Bruce Gagnon is coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
He offers his own reflections on organizing and the state of America's declining empire....
My daughter asks me if the war is on again. I tell her it never stopped. Our lives, dreams and hopes don’t matter to the world.
By Maram Humaid
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip — After a week-long temporary truce, the Israeli air strikes have unfortunately resumed.
The past seven days of relative calm have come to an end, and the familiar sounds of bombings, explosions, aircraft, artillery, naval boats and live ammunition are back.
These were our daily experiences for seven weeks before the truce, and we had become adept at distinguishing between them, including the distinctive sounds of rockets from Gaza and Israeli bombings.
This morning, at 7:00 sharp, the violent sounds resumed from land, air and sea, evoking new memories of sadness on my family’s faces.
My brother, opening the window to see what was happening, remarked, “Bombing is from everywhere.”
The toughest question came from my eight-year-old daughter, Banias, asking if this was war again. My husband explained that the past “calm” days were just a temporary truce, and the war had not ended.
Banias struggled to comprehend this strange cycle of war, pause, and then war again.
Reflecting on Banias’s confusion, I wondered how a young mind grapples with the illogical nature of war—pauses followed by resumptions.
Fifty-six days of conflict were apparently insufficient to secure a ceasefire.
Yesterday, displaced people living in tents amid dire conditions near Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip expressed distress, fear and despair, desiring not a temporary truce but a lasting ceasefire to return to their homes, even if damaged.
Their fear – that a new resumption of war would mean that Israel would move to bomb the south. Early today, their expectations came true as Israeli troops threw leaflets asking people living in east Khan Younis to move to Rafah at the southern edge of Gaza.
As air strikes persist from north to south, I ponder the multitude of wars faced by the people of Gaza: displacement, destruction, humiliation, tent living, thirst, hunger and the anxiety of temporary pauses followed by renewed bombing.
What should the people of Gaza do to make the world feel for them? How can the world allow the genocide to continue again? How will we return to the bloodshed again and worry about the loss of our loved ones? How, how and how?
I know that these questions will remain unanswered. The past 56 days have taught me, as they have shown to all of the people of Gaza, that our fears, lives, pain, hopes and dreams are not included in the calculations of this world.
Ramzi al-Abbasi, Palestinian prisoner out from Israeli jail.
“We have not seen sunlight for sixty days.
“Mentally, and physically we are in a terrible state...broken bones & sexual assault, urinating on the Quran, sleeping naked on floor in the cold, no water and no food.”
According to Israeli journalist and author Gideon Levy, the Israeli army has been committing "war crimes" routinely in the occupied Palestinian territories for 55 years, not only during times of war, and the only way for the occupation to end is for the Tel Aviv government to start "paying the price."
Levy, a writer for Israel's Haaretz newspaper, is one of the few voices in his country opposing the occupation and describing Israel as a "racist regime."
For about 40 years, Levy, who has been personally following the events in the occupied West Bank as a journalist in the field, believes that the Israeli society and government are currently in an "extremely radical state of mind."
Considering this situation, Levy, who does not think that Israel will make concessions for peace, believes that the only hope is international intervention.
Reminding that US President Joe Biden is preparing for the upcoming elections, the Israeli journalist says he does not find this international intervention very likely.
Describing the previous state of Israeli society as "bad enough," Levy told Anadolu that in the last one and a half months, the society has shifted even more towards "racism."
Expressing the view that a positive change towards peace is not possible to come from Israeli society, Levy stated: 'It (the peace) will not come from Israeli society. Israelis will not wake up one morning and say, 'The occupation is too cruel, apartheid (racist regime) is illegal, let's put an end to this.'"
"In the last 55 years (of the occupation), it hasn't happened, and it won't happen (in the future.) It will only happen if Israelis start paying the price for the occupation if they are punished for the occupation they continue, and if they realize that the cost they have to pay to continue the occupation is too high," he said.
However, Levy stressed that the situation "is not at that stage yet" and said the international community "needs to stop talking and take action."
"I don't foresee this happening in the near future. But I think the day will come when the international community says 'enough.' I am waiting for that day, but it doesn't seem very close," he added.
Global Network's latest
space video covers how the U.S. NSA spy base in Australia is currently
playing a key role in helping Israel identify and direct its brutal
bombing attacks on Gaza.
