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Israeli war on Gaza was a high-risk gamble that proved a failure: Analyst

By Alireza Hashemi | Press TV | January 16, 2024

The Israeli genocidal war on Gaza was a high-risk gamble that eventually proved a failure, and the rising direct and indirect costs of the war make it difficult for the regime to sustain it, says an analyst.

Mohammad Sadeq Koushki, a Tehran-based political and foreign affairs commentator, in a conversation with the Press TV website, said the Israeli regime has encountered staggering losses with its onslaught on Gaza, which makes it hard for Israeli officials to keep fanning its flames.

“This war is unequal in many aspects. The biggest difference is that the Palestinian side has nothing to lose, and nowhere to go. They have no option but to defend themselves and to continue the war for as long as it takes,” he said, referring to the Palestinian resistance’s upper hand over the occupation.

“But on the other hand, the Zionists have a lot to lose. Those still living in the Israeli-occupied territories went there in the hope that they would have a better life there. Now that doesn’t exist and people are losing their motivation to remain in the occupied lands and have decided to leave.”

Koushki said the indirect costs of the war are also taking a heavy toll on the regime’s economy.

“It’s not just ordinary people leaving. Investors are also leaving. The skilled workforce who went there from Europe and the US are also leaving. Tourists are also afraid of visiting the region,” he noted.

“Reservists, who were summoned by the regime, have also left their jobs. For the first time, a huge population has been displaced, and the regime has to pay for their living expenses.”

Staggering cost of war

He said the Benjamin Netanyahu-led regime has been spending 200 to 250 million dollars per day on the war while continuing to lose their troops and tanks and military vehicles.

“It was a high-risk gamble from the beginning and it has failed. It’s the Zionist settlers who have to pay for this failure. Netanyahu is doing this at their expense. And the costs are rising fast,” Koushki said.

This week, the genocidal war launched by the Israeli regime on Gaza on October 7 completed 100 days, leaving almost 24,000 Palestinians dead, the majority of them children and women.

Despite the high casualty toll in Gaza, the Palestinian resistance groups backed by the people of Palestine have refused to retreat or surrender, or even leave the besieged territory.

According to political pundits, the regime failed to achieve any of its stated objectives of the war.

Of late, the Israeli military claimed that it has shifted to “a new phase” of the war, which it says is focused on the southern part of the blockaded territory.

There have also been reports of Israeli military regiments abandoning northern Gaza without managing to eliminate the Hamas resistance group or destroy its infrastructure.

Israel can’t crush resistance

Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected international calls for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, vowing that “no one will stop us” from eliminating the Hamas movement.

Israeli officials say the regime will keep going for months or even years until it achieves its stated goals.

Koushki said Hamas is a manifestation of Palestinian resistance and Israel has never been able to eliminate this resistance throughout the past 75 years of its occupation.

“Hamas is nothing to be destroyed. From the 1990s onwards, hundreds of Hamas commanders were assassinated. The most important leaders. What happened to Hamas,” he asked.

“Even if Israel gets all of Hamas members in Palestine and executes every single one of them, the next generation of Palestinians will be the new Hamas. They can’t eliminate the resistance.”

On calls by various Israeli regime officials for Gazans to be “encouraged” to leave the region, Koushki asserted that Israel’s forced displacement plan is not feasible.

‘Zionists feel cornered’

On recent Israeli attacks inside Syria and Lebanon, which led to the martyrdom of several commanders of the resistance front, including Iran’s Sayyed Razi Mousavi, Koushki said it won’t help the regime.

“Even if Israelis attack Syria or Lebanon 10 times a day, or assassinate five resistance commanders each day, it doesn’t change anything on the ground in Gaza and doesn’t make up for Israel’s huge losses.”

When asked about the effectiveness of attacks by Lebanese, Iraqi, and Yemeni resistance groups against Israeli interests, Koushki highlighted the significant psychological impact of these strikes.

“Those living in the occupied territories feel they’re cornered and this places a huge pressure on them. They feel they’re being attacked from all directions. This is the first time that all occupied territories are insecure. From Eilat in the south to Galilee in the north to even central regions. People feel they don’t belong to this region,” the Iranian analyst told the Press TV website.

Asked whether the US and its allies can deter further anti-Israel operations by the Yemeni military, the analyst said the recent attacks on Yemen have not degraded their capability to attack Israel.

“The point is that Yemenis have imposed a semi-blockade on Israel. Did these attacks stop Yemen from targeting Israel-linked ships? Yemenis have conducted attacks against those ships even after the recent US-UK attacks. So they couldn’t stop Yemen and it’s very hard to believe they can do that shortly.”

South Africa’s genocide case

On South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, he said the regime is unlikely to abide by any ICJ verdict but it would significantly boost the pro-Palestine movement worldwide.

“Israel defied numerous UN resolutions and disregarded the 2004 ICJ ruling on the separation wall. This genocide case would be no exception. But Israel’s flouting of laws will only solidify its status as a pariah in the eyes of its backers in the West and further mobilize global public opinion against the regime.”

January 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

How far will complicity reach in Israel’s genocidal offensive in Gaza?

By Ramona Wadi | MEMO | January 16, 2024

If we were to listen to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the definition of genocide would be altered, because Israel’s definition of its genocidal intent and actions were summed up by him as “a moral and just war” waged by the settler-colonial enterprise and the Israeli military. “This international defamation campaign will not weaken our hands or weaken our determination to fight to the end,” Netanyahu asserted. Until what end? The complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza?

At the International Court of Justice (ICJ) last week, Israel played its fabricated security narrative to the full, and unsurprisingly blamed Hamas for the thousands of Palestinians injured and killed by Israeli air strikes. The apartheid state also played the humanitarian card, despite starvation being one of the tactics used to annihilate the Palestinian population. Humanitarian corridors have been bombed, food aid has been prevented from entering Gaza and, on occasions where delivery was possible, the provisions were meagre in comparison with the scale of deprivation as a result of Israel’s dealing of death and destruction. Not to mention Israeli soldiers firing upon Palestinian civilians as they crowded around to get aid. Or children collecting flour that had been spilled on the ground. Genocide is not a fabrication — or a “defamation campaign” as Netanyahu would have us believe – and Israel, of course, has perfected its methods.

However, not even Israel believes its own lies, let alone the rest of the international community.

