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US not solution but obstacle in way of resolving international issues: Iran

Press TV – July 19, 2024

Iran’s interim foreign minister says the United States’ unilateral approach to international issues has proven to be a failure, stressing that Washington is not part of the solution, but an obstacle in the path of peace.

Speaking to reporters in New York on Friday, Ali Bagheri Kani criticized the US’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and its export of weapons to Israel amid the regime’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

“The Americans’ claims that unilateralism can bring about peace, stability and security to the world have failed,” he said.

“Practically, the American’s approaches to the Iran nuclear negotiations, as well as the Palestine issue and the Zionist’s aggression against Gaza, demonstrated that they cannot be part of the solution, but they are themselves the main obstacle.”

The top diplomat also noted that the US is not qualified to be a “neutral mediator” as it disrupted the JCPOA’s implementation and is even “encouraging” Israel to commit more crimes in Gaza by providing the regime with lethal arms.

Bagheri Kani made the remarks after he attended two United Nations Security Council meetings focusing on the developments in Palestine and multilateralism.

He said that in the meetings, he had underlined the need for an immediate end to the Gaza genocide and highlighted the consequences if the regime committed a “strategic mistake” by invading Lebanon.

“The Zionists are killing and injuring 20 oppressed Palestinians almost every hour. Thus, the world should not remain silent and passive in the face of these continued crimes that are being normalized,” he added.

The interim foreign minister further hailed resistance as an effective element in the region, saying it plays a major role in creating regional stability and prevents the Zionists from escalating their offensive and massacre in the region.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far killed at least 38,848 Palestinians, mostly women, and children, in Gaza, and injured 89,456 others in the besieged Gaza Strip.

July 19, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Lavrov: Hezbollah, Lebanese govt. avoid full-scale war with Israel, but some within regime seek conflict

Press TV – July 18, 2024

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement and the Lebanese government do not want a “full-blown war” with Israel but “some” within the regime are seeking it.

Speaking at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, the top Russian diplomat said “there’s a suspicion that some circles in Israel are trying to achieve just that.”

Lavrov, citing some American and European analysts, stressed that “escalation, as the practical developments show, is something which Israel is interested in.”

Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging deadly fire since early October, shortly after the regime launched a genocidal war on Gaza following a surprise operation by the Palestinian Hamas resistance group.

Hezbollah has vowed to keep up its retaliatory attacks as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its Gaza onslaught.

“Hezbollah has been very much restrained in its actions,” Lavrov further said, adding that its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has already “delivered a number of public statements which reaffirmed that position.”

“However, the sentiment is that there’s an attempt to provoke them, and to provoke them into a full-blown engagement,” the top Russian diplomat warned.

According a tally by the Associated Press, Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon since October have killed more than 450 people while Hezbollah’s retaliatory attacks have claimed 34 lives.

Israeli media say Hezbollah’s retaliatory strikes have displaced around 60,000 Israeli settlers from northern parts of the occupied lands.

Israel’s war on Gaza slammed as ‘collective punishment’

Elsewhere in his remarks on Wednesday, Lavrov stressed that Israel’s war on the besieged Gaza Strip has crossed the line and is now a form of “collective punishment” on the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

“When it comes to collective punishment in violation of international humanitarian law, one cannot fight against one form of violation through other violations. It’s the same principle here,” he said.

The Tel Aviv regime has killed about 38,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza, since October 7.

Since the start of the war, the United States has supplied Israel with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment and used its veto power against all UN Security Council resolutions that called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

Despite the unabated campaign of bloodletting, the occupying regime has so far fallen short of realizing its two main “goals”, namely defeating and eliminating Hamas, and releasing Israeli captives.

July 18, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

US declares ‘mission complete’ for Gaza Aid Pier after delivering one day’s worth of food

The Cradle | July 18, 2024

The Pentagon announced on 17 July that the floating pier built off the coast of Gaza would be dismantled for good, declaring its “mission complete” two months after it started operations.

“The maritime surge mission involving the pier is complete. So there’s no more need to use the pier,” Navy Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, deputy commander of US Central Command (CENTCOM), told a news briefing late Wednesday.

“Our assessment is that the temporary pier has achieved its intended effect to surge a very high volume of aid into Gaza and ensure that aid reaches the civilians in Gaza in a quick manner,” Cooper said, adding that nearly 20 million pounds of aid entered Gaza via the pier – the equivalent of about 600 truckloads.

For months, the UN and other human rights organizations have established that a minimum of 500 to 600 truckloads of aid need to enter Gaza daily to alleviate critical famine conditions. A large part of the aid that reached Gaza via the pier rotted under the sun for weeks after the US and Israel used the alleged humanitarian corridor to launch a bloody rescue operation in Nuseirat camp that killed nearly 300 Palestinians.

