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Helping Palestinians in need is not ‘terrorism’; they are the victims of Israeli terrorism

By Ibrahim Hewitt | MEMO | August 6, 2023

I know none of the details of the arrest of Palestinian Amin Abu Rashid and his daughter Israa in Holland recently. I do know, however, that the track record of European governments in levelling allegations of “funding terrorism” against Palestinian-European organisations over the past twenty years or so has been abysmal. In almost every case, when taken to court the authorities have lost the legal argument.

Will this happen again with Abu Rashid and Israa? Time will tell, but what is interesting is that it introduces to the world another no doubt well-funded “Israeli activist group”, Ad Kan.

It is well known, of course, that all allegations of “terrorism” and “funding Hamas” arise from “intelligence” shared by Israel and its propaganda groups in Israel and abroad. When the charity of which I was chair of trustees for almost 25 years, Interpal, was declared to be a “specially designated global terrorist entity” by the US Treasury in 2003, our name was simply one of a number of organisations and individuals on a list supplied by the Israeli foreign ministry for George W Bush to rubber stamp. The then US president announced to the world 20 years ago this month that our assets in the US were being frozen. I only found out from the BBC website. Interpal has never had any assets in the US, so Bush was simply involved in gesture politics at Israel’s instigation. When the British charity regulator asked the US treasury to provide the evidence for the “terrorist” designation of Interpal, none was forthcoming aside from half a dozen press cuttings.

Post-designation, $120,000 donated to Interpal was taken by a major US bank because all transactions in dollars have to pass through New York. The bank grabbed the $120,000 and still has it.

So when I read that, “Abu Rashid leads the Israa Foundation… which is part of a network known as the Union of [sic] Good.” and that, “The US Department of the Treasury labelled the Union of Good [as] a terrorist group in 2008,” any credibility that these Israeli “investigations” might have had disintegrated. We know how these things work, and credible evidence has little or no role to play.

A number of things have to be borne in mind with such “news”, the first of which is that just because the US Treasury puts an organisation or individual on a “terrorist list”, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the group or person in question is actually a “terrorist”. It simply means that Israel is trying yet again — it’s never really stopped — to prevent any humanitarian aid from getting through to the Palestinians living under its brutal military occupation and siege in the Gaza Strip.

After a number of years trying to have Interpal removed from the same list, our New York lawyer was told by Treasury officials “off the record” that our designation was a “political decision” and State Department intervention would be needed to remove the charity from the list. It wasn’t due to any proven criminal activity; if it was, we would surely have been closed down once the British authorities were presented with the evidence, neither of which happened. Furthermore, a senior Metropolitan Police officer said: “The absence of any police involvement is hugely significant.” I once asked a very senior British Army officer who was showing me around a major military base in the south of England if he was aware of the allegations against Interpal and, by implication, myself as its chairman. “Of course,” he replied, “Interpal; terrorist entity; we know it’s all a load of rubbish.”

When Wikileaks released a transcript of a conversation between US and UK officials about Interpal, the phrase “absent a smoking gun” was mentioned in the discussion about closing Interpal down. In other words, the Americans had no evidence. And the British security authorities, we know, were clear that Israeli “intelligence” claims would not stand up in open court.

What’s more, let us not forget that Abu Rashid and his family are Palestinians who are prevented by Israel from exercising their legitimate right of return to their homeland. Israeli “intelligence” — now there’s a thought — is, therefore, hardly likely to be objective. Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying for years to get the definition of a “Palestinian refugee” changed so that if the apartheid state allows a few thousand to return it will be seen as having fulfilled its duty. Allowing the 750,000 Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed in 1948 or their descendants to return to their homes remains a condition of Israel’s membership of the UN that has never been fulfilled. Netanyahu has even been putting pressure on successive US presidents to close down the UN agency set up specifically to help “Palestine refugees”, UNRWA. No UNRWA, no refugees, is his warped Zionist logic.

The article in The National Interest covering Abu Rashid’s arrest is straight from the Israeli propaganda playbook — to use a term from the article — in that it is taken as read that allegations of terrorism are true, without any due legal process, without any evidence being presented in court, and without anyone being found guilty. It does mention the Holy Land Foundation in the US, whose senior officials are in prison and are likely to be for many more years, but it is silent on the fact that the “trial has been criticised by some NGOs, including Human Rights Watch” and was described as a “grave miscarriage of justice” which “capitalised on post-9/11 Islamophobic hysteria” in order to get a conviction. Indeed, “Civil rights attorney Emily Ratner wrote that the use of anonymous and hearsay evidence by the prosecutors was ‘constitutionally questionable’ at best.”

There is also the simple fact to consider that Hamas is a national resistance movement, and resistance against a military occupation is legitimate under international law. That is undeniable, and yet the level of propaganda put out by Israel and its Zionist allies in the West, including media outlets, is such that this is ignored, deliberately. Demonise the victims of Israel’s state terrorism — and the state was founded on terrorism against the British and the Palestinians, remember — and it is an easy next step to demonise those who seek to support the victims with humanitarian aid.

Zionist pressure and threats led to Interpal’s bank accounts being closed down, making it impossible for the charity to operate. Nevertheless, when it was distributing a relatively meagre average of £5 million per annum to Palestinians in desperate need and local community groups trying to fill gaps in healthcare and education provision caused by decades of Israel’s brutal military occupation, it did so with total impartiality. There was never any question of the charity asking individuals or organisations if they were Hamas supporters or Fatah supporters, or supporters of any other Palestinian faction; to do so would have broken Britain’s charity laws, which insist, rightly, that aid must be given solely on the basis of need, and nothing else.

