#Bloodshed | Continuous | Bombardment | Gaza |

[xtruss]

Eid-ul-Fitr should have been the Festivities marking the end of the Fasting Month of Ramadan, but is instead another bloody term for Palestinians in Gaza struggling to survive amid “Terrorist, Fascist, Genocidal, War Criminal and the Illegal Regime of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗, Isra-hell’s” ongoing bombardment, which has killed over 33,500 Palestinians since October 7.

[mylight-png]

"Ceasefire Now" is War

The idea of "ceasefire now" seems so appealing because the reality it would cause is directly the opposite of the actual call to action, and most only see the words at the surface level. Not the consequences.

When people say "ceasefire now" they imagine just that. A ceasing of fire. Of war. They imagine peace.

And this would work if the war was between two rational actors who abide by such agreements.

But what people do not understand is that Hamas is not a rational actor, and they do not respect ceasefires.

We had a ceasefire until October 7th, when Hamas broke it.

Do not forget this fact: aside from being an absolute monstrous and disgusting massacre, October 7th was the breaking of a ceasefire agreement.

Also do not forget that the leader of Hamas has verbally promised to repeat the October 7th massacre until Hamas, G-d forbid, wins.

And finally, do not forget that Hamas has already broken at least 15 ceasefire agreements with Israel.

So, with all of that in mind, what would a "ceasefire now" world look like?

At best, we get two or three years of peace. Then, Hamas will do what it always has done: attack Israel with the aim of fulfilling their foundational goal, the eradication of Jews.

That's at best. At worst, we would see no ceasing of fire from Hamas. At worst, we would see a continuation of Hamas (and their allies) firing at and attacking Israel, while Israel is pressured by the international community to hold their side of the ceasefire (even though it would already be broken when Hamas would attack) and, even worse, the international community may pressure some sort of concession from Israel in order to pacify Hamas.

Except those concessions have never worked in the past either.

The second situation is unlikely, not because Hamas wouldn't immediately break the ceasefire, but because Israel would not allow itself to be pressured into defenselessness. Even so, it is a terrifying thought.

In short: a ceasefire is not peace in any scenario. A ceasefire is a prolongation of this war that would allow Hamas to recuperate and kill more Jews/Israelis and endanger more Gazans.

What would lead to peace?

There are two answers:

1. A complete dismantlement of Hamas (what Israel is trying to do right now)

2. A complete surrender of Hamas (unfortunately unlikely, even though it would be the only option that would put an immediate end to the bloodshed of civilians on both sides)

There is a reason that the Jewish community has been continually praying for peace, while vehemently opposing a call for "ceasefire now" and that's because we know that a ceasefire is counterproductive towards peace.

I also want to address the fact that basically every "ceasefire now" post I've seen has either had Palestinian flag imagery (as in solidarity, not addressing Palestine) or #freepalestine tagged onto it, or both.

This, to me, implies one of two things.

The first thing this may imply is that people are simply ignorant, and this is what I try my best to believe. They do not know that Hamas is still firing at and attacking Israel, so they believe that only one side would benefit from a functional ceasefire agreement. ("Functional" meaning that it would work, because the people posting this erroneously think a ceasefire would work.) Thus, to them it is logical that a call for ceasefire would equal aligning themselves with the side they perceive to be on the receiving end of unreciprocated attacks.

However, that's not what reality is like, and it is disturbing that in a time when information is just a few taps away, people still can be this ignorant.

In reality, Gaza is running out of everything except for rockets (because Hamas takes basically all aid and uses it to continue attacking Israel, leaving nothing for civilians). Hamas continues to bombard Israel daily. The bombardment is going both ways, although Israel is the only side trying to avoid civilians.

The alternative implication is that these people want a one-sided ceasefire, and this is far more disturbing than the previous option.

This implication has stronger likelihood when paired with the "from the river to the sea" slogan. (A slogan calling for the genocide of Jews and anyone else living in Israel.)

These people want the scenario I presented earlier, where Hamas is free to attack Israel, while Israel's hands are held behind its back by the international community.

These people want Israel to burn with its hands tied, just as Hamas bound the hands and burned the bodies of Israeli civilians. They want October 7th on a national scale. They want genocide.

A one-sided ceasefire would mean the success of Hamas.

Hamas has the goal of genociding Jews written in their founding document. I know I've said it before, and I will continue to say it until people remember this fact.

Israel's goal is not the genocide of Palestinians. If it was, they could've achieved this long ago without losing a single soldier through bombardment alone. The very fact that they are putting people into Gaza shows they are trying to go for a more specific target: Hamas.

So remember: "ceasefire now" is a call for the prolongation of war at best, genocide at worst.

[satellitebroadcast]

Government Media Office: Telegram

The Polio Vaccination Campaign in the Gaza Strip Necessitates an Immediate Ceasefire; the Ongoing Genocidal War Poses a Real Threat to Civilians The polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip will begin on Sunday, September 1, 2024, amid the ongoing environmental, health, and humanitarian disaster caused by the "israeli" occupation, which has persisted for 330 days without interruption. The vaccination campaign will be supervised by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, and UNRWA. The campaign targets children from 1 day to 10 years old and involves administering two drops of the vaccine orally. This vaccine is approved by the World Health Organization, and over 1.2 billion doses have been produced worldwide so far. According to the plan to be implemented, 640,000 Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip are expected to receive this vaccination, representing over 95% of children aged 1 day to 10 years. A comprehensive plan has been finalized to ensure the success of this campaign in all governorates and neighborhoods of the Gaza Strip. The campaign will start in the Central Governorate from September 1 to 4, 2024, then move to the Khan Younis and Rafah governorates from September 5 to 8, 2024, and finally to the Gaza and North Gaza governorates from September 9 to 12, 2024. Dozens of field teams will participate in the vaccination campaign, covering all neighborhoods, alleys, and centers in the Gaza Strip, as well as displacement and shelter camps, and all locations where children are present in the Gaza Strip. The vaccination campaign is crucial and requires a ceasefire so that these health teams can perform their duties effectively. It is also essential to ensure that children and their families are not endangered while traveling from their homes to the vaccination centers, and to protect these teams from the constant threat of bombardment by the "israeli" occupation, which continues its genocidal war against our Palestinian people without pause. The "israeli" occupation is responsible for the spread of polio and the emergence of the first cases in the Gaza Strip, by creating a hazardous environment conducive to this dangerous disease and other severe diseases and epidemics. The occupation has deliberately destroyed sewage and water networks, imposed a hazardous environmental reality that has led to widespread filth and waste, and intentionally allowed garbage to accumulate in staggering amounts among displaced persons and civilians. The occupation has also halted garbage removal by creating a dangerous security situation, targeting these networks and municipal vehicles, taking control of landfills, and preventing municipalities from accessing them. We condemn the continued genocidal war by the "israeli" occupation on the Gaza Strip, and we condemn the creation of this dangerous environment that has led to the outbreak of polio in the Gaza Strip. We call on all health ministries around the world and all international and UN health institutions to condemn this heinous crime committed by the occupation to this day. We hold the "israeli" occupation and the American administration fully responsible for the dire conditions experienced by children in the Gaza Strip, for the severe environmental degradation in the Gaza Strip, and for any attempts to sabotage or thwart this health campaign targeting children in the Gaza Strip. We urge the international community and all international and UN health organizations to pressure the occupation to stop this dangerous bloodshed against children in the Gaza Strip, against the Palestinian environment, and against everything in the Gaza Strip. We demand an immediate ceasefire to ensure the success of the polio vaccination campaign in the Gaza Strip. Government Media Office Gaza Strip – Palestine Saturday, August 31, 2024

[workersolidarity]

🇵🇸🇺🇳 🚨 SCATHING LETTER SENT TO UNITED NATIONS BY THE STATE OF PALESTINE DEMANDS ACTION

The State of Palestine submitted a scathing letter to the United Nations, accusing the International Governmental Organization of failing to "unequivocally demand a ceasefire to halt the bloodshed and to uphold its primary duty to maintain International peace and security."

