Pentagon says tens of thousands of troops across West Asia ‘enough to protect Israel’
The Cradle | September 20, 2024
The US is confident in its ability to defend Israel given its current force levels in West Asia, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on 19 September, amid heightened fears of a wider war between Lebanese Hezbollah and Israel.
“We’re confident in the ability that we have there right now to protect our forces and should we need to come to the defense of Israel as well,” Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said in a press briefing Thursday.
The possibility of full-scale war increased following Israel’s terror attacks in Lebanon, which targeted Hezbollah cadre and civilians with exploding pagers earlier this week. The attacks killed 37 Lebanese and injured thousands more.
US military officials began sending additional forces to the region in July. Tensions escalated after Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah commander Fuad Shakr in Beirut and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran at the end of that month.
While US officials say they will help defend Israel, they claim they will not help it in an offensive war against Iran or Hezbollah.
“We are there in the defense of Israel, should we need to come to their defense. We’re not going in and supporting offensive ground operations in what they do, whether it be in the north or in Gaza,” Singh stated in the press briefing.
US officials speaking on condition of anonymity told the AP that additional resources sent to the region since July have helped as the US forces carry out operations targeting Axis of Resistance groups in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
In addition to Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI) and the Ansarallah-led government of Yemen have hit US and Israeli targets in the region in an effort to oppose Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
The AP reported that about 34,000 US troops have traditionally been deployed to West Asia. The number grew to about 40,000 in October last year as additional ships and aircraft were sent in after the start of the war on Gaza.
Several weeks ago, the total temporarily spiked to nearly 50,000 when US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered two aircraft carriers and their accompanying warships to stay in the region.
One aircraft carrier has since left, but US navy warships remain scattered across the region, from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Oman. Air force and navy fighter jets are strategically based at several locations.
The USS Abraham Lincoln and its three destroyers are in the Gulf of Oman. Two US navy destroyers are in the Red Sea.
There are six US warships and three naval destroyers in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Six F/A-18 fighter jets and the USS Georgia guided missile submarine are in the region, but US officials refuse to say where.
The air force has four land-based fighter squadrons in West Asia, which include a squadron of A-10 Thunderbolt II ground attack aircraft, F-15E Strike Eagles, and F-16 fighter jets. US officials also declined to say where the planes are based.
Should the US join Israel in fighting a war against Iran, the air force can also launch attacks from bases within the US itself.
In February, two B-1 bombers flew more than 30 hours from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas and back to strike 85 Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) targets in Iraq and Syria.
Nasrallah: Blasts declaration of war, enemy to face tough retribution
Press TV – September 19, 2024
Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says pager and walkie-talkie explosions by Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday which killed 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 in Lebanon are a declaration of war.
“The enemy has crossed all red lines and all laws in this attack. This is a massive terrorist attack, genocide, a massacre,” Nasrallah said Thursday in his first televised address since the attack.
“The Tuesday and Wednesday massacres are a war crime, a declaration of war…you can call it anything,” he said, adding Israel will face “tough retribution and just punishment, where it expects it and where it does not”.
Israel’s willful intent, Nasrallah said, was to kill 4,000 Lebanese people within minutes but many of the pagers were out of service, turned off or stored away.
“When the enemy planned out this attack, they assumed there were at least 4,000 pagers spread out across all of Lebanon. This means that the enemy had the intention of murdering 4,000 people in a single minute.
“The same was repeated on the second day with the aim being to kill thousands of people carrying radio devices,” Nasrallah said.
Some of the attacks, he said, took place in hospitals, pharmacies, marketplaces, commercial shops and even residential homes, private vehicles and public roads where thousands of civilians, including women and children, are present.
Nasrallah said an extensive investigative committee has been formed to study all scenarios, possibilities, and theories, and an almost-definitive conclusion reached.
“I can tell you with utmost certainty that this attack did not break us and will not break us. On the contrary, it will only increase our resolve and determination to continue on in this battle,” he said.
Nasrallah said the aim of the attack is to dissuade the Lebanese resistance from continuing its operations against Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.
