Tag: israel

Germany Buries the Evidence of Complicity in Genocide: Nicaragua Exposes It

Last Thursday, Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, the British-Palestinian war surgeon, gave his first address as the newly-appointed rector of Glasgow University, chosen in recognition of his work at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza. The following day he flew to Berlin, where he had been invited to address a major conference about Palestine. On arrival he was taken away by police, interrogated for several hours and eventually told he had to leave Germany and wouldn’t be allowed to return until at least the end of April. Any attempt to speak to the conference via Zoom could result in a fine or even a year’s prison sentence. By the time he was released he couldn’t have taken part in the conference anyway, since it had been already invaded by at least 900 police and closed down. Berlin’s mayor said that it was ‘intolerable’ that the conference was taking place at all.

Speaking about his experience afterwards, Dr Abu-Sittah referred to the fact that Germany had – also last week – been defending itself at the International Court of Justice against charges by Nicaragua that it is an accomplice to genocidal war. ‘This is exactly what accomplices to a crime do’ he said. ‘They bury the evidence and they silence or harass or intimidate the witnesses’.

Watching the live feed of Germany’s lawyers at the Hague a few days earlier had been an odd experience. They gave the impression of being affronted that Germany had been accused of such crimes, especially by a small country which, they argued, had no stake in the case. Also, Israel could not yet be said to be committing genocide, because the ICJ has not yet determined the case brought against it by South Africa, which Germany had supported Israel in contesting. Because Israel was not party to the new case, it should simply be thrown out.

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The attack on Nevatim airbase: the truth behind the propaganda

By now, most of the world knows that Iran launched a multi-faceted attack against Israel about 48 hours ago.  The “fallout” from that attack is now becoming frighteningly clear, and it has Defense Experts TERRIFIED.

As the attack was in-progress, Iran undertook a very unusual, and apparently foolish, series of steps.  They announced they had launched drones and then cruise missiles against Israel.  They announced this despite the fact the drones and missiles still had 57 more minutes to travel before reaching their targets!   

Expert Observers thought it very strange – and foolish – that an attacker would give out such information while the very weapons they launched had not yet arrived.  It gave Israel and its allies time to go after those weapons, which they did.

Well . . . it turns out this was not strange or foolish – it was planned.  Iran launched the old dregs of their arsenal!  First generation drones. First generation cruise missiles.  What they launched was the junk they had laying around for years!  Slow moving, loud, junk.  Iran WANTED Israeli defenses to focus on that old junk, and not on what they would fire next: Ballistic Missiles.

Many of the drones simply fell out of the sky from malfunctions.  Others were easily intercepted by fighter jets from Israel, the US, and the UK, with some help from French naval assets in the Mediterranean Sea. 

There was a much-heralded “99% interception success rate” broadcast around the world for all to hear.  Turns out, there’s a problem.  A MAJOR problem: Iran’s Ballistic Missiles.   A few of them, got through.

Almost no one noticed this “problem” because there has been no media coverage of it, until this article.

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WHY? Seattle Police Department Announces They Are ‘Closely Monitoring Conflict Between Israel and Iran’

The Seattle Police Department has announced that they are ‘Closely Monitoring Conflict Between Israel and Iran’ for some reason.

Don’t the police in Seattle have A LOT more pressing issues to keep an eye on, right at home in their own city?

Is it possible that this is some bizarre effort to endear the police to the crazy leftists in Seattle who are obsessed with what’s happening in the Middle East?

They actually put out an announcement about this.

From their blotter:

SPD is Closely Monitoring Conflict Between Israel and Iran

The Seattle Police Department is closely monitoring the conflict between Israel and Iran and are working with local and federal agencies to ensure the safety of Seattle community members.

As a precaution, we will proactively increase patrols around infrastructures and sensitive areas. SPD’s Community liaisons are working with community leaders as a prevention measure. Currently there are no specific or credible threats.

As always SPD is committed to the safety of Seattle community members.

People have thoughts about this.

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LEAKED NYT GAZA MEMO TELLS JOURNALISTS TO AVOID WORDS “GENOCIDE,” “ETHNIC CLEANSING,” AND “OCCUPIED TERRITORY”

THE NEW YORK TIMES instructed journalists covering Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept.

The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of Gaza historically settled by displaced Palestinians expelled from other parts of Palestine during previous Israeli–Arab wars. The areas are recognized by the United Nations as refugee camps and house hundreds of thousands of registered refugees.

The memo — written by Times standards editor Susan Wessling, international editor Philip Pan, and their deputies — “offers guidance about some terms and other issues we have grappled with since the start of the conflict in October.”

While the document is presented as an outline for maintaining objective journalistic principles in reporting on the Gaza war, several Times staffers told The Intercept that some of its contents show evidence of the paper’s deference to Israeli narratives.

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Biden OK’d Iran Strike, Tells Israel To ‘Take The Win’: Reports

Reports are circulating that the Biden Administration green lighted Iran’s attack on Israel, stipulating that it had to be “within certain limits,” and is now telling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ‘take the win,’ rather than retaliate.

Reuters reports that Iran informed Turkey in advance of its planned operation against Israel, according to a Turkish diplomatic source, who explained that Washington had conveyed to Tehran via Ankara that any action it took must not cross any red lines.

The source further told Reuters that Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had spoken to both his U.S. and Iranian counterparts in the past week regarding the planned Iranian attack, and that all parties were aware it was going to happen.

“Iran informed us in advance of what would happen. Possible developments also came up during the meeting with [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken, and they (the U.S.) conveyed to Iran through us that this reaction must be within certain limits,” the source said.

“In response, Iran said the reaction would be a response to Israel’s attack on its embassy in Damascus and that it would not go beyond this,” the source added.

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Israel’s Defense Against Iran Attack Overnight ‘Likely Cost Over $1 Billion’

It cost Israel more than $1bn to activate its defense systems that intercepted Iran’s massive drone and missile attack overnight,  according to a former financial adviser to Israel’s military. 

“The defence tonight was on the order of 4-5bn shekels [$1-1.3bn] per night,” estimated Brigadier General Reem Aminoach in an interview with Ynet news.

Aminoach highlighted that the staggering price tag stands in contrast to the relatively low amount that Iran had spent to launch its assault, which some estimates have put at less than 10 percent of what it cost Israel to stop the attack. 

Iran launched more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel on Saturday, in response to an Israeli attack on its consulate in Syria that killed two senior Revolutionary Guard commanders earlier this month.

Israel said its military forces and its allies had intercepted 99 percent of the missiles, but some ballistic missiles penetrated Israeli defences and hit the Nevatim Airbase in southern Israel. 

“If we’re talking about ballistic missiles that need to be brought down with an Arrow system, cruise missiles that need to be brought down with other missiles, and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles], which we actually bring down mainly with fighter jets,” he said. 

“Then add up the costs – $3.5m for an Arrow missile, $1m for a David’s Sling, such and such costs for jets. An order of magnitude of 4-5bn shekels.”

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ISRAEL CONFLICT SPREADS TO 16 NATIONS AS BIDEN ADMIN SAYS THERE’S NO WAR

THE REGIONAL WAR in the Middle East now involves at least 16 different countries and includes the first strikes from Iranian territory on Israel, but the United States continues to insist that there is no broader war, hiding the extent of American military involvement. And yet in response to Iran’s drone and missile attacks Saturday, the U.S. flew aircraft and launched air defense missiles from at least eight countries, while Iran and its proxies fired weapons from Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

The news media has been complicit in its portrayal of the regional war as nonexistent. “Biden Seeks to Head Off Escalation After Israel’s Successful Defense,” the New York Times blared this morning, ignoring that the conflict had already spread. “Iran attacks Israel, risking a full-blown regional war,” says The Economist. “Some top U.S. officials are worried that Israel may respond hastily to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attacks and provoke a wider regional conflict that the U.S. could get dragged into,” says NBC, parroting the White House’s deception.

The Washington-based reporting follows repeated Biden administration statements that none of this amounts to a regional war. “So far, there is not … a wider regional conflict,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on Thursday, in response to a question about Israel’s strike on the Iranian Embassy. Ryder’s statement followed repeated assertions by Iranian leadership that retaliation would follow — and even a private message from the Iranians to the U.S. that if it helped defend Israel, the U.S. would also be a viable target — after which the White House reiterated its “ironclad” support for Israel.

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Google Contract Shows Deal With Israel Defense Ministry

Google provides cloud computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and the tech giant has negotiated deepening its partnership during Israel’s war in Gaza, a company document viewed by TIME shows.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense, according to the document, has its own “landing zone” into Google Cloud—a secure entry point to Google-provided computing infrastructure, which would allow the ministry to store and process data, and access AI services.

The ministry sought consulting assistance from Google to expand its Google Cloud access, seeking to allow “multiple units” to access automation technologies, according to a draft contract dated March 27, 2024. The contract shows Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense over $1 million for the consulting service. 

The version of the contract viewed by TIME was not signed by Google or the Ministry of Defense. But a March 27 comment on the document, by a Google employee requesting an executable copy of the contract, said the signatures would be “completed offline as it’s an Israel/Nimbus deal.” Google also gave the ministry a 15% discount on the original price of consulting fees as a result of the “Nimbus framework,” the document says.

Project Nimbus is a controversial $1.2 billion cloud computing and AI agreement between the Israeli government and two tech companies: Google and Amazon. Reports in the Israeli press have previously indicated that Google and Amazon are contractually barred from preventing specific arms of the Israeli state using their technology under Project Nimbus. But this is the first time the existence of a contract showing that the Israeli Ministry of Defense is a Google Cloud customer has been made public. 

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Top US General Spotted At Central Israel Airbase Just As Iran Attack Looms

At a moment US intelligence has indicated that Iran could strike Israeli soil in the next 24 to 48 hours, a top US general was spotted at an airbase in central Israel on Friday. US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla met with Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant at Hatzor Airbase “a short while ago,” according to Times of Israel military correspondent Emanuel Fabian.

The two defense officials discussed “readiness for an Iranian attack against the State of Israel, which may lead to regional escalation,” an official statement of the visit by Gallant’s said. Given it could be “bombs away” at any moment, is it a good idea for America’s top regional general to be hanging out at one of the very bases which could be directly targeted?

“Our enemies think that they can pull apart Israel and the United States, but the opposite is true, they are bringing us together and strengthening our ties. We stand shoulder to shoulder,” Gallant’s statement continued.

“I am certain that the world sees the true face of Iran, the terrorist body that incites terror attacks across the Middle East, and funds Hamas, Hezbollah, and additional forces [proxies], and now also threatens the State of Israel,” the Israeli defense chief added. “We are prepared to defend ourselves on the ground and in the air, in close cooperation with our partners, and we will know how to respond.”

It goes without saying that if top US military officials are currently on the ground and find themselves in the attack path when Iranian missiles are launched, it could be a direct trigger for massive regional war, given Washington wouldn’t hesitate to respond in a big way against Tehran in that scenario.

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US Could Launch Joint Retaliatory Strikes With Israel If It Is Attacked By Iran: Official

Upping the ante, a US official has told Al Jazeera that the Pentagon could intervene militarily if there is an Iranian attack launched against Israel.

According to a translation from Al Jazeera Arabic, the US source said, “We do not rule out launching joint retaliatory strikes with Israel if it is attacked by Iran or its agents.”

There was no further elaboration, or an indicator whether a US joint response with Israel would include offensive strikes against Iran, or if this would just be defensive, for example – anti air measures. However, Axios has the following details which appears to confirm the Al Jazeera reporting:

The senior U.S. military commander in charge of the Middle East is expected to go to Israel Thursday to coordinate around a possible attack on Israel by Iran and its proxies, two Israeli officials said.

…The commander of the U.S. military central command (CENTCOM) Gen. Erik Kurilla is expected to meet senior Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) officials and Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Yesterday, Israeli officials threatened that Iranian nuclear sites could be targeted, in one of the biggest strike threats to date. The region is on edge awaiting an ‘imminent’ response by Iran following the April 1st deadly attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus. US intelligence has said it believes a revenge attack from Tehran is coming soon.

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