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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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National Right to Exist

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

National Right to Exist

2023-06-09 Does any Nation Have the “Right” to Exist? So, to answer the question – does any nation have the legal right to exist? The answer is yes and no. Yes, every nation has the right to existence as long as they don’t interfere with the existence of other nations legally. This fact seems to call into question the legitimate right to existence of two brutal states: the U.S. and Israel. But the legality of this isn’t explicitly agreed upon for two primary reasons. One, there is no specific and definitive international law that guarantees the right of nations to exist. Two, the existing international law on the subject, and the interpretation of these laws can vary. Some states (US/Israel) may use their bigger military power to intimidate smaller states, violating the principle of the right of nations to exist.

When it comes to the idea of self-determination, which is often thrown around in discussions related to the right of nations to exist, there are cases where groups within a country can exercise their right to self-determination but not necessarily declare independence (like the Donbass and Crimea regions in Ukraine). Self-determination is a collective right to decide political status and create a government, which means that every individual is entitled to participate in decisions that affect their lives. Thus, even under international law, there is no guarantee that self-determination will lead to independence. https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/does-any-nation-have-the-right-to

2023-10-25 Craig Murray: The Chances of a Regional War Gaza has no defence from bombs and missiles, and there is no military reason why Israel cannot keep this up for months and simply rely upon aerial massacre. We are perhaps within a week of thirst, starvation and disease killing even more people per day than bombardment. The population of Gaza is simply defenceless. Only international intervention can stop Israel from doing whatever it wishes, and those countries which have influence with Israel are actively abetting and encouraging the genocide.

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Nakba II

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Nakba II

Updated 2024-02-26

2023-12-05 Jordan’s King Abdullah says world should condemn any attempt to forcibly expel Palestinians Jordan’s King Abdullah said on Tuesday the world should condemn any attempt by Israel to create conditions that would forcibly displace Palestinians within the war-devastated Gaza Strip or outside its borders.

In remarks carried by state media after a meeting with the Cypriot president in Amman, the monarch again called for an immediate ceasefire and warned that Israel’s relentless bombing campaign was leading to a “dangerous deterioration” in the situation. Abdullah has lobbied Western leaders to pile pressure on Israel to allow an uninterrupted flow of aid and open crossings it controls to bring in sufficient level of aid needed.

Israel now controls the volume and nature of aid entering to over 2.3 million inhabitants under siege, according to U.N. officials and humanitarian workers. UNRWA officials say only a trickle of the aid the enclave needs is getting through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt which NGOs and officials say can only handle a fraction of the needs. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jordan-s-king-abdullah-says-world-should-condemn-any-attempt-to-forcibly-expel-palestinians/ar-AA1l2KQP

2023-11-25 Why does the world think that ᑭᗩᒪᗴSTIᑎᗴ is different ⁉️ https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161059104061100&set=a.10151463016161100

2023-11-23 The Old and New Nakba: Forced Expulsion of Palestinians Must Be Rejected It is simply inaccurate to claim that the ongoing Israeli attempt to displace all, or many Palestinian refugees from Gaza to Sinai is a new idea, compelled by recent circumstances. Displacing Palestinians, or as it is known in Israeli political lexicon, the ‘transfer’, is an old idea – as old as Israel itself.

In fact, historically, population ‘transfer’ has been more than an idea, but an actual government policy, with clear mechanisms. Yosef Weitz, director of the Land and Afforestation Department, was entrusted with setting up the Transfer Committee in May 1948 to oversee the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from their towns and villages.

In other words, while Israel was concluding the initial phase of ethnic cleansing, it initiated another phase, that of ‘transfer’, the results of which are well-known. https://freepress.org/article/old-and-new-nakba-forced-expulsion-palestinians-must-be-rejected

2023-11-11 A New Nakba against the Palestinian People The Israeli regime is carrying out a new Nakba against the Palestinian people with the backing of its imperialist allies. On October 28, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the start of the “second phase” of the war in the Gaza Strip. His announcement invoked the biblical command to exterminate the Amalekites, an enemy people of the ancient Israelites whom the vengeful god of the Old Testament literally calls to annihilate so that nothing is left: men, women, children, cows, sheep, houses, and more.

From a military point of view, in this new phase of the war, the Israeli army has made a ground invasion, dividing the Gaza Strip in two and maintaining a double tactic of siege and fire against the Palestinian people, in addition to the ongoing aerial bombardments. Bombs, missiles and white phosphorus abound, while there is no food, water, energy, fuel, or medical supplies, nor safe shelter in hospitals or schools. The entire civilian infrastructure is a “legitimate” target in the Israeli crusade to “eradicate Hamas.”

In the first four weeks of Israel’s military attacks, the Zionist state has killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including about 4,800 children, in addition to 100 aid workers. These numbers, which increase daily, give an idea of the magnitude of Israel’s many war crimes. The ones of greatest impact are the deliberate attack on the Jabalia refugee camp on October 31 — the most densely populated and poorest in Gaza — and the bombing of an ambulance convoy in front of Al Shifa hospital on November 3. According to a report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, between October 7 and 31 Israel dropped 25,000 tons of explosives — the equivalent of two nuclear bombs — on the Gaza Strip. https://www.leftvoice.org/a-new-nakba-against-the-palestinian-people/

2023-11-05 Diplomats Tell New York Times Israel Privately Pushed to Expel Gazans to Egypt Israel has quietly tried to build international support in recent weeks for the transfer of several hundred thousand civilians from Gaza to Egypt for the duration of its war in the territory, according to six senior foreign diplomats. Israeli leaders and diplomats have privately proposed the idea to several foreign governments, framing it as a humanitarian initiative that would allow civilians to temporarily escape the perils of Gaza for refugee camps in the Sinai Desert, just across the border in neighboring Egypt.

The proposal has been rejected by not only Palestinians but also “most of Israel’s interlocutors—who include the United States and Britain—because of the risk that such a mass displacement could become permanent,” the newspaper noted. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-expel-gazans-to-egypt

2023-11-03 Day 27 roundup of Israel’s attacks on Gaza Nora Barrows-Friedman The Electronic Intifada Podcast “We’re living the Nakba times again, seeing the tents come up in Khan Younis. It’s surreal. It’s surreal,” said Ghaida Hamdan, who is grieving 36 members of her family. They were killed in Israeli bombings last week. Ghaida and her mother, Ghada Ageel, joined us on Thursday’s livestream. Ghada is a visiting professor at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and wrote about Israel’s murder of her family in The Guardian.

“[Israel] now discovered after 16 years of an inhuman blockade, they cannot put an end to this willingness for freedom, for dignity,” Ghada said. “So now the plan of annihilation, of genocide, of expulsion, of continuing the unfinished the project of Nakba, this is what we see. My grandmother has been always telling me [that] whenever we have a generation, they come and kill it.” https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/watch-day-27-roundup-israels-attacks-gaza

2023-11-03 Another Nakba? Israeli Intel Ministry Proposes Expelling Every Palestinian in Gaza to Egypt A leaked document from Israel’s Intelligence Ministry dated less than one week after the October 7 Hamas attack proposes the permanent transfer of Gaza’s residents to Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the document’s authenticity but dismissed it as a mere “concept paper,” while Egypt and much of the Arab world has publicly opposed the forced displacement of millions of Palestinians. But the exposed plans have confirmed many Palestinians’ fears that Israel’s ultimate goal during its current offensive is their ethnic cleansing from Gaza, a reenactment of the 1948 Nakba that saw about 700,000 Palestinians pushed out of their homes and turned into refugees during the creation of Israel. For more, we hear from Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, a writer for +972 Magazine and Local Call, who says that while the Intelligence Ministry is not particularly powerful, “this is an official state document essentially recommending the government to carry out an ethnic cleansing of Gaza.” Meanwhile, radical settlers in the West Bank are increasingly using the war on Gaza as cover to push Palestinians out of their homes and villages, often under threat of lethal violence. “Death is now everywhere, and things are deteriorating really, really quickly,” says Abraham. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8YSVICeRqI

2023-10-31 Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé on Gaza War, Hostages & the Context Behind Current Violence We speak with Israeli historian Ilan Pappé about Israel’s escalating war on Gaza, as well as a leaked document from the country’s Ministry of Intelligence that suggests permanently expelling Gaza’s entire population to the Sinai Desert in Egypt. “This is a massive operation of killing, of ethnic cleansing, of depopulation,” says Pappé. He also says the only way to secure the release of the more than 200 hostages held by Hamas is to agree to an all-for-all swap for the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners held by Israel, including many women, children and elderly people. “This is the only way to release the people who were taken.” Pappé is a leading critic of the Israeli occupation, a professor of history and the director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter. His books include The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples and The Idea of Israel: A History of Power and Knowledge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK7jckzam5c

The question is, what is Israel’s aim? Do they intend to reduce the Gaza Strip still further, annexing half or more of it? Will starvation and horror enable the international community to force Egypt to accept the expulsion of the population of Gaza into the Sinai Desert as a “humanitarian” move? That appears to be the end game: expulsion of population and territorial expansion into Gaza. That would require a ground invasion, but probably not until after even more intense aerial bombardment to eliminate all resistance. This territorial ambition of course accords with the violent expansion of illegal settlement in the West Bank which is currently under way, with the world paying almost no attention. It is very hard indeed to comprehend the passivity of Fatah and its leader, Mahmoud Abbas, at the moment. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/25/craig-murray-the-chances-of-a-regional-war/

2023-10-13 A Second Nakba? Israel Orders 1.1 Million Palestinians to Evacuate Northern Gaza Amid Bombing & Siege Israel’s military on Friday ordered 1.1 million civilians in the northern Gaza Strip to evacuate “southwards” in just 24 hours, a demand that aid groups say will cause untold human suffering. Meanwhile, Israel continues to maintain a total blockade of the territory, blocking food, water, fuel and medicine from reaching those trapped inside. For more on the crisis and mounting human toll, we speak with Gaza writer Muhammad Shehada, who condemns the international community and mainstream media for its complicity in Israel’s destruction of Gaza. “These things are unimaginable horrors that are inflicted on Gaza right now with no one intervening to stop it,” he says. “This is pure madness.”https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/israel_orders_gaza_evacuation

2023-10-13 Former EU Envoy: Israel’s Forced Transfer of Palestinians in Gaza Would Be a War Crime Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, recently retired European Union ambassador to Palestine, says Israeli pain and anger cannot justify war crimes in Gaza, where Israeli bombardment has already killed over 1,500 people. Now with Israel demanding the relocation of 1.1 million people ahead of an expected ground invasion, von Burgsdorff says Israel must adhere to international law and protect civilians. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/eu_envoy_to_palestine_gaza_israel

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Language of Violence

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Language of Violence

2023-10-08 Palestinians Speak the Language of Violence Israel Taught Them Israel has spoken this blood-soaked language of violence to the Palestinians since Zionist militias seized more than 78 percent of historic Palestine, destroyed some 530 Palestinian villages and cities and killed about 15,000 Palestinians in more than 70 massacres. Some 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed between 1947 and 1949 to create the state of Israel in 1948. Israel’s response to these armed incursions will be a genocidal assault on Gaza.

The collective retribution against innocents is a familiar tactic employed by colonial rulers. We used it against Native Americans and later in the Philippines and Vietnam. The Germans used it against the Herero and Namaqua in Namibia. The British in Kenya and Malaya. The Nazis used it in the areas they occupied in the Soviet Union, Eastern and Central Europe. Israel follows the same playbook. Death for death. Atrocity for atrocity. But it is always the occupier who initiates this macabre dance and trades piles of corpses for higher piles of corpses. https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/palestinians-speak-the-language-of

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Jewish Activism

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Jewish Activism

Updated 2023-12-02

2023-11-15 Rabbis for Ceasefire: Jewish Leaders Organize to Halt Israel’s Bombardment of Gaza We speak to Rabbi Alissa Wise, an organizer with Rabbis for Ceasefire and the founding co-chair of Jewish Voice for Peace’s Rabbinical Council, about Tuesday’s “March for Israel” in Washington, D.C., that was covered widely by the mainstream media and platformed antisemitic Christian Zionists. Wise sees a deep connection between Jewish religious principles and anti-Zionist activism and says accusations that anti-Zionists are antisemitic are a cynical strategy used to “shield Israel from accountability.” She says Israel cannot be uniquely exempt from political and humanitarian critique. “Israel is not a Jewish person. Israel is a state. God forbid we should not be able to cry out when states are committing horrific genocidal violence in the name of Jewish people.” Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on over 1,500 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream at democracynow.org Mondays to Fridays 8-9 a.m. ET. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpOOaC_HxOo

2023-11-04 1,500+ Israelis Urge ICC Action on ‘War Crimes and Genocide’ in Gaza “Persistent impunity has created the conditions for the consolidation of the Israeli apartheid regime, which is intent on committing ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Indigenous Palestinian population,” says the open letter.

Israelis Against Apartheid, a group representing more than 1,500 citizens, this week urged the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor “to take accelerated action against the escalating Israeli war crimes and genocide of the Palestinian people” in Gaza. “For the safety and future in the region, all elements of international law must be enforced and war crimes should be investigated,” declares the letter to the ICC’s Karim A. A. Khan, noting his ongoing Palestine investigation and recent remarks on the war. https://www.commondreams.org/news/international-criminal-court-israel

2023-10-30 “Not in Our Name”: 400 Arrested at Jewish-Led Sit-in at NYC’s Grand Central Demanding Gaza Ceasefire We bring you the voices of Jewish Voice for Peace and their allies who shut down the main terminal of Grand Central Station during rush hour Friday in one of New York’s largest acts of civil disobedience in 20 years to demand a ceasefire in Gaza. The multiracial, intergenerational movement says about 400 people were arrested, including rabbis, famous actors and elected officials from the New York State Assembly and Senate and the City Council. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I7W99OVcjo

2019-10-17 Jewish activism from the US-Mexico border to Palestine. https://codepink.substack.com/p/episode-12-jewish-activism-from-the-9d5#details

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Jenin attack

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Jenin attack

2023-08-25 A Visit to Jenin Shows the Consequences of Performative US Policies The assault in July was executed using weapons from U.S. arms deals, despite tightened restrictions issued by President Joe Biden in February. A couple of weeks ago, I visited the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank where a major attack by the Israeli Occupation Forces , or IOF, was carried out in July under the guise of a military operation targeting militants. The two-day raid resulted in the murder of 12 Palestinians, including four children, over 100 wounded, and 3,000 forced to evacuate by the IOF’s indiscriminate violence.

Nearly a month later, there were signs of the invasion everywhere, forcing Palestinians to relive this violence daily. Streets that were destroyed by the IOF remained inaccessible, homes torched by drone strikes were haunting, bullet holes marked almost every home I passed by. The local showing me around, a resident of Jenin refugee camp, informed me that the IOF struck the streets first so that movement would be restricted. The IOF deliberately destroyed the streets of a densely populated refugee camp before attacking it from ground and air. https://codepink.substack.com/p/a-visit-to-jenin-shows-the-consequences

2023-10-16 Gaza is Burning in Lockstep with the Great Reset The latest Israel-Hamas conflict was either deliberately engineered or it was the result of a remarkable concatenation of security lapses. Current affairs commentator Efrat Fenigson, a former Israel Defense Force (IDF) reservist, was among the first to concisely unpack the sheer improbability of a Hamas sneak attack on an ultra-secure Israeli border complex. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/gaza-is-burning-in-lockstep-with-the-great-reset.html

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Israel’s 9/11Moment

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Israel’s 9/11Moment

Updated 2024-04-03

[MEK Note: There are two other major differences between the U.S. 9/11 and Israel’s “9/11”. (1) The U.S. 9/11 was a 100% inside job ($100K Reward if I am wrong), while Israel just “greased the wheels” to made theirs easier to happen. (2) The progressive movement has been active in protesting and exposing the truth about Israel’s “9/11” while they not only swallowed the U.S. 9/11 narrative but joined in attacking and smearing members and evidence discovered by the 9/11 Truth Movement.]

2024-01-25 Israel, the United States, and the Rhetoric of the War on Terror In a New Yorker piece published five days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, American critic and public intellectual Susan Sontag wrote, “Let’s by all means grieve together. But let’s not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen.” Sontag’s desire to contextualize the 9/11 attacks was an instant challenge to the narratives that President George W. Bush would soon deploy, painting the United States as a country of peace and, most importantly, innocent of any wrongdoing.

While the rhetorical strategies he developed to justify what came to be known as the Global War on Terror have continued to this day, they were not only eagerly embraced by Israel in 2001, they also lie at the heart of that country’s justification of the genocidal campaign that’s been waged against the Palestinian people since October 7, 2023.

Giving Israel further license for unfettered state violence under the guise of a war on terror, in remarks in Tel Aviv President Biden stated that “since this terrorist attack… took place, we have seen it described as Israel’s 9/11. But for a nation the size of Israel, it was like 15 9/11s. The scale may be different, but I’m sure those horrors have tapped into… some kind of primal feeling in Israel, just like it did and felt in the United States.”

It bears noting that while Israel quickly deployed the rhetoric of the War on Terror on and after October 7th, weaponizing the language of terror was not in and of itself novel in that country. https://tomdispatch.com/israel-the-united-states-and-the-rhetoric-of-the-war-on-terror/

2023-10-10 “Israel’s 9/11” Is a Slogan to Rationalize Open-Ended Killing of Palestinian Civilians When Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations spoke outside the Security Council on Sunday, he said: “This is Israel’s 9/11. This is Israel’s 9/11.” Meanwhile, in a PBS NewsHour interview, Israel’s ambassador to the United States said: “This is, as someone said, our 9/11.”

