Another Report on Israel’s Genocide. More Silence & Complicity From The Liberal West
By John J. Mearsheimer | May 11, 2025
The UN Human Rights Council has issued a lengthy report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide.” As the title indicates, it describes in detail the ongoing Israeli Genocide in Gaza.
Despite the abundance of evidence regarding Israel’s savagery, the liberal West not only does virtually nothing to stop it, but is actually complicit in the genocide.
Where are all those liberal academics, activists, journalists, and policymakers who have spent much of their adult life preaching about human rights and the virtues of the liberal international order? They are AWOL in the face of one of the great crimes of modern times.
Alex Lo, the distinguished columnist for The South China Morning Post, hits the nail on the head in his recent column, which is titled: “The Western World Has Already Dug Its Own Grave in Gaza War.”
He goes on to say: “By enabling Israel to unleash its genocidal impulse, most leaders of developed nations have crossed a moral red line that cannot be undone.”
The following three paragraphs from Lo are especially worth considering:
The most extraordinary censorship is being exercised across many Western countries, but especially in the United States and Germany, to silence anyone who tries to speak out what everyone already knows is going on in Palestine. It is no accident that the two countries that make the most of the Holocaust as universal civic education are the two countries that most actively enable a real-time genocide being committed and shown live on our computer screens and social media pages.
Silencing the victims’ cries so the killers can continue with the butchery, and criticism is considered racial hate speech against the killers and their apologists. Who does that?
The West cares more about the feelings of the butchers than the lives and limbs of victims. Western ‘civilisation’ now sounds like a contradiction in terms.
Ball’s in Trump’s Court, But Iran Won’t Bow to US Pressure
By Ekaterina Blinova – Sputnik – 15.05.2025
There is a good possibility of a US-Iranian deal, Mohammad Marandi, a Tehran University professor who was on Iran’s team during the 2015 nuclear talks, tells Sputnik.
Marandi stresses, however, that Tehran won’t accept any agreement that infringes on the nation’s sovereignty.
Reduced, Not Suspended, Enrichment
“The reason why [Iran is] enriching uranium at 60% right now is in order to put pressure on the US to come to the negotiating table, to behave more reasonably and to force it to remove sanctions,” the professor tells Sputnik.
The US shouldn’t expect Iran to halt its uranium enrichment – Tehran will only reduce enrichment levels and expand the IAEA’s role in the country in exchange for US sanctions relief, the academic stresses.
“Iran is a country that’s deeply and profoundly independent in its foreign policy… so the US should not expect Iran to be a subordinate country.”
What’s the Real Cause of the US-Iranian Row?
- The root cause is “Iran’s support for the Palestinian people and… legitimate resistance to ethnic cleansing, to genocide, to apartheid,” says Marandi.
- “The US supports genocide, because they unconditionally support racism… and ethno-supremacism in our region.”
- The nuclear issue is an excuse — just like the “human rights” or “terrorism” accusations the US uses against Iran to appease Israel.
US: An Irresponsible Negotiator?
The US isn’t a trustworthy negotiator; it violates agreements, according to Marandi: Trump is constantly “flip-flopping” — be it Ukraine, trade wars, Yemen, or Gaza genocide.
“This is what makes it very difficult to come to any agreement,” the pundit concludes.
BBC’s May 14 interview with Gaza aid chief was shameful
By Jonathan Cook | May 14, 2025
There was yet more shameful reporting by BBC News at Ten last night, with international editor Jeremy Bowen the chief culprit this time.
He prefaced an interview with Philippe Lazzarini, head of United Nations refugee agency UNRWA, with an utterly unwarranted disclaimer – as though he was talking to a terrorist, not a leading human rights advocate who has been desperately trying to keep the last aid life-lines open to the people of Gaza as they are being actively starved to death by Israel.
The only time I can remember Bowen prefacing an interview in such apologetic terms was when he interviewed Hamas’ deputy political chief, Khalil al-Hayya, last October.
That was shameful too. But at least on that occasion, Bowen had an excuse: under Britain’s draconian Terrorism Act, saying or doing anything that might be viewed as favouring Hamas can land you with a 14-year prison sentence for supporting terrorism.