Over 14,000 people have been killed in recent weeks.
The
Pine Gap base (in the bush country of Australia) intercepts all
communications (email, phone, fax) from throughout the Asia-Pacific
region and sends them back to the NSA in the U.S.
Pine Gap also aids in Pentagon drone strike targeting throughout the Middle East and Central Asia.
About
60 percent of housing units and apartments in Gaza have been destroyed
by Israel with Washington's support. Tens of thousands of people are now
homeless.
While
the bombing has temporarily stopped due to several 'pauses' - Israeli
troops have moved to the West Bank where they are arresting and killing
hundreds of Palestinian people.
Leading
Israeli war cabinet members (including Bibi Netanyahu) have
continually been calling for the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza
and pushing the remaining people out to Egypt and Jordan. Both those
nations have responded by denouncing this Israeli plan.
The
video includes footage of Glenn Greenwald reviewing statements by Joe
Biden over many years where he brags about being a Zionist. Biden states
there is no 'distance between Israel and the US'.
Irish Member of the European Parliament Clare Daly says that Israel asks us to believe there is no genocide in Gaza.
She went on to say that it's a state proven to have lied time and again.
She said, "outrageous distortion and barefaced lies are how Israel operates. And still media platform the propaganda. Well, it's not going to work. The ugly truth is there for all to see."
Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades share a message from one of the Israeli detainees to the members of the Al-Qassam Brigades who accompanied her during the period of captivity before her release from #Gaza, as part of the exchange deal within the humanitarian ceasefire.
Houthi (Yemen) military march in Saada governorate in solidarity with Gaza
Recently this march (video) was filmed in Yemen to protest the genocide of Gaza. Yemen was expressing their solidarity with Palestine. They announced they would defend Palestine. Yemen is part of the 'Axis of Resistance'.
Since that march Yemen has captured a couple of Israeli-tycoon owned big cargo/tanker ships. They have consistently sent small armed drones toward Israel. Israel says they shoot them all down - few know for certain.
In addition Yemen has fired some number of rockets toward Israel. The US Navy has destroyers in the Red Sea near Yemen and has been intercepting some of these projectiles. Yemen is now talking about taking out one of the destroyers.
Washington just moved an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf. This was likely meant as a threat to Iran due to Tehran's promise to at some point shut down the Strait of Hormuz passage way between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. (Cutting off some 20% of global oil trade.)
Iran, one of the leaders of the 'Axis of Resistance', stands behind Palestine 100%. Unlike some Arab nations, like Jordan, Egypt, UAE, and the Saudis, Iran is not half-stepping during this war.
One must figure that a key reason for a 3rd round of 'Gaza pauses' is the massive global pressure on Tel Aviv and Washington.
As the Democrats come apart like a worn cloth, the Biden Zionist administration is under mounting calls to force Israel to stop its extermination of Gaza. All over the world this daily cry is heard. Seven thousand Gazans are buried under the rubble. Infectious disease is now a threat even greater than Israel's criminal bombing.
Not only has Israel lost the 'propaganda' battle but it also appears Tel Aviv is losing the ground game inside the chaos of north Gaza as well. Hamas claims to have hit 300 military vehicles/tanks and killed many times more Israeli troops than their controlled media is allowed to acknowledge. Israel has just admitted that their troops have taken over 1,000 casualties in Gaza.
Israel, as my mother would say, is 'showing its ass'. To the whole world. And it ain't a pretty picture.
So Israel - with its shrinking economy, busted reputation, losing the battle in Gaza - now faces one other possible great obstacle. It would be the full entry of the 'Axis of Resistance' into the war. The member nations of that coalition don't want to fight and die. But they know that the arrogant western-backed colonialist empire is shaking at its knees. It's days of global rampage and plunder are over. Now is the time for pressure from all corners.
US-UK-EU have really just one choice. Either become peaceful participating nations in multi-planetary decision making process or face the growing wrath of global society. (The UN's downright subservience to Washington-London-Brussels should remind everyone why the Global South is so fucking angry.)
Back at home - just go vote??
Americans have been taught to be compliment citizens. Do your 'patriotic duty' and vote. Keep shopping - as much as possible - build up that credit card debt. And be sure to watch lots of boring corporate TV - infused with promotion of sex, violence, and material accumulation. The Golden God's of television. America is morally corrupted by money and greed.
