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‘Strategy of surrender’: Hezbollah condemns Lebanese cabinet decision on disarmament

The Cradle | August 6, 2025

Hezbollah released a statement on 6 August strongly rejecting a decision taken by the Lebanese cabinet a day earlier regarding state monopoly over all weapons in the country.

The Lebanese resistance group vowed to “treat this decision as if it does not exist,” calling it a “grave sin.”

“The government of [Lebanese] Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has committed a grave sin by adopting a decision that strips Lebanon of the weapons of resistance against the Israeli enemy. This weakens Lebanon’s strength and position in the face of the ongoing American-Israeli aggression and grants Israel what it failed to achieve during its assault on Lebanon,” Hezbollah said.

“This decision clearly violates the national pact and contradicts the government’s ministerial statement,” which calls for taking “all necessary measures” to liberate all Israeli-occupied Lebanese territories, Hezbollah went on to say.

“Preserving Lebanon’s strength – and that includes the Resistance’s arms – is part of these necessary measures. Likewise, working to enhance Lebanon’s strength by arming and empowering the Lebanese army to expel the Israeli enemy and liberate and protect Lebanese land is also one of these essential measures,” it added.

“This decision undermines Lebanon’s sovereignty and gives Israel free rein to tamper with its security, geography, politics, and very future. Therefore, we will treat this decision as if it does not exist. At the same time, we remain open to dialogue, to ending the Israeli aggression on Lebanon, liberating its land, freeing its captives, rebuilding what was destroyed by the brutal assault, and engaging in discussions over a national defense strategy – but not under the weight of aggression,” the resistance group said.

“What the government has now decided is part of a strategy of surrender and a direct undermining of Lebanon’s sovereignty.”

“To our honorable people, we say: This is just a passing summer cloud, God willing. We are used to being patient—and to emerging victorious.”

Hezbollah also confirmed the withdrawal of its ministers from the session on Tuesday in rejection of the decision.

The cabinet session on 5 August lasted several hours. While the continuation of discussions on the issue of weapons was postponed until Thursday, the cabinet adopted a decision calling for state monopoly on weapons, without prioritizing the need for Israel to withdraw its forces and end attacks against Lebanon.

“The Lebanese army is tasked with developing an implementation plan regarding the weapons before the end of the year and presenting it to the Council of Ministers for discussion before the 31st of this month,” Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said on Tuesday night after the session, reaffirming Lebanon’s commitment to UN Resolution 1701 and the state’s monopoly on weapons by the end of the year.

Lebanese journalist Khalil Nasrallah referred to the decision as an attempt to set a trap … and impose the resistance’s disarmament as a fait accompli.”

“The Council of Ministers did not task the army with drafting a plan to defend Lebanon against the Israeli aggression; instead, it tasked it with drafting a plan to restrict weapons (Hezbollah’s weapons) to be presented to the Council of Ministers at the end of August, to be implemented before the end of the year. This is the level of ‘defensive’ thinking in Lebanon, and about Lebanon, among a group that embraced cowardice and made it their path,” he added.

Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem delivered a speech as the cabinet session took place, reaffirming the Lebanese resistance’s refusal to surrender its weapons.

Hezbollah says it is prepared to discuss incorporating its weapons into the state for a defensive strategy in which they could be used to defend the country from Israel.

The group also stresses that this is purely an internal matter, and that no such discussions can begin until Israel ends its attacks and withdraws from the five points it occupied in south Lebanon since last year’s ceasefire.

The Lebanese government has drafted a response to a recent US roadmap demanding, among other things, Hezbollah’s disarmament. The response prioritizes the need for Israel to withdraw its forces and end its near-daily attacks on Lebanon as a first step.

Washington and Tel Aviv have reportedly rejected Beirut’s terms, raising concerns over a potential military escalation.

Meanwhile, Israel has threatened to continue attacking Lebanon until the resistance is disarmed.

An 11-year-old boy was killed by an Israeli drone strike on Wednesday morning in the southern Lebanese town of Tulin.

August 6, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

US House Speaker claims West Bank “rightful property of Jewish People”

MEMO | August 5, 2025

US House Speaker Mike Johnson visited on Monday the illegal settlement of Ariel, built in the occupied West Bank, marking the first visit of its kind by a US official in this position.

During the visit, Johnson said “Judea and Samaria” was the “rightful property of the Jewish people”, using the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Channel 7 reported.

