#the regime that the people who live in palestine and especially gaza have been actively protesting for five years

[infiniteglitterfall]

the cradle is not a valid news source omfg.

There are a lot of shitty news sites out there. Fact-checking is free, but you'd never know it from looking at a lot of the articles that get traction on social media.

you would, however, increasingly see the far right embracing the left.

me, in a weary sing-song, every fucking time I see an outrage-clickbait headline: "what does the article actually say."

thecradle.co: "The US House of Representatives passed an amendment on 27 June barring State Department officials from citing the Gaza Health Ministry’s death toll of the ongoing Israeli war on the strip.... Sixty-two Democratic lawmakers voted in favor, as well as all but two Republicans."

me: "i thought the problem was that the UN had inexplicably started giving totals from the Gaza Media Office, which had WAY higher total deaths for women and children than the actual Health Ministry, and then everyone found out the Media Office was lying its ass off when the UN switched to the Health Ministry numbers. What's their reasoning?

"Is it the thing where almost 78% of their casualty numbers this spring came from unspecified media sources? Or is it because yes, the Ministry of Health's casualty numbers lined up pretty well with the UN's and Israel's in past wars, but this is the first time that the UN and NGOs haven't been verifying the death count in real time? Or that the Associated Press found hundreds of duplicate IDs in even the list of fully identified recent deaths from the Health Ministry? Wait, is it that the Ministry of Health has been claiming that like 75% of the deaths were women and children, but releasing detailed reports that show that it's really 38%-52%, depending on the month? ok fine maybe there's a reason that this was an almost unanimous vote."

thecradle.co: "...that's not relevant"

me: "...seems like it is tho"

thecradle.co: "we're not here to answer questions"

me: "..."

thecradle.co: "anYWAY, Rashida Tlaib is a real-life Palestinian-American and SHE said, 'Since 1948... there has been a coordinated effort, especially in this chamber, to dehumanize Palestinians and erase Palestinians from existence... [Israel's committing] genocide in Gaza, and in real time, and this amendment is an attempt to hide it … This is genocide denial.'"

me: "how has there been a coordinated effort in the senate to erase Palestinians from existence for 76 years? the u.s. is the largest provider of foreign aid to palestine on earth. i've literally read the entire detailed record of the 1950 senate hearing on Palestinian refugees--"

thecradle.co: "again, i am NOT TAKING QUESTIONS, I am just TELLING YOU--"

me: "okay, okay, geeze"

thecradle.co: "my point is that she said, 'My colleagues want to prohibit our own US officials from even citing the Palestinian death toll. So let me read it into the record. Here are the latest casualties of Palestinians killed: 37,718 Palestinians, including more than 15,000 Palestinian children and more than 86,377 Palestinians have been injured.'"

me: "isn't that the old, blatantly incorrect, two-times-too-high number of deaths of Palestinian children, from the Gaza MEDIA Office? Not the Health Ministry? omg, it IS. The media office is claiming 15,002 children, and a total of 44,844 total deaths. You can only even find that shit printed in Al Mayadeen, which is also a fake news site."

thecradle.co: "I don't know that kind of stuff. I just report the facts."

me: "sure, if the fact is that she lied. wait. she's upset that they're telling the State Department not to use the Health Ministry's numbers and SHE'S not even using the Health Ministry's numbers? was she even listening?"

thecradle.co: "...In November 2023, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs, Barbara Leaf, said when asked about skepticism over the Gaza Health Ministry death toll that the numbers could actually be higher."

me: "did you actually just close by quoting someone speculating wildly nine months ago?"

thecradle.co: "listen, our about page makes it very clear that we are definitely journalists and we definitely aren't owned by anybody, and we will expose whatever shocking truths we want."

me: "...so...."

thecradle.co: "...did you hear that ben gvir is the most hated man on earth?" me: "i thought you claimed to report the NEWS."

anyway, I am just as thrilled as always to see my united states elected representatives getting their info from the least reputable sources possible. and then being signal boosted by the least reputable sources possible.

it's almost as thrilling as the knowledge that people react to "hey that's not true" as if you'd just murdered a Palestinian civilian right in front of them, instead of as if you were telling them that thousands of Palestinian children thought dead were still alive.

[fuckyeah-bears]

to the person sending me hateful anon messages, reporting me, and trying to remove the posts i've reblogged that palestinian people themselves are sharing because they want the world to see the despicable cruelties israel is doing to them,

i pity you for your misguided rage. i am not the problem in this situation. i am not responsible for israel committing genocide. if you are upset by these images and the things being done, i implore you to take action against israel. i implore you to take action against your government and demand that they pressure israel in any and every means necessary to stop committing this violence. i implore you to boycott products and companies that are funding and supporting israel's genocide and colonialist settler economy. i implore you to direct your anger and hatred at the people and governments actually responsible for the beyond upsetting content you are seeing.

i do not deny this is disgusting upsetting content. and i am so sorry that it is triggering emotions and memories and pain for you. i genuinely genuinely am. but you need to understand that shouting at me and other people sharing this content specifically to raise awareness for the crimes israel (and almost every single western government and media channel) is, as we speak, actively trying to downplay, sanitize, erase, misrepresent, and deny, is so misguided and counterproductive.

i in no way speak for the people of palestine, but from the countless videos and messages i have seen and heard from them, many have given up on the world actually doing anything to stop the horrors being done to them. they have given up hoping for a world that has never cared about them or their suffering, that has completely and utterly abandoned them, to suddenly change and force israel to stop. i have heard and seen so many people in gaza say that they want their suffering and lives to be remembered and seen. they want it to be recorded so we can bear witness to what is being done to them. so maybe one day the world will remember that they were human beings who were brutalized and massacred by an uncaring cruel regime and abandoned by an uncaring cruel world.

obviously this is not the stance of all palestinians, nor all people of gaza, but i am sharing the videos and content they themselves are recording and sharing in the hopes it can do something to help, however small, if only by bearing witness to their pain and suffering and making sure they are not dying alone without anyone in the outside world grieving for them. i am hoping it can motivate people to action.

i also want you to know that i take absolutely zero pleasure in this. i find this content utterly horrific and beyond disturbing. it sickens me and i want nothing more than for this violence to stop. but i can't look away. because looking away and pretending it's not happening, or sanitizing just how disgustingly cruel and inhumane the israeli government is would be despicable cowardice and yet another betrayal to the people of palestine.

i also want to emphasize to everyone that sharing videos and photos and posts on social media is by no means anywhere near enough. it is something, absolutely, but you need to do more. we all need to do more. if you profess to care at all about palestinian people and their suffering, you need to do everything in your power to help.

so here's what you, as people who care about palestinians can do:

unless directly asked not to by the people of gaza, keep sharing their videos, photos, posts, and stories.

talk to the people around you, especially the ones who are either not following what's going on or have been brainwashed by the biased pro-israel propaganda.

write to your government leaders and elected officials and anyone else who holds a position of power. email them and call them and tell them to take action. tell them to demand a ceasefire. tell them to condemn israel. tell them to stop funding israel. keep calling them again and again.

publicly call out and shame your elected/government leaders for their hypocrisy and bias

write op-eds or blog posts or newspaper articles for any media outlet explaining what's going on and telling people to take action

counter and speak out against toxic pro-israeli narratives that dehumanize palestinians

attend protests and rallies in support of palestine near you

attend protests and rallies trying to shut down weapons manufacturers that are making the weapons that are being sent to israel (i will share more information on this in another post)

follow palestinian accounts on social media and accounts that are reporting on the truth (i will make a separate post with a list of accounts people can follow)

write to your institutions like universities, colleges, etc. and demand they release statements in support of palestine

donate to reputable relief orgs (i will make a separate post with more info later)

read up on the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement and loudly boycott companies that support or fund israel. tell other people to boycott those same companies. boycott all israeli companies and products.

educate yourself and others around you on the history of palestine and the israeli occupation and oppression

do not be silent!

if anyone has more things people can do to help, please please add to this list.

so once again, feeling angry is a good thing. if you are not spitting furious and utterly sickened and disgusted by what israel is doing to palestine and her people and the fact that so many of our countries and leaders and media outlets are actively supporting israel's despicable war crimes, then you are not fully human. you should be angry. you should be furious. you should be sickened. but please turn that rage and fury and grief and disgust into something productive that has a chance of helping end this violence and suffering. turn your rage and fury and grief and disgust to the people and institutions responsible for this, not the people trying to stand by the people of palestine and do everything they can to stop this horrific genocide.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

[old-school-butch]

hey im really glad you're speaking out on this israel/palestine issue. the public opinion is way, way too skewed in gazas favor.

ive been trying to talk to people irl about it, and my circle at least is mostly pro israel, and we all agree that what's going on on social media is insane.

absolutely no one is saying that all the information from gaza is coming from hamas, not to mention the defense of them. and i've never seen so much antisemitism just out in the open. the literal left is out here like "maybe hitler was right" and then call you "pro-genocide" when you call them out.

also, people are falling for propaganda and manipulation at degrees that, honestly, concern me.

Al Jazeera is the propaganda arm of the Qatari regime which, of course, is where the Hamas leadership lives. It's spent years developing a good reputation among lefties because it does - in truth - contain some analysis and information the Western media doesn't focus on. But it's part of a much larger information campaign that's happening that includes Russia and Iran and their social media outfits that aim to destabilize 'the West'. I've read AJ, just like I've read RT news - the Russian counterpart. They are designed to take a leftist argument and then put a spin on it - test the waters for more radical interpretations, push the limits and subtly distort perception. They have different outlets to massage the opinions on the right wing too. The goal is to make a middle ground impossible, and they are succeeding beyond anyone's wildest dreams.

Odds are good that we all follow at least one state actor - there was one here on tumblr that I had followed called, I believe, 'votingwhileblack' - which posted interesting critiques of the U.S. elections. But it was unmasked as a Russian agent, and I looked at the account contents more objectively. Much of it was very worthwhile analysis of U.S. attempts to disenfranchise people from their elections, but it was interspersed with subtle and not-so-subtle nudges - lots of 'don't bother voting, it's all rigged' material, Dems are just as bad as GOP, you can't trust the government at all, unless we do 'something radical' then nothing will ever change, all white people are racist and hatred is a natural response and so on. There are enough people who agree with these sentiments to spread that view, but by leading the conversation, it changes the tone. It makes anyone who disagrees with you the enemy, who is beyond negotiation, and so moderate solutions are discarded. The same is happening on the right and is why online discussion can be especially toxic and uninformative.

These campaigns have been running for years and these state agents have collected a huge amount of data points, floated a lot of arguments and learning which ones will stick. I can see this being applied to the current conflict.

The most striking to me is the word 'genocide' is used in a conflict with - even by Hamas' own claims - has 10,000 casualties. No one seems to question how many of those casualties are civilian and what portion are Hamas soldiers. Hamas claims to have 40,000 Hamas fighters in their 3-500km of tunnels. Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into Israel (and more of them land in Gaza than Israel to be honest, they're not good rockets) and Israel has dropped about 10,000 tonnes of bombs, including bunker busters that penetrate deep into the ground to destroy the tunnels. These are powerful explosions, so just compare that activity with the self-reported casualty count. It's actually quite low. Civilian deaths are always horrible to see, but there's absolutely no evidence that Israel is targeting civilians, much less killing them in large numbers.

But that's no problem if you follow the script - the genocide argument seamlessly shifts to the future, like Israel wants to occupy Gaza and/or expel all Gazans and that's really the genocide in play. I think the most likely long-term outcome is that Israel will occupy Gaza while they try to find a government that is willing to keep working to a 2 state solution, and they will stop employing Gazans - just as Egypt and Lebanon currently does - because it's quite likely that the setup for this operation was done by Gazan workers employed in Israel (the intelligence gathering on security weaknesses, the stolen IDF uniforms etc).

None of these outcomes are good for Palestinians, but they're also not genocide. Or all they all genocide? It's an easy pivot set up to be applied no matter what Israel does, the blame is always placed on Israel. And so by taking a real word with specific meaning, it's now going to be used as a vague accusation that can mean anything to advance whatever argument you want to make against whatever reality is taking place.

Honestly, even the word 'Palestinian' is somewhat complicated. Part of the difficulty of this conflict is this identity that refers to a nation without a state. The Arab desire for statehood in the region grew in the 20s and 30s but they didn't accept the UN proposal in 1948 and instead started (and lost) a war to control the entire territory. But they didn't also accept that loss, or claim Gaza and the West Bank as their own state. Instead, this idea is now the abstract 'Palestinian cause' that exists in almost a parallel world where Israel isn't real, the 1948 war is still happening and justice won't be done until Israel is gone and Palestine is created in its place.

Even 75 years later, there are millions of 'Palestinian refugees' who are the descendants of this movement living in Gaza and the West Bank. Yes, they are 'refugees' even while living in the land allocated for their self-governed state. They live in 'refugee camps' even though they are towns like anything else you'd build after living there for 75 years. But they don't want that land, they want Israel. Half of Jordanians are Palestinian but they don't want that, they want Israel. Southern Lebanon is controlled by Hezbollah but they don't want that, they want Israel. Nowhere else in the world are the grandchildren of refugees still legally considered refugees except here, where they officially ask for the 'right of return' which is to 'return' to the land of Israel (and put an end to the Israeli state) and regain the property or land their ancestors held in 1948. Which should make it really clear why they will always be refugees until they take over the land of Israel - there's always the threat that they will give up on Israel and find some land elsewhere to set up a state. Having sustained this movement for so long, the surrounding Arab states now realize its a potential threat to their own stability, so it's important that threat needs to keep focused on Israel.

If I were Palestinian I would be so angry at the world, because while everyone wants to use you and says they support 'the cause', Palestinian nationalists don't have any real friends. Hamas is an Islamist group that wants to start a global jihad to establish an Islamic caliphate, ideally on a global basis. They started in Egypt as the Muslim Brotherhood and got kicked out to try again in Palestine. The blockades on Gaza make them rich, because they run smuggling operations through their tunnels and extort money from the Gazan population, and the poverty that creates also gives them footsoldiers for their war, because desperate people in a broken country will sign up for their militia just to get a paycheque. It's in their interests to keep Gazans impoverished and at war.

The Western leftists are drawn out to support 'the cause' to atone for the sins of Western colonialism, but that's really just to avoid addressing issues in their own countries. You can chant 'from the river to the sea' all you want, but you'd have to overthrow and occupy Israel to do that, which means killing or expelling every Jew living there and that's not going to happen without an army of about 10 million soldiers and/or a nuke. No one in the West is really signing up for that. they're just following the urge to feel morally superior without actually doing anything and that's just fine for Al Jazeera and all the social media bots working the information campaign of this war.

The liberals of the West are being rallied for 2 goals - to continue the goal of splintering the political climate in the U.S. and affecting U.S. elections. (I don't think young people are even aware of how often the Palestinian cause has been used to influence U.S. elections, going back to the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in the 60s.)

The other goal is to pressure Israel to stop their campaign before Hamas is fully destroyed and return to the status quo - another ceasefire in a war that began in 1948 and still continues, punctuated by one failed ceasefire after another. It's simplified and autotuned so it sounds like a call for peace, but it's actually a call for the horrible state of limbo to continue, where the cycle can be endlessly repeated and 'the cause' is kept alive to be mobilized again when it's needed.

Palestinian radicals have acted as a state-within-a-state in Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt attempting numerous coups, civil war and assassinations, this is why they no longer accept any refugees from the area. But in the end, where do Palestinian people go? The world eggs them on, but isn't actually going to help resolve 'the cause'. After Israel was created, about 700,000 Jews were expelled from most Arab countries and Israel took them in, ergo they are no longer refugees. Why are Palestinians still stateless after 75 years? The fact that Palestinians don't have a homeland or statehood says a lot about how committed its neighbors are to actually helping them achieve that goal.

In order to resolve 'the cause', you either need to have a 2 state solution so Palestinians can stop being other people's pawns and just get on with their lives, or Hamas achieves its goals and run the world under Sharia law. Both Israel and Palestinian nationalists need to come to terms with the shitty hands they've been given and accept a solution that might not be their ideals, but is better than war that continues for another 3 generations and it's better than living in a global caliphate

Anyway, I've now made 3-4 posts about this conflict and received an insane number of messages about this, ranging from death threats and hostile responses to overly earnest counter-arguments to things I've never said, mostly from people I've never heard from before and aren't in my orbit. And I'm a middle-aged gender critical woman on backwater tumblr getting this level of interference - can you imagine what popular social media accounts are getting? 'All those' people you hear aren't people, they are state interests working in a coordinated campaign to influence the West. And this is how a pro-Palestinian march keeps getting steered to the occasional 'gas the Jews' chant, how Taliban and Al-Quaeda flags keep showing up at the marches, or calls for Biden to be removed from office for his support for Israel (bc Trump is the most useful idiot ever and these accounts want him for president). Hamas et. al. are my enemy, not Palestinians and not Israel. Focus on their actions and you can really cut through the deception to see the strategy. They have really clear goals about what they want, they're making excellent gains by confusing everyone else about what's in our best interests.

[prevnews]

There is a convergence of interests between Israel and the Gulf countries

Israel ' s ambassador to France believes that the threat Iran poses to the Middle East brings the Hebrew state closer to the petro-monarchies. Iran far more dangerous for Israel than Palestine? Before the UN General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu devoted most of his speech to the threat that the Islamic Republic would pose to the Jewish state. Waving a sign with photos of the outside of a "secret atomic storage site" in Tehran, he said, to house "300 tons of nuclear-related materials," the Israeli prime minister assured that the Iranian leaders "have not abandoned their goal of developing nuclear weapons" despite the signing in 2015 of the Iranian nuclear deal, which has since been denounced by Donald Trump's United States. Yet, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which depends on the United Nations, has always certified since Iran's compliance with its commitments. On August 30, the IAEA said in a report that it had access to "all the sites and locations in Iran it wanted" to inspect. Ambassador of Israel in France and Monaco, Aliza Bin-Noun explains to Point the threat that, according to her, represents the activities of Iran in the Middle East, and also describes the state of the relationship between the Hebrew State and Paris. Why did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reserve the majority of his UN platform for Iran? Aliza Bin-Noun: It must be understood that today the great threat to Israel is Iran. This is really the big challenge and the big threat we face. It has been several years since the Iranians are strengthening in Syria in the context of the civil war. The drones they launched last February on Israel were a first. All of this shows their commitment to the region. Iran has hegemonic aspirations in the Gulf, Yemen, Lebanon via Hezbollah and its 150,000 missiles, some targeted by Israel, as well as in the Gaza Strip. In recent years, links between the Islamic Republic and Hamas have been strengthened. And we Israelis are at the center of this picture. All of this reflects Iran's involvement in the Middle East in terms of support for terrorism, nuclear issues, ballistic missiles, and frequent Iranian statements against Israel. Is Iran an existential threat or a strategic rival for Israel? These two aspects are related. Iran regularly threatens Israel, which can not be ignored. A year ago, the Iranians wrote in Hebrew on one of their missiles (during a military parade in Tehran) that Israel was to be destroyed, and we take these kinds of statements very seriously. So things are very clear. We have already experienced in the history of this type of ads in relation to the Jewish people. In addition, Iran is strengthening in the region in order to export its Islamic revolution, which is the raison d'être of this regime. We can not separate the two. On the one hand, yes, Iran is an existential threat because it calls for the destruction of Israel, and on the other hand, it is taking concrete action on the ground. In recent months, Israel has increased its so-called "pre-emptive" strikes against the Iranian bases in Syria, causing dozens of deaths, without suffering widespread retaliation from Tehran. Can the situation escalate? Listen, Israel has no interest in meddling in Syrian politics, but we have three red lines: the delivery of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah or Syria, which threatens Israel; Iran's attempts to strengthen itself near our border; and the exchange of fire from Syrian territory to Israel. In each case, Israel reacts. These Israeli preventive measures are aimed once again at not letting the Iranians grow stronger. We can not wait until they have become so strong that they decide to take more significant action against us. On the management of the Iranian threat, however, there are discrepancies between the analyzes of Israeli security officials, much more cautious, and those of Prime Minister Netanyahu. These differences of opinion are part of the democratic debate. But I remind you: what matters is the Prime Minister's position. In Israel, as in every democratic country, decisions are made by the government, which has been democratically elected and represents the majority of the Israeli population. And the will of peace of the Israeli people, which may have existed 25 years ago, is changing. Because what is influencing public opinion, which is more right now than in the past, are the threats to its security: extremist elements like Iran and its avatars - Hezbollah and Hamas - as well as incitement to hatred and terrorist acts on the Palestinian side, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, supports the families of terrorists. This trend also exists in Europe. France has recently foiled an attempt to attack Villepinte against the Mujahideen of the Iranian people. Is it true that it was the Israeli intelligence services that warned Paris? I can not get into these topics because it's not my area. Now, I can tell you that there is a very good link between France and Israel in the field of intelligence, information sharing, cooperation, and counterterrorism. Israel was one of the few countries to welcome the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, which was, so far, the best way to ensure that Iran would not get the bomb. What are you planning now? This is neither our feeling nor our position. For us, it is very important to continue to press Iran on the nuclear issue to dissuade the Iranians from continuing their program. Because Iran has lied about its commitment on this issue, and there is today in the world a consensus on it. This was proven in particular on the occasion of our discovery a few months ago in Iran, after an operation of Mossad (the Israeli secret services, Ed), many files that we recovered. But has the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not repeated since 2015 that Iran is honoring its commitments? Yes, but despite the agreement, there are places in the country to which the Iranians have not allowed access. This is exactly what Prime Minister Netanyahu has mentioned on several occasions at the UN forum. He asked the IAEA to go there to investigate. Your demands seem to be limited to Iran's nuclear, while Donald Trump would like a broader deal, including the limitation of the Iranian missile program and Iran's "interference" in the Middle East. Not at all. We also say that we have to deal with other issues, such as ballistics. The problem is that the Iranians do not see any concern in their ballistic program or their support for terrorist elements in the region. Iran was also the victim of a terrorist act 10 days ago claimed by the Islamic State. Do you understand the security needs put forward by Tehran? No, because I see that Iran remains the most aggressive element in the region. It is enough to take a look at the positions of the Gulf countries, which are clearly opposed to Iran, to understand who is the culprit here, who has a hegemonic and expansionist aspiration. It's based on facts, not statements. Indeed, today we are talking about an objective alliance between the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Is it sustainable? It is necessary to recall that there is no diplomatic relationship between Israel and the Gulf countries. In recent years, because of the Iranian threat, there is a clear convergence of interests between our countries to face this challenge. Because the enemy who threatens the region, these countries, as well as Israel, is Iran. And I hope that will move forward in the future. There are small signs. For example, an official delegation from Bahrain visited Israel a few months ago. She wandered to Jerusalem, and even gave an interview to an Israeli television channel. It was something remarkable. Is the Israeli will, as some members of the Trump administration want, to overthrow the Iranian regime? This question was asked a few days ago by your CNN colleagues to Prime Minister Netanyahu. He replied that he thought that no one would cry if this regime changed. And it is obvious: this regime is positioned very hostile vis-à-vis Israel, but also the United States and the Gulf countries. You said that Europeans were not neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Is this your opinion concerning France? I think the French and the Israelis have similar interests in the Middle East. We all want to live in peace and security. With regard to Israel, President Macron still mentions France's commitment to our security, and repeats that he is always ready to do everything possible to improve the situation (in the Middle East, Ed) . On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is a good dialogue between us, even if we do not always agree. Emmanuel Macron recently condemned the continuation of Israeli colonization. Do you understand? We do not agree on that. We are expressing ourselves in relation to this policy, which is not something new. We actually agree that we do not agree on a series of topics, of which this one is a part. But we must also see what is the best way to improve the situation. This is why we must always dialogue and have direct exchanges between the Palestinians and us. For it is only through direct dialogue, and with a real willingness on both sides to achieve peace, that we will get there. The French president spoke of a connection last year between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Does this mean that we can no longer criticize Israel's policy in France? Not at all. That's not what he said and what we say. Criticism is something legitimate. We can criticize, it's part of our values, our way of life, our behavior. The biggest critics of the Israeli government's position are the Israelis. Criticism is always legitimate. But the question is the border between a criticism that is legitimate and anti-Semitism that denies Israel's right to exist as a country. Thus, anti-Zionism is sometimes linked to anti-Semitism. Is not it dangerous to make this amalgam? This amalgam exists in some people. Recently, the Malaysian president granted an interview in which he mixed anti-Semitic elements - he spoke of the nose of Jews, Jews and money - and commented on the State of Israel and Zionism. We do not always make the difference between legitimate criticism and antisemitic statements. When the BDS (the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement) calls for a boycott of Israel, it is not just an anti-Zionist position. Indeed, if one examines their behavior, their statements and their positions, one can sometimes notice a link between their position in relation to Israel and the Jewish people. Is there not a paradox for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sometimes show up with European heads of government suspected of anti-Semitism, like the Hungarian Viktor Orbán? I personally know Viktor Orbán for having been ambassador to Hungary for four years, between 2006 and 2011, and I do not agree that he is anti-Semitic. It is true, however, that there are great problems of anti-Semitism in Hungary, against which Israel rises every time. The subject of anti-Semitism and Jewish communities in Europe and around the world is a very important issue for Israelis in general and for the government in particular. Now, for Israel, Hungary is a country that is part of the European Union, and it is in the context of Israel's relations with the European Union that these meetings take place. Life is not white or black: there is gray. These countries, like Hungary or Poland, have good relations with Israel and develop good cooperation with us. Read the full article

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Since taking office a year-and-a-half ago, the allegations of ‘collusion’ between U.S. President Donald Trump’s election campaign and the Russian government have buried nearly all other substantive issues in regards to his administration. This hasn’t been limited to marginalizing reportage of destructive domestic legislation or the escalation of endless war abroad. It has successfully diverted attention away from other foreign governments shaping U.S. policy and elections. The media has even downplayed Trump’s sycophantic behavior towards other heads of state in favor of their pathological obsession with his perceived obsequiousness toward Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is largely because “Russiagate” is not based on facts or evidence, but a psychological operation conducted by the intelligence community through mass media disseminating suggestive and pre-selected disinformation about Trump and Russia. Not only has it enabled the national security state and political establishment to neutralize the anti-Trump “resistance”, it has become a smokescreen for the ‘collusion’ between Trump and the state of Israel which continues to guide his decision making. One month after his shocking victory and before his inauguration, one of the top members of Trump’s transition team, National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, directly contacted members of the UN Security Council and urged them to block a draft resolution that condemned illegal Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. General Flynn corresponded with diplomats from several foreign governments (including Russia) to learn their stance on the resolution and tried to persuade them to vote against it. Flynn would later plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his discussions with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak. The Israeli government candidly admitted to seeking help from Trump’s transition team and it was his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who put Flynn up to the task. However, it is not unusual for foreign officials to communicate with an incoming administration and Flynn lobbied envoys from other nations in addition to Russia. None of this prevented the media from neglecting the substance of Flynn’s guilty plea to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, which is that he likely gave the FBI incomplete information about his communication with Kislyak only because the Trump campaign was already under inquiry for ties to the Kremlin. In a mindless frenzy, the media have presumed this correspondence between Flynn and a Russian official was evidence of a diabolical plot between Trump and the Kremlin that occurred during the election. The fact that the transition team did collude with Israel or the actual content of his talks with the Russian Ambassador was reduced to a footnote. It is not that the double-dealing between Israel and Trump has been unreported, but rather it is normalized and deemed completely acceptable because relations with Israel are unquestionable. If there is a foreign country which routinely interferes in U.S. elections , it is the state of Israel through its immeasurably powerful lobbying groups. Its most influential organization is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which is not forced to register as a foreign agent as its tentacles permeate into all aspects of the democratic process. AIPAC closely monitors American elections at every level, blackmailing the support of the entire U.S. congress to deliberately ignore Israel’s reckless violation of international law, its ever-expanding illegal occupation of Palestine, and war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon. For the same reason, the media continues to whitewash the IDF’s ongoing massacres on the Gaza strip, while the mantra of “Putin kills journalists!” is chanted as Israeli snipers murder Palestinian journalists on camera wearing “PRESS” across their chests. In turn, the Zionist lobby manipulates the bias of major news outlets and infiltrates the rosters of the Washington elite think tank community. Israel disrupts U.S. elections and impacts the media far and away more than any other country, but even mentioning this fact can relegate a journalist to marginal publications or risk being publicly smeared as an anti-Semite. Recently, it was revealed that Donald Trump Jr. and Blackwater founder Erik Prince had met with an Israeli private intelligence firm called PSY-Group offering social media manipulation services in August 2016. Most of the mainstream media coverage minimized the significance that the firm is an Israel-based company, whose ominous motto is to “Shape Reality.” Instead, coverage of the Mueller probe has focused exclusively on the Russian-based Internet Research Agency indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” The premise that an internet marketing and clickbait scam company owned by a ex-hot dog salesman could have swayed the election of the most powerful country in human history simply by sharing memes and buying Facebook ads through phony social media accounts is beyond comprehension. While blame for election interference has been squarely placed on Russia, Israel has managed to escape free from any scrutiny despite the disclosures about PSY-Group. Meanwhile the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, founded by Breitbart CEO/White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon and pro-Trump billionaire Robert Mercer, became the center of controversy when it was exposed for illegally mining the data of millions of Facebook users as it worked for the Trump and Brexit campaigns. Yet according to a whistleblower, the firm had also employed the Israeli private security firm Black Cube to hack an election in Nigeria. Black Cube is the same agency formed by ex-Mossad agents implicated in the Harvey Weinstein scandal that sparked the #MeToo movement. Why has this revelation has aroused little to no interest from the Mueller team or the media? If an analysis were based on Trump’s actual policies, there would be no clearer front-runner for impact on his governance than Israel. It goes beyond his plans for a border wall being modeled after the West Bank and Egypt-Sinai barrier fences. As President, he has surpassed each of his predecessors in out-and-out support for the Jewish state and hostility towards the Palestinians. The controversial decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, approved by 90 out of 100 Senators, has irreparably damaged any remaining belief that the U.S. was ever a neutral peace broker in seventy years of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The move to recognize Jerusalem as the ‘undivided’ capital of Israel has been his most bipartisan measure — coastal elite liberals and the Bible Belt may like to appear worlds apart, but on fanatical support for Israel they too are ‘undivided.’ The Israel lobby has long held sway over both major parties and it was Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer who led the applause of Trump’s Jerusalem decision, the same fanatical Zionist who has sought to make boycotting of Israel a felony crime. Israel has also determined much of Trump’s other foreign policy moves, especially those towards its sworn enemy — the Islamic Republic of Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu adamantly opposed the nuclear deal framework even though spy cables revealed that his own intelligence agency contradicts his claims about their nuclear capabilities. The motive for Iran to agree to the nuclear deal was primarily to alleviate the damage done from decades of economic sanctions by the U.S. The crisis itself is engineered — in actuality Iran long ago ended its nuclear program but its wounded economy forced it into accepting the terms of the now abandoned Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). As if this weren’t enough, a recently leaked clip of Benjamin Netanyahu bragging about convincing Trump to withdraw from the Iran deal was made public but was buried in the headlines during the Helsinki summit with Putin. This collusion didn’t bother Democrats one bit as both parties just unanimously approved a $38-billion aid package to Israel for the next ten years. It was Trump’s opponent in the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, who as Secretary of State delisted the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (People’s Mujahideen of Iran) from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations in 2012. The militant organization (abbreviated MEK, MKO or PMOI) is a cult-like group in exile which advocates the violent overthrow of the Iranian government and was officially designated a terror group for 15 years by the U.S. It was removed by the Obama administration after aggressive lobbying by its political wing based in France, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI). Two of Trump’s top associates — war hawk National Security Advisor John Bolton and his lawyer representing him in the Mueller probe, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — have repeatedly met with the MEK in recent years giving highly paid speeches at their events advocating regime change in Iran. Founded in 1965, the MEK committed terrorist attacks throughout the Shah’s reign which killed thousands of Iranians and also included several plots that took the lives of U.S. personnel. The group today claims the attacks which killed Americans were committed by a breakaway Marxist faction of the group during a period when the Shah imprisoned its founder, Massoud Rajavi, but the evidence of its violent past (and present) is overwhelming. This is yet another instance of the U.S. re-branding terrorism when it suits its interests while simultaneously conducting a vaguely defined war against it. The decision to remove the group from the blacklist was a politicized move as the criminal activity of the MEK has never ceased. Another motive has been the group’s close ties with Israel, whose intelligence agency Mossad has trained MEK operatives in committing assassinations against Iranian nuclear scientists. In 1979, the MEK participated in the Islamic Revolution which overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah. Persian royalty had been in power for more than 2,000 years, but the Pahlavi monarchy had been re-installed as a U.S. puppet following a CIA/MI6 coup d’etat in 1953 green-lighted by Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration. The illegal putsch ousted the first ever democratically-elected President of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, who had nationalized the Iranian oil industry and thrown out foreign oil companies like the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, later known as British Petroleum (BP), recently known for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Shah ruled brutally over Iran serving Western oil interests until the Islamic Revolution which was a huge loss for U.S. hegemony that it has sought to regain ever since. After the popular uprising, Ayatollah Khomeini consolidated power and pushed out the leftist participants, liberal elements and rival Islamists like the MEK. The group was then outlawed and went into exile after a failed insurrection. During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein (then supported by the U.S.) allowed the MEK to operate in Iraq, providing weapons and funding to carry out terrorist attacks against Tehran. When the U.S. invaded Baghdad in 2003, the remaining MEK and its nearly 3,000 Iranian exiles were given protection status by the Bush administration in U.S. military facilities. Massoud Rajavi disappeared during the U.S. invasion and to this day his whereabouts are still unknown. His wife, Maryam Rajavi, has led the group since and continued the cult of personality that existed around her husband’s leadership, purging critics and assassinating defectors while rebranding the terror cult as a ‘pro-democracy’ organization. The new Iraqi government began to develop close relations with Iran during the period which saw the rise of ISIS and the MEK were suddenly no longer welcome. Iraqi security forces raided their base in Camp Ashraf killing dozens of MEK members, a sign of waning U.S. influence in post-Saddam Iraq. The Rajavi cult have since been evicted and relocated to Albania and NATO-occupied Kosovo where the group has strong Islamist supporters. In Albania’s capitol Tirana, the exiled opposition group is currently based in a compound known as ‘Ashraf 3’. The group is also known by the CIA to have aligned itself with ISIS against the Iranian-backed government in Iraq that expelled them. ISIS and MEK even likely coordinated terrorist attacks in June 2017 in Iran just as the Trump administration increased the economic sanctions. In addition to Ashraf 3, the MEK is allegedly being trained at the NATO military base in Kosovo, Camp Bondsteel, possibly for a regime change operation in Iran. Concurrently, Trump is reported to be preparing to strike Tehran as early as this month according to the Australian Geo-Spatial Intelligence Organization, just as he tweeted threats at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. The decision to use Kosovo as a base of operations for the MEK is consistent with the protectorate’s history — it was established after seceding from Serbia when the Clinton administration supported another de-listed Islamist terror group, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), in NATO’s bombing campaign against Belgrade in 1999. Trump rhetorically has been a harsh critic of NATO and the media has used this as further ‘evidence’ of his secret allegiance to the Kremlin, but an examination of his actual courses of action show the contrary. NATO has already expanded to include Montenegro in its membership and Trump is sending arms to Ukraine in its war against pro-Russian separatists. The National Security Council added an additional $200 million worth in support immediately following the Helsinki summit in a move the Obama administration had opted against. Even a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a NATO-funded think tank, assessed that Trump has taken a very hard-line stance on Russia despite the photo opportunity with Putin. After all, the summit did not result in the lifting of sanctions or the recognition of Crimea as Russian territory as some predicted. Apart from his rhetoric, what policies has Trump enacted that appease Russian interests? If his statements and policies diverge, what remains a mystery is the intention behind his dialogue with Russia. Many speculate it is an effort to realign Washington with Moscow to halt the ascent of China while driving a wedge between Iran and Russia. While Putin may have rebuilt the Russian economy, the claim that Moscow has become a rival ‘superpower’ is greatly exaggerated — Washington’s main geopolitical challenger is China. Obama’s “pivot to Asia” turned out to be a catastrophic failure, as did the attempt to oust Assad in Syria and desperation move to covertly back the failed Gülenist coup in Turkey. Regardless of whether Trump’s motive is to reset U.S. foreign policy or the unlikely possibility Putin would ever agree to an alliance against China, the imaginary Russian collusion narrative is subterfuge which benefits Israel. It is either inadvertently or purposefully concealing the principal guilty party in meddling in the U.S. election — Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel. The 2016 election was a contest over how best to arrange the deck chairs of the Titanic — either way the empire has overplayed its hand and the ship was going down no matter the outcome. We are told that American voters, specifically the “white working class”, were too stupid to think for themselves. They did not follow orders from the “polls” predicting a 90% chance of a Clinton victory, which really were belittling instructions as to how to vote. We are led to believe they chose to elect a populist demagogue instead of Wall Street’s darling because they were brainwashed by ‘Russian interference’, not the collusion on the part of the DNC to rig the primaries in Clinton’s favor. Apparently, this same logic does not apply when Israel interrupts US elections — their interference doesn’t rob Americans of their agency in the voting process. Israel is also directly supporting the ascendancy of the far right in the West that the same liberals have raised the alarm about while pointing the finger at Moscow. In the EU, Israel has close ties with Hungary’s anti-Semitic President Viktor Orban and the other nations of the Visegrád 4 Group in the grip of anti-immigrant hostility. It is even providing military aid to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion in Ukraine fighting pro-Russian separatists. The links between the U.S. far right and Zionist organizations is also no secret, with Steve Bannon having spoken at ZOA galas despite being an alleged anti-Semite. Israel controversially just passed the “Jewish nation-state” law that mirrors Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg Race laws, inscribing ethno-nationalism and the complete exclusion of Arabs into its very definition as a state. At the same time, the definition of anti-Semitism has been conflated into being synonymous with criticism of Israel, which is the exact sentiment that is causing the media to disregard Trump’s collusion with Netanyahu in favor of Russiagate. It is also the same schizophrenic logic that enables Israel to align itself with the far right. If history is any indicator, when an empire is in decline it will seek out scapegoats to place blame for its downfall. It is no coincidence that while the far right expresses hostility towards immigration and the demise of the nation state by globalism, the political establishment is inculpating the rising power of Russia for the end of America’s full spectrum dominance. When all is said and done, the Democratic Party will only have itself to blame for its utterly failed strategy of atomizing the working class on cultural issues while neglecting to address the collapsing global economy. We can only hope that its defeat will open new political space for those who wish to confront it. http://clubof.info/

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There is a convergence of interests between Israel and the Gulf countries

Israel ' s ambassador to France believes that the threat Iran poses to the Middle East brings the Hebrew state closer to the petro-monarchies. Iran far more dangerous for Israel than Palestine? Before the UN General Assembly, Benjamin Netanyahu devoted most of his speech to the threat that the Islamic Republic would pose to the Jewish state. Waving a sign with photos of the outside of a "secret atomic storage site" in Tehran, he said, to house "300 tons of nuclear-related materials," the Israeli prime minister assured that the Iranian leaders "have not abandoned their goal of developing nuclear weapons" despite the signing in 2015 of the Iranian nuclear deal, which has since been denounced by Donald Trump's United States. Yet, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which depends on the United Nations, has always certified since Iran's compliance with its commitments. On August 30, the IAEA said in a report that it had access to "all the sites and locations in Iran it wanted" to inspect. Ambassador of Israel in France and Monaco, Aliza Bin-Noun explains to Point the threat that, according to her, represents the activities of Iran in the Middle East, and also describes the state of the relationship between the Hebrew State and Paris. Why did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reserve the majority of his UN platform for Iran? Aliza Bin-Noun: It must be understood that today the great threat to Israel is Iran. This is really the big challenge and the big threat we face. It has been several years since the Iranians are strengthening in Syria in the context of the civil war. The drones they launched last February on Israel were a first. All of this shows their commitment to the region. Iran has hegemonic aspirations in the Gulf, Yemen, Lebanon via Hezbollah and its 150,000 missiles, some targeted by Israel, as well as in the Gaza Strip. In recent years, links between the Islamic Republic and Hamas have been strengthened. And we Israelis are at the center of this picture. All of this reflects Iran's involvement in the Middle East in terms of support for terrorism, nuclear issues, ballistic missiles, and frequent Iranian statements against Israel. Is Iran an existential threat or a strategic rival for Israel? These two aspects are related. Iran regularly threatens Israel, which can not be ignored. A year ago, the Iranians wrote in Hebrew on one of their missiles (during a military parade in Tehran) that Israel was to be destroyed, and we take these kinds of statements very seriously. So things are very clear. We have already experienced in the history of this type of ads in relation to the Jewish people. In addition, Iran is strengthening in the region in order to export its Islamic revolution, which is the raison d'être of this regime. We can not separate the two. On the one hand, yes, Iran is an existential threat because it calls for the destruction of Israel, and on the other hand, it is taking concrete action on the ground. In recent months, Israel has increased its so-called "pre-emptive" strikes against the Iranian bases in Syria, causing dozens of deaths, without suffering widespread retaliation from Tehran. Can the situation escalate? Listen, Israel has no interest in meddling in Syrian politics, but we have three red lines: the delivery of weapons from Iran to Hezbollah or Syria, which threatens Israel; Iran's attempts to strengthen itself near our border; and the exchange of fire from Syrian territory to Israel. In each case, Israel reacts. These Israeli preventive measures are aimed once again at not letting the Iranians grow stronger. We can not wait until they have become so strong that they decide to take more significant action against us. On the management of the Iranian threat, however, there are discrepancies between the analyzes of Israeli security officials, much more cautious, and those of Prime Minister Netanyahu. These differences of opinion are part of the democratic debate. But I remind you: what matters is the Prime Minister's position. In Israel, as in every democratic country, decisions are made by the government, which has been democratically elected and represents the majority of the Israeli population. And the will of peace of the Israeli people, which may have existed 25 years ago, is changing. Because what is influencing public opinion, which is more right now than in the past, are the threats to its security: extremist elements like Iran and its avatars - Hezbollah and Hamas - as well as incitement to hatred and terrorist acts on the Palestinian side, whose president, Mahmoud Abbas, supports the families of terrorists. This trend also exists in Europe. France has recently foiled an attempt to attack Villepinte against the Mujahideen of the Iranian people. Is it true that it was the Israeli intelligence services that warned Paris? I can not get into these topics because it's not my area. Now, I can tell you that there is a very good link between France and Israel in the field of intelligence, information sharing, cooperation, and counterterrorism. Israel was one of the few countries to welcome the US withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, which was, so far, the best way to ensure that Iran would not get the bomb. What are you planning now? This is neither our feeling nor our position. For us, it is very important to continue to press Iran on the nuclear issue to dissuade the Iranians from continuing their program. Because Iran has lied about its commitment on this issue, and there is today in the world a consensus on it. This was proven in particular on the occasion of our discovery a few months ago in Iran, after an operation of Mossad (the Israeli secret services, Ed), many files that we recovered. But has the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) not repeated since 2015 that Iran is honoring its commitments? Yes, but despite the agreement, there are places in the country to which the Iranians have not allowed access. This is exactly what Prime Minister Netanyahu has mentioned on several occasions at the UN forum. He asked the IAEA to go there to investigate. Your demands seem to be limited to Iran's nuclear, while Donald Trump would like a broader deal, including the limitation of the Iranian missile program and Iran's "interference" in the Middle East. Not at all. We also say that we have to deal with other issues, such as ballistics. The problem is that the Iranians do not see any concern in their ballistic program or their support for terrorist elements in the region. Iran was also the victim of a terrorist act 10 days ago claimed by the Islamic State. Do you understand the security needs put forward by Tehran? No, because I see that Iran remains the most aggressive element in the region. It is enough to take a look at the positions of the Gulf countries, which are clearly opposed to Iran, to understand who is the culprit here, who has a hegemonic and expansionist aspiration. It's based on facts, not statements. Indeed, today we are talking about an objective alliance between the Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, and Israel. Is it sustainable? It is necessary to recall that there is no diplomatic relationship between Israel and the Gulf countries. In recent years, because of the Iranian threat, there is a clear convergence of interests between our countries to face this challenge. Because the enemy who threatens the region, these countries, as well as Israel, is Iran. And I hope that will move forward in the future. There are small signs. For example, an official delegation from Bahrain visited Israel a few months ago. She wandered to Jerusalem, and even gave an interview to an Israeli television channel. It was something remarkable. Is the Israeli will, as some members of the Trump administration want, to overthrow the Iranian regime? This question was asked a few days ago by your CNN colleagues to Prime Minister Netanyahu. He replied that he thought that no one would cry if this regime changed. And it is obvious: this regime is positioned very hostile vis-à-vis Israel, but also the United States and the Gulf countries. You said that Europeans were not neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Is this your opinion concerning France? I think the French and the Israelis have similar interests in the Middle East. We all want to live in peace and security. With regard to Israel, President Macron still mentions France's commitment to our security, and repeats that he is always ready to do everything possible to improve the situation (in the Middle East, Ed) . On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is a good dialogue between us, even if we do not always agree. Emmanuel Macron recently condemned the continuation of Israeli colonization. Do you understand? We do not agree on that. We are expressing ourselves in relation to this policy, which is not something new. We actually agree that we do not agree on a series of topics, of which this one is a part. But we must also see what is the best way to improve the situation. This is why we must always dialogue and have direct exchanges between the Palestinians and us. For it is only through direct dialogue, and with a real willingness on both sides to achieve peace, that we will get there. The French president spoke of a connection last year between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Does this mean that we can no longer criticize Israel's policy in France? Not at all. That's not what he said and what we say. Criticism is something legitimate. We can criticize, it's part of our values, our way of life, our behavior. The biggest critics of the Israeli government's position are the Israelis. Criticism is always legitimate. But the question is the border between a criticism that is legitimate and anti-Semitism that denies Israel's right to exist as a country. Thus, anti-Zionism is sometimes linked to anti-Semitism. Is not it dangerous to make this amalgam? This amalgam exists in some people. Recently, the Malaysian president granted an interview in which he mixed anti-Semitic elements - he spoke of the nose of Jews, Jews and money - and commented on the State of Israel and Zionism. We do not always make the difference between legitimate criticism and antisemitic statements. When the BDS (the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement) calls for a boycott of Israel, it is not just an anti-Zionist position. Indeed, if one examines their behavior, their statements and their positions, one can sometimes notice a link between their position in relation to Israel and the Jewish people. Is there not a paradox for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to sometimes show up with European heads of government suspected of anti-Semitism, like the Hungarian Viktor Orbán? I personally know Viktor Orbán for having been ambassador to Hungary for four years, between 2006 and 2011, and I do not agree that he is anti-Semitic. It is true, however, that there are great problems of anti-Semitism in Hungary, against which Israel rises every time. The subject of anti-Semitism and Jewish communities in Europe and around the world is a very important issue for Israelis in general and for the government in particular. Now, for Israel, Hungary is a country that is part of the European Union, and it is in the context of Israel's relations with the European Union that these meetings take place. Life is not white or black: there is gray. These countries, like Hungary or Poland, have good relations with Israel and develop good cooperation with us. Read the full article