The whole system is rotten and collapsing. Poor and working people have been dealing with this for years. Most Americans are just trudging along - on the rat wheel - desperately chasing the cheese. No time to think about anything else....
I don't know which way it will go. I am only confident about feeling certain that this moment in human history will be a defining one for us and any possible future generations.
I'm trying to do my bit by reading and listening to indigenous voices from the region - and share as much of what I learn as possible. I'm also on the streets 2-3 times a week proudly holding a sign with others.
I am strongly in solidarity with the Palestinian people's right to defend themselves against the murderous policies of the US and Israel. I oppose war$ but understand that ever since Washington slaughtered millions of native people throughout Central & North America this has been a nation wedded to extreme violence and crude criminality.
So I am always in support of people defending themselves from Mr. Big.
Sometimes you just have to say no more and actually mean it.
The Geneva-based organization Euro-Med Monitor called on Sunday for the creation of an independent international investigation committee into organ theft suspicions.
In a statement published on its website, the group said that “Euro-Med Monitor has documented the Israeli army’s confiscation of dozens of dead bodies from Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, and others from the vicinity of the so-called ‘safe corridor’ (Salah al-Din Road) designated for displaced people heading to the central and southern parts of the Strip.”
Euro-Med Monitor added that the “Israeli army also dug up and confiscated the bodies from a mass grave that was established more than 10 days ago in one of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex’s courtyards.”
“While dozens of corpses were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which in turn transported them to the southern Gaza Strip to complete the burial process, the Israeli army is still holding the bodies of dozens of dead people,” the statement read.
The IDF has found a way to Girl Boss-ify their propaganda, promoting the diversity and inclusivity of their armed forces to target your blue no matter who Biden supporting Liberal and convince them that the IDF are in fact the good guys.
We look at how Israel use women to woke-wash their crimes, and how they try to portray themselves as western to get Liberal support.
IOF stands for Israeli Occupation/Offensive Forces
A journalist without legs grips a baby saved from bombs.
If a picture ever captured the resilience of Palestinians in Gaza, this is it.
Palestinians wounded in Israeli strikes during the conflict sit on beds outside of al-Shifa Hospital, which was raided by Israeli forces during Israel’s ground operation, amid a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza City, on November 25 [Abed Sabah/Reuters]
I've long believed that the US government (and their corrupt western allies) are modern day pirates. Crooks, criminals, killers and thieves.
Biden is in Nantucket, Massachusetts (an island off Cape Cod) for another of his many vacations. As he was walking down Broad Street (with massive Secret Service protection) some people on the other side of the street were chanting in support of Palestine.
Soon enough his party turned to enter a restaurant called 'Brotherhood of Thieves'. The perfect metaphor for the US-Israel military alliance. You'd imagine that the White House PR team might have suggested another choice of a restaurant - or maybe they just want to throw the pirate imagery in our collective faces.
It seems obvious to me that Biden is unmoved by the genocide taking place in Gaza and the West Bank right now.
Israel killed a 25-year old doctor today in the West Bank and were shooting at medical teams in Gaza - one reason for the hours long delay in the second planned trading of hostages between Hamas and Israel. Another reason was that Israel was violating the agreement to allow humanitarian aid trucks to bring relief supplies to north Gaza. So far only three trucks have made it to north Gaza.
The Biden government and both parties in Congress clearly appear to be on-board with the extermination of Palestine. There might be a couple politicians in each party not in sync with the genocide plan now underway - but the vast majority certainly are.
Biden and his foreign policy team should all be immediately charged with direct complicity in war crimes against Palestine. Money, weapons and political cover all add up to this obvious complicity.
So much for Washington's international 'Rules based order'.
If things continue at the current rate it will likely break into a regional war. The US-NATO could be drawn in. We need to heat the heat on Washington-London-Brussels-Tel-Aviv.
Most of the 150 Palestinian prisoners expected to be released as part of the Gaza truce deal between Israel and Hamas will be children.
The Israeli authorities have detained thousands of Palestinian kids from across the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, over the past decades and subjected them to Israel’s military court system.
“The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison,” explains Addameer, a Palestinian prisoner support and advocacy group.
According to Defense for Children International’s Palestine branch (DCI-Palestine), between 500 and 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 are detained, interrogated, prosecuted and imprisoned by Israel every year.
Here’s what you need to know about the treatment of Palestinian children in Israel’s military detention system, as detailed in a DCI-Palestine survey of more than 760 kids detained in the occupied West Bank between 2016 and 2022:
IOF (Israeli Offense Forces) detain most Palestinian children during nighttime raids on their homes, and “Most are blindfolded, hand-tied, and beaten by Israeli soldiers at the time of arrest.”
Eighty percent of Palestinian child detainees are strip-searched by Israeli soldiers before their interrogations.
Two-thirds of Palestinian children are not informed of their rights during Israeli interrogations.
One in four Palestinian children was held in “stress positions” during interrogation; Twenty-three percent were held in solitary confinement “for 2+ days” to elicit confessions.
“During the interrogation, my hands were tied. My legs were tied to the chair. The interrogator told me he might keep me in the cell for hundreds of days. He told me I won’t see my family if I don’t confess,” a Palestinian boy interrogated in an Israeli military detention centre at age 16 told DCI-Palestine.
More than 8,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, with dozens more arrested in the occupied West Bank every day.
Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore
Palestine, its people and their narrative, Miko’s first book is about
his life transformation, titled “The General’s Son: Journey of an
Israeli in Palestine.” This autobiographical work taking the reader
through the life of Peled’s family since his grandparents immigrated to
Palestine in the early 20th century, describing their work and their
life in detail. Peled’s maternal grandfather, Avraham Katznelson was a
signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence. His father, Matti
Peled was a general in the Israeli army and pioneered an
Israeli-Palestinian dialogue in the 1970’s which led him to meeting
Yasser Arafat in an effort to convene him to recognize the State of
Israel and adopt the Two State Solution. In 1997, Miko’s sister lost her
daughter, Smadar, in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem. This tragedy is
what finally drove Miko to embark on his journey to discover Palestine.
Miko’s father, General Matti Peled was a respected
general and hawk who clearly stated that contrary to Israeli claims, the
1967 war was one of choice, and not the result of an existential threat
to the state of Israel. He then dedicated his life to promoting the Two
State Solution, which he believed would allow Israel to maintain the
fruits of the 1948 war and ethnic cleansing of Palestine – which meant
control over the vast majority of the country, and allow the
Palestinians to establish a small state in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip. This is a solution which he believed would lead to an
Israeli-Palestinian peace.
The political becomes personal with Miko’s stories.
In 1948, his mother refused to accept an Arab home in West Jerusalem – a
house that became available as the result of the ethic cleaning
of Palestinians from West Jerusalem – knowing that the family who lived
there was now forced to become refugees. As the daughter of one of the
signers of the Israeli Declaration of Independence, Miko’s mother could
have used her position of entitlement to get a lovely home for herself
and her family. But she said, “No. How can I take the home of another
mother!”
Miko grew up in Jerusalem a multi-ethnic city yet
racially divided, part of a system that keeps Palestinians and Israelis
living in separate spheres. The Arabs of Israel, as the Palestinians are
called by Israel – the laborers, janitors, cooks, etc. are
indistinguishable from Arabs across the Middle East and as being
referred to by that name creates the impression that they have
no special connection to Jaffa, Lod, Ramle, Lydda, Haifa, Jerusalem or
any other part of the “Land of Israel.” Having lived in the sphere of
the privileged occupier Miko, like other Israelis, he never met
Palestinians. Chapter 7, the chapter where Miko describes the beginning
of his journey, begins with the words, “My journey into Palestine began
in San Diego in 2000. I was 39 years old.”
Peled insists that all of Israel/Palestine is one
state with exclusive rights for Jewish people. It has been this way
since 1967. Facts on the ground are undeniable and irreversible massive
investment in infrastructure, cities, schools and malls for Jews only,
Jewish-only highways bisect and connect ever expanding settlements on
the West Bank, the separation wall and the checkpoints have purposely
integrated what was the West Bank into the rest of Israel with
Palestinians living in segregated, often completely closed off pockets.
