Israel Is Starving Gaza
By Steven Sahiounie | Strategic Culture Foundation | March 16, 2024
At least one UNRWA staff member was killed after Israel targeted a food distribution center in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on March 13. Another 22 UNRWA workers were injured in the attack by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
On March 14, the IDF released a statement to the U.S. media CBS news, that the IDF has precisely targeted a ‘Hamas Operations Unit’ based on intelligence, which the IDF claims were distributing humanitarian aid to ‘terrorists’.
UNRWA confirmed that the aid distribution center attacked was on a list of UN supported facilities across Gaza which are by international law to be safe for civilians and aid workers alike. By Israel attacking known humanitarian sites, such as food centers, schools and clinics, the IDF is declaring that there is nowhere safe in Gaza, or in southern Gaza, where Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed all civilians to gather for safety.
The UN has warned that the people in Gaza are close to famine from lack of food aid during the current and ongoing bombardment of civilian homes and infrastructure.
Over 30 people have died recently from lack of food and water, and many were children.
Open Arms
On March 12, a Spanish ship, ‘Open Arms’, left Cyprus for Gaza. It is expected to arrive on Friday, March 15 carrying 200 tons of aid.
This desperate attempt to stave off famine in Gaza is the brain-child of Spanish-American celebrity chef, José Andrés, founder of the non-profit World Central Kitchen (WCK).
WCK has Palestinians building a jetty in Gaza, utilizing rubble and materials from bombed buildings, which will play a role in offloading the food and supplies. This jetty is a temporary structure and is not related to the pier the U.S. is planning.
“I had no doubt that we could open the maritime route. The most difficult thing was the diplomatic side of it, and the easiest thing was getting to Gaza,” said Andrés.
Andrés is an advisor to the White House, and held countless meetings in Israel, Egypt and Jordan to obtain the necessary permits, while also obtaining support from Cyprus, King Abdullah II of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which has co-financed the mission together with WCK.
After arrival, the 130 pallets of aid will go into trucks to be delivered to the 60 kitchens that the WCK has set up in the Gaza Strip, and to other aid distribution points.
Who shut the gates?
Israel controls all land crossings into Gaza, which has seven border crossings, six with Israel and one with Egypt. However, only the crossing at Rafah, with Egypt, is partially open.
The quickest and most efficient way to delivery aid to Gaza is by land and the gates that exist. But, Israel restricts aid and supplies from entering in Gaza. All of the aid agencies report that their donations sit in parked trucks, filled to overflowing, but unable to enter Gaza because the IDF has locked the gates and refuses to open them.
Israel maintains that they will not allow any aid into Gaza which could be used by Hamas. The aid agencies have repeatedly asked for a list of restricted items so that they can make sure their cargoes meet the criteria. However, Israel refuses to publish or distribute a list of restricted items. Instead, the IDF uses the aid as a weapon of war, intent on starving the civilians. The IDF claim that if they find one item in a cargo load which meets their undisclosed definition of prohibited items, they will not allow the entire cargo to enter. In one very famous case, the item was a single pair of small scissors to be used to cut the tape in conjunction with bandages.
Doctors Without Borders, MSF, reported they have been repeatedly prohibited from importing electricity generators, water purifiers, solar panels and other medical equipment.
Land routes
On March 12, for the first time in three weeks, the UN’s World Food Program sent in six aid trucks to feed 25,000 people through a gate in the security fence. This is but a drop in an ocean of need, and is not sustainable.
Some Arab nations, such as Morocco have sent supplies destined for Gaza to Israel’s Ben Gurion airport.
All the experts agree, that land routes which already are established are the most efficient delivery method of aid to Gaza. But, it is Israel alone standing in the way, and this is their political objective.
Cargo trucks typically carry 20 tons, and the flow of trucks prior to the current conflict was about 500 a day. But, even that amount of daily arrivals would not meet the needs of the 2.3 million people in Gaza.
UNRWA accusations
Israel began a political campaign to discredit and destroy UNRWA, by accusing the agency of complicity with Hamas in the October 7 attack on Israel.
With an accusation only, Israel was able to convince 16 donor countries to pull their funding, and have asked the UN General Assembly to disband the refugee agency, which would affect not only the people in Gaza, but also those in the Occupied West Bank. The agency is 75 years old, serves almost six million refugees, and now has had more than $437 million funds frozen.
