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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Resistance – No Other Choice

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Resistance – No Other Choice

Updated 2023-12-09

2023-10-15 A Day to Remember: How “Al-Aqsa Flood” Altered the Relationship Between Palestine and Israel Forever REGARDLESS OF the precise strategy of the Palestinian group Hamas, or any other Palestinian movement for that matter, the daring Palestinian military campaign, deep inside Israel, on Saturday, October 7, was only possible because Palestinians are simply fed up.

Seventeen years ago, Israel imposed a hermetic siege on the Gaza Strip. The story of the siege is often presented in two starkly different interpretations. For some, it is an inhumane act of “collective punishment”; for others, it is a necessary evil so that Israel may protect itself from so-called Palestinian terrorism.

Largely missing from the story, however, is that 17 years are long enough for a whole generation to grow up under siege, enlist in the resistance and fight for its freedom. According to Save The Children, nearly half of the 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza today are children. This fact is often infused to delineate the suffering of a population that has never stepped outside the tiny, impoverished Strip of 365 square km, approximately 141 square miles.

This Gaza generation, which either grew up or was born after the imposition of the siege, experienced at least five major, devastating wars, of which children, like them, along with their mothers, fathers and siblings, were the main targets, victims.

“If you surround your enemy completely, give them no chance to escape, offer them no quarter, then they will fight to the last,” wrote Sun Tzu in The Art of War. Yet, year after year, this is precisely what Israel has done. This strategy proved to be a major strategic miscalculation. Even the mere attempt at protesting the injustice of the siege, by gathering in large numbers at the Gaza separation barrier, separating besieged Gaza from Israel, was not permitted.

The mass protests, known as the Great March of Return, were answered with Israeli sniper bullets. Scenes of youngsters, carrying other bleeding youth, shouting “God is Great,” became a regular scene at the fence. As the casualty count increased, the media interest in the story simply faded with time. https://www.wrmea.org/israel-palestine/a-day-to-remember-how-al-aqsa-flood-altered-the-relationship-between-palestine-and-israel-forever.html

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Woman’s Rights

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Woman’s Rights

Updated 2024-04-08

2024-03-12 We Need Feminism Without Condescension to Respond With Clarity to the Gaza Genocide I looked up the definition of “condescending” for this, just to see if it would provide anything I didn’t already know. What we immediately assume the word to mean if we have heard it before is something like patronizing, or talking down to people. But what is also included in the definition of condescension is “disdain.” Disdain is the feeling that someone is unworthy of your respect.

We know how mainstream Western feminists talk about Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim women. Examples include insisting, either directly or indirectly, that war and occupation will help them somehow or that their oppressors treat women better than they do. “Feminists” like Tammy Duckworth or Nancy Pelosi will always agree that Israel treats women great, as if Palestinian women who are murdered and abused at the hands of Israel don’t exist at all. The subtext of this being that Palestinian women couldn’t possibly know what’s good for them. That’s disdain. That’s not feminism.

Having a perspective on feminism that rejects condescension allows us to avoid the same pitfalls so many people didn’t when the U.S. was talking about invading Afghanistan under the guise of “liberating women.”

When The New York Times came out with a story about mass rape on October 7, we were able to ask, “Where is your evidence?” And we were right to ask those questions, right? And we should be asking a lot of questions when the intent of the story was to galvanize feminists in the West to support the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. They didn’t need evidence. They just needed Western women to consent to dropping bombs on Palestinian women to exact revenge for something that they completely made up. It demanded we value Israeli women over Palestinian women because that’s what they do.

Feminism that is free of condescension allows us to act with clarity in these moments. It allows us to act with humility. It allows us to be in genuine solidarity with women all over the world and not just in our hyper-specific contexts https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/feminism-without-condescension-gaza

2024-03-02 ‘Israel’ killing 63 Palestinian women a day, half being mothers: UN According to a press release by UN Women, the Israeli occupation has killed more than 9,000 women in the besieged Strip. On the 148th day of the Israeli aggression on Gaza, the Gaza Ministry of Health reported 10 massacres against families in the region. The tragic toll includes 92 martyrs and 156 injuries in 24 hours only. Compounding the devastation, some victims are still trapped under rubble and on roads, with the Israeli occupation hindering the arrival of ambulance and civil defense teams.

The Israeli aggression has so far killed a total of 30,320 Palestinians and resulted in 71,533 injuries since October 7. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-israel–killing-63-palestinian-women-a-day–half-being-moth

2023-12-10 ‘Horrifying Precedent’: Penn President Resigns Amid Right-Wing Campus Speech Uproar “She was coerced into resigning for defending her students’ right to political free speech,” said one critic. Professors at the University of Pennsylvania on Saturday were joined by rights advocates in condemning the attacks that forced university president Liz Magill to resign days after she testified before the U.S. Congress.

Magill had angered lawmakers from both parties by refusing to say students should be punished for hypothetically “calling for the genocide of Jews.” Magill announced her resignation Saturday after the university lost a $100 million donation from hedge fund manager Ross Stevens, a Penn alum, due to last Tuesday’s hearing at the House Education and Workforce Committee. Committee members did not point to examples of students actually calling for genocide.

Magill’s testimony represented Penn’s official rules governing free speech, which state that “universities can invest their efforts and resources in educating their members and in creating spaces and contexts for productive dialogue, but they cannot legitimately punish members—students, staff, and faculty—who choose not to participate in those, or who profess bigoted and other hateful views.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/penn-president-resigns

2023-12-07 Media OBSESSES Over Alleged R*pe of Israeli Women, IGNORES Sex*al Violence Against Palestinians Mouin Rabbani joins Katie to discuss the medias cover up of sexual violence targeted at Palestinians conducted by Israelis.

Mouin Rabbani (/ mouinrabbani ) is a researcher and analyst specializing in the contemporary Middle East. He has previously served as Principal Political Affairs Officer with the Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Head of Middle East with Crisis Management Initiative/Martti Ahtisaari Centre, and Senior Middle East Analyst and Special Advisor on Israel-Palestine with the International Crisis Group. He is Senior Fellow with the Institute for Palestine Studies, Co-Editor of Jadaliyya, Contributing Editor of Middle East Report, Associate Fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations, and Policy Advisor to Al-Shabaka – The Palestinian Policy Network. He is also a member of the UN Mediation Roster. Rabbani has published, presented, and commented widely on Middle East issues, including for most major global media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcvk4r2rvlk

2023-12-07 Israeli activists say world has ignored Oct. 7 sexual violence against women A United Nations commission is investigating potential war crimes on both sides of the Israel-Hamas war. But the UN agency dedicated to gender equality has been sharply criticized for waiting until this month to express alarm over sexual violence perpetrated during the October 7 Hamas attacks. Special correspondent Leila Molana-Allen reports. A warning: The accounts in this story are disturbing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDg15fUws3E

2023-12-06 Israel Attacks UN Women But Refuses Investigation Into Sexual Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH0U8RJVXlU

2023-11-30 WATCH: UN Security Council Debates Catastrophe in Gaza Russia’s ambassador, Vasily Nebenzya (2:08:35), blasted Western double standards for calling for two meetings a month on Ukraine and zero on Palestine. “Perhaps the fate of the Palestinian population is much less interesting for you from a domestic political perspective,” he said. Nebenzya criticized Western “hypocrites and unprincipled opportunists” who express concern for women’s rights while ignoring the fate of Gaza’s women.

Foreign ministers from several Council nations took part in the meeting Wednesday, in which some countries decried the massacres, while others defended Israel. No solution to the war was found. See video of a joint statement by the foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Palestine, Indonesia, Türkiye, the UAE and Egypt. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/30/watch-un-security-council-debates-catastrophe-in-gaza/

2023-10-26 It’s Feminist to Demand a Ceasefire in Israel–Palestine THREE DAYS BEFORE Hamas committed the bloodiest attack on Israeli civilians in that country’s history, four days before the Israel Defense Forces responded with the most devastating collective punishment of Palestinian civilians in a long history of collective punishment, Palestinian and Israeli feminists gathered to demand peace.

On October 4, hundreds of them, dressed in white and turquoise, in hijabs and sun hats, met at the wall between West Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank (many Palestinian women missed the event because they could not get authorization to cross). Under a canopy of white umbrellas, they walked to the Tolerance Monument in Jerusalem for a rally, then rode to the Dead Sea. On the beach around a symbolic negotiating table, alongside diplomats and other public figures, they read a “mothers’ call” for a nonviolent resolution to the conflict.

Written jointly by the Israeli organization Women Wage Peace and the Palestinian Women of the Sun, the declaration Opens in a new tab begins: “We, Palestinian and Israeli mothers, are determined to stop the vicious cycle of bloodshed and to change the reality of the difficult conflict between both nations, for the benefit of our children.” Or, as Huda Abu Arqoub, director of the Alliance for Middle East Peace, put it: “We want our kids to be alive rather than dead.” https://theintercept.com/2023/10/26/israel-palestine-feminism-ceasefire/

2023-09-23 Gatekeepers of democracy: The 3 women who are the Israeli gov’t’s biggest enemies By chance (or not), the government’s three biggest enemies, the gatekeepers of democracy and public services, happen to be women.

This year, Rosh Hashanah came at the end of one of the most challenging years in Israel’s history. The country is facing difficulties that run the full gamut of society: the economy, high cost of living, security, terrorism, and internal strife. Above all, this year has been marked by internal conflicts that have led to division among the Israeli people, tearing the country apart from within. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixth government, the most religious and extremist government in Israel’s history, promised stability and tranquility. And yet during the nine months of its existence, its leaders have not stopped to lay down their swords for even one moment.

From the judicial reform to the budget allocations for settlers and haredim and the daily attacks by coalition MKs on the gatekeepers – the Supreme Court and senior IDF and security establishment leaders – the Netanyahu-Ben-Gvir-Smotrich government has left no stone unturned in its comprehensive attack on anyone who does not toe the line. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/politics-and-diplomacy/article-760078

2023-09-12 The untold story of the abuse of Palestinian women in Hebron The humiliation of Palestinian women by Israeli soldiers in the occupied city of Al Khalil (Hebron) on July 10 was not the first such episode. Sadly, it will not be the last. Indeed, the stripping of five women in front of their children, parading them naked around their family home and then stealing their jewelry by an Israeli military unit, was not a random act. It deserves deep reflection.

Palestinians rightly understood the event, investigated at length by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem, in a report published on September 5, as an intentional Israeli policy.

The B’Tselem investigation was damning. “Dozens of masked soldiers, with dogs” raided the ‘Ajlouni family in southern Hebron, B’Tselem said. They “handcuffed three family members”, including a minor, “separated men from women and children, and began an extensive search of them and their home”. The humiliating episode was yet to follow, as “masked female soldiers” threatened a mother with a dog and forced her to strip completely naked in front of her children. The degrading treatment was repeated against four other women, as they were forced to move, naked, from room to room. Other soldiers, meanwhile, were busy stealing the family’s jewelry, according to the report.

Corporate Western media ignored the investigation, although it enthusiastically reported on the retaliatory attacks on Israeli occupation soldiers by Palestinian youth in Jericho and Jerusalem, providing little or no context to what they perceived to be “Palestinian terrorism”. But the Hebron women and the ‘Ajlouni family are the actual victims of terrorism, Israeli terrorism.

Though the Hebron incident is a repeat of numerous violations of Palestinian rights and dignity spanning many years, there is still much we can learn from it. Humiliating Palestinians is an actual Israeli policy and cannot be attributed to “a few bad apples” in an otherwise “most moral army in the world”.

This assertion can easily be demonstrated by a quick comparison of the behavior of Zionist militias during the Nakba (1947-48) to later episodes, and, eventually, to the recent events in Hebron. Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s “Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine” provides illuminating, although difficult-to-read passages on the rape of Palestinian women during those horrific years. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported last year that sensitive references were purposely removed from unclassified Israeli military documents concerning the events that led to the Nakba. https://jordantimes.com/opinion/ramzy-baroud/untold-story-abuse-palestinian-women-hebron

2023-01-03 The IDF has a problem with female soldiers – opinion We are already heading in a dangerous direction with female representation in this new government. Will we allow this to happen in the IDF as well?

Over the last couple of weeks, Israeli women have taken to social media to voice their anger and frustration over the recent letter from senior religious Zionist rabbis discussing the issue of sexual harassment in the Israel Defense Forces. As some of us may know, Israeli women serve two mandatory years in the IDF. The army makes exemptions for medical and mental health reasons or if the person comes from a sector of the country that isn’t required to do mandatory services. The army also gives women special exemptions if they are married or pregnant and for religious purposes. Yet, a growing voice in Israeli religious society is pushing for women to opt out of the army and instead choose National Service.

