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Europe worries about the rise of “populism”, but real specter haunting EU is “maidanization”

By Uriel Araujo | November 27, 2023

In the Netherlands, the PVV (Freedom Party), led by controversial politician Geert Wilders, often described as “far-right” and “populist”, won about 37 of the 150 seats in the Dutch parliament. While talks have started to form the new government, Wilders and his party are now in a leading position. Predictably, much is being written now about the rise of “populism” in Europe, while Western discourses try to link it to far-right Nazi-Fascism.

Whether one likes the “populist” wave or not, this being an umbrella term for a variety of movements, it would be simply inaccurate to equate all such groups with Fascism in general. The supposed connection to Russia in turn only appears “sinister”, thanks to a wave of Russophobia, if one suffers from memory loss: as recently as 2021, the (now gone) Nord Stream 2 German-Russian pipelines project was being completed to deliver Russian gas directly to Western Europe. It had been opposed from the very start by Washington, while Berlin resisted American pressures all the way to almost completion – and then pipelines got blown up in a sabotage explosion, just as US President Joe Biden himself on February 7 had promised would happen, when he said: “If Russia invades (…) there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.”

According to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, the sabotage was indeed carried out by Washington. However, thus far, the only voices that vehemently demand an active investigation about such an act of terrorism come from the populist camp, such as the  Die Linke and the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) political parties in Germany. It is no wonder then that populism is on the rise in the continent.

Notwithstanding any valid criticism one may have of the current Russian military campaign in Ukraine, the roots of today’s conflict lie on this energy angle and American interests – as much as they also lie on US geopolitical goals pertaining to “encircling” Russia and to NATO’s enlargement for the sake of maintaining unipolarity.

This month Moldova, a country which is trying to join the European Union (EU), banned a “pro-Russian” party (the Chance Party) from taking part in local elections, two days before the vote, on the basis of “national security” concerns. The measure is in line with the latest European trend, which can only be described as Neo-Mccarthyism: in France, Marine Le Pen, who vowed to pull Paris out of NATO’s military command last year, was questioned for four hours, on June, during what was described as a witch trial, and her Rassemblement National party was described as a “communication channel” for Russia by a report published by the French government.

The same month, Poland’s President Andrzej Duda signed a law allowing Warsaw to conduct political repression against the opposition, the justification being, of course, “to investigate Russian influence on Polish politics”. The commission created for that purpose can ban people from public office for a decade. Such measures, as I wrote, mirror post-Maidan Ukraine’s own anti-Russian initiatives pertaining to banning vaguely defined “pro-Russian” political parties (at least 11 thus far) and the opposition. The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been advancing moves to outlaw (Russian) Orthodox communities, something which even the head of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk of Kyiv-Halych, has denounced.

France, particularly, had always boasted of being the land of demonstrations, but that has changed. Last month, the country’s Interior Ministry banned all pro-Palestinian rallies nation-wide. Violent clashes between police and defiant protesters ensued, and organizing such demonstrations can now lead to arrest. Similarly, protests have also been banned or restricted in Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, and Austria, among other European nations. Esther Major, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Research in Europe voiced the organization’s concern, stating, on October 20, that “in many European countries, the authorities are unlawfully restricting the right to protest (…) In some cases, protests have been banned altogether.”

According to Julia Hall, Amnesty International’s expert on counter-terrorism and human rights (in Europe), “what people can say and do is narrowing by the day”, with France proposing to “criminalize people who criticize Israel”, which is “something new”. She adds that “free speech in Europe has been narrowed in record time. It is leaving victims without any voices. I do not think this will be a one-off.” The United Nations (UN) rapporteur Clement Voule has also voiced his concern about such “disproportionate and arbitrary” blanket bans on protests and the like setting “a very worrying precedent that could have a great impact on the exercise of our fundamental rights and freedoms” because in times of crisis people should have “space to raise their voices, grievances and solidarity, and calls for peace, justice and security.”

All such measures clearly violate human rights in Europe in Europe’s own terms, in accordance with article 11 of the European convention on human rights, by stigmatizing minorities such as Muslims and others,  and by violating the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of expression. The thing is this trend has not started now with the issue of Palestine at all: in fact, this year Germany banned Russian and Soviet flags during its “World War II commemorations” on Victory Day, this being the very day when the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany.