I must confess that I have never Googled to see how much one surface to air missile, for example, might cost; or one AK47 assault rifle. To do so would provide the sort of “evidence” of evil intent that the Zionists and their lackeys in the West would jump on with glee. However, I guess that £5m a year is hardly going to fill anyone’s arsenal, especially when every Interpal penny has been accounted for on charitable expenditure in any case.

The argument of terrorist funding is, therefore, unsustainable, and always has been as far as Interpal is concerned. Whether it will be the same for Amin Abu Rashid and his daughter Israa will no doubt come out as their case proceeds through the courts, if it actually gets that far. On past experience, though, I wouldn’t trust the “evidence” presented against them one iota, especially if it comes from Israeli sources. Israel has too much invested in trying to block all humanitarian aid from getting to the Palestinians, and thus making life as miserable as possible for them in the hope that they will give up and leave their homeland.

In Zionist terminology this is called “silent transfer”. It is an evil concept with an evil objective, which is hardly surprising given the racist nature of Zionism and the state it underpins. Helping Palestinians in desperate need is not “terrorism”; they are the victims of Israel’s state terrorism.

August 6, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel greenlights settler attacks on Palestinians: Army official

The Cradle | August 6, 2023

Israeli military official, Reserve Colonel Kobi Merom, said on 5 August that settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are greenlit by the government and its ministers, according to Hebrew media. 

“What we have seen in recent weeks are dozens of terrorist operations [by settlers] against Palestinian villages, without resulting in arrests,” the general said. 

These attacks are “greenlit” and supported by government ministers, Merom added, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and others. 

“Minister Smotrich allows the establishment of illegal outposts. Amid the state of collapse that we are spiraling down toward … I am not surprised by the armed incident that took place yesterday in Burqa.”

The colonel was referring to the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian, Qusai Jamal Matan, by extremist settlers east of Ramallah on 4 August. 

Armed Israeli settlers had stormed the village of Burqa that day, sparking clashes with residents of the area. Matan was “shot dead by settlers” during the clashes. That same day, an 18-year-old Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in a military raid on a camp east of Tulkarem. 

In response to the settler killing of Matan, Palestinian resistance fighter Kamel Abu Bakr shot and killed an Israeli policeman in Tel Aviv on 5 August, before being killed himself. 

“If the prime minister … does not stop this matter and put his foot down at the cabinet table, we are heading toward complete chaos on the ground,” the Israeli colonel warned. 

According to the UN, around 600 settler attacks against Palestinians have been recorded since the start of 2023. 

Settler violence has always been common in the occupied West Bank, but has surged significantly since Israel’s current government came to power. 

Following a resistance operation in February, which killed two Israelis, settlers launched a massive assault on Nablus’ village of Huwara – laying waste to the town and resulting in numerous casualties. 

Following the attack, Smotrich called for the village of Huwara to be “wiped out.” 

Later in June, another shooting in the Eli settlement prompted settlers to launch a five-day rampage across the West Bank. The rampage occurred with the approval of the Israeli military. 

August 6, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli Power Manifest in the US Visa Waiver Program

Biden bows to Israeli pressure and discrimination against Palestinian-Americans will continue

BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • AUGUST 1, 2023

When I began this article early in the morning last Tuesday it must have been “let’s talk about antisemitism and holocaust denial day” on the internet. On my Yahoo home page headlines display there were glaring back at me featured pieces condemning Greg Gutfeld of Fox News and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for comments made by the two men that were interpreted to be antisemitic. Kennedy, who made the mistake of suggesting that the COVID virus appeared to be made in a lab to be genetic specific, sparing inter alia Jews and Chinese ethnics who might be resistant to it, seems to be on a never ending apology tour as he has done everything but crawl on his belly as he asserts his great love for the Jewish state, and I would not doubt that the belly crawl might be coming up.

Poor Gutfeld was hammered twice, once for the “dangerous holocaust” comment that he reportedly made suggesting that some Jews survived the experience by developing useful skills in the camps, and once for the distinction of being personally rebuked by the White House. Andrew Bates, deputy White House press secretary issued a statement saying “What Fox News allowed to be said on their air yesterday — and has so far failed to condemn — is an obscenity. In defending a horrid, dangerous, extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of Americans who suffered from the evil of enslavement, a Fox News host told another horrid, dangerous and extreme lie that insults the memory of the millions of people who suffered from the evils of the Holocaust.”

As I settled in for my cup of coffee, I wondered what we might be hearing later in the day about Gutfeld from the hideous Jonathan Greenblatt of the reliably rabid Anti-Defamation League (ADL), who has already weighed in on Kennedy’s sins. And even as I was wondering, the ADL response popped up: “It is not clear from Gutfeld’s comments if he is arguing that Jews learned skills in the Holocaust, or that Jews who had skills had a better chance of staying alive. The latter is something that is well-documented, while the former is nonsense. That said, many millions of Jews, who, in Gutfeld’s words, had ‘utility,’ were still murdered.”

The piling on then began, with an unverifiable report that even Fox News staffers, speaking anonymously, described Gutfeld’s remarks as “disgusting,” saying “at any other place, his career would be over.” The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum also got into the fray with “We must not overlook the larger picture of the Holocaust. Nazi Germany’s ultimate goal was to exterminate all the people it considered Jews.”