Alliances and complicity are what Israel relies on, though. It is allowed to retain control over its security narrative because ties run deep and dependence upon Israel’s military technology is the major weakness of too many governments. So much so, in fact, that the Jerusalem Post is marketing Israel’s weaponry which it has used in Gaza. As if to inaugurate the “100 days of the Israel-Hamas war” – Israel’s euphemism for genocide – a recent article lists Israel’s new weaponry and medical supplies for the military. With emphasis on precision targeting and mortars with “improved accuracy… for use against terrorists in crowded areas”, perhaps Israel can explain why precision targeting increases the death toll of Palestinian civilians, unless Israel is precisely targeting civilians. This is beside Israel’s assertion that it also used unguided bombs, “the goal being more attacks in fewer flights”. The Jerusalem Post notes that, “Israel is the first country to use them in operational activity.” Whatever Israel uses, precision strikes or unguided bombs, civilians have been targeted in a strip of land in which nowhere is safe and the only way out is forced transfer, a preference which Israeli leaders only stopped touting as the ICJ hearing loomed closer.

There is no defamation campaign against Israel. The settler-colonial state has boasted of its intent to annihilate Palestinians in Gaza and carried out genocidal actions that prove the intent. What is more, it has already boasted of its own impunity at the ICJ when it stated that a court order granting the requested provisional measures to stop the genocide would “ensure that Israel will be in breach of it as soon as it is made.” The underlying tone is that Israel will not be stopped from committing genocide because Israel deems itself above international laws and conventions. If the international community fails to stop this rogue state, a new level will be ushered in with regard to impunity and complicity in genocide.

January 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Bypassing the UK parliament; the royal prerogative; and bombing Yemen

By Binoy Kampmark | MEMO | January 16, 2024

There is something distinctly revolting and authoritarian about the royal prerogative. It reeks of clandestine assumption, unwarranted self-confidence and, most of all, a blithe indifference to accountability before elected representatives. That prerogative, in other words, is the last reminder of divine right, the fiction that a ruler can have powers vested by an unsubstantiated deity, the invisible God, and a punishing force beyond the reach of human control. And that such powers can in turn be vested in the government of the day. It is anathema to democracy, a stain on republican models of government, a joke on any political system that has some claim on representing what might be called the broader citizenry.

The UK government, in league with the US and with support from a number of other countries, attacked Houthi positions in Yemen on 11 January. The decision was made without recourse to parliament and was justified by reference to Article 51 of the UN Charter as “limited, necessary and proportionate in self-defence”.

In his statement on the attacks, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pointed to the Houthi’s role in staging “a series of dangerous and destabilising attacks against commercial shipping in the Red Sea, threatening UK and other international ships, causing major disruption to a vital trade route and driving up commodity prices.” He made no mention of the Houthis’ own justification for the attacks as necessary measures to disrupt Israeli shipping and interests in response to their systematic, bloodcurdling razing of the Gaza Strip.

Lip service has been paid by the executive within Westminster to parliament’s importance in deciding whether the country commits to military action or not.

The stark problem is that the action is always decided upon in advance, and no dissent among parliamentarians will necessarily sway the issue. Motions can be proposed and rejected but remain non-binding on the executive emboldened by the royal prerogative.

The British decision to commit to the egregious invasion of Iraq in 2003 was already a foregone conclusion, despite preliminary debates in the House of Commons and huge public protests against the measure. On 18 March, 2011, the then British Prime Minister David Cameron informed the Commons of his intention to attack Libya, leading to a government motion on 21 March that the chamber “supports Her Majesty’s Government… in the taking of all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-protected measures.”

That same year, the then Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in the UK acknowledged that a convention had crystallised in parliament that the House of Commons should be availed of “an opportunity to debate the matter [of committing troops] and said that it proposed to observe that convention except when there was an emergency and such action would not be appropriate.”

The broadly worded nature of the caveats – in cases of emergency or when it would not be appropriate – have made something of a nonsense of the convention. In April 2016, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made much of the “exception”, arguing that it was “important to ensure that this and future Governments can use their judgment about how best to protect the security and interests of the UK.”

Parliament, in short, should be put in its place when necessary. Governments, it is reasoned, know best when it comes to matters of national security; parliamentarians less so. “In observing the Convention,” Fallon goes on to explain, “we must ensure that the ability of our Armed Forces is to act quickly and decisively, and to maintain the security of their operations, is not compromised.” In such cases, matters could be dealt with retrospectively, with the government of the day subsequently informing parliament after the fact.

An example of this absurd policy was played out in the decision by the UK government in April 2018 to target the Assad regime’s chemical weapons facilities in Syria. Hiding behind the weasel claim of humanitarianism, the explanation for avoiding parliament was shoddy and leaden. “It was necessary,” came the explanation from the PM’s office, “to strike with speed so we could allow our Armed Forces to act decisively, maintain the vital security of their operations, and protect the security and interests of the UK.”

The Yemen strikes eschew humanitarianism (the humanitarian justifications advanced by the Houthis in protecting Palestinian civilians has been rejected), but, in any case, shipping interests take priority. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey, apparently, was satisfied that an exception to the convention to consult parliament had presented itself. “The prime minister,” the minister parroted, “needs to make decisions such as these based on the military, strategic and operational requirements. That led to the timing.”

With the horse having bolted merrily out of the stable, Heappey remarked with all due condescension that parliament would, in time, be able to respond to the decision to strike Yemen. An “opportunity” would be made available “when parliament returns for these things to be fully discussed and debated.” The sheer redundancy of parliament’s role in matters of state, and that of MPs, could thereby be affirmed.

Much agitated by this state of affairs, former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell opined that no military action should take place without parliament’s approval. “If we have learnt anything in recent years it’s that military intervention in the Middle East always has dangerous and often unforeseen consequences,” said McDonnell. “There is a risk of setting the region alight.”

Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesperson Layla Moran was of the view that parliament should not be bypassed in matters of war, yet opted for the rather fatuous formula arising out of the 2011 convention. “Rishi Sunak must announce a retrospective vote in the House of Commons on these strikes, and recall parliament this weekend,” she said.

The use of the royal prerogative in authorising military action remains one of those British perversions that makes for good common room conversation but offends the sensibilities of the democratically minded elector. A far better practice would be to make the PM of the day accountable to that most essential body of all: parliament. That same principle would be extended to other constitutional monarchies, which are similarly weighed down by the all too liberal use of the prerogative when shedding blood. If a country’s citizens are to go to war to kill and be killed, surely their elected representatives should have a say in that most vital of decisions?