Cooper also announced that efforts to deliver aid to Gaza by sea would shift to the Israeli port of Ashdod. He added that, after US troops failed to re-attach the pier last week for a final time, about five million pounds of aid stranded in Cyprus and at sea will be heading to Ashdod.

“Having now delivered the largest volume of humanitarian assistance ever into the Middle East, we’re now mission complete and transitioning to a new phase,” Cooper claimed. “In the coming weeks, we expect that millions of pounds of aid will enter into Gaza via this new pathway.”

Earlier this week, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced that the floating pier would be replaced with a “dedicated facility” called Pier 28 in Ashdod Port without specifying a timeline.

He also claimed that the facilities will include a field hospital to “treat Palestinian children.” “This is a significant short-term solution that will address immediate humanitarian needs until a permanent mechanism is established to evacuate and treat ill children,” Gallant’s office said.

US President Joe Biden, who announced the construction of the $230 million structure in March, expressed disappointment in the pier’s ultimate failure, saying, “I was hopeful that would be more successful.”

After its launch in mid-May, the pier operated for fewer than 25 days, and aid agencies used it only about half that time due to security concerns, as the Israeli army has continuously targeted aid convoys and humanitarian groups operating in Gaza.

Barely any humanitarian aid has entered Gaza since the start of May when Israel violently took control of the Rafah crossing after Hamas accepted the terms of a US-backed ceasefire agreement. Tel Aviv is also in control of another six land crossings into the besieged enclave, which could allow for the delivery of necessary assistance that has been rotting on the Egyptian side of the border.

July 18, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel approves resolution rejecting creation of Palestinian state

MEMO | July 18, 2024

Israeli lawmakers voted yesterday to approve a draft resolution rejecting the creation of a Palestinian state even as part of a peace agreement.

Some 68 deputies voted in favour of the bill in the General Assembly session, nine voted against it or abstained from voting, while the centrist Yesh Atid Party left the session before the vote was held, according to a statement issued by Knesset.

The resolution declares that “the Israeli Knesset opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state on any piece of land west of the Jordan River” claiming that “the existence of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel will pose an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, will further extend the Israel-Palestinian Arab conflict and be a source of destabilisation for the entire region.”

The motion concludes: “Supporting Palestinian statehood at this time would reward terrorism and serve to encourage Hamas and its supporters. Israel’s enemies will interpret it as the victorious outcome of the massacre perpetrated on October 7 and a precursor to the conquest by jihadist Islamism of the entire Middle East.”

The proposal was introduced by the opposition New Hope-United Right Party and supported by several parties within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition, as well as the National Unity Party led by former War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz.

Gideon Sa’ar, a prominent Israeli lawmaker and chair of the New Hope-The United Right Party, said the resolution “aims to express the opposition that exists among the Israeli people to the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel’s security and future.”

He added that the decision sends a message to the international community, indicating that “pressures aimed at imposing a Palestinian state on Israel will not work.”

In response to the vote, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh stated that peace and security cannot be achieved without the creation of a Palestinian state in accordance with international legitimacy.

According to the Wafa news agency, he accused Israel of terrorism resulting in the deaths of children, women and the elderly.

Abu Rudeineh emphasised that the Palestinian state is recognised globally, with 149 United Nations member states acknowledging its existence. He added that international recognitions continue to affirm that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state does not require permission or legitimacy from anyone.

He further noted that these decisions highlight Israel and its ruling coalition’s determination to destabilise the entire region, holding the US accountable for its bias and unwavering support.

The vote comes after an earlier decision this year by the Knesset to reject any “unilateral” international recognition of a Palestinian state.

July 18, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , | Leave a comment

Let’s Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He Arrives in Washington!

He’s an international war criminal and also helped steal American nuclear technology

BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • JULY 18, 2024

America’s highly esteemed president who should be called Doodle-Head every time he opens his mouth came out with a beauty last Tuesday, claiming that if it weren’t for the existence of Israel “every Jew in the world would be at risk.” No Joe, you got it wrong. The reality is that Israeli behavior is precisely what fuels anger directed against what might be referred to as the “International Jewish Conspiracy,” whereby the wealthy and powerful Jewish diaspora enables Israel to literally get away with war crimes and mass murder without any consequences. Joe has also said the he has done more for the Palestinians than anyone, which means that he finds some benefit in watching them die under relentless bombardment by Israel with US provided munitions.

