Do Trump’s Slick Comments Put Iran Talks in Jeopardy?
By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | May 6, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump’s unexpected answer on Sunday to an interviewer’s question has thrown his administration’s nuclear negotiations with Iran into confusion.
Trump has consistently said that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program are limited to preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon: “You know, it’s not a complicated formula. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” But in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, when the interviewer asked Trump, “Is the goal of these talks limiting Iran’s nuclear program or total dismantlement?” Trump answered, “Total disarmament.”
There has been disagreement in the Trump team over, not just the goal of negotiations with Iran, but, more fundamentally, over negotiating with Iran. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz advocated for a military path, while Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Vice President J.D. Vance advocated for caution. Vance urged fully exploring talks before settling for a military solution. Trump sided with the diplomacy camp, believing that “we can make a deal without the attack.”
According to reporting by The Washington Post, Trump fired Waltz as National Security Advisor because he opposed Trump and “wanted to take U.S. policy in a direction Trump wasn’t comfortable with because the U.S. hadn’t attempted a diplomatic solution.” Waltz maintained that “the time was ripe to strike Iran.”
Having agreed on the diplomatic path, there appeared to be confusion over the goal of diplomacy. Waltz said that the U.S. is demanding “full dismantlement,” and Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said that “a Trump deal” means “Iran must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program.” But these statements had been at odds with Trump’s more limited stated goal. Until Sunday.
If there was a lack of clarity in America’s goals in negotiating, there was no ambiguity in Iran’s. Iran wanted a deal that the United States couldn’t walk away from, as they walked away from the previous 2015 JCPOA nuclear agreement, and they wanted negotiations to lead to three things.
The first is that negotiations have to lead to a cessation of U.S. threats of a military solution. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had made it clear that “the language of threats and coercion is absolutely unacceptable… It is unacceptable for someone to come along and say, ‘Don’t do this, don’t do that, or else.’ I won’t come to negotiate with you.”
The second is that negotiations have to lead to the complete lifting of sanctions.
The third is that, while Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has fully empowered his team to negotiate, he has placed the firm limit that Iran will not negotiate “the full dismantling of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.”
The American-Iranian talks were showing signs of success. Iran called the first round “constructive” and “respectful.” The U.S. called it “constructive” and “positive.” The first round led to a second, which led to an agreement to begin work on a framework for a potential deal and a third round of talks.
Then a flurry of confusing and contradictory statements made by U.S. officials in the past few days began to derail the talks.
First, Pete Hegseth returned to the language of threats. Referring to Yemen’s Houthi attacking vessels in the Red Sea, Hegseth “warned” Iran, “You know very well what the U.S. Military is capable of… You will pay the CONSEQUENCE at the time and place of our choosing.” From Iran’s perspective, what is the point in negotiating limits on your civilian nuclear program to avoid American bombs if the United States is going to bomb you anyway for another purpose?
Then Trump returned to the threat of sanctions, posting that “Any Country or person who buys ANY AMOUNT of OIL or PETROCHEMICALS from Iran will be subject to, immediately, Secondary Sanctions. They will not be allowed to do business with the United States of America in any way, shape, or form.”
Following those two statements, the fourth round of scheduled talks between the United States and Iran were postponed. They were allegedly postponed “[f]or logistical reasons.” However, a senior Iranian official said that “U.S. sanctions on Iran during the nuclear talks are not helping the sides to resolve the nuclear dispute through diplomacy” and that “[d]epending on the U.S. approach, the date of the next round of talks will be announced.”
Then came the unexpected threat to future talks. Trump told Meet the Press that the talks are not negotiating what the Iranians thought they were negotiating. The United States he said, is not negotiating verifiable limits on Iran’s civilian nuclear program, it is demanding “total dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program.
“That’s all you’ll accept?” the interviewer clarified. “Yeah, that’s all I’d accept,” Trump confirmed.
The interviewer then, wrongly, suggested that Trump’s statement was inconsistent with Marco Rubio, his Secretary of State’s, suggestion that the U.S. “would accept… a peaceful, civilian nuclear program.”
Trump’s statement is not inconsistent with Rubio’s, though, because Rubio’s statement that Iran can have a civilian nuclear program by importing uranium enriched up to 3.67% but no longer by enriching their own, is consistent with Trump’s statement that Iran would have to dismantle its enrichment capability.
