US university president placed on leave for accepting demands of Palestine supporters
MEMO | May 17, 2024
Sonoma State University’s President, Mike Lee, has been placed on administrative leave for announcing an agreement with pro-Palestinian activists to pursue an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and divestment strategies.
California State University Chancellor Mildred Garcia said yesterday that Mike Lee was put on leave for accepting the demands of protesting students without obtaining “proper approvals.”
She added in a statement published on the website of the University of California, to which Sonoma University is affiliated: “For now, because of this insubordination and consequences it has brought upon the system, President Lee has been placed on administrative leave.”
This decision is considered the harshest disciplinary action imposed on the president of any of the US universities that have witnessed anti-war protests.
Since April, US, Canadian, British, French and Indian universities have witnessed protests rejecting the Israeli war on Gaza and demanding university administrations stop their academic cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.
Protesters also demand that their universities withdraw their investments from companies that support the occupation of Palestinian territories and arm the Israeli army.
In New York riot police were sent into campuses to disperse protesters and remove encampments set up in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Belgium’s Ghent university severs ties with 3 Israel institutions
MEMO | May 17, 2024
Belgium’s University of Ghent (UGent) is severing ties with three Israeli educational or research institutions which it says no longer align with UGent’s human rights policy, Reuters reports its rector saying.
Pro-Palestinian protesters in Ghent have been demonstrating against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and have been occupying parts of the university since early this month.
The university’s rector, Rik Van de Walle, said in a statement that ties were being cut with Holon Institute of Technology, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Volcani Centre, which carries out agricultural research.
“We currently assess these three partners as (very) problematic according to the Ghent University human rights test, in contrast to the positive evaluation we gave these partners at the start of our collaboration,” Van de Walle said.
Partnerships with MIGAL Galilee Research Institute and the Volcani Centre “were no longer desirable” due to their affiliation with Israeli ministries, an investigation by the University of Ghent found, and collaboration with the Holon Institute “was problematic” because it provided material support to the army for actions in Gaza.
A spokesperson for the university said the move would affect four projects.
The three Israeli institutions did not immediately comment.
The protesters told Belgian broadcaster VRT they welcomed the decision but regarded it as only a first step. They said they would continue their occupation of parts of the university “until UGent breaks its ties with all Israeli institutions”.
The actions mirror those of students in the United States and elsewhere in Europe, calling for an immediate permanent ceasefire and for schools to cut financial ties with companies they say are profiting from what they regard as the oppression of Palestinians.
Israeli officials’ jaws drop over Hezbollah’s complex operations
Al Mayadeen | May 17, 2024
Multiple Israeli media outlets are reporting on Hezbollah’s military capabilities, following a series of top-tier attacks that targeted highly-prized Israeli surveillance and radar systems, while introducing new methods of engagement.
The Ynet news website said that Israeli officers serving on the northern front have issued a warning regarding the fact that Hezbollah can launch an attack on Israeli soldiers near the Palestinian-Lebanese border 30 seconds after locating them. The capability has been showcased in several videos published by the group’s Military Media unit, where Hezbollah utilized either suicide drones, anti-tank guided missiles, or artillery weapons of various types to target Israeli groupings and individual soldiers.
Moreover, the military correspondent for the Israeli Army Radio said that Hezbollah has carried out a number of “high-quality attacks on more distant targets, using more advanced military weapons.”
Hezbollah’s ‘amazing capabilities’ showcased in first-ever airstrike
On Thursday, Hezbollah launched an airstrike via an Ababil-T drone armed with two Soviet-era S-5 rockets on a grouping of Israeli soldiers in Metulla. The attack marked the first-ever aerial strike launched on Israeli positions by a Lebanese entity and the first Arab strike on Israeli positions since 1973.
The Israeli Army Radio‘s correspondent said that Hezbollah has made it “a normal” occurrence to launch dozens of rockets and missiles toward the Meron Air Traffic Control military base, one of the occupation’s strategic military sites, used to both coordinate offensive operations and track and discover aerial threats.
