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By Elizabeth West

I’ve a bee in my bonnet when it comes to the children of Gaza, and so far, have not found any means to swat it away. The buzzing is making me a little crazy. This may be a very good thing….

Here’s the background on that bee. The official death toll in Gaza is now nearing 28,000. Of that figure, accrued in just 122 days, about 70% were women and children, and a goodly portion of the rest were non-combatant males. Just under half the population of Gaza—prior to the current massacre—were kids. By my estimate, that would add up to these totals: about 20,000 individual women and children killed, of whom more than 11,000 would have been youths.

These numbers—28,000 dead, 20,000 women and children lost, 11,600 kids killed– are cyphers, little bits of fact that are supplied to us, but which fall profoundly short of describing the carnage. They are nothing more than snapshots of the Israeli-wrought destruction, devoid of any hint of the vast humanity lost, the complexity, the richness, the wisdom, the stories–small and large.

The tiny victims we see, white-shrouded, being lamented and then piled into mass graves, were children. They were not Hamas, nor were they PIJ. They never voted. For anyone. They never plotted against the Zionist occupiers. They were never in a position to participate in a coup against Hamas, as many Westerners seem to feel the Gazans ought to have done–and for which Israel insists they are culpable, deserving of their own deaths.

These juvenile fatalities are fairly well reported; it is no secret that the deaths point to massive war crimes.

THOSE WHO ARE LIVING

That said, here is the bee itself: there are other groups of kids whose plight is of equal and possibly even more pressing concern. To begin with, there are the children heartbreakingly labeled WCNSF, or ‘Wounded Child, No Surviving Family.’  Some of these kids have lost entire extended families along with their own eyes, legs, arms, hands, feet and voices. Next, there are those who have survived with bodies as-of-yet intact, but who are all alone in a world with little food or water or shelter, where bombs rain from the sky, and familiar landmarks are reduced to rubble each day.

The total death count to date–28,000– comprises innumerable mothers and fathers, uncles, grandparents, aunts, and older siblings. The very people who would naturally care for the most vulnerable, the children. The ones who would procure food and water and blankets for them, nurse them when they fall ill. The people who would help them locate a center of sanity in the midst of this complete madness. Who would love them–arguably the most essential element to meaningful survival–even while every other aspect of their lives is shattered. The Israelis are not just eradicating people, they are destroying the very vital social networks that we all count on to allow our young to survive and thrive, physically and emotionally.

I find myself wondering: what happens to these children?  According to UNICEF, there are now about 19,000 orphans in Gaza. The organization Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, chaired by Richard Falk, puts that number closer to 25,000. Cold hard figures again, but for some context, can we try to imagine the unimaginable? Think of every single child in Lansing, Michigan violently orphaned in a matter of just four months, and then consider the magnitude of that loss. Add in widespread displacement, homelessness, war and famine, and a sense of what the number really means begins to emerge.

Let’s start with the physical needs: where will they live? Who will care for them? Who will raise them? We are looking at a huge contingent of children who need places to live. Family, including extended family, are the universally preferred options for children who have lost their parents. But for many of these kids, all vestiges of family have been wiped out.

Not only are their families gone, but they are almost certainly traumatized in ways and to an extent we have limited experience in addressing. Given that some solution will at length be found to house and feed them, who, then, will help them find a way to get out of bed each morning, learn to sing again, play with others, swim without fear in their beautiful sea?

Children are resilient, it is frequently noted, and perhaps truly, but no one should just bounce back from what these kids have endured. The human mind and heart are not made to do that. These children, if they survive the genocide, are going to need great quantities of various kinds of support in order to keep on living with some sense of purpose and dignity. The buzzing says: I should be working on how to provide this help.

When I spoke recently with Zeiad Abbas Shamrouch, Executive Director at the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA), he acknowledged the breadth of the challenge posed by needs of the orphans of Gaza, but expressed a position he said was shared by most organizations dedicated to the well-being of Palestinian children: Just let us do the first action to stop the genocide, and then we can discuss what is needed next. For now, he explained, MECA workers in Gaza are intent upon getting adequate food, water and shelter to all of Gaza’s children, as well as those who care for them. MECA, like so many NGOs concerned with Palestinian welfare, are very sensibly laser-focused on saving lives today. Only after the immediate and lethal threats are neutralized will they be at liberty to turn their attention fully toward helping Gazans heal and rebuild.

Most of us–myself and those reading this—are citizens of countries that have actively aided and abetted this slaughter. Our tax dollars have purchased the bombs, our elected leaders have winked and nodded at Netanyahu and his accomplices as they spew racist and genocidal hatred, meanwhile orchestrating the massacre. Biden—as we all know– went beyond the winking to commit that odious embrace. Just recently, a number of our governments defunded UNRWA (based on rock solid ‘evidence’ from the ever-mendacious IDF and Shin Bet), further endangering Gaza’s children at a critical moment when famine and disease are rampant.

It’s true, and worth noting, that many of us are doing what we can to stop or slow the killing. We are organizing, marching, getting arrested and clogging the courts, insisting that our voices be heard in the AIPAC-infiltrated halls of government. We are praying, we are shouting and we are writing and pleading, sending money as we are able, but …. as it was with the Iraq war, our voices and our bodies out on the street–so far–tend to be brushed off like a small swarm of gnats, annoying but little more. As we continue to rally and to do all we can to hold those responsible for this ongoing war crime accountable, the grim reality is that Palestinians continue to die.

That means not only more loss of life, but more orphans, more kids who desperately need universal, wrap-around care.

As we call for ceasefire, we can think concurrently about the kids, alive but without family, how we can do right by them both now and later, when the slaughter stops. I feel an obligation, foremost because of our shared humanity, but also because I live in the country most complicit in creating this catastrophe. In order to silence that bee, I must do something to counteract the obscene violence that has robbed these children of their families, their homes, their schools, their friends, their teachers, their pets, their ability to feel safe, and to an unknown–but surely considerable–extent, their capacity to grow into the beautiful multi-faceted humans their parents believed was their birthright.

This is a situation that requires solutions encompassing the needs of the whole child– spiritual, emotional and physical. It is one I have seen little discussion of, and yet there is no doubt that it is and will continue to be a complex and urgent issue.  As Zeiad noted, stopping the killing is first, but for those of us not living under Israeli assault, those of us with the luxury to simply turn on the tap to obtain water to boil for coffee, rummage in the fridge for something to eat, pick up our phones and computers at will to communicate, the capacity to contemplate possible answers exists right now.

A WELL-INTENDED (but likely) WRONG TURN

Some people are at work seeking these answers; I’ve encountered some mention of plans to resettle orphaned children in the US. Although this is a tempting idea in some regards, I have grave concerns. It seems quite transparently to be the case that the Zionist objective is and always has been to remove all Palestinians from the land of their ancestors and further, to dismantle their culture and identity such that they disappear into the diaspora. Transplanting Gaza’s children to the US, the UK or EU countries thus facilitates that criminal and illegal Zionist intention.

For the kids themselves, separation from the familiar sensory landmarks–the sounds, smells, foods, music, language—would be another huge and disorienting loss. Even placed with the most well-meaning and culturally aligned families in the West–and I know there are wonderful people who would open their hearts and homes without hesitation–I strongly suspect that the discordance, the loss of what little remains of ‘home,’ heaped on top of the trauma they are already carrying, would be insurmountable for many kids.

Adoption in the Islamic world, from what I understand, is not seen in the same way as it is in the US and Europe. While raising another’s biological child is not uncommon, particularly in the case of orphans, there is an emphasis placed upon maintaining that child’s birth ties, a tradition which would run counter to sending children to far-off places.

All kids deserve to be cared for and to have their needs met; after a trauma like the one suffered by the young people of Gaza; we must consider their intrinsic need to be Palestinian as one of the most paramount. The complete destruction of the lives they were leading on October 6^th is almost certain to be the defining event of their lives. For that reason alone, anything that might undermine their identity as Palestinian would, in my view, be a failure to meet those needs.

There are a host of reasons, then, not to go down the road of ‘resettling’ these kids outside of Palestine and the Middle East. While it might be a beautifully open-hearted reaction to the critical situation of these children (a family without kids for a kid without a family?), it is clearly not a plan that speaks to most of these children’s best interests.

Possibly of equal importance is the recognition that answers to the question ‘how can we help the orphans of Gaza?’ must come from Palestinians. And to my knowledge, no one in Palestine is yet asking for Americans or Europeans to rush in and scoop up their orphaned children. Even though I understand the attraction, the personal satisfaction it might offer to anyone who would open their home, it is almost certainly a wrong turn.

WHAT MIGHT REAL HELP LOOK LIKE?

So what can we do? How can those of us who feel compelled, help in a way that is actually… helpful?  Ram Dass and Paul Gorman wrote a book some decades ago titled How Can I Help?.  It is a wonderful compilation of anecdotes and clear thinking about helping, about that which underlies much of our helpfully- intended efforts. The book includes ideas and guidance about how to offer our love and support in ways that truly center the person or people we wish to show up for. One of the key messages I gleaned from it points to the profound power—and often, incredible challenge– of simply being fully present with someone else’s pain or fear. Opening and closing the shades, plumping the pillows, getting more ice for the water jug—these all may be, Ram Dass and Gorman suggest, more for our own benefit than for that of a loved one lying gravely ill in a hospital bed. The person who is in that bed is in fact more or less abandoned by the fussing and fixing of our ‘helping.’ Instead, they say—and I paraphrase–sit with the suffering, join in it, honor it. Be authentically with that person where they are, and in general, this will prove to be of far more actual help than doing a lot of stuff that hasn’t been asked for and isn’t particularly needed. Of course, when you are asked, respond. Getting more ice is indeed very helpful, when it is wanted.

The bee in my bonnet has a terrible time simply sitting with the suffering of Palestinians, orphaned or not. I want to act, to do my little bit to soften the horrors. I am not sure that ‘being present with’ Gazan distress is of much value at all. From what I read and hear, the people of Gaza are actually pleading for us to get more ice, to act on their behalf. So the bee drones on: where will these children best be served?  In orphanages within Palestinian refugee settlements?  Should I be raising the money to enable the Palestinian social workers, doctors, and therapists of all sorts who might provide the staffing for such facilities? Should I think about finding ways to make it possible for Palestinian or even other Arab families to foster or adopt, to take on sponsorship of individual kids?  What else can I do?

I have so much privilege and security, so much choice; these surely add to my obligation to act. Still, it is humbling to see how easy it is to identify a problem from my comfy living room, devise a solution that makes a lot of sense to me and charge ahead.  Being a ‘savior’ is another easy-to-make wrong turn.

So the buzzing continues—I’m sure I will keep searching for ideas about how to help, but against that backdrop, I will persist fiercely in doing the small things I can to stop the killing. This has to be primary, not only because it is a prerequisite for any reconstitution of somewhat normal life, but because this is what the Palestinians I have spoken with ask me to do. What funds I have, I will give to any of a number of incredible organizations that are feeding and sheltering Gaza’s kids. It is clearly not time yet for action on my concerns about the orphans. I will wait for Palestinian leadership on this issue, and I will do my best to show up when a direction is identified.

The pace of global collapse layers another challenge to the future of these children. The speed with which each new disaster captures our attention leaves us all at risk for inconstancy. It is not hard to believe that three months after the shooting stops in Gaza, most of us currently transfixed will have moved on to the next emergency. But this is one excruciating debacle for which we bear some direct responsibility, and we must not turn away from it. As Philippe Lazzarini of UNRWA said, “An entire generation of children is traumatized, and will take years to heal.”  Our bombs did that. Our winks, nods and hugs did that.

I hope that we will show up and stay present, do all we can to make healing a viable option for as many of the orphans of Gaza as possible. It may not be apparent just yet how that will best transpire, but the hard work of regenerating lives and country requires commitment, consistency, and a willingness to work in relative obscurity.

This may or may not call to you, but if it does, and if you have your own bee, let its buzzing serve to keep you from complacency. Let us be poised, then, to help in earnest, once the path is plotted. Let us resolve to do all we can to show up for Palestinian-led efforts to rebuild the networks that support life and love, those that have been ripped apart by Israeli-dropped US bombs. Let us not allow the next riveting train-wreck to distract us or to banish the orphans of Gaza from our hearts. These innocent and innately worthy children deserve—at a minimum– real help. They are our fellow humans and they must not be abandoned again.

Elizabeth West has a lifelong interest in exploring the interstices where love, truth, imagination and courage meet, sometimes igniting wild transformation.

6 February 2024

Source: countercurrents.org

I wanted to be wrong, but it turns out that I was right.

Since early October, I have been sure that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has had one aim all along: to erase Gaza.

Spurred on by a rabid cabinet that believes that Palestinians are worthless “vermin”, Netanyahu has done what I suspect he has always wanted to do: dispense with the incremental destruction of a people and a strip of land and, instead, engineer a genocide in Gaza with ruthless and oh so satisfying efficiency.

By now, this fact should be clear. That is the “victory” Netanyahu has and will continue to pursue until he has achieved it – to turn Gaza into dust and memory permanently.

There will be no “pause in fighting”, no “lasting” ceasefire, no truce, no end to the genocide because Netanyahu has no reason or incentive to stop.

And Netanyahu knows that no one inside or outside Israel is prepared, willing or able to stop him.

Hope has been extinguished.

Every day, Palestinians hope, in vain, that the horrors and outrages will end. Every day, we hope, in vain, for a faint sign that the murderous madness will end, that reason and diplomacy will prevail, that the captives – on both sides – will be reunited with their aching families.

Hope is a fantasy, snuffed out by men and forces who thrive on causing chaos and despair in their “killing rage”.

Netanyahu may be unpopular. Still, what he is doing and how he is going about doing it in defiance of proportionate scale, decency, and international law has the overwhelming support of Israelis who, apparently, would also be content to see Gaza reduced to dust and memory – permanently.

Polls show that most Israelis want Netanyahu to use more force, more “firepower” in Gaza and beyond. Damn decency, international law, and the mushrooming number of casualties day after dreadful day.

The pain and suffering of Palestinians is irrelevant. The right and duty of Israel to defend itself is the only thing that counts.

It’s hardly surprising then that polls show, as well, that despite the rampant hunger, disease, and desperate need, most Israelis want fellow Israelis to continue blocking trucks carrying food, water, and medicine from reaching Gaza until the Hamas-held captives are released.

Palestinians are expendable. Israelis are not.

As for the “future” of Gaza, 93 percent of Israelis reportedly agree with Netanyahu: the two-state “solution” is dead on arrival since all of the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River belongs to them. The intent is to have Israeli settlers take the place of Palestinians in Gaza. Another Nakba is already afoot – literally.

I am convinced most of Israel’s confederates abroad – whether they admit it publicly or not – also embrace these egregious beliefs and subscribe, wholeheartedly, to Netanyahu’s modus operandi and definition of “victory”.

So, far from being “damaged” or “weakened”, Netanyahu has been emboldened as a “wartime” prime minister and by an “international community” that has encouraged him to do what he has done in Gaza and the occupied West Bank without remorse or restraint.

Netanyahu will survive as prime minister for as long as Israel goes about doing what it is doing in Gaza and perhaps longer. Ever the calculating Machiavellian, he has rebuffed predictions of his imminent political demise or forced exit by wishful-thinking columnists, “experts”, and former presidential candidates.

Again and again, the “international community” has said it is “concerned” by what their man in Tel Aviv is doing in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Again and again, these expressions of “concern” have proven to be hollow bits of performative nonsense.

On reliable cue, US President Joe Biden described what Israel is doing in Gaza as being “over the top”.

“I’ve been pushing really hard, really hard, to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop. Number one,” Biden told reporters earlier this week.

It won’t stop. How can it stop when Biden and his complicit allies in London, Paris, Berlin, and Ottawa keep arming Israel to the brim and refusing – even in the blatant face of Israel’s “over the top” onslaught and the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza – to demand an immediate ceasefire?