While European Establishment voices may try to demonize populism, we are witnessing in fact the “Maidanization” of the continent, with rising anti-Russian neo-McCarthyism, talks about banning political parties and demonstrations, the Western mainstreamization of the far-right and even Nazism (as long as it is not “pro-Russian”) plus Europe agreeing with Kyiv on “no Russian minority” in Ukraine. Rather than expecting Ukraine to adapt to European norms and values, it would seem Europe is changing in such a way that post-Maidan Ukraine will just feel at home if its accession ever materializes.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Magician’s Hat, and the Great Simulacrum of Palliative Balm

By Alastair Crooke | Strategic Culture Foundation | November 27, 2023

The Magician steps onto the stage, his black cloak swirling about him. Centre stage, he flourishes his hat: It is empty. He punches it lightly to demonstrate its solidity. The Magician then picks up certain objects and places them into his hat. Into it goes AnsarAllah’s seizure of an Israeli-owned vessel (the situation is being ‘monitored’); into it goes the Iraqi strikes on U.S. bases (barely noticed by the main-stream media); into it too go the 1,000 missiles fired into northern Israel by Hizbullah; into it goes the hot war in the West Bank. The Magician turns to the audience – the hat is empty. But the audience knows those objects have a physical reality, but somehow they are magically obfuscated.

It is in this way that the western main-stream media maintains deterrence by playing down the state of war through what Malcom Kyeyune describes as “a simulacrum of peace” – of a gently subsiding conflict and the quieting deployment of (paraphrasing Kyeyune) a very “post-modern question”: What exactly is the meaning of civilian ‘non-combatant’ anyway?

One aspect to the image of easing conflict is the hostage exchange that has been agreed. It is both real, and at the same time it underpins the simulacrum that once Hamas is annihilated, and the hostages released, then the problem of 2.3 million Palestinians can go into the magician’s hat, and be eased from sight. For some, the hope is sincere and well intentioned – that once the fighting ceases, it will stay ceased, and that an end to the bombardment in Gaza might open a window to some political ‘solution’ – if it can be extended sine dei.

‘Solution’ being here but a polite word for the EU’s attempted bribery of Egypt and Jordan. Reportedly, the EU President, Ursula von der Leyen, visited Egypt and Israel to present them with financial offers ($10bn for Egypt and $5bn for Jordan), in exchange for the dispersal of the inhabitants of the Gaza Strip elsewhere – effectively to facilitate the evacuation of the Palestinian population from the Strip in line with Israel’s aims of ethnically-cleansing Gaza.

However, former minister Ayalet Shaked’s tweet – “After we turn Khan Yunis into a soccer field, we need to tell the countries that each of them take a quota: We need all 2 million to leave. That’s the solution to Gaza” – is but one by senior Israeli political and security figures extoling what Israel increasingly sees as the “solution” for Gaza.

But by being so explicit, Shaked likely has torpedoed Von der Leyen’s initiative – for no Arab state wants to be complicit in a new Nakba.

A Hudna or ‘time out’ inevitably is highly precarious. In the 2014 fighting, when IDF forces initiated military sweeps in Gaza after a ceasefire had begun, it led to a fire-fight and the collapse of the cease-fire. The fighting continued for another full month.

Two key lessons that I learnt from trying to initiate truces on behalf of the EU during the Second Intifada were that a ‘truce is a truce’ and only that – both sides use it to reposition themselves for the next round of fighting. And secondly, that ‘quiet’ in one confined locality does not spread de-escalation to another geographically separate locality; but rather, that one outbreak of egregious violence is virally contagious, and spreads geographically instantly.

The present hostage exchange is centred on Gaza. However, Israel has three fronts of hot conflict open (Gaza, its northern border with Lebanon, and in the West Bank). An incident occurring in any one of the three fronts may be enough to collapse confidence in the Gaza understandings and re-launch Israel’s assault on Gaza.

On the eve of the truce, by way of example, Israeli forces heavily bombed both Syria and Lebanon. Seven Hizbullah fighters were killed.

The point here, plainly said, is that the historical precedents of Hudnas leading to political openings are not that great. A hostage release, per se, resolves nothing. The issue in the present crisis runs far deeper. When, ‘once upon a time’, Britain promised the Jews a homeland, western powers also (in 1947) promised Palestinians a state, but never took it to implementation. This lacuna ultimately is culminating in a head-on train crash.

The Israeli Cabinet’s ambition for a Jewish State on the biblical lands of Israel simply is intended to block any Palestinian State from emerging either in part of Jerusalem, or elsewhere in historic Palestine. In this context, Hamas’ actions were precisely intended to break this impasse and the endless paradigm of fruitless ‘negotiations’.

Unsurprisingly, Israel’s Defence Minister already has announced Israel’s intention to renew fighting immediately after the end of the cease-fire. Israeli officials have been telling their U.S. counterparts that they anticipate several more weeks of operations in the north of the Strip, before shifting focus to the south.

