Damascus requests Russian patrols in south Syria to ‘limit’ Israeli incursions: Report
The Cradle | August 12, 2025
The Syrian government has requested that the Russian military resume patrols in Syria’s southern governorates, according to a source cited by Kommersant.
The Russian outlet said Damascus believes these patrols could help reduce Israeli incursions.
According to the source, who attended a meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and members of the Syrian diaspora in Moscow, during the minister’s official visit to Russia, told the Russian newspaper that Damascus has asked Moscow to resume military police patrols in the border areas with Israel, as it did before the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
“Russia’s return to its previous positions could prevent Israel’s interference in Syrian affairs,” the source said.
Since the fall of Assad’s government last year, Israeli forces have established a widespread occupation across southern Syria.
Occupation forces continue to expand their presence in the country’s south, launching regular raids and incursions. Israel says it wishes to demilitarize the entire south and protect the Druze minority from persecution.
Last month, Israel bombed Syria’s Defense Ministry and Presidential Palace in Damascus amid clashes between government forces and Druze militants. According to reports, Syrian-Israeli negotiations, which had been ongoing since the start of the year, resumed quickly after the attacks following a brief pause.
Damascus has repeatedly signaled that it does not intend to pose a threat to Israel.
The Syrian government has also held talks with Russia over several issues, including its continued military presence in Syria. Earlier this year, it was reported that Syria was receiving currency shipments from Moscow.
Russia was a major backer of the former Syrian government, and carried out strikes targeting many of the groups which are now a part of the new Syrian army and security apparatus, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate which toppled Assad’s government in December last year.
Despite past enmity, ties between Moscow and the new Syrian state have been cordial, and the Russian military has kept bases in the country.
US lawmakers spending summer break with AIPAC touring Israel
By Stavroula Pabst | Responsible Statecraft | August 7, 2025
As lawmakers increasingly challenge Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip, pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC is working around the clock to keep sympathetic lawmakers within arms’ reach.
Just in time for the congressional summer recess, AIPAC has arranged trips to Jerusalem for dozens of pro-Israel Democrats and Republicans, and a visit with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for scores of Republicans still in Washington.
But that’s not all. Other lawmakers are on their own, separate trips to Israel. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R.-La.) went there this week, including a stop at illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, with a cohort of four other pro-Israel Republicans: Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Michael Cloud (R-Texas), Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas). Their trip was sponsored by the U.S. Israel Education Association.
Meanwhile, Rick Crawford (R-Ar.), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, led a bipartisan Congressional Delegation (CODEL) to Israel since its brief war on Iran earlier this summer.
Critics pounced on the reports, videos and photographs circulating across social media, pointing out that these lawmakers risk looking tone deaf and in the thrall of the Israel lobby on Capitol Hill.
“The debacle of both Republican and Democratic members of Congress traveling to Israel during August recess, when they would otherwise ostensibly be meeting with constituents in their districts, demonstrates the pervasiveness of the Israel lobby’s hold on American politicians,” Annelle Sheline, a research fellow for the Quincy Institute’s Middle East program, told RS.
Moreover, paying allegiance to a regime that “is literally withholding baby formula from starving infants — makes these photo ops all the more grotesque,” she added.
“Catastrophic optics that lends firepower to the impression, on the ascent among younger people on the right, that [Israel] is these politicians’ home district,” Curt Mills, the executive director at The American Conservative, told RS.
“Members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson, are in Israel, not their districts. They visited an illegal settlement. Praised the IDF. Said nothing about the settlers terrorizing Palestinians,” founder of anti-war group CODEPINK Medea Benjamin wrote on X Monday. “Shame on them. They don’t serve us, they serve AIPAC.”
Josh Paul, the co-founder and Director of Washington-based think tank A New Policy, stressed to RS that the AIPAC-sponsored trips to Israel in particular are always lopsided in Jerusalem’s favor.
“The visit in question, it is important to note, is not a ‘CODEL’ arranged by the State Department to provide Members of Congress with the opportunity to understand the world better. Rather, it is what they call a ‘NODEL’ — an all-expenses-paid first class trip with five star hotels intended to present just one side of an issue,” he said. “That it involves a friendly meeting with a foreign leader who is currently under indictment for war crimes is just the icing on the cake.”
“The law may allow the loopholes that allow for what in any other context would clearly be the exertion of undue foreign influence and bribery to go by the name of an ‘educational trip,’ but that doesn’t mean that the Americans whose Members are spending their District Work Period on AIPAC’s dime should stand for it,” Paul added.
