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House panel seeks Columbia Palestine protesters’ disciplinary records

Al Mayadeen | February 14, 2025

The US House Committee on Education and the Workforce demanded Columbia University turn over disciplinary records by the end of this month for students who participated in anti-“Israel” protests between April and January 2024, denouncing the Ivy League University’s handling of the students.

The House panel sent a six-page letter to the university leadership saying that the university failed to deliver its promise to students, faculty, and Congress that it’d address “anti-semitism”, saying that “Columbia’s continued failure to address the pervasive anti-semitism that persists on campus is untenable, particularly given that the university receives billions in federal funding.”

The letter cites the protesters taking over the campus last year, and students disrupting an Israeli professor’s lecture this semester. The letter adds that Columbia failed to properly discipline those responsible, which created a “hostile environment for members of Columbia’s Jewish communities.”

Trump cracks down on student protesters

Students across major universities in the US launched anti-war, pro-Palestine protests across the country, setting up solidarity encampments, with some students calling for their universities to cut ties with “Israel.”

Trump signed an executive order that allows the US government to use “all available and appropriate legal tools to combat anti-semitism, including prosecuting and deporting those accused of anti-Semitic harassment,” with the order targeting pro-Palestine student protesters.

The current US president vowed to expel student protesters from the United States and get rid of pro-Palestine protests to a group of donors saying, “One thing I do is, any student that protests, I throw them out of the country. You know, there are a lot of foreign students. As soon as they hear that, they’re going to behave.”

American-Zionist group World Betar compiled a list of names of students on Visas to send to Trump to deport them for joining in anti-“Israel” protests after the group launched a campaign to identify these students.

Columbia professor, NYU students persecuted over pro-Palestine activism

Earlier last month, Katherine Franke, a law professor and outspoken supporter of pro-Palestine students, parted ways with Columbia University on January 11, following an investigation into comments she made about Israeli students. This marked the consequence of activism surrounding Gaza on a major university campus amid the ongoing Israeli genocide.

Franke, a tenured professor, had supported pro-Palestine students amid protests at the university last year. She was one of several faculty members investigated for alleged anti-semitism.

She described her departure as “a termination dressed up in more palatable terms,” stating in a Friday statement that she agreed to leave due to Columbia becoming a “toxic and hostile environment.” Columbia University spokesperson Samantha Slater confirmed that a complaint had been filed accusing Franke of discriminatory harassment in violation of university policies, leading to an investigation.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, a nonprofit legal group, condemned the end of Franke’s career at Columbia as an “egregious attack on both academic freedom and Palestinian rights advocacy.”

In a related context, more than a dozen NYU students and faculty distributed flyers and hung banners throughout the Bobst Library, while 13 individuals staged a sit-in on the library’s administrative floor.

The protesters were demanding a meeting with university administrators, who had previously promised to reveal details of the university’s endowment, including investments in weapons manufacturers and companies linked to “Israel” and its occupation of Palestine, during the spring Gaza solidarity encampment movement.

February 14, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Ceasefire Monitor Committee Plans Lebanese Army Control of Southern Towns after Incomplete Israeli Withdrawal

Al-Manar | February 14, 2025

US Central Command announced that the ceasefire committee conducted planning to complete transfer of all villages to LAF control by February 18.

Head of the Ceasefire Monitoring Committee in Lebanon, U.S. General Jasper Jeffers had stated, “We are confident that the Lebanese army will control the villages south of Litani River before Tuesday.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli media reflected the occupation’s insistence on keeping troops in five positions in South Lebanon after February 18. The Jerusalem Post reported that ‘Israel’ rejected a French proposal that enhances the Israeli full withdrawal with UN forces replacing the occupation troops in the five said positions.

Al-Manar TV’s editor of Hebrew affairs Hasan Hejazi said that the Israeli enemy insists on keeping troops in South Lebanon in order to blackmail Lebanon and achieve more gains in return for its full withdrawal.

The ceasefire took effect on November 27, 2024, ending a 66-day Zionist war on Lebanon. After the end of the 60-day withdrawal deadline, the biased US sponsor of the agreement supported the Israeli enemy in keeping its occupation forces in South Lebanon till February 18, 2025.

Regarding the Zionist violations, the Israeli enemy boob-trapped seven houses in the northeastern sector of Yaroun border town. The Israeli occupation forces erected surveillance equipment in Mount Blat area in preparation to keep troops there after February 18.

February 14, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Gaza ceasefire in peril as Israel’s non-compliance sparks diplomatic crisis with Qatar

MEMO | February 12, 2025

Qatar has issued a stark warning to Israel that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct is jeopardising the current hostage deal, as mounting evidence reveals multiple violations of the ceasefire by the occupation state.

According to Haaretz, Qatar has conveyed “angry messages” to Israel after Netanyahu’s controversial statements about ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and his failure to send a high-level delegation to Doha for negotiations. The Qataris emphasised that their role is guarantors of the agreement and they are not merely intermediaries between Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s violations of the ceasefire terms are extensive and well-documented. The agreed humanitarian aid target of 12,000 trucks has fallen dramatically short, with only 8,500 reaching Gaza. The shelter crisis continues as Israel has delivered just 10 per cent of the promised 200,000 tents, while none of the pledged 60,000 mobile homes have materialised.