Thus far, the IDF has been operating in areas close to the shoreline in Gaza, and in places, such as the Wadi, south of Gaza City, where the subsoil does not facilitate the building of tunnels. These are the areas, therefore, where Hamas does not have significant defensive capabilities. Should military action be renewed, the IDF is likely to move away from the northern coastline towards the Gaza City epicentre, allowing Hamas to manoeuvre more easily, and inflict greater losses on the IDF and their armoured vehicles. In this sense – away from the simulacra – the war is just beginning.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has been described both in Israel and in the western MSM as a ‘dead man walking’ in political terms. Be that as it may, Netanyahu has his strategy: He has openly defied the Biden Team on every war-related issue, except that of eradicating Hamas.

During a press conference last Sunday, Netanyahu touted a “diplomatic Iron Dome”, saying he would not give in to “increasingly heavy pressure … used against us in recent weeks … I reject these pressures and say to the world: We will continue to fight until victory — until we destroy Hamas and bring our hostages back home”.

Yonatan Freeman, from the Hebrew University, perceives the gambit in Netanyahu’s vague statements: He defies Team Biden, yet takes care to leave sufficient ‘wiggle room’ so that he can always blame Biden, whenever he is ‘forced’ by America into some reversal.

The Israeli Cabinet’s strategy, therefore, rests on the big bet that Israeli public opinion will hold – despite Netayahu’s personal disapproval ratings – due to the overwhelming public support at this point for the two declared objects set by the War Cabinet: Destroying the ‘Hamas regime’ and its capabilities, and the release of all Israeli hostages.

At its core, ‘the bet’ lies in the conviction that public sentiment – contextualised deliberately by the Israeli cabinet in absolute Manichean terms (light versus the dark; civilisation versus barbarism; all Gazans being complicit with ‘Hamas’ evil’) – will ultimately arouse a wave of support for the further move of taking “the fiction” of a Palestinian state off the table “once and for all”. The table is being set for a long war against ‘cosmic evil’.

The ‘solution’, as National Security Minister Smotrich and his allies underline, is to offer Palestinians a choice – ‘to renounce their national aspirations and continue living on their land in an inferior status’, or to emigrate abroad. Put bluntly, the ‘solution’ is the removal of all non-subservient Palestinians from the lands of Greater Israel.

Turning now to the contending perspective:

The ‘united axis’ supporting Palestinians observe that Israel continues to adhere to its initial military goals of destroying Gaza to the point where there is nothing left – no civilian infrastructure at all – by which Gazans might live, were they even to try to return to their collapsed homes.

They see this Israeli objective fully supported by Biden when his spokesman said:

“We believe that they have the right to [embark on further combat operations in Gaza]; but [such actions] … should include greater and enhanced protections for civilian life”.

Regional security commentator, Hasan Illaik, notes,

“Axis officials also believe that conciliatory-sounding U.S. statements, which sometimes suggest that a de-escalation phase is imminent, are nothing but an effort to repair a public image heavily damaged by unstinting U.S. support for Israel’s continuing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza”.

So, is Israel, supported by Team Biden and some EU leaders, winning?

Tom Friedman – an intimate of Team Biden – wrote in the New York Times on 9 November – after traveling around Israel and the West Bank:

“I now understand why so much has changed. It is crystal clear to me that Israel is in real danger — more danger than at any other time since its War of Independence in 1948”.

Far-fetched? Possibly not.

Back in 2012, U.S. author Michael Greer wrote that Israel was founded at a particular propitious time, despite being surrounded by hostile neighbours:

“Several of the major Western powers supported the new state with significant financial and military aid; of at least equal importance, members of the religious community responsible for creating the new state, who remained back in those same Western nations, engaged in vigorous fundraising efforts to support the new state, and equally vigorous political efforts to get existing governmental support maintained or increased. The resources thus made available to the new state gave it a substantial military edge against its hostile neighbours, and its existence became enough of a fait accompli that some of its neighbours backed away from a wholly confrontational stance”.

“Still, the state’s survival depended on three things. The first, and by far the most crucial, was the ongoing flow of support from the Western powers to pay for a military establishment far larger than the economic and natural resources of the territory in question would permit. The second was the continued fragmentation and relative weakness of the surrounding states. The third was the maintenance of internal peace within the state and of collective assent to a clear sense of priorities, so that it could respond with its full force to threats from outside – instead of squandering its limited resources on civil strife or popular projects that contributed nothing to its survival”.

“In the long run, none of these three conditions could be met indefinitely … When it happens that these early patterns of support break down, Israel may find itself backed into a corner”.

Last week, a leading Israeli commentator noted:

“You might think a Presidential visit, presidential speech, three Secretary of State visits, two Secretary of Defence visits, the dispatching of two aircraft carrier groups, a nuclear submarine and Marine expeditionary unit, and the pledge of $14.3 billion in emergency military aid, are testament to the unwavering support the U.S. is extending to Israel” …

“Think again”.

