Tag: israel

Fragmenting a Nation: Israel’s Enduring Pursuit of Palestinian Disunity

Israel is aggressively implementing plans to shape Palestine’s future and the broader region, sculpting its vision for the ‘day after’ its genocide in Gaza.

The latest, bizarre iteration of this strategy proposes fragmenting the occupied West Bank into so-called ’emirates,’ starting with the ’emirate of Hebron.’

This unexpected twist in Israel’s protracted search for alternative Palestinian leadership first surfaced in the staunchly pro-Israeli US newspaper, the Wall Street Journal. It then quickly dominated all Israeli media.

The report details a letter from a person identified by the WSJ as “the leader of Hebron’s most influential clan.” Addressed to Nir Barakat, Jerusalem’s former Israeli mayor, the letter from Sheikh Wadee’ al-Jaabari appeals for “cooperation with Israel” in the name of “co-existence.”

This “co-existence,” according to the “clan leader”, would materialize in the “Emirate of Hebron.” This “emirate” would “recognize the State of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people,” in exchange for reciprocal recognition of the “Emirate of Hebron as the Representative of the Arab residents in the Hebron District.”

The story may seem perplexing. This is because Palestinian discourse, regardless of geography or political affiliation, has never entertained such an absurd concept as united West Bank “emirates.”

Another element of absurdity is that Palestinian national identity and pride in their people’s unwavering resilience, especially in Gaza, are at an unprecedented apex. To float such clan-based alternatives to legitimate Palestinian leadership seems ill-conceived and is destined to fail.

Israel’s desperation is palpable. In Gaza, it cannot defeat Hamas and other Palestinian factions who have resisted the Israeli takeover of the Strip for 21 months. All attempts to engineer an alternative Palestinian leadership there have utterly collapsed.

This failure has compelled Israel to arm and fund a criminal gang that operated before October 7, 2023, in Gaza. This gang functions under the command of Yasser Abu Shabab.

The gang has been implicated in a litany of violent activities. These include hijacking humanitarian aid to perpetuate famine in Gaza and orchestrating violence associated with aid distribution, among other egregious crimes.

Like the clan leader of Hebron, the Abu Shabab criminal gang possesses no legitimacy and no public support among Palestinians. But why would Israel resort to such disreputable figures when the Palestinian Authority (PA), already engaged in “security coordination” with Israel in the West Bank, is ostensibly willing to comply?

The answer lies in the current Israeli extremist government’s adamant refusal to acknowledge Palestinians as a nation. Thus, even a collaborating Palestinian nationalist entity would be deemed problematic from an Israeli perspective.

While Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is not the first Israeli leadership to explore clan-based alternatives among Palestinians, the Israeli prime minister and his extremist allies are exceptionally determined to dismantle any Palestinian claim to nationhood. This was explicitly stated by extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. He famously declared in Paris, in March 2023, that a Palestinian nation is an “invention.”

Thus, despite the PA’s willingness to cooperate with Israel in controlling Gaza, Israel remains apprehensive. Empowering the PA as a nationalist model fundamentally contravenes Israel’s overarching objectives of denying the Palestinian people their very claim to nationhood and, consequently, statehood and sovereignty.

Though Israel has consistently failed to establish and sustain its own alternative Palestinian leadership, its repeated efforts have invariably proven disruptive and violent.

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MAGA Going to Israel for Propaganda Training

The Israel foreign ministry will spend $86,000 to finance a tour of Israel for 16 Americans to get them to use their vast online influence to craft more positive images of a nation openly engaged in genocide. 

The effort is being made as Israel reacts to a significant turn in public opinion against it, especially by Western youth. Tel Aviv realizes its usual methods of propaganda — and apparently its own inhouse troll army — are no longer working as they once did. 

The daily Haaretz reported: 

“Foreign Ministry officials say the tour delivers significant media, advocacy, and diplomatic benefits – and represents a strategic shift, as traditional outreach is no longer sufficient to shape public opinion. They aim to leverage the massive followings of young social media influencers to bolster Israel’s standing in the U.S.” 

The Americans, whose names have not been divulged, belong to the MAGA and America First movements, the newspaper said. They are all younger than 30 and each have hundreds of thousands or millions of followers, a vast, target-rich environment for propaganda.  Israel intends to bring more than 500 “influencer delegations” to Israel this year, the ministry said.

It is paying an organization called Israel365 to organize the first American tour because it is in a “unique position to convey a pro-Israel stance that aligns entirely with the MAGA and America First agenda.” 

Israel365’s website says the group “stands unapologetically for the Jewish people’s God-given right to the entire Land of Israel,” calls the two-state solution a “delusion,” and says it’s defending “Western civilization against threats from both Progressive Left extremism and global jihad.” 

Israeli officials justified the no-bid contract with the organization because of its “experience and know-how in creating awareness, engagement, and mobilization of Christian audiences regarding their support for the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” Haaretz reported. 

Ministry officials told the newspaper that “while older Republicans and American conservatives still hold pro-Israel views, positive perspectives towards Israel are falling across all younger age groups.”

News of the tour comes after the U.S. national teachers union voted to ditch the Zionist curriculum of the Ant-Defamation League, which was influencing young American minds.

Western youth, including conservatives, have become increasingly aware of the history of Israel’s expulsion of Palestinian people from their land and of Israel’s stated genocidal intent and actions in Gaza today. It is a wave of understanding Israel needs to contain.

A ministry source said: “We’re working with influencers, sometimes with delegations of influencers. Their networks have huge followings, and their messages are more effective than if they came directly from the ministry.”

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Israel Orders Evacuations In Central Gaza, Widening Military Offensive

On Sunday, the Israeli military (IDF) issued new evacuation orders for parts of central Gaza, which even after years of war with Hamas is an area where Israeli ground forces have rarely operated, further restricting access between Deir al-Balah and the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis.

This strongly suggests that indirect efforts to achieve another ceasefire are far from producing anything effective, and it points to Prime Minister Netanyahu pursuing his ultra-controversial plan for mass resettlement of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

Netanyahu has continued to assert that intensifying military pressure in Gaza could compel Hamas to negotiate on terms favorable to Israel and for the return of remaining hostages.

At this moment, the Israeli military claims to control at least 65% of land in Gaza. This is after 21 months of war triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terror attack, which many have considered to be “Israel’s 9/11”.

The Hostages Family Forum, which represents many of the families of hostages, has condemned the evacuation announcement – as it signals the going pursuit of a military solution to the crisis. Families have continued to demand that Netanyahu strike a peace deal, for the return of all remaining living and deceased hostages.

“Enough! The Israeli people overwhelmingly want an end to the fighting and a comprehensive agreement that will return all of the hostages,” the forum said Saturday on the occasion of tens of thousands of protesters marching in Tel Aviv to the US Embassy location. 

Meanwhile, 65 Palestinians were reported killed Sunday while trying to access humanitarian aid, according to local hospitals, amid growing international spotlight on a controversial program which has seen a US security firm try to spearhead aid distribution.

There are also ongoing concerns of famine and unprecedented levels of malnutrition among the Palestinian population, and reports of more children dying. 

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Stop Israel’s Dystopian ‘Humanitarian City’ Plan – Before It’s Too Late

The Israeli government has just put forward one of the most brazenly genocidal schemes in modern memory – and unless we act immediately, the world will once again let it happen.

As reported in Haaretz, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz is proposing to force some 600,000 Palestinians – and eventually the entire population of Gaza – into a fenced-in “humanitarian city” to be built on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza. The plan is to “screen” the population, separate out alleged Hamas members, and then pressure the remaining civilians – men, women, and children – to “voluntarily” leave Gaza for another country. Which country? That hasn’t even been determined. The point isn’t relocation – it’s erasure. This reflects a long-standing goal among many Israelis, especially on the right, to take full control of Gaza and clear it of Palestinians.

The UN has warned that the deportation or forcible transfer of an occupied territory’s civilian population is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law and “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.

While all eyes are focused on a possible ceasefire, Gallant is not interested in peace – he’s interested in a “final solution.” A speeding up of the second Nakba we have been witnessing for the past 20 months. In fact, he has stated that construction would begin during a 60-day ceasefire. So what’s the point of a ceasefire, if it’s used to build a concentration camp?

Once Palestinians are herded into this camp, they will not be allowed to leave for other parts of Gaza. They won’t be allowed to return to what’s left of their homes, their neighborhoods, their farms, their schools. They will be trapped inside this militarized zone, under constant surveillance, held at gunpoint until Israel can arrange their deportation.

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Netanyahu ‘Regrets’ Deadly Attack On Gaza Church After Terse Trump Call

Thursday witnessed another Israeli strike on a church in Gaza, which killed three people and injured at least six others. Among the wounded was the parish priest.

Hundreds of Palestinians were sheltering at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City when the church roof was hit around 10:10am local time, church officials describe. Shrapnel and debris came down through the roof and went flying, killing and wounding Christians inside.

While most circulating reports say an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tank directly fired on the church, a spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem initially said it was unclear whether the munition was launched from an airplane or a tank. The neighborhood and area were coming under heavy Israeli gunfire at the time.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who oversees the church, clarified in a statement to Vatican News, “What we know for sure is that a tank, the IDF says by mistake, but we are not sure about this, they hit the Church directly, the Church of the Holy Family, the Latin Church.”

He indicated that more victims might succumb to their injuries: “There are four people seriously wounded, among these four, two are in very dramatic conditions and their lives are in serious danger,” Pizzaballa said.

Pope Leo XIV has called for “an immediate cease-fire” in Gaza in a statement. His predecessor, Pope Francis, was known to have personally phoned Holy Family Catholic Church on a nightly basis to see how the community was faring, even when he was in the hospital.

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Criticizing Netanyahu Isn’t Anti-Semitism—It’s a Moral Obligation

In the months since October 7, when Hamas carried out a brutal and inexcusable attack on Israeli civilians, the world has watched in growing horror as the Israeli government—led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—has unleashed a campaign of destruction across the Gaza Strip that has few modern parallels. Entire families wiped out. Schools and hospitals reduced to rubble. Aid convoys bombed. Journalists silenced. Over 65,000 Palestinians killed, the vast majority of them women and children, according to the United Nations and humanitarian groups.

And yet, as calls for accountability and restraint rise, Netanyahu’s response has been consistent and cynical: any criticism of Israel is labeled “anti-Semitism.”

This is not only intellectually dishonest—it’s dangerous. It cheapens the real, rising threat of anti-Semitism globally by weaponizing it as a political shield for a government engaging in what many experts now consider war crimes.

Let me be clear: Anti-Semitism is real. It is a hatred that has haunted Jewish communities for centuries and led to unimaginable atrocities, including the Holocaust. But the demand for human rights and dignity for Palestinians is not born from that hatred—it is born from the very lessons that the Holocaust taught the world.

What Netanyahu’s government is doing in Gaza—dehumanizing a civilian population, forcing displacement, destroying infrastructure, and killing indiscriminately—is not a defense of the Jewish people. It is a betrayal of Jewish values, international law, and basic human decency.

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Massive Attack announce alliance of musicians speaking out over Gaza

Massive Attack, Brian Eno, Fontaines DC and Kneecap have announced the formation of a syndicate for artists speaking out about Israel’s military assault on Gaza, who they say have been subjected to “aggressive, vexatious campaigns” by pro-Israel advocates.

Posting on Instagram, the musicians said their aim was to protect other artists, particularly those at early stages of their careers, from being “threatened into silence or career cancellation” by organisations such as UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI).

UKLFI reported the band Bob Vylan to the police for leading a chant of “death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]” during their Glastonbury set and officers are investigating. It also reported the BBC for broadcasting the set. Bob Vylan have subsequently had several scheduled appearances cancelled after UKLFI sent letters.

Mo Chara of Kneecap was charged with a terrorism offence, accused of displaying a flag at a gig in support of the banned organisation Hezbollah after being reported to the police by UKLFI. Kneecap also had gigs cancelled after interventions by UKLFI.

While those actions were made public, UKLFI is also believed to have contacted other musicians, people and organisations connected with them without publicising the fact.

The post shared by Eno and others on Instagram says: “The scenes in Gaza have moved beyond description. We write as artists who’ve chosen to use our public platforms to speak out against the genocide occurring there and the role of the UK government in facilitating it.

“We’re aware of the scale of aggressive, vexatious campaigns operated by UKLFI and of multiple individual incidences of intimidation within the music industry itself, designed solely to censor and silence artists from speaking their hearts and minds.

“Having withstood these campaigns of attempted censorship, we won’t stand by and allow other artists – particularly those at earlier stages of their careers or in other positions of professional vulnerability – to be threatened into silence or career cancellation.”

They encourage other artists to contact them to make a collective stand on demands including an immediate and permanent ceasefire, immediate unfettered access to Gaza for recognised aid agencies and an end to UK arms sales and licences to Israel.

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Israel and US to forge $200m tech hub for AI and quantum science development

Israel and the US are advancing a strategic initiative to create a joint science center for artificial intelligence and quantum innovation at an investment of $200 million. The center will serve as a hub to promote technology-driven cooperation and diplomacy with Gulf countries in the realms of AI and quantum science and challenge China in the global race for supremacy of next-generation technologies.

The initiative led by Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, the director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and Dr. Smadar Itzkovich, founder and CEO of AI & Quantum Sovereignty Lab (AIQ-Lab), is expected to be implemented either through a presidential executive order signed by US President Donald Trump or a legislative process.

“This is a strategic initiative that aims to reshape the Middle East through US-Israel scientific and technological collaboration in AI and quantum,” Itzkovich told The Times of Israel. “Israel is a powerhouse for physics and quantum technology, and by using our advantage, we can translate it to unbelievable achievements for economic growth and prosperity and for stability and security to create regional sovereignty in the areas of AI and quantum science.”

As part of the proposed initiative for the science center, each nation will contribute $20 million annually, starting in 2026 and through 2030, to support research and development projects at dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and Arlington, Virginia. The technology collaboration will focus on shared, urgent regional challenges, including cybersecurity, medicine and genetics, and water and food security in arid environments.

The initiative comes at a pivotal point, as concern has been growing that Israel could be missing out on a regional boom of investments into the next wave of technologies. In May, Trump and United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the joint launch of the largest AI campus outside the US. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia aims to become a global center for AI and reportedly has plans to create a $40 billion fund to invest in AI.

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Former Israeli Intel Official Claims Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell Worked for Israel

Since the apparent death by suicide of Jeffrey Epstein in a Manhattan prison, much has come to light about his depraved activities and methods used to sexually abuse underage girls and entrap the rich and powerful for the purposes of blackmail. Epstein’s ties to intelligence, described in-depth in a recent MintPress investigative series, have continued to receive minimal mainstream media coverage, which has essentially moved on from the Epstein scandal despite the fact that his many co-conspirators remain on the loose.

For those who have examined Epstein’s ties to intelligence, there are clear links to both U.S. intelligence and Israeli intelligence, leaving it somewhat open to debate as to which country’s intelligence apparatus was closest to Epstein and most involved in his blackmail/sex-trafficking activities. A recent interview given by a former high-ranking official in Israeli military intelligence has claimed that Epstein’s sexual blackmail enterprise was an Israel intelligence operation run for the purpose of entrapping powerful individuals and politicians in the United States and abroad.

In an interview with Zev Shalev, former CBS News executive producer and award-winning investigative journalist for Narativ, the former senior executive for Israel’s Directorate of Military Intelligence, Ari Ben-Menashe, claimed not only to have met Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, back in the 1980s, but that both Epstein and Maxwell were already working with Israeli intelligence during that time period. 

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Israel Conducts Massive Strikes On Damascus After Sharaa Regime’s Sectarian Attacks

“The heavy blows have started” Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz has posted to X above a video (below) showing a Syrian news presenter abruptly taking shelter after a massive explosion in central Damascus.

The rare daytime aerial attack by Israel in the heart of Damascus created panic in the streets, and quickly after huge columns of smoke lingered over the downtown area. There are casualties, with state news agency SANA quoting the Health Ministry as saying that at least three were killed and nine people wounded in the Israeli attacks.

Eyewitnesses say they saw Israeli warplanes circling above the capital city, and that there were at least three to four strikes. Syria has no air defense systems to speak of, after Bashar al-Assad’s December 8 ouster and subsequent heavy Israeli bombings of all remaining Syrian military equipment.

The large-scale attack, which could see more to follow, has been roundly condemned by Syria’s regional partners who are trying to prop up the new Hayat Tahrir al-Sham government under self-declared interim President Sharaa (Jolani).

The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli attacks as an attempt to “sabotage Syria’s efforts to ensure peace.” The Syrian people have a “historic opportunity to live in peace and integrate with the world,” the statement continued.

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