AIPAC may be ramping up the charm tours as more members publicly share concerns over the starvation and growing death toll, and increasingly challenge U.S. complicity through financial and military support.
To this end, pro-Israel lawmakers like Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), have demanded action on the aid situation in Gaza. Last week, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) became the first Republican Congressperson to call Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip a genocide. And although a pair of bills introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to block some arms sales to Israel last week failed in the Senate, they received more support from Democrats than similar efforts did in the past.
Meanwhile, Americans are becoming less sympathetic to Israel and its war on Palestinians, suggesting these trips fall flat with at least some of their constituents.
To this point, Sheline told RS: “Blind loyalty to Israel and dehumanization of Palestinians is no longer the sure electoral win it once was, as these politicians may learn in the midterms.”
Fanatical Zionists Have No Bottom
By Brad Pearce | The Libertarian Institute | August 11, 2025
We’re reaching the point in Israel’s Gaza genocide where “everyone was always against this.” Now that starvation may be irreversible in much of the population, more and more voices which have denied genocide for almost two years are, in some form or another, speaking out—including France and Britain saying they will recognize a Palestinian state if the situation doesn’t improve.
However, the most fanatical of the Zionists continue to deny that starvation exists in Gaza at all and even say bizarre things such as the starving children in Gaza really have congenital disorders (who are going untreated because Israel has bombed all of the hospitals and prevented the entry of medication or sanitary products). This isn’t just random Twitter accounts; the official account of Israel “fact-checked” a claim of a forty-one year-old man dying of starvation by saying he actually died of untreated diabetes (they blocked insulin from entering and the condition can also be caused by starvation). They are giving the facts we see with our own eyes the vicious and tired name of “blood libel.” Israel’s strongest supporters—many of them Christian Zionists who have no actual connection to Israel or Judaism besides their deranged theology—have embraced pure evil and feel no shame expressing this for the entire world to see.
From the start, Israel’s shills—or “Hasbarists” as they are commonly known, from the Hebrew word for “public diplomacy”—have been sharing craven propaganda making wild claims about mutilation and unproven sexual assault on October 7. They claim the United Nations refugee organization is Hamas, and that Gaza is actually wealthy and Palestinians are the most pampered people on Earth. Despite a stream of incredible journalism from within Israel itself, showing that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) did order a Hannibal Directive and kill unknown numbers of Israelis on 10/7, the Hasbarists stuck closely to their narrative, never letting contradictions or decency get in their way. For a time they did well sticking to a simple argument of, “Hamas is Israel’s enemy and some civilian deaths are inevitable in war.” However, it has become impossible to credibly deny that Israel is pursuing exterminationist goals.
A big turn in public opinion in the West came when an Israeli airstrike hit the only Catholic Church in Gaza. By the standards of Israel’s crimes this is quite minor, but of course Catholics have a very strong global advocate in the Pope. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged Israel’s fault and apologized, and the matter soon could have been forgotten. However, once again, the most shameless of the Hasbarists could not drop it, and claimed the Vatican was spreading Hamas propaganda, despite Netanyahu’s apology. Joel Berry, the craven editor of the Babylon Bee, claimed on Twitter that there are only two hundred Catholics in Gaza and they all support Hamas. The deranged Christian Zionist pastor Greg Locke went as far as to tell his more than 200,000 followers that “Hamas and the Vatican are in bed together” for the purpose of separating Israel and “Biblical” Christians. Between the airstrike and the rhetoric, many more American conservatives came around to demanding some degree of sanity and restraint from Israel and its supporters, with the tepid view that Israel has made the situation in Gaza too bad for too long.
What has set the worst Zionist fanatics off the most, as well as their collapsing support, is the imminent mass starvation, which famine expert Alex de Waal has described as “minutely engineered.” That the starvation in Gaza isn’t deliberate but is an unfortunate consequence of warfare making food delivery unsafe would be a passable lie (besides that Israel keeps killing aid-seekers), but many are going with the claim that starvation isn’t real. One Twitter user thought it would be funny to post a picture of Stephen Hawking and say it was a Palestinian child, because this is a joke to them. Meanwhile, following the recent mass shooting in New York—which strangely enough may have been over football concussions but was initially blamed on Palestine activism—Laura Loomer tweeted:
Her follower isn’t hedging his satement with “Hamas,” but outright says it’s a sign of mental illness to “humanize” Palestinians, who are human. De-humanization has always been a key part of genocidal propaganda.