Spain announced a donation of $22 million on Thursday, and Canada and Sweden reported on Saturday that they would resume funding to the agency in light of unfounded claims, and the risk of famine.
The UN has opened an investigation, while UNRWA defends itself against Israel’s accusations, and accuses Israel of torturing its employees to force false testimonies that the IDF used as the basis of their accusations. Initially, the UN fired 12 UNRWA workers after the IDF claim.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, says that he has received no evidence of agency workers in conspiracy with Hamas. However, 150 UNRWA employees have died while working in Gaza, and 3,000 have been left homeless.
Palestinians in the Occupied West Back were arrested, blindfolded, thrown to the ground, and beaten by the IDF while the soldiers shouted, “UNRWA, Hamas! UNRWA, Hamas!”
After Israeli officials accused the UNRWA staff, the Biden administration cut-off the funding to the refugee agency.
On March 12, the U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, said, “UNWRA plays a critical role in delivering humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians that no other agency is positioned to assume.”
Biden’s pier
U.S. President Biden announced plans for the sea corridor, saying the U.S. military would help construct a temporary pier on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to facilitate the docking of aid ships. The USS General Frank S. Besson is sailing with the supplies needed for building the pier.
Experts are baffled by the suggestion that a pier should be used to deliver aid, when seven land crossings already exist, and stress that Biden can get them all open with just one phone call to Netanyahu. If Israel were made aware that their continued military aid from the U.S. is dependent on allowing food deliveries to the Palestinians in Gaza, that would open the gates at once.
Ceasefire talks
Ceasefire talks, which include a release of hostages in Gaza, have been ongoing in Cairo, but Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said that, although talks continued, “we are not near a deal.”
Airdrops
Both the Kingdom of Jordan and later the U.S. have undertaken airdrops of supplies into Gaza. However, this is not efficient and can be compared to filling a swimming pool while using a teaspoon.
Israeli position on Gaza
On March 12, Netanyahu reiterated his plan to destroy Hamas by a planned ground invasion into Rafah.
“We will finish the job in Rafah while enabling the civilian population to get out of harm’s way,” he said in a video address to AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israeli lobbying group which experts say controls the U.S. foreign policy with Israel, the Middle East, and controls the U.S. Congress on issues involving Israel and Jews in the U.S.
The prospect of a Rafah invasion has sparked global alarm because it is crowded with almost 1.5 million mostly displaced people, and recently Biden has called it a ‘Red Line’, but without specifying what repercussions Israel would face from White House anger.
EU position on Gaza
On March 12, the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told the UN Security Council that the Gaza humanitarian crisis “is man-made.”
“If we look at alternative ways to provide support, it’s because the land crossings have been artificially closed,” he said, charging that “starvation is being used as a weapon of war.”
Borrell identified the lack of delivery of aid to Gaza as a result of all the land routes being closed by Israel.
“We are now facing a population fighting for their own survival,” he said.
“Starvation is being used as a war arm and when we condemned this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what is happening in Gaza,” said Borrell.
UK position of Gaza
The UK’s Foreign Secretary, Lord David Cameron, has urged Israel to open the major port of Ashdod – one of the country’s three main cargo ports located just south of Tel Aviv – to seaborne aid deliveries destined for Gaza.
U.S. position on Gaza
AIPAC’s historic hold on the White House and Congress has prevented Biden or others from taking firm action which would result in the aid trucks being allowed into Gaza, and the avoidance of famine. Biden is painted in the U.S. media as a caring person, concerned with humanitarian laws being broken in Gaza by Netanyahu, but he is impotent to take action, which he holds in his hands.
Number of dead
Whether there is a ceasefire, or not, and regardless of whether food and supplies are ever delivered to Gaza, one thing we know is the number of dead and injured continues to rise after more than five months of Israeli attacks from the land, sea and air. The latest number is more than 31, 180 people killed, and most of them women and children.
13th Palestinian inmate dies in Israeli jail since 13 since Oct. 7
Deceased Palestinian prisoner Juma Abu Ghanima (Photo via social media)
Press TV – March 16, 2024
Independent and non-governmental rights organizations say another Palestinian prisoner has died in Israeli jails.
The latest death has brought to 13 the number of detainees who have lost their lives due to torture and medical negligence in Israeli jails ever since the regime launched its genocidal war against Gaza on October 7 last year.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) announced on Saturday the death of 26-year-old Juma Abu Ghanima in the Negev desert prison.
