Canadian ‘charity’ high school trains students to serve in Israeli military
Press TV – August 10, 2024
A ‘charity’ high school in the Canadian city of Toronto has been training students to serve in the Israeli military, highlighting those graduates who are fighting for the occupying regime.
Toronto high school Bnei Akiva (or Chaim) is reportedly under intense scrutiny following a recent incident involving one of its former students, identified as Ben Brown, who has been critically injured while serving with the Israeli military.
The former student of Chaim was hit by shrapnel from a rocket purportedly launched by the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah while on a military base in the occupied Shebaa Farms or Mount Dov. Brown.
The controversy has prompted calls on Canadian authorities to strip the school of its charitable status and investigate its officials for violating Canada’s Foreign Enlistment Act, which criminalizes the recruitment of Canadians into foreign armed forces.
“Any person who, within Canada, recruits or otherwise induces any person or body of persons to enlist or to accept any commission or engagement in the armed forces of any foreign state or other armed forces operating in that state is guilty of an offense,” the Act states.
The Bnei Akiva High School is affiliated with the World Bnei Akiva movement, which has a known connection to promoting service for the Israeli military.
Brown’s school has a plaque honoring alumni who joined the Israeli military and its website highlights graduates who fought in the ranks of the regime’s armed forces.
Testimonials on the high school’s website suggest the school devotes significant effort to inducing kids to join the Israeli military.
In a podcast, the Canadian Jewish News recently replayed parts of a three-year-old interview with Brown’s older brother, Zach Brown, a former Israeli soldier. In the podcast, Zach described his own military experiences, including his role in urban warfare and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank, boasting about how he was the “top sharpshooter” in a company of the Kfir brigade.
This revelation has intensified scrutiny over the educational and ideological influences provided by Bnei Akiva High Schools.
Critics argue that the school’s activities, which may include encouraging students to join the Israeli military, could constitute an illegal inducement under Canadian law. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is urged to investigate whether Bnei Akiva Schools has breached these regulations.
In addition to legal concerns related to foreign enlistment, the school’s charitable status is also under question as Bnei Akiva Schools has received substantial public funding, including federal grants totaling $3.5 million in 2021 and 2022 (the last years of its budget the public has access to).
This is while Canadian charity regulations stipulate that supporting foreign armed forces is not considered a charitable activity. Moreover, there are concerns that the school’s financial practices may be violating guidelines set by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
“CRA rules state clearly that paying private school tuition is not tax deductible except any portion covering ‘religious’ studies,” the report added.
The Bnei Akiva Schools has a history of supporting and celebrating the Israeli military. The school has organized fundraising events, such as marathons, to support wounded Israeli soldiers and has featured Israeli soldiers and the Israeli military’s choir in its programs.
The World Bnei Akiva movement, with which Bnei Akiva Schools is affiliated, operates an academy in Israel that prepares non-Israelis for military service. This connection raises further questions about the extent to which the school actively encourages enlistment in the Israeli military, the report further said.
Backed by the US and its Western allies, the Israeli regime launched an all-out invasion of the besieged Gaza Strip after it was caught off-guard by Operation al-Aqsa Storm inside the occupied territories in October last year.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have since been killed, most of them women and children, and upwards of 91,000 others injured in the merciless Israeli aggression.
Israel has also been enforcing a crippling siege on the coastal territory by choking off the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory.
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill two more Palestinian journalists, their family members
Deceased Palestinian journalists Abdullah al-Soussi (L) and Tamim Muammar (Photo via social media)
MEMO | August 10, 2024
The agency called on: “The International Criminal Court Prosecutor to quickly begin investigations into the occupation’s crimes against Palestinian journalists.”
Israel kills 100 Palestinians performing fajr prayer in Gaza
MEMO | August 10, 2024
At least 100 Palestinians were killed early this morning when the Israeli military bombed the Al-Taba’een school in the Al-Daraj neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City.
The school was housing displaced civilians. Dozens were injured in the attack.
Israeli military aircraft targeted the school while worshippers were performing the fajr (dawn) prayer, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Eyewitnesses said they could hear women and children screaming after the bombing but couldn’t reach them.
The attack comes just hours after news that the US is preparing to give $3.5 billion to Israel to purchase American weapons and military equipment from a $14.1 billion supplemental bill approved by Congress in April.
