Press TV – March 28, 2024
A relentless campaign by the Palestine Action group has managed to force Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms company, to permanently shut down another weapons factory in Britain.
Palestine Action uses direct action tactics to shut down and disrupt the Israeli regime’s multinational arms dealers. It announced on Thursday that its campaign has forced Elbit Systems to vacate Elite KL factory in Tamworth, Staffordshire, for good.
This is the third Elbit Systems site in the UK to be shut down permanently by Palestine Action.
According to the pro-Palestine group, the company had previously manufactured cooling and power management systems for military vehicles, but was sold on after stating that it faced falling profits and increased security costs resulting from Palestine Action’s efforts.
“Following the recent acquisition of Elite KL Limited by a UK investment syndicate, the newly appointed board has unanimously agreed to withdraw from all future defense contracts and terminate its association with its former parent company,” Elite KL’s new owners, listed as Griffin Newco Ltd, confirmed the news in an email to Palestine Action.
Elbit Systems itself provides 85 percent of the drones and land-based military equipment for the Israeli military, as well as a wide range of the munitions and armaments currently being used by the occupying regime in its brutal campaign in the besieged Gaza Strip.
The company also maintains the surveillance technology deployed at the Gaza border and military checkpoints there.
Analysts say the genocidal attacks on Gaza, which continue to escalate, provide Israel’s arms manufacturers with opportunities to test and develop their latest lethal inventions.
Despite a massive death toll, the Israeli military has failed to achieve the goals it has been seeking to score through the campaign in Gaza, such as “destroying” Hamas, finding the captives that the Gaza-based resistance movement is holding, and bringing about forced displacement of the Palestinian territory’s population to Egypt.
By Simon Chege Ndiritu – New Eastern Outlook – 28.03.2024
A multipolar world is taking shape even in the military realm, as can be inferred from Houthi’s ability to curtail the US and UK goal of propping up Israeli genocide in Gaza at all cost. Houthis persistence and continued ability to inflict damage on Israeli, American, and British vessels transiting through Bab el Mandeb until Israel lifts its medieval blockade on Gaza shows that the western empire’s military dictatorship can be resisted by small countries. Meanwhile, the western empire desperately seeks diversion from its failure in the Red Sea.
Diversion; from Military Operation to Humanitarian Concern
The US and UK’s ill-fated “Operation Prosperity Guardian” is turning out so awfully wrong that the western media prefers to ignore it, hoping the rest of the world will forget. A passing view of the main western media outlets, France 24, CNN, and BBC on the 19th and 20th March 2024 shows that they did not display the exploits of the western empire’s military, either in Ukraine or the Red Sea like they cheered the destruction of all former victims of the empire. Instead, the European section of this propaganda machine; France 24, and BBC attempted to assume a moral high ground, by hypocritically raising the awareness of the dire food situation in Gaza, which is caused by their governments’ blind arming of Israel. France 24, featured a report by UNICEF stating how it was wrong to let children in Gaza to starve, and accentuated the story with a photo of a starving African child; for an extra boost of sympathy. Similarly, the BBC’s homepage in extreme right column carried a story of how the entire Gaza now faces starvation, something that could not be published in such a position just a few weeks ago. The CNN steered clear of Gaza and Ukraine and could not even popularize Biden’s botched campaign to airdrop a few food packages to Gazans (here), which ended awfully with some packages falling in the sea, others in Israel, and others killing Gazans. Noteworthy, the US provides millions of times more bombs to Israel than food to Gaza, and none of its bombs have missed its target by the margin seen in the airdropped food packages. This comparison shows the strong determination of the US to aid Israel in exterminating Palestinians, and that its food airdrop is for public relations.
