New hacking allegations against China aren’t what they seem
By Timur Fomenko | RT | April 5, 2024
In March, the UK, in conjunction with the US and other members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, accused China of engaging in a state-sponsored hacking campaign against them. In response to the alleged ‘attack’ they launched coordinated sanctions against a small group of hackers and their associated businesses.
The sanctions were particularly big news in Britain, where the government suddenly decided that Beijing had been behind a hack on the electoral commission three years ago. Notably, the country’s Conservative party-aligned newspapers all pushed this narrative in an aggressive fashion.
These accusations by the Five Eyes nations are not so much genuine concerns as they are a deliberate and opportunistic act of political theatre which, largely driven by the US, seeks to slander China for diplomatic and political gain. The sanctions, although narrow in scope and thus meaningless, are designed to try and send a message to and about China. It is essentially a fearmongering campaign, which seeks to both undermine Beijing’s engagement with other countries and serve domestic political purposes in the US.
The rhythm of US escalation and de-escalation with China
The US has an adept foreign policy whereby it intentionally chooses to escalate and de-escalate tensions with China at opportune moments, which is precisely why calls for “engagement” with Beijing coming from Washington D.C. cannot be trusted. The US does not change its goals or its policies, only its tactics in consideration of what suits it at that particular moment. Hence it has always alternated between overtures and deliberate provocations. It usually does so by having a certain report or development leaked to the media at an opportunistic time, in order to craft a particular narrative which mandates a certain set of reactions and policy responses.
To give some examples of such, the Trump administration played down tensions with China directly in 2019, even amidst the Hong Kong crisis, in order to secure a “trade deal” with Beijing. Once it got what it wanted by 2020, and the Covid-19 pandemic struck, it deliberately unleashed a full-on crusade against Beijing on every front. Similarly, the Biden administration came into office and then immediately upped tensions with China on the Xinjiang issue in order to damage China’s ties with Europe in a build-up to coordinated sanctions as a display of transatlantic unity.
After this was done, it then decided it wanted to “cool” things down for a bit and establish “guardrails” so the rhetoric guns went silent for a few months as Washington reached out to Beijing. Then, as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics came, it took the “Xinjiang card” off the shelf again with a number of timed leaks and publications geared towards supporting a Winter Olympics boycott, as well as a sweeping ban on all Xinjiang goods under the premise of “forced labour” at that time.
What we see is that the US does not truly de-escalate with China, it “blows hot and cold” and essentially manipulates the media cycle to pursue its policy preferences as it sees fit. This means that major issues pertaining to China only tend to appear when there is an agenda serving it.
The newest phase
Now, the Biden administration has made a political design to escalate tensions with China by accusing it, in coordination with the Five Eyes, of state-backed hacking and cybercrime. The fact that the British government would sit on such an accusation for three years suggests both clear political purpose and timing. The question is, why? First, we are approaching a Presidential election in the US. It was always an inevitability that the administration would want to appear “tough” on China to prevent the issue from being used as an attack point by Biden’s rival, Donald Trump. As seen in 2020, an election year tends to become a year of very aggressive rhetoric and extreme theatrics.
Secondly, there is the goal of undermining China’s engagement with Europe. It has been publicly announced that Xi Jinping will visit a number of European countries in May, including France. As stated above, the US, with the support of the Five Eyes countries, actively seeks to damage Chinese diplomacy with Europe by weaponizing negative publicity in order to narrow political space for engagement.
What we see from this is that the US engages China on its own terms, but seeks to prevent those it deems as “allies” from doing the same, and thus resorts to psychological warfare through the manipulation of mass media.
In conclusion, when one sees these strategies being utilised, one recognises that the Western media has far less independence and impartiality than it claims to have, but is indirectly subject to the preferences of US policy. When the White House says “jump”, reporters ask, “how high?” and thus we see that a new propaganda campaign has been cultivated against Beijing, but of course, we should not be blind to the reality that there is no greater weaponisation of cyberspace and espionage in the world than the system created by the Five Eyes. And are we really going to pretend the CIA doesn’t hack anyone?
US Diplomacy ‘Utterly Failed’ in Ukraine, Washington Should Seek Negotiations – Jeffrey Sachs
Sputnik – 05.04.2024
WASHINGTON – US policy in Ukraine has failed and instead of encouraging the country’s NATO membership bid Washington should seek peace negotiations with Russia, world-renowned economics professor Jeffrey Sachs told Sputnik.
While in Brussels, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine would become a member of NATO but did not specify a timeline. He added that the 2024 NATO summit in Washington will help build a bridge for Ukraine to join the alliance.
“Secretary Blinken’s statement is another disaster for Ukraine… American diplomacy has utterly failed and indeed collapsed,” said Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University. “Secretary Blinken should be sitting down in negotiations with his counterpart Foreign Minister Lavrov rather than reiterating the utterly failed foreign policy that has brought on this war.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that NATO’s expansion to include Ukraine would create a direct national security threat to Russia and that Moscow considers the non-aligned status of Ukraine to be extremely important to put an end to the years-long conflict.
Trump warns: “lunatic” Biden could start World War III
By Ahmed Adel | April 5, 2024
Former US leader and current Republican Party presidential candidate Donald Trump warned in Michigan on April 2 that US President Joe Biden could trigger World War III. Trump’s comments come as he surges in the polls while Biden’s policy on Ukraine is continuously scrutinised. The former president also criticised the way his successor handled the nuclear issue, questioned his mental condition, and claimed that other foreign powers respected the US during his presidency.
“This guy has no clue,” the former president said about Biden. “He can’t put two sentences together, and he’s dealing with Putin, and he’s dealing with President Xi, and he’s dealing with Kim Jong-un. All people I know very well. We were under no threat from anybody until this guy got in office. Now they’re talking nuclear all the time. We didn’t talk nuclear.”
Trump recalled that, during his term, he rebuilt “nuclear power” to a level that “no one has” and that, in this context, it was “four safe years.”
“You were safe because they respected your president, and they respected the United States of America. And now you’re not safe. I will tell you we could end up in World War III with this lunatic,” he stressed.
According to a new Wall Street Journal poll published on April 3, Trump leads Biden in six of the seven closest swing states. Although Biden won Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania in 2020, Trump now holds a two-point lead in Michigan and a three-point lead in Pennsylvania. Biden also won Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona in the last election, but now the three states have stronger support for Trump, with the former president leading Georgia by three points, Nevada by four points, and Arizona by five points.
In a recent statement to USA Today, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said: “There are more than 100 polls showing President Trump crushing Joe Biden, including recent polling that has him leading in every key battleground state and winning independents by double digits.”
The prospect of Trump’s return has triggered an increase in debate among NATO allies about what Europe should do to ensure Washington continues to invest in transatlantic security. The Republican’s possible return also raised concerns among European officials that Trump could withdraw US aid to Ukraine because of comments that he would try to end the war in one day.
Reuters, citing five diplomats, reported on April 2 that NATO boss Jens Stoltenberg has proposed a $107 billion, five-year package of military aid to Ukraine so the Western alliance could have a more direct role in supporting Kiev. The NATO chief said the plan is in part “to shield against winds of political change,” but Trump is foremost on the minds of many, a senior NATO diplomat told the British agency.
The diplomats said that discussions were only at an early stage and that it was still unclear whether the $107 billion would be accepted by all 32 members—since a consensus must be reached—or how it would be financed.
“It goes some way to protecting in case of Trump. But it is impossible to create something Trump-proof,” said another diplomat. “A fund of 100 billion looks very optimistic, knowing how difficult it was to agree on a smaller amount at EU level.”
As part of the proposed package, NATO could also take over the operational functions of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, which coordinates arms deliveries from around 50 countries to Kiev and is now led by the US. With NATO’s Europe Supreme Allied Commander, General Chris Cavoli, in office, such a move could protect the Group from any political changes after the November US elections.
In effect, NATO recognises that there is a high possibility that Trump could return to the White House and is already preparing for a post-Biden scenario. Biden has supported most initiatives for Ukraine, but as his cognitive decline deepens and his numbers suffer in the polls, a Trump victory would almost certainly result in the retraction of support and force Kiev to negotiate with Moscow.
As Trump highlighted, Biden is a “lunatic” who is fanning the flames of a Third World War. Although it is unlikely the US would escalate with Russia to the extent of World War III for the sake of Ukraine, the former president highlights that global tensions were not as intense as they have been since Biden came to power, and he aims to return to this scenario. This prospect frightens NATO and much of Europe.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
More Deaths in Gaza
Lies and deception by Joe Biden to cover-up Israel’s war crimes must end
BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • APRIL 4, 2024
You know that the Administration of President Joe Biden has reached a new low when it takes the initiative to lie for Israel even when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accepting some blame for the targeted killing of six foreign national aid workers and a Palestinian translator belonging to Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen humanitarian “feed the hungry” charitable organization. Bear in mind that that the Israeli army has killed without any regrets expressed at least 196 aid and relief workers in its onslaught on all living creatures located in Gaza, as well as nearly every journalist that crosses its path and doctors and medical staff in hospitals attempting to save lives and treat the injured and dying. On this rare occasion, however, Netanyahu realized that the calculated way in which the predominantly foreign victims had been killed with three separate drone strikes directed against three well-marked and easily identifiable World Central Kitchen vehicles following a route pre-approved and declared to be safe by the Israeli army itself would heighten the already legitimate extreme loathing of the Jewish state and all its works worldwide. Make no mistake these seven workers were deliberately targeted, hunted down and murdered. And it was no accident or a case of poor communications as this was all carried out by an Israeli military unit under the direct control of senior officers in a bid to hasten the starvation of the Palestinian population by driving away relief organizations.
Not surprisingly, this disdain for Israeli behavior is even surging in the United States, where polls measuring dislike for Israel’s actions continue to rise and, as Netanyahu knows, total unblinking support from a Biden or a Trump is essential for furtherance of his Palestinian-genocide agenda, a program that also requires a steady stream of dollars and weapons to carry out. Joe Biden, who reportedly is angry with Netanyahyu, only last Sunday, the day before the incident, approved a $15 billion package of new weapons for Israel, including 25 F-35 fighter jets, and additionally the highly controversial 2,000-pound bombs which have been known to kill indiscriminately in Gaza when deployed by the Israeli air force. As has been true over the past six months, the White House acted unilaterally and did not clear the transfer through congressional review, as required by law, claiming that it was an emergency as good friend and close[est] ally Israel urgently needs the weapons.
President Biden apparently did realize that the deaths in Gaza, which made him feel “outraged and heartbroken,” following so soon on the recently concluded siege and devastation of the last remaining major hospital in the enclave Al-Shifa, might be a political problem for him. Preliminary reports from the hospital, which was completely destroyed, suggest that over 1,500 Palestinians may have been killed, injured, or are reported missing as a result of the massacre. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller nevertheless asserted that the slaughter at the medical center was legitimate as “There were Hamas fighters hiding in Al-Shifa Hospital. Do not believe that this attack was on the hospital. The attack was on the Hamas fighters that are hiding inside a hospital.” Other Administration figures have claimed that the deaths in both the hospital and among the aid workers were not “deliberate,” which is, of course a lie as it was orders through the Israeli chain of command that initiated the killing in both instances. White House spokesman Karine Jean-Pierre also added her profound but utterly predictable insights into who was to blame, “So look, Hamas should not be operating out of hospitals, we have said that over and over again, and putting civilians at risk.”
And to be sure, while destroying the hospital was an exciting change of pace for the world’s “most moral army” as its snipers summarily executed doctors and patients, as it picked off children looking for food when they crossed into unposted “kill zones,” and as its engineers used bulldozers to bury alive prisoners who were shackled and could not move, it did represent a problem vis-à-vis the international perception of Israel. So Netanyahu, understanding that a little fence mending was in order for PR reasons, quickly admitted that there had been something of a “mistake” made leading to the killing of the seven aid workers which was “tragic” while the army itself is engaged in a desperate cover-up, describing the incident, as a “grave mistake… that followed a misidentification, at night, during the war, in a very complex condition. It shouldn’t have happened.” Per Netanyahu’s official statement on the incident “This happens in war. We are conducting a thorough inquiry and are in contact with the governments. We will do everything to prevent a recurrence.”
National Security Adviser John Kirby, who has taken on the role of chief liar for the Biden regime, was “outraged” by the deaths while adding that “this incident is emblematic of a larger problem,” though he failed to describe just what that problem might be apart from the fact that Israel likes to kill people, including or perhaps particularly foreign charity workers as the clear intention is to let the Palestinians starve to death. Kirby also repeated the lie that the murders by Israel were “not deliberate” and insisted there would be no cutting back on aid to Israel in spite of the mishap, observing that the US would continue to support the Israel military as it has since Hamas “started the war” through its attacks last October. “They’re still under a viable threat of Hamas. We’re still going to make sure they can defend themselves and the 7th of October doesn’t happen again.” Admiral John stopped just short of “let’s kill them all so they will never do anything naughty again”, but fortunately there are some Republicans standing around willing to take up John’s call to arms more literally.
I have noted previously that it is the Republicans who are seeking to become Israel’s new best friends largely in hopes of diverting their way the many millions of dollars that Jewish donors will likely be spending on the upcoming national elections. Leading Jewish groups headed by no less than the formidable and untouchable American Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC) are already well advanced on raising hundreds of millions of dollars as a war chest to defeat any and all congressional candidates who are soft or critical on the issue of Israel. In the 2020 congressional election AIPAC boasted how it had endorsed and supported through its Super PAC 198 House and Senate candidates, including 131 incumbents, all of whom won reelection.
Republican Congressman Tim Walberg of Michigan takes the prize for echoing the calls being made by some Israeli politicians to use nuclear weapons on the Palestinians, though he is now claiming that that was not his intent. He said “I don’t think any of our aid that goes to Israel to support our greatest ally, arguably maybe in the world, to defeat Hamas and Iran and Russia, and probably North Korea’s in there, and China, too, with them helping Hamas — we shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid. It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick. The same should be in Ukraine. Defeat Putin quick.” First of all, anyone who calls Israel “our greatest ally” is an idiot since it is actually our greatest liability, unless Walberg is referring to the apparent mutually supportive relationship to carry out the genocide of entire nations that we dislike. One has to wonder who the Democrats put up to run against someone like Walberg who apparently does not have two brain cells to rub together.
Another Republican Congressman Representative Andy Ogles of Tennessee has put it more bluntly by calling on Israel to “… kill them all… Everybody in Hamas,” while others including Donald Trump have urged the Israeli government to “finish the job.” And then there is GOP Senator Rick Scott of Florida who said on Sunday that it is imperative that Israel goes into Rafah to “destroy” the Palestinian militant group Hamas. “Number one, [Israel] needs American support; they have to go into Rafah to destroy Hamas,” Scott said during a completely predictable interview on “Fox News Sunday.” Scott, who is being spoken of as a possible GOP vice presidential candidate, has just returned from a trip to Israel, where he met with Israeli Netanyahu and assured him of unlimited US support in his war to get rid of the 1.5 million or so pesky Palestinians starving and awaiting their fate in Gaza.
But my prize for Congress’s ugliest critter in the metaphorical sense has to go to Brian Mast of Florida who recently appeared in the Congressional Office Buildings wearing his Israeli army uniform. He represents a heavily Jewish district in Florida – whose governor Ron DeSantis has boasted to be the most pro-Israel state in the US. He explained his gesture on Twitter, writing that “As the only member to serve with both the United States Army and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), I will always stand with Israel.” Interestingly, one might interpret “always stand with Israel” as including when it is contrary to US interests. Mast reportedly served in the US Army in Afghanistan and then did a tour as a volunteer with the IDF. He is believed to be a Christian Zionist and some have wondered how he got a security clearance, but hey when something like 70% of the top-level folks in the Biden Cabinet are Jewish and many are suspected of having dual loyalty or perhaps singular loyalty to Israel, who’s asking?
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.
Deploying spies on campus in the US: The ‘Israel on Campus Coalition’
By David Miller | Al Mayadeen | April 4, 2024
Listen to Nancy Pelosi at the end of January this year: “What we have to do is to try and stop the suffering in Gaza. This is about women and children, people who don’t have a place to go. So let’s address that. But for them to call for a ceasefire is Mr Putin’s message… Make no mistake. This is directly connected to what he would like to see.”
“I think some of these protestors are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some, I think, are connected to Russia and I say that having looked at this for a long time.”
What is going on here? These are Zionist talking points. As the Palestinians say – every Zionist accusation is a confession. In reality, the only entity with really significant spy networks in the US is the Zionist entity.
The FBI and the CIA know this, but they are either unwilling or unable to investigate Israeli espionage networks operating freely in universities, businesses, and government facilities across the United States.
One well-known spy network is the Anti-Defamation League. Created in 1913, it has been spying on Arab Americans since before the creation of the Zionist entity. Throughout this period, the ADL has also closely collaborated with the FBI. Today, the ADL is doing more than attempting to repress free speech on Palestine; it is attempting to have ordinary pro-Palestine activism declared to be “terrorism”.
What they are trying to do is to use a vaguely worded law, which they lobbied for, to entrap Palestine solidarity activism as falling under a legal definition of material support for “terrorism”.
In late October, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and another Zionist group published an open letter urging universities to investigate Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) under the material support statute introduced in 1996.
In addition to accusing SJP of supporting Hamas, they were also, the ADL claimed, “voicing an increasingly radical call for confronting and ‘dismantling’ Zionism on U.S. college campuses.”
Material support for “terrorism” can include giving advice or other speech so long as it is at the behest or in coordination with the “terrorist” group.
But there is also an attempt by the ADL and its allies to claim that routine pro-Palestine activism should be legally understood as support for “terrorism”. They are working to blur the line between independent advocacy, which is allowed, and coordination, which could be terrorism.
It is of little comfort that there is no public evidence any SJP student members coordinated with Hamas or any other armed group. The case law construing the material support statute’s punishment of advocacy is so underdeveloped that there is considerable room for investigative overreach by the FBI.
The line between independent advocacy and material support as speech in coordination with a listed “terrorist” group “remains unelaborated”.
Of course, the ADL is one of the few non-government groups that trains federal law enforcement on counterterrorism. It can use the gap to advance its overreaching conception of the material support statute.
To fight back, all campus groups and university management need to declare that no independent campus speech, no matter how incendiary, serves as a legitimate basis for a material support investigation.
Another group, the Israel on Campus Coalition has been spying on pro-Palestine students for years.
It is linked to Israeli intelligence and strategically targets individual students or faculty on campus in order the “crush” the movement.
ICC was created by Hillel International and the Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation in 2002 to promote “Israel” advocacy on campus.
The money came from the business Charles who at that stage had a “major interest in Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank, and has extensive interests in oil, real estate, banking and shipping in the US.”
Today, Hillel and the ICC maintain close organizational ties. The ICC continues to provide Hillel professionals with “Israel” advocacy training and support.
Hillel has taken on a more extreme form of Zionism in recent years, sparking a rebellion by some student members who are critical of some aspects of Zionism.
They called their challenge Open Hillel, which says it “promotes pluralism and open discourse on Israel-Palestine in Jewish communities on campus and beyond. We aim to eliminate Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership for Israel Activities, which exclude individuals and groups from the Jewish community on campus on the basis of their views on Israel.” But even calling for a debate on Zionism was too much for the ICC, which engaged in spying on the Jewish student group.
The spy operation is closely co-ordinated with the Zionist regime as was revealed by The Lobby USA.
Here is Lila Greenberg, formerly of AIPAC:
“The ICC pools resources from all of the campus organizations. So that they’re tapped in on all angles.”
According to Jacob Baime, currently the ICC’s chief executive officer, “We built up this massive national political campaign to crush [pro-Palestine activism].”
“It’s modeled on General Stanley McCrystal’s counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq. We’ve copied a lot from that strategy … And one of the pieces was this Operations and Intelligence Brief.”
This is then passed on to the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs.
Baime confirmed that ICC “coordinates with” and “communicates with” the Ministry.
Once collected, data from the ICC’s web of campus spies and high-tech Israeli surveillance equipment then flow to the Anti-Defamation League.
The ADL, is in itself closely in touch with Zionist intelligence agencies but also uses the data to weaponize anti-Semitism in its reports on BDS and Palestine activism.
Among its other activities, the ICC offered to pay any pro-“Israel” student $250 to attend the sparsely attended damp squib of the March for Israel in November 2023 in Washington DC.
Make no mistake, the Zionist regime has agents on campus all over the United States. Everyone must be removed.
UNSC Ceasefire Resolution 2728 is in Place – Where is its Implementation?
By Hamzah Rifaat | Al Mayadeen | April 4, 2024
Despite the passage of UNSC Resolution 2728 calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, “Israel’s” fascist war machinery continues to wreak havoc on Palestinians through the weaponization of starvation, bombardment of hospitals, killing of aid workers, and arresting worshippers in the holy month of Ramadan at the Al Aqsa Mosque. The far-right, irredentist Netanyahu regime is adamant that ethnic cleansing of Palestinians should continue unabated which explains “Israel” brazenly ignoring the resolution and its central tenets. The question then, arises – how impactful would Resolution 2728 be in terms of yielding tangible results? Can such measures hold a genocidal regime to account?
There is reason for pessimism. Whether it is the International Court of Justice ruling or international pressure on Netanyahu to rescind his regime’s senseless killing spree, “Israel” has conveniently rebuffed any prospect of an end to hostilities that is solely perpetrated by its occupation forces against a battered population. It is hence, worthwhile to examine whether the implications of resolution 2728 would be any different and whether its violation could result in action. The resolution makes three demands – One, an immediate ceasefire in the month of Ramadan respected by all parties leading to a lasting, sustainable ceasefire. Two- the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; Three- urgently expanding the flow of humanitarian assistance to reinforce the protection of the civilians in the Gaza strip. Tabled by ten non-permanent members of the UNSC and passed unanimously by 14-0 with the United States abstaining, its impact so far has been limited.
None of the three conditions have been met by “Israel”. Bombardments and massacres continue in the holy month of Ramadan, while aid workers are targeted and a hostage deal remains elusive due to hubris from the Netanyahu regime. While it is true that the resolution was passed due to the United States abstaining, and it is considered binding despite American claims to the contrary, it has not resulted in “Israel” mitigating violence or creating the necessary conditions for a ceasefire to take place. For example, Netanyahu has been categorical in stating that the calls for a ceasefire are not contingent on the release of hostages, despite the resolution stating the contrary. Further rebuttals came from US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller, who referred to it as ‘non-binding’ and clarified that it does not impose obligatory sanctions and actual requirements on people.
