Tag: perpetual war

NATO When You Don’t Want It; No NATO When You Do

After being promised a future in NATO in 2008, Ukraine is still waiting for membership. At last year’s NATO summit, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s pleas for membership, or at least a timeline to membership, was unceremoniously rebuffed by the alliance.

“Ukraine isn’t ready for NATO membership,” President Joe Biden said at the July 2023 NATO gathering. He reiterated that position in a recent interview with TIME. While American officials continue to say that Kiev’s future is in the bloc, that alliance is pressuring Zelensky to downplay the issue at this year’s NATO summit.

Last year, Zelensky reacted furiously to his demands for NATO membership not being met. “It’s unprecedented and absurd when time frame is not set neither for the invitation nor for Ukraine’s membership. While at the same time vague wording about ‘conditions’ is added even for inviting Ukraine,” he said.

This year’s NATO summit, to be held in Washington in July, will be presented differently to the world. Though Zelensky and Biden are expected to sign a security agreement between the two countries in July, NATO will not offer Ukraine membership or a timeline for membership at the upcoming summit.

After another year of fighting for NATO’s right to expand to Ukraine, Zelensky will be even angrier than last year. But no one will know it. To avoid last year’s embarrassing rejection of Ukraine’s aspirations, NATO officials have engaged in “expectation management,” muting NATO members supportive of Ukraine’s accession while warning Zelensky not to demand the “impossible.” NATO officials have asked Zelensky not to pressure NATO members to publicly support a timetable for NATO membership this time.

The NATO charter makes it clear to Ukraine that it cannot become a NATO member until the war ends. The NATO charter says that countries that aspire to membership must not be at war, must be committed “to resolve conflicts peacefully,” and cannot have territorial disputes.

NATO officials have also made it clear that Ukraine will not become a member until after the war has ended. The irony, though, is that it is becoming increasingly likely that the war can only be ended by a Ukrainian promise not to join NATO.

The bleak reality of Ukraine’s potential future in the bloc does not reflect the rosy public narrative. NATO membership has historically been promised to Ukraine and withdrawn from Ukraine in a provocative and divisive manner.

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US defence industry struggles to manufacture basic artillery for Ukraine

The United States arms industry is not producing the basic ammunition required to sustain support for Ukraine and Israel, Bloomberg reported on June 8. This is an extraordinary situation since Russia’s armed industry is booming despite facing major Western sanctions.

According to the outlet, the US defence industry gave priority to the manufacture of high-tech ammunition and halted the production of basic artillery such as 155-millimetre ammunition, the most used in the wars that are being fought today. The US is also facing a shortage of basic products, such as gunpowder or trinitrotoluene (TNT), to produce these munitions and have had to turn to other countries, such as Poland and Turkey, to obtain supplies.

At some point an attempt was made to replace the 155-millimetre ammunition with higher-tech projectiles on the battlefront in Ukraine, but the effort failed because the new weaponry was neutralised by the Russian military.

“Higher-tech shells that were intended to replace the traditional 155mm munitions failed an early test in Ukraine, when their targeting systems were thwarted by Russia,” Bloomberg reported. “The prospect that future wars could resemble the grinding combat taking place there has stirred fears that the US arsenal could someday be stretched to the breaking point.”

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Medvedev Warns That Any U.S. Strike on Russian Targets Will Be the ‘Start of World War’

A former Russian president is warning that a strike by the United States on any Russian target will amount to the “start of world war.”

Dmitry Medvedev, who has been quite vocal lately about the West’s behavior towards Russia, announced to the world this week that World War III will be set in motion the moment the U.S. strikes Russia in any capacity.

The current Deputy Chair of Russia’s Security Council, Medvedev said this after Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski stated that the U.S. will conduct such a strike if Russia uses any kind of nuclear weaponry in Ukraine.

In a post on X, Medvedev made the suggestion that Sikorski “apparently has decided to scare his masters” with such a statement, unlike the U.S. which is “more cautious” than the Poles.

“Americans hitting our targets means starting a world war, and a Foreign Minister, even of a country like Poland, should understand that,” Medvedev added.

(Related: According to Medvedev, Ukraine is “a classic failed state.”)

Poland pushing for world war

Medvedev also addressed similar statements made last month by Polish President Andrzej Duda about Poland’s willingness to host U.S. nuclear weapons if offered the chance under NATO’s sharing mechanism.

If any such arrangement comes to fruition and results in a nuclear strike on Russia, “Warsaw won’t be left out and will surely get its share of radioactive ash,” Medvedev assured about the outcome.

Sikorski, responding to Medvedev’s warning, expressed skepticism about Russia ever even launching a nuclear strike in Ukraine.

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Macron Says France Working To ‘Finalize’ Plan To Send Troops to Ukraine

On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron said France was working to “finalize a coalition” of NATO countries that are willing to send troops to Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces, a step that would mark a huge escalation in the proxy war.