As for today’s attacks, the correspondent pointed to an attack conducted via several suicide drones that targeted Israeli officers and soldiers’ accommodation camps in Ga’aton. On this particular incident, the Israeli broadcaster Channel 14‘s correspondent said that the drone attack placed hundreds of thousands of Israelis in shelters and bunkers after sirens went off in Ben Ami, Gesher HaZiv, Evron, Nahariya, Sa’ar, Shlomi, Metzuba, Betzet, Achziv Miluot Industrial Zone, Liman, Rosh HaNikra, Avdon, Neveh Ziv, Manot, Ga’aton, Yechiam, Cabri, and Ein Yacov over 14 minutes.
Channel 14 also reported that Israeli officials have always “estimated that Hezbollah had amazing capabilities that would surprise everyone.”
Hezbollah’s Tel Shamayim operation dropped the jaws of Israeli officials
The broadcaster also said that Hezbollah’s attack on the “highly sensitive” Tel Shamayim facility “dropped the jaws” of Israeli security officers, the military’s Northern Command, and the Israeli political leadership. The site, located 35 km away from the border, was attacked by two suicide drones, escaping a complex and layered anti-air defense system before impacting its target.
It is worth noting that the Sky Dew High Availability Aerostat System (HAAS) in question hosts high-tech surveillance equipment, early detection systems, and an AESA radar. Hezbollah has slowly dismantled Israeli surveillance and radar systems across occupied territories, by targeting spyware installed on frontline sites, attacking the Meron Air Traffic Control Base, surgically striking radars, downing a surveillance balloon, and taking down the Sky Dew HAAS.
Hezbollah’s ATGMs, drones evade Israeli anti-air, electronic warfare systems
The UK-based The Independent noted Hezbollah has adapted its attacks in recent weeks, managing to reduce the number of fighters lost in confrontations.
At the same time, Hezbollah has introduced new methods to its attacks, maintaining a high output of operations, including complex and composite attacks.
The Israeli news website, Intelli Times, said that “Hezbollah succeeds in utilizing suicide drones and precision television-guided weapons,” while Israeli forces do not have “the ability to intercept them.”
According to the website, this occurrence is “astonishing” and raises questions about Hezbollah’s electronic warfare capabilities and its possible use of the Russian satellite navigation system. The outlet called the aforementioned operations “worrying”, stressing that Hezbollah “will do anything to disable as many [Israeli] systems as possible,” in preparation for an Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
“[Israel] fired 5 Iron Dome missiles at 3 drones [and perhaps more] and shot down only one. What do we do when a swarm of 100 or 200 arrives?”
Intelli Times claims that Hezbollah is not launching its drones to attack “Israel” but to survey and scan the preparedness of Israeli anti-air systems and search for blind spots.
“This is what the public needs to know. This may be a scary outlook but it will become true,” the website added.
Settlers fail to cope with Hezbollah’s operations
On his part, the head of the Merom HaGalil settlement council, Amit Sofer, said in an interview for Channel 12, “We stand here in front of residents and people who do not know to what extent they can remain strong and steadfast,” adding that such feelings are “being crushed day after day.”
Sofer noted that every Israeli assassination of a Hezbollah officer has led to large-scale attacks on Meron.
“After every response, we experience unending tension, and we must completely and definitely stop,” he added.
Sofer called on Israeli authorities to strive for a resolution to the confrontations, saying that ongoing engagement is an economic threat “which is increasing month after month.” Fed up with the current state of affairs, Sofer called on the Israeli military to “show [Hezbollah] for once that the owner of the house has gone crazy.”
“The situation here, in the end, is unbearable. People here are collapsing day after day,” Sofer emphasized.
Houthis Take Down Another US Reaper Drone, Reiterate Threat to Target Ships in Mediterranean
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 17.05.2024
The Yemeni militia has turned the destruction of General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones into an art form, using homegrown variants of the Soviet Kub surface-to-air missile system to shoot the $32 million apiece attack UAVs out of the skies. The Pentagon has used Reapers extensively over Yemen amid the Houthi’ partial blockade of the Red Sea.
Yemen’s Houthi militia have reported the destruction of another MQ-9 Reaper using a “a locally-made” SAM.
