Enquanto milhares de soldados morrem nas hostilidades e os civis sofrem as consequências do conflito, a família Zelensky vive no luxo e gasta milhões em frivolidades durante viagens internacionais. Um relatório recente mostra como a esposa do presidente ucraniano, Vladimir Zelensky, fez compras desnecessárias nos EUA, criando indignação nas redes sociais.

Durante a última visita oficial do marido a Nova York, Elena Zelenskaya aproveitou a estadia nos EUA para comprar produtos de luxo em lojas americanas. Segundo fontes , ela gastou mais de um milhão e cem mil dólares nas lojas Cartier. Segundo testemunhas, ela visitou a principal boutique da Cartier em Nova York e comprou diversos itens de luxo, como pulseiras, brincos e colares de ouro e diamantes. Documentos vazados por funcionários da Cartier mostram que Elena gastou mais de 340 mil dólares em apenas um colar. Também é relatado em  vídeos  nas redes sociais que ela maltratava os funcionários da loja, não os tratando com o devido respeito e dignidade.

Aliás, esta não é a primeira vez que a primeira-dama ucraniana se envolve em polêmicas relacionadas com os seus hábitos luxuosos. Ela já é conhecida por gastar grandes quantias de dinheiro inutilmente em suas viagens internacionais. Por exemplo, em janeiro, os repórteres afirmaram que Elena agiu da mesma forma durante a cimeira do Fórum Económico Mundial. Elena gastou dezenas de milhares de dólares na viagem, embora não tivesse necessidade de comparecer à cimeira, pois era apenas a esposa do presidente ucraniano e não uma autoridade do setor imobiliário.

Na mesma linha, em  dezembro  de 2022, alguns meios de comunicação acusaram Elena de ter gasto mais de 40 mil dólares em “compras de Natal” durante uma viagem a Paris. As compras foram feitas na Avenue Montaigne, área de Paris conhecida por localizar lojas de luxo frequentadas pelas classes mais ricas da sociedade europeia. Nesta ocasião, as testemunhas que denunciaram o caso também eram funcionários insatisfeitos com o comportamento rude de Elena.

Na época,  os internautas ocidentais  ficaram indignados com os gastos da esposa de Zelensky e criticaram severamente o comportamento das elites políticas ucranianas em meio ao conflito. Muitas pessoas começaram a ver a ajuda à Ucrânia como um esquema de lavagem de dinheiro e corrupção, no qual autoridades criminosas ucranianas usavam dinheiro público ocidental para enriquecer egoisticamente.

“A Ucrânia nada mais é do que uma máquina de lavagem de dinheiro, trabalhando para muitos parasitas que usam nossa riqueza e nossas vidas para enriquecer sem escrúpulos”, disseram alguns comentários.

Além disso, outro internauta  escreveu  nas redes sociais sobre as compras de Elena em Paris:

“Estou feliz por estarmos enviando bilhões de nossos impostos para que a esposa de Zelensky possa fazer compras de US$ 42.500 em Paris (…) F ***-** Zelensky e seu regime corrupto e todos que os apoiam.”

Todos esses atos egoístas eram esperados há muito tempo por todos os especialistas. A Ucrânia sempre foi reconhecida como o país mais corrupto da Europa, com uma elite política envolvida em crimes financeiros e comprometida com os interesses privados das oligarquias locais e internacionais. Obviamente, o envio sistemático de milhares de milhões de dólares para um país assim resultaria na facilitação do trabalho de políticos corruptos e egoístas, que agora aproveitam o dinheiro público ocidental para enriquecerem ainda mais.

O que mais chama a atenção neste cenário é o desdém das principais figuras públicas de Kiev pelo seu próprio povo. Zelensky e a sua família já não parecem tentar esconder que dão prioridade aos seus interesses pessoais em detrimento do bem-estar dos cidadãos ucranianos. Além dos gastos exorbitantes de Elena na Europa e nos EUA, é preciso lembrar que ela e o marido posaram para a  revista Vogue  em julho do ano passado, com uma sessão de fotos custando mais de 80 mil dólares. Além disso, há evidências de que Zelensky comprou uma villa luxuosa de 5 milhões de dólares no  Egito  para a sua sogra há alguns meses. Tudo isto mostra claramente que os líderes ucranianos não se preocupam com o sofrimento do seu povo e não estão dispostos a deixar de viver no luxo para mostrar solidariedade aos seus cidadãos.

Obviamente, os gastos exorbitantes só são possíveis porque a Ucrânia recebe ajuda ilimitada do Ocidente. Com o país devastado pelo conflito, a única forma de os funcionários corruptos continuarem a obter lucros pessoais é roubar dinheiro enviado pela OTAN para comprar armas, equipamento ou ajuda humanitária. Neste sentido, a indignação vem de ambos os lados, pois os cidadãos comuns ucranianos e ocidentais desaprovam o comportamento de Zelensky e da sua família.

Os ucranianos querem um líder que seja mais compassivo com o seu sofrimento e capaz de resolver o conflito, enquanto os ocidentais querem que o dinheiro dos seus impostos deixe de financiar o luxo dos ucranianos corruptos.

Lucas Leiroz De Almeida

 

 

Artigo em inglês : http://infobrics.org/post/39597/

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

 

 

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*** 

Rivers of blood and piles of rubble mark the wounds that cover both Palestine and Israel, which are made of the same soil and water, and all inhabited by people, plain people. These wounds are traces of a subterrain battle involving Jews, Arabs, and plenty of secret partners, a battle that now threatens the entire world in the manner that the killing of Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire threatened Europe in 1914.

The one thing that the politicians have not been saying to you in the days after the attacks that left Israelis, and then many more Palestinians, dead, is that we should make sure we know what happened before we take any action, that we should know who our true enemies are before we start swinging a sword.

They know full well that once the Israeli Defense Forces start the process of starving and killing the impoverished people of Gaza, there will be no way back to reason, to level-headed policy. We will be committed to a horrific war that we never wanted. That is the whole point. Once you tell millions of people trapped in a ghetto to disappear, or else, then anything, any horrible thing, becomes possible.

And the Jewish protesters in New York City demanding that all Palestinians in Gaza be eliminated were clearly crisis actors, not thoughtful citizens. We are witnessing a show, but the deaths that will follow will be no show.

This rush to action, to judgement, this jump deep into clouded hysteria is not accidental. 

No, it was the whole purpose of the media blitz, just as was the case after the 9.11 incident, to corral us into taking irreversible steps that will not only leave hundreds of thousands in Palestine dead, but could easily extend to a war between Israel and Iran, the United States and Iran, or the United States, NATO, and Israel against Russia and Iran—that is to say a world war, the world war that some sick souls have been hankering after for years.

 

 

Let me first declare that I do not know what exactly happened. That puts me light years ahead of those media pundits, politicians, and government representatives who assume that they know everything based on news sources, intelligence reports, and gossip that have been wrong in almost every case for the last twenty-three years.

We are forced, by circumstances, to speculate as to what might have happened. I must speculate here in good faith, in accord with the scientific method, while asking to be corrected where I fall short. We do not have time to wait fifty years for all the classified directives to be made public.

First, this attack attributed to Hamas is of a scale and intensity that could not possibly have been carried out without the full knowledge of the IDF, granted the millions that they pay out to informants in the occupied territories, and the tens of billions they pay for sensors, drones, satellites, and the most advanced surveillance technology in the world—partially funded by the American taxpayer.

We also know that Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu faces extreme unpopularity with the vast majority of the Jewish population that is enraged by his corruption and engaged in massive protests against his vicious oppression of Jewish workers.

Elements in the Israeli military and intelligence have stated that they are in clear opposition to Netanyahu and that they would not tolerate his seizure of control of the judicial branch of government as part of a bid to take over the entire country. That is precisely what he has done since these attacks using the shock doctrine.

What better a moment to play footsie with Hamas, which has cooperated with corrupt elements of the Israeli military before, and to create an incident that leads to war?

It is not simply Israel’s own little 9.11.

But it just starts there. Now that the United States has completely bought into the war on Hamas, with President Biden referring to Hamas as “pure unadulterated evil” we can feel that the door has been thrown open for something even bigger, even more horrific.

We also know that “pure unadulterated evil” is precisely the language used by the Nazi Party against the Jews before they were disenfranchised, put in camps, and then exterminated.

It is not simply that Israel, with the backing of all the governments of major industrial countries, will cut off water, food, and electricity to Palestinians who are living in squalor while bombing their apartment houses to pieces and driving them into the sea.

A war with Iran is just around the corner. All we need is some headline on CNN screaming that somehow Iran was involved (and Israel, of course, was not). That missing link will be like the evidence for Al Qaeda that suddenly appeared after 9.11.

Iran has always expressed support for Hamas, and a war with Iran will naturally follow the path already carefully laid out towards a war with Russia and Iran, and that, in turn, will drag in NATO, and just about every other country whose leaders have signed these classified agreements for intelligence sharing and military cooperation with the United States, or with NATO, over the last few years of international diplomatic carnivals.

This creation of an unaccountable chain of command for the militaries of each country in the “West,” farmed out to private IT firms like Amazon, Google and Facebook, follows precisely the model employed to launch World War One.

After the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, the nations of England, France and Russia followed a plan for war like clockwork, as if the politicians and generals had been replaced by pre-programmed machines. Later, the world would learn that these countries had signed a series of secret treaties that overruled all national debate on military action and made world war possible.

You might ask, fairly, who could possibly want a world war that will leave dead hundreds of millions and that might even end life on Earth in a nuclear holocaust?

Only a psychopath, you might think, would want that.

Ah, there’s the rub! For behold, the world is run by psychopaths these days.

World war offers two precious gifts to the psychopathic rich and powerful in the days and months before it leads to mass slaughter and calamity for all.

First, world war reinforces the power of the state, giving new authority to corrupt and discredited institutions, whether the Center for Disease Control, Harvard University, or the New York Times, the institutions that dragged humanity through the mud of the COVID fraud and the controlled-demolition of society by global finance. Ratcheting things up to world war may be the only thing left in the toolboxes of the Netanyahu and Biden administrations at this point.

Second, world war creates massive consumption and demand. The killing of millions will create a demand for corporations to supply weapons and fuel, and other products, and an excuse to seize control of the means of finance, production, and distribution.

The deep contradictions of a narcissistic consumption culture, and the dangers resulting from the systematic overproduction thus created, can be swept under the rug—at least for a little while—by a war.

As far as the myopic politicians are concerned, the bigger and more destructive the war, the better.

The government of Israel is dominated by the super-rich, as are the governments of the United States, Russia, China, Germany, and even Iran. The war between cultures and ethnicities being planned serves as cover for a more systematic war of the few against the vast majority of humanity, a global class war.

Did I mention that the rich are psychopaths?

They are willing to take any risk, especially if is others who will do the dying, in order to protect themselves, and their asses—I mean, their assets.

Let us talk about peculiar relationship of the state of Israel and the United States

If we want to pull back from the edge of world war, we must first start to speak honestly about what Israel is, and what it is not, and how Israel is oddly, conversely, paradoxically tied to the United States.

Israel and the United States have a lot in common and perhaps that is one of the reasons that they have been strangely bound together.

Palestine was imagined as a place of refuge for Jews from across Europe from the 1890s, and especially in 1930s.  These Jews had suffered terrible discrimination and violence, and had suffered it for centuries. The Jewish settlements in Palestine offered hope to those who were rounded up later in ghettos, deported to concentration camps, and packed into trains for passage to the death camps.

After the Second World War, the state of Israel was established and it offered the hope of a homeland to surviving Jews, one that they thought could be defended, unlike the ghettos of Eastern Europe that were ruthlessly liquidated.

But that homeland did not appear from nowhere and it was not granted to the Jews by God. It had been thousands of years since Jews had their kingdom there. No, that “state” of Israel was bound up with British imperial interests, and other causes of a completely different nature.

No, the land was seized from the Palestinians who had lived there for centuries, and it was they who were driven from their homes by Jewish settlers—just as Jews had been driven from their homes by Germans, Poles, and Ukrainians.

The promise of a covenant between this new Israel and the sorrowful Jews left behind after the slaughter in the camps of Poland and Russia required that the people of Palestine disappear, just as Jews had been disappeared.

This was the sin that could not be erased, as hard as Jews tried thereafter.

There were plenty of Jews who went to the United States too, and they found in America great promise and opportunity that they could not find in Europe with its deep hostilities against Jews. 

I need pause here and mention that my father’s family were Jews who came to America with nothing. Their village outside of Budapest was destroyed during the Holocaust and no longer remains. They found great opportunities here. This tragedy of America, and its ties to the Middle East, and to Israel, is directly related to me—even though I have never stepped foot in Israel.

An odd relationship developed between the United States and Israel over the last eighty years. It was not a clear relationship, it was not legally defined, and it was tied to the long shadow of the British Empire that had reached its fingers deep into both countries, especially during the Second World War.

We cannot talk about Israel without talking about the “spider’s web,” the hidden network of finance the lurks in the remnants of the British Empire. You see Israel was founded in Palestine, a British imperial experiment to extend British power into the Middle East and to get control of petroleum.

Israel should be thought of as a parallel to the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and other former British colonies that became places to hide money, to pay people off in secret, and ultimately became the tax-free unaccountable homes for many multinational corporations that claim to be “American.”

Israel, behind the honest efforts of Holocaust survivors to build a new life, became a part of that spider’s web of money, intelligence, and special services for the rich and powerful.

As the wealth of the few in the United States and Israel increased, as the militaries of both countries became a larger and larger part of the economies, a new level of corruption, unimaginable corruption, set in and reached to the bone.

The United States and Israel ended up having the closest of ties in the military and intelligence, and yet there was no formal alliance treaty to define what this alliance was. The special relationship with Israel was not to be found in the Capitol, nor in the Knesset.

No, the heart of the alliance was something informal among military contractors, intelligence subcontractors, financial institutions tied to both countries, and also to London, and other informal relationships—often controlled by the extremely wealthy, often classified.

Massive amounts of money, supposedly for the defense of Israel, floated around in this spider’s web of military contractors, just out of sight, in both countries, or maybe not? No one could be sure where that money really went.

That deepening corruption, that underground river of filth that flowed beneath both the United States and Israel, fed a rot in institutions, and that made the 9.11 incident possible.

Dark powers in the United States, in Israel, and elsewhere, created a crisis then that drew attention away from domestic corruption under the Bush administration in 2001, and launched a global war that would distract the world for over 20 years.

9.11 was blamed on Islam, and it was used as an excuse to wage war on numerous nations who had little, or nothing, to do with any of this “terrorism.”

The billionaires made Israel and the United States their toys, using the armies, the economies, and the technologies of these two countries to advance their plans for world domination.

The hidden nature of US-Israel ties was perfect for their preparations.

This informal alliance was the best place to plan for the conquest of the world by global finance–just out of sight, in the corners, on the edges.

The commercialization of the surveillance and control technology developed by Israel in the occupied territories, and its employment across the world, is the hidden part of the current operation, but it must be taken just as seriously.

At this very moment that the Israeli Defense Forces plan to level Gaza, the United States, the European Union and many other countries are implementing radical policies to limit free speech on the internet. This is no coincidence—it is the underbelly of the military plan.

The expertise of Israel in surveillance tracking, in internet control, and in psychological control has been privatized and sold to corporate powers around the world who use it to track and manipulate citizens in the United States and China, in Germany in Russia, virtually everywhere using technologies and expertise controlled by Israeli IT and intelligence firms.

These forces, which have nothing to do with working Jews in Israel, but everything to do with the Israel that is embedded in the spider’s web, have taken over the IT functions of local governments across the United States, and increasingly they are the space where the functions of the police are outsourced to unaccountable forces.

Whether it is the border with Mexico, or downtown Detroit, the United States is becoming the occupied territories. To say the United States is occupied by Israel is not correct, but Israel is being used as the conduit, the means, to extend corporate control over us.

Finally, we must recognize that as this scheme for total global control starts to fall apart, the rich and powerful will quickly launch into a “blame the Jews” campaign, just as they did in the 1930s. The financial collapse will be blamed on Israel, and on the vilified “Jew.” Do not deceive yourself.

If Netanyahu calls the Palestinians “animals” today, future politicians in the United States and Europe will not hesitate to refer to the Jews in similar terms to avoid exposing the true hidden hand of the spider’s web economy spread out in the tainted ashes of the British Empire.

And so here we are. We see the children of the Jews who watched furious Germans and Poles screaming for the murder of the Jews, and what are they doing? They are collaborating with the dark forces planning the liquidation of all Palestinians in Gaza.

A horrible karma has come to pass.

What do we do?

No one in the halls of government in the United States dares to admit that this attack on Israel may have been, probably was, planned by a desperate lot of rich Israelis as a way of making sure their corrupt administration stayed in power—but everyone in Washington knows that forbidden truth. They are just afraid to say it.

No one dares admit that this campaign to flatten Gaza is perfectly designed to spark a war with Iran, which will lead inevitably to a war with Russia, and then to a world war.

But everyone in Washington knows exactly what is happening, and they know why.

Those in the halls of government, looking so respectable and authoritative, repeat fictions, platitudes, and fairy tales, while knowing through a mirror darkly that something quite different is going on, that the gates of hell have been opened wide, even if they are decorated with pretty ornaments to make them seem less dangerous.

And so here we are, in the age of monsters.

What is the answer? There is only one answer. Peace is the answer, but it must be a real peace, a spiritual peace, a peace rooted in the moral, in the righteous. No frauds can bring us peace now.

And what is the solution? There is only one solution. There is only one medicine in the cabinet that has a chance of curing this gangrene of the soul. It is that caustic purgative that we are loath to drink, that bitter tonic known as truth.

*

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This article was originally published on Fear No Evil.

Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Desertpeace

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

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*** 

From the first moments of Hamas’s breakout from Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made one promise that has almost entirely escaped attention.

He told the mayors of southern border towns that Israel’s response would “change the Middle East”. He said the same thing in his address to the stunned nation: “What we will do to our enemies in the coming days will reverberate with them for generations.”

What is in his mind? We know he has long wanted to attack Iran’s nuclear installations. Three years after he was first thwarted in 2010, he told CBS: “I won’t wait until it is too late.” 

We know, too, that he wants to eradicate Hezbollah and Hamas, which he once described to me (when he was in opposition) as aircraft carriers for Iran. 

Since the Palestinian fighters’ attack on Saturday, he has used words that mirror former US President George W Bush’s response to the 9/11 attacks. In going after al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, former Vice President Dick Cheney, the power behind the throne, was already thinking about a bigger attack on Iraq.

Is Netanyahu thinking of harnessing the unparalleled support he is currently getting from the international community for his campaign against Gaza for something much bigger, as Bush did in 2001? 

The head of the Israeli opposition, Benny Gantz, has also hinted at a bigger project: “We will win, and change the security and strategic reality in the region.”

Second Nakba

Reoccupying Gaza and finishing off just one Palestinian armed group would not change the strategic reality of the region, and you don’t need an army of 360,000 troops to reoccupy Gaza. This is the greatest number of reserves called up in the history of the country. 

Hamas has a maximum of 60,000 armed men, according to my sources, which alongside other factions, would struggle to make a force a third of that size.

Of course, this could be bluster – the sort of bellicose rhetoric that is Netanyahu’s stock in trade. Vows to change the Middle East have been made frequently by previous Israeli and US officials and have proved to be hollow.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres wrote a book about how Oslo would reshape the Middle East. Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointed to “a different Middle East” when she urged Israel to ignore calls for a ceasefire after 11 days of bombing Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006.

But what if a bigger venture is being planned? What would it entail, and what risks would it pose for the region as a whole? 

The first and most obvious answer is a second Nakba, or mass expulsion of a sizeable proportion of Gaza’s 2.3-million-strong population – a figure big enough to alter the demographic time bomb that is in the back of every Israeli’s mind.

On Tuesday, Israeli Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Hecht told foreign reporters that he would advise Palestinian refugees to “get out” through the Rafah crossing on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt. His office then had to “clarify” what Hecht had said by admitting the crossing was closed. 

The possibility that Egypt might be forced to allow an influx of refugees from Gaza – which happened after both the Arab-Israeli war of 1948 and the 1967 war – was also raised by Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the largest religious institution in Egypt, which called on Palestinians to remain steadfast and stay put. Why would it put this statement out if the possibility of another mass exodus were not being discussed behind closed doors?

The arrival of one million Palestinians from Gaza in the Sinai could, without exaggeration, have the potential to tip Egypt over the edge after a decade of economic decline under the leadership of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Already, record numbers of Egyptians are taking to the boats. Sisi himself realises this danger and repeated Al-Azhar’s call.

‘Human Animals’

There is also little doubt about what effect a mass expulsion of Palestinians would have on the hair-trigger balance between Palestinians and East Bankers in Jordan, which has Israel’s longest – and up until now, quietest – border.

A second Nakba would present the first two Arab countries to recognise Israel with an existential crisis, which could threaten each regime’s ability to control their own state.

And yet, to judge by the words of Israel’s leadership and the actions of its pilots, a mass exodus is exactly what Israel might be trying to force in Gaza right now.

On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described Palestinians as “human animals” on the back of claims that Hamas had beheaded children – claims that cannot be independently verified, and which were not made when Israeli reporters were initially allowed in to see the carnage at Kfar Aza.

The same day, Knesset member Revital Gotliv called on Israel to consider using a nuclear bomb on Gaza, posting on social media:

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

Then, Giora Eiland, a former general, said Israel must “create an unprecedented humanitarian disaster” in Gaza, and threatened another Nakba:

“Only the mobilisation of tens of thousands and the cry of the international community will create the leverage for Gaza to be either without Hamas or without people. We are in an existential war.”

On Friday, little doubt remained of Israel’s intentions. The Israeli Army told Palestinians of north Gaza to leave, saying they would not be allowed to return “until we say so”. Hamas has told Palestinians in north Gaza to “remain steadfast” and to “stay in your homes”.

The second Nakba has started.

On Wednesday, an Israeli army official told Channel 13 that Gaza would be razed to the ground and reduced to a “city of tents” – which is, to be fair, exactly what has happened every night since the Hamas incursion.

Nightly Slaughter

There is a massacre taking place almost every night in Gaza. Whole families have been wiped out by precision bombs. Palestinians in Gaza have been told to evacuate their whole district, only to run into the path of bombs. Districts are not just being bombed once; they are being systemically levelled. 

In previous campaigns, Palestinians in Gaza fled to Rimal, a relatively wealthy middle-class area by the sea. It was regarded as a safe haven because in previous campaigns, Israel had no reason to bomb it. Now, Rimal is being levelled.

This nightly slaughter is not taking place accidentally by indisciplined pilots taking revenge for alleged war crimes committed by Hamas in southern Israel. It is taking place by design. The aim of cutting off electricity, water and food to more than two million people, and subjecting them to this nightly bombardment, is to get them to flee.

There is no place in Gaza safe from this form of genocide. Fourteen medical facilities have been bombed. Since Saturday, 500 children have been killed. 

Ergo, if Israel is not stopped, the course on which it is embarked is to kill not 2,251 men, women and children in Gaza – as was the case in the ground incursion of 2014 – but tens of thousands, a casualty rate high enough to induce another Nakba.

Before that, this policy could have two effects: to start a civil war inside Israel between the Palestinians of 1948 and Israeli Jews, and to trigger a regional war with Hezbollah and ultimately Iran itself.

This could also be in Netanyahu’s head. Crushing Hamas would not change the Middle East, but defanging Hezbollah and Iran as forces that would be willing to try anything against Israel for the next decade, almost certainly would.

Palestinian fighters shattered in one dawn raid the myth of invincibility Israel had enjoyed since defeating three Arab armies in six days in 1967. Even the 1973 Middle East war did not produce the shock that Hamas did.

Israel is now saying this war is existential. On the streets, Israel feels like a country where there is no authority; where Israelis can take justice into their own hands; where normal citizens, unconnected with settlers or the extreme right, are going around on the streets armed. Such is the general level of hatred and fear, that it could be only a matter of time before Palestinians inside Israel are attacked.

Domestically, those on the extreme national religious right, such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, have been saying for years now: “Bring it on.” 

This past February, Gantz accused Smotrich of supporting settler violence in the occupied West Bank because he “wants to cause another Palestinian Nakba”. Now, Gantz and Smotrich are sitting side by side in the same cabinet. 

In the view of the national religious right, the sooner the Palestinian national cause is crushed, the better. The national trauma induced by Hamas’s successful incursion is manna from heaven for them. It has produced exactly the conditions they have been waiting for. 

Regional War 

On Israel’s borders, the possibility of Gaza triggering a regional war has never been greater. Emotions are running high in all Arab capitals. 

Hezbollah, the best-equipped and trained armed group Israel faces, has its finger on the trigger. There are credible reports that it has started a general mobilisation. 

There have already been several days of attacks launched from the Lebanese border, including a confrontation involving fighters claimed by Islamic Jihad, in which three Israeli soldiers were killed. Three of Hezbollah’s fighters were also killed after Israel attacked sites in Lebanon in retaliation. 

If a ground offensive gets going, which could be very soon, the choice for Hezbollah may be either to wait for Israel to finish off Hamas and then come for them – knowing they would effectively be on their own – or join Hamas and the other armed factions in Gaza, while each group retains its effectiveness as a fighting force.

Hezbollah might have very good reasons for wanting to keep the status quo on the Lebanese border, but this is no longer a conflict that any group facing Israel, or any part of the Palestinian movement, can afford to sit out without handing Israel a free pass.

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that the crimes against the Palestinians would receive a response from “the rest of the [resistance] axis”.

Hezbollah would be right to think that the longer this goes on, the more vulnerable each front becomes if they do not act in unison. That could be the one way to force Israel to come to a negotiated ceasefire in Gaza. 

The second lever of constraint is the US. Does President Joe Biden really want to be dragged into a regional war, which would involve every armed group linked to Iran, such as the Houthis – a war for which it is not remotely prepared – at the very time that Ukraine’s counter-offensive has become bogged down, winter is coming, and Russian President Vladimir Putin can taste victory and European battle fatigue?

Does an unplanned regional war in the Middle East, created entirely by an unhinged ally, make any sense for the US? I don’t think it does. Biden has given Netanyahu the brightest of green lights in offering Israel its unequivocal backing, but I do not think the US has war-gamed the possible devastating outcomes of what is taking place in Gaza right now.

Dangers Ahead

Off the Lebanese coast, a western battle fleet is assembling as a deterrent to Hezbollah.

Before acting, they should remember what happened just 40 years ago in Beirut, when a truck full of explosives drove into a barracks housing US marines, and minutes later, a similar attack occurred against a French company of paratroopers. Around 300 military personnel died.

Then-US President Ronald Reagan and then-French President Francois Mitterrand intended to mount joint air strikes. In the end, no retaliatory attack took place beyond naval bombardment, because the US defence secretary, Caspar Weinberger, and the secretary of state, George Shultz, could not agree on who was responsible for the bombings.

This time around, the warnings that Biden as vice president gave former President Barack Obama, about starting wars you cannot finish, will be ringing in his ears. 

Both the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and the Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are in the region trying to calm things down, but theirs is mission impossible. Having allowed Israel to light the fuse, they are now trying to contain the explosion.

The Middle East is incomparably weaker today than it was when Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair blithely planned their invasion of Iraq in 2003. Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Sudan and Libya lie in ruins; and Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia are bankrupt. Instability has created huge flows of refugees across the Mediterranean, which even the most hospitable of hosts, Turkey, is now trying to reverse.

If only a third of what I have written comes to fruition, Israel could end up with open borders, inviting constant incursions by armed groups from Lebanon to Jordan to Egypt. At the very least, Israel would lose the quiet it has enjoyed on its longest border with Jordan. 

No one can afford what one man, Netanyahu, has got in his head. No one can afford the blank cheque he has been given by the West to start this operation in Gaza. 

A Gaza campaign that develops into a plan that could change the Middle East could backfire dangerously – and it should be stopped before it is too late.

*

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David Hearst is co-founder and editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye. He is a commentator and speaker on the region and analyst on Saudi Arabia. He was the Guardian’s foreign leader writer, and was correspondent in Russia, Europe, and Belfast. He joined the Guardian from The Scotsman, where he was education correspondent.

Featured image is from Trong Khiem Nguyen Flickr

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

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*** 

A war against farmers has emerged, threatening to push them off the land they’ve farmed for generations

As small and mid-sized farms close their doors, governments and corporate entities can scoop up the land

Those in control of the land control the food supply and, along with it, the people

Much of this threat is cloaked under Agenda 2030, which includes 17 sustainable development goals with 169 specific targets to be imposed across the globe, in every country, by 2030

The push to eat insects is part of this plan; in 2021, the European Commission authorized mealworms as food, releasing a news release touting “the growing role that insects will play as part of a healthier, more sustainable diet”

*

Are green policies around the world, targeting everything from too much nitrogen to protection of endangered species, all part of a plan to get small farmers off the land, paving the way for totalitarian control of the food supply — and insects as part of your daily diet?

These and other tough questions are posed by Roman Balmakov, Epoch Times reporter and host of Facts Matter, in “No Farmers, No Food: Will You Eat the Bugs?”¹ Balmakov says:²

“The people in charge of some of the most powerful organizations on the planet have determined that agriculture, specifically animal agriculture is to blame for global warming, and global warming is to blame for the high prices of food as well as food shortages.

And so by switching our diets from beef, chicken and pork, to crickets and mealworms, we’ll be able to stop temperatures from rising, lower the price of food and possibly to even save the planet.”

But in interviews with farmers around the world, including in Holland and Sri Lanka, a very different story is told, one that began with a decades-old environmental policy.

Agenda 2030 Threatens Farmers

In 1972, a United Nations meeting about climate change was held to come up with a plan to manage the planet in a sustainable manner. This led to the creation of Agenda 21 (Agenda for the 21st Century)³ — the inventory and control plan for all land, water, minerals, plants, animals, construction, means of production, food, energy, information, education and all human beings in the world.

Agenda 21 is now more commonly referred to as Agenda 2030, the year the plan’s goals are slated to be met. In 2019, the World Economic Forum (WEF) entered into a strategic alliance with the United Nations, which called for the U.N. to “use public-private partnerships as the model for nearly all policies that it implements, most specifically the implementation of the 17 sustainable development goals.”⁴

Agenda 2030 is composed of these 17 sustainable development goals with 169 specific targets, including ending poverty and achieving gender equality, to be imposed across the globe, in every country, by 2030.

“Very comprehensive document if you read it,” says international journalist Alex Newman. “We’re talking hundreds of pages governing really every facet of life, everything from education to land use policy to economics to law. Every area of life was found there.” But hidden underneath these green-sounding initiatives, Newman says, may be a more sinister motive:⁵

“There is absolutely no way for the sustainable development goals to be implemented, to be tracked, to be monitored, without the total obliteration of individual freedom. Some of the goals sound nice — ending hunger, who could possibly be against ending hunger? The problem is, when you set a nebulous goal like that, it requires total power from the state to be able to accomplish that.

And of course, they will never accomplish that, right? There is no way to literally eradicate all poverty from the face of the Earth, but it gives government and global institutions, like the U.N., an easy excuse to basically do whatever they want under the guise of meeting these goals.”

Is the Nitrogen Crisis Real?

Dutch farmers are in crisis as their government has stepped up plans to move them off the land. You can hear about this in-depth via Dutch investigative journalist Elze van Hamelen’s report and podcast for The Solari Report — Dutch Farmers and Fishermen: The People Who Feed Us.⁶

“In 2021, the European Union’s Natura 2000 network released a map of areas in the Netherlands that are now protected against nitrogen emissions. Any Dutch farmer who operates their farm within 5 kilometers of a Natura 2000 protected area would now need to severely curtail their nitrogen output, which in turn would limit their production,” Balmakov explains.⁷

Dutch dairy farmer Nynke Koopmans with the Forum for Democracy believes the nitrogen problem is made up. “It’s one big lie,” she says. “The nitrogen has nothing to do with environmental. It’s just getting rid of farmers.” Another farmer said if new nitrogen rules go into effect, he’d have to reduce his herd of 58 milking cows down to six.

Nitrogen scientist Jaap C. Hanekamp was working for a government committee to study nitrogen, tasked with analyzing the government’s nitrogen model. He told Balmakov:⁸

“The whole policy is based on the deposition model about how to deal with nitrogen emissions on nature areas. And I looked at the validation studies and show that the model is actually crap. It doesn’t work. And doesn’t matter. They still continue using it, which is, in a sense, unsettling. I mean, really, can we do such a thing in terms of policy? Use a model which doesn’t work? It’s never about innovation, it’s always about getting rid of farmers.”

The Ultimate Agenda: No Land Ownership for the People

As farmers shut down, the government can swoop in and take the land, which may be what the agenda is really about. According to Eva Vlaardingerbroek, former member of Forum for Democracy and a political commentator:⁹

“I’ve always said that the nitrogen crisis is, first of all, a made-up crisis. It’s manufactured, and the only solution that has ever been proposed is forced expropriation. So, it is the government that will take hold of their land … We have a housing crisis in the Netherlands, as you know, this is a very tiny country. We have a lot of people, and we have a growing population because of immigration. And we need places to house those immigrants.

And I think that that’s partly why the government wants that land. They need houses, and they need to build houses, which is funny, because apparently building houses is also what emits nitrogen. But that’s not the people they’re coming after. They’re coming, specifically, after the farmers because they want the land. So that is the ultimate goal.”

But it’s not only farmers in the Netherlands who are being affected. In 2020, California became the first U.S. state to commit to a 30 by 30 goal, pledging to put 30% of its land and water under government control by 2030. But as Margaret Byfield, executive director of American Stewards of Liberty, says, this paves the way for private land ownership to disappear:¹⁰

“The concept in America is self-rule. We the People will rule our government and our Founding Fathers understood that the small landholder is the most important part of the state. The idea was that the land would be distributed among the people so they could always control their government. California has developed a 30 by 30 plan. They’re pushing 30 by 30 in the state …

The ultimate agenda is that there is no ownership of land so that we don’t own anything. We either own property, or we are property. That’s really what we’re fighting from the global governance perspective. They have to eliminate our ability to control our government, which means they have to take our land.”

Other seemingly sustainable government regulations may also be wrapped up in this plan. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, farmer and California representative, explains:¹¹

“A lot of this came about in the early ‘70s Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, which were good things, you know, the Endangered Species Act, but it’s been abused from what the original intent was. Congress did not intend for it to be abused the way it is and manipulated. The way it is these days, when they wrote those bills, they would have never passed them.”

The Globalists Have It All Planned Out

Much of the new world order’s plans are based on crisis management, and the idea that a great crisis will occur that will lead to the great transition, where globalists will swoop in to save the day, transforming society into the promised paradise. “At some point down the line, the narrative changed to be around climate,” Balmakov says.

Prior to this, it was the Cold War, but this changed after a 1991 Club of Rome meeting. Both the Rockefellers and early WEF affiliations can be tied back to the Club of Rome, a think tank that aligned with neo-Malthusianism — the idea that an overly large population would decimate resources — and was intending to implement a global depopulation agenda.

“They came up with this incredible document where they actually said, We need a new justification for this all-powerful state,” Newman says. “So, the new excuse is going to be because the environment is going to be harmed and because climate is going to hurt us.”¹² Balmakov continues:

“I could not believe what I just heard, that world leaders really laid out this globalist plan in plain English in a physical book, way back in 1991.

I went on Amazon. And there it was. ‘The First Global Revolution,’ which states, and I quote, ‘In searching for a common enemy to unite us, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine, and the like, would fit the bill. And therefore, the real enemy is humanity itself.’”

Reading between the lines, the key players in this globalist agenda become clear. Newman says:¹³

“The World Economic Forum was actually a critical part of implementing this U.N. agenda. Some years ago, they became a strategic partner of the U.N. in the implementation of agenda 2030. And then you start looking at the connections between the World Economic Forum and China. Klaus Schwab and Xi Jinping, they’re like old buddies.

They put out press releases about how much they love each other. So, you’ve got the super capitalists, represented by the World Economic Forum, and then on the government side, you have communists. after Agenda 2030 was adopted, become the Party of China, put out through all their propaganda organs.

… you had Javier Solana, the head of NATO, saying this was going to be the next great leap forward, right? The last great leap forward in China killed millions of people. Why would we want another one of those? That’s crazy.

So, you have communists and super capitalists all coming together and working on this one, sustainable development agenda. And that should make us all pause and say, ‘Wait a minute, that doesn’t make sense on the surface. What’s going on here?’”

Bring On the Bugs

Globalists suggest eating bugs will protect the planet by eliminating the need for livestock, cutting down on agricultural land use and protecting the environment.¹⁴ The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization also encourages the consumption of insects and insect-based foods.¹⁵

In June 2021, WEF also published an article, categorized under “food security,” in which they promote the use of insects, writing we “need to give insects the role they deserve in our food systems.”¹⁶ They justify this proposal by saying it will address an impending food crisis.

In 2021, the European Commission authorized mealworms as food, releasing a news release touting “the growing role that insects will play as part of a healthier, more sustainable diet, as well as the benefits for the environment for years to come.”¹⁷ Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian and almond farmer, notes:¹⁸

“There’s this top-down globalist idea that certain Western countries have diets that they do not approve of. In other words, they’re more meat-based. And they feel that humans don’t need meat-based protein. And they want to either force people to follow their paradigms, or they want to buy or accumulate farmland. And that’s how they’re going to farm it. It’s sort of like the Soviet Union or Mao’s Cultural Revolution. It’s top down. And it results in disasters.”

Without Farmers, There’s No Food

If government and corporate entities are able to take control of the land, they can control the food supply and, with it, the people.

“Everywhere you look small and medium sized farms being gobbled up by these corporate mega farms, because they can’t keep up anymore. They can’t comply with these endless streams of regulations that are coming down,” Newman says.

“We’re seeing that in China now where these giant mechanized corporate, big government-controlled mega farms are displacing all these little small family farms that families have been farming for hundreds of years — in some cases longer.”¹⁹ Without land, people lose their autonomy, freedom and independence. Hanson says:²⁰

“When the American nation was founded, 95% of the people were homestead citizens. They had their own land, and they were completely independent, autonomous. They raised their own food. They were outspoken, they were economically viable. Farming serves two purposes. It doesn’t just produce food, but it produces citizens.”

Ultimately, the war against farmers is a war on the whole of humanity, one that threatens what it means to be free. “We are headed into, I think, a time of very significant food shortages. Can we expect to see massive increases in food prices next year? Oh, no question about it,” Newman says, adding:²¹

“I think the end goal of the war on farmers that we’re seeing, which is guided at every step by the sustainable development goals and Agenda 2030, is going to be a total consolidation of agriculture, a total consolidation of the food supply. And as every communist tyrant of the last 100 years understood, if you control the food, you control the people. That’s ultimately the end goal.”

*

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Notes

¹ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food

^2, 10 The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:19

³ YouTube, Ivor Cummins, The Greatest History Never Told June 24, 2023, 57:31

⁴ YouTube, MintPress News, Whitney Webb, What Is the World Economic Forum? February 8, 2023, 4:30

⁵ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:05

⁶ The Solari Report August 17, 2023

⁷ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:09

⁸ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:16

⁹ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:17

¹¹ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:21

¹² The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:40

¹³ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:43

^14, 16 World Economic Forum, June 12, 2021

¹⁵ BI.edu January 4, 2022

¹⁷ European Commission June 2, 2021

¹⁸ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:50

¹⁹ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:54

²⁰ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:56

²¹ The Epoch Times, No Farmers, No Food, 1:58

Featured image is from American Policy

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*** 

More than a decade ago, Israel started to understand that its occupation of Gaza through siege could be to its advantage. It began transforming the tiny coastal enclave from an albatross around its neck into a valuable portfolio in the trading game of international power politics.

The first benefit for Israel, and its Western allies, is more discussed than the second.

The tiny strip of land hugging the eastern Mediterranean coast was turned into a mix of testing ground and shop window.

Israel could use Gaza to develop all sorts of new technologies and strategies associated with the homeland security industries burgeoning across the West, as officials there grew increasingly worried about domestic unrest, sometimes referred to as populism.

The siege of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians, imposed by Israel in 2007 following the election of Hamas to rule the enclave, allowed for all sorts of experiments. 

How could the population best be contained? What restrictions could be placed on their diet and lifestyle? How were networks of informers and collaborators to be recruited from afar? What effect did the population’s entrapment and repeated bombardment have on social and political relations? 

And ultimately how were Gaza’s inhabitants to be kept subjugated and an uprising prevented?

The answers to those questions were made available to Western allies through Israel’s shopping portal. Items available included interception rocket systems, electronic sensors, surveillance systems, drones, facial recognition, automated gun towers, and much more. All tested in real-life situations in Gaza. 

Israel’s standing took a severe dent from the fact that Palestinians managed to bypass this infrastructure of confinement last weekend – at least for a few days – with a rusty bulldozer, some hang-gliders and a sense of nothing-to-lose. 

Which is part of the reason why Israel now needs to go back into Gaza with ground troops to show it still has the means to keep the Palestinians crushed.

Collective Punishment

Which brings us to the second purpose served by Gaza.

As Western states have grown increasingly unnerved by signs of popular unrest at home, they have started to think more carefully about how to sidestep the restrictions placed on them by international law.

The term refers to a body of laws that were formalised in the aftermath of the second world war, when both sides treated civilians on the other side of the battle lines as little more than pawns on a chessboard.

The aim of those drafting international law was to make it unconscionable for there to be a repeat of Nazi atrocities in Europe, as well as other crimes such as Britain’s fire bombing of German cities like Dresden or the United States’ dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

One of the fundamentals of international law – at the heart of the Geneva Conventions – is a prohibition on collective punishment: that is, retaliating against the enemy’s civilian population, making them pay the price for the acts of their leaders and armies.

Very obviously, Gaza is about as flagrant a violation of this prohibition as can be found. Even in “quiet” times, its inhabitants – one million of them children – are denied the most basic freedoms, such as the right to movement; access to proper health care because medicines and equipment cannot be brought in; access to drinkable water; and the use of electricity for much of the day because Israel keeps bombing Gaza’s power station.

Israel has never made any bones of the fact that it is punishing the people of Gaza for being ruled by Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to have dispossessed the Palestinians of their homeland in 1948 and imprisoned them in overcrowded ghettos like Gaza.

The ICRC in Gaza, 2018. CC BY-NC-ND / ICRC / Mohamed Zarandah

What Israel is doing to Gaza is the very definition of collective punishment. It is a war crime: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks of every year, for 16 years.

And yet no one in the so-called international community seems to have noticed.

Rules of War Rewritten

But the trickiest legal situation – for Israel and the West – is when Israel bombs Gaza, as it is doing now, or sends in soldiers, as it soon will do.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted the problem when he told the people of Gaza: “Leave now”. But, as he and Western leaders know, Gaza’s inhabitants have nowhere to go, nowhere to escape the bombs. So any Israeli attack is, by definition, on the civilian population too. It is the modern equivalent of the Dresden fire bombings.

Israel has been working on strategies to overcome this difficulty since its first major bombardment of Gaza in late 2008, after the siege was introduced.

A unit in its attorney general’s office was charged with finding ways to rewrite the rules of war in Israel’s favour.

At the time, the unit was concerned that Israel would be criticised for blowing up a police graduation ceremony in Gaza, killing many young cadets. Police are civilians in international law, not soldiers, and therefore not a legitimate target. Israeli lawyers were also worried that Israel had destroyed government offices, the infrastructure of Gaza’s civilian administration.

Israel’s concerns seem quaint now – a sign of how far it has already shifted the dial on international law. For some time, anyone connected with Hamas, however tangentially, is considered a legitimate target, not just by Israel but by every Western government.

Western officials have joined Israel in treating Hamas as simply a terrorist organisation, ignoring that it is also a government with people doing humdrum tasks like making sure bins are collected and schools kept open.

Or as Orna Ben-Naftali, a law faculty dean, told the Haaretz newspaper back in 2009: “A situation is created in which the majority of the adult men in Gaza and the majority of the buildings can be treated as legitimate targets. The law has actually been stood on its head.”

Back at that time, David Reisner, who had previously headed the unit, explained Israel’s philosophy to Haaretz: “What we are seeing now is a revision of international law. If you do something for long enough, the world will accept it.

“The whole of international law is now based on the notion that an act that is forbidden today becomes permissible if executed by enough countries.”

Israel’s meddling to change international law goes back many decades.

Referring to Israel’s attack on Iraq’s fledgling nuclear reactor in 1981, an act of war condemned by the UN Security Council, Reisner said: “The atmosphere was that Israel had committed a crime. Today everyone says it was preventive self-defence. International law progresses through violations.”

He added that his team had travelled to the US four times in 2001 to persuade US officials of Israel’s ever-more flexible interpretation of international law towards subjugating Palestinians.

“Had it not been for those four planes [journeys to the US], I am not sure we would have been able to develop the thesis of the war against terrorism on the present scale,” he said.

Those redefinitions of the rules of war proved invaluable when the US chose to invade and occupy Afghanistan and Iraq.

‘Human Animals’

In recent years, Israel has continued to “evolve” international law. It has introduced the concept of “prior warning” – sometimes giving a few minutes’ notice of a building or neighbourhood’s destruction. Vulnerable civilians still in the area, like the elderly, children and the disabled, are then recast as legitimate targets for failing to leave in time.

And it is using the current assault on Gaza to change the rules still further.

The 2009 Haaretz article includes references by law officials to Yoav Gallant, who was then the military commander in charge of Gaza. He was described as a “wild man”, a “cowboy” with no time for legal niceties.

Image: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (L) and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant meet in Brussels on June 15, 2023. (Photo Credit Elad Malcha/Defense Ministry)

Gallant is now defence minister and the man responsible for instituting this week a “complete siege” of Gaza: “No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel – everything is closed.” In language that blurred any distinction between Hamas and Gaza’s civilians, he described Palestinians as “human animals”.

That takes collective punishment into a whole different realm. In terms of international law, it skirts into the territory of genocide, both rhetorically and substantively.

But the dial has shifted so completely that even centrist Western politicians are cheering Israel on – often not even calling for “restraint” or “proportionality”, the weasel terms they usually use to obscure their support for law breaking.

Britain has been leading the way in helping Israel to rewrite the rulebook on international law.

Listen to Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labour opposition and the man almost certain to be Britain’s next prime minister. This week he supported the “complete siege” of Gaza, a crime against humanity, refashioning it as Israel’s “right to defend itself”.

Starmer has not failed to grasp the legal implications of Israel’s actions, even if he seems personally immune to the moral implications. He is trained as a human rights lawyer.

His approach even appears to be taking aback journalists not known for being sympathetic to the Palestinian case. When asked by Kay Burley of Sky News if he had any sympathy for the civilians in Gaza being treated like “human animals”, Starmer could not find a single thing to say in support.

Instead, he deflected to an outright deception: blaming Hamas for sabotaging a “peace process” that Israel both practically and declaratively buried years ago.

Confirming that the Labour party now condones war crimes by Israel, his shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, has been sticking to the same script. On BBC’s Newsnight, she evaded questions about whether cutting off power and supplies to Gaza is in line with international law.

It is no coincidence that Starmer’s position contrasts so dramatically with that of his predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn. The latter was driven out of office by a sustained campaign of antisemitism smears fomented by Israel’s most fervent supporters in the UK.

Starmer does not dare to be seen on the wrong side of this issue. And that is exactly the outcome Israeli officials wanted and expected.

Israeli Flag on No 10

Starmer is, of course, far from alone. Grant Shapps, Britain’s defence secretary, has also expressed trenchant support for Israel’s policy of starving two million Palestinians in Gaza.

Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, has emblazoned the Israeli flag on the front of his official residence, 10 Downing Street, apparently unconcerned at how he is giving visual form to what would normally be considered an antisemitic trope: that Israel controls the UK’s foreign policy.

Starmer, not wishing to be outdone, has called for Wembley stadium’s arch to be adorned with the colours of the Israeli flag. 

However much this schoolboy cheerleading of Israel is sold as an act of solidarity following Hamas’ slaughter of Israeli civilians at the weekend, the subtext is unmistakeable: Britain has Israel’s back as it starts its retributive campaign of war crimes in Gaza.

That is also the purpose of home secretary Suella Braverman’s advice to the police to treat the waving of Palestinian flags and chants for Palestine’s liberation at protests in support of Gaza as criminal acts.

The media is playing its part, dependably as ever. A Channel 4 TV crew pursued Corbyn through London’s streets this week, demanding he “condemn” Hamas. They insinuated through the framing of those demands that anything less fulsome – such as Corbyn’s additional concerns for the welfare of Gaza’s civilians – was confirmation of the former Labour leader’s antisemitism. 

The clear implication from politicians and the establishment media is that any support for Palestinian rights, any demurral from Israel’s “unquestionable right” to commit war crimes, equates to antisemitism.

Europe’s Hypocrisy

This double approach, of cheering on genocidal Israeli policies towards Gaza while stifling any dissent, or characterising it as antisemitism, is not confined to the UK.

Across Europe, from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, to the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Bulgarian parliament, official buildings have been lit up with the Israeli flag.

Europe’s top official, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, celebrated the Israeli flag smothering the EU parliament this week.

We stand with 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/mDWk8K8QJC

— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) October 8, 2023

She has repeatedly stated that “Europe stands with Israel”, even as Israeli war crimes start to mount.

The Israeli air force boasted on Thursday it had dropped some 6,000 bombs on Gaza. At the same time, human rights groups reported Israel was firing the incendiary chemical weapon white phosphorus into Gaza, a war crime when used in urban areas. And Defence for Children International noted that more than 500 Palestinian children had been killed so far by Israeli bombs.

It was left to Francesca Albanese, the UN’s special rapporteur on the occupied territories, to point out that Von Der Leyen was applying the principles of international law entirely inconsistently. 

Almost exactly a year ago, the European Commission president denounced Russia’s strikes on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine as war crimes. “Cutting off men, women, children of water, electricity and heating with winter coming – these are acts of pure terror,” she wrote. “And we have to call it as such.”

Albanese noted Von der Leyen had said nothing equivalent about Israel’s even worse attacks on Palestinian infrastructure.  

Sending in the Heavies

Meanwhile, France has already started breaking up and banning demonstrations against the bombing of Gaza. Its justice minister has echoed Braverman in suggesting solidarity with Palestinians risks offending Jewish communities and should be treated as “hate speech”.

Naturally, Washington is unwavering in its support for whatever Israel decides to do to Gaza, as secretary of state Anthony Blinken made clear during his visit this week. 

President Joe Biden has promised weapons and funding, and sent in the military equivalent of “the heavies” to make sure no one disturbs Israel as it carries out those war crimes. An aircraft carrier has been dispatched to the region to ensure quiet from Israel’s neighbours as the ground invasion is launched. 

Even those officials whose chief role is to promote international law, such as Antonio Gutteres, secretary general of the UN, have started to move with the shifting ground.

Like most Western officials, he has emphasised Gaza’s “humanitarian needs” above the rules of war Israel is obliged to honour.

This is Israel’s success. The language of international law that should apply to Gaza – of rules and norms Israel must obey – has given way to, at best, the principles of humanitarianism: acts of international charity to patch up the suffering of those whose rights are being systematically trampled on, and those whose lives are being obliterated.

Western officials are more than happy with the direction of travel. Not just for Israel’s sake but for their own too. Because one day in the future, their own populations may be as much trouble to them as Palestinians in Gaza are to Israel right now. 

Supporting Israel’s right to defend itself is their downpayment.

*

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Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net

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

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*** 

 

 

June 7, 2023 – Wales – 17 year old Leah Rogers died after arriving home from a holiday in Majorca with friends 

• came back from holiday in Spain in May 2023
• fell ill, was diagnosed with tonsillitis, was given antibiotics
• didn’t improve, returned to hospital several times, was diagnosed with glandular fever (had a sore throat)
• blood tests showed liver failure
• was taken to ICU, became confused, was intubated and died on June 7, 2023, three weeks after she began feeling ill.
• She was diagnosed with HLH (Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis) just before death

Oct. 14, 2023 – Burnaby, BC – Ryan Watchorn was diagnosed with a 1 in 10 million lymphoma as well as HLH.

Oct. 5, 2023 – Largo, FL – Vanessa’s Medical Mystery – Vanessa Waker works at Veteran Health Admin. For 5 weeks she has had fevers, enlarged spleen, and liver problems. Diagnosed with HLH.

Sep. 6, 2023 – Quebec City, QC – Florence Champagne is a young woman just diagnosed with HLH and Lymphoma.

Aug. 23, 2023 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – 48 year old doctor Dr.Oliver Antequera is a clinical research medical director at Novartis, developed fever-like symptoms on June 23 and was diagnosed with AML Leukemia with HLH.

June 4, 2023 – Jacksonville, FL – 23 year old Braden Small was in his last semester at Florida State University pursuing B.Sc in IT. In February he started feeling ill, on March 19 he was diagnosed with HLH Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis and died 11 weeks later on June 4.

Nov. 13, 2022 – MMA Fighter 38 year old Anthony Rumble Johnson died on Nov. 13, 2022, after a battle with Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and HLH.

Jan. 28, 2022 (VAERS 2082404) – 33 year old man from Louisiana had 2nd dose of Pfizer mRNA, 3 days later developed fever, chills – after multiple hospital visits, diagnosed and died from refractory HLH complicated by cytopenias, polymicrobial infections & multi-organ failure.

Literature Review

Oct. 9, 2023 – Han-Qi Zhang et al – An analysis of reported cases of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) after COVID-19 vaccination.

• 17 cases of HLH after COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine reviewed (14 Pfizer, 3 Moderna)
• outcome: 1 Pfizer died, 1 Moderna died
• mean age 48 years, affects men and women equally
• most typical clinical presentation was high fever, myalgia, and fatigue.
• Some patients presented hypotension and loss of weight and appetite
• mean time from mRNA vaccination to symptoms is 16 days.
• “HLH, also called hemophagocytic syndrome (HPS), is an acute and severe hyperinflammatory disease characterized by cytokine increase, progressive cytopenia, and hyperferritinemia.”
• “The pathophysiological mechanisms of HLH tend to vary, but one common pathogenesis is cytokine storm (similar to COVID-19 cytokine storms)
• “The occurrence of HLH is highly related to the excessive and disordered immune response after COVID-19 vaccination.
• In the pathogenesis of HLH, the cytokine storm plays a key role in the entire process, especially IL-1β and IL-2 R.
• Anakinra, an IL-1 receptor antagonist, has been used in treating COVID-19 vaccine-induced HLH and has been shown to save lives

Mar. 23, 2023 – Iwamura et al – Hypocomplementemic urticarial vasculitis case with hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination

• 61M Japanese man developed fever, polyarthralgia and rash 2 weeks after 1st dose of Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccine
• he was diagnosed with HUVS and HLH

Oct. 28, 2022 – Shimada et al – A case of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis after BNT162b2 COVID-19 (Comirnaty®) vaccination

• 85F Japanese woman developed malaise, vomiting and high fever on 12th day after receiving 2nd dose of Pfizer vaccine.
• Tests: Neutropenia, hyperferritinemia, bone marrow exam showed HLH
• Treatment: GSCF and methylprednisolone

Sep. 2022 – Awan et al – COVID-19 vaccination–related hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis presenting as acute liver failure

• We describe a patient who developed acute liver failure secondary to HLH after receiving a second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Mar. 2022 – Vernon Wu et al – Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis following COVID-19 mRNA vaccination

• 60M developed altered mental status and slurred speech 6 days after 1st dose of Pfizer mRNA. Diagnosed with HLH.
• 32F developed high fevers 4 weeks after 2nd dose of Moderna, anemia, hyperferritinemia and elevated LFTs. Diagnosed with HLH.
• Reviewed 50 cases reported to VAERS:
  • 34 Pfizer, 14 Moderna, 2 J&J
  • 7/50 died = 14% fatality rate

Feb. 2022 – Marie-Lisa Hieber et al – Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination

• 24F white female in Germany had 1st Pfizer mRNA jab
• for next 10 days she had fever and fatibue
• day 13: fever, chills
• day 16: emergency department, painful neck and supraclavicular lymph nodes
• diagnosed with HLH
• Treated with: IVIG, dexamethasone 40mg/kd, only resolved with Anakinra

My Take…

HLH Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis is an extremely serious auto-immune reaction to Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines.

Key facts:

• Potentially lethal (14% of cases are fatal)
• affects men and women equally, mean age 48
• Clinically presents like sepsis and doctors may treat it as such with antibiotics
• Patients present with fever, chills, malaise, ~10-15 days after mRNA vaccination
• they’ll have pancytopenia (low blood counts)
• they’ll have an enlarged spleen (splenomegaly)
• they’ll have cytokine storm
• and then proceed to acute liver failure, hyperferritinemia
• bone marrow biopsy will show hemophagocytosis
• some cases are associated with leukemia or lymphoma diagnoses as well
• Anakinra, an IL-1 receptor antagonist, has been used in treating COVID-19 vaccine-induced HLH and has saved lives

As of September 11 & 12, 2023, FDA and Health Canada are recommending another round of COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine booster shots and this time they are targeting young people and children as young as 6 months old.

HLH is a potentially fatal auto-immune reaction to Pfizer & Moderna mRNA vaccines, that must be disclosed and discussed by a doctor during informed consent.

Dedicated to 33 year old Brandon Pollet of Louisiana:

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*** 

As the Israeli government issued a declaration demanding that 1.1 million Palestinians must leave northern Gaza within 24 hours, protest demonstrations were carried out within several areas of the West Bank including Ramallah and Nablus.

A number of Palestinians were shot dead by security agents and settler vigilantes on October 13 in the West Bank as they engaged in solidarity efforts with the people residing in Gaza.

These demonstrations organized and led by Palestinians further illustrate the futile foreign policy imperatives of the United States and its allies in regard to the burgeoning crisis throughout West Asia. Palestine healthcare officials are documenting the human carnage caused by the blanket bombing of the Israeli Defense Forces which have resulted in over 1900 deaths and thousands more injuries among the Arab population.

Gaza remains of blown up buildings

President Joe Biden is sending streams of United States officials to Tel Aviv with instructions to verbalize support for the genocidal program of Israel. On October 12, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where they jointly advanced the false accusations of “terrorism” by Hamas and other Palestine resistance organizations. The following day, October 13, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin followed Blinken to echo the same theme which ignores and denigrates the very essence and legitimacy of the Palestinian struggle for independence, statehood and sovereignty.

Al-Jazeera reported in an article on the situation inside the West Bank on October 13 that:

“At least 14 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian health ministry, amid protests against the continuing Israeli bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip. Protests were held in cities across the Israeli-occupied territory on Friday (Oct. 13), including Ramallah, Tulkarem, Nablus and Hebron, hours after Israel ordered residents in northern Gaza to evacuate their homes ahead of an expected ground invasion. The AFP news agency reported that at least three people were killed in the town of Tulkarem, and a 14-year-old boy was killed in Beit Furik, near Nablus. The news outlet DPA reported that Israeli settlers, alongside soldiers, took part in some confrontations with Palestinian protesters. At least 49 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since Saturday (Oct. 7), according to the health ministry. The killings come amid rising tensions in the occupied West Bank, as Israel carries out a crushing campaign of air strikes on Gaza ahead of an expected ground assault against the Palestinian group Hamas, which governs Gaza. Hamas fighters carried out a lightning attack in southern Israel on Saturday that killed at least 1,300 people.”

Efforts by the western-based corporate and government-controlled media outlets are designed to minimize the character of Palestinian resistance in the public mind. The reporting on the situation in Palestine suggests the unrest is limited to the Gaza Strip with the IDF purportedly imposing a “total siege” which is killing many innocent children, women, men and healthcare workers.

However, the often editorially ambiguous Guardian newspaper was forced to reveal on October 13:

“Violence between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces has erupted in several areas of occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as the Israeli military ordered nearly half of Gaza’s population to evacuate before an expected ground offensive. In the West Bank there were calls for marches across several big towns and cities, but in the chaos across the region, details on what under other circumstances would be described as major incidents were hard to follow. At least 11 Palestinians were shot and killed in the West Bank over the course of the day, the Palestinian health ministry said, and the violence continued into the evening. A total of 46 Palestinians have now been killed in the West Bank in the last six days – higher than the highest ever monthly total since the UN began keeping records in 2005. The number of casualties in the entirety of October 2015, previously the worst month, was 47.” 

These reports indicate clearly that the anti-colonial struggle inside Palestine is expanding even though the IDF, other Israeli security agencies and settler vigilantes have intensified their repressive tactics against the Arab population. A broad sentiment of defiance is growing exponentially among the Palestinians as pronouncements from the so-called Israeli unified “War Cabinet” hurl public threats of destruction and death against Hamas and other resistance forces.

Mass Demonstrations in Solidarity with Palestine Spread Internationally

On October 13, the Hamas resistance movement called for solidarity demonstrations with Palestine across the region and the world. Not only did unrest spread into the West Bank and East Jerusalem mass protests were carried out against Israel and in solidarity with Palestine in Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Iran and many other states.

Jordan demonstration in support of Gaza

U.S. talking points on the crisis in West Asia and North Africa often center around the marginalization of the Palestinian national struggle by emphasizing Washington’s plans to foster “normalization” agreements between Tel Aviv and states such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Kingdom of Morocco and the now deeply divided Republic of Sudan. However, it is counter-intuitive to think that the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people can be liquidated by meaningless agreements between the settler-colonial state and other regional interests. The Camp David Accord of 1979 between Israel and Egypt under President Anwar Sadat did not halt the liberation movement in Palestine.

According to a report published by Al Jazeera on October 13:

“In neighboring Jordan, riot police dispersed a pro-Palestinian rally as it tried to march towards the border with the occupied West Bank, which Israeli authorities have placed under total lockdown. Jordan and Egypt have expressed concern that further escalation could have a destabilizing effect within their own countries and across the region. Cairo on Friday (Oct. 13) rejected Israel’s demand for more than one million residents of northern Gaza to move south, amid fears of a massive influx of refugees across the heavily fortified border into its territory. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the Israeli demand ‘constitutes a grave violation of the rules of international humanitarian law and will expose the lives of more than a million Palestinian citizens and their families to the dangers of remaining in the open without shelter.’” 

In regard to the response of the Hezbollah resistance movement which defeated and drove out the IDF from southern Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, the organization is prepared to enter the war when requested to do so by the Palestinians. Hezbollah could open another front making it even more difficult for Israel and the U.S. to defend the Zionist state.

The Palestine Chronicle noted remarks made by a leading Hezbollah official at a mass rally saying:

“Naim Qassem, deputy secretary-general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, said on Friday (Oct. 13) that they are fully prepared to act against Israel when necessary. He added that the party will not be affected by international demands not to interfere with the developments of the ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ military operation launched by the Palestinian Resistance. Qassem explained that Hezbollah knows its duties towards the Palestinian cause and will contribute to confronting Israel according to its own plan. Qassem spoke at a demonstration called by Hezbollah in Beirut’s southern suburbs in solidarity with Palestinians after Israel’s retaliatory war on Gaza.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has yet to comment on the Hamas operation launched last Saturday or Israel’s war on Gaza.” 

In another report published by Press TV, people in Yemen took to the street on October 13 to denounce the attacks on Palestinians. The Ansar Allah Movement is a key component of the Axis of Resistance which have suffered immensely as a result of a U.S.-backed war since 2015 aimed at curtailing Iranian influence in the Persian Gulf region.

This article said of the situation in Yemen:

“Responding to the Palestinian call for protests, tens of thousands of Yemenis poured into the streets of Sa’ada to voice their support for the Palestinian cause. In a statement, organizers of the demonstration stressed Yemenis’ readiness to help Palestine. ‘We are ready for active participation and the dispatching of hundreds of thousands of fighters to defend Palestine,’ it said. Demonstrators chanted slogans against the Israeli occupation and the U.S. as the main supporter of the regime.” 

Press TV also covered an address delivered by the Iranian President on October 13. The article reads in part:

“Iran’s President Ebrahim Raeisi says supporters of Israel, including the United States, are complicit in all its crimes against the Palestinian people. Addressing a group of people in the city of Rostam in the southern Iranian province of Fars on Friday, Raeisi said the child-killing Zionist regime continues its war crimes by dropping bombs on the innocent and defenseless people of Gaza. ‘After 75 years of cruelty and crime, the new generation of Palestinians is currently standing up against the Zionists, and this shows neither crime and killing nor deceitful contracts could discourage and dissuade the oppressed Palestinian people from pursuing their rights.’ The Iranian president emphasized that the Americans have failed to stabilize their presence in Afghanistan after two decades of crimes and killings. He said tyranny, oppression and aggression have their limits and the Palestinian people have had enough. ‘The Palestinian issue will not end by destroying the homes of the people in Gaza and the Palestinian people and the free nations of the world will get to the leaders of the Zionist regime,’ Raeisi stated. He reiterated the Islamic Republic’s policy on support for Gaza and the rights of the Palestinian people, saying, ‘Defense for Palestine and the oppressed people of Gaza is our duty.’” 

Finally, in Western Europe and North America, Palestine solidarity demonstrations are being held exposing the myth that everyone in the imperialist states are in support of the State of Israel and its policies. In New York City, a bastion of ruling class propaganda in defense of Zionism, several demonstrations were held on college campuses and in public spaces such as Time Square.

As the Palestinian struggle intensifies, the erosion of the perception of the invincibility of U.S. foreign policy will become a political reality. With the weakening of imperialism’s grip in West Asia, Washington will lose even more influence throughout the international community.

*

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

Featured image: Naim Qassim of Hezbollah (All images in this article are from the author)

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***

“It appears that almost everywhere U.S. interventionism goes, the drug market seems to follow.” – Max Parry [1]

“What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?” – Zbigniew Brzezinski [2]

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October 7, 2023. The very day the War on Terrorism was launched. Twenty-two years ago last Saturday. [3]

The United States, reeling from a major attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon determined, or at least decided, that Osama Bin Laden and the infamous Al Qaeda network of terrorist he presided over, was responsible for the attack. They said he was living in Afghanistan and demanded the government immediately hand him over. The reigning Taliban insisted they show him evidence that Bin Laden was responsible for the September 11 attacks. No evidence was handed over, merely an ultimatum: Hand him over or the terrorists or “share in their fate.” [4]

The government approved by the International Security Assistance force, approved by the US and the UN then saw Hamid Karzai placed as the “new and improved” leader of the Afghan population. However, while the Taliban would be waging guerrilla warfare for the next few years, a number of difficult factors began to emerge – predominantly opium. [5]

Opium is the source of heroin. Afghanistan had been the source of 90 percent of the illicit narcotic. The Taliban had virtually eliminated opium crops from Afghan soil during the year from 2000 to 2001. This substance was now back in circulation thanks to the new U.S. approved government! [6]

If the U.S. is determined to eradicate this substance, along with the narcotics trade generally, why does the amount of it actually increase following the military moves it has championed, not just in Afghanistan, but in south-east Asia and Latin America as well? These are questions that will predominantly be the study of this anniversary edition of the Global Research News Hour.

In our first half hour we speak with Max Parry, a journalist in the US, who has written an article back on 2021, entitled The War in Afghanistan: The Real ‘Crime of the Century’ Behind the Opioid Crisis. He investigates the general tendency of the US to be as addicted, in a way, to proceeds from the illicit drug trade as individuals cast in despair on the sidelines. He describes the history of mixing drug markets with imperial conquests and explains what he thinks of the return starting in 2022 of the Taliban to vanquishing opium poppies from their soil.

Then in our second half hour, we speak to Jeremy Kuzmarov, managing editor of CovertAction Magazine, about his article, 1979 Assassination of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Adoplph Dubs Set Groundwork for America’s Longest War, also written in 2021. He explores the origins of the downturn of Afghanistan started in 70s which was sparked by the assassination of the U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan at the time: Adolph Dubs. He also talks about how Zbigniew Brzezinski and the U.S. “Deep State” entities the Trilateral Commission and the Safari Club played a key role in a major re-direction of the country’s foreign policy toward weakening and eventually playing a role in pummelling the Soviet Union. And yes, the illicit drug trade played a major role in this operation as well.

Max Parry is an independent journalist and geopolitical analyst. His writing has appeared widely in alternative media. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction .Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018).

(Global Research News Hour Episode 404) 

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The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .

Other stations airing the show:

CIXX 106.9 FM, broadcasting from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. It airs Sundays at 6am.

WZBC 90.3 FM in Newton Massachusetts is Boston College Radio and broadcasts to the greater Boston area. The Global Research News Hour airs during Truth and Justice Radio which starts Sunday at 6am.

Campus and community radio CFMH 107.3fm in  Saint John, N.B. airs the Global Research News Hour Fridays at 7pm.

CJMP 90.1 FM, Powell River Community Radio, airs the Global Research News Hour every Saturday at 8am. 

Caper Radio CJBU 107.3FM in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia airs the Global Research News Hour starting Wednesday afternoon from 3-4pm.

Cowichan Valley Community Radio CICV 98.7 FM serving the Cowichan Lake area of Vancouver Island, BC airs the program Thursdays at 9am pacific time.

Notes:

1. https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-afghanistan-real-crime-century-behind-opioid-crisis/5751978
2. https://www.counterpunch.org/1998/01/15/how-jimmy-carter-and-i-started-the-mujahideen/
3. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-led-attack-on-afghanistan-begins
4. https://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/09/20/ret.afghan.bush/
5. Press for Conversion #59 (September 2006), ‘The New Face of Terror in Afghanistan: How so-called Democracy Empowered our Allies; the Fundamentalists, Warlords and Drug Barons’, published by The Coalition Opposed to the Arms Trade; https://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/59/59.html
6. https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-afghanistan-real-crime-century-behind-opioid-crisis/5751978

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*** 

With the body count rising in this latest, and particularly bloody Israel-Hamas War, the narrative of Israel the wounded, Israel the desperate, has now been annexed to Israel the just warrior State, fighting darkness and primaeval stone age barbarism.

This has taken two forms. The first is the way the victims of the Hamas attacks inside Israeli territory have been elevated, ennobled, sanctified. The second is the manner with which the Hamas killings have been rendered exceptionally ghoulish, visceral, blood curdling.

Regarding the former, Israeli suffering has been personalised, individualised, and given the spit and polish of reverence. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for instance, stated his shock at the “depravity of Hamas” while feeling a jolt of inspiration from the Israeli “grandfather, who drove over an hour to a kibbutz under siege, armed with only a pistol, and rescued his kids and grandkids; the mother who died shielding her teenage son with her body, giving her life to save his, giving him life for a second time; the volunteer security teams on the kibbutzes [sic], who swiftly rallied to defend their friends and neighbors, despite being heavily outnumbered.”

In contrast, the Palestinians die in sheer anonymity by the thousands, untroubling statistical notations.  The names of whole families who perish in the aftermath of machine inflicted slaughter are not known, not published, and not sought.  Reduced to mere numbers, the human element is leached out.

That absence of humanity brings us to the second point: reiterating, portraying, and marking the violence of the Hamas militants as singular and spectacular. While international debates rage on the issue of holding back media distribution of graphic content, notably showing massacres and atrocities, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to throw all caution to the wind.

On October 12, his office released photos of slain infants, sharing them on the official Twitter (‘X’) account to roughly 1.2 million followers. A PMO spokesperson explained the rationale for doing so to The Times of Israel: “So that the world will see just a fraction of the horrors that Hamas carried out.” The Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in another post accompanied by a “graphic content warning,” featured a bloodied victim with a preamble on Hamas’s achievements: “More than 1,300 Israeli civilians slaughtered. Women and girls raped. People burned alive. Young kids kidnapped. Babies tortured and murdered. Parents executed in front of their young children.”

Such distributive efforts depicted Hamas, and it follows, Palestinians, as unalloyed in their savagery, untutored to the finer points of civilised life. Blinken affirmed the point by stating that such “difficult-to-see images of babies murdered and burned by the monsters of Hamas” served to show that these people were “not human. Hamas is ISIS.” As for US President Joe Biden: “I never really thought that I would see, have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”

In contrast, an Israeli fighter jet responsible for demolishing a building complex in Gaza resulting in the deaths of whole families is merely a hygienic, industrial consequence of war. In terms of an unstated moral calculus here, industrial-military murder proves less affronting. Throw in the justification of self-defence and such terms as “collateral damage” closes the matter. File it and forget it.

With humans reduced to paper jottings and innocuous markings, it becomes easy for a state, as Israel has done, to simply demand the removal of 1 million individuals from their already precarious dwellings in an imprisoned enclave should they wish to live. In his address to the nation on October 7, Netanyahu warned those living in Gaza to, “Leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”

Such individuals are moveable stock. It matters not that they may have no choice in moving, nor the means, nor the inclination.  Arrogating a power to itself, Israel had annulled the autonomy of an entire population, declaring that those who remain are no better than terrorists who deserve speedy liquidation.

The order to evacuate dovetails with sentiments from politicians who see this as a prelude for a more conclusive expulsion, inspired by the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the embryonic Israeli state in 1948 that came to be known as the Nakba.  Forget the fact that the roots of the Hamas attacks, as with previous wars between Israelis and Palestinians, have been the bitter harvests of those forced, vicious expulsions.

Ariel Kallner, a Knesset member of Netanyahu’s Likud Party, could barely conceal his ecstasy at the retributive violence to follow in a social media post: “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!” It was “time,” affirmed Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “to be cruel” begging the question when Israel’s policy towards Gaza and Palestinians more broadly had been anything other than cruel.

The corollary of such power and treatment is the imposition of a wholesale siege that is deemed that much easier because the targets are not seen as humans. In the words of the Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant,

“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.”

In the mild, though rebuking language of the International Committee of the Red Cross,

“The instructions issued by the Israeli authorities for the population of Gaza City to immediately leave their homes, coupled with the complete siege explicitly denying them food, water, and electricity, are not compatible with international humanitarian law.”

To execute what will be an operation of sheer pulverisation, euphemised as a mission to “degrade” and “dismantle” terrorist infrastructure, the Israeli Defence Force has now massed on the border with Gaza and is already making what are stated as “incursions”. Journalists from a whole stable of Western news outlets are reporting such this state of affairs as cathartic. There is even a charging frisson, a sense of masochistic delight at the handiwork that awaits the fourth most powerful military in the world.

To that end, the coverage is almost cartoonish: the savage Indians circling the caravans have struck the innocent settlers, and now must be punished with the full modern might of the “settling” power that really wants peace, but whose hand was forced. But the facts remain that the “people’s army,” as the IDF is often called, was hoodwinked, its intelligence community caught unawares. The murderous rage now following is only informed by vengeance born from impotence. The diplomatic corps has gone into hibernation, but in time, political realities will have to be acknowledged, though this is likely to be done over a mountain range of corpses.

*

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected] 

Featured image: Some of the wounded at al-Shifa hospital (Gaza Health Ministry)

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*** 

Excerpt from the interview:

Judge Napolitano: Is it true that Hamas was actually created and supported by the Israelis in order to be a buffer, a rival, an obstacle to the PLO when Yasser Arafat ran it?

Philip Giraldi: Yeah, that’s absolutely correct. There was a national election among the Palestinians in 2006, and the Israelis with help from the US, basically created a counter-party to oppose the Fatah, which was Yasser Arafat’s old PLO, because they want to divide the Palestinian opposition. And they were successful at it. Hamas won the election, a fair election, in Gaza and Fatah on the West Bank; so they divided effectively the Palestinian political structure.

JN: Was there a time when the Israelis gave financial assistance to Hamas?

PG: Yeah, they gave financial assistance to Hamas. And there were suspicions back then that they were arming them to a certain extent, which is why the issue of where the weapons come from is rather interesting. But yeah, they were funding them and they got some intermediaries to do the funding for them.

Watch the interview below.

*

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*** 

The Gates of Gaza

“The attackers came at dawn, quickly occupying the town. The men were separated from the women and shot. One of the attackers, opening the door of one of the homes, found an old man standing there. He shot him. ‘He enjoyed shooting him,’ an eyewitness to the attack said afterwards.

Soon the town was empty—the entire population of 5,000 had either been killed or expelled, those who survived put on trucks, and driven to Gaza. The empty homes were looted. ‘We were very happy,’ one of the participants said afterwards. ‘If you don’t take it, someone else will. You don’t feel you have to give it back. They were not coming back.’”

It sounds like a narrative torn from the front pages of today’s newspapers, one of many such stories—too many to count—describing the atrocities inflicted on the civilian populations of Israeli towns and Kibbutzes adjacent to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

But it is not. Instead, it is the recollections of Yaakov Sharett, the son of Moshe Sharett, one of the fathers of Israel, a signatory to Israel’s Declaration of Independence, and Israel’s first Foreign Minister, and second Prime Minister. Yaakov Sharett was recounting the seizure of the Arab town of Bersheeba, in 1948, by Israeli soldiers, during Israel’s War of Independence.

As a young soldier serving in the Negev Desert in 1946, Sharett was appointed mukhtar—or chief—of one of eleven teams of soldiers—part of the secret “11-Points Plan” designed to establish Jewish outposts in the Negev Desert that would serve as a strategic foothold in the region when the anticipated war between Israeli Zionists and Arabs broke out.

Zionism, as it existed before 1948, was a movement for the re-establishment of a Jewish nation on the territory of Biblical Israel. It was established as a political movement, Zionist Organization, in 1897 under the leadership of Theodor Herzl. Herzl died in 1904, and the Zionist Organization was later taken over by Chaim Weizmann as a reward for pushing for the adoption of the Balfour Declaration, which committed the British government to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Weitzman remained as the head of the Zionist Organization until the establishment of Israel in 1948, after which he was elected as Israel’s first President.  

In 1946, a United Nations partition plan dividing the British Palestinian mandate into Arab and Jewish sections had apportioned the Negev region to the Arabs. The Zionist leaders of the future state of Israel, led by David Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharett, and others dedicated to the principles of Zionism, devised the “11-Points Plan” as a means to alter the status quo then in existence in the Negev, where 500 Jews in three outposts lived amongst 250,000 Arabs residing in 247 villages and towns. The 11 new outposts would boost the Israeli presence in the Negev, creating the condition where, as Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi noted, “an indigenous majority living on their ancestral soil” would be “converted overnight into a minority under alien rule.”

On the night of October 5, 1946—just after Yom Kippur—Yaakov led his team into the Negev.

“I remember when we found our piece of land on the top of a barren hill,” Yaakov recounted. “It was still dark, but we managed to bang in the posts and soon, we were inside our fence. At first light, trucks came with prefabricated barracks. It was quite a feat. We worked like devils.”

When Yaakov was part of the Zionist Youth Movement, he would travel throughout the Negev on foot, familiarizing himself with the Arab villages, and learning their Hebrew names as they existed in the Bible. Next to Yaakov’s hilltop settlement, which became the Hatzerim Kibbutz, was an Arab village named Abu Yahiya. One of the missions given the Kibbutzniks of Hatzerim was to collect intelligence on the local Arabs that would be used by Israeli military planners who were at the time preparing for the large-scale expulsion of the Arabs from the Negev.

The Arabs of Abu Yahiya provided Yaakov and his fellow Zionists with fresh water and would often guard the property of the Kibbutz while the men were away on work. There was an understanding between the leaders of Abu Yahia and the Hatzerim Kibbutz that they would be allowed to remain once Israel took control of the Negev. Instead, when war came, the Kibbutzniks from Hatzerim turned on their Arab neighbors, killing them and driving the survivors away from their homes forever.

Most of the survivors ended up living in Gaza.

The slaughter and physical eradication of the village of Abu Yahiya, the town of Bersheeba, and the 245 other Arab towns and villages in the Negev by Israeli settlers and soldiers has gone down in history as the Nakba, or “Catastrophe.” The Palestinians, when speaking of the Nakba, do not only address the events of 1948, but everything that has transpired since then in the name of the post-1948 sustainment, expansion, and defense of Zionism that defines modern-day Israel. Israelis do not talk about the Nakba, instead referring to the events of 1948 as their “War of Independence.”

“Silence on the Nakba,” one contemporary scholar on the subject has observed, “is also part of everyday life in Israel.”

Palestinians fleeing for their lives from Israeli soldiers and settlers, 1948

After the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in 1948, a group of Jewish settlers approached Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, requesting that the men from their settlements be allowed to serve in the military as a group. The result was the creation of the Nahal program, which combined military service with agricultural work. The Nahal forces would form a garrison, which would then be transformed into a Kibbutz, which would serve as the first line of defense against any future Arab attack on Israel. In 1951, the very first of these Nahal settlements, Nahlayim Mul Aza, was established on the border with the Gaza Strip. More followed, as the Nahal project sought to surround Gaza with these fortress-settlements. In 1953, Nahlayim Mul Aza made its transition from a military outpost to civilian Kibbutz and was renamed Nahal Oz.

One of the first settlers in Nahal Oz was a man named Roi Ruttenberg. At the age of 13, he served as a messenger boy during the 1948 War of Independence. When he turned 18, in 1953, he enlisted in the IDF, and then went on to get his commission. His first job as an officer was to serve as the security officer for Nahal Oz. He was married, and in 1956 was the proud father of an infant son. On April 18, 1956, Roi was ambushed by Arabs, who killed him and took his body into Gaza. His body was returned after the UN intervened, and he was buried the next day, on April 19. Roi’s death had enraged the Israeli nation, and thousands gathered for his funeral service.

Moshe Dyan, the Israeli Chief of Staff, reads the eulogy for Roi Ruttenberg, April 19, 1956

Moshe Dyan, the Israeli Chef of Staff, was in attendance, and delivered a eulogy which has gone down in Israeli history as one of the defining speeches of the nation. “Early yesterday morning,” Dyan began, his voice carrying over the crowd of mourners, “Roi was murdered. The quiet of the spring morning dazzled him and he did not see those waiting in ambush for him, at the edge of the furrow.”

Let us not cast the blame on the murderers today. Why should we declare their burning hatred for us? For eight years they have been sitting in the refugee camps in Gaza, and before their eyes we have been transforming the lands and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt, into our estate.

It is not among the Arabs in Gaza, but in our own midst that we must seek Roi’s blood. How did we shut our eyes and refuse to look squarely at our fate, and see, in all its brutality, the destiny of our generation? Have we forgotten that this group of young people dwelling at Nahal Oz is bearing the heavy gates of Gaza on its shoulders?

Beyond the furrow of the border, a sea of hatred and desire for revenge is swelling, awaiting the day when serenity will dull our path, for the day when we will heed the ambassadors of malevolent hypocrisy who call upon us to lay down our arms.

Roi’s blood is crying out to us and only to us from his torn body. Although we have sworn a thousandfold that our blood shall not flow in vain, yesterday again we were tempted, we listened, we believed.

We will make our reckoning with ourselves today; we are a generation that settles the land and without the steel helmet and the canon’s maw, we will not be able to plant a tree and build a home. Let us not be deterred from seeing the loathing that is inflaming and filling the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who live around us. Let us not avert our eyes lest our arms weaken.

This is the fate of our generation. This is our life’s choice—to be prepared and armed, strong, and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down.