The letter says that "the international community cannot continue to accept sloganeering and lies as the response to the calls on Israel to respect International Law."

The letter accuses Israeli of "making a mockery of the Law" and asks how the Security Council can accept that its resolutions "are spat on by Israel."

The letter mentions that the death toll in Gaza has now exceeded 16'000 Palestinians killed, one out of every 200 people in Gaza.

More than 7'000 children and 5'000 women have been killed in the constant Israeli bombardment, and another 41'000 Palestinians have been wounded.

#source

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[theculturedmarxist]

In Gaza, Israel is gearing up to commit genocide. It is not doing so quietly. It is repeating its intent every day, announcing it to the world in both its words and actions. Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has described those in Gaza as ‘human animals’, while declaring that Israel is cutting off water, fuel, electricity and food to the entire blockaded strip. Likud officials have called for nuclear strikes as well as a second Nakba. Israel’s President, Isaac Herzog, has rejected the distinction between civilians and combatants, asserting that ‘it is an entire nation out there that is responsible’. Israeli military officials have made clear that their aim is ‘damage, not precision’. All the while, Israel has subjected the 365-square-kilometre area to relentless shelling, dropping the same number of bombs on its 2.3 million inhabitants as the United States unleashed on Afghanistan in an entire year, at the height of its murderous invasion. Hospitals, mosques, schools and homes – all have been deemed adequate military targets. At least 2,750 people have died so far, over one million have been displaced, nearly ten thousand are wounded.

Half of Gaza’s inhabitants were told to relocate to the south of the strip via military-approved ‘safe routes’. Israel then bombed these routes while people were doing just that. Many other Palestinians refused to follow the order. They know better than anyone that this is a straightforward attempt at ethnic cleansing. Nearly 80% of Palestinians in Gaza are refugees, expelled from their lands in 1948 and refused their right to return by their colonial rulers. In the south, the situation is dire too, thanks to continual aerial bombardment, shortages of water, food and electricity, and the influx of new arrivals. Israel continues to block the entry of humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing, which has been hit repeatedly by air raids. 

Israeli officials, including Netanyahu himself, have announced that this is ‘only the beginning’. Three hundred thousand troops have gathered near Gaza and are awaiting orders to launch a ground offensive which could, we are told, last months. The resultant death and destruction would be unimaginable. There is a high likelihood that the entire northern Gaza Strip would be razed to the ground, and that the inhabitants of the enclave would be corralled into an even smaller area – forcing them to choose between death, unbearable captivity, or exile. Israel justifies this indiscriminate bloodshed as a response to the killing of 1,300 Israelis in the days following the Palestinian break-out on 7 October, and the need to prevent Hamas from carrying out further operations. Its current assault must be understood, first and foremost, as a response to the political humiliation it suffered at the hands of the most isolated section of the Palestinian population.

After eighteen years of siege by land, air and water, during which Israel’s stated policy was to ‘put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger’ by severely restricting food access, while regularly ‘mowing the grass’ – i.e., carrying out campaigns of assassination and mass killing – Palestinians in Gaza finally managed to tear down the barbed wire that kept them captive. Through that act alone, they endangered the political future of Netanyahu and his coalition, along with the process of normalization between Israel and the region’s most autocratic and repressive regimes. In addition, they punctured Israel’s illusion of omnipotence, exposing its vulnerability for the whole world – and, more importantly, for all Palestinians – to see. Retribution will now be conducted by all available means – including forced displacement or outright annihilation.

The question facing all of us in the West is how to stop the impending genocide. Our rulers have made it clear that they will allow Israel to carry out its plans – invoking the country’s ‘right to defend itself’ by carpet bombing a civilian population. The US and the UK have sent battleships to demonstrate their unflinching support. Ursula von der Leyen travelled to Tel Aviv to give Netanyahu the EU’s backing. Keir Starmer insisted that Israel had a right to cut off vital supplies to the entire blockaded population. Simultaneously, our governments have tried their best to repress Palestine solidarity movements on the domestic front: France banned pro-Palestine demonstrations altogether, Berlin followed suit, and the UK considered joining in. Of course, this follows a years-long attempt to criminalize the Palestinian cause and stamp out the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, under the guise of ‘countering terrorism’ or ‘fighting antisemitism’. Why is our political class so invested in suppressing criticism of the apartheid regime? The answer is obvious. Western states support Israel in order to maintain their power at a crucial crossroads of world trade. Challenging that power is impermissible, because any attempt to hold Israel accountable for its crimes is – by definition – an attempt to hold our own states accountable for their involvement in them. Not only are our rulers prepared to let Israel level Gaza; they will even provide it with diplomatic cover and military supplies.

What is standing between Gaza and genocide, then, is political pressure – an internationalist movement whose aim is to force Western governments to backtrack and restrain the Israeli killing machine. Last weekend we saw the first stirrings of this movement in its current phase. Across the globe, hundreds of thousands – perhaps millions – turned out to march. Sana’a, Baghdad, Rabat, and Amman were filled with protesters as far as the eye could see, bringing cold sweats to the rulers of the region, who see the connection between their populations’ demands for Palestinian liberation and demands for their own. In London, Amsterdam, Paris and Berlin, in New York, Brussels and Rome, in Cape Town, Tunis, and Nairobi, in Sydney and Santiago, people took to the street to demand an end to the onslaught, an end to the siege, and a free Palestine.

These scenes were extraordinary – but they alone will not be enough. In the US, activists have targeted the offices of key policymakers, staging protests and sit-ins, demanding that they drop their support for Israel’s crimes and take action to end the assault. Shaming politicians in this way will be an important tactic in the days and weeks to come. The recent history of the solidarity movement offers other methods that may also prove effective. In the UK, Palestine Action has spent years targeting armaments factories and stopping the production of weapons intended for use against Palestinians. Dockers in Italy, South Africa and the US have refused to handle Israeli cargo during previous military assaults on Gaza, disrupting the flow of goods and weapons to the country. During the winter of 2008-9, as Israel launched its first massive assault on the strip following the imposition of the blockade three years earlier, students across the UK occupied their campuses, calling for their universities to show concrete solidarity with Palestinians and for their government to cut diplomatic ties. They used the occupied spaces to host lectures, discussions and debates. Amid growing repression against the Palestine solidarity movement, such spaces could once again play a crucial role in enabling street-level organization.