The main lesson that comes to the fore is that American and British commitment to eliminating Yemeni’s resistance to their sponsored genocide has not born fruits. Therefore, the days of the West achieving every narrow-minded goal using its military are over. It is also clear that western global dictatorship will not only be resisted by military superpowers like Russia and China but also by small countries with sufficient missile and drone technology. “Operation Prosperity Guardian” has spectacularly failed and its architects; Washington and London have proved unable to defend their merchant vessels and Israel’s in the Red Sea. Surprisingly, it appears that the security of vessels transiting through the area is inversely proportional to the military deployment by countries owning them (these vessels). The US and the UK, which have heavily deployed their naval forces in and around the Red Sea have faced the most significant attacks from the Houthis, while vessels from other countries have been transiting peacefully. The Houthis’ meticulous selection of targets has denied the US and UK propaganda impetus of portraying the group’s attacks as indiscriminate. It may be dawning on the Western Empire that it may have to force Israel to suspend its medieval blockade on Gaza. This realization can explain Biden’s mumbling a declaration to establish a floating pier for vessels to ‘deliver aid’ to Gazans (here). However, such a pier may be designed for smuggling Gazans out in what Israeli hypocrites call voluntary immigration. Nonetheless, Operation Prosperity Guardian has failed so badly that Lindsey Graham, the empire’s military windsock pointed back to Ukraine, appearing flaccid and demanding mobilization of more young Ukrainians to add wind to the west’s failing military campaign (here). However, Houthi’s are not yet done.
On March 19th, Houthis’ spokesman announced (here) about Yemeni’s attack on a US commercial vessel MADO, news that the US media ignored before the UK Maritime Trade Organization (UKMTO) confirming. The attack constituted a trend where US vessels have been targeted recently, one of which resulted in casualties. Earlier, the UK even lost a commercial ship, Rubymar, a bulk Carrier that was struck by Houthis on the 18th February (here) and received significant damages making the crew to abandon it. The vessel sank several days later. Later, a US owned vessel, Gibraltar eagle, was also struck by Houthis in the recent past (here). Meanwhile, the US and UK navies have failed to lift the Houthis’ blockade on the Israeli port of Eilat which, reported, losing over 85% of its revenue since the Yemeni group started operations (here). The simple message that should be clear now is that the US and UK must abandon their hegemonic arrogance of trying to achieve haughty goals like militarily advancing Israeli genocide and others. The Houthis remind that a new world order is here, in which diplomacy is needed to balance the legitimate interests of all.
Houthi attacks also have desirable secondary effects in global geopolitics, especially in freeing long-term US hostages and isolating the latter. The Houthis have capabilities to inflict significant damage to participants, which has dissuaded some and limited the US ability to diplomatically mobilize vassals, relative to earlier campaigns against Iraq and Afghanistan. The past US imperial wars of plunder saw many countries joining, including Germany, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, and Poland as there was no risk of meaningful retaliation, but the Houthis are different. For instance, Australia declined to send its vessel to Operation Prosperity Guardian (here) for fear of losing them. However, the same (Australia) sent it thuggish Special Forces to Afghanistan to kill Afghans and drink beer from their prosthetic limbs (here). Other US allies declined to participate or only gave marginal support (here), while Germany’s participation came later, and entailed an embarrassing maneuver involving trying to shoot down US drones. Participants of the current operation are cautious of the risks involved, and the Houthis have repeatedly reported targeting US and UK naval vessels, statements that cannot be ignored. Also, navies involved are primarily securing their shipping vessels as opposed to helping the US military posturing, even when the American contingent is stretched thin and unable to provide meaningful protection to American shipping vessels (here).
The US Central Command, which is not in charge of the central US, but the Middle East, has been reduced to issuing threats and statements that have not deterred Houthis, after several months of military deployment and savage bombing of Yemen. As things stand, the pentagon can either continue its military posturing and risk even more attacks, or urge Israel to meet the Houthis’ demands and halt the Genocide in Gaza. Houthis have reminded the US that it cannot always get its way in the global south, and needs to take demands from smaller countries seriously.
By Ted Snider | The Libertarian Institute | March 27, 2024
“Unipolar” used to mean that the United States was, at least in theory, alone in leading the world. Now “unipolar” means that the United States is alone and isolated in opposition to the world.