“On Thursday, August 8 the Department notified Congress of our intent to obligate $3.5 billion in FY 2024 Foreign Military Financing using funding provided by the Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act,” said a State Department spokesperson.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,700 injured, in Israel’s bombing campaign since 7 October 2023, according to local health authorities.
More than ten months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Failure of US policy in the Middle East
By Veniamin Popov – New Eastern Outlook – 10.08.2024
The dramatic events of late July in the Middle East are a clear indication of the failure of American policy in the region.
The Americans, staking their hopes on being able to sweep the Palestinian problem under the carpet, have miscalculated and as a result not only has their influence been weakened, but there is now a real possibility of a new full-scale war.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has made nearly a dozen visits to Middle Eastern countries since October 2023, and the only result has been that the mass murder of Palestinians is continuing. The much-publicized “Biden Plan” to resolve the crisis has simply been shelved. All USA’s actions in the Middle East have merely served to exacerbate the situation.
The likelihood of an Iranian response to the Netanyahu government’s actions has brought the entire region to the brink: according to the New York Times, Israel could not fight a war for long alone, so Washington must decide whether to go to war with Iran, along with Israel.
The governments of the Arab countries are aware of the dangers of the situation: as the Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani puts it, political assassinations and the ongoing attacks on civilians in the Gaza Strip during peace talks make us question how mediation can be successful if one side kills the negotiators from the other side. To achieve peace, there is a need for serious partners, and a position of disregard for human life is unacceptable.
Washington is trying to create a military bloc
The American administration tried its best to forge a military alliance between the Arab monarchies and Israel, and to this end it did all it could to woo Riyadh. Today, this strategic plan appears to be an ill-considered fantasy, but Washington is still seeking to create some sort of bloc, with the latest initiative being an economic grouping tentatively named I2U2, consisting of India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.
The US is also trying to create an important economic corridor from India to Europe via the Middle East, also known as IMEC (India—Middle East—Europe Economic Corridor). It was designed to promote closer trade and energy ties between the European Union and India, with the help of US allies in the Persian Gulf. The goal is to help India distance itself away from China’s attempts to sideline New Delhi from its One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative. while creating a grand pro-American economic alliance stretching from the EU through Saudi Arabia and the UAE all the way to India—a grouping that would also isolate Iran. The founding partners of the IMEC are the US, EU (France, Germany and Italy), Saudi Arabia, the UAE and India.
The American plan was to give military weight to these intersecting alliances by forging a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and also normalizing Saudi-Israeli relations. America’s allies in the Middle East—Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain—would thus serve as an anti-Iranian alliance.
Current events make it clear how unrealistic the calculations of the US are. In this regard, it is worth remembering the words of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who described Muslim countries that normalize relations with Israel as “betting on a losing horse,” before adding that “the definitive stance of the Islamic Republic is that the governments which prioritize the gamble of normalization with the Zionist regime will incur losses… Today, the situation of the Zionist regime is not one that should motivate closeness to it; they should not make this mistake.”
The decline of the US is also evident in its foreign policy
Washington officials frequently display wishful thinking—notable in this regard is an article dated August 2, 2024 by University of Texas professor Gregory Gause III, published in the Foreign Affairs magazine. He argues that the real prospects for a US-Saudi security deal are very elusive, and that Riyadh should hardly be expected to “take Washington’s side Against China and Russia.”
The well-known US American political scientist John Mearsheimer believes that the US, through its unconstructive actions and miscalculations, “has itself played a decisive role in destroying its own world dominance.”
The renowned French scientist Emmanuel Todd, in a recent interview with the Berliner Zeitung, emphasized that trust in the United States around the world is declining because “the West, with America at its center, is experiencing internal disintegration, and we can see the decline of the West at various levels—if we look not at the GDP inflated by the service sector, but at the real industrial and agricultural production of the West, we can see a huge weakness… here the failures in education, especially in the United States, are even more alarming. Educational attainment there has been falling since 1965, there has been a decrease in the number of students, and tests show that IQ levels are dropping. Today in America they often train not engineers, but lawyers and stockbrokers.” Perhaps this can help to explain the huge failures of US foreign policy, including in the Middle East.