It seems the IDF has an internal problem that it needs to address. A report from 2021 says that a third of Israeli female soldiers experience sexual harassment during their mandatory service. A State Comptroller’s Report found that less than half of the Israeli female soldiers who experienced harassment filed a complaint. Of those, 44% said their complaints were not handled properly, and 26% stated that their complaints were not handled at all. Unfortunately, this isn’t unusual in what are considered “male-dominated” environments. https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-726466

2021-09-23 US-born ex-MK Marcia Freedman, a pioneer of Israeli women’s rights, dies at 83 The only openly lesbian lawmaker in Israeli history, activist helped found Israeli feminist movement, discussed domestic violence in 1970s to male colleagues’ ridicule.

Marcia Freedman, an Israeli lawmaker who was a pioneer of LGBTQ and women’s rights in the 1970s and initiated the first women’s shelter in the country, died on Tuesday at the age of 83. The United States-born left-winger was also an early champion of the two-state solution, advocating recognition of an independent Palestinian state. She divorced her husband in her late 30s and came out as the first known gay Knesset member. To this day, she is the only openly lesbian woman to have served in the Israeli parliament. https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-mk-marcia-freedman-early-pioneer-of-womens-rights-in-israel-dies-at-83/

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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United States Rumors to Foment Hate

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

United States Rumors to Foment Hate

Updated 2023-12-09

2023-12-06 State Dept: Hamas refuses to release women hostages to prevent sharing horrors of captivity he State Department says the U.S. suspects one reason Hamas is refusing to release its remaining female hostages is to prevent them from revealing the horrors they experienced in captivity. Israeli officials believe Hamas still has roughly 18 women in custody, most of whom were kidnapped from an Oct. 7 music festival near the Gaza border, according to Axios. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says that Hamas’ refusal to release the women led to the collapse of the cease-fire on Friday. “It seems that one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage — and the reason this pause fell apart — is that they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” Miller said during a Monday press briefing. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/state-dept-hamas-refuses-to-release-women-hostages-to-prevent-sharing-horrors-of-captivity/ar-AA1l2hZv

2020-06-26 Letter to President Trump – June 26, 2020 Do you think you have enough on your table these days? Wait until the Israeli government, fortified economically and militarily by U.S. taxpayers, illegally annexes a large region of the Palestinian West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, next month. That is the declaration of the Israeli Prime Minister.

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Ralph Nader

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Ralph Nader

Updated 2024-08-29

Ralph Nader Letters to Political Leaders https://nader.org/blog/

2024-04-06 The Mutually Reinforcing American and Israeli Empires The U.S. government’s unwavering commitment to Israel’s annihilation of Gaza – torrents of heavy weaponry, diplomatic and political cover, and vast majorities in Congress swearing fealty to Netanyahu’s extremist regime – is usually attributed to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the powerful domestic pro-Israeli government lobby, organized in every Congressional District, with its abundant campaign cash and its many personal contacts in Congress and the Executive Branch.

This is only a partial explanation of the US-Israel alliance. A far more formidably entrenched factor is that Israel and the U.S. have overlapping Empires – one in the Middle East and the other globally – with deep common purposes. Here are some examples of how these empires operate in tandem.

Both Empires violate international laws with impunity. Both Empires consider every military operation defensive. Both Empires have collaborating military-industrial complexes and are major arms exporters. Both Empires wield “force projection” as atomic bomb powers. Both incurred a rare counter-attack (9/11 & October 7) when advance warnings by advisors were ignored. Both Empires lie repeatedly regarding their tactics and strategies. Both Empires control the United Nations Security Council with the U.S. veto shielding whatever Israel does. Both occupy or control land that is not theirs, violating international laws. Both Empires vio, late their legal duty as occupiers to protect the civilian population’s well-being. Both Empires’ leaders, Biden and Netanyahu, profess to practice their respective religions, though they are violating the basic precepts of both their religions in implementing their violent wars. Both Empires spend little time pressing for ceasefires, peace negotiations, and the stability of peace treaties. Both Empires, contrary to their fundamental juridical documents, in the case of the U.S., our Constitution, operate as elected dictatorships in conducting military and foreign policy. Both Empires have a so-called free mainstream media that mostly toes the Empire party line. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-and-u-s

2024-03-05 Stop the Worsening UNDERCOUNT of Palestinian Casualties in Gaza With virtually no healthcare left, no medications, and infectious diseases spreading especially among infants, children, the infirm and the elderly, can anybody believe that the fatalities have just gone over 30,000? With five thousand babies born every month into the rubble, their mothers wounded and without food, healthcare, medicine and clean water for any of their children, severe skepticism about the Hamas Health Ministry’s official count is warranted.

Netanyahu and Hamas, which he helped over the years, have a common interest in lowballing the death/injury toll. But for different reasons. Hamas keeps the figures low to reduce being accused by its own people of not protecting them, and not building shelters. The Health Ministry is intentionally conservative, citing that its death toll came from reports only of named deceased by hospitals and morgues.

It matters greatly whether the aggregate toll so far, and counting, is three, four, five, six times more than the Health Ministry’s undercount. It matters for elevating the urgency for a permanent ceasefire, and direct and massive humanitarian aid by the U.S. and other countries, bypassing the sadistic cruelty against innocent families of the Israeli siege. It matters for the columnists and editorial writers who have been self-censoring themselves, with some, like the Post’s Charles Lane fictionally claiming that Israel’s military doesn’t “intentionally target civilians.” It matters for accountability under international law.

Above all, it lets weak Secretary of State Antony Blinken and duplicitous President Joe Biden be less servile when Netanyahu dismisses the low death toll by taunting them: what about Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki? https://nader.org/2024/03/05/stop-the-worsening-undercount-of-palestinian-casualties-in-gaza/

2024-02-27 Ralph Nader at 90 on the “Genocidal War” in Gaza & Why Congress Is a Weapon of Mass Destruction On his 90th birthday, the legendary consumer advocate, corporate critic and four-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader joins _Democracy Now! for an in-depth conversation about U.S. democracy and why “Congress is a weapon of mass destruction.” He says lawmakers have shredded the country’s social safety net, refused to rein in the U.S. war machine, allowed white-collar crime to go unpunished, failed to enforce tax fairness and more. “All of these are very unpopular with the American people,” Nader says. He also discusses the 2024 presidential race and encourages people to “vote their conscience” and “find some way out of this two-party duopoly gulag.” Nader, who publishes the monthly print-only newspaper the Capitol Hill Citizen, was recently profiled in The Washington Post for his ongoing advocacy. Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09SPBEqFniI

2024-01-19 Green Party of New York, former presidential candidates Ralph Nader, Howie Hawkins call on Stefanik to resign The Green Party of New York and about 125 upstate New Yorkers have signed onto a letter demanding Rep. Elise M. Stefanik resign from her seat representing the 21st Congressional District because of her support of Israel in the violence in Gaza.