The medical evacuation programme has largely failed, with only 120 patients permitted to leave Gaza instead of the anticipated 1,000. Gaza’s Health Ministry reports ongoing Palestinian casualties during the ceasefire period, while Israel continues to block both the return of displaced persons to northern Gaza and the entry of essential equipment needed for the removal of debris and the recovery of dead bodies. At least 48,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel, mainly women and children, and thousands more are missing, believed dead, under the rubble.

Israel’s violations of the ceasefire agreement have been confirmed by three Israeli officials and two mediators. Speaking anonymously to the New York Times they said that Hamas’s claims about Israel’s non-compliance with the agreement terms were accurate.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry has taken the unusual step of publicly condemning Netanyahu’s recent television interview proposing the transfer of Gaza’s Palestinian population to Saudi Arabia, describing it as “a flagrant violation of international law.” The diplomatic crisis deepens as Hamas threatens to pause the implementation of the agreement which in turn has been met with threats by US President Donald Trump and Netanyahu.

US Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff is scheduled to visit the region, including stops in Israel and Doha, to assess the deteriorating situation first hand. Sources suggest that without swift progress in negotiations for the second stage, further delays in hostage releases could lead to a complete collapse of the agreement’s first phase.

February 12, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Trump: Madman strategy or madman actions?

By Dr Mohammad Makram Balawi | MEMO | February 11, 2025

As expected, during Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit, the American president surprised everyone with reckless, unrestrained and illogical positions that align with the “madman strategy” he followed in his first term. However, this time, many people are convinced that the man is not merely feigning this strategy, but rather it is an intrinsic part of his reality. One of the most prominent indicators of this, or what cemented this belief for many, is his reckless statements about Gaza, his intention to relocate its population to neighbouring countries, seize the land and build a large tourist resort resembling the French Riviera on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

This development even shocked the most ardent supporters of ethnic cleansing – not only because it aligns with these criminal proposals that violate international law, United Nations resolutions, and are deemed crimes against humanity by international courts, but also because such a claim requires tools for execution and practical measures that do not exist on the ground. Undoubtedly, the forced displacement of more than two million people is no simple matter, especially given that Israeli efforts to carry out displacement through all forms of violence have failed miserably. So how does Trump intend to implement these insane ideas without sufficient forces on the ground and without possessing a greater destructive capacity than that of Israel?

Israel deployed approximately 300,000 soldiers and is believed to have lost around 2,000 military armed vehicles in Gaza. So, in the absence of military forces, how can Trump achieve this unless he intends to commit another crime against humanity; starving the population to death? While such a notion is not far-fetched for a mindset of this kind, we have already seen direct rejection from the countries he mentioned as destinations for displacement, foremost among them Egypt and Jordan.

Moreover, when Trump provided clarifications regarding the rebuilding of Gaza and transforming it into another Riviera, he claimed that the Arab states, which have abundant wealth, would be the ones funding the project. This attitude reflects unprecedented arrogance and disdain, as he not only seeks to displace the Palestinian people into Arab countries and threaten their national security, but also expects Arabs, particularly Saudi Arabia, to finance a plan that would undermine their own security and potentially ignite a larger and more violent round of conflicts and confrontations. This explains the strong Saudi and Arab reaction, which categorically rejected this initiative. Saudi officials, especially Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, linked any potential diplomatic relations with Israel to the establishment of a fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, in accordance with the Arab Peace Initiative — which was originally a Saudi initiative.

Netanyahu’s response to this was nothing short of outrageous, as he suggested that Saudi Arabia should establish a Palestinian state on its own territory. In a continuation of the arrogance and condescension previously exhibited by Trump, these positions are not merely obstacles to Saudi-Israeli normalisation and, by extension, broader Arab and Islamic normalisation, but they could also deal a severe blow to Saudi-American relations. These relations were expected to flourish under Trump’s presidency, particularly given his demands — or rather, commands — for a trillion dollars from Saudi Arabia.

Whether Trump realises it or not, his stance represents a complete dismantling of his own foreign policy doctrine, which was ostensibly based on ending wars and exerting soft pressure. In reality, it may mark the beginning of a series of major events, next to which the 7 October war could seem like a mere excursion. Having clashed with nearly everyone, Trump now resembles an elephant in a glass shop, making it crucial for Arab states to rethink their policies — not only toward Israel but also toward its Western supporters, particularly the United States — if they wish to preserve their existence.

Needless to say, successive Israeli policies have inflicted immense suffering on the region — displacing an entire people from their homeland, occupying Arab territories, including Islamic and Christian holy sites, and denying the rights of an ancient people with a history spanning thousands of years. These policies continue to generate further suffering and tragedies, rooted in a supremacist ideology that does not recognise human equality, but rather applies one moral code to the weak while allowing the strong to enforce their own rules as they see fit.

Israel’s attacks on Syria following the collapse of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime and the destruction of its military capabilities were crimes beyond imagination, costing perhaps billions of dollars, under the pretext of “pre-emptive strikes”. Israel has now assumed the right to hold others accountable for mere intentions, as seen in the Iranian nuclear project, granting itself the right to defy all logic and reason so long as it enjoys protection and support from the international community, particularly the United States, which remained silent about these crimes.

Time and again, events have proven what we have long asserted: halting cooperation with Israel, which considers itself above the law, is imperative. This policy of complicity with Israel is dragging the entire world into an endless cycle of violence that could threaten global peace, not just regional stability. The Palestinian cause has always served as a mirror for the world to see itself, yet the world has persistently chosen to turn away in favour of its own interests.