“Underneath the full and robust backing of the Biden administration, there are dangerous and treacherous currents that are chipping away and encroaching on public sympathy for Israel across the United States. Polls released last week contained the most alarming and telling data: Public support for Israel is cratering – particularly amongst the 18 – 34 age group. Another poll shows that 36% of Americans say they oppose additional funding for Ukraine and Israel: Support for funding Israel, only – was at 14%”.

What is truly remarkable is that the leaders of the new narratives are the youth of Generation Z, Y, and Alpha. Leveraging social media, and speaking directly to their peer groups, they have conveyed the grievances of the Palestinians to the world. Many had limited knowledge of Palestine, but their unfiltered sense of justice fuelled their collective anger against Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Greer’s second and third conditions for Israel’s survival also are metastasizing as the global tectonic plates grind and move: Non-western powers are not siding with Israel. They are coalescing in opposition to the Israeli Cabinet’s aspiration to end the notion of a Palestinian State, once and for all. And today, Israel is bitterly divided on the vision for its future; what it is exactly that constitutes ‘Israel’ and even that very post-modern question, ‘what it is to be Jewish’.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Region ‘let down’ by West’s reaction to Israeli crimes in Gaza: Qatar

Press TV – November 27, 2023

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani has slammed the West’s support for Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip, warning against the risk of a regional spillover.

“There’s a big disappointment in the region from the West’s reaction… We were expecting from the West the killing of Palestinian people is something to be condemned,” the Financial Times quoted al-Thani as saying on Sunday.

“And what we expect at least is [the West] to step up to the same standards, the same principles that they stood up to with other wars,” al-Thani added.

Noting that the war on Gaza was not treated like other conflicts, Sheikh Mohammed said “calling for a ceasefire after this destruction and killing [in Gaza] and displacement is a duty on everyone.”

Destruction of Hamas ‘not realistic’

Al-Thani emphasized that Israel’s declared aim of eliminating Hamas resistance movement was not realistic.

“At the end of the day, Hamas’s destruction by the continuation of this war will never happen,” he said, calling for a political solution to the conflict.

He stressed that Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank needed to have a “political horizon” for a viable state of their own and to be able to choose their own leadership, adding “Other than that . . . there won’t be a solution.”

The minister noted that Qatar now focuses on stopping the war. “Our only plan is to stop the war.”

“Talking about the day after as the killing and the massacres is ongoing is just like endorsing this war,” he said.

“The amount of anger and agitation in the Arab population in the region is unprecedented when they see these images, and nobody is stepping up to stop it.”

Al-Thani also warned that the failure to secure an extended ceasefire would risk the war spilling over and destabilizing “the entire region.”

He slammed Western powers for not exerting more pressure on Israel to end the war.

Referring to the underway temporary ceasefire in Gaza, al-Thani said it could be extended if Hamas managed to locate women and children captives who are held in Gaza and secure their release.

“If they get additional women and children, there will be an extension,” he said, adding “We don’t yet have any clear information how many they can find because . . . one of the purposes [of the pause] is they [Hamas] will have time to search for the rest of the missing people.”

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

Nearly 15,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in the Israeli strikes.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The 13 Sugar Colonies

November 19, 2021

This is a story of a rather unknown history of Zionism from before the theft & colonization of Palestine there was the colonization of 13 sugar colonies in the the Americas & Caribbean which brought about the sugar & slave trade and the birth of globalized capitalism. Join educational discussions by legit scholars and historians, both Black & Jewish professors who have discussed the 13 Sugar Colonies and the impact they played on the Black Holocaust. No matter how much they want to hide the history, there is no longer any debate. The evidence is overwhelming.

The lies have been deconstructed… you can access my video on my dropbox here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/53ekg3ljzf8…

Here is an audio file if you just want to download & listen to it: https://www.dropbox.com/s/oxue0tafikh…

Feel free to download it or upload it elsewhere, I need no credit. The critical history told to us through Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Dr. Tony Martin, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Khalid Muhammad, Dr. Leonard E. Barrett Sr., Minister Louis Farrakhan, Dr. Aviva Ben-Ur, Dr. Stanley Mirvis, Dr. Bertram W. Korn, Rabbi Barbara Aiello, & Professor Cary Silverstein should be of public domain for the world to know about.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , | 4 Comments

Hamas: We are seeking to extend the four-day truce

Palestine Information Center – November 26, 2023

GAZA – The Hamas Movement declared in a brief statement issued Sunday evening that it is seeking to extend the four-day truce with Israel.

We are seeking to extend the four-day truce with Israel should serious efforts be made to increase the number of Palestinian detainees released from Israeli prisons, the statement reads.

For his part, member of the Hamas Political Bureau, Khalil Al-Hayya, confirmed his movement’s seriousness in proceeding with a comprehensive prisoner exchange deal.

