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US Threats Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Violate International Law – Iranian Foreign Ministry

Sputnik – 22.07.2026

Statements from the US that it might bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities violate international law, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said on Wednesday.

“The repeated US attacks and threats against Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities not only constitute a flagrant violation of the core principles of the UN Charter, international law, and the relevant resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors, General Conference, and UN Security Council, but also reveal the United States’ deep-rooted enmity toward Iran’s scientific progress and technological development,” Baghaei wrote on X.

Iran does not conduct any nuclear activities in the area of the Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La Mountain, otherwise known as “Pickaxe,” which the United States wants to strike, the diplomat said, adding that the relevant remarks are just an excuse for more aggression.

On July 21, US President Donald Trump threatened to attack Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain, where, per Israeli intelligence assessments, a fortified nuclear enrichment facility is located.

The US has been conducting strikes against Iran since July 8, in violation of the provisions of the memorandum of understanding signed on June 17.

July 22, 2026 Posted by | War Crimes, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on US Threats Against Iran’s Nuclear Facilities Violate International Law – Iranian Foreign Ministry

Press Freedom Threatened as U.S. Government Seizes Max Blumenthal’s Devices

Glenn Diesen | July 21, 2026

Max Blumenthal discusses how the US-Israel partnership undermines press freedom. Blumenthal is the editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath, The Fifty One Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. The Grayzone: https://thegrayzone.com/

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July 21, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video | , , , , | Comments Off on Press Freedom Threatened as U.S. Government Seizes Max Blumenthal’s Devices

‘Israel is not giving anything up’: Residents head to US-backed pilot zones in south Lebanon

The Cradle | July 21, 2026

Scores of displaced Lebanese civilians made their way back to southern towns designated by Washington as “pilot zones” early on 21 July, as the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) deployed in the town of Zawtar al-Gharbiya – one day after the US officially launched its plan.

An Israeli journalist had previously claimed that Tel Aviv would begin a limited withdrawal on Tuesday as part of the US plan, but local residents returning to the south cast further doubt on Israel’s intention to pull out.

The zones, or at least most of them, “were never occupied by Israeli forces” to begin with, locals told Al-Jazeera on 21 July.

“The inclusion of [these] villages is evidence that Israel is in fact not giving anything up, despite the framework agreement, and is instead able to remain in the [other] areas it has occupied,” the villagers said.

Two Lebanese security sources told Al-Jazeera the same thing, while stressing that two of the “pilot zones” are “not occupied.”

The pilot zone plan is a key aspect of the US-brokered agreement reached between Lebanon and Israel in violation of Lebanese law.

Washington officially launched the project on Monday.

“Pilot zone operations began in the villages of Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar al-Gharbiya in accordance with the Trilateral Framework and under the auspices of the Military Coordination Group for Lebanon,” the US State Department said in a statement on 20 July.

Reports over recent weeks indicated that three pilot zones had initially been declared as part of the plan: Froun, Al-Ghandourieh, and Zawtar al-Gharbiya.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly named Froun and Zawtar al-Gharbieh as two initial pilot zones weeks ago.

Washington’s new announcement on Monday listed Froun, Srifa, and Zawtar al-Gharbiya as the initial pilot zones.

Just like Froun, Srifa is outside the so-called Israeli security zone and is not occupied. Zawtar al-Gharbiya is the only one of the three zones where Israeli forces are present.

Fierce resistance from Hezbollah prevented occupation forces from pushing into both Froun and Al-Ghandourieh during the initial weeks of heavy fighting.

This was recently confirmed by reports from RT and the New Arab, which cited local officials and correspondents on the ground.

The unconstitutional Lebanon-Israel deal would see the establishment of future pilot zones under “mutual consent” between Tel Aviv and Beirut.

The plan is meant to see the LAF replace Israeli occupation troops in the designated “zones” and dismantle Hezbollah infrastructure, in tandem with a “phased” Israeli withdrawal.

However, Lebanese military sources told local media earlier this month that the LAF refuses and rejects direct cooperation with Israel.

“The army will not operate under anyone’s command [including Israel]. Its mission is not to clear the ground for the enemy in order to facilitate its entry into areas it failed to reach because of fierce resistance. The army will not be the reason for the occupation of additional Lebanese territory,” the sources said.

Israel publicly vows that it will not withdraw from south Lebanon. Israeli media says occupation forces have not received any political directive to withdraw from the area. There are still no clear timelines for the US plan.

As residents made their way to the areas on Tuesday morning, Israeli occupation forces continued to carry out major demolition operations, destroying civilian infrastructure on the border.

July 21, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Comments Off on ‘Israel is not giving anything up’: Residents head to US-backed pilot zones in south Lebanon

Israel’s Lawlessness Will Be Its Undoing

By Kevin Barrett | American Free Press | July 20, 2026

Israel has been the world’s worst international outlaw since 1948. That year, the Zionists used terrorism—mass rape and the slaughter of thousands of men, women, and children—to murder or expel 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. When Palestine’s outraged neighbors tried to protect the Palestinian genocide victims, the Zionists attacked them and blamed them for the violence!

On December 11, 1948, the United Nations passed Resolution 194 ordering Israel to allow surviving genocide victims to return and reclaim their homes and be compensated for their suffering. Israel thumbed its nose at the law, murdering Palestinians who tried to return. Since then it has continued violating Resolution 194 along with dozens of other UN resolutions.

Every year, more and more Palestinian property is stolen by greedy Jewish squatters. Murder and terrorism are their instruments. And woe to anyone who tries to interfere! Rachel Corrie, the brave young American who lay down in front of a Zionist bulldozer in Rafah in 2003, was blithely crushed to death by Israelis who know that in today’s Holocaust-narrative-brainwashed world, Zionist criminals enjoy near-complete impunity. The bulldozer driver was never punished. To this day, Israelis continue to celebrate the murder of Rachel Corrie in myriad ways, including feasting on pancakes bearing her name.

