Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

FDA Advisers Bullish on RSV Shots for Kids, Even as Safety Signals Shut Down Moderna Trials

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | December 13, 2024

Advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met Thursday to discuss the future of pediatric respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines after Moderna was forced to abruptly halt clinical trials for its mRNA RSV vaccine in children ages 5-23 months.

Clinical trial data released earlier this week in an FDA briefing document showed that rather than preventing RSV disease in small children, Moderna’s vaccine likely caused higher rates of severe RSV illness in its Phase 1 clinical trial.

Moderna halted the trial in July after it was informed that two babies in the vaccine group had developed severe RSV disease. The company didn’t publicly announce that the trial was discontinued until September.

The data presented Thursday at the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting showed that 12.5% of vaccinated children developed severe RSV disease as compared to just 5% of children in the placebo group.

Among the children who developed symptomatic RSV disease, 26.3% in the vaccinated group progressed to severe disease, while only 8.3% of those in the placebo group did.

These results were concerning given the history of past attempts to develop an RSV vaccine for infants. In the 1960s, an experimental formalin–inactivated RSV vaccine for children led to two toddler deaths, and 80% of vaccine recipients required hospitalization for severe RSV.

The illnesses were attributed to vaccine-associated enhanced respiratory disease (VAERD) — a phenomenon that occurs when vaccination promotes immune responses that exacerbate the disease caused by subsequent infection with the pathogen the vaccine was meant to protect against.

In light of that history, and because the mechanisms that cause VAERD are still largely unknown, the FDA convened the advisory committee to discuss the implications of Moderna’s trial outcomes for other pediatric RSV vaccines.

The committee did not vote on Thursday or make any formal recommendations. Members watched presentations from consultants, the FDA, and pharmaceutical companies and discussed the risks and benefits of developing RSV vaccines for children.

They also commended Moderna for reporting its results and the existing clinical safeguards for recognizing early safety signals in pediatric RSV trials.

Vaccine makers developing 26 different RSV vaccines or monoclonal antibodies

The briefing document stated that the FDA was halting enrollment for all investigational trials for RSV vaccines for infants and toddlers under age 2 and children ages 2 through 5 who haven’t previously had RSV.

The FDA clarified at the outset of the meeting that the hold does not apply to vaccine candidates that use live attenuated vaccines, because there is no evidence that vaccines developed on this platform cause VAERD.

Advisers seemed to agree, except for Dr. Karen Kotloff who voiced concerns there was not enough information to assume that live attenuated vaccines don’t carry the same potential risk.

Dr. Pedro Piedra, who presented on clinical and non-clinical aspects of RSV vaccine safety shared a slide listing RSV vaccines and monoclonal antibodies currently in trials.

There are five pediatric vaccines other than Moderna’s — which Moderna’s Christine Shaw, Ph.D., definitively stated is no longer moving forward — in the pipeline. Four of them are for live-attenuated vaccines.

Vaccine makers are developing 26 different RSV vaccines or monoclonal antibodies for all age groups, all vying to enter a rapidly expanding market.

PR Newswire projected in 2023 the global RSV vaccine and antibody market would be worth $2.61 billion dollars in 2024 and rise to $13.59 billion by 2030.

Piedra — who began his presentation with the quick disclosure that he has grants for RSV prevention research from GSK, Icosavax and Merck and is a paid consultant in the field for Merck, Moderna, Pfizer and Sanofi — presented an optimistic picture of RSV vaccine development, citing protection offered by recently approved maternal vaccines and monoclonal antibodies.

Moderna’s results did raise some platform-specific concerns, Piedra conceded.

He listed the types of safety concerns that could be associated with different vaccine platforms — febrile seizures with adjuvanted or high-dose vaccines or when RSV vaccines are co-administered with other vaccines, autoimmunity that could be associated with new adjuvants, respiratory issues with intranasal vaccines, and systemic illnesses with vector-based or mRNA vaccines.

‘Unmet need’ as justification to push for more RSV vaxes for small children

Presenters repeatedly stated that there was an “unmet need” for pediatric RSV vaccines, especially for children between 8 months and 2 years old.

RSV usually causes mild cold-like symptoms, but in some cases can lead to hospitalization and death in infants and the elderly. By age 2, 97% of all babies have been infected with RSV, which confers partial immunity, making any subsequent episodes less severe.

The disease burden for infants can be serious. In the U.S., RSV infection is the leading cause of infant hospitalization among those younger than 6 months, although a very small percentage of children with the virus will die.