This ability to twist perceptions of what is going on in the Middle East and also at home based on a grossly exaggerated standard narrative of perpetual Jewish suffering means that Jewish groups benefit from a double standard that enables them to avoid condemnation for their over-the-top manipulation of government and other institutions with avoidance of any penalty for their activity. Matt Brooks, the CEO of the Republican Jewish Coalition spoke Tuesday at the RNC, providing the standard line about poor suffering American Jewry, saying “President Trump will bring back law and order so that American Jews can once again wear a kippah and walk the streets without fear,” while waving a kippah with Trump’s name embroidered on it. This playing the perpetual victim is true in the United States most particularly, but it also works in Britain, France, Canada and Germany where fundamental rights like freedom of speech are under attack to protect the state of Israel.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a monster, even regarded as such in his own country due to his corruption and that of his wife. He knows that if the Gaza war were to end, he might quickly wind up impeached and in jail. Interestingly, one of his major crimes involved receiving $250,000 as a bribe from Israeli film maker Arnon Milchan, who made his fortune in the United States and was also involved in espionage directed against US nuclear technology to enable the Jewish state to develop its own secret – and illegal – nuclear weapons arsenal. Milchan and Netanyahu were together involved in illegally obtaining the nuclear triggers needed to detonate the nukes.

Milchan earned his fortune, estimated to be in excess of $3 billion, in part by spying for Israel to the detriment of the United States which is the country that has provided him with the opportunities to become rich and relatively famous. The Milchan tale is just one part of the successful effort by Israel to obtain the technology and raw materials for its secret nuclear arsenal. Preventing nuclear proliferation was a major objective of the US government when in the early 1960s President John F. Kennedy learned that Tel Aviv was developing a nuclear weapon from a CIA report. He told the Israelis to terminate their program or risk losing American political and economic support but was killed before any steps were taken to end the project. Many believe that Israel may have had a hand in the killing of both Jack and Bobby Kennedy and the American public is still waiting for the US government to release all the reports detailing what was obtained in the investigation of the deaths.

Israel accelerated its nuclear program after the death of President Kennedy. By 1965, it had obtained the raw material for a bomb consisting of US government owned highly enriched weapons grade uranium obtained from a company in Pennsylvania called NUMEC, which was founded in 1956 and owned by Zalman Mordecai Shapiro, head of the Pittsburgh chapter of the Zionist Organization of America. NUMEC was a supplier of enriched uranium for government projects but it was also from the start a front for the Israeli nuclear program, with its chief funder David Lowenthal, a leading Zionist, traveling to Israel at least once a month where he would meet with an old friend Meir Amit, who headed Israeli intelligence. NUMEC covered the shipment of enriched uranium to Israel by claiming the metal was “lost,” losses that totaled more than six hundred pounds, enough to produce dozens of weapons. Such was the importance of the operation that in 1968 NUMEC even received a private incognito visit from Israeli top spymaster Rafi Eitan. In spite of all the evidence that something extremely shady had taken place at NUMEC, Zalman Shapiro was never charged with any crime.

With the uranium in hand, the stealing of the advanced technology needed to make a nuclear weapon is where Milchan and later Netanyahu come into the story. Arnon Milchan was born in Israel but moved to the United States and eventually wound up as the founder-owner of a major movie production company, New Regency Films. In a November 25, 2013 interview on Israeli television Milchan admitted that he had spent his many years in Hollywood as an agent for Israeli intelligence, helping obtain embargoed technologies and materials that enabled Israel to develop a nuclear weapon. He worked for Israel’s Bureau of Science and Liaison acquisition division of Mossad, referred to as the LAKAM spy agency.

Milchan explained in his interview that “I did it for my country and I’m proud of it.” He also said that “other big Hollywood names were connected to [his] covert affairs.” Among other successes, he obtained through his company Heli Trading 800 krytrons, the sophisticated triggers for nuclear weapons. A krytron is a gas-filled tube used as a high-speed switch. US government munitions licenses are required to export krytrons precisely because they can be used as triggers for nuclear weapons. California-based MILCO International Inc. shipped 15 orders totaling 800 krytrons through an intermediary to the Israeli Ministry of Defense between 1979 and 1983. MILCO obtained the krytrons from EG&G Inc. After the U.S. government rejected several requests for krytron export licenses to Israel, the devices were acquired from the California top secret defense contractor MILCO International. Milchan personally recruited MILCO’s president Richard Kelly Smyth as an agent before turning him over to another Heli Trading employee, none other than Benjamin Netanyahu, for handling. Smyth was eventually arrested in 1985 and cooperated in his interrogation by the FBI before being sentenced to prison, which means that the Federal government knew all about both Milchan and Netanyahu at that time but did not even seek to interview them and ultimately did nothing about them, a cover-up to protect Israel that persists to this day.

Assuming that the statute of limitations on the crime has not run out it should still be possible to arrest and try the perpetrators, which would include both Milchan and Netanyahu. And there should be plenty of evidence if one were to look for it. An exhaustive investigation was carried out on both the thefts given their role in “nuclear proliferation,” though the complete reports have not to this day been made public as the Jewish state’s friends in government and the media have scrambled to cover up the direct Israeli government role insofar as possible. Also, there was physical evidence relating to the diversion of the uranium. Refined uranium has a technical signature that permit identification of its source. Traces of uranium from NUMEC were identified by Department of Energy inspectors in Israel in 1978. The Central Intelligence Agency has also looked into the diversion of enriched uranium from the NUMEC plant and has concluded that it was part of a broader program to obtain the technology and raw materials for a nuclear device for Israel.