The Hamas Movement responded positively to the prisoner exchange deal, he said in press statements, stressing its keenness to adhere to the terms of the exchange deal.

We were concerned from day one with the return of detained women and children to their families, he added, saying that “we will strive with all diligence to secure the release of more civilian detainees.”

Around 150 Palestinian prisoners and 50 Israeli captives held in Gaza are to be released over four days under the truce deal.

 

November 26, 2023 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, Video | , , | 1 Comment

Three Palestinian students shot, wounded in US state of Vermont

Palestinian college students Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ali and Kenan Abdulhamid were shot walking down the street in Vermont on November 25, 2023.
Press TV – November 26, 2023

Three Palestinian college students have been shot and wounded in the US state of Vermont, in what is perceived to be an Islamophobic act amid unfaltering US support for the Israeli regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Burlington Police said that officers responded to a call on Saturday evening and found two shooting victims, with the third a short distance away, all close to the University of Vermont campus.

One victim was reportedly shot in the back while another is said to have been shot in the chest and a third sustained minor injuries.

Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom identified the students as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdelhamid and Tahseen Ahmed.

He posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that each of the victims was wearing the Palestinian Keffiyeh when they were attacked, identifying them as “three young Palestinian men.”

“The hate crimes against Palestinians must stop. Palestinians everywhere need protection,” Zomlot wrote on X.

Meanwhile, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said in a news release that they “have reason to believe this shooting occurred because the victims are Arab.”

The ADC said the students were speaking Arabic when the gunman yelled at them and opened fire.

“The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent,” said ADC National Executive Director in a statement on Sunday.

Burlington Police Chief said the shooter or shooters have not been identified or apprehended, adding the police department is “at the earliest stages of investigating this crime.”

The shooting is part of a broader surge in hate crimes against Muslims and Arabs in the United States.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization reported receiving 1,283 requests for help and reports of bias from the beginning of October to early November, an increase of 216 percent compared to 2022.

November 26, 2023 Posted by | Islamophobia | , , | Leave a comment

Free Speech Groups Call on Congress To Block NewsGuard Funding

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | November 26, 2023

As many as 36 groups advocating free speech, the Free Speech Alliance, have turned to US Congress with a request to stop any further funding of NewsGuard.

NewsGuard is an outfit that describes itself as countering “misinformation on behalf of news consumers, brands and democracies.”

That “mission” also includes (trust) rating system for news sites – right in people’s browsers.

But members of the Free Speech Alliance, and those supporting it are not buying this pitch, summing up and denouncing NewsGuard instead as an ideologically-motivated “internet traffic cop.”

And they are warning that taxpayer money should never have been spent on financing it, and its ilk – and even less so, that the US authorities should continue to spend taxpayer money on what is described as politically motivated censorship of speech.

And these free speech groups want Congress to make sure the Biden White House is prevented from bankrolling such an organization – a particularly sensitive issue given the stage of the election cycle in the country – via the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

In a letter this week, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson are urged to make sure Congressman Richard McCormick’s free speech amendment to the NDAA sticks.

We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.

It seeks to ensure that the Department of Defense (DoD) is prevented from handing out contracts to NewsGuard and others, such as another highly controversial group, the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).

The complaint against them is that they show obvious and damaging ideological and political bias against the media in the right-oriented space.

The letter comes in the context of the news that NewsGuard and GDI thus far received money from the DoD, and the Department of State, respectively (NewsGuard to the tune of $750,000 from the DoD).

“As shown by two MRC (Media Research Center, one of the letter’s signatories) Free Speech America studies, NewsGuard’s ratings are heavily skewed in favor of leftist media and consistently target right-leaning outlets with scathingly low ratings,” it is stated by NewBusters.

As for GDI, its track record includes blacklisting the New York Post, The Daily Wire, Real Clear Politics and The Federalist.

The key point of the letter is that in case a (private, or NGO) organization is suspected of having political bias – well, that’s unconstitutional for a US government to support financially.

And a very pertinent point is made in the letter, regarding the “outsourcing of censorship.” Namely:

“That which government is constitutionally prohibited from doing, it cannot contract with others to do. Please ensure that Section 1532 is preserved in the final version of the NDAA.”

November 26, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | | Leave a comment

Israel dropped 40,000 tons of explosives on Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, says media office

MEMO |November 26, 2023

The Gaza government’s media office said on Sunday that the Israeli army has dropped 40,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, with the apparent goal of rendering the enclave uninhabitable.

Salama Maarouf, the head of the media office, issued a statement on Telegram on the third day of the temporary humanitarian pause between Israel and Hamas, which came into effect on Friday morning.

“The Israeli occupation forces have dropped 40,000 tons of explosives on the Strip (since Oct. 7), and the atrocities of the occupation (forces) have unfolded away from the scrutiny of cameras,” Marouf said.