February 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Gaza Under Siege: Aid Cut off as US President Trump’s Remarks Threaten Ceasefire

Al-Manar | February 11, 2025

As the drained Gaza Strip faces severe restrictions on humanitarian aid, including the blocking of vital fuel supplies, US President Donald Trump’s recent statements add further tension to an already volatile situation.

An article in the Israeli Haaretz newspaper describes Trump’s recent statements and interventions as ‘tempting fate’, warning that they could derail the ceasefire agreement in Gaza and disrupt the prisoner exchange process.

Zionist analyst Amos Harel, writing for Haaretz, refers to Trump as an “unpredictable force” whose actions risk intensifying the crisis. Trump’s call for the release of prisoners in a single batch, diverging from the previously agreed incremental approach, represents a radical shift in negotiations that could have dangerous consequences.

While many in the Zionist entity, particularly those supporting the prisoner exchange deal, had placed their hopes on Trump, Harel notes that they now share the “painful frustration” previously felt by critics, especially those from the right-wing factions.

Rising Right-Wing Optimism and Potential Fallout

The article further highlights how right-wing factions in the Zionist entity have embraced Trump’s remarks, seeing them as an opening for Zionist Prime Minister Netanyahu to retract his commitments and take military action against Hamas. However, Harel cautions that such action could lead to the deaths of dozens of prisoners still held in Gaza.

In conclusion, Harel dismisses the right-wing optimism surrounding Trump’s intervention, stressing that military force is unlikely to change Hamas’s stance, particularly as the group has nothing left to lose.

He suggests that Trump’s motivations may include securing a significant regional achievement, such as ending the Gaza conflict, facilitating normalization with the Israeli enemy’s regional neighbors, or even securing a Nobel Peace Prize.

Limited Aid and Severe Shortages

In a blatant escalation of restrictions, Israeli occupation forces have blocked the entry of commercial fuel into Gaza, despite clear stipulations in the humanitarian protocol.

Sources within Gaza confirmed to Al-Jazeera that the occupation has also halted the supply of fuel for essential services, including civil defense and municipal vehicles required for crucial road repairs and debris removal.

Additionally, no commercial fuel has been allowed to enter the enclave, exacerbating the ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The same sources revealed that only around 53,000 tents have been allowed into Gaza out of the agreed 200,000, and none of the 60,000 caravans required for shelter have been delivered. They also noted that only 4 heavy vehicles have been permitted to enter for debris removal and body retrieval, despite the sector’s need for 500 such vehicles.

In addition, the Israeli occupation has prevented the entry of construction materials needed for rebuilding hospitals and civil defense centers. Gaza’s Rashid Street remains closed to vehicles, and crossing checks continue on Salah Al-Din Street following the expiration of the 22-day deadline. No power station equipment has been allowed to enter, hindering repairs and the restoration of the power grid.

February 12, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Revisionist History and Sherman’s War Crimes Sherman

By Wanjiru Njoya  • Mises Wire • 02/07/2025

In his article “Why They Raped, Pillaged, and Plundered,” Tom DiLorenzo reviews the evidence of war crimes in “General William Tecumseh Sherman’s famous ‘march to the sea’ at the end of the War to Prevent Southern Independence,” observing that: “The Lincoln cult – especially its hyper-warmongering neocon branch – has been holding conferences, celebrations, and commemorations [of the march to the sea] while continuing to rewrite history to suit its statist biases.” The dominant historical narratives admire Sherman’s “total war” policies as a corollary of their admiration for Lincoln’s war. Sherman’s war crimes are well-documented, and the aim of this article is not to revisit the evidence of his war crimes but to examine some of the justifications that are often advanced to exonerate Sherman.

The fact that burning civilian towns and homes is a war crime is well understood, and should be obvious to anyone familiar with what Walter Brian Cisco calls the “code of civilized warfare.” In his book, War Crimes Against Southern Civilians, Cisco explains:

Through the centuries, by common consent within what used to be called Christendom, there arose a code of civilized warfare. Though other issues are covered by that term, and despite lapses, it came to be understood that war would be confined to combatants… breaking the code on one side encourages violations by the other, multiplying hatred and bitterness that can only increase the likelihood and intensity of future wars.

Cisco reports that despite this “code of civilized warfare,” some principles of which had been enshrined in the Lieber Code, Sherman insisted that it was necessary to treat civilians in the South as combatants. Cisco explains:

Yet warring against noncombatants came to be the stated policy and deliberate practice of the United States in its subjugation of the Confederacy. Shelling and burning of cities, systematic destruction of entire districts, mass arrests, forced expulsions, wholesale plundering of personal property, even murder all became routine… Abraham Lincoln, the commander in chief with a reputation as micromanager, well knew what was going on and approved.

The Lincoln cult, far from regretting the horrors of that war, continues to view the burning of the South as worthy of celebration. The triumphalist view of Lincoln’s war is reflected in an opinion piece published in the New York Times in 2015, which argued that Sherman’s war crimes were intended “to widen the burden and pain of the war beyond just rebel soldiers to include the civilian supporters of the Confederacy, especially the common folk who filled the ranks of the rebel armies.”