It’s perplexing that Israel’s propagandists have become so unhinged, to the extent that one wonders who they are even speaking to. The “West” has at once turned, if not against Israel, against its current actions. Silence would be better than bad propaganda at this point, and they seem to be primarily reassuring each other while presenting enormous amount of evidence that they are genocidal maniacs. However, on an episode of the popular podcast Radio War Nerd in June, the hosts interviewed the Israeli Ori Goldberg about the situation in the country, and he shared a different view: committing genocide makes you stupid. According to Goldberg, taking part in or accepting genocide requires such strict black and white thinking that one loses the ability to rationally assess any information, and this spreads to all areas of life, making Israel currently a nation of zombies. This goes far towards explaining why the Hasbarists are endlessly making painfully stupid and unconvincing arguments where silence would serve them better.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza is the greatest crime of the twenty-first century. It is a closely planned and conducted on an industrial scale. It has already reached the point of no-return for many Gazans who cannot be re-fed without close medical care that it is not possible to provide at this scale. Meanwhile, as the first genocide of the modern social media age where both the victims and perpetrators have smart phones, we are witnessing this first hand in a way that was previously unimaginable. We can see the courage and dignity of the Palestinians as they are being slaughtered and the shameless depravity of the Zionist fanatics who support exterminationist policies. Israel’s genocide in Gaza is pure evil, and its remaining supporters do not consider this a “painful necessity” to protect their people, but are instead gleeful to be a part of it: their only annoyance is that so many others refuse to share in their crimes.
Germany’s leading newspaper calls murdered Al Jazeera reporter ‘terrorist posing as journalist’
The Cradle | August 11, 2025
German newspaper Bild has parroted the Israeli army’s claims that slain Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif was “terrorist disguised as a journalist,” hours after the prominent reporter was targeted and killed in a strike on Gaza City.
Bild is Germany’s highest-circulation newspaper. It had approximately 6.93 million readers per issue in 2023 – and sells around 1.02 million copies a day.
The article cited documents published by Israel claiming Sharif was a member of the Qassam Brigades’ Jabalia battalion.
“The IDF attacked terrorist Anas al-Sharif in the Gaza City area. The terrorist was operating under the guise of an Al Jazeera journalist. The terrorist Anas al-Sharif served as a cell leader in Hamas and promoted rocket fire against citizens of the State of Israel and IDF,” the Israeli army said.
The army points to previously published, unverified documents, including salary documentations, personnel spreadsheets, and a list of training courses, which it says “unequivocally” prove Sharif’s involvement with Hamas.
The documents claim Sharif was recruited into Hamas at the age of 17, despite membership in the group officially requiring a minimum age of 18 years.
Another inconsistency is that joining the Qassam Brigades takes years of training.
Sharif had been covering Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza since it started in October 2023. He was given the 2024 Human Rights Defender award by Amnesty International Australia for his coverage.
Tel Aviv had been inciting against him for months.
A headline by The Telegraph on Monday also referred to Sharif as a “journalist accused of leading a Hamas terror cell.” Israeli news site i24’s headline called him a “Hamas-affiliated Al Jazeera journalist” who was “eliminated.”
The documents cited by Israel also listed Hosam Shabat, an Al Jazeera reporter accused of Hamas ties, who was killed in an Israeli strike in March.
Several other journalists are listed as either members of Hamas or the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) movement.
“I, Anas al-Sharif, am a journalist with no political affiliations. My only mission is to report the truth from the ground – as it is, without bias. At a time when a deadly famine is ravaging Gaza, speaking the truth has become, in the eyes of the occupation, a threat,” Sharif wrote weeks before his assassination.
Since the start of the war, 238 Palestinian journalists have been targeted and killed by the Israeli army.
Palestinian Activist Recorded His Own Murder, Israel Still Released His Killer
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | August 10, 2025
A Palestinian activist featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land” recorded his murder by an Israeli settler. The killer was freed by an Israeli court, arguing there was a lack of evidence.
On Sunday, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a video record by Awda Hadalin of the moment he was shot and killed by Yinon Levi. There are two additional videos that show Levi point his gun and shoot Hadalin before he falls to the ground.
Director of “No Other Land,” Yuval Abraham, said the three videos leave no doubt that Levi murdered Hadalin. “There is no room for doubt. Yinon Levi killed Uda Hadalin in front of the cameras, and an entire system of Jewish superiority turned him from a perpetrator into a victim and punished the village residents instead of punishing him,” he wrote on X.
The day after the killing, an Israeli court accepted Levi’s assertion he was acting in “self-defense” and granted him house arrest. There is no evidence in the video that Levi was in danger.
He was then released from house arrest after a judge ruled the evidence backed his self-defense claim.