An FDA representative said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 100-200 infants die per year from the disease. However, internist Dr. Meryl Nass told The Defender that even those low numbers may overestimate mortality.

Nass pointed to a CDC study analyzing RSV deaths in infants between 2005 and 2016 and found a total of 314 deaths in children under age 1, or 25 on average per year, Nass reported. Only 17 of those deaths per year listed RSV as the underlying cause of death.

The FDA also said that maternal vaccines and monoclonal antibodies had begun to reduce those numbers, but emphasized there is still an “unmet need” for a vaccine for children going into their second RSV season — even as it presented data showing hospitalizations in that season are lower.

Moderna said this “unmet need” drove them to develop their failed vaccine. A Sanofi representative, who gave an update on their live-attenuated RSV virus, said the company sought to meet that “unmet need” for children in their second RSV season.

Sanofi also sells nirsevimab — brand name Beyfortus — the monoclonal antibody shot the CDC recommends for all newborns to protect them in their first RSV season.

Sanofi and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are collaborating on the live-attenuated virus vaccine platform. The NIH developed 16 different vaccine candidates that it trialed in children and currently has one SP-125 in Phase 3 clinical trials.

These vaccines have not shown VAERD after one season of surveillance, the Sanofi representative said. The safety trials showed no safety concerns and SP-125 is currently being tested for efficacy in toddlers 6-22 months of age, but it is not yet fully enrolled.

During the “public comments” section of the meeting, three other vaccine makers promoted their vaccines to the committee.

Goal is more RSV shots for kids to provide passive immunity followed by ‘active immunity’ 

FDA asked the committee members to discuss existing evidence on whether infants and toddlers could eventually get sequential administration of RSV monoclonal antibodies followed by RSV vaccines.

That would mean even more shots on the childhood immunization schedule. The monoclonal antibodies or maternal vaccination would provide babies with “passive immunity” — antibodies to fight the virus that weren’t created by their own immune systems.

Then, in this schema, a two- or three-shot course of an RSV vaccine could protect babies from RSV in the second season, giving them “active immunity.”

Most committee members said more data were necessary to evaluate the safety of such a plan, but they generally agreed that it was a good direction to move in.

Watch the meeting here.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , , , | Leave a comment

RFK Jr. and the Samoan Measles Outbreak

By David Marks | Brownstone Institute | December 15, 2024

When the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Health and Human Services Secretary comes before the Senate, the specter of the Samoan measles outbreak of 2019 will dramatically be invoked to challenge him. Kennedy’s critics have repeatedly relied on this topic, citing stories that claim he was responsible for an epidemic in 2019 that caused at least 83 children to die due to vaccine hesitancy. In recent articles, reporters quote previous news coverage relying on unsubstantiated and minimal data to justify their analysis.

These stories repeat dubious assertions, fail to discuss any pathological analysis, and dismiss Kennedy’s considered support of healthcare in Samoa. He had assisted the Samoan government in developing a system for health officials to assess the efficacy and safety of medical interventions or drugs, including vaccines.

In November 2019, while the deaths of Samoan children were rapidly increasing, Kennedy wrote a comprehensive letter to the Samoan Prime Minister, presenting some possible causes of the unprecedented, virulent outbreak of measles. His concerns about the epidemic in Samoa highlight striking anomalies that were apparent to a few investigators at the time, although they remain unexplained.

The most convenient and generally accepted explanations of the outbreak claim the epidemic was the result of hesitancy, causing the population to be under-vaccinated. Measles vaccination rates were low due to the previous deaths of two infants given improperly formulated injections, which had nothing to do with Kennedy’s views.

Any considered analysis of the accessible facts soundly contradicts the conjecture that the high death count was related to low vaccination rates.

In most measles epidemics, mortality is on average one in one thousand, and dying children are often malnourished or immunocompromised. From October through December of 2019, over one in a hundred Samoan children with the disease died, ten times more than any previous outbreak in the world. No accounting for this overt statistical deviance has been published.

Despite the presumptions of those who attack Kennedy, there was never any investigation into any aspect of this baffling tragedy. Edwin Tamasese, a health advocate who questioned Samoan government policies during the outbreak, gave Kennedy some insight into what was happening.

Tamasese was concerned about the number of sick and dying Samoan children and began to assist families whose children were severely ill. He and his colleagues encountered conditions that contradicted the government’s narrative.

While the press condemned him as an anti-vaxxer, Tamasese’s interventions and observations are revelatory. In an interview after the outbreak subsided, he said, “We were very careful to take statistics when we were going in to try to identify trends. When we assessed our numbers, 98 percent of those who were getting ill had been vaccinated consistently six to seven days prior to illness. The excuse was that the vaccine did not have time to become effective. However, according to an immunologist on the team, the six to seven-day period was also the length of time it would take an under-attenuated vaccine to make the recipient sick.”

Doctors in hospitals also reported that the very ill and dying children did not have symptoms consistent with normal cases of measles. When the outbreak began, blood from the first thirty-nine cases had been sent to Australia; only seven samples were positive for measles.

The government stopped testing to confirm the cause of these deaths in early November 2019. Without scientific confirmation, illness and mortality were attributed to low immunization rates. Samoan health authorities continued to claim that the only remedy for the deadly epidemic was a drive to increase vaccination; however, the campaign appeared to increase the number of measles cases.

Neighboring Pacific island countries, Tonga and Fiji, which had concurrent outbreaks of the virus — and had a different source of the measles vaccine — did not suffer the same dramatic mortality rates. This should have raised concerns, yet there hasn’t been an inquiry into why the Samoan government switched vaccine sourcing from India to Belgium midway through the crisis.

A renewed effort to vaccinate with this alternate supply began in the first week of December 2019; it was hailed as the reason the outbreak subsided. Measles vaccines take at least 10 days before creating an immune response. There has been no explanation for the data confirming that the onset of cases dropped dramatically two weeks before this vaccination drive could have had any effect.

The government response was not driven by factual analysis; the effort focused on promoting the vaccine and silencing those questioning authority.

With Samoan officials and the press deriding his work and views, Tamasese was arrested and charged with incitement of a government order and treating children without a license. Although this was deemed appropriate justice by the international news media as they echoed the government’s praise of the vaccine, reporters again failed to present the questions raised by the outbreak.

The prosecution’s primary witness against Tamasese was a nurse whose child had measles. He had suggested that administering vitamins A and C could be helpful — and standard medical treatment for measles patients. She had taken his advice and admitted that her child recovered soon afterward.

Tamasese reported that when the nurse left the courtroom, the judge, in throwing out the case, said, “That witness may as well have represented the accused.” There was relative silence from the news media when all charges against him were dismissed.

While worldwide attention on Samoa ignored dramatic inconsistencies, Kennedy was one of the few people who asked detailed and important questions. His views were marginalized; it was easier and politically correct to blame the tragedy on low rates of vaccination.

The relatively few details known about the Samoan measles outbreak indicate that forces intent on presenting vaccines as an infallible, unquestionable remedy will not tolerate scrutiny or admit failures. This continuing devious tactic is applied internationally and is eagerly supported by most governments and the press.

Analysis of the Covid-19 pandemic has only recently vindicated those who were scorned for questioning the response. The parallels to the unfolding of the epidemic in Samoa are not obscure, and support Kennedy’s contention that vaccine development, manufacturing, and application need much more effective evaluation and monitoring to prevent complications and death.

When the US government assures the public that any vaccine or medication is safe and effective, this must come from an independent, thorough, and transparent process, rather than relying only on the words and actions of those with vested interests.

The current criticism of Kennedy is an endeavor to make him look dangerously ignorant and irresponsible to sway members of the Senate. Much to the chagrin of those who vilify him, his efforts to understand and assist in the Samoan measles outbreak exemplify his thoughtfulness and capabilities.

RFK, Jr. is at the forefront of healthcare oversight; his confirmation as HHS Secretary will ensure that Americans benefit from his experience and knowledge.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | 2 Comments

‘Disease X’ Situation Update

Coordinated fear campaign, possible malaria, and “poor quality” samples as cases continue to rise.

By Nicolas Hulscher, MPH | Courageous Discourse | December 12, 2024

In the last few weeks, an unidentified flu-like illness has been detected in the Democratic Republic of the Congo amidst warnings from the Biopharmaceutical Complex about imminent pandemics. Ever since, the mainstream media and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have coined the illness as “Disease X”:

This indicates that the corporate media and biopharmaceutical complex have already launched a coordinated fear campaign to hype up their long-awaited Disease X. Strangely, we still don’t have concrete answers as to what this ‘Disease X’ actually is, even after Jean Kaseya, the head of Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters on December 5th that more details about the disease should be known in the next two days. However, it took five days for the first results to be shared: on December 10th, the World Health Organization said “Of the 12 initial samples collected, 10 tested positive for malaria, although it’s possible that more than one disease is involved.”

