The Israeli regime is in legal trouble, but what does this actually mean?
By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | May 30, 2024
Within the space of one week, the Israeli regime was hit with two major legal blows, first from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and then from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). While these measures may not actually translate to any tangible changes on the ground for now, the chronic effects may prove irreversible.
Prior to the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by the armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, the political predicament of the Palestinian cause was that it remained on life support. Although the majority of United Nations member states would annually vote on the so-called Two-State solution model on bringing about a resolution to the conflict, there were no real efforts to translate this unanimous consensus into a reality on the ground.
It was interpreted throughout most of the world, including in the United States and the Zionist entity, that the Palestinian question was effectively stuck and was not even worthy of attention. Therefore, the US government pursued normalization deals with the Arab regimes and believed that Israeli efforts to Judaize the holy sites in occupied al-Quds and the Naqab, as well as to annex areas in the West Bank, were not going to impede their mission to reach a prized Saudi-Israeli deal.
Meanwhile, the situation on the ground for Palestinians grew even more dire. While in the past there were certain political limits as to how far internationally renowned Human Rights groups could go in their criticisms of Israeli policy and practices against the Palestinians, this somewhat eased as there was not even talk of any developments in favor of Palestinians politically. Therefore, we saw the likes of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International, and the top Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, release reports justifying why they identified “Israel” as an apartheid regime.
It is telling that these human rights reports, which in the cases of HRW and Amnesty were voluminous and provided copious sources, were able to essentially affirm what Palestinian human rights groups had been saying for decades. What was most significant about these reports, however, is that they did not stop at condemning Israeli conduct in the West Bank, Gaza, and the eastern part of al-Quds, but chose to shine a light on the entirety of occupied Palestine.
Despite the condemnations by Israeli leaders, who predictably labeled the reports “antisemitic”, it became clear that these were not deemed as consequential to the point of triggering any form of change in policy. Yet, this is where it all started to go terribly wrong for the Zionist entity.
In this post-October 7 setting, we are now living in a world where the Palestinian cause is not only internationally relevant, it is the most popular issue of its time. The entire world is fixated on the Palestinian struggle and the ongoing atrocities in Gaza, and millions of people are consistently taking any action they can to support the Palestinian cause for national liberation. This is all happening without there even being a unified Palestinian leadership.
It is in this context that the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ruled in favor of South Africa’s submission accusing the Israelis of violating the Genocide Convention. The ICJ voted unanimously to impose provisional measures on the Zionist regime to prevent genocide in Gaza. This may not have actually stopped the war in Gaza, but the effects of the Israeli regime being plausibly accused of committing genocide in the top legal authority on earth will remain now forever.
The reason why the accusation of genocide against the self-proclaimed “Jewish State” is so damning, is because the entire Israeli invention narrative surrounds the idea that the reason why they have a right to exist as a state is because they were themselves subjected to a genocide. So, if “Israel” is seen to be a regime that conducts genocide, it cannot on the other hand use the excuse they need to exist because of genocide.
On Friday, the ICJ accepted the South African submission requesting further provisional measures be adopted by the court, asserting that “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.” What it also did was specifically deem it necessary to “reaffirm” that the Israelis must abide by the initial provisional measures ordered by the court. If the Zionist entity directly chooses to violate the ICJ’s orders, which are considered binding by the United Nations, it could trigger further action against it and work against its favor in the ongoing genocide case.
In addition to this, the decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC)’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, to finally request arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Yoav Gallant now also piles on even more pressure.
The way this now looks for the Zionist entity is as follows; they are a genocidal, apartheid regime that is committing crimes against humanity and are run by wanted war criminals. This is the case, as more and more nations around the world continue to recognize Palestine as a state and cut ties with the Israeli regime.
It is also apparent that this genocidal apartheid regime, run by war criminals, cannot possibly conclude any kind of deal to resolve the situation by allowing a so-called “Two-State solution”. There are no major political parties that could plausibly come to power after Netanyahu’s coalition that would accept the idea of creating a Palestinian State, nor is there any effort going on to create a viable roadmap to a peaceful solution.
For any objective observer the reality today couldn’t be any more obvious: “Israel” is an entity that is based upon total Jewish supremacy and will not allow a reality in which Palestinians can have human rights. If the Palestinian people are roughly equal to the size of the Jewish Israeli population in the entirety of historic Palestine, or what the Zionists would call “Greater Israel”, then the only way to maintain the Zionist regime in which only Jews are granted the right to self-determination, is either in maintaining an indefinite system of apartheid or choosing to conduct a mass campaign of ethnic cleansing or genocide.