Israel refused to give Hadalin’s body to his family to allow for a funeral for over a week. Tel Aviv attempted to force the family to agree to limit his funeral to 15 people before giving his body to relatives. After ten days, the Israeli High Court ordered the release of Hadalin’s body.
Several members of Hadalin’s family and mourners were arrested by Israeli occupation forces. Additionally, the American-Italian nurse who attempted to provide life-saving care to Hadalin was arrested and then deported. “They don’t want people to feel comfortable helping Palestinians,” they told The Intercept.
‘Heartbreaking’: UK paramedic recounts horrors inside Gaza hospitals
Press TV – August 10, 2025
A British paramedic has described “heartbreaking” scenes inside Gaza’s overwhelmed hospitals, where children arrive with life-threatening injuries and entire families are wiped out by Israel’s genocidal war.
Sam Sears, who spent three weeks in Gaza with the UK-based medical charity UK-Med, said the field hospitals were a “conveyor belt of carnage,” packed with patients suffering blast, shrapnel, and gunshot wounds.
Just a few days into his deployment, Sears was sent into a mass casualty incident where two children, aged nine and 11, were killed from blast injuries.
“It was particularly heartbreaking putting a child in a body bag, seeing their face for the last time, then moving them out [of] the way so we could treat more people,” said Sears.
The veteran medic — who has served in Ukraine, Rwanda, Turkey, and Sierra Leone — said Gaza was far worse than anything he had experienced before.
He treated children who had lost entire families, teenagers with life-changing wounds, and newborns suffering severe malnutrition.
He recalled one boy, about eight years old, who was “lifeless behind the eyes” after an explosion killed his whole family.
Sears returned to the UK on July 31 but said the images of Gaza’s children will haunt him forever.
“The people of Gaza don’t get to leave,” he said. “They have no escape from the hunger, the fear, the trauma. They need more than our sympathy — they need our action.”
He called for a sustained ceasefire, not a fragile truce, to end Israel’s hostilities permanently, protect civilians and health workers, and allow unrestricted delivery of food, fuel, and medical supplies into the besieged territory.
UN rapporteur calls on European football body to expel Israel from competitions
Press TV – August 10, 2025
The UN special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories has called on the European football governing body (UEFA) to expel Israel from competitions over its war crimes and crimes against humanity in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Francesca Albanese’s call came following UEFA’s farewell to a former Palestinian player, Suleiman al-Obeid, whom it called the “Palestinian Pelé.”
“Let’s make sport apartheid and genocide free. One ball, one kick at a time,” Francesca Albanese said on her X account on Sunday.
“Time to expel its killers from competitions, @UEFA,” the UN rapporteur said.
Al-Obaid, a former Palestine national team player, was killed earlier this month in an Israeli strike targeting civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza.
Suleiman Ahmed Zaid al-Obaid, the former captain of the Palestinian national football team (Photo via social media)
He left behind his wife and five children.
Obaid is seen as one of the brightest stars in Palestinian football history. He played 24 official matches for the national team.
He also represented the national team during the 2012 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Challenge Cup qualification and 2014 World Cup qualifying games.
Obeid’s death has sparked widespread outrage across the world, with people urging the international community and the football fraternity in particular to break their silence over the ongoing genocide.
Palestinian footballers have been directly targeted in Israel’s assault on Gaza.
In a statement released on July 29, 2025, the Palestinian Olympic Committee (POC) reported that in July alone, the Israeli regime killed 40 Palestinian athletes in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
More than 800 athletes have been killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Oct. 7, 2023, as the sports community continues to suffer under bombardment, famine, and the collapse of infrastructure.
Last month, the International Federation of Muaythai Associations (IFMA) announced an urgent policy change regarding Israeli representation at its events.
This came following the killing of a young Palestinian teenager athlete and peace ambassador, Ammar Hamayel, by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
Hamayel, 13 years old, was a Thai boxing champion, dreaming of representing Palestine on the world stage. But like many other Palestinian children, his dream was silenced by Israeli bullets.
The IFMA back then said in a statement that the decision represents a peaceful yet firm protest against actions that “endanger children and violate the core values of global sport”.
In May, Spain was reportedly spearheading a coordinated initiative aimed at persuading the European Union to eliminate Israel from all continental sports competitions over its genocidal war on Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Calls to exclude Israel from international sports events have indeed increased recently due to its relentless aggression against Gaza.
