By William Van Wagenen | The Libertarian Institute | October 28, 2024
Members of the Yezidi religious minority who fled ISIS and other Turkish-backed extremist groups in Syria are now seeking to flee Israel’s relentless bombing campaign in Lebanon.
“They bombed just next to our house. Just five meters from our building. I can’t handle another second here,” said Um Farhad, a Yezidi women living with her husband and two sons in a village near Baalbek in the Bekaa region of eastern Lebanon.
“By God, I don’t know what to do. We don’t know what to do. If we die here or if we don’t die, only God can help us,” she told the Libertarian Institute by phone.
The city of Baalbek, home to ancient Roman ruins, and its surrounding villages have been among the worst hit areas in Lebanon since Israel’s bombing campaign on Lebanon began on September 23.
In the first two days of the Israeli attack, warplanes bombed Baalbek city from all sides, hitting at least twenty-eight towns and villages, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.
One Israeli strike, in the town of Younine near Baalbek, hit a building housing Syrian workers, killing twenty-three people, mostly women and children.
The Yezidi religious community, whose ancient homeland covers regions throughout Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Armenia was thrust into the international spotlight in 2014, following the genocide carried out against them by ISIS.
In a partnership with Kurdish security forces known as Peshmerga, the notorious terror group massacred thousands of Yezidi men and took thousands of women and children as slaves during an attack on the Sinjar region of Iraq.
But ISIS first grew powerful in neighboring Syria, as part of the broader western-backed insurgency to topple the Syrian government.
Um Farhad and her husband and children fled their home in the Ashrafiyeh neighborhood in Aleppo and came to Lebanon in 2013 after a Free Syrian Army (FSA) sniper shot and injured her son.
Um Farhad now hopes to flee another war, first by escaping the bombing in Baalbek to come to Beirut, and then flee to a safe country. “I just want to keep my family safe and get them to a safe place until the war ends. There is nothing that I care about more than that.”
But reaching safety is difficult. She and her family do not have a car and the road to Beirut is dangerous due to Israeli bombing. Even if they manage to reach the capital, many parts of which are also under heavy Israeli bombardment, they have nowhere to stay.
Over a million Lebanese from the south and east of the country have fled the war and are now displaced. Any open apartments in the major cities of Saida, Beirut, and Tripoli were quickly rented, often at high prices. Spaces in schools converted to shelters in places like the Hamra neighborhood in western Beirut also quickly filled up.
Many displaced Lebanese have had no choice but to live in tents in parks, on sidewalks, on the beach, or under highway overpasses.
Most of the 160 Yezidi families now in Lebanon come from the Kurdish-majority Afrin region in neighboring Syria. They were forced to flee their homes and farms in 2017 when Turkey and its Syrian proxy force, known as the Syrian National Army (SNA), invaded Afrin.
The SNA is comprised of former Syrian “rebels,” including former FSA, Nusra Front, and ISIS members, who fought with western and Israeli backing against the Syrian government starting in 2011. Many view the Yezidis as infidels that deserve to be exterminated.
Many Yezidi homes and farms in Afrin were taken by Turkish troops and their Syrian proxies after the invasion. Afrin is still under Turkish and SNA occupation, making a return to their former home region in Syria impossible.
Mato, a Yezidi man living in a Christian village in the Mount Lebanon region above Beirut, told the Libertarian Institute how he fled to Lebanon after he and his son were pulled off a bus by ISIS fighters while traveling between Aleppo and Afrin. They were imprisoned for four days but finally released after feigning to convert to Islam during a lengthy interrogation by an ISIS emir.
“For sixty years I worked to build a house that Daesh is now staying in,” Mato said. He now works doing manual labor, but there is little work.
Mato lives with his wife and son in a one room hut made of concrete blocks and a dirt floor covered with rugs as the cold mountain winter approaches. Demand for housing drastically increased as many displaced from across Lebanon have come to stay in the village. Before the war, Mato’s rent was $50 per month; now it is $300.
As the numbers of displaced in the village grew, local authorities stopped allowing new displaced families to come there.
Many in Lebanon are reluctant to welcome Syrians and other foreigners they don’t know into their communities, fearing they could be Israeli spies seeking to identify Hezbollah members or give the Israeli military information about locations to bomb.
One Yezidi family that fled from the danger in southern Lebanon to live in a tent in the Mount Lebanon region was forced to leave by local authorities just three days after they arrived.
The high prices resulting from the war have made it difficult for another Yezidi man, Kheiri, who spoke with the Libertarian Institute. “My wife is very sick right now. She is not able to get out of bed. I am not able to afford any medication for her, because rent and food is so expensive. We are old now, in our sixties, so it’s hard to find work,” he explained.
Yezidis in the Mount Lebanon area say the situation could change for the worse any day.
“A few weeks ago, there was a bombing about 3km away. We hope the area is safe now, but no one knows what will happen,” Saad, a Yezidi man living in Mount Lebanon area, told the Libertarian Institute. “When the war first started in Syria, we didn’t worry at first because the problems were far away in the south, in Deraa. But the war quickly moved to Damascus. Finally, it came to us in Aleppo and Afrin in the north. We worry the same thing will happen here and the whole country will be in war.”
The insecurity is made worse because Israel hits not only military, but also civilian, targets. “In war, the airplanes should attack military areas, not civilian areas. But the Israelis are hitting civilians, and this scares us,” Saad stated.
Signs that Israel’s war on Hezbollah may engulf the entire country and target all aspects of Lebanese society continue to emerge.
On October 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to inflict “destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.”
His warning was followed a week later by an Israeli strike on a home in a Christian town of Aitou in the mountains in the north of Lebanon. The strike killed twenty-three people from a Lebanese Shia family displaced from the south.
NBC News described the “overwhelming stench of rotting flesh mixed with concrete dust” pervading the aftermath. “A dead baby inside a destroyed pickup truck; a child’s severed arm buried in nearby rubble; toddler clothing and books shredded; flies swarming as officials collected body parts, some too small for body bags ending up in clear ziplock bags.”
Before the strike, Aitou seemed as far from the violence as possible. Everything “was calm; everything was quiet,” said Illy Edwan, the owner of the villa housing the family.
Amid the chaos, Saad is making an appeal for the protection of Yezidis, an ancient religious minority that has been subject to many campaigns of genocide in its long history. “We are trying to escape from the battle and the conflict. We are suffering a lot now because we are not able to find a safe and secure place. The situation is in crisis. We want to leave Lebanon and go somewhere where there is security and where we can finally just live in peace. This is what we are asking for.”
By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | October 28, 2024
A senior US official told Washington Post that the toned-down early morning Israeli strike Saturday on military targets in Iran was a “proportional strike,” which “was moderate enough to quiet the conflict without provoking Iran into a counterattack.”
However, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted in a speech on Sunday: “We hit hard Iran’s defence capabilities and its ability to produce missiles that are aimed at us. The attack in Iran was precise and powerful, and it achieved all its objectives.”
But within Israel itself, there is scepticism. Israel’s most popular news outlet Channel 12 called the operation insignificant and demonstrated Iran’s status as a major power in the region. Netanyahu has not released any reliable documentation to back up his claim, which he usually does.
NourNews lampooned that Israeli psychological war against Iran has not worked. Israel hoped to stir up panic that there might be an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations but normal life continues in Iran. It appears that Israel was neither inclined to carry out an extensive attack nor was incapable of conducting such an operation without greater American involvement — or both. Iran’s attack on October 1 badly exposed the weakness of Israeli air defence system.
So, the bottom line is that Israel may have succeeded in conducting a limited predawn operation against Iran without excessively increasing the chances of an all-out war.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Sunday that the “evil committed by the Zionist regime two nights ago should neither be downplayed nor exaggerated”. Khamenei added: “Of course, our officials should be the ones to assess and precisely apprehend what needs to be done and do whatever is in the best interests of this country and nation. They [the enemy] must be made to realize who the Iranian people are and what the Iranian youth are like.”
Khamenei’s remark suggests that an immediate military response is not planned. Indeed, Tehran has been playing down the Israeli strike, saying it caused limited damage.
The foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday that given Iran’s “inherent right of legitimate defence” under UN Charter, “Tehran will utilise all material and spiritual capabilities of the Iranian nation to defend its security and vital interests, and firmly stand by its duties towards regional peace and security.”
The statement drew attention to Israeli operations in Gaza and Lebanon, but, notably, kept silent on any Iranian response to Saturday’s air strike.
Iran will no doubt weigh the unprecedented diplomatic support from the regional states. This is a moment that Tehran cherishes, as apparent in Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s words: “Since yesterday [Saturday] until now, we are regularly receiving messages from different countries, the statements they issued, the level of condemnation from different countries both in the region. It is really remarkable that it took place at this international level.”
Other statements at the military level played down the Israeli attack saying the air defences intercepted it successfully and only “some limited damage was caused in some areas, the dimensions of which are being investigated.” The public mood in Tehran is one of high expectations from the Pezeshkian government on the economic front.
Javad Zarif, former foreign minister and current strategic adviser to the government, also made no direct threat of retaliation, saying, “The west should move away from its outdated and dangerous paradigm. It must condemn Israel’s recent acts of aggression and join Iran in efforts to end the apartheid, genocide and violence in Palestine and Gaza, and in Lebanon. Recognising Iran’s confident resolve for peace is essential; this unique opportunity should not be missed.” [Emphasis added.]
The Israeli strike did not take Tehran by surprise. In a “scoop”, Axios reported that Israel sent a message to Iran on Friday ahead of its air strikes warning the latter not to respond in “an attempt to limit the ongoing exchange of attacks between Israel and Iran and prevent a wider escalation.”
The message from Tel Aviv conveyed through third parties “made it clear to the Iranians in advance what they [Israelis] are going to attack in general and what they are not going to attack.”
Apparently, the US pressured Israel to calibrate its proposed attack as a “proportionate response”. This becomes hugely important in the downstream, as the Biden Administration’s efforts will continue to prevent conflict between Israel and Iran escalating into a confrontation.
To be sure, Iran will press ahead on the diplomatic track. Interestingly, the Jerusalem Post newspaper highlighted that Araghchi’s hectic tours of regional capitals are “important because he is not only visiting countries that are close to Iran historically or where Iran has interests, such as Lebanon or Iraq; rather, he is doing outreach to countries that have peace with Israel and which are close to the West, such as Jordan and Egypt…
“This shows how Iran is gaining influence in Jordan and Egypt. Egypt and Iran have been on a road to reconciliation, for instance. In addition, Iran and Saudi Arabia have reconciled with China’s backing. Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince was also in Cairo this week, illustrating how a triangle of ties between Cairo and Tehran is emerging.”
Meanwhile, Tehran will closely watch the November 5 presidential and Congressional elections in the US. In the event of a Kamala Harris presidency, the resumption of nuclear negotiations is highly likely. On the contrary, a Donald Trump presidency may presage a difficult 4-year period ahead, but here too, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proximity with Trump to calm down tensions between Washington and Tehran should be factored in.
A paradigm shift cannot be ruled out, either. Trump is a quintessential pragmatist who disregarded criticism to engage North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in a dramatic turnaround, and is not known to be enamoured of Zionism.
Trump boasted on Wednesday of almost daily conversations with Netanyahu. “Bibi called me yesterday, called me the day before,” Trump said. Trump had already reported a telephone conversation with Netanyahu on Saturday, claiming that the latter “wants my view on things.”
Conceivably, Trump’s repeated call for Israel to swiftly defeat Hamas and wrap up the war in Gaza, stems from the apprehension that otherwise, if he wins the upcoming November 5 election, a clash with Iran may become unavoidable.
The US is a far superior military power compared to Iran. But this is a war of attrition that is being fought on multiple fronts. And there is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare. Trump abhors open-ended US military interventions. And Iranians are known to be highly nationalistic and subjugating them is impossible.
A prolonged war can result in US retrenchment from West Asia and the destruction of Israel — and may jeopardise Trump’s mesmerising MAGA movement.
Against this tumultuous backdrop, what are Israel’s options? There seems to be no way out of the war in West Asia but the catch is, it won’t be the sort of war Israel is hoping for, let alone can win.
Seymour Hersh wrote in Substack on Tuesday, “I’ve heard nothing from contacts in Beirut close to Hezbollah — whose troops are putting up a stiff fight as they did in Hezbollah’s 2006 war against Israel — that suggests anything other than a long war ahead…”
Israel is a small country and it keeps its head above water thanks to American money. It lacks the capacity to wage a war with Iran on its own steam. The Israeli planes reportedly flew to Iran through US-controlled air space in Syria and Iraq!
The situation is turning into a ‘zugzwang’ in real life for Israel. Anything that Israel does will only make the situation worse, and it doesn’t have a choice not to make a choice, either.
By Fereshteh Sadeghi | The Cradle | October 27, 2024
After weeks of grandiose threats, Israel struck a number of military sites in Iran over the weekend. While many details of the attack remain unclear, Iran’s leadership suggests that a qualitative response is on the horizon.
Twenty-five days after Iran’s massive 1 October missile attacks on Israel, and following weeks of threats and bluster about its huge preparations, Tel Aviv unleashed its own offensive against military sites of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the early hours of Saturday, 26 October.