Milchan initially retained his US visa even though his role in the trigger thefts had been exposed in the media. The multi-year residency visa was restored to him in 2016 through the intervention of Prime Minister Netanyahu with Secretary of State John Kerry, perhaps predictably, though Milchan has not traveled to the US recently and is believed to be living in Europe and is in poor health. He is also avoiding visiting Israel due to pending charges relating to his bribery of Netanyahu. The issue of Israel’s nukes is regarded as particularly sensitive both in Washington and Jerusalem as, under the Symington Amendment, the US is forbidden from providing military aid to any government that has secret or undeclared nuclear weapons. If the law were applied as written, US arming and funding Israel in its slaughter of the Palestinians would have to stop, but the deference to Israeli interests in this case is just one more example of how the Jewish state is above the law in the reckoning of American government officials and the media.

The tragedy is that spying for Israel appears to be regarded as something like a victimless crime, but in the case of Milchan it was dead serious, involving as it did nuclear proliferation on behalf of a nation that might generously be described as aggressively paranoid. And note that Benjamin Netanyahu, the very “statesman” who received 29 standing ovations from the US Congress, was also involved in the major Mossad operation to steal critical technology from the United States. In fact, even though the Israelis and their “friends” continue to rob America blind it is extremely difficult to be punished for doing so even after being caught red handed.

Prosecutions for Israeli spying are so few because of Department of Justice unwillingness to pursue them, according to a retired FBI agent who claimed that hundreds of potential prosecutions were rejected for political reasons. The actual convictions involve crimes so egregious that they cannot be ignored or covered up, like overheard conversations over lunch, as when Pentagon analyst Larry Franklin provided intelligence on Iran to American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) staffers Keith Weissman and Steve Rosen as well as to officials in the Israeli Embassy. Franklin went briefly to jail and was subsequently reported to be waiting on tables in West Virginia. US Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard, America’s most damaging spy of all time, stole enough top secret codeword secret material to fill a room before he was arrested and convicted. He obtained Israeli citizenship while in prison and is now living in Israel and is celebrated there having been freed of his parole conditions by President Donald Trump. Apart from that, nada! Time to change all that.

Netanyahu, Milchan and the others are not friends of the United States, quite the contrary, and deserve to be treated like any other spies caught in flagrante. The American people should demand that the government begin to recognize that fact and act accordingly. Putting Arnon Milchan and his colleague Benjamin Netanyahu in jail, or even sanctioning them to strip them of their assets, as has been done to numerous Iranians and Russians by Joe “Mumbles” Biden, would be a great start. Arresting Netanyahu on his upcoming celebration trip to address the Joint Session of Congress and visit Biden in the White House would really send a message to the Israelis about proper deportment and would be even better. One can only imagine what it would look like to see Netanyahu in an American prison! Hard labor, please!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.

July 18, 2024 Posted by | Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Russia Ready for Ukraine Peace Talks With Focus on Clear Security Agreements

Sputnik – 17.07.2024

Russia is ready for negotiations on Ukraine and European security issues and will incorporate safeguards against dual interpretations in any future European security treaty said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“We are ready for negotiations, but considering the sad experience of talks and consultations with the West and Ukrainians… I hope a treaty will be reached at some stage on European security, and in this context the Ukraine crisis will be resolved,” Lavrov stated during a press conference following a UN Security Council meeting.

“We will, of course, be very careful with the wording and will incorporate safeguards into this document against repeated unscrupulous, unreliable interpretations,” the foreign minister added.

Lavrov emphasized that, unlike China, the West does not address the root causes of the conflict in its initiatives on Ukraine.

“This already concerns the content of the dialogue; China has very clearly indicated in its first initiative the need to start with addressing the root causes of the current crisis in Europe and to work on agreements to eliminate these causes,” he said.

He noted that “no one at the Copenhagen or Burgenstock meetings even mentioned the root causes.”

Thus, the West is trying to push through Volodymyr Zelensky’s plan by all possible means.

“A course has been set to push through at any cost the so-called Zelensky plan, which has a clearly defined form of an ultimatum,” Lavrov emphasized.

Lavrov’s comments were in response to a question about Russia’s possible participation in the second summit on the Ukraine conflict and the outcomes of the recent conference in Switzerland.

On Russia-US Unofficial Contacts Regarding Ukraine

Russia and the United States have held unofficial and so-called “second level” expert level contacts to discuss issues related to the conflict in Ukraine, Minister Lavrov added.