Since October 7 when Hamas carried out the landmark Operation Al-Aqsa Storm inside Israeli occupied territories, Hezbollah has engaged in near-daily cross-border skirmishes with Israeli forces in a show of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
“Why did the enemy do this? When the blessed Al-Aqsa Flood began, the Southern Lebanese support front was opened. This front has inflicted huge losses upon the enemy since October 8, as they have repeatedly admitted themselves,” Nasrallah said.
“The Southern Lebanese front has been a very effective front alongside the other support fronts. The enemy has repeatedly sent us messages to close this front. They resorted to threats of war, and attempted to differentiate between Lebanon and Gaza.”
Nasrallah said after the first attack on Tuesday afternoon, “the enemy sent us a message through official and unofficial channels, threatening that if we do not close our front, they have more in store for us and so the attack on Wednesday came”.
“In the name of the martyrs, the wounded, the ones who lost their eyes and palms, and in the name of every person who has taken on the responsibility of supporting Gaza, we tell Netanyahu and Gallant: the Lebanese front will not stop until the war on Gaza ends,” he said, referring to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and minister of military affairs Yoav Gallant.
Through the attack, Nasrallah said, the enemy wanted the Lebanese people to turn against the resistance.
“This goal failed on Tuesday and Wednesday when we all saw the stances of the people and the wounded who hope to recover to return to the battlefield,” he said.
Nasrallah thanked doctors, officials and everyone who helped in the treatment of victims of the attacks, including the people who donated blood.
“One of the silver linings of the crisis of the past few days is the solidarity and unity experienced across the country,” he said.
UN overwhelmingly demands Israel end occupation of Palestinian territories
Press TV – September 18, 2024
The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a resolution that demands Israel end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within a year.
A total of 124 countries voted in favor, while 14, including the US, opposed the resolution. Britain, Switzerland, Ukraine, India and Germany were among the 43 countries to abstain.
The resolution welcomes a July advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that said Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements is illegal and should be withdrawn.
The advisory opinion – by the highest United Nations court said this should be done “as rapidly as possible.”
The measure calls for Israel to pay reparations to Palestinians “for the damage caused to all the natural and legal persons concerned in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
The resolution also demands sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel.
The 193-member Assembly also calls on states to “take steps towards ceasing the importation of any products originating in the Israeli settlements, as well as the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel … where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be used in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s UN ambassador, who opened the assembly meeting on Tuesday, said that no occupying power can have a veto right over the inalienable rights of the people under its occupation.
“Those who think the Palestinian people will accept a life of servitude, a life of apartheid, are the ones who are not being realistic,” Mansour said.
“Those who imagine the Palestinian people will disappear or surrender are the ones who are not being realistic. Those who claim that peace is possible in our region without a just resolution for the question of Palestine are the ones who are not being realistic.
“Each country has a vote, and the world is watching us,” Mansour said. “Please stand on the right side of history. With international law. With freedom. With peace.”
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield urged countries to vote no on Wednesday. Washington, an arms supplier to and ally of Israel, has long opposed any resolution at the world body in favor of Palestine.
Unlike in the Security Council, no country in the General Assembly has veto power.
The action isolates Israel days before world leaders travel to New York for their annual UN gathering.
In May, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of reconsidering Palestine’s full membership. It is now recognized by 145 of 193 UN member states.
Several countries, including Spain, Norway, and Ireland, recognized Palestine as a state in late May amid mounting criticism of Israel’s genocidal campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip.
While the 15-member council is largely paralyzed on the ongoing Israeli genocidal campaign in Gaza, with the United States repeatedly vetoing censures of its ally Israel, the General Assembly has adopted several texts in support of Palestinian civilians.
The US has allowed Israel’s attack on Lebanon, and now war may follow
By Robert Inlakesh | RT | September 18, 2024
On Tuesday, Israel was accused of detonating hundreds of wireless communication devices that were primarily being used in a civilian capacity, injuring upwards of 4,000 people. Although the details are still being ironed out, this attack will now force Hezbollah to make major decisions in retaliation.
Less than a day after the Israeli security cabinet officially adopted a new war goal of returning their displaced residents to areas close to the Lebanese border, an indiscriminate attack was carried out throughout Lebanon. This indicates that the war in Gaza has now expanded in the eyes of the Israeli political and military leadership to include Lebanon. However, there are question marks surrounding how such an escalation will take shape.