According to the channel, the high-level US delegation led by Johnson made the visit with the aim of “strengthening strategic relations between the two countries and deepening knowledge of the Judea and Samaria region”.

During the visit, Johnson, along with 15 other members of Congress, participated in a tree-planting event in the settlement.

The Hebrew channel claimed that the visit affirms US “support for Israel’s right to sovereignty over its lands.”

Ariel Mayor Yair Chetboun described the visit as “historic” and embodies the shared values, deep friendship, and strong partnership between the United States and Israel.

In response, the Palestinian foreign ministry condemned Johnson’s visit and described it as a “blatant violation of international law and international legitimacy resolutions, and an encouragement of settlement crimes and the confiscation of Palestinian lands”.

The ministry considered Johnson’s statements “provocative” and a “clear contradiction of the declared U.S. position on settlements and settler attacks.”

The ministry stressed that “all settlements are invalid and illegal and undermine the chances of implementing the two-state solution and achieving peace.”

Under international law, all territories occupied by Israel in 1967 including the West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights and all settlements built there are considered illegal.

August 5, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

Foreign investors help Israeli economy ‘soar’ despite multiple wars, growing isolation

The Cradle | August 5, 2025

Israel’s financial markets have been soaring despite almost two years of war on several fronts, data released on 5 August revealed.

The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s benchmark index jumped 21.3 percent in the first half of this year, marking an outperformance of nearly all other international markets. This has been driven mainly by investors outside of Israel.

Stocks belonging to insurance and financial services firms, particularly, have done significantly well, rising by 68 percent.

Israel’s shekel also remains among the leading global currencies.

According to the Startup Nation Central NGO, January through June marked the strongest six months for Israeli tech funding.

The NGO estimates that over $9 billion in capital has been raised – a 54 percent increase since the second half of last year.

In the first seven months of 2025, Israeli shares received $8.5 billion in foreign investment.

The success has been accompanied by deepening internal disputes in Israel after nearly two years of war on several fronts – including Gaza, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen.

Israel’s terror attack in Lebanon last year – involving the rigging and detonation of pager devices – attracted investors, who viewed the indiscriminate attack as ingenious.

“Markets are soaring, but some of that leans on investor FOMO, and that won’t be enough to sustain a positive trend over time,” an investment officer at Israeli asset management firm Sigma Clarity Investment House told Bloomberg.

Joseph Wolf, chief executive officer of EFG Wealth Management in Israel, said, “If we get more peaceful relationships with our neighbors, I think you’re going to see a very quick formation of investment funds and vehicles looking toward the Gulf.”

Despite the numbers, Israel’s credit rating outlook was still negative as of May 2025. The year before, Israel’s rating had been downgraded multiple times.

Israel has faced growing isolation and condemnation over its genocidal actions in the Gaza Strip – including the starvation of the Palestinian population. More states are gearing up to recognize Palestinian statehood, and Israeli soldiers involved in war crimes are being pursued by courts around the world.

Nonetheless, the Israeli economy has survived and is apparently thriving.

Early last month, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, presented a report naming dozens of companies involved in supporting the surveillance, repression, and killing of Palestinians.

She noted that “for some, genocide is profitable,” revealing how investment in Israel’s defense sector and occupied West Bank settlement expansion have kept the Israeli economy afloat.

“Far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now, genocide,” Albanese said, calling on the international community to “hold the private sector accountable.”

“There is a prima facie responsibility on every state and corporate entity to completely abstain from or end their relationships with this economy of occupation,” she added, naming companies which have “profited from the violence, the killing, the maiming, the destruction in Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinian territory.”

Among them were Lockheed Martin, Caterpillar, Hyundai, Microsoft, Palantir, and others.

Albanese pointed out a 200 percent jump in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and the accumulation of hundreds of billions in market gains. “One people enriched, one people erased,” she said.

As a result, the UN rapporteur was targeted by US sanctions less than a week later.

August 5, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

Massive civilian flotilla set to sail for Gaza late August to break Israeli siege

Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s Handala departs from Gallipoli to reach Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and break the Israeli blockade, July 20, 2025. [Valeria Ferraro – Anadolu]
MEMO | August 4, 2025

A massive civilian flotilla is set to depart for the Gaza Strip at the end of August in a new bid to break Israel’s blockade that has left the territory’s entire population on the verge of famine, Anadolu reports.