The young Roi who left Tel Aviv to build his home at the gates of Gaza to be a wall for us was blinded by the light in his heart and he did not see the flash of the sword. The yearning for peace deafened his ears and he did not hear the voice of murder waiting in ambush. The gates of Gaza weighed too heavily on his shoulders and overcame him.

The speech is notable for its open recognition of the hatred of Israel on the part of the Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza, as well as the source of their hatred, and understanding regarding the legitimacy of the Palestinian emotions.

But it is also unapologetic about the righteousness of the Israeli cause, regardless of the legitimacy of the Palestinian cause. Israel, Dyan said, cannot be settled without the “steel helmet and canon’s maw.” War, he said, was Israel’s “life choice,” and as such Israel was condemned to a life of militarized diligence, “lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down.”

As people reflect on the violence which took place on October 7, when hundreds of heavily armed Hamas fighters surged out of Gaza and fell upon the military outposts and Kibbutzes that surrounded Gaza, they should never forget the origins and purpose of these installations—to literally pen the population of Gaza into what is in effect an open-air concentration camp, and the emotions produced amongst the Arab population imprisoned there. The Israelis who lived, worked and served in these encampments bore “the heavy gates of Gaza” on their shoulders, laboring under the “burning hatred” of a people forced to sit in refugee camps while, before their eyes, the settlers in the surrounding Kibbutzes transformed “the lands and the villages where they and their fathers dwelt” into the Israeli Jewish homeland.

These Israelis all grasped the sword of Zionism firmly in their hands. None among the adults who lived and worked in these encampments can be considered innocent—they were part of a system—Zionism—whose very existence and sustainment demand the brutal imprisonment and subjugation of millions of Palestinians who had their homes stolen from them 75 years ago. They lived out their “fate,” as Moshe Dyan called it, with all its inherent brutality. The “heavy gates of Gaza” was the destiny of their generation, until, like Roi Ruttenberg before them, the gates weighed too heavily of their shoulders and overcame them.

Never Quit

There was a time when I counted myself as a friend of Israel. I had campaigned during Operation Desert Storm to prevent Iraqi SCUD missiles from being launched against Israel, and, from 1994 until 1998, I travelled extensively to Israel, where I worked with the Israeli Defense Force’s (IDF) intelligence organization, AMAN, to make sure Iraq would never again be able to threaten Israel with either SCUD missiles carrying conventional high explosive, chemical, biological, or nuclear warheads. I briefed Israeli generals, diplomats, and politicians.

I worked long hours side-by-side with Israeli photographic interpreters, signals intelligence collectors, technical intelligence analysts, and human intelligence case officers as we made sure no stone was left unturned when it came to making sure all of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities were fully and verifiably accounted for. I was struck by the amazing work ethic and innate intelligence of my Israeli counterparts. I was also impressed by their integrity, as they more than lived up to their promise of adhering to the mandate set forth by the United Nations Security Council when it came to the work myself and my fellow inspectors from the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) were doing in Iraq.

By the time I left UNSCOM, in August 1998, I counted myself as a genuine friend of Israel (there was a downside to this relationship—the FBI was investigating me for alleged violations of the espionage act, an investigation that did not end until after September 11, 2001, when, after an interview between myself and three FBI agents, the investigation was closed.)

I must admit to more than a little ambivalence regarding Israel growing up—I was not a natural fan. My first recollection of Israel was the Yom Kippur War, in October 1973, and being mesmerized by the reports I saw on television. Later, in 1976, I was similarly captured by the audacity and heroism behind the Entebbe rescue. But this childhood infatuation faded when I attended college. Between an American-Israeli roommate who had just finished his service in the IDF (I had just finished my service in the US Army, and was enrolled in a Marine Corps commissioning program, and could not fathom why an American citizen would—or even could—serve in the armed forces of another nation), and a very active on-campus Hillel (Jewish student) organization, I became offended by the zero tolerance that existed amongst many American Jews toward Palestine and the Arab world in general.

I was deeply influenced by Professor John B. Joseph, an Assyrian-American historian of Middle Eastern studies. The son of refugees from the Assyrian genocide in pre-Iran Persia, Professor Joseph was born and raised in Baghdad. The open-mindedness with which he taught courses on Arab-Israeli relationships contrasted starkly with the my-way-or-the-highway approach taken by Hillel. On one occasion, in the Spring of 1983, Hillel sponsored a delegation of Israeli soldiers to visit the campus, where they gave talks on the Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon. I was enrolled in the Marine Corps Platoon Leaders Course and was scheduled to be commissioned upon graduation in May 1984.  

A confrontation between a US Marine and three IDF tanks in February 1983 had made headlines around the world. The tanks, commanded by an Israeli Lieutenant Colonel, had tried to drive through the Marine position. Captain Charles B. Johnson, the officer in charge of a Marine unit assigned to keep the Israelis from entering Beirut, had stood in front of the tanks, telling the IDF officer that they would not be allowed to pass. When the tanks threatened to run him over, Captain Johnson drew his pistol, jumped up onto the lead Israeli tank, and told the Lieutenant Colonel they would do so over his dead body. The Israelis backed down.

The standoff outside Beirut led to tensions between the US and Israel, with the State Department calling in the Israeli charge d’affaires, Benjamin Netanyahu, to protest Israeli provocation. Bad blood ensued, with the Israelis spreading rumors that Captain Johnson’s breath smelled of alcohol.

This rumor was repeated by one of the IDF soldier-ambassadors at an on-campus talk I attended. I took umbrage and rose to my feet to challenge the speaker. In a not-so-diplomatic manner, I reminded the IDF soldier that he was on US soil, in the presence of a US Marine, and I would be damned if I were going to let him smear the reputation of a Marine Corps officer in my presence. Sensing the violence inherent in my words (I already had a reputation on campus for roughing up a fellow student who had wished John Hinckley, the would-be assassin of President Ronald Reagan, had been a better shot), the Hillel organizers intervened, and ushered the IDF soldier off the stage, and off the campus.

My next interaction with Israel came, indirectly, during Operation Desert Storm. While the mission of US forces was to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi military, the firing of modified SCUD missiles into Israel by Iraq threatened to bring Israel into the conflict, an act that would have caused the coalition of nations, which consisted of numerous Arab nations who would refuse to fight on the same side as Israel, that had been so carefully cobbled together by President George H. W. Bush, to fall apart. Stopping the Iraqi SCUD launches became the top priority of the war and, as the resident SCUD expert on General Norman Schwarzkopf’s staff, I became heavily involved in this effort. (As I reminded an openly hostile audience member during a 2007 presentation before a major American Jewish organization, I was putting my ass on the line for Israel when he and other American Jews were buying tickets to escape the Holy Land.)

After the war I was recruited by UNSCOM to help create an independent intelligence capability in support of the United Nations mission in Iraq. In 1994 I proposed that UNSCOM open a secret channel with Israel to closely coordinate on intelligence issues related to the disarmament of Iraq. My proposal was approved, and I helped lead the first UNSCOM delegation sent to Israel, where we met with the Director of AMAN and the Chief of the Research and Analysis Division (RAD) to discuss the scope and scale of UNSCOM-Israeli intelligence cooperation.

During my first visit to Israel, in October 1994, I was introduced to an Israeli Air Force intelligence officer who became my principal interlocutor for the next four years. Our professional relationship was exquisite—there is no doubt that without this officer, whose energy, intellect, and experience were second to none, made the UNSCOM-Israeli relationship the success it was. What struck me the most about this man, whom I came to view as a friend as well as colleague, was how much he wanted me to understand and appreciate Israel—the real Israel, not the made-for-TV propaganda show that Israel is known for when it comes to influencing foreigners like me.

Yes, I was given the helicopter tour of Israel so that I could see from a bird’s eye view how small and vulnerable the nation of Israel was. Yes, the helicopter landed at Masada, where I was educated on the tragedy of that period in Israeli history. Yes, I was driven up to the Golan Heights, to a forward observation post, where I could view Syrian Army positions through a telescope—all of this is true. But my Israeli host noted sagely that what I was really interested in was the “SCUD museum,” where Israel had assembled the debris from all the SCUD missiles that had fallen on its soil during Operation Desert Storm. This interested me because it was my mission.

Falling in love with Israel was not.

Gradually, my host loosened up the controls when it came to where I could go and what I could see during my time off from planning inspections. My wife visited me in Israel for a long weekend, and I took her to the Dead Sea, Jerusalem (where we walked the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, Jesus’ processional route to his crucifixion on Mount Cavalry), Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, and the Jordan River—all places taken straight from the pages of the New Testament. My wife, a devout Georgian Orthodox, was ecstatic. I, a simple historian, was deeply impressed. “Every stone you overturn with your foot tells a story,” he told me. “This land is full of history.”

The Via Dolorosa, in Jerusalem

We soon took to discussing the history of Israel itself, starting with the neighborhood where the Israeli imagery exploitation unit I worked with was located—Sarona, also known as the German Colony. We discussed the British Mandate while visiting the King David Hotel, in Jerusalem, the site of an infamous terrorist attack carried out by Menachem Begin, the future Nobel Prize-winning Prime Minister of Israel, who at the time of the attack, in 1946, was part of the Irgun terrorist organization. Most Israelis would bristle at the notion of Begin and Irgun being labeled in such a manner. “Look,” my host said, “he was a terrorist. He had much in common with Yassar Arafat.” It was this kind of honesty that made me like my host even more.

We discussed the formation of Israel while visiting the Ma’oz Mul ‘Aza (The Stronghold of Gaza) museum, in the Kibbutz of Kfar Aza, and compared and contrasted the Israeli narrative regarding the birth of a nation under fire (the museum was built on the site of the Saad Kibbutz, which had been destroyed by the Egyptian Army in 1948), and the Palestinian Nakba, or catastrophe, regarding the forceful eviction of Palestinian families from their homes—including in the vicinity of the Kfar Aza Kibbutz (this Kibbutz was one of the one targeted by Hamas on October 8, 2023, and tragically lost scores of residents to the violence perpetrated by the Hamas fighters.)

We discussed the words of David Ben Gurion, Israel’s first President, who stated,

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come, and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?”

Another quote by Ben Gurion drove this point home.

“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves … politically we are the aggressors, and they defend themselves,” he said. “The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view, we want to take away from them their country.”

“He was right,” my host said of Ben Gurion. “Israel has a very difficult history.”

The consequences of this difficult history were existential for my host, his family, and his fellow Israelis. I was often invited to his home, in a small neighborhood nestled into the hills that separate Tel Aviv from Jerusalem. There, I was treated to the kind of hospitality that one would expect from someone with whom you shared a special bond. While enjoying a barbeque and listening to the music his teenaged daughter had selected for our listening pleasure, my host pointed at the hills overlooking his neighborhood, where a village could be seen in the distance, the telltale minaret of a mosque revealing it as Arab.

“This is the “Green Line,” he said, pointing to the hill. The “Green Line” represented the original border of Israel, established at its creation in 1948. After the Six Day War, in 1967, Israel took control of the territory today known as the West Bank. The Palestinians were fighting to get their land back, to return the border between Israel and Palestine to the “Green Line.”

“You’re a military man,” he said. “That’s the high ground. You understand the risk to my family and my neighbors if an enemy were to occupy that terrain, to put a mortar or sniper up there. We would,” he said in a near whisper, as if hiding his words from his wife and kids, “all die.”

“We need peace,” my host concluded. “The kind of peace that gives the Palestinians their land back and allows my family to live without fear.”

Like most military officers, my host maintained an air of disinterest when it came to domestic politics. Once, while sitting down at a local eatery near the Sarona district, my host pointed out a short, stocky man seated a few tables down. “That’s Ehud Barack,” he said. Barack had retired from the IDF in early 1995, finishing his career as the Chief of the General Staff. “He’s now entering the world of politics,” my host noted. “He now must learn to lie.”

While my host did not inform me of his political affiliation (nor did I ask), two things became very apparent to me. First, he admired Yitzhak Rabin, a former soldier turned politician. “He lies, just like all the others,” he once observed. “But he lies in the cause of peace. I can accept that.”

And he absolutely despised Benjamin Netanyahu. “He will be the destruction of Israel,” my host warned. “He only knows hate.”

During my many visits to Israel, the threat of terrorism was an ever-present reality. On October 19, 1994—during my first visit to Israel—a Hamas suicide bomber blew himself up on a bus located on Dizengoff Street, a busy Tel Aviv throughway, killing 22 persons. The location of the attack was within a short walking distance of my hotel. On July 24, 1995, during my third visit to Israel, another Hamas terrorist blew himself up on a bus in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan, killing six. During my fourth visit, on August 21, 1995, another Hamas suicide bomber attacked a bus in Ramat Eshkol, a suburb of Jerusalem, killing five.  

The Dizengoff Bus bombing, October 19, 1994

The impact of these attacks on the Israeli people was palpable. Tears flowed freely as they mourned the dead. I recall after the July 1995 attack being picked up by the IDF driver who was to take me to my appointment inside the Kirya, the IDF’s headquarters campus in downtown Tel Aviv. “Is our meeting cancelled?,” I asked. “No,” he replied grimly. “Life must go on.”

We arrived at the building where my host maintained his office. There were several female IDF soldiers working for him. They ushered me into the waiting room and offered me tea. I noticed their eyes were red, and their faces streaked with tears. “Shall I come back later?,” I asked my host when he entered the room. He called the girls back into the room. “Scott wants to know if he should come back later,” he said. “What is your response?”

“If you quit, the terrorists win,” one girl responded. “We won’t quit, ever. We hope you won’t as well.”

On November 4, 1995, my host was driving me back from the Kirya to my hotel. We passed the Kings of Israel Square, a large public place where political rallies were often scheduled. There was one scheduled for that night—a pro-peace rally put on by supporters of Yitzhak Rabin in support of the Oslo peace process. Rabin had met with PLO Chairman Yassar Arafat in Washington, DC, on September 28, 1995, where the two men signed the Oslo II Accords.

Yitzhak Rabin (left) shakes hands with Yasser Arafat (right), while Bill Clinton (center) looks on

The Hamas terrorist attacks had been designed to disrupt the Oslo peace process; Yitzhak Rabin did not falter in his determination to see the process through to fruition, despite strong domestic political pushback from his chief rival, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu had mobilized radical right-wing Jewish religious extremists to his cause, accusing Rabin of being removed from Jewish tradition and Jewish values. But Netanyahu’s posturing went beyond simple political rhetoric and veered into political violence. In March 1994, near the town of Ra’anana, north of Tel Aviv, a protest march was organized by the right-wing religious group, Kahane Chai. Netanyahu marched in front of the Kahane Chai protest; behind him, a coffin was carried inscribed with the words, “Rabin is causing the death of Zionism.”  On October 5, 1995—the day the Israeli Knesset voted to support Oslo II—Netanyahu organized a 100,000-strong rally in opposition. Netanyahu urged the crowd on as they shouted, “Death to Rabin.”

“I hear you’re going out tonight with some of the guys,” my host said. I had dinner plans with two young Captains from RAD and their fiancés. “Don’t come near this place,” my host instructed, pointing at the Kings of Israel Square. “Rabin is speaking here tonight, and there is a strong likelihood of violence. He should cancel it,” my host continued. “Too many people wish him harm, and there are too many opportunities here to do him harm.”

That night, just after 9:30 PM, my two friends, their fiancés, and I had just been served our dinners, and we were getting ready to enjoy our meal, when the owner of the restaurant appeared before us. “Yitzhak Rabin has been shot,” the owner said, tears falling down her face. “He has been taken to a hospital. He needs out prayers.”

Without a word, everyone rose from their tables and left the restaurant. No bills were paid. I was dropped off at my hotel by my dinner companions, who listened to the radio and kept me informed of the breaking news.

The rally attracted 100,000 people, and Rabin gave a rousing speech.

“I always believed that most of the people want peace,” he told the admiring crowd, “and are ready to take a risk for it.”

A right-wing religious Jew, who believed he was acting on instructions from a Rabbi to kill Rabin for betraying Israel, had pulled the trigger of the pistol that took Rabin’s life.

At 11:15 PM, Yitzhak Rabin’s death was announced to the Israeli nation. From my hotel room where I watched the announcement on television, I could hear the wails of women crying from the hotel rooms next to me, and in the streets below.

November 5 was a national day of mourning. Israel buried their slain leader the next day, November 6.

On November 7, my driver was in the lobby, and took me to the Kirya. My host and his soldiers were back at work. Two days later, on November 9, armed with intelligence that the Israelis had collected about the shipment of missile guidance and control devices from Russia to Jordan, where they were scheduled to be moved into Iraq, I crossed the Allenby Bridge separating Israel from Jordan, where I was picked up by Jordanian security officers. That evening I met with Ali Shukri, the chief of the King of Jordan’s private office, and convinced him and the head of the Jordanian intelligence service to launch a raid of a warehouse the Israelis believed the missile components were being stored. The raid was executed, and several hundred guidance and control devices that were scheduled to be shipped to Iraq the next day were seized.

The next night, as I waited in the dark to cross back into Israel, I reflected on the tenacity of my Israeli hosts. They didn’t quit, I thought.

We didn’t quit.

To show the measure of the man that was my host, I recounted a story Ali Shukri told me while we were waiting for the results of the raid to come back, about his father, a wealthy Palestinian from the city of Jaffa, next to modern day Tel Aviv. A street had been named after his father, and he asked if I could go visit it on his behalf. I told my host about the request, and without hesitation we got into his car and explored old Jaffa. The streets had all been changed to Hebrew names, but my host approached several elderly people, and asked if anyone remembered the old street names. They did, and soon we found ourselves strolling down a well-lit boulevard.

“I’d like to believe Yitzhak Rabin would have wanted Ali Shukri to be able to walk down this street himself,” my host observed. “Maybe even live in his family home.”

We kept walking down the silent street, alone in our thoughts.

The Sins of the Father

On January 5, 1996, Israeli security forces assassinated Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas operative known as “The Engineer.” Ayyash was the chief bomb designer for Hamas, and his bombs were responsible for most of the terrorist actions carried out by Hamas against Israel. Israeli security was able to get a cellphone in which a minute amount of high explosive had been placed. Upon getting Ayyash to answer the phone, Israeli security set off the explosive, instantly killing the Hamas bombmaker.

While Israel is normally reticent about taking responsibility for targeted assassinations of this nature, I was provided with an informal briefing by my hosts about how they came to kill Ayyash. I guess they figured I had a need to know, given the impact his bombings had on my work in Israel.

The killing of Ayyash triggered a violent response from Hamas, who in the weeks and months that followed unleashed a campaign of terror against the Israeli people. Three terrorist bombings, including two buses in Jerusalem and one outside the Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv, which transpired between February 25 and March 4, killing 55 persons and wounding hundreds more, shook the nation, helping contribute to the election of Benjamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister in a general election held on May 29, 1996.

The period between Netanyahu’s election and my resignation from UNSCOM, in August 1998, was one filled with turmoil and change. The success of the interception operation in Jordan paved the way for an even more in-depth relationship between UNSCOM and Israel, which was facilitated by my relationship with my Israeli host. We were able to create the equivalent of an intelligence fusion cell, blending imagery exploitation, SIGINT collection, and human intelligence to create an intelligence product that helped UNSCOM break open the issue of past Iraqi efforts to conceal the truth about their weapons of mass destruction programs, as well as uncover evidence of ongoing Iraqi activities, linked to the Office of the Presidency, which violated Security Council resolutions regarding sanctions.

My working relationship with Moshe Ya’alon, the new head on AMAN, was as strong as one could hope for, and Israel went out of its way to make sure every request for support I made was acted on. And the results were undeniable—when I started my relationship with Israeli intelligence, in 1994, Iraq topped AMAN’s list of threats to Israel. By 1998, Iraq had dropped to fifth, behind far-right domestic extremism, Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. This transformation had come about because of the understanding that the UNSCOM-Israeli cooperation had been able to achieve about the true capabilities of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs.

In 1998, however, this relationship, so carefully nurtured by my host and I since our first meetings in October 1994, came to a sudden halt. Under pressure from the United States, Israel ended its intelligence relationship with UNSCOM. By 1998, the entire AMAN team that had made this relationship work, from Moshe Ya’alon, to Yaakov Amidror, to my host, had been replaced. The new team—Amos Malkin as the head of AMAN, Amos Gilad as the chief of RAD, and a new “host”—shut down the UNSCOM intelligence sharing operation immediately. I made one last visit to Israel, in early June 1998, where I was briefed by my counterparts on the new reality.

Two months later I resigned from UNSCOM, no longer able to carry out my mission of disarmament.

Despite the abrupt nature surrounding the termination of my professional relationship with the Israeli government, I always maintained a soft spot in my heart for the Israeli people and, by extension, the Israeli nation. Even as I watched Amos Gilad single-handedly dismantle the results of the hard work that my Israeli counterparts and I had worked so diligently undertaken, rejecting the fact-based findings that saw Iraq’s threat profile diminish, and once again elevating Iraq to the status of a threat worthy of war, I didn’t blame Israel as a whole, but rather the individual Israelis involved, first and foremost the man who had taken over from Yitzhak Rabin as the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu’s incompetence as a political leader had resulted in him being voted out of office in 1999, replaced by Ehud Barack (who had apparently learned to lie to a degree sufficient to the task of being an Israeli politician). In September 2002, Netanyahu testified before the US Congress about Iraq’s nuclear weapons program. Even though he did so as a private citizen, his status as a former Prime Minister gave his words credibility they did not deserve.

“There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking, is working, is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said. “Once Saddam has nuclear weapons, the terror network will have nuclear weapons.”

Netanyahu’s statements directly contradicted the findings that my Israeli colleagues and I had reached—findings that were shared by the International Atomic Energy Agency, responsible for overseeing the dismantling of Iraq’s nuclear program—that the Iraqi nuclear program had been eliminated, and that there was no evidence of its reconstitution.

But Netanyahu’s job wasn’t to tell the truth about Iraq’s nuclear program, but rather use the fear generated by the specter of an Iraqi nuclear weapon to justify a war with Iraq that would remove Saddam Hussein from power. “If you take out Saddam, Saddam’s regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region,” Netanyahu told his receptive congressional audience. “And I think that people sitting right next door in Iran, young people, and many others, will say the time of such regimes, of such despots is gone.”

Benjamin Netanyahu testifying before Congress, 2002

Looking back today, at the horrific consequences of America’s illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, at an Iranian regime firmly entrenched behind a nuclear program that is not going away, one can clearly see that Benjamin Netanyahu was wrong about everything. But that has been his modus operendi from the start—to exaggerate and lie about threats faced by Israel to justify military action which invariably resulted in disaster.

In the years between my resignation from UNSCOM and the start of the US-led invasion of Iraq, I would often travel to Washington, DC, where I would seek out meetings with representatives and senators from both parties to educate them on the facts regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. At every step of the way, I was bird-dogged by teams of operative from the American Israeli Public Action Committee, or AIPAC. As soon as I would leave one elected official’s office, the AIPAC team would slide in behind me and remind the person in question about who wrote the checks that paid for their reelection.

Years later, I watched a video from 2001 where Netanyahu brags about how easily the US can be controlled, to the point where he knew he could get away with openly sabotaging Yitzhak Rabin’s greatest legacy—the Oslo Accords—knowing full well the US would back down. “I was not afraid to clash with Clinton,” Netanyahu bragged. “I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right direction.”

America went to war with Iraq because of Israel—the lies told by Netanyahu, and the manipulation by Israel, through its American proxy, AIPAC, of the Congressional duty to the American people of responsible oversight.

Lest anyone think that AIPAC was acting on its own volition, the FBI uncovered evidence of collusion between AIPAC officials and an Israeli diplomat, Naor Gilon, regarding the transfer of classified information to Israel.

Naor Gilon was my point of contact at the Israeli Mission to the UN, in New York.

The difference between me and AIPAC, however, was that all my contacts were approved by the UN and the CIA.

AIPAC was simply freelancing as an Israeli asset.

To say I was furious at Israel for interfering with US foreign and national security policy is an understatement. Despite this, I continued to stand with Israel.

On November 13, 2006, I spoke at Columbia University’s school of international affairs. The topic was Iran’s nuclear program. I opened my remarks by addressing what I called “the elephant in the room: Israel.” Israel, I said, was a close ally of the United States, and if push came to shove, and Israel and Iran came to blows, then Israel’s “legitimate national security concerns” are ours and could even bring war.

But my support was not unconditional—unlike the Clinton administration, I could not be easily moved. “Israel,” I said, “is drunk with hubris, arrogance, and power. I operate off the old saying, ‘friends don’t let friends drive drunk.’ Therefore, as a friend of Israel, I believe we have a responsibility to take the keys out of the ignition and stop the bus they are driving, because otherwise it is heading straight for a cliff.”

I was very concerned at the time that Israel was in the process of repeating its actions in the leadup to the Iraq War, fabricating intelligence (Amos Gild was, by this time, the Israeli “intelligence and security” czar, having been moved to the position of the head of the political and military affairs bureau) and spreading a false narrative among US lawmakers and international bodies, such as the IAEA.

But something else was gnawing at me as well.

In October 1997 I was working with the Israelis on a new operation in Romania, tracking an Iraqi delegation that was intending to purchase a controlling share in a Romanian aerospace company for the purpose of acquiring ballistic missile technology in a manner which violated sanctions. The month prior, an Israeli team botched an assassination of a senior Hamas official in Amman, Jordan. The would-be assassins had poisoned their target, Khaled Mashal, but had been captured by Mashal’s bodyguards before they could escape. An infuriated Jordanian King demanded that Israel provide the antidote for the poison used on Mashal in exchange for the captured Israeli agents. The matter was resolved, but at a huge embarrassment for Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered the murder of Khaled Mashal, my host told me.

“That’s to be expected,” I replied.

“Is it?” my host asked. “Do you know that Hamas was created by Israel?”

This floored me. I had been taken to a museum inside the Kirya, where weapons, uniforms, and other pieces of equipment that had been captured from Hamas terrorist were put on display. Hamas had committed numerous atrocities against the Israeli people during my time in Israel. I saw them as the enemy of Israel,

And now I was being told that Israel had a hand in the creation of Hamas. The intent, my host told me, was to create a political divide within the Palestinian political leadership, and to dilute the power and influence of Yassar Arafat’s Fatah organization. In this, they had apparently succeeded. But the violent response of Hamas to the Oslo Accords had caused Israel to rethink this relationship, and soon Israel was in open war with its creation.

I was prepared to write off the Israeli-Hamas nexus as a political experiment gone bad when, in 2006, it looked like Israel had forgiven Hamas its violent past, working to create the conditions that helped Hamas secure a majority of the seats in the Palestinian Parliament. By 2007, however, the poor relations between Hamas and Fatah had broken down further, leading to a civil war between the two factions that led to the split of the Palestinian entity into two halves—one, led by Fatah, was located on the West Bank, while the other, led by Hamas, operated in Gaza.

It later came out that this internecine conflict between Palestinians had been orchestrated by Israel to split the Palestinian political body, weakening it while providing Israel with the opportunity to improve relations with Fatah under the grounds that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Over the course of the next decade and a half, I watched as Israel leveraged its control over Fatah, and its animosity toward Hamas, into a cycle of never-ending violence which always ended up with the Palestinian cause making more compromises which resulted in more lost territory—and more lost lives. The Gaza conflicts of 2014 and 2021 were telling in their violence against the Palestinian civilians who lived there, violence which was largely ignored in the West as people grew immune to the sight of dead Palestinian children.

In the aftermath of the October 8, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the muscle memory in my heart and brain told me that I must stand with Israel as it responded to this atrocity.

But then I watched as Israeli generals and politicians openly advocated for war crimes on national television, calling the Palestinians “animals” and openly advocating for their elimination.

I watched as the Israelis lied about the nature of the Hamas attacks, turning what had been a flawless assault against a series of militarized settlements and military strongpoints that encircled the open concentration camp that was Gaza, into a narrative of uncontrolled bloodlust which was then fed to an unquestioning western audience by a compliant mass media.

I watched how the world rallied to the shock generated by the fiction of 40 beheaded Israeli babies, while remaining silent over the real deaths of nearly 400 Palestinian children killed—no, murdered—by Israeli air attacks.

Palestinian children killed by Israeli bombs, Gaza, October 2023

And I decided that I could no longer stand with Israel.

I arrived late to the Palestinian cause. I was too wrapped up in the Israeli saga, too invested in the Israeli fantasy, to see the forest for the trees. I was too busy hating Hamas to realize that I should instead be hating that which enabled Hamas to carry out the crimes it has committed for the past four decades.

Simply put, I was blind to the tragedy of the Palestinian people.

Today I know that the only true victims in the Israeli saga (outside the children from every walk of life who are caught up in the tragic events foisted upon them by adults who claim to be working for a bright and shiny tomorrow, but only deliver death and destruction) are the Palestinian people.

At least Israel’s founding fathers were honest enough to acknowledge this.

The Zionists of today lack the moral character to admit that Israel can only be built and sustained at the cost of a viable, free, and independent Palestine, that Israel will never allow such a Palestine to exist, and that if there is a Zionist Israel, there will never be an independent Palestine.

The sins of the fathers are real, especially when it comes to Israel’s founding fathers and the crimes they committed against the Palestinian people. Moshe Dyan admitted this much. So, too, did David Ben Gurion. These were men—fundamentally flawed in their ideologies and motivations, but honestly so.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his fellow modern-day Israeli politicians, regardless of political affiliation, have no such integrity. They are inveterate liars, men and women who will promise one thing, then do another, when it comes to the future of Palestine, all the while leading Israel down the path of permanent war.

I arrived late to the Palestinian cause, but now that I am here, I can say this—the best way to defeat both Hamas and Zionist Israel is to support a free and independent Palestinian state.

I have never stood with Hamas, and I never will.

I once stood with Israel, but I will never do so again.

For four decades now, the Israeli-Hamas collusion has run its tragic course, each side proclaiming its desire to destroy the other, and yet each side knowing the awful truth—that one cannot exist without the other.

The Israeli-Palestine problem has become a never-ending cycle of violence which feeds off the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people. It is time to bring this cycle to an end.

From this moment forward, I will always stand with the people of Palestine, convinced that the only path for peace in the Middle East is one that leads through a viable Palestinian homeland, its capital firmly and forever ensconced in East Jerusalem.

In this way, Hamas will be disenfranchised as a terrorist organization—a legitimate Palestinian state takes away the perpetual state of conflict Hamas contributes to, a status which is justified by the pursuit of a legitimate Palestinian state Zionist Israel will never allow to exist.

A legitimate Palestinian state delegitimizes the notion of a Zionist Israeli entity which, by definition, can only exist by the perpetual exploitation of the Palestinian people. Benjamin Netanyahu was able to sustain the modern-day version of the Zionist Israeli state by generating fear through the endless cycle of Hamas-driven violence.

Remove the threat posed by Hamas, and Zionist Israel no longer will be able to blind the citizens of Israel and the world to the apartheid-like reality of the present-day Israeli existence. Basic humanity will compel Zionist Israel to shed its Zionist ideology, just as apartheid South Africa shed its ugly legacy of White supremacy. Post-Zionist Israel will be compelled by necessity to learn to coexist with its non-Jewish neighbors peacefully and prosperously, not as a colonial apartheid state, but as equal partners in the experiment of life that will have collectively seized the people who call the Holy Land home.

The words of Roger Waters’s great song, The Gunner’s Dream, come to mind when envisioning such a place:

You can relax

on both sides of the tracks

And maniacs

don’t blow holes in bandsmen by remote control

And everyone has recourse to the law

And no one kills the children anymore

I stand with Palestine because I want to live in a world where children are no longer plucked from blood-stained furniture strewn about a Kibbutz ransacked by Hamas gunmen, or extracted, broken and blackened by soot, from the remains of a home pulverized by Israeli bombs.

No one kills the children anymore.

These lyrics may come from The Gunner’s Dream, but they should be a permanent part of the dreams of every human being alive who claims to be holding on to a shred of humanity and compassion for their fellow human beings.

I stand with Palestine, because I stand for the children of Israel and Palestine, knowing full well that the only chance they have of a future where they can live together as neighbors united in peace, instead of enemies united in war, is for a free and independent Palestine to exist.

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Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of ‘Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika: Arms Control and the End of the Soviet Union.’ He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. 

All images in this article are from Scott Ritter Extra

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Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) is expressing extreme concern over the Canadian government’s failure to secure evacuation for citizens stuck in Gaza and the West Bank. While Canada has already completed four evacuation flights for its citizens in Israel, it has yet to secure plans for its own citizens in the occupied Palestinian territories, despite the catastrophic humanitarian situation. Israel told Canadian officials earlier today that they had decided against proposals to allow foreign nationals to flee Gaza via Egypt. This leaves at least 150 Canadian citizens trapped by Israel alongside more than 2 million Palestinians, without any relief or safety from Israeli siege and bombardment. 

CJPME insists that Canada immediately implement some of the following measures to ensure the safety of Canadian citizens – and other civilians – in the occupied Palestinian territories:

• Canada must demand that Israel lift the siege of Gaza, and enable the restoration of electricity, cell phone, and internet service, thus allowing Canadians to expediently access consular and (eventual) evacuation services;
• Canada must use its political ties with Israel to guarantee the safe evacuation of Canadian citizens, ensuring they are not harmed as they seek to evacuate;
• Canada must push Israel to waive its racially discriminatory policies and allow Palestinian Canadians to access evacuation efforts via Tel Aviv;
• Canada must push Israel to respect international law and cease all military action which endangers Gaza civilians; not only Canadian citizens, but all Palestinians under Israeli bombardment, siege, and mass displacement.

CJPME points out that the difficulty in evacuating Palestinians with Canadian citizenship is a direct result of Israel’s system of apartheid, which prevents Palestinians from reaching the airport in Tel Aviv based on nationality. “Canadians in Gaza are facing unthinkably horrific circumstances, and feel abandoned by the Canadian government,” said Michael Bueckert, Vice President of CJPME. CJPME and many others are disappointed that Canada hasn’t bothered to leverage its strong political ties to Israel to enable Canadian citizens to leave. “Regardless of the best efforts and intentions of Canada’s consular staff, by working within this context of institutionalized discrimination Canada is effectively forced to treat a segment of its own citizens as second-class,” added Bueckert.

Canadian officials say that about 150 people in Gaza have registered for assistance. On Friday, it was announced that there would be a “tentative window” of several hours the next day for evacuating citizens alongside other foreign nationals from Gaza. It was emphasized that these plans are not confirmed, and that Canadians must be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. Early Saturday, the CBC reported that Israeli officials have notified various embassies that the window of opportunity had been “cancelled,” instructing foreign nationals to stay away from the crossing.

Even before the latest update, CJPME had noted that Israel’s “total siege” of Gaza has made enrollment in any Canadian evacuation virtually impossible for citizens in Gaza, given that Israel has shut off electricity, which has severely restricted all cell phone and internet access. Above all, CJPME is deeply concerned about the ability of Canadians to travel to any evacuation points, given Israel’s repeated bombings of the Rafah crossing and reports of Israeli airstrikes killing at least 70 Palestinians who were attempting to evacuate the northern area of Gaza.

Most Canadian citizens with Palestinian IDs are barred from travelling to Tel Aviv based on their nationality. Those in the West Bank are forced to travel by land to Jordan where they would catch a commercial flight. Those trying to move in and out of Egypt face extraordinary barriers, with severely limited travel through Egypt. On the other hand, Canadian citizens living in the illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank have had little problem reaching the Tel Aviv airport, while Palestinians in the same territory are denied this right.

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Featured image: Palestinian Marwa al-Tamimi, 32 carries the body of her 2-year-old son Mohammed al-Tamimi during his funeral at the West Bank village of Nebi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah, June 6, 2023

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*** 

On October 12, additional US Air Force aircraft arrived in Europe and in the Middle East, at a time of open warfare between US ally Israel, and the Gaza strip, where 3 million unarmed civilians are being targeted by Israel because of the unprecedented attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas. 

The US Central Command has announced the deployment of 354th Fighter Squadron and their A-10C Thunderbolt IIs to support the increased US presence in response to the events in Israel and the Gaza strip.

The 354th FS joins the A-10s from the 75th Fighter Squadron already in the region, which were deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, at the end of March 2023.

Also on October 12, two B-1B Lancer bombers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, have been deployed to RAF Fairford, UK as part of a new Bomber Task Force.

The US aircraft carrier and supporting destroyer fleet is already in place off the coast of Gaza.

Israel has promised to destroy Hamas, and their plan is to enter into Gaza and eliminate all Hamas fighters and their infrastructure.  Many experts believe this goal is impossible to achieve, and the question is: will this conflict get wider, and develop into a regional war, drawing in Lebanon and Syria, and possibly Iran.

Steven Sahiiounie, of MidEastDiscourse, interviewed Dr. Jamal Wakim in order to ask some burning questions concerning this conflict.

Dr. Jamal Wakim has a PhD in International Relations and Modern Arab History, is a professor at the Lebanese University, and author of “The Struggle of Major Powers Over Syria”.

Steven Sahiounie (SS): Israel and Hamas at are war. That conflict has a big effect on Lebanon. In your opinion, will we see a regional War?

Jamal Wakim (JW): I believe we might witness a regional war, in case Israel starts a land attack on Gaza. In this way, I believe that Hezbollah will not stand still, and that it will participate in the ongoing conflict, by activating the northern front.  If this occurs, I don’t believe that it will be confined to Hezbollah, but many groups; resistance groups from Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere will join forces and come to the Lebanese front to fight the Israelis.

SS: A Palestinian resistance group operating in Lebanon claimed responsibility for an attack on Israel. However, Israel responded by attacking Hezbollah positions. In your opinion, is it Israel’s strategy to pull Hezbollah into this conflict?

JW: I believe that Israel is so confused, and that is the reason they targeted outposts for Hezbollah. Especially, because some hardliners in the Israeli government are trying to involve Hezbollah in the attack, or let’s say the conflict with Hamas, because they want to say it is not Hamas they are targeting, but it is actually Iran. Israel wants to involve the US in the conflict, and that is why they tried to instigate tension with Lebanon.

SS: The United States always protects Israel. President Biden ordered a US aircraft carrier to the sea near “Israel”. In your opinion, will the US use its military capabilities to widen this conflict, or to strike Iran?

JW: I believe that this might be a possibility, especially because this US aircraft carrier has started to coordinate its actions, and information with the Israeli side, and at the same time we heard about the US sending A-10 bombers to the UAE, and these are destined to be used against Iran. I believe this is a possibility in case the conflict widens, but so far things are being contained.

SS: Lebanon has not recovered from their political and financial collapse. There are great political divisions among the Lebanese. In your opinion, do the majority of the Lebanese people support the resistance and the end of the occupation of Palestine?

JW: Lebanon has always been divided, and there was never a consensus about the support of the resistance; whether it is the Islamic resistance, or before it the national resistance, or before it the Palestinian resistance. So, we have always had division, but this has never prevented the resistance groups from fighting Israel and achieving victory over it, and this time I believe this will also happen. If we go into confrontation, I believe that there will be a wide segment of society who will be supportive of the resistance, and the confrontation by itself will force the forces that are hostile to the armed resistance to Israel to acquiesce, and to not be vocal in their opposition. 

SS: Syria is among the main supporters of the resistance. In your opinion, could we see Syria enter this conflict?

JW:  I believe that this could be a possibility. Syria is already part of this conflict in many ways, and in case Hezbollah participates in the confrontation, I believe that the Syrian front will be activated, and we have already witnessed signs of this by the launching of rockets from Syrian territory into the Galilee. So, Syria will surely be part of the conflict if it widens and becomes a regional conflict.

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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

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Important article by Prof. Marjorie Cohn first published on February 15, 2023

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s religious Zionist coalition, which was sworn in on December 29, 2022, declared in its manifesto that Jews have the “exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel.” To that end, in a little over a month, the Israeli regime has killed Palestinians, demolished their homes, mounted incursions into occupied Palestinian territory and endeavored to change laws and policies to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Palestine.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Nakba — the Arabic word for “catastrophe.” In 1948, Israel assumed control over more than three-quarters of Palestine. Upwards of 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes or forced to flee and Israel confiscated much of their land.

Now, Israel’s new extremist regime — the most anti-Palestinian in Israeli history — aims to finish the job by incorporating all of the occupied Palestinian territories into Israel.

Many people in the new government want an “out-of-state solution” in which Palestinians would be forcibly transferred (or in desperation, leave) to nearby Arab countries, “dispossessing them of their homeland,” Michel Moushabeck, a Palestinian American writer and publisher, wrote at Truthout.

Bezalel Smotrich, head of the Religious Zionism Party, is the new minister of finance. In 2021, he told Arab members of the Israeli Knesset that they were “here by mistake because Ben Gurion didn’t finish the job and throw you out in 1948.”

In its effort to “Judaize” the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israel may be trying to cleanse the Palestinians from them.

“The new Israeli government is the culmination of decades of apartheid subjugation of the Palestinian people in their own homeland,” Richard Falk, former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, wrote in an email to Truthout. “The long game of the Zionist Project was openly proclaimed in the 2018 Basic Law of Israel confirming the intention of maintaining Jewish supremacy and exclusive rights of self-determination in the entire territory stretching from ‘the river to the sea.’”

Israel Wants to Take Over Occupied Palestine

The “Green Line,” drawn in 1948 to separate Israel from the occupied Palestinian territories, set the boundaries at the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Nearly 15 million people live between the river and the sea. Jews make up 7.454 million — or 49.84 percent. Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line, including Gaza, encompass 7.503 million — or 51.16 percent, a majority. Between 59 and 65 percent of people living between the river and the sea oppose the Israeli occupation.