Renowned US economist Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University has repeatedly stressed that America’s meddling in the Middle East destabilizes the region and provokes mass suffering. Professor Sachs also believes that changes taking place around the world make it reasonable to expect that “a comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution is still achievable.”
Thailand aborts the colour revolution
By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | August 9, 2024
The curtain has come down on the abortive colour revolution in Thailand with the country’s Constitutional Court ordering the dissolution on Wednesday of the anti-establishment opposition party Move Forward, widely regarded as a US proxy.
It coincides with the stunning success of the hastily staged colour revolution in Bangladesh and the fall of the key military base of the Myanmar army’s Northeast Command in Lashio in the Shan state over the weekend to the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the rebel groups armed, financed and trained by the Western intelligence.
The Shan people who belong to the Tai ethnic group of Southeast Asia are the biggest minority of Myanmar (10% of the population) and they have cultural affinity with the Northern Thai peoples and also have a significant presence in the adjacent regions of Assam and Meghalaya in India.
The capture of Lashio by the alliance of militias of ethnic minority groups supported by the western intelligence is seen as a serious blow to the regime in Myanmar, which enjoys the backing of the military leadership in Thailand and is a strong ally of Russia.
Lashio is situated on an important trade route and is about 100 kms only from the Chinese border. Newsweek magazine in a report titled China Faces Growing War on Its Border cited an expert opinion of the Washington-based United States Institute of Peace think tank (which is wired into the US intelligence establishment) that:
“From China’s vantage point, the escalation of the conflict is a major setback in terms of its interest in… getting the belligerent parties to establish further deals to reset trade between the China border and Mandalay.
“China seems very concerned, as it will be very difficult for the Myanmar military to bounce back from this setback, yet the Myanmar military is not signalling a desire to return to the table or an interest in making significant concessions to the northern EAOs (alliance of tribal groups), which is what China has been pressuring it to do.”
According to latest reports, American and British “volunteers” have been lately joining the ranks of the rebels fighting the Myanmar military — although, these are early days and Myanmar has not experienced yet the same wave of international volunteers seen in conflicts such as Ukraine or Syria, and there are no coordinated efforts apparent to enlist foreign recruits.
The Myanmar military supremo General Min Aung Hlaing has alleged that the rebel alliance is receiving weapons, including drones and short-range missiles, from “foreign” sources. “It is necessary to analyse the sources of monetary and technological power,” he said. Myanmar’s military has 14 regional commands across the country, and the Northeast Command is the first to fall to armed rebel groups.
Meanwhile, the Arakan Army (AA) — a powerful ethnic armed group which is fighting to establish an independent Rakhine polity in western Myanmar — has been on the move committing atrocities against the Rohingya minority population taking advantage of the military’s current overstretch.
AA has made significant gains in Rakhine State in the recent months and reportedly exercises control over more than half of the state’s 17 townships. By the way, the Arakanese people also exist in Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts and in India’s Tripura state. (Interestingly, Arakan Division was originally a part of British India.)
Coming back to Bangkok, the Thai generals are evidently circling the wagons sensing the Time of Troubles ahead as the Five Eyes is creating a cauldron in Myanmar that can ensnare the neighbouring regions. Bangkok, a western ally previously, is traditionally a hotbed of western intelligence — Five Eyes — and the authorities are well aware of the resentment in the US that their ties with Beijing have expanded and deepened and assumed a strategic character in the recent years.
The unkindest cut of all is that Thailand (along with Malaysia) has formally applied for membership of the BRICS, which carries huge resonance in the geopolitics of southeast Asia and the ASEAN and impacts the regional balance at a juncture when the US is striving to create an anti-China bloc.
Thailand is a keen participant in China’s Belt and Road Initiative. From a long term perspective, the 873-km high-speed rail project connecting Bangkok with Kunming, capital of China’s Yunnan province, via Laos is expected to be operational latest by 2028.
The railway project, estimated to cost anywhere up to $10 billion will not only enhance regional connectivity but profoundly reset the economic geography of Asia, given its massive potential for accelerating the increased integration between China and the ASEAN countries. People would be able to travel between Kunming and Bangkok by train for about $100, which is half to a third of the cost of an airline ticket. According to Xinhua, the railway is expected to bring two million more Chinese tourists to Thailand every year.
Washington is livid that its proxy, Move Forward led by a young man educated in the US and groomed to spearhead a colour revolution, has been banned. The Thai authorities understand that the western intention is to break up the ancient crust of their country’s polity, which is the only way to make inroads into what is otherwise a deeply Buddhist culture — specifically, to demolish the so-called lèse-majesté law protecting the institution of monarchy, an institution that dates back more than 700 years and is a pillar of stability in the country symbolising the unity of the Thai communities. By the way, Christian missionary work is active in both Thailand and Myanmar — as in next-door north-eastern region of India. And the evangelicals are an influential pressure group in the US politics.
The Thai authorities have shied away from confronting the US. Thai culture values serenity and avoids conflict and displays of anger. Even disagreements are to be handled with a smile, without assigning blame. Hence the circuitous route to squash Move Forward on legal grounds.
Move Forward won 151 seats in the 500 member parliament in the elections in May last year where sixty-seven parties contested, but was unable to form a coalition government after being functionally blocked by allies of the monarchy and military. Move Forward made the electoral pledge to abolish lèse-majesté law (which is tantamount to a crime.)
The US and its allies are furious but cannot do anything about the development. All the good work to stage a colour revolution in phases has come to naught. The exasperation shows in the statements from Washington and Canberra. (here and here)
However, all is not lost. The regime change in Bangladesh may open a new pathway for the western intervention in Myanmar. India and Thailand refused to back the western-backed rebels fighting the Myanmar military. Former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also stayed away from the power struggle in Myanmar. But that may change.
The Rohingya issue provides an alibi. The ascendance of Pakistani intelligence and the larger-than life role of the Jamaat-i-Islami will trigger an assertion of Bangladesh’s Muslim identity. The Pakistani army chief lost no time to underscore that the developments in Bangladesh underscore the raison d’être of the two-nation theory!
So, the regime change in Bangladesh may turn out to be a game changer for the West’s regime change agenda in Myanmar. On the other hand, at the secondary and tertiary level, any strengthening of the western-backed rebel alliance in Myanmar cannot but cast shadows on India’s northeast, which has a large Christian population with tribal affinities across the border.
An awareness is lacking that any weakening of Thailand’s state structure or the dissipation of Thai culture rooted in Buddhist traditions will isolate India in the region’s civilisational tapestry. Indians tend to take an episodic view of current events in their immediate neighbourhood.
Prior to the rise of Theravada Buddhism, both Indian Brahminical religion and Mahayana Buddhism were present in Thailand, and influences from both these traditions can still be seen in present-day Thai folklore. A colour revolution in Thailand leading to western dominance and the eclipse of the Thai monarchy and Buddhist cosmology would have profound implications for South Asia.
Iran has no goal to accelerate cyber activities to influence US elections: UN mission
Press TV – August 9, 2024
Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations says the country has no goal or interest in “cyber activities” to influence the 2024 US presidential election.
“Iran does not have any goal or a plan for a cyber attack and it does not interfere in the US elections which is an internal issue of this country,” the mission said on Friday.
It vehemently rejected a report released on Friday claiming that Microsoft has identified a series of actions by Iranian cyber actors aimed at influencing the upcoming US election. These include email phishing attacks, fake news sites, and impersonating activists.
“Iran has been a victim of various cyber offensive operations against the country’s infrastructures, public service centers and industries,” the mission said.
It emphasized that Iran’s cyber power is defensive and proportionate to the threats posed against the country.
Late in July, Iran’s mission to the UN dismissed allegations that Tehran intended to disrupt the election and negatively affect it in favor of Donald Trump, the Republican Party candidate.
The mission described a major part of such accusations as psychological operations to give false momentum to election campaigns.
Under the facile pretext of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the US and Mossad have been carrying out a campaign of sabotage and cyber attacks on Iran’s civilian nuclear program for quite some time.
One of the most well known cyber attacks utilized the notoriously malicious Stuxnet worm.
In 2011, Tehran announced that an investigation had concluded that both the United States and Israel were behind the Stuxnet attack.
Israeli sabotage attempts against Iran’s nuclear program have miserably failed despite the regime’s assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists through unrelenting US support.
Mossad has assassinated Iranian nuclear scientists using methods ranging from magnetic mines attached to their cars and allegedly the use of a remote controlled robotic assassin.
Largest UK pension fund divests from Israeli assets worth over $100mn: Report
Press TV – August 9, 2024
Britain’s largest private pension fund has reportedly sold off £80 million ($101 million) in assets linked to Israel as pressure mounts on its members to divest from the occupying regime over its genocidal aggression against the Gaza Strip.
The Financial Times reported on Thursday that the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) had “materially” reduced its exposure to Israeli investments in the past six months.
USS started selling down the bond and currency portfolio in March, the report said, citing two people with knowledge of the matter.
“This marks yet another instance in recent months of institutions divesting from Israel’s genocidal regime and complicit companies,” the pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement said.
It also renewed its call for pressure on institutions to “divest from Israel’s sinking economy. Investing in it is not only unethical and illegal. It’s now also reckless.”
USS manages investments totalling £79 ($100 billion) and has more than 500,000 members, who are largely higher education sector workers, including lecturers at universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.
Back in May, the University and College Union (UCU) criticized the USS’s “shameful” refusal to review investments in companies linked to Israel’s crimes in Gaza and urged the pension fund to reconsider its position.
Calls have grown worldwide for divestment from Israeli interests since October 7, 2023, when the usurping regime waged its brutal Gaza onslaught.
So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 39,699 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 91,722 others.
US Military Exports Skyrocketing as Washington Continues to Fuel Global Conflicts
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 09.08.2024
The US’ arms exports have risen dramatically since 2022 and may top $100 billion by the year’s end, according to the Pentagon.
In fiscal year (FY) 2022, sales through the US government’s Foreign Military Sales (FMS) system jumped to $49.7 billion from $34.8 billion in FY2021; in FY2023, this number rose again to around $66.2 billion.
So far, FMS sales are already above $80 billion for FY2024, as per the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.
Still, the total value of transferred weapons, services and security cooperation activities conducted under the Foreign Military Sales system in FY2023 was $80.9 billion, representing a 55.9% increase from a total of $51.9 billion in FY2022.
In 2024, the US State Department unveiled government-to-government FMS sales for FY2023, which required congressional notification:
Poland:
- AH-64E Apache Helicopters – $12 billion;
- High mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS) – $10 billion;
- Integrated air and missile defense (IAMD) battle command systems (IBCS) – $4 billion;
- M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks – $3.75 billion.
Germany:
- CH-47F Chinook helicopters – $8.5 billion;
- AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAM) – $2.9 billion.
Norway:
- Defense articles and services related to the MH-60R multi-mission helicopters – $1 billion.
Czech Republic:
- F-35 aircraft and munitions – $5.62 billion.
Bulgaria:
- Stryker vehicles – $1.5 billion.
Australia:
- C-130J-30 aircraft – $6.35 billion.
Canada:
- P-8A aircraft – $5.9 billion.
South Korea:
- F-35 aircraft – $5.06 billion;
- CH-47F Chinook helicopters – $1.5 billion.
Japan:
- E-2D advanced Hawkeye (AHE) airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft – $1.381 billion.
Kuwait:
- National advanced surface-to-air missile system (NASAMS) medium range air defense systems (MRADS) – $3 billion;
- Follow-up technical support – $1.8 billion.
Qatar:
- Fixed site-low, slow, small unmanned aircraft system integrated defeat system (FS-LIDS) – $1 billion.
In addition to that, direct commercial sales (DCS) between foreign nations and US defense contractors jumped from $153.6 billion in FY2022 to $157.5 billion for FY2023. These sales included unspecified military hardware, services and technical data.
The US State Department provided a glimpse on what major DCS Congressional Notifications included in FY2023:
- Italy – For the manufacturing of F-35 wing assemblies and sub-assemblies – $2.8 billion;
- India – For the manufacturing of GE F414-INS6 engine hardware – $1.8 billion;
- Singapore – F100 propulsion system and spare parts – $1.2 billion;
- South Korea – F100 propulsion system and spare parts – $1.2 billion;
- Norway, Ukraine – National advanced surface to air missile systems (NASAMS) – $1.2 billion;
- Saudi Arabia – Patriot guided missile – $1 billion.
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) highlights that arms exports by the US rose by 17% between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The US share of total global arms exports increased from 34% to 42%. Between 2019 and 2023, the US delivered major arms to 107 states, which was more than the next two biggest exporters combined, as per SIPRI.
The largest share of US arms went to the Middle East (38%), mostly to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Israel.
US arms exports to states in Asia and Oceania increased by 14% between 2014–18 and 2019–23; 31% of all US arms exports in 2019–23 went to the region with Japan, South Korea and Australia being the largest buyers.
Europe purchased a total of 28% of US arms exports in 2019–23. US arms exports to the region increased by over 200% between the 2014–18 and 2019–23 periods. Ukraine accounted for 4.7% of all US arms exports and 17% of those to Europe.
The institute projects that the US will continue to ramp up military sales in 2024 and beyond, with the focus on combat aircraft, tanks and other armored vehicles, artillery, SAM systems and warships.
US enlists Cyprus, Jordan, Greece as ‘defensive platforms’ for Israel: Report
The Cradle | August 9, 2024
Washington has enlisted the island nation of Cyprus in its efforts to protect Israel from potential retaliations by Iran and Hezbollah to the recent Israeli attacks on Tehran and Beirut, Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar reported on 9 August.
A US military delegation visited Cyprus this week and held urgent meetings with Cypriot defense and intelligence officials.
“The delegation was accompanied by a logistical, military and security force carrying with it a large amount of equipment, weapons and modern air defense systems, in addition to helicopters,” Al-Akhbar wrote.
Cypriot officials said they had never seen such quantities of weapons before, the report went on to say.
According to the report, the US informed Cyprus that this equipment was “related to tensions in the region” and that the island would serve as “one of the interception platforms against expected attacks from Iran, Yemen and Hezbollah.”
It adds that the UK has reinforced its bases in Cyprus, and has sent experts and air defense equipment to the country.
The UK has two large military bases in Cyprus, which are British sovereign territory and make up 2.5 percent of the island’s area.
Germany has also reportedly expressed an intention to deploy naval forces to Cyprus and to assist in evacuations in case of a large-scale war.
“What further confused Cypriot authorities was the US request for joint military drills with American forces on the island’s land and seas … drills do not happen suddenly, but rather require a program that is prepared at least a year in advance, not 48 hours in advance,” Al-Akhbar said.
“Cypriot officials have been keen to communicate with … the axis of resistance, especially Hezbollah, to convey the message that what is happening ‘is happening against their will, and that they do not want to involve their country in any war.’ They expressed their fear that the island could become an arena for a confrontation with Iran, Hezbollah, and even Ansarallah.”
Yemen’s army and Ansarallah resistance movement is also preparing a response to the Israeli attack on Hodeidah port last month.
The Al-Akhbar report states that these messages are unlikely to change anything in the event of a wide-scale war, given that Cypriot authorities are also coordinating directly with Tel Aviv.
“Opening Cypriot airports and bases to the Israeli enemy to target Lebanon would mean that the Cypriot government is part of the war, and the resistance will deal with it as part of the war,” Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech in June, warning Cyprus against taking part in an expanded Israeli war on Lebanon.
Cyprus and Israel have stepped up military cooperation in recent years as part of a joint declaration signed in 2017 and have also carried out several joint military and naval exercises. In 2022, the two states carried out joint military exercises on the island nation’s territory. Cyprus denied Tel Aviv’s declaration at the time that the exercises were meant to simulate war inside Lebanon.
Hebrew newspaper Israel Hayom reported on 11 March this year that Israel is seeking to establish a port in the Cypriot city of Larnaca in case the port of Haifa is closed in a war with Hezbollah.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, Greece and Jordan are also deeply involved in Washington’s defensive plans for Israel.
In April, Jordan played a significant role in intercepting Iranian missiles and drones which targeted Israel in response to its destruction of the Iranian consulate in Damascus and the killing of several of its officials that month.
Israel killed Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 31 July, as he was visiting Iran as a diplomatic guest while attending the inauguration of the country’s new president. A day earlier, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in the Lebanese capital, targeting him in a residential building while killing several civilians, including children, in the process.
Hezbollah and Iran have both vowed severe retaliations to the illegal attacks.
US F-22s land in West Asia as Pentagon pledges to ‘defend Israel’
The Cradle | August 9, 2024
The US Air Force has deployed stealth F-22 Raptor jets to West Asia in a show of force to deter a retaliatory attack by Iran and its allies in the Axis of Resistance against Israel, Bloomberg reported on 9 August.
Iran and Hezbollah have promised to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut late last month.
US Central Command did not disclose how many jets have been deployed or from which airbase they will operate.
The US has airbases in several allied countries in the region, including Turkiye and Qatar.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated on X that “the US F-22 Raptors that arrived in the region today represent one of many efforts to deter aggression, defend Israel and protect US forces in the region.” The post followed his phone call with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
The F-22 Raptor is the Pentagon’s premier fighter designed to down other aircraft, relying on stealth technology, sophisticated maneuvers, and the ability to hold up to eight short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles.
The F-22s send a powerful signal to Iran because “they can operate with impunity in Iranian airspace without Iran being aware,” retired Lieutenant General David Deptula claimed to Bloomberg.
“They can perform not just air-to-air operations but can surreptitiously conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations and have the capacity to deliver bombs as well,” he added.
“This is the biggest crisis deployment of the F-22s” since they went operational in late 2005, according to Rebecca Grant, an airpower analyst with the Lexington Institute. “Deploying F-22s means this is serious, and there’s a chance of big force packages operating in multiple locations and with allies.”
Washington has been beefing up its presence in the region in anticipation of the Resistance Axis’s responses, which could potentially include Iraq’s resistance factions and Yemen’s Ansarallah movement.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US would maintain the presence of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and ordered more ballistic missiles, defense-capable cruisers, and warships for the region.
After Israel’s killing of Haniyeh and Shukr, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed a “harsh punishment” for Israel.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah also warned Tel Aviv: “You do not know which red lines you have crossed.”
Iran enhances naval capabilities with new radar-evading anti-ship missiles with high-explosive warheads
Press TV – August 9, 2024
Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Navy has received new domestically-made equipment, including cruise missiles equipped with highly explosive warheads capable of evading current missile systems.
The naval force took delivery of 2,640 missile systems, drones, and other equipment in a Friday ceremony attended by IRGC chief commander Major General Hossein Salami.
Among the deliveries are new radar-evading cruise missiles that feature high-explosive warheads, capable of causing severe damage and sinking destroyers.
The addition also includes various types of long-range and medium-range missiles, combat and reconnaissance drones, unmanned aerial vehicles featuring electronic warfare (EW) capabilities, as well as electronic warfare systems.
Only 210 homegrown systems out of a total of 2,654 were put on display on Friday as other strategic weapons systems could not be showcased for security considerations, Tasnim News Agency reported, adding that these systems represent some of the navy’s most advanced anti-surface and sub-surface weapons.
“In today’s world, nations must choose between becoming strong and independent or giving in to external pressures; there is no middle ground,” Salami said in the event, adding, “Nations can either strive for strength and freedom, breaking free from the control of global powers, or opt for compromise and submission.”
The sea is a vast arena where all military powers converge, making it a critical meeting point for global forces, he said, noting, “Naval combat and defense represent a comprehensive level of warfare. The sea itself is a complete battlefield, and naval powers are typically self-sufficient in all aspects of combat.”
Naval battles are “decisive,” he stressed. “At sea, speed equates to power, allowing one to outmaneuver the opponent. Precision is crucial; the volume of fire is less important than the accuracy. You must be able to destroy a target with a single hit.”
“In naval operations, utilizing artificial intelligence across all levels—from vessels to missiles, defenses, submarines, and mines—is a crucial aim,” he said elsewhere.
Iranian military experts and engineers have in recent years made remarkable breakthroughs in manufacturing a broad range of indigenous equipment, making the armed forces self-sufficient.
Iranian officials have repeatedly underscored that the country will not hesitate to strengthen its military capabilities, including its missile power, which are entirely meant for defense, and that Iran’s defense capabilities will be never subject to negotiations.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called for efforts to maintain and boost Iran’s defense capabilities.
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Oil and the Israel Lobby
Reknowned economist M. Shahid Alam offers this excellent critique of Noam Chomsky’s defective analysis of the relative influence of Oil versus the Israel lobby over US foreign policy: … continue
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