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Tag Archives: OCCUPIED pALESTINE

Divine judgment has been unleashed on the entire world

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Since the dawn of the Zionist movement, suffering has not ceased to exist in the world. All the warnings of the Torah have been fulfilled in their details among our people all over the world. For a believer it is no surprise that the Zionists are the same as the heretics at the time of the Destruction of the Temple. Divine judgment has been unleashed on the entire world.
Rabbi Shaul Brach, Rabbi of Kasho, Hungary (1865-1940)

The term “Antisemitism” originated in 1860 by a European Ashkanazi Jew. The first Zionist congress was held in 1897 

The strategy of equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is, in fact, a strategy to conceal and distract from the very real, old antisemitism that was always an ally of the Zionist movement – an alliance that goes back to the 1890s and continues to this very day. 

The First Zionist Congress  was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization (ZO) held in Basel, from August 29 to August 31, 1897.

208 delegates and 26 press correspondents attended the event.[1] It was convened[2] and chaired[3] by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionism movement.

The Congress formulated a Zionist platform, known as the Basel program, and founded the Zionist Organization.

It also adopted the Hatikvah as its anthem (already the anthem of Hovevei Zion and later to become the national anthem of the State of Israel).

And thus the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was discovered and published. 

The Protocols, the record of secret meetings of Jewish leaders, describes a conspiracy to dominate the world. 

“Although the term [antisemitism] now has wide currency, it is a misnomer, since it implies a discrimination against all Semites.

Arabs and other peoples are Semites, and yet they are not the targets of antisemitism as it is usually understood,” asserts the online encyclopedia.

When Zionists Murder authentic Jews: The Story of the Ringworm Children

Ashkenazi Jews (not one drop Semitic )

(ASH-keh-NAH-zee jooz)
One of two major ancestral groups of Jewish people whose ancestors lived in France and Central and Eastern Europe, including Germany, Poland, and Russia.
The other group (Semitic Jews) is called Sephardic Jews and includes those whose ancestors lived in Spain, Portugal, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Most Jewish people living in the United States are of Ashkenazi descent.

The AntiChrist as described in the Bible:

Verse 36: He will take absolute power for himself, the biggest power grab the world has ever witnessed.

Verse 36: He will oppose everything called God, and he will exalt himself over everything, reminiscent of Lucifer.

Verse 36: He will be the arch-blasphemer against God and all that God represents.

Verse 36: He will prosper-during the time God allows him. God will still be in control.

Verse 37: He will reject all deities.

Verses 38, 39: He will worship and ruthlessly use military might.

Verse 40: His might as head of the Revived Roman Empire will be challenged.

Verses 40-43: Since he will have made a covenant with Israel, he will fight the kings of the north (Syria) and south (Egypt and joining nations), and will be victorious at the beginning.

Verse 44: But additional conflict will take place.

Verse 45: Antichrist will set up headquarters in Jerusalem and will break his covenant with Jerusalem, posing as Christ and introducing his one-world system.

Verse 45: Antichrist will “come to his end,” when Christ descends to earth with His armies and His bride at the end of the Tribulation and defeats the world ruler (see also Zechariah 14:1-4; Revelation 19:19-21).

 

The truth behind Israeli propaganda on the ‘expulsion’ of Arab Jews

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HOW THE  NON SEMITIC ASHKENAZI SOUGHT TO POISON AND MURDER SEMITIC SEPHARDIC CHILDREN.

The history of Arab Jewish immigration to Israel is not one of expulsion by Arab regimes, but rather one of Israeli criminal actions and conspiracies

Israel’s outrageous fabrications about the immigration of Arab Jews to Israel in the 1940s and 50s are an attempt to mask the injustices meted out to Palestinians

Israeli propaganda about the “expulsion” of Arab Jews from Arab countries in the late 1940s and early 1950s continues without respite.

Earlier this month, Israel’s UN ambassador, Gilad Erdan, informed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that he “intends to submit a draft resolution requiring the international body to hold an annual commemoration for the hundreds of thousands of Jews exiled from Arab countries due to the creation of the State of Israel,” according to a report in Ynet. 

The history of Arab Jewish immigration to Israel is not one of expulsion by Arab regimes, but rather one of Israeli criminal actions and conspiracies

Israel’s fabrications about the immigration of Arab Jews to Israel are so outrageous that the country holds a commemoration on 30 November each year.

This date just happens to coincide with the ethnic cleansing by Zionist gangs of Palestine, which began on 30 November 1947, a day after the UN General Assembly adopted the Partition Plan.

The choice of date seeks to implicate Arab Jews in the conquest of Palestine, when most had no role in it.  

Erdan alleges that, after the establishment of the Israeli settler-colony, Arab countries “launched a widespread attack against the State of Israel and the thriving Jewish communities that lived within [the Arab world]”. 

Israeli fabrications, with which Israel always hoped to force Arab countries into paying Israel billions of dollars, have a second important goal: to exonerate Israel from its original sin of expelling Palestinians in 1948 and stealing their land and property. 

Ideological pitfalls

In December 1948, the UN General Assembly mandated that Palestinian refugees be allowed to return home and that they be compensated for the destruction and theft of their property by Israel.

Israel not only wants to hold on to all of those lands, but to extort Arab countries to pay out billions more.

There is a further irony to the Israeli ploy: Israel has always insisted that Palestine, and later Israel, is the homeland of world Jewry, while simultaneously claiming that Arab Jews who immigrated to Israel are “refugees”.

The legal and internationally accepted definition of a refugee, however, is of a person who was expelled or fled their homeland, not one who “returns” to their homeland.

President of the Egyptian Jewish Community Magda Shehata Haroun talks during an interview with AFP at the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo, also known as Temple Ismailia or Adly Synagogue in downtown Cairo on October 3, 2016.
President of the Egyptian Jewish Community Magda Shehata Haroun at the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue in Cairo on 3 October, 2013 (AFP)

These ideological pitfalls aside, the history of Arab Jewish emigration to Israel is not one of expulsion by Arab regimes, but rather one of Israeli criminal actions that forced Jews in Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, Egypt and other countries to leave for Israel.  

In 1949, the Israeli government was working assiduously with British colonial authorities in Aden and with Yemeni officials to airlift Yemeni Jews to Israel.

While the League of Arab States had resolved to ban the emigration of Arab Jews to Israel, Yemen’s imam allowed Jews to leave as early as February 1949, with the help of Zionist emissaries and Israeli bribes to provincial Yemeni rulers, according to prominent Israeli historian Tom Segev’s book: 1949: The First Israelis.

Some provincial rulers asked that at least 2,000 Jews remain, as it was the religious duty of Muslims to protect them, but the Zionist emissary insisted that it was a Jewish religious “commandment” for them to go to the “Land of Israel”.

The fact that Israel’s prime minister at the time was David Ben Gurion also suggested to many that Israel “was the kingdom of David,” according to Segev and other sources.

 Tens of thousands of Jews were urged to leave their homes and travel to Israel. 

Institutionalised discrimination

As for the Jews who opted to stay, the Jewish emissary in Aden, Shlomo Schmidt, asked permission to propose that Yemeni authorities expel them, but Yemeni authorities did not. 

Some of the luggage of the departing Jews, including ancient Torah scrolls, jewellery and embroidered garments, which they were encouraged to bring with them, disappeared en route and mysteriously “made their way to antique and souvenir shops in Israel,” according to Segev and other sources.

About 50,000 Yemeni Jews were essentially removed from Yemen by the Israelis in 1949 and 1950 to face institutionalised Ashkenazi discrimination in Israel.

This included the abduction of hundreds of Yemeni children from their parents, who were told the children died; the children were then allegedly handed over for adoption to Ashkenazi couples.

Arab rulers and Israel’s leaders: A long and secret history of cooperation

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Zionists were also active in bringing about the emigration of Morocco’s Jews to Israel. Morocco was under French colonial occupation at the time, so the Jewish Agency had to strike an agreement with the French governor of Morocco to bring about the emigration of Moroccan Jews, who had to face horrific conditions on Israeli ships, according to Segev and other sources. 

Some of the 100,000 Jews who left, according to the Jewish Agency emissary, had to be virtually “taken aboard the ships by force”. 

Meanwhile, the Iraqi government of Nuri al-Said, Britain’s strongman in the Arab east, was maligned by Israeli propaganda that it was persecuting Jews, when in fact these were Israeli fabrications. Zionist agents had been active in Iraq, smuggling Jews through Iran to Israel, which led to the prosecution of a handful of Zionists. 

Then, attacks on Iraqi Jews began, including at the Masuda Shemtov synagogue in Baghdad, killing four Jews and wounding around a dozen more.

Some Iraqi Jews believed that this was the work of Mossad agents, aiming to scare Jews into leaving the country. Iraqi authorities accused and executed two activists from the Zionist underground.

Amid Israel’s global campaign to pressure Iraq into allowing Jews to leave – which led to Israeli attempts to block a World Bank loan to Iraq, accompanied by American and British pressure – the Iraqi parliament relented and issued a law permitting Jews to leave.

Zionist agents in Iraq telegraphed their handler in Tel Aviv: “We are carrying on our usual activity in order to push the law through faster.” Iraq’s 120,000 Jews were thus soon transferred to Israel.

Targeting western interests

Among Egypt’s relatively small Jewish community, an even smaller number were Ashkenazi (mostly from Alsace and Russia) who arrived since the 1880s.

The larger community consisted of Sephardi Jews who arrived during the same period from Turkey, Iraq and Syria, in addition to the tiny community of Karaite Jews.

All in all, they numbered fewer than 70,000 people, half of whom did not hold Egyptian nationality. 

Zionist activism among the small community of Ashkenazi Jews in Egypt led some to go to Palestine before 1948.

However, it was after the establishment of Israel that many of Egypt’s upper-class Jews began to leave to France, not Israel.

Nonetheless, the community remained essentially intact until Israel intervened in 1954, recruiting Egyptian Jews for an Israeli terrorist cell that placed bombs in Egyptian cinemas, the Cairo train station as well as American and British educational institutions and libraries.

The Israelis hoped that by targeting western interests in Egypt, they could sour the then-friendly relations between Egypt’s president and the Americans. 

Egyptian intelligence uncovered the Israeli terrorist ring and tried the accused in open court.

The Israelis mounted an international campaign against Egypt and president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was dubbed “Hitler on the Nile” by the Israeli and western press, while Israeli agents shot at the Egyptian consulate in New York, according to David Hirst’s book The Gun and the Olive Branch and other sources.

When Israel joined the British-French conspiracy to invade Egypt in 1956, and after its military occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, public rage ensued against the settler-colony

Combined with the new socialist and nationalist campaign of Egyptianizing investments in the country, many rich businessmen began to sell their businesses and leave.

By the time nationalization began in the late 1950s and early 1960s, most of the nationalized businesses were in fact owned by Egyptian Muslims and Christians, not Jews. It was in this context, and in the context of public rage against Israel, that many Egyptian Jews got scared and left after 1954 to the US and France, while the poor ended up in Israel (as recounted in Joel Beinin’s Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry).

When Israel joined the British-French conspiracy to invade Egypt in 1956, and after its military occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, public rage ensued against the settler-colony. The Egyptian government detained about 1,000 Jews, half of whom were Egyptian citizens, according to Beinin, and Egypt’s small Jewish community began to leave in droves. On the eve of Israel’s second invasion of Egypt in 1967, only 7,000 Jews remained in the country.

