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Russia will hold West responsible for Kiev’s crimes – UN envoy

RT | November 8, 2023

Repeatedly targeting civilians and first responders in Donetsk with US-made HIMARS missiles was a deliberate crime, for which both the Ukrainian government and its Western sponsors will be held accountable, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia told the Security Council on Wednesday.

“Yesterday’s attacks killed 6 and injured 55 people, including three children,” Nebenzia said at the emergency session of the UN body, calling it “yet another flagrant violation by the Kiev regime of the norms of international humanitarian law and further evidence of its purposeful actions to destroy the civilian population of Donbas.”

The Russian diplomat laid out evidence that the Ukrainian strike amounted to a premeditated terrorist attack. The first strike hit the social services building in Donetsk at 4:25pm local time. The second followed 15 minutes later, after first responders showed up, while the third came at 6:27pm, targeting journalists that came to report from the scene, the diplomat said.

A doctor, a paramedic and a police officer were among the killed, while 23 first responders were among the wounded.

“No doubt this is a deliberate tactic,” Nebenzia told the Security Council. As further proof, he brought up the October 31 attack of another district of Donetsk, when Ukrainian artillery fired US-made HIMARS missiles to start a fire and then targeted first responders with US-supplied cluster munitions, killing two and injuring 15 people. The third strike then targeted journalists but did not cause any casualties.

“These are conscious and cynical crimes that have no statute of limitation,” the Russian diplomat said, adding that Moscow will hold responsible not just the “Kiev regime” but also “Western countries who flood Ukraine with weapons and – as we are well aware – also approve targets of the strikes.”

Nebenzia described these attacks as “strikes of despair” that make no sense from the military standpoint but represent frustration with battlefield failures and hatred of the former fellow citizens, which the Kiev government considers subhuman.

There have been more than 25,000 artillery attacks on the Donetsk People’s Republic since February 2022, with over 145,000 projectiles striking Donetsk city alone, the Russian diplomat told the UN Security Council. In that period, Ukrainian bombardment has killed 4,755 civilians – including 140 children – and wounded over 5,300 people.

That is not counting more than 20,000 civilian casualties of Ukraine’s crackdown on the Donbass since 2014, after the local population “did not accept the unconstitutional Maidan coup d’état in Kiev and stood up to defend their rights and freedoms,” Nebenzia noted.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Biden regime moves to clamp down on pro-Palestine student groups in US

By Shabbir Rizvi | Press TV | November 8, 2023

Since the onset of the Al Aqsa Storm Operation more than a month ago, the US has seen an unprecedented level of support and solidarity for the Palestinian people and resistance.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in different US cities, not only condemning the Zionist regime for its horrific war crimes in the besieged Gaza Strip and the ongoing occupation but for the US government’s direct role in supporting such crimes.

A particular note has to be made regarding the role of young people – specifically university student groups and coalitions – who have organized marches, rallies, speakouts, walkouts, and more.

Organizations such as the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Muslim Students Association (MSA), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and others have not only devoted much of their time and energy championing the Palestinian cause on campuses – but have done so with tremendous bravery.

These demonstrators have been braving great risks and threats from pro-Israel lobbies.

Anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are conflated in the political mechanisms of the United States. These political tendencies, which are really just Zionist propaganda points, are also disseminated into college campuses through special interest organizations and the academic curriculum itself.

Pro-Palestine organizers put themselves at great risk with their activities – groups like the “Anti-Defamation League” or other Zionist groups often target activists to smear or doxx them.

Despite this, the Palestinian cause has become unshakable on campuses. From prestigious universities like Harvard to the small-town community college, the Palestinian struggle is making itself known – and it has turned heads. So much so that the federal government is now taking action to clamp down on it.

The Joe Biden administration, revising Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, asserted a new, egregious clarification to the 1964 law – insisting it prohibits “certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities.”

It is worth noting that the update to the civil rights legislation is being done directly through the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

Clearly, the ongoing struggle for Palestinian freedom has struck a nerve with the Biden administration.

Adding this clarification would threaten universities with having federal funding pulled – which many universities cannot exist without – if the federal government deems the university is breeding “anti-semitism.”

