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USA Is Defunding Regime-Change NGOs

Prof. Glenn Diesen on Neutrality Studies
Glenn Diesen | February 19, 2025

For the longest time, USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) have been funding foreign NGOs to influence local populations through media propaganda and the presence of a civil society consensus. Donald Trump just pulled the plug by defunding USAID and even going after the NED. This is unprecedented in modern history that a state dismantles its own cognitive warfare apparatus. What happened?

February 20, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Progressive Hypocrite, Video | , , | Leave a comment

RFK Jr.: HHS Will Investigate All Possible Causes of Chronic Disease — Including Vaccines

By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | February 18, 2025

In his first address to his staff, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pledged to subject potential causes of chronic disease to “unbiased scientific investigation.”

“Nothing is going to be off limits,” including his personal past beliefs, Kennedy said at his welcome ceremony today.

On Feb. 13, the White House issued an executive order establishing the Make America Healthy Again Commission, which Kennedy will lead.

Kennedy said today that as part of that agenda, he will direct HHS to investigate many possible causes of the chronic disease epidemic in the U.S.

“Some of the possible factors we will investigate were formally taboo or insufficiently scrutinized,” he said. “Those who are unwilling to embrace those kinds of ideas can retire,” he said.

Before and during his confirmation hearings, Kennedy came under fire from Democrats and the mainstream media for raising questions about vaccine safety. Today, he included the childhood vaccine schedule as one of the formerly “taboo” areas he planned to investigate.

Other potential drivers of the chronic disease epidemic the agency will investigate will include electromagnetic radiation, glyphosate and other pesticides, ultraprocessed foods, artificial food additives, antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs, a group of chemicals known as PFAS and microplastics.

Kennedy said he plans to convene stakeholders “of all viewpoints,” and to set study protocols in advance that won’t be changed when the results look like they will be “inconvenient.”

“Let’s all depoliticize these issues and reestablish a common ground or action and renew the search for existential truths with no political impediments and no preconceptions,” he said.

Kennedy also said he’ll work to remove “conflicts of interest” on HHS advisory committees in order to reestablish the public’s trust, Bloomberg Law reported.

Related articles in The Defender

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

Oracle’s TikTok bid under fire for censoring pro-Palestine voices

Al Mayadeen | February 19, 2025

In a new report, The Intercept sheds light on the complex interplay of geopolitics and corporate power in Silicon Valley.

As Oracle, which has secret partnerships with “Israel”, steps into the spotlight in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a law banning TikTok, the company has emerged as a leading candidate to take over the embattled platform.

However, the tech giant’s unwavering support for “Israel”, particularly in light of the ongoing genocide in Palestine, has raised serious concerns. Questions surrounding Oracle’s political allegiances and their impact on global discourse have never been more urgent.

Pro-Palestine voices in Oracle suppressed

The broader campaign to ban TikTok, driven by US political figures critical of China, has gained added momentum from pro-“Israel” activists.

While the push to ban TikTok has been driven largely by US lawmakers critical of China, pro-“Israel” activists have played a key role in amplifying the campaign, exposing the intersection of technology, politics, and global conflicts in Silicon Valley.

The company’s pro-“Israel” stance, led by CEO Safra Catz, has led to accusations of suppressing pro-Palestinian voices within Oracle.

According to an investigation by The Intercept, Oracle has faced internal backlash from employees who feel their pro-Palestinian views are being repressed. One employee shared that there is a culture of fear, with some workers leaving the company due to its stance. Last year, 68 employees signed an open letter criticizing Oracle’s partnership with “Israel”, and one worker was reportedly fired for creating a pro-Palestinian symbol.

Oracle’s longstanding ties with “Israel” have been pivotal. The company has not only partnered with the Israeli government but also provided technological support to military projects. These collaborations have extended from cloud services to high-profile secretive initiatives like Project Menta, which has worked with the Israeli Air Force. Employees have also expressed concern over Oracle’s involvement in a PR initiative called “Words of Iron” aimed at boosting the Israeli narrative on social media platforms, including TikTok, as per the report.

The company has notably restricted donations to Palestinian causes and banned some charities from its employee donation matching program. Catz, in her statements, referred to pro-Palestinian rights groups as “brainwashing organizations” and dismissed any concerns about Oracle’s involvement with “Israel” during the Gaza conflict. As Yael Har Even, Oracle “Israel’s” deputy CEO, stated, “Safra always says — the U.S. first, the second country is Israel, and after that the whole world.”