The Israeli attack started in the capital, Tehran, where at around 02:15 local time (22:45 GMT), very loud explosions were heard on the western side of the city. Reports which usually are published immediately on the social media platform X, suggested six explosions had been heard.
A multi-wave attack
Footage surfacing afterward — though scarce in number — showed Iranian anti-aircraft guns firing into the sky over Tehran, but no sign of missiles were recorded in those videos. The lack of visible missile evidence sparked debate among analysts, with some suggesting that the occupation state employed tactics designed to evade traditional detection methods, potentially by using low-altitude or stealth drones. But others have questioned whether Israeli jets even entered Iranian airspace.
The second and third waves of strikes came two to four hours later when aerial defense systems became active in Iran’s western province of Ilam and the southwestern province of Khuzestan. This multi-wave strategy indicated a calculated attempt to wear down Iran’s defenses, probing their response times and resilience in multiple regions simultaneously.
With news about the initial raids ebbing, western media began to frame the Israeli strikes as enormous as well as successful. These evidence-free portrayals were met with skepticism from Iranian officials, who emphasized the effectiveness of their air defenses in minimizing any damage from Israeli strikes.
The New York Times wrote, “Israeli jets first targeted air defense batteries and later struck Iran’s missile arrays and production sites.”
Axios quoted Israeli officials as claiming, “Israel had sent a message to Tehran, ahead of the airstrikes, warning the Iranians not to respond.”
In the morning, the Israeli military issued a statement saying “it had completed its strikes but that if Iran makes the mistake of carrying out another attack, Israel will have to fight back.”
The Khatam al-Anbiya Air Defense Base — the central command in charge of defending the skies of Iran — meanwhile announced that:
“Despite all previous warnings from the Iranian authorities to the criminal, illegal Zionist regime against engaging in any form of adventurism, that fake regime in an escalating move struck military locations in Tehran, Ilam, and Khuzestan. The joint aerial defense of the country successfully intercepted and thwarted the aggressor’s raids. Despite that, limited damage was done to some sites with the extent of the harm being investigated.”
The Iranian army later in the day announced the death of at least four officers, including a colonel, killed during Israeli air raids in Khuzestan. An informed source speaking to The Cradle on condition of anonymity reveals that the number of Iranian casualties is higher than what is officially being reported.
What were Tel Aviv’s tactics?
More than 24 hours on, details about the Israeli air raids or the extent of the harm to the Iranian military are unclear and patchy at best. Both sides have a vested interest in controlling the narrative: Tel Aviv to project power and deterrence, and Tehran to maintain an image of resilience and minimize perceived vulnerabilities.
Israel says it deployed over 100 F-35 fighter jets to conduct the offensive. However, an Iranian conservative lawmaker on Saturday morning claimed that the strikes in Tehran were actually carried out by small drones or quadcopters.
Hamid Rasaei wrote on his Telegram channel that “the Zionist regime’s agents in Tehran were involved in those attacks and Iranian anti-aircraft guns fired at those microdrones.”
The narrative in the west of the country was different. Images of an Israeli missile’s booster falling in Iraq’s Salahuddin province suggest Israel used the Golden Horizon Air launched Ballistic Missile to hit Iranian radars in the western belt of the country.
The use of Iraqi airspace by Israel was confirmed by the Khatam Al-Anbiya Air Defense Base. It has blamed the US military for allowing Israel to fire air-launched ballistic missiles into Iranian territory from 100 kilometers deep inside the Iraqi soil. No such permission had been granted from Iraqi authorities.
Baghdad was joined by other Arab capitals in strongly condemning the Israeli attack on Iranian soil without referring to the use of its airspace by Israel. The Cradle’s correspondent in Baghdad says, “Iraq did not approve of the use of its skies, but Prime Minister [Mohammed Shia] al-Sudani has no say in this matter because Washington controls the Iraqi airspace, while Iraqi radar systems are old.”
Khatam al-Anbiya has not mentioned Jordan, a country that denies involvement in the Israeli aerial attack despite its track record of defending the occupation state from previous Iranian retaliatory strikes.
Limited success or major damage?
Although the official Iranian media have downplayed the extent and strength of the Israeli strikes, University of Tehran academic and political analyst Mohammad Marandi tells The Cradle that “it was a big operation on the side of Israel and actually a considerable one, as Israelis did a harm to Iranian radar and defense systems.”
Iranian academic Foad Izadi believes “the Israeli attack was not something that many had expected, much less than what was thought it would do.” But, he emphasizes, “(In essence) Israel has no right to strike Iran, whether the strikes are small, medium or large. Iran is an independent country, and attacking another country is a violation of international law.”
Izadi dismisses western claims that Israel’s patently illegal strikes on Iran are justified as “self-defense,” pointing out that, in all cases, Tel Aviv launched the original aggressions while Tehran was legally retaliating.
“Iran fired a barrage of missiles on Israel for the first time in April in the wake of an Israeli attack on the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, that had been conducted despite Tehran’s previous warnings. The second encounter happened following Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran. Iran had the right to respond to the killing of its guest, as well as the events that unfolded in Lebanon including Nasrallah’s assassination.”
Izadi points to a stellar performance by Iran’s air defense systems, in which “Iran was basically able to minimize the effect of this aggression” by Israel.
Marandi, who served as a consultant for the Iranian negotiating team at the last round of Vienna nuclear talks, agrees with the assessment that Iran’s air defenses performed well:
“Iranians had conducted security and intelligence operations ahead of the strikes and succeeded in limiting the extent of damage by dummies and decoys as well as spreading misinformation about sensitive sites.”
As he tells The Cradle, the damage inflicted on Iranian military sites was not grave because “the possibility of a direct confrontation with the United States convinced Iranians many years ago to relocate almost all sensitive sites and strategic production facilities underground. Neither warplanes nor missiles are able to penetrate into those underground facilities.”
“What remains on the ground are small workshops producing missile spare parts and they are scattered across the country, but not near borders, that’s why the strike failed to leave a significant harm,” Marandi adds.
True Promise 3?
Saturday’s direct hits on the Iranian capital and Iran’s provincial military facilities were the first since 1987, when former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s military forces rained missiles on Tehran and other Iranian cities. The psychological impact of targeting Tehran itself cannot be overstated; it represents a symbolic blow that challenges Iranian security and sovereignty and will likely necessitate a meaningful and calibrated response.
That notion was reiterated by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all national security matters. During a meeting with“Martyrs of Security” family members earlier today, Khamenei pointed out that Israel has yet to learn its lesson:
“They (the Israelis) need to understand the power, determination, and innovation of the Iranian nation and its youth. How to convey this power and resolve of the Iranian nation to the Zionist regime is for our officials to determine, and what is in the best interest of the nation and the country should be done.”