The calamitous course was set when Biden and the other presidents, chancellors, and prime ministers rushed to Tel Aviv in “solidarity” pilgrimages to “stand firmly” by Netanyahu’s side.

It’s too late to apply the stock, talking-point-ephemeral brake since Netanyahu isn’t listening.

He isn’t abiding by the International Court of Justice’s damning ruling which called on the Israeli government to stop what it is doing in Gaza after South African lawyers and diplomats made a persuasive and “plausible” case that Palestinians are victims of genocide and Israel is the perpetrator.

Rafah is in Netanyahu’s crosshairs. The so-called “safe haven” and the more than a million Palestinians who have taken refuge there in tents and makeshift “homes” will endure the inevitable lethal consequences of the major Western powers’ unconditional backing of Israel.

Exhausted and petrified Palestinians, including mothers, wives, and their sons and daughters, will not be spared Israel’s wrath. Their already precarious lives hang on the precipice of Netanyahu’s – for the moment and only for the moment – delayed designs.

Biden et al may claim, at least publicly, to ask Israel to stop the looming carnage. Netanyahu will not be deterred by their empty, delivered-behind-a-lectern “warnings”. He is calling the geopolitical shots, not Biden et al.

While America was preoccupied with a football game on Sunday night, Netanyahu gave Palestinians in Rafah a taste of the terror to come –  firing a shower of shells that killed and dismembered dozens of sleeping children, women and men.

Finally, a cocksure Netanyahu understands the value of patience. Biden looks and sounds like an old man who is poised to become yesterday’s man – gone, inconsequential and forgotten.

The November presidential election approaches just on the horizon. Another doddering old man, Donald Trump, has a better than even chance of returning to the Oval Office.

If that happens, Trump will enshrine Israel’s licence to commit genocide without his predecessor’s meaningless rhetorical “reservations”.

Either way, America has morphed, in effect, into Israel’s proxy. The dynamic has shifted.

Israel will decide what will happen in Gaza today and tomorrow and America will salute in approval and help pay for the pleasure of doing its captain’s bidding – happily, willingly, and enthusiastically.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Andrew Mitrovica is an Al Jazeera columnist based in Toronto.

12 February 2024

Source: aljazeera.com

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Copyright NATO

Update and Introductory Note

According to Joe Biden:

“The Russian military has begun a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity. (Joe Biden’s, Press conference, February 24, 2022).

What is important to underscore is that NATO’s Secretary General in a formal statement to the European Parliament contradicts the official narrative. He unequivocally confirms that the War started in 2014

On September 7, 2023, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg  in a presentation to the European Parliament, formally acknowledged that:

“the war didn’t start in February last year [2022]. It started in 2014.”

That was ten years ago.

This far-reaching declaration confirms his earlier statement in May 2023 in an interview with the Washington Post:

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed NATO, but then you have to remember the war didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014. And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War. (Washington Post, May 9, 2023)

Speaking on behalf of NATO, what this statement (European Parliament, WP) unequivocally confirms is that US-NATO was already at war in 2014. It also tacitly acknowledges that Russia did not “initiate the war” on Ukraine in February 2022.

“The purpose of this is to prevent war”

In a twisted irony, in his presentation to the European Parliament, Stoltenberg portrays “the purpose” of the Ukraine war,  which has resulted in more than 300,000 casualties as a means “to prevent war”. 

Video

Transcript of Stoltenberg Statement to European Parliament

“Therefore, we have already increased our presence in eastern part of the Alliance, to send a very clear message to Moscow. To remove any room for misunderstanding, miscalculation. That NATO is there to defend every inch of NATO territory, one for all for one.

At the NATO summit, we agreed new plans for the defence of the whole Alliance. We also agreed to establish and identify more high readiness troops, 300,000 troops on different levels of high readiness, and also have more air and naval capabilities, ready to quickly reinforce if needed.

The purpose of this is to prevent war. The purpose of this is to ensure that NATO continues to be the most successful Alliance in history because we have prevented any military attack on any NATO Allies. And when there’s a full-fledged war going on in Europe, then it becomes even more important that we have credible deterrence and by strengthening our deterrence and defence, we are preventing war, preserving peace for NATO Allies, because there’s no room for miscalculation.

And the third thing was that NATO Allies have really now demonstrated that they are delivering on the commitment we made in 2014, because the war didn’t start in February last year. It started in 2014. The full-fledged invasion happened last year, but the war, the illegal annexation of Crimea, Russia went into eastern Donbas in 2014. (emphasis added)

What Stoltenberg fails to acknowledge is the US-NATO’s role in triggering the 2014 EuroMaidan massacre which was conducive “in the name of Western democracy” to a “regime change”: namely the instatement of a Neo-Nazi puppet regime in Kiev.

US-NATO is firmly embedded in the Kiev regime’s Neo-Nazi project the objective of which is to destroy Ukraine as well wage war on Russia. 

Ironically the head of State of this neo-Nazi government –hand-picked by US intel– is of Russian-Jewish descent, who prior to entering politics did not speak a word of Ukrainian:

Zelensky is Jewish. He supports the Nazi Azov Battalion, the two Nazi parties, which have committed countless atrocities against the Jewish community in Ukraine.  And now this Jewish-Russian proxy president wants to “ban everything Russian”, including the Russian language (his mother tongue), …

My thanks to Substack for their unbending commitment to Independent Media

Michel Chossudovsky, Substack, February 11, 2024

Introduction

This article addresses the implications of a controversial statement by NATO to the effect that the Ukraine War “didn’t start in 2022”, “The war started in 2014”

It’s a Bombshell: NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed (speaking on behalf of NATO) that the “war didn’t start in 2022”. 

In an interview with The Washington Post (May 9, 2023), Jens Stoltenberg unequivocally confirmed that “the war started in 2014″. 

Jens Stoltenberg’s bold statement (which has barely been the object of media coverage) has opened up a Pandora’s Box, or best described “A Can of Worms” on behalf of the Atlantic Alliance.

What he bears out is that the beginning of the Ukraine war coincided with a U.S. sponsored Coup d’état, confirmed by Victoria’s Nuland‘s “F**k the EU telephone conversation with U.S. Ambassador Pyatt  in February 2014. (see below)

Part I of this article examines the legal implications of Stoltenberg’s statement on behalf of the Atlantic Alliance. 

Of crucial significance: Having stated that “the war started in 2014”, NATO can no longer claim that Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) of February 24, 2022 constitutes, from a legal standpoint, “an invasion”. 

Part I also addresses the issue of The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). 

Parti II focuses on Stoltenberg’s twisted statement that Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty could be invoked as means to declare war against Russia.

“Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty – its collective defence clause” declaring that an attack on one member state is “to be an attack against all NATO members.” Article 5 is NATO’s doctrine of Collective Self-Defense. 

“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”.

In regards to the invocation of Article V in relation to Russia, a justification or fake “pretext” was mentioned by Stoltenberg in his interview with the Washington Post.

Were Article V to be invoked, this would inevitably precipitate the World into a WWIII scenario, consisting of a war whereby all 30 member states of the Atlantic Alliance, most of which are members of the European Union would be involved. 

Legal Implications

The legal implications of Stoltenberg’s statements are far-reaching. Speaking on behalf of NATO, he has acknowledged that Russia did not declare war on Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

“The war started in 2014“, which intimates that the war was launched in 2014, with US-NATO directly involved from the very outset:

Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Editorial Board: How has the war led NATO to recalibrate its defense posture and doctrine?

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed NATO, but then you have to remember the war didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014. And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War. 

For the first time in our history, we have combat-ready troops in the eastern part of the alliance, the battle groups in Poland, Lithuania, the Baltic countries, actually the whole eight battle groups from the Baltic Sea down to the Black Sea. Higher readiness of our forces. And increased defense spending.

Stoltenberg also confirmed that US-NATO’s intent from the outset in 2014 was to integrate the Kiev Neo-Nazi regime as a full member of NATO.

Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Editorial Board: What does a plausible way forward to Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO look like?