While the phrase might seem logical, “Israel’s 9/11” is already being used as a huge propaganda weapon by Israel’s government — now engaged in massive war crimes against civilians in Gaza, after mass murder of Israelis by Hamas last weekend. On the surface, an analogy between the atrocities just suffered by Israelis and what happened on Sept. 11, 2001 might seem to justify calls for unequivocal solidarity with Israel. But horrific actions are in process from an Israeli government that has long maintained a system of apartheid while crushing basic human rights of Palestinian people. https://freepress.org/article/%E2%80%9Cisrael%E2%80%99s-911%E2%80%9D-slogan-rationalize-open-ended-killing-palestinian-civilians

2023-11-20 CO23168 | Israel’s 10/7 is Not its 9/11 Israel’s labelling of the October 7 (10/7) Hamas attacks as its 9/11 and paralleling its response to that of the United States are misleading. The two events occurred under different circumstances with their own nature and intensity. Israeli leaders have referred to the October 7 (10/7) Hamas attacks as their 9/11, an event which resulted in the US intervention in Afghanistan and wider “war on terror”. The implication is that Israel is justified in responding to Hamas’ assaults just as the US responded to the 9/11 attacks. Hence Israel’s declared determination to eliminate Hamas no matter what the cost. However, a comparison of 10/7 with 9/11 is misplaced.

The first time that the Israeli leadership drew on 9/11 to quell Palestinian resistance to occupation was during the government of former prime minister Ariel Sharon (2001-2006). After Sharon’s incapacitation following a stroke in 2006, Netanyahu advocated a negotiated settlement with the Palestinians based on “peace for peace”, not “land for peace”, as enshrined in the Oslo deals. In March 2015, he declared that there would be no Palestinian state on his watch.

Afghanistan was not under US occupation or blockade prior to 9/11. Al Qaeda’s attacks were planned by its leaders, especially Bin Laden, under protection of the extremist Taliban regime in Afghanistan. In retaliation, America’s main objective was to dismantle Al Qaeda and the Taliban regime, and ensure that Afghanistan never again became a hub for terrorist groups.

America’s Afghanistan campaign did not amount to an invasion but rather an intervention. It was backed by the United Nations and most of the countries around the world, including those in the Muslim domain. During its two-decade long intervention, the US did not drop more than 7,000 bombs in a four-week period that could kill more than 10,000 Afghan civilians, including many children. Nor did it at any time seek to deprive the population of Afghanistan of food, water, electricity, fuel and medicine or cause them mass dislocation. The US, along with its allies, provided an unprecedented amount of reconstruction, and humanitarian and security aid to ensure reasonable livelihoods for as many Afghans as possible. The US also did not dislocate 1.5 million Afghans, and isolate Afghanistan from the rest of the world and conduct its operations in total darkness to hide the rate of casualties and destruction from the public eye. No UN Secretary-General ever accused the US of collectiv https://www.rsis.edu.sg/rsis-publication/rsis/israels-10-7-is-not-its-9-11/

2023-10-11 It’s A Trap! The Wave Of Repercussions As The Middle East Fights “The Last War” But here’s what’s going to happen: the establishment will seek to force Americans and Europeans into these wars regardless. The corporate media and some political leaders are already suggesting that the recent full-scale attack on Israel was planned by governments outside of Gaza. Some are accusing Iran, and others accuse Lebanon. From the extensive amount of footage of the attack that I have examined, I have no doubt that someone other than the Palestinians orchestrated the event. The tactics were far too advanced and far too coordinated; the Palestinians have never been all that smart when it comes to military strategy.

Who drafted the attack is another question entirely. So far there are a lot of rumors but no hard evidence leading to any specific governments. Another big question is, how did the Palestinians manage to organize all of this and execute the invasion WITHOUT Israeli intel services knowing about it? Mossad is known to be one of the most intrusive and pervasive covert agencies in the world, yet they were caught completely off guard by this unprecedented attack? I think not.

I’m reminded of the events of 9/11 and the strange series of intelligence failures that preceded it. I’m also reminded of the lies, propaganda and the reactionary response which led to two decades of meaningless war. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/its-a-trap-the-wave-of-repercussions-as-the-middle-east-fights-the-last-war.html

2023-10-09 “Israel’s 9/11 Moment”?! Former IDF tower guard blows whistle raising questions about authenticity of official “surprise” narrative. In his recent Substack, Robert Morningstar points toward some of the many parallels between 9/11 and the Hamas attack, Sun, Oct 8, 2023 at 8:25 pm.

While most researchers in the 9/11 truth movement agree that the 9/11 false flag operation was a MIHOP (Made It Happen On Purpose), Morningstar suggests that Israel may be complicit here in a LIHOP (Let It Happen On Purpose). He reposts on Twitter from Inversionism: “I’m not falling for this charade again. I learned this lesson years ago investigating 9/11.” https://richardgage911.substack.com/p/israels-911-moment

2023-10-08 Something Is Not Right About The Israel/Hamas War — Could It Lead To Genocide, World War Three? Israel claims that the surprise element of the attacks were the result of a catastrophic failure of intelligence on the part of the Israeli intelligence apparatus. In short, Israel claims that Hamas used methods to bypass its surveillance system and thus avoid detection during a prolonged period of planning. While Israel has a robust system of cameras and internet/cellphone monitoring, it is reported that Hamas used more traditional methods of communication such as in-person meetings and the use of couriers to deliver messages, thus avoiding technology and the pitfalls of technological surveillance.

Something Doesn’t Seem Right. However, something simply doesn’t add up when it comes to the Israeli explanation. Gaza is one of the most surveilled areas of the world. The Israelis are exceptionally good at intelligence gathering and putting that intelligence to use and yet we are supposed to believe there were not enough Israeli intelligence agents on the ground in Palestinian territory to catch wind of such a monumental operation? Anyone who understands geopolitics and has been to the Middle East knows well how powerful and effective Israeli intelligence is in the region.

Given the questionable nature of the Israeli official story and the questionable allegiances of Hamas, what would be the end game of allowing a Hamas attack on Israeli soil? For the Israeli government, there are several options:

1.) Declare martial law on the Israeli population who have been divided and restless over the economy and cultural manipulation as well as other political issues inside Israel. This war has effectively silenced political dissent and internal disagreements.

2.) Create an “Israeli 9/11” that would generate support both inside and outside Israel for the “final solution” to the Palestinian “problem.” In other words, a massive incursion into the Gaza Strip and possibly other territories.

3.) An excuse to launch an attack against Hezbollah before the Iranian-backed militia gains so much strength that Israel is unable to defend itself successfully, a very real possibility given the increasing strength and skill of the militia currently.

4.) To launch a war against Iran that will logically draw in the United States to do the brunt of the fighting, thus breaking its largest functional enemy in the region.

Naturally, it would be important to point out that it is unlikely that the Israeli government would take such steps without first consulting the United States and being reassured the American military will quickly come to its rescue. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/something-is-not-right-about-the-israel-hamas-war-could-it-lead-to-genocide-world-war-three.html

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

2023-12-06 Kamala Harris’s Performative Scolding of Israel With Israelis in a grueling fight against a dangerous terrorist enemy, Vice President Kamala Harris was dispatched to Dubai to deliver a scolding of our close ally for the benefit of Arab leaders. Her remarks were morally weak and untethered from reality. In remarks in the United Arab Emirates after meetings with leaders of the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, and the Hamas-sponsoring Iranian ally Qatar, Harris delivered a version of the same message. It was rooted in the same failed Obama-era strategy of trying to show “daylight” with Israel in the groundless hope that it will earn more trust in the Arab world. She reiterated the administration’s “steadfast conviction” that “Israel has a right to defend itself” but then insisted, “Too many innocent Palestinians have been killed. Frankly, the scale of civilian suffering and the images and videos coming from Gaza are devastating.”

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Israel Narrative

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Israel Narrative

Updated 2023-12-09

The Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com/

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) ADL fights all forms of antisemitism and bias, using innovation and partnerships to drive impact. A global leader in combating antisemitism, countering extremism and battling bigotry wherever and whenever it happens, ADL works to protect democracy and ensure a just and inclusive society for all. https://www.adl.org/

Mothers Against College Antisemitism (“MACA”) https://www.facebook.com/groups/656718683235049/

United With Israel https://www.facebook.com/unitedwithisrael

Understanding the Arab-Israeli Conflict in 5 Easy Points https://www.mayimachronim.com/israel/

In the immediate wake of the October 7 Hamas assault, and again when we gave President Biden credit for his visit to Israel, we argued that the true test of his administration’s pledges to have Israel’s back would come over time, during the slow and arduous — but necessary — process of destroying Hamas.