January 16, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reviving ISIS: A US weapon against the Resistance Axis

The Cradle | January 16, 2024

Iraqi security sources are warning of an ISIS revival in the country, which coincides all too neatly with the spike in Iraqi resistance operations against US bases in Iraq and Syria, and with widening regional instability caused by Israel’s military assault on Gaza.

More than six years after declaring victory over the terrorist organization, Iraqi intelligence reports now indicate that thousands of ISIS fighters are emerging unscathed, under the protection of US forces in two regions of western Iraq.

The missing piece of the puzzle

According to intelligence reports reviewed by The Cradle, at its height, ISIS consisted of more than 35,000 fighters in Iraq – 25,000 of these were killed, while more than 10,000 simply “disappeared.

As an officer of one Iraqi intelligence agency recounts to The Cradle :

“Hundreds of ISIS fighters fled to Turkey and Syria at the end of 2017. After the appointment of Abdullah Qardash as the leader of ISIS in 2019, following the death of Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the new Caliph began to restructure the organization, and ordered his followers to return to Iraq. The organization exploited the long border with Syria, the security disturbances, and the diversity of forces on both sides of the border to infiltrate the Iraqi territory again.”

Imprisoned ISIS officials admit that infiltrating that border is not an easy task, because of the strict control imposed by the Iraqi Border Guards and the use of modern technologies, such as thermal cameras.

It therefore became necessary for the terror group to identify intermediaries capable of breaking through or bypassing these fortifications to transport its fighters across borders

An Iraqi security source, insisting on anonymity, tells The Cradle that the US plays a vital role in enabling these border violations:

“[There are] several incidents that confirm the American assistance in securing the crossing route for ISIS members – mainly, by shelling Iraqi units on the border, especially the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs), to create gaps that allow ISIS fighters to cross the border.”

The Iraqi security source adds that there are confirmed reports of US Chinook helicopters transporting fighters from eastern Syria to the Anbar desert in western Iraq and Jebel Hamreen, in the country’s east.

Munir Adib, a researcher specializing in Islamist movements, extremist organizations, and international terrorism, confirms the possibility of the return of ISIS after the organization’s “dozens of attacks in Syria and Iraq in the past few weeks,” which led to the death of tens of civilians and soldiers.

According to Adib, “the international community’s preoccupation with the Gaza and Russia-Ukraine wars gave ISIS an opportunity to reorganize its ranks, while continuing to receive internal and external logistical support.”

Manufacturing and harboring terrorism

Houran Valley is the largest of its kind in Iraq, extending 369 kilometers from the Iraqi-Saudi border to the Euphrates River near the city of Haditha in Anbar Governorate. Its topography is marked by soaring cliffs ranging in height between 150 to 200 meters, and includes the hills surrounding the valley and the sub-valleys that extend into its surroundings.

The valley was and still is one of the most dangerous security environments in the state. Terrorist groups use it as a safe haven because of its desert terrain, and distance from congested urban areas. The valley and its environs have witnessed numerous security incidents, most notably in December 2013, when ISIS killed the commander of the Iraqi army’s Seventh Division, his assistant, the director of intelligence in Anbar Governorate, eight officers, and thirteen soldiers.

Iraqi MP Hassan Salem has called for launching a military operation to clear Houran Valley of terrorist fighters. He confirmed to The Cradle that “there are thousands of ISIS members in the valley receiving training in private camps, under American protection,” noting that US forces have “transferred to this area hundreds of ISIS members of different nationalities.”

US foreign policy, of course, is rife with historical evidence of the creation of proxy armed militias in West Asia and Latin America, often utilizing these organizations to overthrow governments in target countries. We know Washington has no aversion to allying with Islamist extremists largely because of its direct involvement with arming and financing the Afghan Mujahideen, from which the Taliban and Al Qaeda emerged.

An early US-ISIS connection exists quite clearly: the terrorist group’s founding and second rank leaders were among the inmates of Camp Bucca prison in southern Iraq, an internment facility run by the US military. The roster of high-value terrorists captured, then set free by the Americans is quite extraordinary: ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, his successor Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, Abu Muslim al-Turkmani, Haji Bakr, Abu Abdulrahman al-Bilawi, Abu Ayman al-Iraqi, among others.

Camp Bucca, known for abuses against its detainees, brought together extremist elements, slow-boiled this combustive formula for six years (2003-2009), then let the now well-networked extremists go free.

The religious officials of ISIS even say they used their time at the prison to obtain vows from prisoners to join the terrorist group after their release.

US intelligence also protected the terrorist organization indirectly, by allowing ISIS convoys to move between the cities that were under its control. Other forms of protection, according to Iraqi security experts, include refusing to implement death sentences issued by Iraqi courts against detained ISIS members, and establishing safe havens for the organization’s members in western and eastern Iraq.

ISIS: US foot soldiers in the regional war

In a speech on 5 January, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah warned that the US was supporting an ISIS revival in the region.

The Cradle obtained security information monitoring the new activity of extremists in Lebanon, communications between these elements and their counterparts in Iraq and Syria, and suspicious money transfer activities among them.

Lebanese Army Intelligence also recently arrested a group of Lebanese and Syrians who were preparing to carry out security operations.

Importantly, this surge in terror activities comes at a time when the Lebanese resistance is engaged in a security and military battle with Israel, which may expand at any moment into open war. It is also notable that renewed ISIS activity is concentrated in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran; that is, in the countries that support the Palestinian resistance politically, militarily, and logistically.

On 4 January, ISIS officially claimed responsibility for two bombings in the Iranian city of Kerman that targeted memorial processions on the anniversary of the assassination of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani by US forces. The dual explosions killed around 90 people and injured dozens, in an unprecedented attack targeting the biggest US-Israeli adversary in West Asia – just one day after Tel Aviv killed top Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut.

Before that, on 5 October 2023, ISIS drone-attacked an officers graduation ceremony at the Military College in the Syrian city of Homs, killing about 100 peopleThese attacks, and others in Iraq, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Africa, indicate that fresh blood, money, and weapons are being pumped into the ISIS organization’s arteries again.

A high-ranking PMU officer, who asked to remain unnamed, tells The Cradle that US forces are preventing Iraqi forces from approaching Houran Valley by attacking any security forces approaching the area. “This happened when American aircraft targeted units of the PMU that were attacking ISIS in the region,” he reveals, citing intelligence reports confirming the presence of dozens of ISIS members and other extremist organizations in the valley, where they receive training and equipment from US forces.