Formal invitations

Despite Israeli culpability in bringing about the exodus of Arab Jews from their countries, the Israeli government continues  to blame it on Arab governments.

As for the property of Arab Jews, indeed, they should be fully entitled to it and/or to compensation – not on account of some fabricated expulsion narrative that serves the interests of the Israeli state, but on account of their actual ownership. 

Contrary to Israeli propaganda that there was a population swap, it is notable that  while European and Arab Jews who emigrated to Israel were given the stolen land and properties of expelled Palestinians free of charge, according to Israeli historian Benny Morris and other sources, the Palestinians did not receive the property of the Arab Jews who migrated to Israel.

A picture dated before 1937 during the British Mandate in Palestine shows Arabs demonstrating in the Old City of Jerusalem against the Jewish immigration to Palestine.
A picture dated before 1937 during the British Mandate in Palestine shows Arabs demonstrating in the Old City of Jerusalem against the Jewish immigration to Palestine (AFP)

Indeed, the Palestine Liberation Organization, which in 1974 received recognition by the Arab League and the UN as “the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,” was very aware of this Israeli strategy.

Understanding that the emigration of Arab Jews to Israel was a boon to the Israeli settler-colony, the PLO demanded, in a much-publicised 1975 memorandum to the Arab governments whose Jewish populations had left to Israel, that they issue formal and public invitations for Arab Jews to return home. 

Notably, none of the governments and regimes in power in 1975 were in office when the Jews left between 1949 and 1967.

 Public and open invitations were duly issued by the governments of Morocco, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Iraq and Egypt for Arab Jews to return home, especially in light of the institutionalised Ashkenazi racist discrimination to which they had been subjected in Israel.

Neither Israel nor its Arab Jewish communities heeded the calls. 

Rewarding crimes

All this aside, there is the matter of Israel’s unceasing attempts to equate the financial losses of Arab Jews with those of Palestinian refugees.

A conservative official Israeli estimate comparing Palestinian property losses to Arab Jewish property losses gave a ratio of 22 to one in favour of Palestinians – despite Israel’s gross overestimation of Arab Jewish losses and even grosser underestimation of Palestinian losses.

How the Arab League helped dissolve the Palestinian question

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Researchers’ conservative estimates of Palestinian refugee losses amount to more than $300bn in 2008 prices, excluding damages for psychological pain and suffering, which would raise the total substantially.

This excludes the losses in confiscated land and property for Palestinian citizens of Israel since 1948, and the losses incurred by Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem since 1967. 

Whereas none of the Arab regimes in power when Arab Jews emigrated to Israel exists today, the same Israeli colonial-settler regime that expelled the Palestinian people and engineered the exodus of Arab Jews from their countries remains in power. 

Yet, in his letter, Erdan complains that “it is infuriating to see the UN mark a special day and devote a lot of resources for the issue of ‘Palestinian refugees,’ while abandoning and ignoring hundreds of thousands of Jewish families deported from Arab countries and Iran”.

The irony of Erdan’s letter is that it demands that the Israeli regime be financially and morally rewarded for the crimes it has committed over the last seven decades.

Israel: Justice minister says ‘Jews are not ready to live with Arabs’

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Yariv Levin calls for judges who ‘understand’ that Jews leave cities where Palestinian citizens of Israel buy property

29 May 2023 

The Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin said on Sunday that the purchase of houses by Palestinians in towns and cities in Israel has pushed Jewish people to leave these areas.

The comments were made during a meeting on Sunday where Levin made the case that the Supreme Court needs to feature judges who can “understand” why Jewish Israelis wouldn’t want to “live with Arabs”.

“Arabs buy apartments in Jewish communities in the Galilee and this causes Jews to leave these cities, because they are not ready to live with Arabs.

We need to ensure that the Supreme Court has justices who understand this,” said Levin, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

Levin, one of the chief architects of judicial overhaul plans that would see greater political control over the judiciary, made the comments in support of pushing ahead with the controversial reforms.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to pause his plans following mass protests and an international outcry.

The cabinet meeting on Sunday also discussed a new government proposal to assert “Zionist values” in government policy, which critics have argued could enable Jewish Israelis to receive preferential treatment in housing planning and construction.

Creating fear for Israeli citizens…nothing could be further from the truth!

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that it was illegal to prevent Palestinian citizens of Israel from purchasing a house in a given community.

In 2011, the Israeli government passed the Admission Committee Law.

This allows small communities – particularly the Galilee and the Negev, where there is a significant presence of Palestinians – to screen incoming residents.

The law, which many believe is aimed at keeping Palestinians out of Jewish communities, has since been upheld in court.

21 weeks of protests

In March, Netanyahu announced a “pause” to allow for talks on the reforms, which were moving through parliament and have split the nation.

The ongoing dialogue produced no major breakthrough, and last week parliament approved the state budget, with Netanyahu vowing to “continue our efforts to reach understandings as broad as possible on the legal reform”.

On Saturday last week, Israelis took to the streets of Tel Aviv for the 21st straight week of protests against the far-right government’s judicial reform plans just days after parliament approved the state budget.

Protesters gathered in other major cities, Haifa and Beersheba, as well as at dozens of junctions and locales throughout the country, to decry what they perceive as a threat to Israel’s democracy.

The government’s reform proposals would curtail the authority of the Supreme Court and give politicians greater powers over the selection of judges.

Kissinger 2012: “Israel Will Be Gone in Ten Years”

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October 02, 2012

The US government no longer has the military and financial resources “to continue propping up Israel against the wishes of more than a billion of its neighbors”

“Kissinger’s statement is flat and unqualified. He is not saying that Israel is in danger, but could be saved if we just gave it additional trillions of dollars and smashed enough of its enemies with our military.…

He is not offering a way out. He is simply stating a fact: In 2022, Israel will no longer exist,” political columnist Kevin Barrett wrote in an article published on Press TV website on Sunday.

He also pointed to a study commissioned by the US Intelligence Community (IC), comprised of 16 US intelligence agencies, earlier this year, titled “Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East,” and pointed out that the content of the IC’s report corroborates Kissinger’s contention.

“The sixteen US intelligence agencies agree that Israel cannot withstand the coming pro-Palestinian juggernaut consisting of the Arab Spring, the Islamic Awakening, and the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the analyst added.

The IC report contends that the US government no longer has the military and financial resources “to continue propping up Israel against the wishes of more than a billion of its neighbors” and suggests that “the US will have to follow its own national interests and pull the plug on Israel,” Barrett said.

Considering the fact that the Jewish Kissinger has long been viewed as an ardent friend of Israel and that the majority of US officials, including the authors of the IC report, are influenced by pro-Israeli lobby, the emerging messages become more remarkable, the article added.

The article argues that the emerging “complacency” among the US officials about Israel’s fate can be traced in the following reasons:

• American politicians and political activists “are growing fed-up with Israeli intransigence and fanaticism.”
• Americans feel “festering resentment over the Israel lobby’s imperious domination of public discourse.”
• “The American Jewish community is no longer united in support of Israel.”
• It is becoming a common knowledge that Israel and its supporters carried out the 9/11 false-flag attacks.

Dead-in-the-water GIFs - Get the best GIF on GIPHY

“In fact, the US is going broke and sacrificing thousands of lives in wars for Israel – wars that damage, rather than aid, US strategic interests,” the article said.

“It will become ever-easier for American policymakers, following in the footsteps of Kissinger and the sixteen intelligence agencies, to recognize the obvious: Israel has reached the end of its shelf-life,” Barrett concluded.
Source: Press TV

MBS says Palestinians ‘the central issue’ for Arabs, as US pushes Israel-Saudi peace

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Saudi crown prince stresses backing for Palestinian state amid intensified US effort to secure normalization; Egypt’s Sissi, who mediated Gaza ceasefire, slams Israeli ‘escalation’

19 May 2023

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed his commitment to Palestinian statehood at the Arab League summit on Friday, amid intensified US efforts to broker a normalization deal between the Gulf kingdom and Israel.

“We will not delay in providing assistance to the Palestinian people in recovering their lands, restoring their legitimate rights and establishing an independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” bin Salman said in his address to the Jeddah conference, where considerable attention was focused on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s return to the forum after a 12-year suspension.

“The Palestinian issue was and remains the central issue for Arab countries, and it is at the top of the kingdom’s priorities,” added the de facto Saudi leader, who is known by his initials MBS.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed his commitment to Palestinian statehood at the Arab League summit on Friday, amid intensified US efforts to broker a normalization deal between the Gulf kingdom and Israel.

“We will not delay in providing assistance to the Palestinian people in recovering their lands, restoring their legitimate rights and establishing an independent state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” bin Salman said in his address to the Jeddah conference, where considerable attention was focused on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s return to the forum after a 12-year suspension.

“The Palestinian issue was and remains the central issue for Arab countries, and it is at the top of the kingdom’s priorities,” added the de facto Saudi leader, who is known by his initials MBS.

Foreign Ministry director-general Ronen Levy also spoke with administration officials about a potential Saudi deal during his trip to Washington earlier this week.

While there is some renewed optimism in Jerusalem, Israel’s Arab neighbors have sent other signals, expressing severe discontent with Netanyahu’s new hardline government over its far-right members and antagonistic policies toward the Palestinians.

In this photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA, leaders of Arab countries pose for a group picture ahead of the Arab summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Netanyahu’s planned visit to the United Arab Emirates has been put on hold and the Negev Forum ministerial summit, which was planned for earlier this spring, has yet to be scheduled by Morocco.

The US even recommended that Israel change the name of the Negev Forum so that it is less specifically identified with the Jewish state, amid increased discomfort with Jerusalem in recent months.

A senior Middle East diplomat told The Times of Israel last month that the Netanyahu government has made maintaining the Abraham Accords, let alone expanding them to include Saudi Arabia, “very difficult.”

Still, Saudi Arabia has been willing to name its price for normalizing with Israel in talks with Biden officials.

The senior diplomat said that Riyadh has asked the US to green-light its development of a civilian nuclear program in exchange for the kingdom normalizing relations with Israel.

In this photo provided by the Saudi Press Agency, SPA, leaders of Arab countries meet during the Arab summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

The civilian nuclear program is among several demands Riyadh has presented in talks with the Biden administration over the past year, the diplomat said, while clarifying that such a deal remains “very far off.”

The senior diplomat said that although Washington is interested in brokering a normalization agreement, Riyadh is not rushing to sign on, recognizing Congressional opposition to Saudi demands for closer US defense cooperation.

In this photo provided by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, is greeted by Prince Badr Bin Sultan, deputy governor of Mecca, upon his arrival at Jeddah airport, Saudi Arabia, May 19, 2023, to attend the Arab summit. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Given the Biden administration’s fears that a Saudi nuclear program could further accelerate a regional nuclear arms race, Riyadh has suggested developing it in full cooperation with the US and agreeing to American monitoring and inspections, the diplomat said, while acknowledging that Washington has not yet been sold on the idea.

Further complicating the effort, Saudi Arabia is also conditioning a normalization deal with Israel on a significant expansion of defense ties with the US, including a system of guarantees to prevent future administrations from pulling out of weapons deals that have already been signed, the diplomat said.

In this photo provided by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Syrian President Bashar Assad chairs his deletions during the Arab summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Notably, the Middle East diplomat revealed that Saudi officials have not raised a specific demand related to the Palestinian issue in their talks with the US, as the United Arab Emirates did when it conditioned its decision to normalize ties in 2020 on Netanyahu shelving his plan to annex large parts of the West Bank.