It is inevitable that when people are subjected to apartheid rule, they will revolt and resist. Both the Israeli regime and its Western backers wanted this to be a status quo, to maintain apartheid and periodically allow the Zionists to mass murder the Palestinians in order to “put them in their place.” Until October 7, the US-Israeli agenda was succeeding, although the Resistance in Gaza would go to war with the Zionists every few years, these armed flare-ups never inflicted a big enough wound on the Israelis to change the equation. This is why the Zionist entity would refer to its wars with Gaza as “mowing the lawn”, they believed it to be necessary and sadistically saw it as a calculated approach.
When the Palestinian Resistance finally broke down the gates of their concentration camp on October 7, all previous understandings were torn to shreds. The Zionist army, its intelligence agencies and weapons technology were dismantled and disgraced. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood shook them to their core, as neither the Israelis nor their American allies ever believed that such a defeat could be inflicted upon them. It is at this moment that they both decided that genocide would be the new goal and that apartheid could not work within the Gaza Strip. This is why the Zionists have no idea what to do in the besieged coastal territory, they evidently believed that after eight months they would have at least weakened the resistance in Gaza, but they even failed to do this and their deliberate annihilation of civilians and their homes has not led to victory.
Politically the Zionist entity is trapped, it understands there are limits imposed on what is possible for them to do in the Gaza Strip, such as the mass ethnic cleansing of the population into the Egyptian Sinai, so they are without a clue as to how they must proceed.
While the Zionist regime’s leadership tries to buy time and look for a way to achieve a victory, in order to at least save their political careers, they set the stage for future Israeli internal strife. All as the Lebanese Resistance lay waste to their military sites and settlements in the North, displacing over a hundred thousand settlers and debunking the idea that the Israeli military has the capacity to take on Hezbollah. The Israeli economy is being devastated, the Yemeni blockade in the Red Sea is incredibly effective and even the Iraqi Resistance are able to lob missiles and drones towards them at will, with no real response. On the battlefield in the Gaza Strip, their ill-trained occupation soldiers fight without discipline, returning to their families in body bags and with life-changing injuries, losing motivation by the day, due to fighting an endless battle with no goals.
The Zionist entity is now in real legal trouble, faces a legitimacy crisis, and only promises one thing to both the world and its own settler population, a future of war and battle for ethnic supremacy. Most of the world’s population is looking on in utter horror at what they see occurring in Gaza, they are sick to their stomachs at what the Western regimes are backing and seek an immediate end to this disgusting racist regime’s never-ending civilian massacre.
Although the ICJ and ICC decisions may seem meaningless in the short term, as did the flood of human rights groups labeling the Zionist Entity an apartheid regime, these are nails that will in due time be nailed into the Israeli coffin. The Israelis have sealed their fate, their apartheid regime is coming to an end, whether this is to occur quickly through a war of liberation or through a longer drawn out process.
Global Elections Face Growing Censorship Threat: The Rise of “Prebunking”
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | May 28, 2024
The feverish search for the next “disinformation” silver bullet continues as several elections are being held worldwide.
Censorship enthusiasts, who habitually use the terms “dis/misinformation” to go after lawful online speech that happens to not suit their political or ideological agenda, now feel that debunking has failed them.
(That can be yet another euphemism for censorship – when “debunking” political speech means removing information those directly or indirectly in control of platforms don’t like.)
Enter “prebuking” – and regardless of how risky, especially when applied in a democracy, this is, those who support the method are not swayed even by the possibility it may not work.
Prebunking is a distinctly dystopian notion that the audiences and social media users can be “programmed” (proponents use the term, “inoculated”) to reject information as untrustworthy.
To achieve that, speech must be discredited and suppressed as “misinformation” (via warnings from censors) before, not after it is seen by people.
“A radical playbook” is what some legacy media reports call this, at the same time implicitly justifying it as a necessity in a year that has been systematically hyped up as particularly dangerous because of elections taking place around the globe.
The Washington Post disturbingly sums up prebunking as exposing people to “weakened doses of misinformation paired with explanations (…) aimed at helping the public develop ‘mental antibodies’.”
