• Virtually the whole world now knows about Israel’s Genocide
    Five-year old Hind Rajab was the victim of a bomb manufactured in Iowa. Months later, the Biden administration is still sending weapons.

    Jonas E. Alexis, Senior EditorOctober 24, 2024
    VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel

    $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts
    Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

    The following article is written by The Nation magazine, one of the most well-known media outlets in the United States







    Israel Is Killing Whole Families in Gaza—With Weapons Made in America

    by James Bamford

    With half the world between them, there seems little to connect the bucolic Iowa village of Middletown, nestled along the Mississippi River, with the macabre moonscape of bombed-out apartment buildings on top of rotting corpses in the densely populated Tel al-Hawa (“Hill of the Wind”) neighborhood in the southern part of Gaza City. But the two have long been intimately entwined, especially since the morning of January 29, 2024, though few have come to realize it.

    That morning, after a night of bombings, the Israeli military was planning another deadly assault on Tel al-Hawa, and at 9:32 am it issued an order for the residents to evacuate immediately. Among those who heeded the order were Bashar Hamada and his family, who had evacuated to Tel al-Hawa from their home in another part of the city following an earlier attack. By then, according to the United Nations, 1.7 million people in Gaza—about 75 percent of its 2.2 million residents—had been internally displaced by the deadly assaults, with many displaced multiple times. On that cold and rainy Monday morning, Bashar, 44, and his wife Anam, 43, quickly packed into the family car their four children and their 6-year-old niece, Hind Rajab, who had dreams of becoming a dentist. Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamada, stayed behind and would follow later. “They were firing on anyone moving in the street,” she later told Al Jazeera.
    Almost immediately, Bashar realized he was in trouble, as the Israeli military swarmed the area and began opening fire. Hoping to avoid the bullets, he pulled his black Kia Picanto into the nearby Fares gas station. It was to no avail. Wissam called Bashar to check on them, but it was her 15-year-old niece, Layan, who answered the phone. “Only Hind and I are alive,” she screamed through sobs. “Hind is injured. Hind is bleeding. I’m bleeding.” The family then called the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), asking them to send an ambulance to the gas station. Omar Al-Qam, the PRCS dispatcher, quickly called the car and Layan answered. “They are shooting at us,” she screamed into the phone, according to a recording of the conversation. “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me.” Seconds later, there were only screams, as the sound of rapid machine gun fire could clearly be heard. Layan was never heard from again. A later analysis determined that the phone captured the sound of 64 gunshots fired from a tank in just six seconds.

    But before an ambulance could be dispatched, approval would first need to be obtained from Israeli authorities, a process that would take an inexcusable three hours. Inside the PRCS emergency center, where a sign reading “Targeting medical missions is a war crime” is affixed to a window, the dispatcher called back to the car. This time, it was Hind who answered the phone. Layan was dead, she told the dispatcher, then screamed, “The tank is next to me.… It’s moving in front of the car.” When asked if it was close, she replied, “Very, very… Come get me, come get me.… I’m so scared, please come!” Eventually, the dispatcher was able to patch Hind’s mother into the call. “I’ve been shot in my upper arm, my back, and my foot,” the 6-year-old told her.

    Satellite imagery taken that day shows numerous Israeli tanks in close proximity to where the car was attacked. And a scientific investigation by Forensic Architecture concluded that the shooter would have had a clear view of the car and its passengers. In other words, they would have been aware of the presence of two children. “The shape of the depression of the windshield,” the report adds, “suggests that it was run over by a light vehicle such as an Israeli military bulldozer made by Caterpillar.”
    Hours later the ambulance was nearby. “I’m coming up to the gas station,” the driver told Hind, “Oh, there it is.” But immediately, there was the sound of an explosion and the phone went dead. The family then called Hind, who said she was alive and had heard an explosion nearby. Her voice, however, was growing weaker and she said her mouth was bleeding. That was last they heard from their daughter.

    Twelve days later, the Israeli military finally withdrew, and the seven decomposing bodies of the family, including Hind, were discovered. The investigation found a total of 335 bullet holes, from a tank-mounted machine gun, in the car. About 50 meters away was the twisted and demolished wreckage of the ambulance, along with the bodies of the two paramedics, also victims of an Israeli tank. The medical personnel in the ambulance had been killed by the tank’s powerful cannon—another in the long list of Israel’s war crimes. Among the debris was a fragment from a 120-mm artillery shell clearly labeled M830A1, along with a serial number. It’s a shell designed to destroy tanks, not ambulances.

    That label and serial number traced back to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, located in Middletown, population 336. The area’s largest employer, the massive Ammunition Plant is housed on 19,011 acres and operated by the defense contractor American Ordnance, LLC, a subsidiary of Day & Zimmerman.
    The plant is just one of numerous defense contractors across the country feeding Israel with its bombs, bullets, and shells to bring death and destruction to more than 41,000 Palestinians—mostly innocent women and children like Hind and her family—and medical workers like the ambulance paramedics. And they’re met with no pushback from Washington, despite overwhelming evidence of brutal war crimes—violations of the Biden administration’s own arms transfer policy, meant to ensure that American-made weapons are used in accordance with international law, as well as the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to foreign military units that commit abuses.

    According to a study on the costs of war released last week by Brown University’s Watson Institute, the United States has spent at least $22.76 billion in taxpayer dollars on military aid to Israel and the region in the year since the war started on October 7, 2023. That includes numerous American-made critical parts for the tank that targeted Hind and her family; powerful American-made bombs like those dropped on her apartment block and on refugee camps, killing thousands in an instant; the American-made anti-tank shells like those that targeted the ambulance carrying the paramedics racing to her rescue; and American-made Caterpillar tractors like the one that crushed Bashar Hamada’s car in a final surreal attempt to obliterate the family inside.
    By last March, according to Responsible Statecraft, the Biden administration had already greenlighted more than 100 separate American weapons deals for Israel, or about one every 36 hours. That meant boom times for “Bombville”—McAlester, Oklahoma, the small town where the mammoth McAlester Army Ammunition Plant is located, and where America’s biggest non-nuclear bombs are built, before being shipped off to Israel. Behind high fencing, the facility occupies a 70-square-mile site—bigger in area than Washington, DC. The idea was to construct buildings far apart from each other so an explosion in one won’t cause a chain reaction.
    Among McAlester’s products is the 2,000-pound MK-84, manufactured by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. Since October 7, 2023, the Pentagon has shipped more than 14,000 of these behemoths to Israel for use in tiny, tightly packed Gaza. Enormously deadly and destructive, the MK-84 is four times heavier than the largest bombs the US let loose in Syria and Iraq in its war against ISIS. Its streamlined steel casing is loaded with 945 pounds of high explosive and can create a crater 50 feet wide and more than three stories deep. It can also penetrate up to 15 inches of metal or 11 feet of concrete, and causes lethal fragmentation to a radius of 400 feet. Nevertheless, Israel decided to drop them on overcrowded refugee camps in Gaza, where half the population is made up of children.
    According to Responsible Statecraft, in the first month of its war on Gaza, Israeli forces dropped more than 500 MK-84s—more than 40 percent of which targeted Israeli-designated densely-packed safe zones. By six weeks into the war, it had dropped 2,000-pound bombs more than 200 times. A UN investigation noted that heavy American-made bombs were also dropped on “residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market” on six occasions between October 9 and December 2, 2023, killing at least 218 people. “The number of fatalities could be much higher,” the UN noted. Amnesty International called the attack on the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp with one or two GBU-31s (modified MK-84s), “damning evidence of war crimes.” And an analysis by the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights determined that there was no military objective to justify the strike. But the bombs kept coming.

    ATTENTION READERS

    We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed
    In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.

    About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
    Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT.

    https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/10/virtually-the-whole-world-now-knows-about-israels-genocide/