In global affairs, a hegemon is a nation that leads because it has the consent of the other nations who believe in its goals and values. The United States has recently demonstrated, though, that it has given up any pretense of using its leadership to pursue the goals of the global community, and instead is openly using the global community to pursue its own goals.
In his new book, The Lost Peace, Richard Sakwa explains the distinction between the pursuit of hegemony and the pursuit of primacy. Primacy “entails predominance and the conscious attempt to thwart the ambition of others.” In its recent performance at the United Nations, the United States is performing, not out of hegemony as it usually described, but out of primacy.
As a hegemon, the U.S. wields the power to veto in the Security Council. But in the exercise of primacy, it has recently used that veto to supress the clearly expressed voice of the international community.
After repeated American vetoes of measures calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, in a desperate and seldom used move, on December 12, the General Assembly invoked Resolution 377A in an attempt to circumvent U.S. leadership. It was the response to what was perceived as America’s irresponsible use of its veto power as a permanent member of the Security Council.
It does not matter that the vote was on the war in Gaza, nor on whether you agree with the United States. What is significant is the assumption by Washington of the role of roadblock and not leader of the international will.
Article 377A first reminds the permanent members of the Security Council that they are obliged to “to seek unanimity and exercise restraint in the use of the veto” in pursuit of the maintenance of international peace and security. It then gives the General Assembly the right to make “appropriate recommendations to Members for collective measures… to maintain or restore international peace and security” when the Security Council “because of a lack of unanimity… fails to exercise its primary responsibility.”
The world saw the United States, not as a hegemon leading the world in the pursuit of unanimity, but as failing “to exercise its primary responsibility” as a leader on the Security Council.
On March 25, the U.S. went one step further and took a step toward becoming a rogue state who has supplanted international law with its rules-based order. International law is grounded in the charter system and the United Nations and is universally applicable. The rules-based order is composed of unwritten laws whose source, consent, and legitimacy are unknown. To the global majority, those unwritten laws have the appearance of being invoked when they benefit the U.S. and its partners and not being invoked when they don’t.
On March 25, the Security Council passed a resolution demanding “an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.” The resolution was able to pass because the U.S. stood aside and let the other fourteen Security Council members pass it by abstaining instead of vetoing.
But in her explanation of the American abstention after the resolution passed, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield “surprisingly” said that “we fully support some of the critical objectives in this nonbinding resolution.”
Her claim that the Security Council resolution was nonbinding was not an off script, impromptu comment. It is the strategy of a country that enforces, not international law, but the U.S. led rules-based order.
In a March 25 press briefing following the vote and Thomas-Greenfield’s claim, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby called the resolution “nonbinding” no less than four times. “Number one,” he said, “it’s a nonbinding resolution. So, there’s no impact at all on Israel and Israel’s ability to continue to go after Hamas.”
When asked by a reporter, “on the binding thing, is it binding, nonbinding?” Kirby answered, “It’s a nonbinding resolution.” When asked “a technical question” a second time to clarify if the resolution was nonbinding, Kirby again said, “My understanding is it’s a nonbinding resolation—resolution.”
At a State Department press briefing the same day, department spokesperson Matt Miller also called the resolution “nonbinding” three times.
All UN Security Council resolutions are legally binding and have the status of international law. That is why UN Secretary General António Guterres said, “This resolution must be implemented. Failure would be unforgivable.” UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq explained that, “All the resolutions of the Security Council are international law. They are as binding as international laws.”
Others responded the same way to the U.S. claim. On behalf of the ten elected members of the Security Council who drafted the resolution, Pedro Comissario, Mozambique’s envoy to the United Nations, said, “All United Nations Security Council resolutions are binding and mandatory.” He then added, “It is the hope of the 10 that the resolution adopted today will be implemented in good faith by all parties.”
The United Kingdom also did “not share” the U.S. claim, prompting their envoy to the UN to say, “we expect all Council resolutions to be implemented. This one is not any different. The demands in the resolution are absolutely clear.” China, too, did not share the U.S. evaluation. “China’s U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said Security Council resolutions are binding.”
By judging Security Council resolutions to be nonbinding and denying their status as being as binding as international law, the United States has taken the next step from hegemony to primacy to a rogue state that has undermined the foundational role of the Security Council in the international order.
By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 27.03.2024
The US established a maritime ‘coalition of the willing’ in the Red Sea in December 2023 and began bombing Yemen in January in response to the Houthis’ bid to shut down Israeli-affiliated commercial traffic through the waterway in solidarity with Palestine. The Houthis have vowed to continue their operations until the carnage in Gaza stops.
The US-led military campaign in the Red Sea which the Pentagon wanted to make into a “no-fail mission” has turned into a modern-day David vs. Goliath PR disaster, with the powerful American naval and air might arrayed against the Houthis proving unable to stop militia attacks or reopen the Red Sea to shipping, US business media has reported.
“The gray F/A-18 fighter jets hurtled one by one from the deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower into the heat of the Red Sea morning, scrambling to counter the latest attack drone launched by the Houthis. The $56 million aircraft were part of a coalition operation that nullified the attack, returning hours later as they have almost daily for the last several months,” Bloomberg wrote in a report Wednesday highlighting the difficulties the West has faced trying to stop Ansar Allah.
“Yet for all the costly hardware the US and its allies have thrown at the Islamist group from northwest Yemen, they haven’t been able to stop the attacks on civilian freighters and warships. As a result, the world’s biggest shipping companies are still largely avoiding a route that once carried 15% of global commerce,” the outlet lamented.
Rear Admiral Marc Miguez, commander of USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier-led American armada operating in the Red Sea, said that while the US has “reduced some” of the Houthis’ missile and drone capability through strikes, there’s no way to predict when the fleet’s “job” in the region will be done, since estimates on Houthi missile numbers are “kind of a black hole for the US intelligence-wise.”
Shipping firms and companies impacted by the Red Sea crisis are even less optimistic.
“It’s quite a binary situation,” Hapag-Lloyd CEO Rolf Habben Jansen explained earlier this month. “It is either safe for our people or it is not. As long as it is not safe, we will not send our people through the Red Sea.” Jansen didn’t rule out the Houthi blockade could last throughout the rest of the year and into 2025.
A Western official predicted that the Houthis will be able to continue their blockade at its current intensity for “months” to come. Others accused the Houthis of getting help from outside via Iran, including everything from weapons components to sea mine-laying specialists. Iran has “categorically” denied providing any military or weapons assistance to the Houthis.
“[The Houthis] don’t create inertial navigation systems. They don’t create medium-range ballistic missile engines. They don’t create the stage separations on these medium-range ballistic missiles or the anti-ship cruise missiles,” US Central Command commander Gen. Michael Kurilla told a Senate hearing earlier this month, accusing Ansar Allah of getting help from outside, and ignoring the vast stocks of Soviet-era ballistic, cruise and air defense missile technologies which the Houthis have inherited and upgraded since 2014.
Unable to stop the Houthis at sea, Western officials have rejected any talk of a ground operation against the militia, warning that if the group escalates its targeting of Western warships, the coalition may respond by assassinating Houthi leaders.
An anonymous US military official told Bloomberg that the US is on the “wrong side of the cost curve” in the Red Sea campaign, whose economic costs are starting to add up.
While the Houthis can build and launch simple ballistic and cruise missiles or drones at a cost of thousands to tens of thousands of dollars, the anti-missile interceptors US warships launch to take down militia threats are costing US taxpayers up to hundreds of thousands of dollars apiece, with F/A-18 jets costing the Navy $25,000 or more per hour to operate (not counting whatever munitions they happen to expend during their mission).
The Houthis’ campaign of ship seizures, missile and drone attacks have caused commercial traffic through the southern Red Sea to drop by about 70 percent in March compared to early December, with container shipping reportedly down 90 percent, gas tanker flow halting almost completely, and Israel’s main Red Sea port forced to lay off half of its workforce.
Ansar Allah began its partial blockade of the Red Sea in November with the seizure of the Galaxy Leader, an Israeli billionaire-owned ro-ro car carrier, expanding operations to target not only Israeli, but US and British commercial vessels and warships after the pair of nations began a campaign of airstrikes against Yemen in January. Last month, the militia warned European countries setting up their own maritime security operations in the Red Sea that “any idiocy you commit will affect your ships and navigation.” Major European shipping companies including Maersk have said they would continue to avoid the Red Sea in spite of the EU’s security mission.
MEMO | March 27, 2024
Documented testimonies have been collected regarding the execution of Palestinian children in Gaza by the Israeli occupation forces in and around Al-Shifa Hospital, at a time when a UN expert has confirmed her belief that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor confirmed that it has “documented the execution of 13 children by the Israeli occupation forces in Al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings.”
The NGO also confirmed that it had received “identical statements and testimonies regarding the crimes of executing Gaza children between the ages of 4 and 16.” Two of the children, named as Ali Islam Salouha. 9, and Saeed Mohammad Sheikha, 6, are said to have been killed “in cold blood in front of their families and residents of the area having been targeted deliberately using live bullets.”
Some of the children were killed while surrounded by the occupation army inside their homes with their families, said Euro-Med. Others were displaced and following routes that the occupation army had specified as “safe” for them to use.
“The documented cases of the execution of Gazan children embody a flagrant violation of international law, including international humanitarian law, and constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity in and of themselves,” the NGO pointed out, “and have been committed in the context of the crime of genocide to which the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip have been subjected for six months.”
It also emphasised that the occupation army has committed and continues to commit horrific crimes systematically during its military operations lasting for more than a week inside and around Al-Shifa Hospital. “These crimes include premeditated killings and extrajudicial executions of Palestinian civilians.”
Al-Manar | March 27, 2024
UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Palestine Francesca Albanese said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that ‘Israel’ is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
She was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, where she presented her latest report, entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, during an interactive dialogue with Member States.
“Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” she said.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide has been met.”
Citing international law, Albanese explained that genocide is defined as a specific set of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
“Specifically, Israel has committed three acts of genocide with the requisite intent, causing seriously serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent birth within the group,” she said.
Albanese said denial of the reality and the continuation of Israeli impunity and exceptionalism is no longer viable, especially in light of the binding UN Security Council resolution, adopted on Monday, which called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Meanwhile the UN special rapporteur revealed that she has been attacked and received numerous threats since she began her mission.
MEMO | March 27, 2024
The head of a Lebanese Sunni political and militant group that has joined Hezbollah, a Shia resistance movement, in its fight against Israel said yesterday that the conflict has helped strengthen cooperation between the two groups, despite their sectarian differences.
Secretary-General of Al-Jamaa Al-Islamiya, or the Islamic Group, Sheikh Mohammed Takkoush, told AP that his faction has joined the fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border in response to the occupation state’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza and its strikes against Lebanese towns and villages, which have killed civilians including journalists.
“We decided to join [the battle] as a national, religious and moral duty. We did that to defend our land and villages,” Takkoush told the news agency at his group’s headquarters in Beirut. “We also did so in support of our brothers in Gaza,” where he said Israel was committing an “open massacre.”
According to AP, the Islamic Group’s armed wing, the Fajr Forces, carries out its operations against Israel mainly from the southern city of Sidon.
Takkoush said that he believed Israel has ambitions to seize more territory “not only in Palestine but in Lebanon too.”
The group acts independently but coordinates closely with Hezbollah and with the Lebanese branch of Hamas, Takkoush said. “Part of [the attacks against Israeli forces] were in coordination with Hamas, which coordinates with Hezbollah,” he explained, adding that direct cooperation with Hezbollah “is on the rise and this is being reflected in the field.”