This type of manipulation is supposed to steer the “unwashed masses” toward making the right (aka, desired by the “prebunkers”) conclusions, as they decide who to vote for.
Even as this is seen by opponents as a threat to democracy, it is being adopted widely – “from Arizona to Taiwan (with the EU in between)” – under the pretext of actually protecting democracy.
Where there are governments and censorship these days, there’s inevitably Big Tech, and Google and Meta are mentioned as particularly involved in carrying out prebunking campaigns, notably in the EU.
Apparently Google will not be developing Americans’ “mental antibodies” ahead of the US vote in November – that might prove too controversial, at least at this point in time.
The risk-reward ratio here is also unappealing.
“There aren’t really any actual field experiments showing that it (prebunking) can change people’s behavior in an enduring way,” said Cornell University psychology professor Gordon Pennycook.
Ex-RAF Copter Pilots Sue UK Defense Ministry For Exposure to Cancer-Causing Agents
By Oleg Burunov – Sputnik – 29.05.2024
Almost 40 former UK Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots and aircrew who have developed cancer as a result of toxic exhaust fumes from military helicopters are taking legal actions against the Ministry of Defenсe (MoD), The Times has reported.
The government has been aware of the fumes-related risks since 1999, but did nothing about it, according to testimony from sick personnel and their family members.
The number of those who have sued the MoD is predicted to double in the coming weeks. At least three of those affected are already understood to have died, with some former service personnel being handed out-of-court settlements.
The pilots who traveled in Sea King, Westland Wessex, Puma and CH-47 Chinook helicopters have been diagnosed with lung cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, throat cancer, multiple myeloma, and testicular cancer. Notably, while Sea King and Westland Wessex choppers were retired, Puma and Chinook remain in service in the RAF.
Those affected reportedly include personnel of all ranks, “from those in the highest positions in the armed forces to leading aircrew and sergeants.”
Jonathan Dingle, a leading barrister at Normanton Chambers who is working on the cases, told The Times that engine jet efflux gases, which contain benzene carcinogens, that “were apparently being sucked through the cabin and out again through the cockpits — mixing as the air which everyone onboard the aircraft was breathing.”
The pilots, however, “were not provided with masks or filters or purified air or any form of filtration system. They were not warned about the whole system,” Dingle added.
A MoD spokeswoman has meanwhile reacted by stating that the ministry “hugely” values its service personnel and veterans and owes “a debt of gratitude to all those who serve, often with great personal sacrifice.” According to the spokeswoman, those who “believe they have suffered ill health due to service from April 6, 2005 have the existing and longstanding right to apply for no-fault compensation under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.”
Smotrich says West Bank Palestinian Resistance ‘must be fought like in Gaza’
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, during a news conference in Jerusalem, Israel, on Monday, Feb. 5, 2024 [Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
MEMO | May 29, 2024
Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who also serves in the Defence Ministry, stated today that Palestinian Resistance groups in the Occupied West Bank “must be fought like in Gaza.”
According to the Times of Israel, Smotrich’s remarks came after sporadic gunfire from the West Bank village of Tulkarm targeted the Israeli town of Bat Hefer in the central Sharon region.
The identity of those responsible for the gunfire into Bat Hefer remains unclear, and Israeli politicians’ claims that Palestinians were involved could not be independently verified.
“We must not allow them to do in the Sharon what they did on October 7 near the Gaza border,” Smotrich wrote on X. “Terror needs to be uprooted anywhere, even if it means Tulkarm will look like Gaza looks today,” he added.
Smotrich further added that a future Palestinian State would pose “an existential threat to the State of Israel.”
The far-right Minister also stated that he has spoken with Emek Hefer Regional Council head, Galit Shaul, and agreed to hold a meeting in the coming days with other officials “to address the immediate needs arising from the increased threat to the residents.”
Former Biden Homeland Security Official Criticizes Free Speech, Cites “Disinformation” Impact on Election Security
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | May 28, 2024
A former Biden administration official has declared that disinformation around elections is “becoming the norm rather than the exception.”
Samantha Vinograd, until recently of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), also asserted that these days, because of what she considers to be election disinformation, “there is an unprecedented level of physical threats” while the US information ecosystem is “incredibly vulnerable.”
Dramatic and alarmist statements like this may be necessary to justify the rest of Vinograd’s message, which in effect attacks free speech, as it is legally protected in the US.