Foad Izadi believes a third Iranian attack against the occupation state is likely because “Iran’s leaders are very much in line with the analysis that attacking the country should not become normalized. Mohammad Marandi says Tehran’s retaliation isn’t a matter of if, but when: “Even if Tehran had not been struck and only Ilam had been targeted by the Israelis, the Iranian leadership would have reacted,” he tells The Cradle.
“Iran’s retaliation to April’s Damascus strike took days. After Haniyeh’s assassination, it took months for Tehran to strike back,” Marandi elaborates. Following the Israeli strikes, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council met to get briefed on the targets that were hit and assess the extent of damage. While a possible Iranian military response was reportedly discussed, there is no information yet on whether that decision has been made.
Press TV – October 27, 2024
Iran’s foreign minister says the United States’ complicity in Israel’s act of aggression against the country is “quite clear” as it has provided the regime with military equipment and airspace to conduct the terrorist raid.
Abbas Araghchi made the remarks on Sunday, a day after US officials claimed that Washington was not directly involved with the Israeli assault that targeted military installations and claimed the lives of four Iranian Army forces.
“The US is fully behind the Zionist regime and is complicit in all its crimes. In the operation two nights ago, the Americans’ participation is quite clear to us,” he said.
“The least they (the Americans) did was to provide a space corridor for the Zionist regime, as well as the equipment they already supplied [to Israel] somehow for participation in this operation.”
The top diplomat also noted that the United States bears responsibility for its “completely obvious” partnership in the occupying regime’s atrocities and escalation of tensions in West Asia.
He further said that Israel is committing crimes in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon using US weapons and enjoying Washington’s political support.
“It is a well-proven fact that without the US, Israel has no power in the region,” Araghchi emphasized.
In the early hours of Saturday, Israeli warplanes used the space available to the US military in Iraq to fire long-range air-to-air missiles in Iran’s Tehran, Khuzestan, and Ilam provinces in flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter.
Iran said that the attack was successfully intercepted and countered by the country’s air defense system and that it only caused limited damage to radar sites.
In an X post after the criminal raid, Araghchi said Iran reserves the right to duly respond to this aggression, which cannot be separated from Israel’s genocide in Gaza and bloodshed in Lebanon.
The United States can never tell the truth about Israel or enforce its own laws
By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • October 25, 2024
As the United States national election draws ever nearer the fringe stories that just might influence the outcome are increasing both in magnitude and in number. On Thursday I participated in a fascinating talk sponsored by Washington’s Committee for the Republic, which is “a citizen-based, non-partisan, nonprofit organization founded in 2003 [that] sponsors speakers monthly on challenges to the American Republic, including the military-industrial complex, too-big-to-fail banks, campaign finance, and US competitiveness.” The featured speaker for the evening was Josh Paul who “resigned from the State Department on October 18, 2023, over disagreement with the Biden administration’s unconditional surge of military equipment to Israel. The surge greenlighted Israel to equal or better the instruction of Thucydides: ‘The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.’ Josh is an insider’s insider. He toiled in the State Department for more than 11 years working as a Director in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, which is responsible for US security assistance and arms transfers. He also served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, US Army Staff… Josh holds master’s degrees from the Universities of Georgetown and St Andrews, Scotland. He is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at the organization Democracy Now for the Arab World (DAWN) and a recipient of the 2023 Callaway Award for Civic Courage.”
Josh has cited the wisdom of George Washington’s Farewell Address warning against excessive fondness for any one nation because “[A] passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens.”
One might immediately perceive that George Washington very well described the possible consequences derived from the junior partnership which the United States finds itself locked into in its “wag the dog” relationship with the State of Israel. The “passionate attachment” has been amply demonstrated over the past year of warfare in Gaza in which the US has shamefully showered weapons and money on an Israel that is openly carrying out highly visible war crimes against the Palestinians in an attempt to achieve something like complete removal or extermination of the Gazans.
To my delight, Paul explained how policy making with Israel as the most favored nation works in practice. The United States federal government ignores its own laws to include two amendments of the 1961 Foreign Aid Act, known as the Symington and Glenn amendments, which ban aid to clandestine nuclear powers. Israel has a secret nuclear weapons arsenal that is cleverly ignored through a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” by the US federal government to allow the tribute money payment and other unilateral support to continue. An Energy Department directive actually demands imprisonment for any federal official or contractor who even mentions that Israel might have a nuclear weapons arsenal. To sustain the “nuclear ambiguity” policy on Israel’s weapons program, the government also uses deliberately improper classification to conceal what it is up to.
In addition, there is the Leahy law, which is also completely ignored in its establishment of a process which on paper requires a careful examination of how and when transferred US provided weapons are used, to include examination of possible “gross violations of human rights.” When that is the case, the sale or transfer of weapons is supposed to be denied. Israel, which is committing war crimes right out in the open that amount to a genocide and which has senior government officials calling for extermination of Arabs, is uniquely exempt in practice from such examination while Secretary of State Tony Blinken and his cast of spokesperson-buffoons lie persistently to both the government itself and to the public. They lie every time when they claim that it has not been demonstrated that Israel is guilty of such crimes against humanity, nor even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly mandates a near complete blockade of food and medicines, resulting in starvation and unneeded deaths.
Paul cited an example of how the system works in practice, with Jewish state demanding weapons often followed up with the Israeli Embassy in Washington calling the White House a few hours later asking “What is the hold up?” The White House then sends word down to the Pentagon and State Department to “Get moving on it!” All other countries seeking to purchase American weapons have to go through the vetting process and stand in line to wait their turn.
It seems that Israel always gets what it wants. There has been a great deal of speculation about the surprise decision by President Joe Biden to deploy in Israel a $1.15 billion Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system which will be manned by roughly 100 American soldiers on the ground. An advanced team of the soldiers and the battery itself were reported as having arrived in Israel shortly after the announcement of the deployment, and it turns out that a second battery was already in place in Israel. The commitment ultimately derives from the Biden regime’s frequently repeated unconditional “ironclad” pledge to defend Israel, but it interestingly creates a potential tripwire situation leading to an escalation and a much larger war if American soldiers should die in an Iranian or Hezbollah attack. And there is little to look for on the upside as the soldiers and equipment will be inside a nation which is neither an actual ally nor a friend, as its leader Prime Minister Netanyahu has demonstrated repeatedly over the past year in rebuffing the many proposals regarding mitigating the horror on display in Gaza put forward by Biden. There is also a political price to pay in terms of the US relationship with nations in the Middle East and beyond as the Jewish state is indubitably carrying out a genocide while apparently simultaneously seeking to go to war with all its neighbors to expand its territory to become “Eretz” or “Greater” Israel and establish itself as the preeminent military power in the Middle East. But, at the same time, Netanyahu knows that he needs an active role by the United States as his partner against major powers like Iran to accomplish that goal, which is perhaps why an insistent Israeli leadership somehow was able to pressure the White House into making a commitment of THAAD in spite of the potentially disastrous possible consequences.