And to ice the cake, an article that I had not seen about the Democrats who chose to boycott the recent Joint Session of Congress speech by Israeli President Isaac Herzog also appeared, stating that “Such behavior is virulently anti-Israel and absolutely reprehensible. Each of these folks is a shame to the United States of America. And to the Democratic Party.”

That all of the responses fit in comfortably with the Israeli and Zionist group standard holocaust narrative of perpetual Jewish suffering, together with the inflated victim count which does not stand serious scrutiny, should surprise no one and after I finished perusing the articles the first thought that came to mind was “Wow, if you needed any proof of the power of Jews in this country and their persistence in punishing critics, this is it!” But that was before I read an article that went well beyond the usual propaganda stream, one describing how Israel is apparently about to be approved for probationary access to the US Visa Waiver program, which will allow Israelis to travel freely to the United States. According to the article, Washington and Jerusalem have signed a “memorandum of understanding” as a first step to full waiver status which presumably will be granted after a trial period ending on September 30th.

There are currently 40 nations admitted to the program, mostly from Europe, enabling their passport holders to enter the US freely without a visa and allowing them to stay for up to 90 days. Israel and its friends in the US have been agitating for years to have Israel accepted into the program, which would likely lead to more free spending American tourists and more corporate investment in the Jewish state, but there has been a major hurdle that Israel has been unwilling to address seriously and that is the issue of “reciprocity.” That means in practice that if anyone carrying an Israeli passport is free to enter the United States anyone carrying an American passport must be free to travel to Israel and enter the country. And lest there be any misunderstanding, US law requires full reciprocity to US citizens seeking entry – without regard to race, religion, or national origin. This means that if an American Jew and a Palestinian-American both holding US passports arrive at an Israeli port of entry they must be treated exactly the same when processing through customs and immigration.

Israel, however, has historically not quite seen it quite that way and reserves the right to block entry by Americans, an option particularly exercised against Americans of Palestinian origin, and other Americans like myself who come up on their data bases as being critical of the Jewish state. Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has even been denied entry in a recent attempt to travel to visit her grandmother. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who has been a critic of Israeli’s oppression of the Palestinians, has also been barred from entering the country.

There are other issues, including the fact that Israelis are way overrepresented in current visa fraud when they travel to the United States, often overstaying the time limit on their entry permission and working while in the country. Israelis in the country illegally and working were among the art students, Dead Sea cosmetics peddlers and the “Dancing Shlomos” movers who figured in the 9/11 saga, some of whom were known to be intelligence officers spying on American Muslims. Intelligence and law enforcement sources suggest that an open door to Israeli passport holders will lead to the entry of a new wave of Mossad officers who will be working against US Palestinian and Arab groups as well as against critics of Israel.

Israel is seeking approval to enter the program and is claiming that it has now initiated a trial period that will merge into a two-year pilot program that will ease the entry process and eliminate the many complaints about the harassment of Palestinian Americans and others. US citizens of Palestinian descent have frequently reported being harassed, detained, and denied entry by Israeli officials. Arab-Americans have told of being “strip-searched, questioned for hours about family and property histories, and even forced to give access to their social media accounts.” The US Embassy for its part only very rarely submits toothless complaints to the Israeli authorities about the treatment.

Because of that history, there is, inevitably, considerable skepticism about Israeli intentions. To cite only one example, Palestinian-Americans still cannot travel to the West Bank through Ben-Gurion Airport located near Tel Aviv, and are instead forced to fly into Amman, Jordan, before traveling overland to the West Bank. Furthermore, throughout the MOU, the US grants to Israel the freedom to deny any and all visitors entry for undefined security concerns – a variation on the “Israel has a right to defend itself” slogan and in itself a violation of the statuary requirements that established the Visa Waiver program. And even personal relationships are subject to scrutiny after one succeeds in entering the occupied territories. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) requires any foreign national to “report the start of a romantic relationship with any Palestinian ID holder within 30 days.”

There is particular concern that Israel will behave during the trial period and once it obtains waiver status it will return to its old ways of denying Palestinian Americans entry. One Palestinian critic observes how the problem is institutional: “What we are seeing is representative of how Israel applies its apartheid laws to Palestinians everywhere, both in the occupied territory and abroad. Israel targets Palestinians simply for being Palestinians.” Even under the proposed pilot program, for example, Palestinian Americans will be able to apply for a 90-day travel pass to enter Israel but the restrictions on visiting the West Bank remain in place only for them and not for Jews visiting the illegal settlements. They are also blocked from visiting Gaza even if they have family there. The Palestinians will still need to apply to the Israeli government official for additional internal travel permits, which can easily be denied.

There is widespread belief that the so-called pilot program is a back door way for the Joe Biden Administration to bring Israel into the Visa Waiver Program without requiring it to end its systematic discrimination and abuse directed against Palestinian-Americans. It demonstrates yet again that the rule of US-Israel relations is what it always has been – zero accountability for Israel. And, together with the recent decision to permit a visit to the White House and Congress by major human rights violator Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu it is just one more indication of who holds the reins of power in Washington.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen regards the new arrangement as a done deal, boasting how “After we finish all the necessary legislative procedures, I estimate that Israeli citizens will be able to visit the US without the need for a visa by the end of the year.” That freedom is, however, the fruit of a shameful move by the Biden Administration as it is conceding to the Israelis the right to continue to apply a race card to some American passport holders. It seems that whenever there is a conflict over issues vexing Washington and Tel Aviv it is the Jewish state that always emerges as the winner.

