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Dear American College of Clinical Pharmacy:

By Lori Weintz | Brownstone Institute | October 17, 2023

I just sent this letter off to the Board of Regents of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy:

October 12, 2023

Dear Executive Director Maddux and Board of Regents,

During the past 3 1/2 years, I have observed the troubling pattern of silencing viewpoints that depart in any way from the official Covid narrative. Your cancelation of Dr. Vinay Prasad as a keynote speaker at the upcoming ACCP Conference is an example of this inappropriate trend.

This is America. The founding principle of America is the freedom of speech, without which none of the other rights enumerated in the Constitution matter, because they cannot be pursued. Healthy, vigorous, oppositional debate is essential to innovation and problem-solving.  Without debate there is no progress and people become afraid, first to speak, and then to think for themselves.

Alicia Lichvar states she “cannot – in good conscience – share a platform with an individual who promotes such harmful rhetoric.” Ms. Lichvar claims there is a role for critical discourse, but not as the Keynote speaker. Why not? Since when is it assumed that the speaker at a conference, or graduation ceremony, or civic event represents the viewpoint of all?

In this instance, ACCP appears to have sided with the false ideology recently stated at Twitter (X) that people are entitled to “freedom of speech, not reach.” In Ms. Lichvar’s world, people like Dr. Prasad have the right to their views, just not in public, which is no right at all.

This was the moment to clarify that your group values varied viewpoints by inviting Ms. Lichvar to share her side in a debate with Dr. Prasad, or in her own presentation. It was not a moment to say you will be “revisiting the keynote speaker vetting and selection process to ensure alignment with the expectations and values of ACCP members.” There were obviously ACCP members who wanted to hear from Dr. Prasad, or he would not have been selected as a keynote speaker in the first place.

People who are so fragile they cannot even hear a differing viewpoint to their own, especially one presented by a licensed and credentialed colleague, need a wakeup call, not coddling.

You, Mr. Maddux, Mr. Olsen, Ms. Farrington, Ms. Phillips, Ms. Blair, Mr. Hemstreet, Ms. See, Ms. Finks, Ms. Parker, Ms. Ross, Ms. Clements, and Ms. Badowski, are listed on the ACCP webpage under the dropdown menu of “Leadership.”

The role of real leaders is not to “ensure alignment with the expectations and values” of the vocal few, but rather to preserve the ability to approach problems and issues in a manner that allows for consideration of all sides. People cannot make informed, adult decisions, if they’re awash in a culture of “safety” where “words are violence,” and differing viewpoints are “harmful.”

I invite you to reconsider your roles, and the bigger picture of what is happening in our country today, so as to ensure that free speech and thought are the elevating principles of enlightenment in your organization.

Sincerely,

Lori Weintz

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Israeli Minister Calls For Arrest of Journalists and Citizens That Share Information That Harms “National Morale”

By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | October 17, 2023

In a moment where the essence of free speech is under scrutiny worldwide, a controversial move by Israel’s Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi has sparked profound concern among proponents of free expression and the principles of a democratic society. Karhi is in the process of advancing regulations, authorizing the arrest of individuals and seizure of property based on the subjective judgment that their communication undermines “national morale” or aids enemy propaganda.

These proposed rules, known as “Limiting Aid to the Enemy through Communication,” were crafted in coordination with National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Broad in their scope, these regulations aren’t confined to potential misinformation or enemy rhetoric but extend to factually accurate statements and mainstream media coverage, both domestic and international. It would allow Israeli police to arrest Israeli citizens, including journalists, for sharing information that is critical of Israel.

This move stands in stark contrast to its initially declared goal – curbing the influence of Al Jazeera in Israel.

Derived under the aegis of Section 39 of the Basic Law: The Government, these draft regulations explicitly characterize “aiding the enemy through communication” as not just direct assistance to adversaries, but any information dissemination that the authorities perceive as weakening Israel’s societal or military morale or that echoes enemy propaganda.