So, the United States has absolutely nothing to gain by sending its batteries and soldiers to serve as potential targets in Israel and much to lose. And there has been serious consideration of what the THAAD would be able to accomplish if it did wind up in the middle of a shooting war. Former CIA and State Department officer Larry Johnson describes the THAAD projectile as “a large bullet that is supposed to strike an in-bound missile and break it up. It is a kinetic weapon, i.e., it does not explode.” It is not clear why Israel, which claims to have the best air-defense system in the world, would want or need the THAAD. Beyond that, there is a logistical problem related to the system which Johnson declares to be that “As a tactical and strategic weapon, THAAD is a bust.” There are only nine THAAD launchers in the entire world. Each launcher has mounted on it eight missiles, which means if Iran fires 100 missiles 84% of them will be safe from THAAD even assuming that 100% of the THAAD projectiles from the two batteries score a direct hit. Reloading the system is also complicated and there is a supply problem. Lockheed Martin apparently built only 1,000 missiles for this system which would mean that there will not be a lot of spare parts sitting around in a warehouse in Israel waiting to be sent to the front. Another point not to be ignored is that each missile costs $12.6 million, not exactly cheap ammunition.
There are a number of other factors that might be in play leading to the deployment. Johnson observes that the White House has been negotiating with Netanyahu over possible plans to attack Iran. He believes that it might be “A tangible gesture of support for Israel by the Biden Administration, [which] may be playing a desperation card in order to persuade Israel not to attack Iran.” Some observers note, however, that such a reckless plan relying on good decisions being made by a nuclear armed Israel might go wrong in a number of ways and become a formula for initiating World War 3, which would certainly kill millions of people. At the same time, it is useful to consider what might be achieved by the introduction of the battery and soldiers into an extremely volatile situation as they alone could not deter or even significantly blunt a major Iranian attack. So what is the motive? And what other elements are playing into the decision? And what does the leak of a Top Secret codeword protected US government document exposing the Israeli secret nuclear arsenal and describing possible Israel preparations for a pending Israeli attack on Iran mean?
Even though time is running out, The Washington Post is reporting that Israel has already decided to attack military sites in Iran before the US election. There is some discussion apparently still going on over whether targeting by Israel (possibly joined by the US) will include oil fields and refineries as well as underground nuclear research sites. Having Washington as a partner in the enterprise is just what Netanyahu wants as initiating a new conflict with Iran will invite Tehran’s retaliation, possibly killing the US military personnel inside Israel, and bingo the US will be at war fighting for Israel, which is something that Biden might actually be trying to avoid at least until the US election is over. That is why he, completely out of character, also warned Israel by way of a letter on October 13th that he would give Israel 30 days to undo the blockade of food and medicine going into Gaza, which is causing mass starvation, on humanitarian grounds or he would consider an embargo on some arms being illegally provided to the Jewish state. It did not take much profound analysis of the statement to realize that 30 days will be after the US election and, no matter who wins, it will not be necessary to do anything to punish Israel. The statement is essentially phony and is all about the election. In fact, as a majority of Democratic Party voters oppose Biden/Kamala’s support of what Israel is doing to the Gazans and Lebanese, it might be intended influence the outcome of a close election.
Which leaves us with the TS document that allegedly exposes elements in the Israeli plan of attack. Who leaked it and why? U.S. officials are scrambling to determine how two leaked, highly US classified documents conveying potential Israeli plans to attack Iran got on the Telegram app. According to the New York Times, the documents were prepared “in recent days” by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes information and images collected by America’s fleet of spy satellites.
There are several theories regarding these leaked reports. Trita Parsi, the Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, opines that there are five plausible theories for what is behind the leak. The first theory posits an Iranian hacking of the servers of the US intelligence services and leaking the document as part of their psychological warfare against Israel, suggesting that they have learned Tel Aviv’s top secret war plans, possibly delaying what is intended. The second theory is that a dissident within the US government seeking to prevent or delay the war may have leaked it, but an initial internal investigation has reportedly already moved on to looking for possible outside government perpetrators, though that speculation might itself be a lie.
Third, the Biden administration may have carried out the leak itself in order to delay the Israeli attack until after the election. Biden cannot say “no” to Israel, but he might well illegally expose even top secret intelligence with the aim of confusing preparations and delaying Israel’s planned attack.
Fourth, the Israelis may have obtained or even fabricated the report and leaked it themselves with the objective of confusing Iran and inducing it to look for attackers in all the wrong places. And Five, possibly a close American ally — a Five Eyes state (FVEY) or a NATO ally with access to FVEY intelligence — might have leaked it, suggesting that a friendly country’s government might be so frustrated with Biden’s unwillingness to “stop Netanyahu from starting the largest war in the Middle East since World War II that they are taking matters into their own hands to sabotage Netanyahu’s escalation plan.”
When it comes to THAADs or no THAADs or leaks of top-secret intelligence, the Democrats would like to do whatever it takes to establish a narrative that will help them stay in power. That would include creeping dangerously close to getting involved in what might develop into a major war by blindly adhering to the blandishments of one notably rogue nation to help destroy another nation that in no way threatens the United States. Then the White House and State Department will lie about it all, as will Israel, to cover up what the true intentions and motives of the various players were. That will be the sleight of hands that will be playing out in the next few days. Where is the truth? The truth might itself turn out to be a lie!
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.
Al Mayadeen | October 25, 2024
The Intercept published on Friday an investigation into the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) unprecedented spending strategy in US congressional elections.
This investigation reveals that AIPAC, a historically influential pro-“Israel” lobby, has transformed its tactics from traditional behind-the-scenes lobbying to direct financial involvement in political campaigns.
Ahead of the 2024 cycle, AIPAC announced plans to spend an astonishing $100 million to shape the congressional landscape, making it one of the most influential spenders in US elections.
According to The Intercept’s findings, AIPAC’s newly formed political action committees have injected millions of dollars into over 80% of congressional races in 2024, targeting both Republican and Democratic candidates.
The group’s total involvement includes over $17 million for Republicans and $28 million for Democrats, thus ensuring that pro-“Israel” voices dominate both sides of the aisle.
In the lead-up to the 2022 midterms, AIPAC’s spending marked a new chapter for the organization, which had previously steered clear of direct campaign contributions in favor of issue-based lobbying.
Now, AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has fueled independent expenditures to the tune of $41.9 million, strategically deploying funds through high-impact ads and get-out-the-vote efforts.