As time has dragged on, the public comments in support of Israel from administration officials have become more subdued, while the tongue-lashings about Israeli conduct and calls for restraint have become more frequent. On a visit to Israel last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized Israel for inflicting too many civilian casualties and reportedly instructed the Israel Defense Forces that the successful tactics they employed in northern Gaza should not be used in the south, which is now where Hamas jihadists and operational leaders are believed to be holed up. He also said Israel didn’t have the “credit” to carry on their mission for several more months. One wonders if 1,000 more dead Jews would be needed to buy Israel more time from Blinken. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/kamala-harris-s-performative-scolding-of-israel/ar-AA1l1RGV

2023-12-05 Israel Would Consider Another Cease-Fire to Get Back Hostages Israel would consider another short-term cease-fire if an agreement can be reached with Hamas to return more of its 137 hostages still in captivity. Securing the release of all those seized by Hamas and other armed groups on Oct. 7 remains an aim of the war alongside destroying the Islamist militant group, Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, said on Tuesday.

The cease-fire came to end, Israel said, when Hamas reneged on an agreement to return all women and children. Hamas, which is classified as a terror group by the US and European Union, still holds 20 women, two boys and 115 men, Israel has said. It’s unclear if all of them are alive.

Levy also defended Israel’s record in protecting civilians, as criticism mounts over its air strikes and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, in which almost 16,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. The military is giving advance warnings of strikes, conceding the element of surprise, he said. “It’s upsetting that our attempts to protect civilians are mocked or discarded,” he said. “We would like to seek greater appreciation for the efforts Israel is making to protect civilians.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israel-would-consider-another-cease-fire-to-get-back-hostages/ar-AA1l1OZc

2023-12-04 Israeli Peace Activists Face Reckoning After Hamas Attack The Oct. 7 attacks that Israeli authorities say killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, are prompting a reckoning in parts of southern Israel that bore the brunt of the violence, and that for decades have been home to scores of activists who sought to promote coexistence and greater rights for Palestinians. The region, home to many collective communities known as kibbutzim, has also been far more supportive of pursuing negotiations for a two-state solution with Palestinians than the rest of Israeli society, which has moved sharply to the right since the failure of peace talks more than two decades ago.

In Nir Oz, Be’eri and Kfar Aza—three of the kibbutzim that were among the hardest hit in the Hamas attacks—right-wing parties garnered on average less than 10% of the vote in last year’s elections, which resulted in what analysts consider the most right-wing, religious and ultranationalist government in Israel’s history. Among Israelis who identified as left-wing, 83% were in favor of a two-state solution, in contrast with 16% on the right, according to a recent poll.

“The kibbutzim were bastions of the left. You’ll find in the kibbutzim people who went out of their way to cooperate with Arabs,” said Benny Morris, a historian of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I fear that Oct. 7, with the mass killing of civilians, has further undermined the left in Israel.”

For years, the left in Israel drove the peace process. The Labor Party, whose roots go to the state’s founding, led by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, signed the 1993 Oslo Accords that were seen as laying the groundwork for a future Palestinian state.

After the collapse of peace talks, Palestinians launched a yearslong bloody uprising known as the Second Intifada that left many previously pro-peace Israelis disillusioned. Support for a two-state solution fell and right-wing political parties rose to power, and have continued to dominate Israeli politics. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-peace-activists-face-reckoning-after-hamas-attack/ar-AA1kWXw5

2023-11-22 The Western Media Is Amplifying The Israeli Narrative Western media never had any problem with health statistics from Gaza — until Israel was accused of bombing a hospital there. For years, English-speaking journalists straightforwardly cited reports from the “Palestinian health ministry in Gaza,” using its official name. But after the October 17 attack on Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, media outlets began portraying the ministry as an arm of the rebel force Hamas.

Foreign journalists had struggled to make sense of the carnage on October 17, and whether Israeli or Palestinian forces were to blame. The New York Times edited its headline several times, and initially reports may have overstated how many hundreds died. The Israeli army and U.S. President Joe Biden took advantage of the confusion to cast doubt on the truthfulness of Gaza’s medical authorities. https://progressivehub.net/the-western-media-is-amplifying-the-israeli-narrative/

2023-11-21 The BBC Has Finally Turned Against Israel! Ever since the October 7th Hamas attacks on Israel, the Israeli government has been allowed to get away with spreading all kinds of lies and propaganda, almost always echoed uncritically by the mainstream western media. But the latest episode of duplicity, involving a doctored video ostensibly showing evidence that the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza is used by Hamas as an operations center, was deemed too over the top even for BBC host Ros Atkins. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss what it means if Israel has lost the BBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBvkBXfirPo

2023-11-15 Israel-Hamas War: D.C. Rally DENOUNCES Antisemitism & DEMANDS Release Of Hostages | TBN Israel Join Erick Stakelbeck as he shares the latest updates on Israel’s war against Hamas, and his analysis from the “March For Israel” in Washington D.C. on Nov. 14, 2023. Hear from Alana Zeitchik, the cousin of six Israelis held hostage by Hamas, and Tovah Feldshuh as she condemns global antisemitism. Stay up-to-date with the latest here on TBN Israel! Please join us in praying for the peace of Israel and Jerusalem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HTDOBP9WdY

2023-11-07 Israel says there’s no lack of food, water and humanitarian supplies in Gaza In a press briefing to reporters, IDF Col. Elad Goren of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit insisted that amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, the levels of humanitarian assistance being supplied to Gaza were well above the minimum levels required by international law, and that the humanitarian situation is being constantly reviewed.

UN agencies such as the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and UNICEF, and other international agencies such as the World Health Organization have deplored the situation in the territory and called for increased supplies to be transferred, but have not stated that there are shortages of critical supplies.

Gaza health authorities, controlled by Hamas, say that more than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, but the figures issued by the terror group cannot be independently verified, and are believed to include its own terrorists and gunmen, as well as Palestinians killed by the hundreds of rockets fired by terror groups that have fallen short inside the Strip. https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-says-theres-no-lack-of-food-water-and-humanitarian-supplies-in-gaza/

2023-11-07 Thousands gather for pro-Israel rally in NYC, 30 days after Oct. 7 Hamas massacre Speakers at the event, held along Central Park West on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, mourned the attack’s 1,400 victims, demanded the release of the more than 240 hostages held in Gaza and decried rampant antisemitism in the US in recent weeks. Organizers estimated the crowd size at around 12,000 people. Participants carried photos of the hostages and signs reading “Bring our children home,” “Let my people go,” and “We stand with Israel.” Thousands streamed past police cruisers on their way to the event, chanting “Bring them home” and singing Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikvah.”

Speakers included Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Daniel Goldman, both Jewish Democrats; actors Brett Gelman and Debra Messing; and two relatives of hostages. Israeli singers Gad Elbaz and Idan Raichel performed for the audience. https://www.timesofisrael.com/thousands-gather-for-pro-israel-rally-in-nyc-30-days-after-oct-7-hamas-massacre/

2023-11-07 Moms Band Together to Fight Shocking Rise of Antisemitism on Campus: ‘It Scares the Living Daylights Out of Me’ Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks on Israel left 1,400 dead and immediately ignited war in the region, incidents of antisemitism have surged across the globe — and some of the ugliest have happened on college campuses in the U.S. Elizabeth Rand, a Jewish lawyer and mother of a son in his senior year of high school, felt she had to do something and turned to Facebook to create a group for other concerned moms. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/moms-band-together-to-fight-shocking-rise-of-antisemitism-on-campus-it-scares-the-living-daylights-out-of-me/ar-AA1jyCcV

2023-11-07 INSIDE ISRAEL: Spirituality Triumphs on the Battlefield, Turning Darkness into Light! This episode of our Inside Israel podcast highlights how Israelis, in the midst of a deadly war with Hamas following the October 7 massacre, are able to turn darkness into light. Witness how the people of Israel transform deeply hidden sparks of spirituality into massive flames of unimaginable light and power. Connection to G-d and adherence to Torah are the keys to delivering incredible success and open miracles on the battlefield. https://unitedwithisrael.org/inside-israel-spirituality-triumphs-on-the-battlefield-turning-darkness-into-light/

2023-11-06 Miss Israel Exposes Oppression In Gaza “Two weeks ago, on October 7, Hamas infiltrated the state of Israel after years of terror attacks, starting a war in my country,” Cochva said. “Their so-called ‘freedom fighters’ beheaded babies, raped young girls, kidnapped elderlies, burned entire families in their homes. They killed anyone they saw. Anyone. And our Kibutzim were burned to the ground,” Miss Israel added, referring to anti-Israel activists calling terrorists “freedom fighters.” Cochva also discussed the situation in Gaza, pointing out that Hamas misuses funds meant for the citizens and uses them to build terror bases. She emphasized that the blame for the humanitarian crisis in Gaza lies with Hamas, not Israel. https://www.stateofunion.org/2023/11/06/miss-israel-exposes-the-oppressive-organization-the-people-of-gaza-live-under-in-viral-video-2/

2023-11-06 Fighting Back: Moms Rally to Combat Antisemitism on Campus With antisemitism soaring in the U.S. and abroad following the horrific Hamas attacks of October 7th, a group of concerned mothers is organizing to counter the spread of anti-Jewish bigotry and harassment on college campuses. https://unitedwithisrael.org/fighting-back-moms-rally-to-combat-antisemitism-on-campus/

2023-11-05 Israeli Ambassador Slammed for Claiming ‘There Is No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza’ “Does he think the world is not seeing the horrific reality in Gaza? Does he think we will believe his lies?” said one peace advocate. “No, we won’t.” Despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations claimed in a televised interview Sunday that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” and was swiftly rebuked by people around the world.