That is depicted as a necessary price to pay to meet Lincoln’s goal of saving the Union: “the March to the Sea reveals the moral ambiguity of war and the extent to which Americans are willing to go when our national existence is at stake.” Sherman himself is exonerated: “the burning of the South Carolina capital was in reality a result of confusion, misjudgment and simple bad luck. It was, in sum, an accident of war.” This moral ambiguity presumes that the morality of war varies according to which side one supports—a blatantly vacuous morality.

Some triumphalists rationalize their celebration of Sherman’s crimes by arguing that war crimes are in some sense “worth it” to bring war to a swift conclusion. David Gordon traces the roots of the view that brutality helps to end war, a view held by people who believe a “humane” war would only drag on needlessly:

As I have already mentioned, the antiwar movement of that time wanted to end war, not make it more humane, and indeed Tolstoy was sometimes tempted to go further. In War and Peace, Prince Andrei suggests that soldiers in battle should act as ruthlessly as possible, for example killing enemy prisoners out of hand. Increasing the horror of war might make it more likely that people would end it. By no means was this view confined to fictional characters; Tolstoy himself was of this opinion, though he later withdrew it, and the great Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz spoke in similar terms. Moyn lists a number of examples, but one should be added as well: General William Sherman, who justified his tactics of wanton destruction with this same argument.

The argument that Sherman’s atrocities were necessary to end the war is also associated with the perception that if a war is just, and is fought for a “righteous cause,” or what is sometimes described as “the right side of history,” it follows that any atrocities committed to advance that cause are also just. Such theories appeal to those who believe the end always justifies the means. That is a convenient ruse deployed in the service of brutal regimes, but in any case, it must also be asked: what “righteous cause” was Sherman engaged in? As DiLorenzo observes, “The reason Lincoln gave for launching a military invasion of the South was to save the Union.” Saving the Union cannot be a righteous cause for wars of aggression. Wars of aggression are always wrong, as a just war is one fought in defense. As for apologists who argue that Sherman should not be blamed for the devastation caused to civilians by his own troops, because he did not specifically order them to pillage, rape, and murder, that too must be rejected. If this argument were accepted, there would be little way of ever holding army officers morally responsible for the outrages committed by their men.

Another version of the “end justifies the means” argument focuses on the abolition of slavery, arguing that the end of slavery is sufficient justification for not being too concerned about the war. This argument ignores the repeated insistence of both Lincoln and Sherman that they were not fighting for abolition of slavery. Both men were perfectly happy for slavery to continue, and only wanted to prevent secession of the Confederate States. Sherman’s views on the inferiority of black people were so well-known that no one could be under the illusion that he was fighting to promote black welfare. According to the New Georgia Encyclopedia:

During the Atlanta campaign of May-September 1864, General Sherman opposed Black enlistment with word and deed. An avowed white supremacist and a reluctant liberator at best, Sherman made no effort to conceal his contempt for African Americans or to disguise the racist dogma behind his opposition to Black soldiers. Such phrases as “niggers and vagabonds,” “niggers and bought recruits,” and “niggers and the refuse of the South” filled his personal letters. Anxious to employ Black workers as laborers, Sherman was determined that the forces under his command would remain exclusively white. On June 3, 1864, he issued Special Field Order No. 16 forbidding recruiting officers to enlist Black soldiers who were employed by the army in any capacity.

Some people argue that even though Sherman repeatedly defended slavery, we should treat that as irrelevant because all that matters is that slavery was, in fact, abolished. So what if Sherman was a “reluctant liberator at best”? Suffice it that liberation followed. They would argue that abolition by itself constitutes an ex post “righteous cause” for the war that can also be attributed to Lincoln and Sherman even though they did not endorse it—they see this as a welcome, albeit unintended, consequence of the war. This argument assumes that slavery would never have ended had the war not happened—an argument that is purely speculative, and makes no attempt to link the war causally to the ending of slavery. For example, it does not explain why other countries in the West were able to end slavery without waging deadly wars.

A final illustration of the abject moral failure of Sherman’s defenders comes from those who now simply ignore the entire war, treating Sherman’s crimes as inconsequential. The New York Times 1619 project, which aims to “reframe American history” as one shaped by slavery, pays scant attention to the reasons for the war or its conduct. Lincoln and Sherman play only a minor role as “white allies” in this version of revisionist history, which asserts that slaves emancipated themselves. Union soldiers are seen as allies of slaves, while Confederate soldiers are cast as enemies of slaves. In this cartoonish view of history, the process of reframing history “requires us to place the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of the story.”

Accordingly, it is the activities of black Americans—rather than the Radical Republicans, Lincoln, or Sherman—that are presented as central to the emancipation story. The war is reframed as having been fought by hundreds of thousands of slaves freed from the rebel states by Lincoln’s Emancipation Declaration, who joined the Union army and fought to liberate their brethren still held captive. The justification given for this fictitious framing is that “by acknowledging this shameful history [of slavery], by trying hard to understand its powerful influence on the present, perhaps we can prepare ourselves for a more just future.” But no “just future” can be founded on fairy tales. A just future can only be built on the truth. As David Gordon puts it, “The 1619 Project wants to replace what actually happened with an ideological myth.”

February 12, 2025 Posted by | Book Review, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | | Leave a comment

Israel expands shooting orders in West Bank, adding to Palestinian death toll

Press TV – February 10, 2025

Israel has expanded shooting orders for its soldiers in the occupied West Bank in a move that has generated a high Palestinian death toll.

