Israel that rendered what was a promising proposal to put an end to the multiplying civilian deaths toothless. Israel demonstrated just how high it regarded Joe Biden when it contradicted what the president said about the US being able to moderate some Israeli offensive action in Gaza. Netanyahu denied that, saying that he and his war cabinet were continuing to make all relevant decisions based on Israel’s own interests. Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of the General Staff General Herzi Halevi followed on with his own assessment that finishing the job in Gaza, i.e. totally destroying Hamas by whatever means it requires, will take “many more months.” The Israeli military has indeed visibly increased its efforts by opening up new “battle zones” inside Gaza, to include directly targeting the crowded and starving refugee camps outside the cities. The civilians are paying the price while a grinning Joe Biden is spending his New Year’s holiday in the American Virgin Islands.

Allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a known liar and habitual war criminal to tell the US government what to do is about as low as it gets, Mr. Biden! You should not only be ashamed, but more than that, humiliated, compelled to do ghastly things in support of your own fear of possible Jewish/Israeli reaction if you do not bow down before King Netanyahu. He and the band of inhuman monsters he has assembled in his cabinet have made no secret of their intention to remove the Palestinians from Palestine, either by forced emigration or by killing them if necessary. On Christmas Day, Prime Minister Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud bloc “that he was still working on the ‘voluntary’ immigration of Gaza’s inhabitants to other countries.” His associates Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have made it clear that the ethnic cleansing process will proceed even if it is not in any way voluntary. As Israel is the occupying power in the former Palestine, what is taking place is, as defined by the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention and the UN Charter, a crime against humanity and the United States is completely complicit in it not to mention actually enabling the slaughter through its supplying of arms and money to the Israelis. It has recently been reported in the Israeli media that the United States has delivered an astonishing “10,000 tons of armaments and military equipment on 244 cargo planes and 20 ships” to sustain the Israeli homicidal assault against the people of Gaza. And to demonstrate its gratitude for the flood of weapons, America’s “best friend” and “closest ally” Israel has nevertheless complained “about a delay in the delivery of munitions.”

The total support of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians by Washington and the media is not only shameful, it is lacking any context for a crime against humanity that has been going on with US connivance for the past 76 years. Under international law, an occupied people has a right to use force to resist occupation, but even given that, the majority of Israeli deaths on October 7^th should probably be attributed to so-called “friendly fire” from the Israeli army not from Hamas. The occupied and woefully abused Palestinians rising-up and seeking both freedom and sovereignty in the land that was once completely theirs is fully justified and should be respected. Israel’s killing women and children through deliberate starvation or even by execution style is indisputably a war crime. Bombing hospitals or leaving newborn incubator babies abandoned to die is a crime against humanity. Arresting innocent Palestinians before parading them naked and even desecrating their dead bodies by harvesting organs that you then sell is unspeakable and almost unimaginable evil as is deliberately targeting and bombing schools and churches where people are trying to find shelter.

The genocide and destruction in Gaza is the worst crime committed in modern history and the man who could have stopped it, Joe Biden, sits on his hands and grins. No one should remain silent when confronted by this horror but the silence and the deliberate distortion of what is taking place is a tribute to Jewish power in America and elsewhere. I am including some recent commentary from the illustrious Australian Journalist Caitlin Johnstone which demonstrates perfectly the hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Biden and the leaders of Britain, France, Canada, and Germany: “Sometimes Israel’s crimes are so horrific that at first you don’t even understand what you’re looking at. You just stare at it trying to make sense of what you’re seeing for a bit, like you would if you suddenly saw a space alien or a leprechaun or something… It’s so incredibly obvious what we’re looking at here. The only thing putting a wobble on people’s perception is the immense amount of propaganda distortion the media is churning out on this issue, plus the fact that the demographics look a bit different from what history has conditioned people to watch out for. If there were two million Jewish people trapped by Christians in a giant concentration camp and placed under total siege, being told that half of them had 24 hours to relocate into the other half or be killed, nobody would have any confusion about what they were witnessing.”

And a leading American journalist Daniel Larison must have the last word of advice from his site on Eunomia: “We are witnessing one of the gravest crimes of our time. Our government is aiding and abetting the perpetrators. It is up to people in this country to make our government cut off all support for this war and to press for an end to the war itself.” Amen, Daniel!

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Pfizer’s “Secret” Report on the COVID Vaccine. Beyond Manslaughter. The Evidence Is Overwhelming. The Vaccine Should be Immediately Withdrawn Worldwide

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 24 , 2023

The COVID “Killer Vaccine”. People Are Dying All Over the World. It’s a Criminal Undertaking

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, November 19 , 2023

History: The Federal Reserve Cartel: Freemasons and The House of Rothschild

Dean Henderson, December 9 , 2023

Is the Gaza-Israel Fighting “a False Flag”? They Let It Happen? Their Objective Is “to Wipe Gaza Off the Map”?

Philip Giraldi, December 2 , 2023

We Are Being Smashed Politically, Economically, Medically and Technologically by the Elite’s ‘Great Reset’: Why? How Do We Fight Back Effectively?

Robert J. Burrowes, November 26 , 2023

Video: “Wiping Gaza Off The Map”: Big Money Agenda. Confiscating Palestine’s Maritime Natural Gas Reserves

Felicity Arbuthnot, December 16 , 2023

“Greater Israel”: The Zionist Plan for the Middle East

Israel Shahak, December 16 , 2023

Look Up! Wake Up, People! You Are Being “Suicided in Warp Speed”.

Peter Koenig, December 6 , 2023

Ophthalmologists Now Ethically Obligated to Denounce COVID-19 Vaccines, as 20,000 New Eye Disorders Are Reported

Lance Johnson, May 29 , 2023

Washington Is Out to Topple India’s Modi, Which Is “a Partner of Russia”

F. William Engdahl, June 17 , 2023

The Military Situation in the Ukraine. Jacques Baud

Jacques Baud, December 2 , 2023

How Blackrock Investment Fund Triggered the Global Energy Crisis

F. William Engdahl, November 26 , 2023

Video: Dr. Naomi Wolf Uncovers Pfizer’s Depopulation Agenda, as Evidenced by Its Own Documents

The Vigilant Fox, December 9 , 2023

Turkey-Syria Earthquake: Is This an Act of Terror?

Peter Koenig, September 16 , 2023

The Horrifying Secret Agenda of the UN and WHO: Total Enslavement of Humanity Through a “Global Health Dictatorship”

Peter Koenig, December 14 , 2023

Historical Analysis of the Global Elite: Ransacking the World Economy Until ‘You’ll Own Nothing.’

Robert J. Burrowes, December 2 , 2023

The Federal Reserve Cartel: The Eight Families

Dean Henderson, November 26 , 2023

The Brain Is the Battlefield of the Future. The WEF’s Stated Objective Is “Altering the Human Being”

Peter Koenig, December 3 , 2023

Agenda to Depopulate the Planet Through COVID Vaccination. Revealed by Government Reports and Pfizer Documents

The Expose, November 27 , 2023

War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields

Prof Michel Chossudovsky, October 21 , 2023

Canadian Government Admits 48,780 Excess Deaths in 2022 (17% Increase in Mortality). There Is No Evidence COVID-19 Vaccines Saved a Single Life in Canada During 2021-2022

By Dr. William Makis, December 28, 2023

Statistics Canada “Deaths 2022” is data that you can reasonably expect has been thoroughly manipulated and tampered with. It’s “preliminary” and doesn’t include many “younger Canadians” who died suddenly. Even so, it is a devastating report.

Right-Wing Extremism and the Cold War Go Hand-In-Hand

By Cale Holmes, December 28, 2023

U.S. “ironclad” support for militarism undercuts attempts to curb right-wing terrorism. From white supremacist violence in the West Bank to gendered violence in Olongapo, we can’t defeat at home what we export abroad.

U.S. Intelligence: What Is America’s “Fourth Branch of Government” Up to?

By Germán Gorraiz López, December 28, 2023

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created in 1947 by Harry S. Truman, replacing the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to investigate administrative and fiscal files without judicial authorization and with the initial philosophy of providing the President with a second point of view drawn up by civilians compared to that provided by the military of the National Security Agency (NSA).

The Middle East: Home of the Earliest Civilizations in World History

By Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović, December 28, 2023

The region of the Middle East usually covers the territories from the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean Sea up to India in the East. In a broader sense, geographically, the region encompasses territories of the East Mediterranean and Central Asia but many Americans followed by other Western academicians, politicians, and journalists regard as a single region the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). 

Israel’s Crimes and Atrocities Committed in Gaza

By Peter Koenig and Press TV, December 28, 2023

Netanyahu said Israel has no choice but to keep fighting to achieve its goals, including the elimination of Hamas and returning of its hostages. He made the comments after the Israeli army confirmed that 14 troops were killed in Gaza since Friday. It said 153 Israeli troops have been killed and nearly 500 others wounded since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion in Gaza. Hamas says the number of Israeli army casualties is much higher.

Why Is the Corporate State Media Turning on Netanyahu?

By Ben Bartee, December 28, 2023

Over the past several decades, until very recently, you would have been hard-pressed to locate a single word of criticism in the corporate state media leveled at literally anything the Israeli state does. The uniparty’s pawns in elected government — and, more to the point, the national security state that actually runs foreign policy — have unanimously, full-throatedly embraced Zionism without reservation.

Mass Protests. Washington Is “Coordinating” the Actions of Both the Serbian Government and the Serbian Opposition. Dragana Trifkovic

By Dragana Trifkovic, December 28, 2023

Mass protests have begun in Belgrade. Opposition members and their supporters, who disagree with the results of the recent parliamentary elections, have taken to the streets, blocking roads and attacking government buildings. Law enforcement agencies are responding by trying to contain the unrest. The situation is heating up.

Constitutional Violations: Julian Assange, Privacy and the CIA

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, December 28, 2023

As a private citizen, the options for suing an intelligence agency are few and far between. The US Central Intelligence Agency, as with other members of the secret club, pour scorn on such efforts. To a degree, such a dismissive sentiment is understandable: Why sue an agency for its bread-and-butter task, which is surveillance?

Will Biden be Forced to Send Ground Troops to Yemen? Escalation? “Both Israel and the US want to implicate Iran.” Mike Whitney

By Mike Whitney, December 28, 2023

The Biden administration is blaming Iran for drone attacks on a commercial tanker in the Indian Ocean. The claims are being used as leverage on Iran to pressure the Houthis to abandon their blockade in the Red Sea and allow maritime traffic to return to normal. But the Houthis have no intention of caving in to pressure from Iran or anyone else. They are determined to continue their attacks on Israel-bound traffic however long it takes and whatever the cost.

As US Veto Power Enables Genocide, There Are Still UN Options to Protect Gaza. Dr. Marjorie Cohn

By Prof. Marjorie Cohn, December 28, 2023

The Biden administration, Israel’s chief enabler, defanged the resolution that was ultimately passed by the UN Security Council on December 22, rendering it merely symbolic. The final resolution calls for humanitarian assistance but not for a ceasefire which would allow aid to reach the people of Gaza. The U.S. saved diplomatic face by not employing its customary veto, but it did not vote for the resolution, electing instead to abstain.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

U.S. “ironclad” support for militarism undercuts attempts to curb right-wing terrorism. From white supremacist violence in the West Bank to gendered violence in Olongapo, we can’t defeat at home what we export abroad.

In his first month as secretary of defense with the J6 Capitol riots fresh in memory, Lloyd Austin rolled out training requirements to combat right-wing extremism in the ranks of the U.S. military. 

Extremism has indeed been a problem for quite some time, dating back to early American history when George Washington’s army committed violence against the Iroquois and recaptured enslaved Africans who had fled from plantations. In 1919, W.E.B. Du Bois found evidence of widespread racism in the ranks of the U.S. army. All-too-common slurs against Asian Americans originate from U.S. troops fighting the Korean War.

In occupied Guam, activist Naek Flores shared a harrowing incident with CODEPINK during our recent webinar, Beyond the Cold War: A Feminist Foreign Policy for the Asia-Pacific. An air force member reportedly vandalized two buildings, with the message: “Stop racism against white Americans. Our tax dollars pay for your entire government, your paychecks. Without us, you are nothing.” Flores linked the racist vandalism to similar incidents at the hand of Israeli troops in Gaza.

But Austin’s initiatives, while focused on a very real problem, have not addressed that link – the one between extremism and U.S. imperialism. Austin’s policies have in fact solidified this link, by invoking military alliances with settler colonialist states and former colonies of the U.S. as a pretext for “defending” national security. From supporting Israel’s aggression to provoking China, Austin’s “ironclad” commitment to militarism threatens human security, and leaves no room for peace and protecting communities most vulnerable to extremism.

Despite more attention needed on rooting out right-wing extremism from Chicago to Salt Lake City, Austin’s priorities have been focused on targeting the countries of origin of those victimized at home. Since October, he’s repeatedly expressed support for Israel’s genocidal bombardment of Palestine, despite 153 countries – the majority of the world – supporting a ceasefire at the United Nations. 

On December 18, he tweeted on his way to Tel Aviv that he was traveling to reiterate the U.S.’ “ironclad commitment to Israel” and discuss ways to topple Gaza’s government. It comes as the U.S. is sending warships to Yemen (where a U.S.-backed siege has killed at least hundreds of thousands) to reopen the Red Sea for Israeli commerce.

Even as Austin has raised concerns about Israel’s conduct, he’s stubbornly backing it, despite the Palestinian people and the entire world demanding peace, all while bringing more, not less conflict, to war-torn Yemen. The rules-based order is definitely not a diplomacy-based order or a humanity-based order. And it reveals why the South China Sea and Korean peninsula are also on the brink of war.

Austin has used his favorite word – “ironclad” – to embrace Japan’s remilitarization. While the U.S. fought Japan just 80 years ago, most of Japan’s wartime atrocities mostly targeted the Asia-Pacific region from Beijing to Bataan. In fact, Japanese expansionism during the 20th century was enabled by Western politicians who supported Japan’s colonization of Korea in the Taft-Katsura Agreement, as well as the Chinese coastal city of Qingdao after Germany’s defeat in World War I. In October, days before Israel escalated its 75-year-long occupation, Austin said Article V of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty affirms an “ironclad” commitment to defend Japan’s claim to the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands – territory disputed by China.

Aside from the danger of affirming a military alliance instead of seeking ways to de-escalate between a former colonizer and the country it once colonized, Austin’s ironclad commitment also potentially makes the Japanese people casualties of a would-be war with China.

Signed in 1960, eight years after the U.S. ended its occupation of Japan, the treaty was protested by 6.4 million workers. In Okinawa, occupied by the U.S. until 1972, residents have continued to oppose the treaty’s authorization of American military bases. As New Diplomacy Initiative director Sayo Saurta highlighted in an interview with CODEPINK back in August, Okinawans are still standing up to environmental and human rights abuses perpetrated by U.S. forces.

Austin’s ironclad commitment to our military alliance with South Korea also exposes how little he’s worried about resuming the Korean War. As President Biden met with President Xi in San Francisco, Austin’s visit to Seoul was an alarming reminder that U.S. nuclear threats in Asia did not end with President Trump. Austin said the U.S. commitment includes “the full range of nuclear, conventional, and missile defense capabilities.” Instead of breaking with our ugly history of nuclear blackmail, Austin’s policies are effectively doubling down and blocking chances for peaceful mediation.

North Korea, of course, has a military alliance with China. As Joseph Gerson wrote in a letter to the Boston Globe in September, “Common security negotiations today between the United States and China, focused on Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, and South China Sea, can resolve the security dilemma and prevent ‘avoidable’ and catastrophic war.”

If Austin really cares about security, as well as stopping extremism, it’s time he expresses ironclad commitment to negotiations, which would decrease abuses of power by military personnel and promote mutual understanding between our supposed adversaries. We can also finally begin our path to decolonization.

From decades of deforestation to the 2014 transphobic murder of Jennifer Laude, our military footprint has increased violence and exploitation. Just like with Japan and South Korea, the Philippines is also in danger of becoming a battleground in a world war. In April, Austin announced four new U.S. military bases in the northern region of Luzon. Some analysts fear President Bongbong Marcos is poised to join a U.S. contingency in nearby Taiwan if war breaks out.

Austin said the U.S.’ support for the Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines also remains ironclad, echoing numerous statements of the kind made since the summer as maritime tensions between Beijing and Manila have flared up. Based on a then-secret agreement, hosting U.S. military bases was a condition for the Philippines’ independence, granted in 1946. This was despite the widespread racist abuse by U.S. forces. In 1951, the Mutual Defense Treaty was signed. It has allowed for the continuation of American abuses perpetrated against Filipinos going back to the Spanish-American War. 

From West to East Asia, Austin’s commitment to military alliances is getting in the way of his stated goal of stamping out right-wing extremism. We can’t defeat at home what we are exporting abroad, from white supremacist settler aggression in the West Bank to gendered violence in Olongapo. His ironclad commitments keep no one safe and only secure the legacies of colonization and nuclear terrorism. To truly build peace and root out extremism in the ranks, Austin must embrace common-sense diplomacy and human-centered security. 

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Cale Holmes is CODEPINK’s China Is Not Our Enemy Campaign Coordinator. Cale is an international relations analyst, writer, and environmentalist who has lived in Beijing. He serves as CODEPINK’s China Is Not Our Enemy Campaign Coordinator.

Featured image: US Flag Around the Earth — Image by © Images.com/Corbis

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was created in 1947 by Harry S. Truman, replacing the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to investigate administrative and fiscal files without judicial authorization and with the initial philosophy of providing the President with a second point of view drawn up by civilians compared to that provided by the military of the National Security Agency (NSA).

Until Eisenhower, the CIA was only the central intelligence organization for the United States government and was behind multiple insurgent training tasks and destabilizing governments contrary to Pentagon policies, but the military and financial lobbies (both fagged by the Zionist lobby) could not resist the temptation to create a de facto government that manipulated the intricacies of power, leading to the emergence of a new entity: the military-industrial complex, in Eisenhower’s words and the control of the United States Congress and Senate.

Eisenhower himself, a year before the end of his term, delivered a premonitory speech of the subsequent mutation of the initial “Campus” until the shadow government that guards American democracy today and from which all democratically elected presidents are held hostage:

“In government councils, we must be attentive to the acquisition of an illegitimate influence, whether or not projected by the military-industrial complex. The risk of the development of a usurped power exists and will persist. We will never allow the weight of this conjunction to threaten our freedoms or democratic processes”.

For his part, Kennedy, in a speech at Columbia University on November 14, 1963, admits that

“there is strong pressure from US power groups to turn the office of President into something merely figurative”

and so, on November 21, 1963, he was forced to sign executive order 11490, “which allows in an emergency to provide the government with exceptional measures, even for any dictatorship” and shortly before leaving for Dallas commented to his intimate advisors: “We have to face the CIA…” while secretly preparing a meeting with Fidel Castro.

All this implied a clear plea to the CIA, a true shadow power-bearer and deeply entrenched in all the US power apparatus.

Thus, its leaders proceeded to the gestation of an endogenous plot that dealt with the Coup de Mano against the democratic legality of the American political system and culminated in the Assassination of Kennedy (Dallas, 1.963). Such a plot would be a work of labyrinthine engineering that would have as brains the aforementioned unofficial CIA and as necessary collaborators to the anti-Castro exile in Miami and its connections with the Mafia and the FBI of Hoover, Lee Harvey Oswald as a scapegoat and distraction exercise to deceive the hounds and as collateral damage the birth of a political system protected by the Fourth Power, remaining since then as hostages all successive US Presidents-elect.

At present, the military-industrial complex would have been transformed into the so-called Department of Homeland Security (Homeland Security) and the primitive hydra-CIA would have born 17 new heads in the form of intelligence agencies that would integrate the US Intelligence Community (the Fourth Branch of Government according to Tom Engelhardt), pathogens of a totalitarian nature and turned into a parallel state and real power in the shadow. This would make the prophetic words of the so-called “Father of the Constitution” James Madison, who in number 47 of the Federalist essay, says

“the accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judicial, in the same hands and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, can be equated with the same definition of tyranny.”

Given the current division of American society into two symmetrical and irreconcilable halves, presumably the Fourth Branch of Government uses its resources to get the next President of the US to implant an Orwellian government that will drink from the sources of paternalism of soft dictatorships and be characterized by the cult of the leader, the use of disinformation and Orwellian surveillance of the non-white population and political dissent, which would de facto be an autocratic government or kind of invisible dictatorship supported by solid strategies of cohesion (mass manipulation and leader worship).

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Germán Gorraiz López is a political analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The Middle East was the home of the earliest civilizations in the world’s history. The first urbanizations and literacy started there.

The region of the Middle East usually covers the territories from the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean Sea up to India in the East. In a broader sense, geographically, the region encompasses territories of the East Mediterranean and Central Asia but many Americans followed by other Western academicians, politicians, and journalists regard as a single region the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). 

The majority of the inhabitants of MENA have many things in common like the Arab language and culture, confession of Islam, etc., but on the other, different ethnic minorities exist in each of those regional countries while the Islamic religion is divided into two factions: the Sunni (majority) and the Shia (minority). 

All states of the region of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) can be selected into four ethnic-geographic sub-regions (groups): 

1) The North African states; 

2) The Persian Gulf States; 

3) The Central Arab states; and 

4) Iran and Israel. 

The combined number of inhabitants of all of those states is more than 250 million (for the matter of comparison, in the EU 28, i.e. with the UK, there were some 500 million people).

The region itself is experiencing culture and civilization back some 6000 years but the majority of the present-day nations are relatively new.

In other words, except for Iran and Egypt, all other regional states appeared in their present form only in the last century, largely after WWI, but some of them even after WWII (Israel).

The number of states in MENA can be fixed by taking into account at least three criteria:

1) The historical period;

2) Political conditions; and

3) Geopolitical perspective.

Today usually is applied that there are 24 states (with Palestine) in the region of MENA (but with Turkey and Sudan 26).

However, the state of Palestine is still not generally and formally recognized as independent, as it was expected to appear as such taking into consideration the results of the Israeli-PLO negotiations (Roadmap for Peace). 

It is worth noticing that the first modern Arab country became Egypt of Muhammad Ali in the first half of the 19^th century when due to the French (Napoleonic) occupation Egypt became familiar with some features of the “European progress”.

Muhammad Ali started certain modernization reforms of the society like the creation of a modern and more effective governance organization, rational economic system, and a modern army restructured and reorganized according to West European principles of warfare at that time. It was established in Cairo as the first Western-type institute, the Egyptian Institute, in the Arab world with the crucial function of spreading out Western European (mainly the French) philosophers’ writings (like Russo and Volter).  

The majority of the regional populations are Arabs and Muslims. Pan-Arabism is one of the focal political issues in MENA in the 20^th and 21^st centuries.

In recent times, leadership within the Pan-Arab movement, however, initially passed to the hands of the Christian Arabs in Lebanon and Syria. Nevertheless, all political attempts to form some kind of United Arab Republic failed but there are successful stories of macro-regional economic integration, for instance, the economic integration of six states of the Persian Gulf as they created a Gulf Cooperation Council.

Nonetheless, instead of the United Arab Republic existing an Arab League (est. 1945 with 22 member states today) which promotes better communication systems for the region using the Arabic language and the ARABSAT (the Arab Regional Satellite System). 

Oil discovery and production are probably the focal special features of MENA (but particularly of the Middle East) in contemporary history.

The economic and social development of all oil-rich Gulf countries depends almost totally on the policy of oil export and, therefore, for better mutual economic cooperation, Middle Eastern oil-producing nations established their Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (the OAPEC) that is the regional variant of global OPEC (the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries). In fact, some 65−70% of global petroleum reserves are located in the territory of the Middle East. Oil extraction and refining play a significant role in both regional and world economies, and, therefore, have a significant impact on the welfare and politics of the majority of Western (post-industrial) countries (especially of G7).

A lack of a full type of Western “liberal democracy” is another crucial feature of MENA as today, regional forms of governance are ranging from pure authoritarianism (Saudi Arabia) to some forms of democratic experiments based on the Western pattern (Lebanon or Israel) which are followed by Muslim regimes governed by religious leaders (Iran after 1979). Out of 22 Arab League’s states today, 8 of them are republics (including the Islamic Republic of Mauritania and the Baath Socialist Republic of Syria), 7 are monarchies, 4 have a one-party rule, the UAE is a political federation of sheikdoms, Somalia that is, in fact, lacking functioning governance, and finally, Palestine with not clear governmental type and even statehood. In general, regarding politics, the region is still in evolutionary transition as a result of modernization, Westernization, and globalization including references to economic and educational development with current tendencies of the radicalization of Islam as anti-colonial ideology against the post-industrial Western imperialism and the Zionist Israeli (backed by the USA) policy of apartheid (segregation and discrimination) and ethnic cleansing.   

An ancient conflict between two Islamic factions – the Sunni and the Shia Muslims – is another feature of the division of the region of the Middle East and North Africa. The first division within Islam was born soon after the death of his Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D. when the Islamic world of Arabs became divided between those who had the pretensions to inherit the religious power after the death of the Prophet. They created two principal factions with different claims. The Sunni faction claimed that the religious power of the Caliph after 632 A.D. passed to Abu Bakr – Muhammad’s father-in-law, while the Shia faction (“Followers of Ali”) claimed the religious power to the cousin and son-in-law of the Prophet – Ali ibn Abi Talib. The assassination of the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan in 656, and the election of Ali ibn Abi Talib fueled the first armed conflict (civil war) among the Muslims which ended with the Battle of the Camel on November 7^th, 656 in present-day Iraq in Basra between Aisha’s supporters (widow of the Prophet) and Ali ibn Abi Talib’s supporters (the fourth Caliph and son-in-law of the Prophet) who won the battle against Aisha. However, it was only after the murder of Ali, and a few years later, of his son Hussein ibn Ali in the Battle of Karbala on October 10^th, 680 in present-day Iraq, that Islam went to a dogmatic and political split. The Shia Muslims reject the legitimacy of the first three Caliphs whom, however, the Sunni Muslims follow, having at the same time some doctrinal and political differences with the Sunnis. The biggest percentage of Shia Muslims today in the Middle East is in Iran (90−95%), Bahrain (65−75%), Iraq (60−70%), Lebanon (45−55%), and Yemen (30−40%).

The last important feature of the Middle East is the sectarian violence and its impact in some regional states. Several cases are going to be mentioned below:

1. The Saudi government is composed of Sunnis and the monarchy itself in power belongs exclusively to the Sunni faction which is in constant competition with the Shia Iran. The government of Saudi Arabia fears that the Shia theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran could create serious unrest within both the Saudi and the Gulf’s Shia communities. However, both Iran and Saudi Arabia, in fact, are pretending to become the leading power in the region.
2. The majority of Bahrain’s population is the Shia believers but there is a ruling Sunni monarchy. Inspired by the Arab Spring in 2011, the Shia believers started to demonstrate their political rights but without support from the US administration. The Bahraini Sunni governmental authorities and its allies, including Saudi Arabia, have violently cracked down on protests, killing hundreds of civilians.
3. In Iraq, for a long time, the country’s Shia majority had been oppressed by the Sunni regime in Baghdad. We have to keep in mind that in Iraq exist the most sacred religious sites for the Shia Muslims. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, they came to power and the Shia population began to target the Sunni community. The Sunni believers have been persecuted and tortured by the Shia death squads and in response to the increasing violence against them, Iraqi Sunnis have committed several suicide attacks and bombings. As a consequence, the Shia-Sunni religious sectarianism in Iraq exacerbated the nationalistic and fundamentalistic attitudes of the Shia Muslims in power and has contributed to the strengthening of the Sunni support to ISIS (ISIL, DAESH).   
4. For Iran, the most important thing is to protect its regional interests among them the rights of the Shia population abroad. For instance, after the Iranian Islamic revolution of 1979 that brought the Shia government to power in Tehran, Iran began to fund and encourage the Shia revolts in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia which is rich in oil reserves. The Iranian government is also supporting the government of Alawite (a branch of Shia Islam) Assad in Syria, which bridges with Lebanon.
5. In Yemen, the Houthi rebels, located predominantly in the northern part of the country, are Shia Muslims and represent about 1/3 of the total population. The Houthis were able to force the resignation of President Hadi, recognized by the international community. Regardless of the fact that during the revolt in 2014−2015, Shia rebels took political control, the majority of Sunni tribes in South Yemen do not recognize the Shia authority. In 2015 it was formed a coalition of Arab states under the leadership of Saudi Arabia to support former President Hadi against the Houthi rebels, who are pro-Iranian. Large parts of the territory of Yemen are also under the control of the Sunni militant group al-Qaeda which is opposed to both Shia Houthi and the ex-government of Hadi. The Sunni al-Qaeda in Yemen has been several years targeted by the controversial US drone campaign inside of the country.
6. Finally, behind the Syrian civil war which started in 2011 is, in essence, sectarian violence. Syrian President al-Assad belongs to the minority of Alawite Muslims who are a branch of the Shia sect. The Alawites take their name from Ali ibn Abi Talib who was a cousin, son-in-law, and the first male follower of the Prophet Muhammad (Alawite = “Follower of Ali”). The protests against Assad’s rule started in March 2011 and have been violently repressed. Nevertheless, the Syrian civil war has in part contributed to exacerbating the feelings of hatred and resentment between the Shia and the Sunni communities in the country. During the conflict, Shia Iran and the Shia Hezbollah from South Lebanon, in the moment of greatest difficulty for Assad’s regime, have flocked to the side of President Assad to prevent the deposition. However, similarly, the Sunni fighters from Jabhat al-Nusra Front and the Sunni ISIS are fighting in Syria against Assad. We have to keep in mind that Jabhat al-Nusra is the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and that the Sunni monarchies of the Persian Gulf and Sunni Turkey are financially and militarily supporting the Sunni opposition fighters in Syria.