Appearing on CBS, Vinograd – who was until last December Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention – warned that the First Amendment might protect free speech, but that engaging in free speech is apparently not “cost-free.”
The Face the Nation hosts framed the problem as, essentially, federal laws (the Constitution) protecting speech, but the damage being done at the state level – and then what states, who organize elections, can do to fix that “problem.”
Spreading lies about candidates, as they put it, was given as an example of legal, protected speech becoming an issue by having the ability to create “a threat at the state level” – and asked Vinograd who she thought was supposed to correct the situation.
Vinograd – who has been bouncing between various administrations (including those of Bush and Obama, and private companies like Goldman Sachs and Stripe before landing at Biden’s DHS) – seemed to suggest that Big Tech (i.e., social media companies) should be assisting the government.
The federal government said Vinograd, “should not be the omnipresent fact checker for the American people.”
And even though, according to her, the government is debunking information about elections that is deemed to be inaccurate, social media companies “should be thinking about what kinds of election disinformation violate their terms of service.”
It’s difficult not to take this as a not-so-veiled added pressure on social platforms to not only continue with censoring content but perhaps expand it in terms of what qualifies as election disinformation.
Either way, Vinograd is in favor of enlisting “every American” to help out as well (although it is not clear in what specific way), invoking even the concept of patriotic duty.
And Vinograd did not miss the opportunity to assert that election misinformation threats are now of such magnitude as to present a national security issue.
Israel’s Mossad chief threatened ICC prosecutor and family in covert intimidation campaign
MEMO | May 28, 2024
The former head of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, personally threatened Fatou Bensouda, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and her family in a series of covert meetings, the Guardian has revealed in a shocking report exposing the clandestine campaigns of the apartheid state to thwart ICC probes into war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israeli leaders.
Several sources have revealed that Yossi Cohen personally threatened the ICC‘s then chief prosecutor, Bensouda, and her family in a series of clandestine meetings aimed at pressuring her to abandon her inquiry into possible war crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The covert campaign is said to have been authorised at the highest levels of the Israeli government, with Cohen using bullying, blackmail and intimidation tactics against Bensouda. Sources say Cohen raised questions about Bensouda’s security and that of her family in a menacing manner on at least three occasions between late 2019 and early 2021.
In one disturbing incident, Cohen allegedly showed Bensouda photographs taken covertly of her husband during a trip to London. On another occasion, he suggested that proceeding with a full investigation would be detrimental to her career. One source briefed on the meetings said Cohen told Bensouda:
“You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”
The threats were part of a coordinated smear campaign by Israel to undermine Bensouda, which also involved Mossad actively seeking compromising information on the prosecutor and her family members. The spy agency obtained transcripts of an apparent sting operation against Bensouda’s husband, which Israeli diplomats then unsuccessfully attempted to use to discredit her.
Bensouda was so alarmed by Cohen’s increasingly threatening behaviour that she took the extraordinary step of briefing a small group of senior ICC officials about the incidents. Three sources familiar with her formal disclosures said she revealed Cohen had pressured her on several occasions not to proceed with the criminal investigation.
Mossad’s targeting of Bensouda was just one part of a nearly decade-long covert “war” waged by multiple Israeli intelligence agencies against the ICC. Israel’s actions underscore the lengths it is willing to go to shield its citizens from prosecution for their involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Palestinian territories.
However, Cohen’s intimidation tactics ultimately failed to deter Bensouda or the court. In March 2021, she announced the opening of a formal investigation. The move infuriated the Israeli government, which had long opposed the ICC inquiry and even vowed to try to dismantle the court.
Bensouda began her work to open a war crimes investigation into Israel’s actions following the 2014 onslaught on Gaza, despite facing intense pressure and opposition from Israel and the US. In December 2019, the Gambian lawyer announced that she had concluded her preliminary examination and determined that all the statutory criteria under the Rome Statute had been met to open a formal investigation. This move was met with further condemnation and threats from Israel and the US, with the administration of former US President Donald Trump imposing sanctions on Bensouda and other ICC officials in response.
In February 2021, the ICC’s pre-trial chamber ruled that the court did indeed have jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories, paving the way for Bensouda to open a formal investigation in March 2021. The landmark decision was hailed as a victory for accountability and justice by Palestinian officials and human rights groups. Bensouda’s term as chief prosecutor ended in June 2021, leaving her successor, Karim Khan, to take up the investigation and build on her work to hold those responsible for war crimes in Palestine accountable.
