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By Philip Giraldi

There would appear to be no limit to Israeli bestiality towards the Palestinians and likewise no limit to how much that brutality has been enabled by the positions taken by successive US governments and the national media. Indeed, the self-defined Jewish state, which ironically claims to be a democracy, is perhaps the leading human rights violator in all the world due to its officially condoned genocide directed against the Palestinian people and its bombing and killing of neighboring Syrians and Lebanese without providing any convincing evidence that it is being threatened by them.

That apartheid Israel is essentially a criminal state that blithely goes about killing and stealing from the original inhabitants of the Middle East region might well be accepted as substantially true by most observers. But even given all of that, there is sometimes a story that emerges that is so shocking and disturbing that it becomes difficult to contemplate why the rest of the world has not risen-up and demanded an end to Israeli atrocities.

One such story is the recent murder by Israeli soldiers of a two-year-old boy Mohammad al-Tamimi. Unfortunately, heavily armed Israelis illegally occupying the West Bank and killing Palestinian children is not a rare occurrence. Fully 27 children have suffered that fate in the past six months, including some children being killed by Israeli bombing and rockets in Gaza. And the stories are often the same, with the Israeli government claiming that there were “terrorist threats,” often deliberately contrived provocations that rapidly develop into shooting ranges with the unarmed Palestinians as targets.

In this case, Mohammad al-Tamini was with his father, Haytam al-Tamimi, and had just been buckled into the back seat of the family car to go on a short trip to visit an uncle in a nearby village to celebrate an aunt’s birthday. The al-Tamimis live in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, located twelve miles northwest of Ramallah, which passes for the capital of what fragments of land the Palestinians have been able to preserve as a symbol of their national identity. The Israelis de facto are occupiers of nearly all of the West Bank and have military outposts scattered through the region to protect the armed and illegal Jewish settlers who are constantly harassing the remaining Palestinians and destroying their crops to force them to emigrate.

The remaining Palestinians in their villages and towns are constantly under siege and are subject to checkpoints, arbitrary arrests, and even murder at the hands of the Israel Defense Forces. One observer notes how the remaining Arab “communities are actually Palestinian enclaves that are prisons” with heavily armed 18 year old Israeli conscript soldiers free to run amok as they see fit. And when a Palestinian is killed, the Israeli soldiers know well that they will not in any way punished. An Israeli peace group has calculated that between 2017 and 2021 a soldier who murdered a civilian faced only a 0.87% probability that he would be investigated and indicted. There were only 11 such indictments in those years and the punishments eventually meted out were slaps on the wrist.

On June 1^st, Mohammad was the victim of a band of Israeli soldiers, who later claimed to be chasing a car from which shots had allegedly been fired at a nearby illegal Jewish settlement Neveh Tzuf. The problem with the tale is that no one heard any shots until the Israeli soldiers blocked the village entrance before arriving in the center of Nabi Saleh in their jeeps and starting shooting in all directions. They then settled in for a few hours to engage in a bit of tormenting of the local residents by beating them and even firing at them at close range. Haytam Tamimi and his son Muhammad were among five Palestinians injured during the raid.

Seated in their vehicle, Mohammad was shot through the head and his father was wounded in the shoulder, apparently by fire from a sniper. Taken to a hospital, Mohammad lingered for four days before dying on Monday June 5^th. His body was returned to his village for burial, which took place on the following day, but even then the Israelis chose not to avoid interfering in what was a tragic ceremony. Before and during the funeral, the Israeli military had surrounded the village and later that afternoon, while mourners were gathered at the al-Tamimi grandparents’ home, they entered into it for the third time since Mohammad was shot, beating and shooting villagers, injuring six people. One man sustained a gunshot wound in the pelvis, with the bullet entering his intestines. A woman was struck in her face with a rifle butt while another mourner was hit in the face with a rubber-coated steel bullet.

Ironically, on same day that Mohammad died the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at its annual policy summit in Washington. AIPAC, it might be observed, exists to promote Israeli interests, which should make it subject to registry under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) but no one in the White House seems interested in enforcing that particular law or any other existing legislation pertaining to secret nuclear arsenals when Israel is involved. The last president who tried to register AIPAC’s predecessor organization the American Zionist Council was John F. Kennedy, and consider what happened to him possibly as a result.

Click to view the video

Blinken, is himself a Jew and an avowed Zionist in an Administration awash with Jews and Zionists to include President Joe Biden, a supermarket Catholic, who calls himself a Zionist and effectively swears fealty to the Jewish state. Blinken is not really very good at blaming Israel for anything and when he is with a hardline Jewish gathering like the AIPAC Summit he is fully energized while he is making the audience feel good about its love for Israel. He enthused how the US-Israel partnership “touches on every aspect of our lives, from security to business, from energy to public health. And the depth and breadth of that partnership between our governments are matched only by the strength of the ties between our peoples. This partnership between the United States and Israel is indispensable.”