Speaking at a press conference in Tunis hosted by the Joint Action Coordination for Palestine, a civil society coordination platform, members of the Global Sumud Flotilla said activists from 44 countries have signed up for the coordinated effort.

“This summer, dozens of boats, both large and small, will set sail from ports across the world, converging on Gaza in the largest civilian flotilla of its kind in history,” said organizer Haifa Mansouri.

The flotilla brings together four initiatives: the Maghreb Sumud Flotilla, the Global Movement to Gaza, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, and Sumud Nusantara. Their united aim, Mansouri said, is to “break the illegal blockade on Gaza by sea, establish a humanitarian corridor, and confront the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”

The first convoy will leave Spanish ports on Aug. 31, followed by a second from Tunisian ports on Sept. 4.

Seif Abu Keshk, another organizer, said more than 6,000 activists have already registered online to join.

“Participants will undergo training at departure points, with solidarity events and encampments planned along the way,” he added.

“This is a renewed attempt to pressure governments by sending dozens of ships and thousands of activists to break Gaza’s blockade,” Abu Keshk noted.

The announcement comes days after Israeli naval forces intercepted the Handala aid ship on July 26 as it neared Gaza’s shores and escorted it to Ashdod Port. The vessel had reached about 70 nautical miles from Gaza, surpassing the distance covered by the Madleen, which made it 110 miles before being stopped, according to the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 61,000 Palestinians, almost half of them women and children. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and brought it to the verge of famine.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

August 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Report: Mass Abductions, Torture, Enforced Disappearances

IMEMC | August 4, 2025

A joint report issued by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, and Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association has revealed a serious escalation in the mass abduction of Palestinians and accompanying violations since the beginning of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023.

According to the report, approximately 18,500 Palestinians have been abducted across the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem since the genocide began, part of a systematic campaign targeting civilians under the pretext of security operations.

Women and Children Among the Abducted

The number of women abducted has reached around 570, including individuals from Gaza, the West Bank, and the 1948-occupied territories.

This figure excludes dozens of women forcibly disappeared from Gaza, where access to information is still obstructed.

In parallel, at least 1,500 children have been abducted across the West Bank, prompting alarm from human rights organizations over breaches of international conventions protecting minors.

Journalists Silenced Through Detention

More than 194 journalists have been abducted, with 49 still imprisoned. Many of these cases are viewed as attempts to suppress documentation of abuses and silence independent reporting.

Torture, Destruction, and Human Shield Tactics

The report highlights a pattern of grave abuse accompanying abduction operations:

  • Beatings and torture
  • Threats against abductees and their families
  • Systematic invasions and violations, including home demolitions
  • Seizure of vehicles, personal belongings, and valuables
  • Destruction of infrastructure in refugee camps, notably in Jenin and Tulkarem
  • Use of civilians, including children and family members, as human shields, and hostages

Mass Abductions and Enforced Disappearances

The wave of abductions includes individuals taken from their homes, at military roadblocks, coerced into surrender under duress after the army abducted members of their families and held them as hostages.

Thousands of Gaza workers present in the 1948-occupied areas with legal permits were abducted, alongside hundreds from Gaza who were in the West Bank for medical treatment, or for work.

Field executions have also been reported, including among family members of detainees.

Deaths in Custody and Withheld Remains

Since October 7, at least 75 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody, with 46 confirmed as Gaza detainees.

Many others remain forcibly disappeared, their identities and causes of death unacknowledged.

Israel continues to hold the bodies of 72 prisoners, bringing the total number of withheld martyrs to 83.

Detainee Statistics – July 2025

As of July 2025, the total number of Palestinians imprisoned stands at 10,800, the highest recorded since the Second Intifada. This figure excludes individuals held in prison camps run by the Israeli army.

Administrative and “Unlawful Combatant” Detainees: July 2025

As of early July 2025, the number of administrative detainees held by Israeli authorities has reached 3,629, the highest recorded figure to date.

This category, which allows for detention without charge or trial, now exceeds all other classifications, including those formally indicted, sentenced, or labeled as “unlawful combatants.”

The number of detainees classified as “unlawful combatants” stands at 2,454, though this figure does not include most Gaza detainees held in Israeli military camps.