Israel’s “undisclosed Zionist Long Game,” Falk wrote at Just World Educational, “aims at extending Israeli sovereignty over the whole of Occupied Palestine, with the possible exception of Gaza.”

“Gaza, with its 2+ million Palestinians, is not part of the traditional Jewish conception of the promised land, and thus not integral to the Zionist conception of an Israeli one-state solution,” Falk told Truthout. “It is rather perceived by Israeli leadership as a dangerous ‘demographic bomb,’ hence a security threat, if it is incorporated into the Zionist vision of a solution to the underlying conflict. Israel would prefer that Gaza is administered by Jordan or Egypt, as before 1967, or even as an independent mini-state neighbor.”

In 1967, Israel (falsely claiming self-defense) attacked Egypt, Jordan and Syria and seized the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, as well as the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. Palestinians call this the Naksa (“setback” in Arabic). It ushered in Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory. But UN Security Council Resolution 242, passed in 1967 and reaffirmed in 2016, stipulates “the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war.”

Israel’s Collective Punishment of Palestinians Constitutes a War Crime

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has documented killings, house demolitions and incursions by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) against Palestinians since the beginning of 2023. Forty-three Palestinians, including nineteen civilians (seven of whom were children) were killed by the IOF. Three Palestinians were killed by settlers, allegedly in retaliation for shooting and stabbing attacks. And dozens were injured in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids the punishment of people in an occupied territory for offenses they didn’t personally commit. Israel’s reprisals against families and the community for actions they did not take constitutes collective punishment, which is considered a war crime.

In addition, the IOF rendered 33 families homeless (a total of 229 individuals, including 43 women and 108 children). This was the result of IOF demolitions of 34 houses. Six were forced to demolish their own homes and three were demolished in an exercise of collective punishment. The “IOF also demolished 39 other civilian objects, razed other property, and delivered dozens of notices of demolition, cease-construction, and evacuation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” PCHR reported.

The IOF conducted 1,449 incursions into the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, since the beginning of the year. During these incursions, 638 Palestinians were arrested, including 11 women and 61 children.

Moreover, 2022 was the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in 18 years. The IOF killed at least 146 Palestinians, including 34 children.

New Israeli Government Seeks to Weaken Supreme Court and Annex West Bank

Israel’s new religious Zionist coalition government has begun the process to prevent the Israeli Supreme Court from overruling legislation passed by the Knesset (parliament). There are proposals for the coalition to select judges and replace professional legal advisers with political appointees.

The new regime has also withheld nearly $40 million in Palestinian tax revenues and plans to divert that money to victims of Palestinian attacks.

Meanwhile, guidelines published by the government call for more construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, legalization of illegal outposts and eventual full annexation of the West Bank.

Jewish Settlements on Palestinian Land Violate the Geneva Convention

The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from transferring “parts of its own civilian population into the territories it occupies.” It is illegal for Israel to directly or tacitly support the building of Jewish settlements on Palestinian land.

In 2016, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2334, which condemned Israel for the establishment of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. It says that the building of settlements “has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law.”

Approximately 650,000 Jewish settlers live in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the occupied West Bank.

Settlers who illegally build settlements on Palestinian territory have been emboldened by the new regime, which includes leaders of the settler movement among its key ministers.

Resistance to Israeli Regime Repression

“The resistance in Gaza is doing its duties and defending our people in Gaza,” Hazem Qassem, spokesperson for Hamas, said in a statement. Al-Qassam Bridges, the armed wing of Hamas, declared that Israeli warplanes would be met by anti-aircraft and ground-to-air defense.

Additional Palestinian factions expressed support for an armed Palestinian response to the January 26 attack in Jenin, when Israeli forces killed 9 Palestinians in a “massacre.” The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that Palestinian factions in Gaza have the right to respond accordingly. Lion’s Den, an armed Palestinian resistance group in the occupied West Bank whose members are considered heroes by many Palestinians, has mounted dozens of attacks against Israeli troops and civilians during the past six months.

Under international law, the Palestinians have a right to resist Israel’s occupation of their land, including by armed struggle. In 1982, the UN General Assembly“reaffirmed the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”

The day after the Jenin massacre, 21-year-old Khairy Alqam killed seven people outside a synagogue in East Jerusalem in retaliation for the killing of his young relative by Israeli forces two days before. After the synagogue attack, Alqam was shot and killed by police and, in an act of collective punishment, his family’s home was demolished.

Tens of thousands of Israelis from different ideological perspectives demonstrate every Saturday night against the new right-wing government.

“The Israeli government is slaughtering Palestinians every night, massacring people in their homes, schools, and hospitals,” Jewish Voice for Peace Executive Director Stefanie Fox said in a statement. “There are no sidelines. Jewish tradition commands action in the face of grave injustice, and the time to rise in solidarity with Palestinians is now.”

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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. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues. She is co-host of “Law and Disorder” radio.

Featured image is from IMEMC

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

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Christine Massey’s articles  can be consulted at  Fluoride Free Peel 

See: also 

 

 

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This is an update on my personal situation regarding false/fake/fraudulent “criminal charges” and what happened in court last week. It does not deal directly with fake-covid or any imaginary viruses or the contagion myth (although it does feature a lying POS “medical officer”, Thomas Piggott).

For anyone unfamiliar with the situation and curious, many details and video evidence re how it all got started back on January 19, 2022 can be found here.

Background 

Very briefly, Thomas Piggott who acts as “Medical Officer of Health” in Peterborough, Ontario lied to police about some colleagues and myself. The first officer who investigated saw that absolutely nothing unlawful had occurred and so she refused to lay any charges even when pressured by the “Chief” and an “Inspector”. Kudos to “the good cop” – Alicia McGriskin (here is an old article about her). Her police notes are posted here.

So the “case” was reassigned to some “bad cops”, including a man named Lee Schubert.

Lee invented a scenario wherein there really were grounds for charges.

A colleague and I were both “arrested” and “charged” with 2 “criminal counts”, kinda sorta, based on the invented scenario and false/fake/fraudulent paperwork featuring the name of an imaginary court (shown here). These were serious trespasses against my colleague Tyler Berry and I.

We were smeared by the lamestream media, even featured on the evening news the next day – despite video evidence proving we’d done nothing unlawful – and received lots of hate on social media.

One of the “charges” against each of us was withdrawn on June 23, 2022. The other “charge” against BERRY, TYLER was withdrawn months ago. Funny how the lamestream media never report these facts.

(Also funny is how they don’t report on the fact that staff at the courthouse cannot find even 1 document in this alleged “case” bearing the name of a real court, let alone stamped or sealed by a real court. Nor can “the crown” or police.)

Two weeks ago Paul Murray who acts/does business as “crown attorney” (prosecutor) sent me a casual email about a hearing on September 26th, implying that there was no need for me to attend. A set-up hoping to get me “arrested” again, perhaps?

I received no summons for this date (or for any prior court “appearance”, ever) but a normal practice in the Ontario Court of Justice is to issue a “warrant for arrest” if the man/woman associated with the name on the docket “fails to appear”. So I attended the hearing.

Update

I attended via “zoom”. Timothy Breen was acting/doing business as “judge”.

Paul Murray, doing business as “the crown”, discussed the false/fake/fraudulent “harassment charge” on the record as though it were 100% legit.

He then “directed the court” to enter a “stay” as per Criminal Code s. 579(1), and to vacate the scheduled December 5, 2023 trial date and a “confirmation date” of October 18, 2023 (which I had never even heard of before, sheesh).  

Apparently Doug Downey acting/doing business as “Attorney General of Ontario” had intervened because I’d sent him 3 registered letters since August 8, 2023. (I’d also sent a letter to Timothy Breen acting as “judge” the day before.)

Note that a “stay” is not the same thing as a withdrawal. It means they might (legally, not lawfully) try to resurrect the false/fake/fraudulent matter again later.

By “staying” the matter instead of “withdrawing” it, they avoid the risk of having all the fraud/lies exposed during a trial, they keep the fake/false/fraudulent “charge” and possibility of a trial hanging over my head, and they continue damaging my reputation.

At the same time, an interesting detail is that s. 579 (2) of the Criminal Code (which they operate under if/when it suits them) addresses the potential for a “recommencement of proceedings”. This section references a 1 year time limit for recommencement, and “the expiration of the time within which the proceedings could have been commenced, whichever is the earlier”.

Given that:

1) 20+ months have already passed since I was handcuffed and

2) anything more than 18 months is generally considered an unreasonable delay (counting from date of “charges” until end of arguments at a trial)…

it seems they have kinda/sorta effectively backed away from the false/fake “matter” altogether as though it never commenced, without coming out and admitting it in plain language. At least that is my take. No guarantees they wouldn’t try to recommence though, especially if I contact the lying POS “medical officer” Thomas Piggott.

Also, under the s. 579 (2) “stay”, the “undertaking”/agreement that I was supposedly under to not contact the liar Thomas (which was null and void all along because it didn’t have the necessary check marks to indicate said conditions were in effect, and I never signed it or agreed to it, and I never gave it to any peace officer) is now supposedly “vacated”.

(If I contact the liar, what do you think will happen?)

Anyway, after Paul Murray doing business as “the crown” had completed his theatrical performance about the fake/false/fraudulent “charge” and the “stay” (how do you “stay” something that never really existed in the 1st place and isn’t even stamped/sealed by a real court?), Timothy Breen doing business as “judge” said “ok”. Timothy then asked if CHRISTINE MASSEY was on the call.

Here is roughly what I managed to say on the record before Timothy rudely interrupted and had me muted:

“My name is Christine, I am the woman handcuffed and told she was “charged” in this so-called matter, appearing specially under threat, duress, coercion, not agreeing to contract or joinder, not incorporated or agreeing to incorporate, not under any oath to the court/crown/state, speaking English not legalese.

I have never been served with any proceedings issued by any court, or with a claim of trespass from a man or woman claiming that I trespassed against them in any way, or a bill of particulars.

I never gave an “undertaking” to any so-called “peace officer”. I’ve never contracted, agreed to or promised to appear, nor am I under an oath to REGINA or the state/crown, and therefore cannot “fail to appear”.

I draw your attention to….”

Timothy Breen doing business as “judge” interrupted me here so that I couldn’t finish my sentence, which was going to conclude with:

“…. the letter and emails that I sent to the court yesterday and today, and stand on that. The only lawful thing you can do is strike/dismiss/discharge/withdraw this alleged matter altogether, permanently.”

Timothy heard me speak and responded. Others on the zoom call also heard me. He rudely blathered about “the charge” having already been “stayed”.

I responded repeatedly: “There is no charge.”

Timothy had me muted and someone kicked me out of the zoom “court” altogether.

Interesting detail: someone somehow prevented my voice (and only my voice) from being heard on a recording of the zoom call, even before I was muted. My voice is severely scrambled and unintelligible on playback, while all other voices are just fine. (Hmm, does this mean that a transcript will not include my speech?)

The nonsense continued the following day. By morning, the website that lists court cases in Ontario had updated the entry for this “matter” such that the December 5, 2023 trial date that had supposedly been “vacated” was listed again as the “next appearance date”.

So I sent yet another registered letter to Doug Downey who does business as “Attorney General”. By October 1, 2023 the “next appearance date” had been changed back to “September 26, 2023” – reflecting the fact that there is no new date scheduled, but giving the false impression that there is a real “case” before the court.

Moving Forward 

I want my name/reputation cleared altogether, with the fake “case” withdrawn permanently.

This is especially true now that I need to find some paying work in order to keep a roof over my head.

I should not have to try to convince people that I was handcuffed, “charged”, etc. based on lies, a fake “information in Form 2”, a fake warrant, etc.

The one good thing about experiencing this stupidity/lawlessness is that it forced me far outside my comfort zone and forced me to better speak up for myself.

I received zero help from lawyers and paralegals. I paid nothing in legal fees. I filed zero applications to the court. I simply spoke and wrote what was/is true, including the fact that I did not consider the alleged jurisdiction of the court even remotely legit.

I have stood my ground as a woman, not as a legal fiction or a subject of “His Majesty” or a child of “the state”.

Not because I expected the clowns who act as policy officers, “the crown”, “judge”, “justice”, “clerk” etc. to suddenly recognize me as a sovereign being who didn’t want or need their “services”. I did it because I believe in telling the truth, and that the truth is powerful. It doesn’t always yield immediate results, but it’s still worth telling in my books.

*

Addendum, October 9, 2023

On October 5th I published this article (that you are reading now) and tweeted it to the woman, Diane Therrien, who was acting as “Mayor” in Peterborough at the time of the unlawful “arrests”, and to Peterborough Police.

The next day I checked the court case website again and found that the entry for the “case” had been removed altogether. This website is totally unreliable though (I’ve seen many inaccurate listings for this and other “cases” in the past) and there is a disclaimer saying that it might not be accurate or up-to-date. So I still require confirmation in writing that this fake “case” has been withdrawn permanently.

*

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This article was originally published on the author’s Substack, Christine Massey’s “germ” FOI Newsletter.

Featured image is from the author

Simulations of World War III are conducted regularly by the Pentagon. Invariably they are classified. 

This important article by renowned geopolitical analyst William Arkin first published in 2006 (Washington Post blog)  reveals the details pertaining a declassified World War III scenario implemented by US Northern Command (USNORTHCOM)

 

.

In this simulation, Four Countries are identified as enemies of America. The Entire Scenario in the form of a chronology is outlined. Scroll Down. Read carefully. (Emphasis added)

Irmingham = Iran
Nemazee = North Korea
Ruebek = Russia
Churya = China 

Exercise Vigilant Shield 07, currently scheduled to culminate December 4-14, is described in this year’s “Exercise Plan” (thanks PR for providing the documents) as an opportunity to “train and exercise” NORTHCOM and U.S.-Canadian NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) components in all aspects of homeland defense.

The exercise run concurrently with

“Terminal Fury 07,” a Pacific Command (PACOM) exercise focused on North Korea;

“Global Lightning 07,” a Strategic Command (STRATCOM) exercise focused on command and control of U.S. nuclear and conventional forces, and, 

“Positive Response 07-1,” a national-level continuity of operations exercise of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) is also participating in the “maritime defense” portions of the exercise, and other U.S. government agencies such as the Department of Energy are involved in the nuclear weapons aspects.

I wrote last year about Vigilant Shield 06, which involved World War III with “Slomonia,” a thinly veiled Russia adopted a more aggressive foreign policy towards the west and eventually attacked the United States.

This year’s Vigilant Shield stars Nemazee, a thinly veiled North Korea; Irmingham, which is Iran; Ruebek, which is Russia; and Churya, which is China.  According to briefing documents from the Vigilant Shield planning conference:

• “Nemazee continues to develop nuclear and missile capabilities
• Southwest Asian country of Irmingham intent on uranium enrichment program
• Western countries and United States seeking U.N. assistance to halt Irmingham’s enrichment program
• Eurasian country of Ruebek attempts to mediate Irmingham crisis by offering nuclear oversight while secretly supporting enrichment program
• Asian country of Churya will become concerned at increasing level of Ruebek-U.S. hostility”

Evidently endeavoring to be more “relevant” to the world scene, NORTHCOM focused this year’s Vigilant Shield on continuing North Korean development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.  There’s nothing wrong with that.

But North Korea just isn’t a big enough threat to justify the homeland security edifice back home, particularly not missile defense or other technological favorites.

According to the NORTHCOM exercise scenario (published separately), when it is all over, a “limited” nuclear war takes place between the United States and Russia. 

They fire first, hitting U.S. command centers and forces, we retaliate. 

As part of the concurrent Positive Response exercise of the JCS, a one kiloton “terrorist” nuclear weapon just happens to detonate at the Pentagon. 

Cheyenne Mountain and the underground Raven Rock bunker in Maryland are hit with Russian nuclear weapons, but no “cities” are hit and other than the attack on the Pentagon — which briefing documents say only kills 6,000 — the country survives.

With the Pentagon gone — someone at least has a sense of humor — the military can “practice” its alternate command structures, its truck mounted mobile command centers, and its redundant communications. 

“Consequence management” organizations can stage to pockets of great destruction, led still by a federal government that miraculously survives nuclear war.  Officials who need to be are evacuated nicely, the “stressed” system chugs forward.
 
The “road to war” as described in exercise briefing documents gives no political context for why Russia would want to go to war with the United States, and then if they did, why they would attack in such limited numbers and not go for victory.  I guess the answer is buried somewhere in the minds of exercise scenario writers who needed limited war to make it all fun and workable; or is the product of nuclear warfare theory that posits “limited” attacks away from really valuable things as a way of “controlling” the outcome.

In either case, on the nuclear side the two core assumptions are clear:

First, nuclear warfare can break out for no particular reason at any particular time, hence not only the need for U.S. nuclear weapons but ballistic missile defenses. 

Second, small nuclear weapons, while bad, don’t really kill that many people, hence the demand for new “mini-nukes” to attack the bad guys: They are useful.

Adm. Timothy Keating, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, spoke at a Homeland Defense Symposium yesterday in Colorado saying that he doubted scenarios that posit another mega-terrorist in the United States.

“I do not think it’s inevitable,” Keating said.

(See Tom Roeder, “NORTHCOM Chief Says Attack Not Inevitable,” Colorado Springs Gazette, October 6, 2006)

I’m sure no one in the audience of 1,500 industry types who feed at the trough of homeland security was particularly thrilled with Keating’s remark.

Not to worry though the Admiral said that NORTHCOM was still working aggressively on disaster preparedness

“If we do this right,” he said, “you’re just going to get aid.” Financial aid that is.

***

The Vigilant Shield 07 Exercise Scenario

Supplement to Early Warning blog posting for October 6, 2006

From the Vigilant Shield 07 exercise scenario, taken from U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) briefing documents dated August 2006.  The material in brackets is added by the author to explain acronyms.

Irmingham = Iran
Nemazee = North Korea
Ruebek = Russia
Churya = China

• Road to Conflict (RTC): 11 Sep – 15 Oct 06

 – Initial Irmingham Enrichment I&W [indications and warning]
 – Initial Ruebeki & Irmingham Involvement
 – Ruebek I&W, PACFLT [U.S. Pacific Fleet] Sub Deployments
 – Initial Nemazee ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] I&W
 – Initial MHLD [homeland defense?] I&W
 – Strategic IO [information operations (cyber warfare)] operations (Ruebek & Churya)
 – Ruebek & Irmingham Conduct Joint AD [air defense] Exercise

• Phase 1 / Deployment: 4 – 8 Dec 06

 – Rogue LRA [Russian long-range aviation] w/CALCM [conventional air launched cruise missile] Launch
 – Continue Monitoring Strategic Situation
 – Continue Monitoring Nemazee Situation

  • Possible Nuclear Testing
  • Probable ICBM Preparation
 
 – Continue Monitoring MHLD Situation
 
  • Five VOIs [vessels of interest]
  • Churya Flagged VOI into Dutch Harbor Supports BMDS [ballistic missile defense system] Threat to Ft Greely

 – Continue Monitoring IO Activities
 – Nemazee Conducts SLV [space launch vehicle] Launch – 8 Dec 06

• Phase 2 Minus 42 Days:

 • Additional Nemazee ICBM Shipments to Launch Facilities
 • RMOB [Russian main operating bases] Acft Conduct LR Navigation Flights
 • AS-15 [nuclear armed cruise missile] Handling at RMOBs

 – Minus 41 Days:
  • Additional Nemazee ICBM Preps at Launch Pad # 2
 – Minus 40 Days:
  • Activity at Nemazee Nuclear Test Facilities
 – Minus 35 Days:
  • DOS [Department of State] Travel Warning
 – Minus 30 Days:
  • Ruebek LRA Deploys Acft to Anadyr & Vorkuta

• Phase 2 Minus 30 Days:

 • Growing International Condemnation of Ruebek
 • Ruebek Deploys Submarines

 – Minus 20 Days:
  • Nemazee Recalls Reservists
 – Minus 14 Days:
  • DOS Draw-down Sequencing
 – Minus 13 Days:
  • Ruebek Closes US Embassy in Washington DC
 – Minus 11 Days:
  • Nemazee Conducts Fueling of Additional ICBMs
  • Ruebeki Presidential Statement on Possible US Attack

• Phase 2 Minus 10 Days:

 • POTUS Addresses Congress on War Powers Act

 – Minus 6 Days:
  • Ruebek President Calls “Situation Grave”
 – Minus 5 Days:
  • CALCM Activity at Anadyr, Vorkuta, and Tiksi
  • Ruebeki SS-25 [nuclear armed mobile ICBMs] Conduct out of Garrison Deployments
  • Nemazee Assembling ICBM for Probable Launch
 – Minus 4 Days:
  • Ruebek Closes US Embassy in Washington DC
  • Ruebek Acft Conduct Outer ADIZ [air defense identification zone] Pentrations
  • Mid-Air Collison w/NORAD Acft During ADIZ Penetration

• Phase 2 Minus 4 Days:

 • Nemazee ICBM Launch Azimuth Threatens US

 – Minus 3 Days:
 • NATO Diplomatic Efforts Fail to Diffuse Crisis
 • USAMB to Ruebek Recalled for Consultation
 • POTUS Addresses Nation
 – Minus 2 Days:
 • Nemazee Leadership Movement
 – Minus 1 Day:
 • Ruebek Expels US Mission

• Phase 2 / Execution: 10 – 14 Dec 06

 – Pre-Attack I & W
 – Imminent Terrorist Attack on Pentagon Suggests Pentagon COOP [continuity of operations plan]
 – Nemazee Conducts 2 x ICBM Combat Launches Against United States
 – Ruebek Conducts Limited Strategic Attack on United States
  • Wave 1 – 8 x Bear H Defense Suppression w/CALCM
  • Wave 2 – Limited ICBM & SLBM Attack
 – 2 x ICBM Launched (1 impacts CMOC [Cheyenne Mountain], 1 malfunctions)
 – 2 x SLBM Launched Pierside (1 impacts SITE-R [“Raven Rock” bunker on the Maryland-Pennsylvania border], 1 malfunctions)
 – 3 x Bear H from Dispersal Bases w/ALCM (Eielson AFB, CANR, Cold Lake)
 – US Conducts Limited Retaliatory Attack on Ruebek
  • 1 x ICBM C2 Facility
  • 1 x ICBM Against ICBM Launch Location
  • Phase 2 / Execution:
 – Ruebek Prepares Additional Attack on United States
  • Wave 3 – Prepares for Additional Strategic Attacks
  – 1 x ICBM Movement, NO Launch
  – 3 x SLBM PACFLT Pierside Missile Handling Activity (NO Launch)
  – 6 x BEAR H (launch & RTB [return to base]) w/6 x ALCM (NO launch)”

 

Secondo la versione ufficiale, l’attacco di Hamas ha “colto di sorpresa” Israele. Vi è però una serie di fatti inspiegabili che non rende credibile la versione ufficiale.

Come è possibile che la barriera di Gaza sia stata sfondata con bulldozer senza che nessuno se ne sia accorto?

La barriera che circonda Gaza, lunga 64 chilometri, è formata da un muro sotterraneo dotato di sensori, per impedire di scavare tunnel, e da una recinzione alta 6 metri con sensori, radar, telecamere e sistemi d’arma automatici collegati a un centro di comando, ed è presidiata da soldati.

Come è possibile che in quello stesso giorno si stesse svolgendo un festival musicale, con migliaia di giovani, nel deserto a pochi chilometri da Gaza, in una zona già ritenuta pericolosa perché nel raggio dei razzi di Hamas, per di più senza alcuna forza di sicurezza?

Come è possibile che, quando i militanti di Hamas hanno attaccato i centri abitati, non siano immediatamente intervenute con elicotteri le forze speciali israeliane, ritenute tra le migliori del mondo, e siano intervenute solo forze di polizia? Come è possibile che il Mossad, ritenuto uno dei più efficienti servizi segreti del mondo, non si sia accorto che Hamas stava preparando l’attacco?

Le risposte essenziali si trovano in un articolo, pubblicato l’8 ottobre dal quotidiano israeliano The Times of Israel:

“Per anni, i vari governi guidati da Benjamin Netanyahu hanno adottato una politica che ha diviso la Striscia di Gaza e la Cisgiordania tra due diversi poteri, mettendo in ginocchio il presidente dell’Autorità Palestinese Mahmoud Abbas e favorendo Hamas. Questo è stato trattato come un partner a scapito della Autorità Palestinese per impedire ad Abbas di avanzare verso la creazione di uno Stato palestinese. Hamas è stato promosso da gruppo terroristico a organizzazione con cui Israele ha condotto negoziati attraverso l’Egitto, e a cui è stato permesso di ricevere dal Qatar, attraverso i valichi di Gaza, valigie contenenti milioni di dollari”.

Tutti questi fatti delineano uno scenario simile a quello dell’attacco terroristico a New York e Washington l’11 settembre 2001, quando l’intero sistema statunitense di intelligence e difesa sarebbe stato “colto di sorpresa” dall’attacco di al-Qaeda. Prove inconfutabili (ufficialmente ignorate o liquidate come “complottismo”) dimostrano che era stata una operazione attuata dalla Cia (probabilmente con la partecipazione anche del Mossad) per fare da innesco alla “guerra globale al terrorismo” con l’invasione dell’Afghanistan e dell’Iraq e le successive guerre. Qualcosa di analogo sta avvenendo oggi in Israele, il cui intero sistema di intelligence e difesa sarebbe stato “colto di sorpresa” dall’attacco di Hamas.

Il fine strategico dell’operazione, sicuramente, non è solo quello di sterminare i Palestinesi e impadronirsi dei loro ultimi territori. È quello di innescare, mirando all’Iran, una reazione a catena di guerre in un Medioriente dove Stati Uniti, Israele e le potenze europee stanno perdendo terreno.

Manlio Dinucci

VIDEO :

 

Judge Napolitano: Is it true that Hamas was actually created and supported by the Israelis in order to be a buffer, a rival, an obstacle to the PLO when Yasser Arafat ran it?

Philip Giraldi: Yeah, that’s absolutely correct. There was a national election among the Palestinians in 2006, and the Israelis with help from the US, basically created a counter-party to oppose the Fatah, which was Yasser Arafat’s old PLO, because they want to divide the Palestinian opposition. And they were successful at it. Hamas won the election, a fair election, in Gaza and Fatah on the West Bank; so they divided effectively the Palestinian political structure.

JN: Was there a time when the Israelis gave financial assistance to Hamas?

PG: Yeah, they gave financial assistance to Hamas. And there were suspicions back then that they were arming them to a certain extent, which is why the issue of where the weapons come from is rather interesting. But yeah, they were funding them and they got some intermediaries to do the funding for them.

Watch the interview below.

.

VIDEO

Read below the incisive analysis by Dr. Philip Giraldi entitled Is the Gaza-Israel Fighting “A False Flag”? which was  published on Giraldi’s Facebook page as well as on Global Research (October 8, 2023)

Am I the only one who read about a speech given by Netanyahu or someone in his cabinet about a week ago in which he/they in passing referred to a “developing security situation” which rather suggests (to me) that they might have known about developments in Gaza and chose to let it happen so they can wipe Gaza off the map in retaliation and, possibly relying on the US pledge to have Israel’s “back,” then implicating Iran and attacking that country.

I cannot find a link to it, but have a fairly strong recollection of what I read as I thought at the time it would serve as a pretext for another massacre of Palestinians.

As a former intelligence officer, I find it impossible to believe that Israel did not have multiple informants inside Gaza as well as electronic listening devices all along the border wall which would have picked up movements of groups and vehicles.

In other words, the whole thing might be a tissue of lies as is often the case.

And as is also ALWAYS the case Joe Biden is preparing to send some billions of dollars to poor little Israel to pay for “defending” itself

 

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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 frequent regular to Global Research 

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

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*** 

 

 

 

Mike Whitney (MW): In many parts of the world, Vladimir Putin is admired for his outspoken defense of national sovereignty. But on the domestic front, many of Putin’s policies seem to align with those of the Western globalists. As you note in a recent post at Substack Putin just “signed a decree on the creation of a ‘digital’ domestic passport,” which many people think will pave the way to technocratic tyranny. Am I exaggerating the risks of digital ID here, or does this development pose a serious threat to personal freedom?

Riley Waggaman (RW): Imagine if the United States started issuing digital driver’s licenses that could be used as an official form of ID. What would the reaction be? I suspect a lot of Americans would feel “worried”, for lack of a better term. And not without good reason.

The digital passport system being implemented in Russia is deserving of the same skepticism.

First some context: Russia has a “domestic passport” that basically functions as a national ID. You use your domestic passport to open up a bank account, and for when you have to interact with the local bureaucracy. It’s an important document that you need to do ordinary, everyday things.

The digital passport has been billed as an electronic copy of the domestic passport, accessible via smartphone (via the State Services portal, Gosuslugi). The government is still deciding in what situations/scenarios the digital passport will be accepted as a valid form of ID.

Proponents of this digital document say it’s more convenient than a paper ID, and perhaps they’re right. The problem of course is that modern conveniences can lead to all sorts of unpleasantness, and with time these unpleasant things can even become “normal”.

The fact that this ID will be linked to the State Services portal (Gosuslugi) is certainly cause for concern and it’s easy to imagine how digital passports could be used (and abused) by the Russian government—or any government, for that matter. All in the name of convenience.

Of course, the authorities promise that digital IDs will never be made mandatory. Well, I’m old enough to remember when the Russian government promised that Covid vaccination would be 100% voluntary.

MW: Russia appears to be spearheading the transition to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) with its creation of the “digital ruble”. In your opinion, what are the potential pitfalls of such a plan?

RW: Excluding the possibility of imposing a full-spectrum digital gulag, the digital ruble has no obvious benefits. I would say the same of all CBDCs, of course.

Some claim that the digital ruble is a very necessary, prudent, and brilliant way to bypass Western sanctions. This is untrue. The Bank of Russia has a fully functional Financial Messaging System (SPFS) that operates independently from SWIFT. Here are a few RT.com headlines for your consideration:

• March 2017: “Russia’s banking system has SWIFT alternative ready”
• February 2018: “Russian banks ready to switch off SWIFT – official”
  
• October 2019: Russia, China & India to set up alternative to SWIFT payment system to connect 3 billion people”

All of these articles are about SPFS and were published long before the Bank of Russia announced its intention to develop the digital ruble in October 2020.

I’m puzzled as to why so many westerners who claim to understand the dangers of CBDCs think the digital ruble is somehow “different”. The Bank of Russia’s CBDC has been almost unanimously condemned by the country’s most prominent commentators in the alternative/conservative media space. Even mainstream outlets like Tsargrad have published scathing take-downs of the digital ruble.

Meanwhile, in English-language “alternative media”, we are blessed with the profound postulations of deep thinkers like Simplicius who write nipple-hardening purple prose about how amazing and anti-globalist the Bank of Russia is, and why the digital ruble is super hip and cool.

I just don’t understand why English-language commentary (all non-Russian commentary, actually) is so far removed from what patriotic Russians living in Russia are saying about their own country, in Russian.

By the way: The Bank of Russia has already reneged on its promise that it will never, ever “color” digital rubles so that they can only be used to purchase certain items. The central bank’s deputy chairman recently said that placing restrictions on how digital rubles can be spent is a real possibility—and one that will be explored in the future. (link)

The digital ruble hasn’t even entered circulation yet, and the Bank of Russia is already open to “exploring” how this fun new tool of total control—endorsed by Davos, the IMF, the G20,–can be used to curb and stomp on basic human dignity.

MW: Is Russia moving closer to mandatory vaccinations?

Image is from InfoBrics

Note: Here’s a quote from one of your recent posts:

Russia’s Ministry of Health wants to amend the National Preventive Immunization Calendar so that COVID vaccination could be mandatory for “vulnerable categories of citizens” whenever the country’s benevolent health authorities believe the “epidemiological” situation warrants another round of coercive injections…..

Of course, any new mandatory vaccination decrees would also apply to state employees, including teachers, doctors, military personnel, etc. Edward Slavsquat, Substack

RW: If Russia’s enterprising health ministry—which works tirelessly to safeguard public health—decides that “Covid” is “spreading” at an unacceptable rate, various categories of citizens will have to choose between getting vaxxed or losing their jobs. This is of course still voluntary vaccination because Russians get to choose whether they want to be employed or inject themselves with an unproven genetic goo developed in cooperation with AstraZeneca.

There are many highly intelligent intellectuals—like Aussie Cossack —who continue to pretend that Russia never had mandatory Covid vaccination, which is very brave considering that as of January 2023, there were still hundreds of Russians who were barred from working because they refused to be injected.

The Gamaleya Center continues to “update” its Covid vaccine, and the Russian government continues to shill this dangerous and barely tested trash to children. Whether Covid vaccination will become as ubiquitous and “normal” as the annual flu shot (which is even shoved into the little arms of Russian children every year; I know because I had to sign a document forbidding the kindergarten nurse from injecting my 6-year-old son) is an open question.

But you have to be impressively credulous to believe that the Russian government wants to keep Covid vaccination a purely voluntary affair. Russia’s health bureaucracy has a very poor track record when it comes to calling out Big Pharma/WHO scams. Did you know that you have to get an HIV test (an old school 1980s Fauci scam) to get a work visa in Russia? Well, now you know.

MW: Here’s an excerpt from one of your recent posts that will surprise many readers who think that President Putin actually opposes the Davos crowd and their globalist agenda:

“To defeat globalism, Moscow is reluctantly but responsibly adopting the globalist agenda….

There is no way to stop the technological “progress” promoted by Davos, the G20, the IMF, the World Bank, the UN, and the WHO, which is why Moscow must closely collaborate with all of these globalist organizations in order to maintain globalist parity with the Collective West—otherwise Russia won’t be able to protect herself from the globalists.”

And, here’s more from another post:

“…almost every joint declaration Moscow signs (whether it be a G20 Declaration, a BRICS Declaration, or just some word salad authored with the help of Beijing) includes a passage praising the vital roles of the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund? This seems like relevant information.

The Russian government has repeatedly said it has no intention of withdrawing from the WHO, the WTO, or even the IMF. It would be nice if Cerise could update his article to reflect this undeniable reality. Edward Slavsquat, Substack

You appear to be saying that—even though Russia is fighting the western oligarchy in Ukraine—it is still marching in lockstep with the globalists on matters of social policy. Can you expand on this a bit? And how does Putin fit in with all of this? Is he an unwitting accomplice or an eager participant?

RW: Is Moscow fighting the western oligarchy in Ukraine? Gazprom has been pumping gas across Ukraine since Day 1 of the Special Military Operation (SMO). And that’s not the only natural resource that Russian “entrepreneurs” are desperately transiting through Ukrainian territory.

I have yet to read about a western-backed Ukrainian oligarch having his home vaporized by a Russian missile. Actually, it’s doubtful that a single western oligarch, anywhere, has been inconvenienced by the SMO. On the contrary, it has been a wonderful money-making opportunity—for Russian oligarchs as well.

But to address the second part of your question: Anyone who follows Russian-language media knows that Moscow is in near-total lockstep with the West when it comes to soul-crushing technocracy and other forms “safe and convenient” societal progress. Actually, an objective observer would recognize that Russia is far ahead of the West in implementing “digitalization” shilled by Davos and other celebrated globalist organizations.

Putin has done nothing meaningful to slow this process down. Actually, by allowing glorious patriots like Herman Gref to spearhead AI, biometrics, QR-coded cattle-tagging, facial recognition systems, “sustainable development”, and other trendy tech-development in Russia, Putin is an unapologetic accomplice in all the unsavory madness pestering Russia and every other country.

Seriously, just look at how the Russian government treats schoolchildren(like diseased, suspicious cattle), and you will begin to understand where this country is headed. Children are the future, after all!

MW: Can you summarize your views on the Covid-19 vaccine?

RW: It’s bad.

MW: You say that “Russians are not too keen on Russia’s Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina”. According to you: “The socialists, the monarchists, the neo-soviets, the conservatives, the military hardliners—with few exceptions,… all despise Elvira and her digital rubles.”

Later in your article you say: “(Elvira) Nabiullina is a symbol of pursuing an economic policy contrary to Russia’s interests.”

That’s pretty harsh criticism. Can you explain what’s going on? Why would Putin reappoint someone to such an important position who –many feel– is implementing a globalist agenda?

RW: The second quote is actually from Nakanune.ru, which is a left-leaning independent news outlet based in Yekaterinburg. Excluding state-funded media, every news outlet in Russia hates Elvira Nabiullina and thinks she’s a globalist stooge who is actively working to destroy Russia. The conservatives, the Orthodox hardliners, the Communists, the Neo-Bolshiviks, the nationalists—they all despise Nabiullina. This is a fact and why it is never conveyed to non-Russian “alternative news” consumers is a massive mystery.

I haven’t the slightest idea why Putin nominated this Yale World Fellow graduate for another term as the Bank of Russia’s governor, even though she is awful and nobody likes her. Probably this is part of Putin’s ingenious strategy to defeat the globalists with a programmable CBDC 100% controlled by an IMF-obedient central bank that operates independently from the Russian state.

MW: In our last interview, you delivered a stirring summary of our current epoch saying:

“I am often reminded of that unsettling line from Alexis de Tocqueville: “I go back from age to age up to the remotest antiquity; but I find no parallel to what is occurring before my eyes: as the past has ceased to throw its light upon the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity.”

With each passing day it seems we are being forcibly severed from our own past. We are being “retrained” to accept a new civilizational model. It’s happening at the local, regional, national and global level. It is tearing apart families.

I do believe we are facing an evil that has no equal in human history.” Edward Slavsquat Substack

Judging from the response, I think there are a great number of people who feel the same as you do… My final question to you is this: Do you still feel as pessimistic as you did then?

RW: Mike, I would like to thank you (again) for that interview—it remains the most-read post on my blog. As you probably recall, the realities of Russia’s “public health” policies lacked “accuracy” (I’m trying to be charitable here) in 2021, and I think our internet exchange paved the way for a more fact-based, nuanced discussion about Russia’s “Covid response”.

Actually, I’m quite optimistic in the sense that I have accepted that there isn’t a 5-dimensional omnipotent white hat Twitter account that will save me from the Western Satanists, and I will have to save myself—which is actually relatively painless, easy, and even fun. I would even describe my current outlook as hopeful. But I fully understand the pessimism of someone who is sick of the US government, or any western government; someone who looks longingly at the Russian government as an alternative.

The problem with this curious way of thinking is that according to official data, around 30% of Russians live on less than $10 a day, Russia is facing a catastrophic demographic crisis (and it’s hard to think of a more basic metric for gauging the health and of a nation), and the Russian government is a fanatical proponent of policies that are chipping away at the last vestiges of basic human dignity. 

But again, I am an optimist. I have been able to connect with like-minded individuals here in Russia, and all over the world, and my life has greatly improved as a result. I am able to live the life I want to live without having to make obscene excuses for the inexcusable.

We should all be guided by truth, friendship, and love, and why the so-called “alternative media” is so obsessed with carrying water for governments who offer the world nothing but more of the same (sadness) is truly amazing. Enough already. We have everything we need.

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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). 

Riley Waggaman is a Moscow-based writer. He worked for Russia Insider, RT, and Press TV. He contributes to Russian-Faith.com and Anti-Empire.com. He writes regularly about Russia on his Substack account: Edwardslavsquat.substack.com

Featured image is from TUR

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*** 

Preface

Once again, as with the war in Ukraine, the Western world’s corporate mainstream media (MSM) Thought Police are hard at work behind the digital curtain spinning their one-sided lies, yellow journalism, arrogance of power and ignorance of the plight of the Palestinians over the past 80 years since the Nakba War in 1948. This includes Zionist settler gang violence, ethnic cleansing, Messianic fanatics and multitude crimes of occupation now followed by the horrendously-unfolding current war between Hamas and Israel. 

It’s a piranha killing field frenzy, especially against the Palestinians, that continues to censor anything and everything that attempts to speak truth to power to contradict the diatribe of the West’s MSM’s approval of the Zionist’s ideological version of the ‘war news’ and actual reality of what is transpiring on the ground.

It’s as nauseating as it is obscene. Yet another harsh, sobering reminder of the extent to which Canadians and Americans, like citizen everywhere else in the so-called ‘free world’, continue to accept the pablum they’re being force fed by the corporate press, naively believing that all of what they’re receiving is part of an open and free democracy when just the opposite is the case.

In 2023, the masses continue to be led down the garden path like compliant zombies, wearing all manner of comfortable fur-lined handcuffs they’ve allowed to be placed on all their minds, with slave chains of golden bling wrapped tightly around their every free thought.

Now its over whatever contentious, unpleasant, unacceptable Palestinian topic goes against the grain of the approved dictums of the “Thought Police”. The multitude of lies by the West’s MSM around the war in Ukraine, and now the same lies around the war in Palestine and Israel, are two most recent examples writ large.

80 Years Ago Many Knew How the Nakba in Palestine One Day Would End

Enough is Enough! After 80 years, one human being’s lifetime, the world and Human Race have reached another one of those milestone moments of critical mass in their sad, tragic, pathetic evolution together upon this earth. No turning back now to the way life once was between Israel, Palestine, Gaza and, indeed, the world at large.

Only more martyrdom and ethnic cleaning everywhere. The Human world still the same ugly, nasty, violent place it always has been. But the haunting whisper continues to repeat, “Never Forget The Horrors of The Nakba!”

The Palestinian people, like many humans before them, are now at that point of critical mass in their existence that all Humans reach, as they inevitably must, once they’ve come to that fatal tipping point where they have absolutely nothing left to lose besides their lives and those of their loved ones. Given this situation, they will try to regain something of the last remaining vestiges of their basic human dignity. 