Blinken chose not to acknowledge that the “indispensable ties” between the US and the Jewish state is attributable to the large scale corruption of America’s political system by Israel and its Lobby to achieve such a status. And inevitably, Blinken made sure his friends in AIPAC understood that the Biden Administration sees the “blame” for the unrest in the Middle East just as does the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: Iran and Palestinian “terrorists” are largely at fault and Israel is the perpetual victim. He recalled how “Over the past several years, we’ve seen a rising tide of horrific violence that’s tragically and senselessly resulted in the loss of life of scores of civilians on both sides. That violence must end; its perpetrators must face equal justice under the law. The recent acts of terrorism – including nearly 1,000 rocket attacks launched toward Israel over just three days, some of them targeting Jerusalem – demonstrate the daily threat under which Israelis are forced to live. The fatal event at the border with Egypt – which resulted in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers – is another tragic reminder of these daily dangers.”

Blinken did not seem interested in the dead Palestinian children nor in the murder of Palestinian-American Journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli soldiers back in May 2022. He is more enthusiastic when he is telling AIPAC how much US Treasury money and other goodies are flowing to a wealthy Israel from the American taxpayer, describing how “Now, we have to start from this. The US-Israel relationship is underwritten by the United States’ commitment to Israel’s security. [My emphasis] That commitment is non-negotiable; it is ironclad. We are – we are providing $3.3 billion in foreign military financing to Israel each year. On top of that, Israel receives $500 million in funding for missile defense. Tens of millions more for new counter-drone and anti-tunneling technologies. That is in keeping with the 2016 memorandum of understanding negotiated by the Obama-Biden administration – and it is more than at any point in the history of our relationship. We’re also delivering an additional $1 billion in funding to replenish supplies for Israel’s Iron Dome, the missile defense system that we developed together and that has saved countless lives. All of this – all of this has been secured in partnership with our Congress, with bipartisan support. We’re also expanding our joint military exercises that improve how our forces work together seamlessly. This year, we have more joint exercises scheduled than at any point in our history. We’re also conducting joint research and development on advanced military capabilities, working together on cutting-edge defense systems, including Israel’s new laser-focused Iron Beam. This robust support continues to be critical in [my emphasis] maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge, buttressing its ability to defend itself, and to advancing our national interests. America is more secure when Israel is strong.”

It is interesting how Blinken concludes his argument supporting throwing bushels of money to Israel based on serving an American “national interest” and making us “more secure,” which is a complete lie, similar to what is being promoted to explain why we are in Ukraine. Maybe the Administration might consider some new talking points as the lies are getting ever more preposterous and the deficit spending of trillions of dollars has reached the point of no return. Blinken also lies big time when he attempts to resurrect the totally dead two state solution to Israel-Palestine, saying “Israel was founded — our partnership was built — on democratic values which include equal access by all people to their rights. And a two-state solution is vital to preserving Israel’s identity as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Blinken should perhaps be someday reincarnated as a Palestinian who has just lost his livelihood and home to an “equal access” Jewish settler and who every day experiences the Israeli organized increasing state violence that is directed against him. That might provide a different perspective. And it is interesting to note that the threat to Blinken’s imaginary two-state solution is also framed as coming from the Palestinians rather than from Israel. He denounced in his speech to AIPAC “any actions taken by any party that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution. That includes acts of terrorism, payments to terrorists in prison, violence against civilians, incitement to violence.” Take note that bombing and shooting children is not included, which is an Israeli speciality.

And, by the way Mr. Blinken, Israel was not founded on “democratic values.” It engaged in a massive program of ethnic cleansing that defined its creation — the Nakba for Palestinians, which killed thousands and drove at least 650,000 civilians from their homes. For the first 19 years of Israel’s existence, its Arab “citizens” were ruled under martial law and since then Palestinians have been legally discriminated against with Jewish supremacy and entitlement serving as the defining characteristics of the state.

Interestingly, in contrast to Blinken and Biden, at least one US Senator appears to have a conscience regarding dead people and he is surprisingly enough a Democrat! Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is calling on the Joe Biden administration to “publicly release its findings” into the shooting death of Shireen Abu Akleh. Van Hollen believes that a report compiled by the US security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority shortly after the fact provides important information about the “the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) unit involved in that operation as well as other IDF units operating in the West Bank.” He commented “I strongly believe that its public release is vital to ensuring transparency and accountability in the shooting death of American citizen and journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and to avoiding future preventable and wrongful deaths – goals we should all support.” Van Hollen has been denied access to the classified State Department report over the past eleven months, which has been attributed to Biden Administration desire to block any demands for accountability on the part of Israel.

Van Hollen obviously was not briefed on the fact that Israel has a White House approved license to kill Americans and just about anyone else due to its “chosen” status. He should check out what happened to the death by Israeli army bulldozer of Rachel Corrie in 2003 and to the 34 sailors murdered and another 172 wounded by an Israeli attack on the USS Liberty on June 8^th, 1967. When the Liberty was struggling to stay afloat President Lyndon Johnson ordered a cover-up which has led to Washington de facto taking orders from Tel Aviv and paying what amounts to an annual tribute to Israel as outlined in some detail by Blinken in his AIPAC speech. So, there you have it. We have on one hand a militarized ethno-religious state that rules over a suppressed minority with terror and killing that is being coddled by both US Republican and Democratic administrations because of Jewish power and, more to the point, the corruption obtainable by money and knowing how to use it for political advantage.

Killing a two-year-old little boy sitting in a car with his father is only the most recent of Israel’s war and human rights crimes, but it is particularly heinous and no one in the White House or State Department dares say squat. The murders in Palestine and the fantasy denial of Israeli culpability for anything by Blinken and Biden as well as by Donald Trump when he was in office speak for themselves. Who really rules the United States? What kind of monsters have we become under neocon/Zionist control? Is the bell that is tolling ringing for the demise of us as a nation? Ask about all those things now, because when Biden’s War on Antisemitism really goes into high gear one will likely be facing a jail sentence just for daring to pose those questions.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

13 June 2023

Source: www.globalresearch.ca

By Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fa

The crisis in Kashmir – and the United Nations ineffectual response – represents an example of the failure of the United Nations to respond effectively against massive and persistent violations of human rights. Kashmir also represents a failure of the United Nations to use its mandate to seek an equitable peace and justice. The United Nations always tries to examine how it can more effectively prevent human rights violations, it is instructive to examine the experience of Kashmir and seek lessons for increasing the UN’s effectiveness.

In 1990, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the massive expansion of freedoms around the world, the people of Kashmir began to seek their right to self-determination, as promised by the United Nations resolutions. In an effort to suppress this growing sentiment among the Kashmiri people, the Government of India began committing massive abuses of human rights.

These abuses, which continue today, include: the systematic use of rape; the arbitrary arrest, torture, summary execution of Kashmiri civilians; firing into unarmed crowds of peaceful demonstrators; and the burning of entire villages and communities by Indian troops. Since 1990, over 100,000 people have been killed by occupation forces in Kashmir, and thousands more have been maimed or wounded. Many of the victims are women and young children. Over 10,000 women have been raped by Indian occupations forces. And according to a report published by ‘The International Peoples Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian Administered Kashmir (IPTK), 8000 to 10,000 people have disappeared in Kashmir. Their wives are known as ‘half-widows’ because they do not know whether their husbands are dead or alive.

Recently, after the abrogation of Article 370 & 35A on August 5, 2019, India enacted Domicile Law to change the demography of Kashmir. More than 4.3 domicile certificates have been issued to non-Kashmiris to allow them to reside inside the state. Today, India is the worst example of settler colonization. It is reported that Government of India has earmarked 203005 acres of land in Jammu & Kashmir for land grab. Besides, the Indian army is engaged in confiscating local homes and evacuating the locals from their business establishments, in particular from the hotels which have been built in the most scenic areas in the Valley, like Gulmarg – famous for its skiing scenes in Asia.

All of these actions are perpetrated by the Indian Government with one singular purpose to prevent the implementation of the UN resolutions. And yet, the UN has been unable to respond effectively to this political and humanitarian crisis.

The solution to the crisis in Kashmir lies in dialogue between all parties concerned – Governments of India, Pakistan and the genuine leadership of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. But India has chosen destruction over dialogue, jailing political prisoners, like Yasin Malik, Shabir Ahmed Shah, Masarat Aalam, Aasia Andrabi and human rights activists, like Khurram Parvez , journalists like Irfan Mehraj, Asif Sultan, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, etc and implementing a brutal campaign of terror against the civilian populations in Kashmir.

How long will the world watch in silence as India carries out the genocide of the people of Kashmir? This is a question the Kashmiris are asking today.

At this guardedly propitious time, the role of global Kashmiri diaspora leadership is pivotal, and its responsibilities are correspondingly great, particularly when leaders like Syed Ali Geelani & Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai are no more with us and rest of the Hurriyet leadership is incarcerated. It is a historical fact that  Diaspora in other international conflicts have proved essential to political change and direction, like South African diaspora became instrumental in toppling the scourge of apartheid. An amorphous collection of people, no matter how well intended have never achieved anything politically significant. The leadership of global Kashmiri diaspora cannot blithely assume that progress towards achieving self-determination will come spontaneously from the people without their advice, guidance, example and encouragement. The diaspora leadership cannot be summer soldiers or sunshine patriots. History will hold them accountable for success or God forbid of any failure.

The responsibilities of diaspora are manifold. First is to teach and practice the adage that if we do not hang together, we will all hang separately. Diaspora leadership must subordinate individual quests for political power, prominence, and other gain to the common good for all Kashmiris.

In addition, what matters is not who obtain public credit, but that success is achieved. Petty jealously have no place among Kashmir’s diaspora leadership circle. All should accept unreluctantly personal sacrifices necessitated by the urgency of the Kashmir issue. As Dr. Gregory Stanton, Chairman, Genocide Watch has warned, ‘Kashmir is at the brink of genocide.’ Emulation by the Kashmiri people will follow and generate the dynamics indispensable for the inevitably arduous struggle for self-determination. Time has come that all Kashmiri diaspora Organizations, Councils, Associations, Forums, Coalitions, Missions, Movements, Foundations, etc. must pursue one single agenda item: unfettered right of self-determination of the people of the State of Jammu & Kashmir. If need arises, we can gladly agree to disagree.