The region of the Middle East and North Africa is an area where geography and history are important factors in the contemporary lives of the people.

There are many native peoples of the region for whom MENA is considered as the Arab homeland. It refers to those lands in which the Arabic language (with all dialects) is spoken. It is, basically, a unique region in the world regarding geography, geopolitics, and geostrategy as here three continents are meeting each other (Europe, Africa, and Asia) and as the region which was a focal point of the development of the first civilizations.

Geologically, its topography was transformed after the Ice Age from a climate that supported the grasslands and waterways into vast steppes and deserts. Around 2000 B.C., the pastoral people of Aryans, or called as well as Indo-Iranians migrated into India and West as well as Central Asia, including today’s Iran (Persia) and surrounding countries. Strategically, MENA was considered all the time to be an extremely valuable geostrategic territory as being a crossroad for trade, faith, conflicts, or cultural development.

In principle, the crucial mark of the region is the predominant Arab culture with some contrasts in the cultural habits between, for instance, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Besides, the cultural features of several other ethnic and confessional groups of MENA give a more comprehensive picture of the region’s peoples and challenges.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Vladislav B. Sotirović is a former university professor in Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a Research Fellow at the Center for Geostrategic Studies. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Background

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Gaza war has exacted a “very heavy price” on the regime.

Netanyahu said Israel has no choice but to keep fighting to achieve its goals, including the elimination of Hamas and returning of its hostages. He made the comments after the Israeli army confirmed that 14 troops were killed in Gaza since Friday. It said 153 Israeli troops have been killed and nearly 500 others wounded since the beginning of Israel’s ground invasion in Gaza. Hamas says the number of Israeli army casualties is much higher.

*

PressTV: Israel has committed enormous crimes against humanity, causing more than 21,000 Palestinian casualties, since Netanyahu ordered a ground invasion in Gaza.

Please give us your views on these crimes and their consequences.

Peter Koenig (PK): Where to begin is the question. There is an abundance of crimes being committed as we speak

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are wantonly targeting civilian populations.

Of the estimated more than 21,000 killed since October 7, at least two-thirds are women and children.

Coincidence? Of course not, there are no coincidences. Children are the future generation of Palestine, and women are the bearers of future generations. Eliminating them is an Israeli strategy.

More than 80% of all housing is destroyed, not to speak of infrastructure.

Israel is withholding emergency shipments of food and water – literally attempting to starve Palestinians to death.

Israel is selectively cutting off electricity and means of communication – internet, telephone, television….

But these are just “statistics”, right?

Nevertheless, think about it, when you are celebrating New Year with friends and have good times — you may, of course. It is your right. 

But please, DO NOT forget Gaza and Palestine.

Remember, that most likely your government – especially when you are in the US or European Union – your government supports or rather encourages the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians.

And I have not even mentioned yet: the execution-style killings; a few days ago IDF soldiers separated a group of men from women then they shot point blank the men – about a dozen – in front of their wives and children.

Organ stealing – totally illegal, Israel has always been one of the leaders in human organ trading, if not THE leader – now they are stealing killed Palestinians, remove their organs for their illicit organ trade.

Stripping civilians, mostly men, by the hundreds, having them sitting in rows in full sight of everybody – a shameful humiliation. 

And more, much more – the list goes on and on, Israeli crimes have no end.

Nobody should ever talk about the Holocaust inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Jews. Nobody.

What Zionists are doing to Palestinians is at least in the same category or worse. 

And it has lasted for 75 years, for the entire existence of Israel, the apartheid system has prevailed – and killed countless Palestinians indiscriminately, year after year; silenced by the mainstream media, most of which are under Zionist control.

In addition to all the atrocities mentioned before, there is the human suffering that cannot be accounted for, not in money, not in numbers.

But the price Israel is most likely paying for their indiscriminate and well-thought-out genocide of an entire population is high – it may be Israel herself. 

Netanyahu, Zionist-in-chief, is wiping Israel off the map.

Once this is over – and one day it will be over, namely as soon as the money and weapons flow stops, pretty much like the Ukraine – then, the war will stop.

Israel cannot survive without Western money – with war or without war. 

Israel’s regular budget, in normal times, depends to about one-third on “subsidies” from the US – compliments of US tax-payers.

The price for these atrocities and suffering Israel is inflicting on Palestine will be steep.

PEACE is what We, the Western People – forget our corrupted governments – wish upon Palestine.

Our thoughts, our positive vibes, shall help bring PEACE to Palestine.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

Featured image: Bad Moon Rising – by Mr. Fish

Сви чланци Глобалног истраживања могу се читати на 51 језику активирањем дугмета Преведи веб локацију испод имена аутора (доступно само у верзији за десктоп).

Да бисте добили дневни билтен Глобал Ресеарцх-а (изабрани чланци), кликните овде.

Кликните на дугме за дељење изнад да бисте е-поштом/проследили овај чланак својим пријатељима и колегама. Пратите нас на Инстаграму и Твиттеру и претплатите се на наш Телеграм канал. Слободно поново постављајте и делите чланке Глобалног истраживања.

***

 

Почели су масовни протести у Београду. Опозиционари и њихове присталице, који се не слажу са резултатима недавних парламентарних избора, изашли су на улице, блокирајући путеве и нападајући зграде владе. Органи за спровођење закона реагују покушавајући да обуздају немире. Ситуација се захуктава.

По мишљењу стручњака, у Србији се могуће организује државни удар по узору на украјински Мајдан 2014. Већина стручњака сматра да акције српске опозиције координирају Брисел и Вашингтон.

Да ли је могућа политичка револуција у Србији?

Директорка Центра за геостратешка истраживања Драгана Трифковић изнела је руском Јавном сервису своје мишљење о овом питању:

Ко прави протесте у Београду и какви су њихови захтеви?

У Србији су одржани 17. децембра ванредни парламентарни, београдски и локални избори. По мом мишљењу, циљ организовања ванредних избора је био легитимизација политике владајућег режима, посебно у вези са Косовом и Метохијом.

Подсетићу да је владајући режим потписао Бриселски споразум 2013. године и Вашингтонски споразум 2020. године, којим се Србија практично одриче суверенитета и пристаје на одлуке албанских сепаратиста подржаних Вашингтоном. Такође у фебруару ове године је усмено усвојен Француско-немачки план у Охриду, којим се признаје суверенитет, територијални интегритет и национални симболи независног Косова. САД сматрају да је усмени пристанак председника Србије Александра Вучића довољан за легитимизацију независног Косова. Истовремено председник Србије понавља како никада неће признати косовску независност, али не поништава већ потписане договоре и усмени пристанак.

За САД је важно да након избора заврше пројекат косовске независности и у том циљу они координишу деловање и власти и опозиције. То је потребно имати у виду приликом оцене тренутне ситуације у Србији, где су протести и политичка нестабилност само део једног ширег плана.

Постоје индиције да се Вучић сагласио са захтевом амбасадора САД Кристофера Хила да власт у Београду пређе у руке про-западне опозиције, али је очигледно да он жели да задржи власт у Београду. Апсолутно не подржавам мешање страног фактора у Србији, као ни насилне протесте. Међутим чињеница је да и власт и опозиција имају исти политички програм, а то је безалтернативне интеграције Србије у ЕУ. Недавно је ЕУ укључила у процес европинтеграција обавезу Србије да призна косовску независност.

Да закључим, протесте у Србији организује опозција због изборних нерегуларности, али они нису претња по режим осим ако не добију пуну подршку Запада, што сада није случај. Дакле прозападна опозиција користи америчком амбасадору као контролни фактор ка власти, како би власт испунила све потписане уговоре у вези са Косовом.

Да ли је могуће у Србији очекивати државни преврат?

Након ванредних избора режим Александра Вучића је добио већину у Парламенту и фактички се учврстио на власти. То говори о томе да он има и даље велику подршку са Запада. Са једне стране српски режим покшава да одугловачи са потписаним и сагласованим обавезама око Косова, а са друге стране САД желе да пре избора у Америци реализују у потпуности пројекат косовске независности. Дакле ако поредимо ситуацију у Србији са ситуацијом у Украјини до Мајадана, јер има доста таквих поређења, морамо да будемо свесни кључне разлике. То је да је Јанукович одложио потписивање договора са ЕУ, а Вучић за сада ништа није одложио и даље заступа идеју безалтернативних интеграција Србије у ЕУ. Из тог разлога сматрам да не постоји никаква опасност да дође до државног преврата у Србији. Летос смо имали далеко озбиљније демонстрације у Србији где је на улицама било преко 100 хиљаде људи, али након што се про-западна опозција инсталирала на чело тих протеста, они су угушени. Треба и истаћи то да незадовољство грађана у Србији евидентно постоји, и да су они подједнако незадовољни и влашћу и опозицијим, односно комплетном политичком сценом Србије. Фактички у Србији не постоји алтернатива безалтернативном путу у ЕУ нити озбиљне политичке структуре које би могле да задобију поверење грађана. Из тог разлога је нејасно чиме може да резултира нарастајуће незадовољство грађана.

*

Напомена за читаоце: Кликните на дугме за дељење изнад. Пратите нас на Инстаграму и Твиттеру и претплатите се на наш Телеграм канал. Слободно поново постављајте и делите чланке Глобалног истраживања.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Over the past several decades, until very recently, you would have been hard-pressed to locate a single word of criticism in the corporate state media leveled at literally anything the Israeli state does. The uniparty’s pawns in elected government — and, more to the point, the national security state that actually runs foreign policy — have unanimously, full-throatedly embraced Zionism without reservation.

The few over the years who have strayed from the company line, like Pat Buchanan, have been met with the full force of the Israel lobby and its media attack dogs at the Anti-Defamation League, which intentionally, disgustingly conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism, a common tactic to silence the Israeli state’s political opponents.

Via ADL:

“Buchanan makes no attempt to hide his anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views, which have become more virulent in recent years…

Buchanan also turned his attention to Israel in his columns in 2010. In a June 2010 article, ‘Lift the Siege of Gaza,’ about the Israeli offensive in Gaza, Buchanan wrote that it “’was the inevitable result of Israel doing what it always seems to do: going beyond what is essential to her security, to impose collective punishment upon any and all it regards as hostile to Israel.’ In a May 2010 column, ‘Poodle Biden Gets Kicked,’ about Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel, Buchanan cited Biden’s comment that ‘there is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel’s security.’ Buchanan then claimed that Biden ‘was played for a fool’ when Israel decided it would build new homes in disputed areas. Buchanan called Americans “grovelers” when it comes to dealing with Israel and claimed that the U.S. responded like a ‘battered spouse to Israel’s ’public slap across the face.’…

Buchanan went on to criticize those who believe his views are anti-Semitic… ‘They charge us with anti-Semitism… The truth is, those hurling these charges harbor a ‘passionate attachment’ to a nation not our own that causes them to subordinate the interests of their own country and to act on an assumption that, somehow, what’s good for Israel is good for America.’“

Where’s the lie, ADL? They present Buchanan’s claims with no rebuttal as if they are self-evidently a.) incorrect and b.) somehow antisemitic even though in all cited examples Buchanan is explicitly discussing U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis Israel — nothing about Jews or Judaism.

Anyway, in recent weeks, a new phenomenon has unfolded: the knives have come out against the government of Bibi Netanyahu (not the Israeli state per se) in the corporate state media — even in its epicenter, which is Morning Joe and his sidepiece, Mika “Deep State Nepo-Baby” Brzeziński. Whatever line Joe and Mika are parroting is, invariably, the current approved narrative; it doesn’t get more establishment.

What gives?

There might be an amalgam of explanations, as most geopolitical issues are multifactorial. But here’s what I think is going on:

Netanyahu, as head of the Likud party and of a governing coalition including even more dogmatic parties, represents the highly religious, nationalistic faction of Israeli politics that is most likely to resist a full takeover by the multinational corporate state. Their vision of an explicitly Jewish state conflicts with the monocultural global technocracy’s ambition to turn the world into a consolidated techno-fiefdom.

What sold me on this theory was a trend that began earlier this year, when I saw a symphony of top technocrats, led by the WEF lieutenant himself, Yuval Noah Harari, who is no critic of Israel per se as a geopolitical beachhead in the Middle East as such, publicly turn on Netanyahu.

Via Times of Israel, March 2023:

“The Israeli historian, philosopher, and best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari said Thursday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may go down in history as the man who destroyed Israel.

Harari, who has been vocal about his opposition to a proposed judicial overhaul by Netanyahu’s right-wing government, said the long-serving prime minister has divided the country to preserve his political longevity.

This has caused rifts that will be difficult to heal, Harari said.

‘If Netanyahu had retired after two terms in office or after, say, eight years. I think even though I didn’t like many of the things he did, I think he would have retired as one of the great leaders of Israel,’ Harari said during an interview with The Associated Press in Tel Aviv.

‘Now, his legacy is he is certainly the divider of Israel, the person who divided the Israeli nation against itself. And I hope … we don’t get there,’ he said. ‘But he could go down in history as the person who destroyed the state of Israel.’…

Harari said Netanyahu, who is in a coalition with ultra-Orthodox and ultranationalist parties affiliated with the West Bank settlement movement, could move toward a dictatorship if the [judicial reform] plan is passed, and sounded the alarm for Israel’s Western backers.

‘If this kind of power falls into the hands of an autocratic regime, which is also a fundamentalist religious regime with expansionist aims and with this belief in Jewish supremacy, it will set the whole Middle East on fire,’ Harari said.”

The likes of Harari view Israel as a necessary asset of the Western corporate state in a region otherwise dominated by Muslim caliphates, even the most closely-held of which, like Saudi Arabia, are only on board for the oil money and the weapons/military assistance. Even given that the leaderships of these countries are nominally in on the globalist project, they sit atop a barely-contained ticking time bomb of Islamic fundamentalism, waiting for any opening to make a mess of things. Imagine ISIS but backed by the vast oil wealth currently controlled by the Saudi royal family and their analogs in the other Gulf States. This makes them unreliable allies at best, to the extent they could be considered allies at all and not mercenaries. Israel is an indispensable asset in the region.

Religious Israeli hardliners, therefore, represent the chief ideological adversaries of creatures such as Harari, as do nationalists of all stripes — be they secular or sectarian in nature, or ethnocentric or multicultural. It is no coincidence that, since the latter half of the 20^th century, “nationalism” has become a dirty word in polite neoliberal society, analogized to Nazism.

Israel, but for the Zionist ultra-nationalists in the way, is very nearly a fully captured state. The most glaring evidence for this is its government’s full-throated embrace of the COVID shots as “the first country on Earth to fully vaccinate a majority of its citizens against COVID-19” and its offering of the Israeli population as the de facto global guinea pigs for the pharmaceutical companies.

There are self-interested geopolitical reasons, of course, for Israel to give itself over to the multinational corporate state; it is surrounded on all sides, except the one occupied by a sea, by its enemies. It depends wholly on the financial, diplomatic, and military support of the United States, which at the top is itself nearly fully captured.

I have previously argued, which I stand by, that October 7 was not an “intelligence failure.” However, I am open to the possibility that Netanyahu himself did not see the attack coming and that the Israeli national security/intelligence apparatus hid pertinent information from him so as to achieve a pretext to finally get rid of him. If that is the case, putting the puzzle pieces together as to why American corporate state media has turned on Bibi becomes easier. 

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Armageddon Prose.

Ben Bartee, author of Broken English Teacher: Notes From Exile, is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The unfortunate dismantling of the Soviet Union over 30 years ago has left a power vacuum in the enormous territory it covered, either directly or through its ideological “brethren”. One of those was Yugoslavia, a relatively prosperous state that had a hybrid market socialist economy. It can be argued that Yugoslavia served as the testing ground for the US-led political West’s crawling aggression against Russia.

Eliminating the USSR simply wasn’t enough for Washington DC and Brussels, as the then newly established Russian Federation was still way too big and powerful for their liking. At the time, Moscow was kept down by the disastrous Yeltsin-era policies that essentially destroyed not only its status as a superpower, but also much of its internal sovereignty and economic power.

In the meantime, NATO focused on the destruction of whatever was left of Yugoslavia. The country’s largest ethnic group, the Serbs, was particularly targeted, with the political West aiming to reduce Serbian ethnic space as much as possible, starting with “Operation Storm” in 1995, when upwards of 400,000 Serbs were ethnically cleansed from the former Republic of Serbian Krajina and western parts of Republika Srpska. The latter was forcibly incorporated into Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995.

And that certainly wasn’t the end of it, as just four years later, the world’s most aggressive military alliance directly attacked Serbia itself to take away its resource-rich province of Kosovo and Metohia, resulting in another ethnic cleansing of over 250,000 indigenous Serbs.

However, the US-led NATO wasn’t done with Serbia. On the contrary, already the following year (October 5, 2000), it launched a color revolution, in many ways the first one in the post-Cold War era. Belgrade never really recovered from this, as the newly established Western-backed government effectively destroyed the country’s sovereignty by handing it over to Washington DC and Brussels.

By the mid to late 2000s, Serbia was almost completely dismantled, with Montenegro detaching in 2006 after a shady EU-backed referendum. Even before the vote, NATO threatened Serbia in case it intervened to prevent the secession, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about its legitimacy. Just two years later, the political West officially launched the “Kosovo project” by recognizing its so-called “independence”.

In 2012, Serbia’s pro-Western government lost its standing and was replaced by what many thought was a much more independent and sovereigntist option led by the current President Aleksandar Vucic.

However, the pressure on Serbia never subsided and the new government continued much of the same policies. And yet, this wasn’t enough, so the political West continued supporting various pro-EU/NATO political parties and NGOs, seeking to put even more compliant people in power. The recent parliamentary election is a perfect example of that, where pro-Western opposition parties and organizations launched somewhat Maidan-like violent protests, attacking police and several key institutions, including the Belgrade Assembly, as the capital’s city hall is officially called.

Claiming that the election was rigged, the opposition is demanding a new one. Dozens of violent protesters have been arrested, while at least eight police officers were injured. President Vucic is claiming there’s evidence of foreign interference that led to violent protests, while Prime Minister Ana Brnabic even thanked Russian intelligence services for providing timely information that prevented a more violent escalation. [It should be noted that Brnabic is a Young Leader of the WEF, a disciple of Klaus Schwab] The involvement of Moscow might seem a bit strange, but it’s hardly surprising given the history of NATO-backed protests in countries Russia sees as partners and allies.

There have been at least half a dozen such events in the former Soviet Union in the last two decades, with one resulting in the Donbass War in 2014, forcing the Kremlin to intervene in 2022.

After the aforementioned 2000 coup in Serbia, the people involved were swiftly transferred to Ukraine and Georgia. From there, with the help of US intelligence services, they expanded their operations all across the former Soviet Union, with plans to cause instability in Moscow’s entire geopolitical periphery. The number of people involved in these operations is truly staggering and includes individuals from all walks of life. And yet, there’s one particular name that stands out – Srdja Popovic. This man, clearly one of the CIA’s top assets in all of the former Eastern Bloc and beyond, is one of the key people behind the practical implementation of virtually every major protest in the former USSR.

Worse yet, the mainstream propaganda machine has been showering him with praise for decades now, claiming that he’s “helping democracy”. The Guardian styles him as “the secret architect of global revolution“, while the Economist admitted that “Popovic is advising rebels in 40 countries” (or even more). Back in 1998, packed with CIA funds and resources, Popovic established an organization called “Otpor” (“Resistance” in Serbian). After the 2000 coup, he tried his hand at politics, but failed after his close links to US intelligence services were revealed. Highly unpopular in Serbia, Popovic has been keeping a low profile in the country ever since. However, the CIA and the likes put his “expertise” to “good use”, as he switched to organizing similar movements in the former Soviet Union and the Middle East.

Popovic contributed to the so-called “Arab Spring” coups that helped US aggression in several Middle Eastern countries, including Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria. And yet, his most important projects involved Georgia and Ukraine in the early 2000s, where he helped organize the so-called “Rose” and “Orange” revolutions in 2003 and 2004, respectively. In 2005, there was also the so-called “Tulip” revolution in Kyrgyzstan, followed by two more in 2010 and 2020. Interestingly, the last one started on October 5, the exact date of the coup that happened in Serbia precisely 20 years earlier. After the political failure of “Otpor”, in 2004 Popovic founded another organization called the Center for Applied NonViolent Actions and Strategies (CANVAS) and took part in the creation of the “Pora” movement.

This organization was effectively a carbon copy of “Otpor”, only focused on Russia and Ukraine. It took active and sometimes even the leading part in every US/NATO-orchestrated rebellion and protest in both countries, including the infamous Maidan that eventually led to the rise of the Neo-Nazi junta in Ukraine. The activities of such movements have also been recorded in Armenia in 2018 and Kazakhstan in late 2021/early 2022. Although organizations Popovic founded and trained claim to use nonviolent methods, the results of their actions always lead to countless deaths, both directly and indirectly. For instance, the Maidan coup is the reason behind the Donbass war that took upwards of 15,000 lives, with hundreds of thousands more after Russia was forced to put a stop to it.

Taking all this into account, it can easily be argued that Popovic is a dangerous and well-trained US/NATO-backed terrorist who should’ve been arrested . Unfortunately, as this was never done, neither by the Milosevic government nor any other, particularly after his overthrow, people like Popovic were given a free hand to sow discord and instability, playing the role of a vanguard that would then be followed by a more direct US aggression. What’s more, the monsters that Popovic created have now grown into even more dangerous organizations that are continuing his “democratic” work. As previously mentioned, the ongoing protests in Serbia are eerily reminiscent of the infamous Maidan, as they have all the trademarks of Popovic’s playbook.

Although there’s no direct evidence that the Kiev regime’s services, such as the SBU, contributed to the protests, it’s not impossible that precisely this happened. The reaction of Russian intelligence further reinforces this notion. While the current Serbian government has largely given in to Western pressure and blackmail, mostly due to decades of US/NATO aggression and partial occupation, even joining some openly anti-Russian initiatives, it’s certainly not in Moscow’s interest to see the much more pro-Western opposition come to power in Serbia. For this reason, the Kremlin definitely sees the current Belgrade establishment as “the lesser of two evils”, as it can still work with it on a number of issues, despite ongoing attempts to drive a wedge between the two historically allied countries.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Nov. 27, 2023 – Statistics Canada released a fascinating report called “Deaths 2022”. Here is my analysis of the report.

 

 

The Statistics Canada Report can be accessed HERE. 

Excess deaths:

• Let’s start by analyzing some simple numbers.
• 48,780 excess deaths in 2022 compared to 2019. 17% increase in mortality.
• That’s 0.128% of the population, or 1 in every 784 Canadians died in 2022.
• In USA, that would be equivalent to 423,270 American deaths

What would you do?

• Let’s assume you’re the Trudeau government and you’ve poisoned your population.
• You recommended 7 experimental COVID-19 Vaccines that are now causing heart attacks, blood clots, collapses, cancers & sudden deaths.
• These are the COVID-19 Vaccines the Canadian Government (NACI) recommended:
  • 2 doses in early 2021
  • 1st booster in late 2021
  • 2nd booster in April 2022
  • 3rd (Omicron bivalent booster) in Oct.2022
  • 4th (Omicron bivalent booster) in Mar.2023
  • 5th (XBB.1.5 monovalent booster) in Sep.2023
• If you followed the Canadian government recommendations precisely, you would have taken 7 COVID-19 Vaccines as of right now.
• It was also possible to skip the 2nd booster and wait for the Omicron bivalent, which means you would have taken 6 COVID-19 Vaccines.
• We know that there is a tsunami of sudden deaths in the COVID-19 Vaccinated, but how do you present that data as the Federal Government?

What caused 48,780 deaths in 2022?

• 19,700 deaths from “COVID-19” in 2022, up from 15,900 in 2020.
• And this after 7 COVID-19 Vaccines recommended by NACI.
• This is proof that COVID-19 Vaccines did not save a single life.
• It’s important to remember that 80% of COVID-19 deaths in 2020 in Canada were found to be in long term care home settings (source), where vulnerable seniors were often left to die without adequate treatment (like antibiotics), or were given euthanasia drug cocktails (midazolam, morphine).
• So most COVID-19 deaths in 2020 were not true COVID-19 deaths.
• In terms of vaccines protecting from “severe disease”, where is this protection on the graph below? I don’t see any protection in 2021. Hospitalizations were similar in 2021 compared to 2020.
• Now look at what happened after COVID-19 mRNA 1st booster shots were rolled out in Nov-Dec.2021. This was followed by massive Omicron spikes in 2022 in Jan (BA.1), March (BA.2), July (BA.5), October (BA.5+).
• Again, where is this “protection from severe illness” promised by the vaccines?
• There is once again no evidence of vaccines protecting people in 2022.

• Even if we accept 19,700 deaths from COVID-19 in 2022, who was dying?
• BC government data (just before they deleted it in July 2022) told us 90% of those dying were Vaccinated.
• So 17,730 of the 19,700 deaths (90%) were COVID-19 Vaccinated anyways.
• Therefore, either:
  • they died from a COVID-19 Vaccine Injury and it was falsely reported as a COVID-19 death, or
  • they died from failure of their COVID-19 Vaccine (and likely Immune system injury) and they died from COVID-19.
• Any way you dissect it, these 19,700 “COVID-19 deaths” are really COVID-19 Vaccine deaths.
• Where is the 99% or 95% COVID-19 Vaccine efficacy we were promised?

Unspecified causes of deaths:

• 16,043, a stunning 375% increase from 2019 when it was 3,378!
• This is the most stunning admission from the entire report.
• This is also the number that has been circulated extensively on social media
• We don’t actually get any plausible explanation for this number in the entire report.

Cardiac

• Cardiac deaths increased by 4,000.
• This is a significant number, although I suspect many cardiac deaths are hidden in the “unspecified” or “COVID-19” death categories.

Accidents (Unintentional injuries)

• 18,365, up almost 3,000 from 2019 (15,527)
• I’m guessing they’re hiding blood clots here (strokes, falls, medical emergency while driving, etc)

Cancer

• Turbo Cancer due to COVID-19 Vaccines is a signal they have to hide at all costs.
• I’m not surprised to see only a small rise from 80,400 to 82,400, or +2000
• This is a number that is undoubtedly tampered with.
• It would be very easy to hide cancer deaths as COVID-19 deaths.

Statistics Canada:

“Life expectancy decreases for a third year in a row”.

• the important detail: “In 2022, the decline was more prominent among females than among males”.
• more women are vaccine injured than men.
• women are losing life expectancy in Canada at faster rate than men.

“COVID-19 deaths…This increase may in part be due to the exposure to new highly transmissible COVID-19 variants and the gradual return to normalcy, eg. reduced restrictions and masking requirements”

• Translation: 19,700 7x-vaccinated Canadians died from COVID-19 because of the milder new variants, no lockdowns and they stopped masking.
• this explanation makes NO SENSE – if their vaccine protected them, they wouldn’t need lockdowns, wouldn’t need masks that don’t work, and they certainly wouldn’t be dying from milder variants.
• so Statistics Canada has NO EXPLANATION for these 19,700 deaths.

“Deaths due to influenza and pneumonia on the rise”

• “deaths due to influenza and pneumonia increased by 45.4% from 2021 to 2022”
• I’ve often talked about this, this is due to COVID-19 Vaccine Immune damage.

“information on the causes of death, particularly among younger Canadians, whose deaths are more likely to result in an investigation, typically requires more time before it is reported to Statistics Canada…the data released today are preliminary”

• they’re telling us that we’re not getting all the young Canadian sudden deaths in this report.
• So the 48,700 Excess deaths doesn’t include an unknown number of “younger Canadians” who died suddenly.

My Take…

Statistics Canada “Deaths 2022” is data that you can reasonably expect has been thoroughly manipulated and tampered with.