While AIPAC has supported candidates across party lines, it has also poured millions into defeating progressive candidates who are critical of US-“Israel” relations, particularly within the Democratic Party.
For instance, AIPAC directed $11.7 million to one race in Missouri against Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a prominent critic, making it one of the most expensive campaigns AIPAC has backed. This financial reach indicates AIPAC’s evolving strategy of reshaping the electoral landscape to stifle critiques of “Israel.”
The PAC has concentrated resources on high-stakes races like those of Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), leading to some of the most expensive Democratic primaries in recent history.
Together, AIPAC’s funds for these high-profile races exceeded $30 million, intensifying its campaign against progressive members of Congress. In a notable victory, AIPAC-backed candidates prevailed over several progressive incumbents who had called for greater scrutiny of US aid to “Israel.”
The Intercept’s investigation further highlights how AIPAC has also partnered with other pro-“Israel” groups, like the Democratic Majority for Israel, and is backed by prominent billionaire donors, some of whom have previously supported former President Donald Trump.
In one example of the far-reaching impact, AIPAC spent $5.1 million against a single congressional candidate in California — a considerable investment, particularly as “Israel” was barely a topic in the race.
The piece concludes that AIPAC’s recent involvement could reshape not only future congressional races but also the larger discourse on US policy in the Middle East, sparking further debate over the role of big money in American politics and the growing influence of special interest groups in shaping foreign policy.
“AIPAC — like every other corporate super PAC — represents the most broken parts of our campaign finance system that gives a handful of billionaires a vehicle to advance their interests at the expense of millions of everyday people,” Usamah Andrabi, a spokesperson for Justice Democrats, which has recruited and backed candidates against AIPAC, told The Intercept.
“If we want to stop rising costs, protect our communities, and prevent another endless war abroad then we need to take big money out of politics once and for all.”
By Kevin Barrett with extensive translated quotes from Al-Jazeera Arabic | October 24, 2024
Who was behind Wednesday’s terrorist attack on Turkey’s leading aerospace company? According to reports, at least five people were killed, and 22 others wounded, when two terrorists attacked the facility with explosives and gunfire before being “neutralized.”
First clue: Turkish president Erdogan “was holding talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin at the time of the attack.” That suggests that one or more members of the “collective West”—in other words, the Zionist-occupied US empire—probably orchestrated the attack as a rebuke or warning to Turkey and Erdogan. And by targeting Turkey’s leading aerospace facility, someone was presumably sending a message of disapproval regarding activities related to that facility: “We know what you’re up to, so don’t even think about it.”
The attack was not only timed to coincide with Erdogan’s meeting with Putin, but also came during the apparent lead-up to an Israeli attack on Iran that is expected to ignite a major regional war. The Turkish government, like its close ally Qatar, is a major supporter of Hamas, whose leaders Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh have been martyred by the Zionists, kindling even stronger global support for the resistance group. At the same time, Israel exercises covert influence in Turkey due to its penetration of the deep state and armed forces with Donmeh (satanic Jewish) traitors.
Israel, which has probably conducted more terror attacks (against both allies and enemies) than all of the world’s other 190+ nations put together, is obviously the leading suspect in the Ankara slaughter. Everyone familiar with the region knows this, but most only say so with hints and whispers for fear of being next on the Zionist terror target list. And though Al-Jazeera English has ignored the elephant in the room, Al-Jazeera Arabic has published an interesting analysis by Saeed al-Haj that discretely echoes the consensus of regional experts. Highlights:
The terrorist attack on the Aerospace Industries Company in Ankara came at a sensitive time in Turkish domestic politics, as well as regional developments, especially the possibility of expanding the “Israeli” aggression in the region, which carries many implications and refers to political, military and security messages to Ankara from several parties.
… the Turkish president has been talking for weeks about the need to “strengthen the internal front” to protect Turkey from external dangers that have begun to threaten it with “Israel’s expansionist policies in the region”, as he put it, and the increasing possibility of a regional war according to Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.
… The attack targeted the largest aircraft manufacturing company in Turkey, owned by the Turkish Armed Forces and the government, which is working on developing the first domestically-made fighter jet, in addition to other projects.
… We recall Erdogan’s statement about the necessity of Turkey strengthening itself in the field of defense industries “so that Israel cannot do what it is doing now,” recalling his country’s military contribution to both Libya and the South Caucasus, and the possibility of repeating this in Palestine, a statement to which the occupation’s foreign minister responded by threatening Erdogan with “the fate of Saddam Hussein.”
This external dimension is also reinforced by the timing of the attack, which coincided with the Turkish president’s participation in the BRICS summit in Kazan, which many view as an economic bloc competing with or alternative to the G7, as it includes countries such as Russia, China and India, which Ankara recently announced its quest for membership. It is important to note the similarity between the name of the city hosting the summit (Kazan) and the Ankara suburb where the targeted company is located (Kazan), regardless of the degree of deliberateness or coincidence in that. (Emphasis mine -KB).
Because Turkey’s pursuit of BRICS membership, in addition to membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, comes in the context of unstable relations with the West, in light of the stagnation of EU accession negotiations and US sanctions due to the Russian S-400 defense system deal and Washington’s procrastination in completing arms export deals (recently F-16 fighters), Turkish-Western tension over the war on Gaza, and Turkey’s apprehension about the role of Greece and Cyprus in any scenario of this kind, this revives the debate about “Ankara changing its direction from the West to the East.
Publicly, Erdogan has blamed the Kurdish separatist terror group PKK and ordered his air force to bomb PKK sites in Syria and Iraq in response to the terror attack. But what most Americans don’t realize is that Turkey is bombing US-Israeli proxies! The PKK-linked Syrian Defense Forces (SDF), directly controlled by the Washington-Tel Aviv axis, controls a quarter of Syria, including its most agriculturally productive and oil-rich regions. Likewise the YPG in Iraq is a Zio-American mercenary force. Both “Kurdish” Israeli-American occupations ship oil to Israel against the wishes of the governments and peoples of Iraq and Syria, and reap massive profits that rightly belong to the legitimate Syrian and Iraqi governments (both of which have ordered US occupation forces to leave).
So Turkey just bombed an American-Israeli occupation army, killing 12 people in Syria and a still-unknown number in Iraq. It is not known whether the Turkish bombings targeting the occupiers of Syria and Iraq killed any of the American or Zionist occupiers.
Conclusion: The likely US-Israeli attack on the Turkish aerospace facility, and the Turkish retaliation against US-Israeli proxies in Iraq and Syria, suggests that when Israel ignites a massive regional war by attacking Iran, Turkey will side with Iran (and Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, and indeed the people of the region). But whether it will do so boldly and openly, or in a more subtle and covert manner, remains to be seen.
For months now, the world has focused on the danger of nuclear war between the United States and Russia. But Iran and Israel could beat them to it.