Today, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention live streamed a special briefing regarding the so-called ‘Disease X’. In the briefing, they shared that the samples they received “are of poor quality” and were “poorly preserved”. As a result, the lead investigator stated, “Therefore, I don’t think we will obtain any relevant information.”

The Africa CDC briefing also reported an increase of 147 cases since last week, bringing the total case count to 527. 32 deaths were recorded in health facilities, while 44 were reported at the community level.

While initial lab results suggest this could simply be malaria, the coordinated fear campaign persists. Even the most recent Africa CDC briefing overlooks the possibility that it could be malaria. This raises questions about whether something else might be at play. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.

Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

Epidemiologist and Foundation Administrator, McCullough Foundation

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

Germany’s AfD leader questions NATO membership

RT | December 15, 2024

Germany must ask whether NATO membership “is still useful for us,” Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Tino Chrupalla has said, arguing that the US-led military bloc forces Europe to act in America’s interests.

”Europe has been forced to implement America’s interests. We reject that,” Chrupalla told German daily Welt on Sunday.

”NATO is currently not a defense alliance,” he continued. “A defense community must accept and respect the interests of all European countries, including Russia’s interests. If NATO cannot ensure that, Germany must consider to what extent this alliance is still useful for us,” he explained.

West Germany joined NATO in 1955, at the height of the Cold War. Accession to the bloc meant that Bonn could focus its spending on post-WWII reconstruction and welfare while outsourcing defense to the US. However, NATO’s first secretary general, Britain’s Lord Ismay, reportedly remarked that the bloc’s purpose in Europe was to “keep the Soviet Union out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.”

While the AfD’s platform has never called for an outright withdrawal from NATO, Chrupalla has previously argued that the bloc’s confrontational stance toward Russia was “driving a wedge into the continent of Europe” and precluding reconciliation with Moscow, which, he said, would be vital “to ensure lasting peace and prosperity” on the continent.

With snap elections in February looming, the AfD is currently polling at around 18%, ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ Social Democrats at 15% but behind the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at 32%. However, even if the AfD were to emerge as the largest party after the vote, all of Germany’s other mainstream parties have ruled out entering a coalition with the right-wingers.

The AfD nominated co-leader Alice Weidel as its candidate for chancellor earlier this month, marking the first time in its 11-year history that the party has put a name forward for the position.

Speaking to reporters after the nomination, Weidel promised to introduce drastic immigration restrictions, to roll back Scholz’s climate policies, and to cut off military aid to Ukraine.

“We want peace in Ukraine,” she said. “We do not want any arms supplies, we do not want any tanks, we do not want any missiles.”

Speaking to Welt, Chrupalla said that “Russia has won this war,” and that “reality has caught up with those who claim to want to enable Ukraine to win the war.”

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | 1 Comment

Hungary dismayed at ‘unprecedented gesture in diplomacy’ by Zelensky

RT | December 15, 2024

The Ukrainian leadership turned down a phone-call request from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban in a manner that was “unprecedented” in nature, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has revealed. The rebuff followed an hour-long conversation between Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio on Sunday, Szijjarto said that he had approached Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga and Vladimir Zelensky’s top aide Andrey Yermak, asking for the authorization of a telephone conversation between Orban and the Ukrainian leader.

”In a gesture that was quite unprecedented in diplomacy,” the request was refused in “a somewhat strained” manner, Szijjarto said, as quoted by the Magyar Nemzet newspaper. Hungary’s top diplomat did not elaborate on the exact wording used by the authorities in Kiev.

Hungary has tried “everything” during the past six months of its EU presidency to use it “for a good cause, to initiate a ceasefire and peace negotiations,” Szijjarto noted. Budapest has held the rotating presidency of the EU Council in the second half of this year.

Earlier this week Orban said he’d put forward a proposal for a Christmas ceasefire and a major prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine.

”One side accepted it, the other rejected it,” the Premier told Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Zelensky, in turn, claimed that the Hungarian leader was only trying to “boost personal image at the expense of unity” in the EU in terms of supporting Ukraine.

The authorities in Kiev have sent mixed messages about their readiness for negotiations with Russia.

On Wednesday, Zelensky’s top adviser Mikhail Podoliak said Kiev could engage in talks with Moscow if they are not based on Russia’s conditions.

Andrey Yermak said on Friday that Ukraine was not ready to start any talks with Russia as there is insufficient support from the West to conduct negotiations from a position of strength.

Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it’s ready to resume the negotiations. It has urged Kiev to accept the new realities “on the ground,” with President Vladimir Putin citing the complete withdrawal of all Ukrainian forces from all Russian territories as a key prerequisite for peace talks.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , | 1 Comment

Algeria condemns French ambassador over ‘hostile plans’

Al Mayadeen | December 15, 2024

Algeria summoned French Ambassador Stephane Romatet for what it dubbed “hostile plans” by the French intelligence service, Algerian media reported on Sunday,

Romatet was summoned to the Foreign Ministry last week to answer allegations of French intelligence participation in destabilizing efforts in Algeria, according to the state-run publication El Moudjahid.

The summoning came following reports that the French intelligence service had recruited former Algerian terrorists to destabilize the country’s security.

It referenced the instance of Mohamed Amine Aissaoui, who recently made a live confession on Algerian television about a suspected plot orchestrated by French intelligence.

Algerian officials told the French envoy that such measures “won’t go unanswered” and that they will not stand idly by in response to “attacks on its sovereignty,” according to the newspaper.

There was no French response to the Algerian media claim.

This event adds to Algeria and France’s already difficult ties, which have been hampered by disagreements over historical memory, migration, and the Western Sahara conflict.

Last month, the Algerian Association of Banks and Financial Institutions banned all import and export transactions with France in reaction to its acknowledgment of Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara.

Morocco primarily controls Western Sahara, but the Polisario Front has advocated for the territory’s independence since before Spain, its colonial ruler, withdrew in 1975. The United Nations classifies it as a “non-autonomous territory.”

Rabat, which governs around 80% of the territory, supports a plan for limited autonomy for Western Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. In contrast, the Polisario Front is demanding a UN-supervised referendum on self-determination, which was intended to be established following the ceasefire in 1991 but has yet to be implemented.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | 1 Comment

USS Harry S. Truman Leads American Naval Deployment to Middle East

Sputnik – 15.12.2024

The USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group arrived in the Middle East on December 14, entering the US Central Command’s (CENTCOM) area of responsibility. The deployment was announced by CENTCOM on the social media platform X.

The group includes the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, Carrier Air Wing 1 with nine aviation squadrons, the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg (Ticonderoga class), and two guided-missile destroyers, USS Stout and USS Jason Dunham (Arleigh Burke class).

Earlier in November, US F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets were deployed to the region from the United Kingdom, reinforcing the American military presence in the Middle East.

The deployment comes amid heightened regional tensions and US President-elect Donald Trump’s earlier remarks promising to avoid “starting wars” once he officially takes office.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , | 1 Comment

Israel massacres, expels displaced Palestinians sheltering in north Gaza school

The Cradle | December 15, 2024

Israeli army forces stormed a school housing displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza on 15 December, opening fire and killing at least 40 civilians, while forcing dozens to flee.

All the men who were sheltering in the Khalil Oweida school in Beit Hanoun were abducted, while the rest were forced to evacuate at gunpoint. Several others were injured in the attack on the school.

According to WAFA news agency, the displaced women and children were forced to head to an Israeli checkpoint on the Salah al-Din axis leading to Gaza City.

Anadolu Agency (AA) reported, citing eyewitnesses, that the bodies of the victims were spread out across the Khalil Oweida schoolyard and nearby streets.

“The terrorist occupation army’s storming of Khalil Awida School in Beit Hanoun … and committing a massacre against the displaced people there, by direct shooting … and then arresting all the displaced youths, is a reinforcement of the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement operations taking place in the northern Gaza Strip,” Hamas said in a statement.

Israeli forces in Gaza have repeatedly targeted schools packed with displaced civilians.

The attack was the latest in a string of recent massacres committed by Israeli forces in Gaza. Israeli troops “committed five massacres against families” in Gaza over the past 24 hours, killing at least 46, WAFA reported on Sunday.

The battered Gaza Strip has been subject to a severe lack of humanitarian aid due to Israel’s closure of all border crossings, as Tel Aviv has stepped up its attacks and total siege – particularly in the north – where over 100,000 people have been forcibly expelled and thousands killed.

This comes as part of the unofficial implementation of the Generals’ Plan, which aims to make northern Gaza uninhabitable through mass destruction, killing, and expulsion. Israel aims to completely empty out north Gaza and transform the area into an isolated military zone.