Challenged by CNN’s Dana Bash, Ambassador Gilad Erdan doubled down on his position: “I’m not saying that the life in Gaza is great. And, obviously, Hamas is the only one that should be held accountable for any situation in Gaza. But there’s a standard, due to international humanitarian law.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-denies-gaza-humanitarian-crisis

2023-11-05 New Facebook group Mothers Against College Antisemitism has 43K members and counting https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-facebook-group-mothers-against-college-antisemitism-has-43k-members-and-counting/

2023-11-05 Israel’s Current Government Cannot Envisage Peace Alexandra Boutri: It’s been 27 or so days since Hamas unleashed a massacre in Israel, killing more than 1400 people and capturing more than 200 hostages. Since then, Israel has been hammering Gaza with airstrikes and artillery as retribution for the surprise attack by Hamas and Israeli ground forces have also moved inside the besieged region, though without a clearly stated objective other than to destroy Hamas. So far more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed, with the majority of them being women and children, and Gaza’s infrastructure has been totally destroyed. But let me start by asking you what you make of certain left-wing defenses of Hamas.

Netanyahu’s government didn’t seem to have a plan for what comes next when he declared war on Hamas and started the bombardment of Gaza Strip, but perhaps the hope was that the Israelis could somehow succeed in transferring Gaza’s Palestinians to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. It could also be the case, now that Israeli ground forces are inside Gaza, that they want to force all of Gaza’s Palestinians to move to the southern part of the besieged region. But I don’t think that Israel has any interest in governing Gaza.

The assault on Gaza is driven by rage. But I also believe that Netanyahu is mostly interested in quelling the public anger against him and is hoping that he can do so with a war against Hamas, which he called “a battle of civilization against barbarians.” And in the process of doing so, he doesn’t care how many “Palestinian animals” are killed. Apparently, this is what leaders of civilized nations do, according to Benjamin Netanyahu! Nor does he care about the hostages. Unfortunately, however, he may have the majority of Israeli citizens on his side. Netanyahu’s government is more than extreme, but “Jewish Israeli citizens have moved significantly rightward over the years.” And hate speech against Palestinians seems to have become today something of a national sport for many Israelis. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-gaza-vision-for-peace

2023-10-31 Suspect in Antisemitic Threats at Cornell University Identified, Charged Patrick Dai, 21, was arrested and charged Tuesday for allegedly making threats against Cornell’s Jewish community. 21-year-old student at Cornell University has been charged by federal prosecutors for allegedly sending threats to the school targeting Jewish students and staff members. Patrick Dai, a junior at the university, was charged following an investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to federal prosecutors. Dai was arrested earlier Tuesday afternoon. Dai faces up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release if he is convicted of posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications. https://themessenger.com/news/antisemitic-threats-cornell-university-suspect-identified-patrick-dai

2023-10-30 Hidden History of Zionism What is the true definition of “Zionism”? When did the movement really begin, and why? Join us as we explore the surprising origins and hidden history of Zionism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OqyZUm05o7w

2023-10-30 Antisemitism Flares as Israel Wages War Against Hamas Anger against Israeli policy towards the Palestinians is hardly new, and in the past, far less intense Israeli attacks against Gaza have led to major protests against the government and often against the U.S. for supporting Israel. But the recent incidents suggest an increase in the volume and breadth of blatant and public antisemitism.

Nothing has matched the attack in Dagestan, where security forces took control of the airport Monday and arrested dozens of the attackers. Meanwhile, leaders of the region’s small Jewish population were wondering how to respond. In the U.S., meanwhile, President Joe Biden announced measures Monday to deal with a swell of antisemitism on American college campuses. Among other actions, the White House said the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security would partner with campus law enforcement to track online hate rhetoric and share federal resources with schools.

In Europe, France has recorded 800 antisemitic acts in the last three weeks, and in an address to the German Parliament, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a crackdown on antisemitism. Scholz said antisemitic slogans and demonstrations that glorified killings were actions “which we cannot accept here,” a thinly veiled reference to Germany’s Nazi past. https://themessenger.com/news/anti-semitism-flares-as-israel-wages-war-against-hamas

2023-10-23 Listen to Noa Tishby’s powerful speech! She is correct! We warned you! We warned you! Now, as we mourn our dead, let us fight to defend our people, to defend our home, our land. We will win! Am Israel Chai! The People of Israel Live!🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1099404717895865&extid=WA-UNK-UNK-UNK-IOS_GK0T-GK1C&ref=sharing&mibextid=qC1gEa

2021-05-29 Israel Narrative Management Is Getting Incredibly Desperate And Brazen Supporters of Israeli apartheid and mass murder are losing control of the narrative, which has led to redoubled perception management efforts ranging from the cringey to the iron-fisted. In the former category we’re seeing them pen entire articles attacking Seth Rogen for tweeting a fart emoji at virulent Israel apologist Eve Barlow and claiming that putting “fart” in Barlow’s name is the same as a literal pogrom. In the latter category they’re blowing up entire press offices and arresting Palestinian journalists. This is narrative management at its least subtle. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/israel-narrative-management-is-getting

2021-05-11 The Israel Narrative Is Crumbling Because Of Phone Cameras And The Internet There are a lot of factors contributing to the growing awareness of Israel’s brutality, but I think the main reason is very simple: there are only so many viral videos of unconscionable acts that can be dismissed with “Actually this is way more complicated than it looks.” It is not more complicated than it looks. Clearly. It looks bad because it is bad. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-israel-narrative-is-crumbling

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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Iran

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

Iran

Updated 2024-08-26

2024-08-21 Cause of helicopter crash that killed Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi revealed The helicopter crash in which president Ebrahim Raisi was killed was allegedly caused by bad weather conditions, Iran’s initial probe has found. Raisi, 63, died alongside Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and two senior local officials on board the helicopter on 19 May. The bodies were found after hours of frantic search through a foggy mountainous region in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province.

The president and the other men were flying in a US-made Bell 212 helicopter, when due to harsh weather conditions the aircraft lost the ability to handle the weight it was carrying, Fars news agency reported, citing a security source. “The investigation in the case of Ayatollah Raisi’s helicopter crash has been completed,” the unnamed source told the news agency. The source stressed it was absolutely certain that “what happened was an accident”. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/cause-of-helicopter-crash-that-killed-iranian-president-ebrahim-raisi-revealed/ar-AA1pdRLm?

2024-08-14 Seeds of Today’s Middle East Disaster Were Sown by the CIA | Opinion Seventy-one years ago this week, a pair of energetic American brothers carried out a plan to overthrow a pesky Middle Eastern government, setting in motion a chain of events that has the region on the cusp of all-out war. The convoluted tale offers a clear illustration of a truism we tend to ignore: Beware most of all the consequences that are unintended.

In the summer of 1953, the target of U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and his brother, CIA director Allen Dulles, was Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who had nationalized Iran’s oil industry. It was a popular move that was part of a broader effort to assert Iranian sovereignty and please Iranians frustrated with foreign control of their resources.

Mossadegh set about reforming the system to diminish the power of the pro-Western head of state, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had been in power for just a decade and was the latest incarnation of centuries of monarchic rule. Having come of age in World War II, the “Shah of Iran” was mindful of the preferences of the victors, chiefly the United States and Britain, and knew well that they preferred their oil close at hand.

As the government seized more and more of the shah’s authority, he attempted to dismiss Mossadegh through a royal decree—but the premier refused to step down, leading to a political crisis. Fearing for his safety, the shah fled Iran, going first to Baghdad and then to Rome, leaving Mossadegh briefly fully in charge.

Enter the brothers Dulles, aided by Britain’s spy agency, MI6. Only declassified in recent years, their Operation Ajax included all the hallmarks: Psychological warfare, bribes, orchestrated street protests and dark propaganda warnings of a world where the Soviet Union could gain a foothold in the oil-rich Middle East if Mossadegh’s nationalist agenda prevailed. The effort began in earnest on Aug. 15, 1953, and reached its climax four days later when pro-shah forces stormed Mossadegh’s residence, leading to his arrest. The shah was reinstated with U.S. and British backing, his return celebrated with orchestrated jubilation. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/seeds-of-today-s-middle-east-disaster-were-sown-by-the-cia-opinion/ar-AA1oNzhM?