In a statement published Friday and reported by Yemen’s SABA News Agency, the militia said their air defense forces took down the American drone over Marib, western Yemen, where it “was carrying out hostile acts,” on Thursday night.
The US military has yet to acknowledge the loss of the advanced drone. However, footage circulating online showed wreckage of a drone matching the Reaper’s dimensions and appearance, lying seemingly almost completely intact in a desert area at night. The Houthis don’t have a reputation for reporting on the destruction of enemy equipment unless they’ve actually done so, and previous attacks targeting Reapers have subsequently been begrudgingly confirmed by the Pentagon.
The downed drone is at least the fifth destroyed over Yemen since October 2023.
American forces have deployed Reapers en masse in the region to assist in their campaign of strikes on Yemen aimed at weakening the missile and drone capabilities the Houthis have deployed to try to enforce a partial blockade of the Red Sea targeting Israeli, US and UK-linked commercial vessels and warships.
Introduced into service with the US Air Force in 2008, Reapers have a 27-hour endurance time and a 50,000-foot flight ceiling, and have been heavily used in US operations over Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria for over 15 years, with over 300 built. The 11-meter long armed UAVs have a 20-meter wingspan, can carry up to 1,700 kg of ordinance on seven external hardpoints, and can travel at speeds of nearly 500 km per hour, with a cruising speed of over 300 km per hour.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their partial blockade until Israel stops its assault on Gaza, and have rejected all attempts to date by the US and its allies to get them to halt their missile and drone attacks – either by force or through quiet attempts to bribe them.
The Reaper shootdown came hours after the militia reiterated its threats to target Israeli-bound ships in the Mediterranean.
“We will target any ship heading to Israel that comes within range of our weapons,” Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said in a speech Thursday. “There is no red line for us. We are gradually hitting sensitive strategic targets that affect the enemy and we will reach them by God’s grace,” he said.
Al-Houthi reiterated that the militia sees the US as “complicit with the Zionist regime in the genocide against the Palestinian people,” and accused Washington of tacitly approving Tel Aviv’s attack on Rafah.
“We will strive to strengthen the fourth phase of escalation in terms of momentum and the power of strikes,” al-Houthi said, referencing the militia’s waves of escalatory actions, including attempts to strike Israel directly, and expanding the scope of operations from the Red and Arabian Seas to the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.
Al-Houthi said Houthi missiles and drones have targeted US ships operating the region more than a hundred times since the start of the year, and that Israeli ships and port infrastructure had been targeted 40 times using 211 missiles.
The “fourth phase” of the campaign promises to target “all ships that breach the Israeli navigation ban and head to the ports of occupied Palestine from the Mediterranean Sea in any area within the reach of Houthi forces,” al-Houthi said.
The Houthi campaign has shed far less blood than the crisis in Gaza which sparked it, where nearly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, and over 79,000 wounded, in Israeli attacks, the majority of them civilians. Houthi missile and drone strikes have killed three merchant ship sailors and injured five others, damaging at least 20 commercial vessels and sinking one. American and British strikes on Yemen have killed at least 50 Yemenis and injured 35 others to date.
What the campaign ‘lacks’ in carnage it makes up for in economic and psychological impact, with the Houthis humbling the US military – which has proven unable to stop the militia – hailing from one of the poorest, and most conflict-torn countries in the world. The campaign has also caused tens of billions of dollars in losses to economies around the world, including Israel, with major merchant fleets forced to avoid the Red Sea region to escape being targeted.
Pro-Israeli billionaires fuel NYC Mayor crackdown on Columbia students
Al Mayadeen | May 17, 2024
A coalition of billionaires and influential business figures, aiming to influence American public opinion regarding the Israeli war on Gaza, urged New York City’s Mayor in private last month to deploy police to quell pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, The Washington Post reported, citing communications obtained and individuals familiar with the group.
Business leaders, including Daniel Lubetzky, founder of Kind Snack company, hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik, and real estate investor Joseph Sitt, convened for a Zoom video conference with Mayor Eric Adams on April 26. This meeting took place about a week following the Mayor’s initial dispatch of New York police to Columbia’s campus, as indicated in a log of chat messages.