The reach of these regulations is comprehensive, encompassing all forms of audio and visual communication. The power vested in the communications minister is extensive; it allows for the cessation of broadcasts, confiscation of broadcasting equipment, and even the physical removal of individuals from certain locales, all under the subjective banner of national security.

In totality, these developments represent a troubling trend towards the erosion of journalistic freedom and the sanctity of free speech, pivotal pillars of any democratic establishment and some that often get undermined in times of war.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | 2 Comments

War with Hamas deals ‘severe economic blow’ to Israel

The Cradle | October 17, 2023

Eleven days into its war with the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance, Israel is paying a heavy economic toll, Maariv reported on 17 October.

The Israeli newspaper reported that “the Israeli economy appears to have already begun to pay a heavy price for the war,” which began on 7 October with the start of Hamas’ Al-Aqsa Flood Operation.

The newspaper explained in a report published Tuesday that “4.6 billion shekels [$1.1 billion] is the price paid by the Israeli economy as a result of workers not coming to work and low productivity in Israeli institutions.”

According to the analysis of the economic department of Israel’s Manufacturers Union, the closure of the education system, blocking of traffic routes, and the extensive mobilization of the army reserves has also hurt economic productivity.

In total, it is estimated that about 1.3 million Israeli workers did not go to work this week.

In southern Israel, some 85 percent of workers were absent from their jobs, along with about 20 percent of workers in the rest of Israel.

The head of the Manufacturers’ Union and the head of the Employers and Companies Association, Ron Tomer, said after the harsh assessments that “there is no doubt that the war constitutes a severe economic blow to the economy.”

According to Maariv, this estimate does not take into account “additional and very significant financial damage, which will only be assessed economically at the end of the fighting, such as direct damage to factories and damage to profitability.”

In addition to decreased productivity, Israel will see indirect damage, such as the damage to the reputation of Israeli companies with customers abroad, cancelled transactions, failure to adhere to schedules, and the depreciation of the shekel.

Should the conflict widen to include not just Hamas but also Iran, a key backer of the Palestinians, Bloomberg estimates oil prices could climb to $150 a barrel and cause a global recession that takes about $1 trillion off world output.

Iranian involvement on the Palestinian side could lead to a cut in Iranian oil output and a tightening of western sanctions hindering Iranian oil sales.

Bloomberg notes further that an oil shock of this size would also derail the worldwide effort to rein in inflation. In the US, the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent inflation target would not be met, and costly gasoline would be a hurdle for President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign.

Another possibility is that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s single-most important energy corridor. Globally, over one-sixth of oil and one-third of liquefied natural gas passes through the narrow strait

“The gas market is calm but tense,” Henning Gloystein, director for energy, climate and resources at the Eurasia Group think tank said.

“It doesn’t take much to go into a fever pitch. We had the Ukraine war, Russian gas supply cuts, oil cap sanctions and now you have war in the Middle East as well — that’s a problem,” he said.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Colombia expels Israeli ambassador

By Eman Abusidu | MEMO | October 17, 2023

In a step that is expected to indicate a shift in the country’s policy toward Israel, Colombia has expelled Israeli Ambassador Gali Dagan. Colombian Foreign Minister Alvaro Leyva called on Dagan to apologise after he criticised President Gustavo Petro’s comparison of Israeli attacks on Gaza with the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

“An important milestone in the history of world diplomacy will be the senseless arrogance of the Israeli ambassador to Colombia towards the President of the Republic Gustavo Petro,” said Leyva on X. “It’s a shame. At least ask for forgiveness and leave.”

He added that no reasonable person can applaud a “scorched earth policy” no matter who is responsible, including Israel. “It violates the dignity of the human being, and kills innocents and the doctrine of the comprehensive peace based on the duty of global justice and law.”

The war of words on social media between Petro and Dagan arose after the Colombian president came out in support of the Palestinians and accused Israel of using scorched earth tactics in the Gaza Strip. Dagan responded by ridiculing Petro’s statement.