According to Haaretz newspaper, the so-called central command decided to implement the same shooting policy used during the campaign of genocide in Gaza to kill any unarmed Palestinian in the West Bank.

The Israeli soldiers taking part in the ongoing military assault said commander Avi Blot permitted them to shoot with the intent to kill Palestinians without resorting to arresting them.

“The orders made it easier for soldiers to pull the trigger at the behest of Central Command Commander Avi Blot.”

The head of the West Bank Division Yaki Dolf ordered soldiers to shoot at any vehicle “coming from a combat zone” and heading toward a checkpoint.

On Sunday, two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank when Israeli soldiers opened fire on a car approaching a military checkpoint.

Israeli forces earlier shot and killed an eight-month Palestinian pregnant mother and her unborn baby during a raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp.

According to the Israeli daily, soldiers used Palestinian civilians as human shields while searching buildings for explosives, the same tactic used by the military in Gaza.

Since January 21, the Israeli regime has conducted military operations in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tammun in the northern West Bank. The regime has killed more than 30 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry.

Israeli soldiers had earlier revealed appalling accounts of the notorious “kill zone” in the Netzarim corridor of the besieged Gaza Strip.

February 10, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Trump claims US will ‘buy and own’ Gaza, says Palestinians have ‘no alternative’

The Cradle | February 10, 2025

US President Donald Trump said he is “committed to buying and owning” the Gaza Strip and expelling the two million Palestinians living there, amid condemnation from Palestinians and the UN.

“I’m committed to buying and owning Gaza. As far as us rebuilding it, we may give it to other states in the Middle East to build sections of it. Other people may do it through our auspices. But we’re committed to owning it, taking it, and making sure that Hamas doesn’t move back,” Trump said while speaking to reporters during a flight on Air Force One on 9 February.

Trump did not explain who he would buy Gaza from or how the US would own it.

“There’s nothing to move back into. The place is a demolition site … The remainder will be demolished … But we’ll make it into a very good site for future development by somebody,” the US president declared.

Trump promised to “take care of the Palestinians.”

He said, “We’re going to make sure they live beautifully and in harmony and peace and that they’re not murdered … They don’t want to go back to Gaza. They only go back because they have no alternative.”

Trump did not mention who might murder Palestinians or why they might not have an alternative to return to their lands and destroyed homes.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s proposal as “revolutionary and creative” despite the plan being met with severe international backlash.

Israel relentlessly bombed Gaza for 15 months, killing at least 48,000 Palestinians, before the ceasefire went into effect on 19 January. Some estimates suggest Israeli forces may have killed over 200,000 Palestinians, largely with the help of US-supplied bombs.

As part of the so-called Generals’ Plan beginning in October, Israeli forces attempted for several months to besiege, starve, and bomb hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in north Gaza to forcibly expel them to the strip’s south.

Trump stated that people from all over the world would be able to move to Gaza, adding that he might allow regional countries to be involved in rebuilding parts of the territory and that he would make sure the Palestinian refugees would “live beautifully.”

The US president’s political allies in Israel, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and former national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir, openly advocate ethnically cleansing Gaza of Palestinians, confiscating the strip’s land, and relocating Jewish settlers there.

Both the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the resistance movement Hamas condemned Trump’s plan.

“The rights of our people and our land are not for sale, exchange or bargaining,” the PA Foreign Ministry said, adding that “The Israeli government and Prime Minister Netanyahu are trying to cover up the crimes of genocide, forced displacement, and annexation which they have committed against our people.”

Hamas political official Izzat al-Rishq affirmed that “Gaza is not a property to be sold and bought. It is an integral part of our occupied Palestinian land.”

The UN Human Rights Office warned that any forcible transfer in, or deportation of, people from occupied territory was strictly prohibited under international law.

US voters are also skeptical of Trump’s plan. A CBS poll showed that 47 percent of US citizens believe that US control of the Gaza Strip is a “bad idea,” only 13 percent think it is a good idea, and 40 percent say they are not sure.

Trump also told journalists while flying on Air Force One that he was “losing patience” with the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas after seeing footage of the resistance movement releasing Israeli captives over the weekend.

“They look like Holocaust survivors. They were in horrible condition. They were emaciated … I don’t know how much longer we can take that … at some point, we’re going to lose our patience.”

At the same time, freed Palestinian prisoner Sami Jaradat told Anadolu Agency that he and other Palestinian prisoners were terrorized and subjected to humiliation, severe beatings, and deliberate starvation.

“I have lost more than 30 kilograms of my weight,” Jaradat said.

Palestinian prisoners and detainees are also often tortured and raped by their Israeli captors.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) alleges that Prime Minister Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant have committed war crimes by using starvation as a weapon against Palestinians.

The ICC issued arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders in November, who imposed a “total siege” on Gaza at the beginning of the war in October 2023, blocking food, water, and fuel from entering the enclave.

February 10, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Practising the Inexcusable: Vaccinating Children Against Covid-19

By Vasko Kohlmayer  | LewRockwell.com | January 23, 2025

“Pediatricians urge everyone to keep your immune system updated by getting the 2024-2025 COVID vaccine,” we read on Healthychilren.org, a website maintained by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Unbelievable as it may sound, there are still pediatricians in America today who vaccinate healthy children against Covid-19. They do this in the absence of any good medical reason for doing so. These pediatricians keep engaging in this senseless and dangerous practice even though data, science, and common sense clearly indicate that this should not be done.