It is up to activists themselves to decide which methods are most suited to their local and national contexts. Yet, across the board, there can be no return to business as usual. We have a collective obligation to ratchet up the pressure on our governments, and on Israel itself, to stop the genocide and mass displacement. In the UK, several trade unions expressed support for the demonstration last weekend, as well as their concern about the situation in Gaza. Can such concern be translated into meaningful interventions? Can union militants move from making solidarity statements to taking solidarity industrial action? If lecturers and teachers, dockers and train drivers – to name but a few of those who turned out at the rally in London – could organize work stoppages, demanding that the government reverse its position and stop the ongoing mass murder, then Britain’s leaders would not have the political space to give Israel a carte blanche.

Today, Palestinian unions have called on trade unionists across the world to show their solidarity by refusing to continue with the provision of arms to Israel. They have asked that workers in relevant industries make the following commitments:

These demands must now be brought to workplaces and unions across the West, where they will find important allies among existing campaigns against the arms trade. Points four and five are not industry-specific, and can have a much wider application across the labour movement.  

The task ahead of us is clear. Genocide, ethnic cleansing and a second Nakba are not acts of God. They can be prevented. Our governments have so far refused to raise objections. Let us remind them of the costs of their complicity.

[rootless-cosmopolitan]

People should 1000% criticize Israel and its year-long bombardment of Gaza, any day of the year. Parading around with the hamas dorito of death and hezbollah flags is not criticizing Israel, it is not calling for ceasefire or for the 70+ years of back and forth bloodshed to end, it is celebrating murder of and missile attacks on civilians and calling it “resistance.” There were actual commemorations of Palestinian lives lost after October 7, and then there were pampered Western freaks with bloodlust calling for continued violence.

I should add, I grew up in NYC, I remember 9/11 well. I remember the Islamophobia and the rise in frenzied nationalism. I remember the anti-war protests, too. I do not remember anyone marching around downtown manhattan on the anniversary of 9/11 with fucking al qaeda flags.

People claiming it’s not okay to criticize israel around october 6th/7th because it’s a sensitive time (you sound like people who consider 9/11 a borderline sacred holiday btw) for Palestinians that is every day. You understand that right. Not only did october 7th ruin many of THEIR lives as well every single day is a day they lose hundreds of lives. Every single day they are hit with terror attacks from the idf. Every day is their occupation. They don’t even get an anniversary or a day or minute of mourning or acknowledgement

[head-post]

Gaza ceasefire talks continue without Hamas, US urges action

Negotiations on a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release will resume on Thursday in Doha, Qatar. The US and mediating partners Egypt and Qatar will be joined by Israeli representatives, but Hamas will not attend the talks, a member of the negotiating team confirmed on Wednesday.

Hamas will resume talks if it receives a “clear commitment” from Israel on its latest offer, a member of the group’s politburo said. The official familiar with the talks said he told the mediators he was ready to meet with them after Thursday’s meeting if there were any changes or Israel gave a serious response.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Qatari diplomats “assured us that they would work to ensure that Hamas is represented at the talks.”

Biden’s plan failed to go through

At the latest talks in Rome last month, Tel Aviv officials pushed for additions to the scheme announced by President Joe Biden on May 31, including the military retaining indefinite control of the Gaza-Egypt border, according to officials familiar with the process who spoke on condition of anonymity. US officials said Hamas seemed to have complied with the terms of the proposal announced by Biden. But a key member of his negotiating team was Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed last month.

The proposal called for a six-week ceasefire and partial hostage releases in the first phase, to be accompanied by an Israeli withdrawal from population centres and the free return to northern Gaza of civilians who fled south to escape Israeli bombardment. Israel and Hamas have blamed each other for the delay in reaching an agreement.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday discussed the importance of a ceasefire in Gaza with Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is expected to attend the talks, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, the State Department said. The United States is expected to be represented on Thursday by CIA Director William J. Burns. The White House’s Middle East adviser, Brett McGurk, is also expected in the region.

Trump and Netanyahu discuss Gaza ceasefire

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and discussed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release agreement.

Trump’s call was aimed at encouraging Netanyahu to agree to the deal, but stressed that he did not know whether the former president had actually told Netanyahu exactly that. Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Netanyahu visited the US late last month and met with President Joe Biden, Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and former Republican President Trump.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on October 7 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli calculations.

Israel’s subsequent attack on the Hamas-run enclave killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, and displaced nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide charges at the World Court, which Israel denies.

Read more HERE

[jhavelikes]

The Norwegian Refugee Council has operated in Gaza for the past 16 years with about 50 people on the ground. Like the rest of the population, its workers are suffering too. “They’ve experienced loss, grief, displacement and of course fear. Their children cannot have a full night of sleep, fresh food, or clean water for 100 days now,” the aid group’s Ahmed Bayram told Al Jazeera. “This very dark moment reminds us that Gaza has been made unlivable for military reasons and all civilians are paying the price. Sadly, we are saying the same thing repeatedly: ‘Stop the bloodshed now.’” Aid groups say relentless Israeli bombardment impedes delivery of humanitarian relief in Gaza where about 25 percent of the population is starving.

(1) Update Israel’s war on Gaza live: 100 days of war as strikes continue

[radio-rebel-477]

This article recounts Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh’s accusation of “barbaric massacres” on Israel after the country deployed an airstrike on the Jabalia refugee. Haniyeh continues his claim by stating that Israel has now taken to massacring the unarmed civilians of the besieged Gaza strip to mask its own defeats in the region. In light of recent escalations, Haniyeh warns that Israel will be held accountable for their violent actions in the Palestinian camp and that hostages being held in Gaza may “face the same risk of death and destruction.” The hit at the refugee camp was confirmed by Israel, which stated that it was successful in killing a senior Hamas member and many other terrorists.

Furthermore, At the United Nations, a plea calling for an immediate humanitarian truce between Israel and Hamas has been made by 120 countries, with the United States and Israel voting “no.” Their concern comes from the devastating and deadly impact that the violence has had on the children who reside in Gaza, with over 450 children being killed or injured each day. Prime Minister Netanyahu defends his position on dismissing a ceasefire by saying that the ceasefire would be the equivalent of surrendering to Hamas.

In light of my reading, I came across the hypocrisy of Hamas and their actions towards Israel. I would like to begin by saying that I do condemn violence and find that what is happening in Gaza is absolutely horrific. However, as discussed in class, my belief that Hamas does not care for the actual Palestinian people themselves has been strengthened.

In this article, Hamas leader Haniyeh is quoted as saying that the regional unrest would continue until “Palestinians obtain legitimate rights to freedom, independence, and return.” But he is also quoted as saying that the bloodshed must be stopped and that the rest of the world should continue to rally in defense of the Palestinian cause. He is advocating for two very different things, almost as if he wants violence to occur at his convenience. He condemns Israel for not coming to a ceasefire, but in the same breath, he asserts that Hamas will continue to fight; a ceasefire requires the cooperation of two parties, and he clearly says that Hamas will not be doing that. Furthermore, he accuses Israel of coming into refugee camps to kill unarmed civilians, while failing to consider that Hamas did the same when it invaded Israel. His conflicting statements seem irrational to logic, but that doesn’t matter because Hamas is able to catch Israel in a double bind: fight Hamas and be villainized, or not fight and risk becoming victim to their existential threat, all the while Hamas can capitalize on the pain and suffering of Palestinains. Although my realization of this hypocrisy may not be novel and a bit late, it has allowed me to understand exactly why countries like Israel and the United States refuse to negotiate with terrorists because the latter are dead set on their demands, and therefore you simply cannot rationalize with them. 