During the call, some participants discussed the possibility of making political contributions to Adams, as well as strategies for exerting pressure on Columbia’s President and trustees to authorize the Mayor’s deployment of police to address protesters on campus, according to summaries of the chat messages as reported by The Post.
A member of the WhatsApp chat group said, as quoted by The Post, that he “contributed” $2,100, the maximum allowable amount, to Adams during that month.
Additionally, some members expressed willingness to fund private investigators to aid the New York police in managing the protests, as indicated in the chat log. A member reported in the chat that Adams accepted this offer. However, a spokesperson for City Hall claimed that the New York Police Department has not utilized private investigators for managing protests.
Business leaders, Mayor Adams navigate crackdown on US students
The messages detailing the conversation with Adams were part of a vast collection of WhatsApp exchanges involving several prominent business leaders and financiers across the US. This group includes individuals such as former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, and Joshua Kushner, founder of Thrive Capital and brother of Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of former President Donald Trump.
Individuals with direct access to the chat log provided its contents to The Post under the condition of anonymity, as the chat was intended to remain private. Members of the group confirmed the existence of the chat and their contributions.
The chat was initiated by an associate of billionaire and real estate magnate Barry Sternlicht, who opted not to directly participate but communicated through the associate, as indicated in the chat messages and confirmed by a person familiar with Sternlicht, as per the report.
In an October 12 message, one of the initial messages in the group, the associate, posting on behalf of Sternlicht, informed others that the group’s objective was to “change the narrative” in support of “Israel”.
Stretching beyond New York
Formed shortly after October 7, the chat group’s influence has extended far beyond New York, reaching the highest echelons of the Israeli government, the American business sphere, and prestigious universities, The Washington Post reported.
Washington is essentially defying the majority of humanity as it persists in arming Israel
By Vladimir Mashin – New Eastern Outlook – 17.05.2024
For seven months, Israel has continued its targeted slaughter of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – the total number of dead and wounded, including those still under the rubble of homes, is approaching 130,000. Prime Minister Netanyahu continues this slaughter with Washington’s blessing, although outwardly the Americans say that they are trying to put pressure on the Israeli authorities to somehow help the Palestinian civilians.
In fact, the Americans have effectively blocked the work of the Security Council by using their veto power to reject all resolutions for an immediate ceasefire, thereby giving Israel a “free hand” in continuing to massacre the Palestinians.
No matter what US officials say about the many attempts to persuade Israel to limit military action, in fact Washington has continued to provide the Netanyahu government with new arms shipments without any delays, and has pushed through Congress legislation to provide Tel Aviv with an additional $26 billion in aid.
All this went on to the accompaniment of talk of Washington’s desire to create a new military pact in the Middle East as a long-term solution to the problems there.
According to the American press, talks have recently accelerated between Washington and Riyadh on a pact that would provide the kingdom with security guarantees and pave the way for possible diplomatic relations with Israel if its government ends the war in Gaza. The US press says the agreement could be finalized within weeks.
In doing so, the US promises to give the world’s largest oil exporter access to advanced US weapons that were previously banned. In return, the Saudi authorities must agree to limit the use of Chinese technology in their country’s most sensitive networks in exchange for major American investments in artificial intelligence and quantum computing, as well as receive American aid to develop its civilian nuclear program. It is indicated that the US and Saudi Arabia will offer Israel a series of economic and diplomatic incentives if it scraps plans to invade Rafah, a city in southern Gaza where more than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge, and quickly ends the war with Hamas. Israel is expected to pledge support for a two-state solution.
While at first the plan was to reach a three-way US-Israeli-Saudi agreement, Washington now says that the US and the Saudi Kingdom should first agree and then invite Israel to join them: if they agree, Netanyahu would have to end the war in the Gaza Strip and decide on the creation of a Palestinian state, which his cabinet opposes.
All these arguments are more like wishful thinking, especially since Netanyahu has warned that he is ordering the invasion of Rafah no matter what. And one of his government’s extreme right-wing ministers, B. Smotrich, even called for “the total destruction of Rafah and other cities.”
