Tag: perpetual war

Israeli Officials Hiding Data About Forced Starvation of Gaza Prisoners: Report

Israeli prison officials are concealing information about reductions in food rations for Palestinians held in the Gaza Strip, where detainees—who have also reported horrific abuse including alleged rape and deadly torture—have been deliberately driven “to the point of starvation,” according to a report published Thursday.

Security sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Israel Prison Service (IPS) is intentionally cutting Palestinian prisoners’ caloric intake, a move confirmed by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called the policy a “deterrent.”

“The Palestinian detainees will receive the minimum rights and the minimum food, and I will ensure that this policy is implemented,” Ben-Gvir, who leads the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, said Thursday in response to a query from Israel’s Supreme Court.

“There is no starvation, but my policy does call for reducing conditions, including food and calories,” Ben-Gvir added.

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CONFIRMED: Israel KNEW the October 7 attacks were planned but chose to do nothing

Newly uncovered evidence shows that Israel Defense Forces (IDF) knew weeks in advance of October 7 that Hamas was planning a raid and kidnapping on that day, but the Israeli government chose to do nothing about it.

The Jerusalem Post (JP) reported on a document, compiled by the Gaza Division, called “Detailed End-to-End Raid Training” that was distributed to the Israeli military on Sept. 19, 2023. That document details the series of exercises that were to be conducted by the elite units of Hamas.

“These exercises included raiding military posts and kibbutzim (collective communities in Israel), kidnapping soldiers and civilians, and maintaining the hostages once they were in the Gaza Strip,” JP reported.

All of Israel’s top intelligence officials knew about the Hamas plot based on this document and its contents. Why, then, did they order a stand-down on October 7 that ultimately resulted in many needless deaths and a subsequent war-genocide?

For whatever reason, the top brass in Israel just ignored the threat and waited for it to happen. Then it brought out the big guns, killing both Israeli and Palestinian civilians alike in its bumbling and careless response that fateful day.

IDF knew precisely where Hamas was going to strike and everything, “but due to prevailing conceptions within the security establishment and possible negligence by senior officials, the warning signs were not acted upon,” JP claims.

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From Ukraine to World War III: Waiting for the Spark to Light the Nuclear Inferno

Alerts of a third and final world war are out there. Plastered all over the newspapers, network broadcasts, and on the various social media outlets.

Rather like the lead-up to World War I, the major nations of the world are convulsing into a rivalry between two great alliances – the U.S.-NATO-Israel alliance and the Russia-China-Iran alliance. The former representing the “rules-based international order.” The latter representing the alternative, identified frequently by NATO leaders as the “authoritarian” by Western entities like the Atlantic Council.[1]

As with WWI, immense expenditures on weaponry is underway. And also, moves on the grand chessboard are starting to evolve into escalating a series of “checks.”[2]

With the war in Ukraine seeing a major failure in the so-called “Counter-offensive” and the Russians holding their ground and advancing, we heard the French President Emmanuel Macron apparently intend on sending Western troops to Ukrainian soil to aid the ailing Ukrainian forces. This was followed by Russia threatening to fire on the forces should they arrive in Ukraine. [3]

We saw that, according to Western military sources, 300,000 soldiers from the NATO alliance are stationed on the border with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine on high-readiness and are offensive-oriented. Russia. As well, indications are that the U.S., UK and EU are preparing to draft soldiers into service. Russia is preparing to revamp its entire doctrine on the usage of WMDs. Russia has also dispatched warships to Cuba about two weeks ago. [4][5][6]

And now, just last weekend, there were MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System  (ATACMS) fired on Sevastopol in Crimea, mostly intercepted by Russian air defence but killing four people and injuring 151. Russia blamed the U.S. for the attack, as the U.S. military supplied the weapons, aimed them and provided data for the attack. As of this date, Russia is planning retaliation. [7]

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German secret service ‘finally fit for war’ – Welt

Germany’s Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) could soon be granted additional powers to protect itself from infiltration by perceived enemies, particularly Russia, the news outlet Welt reported on Friday.