[troopingfairy]

[ID: A tweet by Fadi Quran (@/fadiquran). It reads:

The end of the myth of Israeli military invincibility: The view from the Middle East

We’ve seen a massive shift in the average perspective on the Israeli military in the MENA region. It used to be viewed as an intimidating advanced force to be reckoned with, with a level of supremacy that could not be broken.

Now it is perceived as extremely weak and fragile. Specifically, the current perspective is that it would be easily defeated if it didn’t have unlimited American backing.

Here’s why:

Without the 600+ fighter aircrafts and missiles mostly provided by generous US support over the last decades, Israel wouldn’t have its military advantage - which as we’ve seen is simply aggressive air power and carpet bombing.

Without ammunition restocking by US industrial might, Israel couldn’t fight a long war.

Without US war ships in the Mediterranean, Israel wouldn’t be able to effectively deter regional actors.

Without US interventionism in selling advanced weapons to UAE and “gifts” to other regimes, Israel couldn’t entice regional actors or normalize with them.

Without the US veto at the UNSC against any ceasefire, Israel would be in the gutter diplomatically and couldn’t continue the war.

This war has proven to Palestinians, people across MENA, and the global south just how fragile the Israeli military actually is, and how defeatable it would be if it didn’t have unlimited US government support.

The huge death toll of innocent people, including 7000+ children, and destruction, all through aerial bombardment and carpet bombing, which Israeli strategists assume would create “deterrence”, is instead being perceived as the most cowardly tactic of a military that’s afraid of fighting “face to face” with a militia that is a TENTH its size, has 1% of its resources, and has been under siege for 17 years. Israel’s ground incursions happen through fortified tanks after massive aerial and artillery bombardment and yet still fail to effectively hold territory.

It is also being noted that while in 1967 Israel defeated the largest Arab nations in 6 days, in 60 days it has not achieved any significant strategic successes in Gaza despite using unprecedented force on the whole population.

Now, a generation of people across the region are not only witnessing what appears to them to be weakness and criminal cowardice of Israel’s military, they’re feeling deeply ashamed of their political leaders and guilty because they aren’t doing enough to stop this bloodshed.

Recall that the Arab revolutions in 2011 happened 5 years after the second Palestinian uprising ended, and were led by a generation of activists who came of age organizing for Palestinian rights during that period.

Moreover, across the region people now see this as an American war on Palestinian civilians just as much as it is Israel’s. If there was any doubt about that, the US veto yesterday solidified this view.

Similarly, you now have a generation of Americans who are horrified by what their government is complicit in, with the majority of Americans wanting a ceasefire. Even top US officials, who care about American national interests, are showing their discomfort, realizing that Israel is dragging the US towards a massive strategic failure.

The massive paradigm shifts that are unfolding as a result of these dynamics are going to be profound.

/end ID]

The tweet was posted on 9th December 2023, link here.

[eretzyisrael]

Understanding Israel-Hatred

The state of Israel has been in existence only for 73 years. The Zionist project has been around for somewhat longer, beginning in the 19th century. Since 1860, some 116,000 Jews and Arabs have lost their lives in wars, terrorism, and pogroms related to Arab-Jewish conflict in Eretz Yisrael. In the annals of recent human bloodshed, this doesn’t move the needle; in the Congo Wars of 1996-2001 and the genocides that immediately preceded and followed them, as many as 5.4 million were killed. The Syrian Civil War, still under way, has claimed 500-600,000 victims. And yet, more concentrated diplomatic and media activity surrounds our conflict than any other since the Cold War. Why are we special?

Israel is regularly accused of genocide. According to the UN, her alleged victims, the Arabs of Judea/Samaria/Gaza and eastern Jerusalem, who were about 1.1 million in 1970, now number at 5.2 million. Genocide? Even if this figure is exaggerated, the accusation is simply crazy.

Israel is regularly accused of apartheid, although Israeli Arab and Jewish citizens have equal rights, both de jure and de facto. There are no segregated facilities, no separate beaches, restrooms, or lunch counters (although Jews are forbidden to drink from water faucets on the Temple Mount). The Arabs in the disputed territories, by internationally recognized agreements, are citizens of the Palestinian Authority, and insofar as the PA holds elections, can vote in them. The historical phenomenon of apartheid bears no resemblance to anything found in Israel or the territories, despite the attempts of anti-Israel groups to torture definitions to make it so.

In the few decades of her existence the modern State of Israel has been attacked by soldiers of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia; other belligerents include Hezbollah, Hamas, the PLO and numerous other terrorist groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). She has been bombarded by missiles, rockets, mortar shells, balloons, and drones from Lebanon, Syria, Gaza, and Iraq. She has been infiltrated by terrorists countless times, including by means of rubber boats and hang gliders. She is currently the target of threats to annihilate her from Iran, which has provided large amounts of money and weapons to proxies in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and which is developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them. Iranian leaders have referred to Israel as a “cancer” that must be eliminated from the world. I don’t think there is any other nation in recent history that has its very existence questioned in a similar way.

Hamas, which took control of Gaza in a coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007, two years after every last Israeli soldier or civilian left the strip, precipitates periodic wars against Israel while waging a continuous terror campaign against residents of southern Israel. Gaza receives millions in aid from the UN and the EU, along with large amounts of cash from Qatar, supposedly for humanitarian purposes. Hamas uses it to prepare for the next war, and to make its kleptocratic leaders fabulously rich, while the rest of the population suffers. But Israel is blamed for “occupying” Gaza and impoverishing its people.

Although the violent attacks have come from her regional enemies, European countries have been waging diplomatic and cognitive war against Israel since the first days of her existence. Britain trained and sent advisors to the Jordanian army, which invaded the brand-new state the day after the British left in 1948. European money supports international, Israeli, and Palestinian NGOs which work to subvert the State of Israel, to propagandize against her, and to engage in “lawfare,” such as attempts to arrest IDF soldiers and government officials for “war crimes” and to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court. But there is evidence from impartial observers that the IDF does far more to prevent collateral damage than Western armies do.

In the US, countless organizations dedicated to bringing about the end of the Jewish state exist, from the numerous campus chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine, through professional propaganda outfits like the Foundation for Middle East Peace, to Jewish organizations like IfNotNow and “A Jewish Voice for Peace” (JVP). Large foundations like the Rockefeller Brothers Fund finance numerous groups and initiatives working against the Jewish state around the world. The New Israel Fund provides millions of dollars to hundreds of Israeli “social justice” groups. Some are harmless, but others are subversive or even connected to terrorism.