The investigation has now taken a dramatic turn under Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan. Last week, Khan announced he was seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, over the country’s conduct in Gaza. The landmark case marks the first time the court has taken action against leaders of a country closely allied with the US and Europe.
Khan himself has not been spared from threats, warning recently that he would not hesitate to prosecute “attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence” ICC officials. While declining to comment on specific allegations, an ICC spokesperson confirmed that Khan’s office had been subjected to “several forms of threats and communications that could be viewed as attempts to unduly influence its activities”.
The revelations about Israel’s covert operation against Bensouda have been met with outrage from legal experts and former ICC officials. Efforts by the Mossad to threaten or pressure the prosecutor could amount to offences against the administration of justice under the Rome Statute, the treaty which established the court.
One individual briefed on Cohen’s activities accused him of using “despicable tactics” in a ultimately futile effort to intimidate Bensouda, likening his behaviour to “stalking”. Another source said: “The fact they chose the head of Mossad to be the prime minister’s unofficial messenger to [Bensouda] was to intimidate, by definition. It failed.”
The Drive for War
By Craig Murray | May 18, 2024
The collective shrug with which the Western media and political class noted the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has been telling.
Can you imagine the outrage and emotion that would have been expressed by Western powers if not Fico but a pro-Ukraine, anti-Russian leader within the EU had been attacked? The new orders for weapons that would have been presented to the arms manufacturers, the troops that would have been deployed, the sabres that would have been rattled?
Instead we have the media telling us that Fico opposed sending arms to Ukraine and opposed threatening Russia. We are told he did not accept the mainstream narrative on Covid vaccinations. The media do not quite say he deserved to be shot, but they come very, very close.
Fellow EU leaders followed correct form in making statements of shock and disgust at the attack on Fico, but they were formal and perfunctory. The “not actually one of us” message was very clear.
There are now an ordered set of neoliberal beliefs to which anybody in a Western nation participating in public affairs must subscribe, or they are beyond the pale.
Not to subscribe to all of these beliefs makes you a “populist”, a “conspiracy theorist”, a “Putin puppet” or a “useful idiot”.
These are some of the “key beliefs”:
No. 1) Wealth is only created by a small number of ultra-wealthy capitalists on whom the employment of everybody else ultimately depends.
No. 2) The laws governing financial structures must therefore tend to concentrate wealth to these individuals, so that they may deploy it as they choose.
No. 3) State-created currency must only be concentrated in and distributed to private financial institutions.
No. 4) Public spending is always less efficient than private spending.
No. 5) Russia, China and Iran pose an existential threat to the West. That comprises both an economic threat and a physical, military threat.
No. 6) Colonialism was a boon to the world, bringing economic development, trade and education to people of inferior cultures.
No. 7) Islam is a threat to Western values and to world development.
No. 8) Israel is a necessary project for spreading Western values to the uncivilised Middle East.
No. 9) Security necessitates devoting very substantial resources to arms production and the waging of continual war.
No. 10) Nothing must threaten the military and arms industry interest. No battle against corruption or crime can override the need for the security military industrial complex to be completely unchallenged and internally supreme.
Dependent Orthodoxies
Within this architecture of belief, other orthodoxies hang dependent, such as the correct way to respond to a complex pandemic, or support for NATO and impunity for the security services. (Support for Israel is probably better portrayed as a dependent point, but with the subject of Gaza so prominent at the moment I have figuratively moved it into the main structure.)
Any deviation on any point of belief is a challenge to the entire system, and thus must be eradicated. You will note there is no room whatsoever, within this architecture of thought, for values like freedom of speech or freedom of assembly. They simply do not fit. Nor is it possible within this architecture to incorporate actual democracy, which would give people a choice of what to believe.
If you accept this architecture of thought, then you must argue that the genocide in Gaza is a good thing, and it threatens the entire structure if you state that it is not a good thing. That is why we have witnessed the spectacle of politicians defying and then repressing their own people, willing to place all of their political capital at the service of genocidal Zionism.
Words struggle to convey the horrors we have all seen from Gaza, and in no way does it lessen the terrible suffering nor the extent of the crime to observe that it has caused a major rift in the neoliberal belief system which cannot be hidden from the people.
