Biden’s America Surrenders to War Criminal Netanyahu
Vital US interests are sacrificed to avoid offending Israel and its Lobby
BY PHILIP GIRALDI • UNZ REVIEW • DECEMBER 28, 2023
I don’t have anyone whom I would consider a friend who supports the genocide being carried out by Israel in Gaza. But my occasional interaction with the psychopaths who infest the US government and media and who are intimately connected by virtue of their political instincts as well as their personal interests in campaign donations and/or elevated salaries derived from Israel and its powerful lobby have plenty of sound bites to throw out to demonstrate their love of the Jewish state in all its manifestations. They mouth the Pelosi-Schumer-Biden assertion that “Israel has a right to defend itself” and that Israel is “America’s closest ally” and “best friend,” all of which can readily be exposed as a series of self-serving lies and deliberate misinterpretations of international law. Beyond that, they inevitably cite their view that critics of Israel are fully responsible for what they choose to refer to as the ultimate evil of “surging anti-semitism.” In so doing they conveniently ignore the obvious fact that anger towards Jews collectively speaking is nearly always derived from the crimes against humanity committed by the Zionist political entity that now legally defines itself as Jewish.
I sometimes ask the friends of Israel what interest the United States has that would warrant our country becoming complicit in committing war crimes that, collectively speaking, amount to precursors for the complete expulsion or killing of millions of Palestinians from what remains of their homes. They try to weasel word their way avoiding the implications of that question by observing that the United States is not directly engaged in the conflict, an evasion that I belittle by pointing out that Washington is providing funding, arming and political cover for the more powerful and lethal party engaged in the conflict while also blocking attempts to bring about a ceasefire to comply with orders from that same party, which sure looks like direct involvement to me. I also point out that Israel is working hard to get the US military engaged against Hezbollah in Lebanon and also against Iran and is likely to be able to maneuver the stoneheads in and around the White House to do its bidding vis-à-vis both objectives.
So the big question has to be “Why does the United States engage in a conflict that inter alia has utterly ruined our country’s reputation worldwide and for which there is no real compelling national interest?” The answer is, of course unpalatable to many, but has to be that the US government is in many respects and vis-à-vis some of its designated national policies completely under the control of Israel and its powerful domestic as well as international lobby. This habitual bowing to force majeure has warped the thinking of the ambitious scallywags who seem to be present wherever one turns in places like Washington. How else does one explain the infamous and quite frankly ridiculous comment delivered at the 2018 Israeli American Council meeting by leading politician Nancy Pelosi, who said that “I have said to people when they ask me if this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain is our commitment to our aid… and I don’t even call it aid… our cooperation with Israel. That’s fundamental to who we are.”
The delusional Pelosi, who appears to have no “fundamental” attachment to the interests of the American people whom she represents, is unfortunately not unique in the halls of Congress, even less so in the Joe Biden White House, which might be regarded as the illustration of what happens when you appoint Zionists to nearly all key positions running your foreign, economic and national security policies. The degree of direct Zionist/Israeli control over the hapless Biden can best be illustrated by reviewing the course of the recent redrafting of a UN Security Council resolution authored by the United Arab Emirates that sought to bring about a suspension of the fighting and the urgent resumption of humanitarian supplies for Gaza. The US forced the revisions after coordination with Israel to permit the Israelis to continue to attack civilian targets and avoid entering into anything like a ceasefire, changing the word “suspension” in the original draft to the less demanding creation of “conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.” Language authorizing the lead UN role in monitoring and delivering the assistance to the Gazans was also expunged leaving to belligerent Israel the task of completely controlling the distribution of any supplies allowed entry into the areas inside Gaza, which it is also simultaneously continuing to bomb, thereby slowing the stream of urgently needed supplies to a trickle while also killing hundreds more civilians.
To be sure, it was the United States blindly supporting Israel that rendered what was a promising proposal to put an end to the multiplying civilian deaths toothless. Israel demonstrated just how highly it regarded Joe Biden when it contradicted what the president said about the US being able to moderate some Israeli offensive action in Gaza. Netanyahu denied that, saying that he and his war cabinet were continuing to make all relevant decisions based on Israel’s own interests. Israel Defense Force (IDF) Chief of the General Staff General Herzi Halevi followed on with his own assessment that finishing the job in Gaza, i.e. totally destroying Hamas by whatever means it requires, will take “many more months.” The Israeli military has indeed visibly increased its efforts by opening up new “battle zones” inside Gaza, to include directly targeting the crowded and starving refugee camps outside the cities. The civilians are paying the price while a grinning Joe Biden is spending his New Year’s holiday in the American Virgin Islands.
Allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a known liar and habitual war criminal to tell the US government what to do is about as low as it gets, Mr. Biden! You should not only be ashamed, but more than that, humiliated, compelled to do ghastly things in support of your own fear of possible Jewish/Israeli reaction if you do not bow down before King Netanyahu. He and the band of inhuman monsters he has assembled in his cabinet have made no secret of their intention to remove the Palestinians from Palestine, either by forced emigration or by killing them if necessary. On Christmas Day, Prime Minister Netanyahu told a meeting of his Likud bloc “that he was still working on the ‘voluntary’ immigration of Gaza’s inhabitants to other countries.” His associates Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich have made it clear that the ethnic cleansing process will proceed even if it is not in any way voluntary. As Israel is the occupying power in the former Palestine, what is taking place is, as defined by the Geneva Conventions, the Genocide Convention and the UN Charter, a crime against humanity and the United States is completely complicit in it not to mention actually enabling the slaughter through its supplying of arms and money to the Israelis. It has recently been reported in the Israeli media that the United States has delivered an astonishing “10,000 tons of armaments and military equipment on 244 cargo planes and 20 ships” to sustain the Israeli homicidal assault against the people of Gaza. And to demonstrate its gratitude for the flood of weapons, America’s “best friend” and “closest ally” Israel has nevertheless complained “about a delay in the delivery of munitions.”
The total support of the Israeli genocide of the Palestinians by Washington and the media is not only shameful, it is lacking any context for a crime against humanity that has been going on with US connivance for the past 76 years. Under international law, an occupied people has a right to use force to resist occupation, but even given that, the majority of Israeli deaths on October 7th should probably be attributed to so-called “friendly fire” from the Israeli army not from Hamas. The occupied and woefully abused Palestinians rising-up and seeking both freedom and sovereignty in the land that was once completely theirs is fully justified and should be respected. Israel’s killing women and children through deliberate starvation or even by execution style is indisputably a war crime. Bombing hospitals or leaving newborn incubator babies abandoned to die is a crime against humanity. Arresting innocent Palestinians before parading them naked and even desecrating their bodies by harvesting organs that you then sell is unspeakable and almost unimaginable evil as is deliberately targeting and bombing schools and churches where people are trying to find shelter.
The genocide and destruction in Gaza is the worst crime committed in modern history and the man who could have stopped it, Joe Biden, sits on his hands and grins. No one should remain silent when confronted by this horror but the silence and the deliberate distortion of what is taking place is a tribute to Jewish power in America and elsewhere. I am including some recent commentary from the illustrious Australian Journalist Caitlin Johnstone which demonstrates perfectly the hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Biden and the leaders of Britain, France, Canada, and Germany: “Sometimes Israel’s crimes are so horrific that at first you don’t even understand what you’re looking at. You just stare at it trying to make sense of what you’re seeing for a bit, like you would if you suddenly saw a space alien or a leprechaun or something… It’s so incredibly obvious what we’re looking at here. The only thing putting a wobble on people’s perception is the immense amount of propaganda distortion the media is churning out on this issue, plus the fact that the demographics look a bit different from what history has conditioned people to watch out for. If there were two million Jewish people trapped by Christians in a giant concentration camp and placed under total siege, being told that half of them had 24 hours to relocate into the other half or be killed, nobody would have any confusion about what they were witnessing.”
And a leading American journalist Daniel Larison must have the last word of advice from his site on Eunomia: “We are witnessing one of the gravest crimes of our time. Our government is aiding and abetting the perpetrators. It is up to people in this country to make our government cut off all support for this war and to press for an end to the war itself.” Amen, Daniel!
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.
China Advocates Solving Red Sea Tensions Through Dialogue – Defense Ministry
Sputnik – 28.12.2023
BEIJING – Beijing advocates solving pressing regional problems, including the current tensions in the Red Sea, through dialogue and political consultations, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Thursday.
Earlier in December, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington would like Beijing to join the US-led multinational operation to secure the Red Sea amid a surge in Houthis’ attacks on cargo ships.
“China has always stood for maintaining the security of international waterways, sought to address both symptoms and root causes, and advocated resolving pressing regional problems through dialogue, consultations and political means,” Wu told a press briefing.
The Red Sea is an important channel of international trade of goods and energy commodities, the spokesman said, adding that it was in the common interests of the international community to ensure security and stability in the region.
In November, Yemen’s Ansar Allah rebel movement, also known as the Houthis, announced its intention to attack any ships associated with Israel, urging other countries to recall their crews from the vessels. The Houthis vowed to continue the attacks until Israel ends its military actions in the Gaza Strip.
On December 19, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced the establishment of a multinational operation to secure the Red Sea, saying that the United Kingdom, Bahrain, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, the Seychelles, and Spain would take part in the mission, although Madrid has not officially confirmed its participation yet. The Houthis vowed to attack any ships that join the US-led maritime coalition.
Hesitation among US allies leaves Operation Prosperity Guardian in dire straits
The Cradle | December 28, 2023
Ten days after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the formation of an international task force to patrol the Red Sea, about half of the nations named as participants have yet to acknowledge their role, while others have pushed back against Austin’s declaration.
Under the name Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), Washington’s “coalition of the willing” was intended to confront attacks by the Yemeni armed forces against Israeli-linked ships attempting to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
However, only two US allies have deployed warships to the Yemeni coast to support the coalition: the UK, which sent the navy destroyer HMS Diamond, and Greece, which announced the deployment of a Hellenic navy frigate.
Canada, Norway, and the Netherlands confirmed their participation in OPG but have so far committed only a handful of staff officers. Similarly, the Seychelles ratified their support for the coalition but clarified: “Our participation will not include putting boats or military personnel to patrol in the Red Sea. Our role is to help in providing and receiving information since many things that happen close by can have an implication for us.”
Authorities in Bahrain – the only Gulf nation named as part of the pro-Israel alliance – have not commented on their role in OPG, despite the fact that the US war chief announced the coalition’s creation from the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Manama. Last week, Bahraini police detained a prominent opposition figure who criticized the government for joining OPG.
Complicating matters further for the Pentagon, the last three NATO members named as part of the alliance – Spain, Italy, and France – have outright refused to hand over command of their ships to the US.
The French defense ministry said last week it supported efforts to “secure freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.” Still, it highlighted that its navy already operated in the region and its ships would stay under French command. Italy took a similar approach, committing the naval frigate Virginio Fasan to patrol the Red Sea but emphasizing that this was part of “existing operations” and not OPG.
Spain has been the most vocal in its rejection of being named part of the anti-Yemen alliance, vetoing a vote at the EU that called for support of the coalition and making it clear that its forces committed to Operation Atalanta – a counter-piracy operation off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean – would not join OPG.
“Spain is not opposed to creating another operation, in this case in the Red Sea. We have communicated to our allies, both in NATO and in the EU, that we consider Operation Atalanta does not have the characteristics nor the nature that is demanded and needed in the Red Sea,” President Pedro Sanchez said on 27 December.
While the Pentagon last week proclaimed “over 20 nations” had joined OPG, reports have shown that more of Washington’s closest partners are balking at the idea of joining war efforts in the Red Sea.
On 21 December, Australia announced it would be sending personnel to join OPG, but no warships or planes. India has also balked at the plan, with a senior military official revealing to Reuters that New Delhi is “unlikely to join” the US alliance.
Nonetheless, earlier this week, the Indian navy deployed several warships to the Arabian Sea in response to an alleged drone attack on an Israeli-linked vessel.
Saudi Arabia has also shown no interest in the venture, as the Gulf kingdom is reportedly more interested in ending its eight-year war in Yemen than in re-starting hostilities.
Yemen’s Red Sea operations in support of Palestinians in Gaza have significantly hurt the Israeli import sector, as the vital Port of Eilat has seen an 85 percent drop in activity. According to Bloomberg, half of the container ships that regularly transit the Red Sea and Suez Canal are avoiding the route now.
However, marine traffic data shows that the transit of non-western tankers through the Red Sea has surged since the Yemeni armed forces began targeting Israeli-linked vessels.
Israel kills 6 more Palestinians in occupied West Bank refugee camp
MEMO | December 27, 2023
Israel has killed six more Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The six were targeted by an Israeli drone in Nour Shams Camp, located east of Tulkarm. They were confirmed dead at the Martyr Thabet Thabet Government Hospital in the city.
Hospital officials noted that Israeli occupation forces delayed ambulances trying to reach the victims of the attack. After a delay of 65 minutes, the Israelis released an ambulance carrying three seriously injured individuals from Nour Shams camp, reported the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The head of the Tulkarm Doctors’ Syndicate, Radwan Balibla, reported that an Israeli soldier stabbed one of the injured Palestinians inside the ambulance. He added that other wounded Palestinians were also assaulted with kicks, punches and rifle beatings as Israeli soldiers threatened to kill them.
The Palestinians killed were identified as 19-year-old Ahmed Anwar Hamarsha; Ahmed Abdel Rahman Issa, 19; Adham Muhammad Fahmawi, 19; Yazan Ahmed Wahid Fahmawi, 23; Fares Hossam Fahmawi, 29; and Hamza Ahmed Mustafa Fahmawi, 17. A 24-year-old Palestinian sustained serious head injuries. His condition was described as critical.
According to Wafa news agency, the occupation forces used artillery to target an abandoned house in the Aktaba suburb, east of Tulkarm, near the refugee camp. Palestinian homes in different areas of the camp, including Al-Manshiya, Al-Mahjar, Al-Joura, Al-Damj and Jabal Al-Nasr, were also targeted by the occupation forces. They conducted extensive raids inside these homes, interrogated the occupants and destroyed their belongings.
Furthermore, Israeli troops used high-rise buildings in and around the camp as observation posts. Bulldozers were employed to demolish infrastructure in the camp’s main streets, square and Al-Manshiya neighbourhood. This destruction included the demolition of public and private property.
At least 320 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since 7 October, according to the local Palestinian authorities. More than 3,200 others have been wounded.
‘Take what you want and we’ll sort it out later’: US weapons stash fuels Gaza carnage
The Cradle | December 27, 2023
A stockpile of weapons owned by the US government and hidden inside Israel – known as the War Reserve Stocks for Allies-Israel (WRSA-I) – is back in the limelight, as former US officials believe the White House has dipped into it to restock quickly-depleting munitions dropped inside the Gaza Strip.
“Officially, it’s US equipment for US use,” a former senior Pentagon official told The Guardian. “But on the other hand, in an emergency, who’s to say we’re not going to give them the keys to the warehouses?” he added.
Another senior US official familiar with WRSA-I told the British news outlet that, when it comes to air-to-ground munitions, “we’ll give [Israel] whatever they need.”
Created in the 1980s to supply the US army in case of a regional war, the WRSA-I is the largest node in a global network of US weapons caches.
Although Tel Aviv is not legally allowed to make free use of WRSA-I – the full contents of which are not publicly disclosed – the former defense officials say transfers from the stockpile “differ from regular arms sales between the US and another country,” as the munitions can be withdrawn by the Israeli army “before the processes that account for the transferred equipment are fully completed.”
“We sort of retroactively build a foreign military sales case, which may or may not need to be notified to Congress, depending on what they took and what quantities,” said Josh Paul, a former state department official who resigned in October in protest at Washington’s unbridled support for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
“There’s no review of human rights, there’s no review of regional balance, there’s none of the conventional arms transfer policy review that would normally happen […] Essentially, it’s take what you can and we’ll sort it out later,” Paul added.
Furthermore, in late October, the White House sent a supplemental budget request to Congress that included the removal of restrictions on all categories of weapons and ammunition Israel is allowed to access from WRSA-I.
“A proposal in a legislative request to Congress to waive Congressional notification entirely for FMF-funded Foreign Military Sales or Direct Commercial Contracts is unprecedented in my experience […] Frankly, [it’s] an insult to Congressional oversight prerogatives,” Josh Paul said about the legal loophole, which was buried after more than 40 pages of legislative legalese.
Although there’s little to no transparency about the categories and quantities of weapons the US is providing Israel, in October, Axios reported that Washington would give their allies 155mm artillery shells.
These unguided munitions, held in large quantities in WRSA-I, are considered particularly hazardous as “their accuracy degrades over distance, increasing the likelihood of civilians and civilian infrastructure getting hit by errant shells,” according to Marc Garlasco, a former UN war crimes investigator.
CNN revealed earlier this month that a US intelligence assessment determined about 40-45 percent of over 29,000 air-to-ground munitions Israel has used in Gaza have been unguided.
Israel’s unrestrained use of these munitions inside one of the most densely populated places on earth has quickly turned Gaza into the deadliest military campaign in modern history, with a death rate of no less than 355 civilians per day – roughly 70 percent of whom are women and children.
Decrepit Biden Props Up Decrepit Abbas
The “PA will run Gaza solution” is a non-starter
BY KEVIN BARRETT | DECEMBER 27, 2023
Interview for IRIB
1) Despite Gazans’ demand and desire, the USA is trying to impose the Palestinian authority to rule over Gaza in substitution for Hamas. How do you assess this policy?
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is universally despised. Palestinians hate it because it’s a tool of the Occupation. Netanyahu’s government also hates it because it carries the torch, however feebly, of the two-state solution.
So why is the USA trying to unite Gaza and the West Bank under the authority of a group that everyone loathes? A humorist might answer: “Because the PA resembles Biden: A walking corpse with no meaningful support. When Biden looks at the unpopular, decrepit, sold-out-to-Israel, monumentally corrupt 88-year-old Abbas, he sees himself in the mirror.”
Aside from Biden’s narcissistic projection, there are also political considerations. To assuage both wings of his party—the pro-Palestine and pro-peace forces on the left, and his Zionist billionaire donors on the right—Biden has to pretend to be both pro-peace and pro-Israel. And that is impossible. Israel’s very existence and identity rests on its nonstop war of extermination against the Palestinian people. Indeed, “Israel” is just a euphemism for the genocide of Palestine. And its population and government have steadily gotten more extremist and openly genocidal.
Since it is impossible to be pro-peace and pro-Israel at the same time, Biden has to deal in vague impressions rather than hard realities. Most Americans don’t know much about Palestine, and have a general sense that the Palestinian Authority is “moderate” and “supports the two-state solution.” So Biden uses rhetorical support for the PA to stake out a supposedly centrist position that he hopes will mollify both the activists to his left and the Jewish billionaires to his right. He hopes the former will say: “Well, at least Biden isn’t as bad as Trump.” Since the latter realize that the PA is dead in the water, they know that Biden’s apparent support for it is only rhetorical, and doesn’t pose any meaningful obstacle to Zionist genocide. So the billionaires have no problem with Biden’s position, and will continue to fund him.
2) Americans always emphasize democracy and free elections. Then why (in practice) are they doing the opposite in Gaza? And moreover, why is Hamas so popular in Gaza?
American support for democracy is purely rhetorical. In reality, the US empire has been, since World War II, the world’s biggest enemy of democracy. Why? Because the US empire wants every other country on Earth to be its vassal. And it wants the vassal states run by obedient puppets who obey the empire’s orders to plunder their own people and hand over their nations’ wealth to the empire and the banks that own it. Naturally this program isn’t popular with ordinary people, who generally vote against Washington’s puppets and in favor of “anti-American” candidates who want to serve their own people rather than the empire. So to keep its puppets in power, the US has to prevent, corrupt, and sabotage free and fair elections.
The best-known quote illustrating the US empire’s opposition to democracy was a bon mot from the late Henry Kissinger: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.” So Kissinger’s US murdered democratically-elected president Allende and installed a vicious dictator, Pinochet, to obey the empire’s orders.
The same situation happened in Gaza in 2006, when Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in a landslide, despite US and Israeli vote-rigging and chicanery. Like Kissinger in 1973 with respect to Chile, the Bush Administration, and later the Obama Administration, tried to kill Hamas’s leaders and overthrow the democratically-elected government. But they failed miserably, because Hamas has widespread support in Palestine and throughout the region. Due to Hamas’s popularity in the West Bank as well as Gaza, the Americans, the international bodies they control, and the Israelis have not allowed any more elections since 2006. They know that if they did, Hamas would win, take over all of Palestine, and administer it in the interests of the Palestinian people rather than the Zionist occupation.
Hamas’s popularity stems from its reputation for honesty and competence. Unlike the ultra-corrupt PA, Hamas does not take bribes from America and Israel to participate in the slow-motion genocide of its own people. And unlike the PA, Hamas gets things done—whether it’s feeding the poor, taking care of the sick, or organizing armed resistance to genocide.
Additionally, Hamas, unlike the PA, is living in the real world. The PA inhabits an illusory world in which we all pretend that Israel is a benign entity that will withdraw from all the land it stole in 1967 and allow a viable Palestinian state to come into being. Hamas honestly faces the stark reality that “Israel” is an illegitimate and inherently genocidal entity that has zero interest in any “two-state solution” and will continue to grow like a malignant tumor on the region, eliminating not just the Palestinians but ultimately all the peoples between the Nile and the Euphrates, if the tumor is not forcibly excised.
A final reason for Hamas’s popularity is its religiosity. Palestinian Christians as well as Muslims respect the piety and selfless devotion to doing good “in the path of God” that they see among the members and leaders of Hamas. And they love and respect Hamas fighters for their willingness to put their lives on the line against a much more powerful and cruel enemy. As Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida says:
“Disgrace, shame and defeat for the Zionist Nazi enemy. Indeed it is a struggle of victory or martyrdom.”
‘Elbit 8’: Palestine Action activists conclude legal fight for disrupting Israeli arms trade
By Reza Javadi | Press TV | December 27, 2023
In a significant development, a group of Palestine Action activists, known as the ‘Elbit Eight’, have been acquitted for their role in shutting down UK Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms producer, whose lethal weapons are being used against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
Elbit Systems’ weaponry prompted the Palestine Action activists to face a total of 12 charges, including criminal damage, burglary, blackmail, and encouraging criminal damage.
The charges were related to anti-Israel protests held between July 2020 and January 2021, immediately after the pro-Palestinian network was founded in early 2020.
The trial, which commenced on November 13, saw the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) amending the indictment, eventually bringing thirteen counts against the activists: seven counts of damaging property (criminal damage), three counts of burglary with intent to commit criminal damage, one count of possessing articles with intent to damage property, one count of threatening to damage property, and one count of encouraging others to commit the offense of criminal damage.
Since the group’s inception in 2020, and in protest against the Israeli regime’s atrocities against the Palestinians, they have led several mobilizations in the UK as well as in the US, targeting the factories and offices of firms that supply munitions used in Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
Their protest methods have included sit-ins, blockades and paint jobs.
The group’s actions, including occupying Elbit Systems’ drone and weaponry factories in Shenstone and Oldham, aimed to challenge Elbit’s operations in Britain and prevent the manufacturing of weapons destined for the Israeli regime.
The defense case
At the beginning of the trial that lasted six weeks, the eight activists received a plea deal: if Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard pleaded guilty, others would be acquitted.
Rejecting the plea deal, the activists spent six weeks in Snaresbrook Crown Court pleading not guilty, asserting that Elbit and Israel bear responsibility for the offenses, not Palestine Action.
Echoing the defense’s narrative presented during the trial, Richard Barnard, co-founder of Palestine Action, underscored the group’s primary goal to terminate British complicity in the Israeli apartheid regime’s crimes against Palestinians.
Barnard was convicted by a 10-2 majority of one count of criminal damage, for an action at the now-closed Elbit Ferranti factory in Oldham. The jury failed to reach a majority decision regarding the remaining 23 charges.
“The idea was – and the idea still is – to end the British complicity in the Israeli apartheid regime,” he told the jury. “I am trying to prevent war crimes … I am trying to stop bombings and trying to stop drones [in Palestine].”
Meanwhile, two of the Elbit Eight activists, Genevieve Scherer and Jocelyn Cooney, were unanimously acquitted on all charges faced.
Other activists highlighted their personal experiences and the urgency driving their direct actions, contending that conventional means, such as divestment campaigns, were insufficient in addressing the ongoing human rights violations in Gaza.
Huda Ammori, charged with six counts including damaging property and burglary, stressed her Palestinian-Iraqi background, narrating formative experiences such as the Iraq War and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of native Palestinians in Gaza.
She stressed that direct action was the only viable solution to end such atrocities perpetrated by the occupying regime, given the ineffectiveness of legal avenues and divestment campaigns.
“All other attempts fell short. Our exports to Israel are against our own license rules and against international law, but they can’t be stopped by the courts,” Ammori said.
“Divestment campaigns, after years of work, were taking way too long; it wasn’t matching the reality of the urgency of the situation. Every day, Palestinians were being killed, imprisoned – surveilled under these drones 24/7.”
Direct action is the only option
Ammori, a co-founder of the Palestine Action network, hastened to add that if the UK government continues to ignore facts and violate rules, then the only option is “direct action”, which means to “stop weapons from going there.”
“After pushing back our case for two years, the state has failed again to deter an ever-growing global direct-action movement. Every day we’ve been on trial, more Palestinians have been massacred using Elbit’s weaponry,” she asserted.
“The duty of the people is clear – to take all direct action possible to Shut Elbit Down wherever you are. Justice will be complete when Palestine is free.”
Robin Refualu, another activist of the group, charged with burglary and damaging the drone factory UAV Engines, shared his experiences from Palestine and spoke of the direct action he was involved in there to stop home demolitions and illegal settlements and emphasizing the trial’s relevance to the broader Palestinian struggle over the past 75 years.
“This trial is not about us, it’s not even about Palestine Action, in my opinion,” Refualu said. “It’s about what’s happening in Gaza at the moment and what’s been happening in Palestine for the last 75 years.”
Genevieve Scherer, drawing on her upbringing in Uganda, criticized the futility of criminal damage charges when Elbit Systems and those they arm cause havoc in Gaza.
She underscored how British law prioritizes property over human lives.
Caroline Brouard emphasized the obligation to prevent an ongoing genocide and stated that when governments fail to uphold duties, it falls on the people to act. She believed that actions at UAV Engines in Shenstone could immediately impact stopping bombings in Gaza.
“The drones malfunction all the time, needing replacement parts, and UAV Engines has a 24hr dispatch policy – we stopped these engines getting to Israel and so stopped the drones from flying,” Brouard asserted.
Urgency of stopping crimes
Jocelyn Cooney, a frontline social worker, joined Palestine Action to address the urgency of stopping crimes. She referred to Elbit Systems as the “muscle” enabling genocide in Palestine.
“So I think we all have a responsibility as humans to step up and take direct action to stop this company from producing weapons to murder people,” she said.
Emily Arnott, charged with damaging property and burglary, spoke about her time in Palestine, highlighting the impact of apartheid and the Israeli regime’s brutal domination over Palestinian lives.
Nicola Stickells, charged with criminal damage, emphasized the necessity of action when other efforts were ineffective. She pointed to ongoing war crimes in Gaza and questioned why activists faced legal consequences while those responsible for genocide profited freely.
The Israeli regime forces are “rounding up men.. and taking them to undisclosed places, stripped, kneeling blindfolded, this genocide is occurring as we speak,” said Stickells, a mother of two who was raised in a working-class family in the English county of Kent.
“How can we be the criminals when the perpetrators of… [what] we now know is a genocide … are free to profit and we have to spend weeks and weeks in court for an action that we took three years ago?” she asked.
“When you try and stand for human rights, you become the criminal. This is not right.”
Palestine Action UK has escalated actions against Elbit Systems since October 7, including activists climbing factory roofs in various cities.
“Palestine Action activists occupy the roof of the Israeli weapons factory Elbit Systems in the town of Shenstone, England, in protest of its production of equipment used in Israel’s murder of innocent Palestinians,” Palestine Action UK said in a statement on October 31.
UK complicity in Israeli crimes
The trial comes on the heels of nationwide protests in the UK in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the genocide in Gaza. These demonstrations have been met with intensive state monitoring, harassment, and muzzling of pro-Palestinian voices and actions.
The trial also draws attention to the broader issue of the UK’s arms sales to the Israeli regime, given Elbit Systems’ significant role as a major supplier to the Israeli military.
The weapons company is Israel’s largest private arms company in the UK that supplies the Israeli military with 85 percent of the drones used against Palestinians. The British government has been criticized for being “complicit in Israeli crimes” due to its relations with this company.
Two of Israel’s biggest weapons factories, Elbit and Rafael, both have operations in the UK.
Declassified UK recently revealed that the British government has approved at least £472m in arms sales to the Israeli regime in the past eight years, ignoring the genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
The (Formerly Law-Abiding) Citizen’s Guide to Navigating the US Prison System
BY RICHARD SOLOMON • UNZ REVIEW • DECEMBER 26, 2023
The owners shredded the Constitution. Legal protections, or even their simulation of a simulation, no longer exist. In Florida, questioning a historical event or the policies of a Middle East country risks ten years in prison. Taking selfies at a legal demonstration endorsed by a sitting President of the United States can get you almost twenty. A journalist and opinion writer became an international fugitive for insulting a Jewish woman online. Douglas Mackey (X/Twitter handle Ricky Vaughn) received a seven month federal prison sentence for posting a Hillary Clinton election meme. Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis pled guilty to one felony count of “aiding and abetting false statements and writings” after she wrote in a letter that the 2020 election was rigged. To avoid prison (she’ll still be a convicted felon and get disbarred), she agreed to testify against her co-defendants (who will likely receive prison time) in this bizarre “false statements/writings” racketeering case. Given the rapid rise in thought/speech crime incarceration, it behooves citizen-serfs, especially political ones, to gain some familiarity with the workings of the US prison industrial complex.
For the record, I’ve never been to prison. I’m disseminating data picked up from sources who have. If anyone reading this has done prison time or worked/works as a CO (corrections officer) and feels that I’ve misrepresented something, please add your perspective in the comments section. I don’t claim to be an expert on the penal system. Nor do I want to be.
Imagine you repost a meme on social media and get charged with “spreading misinformation while committing hate speech within a fifty-mile radius of an Israeli consulate and or synagogue during the commission of a thought crime.” Your day in court arrives, and after the #MeToo Jacinda Ardern lookalike prosecutor gives her PowerPoint presentation on your online browsing history and puts your bad-breakup ex-girlfriend on the stand, your case goes to a jury of monthly boosted blue and yellow flag emoji patriots. Following an hour of deliberation they return a guilty verdict. (They voted guilty within the first minute, but for appearance’s sake wait an hour before notifying the bailiff). After the Kamala Harris wannabe judge reads a moving passage from Michelle Obama’s “The Light We Carry” and tells you what a degenerate scumbag you are, she sentences you to ten years. What kind of life awaits you inside the prison industrial complex? Prison conditions vary depending on security level, location, and whether it’s a state or federal facility. While low-level fed camps offer the best conditions, high-level federal institutions like USP Atlanta and Beaumont are super barbaric. Alabama and Florida state prisons have bad reputations. Generally speaking, the higher the security level, the more brutal the prison. That’s not to say you can’t get jammed up in a minimum security facility or county jail.
Prison is violent. An angry lifer has little to lose by smashing or stabbing a prisoner he dislikes. “What are you looking at?” can be a tricky question to answer in the civilian world. Much more so in prison.
Even if you’re an astute practitioner of conflict avoidance, in higher-level prisons you will likely receive a “heart check,” i.e. a prisoner tests you. The majority prison consensus for this type of encounter? Fight. The good news is that there is no shame in losing a prison fight. Violence is so common that most prisoners, no matter how tough, have lost a fight during their stay. All that matters is you stood up. For those lacking skills, “flailing arms spaz mode” style seems the best option. It should be over pretty quickly. If you don’t fight, you’ll be labeled prey. This invites future b!tch slap humiliations and extortion. Extortion could mean turning over commissary items, or in more extreme cases, a family member wiring funds to a prisoner’s “girlfriend” to keep you healthy. Predatory prisoners love draining nest eggs. For those with money, refrain from bragging about past French Riviera vacations.
Most prison violence stems from gambling and drugs, especially in regard to debt. If you choose to indulge, pay as you go. Taking commissary on credit also entails risk. Some prisoners operate “stores” whereby they loan out one can of soup with the expectation of receiving two as repayment. Better to go hungry that night. Defaulting on prison debt gets you smashed or stabbed. On occasion, a soft younger inmate runs up a debt he can’t cover. Some creditors accept sexual favors as repayment. Once an inmate goes that route, there’s no coming back. For Boomers and fellow Gen Xers, even if so inclined, that escape hatch won’t be open to you. Nobody wants your old ugly ass. The takeaway—don’t run up prison debt.
Even if you play things right, you could still find yourself housed with a violent psychopath who doesn’t like your face. This could morph into a case of “kill or be killed.” Killing your adversary could get you a life sentence with transfer to a super-max dungeon. Legal self-defense doesn’t carry much weight in prison. If you stab or bludgeon him and he survives, you might only wind up with a few weeks or months in the hole (solitary confinement). Or you could add decades to your sentence and a super-max stay. How a facility’s administration deals with violent offenses varies from prison to prison. In some places, as long as you don’t give staff the paperwork headache of a body, they don’t care how extreme prisoner-on-prisoner violence gets. Alabama prison administrators are known for covering up prison homicides, which could work to your advantage if you need to take out an adversary. Conversely, this could work against you if you wind up on the receiving end of the shank.
When things get too heavy, some prisoners opt to “check-in” (enter protective custody (PC) /solitary confinement). Some guards want you to name your antagonizer(s) before letting you check-in, which technically makes you a “snitch.” Snitches and chomos (pedophiles) inhabit the lowest rung of the prison hierarchy. Not a good look. Even if you manage to enter PC without snitching, you’ll be labeled a “check-in.” At some point you go back into general population. A check-in label follows you for the rest of your stay and opens you up to victimization. If faced with an unreasonable predator, the better option might be to handle things yourself.
What about prison rape? While common back in the day, it’s been largely eradicated through PREA (Prison Rape Elimination Act) and current prison culture. In most prisons, a booty bandit who targeted straight males would get run off the yard, i.e. smashed. Plus, with all the openly gay prisoners today, there’s no reason for a booty bandit to take it by force. Many prison organizations forbid their members from engaging in gay sex. Members who pursue down-low activity risk a death sentence. Overall, messing with “boys” (effeminate prison gays) is looked down on, and most prisoners avoid it. The small percentage who practice that lifestyle do so openly and without fear of reprisal. No one’s calling a three-hundred-pound wall of granite a f@g. Or his “boy.”
Many large corporations utilize prison slave labor. According to zio-globalist Harvard University, on average, prisoners get paid ninety-three cents per day. Juxtaposed to these slave wages are real-world prices for prison goods and services. US prisons outsource food services, phone, internet, healthcare, commissary, and pretty much everything else to private corporations. To maximize profits, these corporations price gouge prisoners and cut services. Prison food is often rotten and inedible. If you don’t want to lose weight, you’ll need to buy commissary food at market prices. But how can you do that earning ninety-three cents a day? You can’t. If fortunate, you might have family members who put money on your books (prison account). Otherwise, you’ll need to form a “prison hustle.” This could include offering cell cleaning and laundry services, working as a jailhouse lawyer or tattoo artist, running a poker table, brewing prison wine, or selling drugs. Predatory prisoners simply take stuff off weaker inmates.
Prison living conditions can be quite bad. Institutions often go on lockdown for months. That means sharing a bathroom-sized cell with another man 24/7 until the lock pops. To me, this constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Imagine getting locked down with a cellie who snores like a Metallica concert bass amp. Or a psycho-maniac. As reported by the Miami Herald : “An inmate at Columbia Correctional Institution’s annex was able to strangle and mutilate his cellmate, gouge out his eyeballs, wrap his blood-soaked body in a sheet and walk into the prison’s chow hall wearing the dead inmate’s ear strung around his neck before officers learned anything was amiss.” Prisoners with psycho-maniac cellmates often develop severe PTSD from continuously sleeping with one eye open.
The lack of privacy in prison is obscene. That includes bathroom privacy. Full view-everything. Whoever invented this layout was a sick f*ck.
Prisoners are subject to regular “bend over, spread your cheeks and cough” level strip searches that would be humiliating if carried out by a licensed medical practitioner in a private patient room. Imagine performing this routine in front of snickering guards.
West Coast prisons practice racial segregation, i.e. races stay with their own. Fraternizing with a member of another race could get you smashed or stabbed. In West Coast prison politics, if a prisoner fights, it’s usually against someone from his race. If he gets victimized, it’s usually by an individual or group from his race. If two prisoners of different races have a beef, most times the shot callers of the respective races put the aggrieved parties into a cell and let them fight it out. After it’s over, the matter’s considered settled. If a prisoner goes into debt to someone from another race, members of the debtor’s race sometimes pay the debt and then smash or stab the debtor to avoid a race riot. An unsettled interracial beef can result in a race riot. If a race riot pops off, you’ll be expected to swing your lock-in-a-sock or shank for your race even if you have no involvement in the beef or know what it’s about. Anyone caught ducking out of a race riot gets smashed or stabbed by members of his race.
East Coast prisons are not racially segregated, although like in society, people tend to gravitate toward their own. However, strong bonds often develop between prisoners of different races.
In some institutions, prison organizations (gangs) control the internal politics. Higher-tier prison organizations resemble paramilitaries, as they possess a military top-down chain of command, written constitutions, well-trained soldiers with a high capacity for violence, mandatory boot camp level calisthenic regimens, large capital flows, and a reach that extends into the streets which includes access to serious arsenals. As per the Second Amendment, citizen militias still exist. Conversely, many prison organizations (gangs) lack structure and discipline and are more free-wheeling.
Prisoners join gangs for different reasons, e.g., protection, fellowship, thrills, resources. Joining a gang means following orders. This could include anything from stabbing a gang target to acting as a drug mule. Refusing an order could result in a death sentence. Like any major life decision, weigh the pros and cons carefully before signing on. As with civilian organizations, application standards vary. Some prison organizations want numbers, while others maintain a higher bar for entry. A case of “twenty-five pennies versus a quarter.”
Prison guards can be somewhat professional, corrupt, or sadistic. A nasty CO can make a prisoner’s life hell. Most COs just collect a paycheck and don’t care what happens to their charges. The Stanford Prison Experiment provides insight into guard psychology. Try to be respectful toward guards, but avoid fraternization, as this will cause some prisoners to label you a snitch.
It should be noted that the #MeToo psyop poses a unique danger to political prisoners. #MeToo started with Harvey Weinstein. I didn’t follow his case closely enough to comment on how far Weinstein’s actions went past the Hollywood casting couch quid pro quo that has existed since the days of silent movies and into the classic legal definition of rape. Weinstein was a connected insider. His circle of friends included Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey. He was a rabid Hollywood Zionist with Mossad ties. To his credit, Miramax offered up some decent movies in the 90s. Weinstein appeared to run with the “above the law” crowd, however, the donor class sometimes sacrifices one of its own when politically expedient. I don’t know why they chose Weinstein. Julian Assange became the first major “enemy of the state” #MeToo victim. Once the globalists had him in their clutches, his “rape” charges quickly and quietly vanished. Comedian-political commentator Russell Brand appears to be the latest #MeToo target.
#MeToo framed political prisoners entering prison with “bad paperwork” or sex offender status get greenlit. That means open season for extortion, smashing, and slashing. It could even mean a death sentence. Real rape is a terrible crime that traumatizes the female victim. However, from my viewpoint, throwing fake sex crime charges at an innocent man is an equal or worse crime. The Bible says – “Thou shalt not bear false witness.” It’s serious sh!t. Any woman or operative who participates in such a horrific charade deserves an appropriate response. If the Deep State #MeToo frameup trend continues. I respectfully suggest that the heads of convict-code based prison organizations (gangs) consider secondary in-house trials for “sex crime convicted” political prisoners to determine if the charges are real or state fabrications.
In summary, from my review of the data, best prison practices include:
- Mind your business aka “do your own time.” If you involve yourself, you’re involved, i.e., the violent predator who was the other guy’s problem becomes your problem. In a similar vein, never look into another prisoner’s cell when passing by it. Not only is that considered rude, but if he’s in the middle of hiding contraband and his cell gets searched later, guess who he’s blaming.
- Don’t snitch.
- Avoid gambling, borrowing, (hard) drugs, and “boys.”* (*No offense to gay people. It’s prison politics).
- Practice C&R (Courtesy and Respect). “Please, thank you, and excuse me” go a long way in civilian life, but even further in prison.
- Choose solid associates (“friends”). You’ll be judged by the company you keep. If your associate gets into a beef, you’ll be expected to back him up, and vice versa. Someone prone to drama could drag you in. If your associate borrows heavily and checks in or gets transferred, his debts could pass on to you.
For those facing potential incarceration for “hate speech,” “spreading misinformation,” questioning election results, posting offensive memes, attending protests, or similar crimes, I hope this article helps. If you need more data, there are informative YouTube channels hosted by ex-prisoners.
While prison seems to be the modality of choice, please note that the Deep State can always exercise the ultimate option to neutralize enemies. See Wikileaks DNC whistleblower Seth Rich. Or the quixotic veteran who believed in free and fair elections. Her name is Ashli Babbitt.
We live in a society run by criminals. Goldman Sachs stole way more money than John Dillinger, and the worst child killer pales in comparison to Madeleine Albright, who starved five hundred thousand Iraqi children to death and bragged about it on network television. The “rules” don’t apply to the donor class.
Outsourcing of jobs, endless war, corporate welfare, and banker theft increased poverty and raised crime levels. Formerly productive regions of the US became opioid/meth/crime/poverty zones. While prisons warehouse violent predators who pose a serious threat to public safety, it’s not uncommon for innocent poor people to take shorter sentence plea deals rather than risk going to trial with a checked-out public defender and potentially receiving a decades-long sentence. As America sinks further into third-worldism and despotism, former law-abiding citizens might need to go “Walter White” to pay medical bills, avoid homelessness, or practice basic civil rights.
Just like the Military Industrial Complex requires endless wars for its business model, the for-profit Prison Industrial Complex needs to fill beds. An influx of thought/political criminals into the system floats stocks. Not surprising that end-stage neoliberal capitalism America has the world’s highest incarceration rate.
For those who cheered Reagan-Clinton mandatory-minimum sentencing for nonviolent drug offenses while the CIA shipped in freight loads of coke and heroin to inner cities and the Sacklers drowned the heartland in a sea of opioids- congratulations, you’ve arrived at gulag nation. Welcome home son.
Israel provokes Iran with assassination in bid to draw the US into war
By Trita Parsi | December 25, 2023
Some brief analysis of the implications of the assassination of Iran’s top commander in Syria, Radhi Mousavi, presumably by Israel.
Bottom line: Israel either killed Mousavi as a warning to Iran, given Tehran’s support for the Houthis’ targeting of ships in the Red Sea, as a provocation to beget an Iranian response that would give Israel the pretext to enlarge the war, or as a preparatory move to enlarge the war regardless of Iran’s response.
It is very likely that Israel is behind the assassination of Mousavi since it is the only power with both a motive and capacity to pull off such a killing – not to mention a long history of assassinating Iranian operatives. The US has the capacity but not necessarily the motive. The analysis below rests on the rather safe assumption that Mousavi was assassinated by Israel.
US intelligence believes that Iran has been actively involved in the Houthi movement’s targeting of ships in the Red Sea, which has effectively closed the Bab el-Mandeb Strait for Israel and cost the Israeli economy billions of dollars. The Houthis insist they will continue the attacks – despite threats of retaliation from the US – until Israel ceases its bombardment of Gaza. Israel, of course, refuses and Biden is loath to press Israel for a ceasefire. From Israel’s perspective, Iran is not paying a price for its alleged role in the Red Sea attacks. The assassination may, as a result, be a warning to Iran that Israel has the capacity and willingness to exact a price from Iran – even in areas where the Iranians may have presumed that they are safe.
In a second scenario, the assassination may be a deliberate provocation to beget an Iranian response that would give Israel the pretext to enlarge the war. While the Biden administration has given Israel a complete green light to bomb Gaza to smithers, Biden opposes an expansion of the war since that very likely could drag the US into it. The debate inside the Israeli government is increasingly leaning toward expanding the war – they have already mobilized +300,000 troops and there is a growing belief in Israel that it simply is intolerable for Israel to live next to Hezbollah. They thought they could manage the threat from Hamas – and they couldn’t. Even though it wasn’t Hezbollah that attacked Israel on Oct 7, the Israeli argument is that next time it might be Hezbollah, and as a result, Israel has no choice but to expand the war. But unless there is an attack from Iran or Hezbollah itself, the US may continue to oppose such a move.
But the assassination of Mousavi may cause Iran to retaliate against Israel via Hezbollah, the reasoning goes, and Israel can then use Hezbollah’s action as a pretext to not only expand the war to Lebanon – but also force the US to go along with it.
There is also a third explanation. According to Amwaj Media, Mousavi was in charge of facilitating the entry of Iran-led forces and arms shipments to Syria as well as Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement. If Israel intends to attack Lebanon, taking out Mousavi could be a logical first step to disrupt the arming of Hezbollah as well as its supply lines. As such, the assassination may be a preparatory move to enlarge the war regardless of Iran’s response to the killing of Mousavi.
All of these scenarios point to one undeniable reality: As long as Biden refuses to pressure Israel to accept a ceasefire in Gaza, tensions in the region will continue to rise and the Middle East will gravitate towards a regional war that very likely will engulf the US as well. Biden may think that he can control these events and allow Israel to slaughter the people in Gaza while keeping a lid on the escalation risk. He is likely wrong – and the American people may soon find themselves in yet another unnecessary war in the Middle East because of Biden’s strategic incompetence.//
Time to fix Canada’s anti-Palestinian tax code
By Yves Engler | December 26, 2023
At the start of the month Sylvan Adams gave US$100 million to Ben-Gurion University. During a Toronto gala for the university’s Canadian fundraising branch the Canadian billionaire announced the money for “rebuilding and strengthening the south … in the wake of the Oct. 7th attack against Israel’s southern border communities.” Over the past ten weeks United Israel Appeal Canada has raised $100 million. After a recent Jewish National Fund of Canada fundraiser the registered charity’s executive Director Jeff Springer said, “We raised money for the war during this event.”
Throughout its history flare ups in Israeli violence have prompted an outpouring of financial assistance from Canadian Zionists. A significant share of that money has been underwritten by the public.
The Canadian tax code has long been used to subsidize projects in Israel and pro-apartheid groups have received large amounts in public grants. While little discussed, the ‘Zionifaction’ of charitable status is Canada’s most significant contribution to Palestinian dispossession.
Canadians provide a massive, unique, subsidy to Israel. Close to hundreds of million dollars a year in public money is funneled to a country that has long committed the crime of apartheid and tens of millions of dollars more goes to groups promoting anti-Palestinian policies within Canada.
Benefiting from the ability to grant tax credits covering as much as half of a donation, registered charities finance projects in Israel as well as Canada’s apartheid lobby. Additionally, many Canadian apartheid lobby groups receive direct government grants.
Over 200 registered Canadian charities finance projects in Israel. It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much they funnel to a country with a GDP per capita equal to Canada’s, but Just Peace Advocates research has put it at around a quarter billion dollars annually. A third of that sum would be covered by taxpayers through charitable write-offs.
Most years United Israel Appeal Canada is the largest single source of charity funds for Israel, sending between $50 and $110 million. It’s overseen by the Jewish federations of Toronto, Montréal, Winnipeg, Windsor, Calgary, Edmonton, Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Vancouver and Atlantic Canada. In addition to the funds raised by United Israel Appeal, the Jewish Federations raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Some of those funds are sent directly to projects in Israel.
The Federations organize Toronto’s Walk with Israel and Montréal’s annual Israel Day Celebration. The Federations also operate Israel Engagement initiatives that host Israeli teens who defer their military service for one year to volunteer to “teach about Israel through creative programs and challenging discussions.”
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), Canada’s most influential apartheid lobby group, “is the advocacy agent of Jewish Federations across Canada”. The Federations fund many other apartheid lobby groups and Israel ‘lobby sustaining’ organizations, which are pro-apartheid but not principally focused on Israel campaigning.
Beyond benefiting from charitable status, the federations receive tens of millions of dollars in direct federal, provincial and municipal grants. Last December Ottawa put up $25 million for the Vancouver Jewish Community Centre, which includes an “Israeli Department” and is adorned with Israeli flags. Similarly, Montreal’s Sylvan Adams YM-YWHA received $8 million in federal funding in March. The facility operated by the Montréal Federation is named after a billionaire who has plowed hundreds of millions of dollars into campaigning for Israel. In 2012 UJA Toronto received $30 million in federal and provincial funding to build a new community centre.
The Federations receive tens of millions of dollars more in government grants for various initiatives ranging from security assistance to educational projects. Overseen by Federation CJA, the Montréal Holocaust Museum recently received $40 million in provincial, municipal and federal funding for its expansion (as well as a similar amount in tax subsidized donations). But the Museum is a sponsor of the ongoing Montreal Israeli Film Festival with the Israeli Consul General, Israel Bonds and other groups. The Holocaust Museum says it “is proud to have taken part in the Canadian delegation” that helped develop the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) anti-Palestinian definition of antisemitism. When the Project Montréal municipal government refused to heed the apartheid lobby’s push to adopt the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism in 2020, the museum released a statement criticizing the party headlined “The Montreal Holocaust Museum regretfully notes the Montreal Mayor’s refusal to support the definition.”
In the last federal budget the Liberals provided $2.4 million for the Toronto Holocaust Museum, which is overseen by that city’s federation. An advocate of the IHRA’s anti-Palestinian definition of antisemitism, the Toronto Holocaust Museum also received half a million dollars in provincial funding. At the June launch of the museum speakers stood in front of Canadian, Ontario and Israeli flags.
The Federations provide funding to a slew of Israel lobby sustaining organizations from private schools to Hillels. One of those groups is Birthright Canada, which spends over three million dollars a year paying for young Jews to go to Israel. A dozen campus based Hillels are also among the federation assisted Israel lobby ‘sustaining’ registered charities. So are Israel studies and pro-apartheid Jewish studies programs established at universities by donors receiving generous tax credits.
As part of a “counterattack” against pro-Palestinian activism at Concordia, David Azrieli spent $5 million to establish Israel studies at that Montréal university (as well as $1 million on Jewish studies). More than $10 million in tax-deductible donations were made to the University of Toronto to establish the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Chair in Israeli Studies. Millions more were donated to launch similar initiatives at the University of Calgary, York, McGill and other universities.
Probably the most significant cog in the lobby ‘sustaining’ wheel, private Jewish schools generally indoctrinate young minds into worshiping a violent far away state oppressing millions. TanenbaumCHAT, Bnei Akiva and more than a dozen other registered charity schools raise around fifty million dollars annually in donations. With Québec offering unique support to private schools, pro-apartheid Jewish schools receive around $10 million in direct public grants annually.
After CIJA, B’nai B’rith is the second most influential Israel lobby group. The registered charity raises about ten million dollars a year (through multiple arms). Another influential charity lobby group is Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre with a $7 million budget.
Honest Reporting Canada, StandWithUs Canada and Hasbara Fellowships Canada are almost entirely focused on apartheid campaigning. These registered charities have a combined annual budget of $2 million.
Israel lobby and ‘sustaining’ organizations receive upwards of $100 million a year in direct government grants. Additionally, registered charities funneling money to Israel or Canadian apartheid lobby organizations raise half a billion dollars a year (around a third covered by taxpayers).
The ability to secure significant public assistance obviously reflects Israel lobby power. Simultaneously, it strengthens the lobby’s power as well as apartheid in Israel.
The subsidies must be countered. The first step to upending Canadian assistance to apartheid and the Israel lobby is to map it, which Just Peace Advocates is doing. Additionally, anti-apartheid forces should state clearly their opposition to the Jewish Federations receiving government grants so long as they funnel money to Israel and sponsor CIJA. While that demand will garner little immediate political traction, it’s an essential step towards politicizing the federations.
More immediately relevant are ongoing efforts to press the Canada Revenue Agency to apply its own rules regarding charities its empowered with special tax status. The CRA currently forbids registered charities from supporting foreign militaries, explicitly racist organizations and West Bank settlements yet a slew of Israel focused charities do just those things. Over the past year complaints have been submitted to the CRA detailing about a dozen different charities’ – with over $100 million in revenue – violating these rules. (CRA investigations and audits are confidential so the status of the complaints is unclear.) Many other charities should be challenged and more campaigning is needed to press the CRA to take action, which they have done with Israel-focused charities. (In recent years the CRA has revoked the charitable status of a dozen organizations providing funds to Israel.)
Removing groups’ charitable status and dampening the flow of public funds to the apartheid lobby is paramount, but there’s also an ideological value to the campaigning. While apartheid apologists complain incessantly about Israel being unfairly “singled out”, pushing the CRA to apply its own rules towards massive subsidies highlights how Israel is in fact singled out for special treatment. No other wealthy, faraway, country receives a remotely comparable amount of charity fundraising.
In essence, Canada’s tax code and government grant system are structured to enable a wealthy, apartheid state, committing genocide in Gaza at the expense of the colonized Palestinians. Whether through legal or political channels, it’s imperative to push back against the staggering sums of public funds subsidizing Israel and sustaining the apartheid lobby in Canada.
Biden’s plan to ‘revive Palestinian Authority’ fizzles out: Report
The Cradle | December 26, 2023
The US government has run into a significant hurdle in its campaign to “revitalize” the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) as possible successors to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, failing to convince Israel to unblock funds necessary to prevent the PA from total collapse.
“Even if we agreed [to take over for Hamas in Gaza], how can we implement it? The policy of Israel is to weaken the authority, not strengthen it,” PA Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the Washington Post. “We cannot even pay the salaries of our soldiers, our employees,” he added.
Despite round-the-clock visits to the heavily fortified PA headquarters in Ramallah and meetings with Israeli authorities, US officials have made little progress in securing the release of millions in Palestinian tax money that Israel has blocked since 7 October.
Two months ago, the Israeli finance ministry – led by Jewish supremacist official Bezalel Smotrich – froze the transfer of tax revenues amounting to some $188 million monthly to the PA.
“The PA didn’t see fit to distance itself from these barbarian actions, and officials in the authority even expressed support for the awful massacre […] Furthermore, the PA is acting against Israel at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice,” Smotrich said on 30 October.
The tax revenues – known in Palestine as maqasa – are collected by the Israeli government on behalf of the PA on Palestinian imports and exports. Israel earns a commission of 3 percent of collected revenues.
On Friday, the European Commission said it was preparing a $130 million aid package to help plug the gap.
According to Sabri Saidam, a member of the central committee for the Fatah party and close adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, plans for Palestinians to receive their tax revenue have “collapsed.”
Besides finding ways to avert the financial collapse of the PA, US officials have also been pushing for “changes and new faces in key positions” in a last-ditch effort to improve the public image of the deeply unpopular organization.
According to a recent poll from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 88 percent of Palestinians want Abbas to resign as PA President, up 10 points from three months ago.
Meanwhile, the popularity of Hamas has soared in the occupied West Bank, from 12 percent to 44 percent.
“It’s always this colonizing mentality, whereby, ‘We decide your leadership, we are the ones basically designing your strategy for the day after, we tell you how to live, we tell you how to breathe, and we tell you how to run your land,’” Saidam told the Washington Post.
The PA was established in 1994 based on the first Oslo Accords (1993) between Tel Aviv and the now-defunct Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). It was initially established as a temporary governing body to lay the foundation for an independent Palestinian state.
However, after decades of corruption allegations, collaboration scandals, and a poor human rights record, the PA was in a state of “total inertia” before the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation unfolded on 7 October.
Complicating matters further for Washington, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is staunchly opposed to a PA-controlled Gaza.
“Expectation that the Palestinian Authority will demilitarize Gaza is a pipe dream,” Netanyahu says in an op-ed published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Monday.
“[The PA] has shown neither the capability nor the will to demilitarize Gaza,” the premier added, claiming that Ramallah “currently funds and glorifies terrorism […] and educates Palestinian children to seek the destruction of Israel.”
“For the foreseeable future, Israel will have to retain overriding security responsibility over Gaza,” Netanyahu stressed.
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“Democratic Institutions?” – 10 Lessons from history that will destroy your trust in the CIA
By Kit | OffGuardian | July 20, 2018
… At every corner, we are urged to simply believe what we are told. Whether it is about believing Porton Down and MI6 about “novichok”, or believing the White Helmets about Sarin, or believing the FBI about “collusion”, we are presented with no facts, just assertions from authority. Those who question those assertions are deemed “bots” at best or “traitors” at worst.
Well here, fellow traitors, are the Top Ten reasons to question anything and everything the CIA – or any intelligence agency – has ever told you. … Read full article
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- Beyond The Pitch: Why FIFA’s World Cup Is One Of Humanity’s Best Investments
- Climate Alarmists Now Using Natural Phenomena To Support Their Claims
- New Study: Significant CO2 Fluxes From Non-Volcanic Sources Are Largely Neglected In Carbon Budgets
- Women Climate Scientists Being Harassed, Insulted By Skeptics, Claims Berkeley Earth Researcher
- Germany’s Longterm Spring Climate Data Show “No Climate Trend”
- New Study: Solar Photovoltaic, Wind Power Fail To Meet Annual Energy Demands 62% Of The Time
- Germany’s Die Welt: “Too Much Is Too Much” … Green Energies Are Cannabalizing Each Other!
- Germany’s Ecological Holocaust… Once Fairy Tale Forests Getting Cleared For Wind Turbines
- A Grand Solar Minimum Has Arrived…Global Cooling Of At Least 1°C Is Expected By The 2030s, 2040s
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