Tag: israel

Bodybags From Gaza: Is the Second Marine Division Going to Palestine?

And Jesus said: “Where death is, there a gathering of vultures will be.”
~ Luke 17:37

My initial thoughts on one of this century’s most alarming and potentially consequential press conferences.

First and foremost:

Will American soldiers take part in deliberate crimes against humanity and come home in body bags for the benefit of Israel and Jared Kushner’s real estate developer friends?

Along with that question and the spectacle and significance of the President of the United States standing next to a wanted war criminal, President Trump offered three key policy announcements that may dictate US, Middle Eastern and world affairs for decades to come.

1. The President’s commitment to the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in Gaza, his certainty that the ethnic cleansing will occur with the assistance of other nations, and his announcement that the US would take over Gaza – whatever that means* – ensures an end to the ceasefire and nascent peace process in Gaza.

How can Hamas and the Palestinians continue with the ceasefire and peace process after such statements? Of course, the US and Israel will blame Hamas and the Palestinians for a resumption of the violence. That will justify a return to the genocide and will satisfy both President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s domestic political interests. It’s also a sure thing that the majority of the Western corporate press will willingly go along with that storyline.**

Furthermore, we need to note that the commitment of the United States to the ethnic cleansing of a population has many historical American precedents. None perhaps ever stated as boldly or brutally as President Trump did tonight.

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GAZA WILL BE REBUILT IN REGIONAL DEAL – Trump Says Israel Is Not Big Enough – Greater Israel Is Back On

President Trump reiterated his support for ‘Greater Israel’ yesterday, the concept of enlarging the geographic footprint of The Jewish State in the Middle East.

During an interview (video below), Trump talked about how small Israel was in comparison with the rest of the region, and how this was not a good thing.

Trump initially was reported to have resisted this development in Northern Gaza, as we reported, by allowing Gaza resident back to the area quickly, but this reservation seems to have gone by the wayside.

Trump has pushed back against Israeli demands for a war with Iran, including U.S. forces.

“It’s not our war,” the President declared.

President Trump has made very clear recently his desire to remove citizens from the Gaza Strip, and deport them to other nations like Egypt, Jordan, Albania, and Indonesia.

However, besides Albania, none of these nations are publicly open to the idea. Egypt and Jordan have been adamant against it. This is likely because would mean Hamas militants being installed in-country, in addition to the loss of Muslim street cred worldwide on the Palestinian issue.

Trump disclosed however that he will meet with Egyptian representatives this week. The U.S. gives a large amount of foreign aid to Egypt and this will likely be an offer Egypt can’t refuse.

Egypt is also amassing tanks and other military equipment in the Sinai Desert, a violation of the Camp David Accords, according to regional reports.

Trump is meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week at The White House in his first foreign dignitary joint appearance in D.C. during his presidency.

Israel has acquired territory in Syria, and looks to be retaining it long term for security reasons. Lebanese territory is also up in the air, pending execution of the ceasefire with Hezbollah.

The West Bank is also in play.

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US Readies New $1BN Arms Sale To Israel As Netanyahu Arrives In Washington

While the name of the game for Trump has been cut, cut, cut and put a halt to all wasteful and corrupt US foreign aid siphoned abroad, funds sent to Israel have remained untouched.

And now the Trump administration is readying a new $1 billion arms sale to Israel, including 4,700 1,000-pound bombs and armored bulldozers. Trump is requesting fresh Congressional approval for the potential sale.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story Monday, wrote “The planned weapons sales include 4,700 1,000-pound bombs, worth more than $700 million, as well as armored bulldozers built by Caterpillar, worth more than $300 million, the officials said.”

“The new arms requests, which would be paid for from the billions of dollars in annual U.S. military aid to Israel, come as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting Washington and set to meet President Trump on Tuesday to discuss the cease-fire in Gaza, a separate truce in Lebanon and tensions in the wider Middle East,” the report continued.

This comes amid the backdrop of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s arriving in Washington D.C. on Monday, ahead of his scheduled White House visit with Trump Tuesday.

Crucially, Netanyahu will be the first world leader to meet with Trump since the Jan.20 inauguration. Israel remains America’s closest official Mideast ally, and a meeting between a new president and Israel’s head of state is typical spanning back multiple administrations.

But these are sensitive times, given the fragile Gaza ceasefire and hostage/prisoner swap deal is still ongoing. Some hardliners close to Netanyahu oppose it, even while families of the hostages have pressed for it to go all the way until all hostages alive and deceased are returned.

The Tuesday meeting in the Oval Office is expected to be dominated by these several issues:

  • Preserving the Gaza ceasefire
  • A potential deal to finally achieve Israel-Saudi relations
  • Moving forward with a total $8 billion in arms transfers

These issues are somewhat interlocking. Trump has stood with Netanyahu on the stance of wanting to see the final military eradication of Hamas, but Trump has also hailed the ceasefire as ultimately the product of his administration entering office.

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How the West Hides Its Gaza Genocide Guilt Behind Holocaust Day Remembrance

An entirely mendacious message lay at the heart of this week’s coverage by the BBC of the 80th Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations.

The British state broadcaster asserted throughout the day that the voices of the few remaining survivors of the Nazi extermination programme were still being heard “loud and clear” in western capitals. Those survivors – now in their 80s and 90s – warned that the genocide of a people must “never again” be allowed to take place.

As if to bolster its claim, the BBC showed western leaders – from Britain’s King Charles III, to Germany’s Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron of France – prominently in attendance at the main ceremony at Auschwitz, the most notorious of the death camps, where more than a million Jews, Roma and other stigmatised groups were burned in ovens.

As a counterpoint, the BBC highlighted the fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been excluded from the ceremony for ordering the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Steve Rosenberg, the corporation’s Moscow correspondent, underscored the irony that Russia, so visibly absent, was responsible for liberating Auschwitz on 27 January 1945 – the date that eventually came to be marked as Holocaust Remembrance Day.

But hanging over the proceedings – and the coverage – was a heavy cloud of unreality. Had those western leaders really heard the message of “never again”? Had media outlets like the BBC?

There was an unwanted ghost at the commemorations. In fact, tens of thousands of ghosts.

Those ghosts included the children shredded by US-supplied bombs; the children who slowly suffocated under the rubble of their destroyed homes; the children whose bodies were left to rot, picked apart by feral dogs, because snipers shot at anyone who tried to retrieve them; the children who starved to death because they were seen as “human animals”, denied all food and water; the homeless babies who froze to death in plunging winter temperatures; and the premature babies left to die in their incubators after soldiers invaded hospitals and cut off the power.

Those ghosts were every bit as present at the ceremony as the mountains of shoes and suitcases – separated forever from their owners – lining the corridors of the Auschwitz museum.

Western leaders were determined to look back at the crimes of the past, but not to look at the crimes of the present – crimes they have been so deeply complicit in perpetrating.

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Trump orders review to identify, punish and deport antisemites — including students on visas

President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday instructing federal agencies to identify “all civil and criminal authorities” available to combat antisemitism — including finding ways to deport anti-Jewish activists who violated laws.

The order, first reported by The Post, requires agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days and outlines plans for the Justice Department to investigate pro-Hamas graffiti and intimidation, including on college campuses.

“Jewish students have faced an unrelenting barrage of discrimination; denial of access to campus common areas and facilities, including libraries and classrooms; and intimidation, harassment, and physical threats and assault,” the order says.

“It shall be the policy of the United States to combat anti-Semitism vigorously, using all available and appropriate legal tools, to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account the perpetrators of unlawful anti-Semitic harassment and violence.”

The executive order calls for the deportation of resident aliens — including students with visas — who broke laws as part of anti-Israel protests following the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks that sparked the invasion of Gaza.

“[T]he Secretary of State, the Secretary of Education, and the Secretary of Homeland Security… shall include in their reports recommendations for familiarizing institutions of higher education with the grounds for inadmissibility under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(3) so that such institutions may monitor for and report activities by alien students and staff relevant to those grounds and for ensuring that such reports about aliens lead, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, to investigations and, if warranted, actions to remove such aliens,” the order says.

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US Private Security Firm Now Manning Gaza Checkpoints

While Israeli hostages are being released, and the ink barely dry on the ceasefire agreements, American security company UG Solutions, staffed by U.S. Special Forces veterans, is now manning checkpoints in the Gaza Strip.

A small U.S. security firm is hiring nearly 100 U.S. special forces veterans to help run a checkpoint in Gaza during the Israel-Hamas truce, according to a company spokesperson and a recruitment email seen by Reuters, introducing armed American contractors into the heart of one of the world’s most violent conflict zones, reported Reuters.

UG Solutions’ role in the cease-fire deal has been reported, but the email disclosed previously unknown details, including the aim of recruiting 96 veterans exclusively with U.S. special operations forces backgrounds, as well as the pay and the types of weapons they will carry.

Reuters reported on January 7 that Emirati officials had suggested the use of private contractors as part of a post-war peacekeeping force in Gaza, and that the idea had caused concern among Western nations.

These are private companies, and not active-duty American soldiers; but, the risk of this deployment pulling the United States further into another Middle Eastern war remains.

These soldiers are essentially high-value targets for regional terrorists, and lightly defended at that.

“Of course there is a threat they will face,” said Avi Melamed, a former Israeli intelligence official, reported Reuters.

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A Republic of Spies

In 2021, to his credit, President Joe Biden warned the American public against the dangers of zero-click spyware manufactured by an Israeli corporation. Zero-click is unwanted software that can expose the entire contents of one’s mobile or desktop device to prying eyes without tricking one into clicking on to a link. Biden banned its importation and use in the United States.

Last week, as an inducement to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accept the Israel/Hamas ceasefire agreement, President Donald Trump secretly agreed to lift the embargo on zero-click.

Here is the backstory.

Though America has employed spies since the Revolutionary War, until the modern era, spying was largely limited to wartime. That changed when America became a surveillance state in 1947 with the public establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency and the secret creation of its counterparts.

The CIA’s stated public task at its inception was to spy on the Soviet Union and its satellite countries so that American officials could prepare for any adverse actions by them. This was the time of the Red Scare, in which both Republicans and Democrats fostered the Orwellian belief that America needed a foreign adversary.

We had just helped the Russians defeat Germany in World War II, and our Russian ally – which was bankrupt and had just lost 27 million troops and civilians – suddenly became so strong it needed to be kept in check. The opening salvo in this absurd argument was fired by President Harry Truman in August 1945 when he used nuclear bombs intentionally to target civilians of an already defeated Japan. One of his targets was a Roman Catholic cathedral.

But his real target – so to speak – was his new friend, Joe Stalin.

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Israel’s ‘Genocide General’ Welcomed in London – and the Media Yawns

There have been two stories deeply revealing – in starkly contrasting ways – of the West’s relationship to Israel’s industrialised, militarised slaughter of the people of Gaza over the past 15 months.

Last week, Declassified UK carried out one of the fundamental duties of journalism. Its reporter Alex Morris sought to hold accountable a war crimes suspect evading justice. And not just any suspect.

Morris doorstepped Major General Oded Basyuk as he led an Israeli military delegation through the streets of London in meetings with the Ministry of Defense and the Royal United Services Institute, a UK “security think-tank” with close ties to the British government.

Basyuk, sometimes spelt Basiuk, heads the Israeli military’s operations directorate, whose responsibilities have included the development of the military strategy that guided Israel’s brutal 15-month assault on Gaza.

The International Court of Justice ruled a year ago that a “plausible” case had been made that Israel was committing a genocide in Gaza. Israel has effectively been on trial ever since.

Meanwhile, the ICJ’s sister court, the International Criminal Court (ICC), has issued arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for crimes against humanity – most notably for their policy of blocking aid and starving the entire population of 2.3 million Palestinians there.

Basyuk was one of the central figures helping to devise and direct these genocidal acts.

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Trump Plans To Finally Withdraw US Troops From Syria, Israelis Say

Israel and Turkish media reports say that President Donald Trump is planning to finally pull American occupying forces out of Syria. The statements began with a report this week by Israel’s official public broadcasting Kan. However, the Trump White House itself has yet to confirm this, but is likely in talks with regional states, particularly Turkey and close Washington ally Israel, about such a potential move.

Kan reported Tuesday that “senior White House officials conveyed a message to their Israeli counterparts indicating that President Trump intends to pull thousands of US troops from Syria.”

The Israeli reported added that “the withdrawal of American forces from Syria will raise significant concerns in Tel Aviv.” Israeli leaders see the US presence in northeast Syria as a stabilizing factor. Special forces, among some 2000 total troops have been advising and supporting the Syrian Kurds (SDF/YPG) for several years.

Just prior to Trump taking office, Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended the US presence there as part of the ‘counter ISIS’ mission. US defense leaders have constantly argued over the years that the Islamic State could be resurgent if the Pentagon leaves.

But others would argue that Washington was among the biggest facilitators in the rise of ISIS, given that John Kerry once admitted that the US was trying to ‘manage’ ISIS in order to pressure Assad out.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has said in the wake of Assad’s shock ouster in early December, “We will not allow hostile forces to establish a foothold in the security zone south of Syria, from here to the Sweida-Damascus axis. We will act against any threat.”

Trump stretching back to his first administration had been more brutally honest about what American forces are really doing there, to the embarrassment of US intelligence and defense leaders, and deep state insiders. For example here’s what Trump told FOX years ago:

“I left troops [in Syria] to take the oil. I took the oil. The only troops I have are taking the oil. They’re protecting the oil. I took over the oil“. -Trump on Fox News

This in turn was used as an economic noose against Assad, but in reality it has been strangling the common populace of Syria, who might see one hour of electricity a day during winter conditions.

During Trump’s first term he signaled the we wanted the US out of Syria, but many reports said at the time he was stymied by more hawkish officials within his administration.

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Jordan, Egypt Reject US Plan To Resettle Gazans As Trump Doubles Down

After last Saturday President Trump floated a plan to ‘clean out’ Gaza by conducting a mass resettlement of Palestinians in neighboring countries, namely Egypt and Jordan, he’s now doubling down on the idea.

Egypt and Jordan are not happy, but are also feeling the pressure as a result, and it must be remembered that both are recipients of huge amounts of foreign aid each year – with Egypt receiving billions.

Israeli media underscores there’s been wall-to-wall firm opposition by Arab leaders: “US President Donald Trump dug in his heels Monday over a controversial suggestion that large numbers of Gazans take refuge in Egypt and Jordan, shrugging off wall-to-wall opposition to the proposal from Arab leaders.”

“Fresh off what he said were calls with Egyptian counterpart Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi and Jordan’s King Abdullah, Trump insisted both leaders would take in Palestinians from the war-ravaged territory and said the issue would be discussed with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when the two meet sometime soon, amid speculation in Israel that Trump’s gambit was being coordinated with Jerusalem,” the report details.

“Egyptian media on Tuesday cited government sources as saying that Trump and Sissi had yet to speak. If they did, Sissi’s office would issue a readout, the Egyptian officials told local media,” it continues.

This would involve these countries absorbing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees – something which Jordan has already done historically over the last some seventy years.

Here are the latest remarks from Trump which are driving the controversy:

Asked about those comments, Trump told reporters on Air Force One Monday evening he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

“When you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years,” Trump said. “There have been various civilizations on that strip. It didn’t start here. It started thousands of years before, and there’s always been violence associated with it. You could get people living in areas that are a lot safer and maybe a lot better and maybe a lot more comfortable.”

Interestingly, the tiny Balkan country of Albania has entered the discussion after an Israeli Channel 12 media report said that Trump was in talks with Albania for it to take 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza.

But Albania’s prime minister quickly batted this down, calling it false. “I haven’t heard something so fake in quite some time – and there’s been a lot of fake news lately! It is absolutely not true,” Prime Minister Edi Rama tweeted. If such talks actually did exist, the Muslim-majority population of this country would surely be outraged. 

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