Israel is a fundamentally lawless state. It refuses to even declare official borders, because it is stealing more land and property every single day.

As a world leader in organ trafficking, child trafficking, cybercrimes, false flag terrorism, assassination, blackmail, and other illicit pursuits—and a haven for wanted pedophiles from other nations—Israel is so lawless that many see it as an organized crime hub masquerading as a state. But that kind of extreme lawlessness does not bode well for Israel’s future.

In early July, Netanyahu’s ultra-extremist cabinet announced that it would no longer obey the Israeli Supreme Court. A group of high-tech entrepreneurs critical of Netanyahu had been trying to buy out a media outlet, Channel 13, and the cabinet had blocked the sale. The Supreme Court ordered them to let the sale go through. The Netanyahu regime refused, announcing that it would henceforth flout Supreme Court rulings it disagreed with. The Israeli media is calling it a full-blown “Constitutional crisis.” Is civil war looming?

The Zionist regime’s flagrant disregard for the rule of law was also on full display in its ongoing violations of “ceasefires” in Gaza, Lebanon, and Iran. Every day, Israel exterminates more Palestinian civilians, despite the Trump-brokered “ceasefire” that went into effect last October. And it continues to occupy Lebanon, slaughter Lebanese people, and genocidally destroy entire Lebanese towns and neighborhoods, in blatant violation of the ceasefire imposed by the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Trump and Iran.

The MOU’s very first provision states:

“1. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, and their allies in the current war, by signing this MoU, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final Deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and other provisions of this paragraph.”

Lebanon is explicitly mentioned three times in that opening paragraph. Ordering “the US and its allies” (beginning with Israel, the “ally” that dragged the US into the war) to “ensure the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon” clearly requires Israel to withdraw from all Lebanese territory it has been occupying. But Israel has been flouting the MOU, insisting it won’t withdraw while continuing to murder Lebanese people as it genocidally demolishes their towns and neighborhoods.

Israel’s lawlessness has torpedoed the MOU and reignited the war on Iran. The whole world is being dragged into a catastrophic depression because Israel refuses to play by the rules.

This won’t end well for Israel or the Jews it claims to represent. Over countless millennia, humanity has evolved ways of removing disruptive psychopaths from its midst. The psychopathic Bushman would be poisoned. The psychopathic Eskimo would be pushed off the ice. In modern times, a more expensive alternative—a life sentence in a high security prison—is preferred.

Countless high-profile figures, including Iran’s martyred leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have called Israel a cancer that desperately needs to be excised from West Asia and the world. And just as cancer cells that violate the “cellular law of the greater good” must be removed before they kill the whole organism, Israel’s outrageous flouting of the rule of law will likely force humanity to terminate the bloody Zionist experiment.

Subscribe to American Free Press, America’s last real newspaper, to get early access to articles like this (and much more).

July 20, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, War Crimes | , , , | Comments Off on Israel’s Lawlessness Will Be Its Undoing

Yemen imposes naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in tit-for-tat move

Press TV – July 20, 2026

Yemen has declared a naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, with the country’s military spokesman stressing that it will come into effect immediately.

In a statement on Monday, Yemeni armed forces spokesperson Brigadier General Yahya Saree announced “a maritime embargo against the criminal Saudi enemy, based on the equation of ‘siege for siege,’” adding that “it will come into force from the moment this statement is issued.”

According to the statement, the blockade was imposed in response to Saudi Arabia’s continued “unjust and oppressive siege on our dear people for nearly 12 years, plundering our resources and imposing a comprehensive blockade on [the country’s] ports and airports by land, sea, and air” as well as the recent attacks on the Sana’a International Airport.

The spokesman affirmed the Yemeni armed forces’ “complete readiness for all options,” warning that “any foolish act” by Riyadh will be met with a “harsh” response.

The statement hailed the steadfastness of the Yemeni nation and its participation in million-strong demonstrations in support of the Sana’a government, saying “we assure them that we will spare no effort in restoring their plundered rights and ending the unjust siege against them, regardless of the results and repercussions.”

Tensions flared earlier this month when Saudi Arabia tried to prevent the return of an Iranian plane carrying a delegation of Yemeni officials, who had traveled to Tehran for the funeral of Iran’s martyred Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. The plane was diverted after the Sana’a airport was bombed and landed safely in the city of Hudaydah.

Yemen prepared to enter all-out war: Official

Meanwhile, Hizam al-Assad, a senior member of Ansarullah’s political bureau, warned that Yemen is prepared to escalate to all-out war if the 11-year siege of Yemen is not lifted.

He said it is unacceptable for Riyadh to continue exporting oil and purchasing weapons to bomb and blockade Yemen while the Yemeni people remain silent.

“We are today facing a difficult dilemma: either we die of starvation, or we reclaim our right by resorting to force,” al-Assad said in remarks cited by Al-Mayadeen.

Al-Assad warned that Yemen’s armed forces are ready to target Saudi oil facilities, refineries, and export ports with missiles and drones if the blockade continues.

He said that Saudi Arabia bears responsibility for the environmental consequences of burning oil wells, pipelines, and petrochemical plants.

On Sunday, Abdullah al-Nu’ami, another member of Ansarullah’s political bureau, said Saudi Arabia is full of “valuable targets” within reach of Yemen’s armed forces. He added that the region is on the brink of explosion and Saudi Arabia is aware of that fact.

Ansarullah official says aggression against Iran and the blockade on Yemen is pushing the region toward a major blast.

The official said Ansarullah is studying its options and is prepared to pay the highest price to lift the blockade. He warned that if the United States joins Saudi Arabia in a war against Yemen, it will find itself in a predicament.