The letter was authored by David Doonan, the former mayor of Greenwich, Washington County, and the web manager for the Green Party of the United States, with the help of Nader and constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein, according to Peter A. LaVenia Jr., co-chair of Green Party New York, who answered questions for Doonan.

While most of the signatures appear to be average, nonprominent residents of upstate New York, if not necessarily Stefanik’s NY-21, one notable exception is Howie Hawkins, the former Green Party 2020 presidential candidate and New York gubernatorial candidate in 2010, 2014 and 2018. https://www.yahoo.com/news/green-party-york-former-presidential-045900866.html

2023-12-02 Behind Israel’s Brutal Genocidal Attack on Gaza Stand Joe Biden and Congress [MEK Note: also see November 14th White House letter]

Biden can get more humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza simply by enveloping them with the American flag and daring Israel to delay, obstruct or destroy these carriers of live-saving food, water, fuel and medicine. But he is too weak and too cowardly to do so. He has made the U.S. a co-belligerent by unconditionally supplying abundant weapons, military intelligence and political cover, including vetoes of United Nations resolutions.

We asked why he wants Congress to make U.S. taxpayers pay another $14.3 billion for a prosperous country’s colossal military and intelligence operations, especially since Israel’s leadership failed to protect its people on October 7th. Biden has another apprehension—the near total control of Congress by the “Israel’s government can do no wrong” lobby. The indentured rubber-stamping Senators and Representatives have no problem supporting Israel’s violent repression and land dispossession in what is left of the original Palestine and its five million encircled Palestinians. Would these politicians deploy such eagerness in helping poor American children and their families in our country?

In response to Biden’s repeated urging that Israel comply with the “laws of war” we described how Benjamin Netanyahu and his regime are doing just the opposite with its brutal terror campaign against defenseless Palestinian civilians and their critical public support structures. Israel’s extremist right-wing politicians use words such as “human animals,” “annihilation” and “extermination” as declared objectives of their mass terrorism. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/joe-biden-israel-genocide-gaza

2023-11-25 Justifying the Unjustifiable in Palestine Ralph is joined by author and human rights activist Miko Peled. They discuss the excuses that Israel uses to defend the atrocities they commit against Palestinians, and the truth behind all the propaganda.

Anybody who is not courageous enough to stand up and speak the truth and stand up for what is right, because they might be called this name or that name—it’s cowardice, it’s hypocrisy. Being called antisemitic is a small price to pay when you talk about standing for the rights of millions of people who have been living under such terror for so many decades.

This is pure revenge. What we’re seeing is vengeance of a military force and a state that have been humiliated. And just like any bully, any gangster who’s been humiliated, they take it out on the weakest people they can find, people who cannot defend themselves… It’s revenge for the sake of revenge. It’s savagery for the sake of savagery. It’s brutality in its purest form. There’s no other reason than the brutality itself.

Palestinians deserve nothing less than the lifting of the siege, release of all prisoners, and the dismantling of the apartheid state. Nothing less than that should be demanded. And all we’re seeing people talk about is ceasefires, as though a ceasefire is some great accomplishment. Ceasefire does not provide the possibility of a future where this is not repeated. What needs to be demanded now is a political solution that will ensure the safety and security of Palestinians—and that is never part of the conversation. A ceasefire does not secure the lives or the security of Palestinians, because we know Israel will violate it a week later.

It’s not going to collapse because Israelis agree. It’s not going to collapse because Israelis wake up one morning in a good mood. Israel is going to have to be forced on its knees. Just like in South Africa, whites in South Africa were on their knees. We’re talking about severe sanctions. We’re talking about closing down all diplomatic missions. We’re talking about not allowing Israelis to participate in sporting events, cultural events, any events, academic arenas. They need to be shunned. Israeli society and the apartheid state that they created need to be brought on their knees. https://www.ralphnaderradiohour.com/p/justifying-the-unjustifiable-in-palestine

2023-11-22 Israel’s Genocidal Antisemitism Against the Arab Civilians of Gaza “It should never have happened,” an elderly Holocaust survivor of a Nazi death camp told the New York Times. He was referring to the colossal failure on October 7th, of Israel’s touted high-tech military and intelligence operations that opened the door to Hamas’ attack on Israeli soldiers and civilians. In many parliamentary countries, the government ministers who are responsible for this kind of failure would have immediately been forced to resign. Not so with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ministers.

Instead, Netanyahu’s coalition of extremists, who know that the Israeli people are enraged about their government’s failure to defend the border, has unleashed a “unifying” genocidal war against every child, woman and man that comprise the 2.3 million population of Gaza. “No electricity, no food, no fuel, no water. … We are fighting human animals and will act accordingly” was the opening genocidal war cry from defense minister Yoav Gallant to defend the onslaught that massive military forces are implementing against the long-illegally blockaded Gazan population.https://nader.org/2023/11/22/israels-genocidal-antisemitism-against-the-arab-civilians-of-gaza/

2023-10-27 Mass Media Needs to Probe Deeper Re: Israel/Gaza Conflict In the midst of extensive coverage of the war in Gaza, there are questions that the U.S. mass media should address:

How did Hamas manage to get these weapons and associated technology for their October 7th surprise raid?
What is the connection between the stunning failure of the Israeli government to protect its people on the border and the policy of P.M. Netanyahu?
Why is Congress preparing to appropriate over $14 billion to Israel in military and other aid without any public hearings and without any demonstrated fiscal need by Israel?
Why hasn’t the media reported on President Biden’s statement that the Gaza Health Ministry’s body count (now over 7000 fatalities) is exaggerated?
Why can’t Biden even persuade Israel to let 600 desperate Americans out of the Gaza firestorm?
Why isn’t the mass media making a bigger issue out of Israel’s long-time practices of blocking journalists from entering Gaza, including European, American and Israeli journalists?
Why isn’t the mainstream U.S. media giving adequate space and voice to groups advocating a ceasefire and humanitarian aid?
Why is the coverage of the war overlooking the Geneva Conventions, the United Nations Charter and the many provisions of international law that all the parties, including the U.S., have been violating?
What about the human-interest stories that would be revealing?
Where is the media attention on the statements from Israeli military commentators?

Mass Media Needs to Probe Deeper Re: Israel/Gaza Conflict

2023-10-13 After the Attack, Israeli Rulers Launch Genocidal Destruction Last Sunday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken abruptly took down his earlier post which read: “Turkish Foreign Minister @HakanFidan and I spoke further on Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel. I encouraged Türkiye’s advocacy for a cease-fire and the release of all hostages held by Hamas immediately.” That was the end of any ceasefire talk by Washington – Israel’s historic patron, protector and unlimited weapons provider. Instead, Biden, Blinken and Secretary of Defense Austin have made statements of unconditional support and further weapons shipments for expanding the bombing and destruction of Gaza, targeting homes, mosques, schools, clinics, hospitals, ambulances and critical infrastructure like water mains.