To begin with, children are at virtually no risk of serious Covid. The infection fatality rate for ages 0-19 is only around 0.0003. This is a very low figure, indeed. Low as it is, this number includes all children, including seriously ill ones with weakened immune systems who are especially vulnerable to fall victim to viral infections. Thus, for healthy youngsters, the chances of dying of Covid are for all practical purposes zero.

As early as October 2021, the New York Times conceded that to healthy children “the danger of severe Covid is so low as to be difficult to quantify.” In other words, the risk is essentially non-existent. To give a sense of perspective, a healthy child is far more likely to perish in a car accident than to die of Covid-19.

Secondly, it is widely known that the Covid vaccines do not prevent transmission. Those who receive them are no less likely to contract Covid than those who do not. Perhaps the most glaring manifestation of this took place in December of 2021 when dozens of U.S. universities – including Yale and Princeton – had to close early because of widespread outbreaks of Covid-19 among their student populations. This happened even though – due to strict mandates – the vaccine uptake at those institutions was generally 96 percent or higher.

Not only do the Covid vaccines not prevent transmission, but some reiterations in their ever-growing series – we are currently at number ten – have had what experts euphemistically call “negative efficacy.” This means that people who receive the shots are more likely to contract Covid-19 than those who do not. This should make it clear that there is no public health utility in vaccinating children against Covid, since the vaccine will not stop or slow down the spread of the virus. If anything, it may increase the rate of its proliferation.

Thirdly, it is a well-established fact that Covid injections carry a range of severe side effects. A great deal has been said, for example, about blood clots and myocarditis in young men. As early as 2022 there were already more than one thousand studies and articles published discussing adverse reactions to the Covid-19 vaccines. This material had appeared in scientific and medical journals and publications and much of it was peer-reviewed. Below are some of the side effects of the Covid vaccines documented in these publications:

  • Blood clotting
  • Cerebral haemorrhage
  • Venous thrombosis
  • Myocarditis
  • Pericarditis
  • Myopericarditis
  • Lymphadenopathy
  • Acute thrombosis of the coronary tree
  • Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis
  • Anaphylaxis
  • Cardiomyopathy
  • Thrombophilia
  • Guillain-Barré syndrome

What these clearly show is that the vaccines are far from safe. Quite apart from being ineffective, they are, in fact, very dangerous. The reports of injuries and deaths in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database have exploded exponentially since the introduction of the Covid injections. The reported side effects for these medicaments in the last four years well exceed the combined total of all reported events for all vaccines in the 35-year history of the database.

Many children have been killed or seriously injured by these unsafe, improperly tested substances. There have been, for example, dozens and dozens of reports of high school football players collapsing with heart attacks (see, for instance, here and here and here and here). Even though it was not unheard of for a high school athlete to collapse in the past, such events were relatively rare. The rapid explosion of these incidents following the introduction of the Covid shots shows their deadly nature.

Below is a selection of entries from the VAERS database of heart injuries to children following vaccination against Covid-19 (for a fuller account see the source article here):

  • VAERS 1199455: 17-year-old girl had difficulty breathing and chest pain, suffered cardiac arrest 8 days after 1st Pfizer dose, and died on April 10, 2021
  • VAERS 1225942: 16-year-old girl had cardiac arrest at home 9 days after 1st Pfizer dose, and died on March 30, 2021. Had pulmonary emboli
  • VAERS 1420762: 17-year-old girl had cardiac arrest 6 days after Pfizer dose, and died on June 23, 2021
  • VAERS 1431289: 13-year-old boy had out-of-hospital cardiac arrest 17 days after 1st Pfizer dose, had large cerebellar haemorrhage, and died on June 20, 2021
  • VAERS 1693654: 15-year-old boy had cardiac arrest while driving a friend 10 days after 2nd Pfizer dose, suffered severe anoxic brain damage, on life support
  • VAERS 1702154: 16-year-old boy had out-of-hospital cardiac arrest 6 days after 1st Pfizer dose, and died on Sep.1, 2021
  • VAERS 1796194: 14-year-old boy had myocardial infarction and pericarditis 19 days after 1st Pfizer dose and was hospitalized in ICU. Permanently disabled (did not recover)
  • VAERS 1828901: 17-year-old girl presented with chest pain and dyspnoea for 48 hours, 36 days after 2nd Pfizer dose, had cardiac arrest, and died on Oct. 21, 2021
  • VAERS 1830419: 16-year-old boy had cardiac arrest while running, after 2nd Pfizer dose, had hypoxic encephalopathy, permanently disabled
  • VAERS 1959638: 15-year-old girl presented with chest and arm pain, had myocardial infarction 1 day after 1st dose of Pfizer, permanently disabled
  • VAERS 1971636: 14-year-old girl had dizziness, headache, then cardiac arrest 15 days after 1st Moderna dose, same day brain injury, died in hospital on Oct. 10, 2021
  • VAERS 1991078: 14-year-old girl presented with dyspnoea, seizure, had cardiac arrest 8 days after 1st Pfizer dose, died Nov. 6, 2021
  • VAERS 2042005: 13-year-old boy had cardiac arrest 7 months after 2nd Moderna dose, and died suddenly on Jan. 1, 2022
  • VAERS 2152560: 7-year-old boy had cardiac arrest 13 days after 1st Pfizer dose, and died on Feb.16, 2022
  • VAERS 2264954: 13-year-old boy had myocardial infarction and pericarditis 3 days after 1st Pfizer dose, permanently disabled
  • VAERS 2398786: 17-year-old boy had an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest 6 days after 3rd dose of Pfizer, and died on Jun. 22, 2022
  • VAERS 2458174: 15-year-old girl had a cardiac arrest after 2nd Moderna dose, and died (location unknown)
  • VAERS 2535782: 11-year-old boy had 3rd dose of Pfizer at 3:40pm; at 7:15pm, was found face immersed in bathtub, cardiac arrest, died 9pm, Dec. 13, 2022
  • VAERS 2543364: 14-year-old girl had 1st dose of Moderna, 16 days later had headache, dizziness, fever, then cardiac arrest, died on Oct. 11, 2021
  • VAERS 2582452: 12-year-old girl had acute myocardial infarction 5 days after 1st Pfizer dose, and died on Nov. 10, 2021