But why on earth would Bowen imply that Lazzarini’s remarks – on the intense suffering of Gaza’s population in the third month of a complete Israeli aid blockade – need to be treated with caution, in the same manner as those of a Hamas leader?
For one reason only. Because Israel, quite preposterously and for completely self-serving reasons, claims UNRWA is a front for Hamas. Since January, Israel has outlawed the organisation from operating in the Palestinian territories it continues to illegally occupy. As ever, the BBC is terrified of upsetting the Israelis.
Israel has long wanted UNRWA out of the picture because it is the last significant organisation to uphold the rights of Palestinian refugees enshrined in international law. It is, therefore, a major obstacle to Israel ethnically cleansing Palestinians from what is left of their homeland.
Before airing the interview with Lazzarini, Bowen cautioned: “Israel says he is a liar, and that his organisation has been infiltrated by Hamas. But I felt it was important to talk to him for a number of reasons.
“First off, the British government deals with him, and funds his organisation. Which is the largest dealing with Palestinian refugees. They know a lot of what is going on, so therefore I think it is important to speak to people like him.”
Bowen would never consider prefacing an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu in a similar manner, even though the following would actually be truthful and far more deserved:
“The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, accusing him of crimes against humanity. But I felt it was important to talk to him for a number of reasons.
“First off, the British government deals with him, and sends weapons to his military to carry out the crimes he is accused of. As its leader, he obviously knows a lot about what Israel is up to, so therefore I think it is important to speak to someone like him.”
Can you imagine the BBC ever introducing Netanyahu in that way? Of course, you can’t – even though, in journalistic, ethical and legal terms, it would be fully warranted.
But in the case the Lazzarini, there are absolutely no grounds for such a prologue – except to promote an Israeli pro-genocide agenda. Bowen’s remarks suggest he needs to explain why, in the midst of an Israeli-engineered famine in Gaza, the BBC would choose to speak to one of the most knowledgeable public figures about that starvation.
Bowen’s resort to an explanation instantly paints Lazzarini as problematic and controversial. It aligns with, and reinforces, Israel’s entirely bogus conflation of UNRWA and Hamas.
Even were Israel’s claims about UNRWA true of local staff in Gaza – and Israel has supplied precisely no evidence they are, as Lazzarini makes clear in a longer edit of the interview that aired on the BBC’s Six O’Clock News – that would in no way implicate Lazzarini. His remarks in the interview, on the catastrophic suffering of Gaza, are echoed by all aid agencies.
Bowen’s apologetic tone not only served to undercut the power of what Lazzarini was saying, but bolstered Israel’s ridiculous smears of UNRWA. That will have delighted Israel, and given it a little bit more leeway to carry on the starvation of Gaza, even as the first establishment voices tentatively start calling time on the genocide – 19 months too late.
Notice this from Bowen too. He asks Lazzarini: ‘When people look back on what’s been happening in the future, will they see, actually, a big international failure?”
Lazzarini responds: “I think in the coming years we will realise how wrong we have been, how on the wrong side of history we have been. We have, under our watch, let a massive atrocity unfold.”
Bowen jumps in: “Would you include the 7th of October in that?”
Lazzarini answers: “I would definitely include the 7th of October.”
But the set-up from Bowen is entirely unfair. He asks Lazzarini a question about “international failure” in relation to Gaza, and Lazzarini responds about the failure by the West to do anything to stop an atrocity – more properly a genocide – unfold over the past 19 months.
The events of 7 October 2023 are irrelevant to that discussion. There has been no “international failure” to support Israel. The West has armed it to the hilt and prioritised the suffering caused to Israelis by Hamas’ one-day attack over the incomparably greater suffering caused to Palestinians by 19 months of Israel’s slaughter and starvation.
Bowen’s interjected question about 7 October is a nonsense. It is levered in simply to cast further doubt on Lazzarini’s good faith in the hope of placating Israel, or at least providing the BBC with a defence when Israel goes on the offensive against Bowen for speaking to UNRWA.
The atrocities carried out on October 7 occurred in the context of decades of brutal and illegal Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories, of settlement expansion and apartheid rule, and of a 16-year siege of Gaza.