The American and Israeli claims lack credibility but also point at how the resolution may not alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians. According to the President of the Center for International Policy in the United States, Nancy Okail, the resolution is more symbolic rather than substantial in its ability to end the war. Okail’s claims come despite the fact that the UNSC resolutions are considered binding as previously emphasized by Chinese Ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, and Deputy UN Spokesperson Farhan Haq. Such academic and scholarly skepticism of the resolution’s potential impact however exists despite the fact that Israeli violations can result in a follow-up resolution from the council which addresses the breach and calls for punitive action in the form of sanctions and the authorization of international intervention.
Here lies the catch, however. A punitive resolution imposing sanctions on “Israel” will not be supported by the Biden administration, rendering the prospect of accountability for genocide elusive. Realpolitik sets in, despite institutions seeking to abide by norms, customs and values enshrined in international law. Such realpolitik allows “Israel” to continue with the status quo given American support which has remained unwavering and ironclad despite recently abstaining from the UNSC vote. “Israel” has also previously gotten away with flouting UN resolutions in the past which includes the UNSC calling Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands illegal, (which was passed with 14 votes and the United States abstaining) and in 2023, when the UNGA passed a non-binding resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire which “Israel” also ignored.
What UN resolutions need to address is the genesis of the issue which is the nature of the Israeli state and its expansionist agenda. There is no letup in settlements on occupied land for example with new plans afoot in the West Bank. There are also calls and actions aimed at eliminationism by far-right demagogues ranging from Bezalel Smotrich to Itamar Ben Gvir. There is also no let up in arms supplies from the United States to “Israel” which is providing ammunition to the genocidal regime amid resisting calls of international accountability. All this comes with a failure to address forced displacement, sexual assault, apartheid and evictions that Palestinians face on a daily basis.
While the UNSC resolution 2728 is a promising development, its implementation will be stymied by Israeli adamancy in maintaining the status quo, unwavering American support, and the genocidal nature of the Netanyahu regime.
US says Palestinian statehood should be done through direct negotiations not UN venue
Press TV – April 4, 2024
After vowing to block a push by Palestine to become a full member of the United Nations, the United States says the world body is not an appropriate venue to negotiate Palestinian statehood.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday that although Washington does “support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state”, the venue through which the Palestinian statehood should be discussed would not be the UN.
“That is something that should be done through direct negotiations through the parties, something we are pursuing at this time, and not at the United Nations,” he stressed.
Miller, however, did not explicitly say that Washington would veto such a bid if it reaches the UN Security Council.
He also said that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had so far tried his best to help establish what he called “security guarantees” for the Israeli regime as part of the groundwork for a Palestinian state.
Miller’s comments came just a day after Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, vowed to block a new attempt by the Palestinians for full membership in the UN.
Supporters of the Palestinians’ request for full membership in the United Nations asked the UN Security Council on Tuesday to revive their application for admission submitted in 2011.
The fresh bid, addressed to the UNSC president, included the names of 140 countries that have recognized a Palestinian state, including members of the 22-nation Arab League, the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the 120-member Nonaligned Movement.
“Our position has not changed,” Wood stressed, reiterating Washington’s stance which claims that a full UN membership for Palestine should follow a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians.
Back in September 2011, President Mahmoud Abbas failed in his attempt to make Palestine the 194th member of the UN as he could not get the required support of nine of the UNSC’s 15 members.
Even if he had managed to get the required support at the time, the US had promised to veto any UNSC resolution endorsing Palestinian membership.
However, Palestinians succeeded by more than a two-thirds majority in having their status raised from a UN observer to a non-member observer state in November 2012.
Under longstanding legislation by Congress, the US is required to sever financial support for UN agencies that give full membership to a Palestinian state.
Wood stressed that once the UN agrees to make Palestine its new member, “funding would be cut off to the UN system, so we’re bound by US law.”
“Our hope is that they don’t pursue that, but that’s up to them,” he added.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has for decades opposed the Palestinian statehood.
US, UK Did Not Discuss Russian UNSC Statement on Attack on Iranian Consulate – Envoy
Sputnik – 03.04.2024
UNITED NATIONS – The United States and the United Kingdom refused to discuss a draft statement of the UN Security Council proposed by Russia on Israel’s attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Russian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said on Wednesday.
“Following the results of the Security Council meeting on April 2 on the Israeli attack on the consular department of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, Russia prepared a draft Security Council Statement for the press with a standard text for such cases. However, the United States and Great Britain did not even want to discuss it, citing the fact that during the meeting there was no unity in assessments of what happened,” Polyansky wrote on his Telegram page.
He recalled that at that time only these two delegations, together with the French, did not condemn this obvious violation of international law, “but engaged in a verbal balancing act, from which it could be concluded that Iran itself is to blame for everything.”
“This is the best illustration of the double standards of the Western “troika” and it’s real, and not declarative, attitude towards law and order in the international context,” the diplomat emphasized.
Sy Hersh: US Warning of Terrorist Attack in Russia Had ‘Urgent’ Mark, Didn’t Mention Crocus
Sputnik – 03.04.2024
WASHINGTON – The US warning about an imminent terrorist attack at a concert venue in Russia was marked “urgent,” but contrary to media reports did not identify Crocus City Hall as the target, Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in his new article, citing a US official familiar with the matter.
The CIA allegedly provided the warning to Russian intelligence before the concert at the Crocus City Hall marking it “urgent,” meaning that the data in it “was credible and near term,” Hersh quoted the official as saying.
“The highly secret report on the attack in Moscow was prepared by the Counterterrorism Center at CIA headquarters and delivered to the terrorism division of the Russian Federal Security Service located in the old KGB building in Moscow. Separate briefings were presented in person by the FBI officer at the embassy. This is an established relationship,” the official said.
The warning, however, did not mention Crocus City Hall near Moscow and only said that an attack was being planned at some “public gathering,” according to the official.
The information provided by the official is contrary to a Washington Post report published on Tuesday claiming that Crocus City Hall was specifically identified in the warning as the target of a terrorist attack.
On March 22, several armed men broke into Crocus City Hall, a major concert venue just outside Moscow, and started shooting at people. They also started a fire in one of the auditoriums, which was full of people ahead of a concert. The attack left 695 casualties, including 144 dead, according to the latest data from the Russian Emergencies Ministry.
The four main suspects in the case — all of them citizens of Tajikistan — tried to flee the scene in a car but were detained and charged with terrorism. Russian authorities believe the perpetrators planned to flee to Ukraine, where a safe haven had been arranged for them. An investigation is underway.
Later in March, The New York Times reported, citing European and US security officials, that the US intelligence agencies did not provide the Russian side with all the information they had about the threat of a terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall in the Moscow Region out of fear that Russian authorities might learn about their intelligence sources or methods of work.
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov also said that the information transmitted by the United States on the preparation of a terrorist attack was of a general nature, and the Russian special services responded to it.
75th Anniversary: NATO Exists to Respond to Conflicts It Caused
NATO military exercise ‘Iron Wolf 2022-II’ at a training range in Pabrade, north of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania.
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 04.04.2024
Over the last 30 years, NATO has lost its veneer of a “defensive” alliance, turning into an overtly expansionist and interventionist military bloc, Sputnik’s interlocutors say.
Exactly 75 years ago, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was founded by the US, Canada, and several Western European nations, with the main aim of deterring and confronting the USSR, their former Second World War ally.
After the Soviet Union’s collapse in December 1991, the conditions for a new inclusive security architecture in Europe and beyond emerged, according to Glenn Diesen, professor of international relations at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
“After the Cold War, we developed the format for a new inclusive security system,” Diesen told Sputnik. “The Charter of Paris for a New Europe in 1990 and the establishment of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 1994 were both based on the [1975] Helsinki Accords, and embraced the principles of sovereign equality, indivisible security, and ending the dividing lines in Europe.”
The Helsinki Accords, signed during the Cold War by the US, Soviet Union, and several European countries, led to greater cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe. Even though the agreements weren’t binding, they significantly contributed to the détente between the East and West.
Instead of building on that momentum, the US saw the end of the Cold War as the beginning of its unipolar moment, according to the professor: in 1992, George H.W. Bush proudly declared that the US had “won” the Cold War during his State of the Union address.
“The US also developed a security strategy based on hegemony, which required expanding NATO and thus cancelling the pan-European security architecture,” Diesen said. “NATO therefore transitioned from a status quo power to a revisionist power. NATO required a new purpose, which became ‘out-of-area’ military interventionism and expansionism.”
Overtly Aggressive Military Bloc
The next 30 years saw a string of NATO overseas military campaigns, neither of which has seen a comprehensive resolution, resulting in the creation of hotbeds of instability instead.
“During the 1990s, NATO turned from a conceptually defensive organization into an openly aggressive organization when it entered the Yugoslav wars and waged a massive bombing campaign there,” Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations and Russian affairs analyst, told Sputnik.
