Sunday, December 31, 2023
Trip out west
My wife Mary Beth and I left home on December 20 for a trip out west to visit family and friends.
Our first stop was in Ohio to visit a cousin from her Boston-area based Irish Catholic family.
Then we drove further west to northwest Iowa to see one of my sisters. We were there for Christmas. This sister has been fighting cancer for quite a while so it was good to be with her again. My son and I had made the journey for a visit last spring as well.
From there we drove to Kansas to see my oldest sister who lives in Wichita. She took us see to the 'Keeper of the Plains' memorial yesterday at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers. The towering sculpture of an Indian Chief was designed by Native American artist Blackbear Bosin in 1974. It is quite an impressive site.
From Kansas we will go to New Mexico to see friends and then take the southern route back east through Alabama to visit the Lynching Museum in Montgomery.
Finally we will head to North Carolina to visit more friends before heading north back to Maine.
When leaving northwest Iowa we passed through many miles of a magical scene where the rising sun was reflecting off the frozen water on trees which created a beautiful light show. It was difficult to get a good photo due to having to film directly into the sun. But the image below gives a hint of the idea. When huge numbers of trees were lit up it was especially a very rare treat.
Sadly the sky was being laced with chemtrails that underscored the damage being done by humans to the creators wonderful gift of life on our Mother Earth.
Best wishes in the new year.
Bruce
Middle East arsonists shout fire!
By Manlio Dinucci (Grandangolo on Byoblu TV, Italy)
The war waged by Israel in Gaza is defined by the Washington Post as "one of the most destructive wars of this century". This war - implemented by Israel with the full support of the USA, NATO, and the EU - has so far caused over 20,000 deaths and 55,000 serious injuries among the Palestinian population, most of them will not survive as Israeli forces systematically destroy hospitals in Gaza.
Women and children represent 70% of deaths. Around 2 million people, corresponding to 85% of the displaced population.
At the same time, Israeli raids in the West Bank are increasing. Against this background, in an article in the Wall Street Journal Prime Minister Netanyahu states the necessity that "Hamas must be destroyed" as the first "prerequisite for peace". He stresses that “in destroying Hamas, Israel will continue to act in full compliance with international law.”
Netanyahu forgets what he officially declared in 2019: “Anyone who wants to hinder the creation of a Palestinian State must support Hamas and transfer money to Hamas. This is part of our strategy: to isolate the Palestinians of Gaza from the Palestinians of the West Bank.”
For years, in agreement with Israel, Qatar sent hundreds of millions of dollars in cash to Gaza every month to support the Hamas government. A 40-page document, code-named "Walls of Jericho" by Israeli Intelligence, demonstrates that Israel has known in detail the plan for the attack carried out by Hamas on October 7, 2023, for over a year. It served the leaders of Israel to justify "one of the most destructive wars of this century", whose purpose was clear from the beginning: to erase the territories of the Palestinian State, massacring and deporting the entire population. This was confirmed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Paula Betancur: "The Israeli military operation in Gaza aims to mass deport the civilian population".
The Israeli war to definitively erase the Palestinian State is part of the US-NATO-EU strategy of maintaining control of a strategic region, the Middle East, through war, in which the West is losing ground in front of advancing political—economic projects, such as that of the BRICS, which are changing global structures.
Saturday, December 30, 2023
False flag warning from corporate media?
Catherine Herridge is a CBS News senior investigative correspondent currently based in Washington D.C.
She began her role at CBS in November 2019 after leaving her role as Chief Intelligence correspondent for Fox News Channel.
A black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences. Black swan events are characterized by their extreme rarity, severe impact, and the widespread insistence they were obvious in hindsight.
Is the government and corporate media preparing the public for something?
Che's daughter calls for solidarity with Palestine
The daughter of the iconic Che Guevara, Dr. Aleida Guevara, a Cuban physician, spoke to the Arab peoples and expressed concern.
She stated, "Today it is Gaza. Tomorrow, who will it be? If you permit Israel to persist, where will it draw the line?"
Additional reading: As US Veto Power Enables Genocide, There Are Still UN Options to Protect Gaza by Marjorie Cohn,
Truthout
South African leader calls out USA
Julius Sello Malema is a South African politician, who is the founder and leader of the third largest political party in South-Africa, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF); a populist left political party, known for the red berets worn by its members.
Friday, December 29, 2023
Ukraine makes desperate draft rules changes
Armchair Warlord
@ArmchairW
Back in July I wrote a thread analyzing Ukrainian personnel losses in the context of German casualties in WWII, in which I determined that due to extreme casualties they could not sustain the war effort much past Spring 2024.
Today their new mobilization law came out and it's insane. Here's some highlights. People are now fully eligible for service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine are in "Disability Group III," comprising people who:
1. Are missing or blind in one eye
2. Are partially deaf
3. Have a tracheotomy
4. Have jaw defects that prevent normal chewing
5. Suffer from dwarfism (<130cm for men)
6. Have a missing or nonfunctional arm
7. Have an amputated leg up to the thigh
8. Are missing fingers
9. Are missing both feet
10. Have a pacemaker implanted
11. Have only one working kidney
12. Have only one working lung
13. Have suffered from "traumatic castration"
14. Have a brain abscess (!)
15. Have a substantial skull defect
16. Have Parkinson's (!)
17. Have extreme scoliosis
18. Have severe chest deformities
19. Have "severe adrenal insufficiency" (it's a war eh?)
20. Have no bladder.
It also apparently drops the official conscription age from 27 to 25, but I doubt that's been taken adhered to at any point in the war and particularly not in the last year. [Considering that Ukrainian 17 year olds and pregnant women have been found on the front lines.]
These are not the measures of a healthy society fighting a low-casualty war. This is Armageddon.
Israel stealing organs?
The Grayzone visits a cemetery in the besieged Gaza Strip city of Rafah and documents the burial of Palestinians in a mass grave whose corpses had been stolen by the Israeli military.
Gaza's Ministry of Health has accused Israel of harvesting body parts from these corpses. If true, this crime would fit within a well-documented pattern.
Thursday, December 28, 2023
F-ing thieves too on top of everything else the IOF is doing....
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| IOF breaks into safes |
Israeli occupation forces steal $2.76 mln from West Bank shops, Banks
By Al Mayadeen English
The Israeli occupation forces stole cash from the West Bank amounting to about $2.76 million, during a large-scale raid that targeted multiple cities at once.
The Israeli occupation forces raided multiple cities in the West Bank at once, and stormed banks and currency exchange shops, seizing from them large amounts of cash, according to reports from the West Bank and the Quds News Network.
In Jenin, QNN revealed that the Israeli occupation stormed the Arab Bank and the Al-Quds Bank, as well as the Al-Khaleej Exchange and Fakhr al-Diín Exchange Company, and seized their contents.
According to reports by Ynet, an Israeli news website, Israeli occupation forces stole about 10 million Shekels ($2.76 million) from across the West Bank overnight, and about 20 shop owners were detained.
Thefts recorded and documented
Videos have emerged showing occupation soldiers violating the rights of Palestinians by invading their private properties and stealing their belongings. This happened across a number of cities. One of the videos that emerged showed one such scene in Tulkarm.
Moreover, the theft was recorded and documented by several social media activists across the West Bank and beyond, showing once again that the occupation has been adamant about violating all rights of Palestinians.
Theft, ethnic cleansing, and genocide reemerge as the preferred tool of the occupation, and the theft of property and belongings of Palestinians in the West Bank comes as a further confirmation of that.
Lastest GN video: Weapons to Israel and Profits to Warmongers
Overwhelming proof of Insider trading in anticipation of October 7
Some investors active on the New York and Tel Aviv Stock Exchanges (NYSE and TASE) apparently knew in advance that Hamas militants were about to launch their attack on Israel before Oct. 7th and that a war would follow. They used that knowledge to cash in by short-selling Israel-linked shares, generating a profit windfall worth millions of dollars.
That’s the claim being made by researchers at New York University and Columbia University. “Our evidence is consistent with informed traders anticipating and profiting from the Hamas attack” and the war that erupted in its wake, financial market experts Robert J. Jackson, Jr., of NYU and Joshua Mitts of Columbia concluded in an explosive paper published Dec. 4.
The two professors’ meticulously-documented report, titled “Trading on Terror?”, details what they call a “significant spike in short-selling in the principal Israeli-company ETF [Exchange-Traded Fund]” on the NYSE in the weeks before Oct. 7th and similar short-selling moves against dozens of Israeli companies listed on the TASE. They rely on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which they say is still incomplete.
See the entire Washington Post story here
History lesson: Calling out Zionism long before most others
Kwame Ture (born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941 – November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the United States. He was a key leader in the development of the Black Power movement, first while leading the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), then as the "Honorary Prime Minister" of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and last as a leader of the All-African People's Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).
Carmichael was one of the original SNCC freedom riders of 1961 under Diane Nash's leadership. He became a major voting rights activist in Mississippi and Alabama after being mentored by Ella Baker and Bob Moses. Like most young people in the SNCC, he became disillusioned with the two-party system after the 1964 Democratic National Convention failed to recognize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party as official delegates from the state.
Carmichael was targeted by a section of J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) that focused on black activists; the program promoted slander and violence against targets Hoover considered enemies of the US government. It attempted to discredit them and worse.
Carmichael changed his name to Kwame Ture in 1978 to honor Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana) and Ahmed Sekou Touré (Guinea), who had become his patrons.
Ture's suspicions about CIA surveillance were confirmed in 2007 by declassified documents revealing that the agency had tracked him from 1968 as part of their surveillance of Black activists abroad. The surveillance continued for years.
After his diagnosis of prostate cancer in 1996, Ture was treated for a period in Cuba.
In a final interview given in April 1998 to The Washington Post, Ture criticized the limited economic and electoral progress made by African Americans in the U.S. during the previous 30 years. He acknowledged that blacks had won election to the mayor's office in major cities, but said that, as the mayors' power had generally diminished over earlier decades, such progress was essentially meaningless.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
Former senior Israeli officials praise Hamas’s resilience
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| Israel wants US-NATO to join the fight and expand the war into Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Syria and Iraq. It would be WW3. Do you support that? |
Aljazeera
US newspaper The New York Times has interviewed Michael Milshtein, a former senior intelligence officer for Israel, and Giora Eiland, a retired major general and former head of Israel’s National Security Council.
Milshtein dismissed comments from Israeli leaders suggesting that Hamas is at its breaking point after over two months of Israel’s military campaign against it
“They’ve been saying this for a while, that Hamas is collapsing,” he told the New York Times. “But it’s just not true. Every day, we’re facing tough battles.”
Eiland said that Hamas has a distinct ability to replace its commanders when they are killed with others who are equally skilled and devoted.
“From a professional point of view, I must give credit to their resilience,” he said. “I cannot see any signs of collapse of the military abilities of Hamas nor in their political strength to continue to lead Gaza.”
Top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant, have repeatedly said that the aim of their war is to completely destroy Hamas, and that they will continue their military offensive until this goal is realised.
Who are the Israeli refuseniks picking jail over the Gaza war?
When Tel Aviv teen Tal Mitnick refused to enlist in the Israeli army, he was put on trial. He was taken to military prison to serve a 30-day sentence on Tuesday.
Standing alone in a country on a determined war footing is an agonising decision. But, speaking at Tel Hashomer, a base near the Gaza fence in central Israel, Mitnick staunchly defended his decision.
“I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter,” he said. “The criminal attack on Gaza won’t solve the atrocious slaughter that Hamas executed. Violence won’t solve violence. And that is why I refuse.”
The solution, he said, would not come from corrupt politicians in Israel or from Hamas. “It will come from us, the sons and daughters of the two nations,” he said.
Will Israel kill these people too?
New video shows Palestinians stripped and detained in Gaza by the Israeli army, as other freed detainees allege abuse and mistreatment.
Repeated claims have been made that Israel is lining people up and shooting them while others have been bulldozed and buried alive.
Of course these are all war crimes. Who will hold Israel legally responsible?
Certainly not genocide supporters Biden/Blinken/Austin and the US Congress. Nor the United Nations. Nor the EU or NATO.
Thankfully South Africa has filed charges but so far as I understand they stand alone.
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
Craig Murray: What We’ve Learned in 2023
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| Recent protests in Yemen in solidarity with Gaza |
The author has no doubt we are in for a period of more propaganda, fake terrorist plots, false flag actual terrorism and agent provocateur-led terrorism.
By Craig Murray
We have learnt this year that there is no crime so startling, so obvious and so visible to the whole world, that the United States and Israel are not willing to commit brazenly and openly.
The massacre of 20,000 people includes the killing of babies and infants, the deliberate shooting of pregnant women and toddlers, the murder of old ladies in church and the execution of prisoners stripped naked.
This is all justified as “Israel’s right of self-defence”.
We have also seen the increasing rise of fascism as western governments crack down on their publics in order to curtail political resistance to the genocide. Activists Tony Greenstein, Mick Napier and I have all been harassed under the Terrorism Act.
I have left the country [UK] because I fear I am officially “under investigation” under the Terrorism Act and I fear I shall be arrested and placed in jail for two years awaiting trial. Numerous people have been arrested for expressing their horror at the massacre through placards, words or even songs that the police judge “offensive”.
Police action is often prompted by instruction from self-appointed Zionist vigilante organisations.
We are also seeing, exactly as I predicted, a replay of the “War on Terror” state Islamophobic propaganda. Do you remember the famous “ricin plot” where the ricin found was the trace level to be found in every kitchen?
The British government kept it Top Secret for two years that there was in fact no ricin. Or the non-existent Easter Bomb Plot where the “ingredient of improvised explosives” found turned out to be a bag of sugar?
In Germany they have a great deal of work to do to justify the world’s most extreme anti-Palestinian governmental racism, so they have invented a “Hamas terror plot” and arrested four young Muslims. No evidence at all that been produced to justify this.
Hamas has never, ever conducted any violent attack outside of Palestine and it has always been their policy not to do so – and it still is. The notion is ludicrous that at this time Hamas have decided to suddenly lose the propaganda war which they are winning worldwide, by attacking Germany.
Germany’s governments have form of course, not only for genocide, but also for enthusiastic creation of fake terrorism.
The German government was heavily implicated both in false flag terrorist attacks in Tashkent, which I was able to investigate and report to the U.K. government in real time, and in the creation of a whole fake terrorist organisation, “The Islamic Jihad Union of Uzbekistan”, which was entirely the work of the C.I.A. and the German security services.
The aim at that time was to justify the German military airbase at Termez in Uzbekistan, operating into Afghanistan. People forget German participation on the losing side in the last Afghan war.
I have no doubt we are in for a period of more propaganda, fake terrorist plots, false flag actual terrorism and agent provocateur led-terrorism. It is the only way the Establishment can hope to regain the propaganda narrative.
I have not quite got used yet to my new position as an itinerant terrorist, so I apologise that posting has been a bit scarce due to a lot of organisational bother and a general sense of discombobulation.
This is being dashed off at Milan airport. I am very happy on a personal note to say that my family are joining me at an exotic venue for Christmas and New Year, so you may not hear much from me till mid-January as I owe my children a great deal of my attention.
I do wish you a safe and very happy festive season wherever you are, and hope you can be together with those you love. For all those living in fear and danger, particularly but not only those in Gaza, my thoughts along with those of millions around the world are with you now and always.
Shortly before the first Iraq War, between the invasion of Kuwait and the outbreak of real hostilities, I sent a minute in reply to one from John Major. I was working in the Embargo Surveillance Centre, a Top Secret establishment operating from an underground NATO HQ in central London.
We were among the recipients of a Christmas message from the Prime Minister which combined Christian wishes with a bellicose message. I replied in a formal minute with this verse from the carol It Came Upon the Midnight Clear:
But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring; –
Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!
Whomever the angels are to you, I hope you hear them sing.
~ Craig Murray is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010.
Hanging onto sacred birthright
Abu Khadija’s Cafe in Jerusalem has had multiple offers from Israeli authorities due to its prime location and the tunnel that runs underneath, connecting the cafe to the major holy sites in Jerusalem.
He has been offered millions of dollars to give up his family cafe, but he has always refused.
Palestinian business owners have always challenged giving up their generational shops to Israel, as a form of resistance in maintaining their presence in Palestine.
Monday, December 25, 2023
Best to all in the holidays
My wife Mary Beth and I are in northwest Iowa for Christmas visiting one of my five sisters and her husband. From here we will go on to visit other family and friends across the US.
This is a terribly difficult time to feel much joy with all the multiple war$ and instability the US-EU-NATO have created around the globe.
In this time of deep torment for many I send my prayers for peace and real justice to those suffering at the hands of the arrogant western powers.
I pledge that I will continue to work as hard as possible to do what I can to help bring true peace.
I thank you for visiting this blog and taking a look at the stories that I feel moved to share each day. In a way this blog is part of my spiritual practice.
I send my best wishes to everyone for a much better new year. But I am confident when I say that it will only happen if all of us do something each day to help build a peaceful world for the future generations.
It is indeed a time when the dark forces are attempting to destroy the light. We can't let them succeed.
Keep the fires burning.
Love and peace always,
Bruce
Sunday, December 24, 2023
Baby Jesus under the rubble
Nida Ibrahim is in Bethlehem, where the war is having a profound impact on Christmas.
Global Christian Leaders to Spend Christmas in Bethlehem in Solidarity with Palestinians
By Nurah Tape
A delegation of Christian leaders from around the world, including a cohort from South Africa, are to spend Christmas in Bethlehem in a demonstration of solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied territories, as well as the Gaza Strip.
Upon the invitation of Palestinian Christian leaders, and organized by Kairos Southern Africa and Kairos Palestine, the group traveled via Jordan and arrived in Jerusalem on Thursday.
The group will spend time in Jerusalem before attending various services in Bethlehem, including the Christmas midnight mass, and the annual peace march.
“Bethlehem, being the birthplace of Jesus, is of course deeply significant at this time,” the South African Council of Churches (SACC) said in a statement.
It said “of similar significance are the parallels between the time of Jesus’ birth and now, which are hard to ignore.”
“Then, the land was under occupation by the Roman Empire. Now, the occupier is the state of Israel. Then, King Herod carried out a genocide of boys under the age of two. Now, Israel is carrying out a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza which is now spilling over to the West Bank, and more than 8,000 children have been killed,” the statement said.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
German industrial & political break down coming
Germany's 'traffic light coalition' has mounting problems as Chancellor Scholz suffers from serious negative ratings these days with the public.
Berlin has repeatedly made major miscalculations in pushing the Ukraine war on Russia. In addition Scholz went strangely silent as Biden and his henchmen blew up the Nordstream pipeline which was their source of relatively cheap natural gas. Now major industries are starting to leave the country for brighter prospects elsewhere.
How is that expensive LNG from the United States working out this winter?
I read yesterday that the foolish Germans will be sending 5,000 troops to Lithuania just 20 km from Russia's western most exclave, Kaliningrad. Is Berlin suicidal? It appears to be so.
Moscow has long warned that the movement of NATO capabilities to the east of Europe is a red line not to be crossed.
I guess Berlin didn't learn much from the US-NATO disastrous war in Ukraine - nor its catastrophic loss in WW2.
They keep trying to start a full-blown WW3. I guess they figure, in the immortal words of Scotland's Sir Robert Bruce, 'If you don't at first succeed - try, try again'.
F-16's to the rescue
The Netherlands is about to begin the delivery of US-made F-16 fighters to Ukraine.
The EU nation is one of Kiev’s backers that pledged to provide it with the warplanes over the next few years, along with Denmark, Norway, and Belgium.
Anyone wish to take bets on how long these planes will last?
At the same time many are wondering how much longer the Z-man can remain in power in Kiev. The knives appear to be out for him these days as his US-NATO backed military is falling apart. Their economy is in shambles as well.
It appears the west intends to install a new dictator in Kiev, supply them with more weapons, and order the 17-70 year old poorly trained army to rush headlong into another ill-fated round of 'counter-offensives' in a desperate hope to 'force regime change' in Moscow.
The declining western bloc really wants control of Russia's vast resource base (especially in the rapidly melting Arctic zone) and appear determined to risk the EU's future on this forlorn gambit.
Gaza
Germany, must like most of the EU, is supporting Israel's genocide in Palestine. Many European nations have vainly tried to outlaw solidarity protests with the battered people in Gaza and the West Bank. Most EU nations refuse to support a ceasefire which could bring an end to the planned extermination.
In the end the EU (like the US and Israel) are just cutting their on throats. The Global South is getting repeated doses of long-familiar BS from the western colonizers who ushered in more than 500 years of theft, exploitation and endless war$.
Some folks are just slow learners.
I pray that our peace loving friends in Europe don't get rounded up and put on ice by the EU 'leaders' who profess to the world their love for 'democracy'.
Most sensible people around the globe want nothing to do with their trick pony called the 'rules based order'.
It stinks of hypocrisy and is doomed to failure - at long last.
May the end to western exceptionalism come before our lovely spinning planet is burned to a crisp.
Bruce
Friday, December 22, 2023
Is Israel losing the war?
A major unit within the Golani Brigade, along with many paratroopers are pulling out of Gaza, along with the northern borders with Lebanon; why and what does it mean?
Life for Palestinians living inside Israel
Hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel have been arrested for social media posts criticising Israel’s assault on Gaza. Rami Younis talks about the clampdown on Israel’s Palestinian citizens.
Featuring:
Rami Younis - Journalist & former host of ‘On the Other Hand’ for Makan 33
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Stealing Palestine blind
Video footage has emerged showing Israeli soldiers seizing Palestinian belongings - across Gaza and the Occupied West Bank. Recordings also reveal troops vandalising businesses, stealing goods and ransacking homes.
Al Jazeera's Imran Khan reports from Ramallah.
US worried over growing cost of deflecting Houthi attacks
The Pentagon is “increasingly alarmed” not only about the threat of Houthi attacks in the Red Sea but also the “growing cost” of rebuffing those the assaults, reports US news website Politico, citing unnamed US officials.
The US Navy has deployed missiles at $2.1m each to destroy “unsophisticated Houthi drones” estimated at a few thousand dollars each.
“The cost offset is not on our side,” one unnamed Pentagon official was quoted as saying.
Over the past two months, the US Navy
has reportedly shot down at least 38 drones and multiple missiles in the
Red Sea as the Houthis stepped up their attacks in protest of the
ongoing Israeli bombardment in Gaza that has killed almost 20,000
Palestinians.
Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Disease will kill more than Israeli bombs
It's obvious that US bombs given to Israel were used to destroy hospitals and other places like schools that were used to shelter people forced out of their homes.
Doctors in Gaza are now being routinely arrested and jailed. What are they charged with having done besides treating patients?
Israel knew that spreading diseases, hunger, thirst, and no sanitation will likely wipe out hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.
Egypt is being increasingly pressured to open the gates and allow Palestinians to move into the desert where they will die in huge numbers. Israel would then have the people out of their way.
Israeli construction companies (that build the settlements in the West Bank) now have their engineers inside Gaza and are working toward implementing a plan for settlements there.
See a short video about this scheme below:
We must always return to the the legal questions about Israel being charged with war crimes of genocide. Which nations will join South Africa that has filed charges against Israel at the ICC? Hundreds of nations around the globe should join in filing charges of extermination.
Bruce
Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Bulldozers bury Palestinians at camp outside hospital
Israeli bulldozers are accused of crushing Palestinians who were camping in tents and burying them alive as the military carried out a raid on a hospital in northern Gaza.
How much longer will the US government remain silent about these crimes?
The West Bank run-around for Palestinians
CNN's Nima Elbagir reports from Hebron in the West Bank, which remains under Israeli occupation in the shadow of the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Elbagir and her team witnessed how settlers and the Israeli military are working together and creating a culture of fear amongst Palestinian families, despite calls from President Biden for Israel to sanction "settler extremists." #CNN #News
Monday, December 18, 2023
War crimes report: Khan Younis hospital latest health facility targeted
A man inspects the damage in a room following Israeli bombardment at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip [AFP]
Nasser Hospital is increasingly becoming a war zone amid a surge in Israeli attacks in the eastern part of Khan Younis as well as in the central part where the hospital is located.
The building hosting the maternity ward is believed to be housing thousands of evacuees and displaced Palestinians who came from different parts of Khan Younis to seek shelter.
In the last 48 hours, a bomb fell near the building but did not explode, causing a great deal of panic. Three people were injured as a result.
Overnight, the building was directly targeted by a missile that destroyed parts of it and damaged medical equipment.
There are reports of a young girl being killed and several others critically injured.
Once again, we are seeing a hospital that is not only serving as a health facility but also as a shelter, coming under direct attack from Israeli forces.
Israel withholds Palestinian bodies
Dozens of Palestinian bodies have been confiscated by Israel in the occupied West Bank, since the war began on October 7. Human rights organisations fear that many more are being taken away from Gaza and they may not be returned like several others whose remains have not been returned for years by Israeli authorities.
Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel Hamid reports from Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
Col. Macgregor looks back on Ukraine debacle
All of it was fantasy,’ says Colonel Douglas Macgregor, that the US and UK pushing Ukraine into war would destroy Russia.
Sunday, December 17, 2023
Global impacts: Expanding war zone
A Hong-Kong based shipping company has suspended its activity to and from Israel.
That's after vessels in the Red Sea came under attack from Houthi fighters in Yemen.
The Houthis say they’ll continue their attacks if Israel doesn’t stop its war on Gaza.
And their activities are starting to have far-reaching consequences, not just for Israel, but globally.
Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat reports from the Israeli port city of Haifa.
Maritime expert Victoria Mitchell says while recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea have not led to a complete shutdown of the trading route, there are implications for individual ship operators.
“What is important to highlight is the concern for the seafarers themselves, who are transporting goods and sailing the vessels along this route,” Mitchell, an analyst at Control Risks, told Al Jazeera.
“That has been a concern highlighted by several of the operators who have elected to pause shipments in the current circumstances.”
Earlier this week, the Danish company Maersk said it will pause all journeys through the Red Sea after a series of attacks on shipping by the Yemen’s Houthi rebels. The Iran-aligned group says they are targeting shipping to pressure Israel during its offensive on Gaza.
Moreover, Mitchell says there were also major concerns around insurance premiums. “More risk premiums will increase costs for operators and we’ll also see increased costs and delays when vessels re-route,” she said.
“So rather than taking the Red Sea Suez Canal transit route … the alternative is to sail around the coast of Africa. That will add days to any transit and will require additional port calls and fuel. All of this will add to the cost of any shipment.”
Witness to Israel's war on West Bank
Just back from the West Bank, Dan Kovalik reports on the increased repression and the deaths of 300 Palestinians since October 7 and the increase in settler violence.
Saturday, December 16, 2023
Israel kills their own
The Israeli military says it has mistakenly shot and killed three captives during its Gaza offensive. They were targeted after troops wrongly identified them as a threat.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the military will draw lessons from the incident.
The White House has called it a tragic mistake.
Relatives of the captives and their supporters have been protesting in Tel Aviv. They demonstrated at the Israeli Defence Ministry demanding the government do more to free the remaining captives and calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.
Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher is in Occupied East Jerusalem for the latest developments.
Same war strategy from Ukraine to Palestine
By Manlio Dinucci (Grandangolo on Byoblu TV, Italy)
Zelensky was invited to Washington by Biden and was pressing Congress to approve the spending bill which includes another 50 billion dollars in military aid for Ukraine.
The New York Times writes: “The Ukrainian counteroffensive launched six months ago has failed. Kyiv has to deal with declining military personnel, ammunition reserves, and Western support.
Moscow is demonstrating the ability to sustain a prolonged war.” In this situation, the New York Times still writes, “The United States and Ukraine are looking for a new strategy after the failure of the counteroffensive: the Pentagon sends General Aguto, support commander for Ukraine from a base in Germany, to spend long periods in Kyiv. General Aguto will work more directly with the country's military leadership."
The United States continues to support Israel in the war in Gaza while it continues to fuel the war in Ukraine directly and through NATO. The plan of the leaders of Israel involves the deportation of the population of Gaza to the Sinai desert and the cancellation of Gaza as a Palestinian territory, then doing the same thing with the West Bank.
The US strategy, supported by Israel, aims to widen the war in the Middle Eastern region, where the US is losing its predominant position in the face of the advancement of the political-economic projects of China and Russia, including the forthcoming enlargement of the BRICS to Iran and Saudi Arabia.
To support this war strategy the United States continues to increase its already enormous military spending. The Senate has approved a Defence Law worth 886 billion dollars, to which other military expenditure is added, bringing the total to around half of global military spending.
The African genocides - resource war$
Sabby is a part of the Revolutionary Blackout Network.
Margaret Kimberley is Executive Editor and Senior Columnist at Black Agenda Report, which she co-founded in 2006 with Glen Ford and Bruce Dixon.
Friday, December 15, 2023
Biden staffers call for ceasefire in Gaza at vigil outside White House
YPA
Biden administration staffers and political appointees have held a vigil in front of the White House, calling for a permanent ceasefire to end the Israeli regime’s months-long devastating war on the Gaza Strip.
More than three dozen people, including political appointees, administration staffers and civil service career staff, gathered in front of the White House on Wednesday evening to attend the early evening vigil. Most of the participants wore sunglasses and masks to conceal their identities.
The demonstrators held a banner reading “President Biden, your staff demands a ceasefire” and candles were arranged in front of them to spell out “Ceasefire.” They called the violence that has unfolded in Gaza in the course of the war “unacceptable.”
As staffers placed roses by candles in memory of the victims, the names of Palestinians killed since December 1 following the end of a humanitarian pause in the fighting were read aloud from a list that was 33 pages long.
Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned from his job in October over opposing US military aid to Israel, delivered opening remarks.
“The US government’s decision to double down on fueling the violence has put our objectives … around the globe in jeopardy for us to achieve any movement on some of the most intractable issues we face today,” Paul said on behalf of the group.
He added that the temporary truce that ended almost two weeks ago was never enough as the resumption of killings, displacement and bombardment of Palestinian civilians in Gaza has horrified everyone.
“We must move with urgency to save as many lives as possible and achieve an immediate, permanent ceasefire agreement and the return of all hostages,” he said.
Paul, who was the director of congressional and public affairs for the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs for over 11 years, resigned in October over the transfer of arms to Israel amid growing dissent over Biden’s unequivocal support for the occupying regime.
Another former administration staffer read a statement from a group of Palestinian officials who did not want to be identified.
Biden has faced growing calls to support a ceasefire from within his administration, Congress members, and his presidential campaign staff since October 7.
Since the war in Gaza began, the United States has provided at least 15,000 bombs and about 60,000 artillery shells to Israel, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Although the immediate fast-tracking of weapons led to the resignation of senior State Department official Josh Paul, who oversaw the arms transfers, the weapons continued to be sent to Israel, and the Biden administration earlier announced that it had bypassed Congress to approve the transfer of 14,000 tank shells to Israel.
Finally CNN covers Gaza massacre
CNN's Clarissa Ward witnessed the horror and humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza during a visit to a field hospital in Rafah operated by the United Arab Emirates. Watch the full report. #CNN #News
Finally CNN covers the story. Does this signal a change is underway? Does it mean the international pressure is bearing fruit? For the sake of Palestine let us hope so.
Cultural genocide
Users on social media were outraged after footage of Israeli soldiers emerged showing them desecrating a mosque in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
This is not the first time that the IOF has done similar things like this in a mosque.
Violent logic of colonialism
Almost 15 years ago, journalist and filmmaker Avi Lewis visited Gaza.
There, he had a chilling encounter with the Israeli military and its violent colonial outlook—a “logic that leads to genocide.”
This speech was first delivered at the Parkland Conference on November 17, 2023.
Thursday, December 14, 2023
Move to Rafah and die
A woman from the Palestinian Ashour family holds the body of a baby who was killed in Israeli bombardment, on 14 December 2023, at Najar hospital in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip (AFP)
Israel tells Gaza residents to move to the Rafah border with Egypt.
The idea was to force Egypt to open the border and drive the people into the desert. Egypt refused the gimmick.
So what does Israel do? They are now bombing the shit out of Rafah. Just like they did in Khan Younis. The IOF told people from north Gaza to go there and then bombed them. Including the schools and hospitals.
What does this tell you about the so-called 'brave IOF military'? They bomb from the sky with US supplied bombs and kill Palestinians like ducks in a small pond. It's evil.
Yesterday White House staffers held a protest (with masks on to hide their identity) just outside the White House fence criticizing the Zionist Biden/Blinken cabal.
But does anyone listen? No! Largely because the Zionist lobby (AIPAC and others) are running the show inside the White House, Congress and the mainstream media.
They want Palestinian blood and they want US taxpayers to cover the costs. The Zionists are getting everything they demand and the US reputation around the globe is in tatters as a result!
People throughout the world, if you want to stop this genocide, please help do the following:
- Boycott all American corporation products. No more Coke, Pepsi, McDonald's, Starbucks, Disney, Heinz, etc
- Join the BDS movement
- Protest endlessly outside US embassies in every world capital
- Demand that your government break diplomatic relations with Israel and the US
- Demand your country 'dump the dollar' like BRICS-plus nations are doing
- If you live in the US tell both corporate dominated war parties that you will under no circumstances vote for either of them again - for president, Congress, local elections, even for dog catcher
- Keep protesting and if anyone tells you that these protests are 'antisemitic' tell them to take a hike
- Continue to share the long history of Zionist colonization of Palestine, at least since the 1948 Nakba
- Remind people that recent polls taken in the US show, such as in a YouGov poll, the margin favoring a cease-fire was 65 percent to 16 percent. In the Ipsos poll, 68 percent of people agreed that “Israel should call a cease-fire and try to negotiate.”
- Help block cargo shipments of weapons on ships to Israel
- Demand the US Congress stop all funding to Israel (and Ukraine and Taiwan, etc)
- Keep sharing info and talking to others about these Israel-US war crimes
- Don't forget the West Bank that is now increasing being attacked daily
- Be wary of the corporate media.
- Demand that international legal bodies file war crimes charges against Israel-US
- Show courage and stand in solidarity with the beleaguered Palestinian people
If I forgot any important ideas please let me know.
In the immortal words of the late Dominican Sister Ardeth Platte, "We are a killing nation, we can kill them fast or we can kill them slow".
The perfect description of what is happening in Palestine.
Bruce
Overwhelming proof of Insider trading in anticipation of Oct 7
Washington Post
NEW YORK—Some investors active on the New York and Tel Aviv Stock Exchanges (NYSE and TASE) apparently knew in advance that Hamas militants were about to launch their attack on Israel before Oct. 7th and that a war would follow. They used that knowledge to cash in by short-selling Israel-linked shares, generating a profit windfall worth millions of dollars.
That’s the claim being made by researchers at New York University and Columbia University. “Our evidence is consistent with informed traders anticipating and profiting from the Hamas attack” and the war that erupted in its wake, financial market experts Robert J. Jackson, Jr., of NYU and Joshua Mitts of Columbia concluded in an explosive paper published Dec. 4.
The two professors’ meticulously-documented report, titled “Trading on Terror?”, details what they call a “significant spike in short-selling in the principal Israeli-company ETF [Exchange-Traded Fund]” on the NYSE in the weeks before Oct. 7th and similar short-selling moves against dozens of Israeli companies listed on the TASE. They rely on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), which they say is still incomplete.
Short-selling the Israeli economy
The practice of short-selling is a bet by traders that a company’s stock price will go down in the near future. For a small fee, short-sellers “borrow” shares of a corporation or fund that they believe will soon drop.
While the price is still up, they sell the borrowed shares. Then, when the price drops, the short-sellers “close their position,” meaning they re-buy the shares and return them to the broker they borrowed them from, pocketing the difference and potentially making huge profits.
Typically, short-sellers make such bets because they disagree with analyst consensus about a particular company’s financial health. Sometimes, however, it’s because they have insider knowledge about events that will impact a company’s business before they happen.
According to the research published in “Trading on Terror,” that is exactly what seems to have happened in relation to Oct. 7th. “Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come,” Jackson and Mitts declared.
Citing trading activity in New York, they said the main exchange-traded fund that broadly tracks the performance of the Israeli stock market as a whole “suddenly and significantly spiked” on Oct. 2—five days before the attacks.
Looking at the volume of short-sells of MSCI Israel ETF (stock code: EIS), they say it was “extraordinarily high and unlikely to have been explained by bona fide market making” because there were no purchases to offset sales. The trading was all in one direction: “Nearly 100% of the trading volume in EIS…consisted of short-selling.”
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
The world gets it
US-Israel are complicit in genocide against Palestine.
Now what comes next?
When does Washington and Tel Aviv get charged with war crimes?
Does 'global leadership' wait until one million in Gaza are dead?
Or until every ounce of human infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed?
And on top of all that, Tel Aviv says they will 'determine' who will run Gaza after the shooting stops?
What ever happened to 'democracy'?
Don't the Palestinian people get to decide who runs their country?
This is brazen arrogance and lunacy being exhibited by the Zionists in US-Israel.
But that is nothing new.
How much longer can the Israeli Lobby be allowed to run US foreign policy?
Bruce
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