The international community was certainly on the “wrong side of history”, but not in the sense Bowen intends or Lazzarini infers from Bowen’s question. The West failed because it did precisely nothing to stop Israel’s brutalisation of the Palestinian people over those many decades – in fact, the West assisted Israel – and thereby guaranteed that Palestinians in Gaza would seek to break out of their concentration camp sooner or later.
Lazzarini’s remarks on the catastrophe in Gaza should be seen as self-evident. But Bowen and the BBC undermined his message by framing him and his organisation as suspect – and all because Israel, a criminal state starving the people of Gaza, has made an entirely unfounded allegation against the organisation trying to stop its crimes against humanity.
This is the same pattern of smears from Israel that has claimed all 36 hospitals in Gaza are Hamas “command and control centres” – again without a shred of evidence – to justify it bombing them all, leaving Gaza’s population without any meaningful health care system as malnutrition and starvation take hold.
Israel struck another hospital yesterday, the European Hospital in Khan Younis, as medics there were waiting to evacuate sick and injured children. The attack killed at least 28 people and injured many more, including a BBC freelance journalist who was conducting an interview there as the missiles hit.
Notably, BBC News at Ten blanked out its journalist’s face, adding: “For his safety, we are not revealing his name.” The BBC did not explain who the journalist needed protecting from, or why.
That is because the BBC rarely mentions that Israel has assassinated more than 200 Palestinian journalists in Gaza, as well as banning all foreign correspondents from entering the enclave, in its attempts to limit news coverage and smear what does come out as Hamas propaganda. Israel understands it is easier to commit genocide in the dark.
You might assume a major news organisation like the BBC would wish to be seen showing at least some solidarity with those being murdered for doing journalism – some of them while working to provide the BBC with news. You would be wrong.
We shouldn’t pretend that it was Bowen’s choice to attach such a disgraceful disclaimer to his interview. We all understand that he is under enormous pressure, both from within the BBC and outside.
BBC executives have appointed and protected Raffi Berg, a man who publicly counts a former senior figure in Israel’s spy agency Mossad as a friend, to oversee the corporation’s Middle East coverage.
And as the late Greg Philo reported in his 2011 book More Bad News from Israel, a BBC News editor told him at that time: “We wait in fear for the telephone call from the Israelis”. Things are far, far worse 14 years on.
Excuses won’t wash any longer. We are 19 months into a genocide. Helping Israel to launder its crimes is to become complicit in them. No journalist should be allowing themselves to be pressured into this kind of moral and professional failure.
Netanyahu: Israel is destroying Gaza so Palestinians are forced to leave
MEMO | May 14, 2025
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Sunday that Tel Aviv is “destroying more and more houses [in Gaza] so the Palestinians will have nowhere to return,” according to quotes from the session leaked to the media.
“The only obvious result will be Gazans choosing to emigrate outside of the Strip,” Netanyahu continued, adding that Israel’s “main problem is finding countries to take them in.”
“I know I will disappoint some people here, but we are not talking about Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip right now,” Netanyahu told lawmakers.
According to partial transcripts from the meeting leaked to the Israeli Maariv newspaper, Member of the Knesset Limor Son Har-Melech replied: “Bring the Jews of the United States [to settle Gaza]. That way, we can kill two birds with one stone.”
Netanyahu also claimed that the US “remains interested in the plan to take over the Strip’s administration” but the Times of Israel quoted sources familiar with the matter as saying that the Trump administration has put minimal effort into actually advancing Trump’s Gaza takeover plan since it was announced in early February following the massive pushback it received from Arab allies.
The Israeli military has destroyed most of the Gaza Strip during the ongoing military operations, displacing 1.9 million Palestinians multiple times within the Strip, amid deteriorating humanitarian conditions.
Israel has also imposed a complete blockade on the Strip, preventing the entry of food, water, fuel, medicines and all humanitarian aid since early March, exacerbating the suffering of the besieged population.
US court hits Israeli spyware firm NSO with $167m fine over Pegasus abuses
MEMO | May 14, 2025
A federal jury in California has ordered Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group to pay Meta $167 million in punitive damages, marking the first time a court has imposed financial liability on a spyware vendor for abuses linked to its software.
The ruling sends a strong signal that private firms profiting from invasive surveillance technology will not be shielded by their association with government clients. After a single day of deliberation, jurors found that NSO had acted with “malice, oppression or fraud” in deploying its Pegasus spyware against 1,400 WhatsApp users.
Pegasus, which grants near-total access to a target’s device, including microphones, cameras and encrypted messages, was used not against criminals, but journalists, human rights defenders and political dissidents. Meta, which owns WhatsApp, described the hacking as “despicable” and a clear violation of privacy rights.
NSO has long claimed that its spyware is sold only to vetted state clients for national security purposes. However, investigations have shown Pegasus being deployed to facilitate transnational repression by authoritarian regimes.
The previous US administration blacklisted NSO over its role in such abuses, making it the first company added to the US entity list for enabling state surveillance. The jury’s decision is expected to add pressure on Washington to further regulate the commercial spyware sector.
While the financial penalty may prove difficult to collect, the judgement itself sets a precedent: spyware firms can be held directly accountable in US courts, regardless of the state affiliations of their customers.
In doing so, the case reframes digital privacy not merely as a user expectation, but as a civil right and signals that the impunity long enjoyed by private surveillance actors is coming to an end.
F-35 near-misses over Yemen signal new risks for ‘Israel’
Al Mayadeen | May 14, 2025
US F-16 and F-35 fighter jets encountered heavy close-range fire from Ansar Allah air defenses during Operation Rough Rider, the two-month US aggression against Ansar Allah that was launched by President Donald Trump in mid-March, according to Forbes.
According to a Monday report by The New York Times, unspecified Ansar Allah air defenses came dangerously close to striking US fourth-generation F-16s and fifth-generation F-35s during the initial 30 days of Operation Rough Rider, raising concerns about potential American casualties. During the same period, Ansar Allah forces successfully shot down seven MQ-9 Reaper drones.
The potential downing of a US fighter jet and the resulting capture of a pilot by Ansar Allah forces presented a scenario that the current administration was determined to avoid, Forbes stated.
The loss of one of America’s exclusively exported stealth fighters to Ansar Allah air defenses, which had previously been considered largely improvised and relatively rudimentary, would have dealt a severe blow to US fighter jet prestige while potentially jeopardizing future arms export agreements.
‘Israel’ faces similar risks
Forbes highlighted that the near-misses involving US F-35s during operations over Yemen carry significant consequences for “Israel” as well, particularly since the Israeli Air Force initiated its first long-range strikes against Ansar Allah in July 2024 following a successful drone attack by the group that reached Tel Aviv. In March, shortly after initiating Operation Rough Rider, the US advised “Israel” against carrying out further attacks.
Trump declared the Yemen ceasefire shortly after “Israel” conducted strikes following an Ansar Allah missile attack that had successfully hit its major airport near Tel Aviv.
While US Marine Corps F-35Bs conduct operations from amphibious assault ships and Navy F-35Cs launch from supercarriers positioned near Yemen’s coast, “Israel” lacks comparable forward deployment capabilities for its F-35Is, forcing them to rely on aerial refueling to cover the more than 1,000-mile flight distance and severely limiting their available loiter time over Yemeni airspace during missions.
Given that Ansar Allah’s air defenses have already posed risks to US F-35s, Israeli F-35Is conducting long-range missions could also face similar threats, and if one were to be shot down over Yemen, it would provide Ansar Allah with an unprecedented image of a victory, according to the US magazine.
Future Israeli F-35I sorties over Yemen will likely avoid operating at maximum combat capability to minimize risk exposure.
UNIFIL Raises Alarm Over Israeli Aggression Near Blue Line
Al-Manar | May 14, 2025
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expressed serious concern over what it described as “recent hostile actions” by the Israeli occupation forces targeting UN peacekeepers and UN property near the Blue Line, including a direct fire incident on Monday.
Direct Hit on UNIFIL Base
In an official statement, UNIFIL reported that around 7:20 PM on Monday, peacekeepers observed two gunshots fired from the so-called “Israeli side” of the Blue Line. One of the bullets directly struck a UNIFIL base near the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Shouba.
“This marks the first direct hit on a UNIFIL site since the cessation of hostilities agreement on November 27, 2024,” the statement noted.
UNIFIL also documented at least four other incidents in recent days involving Israeli fire near its positions along the Blue Line. The mission cited additional “hostile behavior” by the Israeli occupation forces targeting peacekeepers conducting operational activities in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
Laser Targeting and Drone Harassment
The statement detailed several other troubling encounters. On Monday, UN peacekeepers patrolling with the Lebanese Army near Maroun Al-Ras reported being targeted with a laser beam from an Israeli occupation army position.
A similar incident occurred on May 7 near Alma Al-Shaab, when a UNIFIL patrol was illuminated with laser beams from two Israeli Merkava tanks.
As the patrol moved, a drone flew overhead at a low altitude of approximately five meters and followed it for nearly a kilometer. In a separate incident the same day, a reconnaissance drone repeatedly circled a UNIFIL site near the town of Houla.
UNIFIL Lodges Protest
UNIFIL strongly condemned these actions, reaffirming its protest and urging all parties to uphold their responsibility to ensure the safety and security of UN personnel and property.
“The sanctity of UN premises, personnel, and assets must be respected at all times,” the mission emphasized.
Israeli massacre at Gaza hospital leaves at least 28 killed, 70 injured
Al Mayadeen | May 13, 2025
In a new escalation of its ongoing war on Gaza, the Israeli occupation military committed a massacre at the Gaza European Hospital on Tuesday evening, targeting the facility and its surroundings in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, with a series of intensive airstrikes.
Al Mayadeen’s correspondent reported that the Israeli airstrikes struck multiple sections of the hospital, including the entrance to the emergency department, the courtyard between the maintenance and anthropology departments, and areas adjacent to two shelter centers: Ehsan al-Agha and Jenin.
The attack caused extensive destruction and resulted in multiple fatalities and injuries, with bodies still trapped under the rubble.
Gaza Civil Defense: At least 28 killed, 70 injured
According to Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal, the bodies of 28 martyrs were recovered from the area around the Gaza European Hospital, which had come under fire belts by the Israeli military. He added that more than 70 people were injured, many of them seriously.
The hospital was reportedly hit with at least six missiles, leading to the collapse of several facilities and severe structural damage. Following the attack, Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, declared a state of maximum emergency, unable to cope with the influx of casualties or take on the burden of patients transferred from the now-disabled hospital.
Medical teams were forced to evacuate the wounded and patients from the Gaza European Hospital to Nasser Medical Complex, as the infrastructure of the former could no longer support medical operations.
The actual death toll is expected to be higher as rescue operations remain obstructed by continuous air raids.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Israeli occupation forces bombed the burn unit of Nasser Medical Hospital, killing several Palestinians, including renowned journalist Hassan Eslaih, whose powerful and unflinching photography has brought global attention to the harrowing massacres committed since the outset of the Israeli genocide.
Palestinian Resistance denies claims about targeted leader
In response to Israeli media reports suggesting that a Palestinian Resistance leader was present at the hospital site, a senior figure in the Resistance affirmed that such claims were untrue.
“Loser Netanyahu is trying to please the Zionist right by claiming that he is achieving success in Gaza,” the senior figure indicated.
Civil Defense condemns Israeli targeting of rescue teams
Gaza’s Civil Defense confirmed that its teams remain unable to access the site of the massacre due to heavy and continuous Israeli shelling. Attempts to retrieve the remaining bodies scattered around the Gaza European Hospital have been thwarted by the Israeli occupation’s deliberate targeting of rescuers.
In a statement, the Civil Defense condemned the attack on its personnel as they attempted to evacuate civilians from a bombed residential building near the customs checkpoint in eastern Khan Younis. The same building was bombed again by Israeli forces while the rescue operation was underway, injuring two crew members and forcing the team to retreat without being able to save trapped civilians.
Continued Israeli raids on Khan Younis, Gaza City
Simultaneously, Israeli strikes continued across other parts of Khan Younis. Two civilians were killed and others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a tent near the Asdaa Gate, west of the city. Another round of airstrikes hit Aabasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis.
Elsewhere, Civil Defense teams reported recovering 10 bodies and 16 injured civilians from the Afghan family home, targeted by Israeli warplanes near the customs checkpoint in eastern Khan Younis.
In Gaza City, Israeli shelling was concentrated on eastern neighborhoods, including al-Shujaiya, al-Zaytun, al-Tuffah, and the area near al-Shawa Square, resulting in additional casualties and widespread destruction.
Gaza death toll surpasses 52,900
The Gaza Ministry of Health announced earlier on Tuesday that the death toll from the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has now exceeded 52,900 martyrs, with more than 119,700 injured. Since March 18 alone, over 2,700 have been martyred and more than 7,600 wounded.
Hundreds of bodies remain under the rubble and in the streets, unreachable due to relentless Israeli attacks and debris blocking access.
Ambulance and Civil Defense teams face immense challenges in responding, as they themselves are targeted in what officials describe as a systematic effort to paralyze rescue efforts.
Are UK Atrocities in Afghanistan a Smokescreen for IDF Defenders?
Sputnik – 13.05.2025
Emerging reports about atrocities perpetrated by British special forces against civilians in Afghanistan may be a part of a “preemptive defense” of the IDF, former Pentagon analyst Ret. Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.
If and when stories of “the incredibly disturbing activities of the UK- and US-supported IDF in Gaza” come out, the public would already be taught beforehand that “war is awful, civilians and sleeping children are always killed and it’s just a few bad apples.”
Regarding the UK soldiers and officers involved in illegal activities in Afghanistan, Kwiatkowski believes they should be placed on unpaid leave and “tried in a legal court.”
Any key eyewitnesses and whistleblowers “need immediate protection from suicide or accidents,” Kwiatkowski adds.
Michigan AG Pins Blame for Failed Prosecutions of Student Protesters on Rep. Debbie Dingell
The Michigan attorney general provided no evidence for her claim, which Dingell rejected
By Ryan Grim and Tom Perkins | Drop Site | May 11, 2025
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel continues to do damage control in the wake of her failed prosecution of student protesters at the University of Michigan. Nessel was forced to drop charges against students who had been arrested at a pro-Palestinian encampment last year after the judge overseeing the case indicated he was sympathetic to the defense’s argument that Nessel had been improperly biased against the defendants.
This week, in public remarks on the prosecution, she claimed without evidence that Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan had been the one who urged her to charge students involved in protests over Gaza. Pinning the pressure for the prosecutions on Dingell was Nessel’s way of arguing that the bias claims made against her were inaccurate—that she was not in fact pushed to take the cases by donors to her campaign who serve as senior officials at the university, but rather by the local congresswoman, Dingell.
“I heard it was from the Jewish Regents,”—that is, the Jewish members of the University of Michigan Board of Regents—“they forced me to take these cases,” Nessel said at an event this week called a “Town Hall on Hate Crimes & Extremism” in West Bloomfield Township. “I heard it was from the [Michigan Legislative] Jewish Caucus because of the money I get from them. I heard it was from Jewish donors. You know how those cases came to my office? Debbie Dingell. Debbie Dingell, I don’t know if you know this: Not Jewish. But it had to be some sort of Jewish influence.”
In a statement to Drop Site, Dingell spokesperson Michaela Johnson suggested the congresswoman was not behind the investigations, pointing to a May 2024 letter from Nessel’s office to the university in which Nessel offered to take over any investigations. The letter, which has not previously been reported, makes no reference to Dingell, but instead suggests that protests outside the homes of Board of Regents members triggered Nessel to launch an effort targeting student protesters.
“Nessel did not write the letter at our request, and Rep. Dingell had not seen that letter until today,” Johnson said. Dingell represents Ann Arbor, but previously represented Dearborn until redistricting in 2014, and she still has strong ties to the Arab-American community there. But she has remained largely silent with regard to the protests.
Amir Makled, an attorney for some of the students, said he called Dingell’s office on Friday to ask about Nessel’s allegations. He said a Dingell staffer denied the congresswoman had pushed for the investigation.
Makled said he didn’t think it was done at Dingell’s behest, but he said Dingell has been involved with the discussions because the incident occurred in her district, and she “has been giving lip service to all sides.”
But, he added, “Nessel is trying to do anything to deflect blame for her office’s misdeeds – that much seems clear to me.”
Nessel’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment over the weekend.
The university, its regents and Nessel have denied that the school recruited the attorney general.
This was not the first time Nessel had pointed the finger at Dingell. She told a local reporter several weeks ago that “the congresswoman from the 6th Congressional District” – Dingell – had put her up to it. “I stand behind the evidence and I stand behind the charges, and I appreciate the fact that this matter was referred by the congresswoman from the 6th Congressional District, who asked the state to intervene because they were concerned about what was happening on campus,” she said. “I believe what we did was the right thing, and that will be borne out in court.”
Following that report, supporters of the students who’d been charged approached Dingell at an event on March 3 to ask if Nessel’s allegation was true. According to an audio recording provided to Drop Site, it was not. “She’s told a lot of people a lot of stuff,” Dingell told the students. She was then asked directly by Jared Eno, a grad student at Michigan, if that was true: “No!” Dingell said. “She called the university and offered.” The letter supports that claim.
Nessel, in her remarks at the town hall, again claimed Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan had accused her of bias linked to her Jewish background, but Tlaib’s public statements have never referenced this. “I think people at the University of Michigan put pressure on her to do this, and she fell for it,” Tlaib had said. “I think President Ono and Board of Regent members were very much heavy-handed in this.” UMich President Santa Ono, the only person Tlaib named as having applied pressure to Nessel, is not Jewish.
The AG letter was sent to Timothy G. Lynch, vice president and general counsel at the University of Michigan, and signed by Danielle Hagaman-Clark, a prosecutor in Nessel’s office. “I write today to offer the DAG’s assistance with investigating and prosecuting any cases that arise from the recent demonstrations on UM’s campus,” she wrote. “It has been widely reported that the demonstrators have not limited their protests to the campus but have also appeared at the homes of the Board of Regents. My understanding is that the Regents are not required to live in Washtenaw County, the location of UM, but that they reside in several different counties. Because the DAG has state-wide criminal authority to bring charges, we are ideally situated to review any potential cases.”
The reference to the protests outside the homes of Regents matches reporting that suggested those demonstrations, even more than the encampments, enraged the board members, who urged Nessel to prosecute.
Nessel’s prosecutor added her office was well suited to determine whether any of the speech from the protesters was illegal. “I would also note that our Department has specialized expertise in the intersection of First Amendment free speech rights in the context of a criminal prosecution. We are fluent in the law around what speech is protected and what speech is not protected,” said Hagaman-Clark, making the pitch to Michigan. The letter was sent shortly after local prosecutor Eli Savit (who is also Jewish) declined to prosecute 36 of 40 protesters arrested in connection with the occupation of an administration building, and recommended four others for diversion. “General Nessel has discussed the potential jurisdictional issues that might arise with Washtenaw County Prosecutor Eli Savit. Prosecutor Savit recognizes that his authority is confined to Washtenaw County. He is comfortable with the DAG overseeing these cases based on his jurisdiction being limited to only Washtenaw County.”
In her effort at damage control this week, Nessel claimed Dingell’s supposed request was common. “Now it’s not unusual for a congressional representative to call up the department of the attorney general and to call the attorney general herself and say ‘I’m really worried about what I see to be criminal activity occurring and either the local prosecutor is not doing anything about it,’ or ‘they’re not equipped to do anything about it. But I am scared about what I am seeing. And I think the AG’s office has to take action.’”
Nessel also told the town hall audience that she dropped the charges because the judge had ordered an evidentiary hearing into the defense’s charge that Nessel was biased against the defendants. Defense attorneys, in their recent motion to disqualify Nessel’s office over bias, pointed to a previous analysis that found she had prosecuted protesters at a much higher rate than other prosecutors in the state.
They also pointed to Nessel recusing herself from an investigation into alleged election fraud by Muslim-American city council members in nearby Hamtramck. Nessel said she wanted to avoid the appearance of bias because she was Jewish and the suspects were of Arab descent. She also noted that she had previously been critical of the Hamtramck City Council. In their motion to disqualify Nessel’s office, defense attorneys questioned how she could consider herself biased in Hamtramck but unbiased in Ann Arbor under similar circumstances.
A letter sent by the Jewish Federation of Ann Arbor to the judge urging him to allow her to remain on the case, she said, put improper pressure on the judge and should not have been sent. And the cases against the students were becoming a distraction to staff, she added, who couldn’t even attend a job fair without being “shut down by protesters.”
“We elected that rather than me being put on trial for being a Jewish prosecutor, and rather than having the federation be put on trial for an email they should not have sent—but the kind that gets sent all the time—that we would dismiss the charges against those particular defendants,” she said. An evidentiary hearing would have opened her office to discovery and made public communications about how the cases came together. Defense attorneys say she wanted to avoid that.
Liz Jacob, an attorney from the Sugar Law Center, said the claim from Nessel was another effort to deflect responsibility. “It’s alarming to see the ways that Nessel is trying to avoid accountability for her repression of free speech and brutal targeting of protesters at all costs,” Jacob said. “Both in that video and over the last several months AG Nessel has tried to blame anyone—from Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib to Debbie Dingell to the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor—to deflect criticism regarding her own deplorable treatment of pro-Palestine protesters.”
Nessel’s decision was a serious one, and Nessel should treat it seriously, Jacob said. “As the Attorney General who is directing the FBI to raid protesters homes and bringing baseless and retaliatory criminal charges against protesters, it is Nessel who must bear responsibility for targeting young people who bravely speak out against war and genocide. Nessel’s actions speak for themselves — she has aligned herself with the Trump administration’s criminalization and repression of pro-Palestine speech,” she said.
Google knew Israel may use its tools for rights violations: Report
Press TV – May 12, 2025
American technology giant Google knew that a powerful cloud-computing tool it was supplying to the Israeli regime as part of a contract four years ago could be used for rights violations against the Palestinians, according to the findings of a report.
The Monday report by The Intercept said it had obtained internal Google documents showing the company feared it wouldn’t be able to control Israel’s misuse of its technology to harm Palestinians.
The report said that Google understood that the way its Project Nimbus deal had been designed could deprive it of the ability to prevent the Israeli regime and military from using the software against Palestinians.
The tech giant also knew that the multi-billion-dollar deal won in 2021 would obligate it to stonewall criminal investigations by other countries into Israel’s use of the technology, said the report.
It said that experts hired by Google had recommended that the company withhold machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) tools from Israel because of these risk factors.
International law experts told The Intercept that Google’s awareness of the risks of misusing the Project Nimbus by the Israeli government and army may pose legal liability for the company.
“They’re aware of the risk that their products might be used for rights violations … At the same time, they will have limited ability to identify and ultimately mitigate these risks,” said León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, a lawyer with the Asser Institute for International and European Law in The Hague.
The revelations come as Israel continues its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, where it has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands more since launching an invasion against the territory in October 2023.
There have been reports suggesting that the Israeli regime has used AI tools supplied by US technology firms to target and kill civilians in Gaza.
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Inside Job? Inside What?
By Prof. Tony Hall | American Herald Tribune | July 28, 2016
The Kevin Barrett-Chomsky Dispute in Historical Perspective – Sixth part of the series titled “9/11 and the Zionist Question”
In his chapter on “Left Gatekeepers” and the “Shame of Noam Chomsky,” Barrie Zwicker refers to the the “New World Order” as the “diaboligarchy’s” directing agency. Less compelling is Zwicker’s reference to the “New World Order” as the “diaboligarchy’s” directing agency. To me this unfortunate choice of words is much too closely associated with the often crude and chauvinistic populism of Alex Jones and his Infowars media network. Many have come to see Jones’ lucrative media operation as a limited hangout set in place by handlers trying to hold the activities of the 9/11 Truth Movement within manageable constraints.
Due to the important findings over fifteen years of the citizens’ investigation into 9/11, the culprits most deeply implicated in the crime can be identified with much more specificity than an entity vaguely described as a “New World Order.” As Kevin Barrett and many others insist, the time has come to name the names of the probable culprits, Noam Chomsky prominent among them.
While Alex Jones ultimately serves the same masters as Chomsky, the former’s media product is often much closer to the mark of what is really going on than the content of Noam Chomsky’s more magisterial pronouncements. Jones goes at least part of the way into realities of the deep state politics of the twenty-first century. Chomsky, however, sacrificed his capacity to contribute cogently to sensible discourse on contemporary geopolitics by making himself a primary instrument of the most consequential deep state deception of recent times. As a leading agent of disinformation in the psychological trenches of the ongoing Global War of False Flag Terrorism, Chomsky has reduced himself to the level of skeptic pretender Michael Shermer. In the style of Shermer, the elder Chomsky has become an establishment TV professor readily available on Netflix. … continue
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