“I will tell you in confidence — we have had unofficial contacts with the Americans involving political experts, political experts who know each other and understand the policies of their governments,” Lavrov told the press conference, adding that Ukraine was on the agenda of such contacts.

Despite the fact that the two countries are holding phone conversations from time to time, there is nothing significant in these talks, he noted.

On Russia’s Readiness to Work With a New US President

Russia will be ready to work with any elected president of the United States, the foreign minister claimed.

“Once again I want to say: we will work, we will be ready to work with any American leader that the American people elect and who … will be ready for an equal, mutually respectful dialogue,” Lavrov said at the press event.

On Israel Seeking to Involve the US in Regional Escalation

It appears that Israel’s goal is to involve the United States in the escalation of tensions with Iran, the minister observed.

“The sense is that they want to provoke them into full-scale involvement with Hezbollah. The purpose of such a provocation, analysts suggest, is to draw the United States directly into the involvement of its armed forces in this [regional] conflict,” Lavrov emphasized.

Russia hopes the West will do everything to ensure that such ideas, “if they exist in the Israeli leadership,” will remain only ideas.

Moscow is doing everything to “calm down the situation,” Lavrov added.

On the Nord Stream Explosions

Russia will continue seeking the truth regarding the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Lavrov said.

“We will pursue the truth – since I’ve mentioned the Nord Streams, we’re going to seek the truth,” he highlighted.

July 17, 2024 Posted by | Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

160 journalists killed by ‘Israel’ since October: Gaza Media Office

Mohammed Meshmesh, program director at Al-Aqsa Voice radio.
Al Mayadeen | July 16, 2024

The media office of Gaza’s government reported on Tuesday that at least 160 journalists have been killed in the strip since Israeli airstrikes began in October.

“The number of journalists killed since the start of the genocide war against the Gaza Strip has risen to 160,” the media office said in a statement.

In April, the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate reported that at least 140 journalists had been killed in the Israeli military offensive on Gaza. The latest martyr is Mohammed Meshmesh, a program director at Al-Aqsa Voice radio, according to the media office.

On Sunday, a senior official in the Israeli security administration claimed that the intensive phase of military operations in Gaza has ended and the regime has proceeded to the third stage of the war, as quoted by Israeli broadcaster Channel 14.

This supposedly means that “Israel” has concluded its most active and aggressive period of its campaign in Gaza.

Yet, earlier today, Israeli forces committed two massacres  across the Strip, including at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school of al-Razi in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, where many forcible displaced families were taking refuge.

23 Palestinians were killed in the horrific massacre and dozens were injured.

Another attack on displaced people near the al-Attar Station in the al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, has resulted in the killing of at least 17 people and the injury of at least 26, as per the Ministry of Health in Gaza.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza announced in its daily report today that the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza due to the Israeli genocidal war ongoing since October 7 has now reached 38,713, in addition to 89,166 injuries.

It further confirmed that Israeli forces committed two massacres in 24 hours, killing 49 and injuring 69, and that thousands of victims are still under the rubble on the streets.

July 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Groups blocking aid to Gaza got donations from US and Israel – media

RT | July 16, 2024

Several groups that have been blocking humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza have received financial support from donors in the US and Israel, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The three organizations described as ‘far-right’ have reportedly slowed down aid supplies by either blocking trucks on their way to Gaza, or by causing traffic jams and even standing in front of Kerem Shalom, the main crossing into the Palestinian enclave.

According to inquiries into crowdfunding websites and other public records conducted by the news agency and the Israeli investigative site Shomrim, three groups, including one accused of looting or destroying supplies, have raised over $200,000 via contributions from the US and Israel.

Mother’s March has reportedly raised the equivalent of over $125,000 through the Israeli crowdfunding site Givechack, the AP and Shomrim found. The group also raised some $13,000 via JGive, a US and Israeli crowdfunding site.

The report claims that the organization doesn’t not raise money directly, but works via an allied group called Torat Lechima, which says its goal is to “strengthen the Jewish identity and fighting spirit” among Israeli soldiers. A third group, Tzav 9, raised over $85,000 from just under 1,500 donors in the US and Israel via JGive.

The report alleges that the donations have been incentivized by making them tax-deductible. It noted that practices of this kind contradict a pledge by the US and Israel to allow unlimited flows of food and medicine into war-ravaged Gaza. Donations continued even after Washington introduced sanctions against Tzav 9.

“If you’re on the one hand saying you’re allowing aid in but then also facilitating the actions of groups that are blocking it, can you really say you’re facilitating aid?” Tania Hary, executive director of Israeli nonprofit Gisha, told AP. She said Israel has shown a “lack of coherence” in its Gaza aid policy.