Stoltenberg: First of all, all NATO allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance. All allies agree that Ukraine has the right to choose its own path, that it is not for Moscow, but for Kyiv, to decide.

1. The Legality of Russia’s “Special Military Operation”

Inasmuch as the war started in 2014, Art 2(4) applies to both the Kiev Neo-Nazi regime and well as US-NATO which was  behind the February 2014 illegal Coup D’état.

What this implies is that from a legal standpoint, US-NATO on behalf and in coordination with the US sponsored Neo-Nazi  Kiev regime had initiated a de facto undeclared war against Luhansk and Donesk.

From a legal standpoint, this was not “An Act of War against Russia”. Led by US-NATO, this was an “Act of War against Ukraine and the People of Ukraine”. 

Putin’s February 24, 2022 Statement

As we recall President Putin had defined a Special Military Operation (SMO) in support of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The stated objective was  to “demilitarise” and “denazify” Ukraine.

Article 51 of the UN Charter which was referred to by President Putin in his February 24, 2022 speech confirms the following:

“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, …

Russia’s SMO complies with the exercise of self defense. Putin in his speech (February 24, 2022) referred to:

“the fundamental threats which irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia consistently, rudely and unceremoniously from year to year.

I am referring to the eastward expansion of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever closer to the Russian border.”

2. “NeoCons Endorse NeoNazis”: U.S. Sponsored 2014 EuroMaidan Coup d’état. An Illegal and Criminal Act Supported by US-NATO

What Stoltenberg intimated in his interview with the WP (no doubt unwittingly) is that the Ukraine War was a US-NATO Initiative, carried out in the immediate wake of the illegal US Supported February 2014 EuroMaidan Coup d’Etat which was then conducive to the instatement of a Neo-Nazi regime in Kiev.

The New York Times described the EuroMaidan as “a  flowering of democracy, a blow to authoritarianism and kleptocracy in the former Soviet space.” ( After Initial Triumph, Ukraine’s Leaders Face Battle for Credibility,  NYTimes.com, March 1, 2014, emphasis added)

The grim realities were otherwise. The forbidden truth was that US-NATO had engineered –through a carefully staged covert operation– the formation of a US-NATO proxy regime integrated by Neo-Nazis, which was conducive to the removal and brutal demise of the elected president Viktor Yanukovych. 

The staged EuroMaidan Protest Movement initiated in November 2013 was led by the two Nazi parties, with Dmytro Yarosh, of the Right Sector (Pravy Sector) playing a key role as leader of  the Brown Shirt Neo-Nazi paramilitary. He had called for disbanding the Party of the regions and the Communist Party.

The shootings of protesters by snipers were coordinated by Yarosh’s Brown Shirts and Andriy Parubiy leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party.

Of significance there was a  leaked telephone conversation (February 2014) between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and European Union Commissioner Catherine Ashton, which confirmed that “the snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were  hired by Ukrainian opposition leaders [NeoNazis]”.

Video: Leaked Conversation: Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton

(Starts at 1′.50″)

Estonia Foreign Minister Urmas Paet tells Catherine Ashton the following (excerpts):

“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition [Parubiy  and Yarosh].”

“And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides.”

“[Dr. Olga Bogomolets] then also showed me some photos she said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new [Neo-Nazi] coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened.” (quoted by Mahdi Nazemoroaya, Global Research, March 18, 2014, emphasis added)

Foreign Minister’s Urmas Paet’s statements (above) are corroborated by A Kiev Post (March 13, 2014) report:

Selected excerpts below, click here to access full Kiev Post report (March 13, 2014):

“Former State Security Head of Ukraine Oleksandr Yakimenko blames Ukraine’s current government [Neo-Nazi Kiev regime] for hiring snipers on Feb. 20, when dozens of people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The victims were mainly EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrations, but some police officers were also killed. This was the deadliest day during the EuroMaidan Revolution, a three-month uprising that claimed 100 lives.

Yakimenko also blamed the United States for organizing and financing the revolution by bringing illegal cash in using diplomatic mail.

Yankimenko says that Parubiy [leader of the Svoboda Neo-Nazi Party], as well as a number of other organizers of EuroMaidan, received direct orders from the U.S. government. …

“These are the forces that were doing everything they were told by the leaders and representatives of the United States,” he says. “They, in essence lived in the U.S. embassy. There wasn’t a day when they did not visit the embassy.”…

“From the beginning of Maidan we as a special service noticed a significant increase of diplomatic cargo to various embassies, western embassies located in Ukraine,” says Yakimenko. “It was tens of times greater than usual diplomatic cargo supplies.” He says that right after such shipments crisp, new U.S. dollar bills were spotted on Maidan. (emphasis added)

On a personal note, I lived through two of the most deadly U.S. military coups in Latin America: as Visiting Professor in Chile in 1973 (Gen. Augusto Pinochet) and then in Argentina in 1976 (Gen. Jorge Videla and “La Guerra Sucia”).

In comparison, the criminal acts and atrocities (Neo-Nazi sniper killings) committed by the US sponsored EuroMaidan are beyond description.

The Central Role of  the Svoboda Neo-Nazi Party 

As outlined above, Andriy Parubiy played a key role in the EuroMaidan massacre. Andriy Parubiy (image right) is the co-founder together with Oleh Tyahnybok of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (subsequently renamed Svoboda). Parubiy was first appointed Secretary of the National Security and National Defense Committee (RNBOU) by the Kiev regime. (Рада національної безпеки і оборони України), a key position which overseas the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement, National Security and Intelligence.

He subsequently (2015-2019) became Vice-Chair and Chair of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) shifting into the realm of international diplomacy on behalf of the Neo-Nazi regime.

In the course of his career, Parubiy developed numerous contacts in North America and Europe, with members of the European Parliament. He was invited to Washington on several occasions, meeting up (already in 2015) with Sen. John McCain (chair) of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was also invited to Ottawa, meeting up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Parliament Hill in 2016.

Victoria Nuland and Andriy Parubiy, 2018

The Role of Victoria Nuland

Victoria Nuland, acting on behalf of the US State Department was directly involved in “suggesting” key appointments.

While the Neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok was not granted a cabinet position, members of the two neo-Nazi parties (namely Svoboda (Freedom Party) and The Right Sector (Pravy Sektor) were granted key positions in the areas of Defense, National Security and Law Enforcement.

The Neo Nazis also controlled the judicial process with the appointment of  Oleh Makhnitsky of the Svoboda Party (on February 22, 2014) to the position of prosecutor-general. What kind of justice would prevail with a renowned Neo-Nazi in charge of the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine?

Video: F**k the EU. Nuland-Pyatt Leaked Phone Conversation

The controversial conversations between Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador Pyatt are recorded below. (See video and transcript below, YouTube version  (below).

(Leaked Online on February 4, 2014, Exact Date of Conversation Unconfirmed, Three weeks prior to the demise of President Yanukovych on February 21-22, 2014)

Transcript of Conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt,

on YouTube

“Warning: This transcript contains swearing” 

Voice thought to be Nuland’s: What do you think?

Voice thought to be Pyatt’s: I think we’re in play. The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated electron here. Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you’ve seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we’re trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff. But I think your argument to him, which you’ll need to make, I think that’s the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, who subsequently became Prime Minister], another opposition leader]. And I’m glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I’m very glad that he said what he said in response.

Nuland: Good. I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.

Pyatt: Yeah. I guess… in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok], the other opposition leader] and his guys and I’m sure that’s part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this.

Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the… what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in… he’s going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it’s just not going to work.

image: Tyannybok (leader of Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party (left), Yatseniuk (right)

Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think that’s right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?

Nuland: My understanding from that call – but you tell me – was that the big three were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a… three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you understood it?

Pyatt: No. I think… I mean that’s what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that’s been with them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he’s going to take a while to show up for whatever meeting they’ve got and he’s probably talking to his guys at this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the personality management among the three and it gives you also a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn’t like it.

Nuland: OK, good. I’m happy. Why don’t you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.

Pyatt: OK, will do. Thanks.

Nuland: OK… one more wrinkle for you Geoff. [A click can be heard] I can’t remember if I told you this, or if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman [United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs] this morning, he had a new name for the UN guy Robert Serry did I write you that this morning?

Pyatt: Yeah I saw that.

Nuland: OK. He’s now gotten both Serry and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fuck the EU.

Pyatt: No, exactly. And I think we’ve got to do something to make it stick together because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, that the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it. And again the fact that this is out there right now,

I’m still trying to figure out in my mind why Yanukovych (garbled) that. In the meantime there’s a Party of Regions faction meeting going on right now and I’m sure there’s a lively argument going on in that group at this point. But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we move fast. So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep… we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing. The other issue is some kind of outreach to Yanukovych but we probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start to fall into place.

Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president’s national security adviser Jake] Sullivan’s come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden’s willing. (emphasis added)

Pyatt: OK. Great. Thanks.

3. U.S.-NATO Military Aid and Support (2014-2023) to a Full Fledged Neo-Nazi Proxy Regime is an Illegal and Criminal Act.

There is ample evidence of collaboration between the Kiev Neo-Nazi regime and NATO member states, specifically in relation to the continuous flow of military aid as well the training and support provided to the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.

Collaborating with a Neo-Nazi regime is criminal under international law. Anti-Nazi laws exist in a number of European countries.

“In the aftermath of World War II, the National Socialist Party (the Nazi party) of Germany was considered a criminal organization and therefore banned.

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946 likewise ruled that the Nazi Party was a criminal organization.”

In a far-reaching initiative the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the “Glorification of Nazism” Click image too enlarge 

The Nazi Azov Battalion was from the outset integrated into Ukraine’s National Guard which is under the jurisdiction of Ukraine’s Ministry of  Internal Affairs.

The Azov battalion has (2015) been trained by the U.S. Canada and the UK. “

“The US contingent of instructors includes 290 specialists … Britain has dispatched 75 military personnel responsible for training “in command procedures and tactical intelligence”. (Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2015).

The training program was coupled with the influx of  military equipment under a program of so-called “non-lethal” military aid.

In turn, the Azov battalion –which is the object of military aid, has  also been involved in the conduct of Summer Nazi training Camps for children and adolescents

Recruitment of Child Soldiers

The Summer Camp training program constitutes the first stage of the recruitment of child soldiers in derogation of international law.

Invariably, the recruitment of child soldiers implies a training program which familiarizes young children with the use of light automatic weapons.

The military trainers are part of the Azov paramilitary dispatched to the Summer Camp (see the Nazi SS insignia on his uniform below):© vk.com/tabir.azovec

The Azov battalion’s Summer Camps are supported by US military aid channelled to the Ukraine National Guard via the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The MIA coordinates the “anti-terrorism operation” (ATO) in Donbass.

For further details See: Ukraine’s “Neo-Nazi Summer Camp”. Military Training for Young Children, Para-military Recruits, Michel Chossudovsky, July 08, 2023.

Media Propaganda 

The Sunday Times confirms that the children and adolescents are eventually slated to be recruited in the National Guard, which was integrated into the Ukrainian Military in 2016. The Guardian casually dismisses the criminal nature of the Azov Battalion’s Summer Camp for children (which bears the Nazi WolfAngel SS insignia):

“In Ukraine, the far-right Azov militia is fighting on the frontline – and running a summer camp for children. The Guardian visited the camp and followed 16-year-old Anton through his experiences. Is Azov really a modern Hitler Youth organisation, or is it trying to prepare young Ukrainians for the tough reality that awaits them?” (To view the video click here Guardian, emphasis added)

The following image is revealing, from Left to Right: the Blue NATO flag, the Azov Battalion’s Wolfangel SS of the Third Reich and Hitler’s Nazi Swastika (red and white background) are displayed, which points to collaboration between NATO and the Neo-Nazi regime.

4. The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC)

Inasmuch as “the war started in 2014”, Stoltenberg’s statements confirm that US-NATO were supportive of Ukraine’s  artillery and missile bombardments of Donbass which resulted in more than 14,000 deaths of civilians, including children.

Stoltenberg’s admission on behalf of NATO that “the war started in 2014” would have required that from the very outset in February  2014 the warring parties including their allies abide by the Four Basic Principles of  The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) which consist in:

“….respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.” [Additional Protocol 1, Article 48]

Civilian population (children) and civilian objects (schools, hospitals, residential areas) were the deliberate object of UAF and Azov Battalion attacks in blatant violation of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC).

In accordance with the LOAC, Moscow took the decision starting in February 2014 to come to the rescue of Donbass civilians including children. Visibly the president of the I.C.C. Piotr Hofmanski in accusing President Putin of “unlawful kidnapping of Ukrainian children” hasn’t the foggiest understanding of Article 48. of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). Is this an issue of incompetence? Or has Piotr Hofmanski been co-opted into endorsing crimes against humanity?

In derogation of The Law of Armed Conflict, US-NATO bears the responsibility for having endorsed the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion, which was involved in the conduct of atrocities against civilians.

To consult Part II of this article (which was published by Global Research, click the link below:

Is NATO Intent upon Invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty as a Means to Declaring War on Russia?

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.

12 February 2024

Source: michelchossudovsky.substack.com

The Criminalization of International Law, Part II

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Introduction

From the outset on October 7, 2023, “A Tissue of Lies” has served to justify the killings in the Gaza Strip of more than 30,000 civilians, of which 70% are women and children. The atrocities committed against the People of Palestine are beyond description. At the time of writing, at least 13,000 children have been killed:

“That is one Palestinian child killed every 15 minutes… Thousands more are missing under the rubble, most of them are presumed dead.”

Military operations are invariably planned well in advance.

Had  Hamas’ “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” been a “surprise attack” as parroted by the media, Netanyahu’s “State of Readiness For War” could not have been spontaneously carried out (at short notice) on that same day, namely October 7, 2023. The “State of Readiness” etiquette (revealed on October 7) points to a carefully prepared plan. 

It is now well established that Israel’s Operation “State of Readiness for War” which consisted in “Wiping Gaza Off the Map” was carefully coordinated with U.S. military and intelligence. It is part of a broader joint Israel-U.S. military agenda.

Washington not only supports the Genocide, it oversees the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Although South Africa’s legal initiative was directed against the State of Israel, the conduct of the genocide is a joint Israel-U.S. project, with U.S. military and intelligence operatives collaborating directly with their Israeli counterparts. 

This collaboration is also supported by an extensive flow of military aid. 

The Criminalization of International Law 

What is at stake is the criminalization of the international judicial process. The ICJ not only refused to propose a “Cease Fire”, which was part of South Africa’s demand, its January 26, 2024 Judgment failed to question the role of the Netanyahu coalition government, which was largely responsible for the planning prior to October 7 of a comprehensive military agenda directed against Palestine, with the support of Washington.

Although the Republic of South Africa’s ICJ accusation was directed against the State of Israel, it is now confirmed, amply documented that the Genocide against the People of Palestine was a joint Israel-U.S. operation.

In this regard, the ICJ President Joan Donoghue — former Legal Advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the Obama administration– is in conflict of interest. The latter indelibly raises the issue of her Recusal.  (See:  Recusals of Arbitrators and Judges in International Courts and Tribunals, Chiara Giorgetti).

While Article 2 of the ICJ Statute (p.212) “provides that the court should be comprised of independent judges”, the practice of recusal of a judge, specifically with regard to the President of the ICJ is almost impossible. Nonetheless, the issue of “conflict of interest” must be raised. Judge Joan Donoghue takes her instructions from Washington.

“Escalate the Genocide”

The IDC’s January 26, 2024 Judgment has set in motion a new wave of atrocities directed against the People of Palestine. 

On that same day (January 26), Netanyahu confirmed that the genocide was ongoing and would continue.

“We will not compromise on anything less than total victory. That means eliminating Hamas, …” 

While rhetorical condemnations against Israel prevail, what the peace movement fails to acknowledge is that no legal obstruction or hindrance  was formulated  by the World Court in its January 26, 2024 Judgment.

The Occupied West Bank, Jewish Settlements in Gaza

In Gaza, IDF commanders have ordered soldiers to “Setting fire to homes belonging to non-combatant civilians, for the mere purpose of punishment”. 

Moreover, barely a few days after the January 26, ICJ Judgment, plans were announced to establish a cohesive network of Jewish settlements in Gaza.

Israel’s Plan: Mass Starvation

The Biden administration responding to Netanyahu has ordered to cut  funding to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is indelibly slated to result in famine and the total collapse of social services:

UNRWA provides food, shelter, health care, education … for the 5.7 million UNRWA-registered Palestinian refugees in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

The curtailment of UNRWA funding is an integral part of the Netanyahu government’s carefully designed project to trigger mass starvation throughout the Gaza Strip. 

“Gaza is experiencing mass starvation like no other in recent history. Before the outbreak of fighting in October, food security in Gaza was precarious, but very few children – less than 1% – suffered severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous kind. Today, almost all Gazans, of any age, anywhere in the territory, are at risk.

There is no instance since the second world war in which an entire population has been reduced to extreme hunger and destitution with such speed. And there’s no case in which the international obligation to stop it has been so clear.” 

These facts underpinned South Africa’s recent case against Israel at the international court of justice. The international genocide convention, article 2c, prohibits “deliberately inflicting [on a group] conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. (Guardian)

Documentation of the Atrocities Committed against the People of Palestine

The atrocities are carefully documented in Sarah Abushaar’s courageous video production entitled 

click below to access video (YouTube)

More than 100 Days and 75 Years of Genocide.

Sarah Abushaar

Video

Since israel’s establishment through the ethnic cleansing and massacre of Palestinians from Palestine — persisting in its massacre, mass expulsion, abduction, torture and terror of indigenous Palestinians.

The theft of land, life and human rights.

Israel’s unconscionable slaughter of 13,000 children, extermination of 30,000 civilians, destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system as it wounds 60,000 and mass starvation of 2.3 million, part of what it’s been committing on Palestinian life for decades – continuing its ongoing genocide now on hyperdrive.

The elections in Pakistan today were much freer and fairer than I had expected. Hence, the preliminary results simply reflected the obvious for most of us: former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party, PTI (the movement for justice) – facing ruthless repression over the past year – have swept the elections in every single province of the country. Khan, surviving two assasination attempts and languishing in a supermax dungeon since last August, is more popular than ever. Among the youth, Gallup Pakistan surveys have consistently reported around 80-90 percent support for Khan and his party.

The tyranny of the generals in the military high command along with the kleptocratic and dynastic political parties entailed even the suppression of PTI’s symbol (a cricket bat) and virtually a ban, with horrific consequences if violated, on candidates running on a PTI ticket. Thus, all of these candidates ran as independents.

Of course, we have now become used to one criminal travesty after the next by Pakistan’s military-intelligence apparatus. So, we are cautious about any temporary victory for people’s democracy, triumphing over the Washington-backed totalitarian military and political elite. The latter are in full-blown panic mode, and are trying their best at tampering and rigging before announcing the final results.

The preliminary results, regardless of the fraudulent shenanigans of the national security state expected in the next few days, already represents a resounding defeat of the neo-colonial comprador oligarchy in Pakistan. One just needs to see how highly strung the spokesperson of the State Department was in addressing questions related to these elections.

There is one sign of both hope and danger. For the first time in Pakistan’s history, the normally unified and disciplined armed forces are now experiencing deep divisions. The majority of military officers and and 95 percent of soldiers are repulsed by the behavior of Wasington’s minions in the top brass. To the surprise of many of us, these divisions also exist within the intelligence agencies. We are witnessing in an unprecedented way a refusenik impulse within the military. Not to sound like the bogus alarmism we’re used to from Washington think tanks, it’s still worth remembering that Pakistan is a country of 240 million, nuclear-armed.

The Pakistani people badly need international solidarity at this point.

With much gratitude,
Junaid

13 February 2024

By Robert Scheer

Juan Cole, a renowned history professor at the University of Michigan and expert on the Middle East and South Asia, joins host Robert Scheer on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast to tackle inconvenient truths ignored by the media in the history of Israel and Palestine. This includes the conflation that criticizing the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians is somehow a form of Holocaust denial. This view of history distorts and whitewashes the deep antisemitic history of Western European culture, Scheer and Cole argue.

Cole describes the history of what came to be the current state of affairs in Israel and Palestine as a sort of Rube Goldberg machine where the European-spawned-Holocaust fueled the migration of European Jews to Palestine and the ouster of the inhabitants there who had nothing to do with the German-led barbarism against the Jewish people.

Never fully confronted, the gravest barbarism in modern history that Europe had created came to be ignored in the postwar period. In one of the most bizarre moral distortions in human history, the West shifted responsibility for the horror of the annihilation of European Jews to the Palestinian olive farmers in what is now greater Israel. That is the deeply immoral, rhetorical scam that continues to define the West’s responsibility for this continuing tragedy.

“You have this exchange of populations, this ethnic cleansing: Jews sent to Israel and Palestinian sent out of Israel. But the Palestinians that were sent out of Israel didn’t have a stable framework for their lives, they became stateless people, for a while,” Cole said.

In terms of the Palestinians as victims of colonialism, Cole said, “The Palestinians are among the great unresolved problems created by the modern era of this industrial ethnic nationalism and settler colonialism that came together in Palestine in this very unfortunate way.”

2 February 2024

Source: scheerpost.com

By Vanessa Beeley

Many Western analysts are hailing the ICJ ruling as a historic victory, many Palestinians don’t agree.

“We, the sons and daughters of this land, remain resolute in our cause. We do not seek acquittal from the International Court, nor do we wait for the international community’s approval to exercise our right to resist and liberate any occupied territory, especially from Israel and foreign military forces.”
— Myriam Charabaty

29 Jan 2024 – The ruling issued by the ICJ ordered six provisional measures including for Israel to refrain from acts under the Genocide convention, prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide, and take immediate and effective measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. The Court also ordered Israel to preserve evidence of genocide and to submit a report to the Court, within one month, of all measures taken in line with its order.

There have been mixed reactions with widescale approval from many Western analysts and disappointment and anger from Palestinians and regional analysts. I will try to unpack both sides.

Palestine and the region responds

Last night I spoke with Lebanese journalist and analyst Marwa Osman and we covered much of what I will write about but please do listen to Marwa’s opinion which is based on years of Resistance against the Zionist colonialist project that threatens the whole region.

Beyond Marwa’s invaluable insights I also reached out to another Lebanon-based journalist Myriam Charabaty who describes herself thus on her website:

An Arab political analyst focused on soft power, the colonization of the Christian identity across the Arab Nation, and the role of Arab Christians as part of an entire social fabric in the fight for Arab national liberation.

Myriam responded to the ICJ ruling with the following statement:

We, the sons and daughters of this land, remain resolute in our cause. We do not seek acquittal from the International Court, nor do we wait for the international community’s approval to exercise our right to resist and liberate any occupied territory, especially from Israel and foreign military forces.

For decades, we’ve paid a heavy price in blood and sacrifice, aiming for liberation, the end of oppression, and the preservation of our dignity and land. The failures of the international community and its courts are glaring, with examples like Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Libya, where our suffering goes unaccounted for.

The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the core issue in the Arab world, and we firmly believe that what was taken by force can only be reclaimed through force – a historically proven equation.

Yesterday, the International Court of Justice and the world were put on trial as they witnessed a live-streamed genocide. Will they choose to preserve their humanity in the face of this ongoing atrocity? By failing to confront the occupation as a whole, including the ongoing genocide in Gaza and systematic ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Occupied AlQuds, they admit to prioritizing their interests over their humanity.

As for us, the people who have chosen the honorable path of steadfastness and resistance across the Axis, we will continue to stand with our most honorable Resistance until we achieve liberation, regardless of the cost. Resisting oppression and occupation is our fundamental human duty.

Much blood has been spilled, and our pursuit of vengeance has become a sacred endeavor. This time, our vengeance will be in the form of liberation.

A young journalist in the Gaza enclave expressed frustration and grief “there is no justice in the International Court of Justice” because the ICJ failed to call for a cessation of military activity against the people of Gaza.

It is mistaken to call it a ceasefire. By its definition a ceasefire is an agreement between two conflictual armies. Palestine does not have an Army, it does not have a Navy nor an Air-force, it is an indigenous Resistance movement whose right to armed resistance against an apartheid, brutal occupying force is enshrined in International Law.

On Instagram an account called Decolonize the Classroom also argued against the term ceasefire:

There is no humanity in Imperialism and ceasefire only treats Palestinians as objects that need to be temporarily quelled while the colony and the imperialist US gear up for a new method of containing and exploiting these objectified humans.

Watch:

TO CONTINUE READING PLEASE Go to Original – beeley.substack.com

Vanessa Beeley is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.

5 February 2024

Source: transcend.org

By Aaron Maté

While rushing weapons to the Israeli government’s assault on Gaza, the Biden administration embraces Israeli allegations about UNRWA without bothering to investigate them.

1 Feb 2024 – In early November, as the Biden administration faced growing outcry over its partnership with Israel’s mass murder campaign in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony Blinken turned to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, for an attempted face-saving photo opportunity.

“I spoke with UNRWA staff in Gaza,” Blinken wrote on Twitter, sharing a photo of himself in a virtual meeting with four agency workers. “I heard about the extraordinary lifesaving work they are doing in the face of extremely difficult conditions. We are working to expedite assistance to them so that they can get it to the Palestinian people.”

While claiming to expedite aid to UNRWA, Blinken’s State Department has in fact helped enforce Israel’s blockade of the Gaza death camp, all while expediting US weapons shipments for a relentless bombing campaign that has left it largely destroyed.

The Biden administration’s commitment to Israeli savagery is so extreme that not even the “extraordinary lifesaving work” of UNRWA, which provides essential services to millions of Palestinians in Gaza and other regions, can be spared. The US, along with Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland, Canada, Netherlands, Italy, Australia and Finland, has suspended aid to UNRWA in response to Israeli claims that 12 of the agency’s 13,000 employees took part in the Hamas-led Oct. 7^th attack.

The Israeli government unveiled its allegations against UNRWA on Friday just as the International Court of Justice found plausible grounds to accuse of Israel of genocide in Gaza, and ordered it to cease blocking aid. By embracing Israel’s allegations against UNRWA, the White House and its allies not only helped deflect attention from the ICJ ruling, but make clear that Israel has their blessing to ignore it.

According to the Washington Post, the Biden administration’s decision to suspend UNRWA’s funding was made so quickly that it came “in a matter of hours” after receiving a so-called “dossier” from Israeli intelligence. The US rushed to support Israel’s allegations despite acknowledging that it hadn’t bothered to scrutinize them. “We haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves,” Secretary Blinken told reporters. “But they are highly, highly credible.” Blinken did not explain how he has developed the ability to vouch for “highly, highly credible” allegations that he has not investigated.

The “credibility” of the allegations was soon illuminated by Israeli officials, who admitted that “a lot” of their so-called “intelligence” about UNRWA was “a result of interrogations of militants,” Axios reported. Anyone familiar with Israeli practice understands that such “interrogations” are a euphemism for torture. Perhaps for that reason, a New York Times article laundering the Israeli claims omitted any mention of the interrogations that produced them.

Rather than inform its audience that Israel’s “intelligence” about UNRWA came via army interrogators that routinely practice torture, the Times reported that Israel relied on intercepted phone calls and text messages from Gaza. Just like brutalizing detainees, this also is standard Israeli practice: when establishment outlets like the Times were laundering Israeli claims – now long-forgotten – about a supposed Hamas command center under Al-Shifa and alleged militant activity at other hospitals, US and Israeli intelligence officials also claimed to have obtained the “intercepted communications” of Hamas fighters. Israel even released supposed “recordings” of calls between Hamas fighters that were widely mocked as transparent forgeries.

Days after the Times’ report, the Wall Street Journal followed up with an article even more subservient to the Israeli narrative. According to Israeli intelligence, the Journal declared, “around 10% of all of [UNRWA’s] Gaza staff have ties to Islamist militant groups,” including “23% of Unrwa’s male employees… indicating a higher politicization of the agency than the population at large.”

The Journal did not detail the evidence for its Israeli sources’ extraordinary figures, nor explain what these UNRWA workers’ supposed militant “ties” entail. By contrast, the story’s lead reporter, Carrie Keller-Lynn, has amply documented ties to politicization and militancy — specifically, that of the Israeli army. Before becoming a journalist, Keller-Lynn served in the Israeli Defense Forces and even boasted that a close friend “literally created social media for the IDF.” She has also worked as a research assistant for former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Hoover Institution, a leading neoconservative think tank. In since-deleted Twitter activity, Keller-Lynn was found to have liked posts mocking the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza.

The mere act of scrutinizing Israel and its media stenographers’ allegations obscures a more fundamental point: even if every torture-derived claim about a small group of UNRWA workers were true, nothing can justify cutting off a lifeline for millions of Palestinian refugees, even if they weren’t currently enduring a genocide. After all, no one alleges that UNRWA was aware of or involved in its employees’ alleged actions. As Sky News reports, based on a review of Israel’s purported evidence, “Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly implicate UNRWA.”

The suspension of aid also could not be any more hypocritical: while immediately cutting off UNRWA funding based on evidence-free allegations about a tiny number of employees, the Biden administration has refused to cut off any of its massive weapons shipments to an Israeli government whose leaders openly incite genocide as its military carries one out.

The White House insists that its funding pause is a “temporary” measure until UNRWA can “begin to restore donor confidence.” But just as he has openly rejected the Biden administration’s stated commitment to a Palestinian state, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also clear that he aims to shutter UNRWA for good. “The time has come for the international community and the U.N. itself to understand that UNRWA’s mission must be ended,” Netanyahu declared on Wednesday. “UNRWA is perpetuating itself. It seeks to preserve the issue of Palestinian refugees.”

Indeed, in punishing UNRWA, the US is servicing a long-time Israeli goal of destroying Palestinian nationalism.

As Jonathan Cook writes, UNRWA “has provided a lifeline” to Palestinians in Gaza by offering food and jobs “in a place where unemployment rates are among the highest in the world.” UNRWA has also maintained vital infrastructure that makes “life in Gaza more bearable, when Israel’s goal has long been to make the enclave uninhabitable.” UNRWA’s schools, “staffed by local Palestinians, teach the children their own history, about where their grandparents once lived, and of Israel’s campaign of dispossession and ethnic cleansing against them.” UNRWA “is the sole agency unifying Palestinians wherever they live, even when they are separated by national borders and Israel’s fragmentation of the territory it controls,” – thereby helping to preserve Palestinian national identity and the attendant hope for self-determination, an aspiration that Israel seeks to crush. And not least, “UNRWA keeps alive the moral case for a Palestinian right of return – a principle recognised in international law but long ago abandoned by western states.”

The Israeli government openly identifies UNRWA as an obstacle to its hopes of ethnically cleansing Gaza and destroying the Palestinian struggle for freedom. “It will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA, and this destruction must begin immediately,” former Israeli Foreign Ministry official Noga Arbell told a Knesset hearing earlier this month. “They must be abandoned. Or they must go to hell.”

In late December, a classified Israeli Foreign Ministry report detailed a multi-stage plan to permanently shutter UNRWA’s operations in Gaza after the current assault comes to an end. The report complained that Israel’s main patron, the US, sees UNRWA “as a positive player in the humanitarian efforts in the Strip.” In embracing Israel’s allegations, the Biden administration has clearly shifted its thinking. It undoubtedly helped Israel’s cause that the United Nations’ top court has just advanced a genocide case in which the US is clearly implicated. For White House officials anxious about their recognized complicity in genocide, what better distraction than changing the subject to an allegedly compromised United Nations agency which serves the very population that the US is helping to exterminate.

The Biden administration’s transition from using UNRWA for image-laundering photo opportunities to cutting off its funding also exemplifies its embrace of Trump administration policies that it previously renounced. Long before Biden cut funding to the Palestinian refugee agency, Donald Trump did it first.

On his way out of government service in January 2021, Trump’s openly anti-Palestinian ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, reflected on his legacy: “There’s no going back on what we’ve been able to do. I’m frankly somewhere between addicted and intoxicated with what I’ve been able to do, and how much joy it gives me. We’ve changed the narrative dramatically.”

If Friedman has come down from his prior intoxication, he can undoubtedly experience new joy today. His successors are not only abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but targeting the main agency that helps keep surviving Palestinian refugees, and their hopes for a decent future, alive.

Aaron Maté is a journalist with The Grayzone, where he hosts “Pushback.” He is also a contributor to Real Clear Investigations and the temporary co-host of “Useful Idiots.”

5 February 2024

Source: transcend.org

By Kyle Anzalone

Biden ordered over 100 bombs dropped on dozens of targets across Iranian-linked targets in Iraq and Syria. No Iranians are reported to be among the dead.

3 Feb 2024 – A massive US bombing campaign struck scores of targets in Iraq and Syria with over 100 bombs, leaving about 40 people dead, including civilians. President Joe Biden ordered the strikes as tensions in the Middle East are rapidly escalating.

On Friday, US Central Command announced the “military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States. The airstrikes employed more than 125 precision munitions.”

On Saturday, Baghdad reported that 16 Iraqis, including civilians, were killed. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed that the Syria strikes had killed 23 militia fighters. The Syrian Defense Ministry said militants and civilians were killed without providing a figure.

Baghdad and Damascus issued statements blasting Washington over the strikes. Last week, three American soldiers were killed in Jordan near the Syrian border with a drone. Biden vowed to respond to the deaths of the American troops by striking Iranian-linked targets in the Middle East.

The White House did not seek Congressional authorization for starting the war. Additionally, the White House admitted it could not directly link Tehran to the strike in Jordan. It does not appear that any Iranians were killed by US forces on Friday. In a separate incident, one Iranian officer was reported killed in Syria, likely by an Israeli air strike that took place before the American attack.

National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said the strikes were aimed at de-escalating tension in the regions. However, The Islamic Resistance of Iraq conducted retaliatory strikes the next day against bases housing US soldiers.

The Islamic Resistance of Iraq and other Shia militias that operate in the region began targeting bases housing US soldiers in mid-October in response to the Israel onslaught in Gaza. The White House is fighting a war with similar roots against the Houthis in Yemen. While Israel has used American weapons to unleash widespread destruction and massive death on Gaza, the White House has continued to defend Tel Aviv’s rampant war crimes in the Strip.

Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.

5 February 2024

Source: transcend.org

By BRICS Info Portal

1 Feb 2024 – At the dawn of 2024, from January 1, five more countries became full members of the BRICS, a transnational association, which until then consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, and thus became BRICS+ (BRICS Plus), totaling ten countries.

Egypt which is located in northeast Africa and partly on the Sinai Peninsula, which is an isthmus to southwest Asia, thus making it a transcontinental country, it is considered a major power in North Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, the Islamic world and the Red Sea. A populous – with 104.5 million inhabitants – historical Arab country with a long and very rich cultural heritage and at the same time the most powerful military country in Africa that controls the strategic Suez Canal. Egypt also has huge reserves of natural gas, estimated at 2,180 cubic kilometers and Egyptian liquefied natural gas is exported to many countries.

Ethiopia is a country located in the Horn of Africa, at the eastern end of the continental African. With a population of 107.5 million inhabitants, according to an official estimate for 2023, it is the most populous mediterranean state-i.e. that has no sea- in the world. A poor but rapidly developing country with great geostrategic weight in Africa, which apart from its agricultural production which contributes 41% of GDP, also has the largest water resources in the entire continent. Ethiopia is the largest producer of coffee in Africa and the second largest producer of corn.

Iran is a Middle Eastern country in Southwest Asia. It has a population of 88.5 million according to the United Nations average estimate for 2022. Iran is considered a major regional power and occupies a prominent position in matters of global energy policy and economics, mainly as a result of its large oil and natural gas reserves. Iran was the eighth largest oil producing country in the world in the year 2022 with 3,822,000 barrels per day. At the same time. it has strong armed forces and a large scientific staff, which are stationed in key parts of the planet such as the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Saudi Arabia is a country on the Arabian Peninsula, occupying most of it, about 80%, and which is washed by the Persian Gulf to the northeast and the Red Sea to the west. According to an official estimate for 2022 its population is 32.2 million inhabitants, 30% of whom are non-Saudi citizens (2013 estimate). Saudi Arabia’s economy is based on oil, from which approximately 75% of budget revenues and 90% of exports come. Saudi Arabia in the year 2022 came second in the world after the USA with a production of 12,136,000 barrels per day and holds 17% of the total proven oil reserves on a global scale.

The United Arab Emirates UAE, is a federal state consisting of seven emirates, at the southeastern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. The UAE is washed by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and borders Saudi Arabia and the Sultanate of Oman. They have a population of 9.3 million according to an official estimate for 2020. The country is rich in oil and natural gas deposits and its people enjoy an income comparable to that of developed western countries. The UAE was the seventh largest oil producing country in the world in the year 2022 with 4,020,000 barrels per day.

As for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which are among the wealthiest countries by GDP per capita, they have continued to post economic growth despite global uncertainties, including high interest rates, inflation and geopolitical tensions, as they focus on diversifying their economies.

Saudi Arabia’s economy grew according to the IMF by 8.7% in 2022 – the highest annual growth rate among the world’s 20 largest economies – and by just 0.8% for all of 2023. On the other hand, the economy of United Arab Emirates grew by 3.4% in 2023, with oil GDP growing at 0.7% and non-oil GDP at 4.5%, supported by strong performances in tourism, real estate, construction, transport, manufacturing and increasing capital expenditure.

With this entrance, therefore, the group, which appears as the rival force in the G7, now expands in the Middle East and includes within its bosom the countries, traditional allies of the West, which now manifest tendencies towards autonomy and of course control a large part of the world’s production of hydrocarbons, further increasing the group’s financial strength.

Thus, the BRICS+ countries collectively now represent 45% of the world’s population with approximately 3.5 billion people, a third of the Earth’s solid surface, 44% of total global oil production as well as almost 1/3 of global GDP, amounting to approximately 29 trillion dollars, having surpassed in purchasing power parity terms the G7, the group of the seven most powerful economies of the developed world.

At the same time there are at least thirty other developing world nations that have already expressed a keen interest in joining the group. Among these countries are Algeria, Congo, Bolivia, Venezuela, Indonesia and Kazakhstan, which are not rich countries, but possess enormous mineral wealth, and would very much like to break free from the noose of Western multinational corporations and dollar.

So, in this direction, the countries of the BRICS group have created the New Development Bank (NDB) since 2014, while a large part of the trade between them is done in national currencies and not in dollars. They are also moving forward with discussions and elaborations on the creation of a common currency (slowed down, however, by Indian objections). And they are still looking for solutions alternatives of international transaction to SWIFT. As a result, all these unfolding movements gradually lead to a de-dollarization of the global economic system.

At the next BRICS+ summit to be held in October 2024 in Kazan, capital of Tatarstan, a Russian city located at the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers in central European Russia, other countries – energy giants – may join the group and this will have as the effect of increasing the control of the global energy market from the 40% that it is today to a higher percentage.

In closing, I would like to emphasize that the expansion of the BRICS group is causing a turmoil in the countries of the West and above all in the USA, which are proceeding with knee-jerk reactions, with the mere idea only of the definitive loss of their global leadership, and is a real milestone towards inevitable historical course of formation of a new intercontinental world order, a polycentric world.

BRICS is an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates-UAE.

5 February 2024

Source: transcend.org