As part of this plan, Israel is also waging a brutal war against medical facilities in northern Gaza. The few remaining hospitals are under siege and constant attacks by Israel, particularly Beit Lahia’s Kamal Adwan Hospital – which has been raided numerous times by the Israeli military.

Israel bombed the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital once again on 15 December, as the medical facility faces imminent collapse along with the rest of the area’s health sector. Two Palestinians were killed in the attack.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel to deploy remotely operated machine guns against Palestinians in occupied West Bank

The Cradle | December 15, 2024

The Israeli army is preparing to deploy automated, remotely monitored machine guns to protect illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Army Radio reported on 15 December.

The automated weapons, developed by Rafael Combat Systems, will be installed on watch towers around dozens of settlements and near their entrances. They will be controlled remotely from command centers “to prevent armed attacks and infiltration operations.”

The same system was installed on the Gaza border in 2008 and operated by spotters in bases. However, it failed to prevent fighters from the Islamic Resistance movement, Hamas, from approaching and breaching the barrier fence to attack settlements and Israeli military bases on 7 October 2023.

During Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Qassam Brigades fighters reportedly used attack drones to disable the automated weapons during the first hours of the operation.

The army will first deploy the weapons in locations it defines as ‘high-risk,’ and expand their deployment over time to include additional locations.

According to the report, the 636th Reconnaissance Unit of the Army’s West Bank Division will operate the systems.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza last year.

The Israeli army and settlers have killed 812 Palestinians and injured 6,500 in the West Bank since that time.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has provided over 120,000 firearms to Jewish settlers in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza War.

“Over 120,000 weapons were distributed to eligible citizens, while tens of thousands more received conditional approvals,” Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power Party, said on his X account in October.

“We intend to continue arming Israel. That’s what we did, and that’s what we’ll continue to do!”

Ben Gvir and fellow Jewish supremacist politician and minister have announced their desire to use the Jewish settlers to expel the indigenous Palestinian population from the occupied West Bank and annex it to Israel.

After Donald Trump’s election to the US presidency in November, Ben Gvir, himself a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement, declared that “this is the time for sovereignty” over the West Bank.

On 9 December, following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syra, Bezalel Smotrich called for increased Jewish settlement and establishing “facts on the ground” to ensure a Palestinian state would never be established.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Israel’s’ support for Syrian opposition exposed

By Kit Klarenberg | Al Mayadeen | December 14, 2024

In the wake of ultra-extremist militants of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham seizing Damascus, Zionist entity premier Benjamin Netanyahu gave a smug address from the Golan Heights, Syrian territory illegally occupied ever since 1967. Along the way, he took personal credit for the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government and the Syrian Arab Army’s defeat, while pledging that the ground on which he stood would be part of “Israel “for eternity”. Ever since, Israeli occupation forces have pushed ever deeper into Golan, unimpeded and unopposed.

Tel Aviv’s criminal seizure of yet further territory from its neighbors was an absolutely inevitable upshot of Syria’s collapse. However, some Western journalists and politicians have expressed dismay – in many cases, the same figures were cheering al-Assad’s fall just 24 hours prior. Consternation has also widely abounded over the foreign-dominated and controlled opposition groups that overran Damascus, effusively praising the Zionist entity’s assistance in their offensive against the SAA.

Speaking to Israeli TV on December 2, one rebel fighter thanked Tel Aviv for striking Hezbollah and other Resistance groups, stating the opposition was “very satisfied” with the support. They added, “We love Israel and we were never its enemies… [Tel Aviv] isn’t hostile to those who are not hostile toward it. We don’t hate you, we love you very much.”

‘Striking deeper’

While never acknowledged in the mainstream, the Zionist entity’s sinister alliance with extremist opposition groups arrayed against Damascus has long laid in plain sight. A September 2018 investigation by the US empire house journal Foreign Policy spelled out in detail “Israel’s secret program to back Syrian rebels.” It documented how, since 2013, Tel Aviv “armed and funded at least 12 rebel groups” in the country. The ostensible purpose was to “prevent Iran-backed fighters and militants of the Islamic State from taking up positions near the Israeli border.”

The entity’s “military transfers” to anti-Assad opposition groups were vast. They “included assault rifles, machine guns, mortar launchers, and transport vehicles.” The material was funneled via the illegally occupied Golan Heights. “Israel” even “provided salaries to rebel fighters… and supplied additional money the groups used to buy arms on the Syrian black market.” Initially, arms transferred were “mostly US-manufactured,” but these were later “switched” to “non-American weapons… apparently to conceal the source of the assistance.”