    https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/10/virtually-whole-world-now-knows-about.html
    Virtually the whole world now knows about Israel’s Genocide Five-year old Hind Rajab was the victim of a bomb manufactured in Iowa. Months later, the Biden administration is still sending weapons. Jonas E. Alexis, Senior EditorOctober 24, 2024 VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State. The following article is written by The Nation magazine, one of the most well-known media outlets in the United States Israel Is Killing Whole Families in Gaza—With Weapons Made in America by James Bamford With half the world between them, there seems little to connect the bucolic Iowa village of Middletown, nestled along the Mississippi River, with the macabre moonscape of bombed-out apartment buildings on top of rotting corpses in the densely populated Tel al-Hawa (“Hill of the Wind”) neighborhood in the southern part of Gaza City. But the two have long been intimately entwined, especially since the morning of January 29, 2024, though few have come to realize it. That morning, after a night of bombings, the Israeli military was planning another deadly assault on Tel al-Hawa, and at 9:32 am it issued an order for the residents to evacuate immediately. Among those who heeded the order were Bashar Hamada and his family, who had evacuated to Tel al-Hawa from their home in another part of the city following an earlier attack. By then, according to the United Nations, 1.7 million people in Gaza—about 75 percent of its 2.2 million residents—had been internally displaced by the deadly assaults, with many displaced multiple times. On that cold and rainy Monday morning, Bashar, 44, and his wife Anam, 43, quickly packed into the family car their four children and their 6-year-old niece, Hind Rajab, who had dreams of becoming a dentist. Hind’s mother, Wissam Hamada, stayed behind and would follow later. “They were firing on anyone moving in the street,” she later told Al Jazeera. Almost immediately, Bashar realized he was in trouble, as the Israeli military swarmed the area and began opening fire. Hoping to avoid the bullets, he pulled his black Kia Picanto into the nearby Fares gas station. It was to no avail. Wissam called Bashar to check on them, but it was her 15-year-old niece, Layan, who answered the phone. “Only Hind and I are alive,” she screamed through sobs. “Hind is injured. Hind is bleeding. I’m bleeding.” The family then called the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), asking them to send an ambulance to the gas station. Omar Al-Qam, the PRCS dispatcher, quickly called the car and Layan answered. “They are shooting at us,” she screamed into the phone, according to a recording of the conversation. “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me.” Seconds later, there were only screams, as the sound of rapid machine gun fire could clearly be heard. Layan was never heard from again. A later analysis determined that the phone captured the sound of 64 gunshots fired from a tank in just six seconds. But before an ambulance could be dispatched, approval would first need to be obtained from Israeli authorities, a process that would take an inexcusable three hours. Inside the PRCS emergency center, where a sign reading “Targeting medical missions is a war crime” is affixed to a window, the dispatcher called back to the car. This time, it was Hind who answered the phone. Layan was dead, she told the dispatcher, then screamed, “The tank is next to me.… It’s moving in front of the car.” When asked if it was close, she replied, “Very, very… Come get me, come get me.… I’m so scared, please come!” Eventually, the dispatcher was able to patch Hind’s mother into the call. “I’ve been shot in my upper arm, my back, and my foot,” the 6-year-old told her. Satellite imagery taken that day shows numerous Israeli tanks in close proximity to where the car was attacked. And a scientific investigation by Forensic Architecture concluded that the shooter would have had a clear view of the car and its passengers. In other words, they would have been aware of the presence of two children. “The shape of the depression of the windshield,” the report adds, “suggests that it was run over by a light vehicle such as an Israeli military bulldozer made by Caterpillar.” Hours later the ambulance was nearby. “I’m coming up to the gas station,” the driver told Hind, “Oh, there it is.” But immediately, there was the sound of an explosion and the phone went dead. The family then called Hind, who said she was alive and had heard an explosion nearby. Her voice, however, was growing weaker and she said her mouth was bleeding. That was last they heard from their daughter. Twelve days later, the Israeli military finally withdrew, and the seven decomposing bodies of the family, including Hind, were discovered. The investigation found a total of 335 bullet holes, from a tank-mounted machine gun, in the car. About 50 meters away was the twisted and demolished wreckage of the ambulance, along with the bodies of the two paramedics, also victims of an Israeli tank. The medical personnel in the ambulance had been killed by the tank’s powerful cannon—another in the long list of Israel’s war crimes. Among the debris was a fragment from a 120-mm artillery shell clearly labeled M830A1, along with a serial number. It’s a shell designed to destroy tanks, not ambulances. That label and serial number traced back to the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, located in Middletown, population 336. The area’s largest employer, the massive Ammunition Plant is housed on 19,011 acres and operated by the defense contractor American Ordnance, LLC, a subsidiary of Day & Zimmerman. The plant is just one of numerous defense contractors across the country feeding Israel with its bombs, bullets, and shells to bring death and destruction to more than 41,000 Palestinians—mostly innocent women and children like Hind and her family—and medical workers like the ambulance paramedics. And they’re met with no pushback from Washington, despite overwhelming evidence of brutal war crimes—violations of the Biden administration’s own arms transfer policy, meant to ensure that American-made weapons are used in accordance with international law, as well as the Leahy Law, which prohibits assistance to foreign military units that commit abuses. According to a study on the costs of war released last week by Brown University’s Watson Institute, the United States has spent at least $22.76 billion in taxpayer dollars on military aid to Israel and the region in the year since the war started on October 7, 2023. That includes numerous American-made critical parts for the tank that targeted Hind and her family; powerful American-made bombs like those dropped on her apartment block and on refugee camps, killing thousands in an instant; the American-made anti-tank shells like those that targeted the ambulance carrying the paramedics racing to her rescue; and American-made Caterpillar tractors like the one that crushed Bashar Hamada’s car in a final surreal attempt to obliterate the family inside. By last March, according to Responsible Statecraft, the Biden administration had already greenlighted more than 100 separate American weapons deals for Israel, or about one every 36 hours. That meant boom times for “Bombville”—McAlester, Oklahoma, the small town where the mammoth McAlester Army Ammunition Plant is located, and where America’s biggest non-nuclear bombs are built, before being shipped off to Israel. Behind high fencing, the facility occupies a 70-square-mile site—bigger in area than Washington, DC. The idea was to construct buildings far apart from each other so an explosion in one won’t cause a chain reaction. Among McAlester’s products is the 2,000-pound MK-84, manufactured by General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems. Since October 7, 2023, the Pentagon has shipped more than 14,000 of these behemoths to Israel for use in tiny, tightly packed Gaza. Enormously deadly and destructive, the MK-84 is four times heavier than the largest bombs the US let loose in Syria and Iraq in its war against ISIS. Its streamlined steel casing is loaded with 945 pounds of high explosive and can create a crater 50 feet wide and more than three stories deep. It can also penetrate up to 15 inches of metal or 11 feet of concrete, and causes lethal fragmentation to a radius of 400 feet. Nevertheless, Israel decided to drop them on overcrowded refugee camps in Gaza, where half the population is made up of children. According to Responsible Statecraft, in the first month of its war on Gaza, Israeli forces dropped more than 500 MK-84s—more than 40 percent of which targeted Israeli-designated densely-packed safe zones. By six weeks into the war, it had dropped 2,000-pound bombs more than 200 times. A UN investigation noted that heavy American-made bombs were also dropped on “residential buildings, a school, refugee camps and a market” on six occasions between October 9 and December 2, 2023, killing at least 218 people. “The number of fatalities could be much higher,” the UN noted. Amnesty International called the attack on the crowded Jabaliya refugee camp with one or two GBU-31s (modified MK-84s), “damning evidence of war crimes.” And an analysis by the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights determined that there was no military objective to justify the strike. But the bombs kept coming. ATTENTION READERS We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion. About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT. https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/10/virtually-the-whole-world-now-knows-about-israels-genocide/ https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/10/virtually-whole-world-now-knows-about.html
    WWW.VTFOREIGNPOLICY.COM
    Virtually the whole world now knows about Israel’s Genocide
    Five-year old Hind Rajab was the victim of a bomb manufactured in Iowa. Months later, the Biden administration is still sending weapons.
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  • Israel’s Barbarianism
    How can Israel get away with it?

    November 12, 2023

    VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel

    $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts
    Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

    The Secret Of The Indomitable Strength Of Israel’s Barbarianism Upon Palestinians And the World’s Impotency

    by Mr. Nobody Zahir Ebrahim

    How Can Israel Get Away With It?

    If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world, fully aided and abetted by Western governments, with full propaganda covered by the Western news media, they have to understand the power of the name Rothschild and its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all governments and all news media…

    Statement on Israel-Palestine

    United States of America, Monday, November 6, 2023

    If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world; carried out with direct American and Western European governments’ aiding and abetting; executed by the indoctrinated foot soldiers of Zionism to save the Jews from the Amalekites, no differently from the indoctrinated foot soldiers of the Third Reich who carried out unspeakable horrors upon civilian populations under the blaring national trumpet of Lebensraum, and also not any differently from the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon civilian populations by the American and British Allied bombers from Dresden to Tokyo, not to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki under their own blaring national trumpets; while the international banksters and Wall Street profited from enabling both sides in the merciless killings not just of the foot soldiers of nationalism and patriotism, but the millions of unarmed civilian populations treated as dispensable cattle, burnt and obliterated alive in an unparalleled real Shoah for which the heavens too must shed tears in shame at its own criminal culpability for exiling such an inhuman monstrous species to earth and calling this ugly creature “al insaan”, human being; the world public must first get acquainted with the god-like power of the name Rothschild. And its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all Western governments, all politicians, and all news media.

    Even today very few Westerners have actually ever seen the Balfour Declaration, let alone know that it is addressed to Lord Rothschild. Forget about ever understanding its short treacherous proclamation by the British Empire to the Jews. If they did, they’d at least wonder WHY; ask WHY? Ask who is this Rothschild character. Does it still exist? Why has no one from a high school student of world history to a university student of any discipline ever actually read the short sentence-long Balfour Declaration?


    The Balfour Declaratiion
    Very few people in the world have also ever seen this map of Eretz Yisrael…. for then they’d stop listening to their criminal news media and criminal politicians in suits waving Israeli propaganda of anti-Semitism and self-defense against the Amalekites in the world’s silly ignorant face with such arrogance.

    Also, let’s stop fictitiously separating Jews from Zionists, and The Jewish State from The Zionist State for cowardly political correctness.

    And just because there are some handful of vocal outstanding moral Jews among the 20 million or so total number of Jewry in the world — from few hundred to few thousand, less than one percent, for even if their conscience was at least 1 percent strong, that would have seen 2 million Jews protesting worldwide against Israeli barbarism — who don’t treat goy as inferior to them, and value their life as much, and at times even more than their own; including the handful of secular Jews such as the Jewish Voices for Peace, and the tiny Neturei Karta Anti-Zionist Jewish orthodox sect, who rise-up in protest marches, and even a tinier handful in Jewish organizations like International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who actively stand up in the Holy Land of Jewish oppression to defend the Palestinians and take IDF sniper bullets to their head like the young 22 years old British activist and photo journalist Tom Hurndall , or mercilessly and deliberately butchered under IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers like the courageous young 23 years old American activist Rachel Corrie… all shouting Not In Our Name in virtually every Western country, including in Israel itself; and I of course salute these handful of real human being Jews as the real “Yahweh’s Chosen People” for they are better than us comatose 1.6 billion cowardly Muslims who all seem to be WAITING FOR ALLAH… ; let’s not forget that All Zionists in Israel are JEWS… and they claim so themselves, and most Jewry outside Israel, all mostly in important economic positions (none flip burgers in McDonald’s) support The Jewish State.

    Let’s just have at least this little self-respect and moral decency left among the spectating world to call a spade a spade!