According to the Turkish press, this scenario is unlikely, although the Americans are exerting unprecedented pressure on Arab capitals to support the project they are promoting. In fact, Western states are directly threatening Arab governments: because of this dependence, no Arab government is daring to raise its voice in favor of sanctions against Israel.
Colombia (population 50 million), the second largest Latin American state, just announced that it is breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel and stopping the purchase of military equipment from that state. This decision was a silent rebuke to those Arab states that, under the strongest pressure from the United States, not only did not break relations with Israel, but did not even ask for the departure of Israeli ambassadors.
Washington is essentially defying the majority of humanity, which rightly believes that Israel is responsible for the war in the Middle East. However, the US maneuvers to defy public opinion by trying to blame the Arabs. Secretary of State Blinken went to the extreme level of cynicism when he said that Hamas “is the only obstacle to a cease-fire in Gaza”.
Moreover, according to the Washington Post, the Americans have demanded that the state of Qatar expel Hamas leaders from its territory unless they accept Israeli conditions.
Meanwhile, the Arab public is reacting violently and harshly – McDonald’s and other American establishments are being boycotted in many countries; demonstrations against Israeli aggressive actions continue. In some ways, they echo the actions of students at major American universities, who have been holding demonstrations in support of Palestine for several days in a row (by the way, the number of arrested students in various American states is approaching 2,000, and their movement is gaining momentum).
Each new day brings reports of dead and wounded Palestinians, and world public opinion is increasingly sensitive to this tragedy. It is for these reasons that many Arab newspapers believe that the US plans in the Middle East are not destined to come to fruition.
Meet Benjamin Netanyahu, Unconvicted War Criminal
Corbett | May 14, 2024
Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed
The International Criminal Court is supposedly mulling war crimes charges against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking Israeli political and military officials. But what reason could they possibly have for charging Netanyahu with war crimes? Uncover all the dirt on the unindicted war criminal presiding over Israel’s crimes against humanity in this important edition of The Corbett Report podcast.
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DOCUMENTATION
| Israel lashes out at possible ICC warrants as “outrage of historic proportions” | |
| Time Reference: | 00:23 |
| Bibi: My Story | |
| Time Reference: | 04:16 |
| The Resistible Rise of Benjamin Netanyahu | |
| Time Reference: | 04:36 |
| Can the ICC Actually Arrest Netanyahu? | |
| Time Reference: | 05:26 |
| Agnellis, Rothschilds close in on Economist | |
| Time Reference: | 09:05 |
| Could the International Criminal Court indict Binyamin Netanyahu? | |
| Time Reference: | 09:09 |
| US Working To Prevent ICC Arrest Warrant for Netanyahu | |
| Time Reference: | 10:24 |
| Victor’s Justice: The Truth About the International Criminal Court | |
| Time Reference: | 11:49 |
| Episode 261 – International Law? | |
| Time Reference: | 12:06 |
| Who Is Benjamin Netanyahu? | |
| Time Reference: | 13:34 |
| The Rise of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu | NowThis World | |
| Time Reference: | 13:44 |
| Netanyahu at War (full documentary) | FRONTLINE | |
| Time Reference: | 14:05 |
| From Soldier to Statesman : Biography of Benjamin Netanyahu | |
| Time Reference: | 14:22 |
| Bibi in the gas mask (CNN January 18, 1991) | |
| Time Reference: | 17:20 |
| Likud’s Late Grandfather | |
| Time Reference: | 19:39 |
| 1946 King David Hotel Bombing | |
| Time Reference: | 21:08 |
| PM Netanyahu’s Remarks at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center Event Marking Israel’s 70th Anniversary | |
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| Zionism’s Terrorist Heritage | |
| Time Reference: | 24:55 |
| Corbett Report Radio 214 – Israel’s Nuclear Smuggling with Grant F. Smith | |
| Time Reference: | 28:23 |
| Bibi’s bribery case | |
| Time Reference: | 32:00 |
| What is the latest on Netanyahu’s corruption trial? | |
| Time Reference: | 32:04 |
| Charter of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East | |
| Time Reference: | 34:26 |
| Israeli Perspective on Conflict with Iraq | |
| Time Reference: | 37:11 |
| False Flags: The Secret History of Al Qaeda | |
| Time Reference: | 40:17 |
| Sept. 11 Was Good For Israel – Benjamin Netanyahu | |
| Time Reference: | 43:04 |
| Israel PM Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu Address to United Nations Sept 27, 2012 | |
| Time Reference: | 44:50 |
| Watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s full speech to Congress | |
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| Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives statement on Iran Nuclear Deal | |
| Time Reference: | 46:03 |
| Israel – Prime Minister Addresses United Nations General Debate, 78th Session | |
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| Israel election 2019: Netanyahu vows to annex West Bank settlements | DW News | |
| Time Reference: | 47:58 |
| West Bank settler expansion: a year on the frontline | |
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| Inside Israeli Apartheid | |
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| ‘Absolute Apartheid’: Israeli general joins chorus of voices condemning persecution of Palestinians | |
| Time Reference: | 50:18 |
| ‘That sounds like ethnic cleansing’: CNN questions lead figure in Israel’s settler movement | |
| Time Reference: | 50:54 |
| Israeli Settlers Are Terrorizing Palestinians In Record Numbers | |
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| Palestine Remix – Israeli Brutality Caught on Tape | |
| Time Reference: | 52:37 |
| Statement by PM Netanyahu Regarding Operation Protective Edge | |
| Time Reference: | 54:59 |
| ‘Operation Protective Edge’ is underway in Israel | |
| Time Reference: | 55:36 |
| Gaza Conflict Takes Heavy Toll on Palestinian Children | |
| Time Reference: | 56:22 |
| Gaza conflict: Israel & Hamas face allegations of war crimes – BBC News | |
| Time Reference: | 56:49 |
| U.N. Human Rights Official Accuses Israel, Hama Of War Crimes | |
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| Gaza: Israel strike kills four boys on beach | Channel 4 News | |
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| Israhell and the Hannibal Directive – #NewWorldNextWeek | |
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| ‘Cold-blooded massacre’: Israeli forces kill over 104 aid seekers in Gaza | |
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| Israeli government under fire after airstrike kills aid workers | |
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| Israel likely violated international humanitarian law in Gaza war, U.S. report says | |
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Spain turns away ship carrying arms to occupied territories
Press TV | May 16, 2024
Spain has turned away a ship carrying arms to the occupied territories amid the Israeli regime’s ongoing genocidal war against the Gaza Strip.
Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares announced the development on Thursday.
“This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port,” he told reporters in Brussels.
Transport Minister Oscar Puente identified the vessel as Marianne Danica, which had requested permission to berth at the southeastern Spanish port of Cartagena on May 21.
The country’s El Pais newspaper, meanwhile, reported that the Danish-flagged ship was carrying 27 tons of explosive material from Madras in India to the port of Haifa in the occupied territories.
‘Consistent policy’
Adding to his remarks, Albares said, “This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports.”
“The foreign ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason. The Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace,” he noted.
The remarks came as the Israeli regime presses on with the war that it launched against Gaza on October 7 last year following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance movements.
The overall death toll from the brutal military onslaught has reached 35,272 people, most of them women and children. Some 79,205 others have also been wounded.
The figures exclude the tens of thousands of dead, who are believed to be buried in the bombed-out ruins of buildings.
Spain has been one of Europe’s most critical voices about the war.
It halted arms sales to the Tel Aviv regime after the latter launched the aggression.
The country has also been working to rally other European capitals behind the idea of recognizing a Palestinian state.
US: Ilan Pappe interrogated by FBI at Detroit Airport
MEMO | May 16, 2024
Prominent Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, known for his strongly anti-Zionist views, has revealed that he was subjected to a two-hour interrogation by the FBI upon his arrival at Detroit Airport on Monday. During the ordeal, US security officials recorded everything on his phone. The 70-year-old professor, who has long been a vocal critic of Israel in his speeches and books, took to social media to share his experience.