Yesterday, Petro threatened to sever relations with Israel in response to the genocidal crimes that the occupation state is committing against civilians in the Gaza Strip. “If we have to suspend foreign relations with Israel, we suspend them. We do not support genocides. The President of Colombia is not insulted.”

He pointed out that Israelis had also “unleashed massacres and genocide in Colombia” by training the paramilitary forces of the AUC, described in 2003 as the “worst human rights violator in all of the Americas” by Al Jazeera.

“Someday the army and government of Israel will ask us for forgiveness for what their men did in our land,” said Petro. “They will cry for the murder of Gaza and the Colombian Auschwitz.”

The president called on Latin American countries to show real solidarity with Colombia.

Petro made his later comments after a spokesperson for the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lior Haiat, announced that the occupation state is halting security exports to Colombia as a punitive measure to the president’s support for the Palestinians in Gaza.

“Israel condemns the president’s statements that reflect support for the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists, reviving anti-Semitism, affecting representatives of the State of Israel and threatening the peace of the Jewish community in Colombia,” claimed Haiat.

Earlier, Israel summoned the Ambassador of Colombia in Israel, Margarita Manjarrez, for “a reprimand following hostile and anti-Semitic [sic] statements of the President of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, against the State of Israel, during the last week.” Haiat told Manjarrez that Petro’s statements were received in Israel with “astonishment”.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | 4 Comments

Mishaal: There is no future for Israel or its settlement project

Palestine Information Center | October 17, 2023

DOHA – Head of Hamas’s foreign political bureau Khaled Mishaal has said that “there is no future for Israel or its settlement project,” describing the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom and liberation from the occupation as a “great aspiration.”

In an interview conducted with him by Al-Arabi TV on Monday evening, Mishaal downplayed Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s threat to eliminate Hamas, pointing out that this was not the first time he made such threats.

“Refer to the old archives in previous wars; the goals were always ‘destroying Hamas,’” Mishaal added.

“The resistance studied all the scenarios, including an expected military incursion,” Mishaal said, describing Israel as a “house of cards”.

“Following the resounding defeat of the Zionist entity on October 7 and the collapse of Gaza Division, the enemy suffered a tremendous shock, so it searched for an image of victory through taking revenge on civilians and the popular incubator of the resistance,” the Hamas leader said.

“Israel has thought itself a genuine part of the region, but it is a transitory entity and a settlement project, and like all settlement projects, it will be dismantled,” he underlined.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Euro-Med: Israel kills about 100 kids every day in Gaza

Palestine Information Center | October 17, 2023

GENEVA – The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has said that the Israeli occupation army has been killing an average of 100 Gazan children every day since it launched its large-scale war on the besieged coastal enclave on October 7.

“The Israeli army is crushing the innocence of Gaza’s children,” Euro-Med stated in a report on Tuesday.

According to Euro-Med’s new report, 1,046 children had been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza until Monday night (October 16), while efforts are underway to reach about 167 others who are under the rubble of bombed residential buildings.

Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza also injured 3,250 other children, and at least 1,240 of them need special medical care.

“The children of Gaza have been severely harmed since the start of the current Israeli war and they have emerged as a top target during the ongoing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza,” Euro-Med said, stressing that “the war have torn apart families and inflicted devastating impacts on children.”

Euro-Med also talked about many children who survived Israeli attacks, but they lost one or both parents and became homeless after their homes were destroyed.

Euro-Med said that it has hundreds of photos and video clips showing dead children with smashed heads and mutilated bodies or with fatal internal injuries, adding that scores of children in Gaza hospitals also suffer from horrific burns or injuries, not to mention their suffering from different psychological traumas.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Israel’s forcible transfer of Gazan civilians amounts to crimes against humanity: UN

Press TV – October 17, 2023

The United Nations human rights office has said Israel’s brutal blockade of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, combined with the evacuation order and forcible transfer of civilians, could amount to a crime against humanity.

Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in the Swiss city of Geneva on Tuesday that the forced relocation of civilians has been classed as a crime against humanity and is punishable by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“We are concerned that this order, combined with the imposition of a complete siege of Gaza, may not be considered as lawful temporary evacuation and would therefore amount to a forcible transfer of civilians in breach of international law,” she said.

“Those who managed to comply with the Israeli authorities’ order to evacuate are now trapped in the south of the Gaza Strip, with scant shelter, fast-depleting food supplies, little or no access to clean water, sanitation, medicine and other basic needs,” Shamdasani said.

“We have grave fears about the toll on civilians in the coming days. Military operations show no signs of abating.”

On October 12, Israel ordered 1.1 million people in the north of Gaza to evacuate and move south of the enclave as the regime forces prepare for a ground invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip.

Israel’s bombardment has already pushed Palestinians in the besieged enclave into smaller areas and spaces.

“International law requires that any lawful temporary evacuation by Israel, as the occupying power, of an area on the basis of the security of the population or imperative military reasons must be accompanied by the provision of proper accommodation for all evacuees,” Shamdasani said

The total death toll from Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Strip has risen to some 3,500, with over 1,000 children among the victims. About 12,500 have been injured since Israeli air raids began.

Rising death toll, and flattened buildings with no food, water and electricity supplies; are what Israel’s non-stop strikes, shelling and complete blockade have brought to the Gaza Strip.

The regime’s fresh air raids killed 80 Palestinians in Rafah and Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli attacks also took the life of a Palestinian journalist in the north, bringing to 16 the number of journalists killed by the regime’s bombardments since October 7.

Israel launched its assaults against the besieged Palestinian territory following the Palestinians’ Operation al-Aqsa flood.

The humanitarian situation is getting worse by the hour in the besieged Gaza, with hospitals facing a collapse.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is warning of an imminent catastrophe in the territory. The WHO also said it needs urgent access to Gaza to deliver aid and medical supplies.

According to the UN Palestinian agency, UNRWA, fuel reserves at all hospitals across Gaza are expected to last for only 24 hours.“The shutdown of backup generators would place the lives of thousands of patients at serious risk,” it said.

Separately, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that its food supplies in the besieged enclave were running low, but it was stockpiling supplies in the Egyptian city of El Arish.

“We call for unimpeded access, safe passage to desperately needed humanitarian supplies to Gaza,” WFP’s regional communication lead for the Middle East and North Africa, Abeera Etefa said.

Aid trucks have been heading to the Rafah crossing on the Egypt border, but it remains uncertain whether the supplies can cross into southern Gaza.

Also on Tuesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, during a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah accused Israel of committing ‘genocide’ during the ongoing aggression against Gaza.

“This is a war crime, genocide, and unprecedented destruction,” Shtayyeh said.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

500 people killed, 600 wounded in Israeli airstrike on Gaza hospital

Palestine Information Center – October 17, 2023

GAZA – More than 500 people were killed and 600 others injured in an Israeli direct attack on the Al-Ahli Arab National Hospital in Gaza, Palestinian health ministry said on Tuesday evening.

According to the PIC reporter, the airstrike targeted thousands of displaced people who took refuge in the hospital’s courtyards after their houses were destroyed in the ongoing Israeli aggression.

The Hamas Movement considered the Israeli massacre at Al-Ahli Hospital a crime of genocide.

“The horrifying massacre carried out by the Zionist occupation in the Arab National Hospital in the Gaza Strip, during which hundreds of people and patients were killed, the majority of whom were displaced families, children, and women, is a crime of genocide that once again exposes the true face of this enemy and its fascist government and its terrorism, as well as the American and Western support for this criminal entity.”