    To really figure out why Israel can get away with its barbarism … and why wars are necessary … as David-Ben Gurion had famously explained the utility of revolutionary times to remake world order :

    “What is inconceivable in normal times is possible in revolutionary times, and if at this time the opportunity is missed and what is possible at such great hours is not carried out – a whole world is lost.”,

    See my attached book to this Press Release, Al Nakba 2020: World Order / Zionism – Palestinian-Goyim Studies | Yet Another Report on the Banality of Evil by Zahir Ebrahim



    Download the PDF Book


    ATTENTION READERS

    We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed
    In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.

    About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
    Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT.

    https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2023/11/press-release-israels-barbarianism/
    Israel’s Barbarianism How can Israel get away with it? November 12, 2023 VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State. The Secret Of The Indomitable Strength Of Israel’s Barbarianism Upon Palestinians And the World’s Impotency by Mr. Nobody Zahir Ebrahim How Can Israel Get Away With It? If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world, fully aided and abetted by Western governments, with full propaganda covered by the Western news media, they have to understand the power of the name Rothschild and its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all governments and all news media… Statement on Israel-Palestine United States of America, Monday, November 6, 2023 If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world; carried out with direct American and Western European governments’ aiding and abetting; executed by the indoctrinated foot soldiers of Zionism to save the Jews from the Amalekites, no differently from the indoctrinated foot soldiers of the Third Reich who carried out unspeakable horrors upon civilian populations under the blaring national trumpet of Lebensraum, and also not any differently from the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon civilian populations by the American and British Allied bombers from Dresden to Tokyo, not to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki under their own blaring national trumpets; while the international banksters and Wall Street profited from enabling both sides in the merciless killings not just of the foot soldiers of nationalism and patriotism, but the millions of unarmed civilian populations treated as dispensable cattle, burnt and obliterated alive in an unparalleled real Shoah for which the heavens too must shed tears in shame at its own criminal culpability for exiling such an inhuman monstrous species to earth and calling this ugly creature “al insaan”, human being; the world public must first get acquainted with the god-like power of the name Rothschild. And its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all Western governments, all politicians, and all news media. Even today very few Westerners have actually ever seen the Balfour Declaration, let alone know that it is addressed to Lord Rothschild. Forget about ever understanding its short treacherous proclamation by the British Empire to the Jews. If they did, they’d at least wonder WHY; ask WHY? Ask who is this Rothschild character. Does it still exist? Why has no one from a high school student of world history to a university student of any discipline ever actually read the short sentence-long Balfour Declaration? The Balfour Declaratiion Very few people in the world have also ever seen this map of Eretz Yisrael…. for then they’d stop listening to their criminal news media and criminal politicians in suits waving Israeli propaganda of anti-Semitism and self-defense against the Amalekites in the world’s silly ignorant face with such arrogance. Also, let’s stop fictitiously separating Jews from Zionists, and The Jewish State from The Zionist State for cowardly political correctness. And just because there are some handful of vocal outstanding moral Jews among the 20 million or so total number of Jewry in the world — from few hundred to few thousand, less than one percent, for even if their conscience was at least 1 percent strong, that would have seen 2 million Jews protesting worldwide against Israeli barbarism — who don’t treat goy as inferior to them, and value their life as much, and at times even more than their own; including the handful of secular Jews such as the Jewish Voices for Peace, and the tiny Neturei Karta Anti-Zionist Jewish orthodox sect, who rise-up in protest marches, and even a tinier handful in Jewish organizations like International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who actively stand up in the Holy Land of Jewish oppression to defend the Palestinians and take IDF sniper bullets to their head like the young 22 years old British activist and photo journalist Tom Hurndall , or mercilessly and deliberately butchered under IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers like the courageous young 23 years old American activist Rachel Corrie… all shouting Not In Our Name in virtually every Western country, including in Israel itself; and I of course salute these handful of real human being Jews as the real “Yahweh’s Chosen People” for they are better than us comatose 1.6 billion cowardly Muslims who all seem to be WAITING FOR ALLAH… ; let’s not forget that All Zionists in Israel are JEWS… and they claim so themselves, and most Jewry outside Israel, all mostly in important economic positions (none flip burgers in McDonald’s) support The Jewish State. Let’s just have at least this little self-respect and moral decency left among the spectating world to call a spade a spade! To really figure out why Israel can get away with its barbarism … and why wars are necessary … as David-Ben Gurion had famously explained the utility of revolutionary times to remake world order : “What is inconceivable in normal times is possible in revolutionary times, and if at this time the opportunity is missed and what is possible at such great hours is not carried out – a whole world is lost.”, See my attached book to this Press Release, Al Nakba 2020: World Order / Zionism – Palestinian-Goyim Studies | Yet Another Report on the Banality of Evil by Zahir Ebrahim Download the PDF Book ATTENTION READERS We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion. About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT. https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2023/11/press-release-israels-barbarianism/
    WWW.VTFOREIGNPOLICY.COM
    Israel’s Barbarianism
    How can Israel get away with it?
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  • Israel’s Barbarianism
    How can Israel get away with it?

    November 12, 2023

    VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel

    $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts
    Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

    The Secret Of The Indomitable Strength Of Israel’s Barbarianism Upon Palestinians And the World’s Impotency

    by Mr. Nobody Zahir Ebrahim

    How Can Israel Get Away With It?

    If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world, fully aided and abetted by Western governments, with full propaganda covered by the Western news media, they have to understand the power of the name Rothschild and its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all governments and all news media…

    Statement on Israel-Palestine

    United States of America, Monday, November 6, 2023

    If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world; carried out with direct American and Western European governments’ aiding and abetting; executed by the indoctrinated foot soldiers of Zionism to save the Jews from the Amalekites, no differently from the indoctrinated foot soldiers of the Third Reich who carried out unspeakable horrors upon civilian populations under the blaring national trumpet of Lebensraum, and also not any differently from the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon civilian populations by the American and British Allied bombers from Dresden to Tokyo, not to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki under their own blaring national trumpets; while the international banksters and Wall Street profited from enabling both sides in the merciless killings not just of the foot soldiers of nationalism and patriotism, but the millions of unarmed civilian populations treated as dispensable cattle, burnt and obliterated alive in an unparalleled real Shoah for which the heavens too must shed tears in shame at its own criminal culpability for exiling such an inhuman monstrous species to earth and calling this ugly creature “al insaan”, human being; the world public must first get acquainted with the god-like power of the name Rothschild. And its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all Western governments, all politicians, and all news media.

    Even today very few Westerners have actually ever seen the Balfour Declaration, let alone know that it is addressed to Lord Rothschild. Forget about ever understanding its short treacherous proclamation by the British Empire to the Jews. If they did, they’d at least wonder WHY; ask WHY? Ask who is this Rothschild character. Does it still exist? Why has no one from a high school student of world history to a university student of any discipline ever actually read the short sentence-long Balfour Declaration?


    The Balfour Declaratiion
    Very few people in the world have also ever seen this map of Eretz Yisrael…. for then they’d stop listening to their criminal news media and criminal politicians in suits waving Israeli propaganda of anti-Semitism and self-defense against the Amalekites in the world’s silly ignorant face with such arrogance.

    Also, let’s stop fictitiously separating Jews from Zionists, and The Jewish State from The Zionist State for cowardly political correctness.

    And just because there are some handful of vocal outstanding moral Jews among the 20 million or so total number of Jewry in the world — from few hundred to few thousand, less than one percent, for even if their conscience was at least 1 percent strong, that would have seen 2 million Jews protesting worldwide against Israeli barbarism — who don’t treat goy as inferior to them, and value their life as much, and at times even more than their own; including the handful of secular Jews such as the Jewish Voices for Peace, and the tiny Neturei Karta Anti-Zionist Jewish orthodox sect, who rise-up in protest marches, and even a tinier handful in Jewish organizations like International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who actively stand up in the Holy Land of Jewish oppression to defend the Palestinians and take IDF sniper bullets to their head like the young 22 years old British activist and photo journalist Tom Hurndall , or mercilessly and deliberately butchered under IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers like the courageous young 23 years old American activist Rachel Corrie… all shouting Not In Our Name in virtually every Western country, including in Israel itself; and I of course salute these handful of real human being Jews as the real “Yahweh’s Chosen People” for they are better than us comatose 1.6 billion cowardly Muslims who all seem to be WAITING FOR ALLAH… ; let’s not forget that All Zionists in Israel are JEWS… and they claim so themselves, and most Jewry outside Israel, all mostly in important economic positions (none flip burgers in McDonald’s) support The Jewish State.

    Let’s just have at least this little self-respect and moral decency left among the spectating world to call a spade a spade!

    To really figure out why Israel can get away with its barbarism … and why wars are necessary … as David-Ben Gurion had famously explained the utility of revolutionary times to remake world order :

    “What is inconceivable in normal times is possible in revolutionary times, and if at this time the opportunity is missed and what is possible at such great hours is not carried out – a whole world is lost.”,

    See my attached book to this Press Release, Al Nakba 2020: World Order / Zionism – Palestinian-Goyim Studies | Yet Another Report on the Banality of Evil by Zahir Ebrahim



    Download the PDF Book


    ATTENTION READERS

    We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed
    In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion.