He explained that “the bombs recently used by the occupation (forces) have never been used before, and hundreds of martyrs are buried in the places where they died. The devastation by the occupation (forces) reflects its intent to make Gaza uninhabitable.”

In the statement, Maarouf also discussed the temporary pause, emphasizing that “the days of respite have laid bare the enormity of the significant massacre, resulting in substantial destruction to infrastructure and residences.”

“One-third of the Gaza Strip’s population has yet to receive essential supplies, and the absence of all international institutions is evident,” he stated, calling on the international community to act.

“There is a pressing need for the establishment of a sizable field hospital,” he added.

November 26, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

Biden moves to lift all restrictions on Israel’s access to US weapons stockpile: US media

Press TV – November 26, 2023

US President Joe Biden has requested the removal of nearly every restriction on Israel’s use of the stockpiles of weapons and ammunition stored by the United States in Israel, according to an American report.

The Intercept said on Saturday that Biden is seeking to remove all restrictions on the usage of the little-known US weapons stockpiles in Israel that the Pentagon established for use in regional conflicts, to which the Israeli regime had been previously permitted to have access in limited circumstances.

The move was included in the White House’s supplemental budget request, sent to the Senate on October 20, according to the report.

“This request would allow for the transfer of all categories of defense articles,” the proposed budget says.

The War Reserve Stockpile Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) was created in the 1980s to supply the United States with equipment in the case of a regional war, which is the largest node in a network of de facto US foreign arms stockpiles. These warehouses are controlled by a set of strict requirements.

Under the conditions outlined in these requirements, the Israeli regime has been able to tap into these stockpiles and purchase weapons at low costs if effective subsidization of US military aid is used.

The report notes that with WRSA-I, Biden seeks to remove nearly all meaningful restrictions on the stockpile and arms transfer to Israel, with plans to lift restrictions on obsolete or surplus weapons, waive an annual spending cap on replenishing the stockpile, remove weapon-specific restrictions, and curtail congressional oversight.

All of the changes in the Biden budget plan would be permanent, except for lifting the spending cap, which is limited to the 2024 fiscal year. The changes would come in an arms-trade relationship that is already shrouded in secrecy.

The House has already passed legislation reflecting the White House’s request last month, and it now stands before the Senate.

“By dropping the requirement that such articles be declared excess, it would also increase the existing strain on US military readiness in order to provide more arms to Israel,” said Josh Paul, who was the director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, for over 11 years.

Paul, whose resignation last month due to US military aid to Israel caused a stir in Washington, admitted that “the President’s emergency supplemental funding request, would essentially create a free-flowing pipeline to provide any defense articles to Israel by the simple act of placing them in the WRSA-I stockpile, or other stockpiles intended for Israel.”

According to experts, the White House request would make it much harder for Congress or the public to monitor US arms transfers to Israel.

Under US law, there must be 30 days prior notice to Congress before arms transfer, but the Biden budget request would allow this to be shortened in “extraordinary” circumstances.

In a report last January, The New York Times, citing US and Israeli officials, revealed that the Pentagon sent hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to Ukraine from the so-called American emergency stockpile in Israel to help meet Ukraine’s need for artillery shells in the war with Russia.

The US has been a steadfast supporter of Israel for decades, both diplomatically and militarily. Each year, the US provides around $4bn of military support to the regime.

In early November, the American news outlet Bloomberg stated that the Pentagon has secretly increased its military aid to Israel, including more sophisticated missiles and equipment such as thousands of Hellfire missiles, which have been used extensively by Israel in Gaza war.

On Saturday in a phone call with Israeli minister of military affairs, Yoav Gallant, Pentagon chief Lloyd J. Austin underscored the US’s unwavering support for Israel and received updates as a temporary ceasefire continues across the besieged Gaza Strip following nearly seven weeks of Israeli genocidal war.

According to the Gaza-based health ministry, nearly 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli strikes, most of them women and children, and injured around 36,000 others. 7,000 Palestinians are still missing.

November 26, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, War Crimes | , , , , | 2 Comments

Explainer: Why are Celtic fans staunch supporters of Palestinian cause?

By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | November 26, 2023

Amid the Israeli regime’s devastating blitzkrieg on the blockaded Gaza Strip, a football club based in Glasgow has grabbed headlines in recent weeks for its support of Palestine.

Despite the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) slapping fine on the Celtic Football Club, the club fans have vowed to continue their support for Palestine against the Israeli occupation.

On Wednesday, Europe’s top football body announced a new fine of $19,000 against the club over a “number of incidents” during its Champions League match against Atletico Madrid in late October, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

Celtic was ordered to shell out €17,500 for its supporters’ displaying “a provocative message of an offensive nature,” €8,000 for “blocking of public passageways” and €3,500 for “lighting of fireworks.”

