Tag: israel

Trump’s Ploy at the UN Is American Imperialism Masquerading as a Peace Process

The Trump administration is pushing an Israeli-crafted resolution at the UN Security Council (UNSC) this week aimed at eliminating the possibility of a State of Palestine. The resolution does three things. It establishes US political control over Gaza. It separates Gaza from the rest of Palestine. And it allows the US, and therefore Israel, to determine the timeline for Israel’s supposed withdrawal from Gaza – which would mean: never.

This is imperialism masquerading as a peace process. In and of itself it’s no surprise. Israel runs US foreign policy in the Middle East. What is a surprise is that the US and Israel might just get away with this travesty unless the world speaks up with urgency and indignation.

The draft UNSC resolution would establish a US-UK-dominated Board of Peace, chaired by none other than Donald Trump himself, and endowed with sweeping powers over Gaza’s governance, borders, reconstruction, and security. This resolution would sideline the State of Palestine and condition any transfer of authority to the Palestinians on the indulgence of the Board of Peace.

This would be an overt return to the British Mandate of 100 years ago, with the only change being that the US would hold the mandate rather than Britain. If it weren’t so utterly tragic, it would be laughable. As Marx said, history repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce. Yes, the proposal is farce, yet Israel’s genocide is not. It is tragedy of the first order.

Incredibly, according to the draft resolution, the Board of Peace would be granted sovereign powers in Gaza. Palestinian sovereignty is left to the discretion of the Board, which alone would decide when Palestinians are “ready” to govern themselves – perhaps in another 100 years? Even military security is subordinated to the Board, and the envisioned forces would answer not to the UN Security Council or to the Palestinian people, but to the Board’s “strategic guidance.”

The US-Israel resolution is being put forward precisely because the rest of the world – other than Israel and the US – has woken up to two facts. First, Israel is committing genocide, a reality witnessed every day in Gaza and the West Bank, where innocent Palestinians are murdered to the satisfaction of the Israel Defense Forces and the illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Second, Palestine is a state, albeit one whose sovereignty remains obstructed by the US, which uses its veto in the UNSC to block Palestine’s permanent UN membership. At the UN this past July and then again in September, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly for Palestine’s statehood, a fact that put the Israel-US Zionist lobby into overdrive, resulting in the current draft resolution.

For Israel to accomplish its goal of Greater Israel, the US is pursuing a classic divide-and-conquer strategy, squeezing Arab and Islamic states with threats and inducements. When other countries resist the US-Israel demands, they are cut off from critical technologies, lose access to World Bank and IMF financing, and suffer Israeli bombing, even in countries with US military bases present. The US offers no real protection; rather, it orchestrates a protection racket, extracting concessions from countries wherever US leverage exists. This extortion will continue until the global community stands up to such tactics and insists upon genuine Palestinian sovereignty and US and Israeli adherence to international law.

Palestine remains the endless victim of US and Israeli maneuvers. The results are not just devastating for Palestine, which has suffered an outright genocide, but for the Arab world and beyond. Israel and the US are currently at war, overtly or covertly, across the Horn of Africa (Libya, Sudan, Somalia), the Eastern Mediterranean (Lebanon, Syria), the Gulf region (Yemen), and Western Asia (Iraq, Iran).

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Palestinian people don’t exist – Israeli security minister

The Palestinian people do not exist, Israel’s hardline security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has said ahead of the UN Security Council vote on implementing the next stage of the US-brokered peace plan for Gaza.

The Security Council will vote Monday on a resolution drafted by the US and backed by several Arab and Muslim countries, which they said “offers a pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

In a lengthy X post on Saturday, Ben-Gvir, who is also the leader of the ultranationalist Otzma Yehudit party, claimed that “there is no such thing as ‘Palestinian people,’” arguing that the nation was “an invention without any historical, archaeological, or factual basis.”

“The collection of immigrants from Arab countries to the Land of Israel does not constitute a nation, and they certainly do not deserve a reward for the terrorism, murder, and atrocities they have spread everywhere, especially in Gaza,” he wrote, adding that the only “real” solution to the conflict was “encouraging voluntary emigration.”

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Iran Tells UN It Holds US Responsible for Israeli Bombing Campaign That Killed Over 1,000

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has sent a letter to top UN officials calling for the US to be held accountable for Israel’s attacks on Iran during the 12-Day War, which killed more than 1,000 people, including senior military officials, nuclear scientists, and many civilians.

In the letter, Aragchi cited Trump’s recent comments about how he was “in charge” of the Israeli attacks. “Israel attacked first. That attack was very, very powerful. I was very much in charge of that,” Trump told reporters on November 6. “When Israel attacked Iran first, that was a great day for Israel because that attack did more damage than the rest of them put together.”