The Movement called on the international community and the Arab and Islamic countries to assume their responsibility and intervene immediately to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression for 11 days.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

West ‘stomps’ on Russian-drafted resolution for Gaza ceasefire

The Cradle | October 17, 2023

A Russian-drafted resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza failed to pass at the UN Security Council (UNSC) on 16 October. 

China, Russia, Gabon, Mozambique, and the UAE voted in favor of the resolution, while the US, UK, France, and Japan voted against it. Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, Ghana, Malta, and Switzerland all abstained from voting. 

The text of the resolution called for an immediate humanitarian truce, the release of prisoners, access to aid, and the safe evacuation of civilians. 

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, condemned the UNSC failure to pass the resolution and slammed the “selfish intention of the western bloc,” which he said “basically stomped” on international calls for de-escalation and an end to violence. 

He added that the resolution was needed to respond to the “unprecedented exacerbation” of the calamity inside the Gaza Strip, where Israel has continued to bomb 2.2 million Palestinians trapped inside and prevent the entry of humanitarian aid. 

Washington’s representative, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, denounced the resolution for failing to condemn “Hamas terrorism.”

“By failing to condemn Hamas, Russia is giving cover to a terrorist group that brutalizes innocent civilians. It is outrageous, hypocritical, and indefensible. We cannot allow this Council to unfairly shift the blame to Israel and excuse Hamas for its decades of cruelty,” she said. 

The failed resolution came the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin held phone calls with the presidents of Iran, Syria, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

“The Israeli side was in particular informed of the essential points of telephone correspondences that took place today with the leaders of Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Syria,” the Kremlin said in a statement. 

Close to 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and about 10,000 wounded due to Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. 

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only entry for humanitarian aid to Gaza, has remained shut despite multiple reports of an agreement between Egypt and Israel, which Tel Aviv has denied. 

“The process of opening the crossing is a joint Palestinian-Egyptian process, subject to clear working mechanisms, and requires prior coordination, which has not happened until now [due to] lack of coordination, in addition to the intense bombing to which the crossing was subjected by the Israeli occupation forces,” Salama Marouf, director of the media office of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, said on Tuesday. 

Israel has bombed the aid route several times over the past few days, including on 16 August. 

Any talk of truce “comes in the context of the psychological warfare waged by the Israeli occupation,” Marouf added. 

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Subjugation - Torture, War Crimes | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sweden says undersea cable to Estonia ‘damaged’

RT | October 17, 2023

An undersea telecommunications cable connecting Sweden and Estonia in the Baltic Sea has been ‘damaged,’ the Scandinavian country’s Civil Defense Minister said at a news conference on Tuesday, in what is the second such occurrence in the region in the past month.

“We are currently unable to assess what has caused this damage,” government minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told reporters in Gothenburg, adding that it is “not a total cable break but it is a partial damage to the cable” and that it remains operational. The Swedish minister said that the damage sustained to the cable was sustained outside of the country’s territorial waters and its exclusive economic zone.

The damage, Bohlin explained, appears to have occurred at around the same time as when the Balticconnector gas pipeline and a telecommunications cable between Estonia and Finland were damaged, on October 8. NATO, the US-led military bloc that Helsinki joined earlier this year, has vowed “a united and determined response” if an investigation determines that saboteurs were responsible.

Finland has said that it cannot rule out a “state actor” being behind the October 8 incident, and that it is reviewing vessel traffic in the area at the time of the suspected attack.

The Prime Minister of Sweden Ulf Kristersson warned last week of potential vulnerabilities to the “spaghetti of cables, wires, infrastructure on the seabed” that connects countries, transfers data and supplies energy in the region. “It is absolutely fundamental for data traffic, so the vulnerabilities today are much, much greater,” he said.

Adequately policing waters in the area is a “very intense” challenge, the head of Sweden’s navy, Rear Admiral Ewa Ann-Sofi Skoog Haslum said on Tuesday. “The challenge for us is to monitor this volume of water,” she said. “Everything that happens under the surface is deniable.”

Last September, the Nord Stream pipelines supplying oil and natural gas from Russia to Germany were ruptured, in incidents widely believed to have been sabotage. A culprit has yet to be identified.

Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer-winning American journalist, published a report earlier this year in which he claimed, citing intelligence sources, that the United States executed a covert CIA operation to destroy the pipelines in collaboration with the Norwegian government. Washington has strongly denied the claims.

A competing theory, reported by Western outlets, has suggested that a team of Ukrainian commandos used a rented yacht to transport explosives to the blast sites, but that the CIA told the Ukrainians to abort the plan.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Hungary PM Orbán meets with Putin in Beijing

BY THOMAS BROOKE | REMIX NEWS | OCTOBER 17, 2023

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss ongoing bilateral agreements between the two nations.

The pair were snapped shaking hands in the Chinese capital — the first photographed handshake between Putin and an EU leader since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Orbán told the Russian president that “Hungary has never sought to confront Russia” and has always and will continue to “pursue the goal of building and expanding the best communication,” reported Russia’s state-run news agency TASS.

“In Europe today, one question is on everyone’s mind: Will there be a ceasefire in Ukraine? For us Hungarians, too, the most important thing is that the flood of refugees, the sanctions, and the fighting in our neighboring country should end,” Orbán posted on X following the meeting.

Budapest has maintained relatively close relations with Moscow and faced the wrath of the European Union for steering its own course through the conflict in Ukraine and refusing to present a united front with other EU leaders.

Orbán’s administration has long opposed the provision of arms to Kyiv, which it claims is prolonging the conflict and increasing the death toll, and has advocated for an immediate ceasefire and peace talks.

The rendezvous exerts further pressure on Brussels, which requires Hungary’s approval for proposed budget reforms in order to unlock further funding for Ukraine.

“Given the fact that in today’s geopolitical conditions the opportunities for maintaining contacts and developing relations are very limited, it can only cause satisfaction that our relations with many European countries are maintained and developed. One of these countries is Hungary,” Putin told Orban.

The meeting was criticized by U.S. Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman who accused Orbán of “pleading for business deals” while Russia continues its aggression in Ukraine.

“Hungary’s leader chooses to stand with a man whose forces are responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine, and alone among our Allies,” he posted on X.

This interpretation of the meeting was questioned by the Hungarian prime minister’s political director, Balázs Orbán, who claimed that Budapest was “fed up” with Pressman’s “hypocrisy.”

“If the question is who’s doing business with the Russians, the Americans should turn down the volume. They are buying more than twice as much nuclear fuel alone as they used to, and we have a whole list of them,” he added.

“Since your president refuses to talk about ending this war, someone has to,” quipped Koskovics Zoltán, a geopolitical analyst at the Budapest-based Center for Fundamental Rights.

Both leaders arrived in Beijing at the invitation of Chinese President Xi ahead of an international forum on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Earlier on Tuesday, Orbán met with the Chinese leader to discuss the strengthening of Hungarian-Chinese relations.

“Connectivity instead of decoupling: This is the Hungarian model. Our aim is to strengthen Hungarian-Chinese relations. This is good for Hungary and good for the European economy,” he said in a statement.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Putin offers solution to stop further bloodshed in Israel-Gaza conflict while Zelensky fears losing US support

By Drago Bosnic | October 17, 2023

As hostilities in the latest Israel-Gaza conflict escalate, the threat of a wider confrontation in the Middle East is getting likelier by the day. It’s safe to assume that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) haven’t launched a ground operation in Gaza yet due to possible direct Iranian involvement, as well as the greater engagement of Hezbollah in the north of the country. According to the Jerusalem Post, the main reason for the postponing of the offensive is precisely the latter. The Northern Command is forced to keep the best IDF troops in the area to ensure combat readiness on the Lebanese border in case Hezbollah gets more directly involved. The Lebanon-based Shia movement has tens of thousands of soldiers and a massive stockpile of various rockets and missiles that could do significant damage to the IDF. Israel simply cannot afford to ignore Hezbollah, as the group already defeated it once in 2006, the only such occurrence in the history of IDF.