    About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy
    Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT.


    https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2023/11/press-release-israels-barbarianism/
    Israel’s Barbarianism How can Israel get away with it? November 12, 2023 VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel $ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State. The Secret Of The Indomitable Strength Of Israel’s Barbarianism Upon Palestinians And the World’s Impotency by Mr. Nobody Zahir Ebrahim How Can Israel Get Away With It? If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world, fully aided and abetted by Western governments, with full propaganda covered by the Western news media, they have to understand the power of the name Rothschild and its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all governments and all news media… Statement on Israel-Palestine United States of America, Monday, November 6, 2023 If the world public really wants to understand the secret of the indomitable strength of Israeli barbarism upon unarmed Palestinian civilian men women and children with such impunity before the impotent world; carried out with direct American and Western European governments’ aiding and abetting; executed by the indoctrinated foot soldiers of Zionism to save the Jews from the Amalekites, no differently from the indoctrinated foot soldiers of the Third Reich who carried out unspeakable horrors upon civilian populations under the blaring national trumpet of Lebensraum, and also not any differently from the unspeakable horrors inflicted upon civilian populations by the American and British Allied bombers from Dresden to Tokyo, not to forget Hiroshima and Nagasaki under their own blaring national trumpets; while the international banksters and Wall Street profited from enabling both sides in the merciless killings not just of the foot soldiers of nationalism and patriotism, but the millions of unarmed civilian populations treated as dispensable cattle, burnt and obliterated alive in an unparalleled real Shoah for which the heavens too must shed tears in shame at its own criminal culpability for exiling such an inhuman monstrous species to earth and calling this ugly creature “al insaan”, human being; the world public must first get acquainted with the god-like power of the name Rothschild. And its ability to hide in plain sight because it owns all Western governments, all politicians, and all news media. Even today very few Westerners have actually ever seen the Balfour Declaration, let alone know that it is addressed to Lord Rothschild. Forget about ever understanding its short treacherous proclamation by the British Empire to the Jews. If they did, they’d at least wonder WHY; ask WHY? Ask who is this Rothschild character. Does it still exist? Why has no one from a high school student of world history to a university student of any discipline ever actually read the short sentence-long Balfour Declaration? The Balfour Declaratiion Very few people in the world have also ever seen this map of Eretz Yisrael…. for then they’d stop listening to their criminal news media and criminal politicians in suits waving Israeli propaganda of anti-Semitism and self-defense against the Amalekites in the world’s silly ignorant face with such arrogance. Also, let’s stop fictitiously separating Jews from Zionists, and The Jewish State from The Zionist State for cowardly political correctness. And just because there are some handful of vocal outstanding moral Jews among the 20 million or so total number of Jewry in the world — from few hundred to few thousand, less than one percent, for even if their conscience was at least 1 percent strong, that would have seen 2 million Jews protesting worldwide against Israeli barbarism — who don’t treat goy as inferior to them, and value their life as much, and at times even more than their own; including the handful of secular Jews such as the Jewish Voices for Peace, and the tiny Neturei Karta Anti-Zionist Jewish orthodox sect, who rise-up in protest marches, and even a tinier handful in Jewish organizations like International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who actively stand up in the Holy Land of Jewish oppression to defend the Palestinians and take IDF sniper bullets to their head like the young 22 years old British activist and photo journalist Tom Hurndall , or mercilessly and deliberately butchered under IDF Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers like the courageous young 23 years old American activist Rachel Corrie… all shouting Not In Our Name in virtually every Western country, including in Israel itself; and I of course salute these handful of real human being Jews as the real “Yahweh’s Chosen People” for they are better than us comatose 1.6 billion cowardly Muslims who all seem to be WAITING FOR ALLAH… ; let’s not forget that All Zionists in Israel are JEWS… and they claim so themselves, and most Jewry outside Israel, all mostly in important economic positions (none flip burgers in McDonald’s) support The Jewish State. Let’s just have at least this little self-respect and moral decency left among the spectating world to call a spade a spade! To really figure out why Israel can get away with its barbarism … and why wars are necessary … as David-Ben Gurion had famously explained the utility of revolutionary times to remake world order : “What is inconceivable in normal times is possible in revolutionary times, and if at this time the opportunity is missed and what is possible at such great hours is not carried out – a whole world is lost.”, See my attached book to this Press Release, Al Nakba 2020: World Order / Zionism – Palestinian-Goyim Studies | Yet Another Report on the Banality of Evil by Zahir Ebrahim Download the PDF Book ATTENTION READERS We See The World From All Sides and Want YOU To Be Fully Informed In fact, intentional disinformation is a disgraceful scourge in media today. So to assuage any possible errant incorrect information posted herein, we strongly encourage you to seek corroboration from other non-VT sources before forming an educated opinion. About VT - Policies & Disclosures - Comment Policy Due to the nature of uncensored content posted by VT's fully independent international writers, VT cannot guarantee absolute validity. All content is owned by the author exclusively. Expressed opinions are NOT necessarily the views of VT, other authors, affiliates, advertisers, sponsors, partners, or technicians. Some content may be satirical in nature. All images are the full responsibility of the article author and NOT VT. https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2023/11/press-release-israels-barbarianism/
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    Israel’s Barbarianism
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  • Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
    [email protected] August 2, 2024 genocide in Gaza, international criminal court, Israeli drone strikes, Lavender AI, rebuilding Gaza, rules of engagement, US weapons
    Israel has torn up the rulebook on war. According to sources within the Israeli military, it now considers it acceptable to kill more than 100 Palestinian civilians in the pursuit of a single Hamas commander – a commander, let us note, who will simply be replaced the moment he is dead. (photo)


    Women and children in Gaza are being targeted intentionally, say Israeli whistleblowers. From ground troops to commanders, the rules of war have been shredded.

    by Jonathan Cook, reposted from Middle East Eye, July 18, 2024

    They just keep coming. On the weekend, Israel launched another devastating air strike on Gaza, killing at least 90 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more, including women, children and rescue workers.

    Once again, Israel targeted refugees displaced by its earlier bombs, turning an area it had formally declared a “safe zone” into a killing field.

    And once more, western powers shrugged their shoulders. They were too busy accusing Russia of war crimes to have time to worry about the far worse war crimes being inflicted on Gaza by their Israeli ally – with weapons they supplied.

    The atrocity committed at al-Mawasi camp, packed with 80,000 civilians, had the usual Israeli cover story – one rolled out to reassure western publics that their leaders are not the utter hypocrites they appear to be for supporting what the World Court has described as a “plausible genocide.”

    Israel said it was trying to hit two Hamas leaders – one of them Mohammed Deif, head of the group’s military wing – although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed uncertain as to whether the strike was successful.

    No one in the western media appeared to wonder why the pair preferred to make themselves a target in an overcrowded, makeshift refugee camp, where they were at huge risk of being betrayed by an Israeli informant, rather than sheltering in Hamas’s extensive tunnel network.

    Or why Israel deemed it necessary to fire a multitude of massive bombs and missiles to take out two individuals. Is that Israel’s new, expansive redefinition of a “targeted assassination?”

    Or why its pilots and drone operators continued the strikes to hit emergency rescue crews dealing with the initial destruction. Was there intelligence that Deif was not just hiding in the camp, but had hung around to dig out survivors, too?

    Or how killing and maiming hundreds of civilians in an attempt to hit two Hamas fighters could ever possibly satisfy the most basic principles of international law. “Proportion” and “distinction” require armies to weigh the military advantage of an attack against the expected toll on civilian life.

    Biblical vengeance

    But Israel has torn up the rulebook on war. According to sources within the Israeli military, it now considers it acceptable to kill more than 100 Palestinian civilians in the pursuit of a single Hamas commander – a commander, let us note, who will simply be replaced the moment he is dead.

    Even if the two Hamas leaders were assassinated, Israel could not have been in any doubt that it was perpetrating a war crime. But it has learned that, the more routine its war crimes become, the less coverage they receive – and the less outrage they provoke.

    In recent days, Israel has struck several United Nations schools serving as shelters, killing dozens more Palestinians. On Tuesday, another strike in the “safe zone” of al-Mawasi killed 17.

    According to the UN refugee agency, UNRWA, more than 70 percent of its schools – almost all of them serving as refugee shelters – have been bombed.

    Last week, western doctors who had volunteered in Gaza said Israel was packing its weapons with shrapnel to maximize injuries to those caught in the blast radius. Children, because of their smaller bodies, were being left with much more severe wounds.

    Aid agencies cannot properly treat the wounded, because Israel has been blocking the entry of medical supplies into Gaza. Committing war crimes, if western publics have not worked it out by now, is the very point of the “military operation” Israel launched in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s one-day attack on October 7.

    That is why there are more than 38,800 known deaths from Israel’s 10-month assault – and likely at least four times that number unrecorded, according to leading researchers writing in the Lancet medical journal this month.

    That is why it will take at least 15 years to clear the rubble strewn across Gaza by Israeli bombs, according to the UN, and as much as 80 years – and $50 billion – to rebuild homes for the remnants of the enclave’s 2.3 million people still alive at the end.

    Israel’s twin goals have been biblical vengeance and the elimination of Gaza – a genocidal rampage to drive the terrified population out, ideally into neighboring Egypt.

    Shoot-everyone policy

    If that was not clear enough already, six Israeli soldiers recently stepped forward to speak out about what they had witnessed while serving in Gaza – a story the western media has entirely failed to report.

    Their testimonies, published by the Israel-based publication 972 last week, confirm what Palestinians have been saying for months.

    Commanders have authorized them to open fire on Palestinians at will. Anyone entering an area the Israeli military is treating as a “no-go zone” is shot on sight, whether man, woman or child.

    Back in March, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz warned that the Israeli military had created just such “kill zones,” where anyone entering was executed without warning.



    After months of an Israeli aid blockade that has created a man-made famine, Israel’s military has turned the people of Gaza’s ever-more frantic search for food into a game of Russian roulette.

    This perhaps explains, in part, why so many Palestinians are unaccounted for – Save the Children estimates some 21,000 children are missing. The soldiers quoted in 972 say the victims of their shoot-everyone policy are bulldozed out of view along routes where international aid convoys pass.

    A reserve soldier, identified only as S, said a Caterpillar bulldozer “clears the area of corpses, buries them under the rubble, and flips [them] aside so that the convoys don’t see it – [so that] images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out.” The soldier also noted: “The whole area [of Gaza where the army operates] was full of bodies… There is a horrific smell of death.”

    Several of the soldiers reported that stray cats and dogs, denied food and water for months just like Gaza’s population, feed on the dead bodies.