Anti-Semitism, under the Biden administration’s official definition, conflates criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.

Through this egregious conflation, Zionist groups can play the victim as they notoriously do and claim that cases of anti-semitism are on the rise when that is simply not the case. Calls for Palestinian liberation is on the rise, which the state – through its legal definition – deems as “anti-Semitic.”

The definition lays the groundwork for enforcing a total ban on all pro-Palestine student activity as the very nationhood of Palestine is under direct threat by the US-backed Israeli occupation regime.

Every and any act of solidarity with Palestine on university campuses could mean arrest or expulsion.

Through bureaucratic measures, the Biden administration – and those that would follow after – could crack down on Pro-Palestine groups within universities by forcing the university to either comply with its new definition of anti-semitism – or face all of its federal funding being revoked.

Universities would then be the ones forced to stop Palestine solidarity demonstrations – and not an arm of the state, which would likely invite different legal hassles and challenges.

The Biden administration is moving fast to enforce this unpopular measure – more than 200 security experts at the Department of Homeland Security have now been deployed to schools to “monitor antisemitism” according to a White House official.

The state is acknowledging that it is devoting a significant amount of resources to prevent the spread of the Palestinian freedom movement.

And as such, some universities are already caving in to Zionist and state pressure.

Brandeis University, in Massachusetts, has completely banned the Students for Justice in Palestine organization. The local SJP chapter was then forced to cancel a vigil they had planned for Monday night to honor the 10,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza by US-funded bombs used by the Zionist regime.

Other states are experiencing more heavy-handed repression. Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has issued a complete ban on Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Of course, legal action is always an option on the table. But the process can be lengthy, and full of different obstacles – such as money, time, and ongoing threats from the state and Zionist lobby.

This is by design – slowing down the rapidly growing march of the Palestinian cause on universities is pivotal for the Biden administration as it brazenly defends Israeli war crimes.

So even if the student groups could win a legal case, this critical moment in US politics would be something the student organizations could not legally pursue through campus mechanisms.

The binding false definition that ties anti-Semitism to anti-Zionism will be the primary legal hurdle, and not just in universities.

By using this standard on campuses, it is plausible to extend it to cities too – threatening to cut federal funding for city projects if local authorities do not crack down on Palestinian groups and their activities.

It is a dangerous precedent being set and lays bare the hypocritical nature of freedom of speech and assembly in the United States.

The silver lining here is perhaps tied to that exactly – never before has the Palestinian cause been so powerful in the United States as it is today.

With Biden’s tanking numbers in the polls ahead of an election year, complimented by hundreds of thousands attending Palestine marches in the streets, this legislation has the potential to backfire against not only Biden but the US political apparatus as a whole.

Only time will tell what legal battles will arise from this political fiasco. But one thing is for certain: the road ahead is long, and the state should expect a fierce fight from activists who are already willing to risk their lives for Palestine.

Shabbir Rizvi is a Chicago-based political analyst with a focus on US internal security and foreign policy.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | 1 Comment

Red Cross condemns attack on aid convoy in Gaza City

MEMO | November 8, 2023

Humanitarian aid convoy came under attack in Gaza yesterday, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Condemning the strike, the ICRC said it was “deeply troubled that its humanitarian convoy in Gaza City came under fire on Tuesday. The ICRC reminds the parties of their obligation under international humanitarian law to respect and protect humanitarian workers at all times.”

The convoy of five trucks and two ICRC vehicles was carrying lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities, including to Al-Quds Hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, when it was hit. Two trucks were damaged, and a driver was lightly wounded.

“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” said William Schomburg, the head of the ICRC delegation in Gaza. “We are here to bring urgent assistance to civilians in need. Ensuring that vital assistance can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”

After the incident the convoy altered its route and reached Al-Shifa hospital where it delivered the medical supplies. Afterward, the ICRC convoy accompanied six ambulances with critically wounded patients to the Rafah crossing.