The pressure on employees to align with Oracle’s stance has drawn criticism, highlighting the broader influence of political and military alliances in Silicon Valley’s tech giants.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

US Lawmakers Condemn UK’s Secret Encryption Backdoor Order to Apple, Threaten Consequences

By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | February 16, 2025

The Labour government’s reported decision to issue a secret order to Apple to build an encryption backdoor into iCloud is turning into a major political issue between the UK and the US, just as the move is criticized by more than 100 civil society groups, companies, and security experts at home.

The fact that this serious undermining of security and privacy affects users globally, including Americans, has prompted a strong reaction from two US legislators – Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat, and Congressman Andy Biggs, a Republican.

In a letter to National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard, the pair slammed the order as “effectively a foreign cyber attack waged through political means.”

Wyden and Biggs – who sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee, respectively – want Gabbard to act decisively to prevent any damage to US citizens and government from what they call the UK’s “dangerous, shortsighted efforts.”

The letter urges Gabbard to issue what the US legislators themselves refer to as an ultimatum to the UK: “Back down from this dangerous attack on US cybersecurity, or face serious consequences.”

Unless this happens immediately, Wyden and Biggs want Gabbard to “reevaluate US-UK cybersecurity arrangements and programs as well as US intelligence sharing with the UK.”

They add that the relationship between the two countries must be built on trust – but, if London is moving to “secretly undermine one of the foundations of US cybersecurity, that trust has been profoundly breached.”

The letter points out that the order appears to prohibit Apple from acknowledging it has even received it, under threat of criminal penalties – meaning that the UK is forcing a US company to keep the public and Congress in the dark about this serious issue.

In the UK, well-known privacy campaigner Big Brother Watch agreed with what the group’s Advocacy Manager Matthew Feeney said were “damning comments” made by Wyden and Biggs.

Feeney said Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s “draconian order” to Apple was in effect a cyber attack on that company, and that the letter penned by the US legislators is “wholly justified” – and comes amid “a shameful chapter in the history of UK-US relations.”

“Cooper’s draconian order is not only a disaster for civil liberties, it is also a globally humiliating move that threatens one of the UK’s most important relationships,” he warned, calling on the home secretary to rescind it.

The same is being asked of Cooper by over 100 civil society organizations, companies, and cybersecurity experts – an initiative led by the Global Encryption Coalition (GEC).

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

Putin Praises Friendly Russian-US Negotiations in Riyadh

Sputnik – 19.02.2025

ST. PETERSBURG – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that he had been briefed on the results of talks between Russian and US delegations in Riyadh and gave a positive assessment of the negotiations.

“The assessment is positive,” Putin told reporters when asked about the Russian-US talks, adding that the meeting was friendly.

The Russian delegation told that from the US side there were those who were open to cooperation, the Russian president added.

The purpose and agenda of the conversation at the meeting in Riyadh was to restore trust between Russia and the United States, Putin pointed out.

Russia and the United States are working on the issues of economy, energy, space and other areas, Putin said.

The Russian president, commenting on Tuesday’s meeting between Russia and the US in Riyadh, mentioned that the sides have taken the first step to resume work in various areas of mutual interest, including the Middle East.

“We have other issues, the economy, and our joint work in the global energy markets, space, of course… All of this was the subject of discussion, consideration at the meeting in Riyadh,” Putin told reporters.

Putin said that he had been briefed on the results of talks between Russian and US delegations in Riyadh and gave a positive assessment of the negotiations.

During the telephone conversation US President Donald Trump said that Washington assumes that negotiations will take place with the participation of both Russia and Ukraine, Vladimir Putin said.

“As for the negotiation process, President Trump told me during a telephone conversation, and I can confirm this, that, of course, the United States assumes that the negotiation process will take place with the participation of both Russia and Ukraine. No one excludes Ukraine from this process,” Putin told reporters.

Putin said on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump has begun to receive objective information.

“When he [Trump] started receiving information — objective information — he changed his position. This information has changed his approach,” Putin said.

Russia and the United States in Riyadh have agreed that the work of diplomatic missions will be resumed in normal mode, Putin.

“The first thing I would like to say is that we have agreed to resume the work of diplomatic missions in normal mode,” Putin told reporters.

The expulsions of diplomats from Washington and Moscow do not lead to anything good, if it continues, only cleaners will be left to work in the embassies, Putin added.

Putin said on Wednesday that it is impossible to resolve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis, without increasing the level of trust.