So, they’ve now risen up and are resisting, at whatever the costs, the outrageously-heinous actions of Israel and equally heinous supportive actions of its U.S. and Western allies. What continues to unfold amounts to yet another historic Nazi Holocaust moment in the making, another Warsaw Ghetto. This time it isn’t against Nazis in occupied Poland. It’s against Zionists in occupied Palestine and Gaza.

 Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Freedom Fighters Marched Out for Execution (Licensed under the Public Domain)

But this struggle isn’t just for the Palestinians, but for all of us, because it represents the same basic, defiant, last gasp of human hope for help that continues to be everywhere heard on earth by all those oppressed ones who find their own necks hopelessly jammed beneath the same bestial, Nazi-like jackboots of their oppressor.

When Nazi Germany’s blitzkrieg invaded Poland, kicking off the onslaught of WWII, it culminated in the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto and massacre of brave, defiant Jewish Freedom Fighters of all ages in Warsaw and millions more throughout the world.

There were no other answers for any of them in Warsaw in 1943, just as there are no other answers for the Palestinians and the rest of us in 2023 but to throw all caution to the wind and strike out, strike back, as futile as it may be, and resist, at all costs, the new Holocaust being perpetrated against us all in Gaza, Palestine, Israel, Ukraine and everywhere else. 

Coming on the heels of the equally heinous war in Ukraine, it now seems highly likely that the human crises happening everywhere in the world can only but lead to a WWIII with even more disastrous consequences for the human race; brought about like so many other world wars that have come and gone before, without ever any real final resolution.

God, Allah, Heaven, Help Us! Because We Humans Are Incapable of Doing It Ourselves!

One Man’s Truth Speaks Out Against All the Madness

A Jewish friend and associate recently wrote:

From the beginning of the massacre in the south I came out against the heinous crime, but despite this I continue to receive threats and insults and accusations as if I was responsible for it and not the government of atrocities. Why?

Because I refuse to go with the mobs of instigators who seek revenge and not a solution, bloodshed and not security, humiliation and not peace. These bloodthirsty people are driven mad by my pain for all those who were or are being killed, whoever they were or might still be, and not only for the Jewish ones. It is my insistence on a political solution of ending the occupation, reaching a peace that will end the violence, which drives them crazy.

I will not give up! I will continue to raise my voice and fight for the liberation of the Palestinian people from their enslavement, an enslavement which is not only a terrible injustice but is also killing us all.

One more thing. My dear friend who was recently murdered was a proud leftist, a supporter of my Hadash Party. I knew many of those who already have been massacred and murdered, they were my companions and fellow activists.

I often get nasty and threatening messages for protesting such violence. “May you and your fellows be killed by your Arab friends!”, they say. “So, you got your wish,”, I say back, “You vile hypocrites!”

I continue in the face of so much violence to say, “Yes, to Palestinian independence! No to War! Yes to a Just Peace! No to Violence! Yes to Equality!

Epilogue

The Jewish people gained their freedom, independence and a new homeland from the Nazi terror of the Holocaust by the United Nations of the world who allowed them to rape, pillage and steal the same freedom, independence and homelands of the Palestinians.

The blood now is on their hands. It’s time now to begin to wash off some of that blood and not spill more blood and further persecute but help the Palestinians gain back some of their own much beloved freedom, independence and homelands from the Zionist terrorists of the Nakba who originally stole it. 

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The writer Jerome Irwin is a Canadian-American writer who originally was a Criminology student working in one of America’s local police departments. For decades, Irwin has sought to call world attention to problems of environmental degradation and unsustainability caused by a host of environmental-ecological-spiritual issues that exist between the conflicting world philosophies of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples.

Irwin is the author of the book, “The Wild Gentle Ones; A Turtle Island Odyssey” (www.turtle-island-odyssey.com), a spiritual odyssey among the native peoples of North America that has led to numerous articles pertaining to: Ireland’s Fenian Movement; native peoples Dakota Access Pipeline Resistance Movement; AIPAC, Israel & the U.S. Congress anti-BDS Movement; the historic Battle for Palestine & Siege of Gaza, as well as; the many violations constantly being waged by industrial-corporate-military-propaganda interests against the World’s Collective Soul. The author and his wife are long-time residents on the North Shore of British Columbia.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Nakba 1948 Palestine – Jaramana Refugee Camp, Damascus, Syria (Licensed under the Public Domain)

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*** 

The USA is further strengthening its forces in the Middle East region. After sending the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford and bolstering air assets in the region, they are also deploying the 101st Airborne Division to Jordan.

US sources said Israel would need more ammunition and missiles. That is why they are transferring to its ownership all the quantities of American weapons that are in warehouses in Israel.

However, a study by a think tank in Bahrain, where the 5th Fleet is based, showed that it is possible that Israel will have to fight on five fronts.

Washington sent the 101st Airborne Division to Jordan!

Amid the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Washington sent the 101st Airborne Division, which is the most combat-ready unit of the United States Army, to Jordan.

Along with this, sources say that members of the US Special Operations Forces arrived in Israel along with CIA operatives.

In addition, Washington is sending yet another aircraft carrier to the area of potential hostilities. One aircraft carrier is already within striking distance of the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Specifically, John Kirby, the representative of the National Security Council, stated in his statements that a second US aircraft carrier will be in the Mediterranean in the coming days.

According to Kirby, the aircraft carrier that will be in the Middle East in the coming days is the Dwight D Eisenhower, which will start “on a long and planned trip” that will take place next week and “will be where it’s needed.”

JUST IN: White House's John Kirby advises Americans who want to leave Israel to take a commercial flight, even as all U.S. airlines have suspended flights from Israel's main airport. WATCHpic.twitter.com/iWIfkfThvS

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) October 11, 2023

Russia: Get out of Israel!

At the same time, the Russian ambassador to Israel, Anatoly Viktorov, called on Russians to leave the country without waiting for the situation to worsen.

During a discussion on the current Arab-Israeli conflict at the Valdai International Debating Club, he suggested that his compatriots take advantage of the available scheduled flights.

“My strong recommendation … is to use the services of Russian and existing foreign air carriers that continue to provide their services now,” the diplomat said.

Viktorov added that in case of any other development of events, the embassy will not leave any of its citizens unattended.

Moscow, meanwhile, has proposed removing civilians from the Gaza Strip. According to Aliya Zaripova, press secretary of the Russian mission to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the list included citizens of Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova and Palestine.

In total, there are 400 people, of which 280 are Russians.

Earlier, the German Foreign Ministry scheduled the removal of citizens from Israel by special flights on October 12 and 13. Poland, Thailand, India, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Hungary and others have already begun evacuating their citizens.

The Iranian Guards Will Support Hezbollah Against Israel

According to Russian sources, Iran may enter into an armed confrontation with Israel on the side of the Shiite movement Hezbollah in the framework of a joint operation.

Thus, a significant territorial expansion of the conflict that has erupted in the Middle East cannot be ruled out.

So far, Iran has refrained from directly participating in hostilities, limiting itself to a humanitarian mission. Tehran, together with Cairo, organized the provision of aid to the Gaza Strip, mainly medicine and food.

According to the Russians, it cannot be ruled out that the United States, together with Israel, will try to provoke Iran’s dynamic involvement in current events, thereby undermining Tehran’s ability to resolve local conflicts without the use of military force.

Analysts See Risk of War on Five Fronts for Israel

In the near future, Israel is threatened with the outbreak of hostilities on five fronts simultaneously. This is the conclusion reached by analysts from the Le Beck special center operating in Bahrain at the base of the 5th Fleet, reports Bild.

Fighting with the Palestinian Hamas movement operating in the Gaza Strip is already underway.

Now the situation on the border with Lebanon has worsened and the Hezbollah movement may go to war with Israel.

In addition, the Palestinians of the West Bank are likely to join the war and the entry of Syria and Iran into the war is likely. Analysts stress that the conflict will be long-term and constantly escalating.

The Palestinian issue is one of the cornerstones of the state ideology of Iran, as well as Syria. It is clear that in the context of the development of the Israeli military operation in Gaza, Iran will not be able to stay on the sidelines.

Probably, the first thing that will happen is that Israel will attack Iran’s  “proxies” in Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen, as well as the IRGC (Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps).

According to representatives of a Bahraini think tank, Israel is still afraid to openly blame the Iranian authorities for the attack on the country, as they understand that such an accusation would actually drive Tehran into a corner and give it no room for maneuver.

Then Iran’s entry into the war will simply become inevitable.

As long as Israel does not exceed certain limits in relation to Iran, the latter may refrain from direct participation in hostilities, since, in turn, it fears the entry of the United States and NATO into the war.

But how the events will unfold is still completely unclear.

Footage showing the recent launch of Rockets out of the Gaza Strip and their Interception by Iron Dome Batteries. pic.twitter.com/ChBJYRHgKU

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) October 11, 2023

Israel is preparing for full-scale war. In underground parking lots they have set up hospitals with hundreds of beds. pic.twitter.com/ESR1eOfvIA

— NOELREPORTS 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 (@NOELreports) October 11, 2023

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This article was translated from Greek.

All images in this article are from WarNews24/7

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*** 

Waste from the oil and gas industry contains toxic and radioactive substances. Disposal of this waste is supposed to be carefully tracked, but 800,000 tons of oil and gas waste from Pennsylvania oil and gas wells is unaccounted for, according to a recent study.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University initially set out to investigate whether sediment in rivers and streams near landfills accepting higher volumes of oil and gas waste contained higher levels of radioactivity. But they discovered significant problems with the records meant to track this waste.

“We set out to write a different paper,” Daniel Bain, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and one of the authors of the study, told Environmental Health News (EHN), “but once we got into the records, we realized there was no hope of being able to meaningfully do this kind of assessment.”

The study, published in the journal Ecological Indicators, compared records on Pennsylvania’s oil and gas waste from 2010-2020, and uncovered significant gaps between what oil and gas operators reported they’d sent to landfills and what the landfills reported receiving. The records were so different, the researchers couldn’t find a single case where the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Oil & Gas Report figures on this hazardous waste matched reports from the landfills receiving it.

This type of waste often contains toxic chemicals and carcinogens, including high levels of heavy metals like arsenic, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and radioactive materials. Previous research has shown that radioactive contaminants from fracking waste can linger in local waterways and wildlife for decades.

“You assume the people regulating hazardous waste would be double-checking these records,” Bain said. “We thought they could be off by maybe 10% — we didn’t expect anything like this.”

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*** 

An independent inquiry has heard shocking allegations of how SAS soldiers engaged in a “widespread and systematic pattern of unlawful extrajudicial killings” – which were known at the highest levels of the UK government, even in Downing St, but covered up for years.

The judge-led inquiry was forced on a reluctant Ministry of Defence (MoD) after allegations surfaced repeatedly in the media before families of Afghans killed by SAS troops, including the execution of Afghan males of “fighting age” between 2010 and 2013, took the claims to the high court.

The inquiry has heard devastating allegations, some of them privately backed at the time by serving SAS troops, that were persistently ignored. Commanders attempted to block investigations by the military police, according to detailed claims backed up by witnesses. 

Computer records of SAS activities are reported to have been permanently and deliberately wiped before they could be shown to military investigators.

The inquiry is particularly significant with the combination of a catalogue of allegations backed up by detailed evidence shedding unprecedented light on the SAS, the least accountable of organs of the British state. 

The SAS – and its naval equivalent, the SBS – are protected by a wall of official secrecy even greater than that protecting the security and intelligence agencies, MI5, MI6, and GCHQ.

The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee has been refused the ability to question the SAS even though Britain’s special forces are operating increasingly closely in operations involving the intelligence agencies.

So determined was the government to protect the SAS that it insisted that the regiment should not be mentioned in the inquiry despite it being regularly referred with the unofficial backing of the MoD.

Special Forces

An agreement was reached whereby Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, chairman of the inquiry, and government lawyers would refer, in their evidence, only to British “special forces”. However, the media and lawyers for the Afghan families can refer specifically to the “SAS”.

Despite promises from the MoD that it will cooperate fully with the inquiry, evidence will be heard in secret when it is deemed necessary to protect “national security”. The inquiry’s terms of reference do not include the examination of intelligence available to the SAS even though its operations are described as being “intelligence-led”.

The inquiry this week heard accounts of the alleged killing of 80 Afghans in SAS night raids including an operation on 7 February 2011 when SAS troops shot dead nine Afghans, including a 14-year-old boy, while they were sleeping. Only three AK47 assault rifles were recovered after the nine had been killed.

“We anticipate the evidence from the families will be that they were shot in bed, most likely when asleep,” Oliver Glasgow KC, counsel for the inquiry, has said. He added that photographs of the bodies suggested Afghans may have been shot at close range.

An SAS night raid on 16 February 2011 resulted in four members of one family being killed, including a man described by British intelligence as a Taliban military commander. His family says he was “a student in Lashkar Gah and so could not have been an insurgent,” while the other victims were civilians.

An SAS soldier from another unit said the official description of the episodes was not credible, the inquiry heard. “For what must be the 10th time in the last two weeks,” when an Afghan was sent back “to open the curtains (??) he re-appeared with an AK”, other SAS soldiers commented. 

“You couldn’t MAKE IT UP,” they added. The day after the family members were killed, an SAS sergeant major described the episode as “the latest massacre!”

‘Unlawful Killing’

It was not the only occasion when SAS troops themselves questioned initial explanations of deadly operations. After one complaint was made, a legal officer at SAS headquarters in London is said to have explained that “the aspiration” was “to ‘nip [the allegation] in the bud’ ”. 

Image: Richard Hermer KC (Photo: YouTube)

A common feature of the raids was that a large number of Afghan males were killed but very few weapons were recovered. Richard Hermer KC, counsel for the families on Wednesday, described the allegations as “of the utmost gravity”. 

“Evidence that the practice of unlawful killing or at the very least suspicion that this practice was taking place, was known to senior officers and senior personnel at the MOD who not simply did nothing about it (itself unlawful) but in some circumstances actively sought to prevent adequate investigation”, he told the inquiry.

He said the documents also show that “the existence of serious suspicions of extra-judicial killings were widely known at the highest levels within Government …even in 10 Downing Street”. 

Hermer quoted a letter, dated 19 February 2016, from a top MoD official to the “director general of the prime minister’s office, Simon Case, copying the cabinet secretary and the attorney general explaining that on the basis of ‘information from highly credible Armed Forces sources the RMP [Royal Military Police] are now investigating a number of cases of suspected murder of Afghans by UK special forces’”.

The Afghan families’ “struggle to establish the truth of what happened in the night raids conducted by SAS units in Afghanistan has been hampered over more than a decade by a closing of ranks in the British Army and Ministry of Defence; by a culture of secrecy, self-protection, defensiveness and deference to powerful individuals”, he added.

Hermer said the contents of documents the MoD was obliged to disclose as a result of the inquiry were “both revealing and shocking” with “extensive contemporaneous evidence of suspected extra-judicial killings by the SAS in Afghanistan”. 

Hermer continued:

“They also contain extensive contemporaneous evidence of apparent attempts to cover up that wrongdoing, ranging from the destruction of evidence and the coaching of witnesses to the turning of blind eyes and the credulous acceptance by those responsible for military discipline of implausible and often wholly incredible accounts of events. The documents are extensive, detailed and extremely disturbing.”

Review of Army Culture

Hermer said:

“The Bereaved Families’ personal experiences are fundamental to this Inquiry, but they form part of a much bigger, institutional question at the core of the Inquiry’s terms of reference – how the British military conducts itself on operations abroad; how and whether it maintains the discipline, order and lawful behaviour of its soldiers; and what that means for the reputation of the United Kingdom in the international sphere. 

“Proper accountability must therefore involve not only the soldiers on the ground but also those who were responsible for their management and oversight. It must reach beyond the prosecution of criminal suspects to encompass a root and branch review of the culture, practices and oversight of special forces, to establish how such wrongdoing was allowed to occur and continue unchecked, and what changes are required to ensure it can never happen again.”

He described how official reports of one SAS raid allege that shots were fired from within a guesthouse. However, the circumstances were highly suspicious. The bullet holes on the walls of the guesthouse were in clusters close to ground level, supporting the suggestion that the men were in bed when they were shot.

“The positions of some of the weapons in the scene photographs also suggest that this could be an example of ‘dropped weapons’ – the practice of soldiers planting weapons next to bodies to make it appear that unarmed men they had killed had in fact posed a threat to life. Another example of what became an all too familiar story…the number of bodies far exceeded the numbers of weapons apparently found.”

Shot Dead

In another raid, on a family’s compound, SAS troops instructed everyone to go outside. Hermer told the inquiry that an Afghan named Saifullah was held with the women and children, where he was searched, blindfolded and handcuffed for 1-1.5 hours. During this time, he heard bursts of shots being fired. 

When the SAS unit left, he found his father, Abdul Khaliq, dead in one of the rooms, with gunshot wounds to the head and leg. Mr Saifullah’s cousin, Ahmad Shah, was found dead in a neighbouring family home, with gunshot wounds to the neck. 

Several hours later the bodies of Mr Saifullah’s two elder brothers, Saddam and Atta Ullah, were found. They had been shot dead in fields near the Saifullah family home.

“Most of Mr Shafiqullah’s deceased relatives were found in the room where they would have been going to sleep and they appeared to have been killed while either lying or sitting down. Mr Shafiqullah’s uncle Zabiullah was found dead under duvets and bedding.”

Knowledge of Wrongdoing

Hermer continued:

“Documents disclosed in the judicial review proceedings indicate that successive Directors of Special Forces – whom we know to be Lieutenant General Jonathan David ‘Jacko’ Page and Sir Mark Carleton-Smith – had knowledge of serious suspected wrongdoing by the SAS, but failed to ensure that this was passed to the RMP and failed to take any steps to investigate that wrongdoing and prevent its recurrence.

“Not only that. There is evidence of a concerted attempt amongst senior offices in the UK higher headquarters of Special Forces to deliberately ensure that such information was withheld from the RMP [Royal Military Police]. 

“When the RMP finally did learn of the suspicious incidents and began an investigation, staff at Special Forces higher headquarters sought to stymie the progress of that investigation by obstructing access to important evidence. Who knew about this obstruction, who sanctioned it, who carried it out and what motivated it, are all critical questions for this Inquiry.”

‘Culture of Lawlessness’

The military police received further allegations of extra-judicial killings from current serving British officers including at least one who claims to have been an eyewitness to murders and cover-ups by UK special forces.

Hermer said MoD and army disclosures from the judicial review preceding the inquiry contained “alarming documents which point to a wider culture of lawlessness, operational misconduct, failure of leadership and disrespect for basic human dignity within the SAS unit in question”. 

He added:

“That evidence includes reports of ‘a policy of ‘blooding in’ new members of Special Forces; inter-sub-unit ‘rivalry’ and competition in relation to the number of ‘kills’ achieved on operations; the collection and retention of ‘trophy weapons’ and the presence of ‘indecent images of children’ on the server of the unit in question which in itself may be thought a revealing insight into the mindset of members of the unit in question who possessed that material and the timidity (at best) of those charged with investigating that undoubted criminality.”

Hermer said the evidence included serious expressions of concern and anxiety by the military police that there was a risk that members of the SAS would subject the family of a whistle-blower to violent reprisals for having divulged the misconduct of a SAS unit involved in the raids misconduct to the RMP.

As one senior special forces officer put it, it was as though “a cancer had infected” the SAS unit.

‘Morally Corrupt Culture’

Evidence disclosed by the MoD “strongly suggests that a disturbing, lawless and morally corrupt culture pervaded the SAS unit in question”, Hermer also told the inquiry.

He said:

“These issues cannot properly be examined without considering the role and impact of the secrecy in which the activities of UK special forces are shrouded. Secrecy about operational tactics and techniques may well be necessary to safeguard national security and preserve operational effectiveness. But the wider secrecy surrounding the activities of UK special forces may also have potent and untoward side-effects.

“Secrecy can operate as a shield to external scrutiny and accountability. And it can imbue those within the veil of secrecy with a sense that they are special; that the ordinary rules of conduct and norms of human behaviour do not apply to them; and that they are unlikely to be held accountable for their conduct. Secrecy can therefore lead to a sense of exceptionality and impunity.”

Hermer warned:

“And a sense of impunity can in turn easily enable a culture in which human life and dignity are devalued and in which insidious values and behaviours take root. In short, while secrecy may be necessary in respect of certain aspects of Special Forces operations, it may well also act as a catalyst to the types of toxic culture and behaviour which ought to be anathema to the UK’s armed forces.”

Oliver Glasgow told the inquiry earlier this week:

“Let there be no misunderstanding amongst those who have something to hide. This Inquiry will use all the powers at its disposal to get to the truth it will use all its powers to ensure that anyone who seeks to frustrate or impede the progress and conclusion of this Inquiry will be prosecuted.”

Haddon-Cove may publish an interim report next year. The evidence and allegations already heard by the inquiry suggests that the MoD has not learned from previous inquiries about British military operations in Iraq. 

The MoD admitted during a public inquiry into the death of Baha Mousa, an Iraqi who died in the custody of British troops, that British soldiers indulged in “prohibited and unlawful” activities. The high court described the refusal of the MoD to conduct its own proper inquiry into what became known as the Battle of Danny Boy in Iraq as “lamentable”.

This inquiry into SAS operations in Afghanistan may just provide the evidence that will lead to root and branch reform of the culture and training of the British army.

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Richard is a British editor, journalist and playwright, and the doyen of British national security reporting. He wrote for the Guardian on defence and security matters and was the newspaper’s security editor for three decades.

Featured image: British soldier in Afghanistan (Crown Copyright, 2013)

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Tel Aviv on October 12 carrying out a mission to pledge unending military, economic and diplomatic support from Washington.

Since October 7, when Palestinians launched a widespread offensive against the settler-colonial regime in Israel, the administration of United States President Joe Biden has been scrambling to minimize the impact of the obvious colossal intelligence failure by the Israeli government and its heavily funded security apparatus.

The developments in Occupied Palestine are indeed a major attack on U.S. foreign policy in West Asia. Billions of U.S. dollars are spent annually to shore up the oppressive system against the Palestinians and other peoples throughout the region.

Biden in his statements since October 7 has attempted to convince the people that no U.S. political path exists other than providing unconditional support to the State of Israel. However, if a full-scale regional war erupts in Palestine and neighboring states, he will be faced with yet another proxy conflict which cannot be won by imperialism.

During the period after the commencement of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, the Biden regime set out to destroy the national economy of the Russian Federation. Not only has the Russian economy maintained its vigor, Moscow, as an important world center, has enhanced development efforts with countries and geo-political regions throughout the world.

Following the lead of Washington, the European Union (EU) announced that they would suspend all economic assistance to the Palestinian people. Such a decision was made absent of any consultation with the Arab and Muslim governments in West Asia and North Africa. The role of the U.S., Britain and the EU illustrates the racist instincts which favor the continued dominance of imperialism and Zionism over the Palestinian people.

Blinken in his press conferences delivered from Tel Aviv, expressed no sympathy or understanding of the Palestinian question. He repeatedly emphasized that Washington would stand behind the Zionist state forever.

Nonetheless, even inside the U.S. and Western Europe, there have been mass demonstrations and rallies held in defense of the Palestinians. These manifestations are occurring despite the fact that almost all television, radio, online and print media agencies based in the imperialist countries are heavily slanted towards the ideological viewpoints emanating from the State of Israel.

Creating Confusion over ISIS and the Axis of Resistance

The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) was engineered by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its western counterparts during the period of U.S. occupation in an effort to undermine the burgeoning alliance of an Axis of Resistance forces in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, speaking from the same platform as Blinken, that Hamas must be destroyed just like ISIS.

The reality is that the U.S. designed ISIS and the earlier al-Qaeda as operational mechanisms to perpetuate imperialist dominance across the Asian and African continents. A recent series of military coups which received popular adulation in three West African states, were prompted by false promises made by the French foreign services to eradicate the “terrorist” groups that are offshoots of al-Qaeda and ISIS based in the Sahel.

In regard to Palestine, like any other oppressed people, the population has an inherent right to self-determination, independence and sovereignty. The politico-military successes over the last two decades in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria as well as Palestine, have nothing to do with the imperialist schemes which have resulted in the dislocation and destruction of well over 100 million people. In 2023, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) documented the largest number of displaced persons in recorded history.

As the resistance forces in West Asia become even more emboldened in their struggle against Zionism and imperialism, the U.S., Britain, EU and all of the states operating within the North Atlantic Treaty Organizing (NATO), will continue to pursue desperate policies that result in the institutionalization of human suffering. The reality is that the U.S. State Department has nothing positive to offer the peoples of West Asia and indeed the world.

Violations of International Human Rights Law in Palestine

Perhaps the most outrageous supposition being advanced by the Biden administration is to call upon the people of the U.S. and the world to ignore the gross human rights violations being carried out against the Palestinians under the guise of “fighting terrorism.” The president has told the people of the U.S. and the world that Washington is committed to even greater levels of state violence against the Palestinians and anyone else not willing to tow the line of world imperialism.

In an October 12 article written by Omar Karmi and published by Electronic Intifada, it says of the current situation in Gaza that:

“It is not just Gaza that is being leveled to the ground. As the world stands aside, preparing to applaud genocide, the entire structure of the so-called post-World War II rules-based order is being reduced to rubble. What else does it mean when the self-described guarantors of international law in the West – the U.S., U.K. and the European Union – have sanctioned what are patent war crimes? What else does it mean when the so-called international community is willing to set aside the rules of war, the rules of occupation and any and every human rights principle, in order to allow Israel to exact revenge? Make no mistake: what Israel is already doing – cutting off food, electricity, fuel and water to the entire population of Gaza, some 2.3 million people – is a war crime.

What Israel is already doing – the indiscriminate bombing of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, from hospitals to schools and mosques – are war crimes. What Israel is threatening to do – killing ‘every Hamas member’ (what is Israel going to do, identify them by their membership cards?) and perhaps forcibly ejecting the population of Gaza to the Sinai Desert – are war crimes. Lurid headlines, meanwhile, like the ‘beheaded babies’ reports – based apparently on the word of a single soldier in the Israeli military – prepare public opinion for mass slaughter. And preparing public opinion for mass slaughter is exactly what Israel is doing and has been doing for a while.” 

The Biden White House, State Department and the Pentagon are serving as endorsers of these blatant violations of human rights which are genocidal in their political character. It is they who have continued the settler-colonial system in Palestine and its environs.

TOPSHOT – An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer fires rounds near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on October 11, 2023. Israel declared war on Hamas on October 8 following a shock land, air, and sea assault by the Gaza-based militant group. The death toll in Israel has surged above 1,200 following the worst attack in the country’s 75-year history, while Gaza officials have reported 1000 people killed so far. (Photo by JACK GUEZ / AFP) (Photo by JACK GUEZ/AFP via Getty Images)

In another article written by Maureen Clare Murphy on the policy of blanket bombing of homes, schools, hospitals, public and private enterprise in Gaza, it reveals with statistics supplied from various sources noting:

“The United Nations said that there were nearly 340,000 internally displaced people in Gaza as of Wednesday (Oct. 11) evening, with around two-thirds of them sheltering at 92 schools and other facilities run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. Two UNRWA schools being used as emergency shelters were among 18 of its educational facilities hit since Saturday (Oct. 7).

Eleven UNRWA staff members – five teachers, a gynecologist, an engineer and a psychological counselor and three support staff – have been killed since Saturday, the agency said. Four paramedics with the Palestine Red Crescent Society were killed in the past 24 hours when an ambulance was targeted in northern Beit Hanoun. The World Health Organization has recorded 51 attacks resulting in 11 fatalities and 16 injuries among healthcare workers since Saturday…. Defense for Children International-Palestine said on Wednesday that it had confirmed that 105 Palestinian children in Gaza were killed ‘in direct Israeli attacks’ since Saturday. The rights group said that the ‘intensive Israeli bombardment’ throughout Gaza – as well as the lack of electricity and Israeli attacks on telecommunications infrastructure targeting two of the three main lines for mobile communication in the territory – have delayed its verification of the ‘unprecedented rate of daily child fatalities’ recorded by the health ministry.

Palestinian human rights groups said on Wednesday that there were ‘significant killings and injuries among the civilian population, with many still trapped beneath the rubble, beyond the reach of search and rescue teams.’” 

These statistics make a sound case for those with any inkling towards the observation of international human rights law to reject the U.S. government’s policies of genocide against the Palestinians. The people in the U.S. have no alternative than to proclaim their stance in defense of the Palestinians and the rejection of settler-colonialism, Zionism and imperialism.

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

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The World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board condemns the war crimes conducted by the Israeli regime’s homicidal rampage in Gaza, which is being carried out with the full support of the United States and all the imperialist powers. We call on workers and youth throughout the world to mobilize protests to demand these war crimes be stopped.

The aim of the Israeli onslaught is to kill as many Palestinians as possible and to render Gaza dysfunctional and uninhabitable. The Netanyahu regime intends to wipe Gaza off the face of the earth, a fact that is confirmed by the announcement late Thursday that Israel is demanding that the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza evacuate within 24 hours. It is, in effect, sending Gazans on a death march.

This is a genocidal project. There are 2.2 million people in Gaza, which has one of the highest population densities in the world. Half of the population, some one million people, are younger than the age of 18. Trapped from leaving with the closure of border crossings into Israel and Egypt, they face systematic starvation, constant bombardment, and the prospect of an imminent invasion.

Since launching its savage onslaught on Gaza Saturday, the Israeli Defense Forces have dropped 6,000 bombs weighing some 4,000 tons on the enclave. According to Palestinian health authorities, 1,417 people have been killed, half of whom are women and children, but the death toll is undoubtedly far higher. The AP released video of the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, with a population of 116,000 packed into 1.4 square kilometers. The AP noted that the camp had been “razed to the ground” by Israeli airstrikes.

The Netanyahu regime has cut all electricity, water, and fuel supplies to Gaza, an act of collective punishment that is itself a war crime. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Thursday that “hospitals risk turning into morgues” as their fuel-powered generators run out and Israel refuses to open humanitarian corridors to evacuate the seriously ill and injured. Life support for babies in incubators and elderly patients has been turned off.

Chilling remarks from across the Israeli political establishment make clear that these horrendous acts are just the beginning of what can best be described as Operation Mass Murder.

Speaking Wednesday after the confirmation of an emergency government with opposition leader Benny Gantz, Netanyahu stated that “every Hamas man is a dead man.” The militant nationalist group that led Saturday’s assault on Israel won the support of over 400,000 Gazans in the 2006 election, underscoring that Netanyahu would have to order the slaughter of hundreds of thousands to carry out his threat. Gantz was no less bloodthirsty, declaring that it was “time for war” and that Israel intends to “wipe Hamas off the face of the earth.”

These are statements that echo those of the Nazi regime in Germany, whose leaders were hanged at Nuremberg. When the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up in early 1943 against Nazi occupation, followed one year later by the Polish resistance, Hitler’s regime flattened the city in a manner comparable with the destruction of Gaza that is now in its early stages.

The Biden administration and the media, justifying the slaughter, attempt to portray Hamas’ attack on Israeli civilians as an inexplicable outrage, expressing nothing else than “pure evil.” But the fact is that the rebellion was provoked by decades of relentless oppression by the Israeli government against the Palestinians.

Just two months ago, nearly three thousand, predominantly Jewish public intellectuals from all over the world signed a letter under the headline, “Elephant in the Room,” which described the conditions that preceded the attack from Hamas. They referred to “the direct link between Israel’s recent attack on the judiciary and its illegal occupation of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Palestinian people lack almost all basic rights, including the right to vote and protest. They face constant violence: this year alone, Israeli forces have killed over 190 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and demolished over 590 structures. Settler vigilantes burn, loot, and kill with impunity.”

The letter continued,

“There cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid, as Israeli legal experts have described it. Indeed, the ultimate purpose of the judicial overhaul is to tighten restrictions on Gaza, deprive Palestinians of equal rights both beyond the Green Line and within it, annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population.”

All of this is now being deliberately suppressed. A totally false, lying narrative is being concocted, according to which Israel is the victim of Nazi-style attacks from the Palestinians, who in fact have been oppressed and subjected to repeated bombardments and massacres for decades. The Israeli government and its supporters are seeking to exploit the Holocaust to justify their own genocidal crimes.

The Israeli massacre has the full support and encouragement of the imperialist powers in Europe and the United States. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Netanyahu Thursday, as the invasion is being planned, to declare his full support for Israel. Asked in an interview with NBC News whether there were any “red lines” that Israel might cross, Blinken responded that he was “not going to get into any of the operational details, and again, we’re determined to support them.”

In other words, Israel has a blank check for anything it does. In a joint press conference with Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Blinken declared:

“I come before you not only as the United States Secretary of State, but also as a Jew.”

Blinken’s explicit association of his personal religion with his official role as a representative of the US government exposes his indifference to and ignorance of the constitution-based separation of church and state. His statement provides grist for antisemitic propaganda, as it falsely associates all Jewish people with the crimes of the Netanyahu regime.

If he were speaking honestly, Blinken would have said, “I come to Israel not only as US Secretary of State, but also as an accomplice in the destruction of Gaza and the mass murder of Palestinians.”

Blinken’s trip followed US President Joe Biden’s speech Tuesday, denouncing the Palestinian uprising as the expression of “pure unadulterated evil.” Speaking Thursday on the sidelines of the NATO Defense Ministers Summit in Brussels, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that “no conditions” would be placed on how weapons supplied to Israel by the US are used.

As the imperialist powers wage ever more openly a war against the world, even the remnants of bourgeois democracy are being dispensed with. Protests in support of the Palestinians were banned this week across Europe and North America, with participants demonized by the authorities as supporters of “terrorism.”

On the college campuses, right-wing Zionists are attempting to create an atmosphere of terror and threats. Student groups and individuals who have spoken out against Israeli crimes have had their names and personal information released and publicized. At a rally at Brooklyn College yesterday, a member of the New York City Council, Inna Vernikov, showed up brandishing a firearm to intimidate students.

To those who accuse opponents of Israeli crimes of being antisemitic, we say that the Israeli government consists of a pack of fascists. This includes Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has ordered his ministry to purchase 10,000 assault rifles to arm right-wing settler militias. Ben-Gvir had previously been convicted of racist incitement for chanting “Death to Arabs” and for supporting a terrorist group.

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir visits Al-Aqsa, 3 January (Source)

As for the US and European powers, they are aligned with fascists in Ukraine, exemplified in the standing ovation given last month by the Canadian Parliament, along with representatives from all the G7 countries, for Yaroslav Hunka, a veteran of the Ukrainian Waffen-SS, which was responsible for the massacre of Jews under the direction of Nazi Germany.

The Israeli onslaught on Gaza must be seen in the context of the escalating US-NATO war against Russia, the initial stage of world war. The imperialist redivision of the world will assume the form not just of conflicts between countries, but an ever more direct and violent war against masses of people. The ruling elites in all the capitalist countries, moreover, face an intersecting series of economic, social and political crises which they are seeking to divert through an explosion of military violence.

The ruling class believes that the media is presenting public opinion, but support for the Palestinians is widespread among the population throughout the world, and strikes and protests by workers are on the rise in every country. Within Israel, the Netanyahu regime has confronted sustained opposition from the working class over the past year to its drive to gut democratic rights and establish an authoritarian regime.

The working class must intervene to stop the massacre by demanding an immediate halt to the supply of weapons to Israel. Mass protests and demonstrations should be organized in every city and college campus to demand an end to the murderous onslaught.

These demands are inseparable from the broader struggle to put an end to the intolerable conditions faced by the Palestinians and all forms of oppression around the world, which requires the development of a mass movement in the international working class for socialism.

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Featured image: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Oct. 12, 2023. – Secretary Antony Blinken on X

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*** 

Israeli leaders have not just responded to Hamas’s Saturday attack with bombs, bullets, and the cutting of water, electricity, food, and fuel supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip. 

Senior Israeli politicians and military officials have deployed a barrage of dehumanising and incendiary rhetoric in public and used the language of collective punishment when describing their military response.

Palestinians have been described as “human animals” and “beasts”, with one former Israeli general saying his military “must create an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Gaza”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other politicians have spoken in apocalyptic terms about enacting revenge.

“We will destroy them and we will forcefully avenge this dark day that they have forced on the state of Israel and its citizens,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

“All of the places which Hamas is deployed, hiding and operating in, that wicked city, we will turn them into rubble. I say to the residents of Gaza: leave now because we will operate forcefully everywhere.”

The residents of Gaza, who number over two million, are subject to an air, land, and sea blockade and have nowhere to go.

Israelis have also been subject to fierce criticism, with the space for nuance severely restricted.

Political analyst Akiva Eldar told Al Jazeera that Israelis like him, who in the past has been critical of the Israeli occupation and government, have been abused online and branded as “traitors”. 

Figures on the Israeli far-right have argued for the reoccupation of Gaza, the establishment of settlements there, and the banning of Muslims from the al-Aqsa mosque complex, known as Temple Mount to Jews.

The use of dehumanising language is not new. Menachem Begin, Israel’s sixth prime minister and the founder of Likud, the party now led by current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referred to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a “beast on two legs”. 

More recently, in the wake of a violent rampage by Israeli settlers through the Palestinian village of Huwwara in February, Israel’s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said:

“The Palestinian village of Huwwara should be wiped out. The state needs to do it and not private citizens.”

As of Thursday, over 1,350 Palestinians and 1,300 Israelis had died in the ongoing war.

The Israeli air force has been hitting Gaza with air strikes since Saturday, blowing apart refugee camps and destroying dozens and dozens of civilian buildings, including residential homes, mosques, hospitals, and banks.

Over the last six days, Israel has vowed to retaliate in a variety of ways, with officials including Netanyahu branding Hamas, whose fighters have reportedly killed children and other civilians during their attacks, “worse than Isis (Islamic State)”. 

Here, Middle East Eye looks at some of the comments that have been made by Israeli officials. 

A Second Nakba

On Saturday, Ariel Kallner, a member of Israel’s parliament representing the Likud party, called for a second Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) to take place in Gaza.

Israeli Member of Knesset, Ariel Kallner called for a second Nakba to take place via X, formerly known as Twitter, amidst intensifying airstrikes between Palestinian fighters and Israeli forces on Saturday night and the early hours of Sunday thus far pic.twitter.com/e6CUbZePIb

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 8, 2023

The word refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias to make way for the creation of Israel in 1948.

“Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of ’48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join! Their Nakba, because like then in 1948, the alternative is clear,” Kallner wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

“Turn off the enemy now! This day is our Pearl Harbor. We will still learn the lessons. Right now, one goal: Nakba!”

‘Human Animals’

On Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant described Palestinians as “human animals” and vowed to “act accordingly,” as fighter jets unleashed a massive bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip. 

Gallant announced a “complete siege” of Gaza, saying Israel would cut off all electricity, food, and fuel supplies to the enclave. On Wednesday, Gaza’s only power plant stopped working.

The air, land, and sea blockade, which has gone on for more than 15 years, has had a catastrophic impact on hospitals and Palestinians who have been displaced after the bombing of their homes.

‘Unprecedented Human Disaster’

Former Israeli General Giora Eiland has said that Israel “must create an unprecedented humanitarian disaster in Gaza”, saying that the “ultimate tool” is damage to the water system.

“Only the mobilisation of tens of thousands and the cry of the international community will create the leverage for Gaza to be either without Hamas or without people. We are in an existential war,” Eiland said.

Cutting water to the Gaza Strip has raised concerns over the spread of disease as thousands of displaced Palestinians gather in schools to seek shelter, with no access to toilets, showers, or drinking water. 

Medical officials in Palestine have said the situation could eventually lead to an outbreak of scabies, while Palestinians have said the situation is particularly difficult for women and young girls. 

On Wednesday, social media platforms were awash with women in Gaza shedding light on the impact of Israel’s bombardment on women.

According to one social media user, five pregnant women suffered from severe colic, later causing them to miscarry their babies. The miscarriages have been attributed to the extreme fear felt by the women while Israel pummelled the besieged enclave.

The UN estimates that food and water supplies in Gaza will run out in less than 10 days.

Reoccupy Gaza

Hamas’s war crimes have given the Israeli far-right an opportunity to advance their “messianic agenda” beyond the Israeli army response in Gaza, argues Yehuda Shaul, co-founder of anti-occupation Israeli veterans’ group Breaking the Silence.

This includes the reoccupation of Gaza and the establishment of Israeli settlements there. In an article on Wednesday, right-wing journalist and activist Arnon Segal wrote:

“Who dreamed even last week that there would be a wall-to-wall agreement in the Israeli public that the Gaza Strip should be reoccupied?” 

Segal argued that it was only in “such terrible circumstances” that Israel’s leaders would decide to reoccupy Gaza, “from which we fled 30 years ago”. 

Israel has called up 300,000 reservists and is mobilising along the perimeter fence that separates the besieged enclave from the rest of the world.

‘Doomsday Weapon’

Israeli member of parliament Revital Gotliv called on Israel to consider using nuclear weapons on Hamas, in a social media post on Monday.

“Jericho missile! Jericho missile! A strategic alert, before we consider introducing our forces. A doomsday weapon!” she wrote. 

Jericho missiles refer to an intermediate-range ballistic missile developed and produced by Israel. The weapons have a 4,800-6,500 km range and are reportedly equipped with a 750kg nuclear warhead.

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

The politician called on Israel to “shoot powerful missiles without limit. Not flattening a neighbourhood. Crushing and flattening Gaza.”

Reduce Gaza to ‘City of Tents’

On Wednesday, an Israeli army official told Channel 13 News that “Gaza is going to be razed to the ground”.

The official added that the besieged enclave would be reduced to a “city of tents”.

The official said that no building would remain standing in the region. 

Similar comments were later made by US Senator Lindsey Graham, who told Fox News: “We are fighting a religious war, and I am on Israel’s side. Israel needs to do whatever it takes, raze this place to the ground.” 

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

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

The HRW announcement came as Israeli forces continue to bombard Gaza from air, land, and sea in an assault that has killed more than 1,500 Palestinians, including at least 500 children, in retaliation for Hamas’ surprise infiltration of Israel and killing of over 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians.

BREAKING: Israel has used white phosphorus in military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, putting civilians at risk of serious and long-term injuries.

White phosphorus causes excruciating burns and can set homes afire. Its use in populated areas is unlawful.https://t.co/TbCVA5Qynp pic.twitter.com/4UKANHTwI2

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) October 12, 2023

As HRW explained Thursday:

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

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

“Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering,” HRW Middle East and North Africa director Lama Fakih said in a statement. “White phosphorous is unlawfully indiscriminate when airburst in populated urban areas, where it can burn down houses and cause egregious harm to civilians.”

The israeli regime is using internationally-prohibited white phosphorus to bomb Gaza’s Sea Port & cause maximum suffering @OnlinePalEng pic.twitter.com/GuLkWbp52T

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) October 11, 2023

“To avoid civilian harm, Israel should stop using white phosphorus in populated areas,” Fakih added. “Parties to the conflict should be doing everything they can to spare civilians from further suffering.”

HRW previously accused Israel of war crimes for using WP munitions in densely populated areas—including over a United Nations school—during the 2008-09 Operation Cast Lead invasion of Gaza. In response to a 2013 petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice filed by human rights groups including HRW, the Israel Defense Forces said it would no longer use WP in populated areas, with “very narrow exceptions” that it would not disclose.

Israel used white phosphorus, an illegal chemical weapon, against Palestinians in Gaza, @HRW confirms.

White phosphorus causes severe burns upon contact with skin—burns on just 10% of your body can be deadly. Israel’s use of it on civilians is a blatant war crime.

— IMEU (@theIMEU) October 12, 2023

Other countries’ militaries also use WP, most notably the United States, which fired the incendiary rounds during the 2004 battle for Fallujah and elsewhere in the so-called War on Terror.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia was condemned for allegedly firing U.S.-supplied WP munitions against Houthi rebels in Yemen. WP and other incendiary weapons have also been used by Syrian government and Russian forces fighting Islamic State and other militants during the Syrian civil war. Turkey has also been accused of firing WP rounds at Kurdish civilians in Syria.

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

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Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.

Featured image: An Israeli white phosphorus round (right) airbursts over densely populated Gaza City, Palestine on October 11, 2023. (Photo: Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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*** 

Israel’s disproportionate responses to the Hamas assault are reaching intolerable levels of violence. The IDF is not only intensely bombing the Gaza Strip and leaving thousands of civilian victims, but also rapidly internationalizing the conflict, with raids against border regions in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, in addition to promoting widespread invasion of settlers into the West Bank. This clearly shows how the Zionist State’s war is strategically unjustified, not being a rational response to the Palestinian attack.

Since the beginning of their “counteroffensive” against the Palestinians, the Israelis have carried out a series of bombings against neighboring countries. Southern Lebanon has been targeted by Israeli missiles under the excuse of deterring Hezbollah’s troops, who many experts believe will soon join the Palestinians in hostilities. The Shiite group has also launched rockets on Israel, making it almost certain that there will soon be a significant escalation on the border, with open confrontation between Hezbollah and the IDF.

The escalation scenario on the Lebanese border does not seem strategically beneficial for Israel. The IDF is already trying hard to confront Hamas, having so far failed to completely expel the group from Israeli territory. Hezbollah is considerably stronger than Hamas and its involvement in the conflict could have serious consequences for Tel Aviv, forcing Israeli troops to fight on different fronts at the same time, weakening their combat capacity.

Despite this, Israel does not really appear to be acting rationally. Tel Aviv’s military moves are not based on strategic calculations. There is a single aggressive guideline to expand Israeli borders and defeat all the “enemies” of the Zionist State at the same time. This is clear considering that there is an incursion by Israeli armed settlers against the West Bank territory, even without there having been any participation by local Palestinians in the Hamas assault.

Several Palestinians in the West Bank have already died, been injured or had their properties confiscated in recent invasions by Jewish settlers. Unfortunately, the situation tends to get worse and worse. If this aggression continues, the impact will certainly be the end of any type of negotiation for a peaceful solution in the West Bank, with hostilities resuming also on this flank of Palestine.

In the same sense, Syria has also become a frequent target of Israeli attacks in the context of “responses” to Hamas. Israel launched a series of strikes against Syrian regions, both to try to dissuade them from helping the Palestinians and to prevent an attempt to retake the Golan Heights. Obviously, these attacks only further increase the possibilities of escalation, with Syrian autonomous military units likely to join the Palestinians in the near future.

And even non-military targets have been destroyed by the IDF. The Egypt-Gaza border region of Rafah has been the target of brutal attacks aimed at preventing the arrival of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, in addition to murdering refugees trying to enter Egypt. The measure has no strategic value, being totally irresponsible and threatening to reverse a historic policy of stability between the two countries. Egypt was the first Arab country to have peace Israel, but Zionist attitudes could end the agreement.

The result of violence is always an escalation of tensions. The more Israel acts irrationally and bombs neighboring countries to prevent them from helping Palestine, the more it motivates these countries to endorse the Palestinians. Egypt has not been intimidated by the attacks and continues to send humanitarian aid to Gaza. In the same vein, Jordan, another Arab country that has a peace agreement with Israel, is firmly voicing support for Palestine. Increasingly, Arab and Islamic nations appear united in a common pro-Palestinian agenda, isolating Israel on the international arena.

Unrestricted support for Israel appears to remain solely with the US and its proxies. This makes the Palestinian conflict yet another center of tension in the current process of geopolitical transition to a multipolar world. Policies of apartheid, expansionism and neocolonialism are being less and less tolerated and exploited peoples are encouraged to react to aggression. In this context, either the hegemonic countries accept to reformulate their policies to adapt to the multipolar reality, or there will be a scenario of war.

It is possible to say that, even militarily weaker, Palestine is in a way winning the confrontation with Israel, as it is being efficient in creating a coalition of countries that support its demands. Pressure on Israel is expanding not only militarily and politically, but also diplomatically and economically. To avoid disaster, Tel Aviv needs to act rationally and agree to negotiate peace on terms mutually favorable to Jews and Palestinians.

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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 Twitter and Telegram. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

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*** 

Gaza’s heathcare system is “collapsing” and overflowing hospitals are just “days away” from completely running out of supplies amid the most ferocious Israeli bombardment ever recorded, Palestinian officials have warned.

Intensive care units (ICUs) across the tiny enclave are beyond capacity, forcing doctors to switch off life-support machines for patients deemed “hopeless cases”. They are doing this to make way for the “unprecedented” influx of newly wounded, Gaza’s deputy health minister has said.

“In our religion and ethics, we shouldn’t do this, but we have no choice,” Dr Yusuf Abu al-Reesh added.

Israel imposed a “total siege” on the tiny enclave after militants belonging to Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, launched a surprise deadly attack on Saturday, killing hundreds of people and taking dozens of people, including Britons, hostage.

Rights groups have warned that the decision to impose a siege on the enclave, which is home to more than 2 million people, constitutes collective punishment and is a violation of international law.

However, Israel’s energy minister, Israel Katz, doubled down on Thursday, saying that nothing would be allowed into Gaza until the hostages were released. The Israeli military, meanwhile, said it was ramping up its heaviest bombardment of the strip. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in the onslaught, half of them women and children. More than 6,600 have been injured. 

The combination is creating a “humanitarian catastrophe”, United Nations officials have warned. As the wounded poured in, Gaza’s health ministry officials said that hospitals, including al-Shifa, the largest in the enclave, had just “days left of supplies”.

Stocks of vital medicines for emergency departments, such as fluids, bandages and surgical instruments, are said to be running out. Water is in such short supply that doctors at al-Shifa have resorted to using an old well.

“We expanded the hospital by 50 per cent, but even that is full, and we are treating people under a tent in the street,” said deputy health minister Dr Abu al-Reesh from the medical complex in the heart of Gaza City, with desperation in his voice. He shared photos of children, drenched in blood, being treated four to a stretcher on the floor.

“There are no places in the ICU. So for the first time, we have to switch off ICU machines for cases which the doctors believe are hopeless, to make space for those who might have a chance of surviving,” he told The Independent. “We are collapsing.”

Click here to read the full article on The Independent.

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Featured image: Some of the wounded at al-Shifa hospital (Gaza Health Ministry)

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*** 

Sep. 5, 2023 (photos above) – Glasgow, Scotland – 28 year old Cheryl Robertson was given a Stage 4 Lung Cancer (ALK-positive) Diagnosis in March 2023 and she died six months later. She had no smoking history. The lung cancer spread to both her lungs and lymph nodes.

Oct. 1, 2023 – UK – 29 year old Hannah Williams was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer 2 months into her pregnancy in June 2023. She gave birth to her daughter Nova on Sep.21, 2023 and died 10 days later on Oct.1, 2023. Diagnosis to death: 4 months.

Sep. 25, 2023 – Rosemont, CA – 42 year old Matt was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in May 2023.

Sep. 23, 2023 – Mt.Crawford – 45 year old Dulcilio Junior Velez was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung cancer in August 2023, started chemotherapy but died one month after diagnosis on Sep. 23, 2023.

Sep. 11, 2023 – Bethlehem, PA – 40s year old Michael Brown is a US Army Veteran who recently lost his sister to cancer and was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer unexpectedly in Aug. 2023.

Sep. 9, 2023 – Ft.Pierce, FL – 40 year old Lindsey Porter is a nurse. She is also a new mom and was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung cancer with brain metastases.

Aug. 29, 2023 – NY – 39 year old Stefanie Frances Lampf Kennedy, a successful real estate lawyer died on Aug. 29, 2023 from a rare, aggressive lung cancer.

Aug. 20, 2023 – Pretoria, South Africa – 24 year old Angie Oeh, Afrikaans rap sensation died suddenly on Aug. 20, 2023 only 6 days after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer.

Aug. 18, 2023 – Reno, NV – 29 year old Ezti Villanueva, who works at the veterinary clinic, was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer after presenting to ER with a collapsed lung and fluid in her chest.

Aug. 17, 2023 – Wilmington, OH – 44 year old Christopher Campbell was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer that had spread to his brain and bones in July 2022. He didn’t respond to treatment and died a year later on Aug. 17, 2023.

Aug. 16, 2023 – Shoals, IN – Police Officer Todd Eckert beat cancer of the voice box which was found in Aug. 2022. In end of May 2023, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer. That’s two cancers in less than one year.

Aug. 15, 2023 – Montebello, CA – 29 year old Michael Zanolini was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer, then developed pneumonia, sepsis and a pulmonary embolism.

Aug. 11, 2023 – Los Angeles, CA – Ziv Bahat was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer and died 6 months later “due to the cancer being extremely aggressive.”

Aug. 7, 2023 – Lively, ON – 45 year old Mike Kusinskis served with the Royal Canadian Navy as a Clearance Diver in Victoria, BC, served his country abroad and at home. He was diagnosed with Stage 4A Lung Cancer in Jan. 2023 (non-smoker). His cancer has spread to the pleura and bones.

July 31, 2023 – Putnam, CT – 30 year old Joshua Slagle was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer just 2 weeks after his 30th birthday.

July 25, 2023 – Dallastown, PA – 36 year old Nick Albert had a seizure on April 20, 2023, and was diagnosed with masses in his brain and lung, Stage 4 lung Cancer. He had brain surgery on April 25.

July 13, 2023 – Washington DC – 30 year old Tiara CT Derouen works at the DMV and is a beautician, who was just diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer with nodules on both lungs.

June 6, 2023 – Maple Ridge, BC – 40s year old Bobi-lyn Radke (Reid) was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer (non-smoker) on March 6, 2023, spread to her lymph nodes, adrenal glands and liver. Her cancer progressed while on radiation therapy and metastasized to her left eye. She died 3 months after diagnosis.

May 28, 2023 – ITV News Anchor 45 year old Emily Morgan died after a 2 month battle with Stage 4 Lung Cancer.

May 26, 2023 – Portland, OR – 40s yo nurse Mara Kieval died suddenly on May 26, 2023 after a “severe health crisis”. She had beaten breast cancer but she was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung Cancer and died 1 month after diagnosis.

May 22, 2023 – Williamstown, NJ – Pam Riebel was diagnosed in Oct.2022 with Stage 4 Lung Cancer with metastases to her brain and pancreas. She responded to chemo as of March 2023 and started Immunotherapy. By April 2023 she had treatment failure, brain tumor returned. By June doctors had nothing more left to offer and she is in hospice.

Click here to read the full article.

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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.

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*** 

The bloodiest hand in the current slaughter of Palestinians and Israelis belongs not to Hamas or the Netanyahu government, but to the West.

Yes, Palestinian fighters carried out a brutal attack at the weekend on Israeli settlements on the edge of the Gaza Strip. But this attack did not emerge from nowhere, or without warning. It was not “unprovoked”, as Israel would like us to believe.

In fact, western capitals know exactly how much the Palestinians of Gaza have been provoked, because those same governments have been complicit for decades in supporting Israel as it has ethnically cleansed Palestinians from their homeland and imprisoned the remnants of the population in ghettoes across their homeland.

For the past 16 years, western backing for Israel has not wavered, even as Israel has turned the coastal enclave of Gaza from the world’s largest open-air prison into a gruesome torture chamber, where Palestinians are experimented on.

Their food and power have been rationed, essentials of life denied to them, their access to drinkable water slowly removed, and their hospitals prevented from receiving medical supplies and equipment.

The problem is not ignorance. Western governments have been informed in real-time of the crimes Israel is committing: in confidential cables from their own embassy officials, and in endless reports from human rights groups documenting Israel’s apartheid rule over Palestinians.

And yet western politicians have time and again done nothing to intervene, done nothing to exert meaningful pressure. Worse, they have rewarded Israel with endless military, financial and diplomatic support.

‘Human Animals’

The West is no less responsible now as Israel steps up its barbaric treatment of Gaza. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant decided this week to deepen the siege on Gaza by stopping all food and power – a crime against humanity.

He has referred to the enclave’s caged Palestinian population – men, women and children – as “human animals”.

Dehumanisation, as history has proved time and again, is the prelude to ever-greater outrages and horrors.

How has the West responded?

President Joe Biden has declared – approvingly – that a “long war” is ahead between Israel and Hamas. Washington seems to relish long wars, which always prove a boon to its arms industries and a distraction from domestic troubles.

A US aircraft carrier is on its way. Officials are already preparing to send missiles and bombs that will be used once again to kill Palestinian civilians from the air, as well as ammunition for Israel’s troops to strafe Palestinian communities during the coming ground invasion.

And, of course, there will be plenty of extra funding for Israel – money that can never be found when it is needed by the most vulnerable US citizens.

Those funds will be on top of the nearly $4bn Washington currently sends each year to an Israeli government of self-declared fascists and ethnic supremacists whose express aim is to annex the last remaining fragments of Palestinian territory – as soon as they can get the green light from Washington.

Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak does not want to be outdone, as Israel inflicts collective punishment on Gaza’s Palestinians and begins to slaughter them every bit as indiscriminately as Hamas did Israeli partygoers at the weekend.

A giant, illuminated Israeli flag was emblazoned on the facade of the best-known home in Britain: 10 Downing Street, Sunak’s official residence. The prime minister has offered “military assistance” and “intelligence”, presumably to help Israel bomb Gaza’s caged population.

Suffer in Silence

The truth is that this moment of catastrophe could never have been reached without western powers indulging, subsidising and providing diplomatic cover for Israel’s brutality towards the Palestinian people, decade after decade.

Without such unstinting support, and without a complicit western media refashioning the land thefts by settlers and the oppression by soldiers as some kind of “humanitarian crisis”, Israel could never have gotten away with its crimes.

It would have been forced to reach a proper accommodation with the Palestinians – not the bogus Oslo accords that were intended only to ensnare the “good” Palestinian leadership into colluding in their own people’s subjugation.

Israel would also have been forced to genuinely normalise with its Arab neighbours, not browbeat them into accepting a Pax Americana in the Middle East.

Instead, Israel has been free to pursue a policy of relentless escalation, sold by the western media as “calm” or “quiet” – until Palestinians try to hit back at their tormentors. 

Only then is the term “escalation” used. It is always Palestinians “escalating tensions”. The permanent state of oppression inflicted by Israel can then be safely acknowledged and relabelled as “retaliation”.

Palestinians are expected to suffer in silence. Because when they make a noise, it risks reminding western publics of how bogus, how self-serving western leaders’ appeals to the “rules-based order” truly are.

‘Back to the Stone Age’

Where does this endless indulgence from the West ultimately lead?

Already, Israel is emboldened to make much more explicit its policy towards Gaza’s two million inhabitants. There is a word for that policy, one we are not supposed to use to avoid causing offence to those implementing it, as well as those who quietly support its implementation. 

Whether by design or outcome, Israel’s starving of civilians, leaving them with no power, depriving them of clean water, and preventing hospitals from treating the sick and wounded – from treating those Israel has bombed – is a genocidal policy.

Western governments know this too. Because Israeli leaders have made no secret of what they are doing. 

Fifteen years ago, shortly after Israel instituted its stifling siege on Gaza by land, sea and air, the then deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, averred that Israel was ready to carry out a “Shoah” – the Hebrew word for Holocaust – on Gaza. If the Palestinians were to avoid this fate, he said, they must keep quiet at their internment.

Six years later, Ayelet Shaked, who would soon be appointed a senior Israeli minister, declared all Palestinians in Gaza to be “the enemy”, and included “its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure”.

She called on Israel to kill the mothers of Palestinian fighters resisting the occupation so they could not give birth to more “little snakes” – Palestinian children.

During the 2019 general election, Benny Gantz, then leader of the opposition and soon-to-be defence minister, campaigned with a video celebrating his time as head of the Israeli military, when “parts of Gaza were sent back to the Stone Age”.

In 2016, another general, Yair Golan, who at the time was the Israeli military’s second in command, described developments in Israel as echoing the period in Germany leading up to the Holocaust.

When asked to comment on Golan’s remark during an interview this year, retired general Amiram Levin agreed that Israel was becoming more like Nazi Germany. “It hurts, it’s not nice, but that’s the reality.”

Blood of Gaza

Western leaders watched through all this: as Palestinian civilians – half the enclave’s population are children – were kept hungry, were denied drinkable water, were refused electricity, were denied proper medical care, and were repeatedly subjected to horrifying bombardments.

From one side of its mouth, the West pretended to agonise about the legal niceties of “proportionality”. From the other side of its mouth, it cheered Israel on. It spoke of “unbreakable bonds”, of “unquestionable rights”, of “self-defence”. 

It echoed figures like Gallant. The Palestinians weren’t humans with agency. They weren’t people striving for their freedom and dignity.

They weren’t a people resisting their occupation and dispossession, as they were fully entitled to do under international law – a right the world celebrates when it comes to Ukrainians.

No, they were either the victims or the supporters of their “terrorist” leaders. As such, they were treated by the West as though they had forfeited any right to be heard, to be valued, to be treated as human. 

Western politicians and media expect the Palestinians of Gaza to stay in their torture chamber, bite their lips and suffer in silence so consciences in the West are not disturbed.

It has to be said. Gaza’s population is facing a quiet, slow path to erasure. And the ones funding it, the ones enabling it, are the US and its European allies. Their hands are the ones drenched in the blood of Gaza.

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Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net

Featured image: A Palestinian child, Omar Alhadeede, the sole survivor of his family, looks at a photo of his brothers, killed by the Israeli bombing on Gaza in 2021. (Image tweeted by Aya Isleem)

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*** 

How depressing and upsetting it is today to recall Benjamin Netanyahu’s arrogance under interrogation about Case 2000, one of the three corruption cases against the prime minister. “This is classified, don’t let it leak, okay?” he said, flattering the police investigators with the magic lure of security secrets. And then he explained his doctrine regarding Hamas and Hezbollah.

“We have neighbors,” he said, “who are our bitter enemies … I send them messages all the time … these days, right now … I mislead them, destabilize them, mock them, and them hit them over the head.” The suspect then continued his lecture: “It’s impossible to reach an agreement with them … Everyone knows this, but we control the height of the flames.” 

This arrogant worldview, so disconnected from reality, isn’t the only thing that blew up in Netanyahu’s face, and ours, on Saturday morning. The other “concept” that collapsed was one many good people warned about: the idea that the leadership of the state could be entrusted to a criminal defendant.

History will judge everyone who lent a hand to this moral distortion – first and foremost the defendant himself and his fanatic supporters, party colleagues, and partners in the governing coalition, but also the media personalities and jurists who mobilized to kosher this abomination.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at an update at the Kirya army base in Tel Aviv, October 10, 2023 (Credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

It will also presumably cast an unflattering light on the 11 Supreme Court justices who refrained from putting their fingers in the dike on the grounds that they lacked the power to do so, while shutting their eyes to the disastrous consequences of their passivism.

• At least 700 Israelis killed, 2,000 wounded; 130 civilians, soldiers held hostage in Gaza
• Four bad options face Israel in the Gaza Strip
• My 62-year-old dad fought Hamas terrorists to free my family. The Israeli state failed us

But even before that history is written, the state commission of inquiry that will have to be formed once the fires die down will have to delve into the prime minister’s priorities and agenda. It will have to examine how many hours he devoted this year to his dangerous justice minister, to the court’s reasonableness standard and to the Judicial Appointments Committee, compared to how many he devoted to his defense minister and the army’s chief of staff; it will have to examine how much attention he paid to the head of Military Intelligence compared to how much attention he paid to his lawyers and PR people.

It’s infuriating to recall that just a few months ago, Netanyahu found time to appear in the Jerusalem District Court to deter a frightened witness, the businessman Arnon Milchan, while Israel’s own deterrence was eroding. Or to recall his refusal to meet with IDF Chief of Staff Herzl Halevi, who sought to warn him about the destructive consequences of abolishing the reasonableness standard, on the day the law doing so was passed. 

It’s impossible to close your eyes to the reality. There’s a clear connection between the corruption trial, the government’s judicial overhaul, and the greatest failure since the Yom Kippur War of 1973, perhaps even since the establishment of the state. 

Admittedly, the intelligence agencies failed inconceivably at foreseeing the actual attack. But they warned Netanyahu time and again in recent months that Israel’s enemies had identified a historic weakness, making the likelihood of war higher than it has been since the Second Lebanon War of 2006.

Yet instead of quelling Justice Minister Yariv Levin, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich due to this danger, Netanyahu prioritized ensuring his personal survival and the integrity of his coalition at the price of capitulating to insane, messianic racists. To this end, he turned his domestic rivals into enemies and systematically destroyed the connective tissue that, with great difficulty, held Israel society together. 

He and his partners in this criminal organization forgot that Israel isn’t Poland or Hungary, but first and foremost a country deeply embroiled in a national conflict. Consequently, it doesn’t have the privilege of entertaining itself with dictatorial games. 

Hamas as Partner

Effectively, Netanyahu’s entire worldview collapsed over the course of a single day. He was convinced that he could make deals with corrupt Arab tyrants while ignoring the cornerstone of the Arab-Jewish conflict, the Palestinians. His life’s work was to turn the ship of state from the course steered by his predecessors, from Yitzhak Rabin to Ehud Olmert, and make the two-state solution impossible. En route to this goal, he found a partner in Hamas.

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” 

The worst terror attack in Israel’s history also strips Netanyahu of his title as “the terrorism expert,” a source of pride ever since he established the Jonathan Institute in memory of his brother Yoni, who was killed during the Entebbe hostage rescue. With its help, he marketed himself for years and eventually reached the Prime Minister’s Office.

Netanyahu learned the lesson of his predecessors Menachem Begin and Olmert and for years, maneuvered skillfully to avoid getting embroiled in a war in which hundreds would die, since he knew that would likely be the end of his road as a politician. But the vertigo of his current term, during which he sacrificed everything for the sake of clinging to power, resulted in “his nightmare scenario coming true,” to quote a man who knows him well.

He has been prime minister for most of the last 16 years, yet what he will be remembered for after he goes is this last devastating year. In a single day, under his reckless leadership, Israel paid a much higher price in blood than it did during the Second Lebanon War, and similar to what it paid during the first Lebanon War in the early 1980s.

Israeli troops driving towards Beaufort Castle in 1982 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Olmert will be credited with destroying Syria’s nuclear reactor and striving to end the conflict with the Palestinians. Begin will be remembered for bombing Iraq’s nuclear reactor and, of course, making peace with Egypt. Netanyahu’s portfolio of achievements is pretty thin, with all due respect to the Abraham Accords.

Not long ago, we marked the 40th anniversary of the cabinet meeting at which Begin announced that he couldn’t go on any longer. Israel was bogged down in the Lebanese quagmire, with fatalities mounting every day, and this overcame him.

“The reason is that with every fiber of my being, I can’t go on,” Begin told his partners in Likud and the governing coalition, who begged him to reconsider. “There are times like that … If I had even a shadow of a doubt that I could go on, I would do so. But it’s not in my power to do so. What does a man need to do if it’s not in his power? … Allow me to go to the president [to resign] this very day. Forgive me, pardon me, grant me atonement. I can’t do it anymore.”

What we need now is for Netanyahu to follow in the footsteps of Likud’s first leader. But you can’t expect any soul-searching from him, and certainly not self-flagellation or shutting himself up at home à la Begin. Soon, any moment now, he’ll be blaming everyone except himself. The poison machine has already started to work.

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*** 

Scott Horton, the editorial director of the Antiwar website, has found further evidence that Hamas is an Israeli-controlled terror organization. Horton points to a recent post at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The article is locked up behind a paywall. However, it is posted on the Archive.org website.

During Netanyahu’s fraud trial, writes Gidi Wewitz, the prime minister is quoted as declaring,

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” he told a meeting of his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy—to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.” (Emphasis added.)

In addition, Bibi admitted (and this is well-documented; see below) that Israel is in the business of undermining its neighbors.

“We have neighbors,” he said, “who are our bitter enemies … I send them messages all the time … these days, right now … I mislead them, destabilize them, mock them, and them hit them over the head.” The suspect then continued his lecture: “It’s impossible to reach an agreement with them … Everyone knows this, but we control the height of the flames.”

Livia Rokach’s Israel’s Sacred Terrorism, based on the personal diary of the second prime minister of Israel, Moshe Sharett, reveals how Israel “never seriously believed in an Arab threat” and engaged in “aggressive policies and continuous acts of harassment” against its Arab neighbors.

Israel’s policy “in its most intimate particulars, is one of deliberate Israeli acts of provocation, intended to generate Arab hostility and thus to create pretexts for armed action and territorial expansion.”

Specifically, Israel has engaged in “Large- and small-scale military operations aimed at civilian populations across the armistice lines, especially in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza,”

These operations had a double purpose: to terrorize the populations, and to create a permanent destabilization… New territorial conquests through war… Political as well as military efforts to bring about the liquidation of all Arab and Palestinian claims to Palestine… (and) Subversive operations designed to dismember the Arab world, defeat the Arab national movement, and create puppet regimes which would gravitate to the regional Israeli power.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, is quoted in the text as stating,

“I have been meditating on the long chain of false incidents and hostilities we have invented, and on the many clashes we have provoked which cost us so much blood, and on the violations of the law by our men—all of which brought grave disasters and determined the whole course of events and contributed to the security crisis.”

In 2002, United Press International correspondent Richard Sale wrote “Analysis: Hamas history tied to Israel” after a suicide bombing on a crowded Jerusalem city bus, killing 19 people.

Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years… One U.S. intelligence source who asked not to be named said… Hamas [was] being funded as a “counterweight” to the PLO.

According to Hassane Zerouky, writing for L’Humanité and Global Research, the Israeli military authority in charge of the civilian administration of the West Bank and Gaza allowed Palestinian Islamic groups to receive funding from abroad.

“The military authority was convinced that these activities would weaken both the PLO and the leftist organizations in Gaza.” At the end of 1992, there were six hundred mosques in Gaza. Thanks to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad (Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks) , the Islamists were allowed to reinforce their presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, the members of Fatah (Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine) and the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression.

It would be naive to believe Israel’s Mossad, Shin Bet (Shabak), and Aman (Military Intelligence Directorate) decided Hamas was no longer a valuable asset and thus discontinued its intelligence operations.

Recall the operating motto of Mossad: “For by deception thou shalt do war.”

Finally, to reiterate, one needs to look no further than the remarks of PM Netanyahu to fully comprehend the Zionist plan for ethnically cleansing the Palestinians remains the primary objective of the Israeli apartheid state.

*

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Kurt Nimmo is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from the author

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The Brandon entity yesterday appeared in front of cameras with his script pre-loaded into the teleprompter, behind the authoritative auspices of the White House podium, taking no questions before shuffling off, to claim that he had seen firsthand images of beheaded Israeli children resulting from Saturday’s assault on Israel by Hamas.

Via NBC News:

“President Joe Biden painted a vivid picture of the horrors of the Israel-Hamas war in remarks to Jewish community leaders Wednesday — but the White House later had to clarify his claims.

“I never really thought that I would see and have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children,” Biden said in broader remarks about his administration’s support for Israel amid its war with Hamas and efforts to free American hostages.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for further details about Biden’s remarks. Two senior administration officials said Biden was referring to reports from Israel about beheaded children and cited several media reports of beheadings.”

There was no ambiguity in the highly bombastic and inflammatory claim: Biden said he had seen “confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children.”

You’ll be shocked to learn that he had seen no such pictures and he had received no such confirmation. In fact, the IDF has conspicuously refused to confirm the reported incident – odd, given its access to the scene of the alleged crime and its obvious incentive to report on such atrocities if they had actually occurred.

Who are these decapitated babies? What are their identities? Where are the families?

The total lack of evidence aside from hearsay hasn’t stopped the corporate state media, bolstered by the lies from the White House, from running hog-wild with the narrative.

I can’t emphasize how disappointed I am with conservatives who profess to be skeptical of the Deep State who have suddenly thrown all of their skepticism out of the window for some reason when it comes to war propaganda emanating from the current Israel-Hamas conflict.

Somehow they manage to suspend their disbelief – after decades of war propaganda claims that have proven to be total bunk – in this case.

Not to mention the total lack of skepticism of anything – literally any claim – escaping the lips of a lifelong Swamp politician who was a serial liar before he had dementia.

Lie by lie, the American people – and the people of the whole world – are dragged by their ears into World War III from which nothing, potentially, will survive, save for a handful of cockroaches.

*

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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.

Featured image: Entire neighborhoods have been leveled in the Israeli bombing campaigns. (Photo: Mahmoud Ajjour, Palestine Chronicle)

This article was first published in October 2010.

Author’s Note and Update

US-NATO forces invaded Afghanistan 22 years ago on October 7, 2001. It’s has been a continuous war marked by US military occupation.

In the wake of the withdrawal of US troops, Afghanistan’s assets were confiscated: 

“Exactly a year after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan’s government, the Biden administration said it would not return any of the $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets that it commandeered earlier this year, despite pleas from both human rights groups and economists to help pull the impoverished country out of its economic crisis.”

A once prosperous country has been precipitated into extreme poverty and despair. It’s a crime against humanity. 

According to the UN, Afghanistan is currently experiencing extensive food shortages and famine.

It should be understood that this war started more than 40 years ago in 1979 with the CIA recruitment of jihadist mercenaries (Al Qaeda) funded by the trade in narcotics. 

The endgame was to destroy Afghanistan as a progressive and independent nation state committed to education, culture and women’s rights. 

The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade and occupy Afghanistan under “the doctrine of collective security” (Article 5 of the Washington Treaty) was that the September 11 2001 attacks constituted an undeclared “armed attack” “from abroad” by an unnamed foreign power, namely Afghanistan. 

Yet there were no Afghan fighter planes in the skies of New York on the morning of September 11, 2001. Ironically, Osama bin Laden who had been recruited by the CIA is the early 1980s was held responsible for the 9/11 attacks. 

The article below, first published in June 2010, points to the “real economic reasons” underlying the US-NATO invasion of Afghanistan four weeks after the September 11, 2001 attacks.   

There are geopolitical and strategic dimensions as well as an economic agenda. In addition to its vast mineral and gas reserves including lithium as well as iron, copper, cobalt and gold, Afghanistan produces more than 80 percent of the World’s supply of opium which is used to produce grade 4 heroin, morphine as well as pharmaceutical opioids.

Despite the “formal withdrawal” of US troops in late August 2021, Washington is intent upon retaining its control over the multibillion narcotics trade.  See below:

Washington is also intent upon blocking Afghanistan’s relationship with China and its Belt and Road Initiative. 

The balance of power has shifted.

The geopolitics has changed dramatically since the official withdrawal of US troops in August 2021.

Will the U.S. be able to exert and maintain its control over the Taliban government? Will it be able to maintain its control over the multibillion dollar trade in opioids? 

China for several years has been playing a key strategic role in the development of Afghanistan’s vast mineral resources as well as its transport infrastructure.

A highway linking Afghanistan’s North-East Badakhshan province via the historic “Wakhan Corridor” to China’s Xinjiang Province (Uyghur Autonomous Region) is contemplated. 

Michel Chossudovsky,  October 12, 2023 

*      *      *

“The War is Worth Waging”:

Afghanistan’s Vast Reserves of Minerals and Natural Gas

The War on Afghanistan is a Profit driven “Resource War”.

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

October 2010

The 2001 bombing and invasion of Afghanistan has been presented to World public opinion as a “Just War”, a war directed against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, a war to eliminate “Islamic terrorism” and instate Western style democracy.

The economic dimensions of  the “Global War on Terrorism” (GWOT) are rarely mentioned. The post 9/11 “counter-terrorism campaign” has served to obfuscate the real objectives of the US-NATO war.

The war on Afghanistan is part of a profit driven agenda: a war of economic conquest and plunder,  “a resource war”.

While Afghanistan is acknowledged as a strategic hub in Central Asia, bordering on the former Soviet Union, China and Iran, at the crossroads of pipeline routes and major oil and gas reserves, its huge mineral wealth as well as its untapped natural gas reserves have remained, until June 2010, totally unknown to the American public.

According to a joint report by the Pentagon, the US Geological Survey (USGS) and USAID, Afghanistan is now said to possess “previously unknown” and untapped mineral reserves, estimated authoritatively to be of the order of one trillion dollars (New York Times, U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, See also BBC, 14 June 2010).

“The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and BlackBerrys.

The vast scale of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.

While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.

“There is stunning potential here,” Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said… “There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant.”

The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan’s existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan’s gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.

“This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy,” said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines. (New York Times, op. cit.)

Afghanistan could become, according to The New York Times “the Saudi Arabia of lithium”.

“Lithium is an increasingly vital resource, used in batteries for everything from mobile phones to laptops and key to the future of the electric car.”

At present Chile, Australia, China and Argentina are the main suppliers of lithium to the world market.

Bolivia and Chile are the countries with the largest known reserves of lithium. The Pentagon has been conducting ground surveys in western Afghanistan.

“Pentagon officials said that their initial analysis at one location in Ghazni province showed the potential for lithium deposits as large as those of Bolivia” (U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com, June 14, 2010, see also Lithium – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

“Previously Unknown Deposits” of Minerals in Afghanistan

The Pentagon’s near one trillion dollar “estimate” of previously “unknown deposits” is a useful smokescreen. The Pentagon one trillion dollar figure is more a trumped up number rather than an estimate:  “We took a look at what we knew to be there, and asked what would it be worth now in terms of today’s dollars. The trillion dollar figure seemed to be newsworthy.” (The Sunday Times, London, June 15 2010, emphasis added)

Moreover, the results of a US Geological Survey study (quoted in the Pentagon memo) on Afghanistan’s mineral wealth were revealed three years back, at a 2007 Conference organized by the Afghan-American Chamber of Commerce. The matter of Afghanistan’s mineral riches, however, was not considered newsworthy at the time.

The US Administration’s acknowledgment that it first took cognizance of Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth  following the release of the USGS 2007 report is an obvious red herring. Afghanistan’s mineral wealth and energy resources (including natural gas) were known to both America’s business elites and the US government prior to the US sponsored “Soviet-Afghan war” (1979-1988).

Geological surveys conducted by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and early 1980s confirm the existence of  vast reserves of copper (among the largest in Eurasia), iron, high grade chrome ore, uranium, beryl, barite, lead, zinc, fluorspar, bauxite, lithium, tantalum, emeralds, gold and silver.(Afghanistan, Mining Annual Review, The Mining Journal,  June, 1984).

These surveys suggest that the actual value of these reserves could indeed be substantially larger than the one trillion dollars “estimate” intimated by the Pentagon-USCG-USAID study.

More recently, in a 2002 report, the Kremlin confirmed what was already known: “It’s no secret that Afghanistan possesses rich reserves, in particular of copper at the Aynak deposit, iron ore in Khojagek, uranium, polymetalic ore, oil and gas,” (RIA Novosti, January 6, 2002):

“Afghanistan has never been anyone’s colony – no foreigner had ever “dug” here before the 1950s. The Hindu Kush mountains, stretching, together with their foothills, over a vast area in Afghanistan, are where the minerals lie. Over the past 40 years, several dozen deposits have been discovered in Afghanistan, and most of these discoveries were sensational. They were kept secret, however, but even so certain facts have recently become known.

It turns out that Afghanistan possesses reserves of nonferrous and ferrous metals and precious stones, and, if exploited, they would possibly be able to cover even the earnings from the drug industry. The copper deposit in Aynak in the southern Afghan Helmand Province is said to be the largest in the Eurasian continent, and its location (40 km from Kabul) makes it cheap to develop. The iron ore deposit at Hajigak in the central Bamian Province yields ore of an extraordinarily high quality, the reserves of which are estimated to be 500m tonnes. A coal deposit has also been discovered not far from there.

Afghanistan is spoken of as a transit country for oil and gas. However, only a very few people know that Soviet specialists discovered huge gas reserves there in the 1960s and built the first gas pipeline in the country to supply gas to Uzbekistan. At that time, the Soviet Union used to receive 2.5 bn cubic metres of Afghan gas annually. During the same period, large deposits of gold, fluorite, barytes and marble onyxes that have a very rare pattern were found.

However, the pegmatite fields discovered to the east of Kabul are a real sensation. Rubies, beryllium, emeralds and kunzites and hiddenites that cannot be found anywhere else – the deposits of these precious stones stretch for hundreds of kilometres. Also, the rocks containing the rare metals beryllium, thorium, lithium and tantalum are of strategic importance (they are used in air and spacecraft construction).

The war is worth waging. … (Olga Borisova, “Afghanistan – the Emerald Country”, Karavan, Almaty, original Russian, translated by BBC News Services, Apr 26, 2002. p. 10, emphasis added.)

While public opinion was fed images of a war torn resourceless developing country, the realities are otherwise: Afghanstan is a rich country as confirmed by Soviet era geological surveys.

The issue of “previously unknown deposits” sustains a falsehood. It excludes Afghanstan’s vast mineral wealth as a justifiable casus belli. It says that the Pentagon only recently became aware that Afghanistan was among the World’s most wealthy mineral economies, comparable to The Democratic Republic of the Congo or former Zaire of the Mobutu era. The Soviet geopolitical reports were known. During the Cold War, all this information was known in minute detail:

… Extensive Soviet exploration produced superb geological maps and reports that listed more than 1,400 mineral outcroppings, along with about 70 commercially viable deposits … The Soviet Union subsequently committed more than $650 million for resource exploration and development in Afghanistan, with proposed projects including an oil refinery capable of producing a half-million tons per annum, as well as a smelting complex for the Ainak deposit that was to have produced 1.5 million tons of copper per year. In the wake of the Soviet withdrawal a subsequent World Bank analysis projected that the Ainak copper production alone could eventually capture as much as 2 percent of the annual world market. The country is also blessed with massive coal deposits, one of which, the Hajigak iron deposit, in the Hindu Kush mountain range west of Kabul, is assessed as one of the largest high-grade deposits in the world. (John C. K. Daly,  Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, UPI Energy, October 24, 2008, emphasis added)

Afghanistan’s Natural Gas

Afghanistan is a land bridge. The 2001 U.S. led invasion and occupation of Afghanistan has been analysed by critics of US foreign policy as a means to securing control  over the strategic trans-Afghan transport corridor which links the Caspian sea basin to the Arabian sea.

Several trans-Afghan oil and gas pipeline projects have been contemplated including the planned $8.0 billion TAPI pipeline project (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India) of 1900 km., which would transport Turkmen natural gas across Afghanistan in what is described as a “crucial transit corridor”. (See Gary Olson, Afghanistan has never been the ‘good and necessary’ war; it’s about control of oil, The Morning Call, October 1, 2009).

Military escalation under the extended Af-Pak war bears a relationship to TAPI. Turkmenistan possesses third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran. Strategic control over the transport routes out of Turkmenistan have been part of Washington’s agenda since the collapse of the Soviet union in 1991.

What was rarely contemplated in pipeline geopolitics, however, is that Afghanistan is not only adjacent to countries which are rich in oil and natural gas (e.g Turkmenistan), it also possesses within its territory sizeable untapped reserves of natural gas, coal  and oil. Soviet estimates of the 1970s placed “Afghanistan’s ‘explored’ (proved plus probable) gas reserves at about 5  trillion cubic feet. The Hodja-Gugerdag’s initial reserves were placed at slightly more than 2 tcf.” (See, The Soviet Union to retain influence in Afghanistan, Oil & Gas Journal, May 2, 1988).

The US.Energy Information Administration (EIA) acknowledged in 2008 that Afghanistan’s natural gas reserves are “substantial”:

“As northern Afghanistan is a ‘southward extension of Central Asia’s highly prolific, natural gas-prone Amu Darya Basin,’ Afghanistan ‘has proven, probable and possible natural gas reserves of about 5 trillion cubic feet.’ (UPI, John C.K. Daly, Analysis: Afghanistan’s untapped energy, October 24, 2008)

From the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979, Washington’s objective has been to sustain a geopolitical foothold in Central Asia.

The Golden Crescent Drug Trade

America’s covert war, namely its support to the Mujahideen “Freedom fighters” (aka Al Qaeda) was also geared towards the development of the Golden Crescent trade in opiates, which was used by US intelligence to fund the insurgency directed against the Soviets.1

Instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war and protected by the CIA, the drug trade developed over the years into a highly lucrative multibillion undertaking. It was the cornerstone of America’s covert war in the 1980s. Today, under US-NATO military occupation, the drug trade generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism, Global Research, Montreal, 2005, see also Michel Chossudovsky, Heroin is “Good for Your Health”: Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade, Global Research, April 29, 2007)

Towards an Economy of Plunder

The US media, in chorus, has upheld the “recent discovery” of Afghanistan’s mineral wealth as “a solution” to the development of the country’s war torn economy as well as a means to eliminating poverty. The 2001 US-NATO invasion and occupation has set the stage for their appropriation by Western mining and energy conglomerates.

The war on Afghanistan is  a profit driven “resource war”.

Under US and allied occupation, this mineral wealth is slated to be plundered, once the country has been pacified, by a handful of multinational mining conglomerates. According to Olga Borisova, writing in the months following the October 2001 invasion, the US-led “war on terrorism [will be transformed] into a colonial policy of influencing a fabulously wealthy country.” (Borisova, op cit).

Part of the US-NATO agenda is also to eventually take possession of Afghanistan’s reserves of natural gas, as well as prevent the development of competing Russian, Iranian and Chinese energy interests in Afghanistan.

Notes

1. The Golden Crescent trade in opiates constitutes, at present, the centerpiece of Afghanistan’s export economy. The heroin trade, instated at the outset of the Soviet-Afghan war in 1979 and protected by the CIA, generates cash earnings in Western markets in excess of $200 billion dollars a year.

Since the 2001 invasion, narcotics production in Afghanistan  has increased more than 35 times. In 2009, opium production stood at 6900 tons, compared to less than 200 tons in 2001. In this regard, the multibillion dollar earnings resulting from the Afghan opium production largely occur outside Afghanistan. According to United Nations data, the revenues of the drug trade accruing to the local economy are of the order of 2-3 billion annually. In contrast with the Worldwide sales of heroin resulting from the trade in Afghan opiates, in excess of $200 billion. (See Michel Chossudovsky, America’s War on Terrorism”, Global Research, Montreal, 2005)

 

O recente ataque do Hamas às forças de ocupação israelenses parece ter causado um “choque” aos apoiantes de Tel Aviv. Até agora, muitos cidadãos israelenses e ativistas sionistas em todo o mundo não parecem acreditar que as forças de segurança locais tenham sido realmente incapazes de prever as ações palestinas e impedir a manobra militar inimiga. Teorias de conspiração infundadas circulam online sugerindo que Tel Aviv “permitiu” o ataque, quando na verdade o cenário apenas mostra que a inteligência israelita está justificadamente sobrestimada.

Este foi um fracasso histórico da inteligência israelita, constituindo uma verdadeira mudança de paradigma na história do conflito palestino. Pela primeira vez, as forças da resistência árabe foram suficientemente fortes para quebrar o cerco brutal de Tel Aviv à Faixa de Gaza e penetrar profundamente no território israelita, capturando reféns, eliminando soldados das IDF e bombardeando cidades estratégicas.

O fracasso israelense é tal que algumas pessoas acreditam que há algo por trás das aparências – algum “plano secreto” de Israel para usar a situação em seu benefício. Muitos usuários online sugeriram a possibilidade de a medida ter sido uma operação de false flag israelita para justificar uma escalada do conflito e uma invasão da Faixa de Gaza. Estes teóricos da conspiração acreditam que a inteligência israelita descobriu antecipadamente os planos palestinos, mas simplesmente não os frustrou porque os considerou “estrategicamente interessantes”.

Se analisada de um ponto de vista realista, esta narrativa não parece fazer sentido. O regime sionista nunca precisou de “provocações” para “justificar” ataques à Palestina. As IDF bombardeiam frequentemente o território palestino, mesmo sem que as forças da resistência tenham feito qualquer movimento militar. Além disso, mesmo que eventualmente ocorresse uma false flag, certamente não aconteceria com um ataque de alto nível capaz de desmoralizar as forças israelitas e infligir danos reais ao estado sionista. Com certeza aconteceria algo em pequena escala e estritamente limitado, e não um movimento semelhante ao que o Hamas fez.

Estes pensamentos equivocados devem-se a uma convicção criada ao longo de décadas na suposta “infalibilidade” do sistema de defesa e inteligência israelense. Algumas pessoas começaram a acreditar que Israel é uma espécie de país “inatingível”, e que Tel Aviv tem a arquitetura de segurança mais eficiente do mundo, sendo “incapaz” de cometer erros, o que não é comprovado pela realidade material.

Estas percepções acontecem porque Israel sempre foi muito eficiente em se defender dos seus inimigos regionais, mas isto tem mais a ver com a força dos inimigos de Israel do que com a eficiência das próprias forças sionistas.

Israel sempre lidou com inimigos muito mais fracos. As guerras regionais na Palestina têm sido quase sempre assimétricas, com as IDF a terem uma forte vantagem sobre os seus adversários. Esta assimetria fez com que muitas pessoas pensassem erroneamente que Tel Aviv havia alcançado níveis de eficácia extremamente elevados, tornando-se praticamente “infalível”. Mais do que isso, aparentemente, as próprias forças israelitas acreditaram arrogantemente na sua suposta superioridade e começaram a ignorar os riscos, como pode ser visto no fato de o Egito ter alertado Israel sobre a ameaça de um ataque palestino e ter sido ignorado.

A confiança excessiva nas suas próprias forças fez com que Israel negligenciasse sinais que apontavam para a existência de um plano de ataque palestino. Somado a isso, o desenvolvimento militar do Hamas surpreendeu os israelenses. Em vez de uma gangue mal armada enfrentando os modernos tanques israelenses, o cenário atual do conflito é o de uma milícia com poder de fogo muito mais desenvolvido, possuindo mísseis de médio alcance capazes de atingir Tel Aviv, além de um sistema de drones razoavelmente sofisticado.

O Hamas, em cooperação com os inimigos regionais de Israel, melhorou grandemente as suas capacidades militares e tornou-se suficientemente forte para contornar o sistema de defesa aérea Iron Dome através de lançamentos maciços de foguetes, tornando impossível para Israel neutralizar todos os mísseis. Além disso, é possível constatar que os soldados palestinos estão muito melhor treinados e equipados agora, considerando que até agora Israel não conseguiu expulsá-los completamente do seu território. A força da milícia é claramente muito maior do que Israel esperava, resultando num fiasco da inteligência. E agora Israel recorre a práticas terroristas como ataques a zonas civis, gerando carnificina humana desnecessária.

Na verdade, Israel aprendeu agora que não é infalível e que o seu sistema de inteligência, embora forte, não é o “melhor do mundo”. O caso mostra como a análise estratégica é uma tarefa que deve ser feita por profissionais. Israel é um exemplo de como analistas motivados por emoções interpretam mal os fenômenos militares e produzem narrativas irrealistas que muitas vezes convencem até mesmo funcionários do estado, gerando estratégias e tomadas de decisão erradas.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida

 

Artigo em inglês : http://infobrics.org/post/39571/

 

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

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History and Geopolitics

The extreme geopolitical importance of Russia in global politics and international relations is seen best from the very basic facts about Russian geography. 

The Russian Federation is a state in North East Asia and East Europe which is bordering Norway and Finland in the north, Poland in the north-west, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the Baltics, Belarus, and Ukraine in the west, Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus, and Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, and North Korea in the south.

Russia’s maritime borders meet the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, the Arctic, and finally the Pacific Ocean. The Bering Strait is separating Russia from Alaska in the north-east.

Physically, Russia is the largest country in the world and extends from the Gulf of Finland in the west to Kamchatka in the east, and from the islands of Novaya Zemlya in the north to the Black Sea in the south. Mt. Ural is dividing the European from the Asian part of Russia.[1]

Immediately after the end of the USSR, the Russian Federation embarked on a difficult transition from the Communist command to a free-market economy by freeing prices and introducing measures for privatization and land reform. Potentially of enormous wealth, Russia has rich mineral resources, with huge deposits of coal, iron ore, gold, platinum, copper, diamonds, and other metals. Siberia has the largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas in the world.[2]

When we are talking about Russia, it is necessary to point out the principle of geographical oddity – a large area where there is great natural wealth limitless by natural borders. That is the reason why Russia became the target of aggression beginning with the Mongol raids in the first half of the 13^th century[3] followed by Napoleon’s fatal Russian campaign in 1812[4] and Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.[5] 

The first rule of the Russian policy area was to provide security. This thesis went along with a policy of Peter the Great[6], during the largest acquisition of new territories from all over the world by the Western imperialists.

The Soviet Union was the successor of Tsarist Russia[7], which became after its military victory over Nazi Germany in WWII, a global superpower. This victory, which significantly contributed to the preservation of Western civilization as a whole, meant that the Soviet Union expanded its global influence.

For a few decades, Russia became the center of the wider empire. It was made ​​up of the Soviet Union, a zone of friendly regimes in East and Southeast Europe, close allies in Asia (Vietnam, North Korea, etc.) and Latin America (Cuba). In the more liberal relation to the center of the empire were countries of the Socialist orientation in Africa and Asia who sought release from depending on former colonial metropolises and from the US’ blatant post-WWII imperialism. 

The creation and existence of the empire were possible largely due to the resulting bipolar world order based on the results of WWII, where the main actors were the Soviet Union and the US. This bipolar arrangement was a status quo in power relations both respected, regardless of occasional clashes at the regional level during the Cold War.[8]

Maintaining the position of global superpower, the Soviet Union failed primarily for the reason of not being fully competitive from the technological-military viewpoint as it was unable to compete in the long-term political, economic, and military confrontation with the Western gangsters, especially with the US bandits.

The Soviet competition projects did not help to modernize the Soviet system in the form of reconstruction of the economic infrastructure and the industrial-technological production in the 1980s.[9] The Soviet Union broke apart rapidly in several months between August and December 1991. It officially stopped existing on December 31, 1991.[10]

With the end of the Soviet Union, a post-Soviet Russia returned to the borders which it had at the beginning of the 18^th century. From 1991 onward, on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltics, Caucasus, and Central Asia there have been 14 independent republics with different political systems.[11]

Russia has legally become a succession state of the Soviet Union, but its parameters are significantly different from its ancestor. It remains the biggest country in the world with 17,075,200 square meters, but with a population of 146,001,176 million (in 2004)[12] is classified at eighth place in the world.

Russia’s border length compared to the USSR decreased, but remains with 14,000 kilometers of land border, the longest in the world. The fact is that 60% of this falls on the borders of the previous Soviet republics but these borders were mostly determined by the administrative-political methods without respecting the historical and ethnic aspects which already became a geopolitical global issue.

All these facts have left some trace in the minds of the Russian political elite as evidenced by the words of President Vladmir Putin, who called the disintegration of the USSR a global geopolitical catastrophe as it was indeed. This historical breakthrough many political scientists and experts in international relations refer to as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20^th century.

However, on the other hand, the political elite of Russia realized that although the collapse of the Soviet Union was a historic landmark, it opened up new opportunities that may benefit Russia in both the short and long-term perspective. This so-called “window of opportunity” became a reality because the disintegration of the USSR proceeded without major political and military problems except in the Caucasus.[13]

New Political Forces

Views on newly formed political forces in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union are different. In the West, there is the view that post-Soviet Russia has formed three main groups of political thought: liberal, moderately conservative, and nationalist. Sometimes the separation is reduced to only two groups the neo-patriots and the internationalists who were mainly representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The internationalists, whose main representative was Andrei Kozyrev, acted in a sense as insulation in the “near abroad” and also for the support of the United States on the international scene. The neo-patriots were active in supporting the promotion of Russian interests “near abroad” and insisted on the recognition factor as the main instrument of force in international relations.

In their view, the automatic support of the United States, which according to them practiced internationalism, is not appropriate for powers such as Russia. The reality was of course a bit more complicated. After the collapse of the USSR, many political schools were formed. Some of them were governed primarily by ideological notions and some represented pragmatists. 

The Radical Democrats

The first idealistic school represented a group called. “Radical democrats” who appeared with Yeltsin in the revolutionary period of the 1990s.

The foreign policy line of the group was guided by the logic of totally rejecting the Soviet past and the interests of a small group around the President. Among its best-known representatives were Igor Gaidar, Andrei Kozyrev, Anatoly Chubais, Chernomyrdin Vladimir, and other pro-Western politicians.

Rejection of the socialist past for them meant establishing privileged relations with the West, especially the U.S. The main idea of this school was to as quickly as possible integrate the Russian Federation into the economic, political, and even military structures of the West – the European Union, NATO, the International Monetary Fund, The International Bank Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, G7, and others.

The representatives of this school insisted that Russia must reduce activity of a global nature, which took place in the Soviet period, due to a lack of necessary resources and at the same time make radical changes in foreign policy doctrine.

This group believed that the refusal of the global imperialist policy of the former Soviet Union would help the country acquire new potential for internal reforms and help the restoration of Russia. 

The idealism of this school lies not only in the interest of Russia’s inadequate assessment of the world, and its potential gravity of the problems that Russia inherited from the USSR but also in the importance of a distortion of the West’s policy in post-Soviet Russia. Especially, this school did not understand that Russia’s relations with the former Soviet republics – and especially Ukraine – played a major role in Moscow’s relations with the Western world.

At the same time, they also failed to perceive that Central and Eastern Europe would be in these relationships, a major factor. 

Located in a state of euphoria after the Cold War, the Russian leadership has not been able to adequately formulate priorities on security and foreign policy.

The utopian idea of ​​rapid integration into Western structures has confused the formation of a well-considered foreign policy strategy. The given strategy should be exempt from any neo-imperialist ideal.

Idealist Internationalists

The second group of idealistic internationalists consisted primarily of activists of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and neoimperialists aimed at restoring the Soviet Union in any form. Among their most famous representatives were Gennady Zyuganov, Alexei Podberezkin, Viktor Alksnin, Constantine Zatulin, and Sergei Baburin. Many adherents of this school argue that Russia has a choice only between two alternatives:

1. The dominance of national and state interests over cosmopolitan interests and the independent position of Russia in the international system of nation states.
2. Orientation towards pro-Western values​​.

This school adds great importance to the autonomous nature of national interests, which are considered independent of the political regime, or from the dominant ideology. In foreign policy, this group relied primarily on the isolation of anti-Western values.

*

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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.

Notes

[1] Maria Shahgedanova (ed.), The Physical Geography of Northern Eurasia, Oxford−New York: Oxford University Press, 2008; Mikhail S. Blinnikov, A Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors, New York−London: The Guilford Press, 2011.

[2] А. С. Астахов, Энергетическая политика: Природные ресурсы и национальое богатство, Москва, 2010.

[3] Alan Isaacs et al (eds.), A Dictionary of World History, Oxford−New York, Oxford University Press, 2000, 544.

[4] On this topic, see more in [Adam Zamoyski, 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow, UK: Harper Press, 2012].

[5] On this topic, see more in [David M. Glantz, Operation Barbarossa: Hitler’s Invasion of Russia 1941, The History Press, 2011].

[6] About the life and deeds of Peter the Great of Russia, see in [Robert K. Massie, Peter the Great: His Life and World, Knopf, 2009].

[7] About the history of the Tsarist Russia, see in [Jevgenij Anisimov, Imperatorių Rusija, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras, 2017].

[8] Mike Sewell, The Cold War, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

[9] Chris Miller, The Struggle to Save the Soviet Economy: Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of the USSR, Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2016.

[10] Ian Bache, Stephen George, Politics in the European Union, Oxford‒New York, Oxford University Press, 2006, 551.

[11] About the end of the USSR, see in [David R. Marples, The Collapse of the Soviet Union 1985−1991, New York−Routledge, 2004; А. Ц. Черняев et al, Союз можно было сохранитъ, Москва: АСТ, 2007; Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970−2000, Oxford−New York: Oxford University Press, 2008]. 

[12] Gillian Doherty et all, Usborne pasaulio geografijos enciklopedija ir viso pasaulio atlasas, Kaunas: Šviesa, 2004, 363.

[13] On this issue, see in [Heiko Krüger, The Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict: A Legal Analysis, Springer, 2010; Ohannes Geukjian, Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in the South Caucasus, Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2012; Thomas de Waal, Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War, New York−London: New York University Press, 2013].

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Until now Russia has never been so silent in the middle of a Middle Eastern war.

Russian opinion pollsters are reluctant to reveal how far the country’s public opinion is moving away from Israel towards the Palestinians and the anti-American Arab and Iranian side.

The silence from the Kremlin reveals how thoroughly the Israelis have burned their bridges to President Vladimir Putin, and how far, if silently, the Russian President has moved to the side of the General Staff in their assessment of Israel as hostile – on the enemy front with the Ukraine, the US and NATO. Putin’s pro-semitism, on display in his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for several years, is now impossible in public and also in private.  

The Russian money which has  moved easily between Moscow and Tel Aviv and exercised its influence on Putin’s dealings with the Israelis, is now fleeing back to Moscow with the oligarch, Mikhail Fridman. About Fridman’s flight to safe haven in Russia, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has said:

“Fridman is a citizen of the Russian Federation. He can come back, live here, leave here, just like any other citizen of the Russian Federation. There is nothing unusual.”  

About that, the Speaker of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, said something more unusual.

“Anyone who left the country and engaged in reprehensible acts, celebrating gunfire on Russian territory and wishing victory to the Nazi Kiev regime, should realize they are not only unwelcome here, but if they do return, Magadan [the gulag] is waiting for them.”  

From a policy of equivalence and equivocation between Israel and the Arabs, Russia has reached the policy of engagement on the Arab side. The driver has been the US war to defeat and destroy Russia through the Ukraine. The longer the new Palestinian war lasts, the more clearly Russian military and political strategy in the Middle East will pursue a new anti-American line.

The consequences are as great as the defeat of the US and NATO which Russia is now inflicting in Europe, and of the western sanctions war in the global commodity markets and the trading lanes at sea.  

“We are witnessing a sharp deterioration of the situation in the Middle East,” Putin said in his public welcome for Iraq’s prime minister, Muhammed Shia al-Sudani, at the Kremlin on Tuesday morning. “I think that many will agree with me that this is a clear example of the United States’ failed policy in the Middle East, which tried to monopolise the settlement process, but, unfortunately, was not concerned with finding compromises acceptable to both sides, but, on the contrary, put forward its own ideas about how this should be done and put pressure on both sides, truly both — first on one, then on the other.

“But each time without considering the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people, bearing in mind, first of all, the need to implement the decision of the UN Security Council on the creation of an independent, sovereign Palestinian state.”

The Foreign Ministry followed Putin later in the afternoon, when the regular weekly briefing by Maria Zakharova was advanced several days early in order to report there have been direct negotiations with the leaders of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Arab League, Iran, and Turkey – not with Israel.”[1]

“The US bet on the ‘freezing’ of the status quo and the promotion of ‘economic peace’, as well as the use of collective formats tailored for crisis response, has not justified itself,” Zakharova said. “Everyone sees the result…The statements of American politicians and public figures calling for ethnic cleansing in the region look monstrous.

“They openly call for one group of people [to be] near-doomed to complete destruction. Once again, aggression, violation of the rule of law, and the caveman’s hatred have emerged on the surface of the American declarations of good looks and human rights dogmas.”

In the first direct Russian warning to the  US Navy force in the Eastern Mediterranean,  Zakharova added:

“So far we see that the situation is developing along the path of escalation. There is a great risk of involving third forces in this conflict. And this is fraught with long-term consequences for the region and for the world.”

Putin followed in the evening on the telephone with the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The need for an immediate ceasefire by both sides and the resumption of the negotiation process was emphasised,” according to the Kremlin’s communiqué. “Mutual readiness to actively contribute to this was expressed…Separate issues of Russian-Turkish cooperation in various fields were also touched upon.”  

Erdogan’s press release was more revealing. He and Putin had “touched upon what initiatives can be taken to meet humanitarian needs in the region, as the Turkish president told Putin that targeting civilian settlements is worrying and Türkiye does not welcome such moves.” Erdogan’s twitter announcement adds: “President Erdoğan and President Putin of Russia also exchanged views on potential initiatives to meet humanitarian needs in the region.”  

President @RTErdogan spoke by phone with President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

The two leaders discussed the alarming course of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the measures to prevent the escalation of the tension.

President Erdoğan and President Putin of Russia also exchanged…

— Presidency of the Republic of Türkiye (@trpresidency) October 10, 2023

This is a hint that Erdogan and Putin are contemplating a Turkish ship convoy of aid to Gaza, protected from Israeli attack by the Russian Navy from its Tartous base on the Syrian coast, and by the Russian Air Force from Hmeimim. This humanitarian operation by sea would aim at breaking the blockade of the coast by the Israelis, and running the gauntlet of the USS Gerald Ford and its squadron further offshore.

If this operation, a reminder of the Gaza Flotilla of 2010, is in planning now – the open signals are warning Washington and the US Navy to expect it – then the confrontation, and the risk to the US and Israel, of strategic defeat at sea, are unprecedented.

The planning of Russian military protection of seaborne humanitarian aid convoys to the Gaza also extends to Egypt.

This was touched on in the conversation which Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry had with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. That was followed by Egyptian press disclosure of Israeli warnings, following by bombings, to stop Egyptian trucks delivering aid into Gaza across the Rafah land bridge at the southern end of Gaza.

An alternative Egyptian option is a naval convoy. If this will be coordinated through the Kremlin and the Russian Defense Ministry with an Erdogan-Putin plan of a Turkish convoy sailing from the north, the escalation to regional and superpower level will have materialised before the Israeli invasion of Gaza can preempt it.

The Russian Defense Ministry has not been silent towards Israel in the past. Since the ambush by the Israel Air Force of the Russian Il-20 surveillance aircraft, and the killing of its 15-man crew in September 2018, the General Staff has said it has been reserving its moves against the Israelis while identifying them as the enemy.  

Vzglyad, the Moscow platform for Russian military and security thinking, editorialised on April 17, 2023, that in siding with the Ukraine during the Special Military Operation, the Israeli government had become Russia’s adversary:

“The time has come to take a new position on the Palestinian issue. To take the celebration of Al-Quds Day to a new level, as well as to take a more pro-Palestinian position in the Middle East conflict. To stand on the side of those who help Russia within the framework of their own interests (Iran, Saudi Arabia) against those who help our enemies. And thereby to send a very clear signal to the world – a signal that Russia will treat its partners exactly as they treat it. To help supporters – and not to act in the interests of opponents.”  

The creation of a humanitarian corridor was explicitly mentioned in the Foreign Ministry briefing on Tuesday.

“Tensions are rising in the West Bank of the Jordan River. There are high risks of the conflict spreading to the area of the Lebanese-Israeli border and drawing new parties into it. A large-scale humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes. The main thing now is to cease fire and stop the bloodshed.

“We support the efforts of interested parties aimed at solving this priority task. This would make it possible to avoid new victims, end the suffering of the civilian population, ensure its evacuation through humanitarian corridors and prevent the situation from sliding into a region-wide humanitarian catastrophe. This is not just a crisis or an emergency. We are talking about the fate of millions of people.”

Spokeswoman Zakharova also struck at the CIA and the Pentagon for their surprise defeat by Hamas.

“How did it happen that in a year; that’s how much time the operation was being prepared for, then carried out now in a few days, the United States as Israel’s closest ally did not warn about this? They have satellites everywhere, appropriate tracking devices, military bases, including in the region.

“There are all the possibilities to carry out, not just monitoring, but surveillance — the facts speak for themselves — of all information circulating on American-made equipment (hardware and software). For the whole year of preparing such a large-scale operation, the United States with all the power of its special services did not transmit anything to Israel as intelligence…How did it happen that during the whole year of preparation of the corresponding operation in the Middle East, the United States did not transmit any information to its partners in Israel?”

By contrast, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said,

“for two months at the end of 2021 and two months at the beginning of 2022, the United States at all levels told how Russia would  ‘attack’ Ukraine. This was done specifically to create an information backdrop in order to divert the eyes of the whole world from how, for all these years, the United States and their NATO colleagues (primarily the United Kingdom) have been pumping Ukraine with weapons and creating the anti-Russia project, an anti-Russian springboard…

“After the corresponding instruction from Washington, a multiple increase in the shelling of Donbass by the regime of V.A. Zelensky followed.  Then, in late 2021-early 2022, the US ‘knew everything’ and told everyone. But in the area of their direct responsibility — the Middle East has always been one of them — in relation to the closest ally over which the American protectorate is carried out, the US special services, the State Department and the White House did not transmit any information necessary for self-defence.”

The first public indication of how Russian military intelligence and the General Staff assessed what had happened surfaced in Vzglyad on Sunday.   

“Those who were previously perceived as peasants in woven slippers, capable at best of blowing up a bus stop, destroyed one of the myths about the state of Israel in a few hours,” Yevgeny Krutikov concluded after itemizing the weaknesses of Israel’s defence lines, over-confidence in its technology, and under-estimation of Arab capabilities.

“The IDF [Israel Defence Forces] was in a coma…Thus, Israel has suffered losses more important than just tragic losses in manpower and equipment. The Palestinian attack has destroyed the idea of how the Israeli security forces are organised and how capable they are.

“It has turned out that the Israeli security forces rest on the laurels of the victories of past generations. Intelligence and counterintelligence are ineffective, and the Israeli military has been asleep through the changes in combat tactics taking place during the contemporary conflicts right now.”  

In a personal Telegram post, Krutikov spelled out the consensus of Russian military staff thinking at present:

“1. The IDF and the Mossad were completely unprepared. There is no primary protection system and the garrisons of the border posts were fast asleep on Saturday on the  [Simchat Torah religious] holiday. The Arabs on foot, slowly, reached the unguarded positions of the Jews. The very idea of these posts was nonsense.

2. They don’t know what drones, air defence systems and all of this are at all. The Iron Dome is a fiction. They’ve been living in some kind of fantasy world for the last few years.

3. Everything about Israel is a myth. There is no such defence system, there is no such intelligence. Their PR is solid.

4. Either the Arabs were trained in a special way, or they somehow unexpectedly evolved into a new form of life. The operation was planned for at least a year, taking into account all the new trends…

5. A huge amount of weapons from the Arabs could not fall from the sky. How did it get there? Again, we convey our warmest greetings to the Israeli mother of intelligence.

6. Tactical training is completely absent as well as the vaunted patriotism.

7. Exceptional cruelty is a sign not only of this region. God is dead, including the Jewish God.

8. Where else will catch fire?”

In a last line intended to be an ironic echo of the Orthodox Jewish belief in the apocalypse, Krutikov wrote:

“Truly, the last days are coming.”  

The reporter, who has served in the field as a GRU officer, reported in Vzglyad on Sunday:

“It is clear that Israel is technologically stronger. If it follows that, sooner or later, such a degree of destruction of Gaza will be achieved,  that Tel Aviv will be able to call a victory, nevertheless the Arabs have already achieved the main thing: they have destroyed the myths around Israel’s defence systems, and this moral victory is much more important than the purely military counterattack that the Jewish state is now organizing against them.

“Furthermore, the events of these days may reshape the entire military-political structure of the Middle East, and lead to the emergence of new alliances and new front lines. Against the background of all other world events, this is almost the most terrible thing that could happen.”

Late on Tuesday, US time, a NATO veteran of the Afghan war cast doubt on what the Israeli offensive will be able to achieve in Gaza.

“The Israelis don’t have the staying power to dig through, let alone occupy, Fort Gaza. Now, thanks to the bombing, they’ve turned it into a giant improved defence complex. It’s sure to be laced with tunnels and other underground workings well-stocked with food, water, medical supplies, weapons, ammunition, etc. We can bet those workings crisscross the border with Egypt. We can also bet that, no matter how nervous General Sisi [President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, right] is, there is certainly Egyptian support where it counts now.”

“The Israelis are said to be mobilising 300,000 reservists. How long can such a mobilisation last before it tells on the country’s economy? The US, after nearly exhausting its arms stocks, and a great deal of treasure, on the war against Russia via the Ukraine, has little to show for it. How will ‘giving Israel all it needs’ to slog through the ruins of the Gazan death trap work out any better?”

“All of this goes without counting what the Russians, Turks, Iranians, Lebanese in the form of Hezbollah, and others, may do. If the Russians launch a blockade-busting run with the Turks, will the Americans and Israelis risk a nuclear exchange trying to stop them?”

*

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Note

[1] Late on Tuesday evening in Moscow, the Israeli ambassador to Russia, Alexander Ben Zvi,  was admitted on his request to an interview with Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov at the latter’s reception room at the ministry. The Russian communiqué indicates the Israeli official was warned the proposed  IDF plan to destroy Gaza, occupy the territory,  and cleanse it of “human animals”  — was “fraught…with the most devastating consequences for the humanitarian situation in the region.”  The Israeli press has not reported Bogdanov’s warning to Ben Zvi;  the Israeli had been telling Tass hours earlier: “when we declared a state of war with Hamas, we meant that the state of war implies everything, including a ground operation,” Ben Zvi said. “When will it begin? Right now certain work is being done so as not to make any hasty steps. It is necessary, of course, to analyze things thoroughly. What is needed? How should it be done? I cannot rule out that it will not happen, either. It is possible that it will happen. I don’t know, it is to be decided at the army level.”  He then told a meeting with Moscow Jews that Israel is not targeting all the Palestinians of Gaza: “this war will continue as long as Hamas exists as a terrorist organization, and we will have to pay with more and more casualties. In order to prevent this, we need to destroy all these terrorist cells of Hamas.”  

Featured image is from Dances with Bears

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[Published with expressed written consent for Benjamin Roberts (Copyright © Oct 2023. Benjamin Roberts & EMS (LLC))]

***

Just days ago, on October 2, 2023, I forwarded correspondence to the Nobel Peace Prize at their email contact page site on their awarding of their prize to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their having ‘saved lives’ with their breakthrough feat of providing humanity the Covid-19 M-RNA vaccine.

As what I submitted to them was typed into a comment box on that contact page, I have no way of retrieving that document, once submitted. As such I will attempt to paraphrase what was communicated to them, along with a request that they contact me back with any queries they might have, subsequent to what I shared. And based on what I shared they should have serious follow-up queries or comment. But as of now I have heard nothing back from them. Here is what I recall saying:

I am taken aback and quite disappointed that you would think it appropriate in awarding your prize to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for having ‘saved lives’ for their work on the Covid-19 M-RNA vaccine technology.

There is no evidence this synthetic therapeutic saved lives, though that claim continues to be made ‘ad infinitum.’ I would point you to two documents that should have you seriously reconsidering your choice for this award. The first is a document generated by the United States FDA at their in-house ‘Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee October 22, 2020 Meeting Presentation’ on the eve of the roll-out of the vaccines.

The document is titled: ‘FDA Safety Surveillance of Covid-19 Vaccine: DRAFT Working list of possible adverse event outcomes.’ This document, available at their site in early 2021 when I accessed it, and to date still currently available, lists 22 serious side-effects likely to result from inoculation. And in fact, given the gravity of these conditions that result, it is too kind to call them side-effects.

They should be more suitably referred to as ‘health disabling conditions’, with ‘death’ being one of the listed.

Hardly a criterion of recognition for having ‘saved lives.’

And subsequent to the implementation of these vaccines these ‘side effects’/’disabling health conditions’ have presented themselves starkly and with discomfiting regularity in real life for the vaccinated populace, only to be foolishly and recklessly dismissed time and time again as due to ‘underlying conditions.’ How utterly misleading.

Second is a document put out by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), which is their review of CDC data on deaths related to the pandemic for the years 2021-2022.

This document titled: ‘Share of Covid-19 Deaths by Vaccination Status, 30 Jurisdictions In the U.S., September 2021 to August 2022, Age 18 and Over.’ Incidentally this novel document magically appeared within months of me taking the CDC to task for their lack of responsibility in failing to provide a version of their highly-regarded MMWR detailing Covid-19 deaths for the unvaccinated vs.  vaccinated.

This document, in its chart presentation shows that in the Fall of 2021 most deaths from Covid-19 was in the unvaccinated ranks. However, after a robust vaccination campaign in 2021 and the early part of 2022 with close to 70% of the American populace vaccinated, we then see a marked shift, with the majority of those deaths occurring not in the unvaccinated but rather those who had gotten their first round of Covid-19 vaccines [note these subjects were considered only ‘partially vaccinated’]. If they died within two weeks of their 1st dose and within two weeks of their 2nd dose they were classified as being ‘unvaccinated’ This questionable system of classification means the actual percentage of ‘vaccinated deaths’ is even much higher than the chart claims.

When put together, these two sources of sobering information leave no doubt that your Nobel Prize selection committee made a grave error in the selection of these two individuals to be awarded your prestigious prize. Finding this valuable information required a moderate degree of diligence on my part, and it is my assumption that an agency such as yours that prides itself on excellence, would have employed a higher level of due diligence of Covid-19 vaccine review in implementing your award.

The question is this: ‘Is your Nobel Prize Committee, in making its selection, an unwitting participant in a misinformation exercise, or are you well aware of the easily accessed information I have provided you? My career background in research science affords me the ability to point out this poor decision on your part. Thank you, and do not hesitate to contact me on this matter.

Yours truly,

Benjamin Roberts B.Sc. MT, ASCP, M. Ac., L. Ac.

*

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*** 

Feb. 2023 – Sydney, NSW, Australia – 42 year old Darious works 5-7 days a week abseiling buildings in construction. He was bodybuilding and training 6 times a week. He had two Pfizer vaccines and barely survived a heart attack 2 weeks later – needed 5 stents put in

• Darious was an extremely fit 42 year old
• 2 weeks after his 2nd Pfizer mRNA, he had a heart attack, 99.3% blockage and had to have 5 stents put in
• he still has chest pains up to 10/10 to this day
• he has been on anti-depressants and has been suicidal

Nov. 25, 2022 – Margaret River, WA, Australia – 51 year old Mark was in peak health and fitness, worked on an Oil Rig as a Supervisor. Had three Pfizer mRNA jabs (Pfizer #1 FH3221, #2 FK6268, #3 1F1056A).

• Got the Pfizer mRNA Booster on March 29, 2022
• started having shortness of breath
• April 26, 2022 hospitalized, April 27 open heart surgery to remove 30-40cm clot that was putting pressure on the heart
• His Vaccine Injury compensation application was denied by Australian govt.

Nov. 25, 2021: Myrtle Beach, SC, Tim – “4 weeks after my last Pfizer vax, these passed through my heart, and I was subsequently life flighted to a Trauma Care Unit where my chest plate was knocked open and these were vacuumed out of my chest.”

Oct. 21, 2021 – Gosford, NSW, Australia – 19 year old Cienna Knowles was a professional equestrian. She got 2 Pfizer mRNA Vaccines (#1: FG3712, #2FG6431) and developed blood clots in the lungs and the heart 

• Cienna had the 2nd Pfizer mRNA on Oct. 21, 2021
• Oct. 24, 2021 she was told she has pulmonary embolism
• Nov. 11, 2021 she was told 3 of 5 arteries in her heart were 100% blocked
• She was put on Eliquis (Apixaban), Pfizer’s anti-coagulant drug

My Take… 

These situations are usually lethal.

According to a Dec.30, 2022 USA Today Fact check, there is NO LINK between Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines and blood clots.

FDA spokesperson Abigail Capobianco also told USA Today Fact Checkers that there is no link.

The COVID Cartel will simply NOT ALLOW a link to be established between Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines and blood clots, nor will it allow any research papers to be published. South Korean researchers tried, and they were forced to return with the “correct answer” a few months later.

That’s why the Australian government is denying all vaccine injury claims involving blood clots and mRNA vaccines.

Eliquis is a blood thinner developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer to treat blood clots.

• Eliquis sales in 2019 were $12.1 billion
• Eliquis sales in 2020 were $14.1 billion
• Eliquis sales in 2021 were $16.7 billion
• Eliquis sales in 2022 were $18.3 billion

AstraZeneca was taken off the market in March 2021 and very few J&J were given out. Both were taken off the market for causing “rare” blood clots.

That raises an interesting question.

What is driving the rise in Eliquis sales to the point where it is the 6th best selling drug in the world? Climate change? Long COVID?

I believe that Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA Vaccines cause blood clots and just like what happened with myocarditis, the true risks of clotting from these mRNA vaccines have been greatly downplayed and suppressed by the authorities.

On October 3, 2023, Biden’s White House announced that the makers of Eliquis will participate in Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” program to “lower prescription drug costs for Americans.

*

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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.

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*** 

It all began in March 2023 with an ear-deafening applause during the inter-parliamentary conference under the theme ‘Russia-Africa in a Multipolar World’ that was held in Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered what was referred to as ‘no-cost deliveries’ of grains to six African countries. This unique promise was consolidated and renewed during the second Russia-Africa summit held in St. Petersburg. Russian media, with its highest public oriented reports and propaganda narratives, keeps on informing its public that Russia feeds Africa and its 1.4 billion population.

Under the auspices of the State Duma of the Russian Federal Assembly on March 20, President Vladimir Putin was the guest speaker at the plenary session. Putin based his arguments for building stronger comprehensive relations on the fact that Africa is increasingly becoming a continent of opportunities, its potential economic attractiveness and, what’s more, it possesses vast resources.

He stressed that

“Russia is reliably fulfilling all its obligations pertaining to the supply of food, fertilisers, fuel and other products that are critically important to the countries of Africa, helping to ensure their food and energy security. We are ready to supply some of the resources to countries free of charge.”

Putin added:

“By the way, let me note that at the same time, despite all the restrictions and limitations, Russian grain, almost 12 million tonnes were sent from Russia to Africa. I would also like to add that Russia is ready to supply to the African countries in great need, at no expense.” (Applause.)

Russia’s Foreign Ministry understands the concern that its ‘African friends’ are desperate for food, and has repetitively offered warm assurances for the ‘no-cost deliveries’ of grains to Africa’s poorest countries. Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, who has been driving the Russia-Africa relations for almost two decades since his appointment in 2004, has also indicated in his speeches ‘free grains’ intended to feed Africa.

Lavrov, during a news conference following the 78th session of the UN General Assembly on September 23, indicated, over the questions relating Russia with Africa, that there were outcries about the Black Sea Initiative.

“It took six months for the first shipment of 20,000 tonnes to get to Malawi and another three months for 34,000 tonnes to reach Kenya. Now we cannot send 34,000 tonnes to Nigeria. They are just rotting there,” he said in his remark to a media question in New York.

On October 9, Lavrov meeting with Secretary-General of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit, recalled that during the Russia-Africa summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Moscow’s decision to “send a free large shipment of grain as humanitarian aid to six African countries that are on the World Food Program list.”

“These are the countries that are most in need of food. These supplies will be completed by the end of the year,” he said, and added that Russia “has already been compensating” for the grain deliveries that reached Africa’s poorest countries that are on the list of the World Food Programme.

Quoting Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev, Russian media Interfax News Agency in early October reported that Russian grain supplies to African countries would start within a month and a half. “We are now completing the work on all documents. I think they will go within one to 1.5 months,” Patrushev told the News Agency.

As reported, President Vladimir Putin said at the Russia-Africa forum in July that Russia was ready to supply from 25,000 to 50,000 tonnes of grain to several African countries free of charge in the coming months. He was referring to supplies to Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Grain delivery will be free, according to the October 6th news report.

According to the Kremlin’s and Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ description, the poorest African countries in need of food supplies include Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Mali, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

Putin had previously announced that Moscow would send up to 50,000 tons of grain to six African countries at no cost.

“We will be ready to provide Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Central African Republic and Eritrea with 25-50,000 tons of free grain each in the next three to four months,” Putin told a Russia-Africa summit in July, adding that his country would also cover the delivery costs.

The biggest question is ensuring food security. African Development Bank (AfDB) President Akinwumi Adesina, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, reiterated that “food aid cannot feed Africa,” stressing that the continent “does not need bowls in hand, but seeds in the ground, and mechanical harvesters to harvest bountiful food produced locally.”

“As far as I’m concerned, we shouldn’t be talking about food security in Africa more than five years from now. There’s no reason for it,” he said, adding: “We have the technology and the financing to do it at scale.”

According to the estimates of the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises, 140 million people in Africa face acute food insecurity. But, Africa would be able to overcome food insecurity within the next five years as the continent has enough financial and technological resources to address the issue, according to Akinwumi Adesina.

In practical terms, Russia is not feeding the entire Africa and its population which stands at 1.4 billion, but only six (6) African countries. Geography documents Africa as consisting of 54 African countries. This can also be confirmed by the African Union. With current developments, African leaders have to make a complete shift, at least change their development paradigm and approach by adopting new measures toward prioritizing agriculture to feed its population.

At the Nairobi summit on Climate Change held in September 2023, primarily to review and systematize possible options for Africa to finance climate change, which invariably relates to agricultural production, African Union Commission head, Moussa Faki Mahamat, went straight to the point in his demand, on behalf of the 54-member states, that the international investment must be “massively scaled up to enable commitments to be turned into actions across the continent of Africa.”

Among most of the speakers at that Nairobi summit, Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki’s remarks seemingly carried different weighty significance. While concluding his talk at the gathering, he reminded of the necessity for Africa to mobilize its own resources rather than extend hands for handouts that may aggravate the existing situation by inviting interference and corrupt practices. Mobilizing inside resources will be enabling and motivating creativity at the level of the continent.

Nevertheless, Isaias Afwerki strongly urged Africans to back away from accepting donations. Rather, better to mobilize resources and get away from this dependency that will definitely compromise everything at the level of the continent.

It is always puzzling that Africa has all the resources, arable lands and huge water resources. Yet, Africa is poor, the majority of the population is wallowing in abject poverty. Unbelievably low standard of living still persists and is widespread across Africa.

But the point here is that African leaders must get down to their tasks to avoid being always rebuked to leave their ‘begging bowls’ at home when travelling abroad. As always trumpeted, Africa is immensely rich. It is rather necessary to broaden engagement with external players in food production and to ensure food security within the context of the current geopolitical situation in the world.

In recent years, the People’s Republic of China has built increasingly stronger ties with African countries and is Africa’s largest trading partner. China has the desire to shift its focus to agriculture and industrialization on the continent. Chinese President Xi Jinping recently unveiled plans to build more manufacturing plants in Africa, ramp up food production there and equip thousands of Africans with vocational skills to support the continent’s agricultural modernization.

At the 15th BRICS summit – a platform hosted by South Africa last August with participation of African leaders, Xi Jinping made a number of concrete proposals including (i) China will launch the Initiative on Supporting Africa’s Industrialization and (ii) China will launch the Plan for Supporting Africa’s Agricultural Modernization.

A Harvard University study led by professor Calestous Juma showed that Africa could feed itself by making the transition from importer to self-sufficiency. African agriculture is at the crossroads. And that, Africa has to focus on agricultural innovation, follow by industrialization, as its new engine for regional trade and prosperity.

According to the United Nations Economic Development Report, Africa is now at risk of being in debt once again, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries. Time and again, Wikipedia also reminds that despite a wide range of natural resources and the human capital, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania.

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Kester Kenn Klomegah, who worked previously with Inter Press Service (IPS), Weekly Blitz and InDepthNews, is now a regular contributor to Global Research. He researches Eurasia, Russia, Africa and BRICS. His focused interest areas include geopolitical changes, foreign relations and economic development questions relating to Africa. As a versatile researcher, he believes that everyone deserves equal access to quality and trustworthy media reports.

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*** 

 

 

 

 

Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, appeared on corporate state media to disseminate perhaps the most overblown war propaganda to date in the already-hyperbolic state of affairs.

“It turned out to be ten times bigger than 9/11. Because, until now, we suffered 900 fatalities, so, proportionally, because the Israel’s population is smaller than ten million people, it’s like having more than 30,000 American fatalities. And, by the way, it’s more dangerous than even, bigger than, 9/11, sadly, I say, because your enemies are 7,000 miles away. Our enemies are 7,000 feet away.”

Let’s pump the brakes there, Sparky.

What is the mathematical alchemy by which one can judge the scale or severity of an attack by a mere assessment of the affected population as a proportion of the general population?

Gilead goes on to saber-rattle about Iran, provoking potentially World War III with this kind of overblown rhetoric now prevalent in corporate state media.

Even if you are supportive of the state of Israel, do you not recoil at this kind of disgusting emotional manipulation of a people still traumatized by 9/11?

If politicians like Gilead had any shame – or fear of political repercussions — they would never consider uttering such tripe on national television. If the American people had any red lines when it comes to Israel’s influence-peddling in the United States, he would be persona non-grata forever for his absurd claims.

Ludicrous comparisons notwithstanding, there are parallels between the Hamas attack and 9/11:

• Both were permitted to occur by respective governing authorities for political convenience
• Both were and will be used as authoritarian power grabs by all governing bodies involved
• Both were and will be used as pretexts for forever-wars for years to come
• Both were and will be weaponized against critics and dissidents with smears of unpatriotism or apologism for terrorists or whatever

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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.

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*** 

The August 1991 countercoup rendered redundant the unsigned Union of Sovereign States Treaty. By September 1, 11 Soviet republics had declared independence. By December 25, all had done so. Meanwhile:    

• August 22 – Russian President Boris Yeltsin purges national security agencies. Gorbachev rubberstamps all decisions.
• August 23 – U.S. President George Bush Sr watches live from Kennebunkport as Yeltsin compels a humiliated Mikhail Gorbachev to read aloud, to the Supreme Soviet, minutes of the Politburo meeting wherein coup-plotters denounced Gorbachev. Yeltsin suspends the Russian Communist Party.
• August 24 – Gorbachev dissolves the Soviet Communist Party’s Central Committee.
• August 25 – Yeltsin seizes Communist Party assets.
• September 1 – USSR’s Armed Force’s Political Directorate closes.
• September 5 – USSR’s Congress of Deputies self-liquidates.
• December 8 – Presidents of Ukraine, Russia and Belarus sign the Commonwealth of Independent States Treaty. A breathless Yeltsin calls Bush panting: “Mr. President the Soviet Union is no more.” (Bush found out before Gorbachev.)
• December 16 – U.S. Secretary of State James Baker arrives in Moscow to finalize nuclear details. 
• December 25 – A live television broadcast shows Gorbachev resigning as USSR President and handing the nuclear briefcase to Yeltsin. Hammer-and-sickle lowers. Tricolor rises. (1)

In his first visit to the USA as Russian President (June 1992), Yeltsin chirped Reaganesque jingles to a joint session of Congress:

“Communism has no human face. Freedom and communism are incompatible…Today the freedom of America is being upheld in Russia.” (2)

Yeltsin asked Bush for a statement describing Russia as an “ally.” Bush demurred. (3)

Yeltsin on 22 August 1991 (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

The 1992 US Freedom Support Act earmarked $400 million for aid to post-Soviet states. A separate Cooperative Threat Reduction Program financed decommissioning of nuclear arsenals. These allotments were supplemented by European aid and by clandestine funds. Additional Western aid spooled through the World Bank and IMF. Yeltsin pleaded for aid while expressing fears of appearing dependent.

With the August 1991 countercoup Western intelligence services secured a lock on the executive chambers of the Russian state, and strengthened their influence over Russian media and civil society. The countercoup did not, however, accomplish their ultimate aim, which Satter, describes as:

“…to reach a ‘point of no return,’ beyond which it would be impossible to restore socialism regardless of the will of the people.” (4)

Privatization hit jarring turbulence January 2, 1992 when neoliberal zealot, Deputy Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, removed price controls. Gaidar’s “shock therapy” proved wildly unpopular. Russians joked “where’s the therapy?”. In December Yeltsin nominated Gaidar for Prime Minister. Parliament balked. (5)

In March 1993 Yeltsin decreed a period of “special rule” which his own Vice President, Alexander Rutskoi, wouldn’t countersign. Parliament and the Constitutional Court quashed numerous such decrees. Yeltsin responded by summoning a “constitutional committee.” A parliamentary impeachment vote fell just shy of the needed two-thirds support. Another impeachment vote loomed. (6)

On August 31, Yeltsin, sporting an Airborne beret, attended military exercises outside Moscow. The inspected units consisted of a handpicked tank brigade and Defense Minister Pavel Grachev’s former stomping-ground, the 106^th Airborne. During the exercises ‘Mercedes’ Grachev flanked Yeltsin. Days later, Yeltsin fired VP Rutskoi, who, alongside Legislative Chair, Ruslan Khasbulatov (both former Yeltsin allies) would lead opposition to the 1993 Presidential Coup. (7)

In September 21, Yeltsin read Decree 1400 on a nationwide television broadcast. Decree 1400 dissolved parliament and stripped parliamentarians of immunity. It suspended both the Constitutional Court and key sections of the constitution. (8)

Yeltsin during the signature ceremony of the START II in Moscow, 3 January 1993 (Licensed under the Public Domain)

There is no doubting Decree 1400’s criminality. Even Short acknowledges it was illegal, and that Yeltsin knew this. (9) Colton, in his go-to biography, Yeltsin, confirms Yeltsin: “had no right to resolve a deadlock by ending a session of parliament” (10), adding:

“As he (Yeltsin) wrote a year later, ‘Here I was, the first popularly elected President, violating the law’.” (11)

The Constitutional Court declared Decree 1400 invalid and removed Yeltsin from his post, making Rutskoi President. (12) Russia’s largest trade union federation denounced Decree 1400, as did the overwhelming majority of its affiliates. (13) Eighty-three of 89 regions in the Russian Federation (including Moscow and St. Petersburg) proclaimed Decree 1400 illegal. (14)

Ruslan Khasbulatov christened Decree 1400 the inauguration of a “fascist dictatorship” (15) recounting:

“This person (Yeltsin) degenerated before my very eyes. He stopped being a leader and converted himself into a kind of puppet of those who have been called a ‘collective Rasputin’…” (16)

According to Khasbulatov, Yeltsin became “a plaything of shadowy power brokers” seeking a “semicolonial regime” wherein a “criminal and semifeudal” Russian state would be bonded to foreign interests. (17)

Khasbulatov recalled: “Yeltsin’s entourage was full of Americans… a hundred CIA employees determined everything.” Yeltsin sent security officials and department heads to the USA to be vetted. (18) Rutskoi claimed a dozen CIA agents micromanaged privatization. (19)

Colton details how Yeltsin routinely consulted Western leaders, and how a “mutual admiration society” existed between Yeltsin and US Ambassador Robert Strauss, with Strauss “grooming” Yeltsin. (20)

*

Parliament’s anointing of a Rutskoi presidency made violence inevitable. Television stations backed Yeltsin to the hilt. On October 3, Gaidar broadcast an emotional call-to-the-streets. 20,000 Muscovites responded. Pro-parliament crowds were far larger and more impassioned[WK1] . Brute armed force alone saved Yeltsin. Grachev’s 106^th Airborne and the select tank division surrounded, then bombarded, the parliament building. (21)

Efforts by civilians to overrun the Ostankino Television station fell into a trap. Hundreds of heavily armed commandos lay in wait. Few in the civilian crowd approaching the station possessed weapons. Despite this, the commandos raked the entire crowd with machine-gun fire. Unarmed protesters were forced to lay on the asphalt… then strafed again. Spectators were shot running away. Ambulance crews were shot.

The several hundred democracy defenders holed-up at the parliament building surrendered after the building took multiple tank rounds. They were detained by OMON officers, who, after being plied with crates of vodka, embarked on an orgy of beating and killing. (22) In the aftermath, one witness recounted:

“The morgue was filled to overflowing. Corpses lay piled on stretchers, one on top of the other. Many of the corpses had horribly mutilated faces, which people had covered with towels.” (23) 

Airborne and OMON snipers fired throughout the night; seemingly at any civilian in their sights.

The government initially refused to report casualties. When they did, their tally – 187 killed and 1,000 wounded – was absurdly low. All unofficial accounts arrive at much higher figures.(24) A team of Ukrainian journalists put the civilian death toll at 2,783. (25) Wounded and severely battered people must have exceeded 10,000.

*

In November, Russians caught their first glimpse of the draft constitution on which a referendum would be held 30 days later. Duma elections occurred simultaneously. Opposition papers were banned. Pro-government papers received vast subsidies. Radio and television coverage was censored and biased.

(The US Government’s Radio Liberty had enjoyed unrestricted broadcasting privileges since August 1991.) Opposition groups were denied public meeting venues. OMON troops trashed their offices. In Moscow 275 neighborhood self-management committees were disbursed. The Electoral Commission barred scrutineers. The Constitutional Court was padlocked. The fire-scorched parliament building sat vacant.

The Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) won the right to participate; albeit two weeks before the deadline for registration, which required a massive list of signatures. The CPRF came through, outstripping all parties in signatures collected. (26) They, and all oppositionists, endured torrents of threats.

The Referendum Law stipulated that a vote be held on an alternative draft constitution if sufficient petitioners so requested. This threshold was met with a petition signed by 1.2 million. The law was disregarded. (27)

The Referendum Law required proposed constitutional changes be approved by 50% of registered voters. By the time polls closed fewer than 40% had voted. Suddenly, inexplicably the vote tally jumped by 25%. Fraud was blatant and sloppy. Commissioners issued two different tallies; neither added up. A majority of registered voters did not validate the 1993 constitution. (28)

The 1993 constitution is hyper-presidential. Presidents possess exclusive right to nominate prime ministers, military commanders, judges, ambassadors. If parliaments reject prime ministers, presidents dissolve parliament. Procedures for removing presidents are so complex and difficult as to render impeachment impossible. Presidents may veto any law. Overturning vetoes is all but impossible.

The constitution specified sitting judges were to remain in place until a new judicial law passed. On the first day the constitution came into effect Yeltsin broke this law; firing the Constitutional Court. (29)

*

The 1993 Presidential Coup played out in microcosm in St. Petersburg where Mayor Sobchak crushed democratic aspirations. When the coup began Sobchak and local military commanders declared support for Yeltsin. City Council split, most considering Yeltsin’s conduct illegal.

The crisis afforded Vladimir Putin an opportunity to audition before foreign consuls with daily briefings:

“Putin told the consuls that ‘prophylactic measures’ had been taken against armed extremists and OMON detachments had been assigned to protect the television station, the City Hall, and other sensitive locations. Asked about the authorities in the Leningrad Region, who had supported Khasbulatov’s insurgency, he replied contemptuously that they were irrelevant. “They have no money and no means of influencing the situation. At most they can get some collective farm to demonstrate.” (30)

The Swedish Consul dispatched rave reviews back to Stockholm:

“Here spoke a man… who knew how to exercise power…He (Putin) showed …unequivocal support for Yeltsin and a slightly arrogant conviction that the coup makers did not stand a chance.” (31)

A victorious Yeltsin augmented Sobchak’s powers with the additional title of “Chair of Civic Chamber.” Sobchak ordered Councilors to remove personal belongings from their offices and vacate Council premises, which were then sealed by an OMON detachment. (32)

Liberated from Council oversight onto his local foreign affairs fiefdom Putin grew more neoliberal than thou. While Yeltsin and Sobchak bitterly complained about Western powers not doing enough to stabilize Russia and facilitate the transition to capitalism, Putin wouldn’t whisper a defiant word. He defended all Western measures, especially those of the World Bank and IMF.  

Putin toed the ruling line on the touchstone issue of homosexuality; straying far from traditional values. A flamboyantly gay American concert promoter was hired by St. Petersburg’s cultural affairs department. Sobchak couldn’t stomach him. Putin cherished him. To mark the gay American’s departure Putin threw a lavish lunch in his honor, toasting him as “a member of our family.” Putin’s conduct “went far beyond the obligatory minimum for a departing adviser.” (33)

Deputy Mayor Putin cloyingly co-mingled with West Europeans, especially those with aristocratic pedigree. Between 1991 and 1996 Putin sallied through Western Europe hundreds of times.

*

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William Walter Kay is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Notes

1 Colton, Timothy, J. Yeltsin, Basic Books (Perseus Books), New York, 2008, p. 202-7

2 Ibid, p. 266

3 Ibid, p. 267

4 Satter, David. The Less You Know, the Better You Sleep: Russia’s Road to Terror and Dictatorship Under Yeltsin and Putin, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2017, p. 41 

5 Colton, p. 272

6 Ibid, p. 273-7

7 Ibid, p. 276-7

8 Buzgalin, Alexander and Kolganov, Andrei. Bloody October in Moscow: Political Repression in the Name of Reform, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1994, p. 34 

9 Short, Philip. Putin, Henry Holt and Company, New York, 2022, p. 172

10 Colton, p. 272

11 Ibid, p. 277

12 Buzgalin, p. 42

13 Ibid, p. 43

14 Ibid, p. 49

15 Colton, p. 276-7

16 Ibid, p. 275

17 Ibid, p. 275

18 Tickle, Jonny. Boris Yeltsin had entourage of hundreds of CIA agents June 12, 2021, RT (article also carried by news agency, Mehr)

19 Ibid

20 Colton, p. 267 and 299

21 Short, p. 173

22 Buzgalin, p. 163-94

23 Ibid, p. 190

24 Short, p. 174

25 Satter, p. 62

26 Buzgalin, p. 195-201

27 Ibid, p. 200

28 Ibid, p. 199

29 Ibid, p. 200

30 Short, p. 172-4

31 Ibid, p. 174

32 Ibid, p. 174

33 Ibid, p. 550-1

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*** 

The US is hitting a brick wall.

The result of dissolution inside and around the US is dominating the headlines.

In the US, the House Republicans can still not get another House Speaker elected. The Republicans nominated Steve Scalise, but Scalise is not expected to get enough votes on the Floor. And some Republicans still try to get Kevin McCarthy reinstalled as Speaker. All this means that the House of Representatives – and thereby all of Congress and all the US legislative and budget passing process — is blocked for an indefinite period. The US cannot pass laws and cannot send money – not to anybody.

Scalise is a scandal. He has compared himself to David Duke, the notorious leader of the Ku Klux Klan! Though Scalise added “without the baggage.” Scalise hails the leader of an organization which lynched, killed, and tortured lots of Black people. Like the Ku Klux Klan, Scalise himself is from the US South, from Tennessee. Scalise is against Social Security and higher taxes. This will be very poisonous for solving the crisis of financing the US government.

Not only can the US not send more money to Ukraine or Israel right now. The US budget is about to explode, and the whole US government is at grave risk to come to a stop with no more funding when the temporary funding runs out on 17 November 2023 – in little more than a month from now.

Last time the House of Representatives elected a Speaker, it took them 15 rounds to agree on one (McCarthy), and that Speaker got ousted again after only nine months. It is easy to see how the remaining 4-5 weeks until 17 November 2023 can be consumed by bickering over the Speaker issue, with the US not being able to pass anything when the funding ends 17 November 2023.

In Ukraine, we see these days Russia conducting a big and successful offensive against Ukraine’s biggest stronghold in Avdiivka. A stronghold where Ukraine has bombed Russian civilians (including cluster bombs against children) in Donetsk city for nine years since 2014. Avdiivka is a factory fortress, and it is said that it is also a NATO headquarters in the war in the Ukraine, where lots of high-ranking US and other NATO generals are leading the war against Russia at the front.

Ukraine’s “biggest counteroffensive” has come to a stop everywhere. Ukraine doesn’t even have artillery ammunition left to try and hit nearly any of the Russians as the Russians advance. And with any US artillery ammunition going to Israel, it is over and out for Ukraine’s artillery.

Russian troopers are already moving freely in the open without fear of being hit by artillery grenades. At the same time, Russia advances not only around Avdiivka, but also pushes to enclose Ukraine in the North East at Kupyansk, and further South. Ukrainian reserves of men and machines have been depleted, and Russia is sucking up every kind of force which Ukraine has got left.

In the Middle East, all the analyses you can get say that Israel has “no good options.” Even the US Council on Foreign Relations writes that in their magazine, Foreign Affairs. The New York Times warns that Gaza is a “trap” for Israel.

Everything is unravelling for the US now.

Israel will always be prioritized over Ukraine. To keep funds for Ukraine, Biden is trying to link an Israel weapons package into a Ukraine package but that is meeting resistance among House Republicans. House Republicans stick to their guns, willing to make a quick package for Israel, but on Ukraine insisting to link any money for Ukraine with the border issue.

Money, however, does not change the fact that the US has run out of items like artillery shells and anti-air missiles to give away. As Ukraine has stopped all its “counteroffensives” everywhere, due to losses and being out of ammo, Israel may hope that the US might still give some of its strategic artillery shell stocks reserved for its own defense – Ukraine is not important enough for the US for that.

If the US gives artillery shells to Israel, the US will have no ammunition after a very short time in case of any conflict anywhere else. Some specialists have said that the US already now would run out of artillery ammo after just 30 days of conflict – shortening that even more is catastrophic for the US. The US is now militarily completely unprepared and incapable of managing any conflict like Taiwan. China can make any move it wants to.

With the US incapable of managing neither Russia, nor Iran, nor China, the Gaza war is pressing the US empire even more beyond is capabilities by adding one more burning hot spot which the US can’t handle.

Faced with these limitations, the war party in the US is already fuming that they want a US military “big enough” which can beat Russia, beat China around Taiwan, protect Israel, attack Iran, and intervene who-knows-where else (like Syria).

Even outgoing US Chair of Joint Chiefs Milley talked nonsense about a possible “doubling” of the US defense budget, meaning adding another nearly $1 trillion in defense spending. As if the US had a magic wand to do so.

In US politics which includes both politicians, generals, and media, we see how the US war party is adding half the world to their already impossible military to-do list whom the US wants to defeat in war. The US will not give up its ambitions to control the world with war, even as Washington is hitting a brick wall of military impossibility. And after decades of deindustrialization, the US cannot just ramp up military production, no matter the money available.

Israel is adding to this defeat of US power. After 20 years, the US could not defeat Taliban. Hamas is the same. One commentator added that Israel will lose if Hezbollah intervenes with missiles from Lebanon. Hezbollah has many-many thousands of rockets in its arsenals and Israel has no more rockets left in its air defense, meaning that a conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon will result in destruction of Israel by a rain of missiles.

The Port of Haifa faces destruction as do Israel’s government buildings. There is nothing Israel can do. The last time Israel invaded Lebanon, Hezbollah stopped the Israeli tanks just a few hundred meters inside Lebanon. At that point, a US military expert noted that the Israelis are no longer the best soldiers in the world – Hezbollah are. Two US aircraft carriers at the coast of Lebanon are not going to change that. US soldiers in Syria have now become not a force, but a bunch of hostages to Iran, if the US tries anything silly.

At the same time as everybody in Washington (right and left) demand much higher military spending, the US deficit, debt, and interest payments are exploding. US interest payments are about to go far above $1 trillion per year. The military spending of $0.9 trillion is not yet over 1 trillion, but Biden and the US war party will want to push it above. Social Security and Medicare are $1.3 trillion, and Biden cannot cut there either.

House Republicans were ready to stop all US government funding, but in the end may end up voting for far bigger military spending without being able to press through sufficient budget offset in other areas or higher taxes. As a result, US spending and the deficit therefore continue to increase. The House Republicans may stop all US spending but suddenly they realize that if they do so, they will stop money for the military as well. It’s lose-lose situation for them all in the US.

The US is therefore hitting a brick wall of military and financial self-destruction.

*

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Karsten Riise is a Master of Science (Econ) from Copenhagen Business School and has a university degree in Spanish Culture and Languages from Copenhagen University. He is the former Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mercedes-Benz in Denmark and Sweden.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

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First published on October 7, 2023

***

Two scientists who pioneered the creation of the mRNA vaccine technology were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were credited with “helping to change the course of the pandemic”. 

“When SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019 and rapidly spread to all parts of the world, few thought that vaccines could be developed in time to help curb the increasing global disease burden.

Yet, several vaccines were approved in record time, with two of the fastest approved and most effective vaccines produced with the new mRNA technology.”….

This decision of the Nobel Committee is part of the propaganda campaign, i.e. to provide legitimacy and acceptance of the mRNA vaccine.

Amply documented: The mRNA Covid Jab (formally endorsed by the Nobel Committee) is best described as a “a killer vaccine” which from the outset in December 2020 has resulted in a Worldwide upward movement in mortality and morbidity.  

Our message to the Nobel Committee:

You are gravely mistaken.

Examine the data from government sources as well as the reports of more than a thousand scientists and medical doctors. 

The evidence amply confirms that the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine is a dangerous substance. 

This is also confirmed by the Pfizer Confidential Report released under Freedom of Information (FOI) in October 2021. It come’s from the Horse’s Mouth. It cannot be refuted. It is Pfizer’s data which was intended to remain confidential. 

See analysis of the Pfizer report

See the numerous documented case studies

Debate at the European Parliament

What is the Impact of the Covid-19 “Vaccine” at the Level of the Entire Planet?

How does it affect humanity’s population of 8 billion people including new born children as well as the unborn?

To save lives, it is important that the Covid-19 Vaccine be cancelled and discontinued Worldwide, without delay.

We respectfully call upon the Nobel Committee to Rescind its Decision without Delay. 

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, October 4, 2023

To access the Nobel Committee document drafted by the Karolinska Institute (Sweden’s renowned School of Medicine (pdf), click here

***

But there is another prominent Nobel Prize Laureate whose name is barely mentioned

Dr. Kary Mullis, the prominent scientist  who invented the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) “Test” was granted the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1993) 

Dr. Kary Mullis –who passed away just a few months before the outbreak of the alleged Covid-19 pandemic– warned us about the misuse of the PCR.

According to the late Dr. Kary Mullis: The PCR is not a “Test”: 

“The PCR is a process. It does not tell you that you are sick.”

The PCR has been deliberately misused to wrongly diagnose Covid and boost the fear campaign.

“To claim that it is meaningful”? … 

“The measurement for it [PCR] is not exact.

“It [PCR] is not as good of our measurement for things like Apples. An apple is an Apple”. (Kary Mullis, video interview below)

The PCR “Test” Cannot Detect the Identity of the Virus, nor Can it Detect its Variants and Sub-variants.

Dr. Kary Mullis. His Legacy will Prevail. 

Excerpts from Chapter III of Michel Chossudovsky‘s Book entitled: The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity.  Click here to download.

***

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What do we do when our agencies, institutions, and the very machinery of democratic government have been commandeered by profit interests and weaponized against the people? We call for a new Nuremberg.

Over the last three years, the FDA, the CDC, the NIH, the NIAID, the AMA and U.S. Public Health Service, and a group of over 3900 American local and legacy media partners[1 2 3] engaged in a conspiracy of misinformation and misdirection which led to the preventable[4] deaths of almost 3.4 million people globally, and the preventable injuries and hospitalizations of millions or billions more. It opened the gate for the administration of over 13.5 billion doses of the world’s deadliest product ever marketed as a vaccine.[5]

This conspiracy of misinformation centered in part around the intentional suppression of ivermectin. A conscious disinformation campaign spearheaded by the FDA conflated human formulations of ivermectin with animal formulations. One of the tweets from the FDA’s[6 7 8 9] communications team’s “successful” “new engagement strategy,” reads: “You are not a[10] horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.”

This “strategy” influenced medical[11] organizations, pharmacy boards, and hospitals. Their propaganda was widely cited in newspapers, magazines, digital media outlets, and medical and professional advisories. Additionally, federal and state courts began citing the posts in cases involving ivermectin, and they were referenced in legal complaints and judicial opinions across the US.[12]

This campaign was conducted with apparent malice of forethought. These acts culminated in what can only be called medical genocide. Never in recent history has a fraud of such magnitude and lethality been carried out.

Drs. Bryan Tyson and George Fareed of the United States treated 20,000 people with ivermectin, reporting 99.9 percent improvement and that none of those people went to the hospital. Dr. Shankara Chetty of South Africa reported treating 8,000 with zero mortality and 100 percent improvement. Dr. Jeff Davis of the United States reported treating 6,000 people with 100 percent improvement and zero mortality. Dr. Ben Marble of the U.S. reported treating 150,000 people with zero mortality and 99.9 percent improvement.

A case series of 39[13] physicians and their teams from around the world, all of whom used ivermectin as part of an early treatment protocol, including those physicians just mentioned, were found to have a mean improvement of over 94 percent, treating a total of 237,521 people.[14]

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden treated more than 3,900 patients for COVID-19, with a success rate of over 99.97 percent. None of the people she treated early required hospitalization. Were she and these other successful doctors celebrated? No. As a result of her success, Bowden was forced to resign her hospital privileges.[15]

The website c19early.org displays the totality of the evidence on the safety and efficacy of different early treatments, presenting real-time analysis of 3,335 studies of 56 early Covid early treatments, from a database of 5,674 treatments.

Source: c19early.org

According to this website, Ivermectin has been studied in 222 studies for Covid-19, 172 of which were peer reviewed, and 99 of which compared the treatment to a control group. These 99 studies were conducted by a total of 1089 scientists, involving 137,255 patients in 28 countries.

Ivermectin was found to be associated with statistically significant lower risk of mortality, ventilation, ICU, hospitalization and cases. Overall studies of early treatment with ivermectin show a 62 percent reduction of risk. Early treatment with ivermectin resulted in a 49 percent reduction in mortality.[16]

But instead of recommending ivermectin, the health establishment vilified it, calling it “horse dewormer.” Instead Anthony Fauci said that Gilead’s drug remdesivir would become the standard of care. According to c19early.org, remdesivir has been studied in 58 published[17] studies, conducted by a total of 946 scientists, involving 155,923 patients in 20 countries. Overall, studies of remdesivir show a 10 percent improvement. Clearly, remdesivir doesn’t[18] hold a candle to ivermectin in efficacy.

But it is more than just a question of efficacy. Ivermectin has a very high safety profile. Remdesivir, on the other hand, is consistently found to result in acute kidney failure.[19 20 21 22 23] It also appears to be dangerous if taken as a late treatment, evidence of which is presented below. None of the studies of ivermectin display risks comparable to those of remdesivir.

Sydney Wolfe of the public advocacy group Public Citizen wrote a letter to the FDA in April 2021 accusing them of improperly expediting approval for remdesivir, bypassing review by its public advisory committee. [24]

But the FDA, the CDC, the NIAID, the NIH, HHS, and their hired media partners insisted that ivermectin was dangerous and might kill you. They loudly broadcast the “news” that FDA/CDC partnered poison centers across America were fielding elevated numbers of “exposures” to ivermectin, incidentally at exactly the same time that prescriptions of ivermectin were noted anxiously by the CDC to be rising dramatically.[25]

An exposure is not a poisoning. A phone call without reported details does not itself mean[26] that it is a toxic case. The caller may have simply taken ivermectin along with five other medicines, or given animal ivermectin to his or her dog and got some on her fingers. If a person was hospitalized “after taking ivermectin,” that doesn’t mean she was hospitalized because she took ivermectin.

As far as we can determine, the basis of their propaganda[27] against ivermectin was based on a statistical hoax. In fact, we could not find evidence of a single poisoning attributable to ivermectin reported by an uncompromised, unbiased source in preparing this article. (see supplement for full analysis) On the other hand, acetaminophen, or Tylenol, is responsible for 56,000 emergency department visits, 2,600 hospitalizations, and[28 29] 500 deaths per year in the United States.[30]

Three doctors who prescribed ivermectin brought suit against the FDA and HHS and three health officials for their “horse dewormer” campaign, detailing the toll it took on their reputations and careers, such as suspensions and loss of hospital privileges. A new ruling has recently been presented on the case.

The judges ruled that the FDA’s anti-ivermectin[31] messaging stepped over the line into the realm of “practicing medicine,” which as a health agency it is not allowed to do. Its campaign against ivermectin to treat Covid-19 was not protected by its “sovereign immunity,” which shields it from being sued while carrying out its duties.

We present here the evidence that by waging an illegal propaganda war against ivermectin, the FDA, the CDC, HHS and their partners in crime were directly responsible for the wrongful deaths of 3.4 million people globally and the wrongful injuries and hospitalizations of millions or billions more. If ivermectin had not been effectively blacklisted, its use in early treatment could have saved millions of lives.

We present the peer-reviewed scientific studies from the National Library of Medicine that show that ivermectin is a safe and effective drug therapy, and could have reduced illness by up to 62 percent and mortality by 49 percent.[32]

We also present evidence that the protocols authorized for emergency use, including the kidney-toxic drug remdesivir, were deadly and never should have been considered safe or effective, as is clearly shown by the science.

Here are a few examples from the peer-reviewed literature of the benefits offered by ivermectin:

Ivermectin’s efficacy, from studies with statistically significant outcomes

• Akhtar et al found that ivermectin was significantly associated with 90 percent lower mortality, 72 percent lower ICU admission, and 80 percent higher hospital discharge.[33]
• Thairu et al found that ivermectin was significantly associated with 55 percent higher hospital discharge.[34]
• Kerr et al found that treatment with ivermectin was significantly associated with 92 percent lower mortality. In another study, the same authors found that treatment with ivermectin in[35] hospitals was significantly associated with 45 percent lower mortality. In a third study, Kerr et[36] al found that treatment with ivermectin was associated with 70 percent lower mortality, 67 percent lower hospitalization, and 44 percent fewer cases.[37]
• Ascencio–Montiel et al found that treatment with ivermectin was significantly associated with 59 percent lower mortality/hospitalization.[38]
• Shimizu et al found that ivermectin was significantly associated with 100 percent lower mortality, 48 percent lower ventilation, 43 percent lower ICU admission, 38 percent less ICU time once admitted, and 78 percent less GI complications while ventilated.[39]
• Zein et al found that people treated with ivermectin had significantly lower mortality (61 percent).[40]
• Mayer et al found that people treated with ivermectin had 55 percent lower mortality.[41]
• Samajdar et al found that people treated with ivermectin had significantly fewer cases (80 percent).[42]

Here are a few examples from the peer-reviewed literature of the dangers of late treatment with remdesivir:

• Dangers of late treatment with remdesivir, from studies with statistically significant outcomes Mitsushima et al in a retrospective analysis of 18,566 people hospitalized in Japan, found a 44 percent higher rate of mortality with late treatment using remdesivir.[43]
• Leo et al found that late treatment with remdesivir was associated with 416 percent higher disease progression.[44]
• Bowen et al found that late treatment with remdesivir was significantly associated with 57 percent higher mortality.[45]
• Alshamrani et al found that people treated late with remdesivir experienced 43 percent longer ICU admission.[46]
• Arch et al found that late treatment with remdesivir was associated with 68 percent higher ventilation.[47]
• Ohl et al found that those treated late with remdesivir had 100 percent longer hospital stays.[48]
• Schmidt et al found that late treatment with remdesivir was associated with 509 percent higher incidence of severe cases (p=.000015). [49]
• Kurniyanto et al found that late treatment with remdesivir was associated with 460 percent higher mortality (p = .0009).[50]
• Kim et al. found that late treatment with remdesivir was associated with 1612.4% higher risk of death, though the results of this study were not statistically significant.[51]

But did the results of these studies ever pass before the eyes of any of the complicit media organizations who daily recited the FDA and CDC’s official lines, completely without scientific basis though they may have been?

Thousands of media organizations parroted health agencies’ claims that the officially prescribed Covid medical interventions are safe and effective, and that ivermectin and other safe early treatments are unsafe and ineffective. The truth is just the opposite. Any of these journalists and editors could have found what we found if they had spent even two hours looking.

But they did not do that. Instead, they took orders from on high, and fell into lockstep with a tyrannical and catastrophic breakaway government. With clear malice of forethought, and by abandoning the duties of their professions, they engaged in a conspiracy against the American people, each contributing in his own way to millions of unnecessary deaths and injuries.

Intubation, Debunked Preventative Measures, EUA of Deadly mRNA Injections

The kidney-toxic remdesivir was used alongside protocols for unnecessary and lethal intubation. Most people who were intubated died. One study recorded that 76 percent of people died after intubation.[52]

Remdesivir was also used on people who were ill and weakened from dutifully following the fraudulent “preventive measures,” promoted as fervently as ivermectin was vilified. All of these have now been debunked.

They included masks, social distancing, the quarantining of healthy people and lockdowns. Ivermectin was suppressed, most importantly and most fatally, in order to clear the way for the emergency use authorization (EUA) of the mRNA gene therapy injections known as the Covid-19 “vaccines.”

These “vaccines” are a novel technology bearing no resemblance to the traditional vaccines. These mRNA injections were responsible for the injuries and death of millions of people.[53]

According to former BlackRock portfolio manager Edward Dowd and his team of PhDs and data scientists analyzing disability, actuarial and other official data sources, as of March,[54] 2023, the Covid-19 vaccines were responsible for three hundred thousand excess deaths, 26.6 million injuries, and 1.36 million disabilities. He also believes they are the cause of an 84[55] percent increase in deaths among millennials in the United States in the third quarter of 2021. [56]

The Official Death Toll: A Caveat

Altogether nearly 7 million people worldwide are estimated to have died from Covid-19. These figures are promoted forcefully and ad nauseam by the legacy media and health agencies in order to justify the narrative that Covid-19 was a health crisis of unprecedented proportions.

This narrative has been and is still being used to terrorize people, distract them, and immobilize them from rebelling at all costs and defending the few remaining threads of democratic government, civil society and the protections afforded by our Constitutional rights. Deceived by this false narrative, people became paralyzed with fear.

Then, they meekly stood by while the medical industrial complex, in coordination with captured governments and other self-interested parties, further eroded and dismantled our few remaining societal protections and democratic institutions, and ushered in a new totalitarian paradigm of bio-medical fascism and tyranny far surpassing that which existed before.

These 7 million deaths attributed to Covid must be carefully scrutinized. They have been estimated by a variety of altogether deceitful means. They cannot be trusted in any way. Most significantly, they were determined based on a fraudulent test, the PCR test, which is not a diagnostic test at all but an amplification technique designed to replicate bits of genetic material present in the system.

It cannot tell you if there is any pathogenic activity, infection or[57] disease. This fact alone simply evaporates the notion that any deaths determined by this test can be attributed to Covid-19 at all.

But with this caveat accounted for, supposing we take these official numbers of Covid deaths at face value: supposing there really were 7 million deaths from Covid-19. Ivermectin reduces risk of the most serious outcomes by 62 percent. It reduces mortality by 49 percent.

4,340,000 cases of the most serious outcomes could have been averted through the early use of ivermectin alone. 3,430,000 lives could have been saved. It is important to bear in mind that are no completely accurate statistics of how many people actually had Covid, were hospitalized or died.

How did the health authorities and the media vilify this drug? Ivermectin has a long record of safety and use. It won the Nobel Prize and was on the World Health Organization’s list of[58 59 60] essential medicines. It has been prescribed safely in humans ever since it was first marketed by Merck in 1988.

How did the health establishment convince people that this drug wasn’t the relatively safe and effective drug it has always previously been considered to be?

They engaged in a deliberate conspiracy. Through false propaganda and a marketing technique known as “informational flooding” they spread a false narrative that ivermectin was “horse[61] dewormer” and dangerous for humans to take.

They flooded the media with spurious articles promoting misleading and contradictory statistics designed to make it appear that many people were going to the hospital from ivermectin poisoning when in fact no evidence of even one poisoning, let alone one hospitalization or death, was presented by an unbiased source discoverable during the research for this article.

Then, they made it almost impossible for doctors to prescribe ivermectin to their patients by calling for a pharmacy ban on the drug. Doctors and pharmacists were intimidated by the lobby organizations for the medical industrial complex, the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), into acquiescing to their demands.

The AMA collects data on and maintains a full prescription history for every doctor in the United States, and would know when he or she prescribes ivermectin. Board certification organizations were threatening to[62] revoke the licenses of doctors who engaged in “misinformation and disinformation.”

They revoked the board certification or suspended the licenses of several doctors such as Meryl Nass, Pierre Kory and Paul Marik. This was to serve as an example of what other “heretical” doctors could expect to happen to them if they followed suit.[63 64 65]

This is not an isolated event in history that has been concluded and no longer poses a threat. Though the “Covid-19 pandemic” has been officially called to an end, the new architecture of “public health” and medical tyranny is ongoing and advancing, and the global framework which facilitated these atrocities can at any time be resurrected and put to fresh use. How do we stop this?

Here’s what we can prove: there was no legitimate reason for the FDA to fast-track any of the experimental vaccines under the Emergency Use Authorization policy. Because according to the FDA’s own literature, as long as there is an FDA approved drug in existence that can be used for a given disease, then you cannot have another drug or vaccine given the emergency use authorization.

However, the commercial value of marketing ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, monocolonal antibodies, azythramyacin, vitamin C, vitamin D3, zinc and quercetin — all of which are supportive when used in combinations in stopping the spread of Covid from infection to illness and death. However, these remedies are not profitable to individuals, industries or hospitals.

Never before, as far as we are aware, has the entire machinery of federal government gone to such extreme lengths to attack, vilify and destroy a drug that has been given in billions of doses as anti-parasitic medication in humans over decades, and then to attack and vilify and cancel the reputations of mainstream highly respected physicians and scientists for using a drug successfully on their patients.

Ivermectin and these other therapies are supported by volumes in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. But the motive for destroying ivermectin and other therapies was that it was not profitable and they didn’t have control of it. This means that what they did, they did with malice and, in our opinion, unmitigated greed.

But at the time these officials made these choices, there were no counterbalancing voices in the media or governmental agencies saying, “Stop, this makes no sense. We’re talking about a medicine that clinics and physicians could use to save hundreds of thousands of lives. We should pay attention to this and do clinical studies on this.”

As a result, the man who said that he represented science, Anthony Fauci, thwarted every effort to fund a clinical study using ivermectin hydroxychloroquine, azythromyacin, monocolonal antibodies, vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, and quercetin. But others over the next two years did do studies showing how each of these individually had statistically significant even remarkable results of saving lives.

That means that with all the outstanding resources, the very capable intelligent and skilled journalists in the media establishment could have found this information just as easily as we did. Therefore we must consider the culpability of the entire media and entire Washington health establishment as responsible for millions of preventable deaths and tens of millions of preventable hospitalizations, injuries and other suffering.

All of our footnotes and the expanded analysis offered in the technical supplement to this commentary can be used by those wanting to take this further, including class action lawsuits. They should review the information carefully.

*

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Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotechnology and genomic industries.

Dr. Gary Null is host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on alternative and nutritional health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including his recent Last Call to Tomorrow.

They are regular contributors to Global Research.

Notes