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.

August 2, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Gaslighting Gaza: Israel’s deceptive extraction approval prioritizes economics over politics

The Cradle | August 1, 2023

A significant breakthrough has emerged as the Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip have expressed their willingness, in principle, to grant the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) access to a natural gas field off the Gaza coast.

This groundbreaking development comes as part of a US-brokered deal that involves the PA, an Egyptian gas company, and Israel. If the plans proceed, the potential benefits are far-reaching, holding the promise of bolstering the economy and improving living standards in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Moreover, this agreement opens up the possibility of indirect negotiations between Hamas and the Israeli occupation, following a path similar to the recent developments in neighboring Lebanon. Notably, Hezbollah has given its approval for the Lebanese government to engage in talks with Israel over maritime demarcation lines, while asserting the country’s rights to its natural resources and threatening the use of force to secure it. It appears that Hamas may now be inclined to adopt a pragmatic approach, mirroring Lebanon.

Israeli green light for Gaza gas field

In parallel with the Israeli government’s decision to delegate enhanced powers to pro-settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, aimed at expediting settlement procedures, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on 18 June, preliminary approval for the development of the Gaza Marine gas field.

According to the prime minister’s office, the move will place emphasis “on Palestinian economic development and maintaining security stability in the region.”

The approval paves the way for the Egyptian EGAS company to assume responsibility for the administrative and technical aspects of gas exploration, with plans to transport the gas to the Damietta station for liquefaction and subsequent export to Europe and beyond.

Notably, the agreement between Egypt, the PA, and Israel was announced in October 2022, pending Israeli approval, which has now been granted. However, the announcement did not address the share of the Gaza Strip governed by Hamas, who have remained silent on the matter. Analysts attribute this silence to a potential understanding between Hamas leadership and Egypt regarding a positive approach to the agreement.

One policy for Gaza, another for West Bank 

This development poses a challenge as the resistance factions in Gaza have previously warned against any agreement that deprives the Strip’s residents of their rightful gas revenues. One Palestinian official was quoted by Reuters as saying: “We are waiting to know what exactly the Israelis have agreed to in detail. We can’t make a position based on a statement to the media.”

Hamas official Ismail Rudwan was also quoted by the news agency as saying: “We reaffirm that our people in Gaza have the rights to their natural resources.” In a rally held last September under the slogan “Our Gas is Our Right,” the factions expressed their firm stance on the matter, raising concerns about the potential repercussions.

Suhail al-Hindi, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, commented on the matter on Arabi21, saying: “In no way can Gaza be absent from this natural wealth, and every Palestinian has the right to benefit from the country’s wealth, including this field, with emphasis that the Palestinian people have the right to obtain this gas.

Al-Hindi stressed that “the Israeli occupation cannot be allowed to steal Palestinian wealth, and besieged Gaza has the right to live like all cities in the world, and for our people to enjoy their natural wealth.”

Discovered in 1999, the Gaza Marine gas field holds significant reserves, estimated at 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The British Gas Group and its partners, Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC), were granted a gas exploration license by the PA. Located 603 meters below sea level, approximately 22 miles west of Gaza, the field has a production capacity of 1.5 billion cubic meters annually over a span of 20 years.

Map of gas fields east of the Mediterranean Sea

Economic analyst Muhammad Abu Jayab tells The Cradle that the US implicitly agreed to provide part of the revenues from the Gaza Marine field to Hamas, which explains why the latter did not comment on the recent agreement. According to Abu Jayab “Egypt is at the forefront as a guarantee that Hamas will deal positively with the agreement, due to Cairo’s influence on the Palestinian factions.”

Nevertheless, the Israeli approval of the Gaza Marine gas field agreement comes at a sensitive time, especially for the resistance factions, as it coincides with the establishment of over 5,000 new illegal settlement units in the face of escalating tensions in the occupied West Bank. Israeli security warnings about the potential consequences of right-wing policies and international opposition, including from the US, further compound the situation.

Plans like the E1 proposal, which connects the Ma’ale Adumim settlement with occupied Jerusalem, and effectively bifurcates the West Bank, have garnered significant criticism due to their potential to impede any future prospects for the so-called two-state solution.

Calm before the storm 

Sources close to the decision-making circles of the resistance factions inform The Cradle that the Israeli approval serves as a bargaining chip to buy restraint and non-interference from Gaza Strip resistance groups in events unfolding in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

However, from the perspective of the resistance factions, the cost Israel demands exceeds the economic gains, as recent actions by Hamas underscore its commitment to prioritize resistance over financial incentives.

Mustafa al-Sawaf, a political analyst close to Hamas, tells The Cradle:

“The attack on Eli settlement, which was carried out by two members of the al-Qassam Brigades [armed wing of Hamas] on 20 June, came in response to all attempts to buy calm and silence. It was a clear message from Hamas to all regional and international parties not to dream of exchanging resistance for economic gains.”

Lessons from Lebanon 

Meanwhile, political researcher Ismail Muhammad points out that all regional and international parties realize that there is no possibility of bypassing Hamas in the gas file. He explains to The Cradle that:

“The resistance in Gaza was inspired by Hezbollah’s experience in imposing its conditions and obtaining Lebanon’s rights in the Karish field. It sent clear messages, that whatever the pressures, it will not accept being an idle witness while the country’s wealth is stolen before its eyes. The most important conclusions of the Lebanese experience are that investment needs calm, and that none of the Arab or international companies will operate under the threat of fire. At least by disabling it. The resistance possesses the military capabilities that enable it not to bomb the gas fields, but rather to disrupt work in them at least.”

