• VIDEO: The “Lock Step” Simulation Scenario: “A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls”

    First published on February 5, 2020 at very outset of the Covid-19 Crisis, in-depth analysis of the Simulation of a pandemic conducted in 2010 under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation.

    By now, those following the novel coronavirus epidemic are familiar with Event 201, the pandemic simulation staged by Johns Hopkins University in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, and other ruling-class heavy hitters in October. The media establishment has already picked the story clean, set up and eviscerated a straw man (“No, Bill Gates didn’t cause the coronavirus epidemic, silly conspiracy theorists!”), and convinced the group itself to issue a statement denying their exercise was meant to predict the behavior of the actual virus to follow.

    But few are aware that the epidemic playing out in China and two dozen other countries, including the US, is unfolding in line with a decade-old simulation titled “Lock Step” devised by the Rockefeller Foundation in conjunction with the Global Business Network. The scenario, one of four included in a publication called “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” in 2010, describes a coronavirus-like pandemic that becomes the trigger for the imposition of police-state controls on movement, economy, and other areas of society.

    The Lock Step scenario describes “a world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership, with limited innovation and growing citizen pushback.” In “2012” (i.e. two years after the report’s publication), an “extremely virulent and deadly” strain of influenza originating with wild geese brings the world to its knees, infecting 20 percent of the global population and killing 8 million people in just seven months – “the majority of them healthy young adults.” It devastates global economies and ruptures international trade. But not everyone, the Rockefeller Foundation makes clear, is hit equally.

    Countries of Africa, southeast Asia, and central America suffer the worst “in the absence of official containment protocols” – it wouldn’t be the Rockefeller Foundation if someone wasn’t licking their lips at the thought of a mass die-off in the Global South – but western “democracies” also pay the ultimate price. “The United States’ initial policy of ‘strongly discouraging’ citizens from flying proved deadly in its leniency, accelerating the spread of the virus not just within the US but across borders,” the report warns. But remove such obstacles as ‘individual rights’ and you have a recipe for surviving, even thriving in the event of a pandemic, the Foundation gushes:

    “A few countries did fare better – China in particular. The Chinese government’s quick imposition and enforcement of mandatory quarantine for all citizens, as well as its instant and near-hermetic sealing-off of all borders, saved millions of lives, stopping the spread of the virus far earlier than in other countries and enabling a swifter post-pandemic recovery.”

    The message is clear – police state good, freedom bad. And other governments rapidly get the message, according to the simulation. First and third world nations alike follow suit by “flexing their authority” and imposing quarantines, body-temperature checks, and other “airtight rules and restrictions” – most of which, the report is careful to note, remain in place even as the pandemic recedes into the past. “In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems – from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty – leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power.”

    This global power-grab is facilitated by a frightened citizenry who “willingly gave up some of their sovereignty – and their privacy – to more paternalistic states in exchange for greater safety and stability…tolerant, and even eager, for top-down direction and oversight.” Everything from tighter biometric identification to stricter industrial regulation is welcomed with open arms. It takes over a decade for people to “grow weary” of the authoritarian controls imposed in the wake of the pandemic, and hints that even the civil unrest that ultimately manifests is focused on the developed world. After all, a popular uprising in the technocratic police state envisioned by the simulation would be all but impossible – as it will be in real life once 5G makes real-time total surveillance of all cities a reality.



    Pin the blame on the dragon

    It remains unclear what – or who – unleashed the novel coronavirus in Wuhan. The initial claim that it originated in bats from a “wet market,” in which live animals are sold and then butchered in front of the customer, couldn’t have been more perfect from a western point of view – wet markets are reviled in the West, where consumers prefer that the animal cruelty required to put meat on their tables happens behind closed doors. While wet markets would seem to improve food safety by making it impossible to sell “mystery,” mislabeled or expired meat, time and again they are fingered as disease vectors by the disapproving West, every time followed by calls to ban them entirely. However, the Huanan seafood market hadn’t sold bats for years, meaning – if the “wet market” hypothesis is to persist – an “intermediate host” species would be required to get the virus to humans. Snakes were nominated, even though scientists weren’t sure they could be infected by a coronavirus – it was more important that they eat bats and were sold at the market. Three weeks after the Huanan seafood market was shuttered and disinfected, a Lancet study put the last nail in the hypothesis’ coffin, revealing the first several coronavirus cases had no exposure to the market at all. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has not discouraged the media from continuing to blame it for the epidemic.

    Beyond the disintegrating “official story,” rumormongers have pinned the blame on the Chinese government, suggesting that through malice or incompetence Beijing released a virus cooked up in a top-secret bioweapons program operating in the city’s high-security lab. The chief purveyor of this theory is Dany Shoham, an Israeli biosafety analyst, which should raise a forest of red flags in anyone familiar with Israel’s own experiments in gene-targeted biowarfare even before taking into account Shoham’s own history of fraudulently blaming Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for the 2001 anthrax attacks. Other outlets spreading this theory cite American biosafety consultant Tim Trevan, who opined in a 2017 Nature article – published before the Wuhan lab even opened! – that “diversity of viewpoint” and “openness of information” are both critical to the safe functioning of such a high-risk lab and alien to Chinese culture. The persistence of the “lab accident” theory of coronavirus’ creation thus owes more to cultural chauvinism and sinophobia than any fact-based clues.

    While many alt-media outlets have fingered Event 201 as the replica “drill” that so often coincides with a false flag event, few are aware that on the day after that simulation, the 2019 Military World Games kicked off in Wuhan, bringing 300 US military personnel to the city.

    As of February 4, there are over 1,000 times more coronavirus cases in China than outside of it, and the foreign cases appear to be ethnically Chinese where reported. This is not a coincidence – a recent scientific paper revealed the enzyme which serves as a receptor for novel coronavirus is produced by a certain type of lung cell found in “extremely large numbers” in Asian men compared to those of other ethnicities. Even more intriguingly, those lung cells are involved in the expression of “many other genes that positively regulating [sic] viral reproduction and transmission.” The paper’s authors stop short of suggesting the virus came out of a lab, instead drily observing that it seems to have “cleverly evolved to hijack this population of [lung] cells for its reproduction and transmission,” but one man’s clever viral evolution is another’s expert bioweapon development.

    Certainly, American researchers have been surreptitiously collecting Chinese DNA for decades. A notorious Harvard School of Public Health program in the mid-1990s drafted village medics to administer “free physicals” to locals “with asthmatic symptoms.” These “checkups” were conducted as part of a genetic project that also involved the US National Institutes of Health and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, supposedly aimed at “identify[ing] and characteriz[ing] genes that play a role in causing asthma and other allergic disorders.” It later emerged that the researchers had secured the required consent forms from neither the local experimental ethics board nor the test subjects themselves. A government inquiry was commandeered by an insider and squelched. Over 200,000 DNA samples were thus collected and spirited out of the country.

    US military literature has been lusting after genetically-targeted weapons for at least 50 years. The infamous Project for a New American Century, whose members have been steering the US ship of state into a series of icebergs since the George W. Bush administration, described gene-specific bioweapons as a “politically-useful tool,” part and parcel of the “new dimensions of combat” in which the future’s wars would unfold. In 1998, the year after PNAC’s formation, reports Israel was working on just such a weapon to target Arabs while leaving Jews untouched flooded the media – part PR campaign, part warning. And it is DARPA and other divisions of the US military, not the Chinese, that has been intensively studying bat-borne coronaviruses for years, even as their own high-security biowarfare labs are being shut down for shoddy safety procedures.

    Meanwhile, the likelihood of the Chinese government unleashing a genetically-targeted virus on its own population is vanishingly low. Unlike popular attitudes of “white guilt” in the West born of a hangover from colonialism, the Chinese do not traffic in racial self-loathing – indeed, outsiders have accused the Chinese of an unspoken, unshakeable belief in their own racial superiority, and regardless of whether that belief is problematic, it is unlikely to lead to intentional self-genocide. Even if behavior-correcting false flag was sought by Beijing in Hong Kong, where US-backed pro-“democracy” protests have raged destructively for months, such an event would not have been unleashed hundreds of miles away in Wuhan.

    Never let a good crisis go to waste?

    The real-life coronavirus is much less virulent than the pandemic described in Lock Step, with an official death toll of “just” 427 and a global infection toll of “only” 20,629 as of February 4, and the dead were mostly over 60 with preexisting medical issues. Economies worldwide are nevertheless in free-fall just like the simulation predicted. This drop is fueled by scare-stories percolating in establishment media and alt-media alike (the name of an actual article in ZeroHedge by a Rabobank analyst: “What if we are on the brink of an exponential increase in coronavirus cases?”) while videos of dubious origin appearing to show horrific scenes from within China keep the virus viral on social media. Adding to the fear is coronavirus’ lengthy incubation period, up to two weeks in which a carrier could be blithely spreading it to everyone they meet, creating a constant threat of a “boom” in cases just around the corner.

    China’s economy, of course, is being hit the worst, and the epidemic’s timing could not have been more disastrous from Beijing’s point of view, coming on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday. At this time, some 400 million Chinese travel around the country to see family, mostly in the high-speed bullet trains that have their hub in – you guessed it – Wuhan. With much of this travel having occurred before the city was quarantined, cases are likely in their incubation phase all over the country, making today’s numbers look like a rounding error.

    Correspondingly, the situation couldn’t be better for the American ruling class: a pandemic that targets Asians striking China just when it’s most vulnerable is a powerful blow to the rising superpower. And in case anyone still believes the circumstances of the virus’ ascendance are merely an extended string of coincidences, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross took that plausible deniability and stomped on it last month, unable to stop himself from gushing that coronavirus would “help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America” in an interview with Fox News. Prefacing his victory lap by saying he didn’t “want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease,” he pointed out that businesses will be forced to take China’s inexplicable susceptibility to deadly viruses into account when reviewing their supply chains. Unmentioned, but adding to the perfect economic storm, was Trump’s signature on the USMCA trade agreement, supposed to bring in an extra 1.2 percentage points in GDP growth.

    “On top of all the other things, you had SARS, you had the African Swine virus there, now you have this,” Ross said, hammering home the point by linking coronavirus to other suspect plagues. Just as many scientists concluded SARS was a manmade bioweapon, many – scientists and statesmen as well as alternative media – have raised the alarm about coronavirus. Good luck finding any of their statements on Google, however. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter have been hard at work removing coronavirus “rumors,” and Google has memory-holed hundreds of search results regarding Chinese accusations of biowarfare. Even on platforms that don’t censor on government orders, the baseless claims from Shoham and other disinfo artists about Chinese biowarfare have muscled any comments from Chinese officials out of the way. Even the former Malaysian PM’s comments are obscured behind a Farsi language barrier – his original comments inexplicably missing from English-language media and reprinted only by Iran’s IRIB News Agency (this author can no longer even find the tweet that alerted her to those comments, but would like to thank that person).

    Coronavirus is not the doomsday epidemic it is being portrayed as by irresponsible media actors. But as the Lock Step scenario makes clear, one does not need massive die-off or victims exploding in geysers of blood in the streets to achieve desired social goals. It’s possible the novel coronavirus epidemic is a “dry run,” a test of both China’s readiness to handle an outbreak and of the international community’s reaction to such a plague. It’s even possible, though unlikely, that the epidemic was a mistake – that the virus escaped from a lab, likely American, by accident.

    It’s also possible the plague may suddenly become more virulent. Certainly the media buzz the first week of February is that coronavirus is close to being declared a “pandemic” by the WHO, which will necessitate the type of control measures hinted at in Lock Step and described more exhaustively in Event 201. From “limited internet shutdowns” and “enforcement actions against fake news” to government bailouts of “core” industries, mandatory vaccinations, property seizures, and other police-state provisions laid out in the Model State Emergency Health Powers Acts passed in many US states in the paranoid aftermath of 9/11, the totalitarian nature of these provisions is limited only by the imagination of the regime carrying them out. Once events proceed to that stage, it is extremely difficult to reverse them. We would be wise not to allow this to happen.

    *

    Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

    Helen Buyniski is a journalist and photographer based in New York City. Her work has appeared on RT, Global Research, Ghion Journal, Progressive Radio Network, and Veterans Today. Helen has a BA in Journalism from New School University and also studied at Columbia University and New York University. Find more of her work at http://helenofdestroy.com and http://medium.com/@helen.buyniski or follow her on Twitter at @velocirapture23. She is a frequent contributor to Global Research.


    VIDEO: The “Lock Step” Simulation Scenario: “A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls”

    First published on February 5, 2020 at very outset of the Covid-19 Crisis, in-depth analysis of the Simulation of a pandemic conducted in 2010 under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation.

    Read here: https://www.globalresearch.ca/all-sectors-us-establishment-lock-step-deep-states-latest-bio-war/5702773
    VIDEO: The “Lock Step” Simulation Scenario: “A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls” First published on February 5, 2020 at very outset of the Covid-19 Crisis, in-depth analysis of the Simulation of a pandemic conducted in 2010 under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. By now, those following the novel coronavirus epidemic are familiar with Event 201, the pandemic simulation staged by Johns Hopkins University in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, and other ruling-class heavy hitters in October. The media establishment has already picked the story clean, set up and eviscerated a straw man (“No, Bill Gates didn’t cause the coronavirus epidemic, silly conspiracy theorists!”), and convinced the group itself to issue a statement denying their exercise was meant to predict the behavior of the actual virus to follow. But few are aware that the epidemic playing out in China and two dozen other countries, including the US, is unfolding in line with a decade-old simulation titled “Lock Step” devised by the Rockefeller Foundation in conjunction with the Global Business Network. The scenario, one of four included in a publication called “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development” in 2010, describes a coronavirus-like pandemic that becomes the trigger for the imposition of police-state controls on movement, economy, and other areas of society. The Lock Step scenario describes “a world of tighter top-down government control and more authoritarian leadership, with limited innovation and growing citizen pushback.” In “2012” (i.e. two years after the report’s publication), an “extremely virulent and deadly” strain of influenza originating with wild geese brings the world to its knees, infecting 20 percent of the global population and killing 8 million people in just seven months – “the majority of them healthy young adults.” It devastates global economies and ruptures international trade. But not everyone, the Rockefeller Foundation makes clear, is hit equally. Countries of Africa, southeast Asia, and central America suffer the worst “in the absence of official containment protocols” – it wouldn’t be the Rockefeller Foundation if someone wasn’t licking their lips at the thought of a mass die-off in the Global South – but western “democracies” also pay the ultimate price. “The United States’ initial policy of ‘strongly discouraging’ citizens from flying proved deadly in its leniency, accelerating the spread of the virus not just within the US but across borders,” the report warns. But remove such obstacles as ‘individual rights’ and you have a recipe for surviving, even thriving in the event of a pandemic, the Foundation gushes: “A few countries did fare better – China in particular. The Chinese government’s quick imposition and enforcement of mandatory quarantine for all citizens, as well as its instant and near-hermetic sealing-off of all borders, saved millions of lives, stopping the spread of the virus far earlier than in other countries and enabling a swifter post-pandemic recovery.” The message is clear – police state good, freedom bad. And other governments rapidly get the message, according to the simulation. First and third world nations alike follow suit by “flexing their authority” and imposing quarantines, body-temperature checks, and other “airtight rules and restrictions” – most of which, the report is careful to note, remain in place even as the pandemic recedes into the past. “In order to protect themselves from the spread of increasingly global problems – from pandemics and transnational terrorism to environmental crises and rising poverty – leaders around the world took a firmer grip on power.” This global power-grab is facilitated by a frightened citizenry who “willingly gave up some of their sovereignty – and their privacy – to more paternalistic states in exchange for greater safety and stability…tolerant, and even eager, for top-down direction and oversight.” Everything from tighter biometric identification to stricter industrial regulation is welcomed with open arms. It takes over a decade for people to “grow weary” of the authoritarian controls imposed in the wake of the pandemic, and hints that even the civil unrest that ultimately manifests is focused on the developed world. After all, a popular uprising in the technocratic police state envisioned by the simulation would be all but impossible – as it will be in real life once 5G makes real-time total surveillance of all cities a reality. Pin the blame on the dragon It remains unclear what – or who – unleashed the novel coronavirus in Wuhan. The initial claim that it originated in bats from a “wet market,” in which live animals are sold and then butchered in front of the customer, couldn’t have been more perfect from a western point of view – wet markets are reviled in the West, where consumers prefer that the animal cruelty required to put meat on their tables happens behind closed doors. While wet markets would seem to improve food safety by making it impossible to sell “mystery,” mislabeled or expired meat, time and again they are fingered as disease vectors by the disapproving West, every time followed by calls to ban them entirely. However, the Huanan seafood market hadn’t sold bats for years, meaning – if the “wet market” hypothesis is to persist – an “intermediate host” species would be required to get the virus to humans. Snakes were nominated, even though scientists weren’t sure they could be infected by a coronavirus – it was more important that they eat bats and were sold at the market. Three weeks after the Huanan seafood market was shuttered and disinfected, a Lancet study put the last nail in the hypothesis’ coffin, revealing the first several coronavirus cases had no exposure to the market at all. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this has not discouraged the media from continuing to blame it for the epidemic. Beyond the disintegrating “official story,” rumormongers have pinned the blame on the Chinese government, suggesting that through malice or incompetence Beijing released a virus cooked up in a top-secret bioweapons program operating in the city’s high-security lab. The chief purveyor of this theory is Dany Shoham, an Israeli biosafety analyst, which should raise a forest of red flags in anyone familiar with Israel’s own experiments in gene-targeted biowarfare even before taking into account Shoham’s own history of fraudulently blaming Saddam Hussein’s Iraq for the 2001 anthrax attacks. Other outlets spreading this theory cite American biosafety consultant Tim Trevan, who opined in a 2017 Nature article – published before the Wuhan lab even opened! – that “diversity of viewpoint” and “openness of information” are both critical to the safe functioning of such a high-risk lab and alien to Chinese culture. The persistence of the “lab accident” theory of coronavirus’ creation thus owes more to cultural chauvinism and sinophobia than any fact-based clues. While many alt-media outlets have fingered Event 201 as the replica “drill” that so often coincides with a false flag event, few are aware that on the day after that simulation, the 2019 Military World Games kicked off in Wuhan, bringing 300 US military personnel to the city. As of February 4, there are over 1,000 times more coronavirus cases in China than outside of it, and the foreign cases appear to be ethnically Chinese where reported. This is not a coincidence – a recent scientific paper revealed the enzyme which serves as a receptor for novel coronavirus is produced by a certain type of lung cell found in “extremely large numbers” in Asian men compared to those of other ethnicities. Even more intriguingly, those lung cells are involved in the expression of “many other genes that positively regulating [sic] viral reproduction and transmission.” The paper’s authors stop short of suggesting the virus came out of a lab, instead drily observing that it seems to have “cleverly evolved to hijack this population of [lung] cells for its reproduction and transmission,” but one man’s clever viral evolution is another’s expert bioweapon development. Certainly, American researchers have been surreptitiously collecting Chinese DNA for decades. A notorious Harvard School of Public Health program in the mid-1990s drafted village medics to administer “free physicals” to locals “with asthmatic symptoms.” These “checkups” were conducted as part of a genetic project that also involved the US National Institutes of Health and Millennium Pharmaceuticals, supposedly aimed at “identify[ing] and characteriz[ing] genes that play a role in causing asthma and other allergic disorders.” It later emerged that the researchers had secured the required consent forms from neither the local experimental ethics board nor the test subjects themselves. A government inquiry was commandeered by an insider and squelched. Over 200,000 DNA samples were thus collected and spirited out of the country. US military literature has been lusting after genetically-targeted weapons for at least 50 years. The infamous Project for a New American Century, whose members have been steering the US ship of state into a series of icebergs since the George W. Bush administration, described gene-specific bioweapons as a “politically-useful tool,” part and parcel of the “new dimensions of combat” in which the future’s wars would unfold. In 1998, the year after PNAC’s formation, reports Israel was working on just such a weapon to target Arabs while leaving Jews untouched flooded the media – part PR campaign, part warning. And it is DARPA and other divisions of the US military, not the Chinese, that has been intensively studying bat-borne coronaviruses for years, even as their own high-security biowarfare labs are being shut down for shoddy safety procedures. Meanwhile, the likelihood of the Chinese government unleashing a genetically-targeted virus on its own population is vanishingly low. Unlike popular attitudes of “white guilt” in the West born of a hangover from colonialism, the Chinese do not traffic in racial self-loathing – indeed, outsiders have accused the Chinese of an unspoken, unshakeable belief in their own racial superiority, and regardless of whether that belief is problematic, it is unlikely to lead to intentional self-genocide. Even if behavior-correcting false flag was sought by Beijing in Hong Kong, where US-backed pro-“democracy” protests have raged destructively for months, such an event would not have been unleashed hundreds of miles away in Wuhan. Never let a good crisis go to waste? The real-life coronavirus is much less virulent than the pandemic described in Lock Step, with an official death toll of “just” 427 and a global infection toll of “only” 20,629 as of February 4, and the dead were mostly over 60 with preexisting medical issues. Economies worldwide are nevertheless in free-fall just like the simulation predicted. This drop is fueled by scare-stories percolating in establishment media and alt-media alike (the name of an actual article in ZeroHedge by a Rabobank analyst: “What if we are on the brink of an exponential increase in coronavirus cases?”) while videos of dubious origin appearing to show horrific scenes from within China keep the virus viral on social media. Adding to the fear is coronavirus’ lengthy incubation period, up to two weeks in which a carrier could be blithely spreading it to everyone they meet, creating a constant threat of a “boom” in cases just around the corner. China’s economy, of course, is being hit the worst, and the epidemic’s timing could not have been more disastrous from Beijing’s point of view, coming on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday. At this time, some 400 million Chinese travel around the country to see family, mostly in the high-speed bullet trains that have their hub in – you guessed it – Wuhan. With much of this travel having occurred before the city was quarantined, cases are likely in their incubation phase all over the country, making today’s numbers look like a rounding error. Correspondingly, the situation couldn’t be better for the American ruling class: a pandemic that targets Asians striking China just when it’s most vulnerable is a powerful blow to the rising superpower. And in case anyone still believes the circumstances of the virus’ ascendance are merely an extended string of coincidences, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross took that plausible deniability and stomped on it last month, unable to stop himself from gushing that coronavirus would “help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America” in an interview with Fox News. Prefacing his victory lap by saying he didn’t “want to talk about a victory lap over a very unfortunate, very malignant disease,” he pointed out that businesses will be forced to take China’s inexplicable susceptibility to deadly viruses into account when reviewing their supply chains. Unmentioned, but adding to the perfect economic storm, was Trump’s signature on the USMCA trade agreement, supposed to bring in an extra 1.2 percentage points in GDP growth. “On top of all the other things, you had SARS, you had the African Swine virus there, now you have this,” Ross said, hammering home the point by linking coronavirus to other suspect plagues. Just as many scientists concluded SARS was a manmade bioweapon, many – scientists and statesmen as well as alternative media – have raised the alarm about coronavirus. Good luck finding any of their statements on Google, however. Facebook, Youtube and Twitter have been hard at work removing coronavirus “rumors,” and Google has memory-holed hundreds of search results regarding Chinese accusations of biowarfare. Even on platforms that don’t censor on government orders, the baseless claims from Shoham and other disinfo artists about Chinese biowarfare have muscled any comments from Chinese officials out of the way. Even the former Malaysian PM’s comments are obscured behind a Farsi language barrier – his original comments inexplicably missing from English-language media and reprinted only by Iran’s IRIB News Agency (this author can no longer even find the tweet that alerted her to those comments, but would like to thank that person). Coronavirus is not the doomsday epidemic it is being portrayed as by irresponsible media actors. But as the Lock Step scenario makes clear, one does not need massive die-off or victims exploding in geysers of blood in the streets to achieve desired social goals. It’s possible the novel coronavirus epidemic is a “dry run,” a test of both China’s readiness to handle an outbreak and of the international community’s reaction to such a plague. It’s even possible, though unlikely, that the epidemic was a mistake – that the virus escaped from a lab, likely American, by accident. It’s also possible the plague may suddenly become more virulent. Certainly the media buzz the first week of February is that coronavirus is close to being declared a “pandemic” by the WHO, which will necessitate the type of control measures hinted at in Lock Step and described more exhaustively in Event 201. From “limited internet shutdowns” and “enforcement actions against fake news” to government bailouts of “core” industries, mandatory vaccinations, property seizures, and other police-state provisions laid out in the Model State Emergency Health Powers Acts passed in many US states in the paranoid aftermath of 9/11, the totalitarian nature of these provisions is limited only by the imagination of the regime carrying them out. Once events proceed to that stage, it is extremely difficult to reverse them. We would be wise not to allow this to happen. * Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc. Helen Buyniski is a journalist and photographer based in New York City. Her work has appeared on RT, Global Research, Ghion Journal, Progressive Radio Network, and Veterans Today. Helen has a BA in Journalism from New School University and also studied at Columbia University and New York University. Find more of her work at http://helenofdestroy.com and http://medium.com/@helen.buyniski or follow her on Twitter at @velocirapture23. She is a frequent contributor to Global Research. VIDEO: The “Lock Step” Simulation Scenario: “A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls” First published on February 5, 2020 at very outset of the Covid-19 Crisis, in-depth analysis of the Simulation of a pandemic conducted in 2010 under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. Read here: https://www.globalresearch.ca/all-sectors-us-establishment-lock-step-deep-states-latest-bio-war/5702773
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    VIDEO: The "Lock Step" Simulation Scenario: "A Coronavirus-like Pandemic that Becomes Trigger for Police State Controls"
    First published on February 5, 2020 at very outset of the Covid-19 Crisis, in-depth analysis of the Simulation of a pandemic conducted in 2010 under the auspices of the Rockefeller Foundation. By now, those following the novel coronavirus epidemic are familiar with Event 201, the pandemic simulation staged by Johns Hopkins University in conjunction with the World Economic Forum, …
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  • Of Cults, Lies, Covers, and Hiding (Out of Plain View): Nope, Robert Duncan Isn't Dead & DARPA-CIA Brain-Bio-Chakra Hacking of Humans is Beyond Inhumane & Unlawful
    So it’s been a while, I think since news suddenly dropped that Robert Duncan was dead, then that he’d been “killed by a DEW”, then that his “body was found”: don’t believe a word of it.


    Dr. Robert Duncan at the October 22 2022 Worldwide Unethical DEW/Neurotech Targeting Conference at Ramola D Reports
    Note, I interviewed him as a whistleblower, as he presented himself, he was present and spoke at the Second Worldwide Unethical DEW/Neurotech Targeting and Non-Consensual AI/Cybernetics/Brain Experimentation Conference online held October 22, 2022 at Ramola D Reports as a whistleblower, and he appeared, over the course of many years, to surface many of the dark technologies and practices of “compartmented” Special Forces inside the DOD-CIA—but looking through his first book again—The Matrix Deciphered—currently, it is clear there is a kind of CIA Coverstory created by and through and in his disclosure, a deflecting and mythologizing—of the kind perhaps that the CIA MockOpsters specialize in, that does need to be analyzed and exposed further. And it is this Pursuance of Coverstory, despite all evidence of an Awakening World, that sadly surfaces here in the sudden “Above Top Secret” Disappearing of a prominent DARPA-CIA scientist such as Robert Duncan. Disappearing people of public renown, in the public eye for a (long) period of time, is apparently an Intelligence ploy—and surely, there is a (bizarre, absurd “intelligent”) reason for it, one which no doubt will surface soon enough.


    “Existential Threat Against Humanity” says Dr. Robert Duncan: Worldwide DEW/Neurotech Targeting & Non-Consensual AI/Cybernetics/Brain Experimentation Conference Bears Witness to Profound Mil/Intel/DOJ/Univ/Private Sector Crimes | The EveryDay Concerned Citizen
    Pain “Signaling”—say Inflicting—as a Means to Get Into Brains and “Develop Cognitive Models”: Beyond Unlawful

    That Anti-Human Directed Energy Weapons have been developed (over decades, over almost the whole of the last century) by a secretive military prominently headed by the even more secretive CIA and been used, in most primary ways—to create Pain, to create Misery, Suffering, Horror, in Luciferian Human-Sacrifice ways to destroy bodies and lives—on pretty much everyone who has stepped forward to report unethical brain experimentation and massive bio and energy (chakra) hacking is something that Robert Duncan apparently just forgot to report.

    The Mystery of Robert Duncan is the Mystery of the CIA and DARPA and Black Ops Projects Which Should Be Stopped Stat


    Brain Invaders/Screenshot
    Blazing (more prominently) onto the world stage in Jesse Ventura’s unforgettable interview (Brain Invaders/Tru TV, Air Date: 12-17-2012) on targeting, radio neuroweapons, Voice of God weapons, and people hiding under metalware of various kinds (bakeware works—so does rubber, better than leather) as Black Opsters from DARPA, CIA, and all the forces—particularly the Marine Corps of course with their Joint Non Lethal Weapons Directorate firing opening salvos from Dahlgren Virginia (where their rusting battleships hide in plain view as you drive quickly by)—go wild with whacking people with bio-hacking and brain-hacking and chakra-hacking weapons to achieve all sorts of invasive, intrusive, and all-unlawful “bio-effects,” disabling many, injuring all, killing some (in numbers mounting over the years), Dr. Robert Duncan as he has been termed by many hopefuls, including this writer, who has interviewed him, may not have completed a doctorate but wrote, spoke, interviewed, and published enough to be situated at head of a large, very large train of CIA personas, it appears, each working hard (including in “Media” (say Crimcastia)) to faintly surface the crime while in fact permitting it to continue.


    That show, outfitting former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura with all the full-on, side, and ambience effects of the American Horror Movie genre, thrillingly sconced in “Conspiracy Theory” (you’re meant to equate one with the other) is one to watch if you want to acquaint yourself both with the history of the tech and the history of the cover-up, nicely surfaced here. [#MockOp Media at its finest.]


    Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura: Brain Invaders
    “I’ve empowered the dark side by some of my work, “ said Robert Duncan, on Brain Invaders. “Technology is Neutral. It can be good or evil. But I’ve worked on projects for the CIA, Justice Department, Department of Defense.” When asked what exactly he did and where he worked “in all this Sensitive area” (one Freemason to another?), he said “That’s Sensitive Information, I can’t tell you that.” Yes, he answered to “Voices in People’s Heads.” Yes, it’s the Ultimate Weapon. They’re called Voice of God weapons.” As in, Yes, the Government’s putting Voices in Heads. “So you know for a fact that these weapons you worked on, they’re being used domestically today?” “Absolutely,” responded Duncan to that.

    Confirmation from the Inside, of the CIA’s Domestic Use of NeuroWeapons on Americans: That’s all the Closure anyone needs, watching, listening—in 2012 when this show was produced and aired—to that question, put to a CIA-DOD-DOJ scientist (How do DOD and DOJ go together, at all?): Are these weapons being used domestically by the CIA-DOD (and DOJ?) today? And the answer is Yes, Yes, Absolutely Yes.

    The Blackest of Black of Black Ops: “They Hide in Dark Crevices” “They Can’t be Removed” (Says Who?)

    But it’s there that Duncan drops the CIA-Mythmaking answer. ”Are these people crazy or is the government doing this to them?” First, “The Government is doing this to them,” then, “You have to remember, the CIA has a long history of experimenting on our citizens—LSD…”

    “Sure—You’re talking MK Ultra and things like that going back to the Sixties and Seventies—but we were told all that stopped—is that untrue?

    “Untrue—These programs continue under new names, new budgets…It’s the ultimate weapon…”

    “To your knowledge today, are there citizens that are being abused today with this technology?”

    “Worse than Abused—that’s a light word. They are being Tortured.”

    …”Who are the Controllers? I mean is that the President, the Federal Reserve?”

    “No.”

    “So these are people within our government and they are not necessarily our President or our elected officials?”

    “That’s exactly right.”

    “Wow—that makes it even more difficult. Because that means they can’t be removed.”

    “No. They can’t be removed and they are difficult to find. They hide in the dark crevices of our government.” Earlier: “It’s part of the whole World Domination Strategy: Control the Population, from subconsciously to consciously”—he meant with radio transmissions, ELF (extremely low frequencies, brain frequency transmissions), voices floated over them, sinewaved into people’s heads, insidiously influencing, persuading, dissuading, decimating Self.

    A Techno Influence Op earlier run only by the Ad Men (with English) but now juicy fare for the Neuro Men (with Radio Waves): The ones with the Bow Ties on top.

    And one that’s gone on so long the CIA believes it can go on forever. “They can’t be removed”? Really?

    Says Who?





    “MK ULTRA on Steroids”: Dr. Robert Duncan Reports On Today’s Neurotech Targeting of Humanity, Secrecy, and The Need For Change | The EveryDay Concerned Citizen

    Has Robert Duncan been cloned or can he just change the color of his eyes? (Some people can.) Did he start up working for the CIA again or did he never leave? Idaho or Sydney, Greenland or Brazil, Robert’s Renaissance education certainly equipped him well to row on both sides of the boat (the Slave Ship we’re all on: EarthPlane, galleoned).


    Anti-Personnel Directed Energy Weapons—inclusive of Spectrum and Acoustic Neuroweapons—have been in recent times exposed in many different ways, through many different means—at military and other conferences, Senate hearings, through declassified documents, by whistleblowers and by military journalists; most crucially, they have been exposed in reports on FOIA-released documents and interviews with whistleblowers and reporters—including by this writer and journalist—as unethical, inhumane, and inflictive of untenable cruelty on people both in the USA and worldwide.

    Reporting the Journalism that's been Lost: on Disclosure from Declassified Docs on DEW/Neurotech Ab/use on Americans, Europeans By Their Own Governments

    Reporting the Journalism that's been Lost: on Disclosure from Declassified Docs on DEW/Neurotech Ab/use on Americans, Europeans By Their Own Governments
    Their use by the military having been transferred to “Law Enforcement” & affiliates: Police, both local, state, corrections, border, “community” and “fusion center”, “peacekeeper”/NATO, worldwide, and since then to “Public Safety” and “Public Health” and “Behavioral Health”—without public disclosure, discourse, debate, and frankly, dismissal—for they are anti-human and untenable—has been completely elided not just by him, but all who are currently pushing with vigor this narrative of his death.

    What we are asked to believe is that Black Ops Science, secretive, manic, military, and Intelligence-led is and must and can and should go on Forever, while the scientists at the helm, at the founding, and at the front of the Cover-Up, literally operating in plain view among those unlawfully targeted, non-consensually implanted, stalked by criminals, attacked by criminals, and brain and bio-cannibalized by criminals occupying offices at DOD, DOJ, DOE, DARPA, CIA, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, DHS, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Army, all hospitals, ambulance companies, numerous Primary Care practices, “Mental Health” and “Behavioral Health” centers, and Psycho-docsters (occupying positions of made-up power as “Psychiatrist Dia-Gnosers”) should escape close scrutiny, can be suddenly retired—without full disclosure—or passed into the realm of sudden felling (death), to be ever immortalized as supreme whistleblower, without blemish.

    Brain experimentation—cannibalizing of brains and lives—has been unethical from the get-go and all those working in Robotics, in Artificial Intelligence, in Neuroscience, in Medical Military Madness in the military know it.

    To cast those unlawfully watchlisted by a failed FBI and DHS and sold unlawfully—trafficked—into human slavery under “Black Ops”: Classified Cover, inside the CIA, inside Special Access Programs, Controlled Access Programs to be literally blasted out of their brains and lives with deadly energy neuroweapons while brain decoders, brain stimulators, brain thieves and AP DEW weapon-wielders are placed around them in their own neighborhoods, attacking them nonstop, literally 24/7 and they are subject to “pain signaling” misery requiring cowering and shielding and pain-medication and constant healthcare—as in some way some kind of unique grouping and species—an Acceptable Pariah species, to be gifted a cultic “Juden” “Targeted Individual” label and disappeared as “Delusional, Paranoid, Psychotic, Schizophrenic”—is the height of Crime. It is Military Crime, it is Intelligence Crime, it is Police Crime, it is Medical Crime. It is Human Rights Crime to be firmly, absolutely, completely, absolutely, irrevocably Ended.

    Instead what we have are “Targeted Individual” shenanigans, “Targeted Justice Media”—”Alt Media” gone nuts with the endless cover-up, endless hiding of the Hidden Hand—and a CIA #MockOp mechanism so huge, so spread-out, so invasive (of all journalism) it seeks to steal and cannibalize all it possibly can, inverting and subverting reality to its own crooked ends, imagining it can go on forever.

    The Hidden Hand: Intelligence Community Crimes, Law Enforcement Crimes, Military Crimes: High Tech Crimes, Well-Hidden

    The Hidden Hand: Intelligence Community Crimes, Law Enforcement Crimes, Military Crimes: High Tech Crimes, Well-Hidden
    Yesterday I published this article at my website, one which no doubt will ruffle a lot of feathers and has already:

    Read full story
    The sad CIA multimedia efforts here seem to be a kind of pastiche add-on from the Fifties when perhaps they began to get a little cocky about their cover-ups as they blew into Area 51 storytelling, little grey men, cow mutilations (with lasers) being deeply beneficent “experiments” run on Earth species by distant aliens, tall and sticklike and deep-eyed and anally-obsessed no doubt, but oh so magnanimous really, and seeking only to learn and grow (substitute Terrorize and Cannibalize poor gentle cows trying to sleep at night) on their own distant planets far beyond the burning sun (poised exactly 93 million miles away) (gasp!).

    “Conspiracy Theory” has been such an amazing cover for the Cult-Creators out in Intel La La Land.

    We are spellbound, examining their decades-long imploding of journalism.

    For they have shot themselves in the foot now, and nothing they do can get them out of it. Whirl and whirl and whirl deeper into that bizzare convoluted trickster depth of Lies and what have you got? Nothing but “Strategic Deception.”

    Robert Duncan has written a lot of interesting and useful and surfacing-of-the-crime material, his presence at his public talks and conferences and interviews including this writer’s second historic online conference in 2022 (during and after which the CIA almost finished her off—but no one else who attended, now how exactly does that work?) certainly speaks to the horrors of Radio Neural Molesting, “Synthetic Telepathy” (Try Techno Spy Tech, carefully inserted behind the ears in Lasered Incisions of the Skull/or Skin thereof, or any one of the precision sound projection technologies like Holosonic developed by (the CIA probably in conjunction with) private-sector sound technician freaks), Brain Decoding and Acoustic Neuro Net Tech, Brain Computer Interfaces and Computer Brain Interfaces, and other brain invasion tech like Electronic Dreams, Forced Speech, Memory Removal and Insertion of Speech, Sound, Thoughts, Images. But there is a lot of deflective Disinfo mixed in with the news reportage, and how we know this is by perusing the actually released military documents on FOIA.

    That is where we need to go for the real information here—and even that is spiked with vagueness, refusal to reveal all—but clearly, the CIA Media’sters (some operating from right next door to this writer, working hard on keeping their red beards glued to their spying chins) are desperately trying to shore up their losses and bumble on, pretending, posturing, privileging Medicos, selling their cult-setups as “orgs” and their pin-up poseurs as “New Media” (gold on black lettering for you if you Comply: You Must say “Havana Havana Havana” then say “CIA Officers Were Hit” “Yes, CIA” “Very much so, CIA, we, We were Victimized” by guess who? Of course: Russia Russia Russia. [Meanwhile, Russia’s front and center here as New CIA Media.]

    Noticing the CIA May Be the Best Way Forward

    Send the CIA/DARPA set some Letters of Notice of Crime please, for their cavalier invasions of our bodies, brains, and lives, to be published directly online so the whole world can count the letters and read the living text. Then write and keep writing. Speak and keep speaking. Film and keep filming. Do not stop—for Crime never pays, and DARPA-CIA and friends need to be Completely Exposed for their crimes.

    For the Reign of these weapons has ended, and they need to be wrested from all wielders and buried forever, for All Time.

    CIA Shenanigans to Disappear Scientists Involved Reveal the Players








    (1446) Dr Hoffer Reads a Thank You Card from Targeted Individuals for His Unflinching Integrity - YouTube

    Dr. Robert Duncan & Craig Laforest, Australia AI, V2K Technology and Directed Energy (DEW) Torture (youtube.com)


    https://substack.com/@ramolad/p-149422807
    Of Cults, Lies, Covers, and Hiding (Out of Plain View): Nope, Robert Duncan Isn't Dead & DARPA-CIA Brain-Bio-Chakra Hacking of Humans is Beyond Inhumane & Unlawful So it’s been a while, I think since news suddenly dropped that Robert Duncan was dead, then that he’d been “killed by a DEW”, then that his “body was found”: don’t believe a word of it. Dr. Robert Duncan at the October 22 2022 Worldwide Unethical DEW/Neurotech Targeting Conference at Ramola D Reports Note, I interviewed him as a whistleblower, as he presented himself, he was present and spoke at the Second Worldwide Unethical DEW/Neurotech Targeting and Non-Consensual AI/Cybernetics/Brain Experimentation Conference online held October 22, 2022 at Ramola D Reports as a whistleblower, and he appeared, over the course of many years, to surface many of the dark technologies and practices of “compartmented” Special Forces inside the DOD-CIA—but looking through his first book again—The Matrix Deciphered—currently, it is clear there is a kind of CIA Coverstory created by and through and in his disclosure, a deflecting and mythologizing—of the kind perhaps that the CIA MockOpsters specialize in, that does need to be analyzed and exposed further. And it is this Pursuance of Coverstory, despite all evidence of an Awakening World, that sadly surfaces here in the sudden “Above Top Secret” Disappearing of a prominent DARPA-CIA scientist such as Robert Duncan. Disappearing people of public renown, in the public eye for a (long) period of time, is apparently an Intelligence ploy—and surely, there is a (bizarre, absurd “intelligent”) reason for it, one which no doubt will surface soon enough. “Existential Threat Against Humanity” says Dr. Robert Duncan: Worldwide DEW/Neurotech Targeting & Non-Consensual AI/Cybernetics/Brain Experimentation Conference Bears Witness to Profound Mil/Intel/DOJ/Univ/Private Sector Crimes | The EveryDay Concerned Citizen Pain “Signaling”—say Inflicting—as a Means to Get Into Brains and “Develop Cognitive Models”: Beyond Unlawful That Anti-Human Directed Energy Weapons have been developed (over decades, over almost the whole of the last century) by a secretive military prominently headed by the even more secretive CIA and been used, in most primary ways—to create Pain, to create Misery, Suffering, Horror, in Luciferian Human-Sacrifice ways to destroy bodies and lives—on pretty much everyone who has stepped forward to report unethical brain experimentation and massive bio and energy (chakra) hacking is something that Robert Duncan apparently just forgot to report. The Mystery of Robert Duncan is the Mystery of the CIA and DARPA and Black Ops Projects Which Should Be Stopped Stat Brain Invaders/Screenshot Blazing (more prominently) onto the world stage in Jesse Ventura’s unforgettable interview (Brain Invaders/Tru TV, Air Date: 12-17-2012) on targeting, radio neuroweapons, Voice of God weapons, and people hiding under metalware of various kinds (bakeware works—so does rubber, better than leather) as Black Opsters from DARPA, CIA, and all the forces—particularly the Marine Corps of course with their Joint Non Lethal Weapons Directorate firing opening salvos from Dahlgren Virginia (where their rusting battleships hide in plain view as you drive quickly by)—go wild with whacking people with bio-hacking and brain-hacking and chakra-hacking weapons to achieve all sorts of invasive, intrusive, and all-unlawful “bio-effects,” disabling many, injuring all, killing some (in numbers mounting over the years), Dr. Robert Duncan as he has been termed by many hopefuls, including this writer, who has interviewed him, may not have completed a doctorate but wrote, spoke, interviewed, and published enough to be situated at head of a large, very large train of CIA personas, it appears, each working hard (including in “Media” (say Crimcastia)) to faintly surface the crime while in fact permitting it to continue. That show, outfitting former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura with all the full-on, side, and ambience effects of the American Horror Movie genre, thrillingly sconced in “Conspiracy Theory” (you’re meant to equate one with the other) is one to watch if you want to acquaint yourself both with the history of the tech and the history of the cover-up, nicely surfaced here. [#MockOp Media at its finest.] Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura: Brain Invaders “I’ve empowered the dark side by some of my work, “ said Robert Duncan, on Brain Invaders. “Technology is Neutral. It can be good or evil. But I’ve worked on projects for the CIA, Justice Department, Department of Defense.” When asked what exactly he did and where he worked “in all this Sensitive area” (one Freemason to another?), he said “That’s Sensitive Information, I can’t tell you that.” Yes, he answered to “Voices in People’s Heads.” Yes, it’s the Ultimate Weapon. They’re called Voice of God weapons.” As in, Yes, the Government’s putting Voices in Heads. “So you know for a fact that these weapons you worked on, they’re being used domestically today?” “Absolutely,” responded Duncan to that. Confirmation from the Inside, of the CIA’s Domestic Use of NeuroWeapons on Americans: That’s all the Closure anyone needs, watching, listening—in 2012 when this show was produced and aired—to that question, put to a CIA-DOD-DOJ scientist (How do DOD and DOJ go together, at all?): Are these weapons being used domestically by the CIA-DOD (and DOJ?) today? And the answer is Yes, Yes, Absolutely Yes. The Blackest of Black of Black Ops: “They Hide in Dark Crevices” “They Can’t be Removed” (Says Who?) But it’s there that Duncan drops the CIA-Mythmaking answer. ”Are these people crazy or is the government doing this to them?” First, “The Government is doing this to them,” then, “You have to remember, the CIA has a long history of experimenting on our citizens—LSD…” “Sure—You’re talking MK Ultra and things like that going back to the Sixties and Seventies—but we were told all that stopped—is that untrue? “Untrue—These programs continue under new names, new budgets…It’s the ultimate weapon…” “To your knowledge today, are there citizens that are being abused today with this technology?” “Worse than Abused—that’s a light word. They are being Tortured.” …”Who are the Controllers? I mean is that the President, the Federal Reserve?” “No.” “So these are people within our government and they are not necessarily our President or our elected officials?” “That’s exactly right.” “Wow—that makes it even more difficult. Because that means they can’t be removed.” “No. They can’t be removed and they are difficult to find. They hide in the dark crevices of our government.” Earlier: “It’s part of the whole World Domination Strategy: Control the Population, from subconsciously to consciously”—he meant with radio transmissions, ELF (extremely low frequencies, brain frequency transmissions), voices floated over them, sinewaved into people’s heads, insidiously influencing, persuading, dissuading, decimating Self. A Techno Influence Op earlier run only by the Ad Men (with English) but now juicy fare for the Neuro Men (with Radio Waves): The ones with the Bow Ties on top. And one that’s gone on so long the CIA believes it can go on forever. “They can’t be removed”? Really? Says Who? “MK ULTRA on Steroids”: Dr. Robert Duncan Reports On Today’s Neurotech Targeting of Humanity, Secrecy, and The Need For Change | The EveryDay Concerned Citizen Has Robert Duncan been cloned or can he just change the color of his eyes? (Some people can.) Did he start up working for the CIA again or did he never leave? Idaho or Sydney, Greenland or Brazil, Robert’s Renaissance education certainly equipped him well to row on both sides of the boat (the Slave Ship we’re all on: EarthPlane, galleoned). Anti-Personnel Directed Energy Weapons—inclusive of Spectrum and Acoustic Neuroweapons—have been in recent times exposed in many different ways, through many different means—at military and other conferences, Senate hearings, through declassified documents, by whistleblowers and by military journalists; most crucially, they have been exposed in reports on FOIA-released documents and interviews with whistleblowers and reporters—including by this writer and journalist—as unethical, inhumane, and inflictive of untenable cruelty on people both in the USA and worldwide. Reporting the Journalism that's been Lost: on Disclosure from Declassified Docs on DEW/Neurotech Ab/use on Americans, Europeans By Their Own Governments Reporting the Journalism that's been Lost: on Disclosure from Declassified Docs on DEW/Neurotech Ab/use on Americans, Europeans By Their Own Governments Their use by the military having been transferred to “Law Enforcement” & affiliates: Police, both local, state, corrections, border, “community” and “fusion center”, “peacekeeper”/NATO, worldwide, and since then to “Public Safety” and “Public Health” and “Behavioral Health”—without public disclosure, discourse, debate, and frankly, dismissal—for they are anti-human and untenable—has been completely elided not just by him, but all who are currently pushing with vigor this narrative of his death. What we are asked to believe is that Black Ops Science, secretive, manic, military, and Intelligence-led is and must and can and should go on Forever, while the scientists at the helm, at the founding, and at the front of the Cover-Up, literally operating in plain view among those unlawfully targeted, non-consensually implanted, stalked by criminals, attacked by criminals, and brain and bio-cannibalized by criminals occupying offices at DOD, DOJ, DOE, DARPA, CIA, MIT, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, DHS, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Army, all hospitals, ambulance companies, numerous Primary Care practices, “Mental Health” and “Behavioral Health” centers, and Psycho-docsters (occupying positions of made-up power as “Psychiatrist Dia-Gnosers”) should escape close scrutiny, can be suddenly retired—without full disclosure—or passed into the realm of sudden felling (death), to be ever immortalized as supreme whistleblower, without blemish. Brain experimentation—cannibalizing of brains and lives—has been unethical from the get-go and all those working in Robotics, in Artificial Intelligence, in Neuroscience, in Medical Military Madness in the military know it. To cast those unlawfully watchlisted by a failed FBI and DHS and sold unlawfully—trafficked—into human slavery under “Black Ops”: Classified Cover, inside the CIA, inside Special Access Programs, Controlled Access Programs to be literally blasted out of their brains and lives with deadly energy neuroweapons while brain decoders, brain stimulators, brain thieves and AP DEW weapon-wielders are placed around them in their own neighborhoods, attacking them nonstop, literally 24/7 and they are subject to “pain signaling” misery requiring cowering and shielding and pain-medication and constant healthcare—as in some way some kind of unique grouping and species—an Acceptable Pariah species, to be gifted a cultic “Juden” “Targeted Individual” label and disappeared as “Delusional, Paranoid, Psychotic, Schizophrenic”—is the height of Crime. It is Military Crime, it is Intelligence Crime, it is Police Crime, it is Medical Crime. It is Human Rights Crime to be firmly, absolutely, completely, absolutely, irrevocably Ended. Instead what we have are “Targeted Individual” shenanigans, “Targeted Justice Media”—”Alt Media” gone nuts with the endless cover-up, endless hiding of the Hidden Hand—and a CIA #MockOp mechanism so huge, so spread-out, so invasive (of all journalism) it seeks to steal and cannibalize all it possibly can, inverting and subverting reality to its own crooked ends, imagining it can go on forever. The Hidden Hand: Intelligence Community Crimes, Law Enforcement Crimes, Military Crimes: High Tech Crimes, Well-Hidden The Hidden Hand: Intelligence Community Crimes, Law Enforcement Crimes, Military Crimes: High Tech Crimes, Well-Hidden Yesterday I published this article at my website, one which no doubt will ruffle a lot of feathers and has already: Read full story The sad CIA multimedia efforts here seem to be a kind of pastiche add-on from the Fifties when perhaps they began to get a little cocky about their cover-ups as they blew into Area 51 storytelling, little grey men, cow mutilations (with lasers) being deeply beneficent “experiments” run on Earth species by distant aliens, tall and sticklike and deep-eyed and anally-obsessed no doubt, but oh so magnanimous really, and seeking only to learn and grow (substitute Terrorize and Cannibalize poor gentle cows trying to sleep at night) on their own distant planets far beyond the burning sun (poised exactly 93 million miles away) (gasp!). “Conspiracy Theory” has been such an amazing cover for the Cult-Creators out in Intel La La Land. We are spellbound, examining their decades-long imploding of journalism. For they have shot themselves in the foot now, and nothing they do can get them out of it. Whirl and whirl and whirl deeper into that bizzare convoluted trickster depth of Lies and what have you got? Nothing but “Strategic Deception.” Robert Duncan has written a lot of interesting and useful and surfacing-of-the-crime material, his presence at his public talks and conferences and interviews including this writer’s second historic online conference in 2022 (during and after which the CIA almost finished her off—but no one else who attended, now how exactly does that work?) certainly speaks to the horrors of Radio Neural Molesting, “Synthetic Telepathy” (Try Techno Spy Tech, carefully inserted behind the ears in Lasered Incisions of the Skull/or Skin thereof, or any one of the precision sound projection technologies like Holosonic developed by (the CIA probably in conjunction with) private-sector sound technician freaks), Brain Decoding and Acoustic Neuro Net Tech, Brain Computer Interfaces and Computer Brain Interfaces, and other brain invasion tech like Electronic Dreams, Forced Speech, Memory Removal and Insertion of Speech, Sound, Thoughts, Images. But there is a lot of deflective Disinfo mixed in with the news reportage, and how we know this is by perusing the actually released military documents on FOIA. That is where we need to go for the real information here—and even that is spiked with vagueness, refusal to reveal all—but clearly, the CIA Media’sters (some operating from right next door to this writer, working hard on keeping their red beards glued to their spying chins) are desperately trying to shore up their losses and bumble on, pretending, posturing, privileging Medicos, selling their cult-setups as “orgs” and their pin-up poseurs as “New Media” (gold on black lettering for you if you Comply: You Must say “Havana Havana Havana” then say “CIA Officers Were Hit” “Yes, CIA” “Very much so, CIA, we, We were Victimized” by guess who? Of course: Russia Russia Russia. [Meanwhile, Russia’s front and center here as New CIA Media.] Noticing the CIA May Be the Best Way Forward Send the CIA/DARPA set some Letters of Notice of Crime please, for their cavalier invasions of our bodies, brains, and lives, to be published directly online so the whole world can count the letters and read the living text. Then write and keep writing. Speak and keep speaking. Film and keep filming. Do not stop—for Crime never pays, and DARPA-CIA and friends need to be Completely Exposed for their crimes. For the Reign of these weapons has ended, and they need to be wrested from all wielders and buried forever, for All Time. CIA Shenanigans to Disappear Scientists Involved Reveal the Players (1446) Dr Hoffer Reads a Thank You Card from Targeted Individuals for His Unflinching Integrity - YouTube Dr. Robert Duncan & Craig Laforest, Australia AI, V2K Technology and Directed Energy (DEW) Torture (youtube.com) https://substack.com/@ramolad/p-149422807
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  • Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide
    donshafi911September 14, 2024
    Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide

    Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada Podcast12 September 2024

    If you’re a regular reader of our articles highlighting The Electronic Intifada’s weekly livestream, you might notice a difference this week: There’s no YouTube video.

    That’s because the Google-owned video and streaming platform imposed a punitive freeze on The Electronic Intifada’s channel for seven days. I’ll say more on that below.

    But don’t worry, you can still watch the whole program – just not on YouTube.

    You can watch the recording of this week’s show in the X/Twitter video viewer above, but you’ll need to drag the slider forward to 36 minutes into the video – that’s when the program actually starts.

    You can also watch it directly on the X/Twitterwebsite or on Facebook.

    Highlights from the jam-packed program are also embedded throughout this article.

    You can listen to the program in the SoundCloud player at the bottom of this page.

    Our headline story was an enlightening conversation with Matt Kennard, of the investigative publication Declassified UK, about Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

    We started with a news brief from associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman covering recent developments in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the horrific massacre in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, where Israel dropped massive bombs on refugee tents, killing 40 people, half of whom were totally obliterated.

    We also talked about Tuesday’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, respectively the Democratic and Republican candidates in the United States.Both competed to display more support for Israel, and Harris doubled down on her lies about 7 October mass rapes, fabrications and atrocity propaganda that Israel has used to try to justify its genocide.

    And we discussed how ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, has become the first mainstream Western outlet to report extensively on Israel killing its own citizens in large numbers on 7 October – a topic on which The Electronic Intifada has broken many stories, right back to the first days of the genocide.

    “We can’t say for sure that they’re copying our coverage,” observed associate editor Asa Winstanley, “but they go back to a lot of the same sources.”

    YouTube censorship

    A few hours before we were scheduled to go live on 11 September, we received a notification that YouTube had deleted three videos from The Electronic Intifada’s channelclaiming that we had violated their “community guidelines” related to “violent criminal organizations.”

    Clearly YouTube is not referring to the Israeli army, which is what springs to my mind when I hear that phrase.

    The videos YouTube removed were in fact months-old livestream segments featuring contributing editor Jon Elmer, explaining and analyzing footage published by resistance organizations in Gaza of combat with Israeli forces.

    YouTube does not tell us what specifically it objects to, making it very difficult for us to understand how – if it is even possible – to avoid this increasingly draconian and arbitrary censorship.

    As punishment for doing journalism, YouTube froze our channel for seven days. We are not allowed to post any videos there, and that’s also why we could not broadcast the livestream there.

    As I said at the start of this week’s program, we completely reject YouTube’s vague accusations: Regular viewers know that The Electronic Intifada provides professional, ethical, responsible and factual journalism and analysis. So we view this action as blatant political censorship.

    With respect to our livestreams, Jon explained on this week’s show how in every resistance video we air, we edit out any kind of graphic violence, loss of life or injury.

    Because we understand that speech related to Palestine is a particular target of censorship and suppression, we go above and beyond journalistic and broadcast standards in terms of removing any graphic content.

    Many other channels post the same videos, but totally unedited, and I am not aware that they are being censored the way we are.

    Indeed, YouTube insiders have leaked to Wiredthat there has been growing discontent at the company over what the tech publication calls “a pattern of inconsistent moderation of content relating to Israel’s war with Hamas.”

    “The sources believe management at the world’s most popular video platform have been playing favorites and scrabbling to justify takedowns – or find exceptions to keep content up,” Wired reported in July.

    Eric Sype, the US national organizer for Haifa-based 7amleh, an organization that monitors internet censorship of Palestinians, told Wired, “We have firsthand experience of YouTube and Google employees telling us that videos clearly inciting violence and racism against Palestinians do not violate the companies policies, while educational videos posted by Palestinian creators have to be age restricted, labeled as graphic, or simply just taken down.”

    Despite the censorship, The Electronic Intifada will continue to bring our readers and viewers reporting and analysis that they cannot easily get from any other English-language source, documenting a world-historic moment in the struggle for Palestine’s liberation.

    Our mission is purely educational and journalistic, but the reality of increasing censorship and repression in Western so-called democracies is making journalism – real journalism, not stenography for the government – ever more difficult.But we will remain committed to that mission no matter what.

    Fortunately, we were able to livestream the program on other platforms – Instagram and Twitch, as well as on X/Twitter and Facebook.

    Because it is such a dominant video platform, arguably an effective monopoly, we will continue to try to use YouTube to reach as many people as we can.

    At the same time we will explore broadcasting on additional platforms to try to mitigate the risk we face from censorship.

    Now, more about this week’s program.

    Small country, outsize role in genocide

    Britain supplies weapons to Israel, but the amount is relatively small compared, say, to the United States or Germany.

    For that reason, some people may think London’s role in Israel’s genocide is less significant.

    “But it’s a key player in supporting the Israeli war machine through logistics and intelligence,” Matt Kennard told the livestream.

    And much of that support is channeled through RAF Akrotiri, a sprawling British air force base in Cyprus, just 30 minutes flying time from Gaza.

    Kennard is the co-founder and head of investigation at Declassified UK, an outlet which focuses on British national security issues.

    In May, Kennard revealed that the British air force, the RAF, had flown about 200 spy flights over Gaza since December.

    All operated from RAF Akrotiri.

    As well as surveillance, Declassified UK’sreporting has also shown that the British government may be supporting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza more directly.

    On the ground in Gaza?

    Getting any information is extremely difficult, however. Weeks into the genocide, as Kennard explained, The Sun reported that the SAS, an elite British military unit, was in Cyprus preparing to “rescue hostages and Brits stranded in Gaza.”

    Almost immediately, the “D-Notice” committee, a British government body that censors reporting on “national security” matters, issued a directive to publications not to report on SAS activities in Gaza.

    “So the SAS are likely in Israel,” Kennard said. “And what is likely is that they would have an advisory role with the Israeli military about their ground invasion. But it’s possible that they could be on the ground in Gaza, or could have been at certain points.”

    According to Kennard, RAF Akrotiri is also a major base for arms transfers. Dozens of military cargo aircraft have flown from the base to Israel since the genocide began. The British government refuses to disclose what they are carrying.

    And Akrotiri may well have been used by Israel itself.

    In June, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, warned Cyprus that the Lebanese resistance group would respond against the island nation if it allowed Israel to operate from its territory.

    “The Cypriot government should be warned that opening its airports and bases to the enemy to target Lebanon means it has become part of the war,” Nasrallah said.

    Nasrallah said that Israeli forces had trained in Cyprus, but he did not specify which facilities they had used.

    The British bases in the country are not under the direct control of the Cyprus government, but under that of London, as the UK considers them its own sovereign territory – parts of the island Britain retained when it ended its formal colonial rule in 1960.

    However, according to Kennard, there are indications that Israel itself has used RAF Akrotiri during the genocide.

    He noted that in February, the Express, a British newspaper, reported that London had withdrawn permission for Israel’s US-built F-35 warplanes to land at Akrotiri until “hostilities” in Gaza end.

    “​​So the imputation was they previously had that access,” Kennard said, adding that the UK continues to supply parts and servicing for the Israeli F-35s.

    There have been growing protests by antiwar activists in Cyprus against British and American use of the bases to attack Yemen and to support the genocide in Gaza.

    Activists in the country have credited Declassified UK with helping uncover the extent of those operations, according to Kennard.

    Shrinking press freedom

    We also talked about the growing repression against journalists and activists in the UK, including the years-long imprisonment and persecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and the recent arrests of Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Medhurst under draconian “anti-terrorism” laws.

    Kennard was speaking to The Electronic Intifada from Germany and revealed that for the first time in his career he had traveled abroad on a reporting trip without his laptop, as he was concerned by the risk that he might be detained, questioned and have his equipment confiscated on his return to the UK.

    That has happened recently to other journalists, including Medhurst.

    Although it is receding, Kennard said, “we still have a degree of freedom.”

    “So if we’re not using that to expose our complicity in this horror, then we’re not doing our job right, and we’re not being moral individuals,” he added.

    Resistance report

    In his report this week, contributing editor Jon Elmer covered the latest resistance news from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. You can watch segments of his reporting below.

    The Electronic Intifada’s Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program and Maureen Clare Murphy contributed writing and production. Eli Gerzon contributed post-production assistance.

    Past episodes of

    The Electronic Intifada livestream

    can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

    livestream
    Matt Kennard
    Declassified UK
    Cyprus
    United Kingdom
    censorship
    YouTube


    https://telegra.ph/Day-341-Britains-outsize-role-in-Israels-genocide-09-13
    Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide donshafi911September 14, 2024 Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada Podcast12 September 2024 If you’re a regular reader of our articles highlighting The Electronic Intifada’s weekly livestream, you might notice a difference this week: There’s no YouTube video. That’s because the Google-owned video and streaming platform imposed a punitive freeze on The Electronic Intifada’s channel for seven days. I’ll say more on that below. But don’t worry, you can still watch the whole program – just not on YouTube. You can watch the recording of this week’s show in the X/Twitter video viewer above, but you’ll need to drag the slider forward to 36 minutes into the video – that’s when the program actually starts. You can also watch it directly on the X/Twitterwebsite or on Facebook. Highlights from the jam-packed program are also embedded throughout this article. You can listen to the program in the SoundCloud player at the bottom of this page. Our headline story was an enlightening conversation with Matt Kennard, of the investigative publication Declassified UK, about Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. We started with a news brief from associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman covering recent developments in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the horrific massacre in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, where Israel dropped massive bombs on refugee tents, killing 40 people, half of whom were totally obliterated. We also talked about Tuesday’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, respectively the Democratic and Republican candidates in the United States.Both competed to display more support for Israel, and Harris doubled down on her lies about 7 October mass rapes, fabrications and atrocity propaganda that Israel has used to try to justify its genocide. And we discussed how ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, has become the first mainstream Western outlet to report extensively on Israel killing its own citizens in large numbers on 7 October – a topic on which The Electronic Intifada has broken many stories, right back to the first days of the genocide. “We can’t say for sure that they’re copying our coverage,” observed associate editor Asa Winstanley, “but they go back to a lot of the same sources.” YouTube censorship A few hours before we were scheduled to go live on 11 September, we received a notification that YouTube had deleted three videos from The Electronic Intifada’s channelclaiming that we had violated their “community guidelines” related to “violent criminal organizations.” Clearly YouTube is not referring to the Israeli army, which is what springs to my mind when I hear that phrase. The videos YouTube removed were in fact months-old livestream segments featuring contributing editor Jon Elmer, explaining and analyzing footage published by resistance organizations in Gaza of combat with Israeli forces. YouTube does not tell us what specifically it objects to, making it very difficult for us to understand how – if it is even possible – to avoid this increasingly draconian and arbitrary censorship. As punishment for doing journalism, YouTube froze our channel for seven days. We are not allowed to post any videos there, and that’s also why we could not broadcast the livestream there. As I said at the start of this week’s program, we completely reject YouTube’s vague accusations: Regular viewers know that The Electronic Intifada provides professional, ethical, responsible and factual journalism and analysis. So we view this action as blatant political censorship. With respect to our livestreams, Jon explained on this week’s show how in every resistance video we air, we edit out any kind of graphic violence, loss of life or injury. Because we understand that speech related to Palestine is a particular target of censorship and suppression, we go above and beyond journalistic and broadcast standards in terms of removing any graphic content. Many other channels post the same videos, but totally unedited, and I am not aware that they are being censored the way we are. Indeed, YouTube insiders have leaked to Wiredthat there has been growing discontent at the company over what the tech publication calls “a pattern of inconsistent moderation of content relating to Israel’s war with Hamas.” “The sources believe management at the world’s most popular video platform have been playing favorites and scrabbling to justify takedowns – or find exceptions to keep content up,” Wired reported in July. Eric Sype, the US national organizer for Haifa-based 7amleh, an organization that monitors internet censorship of Palestinians, told Wired, “We have firsthand experience of YouTube and Google employees telling us that videos clearly inciting violence and racism against Palestinians do not violate the companies policies, while educational videos posted by Palestinian creators have to be age restricted, labeled as graphic, or simply just taken down.” Despite the censorship, The Electronic Intifada will continue to bring our readers and viewers reporting and analysis that they cannot easily get from any other English-language source, documenting a world-historic moment in the struggle for Palestine’s liberation. Our mission is purely educational and journalistic, but the reality of increasing censorship and repression in Western so-called democracies is making journalism – real journalism, not stenography for the government – ever more difficult.But we will remain committed to that mission no matter what. Fortunately, we were able to livestream the program on other platforms – Instagram and Twitch, as well as on X/Twitter and Facebook. Because it is such a dominant video platform, arguably an effective monopoly, we will continue to try to use YouTube to reach as many people as we can. At the same time we will explore broadcasting on additional platforms to try to mitigate the risk we face from censorship. Now, more about this week’s program. Small country, outsize role in genocide Britain supplies weapons to Israel, but the amount is relatively small compared, say, to the United States or Germany. For that reason, some people may think London’s role in Israel’s genocide is less significant. “But it’s a key player in supporting the Israeli war machine through logistics and intelligence,” Matt Kennard told the livestream. And much of that support is channeled through RAF Akrotiri, a sprawling British air force base in Cyprus, just 30 minutes flying time from Gaza. Kennard is the co-founder and head of investigation at Declassified UK, an outlet which focuses on British national security issues. In May, Kennard revealed that the British air force, the RAF, had flown about 200 spy flights over Gaza since December. All operated from RAF Akrotiri. As well as surveillance, Declassified UK’sreporting has also shown that the British government may be supporting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza more directly. On the ground in Gaza? Getting any information is extremely difficult, however. Weeks into the genocide, as Kennard explained, The Sun reported that the SAS, an elite British military unit, was in Cyprus preparing to “rescue hostages and Brits stranded in Gaza.” Almost immediately, the “D-Notice” committee, a British government body that censors reporting on “national security” matters, issued a directive to publications not to report on SAS activities in Gaza. “So the SAS are likely in Israel,” Kennard said. “And what is likely is that they would have an advisory role with the Israeli military about their ground invasion. But it’s possible that they could be on the ground in Gaza, or could have been at certain points.” According to Kennard, RAF Akrotiri is also a major base for arms transfers. Dozens of military cargo aircraft have flown from the base to Israel since the genocide began. The British government refuses to disclose what they are carrying. And Akrotiri may well have been used by Israel itself. In June, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, warned Cyprus that the Lebanese resistance group would respond against the island nation if it allowed Israel to operate from its territory. “The Cypriot government should be warned that opening its airports and bases to the enemy to target Lebanon means it has become part of the war,” Nasrallah said. Nasrallah said that Israeli forces had trained in Cyprus, but he did not specify which facilities they had used. The British bases in the country are not under the direct control of the Cyprus government, but under that of London, as the UK considers them its own sovereign territory – parts of the island Britain retained when it ended its formal colonial rule in 1960. However, according to Kennard, there are indications that Israel itself has used RAF Akrotiri during the genocide. He noted that in February, the Express, a British newspaper, reported that London had withdrawn permission for Israel’s US-built F-35 warplanes to land at Akrotiri until “hostilities” in Gaza end. “​​So the imputation was they previously had that access,” Kennard said, adding that the UK continues to supply parts and servicing for the Israeli F-35s. There have been growing protests by antiwar activists in Cyprus against British and American use of the bases to attack Yemen and to support the genocide in Gaza. Activists in the country have credited Declassified UK with helping uncover the extent of those operations, according to Kennard. Shrinking press freedom We also talked about the growing repression against journalists and activists in the UK, including the years-long imprisonment and persecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and the recent arrests of Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Medhurst under draconian “anti-terrorism” laws. Kennard was speaking to The Electronic Intifada from Germany and revealed that for the first time in his career he had traveled abroad on a reporting trip without his laptop, as he was concerned by the risk that he might be detained, questioned and have his equipment confiscated on his return to the UK. That has happened recently to other journalists, including Medhurst. Although it is receding, Kennard said, “we still have a degree of freedom.” “So if we’re not using that to expose our complicity in this horror, then we’re not doing our job right, and we’re not being moral individuals,” he added. Resistance report In his report this week, contributing editor Jon Elmer covered the latest resistance news from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. You can watch segments of his reporting below. The Electronic Intifada’s Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program and Maureen Clare Murphy contributed writing and production. Eli Gerzon contributed post-production assistance. Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel. livestream Matt Kennard Declassified UK Cyprus United Kingdom censorship YouTube https://telegra.ph/Day-341-Britains-outsize-role-in-Israels-genocide-09-13
    Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide
    Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada Podcast12 September 2024 If you’re a regular reader of our articles highlighting The Electronic Intifada’s weekly livestream, you might notice a difference this week: There’s no YouTube video. That’s because the Google-owned video and streaming platform imposed a punitive freeze on The Electronic Intifada’s channel for seven days. I’ll say more on that below. But don’t worry, you can still watch the whole program – just…
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  • Techugo: Pioneering Media Technology Cutting-Edge News App Development for Tomorrow

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    Techugo: Pioneering Media Technology Cutting-Edge News App Development for Tomorrow Techugo, a leading News App Development Company in Canada, excels in pioneering media technology. We specialize in cutting-edge news app solutions that define the future of digital journalism. Our expert team delivers innovative, user-friendly apps designed to enhance news consumption, ensuring a seamless experience for today's readers and setting new benchmarks in media technology and app development. For more info visit: https://www.techugo.ca/news-app-development #NewsAppDevelopmentCompany #AppDevelopmentCompany #Canada
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  • Zika Virus or Roundup Herbicide The Cause of Microcephaly?
    Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure Causing Microcephaly

    Originally published on jeffreydachmd.com.

    What's causing microcephaly? It might not be what the media is telling you...

    Is It Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure ?

    The news media has been reporting the Zika virus as the cause of microcephaly. The story originated in a Monsanto chemical industry press release dated Feb 17, 2016 which was then copied over the news media. The Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947, and there have been no reports of microcephaly in Uganda. A US news article says, according to Associated Press journalists who visited the Zika Forest in Uganda on Feb 1, 2016, local officials have no concern about the Zika virus.(24)

    New England Journal Reports

    A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported Zika Virus surveillance in Colombia.(80-81) Of 50 babies reported with microcephaly, only four (8 %) had laboratory evidence of congenital Zika virus infection on RT-PCR. The other 46 cases (92 %) were due to other causes.

    Of 1850 pregnant women reported infected with Zika virus, no babies were born with microcephaly. The authors state: (80-81)

    “maternal infection with the Zika virus during the third trimester of pregnancy is not linked to structural abnormalities in the fetus.”

    Since 92% of microcephaly babies are not caused by maternal Zika virus, perhaps we should be looking for other preventable causes.

    Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam reviewed this same data from the Colombia surveillance study After reviewing this data, Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam concluded in his own report entitled: “Is Zika the cause of Microcephaly?”that there is no direct link between zika virus and microcephaly, and he proposed pesticide exposure (pyriproxyfen) in the drinking water as an alternative explanation(99):

    “This (data) would seem to rule out Zika as a cause of microcephaly. This gives a consistent interpretation that there is no direct link between Zika and microcephaly except for random co-occurrence.”….”An alternative cause of microcephaly in Brazil could be the pesticide pyriproxyfen, which is cross-reactive with retinoic acid, which causes microcephaly, and is being used in drinking water.”(99)

    Dr Tiago Baptista Questions Zika as Sole Cause of Microcephaly

    Maternal viral infection with rubella or cytomegalovirus have been known to cause fetal malformation and fetal demise. There is no doubt that viral illness during pregnancy is best avoided.(47-55) However, Dr Tiago Baptista in a 2016 BMJ article questions “whether the surge in reported cases of microcephaly is entirely due to Zika virus infection“(55) He says:

    “The risk of microcephaly after maternal infection is estimated at roughly one in 100 women… This is a relatively low risk compared with other causal infections such as cytomegalovirus.”(55)

    A Distraction From the Real Cause- Exposure to Glyphosate Causes Microcephaly and other Congenital Anomalies

    I suggest that the Zika virus is merely a distraction away from the real cause, agrichemical exposure from Monsanto’s Round-Up Herbicide, glyphosate, (1-4)

    Dr Alejandra Paganelli reported in 2010 that “Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signaling.” (8)

    Dr Paganelli concludes: “(congenital malformations) “produced by Glyphosate Based Herbicides are mainly a consequence of the increase of endogenous retinoid activity. ” (8)

    Dr Sylvia Lopez

    In 2012, Dr Silvia L. Lopez reviewed the effects of agricultural chemicals, glyphosate based herbicides, in human and animal models.(9) She says:

    “It is very well known that acute or chronic increase of retinoic acid (RA) levels leads to teratogenic effects during human pregnancy and in experimental models. The characteristic features displayed by Retinoic Acid embryopathy in humans include brain abnormalities such as microcephaly, microphtalmia, and impairment of hindbrain development; abnormal external and middle ears (microtia or anotia), mandibular and midfacial underdevelopment, and cleft palate.” (9) Note: Retinoic Acid is Vitamin A Derivative.

    Dr Benitez-Leite

    Dr Benitez-Leite reported 52 cases of malformations in babies born of women exposed to agricultural chemicals. The congenital malformations observed include anencephaly, microcephaly, facial defects, myelomeningocele, cleft palate, ear malformations, polydactily, syndactily all consistent with the well-known and expected syndrome caused by upregulation of the Retinoic Acid pathway.(10) Left image Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide contains glyphosate.

    Upregulation of Retinoic Acid Pathway

    A number of reports have linked arial spraying with the mosquito larvicide pyriproxyfen to birth defects such as microcephaly in the crop sprayed towns of Northeast Brazil.(106-108) Pyriproxyfen disrupts retinoic acid (vitramin A) signalling, a known mechanism for microcephaly (106-108) In 1995, Dr Kenneth Rothman reported in NEJM that High Vitamin A Intake causes birth defects. (109)

    Increasing Anencephaly in Yakima Valley in Washington State

    Another mechanism is glyphosate disruption of folate metabolsm as discussed below in the Yakima Washington State case. (35-37)

    Over three years from 2010 to 2013, the Washington State Department of Health reported an unusual increase in anencephalic babies born in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties, four times higher than the national average. (33-34)

    Anencephaply, microcephaly and spina bifida are all related disorders of neural tube closure associated with maternal folate deficiency. Maternal folate supplementation is preventive. Maternal folate supplementation in Yakima was not at issue, as this was similar to the national average. Barbara Peterson, in Farm Wars, makes a compelling case for glyphosate exposure as the cause, since the Yakima river running through the affected counties had been heavily treated with glyphosate for weed control during that time period.(29) Left image Yakima River Washington State.

    Glyphosate Disrupts Folate Metabolism

    Glyphosate disruption of folate metabolism is discussed by Stephanie Seneff in her May 2016 article on Weston Price.(35) Glyphosate acts as an antibiotic, killing friendly bacteria by blocking the Shikimate pathway. These friendly bacterial are also involved in bacterial conversion of folic acid to methyl folate, its active form. Maternal methylfolate deficiency is associated with neural tube defects in the developing embryo.(85-87)

    Glyphosate Disrupts Glycine Metabolism

    Stephanie Seneff’s article then discusses how glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase metabolism, known to cause neural tube defects in animal studies and humans.(36-37)

    Glyphosate is the amino acid glycine with an added phosphate group, so glyphosate may readily displace glycine in various biochemical reactions. Glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase by displacing glycine as a substrate. In addition, glyphosate replaces glycine at insertion sites in amino acid chains during protein synthesis, producing defective enzymes (35). Glyphosate is basically the amino acid, glycine with a phosphate group added on to it.

    Glyphosate is a Patented Antimicrobial, Anti-Folate Drug

    Glyphosate is actually patented as an anti-microbial drug. (83,84) Glyphosate serves as an anti-folate agent working in synergy with other anti-folate drugs.(58,61) Other anti-folate drugs in common use include the urinary tract antibiotic, Bactrim (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) the rheumatology drug, methotrexate, and the anti-seizure drug Dilantin (phentoin). Maternal exposure to anti-folate drugs such as methotrexate Bactrim and Dilantin increase risk of neural tube defects in the fetus up to six-fold. (85-87) Maternal folate supplementation has been shown to reduce incidence of fetal neural tube defects (NTD), and folic acid fortification in food supply was mandated in 1998. (85-87)(100-103)

    Glyphosate Inhibits the Shikimate Pathway

    Glyphosate’s known mode of action is inhibition of the shikimate pathway in plants, fungi, bacteria and parasites.(58) Glyphosate blocks the pathway which produces Folate, Ubiquinone (Co-Q10), Vitamin K, and the aromatic amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine.

    Government Regulators Deemed Glyphosate Safe for Humans

    Government regulators deemed glyphosate safe for us humans because we lack the shikimate pathway. They forgot to consider that we humans depend on the shikimate pathway in plants and gut bacteria for our folate (vitamin B9), to prevents neural tube defects. If your lunch salad comes from an agricultural field treated with glyphosate which blocks the plant’s ability to synthesize folate, how much folate are you getting in your meal ? If you are ingesting glyphosate in your food, blocking your gut bacteria from synthesing folate, how soon will you be rendered folate deficient? Dr Bekaert says in 2008,

    “Humans cannot synthesize folates (vitamin B9) and thus have to rely on plant food supplying these essential vitamins.“(104)

    Dr Craig Roberts suggests that Glyphosate may serve as anti-folate, anti-parasitic drug ,He says:(58)

    ” it is likely that the shikimate pathway is important for supply of folate precursors in this parasite….inhibitors of EPSP synthase (such as glyphosate) can act in synergy with conventional antifolates and may be a useful addition to the agents used against apicomplexan parasites.”(58)

    A quote from a University of Chicago Press Release 1998 (61) explains that Glyphosate blocks production of folate:

    “Effective new ways to inhibit parasites that cause malaria, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis” June 25, 1998.(61)

    “Dr. McLeod’s team showed that glyphosate, …could block the production of folate, inhibiting parasite growth and survival. Glyphosate proved effective against malaria strains that were resistant to an anti-malarial medicine, pyrimethamine, which interrupts folate processing at a different point. To confirm the finding, they demonstrated that these folate-starved parasites could be rescued, in the test tube, by giving them folate.”(61)

    Brazil Annual Pesticide Sales Surpasses the US

    Left Image courtesy of Reuters. Brazil sales of herbicide (glyphosate) exceeds that of US.(81)

    According to Paulo Prada in her 2015 article, Brazil has a huge appetite for pesticides and herbicides, surpassing annual sales in the US.(81)

    Poalo Prado explains that in Northeast Brazil, irrigation canals were built, transforming previously arid land into fertile farm land. These open air irrigation canals are heavily contaminated with herbicides and pesticides liberally applied to the crop fields. Life is primitive for the agricultural workers who live without piped in water for their dwellings. The local workers use the open air irrigation canals for their drinking water, thus are heavily exposed to herbicide and pesticide runoff.

    House Passes 1.1 Billion Zika Virus Bill. Methyl-Folate is Cheaper.

    Instead of spending 1.1 Billion dollars on a “controversial” Zika Virus Bill, I have a better idea for prevention of microcephaly and neural tube defects. (90) Suppose we instead allocate 100 million dollars to give out free methyl-folate tablets to all pregnant women exposed to glyphosate here in the US, and in Brazil. That would solve the problem at a fraction of the cost, saving a Billion Dollars.(90)

    53 Countries Have Mandatory Flour Fortification with Folate

    Folate fortification of flour for prevention of neural tube defects (anencephaly, microcephaly, spina bifida etc.) is mandated in 53 countries. Fortification of flour with folic acid was mandated in the US in 1998, the most successful public health measure in history, with reduction of neural tube defects by 36%.(100-103) In 2009, Dr Oakley declared this success story a “modern miracle of epidemiology”.(103)

    Study Blood Folate Levels in North East Brazil

    Why not allocate research funds to study blood folate levels in women in Northeast Brazil at high risk for having babies with neural tube defects? This was done here in the US before and after starting folate fortification in 1998, showing reduction incidence of neural tube defects by 36%.(101) Folate deficiency (blood folate levels less than 3 ng/ml)) decreased from 21% to less than 1% of the population. (101)

    In Australia, mandatory fortification of bread with folate and iodine was introduced in 2009, resulting in a 50-80 per cent reduction in neural tube defects in at-risk indigenous women and teenagers.(100-112)

    Reducing Microcephaly in Brazil with Folate Fortification

    Studies done in Brazil shows folate deficiency is severe, affecting 94% among the poor.(113) Folate fortification of flour in three south American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile) resulted in significant reduction in 52 different fetal anomalies including reduction in microcephaly and anencephaly.(114) Currently all South American countries except Venezuala have mandatory folate fortification legislation.(115) In populations using folate fortification there have been decreases in neural tube defects from 30-50%.(115)

    How is Such an Error Possible ?

    You might ask the obvious question, “how is such an error in thinking possible” that the government would waste a billion dollars on Zika instead of Folate Fortification? This is called CrimeStop or “Protective Stupidity“, aptly described in 1984 by George Orwell (91):

    “The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself….Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak….the Party says the earth is flat’, ‘the party says that ice is heavier than water’—and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.”

    “Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…”…”Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”(91)

    Using Fear and Smear Tactics to Distract Attention from Monsanto

    This article in the Huffington Post Feb 16 is typical of the Monsanto tactics to distract attention away from Roundup glyphosate as the cause of the birth defects in agricultural workers in Brazil; A Viral Story Links The Zika Crisis To Monsanto. Don’t Believe It. by Anna Almendrala Senior Healthy Living Editor Huffington Post. Anna’s piece is pure Monsanto propaganda masquerading as journalism, don’t believe a word of it. If you trust anything Monsanto says, then I have a bridge to sell you.

    Monsanto has known for decades that Glyphosate causes birth defects, see this report: Roundup and birth defects. Is the public being kept in the dark ? by Michael Antoniou Earth Open Source June 2011

    Search Google Scholar for articles with key words “microcephaly pesticide“ : you will see 2160 articles pop up.

    Glyphosate is “Probably Carcinogenic to Humans”

    A number of studies show glyphosate exposure doubles the incidence of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.(92) As reported in Lancet Oncology by Dr Kathryn Guyton, on March, 2015, 17 experts from 11 countries met in Lyon France and classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (89)

    Zika Distraction from Glyphosate – The Elephant in the Room

    Certainly, maternal viral illness with Rubella, (CMV) cytomegalovirus and Zika are all risk factors for fetal demise, and fetal malformations, and are best avoided.(93-95) However, the Zika Virus is a distraction from the real cause of the problem, massive glyphosate exposure to pregnant agricultural workers in Brazil. Glyphosate is a patented anti-folate drug, Anti-folate drugs are known to cause microcephaly and neural tube defects in animals and humans.

    Professor Don Huber, GMO Food and Glyphosate

    Increased incidence of birth defects in the population caused by exposure to the anti-folate agent, glyphosate is only the “tip of the iceberg”. The adverse health consequences of GMO food and glyphosate contamination of our food and water supply are much more extensive as outlined in a series of articles posted on the Stephanie Seneff home page. Here is a quote from Professor Don M. Huber:(88) from his document GMO Failed Promises Flawed Science Serious Health Safety Issue

    ” Future historians may well look back upon our time and write, not about how many pounds of pesticides we did or did not apply, but about how willing we are to sacrifice our children and jeopardize future generations for this massive experiment we call genetic engineering that is based on failed promises and flawed science, just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise.” Dr. Don M. Huber

    Link to this article: http://wp.me/p3gFbV-3En

    Jeffrey Dach MD
    7450 Griffin Road Suite 190
    Davie, Fl 33314
    954-792-4663

    Articles with related interest:

    Dont Ask for HIV Test Ask For Glyphosate Test

    Curing Autism with Antibiotics

    Berberine Antdote for an Epidemic

    References

    For references, please view original publication.
    Zika Virus or Roundup Herbicide The Cause of Microcephaly? Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure Causing Microcephaly Originally published on jeffreydachmd.com. What's causing microcephaly? It might not be what the media is telling you... Is It Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure ? The news media has been reporting the Zika virus as the cause of microcephaly. The story originated in a Monsanto chemical industry press release dated Feb 17, 2016 which was then copied over the news media. The Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947, and there have been no reports of microcephaly in Uganda. A US news article says, according to Associated Press journalists who visited the Zika Forest in Uganda on Feb 1, 2016, local officials have no concern about the Zika virus.(24) New England Journal Reports A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported Zika Virus surveillance in Colombia.(80-81) Of 50 babies reported with microcephaly, only four (8 %) had laboratory evidence of congenital Zika virus infection on RT-PCR. The other 46 cases (92 %) were due to other causes. Of 1850 pregnant women reported infected with Zika virus, no babies were born with microcephaly. The authors state: (80-81) “maternal infection with the Zika virus during the third trimester of pregnancy is not linked to structural abnormalities in the fetus.” Since 92% of microcephaly babies are not caused by maternal Zika virus, perhaps we should be looking for other preventable causes. Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam reviewed this same data from the Colombia surveillance study After reviewing this data, Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam concluded in his own report entitled: “Is Zika the cause of Microcephaly?”that there is no direct link between zika virus and microcephaly, and he proposed pesticide exposure (pyriproxyfen) in the drinking water as an alternative explanation(99): “This (data) would seem to rule out Zika as a cause of microcephaly. This gives a consistent interpretation that there is no direct link between Zika and microcephaly except for random co-occurrence.”….”An alternative cause of microcephaly in Brazil could be the pesticide pyriproxyfen, which is cross-reactive with retinoic acid, which causes microcephaly, and is being used in drinking water.”(99) Dr Tiago Baptista Questions Zika as Sole Cause of Microcephaly Maternal viral infection with rubella or cytomegalovirus have been known to cause fetal malformation and fetal demise. There is no doubt that viral illness during pregnancy is best avoided.(47-55) However, Dr Tiago Baptista in a 2016 BMJ article questions “whether the surge in reported cases of microcephaly is entirely due to Zika virus infection“(55) He says: “The risk of microcephaly after maternal infection is estimated at roughly one in 100 women… This is a relatively low risk compared with other causal infections such as cytomegalovirus.”(55) A Distraction From the Real Cause- Exposure to Glyphosate Causes Microcephaly and other Congenital Anomalies I suggest that the Zika virus is merely a distraction away from the real cause, agrichemical exposure from Monsanto’s Round-Up Herbicide, glyphosate, (1-4) Dr Alejandra Paganelli reported in 2010 that “Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signaling.” (8) Dr Paganelli concludes: “(congenital malformations) “produced by Glyphosate Based Herbicides are mainly a consequence of the increase of endogenous retinoid activity. ” (8) Dr Sylvia Lopez In 2012, Dr Silvia L. Lopez reviewed the effects of agricultural chemicals, glyphosate based herbicides, in human and animal models.(9) She says: “It is very well known that acute or chronic increase of retinoic acid (RA) levels leads to teratogenic effects during human pregnancy and in experimental models. The characteristic features displayed by Retinoic Acid embryopathy in humans include brain abnormalities such as microcephaly, microphtalmia, and impairment of hindbrain development; abnormal external and middle ears (microtia or anotia), mandibular and midfacial underdevelopment, and cleft palate.” (9) Note: Retinoic Acid is Vitamin A Derivative. Dr Benitez-Leite Dr Benitez-Leite reported 52 cases of malformations in babies born of women exposed to agricultural chemicals. The congenital malformations observed include anencephaly, microcephaly, facial defects, myelomeningocele, cleft palate, ear malformations, polydactily, syndactily all consistent with the well-known and expected syndrome caused by upregulation of the Retinoic Acid pathway.(10) Left image Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide contains glyphosate. Upregulation of Retinoic Acid Pathway A number of reports have linked arial spraying with the mosquito larvicide pyriproxyfen to birth defects such as microcephaly in the crop sprayed towns of Northeast Brazil.(106-108) Pyriproxyfen disrupts retinoic acid (vitramin A) signalling, a known mechanism for microcephaly (106-108) In 1995, Dr Kenneth Rothman reported in NEJM that High Vitamin A Intake causes birth defects. (109) Increasing Anencephaly in Yakima Valley in Washington State Another mechanism is glyphosate disruption of folate metabolsm as discussed below in the Yakima Washington State case. (35-37) Over three years from 2010 to 2013, the Washington State Department of Health reported an unusual increase in anencephalic babies born in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties, four times higher than the national average. (33-34) Anencephaply, microcephaly and spina bifida are all related disorders of neural tube closure associated with maternal folate deficiency. Maternal folate supplementation is preventive. Maternal folate supplementation in Yakima was not at issue, as this was similar to the national average. Barbara Peterson, in Farm Wars, makes a compelling case for glyphosate exposure as the cause, since the Yakima river running through the affected counties had been heavily treated with glyphosate for weed control during that time period.(29) Left image Yakima River Washington State. Glyphosate Disrupts Folate Metabolism Glyphosate disruption of folate metabolism is discussed by Stephanie Seneff in her May 2016 article on Weston Price.(35) Glyphosate acts as an antibiotic, killing friendly bacteria by blocking the Shikimate pathway. These friendly bacterial are also involved in bacterial conversion of folic acid to methyl folate, its active form. Maternal methylfolate deficiency is associated with neural tube defects in the developing embryo.(85-87) Glyphosate Disrupts Glycine Metabolism Stephanie Seneff’s article then discusses how glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase metabolism, known to cause neural tube defects in animal studies and humans.(36-37) Glyphosate is the amino acid glycine with an added phosphate group, so glyphosate may readily displace glycine in various biochemical reactions. Glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase by displacing glycine as a substrate. In addition, glyphosate replaces glycine at insertion sites in amino acid chains during protein synthesis, producing defective enzymes (35). Glyphosate is basically the amino acid, glycine with a phosphate group added on to it. Glyphosate is a Patented Antimicrobial, Anti-Folate Drug Glyphosate is actually patented as an anti-microbial drug. (83,84) Glyphosate serves as an anti-folate agent working in synergy with other anti-folate drugs.(58,61) Other anti-folate drugs in common use include the urinary tract antibiotic, Bactrim (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) the rheumatology drug, methotrexate, and the anti-seizure drug Dilantin (phentoin). Maternal exposure to anti-folate drugs such as methotrexate Bactrim and Dilantin increase risk of neural tube defects in the fetus up to six-fold. (85-87) Maternal folate supplementation has been shown to reduce incidence of fetal neural tube defects (NTD), and folic acid fortification in food supply was mandated in 1998. (85-87)(100-103) Glyphosate Inhibits the Shikimate Pathway Glyphosate’s known mode of action is inhibition of the shikimate pathway in plants, fungi, bacteria and parasites.(58) Glyphosate blocks the pathway which produces Folate, Ubiquinone (Co-Q10), Vitamin K, and the aromatic amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. Government Regulators Deemed Glyphosate Safe for Humans Government regulators deemed glyphosate safe for us humans because we lack the shikimate pathway. They forgot to consider that we humans depend on the shikimate pathway in plants and gut bacteria for our folate (vitamin B9), to prevents neural tube defects. If your lunch salad comes from an agricultural field treated with glyphosate which blocks the plant’s ability to synthesize folate, how much folate are you getting in your meal ? If you are ingesting glyphosate in your food, blocking your gut bacteria from synthesing folate, how soon will you be rendered folate deficient? Dr Bekaert says in 2008, “Humans cannot synthesize folates (vitamin B9) and thus have to rely on plant food supplying these essential vitamins.“(104) Dr Craig Roberts suggests that Glyphosate may serve as anti-folate, anti-parasitic drug ,He says:(58) ” it is likely that the shikimate pathway is important for supply of folate precursors in this parasite….inhibitors of EPSP synthase (such as glyphosate) can act in synergy with conventional antifolates and may be a useful addition to the agents used against apicomplexan parasites.”(58) A quote from a University of Chicago Press Release 1998 (61) explains that Glyphosate blocks production of folate: “Effective new ways to inhibit parasites that cause malaria, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis” June 25, 1998.(61) “Dr. McLeod’s team showed that glyphosate, …could block the production of folate, inhibiting parasite growth and survival. Glyphosate proved effective against malaria strains that were resistant to an anti-malarial medicine, pyrimethamine, which interrupts folate processing at a different point. To confirm the finding, they demonstrated that these folate-starved parasites could be rescued, in the test tube, by giving them folate.”(61) Brazil Annual Pesticide Sales Surpasses the US Left Image courtesy of Reuters. Brazil sales of herbicide (glyphosate) exceeds that of US.(81) According to Paulo Prada in her 2015 article, Brazil has a huge appetite for pesticides and herbicides, surpassing annual sales in the US.(81) Poalo Prado explains that in Northeast Brazil, irrigation canals were built, transforming previously arid land into fertile farm land. These open air irrigation canals are heavily contaminated with herbicides and pesticides liberally applied to the crop fields. Life is primitive for the agricultural workers who live without piped in water for their dwellings. The local workers use the open air irrigation canals for their drinking water, thus are heavily exposed to herbicide and pesticide runoff. House Passes 1.1 Billion Zika Virus Bill. Methyl-Folate is Cheaper. Instead of spending 1.1 Billion dollars on a “controversial” Zika Virus Bill, I have a better idea for prevention of microcephaly and neural tube defects. (90) Suppose we instead allocate 100 million dollars to give out free methyl-folate tablets to all pregnant women exposed to glyphosate here in the US, and in Brazil. That would solve the problem at a fraction of the cost, saving a Billion Dollars.(90) 53 Countries Have Mandatory Flour Fortification with Folate Folate fortification of flour for prevention of neural tube defects (anencephaly, microcephaly, spina bifida etc.) is mandated in 53 countries. Fortification of flour with folic acid was mandated in the US in 1998, the most successful public health measure in history, with reduction of neural tube defects by 36%.(100-103) In 2009, Dr Oakley declared this success story a “modern miracle of epidemiology”.(103) Study Blood Folate Levels in North East Brazil Why not allocate research funds to study blood folate levels in women in Northeast Brazil at high risk for having babies with neural tube defects? This was done here in the US before and after starting folate fortification in 1998, showing reduction incidence of neural tube defects by 36%.(101) Folate deficiency (blood folate levels less than 3 ng/ml)) decreased from 21% to less than 1% of the population. (101) In Australia, mandatory fortification of bread with folate and iodine was introduced in 2009, resulting in a 50-80 per cent reduction in neural tube defects in at-risk indigenous women and teenagers.(100-112) Reducing Microcephaly in Brazil with Folate Fortification Studies done in Brazil shows folate deficiency is severe, affecting 94% among the poor.(113) Folate fortification of flour in three south American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile) resulted in significant reduction in 52 different fetal anomalies including reduction in microcephaly and anencephaly.(114) Currently all South American countries except Venezuala have mandatory folate fortification legislation.(115) In populations using folate fortification there have been decreases in neural tube defects from 30-50%.(115) How is Such an Error Possible ? You might ask the obvious question, “how is such an error in thinking possible” that the government would waste a billion dollars on Zika instead of Folate Fortification? This is called CrimeStop or “Protective Stupidity“, aptly described in 1984 by George Orwell (91): “The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself….Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak….the Party says the earth is flat’, ‘the party says that ice is heavier than water’—and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.” “Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…”…”Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”(91) Using Fear and Smear Tactics to Distract Attention from Monsanto This article in the Huffington Post Feb 16 is typical of the Monsanto tactics to distract attention away from Roundup glyphosate as the cause of the birth defects in agricultural workers in Brazil; A Viral Story Links The Zika Crisis To Monsanto. Don’t Believe It. by Anna Almendrala Senior Healthy Living Editor Huffington Post. Anna’s piece is pure Monsanto propaganda masquerading as journalism, don’t believe a word of it. If you trust anything Monsanto says, then I have a bridge to sell you. Monsanto has known for decades that Glyphosate causes birth defects, see this report: Roundup and birth defects. Is the public being kept in the dark ? by Michael Antoniou Earth Open Source June 2011 Search Google Scholar for articles with key words “microcephaly pesticide“ : you will see 2160 articles pop up. Glyphosate is “Probably Carcinogenic to Humans” A number of studies show glyphosate exposure doubles the incidence of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.(92) As reported in Lancet Oncology by Dr Kathryn Guyton, on March, 2015, 17 experts from 11 countries met in Lyon France and classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (89) Zika Distraction from Glyphosate – The Elephant in the Room Certainly, maternal viral illness with Rubella, (CMV) cytomegalovirus and Zika are all risk factors for fetal demise, and fetal malformations, and are best avoided.(93-95) However, the Zika Virus is a distraction from the real cause of the problem, massive glyphosate exposure to pregnant agricultural workers in Brazil. Glyphosate is a patented anti-folate drug, Anti-folate drugs are known to cause microcephaly and neural tube defects in animals and humans. Professor Don Huber, GMO Food and Glyphosate Increased incidence of birth defects in the population caused by exposure to the anti-folate agent, glyphosate is only the “tip of the iceberg”. The adverse health consequences of GMO food and glyphosate contamination of our food and water supply are much more extensive as outlined in a series of articles posted on the Stephanie Seneff home page. Here is a quote from Professor Don M. Huber:(88) from his document GMO Failed Promises Flawed Science Serious Health Safety Issue ” Future historians may well look back upon our time and write, not about how many pounds of pesticides we did or did not apply, but about how willing we are to sacrifice our children and jeopardize future generations for this massive experiment we call genetic engineering that is based on failed promises and flawed science, just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise.” Dr. Don M. Huber Link to this article: http://wp.me/p3gFbV-3En Jeffrey Dach MD 7450 Griffin Road Suite 190 Davie, Fl 33314 954-792-4663 Articles with related interest: Dont Ask for HIV Test Ask For Glyphosate Test Curing Autism with Antibiotics Berberine Antdote for an Epidemic References For references, please view original publication.
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  • Zika Virus or Roundup Herbicide The Cause of Microcephaly?
    Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure Causing Microcephaly

    Originally published on jeffreydachmd.com.

    What's causing microcephaly? It might not be what the media is telling you...

    Is It Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure ?

    The news media has been reporting the Zika virus as the cause of microcephaly. The story originated in a Monsanto chemical industry press release dated Feb 17, 2016 which was then copied over the news media. The Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947, and there have been no reports of microcephaly in Uganda. A US news article says, according to Associated Press journalists who visited the Zika Forest in Uganda on Feb 1, 2016, local officials have no concern about the Zika virus.(24)

    New England Journal Reports

    A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported Zika Virus surveillance in Colombia.(80-81) Of 50 babies reported with microcephaly, only four (8 %) had laboratory evidence of congenital Zika virus infection on RT-PCR. The other 46 cases (92 %) were due to other causes.

    Of 1850 pregnant women reported infected with Zika virus, no babies were born with microcephaly. The authors state: (80-81)

    “maternal infection with the Zika virus during the third trimester of pregnancy is not linked to structural abnormalities in the fetus.”

    Since 92% of microcephaly babies are not caused by maternal Zika virus, perhaps we should be looking for other preventable causes.

    Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam reviewed this same data from the Colombia surveillance study After reviewing this data, Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam concluded in his own report entitled: “Is Zika the cause of Microcephaly?”that there is no direct link between zika virus and microcephaly, and he proposed pesticide exposure (pyriproxyfen) in the drinking water as an alternative explanation(99):

    “This (data) would seem to rule out Zika as a cause of microcephaly. This gives a consistent interpretation that there is no direct link between Zika and microcephaly except for random co-occurrence.”….”An alternative cause of microcephaly in Brazil could be the pesticide pyriproxyfen, which is cross-reactive with retinoic acid, which causes microcephaly, and is being used in drinking water.”(99)

    Dr Tiago Baptista Questions Zika as Sole Cause of Microcephaly

    Maternal viral infection with rubella or cytomegalovirus have been known to cause fetal malformation and fetal demise. There is no doubt that viral illness during pregnancy is best avoided.(47-55) However, Dr Tiago Baptista in a 2016 BMJ article questions “whether the surge in reported cases of microcephaly is entirely due to Zika virus infection“(55) He says:

    “The risk of microcephaly after maternal infection is estimated at roughly one in 100 women… This is a relatively low risk compared with other causal infections such as cytomegalovirus.”(55)

    A Distraction From the Real Cause- Exposure to Glyphosate Causes Microcephaly and other Congenital Anomalies

    I suggest that the Zika virus is merely a distraction away from the real cause, agrichemical exposure from Monsanto’s Round-Up Herbicide, glyphosate, (1-4)

    Dr Alejandra Paganelli reported in 2010 that “Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signaling.” (8)

    Dr Paganelli concludes: “(congenital malformations) “produced by Glyphosate Based Herbicides are mainly a consequence of the increase of endogenous retinoid activity. ” (8)

    Dr Sylvia Lopez

    In 2012, Dr Silvia L. Lopez reviewed the effects of agricultural chemicals, glyphosate based herbicides, in human and animal models.(9) She says:

    “It is very well known that acute or chronic increase of retinoic acid (RA) levels leads to teratogenic effects during human pregnancy and in experimental models. The characteristic features displayed by Retinoic Acid embryopathy in humans include brain abnormalities such as microcephaly, microphtalmia, and impairment of hindbrain development; abnormal external and middle ears (microtia or anotia), mandibular and midfacial underdevelopment, and cleft palate.” (9) Note: Retinoic Acid is Vitamin A Derivative.

    Dr Benitez-Leite

    Dr Benitez-Leite reported 52 cases of malformations in babies born of women exposed to agricultural chemicals. The congenital malformations observed include anencephaly, microcephaly, facial defects, myelomeningocele, cleft palate, ear malformations, polydactily, syndactily all consistent with the well-known and expected syndrome caused by upregulation of the Retinoic Acid pathway.(10) Left image Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide contains glyphosate.

    Upregulation of Retinoic Acid Pathway

    A number of reports have linked arial spraying with the mosquito larvicide pyriproxyfen to birth defects such as microcephaly in the crop sprayed towns of Northeast Brazil.(106-108) Pyriproxyfen disrupts retinoic acid (vitramin A) signalling, a known mechanism for microcephaly (106-108) In 1995, Dr Kenneth Rothman reported in NEJM that High Vitamin A Intake causes birth defects. (109)

    Increasing Anencephaly in Yakima Valley in Washington State

    Another mechanism is glyphosate disruption of folate metabolsm as discussed below in the Yakima Washington State case. (35-37)

    Over three years from 2010 to 2013, the Washington State Department of Health reported an unusual increase in anencephalic babies born in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties, four times higher than the national average. (33-34)

    Anencephaply, microcephaly and spina bifida are all related disorders of neural tube closure associated with maternal folate deficiency. Maternal folate supplementation is preventive. Maternal folate supplementation in Yakima was not at issue, as this was similar to the national average. Barbara Peterson, in Farm Wars, makes a compelling case for glyphosate exposure as the cause, since the Yakima river running through the affected counties had been heavily treated with glyphosate for weed control during that time period.(29) Left image Yakima River Washington State.

    Glyphosate Disrupts Folate Metabolism

    Glyphosate disruption of folate metabolism is discussed by Stephanie Seneff in her May 2016 article on Weston Price.(35) Glyphosate acts as an antibiotic, killing friendly bacteria by blocking the Shikimate pathway. These friendly bacterial are also involved in bacterial conversion of folic acid to methyl folate, its active form. Maternal methylfolate deficiency is associated with neural tube defects in the developing embryo.(85-87)

    Glyphosate Disrupts Glycine Metabolism

    Stephanie Seneff’s article then discusses how glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase metabolism, known to cause neural tube defects in animal studies and humans.(36-37)

    Glyphosate is the amino acid glycine with an added phosphate group, so glyphosate may readily displace glycine in various biochemical reactions. Glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase by displacing glycine as a substrate. In addition, glyphosate replaces glycine at insertion sites in amino acid chains during protein synthesis, producing defective enzymes (35). Glyphosate is basically the amino acid, glycine with a phosphate group added on to it.

    Glyphosate is a Patented Antimicrobial, Anti-Folate Drug

    Glyphosate is actually patented as an anti-microbial drug. (83,84) Glyphosate serves as an anti-folate agent working in synergy with other anti-folate drugs.(58,61) Other anti-folate drugs in common use include the urinary tract antibiotic, Bactrim (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) the rheumatology drug, methotrexate, and the anti-seizure drug Dilantin (phentoin). Maternal exposure to anti-folate drugs such as methotrexate Bactrim and Dilantin increase risk of neural tube defects in the fetus up to six-fold. (85-87) Maternal folate supplementation has been shown to reduce incidence of fetal neural tube defects (NTD), and folic acid fortification in food supply was mandated in 1998. (85-87)(100-103)

    Glyphosate Inhibits the Shikimate Pathway

    Glyphosate’s known mode of action is inhibition of the shikimate pathway in plants, fungi, bacteria and parasites.(58) Glyphosate blocks the pathway which produces Folate, Ubiquinone (Co-Q10), Vitamin K, and the aromatic amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine.

    Government Regulators Deemed Glyphosate Safe for Humans

    Government regulators deemed glyphosate safe for us humans because we lack the shikimate pathway. They forgot to consider that we humans depend on the shikimate pathway in plants and gut bacteria for our folate (vitamin B9), to prevents neural tube defects. If your lunch salad comes from an agricultural field treated with glyphosate which blocks the plant’s ability to synthesize folate, how much folate are you getting in your meal ? If you are ingesting glyphosate in your food, blocking your gut bacteria from synthesing folate, how soon will you be rendered folate deficient? Dr Bekaert says in 2008,

    “Humans cannot synthesize folates (vitamin B9) and thus have to rely on plant food supplying these essential vitamins.“(104)

    Dr Craig Roberts suggests that Glyphosate may serve as anti-folate, anti-parasitic drug ,He says:(58)

    ” it is likely that the shikimate pathway is important for supply of folate precursors in this parasite….inhibitors of EPSP synthase (such as glyphosate) can act in synergy with conventional antifolates and may be a useful addition to the agents used against apicomplexan parasites.”(58)

    A quote from a University of Chicago Press Release 1998 (61) explains that Glyphosate blocks production of folate:

    “Effective new ways to inhibit parasites that cause malaria, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis” June 25, 1998.(61)

    “Dr. McLeod’s team showed that glyphosate, …could block the production of folate, inhibiting parasite growth and survival. Glyphosate proved effective against malaria strains that were resistant to an anti-malarial medicine, pyrimethamine, which interrupts folate processing at a different point. To confirm the finding, they demonstrated that these folate-starved parasites could be rescued, in the test tube, by giving them folate.”(61)

    Brazil Annual Pesticide Sales Surpasses the US

    Left Image courtesy of Reuters. Brazil sales of herbicide (glyphosate) exceeds that of US.(81)

    According to Paulo Prada in her 2015 article, Brazil has a huge appetite for pesticides and herbicides, surpassing annual sales in the US.(81)

    Poalo Prado explains that in Northeast Brazil, irrigation canals were built, transforming previously arid land into fertile farm land. These open air irrigation canals are heavily contaminated with herbicides and pesticides liberally applied to the crop fields. Life is primitive for the agricultural workers who live without piped in water for their dwellings. The local workers use the open air irrigation canals for their drinking water, thus are heavily exposed to herbicide and pesticide runoff.