The Jerusalem Post itself cited sources saying that “while a number of factors seem to have caused a delay, one factor has been a growing concern that Hezbollah is waiting for the moment that most IDF ground forces are committed to Gaza to open a full front with the IDF in the north”. This fact alone is forcing Israel to keep most of its military assets in the relative vicinity of the border with Lebanon. It could be said that Hezbollah is already providing significant support to Hamas just by being able to tie up so many IDF troops. Iranian involvement in this is implicit, as Tehran has been one of the main backers of Hezbollah since the group’s very inception. This is forcing the Israeli leadership to exercise caution and restraint, as a direct Iranian intervention remains a possibility. Such speculation is not without merit, as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian already implied that Tehran might get involved:

“Conferred with my counterparts from Tunisia, Malaysia and Pakistan. Underlined the need to immediately stop Zionist crimes & murder in Gaza & to dispatch humanitarian aid. I stressed that time is running out for political solutions; probable spread of war on other fronts is approaching unavoidable stage.”

On the other hand, most high-ranking Israeli officials are adamant that the Gaza operation must be launched. For instance, Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom Tzipi Hotovely even compared the current airstrikes with the bombing of Dresden during WWII, when Western Allies leveled the German city, killing tens of thousands of civilians in the process. Israeli F-16I “Sufa” fighter jets have already dropped thousands of bombs on Gaza (primarily the US-made JDAMs – Joint Direct Attack Munitions), resulting in thousands of deaths and serious injuries among civilians there. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the death toll among Palestinians now stands at over 3,000. For its part, Israel reported that over 1,400 Israeli civilians died so far, with at least 4,100 wounded. The figures are certainly even worse as of this writing.

Such casualties are disastrous, especially given that the conflict started just ten days ago. Since then, the world has effectively split into three groups. Apart from those that express open support for either side, the largest part of the globe has opted for neutrality. This also includes superpowers such as Russia. Namely, Moscow was among the first to call for the end of hostilities before they escalate to include all regional and perhaps even global actors. In a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin (the first since the conflict started), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Israel would proceed with the Gaza offensive despite Moscow’s warning that it would lead to massive casualties and possibly cause a strong reaction of the Muslim world, particularly Iran and its allies. Putin urged Netanyahu to engage in talks on the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

On the other hand, the United States is looking to use the crisis to escalate against Iran, as Washington DC warhawks were quick to blame Tehran for the surprise attack launched by Hamas. US President Joe Biden will visit Israel this week, coming mere days after State Secretary Antony Blinken. Biden recently denied reports about a possible deployment of American troops, calling it “unnecessary, as Israel has one of the finest fighting forces”. And while he stated that “it would be a mistake [for Israel] to occupy Gaza”, he supported the notion that Hamas must be eliminated entirely and warned Iran not to get involved. By directly supporting the upcoming ground operation by the IDF, Washington DC is risking (almost certainly intentionally) a wider conflict that might include several Arab states and Iran. In fact, Israeli forces already hit targets in Syria and Lebanon.

In the meantime, the Kiev regime is in panic mode as the global spotlight has moved away from Ukraine. Namely, the Neo-Nazi junta frontman Volodymyr Zelensky tried to get the attention of Western audiences to himself by pompously announcing a “solidarity visit”. However, Israel flatly refused, as the “time is not right”. Zelensky is likely terrified of the prospect that he will have to share hundreds of billions in so-called US “aid” with Israel. It’s no secret that the latter is a priority for Washington DC, while the Kiev regime and the Ukrainian people as a whole are routinely seen as “cheap cannon fodder” that should only be “dying for a NATO mission.” The words of the infamous warhawk Lindsey Graham that “the best money the US ever spent because the Russians are dying” show this only works for America if its actual allies are under attack.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

October 17, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment