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Justin..Thanks for Filtering that for our Friend Tatyana..Cheers
following Finkelstein´s and JACK´s traces of the “Martyrdom” study – “Operation Cast Lead” was followed by “Pillar of Defense” 2012. That was initiated by the assassination of Hamas truce negotiator Ahmad Jaabari. As Finkelstein says, the killing occured a few hours before the longterm cease-fire was to be signed. This would have confronted PM Netanyahu at that time with a peaceful sit. which he does not like.
The article suggesting that killing Jaabari was to sabotage the peace is written by his then Israeli counterpart Gershon Baskin. This is also quoted in Finkelstein´s book.
The article archived here, originally on The Daily Beast
“Assassinating The Chance For Calm”
originally published Nov.15 2012
by Gershon Baskin
https://archive.ph/NJq8L#selection-1247.66-1247.79An anonymous BBC reporter on JACOBIN writing about what is going on internally with BBC concerning Gaza:
“The BBC Is Failing to Report the Ugly Truth About Israel’s War On Gaza”
By Anonymous BBC Journalist
Britain’s BBC is one of the world’s most influential and trusted news sources. But pressure from conservative political elites has warped its coverage of Israel’s war and caused it to downplay the violence being inflicted on Palestinian civilians.
https://jacobin.com/2023/11/bbc-israel-gaza-reporting-double-standards
The hypocrisy by the west regarding Ukraine and Israel is really immense:
IOC: israeli athletes will not be banned from sports participation, individuals are not responsible for what their governments are doing
https://swentr.site/news/586448-russia-olympic-hypocrisy-paris/
Meawhile the same IOC banned russian athletes just like that!Or take the hypocrisy of the ICC (the international criminal court)
And one last sentence about the ICC, because that’s another illustration of Western double standards. The chief prosecutor instituted a full investigation of war crimes but the present chief prosecutor Karim Khan, a British barrister, has completely failed to make progress in that investigation.
On the other hand, when Russia invaded Ukraine, within two days, he announced that he was going to institute a war crimes investigation, and within a week, he sent an advance team to Kyiv to start gathering the evidence for a war crimes investigation and trial. So, you couldn’t have a starker example of Western hypocrisy than condoning everything, all the war crimes that Israel commits, but supporting the ICC in its pursuit of Russian war crimes in the Ukraine.
https://thewire.in/world/full-text-israel-palestine-karan-thapar-avi-shlaim
Sigh, Biden send advisor/envoy to Lebanon to ease the situation – his name is Amos Hochstein, born in… Israel and served in the IDF for three years!
US envoy urges ‘restoring calm’ on Lebanon-Israel border
Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein on Tuesday urged for calm to return to Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, after weeks of skirmishes following the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
With people like this in charge there is no wonder why the US are not calling for a ceasefire..
Finkelstein and Maté at a live event discussing at OR Bookstore in NYC 5 hours ago, 2 hours long, I just got the message:
https://normanfinkelstein.substack.com/p/norman-finkelstein-goes-live-in-just“Israel Is Cracking Down on Internal Dissent”
By Isaac KD
Ronit Kory
Oren SchweitzerAs its indiscriminate assault on Gaza continues, Israel is ramping up repression of its own citizens for speaking out against the brutal war. The clampdown demonstrates the fragility of a “democracy” premised on occupation and apartheid.
https://jacobin.com/2023/11/israel-cracking-down-internal-dissent-gaza-idf-benjamin-netanyahu
severe stuff in Europe hardly anyone reports, in this detail may be nobody (I am leaving space for some doubt since I have not checked every major paper.)
“(…)
Though there aren’t any confirmed cases of Palestinians being shipped to Gaza, the police chief’s words were no idle threat. Two weeks ago, a popular left-wing Israeli commentator, who wishes to remain anonymous, recorded and shared a video telling his followers to not post too much about the ongoing war in Gaza, warning them they might be prosecuted for opposing the government’s war policy. For the crime of posting this video, the police beat both him and his father and detained him for several days. The government also closed his bank account, claiming he is a “supporter of terrorism.”This has been the reality for many brave Israelis these past two weeks who have been willing to speak out against the Netanyahu government and its destructive war. Among those who have been arrested is Dalal Abu Amneh, a popular Palestinian-Israeli singer, who the Israeli police threw into solitary confinement for two days for posting a picture of the Palestinian flag. Other arrests have gone unreported due to fear of future reprisals.