Gaza has ramifications leading to questioning throughout the system. Why is Tik Tok being banned, to stop people getting information on Gaza? Why is it a problem that the platform is owned by China?
What has China done that makes it an enemy? China has no military designs on the West. Of recent purchases most of us have made of physical goods, a high proportion have come from China. Why is an important trade partner an “enemy”?
Why is Russia our enemy? The notion that the Russian army is going to land on the Wash is utterly implausible. The Russian state, over centuries and wildly differing regimes, has never had the slightest desire to invade the British Isles. In the U.K., under various governments, for almost three centuries charlatans have been claiming a threat of Russian invasion to justify higher defence expenditure.
Why the need to have “enemies” at all?
Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. His coverage is entirely dependent on reader support.
Remembering Those Who Died for Our Government
By Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF | May 28, 2024
Each Memorial Day, countless Americans recite the standard mantra that has been inculcated within their minds from the first grade of the public (i.e., government) schools to which their parents were forced to send them: American soldiers who died in America’s wars died to protect our freedoms and defend our country.
Each Memorial Day, it is worth reminding ourselves that such is simply not the case. American soldiers who died in those wars died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
And, yes, our government and our country are two separate and distinct entities, a phenomenon reflected by the Bill of Rights, which expressly protects our country from our government.
Afghanistan. The Taliban government never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. The reason that the U.S. government went to war against Afghanistan was that the Taliban regime refused to comply with President Bush’s unconditional extradition demand, which the Taliban regime had the right to do given that there was no extradition treaty between the United States and Afghanistan. Thus, U.S. soldiers who died in Afghanistan died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Iraq. Iraq never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. Thus, U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Vietnam. North Vietnam and the Vietcong never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Korea. North Korea never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
World War II. While Japan did attack the United States, it was not with the intent of invading and conquering the United States. Japan’s aim was simply to knock out the U.S. Pacific Fleet to secure oil from the Dutch East Indies. The attack was a response to President Roosevelt’s oil embargo, whose aim was to provoke Japan into attacking the United States, as a “back door” to getting the U.S. embroiled in the European War against Germany, which the vast majority of Americans opposed. While a German victory over the United States in Europe combined with a Japanese victory in the Pacific might well have threatened people’s freedom here at home, it is worth reminding ourselves that American soldiers died as a result of FDR’s success in securing U.S. intervention into the war.
World War I. Germany never attacked or invaded the United States and had no interest in a war against the United States. President Wilson intervened in the European conflict with two war aims: make this the war to end all wars and to make the world safe for democracy. Thus, U.S. soldiers died for our government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
Spanish-American War. The Spanish Empire never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. Thus, U.S. soldiers died for their government, not to protect our freedoms or our country.
It’s also worth reminding ourselves that the government for which U.S. soldiers have died conscripted many of them to fight in the war in which they died. When a government has to force people to fight its wars, that’s a pretty good sign that soldiers have actually died for nothing.
Report: Israeli Settlers, IDF Team Up to Destroy Gaza Aid Amid ‘Full-Blown Famine’
By John Miles – Sputnik – 27.05.2024
Extremist settler groups are setting upon food trucks passing through the West Bank, assaulting the drivers and burning their cargo.
Video has emerged in recent weeks of Israeli West Bank settlers attacking and destroying aid trucks headed for the besieged Gaza Strip, reportedly with the acquiescence and even active participation of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and police.
A series of such instances was documented in a report by the Washington Post Sunday that described how extremist Israelis work together to plan the assaults with the help of security forces.
“The settler groups use a web of publicly accessible WhatsApp groups to track the trucks and coordinate attacks,” the newspaper reported. ”Groups of settler youth are tailing relief convoys, setting up checkpoints and interrogating drivers. In some cases, far-right attackers have ransacked and burned trucks and beaten Palestinian drivers, leaving at least two hospitalized.”
“Working off what they say are tips from Israeli soldiers and police, in addition to the public, members pore over photos to work out which vehicles might be carrying aid to Gaza and mobilize local supporters to block them.”
An attack on Thursday took shape after participants in a chat group with over 800 users spotted a truck carrying sugar. Israeli settlers descended upon the vehicle, tossing out its cargo, which its driver claimed was intended for a town in the West Bank. IDF soldiers cleared the scattered bags of sugar with a bulldozer before destroying them.
“The attack happened in front of the army,” claimed the owner of the truck, while its driver claimed IDF soldiers stood by as the ransacking took place.
“The environment around us is fed by hate and revenge,” lamented the chair of a Palestinian business group.
Other trucks have been burned by the settlers. One Palestinian driver suffered a broken nose, ribs and vertebrae after being attacked by a group of Israeli protesters who asked him whether he was “a Jew or Arab.” The driver’s vehicle was destroyed and his $200,000 worth of goods was lost.
“It’s not our job to stop them, it’s our job to protect them,” said one female IDF soldier, defending the military’s failure to stop the attacks.
An anonymous White House official claimed the Biden administration is considering sanctions on settlers involved in the incidents, although no action has yet been taken. Previous US sanctions on a handful of Israeli settlers were reversed after complaints from controversial Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, according to reports in Israeli media.
The World Food Program reports northern Gaza is in a state of “full-blown famine,” with food scarcity spreading south.
“I’m happy for every truck that doesn’t enter Gaza,” said 23-year-old Yosef de Bresser, a leader of an extremist settler group. “I’m also happy to see it catch fire.”
Request submitted to ICC against EU’s Von der Leyen for Gaza genocide
Al Mayadeen | May 27, 2024
The Geneva International Peace Research Institute, GIPRI, submitted a communication to the International Criminal Court (ICC), signed by two Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) Associates, Professor Richard Falk and TFF director Jan Oberg, urging the Court to investigate the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen for complicity in war crimes in the occupied Palestine territories including Gaza.
On May 22, GIPRI sent a communication to the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC saying that reasonable grounds exist to believe that “the unconditional support of the President of the European Commission to Israel – military, economic, diplomatic and political – has enabled war crimes” and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
They said that the various human rights and prominent academics and experts in international criminal law endorsed the communication and urged the prosecutor to launch investigations based on the information they provided against Von der Leyen.
GIPRI added that Von der Leyen “personally is criminally responsible and liable for punishment for some of the war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide,” which have been committed and are still being committed by the IOF in the occupied Palestine territories, emphasizing that she has “aided, abetted and otherwise assisted in the in the commission or attempted commission of such crimes” which includes giving the means for this commission under Article 25(3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the Court.
As Ukrainian casualties soar, EU will move to conscript European youth to fight, warns Hungarian FM
Remix News | May 27, 2024
Ukraine’s high causality rates combined with its struggle to conscript its own population means the EU will increasingly move to conscript European youth, mostly in the geographical proximity of Ukraine, to fight against Russia, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó following a meeting with EU foreign ministers.
“Ukrainian casualties are becoming more and more unbearable, Ukrainian men are not being allowed out of Ukraine, and now they want to conscript European youth into the war. And obviously, as the escalation hits this neighborhood first, one can almost clearly hear the argument that the soldiers should be sent from the geographical proximity first. All this means that they want to send Central European youth, including Hungarian youth, to the war with mandatory European conscription,” said Szijjártó during an interview with Hungarian media.
The Hungarian foreign minister said he would be firmly opposed to any efforts to institute a European mandatory conscription effort, stating: “Hands off Central Europeans, hands off Hungarian youth, we will not allow Hungarian youth to be involved in the war, because this is not our war.”
Szijjártó did not disclose which foreign ministers or member states are exploring the possibility of a European conscription effort, but recently, several countries have said they would consider sending their own troops to Ukraine if Russia had a breakthrough on the Ukrainian front, including France and more recently, the Baltic states.
However, a long-term goal of the left-liberal establishment in Brussels is the creation of an EU military force, including removing the decision-making process about defense from member states and centralizing it in Brussels. Under such a proposal, a potential conscription effort could arise that applies to all EU member states.
Szijjártó described an extremely intense atmosphere at the Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels before the European Parliament elections. He stated that the mood turned sour when those present began to talk about the release of €6.5 billion for Ukraine, which the Hungarian foreign minister rejected, saying it would only escalate the war. However, his position came under extreme pressure from a number of other countries.
“And there was a big mess here. The German, Lithuanian, Irish, Polish and other colleagues fell against me in this matter, but this could not shake our position, despite the shouting of Europe’s pro-war politicians,” he said.
“They think that if they shout from many directions, then I will say that it is good, it is fine. However, they should already know us well enough to know this won’t happen,” he added.
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