Tag: israel

Israeli Defense Minister Vows Permanent Israeli Occupation of Gaza, Establishment of Settlements

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed on Tuesday that the Israeli military will “never leave all of Gaza” and will eventually establish settlements in the northern part of the Strip.

“We are deep inside Gaza and will never leave all of Gaza – that will not happen. We are here to defend and to prevent what happened,” Katz said during an event in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“With God’s help, when the time comes, also in northern Gaza, we will establish Nahal pioneer groups in place of the settlements that were evacuated,” Katz added, referring to an IDF program that establishes communities for Israeli soldiers. “We’ll do it in the right way, at the appropriate time.”

Katz also vowed that Israel would not withdraw “one millimeter” from Syria, referring to the territory it has captured in southwest Syria since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

After his remarks sparked backlash, Katz appeared to walk back the comments on settlements. “The government has no intention of establishing settlements in the Gaza Strip,” his office said in a statement, though it added that he made the comments in a “security context,” suggesting it wasn’t a complete walk back about what he said about establishing military communities.

An unnamed US official criticized Katz’s comments, saying that he was “provoking” the Arab world. “The more Israel provokes, the less the Arab countries want to work with them,” the US official said in a statement to journalists.

“The United States remains fully committed to President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan, which was agreed to by all parties and endorsed by the international community. The plan envisions a phased approach to security, governance, and reconstruction in Gaza. We expect all parties to adhere to the commitments they made under the 20-Point Plan,” the official added.

Katz did not walk back his comments about a permanent Israeli occupation of Gaza, and other Israeli officials have made similar vows. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said earlier this month that the so-called “yellow line,” the vague boundary separating the Israeli-occupied side of Gaza from the rest of the Strip, is a “new border.”

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19 New Apartheid Colonies for the Occupied West Bank

Israel’s Cabinet on Sunday finalized approval of 19 new Jewish-only settler colonies in the illegally occupied West Bank, a move the apartheid state’s far-right finance minister said was aimed at thwarting Palestinian statehood.

Cabinet ministers approved the legalization of the previously unauthorized settler outposts throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, bringing the total number of new settlements in recent years to 69.

The move will bring the overall total number of exclusively or overwhelmingly Jewish settlements — which are illegal under international law — to more than 200, up from around 140 just three years ago.

Included in the new approval are two former settlements — Kadim and Ganim — that were evacuated in compliance with the now effectively repealed 2005 Disengagement Law, under which Israel dismantled all of its colonies in the Gaza Strip and four in the West Bank.

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Hillary Clinton Is Wrong: The Genocide Isn’t ‘Fake News’

As unconditional support for Israel becomes more of a political liability and solidarity with Palestine establishes itself as a litmus test, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her fellow status-quo defenders are blaming social media for the U.S. public’s growing solidarity with Palestine.

In accusing young people of falling for fake news, they rely on an outdated assumption that equates social media with falsehoods — and equates legacy media with trustworthiness. What’s clear is that Clinton and her peers who partake in similar rhetoric fail to grasp the nuances of today’s media landscape, particularly as it has unraveled around Palestine.

More and more Americans have realized that Israel’s post-Oct. 7 assault on Gaza is not only disproportionate but genocidal, and that in spite of the carnage, the U.S. government continues to provide diplomatic cover and send billions in military aid.

It’s no wonder that public sentiment has shifted considerably against Israel in the past two years, with young people in particular being increasingly supportive of Palestine. This sea change has made establishment politicians very nervous.

In several recent speaking engagements, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has lamented that these pro-Palestine young people have the unfortunate habit of getting their news from social media; to her, that makes them uninformed and sorely misled.

“More than 50 percent of young people in America get their news from social media. Just pause on that for a second,” she said at an event for the newspaper Israel Hayom earlier this month. “They are seeing short-form videos, some of them totally made up, some of them not at all representing what they claim to be showing. And that’s where they get their information.”