The progressive Left in America is monolithically anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian, despite the fact that the PLO and Hamas have shown themselves to be racist, misogynist, homophobic, and antisemitic. Organizations like the Movement for Black Lives and other “racial justice” groups consistently line up “for Palestine” and increasingly express explicitly antisemitic beliefs. The ridiculous and illogical proposition that Israel trains American police to abuse blacks (promoted by JVP) is widely accepted, and has encouraged anti-Jewish violence in US cities. Several members of the US Congress have made attacks on Israel – which often shade into antisemitism – their stock in trade.

In the international arena, the UN is shot through with bias against Israel. From the dozens of anti-Israel resolutions passed regularly by the General Assembly, the Human Rights Commission, and various agencies such as WHO and UNESCO, to the 2001 UN-sponsored World Conference against Racism in Durban, South Africa, and the annual “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People,” the UN seems to do little else than attack Israel.

The large “Human Rights” NGOs, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, falsely accuse Israel of apartheid, war crimes, and numerous acts of oppression; they defend terrorists, engage in lawfare against Israel, and employ many anti-Israel activists and individuals with connections to terrorist groups.

Finally, there is the almost universal contempt for Israel that is found throughout the academic world everywhere, even to a great extent in Israel. Pro-Israel students and faculty find themselves marginalized and punished if they express their beliefs. Some “scholars” and whole departments specialize in producing articles attacking Israel regardless of their actual area of expertise (if any).

Boycotts of Israel are found in every arena: athletes refuse to compete against Israelis, academics are disinvited from conferences, performers and writers who are Israeli or pro-Israel are canceled, Israeli products are boycotted. Ben and Jerry’s would prefer that Israelis don’t eat their ice cream (and not just in the territories). Israel disappears from maps and from the American passports of people born in Jerusalem. Even Israeli ham radio operators’ calls go unanswered. Perhaps they think that if they act as though we don’t exist, we will disappear.

Israel, like any modern state, isn’t perfect. But accusations of genocide, apartheid, oppression, and war crimes are not only false, they are absurd. In many cases they mirror what Israel’s enemies themselves have done, are doing, or would like to do, to Jews and their state. They constitute a Big Lie assault, in which massive repetition of outrageous falsehoods stuns the mind into accepting them.

The obsessive, extreme, and irrational hatred of Israel today is almost without precedent. In fact, there is only one historical phenomenon that can compare to it: the vile treatment of Jews throughout the millennia of recorded history. The persecutions, expulsions, pogroms, blood libels, boycotts, discrimination, and ultimately genocide that befell the Jewish people were no less obsessive, extreme, and irrational than today’s hatred of Israel.

This is not surprising, because the latter is nothing more than a mutation of the former. The State of Israel came about because Zionist thinkers realized that there was no other way for the weak, divided, Jewish people to survive in an increasingly unfriendly world than in a state of their own. In a kind of evolutionary response, Jew-hatred itself then had to become Israel-hatred to survive.

But there is an important difference: the weak, divided Jewish people had no way to fight back. Israel does.

Abu Yehuda

[whatevergreen]

Palestine Action stage a protest at the Elbit factory in Leicester, chaining the gates shut. The group says “it’s within our power to stop the production of brutal machinery which is fueling war crimes in Palestine”

The Israeli-owned Elbit says its drones are a "backbone" of the IDF.

Palestine Action said: "While Israel continues to bombard Gaza, our government funds and profits from the bloodshed."

[xtruss]

From ‘Racist, Bigot, Ignorant Pussy Grabber-in-Chief Trump’s all-out support for Israel’ to ‘Zionist Cunts’ Scrotums Licker Biden’s no concrete action’, the US has ‘undeniable responsibility’ for today’s conflict

Zhang Hui | May 17, 2021 | Global Times

People hold placards during a peaceful procession in solidarity with the Palestinian people amid the ongoing conflict with Israel, in Mombasa, Kenya, on Monday. The conflict in the Gaza Strip has seen 198 Palestinians killed, including 58 children and 35 women, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health on Monday. Photo: AP

When a Palestinian girl wept out her tears in the ruins of her bombed home, asking "why do we deserve this? What did we do for this? They just don't like us because we are Muslims," the US continued to obstruct the UN Security Council (UNSC) to issue a statement on the Israel-Palestine conflict, ignoring the human rights of civilians in Palestine and the international community's call for a ceasefire.

Chinese observers said US not just fanned the flames of conflict, but also displayed to the world how selfish and hypocritical it is in terms of respecting human rights and shouldering its responsibilities as a major power.

The US is facing mounting calls for greater involvement in solving the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict with hostilities entering a second week. Chinese observers believed the US has an undeniable responsibility for the fiercest fighting since 2014 due to its one-sided Middle East policy serving Israel.

China urges the US to shoulder its due responsibility, take a fair position and support the UNSC's role in easing the Palestine-Israel situation, rebuilding trust and achieving a political settlement with the international community, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at Monday's routine media briefing.

As the large majority of the international community is calling to stop civilian bloodshed, the US has not made any statement in support of an immediate ceasefire, criticized Israel's offensives or sent a top diplomat to the region.

In sharp contrast, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the conflict as "utterly appalling," calling for an immediate end to it.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on Sunday for an immediate halt to what it described as Israel's barbaric attacks on Gaza and blamed "systematic crimes" against the Palestinians for hostilities, Reuters reported Monday.

And even the US' European allies have been calling on the US to take practical actions. French Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Clement Beaune said on French television that the US must involve itself more effectively. "It's clear that they are the ones who still have the main diplomatic command," Beaune remarked.

What's worse, US President Joe Biden has been under stronger criticism domestically. Adam Schiff, Democratic chairman of the House intelligence committee, urged Biden on Sunday to step up pressure on both sides to end the current fighting and revive talks to resolve Israel's conflicts and flashpoints with the Palestinians, AP reported on Monday.

The US bore an undeniable responsibility for the Israel-Palestine conflict, and its policy in the Middle East has long been kidnapped by its Jewish community that serves the interest of Israel, Tian Wenlin, a research fellow at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, told the Global Times on Monday.

Former US president Donald Trump announced in 2017 that the US recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. This overturned decades-old official US policy. And then in 2018, Trump decided to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Palestine has been very dissatisfied with these US moves.

Chinese observers said that what Trump did in the past years has sowed the seeds for the current conflicts and bloodshed.

While Biden has not taken any concrete moves in reversing Trump's pro-Israel policy, a "spoilt" Israel had taken its chances which lead to the conflict, Liu Zhongmin, a professor at the Middle East Studies Institute of the Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Monday.

Chinese observers said that Biden is unlikely to make any concrete moves in de-escalating the confrontation, at most making certain gestures in diplomatic language that do not mean anything, Tian said.

As the biggest influencer to the Israel, the US is pulling out of the region to avoid being involved in affairs other than in the Asia-Pacific so that it can focus on dealing with China and Russia, observers said.

The Palestinian issue is actually a "mirror" reflecting the US' hypocrisy on human rights, Chinese observers said, noting that the US is indulging Israel in the killing and oppression of Palestinian Muslims while criticizing China's treatment regarding Muslims in Xinjiang, Tian said.