The internal crackdown on dissent hasn’t been limited to Palestinian Israelis. At the beginning of the war, Ofer Cassif, the only Jewish socialist member of Israel’s Knesset, was suspended for forty-five days for his public criticism of Israel’s war policy, calling for an end to the Israeli occupation, and comparing the slaughter of Gazans to the Nazis’ “Final Solution.” Left-wing activists have even been arrested for putting up posters stating “Jews and Arabs, we will get through this together.”
The handful of antiwar protests have been met with state violence. The day after the massacre at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, the Herak Haifa movement, a broad social movement of Palestinians in Haifa, called a demonstration in the city. They were met by a mob of cops, who beat up and arrested the organizers before the protest began and arrested a journalist who was taking videos of the arrests.
(…)”Responding resolutely and hard, to punish the Hamas barbarians, is one thing; to keep hitting the civilians is another. Listen to this American nurse. It’s more than a harrowing tale: one cannot believe that the scenes she’s describing are happening in our time:
American nurse who got out of Gaza describes desperation she saw (CNN, 7 Nov 2023) – YouTube, 8m 53s
Islamophobe Douglas Murray blast palestinians for their mistreatment of a woman during 7th of october
Douglas Murray blasts Gazans for cheering on as woman paraded half-naked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZcNEnjVa4EThat palestinians, in the millions have been mistreated for decades is apparently of no concern for Murray. Land theft, occupation, racism, arbitrary detention, torture, beating of kids, killing, wanton destruction, men/female rape by israeli soldiers is what palestinians endure day in and day out but as soon as 1 jewish woman is mistreated, oh then he wakes up trying to make a moral argument!?
Israelis held to an ‘unfair’ and ‘intolerable’ standard: Douglas Murray
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfvI6NyMfF0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfvI6NyMfF0How could your mind get so perverse that you believe that a child killing, hospital bombing regime is treated unfairly?
What is is it far-right and Israel? Is it the nazi-like ideology they are drawn to?
Just a note of appreciation to the posters here… this is actually a pretty good thread, distilling the relevant news not promoted terribly well on MSM, and doing a better job of it than a number of sites dedicated to news aggregation.
I highly recommend this lecture by Ilan Pappe who is a professor in the Middle East department in Exeter University. It not only gives a quick historical background but also analysis the current situation. He also gives advice as how to tackle the current attempts at limiting criticism of Israel by conflating anti zionism with antisemitism.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OcjOP8iUCULe Monde today, calls Israeli attack on French Institute in Gaza incomprehensible, Presumably because any other wording would be in danger of new rules on not criticising Israel. See https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/11/03/france-calls-israeli-strike-on-the-french-institute-in-gaza-incomprehensible_6225716_7.html
similiar topic: officialdom –
At the daily press conference of the German government the government representatives present see no legal problem with what the IDF is doing in Gaza.
German language article:
“Over 4000 children killed in Gaza fall under the German government’s “right to self-defense”
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=106425It includes this UN-statistics per image in English on current fatalities (10,569 killed and 26,475 injured) and damage inflicted:
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/upload/bilder/231109-BPK-Screen1.jpg(…)At the recent Federal Press Conference, the German government stated that it “expressly” distances itself from the assessment that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law with its actions. On the contrary, Tel Aviv has the “permanent right” to “defend” itself accordingly.(…)
The piece itself is quoting excerpts from the Q&A:
Deputy speaker of the government, Hoffmann:
“(…)We believe that Israel has the right to defend itself after the brutal and inhumane attack by Hamas, which claimed the lives of 1,400 Israelis, and that this right is permanent, as the attacks on Israel and the threat to Israel continue. In this respect, we are of the opinion that Israel has the right to defend itself.
(…)
Q: Ms Hoffmann, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is talking about a “children’s cemetery” in Gaza. Would the German government agree to this?
(…)
A: As I said, we are of the opinion that Israel has the right to defend itself. But we assume, as the Federal Chancellor has said on several occasions, that Israel, as a democratically constituted country, is aware of international law and abides by it. That is what we assume.We are, of course, aware of what is happening in Gaza and, above all, we are very concerned about the humanitarian situation and believe that humanitarian aid could be provided. We ourselves have also increased humanitarian aid for the people in Gaza and have spoken out in favor of humanitarian ceasefires there in order to be able to provide this aid and care for the population there.