Tragic as this is, the entries above touch only heart attacks, which is only one of the serious side effects of the Pfizer and Moderna injections. In addition to heart attacks, these vaccines cause a wide array of side effects ranging from strokes to neurological damage.

One of the most poignant cases is that of Yonatan Moshe Erlichman, a lovely Israeli boy who was used as part of a state-sponsored TV campaign to push vaccines on Israeli children. Fully vaccinated poster child for the government’s effort to have all youngsters jabbed, the eight-year-old Yonatan suffered a fatal heart attack while in his bath.

Yonatan Moshe Erlichman, a poster child for Israel’s Covid vaccination campaign died of a heart attack at the age of eight.

Unbelievably, a similar fate was met by Santino Godoy Blanco, the poster child for the Argentine state-sponsored campaign to inject the children of that nation. This is what we learned about his tragic story:

“at the age of four, he died “suddenly and unexpectedly” in November 2022. Shortly before, he had been admitted to a clinic with a high fever and nausea. His death certificate states “bilateral pneumonia” as the cause; Even the Paul Ehrlich Institute admits in a “safety report” that Covid vaccinations can trigger pneumonia. Santino appeared on television as a telegenic animator for the nationwide vaccination campaign “Activá Vacunas.”

Santino Godoy Blanco, a young boy who was used by the Argentine government to push the Covid vaccine on children, died at the age of four.

To summarize the basic facts of the case:

  • Healthy children are at virtually no risk of serious Covid.
  • Covid injections do not prevent transmission.
  • Covid injections carry the risk of very serious side effects.

In light of these well-established facts, there is no medical, scientific, or logical basis to vaccinate healthy children against Covid.

The question is: Why, then, are there pediatricians in the United State who still needlessly inject young people with these dangerous substances?

Given what we know, vaccinating children against Covid makes zero sense. It produces no objective health benefits either to individual children or to society. It only exposes children to the risk of harm and, if anything, increases the possibility of transmission.

Vaccinating children against Covid flies in the face of the evidence, facts, and common sense.

Doctors who engage in this practice have no regard for facts, truth, or science. They are endangering the well-being of the children entrusted to their care. By doing this they violate the sacred principle of the Hippocratic oath: “Do no harm.”

Every doctor who continues to engage in this senseless practice should realize that there is a good chance that he or she will sooner or later either seriously injure or kill a child. These unfortunate children will have suffered for nothing, since from a medical point of view, these shots are useless. They are, in fact, worse than useless: they are outright harmful and dangerous.

Unnecessarily injecting healthy children with the mRNA substances that have an abysmal safety profile is an act of reckless medical malpractice. Doctors who do this are either willfully blind or worse. What they do is demonstrably wrong and harmful. Their actions are unconscionable and inexcusable.

The practice of vaccinating healthy children against Covid-19 must be stopped, because there is no medical, scientific, or logical reason for doing so.

Vasko Kohlmayer (email) was born and grew up in former communist Czechoslovakia. You can follow his writings by subscribing to his Substack newsletter ’Notes from the Twilight Zone’. He is the author of The West in Crisis: Civilizations and Their Death Drives.
Copyright © Vasko Kohlmayer

February 9, 2025 Posted by | War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

‘Israel is an absolute evil’: Lebanon’s parliament speaker tells US envoy

Press TV – February 9, 2025

The Speaker of Lebanon’s Parliament, Nabih Berri, has described Israel as “an absolute evil”, emphasizing that the Tel Aviv regime’s continued occupation of Lebanese territories in defiance of international resolutions must be resisted and confronted.

Berri made the remarks during a meeting with visiting US Deputy Special Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus in Beirut on Saturday.

During the meeting, the top Lebanese legislator reminded Ortagus that the US administration should compel Israel to fully honor the ceasefire agreement, as Washington is part of the committee overlooking its implementation.

Berri underlined the need for the usurping Tel Aviv regime to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1701, particularly the complete withdrawal of its occupation forces from Lebanese lands.

The senior Lebanese lawmaker lauded the Lebanese army’s role and deployment in the southern part of the Arab country, as part of the ceasefire agreement.

The two sides also discussed the general situation in Lebanon, particularly the developments in the south, in light of continued Israeli violations of UN Resolution 1701 and the ceasefire agreement.

