Tag: israel

US Could Deal Death Blow to International Law

The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) stunning issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity is a major game changer. After years of impunity, the chickens unleashed by Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza have finally come home to roost.

These charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are momentous. This is the first time the ICC has issued arrest warrants against an Israeli official for crimes against the Palestinian people. It is only the second time in its 22 years of existence that the ICC has issued an arrest warrant for someone who is not from the African continent.

Palestinian human rights organizations Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights called the ICC’s decision “a historic and pivotal moment in the battle against Israel’s impunity, in which the Palestinian people have been denied justice, and subjugated for decades under a genocidal, settler-colonial apartheid regime.”

[On Monday the ICC president blasted both the U.S. and Russia for interfering with the court in “appalling” attacks.

“The court is being threatened with draconian economic sanctions by another permanent member of the Security Council [the U.S.] as if it was a terrorist organization,” Judge Tomoko Akane said.]

US History of Undermining the ICC

The United States had a fraught relationship with the ICC even before it opened for business in 2002. As President Bill Clinton was leaving office, he signed the court’s Rome Statute, stating,

“I believe that a properly constituted and structured International Criminal Court would make a profound contribution in deterring egregious human rights abuses worldwide, and that signature increases the chances for productive discussions with other governments to advance these goals in the months and years ahead.”

But Clinton urged incoming President George W. Bush to refrain from sending it to the Senate for advice and consent to ratification. Bush went even further and, in an unprecedented move, unsigned the treaty on behalf of the United States. Since then, the U.S. has consistently tried to undermine the ICC.

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Israel-Backed Al Qaeda Terrorists Storm Aleppo

The Syrian Army is pressing ahead with its operations to confront and expel foreign-backed terrorists from the country’s north and northwestern provinces. Reports on the ground say that the Syrian military backed by the Russian Air Force struck the terror groups in villages of Hazarin and Al-Raqeya in the southern countryside of the province of Idlib. Airstrikes also targeted positions of Al-Nusra Front Terror Group around Khan Sheikhoun south of Idlib and Morek in the northern countryside of Hama. The Syrian military says it has reinforced its defense lines with various means of fire, personnel and equipment in areas where clashes are underway with the terrorists. The army also says it’s managed to secure a number of areas including Ma’ardis. According to the Syrian media, nearly terrorists have been killed in three days of fighting. Clashes between the army and the terrorists erupted after attack theory groups, including al-Nusra Front, launched a surprise attack on northern and northwestern parts of Syria on Wednesday.

And reactions and condemnations continue pouring in over the resurgence of foreign-backed terrorism in Syria. The Arab League has issued a statement stressing the need to respect the sovereignty and preserve the territorial integrity of Syria. League Secretary General Ahmed Abu Ghait expressed concerns over the continuous developments that Syria is witnessing and their impacts on civilians. In a phone call, the UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said the country stands with Syria and supports it in combating terrorism and unifying its territory. The Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudanian and Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein expressed their country’s support, saying that Syria’s security and stability are linked to Iraq’s national security. In a statement, the Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yivan Gil expressed country solidarity with the Syrian people and government, calling on the international community to condemn terrorist attacks in Syria.

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US Firms Compete For ‘Huge Contracts’ To Control North Gaza Security

Israel is examining the launch of a “pilot program” that could see US private security firms replace the army in northern Gaza to “accompany food and medicine convoys” for Palestinians who remain in the devastated region, according to a report by Israeli daily Globes.

Among the top competitors for the multi-million dollar contract are Constellis, the direct successor to infamous mercenary company Blackwater, and Orbis, a little-known South Carolina company run by former generals that has worked with the Pentagon for 20 years.

Officials say the pilot program for north Gaza aims to “prevent Hamas or other gangs from taking over the aid trucks and free the IDF soldiers from the dangerous mission.”

In recent weeks, Gaza’s interior ministry established a new police force to deal with groups of bandits and gangs that have been raiding humanitarian aid shipments and blackmailing international organizations in the southern Gaza Strip.

The UN has said these gangs are likely “benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli army.

In October, a third US security firm – Global Delivery Company (GDC) – which describes itself as “Uber for warzones” – claimed to be working with another firm to create and manage “humanitarian bubbles” in Gaza.

GDC is run by Mordechai Kahane, an Israeli businessman who worked with Israeli intelligence during the war on Syria to arm extremist groups seeking to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Although no official figure exists about the size of the contracts being offered by Tel Aviv for these mercenary firms, Globes cites Lt. Col. Yochanan Zoraf, a researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and former advisor on Arab affairs in the Israeli army, as saying the figure will likely reach “billions of shekels per year.”

“These are not companies that will manage the daily lives of the residents,” Zoraf claims, adding that “peripheral responsibility for the defense of [north Gaza] as well as the civil responsibility itself” falls at Israel’s feet.

The former army officer also says Tel Aviv will likely “ask that the US – or an outside party – finance the program.”

On Tuesday, Israel Hayom reported that the pilot program has yet to receive approval from the security cabinet “due to legal difficulties in defining the occupation” based on international law.

“In order to circumvent the legal obstacles, the security services are examining bringing in external funding from humanitarian aid organizations or foreign countries for the [mercenary firms], which costs tens of millions of dollars to operate,” the report adds.

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Ceasefire Violations Rage In Southern Lebanon

Ceasefire violations are raging across southern Lebanon as Iranian proxy army Hezbollah attempts to regain positions lost to the IDF in recent months.

The IDF is warning residents of the region to not return to their homes or they could be fired upon.

The IDF does not intend to shoot at you,” the IDF spokesman said in his announcement, “and therefore, at this stage, you should not return to your homes south of this line. Anyone who moves south will expose themselves to danger.”

*Prime Minister’s Office Statement*

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have directed the IDF to not allow the entry of the population to the area of the villages adjacent to the border with southern Lebanon, as per the first stage of implementing the framework of the ceasefire.

The IDF has arrested four Hezbollah militants, including a local commander, who entered the prohibited area, and will continue to take strong action against any violation.

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Syrian Opposition Moves On Aleppo, Kills Russian SF Team-Assad Declares ‘New Zionist Plot’

Reports are emanating from the Middle East of new clashes involving the Assad regime, as ceasefire violations in southern Lebanon rage.

Rebel forces against the Assad regime, long accused of being associated with terrorists, have gained ground in a bid to rush towards Aleppo, capturing the strategic town of Saraqeb, southeast of Idlib, between Aleppo and Homs.

The anti Assad rebels in northern Syria, probably emboldened by Hezbollah’s defeat, began a couple of days ago go a massive offense in and took over 15 villages as they approach Aleppo. Along the way they killed a Russian special forces team and a couple of Syrian army generals, reported journalists in the area.

In yellow: the area that the rebels in Syria occupied today, with dozens of settlements and at least one large military base of the Assad army. From published photos, several Russian soldiers were killed in the fighting

Meanwhile, media known to be sympathetic with the Assad regime allude to a “new Zionist plot”:

Hours after Netanyahu’s speech last night in which he threatened President Assad that he was “playing with fire”, the ground attack of the rebels in western Aleppo was launched.

Reports are a Russian special forces team was killed.

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Israel ‘outright denied’ 90 percent of aid deliveries to north Gaza in November: UN

Israel “outright denied” 82 out of 91 attempts since 26 October to deliver aid to besieged areas in northern Gaza, said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the UN humanitarian office in Gaza.

More attempts were unsuccessful because of “denials of specific locations or specific supplies,” he said in a statement reported by The Washington Post on 26 November.

The aid that has reached Gaza is being looted by criminal gangs, which are able to operate freely after Israel began killing members of the Gaza police attempting to secure aid deliveries earlier this year.

“It is tactical, systematic, criminal looting,” Petropoulos told the BBC.

He says this is leading to “ultra-violence” from “the looters towards the truckers, from the IDF towards the police, and from the police towards the looters.”

“Hamas’ security control dropped to under 20 percent,” the former head of Hamas police investigations told the BBC.

“We are working on a plan to restore control to 60 percent within a month.”

The BBC was told that “thefts often happen in clear sight of Israeli soldiers or surveillance drones but that the army fails to intervene.”

“Stolen goods are apparently being stored outside or in warehouses in areas under Israeli military control,” the BBC wrote.

As a result, hunger and malnutrition among Palestinians are increasing.

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‘The ICC’s findings so far have only scratched the surface’

Last week, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. The court’s judges, in their Nov. 21 ruling, found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that the pair were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza — namely, using starvation as a method of warfare, as well as “murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts.”

The ICC’s judges issued an additional warrant for the arrest of Hamas’ military chief Mohammed Deif, whom the Israeli army claimed it killed in July but whose death Hamas never confirmed; the group insisted at the time that Deif survived the assassination attempt, but has reportedly since acknowledged that he likely died. The court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, had also requested arrest warrants for Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, but Israel subsequently killed both men, in August and October respectively. 

The ICC launched a formal criminal investigation into war crimes and crimes against humanity in Israel-Palestine in 2021, when judges ruled that the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the occupied Palestinian territories and those committed by Palestinians inside Israel. The scope of the investigation dates back to 2014, but these warrants relate specifically to the period between Oct. 8, 2023, and May 20, 2024. 

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When Israel Hired Ex-Nazi Officers

“Where no counsel is, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

A few months ago, on the way home from the university, I found a folder with this motto in my mailbox, the motto of the Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency. It was a drab-looking government envelope, the sort one might expect to receive from the municipality or the tax authorities. For me, however, it was supposed to contain the answer to a riddle I had pondered for almost four years. Since I began my work on the book “Fugitives: A History of Nazi Mercenaries During the Cold War,” I was fascinated, yet troubled, by persistent rumors that the Israeli Mossad worked with former Nazis, among them war criminals, in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Rumors on this murky subject had in fact been circulating for years. In 1967, the Polish culture minister, Kazimierz Rusinek, declared that “it is no secret, that many Nazi criminals serve the Israeli state and live in its territory. I cannot give you a precise number, but I’m certain that more than [one] thousand professionals of the Nazi Wehrmacht serve as military advisers to the Israeli Army.” This communist propaganda was of course overblown. There were not “one thousand” former Nazis working with Israel, not hundreds and not even dozens. But were there, at least, several?

Later, reporters, not all of them hostile to Israel, mentioned specifically one name: Otto Skorzeny, Hitler’s favorite commando leader. Did Skorzeny, in fact, cooperate with the Mossad in the 1960s, and for how long? And if so, why? Why did Israeli intelligence leaders, some of them Holocaust survivors, agree to bond with him? That was the question that the drab-looking Mossad envelope was supposed to answer.

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Biden Administration Pressuring Israel To End Lebanon War Before Hezbollah Destroyed As IDF Reaches Latani River-Nerve Gas Found In Tunnels-Hezbollah Readies Strike

Reports are emanating from Israel that the Netanyahu security cabinet is about to approve a ceasefire in its war against Hezbollah in Lebanon after severe pressure from the Biden administration. The measure will not need full government approval as it is not a formal agreement but a tactical measure.

It seems The White House wants to see Hezbollah remain in-tact and live to fight another day and continue to threaten Israel from the north. This outcome is being forced under threat of a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a stop to the war, and sanctions against The Jewish State. A complete weapons embargo is also being threatened.

Israeli leaders are considering this development in order to get a more friendly American leader in power to Jewish interests, even though a ceasefire will be hard to end once established and there is no fighting for a period of months.

A ceasefire will bring no ‘exclusion zone’ patrolled by Israeli troops in southern Lebanon, no prevention of Lebanese army assets that may be infiltrated in the region, no punishment of Hezbollah collaborators along the Israeli border, and French diplomats involved in the ceasefire implementation, who are not seen as friendly to Israel.

This comes on the heels of discoveries by IDF troops of nerve gas, chemical equipment, a large amount of weapons and date rape drugs in the Hezbollah tunnels according to reports by pro-Israeli journalists.

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Israeli lawmakers vote to sanction Haaretz newspaper citing ‘damage to legitimacy of the state’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet unanimously voted on 25 November to cut ties with Israel’s oldest newspaper, Haaretz, citing its critical coverage of the war on Gaza and comments made by the paper’s publisher expressing support for Palestinian “freedom fighters” and calling for sanctions on Israeli leaders.

The liberal Israeli daily newspaper is Zionist in orientation but sometimes publishes reports that are critical of the government and sympathetic to Palestinians.

The cabinet voted to approve a proposal that would end government advertising in the newspaper and cancel all subscriptions for state employees and employees of state-owned companies.

Haaretz responded by saying the initiative was an attempt to “silence a critical, independent newspaper.”

The proposal came in response to comments made by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken, who expressed support for Palestinians living under Israeli occupation during a speech in London last month.

According to CNN, Schocken stated during his speech that “It (the Netanyahu government) doesn’t care about imposing a cruel apartheid regime on the Palestinian population. It dismisses the costs of both sides for defending the settlements while fighting the Palestinian freedom fighters that Israel calls terrorists.”

“In a sense, what is taking place now in the occupied territories and in part of Gaza is a second Nakba … A Palestinian state must be established and the only way to achieve this, I think, is to apply sanctions against Israel, against the leaders who oppose it and against the settlers,” he added.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, who spearheaded the proposal to cut funding to Haaretz, was angered by Schocken’s comments.

“We must not allow a reality in which the publisher of an official newspaper in the State of Israel will call for the imposition of sanctions against it and will support the enemies of the state in the midst of a war and will be financed by it,” Kari said in a statement.

Karhi also criticized the paper’s coverage of the war on Gaza.

“The decision came in the wake of many articles that damaged the legitimacy of the State of Israel in the world and its right to self-defense,” he said.

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