    House Passes 1.1 Billion Zika Virus Bill. Methyl-Folate is Cheaper.

    Instead of spending 1.1 Billion dollars on a “controversial” Zika Virus Bill, I have a better idea for prevention of microcephaly and neural tube defects. (90) Suppose we instead allocate 100 million dollars to give out free methyl-folate tablets to all pregnant women exposed to glyphosate here in the US, and in Brazil. That would solve the problem at a fraction of the cost, saving a Billion Dollars.(90)

    53 Countries Have Mandatory Flour Fortification with Folate

    Folate fortification of flour for prevention of neural tube defects (anencephaly, microcephaly, spina bifida etc.) is mandated in 53 countries. Fortification of flour with folic acid was mandated in the US in 1998, the most successful public health measure in history, with reduction of neural tube defects by 36%.(100-103) In 2009, Dr Oakley declared this success story a “modern miracle of epidemiology”.(103)

    Study Blood Folate Levels in North East Brazil

    Why not allocate research funds to study blood folate levels in women in Northeast Brazil at high risk for having babies with neural tube defects? This was done here in the US before and after starting folate fortification in 1998, showing reduction incidence of neural tube defects by 36%.(101) Folate deficiency (blood folate levels less than 3 ng/ml)) decreased from 21% to less than 1% of the population. (101)

    In Australia, mandatory fortification of bread with folate and iodine was introduced in 2009, resulting in a 50-80 per cent reduction in neural tube defects in at-risk indigenous women and teenagers.(100-112)

    Reducing Microcephaly in Brazil with Folate Fortification

    Studies done in Brazil shows folate deficiency is severe, affecting 94% among the poor.(113) Folate fortification of flour in three south American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile) resulted in significant reduction in 52 different fetal anomalies including reduction in microcephaly and anencephaly.(114) Currently all South American countries except Venezuala have mandatory folate fortification legislation.(115) In populations using folate fortification there have been decreases in neural tube defects from 30-50%.(115)

    How is Such an Error Possible ?

    You might ask the obvious question, “how is such an error in thinking possible” that the government would waste a billion dollars on Zika instead of Folate Fortification? This is called CrimeStop or “Protective Stupidity“, aptly described in 1984 by George Orwell (91):

    “The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself….Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak….the Party says the earth is flat’, ‘the party says that ice is heavier than water’—and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.”

    “Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…”…”Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”(91)

    Using Fear and Smear Tactics to Distract Attention from Monsanto

    This article in the Huffington Post Feb 16 is typical of the Monsanto tactics to distract attention away from Roundup glyphosate as the cause of the birth defects in agricultural workers in Brazil; A Viral Story Links The Zika Crisis To Monsanto. Don’t Believe It. by Anna Almendrala Senior Healthy Living Editor Huffington Post. Anna’s piece is pure Monsanto propaganda masquerading as journalism, don’t believe a word of it. If you trust anything Monsanto says, then I have a bridge to sell you.

    Monsanto has known for decades that Glyphosate causes birth defects, see this report: Roundup and birth defects. Is the public being kept in the dark ? by Michael Antoniou Earth Open Source June 2011

    Search Google Scholar for articles with key words “microcephaly pesticide“ : you will see 2160 articles pop up.

    Glyphosate is “Probably Carcinogenic to Humans”

    A number of studies show glyphosate exposure doubles the incidence of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.(92) As reported in Lancet Oncology by Dr Kathryn Guyton, on March, 2015, 17 experts from 11 countries met in Lyon France and classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (89)

    Zika Distraction from Glyphosate – The Elephant in the Room

    Certainly, maternal viral illness with Rubella, (CMV) cytomegalovirus and Zika are all risk factors for fetal demise, and fetal malformations, and are best avoided.(93-95) However, the Zika Virus is a distraction from the real cause of the problem, massive glyphosate exposure to pregnant agricultural workers in Brazil. Glyphosate is a patented anti-folate drug, Anti-folate drugs are known to cause microcephaly and neural tube defects in animals and humans.

    Professor Don Huber, GMO Food and Glyphosate

    Increased incidence of birth defects in the population caused by exposure to the anti-folate agent, glyphosate is only the “tip of the iceberg”. The adverse health consequences of GMO food and glyphosate contamination of our food and water supply are much more extensive as outlined in a series of articles posted on the Stephanie Seneff home page. Here is a quote from Professor Don M. Huber:(88) from his document GMO Failed Promises Flawed Science Serious Health Safety Issue

    ” Future historians may well look back upon our time and write, not about how many pounds of pesticides we did or did not apply, but about how willing we are to sacrifice our children and jeopardize future generations for this massive experiment we call genetic engineering that is based on failed promises and flawed science, just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise.” Dr. Don M. Huber

    Link to this article: http://wp.me/p3gFbV-3En

    Jeffrey Dach MD
    7450 Griffin Road Suite 190
    Davie, Fl 33314
    954-792-4663

    Articles with related interest:

    Dont Ask for HIV Test Ask For Glyphosate Test

    Curing Autism with Antibiotics

    Berberine Antdote for an Epidemic

    References

    For references, please view original publication.

    https://greenmedinfo.com/blog/zika-virus-or-roundup-herbicide-cause-microcephaly
    Zika Virus or Roundup Herbicide The Cause of Microcephaly? Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure Causing Microcephaly Originally published on jeffreydachmd.com. What's causing microcephaly? It might not be what the media is telling you... Is It Zika Virus or Glyphosate Exposure ? The news media has been reporting the Zika virus as the cause of microcephaly. The story originated in a Monsanto chemical industry press release dated Feb 17, 2016 which was then copied over the news media. The Zika virus was discovered in Uganda in 1947, and there have been no reports of microcephaly in Uganda. A US news article says, according to Associated Press journalists who visited the Zika Forest in Uganda on Feb 1, 2016, local officials have no concern about the Zika virus.(24) New England Journal Reports A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine reported Zika Virus surveillance in Colombia.(80-81) Of 50 babies reported with microcephaly, only four (8 %) had laboratory evidence of congenital Zika virus infection on RT-PCR. The other 46 cases (92 %) were due to other causes. Of 1850 pregnant women reported infected with Zika virus, no babies were born with microcephaly. The authors state: (80-81) “maternal infection with the Zika virus during the third trimester of pregnancy is not linked to structural abnormalities in the fetus.” Since 92% of microcephaly babies are not caused by maternal Zika virus, perhaps we should be looking for other preventable causes. Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam reviewed this same data from the Colombia surveillance study After reviewing this data, Dr Yaneer Bar-Yam concluded in his own report entitled: “Is Zika the cause of Microcephaly?”that there is no direct link between zika virus and microcephaly, and he proposed pesticide exposure (pyriproxyfen) in the drinking water as an alternative explanation(99): “This (data) would seem to rule out Zika as a cause of microcephaly. This gives a consistent interpretation that there is no direct link between Zika and microcephaly except for random co-occurrence.”….”An alternative cause of microcephaly in Brazil could be the pesticide pyriproxyfen, which is cross-reactive with retinoic acid, which causes microcephaly, and is being used in drinking water.”(99) Dr Tiago Baptista Questions Zika as Sole Cause of Microcephaly Maternal viral infection with rubella or cytomegalovirus have been known to cause fetal malformation and fetal demise. There is no doubt that viral illness during pregnancy is best avoided.(47-55) However, Dr Tiago Baptista in a 2016 BMJ article questions “whether the surge in reported cases of microcephaly is entirely due to Zika virus infection“(55) He says: “The risk of microcephaly after maternal infection is estimated at roughly one in 100 women… This is a relatively low risk compared with other causal infections such as cytomegalovirus.”(55) A Distraction From the Real Cause- Exposure to Glyphosate Causes Microcephaly and other Congenital Anomalies I suggest that the Zika virus is merely a distraction away from the real cause, agrichemical exposure from Monsanto’s Round-Up Herbicide, glyphosate, (1-4) Dr Alejandra Paganelli reported in 2010 that “Glyphosate-based herbicides produce teratogenic effects on vertebrates by impairing retinoic acid signaling.” (8) Dr Paganelli concludes: “(congenital malformations) “produced by Glyphosate Based Herbicides are mainly a consequence of the increase of endogenous retinoid activity. ” (8) Dr Sylvia Lopez In 2012, Dr Silvia L. Lopez reviewed the effects of agricultural chemicals, glyphosate based herbicides, in human and animal models.(9) She says: “It is very well known that acute or chronic increase of retinoic acid (RA) levels leads to teratogenic effects during human pregnancy and in experimental models. The characteristic features displayed by Retinoic Acid embryopathy in humans include brain abnormalities such as microcephaly, microphtalmia, and impairment of hindbrain development; abnormal external and middle ears (microtia or anotia), mandibular and midfacial underdevelopment, and cleft palate.” (9) Note: Retinoic Acid is Vitamin A Derivative. Dr Benitez-Leite Dr Benitez-Leite reported 52 cases of malformations in babies born of women exposed to agricultural chemicals. The congenital malformations observed include anencephaly, microcephaly, facial defects, myelomeningocele, cleft palate, ear malformations, polydactily, syndactily all consistent with the well-known and expected syndrome caused by upregulation of the Retinoic Acid pathway.(10) Left image Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide contains glyphosate. Upregulation of Retinoic Acid Pathway A number of reports have linked arial spraying with the mosquito larvicide pyriproxyfen to birth defects such as microcephaly in the crop sprayed towns of Northeast Brazil.(106-108) Pyriproxyfen disrupts retinoic acid (vitramin A) signalling, a known mechanism for microcephaly (106-108) In 1995, Dr Kenneth Rothman reported in NEJM that High Vitamin A Intake causes birth defects. (109) Increasing Anencephaly in Yakima Valley in Washington State Another mechanism is glyphosate disruption of folate metabolsm as discussed below in the Yakima Washington State case. (35-37) Over three years from 2010 to 2013, the Washington State Department of Health reported an unusual increase in anencephalic babies born in Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties, four times higher than the national average. (33-34) Anencephaply, microcephaly and spina bifida are all related disorders of neural tube closure associated with maternal folate deficiency. Maternal folate supplementation is preventive. Maternal folate supplementation in Yakima was not at issue, as this was similar to the national average. Barbara Peterson, in Farm Wars, makes a compelling case for glyphosate exposure as the cause, since the Yakima river running through the affected counties had been heavily treated with glyphosate for weed control during that time period.(29) Left image Yakima River Washington State. Glyphosate Disrupts Folate Metabolism Glyphosate disruption of folate metabolism is discussed by Stephanie Seneff in her May 2016 article on Weston Price.(35) Glyphosate acts as an antibiotic, killing friendly bacteria by blocking the Shikimate pathway. These friendly bacterial are also involved in bacterial conversion of folic acid to methyl folate, its active form. Maternal methylfolate deficiency is associated with neural tube defects in the developing embryo.(85-87) Glyphosate Disrupts Glycine Metabolism Stephanie Seneff’s article then discusses how glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase metabolism, known to cause neural tube defects in animal studies and humans.(36-37) Glyphosate is the amino acid glycine with an added phosphate group, so glyphosate may readily displace glycine in various biochemical reactions. Glyphosate disrupts glycine decarboxylase by displacing glycine as a substrate. In addition, glyphosate replaces glycine at insertion sites in amino acid chains during protein synthesis, producing defective enzymes (35). Glyphosate is basically the amino acid, glycine with a phosphate group added on to it. Glyphosate is a Patented Antimicrobial, Anti-Folate Drug Glyphosate is actually patented as an anti-microbial drug. (83,84) Glyphosate serves as an anti-folate agent working in synergy with other anti-folate drugs.(58,61) Other anti-folate drugs in common use include the urinary tract antibiotic, Bactrim (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole) the rheumatology drug, methotrexate, and the anti-seizure drug Dilantin (phentoin). Maternal exposure to anti-folate drugs such as methotrexate Bactrim and Dilantin increase risk of neural tube defects in the fetus up to six-fold. (85-87) Maternal folate supplementation has been shown to reduce incidence of fetal neural tube defects (NTD), and folic acid fortification in food supply was mandated in 1998. (85-87)(100-103) Glyphosate Inhibits the Shikimate Pathway Glyphosate’s known mode of action is inhibition of the shikimate pathway in plants, fungi, bacteria and parasites.(58) Glyphosate blocks the pathway which produces Folate, Ubiquinone (Co-Q10), Vitamin K, and the aromatic amino acids tryptophan, phenylalanine, and tyrosine. Government Regulators Deemed Glyphosate Safe for Humans Government regulators deemed glyphosate safe for us humans because we lack the shikimate pathway. They forgot to consider that we humans depend on the shikimate pathway in plants and gut bacteria for our folate (vitamin B9), to prevents neural tube defects. If your lunch salad comes from an agricultural field treated with glyphosate which blocks the plant’s ability to synthesize folate, how much folate are you getting in your meal ? If you are ingesting glyphosate in your food, blocking your gut bacteria from synthesing folate, how soon will you be rendered folate deficient? Dr Bekaert says in 2008, “Humans cannot synthesize folates (vitamin B9) and thus have to rely on plant food supplying these essential vitamins.“(104) Dr Craig Roberts suggests that Glyphosate may serve as anti-folate, anti-parasitic drug ,He says:(58) ” it is likely that the shikimate pathway is important for supply of folate precursors in this parasite….inhibitors of EPSP synthase (such as glyphosate) can act in synergy with conventional antifolates and may be a useful addition to the agents used against apicomplexan parasites.”(58) A quote from a University of Chicago Press Release 1998 (61) explains that Glyphosate blocks production of folate: “Effective new ways to inhibit parasites that cause malaria, toxoplasmosis and cryptosporidiosis” June 25, 1998.(61) “Dr. McLeod’s team showed that glyphosate, …could block the production of folate, inhibiting parasite growth and survival. Glyphosate proved effective against malaria strains that were resistant to an anti-malarial medicine, pyrimethamine, which interrupts folate processing at a different point. To confirm the finding, they demonstrated that these folate-starved parasites could be rescued, in the test tube, by giving them folate.”(61) Brazil Annual Pesticide Sales Surpasses the US Left Image courtesy of Reuters. Brazil sales of herbicide (glyphosate) exceeds that of US.(81) According to Paulo Prada in her 2015 article, Brazil has a huge appetite for pesticides and herbicides, surpassing annual sales in the US.(81) Poalo Prado explains that in Northeast Brazil, irrigation canals were built, transforming previously arid land into fertile farm land. These open air irrigation canals are heavily contaminated with herbicides and pesticides liberally applied to the crop fields. Life is primitive for the agricultural workers who live without piped in water for their dwellings. The local workers use the open air irrigation canals for their drinking water, thus are heavily exposed to herbicide and pesticide runoff. House Passes 1.1 Billion Zika Virus Bill. Methyl-Folate is Cheaper. Instead of spending 1.1 Billion dollars on a “controversial” Zika Virus Bill, I have a better idea for prevention of microcephaly and neural tube defects. (90) Suppose we instead allocate 100 million dollars to give out free methyl-folate tablets to all pregnant women exposed to glyphosate here in the US, and in Brazil. That would solve the problem at a fraction of the cost, saving a Billion Dollars.(90) 53 Countries Have Mandatory Flour Fortification with Folate Folate fortification of flour for prevention of neural tube defects (anencephaly, microcephaly, spina bifida etc.) is mandated in 53 countries. Fortification of flour with folic acid was mandated in the US in 1998, the most successful public health measure in history, with reduction of neural tube defects by 36%.(100-103) In 2009, Dr Oakley declared this success story a “modern miracle of epidemiology”.(103) Study Blood Folate Levels in North East Brazil Why not allocate research funds to study blood folate levels in women in Northeast Brazil at high risk for having babies with neural tube defects? This was done here in the US before and after starting folate fortification in 1998, showing reduction incidence of neural tube defects by 36%.(101) Folate deficiency (blood folate levels less than 3 ng/ml)) decreased from 21% to less than 1% of the population. (101) In Australia, mandatory fortification of bread with folate and iodine was introduced in 2009, resulting in a 50-80 per cent reduction in neural tube defects in at-risk indigenous women and teenagers.(100-112) Reducing Microcephaly in Brazil with Folate Fortification Studies done in Brazil shows folate deficiency is severe, affecting 94% among the poor.(113) Folate fortification of flour in three south American countries (Brazil, Argentina, Chile) resulted in significant reduction in 52 different fetal anomalies including reduction in microcephaly and anencephaly.(114) Currently all South American countries except Venezuala have mandatory folate fortification legislation.(115) In populations using folate fortification there have been decreases in neural tube defects from 30-50%.(115) How is Such an Error Possible ? You might ask the obvious question, “how is such an error in thinking possible” that the government would waste a billion dollars on Zika instead of Folate Fortification? This is called CrimeStop or “Protective Stupidity“, aptly described in 1984 by George Orwell (91): “The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself….Crimestop, they called it in Newspeak….the Party says the earth is flat’, ‘the party says that ice is heavier than water’—and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them.” “Crimestop means the faculty of stopping short, as though by instinct, at the threshold of any dangerous thought. It includes the power of not grasping analogies, of failing to perceive logical errors, of misunderstanding the simplest arguments…”…”Crimestop, in short, means protective stupidity.”(91) Using Fear and Smear Tactics to Distract Attention from Monsanto This article in the Huffington Post Feb 16 is typical of the Monsanto tactics to distract attention away from Roundup glyphosate as the cause of the birth defects in agricultural workers in Brazil; A Viral Story Links The Zika Crisis To Monsanto. Don’t Believe It. by Anna Almendrala Senior Healthy Living Editor Huffington Post. Anna’s piece is pure Monsanto propaganda masquerading as journalism, don’t believe a word of it. If you trust anything Monsanto says, then I have a bridge to sell you. Monsanto has known for decades that Glyphosate causes birth defects, see this report: Roundup and birth defects. Is the public being kept in the dark ? by Michael Antoniou Earth Open Source June 2011 Search Google Scholar for articles with key words “microcephaly pesticide“ : you will see 2160 articles pop up. Glyphosate is “Probably Carcinogenic to Humans” A number of studies show glyphosate exposure doubles the incidence of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.(92) As reported in Lancet Oncology by Dr Kathryn Guyton, on March, 2015, 17 experts from 11 countries met in Lyon France and classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” (89) Zika Distraction from Glyphosate – The Elephant in the Room Certainly, maternal viral illness with Rubella, (CMV) cytomegalovirus and Zika are all risk factors for fetal demise, and fetal malformations, and are best avoided.(93-95) However, the Zika Virus is a distraction from the real cause of the problem, massive glyphosate exposure to pregnant agricultural workers in Brazil. Glyphosate is a patented anti-folate drug, Anti-folate drugs are known to cause microcephaly and neural tube defects in animals and humans. Professor Don Huber, GMO Food and Glyphosate Increased incidence of birth defects in the population caused by exposure to the anti-folate agent, glyphosate is only the “tip of the iceberg”. The adverse health consequences of GMO food and glyphosate contamination of our food and water supply are much more extensive as outlined in a series of articles posted on the Stephanie Seneff home page. Here is a quote from Professor Don M. Huber:(88) from his document GMO Failed Promises Flawed Science Serious Health Safety Issue ” Future historians may well look back upon our time and write, not about how many pounds of pesticides we did or did not apply, but about how willing we are to sacrifice our children and jeopardize future generations for this massive experiment we call genetic engineering that is based on failed promises and flawed science, just to benefit the bottom line of a commercial enterprise.” Dr. Don M. Huber Link to this article: http://wp.me/p3gFbV-3En Jeffrey Dach MD 7450 Griffin Road Suite 190 Davie, Fl 33314 954-792-4663 Articles with related interest: Dont Ask for HIV Test Ask For Glyphosate Test Curing Autism with Antibiotics Berberine Antdote for an Epidemic References For references, please view original publication. https://greenmedinfo.com/blog/zika-virus-or-roundup-herbicide-cause-microcephaly
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  • Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332
    [email protected] September 4, 2024 arms sales to israel, columbia university, david cameron, David Friedman, Gaza, hamas, Merrick Garland, palestine erased, Palestinian journalists, West Bank
    Israeli forces organize a raid with bulldozers on Jenin in the West Bank on September 01, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

    ‘3,000 operatives’: Hamas regains capabilities in northern Gaza – report

    Jerusalem Post reports:

    Hamas has managed to regain some of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a Monday Channel 12 report, citing a security source.

    The report specified that Hamas had enlisted some 3,000 new operatives into its ranks in that area of Gaza.

    Additionally, the resistance group reportedly provided them with weapons, ammunition, and payment.

    According to the Channel 12 report, while some Israeli forces remain in northern Gaza, the absence of large troop deployments has allowed Hamas to operate more freely in that area.

    At the beginning of the war with Gaza, Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza, reportedly destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure there.

    In mid-July, the IDF ended a re-invasion of northern Gaza to concentrate on the central Gaza Strip.



    Israel to classify West Bank as ‘combat zone’ amid dramatic escalation

    Israel Hayom reports:

    Recent events have triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to the West Bank, Israel Hayom has learned. Previously designated as a “secondary arena” requiring stable maintenance, the Israeli military now operates under a new paradigm, viewing the West Bank as the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza.

    A series of operations across the West Bank are imminent. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” security officials emphasize.

    Security officials recommend launching extensive operations. One security source described it as “not just mowing the lawn, but uprooting the problem at its source.”

    NOTE: In reality, International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people, exiled them to Gaza and other locations, and continues to oppress and ethnically cleanse their population.

    Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency]
    Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Some West Bank updates: Israel continues killing spree

    various media outlets report:

    The Israeli aggression, since dawn last Wednesday, on the West Bank until now, has killed at least 32 Palestinians: 19 in Jenin, 6 in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 3 in Hebron, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, to at least 685.

    The total number of injuries in the West Bank and Gaza combined has surpassed 100,000 (94,398 in Gaza, 5,700 in the West Bank) – even as healthcare facilities in both areas remain under siege.

    JENIN AREA: Israeli forces today directly targeted four journalists in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, as they covered the Israeli aggression in the town.

    The occupation forces fired live bullets directly at the vehicle of the two photojournalists while they were trying to reach the location of the other journalists in the village of Kafr Dan.

    “We narrowly escaped death,” one of the victims explained. “If we hadn’t sped up a bit in our car, they would have killed us. It was a direct assassination attempt.”

    On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenage girl and prevented medics from reaching her until she succumbed to her wounds in Kafr Dan town, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics moved the slain child, Lujain Osama Abdul-Rauf Mosleh, 16, to a hospital in Jenin.

    TULKARM: A Palestinian minor was killed Tuesday dawn by Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing raid on Tulkarm camp.

    Medical and local sources said that Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by the occupation forces’ snipers while he was with his father in one of the camp’s neighborhoods, while his father was shot in the abdomen by the occupation forces.

    On Tuesday evening, two Palestinians were killed after the army surrounded a home and fired at it, in the Thannaba Suburb in Tulkarem.

    Media sources said that the attack killed two young men inside the home before the soldiers took their corpses to an unknown destination. (More on Tulkarm here.)

    HEBRON: After closing the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim Palestinian worshippers, the Israeli army allowed thousands of illegal settlers to hold a concert and perform their rituals at the site in the West Bank city of Hebron.

    Mosque director Moataz Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli settlers held a concert in the mosque’s courtyards “in a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims.”

    Some of Tuesday's victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank
    Some of Tuesday’s victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank (photos)
    Unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since October 7th

    The Committee To Protect Journalists reports:

    Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary.

    As of September 4, CPJ has documented a total of 54 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and in the city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, since the war began on October 7, 2023. Israel arrested 51; Palestinian authorities arrested three.

    Nineteen of these journalists, including the three held by Palestinian authorities, have since been released, while 35 remain under arrest.

    At least 14 of the journalists arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention, a policy under which a military commander may detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Detention can be extended an unlimited number of times.

    (Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated regularly as more information becomes available. The tally includes all arrests documented by CPJ. As is our global practice, journalists who request anonymity out of concern for their safety are not named in the list below.)

    “Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.”

    CPJ ALSO REPORTS: Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.

    In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work in Israel and the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

    These include 54 arrests, as well as numerous assaults, threats and harassment, cyberattacks, and censorship.

    (Find details and examples here. Find an up-to-date list of journalists killed here.)

    RECOMMENDED READING: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

    Int’l Criminal Court likely to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant ‘over coming days’

    Ha’aretz reports:

    Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants.

    The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants.

    The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks.

    Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023.
    Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (photo)
    US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas

    Al Jazeera reports:

    The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel.

    “As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

    Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka.

    NOTE: Garland’s nomination was endorsed by pro-Israel groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which advocates for Israel.

    HA’ARETZ ADDS: U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the events of the weekend will dictate U.S. actions moving forward.

    “I’d be lying to you if I said the work going on in the days ahead are not going to be shaped or colored by our outrage about what Hamas did,” he said.

    RECOMMENDED READING: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question

    Netanyahu once again erases Palestine during address

    Middle East Monitor reports:

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank, marking it as Israeli territory, in an address to the media yesterday.

    The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv.

    Speaking about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, Netanyahu used a map which showed the entirety of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as being annexed to Israel and only had the Gaza Strip outlined.

    “Netanyahu’s map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    “Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace and the signed agreements,” the ministry said.

    NOTE: Israel’s supporters criticize the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” because they claim it calls for the erasure of Israel. In reality, the phrase is, in the words of Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Netanyahu’s map says, in essence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall not exist.”

    RECOMMENDED READING: No more “shrinking map of Palestine” – it’s gone

    Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu]
    Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] (photo)
    Trump advisor pushes to divert Palestine aid funds for Israeli annexation of West Bank

    The Cradle reports:

    Former US ambassador to Israel and advisor to Donald Trump, David Friedman, proposed in his new book that Congress should redirect $1 billion allocated for Palestinian aid to support Israeli plans for an annexation of the occupied West Bank.

    “Israel will need financial assistance to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Friedman wrote in his new book, using the biblical term used by Israel to refer to the West Bank.

    Friedman writes in his book, titled One Jewish State: The Last and Best Hope for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, that the US could divert $1 billion in current aid to the Palestinians – which includes funds for Palestinian Authority (PA) security services – to fund the Israeli annexation plan.

    Friedman also compares Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to Puerto Ricans, who live on an island considered US territory.

    “Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections. Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they do not conflict with those of Israel,” he wrote.

    Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”.

    Friedman said he has not yet shared his idea for funding the annexation with Trump. “I hope to share it with him at the appropriate time.”

    NOTE: “Biblical prophecies” do not speak anywhere of a modern Jewish state. Pro-Israel (and in many cases, antisemitic) interpretations of Biblical prophecies have twisted the words of the sacred text to imply that a modern Jewish state is a precursor to the endtimes and the return of Christ.

    RECOMMENDED READING: Friedman drove the radical overhaul of US policy on Israel-Palestine and Trump Is Desperate for Miriam Adelson’s Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation

    President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L).
    President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). (photo)
    U.S. Still Talking Up a Hostage Deal, but Privately Despair About Netanyahu

    Ha’aretz reports:

    The Biden administration continues to insist publicly that it is committed to negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza Strip, but senior officials in the government are expressing despair and frustration about the state of the talks, especially after Israel’s security cabinet approved a resolution last week opposing withdrawal from the Philadelphi route in the context of an agreement.

    The aim of the administration’s public messages, according to one of the officials, was to allow the talks to continue, in the hope that a breakthrough might occur nonetheless. “It has no real connection to reality,” he said.

    President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeat every few days that progress has been made in the talks, the gaps between Israel and Hamas can be bridged and an agreement is within reach, if both sides agree to compromise.

    Behind the scenes, however, the administration is well aware that the talks have reached an impasse due to Netanyahu’s insistence on the issue of the Philadelphi route, and it seems that both the prime minister and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the organization’s top official in Gaza, are refusing to take the necessary steps to reach a deal at this time. “We want this agreement more than they do,” the American official said.

    HA’ARETZ ALSO REPORTS: A source inside the Netanyahu coalition who is closely involved in and a part of the government said, “Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that [he could use] the Philadelphi corridor” to stall the process.

    “The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source added.

    “Not one minister, including those who know that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal, will do anything,” the source says. “They are bound to one another, their political survival depends on the government’s survival, and therefore this situation will continue. Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him.”

    Netanyahu, centre, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv
    Netanyahu, center, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv (photo)
    David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say

    The Guardian reports:

    As far back as February, UK’s former foreign secretary David Cameron sat on advice that arms export licenses to Israel should be banned.

    The recommendation was based on clear evidence that Israel was violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said.

    The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licenses due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

    “The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licenses had been stopped [in February and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade.”

    NOTE: While the Biden administration has claimed often to be “working day and night” on a ceasefire, in reality, it has been working relentlessly to keep Israel armed – including through secret arms sales – to enable its genocidal war on the Palestinian people. American arms shipments to Israel since October 7th have surpassed 50,000 tons.

    Most Americans are opposed to arms transfers to Israel.

    RECOMMENDED READING: An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law

    Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023
    Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 (photo)
    Which countries have banned or restricted arms sales to Israel?


    Britain is the latest country to shift its position on arms sales to Israel, which has been dependent on international weaponry for an 11-month assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people.

    Here is how different countries have responded to Israel’s war:

    Banned or restricted arms sales

    Britain
    Italy
    Spain
    Canada
    Belgium
    The Netherlands
    No ban on arms sales

    The US
    Germany
    Denmark
    (For details on each country listed, go here.)



    There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral

    by Caitlyn Johnstone:

    It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible.

    Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water.

    “Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!”
    “The Jews deserve a homeland!”
    “Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.”
    “I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.”
    “Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.”
    (Read Caitlyn Johnstone’s rebuttal to each of these statements here.)

    Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]
    Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Columbia U students will not be silenced on Palestine

    Palestine Chronicle reports:

    The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations.

    This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

    The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”.

    The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.”

    “We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X.

    The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group.

    The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page)
    The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) (photo)
    MORE NEWS:

    IMEMC Daily Reports.

    The Guardian: Australia’s security chief says person who likes tweet supporting 7 October attacks on Israel could fail visa security test

    The Cradle: Amnesty blasts UK ‘gesture politics’ after suspension of less than 10 percent of arms export licenses to Israel

    Caitlyn’s Newsletter: The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human

    Al Jazeera: Paralympics: Palestine’s Aldeeb sees himself as the voice of his people

    +972 Magazine: ‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught




    STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 3:

    Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,861 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

    This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 685 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

    Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

    Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

    At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
    At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
    About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
    Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
    Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 3: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,398 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

    Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

    NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

    *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

    **Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

    ***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

    † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

    Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

    Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
    Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

    Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
    Alison Weir trending on social media – what the buzz is about
    Israeli media’s coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees shows support for sexual violence in service of genocide
    Inside Israel’s torture, rape, and dehumanization centers
    I’m a pediatrician. The scars I saw on Gaza’s children will take generations to heal.
    What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty
    ‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress
    Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC
    Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7
    Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much?
    Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel
    An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered.
    Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
    Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
    A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
    I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
    How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
    Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
    Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
    Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
    “Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
    Welcome to Hell
    More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
    U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
    Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
    Searching for Gaza’s missing children

    https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-inflicted-palestinian-injuries-gaza-west-bank-surpass-100000-day-332/
    Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332 [email protected] September 4, 2024 arms sales to israel, columbia university, david cameron, David Friedman, Gaza, hamas, Merrick Garland, palestine erased, Palestinian journalists, West Bank Israeli forces organize a raid with bulldozers on Jenin in the West Bank on September 01, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Compilation of news reports – IAK staff ‘3,000 operatives’: Hamas regains capabilities in northern Gaza – report Jerusalem Post reports: Hamas has managed to regain some of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a Monday Channel 12 report, citing a security source. The report specified that Hamas had enlisted some 3,000 new operatives into its ranks in that area of Gaza. Additionally, the resistance group reportedly provided them with weapons, ammunition, and payment. According to the Channel 12 report, while some Israeli forces remain in northern Gaza, the absence of large troop deployments has allowed Hamas to operate more freely in that area. At the beginning of the war with Gaza, Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza, reportedly destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure there. In mid-July, the IDF ended a re-invasion of northern Gaza to concentrate on the central Gaza Strip. Israel to classify West Bank as ‘combat zone’ amid dramatic escalation Israel Hayom reports: Recent events have triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to the West Bank, Israel Hayom has learned. Previously designated as a “secondary arena” requiring stable maintenance, the Israeli military now operates under a new paradigm, viewing the West Bank as the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza. A series of operations across the West Bank are imminent. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” security officials emphasize. Security officials recommend launching extensive operations. One security source described it as “not just mowing the lawn, but uprooting the problem at its source.” NOTE: In reality, International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people, exiled them to Gaza and other locations, and continues to oppress and ethnically cleanse their population. Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Some West Bank updates: Israel continues killing spree various media outlets report: The Israeli aggression, since dawn last Wednesday, on the West Bank until now, has killed at least 32 Palestinians: 19 in Jenin, 6 in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 3 in Hebron, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, to at least 685. The total number of injuries in the West Bank and Gaza combined has surpassed 100,000 (94,398 in Gaza, 5,700 in the West Bank) – even as healthcare facilities in both areas remain under siege. JENIN AREA: Israeli forces today directly targeted four journalists in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, as they covered the Israeli aggression in the town. The occupation forces fired live bullets directly at the vehicle of the two photojournalists while they were trying to reach the location of the other journalists in the village of Kafr Dan. “We narrowly escaped death,” one of the victims explained. “If we hadn’t sped up a bit in our car, they would have killed us. It was a direct assassination attempt.” On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenage girl and prevented medics from reaching her until she succumbed to her wounds in Kafr Dan town, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics moved the slain child, Lujain Osama Abdul-Rauf Mosleh, 16, to a hospital in Jenin. TULKARM: A Palestinian minor was killed Tuesday dawn by Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing raid on Tulkarm camp. Medical and local sources said that Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by the occupation forces’ snipers while he was with his father in one of the camp’s neighborhoods, while his father was shot in the abdomen by the occupation forces. On Tuesday evening, two Palestinians were killed after the army surrounded a home and fired at it, in the Thannaba Suburb in Tulkarem. Media sources said that the attack killed two young men inside the home before the soldiers took their corpses to an unknown destination. (More on Tulkarm here.) HEBRON: After closing the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim Palestinian worshippers, the Israeli army allowed thousands of illegal settlers to hold a concert and perform their rituals at the site in the West Bank city of Hebron. Mosque director Moataz Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli settlers held a concert in the mosque’s courtyards “in a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims.” Some of Tuesday's victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank Some of Tuesday’s victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank (photos) Unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since October 7th The Committee To Protect Journalists reports: Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary. As of September 4, CPJ has documented a total of 54 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and in the city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, since the war began on October 7, 2023. Israel arrested 51; Palestinian authorities arrested three. Nineteen of these journalists, including the three held by Palestinian authorities, have since been released, while 35 remain under arrest. At least 14 of the journalists arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention, a policy under which a military commander may detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Detention can be extended an unlimited number of times. (Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated regularly as more information becomes available. The tally includes all arrests documented by CPJ. As is our global practice, journalists who request anonymity out of concern for their safety are not named in the list below.) “Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.” CPJ ALSO REPORTS: Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging. In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work in Israel and the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank. These include 54 arrests, as well as numerous assaults, threats and harassment, cyberattacks, and censorship. (Find details and examples here. Find an up-to-date list of journalists killed here.) RECOMMENDED READING: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’ Int’l Criminal Court likely to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant ‘over coming days’ Ha’aretz reports: Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants. The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants. The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (photo) US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas Al Jazeera reports: The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel. “As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka. NOTE: Garland’s nomination was endorsed by pro-Israel groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which advocates for Israel. HA’ARETZ ADDS: U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the events of the weekend will dictate U.S. actions moving forward. “I’d be lying to you if I said the work going on in the days ahead are not going to be shaped or colored by our outrage about what Hamas did,” he said. RECOMMENDED READING: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question Netanyahu once again erases Palestine during address Middle East Monitor reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank, marking it as Israeli territory, in an address to the media yesterday. The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv. Speaking about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, Netanyahu used a map which showed the entirety of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as being annexed to Israel and only had the Gaza Strip outlined. “Netanyahu’s map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace and the signed agreements,” the ministry said. NOTE: Israel’s supporters criticize the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” because they claim it calls for the erasure of Israel. In reality, the phrase is, in the words of Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Netanyahu’s map says, in essence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall not exist.” RECOMMENDED READING: No more “shrinking map of Palestine” – it’s gone Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] (photo) Trump advisor pushes to divert Palestine aid funds for Israeli annexation of West Bank The Cradle reports: Former US ambassador to Israel and advisor to Donald Trump, David Friedman, proposed in his new book that Congress should redirect $1 billion allocated for Palestinian aid to support Israeli plans for an annexation of the occupied West Bank. “Israel will need financial assistance to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Friedman wrote in his new book, using the biblical term used by Israel to refer to the West Bank. Friedman writes in his book, titled One Jewish State: The Last and Best Hope for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, that the US could divert $1 billion in current aid to the Palestinians – which includes funds for Palestinian Authority (PA) security services – to fund the Israeli annexation plan. Friedman also compares Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to Puerto Ricans, who live on an island considered US territory. “Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections. Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they do not conflict with those of Israel,” he wrote. Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”. Friedman said he has not yet shared his idea for funding the annexation with Trump. “I hope to share it with him at the appropriate time.” NOTE: “Biblical prophecies” do not speak anywhere of a modern Jewish state. Pro-Israel (and in many cases, antisemitic) interpretations of Biblical prophecies have twisted the words of the sacred text to imply that a modern Jewish state is a precursor to the endtimes and the return of Christ. RECOMMENDED READING: Friedman drove the radical overhaul of US policy on Israel-Palestine and Trump Is Desperate for Miriam Adelson’s Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). (photo) U.S. Still Talking Up a Hostage Deal, but Privately Despair About Netanyahu Ha’aretz reports: The Biden administration continues to insist publicly that it is committed to negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza Strip, but senior officials in the government are expressing despair and frustration about the state of the talks, especially after Israel’s security cabinet approved a resolution last week opposing withdrawal from the Philadelphi route in the context of an agreement. The aim of the administration’s public messages, according to one of the officials, was to allow the talks to continue, in the hope that a breakthrough might occur nonetheless. “It has no real connection to reality,” he said. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeat every few days that progress has been made in the talks, the gaps between Israel and Hamas can be bridged and an agreement is within reach, if both sides agree to compromise. Behind the scenes, however, the administration is well aware that the talks have reached an impasse due to Netanyahu’s insistence on the issue of the Philadelphi route, and it seems that both the prime minister and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the organization’s top official in Gaza, are refusing to take the necessary steps to reach a deal at this time. “We want this agreement more than they do,” the American official said. HA’ARETZ ALSO REPORTS: A source inside the Netanyahu coalition who is closely involved in and a part of the government said, “Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that [he could use] the Philadelphi corridor” to stall the process. “The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source added. “Not one minister, including those who know that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal, will do anything,” the source says. “They are bound to one another, their political survival depends on the government’s survival, and therefore this situation will continue. Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him.” Netanyahu, centre, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv Netanyahu, center, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv (photo) David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say The Guardian reports: As far back as February, UK’s former foreign secretary David Cameron sat on advice that arms export licenses to Israel should be banned. The recommendation was based on clear evidence that Israel was violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said. The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licenses due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law. “The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licenses had been stopped [in February and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade.” NOTE: While the Biden administration has claimed often to be “working day and night” on a ceasefire, in reality, it has been working relentlessly to keep Israel armed – including through secret arms sales – to enable its genocidal war on the Palestinian people. American arms shipments to Israel since October 7th have surpassed 50,000 tons. Most Americans are opposed to arms transfers to Israel. RECOMMENDED READING: An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 (photo) Which countries have banned or restricted arms sales to Israel? Britain is the latest country to shift its position on arms sales to Israel, which has been dependent on international weaponry for an 11-month assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people. Here is how different countries have responded to Israel’s war: Banned or restricted arms sales Britain Italy Spain Canada Belgium The Netherlands No ban on arms sales The US Germany Denmark (For details on each country listed, go here.) There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral by Caitlyn Johnstone: It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible. Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water. “Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!” “The Jews deserve a homeland!” “Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.” “I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.” “Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.” (Read Caitlyn Johnstone’s rebuttal to each of these statements here.) Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Columbia U students will not be silenced on Palestine Palestine Chronicle reports: The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations. This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine. The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”. The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.” “We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X. The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group. The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) (photo) MORE NEWS: IMEMC Daily Reports. The Guardian: Australia’s security chief says person who likes tweet supporting 7 October attacks on Israel could fail visa security test The Cradle: Amnesty blasts UK ‘gesture politics’ after suspension of less than 10 percent of arms export licenses to Israel Caitlyn’s Newsletter: The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human Al Jazeera: Paralympics: Palestine’s Aldeeb sees himself as the voice of his people +972 Magazine: ‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 3: Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,861 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.] This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 685 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths. Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza. At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank). At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**. About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced. Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 3: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,398 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.] Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured. NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers. *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so. **Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. ***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics. Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated) Alison Weir trending on social media – what the buzz is about Israeli media’s coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees shows support for sexual violence in service of genocide Inside Israel’s torture, rape, and dehumanization centers I’m a pediatrician. The scars I saw on Gaza’s children will take generations to heal. What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty ‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7 Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much? Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered. Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers) A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too. I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care. How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories “Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?” Welcome to Hell More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West Searching for Gaza’s missing children https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-inflicted-palestinian-injuries-gaza-west-bank-surpass-100000-day-332/
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    Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332
    Palestinian journalists imprisoned like never before; US files criminal charges vs Hamas members; Bibi blatantly erases Palestine from the map
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  • Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332
    [email protected] September 4, 2024 arms sales to israel, columbia university, david cameron, David Friedman, Gaza, hamas, Merrick Garland, palestine erased, Palestinian journalists, West Bank
    Israeli forces organize a raid with bulldozers on Jenin in the West Bank on September 01, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

    ‘3,000 operatives’: Hamas regains capabilities in northern Gaza – report

    Jerusalem Post reports:

    Hamas has managed to regain some of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a Monday Channel 12 report, citing a security source.

    The report specified that Hamas had enlisted some 3,000 new operatives into its ranks in that area of Gaza.

    Additionally, the resistance group reportedly provided them with weapons, ammunition, and payment.

    According to the Channel 12 report, while some Israeli forces remain in northern Gaza, the absence of large troop deployments has allowed Hamas to operate more freely in that area.

    At the beginning of the war with Gaza, Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza, reportedly destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure there.

    In mid-July, the IDF ended a re-invasion of northern Gaza to concentrate on the central Gaza Strip.




    Israel to classify West Bank as ‘combat zone’ amid dramatic escalation

    Israel Hayom reports:

    Recent events have triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to the West Bank, Israel Hayom has learned. Previously designated as a “secondary arena” requiring stable maintenance, the Israeli military now operates under a new paradigm, viewing the West Bank as the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza.

    A series of operations across the West Bank are imminent. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” security officials emphasize.

    Security officials recommend launching extensive operations. One security source described it as “not just mowing the lawn, but uprooting the problem at its source.”

    NOTE: In reality, International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people, exiled them to Gaza and other locations, and continues to oppress and ethnically cleanse their population.

    Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency]
    Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Some West Bank updates: Israel continues killing spree

    various media outlets report:

    The Israeli aggression, since dawn last Wednesday, on the West Bank until now, has killed at least 32 Palestinians: 19 in Jenin, 6 in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 3 in Hebron, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, to at least 685.

    The total number of injuries in the West Bank and Gaza combined has surpassed 100,000 (94,398 in Gaza, 5,700 in the West Bank) – even as healthcare facilities in both areas remain under siege.

    JENIN AREA: Israeli forces today directly targeted four journalists in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, as they covered the Israeli aggression in the town.

    The occupation forces fired live bullets directly at the vehicle of the two photojournalists while they were trying to reach the location of the other journalists in the village of Kafr Dan.

    “We narrowly escaped death,” one of the victims explained. “If we hadn’t sped up a bit in our car, they would have killed us. It was a direct assassination attempt.”

    On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenage girl and prevented medics from reaching her until she succumbed to her wounds in Kafr Dan town, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

    The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics moved the slain child, Lujain Osama Abdul-Rauf Mosleh, 16, to a hospital in Jenin.

    TULKARM: A Palestinian minor was killed Tuesday dawn by Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing raid on Tulkarm camp.

    Medical and local sources said that Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by the occupation forces’ snipers while he was with his father in one of the camp’s neighborhoods, while his father was shot in the abdomen by the occupation forces.

    On Tuesday evening, two Palestinians were killed after the army surrounded a home and fired at it, in the Thannaba Suburb in Tulkarem.

    Media sources said that the attack killed two young men inside the home before the soldiers took their corpses to an unknown destination. (More on Tulkarm here.)

    HEBRON: After closing the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim Palestinian worshippers, the Israeli army allowed thousands of illegal settlers to hold a concert and perform their rituals at the site in the West Bank city of Hebron.

    Mosque director Moataz Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli settlers held a concert in the mosque’s courtyards “in a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims.”

    Some of Tuesday's victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank
    Some of Tuesday’s victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank (photos)
    Unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since October 7th

    The Committee To Protect Journalists reports:

    Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary.

    As of September 4, CPJ has documented a total of 54 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and in the city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, since the war began on October 7, 2023. Israel arrested 51; Palestinian authorities arrested three.

    Nineteen of these journalists, including the three held by Palestinian authorities, have since been released, while 35 remain under arrest.

    At least 14 of the journalists arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention, a policy under which a military commander may detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Detention can be extended an unlimited number of times.

    (Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated regularly as more information becomes available. The tally includes all arrests documented by CPJ. As is our global practice, journalists who request anonymity out of concern for their safety are not named in the list below.)

    “Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.”

    CPJ ALSO REPORTS: Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.

    In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work in Israel and the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

    These include 54 arrests, as well as numerous assaults, threats and harassment, cyberattacks, and censorship.

    (Find details and examples here. Find an up-to-date list of journalists killed here.)

    RECOMMENDED READING: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

    Int’l Criminal Court likely to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant ‘over coming days’

    Ha’aretz reports:

    Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants.

    The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants.

    The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks.

    Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023.
    Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (photo)
    US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas

    Al Jazeera reports:

    The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel.

    “As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

    Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka.

    NOTE: Garland’s nomination was endorsed by pro-Israel groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which advocates for Israel.

    HA’ARETZ ADDS: U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the events of the weekend will dictate U.S. actions moving forward.

    “I’d be lying to you if I said the work going on in the days ahead are not going to be shaped or colored by our outrage about what Hamas did,” he said.

    RECOMMENDED READING: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question

    Netanyahu once again erases Palestine during address

    Middle East Monitor reports:

    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank, marking it as Israeli territory, in an address to the media yesterday.

    The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv.

    Speaking about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, Netanyahu used a map which showed the entirety of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as being annexed to Israel and only had the Gaza Strip outlined.

    “Netanyahu’s map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    “Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace and the signed agreements,” the ministry said.

    NOTE: Israel’s supporters criticize the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” because they claim it calls for the erasure of Israel. In reality, the phrase is, in the words of Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Netanyahu’s map says, in essence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall not exist.”

    RECOMMENDED READING: No more “shrinking map of Palestine” – it’s gone

    Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu]
    Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] (photo)
    Trump advisor pushes to divert Palestine aid funds for Israeli annexation of West Bank

    The Cradle reports:

    Former US ambassador to Israel and advisor to Donald Trump, David Friedman, proposed in his new book that Congress should redirect $1 billion allocated for Palestinian aid to support Israeli plans for an annexation of the occupied West Bank.

    “Israel will need financial assistance to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Friedman wrote in his new book, using the biblical term used by Israel to refer to the West Bank.

    Friedman writes in his book, titled One Jewish State: The Last and Best Hope for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, that the US could divert $1 billion in current aid to the Palestinians – which includes funds for Palestinian Authority (PA) security services – to fund the Israeli annexation plan.

    Friedman also compares Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to Puerto Ricans, who live on an island considered US territory.

    “Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections. Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they do not conflict with those of Israel,” he wrote.

    Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”.

    Friedman said he has not yet shared his idea for funding the annexation with Trump. “I hope to share it with him at the appropriate time.”

    NOTE: “Biblical prophecies” do not speak anywhere of a modern Jewish state. Pro-Israel (and in many cases, antisemitic) interpretations of Biblical prophecies have twisted the words of the sacred text to imply that a modern Jewish state is a precursor to the endtimes and the return of Christ.

    RECOMMENDED READING: Friedman drove the radical overhaul of US policy on Israel-Palestine and Trump Is Desperate for Miriam Adelson’s Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation

    President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L).
    President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). (photo)
    U.S. Still Talking Up a Hostage Deal, but Privately Despair About Netanyahu

    Ha’aretz reports:

    The Biden administration continues to insist publicly that it is committed to negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza Strip, but senior officials in the government are expressing despair and frustration about the state of the talks, especially after Israel’s security cabinet approved a resolution last week opposing withdrawal from the Philadelphi route in the context of an agreement.

    The aim of the administration’s public messages, according to one of the officials, was to allow the talks to continue, in the hope that a breakthrough might occur nonetheless. “It has no real connection to reality,” he said.

    President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeat every few days that progress has been made in the talks, the gaps between Israel and Hamas can be bridged and an agreement is within reach, if both sides agree to compromise.

    Behind the scenes, however, the administration is well aware that the talks have reached an impasse due to Netanyahu’s insistence on the issue of the Philadelphi route, and it seems that both the prime minister and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the organization’s top official in Gaza, are refusing to take the necessary steps to reach a deal at this time. “We want this agreement more than they do,” the American official said.

    HA’ARETZ ALSO REPORTS: A source inside the Netanyahu coalition who is closely involved in and a part of the government said, “Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that [he could use] the Philadelphi corridor” to stall the process.

    “The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source added.

    “Not one minister, including those who know that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal, will do anything,” the source says. “They are bound to one another, their political survival depends on the government’s survival, and therefore this situation will continue. Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him.”

    Netanyahu, centre, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv
    Netanyahu, center, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv (photo)
    David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say

    The Guardian reports:

    As far back as February, UK’s former foreign secretary David Cameron sat on advice that arms export licenses to Israel should be banned.

    The recommendation was based on clear evidence that Israel was violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said.

    The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licenses due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

    “The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licenses had been stopped [in February and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade.”

    NOTE: While the Biden administration has claimed often to be “working day and night” on a ceasefire, in reality, it has been working relentlessly to keep Israel armed – including through secret arms sales – to enable its genocidal war on the Palestinian people. American arms shipments to Israel since October 7th have surpassed 50,000 tons.

    Most Americans are opposed to arms transfers to Israel.

    RECOMMENDED READING: An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law

    Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023
    Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 (photo)
    Which countries have banned or restricted arms sales to Israel?


    Britain is the latest country to shift its position on arms sales to Israel, which has been dependent on international weaponry for an 11-month assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people.

    Here is how different countries have responded to Israel’s war:

    Banned or restricted arms sales

    Britain
    Italy
    Spain
    Canada
    Belgium
    The Netherlands
    No ban on arms sales

    The US
    Germany
    Denmark
    (For details on each country listed, go here.)




    There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral

    by Caitlyn Johnstone:

    It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible.

    Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water.

    “Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!”
    “The Jews deserve a homeland!”
    “Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.”
    “I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.”
    “Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.”
    (Read Caitlyn Johnstone’s rebuttal to each of these statements here.)

    Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]
    Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Columbia U students will not be silenced on Palestine

    Palestine Chronicle reports:

    The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations.

    This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

    The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”.

    The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.”

    “We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X.

    The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group.

    The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page)
    The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) (photo)
    MORE NEWS:

    IMEMC Daily Reports.

    The Guardian: Australia’s security chief says person who likes tweet supporting 7 October attacks on Israel could fail visa security test

    The Cradle: Amnesty blasts UK ‘gesture politics’ after suspension of less than 10 percent of arms export licenses to Israel

    Caitlyn’s Newsletter: The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human

    Al Jazeera: Paralympics: Palestine’s Aldeeb sees himself as the voice of his people

    +972 Magazine: ‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught

    STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 3:

    Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,861 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

    This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 685 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

    Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

    Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

    At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
    At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
    About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
    Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
    Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 3: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,398 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

    Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

    NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

    *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

    **Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

    ***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

    † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

    Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

    Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
    Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

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    https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-inflicted-palestinian-injuries-gaza-west-bank-surpass-100000-day-332/
    Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332 [email protected] September 4, 2024 arms sales to israel, columbia university, david cameron, David Friedman, Gaza, hamas, Merrick Garland, palestine erased, Palestinian journalists, West Bank Israeli forces organize a raid with bulldozers on Jenin in the West Bank on September 01, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Compilation of news reports – IAK staff ‘3,000 operatives’: Hamas regains capabilities in northern Gaza – report Jerusalem Post reports: Hamas has managed to regain some of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a Monday Channel 12 report, citing a security source. The report specified that Hamas had enlisted some 3,000 new operatives into its ranks in that area of Gaza. Additionally, the resistance group reportedly provided them with weapons, ammunition, and payment. According to the Channel 12 report, while some Israeli forces remain in northern Gaza, the absence of large troop deployments has allowed Hamas to operate more freely in that area. At the beginning of the war with Gaza, Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza, reportedly destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure there. In mid-July, the IDF ended a re-invasion of northern Gaza to concentrate on the central Gaza Strip. Israel to classify West Bank as ‘combat zone’ amid dramatic escalation Israel Hayom reports: Recent events have triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to the West Bank, Israel Hayom has learned. Previously designated as a “secondary arena” requiring stable maintenance, the Israeli military now operates under a new paradigm, viewing the West Bank as the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza. A series of operations across the West Bank are imminent. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” security officials emphasize. Security officials recommend launching extensive operations. One security source described it as “not just mowing the lawn, but uprooting the problem at its source.” NOTE: In reality, International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people, exiled them to Gaza and other locations, and continues to oppress and ethnically cleanse their population. Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Some West Bank updates: Israel continues killing spree various media outlets report: The Israeli aggression, since dawn last Wednesday, on the West Bank until now, has killed at least 32 Palestinians: 19 in Jenin, 6 in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 3 in Hebron, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, to at least 685. The total number of injuries in the West Bank and Gaza combined has surpassed 100,000 (94,398 in Gaza, 5,700 in the West Bank) – even as healthcare facilities in both areas remain under siege. JENIN AREA: Israeli forces today directly targeted four journalists in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, as they covered the Israeli aggression in the town. The occupation forces fired live bullets directly at the vehicle of the two photojournalists while they were trying to reach the location of the other journalists in the village of Kafr Dan. “We narrowly escaped death,” one of the victims explained. “If we hadn’t sped up a bit in our car, they would have killed us. It was a direct assassination attempt.” On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenage girl and prevented medics from reaching her until she succumbed to her wounds in Kafr Dan town, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics moved the slain child, Lujain Osama Abdul-Rauf Mosleh, 16, to a hospital in Jenin. TULKARM: A Palestinian minor was killed Tuesday dawn by Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing raid on Tulkarm camp. Medical and local sources said that Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by the occupation forces’ snipers while he was with his father in one of the camp’s neighborhoods, while his father was shot in the abdomen by the occupation forces. On Tuesday evening, two Palestinians were killed after the army surrounded a home and fired at it, in the Thannaba Suburb in Tulkarem. Media sources said that the attack killed two young men inside the home before the soldiers took their corpses to an unknown destination. (More on Tulkarm here.) HEBRON: After closing the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim Palestinian worshippers, the Israeli army allowed thousands of illegal settlers to hold a concert and perform their rituals at the site in the West Bank city of Hebron. Mosque director Moataz Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli settlers held a concert in the mosque’s courtyards “in a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims.” Some of Tuesday's victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank Some of Tuesday’s victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank (photos) Unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since October 7th The Committee To Protect Journalists reports: Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary. As of September 4, CPJ has documented a total of 54 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and in the city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, since the war began on October 7, 2023. Israel arrested 51; Palestinian authorities arrested three. Nineteen of these journalists, including the three held by Palestinian authorities, have since been released, while 35 remain under arrest. At least 14 of the journalists arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention, a policy under which a military commander may detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Detention can be extended an unlimited number of times. (Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated regularly as more information becomes available. The tally includes all arrests documented by CPJ. As is our global practice, journalists who request anonymity out of concern for their safety are not named in the list below.) “Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.” CPJ ALSO REPORTS: Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging. In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work in Israel and the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank. These include 54 arrests, as well as numerous assaults, threats and harassment, cyberattacks, and censorship. (Find details and examples here. Find an up-to-date list of journalists killed here.) RECOMMENDED READING: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’ Int’l Criminal Court likely to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant ‘over coming days’ Ha’aretz reports: Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants. The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants. The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (photo) US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas Al Jazeera reports: The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel. “As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka. NOTE: Garland’s nomination was endorsed by pro-Israel groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which advocates for Israel. HA’ARETZ ADDS: U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the events of the weekend will dictate U.S. actions moving forward. “I’d be lying to you if I said the work going on in the days ahead are not going to be shaped or colored by our outrage about what Hamas did,” he said. RECOMMENDED READING: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question Netanyahu once again erases Palestine during address Middle East Monitor reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank, marking it as Israeli territory, in an address to the media yesterday. The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv. Speaking about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, Netanyahu used a map which showed the entirety of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as being annexed to Israel and only had the Gaza Strip outlined. “Netanyahu’s map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace and the signed agreements,” the ministry said. NOTE: Israel’s supporters criticize the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” because they claim it calls for the erasure of Israel. In reality, the phrase is, in the words of Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Netanyahu’s map says, in essence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall not exist.” RECOMMENDED READING: No more “shrinking map of Palestine” – it’s gone Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] (photo) Trump advisor pushes to divert Palestine aid funds for Israeli annexation of West Bank The Cradle reports: Former US ambassador to Israel and advisor to Donald Trump, David Friedman, proposed in his new book that Congress should redirect $1 billion allocated for Palestinian aid to support Israeli plans for an annexation of the occupied West Bank. “Israel will need financial assistance to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Friedman wrote in his new book, using the biblical term used by Israel to refer to the West Bank. Friedman writes in his book, titled One Jewish State: The Last and Best Hope for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, that the US could divert $1 billion in current aid to the Palestinians – which includes funds for Palestinian Authority (PA) security services – to fund the Israeli annexation plan. Friedman also compares Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to Puerto Ricans, who live on an island considered US territory. “Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections. Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they do not conflict with those of Israel,” he wrote. Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”. Friedman said he has not yet shared his idea for funding the annexation with Trump. “I hope to share it with him at the appropriate time.” NOTE: “Biblical prophecies” do not speak anywhere of a modern Jewish state. Pro-Israel (and in many cases, antisemitic) interpretations of Biblical prophecies have twisted the words of the sacred text to imply that a modern Jewish state is a precursor to the endtimes and the return of Christ. RECOMMENDED READING: Friedman drove the radical overhaul of US policy on Israel-Palestine and Trump Is Desperate for Miriam Adelson’s Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). (photo) U.S. Still Talking Up a Hostage Deal, but Privately Despair About Netanyahu Ha’aretz reports: The Biden administration continues to insist publicly that it is committed to negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza Strip, but senior officials in the government are expressing despair and frustration about the state of the talks, especially after Israel’s security cabinet approved a resolution last week opposing withdrawal from the Philadelphi route in the context of an agreement. The aim of the administration’s public messages, according to one of the officials, was to allow the talks to continue, in the hope that a breakthrough might occur nonetheless. “It has no real connection to reality,” he said. President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeat every few days that progress has been made in the talks, the gaps between Israel and Hamas can be bridged and an agreement is within reach, if both sides agree to compromise. Behind the scenes, however, the administration is well aware that the talks have reached an impasse due to Netanyahu’s insistence on the issue of the Philadelphi route, and it seems that both the prime minister and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the organization’s top official in Gaza, are refusing to take the necessary steps to reach a deal at this time. “We want this agreement more than they do,” the American official said. HA’ARETZ ALSO REPORTS: A source inside the Netanyahu coalition who is closely involved in and a part of the government said, “Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that [he could use] the Philadelphi corridor” to stall the process. “The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source added. “Not one minister, including those who know that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal, will do anything,” the source says. “They are bound to one another, their political survival depends on the government’s survival, and therefore this situation will continue. Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him.” Netanyahu, centre, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv Netanyahu, center, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv (photo) David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say The Guardian reports: As far back as February, UK’s former foreign secretary David Cameron sat on advice that arms export licenses to Israel should be banned. The recommendation was based on clear evidence that Israel was violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said. The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licenses due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law. “The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licenses had been stopped [in February and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade.” NOTE: While the Biden administration has claimed often to be “working day and night” on a ceasefire, in reality, it has been working relentlessly to keep Israel armed – including through secret arms sales – to enable its genocidal war on the Palestinian people. American arms shipments to Israel since October 7th have surpassed 50,000 tons. Most Americans are opposed to arms transfers to Israel. RECOMMENDED READING: An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 (photo) Which countries have banned or restricted arms sales to Israel? Britain is the latest country to shift its position on arms sales to Israel, which has been dependent on international weaponry for an 11-month assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people. Here is how different countries have responded to Israel’s war: Banned or restricted arms sales Britain Italy Spain Canada Belgium The Netherlands No ban on arms sales The US Germany Denmark (For details on each country listed, go here.) There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral by Caitlyn Johnstone: It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible. Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water. “Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!” “The Jews deserve a homeland!” “Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.” “I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.” “Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.” (Read Caitlyn Johnstone’s rebuttal to each of these statements here.) Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Columbia U students will not be silenced on Palestine Palestine Chronicle reports: The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations. This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine. The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”. The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.” “We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X. The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group. The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) (photo) MORE NEWS: IMEMC Daily Reports. The Guardian: Australia’s security chief says person who likes tweet supporting 7 October attacks on Israel could fail visa security test The Cradle: Amnesty blasts UK ‘gesture politics’ after suspension of less than 10 percent of arms export licenses to Israel Caitlyn’s Newsletter: The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human Al Jazeera: Paralympics: Palestine’s Aldeeb sees himself as the voice of his people +972 Magazine: ‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 3: Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,861 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.] This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 685 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths. Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza. At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank). At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**. About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced. Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 3: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,398 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.] Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured. NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers. *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so. **Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. ***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics. Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated) Alison Weir trending on social media – what the buzz is about Israeli media’s coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees shows support for sexual violence in service of genocide Inside Israel’s torture, rape, and dehumanization centers I’m a pediatrician. The scars I saw on Gaza’s children will take generations to heal. What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty ‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7 Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much? Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered. Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers) A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too. I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care. How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories “Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?” Welcome to Hell More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West Searching for Gaza’s missing children https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-inflicted-palestinian-injuries-gaza-west-bank-surpass-100000-day-332/
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    Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332
    Palestinian journalists imprisoned like never before; US files criminal charges vs Hamas members; Bibi blatantly erases Palestine from the map
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  • Violence against West Bank Palestinians intensifies, as Gaza’s “safe” space shrinks – Day 313
    [email protected] August 16, 2024 amputation, arms embargo, ceasefire, east jerusalem water crisis, evacuation, israeli economy, israeli outposts, israeli settler violence, pogrom, west bank deaths


    The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood
    +972 Magazine reports: In the searing heat of summer, Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood is facing a major water crisis. Since June, residents of Kufr ‘Aqab have been receiving just 2 to 12 hours of water per week. Their complaints have been redirected from one official to the next, yet no one has provided them with a solution — nor taken responsibility for the problem.
    Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities. But the current crisis is the worst it’s ever been. During the few hours that the water does flow, residents try to do everything they can with it: take showers, do laundry, and clean the house. The rest of the time, they are forced to buy water from private suppliers and store it in containers on the roofs of their apartment blocks.
    “We have hospitals, nurseries, and schools in the area,” Iyad Sanduka, a member of the neighborhood’s residents’ committee, told +972 Magazine and Local Call. “Everyone suffers from the water shortage.”
    Despite the fact that the majority of the neighborhood is officially part of Jerusalem, Kufr ‘Aqab doesn’t receive water from the municipal water supplier, Hagihon. Instead, like Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, water is provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) — an arm of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) — which purchases it from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.
    This is symptomatic of Israel’s system of water apartheid in the occupied territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are denied control of the aquifers under their feet, and must instead buy the water back in limited quantities from Israel. While Israelis have access to an average of 300 liters of water per day, Palestinians in the West Bank enjoy only 80 liters — 20 liters less than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily quantity. For Palestinians in Gaza, it is currently as low as 3 liters.
    (Read the full article here.)
    RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Buying Our Own Stolen Water’ in Bethlehem – Scorching Summer Awaits Palestinians in the West Bank
    New York Times reports: Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials, who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished.

    With the Biden administration racing to get cease-fire negotiations back on track, a growing number of national security officials across the government said that the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group.

    Israel has made bold claims about the number Hamas deaths, without proof.

    But one of Israel’s biggest remaining goals — the return of the roughly 115 living and dead hostages still held in Gaza after being seized in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — cannot be achieved militarily, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.

    Israel’s most recent military operations have been something of a Whac-a-Mole strategy in the eyes of American analysts. U.S. officials are skeptical that approach will yield decisive results.

    While Israel has tried to damage the tunnels, it has failed to destroy them, American officials said. The network has proved much larger than Israel anticipated, and it remains an effective way for Hamas to hide its leaders and move around fighters.

    And even as the Israel Defense Forces have seized territory and killed Hamas fighters from north to south of the territory, they have repeatedly had to go back in as Hamas fighters regrouped. For example, Israel weakened Hamas’s grip in the Jabaliya camp, in northern Gaza, but had to return to the area in May after the group reconstituted in the power vacuum.

    Biden administration officials say diplomacy is the only way that Israel can achieve possibly its biggest goal — getting its hostages back.

    Israeli economy on the brink as it awaits retaliation from Resistance Axis

    The Cradle reports: The Israeli economy is on the ropes as the country awaits retaliation for its attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen over the past month, according to reports in Hebrew media.

    “These two weeks have exhausted the market, as some economic activities have been canceled, and another part has been reduced due to public fear,” the economic affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 13 News said on 15 August.

    Israel’s tourism industry, in particular, has recorded massive losses due to the broad cancellation of flights by international airlines.

    Israel’s education sector will also be severely affected if the wait continues into September, as institutions will have to “maneuver within combat scenarios,” according to the Israeli broadcaster.

    The Israeli economy has already taken several hits 10 months into the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, with the most recent one being the decision by US financial services firm Fitch to downgrade the nation’s credit rating.



    UN rapporteur says ‘shocking’ 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable

    Al Jazeera reports: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says the “shocking” death toll in Gaza, which has reached a landmark 40,000 people, was predictable and avoidable as United Nations experts have long issued warnings and called for international action to stop the violence.

    In spite of this, the UN Security Council and other international bodies have failed to stop the conflict.

    “The moral abyss in which [Israel has] fallen is hard to comprehend,” Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that the war in Gaza points to “an epic failure of the system of international law that was built after World War II to prevent and punish crimes such as this”.

    The conflict also shed light on the “hypocrisy” in the legal system, where “a few countries have the power to determine to whom international law can be applied and to whom it cannot”.

    Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images]
    Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images] (photo)
    “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks commitment from Harris for Palestine justice

    The “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks to collect 1 million voters to pledge a vote for the Democratic ticket if, and only if, it commits to 1) enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) end all military aid to Israel.

    Their goal is to “force the Democratic Party to listen to its voters and not just its donors. We demand concrete results from the current Biden-Harris Administration to end the Gaza Genocide and a credible commitment from a Harris-Walz ticket which will pressure Israel to achieve a just and lasting solution to the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

    “We hereby pledge to vote Democratic on November 5th only if the current administration: 1) enforces an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) ends all military aid to Israel.”

    The pledge can be viewed and signed here.

    Pledging arms embargo on Israel would help Harris gain more voter support: Poll

    Middle East Eye reports: According to a new poll, roughly one-third of Democratic Party voters in the US states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have said they are more likely to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election if she were to agree to stop sending arms to Israel.

    In Pennsylvania, 34 percent of voters were more likely to vote for Harris if she agreed to the arms embargo, while 44 percent were more likely to vote for her if Biden achieved a ceasefire.

    In Georgia, an arms embargo would make 39 percent of voters more likely to vote for Harris, and a ceasefire would similarly make 44 percent of voters more likely to choose the vice president.

    Arizona showed similar numbers, with 35 percent of voters more inclined to choose Harris if she agreed to an arms embargo on Israel, while 41 percent of voters would do so if Biden achieved a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
    Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (photo)
    Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo

    From Consortium News: In an open letter to Antony Blinken, 113 journalists, 7 press freedom groups and 20 news outlets accused the U.S. secretary of state of being “complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today” in Gaza. Here are excerpts from the letter, which was delivered to the State Department on Thursday morning with a request to meet with the Secretary of State.

    Dear Secretary Blinken,

    Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists.

    Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today.

    On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”

    As journalists, publications and press freedom groups in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian journalists of Gaza, we call on you to do more to protect journalists and show unwavering support for free and independent media by supporting an arms embargo against Israel…

    Under international law, the intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime.5 While all governments are bound by international law protecting reporters, U.S. domestic law also prohibits the State Department from providing assistance to units of foreign security forces credibly accused of gross violations of human rights.6 Israel’s well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions of journalists is a gross violation of human rights.

    Additionally, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the American people’s right to receive information and ideas.7 Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists follows a longstanding pattern by the Israeli government to suppress truthful reporting on its treatment of Palestinians and its war in Gaza. By providing Israel with the weapons used to kill journalists, the State Department is abetting Israel’s violent suppression of journalism.

    The U.S. is providing the weapons Israel continually uses to target Palestinian journalists in Gaza. This is a violation of International law and U.S. domestic law. We urge you to immediately cease the transfer of all weapons to Israel.

    An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)
    An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo)
    MORE NEWS:

    IMEMC Daily Reports.

    Al Jazeera: Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks: A timeline of obstruction

    Middle East Eye: UK judge tells Muslim man jailed for fighting back against rioters to ‘rise above’ racism

    Middle East Eye: ‘Good riddance’: Ex-Columbia University president remembered for silencing pro-Palestine speech

    The New Arab: Polio: Israel’s dirty bioweapon is bringing Gaza to its knees



    STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 15:

    Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 15: at least 40,634* (40,005 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

    This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 632 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

    Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

    Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

    At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
    At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
    About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
    Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
    Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 15: at least 97,821 (including at least 92,401 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

    Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 15: ~1,454 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 290*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

    NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

    *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

    **Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

    ***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 41 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

    † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

    Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

    Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
    Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
    Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
    Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
    A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
    I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
    How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
    Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
    Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
    Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
    “Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
    Welcome to Hell
    More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
    U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
    Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
    Searching for Gaza’s missing children
    What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
    Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
    When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
    Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
    Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
    US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
    Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
    Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
    Gaza genocide denial
    Why the news media’s job is to groom us
    ‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children

    https://israelpalestinenews.org/violence-against-west-bank-palestinians-intensifies-gaza-safe-space-shrinks-day-313/
    Violence against West Bank Palestinians intensifies, as Gaza’s “safe” space shrinks – Day 313 [email protected] August 16, 2024 amputation, arms embargo, ceasefire, east jerusalem water crisis, evacuation, israeli economy, israeli outposts, israeli settler violence, pogrom, west bank deaths The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood +972 Magazine reports: In the searing heat of summer, Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood is facing a major water crisis. Since June, residents of Kufr ‘Aqab have been receiving just 2 to 12 hours of water per week. Their complaints have been redirected from one official to the next, yet no one has provided them with a solution — nor taken responsibility for the problem. Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities. But the current crisis is the worst it’s ever been. During the few hours that the water does flow, residents try to do everything they can with it: take showers, do laundry, and clean the house. The rest of the time, they are forced to buy water from private suppliers and store it in containers on the roofs of their apartment blocks. “We have hospitals, nurseries, and schools in the area,” Iyad Sanduka, a member of the neighborhood’s residents’ committee, told +972 Magazine and Local Call. “Everyone suffers from the water shortage.” Despite the fact that the majority of the neighborhood is officially part of Jerusalem, Kufr ‘Aqab doesn’t receive water from the municipal water supplier, Hagihon. Instead, like Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, water is provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) — an arm of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) — which purchases it from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot. This is symptomatic of Israel’s system of water apartheid in the occupied territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are denied control of the aquifers under their feet, and must instead buy the water back in limited quantities from Israel. While Israelis have access to an average of 300 liters of water per day, Palestinians in the West Bank enjoy only 80 liters — 20 liters less than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily quantity. For Palestinians in Gaza, it is currently as low as 3 liters. (Read the full article here.) RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Buying Our Own Stolen Water’ in Bethlehem – Scorching Summer Awaits Palestinians in the West Bank New York Times reports: Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials, who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished. With the Biden administration racing to get cease-fire negotiations back on track, a growing number of national security officials across the government said that the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group. Israel has made bold claims about the number Hamas deaths, without proof. But one of Israel’s biggest remaining goals — the return of the roughly 115 living and dead hostages still held in Gaza after being seized in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — cannot be achieved militarily, according to current and former American and Israeli officials. Israel’s most recent military operations have been something of a Whac-a-Mole strategy in the eyes of American analysts. U.S. officials are skeptical that approach will yield decisive results. While Israel has tried to damage the tunnels, it has failed to destroy them, American officials said. The network has proved much larger than Israel anticipated, and it remains an effective way for Hamas to hide its leaders and move around fighters. And even as the Israel Defense Forces have seized territory and killed Hamas fighters from north to south of the territory, they have repeatedly had to go back in as Hamas fighters regrouped. For example, Israel weakened Hamas’s grip in the Jabaliya camp, in northern Gaza, but had to return to the area in May after the group reconstituted in the power vacuum. Biden administration officials say diplomacy is the only way that Israel can achieve possibly its biggest goal — getting its hostages back. Israeli economy on the brink as it awaits retaliation from Resistance Axis The Cradle reports: The Israeli economy is on the ropes as the country awaits retaliation for its attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen over the past month, according to reports in Hebrew media. “These two weeks have exhausted the market, as some economic activities have been canceled, and another part has been reduced due to public fear,” the economic affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 13 News said on 15 August. Israel’s tourism industry, in particular, has recorded massive losses due to the broad cancellation of flights by international airlines. Israel’s education sector will also be severely affected if the wait continues into September, as institutions will have to “maneuver within combat scenarios,” according to the Israeli broadcaster. The Israeli economy has already taken several hits 10 months into the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, with the most recent one being the decision by US financial services firm Fitch to downgrade the nation’s credit rating. UN rapporteur says ‘shocking’ 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable Al Jazeera reports: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says the “shocking” death toll in Gaza, which has reached a landmark 40,000 people, was predictable and avoidable as United Nations experts have long issued warnings and called for international action to stop the violence. In spite of this, the UN Security Council and other international bodies have failed to stop the conflict. “The moral abyss in which [Israel has] fallen is hard to comprehend,” Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that the war in Gaza points to “an epic failure of the system of international law that was built after World War II to prevent and punish crimes such as this”. The conflict also shed light on the “hypocrisy” in the legal system, where “a few countries have the power to determine to whom international law can be applied and to whom it cannot”. Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images] Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images] (photo) “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks commitment from Harris for Palestine justice The “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks to collect 1 million voters to pledge a vote for the Democratic ticket if, and only if, it commits to 1) enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) end all military aid to Israel. Their goal is to “force the Democratic Party to listen to its voters and not just its donors. We demand concrete results from the current Biden-Harris Administration to end the Gaza Genocide and a credible commitment from a Harris-Walz ticket which will pressure Israel to achieve a just and lasting solution to the illegal occupation of Palestine.” “We hereby pledge to vote Democratic on November 5th only if the current administration: 1) enforces an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) ends all military aid to Israel.” The pledge can be viewed and signed here. Pledging arms embargo on Israel would help Harris gain more voter support: Poll Middle East Eye reports: According to a new poll, roughly one-third of Democratic Party voters in the US states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have said they are more likely to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election if she were to agree to stop sending arms to Israel. In Pennsylvania, 34 percent of voters were more likely to vote for Harris if she agreed to the arms embargo, while 44 percent were more likely to vote for her if Biden achieved a ceasefire. In Georgia, an arms embargo would make 39 percent of voters more likely to vote for Harris, and a ceasefire would similarly make 44 percent of voters more likely to choose the vice president. Arizona showed similar numbers, with 35 percent of voters more inclined to choose Harris if she agreed to an arms embargo on Israel, while 41 percent of voters would do so if Biden achieved a ceasefire in Gaza. Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (photo) Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo From Consortium News: In an open letter to Antony Blinken, 113 journalists, 7 press freedom groups and 20 news outlets accused the U.S. secretary of state of being “complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today” in Gaza. Here are excerpts from the letter, which was delivered to the State Department on Thursday morning with a request to meet with the Secretary of State. Dear Secretary Blinken, Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists. Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today. On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.” As journalists, publications and press freedom groups in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian journalists of Gaza, we call on you to do more to protect journalists and show unwavering support for free and independent media by supporting an arms embargo against Israel… Under international law, the intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime.5 While all governments are bound by international law protecting reporters, U.S. domestic law also prohibits the State Department from providing assistance to units of foreign security forces credibly accused of gross violations of human rights.6 Israel’s well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions of journalists is a gross violation of human rights. Additionally, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the American people’s right to receive information and ideas.7 Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists follows a longstanding pattern by the Israeli government to suppress truthful reporting on its treatment of Palestinians and its war in Gaza. By providing Israel with the weapons used to kill journalists, the State Department is abetting Israel’s violent suppression of journalism. The U.S. is providing the weapons Israel continually uses to target Palestinian journalists in Gaza. This is a violation of International law and U.S. domestic law. We urge you to immediately cease the transfer of all weapons to Israel. An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo) MORE NEWS: IMEMC Daily Reports. Al Jazeera: Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks: A timeline of obstruction Middle East Eye: UK judge tells Muslim man jailed for fighting back against rioters to ‘rise above’ racism Middle East Eye: ‘Good riddance’: Ex-Columbia University president remembered for silencing pro-Palestine speech The New Arab: Polio: Israel’s dirty bioweapon is bringing Gaza to its knees STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 15: Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 15: at least 40,634* (40,005 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.] This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 632 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths. Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza. At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank). At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**. About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced. Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity. Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 15: at least 97,821 (including at least 92,401 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.] Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 15: ~1,454 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 290*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured. NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers. *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so. **Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. ***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 41 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents. † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics. Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated) Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers) A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too. I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care. How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories “Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?” Welcome to Hell More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West Searching for Gaza’s missing children What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million? Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’ Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video) Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience Gaza genocide denial Why the news media’s job is to groom us ‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children https://israelpalestinenews.org/violence-against-west-bank-palestinians-intensifies-gaza-safe-space-shrinks-day-313/
    ISRAELPALESTINENEWS.ORG
    Violence against West Bank Palestinians intensifies, as Gaza's "safe" space shrinks – Day 313
    Israel-imposed drought in E J'lem; "legalizing" W Bank illegal outposts; Biden admin: end military efforts in Gaza; Israeli economy in crisis
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  • The rise of Yahya Sinwar
    Saturday, 10 August 2024 4:51 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 10 August 2024 4:51 PM ]
    A message of defiance: the appointment by Hamas of Yahya Sinwar, the man widely believed to have masterminded Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, as its political leader.

    Keeping up the pressure: continued Hezbollah retaliatory operations on the northern side of the Israeli-occupied territories over the genocide in Gaza.

    Also, a new push for a ceasefire: a joint statement by Qatar, the US and Egypt calling for a renewed commitment to ceasefire negotiations.

    Should we hold our breath?

    Martyrs of journalism: a silent protest at a train station in Oslo Norway for journalists killed by Israel in Gaza.

    Elsewhere, Turkey says it's joining South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

    The UK government continues to insist on the importance of de-escalation as the world awaits a retaliatory attack by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Israel.

    Also in Europe: all words and no action: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel calls the deliberate starvation of civilians a war crime.

    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/08/10/731104/The-rise-of-Yahya-Sinwar
    The rise of Yahya Sinwar Saturday, 10 August 2024 4:51 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 10 August 2024 4:51 PM ] A message of defiance: the appointment by Hamas of Yahya Sinwar, the man widely believed to have masterminded Operation Al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, as its political leader. Keeping up the pressure: continued Hezbollah retaliatory operations on the northern side of the Israeli-occupied territories over the genocide in Gaza. Also, a new push for a ceasefire: a joint statement by Qatar, the US and Egypt calling for a renewed commitment to ceasefire negotiations. Should we hold our breath? Martyrs of journalism: a silent protest at a train station in Oslo Norway for journalists killed by Israel in Gaza. Elsewhere, Turkey says it's joining South Africa's genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The UK government continues to insist on the importance of de-escalation as the world awaits a retaliatory attack by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Israel. Also in Europe: all words and no action: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrel calls the deliberate starvation of civilians a war crime. https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/08/10/731104/The-rise-of-Yahya-Sinwar
    WWW.PRESSTV.IR
    The rise of Yahya Sinwar
    A message of defiance: the appointment by Hamas of Yahya Sinwar, the man widely believed to have masterminded Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, as its political leader.
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  • ‘Shrapnel, stones and scattered human flesh’: Testimonies from survivors of Gaza school bombings
    On Thursday, August 8 , Israeli airstrikes targeted two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 17 people and the injury of dozens others. These are the testimonies of some of the survivors.

    Tareq S. HajjajAugust 9, 2024
    A group of people inspect the damage in a bombed out room of a school that was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
    Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli attack hit the Al-Zahraa School in the east of Gaza City on August 8, 2024. (Photo by Hadi Daoud/ APA Images)
    For the third time in a row in just one week, Israel attacked displaced Palestinians sheltering in schools in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens.

    On Thursday, August 8 around 3:00 p.m. local time, Israeli airstrikes targeted two schools in Gaza City at the same time: Al-Zahraa School in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood and Abdul Fattah Hamoud School in the old city of Gaza. The attack resulted in the killing of 17 people and the injury of dozens others.

    The attack came just days after the Israeli army bombed two other schools in Gaza City, which resulted in the killing of 27 displaced people.

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    The bombings on Thursday struck terror among the crowds of displaced people sheltering at the schools. Witnesses at the Abdul Fattah Hamoud School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City told Mondoweiss that the school was at one of its most crowded hours in the middle of the day when the bombs hit.

    “Suddenly, a missile fell on us. The school was crowded during the day, and the displaced people were still moving inside. After the bombing, all the shrapnel, stones, and scattered pieces of human flesh fell on the heads of the displaced people,” said Kamal Hamada, 20, who lives in the school as a displaced person and witnessed the massacre.

    “There was a water well in the school that provided for more than 300 families inside the school, and the Israeli army directly bombed the well,” Hamada said. “The world ignores our slaughter, if these scenes were published somewhere else, it would be a crime that everyone would condemn.”

    Mondoweiss spoke to a number of other eyewitnesses who were at both schools, who described harrowing scenes of dismembered and scattered bodies on the ground, and families fleeing in a state of panic and terror.

    Muhammad Hamada, 14, was playing with his peers at the time of the bombing. The force of the missile threw him to another area of the school.

    “After I opened my eyes, I went to the place where the bomb hit. A man was sitting on a wooden chair. Shrapnel had entered his chest and penetrated him and the chair. The man was sitting in a position as if he was alive, but he was dead,” he said.

    “Suddenly, the missile hit the school. We saw fire after the bombing. Shrapnel was flying in the air and falling on people’s heads. We were terrified,” the boy told Mondoweiss. “We started running and trying to escape. We did not know where we would go, but we wanted to get out of danger. At that time, people were collecting the remains of the martyrs scattered on the ground.”

    After he came to, Muhammad went to search for his friends at the spot where they were playing before the bomb hit. He found his best friend on the ground. The bomb had cut off his hand and leg.

    When Muhammad saw this scene next to the torn and burned bodies, he could not bear it. “I started running and screaming and crying; I could not bear the sight of the torn martyrs and the blood and smoke; I was running without seeing in front of me; I wanted to get as far away as possible from the school,” he said.

    “Women were also running to get out of the school, falling to the ground with their children in panic, and here we are, too, trying to move our belongings and go to another place to evacuate.”

    Muhammad said that what he has seen and witnessed since the beginning of this war is more than he and his peers can bear.

    “We saw many scenes that we could not get over, we saw martyrs cut into pieces, and most of our friends and relatives died, and I am living these circumstances; I was supposed to be in this school only to study and learn, not to live with my family,” he said. “I was supposed to play and be happy, but in this school I see my relatives, neighbors, and friends being cut into pieces.”

    Jamil Al-Fayoumi, 40, lives at the school with his family, and spends most of his days there. On the day of the massacre, however, he was at the nearby hospital receiving treatment for an injury.

    “I was about to arrive at the school when the bombing happened. I ran to check on my family and relatives. I found my cousins ​​killed,” al-Fayoumi said.

    “We were in a state of madness. The missile fell among my relatives. When I arrived at the bombing site, I found the bodies torn apart and the limbs scattered. It was a scene I will never forget in my entire life.”

    Two of Jamil’s cousins ​​were killed in this massacre, and a number of his other relatives were injured.

    This is not the first time that Israel has bombed the Abdul Fattah Hamoud School. On June 25th, the same school was bombed, killing 13 displaced people. Many families evacuated the school after the first bombing. However, many of the families also had no alternative shelter and did not know where to go, so they remained in the school.

    Ibrahim Al-Fayoumi, 25, was injured in the first bombing at the school on June 25th. The injury caused him fractures in his ribs and pelvis.

    “I escaped death by chance. I was away from the bombing but inside the school. When I heard the bomb, I ran to the place and found the room where we were sitting with our relatives had been bombed,” Ibrahim recounted. “The whole scene was of scattered body parts around the bombing site. Until this moment, body parts and human flesh are stuck to the floor and walls.”

    Ibrahim told Mondoweiss that he is tired of the ongoing situation in which he lives: moving, killing, constant displacement, and the lack of safe places for civilians. “We are tired, exhausted; the flames were like hell; we have never seen this scene before,” he said.

    In the previous bombing of the same school, Ibrahim’s 9-month-old cousin was injured, suffering burns to her face and body. Since then, her family has been trying to help her recover from the burns, and only a few days ago, the little girl began to recover. She was killed in the bombing on Thursday.

    “I am 25-years-old, but I feel like I am 100-years-old from all of these horrible things we have witnessed.”

    Akram Mahani, 44, was displaced from the Shuja’iyya after Israeli ground troops invaded the neighborhood last June. During the invasion, his home was bombed and two of his sons were killed. Both his sons’ bodies were never retrieved; they are still under the rubble to this day.

    After the Shuja’iyya invasion, Mahani and his remaining family were displaced to the Al-Zahraa School. He thought he was safe, but on Thursday, Israeli bombs followed them there too.

    Akram sits now in the Baptist Hospital, which is a few minutes away from the now-bombed Al-Zahraa school, with his surviving children, Ahmad, who is two-and-a-half years old, and Othman, who is five.

    “We have escaped death many times, but perhaps it was written for us all to die in this war,” Mahani says, pondering his family’s fate. “All of my cousins ​​were martyred in this bombing. None of them remained. An entire family was erased from the civil registry in this bombing,” he said.

    “This is what is happening to us. They kill entire families, not individuals or even wanted persons. They kill everyone without exception.”

    Before you leave– Mondoweiss is reader-funded and independent. We never hide our articles, podcasts, or videos behind a paywall because we believe everyone should have access to high-quality journalism about Palestine.

    We need you! We know you value our reporting and analysis of the events and politics surrounding Palestine’s struggle for liberation. Please donate today to sustain our work.

    https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/shrapnel-stones-and-scattered-human-flesh-testimonies-from-survivors-of-gaza-school-bombings/
    ‘Shrapnel, stones and scattered human flesh’: Testimonies from survivors of Gaza school bombings On Thursday, August 8 , Israeli airstrikes targeted two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 17 people and the injury of dozens others. These are the testimonies of some of the survivors. Tareq S. HajjajAugust 9, 2024 A group of people inspect the damage in a bombed out room of a school that was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza. Palestinians inspect the damage after an Israeli attack hit the Al-Zahraa School in the east of Gaza City on August 8, 2024. (Photo by Hadi Daoud/ APA Images) For the third time in a row in just one week, Israel attacked displaced Palestinians sheltering in schools in the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens. On Thursday, August 8 around 3:00 p.m. local time, Israeli airstrikes targeted two schools in Gaza City at the same time: Al-Zahraa School in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood and Abdul Fattah Hamoud School in the old city of Gaza. The attack resulted in the killing of 17 people and the injury of dozens others. The attack came just days after the Israeli army bombed two other schools in Gaza City, which resulted in the killing of 27 displaced people. Advertisement Follow the Mondoweiss channel on WhatsApp! The bombings on Thursday struck terror among the crowds of displaced people sheltering at the schools. Witnesses at the Abdul Fattah Hamoud School in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in Gaza City told Mondoweiss that the school was at one of its most crowded hours in the middle of the day when the bombs hit. “Suddenly, a missile fell on us. The school was crowded during the day, and the displaced people were still moving inside. After the bombing, all the shrapnel, stones, and scattered pieces of human flesh fell on the heads of the displaced people,” said Kamal Hamada, 20, who lives in the school as a displaced person and witnessed the massacre. “There was a water well in the school that provided for more than 300 families inside the school, and the Israeli army directly bombed the well,” Hamada said. “The world ignores our slaughter, if these scenes were published somewhere else, it would be a crime that everyone would condemn.” Mondoweiss spoke to a number of other eyewitnesses who were at both schools, who described harrowing scenes of dismembered and scattered bodies on the ground, and families fleeing in a state of panic and terror. Muhammad Hamada, 14, was playing with his peers at the time of the bombing. The force of the missile threw him to another area of the school. “After I opened my eyes, I went to the place where the bomb hit. A man was sitting on a wooden chair. Shrapnel had entered his chest and penetrated him and the chair. The man was sitting in a position as if he was alive, but he was dead,” he said. “Suddenly, the missile hit the school. We saw fire after the bombing. Shrapnel was flying in the air and falling on people’s heads. We were terrified,” the boy told Mondoweiss. “We started running and trying to escape. We did not know where we would go, but we wanted to get out of danger. At that time, people were collecting the remains of the martyrs scattered on the ground.” After he came to, Muhammad went to search for his friends at the spot where they were playing before the bomb hit. He found his best friend on the ground. The bomb had cut off his hand and leg. When Muhammad saw this scene next to the torn and burned bodies, he could not bear it. “I started running and screaming and crying; I could not bear the sight of the torn martyrs and the blood and smoke; I was running without seeing in front of me; I wanted to get as far away as possible from the school,” he said. “Women were also running to get out of the school, falling to the ground with their children in panic, and here we are, too, trying to move our belongings and go to another place to evacuate.” Muhammad said that what he has seen and witnessed since the beginning of this war is more than he and his peers can bear. “We saw many scenes that we could not get over, we saw martyrs cut into pieces, and most of our friends and relatives died, and I am living these circumstances; I was supposed to be in this school only to study and learn, not to live with my family,” he said. “I was supposed to play and be happy, but in this school I see my relatives, neighbors, and friends being cut into pieces.” Jamil Al-Fayoumi, 40, lives at the school with his family, and spends most of his days there. On the day of the massacre, however, he was at the nearby hospital receiving treatment for an injury. “I was about to arrive at the school when the bombing happened. I ran to check on my family and relatives. I found my cousins ​​killed,” al-Fayoumi said. “We were in a state of madness. The missile fell among my relatives. When I arrived at the bombing site, I found the bodies torn apart and the limbs scattered. It was a scene I will never forget in my entire life.” Two of Jamil’s cousins ​​were killed in this massacre, and a number of his other relatives were injured. This is not the first time that Israel has bombed the Abdul Fattah Hamoud School. On June 25th, the same school was bombed, killing 13 displaced people. Many families evacuated the school after the first bombing. However, many of the families also had no alternative shelter and did not know where to go, so they remained in the school. Ibrahim Al-Fayoumi, 25, was injured in the first bombing at the school on June 25th. The injury caused him fractures in his ribs and pelvis. “I escaped death by chance. I was away from the bombing but inside the school. When I heard the bomb, I ran to the place and found the room where we were sitting with our relatives had been bombed,” Ibrahim recounted. “The whole scene was of scattered body parts around the bombing site. Until this moment, body parts and human flesh are stuck to the floor and walls.” Ibrahim told Mondoweiss that he is tired of the ongoing situation in which he lives: moving, killing, constant displacement, and the lack of safe places for civilians. “We are tired, exhausted; the flames were like hell; we have never seen this scene before,” he said. In the previous bombing of the same school, Ibrahim’s 9-month-old cousin was injured, suffering burns to her face and body. Since then, her family has been trying to help her recover from the burns, and only a few days ago, the little girl began to recover. She was killed in the bombing on Thursday. “I am 25-years-old, but I feel like I am 100-years-old from all of these horrible things we have witnessed.” Akram Mahani, 44, was displaced from the Shuja’iyya after Israeli ground troops invaded the neighborhood last June. During the invasion, his home was bombed and two of his sons were killed. Both his sons’ bodies were never retrieved; they are still under the rubble to this day. After the Shuja’iyya invasion, Mahani and his remaining family were displaced to the Al-Zahraa School. He thought he was safe, but on Thursday, Israeli bombs followed them there too. Akram sits now in the Baptist Hospital, which is a few minutes away from the now-bombed Al-Zahraa school, with his surviving children, Ahmad, who is two-and-a-half years old, and Othman, who is five. “We have escaped death many times, but perhaps it was written for us all to die in this war,” Mahani says, pondering his family’s fate. “All of my cousins ​​were martyred in this bombing. None of them remained. An entire family was erased from the civil registry in this bombing,” he said. “This is what is happening to us. They kill entire families, not individuals or even wanted persons. They kill everyone without exception.” Before you leave– Mondoweiss is reader-funded and independent. We never hide our articles, podcasts, or videos behind a paywall because we believe everyone should have access to high-quality journalism about Palestine. We need you! We know you value our reporting and analysis of the events and politics surrounding Palestine’s struggle for liberation. Please donate today to sustain our work. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/shrapnel-stones-and-scattered-human-flesh-testimonies-from-survivors-of-gaza-school-bombings/
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    ‘Shrapnel, stones and scattered human flesh’: Testimonies from survivors of Gaza school bombings
    On Thursday, August 8 , Israeli airstrikes targeted two schools in Gaza City, killing at least 17 people and the injury of dozens others. These are the testimonies of some of the survivors.
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  • End Israel’s system of economic apartheid in Palestine
    Chris HabibyAugust 8, 2024
    File Photo: A Palestinian woman walks past a Western Union office in Gaza City in 2011. (Photo: Mahmoud Nassar / APA Images)
    File Photo: A Palestinian woman walks past a Western Union office in Gaza City in 2011. (Photo: Mahmoud Nassar / APA Images)
    When the International Court of Justice ruled on July 19 that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories were unlawful, “tantamount to the crime of apartheid” according to the president of the Court, it was a vindication for Palestinians, their allies, and human rights organizations who have been saying the same for decades. For 75 years, Israel’s theft of Palestinian land, its illegal settlement enterprise, and the systemic discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel have all contributed to the more extensive apartheid system. Still, they do not constitute Israel’s entire plan to ethnically cleanse the land and deny any form of Palestinian liberation. Too often, the intentional system that economically fragments and dispossesses Palestinians is overlooked.

    There is one clear way to describe this system of financial exclusion and institutional sabotage – financial apartheid
    This system imposes economic restrictions on Palestinians, marginalizing them and stripping away their economic agency while inhibiting their ability to receive aid, participate in the global economy, and access financial services. It manifests through the manufactured necessity of aid, legal frameworks that criminalize direct and mutual aid, and obstructive, discriminatory policies from private and governmental entities. When placed in this context, there is one clear way to describe this system of financial exclusion and institutional sabotage – financial apartheid

    It is nearly impossible for development and rehabilitation to occur against the backdrop of sustained, engineered political and economic destabilization; a fact which precedes October 7 but has stood out in stark relief since. By refusing to provide Palestinians the support required from occupying powers under international humanitarian law and actively obstructing any means to support themselves, the Israeli state has de facto required international actors to fulfill the needs of Palestinians living under occupation. The current crisis in Gaza is not the source of this engineered reliance, and any claim that it is belies Israel’s 17 year Israeli siege and blockade of Gaza (itself a form of economic warfare against Palestinians) which devastated the Strip’s economy. Rather, it has exacerbated this manufactured necessity and underscored how it contributes to the economic marginalization of Palestinians.

    Advertisement

    Watch In Bad Faith, a new satirical video from Mondoweiss and Mohammed El-Kurd.
    This financial apartheid has forced Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, to leverage mutual aid networks to obtain the necessities for survival. For Americans (including those with family members in Palestine), supporting Palestinians either directly or through these networks carries significant risk. In a report published this past February, Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights demonstrated that since the 1960’s, the US Government “has used anti-terrorism law to target the Palestinian movement and supporters and to stigmatize Palestinians as terrorists.” This dangerous and dehumanizing framework used against Palestinians endangers all non-governmental aid efforts. Among the highest profile examples of this risk is the case of the Holy Land Five, who were prosecuted under the “material support” law for donating to Palestinian charities that the US government itself supported.

    On top of the potential legal liability, providing aid directly or through mutual aid networks also carries the risk of bank account closures and bans on using money transfer services. Sanctions regimes targeting terrorist financing have incentivized financial institutions and service providers to refuse relationships and dealings with individuals and organizations associated with Palestine. The threat of severe financial penalties has produced an ecosystem where Palestinians and their supporters are excluded under the cloak of prudent risk management.

    As a result of their exclusion from traditional banking systems, Palestinians and those who seek to support them are forced to utilize third-party financial services. Yet even with those servicers, systematic practices hinder or outright prevent access. For example, PayPal refuses to provide its services to Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories (though it does provide services to non-Palestinians living on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank), citing high-security risks, a gross misrepresentation considering Visa, Mastercard, and Apple still provide financial services on the ground. In another example of online financial services being used to obstruct access, Venmo (which is owned by PayPal) closed the accounts of individuals and blocked funds of individuals who donated to Gaza to provide humanitarian support.

    These economic roadblocks are not limited to digital-only platforms. Cash transfer services, like Western Union and Moneygram, also participate in the discrimination against Palestinians by blocking transfers and requesting invasive documentation of both senders and recipients. Palestinians and those seeking financial support must provide birth or marriage licenses, property titles, loan and mortgage statements, business registration information, and tax identification. These unique document requirements are only placed on transfers to Palestinians. Additionally, cash transfers to Palestinians have a significantly lower limit on how much can be sent, and those transfers are restricted to be between individuals related by only one degree.

    It is important to note that the systems imposing engineered economic instability on Palestinians are not exclusive to those living in Gaza. Tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian people by way of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank are regularly withheld by the Israeli government and often used as bargaining chips to extract concessions from both the PA and the broader Israeli government. This tax revenue is also subject to frequent deductions by Israel. Between April and July of this year, the ultra-nationalist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refused to release the tax revenues, only conceding after the Israeli cabinet approved five illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. During this period, only 50-60% of public sector employees received their pay. The impact of political gamesmanship played with West Bank tax revenue on the Palestinian economy is further compounded by, until now, threats by that same minister to completely cut off Palestinian financial institutions from the global banking system, a move which UN experts caution could “paralyze the Palestinian economy”.

    Ultimately, the confluence of sustained economic destabilization and legal frameworks that criminalize direct and mutual aid has created an ecosystem that actively inhibits the growth of a robust Palestinian economy. Through this financial apartheid, Palestinians are isolated economically and prevented from taking any substantive steps toward improving their financial situation. The system of economic exclusion that the Palestinian populations in Gaza and in the West Bank are subjected to must be dismantled. It is time for the Palestinian economy to be reimagined and redeveloped.

    Before you leave– Mondoweiss is reader-funded and independent. We never hide our articles, podcasts, or videos behind a paywall because we believe everyone should have access to high-quality journalism about Palestine.

    We need you! We know you value our reporting and analysis of the events and politics surrounding Palestine’s struggle for liberation. Please donate today to sustain our work.

    https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/end-israels-system-of-economic-apartheid-in-palestine/
    End Israel’s system of economic apartheid in Palestine Chris HabibyAugust 8, 2024 File Photo: A Palestinian woman walks past a Western Union office in Gaza City in 2011. (Photo: Mahmoud Nassar / APA Images) File Photo: A Palestinian woman walks past a Western Union office in Gaza City in 2011. (Photo: Mahmoud Nassar / APA Images) When the International Court of Justice ruled on July 19 that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territories were unlawful, “tantamount to the crime of apartheid” according to the president of the Court, it was a vindication for Palestinians, their allies, and human rights organizations who have been saying the same for decades. For 75 years, Israel’s theft of Palestinian land, its illegal settlement enterprise, and the systemic discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel have all contributed to the more extensive apartheid system. Still, they do not constitute Israel’s entire plan to ethnically cleanse the land and deny any form of Palestinian liberation. Too often, the intentional system that economically fragments and dispossesses Palestinians is overlooked. There is one clear way to describe this system of financial exclusion and institutional sabotage – financial apartheid This system imposes economic restrictions on Palestinians, marginalizing them and stripping away their economic agency while inhibiting their ability to receive aid, participate in the global economy, and access financial services. It manifests through the manufactured necessity of aid, legal frameworks that criminalize direct and mutual aid, and obstructive, discriminatory policies from private and governmental entities. When placed in this context, there is one clear way to describe this system of financial exclusion and institutional sabotage – financial apartheid It is nearly impossible for development and rehabilitation to occur against the backdrop of sustained, engineered political and economic destabilization; a fact which precedes October 7 but has stood out in stark relief since. By refusing to provide Palestinians the support required from occupying powers under international humanitarian law and actively obstructing any means to support themselves, the Israeli state has de facto required international actors to fulfill the needs of Palestinians living under occupation. The current crisis in Gaza is not the source of this engineered reliance, and any claim that it is belies Israel’s 17 year Israeli siege and blockade of Gaza (itself a form of economic warfare against Palestinians) which devastated the Strip’s economy. Rather, it has exacerbated this manufactured necessity and underscored how it contributes to the economic marginalization of Palestinians. Advertisement Watch In Bad Faith, a new satirical video from Mondoweiss and Mohammed El-Kurd. This financial apartheid has forced Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, to leverage mutual aid networks to obtain the necessities for survival. For Americans (including those with family members in Palestine), supporting Palestinians either directly or through these networks carries significant risk. In a report published this past February, Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional Rights demonstrated that since the 1960’s, the US Government “has used anti-terrorism law to target the Palestinian movement and supporters and to stigmatize Palestinians as terrorists.” This dangerous and dehumanizing framework used against Palestinians endangers all non-governmental aid efforts. Among the highest profile examples of this risk is the case of the Holy Land Five, who were prosecuted under the “material support” law for donating to Palestinian charities that the US government itself supported. On top of the potential legal liability, providing aid directly or through mutual aid networks also carries the risk of bank account closures and bans on using money transfer services. Sanctions regimes targeting terrorist financing have incentivized financial institutions and service providers to refuse relationships and dealings with individuals and organizations associated with Palestine. The threat of severe financial penalties has produced an ecosystem where Palestinians and their supporters are excluded under the cloak of prudent risk management. As a result of their exclusion from traditional banking systems, Palestinians and those who seek to support them are forced to utilize third-party financial services. Yet even with those servicers, systematic practices hinder or outright prevent access. For example, PayPal refuses to provide its services to Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories (though it does provide services to non-Palestinians living on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank), citing high-security risks, a gross misrepresentation considering Visa, Mastercard, and Apple still provide financial services on the ground. In another example of online financial services being used to obstruct access, Venmo (which is owned by PayPal) closed the accounts of individuals and blocked funds of individuals who donated to Gaza to provide humanitarian support. These economic roadblocks are not limited to digital-only platforms. Cash transfer services, like Western Union and Moneygram, also participate in the discrimination against Palestinians by blocking transfers and requesting invasive documentation of both senders and recipients. Palestinians and those seeking financial support must provide birth or marriage licenses, property titles, loan and mortgage statements, business registration information, and tax identification. These unique document requirements are only placed on transfers to Palestinians. Additionally, cash transfers to Palestinians have a significantly lower limit on how much can be sent, and those transfers are restricted to be between individuals related by only one degree. It is important to note that the systems imposing engineered economic instability on Palestinians are not exclusive to those living in Gaza. Tax revenues belonging to the Palestinian people by way of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank are regularly withheld by the Israeli government and often used as bargaining chips to extract concessions from both the PA and the broader Israeli government. This tax revenue is also subject to frequent deductions by Israel. Between April and July of this year, the ultra-nationalist Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refused to release the tax revenues, only conceding after the Israeli cabinet approved five illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. During this period, only 50-60% of public sector employees received their pay. The impact of political gamesmanship played with West Bank tax revenue on the Palestinian economy is further compounded by, until now, threats by that same minister to completely cut off Palestinian financial institutions from the global banking system, a move which UN experts caution could “paralyze the Palestinian economy”. Ultimately, the confluence of sustained economic destabilization and legal frameworks that criminalize direct and mutual aid has created an ecosystem that actively inhibits the growth of a robust Palestinian economy. Through this financial apartheid, Palestinians are isolated economically and prevented from taking any substantive steps toward improving their financial situation. The system of economic exclusion that the Palestinian populations in Gaza and in the West Bank are subjected to must be dismantled. It is time for the Palestinian economy to be reimagined and redeveloped. Before you leave– Mondoweiss is reader-funded and independent. We never hide our articles, podcasts, or videos behind a paywall because we believe everyone should have access to high-quality journalism about Palestine. We need you! We know you value our reporting and analysis of the events and politics surrounding Palestine’s struggle for liberation. Please donate today to sustain our work. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/end-israels-system-of-economic-apartheid-in-palestine/
    MONDOWEISS.NET
    End Israel’s system of economic apartheid in Palestine
    Often overlooked, Israel’s intentional system of economically fragmenting and dispossessing Palestinians is an essential part of its plan to ethnically cleanse the land and deny Palestinian liberation.
    0 Comments 0 Shares 8717 Views
  • World War II: US Military Destroyed 66 Japanese Cities Before Planning to Wipe Out the Same Number of Soviet Cities

    Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

    Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

    Timely historical analysis: This article was first published in June 2019. Reposted for the 79th anniversary of America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    The extent of devastation inflicted upon Japan by the American military during World War II is not broadly known, even today. In reprisal for the attack over Pearl Harbor, which killed almost 2,500 Americans, US aircraft first began unloading bombs on Japan during the afternoon of 18 April 1942 – attacking the capital Tokyo, and also five other major cities, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and Yokosuka.

    Participating in this opening incursion over Japanese territory, known as the “Doolittle Raid”, were a modest 16 US B-25 medium bombers which killed about 50 Japanese, while meting out minor overall damage. Yet the air strikes represented an embarrassment for Tokyo’s leaders, and they further dealt a sharp psychological blow on the Japanese mindset. To rub salt into wounds, not one of America’s B-25 aircraft was shot down. It was a sign of things to come.

    As months elapsed into years, the destruction increased many times over. By 15 June 1945, 66 Japanese cities had been annihilated by the US Army Air Force, through firebombing attacks primarily unleashed by the new B-29 four-engine heavy bombers.

    The number of Japanese metropolitan areas destroyed here was the exact figure that the Pentagon compiled when finalizing plans, in mid-September 1945, to eviscerate the Soviet Union. Indeed, 66 Soviet cities were earmarked to be wiped out – with 204 atomic bombs – less than two weeks after Japanese representatives signed surrender terms on 2 September 1945, finally closing out World War II.

    Regarding atomic attack proposals against the Japanese Empire, General George Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff, revealed in 1954 that,

    “In the original plans for the invasion of Japan, we wanted nine atomic bombs for three attacks”.

    Just prior to Hiroshima the Pentagon had less than half a dozen A-bombs, however.

    Little boy.jpg

    Photograph of a mock-up of the Little Boy nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. This was the first photograph of the Little Boy bomb casing to ever be released by the U.S. government (it was declassified in 1960). (Source: Public Domain)

    The world’s first nuclear attack was unleashed at 8.15am local time in Hiroshima, on 6 August 1945, as a 15 kiloton bomb hurtled through the air when released from a B-29 aircraft. After falling for 44 seconds, the “Little Boy” atomic weapon detonated directly over Shima Hospital in Hiroshima’s city centre, instantly turning into ashes all of its doctors, nurses and patients. In the surrounding landscape, dozens of further hospitals, schools and historical buildings were razed to the ground.

    Tens of thousands were killed immediately as ground temperatures momentarily soared from between 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Celsius. Of those people situated within two kilometres of the bomb detonation point, 112,000 would be dead within a year (10 August 1946).

    Further thousands were also killed from radiation poisoning and severe burns, among those present in the hundreds of metres beyond the two kilometre radius mark. The majority of the dead and dying were civilians, men too old or sick to serve in the armed forces, along with large numbers of women and children.

    Hiroshima’s vital arms and manufacturing complexes, scattered along the city’s periphery, were completely undamaged. These plants accounted for 74% of her total industrial output. Unscathed too was Hiroshima’s crucial port and military embarkation point on the Ota Delta. Almost 95% of Hiroshima’s factory workers were unhurt following the explosion.

    On hearing of the atomic blast a few hours afterwards, president Harry Truman heralded it as “the greatest thing in history” and “an overwhelming success”.

    Three days later, 9 August, Nagasaki was attacked at 11.02am local time with a more sophisticated 21 kiloton bomb – which was released over the city’s educational, cultural and religious heartland. As with Hiroshima, the Nagasaki bombing left unharmed most of the city’s war-making industries.

    Fat man.jpg

    A mockup of the Fat Man nuclear device. (Source: Public Domain)

    This “Fat Man” bomb killed further tens of thousands; including many hundreds of schoolchildren, along with destroying the city’s main hospitals, cathedrals, temples and schools. Medical facilities in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated, adding significantly to the death tolls.

    Echoing Washington’s support for atomic assaults were the Western media, almost without exception. Of 595 newspaper editorials written regarding the nuclear explosions from early August until late December 1945, less than 2% opposed the attacks which would kill more than 200,000 people.

    The press also firmly supported the firestorming of both German and Japanese cities, in actuality they had “demanded more bombing of civilian targets”, even criticizing air strikes over military and industrial zones. For example, New York’s Time magazine praised the annihilation of Tokyo, which left around 100,000 dead, as “a dream come true… properly kindled, Japanese cities will burn like autumn leaves”.

    Elsewhere, although Japan’s hard-line militarists proposed fighting to the last man, their political leaders were compelled to announce surrender on 15 August 1945, when threatened with further atomic attacks. General Leslie Groves, directing America’s A-bomb project, informed General Marshall on 10 August 1945 that another Nagasaki-type plutonium weapon would be “on the target” and available for use “after 24 August 1945”.

    The USSR’s declaration of war on Japan during the evening of 8 August 1945 also influenced Tokyo’s capitulation; with the Red Army, in the following days, cutting through Japan’s elite armies across Manchuria like a hot knife through butter. Another factor was the American guarantee, relayed on 11 August 1945, that Emperor Hirohito – a God-like entity in Japan – could continue in his role following the surrender, though he would have no real power.

    Just after the first atomic attack Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Hisatsune Sakomizu, estimated that his country could hold out for another two months at most: to October 1945. Japan had long been beaten in the air, as too at sea, while her imports of crude oil, rubber and iron ore ceased to exist. Japanese forces were driven from Burma and throughout the Pacific territories.

    In addition, according to high ranking figures like Admirals Chester Nimitz (Pacific Fleet Commander) and William Leahy (Truman’s Chief of Staff), the ongoing, crippling blockade of Japan by sea, coupled with conventional air attacks, would induce their surrender within weeks, making any US land invasion or atomic bombings unnecessary. The A-bombs were in reality dropped as a warning signal to the Soviet Union, America’s new and long-term enemy as highlighted by General Groves in March 1944.

    Through non-nuclear bombing, the destruction of dozens of Japan’s metropolitan areas was overseen by Major General Curtis LeMay, who implemented increasingly murderous tactics. It should be remembered, however, that Japan’s army apparatus was particularly sadistic and brutal, committing atrocities predating World War II.

    Yet it was Japanese civilians which bore the brunt of America’s military might. On 30 May 1945, LeMay openly boasted at a press conference that US air strikes had killed a million Japanese or more.

    By the summer of 1945, over nine million of Japan’s citizens were left homeless, most fleeing to green areas. Just prior to the atomic explosions, 969 Japanese hospitals had also been destroyed by American airplanes.

    Almost four years previously, Japan’s seemingly “unprovoked and dastardly attack” on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – as president Franklin D. Roosevelt described it – was based on what were in fact well-grounded fears. For five months preceding Japan’s raid on 7 December 1941, Washington had been moving her B-17 heavy bombers in growing numbers to US bases in the Pacific, such as at Pearl Harbor, and also to Clark Air Base and Del Monte Airfield in the Philippines.

    From mid-1941, half of America’s big bombers were shifted from the Atlantic domain towards eastern horizons, something that Japanese strategists were only too aware of.

    The reasoning behind this military build up had been outlined in late 1940, by America’s famed pre-war planner and Air Force General, Claire Chennault, who outlined how the B-17s would “burn out the industrial heart of the Empire with fire-bomb attacks on the teeming bamboo ant heaps of Honshu and Kyushu”. President Roosevelt was “simply delighted” when hearing of this plan.

    Notwithstanding Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, America would have shortly entered the war regardless – and in opposition to Tokyo – as both states by 1941 were already major rivals with incompatible ambitions in the great Asian and Pacific regions. On 15 November 1941, three weeks before Pearl Harbor, General Marshall told reporters in an “off-the-record briefing” that American aircraft would “set the paper cities of Japan on fire. There won’t be any hesitation about bombing civilians”.

    A year before, on 19 December 1940, Roosevelt approved $25 million in military aid to China, Japan’s traditional nemesis, including the gift of aircraft. Twenty-five million dollars in 1940 equates to nearly half a billion dollars today. On 11 March 1941, America’s president signed into law the Lend-Lease Act, a program providing further materiel to the Chinese – and also to other nations like Britain, the Soviet Union and France, all of which were far from benevolent towards Imperial Japan.

    For many months, Roosevelt had placed sanctions and an embargo on Japan, such as in response to Tokyo’s September 1940 occupation of Northern French Indochina, which harmed US interests in the vicinity.

    On 26 July 1941 Roosevelt froze the entirety of Japanese assets in America, a drastic policy which amounted to a declaration of economic war on Japan, over four months before Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt’s action stripped Japan of a staggering 90% of its oil imports, along with eradicating 75% of her foreign trade.

    Within days, the Japanese were forced to dip into their scant oil reserves, which on their current course would be used up by January 1943, unless her armies embarked upon further invasions.

    In equal enemy numbers, there were few who could live with the ferocity of the Japanese soldier, who gained notoriety for his cruelty. Tokyo’s war planners turned their hungry gaze to yet more tantalizing conquests, lining up the resource-rich states of Burma, the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), each of which would be conquered during the first half of 1942.

    As the war advanced and tables slowly turned, the Western allies’ terror bombing of civilian areas – not only ranking as war crimes – also stood as a dismal failure in its bid to bring the conflict to swift conclusion. These morally bereft strategies, of which nobody was made accountable, actually prolonged World War II. The long-held idea that blood-drenched air raids would smash the people’s morale, forcing them to revolt against their leaders, was pure fantasy.

    In the summer of 1945, Japanese civilians were more interested in laying their hands upon foodstuffs, with the nation gradually starving due to America’s naval blockade. What’s more, any attempt at rebellion would promptly be eliminated by Japan’s military police, the dreaded Kenpeitai.

    Western leaders failed to discern the lessons of Germany’s early 1940s Blitz of Britain, which served to strengthen the British public’s morale, not weaken it. This reality soon became clear to Wehrmacht hierarchy; but not so it seems to leaders like Winston Churchill, who was advocating the senseless obliteration of medieval cities like Dresden as late as February 1945.

    Targeting women and children with bombs left the German and Japanese war machines largely unmolested. The Nazis’ armaments minister, Albert Speer, was at times left dumbfounded by Allied air tactics over Germany, which often avoided the Reich’s industrial areas.

    Across 1944 Speer, much to Hitler’s delight and amazement, actually oversaw an increase in both German aircraft and panzer production, which made possible such attacks as the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944.

    The realities behind air bombing escaped the attention of others like LeMay, and his English counterpart Arthur “Bomber” Harris. After it was all over, Harris admitted in his memoirs that the stratagem underlying assaults over urban locations “proved to be wholly unsound”; and that the Allied leaders should have earlier directed their pilots more frequently towards bombardment of factories, communication signals and transportation lines, which would have finished off Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan before 1945.

    While LeMay was speaking about the mass deaths of Japanese, which also destroyed more than 3.5 million homes, he did not mention that in mid-1945 much of Japan’s infrastructure still lay untouched; such as the country’s crucially important coal ferry between Hokkaido and Honshu while, incredibly, the rail network remained intact through to August 1945; as too did several industrial zones which LeMay’s B-29s roamed obliviously past.

    *

    Click the share button below to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.

    One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary

    Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

    Featured image: Charred remains of Japanese civilians after the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945.


    https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-military-destroyed-66-japanese-cities-before-planning-wipe-out-same-number-soviet-cities/5680934
    World War II: US Military Destroyed 66 Japanese Cities Before Planning to Wipe Out the Same Number of Soviet Cities Hiroshima, August 6, 1945 Nagasaki, August 9, 1945 Timely historical analysis: This article was first published in June 2019. Reposted for the 79th anniversary of America’s bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The extent of devastation inflicted upon Japan by the American military during World War II is not broadly known, even today. In reprisal for the attack over Pearl Harbor, which killed almost 2,500 Americans, US aircraft first began unloading bombs on Japan during the afternoon of 18 April 1942 – attacking the capital Tokyo, and also five other major cities, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and Yokosuka. Participating in this opening incursion over Japanese territory, known as the “Doolittle Raid”, were a modest 16 US B-25 medium bombers which killed about 50 Japanese, while meting out minor overall damage. Yet the air strikes represented an embarrassment for Tokyo’s leaders, and they further dealt a sharp psychological blow on the Japanese mindset. To rub salt into wounds, not one of America’s B-25 aircraft was shot down. It was a sign of things to come. As months elapsed into years, the destruction increased many times over. By 15 June 1945, 66 Japanese cities had been annihilated by the US Army Air Force, through firebombing attacks primarily unleashed by the new B-29 four-engine heavy bombers. The number of Japanese metropolitan areas destroyed here was the exact figure that the Pentagon compiled when finalizing plans, in mid-September 1945, to eviscerate the Soviet Union. Indeed, 66 Soviet cities were earmarked to be wiped out – with 204 atomic bombs – less than two weeks after Japanese representatives signed surrender terms on 2 September 1945, finally closing out World War II. Regarding atomic attack proposals against the Japanese Empire, General George Marshall, the US Army Chief of Staff, revealed in 1954 that, “In the original plans for the invasion of Japan, we wanted nine atomic bombs for three attacks”. Just prior to Hiroshima the Pentagon had less than half a dozen A-bombs, however. Little boy.jpg Photograph of a mock-up of the Little Boy nuclear weapon dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in August 1945. This was the first photograph of the Little Boy bomb casing to ever be released by the U.S. government (it was declassified in 1960). (Source: Public Domain) The world’s first nuclear attack was unleashed at 8.15am local time in Hiroshima, on 6 August 1945, as a 15 kiloton bomb hurtled through the air when released from a B-29 aircraft. After falling for 44 seconds, the “Little Boy” atomic weapon detonated directly over Shima Hospital in Hiroshima’s city centre, instantly turning into ashes all of its doctors, nurses and patients. In the surrounding landscape, dozens of further hospitals, schools and historical buildings were razed to the ground. Tens of thousands were killed immediately as ground temperatures momentarily soared from between 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Celsius. Of those people situated within two kilometres of the bomb detonation point, 112,000 would be dead within a year (10 August 1946). Further thousands were also killed from radiation poisoning and severe burns, among those present in the hundreds of metres beyond the two kilometre radius mark. The majority of the dead and dying were civilians, men too old or sick to serve in the armed forces, along with large numbers of women and children. Hiroshima’s vital arms and manufacturing complexes, scattered along the city’s periphery, were completely undamaged. These plants accounted for 74% of her total industrial output. Unscathed too was Hiroshima’s crucial port and military embarkation point on the Ota Delta. Almost 95% of Hiroshima’s factory workers were unhurt following the explosion. On hearing of the atomic blast a few hours afterwards, president Harry Truman heralded it as “the greatest thing in history” and “an overwhelming success”. Three days later, 9 August, Nagasaki was attacked at 11.02am local time with a more sophisticated 21 kiloton bomb – which was released over the city’s educational, cultural and religious heartland. As with Hiroshima, the Nagasaki bombing left unharmed most of the city’s war-making industries. Fat man.jpg A mockup of the Fat Man nuclear device. (Source: Public Domain) This “Fat Man” bomb killed further tens of thousands; including many hundreds of schoolchildren, along with destroying the city’s main hospitals, cathedrals, temples and schools. Medical facilities in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki were decimated, adding significantly to the death tolls. Echoing Washington’s support for atomic assaults were the Western media, almost without exception. Of 595 newspaper editorials written regarding the nuclear explosions from early August until late December 1945, less than 2% opposed the attacks which would kill more than 200,000 people. The press also firmly supported the firestorming of both German and Japanese cities, in actuality they had “demanded more bombing of civilian targets”, even criticizing air strikes over military and industrial zones. For example, New York’s Time magazine praised the annihilation of Tokyo, which left around 100,000 dead, as “a dream come true… properly kindled, Japanese cities will burn like autumn leaves”. Elsewhere, although Japan’s hard-line militarists proposed fighting to the last man, their political leaders were compelled to announce surrender on 15 August 1945, when threatened with further atomic attacks. General Leslie Groves, directing America’s A-bomb project, informed General Marshall on 10 August 1945 that another Nagasaki-type plutonium weapon would be “on the target” and available for use “after 24 August 1945”. The USSR’s declaration of war on Japan during the evening of 8 August 1945 also influenced Tokyo’s capitulation; with the Red Army, in the following days, cutting through Japan’s elite armies across Manchuria like a hot knife through butter. Another factor was the American guarantee, relayed on 11 August 1945, that Emperor Hirohito – a God-like entity in Japan – could continue in his role following the surrender, though he would have no real power. Just after the first atomic attack Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Hisatsune Sakomizu, estimated that his country could hold out for another two months at most: to October 1945. Japan had long been beaten in the air, as too at sea, while her imports of crude oil, rubber and iron ore ceased to exist. Japanese forces were driven from Burma and throughout the Pacific territories. In addition, according to high ranking figures like Admirals Chester Nimitz (Pacific Fleet Commander) and William Leahy (Truman’s Chief of Staff), the ongoing, crippling blockade of Japan by sea, coupled with conventional air attacks, would induce their surrender within weeks, making any US land invasion or atomic bombings unnecessary. The A-bombs were in reality dropped as a warning signal to the Soviet Union, America’s new and long-term enemy as highlighted by General Groves in March 1944. Through non-nuclear bombing, the destruction of dozens of Japan’s metropolitan areas was overseen by Major General Curtis LeMay, who implemented increasingly murderous tactics. It should be remembered, however, that Japan’s army apparatus was particularly sadistic and brutal, committing atrocities predating World War II. Yet it was Japanese civilians which bore the brunt of America’s military might. On 30 May 1945, LeMay openly boasted at a press conference that US air strikes had killed a million Japanese or more. By the summer of 1945, over nine million of Japan’s citizens were left homeless, most fleeing to green areas. Just prior to the atomic explosions, 969 Japanese hospitals had also been destroyed by American airplanes. Almost four years previously, Japan’s seemingly “unprovoked and dastardly attack” on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii – as president Franklin D. Roosevelt described it – was based on what were in fact well-grounded fears. For five months preceding Japan’s raid on 7 December 1941, Washington had been moving her B-17 heavy bombers in growing numbers to US bases in the Pacific, such as at Pearl Harbor, and also to Clark Air Base and Del Monte Airfield in the Philippines. From mid-1941, half of America’s big bombers were shifted from the Atlantic domain towards eastern horizons, something that Japanese strategists were only too aware of. The reasoning behind this military build up had been outlined in late 1940, by America’s famed pre-war planner and Air Force General, Claire Chennault, who outlined how the B-17s would “burn out the industrial heart of the Empire with fire-bomb attacks on the teeming bamboo ant heaps of Honshu and Kyushu”. President Roosevelt was “simply delighted” when hearing of this plan. Notwithstanding Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, America would have shortly entered the war regardless – and in opposition to Tokyo – as both states by 1941 were already major rivals with incompatible ambitions in the great Asian and Pacific regions. On 15 November 1941, three weeks before Pearl Harbor, General Marshall told reporters in an “off-the-record briefing” that American aircraft would “set the paper cities of Japan on fire. There won’t be any hesitation about bombing civilians”. A year before, on 19 December 1940, Roosevelt approved $25 million in military aid to China, Japan’s traditional nemesis, including the gift of aircraft. Twenty-five million dollars in 1940 equates to nearly half a billion dollars today. On 11 March 1941, America’s president signed into law the Lend-Lease Act, a program providing further materiel to the Chinese – and also to other nations like Britain, the Soviet Union and France, all of which were far from benevolent towards Imperial Japan. For many months, Roosevelt had placed sanctions and an embargo on Japan, such as in response to Tokyo’s September 1940 occupation of Northern French Indochina, which harmed US interests in the vicinity. On 26 July 1941 Roosevelt froze the entirety of Japanese assets in America, a drastic policy which amounted to a declaration of economic war on Japan, over four months before Pearl Harbor. Roosevelt’s action stripped Japan of a staggering 90% of its oil imports, along with eradicating 75% of her foreign trade. Within days, the Japanese were forced to dip into their scant oil reserves, which on their current course would be used up by January 1943, unless her armies embarked upon further invasions. In equal enemy numbers, there were few who could live with the ferocity of the Japanese soldier, who gained notoriety for his cruelty. Tokyo’s war planners turned their hungry gaze to yet more tantalizing conquests, lining up the resource-rich states of Burma, the Philippines, Malaya, Singapore and the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), each of which would be conquered during the first half of 1942. As the war advanced and tables slowly turned, the Western allies’ terror bombing of civilian areas – not only ranking as war crimes – also stood as a dismal failure in its bid to bring the conflict to swift conclusion. These morally bereft strategies, of which nobody was made accountable, actually prolonged World War II. The long-held idea that blood-drenched air raids would smash the people’s morale, forcing them to revolt against their leaders, was pure fantasy. In the summer of 1945, Japanese civilians were more interested in laying their hands upon foodstuffs, with the nation gradually starving due to America’s naval blockade. What’s more, any attempt at rebellion would promptly be eliminated by Japan’s military police, the dreaded Kenpeitai. Western leaders failed to discern the lessons of Germany’s early 1940s Blitz of Britain, which served to strengthen the British public’s morale, not weaken it. This reality soon became clear to Wehrmacht hierarchy; but not so it seems to leaders like Winston Churchill, who was advocating the senseless obliteration of medieval cities like Dresden as late as February 1945. Targeting women and children with bombs left the German and Japanese war machines largely unmolested. The Nazis’ armaments minister, Albert Speer, was at times left dumbfounded by Allied air tactics over Germany, which often avoided the Reich’s industrial areas. Across 1944 Speer, much to Hitler’s delight and amazement, actually oversaw an increase in both German aircraft and panzer production, which made possible such attacks as the Ardennes Offensive of December 1944. The realities behind air bombing escaped the attention of others like LeMay, and his English counterpart Arthur “Bomber” Harris. After it was all over, Harris admitted in his memoirs that the stratagem underlying assaults over urban locations “proved to be wholly unsound”; and that the Allied leaders should have earlier directed their pilots more frequently towards bombardment of factories, communication signals and transportation lines, which would have finished off Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan before 1945. While LeMay was speaking about the mass deaths of Japanese, which also destroyed more than 3.5 million homes, he did not mention that in mid-1945 much of Japan’s infrastructure still lay untouched; such as the country’s crucially important coal ferry between Hokkaido and Honshu while, incredibly, the rail network remained intact through to August 1945; as too did several industrial zones which LeMay’s B-29s roamed obliviously past. * Click the share button below to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles. One Month Before Global Research’s Anniversary Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Featured image: Charred remains of Japanese civilians after the firebombing of Tokyo on the night of 9–10 March 1945. https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-military-destroyed-66-japanese-cities-before-planning-wipe-out-same-number-soviet-cities/5680934
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    World War II: US Military Destroyed 66 Japanese Cities Before Planning to Wipe Out the Same Number of Soviet Cities
    The extent of devastation inflicted upon Japan by the American military during World War II is not broadly known, even today.
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  • Israel is in a death spiral. Who will it take down with it?
    Israel's zealots are ignoring the pleas of the top brass. They want to widen the circle of war, whatever the consequences

    Jonathan Cook

    NOTE TO THOSE READING VIA EMAIL: This article may exceed the length that can be sent by Substack. In which case, please click on the headline and it will take you directly to the Substack article.

    [First published by Middle East Eye]

    There should be nothing surprising about the revelation that troops at Sde Teiman, a detention camp set up by Israel in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, are routinely using rape as a weapon of torture against Palestinian inmates.

    Last week, nine soldiers from a prison unit, Force 100, were arrested for gang-raping a Palestinian inmate with a sharp object. He had to be hospitalised with his injuries.

    At least 53 prisoners are known to have died in Israeli detention, presumed in most cases to be either through torture or following the denial of access to medical care. No investigations have been carried out by Israel and no arrests have been made.

    Why should it be of any surprise that Israel’s self-proclaimed “most moral army in the world” uses torture and rape against Palestinians? It would be truly surprising if this was not happening.

    After all, this is the same military that for 10 months has used starvation as a weapon of war against the 2.3 million people of Gaza, half of them children.

    It is the same military that since October has laid waste to all of Gaza’s hospitals, as well as destroying almost all of its schools and 70 percent of its homes. It is the same military that is known to have killed over that period at least 40,000 Palestinians, with a further 21,000 children missing.

    It is the same military currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court in the world.

    If there are no red lines for Israel when it comes to brutalising Palestinian civilians trapped inside Gaza, why would there be any red lines for those kidnapped off its streets and dragged into its dungeons?

    Sexual violence

    I documented some of the horrors unfolding in Sde Teiman in these pages back in May.

    Jonathan Cook24 May

    The message of Israel’s torture chambers is directed at us all, not just Palestinians.

    My latest:


    The message of Israel’s torture chambers is directed at us all, not just Palestinians

    ‘Black sites’ are about reminding those who have been colonised and enslaved of a simple lesson: resistance is futile

    Months ago, the Israeli media began publishing testimonies from whistleblowing guards and doctors detailing the depraved conditions there.

    The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to the detention camp, leaving it entirely unmonitored.

    The United Nations published a report on 31 July into the conditions in which some 9,400 captive Palestinians have been held since last October. Most have been cut off from the outside world, and the reason for their seizure and imprisonment was never provided.

    The report concludes that “appalling acts” of torture and abuse are taking place at all of Israel’s detention centres, including sexual violence, waterboarding and attacks with dogs.

    The authors note “forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers”.

    There are, according to the investigation, “consistent reports” of Israeli security forces “inserting objects into detainees’ anuses”.

    Last month, Save the Children found that many hundreds of Palestinian children had been imprisoned in Israel, where they faced starvation and sexual abuse.

    And this week B’Tselem, Israel’s main human rights group monitoring the occupation, produced a report – titled “Welcome to Hell” – which included the testimonies of dozens of Palestinians who had emerged from what it called “inhuman conditions”. Most had never been charged with an offence.

    It concluded that the abuses at Sde Teiman were “just the tip of the iceberg”. All of Israel’s detention centres formed “a network of torture camps for Palestinians” in which “every inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering”. It added that this was “an organized, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities”.

    Tal Steiner, head of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, which has long campaigned against the systematic torture of Palestinian detainees, wrote last week that Sde Teiman “was a place where the most horrible torture we had ever seen was occurring”.

    Can of worms

    In short, it has been an open secret in Israel that torture and sexual assault are routine at Sde Teiman.

    The abuse is so horrifying that last month Israel’s high court ordered officials to explain why they were operating outside Israel’s own laws governing the internment of “unlawful combatants”.

    The surprise is not that sexual violence is being inflicted on Palestinian captives. It is that Israel’s top brass never imagined the arrest of Israeli soldiers for raping a Palestinian would pass muster with the public.

    Instead, by making the arrests, the army opened a toxic can of worms.

    The arrests provoked a massive backlash from soldiers, politicians, Israeli media, and large sections of the Israeli public.

    Rioters, led by members of the Israeli parliament, broke into Sde Teiman. An even larger group, including members of Force 100, tried to invade a military base, Beit Lid, where the soldiers were being held in an attempt to free them.

    The police, under the control of Itamar Ben Gvir, a settler leader with openly fascist leanings, delayed arriving to break up the protests. Ben Gvir has called for Palestinian prisoners to be summarily executed – or killed with “a shot to the head” – to save on the costs of holding them.

    No one was arrested over what amounted to a mutiny as well as a major breach of security.

    Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, helped whip up popular indignation, denouncing the arrests and describing the Force 100 soldiers as “heroic warriors”.

    Other prominent cabinet ministers echoed him.

    Already, three of the soldiers have been freed, and more will likely follow.

    The consensus in Israel is that any abuse, including rape, is permitted against the thousands of Palestinians who have been seized by Israel in recent months – including women, children and many hundreds of medical personnel.

    That consensus is the same one that thinks it fine to bomb Palestinian women and children in Gaza, destroy their homes and starve them.

    Rape permitted

    Such depraved attitudes are not new. They draw on ideological convictions and legal precedents that developed through decades of Israel’s illegal occupation. Israeli society has completely normalised the idea that Palestinians are less than human and that any and every abuse of them is allowed.

    Hamas’s attack on 7 October simply brought the long-standing moral corruption at the core of Israeli society more obviously out into the open.

    Jonathan Cook15 Mar

    Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel’s current, horrifying atrocities?

    My latest:


    Torture, executions, babies left to die, sexual abuse… These are Israel’s crimes

    Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel’s current, horrifying atrocities?

    In 2016, for example, the Israeli military appointed Colonel Eyal Karim as its chief rabbi, even after he had declared Palestinians to be “animals” and had approved the rape of Palestinian women in the interest of boosting soldiers’ morale.

    Religious extremists, let us note, increasingly predominate among combat troops.

    In 2015, Israel’s supreme court dismissed a compensation suit from a Lebanese prisoner that his lawyers submitted after he was released in a prisoner swap. Mustafa Dirani had been raped with a baton 15 years earlier in a secret jail known as Facility 1391.

    Despite Dirani’s claim being supported by a medical assessment from the time made by an Israeli military doctor, the court ruled that anyone engaged in an armed conflict with Israel could not make a claim against the Israeli state.

    Meanwhile, human and legal rights groups have regularly reported cases of Israeli soldiers and police raping and sexually assaulting Palestinians, including children.

    A clear message was sent to Israeli soldiers over many decades that, just as the genocidal murder of Palestinians is considered warranted and “lawful”, the torture and rape of Palestinians held in captivity is considered warranted and “lawful” too.

    Understandably, there was indignation that the long-established “rules” – that any and every atrocity is permitted – appeared suddenly and arbitrarily to have been changed.

    On a precipice

    The biggest question is this: why did the Israeli military’s top legal adviser approve opening an investigation into the Force 100 soldiers – and why now?

    The answer is obvious. Israel’s commanders are in panic after a spate of setbacks in the international legal arena.

    The ICJ, sometimes referred to as the World Court, has put Israel on trial for committing what it considers a “plausible” genocide in Gaza.

    Separately, it concluded last month that Israel’s 57-year occupation is illegal and a form of aggression against the Palestinian people. Gaza never stopped being under occupation, the judges ruled, despite claims from its apologists, including western governments, to the contrary.

    Significantly, that means Palestinians have a legal right to resist their occupation. Or, to put it another way, they have an immutable right to self-defence against their Israeli occupiers, while Israel has no such right against the Palestinians it illegally occupies.

    Israel is not in “armed conflict” with the Palestinian people. It is brutally occupying and oppressing them.

    Israel must immediately end the occupation to regain such a right of self-defence - something it demonstrably has no intention to do.

    Jonathan Cook23 Jul

    Don't be fooled. The damning legal ruling by the world's highest court on the Israeli occupation obliges western states not just to end their persecution of the boycott movement but to take up that cause as their own.

    Read my latest article here:


    The World Court has cleared the fog hiding western support for Israel’s crimes

    The legal ruling by the world's highest court obliges western states not just to end their persecution of the boycott movement but to take up that cause as their own

    Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ICJ’s sister court, is actively seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes.

    The various cases reinforce each other. The World Court’s decisions are making it ever harder for the ICC to drag its feet in issuing and expanding the circle of arrest warrants.

    Both courts are now under enormous, countervailing pressures.

    On the one side, massive external pressure is being exerted on the ICJ and ICC from states such as the US, Britain and Germany that are prepared to see the genocide in Gaza continue.

    And on the other, the judges themselves are fully aware of what is at stake if they fail to act.

    The longer they delay, the more they discredit international law and their own role as arbiters of that law. That will give even more leeway for other states to claim that inaction by the courts has set a precedent for their own right to commit war crimes.

    International law, the entire rationale for the ICJ and ICC’s existence, stands on a precipice. Israel’s genocide threatens to bring it all crashing down.

    Stalling the ICC

    Israel’s top brass stand in the middle of that fight.

    They are confident that Washington will block at the UN Security Council any effort to enforce the ICJ rulings against them – either a future one on genocide in Gaza or the existing one on their illegal occupation.

    But arrest warrants from the ICC are a different matter. Washington has no such veto. All states signed up to the ICC’s Rome Statute – that is, most of the West, minus the US – will be obligated to arrest Israeli officials who step on their soil and to hand them over to The Hague.

    Israel and the US had been hoping to use technicalities to delay the issuing of the arrest warrants for as long as possible. Most significantly, they recruited the UK, which has signed the Rome Statute, to do their dirty work.

    It looked like the new UK government under Keir Starmer would continue where its predecessor left off by tying up the court in lengthy and obscure legal debates about the continuing applicability of the long-dead, 30-year-old Oslo Accords.

    A former human rights lawyer, Starmer has repeatedly backed Israel’s “plausible” genocide, even arguing that the starvation of Gaza’s population, including its children, could be justified as “self-defence” – an idea entirely alien to international law, which treats it as collective punishment and a war crime.

    But now with a secure parliamentary majority, even Starmer appears to be baulking at being seen as helping Netanyahu personally avoid arrest for war crimes.

    The UK government announced late last month that it would drop Britain’s legal objections at the ICC.

    That has suddenly left both Netanyahu and the Israeli military command starkly exposed – which is the reason they felt compelled to approve the arrest of the Force 100 soldiers.

    Under a rule known as “complementarity”, Israeli officials might be able to avoid war crimes trials at The Hague if they can demonstrate that Israel is able and willing to prosecute war crimes itself. That would avert the need for the ICC to step in and fulfil its mandate.

    The Israeli top brass hoped they could feed a few lowly soldiers to the Israeli courts and drag out the trials for years. In the meantime, Washington would have the pretext it needed to bully the ICC into dropping the case for arrests on the grounds that Israel was already doing the job of prosecuting war crimes.

    International isolation

    The patent problem with this strategy is that the ICC isn’t primarily interested in a few grunts being prosecuted in Israel as war criminals, even assuming the trials ever take place.

    At issue is the military strategy that has allowed Israel to bomb Gaza into the Stone Age. At issue is a political culture that has made starving 2.3 million people seem normal.

    At issue is a religious and nationalistic fervour long cultivated in the army that now encourages soldiers to execute Palestinian children by shooting them in the head and chest, as a US doctor who volunteered in Gaza has testified.

    At issue is a military hierarchy that turns a blind eye to soldiers raping and sexually abusing Palestinian captives, including children.

    The buck stops not with a handful of soldiers in Force 100. It stops with the Israeli government and military leaders. They are at the top of a command chain that has authorised war crimes in Gaza for the past 10 months – and before that, for decades across the occupied territories.

    This is why observers have totally underestimated what is at stake with the rulings of the ICC and ICJ.

    These judgments against Israel are forcing out into the light of day for proper scrutiny a state of affairs that has been quietly accepted by the West for decades. Should Israel have the right to operate as an apartheid regime that systematically engages in ethnic cleansing and the murder of Palestinians?

    A direct answer is needed from each western capital. There is nowhere left to hide. Western states are being presented with a stark choice: either openly back Israeli apartheid and genocide, or for the first time withdraw support.

    The Israeli far-right, which now dominates both politically and in the army’s combat ranks, cares about none of this. It is immune to pressure. It is willing to go it alone.

    As the Israeli media has been warning for some time, sections of the army are effectively now turning into militias that follow their own rules.

    Israel’s military commanders, on the other hand, are starting to understand the trap they have set for themselves. They have long cultivated fascistic zealotry among ground troops needed to dehumanise and better oppress Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. But the war crimes proudly being live-streamed by their units now leave them exposed to the legal consequences.

    Israel’s international isolation means a place one day for them in the dock at The Hague.

    War machine cornered

    The ICC and ICJ rulings are not just bringing Israeli society’s demons out into the open, or those of a complicit western political and media class.

    The international legal order is gradually cornering Israel’s war machine, forcing it to turn in on itself. The interests of the Israeli military command are now fundamentally opposed to those of the rank and file and the political leadership.

    The result, as military expert Yagil Levy has long warned, will be an increasing breakdown of discipline, as the attempts to arrest Force 100 soldiers demonstrated all too clearly.

    The Israeli military juggernaut cannot be easily or quickly turned around.

    The military command is reported to be furiously trying to push Netanyahu into agreeing on a hostage deal to bring about a ceasefire – not because it cares about the welfare of Palestinian civilians, or the hostages, but because the longer this “plausible” genocide continues, the bigger chance the generals will end up at The Hague.

    Israel’s zealots are ignoring the pleas of the top brass. They want not only to continue the drive to eliminate the Palestinian people but to widen the circle of war, whatever the consequences.

    That included the reckless, incendiary move last week to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran – a provocation with one aim only: to undermine the moderates in Hamas and Tehran.

    If, as seems certain, Israel’s commanders are unwilling or incapable of reining in these excesses, then the World Court will find it impossible to ignore the charge of genocide against Israel and the ICC will be compelled to issue arrest warrants against more of the military leadership.

    A logic has been created in which evil feeds on evil in a death spiral. The question is how much more carnage and misery can Israel spread on the way down.

    Share

    Leave a comment


    All my posts are freely accessible, but my journalism is possible only because of the support of readers. If you liked this article or any of the others, please consider sharing it with friends and making a donation to support my work. You can do so by becoming a paid Substack subscriber, or donate via Paypal or my bank account, or alternatively set up a monthly direct debit mandate with GoCardless. A complete archive of my writings is available on my website. I’m on Twitter and Facebook.

    https://substack.com/home/post/p-147441556


    https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/08/israel-is-in-death-spiral.html
    Israel is in a death spiral. Who will it take down with it? Israel's zealots are ignoring the pleas of the top brass. They want to widen the circle of war, whatever the consequences Jonathan Cook NOTE TO THOSE READING VIA EMAIL: This article may exceed the length that can be sent by Substack. In which case, please click on the headline and it will take you directly to the Substack article. [First published by Middle East Eye] There should be nothing surprising about the revelation that troops at Sde Teiman, a detention camp set up by Israel in the wake of Hamas’s 7 October attack on southern Israel, are routinely using rape as a weapon of torture against Palestinian inmates. Last week, nine soldiers from a prison unit, Force 100, were arrested for gang-raping a Palestinian inmate with a sharp object. He had to be hospitalised with his injuries. At least 53 prisoners are known to have died in Israeli detention, presumed in most cases to be either through torture or following the denial of access to medical care. No investigations have been carried out by Israel and no arrests have been made. Why should it be of any surprise that Israel’s self-proclaimed “most moral army in the world” uses torture and rape against Palestinians? It would be truly surprising if this was not happening. After all, this is the same military that for 10 months has used starvation as a weapon of war against the 2.3 million people of Gaza, half of them children. It is the same military that since October has laid waste to all of Gaza’s hospitals, as well as destroying almost all of its schools and 70 percent of its homes. It is the same military that is known to have killed over that period at least 40,000 Palestinians, with a further 21,000 children missing. It is the same military currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the highest court in the world. If there are no red lines for Israel when it comes to brutalising Palestinian civilians trapped inside Gaza, why would there be any red lines for those kidnapped off its streets and dragged into its dungeons? Sexual violence I documented some of the horrors unfolding in Sde Teiman in these pages back in May. Jonathan Cook24 May The message of Israel’s torture chambers is directed at us all, not just Palestinians. My latest: The message of Israel’s torture chambers is directed at us all, not just Palestinians ‘Black sites’ are about reminding those who have been colonised and enslaved of a simple lesson: resistance is futile Months ago, the Israeli media began publishing testimonies from whistleblowing guards and doctors detailing the depraved conditions there. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied access to the detention camp, leaving it entirely unmonitored. The United Nations published a report on 31 July into the conditions in which some 9,400 captive Palestinians have been held since last October. Most have been cut off from the outside world, and the reason for their seizure and imprisonment was never provided. The report concludes that “appalling acts” of torture and abuse are taking place at all of Israel’s detention centres, including sexual violence, waterboarding and attacks with dogs. The authors note “forced nudity of both men and women; beatings while naked, including on the genitals; electrocution of the genitals and anus; being forced to undergo repeated humiliating strip searches; widespread sexual slurs and threats of rape; and the inappropriate touching of women by both male and female soldiers”. There are, according to the investigation, “consistent reports” of Israeli security forces “inserting objects into detainees’ anuses”. Last month, Save the Children found that many hundreds of Palestinian children had been imprisoned in Israel, where they faced starvation and sexual abuse. And this week B’Tselem, Israel’s main human rights group monitoring the occupation, produced a report – titled “Welcome to Hell” – which included the testimonies of dozens of Palestinians who had emerged from what it called “inhuman conditions”. Most had never been charged with an offence. It concluded that the abuses at Sde Teiman were “just the tip of the iceberg”. All of Israel’s detention centres formed “a network of torture camps for Palestinians” in which “every inmate is intentionally condemned to severe, relentless pain and suffering”. It added that this was “an organized, declared policy of the Israeli prison authorities”. Tal Steiner, head of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, which has long campaigned against the systematic torture of Palestinian detainees, wrote last week that Sde Teiman “was a place where the most horrible torture we had ever seen was occurring”. Can of worms In short, it has been an open secret in Israel that torture and sexual assault are routine at Sde Teiman. The abuse is so horrifying that last month Israel’s high court ordered officials to explain why they were operating outside Israel’s own laws governing the internment of “unlawful combatants”. The surprise is not that sexual violence is being inflicted on Palestinian captives. It is that Israel’s top brass never imagined the arrest of Israeli soldiers for raping a Palestinian would pass muster with the public. Instead, by making the arrests, the army opened a toxic can of worms. The arrests provoked a massive backlash from soldiers, politicians, Israeli media, and large sections of the Israeli public. Rioters, led by members of the Israeli parliament, broke into Sde Teiman. An even larger group, including members of Force 100, tried to invade a military base, Beit Lid, where the soldiers were being held in an attempt to free them. The police, under the control of Itamar Ben Gvir, a settler leader with openly fascist leanings, delayed arriving to break up the protests. Ben Gvir has called for Palestinian prisoners to be summarily executed – or killed with “a shot to the head” – to save on the costs of holding them. No one was arrested over what amounted to a mutiny as well as a major breach of security. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s finance minister, helped whip up popular indignation, denouncing the arrests and describing the Force 100 soldiers as “heroic warriors”. Other prominent cabinet ministers echoed him. Already, three of the soldiers have been freed, and more will likely follow. The consensus in Israel is that any abuse, including rape, is permitted against the thousands of Palestinians who have been seized by Israel in recent months – including women, children and many hundreds of medical personnel. That consensus is the same one that thinks it fine to bomb Palestinian women and children in Gaza, destroy their homes and starve them. Rape permitted Such depraved attitudes are not new. They draw on ideological convictions and legal precedents that developed through decades of Israel’s illegal occupation. Israeli society has completely normalised the idea that Palestinians are less than human and that any and every abuse of them is allowed. Hamas’s attack on 7 October simply brought the long-standing moral corruption at the core of Israeli society more obviously out into the open. Jonathan Cook15 Mar Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel’s current, horrifying atrocities? My latest: Torture, executions, babies left to die, sexual abuse… These are Israel’s crimes Why is the same western media obsessively reheating five-month-old allegations against Hamas so reluctant to focus on Israel’s current, horrifying atrocities? In 2016, for example, the Israeli military appointed Colonel Eyal Karim as its chief rabbi, even after he had declared Palestinians to be “animals” and had approved the rape of Palestinian women in the interest of boosting soldiers’ morale. Religious extremists, let us note, increasingly predominate among combat troops. In 2015, Israel’s supreme court dismissed a compensation suit from a Lebanese prisoner that his lawyers submitted after he was released in a prisoner swap. Mustafa Dirani had been raped with a baton 15 years earlier in a secret jail known as Facility 1391. Despite Dirani’s claim being supported by a medical assessment from the time made by an Israeli military doctor, the court ruled that anyone engaged in an armed conflict with Israel could not make a claim against the Israeli state. Meanwhile, human and legal rights groups have regularly reported cases of Israeli soldiers and police raping and sexually assaulting Palestinians, including children. A clear message was sent to Israeli soldiers over many decades that, just as the genocidal murder of Palestinians is considered warranted and “lawful”, the torture and rape of Palestinians held in captivity is considered warranted and “lawful” too. Understandably, there was indignation that the long-established “rules” – that any and every atrocity is permitted – appeared suddenly and arbitrarily to have been changed. On a precipice The biggest question is this: why did the Israeli military’s top legal adviser approve opening an investigation into the Force 100 soldiers – and why now? The answer is obvious. Israel’s commanders are in panic after a spate of setbacks in the international legal arena. The ICJ, sometimes referred to as the World Court, has put Israel on trial for committing what it considers a “plausible” genocide in Gaza. Separately, it concluded last month that Israel’s 57-year occupation is illegal and a form of aggression against the Palestinian people. Gaza never stopped being under occupation, the judges ruled, despite claims from its apologists, including western governments, to the contrary. Significantly, that means Palestinians have a legal right to resist their occupation. Or, to put it another way, they have an immutable right to self-defence against their Israeli occupiers, while Israel has no such right against the Palestinians it illegally occupies. Israel is not in “armed conflict” with the Palestinian people. It is brutally occupying and oppressing them. Israel must immediately end the occupation to regain such a right of self-defence - something it demonstrably has no intention to do. Jonathan Cook23 Jul Don't be fooled. The damning legal ruling by the world's highest court on the Israeli occupation obliges western states not just to end their persecution of the boycott movement but to take up that cause as their own. Read my latest article here: The World Court has cleared the fog hiding western support for Israel’s crimes The legal ruling by the world's highest court obliges western states not just to end their persecution of the boycott movement but to take up that cause as their own Meanwhile, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the ICJ’s sister court, is actively seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, for war crimes. The various cases reinforce each other. The World Court’s decisions are making it ever harder for the ICC to drag its feet in issuing and expanding the circle of arrest warrants. Both courts are now under enormous, countervailing pressures. On the one side, massive external pressure is being exerted on the ICJ and ICC from states such as the US, Britain and Germany that are prepared to see the genocide in Gaza continue. And on the other, the judges themselves are fully aware of what is at stake if they fail to act. The longer they delay, the more they discredit international law and their own role as arbiters of that law. That will give even more leeway for other states to claim that inaction by the courts has set a precedent for their own right to commit war crimes. International law, the entire rationale for the ICJ and ICC’s existence, stands on a precipice. Israel’s genocide threatens to bring it all crashing down. Stalling the ICC Israel’s top brass stand in the middle of that fight. They are confident that Washington will block at the UN Security Council any effort to enforce the ICJ rulings against them – either a future one on genocide in Gaza or the existing one on their illegal occupation. But arrest warrants from the ICC are a different matter. Washington has no such veto. All states signed up to the ICC’s Rome Statute – that is, most of the West, minus the US – will be obligated to arrest Israeli officials who step on their soil and to hand them over to The Hague. Israel and the US had been hoping to use technicalities to delay the issuing of the arrest warrants for as long as possible. Most significantly, they recruited the UK, which has signed the Rome Statute, to do their dirty work. It looked like the new UK government under Keir Starmer would continue where its predecessor left off by tying up the court in lengthy and obscure legal debates about the continuing applicability of the long-dead, 30-year-old Oslo Accords. A former human rights lawyer, Starmer has repeatedly backed Israel’s “plausible” genocide, even arguing that the starvation of Gaza’s population, including its children, could be justified as “self-defence” – an idea entirely alien to international law, which treats it as collective punishment and a war crime. But now with a secure parliamentary majority, even Starmer appears to be baulking at being seen as helping Netanyahu personally avoid arrest for war crimes. The UK government announced late last month that it would drop Britain’s legal objections at the ICC. That has suddenly left both Netanyahu and the Israeli military command starkly exposed – which is the reason they felt compelled to approve the arrest of the Force 100 soldiers. Under a rule known as “complementarity”, Israeli officials might be able to avoid war crimes trials at The Hague if they can demonstrate that Israel is able and willing to prosecute war crimes itself. That would avert the need for the ICC to step in and fulfil its mandate. The Israeli top brass hoped they could feed a few lowly soldiers to the Israeli courts and drag out the trials for years. In the meantime, Washington would have the pretext it needed to bully the ICC into dropping the case for arrests on the grounds that Israel was already doing the job of prosecuting war crimes. International isolation The patent problem with this strategy is that the ICC isn’t primarily interested in a few grunts being prosecuted in Israel as war criminals, even assuming the trials ever take place. At issue is the military strategy that has allowed Israel to bomb Gaza into the Stone Age. At issue is a political culture that has made starving 2.3 million people seem normal. At issue is a religious and nationalistic fervour long cultivated in the army that now encourages soldiers to execute Palestinian children by shooting them in the head and chest, as a US doctor who volunteered in Gaza has testified. At issue is a military hierarchy that turns a blind eye to soldiers raping and sexually abusing Palestinian captives, including children. The buck stops not with a handful of soldiers in Force 100. It stops with the Israeli government and military leaders. They are at the top of a command chain that has authorised war crimes in Gaza for the past 10 months – and before that, for decades across the occupied territories. This is why observers have totally underestimated what is at stake with the rulings of the ICC and ICJ. These judgments against Israel are forcing out into the light of day for proper scrutiny a state of affairs that has been quietly accepted by the West for decades. Should Israel have the right to operate as an apartheid regime that systematically engages in ethnic cleansing and the murder of Palestinians? A direct answer is needed from each western capital. There is nowhere left to hide. Western states are being presented with a stark choice: either openly back Israeli apartheid and genocide, or for the first time withdraw support. The Israeli far-right, which now dominates both politically and in the army’s combat ranks, cares about none of this. It is immune to pressure. It is willing to go it alone. As the Israeli media has been warning for some time, sections of the army are effectively now turning into militias that follow their own rules. Israel’s military commanders, on the other hand, are starting to understand the trap they have set for themselves. They have long cultivated fascistic zealotry among ground troops needed to dehumanise and better oppress Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. But the war crimes proudly being live-streamed by their units now leave them exposed to the legal consequences. Israel’s international isolation means a place one day for them in the dock at The Hague. War machine cornered The ICC and ICJ rulings are not just bringing Israeli society’s demons out into the open, or those of a complicit western political and media class. The international legal order is gradually cornering Israel’s war machine, forcing it to turn in on itself. The interests of the Israeli military command are now fundamentally opposed to those of the rank and file and the political leadership. The result, as military expert Yagil Levy has long warned, will be an increasing breakdown of discipline, as the attempts to arrest Force 100 soldiers demonstrated all too clearly. The Israeli military juggernaut cannot be easily or quickly turned around. The military command is reported to be furiously trying to push Netanyahu into agreeing on a hostage deal to bring about a ceasefire – not because it cares about the welfare of Palestinian civilians, or the hostages, but because the longer this “plausible” genocide continues, the bigger chance the generals will end up at The Hague. Israel’s zealots are ignoring the pleas of the top brass. They want not only to continue the drive to eliminate the Palestinian people but to widen the circle of war, whatever the consequences. That included the reckless, incendiary move last week to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran – a provocation with one aim only: to undermine the moderates in Hamas and Tehran. If, as seems certain, Israel’s commanders are unwilling or incapable of reining in these excesses, then the World Court will find it impossible to ignore the charge of genocide against Israel and the ICC will be compelled to issue arrest warrants against more of the military leadership. A logic has been created in which evil feeds on evil in a death spiral. The question is how much more carnage and misery can Israel spread on the way down. Share Leave a comment All my posts are freely accessible, but my journalism is possible only because of the support of readers. If you liked this article or any of the others, please consider sharing it with friends and making a donation to support my work. You can do so by becoming a paid Substack subscriber, or donate via Paypal or my bank account, or alternatively set up a monthly direct debit mandate with GoCardless. A complete archive of my writings is available on my website. I’m on Twitter and Facebook. https://substack.com/home/post/p-147441556 https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/08/israel-is-in-death-spiral.html
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  • Biden and US are at Bibi’s beck and call – Day 300
    [email protected] August 3, 2024 AIPAC, archbishop of canterbury, humanitarian aid, Rashida Tlaib, sheikh ekrima sabri, US military in the Middle East
    Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Israel continues to confound aid delivery; unbelievable amount of debris covers Gaza; 85-year-old Al Aqsa mosque preacher detained for mourning Ismail Haniyeh’s killing; several Hamas officials killed; Biden tells Bibi, “don’t count on Washington in an escalation– then sends a dozen warships to the Middle East; Archbishop of Canterbury calls for all to respect ICJ’s occupation ruling; Rashida Tlaib: hero; AIPAC calls on US to support rogue Israeli state; more.

    By IAK staff, from reports.

    Gaza aid is “significantly hindered” by Israeli restrictions, unsafe conditions: UN

    OCHA reports: The UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israeli restrictions, the closure of the Rafah border crossing, continued fighting, and damaged and risky roads are preventing life-saving aid from getting to Gaza.

    OCHA’s latest Gaza report says the Israeli military continues to impose restrictions on the entry of certain humanitarian supplies, including recreational and psychosocial support kits for children.

    “Between 1 and 29 July, an average of 77 truckloads of aid supplies entered Gaza daily, representing a decline of about 42 per cent compared with the daily average of 132 trucks between January and April 2024,” the OCHA says.

    NOTE: Before the war, about 500 truckloads of aid entered Gaza every day.

    “In July, out of 157 humanitarian assistance missions coordinated with the Israeli authorities to northern Gaza, 67 missions were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 42 were impeded, 30 were denied, and 18 were cancelled due to logistical, operational, or security reasons.”

    Out of 386 aid mission requests to reach areas south of Wadi Gaza that require coordination, 250 missions were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 46 were impeded, 53 were denied and 37 were cancelled, according to OCHA.

    UN says debris in Gaza amounts to 41.95 million metric tonnes

    UNITAR reports: The UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has said that the total debris in the Gaza Strip generated by the war amounts to approximately 41.95 million metric tonnes.

    The figure is up 83 percent from the nearly 23 million tonnes estimated on January 7.

    The Israeli war has resulted in 14 times more debris than the combined total from all previous conflicts in the Palestinian territory since 2008, UNOSAT said.

    The agency estimated that 114 kilogrammes (250 pounds) of debris were generated for each square metre in the Gaza Strip.

    A view of the destruction after buildings turn into piles of rubble due to intense Israeli attacks in Gaza City [File: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency]
    A view of the destruction after buildings turn into piles of rubble due to intense Israeli attacks in Gaza City [File: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency] (photo)
    Israeli police arrest Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher for mourning Haniyeh

    Middle East Monitor reports: Israeli police, on Friday, reportedly arrested Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, for mourning slain Hamas Political Bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh.

    Haniyeh was assassinated on Wednesday in Tehran, Iran’s capital. While Hamas and Iran blamed Israel for the killing, Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied its responsibility.

    One of Sabri’s relatives said that the Israeli police officers stormed into his home in the Occupied East Jerusalem and arrested him.

    Following the Friday prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sabri led a funeral prayer in absentia for Haniyeh.

    “The people of Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem from the pulpit of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque mourn the martyr Ismail Haniyeh,” he said during his sermon.

    Following the sermon, the Israeli police said they were probing whether the statement constituted “incitement” and that they would act accordingly.

    The 85-year-old preacher was detained multiple times by the Israeli forces in the past and was banned from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem for several months.

    Sabri is a staunch critic of the decades-long Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories. He had previously held the position of Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories from 1994 to 2006.

    Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had boasted earlier about Sabri’s detention.

    “My policy towards instigators is clear – zero tolerance,” Ben-Gvir said in a social media post.

    UPDATE: Lawyer Khalid Zabarqa was quoted as telling al-Jazeera that Israeli police had decided to release Al-Aqsa Mosque imam, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, after interrogation.

    Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories walks outside an Israeli police station after being summoned for interrogation, in Jerusalem on January 2, 2023. [Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images]
    Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories walks outside an Israeli police station after being summoned for interrogation, in Jerusalem on January 2, 2023. [Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images] (photo)
    Two senior Hamas officials, three from military wing killed in Israeli strikes last week: Report

    Middle East Eye reports: The Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat quoted two Hamas sources as saying that two senior officials of the group’s political bureau, along with another three military wing members, were killed in an Israeli air strike while in a tunnel in Gaza last week.

    The Saudi newspaper named the two senior officials as Rawhi Mushtaha and Samah al-Sarrag, and the other three military members as Abdel Hadi Seyam, Samy Awdah, and Mohamed Hadid.

    The report says Mushtaha is a close associate of the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar.

    According to the report, the strike hit southwest of Gaza City and targeted an area located above a tunnel where the five Hamas members were said to be residing.

    It said the tunnel had already been damaged at the start of the war on Gaza.

    The five Hamas members were buried on Thursday, according to Hamas sources cited in Asharq Al-Awsat.

    MEE has not been able to independently verify the report.

    West Bank: Paramedic succumbs to wounds from Israeli army gunfire in Balata camp

    WAFA reports: A Palestinian paramedic Friday evening succumbed to his wounds sustained from Israeli army gunfire in the Balata refugee camp, according to the Health Ministry.

    The Ministry announced that Jalal Mohammad Saqr died of the critical wounds he had sustained after being shot by Israeli occupation forces almost a week earlier in the refugee camp.

    Saqr, 21, a volunteer paramedic with PRCS, had sustained wounds while evacuating casualties in an Israeli drone airstrike on a house in the camp last Saturday, which resulted in killing two people and injuring over 20 others.

    Abbas faces backlash for skipping Haniyeh’s funeral after attending Peres’s


    Middle East Monitor reports: A number of activists expressed their objections in the media on Friday to the absence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from the funeral of the elected Palestinian Prime Minister and head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in the Qatari capital, Doha.

    The activists criticized Abbas’s absence from Haniyeh’s funeral after he attended the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres. However, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Abbas sent Deputy Chair of the Fatah Movement Mahmoud Al-Aloul and Secretary of the Central Committee of the movement Jibril Rajoub to Doha to participate in the funeral.

    U.S. forces move toward Israel as Iran threatens to attack

    Washington Post reports: The U.S. military is repositioning assets and moving additional forces into the Middle East and Europe to defend against a potential attack on Israel by Iran, U.S. officials said.

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of additional Navy destroyers and cruisers, both with offensive and defensive ballistic missile capabilities, as the Pentagon also takes steps to beef up land-based missile defense, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday evening.

    An additional squadron of fighter jets also will be deployed to the Middle East to reinforce defensive air support, she said.

    They will be added to the “broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region.”

    The moves come after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate after the killing this week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr.

    Israel has not claimed responsibility, but U.S. officials privately acknowledge it was behind the killing. Washington was not apprised of the operation beforehand and had no role in it, officials have said.

    Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut suburb.

    The events have brought the region closer to full-blown conflict than perhaps at any point since the Gaza war began 10 months ago.

    Biden tells Netanyahu “not to count on Washington” in case of regional escalation: Axios

    Middle East Eye reports: US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to rely on Washington’s support in case a regional escalation occurred, Axios has reported, citing unnamed US officials.

    In a “tough” phone call, the US president said his country would only help Israel against an expected Iranian attack, following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, but there should be no more escalation from Israel and progress towards a Gaza ceasefire.

    However, the White House has issued an official statement stating that Biden has “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis”.

    The Axios story also cited three anonymous Israeli officials as saying there was tension during Biden’s meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office last week, in which Biden “raised his voice and said he wants a deal reached within a week to two weeks”.

    Archbishop of Canterbury urges respect for ICJ ruling against Israeli occupation

    Reuters reports: The Church of England’s spiritual head has urged governments to respect the findings of the United Nations top court that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, saying the law should be upheld across the board, not in a “selective manner”.

    The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in an advisory opinion last month that the occupation should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

    Justin Welby – who also heads the worldwide Anglican Communion – said in a statement the ICJ opinion had made it clear the occupation is “unlawful” and must end.

    “At a time when the world is marked by increasing violations of international law … it is imperative governments around the world reaffirm their unwavering commitment to all decisions by the ICJ, irrespective of the situation,” Welby said.

    He added that it was clear to him from many visits in recent decades the “system of military rule” imposed by successive Israeli governments in occupied Palestinian territory was one of “systemic discrimination”.

    Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport’s website is down, Israeli media says

    Middle East Eye reports: Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that the website of Israeli Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is down because of immense pressure from travellers, amid the current tensions and cancellation of several countries’ airline flights to Israel.

    Several airlines have suspended their flights from and to Israel due to the ongoing tensions in the region

    Rashida Tlaib: A Profile in Courage

    Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union and “proud Jewish-American,” writes in Common Dreams: During the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously said, “The time is always right to do what is right.”

    While she may have been a lone protest voice during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress last week, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) did what is right.

    Most mainstream news reporting either ridiculed her or only briefly mentioned her silent protest displaying a sign with “War Criminal” printed on one side and “Guilty of Genocide” on the other. Missing was any analysis as to whether she was right.

    While Rashida Tlaib, the one Palestinian-American in Congress, courageously protested inside the Capitol, thousands of us, including this union leader and proud Jewish-American, were peaceably demonstrating outside demanding a cease-fire, condemning Netanyahu’s crimes against humanity, and the U.S. government for continuing to send armaments to Israel.

    I am proud that my union, which deplored the Hamas actions of October 7 and condemned Israel’s barbaric response, called for the release of all hostages and advocates for a permanent cease-fire and for massive humanitarian aid. Recently, our union took further action by a vote at our national convention to demand that our government halt military aid to Israel and joined six other unions, representing over 6 million U.S. unionized workers, calling on President Biden to implement an arms embargo. As the largest arms supplier to Israel, the Biden-led U.S government should use its leverage to stop the carnage.

    We are outraged that the taxes of workers are being used to kill, maim, and slaughter innocent people.

    AIPAC says US must ‘stand with Israel’ against Iran

    Al Jazeera reports: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has suggested that Washington and its allies should support Israel in retaliating against a possible Iranian response to the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran.

    “As Iran plans an attack that could cause mass destruction in Israel and spark a regional war, America and our allies must work together to deter Iran by demonstrating that we will stand with Israel as it responds to any strikes by the Iranian regime and its proxies,” the pro-Israel lobby group said in a message to supporters.

    AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent US elections to help defeat candidates critical of Israel.

    RECOMMENDED READING ABOUT AIPAC:



    The Guardian: AFP must investigate Israel’s killing of Zomi Frankcom after quest for truth and justice goes nowhere

    Al Jazeera: Thousands mourn Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at funeral prayer

    Al Jazeera: Gaza and the death of Western journalism



    STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 2:

    Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 2: at least 40,071* (39,550 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

    This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 591 in the West Bank (~140 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

    Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

    Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

    At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
    At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
    About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
    2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
    Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 2: at least 96,548 (including at least 91,280 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

    Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 2: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

    Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.

    NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

    *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**

    Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

    † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

    Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

    Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
    Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
    Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
    More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
    U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
    Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
    Searching for Gaza’s missing children
    What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
    Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
    When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
    Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
    Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
    US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
    Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
    Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
    Gaza genocide denial
    Why the news media’s job is to groom us
    ‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children
    Hundreds of social media influencers attend Israel strategy summit in NYC
    Supporting Israel Is Big Business in the U.S. for Israel partisans
    Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza
    Synopsis of ICJ’s decision on Israeli occupation, reactions, and take-aways
    Russia attacks hospitals in Ukraine; Israel does the same in Gaza. The US response couldn’t be more different.
    ‘I have the prison inside me’: The emaciated Palestinian bodybuilder broken by Israel
    Israel has manufactured an industrial-scale version of Jim Crow rape hoaxes
    If Americans Knew Mobile Billboard Truck at Republican Convention
    Col. Douglas MacGregor: US is under the control of Israel, likens Gaza to Warsaw Ghetto


    https://israelpalestinenews.org/biden-and-us-are-at-bibis-beck-and-call-day-300/


    https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/08/biden-and-us-are-at-bibis-beck-and-call.html
    Biden and US are at Bibi’s beck and call – Day 300 [email protected] August 3, 2024 AIPAC, archbishop of canterbury, humanitarian aid, Rashida Tlaib, sheikh ekrima sabri, US military in the Middle East Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo) Israel continues to confound aid delivery; unbelievable amount of debris covers Gaza; 85-year-old Al Aqsa mosque preacher detained for mourning Ismail Haniyeh’s killing; several Hamas officials killed; Biden tells Bibi, “don’t count on Washington in an escalation– then sends a dozen warships to the Middle East; Archbishop of Canterbury calls for all to respect ICJ’s occupation ruling; Rashida Tlaib: hero; AIPAC calls on US to support rogue Israeli state; more. By IAK staff, from reports. Gaza aid is “significantly hindered” by Israeli restrictions, unsafe conditions: UN OCHA reports: The UN’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says Israeli restrictions, the closure of the Rafah border crossing, continued fighting, and damaged and risky roads are preventing life-saving aid from getting to Gaza. OCHA’s latest Gaza report says the Israeli military continues to impose restrictions on the entry of certain humanitarian supplies, including recreational and psychosocial support kits for children. “Between 1 and 29 July, an average of 77 truckloads of aid supplies entered Gaza daily, representing a decline of about 42 per cent compared with the daily average of 132 trucks between January and April 2024,” the OCHA says. NOTE: Before the war, about 500 truckloads of aid entered Gaza every day. “In July, out of 157 humanitarian assistance missions coordinated with the Israeli authorities to northern Gaza, 67 missions were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 42 were impeded, 30 were denied, and 18 were cancelled due to logistical, operational, or security reasons.” Out of 386 aid mission requests to reach areas south of Wadi Gaza that require coordination, 250 missions were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 46 were impeded, 53 were denied and 37 were cancelled, according to OCHA. UN says debris in Gaza amounts to 41.95 million metric tonnes UNITAR reports: The UN Satellite Centre (UNOSAT) has said that the total debris in the Gaza Strip generated by the war amounts to approximately 41.95 million metric tonnes. The figure is up 83 percent from the nearly 23 million tonnes estimated on January 7. The Israeli war has resulted in 14 times more debris than the combined total from all previous conflicts in the Palestinian territory since 2008, UNOSAT said. The agency estimated that 114 kilogrammes (250 pounds) of debris were generated for each square metre in the Gaza Strip. A view of the destruction after buildings turn into piles of rubble due to intense Israeli attacks in Gaza City [File: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency] A view of the destruction after buildings turn into piles of rubble due to intense Israeli attacks in Gaza City [File: Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu Agency] (photo) Israeli police arrest Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher for mourning Haniyeh Middle East Monitor reports: Israeli police, on Friday, reportedly arrested Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, for mourning slain Hamas Political Bureau chief, Ismail Haniyeh. Haniyeh was assassinated on Wednesday in Tehran, Iran’s capital. While Hamas and Iran blamed Israel for the killing, Tel Aviv has not confirmed or denied its responsibility. One of Sabri’s relatives said that the Israeli police officers stormed into his home in the Occupied East Jerusalem and arrested him. Following the Friday prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque, Sabri led a funeral prayer in absentia for Haniyeh. “The people of Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem from the pulpit of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque mourn the martyr Ismail Haniyeh,” he said during his sermon. Following the sermon, the Israeli police said they were probing whether the statement constituted “incitement” and that they would act accordingly. The 85-year-old preacher was detained multiple times by the Israeli forces in the past and was banned from entering Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem for several months. Sabri is a staunch critic of the decades-long Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories. He had previously held the position of Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories from 1994 to 2006. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had boasted earlier about Sabri’s detention. “My policy towards instigators is clear – zero tolerance,” Ben-Gvir said in a social media post. UPDATE: Lawyer Khalid Zabarqa was quoted as telling al-Jazeera that Israeli police had decided to release Al-Aqsa Mosque imam, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, after interrogation. Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories walks outside an Israeli police station after being summoned for interrogation, in Jerusalem on January 2, 2023. [Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images] Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the former grand mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories walks outside an Israeli police station after being summoned for interrogation, in Jerusalem on January 2, 2023. [Saeed Qaq/NurPhoto via Getty Images] (photo) Two senior Hamas officials, three from military wing killed in Israeli strikes last week: Report Middle East Eye reports: The Saudi newspaper Asharq al-Awsat quoted two Hamas sources as saying that two senior officials of the group’s political bureau, along with another three military wing members, were killed in an Israeli air strike while in a tunnel in Gaza last week. The Saudi newspaper named the two senior officials as Rawhi Mushtaha and Samah al-Sarrag, and the other three military members as Abdel Hadi Seyam, Samy Awdah, and Mohamed Hadid. The report says Mushtaha is a close associate of the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. According to the report, the strike hit southwest of Gaza City and targeted an area located above a tunnel where the five Hamas members were said to be residing. It said the tunnel had already been damaged at the start of the war on Gaza. The five Hamas members were buried on Thursday, according to Hamas sources cited in Asharq Al-Awsat. MEE has not been able to independently verify the report. West Bank: Paramedic succumbs to wounds from Israeli army gunfire in Balata camp WAFA reports: A Palestinian paramedic Friday evening succumbed to his wounds sustained from Israeli army gunfire in the Balata refugee camp, according to the Health Ministry. The Ministry announced that Jalal Mohammad Saqr died of the critical wounds he had sustained after being shot by Israeli occupation forces almost a week earlier in the refugee camp. Saqr, 21, a volunteer paramedic with PRCS, had sustained wounds while evacuating casualties in an Israeli drone airstrike on a house in the camp last Saturday, which resulted in killing two people and injuring over 20 others. Abbas faces backlash for skipping Haniyeh’s funeral after attending Peres’s Middle East Monitor reports: A number of activists expressed their objections in the media on Friday to the absence of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas from the funeral of the elected Palestinian Prime Minister and head of the Hamas Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in the Qatari capital, Doha. The activists criticized Abbas’s absence from Haniyeh’s funeral after he attended the funeral of former Israeli President Shimon Peres. However, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Abbas sent Deputy Chair of the Fatah Movement Mahmoud Al-Aloul and Secretary of the Central Committee of the movement Jibril Rajoub to Doha to participate in the funeral. U.S. forces move toward Israel as Iran threatens to attack Washington Post reports: The U.S. military is repositioning assets and moving additional forces into the Middle East and Europe to defend against a potential attack on Israel by Iran, U.S. officials said. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of additional Navy destroyers and cruisers, both with offensive and defensive ballistic missile capabilities, as the Pentagon also takes steps to beef up land-based missile defense, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday evening. An additional squadron of fighter jets also will be deployed to the Middle East to reinforce defensive air support, she said. They will be added to the “broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region.” The moves come after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate after the killing this week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr. Israel has not claimed responsibility, but U.S. officials privately acknowledge it was behind the killing. Washington was not apprised of the operation beforehand and had no role in it, officials have said. Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut suburb. The events have brought the region closer to full-blown conflict than perhaps at any point since the Gaza war began 10 months ago. Biden tells Netanyahu “not to count on Washington” in case of regional escalation: Axios Middle East Eye reports: US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to rely on Washington’s support in case a regional escalation occurred, Axios has reported, citing unnamed US officials. In a “tough” phone call, the US president said his country would only help Israel against an expected Iranian attack, following the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, but there should be no more escalation from Israel and progress towards a Gaza ceasefire. However, the White House has issued an official statement stating that Biden has “reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis”. The Axios story also cited three anonymous Israeli officials as saying there was tension during Biden’s meeting with Netanyahu in the Oval Office last week, in which Biden “raised his voice and said he wants a deal reached within a week to two weeks”. Archbishop of Canterbury urges respect for ICJ ruling against Israeli occupation Reuters reports: The Church of England’s spiritual head has urged governments to respect the findings of the United Nations top court that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal, saying the law should be upheld across the board, not in a “selective manner”. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in an advisory opinion last month that the occupation should be withdrawn as soon as possible. Justin Welby – who also heads the worldwide Anglican Communion – said in a statement the ICJ opinion had made it clear the occupation is “unlawful” and must end. “At a time when the world is marked by increasing violations of international law … it is imperative governments around the world reaffirm their unwavering commitment to all decisions by the ICJ, irrespective of the situation,” Welby said. He added that it was clear to him from many visits in recent decades the “system of military rule” imposed by successive Israeli governments in occupied Palestinian territory was one of “systemic discrimination”. Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport’s website is down, Israeli media says Middle East Eye reports: Israel’s Channel 12 has reported that the website of Israeli Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv is down because of immense pressure from travellers, amid the current tensions and cancellation of several countries’ airline flights to Israel. Several airlines have suspended their flights from and to Israel due to the ongoing tensions in the region Rashida Tlaib: A Profile in Courage Mark Dimondstein, president of the American Postal Workers Union and “proud Jewish-American,” writes in Common Dreams: During the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., famously said, “The time is always right to do what is right.” While she may have been a lone protest voice during Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of Congress last week, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) did what is right. Most mainstream news reporting either ridiculed her or only briefly mentioned her silent protest displaying a sign with “War Criminal” printed on one side and “Guilty of Genocide” on the other. Missing was any analysis as to whether she was right. While Rashida Tlaib, the one Palestinian-American in Congress, courageously protested inside the Capitol, thousands of us, including this union leader and proud Jewish-American, were peaceably demonstrating outside demanding a cease-fire, condemning Netanyahu’s crimes against humanity, and the U.S. government for continuing to send armaments to Israel. I am proud that my union, which deplored the Hamas actions of October 7 and condemned Israel’s barbaric response, called for the release of all hostages and advocates for a permanent cease-fire and for massive humanitarian aid. Recently, our union took further action by a vote at our national convention to demand that our government halt military aid to Israel and joined six other unions, representing over 6 million U.S. unionized workers, calling on President Biden to implement an arms embargo. As the largest arms supplier to Israel, the Biden-led U.S government should use its leverage to stop the carnage. We are outraged that the taxes of workers are being used to kill, maim, and slaughter innocent people. AIPAC says US must ‘stand with Israel’ against Iran Al Jazeera reports: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has suggested that Washington and its allies should support Israel in retaliating against a possible Iranian response to the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran. “As Iran plans an attack that could cause mass destruction in Israel and spark a regional war, America and our allies must work together to deter Iran by demonstrating that we will stand with Israel as it responds to any strikes by the Iranian regime and its proxies,” the pro-Israel lobby group said in a message to supporters. AIPAC has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent US elections to help defeat candidates critical of Israel. RECOMMENDED READING ABOUT AIPAC: The Guardian: AFP must investigate Israel’s killing of Zomi Frankcom after quest for truth and justice goes nowhere Al Jazeera: Thousands mourn Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at funeral prayer Al Jazeera: Gaza and the death of Western journalism STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 2: Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 2: at least 40,071* (39,550 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.] This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 591 in the West Bank (~140 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths. Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza. At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank). At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**. About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced. 2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity. Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 2: at least 96,548 (including at least 91,280 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.] Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 2: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured. Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%. NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers. *Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.** Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. † For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics. Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. Hover over each bar for exact numbers. Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated) More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West Searching for Gaza’s missing children What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million? Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’ Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video) Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience Gaza genocide denial Why the news media’s job is to groom us ‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children Hundreds of social media influencers attend Israel strategy summit in NYC Supporting Israel Is Big Business in the U.S. for Israel partisans Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza Synopsis of ICJ’s decision on Israeli occupation, reactions, and take-aways Russia attacks hospitals in Ukraine; Israel does the same in Gaza. The US response couldn’t be more different. ‘I have the prison inside me’: The emaciated Palestinian bodybuilder broken by Israel Israel has manufactured an industrial-scale version of Jim Crow rape hoaxes If Americans Knew Mobile Billboard Truck at Republican Convention Col. Douglas MacGregor: US is under the control of Israel, likens Gaza to Warsaw Ghetto https://israelpalestinenews.org/biden-and-us-are-at-bibis-beck-and-call-day-300/ https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/08/biden-and-us-are-at-bibis-beck-and-call.html
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    Biden and US are at Bibi's beck and call – Day 300
    Al Aqsa preacher detained for mourning Ismail Haniyeh's killing; Biden tells Bibi: "don't count on WH in an escalation" – then sends warships
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