Tag: israel

Pentagon Expects ‘Significant Escalation’ of Attacks on US Troops Over Gaza War

A Pentagon official told reporters on Monday that the military is preparing for a “significant escalation” of attacks on US troops stationed in the Middle East due to President Biden’s support for Israel’s onslaught in Gaza.

The comments came the same day US Central Command said its forces downed two drones that were fired at a base in Syria. Starting last week, there have been a series of attacks on bases housing US troops in Iraq and Syria.

“They’ve been under an increase of attacks for the really for the last three days or so at various locations,” said a senior Pentagon official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, according to Military Times.

A group that calls itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed it launched drones at US forces in Syria on Monday, but the US has not attributed blame. The Pentagon official pointed the finger at Iran due to Tehran’s support for Shia militias that operate in Syria and Iraq, although there’s no indication Iran is directly involved.

“We see a prospect for much more significant escalation against US forces and personnel in the near term,” the official said. “And let’s be clear about it: the road leads back to Iran. Iran funded, armed, equipped and trained militias and proxy forces all across the region.”

Separately, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said there was no sign Iran is ordering the attacks, but said the US still blames Iran. “We don’t necessarily see that Iran has explicitly ordered them to take these kinds of attacks,” he said. “That said, by virtue of the fact that they are supported by Iran, we will ultimately hold Iran responsible.”

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Israeli think tank lays out a blueprint for the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza

Update, October 24, 2023

After this article was originally published, the Israeli outlet Calcalist reported on a separate plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza that is being circulated by the Israeli Intelligence Ministry headed by Gila Gamliel. The leaked document was reportedly created for an organization called “The Unit for Settlement – Gaza Strip” and was not meant for the public.

In the plan being proposed by the Intelligence Ministry, Palestinians in Gaza would be displaced from Gaza to the northern Egyptian Sinai peninsula. In the report, the ministry described different options for what comes after an invasion of Gaza and the option deemed as “liable to provide positive and long-lasting strategic results” was the transfer of Gaza residents to Sinai. The move entails three steps: the creation of tent cities southwest of the Gaza Strip; the construction of a humanitarian corridor to “assist the residents”; and finally, the building of cities in northern Sinai. In parallel, a “sterile zone”, several kilometers wide, would be established within Egypt, south of the Israeli border, “so that the evacuated residents would not be able to return”. 

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To Kill in Darkness

Further attacks on sheltering civilians loom as Israel prepares a ground offensive in northern Gaza: Tel Aviv has ordered Al-Quds hospital and five UNRWA schools in Gaza City to evacuate to escape imminent bombardment.

The Al-Quds hospital is reportedly treating over 400 patients and sheltering 12,000 displaced civilians.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to tighten its grip on internal dissent and media coverage of the carnage.

News reports indicated Friday that U.N. relief agency UNRWA’s representatives said Israel told them to evacuate five schools “as fast as possible… We did what we could protest and reject this decision, but this means that from now on these facilities are no longer safe.”

Journalist Max Blumenthal wrote on social media: “Israel is implying it plans to bomb UN schools. The message below was sent to UNRWA.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent wrote via X:

“PRCS faces an imminent threat. The IOF demands the evacuation of Al-Quds Hospital, a sanctuary for over 400 patients and around 12,000 displaced civilians. We call [on] the international community to act urgently, averting another catastrophe like Al-Ahli Hospital”

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Disgraced BLM activist Shaun King says he helped free American hostages released from Gaza and knows them personally, hostages say they never heard of him

On Saturday, left-wing activist Shaun King took to social media to claim that the family of Natalie Raanan, one of the American hostages freed by Hamas, were supporters of his and that he helped to facilitate her and her mother’s release. However, the family says they had no idea who King was until after the release. 

In a post on Instagram, King wrote, “Hamas has just freed the teenager Natalie Raanan and her mother. I’m grateful.” He noted, “As I said last week, Natalie and her family have been supporters of mine and protested police violence in America alongside us.” 

“I am also thankful for the Qatari government for helping to negotiate this. Dozens of us worked frantically behind the scenes to help make this possible,” King added. “I spoke to Natalie’s family this afternoon and they are anxiously awaiting more updates.” 

After the post, Journalist Yuna Leibzon refuted King’s assertion in a long thread on X, she said, “It is important to clarify: the family of Natalie and Yehudit Ra’anan says they have no idea who Sean King is and they first found out about his existence after their release and reading the posts.”

She noted that King discussed Natalie’s half-brother Ben, and said “Uri, the father of Ben and Natalie told me tonight that he had no idea about this referral, and that the family simply turned everywhere to anyone who could help.” 

Leibzon noted that King is a “known hater of Israel” and that “Judith is part of the Chabad community in her city and according to her associates it is ridiculous to say that she is anything other than a lover of Israel.” She claims that King’s goal is to raise “‘doubts’ to the point that people have already determined that they support Hamas.” 

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CEO of Web Summit tech conference resigns over Israel comments

The chief executive of one of the world’s largest technology conferences resigned on Saturday amid furor over remarks he made about the Israel-Hamas war sparked a boycott that led to droves of speakers and companies to pull out of the gathering.

Organizers for Web Summit, which drew more than 70,000 attendees last year, said the event will still take place in Lisbon next month and that a new CEO will soon be appointed.

Paddy Cosgrave, the Irish entrepreneur who founded Web Summit and has been running the event since 2009, announced his departure after a flurry of companies, including Google, Meta, Amazon and Intel, withdrew from the event in the wake of Cosgrave’s comments.

Last week, he wrote on X that he was shocked at the rhetoric of so many Western leaders and governments in response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza following the Hamas terrorist attack that killed more than 1,300 people.

“War crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what they are,” Cosgrave wrote, referring to Israel’s wave of attacks on Gaza after the violence committed by Hamas.

The statement set off outrage, with venture capitalists, Israeli startup founders and Big Tech companies all pulling out of Web Summit, an annual conference that for the past 14 years has brought together some of the industry’s top leaders and companies.

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Genocide Unfolding

Tonight has been the most violent bombardment of Gaza so far, notably concentrated on precisely the areas into which Israel ordered the population to evacuate. I find it almost impossible to believe that this genocide is under way with the active support of almost all western governments.

I want to look at two questions – what will happen internationally, and what is happening in western societies.

Israel plainly is on the course of further escalation and intends to kill many thousands more Palestinians. More than 2,000 Palestinian children alone have now been killed by Israeli aerial attack in the last fortnight.

Gaza has no defence from bombs and missiles, and there is no military reason why Israel cannot keep this up for months and simply rely upon aerial massacre. We are perhaps within a week of thirst, starvation and disease killing even more people per day than bombardment.

The population of Gaza are simply defenceless. Only international intervention can stop Israel from doing whatever it wishes, and those countries which have influence with Israel are actively abetting and encouraging the genocide.

The question is, what is Israel’s aim? Do they intend to reduce the Gaza Strip still further, annexing half or more of it? Will starvation and horror enable the international community to force Egypt to accept the expulsion of the population of Gaza into the Sinai Desert as a “humanitarian” move?

That appears to be the end game: expulsion of population and territorial expansion into Gaza. That would require a ground invasion, but probably not until after even more intense aerial bombardment to eliminate all resistance. This territorial ambition of course accords with the violent expansion of illegal settlement in the West Bank which is currently under way, with the world paying almost no attention.  It is very hard indeed to comprehend the passivity of Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas at the moment.

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A growing number of reports indicate Israeli forces responsible for Israeli civilian and military deaths following October 7 attack

Since October 7, the day’s events have been shrouded in mystery. There are not only questions about the Israeli intelligence apparatus’s colossal failure to anticipate what was happening in the tightly besieged Strip or the quick collapse of their billion-dollar “Maginot Line” but also the details of what actually transpired in the military bases and settlements around the Gaza Strip. We know that, by common estimates, 1,400 Israelis were killed in the following few days, but we do not yet know the details of how.

Some reports are beginning to appear, including documentation of the killing of Israelis by Palestinian fighters, but there are a growing number of reports that indicate the Israeli military was also responsible for Israeli civilian and military deaths on October 7 and the days after.

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Blaming Hamas Shouldn’t Mean Ignoring the Palestinians’ Plight

Who is to blame for the bloodshed in Israel and Gaza?

In one sense, this is a very easy question to answer: Hamas is to blame. This should go without saying, but it has, miserably, become a subject of active conversation thanks to a small but well-placed subset of left-wing activists and students who responded to the initial attack by holding Israel responsible for the violence and loss of life. So let us say it: Hamas is to blame.

Hamas is the explicitly antisemitic terrorist group that began the present conflict on October 7 with a surprise massacre. Hamas is the group that—even if the most horrific accounts, God willing, prove untrue—committed hundreds of war crimes in a span of hours. Hamas is to blame for the deaths of innocents, as yet unknown numbers of infants and children included. Hamas is to blame for kidnapping Israeli civilians and using fellow Palestinians, too, as human shields against Israeli reprisal. 

Hamas is to blame for every abduction, every rape, every murder. Hamas is to blame for its deplorable deception, the lie it tells itself and ordinary Palestinians desperate for a champion, that Israeli civilians deserve to die. Hamas is to blame.

And yet if we stop the judgment there, it will be incomplete, and Americans who are old enough to remember the 9/11 attacks—to which the Hamas onslaught has rightly been compared—should know this better than most. We should know, as we learned at the expense of hundreds of thousands of American, Iraqi, and Afghan lives over the subsequent two decades, that terrorism does not happen in a vacuum. 

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AP erases Israeli pledge to attack Gaza like ‘Axis Power’ as officials threaten Palestinians with ‘Dresden’ doctrine

As Israeli officials proudly compare their bombardment of the Gaza Strip to the Allied firebombing of Dresden, the Associated Press has quietly removed a section noting US alarm over the historical comparison.

The Associated Press has quietly deleted a reference to official Israeli threats to subject the Gaza Strip to a Dresden-style firebombing campaign — the latest move in legacy media outlets’ ongoing push to downplay the impacts of Tel Aviv’s siege of over two million Palestinians.

“Four U.S. officials familiar with the discussions said American diplomats became increasingly alarmed by comments from their Israeli counterparts regarding their intention to deny water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel into Gaza, as well as the inevitability of civilian casualties,” the AP article previously stated.

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The Israel-Hamas War is ALREADY Pushing the Great Reset Agenda

Afew days ago we published an article discussing how the Great Reset agenda is still moving forward behind the scenes, while the headlines are full of Israel-Palestine.

But it’s also true that, in its thirteen days of existence, the war itself has already pushed that agenda forward as well.

CENSORSHIP

Normalising the suppression of dissent and creating a culture of fear around free expression are a major part of the Great Reset, after all the other steps are so much easier if you outlaw inconvenient protests.

And, naturally, calls for the suppression of freedom of expression have sprouted up everywhere since the war started. We covered this in our article “Israel-Hamas “war” – another excuse to shut down free speech”

Since that article was published this campaign has gained momentum.

European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton sent warning letters out to every major social media platform, claiming they needed to “combat disinformation” regarding Israel and threatening them with fines.

In yet another blow to the “China is on our side” narrative, Chinese video-sharing service TikTok has eagerly agreed to “combat disinformation”.

Students from Harvard and Berkeley have been threatened with “blacklisting” for voicing support for Palestine.

German and French police are breaking up pro-Palestine demonstrations, while – in both the UK and US – there are calls to arrest people for waving Palestinian flags, or deport those who “support Hamas”.

Creating a culture of fear, making people afraid to express themselves or their political opinions, is just one of the many things that Covid, Ukraine, Climate Change and now Israel have in common.

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