The diplomat speculated that a Palestinian-related demand would likely be raised toward the end of the negotiations.

Just about every Arab leader was present at Friday’s summit in Jeddah, including Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also attended after receiving a surprise invitation.

Abbas used his speech to urge Arab countries to join Ramallah’s effort to drag Israel before the International Criminal Court over its conduct against the Palestinians.

In this photo provided by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas attends the Arab summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

“Israel violates signed agreements and UN resolutions and maintains its colonial Zionist project, which is based on the continuation of the occupation, ethnic cleansing and apartheid,” he charged, adding that Jerusalem has continued to carry out “unilateral measures” that further entrench the conflict in defiance of the international community.

Jordan’s King Abdullah struck a similar tone as bin Salman, saying that “the Palestinian issue remains the focus of our attention. We cannot give up on the pursuit of a just and comprehensive peace, which will not be achieved if the Palestinian people are not able to establish an independent state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

He blasted Israeli settlement construction, demolition of Palestinian homes and expulsion of Palestinians from their lands, insisting that the alternative to a two-state solution — which Israel opposes — is an “ongoing state of conflict.”

In this photo provided by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, attends the Arab summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, May 19, 2023. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who often presents as a slightly more moderate foil to Abdullah on Israel, said in his speech that Cairo “followed with sorrow and pain Israel’s irresponsible escalation in the territories and what happened in Gaza.”

He appeared to be referencing last week’s five-day conflict in Gaza, which ended after Egypt brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

“We call on Israel to end the occupation and to enable the establishment of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Sissi said.

Arab League Secretary-General Aboul Gheit lambasted Israel in his speech as well. “The reckless actions of the Israeli government have led to a shocking escalation in the level of violence and killing in recent months.

We salute the steadfastness of the Palestinians. The [Israeli] government’s provocative policies and actions are extreme, and a decisive response by the international community must be taken.”

Syria’s Assad also raised the issue, saying, “the Arab League summit presents a historic opportunity to address regional problems without Western and foreign interference,” namely the “crimes of the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people.”

The comments were largely standard for leadership in Riyadh, which has long insisted publicly that it remains committed to the Palestinian cause and will only normalize ties with Israel after a two-state solution has been reached.

This has not stopped the Biden administration from working to strike a deal between Jerusalem and Riyadh, with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan calling it a “national security interest” earlier this month.

The next week, Sullivan flew to Riyadh, where he met with bin Salman and raised the issue.

Sullivan was accompanied by senior White House aides Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein who subsequently traveled to Jerusalem to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the status of the endeavor.

Why Israel can’t defeat the Palestinian resistance

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No matter how many Israeli missiles and airstrikes hit their houses and workplaces, Palestinians do not wave a white flag to Israel. Here is why.

May 14, 2023

Israel has a strong army equipped with nuclear weapons and for most of its existence, the country has used its military power against Palestine, a nation that has been reduced to a few tiny, fragmented pieces of land where different armed groups have emerged to challenge the Israeli occupation at different times. 

Palestinians have always been defiant, strong-willed and absolutely sure about fighting for a just cause, which is to defend their native lands against a brutal occupation. 

While world history is filled with stories of occupations and assimilation of people under the rule of invaders, Palestinians have stayed loyal to their identity. They have an unwavering faith in their cause, which is to win back the right to live in their own native lands with freedom and dignity.  

As a result, they formed various resistance movements to fight against the Israeli occupation. Even those who were forced to leave Palestine have fiercely defended their identity in exile. They all long for the day when they will return to their homeland. 

“Central to the Palestinian diaspora experience is a paradox of existing in a past that despite its pain seems more secure than the precariousness of your present home. Life is a struggle to build a new home while preserving the memory of the one that was taken from you and desperately searching for a way to return to it,” Laila al Arian, an award-winning Palestinian-American journalist, wrote in The New York Times.  

After their forceful migration from Palestine, Arian’s maternal grandfather and his family has moved from one country to another to find a safe refuge, she explained in her article. The family could not live in houses and apartments it bought due to both the Israeli invasion’s illegal measures and problematic refugee laws of countries like Egypt, where they lived after the 1967 war. 

Despite facing hardships, the family never gave up resisting the Israeli occupation. Sami al Arian, Laila’s father, who now lives in Turkey, is one of the prominent voices on Palestine. He was born in Kuwait in 1958 as his parents had taken refuge there following the 1948 War which led to the creation of Israel. 

AP ARCHIVE

Sami al Arian’s fierce defense of Palestinian resistance led to his deportation from the US.

“Over the years, Palestinians have internalized their struggle against the colonialist-settler nature of their invaders. They know that the Zionist movement and its aggressive state will not stop short of their total annihilation,” Arian tells TRT World.  

A genuine native resistance

The Palestinian struggle has several striking aspects. It has evolved over the decades and Palestinians have surprised the world with their art of resistance, which ranged from leading two Intifadas in the early 1990s and 2000s, to witnessing the emergence of several armed resistance groups. 

Fatah, a secularist nationalist movement, which has been the leading faction in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), was founded in 1959 by Palestinian students like Yasser Arafat and Salah Khalaf. 

But when Fatah began losing its influence over Palestinians following the signing of the 1993 failed Oslo Accords, Hamas, a religiously-inspired movement, emerged in the early 1990s under the leadership of a modest cleric, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who had several handicaps. 

Palestinian popular rebellions, the First Intifada (1987-1991) and the Second Intifada (2000-2005), were also clear demonstrations of support ordinary people from children to elders have given to the liberation cause. 

“They concluded that the alternative to their dispossession, exile, suffering, and total defeat is to continue to struggle until they gain their rights and attain justice. They have experienced many traumas and offered many sacrifices because they believe in their cause and are determined to liberate their country,” Arian recounts. 

In the latest round of Palestinian-Israeli fighting, against the Israeli assaults, Hamas and its allies have fiercely defended Gaza, where Laila al Arian’s grandfather and his family once lived and bought land for a house, which could not be built due to the 1967 War and Israeli occupation afterwards. 

AFP

Israeli F-16 warplanes dropped numerous bombs and missiles on Gaza. Some of the missiles fell unexploded.

The recent Israeli attack marked another major military engagement of Tel Aviv for the control of Gaza, which has solely been under Hamas since 2007. Hamas and its allies have fought back against three full-scale Israeli ground invasions in 2006, 2008-09 and 2014. 

During those battles, which were also the scene of the Israeli execution of civilians in Gaza’s dense neighbourhoods, thousands of Palestinians were killed by the Zionist state. In the most recent escalation, 232 Palestinians including 65 children were killed by Israelis while at least 72,000 of them were forcibly displaced. 

“The alternative to victory, liberation, and return is not defeat but Shahada, or martyrdom,” says Arian, referring to Islamic religious conviction that if the faithful die for a just cause, their death can not be regarded as a mere loss of life. 

According to Islam, that kind of death has been considered as shahada, an Arabic word, whose root word means witness. By sacrificing his/her lives for the defense of Palestine, martyrs become the witnesses of their noble cause to Palestinian thinking. Most Palestinians are Muslims, but Christian Palestinians are also fierce defenders of liberation from Israel. 

“Any people who are willing to die in dignity over living in servitude or humiliation will achieve victory. No amount of power or oppression could defeat such a spirit,” says Arian. 

Even after 11 days of constant bombing and destruction of their residences and lives, Palestinians in Gaza were jubilant after a midnight ceasefire declared on Friday, celebrating their defiance against Israel one more time in the rubbles of their beloved city. 

“The cessation of violence between Hamas and Israel is welcomed. Israel was surprised by the ferocity and depth of Hamas rockets, seemingly ill-prepared and unable to stop rockets from Gaza landing across vast parts of Israel,” Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist, author and film-maker who was based in East Jerusalem 2016-2020, tells TRT World. 

In order to respond to Israeli airstrikes and missiles, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired rockets at Israel, aiming at key locations like Tel Aviv International Airport, which has led to cancellations of flights. 

“The Palestinian people’s objective is to rise in unity, resist and inspire global solidarity around their cause; they have done so with flying colours,” says Ramzy Baroud, a Palestinian author and political analyst. 

“Israel had no other objective but to carry out another episode of grisly murder and wanton destruction, thinking that this time, too, the war crimes will go largely unnoticed,” Baroud tells TRT World. 

International support

While Palestinians have fiercely opposed the Israeli occupation from the very beginning, they have also been supported by countries like Turkey, Iran and some Arab states. Middle Eastern states like Egypt, Syria and Jordan had fought with Israel in different times, but their disorganised political nature has cost much to the liberation of Palestine. 

AP

Several European countries witnessed massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the past 10 days.

“All revolutions conceived in Palestine have been aborted in the Arab capitals,” said famously Salah Khalaf, one of the founders of Fatah, referring to the Arab failure to back the Palestinian cause in a consistent and strategic manner. 

Palestinians have also been backed by different groups like Catholic Irish political organisations and important figures like Richard Falk, a Jewish-American international law professor and a former UN expert. 

“Our people are determined to live on their land as dignified, free, and liberated. That’s what the world respects and supports,” says Arian. The professor thinks that Western public opinion has steadily shifted towards recognising the genuine nature of the Palestinian resistance. 

He thinks that global public opinion gives not much credit to the Mahmoud Abbas-led Palestinian Authority’s passive stances, which he defines as a “defeated approach. 

“On the other hand, the path of Resistance and willingness to stand up to the Zionist brutal military machine brought renewed feelings of self-respect, victory, and possibility of total liberation. The support of this approach worldwide is unmistakably clear,” he says. 

Tens of thousands of people, from the US to the UK, France, Germany and New Zealand have protested Israeli attacks; some American Democratic lawmakers have urged US President Joe Biden to force Israel to stop its latest aggression.

“Palestine has gained more international solidarity than ever recorded in its modern history; even mainstream media voices are now openly daring to say that ‘Palestine has the right to defend itself,'” says Baroud. 

“This historic shift in narratives will have massive consequences for Palestinian freedom in the future,” he adds. 

Under immense international pressure, Israel’s embattled hardliner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to accept a ceasefire last night. 

“Palestinians and the millions who support their struggle will dismantle the Israeli Apartheid regime in Palestine. Palestinians inside and outside Palestine believe more than ever that freedom from occupation, return to their historical land, and dismantlement of the Israeli Apartheid system will be realized,” Arian concludes. 

Despite the Israeli occupation, Laila al Arian’s grandfather, Abdul Kareem, who became an American citizen in the 2000s, returned to Gaza in 2004. While having all kinds of difficulties – from food shortage to Israeli harassment – he lived in Gaza and died there in 2019. 

 

Zionists disrupt UN Palestine Meeting

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Palestine: Actions by Israeli governments may amount to international crimes-Independent Commission

These Israelis in the audience are there to protest the topic of Palestine. Period. Something personal for me..Israelis look stupid, sound stupid and ask rhetorical questions to waste time and disrupt the meeting.

Speakers: Ms. Navanethem Pillay (Chair), along with members, Mr. Miloon Kothari and Mr. Chris Sidoti.

After presenting the report of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem ad in Israel to the General Assembly today (27 Oct), the Chair of the Commission, Navanethem Pillay, told reporters in New York that “the policies and actions by Israeli governments may amount international crimes.”

Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said these crimes include “transferring, directly or indirectly, part of one’s own civilian population into the occupied territory, and the crime against humanity, of deportation and forcible transfer.”

She said, “some of Israel’s policies and actions in the West Bank are only cosmetically intended to address the so called security concerns, and that security is often used as a pretext by Israel to justify territorial expansion.”

Asked about statements made by Israel’s Ambassador Gilad Erdan, Pillay said, “I am not antisemitic, let me make that clear.

And then to add insult to injury, they said that the report is also antisemitic.

Now, there isn’t a word in this report that can even be interpreted as antisemitic.

So, of course, it’s not new to us that this is always raised as diversion.”

Asked about including apartheid into the scope of the Commission’s investigations, the Chair said, “in this report, we are focusing on the root cause as we see it, which is the occupation.

And of course, part of it is lies in the apartheid and discrimination.

We will be coming to that.

That’s the beauty of this open ended mandate.

It gives us a scope to go in depth on too many issues and apartheid would be one of them.”

Miloon Kothari, a member of the Commission of Inquiry, said, “there’s a number of immediate steps that could be taken,” but added that “in fact, in our report, we say clearly that there are no sign of the occupation, being, you know, either slowed down or reversed, if anything, Israel has taken the decision that it’s that’s how it’s going to be, it’s going to be permanent.”

Responding to a journalist, another member of the Commission, Chris Sidoti, said, “our report in June did refer to the Hamas rocket attacks.

Indiscriminate firing of rockets into civilian population areas is a war crime.

We said that.

And there is no doubt about that, as a fact.

The obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, bind all those exercising some form of state authority in Israel, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza, and we will deal with it.”

Earlier today, in her address to the General Assembly’s Third Committee, Pillay said, “after 55 years, Israel is treating the occupation as a permanent fixture, and has for all intents and purposes annexed part of the West Bank, while seeking to hide behind a fiction of temporariness.

This permanence and annexation, including the purported de jure annexation, of East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights have led this permission to conclude that Israel’s occupation is now unlawful.”

Before her interventions, Erdan gave a statement outside the Security Council referred to the Commission of Inquiry’s report as “a vicious compilation of lies, bashing the only liberal democracy in the Middle East” He said, “this time the UN and its bodies have hit a new low.

The Commission of Inquiry Report being presented is a one-sided, terror-whitewashing, and morally bankrupt document that does nothing, nothing remotely productive for the Palestinians or the region.

In fact, it only makes matters worse, he chose the terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the true oppressors of the Palestinian people, that terror pays off.”

Erdan said, “the sole purpose of this report, its authors and the very commission itself is to demonize and delegitimize the one and only Jewish state. You know, there is a word for the racist hatred of Jews, antisemitism.”

BRICS leaders stand against delaying resolution of Palestine-Israel conflict

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Heads of BRICS member states are “unanimous in the resolve that the conflicts elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa should not be used as pretext to delay resolution of the long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict”

What will happen is that Israel will be forced to abide by international law> So simple a demise!! No breaking international rules…no Israel. No occupation to hold the Palestinians back…no Israel. Once Palestinians are released, no more Israel.

 Leaders of BRICS member states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have called for a resolution of the Palestine-Israel conflict that would allow for the coexistence of both states, the declaration signed on Thursday on the outcomes of the summit in Brasilia informs.

“We are unanimous in our resolve that the conflicts elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa should not be used as pretext to delay resolution of the long-standing Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” the leaders stressed.

The Children need their friends NOW!

“Guided by the international framework in place, such as the relevant UN resolutions, the Madrid principles and the Arab Peace Initiative, we reiterate that the two-state solution will enable Israelis and Palestinians to live side by side, in peace and security.”

“In this context, we express, furthermore, the need for new and creative diplomatic efforts to achieving a just and comprehensive settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in order to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East,” the leaders noted.

Will 1,300 Children Have Nowhere to Run?

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Parents in a kibbutz near Gaza to protest after bomb shelter bus stops revealed to hold a fraction of the town’s students.

Just as parents across Israel protest overcrowding in preschools on Monday, parents from one kibbutz near Gaza are protesting for another reason: the lack of adequate protection from rocket fire. 

Parents’ committees from both the elementary and high schools in Kibbutz Yad Mordechai are protesting during the first day of classes on Tuesday, after discovering that the bus stops near both schools are only capable of protecting a fraction of attending students against rocket fire. 

Over the next academic year, approximately 1,300 students will attend schools in Yad Mordechai, located about 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) from the Gaza border. 

However, two bus stops near the school only provide protection for 300 students – a real danger in light of the resumption of rocket fire from Islamists in Gaza. 

“Our biggest fear is to have a code red siren and for 1,300 children to have nowhere to run,” parent Meirav Shmilovitz stated to Walla! News Monday.

Uh oh! They are about to be set loose. Palestine has friends. And they are pissed! Israel does not.

“The Arad disaster is what will happen there, and I can’t sleep at night knowing my child could have nowhere to run when I’m somewhere [at work in] Kiryat Gat.”

“If anyone in this government, or the [Regional] Council think it can be run this way, when school is located two kilometers from the border, acting as if we live in Switzerland – they are seriously mistaken.” 

Yad Mordechai was among the communities which suffered most from rocket fire during Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014. 

Recently, it was revealed that despite the end of the operation purporting to bring “quiet” between Israel and Hamas, at least 12 rockets have struck Israeli soil in the one year since the war ended – not including dozens of rocket attacks which resulted in hits on the Gaza side of the border.

None of Israel’s wars have ended with quiet for southern Israel. 

The Eshkol Regional Council insisted despite the onslaught of rockets, however, that the 300-student shelters are simply a temporary solution until better shelters can be built. 

“The amount of money we raised in recent months stands and 2.5 million shekel [$635,615 – ed.] to build new, protected classrooms, as well as to build new bus stops,” it stated in response. “However, the bus stops can [currently] accommodate about 300 students and constitute a temporary solution until a permanent solution can be found.” 

The Council added that, for the time being, shuttles to and from both campuses were being scheduled at intervals to lessen the chances of all 1,300 children being in the same place during a potential rocket attack. 

“This solution has a successful precedent in the region and is an adequate security response,” it said, adding that it is the government’s responsibility to add additional protection to Gaza area residents to support the growing demographic there. 

Zionists ran the concentration camps

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Why Palestine?

“Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews.”

There is ample evidence that world Zionism collaborated with the National Socialist government during the Second World War, in order to: (1) protect certain elitist Jews and their various interests; (2) pressure most of the Jews of Europe to leave;(HOLOHOAX)(3) thus, accomplishing the establishment of the state of Israel

Everything about Israel is a lie and Psyop!

Jewish Agency: David Ben-Gurion and Zionazi members. (Note the Hitler mustaches)


The end of “limited conflicts” for Israel

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What does China’s growing power and the shift towards a multipolar world mean for Palestine and its broader region?

An Ass, having put on the lion’s skin, amused himself by terrifying all the foolish animals. At last coming upon a Fox, he tried to frighten him also, but the Fox no sooner heard the sound of his voice than he exclaimed, “I might possibly have been frightened myself, if I had not heard your bray.” The moral of the story is often quoted as Clothes may disguise a fool, but his words will give him away.

“They understand that when Iran is taken out of isolation, so too are the resistance factions,” Lowkey adds. “Instantly what that does is weaken Israel’s ability to assert power over the Palestinians.”

That was a key theme in a livestream I participated in with hip hop artist Lowkey, a Mint Press writer and a contributor to The Electronic Intifada.

We were hosted by journalist Danny Haiphong on his YouTube show. You can watch the video above.

Our lively discussion touched on issues I raised in my recent article, “Why the Saudis have called off their Israeli wedding.”

Central to considering China’s role is looking at the rapid unraveling of US global power, especially in the light of the US going all-in on a proxy war against Russia on the European continent, which Ukraine has no chance of winning.

In many regions China is stepping into the vacuum left by the US, gaining friends and allies not with military threats, but by building infrastructure including roads, ports, schools and hospitals in dozens of countries all over the world.

In Iraq, which was destroyed by the United States, for example, China is building 8,000 schools.

A major win for Chinese diplomacy was its recent brokering of an historic reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Iran, a rapprochement that has the potential to bring progress on other fronts, such as finally ending the US-led proxy wars in Syria and Yemen.

“What China has been able to do is say to Saudi Arabia, ‘if you want us to trade with you in currencies other than the dollar, if you want the benefit of a good relationship with us, then you have to drop the sectarian agenda in the region and be willing to engage with Iran as a good faith actor,” Lowkey explains.

Saudi Arabia, long dependent on the US, is now diversifying its relations with other major powers. As it does so, it sees less need to normalize ties with Israel, a move whose primary purpose would have been to please its patrons in Washington.

According to Lowkey, this realignment is also giving resistance factions in Palestine and Lebanon “a new found confidence” to confront Israel as a united front.

“They understand that when Iran is taken out of isolation, so too are the resistance factions,” Lowkey adds. “Instantly what that does is weaken Israel’s ability to assert power over the Palestinians.”

The end of “limited conflicts” for Israel


I pointed out that Israel understands this emerging reality, as reflected in recent comments by its defense minister.

“This is the end of the era of limited conflicts,” Yoav Gallant told reporters earlier this month. “We are facing a new security era in which there may be a real threat to all arenas at the same time.”

“We operated for years under the assumption that limited conflicts could be managed, but that is a phenomenon that is disappearing,” Gallant added. “Today, there is a noticeable phenomenon of the convergence of the arenas.”

In other words, Israel can no longer have the confidence that if it attacks Gaza, the conflict will remain limited to Gaza, or that if it attacks the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, that events will remain localized in Jerusalem.

Neither can it be assured anymore that during a major escalation with the Palestinians, Lebanon’s powerful Hizballah resistance group will stay out of the fight.

Although Israel still possesses enormous military might, its ability to dictate terms is eroding as the US slowly retreats from the region after its military and political failures in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen and Afghanistan.

I noted that China recently offered to mediate between Palestinians and Israelis, and while I do not think this is likely to lead to any results in the near term, it is significant that Beijing feels willing and able to step into a role that the United States has always monopolized – consistently to the benefit of Israel and the detriment of the Palestinians and the rest of the region.

Perhaps more important in the short term, as we discussed, is China stepping up its diplomacy towards ending the war in Ukraine as indicated by the recent phone call between President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Taiwan provocations

Not satisfied with entering a bloody quagmire in Ukraine just months after their defeat in and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the United States and its European vassals are also trying to pick a fight with China over Taiwan.

This month European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged member states to send their warships to the Taiwan Strait, a policy I called madness.

I pointed out that the United States, the EU – in fact the whole world except a tiny handful of countries such as Guatemala – agree that the People’s Republic of China is the sole legal government of China, of which Taiwan is an integral part.

I argued that China has never shown any interest in reintegrating Taiwan by force and has instead focused on fostering the burgeoning economic ties between the island and the mainland.

The only factor that brings in the military equation is the meddling and provocations by the United States and now the EU.

But if the EU – acting as an American proxy – successfully instigate a war across the Taiwan Strait, we can be sure that European armies and navies are not going to sail to the rescue of Taiwan. All that would happen is that yet another country would be destroyed at enormous human cost.

One can only imagine the reaction if China were to send its brand new aircraft carrier Fujian to the English Channel or to the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico, or park it off of New York harbor.

And yet the US and EU think it is the most natural thing in the world for them to go and interfere halfway around the world where nobody asked them to, where they can do no good and where there are no problems except the ones they themselves are creating.

This dangerous foolishness looks like the death throes of a dying empire.

The Invention of Antisemitism

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Starts here

Then they came to Palestine

To coerce the Jews to immigrate to Palestine, Zionist leaders followed Theodor Herzl’s recommendation where he stated: “It is essential that the sufferings of Jews become worse.

This will assist in realization of our plans.

I have an excellent idea … I shall induce anti-Semites to liquidate Jewish wealth … the anti-Semites will assist us thereby in that they will strengthen the persecution and oppression of Jews.

The (invention of) anti-Semites shall be our best friends.”

Zionist leaders launched a covert anti-Jewish and propaganda campaigns claiming that Jews were persecuted and massacred in Eastern Europe.

By the 19th century, those who wanted Jews to “return” to the Holy Land were more likely to be Christian Zionists than Jews.

Lord Shaftesbury, a compassionate Tory who contributed to improving the conditions of lunatics in asylums and children in factories (The Ten Hours Act, 1833), agitated endlessly for promoting a Jewish presence in Palestine.

Sand describes him as an Anglican Theodor Herzl before Herzl; and with reason, since Shaftesbury appears to have even coined the famous line: “A country without a nation for a nation without a country.”

He hoped, of course, the Jews would also convert to Christianity. Lord Palmerston, on the Liberal side, warmed to the idea, not because he cared in the slightest about Jews (or Christians), but because he thought that British Jews colonising a part of the Ottoman Empire would increase British influence.

At the time, few Jews were Zionists.

When persecuted, as they were in the tsarist empire, they much preferred to flee to the new lands of immigration such as Argentina and the United States, than to the Promised Land.

What made the “State of Israel” possible was not God’s promise of a return to a long-lost land, but the Holocaust and the western reluctance to provide a refuge for its survivors.

This is how they made the “desert bloom.”

Holocaust is the Zionist MO. It follows them everywhere.

Much of what Shlomo Sand reveals is known to specialists.

His achievement consists in debunking a nationalist mythology which holds sway in large sections of popular opinion.

It also normalizes Jews, since it challenges the belief in exceptionalism.

The Holocaust was a unique event, but the basic nationalist litany is similar across nations – almost a literary genre in itself – for it is poised between a lachrymose sense of self-pitying victimhood and a vainglorious account of heroic deeds.

“We”, so goes the story, have been around for centuries (1066, famously, in Britain; 966 in Poland; since antiquity in Italy and in Greece).

Eventually, after centuries, we achieved our freedom, our independence, our happiness, and we, who are unlike everyone else, can finally be like everyone else: members and possessors of a country and a nation.

Demystifying what the French call le roman national seems to be today one of the major tasks of historians (once they used to write it).

This can be an uphill struggle, yet it is to the credit of the Israeli book-reading public that Sand’s previous book, The Invention of the Jewish People became a bestseller. Truth-telling may be painful but necessary.

Mom, Why does everyone hate us so much?

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By Phyllis G. Heideman

 [admin: Deluded people amaze me. Hense this zionist post. It’s tragically comical. ]

Antisemitism is a mental disease.
It is irrational and illogical.

Much like alcoholism, drug abuse and baseless hatred, if left untreated, it grows and spreads.

We have seen the universal spread of this disorder throughout history.

I have little to offer you as an answer to the long-pondered question of why people hate us so much.

Is it our persistent existence, against all odds; is it our hunger and thirst for knowledge and discovery; is it our resilience; is it our drive to excel?

Is it the strangeness of our ways; is it our age-old struggle for a homeland; is it our disproportionate success rate?

Perhaps it is our defiance of extinction……….much to the chagrin of our enemies.

The ‘enemies’ being chased from their homes to make way for the Eurojews.

And yet….despite the hatred, the boycotts, the wars, the attempts at annihilation, the labeling, the slander, the assaults, the lousy press coverage, the scandals, the internal struggles, the scuds, the missiles, the rockets and the UN, we are still here.

Alive, well and even flourishing.

Perhaps these challenges have made us stronger.

We do know – even with our flaws – how obstinate we the Jewish People can be.

I myself hope and pray we remain so for many millennia to come.

Ever hopeful that Israel Forever is not just the name of a foundation but descriptive of the future………

– Mom

Différence entre Judaïsme et Sionisme

 

 

 

Does ‘Israel’ have any friends left?

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Israel’s main allies are USA and India. Oops!

For the USA the Israeli occupation of Palestine WAS a very important service to its global dominance. (no more US dominance, no use for Israel.)

‘Israel’ is the most important proxy army the USA have in the Middle East.

Such a vital ally is not going to be attacked for a few sins like apartheid, random killing or ethnic cleansing, practices the USA knows all about.

And has vast experience with.

South Africa has taken a hardline stance against Israel and staunchly supports the Palestinians. In 2019 it downgraded its embassy in Tel Aviv and pulled out its ambassador.

South Africans protest against Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, outside parliament in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Violence escalated between Israel and Palestine sparked by unrest at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque. (AP Photo/Nardus Engelbrecht)

Those who assume the USA acts on the basis of values are immensely wrong.

It acts on yes or no service to its global domination.

If the the answer is yes, the USA will support you.

Apartheid regimes, murderous regimes, random imprisonment regimes, bulldozering regimes, they can count on the US of America.

 

Could the African Union push Israel into international isolation?

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The draft declaration calls on “the international community … to dismantle and prohibit the Israeli system of colonialism and apartheid

Even by the low standards of a country used to being regularly condemned for human rights abuses, disregarding international law and committing war crimes, February was a pretty bad month for Israel and its standing in the world.

From revelations about its companies subverting democratic elections across the globe to this week’s scenes of its illegal settlers, protected by its army, carrying out a pogrom against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara, the country has had its true face exposed to the world in a cruel and meticulous fashion.

At the opening ceremony of the African Union’s annual summit, held at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia two weeks ago, there was another nasty surprise and more humiliation in store for the Jewish state.

Ambassador Sharon Bar-Li, the deputy director of the Africa Division of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was booted out after turning up, brandishing a non-transferable invitation that had supposedly been issued to Israel’s ambassador to the African Union, Aleli Admasu.

A video posted on social media showed uniformed security personnel escorting her out of the auditorium and Moussa Faki, chairperson of the AU, followed up with a clarification that Israel’s controversial 2021 accreditation as an observer state, which it had pursued for two decades, had actually been suspended and “so we did not invite Israeli officials to our summit”.

Even worse was to come.

According to a Draft Declaration On The Situation In Palestine And The Middle East circulated among reporters at the end of the summit, the AU not only expressed “full support for the Palestinian people in their legitimate struggle against the Israeli occupation”, decrying the “unceasing” illegal settlements and Israel’s intransigence but, significantly, urged member states to “end all direct and indirect trade, scientific and cultural exchanges with the State of Israel”.

This latter recommendation, which echoes the demands of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, if implemented, could be the start of a change in Israel’s fortunes, not just on the continent, but across the globe.

After all, Africa is no stranger to leading a global movement seeking to isolate and pressure oppressive, ethno-supremacist regimes, having led one targeting the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1980s.

And, in fact, the draft declaration calls on “the international community … to dismantle and prohibit the Israeli system of colonialism and apartheid”.

That’s tough talk. But whether any action is likely to follow is up in the air.

The relationship between Africa and Israel is complex and has fluctuated.

Further, the AU’s stance on relations with Israel and the foreign policies of its individual members do not always align.

While Israel’s actions towards its neighbors have been a major irritant, they are far from the only consideration for African nations.

Israel’s enemies

And in the last 21 years, the AU has tended to be more principled while its member nations have been more pragmatic.

Initially, Israel cultivated close ties with newly independent African countries as a way to counter the isolation and hostility imposed on it by its Arab neighbors.

In the 1960s, more than 1,800 Israeli experts were running development programs on the continent and by 1972, Israel hosted more African embassies than Britain.

It had established diplomatic relations with 32 of the 41 independent African states which were also members of the Organisation of African Unity, the forerunner to the AU, founded in 1963.

For much of this period, attempts by the North African nations, led by Egypt, to gain backing for the Arab cause from the rest of Africa had been largely unsuccessful, the relatively young nations not wanting to become enmeshed in the conflict.

But attitudes began to change following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

African reactions to the conflict were mixed, with some countries such as apartheid South Africa and Ethiopia, which was initially critical, expressing support for Israel and others siding with the Arab states.

Overall, however, many African leaders, with memories of colonialism’s acquisition of land by force still fresh, viewed Israel’s actions dimly and on June 8, as the fighting was ongoing, the OAU condemned Israel’s “unprovoked aggression” and called for an immediate ceasefire.

aljazeera.com/2023/3/5/

Israel hit from the north & south, and squeezed from east to west

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Cultures of Resistance | The Palestine Poster Project Archives

Iron Dome, like any defensive system, has its limits.

Those limits are constantly being tested by ‘Israel’s’ enemies, and because both Hamas and Hezbollah act as proxies for Iran, every time the system is employed ‘Israel’s’ enemies are paying close attention and seeking to identify vulnerabilities.

When Israelis hear air-raid sirens, there is no sense of safety.

It’s like someone from the Great Plains hearing a tornado siren—maybe the threat will pass by, maybe it will destroy the town.

The fear of being in the path of the missile that penetrates the shield is constant and real.

What makes the current situation different is not, however, the unavoidable reality that no defensive shield is impenetrable; it’s where the missiles are coming from.

Unlike past flareups between Israel and Hamas—the resistance group that controls the Gaza Strip and uses it as a launch-pad for attacks against ‘Israel’—the most recent attacks have come from ‘Israel’s’ northern borders with Lebanon and Syria.

This indicates a very different threat.

‘Israel’s’ enemies

Unlike Gaza, these areas are controlled by Hezbollah, a much more capable and battle-hardened enemy.

As explained in this report published by the Jewish Institute for National Security in America—authored by a group of retired U.S. senior combat commanders—the sheer volume of missiles facing Israel from Hezbollah-controlled areas represents a fundamentally different security challenge than that posed by Hamas in the south.

It is impossible to know, for sure, what the density of that missile threat is, but credible estimates put the number in the range of 150,000.

This capacity enables Hezbollah to threaten Israel with a missile campaign that would rapidly overwhelm Iron Dome and necessitate prioritizing the protection of vital infrastructure at the expense of civilian exposure.

And, while no one can know for certain how ‘Israel’ would respond to that threat, it is highly likely that it would find itself having little choice but to conduct a major ground incursion into southern Lebanon to neutralize missile sites before they are used.

 Hezbollah’s most vital military assets are deeply hidden.

And unlike the last time ‘Israel’ conducted such an operation, in 2006, Hezbollah forces would bring their extensive combat experience from the Syrian civil war into the fight.

And then there is the true wildcard: Iran, which continues to use its proxy forces to wage a low-level war against its enemies.

Scary Cartoon - REMIX ANALYSIS

As they see it LOL

It’s hard to calculate what might push this into becoming something more direct.

‘Israel’ is trying hard to manage its response to these latest acts of unlawful aggression emanating from both north and south, working to prevent escalation, despite the increased challenges. (they are scared)

One thing is clear: U.S. support for Israel’s military readiness is, and will remain, critically important by both ensuring the protection of ‘Israel’ from unlawful missile attacks and enabling highly precise and decisive action in ‘self-defense’.

There may be aspects of ‘Israeli’ policies that justify criticism, but its supporting its ability to defend itself from the threats from all sides should be a source of unity for Americans, regardless of their politics.

BRICS Sans Israel

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Since its return to the international arena, post-apartheid South Africa has been at the forefront of the international campaign against Israel and has pushed or facilitated a variety of anti-Israeli statements, actions, and resolutions.

Just days before the September 11 attacks, Durban hosted the UN conference against racism that singled out Israel for vilification.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:  The 43-page Xiamen Declaration issued at the end of the ninth BRICS summit in early September marks an interesting shift concerning Israel.

In paragraph 42, it makes the usual references to “relevant” UN resolutions, the Madrid Principles, the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, and “previous agreements” and calls for “a just, lasting and comprehensive solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Declaration calls for the creation of “an independent, viable, territorially contiguous Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security with Israel” – but contains no reference whatsoever to East Jerusalem.

The BRICS organization, which is comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, represents over 40% of the global population, and its collective economy accounts for over one-fifth of global GDP.

Two of the countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council and the other three are aspiring to be. BRICS is thus a major world power bloc.

Initially, the BRICS countries were concerned solely with developmental issues and did not address the Middle East at all, let alone the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We Fought Apartheid; We See No Reason to Celebrate It in Israel Now! | MR Online

Things began to change when South Africa joined as a full member at the Sanya Summit in April 2011.

Stating that they “are deeply concerned with the turbulence in the Middle East,” the leaders hoped for “peace, stability, prosperity and progress.”

Popular protests in the Arab world were more ominous than the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate.

The Palestine question reared its head in March 2012 when the BRICS leaders met in New Delhi for their fourth summit.

They urged both sides “to take constructive measures, rebuild mutual trust and create right conditions for restarting negotiations, while avoiding unilateral steps.”

This moderate tone changed dramatically in March 2013 when South Africa hosted the summit.

The Durban Declaration made explicit reference for the first time to East Jerusalem as the capital of the future Palestinian state.

In addition to the usual, it called among other things for a two-state solution including the creation of “a contiguous and economically viable Palestinian state, existing side by side in peace with Israel, within internationally recognized borders, based on those existing on 4 June 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

Since its return to the international arena, post-apartheid South Africa has been at the forefront of the international campaign against Israel and has pushed or facilitated a variety of anti-Israeli statements, actions, and resolutions.

Just days before the September 11 attacks, Durban hosted the UN conference against racism that singled out Israel for vilification.

Thus, as BRICS host, Pretoria was able to flag its position on East Jerusalem, and the other BRICS leaders signed up.

(A reference to East Jerusalem also appeared in early 2010 when South Africa was part of the three-member IBSA group, with Brazil and India the other two members.)

Members of the BRICS countries have indeed been more sympathetic towards the Palestinians than Israel.

China and India did not normalize relations with Israel until January 1992, and the erstwhile USSR did not have diplomatic relations with Israel between June 1967 and October 1991.

Only Brazil has had formal ties with it since the late 1940s. Hence, others joined Pretoria’s chorus on East Jerusalem.

The political status of Jerusalem has been controversial ever since the UN partition plan of 1947, which suggested it be an international city.

The global community does not recognize West Jerusalem, which has been part of Israel since May 1948, as the country’s capital.

Most countries, including the US, have their embassies in Tel Aviv.

At the same time, the city remains the de facto capital of Israel and is home to all the symbols of the state and its sovereignty such as the prime minister’s residence, the Knesset (the parliament), and the Supreme Court.

The presentation of credentials by foreign ambassadors accredited to Israel, including Arab-Muslim ambassadors such as those from Egypt, Jordan, and Turkey, takes place in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.

Moreover, there are no UN resolutions or plans declaring the city the capital of the Palestinian state.

The Oslo and other bilateral agreements merely indicate that the final political status of the city will have to be resolved through negotiations and accommodation.

The core of the Jerusalem issue lies in the Old City, which houses sites holy to all three Abrahamic faiths.

The city is not a Berlin, to be divided or partitioned, but can only be shared through accommodation and compromise.

Outside intervention in favor of one party, in this case the Palestinians, only makes the problem more intractable.

The Israeli government has to take its share of responsibility for the East Jerusalem controversy.

For example, until the UNESCO resolution of April 2016, which questioned Jewish links to Jerusalem, the Netanyahu government was indifferent to international shifts.

Even countries that were friendly towards the Jewish state voted with the Arab-Islamic countries.

Israel’s post-resolution anger could not hide its diplomatic sloppiness.

Meanwhile, over the past decade, East Jerusalem became integral to India’s engagements with the Middle East and figured in major policy statements and bilateral declarations.

The reference to Jerusalem was maintained even after the change of government in India when the rightwing Hindu nationalist BJP-government replaced the Congress Party, which has been sympathetic towards the Palestinians since the early 1920s.

Ever since his first BRICS summit in Fortaleza in July 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has included East Jerusalem.

As late as April of this year, East Jerusalem figured in the statement of Middle East envoys of BRICS countries hosted by India. The same formulation could be seen in Delhi’s engagements with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and others.

But a major shift occurred in May of this year, shortly before Modi’s July visit to Israel. With Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas standing by his side, Modi called for “a sovereign, independent, united and viable Palestine, co-existing peacefully with Israel.” For the first time in nearly a decade, there was no reference to East Jerusalem.

Will this new trend continue? The answer lies in the vagaries of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in Israeli diplomatic finesse.

Israel’s days are numbered

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The Writing on the Wall

 ‘It’s time to end the puppet theater of the fake regime’; adds his country is approaching nuclear ‘peak’

Iran is approaching the “peak” in its nuclear program and will not yield to Western pressure to halt its activities, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

Ahmadinejad was speaking in the southwestern town of Bushehr near the site of Iran’s planned first nuclear power plant, being built with Russian help, and predicted the country would have nuclear electricity by this time next year.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says Jewish state’s ballistic missile capability won’t help it in confrontations with Islamic republic; meanwhile, Iranian-Egyptian rapprochement in the works

“If you (Western powers) imagine that the Iranian nation will back down you are making a mistake,” he said in a televised speech.

“On the nuclear path we are moving towards the peak,” he said without elaborating.

Turning his attention to Israel, Ahmadinejad said, “The religious Palestinian people will bring down the last screen with its powerful hand on the Zionists’ puppet theater. It’s time to end the puppet theater of this fake regime.”

The Iranian president noted that Israel’s days were numbered and that it has reached its end.

Turning to the Western powers supporting Israel, he said, “Those who remain silent in light of this regime’s crimes and support it should know that they are taking part in the bloodshed of the Palestinian people and will be tried in the future.

“The world’s states will never forget these crimes,” the Iranian president was quoted as saying by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Defying international pressure, Iran has been working on producing its own nuclear fuel, technology the West fears will be used to make atomic bombs.

Tehran says its work is peaceful and has refused to stop.

He was speaking two days after Iran received the eighth and final consignment of nuclear fuel from Russia for the Bushehr plant.

Tehran has said the plant will start in mid-2008, though past deadlines have slipped.

“Next year at this time … nuclear electricity should flow in Iran’s electricity network,” he told the crowd.

Russia delivered the first shipment of uranium fuel rods on December 17 and urged Tehran to scrap its efforts to produce nuclear fuel.

Tehran says its work is peaceful and has refused to stop.

Iran, the world’s fourth-largest crude producer, says it wants to build a network of nuclear plants so it can preserve more of its oil and gas for export.

It says it wants to make nuclear fuel itself to guarantee its supplies.

World powers last week agreed the outline of a third UN sanctions resolution against Iran which calls for mandatory travel bans and asset freezes for specific Iranian officials and vigilance on banks in the country.

The End of Zionism: Thoughts and Next Steps

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The BRICS leaders spoke against continuous construction and expansion of settlements “in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the Israeli Government”

Of course, it is absurd to believe that one people can make peace with their occupiers. Israel is an occupation not  country. Occupations are not peaceful by nature! Israel has to go because peace means letting the Palestinians back to their natural homes. 

FORTALEZA, July 16. /ITAR-TASS/. The BRICS countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, have called on Israel and Palestine to resume negotiations leading to the creation of a viable Palestinian state that can exist side by side with Israel.

“We reaffirm our commitment to contribute to a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of the universally recognized international legal framework, including the relevant UN resolutions, the Madrid Principles and the Arab Peace Initiative.

We believe that the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a fundamental component for building a sustainable peace in the Middle East,” the BRICS leaders said in a resolution adopted on Tuesday at the summit meeting in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza.

“We call upon Israel and Palestine to resume negotiations leading to a two-State solution with a contiguous and economically viable Palestinian State existing side by side in peace with Israel, within mutually agreed and internationally recognized borders based on the 4 June 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital,” the declaration said.

The BRICS leaders spoke against continuous construction and expansion of settlements “in the Occupied Palestinian Territories by the Israeli Government, which violates international law, gravely undermines peace efforts and threatens the viability of the two-State solution”.

‘Israel’ Will Face Five-Front War

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The former Israeli military ombudsman, Isaac Brick, warned the Zionist public of an “inevitable” five-front war that would be destructive for the occupation entity.

Brick indicated that, during the upcoming war, Hezbollah forces will control the Israeli settlements in northern Palestine,  the Syrian army and allying groups will use sophisticated weapons to fight in Golan, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters will advance into the occupied territories, thousands of gunmen in West Bank will open fire at the Israelis, and the Palestinians in the lands occupied in 1948 will use their 400 thousand guns to clash with the Zionists.

The Zionist ombudsman noted that the occupation entity will face around 3500 missiles and drones during the upcoming war, warning that some of the rockets will accurately hit key targets in ‘Israel’, including Gush Dan.

Brick acknowledged that the Israeli air force will not be able to deal with the missile fire at its airports, adding that the Iron Dome will also fail to intercept the precision-guided missiles.

The former Israeli military ombudsman, Isaac Brick, warned the Zionist public of an “inevitable” five-front war that would be destructive for the occupation entity.

Brick indicated that, during the upcoming war, Hezbollah forces will control the Israeli settlements in northern Palestine,  the Syrian army and allying groups will use sophisticated weapons to fight in Golan, Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters will advance into the occupied territories, thousands of gunmen in West Bank will open fire at the Israelis, and the Palestinians in the lands occupied in 1948 will use their 400 thousand guns to clash with the Zionists.

The Zionist ombudsman noted that the occupation entity will face around 3500 missiles and drones during the upcoming war, warning that some of the rockets will accurately hit key targets in ‘Israel’, including Gush Dan.

Brick acknowledged that the Israeli air force will not be able to deal with the missile fire at its airports, adding that the Iron Dome will also fail to intercept the precision-guided missiles.

Palestine: London Rabbi Pays Dearly For Joining Israel’s Occupation

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Psychotic Israeli Settlers laughing while wearing their machine guns, protected by extremist Israeli government who encourages them to steal the homes and lands of the indigenous peoples

by Stuart Littlewood

With Easter came the sad news of more killings in the illegally occupied West Bank including the shooting of two lovely girls, the daughters of a rabbi from North London whose wife also died as a result of the incident.

Reports seem reluctant to explain that the unfortunate rabbi had moved his family to Efrat, an illegal ‘settlement’, and that the transfer by Israel of its own population into so-called settlements on Palestinian territory is considered a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.

Israeli security forces block Palestinian and Israeli peace activists protesting at the entrance of Huwara in the occupied West Bank, on March 3, 2023, following deadly violence by Israeli settlers. – Late on February 26, the Palestinian town of Huwara came under attack by Israeli settlers, hours after two settlers were shot dead as they drove through the northern West Bank town. (Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH / AFP)

The family was living on land confiscated (i.e. stolen) from the Palestinians.

No doubt they were assured by the Israeli authorities it was safe when, in fact, they were putting themselves in harm’s way.

The tragedy has received extensive media coverage here in the West while equally distressing killings, abductions, and imprisonments of Palestinian youngsters by Israel, and demolition of their homes, go unreported.

 And they were living on their own lands!

Israeli ‘settlers’ routinely go armed and beat up and murder Palestinians, destroying their crops, wrecking their homes, and generally making their lives hell; and they are supported in this by the Israeli regime and its military as part of their strategy to chase out the Palestinians and eventually annex the West Bank.

Israel, founded on land theft and terror even before it declared statehood in 1948, has set up 144 illegal ‘settlements’ and over 100 outposts, containing some 670,000 Jewish ‘settlers’, in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

This project began with the Allon Plan of 1967 seizing Palestinian territory for military use and later transferring Israeli civilians into it.

Palestinians, fighting for their freedom against Israel’s relentless intrusion and oppression, are beginning to hit back – which of course they are perfectly entitled to do.

Profiteering violent Israeli Settlers attack indigenous peoples as they aim to steal even more of their land and homes.

‘De facto’ annexation

Israel has been busy for decades establishing ‘facts on the ground’ throughout the West Bank by using lethal military force and implanting settlers to achieve pseudo-sovereignty over the territory.

And the Israeli government has been keen to encourage the building of synagogues in its settlements to consolidate their position and give the criminal enterprise a veneer of sanctity.

This is perhaps how the good rabbi from England came to be appointed to the Zait Ranaan synagogue in Efrat.

It is not difficult to understand that dumping settlers (i.e. squatters) on Palestinian territory in the hope of eventually acquiring sovereignty is a violation of occupation law and a war crime on the part of the individuals involved. Israel also violates its legal obligation to respect the sovereignty of another people and their right to self-determination.

What is more, Israel violates its obligations under international law on the use of force.

Ending these violations is non-negotiable and requires the immediate removal of the squatters and an immediate end to Israel’s exercise of control, including its use of military force.

That’s the first step towards true peace…. before any return to the negotiating table.

But Israel remains in denial. General Yehuda Fox, chief of the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank, is reported saying: “This is an extremely severe attack.

We’ll settle the score with these terrorists, we’re hunting them and will catch them.”

The score to be settled, of course, is with Israel’s leaders who have pursued this evil policy of military occupation since 1967, and all those who have willingly participated in it.

Palestinians have nothing more to lose

The simple fact is that nearly 700,000 Israeli squatters live without Palestine’s permission in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Bearing in mind the extra-territorial nature of these settlements, Israel like any other nation has no legal right to use military force to protect its nationals outside its own territory.

New generations of Palestinians want a decent future within their traditional homeland free from Israeli control.

They simply want their homes, lands, livelihoods, and resources back – and of course their right to self-determination and freedom of movement respected.

And, after 75 years of Israeli oppression, they’ll fight for it using any means available including armed force.

They have nothing more to lose.

Ignorant Tourists join in the VIOLENT Israeli Settler Orgy pretending they get to murder local people for fun

Here’s how Al Jazeera describes the settlers’ crime orgy:

Close to 12 percent of the Palestinian population in the West Bank currently live in [what’s called] Area C, about 375,000 people.

While at least 46 percent of Area C is made up of private Palestinian land, less than 1 percent is accessible for Palestinian construction, and most of that is already built upon.

Area C is largely rural and comprises the only land remaining for Palestinian expansion and development.

It is also the only contiguous part of the West Bank.

The presence of Israel’s illegal settlements, the separation wall, and hundreds of military checkpoints and bases have turned the West Bank into 165 disconnected Palestinian “enclaves” suffering from severe development and movement restrictions.

Meanwhile, more than 70 percent of Area C, about 44 percent of the West Bank, is used for illegal Israeli settlements and military firing zones, among other restricted areas.

The Israeli government has sought to formally annex the area after having built hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts since 1967, most of which were built either entirely or partially on private Palestinian land and are now home to about 700,000 Israeli settlers.

The settlements are a violation of international law and serve to block any potential Palestinian state being formed on the 1967 occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.

During the three Israeli elections in 2019 and 2020, the two largest Israeli political parties at that time – Likud and Blue and White – pledged to annex the West Bank.

The new government has been even blunter than previous ones about its intention to annex the West Bank and to maintain Jewish dominance on both sides of what is referred to as the “Green Line”, which separates Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory on the 1949 armistice lines.

The international community considers Israel’s so-called settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace. So if our international laws mean anything at all, it’s time those who created them and who signed up for them began implementing them.

©Stuart Littlewood, 12 April 2023

China has shattered the assumption of US dominance in the Middle East

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CNN — 

With a grandiose diplomatic flourish China brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, in the process upending US calculus in the Gulf and beyond.

While the United States has angered its Gulf allies by apparently dithering over morality, curbing arms supplies and chilling relations, Saudi Arabia’s King-in-waiting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, has found a kindred spirit in China’s leader Xi Jinping.

Both are bold, assertive, willing to take risks and seemingly share unsated ambition.

Friday’s announcement that Riyadh and Tehran had renewed diplomatic ties was unexpected, but it shouldn’t have been. It is the logical accumulation of America’s diplomatic limitations and China’s growing quest to shape the world in its orbit.

Beijing’s claim that “China pursues no selfish interest whatsoever in the Middle East,” rings hollow.

It buys more oil from Saudi Arabia than any other country in the world.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pictured in October 2021.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pictured in October 2021.

Bandar Algaloud/Courtesy of Saudi Royal Court/Reuters

Xi needs energy to grow China’s economy, ensure stability at home and fuel its rise as a global power.

His other main supplier, Russia, is at war, its supplies therefore in question.

By de-escalating tensions between Saudi and Iran, Xi is not only shoring up his energy alternatives but, in a climate of growing tension with the US, also heading off potential curbs on his access to Gulf oil.

Xi’s motivation appears fueled by wider interests, but even so the US State Department welcomed the surprise move, spokesman Ned Price saying, “we support anything that would serve to deescalate tensions in the region, and potentially help to prevent conflict.”

Iran has buy-in because China has economic leverage.

In 2021 the pair signed a trade deal reportedly worth up to $400 billion of Chinese investment over 25 years, in exchange for a steady supply of Iranian oil.

Tehran is isolated by international sanctions and Beijing is providing a glimmer of financial relief.

And, in the words of Iran’s Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last year, there’s also the hope of more to come as he sees geopolitical power shifting east.

“Asia will become the center of knowledge, the center of economics, as well as the center of political power, and the center of military power,” Khamenei said.

Saudi has buy-in because war with Iran would wreck its economy and ruin MBS’s play for regional dominance.

His bold visions for the country’s post fossil-fuel future and domestic stability depend on inwardly investing robust oil and gas revenues.

US State Department spokesman Ned Price pictured in July 2022.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price pictured in July 2022.

Stefani Reynolds/Pool/AFP/Getty Images

US influence on the wane

It may sound simple, but the fact the US couldn’t pull it off speaks to the complexities and nuance of everything that’s been brewing over the past two decades.

America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have burned through a good part of its diplomatic capital in the Middle East.

Many in the Gulf see the development of the war in Ukraine as an unnecessary and dangerous American adventure, and some of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s territorial claims over Ukraine not without merit.

Chinese and Saudi flags in Riyadh in December 2022.
Chinese and Saudi flags in Riyadh in December 2022.

Fayez Nureldine/AFP/Getty Images

What the global West sees as a fight for democratic values lacks resonance among the Gulf autocracies, and the conflict doesn’t consume them in the same way as it does leaders in European capitals.

Saudi Arabia, and MBS in particular, have become particularly frustrated with America’s flip-flop diplomacy: dialling back relations over the Crown Prince’s role in the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi (which MBS denies); then calling on him to cut oil production swiftly followed by requests to increase it.

These inconsistencies have led the Saudis to hew policy to their national interests and less to America’s needs.

During his visit to Saudi last July, US President Joe Biden said: “We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia, or Iran.”

It seems now that the others are walking away from him.

China steps up

On Beijing’s part, China’s Gulf intervention signals its own needs, and the opportunity to act arrived in a single serving.

Xi helped himself because he can. The Chinese leader is a risk taker.

His abrupt ending of austere Covid-19 pandemic restrictions at home is just one example, but this is a more complex roll of the dice.

Mediation in the Middle East can be a poisoned chalice, but as big as the potential gains are for China, the wider implications for the regional, and even global order, are quantifiably bigger and will resonate for years.

US President Joe Biden (center-left) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (center) in Jeddah in July 2022.
US President Joe Biden (center-left) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (center) in Jeddah in July 2022.

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Yet harbingers of this shake-up and the scale of its impact have been in plain sight for months.

Xi’s high-profile, red-carpet reception in Riyadh last December for his first overseas visit after abandoning his domestic “zero-Covid” policy stirred the waters.

During that trip Saudi and Chinese officials signed scores of deals worth tens of billions of dollars.

China’s Foreign Ministry trumpeted Xi’s visit, paying particular attention to one particular infrastructure project: “China will deepen industrial and infrastructure cooperation with Saudi Arabia (and) advance the development of the China-Saudi Arabia (Jizan) Industrial Park.”

The Jizan project, part of China’s belt and road initiative, heralds huge investment around the ancient Red Sea port, currently Saudi’s third largest.

Chinese President Xi Jinping takes his oath during the Third Plenary Session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, China, 10 March 2023. MARK R. CRISTINO/Pool via REUTERS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Opinion: What to make of China’s role in the handshake heard round the world

Jizan lies close to the border with Yemen, the scene of a bloody civil war and proxy battle between Riyadh and Tehran since 2014, sparking what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Significantly since Xi’s visit, episodic attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels on Jizan have abated.

There are other effects too: the plans to upscale Jizan’s container handling puts Saudi in greater competition with the UAE’s container ports and potentially strains another regional rivalry, as MBS drives to become the dominant regional power, usurping UAE’s role as regional hub for global businesses.

Xi will have an interest seeing both Saudi Arabia and the UAE prosper, but Saudi is by far the bigger partner with higher potential global economic heft and, importantly, massive religious clout in the Islamic world.

Rivals share common ground on Iran policy

Where the UAE and Saudi align strongly is eschewing direct conflict with Tehran.

A deadly drone attack in Abu Dhabi late last year was claimed by the Houthis, before the rebels quickly rescinded it.

But no one publicly blamed the Houthis’ sponsors in Tehran.

biden saudi crown prince split

‘There is only so much patience one can have’: Biden appears to back off vow to punish Saudi Arabia

A once shaky ceasefire in Yemen now also seems to be moving toward peace talks, perhaps yet another indication of the potential of China’s influence in the region.

Beijing is acutely aware of what a continued war over the Persian Gulf could cost its commercial interests – another reason why a Saudi/Iran rapprochement makes sense to Xi.

Iran blames Saudi for stoking the massive street protests through its towns and cities since September.

Saudi denies that accusation, but when Iran moved drones and long-range missiles close to its Gulf coast and Saudi, Riyadh called on its friends to ask Tehran to de-escalate.

Russia and China did, the threat dissipated.

Questions remain over nuclear weapons

Tehran, despite US diplomatic efforts, is also closing in on nuclear weapons capability and Saudi’s MBS is on record saying he’ll ensure parity, “if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.”

Late last week US officials said Saudi was seeking US security guarantees and help developing a civilian nuclear program as part of a deal to normalize relations with Israel, an avowed enemy of Iran’s Ayatollahs.

Indeed, when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel late January, concerned over a rising Palestinian death toll in a violent year in the region, potential settlement expansions and controversial changes to Israel’s judiciary Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to Blinken about “expanding the circle of peace,” and improving relations with Arab neighbours, including Saudi Arabia.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2021.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in May 2021.

Haim Zach/Government Press Office/Getty Images

But as Saudi seems to shift closer to Tehran, Netanyahu’s mission just got harder.

While both Saudi and Israel strongly oppose a nuclear-armed Iran, only Netanyahu seems ready to confront Tehran.

“My policy is to do everything within Israel’s power to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons,” the Israeli leader told Blinken.

Riyadh favors diplomacy. As recently as last week the Saudi foreign minister said: “It’s absolutely critical … that we find and an alternative pathway to ensuring an (Iranian) civilian nuclear program.”

By improving ties with Tehran, he said, “we can make it quite clear to the Iranians that this is not just a concerns of distant countries but it’s also a concern of its neighbors.”

For years this is what America did, such as brokering the Iran nuclear deal, or JCPOA, in 2015.

Xi backed that deal, the Saudis didn’t want it, Iran never trusted it, Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump’s withdrawal confirmed Iran’s fears and sealed its fate, despite the ongoing proximity talks to get American diplomats seated at the table again.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 8, 2022.

5 key takeaways from Xi’s trip to Saudi Arabia

Iran has raced ahead in the meantime, massively over-running the bounds of the JCPOA limits on uranium enrichment and producing almost weapons-grade material.

What’s worse for Washington is that Trump’s JCPOA withdrawal legacy tainted international perceptions of US commitment, continuity and diplomacy.

All these circumstances perhaps signaled to Xi that his time to seize the lead on global diplomacy was coming.

Yet the Chinese leader seems to accept what Netanyahu won’t and what US diplomacy is unable to prevent: that sooner, rather than later, Iran will have a nuclear weapon.

As such, Xi may be fostering Saudi-Iran rapprochement as a hedge against that day.

So Netanyahu looks increasingly isolated and the Israeli leader, already under huge domestic pressure from spiking tensions with Palestinians and huge Israeli protests over his proposed judicial reforms, now faces a massive re-think on regional security.

Pieces of regional puzzle shifting

The working assumption of American diplomatic regional primacy is broken, and Netanyahu’s biggest ally is now not as hegemonic as he needs. But by how much is still far from clear.

It’s not a knockout, but a gut blow, to Washington. How Xi calculates the situation isn’t clear either.

The US is not finished, far from it, but it is diminished, and both powers are coexisting in a different way now.

Earlier this month, the Chinese leader made unusually direct comments accusing the US of leading a campaign against China and causing serious domestic woes.

Wang Yi, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission attends a meeting with Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani and Minister of State and national security adviser of Saudi Arabia Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban in Beijing, China March 10, 2023. China Daily via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

Iran and Saudi Arabia signal the start of a new era, with China front and center

“Western countries led by the United States have contained and suppressed us in an all-round way, which has brought unprecedented severe challenges to our development,” Xi told a group of government advisers representing private businesses on the sidelines of an annual legislative meeting in Beijing.

Meanwhile, Biden has defined the future US-China relationship as “competition not confrontation,” and he has built his foreign policy around the tenets of standing up for democracy.

It is striking that neither Xi, nor Khamenei, nor MBS are troubled by the moral dilemmas that circumscribe Biden.

This is the big challenge the US president warned about, and now it’s here. An alternative world order, irrespective of what happens in Ukraine.

 

 

 

 

 

BRICS: Commission of Inquiry finds that the Israeli occupation is unlawful under international law

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Commission of Inquiry finds that the Israeli occupation is unlawful under international law

Israel’s failure to respect the right to return for Palestinians who were forced to flee their homes in 1948 is a flagrant violation of international law that has fueled decades of suffering on a mass scale for Palestinian refugees across the region, said Amnesty International, marking 71 years since the Nakba (catastrophe), as it is known to Palestinians.

Letter dated 7 December 2011 from the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

On 24 November 2011, the Deputy Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa met in Moscow in the format of BRICS to discuss the situation in the Middle East and North Africa. 

 The participants at the meeting underlined the legitimacy of the aspirations of the peoples of the region for greater political and social rights.

They agreed that the transformation processes in the region created the need to search for ways of addressing crises in countries in the Middle East and North Africa within the framework of international law and only through peaceful means, without resorting to force, through establishing a broad national dialogue with due respect for the independence, territorial integrity and sovereignty of the countries in the region.

They rejected violence as a means of achieving political goals.

They emphasized the need for full respect of human rights by all sides, especially by the authorities, in protecting unarmed civilians. 

 The role of the United Nations Security Council was emphasized, since it bears the primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security.

It was noted that all parties should strictly implement the decisions of the Security Council.

They noted that it was inadmissible to impose solutions on the States in the Middle East and North Africa through outside intervention in the internal political processes. 

 The participants agreed that the period of fundamental transformation taking place in the States of the Middle East and North Africa should not be used as a pretext to delay resolution of lasting conflicts but that it should rather serve as an incentive to settle them, in particular the Arab-Israeli one.

Resolution of this and other long-standing regional issues would generally improve the situation in the Middle East and North Africa.

Thus, at the meeting, the participants confirmed their commitment to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict on the basis of the universally recognized international legal framework, including the relevant United Nations resolutions, the Madrid principles and the Arab Peace Initiative. 

 The BRICS States support the resumption of the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations aiming at the establishment of an independent, viable and territorially contiguous Palestinian State with full sovereignty within the 1967 borders, with agreed-upon territorial swaps and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

They also encouraged the Quartet to intensify its efforts towards early realization of these goals. 

 The participants supported Palestinian efforts to achieve membership in the United Nations.

They also underscored the importance of direct negotiations between the parties to reach final settlement.

They called upon Palestinians and Israelis to take constructive measures, to rebuild mutual trust and to create the right conditions for restarting negotiations, while avoiding unilateral steps, in particular settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

They advocated the earliest reunification of the Palestinians. A united position of the Palestinians, based on the PLO principles and the Arab Peace Initiative, would contribute to progress towards a Palestinian-Israeli settlement, achieving lasting peace and providing security for all the countries and peoples of the region. 

 The participants agreed on the convenience of regular consultations on the Middle East and North Africa issues in different forums, including the United Nations, and reaffirmed their support for informal meetings among their representatives. 

 In this regard, I have the honour to request your kind assistance in having the contents of the present letter circulated as a document of the General Assembly, under agenda item 36, and of the Security Council. 

Muslim countries to condemn “Israel”

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Iran update

APRIL 7, 2023

Regime officials are trying to unite Muslim countries to condemn Israel for its recent arrests and raids around the al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, possibly to impede the warming relations between Israel and Gulf states and Turkey.

President Ebrahim Raisi called for an emergency Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting to discuss how “to defend the oppressed nation of Palestine and confront the crimes of the Zionist regime” during a phone call with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on April 6.

 Raisi separately emphasized “the need for the convergence of Islamic countries” to confront Israel during phone calls with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov on April 7.

 Foreign Affairs Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian additionally called for an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers from OIC member states to discuss Israeli arrests and raids during a phone call with OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha on April 7.

Taha announced during the same phone call that an OIC meeting will be held at the executive council level to discuss the Israeli actions on April 8.[12]

The regime’s appeal to the OIC suggests that it seeks to use the Al Aqsa Mosque raid as well as the Israeli Defense Forces’ (IDF) strikes on the Gaza Strip and Lebanon on April 6 to unite Muslim countries against Israel.

Eurojews looting al-Musrara Palestinian Quarter, Jerusalem 1948

Holocaust Memorial Day & Removing Online Holocaust Denial

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Today, January 27th is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

It is a day we remember the victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution.

It is a day designated by the United Nations General Assembly and commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe noted in 2020, that it is a day when we renew our commitment to do “our duty to ensure that such things can happen never again: that we do everything possible to prevent and to counter the hatred and prejudice that breeds violence and discrimination”.

There are those who seek to falsify history and deny or distort understanding of what occurred.

The spread of Holocaust misinformation, particularly online, is a threat not only to memory, but to the  commitment against the spread of hatred and prejudice.

It is often inspired by a desire to glorify and repeat that dark past.

The Online Hate Prevention Institute (OHPI) is proud to be represented in Australia’s delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and to contribute to that inter-government organisation’s work in remembrance, education, and research.

A key priority of IHRA in to #ProtectTheFacts about the Holocaust.

This year, on the 20th of January 2022, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution which rejects and condemns without any reservation any denial and distortion of the Holocaust as a historical event.

A spokesperson for the UN Secretary General issued a statement saying, “we can never let down our guard in the face of increasing attempts to deny, distort or minimize the Holocaust.

We must also adapt and respond to new forms of antisemitism fueled by ignorance or conspiracy theories, also circulating online.

Today’s resolution, adopted by consensus, makes it clear that all Member States must condemn and actively combat Holocaust denial.”

In a recent briefing we discussed the UN resolution and the way it highlights the danger of misinformation and disinformation, particularly online, and how this can lead to hate and violence.

Online Hate Prevention Institute

The Online Hate Prevention Institute’s s CEO has been leading the fight against the spread of Holocaust denial and distortion on social media since 2008, including a 2011 call to Facebook to ban Holocaust denial (see Appendix B).

The Online Hate Prevention Institute took on this work when we were established in 2012.

Our very first report in 2012 started with an investigation into a video by a Holocaust denier which was banned repeatedly from YouTube.

We have now been working on the problem of Holocaust denial and distortion online for over a decade.

After exposing the scale of Holocaust denial on YouTube in 2015, and work over the years on individual videos like “The Holocaust Fraud Exposed” (2015), we were pleased when YouTube notified us they were banning Holocaust denial in 2019.

On Facebook we worked to remove pages like “The Untold History” (2013), “Proud to be a Holocaust denier” (2014), and many more.

We were grateful when Facebook notified us of their change of policy to ban Holocaust denial in 2020. We hope other platforms will also adopt explicit policies to ban Holocaust denial, some like TikTok have already done so. 

Holocaust denial, distortion, and misinfomation continues to spread online. Gab, for example, has a large number of explicit neo-Nazi individuals and groups that glorify Nazism.

Despite changes in policy, Holocaust denial and distortion also continue to exists on mainstream social media platforms.

Changes in policy do, however, make it easier to get the content removed.

Today we are releasing a collection of 17 items of Holocaust denial content that, as of this week, was still Facebook.

The content is documented below and we are working with Meta (Facebook) to secure its removal.

You can support this work tracking and removing Holocaust denial material like that below by making a donation to the Online Hate Prevention Institute’s campaign on Antisemitism and Holocaust denial below.

Monthly donations and donations for other areas of our work can be made via our donations page.

The documented examples of Holocaust denial can be seen below.

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