The North Star for diaspora leadership must be feasible, not the utopian. The world is unsentimental. On the international stage, might is customarily more powerful than right. National interests ordinarily trump intellectual consistency, international law, democratic rights and professed universal standards of justice. But there are exceptions, God only knows why? such as East Timor, Namibia, Southern Sudan. Moral suasion occasionally exhibits teeth. Diaspora must be skillful in orchestrating the complex array of cynical and high-minded motives of nations to achieve a symphony playing the lofty theme of self-determination for Kashmiris. Such orchestration will be more an art than a science and will require sleepless labors and lucubration’s to succeed. It is not a task for the indolent or dull.

Diaspora must neither stumble nor waver in the task of attaining self-determination for millions groaning under repression and grim privation.

In approaching a Kashmir resolution, the sole non- negotiable issue should be respecting the consensus of the people of all five regions of the state of Jammu & Kashmir with whom sovereignty resides.

Diaspora leadership not only has to maintain its narrative, but narrative should be equally coherent. We do not need to invent it. It is already there with international sanctity. Here is a prime example of the  international recognition of Kashmiri narrative.

When India felt that the people of Kashmir will never vote to accede to India, its delegate, V. P Krishna Menon delivered speech of record length at the Security Council where he said ‘In any case, the changed conditions since then had made the agreement obsolete, and the merger of Kashmir with India could not be revoked.’ The response to this fabricated narrative came from a person no less important than Professor Joseph Korbel, former Chairman, UN Commission for India, and Pakistan (UNCIP), who wrote in ‘The New Leader’ on March 4, 1957, entitled, “Nehru, The UN and Kashmir. “This new Indian stand raises issues which far transcend the problem of Kashmir. For if a nation which has accepted a United Nations commitment can blithely assert that ‘circumstances have changed’ and the commitment is no longer binding, then the effectiveness of the United Nations has been dealt a staggering blow.”

Professor Korbel added, “More is at stake in Kashmir than the fate of a remote Asian province. On the UN’s handling of this question may depend much of its future moral and political authority.”

Joseph Korbel also wrote in ‘Danger in Kashmir’ on page 351, “The people of Kashmir have made it unmistakably known that they insist on being heard. Whatever may be their wishes about their future, they must be ascertained directly or through their legitimate, popular representatives.” “If it (solution of Kashmir) is not achieved, India and Pakistan, indeed the whole free world may reap the harvest of shortsightedness and indecision of unpredictable dimensions.” (By the way, Professor Korbel was the father of Dr. Madeline Albright, and teacher of Dr. Condoleezza Rice at Colorado University, both former United States Secretaries of State).

Let us take a leaf from the vision of Professor Korbel and move forward unitedly to try to achieve our ultimate objective: the unfettered right to self-determination for the people of the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Dr. Fai is the Secretary General, World Kashmir Awareness Forum & Chairman, World Forum for Peace and Justice.

13 June 2023

The resurgent Nazism in Ukraine poses a threat to all of Europe

By Manlio Dinucci

“Nazi Symbols on Ukraine’s Front Lines Highlight Thorny Issues of History”, writes the New York Times. Many of the Ukrainian soldiers — trained by NATO and equipped with increasingly powerful weapons systems such as the German Leopard tank — wear Nazi emblems on their uniforms. “Ukrainian Troops’ use of patches bearing Nazi emblems – comments the NYT –  risks fueling Russian propaganda and spreading imagery that the West has spent a half-century trying to eliminate.

It is not just about images, however.

In Ukraine – where all political parties except the one in power have been outlawed and all media are under strict state control – a media group, owned by a neo-Nazi oligarch supporter of Zelensky, has launched a public poll on the topic “Which Russian journalist should be killed next?” It thus heralds the preparation of further assassinations after those of Daria Dughina and other journalists.  The media group – which cooperates with the BBC, Der Spiegel and other Western newspapers-publishes a list of Russian journalists to be assassinated, including the editor-in-chief of Russia Today and TV news anchors. At the same time the Ukrainian Security Service, in the hands of neo-Nazis, goes after “Internet agitators” who are arrested if they publish any criticism of the government.

The resurgent Nazism in Ukraine poses a threat to all of Europe, warns the US-based investigative journalism site Grayzone at the conclusion of a well-documented investigation.

The total number of foreign Nazi fighters in Ukraine is unknown, but it is probably very high. Returning to their countries, they will bring with them battlefield experience and, in many cases, elite Western military training. High-level weapons and ammunition will be available in abundance on the black market, thanks to massive arms shipments to Kiev over the course of the conflict. “It is hard to imagine,” Grayzone writes: “It is hard to imagine that Western intelligence officials are not aware that the powder keg they created in Kiev could erupt on their own soil. However, it also appears clear they have taken a vow of omerta on the issue”.

 *

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

12 June 2023

Source: www.globalresearch.ca

By Bharat Dogra

Robert Kennedy Jr. is one of the most interesting candidates to have emerged in the USA presidential race in recent years. While some would identify him as the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy and son of former Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy (both of whom were very important voices for peace and justice but were assassinated in highly suspicious circumstances with allegations of high-level insider involvement), Robert Kennedy Jr. has many distinct achievements of his own which make him very different from the normal run of candidates of recent years.

In particular it may be noted that at a time when it has been made terribly difficult for anyone in the political establishment of the USA to speak against the Ukraine policy of the Biden regime in general and the unending supply of weapons in particular, Robert Kennedy Jr. has shown the courage to speak against this and the wider proxy war, as also the long-continuing terrible violence of the war on terror. He has also spoken against the misuse of their excessive powers by agencies like the CIA, about which his illustrious uncle, the former President JFK, too had warned in very strong words. He has spoken even more consistently against the excesses of corporate power causing much harm worldwide and the collusion of politicians in this.

What is no less important is that Robert Kennedy Jr. has been very active as a senior environmental lawyer who has confronted some of the most powerful multinational companies (including agribusiness giants engaged in relentless spread of GM crops) in such crucial areas as health, food and agriculture. Needless to add, such courageous work can be helpful for protecting environment and reducing hazards in the entire world.

He has won very important cases against such powerful interests and they have launched a disinformation campaign against him. The most common word used to describe him is that of anti-vaxxer ( or someone speaking against vaccination ), ignoring the fact that what he has been emphasizing in this context most is that several giant pharmaceutical multinational companies have been using the vaccine and medicine sectors in unethical ways to increase their control of these sectors and to ruthlessly maximize their profits, often at the cost of people and their health , as is brought out by the emergence of many billionaires in the health sector and unprecedented increase in their wealth at a time when people have been suffering so much from health related problems.

Robert Kennedy Jr. has taken further his critique of big health sector multinational sector companies and very senior officials in collusion with them in a 450 page, densely printed book packed with notes and references, building on the work of many eminent scientists and doctors. Many unethical efforts were made to block or obstruct the spread of this book titled ‘The Real Anthony Fauci—Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health’. Despite this, the book has sold over a million copies in a short time of a few months. When confronted by anti-vaxxer name-calling, Robert Kennedy has frequently said—tell me where I am wrong. I have referenced everything I have said. Tell me where I am factually wrong. Yet the critics persist with just the name –calling. So who is running away from debate? Robert Kennedy or his critics?

This is certainly not written as an endorsement for all views or policy recommendations of Robert Kennedy which will no doubt unroll in much greater detail and diversity as the presidential election campaign proceeds, also keeping in view the fact that at the time of elections political exigencies and practical considerations sometimes result in candidates making peculiar compromises. All that appears to be clear so far is that here is a presidential candidate who appears to be willing to take a strong and clear stand against unchecked corporate power and unchecked corporate-politician collusion, who appears to be willing to speak against the military industrial establishment and its endless quest for selling highly destructive weapons, as well as against war-mongering by powerful elites. The least that can be demanded for such a candidate is for voters to hear him out more patiently and to try to understand what he is aiming at, what he is trying to achieve.

As the USA is the most powerful country, the entire world has a stake in US elections. Seen from the perspective of justice, peace and environment protection, in many years we now have a candidate for the first time who, on the basis of his past record, would curb rather than promote those corporate interests which are closely involved in promoting various hazardous technologies all over the world, who would be a force for peace and disarmament, and would try to stop the forever wars (including the Ukraine proxy-war).

Whether such a candidate can win in the present USA system is another matter, but it is a matter of some relief at least that such a voice still exists in the US Presidential election.

Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now.

10 June 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Jafar M Ramini

Maybe it’s a quirk in my character that in times of calamity I always look for the silver lining. It doesn’t often appear, but in this darkest hour of despair, when nothing seemed possible and the collapse of hope was profound, I found it. The spark.

I found it growing in the refugee camps of my home town of Jenin, in Tulkarim, in Jericho, Beit Ummer, Hebron, in Nablus and even Jerusalem.  Brave, angry, determined young men, who were born into despair, whose only experience of life has been under the boot of the Israeli occupation and repression, have had enough. Their so-called leaders, the shameful Palestinian Authority and the equally damaged Hamas are being ignored. They call themselves The Lions’ Den and these defiant young lions are taking matters into their own hands. They are fighting back against all odds.

Yes, many will die. Even their brothers and sisters, the smallest and the oldest will not be safe. Many will suffer the savage brutality of Israeli ‘justice’ and Israeli prisons. Their homes will be demolished, their families will be humiliated, their whole village could suffer collective punishment.  But others will go on and they are making a difference. “We are alive,” they’re saying, “ We are human beings,” and Palestine, almost broken, almost on her knees is responding. Cry Freedom! It’s time.

Palestinian mothers, who cover themselves in sackcloth and ashes, but who continue to pledge their children to the cause, have been vilified for embracing death.  Believe me, if we could see life, touch it, believe it might someday be ours, we would embrace it with all our hearts. But when the mighty American war machine continues to back every Israeli move, and pay billions of dollars for the privilege, what chance have we got unless we free ourselves from the fear of death?

As I am writing these words, Mr Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, was paying homage, as usual,  to AIPAC in Washington when he pledged his country’s unwavering support for the security and supremacy of Israel.  He then went on, as usual, to try to flog the long deceased ‘Two-State Solution’.  Why does Mr Blinken continue to ignore the facts on the ground in Palestine, and instead acknowledge the reality of Israeli expansionism that leaves no room for any Palestinian State in any shape or form to take place? Are Mr Blinken, and his government, unaware that the current Prime Minister of Israel, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, has said on many occasions that there will never be a sovereign Palestinian State while he is Prime Minister? Most recently according to  the New York Times translation of an interview posted to website NRG in April, 2019.