PPS pointed out that Israel Prison Service (IPS) officials transferred Abu Ghanima from his cell in Eshel Prison to a hospital in a serious health condition. His situation worsened drastically and he died five days later.
The independent rights organization held the IPS, which continues to exercise various forms of torture and systematic medical negligence against Palestinian detainees, fully responsible for the death of the young Palestinian man.
According to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA, Abu Ghanima was arrested in January for his resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society stated that at least 250 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, including East al-Quds, in 1967.
The total number of Palestinian detainees being held in Israeli prisons has soared to 9,100, including 3,558 administrative detainees.
Human rights organizations say Israel violates all the rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention. They say administrative detention violates their right to due process since the evidence is withheld from prisoners while they are held for lengthy periods without being charged, tried, or convicted.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express outrage at their detention. Israeli jail authorities keep Palestinian prisoners under deplorable conditions without proper hygienic standards. Palestinian inmates have also been subject to systematic torture, harassment, and repression.
Kiev regime promotes terror in Belgorod
A vehicle destroyed by Ukraine shelling in Belgorod. © Telegram / Valentin Demidov
By Lucas Leiroz | March 15, 2024
The Belgorod region has been the target of several Ukrainian attacks in recent days, even more intensely on March 14, just before the start of the Russian elections. The targets of the attacks were civilian facilities, without any military relevance, which makes the Ukrainian attitude absolutely criminal according to international law.
Participating in a press expedition with the BRICS Journalists Association, I was in Belgorod to report the local tragedy on the ground. Several missile and drone attacks took place throughout the day, leaving at least two dead and several injured. I visited most of the affected places and spoke to some victims, obtaining a lot of relevant information.
Locals said that these raids have become increasingly frequent and that raids intensify during important dates for the Russian Federation. Religious and patriotic holidays, for example, are often marked by intense Ukrainian shelling on the border. Currently, due to the Russian election period, these attacks are once again becoming extremely violent.
Ukrainian missiles and drones on March 14 hit facilities such as shopping centers, common streets and residential buildings. There were no military targets in the attacks, with all victims being civilians. Apparently, the Ukrainian objective is simply to promote terror throughout the city and prevent people from living normally during election time. Unable to leave their homes for fear of bombings, ordinary citizens could be prevented from voting, damaging the electoral process.
In addition to drone and missile attacks, there was a land invasion, with Ukrainian troops trying to enter Russian territory using tanks and armored vehicles, with aerial support from helicopters. The invasion, however, was quickly neutralized by the joint action of the Russian military and security forces. Some villages close to the border were severely affected, such as in the Belovskoye region, where three people were seriously injured by Ukrainian forces – including two nine-month-old children, whose bodies were partially burned by shrapnel from bombs. The damage to the civilian population was severe, despite Kiev’s absolute failure to gain ground on the Russian side of the border.
I asked local residents on the city’s streets how they felt about the Ukrainian threat during this election period. Despite the danger, the locals showed courage and fearlessness, stating that the elections would not need to be canceled or postponed. Residents said they trust the work of the Russian defense forces, which is why they feel safe going to the polls.
It must be emphasized that these attacks could have had much worse consequences if the Russian defense forces were not sufficiently precise in containing the damage. Most enemy missiles and drones are destroyed by Russian air defense before reaching their targets, saving the lives of hundreds of civilians. Although some projectiles hit their targets, the damage from the attacks is partially low, which makes the local people feel reasonably safe, despite the constant threat.
In addition to the work of the Russian defense forces, the city of Belgorod is structured to protect as many civilians as possible. There are anti-missile shelters along the streets, where locals hide as soon as the air raid sirens start to sound. This protective structure allows life to continue reasonably as normal in the city, despite the attacks. Commerce and transport services continue to operate, for example, with only small interruptions during the most critical moments.
In fact, this type of terrorist operation was already expected. The neo-Nazi regime intensifies attacks and killings of civilians during important periods, such as elections, which is why it is no surprise to Russians that this is happening now. However, the brutality with which Ukrainian forces target civilian areas should be seen as a reminder of the real nature of the Kiev regime. The Ukrainian Junta simply has a military guideline to target and kill civilians, and there is no limit to its bombings in absolutely demilitarized and strategically irrelevant regions.