The options for those who seek peace in Palestine
are as follows: An apartheid state with exclusive rights for Jewish
people. A state with a brutal security apparatus where half the
population are forced to live with little or no rights and
in intolerable conditions. A state where million live without access to
proper nutrition, medical care or clean water, condemned to humiliating
long lines at checkpoints, or a free, democratic Palestine with equal
rights for all people who live between the Jordan River and the
Mediterranean Sea. Peaceful coexistence can be a reality in Palestine,
but only once a real democracy is achieved and the rights of al
Palestinians are respected – including the right of the refugees to
return.
Before Miko came to hold such a vision, he had to
face his fears. Driving alone into Palestinian towns in the Galilee or
the West Bank in a car with license plates that identified him as
Israeli, Miko imagined Arabs lurking behind every curve of the winding
road following the rolling hills waiting to kill him. Heading towards
the village of Bil’in for the first time, he silently questioned if he
was crazy to trust “these people”? Peled was afraid but kept on driving
until he found the village and was greeted by friends.
The solution might be obvious but the problem
remains, how to change the existing paradigm– from fear and loathing to
coexistence? At the heart of Peled’s solution lies the realization that
Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace as equals. At the a
gathering in Taos, New Mexico, an Israeli woman who heard Miko speak
told Miko that his father was the hero of her childhood, and in fact, a
photograph of the general hung in their home. “It is an honor to meet
the son of Matti Peled,” she said, “I had given up hope for any kind of
just solution and try to stay removed from events there but I see how
much you care and meeting you gives me hope.”
Those who cling to fear, mistrust or greed are
under the false assumption that Palestinians and Israelis have a choice
other than to live as equals. But it’s inevitable – the wall will come
down, and the two people will eventually live as equal citizens in a
free democratic Palestine.
The story of the patriarch Abraham going to
sacrifice his beloved son, to prove his faith is shared by both Jews and
Muslims. At the moment of truth, when Abraham was about to kill his son
an angel appeared telling Abraham not to harm the boy. This story
exists in the Old Testament as well as in the Quran and the moral of the
story is quite clear: Our shared God does not want us to sacrifice our
children to war, in fact, whether we are believers or not we are all
called by our God or our conscience to care for our children and protect
them from the evil that is war.
Lowkey uncovers the powerful past of New York’s most famous racist ranter.
A former high-ranking US government official has been
arrested after being captured on video calling a halal food vendor in
New York City a “terrorist” and saying the death of 4,000 Palestinian children in Gaza “wasn’t enough”.
Stuart Seldowitz, 64, who previously served as deputy
director of the US State Department’s Office of Israel and Palestinian
Affairs, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of aggravated harassment,
hate crime stalking, stalking causing fear, and stalking at a place of
employment, New York police said in a statement.
The regional war is here. The Axis of Resistance assesses that the US and Israel intend to prolong the Gaza war indefinitely, and determines that a regional escalation is now unavoidable.
The Israeli military has announced the expansion of its ground operations in the northern Gaza Strip. After seizing territories on Gaza’s coastline, in the western part of the northern strip, Tel Aviv’s actual ground operation is now beginning.
For more than three weeks of its ground offensive, the occupation army has been operating in areas close to the shoreline, in places where tunnels cannot be dug, and, therefore, areas where the Palestinian resistance does not have significant defensive capabilities.
But now, the occupation army is moving eastward from the Gaza coast, allowing the armed resistance to maneuver far more easily and inflict greater losses on the invading soldiers and their armored vehicles – as has become quite evident in recent days.
In short, the ground battle in northern Gaza has only just begun, and is gearing up to get even hotter in the weeks ahead.
The region escalates
In support of the resistance in Gaza, the Yemeni army and Ansarallah fighters seized an Israeli-owned vessel in the Red Sea on 19 November after threatening to target all Israeli ships crossing the Bab al-Mandab Strait.
Over the past week, on Lebanon’s border with Israel, the Lebanese resistance Hezbollah has increased the frequency of its military operations. On 20 November, the occupation army monitored more than 40 attacks on its positions, one of which was carried out with four rockets, each with an explosive warhead weighing around 500 kilograms. The salvo destroyed the Israeli ‘Branit’ military barracks near the border with Lebanon. In just the past three days, Hezbollah has carried out an average of 12 military operations against Israeli targets each day.
Simultaneously, Iraqi resistance attacks are continuing against US military bases in Iraq and Syria - over sixty operations to date.
The increased pace of clashes across West Asia is, however, being widely ignored by many of Tel Aviv’s western allies, whose attention has been diverted by ongoing prisoner exchange talks between Israel and the Palestinian resistance, mediated by Qatar and the US. These weeks-long negotiations are being treated as evidence that the next phase will necessarily be a de-escalation in Palestine.
Those expectations have been fanned by a leak that Israel's cabinet has discussed the imminent demobilization of a number of army reservists. While the Israeli military may indeed demobilize part of the reserve forces it called up after 7 October, this decision is not based on de-escalatory considerations. The more than 300,000 Israeli reservists initially mobilized was far too great for the capacity of the occupation army, which was unable to absorb these personnel into its fronts in Gaza, Lebanon, and the West Bank.
Despite this, many still optimistically cling to the de-escalation narrative. They are further encouraged by official US statements criticizing – albeit in a watered-down manner – Israel’s targeting of Palestinian civilians, and point to the occasional US-Israel divergences over what they call the "post-Hamas phase" in Gaza as further proof that Tel Aviv will have to scale down its war.
But at the current stage of the conflict, these discrepancies and observations are considered totally irrelevant by officials in the region’s Axis of Resistance. They note instead that Washington continues to maintain its pace of arms support for Israel, as it has done since the war’s onset, while sticking to its refusal to entertain any permanent ceasefire.
In addition, the US has reduced neither its level of involvement in the management of military operations in the Gaza Strip, nor its reinforcement of missile defense systems to counter any Yemeni or Iraqi rocket attacks on Israeli positions.
Axis officials believe that conciliatory-sounding US statements, which sometimes suggest that a de-escalation phase is imminent, are nothing but an American "public relations party" to repair a public image heavily damaged by unstinting US support for Israel’s continuing massacre of Palestinians in Gaza.
In slightly shifting its tone, Washington also seeks to mislead the Resistance Axis, hoping that this can forestall an increase in regional tensions and clashes.
From ‘truce’ to regional war
The current prisoner exchange negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian resistance include a four-day "humanitarian" truce. This is not a ceasefire by any means nor an opportunity to draw out a further lull in violence. Those familiar with the reality on the ground in the Gaza Strip confirm that any truce will merely be an opportunity for both sides to reorganize their ranks in preparation for intensified battles in the coming weeks.
They based their observations on the fact that Israel continues to adhere to its initial military goals, modified from the plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip. Tel Aviv’s objectives today are, first, to occupy the entire north of Gaza; second, to displace all of its inhabitants, more than 800,000 of whom are still living under siege and bombardment.
And third, to continue the besiegement of southern Gaza - exerting military pressure through intensive airstrikes and special operations to force Hamas and other Palestinian resistance factions to surrender.
This plan is fully supported by the US and its western allies, as well as by Arab states that have normalized relations with Israel, notably those farthest from Palestine’s borders.
In light of these realities, the Axis of Resistance is pursuing its own West Asian escalation to pressure its adversaries to deescalate. That bar jumped considerably this week when Yemen’s Ansarallah captured an Israeli-linked ship in regional waterways.
This is a disaster for Tel Aviv, which depends primarily on maritime transportation for its imports and exports. If this becomes a pattern, Israeli-linked ships will be uninsurable, and hiring crews will become impossible. It is also a nightmare scenario for Washington, which wants the Gaza war to continue while its regional position enjoys complete calm.
Indeed, the US is desperate to maintain a regional peace, most of all in Iraq. While the multi-factional Iraqi resistance target US occupation bases inside their country and in Syria, both, the current American response has been tame. US military forces have limited their retaliatory strikes to Syrian territory - and only after informing their Russian counterparts in advance.
Washington has so far avoided striking back in Iraqi territory to avoid drawing a target on its considerable Iraqi interests – commercial, military, political – and also fears triggering the Iraqi resistance to expand operations against US bases in other West Asian states.
No ceasefire ahead
The Resistance Axis’ current assessment of the Gaza war is that both the US and Israel seek a protracted conflict - possibly even an endless war that transforms the Gaza Strip into a permanent battlefield to ensure that Israel no longer faces Palestinian deterrence capabilities.
On the other hand, the Axis continues to pursue all avenues to advance and accelerate a ceasefire in Gaza, including military options. The current “truce” announcement didn’t emerge in a vacuum – it follows painful blows against occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, a sharp escalation of clashes in the occupied West Bank, and a gradual increase in the pace and severity of attacks in the region.
The prisoner exchange truce may be announced at any moment. It will not, however, end the war. The truce is merely a break for the belligerents to prepare for more violent battles ahead, and these will not be limited to Gaza and the Lebanese-Palestinian border.
As 2023 comes to a close, all of West Asia is destined for more tension, battle, and multiple surprises. This scenario can only be eased by the announcement of a Gaza ceasefire and the provision of supplies and staples to its wounded population. It is only Washington that stands in the way, firmly opposing and blocking a ceasefire at every opportunity.
Israeli propaganda is being mocked online after a series of controversial videos and statements were released by the military.
Social media users, particularly those from Generation Z, are using the platforms to highlight the inconsistencies in Israel’s narrative and highlight the plight of the Palestinians, undermining Israel’s public diplomacy strategy known as 'Hasbara'.
Video footage shows a man, identified as Stuart Seldowitz, a former national security advisor to President Obama, who also worked at the US State Department under three U.S. presidents (Clinton, Bush, Obama) expressing extreme anti-Islamic sentiments towards an Egyptian man running a halal food cart in New York City, USA.
Seldowitz ominously threatened the vendor with dire consequences from the Egyptian intelligence service, including potential harm and torture to the man's father in Egypt.
Part two
In a second incident, former Obama adviser Stuart Seldowitz came back to harass and threaten the same vendor. He can be heard saying that "if we killed 4,000 Palestinian kids, it wasn't enough."
He came back a third time but some man passing by chased Seldowitz away from the vendor's food cart.
This crude arrogance comes from someone who feels a strong sense of 'racist entitlement' - something that many working at high levels for the deep state in Washington are full of.
Following the public disclosure of Seldowitz's antics from these rudimentary but import videos we now learn that a lobbying firm in Washington DC has cut him loose.
Larry C. Johnson is a veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism. He is the founder and managing partner of BERG Associates, which was established in 1998.
Larry provided training to the US Military’s Special Operations community for 24 years.
He is one of the most honest and astute analysts out there on all US-NATO warmongering.
At least 100 Palestinians killed in attacks overnight and this morning around hospitals and refugee camps in Gaza.
Israel’s government approves Qatar-mediated deal for a four-day truce in Gaza and release of 50 captives held in the enclave.
Hamas confirms a temporary ceasefire has been reached, adding that 150 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails will be freed as part of the deal.
PM Netanyahu says agreement does not mean war will stop, vows Israeli military will press on after the pause in fighting.
Israeli bombardments continue overnight across Gaza, including around Indonesian Hospital and in Khan Younis in the south of the enclave.
More than 14,100 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll from Hamas’s attacks stands at about 1,200.
Columbia University grads dumped their caps and gowns outside the school in protest of the banning of pro-Palestine student groups.
The university [under pressure from its Zionist funders] admitted to changing school rules to ban Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert caught lying by reporter. Notice that since the IDF has destroyed north Gaza, and sent one million refugees to the south, now Olbert says 'the real Hamas HQ is in the south'. (See here for article/videos about IDF attacks on Khan Yunis in south Gaza.)
This is the kind of media deception that Israel is famous for - all to hide 100 years of colonization of Palestine.
But now the world sees the mass genocide right before our eyes and is speaking out loudly. Jewish organizations full of young people are also engaged in defending the Palestinian people.
Thousands of Israeli's have left the country since October 7. The economy there is in trouble. How much longer will Biden (and the Dems and Repubs) keep sending money and weapons? At the same time there are staff revolts underway in the State Department and in congressional offices in Washington?
Time reports: As of late this past week, one open letter had been endorsed by 650 staffers of diverse religious backgrounds from more than 30 federal agencies, organizers said. The agencies range from the Executive Office of the President to the Census Bureau and include the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense.
A Biden political appointee who helped organize the multiagency open letter said the president's rejection of appeals to push Netanyahu for a long-term cease-fire had left some federal staffers feeling “dismissed, in a way.”
“That’s why people are using all sorts of dissent cables and open letters. Because we’ve already gone through the channels of trying to do it internally,” this person said.
We must keep the pressure on own governments by demanding Israel STOP their war crimes and be held accountable for them internationally.
Israeli leadership is sounding the horn for 'endless war' against Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and even Egypt, to grab more land for 'Greater Israel'. US taxpayers are expected to cover the mounting costs - with some help from the UK and EU as well.
It's up to us around the globe to stop Israel's version of 'manifest destiny' from destroying us all.
Join our thought-provoking conversation with Alastair Crooke that delves into the complex landscape of Israel's actions in the context of ethics and morality.
We embark on a nuanced exploration, critically examining the historical, political, and social aspects that contribute to Israel's moral justifications.
Alastair Crooke is a former
British diplomat, and is the founder and director of the Beirut-based
Conflicts Forum, an organisation that advocates for engagement between
political Islam and the West.
Israel forcing Gazans from the north to the south.
But now the danger is in the south where Israel says they must take out Hamas HQ. Tel Aviv had earlier wrongly claimed that Hamas HQ was in the north - including under hospitals and schools.
Israel is trying to kill as many Palestinians as possible before they are forced to stop by global outrage.
So it is up to all of us to speak now before the slaughter of the innocents is near complete.
The leading nations need to do more to end this western induced insanity.
By Manlio Dinucci (Grandangolo on Byoblu TV, Italy)
We are involved in two wars both in Europe and the Middle East, they increasingly have serious consequences on our living conditions and our security.
On the European front there is what the Wall Street Journal defines as "one of the largest acts of sabotage in Europe since the Second World War", it was carried out in September 2022: the United States with the assistance of Norway and Poland blew up the Nord Stream, the main pipeline that transported low-cost Russian gas to Germany and from there to other European countries.
The dynamics of this war action was reconstructed and based on precise evidence by the American journalist Seymour Hersh, and by a German investigation. US Secretary of State Blinken defined the blocking of Nord Stream as "an enormous strategic opportunity for the years to come" and underlined that "the United States has become the main supplier of liquefied natural gas to Europe", gas that we European citizens pay much more than what we imported from Russia.
At the same time the United States is passing on to Europe the enormous cost of the NATO war in Ukraine against Russia. The European Commission is paving the way for Ukraine's upcoming entry into the EU, with the consequence that we European citizens will be the ones to pay for Ukraine's enormous deficit.
On the Middle Eastern front, the European Union supports the war in which Israel, with the United States, and NATO behind it, attacks Palestine and fuels a regional conflict, targeting Iran in particular.
Italy has been linked to Israel by a military pact since 2004, and has supplied the fighters on which Israeli pilots train, and bomb Gaza, killing civilians, and supports the Israeli armed forces in various ways.
On the other hand, Prime Minister Netanyahu promised Italian Prime Minister Meloni that Italy will become an energy hub for the distribution to Europe of the gas that Israel will send through the EastMed pipeline. The section of the offshore gas field - Israel claims the exclusive ownership of it - is located largely in the territorial waters of the Palestinian Territory of Gaza, and that of the West Bank.
Through the EastMed pipeline, Israel will then export the Palestinian natural gas it has seized with military force to Italy and the EU.
Footage recorded from inside al-Shifa Hospital shows Israeli soldiers with tanks and bulldozers laying siege to the hospital.
Israeli forces targeted the al-Shifa hospital claiming it housed a Hamas command node, but an investigation by the BBC says there is no evidence to support this.
In cold and wet weather today in Topsham, Maine we had 27 folks from around the state gather at a very busy intersection to stand against the many war$ that Washington, London, Brussels and Tel Aviv are now unleashing.
At the end we gathered and heard from everyone as we passed the microphone around the circle.
Our next statewide protest like this will be held on Saturday, January 27 in Farmington at 1:30 pm. (Location TBD)
In the meantime we will be joining other protests around the state calling for an end to Israel's brutal genocidal attacks on Palestine.
Just last night MB and I traveled to Augusta (Maine's capital city) for an early evening protest that was attended by about 150 people.
Maine is a big geographical state with a small population (about 1.3 million) so many smaller scale protests are now regularly happening across the state.