‘When the reporter asked if that meant he would not establish a Palestinian state were he to win re-election, Netanyahu replied, “Correct.”

Do they know, or don’t they? The obvious answer is, “yes, of course,” but they choose to ignore it.

After fifty-six years of a brutal, Apartheid system in Palestine and thirty years of futile, so-called ‘peace processes’, what other options are left for those young, desperate Palestinians to take, other than to carry a gun?

Today is Friday and the various groupings of the Young Lions have called on every able-bodied Palestinian to converge on Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem to defend it against continued Israeli encroachment and attacks.

I’m holding my breath.

Jafar M Ramini is a Palestinian writer and political analyst.

9 June 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Ramzy Baroud

Europe keeps reminding us that geopolitical interests trump ideology.

European politics is the prime example of how states and political parties are willing to ditch their very ideological foundations to hold onto power, even if briefly.

The unmistakable political shift of attitude in Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Fratelli d’Italia party is the latest evidence that European politicians use ideology merely as a vehicle. Once in power, they are governed by the same neoliberal policies that control the rest of Europe.

This assertion applies equally to the Right and the Left.

For example, in 2015, Greece’s Radical Left-Progressive Alliance shocked Europe and the world by winning nearly half of the parliament’s seats. It was a success story that invigorated the Left everywhere.

For years, Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the once small radical left party, Syriza, has raged against the neoliberal policies of Europe, blaming it for much of the financial crisis in 2008.

Once in power, however, Tsipras’s leftist ideology began shifting, whether by choice or under pressure. At the end of his term, in 2019, the new icon of the European Left contributed to the very undoing of any leftist resurgence in Europe, as the Greek economy became hostage to powerful European governments and multinational corporations.

That ‘pragmatism’ which tamed Syriza, turning it into yet another mainstream European political party, is at work in Italy today. The irony is that Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia – ‘Brothers of Italy’ – has occupied the seat of power in Rome from the very extreme political Right, not Left.

Meloni became Italy’s Prime Minister in October 2022. Her party has won the largest share of seats in parliament, but could only rule through a coalition comprising equally or more extreme right-wing parties – Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, and Matteo Salvini’s Lega.

Though far-right political tendencies have been increasing throughout much of Europe recently, Meloni’s government was the starkest and most alarming manifestation of this phenomenon.

Soon after forming her government, Meloni’s rhetoric intensified, suggesting a serious departure from mainstream European political discourse.  This was exemplified in a fiery speech by Meloni in November, where she shockingly attacked France’s exploitation of African resources, peoples and financial institutions. Her words were blistering to the extent that many in the Left nodded in agreement.

Posing as the alternative to France’s unfair trade and economic practices, Meloni flew to Algeria in January to sign a landmark gas deal.

As the US-led economic war on China began intensifying in recent months, Italy found itself in a difficult position, one that cannot be resolved through hardened far-right ideology or angry rhetoric.

It must now choose between the US and China.

Writing in the Italian daily newspaper, La Stampa, on May 3, Italy’s former NATO ambassador, Stefano Stefanini declared that Rome’s “international balancing act is over” and “there are no safety nets”.

Since Italy signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join China’s massive maritime economic ‘Belt and Road Initiative,’ in 2019, the Italian government has come under attack.

Neither Washington nor Brussels was happy that Italy had joined what they chose to understand to be a Chinese push to dominate the global economy.

Although many other countries had already joined the lucrative Chinese deal, the inclusion of Italy set a dangerous precedent from the West’s perspective. Italy is a member of the EU, NATO, the G7 and is the third-largest economy in Europe. It was the first major Western power to join BRI.

Though the MoU is not a politically binding document, granting China access to Italian ports is both a symbolic and strategic victory for Beijing over its US-western rivals.

On May 28, however, Meloni told Il Messaggero daily newspaper that her country is thinking of abandoning its partnership with China.

“Our assessment is very delicate and touches upon many interests,” she said.

But are these ‘interests’ Italian ones?

Even before joining BRI, Italy raked in massive profits from its growing trade relations with the Chinese. Between 2001 and 2019, total trade between the two countries jumped from $9.6 billion to $49.9 billion.

These numbers are critical for the Italian economy, especially as it continues to teeter on the precipice of inflation, stagnation and dwindling wages.

The growth rate has slowed down in recent years, but that happened mostly as a result of a global recession and rising energy costs resulting from the COVID pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war, respectively.

Much can also be said about Italy’s mismanagement of its own economy, corruption and the EU’s failure to stimulate European-wide growth.

Certainly, Meloni had threatened to leave BRI even before she became prime minister. But her rhetoric, then, was motivated by her political program that breached full Italian independence from any foreign influence.

However, her views on the matter now are motivated by something else entirely: the fear of repercussions by Western allies, mainly the United States. Following their G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, on May 19-21, Western leaders and Japan agreed to a strange formula, ‘de-risking’ without ‘decoupling’ from China.

To Meloni’s understanding, this means having “good relations … with Beijing, without necessarily these being part of an overall strategic design,” she told Il Messaggero.

Meloni has now become the ideal ‘pragmatist’, speaking the fine, archetypal language of a well-behaved European leader.

In Europe, ideology proves, again, to be mere rhetoric, utilized for domestic, electoral purposes. When national politics is confronted with geopolitical interests, however, neoliberal policies emerge as the winner, from Greece to Italy, to all the rest.

Dr. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books.

12 June 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Daniel de Vries

Toxic smoke from raging fires in Canada continued to impact large swaths of eastern North America Thursday. Overnight and into the morning, air quality deteriorated to record-shattering levels. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the hourly Air Quality Index peaked at 491 Thursday, far surpassing the threshold of 300 considered “hazardous.” In Philadelphia, monitors topped out at 425 overnight, while in the Washington D.C. area, levels reached 315 just in time for the morning commute.

Lower but still highly dangerous levels of smoke prevailed throughout much of the East Coast and Midwest. Officials issued air quality alerts in more than a dozen states Thursday. In New York City, air quality was rated at “very unhealthy” or “unhealthy” levels much of the day, down from the extreme conditions prevailing 24 hours before.

The experience in the New York metropolitan area, the largest in the US and home to more than 20 million people, testifies to the unprecedented intensity of the current wildfire disaster. Air quality was degraded since early in the week, with an acrid, campfire-like scent detectible as early as Monday. By Wednesday, however, what was unfolding resembled a surreal scene straight out of a science fiction film. Around 2:00 p.m., the thick, greenish-gray fog transformed into Armageddon orange. The sky darkened, and a chill set in as the smoke scattered the sun’s light and heat. The ordinarily busy Manhattan streets began emptying.

Air monitors crossed the “hazardous” threshold for the first time since the modern monitoring network was established. The scent, which took on an increasingly stinging character, was perceptible even indoors. The noxious air caused lungs to burn, triggered headaches and irritated eyes. Other, far more severe and lasting maladies, including severe illnesses and deaths, remain to be tallied. But public health researchers know such outcomes are inevitable.

Fine particulate matter found in wildfire smoke is known to cause serious impacts on the respiratory system, from triggering asthma attacks to lung cancer. The tiny particles can also penetrate the bloodstream and cause damage to vital organs, including the heart and brain. Even short-term exposure at such levels can mean lasting damage, especially in children and other vulnerable populations.

Despite the known risks, schools in New York City remained open Wednesday at the peak of the disaster. Children and teachers peered out of classroom windows onto a cloud of glowing orange. In schools across the city, educators and students reported unbearable air inundating their buildings, many of which are dilapidated structures with no ventilation system upgrades even after three years of the pandemic. As schools let out, the Air Quality Index rose above 400.

Officials across the region replicated the criminal indifference to children’s health in New York City on Wednesday. Philadelphia and Washington D.C. public schools remained open during their cities’ hazardous peaks on Thursday.

Like schools, most businesses refused to prepare for the extreme conditions enveloping the region. There was no pause in construction, package delivery, transit service or many other jobs that left workers highly exposed. The back-to-the-office push led by figures such as New York Mayor Eric Adams meant that many office workers who could just as easily work remotely were forced to commute in dangerous conditions.

In the absence of any coordinated response, residents were forced to take action on their own. On Wednesday morning, N-95 masks were already a fairly common sight in the city, though by no means ubiquitous. By the afternoon, those with extras on hand were passing them out to colleagues, friends or passersby in need.

Much of New York City shut down on its own by late afternoon. Usually bustling shopping streets in the boroughs went largely vacant. Subway cars during the evening rush were half full. Many evening events were canceled, sometimes more out of necessity than forethought. The Broadway show Prima Facie, for example, ended just 10 minutes after it began, as star Jodie Comer was overcome with breathing problems.

In cities across the region, workplaces were only shuttered when it became apparent that not enough employees were willing to risk their health to come to work.

The refusal of officials to prepare for such a disaster, despite warnings made by scientists about the increasing danger from intensifying wildfires, mirrors the inaction taken with the onset of the pandemic. Then as now, the driving policy considerations were placating the immediate economic concerns of businesses regardless of the risk to public health. Only now, Eric Adams, Kathy Hochul and Joe Biden sit in the chairs once occupied by Bill de Blasio, Andrew Cuomo and Donald Trump.

The present levels of air pollution are unlike anything the area has seen in decades, if ever. While more than 117 million people across the country, including all of the New York metro area, live in areas that do not meet federal air quality standards, the bad old days, where persistent smog and other air pollutants rose to crisis proportions, were thought to be a thing of the past. New York City has not experienced anything approaching the scale of the current disaster since before the advent of modern pollution controls.

Now, even as most high-polluting heavy industries, once located in cities like New York, have shifted overseas, climate change is driving a return to shocking levels of air pollution. The fires raging in Quebec are just the latest in a string of extreme events erupting across the globe. Population centers once spared are now confronted with new deadly threats.

With global capitalism on a trajectory to blow through the targets set to limit catastrophic warming, the deadly fog over much of the eastern United States is a harbinger of what is to come. The only viable way forward to protect human health and limit the climate catastrophe is a struggle of the working class to take power into its own hands and reorganize society based on human needs, not profits.

9 June 2023

Source: countercurrents.org

By Dr Vacy Vlazna

At the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue, the regional security forum, in Singapore, on 2 June 2023, PM Aukus (Albanese) presented his most cringeworthy undiplomatic address that publicly insulted a world superpower, which is also Australia’s largest trade partner – China, in a foot-in-mouth effort to make China be nice to USA.

Yes, the same USA that for years has aggressively bashed China’s reputation to the world, with deliberate misinformation about its ‘internal conflicts’ that are actually CIA-sponsored separatist movements of Uyghur, Hong Kong and now Taiwan, to poke the Great Panda to war.

China, in response to USA’s disrespect, has withheld communications as it had with the Australian Morrison government for its obedient babbling the USA’s insolent and fake accusation that China was responsible for Covid.

To lure China to open communication with the USA, PM Aukus, ironically drew from his shallow font of his negotiation experience with the USA to release innocent Australian journalist, Julian Assange, from US & UK torture that doesn’t hold “to the standards that the rest of us respect”.

Note each of the quotes below from Albanese’s address are directed to, though not named, imply China. Ironically, they are psychological projection of his appalling silent refusal to  pick up the phone to directly demand Assange’s (and also Daniel Duggan’s) freedom by PM’s AUKUS partners who are “too big for the rules”:

“the silence of the diplomatic deep freeze”

“But we begin from the principle that whatever the issue, whether we agree or disagree, it is always better and more effective if we deal direct.”

“If you don’t have the capacity – at a decision-making level – to pick up the phone, to seek some clarity or provide some context, then there is always a much greater risk of assumptions spilling over into irretrievable action and reaction.

“If this breaks down, if one nation imagines itself too big for the rules, or too powerful to be held to the standards that the rest of us respect, then our region’s strategic stability is undermined,” he warned.

“I can assure you that when Australia looks north, we don’t see a void for others to impose their will.”

These offensive clangers of PM Aukus’ public humiliation of China would have shocked his Asian audience of ‘close friends” of “nearly 600 delegates from more than 40 countries and regions, including the defense ministers of the U.S. and China”. Their politeness must have been strained to control their shock at Albanese’s appalling tactless and undeserved insinuations about China that violate Asian cultural protocol in which  RESPECT is the core of relationships.

Obviously, in a coma of post-colonial smugness, both the PM and his speech writer neglected to respect the Chinese pride in their 5000 years of civilisation and importantly, ignored respect for President Xi Jinping’s reemergence of Confucian values for the establishment of the Chinese national moral identity.

If PM Aukus’ blundering pedagogy was bad enough, he excelled his ignorance with this blatant lie:

“Australia’s goal is not to prepare for war,”

The assembly must have shifted from shock to bemusement;

Firstly, the Australian mainstream media has been spruiking, since the election of the Labor War Party, its secret AUKUS deal which provides “the US with access to Australian minerals[esp. lithium]”, “a joint US-UK submarine presence” and a permanent Japanese military presence.

Albanese, Marles,Wong have been on a endless circuit through Pacific and Asian nations to recruit allies and undermine China’s enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region while boosting up Australia’s military preparations for US, UK, and Japanese bases here to lead the US proxy war on China because “AUKUS commits Australia to fight China if America does, simply because the AUKUS deal will be off if we don’t.” (Hugh White)

Secondly, the Asian and Pacific nations must be laughing in the aisles about the decrepit AUKUS members who since WWII have lost every US led-wars: PM Aukus is the tin pot leader of a 50,000 military force (including some war criminals and falling numbers) plus one operational Collins submarine out of 6, that will be replaced, with exorbitant cost, for 8 US nuclear submarines by possibly 2050 by which they will be redundant. The UK’s military is facing its winter of discontent, and the USA military and empire is in decline and its economy is bankrupt..nevertheless will likely cause “conflicts and chaos” as the Chinese military twitter states:

#China’s senior military expert: “During the past 40 years, the #US and #NATO caused a series of conflicts, turmoil, and even wars in the #MiddleEast and #Europe, resulting in severe humanitarian crises and disasters. We have reasons to be concerned that the US-led NATO intervention in the Asia-Pacific region may bring about instability and unrest, and may even lead to conflicts and chaos.”

#WestWatch #USA #war #NATOExpansion #InsideShangriLaDialogue From Frontline, Media Beijing

Despite PM Albanese’s didactic insights and threats, China is busy elsewhere, with real diplomacy resolving conflicts in the Middle East and winning hearts and minds around the globe by spreading prosperity, unlike the USA and its western thugs that attack hearts and minds with bombs, drones and death.

Over 91% of Australians want the government to rescue Assange, and last week Queensland Labor delegates voted against AUKUS.

Australians, not their political leaders, will decide at the next election, to either vote for warmongering major parties that blithely handed over our sovereignty that, ultimately, risks our children’s lives – or vote for a cooperating parliament of Independents who sustain a world of peace along a modernised Silk Road to prosperity.

Dr. Vacy Vlazna is the author of  East Timor: Reveille for Courage. Editor of a volume of Palestinian poetry, I remember my name.and writes political commentary for a number of independent online magazines.

12 June 2023

Source: countercurrents.org