Сommenting on the report, the US State Department told the news agency that Washington was committed to ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza. Neither US nor Israeli officials commented on the fundraising efforts by the far-right groups.

Nine months into the war in Gaza, the issue of humanitarian aid deliveries to the territory is of increasing importance. Earlier this month, a group of independent UN human rights experts accused Israel of conducting a “targeted starvation campaign,” saying that 34 people, most of them children, had died of malnutrition in the enclave since October 7.

The Israeli mission to the UN in Geneva slammed the reports as “misinformation,” saying Israel had helped to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. The diplomats claimed that members of Hamas “intentionally steal and hide aid from civilians.”

July 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian steadfastness and Hamas tactics have thwarted Israel’s goals

By Nidal Adaileh | MEMO | July 15, 2024

There is no dispute about Hamas’ ability to survive, despite more than nine months of fighting against Israel. The occupation state has to admit that it has not achieved any of its goals.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have been killed, and almost 100,000 more have been wounded. Nevertheless, Hamas and the factions fighting alongside it remain steadfast, and even take the war to the so-called invincible army occasionally.

It has become clear that Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated objective of eliminating Hamas is pure vanity. Now we see statements from Israeli officials which are clearly intended to prepare the general public that this objective may not really be possible, even as Hamas and its allies have adopted a new strategy targeting Israeli forces inside Gaza, instead of launching rockets towards Israel.

The Israeli prime minister is trying to limit the threats of the Palestinian resistance factions through the ongoing military offensive against the Palestinians in Gaza. However, he faces major challenges in achieving his two main goals of “eradicating” the Islamic Resistance Movement and returning the Israelis held as prisoners in the enclave.

Time is no longer on Israel’s side.

International pressure is increasing for it to “limit its operations”. The longer that Hamas holds out, the more difficult it becomes for Israel to achieve its goals.

Nine months into its war, Israel has failed to destroy Hamas as a military and political force, and even if it has succeeded in killing key leaders who planned the 7 October cross-border incursion, battle-hardened replacements are emerging in their stead.

The resilience of the resistance groups reflects their effective use of guerrilla tactics, the extent of their arsenal and the regrouping of their fighters. Led by the Hamas military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, the factions are engaged in confrontations that reflect a high level of preparation and implementation, despite the technological imbalance favouring the Israeli army. The objective of the resistance groups is to inflict losses on the Israeli war machine so that it pays the price for its brutal offensive which has targeted and killed so many innocent civilians and destroyed essential infrastructure in Gaza. If and when Israel realises the extent of its failures, it may open the way for an end to the war.

Hamas has had to cope with 18 years of siege imposed on the Gaza Strip, but has nevertheless been able to develop militarily. Its fighting capabilities have grown, with locally-produced weapons and munitions produced using technology provided by supporters. The movement’s strategic, operational and tactical options are hugely varied compared with those of its early days.

The steadfastness of the Palestinians in Gaza in the face of the bloody massacres of the Zionist entity, meanwhile, has attracted global attention and admiration. It is a mistake to think that the Palestinians can be defeated through military means; they may be bloodied, but they are unbowed. On many occasions throughout the 20th century societies retreated in the face of brutal crimes and terrorism, even though they knew themselves to be in the right, but what we are witnessing in Gaza is the steadfastness of an entire people.

It may not be clear who are the victors and who are the defeated, but what is clear is that Israel has not achieved its goals: Hamas still very much exists, and Israelis are still held as prisoners in Gaza.

The Gaza Strip has now become a thorn in the side of the Israeli occupation army. It is at a loss about what it can do. I am sure that the Gaza experience will — if it has not already — become a special case study for military academies around the world.

Palestinian steadfastness in Gaza and, increasingly, in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, is the password in the current phase of the struggle to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent, sovereign Palestinian state in which Palestinians can live in safety.

July 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel using US-provided internationally prohibited weapons: Hamas

Press TV – July 15, 2024

The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says Israel is using the US-provided internationally prohibited weapons against people in Gaza.

Hamas said in a statement on Monday that more than 320 martyrs and injured have reached hospitals in the past 48 hours with their bodies burned due to the use of internationally prohibited weapons by Israeli occupation forces.

The weapons used by the Israeli occupation forces have caused third-degree burns which thermal or chemical arms cause, Hamas said.

The group added that these “are unconventional, internationally banned weapons, mostly of American manufacture.”

“These weapons cause a chemical reaction with the skin, leading to the direct chemical erosion of tissues in the bodies of martyrs and the injured,” it added.

“They cause severe pain and deep physical damage, resulting in fatal burns within 27 hours or less. We have indeed lost many martyrs in this tragic manner,” the statement added.

Hamas said they strongly condemn the crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli occupation against civilians, children, and women.

“We call on all countries of the world to denounce these incendiary crimes against civilians and to pursue and prosecute the occupation in international courts,” it added.

Hamas said it holds the US administration “fully responsible, both legally and morally, for supplying the Israeli occupation with these various types of internationally prohibited weapons.”

“We also hold the Israeli occupation responsible for the crimes and massacres it commits against civilians and displaced persons,” the resistance movement said.

“We call on the international community, all international and UN organizations, and all free countries of the world to pursue the Israeli occupation and pressure it to stop the genocide that the occupation army is committing to kill and destroy our Palestinian people,” it concluded.

Gaza Civil Defense Service has in several statements pointed to the “dissolution of victims corpses and their conversion into ashes.”

A Euro-Med Monitor report highlights that the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and international humanitarian law all forbid the use of thermal bombs against civilians in populated civilian areas.

“The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court also classifies the use of thermal bombs as a war crime.”

Two weeks into the war, Gaza’s Health Ministry warned in a statement that “medical staff monitored the usage of unusual weapons that caused severe burns to the bodies of the martyrs and wounded.”

Analysts believe that the Gaza war is the latest laboratory for Israel’s arms industry as the regime is known to test its weapons on Palestinians in its offensives against the occupied nation.

At least 90 Palestinians mostly women and children were killed and almost 300 others were injured in the July 13 Israeli aerial assault on the densely-populated camp near Khan Younis.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory operation into the occupied territories.

Concomitantly with the war, the regime has been enforcing a near-total siege on the coastal territory, which has reduced the flow of foodstuffs, medicine, electricity, and water into the Palestinian territory into a trickle.

So far during the military onslaught, the regime has killed at least 38,664 Gazans, most of them women, children, and adolescents. Another 89,097 Palestinians have sustained injuries as well.

July 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel launches new Gaza strikes after weekend attack kills scores in safe zone

MEMO | July 15, 2024

Israel struck the southern and central Gaza Strip on Monday to put more pressure on Hamas, following a weekend strike targeting the group’s leadership, which killed scores of Palestinians who had sought shelter in a makeshift camp, Reuters reports.

Two days after the Israeli strike turned a crowded swathe of Mawasi near the Mediterranean coast into a charred wasteland littered with burning cars and mangled bodies, displaced survivors said they had no idea where they should go next.

“Those moments as the ground shook underneath my feet and the dust and sand rose to the sky and I saw dismembered bodies – was like nothing I have seen in my life,” said Aya Mohammad, 30, a market seller in Mawasi, reached by mobile text message. “Where to go is what everybody asks, and no one has the answer.”

Mawasi on the western outskirts of Khan Yunis has been sheltering hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled to the area after Israel declared it a safe zone. Israel said its strike there on Saturday targeted Hamas military commander, Mohammed Deif, an architect of the 7 October assault on Israeli towns and villages that triggered the Gaza war.

The military said it struck an open area, with several buildings and sheds, adding it was a compound run by Hamas and not a tented camp.

Palestinian officials say at least 90 people were killed on Saturday and many hundreds wounded. Reuters journalists at the scene filmed carnage, with residents carrying the wounded and dead amid flames and smoke.

Further south in Rafah, the main focus of Israel’s advance since May, residents reported renewed fighting on Monday. Israeli forces in western and central parts of the city blew up several homes, they said. Medical officials said they recovered 10 bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in eastern areas of the city, some of which had already begun to decompose.

The military also stepped up aerial and tank shelling in central Gaza in the Al-Bureij and Al-Maghazi historic Refugee Camps. Health officials said five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on a house in Maghazi Camp.

The Israeli military said the air forces struck dozens of Palestinian military targets across Gaza, killing many gunmen. It said forces killed gunmen in Rafah and central Gaza, sometimes in close combat.

A statement from the Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad group, said its fighters were engaged in fierce battles in the Yabna camp in Rafah.

Later, on Monday, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, where Israel has not yet invaded and hundreds of thousands have taken refuge, the municipality issued an urgent statement saying it was no longer able to provide 700,000 people in the area with drinking water after running out of fuel.

“We urge citizens to preserve what is left in their private tankers and we stress the need to maintain the spirit of cooperation and sharing,” the statement said.

Speaking amidst the rubble of his family home in Deir Al-Balah, Walid Thabet told how an Israeli strike earlier on Monday had killed members of his family. Rescue workers and neighbours sifted through the debris to search for survivors buried beneath the wrecked building.

“My mother, an elderly woman, was sitting with me upstairs. She went downstairs and after five minutes, I pulled her out from under the rubble. We also pulled my sister out from under the rubble, and my sister’s children, too,” said Thabet.

“Those who died are my mother, my sister, and my sister’s children. Children! One was two and a half years old, and the other two, I don’t know what happened to them. God willing, may God save them,” he added.

Talks

Saturday’s carnage in Mawasi, one of the deadliest Israeli strikes of the war, has overshadowed negotiations that both sides had previously described as the closest yet to a lasting ceasefire. A senior Hamas official said on Sunday the group had not walked out of the talks despite the Mawasi strike.

Israel says another senior commander was killed in the strike but it has not yet confirmed the fate of Deif. Hamas officials have denied Deif was killed.

The Gaza Health Ministry said at least 38,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s military offensive since 7 October. It does not distinguish between combatants and non-combatants but officials say most of the dead throughout the war have been civilians.

Israel says it has lost 326 soldiers in Gaza and says at least a third of the Palestinian fatalities are fighters.

The war began after a Hamas-led attack inside Israel on 7 October, which killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

However, since then, it has been revealed by Haaretz that helicopters and tanks of the Israeli army had, in fact, killed many of the 1,139 soldiers and civilians claimed by Israel to have been killed by the Palestinian Resistance.

Citing a report by the United Nations Environment Programme, the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, said in a post on X it would take 15 years to clear around 40 million tons of war rubble in Gaza. The effort would need 100+ trucks and cost over $500 million.

“Debris pose a deadly threat for people in the #GazaStrip as it can contain unexploded ordnance and harmful substances,” it added.

July 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Colombia Professor Faces Firing After Pro-Israel Social Media Pile-On

By John Miles – Sputnik – 14.07.2024

Pro-Israel lawmakers and Zionist accounts on social media caused a firestorm after law professor Katherine Franke questioned the conduct of ex-IDF members on Columbia’s New York City campus.

A tenured professor at New York’s Columbia University faces firing after a pro-Israel online campaign criticizing comments the academic made on behalf of pro-Palestine demonstrators at the Ivy League school.

“There’s a very good chance that they will fire me,” said law professor Katherine Franke after being subjected to questioning she characterized as hostile as a part of Columbia’s investigation into the incident.

The controversy stems from an interview Franke granted to Democracy Now! on January 25. The professor sharply criticized Columbia’s response to an incident in which pro-Palestine protesters were sprayed with an unknown chemical substance by two alleged veterans of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

University administrators initially blamed the students for conducting an “unsanctioned” protest before finally banning the perpetrators from campus while police conducted an investigation of the incident.

“Columbia has a program, It’s a graduate relationship with older students from other countries, including Israel,” Franke noted on the radio program. “It’s something that many of us were concerned about because so many of those Israeli students who then come to the Columbia campus are coming right out of their military service. And they’ve been known to harass Palestinian and other students on our campus, and it’s something the university has not taken seriously in the past.”

“The university waited three or four days to actually even say anything about it,” she added. “They have not reached out to the students who were sick… some of whom are still in the hospital.”

The comment was subsequently mischaracterized by pro-Israel accounts on social media, who alleged that Franke advocated banning Israeli citizens from the Columbia campus.

“This @Columbia professor has a problem with former IDF soldiers being on campus,” read one post typical of the outrage, shared by Columbia Business School professor Shai Davidai, who identifies on the X platform as “Jewish Israeli” and “Zionist.”

“She doesn’t have a problem with ex-soldiers from any other place,” he complained. “Her only problem is with Israelis. @ProfKFranke – I served in the IDF. Do you think I also shouldn’t be allowed on campus?”

Davidai publicly criticized a wave of pro-Palestine protest on US college campuses earlier this year, calling the students “Nazis” and “terrorists” and calling for the National Guard to be deployed to break up the demonstrations. The demand implies a deadly threat against protesters in the United States, where National Guard troops shot and killed several antiwar demonstrators at Ohio’s Kent State University in 1970.

The business professor’s comments have been shared by official Israeli government accounts online as the country has invested significant effort in defending its cause on social media. It emerged last month that Israel has set up fake accounts online to lobby US lawmakers to continue supporting its military operation in the besieged Gaza Strip, which a study recently claimed could kill as many as 186,000. In 2013 it was revealed the country pays students to defend it on Facebook and Twitter.

Columbia administration released a statement defending Israeli students in response to the firestorm, which was championed by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The following month Franke was informed a complaint had been lodged against her by two Columbia law professors for “discrimination,” and in April Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik called for disciplinary action against her during a House hearing with controversial Columbia University President Minouche Shafik.

A number of college professors and other faculty have been fired or faced disciplinary action in the United States for expressing pro-Palestine sentiments. Dr. Ameer Loggins is filing a defamation suit against California’s Stanford University after being fired for giving a lecture that discussed Israel in the context of historical acts of settler colonialism.

“What’s of greatest concern is not really my 20-year-plus career at Columbia, but what this says about peaceful protest on our campuses around the lives and dignity of Palestinians,” Franke said about the investigation into her comments, which remains ongoing. “What’s happening to me is happening to our students, it’s happened to people on many other campuses.” … Full article

July 14, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

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