Gas deals: A tool for dividing Palestinians 

Politically-speaking, Israel’s pursuit of gas agreements carries broader political implications beyond immediate security concerns. Political analyst Ziyad Abu Ziyad believes that Israel is leveraging these agreements to foster internal Palestinian divisions.

Egypt’s assumption of management responsibilities for Gaza Marine, in the absence of Palestinian reconciliation, and Israel’s refusal to demarcate the maritime borders with the PA, “reminds us of the solution that Israel previously proposed to the Palestinian leadership: a Palestinian state without borders.”

This approach focuses on improving the Palestinians’ economic situation by harnessing their own resources, essentially implementing an economic solution to the conflict without addressing its underlying political dimensions.

The occupation state’s approval of gas extraction from the Gaza Marine gas field has exposed the delicate balance between geopolitics, security, and economic interests in the region. As resistance factions draw inspiration from past experiences and assert their conditions, the path forward remains uncertain, casting doubt on the regional stability that Netanyahu’s office claimed would be maintained with the extraction approval.

August 1, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

UAE, Bahrain sour on Israeli normalization

The Cradle | July 31, 2023

Two of the signatories of the Abraham Accords – the UAE and Bahrain – have “soured” on the 2020 normalization agreement, according to sources in the know who spoke with US outlet Bloomberg.

“The [UAE] has expressed frustration in high-level contacts with Israel about the outcome of the 2020 Abraham Accords,” Bloomberg reported on 30 July. Bahrain has also “outlined its disappointment” with Tel Aviv, mainly out of concerns about Israel’s ongoing human rights violations against Palestinians and their unchecked expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

According to the report, the tense situation is “likely to complicate” Washington’s efforts to see Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, which also include Morocco and Sudan.

In the months after the Gulf kingdom inked a historic rapprochement deal with Iran under the auspices of China, the White House has deployed a charm offensive to convince Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) to normalize ties with Israel before the 2024 US elections.

Publicly, Saudi Arabia maintains Israel must first implement the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative to establish a Palestinian state before a normalization deal can be signed. Privately, however, Riyadh is demanding that the US sweeten the deal by providing firm defense guarantees, access to cutting-edge weaponry, and assistance in developing a nuclear energy program, including domestic uranium enrichment.

While the White House remains hesitant to accept these demands, US President Joe Biden told a gathering of donors to his 2024 re-election campaign last week, “There’s a rapprochement maybe underway.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed this claim on Sunday when announcing the construction of a $27 billion rail expansion connecting Israel’s outlying areas to metropolitan Tel Aviv.

“In the future, we will be able to transport cargoes of goods by train from Eilat to our ports in the Mediterranean Sea, and we will also be able to connect Israel by train to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Peninsula. We are working on that too,” Netanyahu said.

Earlier this month, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Washington was promoting a plan to build a railway connection from the Gulf to Israel and Europe.

July 31, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Israel court orders 500 Palestinian residents out to build new Israeli neighbourhood

MEMO | July 28, 2023

An Israeli court on Monday ordered 500 Palestinian residents of Ras Jrabah, a village in the Negev (Naqab) that predates the establishment of the state of Israel, to evacuate and demolish their homes to make way for a new Israeli neighbourhood.

Represented by the legal centre, Adalah, the Palestinian villagers had argued that they owned and resided on the land for generations, prior to the 1970 Land Law that registered land and established state-owned real estate.

However, despite their decades of continuous residence in the area, the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court rejected the claim that the Palestinian residents have lawful authority to stay and use the land.

In addition to claiming that the evidence presented by the Palestinian families in court is insufficient and ordering them to evacuate by March 2024, the Israeli Judge Menachem Shahak also ordered them to pay 117,000 shekels ($31,630) in legal charges.

The Israel Land Authority (ILA) has plans to expand the city of Dimona by occupying the village of Ras Jrabah and turning it into a new neighbourhood called “Rotem”.

Judge Shahak also rejected the Palestinian villagers’ request to be integrated into the new neighbourhood, claiming the Israeli Bedouin Development and Settlements Authority in the Negev is the authorised body to make that decision.

However, the Israeli Bedouin Settlement Authority has only offered to relocate them to the town of Qasr Al-Sir, which belongs to other Palestinian families.

The court’s approval comes after the ILA failed in its attempt at evacuating the village 30 years ago, reported Haaretz. Palestinian Bedouins in the Negev (Naqab) have faced the threat of forcible displacement for decades, with their land being seized and their homes levelled by Israeli occupation forces.

Adalah condemned the move as a crime of apartheid and argued that displacing the villagers to resettle them in a Bedouin town was part of a strategy of racial segregation.

It said in a statement: “Since the Nakba, the state of Israel has employed a range of tools and policies to forcibly displace the Bedouin residents in the Naqab. Their livelihood has been confined to restricted areas and segregated townships, and they have been subjected to harsh living conditions, with no regard for their basic needs and way of life.”

“This is part of a system of Jewish supremacy that was constitutionally enshrined in the Jewish Nation-State Law, which prioritises “Jewish settlement” as a value that all state bodies are mandated to promote. Israel’s judicial system approves, time after time, the displacement of Palestinian citizens in favour of Jewish expansions, thereby advancing Israel’s colonial objectives.”

The forced displacement of Ras Jrabah’s residents to expand the Jewish city of Dimona, which was built on the residents’ lands, serves as clear evidence that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against its Palestinian citizens, and urgent international intervention is necessary to halt it.

The Adalah lawyers will be appealing the judge’s decision.

July 28, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , | Leave a comment

Zionist groups set up ‘taskforce’ to defend Israel under guise of combatting anti-Semitism

MEMO | July 26, 2023

Eight major pro-Israel Jewish organisations from seven different countries have united to create a new task force to defend Israel under the guides of combatting anti-Semitism. The groups in the Task Force Against Anti-Semitism have all embraced the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism and placed defending Israel from criticism at the centre of their work.

Calling themselves J7, the anti-Palestinian taskforce comprises prominent Jewish organisations from the US, the UK, France, Germany, Canada, Argentina and Australia: the Anti-Defamation League (ADL); the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organisations; the Board of Deputies of British Jews; Conseil Représentatif des Institutions Juives de France (CRIF); the Central Council of Jews in Germany; the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA); Delegación de Asociaciones Israelitas Argentinas (DAIA); and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ).

“Anti-Semitism is rising around the world, especially in countries where there are large Jewish populations. We needed to meet these challenges through coordinated action,” ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt told Haaretz. “This new coalition of major organisations representing seven large Jewish Diaspora communities in liberal democracies will provide a formal framework for coordination, consultation and formulating global responses to anti-Semitic threats against the Jewish people.”

Greenblatt is one of the key proponents of the idea that anti-Zionism and legitimate criticism of the state of Israel equate to anti-Semitism. He is spearheading the initiative. “The idea for the J7 came out of conversations I had with partners in France over our shared challenges and concerns. When we reached out to these seven communities, there was instant enthusiasm about the importance of the seven of us consulting, and what we might achieve working together.”

The collaboration comes as Israel faces sharp criticism for its political shift to the far-right. Internally the occupation state is facing the prospect of a “civil war”, according to former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert; internationally, a consensus is emerging about Israel’s practice of apartheid. With the highly controversial IHRA definition of anti-Semitism conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Jewish racism, the increased focus and concern over Israeli policy has reinforced the false narrative with every condemnation of the occupation state and every voice in support of Palestine.

In a recent interview, legal expert Giovanni Fassina spoke to MEMO about the IHRA definition’s chilling repercussions. Fassina uncovered shocking examples of its weaponisation against critics of Israel and the suppression of free speech under the guise of combatting anti-Semitism.

The J7 group says that it will monitor and address expressions of hate from all origins. The leadership of J7 will meet regularly, both virtually and in person, with a significant event scheduled for ADL’s Never is Now Summit in March 2024.

July 27, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

It’s Past Time to be Honest About Israel

The deliberate corruption of American politics by an irresponsible foreign state must end

BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • JULY 25, 2023

One might think that since Honest Joe Biden declared his latest war entitled the US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism in May the media has certainly taken up the task of exposing evil in these United States by reporting every affront to Jewish groups or individuals and to the Jewish state, Israel. The purpose is to invent a narrative suggesting that the world’s richest and most powerful ethno-religious demographic is somehow a perpetual victim and that goes double for Israel, explaining and forgiving the apartheid state’s occupying army’s targeting and killing of 55 journalists and its murder of more than 150 Palestinian civilians so far this year, including the sniper shooting of a Palestinian two-year-old boy in the head. In spite of all that carnage, a wealthy Israel, which can afford to provide free health care and university education to its citizens, continues to receive nearly $4 billion in military aid plus billions more in trade and charitable benefits from the United States taxpayer annually, totaling more than $300 billion since the Jewish state was founded in 1948.

We have lately been treated to a massive propaganda campaign orchestrated by the likes of the notorious American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) hideous leader Jonathan Greenblatt. One wonders why organizations like that which work closely with the Israeli government are not required to register with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but to question that relationship got John F. Kennedy killed, so it is probably best to look the other way.

The role of organizations like ADL and AIPAC, dedicated to spreading lies about the Middle East and the world in general, is in part to convince the American public that Israel is really a wonderful place that is threatened by the Arab “terrorists,” as they choose to put it for obvious reasons. This grants Israel blanket immunity whenever its government exercises the “right to defend itself” doing whatever it takes, including blowing up schools and hospitals and attacking its neighbors. An astonishing bill being promoted by extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir currently under consideration in Israel’s Knesset would grant complete immunity for soldiers and policemen who shoot dead Palestinians or foreigners, effectively granting “license to kill.” Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Tony Blinken might consider that as “self-defense” if asked and, oh yeah, so might our self-declared Zionist president Honest Joe.

And ADL and AIPAC and all the other groups constantly bleat how there is also a broader threat of surging antisemitism and even the abomination of holocaust denial wherever one chooses to look. Conveniently, Israel, without being held accountable, can imprison, beat, torture, and kill as many Palestinians as it wishes while also stealing their land and other property, depriving them of their livelihoods and of their very right to spend their own lives in peace. The persistent drive to make Israel into an all-Jewish apartheid state that is illegally incorporating what was supposed to have been a Palestinian state is hardly hidden, and, as it includes shooting and making homeless those under occupation who in any way resist, it is actually both a genocide and a war crime.