Though Trump’s statement may not be inconsistent with Rubio’s, it did, at this point, become a little confused with itself. Trump suggested that Iran has no need of a civilian nuclear program “to make electricity” because “they have so much oil, what do they need it for.” Trump then, confusingly repeated his earlier formulation, saying, “The only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon.” He said, “I think that I would be open to hearing” about a civilian nuclear program to generate energy before seemingly shutting it down again with the observation that “civilian energy often leads to military wars.”
The recent return by Washington to military threats and sanctions are not helping negotiations that seemed to be on a path to possible success. Trump’s latest remark that Iran has to fully dismantle its civilian nuclear program and stop all enrichment appears to take away any motivation for Iran to negotiate. Since Trump has said that “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” it is imperative to clarify the confusion and the positions and get the fourth round of talks back on schedule.
UCLA Gaza protesters sue over police violence, rubber bullet injuries
Al Mayadeen | May 5, 2025
A new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court accuses law enforcement of police brutality during a violent crackdown on pro-Palestine protesters at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in spring 2024.
At the height of nationwide demonstrations against “Israel’s” war on Gaza, the UCLA encampment became a central site of student-led protest. On April 30, a pro-“Israel” mob attacked the encampment for more than four hours. Protesters say that police stood by as counter-demonstrators launched fireworks, sprayed chemical agents, and engaged in harassment and sexual assault, according to The Intercept.
The following day, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, UCLA officials, and multiple law enforcement agencies coordinated plans to dismantle the encampment. On May 1, the encampment was forcibly cleared.
On February 12, 2025, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine (GSJP) were placed on interim suspension.
Police response: coordination and forceful dispersal
More than 700 police officers descended on campus, including members of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), California Highway Patrol (CHP), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, University of California Police Department, and private security forces.
During the raid, law enforcement fired over 50 rounds of rubber bullets into the crowd, striking multiple protesters in the head. Several individuals were hospitalized, including one who sustained internal bleeding and another whose hand bones were shattered, requiring surgery and extensive rehabilitation.
Protesters are now suing both the state of California, which oversees CHP, and the city of Los Angeles, which oversees LAPD. The suit argues that the use of rubber bullets by LAPD and CHP amounted to excessive force and violated protesters’ constitutional rights.
Legal violations: restricted rubber bullets and protesters’ rights
Following mass protests in 2020 against the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, California lawmakers passed a law limiting the use of kinetic impact projectiles, commonly known as rubber bullets. The legislation bans their use at protests unless there is an objective and immediate threat to life or serious injury.
The lawsuit states that officers’ actions at the UCLA encampment violated this law. Attorney Becca Brown, representing the plaintiffs, emphasized that the indiscriminate firing of such projectiles is both illegal and dangerous.
“They cannot be used simply because someone is non-compliant,” she explained.
Despite UCLA’s revised protocols following 2020 to minimize reliance on external police forces, CHP, typically less involved in protest response, played a prominent role in the May 1 raid.
An LAPD after-action report later attempted to justify the force used, citing incidents like a protester throwing a traffic cone or removing a police helmet. However, the report admitted communication breakdowns among agencies and recommended improved command clarity.
Chilling effect: trauma, criminalization, and fear of future protest
The lawsuit includes plaintiffs such as a UCLA Ph.D. candidate, an undergraduate student, another student from a different university, and an architectural designer. All were struck with rubber bullets, several in the head. Beyond physical injuries, the plaintiffs say the crackdown has severely impacted their willingness to participate in future demonstrations.
“The encampment clearance by means of violence, excessive force, and kinetic energy projectiles traumatized Plaintiffs,” the complaint reads. “It justifiably made them less willing to engage in any further Palestine-related protest activity.”
One plaintiff, Abdullah Puckett, now fears future retaliation if he returns to protest. The complaint states that he is “more hesitant and afraid,” and has had to reevaluate the extent of his participation in pro-Palestine demonstrations.
Broader implications: political accountability and state repression
More than 200 people were arrested during the UCLA encampment clearance. LAPD later requested over $500,000 in reimbursement for the operation, which included 2,400 overtime hours, according to the Daily Bruin. The arrests resulted in criminal records for many students.
Lawyers say those records are now being used by the Trump administration to conduct background checks on international students and potentially flag them for deportation.
“For international students that may have been arrested at any of these encampments, that got flagged and could be subject to deportation under Trump’s fascist policies,” said Ricci Sergienko, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
Sergienko criticized Democratic leaders such as Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Bass, arguing that their actions laid the groundwork for broader state repression. “These attacks also happened in Democratic-run cities and blue states,” he said.
He also warned of mounting censorship in academia, pointing to a proposed bill in California that targets ethnic studies programs under the pretext of combating antisemitism. “That’s another attack on speech coming from the blue state, the liberal paradise of California,” he said.
During a recent screening of the documentary The Encampments at UCLA, police were once again called in. LAPD officers arrested three students.
Hind Rajab’s killers identified
MEMO | May 5, 2025
A human rights organisation has revealed the identity of the Israeli officer directly responsible for the killing of Palestinian child Hind Rajab, her family, and the two medics who tried to save her in the Tel al-Hawa neighbourhood, Gaza City, on 29 January 2024.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Hind Rajab Foundation, an independent NGO based in Brussels, said: “We now publicly name the commander responsible for killing Hind:
Lieutenant Colonel Beni Aharon
Commander of the 401st Armoured Brigade of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) at the time of the killing.”
The organisation said the identification followed a more than year-long investigation. It also confirmed it had identified the brigade’s soldiers, field commanders, and operations officers who took part in the attack under Aharon’s command.
The foundation asserted that it “has filed a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague” to issue an arrest warrant for Lt. Col. Beni Aharon, adding, “we are preparing additional legal complaints against the battalion’s officers.”
The Hind Rajab Foundation is a legal and human rights branch of the March 30 Movement. It was established in memory of Hind Rajab and focuses on bringing Israeli soldiers accused of war crimes against Palestinians to justice.
Israeli military operations in Gaza, fully backed by the United States, have continued by land, sea, and air since 7 October 2023. More than 170,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured so far, with many still trapped under the rubble.
Trump pushes for ‘total dismantlement’ of Iran’s nuclear program
RT | May 5, 2025
US President Donald Trump has said he wants Iran to completely scrap its nuclear program, as negotiations between the two countries have been postponed.
The president was asked by Kristen Welker on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday whether he was aiming to limit or completely abolish Iran’s nuclear program.
“Total dismantlement. Yes, that is all I would accept,” Trump said. He questioned the necessity of the Islamic Republic having nuclear technology for electricity generation.
“They have so much oil – why do they need it? … Civilian [nuclear] energy often leads to military wars. And we don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. It’s a very simple deal,” he said.
“I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon because the world will be destroyed,” Trump added.
He made his remarks after Omani Foreign Minister Badr Al-Busaidi announced that the fourth round of indirect, mediated US-Iran talks, planned for Saturday, had been postponed indefinitely “for logistical reasons.”
The negotiations, previously described by both sides as constructive, have been overshadowed by tensions in Yemen, where the US and Britain have ramped up airstrikes against the Houthi militants.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to retaliate after a Houthi ballistic missile landed near Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv on Sunday, injuring eight people.
The Houthis said they were aiming for a “comprehensive air blockade” of Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza. Iran denied directing the attacks, calling such claims “misleading.”
Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 UN-backed deal on Iran’s nuclear program during his first term in office, accusing the Islamic Republic of secretly violating the agreement. Tehran has denied any wrongdoing but has since rolled back its own commitments under the deal and increased its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned last month that the country would resist any “pressure and threat” from the US.
Did the Israeli Embassy Order My Arrest?
Richard Medhurst | May 3, 2025
Emails show Israeli foreign influence in UK’s legal system: the Attorney General’s Office provided the Israeli Deputy Ambassador with contact information of UK prosecutors and counterterrorism police, in the same period that journalist Richard Medhurst and other British reporters and activists were arrested by CT police in a government crackdown. This raises questions about the impartiality of the Crown Prosecution Service and the degree of foreign meddling in the UK’s judiciary.
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Richard Thomas Medhurst (1992) is an independent journalist, political commentator, and analyst from the United Kingdom with a focus on international affairs, US politics, and the Middle East. Medhurst is known for his coverage of the Julian Assange extradition case in London, as one of the only journalists to report on the trial of the WikiLeaks founder from inside the court.
He has also covered the Iran nuclear deal talks on the ground in Vienna. Medhurst was born in Damascus, Syria.
His father is English and mother is Syrian. Both his parents served in United Nations Peacekeeping and Observer missions and were among the UN Peacekeepers awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. Owing to his parents’ professional mobility, he has lived in Syria, Pakistan, Switzerland, and Austria. He speaks four languages fluently: English, Arabic, French, and German.
As an independent journalist, Medhurst regularly hosts live broadcasts and video reports on his YouTube channel. Previous guests include the Foreign Minister of Venezuela, the Dep Foreign Minister of Iran; the Palestinian, Russian and Cuban ambassadors to the United Nations in Vienna; the former British Ambassador to Syria; and various UN officials, journalists, and more. Medhurst’s reports and analysis on Yemen, Ukraine, Syria, Niger, Lebanon, Iran, the Israeli occupation in Palestine and its genocide in Gaza have gone viral countless times, racking up millions of views.
Richard Medhurst has a combined following of roughly one million people online, and appears regularly on international news outlets including Al Jazeera, WikiLeaks, Black Agenda Report, Al Mayadeen, The Times, LBC, and others.
‘Israeli pride’ – Celebrating rape in the Zionist entity
By David Miller | Al Mayadeen | May 4, 2025
Shoshana Strook, the daughter of far-right Israeli settlements minister Orit Strook who has accused both of her parents and one of her brothers of raping her as a child, has published a video alleging that they filmed her rape for use as child pornography and that criminals have threatened her with the publication of the video for accusing them. Ms Strook travelled to Italy to disclose her allegations but has now returned to “Israel”, where she asks Israeli police to protect her from her parents and from the blackmailers.
Settler, genocidal racist, abuser?
But who is Orit Strook?
Orit Strook helped to spread the totally false fabricated claims that the Palestinian Resistance committed sexual assaults during Al-Aqsa Flood. She, of course, has stated there is ‘no such thing’ as a Palestinian people. Strook is part of the fascist Jewish Power party (led by Itamar Ben-Gvir) and sits in the Knesset as part of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism.
In 2007, Orit Strook’s son, Zviki Strook and his friends had entered a Palestinian neighbourhood, captured a 15-year-old boy, handcuffed and beat him, stripped him, and allegedly hit him with an ATV (all-terrain vehicle) before leaving him tied up in a field. The victim escaped hours later, suffering from severe injuries.
Zviki was also reported to have killed a newborn goat at the scene by kicking it to death. He was convicted on charges related to the attack and served 30 months in an Israeli prison.
But the Strook family is not the only one in the Zionist colony seemingly addicted to abuse. And nor is abuse confined to the far right, the settler movement, or ultra-orthodox Haredi sects. There is a sickness which permeates the whole settler society.
Most Israeli men say forced sex with acquaintance is not rape, as reported in an academic survey. Six out of 10 men said forced sex was not rape – and so did four out of 10 women. The results illustrated, the author said, the Israeli public’s “tolerant attitude to rape by an acquaintance”.
System failure
The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in “Israel” reports that police responses to sexual offences exhibit ‘Systematic failure’: Most complaints are not investigated by police – over 80% of sex offense cases in “Israel” are closed without action.
Gang rapes are a common feature of Israeli life. In one particularly awful case in Eilat in 2020 a 16 year old was raped by 30 men who reportedly stood in line waiting for their turn.
Amid a rise in high-profile gang rape cases in schools, The report found that most victims (63%) of reported gang rapes in 2018 were girls between the ages of 12 and 18.
In one case in the southern town of Netivot of the settler colony in 2019, a 13-year-old girl reported that she was repeatedly raped by four boys who were three or four years above her at the school. In another case in the North the same year, eight suspects between 14 and 16 were investigated for multiple rapes of an eleven year old girl.
If anything rape is seen as a sort of right for the Jewish supremacists who run the colony.
Who can forget the heroes’ welcome for a gang of Jewish rapists returning from Cyprus after their crimes had been revealed back in 2019. Haaretz ran the headline “Sex-party Boys Cleared of Rape in Cyprus Get Heroes’ Welcome in Israel.” There were shouts of ‘Israeli pride!’ from friends and family at Ben-Gurion Airport, “then they opened a bottle of Champagne”.
Of course, in that particular case, the victim was effectively bullied into recanting her testimony and was then convicted of lying about the events in Cyprus. It took years before the legal system admitted that it was wrong, by which time the perpetrators were long gone.
Meanwhile yet another case of young Jewish rapists occurred in Cyprus in 2023. As The Times reported, “On September 3, 2023, a week after arriving at the party hotspot popular with British teenagers, she was allegedly abducted, pinned down and raped by five Israeli men after being dragged from a pool party into their hotel room.” But they got off, “judges returned a not guilty verdict and the five defendants were free to return home to the northern Israeli town of Majd al-Krum, about 11 miles from the Lebanon border.”
In April this year, however, the Cypriot Attorney General appealed the acquittal.
Zionists love rape
Zionists, in other words, love rape. They don’t have any real concept that it is abuse, or if they do, they glory in their ability – their right – to commit abuse. Even the former President of “Israel”, Moshe Katsav, has been convicted of rape.
Zionist entity haven for child rapists
Many accused American pedophiles have reportedly fled to “Israel”, taking advantage of the Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to Jews, with minimal barriers.
Jewish Community Watch (JCW), an American organization tracking these paedophiles, reports over 60 suspects fleeing from the US to “Israel”, though the actual number is certainly higher due to limited resources and knowledge.
The Matzof Association, which monitors paedophilia in “Israel”, estimates that tens of thousands of offenders operate each year, affecting around 100,000 victims annually.
It’s even been suggested by some Zionists that the regime is attempting to legislate to make the rape of children easier.
According to the government of the Zionist entity, there was “a 24 percent increase in children and teenagers treated by authorities after being sexually abused from 2019 to 2020, according to Welfare Ministry figures released Tuesday.”
According to the data, “10% of the victims were aged 3-6, 44% were 7-12 and 46% were 13-17.” About “half the cases of abuse were allegedly committed by family members. Some victims were abused by several people. Actual abuse numbers are thought to be much higher as many cases go unreported, according to experts.”
Paedophiles appear to be liberally spread throughout the global zionist movement. A former leader of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the World Jewish Congress, as well as a long-time Labour MP, Greville Janner was alleged by more than thirty complainants to be a serial paedophile, but the police failed to properly investigate.
Strikingly, his three children all defended him, claiming that the allegations were all invented for nefarious purposes. His daughter, Laura Janner Klausner, is a Rabbi, and not just any old Rabbi. She is the former senior rabbi of Reform Judaism.
Reform Judaism – or to give it its full name, ‘The Movement for Reform Judaism‘ – is the notionally reform-minded sect within Judaism, which, however, remains, in its own words, ‘unequivocally Zionist’. It is closely allied with Liberal or Progressive Judaism in the World Union for Progressive Judaism (which is also Zionist) and has had its own case of an abusive Rabbi.
In other words, we should be clear that the alleged practice of paedophilia (and denial of it) is not confined to the ultra-orthodox, but also manifested among mainstream Zionists (the United Synagogue, also Zionist, to which Janner senior adhered) and on the liberal end of the spectrum.
What is true for their own children and for their women in general is, of course, magnified when it comes to non-Jews and in particular Palestinians: Women, Children, and men too.
The testimony of Ibrahim Salim revealed that sexual torture is routine, including the rape of children. He reported: ”For sexual torture they used to call out prisoners individually. When we were at Sde [Teiman] we heard that they raped someone. We went crazy when we heard that… When we heard that they actually raped him. They even raped children. I swear to God, there was a young guy from Zeitoun who was raped. Not a young man, a child. He was 15 years old.”
In the rape and torture camp at Sde Teiman, even the Western media have reported the mass rape of Palestinian hostages. And when video evidence was released there was a virtual insurrection to prevent the rapists being arrested or prosecuted.
“Israel” appears to be the only place in the world where there are actual demonstrations defending rapists as national heroes precisely because of their crimes.
So, of course, the Western media has been full of allegations about sexual crimes by the Palestinian Resistance for the past 18 months. All of these have been proven to be false, many of them actually invented and spread by the rescue group Zaka. The founder of Zaka, Yehuda Meshi Zahav, who died in 2022, attempted suicide in 2021, after accusations of rape and pedophilia emerged in the daily Haaretz. Several people “testified that they were sexually assaulted by him days after he received the Israel Prize for his contribution to Israeli society. He then refused the prize because of the charges against him.”
Every Zionist accusation is a confession.
Israeli TV producer’s call for Holocaust against Gaza population sparks outrage
Press TV – May 4, 2025
A recently unearthed social media post by Elad Barashi, an Israeli producer associated with Channel 14, has sparked public outrage and condemnation for advocating a Holocaust against Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
In the controversial social media post originally published in Hebrew on February 27, Barashi called for “a cruel and harsh death” for all Gazans, including women and children.
“Who is the fool who says there are ‘innocents’ in Gaza? Who is the despicable scoundrel who wants to let them flee to Arab countries or Europe freely?” he wrote.
In his lengthy post, Barashi made the claim that the entire population of Gaza “deserve death.”
“Men, women, and children — by any means necessary, we must simply carry out a Shoah [Holocaust] against them — yes, read that again — H-O-L-O-C-A-U-S-T!”
“Without fear, without weakness — just crush. Eliminate. Slaughter. Flatten. Dismantle. Smash. Shatter,” he added.
“Without conscience or pity — children and parents, women and girls — all of them are marked for a cruel and harsh death.”
Outraged social media users have criticized Elad Barashi for his recently resurfaced post, condemning the “graphic description” of death for all Gazans and dehumanization of Palestinians.
Channel 14 is a far-right television network widely seen as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s favored platform for interviews and messaging.
Barashi, a researcher and producer for shows such as “Story Night” and “Israel Morning” on Channel 14, has been peddling Israeli propaganda to the network’s audience.
Top UN expert urges trial for EU officials over complicity in Israel’s war crimes
Press TV – May 4, 2025
The top expert on Palestine at the UN has called for senior EU officials, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas to face prosecution for their complicity in Israeli war crimes committed in Gaza.
“The fact that the two highest figures of the EU continue business as usual engagements with Israel is beyond deplorable,” said UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese in an interview ran by The Intercept on Saturday.
“I’m not someone who says, ‘History will judge them’ — they will have to be judged before then. And they will have to understand that immunity cannot equate with impunity,” she added.
Israel has killed nearly 52,500 people and destroyed Gaza’s entire civilian infrastructure. Most of the dead have been civilians, including tens of thousands of children and women.
Israel’s initial aim of exchanging captives with Hamas has turned into a US-backed vision for ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza.
To that end, the Israeli military has increased its lethal attacks after breaking a 2-month ceasefire deal with Hamas on March 18.
It has enforced a complete blockade on humanitarian aid, electricity, food, and water since March 2, marking the longest aid blockade since the start of the genocide nearly 19 months ago.
Human rights organizations have repeatedly called on the EU members to boycott Israel and stop selling weapons to the regime.
Nonetheless, since taking office in December, Kallas has blamed Hamas for Israel’s decision to end the ceasefire, continued normal diplomatic relations, and vowed to “stand in solidarity with Israel.”
A complaint against Leyen, the European Commission president, was also filed at the International Criminal Court last May for complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Evidence has shown that the EU has turned into a foundation upon which, the member countries contact and make deals with the Israeli regime.
Beyond demanding accountability from EU leaders, Albanese has said she has been working on a report that will expose banks, pension funds, tech companies, and universities for complicity in Gaza’s destruction.
“All those implicated and involved in the unlawful occupation, in providing it with support, are aiding and abetting violations of international law and human rights violations, and a number of these amount to crimes,” she said.
“There can be individual responsibility and individual liability for those who have been aiding and abetting or enabling such crimes,” she added.
Agent Waltz?
By Daniel McAdams | Ron Paul Institute | May 3, 2025
The Washington Post is reporting today that recently-ousted National Security Advisor Mike Waltz may have been involved in activities even more nefarious than inviting journalists onto highly sensitive Signal group chats. It appears that what really angered President Trump is less Waltz’s incompetence (or worse) in keeping sensitive military communications secure, but rather his taking an active role in doing the bidding of a foreign government.
As the Post reported, in advance of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s February visit to the United States the US National Security Advisor to President Trump…
… appeared to have engaged in intense coordination with Netanyahu about military options against Iran ahead of an Oval Office meeting between the Israeli leader and Trump, the two people said.
That means that Mike Waltz was working with a foreign government to maneuver President Trump into a situation where war seemed the only option left to deal with Iran. That kind of manipulation is a classic neocon move and one that Waltz’s ideological allies managed with great success against President George W. Bush regarding Iraq.
According to one insider quoted in the article, Waltz, “wanted to take U.S. policy in a direction Trump wasn’t comfortable with because the US hadn’t attempted a diplomatic solution.”
That means the former NSA was working with a foreign leader to limit the diplomatic and military options his boss could choose from, i.e. he was working to hobble the United States so as to achieve an objective of a foreign regime.
The WaPo piece continues…
‘If Jim Baker was doing a side deal with the Saudis to subvert George H.W. Bush, you’d be fired,’ a Trump adviser said, referring to Bush’s secretary of state. ‘You can’t do that. You work for the president of your country, not a president of another country.’
To his credit, President Trump recognized that Waltz was blowing Bibi’s smoke at him and rather than bite at the trap sprung for him the President saw through the game and became annoyed possibly at both of them. The fiasco one month later, where Waltz claimed that neocon scribbler Jeffrey Goldberg’s contact information had somehow been “sucked up” into his phone and then presumably spit out again when it came time to invite top Administration officials onto a call to discuss military strikes on Yemen, may have been the straw that broke Trump’s waning patience in the man.
Last month, the Grayzone published leaked audio of Israel lobby AIPAC’s CEO, Elliott Brandt, “describing how his organization has cultivated influence with three top national security officials in the Trump administration – Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Director Mike Waltz, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe – and how it believes it can gain ‘access’ to their internal discussions.”
Was the Waltz/Netanyahu trap for Trump the result of this “cultivated influence” that Brandt is bragging about? And if so, how much deeper does it go?
Whatever the case, it’s lucky for Waltz that he was “only” acting as an agent for our Greatest Ally ™ and Only Democracy in the Middle East ™. Otherwise he’d be soon enjoying the hospitality of Bukele’s All Male B&B rather than the rather more luxurious digs at 50 United Nations Plaza.
US House to vote on bill criminalizing boycott of Israel
Press TV – May 3, 2025
The US House of Representatives is set to vote on a controversial bill that proposes fines or prison terms for Americans participating in boycotts of Israel or Israeli settlements, promoted by international governmental organizations such as the UN or EU.
The House is scheduled to vote Monday on the contentious anti-boycott act, which seeks to penalize American citizens with fines up to $1 million or prison terms as long as 20 years for boycotting the Israeli regime.
Sponsored by pro-Israel congressmen Mike Lawler and Josh Gottheimer, the bill will broaden the US anti-boycott law by targeting voluntary, values-based political actions undertaken by American citizens.
The underlying objective is to shield the Israeli regime from non-violent international pressure campaigns, notably the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS).
Rights groups warned that the legislation will criminalize constitutionally protected political expression.
The move, according to rights groups, is part of a broader push by the US government to suppress opposition to Israeli genocide, apartheid, and illegal settlement expansion, under the guise of fighting anti-Semitism.
The original act was introduced in 2024. Back then the Republican-controlled Congress passed this bill with broad bipartisan support, but the Senate Democrats blocked the legislation.
Now that Republicans control the Senate as well, there is a significant chance that the act will pass both Congress and Senate.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the most powerful Israeli lobby group in the US, said it “strongly supports” the act.
The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) Action has already supported the legislation and broader congressional campaigns to push back against anti-Israeli boycotts.
The majority of anti-Israeli boycotts aim to force the regime to end its genocidal war on Gaza that has taken the lives of more than 52,500 Palestinians and injured at least 118,000, most of whom are children and women.
The Israeli regime has put Gaza on a total blockade for 2 months and barred the entry of all humanitarian aid, including food, which according to the UN’s Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), has driven the territory’s 2.3 million population toward famine.
Melissa Jane Kronfeld: American Zionist who campaigns for demolition of al-Aqsa Mosque
By Maryam Qarehgozlou | Press TV | May 3, 2025
A viral video captures pro-Palestinian protesters chanting “war criminal” at Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a convicted terrorist supporter and advocate for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, during a confrontation at the US Capitol in Washington, DC.
The demonstrators can be heard shouting “Shame on you!”, “Free Free Palestine!” and “War Criminal!” as Ben-Gvir, who has previously called for the expulsion of Palestinians and the destruction of the al-Aqsa Mosque, aggressively screams and attempts to lunge at them.
Accompanying Ben-Gvir in the video is Melissa Jane Kronfeld, seen filming and verbally assaulting protesters, who had convened at the Capitol for Muslim Hill Days (April 28–29), an annual event organized by the US Council of Muslim Organizations (USCMO) and other Muslim advocacy groups.
The gathering aimed to engage members of Congress on Capitol Hill to push for a ceasefire in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip and an end to the ongoing genocidal war and blockade.
This event overlapped with Ben-Gvir’s visit to the US Congress.
But who, exactly, is Melissa Kronfeld, the woman visibly incensed by pro-Palestine protesters at the US Congress, while accompanying Ben-Gvir?
A New York native, Kronfeld boasts a résumé spanning international relations, international law, national security, and Jewish philosophy, with academic credentials from George Washington, New York University, Rutgers, and Bar-Ilan University.
She is an American-Israeli propagandist, college lecturer, and political advisor who has spoken at conferences around the globe, including at the White House and Capitol Hill. Kronfeld is also a frequent commentator across pro-Zionist print, television, radio, and podcast news outlets.
Over the years, Kronfeld has worked with, joined, or supported numerous pro-genocide Zionist organizations, including the World Jewish Congress, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, StandWithUS, the Zionist Organization of America, and the Republican Jewish Coalition, among others.
In addition, she founded an organization named ‘High on the Har’, sponsored by the PFAP Foundation, a tax-deductible Zionist group operating out of Florida, US.
PFAP claims that it “develops and sponsors community projects advancing Israel, Judaism, Zionism, and the welfare of the Jewish people” in the occupied Palestinian territories.
High on the Har is also funded by taxpayers in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. It regularly organizes provocative incursions of the al-Aqsa Mosque under the guise of “tours.”
The al-Aqsa compound is Islam’s third-holiest site and a powerful symbol of Palestinian identity.
It doesn’t take deep investigation to grasp the real agenda: High on the Har, and Kronfeld herself, aim to see the Al-Aqsa Mosque replaced with a “Jewish Temple.”
The ultra-Zionist group actively incites settlers to storm the holy mosque and provoke Palestinians.
In an interview with CBS News last March, Kronfeld made her intentions clear, stating her desire to see Israel demolish the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and construct a “Jewish temple” in its place.
“The whole thing is going to go, we have to build a temple,” she said.
She has previously disclosed her involvement with the Israeli occupation army as well.
High on the Har has also been distributing “3rd Temple” patches to Israeli occupation soldiers taking part in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where more than 52,400 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed since the onslaught began 19 months ago.
High on the Har has been sending patches of the “3rd Temple” to Israeli soldiers committing a genocide in Gaza.
Since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formed his cabinet in 2022, Israel has been systematically eroding the status quo of the al-Aqsa Mosque with brazen audacity.
Last August, Ben-Gvir ignited outrage by declaring his intent to establish a Jewish synagogue within the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East al-Quds—should the opportunity arise.
Earlier this month, pro-settler social media accounts circulated an AI-generated video depicting the mosque engulfed in flames, eventually replaced by the so-called “Third Temple.”
The video, captioned with the message “Next Year in Jerusalem, Messiah Now,” sparked swift condemnation from several Arab countries, including Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
In 2024, more than 53,600 Israelis stormed the mosque compound, marking the highest number since Israeli occupation forces first allowed Jewish access over two decades ago.
According to the al-Quds governorate, approximately 13,000 settlers entered the site during the first quarter of 2025 alone.
Israel seized East al-Quds during the 1967 war and illegally annexed the city in 1980, a move that remains in violation of international law.
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From the Archives
Should Europeans ‘Thank’ the Americans for Destroying Nord Stream?
By Robert Bridge | Strategic Culture Foundation | September 29, 2022
With an investigation continuing into the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline that provided energy supplies to Europe from Russia, there appears to be just one prime suspect, and that should surprise nobody.
Following the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, former Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski already seemed to know the identity of the perpetrator when he tweeted out: “Thank you, USA.”
At first glance, it seemed that Sikorski was speaking sarcastically, berating Washington for carrying out an attack that will have severe repercussions for the people of Europe. After all, how could anyone see any good coming from the termination of Europe’s primary source of gas reserves with winter just around the corner? It was Sikorski’s homeland of Poland, after all, that urged its citizens to collect firewood in the face of dwindling gas reserves.
In fact, the Polish diplomat was speaking one-hundred percent literally… continue
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