“We are ready to pay the highest price to lift the blockade, and the region is on the brink of explosion, and Saudi Arabia is aware of this,” al-Nu’ami told Al-Mayadeen.

Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched the blockade on Yemen as part of a full-scale war on March 26, 2015, with military, political, and logistical support from the United States and other Western states.

The war has killed tens of thousands of Yemenis, while consistently falling short of its main objective of restoring power to Yemen’s former Riyadh-friendly regime.

The government had fled the country amid a power struggle, prompting Ansarullah, Yemen’s popular resistance movement, to start running state affairs.

Following a fragile UN-brokered ceasefire in 2022, the United States, Britain, and the Israeli regime waged many rounds of wholesale aggression against Yemen.

The attacks sought to cripple Sana’a’s capability to stage solidarity strikes against Israeli targets in response to Tel Aviv’s war of genocide on the Gaza Strip.

July 20, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on Yemen imposes naval blockade against Saudi Arabia in tit-for-tat move

Complicit: How the West is Helping Israel Seize the West Bank

Al Jazeera Investigates | July 16, 2026

An undercover investigation by Al Jazeera reveals how western donors evade charity law to provide aid to illegal Israeli settlements.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. More than 230 of them are children. Attacks by settlers on rural Palestinian communities have increased, destroying property and capturing livestock, driving families from their homes. At the same time, the Israeli military has launched a large-scale assault on the densely populated Jenin refugee camp.

This film provides a comprehensive picture of the tactics the Israeli government uses to support the settlers and then, through infrastructure and building programmes, annex Palestinian land.
Western governments claim to oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and uphold international law. However, undercover reporters from Al Jazeera expose how donors based in some Western countries fund the expansion of illegal settlements.

Al Jazeera journalists secretly film meetings with pro-settler organisations in Israel, claiming to be donors based in the UK looking to make large contributions to their projects. They’re told how funds can be paid as tax-deductible donations to charities in the UK and Canada who then pay the money on to their organisations. It is unlawful for charities in the UK and Canada to use donations to support the illegal settlement of the West Bank.

The Israeli organisations tell our undercover reporters how donations can be used to campaign for the demolition of Palestinian homes and provide military-grade security equipment such as drones and night vision cameras to settlers. We are also told that funds can be used to buy guns for settlers in occupied East Jerusalem and equipment for soldiers serving in the Israeli army.

The Israeli organisations are aware that their activities are considered unlawful in Canada and the UK and suggest ways to disguise the intended purpose of the donations, routing the funds through affiliated third parties and, in some cases, misreporting the true nature of their spending.

Charities in the UK and Canada are required to do extensive due diligence on how funds paid overseas are spent and to ensure they comply with the law. Al Jazeera’s evidence points to serious failings in this process.

July 19, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video | , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Complicit: How the West is Helping Israel Seize the West Bank

They Are Coming to Take Us Away

The White House discovers more “commies” and terrorists

By Philip Giraldi • Unz Review • July 19, 2026

In Donald Trump’s America it is always possible to wake up in the morning and peruse online the overnight headlines to discover something new and exciting. Over the past week it has been a medley of going to war (again) with Iran coupled with a complicated performance on other issues as President Trump apparently takes aim at his enemies in the US and elsewhere. America’s Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is fully on board with a surge in worldwide mayhem. He is looking forward to an increase in US initiated violence, ordering that male soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines be tested for their testosterone levels. “Hegseth argues the effort, to become part of the military’s periodic health assessment for troops over 30, will ensure the optimal performance and long-term health of warfighters… the move plays into Hegseth’s focus on appearances and masculinity, which one Democrat said this week borders on ‘homoeroticism’.” Those who fail to have sufficient of the “male characteristics” hormone in their systems will be determined to be not fit for combat, where lethal instincts as encouraged under Hegseth require a satisfactory level of anger. Some soldiers might be offered therapy to increase their hormone levels.

And perhaps not so strangely, it often seems that much of the daily news relates to America’s “best friend and closest ally” Israel. One of the great ironies of the Israel against the rest of the world competition is how the “Torah” Old Testament is regularly being cited by Washington and the national media to justify anything the Jewish state does. That occurs in spite of the fact that Biblical Judea has little in common with the real Israel of today apart from providing an enduring mythology interwoven with the “holocaust” fantasy to sustain the myth of “chosen-ness.” In reality, Judea ceased to exist as an actual nation in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed to include the Second Temple in Jerusalem, of which absolutely nothing physical remains, and forced the Jews to depart. After that, what is now described as Palestine was ruled in various fashions by Rome, Byzantium, Muslim Arabs, Christian Europeans, Mamelukes, Turks, and the British until the politically driven re-creation of a Jewish state in 1948. That means for nearly 1900 straight years there was no such thing as an “Israel” or a Jewish nation and any Jewish presence was marginal in the region where the religion was born. Clearly there was no historical mandate to move a group of foreigners, whose only tie was to a religion that many of them did not actually practice, into a land that those foreigners then began to depopulate of its indigenous inhabitants who had lived in that place under both Christian and Muslim foreign rule for two millennia.

Recent American presidents have certainly tried to make the brutal Israeli suppression and occupation of what was supposed to be a neighbor state called Palestine somehow seem to be something quite acceptable. This is particularly due to the nonsense regurgitated by a group of American fundamentalists that many refer to as Christian Zionists (CZ), best exemplified by the delusional US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. These are folks that revere the Jewish Bible, as one might describe it, as “explained” by the nineteenth century Scofield Bible. Huckabee insanely even claims that “Without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be America.”

Unfortunately for the rest of us, the CZ exist in large numbers in southern and some midwestern so-called Bible Belt states and they vote reliably for congressmen and even presidents who are Israel Firsters. So we get monsters like Texan Ted Cruz, Arkansan Tom Cotton and the recently deceased South Carolinian Lindsey Graham calling the shots on foreign policy. And we get presidents like Joe Biden and Donald Trump, both of whose exceptional loyalty to Israel should have been challenged when they ran for office!