Every step of the way, “Israel’s” backing of the Syrian opposition ratcheted. Foreign Policy attributes this ever-aggressive stance to Tel Aviv’s failed “appeals” to the US and Russia “to secure a deal that would ensure that Iranian-backed militias would be kept away from southern Syria.” This prompted the entity to “[begin] striking deeper inside Syrian territory, targeting not just individual weapons shipments from Iran to Hezbollah but also Iranian bases across the country.”

In providing this largesse, Tel Aviv “relied on relationships it developed with individual commanders” of extremist militias, sending “assistance directly to them.” Representatives of these factions “would communicate with Israeli officials by phone and occasionally meet them face to face” in the Golan Heights. “When commanders switched groups and locations, Israeli assistance followed them” – and the entity’s chosen proxies frequently served as distributors of Zionist-supplied weaponry “to other groups,” giving them “outsized influence” in the dirty war.

Foreign Policy records, “As a result of Israel’s humanitarian and military assistance, many residents of southern Syria came to perceive it as an ally.” An anonymous opposition fighter told the outlet, “Israel is the only one with interests in the region and a little bit of humanity and [provides] assistance to civilians.” However, “As troops loyal to Assad, aided by Russian and Iranian forces, reasserted control over more and more areas of Syria,” Tel Aviv cut a secret deal with Moscow, to the opposition’s detriment.

Under its auspices, SAA forces returned to “areas adjacent to the Golan Heights” while Russia promised “to keep Iran-backed militias 80 kilometers” from the area “and not to start hindering Israeli strikes on Iranian targets across Syria.” Despite this, Tel Aviv didn’t desert its murderous surrogates. As government forces closed in, “rebels reached out to their Israeli contacts and asked for asylum.” They and “their immediate family members” were duly permitted to flee to “Israel”, Jordan, and Turkey, with Tel Aviv’s assistance and protection.

With eerie foresight, Foreign Policy concluded that “Israel’s” policy of backing the rebels would contribute to significant and enduring unresolved security problems not only in Damascus but throughout West Asia more widely:

“[This] raises questions about the balance of power in Syria as the civil war there finally winds down. With the Iranian forces that helped Assad defeat the rebels showing no inclination to withdraw from Syria, the potential for the country to become a flash point between Israel and Iran looms large. Without deft diplomacy, confrontations in Syria, protests in Gaza, and tensions over the Iran nuclear deal could plunge the Middle East into chaos.”

‘Military capabilities’

Foreign Policy was at pains to portray “Israel’s” assistance to the Syrian opposition as being predominantly informed by a desire to crush ISIS. For example, the outlet claimed Tel Aviv “provided fire support to rebel factions” fighting an Islamic State affiliate near the Yarmouk River. This purportedly extended to drone strikes targeting ISIS commanders “and precision-missile strikes against the group’s personnel, fortifications, and vehicles during battles with the rebels.” Meanwhile, the Zionist entity “did not extend similar fire support for rebel assaults on regime forces.”

Yet, such an exculpatory narrative is at glaring odds with multiple public admissions by Israeli officials. For example, in April 2017, former entity Security Minister Moshe Ya’alon revealed that “recently”, ISIS had “apologized” after “[opening] fire” on Tel Aviv’s forces in the Golan Heights. This contrition was expressed by the terror group despite the IOF responding to this broadside by bombarding Islamic State fighters with airstrikes and tank fire, killing four of them.

One might reasonably ponder why, despite these casualties, ISIS felt the need to say sorry. An obvious explanation is the hyper-militant faction did not wish to offend Tel Aviv, lest the entity’s long-running operation to provide medical assistance to insurgents wounded in the Syrian dirty war in field hospitals dotted across Golan be terminated. From 2012 onward, UN peacekeeping forces consistently testified to witnessing injured Al Qaeda, al-Nusra, and ISIS fighters being treated by Israeli military doctors across the region.

Along the way, documentary filmmakers even captured video evidence of this practice. Once tended to, these belligerents were sent straight back into battle by their Zionist protectors to fight Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army. These astonishing scenes went largely unremarked upon in the Western media although in May 2016, ex-Mossad chief Efraim Halevy proudly boasted that Tel Aviv was committed to a strategy of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” in its crusade to neutralize Assad:

“It’s always useful to deal with your enemies in a humane way. When you have people who are wounded, considerations of whether to take them in are not simply whether it’s politically useful… I didn’t say there was no tactical [consideration]. I don’t think there’s going to be blowback… Al Qaeda to the best of my recollection hasn’t specifically targeted Israel… As Hezbollah fighters are concerned, we have a different account.”