During a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris, Macron said Ukraine’s request for NATO trainers was “legitimate” and downplayed the risk of escalation.

“It’s much more efficient and practical for certain capacities in certain conditions to train on Ukrainian soil, it’s a legitimate request,” Macron said. “We’re going to use the coming days to finalize the broadest possible coalition.” He added that several NATO countries have already agreed to the plan.

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US Admits Role In Israeli Rescue Operation That Killed Over 200 Palestinians

The United States has denied ongoing allegations that it was militarily involved in Israel’s Saturday raid on a central Gaza Hamas stronghold which returned alive four hostages who had been kidnapped on Oct.7. 

“Well, the one thing I can say is that there were no U.S. forces, no U.S. boots on the ground involved in this operation. We did not participate militarily in this operation,” US National Security advisor Jake Sullivan said in a CNN interview on Sunday. There have been widespread claims that US special forces advisers were on the ground in some capacity, but this hasn’t been met with confirmation.

However, it has been reported that “A U.S. official told Axios the U.S. hostage cell in Israel supported the effort to rescue the four hostages.” The precise level of ‘support’ and details of this involvement hasn’t been revealed, but The New York Times has so far described that US officials in Israel had been “providing intelligence and other logistical support.”

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The No-Rules International Order

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. It covers our entire surface, at some points only as thin as a piece of paper and at other points about half as thick as a credit card.

The skin, which protects us from all manner of germs and other harmful elements, is fragile and unable to defend humans from the dangerous weapons we have made over time. The ancient blunt axe will break the skin with a heavy blow, while a 2,000-pound MK-84 “dumb bomb” made by General Dynamics will not only obliterate the skin, but the entire human body.

Despite a May 24 order from the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Israeli military continues to bomb the southern part of Gaza, particularly the city of Rafah. In blatant disregard of the ICJ’s order, on May 27 Israel struck a tent city in Rafah and murdered 45 civilians. 

U.S. President Joe Biden said on March 9 that an Israeli attack on Rafah would be his “red line,” but – even after the tent massacre – the Biden administration has insisted that no such line has been violated.

At a press conference on May 28, communications adviser to the U.S. National Security Agency, John Kirby, was asked how the U.S. would respond if a strike by the U.S. armed forces killed 45 civilians and injured 200 others. 

Kirby responded:

“We have conducted airstrikes in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, where tragically we caused civilian casualties. We did the same thing.”

To defend Israel’s latest massacre, Washington has chosen to make a startling admission. Given that the ICJ has ruled that it is “plausible” that Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza, could it be said that the U.S. is guilty of the same in Iraq and Afghanistan?

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US warns Israel war with Lebanon could ‘spin out of control’

The US has warned Israel against waging war in Lebanon, US and Israeli officials told Axios on 6 June. 

The officials told the outlet that a “limited war” against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which would entail an Israeli ground invasion, “would likely push Iran to intervene,” even if the operation stays in areas close to the border. 

According to Axios, the US has warned Israel about a scenario where pro-Iran fighters from Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere could flood into Lebanon to join the fighting in the event of an expanded war. 

The officials said that the Israeli army and defense establishment are increasingly concerned that the situation in Lebanon “is reaching a turning point,” Axios added. 

“The situation has been escalating since May because Hezbollah conducted more successful drone attacks against Israeli targets that weren’t intercepted,” a senior Israeli army official said. 

Washington has warned that escalation is not a “realistic option,” as it would be hard to stop it from “spinning out of control,” according to US officials. 

Axios notes that the administration of US President Joe Biden believes it is impossible to de-escalate the situation in Lebanon without first reaching a ceasefire in Gaza. This comes after months of Washington and Paris pushing infeasible de-escalation proposals for south Lebanon. 

Israeli officials have recently signaled that expanding the already indiscriminate campaign of airstrikes against south Lebanon, potentially into a ground invasion, could be imminent. 

Hebrew media outlets and Israeli journalists have highlighted that a decision of this sort would be devastating for Israel. 

“The war with Hezbollah will bring a great challenge to the home front, as the north and center will face a threat of a size and intensity they have not faced before,” said Haaretz newspaper’s Amos Harel. 

“It is difficult to report any good news on the horizon. As we enter the ninth month of the war … a series of conversations conducted over the past two weeks with officials in the security and military institutions raise more and more evidence that Israel is heading toward a multidimensional failure,” Harel added. 

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Beyond Bombs – Infectious Diseases Plague Over 1.5 Million Displaced in Gaza

At least 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have contracted infectious diseases due to the displacement caused by the Israeli war on Gaza, the Strip’s government media office 

In a statement released on Friday, the office reported that 1,477,748 displaced Palestinians have contracted infectious diseases due to being uprooted from various areas in the Gaza Strip.

The statement did not clarify if any of those affected had recovered. However, it did note that the number of internally displaced persons in the Gaza Strip since October 7 has reached two million.

The office also warned that 3,500 children in the Gaza Strip are at risk of starving to death due to the ongoing blockade and the Israeli war.

On Thursday, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that nine out of ten children in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition.

The statement also highlighted that 10,000 cancer patients are facing life-threatening conditions and require treatment outside the Gaza Strip. Additionally, more than 71 cases of viral hepatitis have been recorded.

Hepatitis A is a highly infectious liver disease caused by a virus, which can spread through consuming contaminated food or water or through close contact with an infected person.

Viral hepatitis has spread in the Gaza Strip, particularly among children, due to poor personal hygiene, lack of clean water, food contamination, and overcrowding in displacement centers.

Since the closure of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, following Israel’s control of the Palestinian side on May 7, no patient or wounded individual has been able to leave the Gaza Strip.

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Israel’s progression from Apartheid to Genocide

For Palestinians, Israel’s violence began long before October 7, 2023. The unfolding genocide in Gaza is the latest chapter in a series of Israel’s settler-colonial practices to remove Palestinians by force from their land. These practices began with the inception of the state of Israel.  

The most fateful year in modern Palestinian history was 1948, when David Ben-Gurion unilaterally declared the creation of the state of Israel and armed Zionist militias massacred Palestinians and evicted thousands from their homes at gunpoint. Palestinians know this as the Nakba, or “catastrophe.” This is not ancient history. Israeli politicians, before and after October 7, threatened a second Nakba against Palestinians. Israeli forces in Gaza painted graffiti on destroyed homes in Gaza that read, “Nakba 2023.” 

Israel’s apartheid practices against Palestinians also started in 1948, when Israel caged Palestinian communities in Lod, Nazareth, and Haifa in wired areas and issued discriminatory laws against those Palestinians who stayed and those forcibly displaced. Soon after, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in 1967 and the discriminatory laws and practices were expanded to the occupied Palestinian territory.  

At the time, Israel described the act of capturing what remained of historic Palestine in 1967 as “finishing the job.” The job was to ethnically cleanse the survivors of the Nakba and capture the territories left unoccupied in 1948. 

Many Palestinians were displaced by war and were now under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Gaza Strip where much of the Palestinian population sought refuge. The capture of Palestinians within the new Israeli State in 1948 and 1967 meant more than 811,000 Palestinians lived under occupation then, and with these two events, all Palestinians were now subject to Israel’s policies of apartheid.  

Soon after Israel captured the Gaza Strip in 1967, for example, it introduced schemes to get rid of the young population of Gaza. In 1969, Moshe Dayan, Israel’s Defense Minister, introduced a plan to transfer young refugees in Gaza to Latin America. Between 1948 and 1967, Israeli army raids into Palestinian refugee camps of Rafah and Khan Younis killed hundreds of Palestinians, some of whom were stood against the famous Barquq Castle Wall and were killed, sometimes in front of their families. 

Today the Barquq Castle itself is in ruins because of Israel’s destruction of Khan Younis.

Throughout the 1970s, Israel exploited Palestinian refugees as cheap labor to build Israeli settlements and with the outbreak of the 1987 Palestinian Intifada, and the mounting Israeli state and settler violence against Palestinians, apartheid practices and laws have only increased, suffocating Palestinians even more and making their lives almost impossible. This has been especially visible with travel restrictions, access to water, land and natural resources, and access to medical care. 

The clearest manifestation of this permit regime, and the brutal realities of Israeli apartheid, has been seen in Gaza.

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The genocide in Israeli prisons

Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians since last October has extended beyond the daily mass death, displacement, and starvation of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip. Behind the bars of Israeli prisons, Israel has been waging war against Palestinian prisoners, creating conditions that make the continuation of human life impossible. The effects of this brutal campaign have reverberated among prisoners’ families outside of jail, who are watching their loved ones being systematically starved, beaten, tortured, and degraded.

Shortly after October 7, Israel imposed a new set of rules in its cell blocks. In some detention centers like Ofer near Ramallah, the Israeli army was reportedly handed over control of the prison, while the Israel Prison Services guards were given a free hand in dealing with Palestinian inmates inside the jail sections. This shift was accompanied by a dramatic increase in the number of Palestinian detainees who were arrested after October 7, doubling the prisoner population as early on as mid-October. This included prisoners from Gaza, for whom the hardest part of the treatment was reserved.

In mid-May, CNN released an exposé based on the testimonies of Israeli whistleblowers about the horrific treatment of Palestinians from Gaza at the Israeli military base of Sde Teiman, now containing a detention center. The whistleblower testimonies detail a number of medieval practices to which Palestinian prisoners have been subjected, including being strapped down to beds while blindfolded and made to wear diapers, having unqualified medical trainees conduct procedures on them without anesthesia, having dogs set on them by prison guards, being regularly beaten or put into stress positions for offenses as minor as peeking beneath their blindfolds, having zip-tie wounds fester to the point of requiring amputation, and a host of other horrific measures.

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