2024-04-16 Checkmate The world’s attention has, rightfully so, been focused on the fallout from Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel on April 13-14, 2024. Iran’s purpose in launching the attack was to establish a deterrence posture designed to put Israel and the United States on notice that any attack against Iran, whether on Iranian soil or on the territory of other nations, would trigger a retaliation which would inflict more damage on the attacker than the attacker could hope to inflict on Iran. To achieve this result, Iran had to prove itself capable of overcoming the ballistic missile defense systems of both Israel and the United States which were deployed in and around Israel at the time of the attack. This Iran was able to accomplish, with at least nine missiles striking two Israeli air bases that fell under the protective umbrella of the Israeli-US missile defense shield.

The Iranian deterrence posture has implications that reach far beyond the environs of Israel or the Middle East. By defeating the US-Israeli missile defense shield, Iran exposed the notion of US missile defense supremacy that serves as the heart of US force protection models used when projecting military power on a global scale. T https://scottritter.substack.com/p/checkmate

2024-04-14 The Missiles of April “The last thing I want to see,” I told the crowd, “is a scenario where Iranian missiles were impacting on the soil of Israel. But unless Israel changes course, this is the inevitable outcome of a policy driven more by arrogance than common sense.”

On the night of 13-14 April 2024, my concerns were played out live before an international audience—Iranian missiles rained down on Israel, and there was nothing Israel could do to stop them. As had been the case a little more than 33 years prior, when Iraqi SCUD missiles overcame US and Israeli Patriot missile defenses to strike Israel dozens of times over the course of a month and a half, Iranian missiles, integrated into a plan of attack which was designed to overwhelm Israeli missile defense systems, struck designated targets inside Israel with impunity.

Despite having employed an extensive integrated anti-missile defense system comprised of the so-called “Iron Dome” system, US-made Patriot missile batteries, and the Arrow and David’s Sling missile interceptors, along with US, British, and Israeli aircraft, and US and French shipborne anti-missile defenses, well over a dozen Iranian missiles struck heavily-protected Israeli airfields and air defense installations. https://scottritter.substack.com/p/the-missiles-of-april

2024-4-13 Chikli calls for regime change: ‘We will soon bring a new dawn to Iran’ Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli called for regime change in Iran after the barrage of suicide drones launched at Israel by the Islamic state on Saturday night. “Tonight we learned that Iran’s Islamic terror regime is weaker than ever,” said Chikli. “Our freedom-loving brothers in Iran, now is the time to act, and with God’s help, we will soon bring a new dawn to Iran.”

Chikli shared on social media the remarks of the son of the deposed Iranian Shah, who said that the fates of Iranians and Israelis were intertwined by common hopes of peace and the common enemy of the Islamic republic.

Reza Pahlavi, Crown Prince and son of the late Mohammad Reza Shah of Iran also wrote on X that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was trying to start a war to save his regime. “Iranians have made it clear: the criminal mafia occupying Iran does not represent our nation, our values, or our aspirations,” said Pahlavi. “The path to lasting peace and security in the Middle East is to support the people of Iran who are fighting to reclaim our country and our rightful place in the world. I call on our friends in the region and Western powers to embrace this, lasting solution for our region and to empower the Iranian people, their allies for peace.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/chikli-calls-for-regime-change-we-will-soon-bring-a-new-dawn-to-iran/ar-BB1lA7zo?

2024-02-03 Iran Called Washington’s Aggression in Middle East ‘Strategic Mistake’ – This is Why The US has made a huge blunder by attacking targets in Iraq and Syria, as it will only further inflame tensions in the already turbulent region, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani has said. In a statement on Saturday, Kanaani condemned the US airstrikes on various groups in the two countries. The ministry’s spokesman insisted that Washington had violated the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria,

American officials have claimed that the attacks targeted groups linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) Quds Force, an elite military unit specializing in foreign operations. Kanaani added that the root cause of the current region-wide crisis is “the occupation of the Israeli regime” as “the genocide of the Palestinians with the unlimited support of the United States.” The spokesman did not address US claims that it had attacked Iranian-affiliated groups. Tehran previously stated that regional groups that attacked American military facilities were acting independently and not on Iran’s orders.

Prior to the US moves, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also said that Tehran “will not be the initiator of any war,” but vowed to “respond firmly” to anyone who would try to pressure his country. All of these developments are directly linked to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as the attacks by Arab Resistance groups began as a direct response to the US support of Israel in its war on the Palestinians. .https://www.palestinechronicle.com/iran-called-washingtons-aggression-in-middle-east-strategic-mistake-this-is-why/

2024-02-01 Military Escalation Against Iran Is Foolish and Unjustified Biden administration has warned that if an Iran-backed militia attack kills U.S. troops, the U.S. could respond with strikes inside Iran.

“Hit Iran now. Hit them hard,” South Carolina’s Senator Lindsay Graham demanded. Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas said that Biden would be “a coward unworthy of being commander-in-chief” if he didn’t. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called for the imposition of “crippling costs…not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors.”

Yet expanding the war in the region to a wider war with Iran serves nobody’s interests. The utility of the residual 900 U.S. troops in Syria and 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq has outlasted its best before date. Now that the Islamic State is no longer the danger it was, that objective is outweighed by the provocativeness of the troops’ presence and the easy target they present. Expanding the war to Iran would be hard to contain. Iran has developed much stronger ties to China and Russia. Even if war with Iran didn’t risk drawing the U.S. into the war with Russia and China that has so far been avoided in Ukraine, it does risk breaking the dams in the region and drawing in countries from Lebanon and Yemen to Iraq, Syria, and beyond.

What’s worse is that the fatal strike on the U.S. base has not even altered the assessment of U.S. intelligence that Iran does not intend to start a wider war with the attack in Jordan. https://www.theamericanconservative.com/military-escalation-against-iran-is-foolish-and-unjustified/?

2023-12-2-30 IRGC commander: October 7 was independently conducted by Palestinians Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, told Iranian news organization IRNA this week that Hamas planned and executed the October 7 attacks on southern Israel without Iranian help. IRNA (Islamic Republic News Agency) is funded and controlled by the Iranian government.

Qaani reportedly commented at a commemoration of “martyr” Hossein Pourjafari that “resistance” groups across the Middle East each have their own independent and individual structures. “Resistance groups have grown step by step, and today, all the elements of the resistance front at their regional level make their own decisions and judgments.”

Iran funds numerous proxies in the region including Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis. All of these groups have launched regular attacks on Israeli military and civilian targets since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/irgc-commander-october-7-was-independently-conducted-by-palestinians/ar-AA1mdNHp

2023-12-23 Iran’s Khamenei calls on Muslim nations to block shipping to Israel Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday urged Muslim countries to prevent vital supplies from reaching Israel as the United States accused his country of “deep involvement” in attacks by Yemeni rebels against international shipping. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a meeting in Tehran with people from the Iranian provinces of Kerman and Khuzestan, denounced Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza as “bloodthirsty and cruel” and called on Islamic governments to take action against materiel heading to Israel. It is the duty of Muslim nations “to prevent goods, oil and fuel from reaching the Zionist regime, the regime which itself has blocked off water access to the people of Gaza,” Khamenei said, according to official news accounts. At the same time, the supreme leader “denounced some Islamic states for their criminal act of assistance towards the Zionist regime,” official media said. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-s-khamenei-calls-on-muslim-nations-to-block-shipping-to-israel/ar-AA1lWRn

2023-12-24 Iran summons Russia’s envoy again over islands dispute Iran has once more summoned the Russian envoy to Tehran after Moscow signed another joint statement with Arab nations calling for negotiations over three disputed islands that the United Arab Emirates claims as its own.

At the Foreign Ministry, the Russian envoy was reportedly told that respect for the territorial integrity of nations is a fundamental tenet in relations between any two countries. IRNA also said the official was told the three disputed islands “forever belong to Iran” which renders any outside claims unacceptable.

The islands in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, namely the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, have been governed by Iran since 1971 when its navy took control of them after British troops withdrew from what is today the UAE. The UAE claims them as part of its territory as well and has recently received increasing support on them from Russia and China, which Tehran also counts among its allies. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-summons-russia-s-envoy-again-over-islands-dispute/ar-AA1lYtV2

2023-12-09 Israeli strike kills son of Hezbollah’s Golan border terror chief – report The son of the head of Hezbollah’s terrorist operations near the Syrian-Israeli border was eliminated in an alleged Israeli drone strike in western Syria on Friday, according to Syrian reports. On Friday afternoon, Syrian media reported that four people were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike targeting a vehicle in Madinat al-Baath in the Quneit.