There was no mention of the far greater destruction of innocent Palestinians using F-16s and U.S.-made missiles that was underway. Are there no lawyers advising these politicians? When Israel ordered a complete siege of tiny, defenseless Gaza (an area much smaller than New York City) Defense Minister Yoav Gallant ordered his Southern Command to cut off essential services to Gaza, declaring “No electricity, no food, no fuel, no water. … We are fighting animals and will act accordingly.”

Reacting to this omnicidal military order, international law practitioner Bruce Fein noted, “The Genocide Convention defines genocide, among other things, as ‘Deliberately inflicting on [a national, ethnical, racial or religious group] conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part’.” https://nader.org/2023/10/13/after-the-attack-israeli-rulers-launch-genocidal-destruction/

This flagrant violation of international law, once again confirmed by various countries and the United Nations, is expected to unleash crushing repression and violence which will be broadcast and shown by photojournalists around the world. This annexation will lead to demonstrations condemning you and the Prime Minister. Inside Israel, there is strong opposition from retired high military and security officials, as well as members of the Knesset from which the Prime Minister is not seeking approval. Sound familiar?

The collateral damage from this unilateral seizure of thirty percent from what is left of Palestinian land (the West Bank is about 20 percent of the original Palestine) will include a rupture of warming relations between Israel and nearby Arab countries, especially Jordan, alienating your friend Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey, and lead to unintended consequences that will be arriving at your door as the Covid-19 pandemic widens. Even with your limited attention to detail, your inability to recognize the consequences of international disputes, and your short attention span, you should be able to envision how much time and energy this war crime will take from you.

For the Palestinians, there will be more dread and devastation. Half of their food comes from the Jordan Valley. It would spell the end of the “two-state solution,” and lead to the possible dissolution of the Palestine Authority security arrangements with the Israeli occupation. That would mean more Israeli patrols, more destruction of homes, more innocent Palestinian casualties, and more responsibility on you stemming from your reckless, mindless endorsement of annexation several months ago.

You can prevent these calamities. First, you need to stop your bigotry against the Palestinian Arabs and desperate Syrian Arab refugees that make you a leading anti-Semite against the Arab peoples. https://nader.org/2020/06/29/letter-to-president-trump-june-26-2020/

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Jericho Wall

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Jericho Wall

Updated 2023-12-09

2023-12-01 Israel Knew What Hamas Was Planning The October 7 attack on Israel by the terrorist group Hamas has already been widely regarded as a massive intelligence failure on the part of the Israeli military. But now, new information has been revealed that Israeli officials had access to a 40-page document, code-named “Jericho Wall,” which spelled out Hamas’ plan for the attack.

Ahough it did not specify when the horrifying acts would be carried out, it “described a methodical assault designed to overwhelm the fortifications around the Gaza Strip, take over Israeli cities and storm key military bases, including a division headquarters,” which Hamas ended up following “with shocking precision,” per The New York Times.

The conventional wisdom among Israeli authorities was that such a plan could not realistically be carried out by Hamas, which proved to be an underestimation https://reason.com/2023/12/01/israel-knew-what-hamas-was-planning/#

Israeli – Judiciary Shakeup

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Israeli – Judiciary Shakeup

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Updated 2023-12-09

2023-08-10 How Israel Occupied Itself On July 24th, the Israeli Knesset passed a measure forbidding the country’s High Court of Justice from in any way checking the power of the government, whether in making cabinet decisions or appointments, based on what’s known as the “reasonability” standard. In the Israeli context, this was an extreme act, since right-wing parliamentarians were defying massive crowds that had, for months on end, demonstrated with remarkable determination against such radical legislation. And that measure was only one part of a wide-ranging redesign of the court system unveiled by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in January, which deeply alarmed his critics.

As exemplified by prominent world historian Yuval Noah Harari, such protestors warned that limiting the functions of the highest court, in a land with a parliamentary system largely lacking other checks and balances, represented a big stride toward a future autocracy. After all, dangers abound in a nation with a one-chamber legislature, lacking the equivalent of a Senate, that elects the prime minister as the instrument of its will.

The central motivation for that legislation, however, lay not in domestic politics but in the desire of extremists in the cabinet to ensure that the courts won’t be able to interfere with their plans to vastly increase the number of Israeli squatter-settlements on Palestinian land on the West Bank and perhaps someday soon simply annex that occupied territory. Under such circumstances, members of the far-right Religious Zionist Party were recently excoriated by Tamir Pardo, a former head of Israeli intelligence, as Israel’s “Ku Klux Klan.” https://tomdispatch.com/how-israel-occupied-itself/

2023-03-21 Protesting reservists threaten mass refusal to serve over judiciary shakeup Organizers of group representing reserve soldiers say they are beginning to sign thousands on declaration to not show up for duty if overhaul bills are passed. The group, known as Brothers in Arms, said they would begin to sign reservists on to a declaration of refusal to serve, which would be implemented should the government move ahead with the judicial overhaul.

“We have been protesting in the streets for 11 weeks. An executive branch with unlimited power is a dictatorship. We are afraid of it. If the laws of the dictatorship are enacted, a people’s army cannot exist. A people’s army only exists in a democracy,” said Lt. Col. (res.) Ron Scherf, one of the founders of Brothers in Arms. https://www.timesofisrael.com/protesting-reservists-threaten-mass-refusal-to-serve-over-judiciary-shakeup/

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty

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Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Updated 2023-12-09

Ometz LeSarev -Wikipedia Courage to Refuse) is an organization of reserve officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) who refuse to serve beyond the 1967 borders, but “shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.” These conscientious objectors refer to themselves as refuseniks, a reference to the refusenik Jews of Soviet Russia. In 2004, Courage to Refuse and one of its founders, social activist David Zonsheine, were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by 1992 winner Rigoberta Menchú and 1996 winner Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometz_LeSarev

Refusal to serve in the IDF – Wikipedia Citizens of Israel have refused to serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or have disobeyed orders on the grounds of pacifism, antimilitarism, religious philosophy, or political disagreement with Israeli policy such as its occupation of the West Bank. Conscientious objectors in Israel are known as sarvanim (in Hebrew סרבנים) which is sometimes translated as “refuseniks”, or mishtamtim (evaders, dodgers). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refusal_to_serve_in_the_IDF

2014-09-12 Israeli intelligence veterans refuse to serve in Palestinian territories Forty-three veterans of one of Israel’s most secretive military intelligence units – many of them still active reservists – have signed a public letter refusing to serve in operations involving the occupied Palestinian territories because of the widespread surveillance of innocent residents. The signatories include officers, former instructors and senior NCOs from the country’s equivalent of America’s NSA or Britain’s GCHQ, known as Unit 8200 – or in Hebrew as Yehida Shmoneh-Matayim. They allege that the “all-encompassing” intelligence the unit gathers on Palestinians – much of it concerning innocent people – is used for “political persecution” and to create divisions in Palestinian society.