Also, considering that the weapons used by Ukraine in these operations are supplied by NATO, it is also possible to say that the West is a co-participant in these crimes, having responsibility for the deaths of Russian civilians in Belgorod and other regions. As long as Ukraine has “carte blanche” from its Western partners to murder ordinary people, terrorist attacks like those in Belgorod on the 14th will be frequent – and only by the military action of the Russian forces will it be possible to save civilian lives.
Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.
Israel commits new ‘premeditated massacre’ against Gaza aid seekers
The Cradle | March 15, 2024
Israeli forces committed a new massacre against Palestinians late on 14 March as they were waiting for aid near Gaza City’s Kuwait Roundabout, marking the second attack of its kind in the last 24 hours.
Footage on social media shows dead Palestinians laid out across the ground, covered in dust and rubble.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said on Thursday night that at least 20 corpses and 155 injured Palestinians arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital following the attack, calling it a “new premeditated massacre.”
Gaza’s government media office said in a statement that the Israeli army targeted “a gathering of citizens while they were waiting for relief aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City.” Israeli troops opened fire at the aid seekers with tanks and helicopters, killing and wounding at least 100, it said.
The attack is “to be added to the series of massacres and brutal attacks against the defenseless civilians who face the Zionist starvation policy,” the media office added, calling the attack “deliberate.”
“The occupation targeted aid recipients for the 20th consecutive day,” the government media office continued.
Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked aid seekers at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City and elsewhere.
Israeli forces shot and killed six Palestinians waiting for aid at the roundabout late on 13 March. Hours earlier, at least five Palestinians were killed and several injured by Israeli army shelling on a UNRWA aid distribution center in the Gaza Strip’s southernmost city of Rafah.
The Rafah attack came a day after Israeli forces opened fire at dozens of Palestinians lined up for food aid near the Kuwait Roundabout.
Israeli troops committed a massacre against Palestinians seeking aid in northern Gaza’s Al-Rashid Street near the Kuwait Roundabout on 29 February. The brutal attack, which killed over a hundred Palestinians, has come to be known as the Flour Massacre.
Due to the several attacks on hungry Gazans near the Kuwait Roundabout and Al-Rashid Street, Al-Jazeera’s correspondent Hani Mahmoud said on 14 March that the area “is now known as a death trap.”
Confusion reigns between “indemnity” and “immunity”
Health Advisory & Recovery Team | March 12, 2024
We sporadically hear of vaccine injury cases in the UK being contemplated or even launched against covid vaccine manufacturers. We also frequently hear people say that “the covid vaccine manufacturers cannot be sued as they have an indemnity”.
It is very important that this be clarified. An indemnity is not the same as immunity.
In the USA manufacturers have immunity (which can potentially be attacked under certain circumstances – such as in the presence of fraud) imposed by a law known as “The PREP Act”. Immunity is a legal shield. The law simply provides that “these manufacturers shall not have any civil liability”.
But in the UK the manufacturers do not have such immunity. What they have – in their contracts with the UK government – is an indemnity. An indemnity is an agreement that one party shall cover the losses of the other.
In this case it provides that the UK government will pay any damages which the manufacturers are liable to pay to claimants if they are sued. But it doesn’t stop anyone actually suing the manufacturers – it just means that any damages awarded are actually paid by the government (and ultimately by the beleaguered taxpayers). In exchange for this, the government gets to control and direct the defence to any claim – as well as paying the legal bills!
This has a number of implications including these:
- If the government is “on the hook” it may well either directly or indirectly pressure the judicial system so that these cases are impeded in some way. We can hope this is not the case, but experience of other legal cases over the past few years suggests this might be naive.
- If the government sees many claims incoming they may try to “pick off” some more obvious ones and put a “line in the sand”, setting quite a high bar for claimants in an attempt to limit the size of the eventual claims.
- On the other hand, if they see a huge number of claims, they may choose to “fight to the death”.
- One other scenario is that they eventually decide they were duped and they then just tell the manufacturers they are no longer honouring the indemnity.
It is also important to recognise that in the UK Parliament makes, amends, and annuls laws at will. There is nothing – except politics – to stop them just going to the manufacturers and threatening to change the law so as to hold them responsible for claims, and that they will make them easier for claimants (perhaps by extending the “limitation period” – normally 3 years – by which a claim has to be lodged or else it become time-barred). This could, for example, be used as leverage to get the manufacturers to set up schemes of compensation.