The club fans, led by the Green Brigade group, were heard singing ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ while unfurling two large banners that read ‘Free Palestine’ and ‘Victory to the Resistance’.

The Green Brigade was banned by the Scottish club in October from attending its away matches but has remained insistent on showing support for Palestine by displaying its flags at Celtic matches.

Two pro-Palestinian displays

The incident took place at the match between Celtic and Atletico on October 25 at the club’s home ground Celtic Park in Glasgow, attended by 60,000 Celtic fans, including the Green Brigade group.

As the start of the Champions League group stage match approached, the stadium turned into a sea of Palestinian flags, every stand awash with the colors of Palestine in a show of solidarity with those bombed and killed by the Israeli occupying regime in the Gaza Strip.

A few days earlier, after a home match against Kilmarnock, Celtic fans strongly criticized the broadcasters for not wanting to show the North Curve corner section with Palestinian flags displayed.

This time the media was not able to cover up anything because the Palestinian symbolism was not limited to one corner of the stand, but the whole stadium was painted with colors of the Palestinian flag.

Spectacular photos and videos of pro-Palestinian Celtic fans, singing collectively “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” quickly spread around the world and were shared by millions of netizens on social media.

During the earlier Scottish premiership match against Kilmarnock in Glasgow on October 7, the Green Brigade displayed two large banners saying “Free Palestine” and “Victory to the Resistance.”

Defiance of club appeals

Two days after the 3-1 victory against Kilmarnock, the club’s board distanced itself from the fan group’s show of solidarity, issuing a statement saying “Celtic is a football club and not a political organization.”

“We ask that banners, flags and symbols relating to the conflict and those countries involved in it are not displayed at Celtic Park at this time,” the club said in a statement before the game against Atletico.

However, the Green Brigade ignored the club’s directives and, on the contrary, called on all Celtic fans to raise the Palestine flag during the club’s UEFA Champions League match.

“We must apply learning from apartheid South Africa to dismantle apartheid Israel; if we are neutral in situations of injustice, we have chosen the side of the oppressor,” the Green Brigade said in a counter-statement.

“We send our sincere solidarity and prayers to our friends across all of Palestine at this traumatic time when yet again much of the international community turns its back in cowardice while war crimes are inflicted on a largely defenseless, imprisoned population.”

Keeping the fan tradition

In another statement, issued as a response to the club’s appeals, the Green Brigade also highlighted their tradition of supporting the oppressed and criticized hypocrisy by the political and media class.

“Football remains one of the few areas of public life where working-class people have genuine political agency, and we will not be dictated to by an elitist board that has repeatedly demonstrated contempt for the history and traditions of Celtic FC,” the fan club said.

“Celtic was born out of famine and oppression, a product of colonial rule, death and the mass displacement of people. It is because of this history that Celtic fans are renowned for their empathy and solidarity; consistently siding with the oppressed and destitute,” they added.

It slammed the “hypocrisy” of the club staff, which it said is in line with “much of the political and media class, epitomized through the example of Ukraine.”

“Political messaging was welcome at Celtic Park then, yet it is being condemned now,” the statement noted. “The question on any reasonable mind should be – why? Why are Ukrainian lives more sacred than Palestinian lives.”

The fans referred to the fact that some months ago, pro-Ukrainian support on the pitches and sports stadiums was not prohibited but encouraged, ibyUEFA’s official policy.

While the Green Brigade is renowned for its Irish Republicanism and steadfast support for Palestine, fans of Celtic’s local rival Rangers have in turn supported the Israeli regime when facing Celtic.

In recent weeks, Rangers fans have waved Israeli regime flags and held a minute’s silence for the Israeli victims, but the club has not been punished for such actions.

Humanity of the club

The support of Celtic fans is much more than waving flags and is not a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, they have been organizing pro-Palestinian support since the 2000s.

In 2012, they organized a display of solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, featuring a banner reading “Dignity is More Precious than Food” alongside Palestinian flags.

Their most noble pro-Palestinian action came in 2016 after UEFA fined them £8,600 for flying Palestinian flags in a match against Israeli club Hapoel Beer-Sheva.

Defiant as always, the Green Brigade launched a crowdfunding campaign and ultimately a remarkable £176,076 was raised and split between two beneficiaries that provide medical aid to Palestinians.

One of the results of those donations was the establishment of the refugee football club Aida Celtic, based in the Palestinian city of Bethlehem.

The Green Brigade has continued with humanitarian actions in recent weeks, collecting donations for health organizations that help the Palestinian people.

Interestingly, the club was formed in 1888 by Brother Walfrid, an Irish Catholic cleric, to raise money for poor Irish immigrants in the West of Scotland, according to reports.

