by Philip Giraldi

The first week in December of this year was all about America’s apparent inextinguishable love for the state of Israel. After a short pause to exchange hostages for prisoners, the Israelis re-launched their drive to exterminate the Gazans and steal what remains of their land and property. President Joe Biden, ably assisted by his ever-present sidekick State Department honcho Antony Blinken, welcomed the Jewish state’s onslaught by pushing the pedal to the metal on aiding the loveable Bibi Netanyahu while at the same time suggesting that the twenty thousand dead Palestinians and counting just might be a tad too much. Of course, the suggestion was limited to demonstrating what a great humanitarian, who is up for reelection, now sits in the Oval Office and was not supported by any real consequences for Israel should it ignore the advice, which it did. Biden then demonstrated where his heart truly was by expediting through the State Department a new shipment of munitions, an apparent gesture that keeps on giving to help the war effort, with some reports suggesting that upwards of two hundred US military aircraft have already made deliveries of more than 15,000 bombs to help Bibi kill more Pals.

The decision to provide more weapons to Israel coincides with a recommendation from Jerusalem’s right wing deputy mayor that captured Palestinians, whom he described as subhuman, should be buried alive, which elicited no comment from the White House. The Administration explained the rush delivery of the tank cannon munitions circumventing established congressional review procedures by saying that Israel urgently required the materiel to defend itself and that complying with Israeli demands is “vital to US national interests.” A State Department press release described the unusual procedure as having been “determined and provided [with] detailed justification to Congress that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to the Government of Israel of the above defense articles and services in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements under Section 36(b) of the Arms Export Control Act, as amended. The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability. This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives. Israel will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defense.”

As Hamas has no heavy weapons and it is not occupying or penetrating into Israeli territory, the explanation would appear to be more in the nature of another government “big” lie, somewhat similar to Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech before the UN in 2003 affirming that Iraq’s Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was preparing to use them. And it also challenges those who believe the United States is making an honest effort to reduce casualties among civilians. Josh Paul, the former State Department official who resigned to protest the provision of American weapons for use against the people of Gaza, reacted to the news with “…this expedited provision of lethal arms to Israel should cause some serious consideration of whether the secretary’s repeated assertions that the US seeks to minimize civilian casualties in Israel’s operation in Gaza are sincere.”

So, what made the first week in December different than any other in which the White House looks the other way and gives Netanyahu whatever he wants while Israel kills and kills and kills? Well, there was also more going on than just the provision of thirteen thousand nine hundred eighty-one (13,981) 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose with Tracer (MPAT) tank cartridges, worth a paltry $106.5 million. There was also a bit of bother at the United Nations, where a motion came to a vote that would have demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to permit negotiations to end the genocide that Israel is pursuing to end the Palestinian problem forever. The motion had been endorsed earlier in the week, by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who invoked a rarely used article of the UN Charter to urge the Security Council to “press to avert a humanitarian catastrophe” and pass a resolution for a “humanitarian cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants.” Guterres warned that the civilian death toll was approaching what he described as an “apocalyptic” level due to the bombing of infrastructure, starvation and disease. He called for the UN Security Council to stop the killing in Gaza as a basic responsibility under the UN Charter. Each day, UN officials on the ground in Gaza heroically struggled to feed, shelter, and protect the population from Israeli bombs and more than 100 UN staff have been killed, a higher death toll than for any other operation ever. The motion would have passed unanimously but for one little problem: the United States vetoed it, clearly acting under orders from Netanyahu, who later thanked Biden. The final vote was 13 to 1 with Britain abstaining and not voting. Blinken defended the move on the Sunday talk shows, saying that Israel’s effort to eliminate Hamas was a “legitimate goal.” He added that “When it comes to a cease-fire in this moment, with Hamas still alive, still intact, and again, with the stated intent of repeating October 7th again and again and again, that would simply perpetuate the problem.”

The US deputy representative to the UN Robert Wood, clearly acting under orders from the White House and State Department, explained his veto vote, saying that “…the resolution’s authors declined to condemn Hamas’ October 7th attack that killed 1,200 people, including women, children and elderly.” Wood added that the draft also “failed to acknowledge that Israel has the right to defend itself against terrorism.” Israeli Ambassador to the US Gilad Erdan thanked the White House “for standing firmly by our side.”

Frustrated by the US veto in the Security Council, on December 12th the UN General Assembly voted on the same resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel/Gaza conflict. The result was an overwhelming Yes: 153; No: 10; Abstain: 23. The US was again a “no” vote, together with Israel and the usual “associated” south Pacific island territories and Austria, Papua New Guinea, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Liberia and Paraguay . The vote took place at an “emergency special session” under a “Uniting for Peace” resolution introduced when the Security Council fails to act due to the veto of a permanent member, and there have been legal arguments made that such votes, like Security Council votes, can be construed as legally binding. Of course, that may be viewed as irrelevant, since Israel has rarely if ever complied with any UN resolution that it opposed, whether of the “binding” variety or not, and also since Israel’s effective control of the US government has guaranteed that its defiance will not produce any adverse consequences.

It was, reportedly, the forty-fifth time that Washington has used its veto to protect the state of Israel in the UN, which is why the Jewish state has never been held accountable for anything. Nor has the United States, which has started more wars against countries that did not actually threaten it than anyone else since the founding of the UN and, presumably, it could always use its veto to block such a motion against itself. The result is that the United Nations Security Council only exists to take action against countries that are not one of the permanent members of the Council or against Israel, which is protected by Washington.

One would think that all of the above would constitute a far above average week from hell, but there’s more, including yet another sustained attack on freedom of speech being mounted by politicians, the media and Jewish billionaires to block all and any criticism of Israel. The attacks started several months ago when students at a number of public and private universities began protesting over Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilians, leading to a death toll that is almost certainly currently approaching or exceeding 20,000 when all the corpses are dug up from the rubble of bombed buildings. Some politically ambitious scumbags like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis immediately declared that pro-Palestinian student groups were “antisemites” and banned them from Florida state universities while also declaring that no Palestinian refugees should be admitted to the US because they too were “Jew haters.”

As the anti-Palestinian narrative took shape in political, media and Zionist circles, it adopted a familiar line, which goes something like this: Israel is the Jewish state. If you criticize the Jewish state and/or Zionism you are therefore by definition an antisemite. Antisemitism is a “hate crime.” If you advocate or argue for any Palestinian group like Hamas, which the US government has labeled “terrorist,” you are providing “material assistance to terrorism” which is a crime for which you can be fined or imprisoned. Even if you merely criticize Jewish groups supporting Israel you are likewise an antisemite and have committed a “hate crime.” Neat, isn’t it? and the end result is that Israel, which is immune from the consequences of its actions internationally, also increasingly cannot be criticized at all without serious consequences for the critic. In other words, freedom of speech in the United States only exists, insofar as it does, if you are not disparaging Israel or even its friends due to their demonstrable behavior.

Some of those consequences were experienced recently by three presidents of prominent American universities, responding to a congressional grilling that was set up by allegations that colleges are hotbeds of antisemitism and are responsible for major increases in incidents targeting Jews. There is a certain irony in the allegations since Jews in America are the wealthiest, best educated, most politically powerful, most prestigiously employed and most protected by Homeland Security of all ethno-religious groups. And there is not much real evidence that Jews are in any way increasingly “victims” in the United States or in Europe. The antisemitic incidents that are “surging” are frequently based on criticisms of what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians and often consist of a Jewish college student being offended or annoyed by a poster or a speaker criticizing Israeli behavior. Instances of actual physical confrontation are few and far between and are immediately reported in the accommodating mainstream media to heighten the sense that Jews in America and even worldwide are threatened. Certain groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are heavily into the promotion of the narrative of Jew hatred as it is in their bottom line to do so given their donor base which likes to hear exactly that. In other words, it is all largely a contrivance to obtain political and economic benefits as well as a free pass on bad behavior that might not otherwise be forthcoming.

The three university presidents, all of whom were women, represented Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT and all three were highly respected in their respective professions prior to their presidencies. They did not anticipate New York Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, a Jewish Harvard product, who was out to nail them and make the case that academia hates Jews and is encouraging antisemitism. Stefanik was backed up by Jewish oligarchs who have threatened to sharply cut donations to the respective universities that do not toe the line, doing what Jews are often accused of doing, i.e. using their money and the power that it buys to stop all discussion on subjects that they find troubling.

Stefanik and company were particularly incensed by student pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanting “Intifada” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” She interpreted both expressions being calls for the destruction of Israel, which they are not. Intifada is “shaking off” in Arabic and is a call for liberating the Palestinian people and their land from the Israeli tyranny. The “river to sea” is somewhat similar, a call for a Palestinian state with actual sovereignty and neither is an explicit call for killing Israelis or Jews. They are generic cries for freedom. Stefanik curiously, though not surprisingly, did not mention the concurrent actual demands by senior Israeli government officials to displace or kill all Palestinians, something that they actually have the power to do and which might be regarded as a threat.

The university presidents were pilloried by congress, the White House, the Israel Lobby and the media by refusing to label all criticisms of the Zionist project and Israeli behavior as unacceptable “free speech” and through their assertion that the meaning of political slogans often depends on the context. For something or someone to qualify as a source of harassment, which is forbidden at the colleges in question, there has to be a direct threat made to another person. When that is present, it is harassment. When it is not, it is protected speech on a university campus, even if it is critical of group behavior or even racist. That is as it should be.

And if you thought that the week’s nastiness ended there, you would be wrong. There was also some disgraceful action during the week from Congress which rejected a Senator Rand Paul motion to withdraw US troops from Syria by a vote of 13 votes in favor and 84 votes against. Ironically, on the same day December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day, US bombers committed a war crime in killing 36 Syrian villagers in retaliation for a series of attacks on US bases. American soldiers are in Syria illegally basically to bring down the legitimate government of Bashar al-Assad, though they claim it is to confront ISIS terrorists. They are also sitting on Syria’s oil producing region and stealing the oil. Both Syria and neighboring Iraq would like to see the “Yankees go home” but the Pentagon alleges that the attacks on the bases have been carried out by groups affiliated with Iran, Washington and Israel’s prime enemy in the region, so the White House has decided that killing Syrian farmers is justifiable reciprocity. Meanwhile, Israel is bombing Syrian airports in Damascus and Aleppo on a regular basis, arguing that they are being used by the Iranian military and Revolutionary Guards.

During the week the Congress also passed a motion which partly explains why US foreign policy in the Middle East region is so incoherent. Congress declared by way of a GOP drafted and backed resolution that antizionism is to be considered antisemitism by a vote of 311 to 14, drawing the support of all but one Republican. Ninety-two Democrats voted “present” — not taking a position for or against the measure — while 95 supported it, paving the way for more hate crime persecutions and increasing legal liabilities for critics of Israel. Antizionism is, of course, not antisemitism as Zionism is a political movement and Judaism is a religion. In fact, many religious Jews reject the idea of a Jewish state and many secular Jews are currently active and even prominent in the humanitarian protests against Israel’s massacre of the Gazans.

Finally, the week also saw presentations by Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, both of whom explained their view of why Congress must pony up multiple billions of dollars for Ukraine. Biden warned explicitly and almost certainly incorrectly that “If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there. We’ll have something that we don’t seek and that we don’t have today: American troops fighting Russian troops.” Austin doubled down on the warning, telling members of Congress that he will send “your uncles, cousins, and sons to fight Russia if aid to Ukraine is not approved.” Biden and Austin’s delusion centers on a presumption that Russia’s Vladimir Putin will move to reconstruct the Soviet Union by taking the Baltic states, which are NATO allies, after he gobbles up Ukraine. It is a scare tactic based on no evidence whatsoever and Russia does not even have the desire or ability to take all of Ukraine, let alone recreate the USSR, which its leadership clearly recognizes. Fortunately, few in Washington and Europe have been buying the bullshit and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who made a surprise visit to Biden a few days later to plead for money, went home basically empty handed.

There probably is still more from that action packed week if I dig a bit deeper, but I am sure that readers get the point. It was a disastrous week for genuine United States’ interests and I don’t see anything that benefits the average American, quite the contrary. But this has been the pattern for a whole series of US administrations that have unfortunately done their best to destroy the United States as it once was along the lines of George W. Bush’s pledge to be the new sheriff in town ready and willing to engage in warfare against the whole world. Who will rid us of these monsters or are they too deeply entrenched in the system to be removed? That is the real question.

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/a-week-like-no-other/

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Should there be a ceasefire in Gaza? Yes!

Palestinian deaths in Gaza are approaching an horrific 20,000, plus another 55,000 wounded, as Israel expands its violence into the West Bank.

One hundred and fifty-three member nations of the United Nations General Assembly agreed to a draft resolution calling for a ceasefire. The US voted “NO.”

Is Pope Francis correct in saying this has “gone beyond war. This is terrorism” as he describes what is happening in Gaza? The pope was especially focused on the sniper-murders of Nahida Anton and then her daughter trying to carry her to safety inside the Holy Family Catholic Church compound in Gaza.

Their offense? Going to the only bathroom available.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has described it “an incident.” Contrary to constant Israeli statements to the contrary there were no warnings, no justification.

Nor were there warnings for Yotem Haim and two other Israeli young men – all former hostages – who appeared shirtless, holding a white surrender flag and calling out in Hebrew who they were. They were also killed by the IDF.

There was no warning for 8-year-old, Adam Somer al-Ghoul killed in the West Bank by the IDF — the murder caught on video,  especially the actions of his frantic friend, trying to pull his lifeless body behind a car.

And, of course, there was no warning given as Israel forced the medical staff and families away from the five babies left to die and decompose in a Gaza Hospital.

There are countless murders occurring in Gaza and the West Bank as the world holds it breath because Israel’s partner in the massacre, the United States, has parked its aircraft carriers nearby in the Gulf.

These deaths come on the heels of Hamas’ Oct. 7 atrocity as the cycle of violence builds year after year with a root cause, the illegal occupation, carefully avoided.

Thirteen of fifteen members of the UN Security Council recently called for a humanitarian cease fire. The US vetoed the resolution, with the UK abstaining. The US veto has protected Israel for decades from international condemnation.

The Biden Administration’s acrobatics over Gaza are a high wire act. One moment they piously intone concern about civilian casualties and the next send tons of additional bombs that kill indiscriminately, and artillery shells to continue the massacre.

Retribution (revenge) has morphed into calculated ethnic cleansing.

True friends would have advised restraint and a path to solve the conflict, not accelerate it, as Israel has done. True friends would have led Israel to address the cause of Oct. 7: The occupation of a people who live without most basic freedoms, further exacerbated by the attack on the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, one of the holiest sites in Islam.

The frequent warnings to Mr. Netanyahu from of Washington are theater.

Biden and Netanyahu are in this together. They need each other. Biden gives Netanyahu cover internationally to purge Gaza and the West Bank. Netanyahu gives Biden legitimacy as a defender of Israel in the run up to the 2024 election, especially in those constituencies sensitive to Israel’s concerns.

The Biden Administration and the Netanyahu government are cooperating in advancing a textbook case of genocide against Gazans, in full view of the entire world, daring anyone to step in the way.

It is doubtful that anyone will forcefully try to stop this destruction of an entire society because they have seen Israel again execute the Dahiya Doctrine: Massive, disproportionate, indiscriminate revenge against any society that resists their illegal military incursions and occupation.

My wife, Elizabeth and I walked the rubble of Dahiya, a residential section of Beirut, Lebanon, and throughout the string of flattened towns and villages in South Lebanon, shortly after Israel leveled them, in 2006. Gaza is the Dahiya Doctrine writ large; a slower-motion ethnic cleansing is taking place on the West Bank.

The death toll will mount dramatically as our President and Congress express grief while they send bombs. Once tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths are acceptable, hundreds of thousands of deaths will occur.

The goal of preventing another Oct. 7 atrocity by any means necessary – including a call to wipe out Palestinians– has anesthetized hearts, minds and souls of Israeli leaders who refer to the Palestinians as “human animals” and “ants” that should be buried alive.

Fear, and desire to make sure it never happens again, has impaired judgment and brings to aggressors that which they fear – – a continuation of attacks.

The pretext for  genocide no longer holds up: “We are only trying to eliminate Hamas and protect Israel.”  

Jewish people should be safe wherever they live. They have suffered discrimination world-wide. But throughout history, those who have felt such a depth of violence must know that subjugation and the infliction of mass violence on another group sows the seeds of a bitter harvest.

This massacre will only increase the desire of Palestinians for self-determination.

This war is not making Israelis safe or Jewish people safe anywhere in the world. It is widely viewed as being genocidal. The nightmare paradox is that through wiping out Palestinians in order to eliminate Hamas, Israel’s security threats will increase, endangering the survival of Israel itself.

I write this as someone who stands for the survival of Israel. As someone who can only imagine the grief and fear that the mechanized state murder of six million ancestors does to one.

I support the existence of the state of Israel and fully oppose all doctrines and charters which would seek to eliminate it.

I also stand for the survival of Palestinians.  One must recognize the continuing damage which the occupation has done to the Palestinians, the second-class citizenship they suffer, a condition  which has been characterized by President Carter as apartheid.

I stand on the side of peace, for the survival of both Israelis and Palestinians and for the ultimate resolution of this conflict.

Unfortunately, the killing of Palestinians will continue because the ultra-nationalists in the Israeli Administration have the upper hand in setting Israel on a course of continued ethnic cleansing.  Their political support is pivotal to Mr. Netanyahu’s continuation as Prime Minister, given his razor thin majority in the Knesset.

The plans to purge Gaza, the West Bank and South Lebanon will press forward, as will the risks of wider war. The massacres of Palestinians will continue, notwithstanding calls for a ceasefire, as will the increased danger to Israel.

The US could stop the war today if the Biden Administration wanted to do so. But it does not. The question is, why not? These are not the actions of a friend, because friends tell friends what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

Washington D.C. should also heed the warnings of Alon Schwarz, the director of the documentary, Tantura, who has said:

“Israel will never make peace with the Palestinians without outside help and maybe pressure to guide it to the right place….”

Will President Joseph Biden and the Congress be true friends to Israel and the Palestinians or only think about the next election while ignoring the inevitable cycle of horror they are doing nothing to stop?

https://ronpaulinstitute.org/can-israel-survive-if-there-is-no-ceasefire/

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In contrast to cricketer Usman Khawaja’s principled stand for human rights, the Liberal’s Simon Birmingham and Labor’s Josh Burns broadcast their judgements that the time is not right for a ceasefire. Commentary from these Australian MPs in response to slaughter in Gaza, both of whom are in Israel to show support for that country, shows their warped view of history and scant regard for humanity.

Any appraisal of the industrial scale killing in Gaza should cause us to feel gratitude for Khawaja. But, instead, criticism of the cricketer reached depths of inhumanity from those saying that concern for human rights should not be expressed by public entertainers, cricketers, actors or others.