Generally speaking, retroactive changes to laws are considered undesirable as they could make companies reluctant to do business in a particular country, since companies prefer legal certainty before committing capital; in this case however it is possible that the political imperative becomes so great that the government is effectively forced into ensuring that the injured receive proper recompense and that the manufacturer – not the taxpayer – foots the bill.
Ukraine bombs Russian nuclear power plant periphery
RT | March 14, 2024
Ukrainian forces have dropped a bomb near diesel tanks located at Russia’s Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, management at the facility reported on Thursday.
In a video published on social media, plant director Yury Chernuk pointed to a crater in the ground, which he said had been created by an explosive device dropped from a Ukrainian drone.
The bomb itself was composed of explosives wrapped in foil, according to reports, but the location was significant. The crater was just five meters away from the perimeter fence, and tanks storing diesel fuel could be seen in the footage.
The plant has backup diesel generators, which kick in when electricity supply from the power grid is cut off. Its equipment needs to be powered continuously to ensure safe operation, even when nuclear reactors are not online. Blackouts have been a regular occurrence for the site since the beginning of the conflict.
”Destruction of those tanks or a fuel leak may not only cause a fire, but also result in significant loss of diesel reserves. Consequently, the plant’s preparedness for emergencies would be reduced by orders of magnitude,” Chernuk explained.
Another person, who was not identified, suggested that the bombing incident had been part of Ukraine’s intimidation tactics. Kiev considers the plant to be occupied by the Russian military.
The director of the facility noted that Ukrainian forces had targeted the plant days after the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, rotated observers stationed there. The organization told Russian media that it was aware of the incident, but offered no further comment.
Following the incident, the situation was reportedly calm in Energodar, the city where the Zaporozhye power plant is located.
Israel attacking historical, cultural Palestinian sites in Gaza, West Bank, Jerusalem
MEMO | March 14, 2024
The ongoing Israeli aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip has targeted historic sites and cultural centres destroying them either completely or partially while the indiscriminate killing has led to the death of many of the enclave’s writers, artists and activists, a joint report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) and the Ministry of Culture has revealed.
The report issued yesterday on the Palestinian National Culture Day said Israel has destroyed 32 cultural centres and institutions as well as 12 museums while more than 2,100 pieces of heritage dresses and embroidered items had been lost. As many as 45 writers, artists and activists have been killed by Israel since it started its war in October.
The Israeli aggression has led to the destruction of about 27 murals, and the bombing of more than eight publishing houses and printing presses, three media and art production companies and studios, nine public libraries as well as four religious shrines.
The Israeli bombing has completely destroyed 219 mosques and partially destroyed 287 mosques and three churches, 195 historical buildings, nine archaeological sites and 19 universities and colleges.
In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army’s restriction on movement, repeated invasions and various massacres have caused the halting of many cultural activities including the soap festival in the city of Nablus, which was scheduled in April as part of the Ministry of Culture’s preparations to register the soap on the World Heritage List.
The statement said that Palestinian institutions and associations in the occupied city of Jerusalem “were subjected to attempts to dismantle them… as happened with the Al-Hakawati Theatre,” adding that “the [Israeli] occupation authorities are working to put in place everything that would keep these associations ineffective and completely stop their activity, through stifling administrative and legal processes.”
UN probe finds Israel deliberately targeted journalists
Late Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah
Press TV – March 14, 2024
A United Nations investigation singles out the preventability of an October 13 Israeli attack on a group of journalists in southern Lebanon that led to the death of a Reuters reporter.
The attack consisted of two tank strikes that claimed the life of the agency’s 37-year-old visuals journalist Issam Abdallah, and wounded six other journalists, including Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer Christina Assi, 28, near the Lebanese village of Alma al-Chaab. Assi later had a leg amputated.
The investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) found out that the attack targeted “civilians, in this instance clearly identifiable journalists.”
The attack, it said, “constitutes a violation of UNSCR 1701 and international law,” the UNIFIL report said, referring to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a 33-day-long Israeli military onslaught on the country in the summer of 2006.
The seven-page report dated February 27 said further, “It is assessed that there was no exchange of fire across the Blue Line at the time of the incident,” referring to a temporary line that was drawn after the withdrawal of the Israeli regime from Lebanon during an earlier war in 2000.
“The reason for the strikes on the journalists is not known,” the probe added.
At least 133 journalists and media workers have been killed since October 7, when the Israeli regime launched a genocidal war against the Gaza Strip that has so far claimed the lives of 31,300 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents.