This is the largest documented count since the onset of Israel’s genocidal campaign. The classification also encompasses Arab detainees from Lebanon and Syria.

  • These figures exclude individuals subjected to enforced disappearance or held in Israeli military camps, particularly from Gaza.
  • These figures encompass both those still held and those who were later released. The numbers remain fluid due to ongoing abduction campaigns.
  • Due to ongoing genocide, destruction and siege in Gaza, data regarding the number of detainees from the costal enclave is still scarce.
  • By mid-December of 2024, the number of detainees who were abducted in the Gaza Strip was estimated to be 3,436.

August 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Subjugation - Torture | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump conditions $1.9B in disaster funds on rejection of Israel boycotts

MEMO | August 4, 2025

The Trump administration has threatened to withhold roughly $1.9 billion in disaster preparedness funding to states and cities that support boycotts of Israel or Israeli firms.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said in grant notices published Friday that applicants must comply with its internal terms and conditions, which include clauses mandating that entities seeking funding not support efforts to blacklist Israel.

Applicants must not support severing “commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business,” according to the 2025 fiscal year terms and conditions, posted in April.

August 4, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Super PAC Targeting Massie Funded By Three Israel-Backing Billionaires

By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | August 3, 2025

Though it sports a Kentucky- and MAGA-branded name, the new Super PAC launched solely to support a primary challenge against popular Republican Congressman Thomas Massie is funded entirely by three Israel-backing billionaires from Nevada, New York and Florida, according to disclosure filings posted on Thursday.

The super PAC was launched in June, just days after President Trump threw a social media tantrum over Massie’s condemnation of Trump’s commitment of US forces to Israel’s war on Iran. Massie has long been a thorn in Trump’s side on domestic issues too, from opposing the $2 trillion, Trump-backed Covid-19 “relief package” in 2020 to voting against this year’s Big Beautiful Bill. However, Massie’s opposition to US involvement in Israel’s war seemed to have been the last straw. Trump assigned his top political operatives Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita to start and run the super PAC. LaCivita told Axios the entity will spend “whatever it takes” to oust Massie.

The PAC’s only three donors have two things in common: they’re billionaires, and they’re ardent supporters of Israel. According to the PAC’s first funding disclosure filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday, it has received:

  • $1 million from New Yorker hedge fund manager Paul Singer, who has also funded a Israel-favoring US think tank and other pro-Israel organizations, and urged Trump to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal
  • $250,000 from Floridian hedge fund manager John Paulson
  • $750,000 from the Preserve America Super PAC, which has also been led by La Civita and primarily funded by Nevadan Miriam Adelson and earlier, her late husband Sheldon Adelson

The PAC is called “MAGA Kentucky,” a name that’s misleading on two levels. Not only are its funders not Kentuckians, their principal motive for destroying Massie is his opposition to US bankrolling of Israel and participation in its wars. That is anything but a MAGA motive. As Trump recently told a prominent Jewish donor, “My people are starting to hate Israel.”

MAGA Kentucky has already started running misleading attack ads that cherry-pick items from the sprawling Big Beautiful Bill and accuse Massie of voting “against” them, and also accuse him of “siding” with Iran’s ayatollah.

In addition to opposing aid to Israel, Massie has also voted against legislation designed to stop Americans from criticizing Israel. The Antisemitism Awareness Act would use an expansive definition of antisemitism to expose universities to federal enforcement action if students voiced opposition to Zionism — a political philosophy — or compared the actions of Israel’s government to those of Nazi Germany.

In April, Massie introduced the Dual Loyalty Disclosure Act, which would require candidates for federal office to disclose any non-American citizenships they hold. Advocates of Israel swiftly accused him of antisemitism, but Massie said his measure doesn’t target any specific country. “We swear an oath to the Constitution, and the question is, if you’re a citizen of two countries, which oath are you taking more seriously, or can you take them both seriously?” Massie asked Fox’s Will Cain.

First elected to Congress in 2012 and consistently advocating for fiscal discipline, the right of armed self-defense, and a non-interventionist foreign policy, Massie has built a large and loyal national following among the libertarian right and other conservatives, with many regarding him as the congressional successor to the iconic Ron Paul. In his latest aggravation of Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, Massie is leading the drive to compel the release of Epstein investigative files. He has introduced a discharge petition that’s predicted to secure enough signatures to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA H.Res. 581), which he introduced with Democratic California Rep. Ro Khanna.