The US role
Commenting on the issue to reporters, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that “the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we’re gathering information.” He then even went as far as suggesting that the US government was gathering information just as journalists around the world are.
While this was Washington distancing itself from the incident, it is almost comical for an American official to inform the media that the Biden administration has no special information from its ally on the incident. Taking this at face value, it is an embarrassing admission that the ally to which the US has provided tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons and aid over the past 11 months does not even have channels of dialogue to discuss an attack which could lead to a regional war.
Even if we are to assume that the US had no idea about the attack, which is doubtful, the mere fact that American bipartisan support for Israel throughout the course of its war on Gaza has not buckled under immense international condemnation is telling. Every single organ of the United Nations has been ringing the alarm bells, accusing Israel of committing war crimes, and even the United Kingdom has decided to cancel 30 of some 350 weapons-licensing contracts over violations of international law.
While the US has continually stated that it seeks to de-escalate tensions and that it disapproves of an Israel-Lebanon war, at best it is doing nothing to stop it. If the US government were truly so out of the loop with Israel’s escalatory steps and really wanted to stop a regional war, the wake-up call should have come at the end of July.
When Israel bombed a civilian apartment building in Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, killing Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukr, then only hours later assassinated the leader of Hamas, Ismail Hanniyeh, in Tehran, this would have been the time when the Americans put pressure on the Israelis to stop. Instead, the US government decided to do the very opposite. At the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) session called to discuss the issue, they condemned Iran. On top of this, just under two weeks later, the US decided to approve a $20-billion weapons package for Israel.
Israeli terrorism
There can be no doubt that the act of sabotage carried out on Tuesday was done using terrorist tactics and its intended goals are important to analyze. While all the precise details remain hidden as to how Israel managed to detonate hundreds of pagers, the impacts are crystal clear and we have enough information to render a judgment.
Firstly, the fact that this occurred across Lebanon and its victims were not just confined to those in the rank-and-file of Hezbollah has now left a lingering feeling of anxiety among the general public. The question cannot help but be posed: If the Israelis can blow up pagers, can they also detonate phones, laptops and other devices, and how many other plots of this nature do they have up their sleeves? This also impacts Hezbollah itself, because there has been a clear breach in the group’s security on one level or another, which directly caused a temporary issue with the means of communication used by the group’s military personnel.
According to the information we have so far, it appears that Israeli intelligence operatives managed to rig a batch of pagers with small amounts of highly explosive material. While the scale is unique in history, this tactic is nothing new. In fact, in 1996, Mossad assassinated a leader of Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades named Yahya Ayyash, by planting explosive material inside his phone and detonating it remotely. In the 1980s the Israelis even operated a group called the Front for the Liberation of Lebanon from Foreigners (FLLF) to carry out acts of terrorism while posing as a Christian fascist organization, one of its operations attempted to assassinate the US former ambassador to Lebanon, John Gunther Dean.
If this action was carried out as a means of impacting Hezbollah’s communications, prior to Israel launching a larger-scale military operation, then it would have made sense as a tactic that would on some level degrade the capabilities of the group and force them to find alternative means of issuing orders to certain cadres. Yet, this is not what happened, they gave the Lebanese group the time to recover from this blow and so it must be seen within a different context, one of point scoring.
It now puts Lebanese Hezbollah in a tough position. The group must mount some kind of response to this attack, one that is designed to deter the Israelis from carrying out similar attacks in the future. However, the secretary general of Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, has made clear that, while his party is prepared for war, it is only interested in continuing to maintain a support front for the Palestinian groups fighting Israel from Gaza.
Since October 8, Hezbollah has carried out thousands of targeted attacks against Israeli military facilities, primarily targeting surveillance, air defense and espionage equipment, but also striking army personnel too. On top of this, the Lebanese armed group has also been targeting specific populated areas that are located along the border region, with rocket barrages, forcing around 100,000 Israelis to flee.
On the other hand, roughly 110,000 Lebanese have been forced to flee their homes in southern Lebanon due to Israeli bombing attacks that have been much more devastating on the nation’s civilian infrastructure than Hezbollah’s has been on Israel’s. In fact, while Hezbollah attacks have only resulted in a handful of Israeli civilian deaths, nearly 200 civilians have been killed by Israeli strikes on Lebanon. This being said, there can be no denying the success of Hezbollah’s operations in conducting a war of attrition that is burdening Israel psychologically, militarily, and economically.
What comes next
Israel has carried out this operation in an attempt to score points against Hezbollah, primarily in the propaganda war, and the alternative goal is to drag the group into opening up a shooting war. The Israelis do not want to be seen as starting the war against Lebanon, both because they seek the support of the collective West and know that the conflict will result in a stalemate at best.
If Hezbollah does not mount a considerable defensive counter operation, it will signal weakness to the Israelis and likely encourage them to continue carrying out similar offensive operations throughout Lebanon. While, on the other hand, if the Hezbollah response is too severe, it may give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the perfect excuse to launch the war that he has been threatening to wage for months now.
This moment requires Hezbollah to step up and take risks militarily, at a time when they now have a popular mandate inside Lebanon to respond in self defense. It is clear that the strategy of the Lebanese group has been to continue its daily operations in support of the Gaza Strip, and Israel is determined to end this, which is why it is now attempting to transform the nature of the war and expand it outwards. Unfortunately, due to the US providing full and unconditional support to the Israeli government as it expands the war, we are no longer looking at a war which is isolated to Gaza. Unless there is a ceasefire deal signed with Hamas soon, it appears inevitable that we are heading towards a Lebanon-Israel war that will drag in the entire region.
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.
Israel Orders Demolition of 37 Homes, Commercial Structures in Silwan
IMEMC | September 17, 2024
On Monday, Israeli soldiers and City Council personnel invaded Silwan town, south of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied capital, Jerusalem, in the West Bank, and handed out demolition orders for 37 homes and commercial structures.
Media sources reported that the soldiers notified the town’s citizens of the demolition orders, and added that the demolitions are part of the municipality’s plans to remove Palestinian buildings to pave a road, dubbed the “American Road,” and infrastructure for the illegal colonizers.
The number of demolitions in the Jerusalem Governorate from the first of September until the eighth has now reached 307.
The Israeli occupation authorities generally justify the demolition of homes on the pretext of building without permits, despite the rarity of granting the necessary permits for building homes for Jerusalemites.
The “American Road” project, constructed over the ruins of Palestinian homes, demolished residences, and confiscated lands, stretches about 12 kilometers, devouring everything in its path to facilitate the lives of illegal colonizers and create segregated roads between the colonies.
While Israel continues to build and expand its illegal colonies, Palestinian communities and towns in occupied Jerusalem and various areas in the occupied West Bank continue to be denied the right to build homes and property under various allegations meant to prevent the expansion of Palestinian towns and neighborhoods.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory.”
With no coherent war plan, Netanyahu’s regime is using any excuse to derail ceasefire talks
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | September 17, 2024
At this point, it should be clear that Hamas is not and never has been the obstacle to securing a prisoner swap and ceasefire in Gaza. Yet, it doesn’t matter how willing Hamas truly is with the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is using every tool he can to create excuses as to why the war can’t come to an end, which is important to understand.
When the United States and their Israeli partners talk about the need for Hamas to sit at the table, calling on the Palestinian Resistance to accept a ceasefire deal, it is all nonsense. The analysis pieces, leaked conversations, and update articles that we see regularly published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Axios, and other outlets are all adding to a work of fiction that has been crafted for domestic US and Israeli consumption.
There are no current negotiations, just discussions between the Israelis and Americans, which then are forwarded to the negotiating teams of Egypt and Qatar, before the conversation ultimately ends the exact same way it began, as useless ramblings that only give cover for further Israeli war crimes. This is the case as Hamas sits by and waits for the circus to end so that it can actually talk business.
The framework for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange has already been proposed by the United States and ratified by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and Hamas has agreed to it. Meanwhile, the Zionist entity does not speak for itself on what it has or hasn’t exactly accepted; instead, it allows the likes of US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to tell the world that the UNSC-endorsed Biden proposal was actually an Israeli proposal before later changing his story to that the Israelis had accepted Biden’s proposal. Even at this level, the contradictions prove how unserious the Zionist regime is.
On May 6, when Hamas announced that they had accepted a ceasefire proposal – that was almost identical to the one that Antony Blinken had spent two weeks lauding – the Israeli response was immediate rejection, followed by the invasion of the Rafah crossing.
The Israeli PM has continually argued that the war must continue until Hamas is defeated in Gaza, an objective that even the Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari has said is impossible. Moreover, Netanyahu’s insistence on destroying Hamas is indicative of his outright rejection of a ceasefire. You can either defeat Hamas or do a ceasefire deal with them, you can’t have both, it simply makes no sense.
Another important point to understand is that despite the change in US President Joe Biden’s rhetoric and that of his administration, calling for an “immediate ceasefire”, you will notice that when Israeli officials comment on the issue of a ceasefire, they do so with a focus on the prisoner exchange aspect and often follow this up by stating that they must still retain the right to attack Hamas. In other words, the only ceasefire that the Zionist entity entertains is a temporary one that will ensure the release of their captives, after which they seek the “right” to continue the war. This is exactly what Benjamin Netanyahu argues, which, in essence, means that he’s openly telling Hamas to give up its bargaining chips for no reason.
The issue of Israeli forces remaining in both the Philadelphia and Netzarim corridors is a new addition to the ceasefire talks and directly violates the framework outlined in UNSC Resolution 2735 that was adopted on June 10. The resolution states explicitly that in phase 2 of the ceasefire agreement “upon agreement of the parties, a permanent end to hostilities, in exchange for the release of all other hostages still in Gaza, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza,” adding that it “rejects any attempt at demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip, including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza.”
The evidence that “Israel” outright rejects what is quoted above from the Security Council resolution is not just limited to these new additions to the non-existent ceasefire negotiations. When Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Congress in July, he swore that his regime was going to secure “total victory” and argued for occupying Gaza internally for a limited period of time instead of permanently. If we look at all the polling data on the opinion of Israelis, the majority of the public also agree with these ideas too.
On top of this, the Israeli military has been creating a “buffer zone” around the perimeter of the Gaza Strip, blowing up and burning every single structure in an area that constitutes 32 percent of the besieged coastal territory. Furthermore, the new addition to the Zionist entity’s war plan which is agreed upon by the majority of the Israeli cabinet is the idea of seizing the entirety of northern Gaza for a “security zone” and expelling the hundreds of thousands of residents who live there.
As occurred in Rafah, where around a million people were completely uprooted and pushed into the ever-changing so-called “safe zone” area of al-Mawasi, the Zionist entity appears to be trying to concentrate the entire Palestinian civilian population into this zone. When the civilians arrive there, they are then repeatedly forced to move on foot and their tents are bombed, burying their bodies beneath mounds of sand.
The Zionist regime is engaged in what is clearly an “endless war”, or a war of attrition, which the United States government is fully backing with tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons. The end goal here is not actually clear, but what is certain is that Benjamin Netanyahu is not about to give up. If we follow the trajectory of the war so far, it is completely dependent upon Israeli domestic politics. The war has worked as follows:
Stage 1: “Israel” launches an unprecedented air attack that decimates civilian infrastructure, while commanding the civilian population to head south, where they are also bombed.
Stage 2: “Israel” invades the Gaza Strip, focusing on the northern part of the territory and claiming that Hamas is operating its HQ out of Al-Shifa Hospital and bases out of other hospitals. It then fails to find any headquarters.
Stage 3: A prisoner exchange is concluded, during which time the Israeli regime is changing its narrative.
Stage 4: “Israel” invades Khan Younis and central Gaza, claiming that the “real Hamas headquarters is in Khan Younis,” ultimately failing to inflict any real blow on the Palestinian Resistance.
Stage 5: “Israel” winds down the clock with more brief military incursions into areas they have already invaded, inflicting countless more civilian massacres and holding off on what they now began arguing was the true headquarters for Hamas in Rafah. During this period, Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the tunnels were being used to transfer weapons and that the war could not be won without a Rafah invasion.
Stage 6: Hamas accepts a ceasefire proposal after the US had been placing pressure on the Israelis to steer clear from a major invasion of Rafah. Netanyahu decides that same day to invade Rafah but not to wage the sort of campaign he was hoping for.
Stage 7: After having invaded every area in Gaza, the Israelis are out of excuses and are throwing out random ideas, hoping they will stick and convince their own population. This has led to reviving the idea of seizing northern Gaza, which was initially proposed at the beginning of the war, yet a large portion of the Israeli public is now demanding the return of the captives, which presents a major issue. So, they are looking for anything new to buy time before the inevitable next steps must be taken.
This brings us to today.
The Zionist regime doesn’t want a ceasefire and the US pressure simply is not there to force it to change its mind. The only thing that is now applying real pressure is the relentless fire from Hezbollah on the northern front, which has grown to the point that it cannot be ignored. In order to stop the Lebanese Resistance, they have two options: End the war on Gaza or start another war with Lebanon. If the Zionist entity will not give up on its genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, then war with Lebanon is inevitable and will likely end up taking place inside Syrian territory also.
“No One Preaches to Me” – Netanyahu defies the U.S. while getting billions of Americans’ tax dollars
If Americans Knew | September 14, 2024
Excerpts from the show “Daniel Davis/Deep Dive – Defiant Netanyahu – No One Preaches to Me w/Matt Hoh” which first aired on September 4, 2024.
DEEP DIVE’s tagline is “Analyzing War, Foreign Policy & Politics. 4x Combat Deployer. Unintimidated & Uncompromised. Deep love for America.”
DANIEL L. DAVIS is a senior fellow and military expert at Defense Priorities. Davis retired from the U.S. Army as a Lt. Col. after 21 years of active service. He was deployed into combat zones four times in his career, beginning with Operation Desert Storm in 1991, and then to Iraq in 2009 and Afghanistan twice (2005, 2011). He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for Valor at the Battle of 73 Easting in 1991, and awarded a Bronze Star Medal in Afghanistan in 2011. He is the author of The Eleventh Hour in 2020 America.
His work on defense and foreign affairs has been published in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, USA TODAY, CNN, Fox News, The Guardian, TIME, POLITICO, and other publications. Davis was also the recipient of the 2012 Ridenhour Prize for Truth-telling. He is a frequent guest on Fox News, Fox Business News, NBC News, BBC, CNN, and other television networks. He lives in the Washington, DC, area.
The show’s guest is Matthew Hoh:
MATTHEW HOH has been a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy since 2010. In 2009, Matthew resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war. Prior to his assignment in Afghanistan, Matthew took part in the American occupation of Iraq; first in 2004-5 in Salah ad Din Province with a State Department reconstruction and governance team and then in 2006-7 in Anbar Province as a Marine Corps company commander. When not deployed, Matthew worked on Afghanistan and Iraq war policy and operations issues at the Pentagon and State Department from 2002-8.
Hoh’s writings have appeared in online and print periodicals such as the Atlanta Journal Constitution, CounterPunch, CNN, Defense News, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, Mother Jones, the Raleigh News & Observer, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post. He has been a guest on hundreds of news programs on radio and television networks including the BBC, CBS, CNN, CSPAN, Fox, NBC, MSNBC, NPR, Pacifica and PBS. The Council on Foreign Relations has cited Matthew’s resignation letter from his post in Afghanistan as an Essential Document.
In 2010, Hoh was named the Ridenhour Prize Recipient for Truth Telling and, in 2021, he was awarded as a Defender of Liberty by the Committee for the Republic. Matthew is a member of the Board of Directors for the Institute for Public Accuracy, an Advisory Board Member for the Committee to Defend Julian Assange and Civil Liberties, Expose Facts, North Carolina Committee to Investigate Torture, The Resistance Center for Peace and Justice, Veterans For Peace, and World Beyond War, and he is an Associate Member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). He is a 100% disabled veteran and was certified by North Carolina as a Peer Support Specialist for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder.
Congress currently gives Israel $38 million per day of Americans’ tax money – see https://ifamericansknew.org/stat/usai…
The complete episode can be seen here: 
• Defiant Netanyahu – No One Preaches t…
Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian school in West Bank
Al Mayadeen | September 16, 2024
Illegal Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian school on Monday in the Mu’arrajat area, in the city of Ariha in the West Bank, a local activist stated.
The settlers assaulted students and teachers at the Arab al-Ka’abneh Primary School, wounding several people and besieging the premises, according to a statement issued by Hassan Mleihat, a member of the Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights.
Three people were injured during the attack and were being treated by medics, the Palestinian Red Cresent Society reported.
The Palestinian Education Ministry condemned the attack, accusing settlers and the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) of obstructing education and terrorizing Palestinian children.
The ministry said the attack was a “recurring violation that reveals the ugly face of the Israeli occupation and its disregard for children’s rights.”
702 Palestinians killed by IOF, settlers in West Bank since Oct. 7
702 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) and settlers in the West Bank since October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry revealed Wednesday.
The ministry’s statement highlighted that over 5,700 Palestinians have been wounded by the ongoing Israeli aggression in the occupied land, with 10,500 others detained over the last 11 months.
The death toll included at least eight Palestinians killed during Israeli airstrikes carried out on Wednesday in the city of Tabus, the nearby town of Tamun, and the West Bank’s northern city of Tulkarm.
17 cases filed against pro-Palestine protesters across 7 states in India: Report
MEMO | September 16, 2024
Yemeni forces shoot down another American spy drone, third in a week
Press TV – September 16, 2024
Yemeni Armed Forces have shot down another advanced American drone in support of Palestinians, who have come under a US-enabled Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, and in protest at Washington’s aggression against Yemen.
The MQ-9 Reaper was struck in the airspace of Dhamar Province in western Yemen on Monday.
The heavy aircraft, which is used for dual combat and spying purposes, is worth around $35 million.
The drone was the third aircraft of the type to be brought down by the forces in the span of a week and the 10th one to face such a fate since October 7.
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The forces have been carrying out numerous strikes against the occupied Palestinian territories since that day, when the Israeli regime began the war on Gaza.
Their most daring pro-Palestinian strike of the type came on Sunday, when they attacked an Israeli military site in Tel Aviv with a new hypersonic ballistic missile.
Also on Sunday, leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement once again underscored the country’s support for Palestinians in the face of the Israeli genocide, saying the operations would continue until the regime ended the war and the siege.
At least 41,206 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed so far during the brutal Israeli onslaught, which enjoys unquestioning political, military, and intelligence support on the part of the United States.
The forces have also been targeting Israeli ships and vessels heading towards or away from the occupied territories as means of trying to force the regime into stopping the war and a siege that it has been simultaneously imposing on Gaza.
The United States has, on the other hand, been staging attacks against Yemen as means of trying to stop these operations.
Palestinian fighter from Shatila refugee camp dies after 38 years in Austrian prison
By Dieter Reinisch | Press TV | September 15, 2024
On Friday, September 13, 2024, Tawfiq Chaovali, alias Imad Omran, a Palestinian resistance figure, passed away in Stein prison in Krems, Austria, after almost 40 years of incarceration.
Chaovali joined the Palestinian resistance at a young age and was actively involved in the fight against the Israeli invasion of Beirut in 1982 as a Palestinian refugee in the country.
Following the infamous Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut in September 1982, he participated in a retaliatory operation targeting the Israeli airline El Al at Vienna-Schwechat Airport in 1985.
Born in 1960, Chaovali grew up in the Shatila refugee camp, established in southern Lebanon in 1949 for Palestinian refugees. At the young age of 16, in 1975, he joined the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).
His father was killed in an Israeli air raid near Sidon, a city in southern Lebanon.
In the summer of 1982, after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Chaovali fled to Tunisia. However, he returned to Lebanon a year later. Upon his return, he joined the Abu Nidal Organization, a Fatah-affiliated resistance group, to fight against the Israeli regime.
In late 1985, Chaovali traveled to Austria via Hungary. Just days after his arrival, on December 27, 1985, an operation was carried out at Vienna-Schwechat Airport, which coincided with a similar operation at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport.
At around 9:00 AM, three attackers stormed a section of the departure hall at the Vienna airport, throwing a smoke grenade and three hand grenades toward the check-in counter for El Al and opening fire with machine guns.
Four people, including one of the attackers, were immediately killed, and 45 others were injured, 18 of them critically. Two victims were en route to Tel Aviv to permanently settle in the occupied territories.