Israel killed more children in Gaza in 5 months than all global conflicts for last 4 years: UN rapporteur
MEMO | March 13, 2024
In just five months, Israel has killed more children in a strip of land the size of the US city of Philadelphia than all conflicts worldwide did in the past four years combined, said a UN special rapporteur today.
In a scathing report presented to the United Nations, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, decried the ongoing crisis in Gaza, describing it as a systematic process tantamount to genocide.
Albanese’s report underscores the harrowing reality faced by Palestinian children under Israeli occupation, highlighting the devastating toll of the conflict.
“Destroying a population from its roots. Genocide is a process, not an act, and what is happening in Gaza is a tragedy foretold. See my report on the treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli occupation,” she wrote on X.
The report details the relentless assault on Gaza’s civilian population, particularly its children, who have borne the brunt of the violence. Albanese’s findings paint a disturbing picture of systematic targeting, indiscriminate bombings and the destruction of essential infrastructure, leaving countless families displaced and communities in ruins.
Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since October. Over 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and over 73,000 others injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
American-Israeli Professor: US & Allies Will Help Israel Ethnically Cleanse Palestine
By Ian DeMartino – Sputnik – 13.03.2024
There has been a growing public rift between US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israel’s plan to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the last designated safe area in the region.
Despite the growing public rift, Israel has nothing to fear from Biden and the United States will ultimately assist Israel in ethnically cleansing Palestine in more ways than just supplying weapons, professor, activist and anthropologist Jeff Halper told Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Tuesday.
“[Israel] is a settler colonial movement. Therefore, in order to transform Palestine into Israel, an Arab country to a Jewish country, you have to displace the population and you have to take its land. This isn’t only happening in Gaza. This is certainly happening in the West Bank as well,” Halper explained. “By destroying Gaza… it makes it impossible for the Gazans to come back. Now, Israel would like Egypt to take them and put them in the Sanai [desert], [but] Egypt says no.”
Instead, the United States and other Western countries will take the Gazans into their country. “The United States will say ‘Alright, we’ll take 50,000,’ Canada will say – Canada already said this – ‘we’ll take 30,40,50,000.’ Each European country will take a few thousand or tens of thousands, Australia, New Zealand and so on. Israel could get rid of a million or more Palestinians, with the help – the complicity – of European and North American countries, under the guise of humanitarian aid for refugees… That’s what Israel is calling ‘voluntary transfer.’”
Earlier, Co-host Jamarl Thomas asked about Egypt’s intentions, noting that satellite imagery has shown that infrastructure is being built in the Sinai desert, presumably meant to house potential Palestinian refugees.
“They’re building a camp, but not as [part of] a plan,” Halper explained. “They built the camp because they’re afraid… that if in fact, Israel does invade Rafah in the south, there isn’t really a good plan of where those people go. The combination of military pressure plus starvation is simply going to drive a million Palestinians through the border… If there [is] a massive break out of Gaza in the direction of Egypt, then Egypt is prepared for that… It isn’t for any kind of voluntary plan, it’s for that possibility.”
Israel’s ultimate plan, Halper argues, is to greatly lower the number of Palestinians in the region and then create an apartheid for the remainder.
“[Israel will] lock them into small little islands with the help of Biden, we’ll call those Bantustans a state, and now we have a two-state solution. Israel is on 85% of the country, it controls everything [and] it’s a Jewish country, but there’s a Palestinian state on a few little islands that will be recognized by the international community and now we’re done with the Palestinians and we can move on,” Halper explained. “In other words, Israel thinks it can get away with apartheid in a way South Africa couldn’t, and there’s good reason to believe that might be true.”
Rather than push for a two-state solution that is looking increasingly less likely, Halper argued that Israel should be converted “into one democratic state of equal rights for all its citizens.”
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From the Archives
Mutually Assured Delusion (MAD)
By Judith Curry | Climate Etc. | November 5, 2013
Groupthink: A pattern of thought charaterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics.
Groupthink: Collective Delusions in Organizations and Markets, by Roland Benabou, published in the Review of Economic Studies. Benabou also has a talk (ppt slides) on this subject.
First, a definition of groupthink (from the ppt slides):
Janis (1972)’s eight symptoms [of groupthink]:
- illusion of invulnerability
- collective rationalization
- belief in inherent morality
- stereotyped views of out-groups
- direct pressure on dissenters
- self-censorship
- illusion of unanimity
- self-appointed mind guards
Sound like any groups that we know? … continue
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