Zionism won’t stop, the Arab world must collapse
By Lorenzo Maria Pacini | Strategic Culture Foundation | August 10, 2025
Four weeks after the signing of the Abraham Accords—signed on September 15, 2020, with U.S. mediation and involving the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain—Israeli urban planning authorities have authorized the construction of 4,948 new homes in the occupied territories of the West Bank. No significant public statements, no troop movements: just bureaucratic approvals marking a further step in the expansion of Israel’s presence. This advance, shrouded in the rhetoric of ‘peace’, took place in silence, reflecting a well-established approach: proceed with normalization when the region is compliant and intensify colonization when international attention wanes.
This logic is rooted in the expansionist model of Zionism: where possible, military force is used; where this is not convenient or feasible, soft penetration is used in the form of security agreements, economic cooperation, and intelligence alliances. This dual strategy—based on physical conquest and hegemonic consolidation—has been in place since 1967 and today extends unchecked from the Jordan River to the Atlantic Ocean.
Let us be clear: the Zionist project, in all its aspects, will not stop. The Arab world represents an obstacle to the construction of Greater Israel and the manifestation of Zionist hegemony.
The “Greater Israel” project manifests itself on two levels: on the one hand, the annexation of Palestinian territories, and on the other, geopolitical control of the region through indirect means. And, if we want to extend our projections, we must consider that Greater Israel is the starting point, not the end point.
This is a vision rooted in Zionist ideology, which envisages Jewish domination over the entire “Biblical Land of Israel.” When direct occupation is not sustainable, Tel Aviv prefers maneuvers of influence and destabilization that undermine the sovereignty of neighboring Arab states. The two dimensions—territorial and imperial—are interdependent.
This strategy has deep roots. Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the father of revisionist Zionism, wanted control over all of Mandatory Palestine and beyond, arguing that colonization should take place even against the will of the local populations. David Ben-Gurion, while publicly accepting the partition in 1937, saw that compromise only as an initial phase towards subsequent expansion, confirming the intention to extend the borders to the whole of Palestine once the Israeli military apparatus had been strengthened, as indeed happened. At first, Israel’s military power was insufficient for large-scale operations, so the “periphery doctrine” was developed, through which Israel cultivated alliances with non-Arab states and marginalized minorities (the Shah’s Iran, Turkey, Iraqi Kurds, Sudanese Christians), indirectly weakening its Arab rivals. This strategy, now adapted, is also visible in recent relations with the Druze communities in southern Syria.
Normalization means influence
Israeli penetration into the Arab world has reached an unprecedented level. The Abraham Accords have opened the door to large-scale economic, military, and technological cooperation. The historic treaties with Egypt and Jordan were only the beginning, with the United Arab Emirates subsequently becoming a prominent trading partner. The same is true in the Maghreb: Morocco, for example, has purchased weapons and signed industrial agreements in the drone sector, becoming a production hub for Israeli UAV systems. All this has created a geopolitical corridor linking Israel to the Gulf and North Africa, expanding its access to strategic routes, intelligence spaces, and crucial markets.
As economic relations intensify, colonization continues. Raze everything to the ground, indiscriminately; drive out the Palestinians, no questions asked; conquer the lands they consider “divine right.” Infrastructure is designed to isolate Palestinian communities in unconnected enclaves, making the formation of an autonomous state impossible.
Israel has also consolidated its presence in Syria (in the Quneitra region, near Damascus and Deraa), taking advantage of the chaos following the fall of Assad and the seizure of power by the jihadist group HTS led by Ahmad al-Sharaa (formerly known as al-Julani). In Lebanon, it maintains control of key areas such as the Shebaa Farms and the Kfar Shuba hills, as well as military positions along the Blue Line.
Expansion is masked by integration. Today, the Israeli occupation is no longer manifested solely through weapons, but is supported and fueled by diplomatic agreements and trade flows. “Normalization” has not stopped the occupation: it has made it more effective. Each new agreement with Arab countries increases Israel’s ability to extend colonization and strengthen military control. Plans are already underway to double the number of settlers in the Golan Heights and increase the military presence along sensitive areas. The consequences are being felt: Egypt is building a wall on the border with Gaza to manage possible flows of displaced persons; Jordan sees its water resources threatened; Syria and Lebanon are under increasing pressure to normalize relations with Israel.
The Greater Israel project is advancing: on the one hand, it is swallowing up territories; on the other, it is influencing the sovereign choices of Arab states. Together, they represent two sides of the same strategy: annexation and subordination.
And all this, let’s be clear, will not stop at Palestine.
Zionism is viscerally anti-Christian and anti-Islamic. Anything that does not adhere to Zionist Judaism must be eliminated.
From an Islamic perspective, criticism of Zionism is based on several levels. First of all, Zionism, in its state form, has led to the confiscation and occupation of Muslim holy sites—primarily Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem—with a progressive erosion of access to and management of sacred places. This is not only a political violation, but also a spiritual one, as Islamic sovereignty over Jerusalem is considered a religious duty, rooted in the Quran and prophetic tradition. The Zionist rejection of Arab sovereignty – expressed in the marginalization of Islamic religious institutions in the occupied territories – is a denial of the Umma, the unity of the community of believers, and of its legitimacy to safeguard the places of Islam.
Similarly, Christianity, especially in its Eastern expressions, has also suffered from an exclusionary Zionist approach. The Zionist theological imagination, which demands a Jewish “territorial redemption” of Palestine, excludes the historical and cultural presence of indigenous Christian communities, reducing them to tolerated or suspect minorities. Talmudic hatred of Christians is well known. For many Palestinian and Middle Eastern Christians, Zionism represents a form of nationalist secularization that empties the Holy Land of its universal value, transforming it into an exclusive ethnic-religious property.
In its quest to create an exclusive Jewish state, Zionism has promoted dynamics of exclusion and delegitimization of the other Abrahamic religions historically present in Palestine. This makes it ideologically antithetical to any pluralistic and shared vision of the holy places and communities that have coexisted there for centuries.
We should not be surprised if we soon see conflicts arise between the powers of the Arab world or, by extension, in other Islamic countries, such as in Asia, precisely because of their geopolitical and geoeconomic relations with the Zionist entity.
Because, ultimately, this is the plan: in Greater Israel, there can only be Israeli Zionism. Christianity and Islam must first be exploited, then banned. At any cost.
About International Guarantees that Shed Lebanese’ Blood
By Ali Shoeib, translated by Al-Manar English Website | August 9, 2025
On August 10, 2006, the story of the “Marjeyoun Survival” turned into a dark page in the history of the conflict with the Israeli enemy.
The Israeli occupation army raided Marjeyoun barracks on that day, when Lebanon was subjected to a brutal Israeli war that lasted for 33 days. The occupation forces took over the barracks without any resistance from the Lebanese troops and security forces who laid down their arms.
It was agreed that the town, which is 8 km away from the border with occupied Palestine, would be safely evacuated, and that the Israeli enemy would not attack the convoy, as stipulated by the guarantees presented via the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
These guarantees, brokered by the United States and France, were allegedly intended to remove the Lebanese forces who were detained at the barracks, along with stranded civilians, from the danger zone. But what happened was a resounding shock!
The convoy had set out on August 11 (2006). It was escorted by two UNIFIL vehicles.
Instead of escaping, Israeli enemy aircraft pursued the convoy of approximately 759 vehicles after it reached the Western Bekaa Valley, brutally targeting them and turning their path into a massacre.
The attack, which was conducted with nine bombs, resulted in the deaths of at least seven people, wounding of at least 36 and the destruction of a number of vehicles.
That attack in 2006 was a harsh lesson that says it all about the conflict with an enemy that does not abide by any covenant or pact, as the false US-French guarantees given to the Lebanese government at the time were merely an illusion and a deception.
The Marjeyoun convoy attack confirms a solid fact: The enemy cannot be trusted, and all international guarantees or regional promises aimed at disarming the resistance are merely a temporary cover for achieving the enemy’s goals, which seeks nothing but a moment of weakness that will enable it to achieve what it has been unable to achieve during the latest war in late 2024.
Our history is replete with examples that show that surrendering power is an open invitation to aggression. When the resistance is disarmed, the homeland is left exposed to the enemy’s ambitions.
Weapons are not just a combat tool, but rather a “symbol of the national will to defend the homeland and protect the sovereignty,” and resistance is the last line of defense.
The Marjeyoun convoy attack has proven that relying on international promises, in the absence of a real deterrent force, is a bet on defeat. Anyone who places their security in the hands of the enemy is willingly committing suicide, and we do not want to commit suicide.
UK police arrest over 200 people at protest in support of Palestine Action
Press TV – August 9, 2025
British police have arrested more than 200 people in central London at a demonstration in support of the banned pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action.
London’s Metropolitan Police said in a post on X on Saturday that the arrests took place after a “significant number of people” gathered in Westminster’s Parliament Square, where they were seen holding placards in support of the “proscribed group.”
“Officers have moved in and are making arrests,” the Met said, adding that, “It will take time but we will arrest anyone expressing support for Palestine Action.”
Between 600 and 700 people participated in the demonstration, organized by Defend Our Juries, as they displayed signs reading, “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action.”
Video footage from the location depicted officers clashing with the protesters, most of whom were seated on the ground, and engaging in conversations with them before taking them away.
The Metropolitan Police stated that they had mobilized officers from other forces to bolster a “substantial policing presence” in the capital, anticipating a busy weekend of protests.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Ade Adelekan warned that officers would be ready to arrest anyone showing support for Palestine Action, urging people to “consider the seriousness of that outcome.”
Palestine Action, which targets UK-based Israeli arms factories and their supply chains through direct action—such as splashing red paint and destroying equipment— was officially proscribed on July 5 under the Terrorism Act 2000.
The designation makes it a criminal offence to support or be a member of the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The Met had threatened to take action against any public displays of support for proscribed organizations, including chanting, clothing, and placards.
The co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, won a bid last week to bring a legal challenge against the ban.
Ammori’s lawyers have argued that the ban breaches the right to free speech and is a gag on legitimate protest.
More than 200 people have been arrested across the UK since the ban was implemented by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper last month.
Palestinian prisoners electrocuted, abused in ‘Israel’s’ Gilboa prison
Al Mayadeen | August 8, 2025
Palestinian prisoners are being electrocuted, among more abusive forms of punitive actions, in “Israel’s” Gilboa prison, the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs confirmed on Friday.
According to a lawyer from the commission who visited the prison, Israeli occupation authorities have increased the use of torture with electricity.
Special repression units storm prisoner sections under the pretext of inspection, handcuff detainees by their wrists and ankles, and force them into the prison yard. There, prisoners are reportedly beaten, insulted, and subjected to electric shocks. They are then dragged across the concrete floors and forced into the shower area, where their clothes and bodies are soaked with water before being electrocuted again, amplifying pain and physical trauma.
The lawyer described the use of specialized stun guns, which double as blunt-force weapons. These are allegedly made of solid metal and have caused severe head injuries, leading to heavy bleeding among detainees. Prison guards were reported to have mocked and laughed during the abuse, with several prisoners losing consciousness due to the severity of the torture.
Neglect of basic needs and health threats
In addition to the physical abuse, prisoners are reportedly being denied adequate food. The portions provided are minimal, resulting in significant weight loss among detainees. There is also a critical shortage of hygiene supplies and disinfectants, creating a breeding ground for diseases inside overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells.
Detainees are forced to use plastic plates and spoons, each for an entire month, which increases the risk of virus and bacteria transmission with every use. According to the commission, these conditions pose a serious threat to prisoners’ health and survival.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office recently revealed similarly harrowing conditions in Naqab prison, where detainees live under constant fear due to relentless transfers and degrading treatment.
The office reported that prisoners are frequently subjected to humiliating searches and forced to kneel with their hands bound behind their backs during daily headcounts and inspections. This ongoing repression has created an atmosphere of instability and psychological torment.
As of early July, the number of Palestinians held in Israeli occupation prisons has risen to approximately 10,800, marking the highest figure since the Second Intifada in 2000. This total does not include detainees held in occupation military camps, whose status remains largely unaccounted for.
Only 188 of 800 promised aid trucks entered Gaza: Euractiv
Al Mayadeen | August 7, 2025
A recent report from Euractiv, based on a European Commission document, reveals a significant shortfall in the amount of humanitarian aid the Israelis permitted to enter Gaza, falling well below the levels set in a previous agreement with the European Union.
Under the terms of the deal struck in July, around 160 trucks carrying relief supplies were expected to be allowed into Gaza daily. This would amount to a total of 800 trucks over a five-day period, from July 31 to August 4. However, the actual number of trucks that made it into the enclave was much lower.
“Between 31 July and 4 August, the UN, and our partners report that 188 trucks were offloaded at crossing points to Gaza,” the European Commission document stated.
An unnamed EU official criticized the gap between the agreement and the delivery, noting that “Israel” had allowed “four times fewer” aid trucks than what had been committed to.
Israeli authorities, however, presented a different version of events. According to the same document cited by Euractiv, “Israel” claimed that 737 trucks entered Gaza during that period. This figure reportedly includes shipments from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as well as commercial supplies, raising concerns about what actually qualifies as humanitarian aid under the agreement.
Aid Bottleneck Persists
Meanwhile, on the ground, the humanitarian situation remains dire. A RIA Novosti journalist at the Rafah border crossing reported long queues of aid trucks waiting for clearance. Several trucks were reportedly turned back after being denied entry by Israeli forces.
Despite these challenges, Egyptian officials claim that aid efforts have intensified. “The flow of humanitarian aid from Egypt to the Gaza Strip had increased in recent days,” Khaled Megawer, governor of Egypt’s North Sinai province, told RIA.
Amal Imam, Executive Director of the Egyptian Red Crescent, shared more specifics at the Rafah crossing, saying that “about 800 trucks carrying 8,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, had entered Gaza from Egypt since July 27.”
Nevertheless, Gaza’s needs continue to far exceed the supply. Local authorities estimate that a minimum of 600 aid trucks must enter the enclave each day to ensure access to essential goods, including food, medical supplies, and fuel.
Senior EU official accuses ‘Israel’ of genocide in Gaza
Earlier in the day, a senior member of the European Commission has said the displacement and killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “looks very much like genocide,” becoming the first EU official to publicly diverge from the bloc’s official position on the war.
“If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, in an interview with Politico published Thursday.
Ribera, a Spanish socialist and the Commission’s second-highest-ranking official, does not hold a foreign policy portfolio, instead overseeing climate and anti-trust matters. Nonetheless, her remarks mark a rare and significant breach from the European Commission’s cautious language regarding the war on Gaza.
Featured Video
“Trump’s presidency is at risk of being destroyed” Col Douglas Macgregor
or go to
Aletho News Archives – Video-Images
From the Archives
Mutually Assured Delusion (MAD)
By Judith Curry | Climate Etc. | November 5, 2013
Groupthink: A pattern of thought charaterized by self-deception, forced manufacture of consent, and conformity to group values and ethics.
Groupthink: Collective Delusions in Organizations and Markets, by Roland Benabou, published in the Review of Economic Studies. Benabou also has a talk (ppt slides) on this subject.
First, a definition of groupthink (from the ppt slides):
Janis (1972)’s eight symptoms [of groupthink]:
- illusion of invulnerability
- collective rationalization
- belief in inherent morality
- stereotyped views of out-groups
- direct pressure on dissenters
- self-censorship
- illusion of unanimity
- self-appointed mind guards
Sound like any groups that we know? … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- “Trump’s presidency is at risk of being destroyed” Col Douglas Macgregor
- Iran has legal right to act in Hormuz, holds US responsible for disruptions: UN mission
- Sudan’s RSF leaders build Dubai property empire with UAE backing: Investigative group
- West losing leadership position to Global South: Russia’s president
- How Cognitive Science Explains Our Looming Nuclear Crisis
- Have the US and Israel killed non-proliferation?
- Moscow, Tehran to support each other amid US aggression: Russia’s defense minister
- Iran says EU’s insistence on sanctions hastens its ‘embarrassing descent into irrelevance’
- Argentina’s Javier Milei sells out his country for Israel
- Putting Nukes in Finland Won’t Make Country Safer, Finnish Politician Cautions
- If Americans Knew
- By Week’s End, Trump’s War Will Be Plainly Illegal
- CBS News Reportedly Ousts London Bureau Chief Over Differences With Bari Weiss Over Gaza Coverage
- State Department Says US Is in Conflict With Iran ‘At the Request’ of Israel
- What ceasefire? Israel won’t stop killing in Gaza, Lebanon – Daily Update
- Palestinians in Gaza Want to Rebuild Food Systems. Israel Isn’t Letting Them.
- Under Trump, Green Card Seekers Face New Scrutiny for Views on Israel
- Sheep Theft Sent Shockwaves Through a Palestinian Village. Then, a 12-year-old Boy Was Shot Dead
- Trump alum helps Israel mount AI influence campaign
- Dispatches From Catastrophe
- Despite Denials, AIPAC Is Now Funding Campaign of Ala Stanford In Philadelphia
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: Extreme Heat Records, Heatwaves, Extreme Cold Records Declining Across US Since 1899
- It’s The Cold, Stupid! Cold 20 Times More Lethal Than Heat, Multiple Studies Show
- European Institute For Climate And Energy: “Climate Debate is Seldom About Science”
- New Study: The Climate May Be 5 Times More Sensitive To Solar Forcing Than Commonly Assumed
- EV Industry Reached $70 Billion In Losses In 2024 Due To Delusional Green Ideologies
- Reality Check: Maldives Have Actually Grown In Size Or Remained Stable Over Recent Decades
- Abrupt Climate Change Also Occurred NATURALLY In The Past …25 Times During Last Ice Age
- Cave Discovery Reveals Today’s Desert Climates Were Recently Far Warmer, Wetter, Teeming With Life
- German Expert: Heat Dome Led To Record Temps In Western USA…Warmer In 1934, 1936
- New Study: No Linear Warming Or Glacier Retreat Along Northern Antarctic Peninsula Since 1980s
Aletho News 