In his statement, Pappe described the questioning as “out of this world,” with the two FBI agents asking him about his alleged support for Hamas and whether he considered Israel’s actions in Gaza to be genocidal. “They asked me what I believe is the solution to the ‘conflict’ (seriously, this is what they asked!),” wrote Pappe, expressing his disbelief at the nature of the questions.
The professor said that he was interrogated about his personal connections, with the agents inquiring about his Arab and Muslim friends in America, the length of their relationships, and the nature of their interactions. Pappe responded by directing the agents to his published works in some instances, while providing brief “yes” or “no” answers in others, citing exhaustion after an eight-hour flight.
He also mentioned that the FBI agents engaged in a lengthy phone conversation with an unidentified party, which he speculated could have been an Israeli official. Following the conversation, the agents copied the contents of his phone before allowing him to enter the country.
Despite the troubling nature of the interrogation, Pappe believes that such actions by the US and European countries, taken under pressure from pro-Israeli lobbies or Israel itself, are indicative of “sheer panic and desperation” on their part. He believes that these reactions are a response to Israel’s increasingly tarnished reputation, which he predicts will soon lead to the country becoming a “pariah state”.
Prof. Pappe’s experience comes after recent incidents where Palestinian academics, including the Rector of Glasgow University, Ghassan Abu Sitta, were denied entry to France and Germany. These events have raised concerns about the treatment of individuals critical of Israel’s policies and the influence of pro-Israel lobbies on foreign governments.
Palestinian journalist killed in Israeli air strike in northern Gaza
Palestinian Information Center – May 16, 2024
GAZA – An Israeli air strike on Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday night killed the journalist Ha’el al-Najjar and a number of his family members.
Local sources said that at least one missile was fired at the journalist’s house.
Thus, the number of journalists killed in the Israeli aggression on Gaza, ongoing since October 7 last year, rose to 144, according to data provided by the Government Media Office.
The Office had also documented the arrest of at least 20 journalists in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces in the same period.
British Palestinian surgeon wins legal battle against Germany’s travel ban
MEMO | May 15, 2024
In a significant legal victory, Professor Ghassan Abu Sitta, a renowned British-Palestinian war surgeon, has successfully overturned a Schengen-wide travel ban imposed on him by the German government. Abu Sitta’s legal team — lawyer Alexander Gorski of the International Centre of Justice for Palestine (ICJP), and the European Legal Support Centre (ELSC) — challenged the ban, which they argued had deprived the surgeon of his freedom of expression and freedom to travel.
His lawyers described how he had faced hostile media and a travel ban after returning from Gaza, where he worked in hospitals and witnessed war crimes during Israel’s ongoing military offensive. The ban prevented him from entering France, the Netherlands and Germany, where he had been invited to speak about his experiences.
The ban also extended to joining a German conference online, with the German authorities warning Abu Sitta that if he took part it would “constitute a breach of German law” and could result in fines or imprisonment. Most recently, he was prevented from entering the Netherlands, where he was due to speak later this week to civil society organisations and Dutch MPs at the University of Amsterdam.
“These efforts by the German authorities constitute a serious breach of freedom of movement and expression in Europe and now a judge has ruled that the travel ban should be overturned,” said the ICJP. “This is a significant victory for freedom of speech and a significant turning point in challenging the chilling environment that many Palestinian human rights advocates have to operate in.”
ICJP lawyer Gorski emphasised that the victory ensures that Abu Sitta’s freedom of expression and movement are no longer under threat, allowing him to speak out about what he witnessed in Gaza.
Since leaving the Palestinian enclave in late November, Abu Sitta has been raising awareness about the impact of Israel’s war, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children. During his time in Gaza, he became the unofficial English-language representative of Palestinian doctors and surgeons treating the wounded, accusing Israel’s military of using illegal white phosphorus and deliberately targeting children.
Israeli troops lament return to north Gaza months after ‘dismantling’ Hamas
The Cradle | May 15, 2024
Israeli troops say they are facing significant difficulty in battles with the Palestinian resistance in Gaza’s northern city of Jabalia, an area that Tel Aviv said months ago was “cleared” of Hamas fighters.
“Renewed operations in Jabalia and other parts of northern Gaza, like Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood, point to two lessons learned: that the IDF failed to fully assess the scale of Hamas’ military infrastructure in Gaza [during the first rounds of fighting in the city months earlier],” Haaretz newspaper reported on 14 May.
“When Israeli forces left the area, [Hamas] quickly reestablished itself in the vacuum created by the lack of a ‘day after’ strategy.”
Tel Aviv claimed in early January that all of Hamas’ battalions were dismantled in northern Gaza, including Jabalia. Several Israeli army brigades are now back in the north, with the army’s 98th division operating in Jabalia after being diverted there instead of Rafah, according to Haaretz.
“We are in a learning contest with Hamas. You can see they’ve changed tactics and are now focusing more on setting explosive devices in buildings,” the commander of the Israeli army’s 196th Battalion is cited as saying.
The fighters of Hamas’ Qassam Brigades and other groups like the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) Quds Brigades have increasingly used the tactic of booby-trapping and detonating buildings with Israeli forces inside.
Traditional tactics, including RPG attacks on tanks and vehicles, sniping operations, and mortar attacks on troop concentrations, continue to be deployed. The Qassam Brigades released several videos over the past few days showcasing their operations against troops in Jabalia.
The Haaretz report notes that despite wide-scale operations across Jabalia months earlier, the resistance’s military capabilities remain intact. On 14 May, Israeli forces watched a barrage of rockets fly overhead, fired from nearby them in Jabalia northwards to Ashkelon.
“It’s frustrating to see this, seven and a half months after the war began,” a commander of the 196th battalion says.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli soldiers fighting in Jabalia have all used a single word to describe their presence in the city: “Sisyphean.” The word refers to the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who the gods punished by forcing him to roll a giant boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down each time he neared the top.
Reservists are also increasingly frustrated, as they are being deployed to combat areas with no knowledge of when they could return.
“We were told that, in principle, we’re coming for a month, but the bottom line is that we’re here with open-ended orders,” the Israeli outlet cites a reservist as saying, adding that some are not reporting for service.
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Book Review
Palantir CEO Calls for Draft to Fight the Empire’s Wars
Involuntary servitude is good for business
By Kurt Nimmo | Another Day in the Empire | April 20, 2026
In 2025, Alex Karp, the CEO of government and military tech contractor Palantir, published The New York Times best-seller, The Technological Republic: Hard Power, Soft Belief, and the Future of the West. The Wall Street Journal praised the book as a cri de coeur, a passionate appeal “that takes aim at the tech industry for abandoning its history of helping America and its allies,” while Wired praised the book as a “readable polemic that skewers Silicon Valley for insufficient patriotism.”
On April 18, 2026, Palantir posted twenty-two points to social media summarizing the book. In addition to taking Silicon Valley to task for insufficient patriotism, advocating a role for AI in forever war, and denouncing the “psychologization of modern politics,” the Palantir post on X declares: “National service should be a universal duty. We should, as a society, seriously consider moving away from an all-volunteer force and only fight the next war if everyone shares in the risk and the cost.”
National conscription, a form of involuntary servitude, and the wars it portends, is good for business, especially for corporations within the orbit of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the national security state. Palantir fits comfortably within this amalgamation. … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Israeli army blows up school in southern Lebanon in violation of ceasefire
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- China blames US for diplomatic impasse with Iran, urges it to show ‘sincerity’ in talks
- Iran announces new Hormuz restrictions after US ceasefire violations
- After Islamabad: How the Global South Is Reshaping Eurasian Geopolitics
- Is Trump Going for Armageddon?
- Palantir CEO Calls for Draft to Fight the Empire’s Wars
- Iran War fallout: Russia and China quietly take over natural gas markets in Asia, with Qatar gone
- Hamas dismisses US-backed disarmament plan as ‘collective suicide’
- If Americans Knew
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- Israeli soldier takes sledgehammer to Jesus statue in Lebanon – Daily Update
- Israel employs ‘Gaza tactics’ in Lebanon, destroying 1,000 homes per day – Daily Update
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