After experiencing substantial losses during almost 14 months of hostilities and not accomplishing its aims in its offensive against Lebanon, Israel had no choice but to accept a ceasefire with the Hezbollah resistance movement. The truce came into effect on November 27.

Since the start of the agreement though, the occupation forces have been conducting near-daily attacks on Lebanon in violation of the ceasefire, including airstrikes across the Arab country.

On January 10, Lebanon lodged a formal complaint with the UN Security Council regarding Israeli acts of aggression targeting agricultural lands and livestock in the southern region of the country, in violation of the truce agreement.

Hezbollah has placed the responsibility on the Lebanese government to guarantee the complete withdrawal of Israeli military forces from southern Lebanon.

On January 27, Lebanon announced its agreement to prolong the ceasefire with Israel until February 18.

This decision comes despite the Israeli military’s failure to adhere to a deadline for troop withdrawal and the reported fatalities of nearly two dozen individuals in the southern region of the country.

February 9, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Israel used toxic gas to suffocate Palestinian resistance fighters, captives in Gaza’s tunnels, report finds

MEMO | February 7, 2025

Israeli occupation forces bombed Gaza and “intentionally weaponised toxic byproducts of bombs to suffocate” Palestinian resistance fighters they believed were hiding underground, an investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call revealed yesterday.

The report is based on information obtained from 15 Israeli Military Intelligence and Shin Bet officers who have been involved in tunnel-targeting operations since 7 October 2023. It found that occupation forces tried to “compensate for the army’s inability to pinpoint targets in Hamas’ subterranean tunnel network”.

This policy allowed for the killing of “triple-digit numbers” of Palestinian civilians as “collateral damage”, while senior Hamas commanders were being sought out.

The report highlighted that some of these strikes “which were the deadliest in the war and often used American bombs, are known to have killed Israeli hostages.”

“Pinpointing a target inside a tunnel is hard, so you attack a [wide] radius,” a Military Intelligence source told +972 and Local Call. This radius would be as large as “tens and sometimes hundreds of metres,” meaning these bombing operations collapsed multiple apartment buildings on their occupants without warning. This was referred to by Palestinians as “fire belts”.

Bunker-buster bombs release the lethal gas carbon monoxide as a byproduct, which can kill people inside a tunnel through asphyxiation even at a distance of hundreds of metres, the report adds, explaining that Israel has known about this since 2017.

“The gas stays underground, and people suffocate,” Brigadier General (reserves) Guy Hazoot said. “[We realised] we could effectively target anyone underground using the Air Force’s bunker-buster bombs, which, even if they don’t destroy the tunnel, release gases that kill anyone inside. The tunnel then becomes a death trap.”

Three Israeli hostages — Nik Beizer, Ron Sherman and Elia Toledano — were definitively killed by asphyxiation as a result of a 10 November 2023 bombing that targeted Ahmed Ghandour, a Hamas brigade commander in northern Gaza, the report said.

Military officials told +972 and Local Call that the intent was to use the chemical byproduct solely to kill Hamas operatives “who intended to fight the IDF [Israeli occupation forces].”

Israel’s efforts to maximise the chances of killing senior militants hiding underground also included attempts to crush parts of a tunnel network and trap the targets inside.

February 7, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Ex-Israeli war chief confirms issuing Hannibal Directive to kill own civilians, soldiers

The Cradle | February 7, 2025

Former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant has acknowledged ordering the army to use the Hannibal Directive to kill Israeli civilians and soldiers during the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023.

During an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 on 7 February, Gallant admitted to ordering the controversial protocol that involves killing captives along with their captors.

When asked whether an order was given to implement the Hannibal Directive, Gallant responded:

“I think that, tactically, in some places, it was given, and in other places, it was not given, and that is a problem.”

Israel claims Hamas killed roughly 1,100 Israeli civilians and soldiers during its attack on Israeli settlements and military bases on 7 October as part of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

However, Israeli forces killed large numbers of their own civilians and soldiers during the attack. The army dispatched attack helicopters, drones, and tanks on its own territory to respond to the attack, killing not only Hamas fighters but also Israeli civilians and soldiers that the Palestinian fighters attempted to take as captives back to Gaza.

Israeli helicopters also killed Israeli civilians at the Nova festival, which took place near the Re’im military base.

Gallant also criticized former police security minister Itamar Ben Gvir for his provocative storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, stating that it “was like detonating the situation.”

Gallant made the comments in his first interview since being dismissed as defense minister in November.

The former defense minister said that the current ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza is nearly identical to an earlier proposal that Hamas was willing to agree to in April last year.

Gallant accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet of delaying the ceasefire deal, adding that had he agreed to it at that time, Israel could have brought back more living captives while releasing fewer Palestinian security prisoners, Gallant said.

Many of the 251 Israeli soldiers and civilians successfully taken captive by Hamas were later killed by Israeli airstrikes and friendly fire from soldiers.

“I think that the Israeli government did not do everything it could have to return the hostages,” Gallant stated.

In January, Israel’s top general, Herzi Halevi, resigned. He cited the “terrible failure” of security and intelligence related to the Hamas attack.

Israel’s subsequent war on Gaza has killed at least 47,000 Palestinians, with some estimates suggesting that the death toll exceeds 200,000.

February 7, 2025 Posted by | War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

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