Virtually every international organization that has looked into the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians, to include Israeli human rights groups, has denounced in the strongest terms the inhuman behavior that has become normal. So why don’t Congress and the American media get it since they are so ready to exploit the essentially bogus narratives of crimes against humanity that are being floated to justify going to war with Russia? If war crimes and crimes against humanity are the metric that one measures by in Biden’s “rules based international order” there is no country on earth that is more deserving of being invaded and sorted out than Israel, unless it is the warmongering United States itself.

Recently we Americans have been treated to several iterations of the “Israel is good” contrived narrative, a tale that includes how both the US and the Jewish state share an “unbreakable bond” because both nations were “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” And the two nations also are allegedly linked by the “shared values” nonsense, which does not apply if one is either a Red Indian, a black slave, or a Palestinian of either Christian or Muslim persuasion. Indeed, even observant Jews in Israel who are not practicing according to the Orthodox beliefs are subjected to various restrictions on their personal lives, including how they must conform to marry, and suffer from an inability to practice their religious choice openly.

We have recently experienced a visit to the White House and an address to a joint session of Congress by Israel’s head of state President Isaac Herzog which was preceded by a vote in Congress on a bill introduced by Republicans declaring that Israel “is not a racist or apartheid state” and adding that the United States “will always be a staunch partner and supporter of Israel.” The vote abjuring Israel of all misbehavior passed by an overwhelming 412-9-1 vote. The nine “no” votes and one abstention were from Progressive Caucus Democrats, which features Pramila Jayapal as the chairwoman: Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, Summer Lee, Ilhan Omar, Cori Bush, Andre Carson, Delia Ramirez and Ayanna Pressley. Representative Betty McCollum of Minnesota, who has submitted a bill blocking US aid to Israel that is used to imprison Palestinian children, voted “present.”

Jayapal, who said recently accurately that “Israel is a racist state,” was rewarded with a torrent of criticism from her own party, to include a rare joint statement from House Democratic leadership rejecting her remarks plus also a separate statement signed by 43 Democratic Party colleagues who said they were “deeply concerned” about her “unacceptable” views. She consequently apologized effusively before flipping and supporting the resolution. And every other Democrat and all the Republicans voted “yes.” A day later, three House Republicans filed a censure motion against Jayapal for having the temerity to call Israel “racist.” That basically confirms the hypothesis that Israel could shit on the heads of the clowns in Congress and the recipients would applaud the act and beg for more. Jayapal is now focusing on more congenial issues like climate change.

Of course, the bill in Congress is a lie and a denial of reality. Israel is by self-definition legally a Jewish state which makes it both racist and apartheid in structure towards its non-Jewish citizens and also to the Palestinians who have the misfortune of living in areas under Israeli occupation. The recent atrocities against the Palestinian victims have not passed unnoticed even if the Jewish dominated US media has attempted to mitigate what is reported. In fact, many Democrats no longer buy into the Israel narrative. Mondoweiss reports how “A University of Maryland Critical Issues poll from earlier this year found that 44% of Democratic voters believe Israel is ‘a state with segregation similar to apartheid.’ That survey mirrors a number of public opinion studies that have been released recently… 49% of the Democratic voters polled said they sympathize with Palestinians, compared to just 38% who said they sympathize with Israelis.” Another recent poll indicated that 80% of Democrats and 64% of Republicans, in absence of a two-state solution to Israel-Palestine, “would choose a democratic Israel that’s no longer Jewish, over a Jewish Israel without full citizenship and equality for non-Jewish people living under its authority.”

Attempting to address the growing uneasiness of many Americans over the issue of Israel and Palestinian rights, Herzog basically told congress that criticism of Israel is a freedom of speech right but that it should not veer over into antisemitism. Unfortunately, his logic is a bit on the thin side as the definition of antisemitism used by the US government and the media coined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) includes criticism of Israel, making attacking Israeli regarding its ghastly behavior ipso facto antisemitism.

Herzog also lied his way through his preferred analysis of what drives the bilateral relationship with Washington as well as civil liberties and other rights in his own country, saying “We are proud to be the United States’ closest partner and friend. When the United States is strong, Israel is stronger. And when Israel is strong, the United States is more secure.” How exactly the US is made more secure by Israeli destabilizing of the Middle East was not made clear, but Herzog went on with another series of lies explaining how Israel “takes pride in its vibrant democracy, its protection of minorities, human rights and civil liberties, as laid down by its parliament, the Knesset, and safeguarded by its strong Supreme Court and independent judiciary.”

Nothing Herzog said was actually true and he forgot to mention the political donations from Jewish sources and the friendly Jewish media coverage that binds most American politicians to Israel. In recent electoral cycles, Jewish donations dominated in both parties and candidates were rightfully fearful of not saying and doing enough when it comes to Israel. But to really appreciate the deep hole of corruption that the United States is in with Israel and its friends in The Lobby calling the shots even when the narrative is so transparently false, it is best to quote the New York Times account of the revelry in the House of Representatives Chamber as Herzog spoke: “The reception for Mr. Herzog in the packed House chamber was staunchly supportive, with frequent standing ovations by the assembled lawmakers, including when he decried Palestinians for destroying the prospects for peace by supporting terror attacks against Israel.” Another big lie and the inevitable standing ovations from the Congress critters. We are in deep trouble when our Solons on Capitol Hill cannot appear to discern a series of self- serving lies by a foreign leader which do nothing but impoverish and do damage to the United States and its people. Indeed, the clowns applaud what they are hearing. It is the tragedy of our times, perhaps the final tragedy.