Israel has intensified its bombing campaign in the northern Gaza Strip and has called on all civilians to leave, saying that those who remain will be assumed to be fighters and therefore targeted. This is in spite of the fact that tens of thousands do not have the means or ability to leave the area and thousands are working as emergency workers supporting their local community, including at Al-Shifa Hospital.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | 3 Comments

US media say Israel is retaliating. The facts show the opposite

A woman taking part in the women’s march near Israel’s fence imprisoning Gazans on July 3, 2018 is carried on a stretcher
By Alison Weir | If Americans Knew | November 8, 2023

US media reports virtually always say that Israeli violence against Palestinians is “retaliation”. The chronology, however, shows the opposite.

Time after time, US news coverage of the issue begins when Palestinians have committed violence, without noting that this violence was preceded by Israeli violence.

Most recently, US news reports make it appear that the current violence began on October 7th, while failing to mention that Israeli forces had been killing Palestinians regularly in the days, weeks, months, and years before that.

This was the chart before October 7th, 2023.
The recent deaths dwarf the already large numbers from previous years. (source)

Current news reports also fail to note that October 7th was basically a prison break from what many have accurately described as the world’s largest open air prison, imprisoning over 2 million men, women, and children.

Media reports also neglect to inform Americans that the communities surrounding Gaza are built on stolen Palestinian land, many of the former owners imprisoned in the Gaza ghetto, destitute and desperate.

Media reports also fail to inform Americans that before the October operation, thousands of Gazans had gathered every week for over a year and a half to protest their imprisonment and dispossession – and Israeli forces had shot them, week after week.

Media also fail to inform Americans that it is Israel that regularly initiates the violence after periods of calm, according to an MIT professor’s study on the subject.

This type of news coverage is not new, and has often been found in alternative media as well as legacy media companies.

While the pro-Israel lobby in the US is arguably the most powerful special interest group in the country (it appears that $19 billion may go to Israel this year alone), and while media coverage of the issue is demonstrably slanted toward Israel, there are growing numbers of Americans who are demanding a stop to US support for Israeli crimes.

Until Americans learn the many facts on this issue being obscured by US media, the tragic violence in the region, and the wars fought on Israel’s behalf, will continue, and Americans, too, will continue to die.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, president of the Council for the National Interest, and author of Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , , , | 2 Comments

Hamas faces off against Israeli troops pushing into ‘heart’ of Gaza City

The Cradle | November 8, 2023

Hamas’ Qassam Brigades continue to confront invading Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, as Tel Aviv claims its forces have reached the “heart” of Gaza City. 

The Qassam Brigades announced in a statement on 8 November that since the early morning, its forces destroyed “15 enemy vehicles in several areas in Gaza.” 

The statement also announced “the sniping of a soldier in the Al-Tawam area, wounding him directly.” 

Resistance fighters also targeted a gathering of soldiers and vehicles south of Gaza City with a Konkurs guided missile, as well as two tanks and an armored troop carrier near the Al-Shati camp in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the group’s Telegram page. 

Fierce clashes were reported in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, as well. 

The Quds Brigades of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement also targeted several Israeli armored vehicles with mortar fire near the Al-Mashtal hotel in northwestern Gaza. 

The Israeli army said on 8 October that two more soldiers were killed inside Gaza. This brings the number of casualties admitted by Israel up to 33 since 27 October, when Tel Aviv announced limited ground operations inside Gaza.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army claims that its troops are now deep inside Gaza City. 

Israeli forces are operating “in the heart” of Gaza City and are “tightening the noose” around Hamas, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on 7 November. 

“Gaza City is surrounded. We are operating within it; we are deepening the pressure on Hamas every hour, every day,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that evening. 

The prime minister vowed that there would be no ceasefire until all prisoners inside Gaza were returned to Israel. 

The Israeli air force has also continued to launch indiscriminate air strikes across the strip, including in the south, where Tel Aviv has called on civilians to evacuate. 

In Khan Younis, Israeli warplanes destroyed two Mosques on 8 November. Several other areas in central and northern Gaza were struck by fighter jets. 

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

Hamas to remain key player in Gaza’s future: Resistance group’s senior official to Netanyahu

Press TV – November 8, 2023

A senior member of Hamas political bureau says the resistance movement will continue to be the key player in the politics and the administration of the Gaza Strip which has been under brutal aggression by the Israeli regime for over a month.

Ghazi Hamad said on Wednesday that claims by US officials about the diminishing role of Hamas in Gaza are in fact a sign they have failed to defeat the group after more than a month of military action.

Hamad told Al Jazeera that despite the claims, Hamas is currently a powerful political and military force in Gaza that still determines the course of action in the territory.

He said efforts by the Israeli regime and the US to redefine the situation in Gaza have failed and they have achieved nothing in the small blockaded territory and have only caused mass killing of civilians and destruction of hospitals and the civilian infrastructure.

The official said restoring order to Gaza is purely a Palestinian issue and Hamas will remain a key part of that process despite the will of the US government and the Israeli regime.

The remarks came after Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that Israel would maintain “overall security responsibility” for Gaza “for an indefinite period” when the war ends.

He, however, did not elaborate on the kind of security mechanism such a plan would involve.

At least 10,569 people have been killed in Gaza since the Israeli regime launched its military campaign on the territory on October 7.

The aggression started after an operation by Hamas that killed 1,400 settlers and military forces in the Israeli-occupied territories of Palestine near Gaza.

Israel has declared its main ambition from invading Gaza is to eradicate Hamas, which has ruled the territory for the past 15 years.

Military experts say the Hamas operation against Israel dealt a huge blow to the regime’s myth of invincibility and boosted the morale of resistance groups in Gaza and in the wider Palestine.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why Does US Keep Mum on Arms Supplies to Israel?

By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 08.11.2023

The Biden administration remains tight-lipped about “critical” US military equipment being delivered to Tel Aviv amid the ongoing armed conflict between Palestine and Israel.
US claims that transparency about Washington’s weapons delivers to Tel Aviv would endanger Israel’s operational security are misleading, experts have told The Intercept.

William Hartung, a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and an expert on weapons sales, said: “The notion that it would in any way harm the Israeli military’s operational security to provide more information is a cover story for efforts to reduce information on the types of weapons being supplied to Israel and how they are being used.”

According to him, “the purposeful lack of transparency over what weapons the US is supplying to Israel ‘on a daily basis’ is tied to the larger administration policy of downplaying the extent to which Israel will use those weapons to commit war crimes and kill civilians in Gaza.”

Hartung added that even as the Biden administration supports Israel with “weapons and rhetoric, it is a delicate matter politically to give all the details on US weapons supplied to the Israeli military, some of which will certainly be used in illegal attacks on civilians if the war continues to grind on.”

The Intercept also cited an unnamed retired US Marine general as saying that Washington keeping mum on details on its arms supplies to Tel Aviv can be attributed to the political sensitivity of the Palestine-Israel conflict.

In particular, weapons used in door-to-door urban warfare, which […] result in civilian casualties, are not going to be something the [Biden] administration wants to publicize, the retired officer said.

The remarks come after US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby admitted late last month that the White House is “being careful not to quantify or get into too much detail about what Israel is getting [in terms of military aid]— for their own operational security purposes, of course.”

Although the US Department of Defense at first declined to identify any specific weapons systems supplied to Israel, it finally revealed that these include “precision guided munitions, small diameter bombs, artillery, ammunition, Iron Dome interceptors and other critical equipment.”

The Intercept noted in this vein that, “What ‘other critical equipment’ entails remains a mystery, as do specifics about the quantity of arms being supplied, which the US administration has refused to disclose.”

The US news website also recalled that while the Biden administration “put out a three-page list of arms for Ukraine, information on weapons sent to Israel could fit in one sentence.”

US President Joe Biden earlier requested $14.3 billion in funding for Israel in addition to the over $3 billion in military assistance Washington already provides.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | 2 Comments

To Hell or to Ireland: Israel’s Final Solution to Their Palestinian Problem

By Declan Hayes | Strategic Culture Foundation | November 7, 2023

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu’s proposal that Israel’s Gazan problem can best be solved by nuking the inhabitants and shipping the survivors off to Ireland warrants serious discussion.