Fast forward to today, and ever since al-Assad’s fall, “Israel” has relentlessly blitzed SAA sites in Syria. Entity officials boast the “historic” campaign has “destroyed most of the former [Assad] regime’s strategic military capabilities,” decimating up to 80% of the fallen government’s “strategic weapons stockpiles.” Markedly, there has been no attempt whatsoever by HTS to deter or respond to this bombardment, despite Damascus now being completely defenseless against future incursions from its adversaries. Group spokespeople have moreover actively refused to denounce the attacks.

Nonetheless, longtime Syrian “revolution” activists have expressed shock at “Israel’s” onslaught against the “newly liberated” country and further illegal “annexation” of its territory, demanding Tel Aviv cease its inexorable assaults forthwith. One wonders whether such public reactions are truly borne of ignorance and naivety about “Israel’s” rapacious expansionism. The reality may be that the opposition knew all along precisely what would be unleashed following al-Assad’s ouster and still welcome it. After all, they were coordinating directly with the Zionist entity at every step of their struggle.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli forces cut off water, power to several towns in Syria’s Quneitra

Press TV – December 15, 2024

Israeli tanks and armored vehicles have rolled into several towns in Syria’s Quneitra, destroying streets, as well as water supply networks and electricity poles in the country’s southwestern province.

Reports said on Sunday that a large number of Quneitra residents had refused to heed a call by the Israel military to evacuate.

Thus, the reports added, the Israeli forces damaged water supply networks and power lines in a deliberate attempt to cut off life support to the areas that they had newly occupied.

In the town of al-Hamidiyah, the occupation troops cut down the trees on both sides of roads and destroyed power poles.

Early on Sunday, the Israeli occupation launched airstrikes targeting the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

According to the Israeli media, the Zionist military destroyed missile warehouses and launchers near Qastal in the Qalamoun area of Damascus’ countryside.

On Saturday, the Israeli soldiers, supported by the regime’s air force, invaded an empty command center of the Syrian army in al-Hamidiyah and searched for alleged weapons.

The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late Saturday that the Israeli army had fired 61 missiles at targets in Syria in less than five hours.

Israel started its push to grab more Syrian land on December 8, after foreign-backed militants led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) announced the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s government following a rapid two-week onslaught.

The Israeli forces seized the so-called buffer zone, which separates the occupied Golan Heights from the rest of Syria, in violation of a UN-brokered 1974 disengagement agreement.

They occupied the summit of Jabal al-Shaykh which provides an observation point for areas in Syria and Lebanon.

They further advanced beyond the so-called buffer zone toward Damascus, with the regime’s warplanes conducting nearly 500 aerial assaults on Syria.

The Israeli military said its attacks destroyed Syria’s navy and 90 percent of the country’s surface-to-air missile systems.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Netanyahu Pushes Golan Heights Expansion Plan Amid Regional Tensions

Sputnik – 15.12.2024

TEL AVIV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has unanimously approved a plan for the development of the Golan Heights, including strengthening local settlements and doubling the population in the region, the prime minister’s office said on Sunday.

“The government unanimously approved prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to promote demographic growth in the settlements in the Golan Heights and Katzrin, with a total budget of more than 40 million shekels [$11 million],” the statement read.

The office also said that in light of the ongoing conflict and the recent opening of a new front in Syria, Netanyahu had submitted the first amendment to his plan to promote demographic growth in the Golan due to the “desire to double the population of the Golan Heights.”

The plan to develop the Golan Heights includes initiatives in the areas of education, renewable energy, and the establishment of a student village. It also includes an organizational development program designed to assist the Golan Regional Council in welcoming new residents.

“The strengthening of the Golan Heights is essential for the security and stability of the State of Israel. It is especially important in the current situation. We will continue to maintain, develop, and settle the area,” Netanyahu said, as quoted by the office.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that “the Golan Heights will forever remain an integral part of Israel.”

Israel is actively strengthening its defenses on the Golan Heights amid the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the capture of a significant part of the country by armed opposition forces. On Sunday, Netanyahu said the agreement reached shortly after the 1973 Yom Kippur War (also known as the Ramadan War) was no longer valid because the Syrian forces had left their positions. Netanyahu ordered the Israel Defense Forces to occupy the buffer zone.

December 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

« Previous Entries