By Scott Ritter | Consortium News | October 20, 2024
The outbreak of conflict between Iran and Israel appears to have changed Iran’s stance against possessing a nuclear weapon as Israel is poised to strike after Teheran’s retaliation with two major attacks of drones and ballistic and cruise missiles.
Iran has issued at least three statements through official channels since April that has opened the door to the possibility of religious edicts against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons being rescinded.
The circumstances which Iran has said must exist to justify this reversal appear to have now been met.
No mere threats, these statements issued by Teheran should be viewed as declaratory policy indicating Iran has already made the decision to obtain a nuclear weapon; that the means to do so are already in place and that this decision can be implemented in a matter of days once the final political order is given.
The religious fatwa against possessing nuclear weapons was issued in October 2003 by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It reads:
“We believe that adding to nuclear weapons and other types of weapons of mass destruction, such as chemical weapons and biological weapons, are a serious threat to humanity… [w]e consider the use of these weapons to be haram (forbidden), and the effort to protect mankind from this great disaster is everyone’s duty.”
However, the Shia faith holds that fatwas are not inherently permanent, and Islamic jurists can reinterpret the scripture in accord with the needs of time.
Shortly after Iran launched Operation True Promise against Israel in April, Ahmad Haghtalab, an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander responsible for the security for Iran’s nuclear sites, declared:
“If [Israel] wants to exploit the threat of attacking our country’s nuclear centers as a tool to put pressure on Iran, it is possible and conceivable to revise the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear doctrine and policies to deviate from previously declared considerations.”
In May, Kamal Kharrazi, a former foreign minister who advises the Supreme Leader, declared: “We [Iran] have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine.”
And earlier this month Iranian lawmakers called for a review of Iran’s defense doctrine to consider adopting nuclear weapons as the risk of escalation with Israel continues to grow. The legislators noted that the Supreme Leader can reconsider the fatwa against nuclear weapons on the grounds that the circumstances have changed.
These statements, seen together, constitute a form of declaratory policy which, given the sources involved, imply that a political decision has already been made to build a nuclear bomb once the national security criterion has been met.
Has the Capability
Iran has for some time now possessed the ability to manufacture and weaponize nuclear explosive devices. Using highly enriched uranium, Iran could construct in a matter of days a simple gun-type weapon that could be used in a ballistic missile warhead.
In June Iran informed the IAEA that it was installing some 1,400 advanced centrifuges at its Fordow facility. Based upon calculations derived from Iran’s on-hand stockpile of 60 percent enriched uranium hexaflouride (the feedstock used in centrifuge-based enrichment), Iran could produce enough highly enriched uranium (i.e., above 90 percent) to manufacture 3-5 uranium-based weapons in days.
All that is needed is the political will to do so. It appears that Iran has crossed this threshold, meaning that the calculus behind any Israeli and/or U.S. attack on Iran has been forever changed.
Iran has made no bones about this new reality. In February, the former chief of the Atomic Energy Organization, Ali-Akbar Salehi, stated that Iran has crossed “all the scientific and technological nuclear thresholds” to build a nuclear bomb, noting that Iran had accumulated all the necessary components for a nuclear weapon, minus the highly enriched uranium.
Two weeks later, Javad Karimi Ghodousi, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security Commission, declared that if the supreme leader “issues permission, we would be a week away from testing the first [nuclear bomb]“, later adding that Iran “needs half a day or maximum a week to build a nuclear warhead.”
A simple gun-type nuclear weapon would not need to be tested — the “Little Boy“ device dropped on Hiroshima by the U.S. on Aug. 6, 1945 was a gun-type device that was deemed so reliable that it could be used operationally without any prior testing.
Iran would need between 75 and 120 pounds of highly enriched uranium per gun-type device (the more sophisticated the design, the less material would be needed). Regardless, the payload of the Fatah-1 solid-fueled hypersonic missile, which was used in the Oct. 1 attack on Israel, is some 900 pounds—more than enough capacity to carry a gun-type uranium weapon.
Given the fact that the ballistic missile shield covering Israel was unable to intercept the Fatah-1 missile, if Iran were to build, deploy, and employ a nuclear-armed Fatah-1 missile against Israel, there is a near 100 percent certainty that it would hit its target.
Iran would need 3-5 nuclear weapons of this type to completely destroy Israel’s ability to function as a modern industrial nation.
Consequences of Pulling Out of Iran Nuclear Deal
This situation came about after President Donald Trump in 2017 withdrew the U.S. from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the JCPOA, better known as the Iran nuclear deal. The driving factor behind the negotiation of the JCPOA, which took place under President Barack Obama, was to shut down Iran’s pathway to a nuclear weapon. As Obama said,
“Put simply, under this deal, there is a permanent prohibition on Iran ever having a nuclear weapons program and a permanent inspections regime that goes beyond any previous inspection regime in Iran. This deal provides the IAEA the means to make sure Iran isn’t doing so, both through JCPOA-specific verification tools, some of which last up to 25 years, and through the Additional Protocol that lasts indefinitely. In addition, Iran made commitments in this deal that include prohibitions on key research and development activities that it would need to design and construct a nuclear weapon. Those commitments have no end date.”
Early on in his administration, in June 2021, after Trump had already pulled the U.S. out of the deal, President Joe Biden declared that Iran would “never get a nuclear weapon on my watch.”
The director of U.S. National Intelligence said in a statement released Oct. 11 that, “We assess that the Supreme Leader has not made a decision to resume the nuclear weapons program that Iran suspended in 2003.”
In the aftermath of Trump’s precipitous decision to withdraw from the JCPOA, Iran took actions which underscored that it no longer felt constrained by any JCPOA limits.
Iran has expanded its nuclear program by installing advanced centrifuge cascades used to enrich uranium and scaled back International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) monitoring of its nuclear program. In short, Iran has positioned itself to produce a nuclear weapon on short order.
While the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) currently believes that the Supreme Leader has not made the political decision to do so, an assessment published in July contains a telling omission from past assessments of Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
The February 2024 ODNI assessment noted that, “Iran is not currently undertaking the key nuclear weapons-development activities necessary to produce a testable nuclear device.”
However, this statement went missing from the July 2024 assessment, a clear indication that the U.S. intelligence community, due in large part to the reduction in IAEA inspection activity, lacks the insight into critical technical aspects of Iran’s nuclear-related industries.
Senator Lindsey Graham, after reading the classified version of the July 2024 ODNI report on Iran, said he was “very worried” that “Iran will in the coming weeks or months possess a nuclear weapon.”
What Confronts the US & Israel
This is the situation confronting Israel and the United States as they decide on an Israeli retaliation against Iran for the Oct. 1 missile attack.