Citing a draft bill on the expansion of MAD’s powers, Welt stated that the agency is looking to use its expanded intelligence capability outside German military bases during foreign missions. Additionally, it wants to be able to monitor not only its own soldiers, but also foreign nationals, by intercepting their communications and using informants.

The German Defense Ministry is reportedly seeking the additional powers in order to strengthen MAD for the “turning point” previously outlined by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, referring to the political situation in Europe and the perceived threat posed by Russia.

“The amendment grants the Military Counterintelligence Service the necessary powers to protect the Bundeswehr against espionage and sabotage by foreign powers, as well as against extremist attempts at infiltration from within its own ranks, even during foreign missions,” a ministry spokesperson told the outlet, noting that the new law is expected to take effect this year.

The reason for the German Defense Ministry’s push to pass the bill as soon as possible is that by the end of 2027, a “war-ready brigade” of nearly 5,000 troops is expected to be permanently stationed on NATO’s eastern flank in Lithuania, near the borders with Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad Region. In April, Germany sent an advance military team to the Baltic nation.

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Israel Creating ‘Dead Zone’ Along Lebanon Border

The nearly nine-month-long war between Israel and Lebanon has prompted the Israel Defense Forces to destroy nearly everything along the Lebanese side of the border. The daily attacks are making the area uninhabitable.

Citing satellite imagery, The Financial Times reports that the IDF use of “aerial bombardment, artillery shelling and the incendiary chemical white phosphorus have made much of the 5 km north of the Blue Line uninhabitable.” Some entire neighborhoods in Lebanon have been systematically leveled.

After the Israeli onslaught on Gaza began, Tel Aviv also got locked into a low-intensity war with Hezbollah. So far, the conflict has been limited to tit-for-tat daily strikes but these have slowly escalated. The fighting has killed hundreds in Lebanon and over 25 Israelis. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been displaced from the border area, and large swaths of southern Lebanon have been decimated.

The IDF has used white phosphorus weapons – and even fireballs slung from trebuchets – to set fire to farms and vegetation. An Israeli official claimed that Tel Aviv was not trying to create a dead zone or buffer area, but rather to clear the area of Hezbollah. “We just want Hezbollah pushed back,” the official said. “We have to ‘clean out’ the area of Hezbollah’s presence.”

Tel Aviv justifies the destruction by claiming that Hezbollah uses civilians as human shields, and Israeli officials make similar arguments about Hamas in Gaza. “Every third home in south Lebanon is used by Hezbollah for weapons storage, training, firing positions, and meeting points for a possible cross-border attack,” a senior Israeli military official told FT.

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It’s the end of the world as we know it

America’s addiction to nuclear weapons does not lend itself to deterrence-based stability. It only leads to war.

“That’s great, it starts with an earthquake…”

There’s nothing like a classic 1980’s rock song to get one’s blood up and running, and REM’s 1987 classic, It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine), fits the bill just right on this hot and muggy summer day.

The only problem is, the song might as well be prophesy, because from where I sit, taking in the news about the rapidly escalating nuclear arms race between the United States and Russia, it very much looks like the end of the world as we know it.

And I don’t feel fine.

The news isn’t good. Last month, on May 6, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it would, on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, conduct exercises involving the use of non-strategic nuclear weapons. According to Russian officials, the exercises were a response to “provocative statements and threats from certain Western officials directed at the Russian Federation.”

The Russians were responding to statements made by French President Emmanuel Macron to The Economist on May 2, where he declared that “I’m not ruling anything out [when it comes to deploying French troops to Ukraine], because we are facing someone [Putin] who is not ruling anything out.” Macron added that “if Russia decided to go further [advancing in Ukraine], we will in any case all have to ask ourselves this question (whether to send of troops).”

While Macron described his remarks as a “strategic wake-up call for my counterparts,” it was clear not everyone was buying into what he was selling. “If a NATO member commits ground troops [to Ukraine],” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after Macron’s words became public, “it will be a direct NATO-Russia confrontation, and then it will be World War III.”

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The Draft Should Have Stayed Dead, Yet Here We Are Again

In an era where global tensions simmer and the machinery of war looms large, the concept of the military draft, or conscription, stands in stark contradiction to the ideals of personal freedom and liberty.

The draft coerces individuals into military service, often in contentious or widely opposed conflicts. This practice not only infringes individual rights but also exemplifies governmental overreach, especially in a society that cherishes personal freedoms.

The Ron Paul Institute, ever-principled in its advocacy for peace and civil liberties, recently highlighted concerns around NATO’s escalations and the U.S.’s disturbing moves to expand draft policies. As noted in an insightful piece by Caitlin Johnstone, the draft is increasingly seen not as a necessity but as a tool for governments to bolster their war efforts without public consent. This expansion of the draft, including proposals to include women and automate registration, forebodes a grave encroachment on personal freedoms.

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Israel Pounds South Lebanon Town With White Phosphorous

Amid growing fear of a full-scale invasion, Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against the southern Lebanon town of Khiam, using incendiary white phosphorous bombs, according to the National News Agency.

Israel has not commented on the use of white phosphorous in a populated civilian area, nor is it likely to. The extent of any casualties is not known at the present.

In recent weeks, the use of phosphorous, even including flinging fireballs into Lebanon with medieval trebuchets, has become a go-to Israeli strategy. At the time, Israel maintained setting fires was a security measure, clearing brush in the agricultural areas of southern Lebanon.

Employing white phosphorous is not actually illegal, but the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons severely regulates its use against civilian targets. Israel is a signatory to the convention, but in its frequent warfare with neighboring countries, does not appear to view the regulation as restricting its use of the substance.

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The Gaza Project Exposes Israel’s ‘Chilling Pattern’ of Killing Journalists

With more than 100 media professionals – nearly all of them Palestinian – killed in Gaza since October, a group of 50 reporters from 13 international organizations this week shared the results of a new investigative journalism initiative aimed at exposing the deadly toll Israel’s onslaught has taken on those reporting it to the world.

The Gaza Project – led by the Paris-based nonprofit Forbidden Stories – “analyzed nearly 100 cases of journalists and media workers killed in Gaza, as well as other cases in which members of the press have been allegedly targeted, threatened, or injured since October 7,” when Hamas-led attacks on Israel left more than 1,100 people dead and over 240 others kidnapped.

“Faced with what is being reported as the record number of journalists killed, Forbidden Stories, whose mission is to pursue the work of journalists who are killed because of their work, set out to investigate the targeting of journalists,” the group said.

“For four months, Forbidden Stories and its partners investigated the circumstances of their killings, as well as those who have been targeted, threatened, and injured in the West Bank and Gaza,” it added. “These investigations point to a chilling pattern and suggest some journalists may have been targeted even though they were identifiable as press.”

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US Admits Allies in Syria Using Child Soldiers

The State Department has acknowledged that America’s top partner in Syria, the Kurdish-led “Syrian Democratic Forces” (SDF), is still using underage fighters after more than 10 years of similar allegations. The Pentagon continues to work closely with the group regardless, as US troops illegally occupy large swaths of territory in northeastern Syria.

Published Tuesday, the department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report highlighted a number of armed factions employing child soldiers in Syria, among them notorious terrorist outfits like ISIS and al-Qaeda as well as more US-friendly groups.

“The recruitment or use of children in combat and support roles in Syria remains common, and since the beginning of 2018 international observers reported continued incidents of recruitment and use by armed groups,” the report said.

Those include several Kurdish militias, such as the People’s Protection Units (YPG), an affiliated all-female brigade known as the YPJ, as well as the US-backed and armed SDF. The latter org is an umbrella group containing several others, including the YPG, and has long served as Washington’s main proxy force in Syria.

Another related Kurdish faction, the Revolutionary Youth Movement, was said to have tricked minors into joining up using “fraudulent announcements for educational courses in northeast Syria.”

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