Aragchi said the attacks on Iran violated international law and called for compensation. “The Islamic Republic of Iran reserves its full and unimpeachable right to pursue, through all available legal means, the establishment of accountability for the responsible States and individuals and to secure compensation for the damages sustained,” he wrote.

The only direct airstrikes that the US launched during the war were the bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities, but the US supported the Israeli attacks by refueling Israeli jets throughout the 12 days, according to reports in Israeli media. The Trump administration also engaged in a deception campaign aimed at keeping Iran off guard before the initial Israeli attack.

Israel conducted its first airstrikes on Iran on June 13, two days before the US and Iran were scheduled to hold another round of nuclear negotiations. Hours before the initial bombing started, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was committed to a “diplomatic solution” with Iran.

According to Iran’s Foundation for Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, at least 1,100 people were killed in Iran during the bombing campaign, including 132 women and 45 children. The US-funded Washington-based NGO Human Rights Activists in Iran, which is very critical of the Iranian government, has said that it identified 436 civilians and 435 members of Iran’s security forces who were killed. According to Israeli figures, 28 people were killed in Israel by Iranian missile attacks, all but one of them being civilians.

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DOJ asked to reveal names of Israeli influencers in US

In late September, RS reported that Israel is paying a cohort of 14-18 social media influencers an estimated $7,000 per post through a firm called Bridges Partners. The filing, disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, indicated that Israel began paying these influencers in June as part of a campaign called the “Esther Project.”

Yet, despite this cohort posting on social media for the past five months, not a single influencer working for Israel appears to have publicly acknowledged their work for Israel. Today, the Quincy Institute (the parent organization of RS) and Public Citizen sent a joint letter to the Department of Justice in an effort to change that.

The letter asks the Department of Justice to compel Bridges Partners to “publicly disclose the names, addresses, and contracts of the influencers paid to perform services on behalf of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs” as all registered foreign agents are required to do by law.

“Despite their legal obligation to register as agents of a foreign principal, none of these Influencers have filed the required registration statements with the Department of Justice,” reads the letter. To date, the only registered foreign agent on the Bridges Partners contract is Uri Steinberg, an Israeli citizen and Tel Aviv-based consultant with experience in the Israeli Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Tourism.

Craig Holman, Government Affairs Lobbyist for Public Citizen, explained in an email to RS that by concealing the identities of the influencers, Americans are left in the dark. “Americans deserve to know who is paying for the messages being transmitted through social media influencers,” said Holman.

Ben Freeman, Director of QI’s Democratizing Foreign Policy program, told RS last month that the influencers themselves need to register as foreign agents. “If these influencers are knowingly accepting money from the Israeli government to produce content for the Israeli government that’s being viewed by thousands or millions of their followers in the U.S., it’s not at all clear why they would not be required to register under FARA,” said Freeman.

While the letter focuses on Bridges Partners, there may be other influencers on separate contracts being paid by Israel. A firm called Genesis 21 Consulting was hired by the Israeli government in August for “Strategic communications support, content creation, and influencer outreach aimed at improving Israel’s public image.”

A filing disclosed by another firm working for Israel called Show Faith by Works indicated the firm would “identify Social Media influencers to hire in exchange for favorable coverage” as part of a $3.2 million contract to influence evangelical Christians.The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs later told Haaretz that, “Claims regarding an agreement between the State of Israel and the company Show Faith concerning geofencing and payments to influencers are false.”

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Israel wants to implement the death penalty for Palestinian prisoners. Here’s what you need to know. 

Israel is one step closer to passing a law that would allow Israeli courts to sentence Palestinian prisoners to death. On Monday, the Israeli Knesset passed the bill in a first reading with a majority of 39 votes in favor against 16 in opposition. The bill was presented as “exceptional” law, under a special status that allows it to be passed only with the majority of votes cast, and not the majority of the Knesset members, which is why absentees and abstentions were not counted. It still needs to pass two more readings before entering into force.

The law applies to individuals who are convicted for acts that led to the death of Israelis, if the acts were motivated by “racism or hostility towards the public” and “committed with the objective of harming the state of Israel or the rebirth of the Jewish people,” making it applicable exclusively to Palestinians. It was introduced by Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech from the ultra-nationalist “Jewish Power” party with a strong support base by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, like Har-Melech herself.

The party is led by Itamar Ben-Gvir, a key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government coalition. The death penalty for Palestinian prisoners has been a main political demand of Ben-Gvir, who has been behind the worsening of detention conditions of Palestinian prisoners in recent years.

Israel does have the death penalty in its law, but has only been considered applicable in rare situations of grave crimes, like genocide, and was applied once in 1962 against former Nazi officer Adolf Eichmann. The new law introduces three new stipulations which indicate the intention is to use the death penalty on Palestinians.

First, the bill’s wording allows the death penalty on individuals convicted of killing Israelis on “nationalistic or racist” grounds. This limits its application to non-Israelis and employs the euphamism of “nationalistic” crimes which is commonly used to describe Palestinian attacks against Israelis. Second, since it applies to Palestinians in the occupied territory, it gives Israeli military courts, who are the ones who issue penal sentences against Palestinians under occupation the power to put Palestinians to death. Third, it allows the death sentence to be given with a simple majority of judges, and not by consensus.

Even still, Ben-Gvir continues to push to loosen the law’s application even more to give Israeli forces the authority to execute Palestinians in the field. The law has several opponents, including Yair Lapid’s opposition “There is future” party, and the orthodox Haridi representatives. The opponents to the law abstained from voting, and many lawmakers were absent. But since it was introduced as an exceptional bill, requiring only a majority of votes cast, it passed.

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Israel destroys over 1,500 buildings in Gaza since start of ceasefire

The Israeli military has destroyed more than 1,500 buildings in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire deal was reached last month, according to new satellite images – the latest of which was captured on 8 November.

The images, analyzed by BBC Verify, show that the Israeli army has wiped out entire neighborhoods in less than a month, mainly through demolitions. 

“The destruction of buildings in Gaza by the Israeli military has been continuing on a huge scale,” the investigation says. 

The BBC used a change-detection algorithm to analyze radar photos – taken before and after US President Donald Trump’s ‘peace plan’ came into effect – which revealed the scale of damage and the number of visibly destroyed buildings.

The images show buildings beyond the Yellow Line, the perimeter to which Israeli forces agreed to withdraw their troops as part of the agreement.

Many of the demolished buildings did not appear to have sustained damage before their destruction, for example, near Rafah, Khan Yunis, and parts of Gaza City. 

“According to the agreement, all terror infrastructure, including tunnels, is to be dismantled throughout Gaza. Israel is acting in response to threats, violations, and terror infrastructure,” the Israeli army claims. 

Trump’s ceasefire plan calls for the destruction of all “terror infrastructure” under the “supervision of independent monitors.”

However, the satellite imagery and testimonies from Palestinians confirm the destruction of civilian homes and residential sites.

“This is definitely a violation of the ceasefire,” Dr. H. A. Hellyer of the UK-based RUSI think tank told BBC. “But [Washington] DC is unwilling to recognize it as such, insisting that the ceasefire has to hold, even when it isn’t actually holding.”

Hugh Lovatt, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said these demolitions would continue to pose a problem until Israel withdraws from Gaza, and could jeopardize the ceasefire.

Yet the US plan allows Israel to maintain a presence in the strip until the resistance is completely disarmed. 

“Ultimately, the sense that Israel is stalling its withdrawal and looking to create new permanent facts on the ground, as it has in the West Bank, will become an increasingly greater threat to the maintenance of the ceasefire,” Lovatt added. 

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Francesca Albanese Names Over 60 States Complicit in Gaza Genocide

The UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, told the General Assembly on 28 October that 63 countries, including key western and Arab states, have fueled or were complicit in “Israel’s genocidal machinery” in Gaza.

Speaking remotely from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, Albanese presented her 24-page report, ‘Gaza Genocide: A Collective Crime,’ which she said documents how states armed, financed, and politically protected Tel Aviv as Gaza’s population was “bombed, starved, and erased” for over two years.

Her findings place the US at the center of Israel’s war economy, accounting for two-thirds of its weapons imports and providing diplomatic cover through seven UN Security Council vetoes. 

The report cited Germany, Britain, and a number of other European powers for continuing arms transfers “even as evidence of genocide mounted,” and condemned the EU for sanctioning Russia over the war in Ukraine while remaining Israel’s top trading partner.

Albanese accused global powers of having “harmed, founded, and shielded Israel’s militarized apartheid,” allowing its settler-colonial project “to metastasize into genocide – the ultimate crime against the indigenous people of Palestine.” 

She said the genocide was enabled through “diplomatic protection in international fora meant to preserve peace,” military cooperation that “fed the genocidal machinery,” and the “unchallenged weaponization of aid.”

The report also identified complicity among Arab states, including the UAE, Egypt, Bahrain, and Morocco, which normalized ties with Tel Aviv. 

Egypt, she noted, maintained “significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing,” tightening the siege on Gaza’s last humanitarian route. 

Albanese warned that the international system now stands “on a knife-edge between the collapse of the rule of law and hope for renewal,” urging states to suspend all military and trade agreements with Tel Aviv and build “a living framework of rights and dignity, not for the few, but for the many.”

Her presentation provoked an outburst from Israel’s envoy Danny Danon, who called her a “wicked witch.” 

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US to build internment-style camps for Palestinians in Israeli-controlled Gaza

US President Donald Trump’s administration is advancing a controversial plan to build what US officials called “Alternate Safe Communities” for displaced Palestinians inside the Israeli-controlled areas in Gaza that make up half of the strip, The Atlantic reported on 10 November.

According to The Atlantic, the initiative envisions a string of US-backed settlements for Palestinians screened and approved by Israel’s domestic intelligence service. Anyone – or their relatives – found to be affiliated with or supportive of Hamas would be barred from entry, effectively separating them from the majority still living under Hamas administration on the western side of what Israeli troops now call the “yellow line.” Those who cross this barrier without authorization have been repeatedly shot at by Israeli soldiers.

Lieutenant General Patrick Frank, tasked with executing Trump’s post-war “peace plan,” told officials that each community would include temporary housing for up to 25,000 people, along with schools and clinics. 

A US engineering firm, Tetra Tech, has reportedly received the first contract to clear rubble and ordnance at a pilot site near Rafah.

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Trump pleas with Israeli president to pardon ‘formidable’ Netanyahu

Israeli President Isaac Herzog confirmed on 12 November that he received a letter from US President Donald Trump urging him to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is facing trial on multiple corruption charges.

Herzog’s office said on Wednesday that Trump’s letter, shared publicly, called the case against Netanyahu “a political, unjustified prosecution.”

Trump wrote that while he respected Israel’s judiciary, he believed the charges targeted a leader who had “fought alongside me for a long time, including against the very tough adversary of Israel, Iran.”

In the same letter, Trump praised Netanyahu as “a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister,” claiming he was now guiding Israel “into a time of peace” through ongoing efforts to expand the so-called Abraham Accords. 

Trump credited Netanyahu’s cooperation in confronting “the very tough adversary” of Iran and framed the trial as punishment for his political alignment with US and Israeli right-wing interests.

The president’s office clarified that pardons can only be granted through formal petitions submitted by the accused or their relatives in accordance with Israeli law.

All 19 ministers and deputy ministers from the ruling Likud party have since signed a joint appeal urging Herzog to pardon Netanyahu, claiming the trial was “harming the unity of the people.” The signatories argued that the allegations – centered on gifts of cigars and champagne from businessmen – were politically motivated and “trivial.”

According to Haaretz, Herzog discussed the matter with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and with relatives of former Gaza captives, one of whom suggested that a pardon might give Netanyahu “freedom to take political risks.” 

Herzog’s office later denied initiating those talks. Reports also indicate that Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, may submit a formal request for clemency.

The prime minister faces charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in three cases dating back to his 2019 indictment. His trial, which began in 2020, remains ongoing, making him the first sitting Israeli premier to stand trial as a criminal defendant. 

Netanyahu maintains his innocence and has dismissed the proceedings as a left-wing campaign to remove him from power.

In late October, a Jerusalem court rejected Netanyahu’s request to reduce his weekly court appearances, ruling that hearings would continue “as planned.” 

That decision came days after the Israeli Ministerial Committee for Legislation advanced a bill that could indefinitely delay his trials, legislation opposed by the attorney general for introducing “political considerations” into the legal process.

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Biden Administration Had Intelligence That Israel Was Using Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza

The US gathered intelligence last year of Israeli officials discussing their soldiers using Palestinians as human shields in Gaza by sending them into tunnels and buildings believed to be lined with explosives, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two US officials.

The officials said that the intelligence was shared with the White House during the final weeks of the Biden administration. Despite the use of human shields being a clear war crime and violation of international law, Biden officials did nothing to curtail US military aid to Israel after receiving the intelligence.

The IDF’s use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, known as the “mosquito protocol,” was so widespread in Gaza that one Israeli military officer writing anonymously in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said that the IDF operated a “sub-army of Palestinian slaves.”

While the IDF officially denies that it used human shields, there has been widespread reporting on it in Israeli media and testimony from Israeli soldiers and Palestinians about the practice.

“You send the human shield underground. As he walks down the tunnel, he maps it all for you. He has an iPhone in his vest and as he walks it sends back GPS information,” Daniel, an Israeli tank commander, said in a documentary titled “Breaking Ranks: Inside Israel’s War” that broadcast on the UK’s ITV this week.

“The commanders saw how it works. And the practice spread like wildfire. After about a week, every company was operating its own mosquito,” Daniel added.

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