With Georgia GOP Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene recently introducing an amendment to remove military aid to Israel from the defense bill, and accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza, don’t be surprised to see a “MAGA Georgia” PAC created to oust her, too — funded by a similar cast of Israel-first characters. In the meantime, the drive to take out Massie is having unintended consequences:

August 4, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | 1 Comment

Hamas rules out giving up arms unless ‘independent, sovereign’ Palestinian state established

MEMO | August 2, 2025

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas said Saturday it will not give up its arms unless an “independent, fully sovereign” Palestinian state is established, Anadolu reports.

The statement came following reports by the Israeli daily Haaretz citing a recording attributed to US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff: “Hamas has said that they are prepared to be demilitarized.”

“We are very, very close to a solution to end this war,” Witkoff is also heard saying, according to Haaretz.

“Commenting on reports by some media outlets quoting US envoy Steve Witkoff as saying the movement expressed willingness to disarm, we reiterate that resistance and its weapons are a national and legitimate right as long as the occupation continues — a right recognized by international laws and conventions,” Hamas said in a statement on Telegram.

The group added that such rights “cannot be relinquished except with the full attainment of our national rights, foremost being the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

Witkoff met families of Israeli hostages in Tel Aviv on Saturday, as hundreds rallied to demand a ceasefire deal that would secure their release from the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported.

Witkoff’s visit, his third to Hostage Square since the war began, came shortly after Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad released footage showing two emaciated Israeli captives, Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski, prompting renewed outrage.

On Friday, Witkoff visited an aid center in southern Gaza operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

Diplomatic merchandise: Exploiting the issue of Palestinian recognition

He said the aim was to give US President Donald Trump “a clear understanding of the humanitarian situation and help craft a plan to deliver food and medical aid to the people of Gaza.”

The visit comes amid mounting criticism of US-Israeli coordination in Gaza, particularly regarding the group’s distribution model, which Palestinians say serves as a tool for displacement under the guise of humanitarian relief as well as a “death trap” for many Palestinian aid seekers, with over 1,300 killed since May while waiting for relief supplies.

Hamas on Thursday denounced the visit as a “propaganda stunt” aimed at deflecting global outrage over what rights groups and UN officials have described as Israel’s systematic starvation campaign.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, at least 169 Palestinians, including 93 children, have died of hunger-related causes, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.​​​​​​​

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

August 2, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Zionism without borders: Annexation and normalization as tools of Arab subjugation

By Mohamad Hasan Sweidan | The Cradle | August 1, 2025

Four weeks after Israel signed the US-brokered Abraham Accords with the UAE and Bahrain on 15 September 2020, Tel Aviv’s Higher Planning Council approved 4,948 new settler units in the occupied West Bank. No public fanfare.

No tanks rolled in – just signatures authorizing another layer of occupation. The first wave of expansion advanced quietly, legitimized by the language of “peace.”

This sequencing deliberately reflects the core logic of Zionist expansion: Normalize when the region submits, colonize when the world blinks.

Where possible, the occupation state’s army conquers land directly. Where resistance or scrutiny makes that unfeasible, the occupation government builds a web of security pacts, trade routes, and intelligence partnerships that extend its reach without a single uniformed soldier. This dual formula, territorial conquest and hegemonic integration, has underpinned Israeli strategy since 1967, and today stretches unimpeded from the Jordan Valley to the Atlantic coast.

Two paths, one destination

“Greater Israel” represents the settler-colonial ambition to annex, settle, and absorb land across historic Palestine and beyond. It is rooted in the Zionist vision of Jewish dominion over the so-called “biblical Land of Israel.” In contrast, “Great Israel” describes the imperial design to dominate the surrounding region through proxies, economic leverage, and security alignments.

Where occupation is costly, Tel Aviv turns to influence. Through deals, destabilization, or coercion, it reshapes the sovereignty of its neighbors. Greater Israel devours land. Great Israel neutralizes independence. Together, they are one project.

Zionist literature makes this plain. Ze’ev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism, demanded sovereignty over all of Mandatory Palestine and Transjordan – “Greater Israel on both sides of the Jordan River” – and rejected compromise with Arabs. In The Iron Wall (1923), he declared that only an unyielding Jewish force could compel Arab acquiescence:

“Zionist colonization, even the most restricted, must either be terminated or carried out in defiance of the will of the native population.”