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Kushner and Witkoff Reportedly Draft $112B Plan to Turn Gaza Into ‘Smart City’ With Beach Resorts, High-Speed Rail, and AI Grids — U.S. Pushes Back on Claims It Would Foot $60B

Representatives tied to the Trump administration have circulated a sweeping proposal to rebuild war-torn Gaza into a futuristic international destination, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal.

The plan, formally titled “Project Sunrise,” envisions a decade-long, $112.1 billion redevelopment effort featuring beachside luxury resorts, high-speed rail, and AI-optimized infrastructure.

The draft proposal was developed by a team led by Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, and U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, along with senior White House aide Josh Gruenbaum and other administration officials.

The plan is being presented to prospective donor governments via a 32-slide PowerPoint labeled “sensitive but unclassified,” U.S. officials told the Journal.

According to the presentation, Project Sunrise would convert Gaza’s devastated landscape into a modern coastal metropolis.

Slides reportedly show high-rise developments along the Mediterranean, cost tables, and phased timelines designed to move residents “from tents to penthouses” and stimulate long-term economic growth.

U.S. officials said the plan has been shared with potential donor nations, including wealthy Gulf states as well as Turkey and Egypt.

However, the proposal does not specify which governments or private entities would ultimately finance the project, nor does it detail where Gaza’s roughly two million displaced residents would live during reconstruction, according to WSJ.

The draft estimates total costs at $112.1 billion over 10 years, including humanitarian relief, infrastructure rebuilding, and public-sector payrolls.

Of that amount, nearly $60 billion would allegedly come from grants and debt guarantees, with the United States offering to serve as an “anchor” for roughly 20% or more of that support.

The U.S. State Department immediately moved to push back on the claims that American taxpayers would directly shoulder $60 billion of the project’s cost.

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Report: Netanyahu set to pitch Trump on renewed plans to strike Iran

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly set to pitch President Donald Trump on renewed plans to strike Iran, citing concerns over the country’s efforts to rebuild and expand its ballistic missile program, which was damaged during the Twelve-Day War earlier this year, according to an NBC News report.

In the upcoming meeting, scheduled for December 29th, Netanyahu is expected to discuss concerns about Iran rebuilding the production capabilities of its ballistic missile program and its nuclear enrichment program, both of which were damaged by Israeli and American strikes.

The concerns echo the reasoning behind Israel’s decision to launch preemptive military strikes against Iran in June, targeting its missile production capabilities and nuclear enrichment infrastructure.

The NBC report claimed that Israeli officials stated that Iran’s efforts to rebuild its destroyed air defenses and ballistic missile production infrastructure represent immediate concerns for the Israeli government, prompting Netanyahu to request a meeting with the president.

At the meeting, Netanyahu is reportedly expected to present President Trump with several options, including the possibility of the United States actively participating in or supporting the operation, according to the outlet.

“The nuclear weapons program is very concerning. There’s an attempt to reconstitute. [But] it’s not that immediate,” a source with knowledge of the Israeli government’s thinking told NBC.

“There is no real question after the last conflict that we can gain aerial superiority and can do far more damage to Iran than Iran can do to Israel,” another source added. “But the threat of the missiles is very real, and we weren’t able to prevent them all last time.”

During the Twelve-Day War, Iran launched over 500 ballistic missiles and roughly 1,100 drones at Israel, killing 32 and wounding over 3,000, according to health officials.

Meanwhile, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly stated that the “International Atomic Energy Agency and Iranian government corroborated the United States government’s assessment that Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran’s nuclear capabilities.”

“As President Trump has said, if Iran pursued a nuclear weapon, that site would be attacked and would be wiped out before they even got close,” she added.

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WHOA! Dave Chappelle SLAMS Bill Maher and Israel in Defense of Saudi Arabia Comedy Show: “F*ck That Guy”

Comedian Dave Chappelle came out guns blazing against critics of his appearance at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, in late September and early October, explicitly calling out Bill Maher and taking a shot at Israel. 

The strongly worded set was featured during his Netflix comedy special, “The Unstoppable,” which premiered on December 19.