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 25, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Israeli squatters occupy Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem

MEMO | July 21, 2023

Two Israeli settlers stormed the Orthodox Church complex in the Mount Zion area of occupied Jerusalem, laid blankets on the ground and announced that they would remain there.

A video shared on TikTok yesterday morning showed the two settlers sitting on the church grounds as they spread items they brought with them.

When a church official asked them to leave the settlers started shouting insults, obscene and racist slurs towards him, telling him to “get out” of the grounds, and claiming that “Mount Zion belongs to the Jewish people”, adding that every minute the church remains standing is considered “looting”.

The Orthodox Church has been battling settler associations supported by the Israeli government which claim the land the church is situated on belongs to Jews.

Staff at the church said the settlers were armed and had frightened personnel.

After hearing about the settler invasion, locals gathered outside the church to defend it.

The Israeli authorities and settlers have, in recent years, intensified their attacks against Christian churches and property in occupied Jerusalem in an effort to displace Christians, reduce their numbers and steal their property.

July 21, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , | Leave a comment

Hamas slams US House resolution calling Israel “not racist state”

Palestine Information Center – July 19, 2023

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM – The Hamas Movement has strongly denounced the US House of Representatives for passing a resolution claiming that the Israeli occupation state is “not a racist or apartheid state.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas condemned the resolution as a flagrant US bias in favor of the occupation state and a step intended to encourage it to persist in its crimes and violations against the Palestinian people, especially its ethnic cleansing policy.

“This US resolution has ignored the black history of the Zionist occupation, which is filled with dozens of massacres, and turned a blind eye to the crimes that were committed recently by settler gangs under military protection in Huwara town and dozens of Palestinian villages, which were exposed to arson attacks and organized destruction of homes, vehicles and farms,” Hamas underscored.

Hamas described the recent settler crimes in the West Bank as “an example of the racist practices and the ethnic cleansing policy that are pursued by the occupation state against the Palestinian people.”

“Many Israeli officials have voiced fascist positions, such as the recent remarks of the criminal minister, Smotrich, in which he gave the Palestinians the choice between living in the so-called state of Israel as second-class citizens or being banished or killed,” the Movement said.

“Such a US resolution will not change the reality of the criminal and racist Zionist occupation entity, which relies on ethnic cleansing, displacing the rightful owners of the land and replacing them with intruders,” it added.

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling Israel “not a racist or apartheid state,” on Tuesday

The measure passed, in a 412-to-nine vote, a few hours after president Joe Biden met with Israeli president Isaac Herzog at the White House.

The legislation comes in response to remarks last Saturday from Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in which she called Israel a “racist state.”

Later, the congresswoman apologized following pressures, while stressing that Israel’s “extreme right-wing government has engaged in discriminatory and outright racist policies.”

July 20, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Kennedy: ‘As President, my support of Israel will be unconditional.’

By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | July 20, 2023

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. took his expression of support for the government of Israel to the maximum level in a Wednesday Twitter post. After criticizing the administration of President Joe Biden for “threatening Israel with the ending of the special relationship between” Israel and the United States, Kennedy declared, “As President, my support of Israel will be unconditional.”

Looking through the wave of negative comments and quote tweets that quickly appeared in response to Kennedy’s post, it looks like Kennedy took in the tweet a position that could be destructive to the base that has developed for his campaign over the last few months.

Many individuals took Kennedy’s criticism of US intervention related to Ukraine and Russia as suggesting that he would pursue consistently as president a noninterventionist foreign policy. That hope is being dashed.

Kennedy has also made a central focus of his campaign skepticism toward activities of the US government that Kennedy has argued in many instances have harmed the American people while advancing the wealth and power of special interests. Many supporters who share this skepticism will find it hard to accept that meanwhile it is appropriate to give support unconditionally to a foreign government.

Kennedy’s endorsement of the special relationship between the US and Israel, as well as his commitment to providing unconditional support to the Middle East nation as president, follows his discussion of his great admiration for Israel in an interview earlier this week.

Copyright © 2023 by RonPaul Institute

July 20, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Israel cuts water supply to Palestinians in Hebron

Israeli forces raze four water wells in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank [Ihab Alami/ApaImages]
MEMO | July 18, 2023

Israel’s water company Mekorot has this month reduced the water supply to the occupied West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, causing severe shortages for Palestinians, Quds Press reported yesterday.

Mohammad Al-Jaabari, a Palestinian from Hebron, said he has to wait for days in queues until he gets his turn to get a tank load of water for his house.

“However,” he told Quds Press while looking at the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba, “we see the settlers play with water, irrigate their trees and home gardens.”

Al-Jaabari said: “This is unfair, but who can deter the Israeli occupation in order to stop its unfair distribution of water?”

Hebron’s Deputy Mayor, Asmaa Al-Sharabati, said: “The Israeli occupation continues practicing its control of natural resources. This complicates the water problem.”

She said that the amount of water being provided to Hebron each day is “far less than the needs of residents,” adding that some areas that used to receive water once every 18 days are not sent supplies every 28 days. This too during the summer heat.

“We do not have any roles in the water supplies,” she told Quds Press. “All we have is to receive water from the Israeli company and ensure fair distribution among the Palestinian residents of the city.”

Al-Sharabati said everyone needs 100 litres of water a day, and 30 litres during emergencies. “A Palestinian in Hebron receives far less than 30 litres a day,” she said.

“The water crisis is political,” she stressed.

July 18, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

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