(on the current G7 meeting in Tokyo and statements made by Baerbock there):
A: The Minister has given the following points of orientation: Gaza must no longer pose a terrorist threat in future; Palestinians must not be displaced; no occupation of Gaza, but the best possible international protection; no territorial reduction of Gaza; no solution over the heads of the Palestinians.
(on numbers of casualties):
A: Of course, and this has been expressed time and again, the aim is to avoid civilian casualties in this conflict as far as possible. This is an important concern and we see that this should be ensured as far as possible.
I can’t give you specific figures at this point. As I believe Mr. Hebestreit made very clear at the last government press conference, we do not have any credible information, because Hamas is not a credible source for us, and certainly not when it comes to casualty figures. In this respect, I cannot provide exact figures here.
(…)”oh and from our fathers of democracy:
US House Votes to Censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over Criticism of Israel’s War on Gaza
https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/us-house-votes-to-censure-rep-rashida-tlaib-over-criticism-of-israels-war-on-gaza/“The resolution was passed in a 234-188 vote. Twenty-two Democrats voted with Republicans to rebuke Tlaib.
The resolution accused Tlaib of “promoting false narratives regarding the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and for calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.”
The controversy was further fuelled by a video she shared on social media that included the slogan, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“I will not be silenced and I will not let you distort my words,” said the congresswoman representing Michigan.
“I can’t believe we have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings just like anyone else.”
p.s. if one thinks about all this – its just incredible. When one assumed after the intellectual failures in the UKR case it could not become worse…
500 former Biden staffers call for Biden to impose a ceasefire and for him, to also admit, the ethnic cleansing and apartheid by Israel as the root of the conflict. Good effort!
Former Biden campaign staffers call for Israel-Hamas ceasefire
“You must call for a ceasefire, hostage exchange, and de-escalation, and take concrete steps to address the conditions of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing at the root of the horrific violence we are witnessing now.”
There is of course not the plan US/Israel have in mind, instead US/Israel working non-stop with arab leaders to get the hostages out in return for a ceasefire,
Mossad, CIA chiefs meet Qatar PM in Doha on Gaza hostage deal – source
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/mossad-cia-chiefs-meet-with-qatar-pm-doha-over-hostage-deal-source-2023-11-09/
That some 11000 palestinians now have been killed is of no concern for these people only to get the jew hostages out. Again, the arab leaders treachery is mind blowing.So to sum it up, first Israel wage a genocidal war on the palestinans, then they demand Gaza to release hostages and in return palestinians could get some more aid into Gaza. Aid that they have the inherent right to every day of the week!
The ‘Martyrs of Gaza’ account (link below) is attempting to keep track and document just some of the many, many lives snuffed out by Israel’s butchery. Such a waste of potential and young lives here. The university that many of these people attended has also been completely destroyed.
The US and European politicians blathering about ‘hate marches’ and how criticism of Israel is antisemitism, should scroll through these names and faces. The people their supplied weapons are maiming & killing.Great article by Mouin Rabbani
The United Nations Fails in Palestine, Again
https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/45494/The-United-Nations-Fails-in-Palestine,-AgainThe UN sec. general condemn Hamas with ease and claim they use “human shields” not a word, not even a naming of Israel of their genocidal war. He is not even calling for a ceasfire, even though multiple UN organizations in Gaza have been deliberately targeted and multiple UN workers murdered israeli attacks.
There is also a comparsion how clearcut the sec. general was from the getgo of the russian invasion, then he did not mince his words.additionally: UN or some NGO stated in the past (I can´t find the quote, but it´s in one of Finkelstein´s appearances as of late)) that there was hardly any evidence if at all for the human shield argument, it mostly being pure fabrication. (And if used – Sarah Whitson pointed out on Non-Zero podcast 3 weeks ago – it should be stressed that the IDF has its military installations within civil structures and thus any attack must also hit non-military “subjects”. Not by coicidence I would assert. So same goes for them.)
* * *
Jacobin on the German side again:
“Germany Is Weaponizing Its Historical Guilt to Demonize Israel’s Critics”
https://jacobin.com/2023/11/germany-weaponizing-historical-guilt-demonize-israel-critics-holocaust-antisemitism-palestine-warOf course there is always this bieas inherent to the author´s thinking (the introdcution e.g.) but all in all better than no text.