Some reports claimed that passengers on board included Israeli military pilots involved in the Lebanon invasion. This claim, however, was later refuted by the PLO.
The Abu Nidal group fighters had entered Austria using Tunisian passports obtained in Libya. Two of the attackers were wounded and captured after a lengthy car chase, while Abdel Aziz Merzoughi, one of the gunmen, died after their vehicle was stopped on a road near the Slovak capital, Bratislava.
Chaovali and Mongi Ben Saadaoui, the other two attackers, were subsequently arrested by Austrian police with severe injuries.
Initially, both men refused to provide statements. “They had no ID cards. When asked if they were Palestinians, they answered, ‘I speak English,’” reported the Austrian newspaper Die Presse on December 28, 1985.
It later emerged that both of them were Palestinian refugees from the Sabra and Shatila camps, and Chaovali had witnessed the horrible massacre firsthand.
They had been trained for the mission in Lebanon and had met with the Rome attackers in Switzerland. The Abu Nidal Group, also known as the Fatah Revolutionary Council, claimed responsibility for the attacks in Vienna and Rome as retaliation for the massacres committed by Israeli forces and their allies in Lebanon.
Notably, the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, carried out on September 16, 1982, by the Israeli occupation and the Phalangist militia, resulted in the rape, torture, and murder of between 2,000 and 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians.
Chaovali and his comrades sought revenge for these atrocities, as well as for numerous other massacres carried out by Israeli forces and their proxies in Lebanon.
One of the attackers who survived the Rome assault had also lost his father in the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
On the evening of December 27, 1985, an anonymous caller contacted a Spanish radio station, claiming that the Abu Nidal Organization, or Fatah Revolutionary Council, was responsible for the attacks in Vienna and Rome. The group later officially claimed responsibility under the name “Cells of the Arab Fedayeen.”
This was not the first attack carried out by the Abu Nidal group in Vienna. On May 1, 1981, Heinz Nittal, head of the Austria-Israel Friendship Society, a Zionist lobby group, was killed in a similar operation.
Founded by Abu Nidal in 1974 after his split from the PLO, the Abu Nidal Organization operated out of training camps in Lebanon and Libya. British journalist Patrick Seale, in his book about Abu Nidal, recounts an incident in Vienna in 1988, where he met a woman who had survived the airport attack:
“I attended a party hosted by the Friends of Palestine and was struck by a woman who spoke passionately about the Palestinian cause. A former Austrian foreign minister, who was also present, told me that she had been a passenger at Vienna airport during the attack,” he stated.
“A grenade had landed at her feet but failed to explode. Despite this, she remained a fervent supporter of the Palestinians, saying, ‘They do these things out of despair. I support them even more now.’”
In 1987, Chaovali and Ben Saadaoui were sentenced to life imprisonment in Austria. Ben Saadaoui was released in 2008 after serving 22 years and was banned from re-entering Austria for ten years.
Chaovali, meanwhile, received an additional 19-year sentence for attempting to escape in 1995 and his involvement in a hostage-taking incident at Graz-Karlau prison in 1996.
Abu Nidal himself died under mysterious circumstances in Baghdad in 2002, with some reports suggesting he was killed by West-backed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s secret service.
After 38 years in Austrian prisons, Chaovali passed away at the age of 64 in Stein prison, Lower Austria, on the morning of Friday, September 13, 2024.
His friends and supporters told Press TV that Chaovali was known for his courage and steadfast commitment to the Palestinian cause. He died without ever giving up his claim for the freedom and liberation of Palestine from the Israeli occupation.
Dieter Reinisch is a Press TV correspondent based in Vienna, Austria.
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In 2014, Michael Parenti Wrote A Prophetic Article About Ukraine
The Dissident | January 28, 2026
This week, the influential left-wing scholar Michael Parenti passed away at the age of 92.
Parenti was well known for his sharp criticism of U.S. foreign policy and U.S. imperialism throughout his life, waking up many to the reality of it and the lies used to justify it.
This is best underscored in one of his last published articles, “Ukraine and Regime Change”, which was published in the book “Flashpoint In Ukraine: How the U.S. Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III”, where he predicted to a tee what the result of the 2014 U.S. backed coup in Ukraine would be. … continue
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