“Our relations with Hezbollah are good and growing and it is being strengthened as we go through war,” adding that all the weapons they use are from their own arsenal: “We did not get even a bullet from any side.”
In a report published in November, L’Orient Today said Takkoush’s faction, which has been described as a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated group, may help Hezbollah boost its credentials among some Lebanese Sunnis, although “it is not guaranteed to extend Hezbollah’s influence beyond the war.” This is because “The Sheikh has neither the oratory skills and charisma of Hassan Nasrallah, his Hezbollah counterpart, nor the popularity of Saad Hariri.”
MEMO | March 27, 2024
China yesterday reiterated that “UN Security Council resolutions are binding” on Israel, rejecting US claims to the contrary, Anadolu reported.
China “calls on the parties concerned to fulfil their obligations under the UN Charter and to take due action as required by the resolution,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said in response to a question about comments by the top US envoy to the UN who claimed the resolution passed on Monday was “non-binding” on parties to the conflict in Gaza, which has been under an onslaught by Israel since 7 October.
More than 32,333 Palestinians have since been killed and over 74,694 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.
The UN Charter stipulates that all Security Council resolutions are legally binding under international law.
The Council passed a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza for the remainder of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which began on 11 March and is set to end on 9 April.
Fourteen countries on the 15-member Council voted in favour of the resolution. The US abstained.
The resolution demanded an “immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.”
It also insisted on the “immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs.” No mention was made of the thousands of Palestinians disappeared by Israel from the Gaza Strip since it launched its ground offensive at the end of October. After the resolution passed, the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, Zhang Jun, told the Council: “If fully and effectively implemented, [the resolution] could still bring long-awaited hope. Security Council resolutions are binding.”
Lin said Beijing “expects the state with significant influence to play a positive role on the party concerned, including by using all necessary and effective means at their disposal to support the implementation of the resolution.”
The Council “must continue to closely follow the situation in Gaza and get ready for further actions when necessary to ensure the timely and full implementation of the resolution,” said Lin.
Press TV – March 26, 2024
The leader of Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement has said the Saudi-led war on Yemen is part of a strategy pursued by the US and Britain to reshape the region in favor of Israel.
Abdul-Malik al-Houthi made the remarks in a televised address on Monday night marking the ninth anniversary of the Saudi-led war on Yemen.
“The Yemen war was part of a larger geopolitical strategy pursued by the United States, Britain, and Israel to reshape the region for the benefit of the Zionist regime,” he said.
He condemned the Saudi-led offensive as an unwarranted and deceitful conflict aimed at obliterating Yemen, seizing control, and subverting the people’s entitlement to liberty and autonomy.
Houthi went on to highlight the resilience of the Yemeni nation in overcoming the invading forces and their ongoing progress.
The Ansarullah chief noted that the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen has resulted in the death or injury of over 50,000 civilians, mostly women and children.
He reiterated that the Yemeni nation’s spirit remains unbroken, despite the extensive damage inflicted on the country’s essential infrastructure and high civilian toll.
Houthi also emphasized that the Yemeni Armed Forces will further develop their indigenous military capabilities and that authorities in the Sana’a-based National Salvation Government will strive to boost the economy.
He finally called upon certain countries to rectify their miscalculations and renounce their aggressive policies towards Yemen.
In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and its allies launched the war on Yemen to restore power to the impoverished country’s Western- and Riyadh-allied government.
The war has claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Yemenis and turned the entire country into the site of what the United Nations has described as the one of world’s worst humanitarian crises.
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By Lisa Pease | Consortium News | September 16, 2013
More than a half century ago, just after midnight on Sept. 18, 1961, the plane carrying UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and 15 others went down in a plane crash over Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). All 16 died, but the facts of the crash were provocatively mysterious. … continue
Aletho News If Americans Knew No Tricks Zone
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