Tag: perpetual war

Only a failing US empire would be so blind as to cheer Netanyahu and his genocide

There is only one country in the world right now, in the midst of Israel’s slaughter in Gaza, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is guaranteed dozens of standing ovations from the vast majority of its elected representatives.

(Article by Jonathan Cook republished from MiddleEastEye.net)

That country is not Israel, where he has been a hugely divisive figure for many years. It is the United States.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu was back-slapped, glad-handed, whooped and cheered as he slowly made his way – hailed at every step as a conquering hero – to the podium of the US Congress.

This was the same Netanyahu who has overseen during the past 10 months the slaughter – so far – of some 40,000 Palestinians, around half of them women and children. More than 21,000 other children are reported missing, most of them likely dead under rubble.

It was the same Netanyahu who levelled a strip of territory – originally home to 2.3 million Palestinians – that is expected to take 80 years to rebuild, at a cost of at least $50bn.

It was the same Netanyahu who has destroyed every hospital and university in Gaza, and bombed almost all of its schools that were serving as shelters for families made homeless by other Israeli bombs.

It was the same Netanyahu whose arrest is being sought by the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, accused of using starvation as a weapon of war by imposing an aid blockade that has engineered a famine across Gaza.

It was the same Netanyahu whose government was found last week by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to have been intensifying Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people in an act of long-term aggression.

It was the same Netanyahu whose government is standing trial for committing what the ICJ, the world’s highest judicial body, has termed a “plausible genocide”.

And yet, there was just one visible protester in the congressional chamber. Rashida Tlaib, the only US legislator of Palestinian heritage, sat silently grasping a small black sign. On one side it said: “War criminal”. On the other: “Guilty of genocide.”

One person among hundreds mutely trying to point out that the emperor was naked.

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Trump Or Harris, The US-enabled Chaos In The Middle East Will Continue

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the United States has been labeled many things, yet most analysts have missed the fact that he has proven that whoever is in the White House, the West Asia strategy of the American government will remain on the same path to self-destruction. This is evidenced by the Washington’s refusal to change course and accept compromise.

The US corporate media has attempted to portray Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as each other’s polar opposites, yet the strategy adopted by both parties towards the Arab World and wider region is to pursue hegemony through an offensive alliance, relying on Israel as its spearhead.

The ‘Arab NATO’ strategy

Towards the end of the administration of Barack Obama, the US government was faced with a tough choice in West Asia, either pursue peace with the Islamic Republic of Iran or form a regional alliance to confront it, risking all-out war. The War on Terror had caused the deaths of millions and cost the US trillions, while only strengthening the resolve of forces opposed to American hegemony. For a brief period, it appeared as if Barack Obama had chosen to bite the bullet and accept the realities on the ground, signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with Iran in 2015, but this hope for change was short lived.

During the upheaval of the Arab Spring, the US attempted to weaponize the revolutionary fervor of the region and eliminate Arab governments that contested its regional ambitions. This policy became most evident with the NATO invasion of Libya, which worked to depose President Muammar Gaddafi and the failed attempt to remove Bashar Assad from power in Syria. The US also backed the multinational Saudi-led coalition to oust the Ansarallah Party (Houthis) that had seized power in Yemen’s Sana’a. 

The rise of the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist organization also granted the United States its perfect opportunity to justify its direct presence in Iraq under Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR). Yet, by 2016, the US government was stuck, it was maintaining multiple clandestine operations throughout the region, as well as a direct military presence in nations like Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq to prop up favorable regimes, with no end in sight.

When Donald Trump came to power, he ditched the approach of attempting to push both militarily and diplomatically to reach an outcome where the US government would remain the top power in the region. He unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, heavily sanctioned Iran, and pursued what he called the “Abraham Accords,” working to bring the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Morocco and also Sudan into normalization agreements with Israel.

The Trump White House decided to abandon the internationally accepted two-state solution to solve the question of Palestine, offering the Palestinians no hope for change while also defying the international community’s long-held stance on the issue of Western Sahara in order to pressure Morocco into normalizing ties with the Israelis. These moves set in motion a series of events that put Morocco and Algeria on a collision course, while causing an explosion inside the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in 1967.

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In Gaza, the Casualty Rate Is a Mere Fraction of the Death Rate. Starvation. No Food or Medical Supplies are Entering Gaza

As planned, the people of Gaza are now dying in much larger numbers from starvation and disease than from Israeli weaponry. For all practical purposes, no food or medical supplies are getting into Gaza. Even the handcarried supplies that outside medical personnel used to carry in are now prohibited and confiscated. The relief agencies now warehouse their supplies outside Gaza, waiting in vain for permission to enter.

How much of the population of Gaza has died from the weaponization of food, water, sewage, sanitation and other requirements for life that have been removed and prohibited by Israel?

We don’t have – and may never have – those statistics. The population of Gaza has always grown in the past. Now it is shrinking. By how much? Surely hundreds of thousands, perhaps half a million or more. The casualty figures from weapons of war are meaningless. And the living skeletons of Gaza will drop in number as the existing supply of food inside the Strip drops toward zero.

As planned. What is the purpose of denying the means of life to an entire population, other than to eradicate that population? And what is the point of attempting to preserve a nation whose population willingly participates in such slaughter? If it has a future at all, it is only as a monstrous pariah. What impels such actions?

The young die faster and more frequently, first as fetuses, then as newborns, then as infants, then young, growing bodies that have no means to grow. But the adults also die faster, and especially the old. And if the plan works, they will all die.

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Congressional Report Comes to Shocking Conclusion About a Fight Between US and China

It appears American leaders may finally be realizing the existential threat posed by Asia’s ascendant superpower.

The understanding comes after lawmakers on the Commission on the National Defense Strategy worked for over a year studying current U.S. defense spending, implementation and strategy.

The findings were released in a 132-page report on Monday that speculates America could soon find itself facing an unprecedented defeat at the hands of another world power.

“The Commission finds that, in many ways, China is outpacing the United States and has largely negated the U.S. military advantage in the Western Pacific through two decades of focused military investment,” the report said.

China is able to get the most “bang” for its buck as it only has one theater of war to think about — the Pacific.

While the United States has vested interests and treaty-bound defensive obligations worldwide, China’s primary area of operation is the Chinese mainland and the waters surrounding it.

The People’s Liberation Army and Navy have already secured shoals and islands in the South China Sea, an international waterway that Beijing has largely claimed. These fortified specks of land are now host to ship-killing missiles that would make any hostile U.S. incursion near Chinese shores an incredibly risky gamble.

Lawmakers made the gravity of the situation completely clear in the report.

“The U.S. public are largely unaware of the dangers the United States faces or the costs (financial and otherwise) required to adequately prepare,” the report read. “They do not appreciate the strength of China and its partnerships or the ramifications to daily life if a conflict were to erupt.

“They are not anticipating disruptions to their power, water, or access to all the goods on which they rely. They have not internalized the costs of the United States losing its position as a world superpower.”

The commission says in any conflict against Beijing, the “support and resolve” of the American people will be a make-or-break factor in our nation’s survival.

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The Smearing of Cori Bush for Being Truthful About the Gaza War

Soon after the Gaza war began 10 months ago, a prominent newspaper columnist denounced Congresswoman Cori Bush under a headline declaring that “anti-Israel comments make her unfit for reelection.” The piece appeared in the newspaper with the second-largest readership in Missouri, the Kansas City Star. Multimillion-dollar attacks on Bush followed.

Bush’s opponent, county prosecutor Wesley Bell, “is now the number-one recipient of AIPAC cash this election cycle,” according to Justice Democrats. “Almost two-thirds of all his donations came from the anti-Palestinian, far-right megadonor-funded lobby group.” The Intercept reports that “AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, has gone on to spend a total of $7 million so far to oust Bush” in the Aug. 6 Democratic primary in her St. Louis area district.

“The $2.1 million in ads spent for her campaign is up against $12.2 million spent to attack her or support Bell,” The American Prospect points out. AIPAC “is trying to pull voters away from her without ever saying the words ‘Israel’ or ‘Palestine.’ Instead, their advertising against Bush centers around her record on infrastructure legislation, in a manner that lacks context.”

It’s easy to see why AIPAC and allied forces are so eager to defeat Bush. She courageously introduced a ceasefire resolution in the House nine days after the bloodshed began on Oct. 7, calling for “an immediate de-escalation and ceasefire in Israel and occupied Palestine.”

The Kansas City Star article, published shortly after Bush introduced the resolution, was written by former New York Times reporter Melinda Henneberger, now a member of the Star’s editorial board. “A military attack in response to the massacre of civilians by a group committed in writing to ‘carnage, displacement and terror’ for Jews is not my idea of ‘ethnic cleansing,’” she wrote in early November. “But it is Missouri Rep. Cori Bush’s, which is why she deserves to lose her congressional race next year.”

Bush supposedly became unfit to keep her seat in Congress because, after three weeks of methodical killing in Gaza, she tweeted: “We can’t be silent about Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. Babies, dead. Pregnant women, dead. Elderly, dead. Generations of families, dead. Millions of people in Gaza with nowhere to go being slaughtered. The U.S. must stop funding these atrocities against Palestinians.”

Henneberger’s response was hit-and-run. She wrote a hit piece. And then she ran.

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Former Russian President Medvedev Says Full-Scale War In Middle East Is The Only Path To Peace Due To Israel’s Actions

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who is often a mouthpiece for the Kremlin, said on Wednesday that the only way to achieve peace in the Middle East is through full-scale war due to Israel’s actions in the last 48 hours, decapitating the leadership of multiple Iranian proxy armies throughout capitals in the region.

A report in the New York Times: The Pentagon and US military officials were amazed by the assassination of Haniyeh and the fact that Israel chose to do it in the heart of Tehran – understanding that it makes it difficult for Iran not to respond, reported Amir Tsarfati.

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The Official Death Toll in Gaza Is a Lie. The Casualty Numbers Are Far, Far Higher

The death toll in Gaza is way too low by every imaginable metric. We need to be stressing this – all the more so when Israel’s apologists are vigorously engaged in a disinformation campaign to suggest that the figures are inflated.

On 6 May, 7 months into Israel’s slaughter, there were reported to be 34,735 dead. That was an average of 4,960 Palestinians killed each month.

Today, nearly three months on, the reported death toll stands at 39,400 – or an increase of 4,665.

It should not need a statistician to point out that, were the rise linear, the expected number of deaths would stand by this point at around 49,600.

So, even by the simplest calculation, there is a large shortfall in deaths – a shortfall that needs explaining.

Such an explanation is easy to provide: Israel destroyed Gaza’s institutions and its medical infrastructure, including its hospitals, many months ago, making it impossible for officials there to keep track of how many Palestinians are being killed by Israel.

The death toll figures started to stall in the spring, around the time Israel completed its destruction of Gaza’s hospitals and kidnapped much of the enclave’s medical personnel.

More than a month ago, Save the Children pointed out that some 21,000 children in Gaza were missing, in addition to the 16,000 known to have been killed by Israel. Many are likely to have suffered lonely, terrifying deaths under rubble – gradually suffocated to death, or dying slowly from dehydration.

But again, even those shocking figures are likely to be a severe under-count.

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U.S. Poured Billions of Military Aid Into Lebanon. Now Israel Threatens to Invade.

Attacks between Israel and Hezbollah, the militia and political party based just across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, are fueling fears that a wider regional conflict may erupt any day.

Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Shia group loosely allied with Hamas, has been in a low-level war with Israel since the conflict in Gaza began last October. Hezbollah, which is believed to have an arsenal of more than 150,000 rockets and missiles, has repeatedly emphasized that attacks will continue as long as the war persists.

Over the weekend, a rocket attack that the U.S. and Israel said originated in Lebanon killed at least 12 civilians in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights. The Israeli foreign minister said that the attack “crossed all red lines,” and said “the moment of all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon” is approaching. Hezbollah denied responsibility for the strike.

On Monday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken cautioned Israeli President Isaac Herzog about ramping up its war with Hezbollah in response on a call, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.

But the conflict has been escalating for weeks. Israel has increased airstrikes aimed at the group. Current and former Israeli officials have also spoken publicly about shifting their attention from Hamas to the more powerful Hezbollah.

After Israeli officials warned of the possibility of launching a war that would send Lebanon “back to the Stone Age,” the Biden administration intensified diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions and forestall a conflict that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said could have “terrible consequences for the Middle East.”

The low-level war has created a tinderbox that could explode into a regional conflict involving Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Yemen and, to an even greater extent than now, the United States.

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Palestinian prisoners endure ‘Guantanamo-like’ conditions in Israeli torture camps: Report

A new report from The Washington Post published on 29 July details Israel’s torture, starvation, and killing of Palestinians in its prison system in a manner resembling the notorious US prison in Guantanamo Bay.

Based on eyewitness accounts from former prisoners and autopsies carried out by Israeli authorities, The Post reports that “One Palestinian inmate died with a ruptured spleen and broken ribs after being beaten by Israeli prison guards. Another met an excruciating end because a chronic condition went untreated. A third screamed for help for hours before dying.”

The three prisoners are among at least 12 Palestinians from the West Bank and Israel to die in Israeli jails since 7 October, according to Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), whose members sat in on the autopsies.

An unknown number of Palestinians abducted by the Israeli military from the Gaza Strip have also died in detention camps outside of Israel’s formal prison system.

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Israel bombs Gaza field hospital massacring dozens of displaced Palestinians

Israeli jets launched airstrikes on a girls’ school in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah being used as a field hospital on 27 July, killing at least 30 Palestinians and injuring dozens more.

Following the latest massacre of Palestinian civilians, the Israeli army claimed its attack was targeting a “Hamas command and control center.”

“The occupation continues to lie by claiming that the Khadija school is a leadership complex for the movement. What happened in Deir al-Balah is a continuation of the genocide plan practiced by the Israeli occupation,” Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said on Saturday afternoon.

“We agreed to the serious proposals of the mediators, but the occupation does not want to stop its aggression. The occupation is trying to pressure the resistance by escalating its military operations,” Hamdan added.

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