Security sources in the Anbar Operations Command confirm this information:

“Noticeable activity by the organization had been recorded a few weeks ago in the west of the country. Near the Rutba desert, ISIS fighters were spotted digging underground hideouts. Information indicates that the organization is in the process of carrying out terrorist operations in many locations,” they tell The Cradle.

Concurrently, ISIS is expanding its operations in the east of Iraq, within the geographical triangle that includes eastern Salah al-Din Governorate, north-eastern Diyala, and southern Kirkuk, particularly in the geographically challenging Makhoul, Hamrin, Ghurra, Wadi al-Shay, and Zaghitoun areas.

It should be noted that US forces are deployed in Iraq under the umbrella of the International Coalition to Combat ISIS. Last week, four years after the Iraqi parliament first voted to expel foreign forces, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani weighed in on the “destabilizing” impact of US troops and demanded a “quick and orderly” exit of those combat units.

Washington not only countered by saying it has “no plans” to withdraw from Iraq, but announced on 14 January that it would be sending an additional 1,500 troops to Iraq and Syria illegally, and without the consent of either nation.

One irony here is that ISIS appears to regain momentum each and every time Baghdad raises the issue of US military withdrawal from Iraq.

It can also no longer be seen as a coincidence that the terror group is now re-assembling its forces to target Washington and Tel Aviv’s most capable regional foes – the Axis of Resistance – just when the US and Israel are struggling to handle a region-wide, multi-front assault from the Axis.

The extraordinary synergies between the Americans and the world’s foremost terror group can no longer be ignored: their targets are one and the same, and ISIS is only now entering the fray, just as Washington begins to lose its hold on West Asia.

January 16, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

China Slams US, Issues Statement With Arab League Calling for Gaza Ceasefire

Sputnik – 16.01.2024

“The US, which is pouring fuel on the fire in the Israel-Palestine conflict, also wants to play the role of fireman,” read an article in Chinese media criticizing America’s “unconditional support for Israel.”

China released a joint statement with Arab League nations Sunday urging a ceasefire in Gaza and advocating a two-state solution to resolve the long running Palestine-Israel conflict.

The resolution emerged after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit in Cairo, Egypt.

The statement called for dialogue with Palestinian groups and a global peace conference to move towards implementing a two-state solution, advocating a “government of Palestine for the Palestinians.” The leaders urged the full implementation of resolutions passed by the United Nations which have long criticized the Israeli occupation of internationally-recognized Palestinian territory. The United States typically uses its influence and position on the UN Security Council to block and undermine resolutions criticizing Israel’s conduct.

The leaders also promoted the resumption of direct peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian sides.

The statement then touched on recent US and UK-backed airstrikes against the Houthi movement in Yemen, which Chinese media criticized as an “escalation” of the situation and an attempt to distract from the broader conflict. Chinese media called for the respect of the “sovereignty and territorial integrity of Yemen,” a critique of the airstrikes that it noted lacked authorization by the UN.

Finally, China called for the sending of humanitarian aid to Palestinians, which it labeled an “imperative moral responsibility.” China insisted that the only way to ultimately safeguard commercial interests in the Red Sea is to achieve “a just settlement of the Palestinian issue.”

“We have a common responsibility to ensure the security of the Red Sea, and we will not be deceived by the US to fuel such tensions,” said Li Weijian, a researcher at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

China and Arab League countries also vowed to move forward on economic cooperation via China’s Belt and Road initiative during the meeting.

January 16, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

US, UK attacks on Yemen illegal, strategic mistake: Iran foreign minister

Press TV – January 16, 2024

Iran’s foreign minister has strongly slammed the recent attacks on the Yemeni territory by the United States and the UK as illegal and a strategic mistake.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks in an early Tuesday phone call with Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, during which the two sides discussed the latest developments related to the Gaza Strip and the Red Sea.

During the conversation, Iran’s top diplomat stressed the Islamic Republic’s principled stance on protecting and maintaining security of shipping and navigation.

“By stopping ships that are bound for the occupied [Palestinian] territories, Yemen seeks to put a halt to the Zionist regime’s crimes and genocide against civilians in Gaza,” Amir-Abdollahian said.

He added that “illegal measures taken by the United States and the UK in attacking Yemen” amounted to a strategic mistake that would lead to further escalation of tensions in the region.

Since the start of the Israeli military aggression on Gaza in early October 2023, the United States and its Western allies have been providing financial and logistical support to the occupying regime in its ceaseless bombardment campaign against Palestinians in the besieged territory.

As part of their support for Palestinians, Yemen’s Armed Forces and popular Ansarullah resistance movement have over the past month targeted several ships owned by Israel or bound for ports in the occupied territories in the strategic Red Sea after multiple warnings.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Iran’s foreign minister expressed concern about the complicated humanitarian situation in the besieged Gaza Strip, reiterating Iran’s readiness to send humanitarian aid for the Palestinian people in the territory.

The Israeli genocide in Gaza has so far claimed the lives of more than 24,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, leaving thousands of others wounded and millions homeless. According to the UN, about 85 percent of the territory’s population has been displaced and forced into crowded shelters.

The regime has been also enforcing an all-out siege against Gaza that has prevented the flow of food, water, fuel, and medicine into the territory.

The UN chief, for his part, expressed concern about further spread of conflicts across the region, saying the world body is trying to stop the war and alleviate the suffering of the regional people.

He once again condemned the ongoing military aggression against Gaza, stressing the need for stopping it and sending humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.

Guterres also lauded the role played by the Islamic Republic in bolstering peace and stability in the region.

January 15, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Illegal Occupation, Militarism, War Crimes | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

100 days of Israeli genocide in Gaza and 100 lies peddled by regime

By Humaira Ahad | Press TV | January 15, 2024

Since October 7, when the Israeli regime launched its genocidal war on Gaza, the regime and its media as well as their Western apologists have weaponized lies and propaganda against Palestinians.

Over the past 100 days, from “beheading of babies” to “Hamas headquarters” under the Gaza hospitals, the Israeli regime has employed hundreds of lies to justify its unchecked aggression.

Even at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing last week, the Israeli lawyers resorted to flagrant lies to whitewash the regime’s crimes committed in the besieged coastal territory.

Here is the compilation of 100 Israeli lies that characterized the first 100 days of its war on Gaza, all of them already debunked and exposed.

1- Hamas beheaded babies near Israel’s southern border with Gaza on October 7.

2- Hamas fighters laughed and were jubilant after murdering babies, children and settlers.