As Israeli Ministry of Defense, Yoav Galant, has clearly stated that the over-arching aim is to rid Gaza of “Hamas” and that all else is secondary detail, dropping the big one might very well be in order. When we consider that Israel, together with their Yankee buddies, are, with no sense of Holocaust-related irony, considering gassing the tunnels to cleanse them of “Hamas”, Israel’s nuclear arsenal may as well be taken out of storage, dusted down and put to good use.

As for collateral damage and bad publicity, forget about all that. You only have to spend three minutes on social media looking at all the young Palestinian toddlers, both living and dead, to see that Israel does not give a tinker’s curse for any of that. Shooting or gassing a million human Bambis? Forget about it.

As an Irish citizen, I am honoured that Herr Eliyahu has chosen us as their dumping ground rather than, say, their own Ukrainian spawning ground that the self-serving policies of Israeli ally Clown Prince Zelensky has bled dry of people. With over half of Ukraine’s population either dead or fled abroad, wouldn’t the Ukrainian rump Reich make a much better internment camp for Israel’s millions of young captives? And it is not like the Ukrainians are amateurs at dishing out tough love, something they were doing even in World War Two when Ireland’s Zionists were building golf courses for themselves while the Poles bled.

All that to one side, Ireland would, subject to some tweaks in the education department, make an excellent dumping ground. As things currently stand, little Irish children first begin being indoctrinated with the fables of Anne Frank before being moved on to The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, written by some Dublin-born Jew or other. How can Irish teachers still find the Irish complicit in Auschwitz and Belsen whilst retaining their dogged pride in Israel’s Herzog’s murder gang if the place is over run with Palestinians, who might argue that they too have been gassed, shot at and slaughtered in droves and that this perennial hierarchy of victims might not quite be kosher?

Then there is the issue of citizenship and, more importantly, passports. Should the Palestinians all be given Irish passports the same way everyone else is? Although Ursula von der Leyen, Victoria Nuland and Ireland’s other leaders will eventually decide on that, there are some other issues that have to be considered. Portugal, for example, was forced under a (Jewish) Law of Return rule to grant citizenship to any Jew from anywhere on God’s earth who could convincingly pretend that their ancestors were expelled from Portugal during Inquisition times almost five centuries ago. How would opening the Irish floodgates to hordes of Palestinians impinge on all those Israelis, who collect second passports the way most kids collect postage stamps?

And, though I hate to even think it, Jews are not the only ones who have suffered in the far off past. Here, at the British Holocaust Memorial Trust, mention is also made of Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur and, as Ireland is over run with both Roma gypsies and Poles, who both also suffered Bandera’s wrath, should they also get mentioned in dispatches given, for example, that Germany never paid Poland one single, solitary dime, even though it pumped billions into Israel to smooth the path for Brooklyn, Birmingham, Bogotá and Belfast Jews, who never came within an ass’s roar of Bandera’s jackbooted thugs?

Deporting Palestinians, like the Boers before them, to Irish or other reservations might not be such a good idea not least because it smacks of Cromwell’s To Hell or to Connaught final solution to his Irish problem. Though Cromwell, as every good Jew should know, was a very good friend to England’s upwardly mobile Jews, his name remains anathema to me and every Irish person who thinks like me. Cromwell’s Irish droppings still have their safe rooms in their churches and, given the extent of their crimes and those of the self-styled Church of Ireland against indigenous aboriginals like me, they never quite know if and when the worm might turn and payback might return once more, as it did in the Great Rebellion of 1798.

The problem, then, in shipping the Palestinians off to Ireland or any other Yankee holding pen is that, even in lethargic Ireland, it might raise a hornet’s nest of protest. This would be the case even if these vulnerable armies of unaccompanied children were to be dumped in Jeffrey Epstein’s Orgy Island for Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Alan Dershowitz to have fun and games with. And the same would apply if they were plonked in England and/or France, the two countries that bequeathed the lands, goods and chattels of the indigenous Palestinians to the Brooklyn, Birmingham, Bogotá and Belfast Jews.

Although there is always the Sinai Desert and the rest of the Arab world, not only do they already have their own considerable Palestinian diasporas but their policy has been that Palestinians belong in Palestine, not on a cattle train to Belsen, Auschwitz or Algeria. And they have a point, at least in terms of natural justice.

Though a blind man can see that the Arabs have a moral point, I cannot see that Israel or any similar country that wallows in its own war crimes has any moral point at all. Perhaps the fault is mine as I am neither Jewish nor Zionist and so do not have a sense of my own inviolate superiority. What I do have is a sense of morality, a sense of black and white, right and wrong. And Israel’s current war crimes, like all of those they have previously committed, are not only wrong, but criminally and inexcusably wrong as well.

If anybody should vacate those lands, it is the Israelis like Eliyahu, Netanyahu and Galant, whose crimes have abrogated any moral right they might have had to any piece of it whatsoever. As to where they should go, as Rhett Butler so famously said, frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn where these moral pariahs go or what becomes of them. But then, it is not up to me but up to the Russian government and China’s can can dancers to negotiate for and with the Palestinians, who now hold all the relevant cards, given the indefensible claptrap of these Israelis, who have revealed to the world their own bloodied and morally contagious hands.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

Pax Americana delusion crumbles as American Empire is heading to a hopeless end

By Nebojsa Malic | Global Times | October 23, 2023

As US President Joe Biden argued for spending another $100 billion on Ukraine, Israel and the island of Taiwan in a televised speech last week, he made a curious claim that American leadership is what holds the world together.

This statement is obviously wrong. At best, American leadership is limited to what is known as the West, which basically amounts to NATO, Australia, Japan and South Korea, as well as a small number of countries in Latin America and Africa. The West’s military might was humiliated in Afghanistan two years ago, and on the fields of Ukraine since. Its economic prestige has been shaken as well. As for culture… the less said, the better.

Biden was articulating what the Western establishment desperately wants to cling to: the delusion of a Pax Americana that supposedly arose at the end of the Cold War, some 35 years ago. Everyone was supposed to embrace liberal democracy and usher in the end of history in which the rules-based world order would reign forever.

Take it from someone who was there at its founding: Pax Americana never really existed.

The name itself is a reference to Pax Romana, the order imposed by the Roman Empire – with fire and sword – over much of Europe, North Africa and the Levant 2,000 years ago. The Romans were harsh; Tacitus famously described it in the famous epigram, stating that they created a desert and called it peace. Yet a peace it was, with lands under Roman rule enjoying technology and a level of civilization that would not be seen again for hundreds of years after the empire’s demise.

Has the American empire, such as it is, created anything of the kind? Hardly. Take the current situation in West Asia, where Washington is not only unable to stop the carnage between the Israelis and the Palestinians, but unwilling to even try. The historic Abraham Accords of the previous presidency may as well not exist at all.

Africa is in turmoil, with country after country in the Sahel rejecting the West and its never-ending anti-terrorism operations that somehow never get rid of terrorists. Latin America also seems to have spurned Washington. Venezuela has defeated the US plot to install an interim president. When El Salvador demonstrated that restoring law and order is not just possible but practical, the US NGOs actually protested about the human rights of organized criminals.

The historic nuclear deal with Iran that was torn up within a couple of years showed that the US does not keep their side of the bargain. The scramble to flee Afghanistan, as the US-backed regime crumbled before the Taliban, even before American boots were off the ground, ended up seared into the eyes of the world back in August 2021.

Russia had offered the West a partnership, but was rejected. To ensure that countries in the post-Soviet space did not get out of line, the West created “color revolutions,” once described as a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in Western branding and mass marketing. In reality, this was a template for winning other people’s elections.

A euphoric British reporter wrote those words about the 2004 coup in Ukraine. A decade later, the US-backed another – leading to the separation of Crimea, the rebellion in Donbass and the war that Moscow finally openly joined in 2022, when all other choices had been exhausted.

A “color revolution” was carried out in 2000, in Serbia, after NATO failed to achieve regime change with the 1999 air war. NATO occupied Kosovo and declared the Serbian province an “independent state” in 2008. Contrary to Western pronouncements, that did not resolve the conflict, nor did it make the people there more prosperous.

Then in 2003, the US led the illegal invasion of Iraq. Weakened by a decade of war, the US-backed Iraqi government then almost collapsed to ISIS, which arose on the winds of the Arab Spring – a chain of “color revolutions” in North Africa and West Asia that promised prosperity and peace, but brought only war and suffering. Just ask the Libyans and the Syrians.