Here btw the official German government´s English-language defintion/position on antisemitism:
https://www.antisemitismusbeauftragter.de/Webs/BAS/EN/fight-against-antisemitism/ihra-definition/ihra-definition-node.htmlexcerpt:
“Furthermore, the state of Israel, being perceived as a Jewish collective, may be the target of such attacks.”
In May 2016, the IHRA plenary meeting in Bucharest adopted this working definition, which was proposed as a German-Romanian initiative. The wording is based on an internal definition that was developed by the predecessor of the European Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) in 2004 to provide a Europe-wide standard for antisemitism-monitoring on the part of the FRA. The definition is not legally binding. But by adhering to it, Germany documents that it is striving to combat the phenomenon of antisemitism, both internally and externally, and to take a differentiated perspective on it. On 20 September 2017, the definition quoted above was adopted by Cabinet decision and circulated. The Federal Government has thereby laid the groundwork for a shared understanding of antisemitism at national level. The actions of the Federal Government Commissioner are also guided by this definition.
In Germany, this definition is already being applied in many areas of public life, at least at federal level:
- for relevant events and publications of the Federal Agency for Civic Education;
- by memorial sites, documentation centres and historical museums in relevant contexts;
- as a guideline for further developing the “Demokratie leben” (Living democracy) programme sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
- as a part of the antisemitism seminars that are included in the training at the federal security agencies, i.e. the German intelligence services, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police.
…there are some money quotes in JACK´s above linked Mouin Rabbani text…which everyone should read.
(re: internal UN politics.)
I assume one reason why Mokhiber quit.5000 children killed, not to mention some 4000 adult civilians slaughtered, US response? US State Department says it hasn’t so far found evidence for Israeli war crimes in Gaza
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-state-department-says-it-hasnt-so-far-found-evidence-for-israeli-war-crimes-in-gaza/This is only a mockery of justice it is a cynical mockery of reality.
Same with the EU, after 1 month of relentless sadistic bombing they only want to talk about the palestinan warcrimes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1DKZFMVs9UHow can they claim that Israel is not commiting warcrimes?? If thousands of civilians are killed – what does say according to the EU? Even for arguments sake if these 5000 children deaths were “mistakes” it would still be grave warcrimes because that would mean Israel have not taken the precaution before striking Gaza, so either way, deliberately or not, Israel commit warcrimes full stop.
I do not understand why it is in the western elites interest to support grave crimes by a state that is not even in the western world, why is it so important to defend this carnage!? What would west benefit from this support? How can they believe that peace will come afer this? Sickening.
One cannot eradicate Hamas, Hamas is the very foundation of the people in Gaza, even former PLO reps. admit this!
A href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH-gJDTPrBc”>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH-gJDTPrBc500 dock workers in Genoa, Italy, on strike, refusing to ship arms to Israel.
German:
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/462891.arbeiter-gegen-krieg-streik-f%C3%BCr-den-frieden.html
Same in Belgium, where members of the union of transport are on strike.
German
https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/462329.gaza-krieg-arbeiter-gegen-kriegsgesch%C3%A4fte.htmlIt also mentions the 150 British employees of Israeli arms manufacturer “Instro Precision” blocking the gates of the factory in Kent.
A few days ago I mentioned the notion that Israeli security is regarded as “Staatsräson” – as reason of state/ raison d’état – of the German state. Although there is no legal basis for this. (its a bit like the emergence of the obscure “rules-based order”.)
Today a frm. German diplomat, Gerhard Fulda, wrote a short comment on the fabrication of the term “Staatsräson” which has no tradition in contemporary German constitutional law what so ever (only with Machiavelli and history of the law). Nonetheless within weeks it has turned into a bludgeon against any sound argument (rooted in intern. law) against Israeli war crimes and conduct in general.
The German language text here:
“The term “reason of state” should no longer be used in our relations with the State of Israel”
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/?p=106511summary with a few excerpts:
The term “Staatsräson” first showed up in 2004 in an essay by frm German Ambassador to Israel, Rudolf Dreßler. Dreßler unlike the text’s author is no lawyer. He had a union/worker background, was a specialist on social care issues with the Social Democrats and then probably as a token of friendship got that post in Tel Aviv.