    The Israeli military has repeatedly refused to publish its open-fire regulations since it was first challenged to do so in the Israeli courts in the 1980s.

    A soldier named B told 972 that the Israeli army enjoyed “total freedom of action,” with soldiers expected to shoot directly at any Palestinian approaching their positions, rather than a warning shot in the air: “It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.”

    When civilians were ordered to evacuate from a school serving as a shelter in Gaza City, B added, some mistakenly exited right towards the soldiers, rather than to the left. That included children. “Everyone who went to the right was killed – 15 to 20 people. There was a pile of bodies.”

    According to B, any Palestinian in Gaza can inadvertently find themselves a target: “It is forbidden to walk around, and everyone who is outside is suspicious. If we see someone in a window looking at us, he is a suspect. You shoot.”

    ‘Like a computer game’

    Drawing on military practices familiar in the occupied West Bank too, the Israeli army encourages its soldiers to shoot even when no one is engaging them. These random, indiscriminate eruptions of fire are known as “demonstrating presence” – or more accurately, terrorizing and endangering the civilian population.

    In other instances, soldiers open fire just to let off steam, have fun, or, as one soldier put it, “experience the event” of being in Gaza.

    Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist from Jerusalem, the only soldier prepared to be named, observed: “People were shooting just to relieve the boredom.”

    Another soldier, M, similarly noted that “the shooting is very unrestricted, like crazy” – and not just from small arms. Troops use machine guns, tanks and mortar rounds in a similar, unwarranted frenzy.

    A, an officer in the army’s operations directorate, pointed out that this mood of utter recklessness extended all the way up the chain of command.

    Although the destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and international aid organizations requires authorization from a senior officer, in practice, such operations are almost always approved. A said: “I can count on one hand the cases where we were told not to shoot. Even with sensitive things like schools, [approval] feels like only a formality … No one will shed a tear if we flatten a house when there was no need, or if we shoot someone who we didn’t have to.”

    Commenting on the mood in the operations room, A said destroying buildings often “felt like a computer game.” In addition, A cast doubt on Israel’s claim that Hamas fighters comprised a high proportion of Gaza’s death toll. Anyone caught in Israel’s “kill zones” or targeted by a bored soldier was counted as a “terrorist.”

    Burning homes

    The soldiers also reported that their commanders destroyed homes not because they were suspected of serving as bases for Hamas fighters, but purely out of an urge for revenge against the entire population.

    Their testimonies confirm an earlier Haaretz report that the army was implementing a policy of torching Palestinian homes after they served their purpose as temporary locations for soldiers. Green said the principle was: “If you move [on], you have to burn down the house.” According to B, his company “burned hundreds of houses.”

    A policy of wanton, vengeful destruction is similarly implemented – on a far larger scale – by Israel’s fighter pilots and drone operators, explaining why at least two-thirds of Gaza’s housing stock has been left in ruins.

    There are other deceptions too. One of the stated reasons for Israel being in Gaza is to “bring back the hostages” – many dozens of Israelis who were dragged into Gaza on October 7. That message, however, has apparently not reached the Israeli military.

    Palestinians return to their homes after the withdrawal of Israeli army from the eastern Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 30, 2024 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency]
    Palestinians return to their homes after the withdrawal of Israeli army from the eastern Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 30, 2024 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Green noted that, despite a blunderbuss operation last month that killed more than 270 Palestinians to rescue four Israeli hostages, the army is actually deeply indifferent to their fate.
    He said he heard other soldiers stating: “The hostages are dead, they don’t stand a chance, they have to be abandoned.”

    Back in December, Israeli troops shot dead three hostages waving white flags. Reckless shooting into buildings poses the same threat to the lives of hostages as it does to Palestinian fighters and civilians.

    Such indifference might also explain why the Israeli political and military leadership has been willing to conduct such a comprehensive bombing of buildings and tunnels in Gaza, risking the lives of the hostages as much as Palestinian civilians.

    Culture of violence

    The story told by these soldiers in 972 should not surprise anyone – apart from those still desperately clinging to fairytales about Israel’s “most moral army in the world.”

    In fact, an investigation by CNN on the weekend found that Israeli commanders identified by US officials as committing particularly heinous war crimes in the occupied West Bank over the past decade have been promoted to senior positions in the Israeli military. Their job includes training ground troops in Gaza and overseeing operations there.

    A whistleblower from the Netzah Yehuda battalion who spoke to CNN said the commanders, drawn from Israel’s religious extremist ultra-Orthodox sector, stoked a culture of violence towards Palestinians, including vigilante-style attacks.

    As the CNN investigation indicates, the wanton death and destruction in Gaza is very much a feature, not a bug.

    For decades, the Israeli military has been implementing its inhumane policies towards Palestinians not just in the tiny enclave, but across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem too.

    Israel has been suffocating Gaza with a siege for 17 years. And since 1967, it has been suffocating the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem with illegal settlements – many of them home to violent Jewish militias – to drive out the Palestinian population.

    What is new is the intensity and scale of the death and destruction Israel has been allowed to inflict since October 7. The gloves have come off, with the West’s approval.

    Israel’s agenda – of leaving historic Palestine empty of Palestinians – has been advanced from an ultimate, distant goal to an urgent, immediate one.

    Snake-like politicians

    Nonetheless, Israel’s much longer history of violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is about to come sharply into focus, despite the best efforts of Israel to keep our attention fixed on a Hamas “terrorism” threat.

    The International Court of Justice in the Hague, often referred to as the World Court, is considering two cases against Israel. Best known is the one launched in January, putting Israel on trial for genocide.

    But on Friday, the World Court is due to issue a ruling on an older case – one that predates October 7. It will pronounce on whether Israel has broken international law by making the occupation of Palestine permanent.



    While stopping the genocide in Gaza is more pressing, a ruling from the court recognizing the illegal nature of Israel’s rule over Palestinians is equally important. It would give legal backing to what should be obvious: that a supposedly temporary military occupation long ago mutated into a permanent process of violent ethnic cleansing.

    Such a ruling would provide the context for understanding what Palestinians have been truly up against, while western capitals and western media have gaslit their publics year after year, decade after decade.

    This week, Oxfam accused the new British government under Keir Starmer of “aiding and abetting” Israel’s war crimes by calling for a ceasefire from one side of its mouth while actively supplying Israel with weapons to continue the slaughter. The Labor government is also dragging its feet on restoring funding to UNRWA, best placed to address the famine in Gaza.

    At Washington’s behest, Labor is seeking to block efforts by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes. And there are still no signs that Starmer has any plans to recognize Palestine as a state, thus putting a UK marker down against Israel’s ethnic cleansing program.

    Sadly, Starmer is typical of the West’s snake-like politicians: flaunting his outrage at Russia’s “depraved” attacks on children in Ukraine, while keeping silent on the even more depraved bombing and starvation of Gaza’s children.

    He vows that his support for Ukrainians “won’t falter.” But his support for Palestinians in Gaza facing a genocide never even started.

    The Palestinians of Gaza – and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – are not just up against a law-breaking, savage Israeli military. They are being betrayed each day afresh by a West that gives such barbarity its blessing.

    Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net

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    https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-soldiers-tell-story-of-savage-cruelty-in-gaza-one-given-blessing-by-the-west/
    Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West [email protected] August 2, 2024 genocide in Gaza, international criminal court, Israeli drone strikes, Lavender AI, rebuilding Gaza, rules of engagement, US weapons Israel has torn up the rulebook on war. According to sources within the Israeli military, it now considers it acceptable to kill more than 100 Palestinian civilians in the pursuit of a single Hamas commander – a commander, let us note, who will simply be replaced the moment he is dead. (photo) Women and children in Gaza are being targeted intentionally, say Israeli whistleblowers. From ground troops to commanders, the rules of war have been shredded. by Jonathan Cook, reposted from Middle East Eye, July 18, 2024 They just keep coming. On the weekend, Israel launched another devastating air strike on Gaza, killing at least 90 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more, including women, children and rescue workers. Once again, Israel targeted refugees displaced by its earlier bombs, turning an area it had formally declared a “safe zone” into a killing field. And once more, western powers shrugged their shoulders. They were too busy accusing Russia of war crimes to have time to worry about the far worse war crimes being inflicted on Gaza by their Israeli ally – with weapons they supplied. The atrocity committed at al-Mawasi camp, packed with 80,000 civilians, had the usual Israeli cover story – one rolled out to reassure western publics that their leaders are not the utter hypocrites they appear to be for supporting what the World Court has described as a “plausible genocide.” Israel said it was trying to hit two Hamas leaders – one of them Mohammed Deif, head of the group’s military wing – although Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed uncertain as to whether the strike was successful. No one in the western media appeared to wonder why the pair preferred to make themselves a target in an overcrowded, makeshift refugee camp, where they were at huge risk of being betrayed by an Israeli informant, rather than sheltering in Hamas’s extensive tunnel network. Or why Israel deemed it necessary to fire a multitude of massive bombs and missiles to take out two individuals. Is that Israel’s new, expansive redefinition of a “targeted assassination?” Or why its pilots and drone operators continued the strikes to hit emergency rescue crews dealing with the initial destruction. Was there intelligence that Deif was not just hiding in the camp, but had hung around to dig out survivors, too? Or how killing and maiming hundreds of civilians in an attempt to hit two Hamas fighters could ever possibly satisfy the most basic principles of international law. “Proportion” and “distinction” require armies to weigh the military advantage of an attack against the expected toll on civilian life. Biblical vengeance But Israel has torn up the rulebook on war. According to sources within the Israeli military, it now considers it acceptable to kill more than 100 Palestinian civilians in the pursuit of a single Hamas commander – a commander, let us note, who will simply be replaced the moment he is dead. Even if the two Hamas leaders were assassinated, Israel could not have been in any doubt that it was perpetrating a war crime. But it has learned that, the more routine its war crimes become, the less coverage they receive – and the less outrage they provoke. In recent days, Israel has struck several United Nations schools serving as shelters, killing dozens more Palestinians. On Tuesday, another strike in the “safe zone” of al-Mawasi killed 17. According to the UN refugee agency, UNRWA, more than 70 percent of its schools – almost all of them serving as refugee shelters – have been bombed. Last week, western doctors who had volunteered in Gaza said Israel was packing its weapons with shrapnel to maximize injuries to those caught in the blast radius. Children, because of their smaller bodies, were being left with much more severe wounds. Aid agencies cannot properly treat the wounded, because Israel has been blocking the entry of medical supplies into Gaza. Committing war crimes, if western publics have not worked it out by now, is the very point of the “military operation” Israel launched in Gaza in the wake of Hamas’s one-day attack on October 7. That is why there are more than 38,800 known deaths from Israel’s 10-month assault – and likely at least four times that number unrecorded, according to leading researchers writing in the Lancet medical journal this month. That is why it will take at least 15 years to clear the rubble strewn across Gaza by Israeli bombs, according to the UN, and as much as 80 years – and $50 billion – to rebuild homes for the remnants of the enclave’s 2.3 million people still alive at the end. Israel’s twin goals have been biblical vengeance and the elimination of Gaza – a genocidal rampage to drive the terrified population out, ideally into neighboring Egypt. Shoot-everyone policy If that was not clear enough already, six Israeli soldiers recently stepped forward to speak out about what they had witnessed while serving in Gaza – a story the western media has entirely failed to report. Their testimonies, published by the Israel-based publication 972 last week, confirm what Palestinians have been saying for months. Commanders have authorized them to open fire on Palestinians at will. Anyone entering an area the Israeli military is treating as a “no-go zone” is shot on sight, whether man, woman or child. Back in March, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz warned that the Israeli military had created just such “kill zones,” where anyone entering was executed without warning. After months of an Israeli aid blockade that has created a man-made famine, Israel’s military has turned the people of Gaza’s ever-more frantic search for food into a game of Russian roulette. This perhaps explains, in part, why so many Palestinians are unaccounted for – Save the Children estimates some 21,000 children are missing. The soldiers quoted in 972 say the victims of their shoot-everyone policy are bulldozed out of view along routes where international aid convoys pass. A reserve soldier, identified only as S, said a Caterpillar bulldozer “clears the area of corpses, buries them under the rubble, and flips [them] aside so that the convoys don’t see it – [so that] images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out.” The soldier also noted: “The whole area [of Gaza where the army operates] was full of bodies… There is a horrific smell of death.” Several of the soldiers reported that stray cats and dogs, denied food and water for months just like Gaza’s population, feed on the dead bodies. The Israeli military has repeatedly refused to publish its open-fire regulations since it was first challenged to do so in the Israeli courts in the 1980s. A soldier named B told 972 that the Israeli army enjoyed “total freedom of action,” with soldiers expected to shoot directly at any Palestinian approaching their positions, rather than a warning shot in the air: “It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.” When civilians were ordered to evacuate from a school serving as a shelter in Gaza City, B added, some mistakenly exited right towards the soldiers, rather than to the left. That included children. “Everyone who went to the right was killed – 15 to 20 people. There was a pile of bodies.” According to B, any Palestinian in Gaza can inadvertently find themselves a target: “It is forbidden to walk around, and everyone who is outside is suspicious. If we see someone in a window looking at us, he is a suspect. You shoot.” ‘Like a computer game’ Drawing on military practices familiar in the occupied West Bank too, the Israeli army encourages its soldiers to shoot even when no one is engaging them. These random, indiscriminate eruptions of fire are known as “demonstrating presence” – or more accurately, terrorizing and endangering the civilian population. In other instances, soldiers open fire just to let off steam, have fun, or, as one soldier put it, “experience the event” of being in Gaza. Yuval Green, a 26-year-old reservist from Jerusalem, the only soldier prepared to be named, observed: “People were shooting just to relieve the boredom.” Another soldier, M, similarly noted that “the shooting is very unrestricted, like crazy” – and not just from small arms. Troops use machine guns, tanks and mortar rounds in a similar, unwarranted frenzy. A, an officer in the army’s operations directorate, pointed out that this mood of utter recklessness extended all the way up the chain of command. Although the destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques, churches and international aid organizations requires authorization from a senior officer, in practice, such operations are almost always approved. A said: “I can count on one hand the cases where we were told not to shoot. Even with sensitive things like schools, [approval] feels like only a formality … No one will shed a tear if we flatten a house when there was no need, or if we shoot someone who we didn’t have to.” Commenting on the mood in the operations room, A said destroying buildings often “felt like a computer game.” In addition, A cast doubt on Israel’s claim that Hamas fighters comprised a high proportion of Gaza’s death toll. Anyone caught in Israel’s “kill zones” or targeted by a bored soldier was counted as a “terrorist.” Burning homes The soldiers also reported that their commanders destroyed homes not because they were suspected of serving as bases for Hamas fighters, but purely out of an urge for revenge against the entire population. Their testimonies confirm an earlier Haaretz report that the army was implementing a policy of torching Palestinian homes after they served their purpose as temporary locations for soldiers. Green said the principle was: “If you move [on], you have to burn down the house.” According to B, his company “burned hundreds of houses.” A policy of wanton, vengeful destruction is similarly implemented – on a far larger scale – by Israel’s fighter pilots and drone operators, explaining why at least two-thirds of Gaza’s housing stock has been left in ruins. There are other deceptions too. One of the stated reasons for Israel being in Gaza is to “bring back the hostages” – many dozens of Israelis who were dragged into Gaza on October 7. That message, however, has apparently not reached the Israeli military. Palestinians return to their homes after the withdrawal of Israeli army from the eastern Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 30, 2024 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency] Palestinians return to their homes after the withdrawal of Israeli army from the eastern Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 30, 2024 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency] (photo) Green noted that, despite a blunderbuss operation last month that killed more than 270 Palestinians to rescue four Israeli hostages, the army is actually deeply indifferent to their fate. He said he heard other soldiers stating: “The hostages are dead, they don’t stand a chance, they have to be abandoned.” Back in December, Israeli troops shot dead three hostages waving white flags. Reckless shooting into buildings poses the same threat to the lives of hostages as it does to Palestinian fighters and civilians. Such indifference might also explain why the Israeli political and military leadership has been willing to conduct such a comprehensive bombing of buildings and tunnels in Gaza, risking the lives of the hostages as much as Palestinian civilians. Culture of violence The story told by these soldiers in 972 should not surprise anyone – apart from those still desperately clinging to fairytales about Israel’s “most moral army in the world.” In fact, an investigation by CNN on the weekend found that Israeli commanders identified by US officials as committing particularly heinous war crimes in the occupied West Bank over the past decade have been promoted to senior positions in the Israeli military. Their job includes training ground troops in Gaza and overseeing operations there. A whistleblower from the Netzah Yehuda battalion who spoke to CNN said the commanders, drawn from Israel’s religious extremist ultra-Orthodox sector, stoked a culture of violence towards Palestinians, including vigilante-style attacks. As the CNN investigation indicates, the wanton death and destruction in Gaza is very much a feature, not a bug. For decades, the Israeli military has been implementing its inhumane policies towards Palestinians not just in the tiny enclave, but across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem too. Israel has been suffocating Gaza with a siege for 17 years. And since 1967, it has been suffocating the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem with illegal settlements – many of them home to violent Jewish militias – to drive out the Palestinian population. What is new is the intensity and scale of the death and destruction Israel has been allowed to inflict since October 7. The gloves have come off, with the West’s approval. Israel’s agenda – of leaving historic Palestine empty of Palestinians – has been advanced from an ultimate, distant goal to an urgent, immediate one. Snake-like politicians Nonetheless, Israel’s much longer history of violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is about to come sharply into focus, despite the best efforts of Israel to keep our attention fixed on a Hamas “terrorism” threat. The International Court of Justice in the Hague, often referred to as the World Court, is considering two cases against Israel. Best known is the one launched in January, putting Israel on trial for genocide. But on Friday, the World Court is due to issue a ruling on an older case – one that predates October 7. It will pronounce on whether Israel has broken international law by making the occupation of Palestine permanent. While stopping the genocide in Gaza is more pressing, a ruling from the court recognizing the illegal nature of Israel’s rule over Palestinians is equally important. It would give legal backing to what should be obvious: that a supposedly temporary military occupation long ago mutated into a permanent process of violent ethnic cleansing. Such a ruling would provide the context for understanding what Palestinians have been truly up against, while western capitals and western media have gaslit their publics year after year, decade after decade. This week, Oxfam accused the new British government under Keir Starmer of “aiding and abetting” Israel’s war crimes by calling for a ceasefire from one side of its mouth while actively supplying Israel with weapons to continue the slaughter. The Labor government is also dragging its feet on restoring funding to UNRWA, best placed to address the famine in Gaza. At Washington’s behest, Labor is seeking to block efforts by the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes. And there are still no signs that Starmer has any plans to recognize Palestine as a state, thus putting a UK marker down against Israel’s ethnic cleansing program. Sadly, Starmer is typical of the West’s snake-like politicians: flaunting his outrage at Russia’s “depraved” attacks on children in Ukraine, while keeping silent on the even more depraved bombing and starvation of Gaza’s children. He vows that his support for Ukrainians “won’t falter.” But his support for Palestinians in Gaza facing a genocide never even started. The Palestinians of Gaza – and the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – are not just up against a law-breaking, savage Israeli military. They are being betrayed each day afresh by a West that gives such barbarity its blessing. Jonathan Cook is the author of three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and a winner of the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His website and blog can be found at www.jonathan-cook.net RELATED ARTICLES: Is “Israel Has a Right to Defend Itself” Code for “We Are Killing the Geneva Conventions”? Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Unlike Any War in Recent Memory ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza Israel Created ‘Kill Zones’ in Gaza. Anyone Who Crosses Into Them Is Shot Israeli military doctor reveals soldiers burn down homes in Gaza, loot, vandalize Euro-Med report: Shifa Hospital witnesses one of the largest massacres in Palestinian history ‘Suffering horrifically’: 10 months of Israel’s ‘war on children’ in Gaza / Israeli weapons packed with shrapnel causing devastating injuries to children in Gaza, doctors say ‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza No Access, No Information: Thousands of Gazans “Forcibly Disappeared” by Israeli Forces https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-soldiers-tell-story-of-savage-cruelty-in-gaza-one-given-blessing-by-the-west/
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    Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza - one given blessing by the West
    Whistleblowers say women & children in Gaza are being targeted intentionally. Throughout Israel's ranks, the rules of war have been shredded.
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  • S'porean, 36, has been eating insects since 2015, prefers them over snacks like chips
    Foo finds them to be healthier and more environmentally friendly than conventional snacks.