“More generally, the United States was at this time preparing NATO to move out of its core geography in Europe and to assist US plans for global domination in the Middle East in the succession of regime change operations and open invasions that the United States planned and led.”
Doctorow highlighted that these “out-of-region NATO operations were one disaster after another, ending in the withdrawal from Afghanistan after participation in a 20-year-long war directed by Washington.”
NATO’s Expansionism Led to Ukraine Conflict
Meanwhile, the alliance’s seven waves of post-Cold War eastward expansion accelerated tensions in Europe, according to Diesen.
“Reviving the bloc approach to security and competing over where to draw the new dividing lines has been the primary source of conflicts in Europe for the past three decades and eventually resulted in the Ukraine war,” Diesen said.
The academic pointed out that “by going along with NATO expansionism, the Europeans allowed their continent to be re-divided and remilitarized, which has predictably doomed Europe to greater irrelevance.” He projected that Europe “will undergo systemic economic decline and become painfully subordinated to the US.”
“We could exit this tragedy by reaching out to Russia to negotiate a new inclusive European security architecture devoted to reducing security competition instead of imposing hegemony,” the professor emphasized.
Is NATO Sustainable?
“NATO exists to respond to the conflicts caused by its own existence,” Diesen explained. “The problem now is that NATO is returning to great power conflicts with the same disastrous approach to security, based on hegemony rather than mitigating security competition.”
Despite the Western mainstream media claims that the North Atlantic Alliance is united like never before amid the Ukrainian conflict, it is in fact not true, according to the professor.
“There are great tensions within NATO that simmer below the surface, and I do not think the hatred of Russia is enough to ensure unity after the war is over,” he said.
“NATO victory in Ukraine is imperative as it had the stated objective of permanently weakening Russia and thus knocking it out from the ranks of great powers. This would revive the unipolar moment and collective hegemony of the West. Once NATO’s defeat is evident the cracks will emerge in the military bloc,” Diesen pointed out.
Doctorow believes that despite all its declared, might the North Atlantic Alliance is on thin ice.
“NATO is in treading water, waiting for the tsunami that will send it to the bottom. That tsunami will either take the shape of a [US presidential candidate Donald] Trump victory in November or it will take the shape of an imminent collapse of the Ukrainian army or both phenomena simultaneously,” the international relations analyst concluded.
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Book Review
Shattered Dreams: The HPV Vaccine Exposed (2019)
By Christina England – 30 Q&As – Book Review & Summary
Lies are Unbekoming | September 4, 2026
… Gardasil received FDA fast-track approval in 2006, Cervarix followed in 2009, and Gardasil 9 was approved in December 2014 with more than double the aluminium adjuvant content of the original. The commercial context is specific. Merck was about to lose patent protection on Zocor and faced $18 billion in Vioxx injury claims from a cardiovascular drug the company had marketed while suppressing its own data showing a five-times increase in heart attacks. Analysts projected the global HPV vaccine market at $4 billion by 2011, contingent on government-funded national programs for teenage girls. The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act had already granted manufacturers complete liability immunity. By 2013, Japan had withdrawn its HPV vaccine recommendation after cataloguing severe adverse reactions in hundreds of girls. No Western government followed. The establishment position across the UK, US, Australia, and most of Europe held, and still holds, that the vaccines are safe and effective, that reported injuries are coincidental, and that cervical cancer prevention justifies the program. The book was published into this position, not against a vacuum.
Shattered Dreams sits alongside Mary Holland’s The HPV Vaccine On Trial and Viera Scheibner’s foundational vaccination work as part of the documented record on what has been done to a generation of teenage girls under the banner of cancer prevention. The full summary unpacks three specific findings: that Merck used the aluminium adjuvant itself as the “placebo” control in 92.5% of trial subjects, making it structurally impossible to detect excess reactions from the adjuvant; that Dr. Sin Hang Lee found HPV DNA fragments bound to aluminium in every one of sixteen Gardasil samples tested, and in the blood and spleen of a New Zealand girl six months after her third dose; and that in every country with high vaccination coverage, including Australia, the UK, Norway, and Sweden, cervical cancer rates have stopped declining and started rising specifically in the vaccinated cohort. Martínez-Lavín’s 2017 calculation puts the number needed to seriously harm with Gardasil 9 at 140, and the number needed to vaccinate to prevent one case at 1,757. Thirteen young women are seriously harmed for every one who benefits. The vaccine was approved on the basis of trials that could not detect what the trials were supposed to detect, and it is still being given to twelve-year-olds today. … Read full review
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