A little less than a week ago, two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed in alleged Israeli airstrikes which targeted sites near Damascus early Saturday morning, according to the IRGC.

The two were identified as Mohammad Ali Ataee Shoorche and Panah Taqizadeh, with the IRGC saying they were carrying out an “advisory mission” in Syria. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/israeli-drone-kills-son-of-hezbollah-s-golan-heights-terror-chief/ar-AA1lePXF

2023-11-24 Iran’s Khamenei warns in Hebrew that war in Gaza won’t go unanswered Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned that the IDF’s operations in the Gaza Strip would not go unanswered, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) in Hebrew on Thursday. “This bombing will not make up for the crushing defeat that the Zionist entity suffered (October 7). This bombing will shorten its life, while the deprivation and atrocities will not remain unanswered,” wrote Khamenei.

At the beginning of November, Khamenei published another tweet in Hebrew reading “The Zionist entity is lying to you, and it is also lying when it expressed concern about its prisoners with the Palestinians. Rather it also destroys them with the shelling it does. The occupying entity is helpless and confused now, and without American support will be silenced within days.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-s-khamenei-warns-in-hebrew-that-war-in-gaza-won-t-go-unanswered/ar-AA1ks8WC

2023-11-15 Iran tells Hamas it will not enter the war with Israel Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Ismail Haniyeh that Iran – a longtime backer of Hamas – would continue to lend the group its political and moral support, but would not intervene directly, according to three Iranian and Hamas officials with knowledge of the discussions who asked to remain anonymous. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-tells-hamas-it-will-not-enter-the-war-with-israel/ar-AA1jZkuR

2023-11-05 US Diplomatic Setbacks Make Isolating Iran Difficult A joint statement signed by the Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, U.A.E, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Morocco called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza Strip. In an admonition to the U.S. and Israel, the statement stated, “The right to self-defence by the United Nations Charter does not justify blatant violations of humanitarian and international law.” Looking ahead, the big question is about American intention. Is it muscle-flexing or a hidden plot to create facts on the ground that can be seized as casus belli to launch an offensive against Iran, which has been a longstanding project of the neoconservatives dominating the U.S. foreign policy discourses?

Biden declared at a press conference in the White House that he had warned Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that if Tehran continued to “move against” U.S. forces in the region, Washington would respond. To quote Biden, “My warning to the Ayatollah was that if they continue to move against those troops, we will respond. And he should be prepared. It has nothing to do with Israel.” Biden was referring to growing attacks on American bases in Iraq and Syria. The political deputy at the Iranian president’s office, Mohammad Jamshidi has since countered Biden’s remark, saying, “The U.S. messages were neither directed to the leader of the Islamic Revolution nor were they anything but requests from the Iranian side. If Biden thinks he has warned Iran, he should ask his team to show him the text of the messages.” https://consortiumnews.com/2023/11/05/us-diplomatic-setbacks-make-isolating-iran-difficult/

2023-11-05 Iran issues chilling threat to US over Israel war saying it will be ‘hit hard’ Iran has issued a chilling threat to the United States, warning it will be “hit hard” if it does not implement a ceasefire in Gaza, according to state media. The country’s Defense Minister Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani was quoted saying that America should “immediately stop the war”. According to Tasnim news agency, Ashtiani said: “Our advice to the Americans is to immediately stop the war and implement a ceasefire, otherwise you will be hit hard.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/iran-issues-chilling-threat-to-us-over-israel-war-saying-it-will-be-hit-hard/ar-AA1jquW9?

2023-11-04 Psychopathic Liar Nikki Haley Pushes War With Iran! Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign Republican Nikki Haley has emerged as perhaps the most ardent and bloodthirsty warmongering candidate, and that’s saying something among a group who are not shy about threatening military force all over the globe, from Russia to Israel to Mexico. Haley in particular wants to point U.S. military capabilities at Iran, which she blames for the recent Hamas attacks. Guest host Craig Jardula and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss Haley’s brazen lies about how Iran and Hamas are determined to kill Americans.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KlguVEaIIc&t=4s

2023-10-26 Iran’s Foreign Minister issued a direct warning to the United States at the UN: I say frankly to the Americans, who are now managing the war in Gaza, that we do not want the expansion of war into the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they [America] will not be spared from the fire. This is our home, and West Asia is our region. We do not compromise with any party or any side, and we have no reservation when it comes to our home security. https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1717577352048496955?

2023-10-25 Craig Murray: The Chances of a Regional War Gaza has no defense from bombs and missiles, and there is no military reason why Israel cannot keep this up for months and simply rely upon aerial massacre. We are perhaps within a week of thirst, starvation and disease killing even more people per day than bombardment. The population of Gaza is simply defenseless. Only international intervention can stop Israel from doing whatever it wishes, and those countries which have influence with Israel are actively abetting and encouraging the genocide.

Iran has greatly improved its diplomatic position in the last year. The Chinese-brokered lessening of hostility with Saudi Arabia has potential to revolutionize Middle Eastern politics and the benefits of this will not lightly be laid aside by Tehran. Iran had also made real progress with the Biden administration in overcoming the blind hostility of the Trump years.

Iran has no desire to throw away these gains. That is why it seems to me extremely improbable that Iran endorsed the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas. Iran is now restraining Hezbollah. But there are limits to the patience of Iran. The extraordinary truth is that Iran is probably the only state under discussion here with a genuine humanitarian concern for the lives of Palestinians. If the genocide unfolds as horribly as I anticipate, Iran can be pushed too far. https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/25/craig-murray-the-chances-of-a-regional-war/

2023-10-23 We Are Going To Wipe You Off The Face Of The Earth, Israeli Minister Threatens Iran Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat said on Sunday that the Israeli forces would “eliminate” Hezbollah and target Iran if the Palestinian militants open up a “northern front.” “The plan of Iran is to attack Israel on all fronts. If we find they intend to target Israel, we will not just retaliate to those fronts, but we will go to the head of the snake, which is Iran,” Barkat told The Mail on Sunday. He added, “the ayatollahs in Iran are not going to sleep good at night” if they move against Israel. Barkat warned that Lebanon and the pro-Palestinian militant group Hezbollah “are going to pay a heavy price, similar to what Hamas is going to pay.”

Israel would go “after the heads of Iran” if necessary, the minister said. “Israel has a very clear message to our enemies. We are saying to them, look what is happening in Gaza – you are going to get the same treatment if you attack us. We are going to wipe you off the face of the Earth.” https://countercurrents.org/2023/10/we-are-going-to-wipe-you-off-the-face-of-the-earth-israeli-minister-threatens-iran/

2023-10-18 Iran Warns of Possible Attacks Against Israel Amid Cross-Border Skirmishes Between Israel and Lebanon Turkey has said it is in talks with Hamas to release hostages taken by the group in its deadly October 7 attack in Israel. Meanwhile, Iran has warned of potential “preemptive” action against Israel as it prepares for a possible ground invasion of Gaza. Israel and Hezbollah, a Lebanese group backed by Iran, have been exchanging fire on the Israel-Lebanon border. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/18/headlines/biden_sides_with_israel_after_airstrikes_level_gazan_hospital_killing_hundreds_of_palestinians

2023-10-13 Hawks Are Using Gaza Violence as a Pretext for War with Iran The response in the United States to the surge of violence between Palestinians and Israelis holds no surprises whatsoever. The usual bipartisan contingent of pro-war figures in the political arena, the policy community, and the corporate news media presented a predictable narrative from the outset that quickly became dominant.

It is the same script that America’s pro-war elites used with respect to the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, the two wars with Iraq, and the disastrous meddling by the United States and its allies in Libya, Syria, and Ukraine. The motive is the same as well – to whip-up public support for the client that the U.S. government is backing and visceral hatred for the “aggressor.” Such imagery also is designed to create sentiment in favor of a possible direct U.S. military intervention.