The occupation state’s first prime minister and Labor Zionist leader, David Ben-Gurion, publicly accepted a partition plan in 1937, but privately described it as “not the end but the beginning.” In a letter to his son, he wrote that a Jewish state on part of the land would strengthen the Zionist project and serve as a platform to “redeem the entire country.” In a June 1938 meeting of the Jewish Agency executive, he said:

“After the formation of a large army … we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine.”

Early Zionist leaders did not view borders as final, but as phases. During its first two decades, Israel lacked the military strength or western backing to expand beyond its 1949 borders. Direct confrontation with Arab states risked catastrophe. Instead, Tel Aviv pioneered a subtler doctrine of peripheral infiltration.

Through the “periphery doctrine,” it cultivated covert ties with non-Arab states and oppressed minorities – Shah-era Iran, Turkiye, Kurdish groups in Iraq, and Christian separatists in Sudan. This strategy sowed chaos among Israel’s Arab rivals while embedding Israeli influence in strategic corners of West Asia and Africa. Most recently, the occupation state has made overtures to Druze communities in southern Syria, seeking to replicate this strategy amid renewed instability.

The corridor to colonization

Israel’s integration into the Arab world is now deeper than ever before. Through normalization, Tel Aviv has converted former enemies into partners economically, diplomatically, and militarily. While Egypt and Jordan first formalized ties through Camp David and Wadi Araba, it was the Abraham Accords that opened the floodgates. What followed was a deluge of tech deals, weapons transfers, and commercial partnerships linking the occupation state to the Persian Gulf.

By 2023, Israel’s trade with the UAE had reached $3 billion annually. That figure rose by 11 percent the following year, even as Israel waged genocide in Gaza. Israeli Consul General Liron Zaslansky described trade relations between Abu Dhabi and Israel as “growing, so that we ended 2024 at $3.24 billion, excluding software and services.”

In 2022, Morocco purchased $500 million worth of Israeli Barak MX air defense systems. Rabat also partnered with BlueBird, an Israeli drone firm, to become the first UAV manufacturer in West Asia and North Africa.

This has created a “corridor of influence” that grants Tel Aviv access to new markets, air and sea routes, and intelligence spaces stretching from Casablanca to Khor Fakkan.

On the ground, the war continues

While trade flourishes, colonization accelerates. In 2023, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultranationalist government approved 12,855 settler homes – a record for any six-month period. More than 700,000 settlers now occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem. That figure has grown sevenfold since the early 1990s.

In May 2025, Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed cabinet approval for the construction of 22 new West Bank settlements, including multiple previously unauthorized outposts. Katz framed the move as necessary to “strengthen our hold on Judea and Samaria” and to “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

These settlements are not arbitrary. They are connected by Jewish-only bypass roads, fortified by the occupation army, and strategically designed to fragment the occupied West Bank into isolated Palestinian enclaves. This is de facto annexation, defined by a matrix of irreversible facts that eliminates the territorial basis for any future Palestinian state, while avoiding the international fallout of formal annexation.

The “logic” of expansion has also spilled beyond Palestine. In Syria, Tel Aviv now occupies 250 square kilometers across Quneitra, Rural Damascus, and Deraa – territory seized during the collapse of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government by Al-Qaeda rooted terrorists – Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – who now occupy the seat of power in Damascus. HTS was under the leadership of former ISIS chief Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Upon ousting Assad, Julani began using his government name, Ahmad al-Sharaa, and became the de facto president of Syria.

In Lebanon, Israeli forces maintain a presence over 30–40 square kilometers, including Shebaa Farms, Kfar Shuba Hills, and the northern half of Ghajar. Additional outposts and buffer zones stretch along the so-called Blue Line.

Occupation rebranded

Israel’s expansion today is no longer confined to bulldozers and soldiers; it is mediated through trade, tech, and treaties. But make no mistake: normalization has not replaced occupation. It has enabled and accelerated it.

Every Emirati deal, every Moroccan drone line, every Bahraini handshake fuels Tel Aviv’s capacity to deepen its military presence and Judaize more land. Plans are underway to double the number of settlers in the Golan Heights and to deploy armored units along the demilitarized zone.