    Ashley Tan

    Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

    On Jul. 8, 2024, the Singapore Food Agency announced that the import, sale, manufacturing, processing, and farming of select insect species for human consumption is allowed.

    Samsung
    Regulations were initially targeted to come into effect in the second half of 2023.

    When asked for his thoughts on the latest announcement, Foo Maosheng, who has been snacking on insects for years, noted that reactions to the news this time are more pronounced, but "it is as expected".

    He also sensed that younger people appear to be more open to trying insects as food.

    Nevertheless, he shared that he is "excited", and "can't wait to purchase" the products off the shelves.

    "It is just in time for me to stock up," he quipped.

    Note: This interview was first published on Dec. 7, 2022.

    The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has started looking to allow the import and sale of insects and insect products for human consumption and animal feed in Singapore.

    This means that some time in the near future, Singaporeans might be able to buy such products off local shelves and consume them wherever and whenever they want here.

    The revelation that some people here might be crunching on the critters daily sent netizens into a frenzy of shock and disgust, but one Singaporean welcomed this piece of news.

    "I actually was quite happy that they [the government] are actually allowing this to happen now," says Foo Maosheng.

    Like Rice Krispies

    Foo has been eating and incorporating insects into his diet since 2015.

    He got his first taste when a colleague brought back some fried bamboo worms from Thailand.

    Here's what they look like.

    Photo from Wikipedia
    "It was actually not bad," the 34-year-old recalled. "It's a bit like eating Rice Krispies but just with less flavour."

    Foo does not hold the same apprehension towards insects most people do.

    As an entomologist studying bugs and other creepy-crawlies at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (National University of Singapore), eating insects, or entomophagy, as it's scientifically termed, is not a new concept to him.

    He shared that prior to his first taste of insects, he was already aware of what it could potentially taste like, and thus when the opportunity presented itself, it was simply a moment of "okay, now that it's available for me, [there's] a chance to try, so just go ahead and try it".

    "Even if I'm not an entomologist, I think I'll still be open to eating [insects]," Foo reflects.

    Keeping a cockroach as a pet

    Foo's fascination with bugs started as a young child, as is common among kids. Unlike others though, this interest did not fade into adulthood.

    While other children frolicked around the playground, Foo recalls that he could typically be found crouched among the bushes and grass, in search of insects to collect and bring home.

    A core memory for him is keeping a cockroach as his first "pet'.

    Seven-year-old Foo had found it in his home, and later lured it with a piece of cut apple. He kept the cockroach for around a week in a small plastic container before another insect, a caterpillar, caught his attention.

    He sustained this interest in bugs as he grew up, and Foo eventually went on to study environmental biology at the National University of Singapore.

    2015 was the year Foo tried insects for the first time, sparking an all new gastronomic journey for him.

    In search of other insects to try and new exotic flavour additions to his palate, he ventured online to search if any company in Singapore sells or distributes the products, but to no avail.

    This is because the import and sale of insects for human consumption has not been authorised by SFA.

    Foo later discovered online shops that sell the edible products he was looking for. One in particular, Thailand Unique, is located in the land of smiles but ships worldwide.

    Eating it "like snacks"

    Now, Foo purchases various packs of edible bugs from Thailand Unique once a year.

    Each silver ziploc pack, adorned with labels with pictures of the bugs it contains, are actually rather affordable, costing around S$4 to S$5 per pack, excluding shipping fees.

    One pack can last Foo two to three weeks.

    Here is Foo's stash, which includes bugs such as crickets, sago worms, weaver ants, and cicadas.

    Photo by Ashley Tan
    Foo shares that he munches on the insects like snacks and describes the texture as similar to nuts or biscuits.

    He either eats them straight from the pack, or sprinkles them over his food dishes, like croutons on a salad, or furikake over his rice.

    Occasionally, he bakes a mean pandan cake infused with bits of cricket. This, he explains, introduces a bit of a nutty taste to the sweet dessert.

    When asked about his less-than wary reception to eating bugs, Foo ponders for awhile, and acknowledges that he is generally quite curious and open to trying new cuisines and foods.

    "I do get that from my family. They always notice that I'm always trying new foodstuff instead of always going for the same popular or common food dishes that we can eat.

    I'm not a foodie, just always open to trying new stuff."

    Foo has tried introducing edible insects to his family, friends and colleagues, to mixed reactions. While some are willing to give it a try, others, more squeamish, keep the bugs at an arm's length.

    "I have friends who say 'I'd rather die than eat that'."

    Thus far, none of the people he knows have taken to eating insects quite like he has, and he recognises that he might one of the very few in Singapore who eats them regularly.

    Bug benefits

    You might be wondering why Foo chooses edible insects over conventional snacks like chips and nuts.

    After all, the edible bugs aren't exactly more flavourful than the latter, and they aren't as easily accessible for purchase either.

    Foo elaborates that the main draw for him is that being much more protein-rich, which makes bugs a healthier choice than other snacks.

    "Better than eating too much carbs," he remarks.

    The environmental benefits of bugs as food, over meat, for example, are a boon for him as well.

    Agriculture is currently a significant contributor to global warming. Meanwhile, insect cultivation uses only a fraction of the land and other resources required for the farming of meat like beef and chicken.

    Crickets produce up to 80 per cent less methane than cows, according to a study by researchers in the Netherlands. Additionally, replacing half of the meat eaten around the world with mealworms and crickets can reduce the use of farmland by one-third.

    For Foo, Singapore's goal to produce 30 per cent of its food supply locally by 2030 aligns with his lifestyle of entomophagy as well.

    Reviewing bugs: Fishy and salty

    After expounding on the advantages of eating bugs, there's no way I can leave without at least trying some out, especially after Foo very kindly dug out his whole stash for the interview.

    I've tried crickets and bamboo worms before — Foo calls them "starters", as they're the most common bugs that those new to entomophagy typically try first.

    These usually have a nutty or salty taste, similar to dried salted fish.

    Although Foo takes pains to elaborate on the different tastes of each bug — for example, cicadas have more earthy notes while the sago worms taste more fatty — the bug-eating amateur that I am finds that they all taste fishy and salty to me.

    One of the packets is called Jungle Trail Mix. Photo by Ashley Tan
    As the bugs come roasted in their packs, they're usually quite crispy and will crumble once you bite down.

    To be very honest, they're not particularly aesthetically appealing either.

    Silkworm pupae, cicadas and centipedes. Photo by Ashley Tan
    A fried sago worm. Photo by Ashley Tan
    After trying some of the tamer specimens, Foo enthusiastically whips out a scorpion and very large water bug from their packs, much to my apprehension.

    The water bug, he says, isn't very appetising, so I tentatively nibble on a very crisp leg, which ended up not really tasting like anything.

    Photo by Ashley Tan
    Interestingly, according to Foo, the scorpion apparently tastes like bak kwa with a bitter aftertaste.

    As I take a chomp of its torso, my unrefined palate is unable to taste the meaty flavour. To me, it simply tastes salty and slightly charred.

    Photo by Ashley Tan
    The most exotic specimen Foo has eaten is the zebra tarantula, which costs around S$16. A single tarantula comes uniquely packaged in a small can.

    Although I didn't get to try the tarantula, it supposedly tastes like crab meat, something which celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has testified to before.

    Photo by Ashley Tan
    Foo assures that one does not need to fear eating venomous invertebrates like the scorpion and tarantula, as the venom is deactivated once they're cooked.

    However, he cautions that some people might suffer allergic reactions to the remnants of the venom left behind.

    Overall, my verdict on entomophagy: It was a unique experience, and I would recommend trying it at least once.

    Who knows, you might take a liking to it too.

    Normalising eating bugs

    Foo foresees bugs becoming a staple in his diet, whenever it becomes readily available in Singapore.

    He notes that with inflation and rising prices of protein sources like chicken and eggs, insects would be a good alternative.

    Clearly from how some netizens responded to SFA's announcement in October, a good number of people in Singapore may disagree with Foo's sentiment.





    Healing the Divide's Iris Koh even started a petition against SFA's announcement, calling it a threat to public safety. Thus far, it has garnered over 600 signatures.

    While Foo is able to somewhat understand the netizens' perspectives, he believes that permitting the sale and consumption of insects is a progressive move.

    "So when you bring this in, people may think, oh yeah, we're becoming third world. Because we are bringing that way of living from a third world country into our country. So it's understandable, but I wouldn't say is exactly that we are becoming a third world country. But it's just that we are actually moving forward ahead in order to make sure that our human population, at least in Singapore, will be able to meet that protein requirements."

    Foo concedes that normalising entomophagy here will not be an easy feat — he acknowledges that there exists a "gross factor", and that the unsavoury image of bugs has been perpetuated by media and will be challenging to purge.

    "It will definitely take some time," he said, and adds that educating the public, including children, on the benefits of entomophagy and debunking the stigma surrounding creepy-crawlies might go a long way.

    Foo sums up his thoughts towards the naysayers in a Facebook post responding to Koh's petition:

    "All in all, eating insects is not a last resort, entomophagy and the import of insects for human consumption is part of Singapore food security and food sustainability. No one is forcing you to eat insects, it is an option that is open to you."

    Photo by Zhangxin Zheng
    Top photo by Zhangxin Zheng and Foo Maosheng's IG

    If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram to get the latest updates.




    https://mothership.sg/2024/07/sporean-eating-insects-since-2015/
    S'porean, 36, has been eating insects since 2015, prefers them over snacks like chips Foo finds them to be healthier and more environmentally friendly than conventional snacks. Ashley Tan Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg On Jul. 8, 2024, the Singapore Food Agency announced that the import, sale, manufacturing, processing, and farming of select insect species for human consumption is allowed. Samsung Regulations were initially targeted to come into effect in the second half of 2023. When asked for his thoughts on the latest announcement, Foo Maosheng, who has been snacking on insects for years, noted that reactions to the news this time are more pronounced, but "it is as expected". He also sensed that younger people appear to be more open to trying insects as food. Nevertheless, he shared that he is "excited", and "can't wait to purchase" the products off the shelves. "It is just in time for me to stock up," he quipped. Note: This interview was first published on Dec. 7, 2022. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has started looking to allow the import and sale of insects and insect products for human consumption and animal feed in Singapore. This means that some time in the near future, Singaporeans might be able to buy such products off local shelves and consume them wherever and whenever they want here. The revelation that some people here might be crunching on the critters daily sent netizens into a frenzy of shock and disgust, but one Singaporean welcomed this piece of news. "I actually was quite happy that they [the government] are actually allowing this to happen now," says Foo Maosheng. Like Rice Krispies Foo has been eating and incorporating insects into his diet since 2015. He got his first taste when a colleague brought back some fried bamboo worms from Thailand. Here's what they look like. Photo from Wikipedia "It was actually not bad," the 34-year-old recalled. "It's a bit like eating Rice Krispies but just with less flavour." Foo does not hold the same apprehension towards insects most people do. As an entomologist studying bugs and other creepy-crawlies at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (National University of Singapore), eating insects, or entomophagy, as it's scientifically termed, is not a new concept to him. He shared that prior to his first taste of insects, he was already aware of what it could potentially taste like, and thus when the opportunity presented itself, it was simply a moment of "okay, now that it's available for me, [there's] a chance to try, so just go ahead and try it". "Even if I'm not an entomologist, I think I'll still be open to eating [insects]," Foo reflects. Keeping a cockroach as a pet Foo's fascination with bugs started as a young child, as is common among kids. Unlike others though, this interest did not fade into adulthood. While other children frolicked around the playground, Foo recalls that he could typically be found crouched among the bushes and grass, in search of insects to collect and bring home. A core memory for him is keeping a cockroach as his first "pet'. Seven-year-old Foo had found it in his home, and later lured it with a piece of cut apple. He kept the cockroach for around a week in a small plastic container before another insect, a caterpillar, caught his attention. He sustained this interest in bugs as he grew up, and Foo eventually went on to study environmental biology at the National University of Singapore. 2015 was the year Foo tried insects for the first time, sparking an all new gastronomic journey for him. In search of other insects to try and new exotic flavour additions to his palate, he ventured online to search if any company in Singapore sells or distributes the products, but to no avail. This is because the import and sale of insects for human consumption has not been authorised by SFA. Foo later discovered online shops that sell the edible products he was looking for. One in particular, Thailand Unique, is located in the land of smiles but ships worldwide. Eating it "like snacks" Now, Foo purchases various packs of edible bugs from Thailand Unique once a year. Each silver ziploc pack, adorned with labels with pictures of the bugs it contains, are actually rather affordable, costing around S$4 to S$5 per pack, excluding shipping fees. One pack can last Foo two to three weeks. Here is Foo's stash, which includes bugs such as crickets, sago worms, weaver ants, and cicadas. Photo by Ashley Tan Foo shares that he munches on the insects like snacks and describes the texture as similar to nuts or biscuits. He either eats them straight from the pack, or sprinkles them over his food dishes, like croutons on a salad, or furikake over his rice. Occasionally, he bakes a mean pandan cake infused with bits of cricket. This, he explains, introduces a bit of a nutty taste to the sweet dessert. When asked about his less-than wary reception to eating bugs, Foo ponders for awhile, and acknowledges that he is generally quite curious and open to trying new cuisines and foods. "I do get that from my family. They always notice that I'm always trying new foodstuff instead of always going for the same popular or common food dishes that we can eat. I'm not a foodie, just always open to trying new stuff." Foo has tried introducing edible insects to his family, friends and colleagues, to mixed reactions. While some are willing to give it a try, others, more squeamish, keep the bugs at an arm's length. "I have friends who say 'I'd rather die than eat that'." Thus far, none of the people he knows have taken to eating insects quite like he has, and he recognises that he might one of the very few in Singapore who eats them regularly. Bug benefits You might be wondering why Foo chooses edible insects over conventional snacks like chips and nuts. After all, the edible bugs aren't exactly more flavourful than the latter, and they aren't as easily accessible for purchase either. Foo elaborates that the main draw for him is that being much more protein-rich, which makes bugs a healthier choice than other snacks. "Better than eating too much carbs," he remarks. The environmental benefits of bugs as food, over meat, for example, are a boon for him as well. Agriculture is currently a significant contributor to global warming. Meanwhile, insect cultivation uses only a fraction of the land and other resources required for the farming of meat like beef and chicken. Crickets produce up to 80 per cent less methane than cows, according to a study by researchers in the Netherlands. Additionally, replacing half of the meat eaten around the world with mealworms and crickets can reduce the use of farmland by one-third. For Foo, Singapore's goal to produce 30 per cent of its food supply locally by 2030 aligns with his lifestyle of entomophagy as well. Reviewing bugs: Fishy and salty After expounding on the advantages of eating bugs, there's no way I can leave without at least trying some out, especially after Foo very kindly dug out his whole stash for the interview. I've tried crickets and bamboo worms before — Foo calls them "starters", as they're the most common bugs that those new to entomophagy typically try first. These usually have a nutty or salty taste, similar to dried salted fish. Although Foo takes pains to elaborate on the different tastes of each bug — for example, cicadas have more earthy notes while the sago worms taste more fatty — the bug-eating amateur that I am finds that they all taste fishy and salty to me. One of the packets is called Jungle Trail Mix. Photo by Ashley Tan As the bugs come roasted in their packs, they're usually quite crispy and will crumble once you bite down. To be very honest, they're not particularly aesthetically appealing either. Silkworm pupae, cicadas and centipedes. Photo by Ashley Tan A fried sago worm. Photo by Ashley Tan After trying some of the tamer specimens, Foo enthusiastically whips out a scorpion and very large water bug from their packs, much to my apprehension. The water bug, he says, isn't very appetising, so I tentatively nibble on a very crisp leg, which ended up not really tasting like anything. Photo by Ashley Tan Interestingly, according to Foo, the scorpion apparently tastes like bak kwa with a bitter aftertaste. As I take a chomp of its torso, my unrefined palate is unable to taste the meaty flavour. To me, it simply tastes salty and slightly charred. Photo by Ashley Tan The most exotic specimen Foo has eaten is the zebra tarantula, which costs around S$16. A single tarantula comes uniquely packaged in a small can. Although I didn't get to try the tarantula, it supposedly tastes like crab meat, something which celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has testified to before. Photo by Ashley Tan Foo assures that one does not need to fear eating venomous invertebrates like the scorpion and tarantula, as the venom is deactivated once they're cooked. However, he cautions that some people might suffer allergic reactions to the remnants of the venom left behind. Overall, my verdict on entomophagy: It was a unique experience, and I would recommend trying it at least once. Who knows, you might take a liking to it too. Normalising eating bugs Foo foresees bugs becoming a staple in his diet, whenever it becomes readily available in Singapore. He notes that with inflation and rising prices of protein sources like chicken and eggs, insects would be a good alternative. Clearly from how some netizens responded to SFA's announcement in October, a good number of people in Singapore may disagree with Foo's sentiment. Healing the Divide's Iris Koh even started a petition against SFA's announcement, calling it a threat to public safety. Thus far, it has garnered over 600 signatures. While Foo is able to somewhat understand the netizens' perspectives, he believes that permitting the sale and consumption of insects is a progressive move. "So when you bring this in, people may think, oh yeah, we're becoming third world. Because we are bringing that way of living from a third world country into our country. So it's understandable, but I wouldn't say is exactly that we are becoming a third world country. But it's just that we are actually moving forward ahead in order to make sure that our human population, at least in Singapore, will be able to meet that protein requirements." Foo concedes that normalising entomophagy here will not be an easy feat — he acknowledges that there exists a "gross factor", and that the unsavoury image of bugs has been perpetuated by media and will be challenging to purge. "It will definitely take some time," he said, and adds that educating the public, including children, on the benefits of entomophagy and debunking the stigma surrounding creepy-crawlies might go a long way. Foo sums up his thoughts towards the naysayers in a Facebook post responding to Koh's petition: "All in all, eating insects is not a last resort, entomophagy and the import of insects for human consumption is part of Singapore food security and food sustainability. No one is forcing you to eat insects, it is an option that is open to you." Photo by Zhangxin Zheng Top photo by Zhangxin Zheng and Foo Maosheng's IG If you like what you read, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram to get the latest updates. 🤮🤮🤮 https://mothership.sg/2024/07/sporean-eating-insects-since-2015/
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    S'porean, 36, has been eating insects since 2015, prefers them over snacks like chips
    Foo finds them to be healthier and more environmentally friendly than conventional snacks.
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