“The most important thing here in resolving all pressing issues, including the Ukrainian settlement, is that without increasing the level of trust between Russia and the United States, it is impossible to resolve many issues, including the Ukrainian crisis,” Putin said.

Russia has never refused to negotiate on the conflict with Ukraine, Putin added.

Kiev’s hysteria about its absence in the negotiations between Russia and the United States is inappropriate, Putin said.

“Everyone has probably forgotten, but I remind you that exactly one year from now, in February 2026, the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty expires. Do they [representatives of Ukraine] want to sit here at the negotiating table and mediate between Russia and the United States? Well, probably not. Why get hysterical? Hysteria is inappropriate,” Putin told reporters.

Russia will inform all its BRICS friends about the results of the US-Russia talks, Russian President said.

“For our part, we shall undoubtedly inform all our BRICS friends. We know that they are interested in settlement of the Russia-Ukraine relations, termination of combat actions.
We treat their suggestions with respect. And any time soon we shall inform them about the results of the Russia-US talks,” Putin told reporters.

The recent attack on the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) may result in high energy prices on global markets, Vladimir Putin said.

“Of course, the attack on such a facility will affect global energy markets, first of all, because, unfortunately, it is impossible to quickly restore this facility, because there was mainly Western equipment there, and it was damaged … This leads to consistently high energy prices on world markets,” Putin told reporters.

On Monday, the CPC said that its crude oil pumping station in Kropotkinskaya, Russia’s southern Krasnodar Territory, had been attacked by drones in the morning.

Kropotkinskaya is the company’s largest pumping station in Russia. The CPC said the attack was carried out by seven drones packed with metal striking elements in addition to explosives.

Soldiers of Russia’s 810th military brigade have crossed the Russian border and entered Ukrainian territory, Putin said, adding that Russian troops are advancing along the entire front line.

“The latest information, which was reported to me literally an hour ago, is that tonight the fighters of the 810th brigade crossed the border between Russia and Ukraine and entered the territory of the enemy. And our troops are advancing along the entire line of contact,” Putin told reporters.

The 810th brigade is fighting in Russia’s Kursk Region.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Zelensky accuses Trump of repeating ‘Russian disinformation’

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky © Mert Gokhankoc / dia images via Getty Images
RT | February 19, 2025

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim regarding his approval rating as Russian disinformation, saying that a majority of Ukrainians trust his leadership.

During a press conference after a high-level meeting between American and Russian officials in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, Trump suggested that Zelensky’s approval rating in Ukraine is 4%. The Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KMIS) said on Wednesday, however, that in a survey in January, 57% of Ukrainians expressed trust in Zelensky, an increase from 54% the previous month.

Zelensky referenced the Ukrainian pollster’s report as evidence against Trump’s skepticism about public support for him. He noted that Ukrainian officials “are aware of this disinformation and recognize that it is coming from Russia,” without providing specific sources. He stressed that “if anyone wants to replace me right now, it’s not going to happen.”

He also urged Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, who is currently visiting Kiev, to “speak to the people and ask them if they trust their president, whether they trust [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Let him ask them about Trump” and his remarks.

In his comments, Trump pointed to the absence of elections in Ukraine due to Zelensky’s declaration of martial law. “I hate to say it, but he’s down at 4% approval.” He characterized the situation in Ukraine as dire, saying it has been “blown to smithereens” and is nearly impossible to live in.

Although Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year, he has not transferred authority to the parliament speaker, as mandated by the Ukrainian Constitution.

Zelensky has argued that holding an election under the current circumstances is both legally and technically infeasible, and that Ukrainians would oppose it amid the conflict with Russia. He also claimed that if an election were held, he would secure a second term. Recent opinion polls, however, suggest that he would lose to retired General Valery Zaluzhny in a runoff.

Russian officials have expressed concern regarding Zelensky’s legitimacy, saying that any international treaties he signs could be challenged. Moscow has indicated a willingness to negotiate peace with Zelensky, yet remains skeptical of his ability to finalize any agreements.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , | Leave a comment

Russia and US will have to ‘clean up’ after Biden – Lavrov

RT | February 19, 2025

Moscow and Washington need to “clean up the legacy” left by the former US President Joe Biden’s administration that ruined the ties between the two states, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking at the Russian State Duma on Wednesday, having returned from talks with US diplomats in the Saudi capital on Tuesday, Lavrov described the meeting in Riyadh as a first step toward rebuilding relations between the countries. The bilateral negotiations were led by Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and aimed to lay the groundwork for ending the Ukraine conflict and normalizing ties between Russia and the US.

“We have started to move away from the brink of the abyss to which the Biden administration had led us, but these are only the first steps,” Lavrov told lawmakers, commenting on the talks.

“For now, we need to ‘clean up’ the legacy of the Biden administration, which did everything to destroy… the foundation of a long-term partnership between our countries,” he added. According to the diplomat, “the movement towards normalizing relations in all areas is beginning.”

“There is, at least, a declared readiness to start on this course. And to resolve not only the Ukraine crisis, but to create conditions for the restoration and expansion of partnership in trade, economic and geopolitical spheres,” Lavrov stated. He noted that Washington’s representatives expressed marked interest in removing “artificially created” obstacles to potential joint initiatives with Russia in many areas, including economic and foreign policy.

Among other things, the sides agreed to restore embassy staffing and form high-level teams to begin work on the potential Ukraine peace settlement.

“We welcome this,” Lavrov said, noting that the countries could eventually return to the state of cooperation they had prior to the Ukraine conflict and the West’s sanctions war on Russia.

“There will always be problems, but the main thing is to meet, listen and hear one another, make decisions that will be realistic with regard to the partners they concern,” he stated.

Tuesday’s negotiations have been described as “truly monumental” in Washington.

Following the talks, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also acknowledged that the West would need to address the sanctions imposed on Russia in order to reach a lasting solution to the conflict and to restore relations. Later on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump told journalists he felt “much more confident” about the prospects of a lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine amid the budding rapprochement with Moscow.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , , , | Leave a comment

How USAID Assisted the Corporate Takeover of Ukrainian Agriculture

By John Klar | Brownstone Institute | February 19, 2025

A recent essay titled “The Real Purpose of Net Zero” by Jefferey Jaxon posited that Europe’s current war against farmers in the name of preventing climate change is ultimately designed to inflict famine. Jaxon is not speculating on globalist motives; he is warning humanity of a rapidly unfolding reality that is observable in the perverse lies against cows, denigration of European farmers as enemies of the Earth, and calls by the WHO, WEF, and UN for a plant-based diet dependent entirely on GMOs, synthetic fertilizers, and agrichemicals.

Revelations about the evil doings of the Orwellian-monikered “United States Agency of International Development” (USAID) reveal a roadmap to totalitarian control unwittingly funded by America’s taxpaying proles. USAID’s clandestine machinations have long focused on controlling local and global food supplies as “soft colonization” by multinational chemical, agricultural, and financial corporations. European farmers revolting against climate, wildlife, and animal rights policies are harbingers of this tightening globalist noose.

The roots of the current globalist plan to “save humanity from climate change” link directly to the infamous Kissinger Report, which called to control world food supplies and agriculture as part of a globalist collaboration between nation-states and NGOs to advance US national security interests and “save the world” from human overpopulation using “fertility reduction technologies.” Kissinger’s 1974 Report was created by USAID, the CIA, and various federal agencies, including the USDA.

Fast forward to the 2003 Iraq War, justified using fear-mongering propaganda about weapons of mass destruction and neo-conservative malarky about rescuing the Iraqi people. The US-led occupation of Iraq became a rapacious profiteering smorgasbord for colonizing corporations husbanded by USAID. Iraq is heir to the birthplace of human civilization, made possible by early Mesopotamian agriculture: many of the grains, fruits, and vegetables that now feed the world were developed there. Iraq’s farmers saved back 97% of their seed stocks from their own harvests before the US invasion. Under Paul Bremer, Rule 81 (never fully implemented) sought to institute GMO cropping and patented seed varieties, as Cargill, Monsanto, and other corporations descended upon the war-ravaged nation using American tax dollars and USAID.

That playbook was more quietly implemented during the Ukraine War, once again orchestrated by USAID. Before the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Ukraine was the breadbasket of Europe, prohibiting GMO technologies and restricting land ownership to Ukrainians. Within months of US intervention, USAID assisted in the dismantling of these protections in the name of “land reforms,” free markets, financial support, improved agricultural efficiency, and rescuing the Ukrainian people. In just two years, over half of Ukraine’s farmland became the property of foreign investors. GMO seeds and drone technology were “donated” by Bayer Corporation, and companies such as GMO seed-seller Syngenta and German chemical manufacturer BASF became the dominant agricultural “stakeholders” in war-torn Ukraine. Russia may withdraw, but Ukraine’s foreign debts, soil degradation, and soft colonization will remain.

The UN, WTO, WHO, and WEF all conspire to peddle a false narrative that cows and peasant farmers are destroying the planet, and that chemical-dependent GMO monocropping, synthetic fertilizers, and patented fake meats and bug burgers must be implemented post haste (by force if necessary) to rescue humanity. The argument that pesticides and synthetic fertilizers (manufactured from natural gas, aka methane) are salvific is patently false. They are, however, highly profitable for chemical companies like Bayer, Dow, and BASF.

Jefferey Jaxon is exactly correct. The Netherlands committed to robust agricultural development following a Nazi embargo that deliberately inflicted mass famine following their collaboration with Allied Forces in Operation Market Garden. France boasts the highest cow population in all of Europe. Ireland’s culture is tightly linked to farming as part of its trauma during the (British-assisted) Irish Potato Famine. The corporate/NGO cabal now uprooting and targeting farmers in these nations and across the EU in the name of staving off climate change and preserving wildlife is a direct outcropping of Kissinger’s grand dystopian scheme launched through USAID in 1974.

Americans watch European farmer protests from afar, largely oblivious that most all of US agriculture was absorbed by the Big Ag Borg generations ago. Currency control linked to a (political, environmental, and economic) social credit scorecard promises the fruition of Kissinger’s demonic plan: “Control the food, control the people.”

Modern humans suffer a double hubris that blinds them to the contemplation of the truth of Jaxon’s hypothesis: a cultish trust in technology, coupled with an irrational faith in their self-perceived moral superiority to past civilizations (Wendell Berry calls this “historical pride”). Yet, as long as mankind has had the capacity to harm another for personal gain, humans have devised ways to control food for power or profit. Siege warfare generally depended on starving defenders of castle walls into submission.

Even if globalist food control proposals are well-intentioned, a monolithic, monocultured, industrial-dependent worldwide food system is a lurking humanitarian disaster. Berry observed:

In a highly centralized and industrialized food-supply system there can be no small disaster. Whether it be a production “error” or a corn blight, the disaster is not foreseen until it exists; it is not recognized until it is widespread.

The current push to dominate global food production using industrial systems is the cornerstone of complete globalist dominion over all of humanity. The “Mark of the Beast” without which no American will buy or sell goods – including guns, bullets, or factory-grown hamburgers and cricket patties – is mere steps away. Mr. Jaxon is correct that these leaders “know these basic historical and current facts,” and that “[f]armers are becoming endangered because of government [climate] policy … and it’s being allowed to happen.” USAID has been actively seeding and watering this dystopia for decades.

Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates are as fully cognizant of this fundamental truth as Henry Kissinger was in 1974. USAID has aided all three. Having lost almost all of their small farms over the last century, Americans are well ahead of Europeans in their near-complete dependence on industrial food.

That’s the plan.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Full Spectrum Dominance, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , , , , | Leave a comment

West should repair oil infrastructure damaged by Ukraine – Putin

FILE PHOTO: A gas turbine produced by the German company Siemens © Global Look Press / IMAGO / Christoph Reichwein
RT | February 18, 2025

Repairs to an oil pumping station in southern Russia damaged by a Ukrainian drone strike on Monday should be covered by the facility operator’s Western co-owners, President Vladimir Putin has suggested. The infrastructure is operated by the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which is partly controlled by US and EU companies.

The station was attacked on Monday by at least seven Ukrainian drones, Russia’s deputy prime minister and former energy minister, Aleksandr Novak, told Putin during a government meeting on Tuesday. The strike damaged some critical components, prompting its operators to resort to a reserve pumping scheme and slash capacity by 30-40%, the official said.

According to Novak, restoring the station’s full capacity would require “major repairs” since it used Western equipment, including from Germany’s Siemens, which has previously refused to supply equipment for Russian gas pipelines, citing sanctions. Repairing the facility could, according to Novak, take “quite along time.”

The Western CPC shareholders are also taking part in the damage assessment, Novak said, adding that the list of consortium members includes US giants Chevron and ExxonMobil.

The Russian president responded by saying that the Western companies should facilitate the repairs at the station and provide all the necessary equipment.

“Since they [the Western companies] are … interested in restoring the facility’s operational capacity, then let them arrange for the necessary equipment delivery despite all the sanctions,” Putin said. He pointed out that the CPC shareholders would be doing that “for their own benefit” anyway. Moscow should also provide all the assistance that is necessary, he added.

The Kropotkinskaya pumping station is located in the Russian Krasnodar Region, some 230 kilometers from the port city of Novorossiysk. It is a part of a pipeline project that transports oil from western Kazakhstan along with Russian products. US companies controlled some 40% of oil supplies shipped via the pipeline in 2024.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called the strike an attack against US companies, the global oil market, and US President Donald Trump’s agenda. On Tuesday, Novak also described the attack as Kiev’s “response” to the US desire to engage in dialogue with Moscow.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Economics, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

EU Elites Are in Panic Over the US Leaving Ukraine and Europe

Professor Glenn Diesen & Pascal Lottaz
Glenn Diesen | February 17, 2025

I had a conversation with Pascal Lottaz at Neutrality Studies regarding the panic in the EU as the US made it clear it no longer considers Europe to be a priority. For years, the Europeans failed to establish the continent as an independent pole of power by neglecting to define their security and economic interests separate from the US. Europe is subsequently now a divided continent at war, in economic decline and with diminishing relevance in the world. The US must address multipolar realities by restoring a workable relationship with Russia and pivoting toward Asia. The comfortable ideological bubble has been burst, yet there is still a reluctance to deal with uncomfortable realities.

February 19, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

Smotrich orders seizure of $90m in Palestinian funds to benefit Israeli settlers

The Cradle | February 18, 2025

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich signed an order on 17 February to seize NIS 320 million ($90 million) in Palestinian tax funds to use as compensation for families of Israelis affected by the war.

“There is no more moral and just signature than to prevent the Palestinian Authority from funding terrorism and to garnish its funds for the benefit of the families of terror victims. This is a necessary step in our national struggle against terrorism and against the Palestinian Authority that encourages it,” Smotrich stated.

In August, the finance minister confiscated NIS 100 million (nearly $27 million) from the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah, accusing it of supporting “terrorism.”

Israel’s security cabinet was set to meet on Monday to discuss whether to move forward with negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

If agreed to, the second phase is intended to see Hamas release dozens of remaining captives from Gaza, while Israel would release hundreds more Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces are supposed to withdraw entirely from Gaza, and a lasting truce should go into effect.

However, Smotrich and other Jewish supremacist ministers have said they would quit Netanyahu’s ruling coalition if the war does not resume.

On Saturday, the Israeli finance minister announced that US President Donald Trump’s plan to expel Palestinians from Gaza will start within weeks, with the displacement starting slowly but accelerating with time.

“Preparations have started amongst our teams, alongside teams of the US President Donald Trump,” Smotrich told reporters, according to Israel’s Channel 12.

He explained that the plan involves two parts. “One is to find countries that can receive people, and two, it’s a huge logistical operation to take such a large number of people out of here.”

Palestinians in Gaza have rejected Trump’s plan to ethnically cleanse them from their homes and lands, while rights groups have said that the plan is illegal under international law.

February 18, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation | , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump displacement of Palestinians is unlikely, says former head of Saudi intelligence

MEMO | February 18, 2025

A former head of Saudi Arabian intelligence has ruled out the possibility of US President Donald Trump sending troops to “expel the Palestinians” from Gaza and liquidate the Palestinian cause. Prince Turki Al-Faisal called on people not to be disturbed by Trump’s statements.

He made his comment to Al-Arabiya channel on Sunday, adding that what Trump says is not necessarily what the world will do, because talk is easy, but action has its conditions.

“I doubt that [Trump] will consider sending an army to expel the Palestinians, so there is no need for confusion or chaos surrounding his statements,” said Al-Faisal. He described the comments as being suggestive of Trump’s “arrogance”.

The former Saudi official stressed the importance of a unified Arab position to confront the challenges related to the Palestinian issue. “If the Arabs stand as a group, no one will be able to influence it.”

Al-Faisal touched on this principle applying to the Palestinians as well. “It is better for our Palestinian brothers to leave the differences aside and to be one unit, rather than for things to be scattered as they are now. If there is a difference between the leaders, they must fix what is between them.”

Nevertheless, he insisted that a united Arab position is necessary even if the Palestinians differ. “This does not prevent the Arab world from taking clear, firm and strong positions, and the Arab world is required to stand as one unit.”

The prince described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement about establishing a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia as “disgusting arrogance”, and pointed out that the kingdom has already responded comprehensively to what was said.

February 18, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment