Tag: israel

Israel traps 100,000 Palestinians in Gaza extermination zone

Israeli tanks thrust deeper on Monday into northern Gaza, trapping around 100,000 civilians, while the air force carried out airstrikes that brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since last October above 43,000.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said around 100,000 people were stuck in Jabalia, Beit Lahia, and Beit Hanoun without medical or food supplies as a result of the siege imposed by Israeli forces.

The emergency service said it was forced to end its operations because of the three-week-long Israeli assault on Gaza’s north.

The Israeli military says it seeks to destroy Hamas and claimed it had captured 100 “suspected Hamas militants” during a raid of the Kamal Adwan hospital in the Jabalia camp in recent days.

Hospital officials said that Israeli forces detained members of the hospital staff, patients, and Palestinians sheltering in the hospital complex.  

Since the start of the war, Israel has claimed that Hamas uses hospitals as command centers as a pretext to deliberately destroy Gaza’s hospitals and health system.

Israeli forces carried out multiple airstrikes across Gaza on Monday, killing five people and bringing the number killed by Israel during the war on Gaza to more than 43,000.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that an Israeli drone struck a group of people in the Beit Lahia area Monday, killing one and injuring several others.

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Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic who compared Trump to Hitler was a prison guard at IDF facility known for abusing prisoners

The Editor-in-Chief of The Atlantic who recently compared former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler has a disturbing past as a prison guard for the Israel Defense Forces at a facility that is known for torturing prisoners and sexually abusing them.

Jeffrey Goldberg penned the piece entitled “Trump: ‘I Need the Kind of Generals That Hitler Had’” published earlier this week. It was filled with claims such as: “Trump has frequently voiced his disdain for those who serve in the military and for their devotion to duty, honor, and sacrifice.”

Even more outrageously, Goldberg went on to claim that Trump grew “more and more interested in the advantages of dictatorship, and the absolute control over the military that he believes it would deliver. “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had,” Trump said in a private conversation in the White House, according to two people who heard him say this. “People who were totally loyal to him, that follow orders.”

Trump spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer has categorically denied this, writing in an email that Trump “never said this.”

While this attack came directly from Goldberg, there has been a pattern of anti-Trump articles under his leadership, including recent examples such as “Trump Is Speaking Like Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini” and “Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump.”

It’s all part of a smear campaign from an editor who doesn’t exactly have a spotless past.

Goldberg, who is Jewish and was raised by “very left-wing parents,” is a dual American-Israeli citizen who left college to move to Israel and serve for the IDF during the First Intifada.

The facility where he worked, Ketziot prison camp, was a holding place where Palestinians who were arrested for participating in the uprising were held. The prison camp was condemned by human rights groups during the time Goldberg served there for violating the Geneva Convention.

Goldberg later recounted in his book that he observed one of his fellow IDF prison guards beating up a Palestinian prisoner after he talked back to him. According to Goldberg, he did try to stop the guard from abusing the man but then later helped him cover it up, writing: “’He fell,’ I lied.”

After returning to the U.S., he became one of the most well-known reporters on the Middle East, working for outlets such as the Washington Post, Slate, New York Times Magazine and The New Yorker before ending up at The Atlantic. He has interviewed everyone from Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah to Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton.

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What Explains Israel’s Surprisingly Restrained Retaliation Against Iran?

It’s becoming very difficult for Israel and Iran to balance their own hawks’ demands, domestic public perception, and the perception of their opponent’s policymakers (which include hawkish elements).

Israel finally retaliated against Iran on Friday for Iran’s own prior retaliation against Israel earlier this month, which the Islamic Republic carried out against the self-professed Jewish State in an attempt to restore deterrence, in the second round of their dangerous tit-for-tat that first began in spring. Unlike Iran’s retaliation against Israel, Israel’s retaliation against Iran wasn’t widely filmed. It was also surprisingly restrained despite lots of earlier hype and concerns about an uncontrollable escalation.

No critical infrastructure, including Iran’s sole nuclear reactor and its oil refineries, was directly targeted but the New York Times cited unnamed sources from both countries to report that Israel destroyed surrounding air defenses in order to leave Iran open to a more painful attack if it retaliates to this one. Axios also reported that Israel warned Iran about its attack in advance via third parties in an attempt to deter retaliation that could risk everything spiraling into a larger conflict depending on how it plays out.

Iran announced that four of its soldiers had been killed and reaffirmed its right to respond. A high-ranking source reportedly told Tasnim that Iran is ready to do precisely that, though Sky News Arabia cited an anonymous source to report that Iran informed Israel via third parties that it won’t do so. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel does indeed expect retaliation, but it might be carried out via Iran’s regional allies in the Resistance Axis. It’s therefore unclear what’ll happen next.

In any case, Israel’s surprisingly restrained retaliation deserves to be analyzed. Prime Minister Benjamin (“Bibi”) Netanyahu’s office denied reports that Israel changed its targets under US pressure to avoid an uncontrollable escalation like what could have followed if it hit Iran’s critical infrastructure. Even so, it’s difficult to imagine that the US’ resistance to this didn’t play a role in Israel’s retaliation. After all, in the event of a massive Iranian retaliation, Israel would depend on US support then and afterwards.

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Holocaust Survivor Absolutely Wrecks Kamala Harris for Pretending Donald Trump Is Hitler

The Democrats’ billionth attempt to paint former President Donald Trump as the second coming of Adolf Hitler may have backfired in a big way. In a powerful video clip circulating on social media, Jerry Wartski, a Holocaust survivor, blasted Vice President Kamala Harris and her fellow Democrats for constantly comparing Trump to Hitler and his supporters to Nazis.

Harris and others, in recent days, have ramped up their rhetoric about Trump and his supporters being fascists seeking to take over the country and oppress marginalized communities. Wartski, a 94-year-old Jewish man who was imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II, explained why this rhetoric is an insult to those who experienced Nazi Germany.

“Adolf Hitler invaded Poland when I was nine years old. He murdered my parents and most of our family. I know more about Hitler than Kamala will ever know in a thousand lifetimes,” he stated, rolling up his sleeve to show his prisoner number tattooed on his arm. “For [Harris] to accuse President Trump of being like Hitler is the worst thing I’ve ever heard in my 75 years living in the United States.”

Wartski continued, saying Harris “owes my parents and everybody else who was murdered by Hitler an apology for repeating this lie.”

When asked why Jewish people should support Trump, he replied, “Because he’s a mensch. I believe that President Trump is definitely going to be good for Israel because everything that he’s done up to now was in favor.”

He concluded: “He has always stood with the Jewish people and the State of Israel.”

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Israel attacks north Gaza’s last working hospital after carpet-bombing Jabalia

Israeli forces stormed the last operational hospital in the besieged northern Gaza on Friday after laying waste to a densely packed refugee camp in a bombing campaign that killed scores of Palestinians.

The attack on the Kamal Adwan hospital, located in Beit Lahia, was launched around 2am local time, shortly after Israeli fighter jets carpet-bombed residential buildings in the nearby Jabalia camp and southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

The assault on the hospital began with air strikes that hit the hospital and its courtyards, including the medical oxygen generator, said Dr. Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza. 

The bombing of the oxygen supply led to the death of children in the hospital and wounded medical staff, Bursh said.

“Instead of receiving aid, we receive tanks… which are shelling the [hospital] building,” Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan hospital, said in a video published on his social media pages shortly after the bombing. Contact with him has been lost since. 

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Israeli attacks on Lebanon border crossings ‘block safety’ of civilians fleeing war: UN

The UNHCR warned on 25 October that Israel’s attacks on main border crossings in Lebanon were hindering the ability of internally displaced Lebanese, as well as Syrian refugees, from crossing into Syria. 

The warning came hours after an overnight Israeli airstrike targeting the Qaa–Jusiyah crossing, one of the five main border crossings between Lebanon and Syria.

The UN agency confirmed that the crossing had been put out of service as a result of the Israeli attack.

UNHCR spokeswoman Rula Amin said around 430,000 people have crossed from Lebanon into Syria since Israel intensified its campaign against Lebanon last month, and that attacking border crossings would prevent people from being able to flee. 

“The attacks on the border crossings are a major concern. They are blocking the path to safety for people fleeing conflict,” she said. 

The Israeli army announced the strike on 25 October, claiming the crossing was used by Hezbollah’s Unit 4400 to smuggle weapons into Lebanon. 

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Armed Resistance is enshrined in international law

Decades ago, it was agreed that Resistance and armed rebellion against a settler colonial occupation and apartheid power is not just recognised under international law. It is enshrined specifically as a right for the oppressed, never to be denied.

In accordance with international humanitarian law, wars of national liberation have been expressly embraced, through the adoption of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 (pdf), as a protected and essential right of occupied people everywhere.

This runs counter to what London, Washington and Tel Aviv would have you believe. Proscribing the Resistance factions as “terrorist” groups immediately distracts people from their real role in liberating Palestinian territory from the Zionist occupier and its Western backers.

Prof. Tim Anderson:

The colonial powers almost all abstained on the 1960 Declaration on Decolonisation, the lead principle of which (the right of a people to self-determination) entered the twin covenants of the International Bill of Rights. After that the hegemonic powers tried to deny (but could not block) UN declarations and conventions on the right to resist colonialism, occupation, and apartheid. The result is that today most anti-colonial resistance groups are banned as “terrorist”, but only in the hegemonic regimes.

International law clearly supports the right to resist (further, Palestine and Lebanon as recognised nations enjoy the UN chartered right to national self-defence) while the Anglo-Americans and their collaborators live in denial. This hegemonic denial of the right to resist (including the legitimacy of Palestinian insurrection) creates a culture which confuses and must itself be resisted. Proponents of resistance education should inform, encourage and build confidence in support of legitimate popular resistance.

Anderson advocates unequivocal support for the Resistance despite the threats that confront those who do:

Self-determination is not a posthumous medal for helpless victims, it is a great right that must be fought for and taken from the imperial and colonial forces which try to deny and block self-determination. This is not well recognised in colonial cultures, which embed paternal myths.

Yet it is well recognised by anti-colonial leaders, like the great 19th century Cuban patriot Jose Marti who said in 1880, “You take your rights, you do not beg for them. You do not buy them with tears but with blood.”

While the Palestinian cause is popular in Western countries, this support begins as sympathy for the victims and is often simply an abstract call for an end to the violence. To take a further step and support the Palestinian and regional Resistance implies confronting Western regimes which have tried to ban and criminalise all Resistance groups.

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Netanyahu’s Boss: Ultimate Goal is for a ‘Greater Israel’ from Damascus to Saudi Arabia

Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist Israeli finance minister, said it is “written” that Israel’s future is its expansion to Damascus and parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, according to a French documentary titled: “Israel: Extremists in Power.”

“It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he said in the documentary, according to The New Arab.

Smotrich is an Israeli settler who has argued that it is moral to starve Gazans. He admitted that Israel will not achieve its goals quickly, but rather “little by little.”

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Report: Shin Bet Warned of Possible Hamas Assault Hours Before October 7 Attack

Approximately three hours prior to the Hamas’ attack in southern Israel on October 7, Shin Bet warned other elements of the police and security establishment that a potential assault emanating from the besieged Gaza Strip could be imminent.

The Kan public broadcaster and Channel 12 news reported the internal security service sent a “top secret” notification to the National Security Council, Mossad, and police that Israeli SIM cards Shin Bet had previously circulated within the group’s ranks as part of an operation had been activated “in a number of Hamas battalions.” There was no solid quantification of how many SIM cards were activated in the warning, but as the Times of Israel notes each battalion presumably contains hundreds of fighters.

The Shin Bet operation involving the cards was launched to provide an early warning for future Hamas attacks against Israel. The automatically generated alert was sent to situation rooms staffed 24 hours a day, contradicting past police claims about never receiving any warning, per Israeli media.

The Nova music festival held just outside the Gaza concentration camp went on as scheduled despite the alert, where concertgoers were subsequently slaughtered by Hamas as well as the IDF, which reportedly implemented a mass Hannibal Directive.

The Hannibal Directive is a policy of the Israeli military to kill their own soldiers when taken hostage, so as to prevent them from being used as bargaining chips by various resistance groups. However, on October 7, this order was extended to include Israeli civilians potentially kidnapped by Hamas. The group managed to abduct roughly 250 hostages and bring them back to the Strip.

Israeli police and Shin Bet are at odds over who is to blame, some sources told Kan that the internal security service should have raised a stronger alarm while other officials argue police did not pay the warning sufficient attention. Shin Bet’s warning said the activity demonstrated “unusual accumulation and, given additional suspicious signs, could be an indication of Hamas attack activities.”

The Times notes, “despite the warning, the security establishment maintained an outlook that Hamas was not capable or interested in carrying out a massive attack on the country.” Adding, “no action was taken” based on the Shin Bet alert. As the Jerusalem Post reported last year, this cavalier attitude was shared by commanders within Israel’s apartheid army who were admonished by their lookouts that suspicious activity was ongoing near the border before the attack.

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Israel delays Iran retaliation after US intelligence leak

Israel has delayed its retaliatory strike against Iran because of a leak last week of potentially sensitive military information from the US.

The leak revealed Israel’s well-advanced plans to respond to a salvo of nearly 200 Iranian ballistic missiles fired against it earlier this month, which was a retaliation by Tehran for Israel’s attacks on its Middle Eastern proxy groups.

The top-secret document was published on a pro-Iranian Telegram channel last Friday and appeared to be a US assessment of Israel’s likely response, based on satellite imagery and other intelligence.

It made reference to Golden Horizon and Rocks, two Israeli air-launched ballistic missiles.

Israel is concerned the leak could help Iran predict certain patterns of attack. It has been forced to develop an alternative plan, one that requires detailed war gaming before any order is given, The Times understands.

“The leak of the American documents delayed the attack due to the need to change certain strategies and components,” an intelligence source with knowledge of Israeli deliberations said. “There will be a retaliation, but it has taken longer than it was supposed to take.”

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