3- Israeli girls were taken as sex slaves by Hamas fighters.

4- Hamas fighters went door-to-door to hunt down Israeli settlers.

5- Hamas fighters were instructed to pull out organs from people’s bodies and to behead people. Conversely, this is what the regime has been doing with Palestinians.

6- The use of white phosphorus shells in Gaza and Lebanon is “unequivocally false.”

7- Hamas fighters raped Israeli women during its attack on October 7.

8- Hamas entered the homes of Israeli civilians, kidnaped, raped, butchered and burnt their babies.

9- The whole family of an Israeli farmer was reduced to ashes by Hamas on October 7.

10- An Israeli woman’s body was paraded by Hamas as a trophy.

11- Hamas came with a genocidal intent to kill innocent Jews, and if they could, they would have killed everyone.

12- The attack on a civilian convoy fleeing Gaza City on a road identified as a “safe route”, which killed 70 people and wounded 200 others, was not done by Israel.

13- Israel is fighting Hamas, and not the civilian Gazan population, and it is doing so in full compliance with international law.

14- Israel bombed ‘al-Shifa’ hospital because it was a cover for the military operation of Hamas.

15- Ammunition and protective vests used by Hamas fighters were hidden behind M.R.I. machines at al-Shifa hospital, and other ammunition was in nearby storage units and some behind a “blast-proof door”.

16- A paper on a wall of a hospital showed a “list of terrorist names”, which actually was a calendar with days of the week written in Arabic.

17- Israeli regime sent incubators to Gaza hospitals to save premature babies from dying.

18- The projectiles fired by Palestinian fighters hit al-Shifa hospital on November 10.

19- The occupying regime said they targeted a car with “terrorists” in Lebanon. It was later found that the vehicle carried three little girls, their mother, and grandmother.

20- Hamas is holding people as human shields and the evidence is a video. The woman shown in the video was found to be a Mexican-Israeli actor.

21- An ambulance transferred members of Hamas to Rafah crossing (south of Gaza). After the ambulance was attacked, the victims were all civilians.

22- Gaza’s Baptist hospital attack, which killed 500 civilians, was done by Hamas. A fake video was released, transferring the blame to the Palestinian resistance group for the massacre.

23- Israel is doing everything it can to provide humanitarian assistance to babies at the Shifa hospital like sending them incubators and helping to evacuate them.

24- Hamas has its headquarters underneath hospitals in Gaza and is using babies as human shields, so these facilities are legitimate targets.

25- The tunnels under the al-Shifa hospital connect the hospital with other parts of Gaza.

26- The women raped by Hamas had their bones broken and suffered severe injuries.

27- On Jan. 14, Israel hinted at the possibility of pregnancies in female captives “raped” by Hamas. The claims of rape or injuries were never proven.

28- Israeli doctors treating freed captives said they had suffered violent sexual assault.

29- A video shared by Israeli official accounts said several Hamas fighters raped an Israeli woman. They were laughing and the last one shot her in the head.

30- The regime’s medics said a man aged 30 also suffered sexual assault during his captivity at the hands of Hamas. On the contrary, the freed captives were all praise for Hamas.

31- A 12-year-old Israeli captive was beaten by Palestinian civilians during captivity and was told Israel is destroyed.

32- A video of a young girl with a man showed Hamas fighters with a kidnapped Israeli girl.

33- Palestinian fighters were faking injuries. The video was a 2017 report about a makeup artist working on Palestinian films and with charities.

34- Palestinian children killed in the regime’s airstrikes were actually “dolls”, not humans.

35- Hitler’s autobiographical book “Mein Kampf” was found in the bedrooms of Gaza children.

36- Hitler’s picture was kept as the screensaver of tablets used by Palestinian children.

37- Hamas trains children in summer camps to kill Israelis, inciting them to terrorism. They are trained in tunnels and taught to shoot and kidnap, and learn the values of “jihad”.

38- Hamas has used every penny received from the international community to build terror tunnels.

39- Hamas teaches children not to love life but instead become martyrs and laud death.

40- Amid the ongoing war, Hamas has positioned children at the frontline sending them to deliver messages while operatives hide in shelters.

41- Hamas planted explosive devices in kindergartens in Gaza.

42- The complex web of Hamas tunnels located near Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City is equipped with elevators and electrical infrastructure.

43- Israeli army enacted tactical pauses for humanitarian purposes to allow civilians to replenish stocks such as food and water.

44- Food, water, medical supplies and shelter equipment are being transferred to the Gaza Strip regularly. The claim has been refuted by the UN time and again.

45- Israel does not stand in the way of providing any form of humanitarian aid to people in Gaza

46- In January 2024, Israel coordinated and facilitated a new field hospital in southern Gaza with a capacity of 50 beds to help wounded people.

47- Hamas is stifling humanitarian aid efforts for the people of Gaza to force a ceasefire.

48- Israel seeks to bring down civilian casualties in Gaza as much as possible.

49- Hamas fighters are increasingly surrendering to the Israeli military.

50- Israeli military discovered 1500 Hamas tunnels in Gaza since the start of the war.

51- Hamas has a subterranean network in Khan Younis, where key commanders are positioned.

52- Gaza’s civilian population is not the target of Israeli military attacks.

53- Israeli military differentiates between Palestinian civilians and Hamas fighters.

54- Hamas has been hiding its missiles under a little girl’s bed in Gaza.

55- Israeli military found tunnel shafts under children’s beds in Gaza.

56- Weapons manufacturing facilities were unearthed inside mosques in the Gaza Strip and booby traps were seen leading to clinics.

57- Children in Gaza play with puzzles that show Palestinian gunboats attacking Tel Aviv.

58- Israel designed a whole area as a humanitarian zone for Palestinians to escape fighting but Hamas shifted to that humanitarian zone and fired over 100 rockets from there.

59- Hamas violently seizes humanitarian aid convoys and shoots Gazan civilians on their way to southern Gaza.

60- Hamas hijacks aid trucks meant for Gazans and the UN agencies cover it up.

61- Hamas is trying to stop the people of Gaza from moving south to safety as “requested” by Israel.

62- An Israeli has been “murdered” every 6 minutes since the war began on October 7.

63- Israel aims to protect its people, this is a war of self-defense for the regime.

64- Hamas is using Western media to spread lies and carry out their psychological warfare.

65- Hamas has been using a child’s bedroom to shield one of the group’s weapons manufacturing and storage facilities.

66- Israeli military has gone out of its way to protect civilians while shelling Gaza.

67- United Nations is the biggest disappointment since October 7. The secretary general and all the UN agencies are in denial of the truth; they are hypocrites and speak downright lies.

68- Hamas killed 160 Palestinian children to build tunnels and used child labor to construct the underground network.

69- Israeli army captured hundreds of Hamas fighters in Gaza, while the footage showed naked Palestinian civilians being paraded and humiliated by Israeli troops.

70- Hamas built a terror tunnel using UNRWA cement bags in civilian neighborhoods.

71- Hamas is targeting Jewish worshipers and struck a synagogue in Gaza.

72- Hamas has spent billions of dollars in funding on building tunnels, and each tunnel costs around $3 million.

73- Israel’s battle is not against flesh and blood, but it is a spiritual war against darkness.

74- Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza was revealed to be a covert terror base.

75- Israeli army helps civilians in Gaza. It helped an elderly woman to get to a safe zone, dressed the wound of a young girl, and saved a newborn puppy.

76- Hamas hid weapons inside incubators at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Gaza.

77- Gazan physician, Dr Nasser Almadhun, was a Hamas fighter who had been hiding in a hospital.

78- The Israeli military is defending Al Aqsa mosque from Hamas missiles.

79- Hamas fighters, carrying stockpiles of weapons, leave hospitals in Gaza

80- Israel is doing the world a favor by fighting radicalism.

81- The dead body of a kidnapped Israeli woman was found by Israeli forces in a tunnel in Gaza, but it was never released to the media.

82- Israeli army detonated 850 mines in Gaza during its ground operations, however, it never gave an exact figure of its casualties.

83- Israeli forces found Hamas weapons hidden in UNRWA humanitarian bags inside a school in Gaza.

84- Israeli army plans to flood Hamas tunnels in Gaza with seawater.

85- Before the war, 70 food trucks entered Gaza but now the average is 109 food trucks facilitated by Israel.

86- A video was posted by Israeli officials, claiming that Palestinian fighters were “staging” war scenes. The video used was a Lebanese artistic tribute to Gaza.

87- One of Israel’s top diplomats shared a video showing people in Gaza watching footage of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, however, it was found to be an Al Jazeera video of the war.

88- Israel posted photos showing “the teeth of children killed on October 7”. The pictures were of porcelain crowns or fake adult teeth.

89- The Israeli army claimed that underneath the city of Khan Yunis was an underground tunnel holding Israeli hostages. The tunnel is beneath a civilian area.

90- Al Jazeera Journalists Hamza al Dahdouh and Mustafa Thuria were members of Hamas. Thuria was deputy commander in Hamas’ Gaza city brigade and Dahdouh was working with Islamic Jihad’s electronic engineering unit and previously served as deputy commander.

91- AK-47 rifles, cartridges, mortar shells, grenades and combat equipment were found in Gaza’s Islamic University.

92- The largest Hamas weapons production site in Gaza is located in Bureij, in central Gaza.

93- In a densely populated area like Jabalya, the Israeli army evacuated locals to protect them.

94- Israel has been helping in the delivery of medical aid to Gaza. Along with the UN, it helped in the delivery of 49,000 vaccines to Gaza on December 29.

95- Toy boxes were filled with mortar shells, warheads, and anti-tank missiles in a kindergarten in Gaza used by Hamas.

96- Israel aborts attacks on Gaza if it sees unexpected civilian presence.

97- Hamas connected dolls to speakers playing crying sounds and set them in an area rigged with explosives to ambush Israeli troops.

98- Hamas used a room in a mosque in Jabalya for rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) training. Ammunition was found inside UNRWA bags. Again a manipulated video to back the claim.

99- Israel is doing philanthropic activities in Gaza. In December, it assisted in the evacuation of patients from Al-Ahli Hospital to UAE field hospital
Rafah. The fact is that the regime bombarded the Al-Ahli hospital in October, killing 500 people.

100- School curriculums in Hamas-ruled Gaza promote antisemitic ideology.

January 15, 2024 Posted by | Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

Pointing out the horrors of Gaza at politicians’ doorsteps

By Yves Engler | January 14, 2024

Bravo to those who braved the cold to rally in front of the foreign minister’s house. Shame on the NDP MPs who echoed the genocide lobby’s faux outrage.

On Saturday 100 or so rallied in front of foreign affairs minister Melanie Joly’s home in the Plateau Mont Royal neighborhood of Montréal. Their promotional material declared “Mourn the Dead, and Fight Like Hell for the Living. End Canadian Support for Genocide”. They reportedly read poems, played music and shared food in what spokesperson Eli Tareq El-Bechelany Lynch called “an affirmation and honouring of Palestinian life, creativity, and resistance against the Canadian-backed Israeli death machine.”

Predictably, pro-genocide voices flew into a moralizing rage. They denounced it as “intimidation” and “harassment”. Uber Zionist Toronto MP Kevin Vuong proclaimed, “If you’re going to protest in front of the legislature or city hall, go ahead. If you’re going to protest our offices, have at it. But your right to peaceful assembly does not include protesting at Minister Melanie Joly’s home. Leave her family—and our families—out of it.”

A week ago, the apartheid lobby claimed a rally in front of Vuong’s constituency office was intimidation. The same voices criticizing the protest at Joly’s home have spent weeks condemning rallies on an overpass over Highway 401 in Toronto. Before that they denounced anti-genocide rallies at the Eaton Centre and at municipal politician’s fundraiser. When university was in session, they were deploring protests on various campuses. They essentially believe all manifestations of opposition to Canada’s complicity in genocide is illegitimate.

Amidst the faux outrage, ‘pro-Palestinian’ NDP MPs joined the attacks. On the left of the party Leah Gazan posted “this is appalling full stop!”. For her part, NDP foreign critic Heather McPherson posted, “This is appalling. People do not have to agree with politicians and elected representatives, but to harass them at their private homes is completely and utterly unacceptable.” (I don’t think McPherson has yet referred to Israel’s mass slaughter and famine campaign in Gaza as “appalling”.) Then the party foreign critic retweeted her NDP colleague Alistair MacGregor claiming: “I love listening to my constituents. At my office. On the phone. Over Zoom. On Twitter. On Facebook. On Instagram. Not at my home.” (Gazan also re-posted MacGregor.)

But protests at politicians homes are not particularly uncommon. In recent weeks there have been anti-genocide protests at a number of politicians’ homes in the US. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin and Democratic Party Senate leader Chuck Schumer are among those whose homes have been targeted by Gaza protesters. Over the years there have been protests at many Canadian politicians’ homes, including a famed one by Joly’s cabinet colleague.

Three years ago, activists supporting the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs’ campaign against a pipeline rallied in front of BC Premier John Horgan’s home. During the 2012 Quebec student strike protesters marched on Premier Jean Charest’s Westmount mansion on multiple occasions. In 2007 Greenpeace organized an action at Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s house while in 2002 current environment minister Steven Guilbeault was among a handful of Greenpeace activists who put solar panels on the roof of Alberta premier Ralph Klein’s home.

Whether you support the tactic or not, protesting at politicians’ homes is not particularly uncommon. The NDP MPs immediate and harsh condemnation reflects two dynamics. MPs obviously have a collective self-interest in deterring this type of protest since they could be on the receiving end of what most would consider annoying. So, in that sense the MPs criticism is likely genuine.

The second dynamic is that the genocide lobby’s constant attacks and smears prime politicians to want to throw a bone to the apartheid lobby by condemning Palestine solidarity activists or echoing them in some way. It’s not a coincidence that the NDP MPs who immediately condemned the Joly protest have recently been the targets of pro-genocide forces for (considering the state of Canadian politics) relatively good statements on Palestine/Middle East affairs.

It’s two steps forward one step back dynamic. But the NDP MPs were under no compulsion to comment on the Joly protests. They shouldn’t have bolstered the genocide lobby’s outrage against those who braved the cold to protest Canada’s role in enabling unimaginable horrors in Gaza.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Progressive Hypocrite, Solidarity and Activism | , , , | Leave a comment

Asymmetric Warfare: Why the Houthis Can Beat the Collective West

By Russell Bentley – Sputnik – 14.01.2024

Dr. Michael Parenti once said, “Economic violence is physical violence in slow motion.” The economic sanctions against Iraq in the 1990’s led directly to the deaths of half a million Iraqi children. Economic sanctions can be a weapon as deadly as any artillery shell or cruise missile.

The Houthis might at first appear to be vastly outmatched by the US/UK armada that has struck Yemen, but militarily and economically, the US and Europe are actually much more vulnerable than the Houthis. To put it simply, in both economic and military terms, the US, UK and Europe, and Israel, have a lot more to lose.

The Houthis are not alone – Hezbollah, considered to be one of the most effective fighting forces in the world today, has an estimated 100,000 highly trained and motivated and very well armed soldiers in Lebanon, and is already at (undeclared, but de facto) war with Israel, and will probably escalate in the next few days. In October, 1983, Hezbollah was able to kill 305 US and French occupation soldiers at a cost of only 2 KIA on the Hezbollah side.

Of the US and French soldiers, 220 were US Marines, the greatest single loss in one day of US Marines since the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. In the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli War, in which Israel invaded southern Lebanon, Hezbollah was able to inflict “unacceptable casualties” on Israeli forces, which resulted in the withdrawal of IDF forces and the signing of UNSC1701. While the Lebanese casualties were significantly higher than Israeli, the conflict is generally seen as a tactical and strategic defeat for Israel. Israel and their US/EU allies would do well to remember both of these battles before continuing to escalate an already extremely volatile situation beyond the point of no return.

Escalation between Hezbollah and the IDF on Lebanon’s southern border will not only expand the current area of conflict into the eastern Mediterranean, it can quickly become a serious threat to the Israeli city of Haifa, only 20 miles from the Lebanese border. Haifa is Israel’s 3rd largest city, with a population of around 300,000. The Port of Haifa is Israel’s second largest by cargo tonnage, and the Haifa oil refinery (the largest, and one of only two in Israel) processes more than 66 million barrels of crude oil per year, more than a million barrels per week. The port, and especially the refinery would be prime targets, and significant damage to either, especially the refinery, would have serious repercussions for the Israeli economy.

The “massive attack” by US/UK naval forces against the Houthis involved airstrikes, as well as approximately 100 cruise missiles, at a cost of more than $1 million each. According to reports published by the Houthi military command and Western media, the attack killed five Houthis. Now, do the math. The US and UK just spent a collective $100 million to kill 5 Houthis and escalate and exacerbate an already volatile situation. Based on assurances from the Houthi government that only Israeli-connected shipping was under threat, the majority of Red Sea shipping traffic had actually continued the Red Sea unhindered.

This is no longer the case. As of January 13th, after the US/UK attacks and their possible continuation, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko), which represents almost 70 per cent of all internationally traded oil, gas and chemical tankers, said in an advisory to members to “stay well away” from the Bab al Mendab strait, and for vessels travelling south via the Suez Canal to pause north of Yemen. This major disruption of tanker traffic may well have an upward influence on oil prices, coming as it does right on the heels of Saudi Aramco’s announcement of a $2 per barrel discount beginning in February.

The Huthis don’t even have to shoot at any more ships – just the threat of the possibility of Houthi or coalition missiles being fired has been enough to disrupt Red Sea shipping traffic, which carries 12% of all global trade goods, and a staggering 30% of all container goods. It is actually the US/UK “coalition” that has escalated the situation to dangerous levels that now interfere with much more shipping, including tanker traffic.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Witch hunts in Israel’: Teacher placed in solitary confinement for criticizing Gaza killings

Press TV – January 14, 2024

The Israeli regime has held a history teacher in solitary confinement and fired him for raising concerns on social media about the Zionist forces killing of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and criticizing the military.

Meir Baruchin was kept in solitary confinement in a high-security jail in early November, over a series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticizing the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge.

“Horrific images are pouring in from Gaza. Entire families were wiped out. I don’t usually upload pictures like this, but look what we do in revenge,” said his message on 8 October, a day after the Israeli regime started a genocidal war in Gaza in response to Hamas’ October 7 Operation Al-Aqsa Strom.

“Anyone who thinks this is justified because of what happened yesterday should unfriend themselves. I ask everyone else to do everything possible to stop this madness. Stop it now. Not later, Now!!!” he wrote below a picture of the family of Abu Daqqa, killed in one of the first airstrikes on Gaza.

Ten days after that Facebook message, he was fired from his teaching job in Petach Tikvah municipality. Less than a month later he was in the solitary confinement wing of al-Qud’s notorious “Russian Compound” prison, detained to give police more time to investigate critical views he had never tried to hide.

Baruchin was initially told to come to a police station for questioning over charges of sedition. When he pointed out to police that they needed a warrant from the attorney general to charge an Israeli citizen with that offense, treason charges were duly drawn up.