So, as it appears, the foundation of the Scottish club itself was based on a human cause.

November 26, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | 1 Comment

Thousands-Strong Rally Takes Place in Berlin for Negotiations on Gaza, Ukraine

Sputnik – 25.11.2023

BERLIN – A rally organized by left-wing German politician Sahra Wagenknecht took place in Thousands-Strong Rally Takes Place in Berlin for Negotiations on Gaza, Ukraineon Saturday with thousands of participants rallying against the supply of weapons to Ukraine and for a diplomatic solution to the Ukrainian and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

In an opening speech, Wagenknecht accused the German government of applying double standards in its assessment of the Ukrainian conflict and the “merciless bombing” in the Gaza Strip, the correspondent reported.

The politician criticized the government’s spending on the German military production at a time when the nation faces several internal problems, such as a shortage of teachers, hospital closures and aging infrastructure. She also criticized the government’s decision to stop holding down energy and electricity prices.

“And immediately it was about cutting spending on those least able to fend for themselves,” Wagenknecht said.

In leaflets distributed to demonstrators, protest organizers called for peace talks in all the world’s conflict zones, the report read. After the speech, rally participants marched past the Bundestag and back to the original meeting point, carrying placards calling for peace and an end to Russophobia, the Sputnik correspondent reported.

On October 23, Wagenknecht, who had criticized Germany’s military aid to Kiev and sanctions against Russia, said she had left the Left Party and intended to found a new political party with several close associates that would stand for “reason and justice.” About 14% of Germans were ready to support the new party, polls showed.

November 25, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Russophobia, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

Beijing’s Coal Boom Is Here to Stay

By Vijay Jayaraj | Real Clear Energy | November 20, 2023

News of record installations of so-called renewable energy electric generation in China may have kindled the hopes of those supporting the “green” agenda and hostile to fossil fuels. However, China is in no position to give up hydrocarbons, particularly coal.

During the first half of 2023, China approved 52 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power, which was more than all the approvals issued in 2021. These new approvals are in addition to the 136 GW of coal capacity that are already under construction. Together, these new plants represent more than 67% of all new approvals in the world.

Why is China doing this despite climate pledges? And what does the future hold?

Turning Away from Paris One-Step at a Time

Nearly all countries signed the historic Paris Agreement in 2015, which set aggressive goals to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. The assumption was that reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels would halt future warming deemed as catastrophic.

As part of this accord, China, the largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world, agreed to reach carbon neutrality by 2060 and peak its emissions of carbon dioxide by 2030. Many praised these promises, celebrating China’s apparent acceptance of its supposed responsibility to address the climate issue.

But these promises are at odds with reality. China’s economy is mostly based on fossil fuels, which are the most affordable, abundant and dependable energy source. At 159 exajoules, China’s primary energy consumption in 2022 was the highest in the world and 40% more than that consumed the U.S. — the second largest user.

Last year, 82% of the total energy consumed by China came from coal, oil and natural gas. Wind and solar, despite significant investments by Beijing, represented just 7% of all energy consumed in 2022.

Coal remains the linchpin of China’s energy infrastructure and economic vitality. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, coal consumption increased by more than 4% in 2022. Coal imports in August 2023 were the highest since 2015. China is ramping up its import from Russia and Australia and continues to increase imports from Indonesia, which is its main supplier.

Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com writes, “China is mining record amounts of coal and also importing record volumes of coal as it looks to boost its energy security.” This growing appetite for coal is inevitable given the huge demand from the power sector and industry in general.

Demand from Industries to Increase Coal Demand

Over 1 billion tons of crude steel are produced in China each year, accounting for over half of global steel output. The Chinese steel industries—over 90% of them—use coal-based processes.

Despite introducing in 2021 a policy to curb emissions of carbon dioxide, Beijing has yet to announce any cap for steel production. S&P Global believes that there will “be no mandatory steel output cuts this year.” The crude steel output in 2023 is to exceed 2022 levels.

According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, “Chinese steel firms are making significant investments in new, coal-based steelmaking capacity.” To put this in context, China’s approval of new steel capacity per year is twice that of the entire capacity of the German steel industry.

Like steelmaking, the manufacturing of cement is energy intensive, with coal accounting for up to 85% of the energy used in the process. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of cement.

According to analysts, “China consumes as much cement every two years as the U.S. did over the entire 20th century.” Cement production is projected to increase further in coming years, and high demand will possibly last for decades.

In short, China’s security and economic growth depend on satiating the country’s colossal appetite for fossil fuels. Western politics around a non-existent climate crisis won’t change that.

Vijay Jayaraj is a Research Associate at the CO2 Coalition, Arlington, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of East Anglia, U.K.

November 25, 2023 Posted by | Economics | | 1 Comment

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