Which means to say – he most likely did not come up with the use of the term “Staatsräson” after decades of research and reasoning in an area where hundreds of thousands of pages have been produced by highly academic people. But then 2008 Merkel for the first time out of thin air used it in her (in)famous Knesset speech.
“(…)
How could such a word find its way into the text of the German Chancellor’s speech to the Knesset on March 18, 2008?Four years earlier, Israel’s security had been described for the first time as a German reason of state in an essay by the then German ambassador to Israel, Rudolf Dreßler (in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschehen, April 4, 2004).
(…)It can therefore not be ruled out and is even likely that the intellectual roots of the revival of a term that has fallen out of use can be found among Israeli interlocutors.
This is also supported by another element in Dreßler’s essay: the word “reason of state” (…) first appears in the middle of the text as “Israeli reason of state”:
“Holocaust Remembrance Day at Yad Vashem is part of Israel’s reason of state.”
This would make sense above all if one wanted to use the term “reason of state” to describe the reasons that led to the creation of the state: The Holocaust gave the decisive political impetus to Zionist efforts to find a home with its own state away from oppressed minorities in several states. – (contestable, my emphasis) –
Nevertheless, knowledge of such historical contexts has apparently not contributed to the widespread use of the language of reason of state in the Israeli media.
No one among the Hebrew-speaking experts on Israel that I know has found a reference to this. When asked, they all said they had never heard of this idea.
But Dreßler can’t have simply made it up.
So far, no one has claimed to have inserted the reason of state into the draft for Merkel’s speech to the Knesset, which was written by whomever, and to have convinced the Chancellor of this.
(…)”The author then concludes that Shimon Stein, historian and lawyer and frm Ambassador from Israel to Berlin, several publications on antisemitism and “reason of state”, had a close relationship with Merkel. So it is not unlikely that he came up with this. And thus suggested to make Israeli security a German reason of state, a thought that originally had nothing to do with German legal thought and tradition. (and apparently is neither common in Israel.)
As I quoted last time: It has no legally binding significance but by now is treated in such a way.
p.s. Merkel is known to have had close relationships to particular people and far from public scrutiny making important decisions in very small and closed circles. Which of course is the opposite of democracy but one foundation for her longevity as chancellor. (May be Corbyn should have made an internship with Merkel.)
about the author:
“Gerhard Fulda, born in 1939, studied law in Hamburg and Freiburg and then spent a year and a half in Cairo. He worked as a diplomat in several Arab countries and was most recently ambassador to Indonesia from 2000 to 2004. He has been running the Iznik Gallery Berlin for old Islamic art since 2005. Fulda is a co-founder of the Alliance to End the Israeli Occupation and a member of the board of the German-Arab Society.”
It must be terribly painstaking for Iran, that is the only nation in the region that try to create a unity to stop this carnage, they are not even arabs of course, still they show more compassion than the arab league combined that still do nothing about the situation even though there are countless of sanctions measures to be taken:
Summit in Riyadh ‘very important’ for Iran’s Raisi
The Iranian president is hoping to get consensus among the 57 countries that are attending the joint Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation summit as he aims to push the agenda that Iranian officials have had since the start of the war: a complete boycott of oil and gas supplies to Israel.
We understand from local media outlets here that the Iranian president is going one step further in demanding a ban to selling arms to Israel, and that Arab countries impose a no-fly zone over their air spaces for Israeli flights until there’s a resolution to the conflict.
And in other news Israel have imposed sort of a blockade around the Al Shifa hospital that already face a humanitarian crisis!
These people are evil, they try to kill as many as possible before any potential ceasfire. “The Banality of evil” clearly rule Israel, killing children, starving civilians all normalized in this sick regime.RAF involved in the war? Better yet, how much is RAF involved in the war?
The S*n reported on Oct 27 the SAS was on “standby” at UK base on Cyprus.
Today we revealed 33 RAF transport flights from that UK base in Cyprus to Israel over past month.
It’s likely SAS is in Israel to assist Gaza campaign. Probably in advisory role but combat role possible.https://nitter.net/kennardmatt/status/1723086870949568852#m
“RAF admits to making 17 military flights to Israel since Gaza bombing began
But Declassified discovers 33 UK military transport flights to Tel Aviv in the last month, including every day for two weeks after the Gaza bombing began.”Aiding and abetting warcrimes, no wonder they refuse to call out Israel. Despicable.