Iran has indicated that any attack against its nuclear or oil and gas production capabilities would be viewed as existential in nature. That could trigger the reversal of the fatwa and the deployment of nuclear weapons within days of such a decision being made.
President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday that he knows when and where Israel will strike but refused to say. Leaked U.S. intelligence documents in recent days showed the limits of U.S. knowledge of exactly what Israel plans to do.
The United States and nuclear-power Israel have long said that a nuclear-armed Iran was a red line which could not be crossed without severe consequences, namely massive military intervention designed to destroy Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.
That line has been crossed — Iran is a de facto nuclear power, even if it hasn’t taken the final steps to complete the construction of a nuclear bomb.
The consequences of attacking Iran could prove fatal to the attackers and possibly the whole region.
Glenn Greenwald | October 17, 2024
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Al Mayadeen | October 21, 2024
The United States will work on providing the Israeli regime with a special emergency aid package of $5.2 billion, aimed at augmenting Israeli air defense systems, Israeli media reported on Monday.
The Director General of the Israeli Security Ministry, Major General (Res.) Eyal Zamir, and Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Williamn La Plante, engaged in an exchange of letters to implement the emergency aid package.
According to Israeli media, the funds will be allocated to developing, enhancing, and expanding the Iron Dome, David Sling, and Iron Beam systems.
The $5.2 billion will be part of the broader package approved by the US administration and Congress of $8.7 billion. The remaining $3.5 billion will be allocated to the Israeli Procurement Mission in the US, which will use the vast funds to make purchases on the behalf of Israeli occupation forces.
US rushes to patch up Israeli air defense systems
The Israeli regime has one of the world’s densest networks of air defense systems, a significant portion of which has been financed by the US.
Moreover, the US has recently deployed a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in Israeli-occupied territories, aimed at further bolstering Israeli air defense capabilities. This comes after the embarrassing performance of Israeli air defenses against Iran’s ballistic missile strike, which was conducted on October 1, 2024.
Moreover, Israeli air defenses have struggled against low-budget one-way attack drones launched by the Axis of Resistance. Most recently, a swarm of drones penetrated Israeli-occupied territories, traveling a 70 km distance from the Palestinian-Lebanese border.
One of the drones was seen flying right past an Israeli Apache attack helicopter, before impacting the residence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Caesarea.
Yemen Threatens US With Quagmire Worse Than ‘Hell of Vietnam’
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 21.10.2024
The Yemeni militia began a stream of drone and missile attacks targeting merchant ships suspected of ties to Israel last November, and started attacking US and British warships in January amid a Pentagon-led effort to “degrade” its capabilities through airstrikes. Nearly one year and $5 billion later, the US operation has yet to achieve its goals.
Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer has called on colleagues from both parties in the Senate to ramp up the US sanctions regime against Yemen’s Ansar Allah (Houthi) militia, urging lawmakers to act amid the Biden administration’s inaction on proposed tougher restrictions.
“In recent months, the Houthis, as part of Iran’s Axis of Evil, have escalated their attacks, launching drones and ballistic missiles directly at Israel,” Gottheimer wrote in a letter to Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and Minority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday, with the ‘Axis of Evil’ rhetoric an apparent throwback to the early 2000s Bush-era term which culminated in the invasion of Iraq.
“Despite this escalation, the State Department reaffirmed their decision not to reimpose the [Foreign Terrorist Organization] designation on the Houthis. This is deeply troubling, and underscores the need for Congressional action. Currently, a similar version of this bill exists in the Senate, with bipartisan support,” Gottheimer, a member of the House select committee on intelligence, and one of the Democratic Party’s most steadfastly pro-Israel House lawmakers, added.
“The Houthis have been targeting ships they believe are destined for Israel using ballistic missiles, drones, and even hijacking vessels by boarding them from a helicopter,” Gottheimer wrote, pointing out that “since March 14th, there have been more than 77 reported attacks on ships in the Red Sea by Houthi rebels. The Houthis’ indiscriminate targeting threatens the more than 117,000 ships that travel through the Bab el Mandeb Strait annually and has forced thousands of ships belonging to companies such as AP Moller-Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd, CMA CGM, and BP to reroute their vessels away from the Red Sea and delay the delivery of goods key to the international supply chain.”
“The Houthis have forged alliances with anti-democratic, authoritarian regimes that violate the values our two nations strive to promote and uphold,” the lawmaker added.
“Recently, the Houthis reached an agreement with [Russia and China] pledging not to target Russian or Chinese vessels. This new alignment potentially bolsters the Houthis militarily and grants significant economic advantages to Russia and China at the expense of our economies and national security,” the letter claimed.
The Biden administration partially reimposed Trump-era sanctions on the Houthis in January, re-adding the group to the Treasury’s ‘Specially Designated Global Terrorist’ listing, which allows for the blocking of any assets designated persons or entities may have in the United States by the Treasury. In the case of the Houthis, the restrictions appear to be largely symbolic, with most of the movement’s leadership believed to be entrenched in Yemen and never setting foot in the United States.
The White House has yet to re-list the Houthis under its ‘Foreign Terrorist Organization’ (FTO) sanctions, citing humanitarian concerns, including access to food and medicines, and fears of a repeat of the dramatic humanitarian crisis Yemen suffered in the wake of a US-backed Gulf coalition’s blockade of the country after the Houthi revolution. Those opposed to the designation fear that reinstating it would worsen Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, while doing little to impact the Houthis’ military capabilities.
Since the Houthis began their campaign of attacks on ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinian late last year, the US has spent nearly $5 billion on deployments in support of Israel in the Middle East, including billions on a flagging military campaign against the militia. According to a recent calculations by Brown University’s Costs of War Project, the US has spent $2.4 billion on costs associated with operating carrier strike groups and other missions against the Yemeni militia, plus $50-$70 million for additional combat pay to officers and troops.
US-UK attacks have done little to ease tensions, with the Houthis instead ramping up their shipping attacks, and missile and drone attacks on Israel directly – including a July drone strike in Tel Aviv which slammed into a building 100 meters from a US consulate, and a missile attack earlier this month which slipped past Israeli missile defenses and landed in central Israel.
On Monday, Jamal Ahmed Ali Amer, foreign minister of the Houthi-led National Salvation Government, commented on rumors of suspected US plans to launch a invasion of the strategic Yemeni port city of al-Hudaydah, warning that “if [the US] acts rashly” and proceeds with the operation, “the hell of Vietnam will be just a walk in the park.”
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
By Lisa Pease | Consortium News | September 16, 2013
More than a half century ago, just after midnight on Sept. 18, 1961, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others went down in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). All 16 died, but the facts of the crash were provocatively mysterious. … continue
Aletho News If Americans Knew No Tricks Zone
Aletho News 