The latest bid by Congress to allow Israel to be even more intolerant of the Christians and Muslims that it is supposed to share the former Palestine with is a recently passed amendment calling for equal Jewish prayer rights on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. The Mount currently houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one of three most holy religious sites for Muslim believers, reputedly the location where Mohammed himself was spirited up to heaven by Allah. When Israel was created in 1948 Jerusalem was categorized by the UN as an international city inclusive of all faiths. The Mount was regarded as special for Muslims and believers in other faiths had only limited access to it. More recently, there has been constant agitation from extremist Jewish politicians in Israel to open up the site and there have even been calls to build a Jewish Third Temple on it as well even more radical demands to demolish al-Aqsa completely as part of the process. This has been accompanied by increased persecution and even closure of churches and mosques located elsewhere in the city with the clear intention of making Jerusalem more exclusively Jewish. Trump and company have, of course, not raised any objections to the Jewish activism even when Christians are being actively persecuted and denied access to their churches and holy sites.

Israel aside, the views of Americans who value the First Amendment Freedom of Speech right should be particularly concerned by the authoritarian direction the federal government is moving in. One must pay attention to last week’s denunciations by Trump and National Security Adviser and Secretary of State Marco Rubio of “communists” and “terrorists” among the predominantly progressives who apparently are in the forefront of those who are opposing the enlightened policies being promoted by the White House. It is apparently the belief that labeling opponents in that fashion will guarantee victory in the upcoming November midterm elections where Democrats will inter alia be labeled as anti-Israel and it will also make it easier to root some such folks out for deportation or imprisonment to silence them as has already been happening with foreign students at American universities.

Regarding what is developing, Trump’s activation of the little known “alien terrorist” deportation court presumably will conveniently provide the president and his fanatics with a new tool to cleanse the country of anyone who might object to killing people without any constitutional or legal process as has been taking place in the Caribbean, Iran and Sudan. Not that Trump needed a new court since he is no friend of “rule of law” and has been repeatedly acting in one of his rages whenever he sees fit to punish both American citizens and foreigners. One might cite the recent arrest of an American citizen who was traveling in Spain. As reported by The Guardian, “Spanish authorities, operating on a US extradition request, arrested the 41-year-old James Chambers, a US citizen and wealthy donor to leftwing and humanitarian projects worldwide, last Friday in Ibiza. He has been transferred to a prison in Madrid. The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is seeking his extradition for alleged financial support of Hamas, according to a spokesperson for the Spanish high court. This is the first known case of the US seeking extradition of a citizen over alleged support for Hamas… It is unfolding as Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, convened 66 countries this week – including Spain – as part of a broader effort to discredit leftwing activity as terrorism…”

In reality, of course, Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement and the ones who should be arrested on terrorism charges are Israelis, starting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he dares to visit the UN in New York in August, but that fine point is not about to bother Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. One can only assume that the Trump Administration will be moving sharply to the right over the next three months, labeling all critics as threats to the security of the United States of America. The initial focus will be on foreigners living in the United States, but the mechanism will easily be expanded to include all critics or supporters of resistance groups, like is happening to American citizen James Chambers in Spain. It is easy to go to Congress or have the White House declare some entity “terrorist” and people who support them in their resistance to US policy will begin to be on the receiving end of punishment. That is what is coming unless we the people unite to put an end to it right now!

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 https://councilforthenationalinterest.org address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

July 19, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , , | Comments Off on They Are Coming to Take Us Away

Israeli settlers attack homes, mosque in occupied West Bank

Al Mayadeen| July 19, 2026

Israeli settlers carried out a series of attacks overnight on Saturday and into Sunday morning in the occupied West Bank, setting fire to a mosque and multiple homes, stealing livestock, and assaulting residents, according to Palestinian sources. The incidents occurred in the al-Khalil and Nablus governorates, with Israeli forces reportedly protecting the assailants.

In the al-Khalil governorate, settlers attacked two homes belonging to Palestinian residents in the Wadi al-Rakhim area south of the town of Yatta. The assailants stole three heads of livestock from a pen on the property.

During the incident, Israeli forces fired live ammunition in the area, though no injuries were reported.

In the town of As-Samu, also south of Al-Khalil, armed settlers attempted to steal sheep in the Wadi Ajhish area while under the protection of Israeli troops; however, residents confronted the group and forced them to withdraw.

In the village of At-Tuwani, located in the Masafer Yatta region, settlers from the “Havat Ma’on” outpost set fire to two homes belonging to residents Kamal Musa Rab’i and Mahmoud Salman Rab’i, as well as the village mosque.

The attackers used flammable materials, causing large sections of the properties to catch fire. The settlers also smashed and vandalized additional property, including a vehicle, with Israeli forces providing security coverage during the assault.

In the Nablus governorate, settlers attacked the Dhahra area on the outskirts of the town of Beita, south of the city, assaulted residents and damaged homes and property, resulting in injuries to four people.

Separately, on Saturday, settlers attacked a young man while he was on the Jenin–Nablus road near the entrance to the town of Barqa, causing wounds to his hand.

In a related incident, settlers set fire to a resident’s home on Saturday evening. The house, which had been previously targeted in an attack, was destroyed by the fire. The home was occupied at the time of the incident.

Israeli settlers set fire to olive trees in Ramallah

Earlier, Israeli forces burned dozens of olive trees in the village of Deir Qaddis, west of Ramallah, on July 18, according to official Palestinian news reports.

The official news agency Wafa reported that forces pursued a group of Palestinian farmers while they were working on their land in the areas of Jabal al-Ras and Bir al-Asafir, south of the village, and fired bullets and toxic tear gas canisters toward them. According to the report, this caused fires to break out across wide expanses of land planted with olive trees.

Reports also stated that Israeli forces prevented civil defense crews from reaching the site of the fire to bring it under control and extinguish it, which led to the fire expanding and spreading to large areas of citizens’ land on the southern side of the village.

Deir Qaddis and the surrounding towns and villages west of Ramallah have experienced ongoing incursions by Israeli forces, alongside continued attacks by settlers targeting citizens and their property, according to Wafa.

Israeli forces are continuing to carry out incursions, violations, and simultaneous arrests in various areas of the West Bank, amid a wide military deployment and house-to-house raids, the agency reported.

July 19, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Comments Off on Israeli settlers attack homes, mosque in occupied West Bank

The strange death of James V. Forrestal, the first US Secretary of Defense

Did Israel start its serial assassination campaigns of its American opponents much earlier than we assume?

By Hua Bin | July 19, 2026

I have always enjoyed reading a wide variety of books on somewhat arcane subjects. Many are triggered by references from other books, and they form a sort of chain reaction.

Around 10 years ago, I read Webster Griffin Tarpley’s book 9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA, my first exposure to alternative 9/11 theories of what truly happened in 2001.

Tarpley’s book led me to David Ray Griffin’s The New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11.

I subsequently read perhaps 30 books on the subject such as Kevin Ryan’s Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects, Chris Bollyn’s Solving 9/11: The Deception That Changed the World, Jim Fetzer’s The 9/11 Conspiracy – the Scamming of America, and more.

Griffin’s New Pearl Harbor further led me to Peter Dale Scott’s The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War as well as his books on the drug trade, particularly his 2010 book American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan and the 2003 book Drugs, Oil, and Wars: the US in Afghanistan, Columbia, and Indochina.

Peter Dale Scott’s books motivated me to explore the subjects of JFK assassination and drug trade, which included many books such as James Douglass’s JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters, Alfred McCoy’s The Politics of Heroine: CIA Complicity in Global Drug Trade, and Gary Webb’s Dark Alliance: the CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.

Two books were particularly intriguing among the many on the subjects: Michael Collins Piper’s 1994 book Final Judgement: The Missing Link in the JFK Assassination Conspiracy and Salvador Astucia’s Opium Lords – Israel, Golden Triangle, and the Kennedy Assassination.

Piper was among the first to connect the JFK assassination to Mossad as Kennedy was adamantly opposed to the Israeli nuclear weapons project and therefore became a threat to Israel to be eliminated.

This theory has been further supported by French historian Laurent Guyenot in his books JFK to 9/11: 50 Years of Deep State and The Unspoken Kennedy Truth.

Salvador Astucia, in turn, developed the thesis that Israel used drug-related interest to carry out the assassination, fingering the hitmen as French-Corsican heroin traffickers and associates of Meyer Lansky, the head of Jewish mafia in the US.

One obscure reference by Astucia in his book led me to a book written by David Martin in 2019 The Assassination of James Forrestal, subject of this article.

(By the way, I am planning to write on the US state-sponsored narco trade at some point with the information learned from the reading list. It is the height of iron that the US is the original and ultimuate Narco State while it labels Venezuela under Maduro as such.)

Who was James Forrestal and how he died

James Vincent Forrestal (1892–1949) was a highly influential American politician who served as the last cabinet-level US Secretary of the Navy and the very first United States Secretary of Defense.

He played a pivotal role in shaping America’s military structure and foreign policy during World War II and the early stages of the Cold War.

According to his official biography, Forrestal died on May 22, 1949, after falling from a 16th-floor kitchen window at the Bethesda Naval Hospital, where he allegedly was being treated for severe depression and exhaustion.

His death was widely accepted as a suicide, but the official Navy investigation never actually used the word “suicide” in its final ruling.

The official Willcutts Report, the official US Navy board of inquiry report into his death, concluded only that Forrestal died from the fall, that his behavior indicated severe mental depression, and that no naval personnel were negligent or to blame.

Investigators found a leather-bound book, An Anthology of World Poetry, open on a radiator next to his bed. The book was bookmarked to a dark, mournful passage from the ancient Greek tragedy Ajax by Sophocles.

On a sheet of hospital memorandum paper, Forrestal had been hand-copying the text. His transcription of the poem stopped abruptly in the middle of a word.

He had written “Woe, woe! will be the cry…” and stopped after writing the letters “Night—” while attempting to copy the word “nightingale”.

In the play, the Greek hero Ajax descends into madness out of grief and political betrayal, ultimately committing suicide.

The press and historians heavily focused on this, noting that Forrestal likely identified with Ajax’s tragic downfall.

David Martin concludes assassination after studying declassified details of Forrestal’s alleged suicide

The Navy kept the official investigation secret for 55 years and finally released it via Freedom of Information Act in 2004.

Researchers immediately found several inconsistencies that have fuelled decades of assassination theories:

  • Bathrobe cord: When Forrestal’s body was found on the 3rd-floor roof, the sash/cord of his dressing gown was tightly knotted and wrapped around his neck. This led to speculation that he may have tried to hang himself from the radiator before falling, or that he was strangled.
  • Handwriting discrepancies: Independent researchers who analyzed the handwritten poem alongside Forrestal’s known personal letters argued that the handwriting in the poem did not match his.
  • Guard’s testimony: Early press reports claimed a guard saw Forrestal writing the poem right before the jump, but the official Willcutts Report showed the guard on duty testified that Forrestal appeared to be asleep with the lights off when he checked in.

David Martin’s book further highlighted major anomalies omitted from initial public reports. These include unexplained broken glass in Forrestal’s room and dynamic scratch marks on the outside windowsill.

Evidence suggested a struggle in the room, with broken glass photographed on his bed.

Contrary to reports of a mental breakdown, several doctors had previously indicated that 4 out of 5 doctors felt Forrestal was not suffering from severe mental illness, with some suggesting he was misdiagnosed.

Martin believes this is evidence that stories of Forrestal’s “sudden breakdown” prompting hospitalization were likely false.

David Martin concluded the strange death of James Forrestal was in fact an assassination that was covered up as a suicide. His view is widely shared by other researchers.

Martin frames the assassination as one of the earliest operations of the post-WWII American “Deep State” and foreign intelligence, namely Mossad.

He outlines the primary geopolitical motives for Forrestal’s removal as his opposition to the creation of Israel.

Forrestal was the most prominent cabinet official arguing against US support for the partition of Palestine. He believed it would permanently destabilize the Middle East and jeopardize Western access to oil.

Forrestal argued that the American military machine and civilian industrial expansion relied heavily on Middle Eastern petroleum.

He strongly believed that backing a Zionist state would deeply alienate Arab nations. This alienation, he warned, would jeopardize US access to oil pipelines and vital Persian Gulf supplies.

As a fierce anti-communist, Forrestal feared that Middle Eastern instability would open the door for the Soviet Union to expand its influence in the region.

He believed a war between Arabs and Jews would destabilize the area and leave it vulnerable to Soviet intervention.

Forrestal famously told White House advisors to “look at the numbers,” pointing out that there were roughly 30 million Arabs compared to 600,000 Jews.

He believed the Arab forces would eventually overwhelm a Jewish state, potentially forcing the U.S. to deploy its own military forces to defend it.

This was a commitment he felt the post-WWII, heavily demobilized US military could not afford.

According to his published diaries, Forrestal was deeply critical of how both the Democratic and Republican parties handled the issue.

He complained that President Harry Truman’s administration was basing crucial national security decisions on capturing the domestic “Jewish vote” and securing campaign contributions in key states like New York.

He unsuccessfully attempted to build a bipartisan agreement to completely remove the Palestine issue from American domestic politics.

Martin concluded that Forrestal’s resistance to the establishment of Israel earned him the ire of the Zionists and the Jewish community within the US and Israel, who decided to remove him once and for all.

Parallels can be found with other suspicious deaths of prominent anti-Zionist figures in this period, including T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia”. They may have been assassinations by the same perpetrators.

The Zionists themselves have documented Forrestal’s opposition to the establishment of Israel in their own records.

An article titled “The Wise Men” Oppose U.S. Recognition of Israel, published on Temple Beth Sholom, described Forrestal and George Marshall’s opposition to Israel. https://tbshamden.com/odds-a-ends/list-of-restricted-funds/

Marshall was the US Army Chief of Staff in WW2, the Secretary of State when Israel was established, and the architect of the Marshall Plan. He shared Forrestal’s negative view on the formation of the Jewish state.

Why is it important and relevant today?

The strange death of James Forrestal is a reminder how far Israel has been willing to go to eliminate its perceived threats.

It vindicates researchers like Michael Collins Piper who concludes that Israel murdered President Kennedy to protect its nuclear program.

Many senior US officials opposed Israel’s establishment as they believed it would create regional chaos, which proved prescient.

Israel, from its inception, has been an outlaw and a terrorist state capable of doing anything with the help of US Zionists. This includes the 9/11 false flag attack that triggered US “forever wars” in the Middle East for the benefit of Israel.

Similarly, the strange assassination of Charlie Kirk seems to have Israel’s hand all over it. Is Trump also under Israeli threats to launch the insane war on Iran despite his campaign promises?

As we move into another phase of US’s war on Iran for Israel, it is worth bearing in mind what kind of rogue actor the world is dealing with.

July 19, 2026 Posted by | Book Review, Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on The strange death of James V. Forrestal, the first US Secretary of Defense

US violations of MoU prove American president’s signature ‘worthless’: Khamenei

Iran Has No Reason To Trust The United States In Future Negotiations

By Justin K.P. | The Dissident | July 18, 2026

Yesterday, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, issued a statement saying , “The signature of the U.S. President is utterly worthless and devoid of credibility”.

“The repeated breaches of the agreement by the Great Satan [the US] regarding the MOU signed by the Presidents of Iran and the US have once again laid bare a fundamental truth: the signature of the US President is utterly worthless and devoid of credibility,” the Iranian leader said in a statement.

And who could possibly blame him for coming to this conclusion?

The United States has shown time and time again that they have no interest in negotiating with Iran in good faith.

Iran signed the JCPOA with the United States in 2015, which the U.S. soon unilaterally pulled out of in 2018 at the behest of the Israel lobby.

Benjamin Netanyahu was so opposed to the deal that he flew to the U.S. congress to give a speech denouncing the deal in hopes it would block it.

This did not work, but he soon used his massive influence over the United States to have it sabotaged.

Trump himself admitted in a speech in front of the Israeli Knesset that he “terminated the Iran nuclear deal” at the behest of his Zionist donors Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, boasting that they “were very responsible for so much” of his policy.

A released FBI interview with Charles C. Johnson, – a former close associate of Steve Bannon- said that Bannon who was then White House strategist, worked with “the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) and Sheldon Adelson” to remove H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser because of “policy disagreements about Iran”, referring to the Iran deal.

H.R. McMaster wrote in his memoir that in 2017 he “successfully lobbied the president to recertify the agreement over the next two 90-day deadlines as required under the 2015 Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act”.

After H.R. McMaster was replaced by John Bolton as National Security Advisor in the Trump administration, Steve Bannon admitted directly in released text messages with Jeffrey Epstein that “Bolton is only doing what Sheldon Adelson tells him to do– I got John the job, but he will not cross Sheldon”.

The Trump administration engaged in fake negotiations with Iran in June of last year to serve as a cover for a surprise U.S./Israeli bombing launched on the country.

Dennis Ross, who served as a senior official on Middle East issues during Democratic and Republican administrations, boasted to the Wall Street Journal, “There is no question that the Witkoff mission was a major contributor to the surprise, The Iranians would have assumed that Israel would not attack while the talks were under way and a meeting was about to take place”, which were soon followed by U.S. strikes.

The U.S. again pretended to engage in diplomacy with Iran prior to the full-scale war launched in February of this year.

The final straw for Iran ever having any trust in the U.S. again was the sabotage of the MoU by the United States, which was signed by the United States and Iran on June 18th.

As professor at Johns Hopkins University, Vali Nasr noted in the Financial Times, the United States repeatedly violated the agreement it signed with Iran, writing:

There was no unfreezing of Iranian assets; a US-brokered deal between Israel and Lebanon disregarded Iran’s demands for ceasefire there; more US military assets began to arrive in the Gulf region; and Washington encouraged commercial vessels to disregard Tehran’s instructions to co-ordinate with its authorities and navigate through Iranian channels as they transited the Strait of Hormuz. Some ships then passed through channels close to the Omani shoreline instead. Washington expected that this would weaken Iran’s claim of control of the strait and ability to enforce it.

Each of these on its own may not have been major violations of the MoU, but together they represented a concerted effort to erode the leverage Iran had gained during the war and reflected in the ceasefire agreement.

After Iran responded to the U.S. violations of the MoU in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. began bombing Iran again, escalating on Friday, dropping bombs on critical Iranian civilian infrastructure.

As analyst Trita Parsi noted, Trump “appears to have concluded that Tehran’s hard line in the negotiations stemmed from the United States not hitting Iran hard enough during the 38-day war. Seemingly indifferent to the costs for the GCC states, the global economy, inflation and the American cost of living—not to mention the risk to U.S. troops—he is gambling that a few more weeks of war will degrade Iran’s ability to close the Strait and force Tehran into a more accommodating negotiating position.”

But Iran will not back down to U.S. demands after repeated U.S. war crimes committed against Iranian civilian infrastructure. As Vali Nasr noted, “Iran will therefore seek to absorb U.S. military pressure and intensify its attacks on U.S. military targets and energy and civilian infrastructure across the Gulf. Its aim is to signal that the war will not remain at the level of Washington’s choosing. In the meantime, Tehran will accept the inevitable economic hardship that another US naval blockade will entail, believing that its own pressure on the global economy by closing the Strait of Hormuz — and potentially the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Red Sea — will force Trump to blink first”.

After Iran continues to hit U.S. military and economic assets in response to U.S. escalations, and after Oil and gas prices go up and inflation rises, the U.S. will no doubt attempt to negotiate with Iran again. The question is, why would Iran have even a skeptical level of trust left in the U.S. to negotiate in good faith?

July 18, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Comments Off on US violations of MoU prove American president’s signature ‘worthless’: Khamenei

Rahm Emmanuel’s Israel-Endorsed ‘Opposition’ to Israel

By Harrison Berger | The American Conservative | July 18, 2026

Hoping to transition from being “Chicago’s Most Connected Banker” to once again holding elected office, the two-term former Mayor of Chicago and former chief of staff to Barack Obama, Rahm Emanuel, did this month what all savvy political hopefuls do: He traveled to meet some of the largest power brokers in American politics at their homes in Tel Aviv.

In 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama flew to Israel and declared his “unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security,” and in 2015, Hillary Clinton pledged to “immediately dispatch a delegation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to meet with senior Israeli commanders” and to “invite the Israeli prime minister to the White House” in her first month in office.

Emanuel, who as a civilian volunteer worked with the Israel Defense Forces in the early 1990s, and whose father was a member of the Jewish terrorist group Irgun, is widely suspected to be eyeing a run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028—one that will require winning over a base that has notably soured on Israel amid its genocide in Gaza and nonstop wars of aggression in the region.

To court Democratic voters, the longtime pro-Israel Emanuel arrived in Israel with a markedly different message than the one past Democratic hopefuls have carried on the same pilgrimage. It was the latest attempt by the Democratic establishment to come to terms with its voters’ turn against Israel, whether through a serious reckoning or—as the evidence suggests and as the Democratic Party traditionally does—merely through deception and cooptation.

At Tel Aviv University, Emanuel opened by conceding ground to his Israeli hosts, naming a “corrupt Palestinian leadership” that has “never lived up to the Palestinian people’s legitimate aspirations for sovereignty and self-determination,” and reheating a stale narrative of rejected peace offers by Palestinian leaders.

But after the requisite throat clearing effectively blaming Palestinians for their own ethnic cleansing, Emanuel did put forward a harsh criticism of Israeli behavior and unconditional American backing for it, arguing it “has allowed [Israel] to deny food and medical relief to innocent Palestinians suffering in Gaza, leaving the world to conclude that Israelis not only want to kill the Palestinians but that they are completely indifferent to their death, destruction, and suffering.” He decried an emboldened “political coalition in the Knesset that learned it can burn Palestinian farmland in the West Bank and terrorize Palestinian families without consequence.” All this, Emanuel says, has turned Israel into a “territorial pariah.”

The line that drew the most attention and applause from progressives was Emanuel’s pledge that “every Israeli found attacking Palestinian civilians or their property in the future will be sanctioned,” a threat he extended to “every Israeli official who supports such violence” and “every construction company or bank building or financing illegal settlements.”

But the true PR purpose of his visit—and his function as a pressure release valve for the foreign government of Israel—was revealed soon afterward, when Emanuel’s speech was applauded by the Israel lobby and its main Democratic Party organ, the Democratic Majority for Israel, which praised it as “thoughtful, serious, and grounded in a sincere commitment to Israel’s future security and prosperity.” Indeed, a centerpiece of his speech, the Jerusalem Post noted, was the “23-state solution”—a proposal cooked up by the liberal Israel lobby group J Street.

Despite his criticisms of the Israeli cabinet and opposition to “taxpayer-funded support” for Israel’s military, Emanuel later confirmed to the Financial Times that he still wants the U.S. to sell arms to Israel. Pressed on whether he’d support anything resembling an arms embargo, he walked the idea back.

“[Israel] can buy [U.S.] weapons like any other ally, same price, same restrictions and same requirements of any ally for any weapon,” Emanuel told the FT.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself came to a similar conclusion in January, telling the Economist that he wanted to “taper off the military aid within the next 10 years.” Asked whether he meant reducing it to zero, the prime minister replied, “Yes. We’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.” Recently deceased Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) responded within hours that he would accelerate the timeline. “Given what the Prime Minister said, we need not wait 10 years,” Graham wrote.

J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami, whose 23-state proposal Emanuel adopted wholesale, presented the same ruse in April, explaining that J Street’s call for Israel to pay for its own weapons echoed Netanyahu and Graham’s own. “A call to end American financial subsidies for Israel’s defense is not a call to end the U.S.-Israel security relationship,” Ben-Ami wrote. He added, “Arms sales—paid for by Israel and governed by U.S. law—should continue,” and that the U.S. and Israel should collaborate on “intelligence sharing, operational coordination, joint exercises, and cooperative development of defense technologies.”

The $3.3 billion in annual Foreign Military Financing that Ben-Ami proposes phasing out is the same $3.3 billion Rep. Thomas Massie moved to strike with a recent amendment; it is a line item members of Congress have the opportunity to vote on. But “cooperative development of defense technologies” is not.

Israel and its lobby, including J Street, understand this, which is why they have moved to pass Section 219 of the National Defense Authorization Act, which, rather than “tapering off” U.S. aid to Israel as the lobby suggests, expands it and conceals it by integrating the U.S. and Israeli military-industrial complexes, transferring the partnership to the Pentagon’s opaque procurement system and thereby removing democratic accountability. Should it pass—which seems likely—Congress can strike every dollar of Foreign Military Financing, and the Pentagon will still pay Israeli defense firms out of procurement accounts that carry no line item to strike.

As the journalist Max Blumenthal presciently predicted of J Street’s scheme when Ben-Ami unveiled it in April, we should “expect to hear these deceptive talking points from leading Democratic primary candidates, including Rahm Emanuel, desperate to mollify the party’s base without doing anything of substance to end U.S. military support for Israel.”

“Jeremy Ben-Ami and J Street somehow remain this really important factor within the Democratic Party,” Blumenthal told The American Conservative recently, “because the Democrats have to con their base.” Since the party is “fundamentally undemocratic and is facing an unprecedented crisis with less than 10 percent of young Democrats declaring their support for Israel, J Street has to come in.”

We will soon discover whether or not Democratic voters are gullible enough to be fooled.

Harrison Berger is a correspondent at The American Conservative. He has contributed to Drop Site News, The Nation, and Responsible Statecraft. Previously, he was a researcher and producer for System Update with Glenn Greenwald. His work focuses on civil liberties and U.S. foreign policy. He studied Political Science and Russian Studies at Union College (NY).

July 18, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Comments Off on Rahm Emmanuel’s Israel-Endorsed ‘Opposition’ to Israel

AIPAC blacklists dozens of US lawmakers that backed cutting military aid to Israel

The Cradle | July 18, 2026

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) cut off online donations to more than two dozen House Democrats on 17 July, only days after they voted against a $3.3 billion military aid package to Israel.

AIPAC’s donation portal shows “pro-Israel” incumbents with contribution buttons, which were removed for Democrats who backed the amendment, while links stayed active for those who opposed the vote this week.

“AIPAC members are deeply appreciative of their representatives who stand on principle and are disappointed by those who don’t,” AIPAC spokesperson Deryn Sousa said in a statement.

On 15 July, Republican Representative Thomas Massie introduced the amendment to the National Security and Department of State Appropriations Act (NSDSA) 2027, aiming to cut about $3.3 billion annually in US military aid to Israel.

If approved, the measure would have eliminated Israel’s share of Foreign Military Financing (FMF), the program through which Washington funds foreign governments’ purchases of US weaponry, and would also have prohibited any funds in the fiscal 2027 State Department bill from being used to support Israel.

While the proposed amendment was defeated in a 314-to-104 vote, it marked a significant political shift, with nearly half of House Democrats voting in its favor.

Ties to the pro-Israel lobby have become an ideological litmus test for US voters.

Candidates critical of Israel have seen a sharp rise in support, with progressive challengers in New York defeating pro-Israel incumbents in congressional primaries in late June.

The defeats significantly impacted AIPAC, highlighting campaigns that focus on their opponents’ acceptance of lobby funds and their reluctance to label Israel’s assault on Gaza as genocide.

Accepting AIPAC funds has become “toxic” to a growing number of US voters, who increasingly weigh a candidate’s loyalty to the US against loyalty to a foreign lobby.

The financial pressure campaign runs parallel to broader Israeli efforts to shore up support among US citizens.

A recent investigation by TIME revealed that Israel has been paying President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager around $1.5 million per month to run an influence operation producing pro-Israel content aimed at Gen Z audiences across social media platforms.

The efforts have failed to stop the long-running reputational collapse, as one Pew Research Center poll released in April found 60 percent of US citizens view Israel unfavorably, while an older survey by Gallup showed more US citizens sympathizing with Palestinians than Israelis for the first time in US history.

July 18, 2026 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Corruption | , , , | Comments Off on AIPAC blacklists dozens of US lawmakers that backed cutting military aid to Israel

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