Maher had criticized Chapelle last month for claiming that he is freer to make jokes in Saudi Arabia. “It’s easier to talk here than it is in America,”  Chapelle told an audience during a late September appearance. It can be recalled that Chapelle was nearly murdered for his jokes about trans people.

“Dave Chapelle was in the press today, saying that you can speak more freely over here than in America,” to which Louis C.K. responded, “I don’t know if that’s true.”

“Oh, it’s not true. Do your honk on Mohammed, Dave.”

Chapelle responded during the show, saying, “I didn’t tell them to put this in the paper. I just said it on stage. I said, ‘It’s easier to talk in Saudi Arabia for me than it is in America,’”

“I’ve known Bill since I was like 18/19, years old, and I’ve never said this publicly, but f*ck that guy,” Chappelle said. “I’m so f*cking tired of his little smug cracker ass commentary. These motherf*ckers act like because I did a comedy festival in Saudi Arabia, I somehow betrayed my principles.”

“They said, well, Saudi Arabia killed a journalist. And rest in peace, Jamal Khashoggi. I’m sorry that he got murdered in such a heinous fashion,” he continued in a nod to Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed by Saudi agents in Istanbul.

“I mean, look, bro, Israel’s killed 240 journalists in the last three months, so I didn’t know y’all was still counting.”

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Epstein, Israel, and the CIA: How The Iran–Contra Planes Landed at Les Wexner’s Base 

When a Southern Air Transport plane was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986, the world got a rare window into U.S. government covert activity. Southern Air Transport was founded as a small cargo airline in 1947, the same year the Office of Strategic Services evolved into the Central Intelligence Agency as the U.S. pivoted to its Cold War posture. The agency owned the airline outright from 1960 until 1973, at which point it was sold to the same man, Stanley Williams, who had run the company since the Kennedy administration. 

The downing of the plane and the testimony of its lone survivor, Eugene Hasenfus, pulled a string that eventually unraveled the scandal known as Iran–Contra. Using Southern Air Transport planes, the CIA was shipping weapons to Iran, using Israel as a middleman, and deploying the profits to arm the Contras against the leftist Nicaraguan government. 

None of it was legal, and Southern Air Transport was getting too hot. In 1995, the company relocated its headquarters from Miami, Florida, to Columbus, Ohio. The company rebranded by flying imported shipments of clothing from China. But for three years in Columbus, the airline was dogged by rumors it had been—or was still—involved in drug smuggling. 

According to the veteran Columbus journalist Bob Fitrakis, who provided his historical reporting on the topic to Drop Site and The American Conservative, investigators in both the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and Ohio’s Office of Inspector General were looking into Southern Air Transport amid ongoing public scrutiny of the Iran–Contra affair—and sources in both offices identified Jeffrey Epstein as having a pivotal role in relocating the planes. 

At the time, Epstein was a relatively obscure financier managing the money and real estate investments of the Ohio-based fashion and retail mogul Leslie Wexner. Under his stewardship of the Wexner empire, the planes that previously carried arms to Iran and Nicaragua were repurposed to deliver clothes to feed Wexner’s network of retail chains, including Victoria’s Secret and Abercrombie & Fitch. 

Southern Air Transport abruptly declared bankruptcy on October 1, 1998—exactly one week before the CIA Inspector General released its official findings on the Iran–Contra affair, linking the airline to allegations of Contra cocaine trafficking from Nicaragua. Per Fitrakis, under pressure from the governor’s office, Ohio officials dropped their inquiries, meaning that Epstein’s role never became public.

How did Epstein end up moving the former Contra planes to Columbus? Answering that question—or at least getting close—requires a closer look at the men behind the scandal that defined the second half of the Reagan administration and gave the public the clearest look inside the U.S. government’s clandestine global operations in a generation or more. Like a spy-service Forrest Gump, Jeffrey Epstein can be found there every leg of the way.

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Trump, Netanyahu ‘quietly planned’ Iran war since February: Report

US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu jointly coordinated the June war against Iran months prior, while organizing a deception campaign in the media aimed at presenting Washington as opposed to Tel Aviv’s plans against Tehran, sources told the Washington Poston 17 December. 

According to the sources, Netanyahu met Trump in February and gave him four options for how an attack on Iran could happen.

“The Israeli prime minister first showed Trump what the operation would look like if Israel attacked alone. The second option was for Israel to take the lead, with minimal US support. The third was full collaboration between the two allies. The last option was for the US to take the lead,” the report said. 

“Months of stealthy, intensive strategic planning commenced. Trump wanted to give nuclear diplomacy with Iran a chance, but he continued intelligence-sharing and operational planning with Israel,” it added. “The thinking was, if talks fail, we are ready to go.”

Trump said one day before the war started that the US could potentially strike Iran, but that he preferred a diplomatic solution. 

“He and Netanyahu maneuvered to keep the Iranians unprepared for what would happen next,” the sources went on to say. 

Tel Aviv leaked information that Netanyahu’s Strategic Affairs Minister, Ron Dermer, and Mossad chief, David Barnea, would soon meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff.

A round of US–Iran nuclear talks had been scheduled for 15 June. However, Israel launched pre-emptive strikes on military and nuclear facilities in Iran on 13 June, triggering the war.

“Israel had decided to strike, as the US well knew. The planned diplomacy was a ruse, and officials from both countries encouraged media reports of a US–Israeli rift. All the reports that were written about Bibi not being on the same page with Witkoff or Trump were not true. But it was good that this was the general perception, it helped to move on with the planning without many people noticing it,” the sources said. 

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Trump Says Mega-Donor Offered Him $250 Million to Run for Third Term

President Donald Trump lit up the White House Tuesday night after Israeli-American billionaire mega-donor Miriam Adelson floated the idea and even dangled another $250 million if he ran for a third term.

The stunning exchange took place during the annual Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony at the White House, where Trump proudly praised Adelson as his campaign’s top donor from the 2024 election cycle.

According to Trump, Adelson had already contributed an eye-popping $250 million to help propel him back into office.

“Miriam gave my campaign indirectly, $250 million. She was number one. When somebody can give you $250 million, I think we should give her the opportunity to say hello,” Trump said.

Trump then invited Adelson to the podium, introducing her as an “incredible woman” and praising her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, as a fierce and unapologetic champion of Israel.

During her remarks, Adelson recounted her long-standing admiration for Trump, including attending one of his speeches at the Israeli Knesset despite being in physical pain at the time.

The moment quickly took a political turn when she revealed a conversation she had recently had with Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz.

“And now I met Alan Dershowitz,” Adelson said. “And he said, the legal thing about four more years. And I said, Alan, I agree with you. So we can do it. Think about it.”

That line immediately ignited the room. The audience erupted into chants of “Four more years! Four more years!”

Trump returned to the microphone with a wide grin and dropped the bombshell.

“She said, ‘Think about it. I’ll give you another $250.”

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Who is José Antonio Kast, Chile’s new pro-Israel, ultra-conservative president?

Chile elected a new ultra-conservative and pro-Israel president on Sunday, a result set to mark a sharp shift in the country’s foreign policy.

José Antonio Kast, 59, defeated his communist rival Jeanette Jara by 58 percent to 42 percent, campaigning on a platform focused on security and immigration reform, including tighter controls along Chile’s northern borders with Peru and Bolivia.

Kast is a deeply polarising figure among Chileans, due to both his family history and his ultra-conservative views.

A controversial family

A lawyer by profession, Kast is a staunch Catholic and has been active in politics for around three decades, with this election marking his third presidential bid.

In 2016, he broke away from Chile’s main conservative party to found the Republican Party.

Beyond his opposition to abortion, same sex marriage, divorce and euthanasia, Kast has openly expressed admiration for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a period marked by widespread human rights abuses. One of Kast’s brothers served as a minister during that era.

His family background has also drawn scrutiny. Kast’s parents settled in Chile in 1950 after leaving post-war Germany.

His father was a member of the Nazi Party during the Second World War and served in the German military. Kast has denied that his father was a Nazi, saying he was “forcibly” conscripted.

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