The ripple effects are already destabilizing the region. Egypt has begun constructing a concrete wall on its border with Gaza to prepare for mass displacement or military spillover. Jordan faces existential peril in the Jordan Valley, where settler expansion is displacing Bedouin communities and draining natural aquifers. Syria and Lebanon remain hemmed in by fortified Israeli positions, with both countries facing increasing pressure from Washington to normalize relations.

Greater Israel devours Arab land. Great Israel colonizes Arab decision-making. One swallows borders. The other swallows sovereignty.

August 2, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Prof. Rashid Khalidi quits Columbia over pro-‘Israel’ crackdown deal

Al Mayadeen | August 1, 2025

Esteemed Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi has pulled out of teaching at Columbia University this fall, denouncing the institution’s decision to submit to the Trump administration’s campaign to silence pro-Palestinian voices on campus.

In a powerful open letter published in The Guardian, Khalidi, Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies, condemned Columbia’s recent $200 million settlement with the federal government, a deal he says strips the university of its integrity and hands over academic independence to a political agenda aimed at shielding “Israel” from criticism.

“Although I have retired, I was scheduled to teach a large lecture course on this topic in the fall as a ‘special lecturer’ but I cannot do so under the conditions Columbia has accepted by capitulating to the Trump administration in June,” he wrote.

Capitulation Pact

The agreement, reached under the threat of lost federal funding, comes after months of student-led protests demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza and university divestment from institutions complicit in Israeli apartheid. Rather than defending free speech and academic inquiry, Columbia chose to comply with demands that reflect a broader campaign to criminalize solidarity with the Palestinian struggle.

Under the deal, Columbia is required to expand its Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, submit its Middle East curriculum to external review, and dismantle programs deemed “unlawful” by the federal government. An independent monitor appointed by Washington will oversee implementation. On top of the $200 million settlement, the university will pay $21 million to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, following claims of alleged discrimination against Jewish employees.

Critics, including faculty, students, and human rights advocates, have described the agreement as a dangerous precedent: one that empowers the state to dictate how Palestine can be taught, discussed, or even mentioned on campus.

Silencing Dissent

In his letter, Khalidi warned of the chilling effect such measures will have on truth-telling about “Israel’s” colonial violence. “Columbia chose to adopt a definition of antisemitism that ‘conflates Jewishness with Israel, so that any criticism of Israel, or indeed description of Israeli policies, becomes a criticism of Jews’,” he wrote.

He stressed that the settlement effectively outlaws honest scholarship about “Israel’s” founding and its current atrocities in Gaza. “The fearsome apparatus that Columbia has erected [will] punish speech critical of Israel, and … crack down on alleged discrimination, which at this moment in history almost invariably amounts simply to opposition to this genocide.”

Khalidi also denounced the intrusion of government oversight into academic spaces. “Agreeing to submit the syllabi and scholarship of prominent academics for review by outside actors is ‘abhorrent’,” he said.

His letter ends with a stark assessment of what Columbia has become: “Columbia’s capitulation has turned a university that was once a site of free inquiry and learning into a shadow of its former self, an anti-university, a place of fear and loathing, where faculty and students are told from on high what they can say and teach, under penalty of severe sanctions.”

For many, Khalidi’s stand reflects a growing crisis: as “Israel” intensifies its war on Gaza, academic institutions in the West are increasingly complicit in the silencing of Palestinian narratives and the repression of those who dare to speak against genocide.

August 1, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli soldier reveals ‘strange order’ to cancel Gaza border patrols on 7 Oct

The Cradle | July 31, 2025

An Israeli soldier stated that he and his fellow soldiers stationed at a military outpost near Gaza received orders not to carry out their usual early morning patrol on the border fence on 7 October 2023, Israeli media reported on 17 July.

During the time the border patrol would have normally been carried out, members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, crossed the fence to attack Israeli army bases and settlements (kibbutzim).

Shalom Sheetrit, a soldier in the Golani Brigade, revealed the directive while giving testimony at a meeting of the lobby for reserve personnel in the Israeli Knesset.

He stated that on the night before the 7 October attack, he and two other soldiers, Yotam Sror and Itamar Ben Yehuda, sat by the battalion radio at the Pega military outpost near Kibbutz Be’eri.

“We were playing on the phone [at 5:20 am] and suddenly a strange message comes from my battalion commander,” the soldier explained, “and what he says on the call is something like this: ‘I don’t know why, but an order was issued that there are no patrols at the fence until nine in the morning.’”