The largest intelligence unit in the Israeli military, Unit 8200 intercepts electronic communications including email, phone calls and social media in addition to targeting military and diplomatic traffic.https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/12/israeli-intelligence-reservists-refuse-serve-palestinian-territories?

2014-09-12 Reservists From Elite IDF Intel Unit Refuse to Serve Over Palestinian ‘Persecution’ Forty-three signatories, including a major and two captains, in a letter to the prime minister: ‘Intelligence is an integral part of Israel’s military occupation over the territories.’ https://www.haaretz.com/2014-09-12/ty-article/43-ex-unit-8200-soldiers-to-refuse-reserve-duty/0000017f-e210-d568-ad7f-f37b5b310000

2014-07-23 50 Israeli Reservists Refuse To Serve in Gaza War More than 50 former Israeli soldiers have refused to serve in the nation’s reserve force, citing regret over their part in a military they said plays a central role in oppressing Palestinians, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

“We found that troops who operate in the occupied territories aren’t the only ones enforcing the mechanisms of control over Palestinian lives. In truth, the entire military is implicated. For that reason, we now refuse to participate in our reserve duties, and we support all those who resist being called to service,” the soldiers wrote in a petition posted online and first reported by the newspaper.

While some Israelis have refused to serve in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank, the military’s structure is such that serving in any capacity forces one to play a role in the conflict, said the soldiers, most of whom are women who would have been exempted from combat. https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/202671/50-israeli-reservists-refuse-to-serve-in-gaza-war/

2002-12-31 Israel Rules Reserves Must Serve in Occupied Territories The Israeli Supreme Court ruled today that reserve soldiers do not have a right to refuse to serve in the occupied territories. It held that Israeli society is too polarized and embattled to permit selective assertions of conscience by its fighters. In a decision that tried to balance Israel’s democratic values and its social and security needs, the court called this a ”time of division” and warned that ”the recognition of selective conscientious objection might loosen the links that hold us together as a people.”

The ruling was a setback to a group of combat soldiers and officers who, while saying they will serve elsewhere, refuse to serve in the West Bank or Gaza Strip because, they say, their duties there involve ”dominating, expelling, starving and humiliating an entire people.”

The fortunes of their campaign reflect the hardening of public opinion under the threat of Palestinian suicide bombings. The campaign, which began early this year, has drawn 512 members, but its leaders acknowledge that it has failed to gain much political traction nationally for its claim that the occupation is corrupting Israeli society. https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/31/world/israel-rules-reserves-must-serve-in-occupied-territories.html

2002-05-15 Israel/Occupied Territories: Soldiers imprisoned for refusing to take part in human rights violations ‘Israel must recognize the right to refuse military service on grounds of conscience, as recognised under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which it is a party,’ Amnesty International said. ‘We call on the IDF to take the concern of its own reservists, soldiers and conscripts seriously. It is a message to halt actions which breach human rights standards and international humanitarian law.’ A total of 460 reservists have so far signed a letter issued in January 2002 stating: ‘We shall not fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.’

An earlier open letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in September 2001 was signed by 62 school students approaching the age of conscription. In explanation of their refusal to perform military service the letter said: ‘We strongly resist Israel’s pounding of human rights. Land expropriation, arrests, executions without a trial, house demolition, closure, torture, and the prevention of health care are only some of the crimes the state of Israel carries out, in blunt violation of international conventions it has ratified.’ https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/israeloccupied-territories-soldiers-imprisoned-refusing-take-part-human-rights

2002-03-04 Resistance Formed of Israeli Soldiers – refuse to serve in Occupied Territories As you may have heard in the news of the past week a remarkable form of resistance has emerged in Israel in the form of 50 combat officers and soldiers, who announced, in an open letter published on January 25th in the Israeli press, that they would no longer serve in the Occupied Territories.

Less than two weeks after the letter’s publication, another 150 soldiers signed up, among them many sergeants, lieutenants, captains, and even a few colonels (for a copy of the letter including the list of soldiers. http://seruv.nethost.co.il/defaulteng.asp ).

Concurrently, thousands of Israelis have called a telephone hotline to support the soldiers and to donate money to help them publish ads in local papers. A group of women are now organizing a petition, claiming that reservist men are not the only ones carrying the burdens of occupation, while a number of twelfth-graders, who will be drafted this coming summer, have also announced that they will not serve in the territories.

The uniqueness and force of the combat soldier’s letter, the fact that it has created such a stir both inside the military establishment and society at large, has to do with the profile of the people who initiated it. These are not radical leftists, but rather young men who are affiliated with Israel’s political center. They are members of the social elite who characterize themselves as having been “raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving … who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.” Moreover, they experienced firsthand the effects of the occupation, and no one can tell them that they do not know what is happening in the territories. https://www.timebomb2000.com/xf/index.php?threads/intl-resistance-formed-of-israeli-soldiers-refuse-to-serve-in-occupied-terrs.23456/

2002-01-31 Israeli army reservists refuse to serve in occupied territories More than 70 Israeli army reservists, including at least two dozen officers, have publicly stated they will no longer serve in the West Bank and Gaza Strip because of the brutality of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

“We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line [the border between Israel and the West Bank established after the 1967 Six-Day War] for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people,” the group declared in a statement published Monday in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s bestselling daily newspaper.

The petition was initiated by a pair of reserve captains—David Sonnschein, 28, a software engineer, and Yaniv Itzkovich, 26, a university teaching assistant-who have both served in the occupied areas over the last 16 months, a period during which nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Describing themselves as men “raised in the lap of Zionism,” the petition signers wrote that while they would continue to defend Israel, “they would no longer fight in the war for the welfare of the [Jewish] settlements.” The soldiers wrote they had “rendered service throughout the occupied territories and received orders and instructions that had nothing to do with the security of the state, and whose sole purpose is the perpetuation of domination of the Palestinian people.” This “mission of occupation and repression does not serve this purpose [the defense of Israel],” they said, “and we shall have no part of it.”

The soldiers said they had “witnessed with [their] own eyes the bloody toll that the occupation takes on both sides of the divide” and understood “that the price of occupation is the loss of humanity in the IDF and the corruption of the whole Israeli society.”

The petition—which quickly became known as the “Officers’ Letter”—evoked furious condemnation from representatives of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the army general staff, and immediate reprisals against those who organized it. Despite the efforts to crack down on dissent in the army, another 50 reservists contacted the officers to add their names to the petition shortly after its publication in Yedioth and other newspapers. https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2002/01/isra-j31.html

2002-01-29 Israeli Reservists Refuse Territories Duty More than 60 Israeli army reservists, half of them officers and all of them combat veterans, have publicly refused to continue serving in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the grounds that Israel’s occupation forces there are abusing and humiliating Palestinians. “We will no longer fight beyond the Green Line for the purpose of occupying, deporting, destroying, blockading, killing, starving and humiliating an entire people,” declared a petition signed by the reservists and published in Israel’s best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth. The Green Line refers to the border between Israel and the West Bank.

Over the years, eligible Israelis have sometimes declined to serve in the army or refused to serve in certain places for reasons of conscience or politics. What makes the current case unusual is that so many combat reservists, soldiers and officers have come forward publicly at one time. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/01/29/israeli-reservists-refuse-territories-duty/186062ed-99f9-464b-b6bc-c7959f85c5b2/

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Israel Propaganda

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Israel Propaganda (see American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)), (see Israel Lobby)

Updated 2024-04-03

2024-02-15 Israel’s Big Game Propaganda Israel took advantage of 123 million TV viewers — the most since the 1969 Moon landing — to ply its propaganda during Sunday’s U.S. football championship match, writes Alan MacLeod. Nestled between the typical ads for cars and beer were two bizarre messages: one from the Foundation to Combat anti-Semitism (FCAS) and the other from the State of Israel itself. Both were intimately related to the ongoing slaughter in Gaza and trying to draw attention away from Israeli war crimes.

Super Bowl ads do not come cheap, and its $7 million for 30-second air time price tag was footed by the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots N.F.L. franchise, Robert Kraft. Kraft (net worth: $11 billion) made his fortune in the paper and packaging business and has deep ties to the state of Israel, including donating hundreds of millions of dollars to pro-Israel groups and funding pro-Israel candidates in U.S. elections. He even enjoys a close relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Super Bowl viewers were subjected to another pro-Israel ad in between the action, this one directly funded by and representing the Israeli government. “To all the dads,” the voiceover says, as images of wholesome fatherhood activities play on the screen, “The funny ones, the silly ones, the strong ones, the adventurous ones. To all the dads held in captivity by Hamas for over 120 days, we vow to bring you home.” this was an attempt to sway the American public into identifying with Israel, suggesting that this could happen to any of their fathers’ too. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/02/15/israels-big-game-propaganda/

2024-02-07 NETANYAHU’S WAR ON TRUTH Two weeks before Hamas commandos led a series of raids into Israel on October 7, Benjamin Netanyahu stood before an empty chamber at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The Israeli prime minister brandished a map of what he promised could be the “New Middle East.” It depicted a state of Israel that stretched continuously from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. On this map, Gaza and the West Bank were erased. Palestinians did not exist.

He was speaking on the grand stage of the U.N. General Assembly, but no world leaders bothered to attend. Outside, some 2,000 people, a mixture of American Jews and Israeli citizens, protested his attacks on the independence of the Israeli judiciary system. The scene served as a reminder of how deeply unpopular his far-right governing coalition, not to mention Netanyahu himself, had become in Israel. At that moment, it seemed that Netanyahu was pushed against the ropes, in a losing battle to continue his political reign.

Just days later, as Hamas commandos penetrated the barriers encircling Gaza and embarked on their deadly raids targeting several military installations as well as kibbutzim, everything changed in an instant. Just as the Bush administration exploited the 9/11 attacks to justify a sweeping war in which it declared the world a battlefield, Netanyahu is using the horrors of October 7 to wage the crusade he’s been preparing for his entire political career. With his grip on power fading last fall, the October 7 attacks provided him with just the opportunity he needed, and he hitched his political survival to the war on Gaza and what could be his last chance to eliminate Israel’s Palestinian problem once and for all. https://theintercept.com/2024/02/07/gaza-israel-netanyahu-propaganda-lies-palestinians/

2024-01-09 The Psychology of Israeli Propaganda Who are the main targets of Israeli propaganda? Why do they believe in it? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YCQV_iUGRE

2023-12-07 Israel’s Propaganda is Getting INSANE (w/ Abby Martin) Independent journalist Abby Martin has spent much of her career reporting on Israel’s oppression of Palestinians, and was personally affected by anti-BDS legislation when she was disinvited from speaking at Georgia Southern University because she refused to sign an anti BDS pledge. Today, she joins Bad Faith to discuss the new wave of “hasbsra,” or Israeli media manipulation, that has quickly shifted the focus from 40 imaginary beheaded babies, to a non-existent “command center” under Al-Shifa hospital, to “new” allegations of sexual assault on October 7th. Meanwhile, the media ignores dead Palestinian babies left to decompose in the NICU by Israeli soldiers, Palestinian children shot in cold blood in the West Bank, and the authoritarian bent of congress deeming anti-Zionism anti-semitism. How do they get away with it all, and what’s the current state of things on the ground in Gaza? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LMlu5beoqs

2023-12-06 Scandal-stained Israeli ‘rescue’ group fuels October 7 fabrications During an October 31 Senate hearing on Israel’s war in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered his rationale for rejecting a ceasefire. Summoning as much emotion as a dour Democratic Party operative could muster, Blinken conjured up a gruesome scene intended to illustrate the savagery of Hamas, and the impossibility of negotiations with such an organization: “A young boy and girl, 6 and 8 years old, and their parents around the breakfast table,” Blinken intoned. “The father’s eye gouged out in front of his kids. The mother’s breast cut off, the girl’s foot amputated, the boy’s fingers cut off before they were executed.” The Secretary of State concluded, “That is what this [Israeli] society is dealing with.”

Though Blinken did not state the source of his disturbing claim – and was not prompted to do so by any senator – it matched testimony delivered by Yossi Landau, the head of operations for the southern Israel region of a religious “disaster victim identification” organization called ZAKA. Indeed, Landau has rehashed various forms of the story Blinken referenced since October 12, detailing how Hamas militants viciously mutilated and killed a 6 and 8 year-old child and their parents in Kibbutz Beeri before dining in their home.

Despite the presence of multiple potential witnesses inside Beeri before ZAKA arrived to collect dead bodies, independent testimony corroborating Landau’s claim has yet to surface. Further, there are no recorded deaths of siblings around the age of 6 to 8 in Beeri on October 7. Any record of a young child killed in the manner Landau described is similarly nonexistent, as are photos of the murdered family he described. In fact, the only siblings anywhere close to this age range who died in the community on that day—12-year-old twins Liel and Yanai Hetrzroni—were killed by Israeli tank shelling.

Landau’s story – and by extension, Blinken’s testimony before the Senate – therefore appears to have been spun out of whole cloth; a cynical fabrication intended to dramatize the supposed barbarism of Hamas in order to widen the political space for Israel’s rampage in the Gaza Strip. As this investigation will demonstrate, Landau’s tale was merely one of many tall tales concocted by a small circle of dubious characters who have managed to shape the official narrative of October 7 in Western media.

Though Israeli officials played a central role in Tel Aviv’s misinformation campaign surrounding the events of October 7— falsely claiming, for instance, that the bodies of dead Jewish babies were found dangling from a laundry line in one kibbutz—the most inflammatory allegations have emerged from a collection of ultra-Orthodox volunteer organizations such as ZAKA. Though ZAKA specializes “in body collection and disposal,” the group has no coronary credentials and is staffed by droves of poorly trained volunteers.

From “confirming” the fraudulent story of beheaded babies found in a kibbutz to blatantly inventing others about Hamas fighters cutting fetuses out of pregnant women’s bodies, severing a little girl’s arm, and baking a baby in an oven, ZAKA and rival groups have demonstrated a remarkable gift for seeding the media with depraved tales of alleged Hamas brutality. In doing so, they have armed Western leaders like Blinken and President Joe Biden with the narrative they would weaponize in order to block ceasefire proposals and rearm a military that has killed over 15,000 civilians in Gaza in less than two months. https://thegrayzone.com/2023/12/06/scandal-israeli-october-7-fabrications/

2023-12-05 Israel’s PR Machine – KPFA – Against the Grain Frank Luntz thinks that Israel has a public relations problem in the United States, which may seem surprising given that until recently a majority of Americans have favored Israel’s actions against the Palestinians. The rightwing spin doctor, a longtime advisor to Israel on how to shape American public opinion, believes that such longstanding support is fraying. “The Occupation of the American Mind” examines the history of the public relations campaign waged by the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby to shape American popular opinion about the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and examines the growing criticism of Israel within the U.S. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fund-drive-special-israels-pr-machine/id78900506?

2023-12-05 Horrors In Gaza & Israel’s Sloppy Propaganda Two months into the genocide in Gaza, Israel’s propaganda has never been more transparent and sloppy. To discuss this and critical historical context, Rania Khalek is joined by Mouin Rabbani, a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kviD4vTFjlM

2023-12-04 Debunking Israel’s “mass rapes” atrocity propaganda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMqRK5LpGy4

2018-05-30 The Occupation of the American Mind (original 84-minute version) Over the past few years, Israel’s ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territory and repeated invasions of the Gaza strip have triggered a fierce backlash against Israeli policies virtually everywhere in the world — except the United States. The Occupation of the American Mind takes an eye-opening look at this critical exception, zeroing in on pro-Israel public relations efforts within the U.S.

Narrated by Roger Waters and featuring leading observers of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and U.S. media culture, the film explores how the Israeli government, the U.S. government, and the pro-Israel lobby have joined forces, often with very different motives, to shape American media coverage of the conflict in Israel’s favor. From the U.S.-based public relations campaigns that emerged in the 1980s to today, the film provides a sweeping analysis of Israel’s decades-long battle for the hearts, minds, and tax dollars of the American people in the face of widening international condemnation of its increasingly right-wing policies. Narrated by Roger Waters / Featuring Amira Hass, M.J. Rosenberg, Stephen M. Walt, Noam Chomsky, Rula Jebreal, Henry Siegman, Rashid Khalidi, Rami Khouri, Yousef Munayyer, Norman Finkelstein, Max Blumenthal, Phyllis Bennis, Norman Solomon, Mark Crispin Miller, Peter Hart, and Sut Jhally.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP0-YohJR-g&list=PLcKTcNwy7BrF2fsCRkNDSpVvfpG6_RKiW&index=3

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Israeli Government as Provocateurs

Posted on December 9, 2023 by mekorganic

Israeli Government as Provocateurs

Updated 2023-12-09

2012-11-20 Israel-Palestine – what is the U.S. national interest? Out comes the well-worn playbook by Israel’s militaristic government that has worked to silence Israeli politicians and citizens who want a two-state solution. This is an opportunity to use and test advanced weaponry from the U.S., compliments of U.S. taxpayers, and squelch ongoing peace efforts, small and large, by Palestinians, Israelis and international peace advocates.

Israeli government leaders are expert provocateurs when they wish to seize land, water or prisoners and upset any movement toward a peace that would create a viable Palestinian state back to the 1967 borders, which includes East Jerusalem. When Israel came into being in 1948, it soon broke a UN truce and doubled its territory by taking the large area known as the Negev desert, whose refugees ended up in the Gaza Strip. Now 1.6 million encircled and impoverished humans, blockaded and under siege by Israel, try to survive in an open-air prison little more than twice the size of the District of Columbia.

Israel’s strategy of breaking cease-fires and truces over the years has been documented by Princeton University history professor emeritus, Arno J. Mayer, in his scholarly book Plowshares into Swords: From Zionism to Israel (Verso, 2008).

In late 2008, Israel broke a months-long truce with Hamas with an attack that took half a dozen lives. Modern Israeli missiles and crude Hamas rockets started flying to and fro. Then Israel invaded the Gaza strip with soldiers to add to its previous incursions – 24/7 electronic and satellite surveillance, omnipresent spies, flyovers, and data mining (down to specific details on each extended family and neighborhood). With their avowed pinpoint bombing, the Israelis destroyed homes, schools, clinics, police stations, clusters of people at bus stops, farms, UN facilities and even hit the American International School – all with the blessing of President-elect Barack Obama.

Observers marvel at the precise knowledge by Israel of who was in what car traveling where in Gaza, before being vaporized. Yet somehow, the second-most modern military in the world could not detect and stop those garages assembling the rockets or the sites firing the crude missiles, which were the rationale for the Israeli invasion.

The current hostilities started in two stages. The first was a back-and-forth that saw an emerging truce broken decisively on November 14 when Israel pridefully blew up a car containing Hamas military chief, Ahmad al-Jabari who actually was leading the negotiations via Egypt with Israel for a longer-range truce. https://nader.org/2012/11/20/israel-palestine-what-is-the-u-s-national-interest/