The opening batsman wrote on his shoes, ‘All lives are equal, Freedom is a human right’, so the International Cricket Council threatened him with dire consequences if he wore those shoes on the Perth cricket ground. Khawaja responded that in reaction to thousands of women and children being slaughtered, the world had turned its back, hence his judgement that one way to retain hope for a common humanity was to express respect for universal human rights.

Oh dear, what a dangerous thing to say.

Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham is then reported as ‘lashing out’ against Prime Minister Albanese’s vote for a ceasefire. Birmingham might have noted that after weeks of procrastination, and only when he became aware of electoral damage from his support for Israel, Prime Minister Albanese had to be dragged to seek a ceasefire, and did so by coupling his new found courage with routine condemnation of Hamas.

At that point, policy for a ceasefire is castigated as weak. Pontificating from Israel, and no doubt under orders from bully boy leader Peter Dutton, Birmingham gives the media the usual explanation that a ceasefire will only help Hamas. Does Birmingham think that nothing happened before October 7?

The same stupidity, a desperate need to ignore history, is repeated by another Israel supporting MP. Labor’s Josh Burns gives his limp explanation as to why he cannot support the Prime Minister’s vote for a ceasefire. Irrespective of the votes of 152 countries for peace to start, for slaughter to temporarily end, Burns explains that as much as he wants to pray and wish for a ceasefire, and a ‘return to the situation prior to October 7’, he will sing from the same hymn book as Birmingham.

These Federal politicians have been supported by the CEO of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Mr. Alex Ryvchin who attacked what he calls the Prime Minister’s weakness in supporting a ceasefire, which will only support Hamas and prolong the war.

These public figures’ opposition to a cease fire is justified by repeated references to the Hamas slaughter and taking of hostages on October 7, a taken for granted judgement which raises no questions about the decades of Israeli terrorists who have murdered Palestinians, displaced thousands and destroyed homes. Such acts are justified by the amoral repetition, that Israel has a right to defend itself.

Preoccupation with Hamas attacks of October 7 has deflected attention from a history which could remind eager-for-Israel politicians as to what happened before October 7.

Over decades, Palestinian lands had been under military occupation. In defiance of UN Resolutions and with the connivance of Israeli police, 700,000 messianic Jewish settlers have stolen and occupied Palestinian and Bedouin lands and homes.

Body counts provide no rationale for moral judgements. Even one killing of a Palestinian or Israeli is too many, but in the name of security, Israeli repression, murder and other brutalities had been underway for 50 years. Human Rights Watch reports that in the last 20 years, armed Palestinian groups on the West Bank had killed over 1000 Israelis civilians but in military incursions into Gaza in 2008/9 and in 2014, over 3,000 Palestinians were killed including 400 children, and in the Gazan 2018 March of Return protests, hundreds were killed by Israeli sniper fire and over 20,000 badly injured.

Following those events, no Federal politicians rushed to Gaza or to Ramallah to express solidarity with the Palestinian people. No political leader asked that public buildings be draped with the Palestinian flag.

If the details of history are of no interest, at least the present end of time catastrophe in Gaza should prompt Federal politicians to consider whether they should be appearing at the Rafah crossing, not in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

Those politicians might not want to delve into history but present information is surely enough. They must know that in this Israel ‘war’, an estimated 20,000 Gazans have been killed and 300 West Bank residents murdered by armed settlers or the IDF. Over 80% of Gazans are displaced, well over 50% of all buildings destroyed or damaged, food, water and medical supplies are unavailable in what has become a living hell.

How much more killing must occur before politicians who wish to show solidarity with Israel will cease describing calls for a ceasefire as weak? The killings, starving and destruction are an end of time catastrophe, so too the utterances of public figures who would not be seen in Usman Khawaja’s shoes.

At least that gutsy cricketer’s stand shines a human rights light. A light without which the darkness of violence and slaughter will continue to be promoted by supporters of Israel as the best way to solve problems. And even, hear this, that violence and slaughter will bring peace.

https://johnmenadue.com/usman-khawaja-for-humanity-australian-mps-for-israel/

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