Sheetrit said soldiers from the outpost carried out patrols on the border fence every morning “because you are in an operational battalion and that is part of the matter.”

Hamas fighters attacked the Pega outpost and killed 14 Israeli soldiers there during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

When asked if this was why many soldiers at the outpost were still sleeping when the Hamas attack began, Sheetrit stated, “I don’t know how to answer it that way. In our mortar department, there was an alert at dawn, and we woke up. It’s possible that in the patrol departments, they were told not to wake up. I don’t know. I don’t want to just say that.”

Sheetrit stated that the military units based in the Pega outpost were responsible for protecting Kibbutz Be’eri, which was also attacked by Hamas.

“Unfortunately, we were not up to the task. There were dozens against hundreds of terrorists, 25 against 150, and so we couldn’t arrive, unfortunately. I’m far from being a military man who can give answers to questions, the situation hurts me just as it hurts everyone,” the soldier explained.

A major battle took place at Be’eri in which over 100 Israelis were killed.

After the attack began, the Israeli air force deployed Apache Helicopters, tanks, and drones to bomb the kibbutz and the Gaza border nearby to prevent Hamas from taking captives with them back to Gaza.

As a result, Israeli forces burned to death hundreds of Israeli civilians and Hamas fighters in airstrikes in Be’eri and other kibbutzim near the border, as well as at the Nova Music Festival, per a secretive policy known as the Hannibal Directive. The deaths were all quickly blamed on Hamas.

“I tried to ask military personnel why and what happened there. The blood of my friends and the blood of many people in the country was spilled in a huge tragedy, and I tried to understand why it happened and how,” Sheetrit added.

The strange order to cancel routine patrols along the Gaza border adds to evidence that Israeli political and military leaders knew in advance about Hamas’s plan to attack on 7 October – and allowed it to happen to justify the conquest and ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the building of Jewish settlements on top of the ruins of the strip’s soon-to-be-destroyed cities.

Israeli military and intelligence officials ignored many signals on the night before the attack, and in the previous weeks and months, indicating that Hamas was planning a large attack to take captives to exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Female Israeli soldiers tasked to observe activity on the Gaza border issued multiple warnings to their superiors that an attack was imminent, but they were ignored.

“In hindsight, we could have done a lot of things, we could have listened to the observers, we could have brought up the air force, and these things didn’t happen,” Sheetrit concluded.

“That’s the failure. It’s not a failure of the fighters on the ground, but of the higher levels in the army, of people who went down to Eilat even though we informed them a week in advance that there was intelligence information.”

August 1, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , | 1 Comment

‘America First’ clashes with ‘Israel First’ as Trump threatens Canada over Palestine recognition

MEMO | August 1, 2025

Donald Trump has provoked outrage among parts of his own political base after threatening to block a trade deal with Canada in retaliation for Ottawa’s decision to formally recognise the State of Palestine. The US president posted on Truth Social: “Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh’ Canada!!!”

Trump’s statement was widely interpreted as prioritising Israeli interests over domestic economic concerns, prompting fierce backlash from some right-wing influencers. Prominent conservative commentator Matt Walsh posted on X: “This is ridiculous. If a trade deal with Canada is beneficial to the American people then it should go forward regardless of Canada’s stance on Palestine. The benefit of the American people should be the guiding principle here.”

Walsh’s post drew thousands of responses, many supportive, but others accused him of failing to grasp America’s “special alliance” with Israel. However, critics have pointed out that it is Canada, not Israel, that is bound to the US through comprehensive economic and military treaties.

Along with the UK and France, Canada is one of Washington’s oldest and closest allies. By contrast, US-Israel ties, while historically deep, are often framed as ideologically and politically driven, bolstered by domestic lobbying pressure rather than national interest.

Observers say the incident highlights a deepening divide in US politics: on one side, a growing segment of voters who either support Palestinian rights or advocate for an “America First” foreign policy that avoids foreign entanglements; on the other, a political elite that consistently prioritises Israeli interests, often regardless of public opinion or national cost.

Despite mounting evidence of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and a global shift toward recognising Palestinian statehood, including by key Western allies, US lawmakers remain overwhelmingly aligned with Israel.

This split is becoming more pronounced as influential voices on the right, once assumed to be pro-Israel by default, now openly question the costs of that allegiance.

August 1, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

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