The other, increasingly visible narrative theme is that Iran, using its Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon, has served as the inspirational and logistical godfather for the latest Hamas offensive. Indeed, some of them were involved in the dishonest campaign to tar Iraq for alleged involvement in the 9-11 terrorist attacks – an assertion that has been thoroughly debunked. Unfortunately, that lobbying effort was all-too-successful and paved the way for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, which unleashed chaos throughout the Greater Middle East. Such hawks are trying to get the Biden administration to go down a similar path with respect to Iran. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/hawks-are-using-gaza-violence-as-a-pretext-for-war-with-iran.html

2023-10-13 Iran’s Foreign Minister Meets Lebanese Leaders, Warns Israel Could Face “Other Fronts” Thousands of residents of southern Lebanon have fled their homes near Israel’s border amid fears that cross-border skirmishes between Israel and Lebanese militants could escalate into a war. The exodus continued Thursday as Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, traveled to Beirut, where he met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Iran has warned the war risks spreading to “other fronts” if Israel keeps bombing Gaza. https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/13/headlines/competing_pro_israel_and_pro_palestine_demonstrations_raise_tensions_on_college_campuses

2023-10-11 A Brutal Occupation Begets a Brutal War Between Israel and Hamas – Trita Parsi Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, analyzes Iran’s role in supporting Hamas’ brutal coordinated attack on civilians in Israel. Parsi unpacks Palestinian grievances, as well as Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment and illegal blockade of Gaza. With host Talia Baroncelli. https://theanalysis.news/a-brutal-occupation-begets-a-brutal-war-between-israel-and-hamas-trita-parsi/

2023-10-10 War Expansion: Israel Calls Hamas “Proxy of Iran” Israel says that it will “never forgive” this past weekend’s attack by Hamas and that the war will take “a long time” because the country is going to have to deal with the major “terrorist threat.” At the same time, Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said on Monday that Hamas is “the proxy of Iran” and accused the militant Palestinian group of carrying out “a historical massacre that the world will not forget.” https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/war-expansion-israel-calls-hamas-proxy-of-iran.html

2023-10-10 Israel Will Win This Iran-funded War But Middle East experts have dismissed Iranian denials, as it is well-known that Iran funds Hamas and supplies training and weapons to the terrorists. The recent Biden administration decision to release $6 billion to Iran has come under severe criticism as having, at least partially, lent a hand to the unfolding tragedy currently taking place. But the Biden administration is not the first.

Under the guidance of deposed Iran advisor Robert Malley – now under investigation for allegedly helping Iranian spies gain jobs in sensitive US government positions – the Obama administration in 2009 released $150 billion to the Iranian regime. With such an influx in cash, it is easy to see where that money went – to Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran also funded the Houthis in Yemen, who had been attacking Saudi Arabia for several years. Let it be crystal clear: Iran is the source of terrorism in the Middle East and Israel is fighting a proxy war with Iran in Gaza. https://www.activistpost.com/2023/10/israel-will-win-this-iran-funded-war.html

2020-01-16 Iran, Palestine, and the International Criminal Court https://codepink.substack.com/p/episode-23-iran-palestine-and-the-c4a#details

Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict

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International Law

Posted on October 23, 2023 by mekorganic

International Law

Updated 2024-08-26

2024-07-24 Netanyahu’s Visit to Congress Underscores US Contempt for International Law The U.S. has long ignored many commands of international law, but its casual disregard of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has come into sharp focus this week as the U.S. Congress extends a warm welcome to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just five days after the ICJ notified all UN member states that they have a legal “obligation not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

The World Court’s historic 83-page advisory opinion, which was issued on July 19 and held that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, was quickly hailed by Middle East political expert Nomi Bar-Yaacov as a “legal earthquake” and the strongest decision that the court had ever issued.

Unsurprisingly, however, both the Israeli and U.S. governments denounced the ICJ’s ruling and proceeded with their plans — including Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, D.C. — as if it had never occurred. https://truthout.org/articles/netanyahus-visit-to-congress-underscores-us-contempt-for-international-law/

2024-05-06 ‘Unlawful and Catastrophic’: IDF Begins Forced Evacuation of Rafah Israel’s army on Monday ordered roughly 100,000 people living in eastern Rafah to evacuate ahead of an imminent military assault on the area, terrifying families who have been forcibly displaced to the southern Gaza city in recent months and intensifying warnings of a bloodbath.

“Israel’s military offensive in Rafah could lead to the deadliest phase of this conflict, inflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area,” said Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council. “The relocation orders issued by Israel today to thousands of Gazans, directing them to move to Al-Mawasi, are beyond alarming. The area is already overstretched and devoid of vital services. It lacks the capacity to house the number of people currently seeking refuge in Rafah, with no assurances of safety, proper accommodation, or return once hostilities end for those forced to relocate.”

“The absence of these fundamental guarantees of safety and return, as required by international humanitarian law, qualifies Israel’s relocation directives as forcible transfer, amounting to a serious violation of international law,” Egeland said. “Any Israeli military operation in Rafah—which has become the largest cluster of displacement camps in the world—will cause potential mass atrocities.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/evacuation-order-rafah

2024-03-15 Israeli Assurances on US Weapons and International Law Called ‘Sick Joke’ “We know Israel won’t comply so long as there are no consequences,” said one advocacy group. “The U.S. must cut off weapons now!”

Israeli officials gave a written assurance to the Biden administration on Friday that it would use U.S. weapons in accordance with international law. The assurance comes more than five months into Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, in which the country’s U.S.-backed military has killed at least 31,490 Palestinians, including more than 12,300 children, while claiming to be targeting Hamas members.

Assal Rad, research director at the National Iranian American Council, noted that Israel has also killed at least 95 journalists in Gaza, attacked healthcare facilities, and starved civilians by blocking humanitarian aid deliveries while explicitly calling on the Israel Defense Forces to commit genocidal acts. https://www.commondreams.org/news/israel-assurances-weapons

2024-03-05 To Save Israel, the US is Destroying the International System It Once Constructed The coming years shall prove that the crisis in international legitimacy, resulting from the abuse of power, will hardly be rectified with superficial changes and reforms. In a conversation in 2020 with Princeton Professor Emeritus Richard Falk, he told me that historically, colonized nations that have won the legitimacy war have always won their freedom.

Palestine is unlikely to be the exception. The Gaza war, however, is confronting the world with an unprecedented challenge, specifically to governments’ relationship with international law and their obligations to international institutions, such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and others. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/israel-us-international-system

2023-11-10 UN Human Rights Chief Demands Investigation Into Israel’s Use of ‘High-Impact’ Explosives in Gaza The United Nations’ top human rights official on Friday demanded an investigation into the Israeli military’s bombardment of densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip with “high-impact explosive weapons,” a call that came as Israel’s forces surrounded Gaza’s largest city and reportedly attacked several hospitals packed with wounded and displaced civilians.

“After four weeks of bombardment and shelling by Israeli Forces in Gaza, the indiscriminate effects of such weapons in a densely populated area is clear,” Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement. “Israel must immediately end the use of such methods and means of warfare, and the attacks must be investigated.”

“Considering the predictable high level of civilian casualty and the wide scale of destruction of civilian objects,” Türk added, “we have very serious concerns that these amount to disproportionate attacks in breach of international humanitarian law.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/un-rights-chief-investigation-israel

2023-11-06 Israel and the Laws of War—A Conversation with Neve Gordon Writing in these pages in 2016, Lisa Hajjar noted Israel’s role as innovator when it comes to pushing the limits of international humanitarian law and challenging the law’s protections of civilians (the article, from MER issue 279, is worth reading in full). At the time, Hajjar speculated that Israel’s new interpretations might alter legal norms, mainstreaming extreme state violence. The piece is important for moving beyond the question of whether violence is legal to underscore the unevenness of humanitarian law as powerful states maneuver within it. To discuss these and other facets of the law as it is being mobilized in Israel’s ongoing campaign on Gaza, MERIP’s managing editor, Marya Hannun, spoke to Neve Gordon, professor of international law and human rights at Queen Mary University in London and co-author (with Nicola Perugini) of Human Shields: A History of People in the Line of Fire (University of California Press, 2020). Their conversation has been edited for length and clarity. https://merip.org/2023/11/israel-and-the-laws-of-war-a-conversation-with-neve-gordon/

2023-11-24 Israel’s War and Hamas’ Attack Through the Lens of International Law FEATURING STEPHEN ZUNES – The Israeli Army has issued evacuation orders to people living in Northern Gaza, demanding that they immediately relocate to Southern Gaza in anticipation of a deadly ground escalation of war. Israel’s latest war is in retaliation for a series of attacks by Hamas aimed at Israeli civilians that killed well over a thousand people and trapped about 100 hostages. So far, Israel’s air attacks on Gaza have been indiscriminate, also apparently targeting civilians. Over the weekend there were mass protests in cities around the world supporting Palestinian rights. Today we’ll examine what’s unfolding in Israel and Gaza through the lens of international law. https://risingupwithsonali.com/israels-war-and-hamas-attack-through-the-lens-of-international-law/

2023-10-13 It’s time to renew our commitment to international law As the war between Hamas and Israel escalates and threatens to spread north to Lebanon, you may be wondering where international law stands amid the death and destruction. The short answer is it has been missing in action. As the latest round of bloodshed illustrates, in times of war, law is subordinate to brute force and vengeance. https://www.alternet.org/unequal-justice-its-time-to-renew-our-commitment-to-international-law/

2023-10-12 Human Rights Lawyer Michael Sfard: “Israelis Must Maintain Their Humanity Even When Their Blood Boils” Michael Sfard, an Israeli human rights lawyer and expert on international human rights, calls for Israel to act within international law in response to Hamas’s attack on civilians Saturday. “My government is waging an attack that seems to be using war crimes to retaliate on war crimes,” says Sfard. “Modern international law prohibits, with no exception, collective punishment.” https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/12/israel_international_law