The US has been pressuring Arab countries on Xinjiang-related issues to force them follow the US in criticizing China's human rights and sabotaging the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative, while ignoring its own human rights issues and the civilian bloodshed in Palestine, observers said.

And the US' pressure on Middle Eastern countries has not and will not succeed, as many developing countries in the region know that the views of human rights held by the US don't represent those of the international community, and only human rights views of developing countries such as China should be more listened to, observers said.

During this year's session of the UN Human Rights Council, many developing countries, including the 21 Arab countries, voiced their solidarity with China, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in March.

A ball of fire erupts from a building in Gaza City's Rimal residential district on May 16, 2021, during massive Israeli bombardment on the Hamas-controlled enclave. Photo: VCG

China's Role

Wang Yi said that China reiterates its invitation to peacemakers from Palestine and Israel to come to China for dialogue, and welcomes negotiators from Palestine and Israel to hold direct talks in China when he chaired the UNSC open debate via video link on Sunday regarding the Palestine-Israel conflict in the Gaza Strip.

The conflict in the Gaza Strip has seen 198 Palestinians killed, including 58 children and 35 women, on Monday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

China, as the rotating president of the UNSC for May, has pushed the council to hold two rounds of urgent closed-door consultations on the Palestine-Israel conflict and drafted a UNSC press statement.

As for Wang's remarks, Zhao Lijian said on Monday that China has been promoting peace talks and staying in communication with all parties concerned to implement State Councilor Wang Yi's initiative to advance the Palestine-Israel peace talks and push for an early and just settlement of the Palestinian issue.

China has been supporting the resolution of differences between Palestine and Israel through peace talks for years and this time Wang specifically emphasized welcoming negotiators from Palestine and Israel to hold direct talks in China, indicating that China is willing to deepen its involvement in solving the long-standing issue, Tian said.

China, as a responsible major country, has offered help in solving the ongoing confrontation and would like to provide a platform for the ultimate way out of the Palestinian issue, Liu said.

But both Tian and Liu said that China's role remains limited, and resolving the conflict depends on the two parties involved.

In the past few years, China has become more involved in the Palestine-Israel issue, showing an increased willingness to help solve the conflict through dialogue and the two-state solution and strengthening friendly relationships with countries in the Middle East, Chinese observers said.

China had successfully invited both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to visit China in 2013 to work with the international community and play a positive and constructive role in the settlement of the Palestinian issue.

In March 2021, Wang visited six Middle Eastern countries in seven days including Saudi Arabia and Iran, setting a record for the Chinese foreign minister visiting the most Middle Eastern countries in one single trip.

In 2020, trade between China and Arab countries reached nearly $240 billion, making China the largest trading partner of Arab countries, and China imported 250 million tons of crude oil from Arab countries, accounting for half of China's total imports in the same period.

Compared with the US, Tian said, China's biggest advantage in solving the conflict lies in that it supports justice and fairness and has maintained friendly relations with both parties.

China does not set any preconditions in its efforts to promote peace talks, and China's participation in Middle Eastern affairs is not for the purpose of obtaining economic dividends as a peaceful Middle East benefits the whole world, Liu said.

"It's also worth mentioning that China's role in helping resolve the hostilities is limited, and whether China's invitation will end up having good results is not reliant on China, but at the center of the conflict concerning Palestine and Israel," Liu said.

"But what China has been doing in pushing for peace talks in the region is not to act as a challenger to the US in the Middle East, but to play a constructive role and shoulder the responsibility of a major power as well as the rotating presidency of the UNSC for May," Liu said.

[momo33me]

A picture can say a thousand words, but in today’s ever-connected world, the good ones can generate even more retweets. A viral image taken in Gaza by photojournalist Mustafa Hassona, which depicts a bare-chested Palestinian protester holding a large flag and wielding a sling, has achieved both of these feats.

The photograph was taken as protests continue on the border of Israel. Gaza's health ministry said 32 Palestinians were wounded as demonstrators threw stones at Israeli forces, who responded with tear gas and live fire. The image has provoked a huge reaction online, with social media users likening it to Liberty Leading the People, the iconic Eugene Delacroix painting of the French Revolution.

From the moment we sleepily check our phones in the morning, most of us are bombarded with information and imagery, some of which can be disturbing. This photograph is undeniably striking, but the online reaction displays a worrying tone of detachment in the face of human suffering that is becoming all too common.

Paintings such as Delacroix’s have decorated gallery walls for centuries. Encased within ornate gold frames and protected by glass, their figures are distant, providing us with the romantic fantasy of a world gone by. They might be based on historical events, but our minds can easily decipher that there’s nothing real behind the flat oily surface of the canvas.

But Hassona’s photograph couldn’t be more real. Behind its palpable kinetic energy and visual dynamism lies one of the most desperate human rights situations in the world.

The flag bearer, identified by Al Jazeera as 20 year-old Aed Abu Amro, is one of almost two million people that are trapped on the tiny Gaza strip, unable to leave. This year has seen hundreds of deaths at the hands of Israeli forces, who have been condemned by the United Nations for using “excessive force” against protestors. Unarmed medics, such as 21 year-old Razan al-Najjar, are among the fatalities. A 12 year-old boy was shot dead earlier this month. A UN report has warned that Israel's blockade will make Gaza, the world’s third most densely populated area, “uninhabitable“ by 2020. 97 per cent of the territory’s drinking water is undrinkable and there are only four hours of electricity a day.

These facts are distressing to read. But this hopeless situation has been facilitated by governments across the world enabling what will one day be universally accepted as crimes against humanity.

Romanticising the image of a desperate man taking on an army allows us to justify its circumstances and distract ourselves from the grim truth that, in the real world, David rarely defeats Goliath. Aed could die today, tomorrow, or the week after that. If he keeps protesting, it is almost an inevitability.

Protesting is, of course, a choice. But it is also a choice for Israel to continue flouting international law by building on Palestinian land and planning to demolish Palestinian villages – a potential war crime. It was a choice for the US to deliberately inflame the situation by moving its embassy to Jerusalem, causing unnecessary bloodshed and anguish. Left to swelter without a trace of hope in what is essentially an open air prison where 50 per cent of children express no will to live, as the world looks the other way, is there not a chance we would all do the same?

In the most tasteless responses, social media users have remarked on Aed’s chiselled jaw and physique. This overt fetishisation of his suffering is obscene, but the idea that the pain and anguish of marginalised groups is a price worth paying for beautiful art is a notion far older than even the paintings of Delacroix.

From Asad’s chemical weapon attacks in Syria, to the bodies of refugee children washed up on the beaches of Europe, images have a radical, empathy-spreading power that can change the world. But the flippant reaction this particular shot, of someone literally risking being shot, represents our growing detachment from pain and lack of collective responsibility for it.

Don’t let this photograph fool you: there is nothing beautiful or poetic about the oppression of Palestinians. Beyond the lens, the constant misery of wasted life and unnecessary death in Gaza continues - we must not let that drift out of focus.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: After 70 years, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still unresolved. The conflict simmers for a few years, then erupts again with new massacres and violence. This article describes recent events, the failure of the “two state solution” and need for a different approach. In the past couple months, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers have killed 118 Palestinian protesters and seriously wounded many thousands more. The protesters were unarmed and no threat to the soldiers. Gaza hospitals overflow with victims. In the wake of this violence, human rights groups filed a legal petition to make it unlawful for Israeli soldiers to fire on unarmed protesters. Last week the Israeli Supreme Court rejected the petition. Israeli violence is usually portrayed as a “response” to Palestinian violence, but the reality is the opposite. The sequence of recent events is as follows: – From the end of March til May 25, Palestinians in Gaza protested against their oppression as close as they could get to the border fences. About 118 were killed and many thousands seriously injured by Israeli snipers. They were all shot inside Gaza. – On May 27 – 28, the Israeli military launched tank mortars at Palestinian military outposts inside Gaza, killing four. – Next day, on May 29, Palestinian militants launched unguided mortars into nearby Israel. Most of them fell harmlessly and there were no Israeli casualties. – Next day, on May 30, Israeli jets and helicopters launched guided missiles and bombs on 65 different locations within Gaza. Clearly, the violence started with Israelis killing protesters and then militants inside Gaza, but it’s not portrayed that way. Time magazine began its article with, “Palestinian militants bombarded southern Israel….” Pro Israel advocates wish to prevent people from seeing what is really happening. They know the potential damage if people see video such as Israeli snipers celebrating the shooting of unarmed protesters. To prevent this, a proposed law will make it illegal to photograph or video record Israeli soldiers. Palestinian journalists have condemned this attempt to criminalize journalism. The Reality of the Israeli Occupation Israel calls itself the “Startup Nation” because of the economic and technological achievements. But in Gaza and the West Bank, Israeli policies and actions strangle the economies and worsen living conditions. Palestinians in Gaza are kept separate from Palestinians in the West Bank. There is no trade, travel or inter-family visitation. This is in violation of international agreements including the Oslo Accords. The claim that Israel “departed” Gaza is false. Israel controls the borders, sky and waters around Gaza, a coastal strip just 5 miles wide by 25 miles in length. Unemployment in Gaza is approaching 50%, the highest unemployment in the world. Fisherman are prevented from going out into deeper waters and shot at when they go beyond Israel’s imposed zone. Gazan farmers cannot export independently. Israel frequently blocks the import and export of crops and products. It is almost impossible to leave Gaza. Even outstanding students winning international scholarships may have their exit denied. The electrical and water treatment facilities have been bombed and destroyed by Israel. Nearly all the drinking water is contaminated. Israel restricts the amount of food permitted to enter Gaza so there is continual shortage leading to nutritional deprivation, stunted growth and anemia. This situation is not new. Eighteen years ago, Israeli journalist Amira Hass described the history, the facts and statistics as well as her personal experience living in Gaza in the profound book Drinking the Seat at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land Under Siege. The situation was extremely grim then but keeps getting worse. At the northern Gaza border, Israel is now building a sea barrier extending far out into the Mediterranean. It will be above and below the water line. A major reason for this expensive project is to block sewage and pollution from the waters in front of Gaza. Because of Israeli attacks on sewage treatment and electrical infrastructure, sewage flows into the sea. Last summer, Zikim Beach in southern Israel had to be closed due to the inflow of sewage from Gaza. The ‘sea barrier’ now in construction will block the sea currents. This will keep the Israeli beach clean and greatly compound the problem in Gaza. The strangulation, impoverishment and oppression is not confined to Gaza. In the West Bank, Israeli settlements continue to expand. This increases the number of check points, restrictions and repression. Travel from Bethlehem to Jerusalem is impossible for most Palestinians. The majority of West Bank water from the aquifers is transferred to Israel or provided cheaply to settlers while Palestinians must buy water and store it in tanks on their rooftops. In the last few years, Israel has made it increasingly difficult or impossible for humanitarian groups to provide medical support including breast cancer screening. A compelling new book titled The Other Side of the Wall describes the daily struggle in the West Bank where Palestinians and international allies protest against the theft of land, abuses, random killings and imprisonments. Defiant Courage There seems to be a trend toward greater Palestinian unity and strategic agreement. The tens of thousands of Palestinians protesting in Gaza were unarmed and united behind the Palestinian flag rather than separate party or movement flags of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP, DFLP, etc..     The Palestinian protesters in Gaza show remarkable courage. Beginning on Friday March 30, they have returned week after week despite seeing thousands of their fellows shot and wounded or killed. In an article titled “The Gaza Fence that Separates the Brave from the Cowardly“, Amira Hass wrote: The desperate courage demonstrated by tens of thousands of citizens of Gaza over the past few weeks in general and on Monday in particular hints at the energies, the talents, the dreams, the creativity and the vitality of the inhabitants of this strip of land – who have been subjected to a 27 year policy of closure and siege aimed at suffocating and crushing them. Steadfast and Persistent Palestinian resistance continues despite Israeli violence and bloodshed. Seven years ago Palestinian refugees in Syria and Lebanon held “March of Return” protests at the northern borders. Israeli soldiers killed 13 and wounded many more. In recent days, Gazans have again challenged the Israeli port blockade which prevents ships from departing or arriving. International solidarity with the Palestinian cause is also persistent. Three ships (two Swedish and one Norwegian) recently departed Scandinavia heading for the Mediterranean Sea and Gaza. Named the 2018 Freedom Flotilla, the ships are carrying dozens of international citizens to again demand that Israel stop its blockade of Gaza. Despite the huge imbalance today, time may be on the side of the Palestinian cause. Systemic apartheid in South Africa existed for a long time and seemed strong. But ultimately it collapsed quickly. The same may unfold in Israel/Palestine. Today, South Africa is an important supporter of the Palestinian cause. South Africa was the first nation to recall its ambassador to protest the “indiscriminate and grave Israeli attack” in Gaza. Israel has the military might but Palestinian resistance and courage persists. The Palestinian population is steadfast, persistent and growing. They have increasing number of allies who support their cause. Young American Jews are unlike their parents and increasingly critical of Israeli policies. Some courageous Israelis, such as Miko Peled, speak out unequivocally that Israeli apartheid must end and be replaced by one state with democracy and equality for all. A million registered Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon and Syria, patiently waiting. They have not forgotten their legal claim and right to return. The recent bloodshed and massacres underscore the fact that there is no solution on the current path. It only leads to increasingly unlivable conditions in Gaza plus more illegal settlements and oppression in the West Bank. The so-called “two state solution” has been dead for many years and should be forgotten. As happened in South Africa, the international community can and should help. It is time to increase international pressure and expand BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) against Israel to help bring a peaceful end to this conflict with its constant oppression and recurring massacres. The alternative is very grim. As described by Israeli journalist Gideon Levy: The truth is that Israel is well prepared to massacre hundreds and thousands, and to expel tens of thousands. Nothing will stop it. This is the end of conscience, the show of morality is over. The last few days’ events have proved it decisively. The tracks have been laid, the infrastructure for the horror has been cast. Dozens of years of brainwashing, demonization and dehumanization have borne fruit. The alliance between the politicians and the media to suppress reality and deny it has succeeded. Israel is set to commit horrors. Nobody will stand in its way any longer. Not from within or from without. Palestinian courage should spur international action. http://clubof.info/

[renka-aardvarknews-blog]

The complex situation in the Middle-East

Courtesy TAMER FAKAHANY The modern Middle East has been plagued by ruinous wars: country versus country, civil wars with internecine and sectarian bloodletting, and numerous eruptions centered on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But never in the last 70 years have they seemed as interconnected as now with Iran and Saudi Arabia vying for regional control, while Israel also seeks to maintain a military supremacy of its own. Russia, the United States and Turkey make up the other powerbrokers in a region where not only wars but proxy battlefields within those wars are on a feverish and hostile footing. The ongoing wars in Syria, Yemen, this week's mass killing of Palestinians by Israel in Gaza, Turkish-Kurdish hostilities, and the potential for an all-encompassing war sparked by an Iranian-Israeli conflagration in Syria or Lebanon, all have tentacles that reach across borders and back again. Suggestion in recent years of a Sunni/Shiite schism across the Middle East and Persian Gulf appears much less a factor than the jockeying of the key actors with the most military, financial and diplomatic muscle who are trying to shape the region in their image, or at least to the satisfaction of their national security and various leaders' hubris. Here's a look at each of the main power players, whom they are aligned with, and what their ultimate goals are. ISRAEL WHAT'S AT STAKE: Direct conflict with Iran has been simmering and briefly looked like it might burst into full-blown conflagration after Israel launched a blistering bombardment of Iranian positions in Syria, killing Iranian fighters after an alleged Iranian rocket barrage toward its positions on the annexed Golan Heights. The exchange followed several earlier suspected Israeli strikes on Iranian positions in Syria. Israel sees Iran as its mortal enemy and 'existential' threat. Conflict with Iran would likely drag in Tehran's ally, Hezbollah. An Israeli-Hezbollah conflict could play out in southern Lebanon and northern Israel, with each side warning it will strike across the opponent's country. Israel is bolstered by unprecedented support from U.S. President Donald Trump. Israel is determined to suffocate the Iran nuclear deal; Trump withdrew from the accord and days later sent his daughter and son-in-law to preside over the U.S. Embassy move to disputed Jerusalem, a move that angered the Arab and Muslim worlds. Bloodshed at the Gaza border may have revived global opprobrium against Israel for use of disproportionate live fire against unarmed protesters, killing dozens; but Trump's backing gives it reason to feel emboldened. Behind the scenes, Israel is building relations with Gulf nations also opposed to Iran. WHAT IT WANTS: A much weakened Iran, the continuation of the Gaza blockade — which is also imposed by Egypt — with a ferociously controlled border, and no concessions to the Palestinians with regards to land for peace. IRAN WHAT'S AT STAKE: The rapprochement with America under President Barack Obama is now ashes. Sanctions relief, running to hundreds of billions of dollars, is at risk, as Washington targets Tehran again, though a nuclear deal may be salvaged with EU nations, Russia and China. Iran has built up alliances to counter Israel and Saudi Arabia. In Syria, the presence of its troops and allied Shiite militias has been critical to President Bashar Assad's survival. In Yemen, it is allied to Shiite Houthi rebels battling Saudi-backed forces. Tehran strongly supports the Palestinian cause, though its ties with Hamas have weakened. WHAT IT WANTS: Iran has pretty much accomplished a goal its officials have often trumpeted, building a corridor of power from Iran across Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the Mediterranean. In all those countries, it funds and arms powerful Shiite militias and has enormous political influence. It seeks a continuation of the nuclear deal with the other global signatories, hoping to bolster its financial coffers. There has already been discontent in Iran that sanctions relief was not flowing to the people. RUSSIA WHAT'S AT STAKE: President Vladimir Putin has ruthlessly filled the U.S. vacuum in Syria. Moscow's support of Assad turned the tide of war in his favor when defeat seemed imminent several years ago. Russia is also allied to Iran. But it also hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for its Victory Day celebrations hours before Israel's attack on Iranian positions in Syria, raising speculation the two were quietly coordinating so that Israel kept well away from Moscow's forces and planes in Syria. WHAT IT WANTS: Russia's regional goal in is to sustain and build on the major foothold it now has in the Middle East, beyond Syria, notably where the U.S. might have been once before. U.S. WHAT'S AT STAKE: "Traditionally we've tried to play a role of fireman in the Middle East. Now we're playing the role of arsonist," says Ilan Goldenberg, a former State Department and Pentagon official who runs the Mideast program at the Center for a New American Security. That seems to have plenty of currency in the region now. The Palestinians have essentially cut off contacts and say the U.S. cannot be an honest broker. So Trump's promised "deal of the century" doesn't seem to be in the cards for now. Trump withdrew from the Iran deal. He has by his side hawks like National Security Adviser John Bolton, who has advocated for attacking Iran and regime change. Trump can't decide on Syria — to keep the U.S. presence or not? He doesn't seem intent on ruffling Putin over Syria unless chemical weapons rear their head again, which prompted U.S.-led airstrikes last month. The administration is very closely allied to Saudi Arabia and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and seems set to continue following Riyadh's lead on Yemen. Washington may get an unpleasant surprise if a heavily pro-Iran government emerges in Iraq after last week's elections. WHAT IT WANTS: The administration is in complete synch with Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saber-rattling with Iran could escalate, and it shows no urgency in pushing for Israel-Palestinian negotiations. SAUDI ARABIA WHAT'S AT STAKE: Also emboldened by Trump, the Saudi crown prince is determined to make his mark. Riyadh is spending billions of dollars in the Yemen war, leading a Gulf Arab coalition against Iranian-allied Shiite Houthi rebels. Thousands of civilians have been killed by Saudi airstrikes and starvation in the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Prince Mohammed has made vague threats that the kingdom will build a nuclear bomb if Iran starts its program again. Saudi Arabia sees Iran as the single greatest threat to the region and its competition for the dominant role it wants for itself. The kingdom is closely tied to Trump, who chose it as the destination for his first overseas trip as president, and it has been back-channeling with Israel. At the same time, it has lost influence in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon after placing bets on losing partners or failed gambits. WHAT IT WANTS: Emasculation regionally of Iran and to be the dominant power in the region. TURKEY WHAT'S AT STAKE: For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it's almost exclusively about the Kurds, who in an alliance with the U.S. helped defeat the Islamic State group in Syria and in the process captured a quarter of the country. This has infuriated Turkey to the point it launched a military campaign seizing a pocket of northern Syria, and it threatens to attack Kurds all the way to the Iraqi border. The presence of U.S. forces among the Kurds is perhaps the only thing that's held Turkey back this long. Ankara views Kurdish fighters in Syria as an extension of the Turkish Kurdish PKK, which it considers a terrorist group. Turkey also gives vocal support to the Palestinians, while relations are at a nadir with Israel. Turkey has also offered to take in wounded Palestinians from Gaza for treatment. WHAT IT WANTS: To break Kurdish strength and, above all, prevent a Kurdish autonomous mini-state in Syria along its border. It also wants some say in post-war Syria where it has supported opposition fighters and Islamist groups opposed to Assad. Tamer Fakahany is AP Global News manager and has directed international coverage for AP for 15 years. Read the full article