The fraud of Pax Americana began in the 1990s, in the ruins of Yugoslavia – my country of birth. The US had backed the Muslims of Bosnia-Herzegovina to reject a political deal with the Serbs and Croats, plunging that former republic into civil war. Then they repeatedly sabotaged the UN and EU attempts to broker a peace, so that NATO could make a grand entrance in 1995 and save the day like the cavalry, just like in an old Western movie.

As it turned out, the American Empire was not indispensable. It could not create peace or prosperity around the world, only chaos and strife. These days, others have taken up the job of making people’s lives better, for example the BRICS+ group, who are not so much opposed to the West as determined to leave it behind in the blood-soaked mud of its own imperial failure.

The author is a Serbian-American journalist. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Wars for Israel | , , | 3 Comments

US Lawmaker Slams Pro-Israel Lobby: ‘I Don’t Give a F*** About AIPAC’

Sputnik – 07.11.2023

A congressional lawmaker from Wisconsin recently took the gloves off in an interview with US media about the influence of the Zionist group in Washington politics.

US Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) sharply criticized the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in US politics on Monday, singling out the role of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

“It’s time to call them out for what they are – a front group for conservative policy here in the US – instead of being afraid of them,” said Pocan in an interview with US media.

“I don’t give a f*** about AIPAC – period. I think they’re a cancerous presence on our democracy and politics in general, and if I can be a surgeon, that’s great.”

The statement represents the latest salvo in an ongoing feud between Pocan and the historically influential lobbying group. Last month, AIPAC accused Pocan and several Democratic members of the US House of “trying to keep Hamas in power” in a post on the X social media platform.

The accusation came after several lawmakers voted against a bill expressing unconditional support for Israel’s military action in Gaza (Pocan was not among them). Nine Democratic lawmakers were joined by US Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in opposing the bill, with Massie stating opposition to the bill’s support for sanctions and implied future commitment of US troops in the conflict.

I condemn the barbaric attack on Israel and I affirm Israel’s right to defend itself.

However, I will not be voting for House Resolution 771 today because:

1) It calls for sanctions on a sovereign country. Sanctions are a prelude to war and hurt the citizens of the country more…

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 25, 2023

Pocan responded on the platform, posting “AIPAC is good at not telling the truth… We just don’t support killing kids, which it seems you do.”
At least 4,100 minors and 10,022 people in total have been killed in Israel’s ongoing attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip over the last month, according to latest figures provided by officials.

Additionally, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 155 people in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territory illegally occupied by Israel under international law since 1967.

Pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC have helped make Israel the single largest recipient of US foreign aid since World War II, procuring as much as $3.9 billion in yearly assistance for the country.

Criticizing Israel and the influence of the pro-Israel lobby has proven taboo in US politics. US Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), one of only three Muslim members of US Congress, was denounced as antisemitic after criticizing the influence of Zionist lobbyists in 2019. The incident saw her attract criticism from prominent members of her own party, including Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former US President Bill Clinton.

Omar was again castigated after a post on social media criticizing Israel in 2021. Omar shared recordings of a threatening voicemail she received in response to public criticism against her at the time, including threatening messages such as “Muslims are terrorists” and one caller saying he hopes her campaign volunteers “get what’s f***ing coming to you.” Public treatment of Muslim officials such as Omar and fellow Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian member of US Congress, has prompted discussion of the role of Islamophobia and Orientalism in public life.

Orientalism is prejudice against people from the Middle East and Middle Eastern culture. The term was popularized by Palestinian scholar Edward Said in his 1978 book “Orientalism,” which argued that domination of the region is fueled by Western contempt and stereotypical assumptions about the Arab world.

A recent study by researchers at Brown University found that as many as 3.8 million people have been killed amidst US-backed military action in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and other countries in the 21st century. US interference in the region has been ongoing for decades, and includes a CIA-backed coup in Iran in 1953, US funding of Mujahideen forces in Afghanistan since the late 1970s, and continued US military support for Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

November 8, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Islamophobia, War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , | 4 Comments