It’s “preliminary” and doesn’t include many “younger Canadians” who died suddenly.

Even so, it is a devastating report.

48,780 Excess deaths in 2022 (17% increase in mortality).

I propose that the vast majority of these are COVID-19 Vaccine deaths.

These COVID-19 vaccine deaths are being concealed as:

• 19,716 COVID-19 deaths (not possible)
• 16,043 Unspecified causes (no explanation given or even attempted)
• the remaining 12,000 or so they’re not hiding:
  • 4,000 Cardiac
  • 3,000 Accidents
  • 2,000 Cancers
  • 800 liver disease
  • 500 kidney disease
  • 500 diabetes

A reminder that 1 in every 784 Canadians died in 2022, as admitted by the Canadian government in this Nov.27, 2023 Statistics Canada report. 

This is very much in line with Denis Rancourt’s work on excess deaths due to COVID-19 Vaccination.

This is what I wrote in my very first substack article on Feb.6, 2023:

“A good quick rule of thumb is: highly COVID vaccinated countries lost0.1% of their total population to “excess deaths” in 2022. That’s 1 in every 1000 people, dead.”

Statistics Canada corrected me. Not 1 in 1000.

Worse. 1 in 784.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.

Featured image is from Michael Nevradakis, PhD via COVID Intel

---

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Mass protests have begun in Belgrade. Opposition members and their supporters, who disagree with the results of the recent parliamentary elections, have taken to the streets, blocking roads and attacking government buildings. Law enforcement agencies are responding by trying to contain the unrest. The situation is heating up.

According to experts, an attempt is being made to stage a coup in Serbia on the model of Ukraine’s Maidan in 2014. Most experts believe that the actions of the Serbian opposition are coordinated by Brussels and Washington.

Is a political revolution possible in Serbia?

The director of the Center for Geostrategic Research, Dragana Trifkovic, gave the Public News Service her own take on the issue.

*

On December 17 of this year, parliamentary and local elections were held in Serbia. In my opinion, the purpose of organizing early elections was to legitimize the policies of the ruling regime, especially in relation to Kosovo and Metohija.

Let me remind you that the ruling regime signed the Brussels Agreement in 2013 and the Washington Agreement in 2020, according to which Serbia practically renounces its sovereignty and agrees with the decisions of the Albanian separatists supported by Washington.

Also, in February this year, the Franco-German plan to recognize the sovereignty, territorial integrity and national symbols of an independent Kosovo was verbally adopted in the city of Ohrid. The United States believes that the verbal agreement of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is sufficient to legitimize an independent Kosovo. At the same time, the Serbian president repeats that he will never recognize Kosovo’s independence but does not cancel already signed agreements and verbal consent.

It is important for the United States to finalize the Kosovo independence project after the elections, and to that end it is coordinating the actions of both the government and the opposition. This should be kept in mind when assessing the current situation in Serbia, where the protests and political instability are only part of a larger plan.

There are signs that Vucic has agreed to U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill’s request to cede power in Belgrade to the pro-Western opposition, but it is clear that he wants to keep power in Belgrade. I in no way support the intervention of a foreign factor in Serbia or violent protests. But the fact is that both the government and the opposition have the same political program – Serbia’s uncontested integration into the EU. The EU recently included Serbia’s commitment to recognize Kosovo’s independence in the European integration process.

In conclusion, we can see that the protests in Serbia are organized by the opposition because of the electoral irregularities, but they do not pose a threat to the regime unless they receive full support from the West, which they do not have at the moment. Therefore, the pro-Western opposition is used by the USA as a factor of control over the government, blackmailing the government to fulfill all the contracts signed regarding Kosovo.

After the early elections, Aleksander Vucic’s regime won a majority in parliament and effectively consolidated its power. This shows that it still enjoys strong support from the West. On the one hand, the Serbian regime is trying to delay the implementation of the already signed and agreed obligations regarding Kosovo, and on the other hand, the United States wants to fully implement the Kosovo independence project before the American elections.

So, if we compare the situation in Serbia with the situation in Ukraine before Maidan, because there are many similarities of this kind, we must recognize one fundamental difference. This is due to the fact that Yanukovych postponed signing an agreement with the EU, while Vucic still defends the idea of Serbia’s unquestionable integration into the EU and continues cooperation with the Union. Therefore, I believe that there is no risk of a coup in Serbia.

This spring we had much more serious demonstrations in Serbia, where more than 100,000 people took to the streets, but after the pro-Western opposition took the lead in the protests, they were repressed. It should also be noted that the dissatisfaction of the citizens in Serbia clearly exists, and they are equally dissatisfied with the government and the opposition, i.e. with the entire political scene in Serbia.

In fact, in Serbia there is no alternative to the single path to the EU, just as there are no serious political structures that can win the trust of citizens. For this reason, it is unclear how far the growing discontent of citizens will take us. Political stability is based solely on the agreement between the government and the opposition with the American ambassador, and the interests of Serbian citizens have nothing to do with it.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Geostrategy.rs.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

 

Why go for war, when Yemen’s request is very simple: Allow humanitarian aid flow into Gaza and a Ceasefire. They didn’t even request it for themselves, even though they have a need for aid. God bless Yemen @EsirEid

Why go for war, when Yemenite request is very simple: Allow humanitarian aid flow into Gaza and a Ceasefire. They didn't even request it for themselves, even though they have a need for aid. God bless Yemen

— 🇪 🇸 🇮 🇷 🇹🇿🇲 🇹 🇿 (@EsirEid) December 19, 2023

The Biden administration is blaming Iran for drone attacks on a commercial tanker in the Indian Ocean. The claims are being used as leverage on Iran to pressure the Houthis to abandon their blockade in the Red Sea and allow maritime traffic to return to normal. But the Houthis have no intention of caving in to pressure from Iran or anyone else. They are determined to continue their attacks on Israel-bound traffic however long it takes and whatever the cost.

On Sunday, numerous articles in the western media reported that Iran had launched a drone attack on a Japanese-owned chemical tanker named the MV Chem Pluto in the Indian Ocean. Many of these articles based their reports on claims made by unidentified Pentagon sources or declassified intelligence. As of Tuesday, none of those allegations have been independently verified or proven to be true.

What we know from previous experience is that elements of the national security state frequently plant fictitious stories in the media in order to garner public support for unpopular military campaigns or to demonize foreign nations for things for which they are in no way responsible.

And that appears to be the case here. There is no doubt that both Israel and the US want to implicate Iran in the recent attacks on merchant ships in the Red Sea. But, so far, there is no evidence to verify those claims. Iran’s leaders strongly oppose Israel’s ongoing massacre in Gaza, but they’ve also indicated that they do not want to participate in the hostilities. Iran does not want to get dragged into a broader regional war which could trigger a confrontation with the United States which would result in the deaths of millions of Iranians. All of this suggests that the recent flurry of anti-Iran reporting is agenda-driven disinformation designed to turn public opinion against Iran. This is from an article at BBC:

A chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean was hit by a drone launched from Iran on Saturday, the US military says….

Iran has not commented. Houthi rebels in Yemen – who are backed by Iran and support Hamas in its war with Israel – have recently used drones and rockets to target vessels in the Red Sea….

The same company also said the vessel was heading from Saudi Arabia to India, and was linked to Israel. The Houthis have claimed to be targeting Israel-linked vessels over the conflict in Gaza.

The US said the Chem Pluto was hit by “a one-way attack drone fired from Iran”. It is believed to be the first time the US has publicly accused Iran of targeting a ship directly.

It has previously accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in planning operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea – a charge Tehran has denied…Tanker hit off India coast by drone from Iran, says US, BBC

Yemen is so very badass–they take this brave stance as the poorest country in the Middle East, and in their 8th year of war and forced starvation by US/Israel and their allies. Yemen: "FU. GO AROUND AFRCA!!" lol Be like Yemen. #ILoveYemen #SaveGaza pic.twitter.com/49zSFMVThy

— Tamlyn Joy 🇵🇸🇷🇺 (@TamlynJJoy) December 25, 2023

Not surprisingly, the BBC article is factually wrong on several counts. First, Iran HAS commented on the incident, in fact, they have categorically denied any involvement whatsoever. This is from Al Jazeera:

Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has dismissed accusations of the United States that Tehran struck a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean, as tension rises globally over threats to maritime shipping.

A spokesperson for the ministry dismissed the accusation out of hand at a news conference on Monday. He asserted that the US claim that an Iran-launched drone had hit a Japanese-owned tanker as it sailed near India was false.

“We declare these claims as completely rejected and worthless,” said Nasser Kanaani when asked about the US accusation.

“Such claims are aimed at projecting, distracting public attention, and covering up for the full support of the American government for the crimes of the Zionist regime [Israel] in Gaza,” he added. Iran dismisses US accusations of tanker attack off India, Al Jazeera

We cannot understand why BBC editors did not include this explicit denial of involvement unless they were driven by an ulterior motive, that is, to further demonize Iran.

Second, we have zero evidence that the “drone (was) launched from Iran“. None of the many cookie cutter articles we have read provide anything remotely resembling verifiable evidence.

Third, Iran is not “deeply involved” in planning operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea”. The idea of attacking Israel-bound merchant ships in the Red Sea was concocted by Houthi leaders alone. Both the Houthis and the Iranians have admitted as much. Here’s more from the BBC:

The Pentagon statement said the Chem Pluto, “a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker”, was struck on Saturday at 10:00 local time …. The BBC was not able to independently verify the incident.” BBC

If the BBC “was not able to independently verify the incident,” then why in heaven’s name did they file a report that implied Iranian culpability? Is that not professional malfeasance?

Here’s more from the same article:

Many global shipping groups have suspended operations in the Red Sea due to the increased risk of attacks. The UK government has vowed to ensure the route’s safety.

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps told the Sunday Times newspaper that the UK was committed to repelling attacks on vessels – and would not allow the Red Sea to become a “no-go area”...

Chris Farrell from Neptune P2P Group, a UK maritime security company, described nervousness in the region and observed that container ships were proving more likely to reroute than larger vessels.“Nobody really knows the situation out there,” he told the BBC World Service’s Weekend programme.

“Because of the lack of stability, that’s creating the uncertainty with the clients and the shipping companies which are putting their assets within that region.” BBC

This is so epic. Yemen. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GwQqEeN1CL

— Shirin Khan (@Shirinkhan0) December 19, 2023

This excerpt requires some additional analysis: The UK Defence Secretary says he will not allow the Red Sea to become a “no-go area” while tacitly admitting that it has already become a “no-go area”. In other words, by his own admission, “Many global shipping groups have suspended operations in the Red Sea”, the transit corridors are no longer safe, and “container ship” are already being rerouted. By any conceivable metric, the Houthi strategy is working better than anyone could have imagined.

That is what he is saying. Don’t the authors realize that? Don’t they see that they have just admitted that the Houthi’s asymmetrical attack may be the most successful hybrid attack of all time; that they have effectively detonated a nuclear bomb at the economic epicenter of the “rules-based order”? It would be impossible to overstate the impact this ingenious offensive is having on political leaders and elites scattered across the western world. The sense of hysteria is palpable. A smallish, unsophisticated militia has delivered a withering blow to the Empire’s Achilles heel—the vital transit corridor for global trade that is now under the de facto control of Washington’s mortal enemy, the Houthis. Is that not a victory for the majority of ordinary people around the world who oppose the US and Israel’s sadistic butchery of the Palestinian people?

It is a victory. It is a triumph of good vs evil. But it will not go unanswered. Here’s more from an article at CNN:

The US on Friday released newly declassified intelligence that suggests Iran has been “deeply involved in planning the operations against commercial vessels in the Red Sea,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson told CNN.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels have launched more than 100 attacks against about a dozen commercial and merchant ships transiting the Red Sea over the past four weeks, CNN previously reported. The newly declassified intelligence suggests that “Iranian support throughout the Gaza crisis has enabled the Houthis to launch attacks against Israel and maritime targets, though Iran has often deferred operational decision-making authority to the Houthis,” Watson said.

On Tuesday, a senior US military official said the Iranians are operating in the Red Sea when asked whether Iran is helping the Houthis select targets. But that official said the Houthi attacks have been broadly indiscriminate.

“Iran has the choice to provide or withhold this support, without which the Houthis would struggle to effectively track and strike commercial vessels navigating shipping lanes through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden,” Watson said….US intelligence suggests Iran involved in planning attacks in Red Sea, CNN

What declassified intelligence? What senior US military official? Who provided this intelligence and what documents can CNN produce to prove their claims? We need to know the answers to these questions.

Once again, there’s no evidence, no witnesses, no documents, no electronic communications, and no proof. We are left with nothing but a “tapestry of lies” supporting an insidious anti-Iran narrative that may or may not be true. We just don’t know, because there are no verifiable facts, just speculation amid huge doses of hearsay. All we know for sure is that the authors want us to believe that Iran is source of all the problems in the Middle East. But that idea defies any understanding of the region’s history or recent events. It’s not Iran that has been toppling governments, killing millions and obliterating countries across the ME for the last 30 years. That is Washington’s doing. And it’s not Iran that has waged a brutish war of extermination on the civilian population in Gaza, reducing most of the area to smoldering rubble while herding 2 million starving people towards the Egyptian border. That is Israel’s doing. Iran wages war on no one; rather, they have been the target of relentless US hostility for over 5 decades for having the audacity to assert control over their own resources. That is Iran’s real crime; it’s unwillingness to bend a knee to Uncle Sam and timidly accept its role as Washington’s servile meat-puppet. Is that true or not true?

It’s true. This is from ABC News:

U.S. President Joe Biden ordered the United States military to carry out retaliatory airstrikes against Iranian-backed militia groups after three U.S. service members were injured in a drone attack in northern Iraq….

Iraqi officials said that U.S. strikes targeting militia sites early Tuesday killed one militant and wounded 18. They came at a time of heightened fears of a regional spillover of the Israel-Hamas war….

The U.S. has also blamed Iran, which has funded and trained the Hamas group, for attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militants against commercial and military vessels through a critical shipping choke point in the Red Sea. “Biden orders strikes on an Iranian-aligned group after 3 US troops wounded in drone attack in Iraq, ABC News

Are these really “retaliatory strikes” on Iranian positions or is Biden trying to coerce Iran into putting pressure on the Houthis?

IMO, the attacks are clearly aimed at the Houthis who can only be approached via their ally, Iran. The administration has made no effort to talk directly with the Houthis nor will they. US leaders will not negotiate with people they see as their inferiors which means they must persuade Iran to make their case for them. But, what does Iran get for its efforts?

They avoid the wider regional war that Netanyahu is angling for but that no one else (including the US) really wants. So, the Biden team is pressuring Iran because the next escalatory step is firing directly on Houthis positions, command-and-control, arms depots, communications and the rest. Once that happens, events will move very quickly. The Houthis will close the Red Sea to maritime traffic, they will attack regional US bases and installations, and they will take out critical oil infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. The genie will be out of the bottle and all Hell will break loose across the region. Oil prices will skyrocket, markets will plunge, and the global economy will go off a cliff. Which is why Biden is pursuing the Iranian track. It’s a last-ditch effort to avoid a Middle East catastrophe.

Sadly, it won’t work because Israel is determined to continue its ethnic cleansing in Gaza and then move on to the West Bank. So, the attacks on commercial ships are going to continue which will leave Washington with no option but war.

Yemen poses a unique but serious threat to US hegemony. Its military is small by US standards but they are adept at fighting in rugged terrain and they know every nook and cranny of the battlefield. They are fully prepared to fight a guerrilla war that could drag on for years. Naturally, Biden and his advisors would rather avoid such a conflict, but that may not be possible, after all, the “rules-based order” rests on a foundation of economic-political-military power.

So, when a smaller country ‘disrespects’ the US by disrupting merchant ships in the world’s most important shipping lanes, Uncle Sam must prove that he has the power to put down that rebellion or be prepared to face similar insurgencies in the future. This is the logic that guides imperial policy. Never show weakness or the jackals will rip you apart and leave you to die. That is the maxim Washington lives by.

What the Houthis are showing the world is that the Washington is no longer capable of imposing its Pax Americana on the hinterland. The US cannot form a broad-based maritime coalition because America’s allies no longer trust Washington’s judgement or believe in its moral authority. Nor does the Navy have a flotilla large enough or nimble enough to protect the waterways and transit corridors that sustain western economies. This is no small problem. This is crisis of legitimacy. It is a question of whether the US can act as the guarantor of global security or not. We don’t think it can, but we do think that the administration and the western elites that support them, are going to give-it-the-old-college-try by charging into Yemen ‘guns blazing’ in an effort to put down the Red Sea rebellion and to restore America’s image as the world’s premier military power.

Bottom line: Uncle Sam is not going to allow itself to get slapped-around in public by a country it sees as a ‘third-rate power.’ It’s going to roll-out the heavy artillery and then send in the ground troops. God help us.

The current situation pic.twitter.com/MW5QhMgXZl

— Rev Laskaris (@REVMAXXING) December 24, 2023

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). 

Featured image is from TUR

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

 

Some 1,000 children have had limbs amputated without anaesthesia in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its brutal bombing campaign on 7 October, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said.

It added that allowing the continued shelling of Gaza means greenlighting the killing of more children.

The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip has previously stated that nearly 70 per cent of the casualties of the aggression were children and women.

The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has surged to 20,674, the Health Ministry in the territory said yesterday.

Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra also said that 54,536 people had been injured in the months-long offensive.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory’s housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated enclave amid acute shortages of food and clean water.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles. 

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

As Israel continues its genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza — with the death toll now exceeding 20,000 (about 70 percent women and children) — the world seems powerless to stop the slaughter.

The Biden administration, Israel’s chief enabler, defanged the resolution that was ultimately passed by the UN Security Council on December 22, rendering it merely symbolic. The final resolution calls for humanitarian assistance but not for a ceasefire which would allow aid to reach the people of Gaza. The U.S. saved diplomatic face by not employing its customary veto, but it did not vote for the resolution, electing instead to abstain.

On the same day, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons Paula Gaviria Betancur warned that Israel seeks to permanently change the composition of Gaza’s population with additional evacuation orders, and systematic and widespread attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in areas of southern Gaza.

Calls for prosecution of Israeli and U.S. officials in the International Criminal Court (ICC) have been ignored as the chief prosecutor of the ICC demonstrates blatant bias in favor of Israel.

On November 13, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit on behalf of Palestinian human rights organizations, Palestinians and Palestinian Americans against President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, charging them with failure to prevent genocide and complicity in genocide. It seeks an emergency court order to halt U.S. military and diplomatic support to the Israeli government. The suit documents how Israel is committing genocide as defined in the Genocide Convention. A hearing will take place in January.

Nevertheless, the carnage continues unabated.

The “World Court” Decides Disputes Between Countries

The ICC’s Rome Statute provides for the prosecution of individuals who commit, or aid and abet the commission of genocide. By contrast, the International Court of Justice (ICJ or “World Court”) — the judicial arm of the UN system — resolves disputes between countries.

Any of the 153 state parties to the Genocide Convention can and should submit Israel’s genocide to the ICJ. Article IX of the Genocide Convention provides:

Disputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the present Convention, including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide . . . shall be submitted to the International Court of Justice at the request of any of the parties to the dispute.

A formal investigation of the “Situation in the State of Palestine” has been pending in the ICC for nearly three years. If the ICJ were to make a finding of genocide, the ICC would not have to determine that genocide has occurred. The ICC would just have to decide which individuals are responsible for the genocide.

In the last two months, states parties to the Genocide Convention — including South Africa, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Comoros, Colombia, Algeria and Turkey — have urged the ICC to investigate Israeli officials for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza. Other countries critical of Israel’s actions include Pakistan, Brazil, Chile, Belize, Jordan, Ireland, Honduras, Bahrain, Venezuela, Iran and Cuba.

These countries should be urged to submit the matter of Israel’s genocide to the ICJ. If one of them does make a submission, the ICJ would have jurisdiction to hear the matter. Its decision must then go to the Security Council for enforcement, although that could be limited by political considerations.

When the Genocide Convention was invoked against Serbia by Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding the 1995 massacre at Srebrenica, the ICJ ruled against Serbia. This fed directly through to prosecutions at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

In 2004, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion against Israel in the case involving the barrier wall it built on Palestinian land. There’s another advisory opinion case pending in the ICJ about the legality of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, in which the ICJ is expected to rule against Israel.

But if a state party to the Genocide Convention were to submit the matter of Israel’s genocide to the ICJ, the court’s decision could have binding authority.

On December 12, Craig Murray, the U.K.’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan, attended a UN session in Geneva called by Palestine. More than 120 countries were represented. Murray spoke to several delegates about why no country has submitted the matter of Israel’s genocide to the ICJ.

“The answer is now clear to me,” Murray wrote. “It is not that people are worried that a claim of genocide will not be successful at the International Court of Justice. It is that everybody is quite sure it will succeed.”

A World Court Finding of Genocide Would Bind the ICC

“The problem is that once the ICJ has determined that this is a genocide, it follows that not only are [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and hundreds of senior Israeli officials and military personally liable,” according to Murray. “[B]ut it is absolutely plain that ‘Genocide Joe’ Biden, [U.K. Prime Minister Rishi] Sunak and members of their administrations are also criminally liable for complicity, having provided military support for the genocide.”

Murray added,

“The International Criminal Court cannot ignore a judgment of genocide from the International Court of Justice and will have no choice but to issue arrest warrants.”

There is no doubt that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Craig Mokhiber, former director of the New York Office of the UN’s High Commissioner of Human Rights (who resigned in October to protest the UN’s failure to prevent Israel’s genocide) called it “unprecedented — a text book case of genocide.”

Speaking at a December 13 webinar sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies, Friends Committee on National Legislation, and MPower Action, Mokhiber said that Israel has murdered entire bloodlines, multigenerational families and whole neighborhoods in Gaza.

Israel has destroyed the civilian infrastructure and intentionally imposed disease, hunger, thirst and a lack of medical care on the people in Gaza. This amounts to the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, Mokhiber stated, which constitutes a genocidal act.

The ICJ can infer genocidal intent from Israel’s conduct, Mokhiber noted. But, he added, the court doesn’t need to infer intent from conduct because Israel is openly declaring its genocidal intent through public statements uttered by Israeli government officials: the intent to reduce Gaza to rubble, to bury Gazans, etc. “I have never seen a case like this,” Mokhiber said.

The General Assembly Should Convene Under “Uniting for Peace”

There is also a procedure the General Assembly can follow to circumvent a U.S. veto in the Security Council. Under Uniting for Peace, a resolution passed by the General Assembly to evade the Soviet Union’s veto power during the Korean War, the General Assembly can call on its 193 UN member states to impose a trade embargo on Israel and urge them to organize a military force to intervene in Gaza. The General Assembly can also suspend Israel from its ranks.

I have joined dozens of global intellectuals in signing a Declaration of Conscience and Concern, urging “national governments to embargo and halt all shipments of weapons to Israel, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, which should also withdraw their provocative naval presences from the Eastern Mediterranean.” We called on “the UN Security Council and General Assembly to so decree without delay.”

Moreover, we “unequivocally” urged “an immediate ceasefire and the initiation of diplomatic negotiations under respected and impartial auspices, aimed at terminating Israel’s long and criminally abusive occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. This process,” we wrote, “must be fully respectful of the inalienable right to self-determination of the Palestinian people and take proper account of relevant UN resolutions.”

Millions of people around the world have taken to the streets to protest Israel’s genocide. We must redouble our efforts to mobilize public opinion to pressure countries critical of Israel to submit the matter of its genocide to the ICJ and convene the General Assembly under Uniting for Peace. And we must support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement to compel Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian land.

The people of Gaza deserve our immediate and urgent action.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the national advisory boards of Assange Defense and Veterans For Peace, and the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. She is founding dean of the People’s Academy of International Law and the U.S. representative to the continental advisory council of the Association of American Jurists. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues. She is co-host of “Law and Disorder” Radio.

Featured image: Peace Palace (Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Trade between India and Russia exceeded $50 billion this year, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said, setting a new record by an astronomical amount. It comes as the South Asian and Eurasian Giants deepen their ties despite major attempts by Washington to prevent this.

“There is an X factor when it comes to the relationship between India and Russia, which has remained good and has enhanced to a Special and Privileged Strategic Partnership. I signed an agreement along with DPM Manturov for future units of the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu. The bilateral trade between India and Russia can increase from the present $50 billion to $100 billion in the next few years,” said Jaishankar, while interacting with the Indian diaspora in Moscow on December 26 as part of his five-day visit and after explaining that trade exchange with Russia was previously between $12 billion and $14 billion.

“Our relationship with Russia has been stable over the past many decades as the leadership has taken care to nurture it, and there are strong people-to-people connections between our two nations. We support Russia for their BRICS Presidency and will continue to be their partner,” India’s top diplomat added.

He also indicated that India and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) – made up of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan – will begin negotiations on a free trade agreement at the beginning of 2024. Both countries already prepared a draft trade agreement in March 2020, but its consideration was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The fact that Jaishankar visited Moscow in the last week of the year to meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and with the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov among others, demonstrates the importance that India places with its relationship with Russia, something to the immense frustration of the US.

The Biden administration has told foreign governments, including India, that now is not the time for “business as usual” with Russia, as the US President makes no secret of his efforts to try to isolate Moscow. Since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict, the Biden administration has been trying to disrupt Russia’s economy through sanctions and export control measures, which created hurdles in India’s trade ties with the country. Both countries have acknowledged that billions of dollars of payments are stuck in banks due to difficulties in transferring payments created by the sanctions.

New Delhi has also expressed serious concern about the West’s import restrictions on Russian diamonds. Russia and India complement each other in the diamond industry, with the former being the largest producer globally while the latter is the world’s top exporter of polished diamonds.

It is recalled that the Indian Air Force (IAF) admitted to a committee of the Indian Parliament earlier this year that Russian defence exports to India have been delayed due to Western sanctions on the Russian military-industrial complex.

Russia and India signed in December 2021 the “Agreement on Military Technical Cooperation Program” for 2021-2031, which provides for the licensed production of T-90 tanks and Su-30 MKI fighter jets, along with the sale of S-400 systems. According to New Delhi’s aims of achieving self-reliance in defence production, Russia assists India in establishing manufacturing facilities for AK-203 rifles and BrahMos missiles, contributing to the fact that Russia is India’s largest supplier of arms.

Nonetheless, despite the difficulties created by the sanctions, New Delhi has shown Western powers that it will not shy away from Russia and instead will rapidly deepen trade relations. Due to this, Washington is forced now to show a greater understanding of India-Russia ties, which was spurred on mostly by the West’s favouritism towards Pakistan and financing of regional jihadi groups during the Cold War.

The success of Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow will ultimately be judged on the outcome of the meetings, such as whether a significant deal will be signed between Russia and India, which can be seen as a breakthrough. Although energy trade appears to be replacing defence as the key pillar of New Delhi-Moscow relations, evidenced by the fact that Russia is now the largest supplier of crude oil to India, it does not diminish security as a major concern, including financial security, especially in the face of US pressure. Yet, even a breakthrough deal is unlikely to garner major public backlash in the West as they now understand that they cannot deter the growing relations between India and Russia, meaning it will only be a matter of time until $50 billion worth of trade becomes $100 billion.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from thewire.in

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

[Our thanks to Al Jazeera for this article.]

***

It has been four days since Gaza’s smallest refugee camp was pounded in yet another series of Israeli air strikes, but Palestinians there are still digging up the bodies of their loved ones from under the rubble.

The onslaught in central Gaza’s Maghazi late on Sunday killed at least 90 people, including children and many who were internally displaced.

In one of the deadliest attacks on the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a war on the enclave on October 7, residents including Ashraf al-Haj Ahmed said the assault happened “suddenly” and without prior warning.

“At around 11:30pm that night, we witnessed a series of large explosions that shook the entire camp,” al-Haj Ahmed told Al Jazeera.

At least three homes were completely destroyed [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

His relative’s home was among those that were flattened to the ground. Al-Haj Ahmed recalled running towards it as soon as the bombardment woke him up, just a few blocks down.

At the scene of the attack, he found a four-storey building destroyed “on top of those who were living in it”.

“There must have been around 40 people, among them are the owners of the house, as well as displaced families who were taken in,” he said.

At least three houses in the overcrowded camp were hit by Israeli air strikes. Officials in Gaza said seven families were among the casualties.

While the official number of those who were killed stands at 90, residents of the camp near Deir el-Balah say in reality, the figure is much higher as entire residential blocks were wiped out.

“In each home, there’s a minimum of 50 people,” another Maghazi resident told Al Jazeera. “A lot of them are displaced Palestinians from other parts of Gaza who were forced to flee their homes.”

Israel’s attacks have not spared homes and shelters that displaced people have fled to [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

The camp normally houses 30,000 people, according to the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA). But with the displacement of Palestinians fleeing Israel’s relentless bombardment in other parts of the enclave, the number of people there has risen to an estimated 100,000.

“We pulled out so many body parts that we can’t even estimate the total number of deaths yet,” the second resident said.

“They’re all in pieces, and we’re pulling them out with our bare hands,” he added. “We’ve now gathered at least two piles of body parts.”

‘Dark and Painful Night’

Israel’s attacks have not spared homes and shelters that people have fled to.

Despite being on the southern side of the Strip, an area that Israeli forces deemed “safe” and ordered civilians from the north to flee ahead of their ground offensive, Maghazi has been subjected to intense artillery and air raids.

It was also attacked last month when at least 50 Palestinians were killed. The vicinity of the camp was also subjected to intense Israeli shelling over the last week.

Abu Rami Abu al-Ais is among those who have been sheltering in Maghazi ever since he left his home in the al-Zahra neighbourhood. He said Sunday’s attack was not the first time he and his family members had been hit.

“We had a home in al-Zahra, which came under attack. After coming here, the house we were staying in was bombed again,” al-Ais, whose daughter is badly injured, told Al Jazeera.

More than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

He echoed al-Haj Ahmed’s experience and said there had been “no warnings whatsoever” prior to the strikes.

Al-Ais said in previous assaults on the enclave, Israeli forces would sometimes warn residents of a building to evacuate a few minutes before an attack, either by throwing leaflets or via speakerphones. But during this offensive, there had been no such warnings.

“The rockets fall on the heads of innocent people sleeping in their homes,” he said. “They [Israel] want to commit a complete genocide.”

Al-Ais said people are still collecting the remains of their friends, neighbours and relatives with their bare hands.

“We found the remains of women and children who were blown up. Their body parts have been scattered over a span of about three blocks,” due to the intensity of the strikes, al-Ais said.

“It was a very dark and painful night for Maghazi,” he recalled. “The widespread and sheer destruction is indescribable.”

Residents of Maghazi refugee camp have called for an urgent ceasefire [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Infrastructure, such as roads leading to the camp, were also destroyed.

Al-Ais said there are no excavators that can help speed up the process of recovering people from under the blocks of concrete.

The lack of much-needed fuel to operate bulldozers and vehicles means that – just like civil defence teams in Gaza – residents are digging with only their bare hands to try and pull out as many victims from under the rubble as they can.

Israel has blocked the entry of fuel since it imposed a total siege on the already blockaded Strip at the start of the war, and has only allowed a very small amount of aid in through the Rafah border crossing.

“We don’t need food, we don’t need water, we don’t need coffins,” al-Ais said. “What we need is a ceasefire and for this war to end.”

Al-Haj Ahmed, agreed. “Shame on the Arab world. We don’t just need aid, we need you here personally. Come and stand with your brothers,” he said.

Attacks on refugee camps and civilian infrastructure have become common since October 7. The Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has been targeted several times, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians.

Civilian infrastructure – including schools, hospitals, ambulance vehicles, and places of worship – has also been subjected to bombardment.

More than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, while nearly 1.9 million – more than 80 percent of the 2.3 million people who live in Gaza – have been displaced.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image: At least 90 Palestinians were killed in Sunday’s attack on the Maghazi refugee camp [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

Is Kiev Regime Now Killing Foreign Journalists to Hide Its Corruption?

By Drago Bosnic, December 27, 2023

Back in August this year, reputable Egyptian investigative journalist Mohammed al-Alawi revealed exclusive materials regarding the purchase of a villa worth nearly $5 million by a woman named Olga Kiyashko. This would hardly be newsworthy if the person in question wasn’t the mother-in-law of the Kiev regime frontman Volodymyr Zelensky.

Stunning Atrocities in Gaza Funded by US Taxpayers

By Ralph Nader, December 28, 2023

The stunning atrocities going on day after day is being recorded by U.S. drones over Gaza and by brave Palestinian journalists directly targeted by the Israeli army. Over 66 journalists and larger numbers of their families have been slain. Israel has excluded foreign and Israeli journalists for years from Gaza.

Free Zones or Zones of Unfreedom? Debunking National Mythologies of “Happy” Jamaican Call Centre Workers

By Tina Renier, December 27, 2023

Jamaica serves as a peculiar case study on special economic zones’ integration in global supply chains (GSCs) because it is a small island developing state in the Caribbean region with 213 special economic zones across 10 out of 14 of its parishes which employs 53,000 people.

Israel’s War Spending: The Ballooning Costs of Israel’s Genocidal War Against Palestine

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark, December 27, 2023

The Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron is worried. He is keeping an eye on the ballooning costs of his country’s war against Gaza and the Palestinians. Initially, the Netanyahu government promised to increase its defence budget by NIS 20 billion (US$5.48 billion) per annum in the aftermath of the war.

Fort Bragg: Meeting at the End of the World. The US Military in Crisis. “Recent COVID Period Worsened All These Problems”

By Christine E. Black, December 27, 2023

In the past few years, the U.S. military has failed to meet its recruitment goals, according to U.S. news outlets. International outlets, like Al Jazeera, also report on the shortages. Young people’s poor mental and physical health, learning losses, and lack of confidence in the U.S. government and the military have all been blamed for lagging recruitment. The recent Covid period worsened all these problems.

Europe Betrayed. Minsk Peace Negotiations “Did Not Fail”? They Prepared Ukraine for War with Russia? Angela Merkel

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, December 27, 2023

According to former German prime minister, Angela Merkel, the Agreements did not fail, but fulfilled their real objective: to prepare Ukraine for a war against Russia in the near future. Commenting on the beginning of Moscow’s special military operation and the escalation of the conflict in Donbass, the German former official stated that this confrontation was expected from the very beginning, with the ceasefire established in Minsk only working as a way to temporarily alleviate tensions, enabling Kiev to gain time.

Christ in the Rubble. The Billionaires in Davos: “The Hypocrisy and Racism of the Western World Is Transparent…” Rev. Munther Isaac

By Rick Thomas, December 27, 2023

Will the genocidal war machine come to its senses and stop the barbaric slaughter of innocent civilians? Or will the conflict stir up so much regional anger, that the conflict escalates into a much wider confrontation between Israel, America, Hezbollah and Iran?

Sudden Deaths: What Is Killing COVID-19 Vaccinated Men at 30-39?

By Dr. William Makis, December 27, 2023

31 year old Amsterdam High School teacher Liam Pickett died suddenly of a burst aortic artery on Nov. 28, 2023 which happened after teaching his last period class.

Palestine: The Cost of Bearing Witness. Chris Hedges

By Chris Hedges, December 27, 2023

Writing and photographing in wartime are acts of resistance, acts of faith. They affirm the belief that one day – a day the writers, journalists and photographers may never see – the words and images will evoke empathy, understanding, outrage and provide wisdom. They chronicle not only the facts, although facts are important, but the texture, sacredness and grief of lives and communities lost.

Palestinian Resistance Cannot be Killed

By Steven Sahiounie, December 27, 2023

For the last thirty years, various resistance groups in the Middle East have emerged. Over time, they have made alliances among themselves. Their collective goal is to free Palestine from the brutal and enduring Israeli occupation.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The unstoppable Israeli U.S. armed military juggernaut continues its genocidal destruction of Gaza’s Palestinians. The onslaught includes blocking the provision of “food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel,” openly genocidal orders decreed by Netanyahu and his extreme, blood-thirsty ministers.

The stunning atrocities going on day after day is being recorded by U.S. drones over Gaza and by brave Palestinian journalists directly targeted by the Israeli army. Over 66 journalists and larger numbers of their families have been slain. Israel has excluded foreign and Israeli journalists for years from Gaza.

This no-holds-barred ferocity came out of the Israeli government’s slumber on October 7^th which allowed a few thousand Hamas and other fighters to take their smuggled hand-held weapons and attack soldiers and civilians before being destroyed or driven back to Gaza.

Seventy-five years of Israel military violence against defenseless Palestinians and fifty-six years of violently and illegally occupying their remaining slice of the original Palestine provides some background for Israel’s Founder, David Ben-Gurion’s candid statement: “We have taken their country.” (See, his full statement here).

The overwhelming military superiority of Israel – a nuclear armed nation – in the Middle East has produced a more aggressive Israeli government. Being more secure than ever before doesn’t seem to temper the expansionist missions of right-wing Israeli colonies in the West Bank.

Presently, the narrow Netanyahu majority in the Parliament believes that “nothing can stop us.” Presently, they are right.

Joe Biden and Congress are vigorously enabling the annihilations. The UN is frozen by the Joe Biden administration’s vetoes in the Security Council against ending the carnage in Gaza. The Arab nations either lay in ruins – Syria, Iraq – or are too weak to cause Israeli generals any worry. The rich Arab nations in the Gulf want to do business with prosperous Israel and, other than Qatar, care little about their Palestinian brethren.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) are no obstacle. Israel, along with Russia and the U.S. do not belong to the International Criminal Court. The Palestinian Authority is a party, but the practical difficulties of investigating Israeli war crimes in Gaza and apprehending the accused are insurmountable. The ICJ’s jurisdiction requires a country to bring Israel before the Court for war crimes or genocide. In any event, the Court’s lead-footed procedures trespass on eternity. So much for international law and the Geneva Conventions. Netanyahu rejects the moral authority of seventeen Israeli human rights groups, including Rabbis and reservist soldiers. Their open letter to President Biden in the December 13, 2023 issue of the New York Times on “The Humanitarian Catastrophe in the Gaza Strip” was ignored by the media despite the truth and courage it embodied.

In the U.S., protests and demonstrations are everywhere. Many are organized by Jewish human rights groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace, If Not Now, Standing Together, Veterans for Peace and various student organizations. Everywhere Biden travels there are people from all backgrounds protesting.

A few days ago, the first protests by labor union members occurred in Oakland, California. Union activists could turn their attention to why, for years, union leaders put billions of dollars into riskier lower-interest Israeli bonds rather than U.S. Treasuries or bond funds investing in America. Like U.S. weapon deliveries, purchases of Israeli bonds by states, cities and unions have surged since October 7^th.

Pope Francis, informed of the Israeli attack on the only Catholic Church and Convent in Gaza, which housed people with disabilities, killing and injuring Christians sheltering there, sorrowfully said: “Some would say, ‘It is war. It is terrorism.’ Yes, it is war. It is terrorism.”

In 2015, over 400 Rabbis from Israel, the USA and Canada called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop the practice of demolishing hundreds of Palestinian homes as being contrary to international law and Jewish tradition. Their successors Rabbis for Human Rights are being ignored by the regime.

The Head of the U.S. Bishops Conference and the National Council of Churches, representing millions of parishioners, condemned the bombings but received little coverage.

There is only one institution that could stop Netanyahu’s mass military massacres of the Palestinian people. That is the U.S. Congress. As long as over 90% of the politicians there automatically support AIPAC, the Israeli Government Can Do No Wrong Lobby, even a peace-loving Joe Biden cannot deter Netanyahu. Bibi (his nickname) could simply say to a hypothetically transformed Biden “Joe, take it up with OUR Congress.”

How has AIPAC achieved such domination on Capitol Hill? By years of relentless lobbying and the smear of “anti-semitism” to anyone defying them. AIPAC and its chapters don’t bother with marches or demonstrations. They personally focus on the legislator – one by one. Carrots or sticks. Praise, PAC money and junkets are the Carrots. The Sticks are smears and money for selected primary challengers in their Districts or States. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) called AIPAC “a Hate Group.”

There are about 300,000 citizens spending significant time back in the states working Congress in AIPAC’s favor. They know the doctors, lawyers, accountants, clergy, local politicians, donors, golf champions and other friends of the Senators and Representatives, and forcefully promote Israeli expansionism backed to the hilt by the U.S. government.

AIPAC is proficient in part for lack of any organized opposition. It is also practicing state-of-the-art non-stop grassroots lobbying.

Congress is poised to send $14.3 billion to Israeli militarism—a “genocide tax” on U.S. taxpayers—without public hearings. While growing public opinion in the U.S. is against unconditional backing of the Israeli regime, it has not changed a single vote in Congress. Someday, more organized support for America’s national interest will.

(For calls to your legislators, the Congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121.)

[From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.]

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate and the author of “The Seventeen Solutions: Bold Ideas for Our American Future” (2012). His new book is, “Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lies and Lawbreaking Betray All” (2020, co-authored with Mark Green).

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

As recentes notícias sobre a libertação de Maryinka mostraram que os russos continuam a avançar no campo de batalha, apesar da lentidão dos combates. Mais do que isso, a cidade é extremamente estratégica e possibilita o processo de libertação total da República Popular de Donetsk, consolidando o controle territorial russo nas regiões reintegradas.

O anúncio da vitória em Maryinka foi feito no dia 25 de dezembro pelas autoridades russas. O fato foi reconhecido pelo próprio governo ucraniano, que confirmou que as suas tropas recuaram da cidade e estão agora entrincheiradas nas redondezas.

Maryinka, por fazer parte de Donetsk, já é território legalmente russo desde os referendos de 2022, porém, a região ainda era disputada militarmente, com presença de forças ucranianas na cidade até então. Maryinka está localizada no extremo oeste de Donetsk e o seu controle é essencial para permitir a expulsão definitiva dos soldados ucranianos do recém-integrado oblast.

Maryinka tem sido bombardeada diariamente desde o início do conflito. A sua localização estratégica levou a fortes atritos desde 2014, quando começaram os confrontos entre separatistas russos e militantes ucranianos. Na época, os ucranianos conseguiram construir fortificações na região e manter-se numa posição sólida, que só agora foi destruída pelos russos.

Uma extensa rede de túneis subterrâneos e bunkers foi construída pelas forças de Kiev, segundo o Ministério da Defesa russo. Isto explica por que os combates foram tão intensos e longos, considerando a dificuldade de conduzir operações militares em regiões ocupadas por canais subterrâneos que permitem ao inimigo se esconder e armazenar equipamentos. Nesse sentido, ao destruir a fortificação militar ucraniana no sudoeste de Donetsk, os russos conseguem infligir pesados ​​danos às forças de Kiev, agravando ainda mais a fraqueza da Ucrânia.

Em verdade, controlar as cidades nos arredores de Donetsk parece ser hoje uma prioridade russa. Ao libertar as zonas fronteiriças dos novos oblasts, os russos conseguem expulsar o inimigo e consolidar as suas posições nos territórios que já fazem parte da Federação. Nesse sentido, o sucesso em Maryinka soa como uma grande vitória para Moscou e mostra como os objetivos militares e políticos russos continuam a ser alcançados, apesar do conflito parecer “lento” e sem grandes mudanças territoriais.

Desde o início da operação militar especial, a Rússia optou por uma estratégia de movimentos “lentos mas seguros”. O objetivo das forças de Moscou nunca foi avançar rapidamente no campo de batalha e tomar o máximo possível de territórios – pelo contrário, a Rússia tem se esforçado por manter linhas de defesa sólidas, protegendo as zonas já libertadas e mantendo uma distância segura entre estas e as áreas controladas pelos ucranianos.

No mesmo sentido, os russos apostam fortemente no uso de artilharia para neutralizar o inimigo, mobilizando tropas no terreno apenas depois de infligir danos substanciais ao inimigo. Assim, as vidas dos soldados russos também são protegidas. É possível dizer que salvar vidas militares e civis tem sido a principal prioridade da Rússia durante toda a operação.

Na prática, isso faz com que o combate seja mais demorado e gera na opinião pública uma sensação de “paralisia” no campo de batalha. No entanto, é uma forma comprovadamente eficiente de salvar vidas humanas sem causar perdas militares e territoriais. O tempo não é inimigo da Rússia neste conflito – pelo contrário, o tempo corre contra Kiev, que perde cada vez mais soldados, equipamentos e territórios e não tem capacidade de reverter este cenário.

Em outra declaração recente do ministério da defesa russo, foi dito que o principal objetivo da operação militar especial em 2023 era neutralizar a “contraofensiva” ucraniana. Obviamente, o objetivo foi alcançado com sucesso, com o conflito a entrar agora numa nova fase, em que as forças ucranianas já não parecem ter qualquer possibilidade de sequer tentar uma reação ou contra-ataque. Nesta nova etapa de hostilidades, as forças russas têm controle absoluto sobre como conduzir seus avanços, pois as tropas ucranianas estão extremamente enfraquecidas e não conseguirão manter posições por muito tempo.

Do ponto de vista militar, a libertação de Maryinka pode ser vista como o início de uma onda de libertações nas regiões fronteiriças de Donetsk. Acredita-se que a Rússia iniciará movimentos focados na obtenção do controle total dos novos territórios, eliminando definitivamente a presença militar ucraniana nestas áreas. Considerando a estratégia adotada até agora, é possível que os conflitos se prolonguem e os objetivos demorem a ser alcançados, mas isso certamente acontecerá devido ao próprio interesse da Rússia em evitar perdas humanas – e não devido à capacidade de defesa da Ucrânia.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

Artigo em inglês :

https://infobrics.org/post/40157/

Imagem : InfoBrics

*

Lucas Leiroz, jornalista, pesquisador do Center for Geostrategic Studies, consultor geopolítico.

Você pode seguir Lucas Leiroz em: https://t.me/lucasleiroz e https://twitter.com/leiroz_lucas

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Back in August this year, reputable Egyptian investigative journalist Mohammed al-Alawi revealed exclusive materials regarding the purchase of a villa worth nearly $5 million by a woman named Olga Kiyashko. This would hardly be newsworthy if the person in question wasn’t the mother-in-law of the Kiev regime frontman Volodymyr Zelensky.

According to the documentation al-Alawi presented, the lavish compound is located in the so-called VIP area of the city of El Gouna on the Red Sea coast. Zelensky’s mother-in-law acquired the villa in May for 150 million Egyptian pounds (approximately $4,860,000). This is rather peculiar, given that Zelensky’s income before he took power in 2019 was ₴28 million (hryvnia), which is around $750,000.

Ever since, his wealth increased exponentially. Although sources vary significantly, Zelensky’s current net worth that not even the mainstream propaganda machine denies is roughly $20 million. The actual number could be orders of magnitude higher, but for the sake of the argument, let’s say it’s true. Still, the question arises, how did he manage to accomplish a 25-fold increase in wealth? Worse yet, this “remarkable” accomplishment happened in the middle of an “evil Russian invasion”. However, it should be noted that the reason why his net worth is extremely likely to be much higher lies in the fact that he surely wouldn’t invest a quarter of his wealth into a luxurious villa that probably costs tens of thousands in maintenance per month.

Still, the more important question is where did the money come from? Obviously, the question is rhetorical, but the Neo-Nazi junta and its NATO overlords wouldn’t want anyone to start asking it, let alone giving the most obvious answer.

Egyptian sources indicate that much of the so-called “Ukrainian elite” acquired property in Egypt, particularly in the aftermath of the special military operation (SMO). However, Al-Alawi “dared” to do his job and investigate the matter and it seems that he really hit the hornet’s nest by revealing this information.

Namely, several news outlets reported that he was found dead near the El Hadaba road in Hurghada. Local police said that his body had numerous abrasions, fractures, bruises and a traumatic brain injury.

The investigation has so far concluded that al-Alawi was beaten to death. His family and relatives said that they feared for their lives ever since he revealed the details of his investigation. Namely, both al-Alawi and his family have been receiving death threats for months. Interestingly, the mainstream propaganda machine and its “independent fact-checkers” fought tooth and nail to “debunk” al-Alawi’s findings and even launched a smear campaign against him. However, Egyptian authorities are now suspecting that special services (most likely the SBU) were involved in al-Alawi’s murder. This is hardly surprising, given that murdering foreign journalists and anyone who doesn’t bow to the Neo-Nazi junta has become its common practice.

In this particular case, the goal was to punish al-Alawi for exposing Zelensky and undermining the image of a “war hero” that the Kiev regime and the political West have been trying to create since the SMO started. What’s more, it’s not impossible that al-Alawi had additional information about the rampant corruption of the Neo-Nazi junta and its leadership, the extent of which is difficult to overstate. The sheer magnitude of embezzlement on all levels of government has prompted the Kiev regime’s American backers to actively disrupt any audits. Such investigations would certainly reveal the enormous extent of the Neo-Nazi junta’s corruption. This would only exacerbate its funding issues, as the GOP-dominated Congress can’t wait for an excuse to cut it completely.

And yet, corruption scandals keep springing up everywhere in Ukraine. In recent days, a senior Defense Ministry official was arrested for embezzling $40 million allocated for the purchase of artillery munitions. The unnamed official is said to have committed fraud by using state funds to purchase shells at inflated prices. His home was searched by the police who found documentation that confirms he ran the scheme. It should be noted that the Kiev regime forces are experiencing chronic shortages in artillery munitions. This means that the unnamed official effectively contributed to the problem that is so severe now that Ukrainian artillerymen are forced to limit their fire support only to larger formations and completely ignore smaller Russian units.

Corruption scandals are so common that the Neo-Nazi junta is simply unable to prevent people from leaking information about it. The Defense Ministry is particularly involved in such embezzlement schemes, as evidenced by ongoing investigations into the acquisition of sub-standard bulletproof vests, as well as the purchase of food supplies and uniforms at inflated prices. One of the more recent scandals was when Zelensky fired all officials in charge of conscription commissions. Namely, they were essentially selling exemption notices and making it possible for the more well-off people to avoid being sent to the frontline. This is creating tensions with the political West, as both the US and EU are deeply irritated by the lack of battlefield results.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Read Part I: 

From Colonialism to “Neoliberal Capitalism”: Low Wage “Special Economic Zones”. Integrating Developing Countries into Global Supply Chains: The Case of Jamaica

By Tina Renier, December 16, 2023

---

“I have to create affirmation cards to boost my self-esteem whenever I go to work daily.

I keep up the facade of happiness to meet daily targets and customers’ satisfaction. I have to keep up a facade of happiness even though I am paid less than my regular monthly salary.

Call centre workers are not treated as human beings. We are treated as robots or business transactions.”

(Online testimony from a 21-year-old woman working at a BPO company for 2 years and 2 months, Daily Observer, February 21, 2022).

***

For decades, special economic zones (SEZs) have been pivotal development strategies to promote economic growth, international trade, foreign direct investment, and job creation for several developing countries. Special economic zones (SEZs) are also known as “free zones”, “free trade zones” or “export processing zones” and they are geographically delimited areas within which governments facilitate industrial activity through fiscal and regulatory measures as well as infrastructural support (UNCTAD, 2019). Globally, SEZs have proliferated throughout the world and there are over 7,000 special economic zones employing more than 100 million people. More than 1,000 special economic zones have been established in the last five (5) years (UNCTAD, 2022).

Jamaica serves as a peculiar case study on special economic zones’ integration in global supply chains (GSCs) because it is a small island developing state in the Caribbean region with 213 special economic zones across 10 out of 14 of its parishes which employs 53,000 people. The nation was also a host of the 8^th Annual Conference for the World Free Zones Organisation in 2022. Jamaica has positioned itself as a hub for private investment in the business product outsourcing (BPO) sector in the Latin America and Caribbean region. One of the main policy objectives for the Government of Jamaica (GOJ) is to promote job creation through economic growth while creating an enabling environment for local and foreign investors (National Investment Policy of Jamaica, White Paper, July 2022).

In this interpretive essay, I argue that the Government of Jamaica’s use of special economic zones as key policy instruments obscures the attention from the quality of jobs created and therefore, this undermines the sustainable development imperative, which is also a core aspect of its policy objective outlined in its National Investment Policy White Paper.

Sustainable development is defined as ensuring that the needs of the present generation are met without jeopardizing future generations and it is a form of development that pays keen attention to economic, social, and ecological considerations. Drawing on Sara Ahmed’s (2010) conceptual frameworks of “promise of happiness” and “cognitive capitalism” this essay explains that Jamaica’s neoliberal capitalist government regime, business product outsourcing (BPO) corporations, employers, BPO industry experts and private sector investors serve a powerful discursive function in which they construct and produce “happy” narratives and images of call centre workers while profits and foreign direct investment revenue have been maximised.

On the other hand, the majority of call centre workers describe their deplorable working conditions as akin to slavery and hence, free zones or special economic zones can be considered as ‘zones of unfreedom’.

Cognitive capitalism refers to the exploitation of creative and emotional labour and purports that the dominant subjective interpretation that work is a major contributor to the economy while thoughts, desires and feelings are quantified as expressed solely in terms of monetary value (Marini, 2007). Finally, this essay highlights how significant changes such as the post-COVID-19 pandemic context, global supply chain disruption, global geo-political crises, pessimistic projections for an incoming new year (2024) and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (artificial intelligence-driven work) pose serious implications for not only decent work creation in special economic zones but also for the Jamaican decision-making landscape concerning special economic zones.

Special economic zones undermine the Government of Jamaica’s sustainable development imperative because immense emphasis has consistently been placed on profit maximisation and the number of jobs created rather than the quality of jobs created.

This is evident in the fact that it was reported that the business product outsourcing sector (BPO) within special economic zones contributes USD$136 billion to the Jamaican economy which is equivalent to 6% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Williams, 2023). Local and foreign investors are entitled to a wide array of benefits under Sections 3 and 4 of the 2016 Special Economic Zones Act of Jamaica. Local and foreign investors are exempted from customs duties, exempted from income taxes on profits derived from rentals of property within zones and a 12.5% tax rate on income of the developer or occupant (Special Economic Zones Act of Jamaica, 2016).

One of the primary legal rights of a zone occupant is to transfer funds freely in and out of Jamaica under Section 39 1 h of the 2016 Special Economic Zones Act and as mentioned previously in the first part (Part 1) of this essay, this reinforces the hegemonic power of business product outsourcing (BPO) or call centre transnational corporations whereby they are effectively able to wield leverage over the Government of Jamaica’s local regulatory and investment policy frameworks to suit their agendas.

Transnational corporations expert, John Madeley (2008:18) argued that governments of developing countries often overlook the deeply problematic social costs of integrating into global supply chains and social costs associated with hosting transnational corporations in their countries because developing country governments are more concerned about pressing economic needs such as addressing high unemployment rates, chronic debt and the need for generating foreign exchange revenue from investments. As a result, developing country governments end up defending corporations that are exploiting the country (Madeley, 2008, p.18).

Madeley’s postulation is seen in the example of Government of Jamaica and its correspondent agencies and ministries utilising the media (online news headlines) as an avenue to establish constructs of “happy news” about the creation of more BPO/call centre jobs by marketing and promoting Jamaica as an ideal investment location because it has a proven track record in foreign direct investment, nearshore advantage to North America, a highly educated and English-speaking workforce, competitive labour costs and quality infrastructure (JAMPRO, 2017). Competitive labour costs are the code words for low-waged, low-valued added, indecent work as the cost for wages in Jamaica are 40-60% lower than the corresponding salaries in North America. 

Sara Ahmed (2010) in her book, “The Promise of Happiness” offers a critical decolonial and feminist perspective and an incisive interpretation of happiness where she defines happiness as a technique of power relations and a crucial industry that maintains hierarchical relations in societies through texts, popular images, messaging, and several forms of media. Ahmed (2010:3) postulates that happiness narratives or national stories are often cited in old or new media when the social realities of oppressed groups do not reflect the national mythologies of happiness.

The national mythology of happiness associated with business product outsourcing (BPO) work is widely shared in newspaper headlines by industry experts, government, BPO employers, private investors, and even high-ranking government officials such as the Prime Minister of Jamaica, The Most Honourable Andrew Holness who boasts,

“ Jamaica has the largest BPO market in the Latin America and Caribbean region and the industry has created “job opportunities that has transformed people’s lives” (Angus, Jamaica Information Service, June 7, 2022).

Without a doubt, massive transformation has been associated with creating thousands of BPO jobs but what is not mentioned in the national mythology or national frenzy of happiness is the fact that the transformation is highly uneven, as the nation still suffers from high inequalities in income, life expectancy and access to social and economic opportunities for majority of its population (UNDP’s Human Development Report, 2021) and the fact that the transformations lay bare the enduring history of labour exploitation that stems from its colonial past.

The transformation to which Prime Minister Holness speaks is not transformative per se either in potential or reality but is rather highly extractive. The harsh social ramifications of special economic zones’ integration in global supply chains are revealed in the quotes from testimonies of call centre workers at the beginning of this interpretive essay who have openly shared that despite slavery-like, waged jobs, they are forced to mask their real emotions on the job by pretending to be happy. This is referred to as emotional labour. Emotional labour involves more than being polite to customers. It involves suppressing genuine emotions with happiness because most call centre workers’ job security and wages are on the line and their working conditions are primarily characterized by emotive performance (Granday, Rupp and Brice, 2015).

Thus, happiness about working in Jamaican call centres is treated like a script to be followed as deviations from the script of happiness deployed by employers, private investors, BPO industry experts and governments would be perceived as not only a deviation from happiness but unsettling the broader macroeconomic, social, spatial-ecological, epistemological, and political conditions of oppression? Similar to Ahmed (2010:50), I ask the question, “How can one justify the unequal distribution and exploitation of labour and say such a form of labour makes people happy?” How can Jamaica’s call centre workers be happy about low wages, gruelling working hours, customer, peer and employer mistreatment, abuse and harassment, excessive surveillance of job performance, limited or no social protection benefits, limited or no job security, myriad occupational health illnesses associated with call centre work and no union representation to advocate on their behalf?

The zones of unfreedom established by the previous and the current neo-liberal capitalist government regime continue to court foreign direct investment and hold economic growth as the sole metric of development without any serious emphasis on the quality of jobs created.

The severity of the BPO/call centre dilemma has gained the attention of the Governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Richard Byles who has explained that BPO jobs are not only low waged but low value-added as most of them primarily rely on customer call service operations and they are like the low waged jobs that have created two decades ago. For the Government of Jamaica to achieve its sustainable development imperative, the Government of Jamaica must place urgent focus on ensuring the special economic zones as central strategies of development or policy instruments court both foreign direct investment while creating decent work with adequate attention to designing and implementing progressive or inclusive labour demand and labour supply policies. Adequate attention must be given to designing and implementing progressive or inclusive, labour demand and supply policies because the vast majority of the populations in the Latin American and Caribbean region are working jobs (including call centre work) that do not pay enough that lift them out of poverty and people living and working in poverty experience the highest deficits in decent work (Abramo, Cechini and Morales, 2019, p.14).

Secondly, special economic zones undermine the Government of Jamaica’s sustainable development imperative because there are several labour and human rights violations even though national laws and policies have outlined that employers should adhere to legislation governing interactions with employees.

Fundamental rights and freedoms of Jamaican workers including the right to freedom of association and freedom from discrimination under Chapter III- Fundamental Rights and Freedoms in Jamaica’s Constitution (Amended 2011) have been seriously breached in special economic zones.

In fact, as a country, we have been categorized for repeated labour rights violations of workers, according to the 2022 International Trade Union Confederation Global Rights Index. These unlawful actions should exemplify greater social advocacy and movement towards reforming Jamaica’s Constitution to better reflect not only today’s socio-economic realities but to ensure rights of every Jamaican are both effectively upheld and enforced presently and for future generations. Additionally, from a right-based perspective, the United Nations Common Multi-Country Analysis (UN CMCA) Report in 2021 referred to the limitations of most Caribbean Constitutions. The report illustrated that most Caribbean countries do not provide guarantees for economic, social and cultural rights in their domestic legislations or constitutions.

Therefore, one potential area for improvement or a recommendation for the Government of Jamaica’s effort at constitutional reform is to ensure that our constitution fully reflects the values and principles enshrined in the 1966 UN Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights along with stronger enforcement mechanisms to ensure accountability and more punitive measures for individuals and or entities that are in breach of legally binding principles.  Two powerful, online testimonies were posited in the Jamaica Daily Observer article entitled, “Sweatshop: Call Centre workers employed in a Slavery-like Working Environment and Unfair Treatment” dated February 21, 2022. 

A 30-year-old call centre worker working at a BPO company explained in the Jamaica Daily Observer article:

“This sector is like modern-day slavery as you are easily drained, overwhelmed and replaceable. Base pay is not enough and the slightest mistake results in the loss of monthly incentives”.

A 22-year-old woman call centre worker, who works a year and 11 months at another BPO company noted in the Jamaica Daily Observer article:

“I have 10-hour shifts with no breaks or lunch. You have to do everything on time and if you are late for work, it comes out of your monthly pay. You earn a sick day every 22 days and when you get sick, they do not pay for it. The industry offers good salaries only at the managerial and occupational levels.”  

In the same article, Khadea Folkes who is an Attorney-at-Law observed that according to Jamaica’s labour laws, workers are entitled to ten (10) sick days annually and these workers’ experiences and concerns underscore the need for the enforcement of the 2017 Occupational Health and Safety Act which would allow employees to experience decent work conditions without jeopardizing their health and well-being. The online testimonies of these call centre workers mirror a completely different reality from the ambitious statements examined in policy documents or “happy” national announcements of the creation and establishment of more zones of unfreedom with BPO sector jobs.

Sara Ahmed (2010) expresses that happiness means to follow someone else’s directives and when one or a group becomes unhappy or speaks about the source of their happiness is seen as a source of defiance especially if one or a group of oppressed people are expected to recede in the background.”

Ahmed’s explanation is quite relevant to these Jamaican call centres as their testimonies have not only assisted in debunking national mythologies of happiness, as zones by their very restrictive spatial design add to call centre workers’ unfreedom alongside surveillance but their testimonies also embody resistance against the national tropes of happiness and inequitable, extractive transformation that BPO brings to their lives. These testimonies also show how cognitive capitalism is embedded in the psyche of workers and is popularized by the time is money and money is time, adage. In a country where wages are 40-60% less than comparable wages of North American workers and where globally, the cost of living, inflation, and devaluation of developing countries’ currencies like Jamaica have impacted negatively on wages and purchasing power, we simply cannot expect Jamaican call centre workers to be happy or to “recede into the background by silencing stories that need to be told- stories that unsettle national fabrications of happiness.

To add insult to injury, there is more “unhappy” news from the 2022 International Labour Organization (ILO) publication has expounded on the fact that erosion of wages affects all wage earners in developing, emerging market and industrialized countries but a more disproportionate impact is faced by wage earners from low-income households, especially in the post-pandemic context. The report also calls for renewed attention on rebuilding people’s sense of social justice. We can only rebuild a sense of social justice when the local sustainable development agenda is pursued both on paper and, as well as when our development strategies are people-centred coupled with a serious focus on environmental sustainability.

Finally, the Government of Jamaica should observe the trends in global development that will affect the local, policy decision-making landscape concerning special economic zones, as we are a small, island developing states that are becoming ever more vulnerable to exogenous shocks.  On a global scale, it is predicted that this year and the incoming years (2024 and beyond) will be characterized by rapidly shifting macroeconomic conditions, global supply chain disruptions both due to the COVID-19 pandemic’s long-lasting implications and geo-political crises, banking sector turmoil in the US and Europe, the Fourth Industrial Revolution and increased vulnerabilities for developing countries (United Nations, 2023). Already business product outsourcing (BPO) mainly consisting of call centre jobs is experiencing the headwinds of accelerated artificial intelligence which is expected to slash seventy (70%) of BPO with more than 38,000 of an estimated 55,000 people employed being without work (Editorial, Jamaica Gleaner, April 13, 2023). Excuse my pessimism which might be seen as an act of political troublemaking! but we must collectively rethink, reimagine, and develop policies to ensure a more equitable transformation beyond the current exploitative, extractive model of neoliberal and cognitive capitalism associated with these zones of unfreedom.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Sources

Abramo, L, Cechini, S. and Morales, B. (2019). Social programmes, poverty eradication and labour inclusion. Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean. Santiago de Chile, Chile: United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNECLAC) publication.

Ahmed, S. (2010). The Promise of Happiness. London and Durham: Duke University Press.        

Allen, I. (11 October 2019). Byles: Jamaica needs to create high-value jobs. Jamaica Gleaner. Retrieved from https://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/business/20191011/byles-jamaica-needs-create-high-value-jobs

Angus, G. (7 June 2022). 6,000 More BPO Jobs Since COVID-19. Jamaica Information Service. Retrieved from https://jis.gov.jm/6-000-more-bpo-jobs-since-covid-19/

Granday, A. Rupp, D, and Brice, W. (2015). Emotional Labour Threatens Decent Work: A Proposal to Eradicate Display Rules. Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 36, pp. 770-785.

International Labour Organization. (2022). The Impact of Inflation and COVID-19 on Wages and Purchasing Power. Geneva, Switzerland: ILO Publications

Jamaica Gleaner. (13 April 2023). Low tech-Low Wage Dilemma. Editorial. Retrieved from jamaica-gleaner.com/article/commentary/20230413/editorial-low-tech-low-wage-dilemma

Jamaica Observer. (21 February 2022). Sweatshop: Call Centre workers complain of a slavery-like working environment and unfair Treatment. Retrieved from https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/sweatshop/

Madeley, J. (2008). Big Business, Poor Peoples: How Transnational Corporations Damage the World’s Poor. London and NY: Zed Books. p.18

Marini, C. (2007). The Feminization of Labour and Cognitive Capitalism. Feminist Review, 87, pp. 40-59

United Nations. (2023). World Economic Situation and Prospects- Mid Year Update. New York, USA: UN Publications.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (2019). World Investment Report. Special Economic Zones- Chapter IV. Geneva, Switzerland: UNCTAD Publications.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (17 May 2022). Special Economic Zones. Geneva, Switzerland: UNCTAD Publications

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

 

 

***

The Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron is worried. He is keeping an eye on the ballooning costs of his country’s war against Gaza and the Palestinians. Initially, the Netanyahu government promised to increase its defence budget by NIS 20 billion (US$5.48 billion) per annum in the aftermath of the war. But a document from the Finance Ministry presented to the Knesset Finance Committee on December 25 suggests that the number is NIS 10 billion greater.

The Finance Ministry is also projecting that the war against Hamas will cost the country’s budget somewhere in the order of NIS 50 billion (US$13.8 billion). NIS 9.6 billion will go towards such expenses as evacuating residents close to the borders of the country’s north and south, buttressing emergency forces and rehabilitation purposes.

The increased military budget is predictable and in keeping with the proclivities of the Israeli state. What is striking is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has regarded Israeli defence expenditure as generally inadequate when looked at as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP).

Between 2012 and 2022, military expenditure as a percentage of GDP fell from 5.64% to 4.51%. Doing so enables him to have two bites at the same rotten cherry: to claim he was blameless for that very decline in military expenditure, and to show that he intends to rectify a problem he was hardly blameless for.

Even in war time, Netanyahu is proving oleaginous in his policy making. The mid-December supplementary budget for 2023, coming in at NIS 28.9 billion, was intended to cover the ongoing conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah. But its approval was hardly universal. Opponents of the budget noted the allocation of hundreds of millions of shekels towards “coalition funds” intended for non-war related projects relevant to parliamentarians and ministers. Benny Gantz’s National Unity party, a coalition partner, would have nothing to do with it. Intelligence minister Gila Gamliel was absent from the vote, while Yuli Edelstein of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party abstained. Opposition leader Yair Lapid pointed the finger at the rising budget deficit.

On December 18, Yaron gave vent to some of his concerns.

“During this period, more than at any other time, and as investors, rating agencies, financial markets and the public as a whole are carefully examining policymaking in Israel, it is necessary to manage economic policy – fiscal and monetary – with great responsibility.”

Body counts interest Yaron less than budget figures and reputational damage in the markets, though killing Palestinians is proving an expensive business.

“The government will have to find the right balance between financing war expenses and the expected increase in the defence budget and the need to continue investing in other civilian budgets, which are already low, in particular in growth engines such as infrastructure and education.”

Yaron has every reason to assume that costs will continue to balloon. For one thing, Netanyahu’s idea of peace in the current conflict reads like a blueprint for ongoing, lengthy massacre, accompanied by permanent mass incarceration: the destruction of Hamas itself, the demilitarisation of Gaza and a Palestinian society free of radical elements. This is a nightmare to both humanitarians and the belt-tighteners in the Finance Ministry.

Notably, the plan says nothing about Palestinian statehood, which, in the scheme of Israel’s aims, has been euthanised. Gaza, the designated monstrosity Israel nourished as a supposedly useful tool to keep Palestinian ambitions in check, is to be turned into a prison entity that seems awfully much like it was prior to the October 7 attacks by Hamas. (The cruel, in such cases, lack imagination.)

A “temporary security zone on the perimeter of Gaza and an inspection mechanism on the border between Gaza and Egypt” will be established in accordance with “Israel’s security needs”. The zone will also serve to prevent “smuggling of weapons into the territory”, which sounds much like the original blockade, lasting 14 years, that was meant to achieve the same purpose.

The Israeli PM is, however, promising that the destruction of Hamas will take place “in full compliance with international law”, begging the question what sort of international law he is consulting. Given various official statements from Netanyahu’s cabinet and the Israeli Defence Forces, it must be either a law of jungle provenance or one applicable to animal kind. That same standard of legal analysis has permitted the generously expansive massacre of over 20,000 Palestinians, a staggering number of them children, the ongoing flattening of Gaza, and the utter destruction of critical infrastructure.

Given that Israeli law, alongside military and administrative policy, does nothing other than encourage the radicalisation of Palestinians and the fertilising of the Jihadist soil, this is charmingly delusionary. The current war will simply prove to be the same as previous ones, protean, adjustable, and shape changing. Conflict will simply continue by other means, a continued growth of flowering hatreds, leaving Israel a butcher’s bill of shekels and casualties it is only now chewing over.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is a Research Associate at the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He currently lectures at RMIT University. Email: [email protected]

Featured image: Slaughterhouse – by Mr. Fish

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Dying throes of U.S. militarism, with post-covid trauma and malaise, display themselves in Fayetteville, North Carolina this December as I travel there on a Friday for a Saturday meeting.

Fort Bragg is there, which is one of the largest military bases in the world.  My meeting is with a group I volunteer with that counsels military members and veterans, takes calls from those who need help, and directs them to services. 

In the past few years, the U.S. military has failed to meet its recruitment goals, according to U.S. news outlets. International outlets, like Al Jazeera, also report on the shortages. Young people’s poor mental and physical health, learning losses, and lack of confidence in the U.S. government and the military have all been blamed for lagging recruitment. The recent Covid period worsened all these problems.

Current service members suffer heart problems after receiving mandated Covid shots, and over 8000 service members were discharged for declining the shots, with members losing benefits and promotion opportunities. War rages in Israel and Palestine, and U.S. warships recently fired on drones that attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea. The military has sent thousands of U.S. troops to the Middle East while attacks on soldiers in Iraq and Syria increase. 

Because my father was career military, my family lived at Ft. Bragg when I was a child, and my father left from there for his first deployment to the Vietnam War. The base was recently renamed Fort Liberty. Gleaming chains stores line the main road into town – I Hop, Panera, Ross, every imaginable fast-food place, and some I have never heard of like Cinnaholic, all brightly lit and crowded. Consumerism and consumption look like signs of prosperity, but here, now, they seem to have reached an unsustainable critical mass.

Signs of despair and struggle are everywhere along with a sweet vulnerability also circulating among common people as though we tremble at the edge of the world, the edge of doom when being kind to each other, making some kind of connection seems more important than ever.

“Is it nice enough?” I ask the lady at the counter when I check into the Comfort Inn on Friday night. “I’m tired after a long drive.”

“It is,” she answers tenderly. When I ask her where a good place to eat is, she asks me what I like and when I tell her a few choices, she walks out the door of the hotel beside me, with extraordinary politeness, to point out Mission BBQ a few store fronts down, close enough for me to walk.

Cars, muscular trucks, and gleaming motorcyles roar through the main drag that is eight-lanes wide. Occasionally, a driver accelerates an engine with a ferocious sound and burst of speed. You can almost smell the testosterone. I often wonder: does the U.S. public really understand what we ask military people, mostly men, to do when we train them for wars and send them to wars? What do people think actually happens there? Military patches, photos, tools, and mementos fill the walls of the Mission BBQ restaurant where I eat.

A large print of the U.S. Army’s Soldier’s Creed hangs prominently in the main dining room. Prints of soldiers returning from war, kissing girls, are displayed in the women’s bathroom. 

The girl bussing tables asks me what I am reading. She tells me she likes to read, that she read a lot when she lived in England, growing up in a military family. 

“Joan Didion,” I tell her and show her the cover of the book of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem. I read it in my twenties and am re-reading it now. My copy is yellowed and brittle. She thanks me, says she’ll check it out. The restaurant is full of young men, amazingly fit, plus a few young families. At the table next to me is a huge, beautiful man with tattoos all over his arms and neck. It looks like he is with his wife, mother, and toddler son.

On my walk back to the hotel, I see a smoke shop and am curious as I have never been in one before. Students in public schools where I have taught sneak vape pipes in bathrooms and get in trouble when detectors identify them. When I was in high school, we smoked cigarettes outside and some sneaked marijuana, but I didn’t like it. I wanted to see what the shop was like. They are everywhere now – neon and bright, full of colorful, varied products, rows of boxes and bottles, lines of vials and packages, candles, incense and fragrance oils. I puzzled how populations in the U.S. were so easily subdued by government Covid lockdowns in 2020 and beyond. Maybe shops like this one – and video games — were part of the answer. People stayed home, smoked, drank (liquor stores were never closed), played MMOGs, waited for Amazon boxes to appear on their porches.

I tell him I am a teacher, plus a writer and put on my reporter’s role, ask questions of the 23-year-old young man working there. He kindly answers. The store sells CBD or nicotine for vape pipes and a special kind of strong tobacco for the hookah pipes, also sold there.

In many states, marijuana is fully legal now. A steady stream of customers arrives, buying rolling papers for marijuana, another buying a vape pipe, which are rechargeable in all kinds of styles. The shop also sells disposal pipes to ingest psychedelic mushrooms. The young shop worker grew up in military family, he says, and recounted the many places he had lived. He joined the military at 17, was in for four years, stationed a few places, including Fort Bragg, and then got out. He’s now divorced at 23.

“I am leaving here as soon as I can,” he says.

I walk back to the hotel. Discarded shopping carts with trash and old clothes litter spaces between bushes. A homeless person rests beside her shopping cart, filled with clothes and bedding. Parking lots are strewn with trash. I look in the hotel lobby for hot tea. 

“We don’t have fresh right now,” says the young black guy seated, half sleeping, in the lobby. I ask him if there’s a place I could walk to for a hot chocolate or tea.

“There’s a Dunkin Donuts,” he says. He steps out of the hotel with me and points. He’s wearing a security uniform. He says he’ll walk with me, that he’s trying to wake up for his night shift at the hotel. I ask him if he is working security after military service. He says he was in the Marines and was shot in the leg and got out on a medical discharge and now works security at the hotel. I ask him if he likes it.

“It’s quiet and not that hard,” he says. He is young, yet his face has a tremor. Old railroad tracks run beside the road. I tell the young man I lived at Fort Bragg when I was a child, that my father left for Vietnam from there. 

“It’s a lot different since then, I’m sure,” he says. “Now they call it Fort Liberty. I don’t know why they did that. It doesn’t seem to matter. They’re just trying to be showy or something.”

Dozens of obscenely bright stores shine in the night as we walk to Dunkin Donuts. Christmas lights blink and flash. I see more trash tangled in bushes and strewn on sidewalks; cigarette butts, plastic cups, and Styrofoam containers litter parking lots. 

When I get back to the hotel room, the colors from the high-definition TV in my room are even brighter than the world outside; shapes and figures are hyper-real, extremely defined, almost grotesque in their clarity. There is a ridiculous game show on. I don’t see high-definition TV at home, so hotel TVs easily entrance and shock me. When I watch too long, a sick feeling of the decline of Western civilization overtakes me. The show, Raid the Cage, is on a major network this Friday night, the network with the stylized eye ball I remember from childhood. How different TV is now.

Ghoulishly grinning, jumping, and cheering couples take turns running and grabbing purses, electronics, designer perfumes, jewelry, even kayaks from an enclosure and then carry the items out before a buzzer ends the round. The man or woman goes into the enclosure while the other one cheers and jumps. The person may even push a four-wheeler or a car out. I have the sound off, watching this scene unfold, this American decadence and consumerism with garish lights, neon flashing, and bells ringing on the set. I think couples may have had to compete in other games to qualify to “raid the cage.” 

“Rebuild the world,” says a Lego toy advertisement with insanely detailed computer animation. Holiday Coke ads glitter with snows and Santas and computer stardust. Has TV become more hyper real after Covid nightmares, after wars in Ukraine and Palestine? Do advertisers want us in there – inside the screens – rather than in the world?

Pharmaceutical companies occupy airwaves. Fat people dance in a town square in an ad for pills to lower blood sugar. Another ad proclaims that a cartoon guy will deliver a colon test to your doorstep in a box. Drug ads for eczema, chrone’s disease, and all kinds of ailments fill the screen. Rich people in glittering rooms with tinsel and gold and greenery slowly eat Lindor chocolates. Pfizer advertises vaccines for pregnant women. On another network, a show called The Great Christmas Light Fight appears. 

There is too much here. My eyes and heart hurt from the excess. My meeting is tomorrow.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Brownstone Institute.

Christine E. Black’s work has been published in The American Journal of Poetry, Nimrod International, The Virginia Journal of Education, Friends Journal, Sojourners Magazine, The Veteran, English Journal, Amethyst Review, Dappled Things, Adbusters Magazine, Brownstone Institute, The Harrisonburg Citizen, The Stockman Grass Farmer, Off-Guardian, Cold Type, The News Virginian, and other publications.

Featured image is from Shutterstock

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Given the unholy dissonance, Bethlehem’s usual celebration of the birth of a Palestinian Prince of Peace was cancelled this year as Gaza endured – and an indifferent West watched – genocide unfold beneath pitiless Israeli airstrikes. Along with a “Liturgy of Lament,” the Rev. Munther Isaac created a nativity scene for the times: Baby Jesus lying amidst the rubble. Meanwhile, rescue workers still struggle to dig, pull, save children from it. Peace on earth, indeed.

Now more than ever, “one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history” has leveled Gaza to a hellscape where, per Doctors Without Borders, “no one and nowhere is safe.”

Over the holiday weekend, 90 people were killed in strikes on Gaza City, including 76 members of one extended family and a longtime UN official alongside his wife and five children, and a “Christmas Eve massacre” saw over 100 killed in Khan Younis, Bureij refugee camp and Al-Maghazi refugee camp, about half women and children. In a genocidal crusade where “everything is intentional,” such collateral damage is no concern to Netanyahu; after griping critics are “unjustly blaming Israelis for these casualties,” he proclaimed, “We have no choice (but) to continue to fight… We are not stopping.”

Appalled by the ongoing carnage, Bethlehem officials cancelled traditional Christmas celebrations in the presumed place of Jesus’ birth. At the Church of the Nativity, a searing sculpture depicts a bombed-out version of the nativity scene with debris, barbed wire, and angels representing the souls of too many murdered Palestinian children. At the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Rev. Munther Isaac set up a creche with baby Jesus in a Palestinian keffiyeh – “A Jewish infant. A homeless infant. A refugee infant” – lying in the concrete remains of a building.

“We are angry. We are broken. This is an annihilation,” he said in his sermon, Christ in the Rubble: A Liturgy of Lament. “If Christ were born today, he would be born under the rubble. This is where we find God right now.”

Honoring a Jesus “born among the occupied and marginalized…in solidarity with us in our pain and brokenness,” Isaac also blasted the hypocrisy of a Western world that “sent us bombs whilst celebrating Christmas.”

“They sing about the Prince of Peace in their land, while playing the drum of war in our land,” he said. “Your charity, your words of shock after the genocide won’t make any difference. Words of regret will not suffice…I want you to look at the mirror (and) ask: Where was I?”

The Intercept echoes him, wishing us “Merry Christmas!” while noting that, “in any just universe,” we should all be imprisoned at the Hague for our failure to act on ills from the “junkyard of the U.S. war on terror” to “the Palestinian nightmare.” Hillel the Elder: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow.”

In Gaza, for now, 14,000 rescue workers making up civil defense teams across the enclave daily toil to save lives in an apocalyptic landscape where, “Everyone is a target.” “I cannot sleep,” says Ibrahim Musa, 27. “I am constantly haunted by the voices and screams of people under the rubble as they beg us to pull them out. These are our children, our siblings, our families whom we are saving.” After each airstrike, they arrive at the scene and quickly try to determine what lies under the tangle of wire and concrete: “We scream until someone hears us.” Often, as they begin to dig, they must calm children trapped beneath, asking about their families: “We sometimes lie and tell them everyone is okay so they don’t go into shock…This is our work.”

At a bombing in southern Al-Qarara, Ahmed Abu Khudair recalls hearing moaning, starting to dig, finding “two stuck legs.” He frees a 12-year-old girl named Aisha, who says eight members of her family are buried there with several other families, including nine children. But without equipment, they cannot reach them. This is their ultimate horror: “Leaving a place knowing there are people alive under the rubble, but you cannot do anything for them.” From poet Nasser Rabah:

“When I return from the war, if I do/don’t look into my eyes/do not see what I saw…If war knew/that it made good poets/it would shoot itself.”

Yet life goes on. In this world, we wish you a holiday season of peace, joy, family, compassion and no savage military incursions. We are unfairly blessed.

Explaining our Chirstmas manger on the rubble. "If Jesus were born today, he would be born in Gaza under the rubble." Christmas in Bethlehem pic.twitter.com/qGeqj29HiC

— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) December 7, 2023

The children of Gaza who are seeking refuge in the Catholic Church praying this morning. The sound of bombing can be heard in the beginning, but they continue their prayer. Resilience. We pray for and with all the children or Gaza pic.twitter.com/0GrxVPrO5z

— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) October 29, 2023

From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Abby Zimet has written CD’s Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, she moved to the Maine woods in the early 70s, where she spent a dozen years building a house, hauling water and writing before moving to Portland. Having come of political age during the Vietnam War, she has long been involved in women’s, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: [email protected]

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

When your body temperature rises, sweat glands release water at your skin’s surface, which quickly evaporates and cools your skin and the blood underneath

In traditional Persian medicine, sweating is used for both preventive care and disease treatment

Sweat glands secrete antimicrobial peptides that help restrict the growth of various microbes on the skin, potentially helping to reduce infection or atopic dermatitis

Concentrations of the heavy metals nickel, lead and chromium may be 10 to 30 times higher in sweat than in blood and urine, and some toxins may be preferentially excreted in sweat

Sweating may offer support for chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory and joint diseases

*

Sweating is often viewed as a nuisance — something unpleasant that humans try to avoid and cover up. Yet, this natural and important body process occurs for good reasons. In addition to regulating body temperature, sweating helps maintain homeostasis in your body, including removing waste products and toxins.¹

Sweating can also be used therapeutically to support well-being and reduce chronic disease.² If you’re unable to sweat normally, sweating either too much or too little may signify significant health concerns, another clue of its wide-reaching importance.

Why Humans Sweat

Sweating, also known as perspiration, describes the release of liquid from your sweat glands, which number anywhere from 2 million to 4 million. During puberty, your sweat glands become fully active, with glands in men tending to produce more sweat than sweat glands in women.³

As a method of thermoregulation to help keep your body cool, sweating ramps up if the weather is hot or you’re exercising. However, you may also sweat if you’re feeling angry, stressed, anxious or afraid. Medical conditions, such as cancer and low blood sugar, can also trigger sweating, as can menopause and fever.

Consuming certain medications, including thyroid hormone and morphine, may also make you sweat, as can drinking alcohol or caffeinated beverages or eating spicy foods, a condition known as gustatory sweating.⁴

When your body temperature rises, sweat glands release water at your skin’s surface, which quickly evaporates and cools your skin and the blood underneath. “This is the most effective means of thermoregulation in humans,” according to researchers with the University of Mississippi Medical Center.⁵ Beyond cooling you off, sweating also has “important homeostatic functions,” such as:⁶

• Clearing excessive micronutrients from your body
• Removing waste products produced by metabolic processes
• Eliminating toxins
• Support for chronic diseases, including cardiovascular, respiratory and joint diseases

Health Risks of Excessive or Inadequate Sweating 

Your body depends on its ability to sweat normally, such that when this balance is thrown off disease states can result. Hyperhidrosis is the medical term for excessive sweating, believed to affect about 4.8% of U.S. adults, or 15.8 million people.⁷

Hyperhidrosis is known to interfere with self-esteem, social interactions, relationships and career choices, with many affected reporting problems with work, school, social functioning and emotional health. Close to half — 48% — say their quality of life is poor or very poor as a result of hyperhidrosis.

The condition can also cause dehydration and skin infections.⁸ A link to systemic conditions is also possible, as sweating disorders may signal dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system, particularly the sympathetic nervous system.⁹

Hypohidrosis, which is inadequate sweating, and pathologic anhidrosis, an inability to sweat, are also potentially damaging to your health and may lead to dry skin, heat exhaustion, heatstroke and death.¹⁰

Sweating to Help Prevent and Relieve Chronic Disease

In traditional Persian medicine, sweating is used for both preventive care and disease treatment.¹¹According to a review published in Galen Medical Journal:¹²

“Reviewing historical medical manuscripts indicates that traditional Persian medicine (PM) scientists have described several methods for the treatment of diseases. Sweating is one of them which has an important role in both prevention and treatment of diseases.

PM physicians were well aware of the health benefits of sweating and believed that sweating removes waste products, maintains the body health, and balances body temperature.

Based on the principles of PM, any disturbances in the excretion of metabolic and dietary waste products can cause disease; therefore, the use of several sweating methods and even diaphoretic herbs have been considered in maintaining human health and as one of the therapeutic method since many centuries ago.”

Indeed, from Roman baths and Scandinavian saunas to Aboriginal sweat lodges, sweating for health has been embraced by cultures worldwide. Researchers writing in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health explained:¹³

“Sweating with heat and/or exercise has been viewed throughout the ages, by groups worldwide, as ‘cleansing’ … Sweating offers potential and deserves consideration, to assist with removal of toxic elements from the body.

… Sweating is not only observed to enhance excretion of the toxic elements of interest in this paper, but also may increase excretion of diverse toxicants, as observed in New York rescue workers, or in particular persistent flame retardants and bisphenol-A … Optimizing the potential of sweating as a therapeutic excretory mechanism merits further research.”

The researchers noted the following promising roles of sweat in detoxification:

• Sweat may be an important route for excretion of cadmium when an individual is exposed to high levels
• Sweat-inducing sauna use might provide a therapeutic method to increase elimination of toxic trace metals
• Sweating should be the initial and preferred treatment of patients with elevated mercury urine levels

Sweat glands also secrete antimicrobial peptides that help restrict the growth of various microbes on the skin, potentially helping to reduce infection or atopic dermatitis. The sweat gland-derived antimicrobial peptide dermcidin is also thought to play a role in regulating the innate immune system’s response to infection and injury.¹⁴

Many Toxins May be ‘Preferentially Excreted Through Sweat’

Because sweat is 99% water, it’s sometimes said that sweating doesn’t provide a meaningful avenue for detoxification. In the journal Temperature, it’s noted, “The role of sweating to eliminate waste products and toxicants seems to be minor compared with other avenues of excretion via the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract.”¹⁵

However, research shows that toxins are, in fact, excreted via sweat. According to research in Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology:¹⁶

“Many toxic elements appeared to be preferentially excreted through sweat. Presumably stored in tissues, some toxic elements readily identified in the perspiration of some participants were not found in their serum. Induced sweating appears to be a potential method for elimination of many toxic elements from the human body.”

For instance, concentrations of the heavy metals nickel, lead and chromium may be 10 to 30 times higher in sweat than in blood and urine.¹⁷ It’s also noted in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, “Physiologists have long regarded sweating as an effective and safe means of detoxification, and heavy metals are excreted through sweat to reduce the levels of such metals in the body.”¹⁸

That study found levels of nickel, lead, copper and arsenic in sweat were higher when the sweating was induced via dynamic exercise as opposed to sauna usage, although mercury levels in sweat were the same regardless of sweating method.¹⁹

Another systematic review found that in people with higher exposure or body burden of arsenic, cadmium lead and mercury, “sweat generally exceeded plasma or urine concentrations, and dermal could match or surpass urinary daily excretion … Sweating deserves consideration for toxic element detoxification.”²⁰

Bisphenol A is another chemical contaminant often detected in sweat, in some cases even when no BPA was found in serum or urine samples.²¹

Health Benefits of Sauna Usage

Inducing sweating via sauna usage has been linked to many health benefits, including for the heart, respiratory system, joints, chronic pain and brain.²² One mechanism for this effect is thought to be related to the fact that heat stresses your heart and body similar to that of exercise, thus prompting similar effects.²³ However, sweating is also part of sauna bathing’s therapeutic effects.

Researchers in Finland — where sauna use is common — found that men who used a sauna four to seven times a week for an average of 15 minutes had a 66% lower risk of developing dementia, and 65% lower risk of Alzheimer’s, compared to men who used the sauna just once a week.²⁴

Waon therapy, a form of dry sauna treatment that warms the entire body, is also linked to improved heart health, including in people with chronic heart failure.²⁵ Separate research published in JAMA Internal Medicine revealed that men who used a Finnish-style, dry heat sauna seven times per week also cut their risk of death in half from fatal heart problems compared to those who used it only once a week.²⁶

This held true even after confounding factors such as smoking, blood pressure and triglyceride levels were factored in. In regard to time, the greatest benefits were found among those who sweated it out for 19 minutes or more each session.

As noted by the study, “Sauna bathing leads to skin sweating — induced fluid loss and increase in heart rate, which are physiologic responses to warm temperature … Our results suggest that sauna bathing is a recommendable health habit.”²⁷

How to Induce Sweating

Regular sauna usage is one way to induce sweating, but it’s not the only one. Virtually any type of intense exercise will lead to sweating, as will exercising in warm temperatures or in a heated room, such as in Bikram yoga. If you choose to use a sauna for sweating, there are several options, including a Finnish sauna, far-infrared saunas and near-infrared saunas.

The difference between the infrared saunas and the traditional Finnish sauna is the Finnish-style heats you from the outside in, whereas the infrared heats from the inside out. Near-infrared saunas have additional benefits as they penetrate your tissues more effectively and at wavelengths not absorbed by water.

The near-infrared range affects your health primarily through interaction with chromophores, light-absorbing molecules found in your mitochondria and water molecules. Near-infrared light also has healing and repairing properties, helping optimize other biological functions.

Remember, if you sweat heavily, you’ll also lose valuable fluids and electrolytes. So, be sure to drink plenty of pure water and replace your electrolytes. Coconut water is one option to replace electrolytes naturally. You can also mix one-quarter teaspoon of Himalayan salt with a gallon of pure filtered water for electrolyte replacement.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Notes

^{1, 2, 6, 10, 11, 12} Galen Med J. 2020; 9: e2003

^3, 4 Medline Plus, Sweating

⁵ National Library of Medicine, StatPearls, Anatomy, Skin Sweat Glands October 10, 2022

^7, 8 Am J Clin Dermatol. 2023; 24(2): 187–198

⁹ Br J Dermatol. 2018 Jun;178(6):1246-1256. doi: 10.1111/bjd.15808. Epub 2018 Apr 25

¹³ Journal of Environmental and Public Health Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 184745, 10 pages

¹⁴ Shock. 2016 Jan; 45(1): 28–32

¹⁵ Temperature (Austin). 2019; 6(3): 211–259

¹⁶ Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 2011 Aug;61(2):344-57. doi: 10.1007/s00244-010-9611-5. Epub 2010 Nov 6

^17, 18, 19 Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Apr; 19(7): 4323

²⁰ J Environ Public Health. 2012; 2012: 184745

²¹ J Environ Public Health. 2012;2012:185731

²² Galen Med J. 2020; 9: e2003., Introduction

²³ Complement Ther Med. 2019 Jun:44:218-222. doi: 10.1016/j.ctim.2019.05.002. Epub 2019 May 2

²⁴ Age and Ageing, Volume 46, Issue 2, March 2017, Pages 245–249, doi: 10.1093/ageing/afw212

²⁵ Am J Cardiol. 2012 Jan 1;109(1):100-4. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2011.08.014. Epub 2011 Sep 23

²⁶ JAMA Internal Medicine 2015;175(4):542-548

²⁷ JAMA Internal Medicine 2015;175(4):542-548, Introduction, Conclusions

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The current conflict in Ukraine is a direct result of the failure of the Minsk Agreements. Between 2014 and 2015, Russia and the European Union mediated negotiations between the breakaway republics of Donbass and the Kiev government, reaching a mutually beneficial protocol that was expected to guarantee regional peace. However, the terms of the pact were never respected by the Ukrainian regime, which continued to constantly attack the republics and advance its project of “de-Russification” and ethnic cleansing.

According to former German prime minister, Angela Merkel, the Agreements did not fail, but fulfilled their real objective: to prepare Ukraine for a war against Russia in the near future. Commenting on the beginning of Moscow’s special military operation and the escalation of the conflict in Donbass, the German former official stated that this confrontation was expected from the very beginning, with the ceasefire established in Minsk only working as a way to temporarily alleviate tensions, enabling Kiev to gain time.

However, this does not appear to be the opinion of some other insiders who were also deeply involved in negotiations in the Belarusian capital. I recently had the opportunity to visit the Donbass region as a war correspondent. There I interviewed several local leaders, politicians and state officials, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of Lugansk, Vladislav Deinego, who was one of the negotiators in the Minsk process.

In our conversation, I asked the Minister his opinion on the failure of the Minsk Agreements and heard from him a long explanation about how the situation got out of control and escalated to the current status of war. According to Deinego, Merkel is lying when she claims that the plan has always been to simply prepare Ukraine. For him, Europe had a genuine interest in achieving regional peace and stabilizing its relations with Russia, avoiding a military escalation that would put the entire continental security architecture at risk.

Deinego claims that Kiev wanted total war from the beginning. The Minister explains that, before the Minsk Accords were established, the separatists tried to resolve the situation diplomatically in several ways. After non-military means failed, the republics proposed to Kiev that the fighting be somewhat limited to avoid civilian casualties.

First, a ban on the use of artillery and aviation was proposed, which Kiev quickly denied. Next, Donbass’ leaders attempted to establish security zones, limiting the use of heavy weapons according to their distance to civilian areas. In this model, artillery would be allowed only in regions far from inhabited cities, while in the “zero line” combat would be limited to the regular use of infantry, preventing civilians from being hit by heavy weapons. Even so, Ukraine denied signing such a deal.

This insistence by the neo-Nazi regime on waging all-out war against the separatists, according to the minister, generated real concerns among Europeans. The deeper the Ukrainian incursions were, the closer the attacks would come to Russian borders, worsening the security crisis. In practice, the situation could at any time escalate into a situation of absolute violence in which Moscow would be forced to intervene, generating a major conflict in Europe. This worried EU members, especially Germany, which was very dependent on the partnership with Russia.

Being a major importer of Russian gas and depending on friendship with Moscow to guarantee its economic and social stability, Berlin engaged deeply in the diplomatic process to try to end, or at least freeze, the conflict. For this reason, Germany was the main negotiator on Kiev’s side in Minsk, while Russia negotiated in support for the Donbass’ republics. In this sense, after many negotiations, the pact was finally signed, establishing measures such as ceasefire, release of prisoners and respect for the political autonomy of Russian-speaking regions.

Deinego believes that actual compliance with the Agreements would be the best scenario for Europeans as it would guarantee stability in Russia-EU relations, despite Ukrainian hostility towards Moscow. However, as well known, Kiev never obeyed the Minsk’s terms and continued violence in the region – even though the intensity of the fighting obviously decreased. Deinego thinks that this was never in the European interest and that, in fact, the direction taken by the conflict showed the failure of European diplomacy.

Indeed, at the time Russia-EU relations were prosperous, despite ideological and geopolitical rivalry. There was no reason for Europeans to agree to participate in a war plan in which they would be severely harmed. This leads us to believe that other actors worked to escalate the crisis, without considering European interests. Certainly, the US, which always wanted war with Russia, was responsible for this.

The circumstances show that Washington probably took advantage of the “stability” generated by the Minsk Agreements to prepare Kiev to act as a proxy against Russia. The Europeans never participated in this plan and were betrayed by NATO just like the Russians. Currently, Europe continues to be a victim of NATO’s war plans, being forced by the US to impose suicidal sanctions against Russia, affecting its own economy.

The opinion of an insider of the Minsk process is vital to show the real reasons for the conflict. In practice, Deinego presents proof of how relations between the US and EU are semi-colonial, with Europeans being used by Washington in war plans, without having their interests respected.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz is a journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

A former advisor to a former Ukrainian president warns that the expansion of forced conscription, the devaluation of hryvnia, and the Ukrainian elite’s lack of understanding of the current situation are putting the country in a very bad scenario. The Ukrainian elite’s lack of understanding is because they continue to hold delusional beliefs despite Western support exhausting and emerging divisions.

President Volodymir Zelensky’s decision to continue hostilities against Russia and increase military strength with forced drafts threatens to provoke a civil war in Ukraine, said Oleg Soskin, former advisor to former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma (1994 to 2005), on his YouTube channel.

“All events will influence the beginning of the civil war in Ukraine. There is still no money, there is a devaluation of hryvnia, there will be inflation, the rationing system will begin, there are no successes on the front, there are huge losses, there is a completely mocking elite who lost understanding of the situation,” he noted.

According to Soskin, the Kiev regime wants to continue military operations despite the imminent end of supplies of money and weapons from Western countries.

The expert added that Zelensky’s government is expanding the forced recruitment of men and women into the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to send them to the battlefront. Soskin warns that as soon as they start arresting Ukrainians, spontaneous resistance will begin.

“Everything is developing towards a bad scenario; there is nothing good, and it is really clear that there will be no counteroffensive, no breakthrough. Furthermore, even conventional weapons are already running out,” concluded Soskin.

Soskin’s revelation comes only days after Major General of the Ukrainian forces Dmitry Marchenko admitted in an interview with Deutsche Welle, “We have run out of volunteers willing to voluntarily join the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, and the Washington Post reported on December 22 that there is chronic shortage of artillery, citing a member of a unit which now only fires 10 to 20 shells a day at Russian positions, whereas previously, it used an average of 50 shells and sometimes up to 90.

At the same time, an unnamed Ukrainian Armed Forces official expressed concern to the Independent newspaper, claiming that Russia has destroyed Ukrainian industry, leaving the country unable to produce the equipment needed for its Armed Forces.

According to the newspaper, the agent stated that “Russia has succeeded in crippling Kiev’s industry, according to this senior Ukrainian officer, making it impossible to produce the supplies it needs domestically.

“This war has become a war of attrition and we have to hold the line for some time to win. We are really depending on international support from the US, Britain, the EU and South Korea,” the Ukrainian source said.

The official also mentioned the “need” for “more Patriot missiles than we previously expected” due to “new versions of S-400 rockets to hit ground targets.”

Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, wryly suggested that the West’s humanitarian response to Ukraine’s defeat might be to hold a concert supporting the Ukrainians, a clear expression of dissatisfaction with Western assistance. Previously, he emphasised that Ukraine’s future would be brighter if Western countries supplied weapons more quickly.

Podolyak is a clear example of the “elite who lost understanding of the situation,” as expressed by Soskin, since the current adviser believes Ukraine still has a chance of winning the war if the West provides more weapons more quickly. Yet, major aid packages for Ukraine were blocked by Hungary in the European Union and by Republicans in the US Congress, clearly demonstrating that the West is divided on continuing support.

It is the Ukrainian “elite who lost understanding of the situation” that is responsible for the mounting and rapid death toll. Despite the summer offensive, initially scheduled for the spring, being an utter failure that led to the death of tens of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of Western military equipment, the Ukrainian elite continued to delusionally believe that they could reverse their predicament and even capture Crimea.

The truth is that Western countries are less willing to spend their money on Ukraine amid its lack of success on the front, which is why they are thinking about confiscating Russian assets. Although the Europeans are coming under pressure from Washington, which demands that Russian assets be channelled to support Kiev, it is evident that Moscow’s response will be immediate for offending countries, such as Germany, for example, which has assets that Russia could confiscate.

With Western support exhausting, conscription becoming increasingly desperate and unable to support manpower needs, and Ukrainian elites still holding onto delusional beliefs, there is every chance that the country could descend into civil war, as Soskin warns, because ordinary people will refuse to fight and die in a futile war against Russia.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

 

 

 

***

In a sermon called Christ in the Rubble, given on December 23, in Bethlehem, Rev. Munther Isaac, made the following comments:

“Gaza today has become the moral compass of the world. Gaza was hell before October 7th and the world was silent.

Should we be surprised that they’re silent now? If you are not appalled by what is happening in Gaza, if you are not shaken to your core, there is something wrong with your humanity. And if we as Christians are not outraged by the genocide, by the weaponization of the Bible to justify it, there is something wrong with our Christian witness. And we are compromising the credibility of our Gospel message. If you fail to call this a genocide, it is on you. It is a sin and a darkness you willingly embrace.”

Rev. Munther, who is a Palestinian theologian, condemned the collective West:

“The hypocrisy and racism of the Western world is transparent and appalling! They always take the words of Palestinians with suspicion and qualification. No, we are not treated equally. Yet, the other side, despite a clear track record of misinformation, is almost always deemed infallible!”

Words like these are not to be taken lightly. October 7th, 2023 will go down in history as one of those pivotal moments where the fate of the world hung in the balance. At this moment in time, everything is Gaza. The whole world is watching.

The Genocidal War Machine

Will the genocidal war machine come to its senses and stop the barbaric slaughter of innocent civilians? Or will the conflict stir up so much regional anger, that the conflict escalates into a much wider confrontation between Israel, America, Hezbollah and Iran?

The character of the American global war machine is not pleasant. In fact, the United States has intervened, bombed, invaded and engaged in regime changes in over 80 nations in the last 100 years. It is their modus operandi. Why would we expect them to suddenly change?

The nation-state of Israel is an integral part of the global war machine. Israel was installed by European colonial powers for strategic purposes, beginning with the infamous Balfour Declaration in 1917, that bequeathed 8,470 square miles (21,937 km²) of land to a stranded ethnic group—namely, the Jewish diaspora, who spent 1900 years lamenting the loss of their homeland.

It was the British Empire who made a deal (with no expiry date) with one of the largest banking families in the world, the Rothschild family,who incidentally do not own any residential property in Israel. They have a multitude of magnificent estates in Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands and Austria, as well as one lone estate in America. Why such a lack of interest in living in their own Private Little Idaho in the Middle East?

The answer is that the Rothschild family and their allies, the British Empire, had no interest in Israel for humanitarian purposes. They used and manipulated the scattered remnants of ancient Israel who were spread out over Europe, and convinced them Israel was the “only safe and secure home” for Jews.

They were interested in expanding their power base by creating a military outpost in the Middle East.

The ideal location of Palestine on the Mediterranean Sea offers a transit hub for trade and traffic from North Africa via Egypt to the south, and Europe to the north via Syria, Lebanon and Turkey. To the East is the gateway to Asia through Iraq and Iran.

In the world of geopolitics, it is always about location, location, location.

Christ in the Rubble, by Kelly Latimore Icons

Through the Eye of a Needle

Yeshua ben Yusef, otherwise known as Jesus, son of Joseph, once made a bold statement that unsettled even his followers. Jewish tradition held that wealth and prosperity were a gift from God, while poor people were cursed because of sin. Yeshua’s kindness towards the poor and downtrodden was a slap in the face to the self-righteous religious leaders.

Yeshua announced on one occasion, that it was “easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

When his disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

Bankers, like the Rothschild family, are the rich men and women who are unlikely candidates for the Kingdom of Heaven. In January of 2023, at the last meeting of the uber-wealthy in Davos, Switzerland, almost 3000 of the wealthiest and most powerful people met to discuss how they can become wealthier and more powerful.

According to a report by Oxfam,

“As global elites gather this week in the ski resort town of Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum, our global context couldn’t be more alarming. For the first time in 25 years, extreme wealth and extreme poverty have increased at the same time. People in the US and around the world struggle to pay the high costs of food, gas, and other necessities, yet over the past two years, the richest 1% have secured nearly twice as much wealth as the rest of the world combined.”

The main problem with the super rich is that they don’t care. They lack empathy and human compassion. They are not in touch with humanity. Their inability to comprehend humanity puts them into a sociopathic category, a separate species of the human race.

Gaza is a third-world territory surrounded and occupied by a first-world nation. Gaza is one of the poorest areas in the world: Per capita income was estimated at US$3,100 in 2009, a position of 164th in the world. A UN report in 2022 estimated Gaza Strip’s unemployment rate to be 45% and 65% of the population under poverty, living standards went down by 27%, compared to 2006, and 80% of the population depends on international aid for survival.

Israel’s per capita income is $54,771 per person, or almost 18 times as much as the average citizen of Gaza. The world is in a class war between all of humanity and the mega billionaires who are gobbling up all the resources, consolidating their power base and making long-term plans for the enslavement of the human race.

The mega billionaires represent the Übermensch (Super-human) of Friedrich Nietzsche’s play Thus Spake Zarathustra. Nietzsche’s character proclaimed that “God is dead,” and the road to true enlightenment lay in casting off the shackles of Christianity and religion in general. The Übermensch were the Herrenrasse (Master Race), an idea that inspired the Nazis.

The Nazi notion of the Master Race also spawned the idea of “inferior humans” (Untermenschen) who needed to be dominated and enslaved. The Nazis considered Jews, Gypsies and Slavs, including Poles, Czechs, Russians and Serbs, “racially inferior sub-humans.”

These ideas of racial supremacy and racial inferiority are currently embraced by the Zionist regime of Israel.

• “We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” ~ Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defence Minister
• “Those evil butchers have no G-D, no religion. Islam, as Christianity before it, is an offshoot of Judaism. In the Bible, Israel is land of the Jews. Hamas actions attest that they are surely not Muslim. I doubt they’re even human. Wild animals don’t do the things they’ve done.” ~ Dof Yomi
• “The Western world must stand with Israel as it fights the bloodthirsty animals of Hamas.” ~ Israel’s Ambassador to Berlin Ron Prosor 
• “The Hamas organisation have behaved like animals and Israel will target Hamas like human animals during and after the war.” ~ Israeli Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Avi Dichter

Human Rights

The struggle for basic human rights and dignity is central to the current conflict in Gaza. Dehumanizing Palestinians is part of the apartheid culture that was created by the nation-state of Israel who have systematically confiscated the Palestinians’ land over the course of the last 100 years.

The so-called Holy Land has become very unholy since October 7th. It is highly symbolic that Bethlehem, the birth place of Yeshua ben Yusef, is now in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. If Yeshua was alive today and living in the West Bank, he would be arrested and branded a terrorist.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Rick Thomas is a musician, activist and the author of How to Defeat the New World Order. For social activism: VictoryCanada.today and for all articles: Substack.

All images in this article are from the author

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Nov. 30, 2023 -Omaha, NE – 30 year old Michael Peterson died suddenly at his home on Nov. 30, 2023.

 

Nov. 29, 2023 – Spanish 30 year old Vegan bodybuilding influencer Alfredo Martin died suddenly (Nov. 29, 2023) No cause of death reported.

Nov. 28, 2023 – Amsterdam, NY – 31 year old Amsterdam High School teacher Liam Pickett died suddenly of a burst aortic artery on Nov. 28, 2023 which happened after teaching his last period class.

Nov. 23, 2023 – Taftville, CT – 37 year old Robert Blanchette JR died suddenly on Nov. 23, 2023.

Nov. 19, 2023 – South Wales – 30 year old Charlie Batcup, British soccer player, died suddenly during a trip to Amsterdam Nov. 19, 2023.

Nov. 19, 2023 – BRAZILIAN DOCTOR DEAD – 33 year old Dr.Rodolfo Duarte Ribeiro dos Santos suffered a cardiac arrest following a hemorrhage in the liver and died on Nov. 19, 2023.

Nov. 18, 2023 – Kinnelon, NJ – 30 year old volunteer firefighter Justin Bower died suddenly.

Nov. 18, 2023 – Sheffield, UK – 37 year old Matt Hardy died after a 2 year battle with cancer (Nov. 18, 2023).

Nov. 18, 2023 -Former Ohio University wrestler, 37 year old Josh Horne died suddenly on Nov. 18, 2023.

Nov. 17, 2023 – Cork, Ireland – 39 year old sailor, Leading Seaman Conor Kiely was found unresponsive by his colleagues on a vessel that was in dock. He died on Nov. 17, 2023.

Nov. 16, 2023 – 37 year old Air India Pilot Captain Himanil Kumar had cardiac arrest at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport during training.

Nov. 15, 2023 – Zimbabwe international soccer player 32year old George Chigova died 4 months after suffering a heart attack. He died Nov. 15, 2023.

Nov. 15, 2023 – Dekalb County, GA – 33 year old Police Officer Samuel Curry died on Nov. 15, from complications related to a “sudden illness.”

Nov. 15, 2023 – Huntington, WV – 36 year old Derek Rowland Moore died unexpectedly in his home on Nov. 15, 2023. 

Nov. 13, 2023 – NFL Football Star 35 year old Devon Wylie who played for the Kansas City Chiefs and Tennessee Titans died suddenly on Nov. 13, 2023 of “unknown causes.”

Nov. 12, 2023 – US DOCTOR DEAD – Seattle, WA 35 year old Dr. Blaise Anthony Carney MD died in his sleep while on vacation, on Nov. 12, 2023.

Nov. 12, 2023 – Anton, TX – 38 year old football coach Matthew Hoover was found dead in his home on Saturday Nov. 12, 2022. He leaves behind four daughters.

Nov. 11, 2023 -Purcell, OK – 38 year old Chase Patrick Hayes, audio technician for NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB, etc died suddenly on Nov. 11, 2023.

Nov. 9, 2023 – UK – 30 year old Joshua Annear died suddenly in his girlfriend’s arms on Nov. 9, 2023 “my whole world has been shattered.”

Nov. 8, 2023 – California – 32 year old Enforcement Officer Kyle Evans Ghirardi suffered a medical emergency and died on Nov. 8, 2023.

Click here to read the full article.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Dr. William Makis is a Canadian physician with expertise in Radiology, Oncology and Immunology. Governor General’s Medal, University of Toronto Scholar. Author of 100+ peer-reviewed medical publications.

Featured image is from COVID Intel

---

Price: $11.50 FREE COPY! Click here (docsend) and download.

We encourage you to support the eBook project by making a donation through Global Research’s DonorBox “Worldwide Corona Crisis” Campaign Page. 

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

To: President Joe Biden

You’ve often spoken of how much you care about children and how terrible it is when they’re murdered. “Too many schools, too many everyday places have become killing fields,” you said at the White House last spring on the one-year anniversary of the school shooting in Uvalde. At the time of that tragedy in Texas, you had quickly gone on live television, speaking gravely.

“There are parents who will never see their child again,” you said, adding: “To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away. . . . It’s a feeling shared by the siblings, and the grandparents, and their family members, and the community that’s left behind.”

And you asked plaintively:

“Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies?”

This year you’ve asked similar questions many times, as in the aftermath of shootings at a grade school in Nashville, Michigan State University and the University of Nevada.

The massacre in Uvalde took the lives of 19 children. For nearly three months, the ongoing massacre in Gaza has taken the lives of that many children every few hours.

In mid-November, after five weeks of Israel’s bombing of Gaza, the director-general of the World Health Organization reported that children were being killed at an average rate of six per hour, adding that “nowhere and no one is safe.” Palestinian civilians of all ages continue to undergo slaughter, with the death toll surpassing 20,000.

You have continued to voice support for Israel’s military assault on Gaza and its residents. After 10 weeks of the carnage, when you got around to expressing a bit of concern about Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing,” you were meanwhile still doing everything you could to greenlight and fast track massive U.S. shipments of weapons and ammunition to Israel so that the indiscriminate bombing could continue.

Even your belated and inadequate words on Dec. 12 about “indiscriminate bombing” apparently caused you to have second thoughts. The next day, Voice of America reported that “the White House appears to be walking back” your comment about “indiscriminate bombing.”

Most important, of course, are not words but deeds. As commander-in-chief, since early October you have approved large-scale shipments to Israel of 2,000-pound bombs—described by the New York Times as “one of the most destructive munitions in Western military arsenals,” a weapon that “unleashes a blast wave and metal fragments thousands of feet in every direction.”

In a Dec. 21 video report based on analysis of “aerial imagery and artificial intelligence”—headlined “Visual Evidence Shows Israel Dropped 2,000-Pound Bombs Where It Ordered Gaza’s Civilians to Move for Safety”—the Times indicated that “Israel used these munitions in the area it designated safe for civilians at least 200 times.” Those 2,000-pound bombs have been “a pervasive threat to civilians seeking safety across south Gaza.”

Since the war in Gaza began 11 weeks ago, the Times reported, “the U.S. has sent more than 5,000 2,000-pound bombs” to Israel. And after a long phone conversation with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu on Dec. 23, you told the press:

“I did not ask for a ceasefire.”

With your ongoing help, Israel is continuing to murder children and other civilians in Gaza just as methodically as the gunman murdered children at the elementary school in Uvalde. And you have continued to provide weaponry for the murders just as surely as the gun shop in Uvalde sold firearms and ammunition to the man who went on to kill at the elementary school.

But that is an unfair comparison—unfair to the Uvalde gun-shop owner, who did not know the intended use of the weapons and ammo. But you know what the billions of dollars’ worth of weapons and bombs gifted by the U.S. government are being used for.

When three 9-year-old students were among those shot to death at a school in Nashville last March, you spoke about them the next day.

“A family’s worst nightmare has occurred,” you said. “Those children should all be with us still,” you said. And you said: “We know the names of the victims.”

But you don’t know the names of the children you’ve helped to murder in Gaza. And there are so many.

From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction.org and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. His new book, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine, was published in June 2023 by The New Press.

Featured image source

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Writing and photographing in wartime are acts of resistance, acts of faith. They affirm the belief that one day – a day the writers, journalists and photographers may never see – the words and images will evoke empathy, understanding, outrage and provide wisdom. They chronicle not only the facts, although facts are important, but the texture, sacredness and grief of lives and communities lost. They tell the world what war is like, how those caught in its maw of death endure, how there are those who sacrifice for others and those who do not, what fear and hunger are like, what death is like. They transmit the cries of children, the wails of grief of the mothers, the daily struggle in the face of savage industrial violence, the triumph of their humanity through filth, sickness, humiliation and fear. This is why writers, photographers and journalists are targeted by aggressors in war — including the Israelis — for obliteration. They stand as witnesses to evil, an evil the aggressors want buried and forgotten. They expose the lies. They condemn, even from the grave, their killers. Israel has killed at least 13 Palestinian poets and writers along with at least 67 journalists and media workers in Gaza, and three in Lebanon since Oct. 7.

I experienced futility and outrage when I covered war. I wondered if I had done enough, or if it was even worth the risk. But you go on because to do nothing is to be complicit. You report because you care. You will make it hard for the killers to deny their crimes. 

This brings me to the Palestinian novelist and playwright Atef Abu Saif. He and his 15-year-old son Yasser, who live in the occupied West Bank, were visiting family in Gaza — where he was born — when Israel began its scorched earth campaign. Atef is no stranger to the violence of the Israeli occupiers. He was two months old during the 1973 war and writes

“I’ve been living through wars ever since. Just as life is a pause between two deaths, Palestine, as a place and as an idea, is a timeout in the middle of many wars.”

During Operation Cast Lead, the 2008/2009 Israel assault on Gaza, Atef sheltered in the corridor of his Gaza family home for 22 nights with his wife, Hanna and two children, while Israel bombed and shelled. His book “The Drone Eats with Me: Diaries from a City Under Fire,” is an account of Operation Protective Edge, the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza that killed 1,523 Palestinian civilians, including 519 children. 

“Memories of war can be strangely positive, because to have them at all means you must have survived,” he notes sardonically.

He again did what writers do, including the professor and poet Refaat Alareer, who was killed, along with Refaat’s brother, sister and her four children, in an airstrike on his sister’s apartment building in Gaza on Dec. 7. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that Alareer was deliberately targeted, “surgically bombed out of the entire building.” His killing came after weeks of “death threats that Refaat received online and by phone from Israeli accounts.” He had moved to his sister’s because of the threats.

Refaat, whose doctorate was on the metaphysical poet John Donne, wrote a poem in November, called “If I Must Die,” which became his last will and testament. It has been translated into numerous languages. A reading of the poem by the actor Brian Cox has been viewed almost 30 million times. 

If I must die,

you must live

to tell my story

to sell my things

to buy a piece of cloth

and some strings,

(make it white with a long tail)

so that a child, somewhere in Gaza

while looking heaven in the eye

awaiting his dad who left in a blaze—

and bid no one farewell

not even to his flesh

not even to himself—

sees the kite, my kite you made,

flying up above

and thinks for a moment an angel is there

bringing back love

If I must die

let it bring hope

let it be a tale.

Atef, once again finding himself living amid the explosions and carnage from Israeli shells and bombs, doggedly publishes his observations and reflections. His accounts are often difficult to transmit because of Israel’s blockage of Internet and phone service. They have appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Nation and Slate.

On the first day of the Israeli bombardment, a friend, the young poet and musician Omar Abu Shawish, is killed, apparently in an Israeli naval bombardment, though later reports would say he was killed in an airstrike as he was walking to work. Atef wonders about the Israeli soldiers watching him and his family with “their infrared lenses and satellite photography.” Can “they count the loafs of bread in my basket, or the number of falafel balls on my plate?” he wonders. He watches the crowds of dazed and confused families, their homes in rubble, carrying “mattresses, bags of clothes, food and drink.” He stands mutely before “the supermarket, the bureau de change, the falafel shop, the fruit stalls, the perfume parlor, the sweets shop, the toy shop — all burned.”

“Blood was everywhere, along with bits of kids’ toys, cans from the supermarket, smashed fruit, broken bicycles and shattered perfume bottles,” he writes. “The place looked like a charcoal drawing of a town scorched by a dragon.”

“I went to the Press House, where journalists were frantically downloading images and writing reports for their agencies. I was sitting with Bilal, the Press House manager, when an explosion shook the building. Windows shattered, and the ceiling collapsed onto us in chunks. We ran toward the central hall. One of the journalists was bleeding, having been hit by flying glass. After 20 minutes, we ventured out to inspect the damage. I noticed that Ramadan decorations were still hanging in the street.”

“The city has become a wasteland of rubble and debris,” Atef, who has been the Palestinian Authority’s minister of culture since 2019, writes in the early days of the Israeli shelling of Gaza City. “Beautiful buildings fall like columns of smoke. I often think about the time I was shot as a kid, during the first intifada, and how my mother told me I actually died for a few minutes before being brought back to life. Maybe I can do the same this time, I think.”

He leaves his teenage son with family members.

“The Palestinian logic is that in wartime, we should all sleep in different places, so that if part of the family is killed, another part lives,” he writes. “The U.N. schools are getting more crowded with displaced families. The hope is that the U.N. flag will save them, though in previous wars, that hasn’t been the case.”

 On Tuesday Oct. 17 he writes:

I see death approaching, hear its steps growing louder. Just be done with it, I think. It’s the 11th day of the conflict, but all the days have merged into one: the same bombardment, the same fear, the same smell. On the news, I read the names of the dead on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. I wait for my name to appear.

In the morning, my phone rang. It was Rulla, a relative in the West Bank, telling me she had heard there’d been an airstrike in Talat Howa, a neighborhood on the south side of Gaza City where my cousin Hatem lives. Hatem is married to Huda, my wife’s only sister. He lives in a four-story building that also houses his mother and brothers and their families.

I called around, but no one’s phone was working. I walked to al-Shifa Hospital to read the names: Lists of the dead are pinned up daily outside a makeshift morgue. I could barely approach the building: Thousands of Gazans had made the hospital their home; its gardens, its hallways, every empty space or spare corner had a family in it. I gave up and headed toward Hatem’s.

Thirty minutes later, I was on his street. Rulla had been right. Huda and Hatem’s building had been hit only an hour earlier. The bodies of their daughter and grandchild had already been retrieved; the only known survivor was Wissam, one of their other daughters, who had been taken to the ICU. Wissam had gone straight into surgery, where both of her legs and her right hand had been amputated. Her graduation ceremony from art college had taken place only the day before. She has to spend the rest of her life without legs, with one hand. “What about the others?” I asked someone.

“We can’t find them,” came the reply.

Amid the rubble, we shouted: “Hello? Can anyone hear us?” We called out the names of those still missing, hoping some might still be alive. By the end of the day, we’d managed to find five bodies, including that of a 3-month-old. We went to the cemetery to bury them.

In the evening, I went to see Wissam in the hospital; she was barely awake. After half an hour, she asked me: “Khalo [Uncle], I’m dreaming, right?”

I said, “We are all in a dream.”

“My dream is terrifying! Why?”

“All our dreams are terrifying.”

After 10 minutes of silence, she said, “Don’t lie to me, Khalo. In my dream, I don’t have legs. It’s true, isn’t it? I have no legs?”

“But you said it’s a dream.”

“I don’t like this dream, Khalo.”

I had to leave. For a long 10 minutes, I cried and cried. Overwhelmed by the horrors of the past few days, I walked out of the hospital and found myself wandering the streets. I thought idly, we could turn this city into a film set for war movies. Second World War films and end-of-the-world movies. We could hire it out to the best Hollywood directors. Doomsday on demand. Who could have the courage to tell Hanna, so far away in Ramallah, that her only sister had been killed? That her family had been killed? I phoned my colleague Manar and asked her to go to our house with a couple of friends and try to delay the news from getting to her. “Lie to her,” I told Manar. “Say the building was attacked by F-16s but the neighbors think Huda and Hatem were out at the time. Any lie that could help.”

Leaflets in Arabic dropped by Israeli helicopters float down from the sky. They announce that anyone who remains north of the Wadi waterway will be considered a partner to terrorism, “meaning,” Atef writes, “the Israelis can shoot on sight.” The electricity is cut. Food, fuel and water begin to run out. The wounded are operated on without anesthesia. There are no painkillers or sedatives. He visits his niece Wissam, racked with pain, in al-Shifa Hospital who asks him for a lethal injection. She says Allah will forgive her.

“But he will not forgive me, Wissam.”

“I am going to ask him to, on your behalf,” she says.

After airstrikes he joins the rescue teams “under the cricket-like hum of drones we couldn’t see in the sky.” A line from T.S Eliot, “a heap of broken images,” runs through his head. The injured and dead are “transported on three-wheeled bicycles or dragged along in carts by animals.”

“We picked up pieces of mutilated bodies and gathered them on a blanket; you find a leg here, a hand there, while the rest looks like minced meat,” he writes. “In the past week, many Gazans have started writing their names on their hands and legs, in pen or permanent marker, so they can be identified when death comes. This might seem macabre, but it makes perfect sense: We want to be remembered; we want our stories to be told; we seek dignity. At the very least, our names will be on our graves. The smell of unretrieved bodies under the ruins of a house hit last week remains in the air. The more time passes, the stronger the smell.”

The scenes around him become surreal. On Nov. 19, day 44 of the assault, he writes:

A man rides a horse toward me with the body of a dead teenager slung over the saddle in front. It seems it’s his son, perhaps. It looks like a scene from a historical movie, only the horse is weak and barely able to move. He is back from no battle. He is no knight. His eyes are full of tears as he holds the little riding crop in one hand and the bridle in the other. I have an impulse to photograph him but then feel suddenly sick at the idea. He salutes no one. He barely looks up. He is too consumed with his own loss. Most people are using the camp’s old cemetery; it’s the safest and although it is technically long-since full, they have started digging shallower graves and burying the new dead on top of the old—keeping families together, of course.

On Nov. 21 after constant tank-shelling, he decides to flee the Jabaliya neighborhood in the north of Gaza for the south, with his son and mother-in-law who is in a wheelchair. They must pass through Israeli checkpoints, where soldiers randomly select men and boys from the line for detention.

“Scores of bodies are strewn along both sides of the road,” he writes. “Rotting, it seems, into the ground. The smell is horrendous. A hand reaches out toward us from the window of a burned-out car, as if asking for something, from me specifically. I see what looks like two headless bodies in a car — limbs and precious body parts just thrown away and left to fester.”

He tells his son Yasser: “Don’t look. Just keep walking, son.”

In early Dec. his family home is destroyed in an airstrike.

“The house a writer grows up in is a well from which to draw material. In each of my novels, whenever I wanted to depict a typical house in the camp, I conjured ours. I’d move the furniture around a bit, change the name of the alley, but who was I kidding? It was always our house.”

“All the houses in Jabalya are small. They’re built randomly, haphazardly, and they’re not made to last. These houses replaced the tents that Palestinians like my grandmother Eisha lived in after the displacements of 1948. Those who built them always thought they’d soon be returning to the beautiful, spacious homes they’d left behind in the towns and villages of historic Palestine. That return never happened, despite our many rituals of hope, like safeguarding the key to the old family home. The future keeps betraying us, but the past is ours.”

“Though I’ve lived in many cities around the world, and visited many more, that tiny ramshackle abode was the only place I ever felt at home’” he goes on. “Friends and colleagues always asked: Why don’t you live in Europe or America? You have the opportunity. My students chimed in: Why did you return to Gaza? My answer was always the same: ‘Because in Gaza, in an alleyway in the Saftawi neighborhood of Jabalya, there stands a little house that cannot be found anywhere else in the world.’ If on doomsday God were to ask me where I would like to be sent, I wouldn’t hesitate in saying, ‘Home.’ Now there is no home.”

Atef is now trapped in southern Gaza with his son. His niece was transferred to a hospital in Egypt. Israel continues to pound Gaza with over 20,000 dead and 50,000 wounded. Atef continues to write.

The story of Christmas is the story of a poor woman, nine months pregnant, and her husband forced to leave their home in Nazareth in northern Galilee. The occupying Roman power has demanded they register for the census 90 miles away in Bethlehem. When they arrive there are no rooms. She gives birth in a stable. King Herod – who learned from the Magi of the birth of the messiah – orders his soldiers to hunt down every child two years old and under in Bethlehem and the vicinity and murder them. An angel warns Joseph in a dream to flee. The couple and infant escape under the cover of darkness and make the 40-mile journey to Egypt. 

I was in a refugee camp in the early 1980s for Guatemalans who had fled the war into Honduras. The peasant farmers and their families, living in filth and mud, their villages and homes burned or abandoned, were decorating their tents with strips of colored paper to celebrate the Massacre of the Innocents.

“Why is this such an important day?” I asked.

“It was on this day that Christ became a refugee,” a farmer answered.

The Christmas story was not written for the oppressors. It was written for the oppressed. We are called to protect the innocents. We are called to defy the occupying power. Atef, Refaat and those like them, who speak to us at the risk of death, echo this Biblical injunction. They speak so we will not be silent. They speak so we will take these words and images and hold them up to the principalities of the world — the media, politicians, diplomats, universities, the wealthy and privileged, the weapons manufacturers, the Pentagon and the Israel lobby groups — who are orchestrating the genocide in Gaza. The infant Christ is not lying today in straw, but a pile of broken concrete.

Evil has not changed down the millenia. Neither has goodness.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He is the host of show The Chris Hedges Report.

Featured image: Bearing Witness – Mr. Fish

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) executed on  Sunday evening their seventh airdrop to assist those besieged within the Church of Saint Porphyrius in the north of Gaza Strip.

JAf said that the drop, executed under Royal directives, serves as a demonstration of solidarity with the Christian community amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.

The statement revealed that a Royal Air Force plane airdropped humanitarian aid and food supplies, aiming to alleviate the conditions of those trapped inside the church, recognised as one of the oldest churches globally. 

The estimated number of besieged individuals within the church is approximately 800 civilians, primarily Christian, facing food shortages and a severe lack of basic necessities amidst harsh humanitarian conditions, according to the statement.

The source added that aid packages were parachuted onto the church, providing a safe haven for Christians and their children while being surrounded by Israeli occupation forces. This airdrop marks the seventh Jordanian airdrop, conveying a message of solidarity with our Christian brethren in the besieged strip amid the escalating Israeli war against Gaza, which has cast its shadow over the Christmas festivities.

During a meeting with religious leaders in the Al Husseiniya Palace last Wednesday, His Majesty King Abdullah, affirmed Jordan’s commitment to providing assistance to those seeking refuge in the church. The source emphasised that Jordan, in adherence to Royal directives, will continue to support the brothers and sisters in Gaza, standing by the Palestinian people and supporting their resilience on their land through various means to alleviate the challenging humanitarian conditions they face.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image is a Petra photo via The Jordan Times

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

On October 17, just 10 days after the Hamas attack on Israel, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said Hamas cannot be eliminated.

Barak said,

“We cannot completely eliminate Hamas. Hamas is an ideological movement which exists in [Palestinian] people’s dreams, in their hearts and in their minds.”

For the last thirty years, various resistance groups in the Middle East have emerged. Over time, they have made alliances among themselves. Their collective goal is to free Palestine from the brutal and enduring Israeli occupation.

The US and Israel have both killed numerous resistance leaders, but the resistance movement has only gained in strength and momentum.

Since October 7, and the Hamas attack on Israel which resulted in about 1,200 Israelis killed, and almost 200 Israelis taken as hostages to Gaza, Israel has responded with a military bombardment of Gaza that has resulted in over 20,000 dead, with the majority being women and children.

In a recent Harvard poll, respondents aged 18 to 24 were asked,  “Do you think the Hamas killing of 1200 Israeli civilians in Israel can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians or is it not justified?” a 51 percent to 49 percent majority said the attacks were justified.

In 1982, the UN General Assembly resolution affirmed the right to use force against occupation to achieve the independence and liberation of Palestine.

In 1977, the Geneva Conventions, to which Palestine acceded in 2014, classifies conflicts against racist regimes as legitimate armed conflicts. The UN has reported Israel is an Apartheid state, and by definition a racist regime.

History supports that the liberation of occupation is rarely achieved without an armed struggle. Resistance fighting is governed by international humanitarian law, which means civilians must not be targeted and should be protected. The Hamas attack of October 7 was armed resistance, but did not distinguish between legitimate Israeli regime targets, and civilians.

Yahya Sinwar is the Prime Minister of Gaza, and Israel holds him responsible for the October 7 attack.  Israel has said one of the goals of its current war on Gaza is to kill Sinwar. He was born in Khan Younis refugee camp, and holds a bachelor’s degree in Arabic language from Gaza University.

“This abominable attack was decided upon by Yahya Sinwar,” said IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi. “Therefore he and all those under him are dead men walking.”

Many experts have said that Israel is incapable of eradicating Hamas, because it is an ideology. Killing Sinwar, or others, including the Palestinian people, will not get rid of armed resistance.  

In January 2020, US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by a drone strike after his plane landed in Baghdad.

Soleimani was the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and a main architect of Iran’s participation in the resistance of the occupation of Palestine.  

In the fight to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Soleimani headed a coalition of Iraqi and Syrian fighters who killed as many ISIS as did the US-led coalition. The defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria was accomplished by the joint efforts of the US, Russia, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria, but without collaboration.

In February 2008, the CIA assassinated Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus. He was the master of the military branch of the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.  Israel had occupied the south of Lebanon for decades, but left abruptly in 2000. However, they have continued to occupy an area in the south known as Shebaa Farms, which has water resources Israel has exploited.  Hezbollah is resisting the occupation of Palestine, but also Lebanese occupied land.

In March 2004, Ahmed Yassin was assassinated in Gaza by an Israel helicopter strike ordered by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.  Yassin was one of the founders of Hamas. He was killed while going to pray in the early morning in the wheelchair which he had been confined to since the age of 12.

In September 2000, Yassin had proposed several ceasefire initiatives with Israel, asking Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, along with stopping the assassination of Palestinian activists.

Yassin defended the Palestinian people’s right to resist the occupation and had criticized the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank for their decision to not participate in the armed resistance to Israeli occupation.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and in 2006 Hamas was elected to govern the enclave. Israel has imposed a land, sea and air blockade of Gaza since 2007, and many refer to Gaza as the largest ‘open-air prison’ on earth.

The population of Gaza is about 2 million, making it one of the highest population densities, and with eight refugee camps. The majority are Sunni Muslims, with a small Christian minority.

The UN is now warning of an imminent risk of famine in Gaza as the Israeli bombardment of the north and south rages on without a ceasefire in sight. The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) published on Thursday reports the levels of acute food insecurity in Gaza is the largest ever recorded globally.

The UN’s World Food Program food security experts had already established that Gazans have ‘used up all their resources, livelihoods have collapsed, bakeries are destroyed, shops are empty, and families can’t find food,’ the report said.

The occupation of Palestine is the root cause of all suffering in the Middle East, and the liberation of Palestine is a fundamental cultural value held by the vast majority of all the Arab people, which number 22 countries, and represent about 300 million people.

The Palestinian people have been stateless, and under Israeli military occupation since 1948. They lack freedom, human rights and the UN calls Israel an Apartheid state.

Israel, and America may continue to kill Palestinian resistance leaders, but it will never stop the resistance, because it is a living ideology. The American patriot, Patrick Henry, said “Give me liberty, or give me death.” Those words spoken in 1776 are in the hearts and minds of millions of Palestinians and their supporters, including the University students across America.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from MD

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

The US, EU, and UK do not tire of defending Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people with the cliched incantation that “Israel has the right to defend itself”.

In August 2022, Israel bombed Palestinians in Gaza over three days, killing 49 people, including 17 children. The US and the EU’s response to the massacre was to declare emphatically their support for “Israel’s right to defend itself” and mutedly to regret the death of Palestinian civilians.

That was the last major massacre Israel committed in Gaza before its current genocidal war, but it certainly was not the first. For that, we must go back to 1951, when Israel began to raid the Gaza Strip.

Israel had already expelled hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to Gaza between the end of 1947 and the summer of 1950 when the remaining 2,500 Palestinians from the Mediterranean town of Majdal ‘Asqalan (now the settler-colony of Ashkelon) were loaded on to trucks by the Israeli army. Israel would also expel 7,000 Palestinian Bedouins to Egypt during this period up to 1955.

A History of War Crimes

In October 1951, the Israelis raided Gaza, killing dozens of Palestinians and Egyptians, demolishing dozens of houses, and blowing up wells to curb the attempts by the expelled Palestinians to return home across the new borders erected by the Jewish settler colony.

Earlier, in August 1949, Israeli soldiers captured two Palestinian refugees. They killed the man and 22 soldiers took turns raping the woman before killing her. In March 1950, Israeli soldiers abducted two Palestinian girls and one boy from Gaza across the new border.

They killed the boy and then raped the two girls before killing them. By then, it was quite common for Israeli soldiers and police to rape female Palestinian refugees attempting to return to their homes, a practice that was widespread during the Nakba a few years earlier.

In August 1950, for example, four Israeli policemen raped a Palestinian woman picking fruit from her family’s orchard across the West Bank border.

Israeli raids on Gaza would continue in 1952 and 1953, culminating in the Bureij refugee camp massacre in August of that year. The Israeli military unit 101 killed at least 20 Palestinian refugees, including seven women and five children, by throwing bombs through the windows of their huts while they slept and shooting those who fled. Dozens were injured. Other sources put the final tally of Palestinians killed at 50.

At the time, foreign observers did not mention Israel’s “right to defend itself” and called the massacre “an appalling case of deliberate mass murder”. That same year, the Israelis slaughtered 70 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank village of Qibya, which even the Indianapolis-based, pro-Israel National Jewish Post compared to the Nazi massacre at Lidice.

In February 1955, the Israelis raided an Egyptian military camp in Gaza, killing at least 36 Egyptian soldiers and two Palestinian civilians, one of whom was a child.

Until then, Egyptian authorities had been placating the Israelis by policing the borders and preventing Palestinian “infiltration”. After the raid, Palestinians in Gaza rose up against the Egyptian authorities, demanding weapons to defend themselves from the unceasing Israeli raids.

Exasperated by Israeli brutality and bellicosity, and under pressure from the Palestinian refugees, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser acceded to the Palestinian demand. A group of Palestinian fedayeen retaliated against Israel by raiding it in August 1955 and infiltrating as far as 27 miles inside its borders – ambushing soldiers, laying mines, and attacking vehicles and buildings – during which five soldiers and 10 civilians died.

Lest anyone think that the current Jewish supremacist Israeli government is the first to invoke the biblical “Amalek” to provide a religious imprimatur to its ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinians, as Benjamin Netanyahu did, it was in fact the secular Prime Minister David Ben Gurion who first used the analogy seven decades ago.

Ahead of Israel’s invasion of Gaza and Egypt in October 1956, Ben Gurion proclaimed that “the hosts of Amalek” were rearming themselves to “destroy the State of Israel and the people of Israel”.

The Israelis bombed the Gaza city of Khan Younis on 2 November 1956 from the air, killing scores of civilians before Israeli tanks entered the city on 3 November.

The Israelis rounded up resistance fighters and executed them on the spot or in their homes. Meanwhile, in the adjacent refugee camp, the Israelis rounded up all men and boys above the age of 15 in the town square. They proceeded to machine-gun them, killing between 300 and 500 people, the vast majority of whom were civilians and half being 1948 refugees. They occupied Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula until they were forced out by the US and the USSR in March 1957.

‘Genocidal Atrocities’

In the past few weeks, Israel carried out massacres in Khan Younis, Gaza’s second-largest city, which Israel dubbed “a dangerous combat zone” after it had served as a safe zone for one million Palestinians who had fled northern Gaza. It included the slaughter of 30 civilians sheltering at a school from Israel’s savage bombings. The relentless mass killing of Palestinians since 7 October makes the 1956 savage Israeli massacres seem humane in comparison.

In 1967, Israel again invaded and occupied Gaza. It expelled 75,000 Palestinians from the Strip and prevented 50,000 more (who were working, studying, or travelling outside Gaza when Israel invaded) from returning home. It confiscated 60 percent of the land and all the water of the Palestinians, much of which was for the exclusive use of the Jewish colonists who had access to 18 times the amount of water available to the indigenous Palestinians.

The Jewish colonists had 85 more (stolen) land per capita than the Palestinian owners of the land. Israel subjected the entire Palestinian population to a racialised military occupation during which it destroyed Gaza’s economic infrastructure until 2005.

Since Israel’s redeployment around Gaza in September 2005 and its incarceration of 2.3 million Palestinians in the Gaza concentration camp, the Israelis launched numerous bombing campaigns against the camp’s civilian inmates and the resistance, including in 2006, 2008-2009, 2012, 2014, and 2021, killing thousands of civilians.

The only “victory” that the Israeli military has scored since 7 October is the slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, with tens of thousands more injured, and more than two million others displaced. It has further succeeded in the destruction of homes and residential buildings, hospitals, schools, libraries, municipal buildings, churches and mosques. Despite all the civilian slaughter and destruction, its reputation for military preparedness has been lost for the foreseeable future.

As more and more details trickle out of Israel’s murder of its own civilians and destruction of their homes on 7 October, it will be a long time before it can recapture some of the fictional military allure it had previously enjoyed in the West and among its Arab allies.

One of the more interesting ironies of the current Israeli war is that whereas the US empire and its EU and UK subsidiaries continued to rearm Israel since 8 October without respite so that the settler colony could continue its genocidal war, it is the Palestinian resistance that has had no weapons replenishment since that date and yet continues to score military victories against the Israeli invaders.

But not only have the Americans been the major party to this war against a colonised and brutalised people, Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, went further by identifying the US with Israel so much that he referred to the Palestinian resistance as the “enemy” of the United States.

Sullivan said he had “discussed the conditions and timing for Israel to wind down the current phase of its operations with Israeli leaders”, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But he declined to specify a time frame, saying that neither wanted to “telegraph for the enemy what the plan is”.

If pro-Israel Americans likened the 1953 Qibya massacre to the Nazi massacre at Lidice, and famed Ashkenazi Israeli columnist Yehoshua Radler-Feldman, known by the pen name Rabbi Benyamin, wrote of the 1956 massacre of 50 Palestinian citizens of Israel in the village of Kafr Qasim “that soon we will be like Nazis and the perpetrators of pogroms”, today both Israeli officials and Palestinian resistance spokespersons are repeatedly referring to each other as “Nazis”. 

But while the Palestinian spokesmen refer to the Israeli government and its military as Nazis and fascists, Israeli officials label the Palestinian people as a whole as “Nazis”.

Given the shameless racist discourse among Israeli officials about the Palestinians as “animals” and “subhuman”, the extraordinary force of the indiscriminate Israeli killing machine, and the scale of Israel’s genocidal atrocities, the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the analogy is up for debate.

What remains beyond doubt, however, is that while the industrial scale of Israeli atrocities in Gaza is unprecedented, their cruel nature has been part and parcel of Israel’s war on the Palestinian people since 1948.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Joseph Massad is professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University, New York. He is the author of many books and academic and journalistic articles. His books include Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan; Desiring Arabs; The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians, and most recently Islam in Liberalism. His books and articles have been translated into a dozen languages.

Featured image: A view of a United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 22, 2023 [Abed Zagout/Anadolu Agency]

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.” — Edmund Burke

Folks, it’s time to break the cycle of abuses—cruel, brutal, immoral, unconstitutional and unacceptable—that have been heaped upon us by the government for way too long.

Here’s just a small sampling of what we suffered through in 2023.

The government failed to protect our lives, liberty and happiness. The predators of the police state wreaked havoc on our freedoms, our communities, and our lives. The government didn’t listen to the citizenry, refused to abide by the Constitution, and treated the citizenry as a source of funding and little else. Police officers shot unarmed citizens and their household pets. Government agents—including local police—were armed to the teeth and encouraged to act like soldiers on a battlefield. Bloated government agencies were allowed to fleece taxpayers. Government technicians spied on our emails and phone calls. And government contractors made a killing by waging endless wars abroad.

The president became more imperial. Although the Constitution invests the President with very specific, limited powers, in recent years, American presidents have claimed the power to completely and almost unilaterally alter the landscape of this country for good or for ill. The powers amassed by each successive president through the negligence of Congress and the courts—powers which add up to a toolbox of terror for an imperial ruler—empower whoever occupies the Oval Office to act as a dictator, above the law and beyond any real accountability. The presidency itself has become an imperial one with permanent powers.

The cost of endless wars drove the nation deeper into debt. Policing the globe and waging endless wars abroad hasn’t made America—or the rest of the world—any safer, but it has made the military industrial complex rich at taxpayer expense.

The courts failed to uphold justice. Time and time again, the Supreme Court failed to right the wrongs being meted out by the American police state. A review of critical court rulings over the past decade or so, including some ominous ones by the U.S. Supreme Court, reveals a startling and steady trend towards pro-police state rulings by an institution concerned more with establishing order and protecting the ruling class and government agents than with upholding the rights enshrined in the Constitution.

The Surveillance State rendered Americans vulnerable to threats from government spies, police, hackers and power failures. Thanks to the government’s ongoing efforts to build massive databases using emerging surveillance, DNA and biometrics technologies, Americans became sitting ducks for hackers and government spies alike. Billions of people have been affected by data breaches and cyberattacks. On a daily basis, Americans were made to relinquish the most intimate details of who we are—our biological makeup, our genetic blueprints, and our biometrics (facial characteristics and structure, fingerprints, iris scans, etc.)—in order to navigate an increasingly technologically-enabled world. The Department of Homeland Security, which has led the charge to create a Surveillance State, has continued to deploy mandatory facial recognition scans at airports and gather biometric data on American travelers. Police were gifted with new surveillance gadgets. The Corporate State tapped into our computer keyboards, cameras, cell phones and smart devices in order to better target us for advertising. Social media giants such as Facebook granted secret requests by the government and its agents for access to users’ accounts. And our private data—methodically collected and stored with or without our say-so—was repeatedly compromised and breached.

Mass shootings claimed more lives. Mass shootings have taken place at churches, in nightclubs, on college campuses, on military bases, in elementary schools, in government offices, and at concerts. In almost every instance, you can connect the dots back to the military-industrial complex, which continues to dominate, dictate and shape almost every aspect of our lives.

The rich got richer, and the poor went to jail. Not content to expand the police state’s power to search, strip, seize, raid, steal from, arrest and jail Americans for any infraction, no matter how insignificant, the courts continued their practice of jailing individuals who are unable to pay the hefty fines imposed by the American police state. These debtors’ prisons play right into the hands of those who make a profit by jailing Americans.  This is no longer a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” It is fast becoming a government “of the rich, by the elite, for the corporations,” and its rise to power is predicated on shackling the American taxpayer to a debtors’ prison guarded by a phalanx of politicians, bureaucrats and militarized police with no hope of parole and no chance for escape.

“Show your papers” incidents skyrocketed. We are not supposed to be living in a “show me your papers” society. Despite this, the U.S. government has introduced measures allowing police and other law enforcement officials to stop individuals (citizens and noncitizens alike), demand they identify themselves, and subject them to patdowns, warrantless searches, and interrogations.

Free speech was dealt one knock-out punch after another. Protest laws, free speech zones, bubble zones, trespass zones, anti-bullying legislation, zero tolerance policies, hate crime laws and a host of other legalistic maladies dreamed up by politicians and prosecutors (and championed by those who want to suppress speech with which they might disagree) conspired to corrode our core freedoms, purportedly for our own good. On paper—at least according to the U.S. Constitution—we are technically free to speak. In reality, however, we were only as free to speak as a government official—or corporate entities such as Facebook, Google or YouTube—allowed. The reasons for such censorship varied widely from political correctness, safety concerns and bullying to national security and hate crimes but the end result remained the same: the complete eradication of free speech.

Police became even more militarized and weaponized. Despite concerns about the government’s steady transformation of local police into a standing military army, local police agencies continued to acquire weaponry, training and equipment suited for the battlefield. There are now reportedly more bureaucratic (non-military) government civilians armed with high-tech, deadly weapons than U.S. Marines.

Schools turned into prisons. So-called school “safety” policies, which run the gamut from zero tolerance policies that punish all infractions harshly to surveillance cameras, metal detectors, random searches, drug-sniffing dogs, school-wide lockdowns, active-shooter drills and militarized police officers, turned schools into prisons and young people into prisoners.

The government waged a renewed war on private property. The battle to protect our private property has become the final constitutional frontier, the last holdout against our freedoms being usurped. We no longer have any real property rights. That house you live in, the car you drive, the small (or not so small) acreage of land that has been passed down through your family or that you scrimped and saved to acquire, whatever money you manage to keep in your bank account after the government and its cronies have taken their first and second and third cut…none of it is safe from the government’s greedy grasp. At no point do you ever have any real ownership in anything other than the clothes on your back. Everything else can be seized by the government under one pretext or another (civil asset forfeiture, unpaid taxes, eminent domain, public interest, etc.).

The plight of the nation’s homeless worsened. In communities across the country, legislators adopted a variety of methods (parking meters, zoning regulations, tickets, and even robots) to discourage the homeless from squatting, loitering and panhandling. One of the most common—and least discussed—practices: homeless relocation programs that bus the homeless outside city limits.

The government waged war on military veterans. The government has done a pitiful job of respecting the freedoms of military veterans and caring for their needs once out of uniform. The plight of veterans today is America’s badge of shame, with large numbers of veterans impoverished, unemployed, traumatized mentally and physically, struggling with depression, suicide, and marital stress, homeless, subjected to sub-par treatment at clinics and hospitals, left to molder while their paperwork piles up within Veterans Administration offices, and increasingly treated like criminals— targeted for surveillance, censorship, threatened with incarceration or involuntary commitment, labeled as extremists and/or mentally ill, and stripped of their Second Amendment rights—for daring to speak out against government misconduct.

The Deep State took over. The American system of representative government was overthrown by the Deep State—a.k.a. the police state a.k.a. the military industrial complex—a profit-driven, militaristic corporate state bent on total control and global domination through the imposition of martial law here at home and by fomenting wars abroad. When in doubt, follow the money trail. It always points the way.

The takeaway: Everything the founders of this country feared has come to dominate in modern America.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, if freedom is to survive at all, “we the people” must refuse to allow the government’s abusive behavior to be our new normal.

There is nothing normal about egregious surveillance, roadside strip searches, police shootings of unarmed citizens, censorship, retaliatory arrests, the criminalization of lawful activities, warmongering, indefinite detentions, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture, police brutality, profit-driven prisons, or pay-to-play politicians.

Let’s not take the mistakes, carnage, toxicity and abuse of this past year into 2024.

As long as we continue to allow callousness, cruelty, meanness, immorality, ignorance, hatred, intolerance, racism, militarism, materialism, meanness and injustice—magnified by an echo chamber of nasty tweets and government-sanctioned brutality—to trump justice, fairness and equality, there can be no hope of prevailing against the police state.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

It is, once again, the most wonderful time of the year!

Many things to be grateful for in 2023 — chief among them is your indefatigable support for Global Research’s publication.

To our authors and readers, THANK YOU… (cue in Jose Feliciano) from the bottom of our hearts! 🎶♬

We believe that open access to truthful information and nuanced reporting is a #GiftThatKeepsOnGiving. That is why we strive hard to deliver it to you not just during this season but all year-round. 

Books are another #GiftThatKeepsOnGiving, which is why we are committed to publishing eBooks that are free of charge. Only accessible in the desktop version, our eBooks are located on the left-hand of our homepage under the banner “Global Research E-books.”

We also offer PDF books at a low price, a perfect gift idea for fellow truth-seekers this Christmas!

Our wish for 2024 is to maintain our value as an independent source of news and analyses. Our online reach is crucial to the dissemination of truth. What is ultimately at stake is the value of human life and the future of humanity.

In this regard, we ask you, our very own Santa, to help us overcome the effects of Big Tech censorship by:

1. Forwarding the daily Global Research Newsletter and/or your favorite Global Research articles to your family, friends, and respective communities;
2. Using the various instruments of online posting and social media to “spread the word.” Click the “like” and “share” buttons on our articles’ pages for starters. Help keep our articles circulating; and
3. Encouraging family and friends to sign up for our newsletter (click here for sign-up form).

 

Moreover, kindly consider donating and/or becoming a member to help us meet our running costs:

 

Click to view our membership plans

Click to make a one-time or a recurring donation

 

---

Thank you for supporting independent media. 

-The Global Research Team

This Christmas, I Have Tears in My Eyes. “Disobey Unlawful Orders, Abandon the Battlefield”

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, December 25, 2023

Today, we are “fraternizing” and acting in solidarity Worldwide with the People of Palestine against the hegemonic agenda of the U.S. and it allies  which are waging an all-out war against humanity. 

War on Gaza: Palestinian Doctor Asks Biden How ‘Many More Need to Die’ Before US Demands Ceasefire

By Middle East Eye, December 27, 2023

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Dr Ahmed Moghrabi, head of plastic surgery in Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, was heavily distraught as he recounted having to work around the clock for 80 days to treat the Palestinian victims of constant Israeli bombardment.

Sloughing from Guernica to Gaza to be Born

By Emanuel Pastreich, December 26, 2023

Jews then were an occupied people, struggling under the heavy hand of Rome, oppressed like the Palestinian people today who are likewise subject to a new imperial order expressed through remote cameras, armed drones and robots, and cluster bombs. They are subject to the brutal authority of Jerusalem, Washington, and London, the empire of deception and decay.

The Israel Lobby Embarks on a Course of Lies and Crimes to Push More War, Based on a False Narrative of October 7 (10/7)

By Prof. Anthony J. Hall, December 26, 2023

Just as the fabricated story of bin Laden and al-Qaeda was a fraud to push the United States into a series of wars for Israel, so too is the false account below of the Hamas-Israel relationship a calculated lie meant to advance disastrous outcomes for average people, including Jews, the world over. The fraudulent character of the accounts of the supposed rapes and killing of children has been expertly exposed by Max Blumenthal.

The Yemeni Houthis Take on the Empire

By Renee Parsons, December 26, 2023

While it is astounding that one small, feisty Arab tribe in the nation of Yemen has shown the mega-world how to creatively stand up to the Hegemon without threatening nuclear weapons, without initiating direct military conflict and yet achieve their goals – what is even more astounding is that the Houthis are not the least intimidated by the Empire’s pretentious display of empty threats and waning power. 

What Did Russia Destroy at Starokonstantinov Airbase? “High Priority Targets”. SAM Systems Destroyed.

By Drago Bosnic, December 26, 2023

Both Russian and Ukrainian milbloggers reported that the Starokonstantinov strike is associated with solid information about the appearance of “something very important at the airbase”, which prompted the VKS to use its most dangerous air-launched missile that is generally reserved for such high-priority targets.

Journalists and Reporters Who Were Mandated COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines, “Died Suddenly”

By Dr. William Makis, December 26, 2023

38 year old news anchor, journalist, Elaine da Silva was 23 weeks pregnant and was sent to hospital in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Monday Nov. 20 with pneumonia. She died next day with her unborn child.

Yemen’s Houthis Have “Biden by the Shorthairs”. Disruption of the Most Important Maritime Trading Routes. Potential Shock to the Global Economy

By Mike Whitney, December 26, 2023

Yemen’s Houthi militia has shown how a small army can take on the American Empire and win. They have shown how courage, resolve and commitment to principle can act as a force-multiplier allowing a much weaker military to ‘punch above its weight’. They’ve also shown that a few well-placed missiles in key locations on the world’s most critical shipping lanes, can send tremors across the global economy and shake the “rules-based order” to its foundations.

With Hearing Set, Time for Biden to Drop Assange Charges

By Colonel Ann Wright, December 26, 2023

Fifty years ago, no U.S. publisher, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times or any other newspaper in the U.S. or abroad was prosecuted for publishing the classified history of the U.S. war on Vietnam, the Pentagon Papers [although Nixon tried].  

Yemen Resistance Remains Defiant as Pentagon Escalates Tensions in Red Sea

By Abayomi Azikiwe, December 26, 2023

In response to the declaration of the Ansar Allah Resistance Movement in Yemen that it would enforce a blockade on Israeli linked ships until the genocidal siege on the Palestinians ceased, the U.S. has pledged to protect commercial vessels traveling throughout the Red Sea.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

A Palestinian surgeon in southern Gaza has made an impassioned plea to the Biden administration, asking the US president how many more civilians need to be killed in Israel’s military campaign on Gaza before the US demands a ceasefire.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Dr Ahmed Moghrabi, head of plastic surgery in Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital, was heavily distraught as he recounted having to work around the clock for 80 days to treat the Palestinian victims of constant Israeli bombardment.

“I want actually to ask the Biden administration and the leaders of the world and [those] who sent these prohibited mass destruction weapons to Israel,” Moghrabi said. “How many more of us have to die? Really, how many more of us have to die, as civilians? How many more videos do you have to see?”

The US is one of Israel’s closest allies and supplies the country with billions of dollars in military assistance each year. Since the war on Gaza began in October, the US House of Representatives approved an additional $14bn to the country to aid in its campaign on the besieged enclave.

Israel has so far been sent 230 cargo planes and 20 ships loaded with weapons and military equipment from the US.

Moghrabi, who said he has developed psychological disorders from his work since the war began, shared a grim account of the humanitarian situation inside Gaza’s hospitals, noting that doctors do not have proper tools or enough medical supplies to treat their patients.

“Me, as a doctor here, as a surgeon here, I can’t save lives properly as I’m supposed to because I don’t have proper instruments.”

Beyond that, patients are going hungry without food and thirsty without clean drinking water, according to Moghrabi.

'How many of us need to die?'
'How many more videos do you need to see?'

Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi, Head of plastic surgery in Gaza's Nasser Hospital, asks Biden and world leaders about the 'miserable' daily ordeals Palestinians are facing due to the ongoing attacks by Israel. pic.twitter.com/aLiCuvKRJa

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 26, 2023

“Our children are not only dying from bombs or snipers or dragging them and executing them outside of their houses and executing them at the checkpoints; they are dying from hunger, from the cold, from the contamination of the water. 

“You as democratic countries are there. I don’t know, how would you allow the entire population to starve?”

‘Biden Ensuring Israel’s Slaughter Continues’

Hospitals all across Gaza have been subjected to Israeli attacks, from aerial bombardment to being laid to siege by tanks on the ground or snipers on rooftops.

Middle East Eye reported earlier this month about the Israeli siege on al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, where 250 doctors, patients and their families were forced to the brink of starvation.

A staff member inside Awda gave a first-hand account to MEE of the dire conditions inside the hospital, when Israeli snipers surrounded the hospital and essentially turned the Palestinians inside into hostages until the hospital’s food and water ran out. Snipers were also shooting at anyone seen to move.

Last week, the World Health Organisation announced that northern Gaza no longer has a functional hospital due to Israel’s military assault, which has created a lack of fuel, staff and supplies.

“There are actually no functional hospitals left in the north,” Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in Gaza, told reporters.

The situation is similarly dire in the south of Gaza. The WHO said that out of all 36 health facilities in the enclave, only nine are partially functional – all of them in the south.

Despite the calls from much of the international community to end the war on Gaza, the United States has yet to push for a ceasefire.

At the United Nations Security Council last week, a vote for a ceasefire resolution was delayed multiple times to avoid a US veto. The language of the resolution ended up being changed to calling for urgent steps “to create the conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities” between Hamas and Israel.

Analysts have said that the compromises made to avoid the US veto have resulted in a resolution that will have limited bearing on Gaza’s humanitarian crisis.

“Biden’s changes will help ensure that Israel’s slaughter in Gaza continues while minimising the UN’s insight into what increasingly appears to be a genocide,” Trita Parsi, vice president of the Quincy Institute, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Featured image: Dr Suleiman Qaoud surveys the damage at the Rantisi Specialist Hospital, part of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza City, following Israeli missile attacks on November 6, 2023 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

Ukraine has a “civil rights problem”, with “wartime policies” that “effectively relegate Russian speakers to permanent second-class status”, and many Ukrainians “across the political spectrum”, including “former officials” and “intellectuals” worry that such policies, after peace is achieved, will “alienate, criminalize, or deport a significant portion of the country’s population.” Moreover, in a survey taken six months before the war, over 40 percent of Ukrainians nationwide (“and nearly two-thirds in the east and south”), agreed with Putin that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people.”

Who is making these claims? Oh, it must be one of those “pro-Russia propagandists”, right?

No, it is in fact Nicolai N. Petro, a professor of political science at the University of Rhode Island, writing for Foreign Policy.

Professor Petro was a US Fulbright scholar in Ukraine in 2013-2014, and served in Washington as the State Department’s special assistant for policy on the Soviet Union under President George H. W. Bush, and as temporary political attache at the American Embassy in Moscow.

Petro writes that “freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and minority rights” are all areas of concern in Ukraine. Regarding the first one, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), one of the largest denominations in the country, is, he notes, the target of a crackdown, with holy sites having been seized even years before 2022 and clergymen being judicially harassed over their alleged links to Moscow.

Regarding the second and the third (press and minorities), a March 2023 law gave further censorship powers to the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting: by 2024, it will further increase the minimum percentage of Ukrainian language on television from 75 to 90 percent, entirely prohibiting the use of non-Ukrainian languages in certain contexts. The main target of such policies is of course the Russian language, spoken by millions of Ukrainians. According to Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, “the Russian language must completely disappear from our territory, it being an aspect of hostile propaganda and the brainwashing of our population.”

Commenting on such measures, Ukrainian philosopher Sergei Datsyuk stated “it will be unclear which is more dangerous for us, war with Russia or internal civil war” (Oleksiy Arestovich, former presidential advisor to Zelensky made similar statements). Those are serious concerns, but one should keep in mind that such “internal civil war” in fact already started almost a decade ago, in Donbass.

As Petro sums it up:

“in Ukraine, the freedoms of religion and the press are deeply intertwined with the issue of minority rights, specifically with the treatment of the country’s largest minority, Russophile Ukrainians—those who identify themselves with Russian heritage, be it through language, culture, history, or religion.”

He adds:

“the vast majority of Russophile Ukrainians refuse to categorize themselves as a minority. They see themselves simply as Ukrainians citizens, and as such, they argue, they have a constitutional right to speak any language and espouse any religion or culture they wish, not just the ones endorsed by the state. But Ukrainian law does not recognize Russians as indigenous to Ukraine, or even as a minority within Ukraine. They therefore have no claim to legal protection of their cultural heritage and language, a direct contradiction of Article 10 of the Ukrainian constitution.”

Professor Petro, and the aforementioned Ukrainians are not alone in their concerns about the civil rights of the Russian minority in Ukraine. As I’ve written,  the European Commission for Democracy through Law, better known as the Venice Commission, also worries about the matter.

At its June session, the Venice Commission analyzed the (new) Law on National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine, and, among other things, concluded that,

“to ensure full conformity” with international standards, “a number of provisions of that Law should be reconsidered”, including those pertaining to “the right to organise events in minority languages”, to  “publishing books and to bookshops”,  “the right to access to mass media in minority languages”, and “the minority language school-system.”

However, in the words of Olga Stefanishyna (Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration),

“There is no Russian minority in Ukraine. It does not exist!”

According to the 2001 Ukraine’s census, which is to date its only census since its 1991 independence, ethnic Russians were 17.3% of the Ukrainian population –  that is, over 8 million people.

Ukraine is in fact a strongly Russian-Ukrainian bilingual society, with a high degree of intermarriage, and, to further complicate things, many people can declare themselves ethnically as either Russian or Ukrainian, depending on context.

As I wrote back in 2020, regarding the Donbass war (which has been going on since 2014), one’s political stance could sometimes be a better predictor – regarding one’s attitude towards the conflict – than language or ethnicity. And the main dividing issue there was and is the Maidan. It has always been about 2 possible Ukraines: one is a European nation, closer to the West and the US while, at the same time, proud of Stepan Bandera and of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) which during World War II sided with Nazi Germany and committed war crimes against Poles. The other is a natural ally of Russia and part of the “Russian world” (culturally) and is also proud of its Soviet heritage.

The “Russian Question” in Ukraine therefore does not pertain merely to “ethnic Russians” (self-identified or otherwise); it also involves the issue of Russophones and Russophiles.

As researcher Volodymyr Ishchenko writes, there has always been in Ukrainian politics a “large camp” calling for “closer integration with Russia-led international institutions rather than with those in the Euro-Atlantic sphere”. This “pro-Russian camp”, after the 2014 Maidan was “marginalized”, and according to Ishchenko the “pro-Russian label” became “inflated” to the point of being used to describe (and discredit) any discourse that raises questions about the “pro-Western, neoliberal, and nationalist” stances which have “dominated Ukraine’s political sphere since 2014, but do not really reflect the political diversity of Ukrainian society.” All such “pro-Russian” political parties have in fact been banned in 2022, including the Opposition Platform for Life, which had come second in elections and held 44 seats in the Parliament.

In March 2022 students demanded political scientist John Mearsheimer be “canceled” due to his alleged “Putinism”.

The fact that Nicolai N. Petro’s piece was published in Foreign Policy thus far without any attacks against him is quite interesting. Now that it is becoming increasingly clear to the Western political elite and media that a “land for peace deal” is the only way to Kyiv. And maybe there will finally be a wide and honest discussion on some inconvenient truths about post-Maidan Ukraine.

The truth is that even after peace is achieved, as long as the Russian minority remains marginalized there and as long as NATO expansion continues, there will still be room for tension and conflict – internally and internationally.

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the Translate Website button below the author’s name (only available in desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

Click the share button above to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

***

“Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” said a U.S. military historian as Israel’s use of arms including 2,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs pushed the Palestinian death toll over 20,000.

*

As the Palestinian death toll from Israel’s 10-week annihilation of the Gaza Strip passed 20,000, warfare experts said this weekend that the retaliatory campaign ranks among the deadliest and most destructive in modern history.

Gaza health officials said Friday that 390 Palestinians were killed and 734 others wounded in the besieged strip over the previous 48 hours, driving the death toll from 77 days of near-relentless Israeli attacks to 20,057, with another 53,320 people injured. More than 6,000 women and over 8,000 children have been killed—approximately 70% of all fatalities.

That’s more than twice the number of civilians—and over 14 times as many children—as Russian forces have killed in Ukraine since February 2022.

Thousands more Palestinians are missing and feared buried beneath the rubble of the hundreds of thousands of buildings destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombardment.

“The scale of Palestinian civilian deaths in such a short period of time appears to be the highest such civilian casualty rate in the 21st century,” Michael Lynk, who served as the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2016 to 2022, told The Washington Post on Saturday.

In 75 days, Israel killed 20,000 Palestinians and obliterated 308,000 homes in Gaza. That's 70% of the residential buildings in Gaza.

To put it in perspective, it's as if over 100 million homes in the USA were destroyed.

This is beyond warfare; it's a deliberate genocide.… pic.twitter.com/qKopPpE0mX

— أدهم أبو سلمية 🇵🇸 Adham Abu Selmiya (@adham922) December 22, 2023

Robert Pape, a U.S. military historian and University of Chicago professor, told The Associated Press that

“Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history.”

“It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever,” he added.

By comparison, the 2017 U.S.-led coalition battle for Mosul, Iraq during the war against the so-called Islamic State—widely viewed as among the most intense urban assaults in recent decades—killed approximately 10,000 civilians, around a third of them from aerial bombardment.

Pape said that by some measures, Israel’s bombing of Gaza is surpassing the Allied “terror bombing” of German cities during World War II.

He noted that U.S. and U.K. airstrikes obliterated about 40-50% of the urban areas of the 51 German cities bombed between 1942-45, and that around 10% of all buildings in Germany were destroyed. In Gaza, approximately 1 in 3 buildings have been destroyed. In northern Gaza, over two-thirds of all buildings have been leveled.

“Gaza is now a different color from space. It’s a different texture,” Corey Scher, who studies natural disasters and wars using satellite remote sensing at the City University of New York’s Graduate Center, told the AP.

Parts of Gaza look like a wasteland from space: Before and after | AP News https://t.co/7r1p6lA67p

— Gabriel San Román (@gsanroman2) December 23, 2023

Experts point to the types of munitions being used by Israeli forces as a major reason why so many Gazans are being killed and injured. These include U.S.-supplied 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound guided “bunker-buster” bombs, which Israel says are necessary to target Hamas’ underground tunnels.

These massive bombs turn “earth to liquid,” Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon defense official and war crimes investigator for the United Nations, told the AP. “It pancakes entire buildings.”

Garlasco said that 2,000-pound bombs mean “instant death” for anyone within about 100 feet of the blast, with shrapnel posing a deadly danger for people up to 1,200 feet away.

Sometimes 2,000-pound bombs leave craters in the ground where they strike that are approximately 40ft in diameter. Leveraging this fact, we trained an object detection AI algorithm to find craters visible in satellite imagery of south Gaza pic.twitter.com/JjGdZsFBkI

— Ishaan Jhaveri (@ishaan_jhavs) December 22, 2023

In a separate interview with CNN, Gerlasco said that the intensity of Israel’s bombardment of Gaza has “not been seen since Vietnam,” when U.S. airstrikes killed up to hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. The U.S. dropped more bombs on tiny, non-belligerent Laos than all sides combined unleashed during World War II.

“You’d have to go back to the Vietnam War to make a comparison,” Garlasco added. “Even in both Iraq wars, it was never that dense.”

The use of such heavy ordnance in close proximity to critical civilian infrastructure like hospitals has alarmed observers.

“What we have been witnessing is a campaign that was planned, it was a plan, definitely, to close down all the hospitals in the north,” Léo Cans, head of mission for Palestine with Doctors Without Borders, told the Post.

The Israeli army published footage of them bombing an entire neighbourhood in Gaza.

Satellite images from the first month of the conflict reveal over 500 impact craters, each with a diameter exceeding 12 meters, consistent with the marks left by 2,000-pound bombs pic.twitter.com/ihH3XJByEA

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) December 23, 2023

Aided by AI-based target selection systems, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commanders are approving bombings they know will cause large numbers of civilian casualties. In a bid to assassinate a single Hamas commander, the IDF dropped at least two 2,000-pound bombs on the densely populated Jabalia refugee camp on October 31, killing more than 120 civilians.

Although the United States—which has killed more foreign civilians this century than any other armed force in the world—provides Israel with thousands of 1,000 and 2,000-pound bombs, its own military avoids using such massive ordnance in civilian areas due to the devastation they cause.

“It certainly appears that [Israel’s] tolerance for civilian harm compared to expected operational benefits is significantly different than what we would accept as the U.S.,” Larry Lewis, research director at the Center for Naval Analyses and a former U.S. State Department senior adviser on civilian harm, told CNN.

That includes the risk of killing Israel’s own citizens and others held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Another Israeli who was released from captivity in Gaza says she thought she would be killed by Israeli bombing, not by Hamas.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu lies to the public and says more bombing will compel Hamas to release captives. pic.twitter.com/B1ikrp6dk8

— Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) December 22, 2023

Lewis added that the Jabalia strike was “something we would never see the U.S. doing.”

That isn’t entirely true; during the 1991 Gulf War the U.S. dropped a pair of 2,000-pound Raytheon GBU-27 Paveway III laser-guided bombs on the Amiriyah air raid shelter in Baghdad, killing at least 408 Iraqi civilians in one of the deadliest single airstrikes in modern history. U.S. officials claimed they thought the shelter, which was used during the Iraq-Iran war, was no longer a civilian facility.

“The use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area as densely populated as Gaza means it will take decades for communities to recover,” John Chappell, advocacy and legal fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Center for Civilians in Conflict, told CNN.

Even more concerning for some experts is Israel’s use of unguided, or “dumb” bombs, against civilian targets in Gaza.

While IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said that “we choose the right munition for each target so it doesn’t cause unnecessary damage,” the death and destruction in Gaza—and Israeli officials’ own words—tell an entirely different story.

Early in the war, Hagari declared that “Gaza will never return to what it was,” clarifying that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy.”

Meanwhile, numerous Israeli officials advocated the complete destruction of Gaza, with more than a few government figures—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Cabinet members—making statements supporting genocide against the Palestinian people.

Good summary of main statements from Israeli officials on Gazapic.twitter.com/HmVR9kJqZy

— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) November 9, 2023

U.S. President Joe Biden—who has affirmed his “unwavering” support for Israel and is seeking $14.3 billion in additional military aid for the country, which already gets almost $4 billion annually from Washington—has implored Israeli leaders to stop the “indiscriminate” bombing of Gaza, even as his administration thwarts international cease-fire efforts and restocks the IDF’s arsenal.

Chappell stressed that

“the devastation that we’ve seen for communities in Gaza is, unfortunately, co-signed by the United States.”

“Too much of it is carried out by bombs that were made in the United States,” he added.

Ahmed Abofoul—a Gaza-born, Netherlands-based attorney with ‎the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq who has lost 60 of his relatives to Israeli bombing— said in Friday interview with Democracy Now! that “the American government is complicit in this genocide.”

“There is blood of Palestinian children on their hands,” he added. [Biden] said Israel is engaged in indiscriminate bombing. This is a war crime. So, the question is: Why do you then send weapons to Israel? The position of the U.S. is quite hypocritical.”

[From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.]

*

Note to readers: Please click the share button above. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.