When he arrived at the police station, his arms and ankles were cuffed, and he was shown a warrant to search his home. Five detectives escorted him there, turned his apartment upside down, and eventually confiscated two laptops and six hard drives. The police then asked for more time to investigate, and a judge ordered that he be detained.

“I wasn’t allowed to take anything with me to the cell,” he told the Observer. “I walked in with my clothes on and stayed with the same clothes for four days. There were cold-water showers, a tiny piece of soap, two blankets stinking from cigarette smoke, and a tiny towel,” he said.

He was interrogated again before a second judge ordered his release.

But he is living on savings while he waits for the verdict and even if he wins the treason charges have not been dropped: he could live in their shadow for five years, the limit for the police to prosecute.

He is not the only teacher to be targeted. Authorities also summoned Yael Ayalon, head of a Tel Aviv high school, after she shared a Haaretz article warning that Israeli media was hiding the suffering of Gaza’s civilians. “Israeli citizens need to be aware of this reality,” the piece said.

“This story is much bigger than my personal story, or Yael’s personal story. It is a time of witch hunts in Israel, of political persecution,” he said. “I became a ‘Hamas supporter’ because I expressed my opposition to targeting innocent civilians.”

He said he’d received hundreds of private messages of support from fellow teachers and students who were too frightened to go public, and showed several to the Observer.

“The message is crystal clear: keep silent, watch out,” he says, adding that they strengthened his conviction about speaking out. “I thought to myself, when I retire, I might conclude this is the most significant lesson I ever gave in civics.”

He still follows what is happening in Gaza closely, and flicks on his phone through images of the recent dead, a journalist, a violinist, a baby.

His latest post before the interview with the Observer was an image of an improvised grave marker, that looks like part of a broken piece of furniture. “Unknown martyr, green jacket and trainers,” the inscription reads.

“The whole story in one picture,” he says. “The Israeli mainstream media don’t broadcast this picture. They don’t get this picture, and don’t want to get this picture.”

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

How Israeli legal squad fumbled, failed, got exposed at ICJ genocide hearing

By Ivan Kesic | Press TV | January 14, 2024

South Africa on Thursday presented compelling evidence of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which was followed by incoherent rhetoric by a team of lawyers representing Tel Aviv, who tried to defend the indefensible.

The team of lawyers representing the South African government presented an exhaustive, well-researched 84-page document at the top UN court in the Hague, explaining that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, by using a variety of methods.

They include causing serious bodily and mental hurt, forced evacuation of people, widespread hunger, and bringing about “physical destruction” of people in the small besieged territory.

In their opening remarks, the South African team said they “place Israel’s genocidal acts and omissions within the broader context of Israel’s 56-year occupation, 25-year apartheid, and 16-year siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.”

“The point is not simply that Israel is acting disproportionately. The point is that the prohibition on genocide is an absolute,” said Vaughan Lowe, one of the South African lawyers.

More than 23,500 people have already been killed in Gaza in the past 100 days, a vast majority of them children and women. Thousands more are lost under rubble and presumed dead.

Physicians, aid workers and journalists have also been killed deliberately by the Israeli regime’s forces, and the damage to the civil infrastructure is enormous and disproportionate to anything seen before.

On Thursday, the legal team representing South Africa requested that the court issue emergency measures to stop the relentless aerial bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip.

With this action, South Africa showed that its people still remember and respect Nelson Mandela’s words: “We know very well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”

In its Friday counter-submission, lawyers representing the Israeli regime laid out its “defense”.

Led by veteran British lawyer Malcolm Shaw, the team of lawyers argued that South Africa’s application “distorted” and “decontextualized” Israeli military actions in Gaza.

The team of lawyers representing the regime also made some outlandish claims, repeating lies peddled by the Israeli and Western media, such as the beheading of babies and hospitals not being bombarded.

The lie about Israeli children “beheaded” by the Hamas was debunked long ago. Even the Israeli media recently admitted that the Oct. 7 killings were linked to the regime’s military in line with the so-called Hannibal Directive.

The claim that no hospitals have been bombed by the Israeli regime in Gaza also holds no water. Images of dozens of hospitals being attacked and inmates being killed have been doing rounds on social media.

Such was the confusion that Shaw misplaced a page of his presentation, cutting a sorry figure.

Tal Becker, a legal adviser for the regime’s foreign ministry, presented opening statements, arguing that South Africa had “ignored” the events of October 7 and that Israel had “the right to defend itself.”

He also told the court that the Genocide Convention was drawn up in the aftermath of the Holocaust and that the phrase “never again” is one of “the highest moral obligations” for Israel.

Becker rejected requests for an interim order, arguing South Africa is trying to deny Israel “the opportunity to meet its obligations” to the captives.

Legal experts were quick to criticize Becker’s presentation, primarily because it moralizes based on anachronistic events from World War II, irrelevant to contemporary politics.

This represents the continuation of decades of the Zionist victimhood narrative, by which the Israeli regime’s crimes and dirty policies are sought to be justified by victims from the past.

Becker manipulatively accused South Africa of ignoring October 7, specifically Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, the catastrophic Israeli military defeat that the regime likes to manipulate to be an alleged “war crime.”

In reality, South Africa resolutely placed the genocide in the context of the long-term Israeli occupation, apartheid and siege of Gaza, which the Israeli regime ignored in its presentation and invoked its own interpretation on October 7.

Legal experts point out that Israel’s arguments were abysmally weak and incoherent because no events of that date give the right to a war crime of a disproportionate nature.

They further argue that as an occupying entity that has grabbed the land of Palestine by force, the Israeli regime does not have “the right to self-defense” so this argument also does not hold water.

In 2003, the ICJ ruled that an occupying power cannot claim the right to self-defense, in a case involving Israel’s construction of a separation wall in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli regime’s legal team claimed that South Africa’s accusation about Zionist officials harboring an inherent intent to destroy the Palestinian people was based on “random assertions.”

That is also a shoddy argument since top regime officials, including parliamentarians, the war minister, the president and the premier have called for genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

After Israel’s final “defense,” South Africa’s Minister of Justice Ronald Lamolathe said the Israeli regime has suffered a shameful defeat.

He also rejected flawed Israeli denials, stressing that genocide “is never declared in advance” and evidence for 13 weeks is at the disposal of the ICJ that shows the Israeli regime has committed genocide.

Ivan Kesic is an independent journalist and researcher.

January 14, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment