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By Medea Benjamin

GHF has never been about delivering aid. It’s about using the illusion of aid to control the population of Gaza—and to give cover to war crimes.

Recent reports say that US AID is considering giving $500 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—an “aid” initiative launched at Israel’s request. At first glance, that might sound like a generous effort to help desperate Palestinians in Gaza. But peel back even one layer, and you’ll find a deadly political scheme masquerading as humanitarian relief.

This is not about helping hungry people. It’s about controlling them, displacing them, and starving them into submission.

Let’s start with some basics. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not a humanitarian organization. It’s a US- and Israeli-backed scheme run by people with no track record in neutral aid work. Its first director, Jake Wood, resigned on May 25, saying the organization failed to uphold humanitarian principles. Then the Boston Consulting Group, which had secretly helped design GHF’s aid operations, pulled out and apologized to staff who were furious about the firm’s complicity in a system that enabled forced displacement and sidelined trusted UN agencies.

GHF brand new director is Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical PR executive best known for helping Donald Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and push the US embassy move there—a move that only fanned the flames of conflict.

GHF’s entire premise is rooted in deception. It was launched with Israeli government oversight, without transparency, without independence, and—critically—without the participation of the United Nations or any respected humanitarian agencies. In fact, the UN has refused to have anything to do with it. So have groups like Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and the World Food Programme, whose leaders have warned in no uncertain terms that GHF’s model militarizes aid, violates humanitarian norms, and places Palestinian lives at even greater risk.

GHF has never been about delivering aid. It’s about using the illusion of aid to control the population of Gaza—and to give cover to war crimes.

People in Gaza are starving because Israel wants them to. There are thousands of aid trucks, many loaded with supplies from the United Nations, that—for months—have been blocked from entering Gaza. They contain food, water, medicine, shelter materials—the lifeblood of a besieged civilian population. But instead of letting them through, the US and Israel are pushing their own version of aid: a privatized, militarized operation. Armed US contractors working with the GHF are reportedly earning up to $1,100 per day, along with a $10,000 signing bonus.

The GHF plan is to make aid available only in the south, forcibly displacing people from the north—driving them toward the Egyptian border, where many fear a permanent expulsion is being engineered.

From the very start of GHF’s operations, with the opening of two distribution sites in southern Gaza on May 26, the chaos turned deadly, with the Israeli military shooting at hungry people seeking food. In its short time of operation, nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded. These are not tragic accidents—they are predictable outcomes of militarizing aid.

Let’s also address the fear-mongering claim that when the UN was in charge of aid delivery, food was being stolen by Hamas. There is no credible evidence of this and Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme, has publicly refuted this allegation, saying that trucks have been looted by hungry, desperate people.

The real threat to aid integrity isn’t Hamas—it’s the blockade itself, which has created an artificial scarcity and fueled black markets, desperation, and chaos..

To truly help the people of Gaza, here’s what needs to happen:

• Shut down GHF and reject all militarized aid schemes.
• Restore full US funding to UNRWA and the World Food Programme—trusted, experienced agencies that know how to do this work.
• Demand that Israel end the blockade. Let aid trucks in—UN trucks, Red Cross trucks, WFP trucks. Flood the strip with food, medicines, tents.
• Demand an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing and create space for meaningful relief and political solutions.

The starvation in Gaza is not a logistical failure. It is Israel’s political choice. And GHF is not a lifeline. It is a lie. It is complicity. It is diabolical. And US taxpayers should not be forced to fund it.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. She contributed this article to the Palestine Chronicle.

8 June 2025

Source: palestinechronicle.com

By Ilan Pappé

I still believe that this ruthlessness and unprecedented cruelty is a manifestation that we are at the end of the worst chapter in the modern history of Palestine. 

If people want to know what Trump’s latest insane and hallucinating discourse on Gaza produced in Israel, all they need to do is learn Hebrew or ask someone who knows Hebrew to translate for them the discourse in Israeli politics and media.  

“Of course, nobody wants the cruel people of Gaza, and I am not talking about Hamas, but the whole people of Gaza; this is why Jordan and Egypt reject the fantastic proposal by Trump,” explained the leading commentator on Arab affairs on Israel’s main channel during prime news time on February 6, 2025.  

I wonder whether the Nazis even used such discourse about the Jews. 

Every possible human, humane, and moral boundary has now been transcended in the public domain in Israel. 

Everything is permissible when you talk about the Palestinians in general and the people of Gaza in particular. This is not talking about them as animals anymore—this is far worse. 

They are depicted as the worst kind of humanity in the new discourse, which absolves Israel of any crime against them. The politicians talk like this, the main media legitimizes it, and the rabbis in the synagogues—institutions that are more populated by Israeli Jews than ever before—are preaching genocide of the Palestinians without shame or inhibition.  

This is all in preparation for the next stages of the genocide. The lull in the genocide is not because the world has put an end to it. It stopped because Trump wanted the hostages to be released for his own self-image and then allow the Israelis to do what they want.  

If we stopped building encampments, if we stopped seeing millions of people demonstrating for Palestine, we would be mistaken. This is not over. The insane nation of Israel now has in its midst more people and politicians who are willing to go the whole way in completing the genocide than those who are against it—if any at all.   

I still believe that this ruthlessness and unprecedented cruelty is a manifestation that we are at the end of the worst chapter in the modern history of Palestine. 

In fact, I am even more confident that, like in post-Nazi Germany, a larger number of Israeli Jews than I first hoped for will awaken and feel remorse and guilt for their silence in the face of the next phases in the elimination of Palestine as an idea, people and country.

But for the time being, this is a desperate call not to be dormant or complacent because of the ceasefire. Trump reignited all the dark forces in Israel with his planned—or whimsical, it does not matter—expunging of the people of Gaza and turning the land into an American Riviera bonanza.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jM3_HP1aUE]

Yes, European governments, including the British one, condemned the idea, which is commendable. So they show some humanity after all. It is not enough, and they fail to see the wider implications not only of their present inaction but also of their complicity in the genocide since 7 October 2023.  

It is the time of optical illusions. Leaders like the fanatic Naftali Bennett are now leading the polls in Israel, and yes, he might defeat Netanyahu, but he does not offer any more humane approach to the millions of Palestinians under Israeli rule, still regarded as a problem that can only be solved by destruction and elimination. Domestic Israeli politics have nothing to do with Israel’s consensual attitude and policies toward the Palestinians.  

The mainstream Western press—not to mention Israel’s loyal allies, from the Jewish Chronicle, the mouthpiece of fanatic Israel in the UK, to Fox News in the US—are providing the international coverage that allows Israel to get away with this discourse and planning. 

The 41 languages in which the BBC broadcasts are all speaking the same language: dehumanizing the Palestinians and providing immunity for Israel and its policies.  

We still have to believe that, in the long run, as horrific as this unfolding scenario is, it is the prelude to a much better future. We also have to believe that this prelude can and should be shortened to a minimum. 

I have no magic wand for such an urgent turn of events—but we are not alone, so let us put our minds and efforts beyond factionalism and disunity and find an even better way, on top of the amazing work we have done as a solidarity movement, to prevent the next phases in the elimination of Palestine as an idea, a people, and a country.  

One thing is certain: Palestinian resistance and resilience are still the best guarantees that these demonic plans will not fully materialize. But the price could be very high and may be avoided. 

This is a moment where we are desperate for Palestinian leadership and orientation, and it is not there yet. But there are hopeful manifestations of unity, as our editor Ramzy Baroud has recently described for us. It is not sufficient, but it builds hope for the near future.  

There is still time to wake up the Global North—if not its rulers, then its more conscientious politicians; if not the mainstream media, then the alternative ones. We have the right to demand much more from the Global South, encouraged by the example of Colombia, and ask: Where are Malaysia and Indonesia? Where is Pakistan? 

This is about global justice as much as it is about Palestine, and this is also about decolonizing the world at large, not just Palestine, so that global unity can jointly face the formidable challenges that can only be encountered together—from global warming to world poverty and life-seeking movements of millions of people from north to south.

This is the only way to defeat populism, fascism, and racism, of which so many of us—and in particular, the Palestinians—are still victims to this very day.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

 Ilan Pappé is a professor at the University of Exeter. He was formerly a senior lecturer in political science at the University of Haifa.

7 February 2025

Source: palestinechronicle.com

By Bishop Atallah Hanna

I was not surprised by the American veto that thwarted a meaningful plan to stop the war at the United Nations just hours ago.

I am truly surprised by those who were surprised by this veto, as for many years we have witnessed the American veto targeting any resolution in favor of the Palestinians.

But the latest veto only confirms to everyone, far and wide, that the American administration is a direct partner in the crimes committed against our Palestinian people. Although we are currently witnessing an expansion in solidarity with our people in America and elsewhere, it is clear that the Zionist lobby controls the policies and decisions of the American administration.

The one who rules America is not just the one in the White House. There is a Zionist system hostile to our nation and our Palestinian people, which controls important policies and decisions.

Trump has insulted all Arabs who have lavished their money on him, and this latest veto is a direct insult to all Arabs who have paid enormous sums of money. However, the response, through this veto, appears to be a direct accomplice in the crimes committed against our Palestinian people. He cannot be an honest party or mediator, just like those before him who served the Zionist project.

What we are experiencing as Palestinians, and the war of extermination and conspiracy against our people and our cause, is due to the weakness and indolence of some Arabs and to the internal Palestinian situation, which is characterized by divisions. However, we are certain that this will not last and will not continue.

Any injustice in this world has a beginning and an end.

Do you know what the American veto tonight means, and the failure of a purposeful plan to stop the war?

This only means that America wants more destruction and devastation, more bloodshed, more suffering, more pain, and more sorrow for our Palestinian people.

I hope the Arabs will fully understand what America is. It only cares about its own interests and those of Israel. Even those to whom it has lavished its generous funds may at some point abandon it. It is not a friend to anyone except its own interests and agendas.

Today, America said what it has always said: yes to liquidating the Palestinian cause, yes to continuing the war of extermination, yes to the bloodbath. It is a country that claims to be committed to human rights, but all this stops when it comes to our Palestinian people and their just cause.

When will the Arabs awaken from their slumber to discover the truth about America, which derives its strength from their money and support?

When will the Arabs awaken from their slumber to discover that the one conspiring against Palestine is also conspiring against them, and that America, which wants to continue the war, does not want good for our people or our entire nation.

What I am saying is not an incitement against America, but rather a description of the deplorable American situation. I hope that the world will realize the true nature of America and that awareness and understanding will increase that the American phenomenon, specifically the person in the White House, is one of the worst and most dangerous phenomena for humanity as a whole. While he wants the war in Gaza to continue, he is pouring oil on the raging fire of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as if he wants conflicts, crises, and wars to continue and persist.

The recent American veto is a stain on humanity and a clear message pointing to true American policy, far removed from slogans, statements, and honeyed declarations.

The war continues, and the Palestinians continue to pay a heavy price as part of a plan aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause.

May God be with our people and grant wisdom to Arab leaders so that they can distinguish between the white thread and the black thread.

*

Our thanks to Khaled Mouammar for sending us this article by Bishop Hanna.

Bishop Atallah Hanna is Archbishop of Sebastia of the Greek Orthodox Church.

9 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Ahmed Adel

China launched into Earth’s orbit a system of thousands of satellites, which will connect together to form a supercomputer with integrated artificial intelligence. Such projects are technically complex, but if successful, they will bring a significant advantage over competitors and may even alter the global balance of power, which would mark a new chapter in the global era of spatial computing.

In May, China’s Long March 2D rocket successfully launched a 12-satellite “Three-Body” system into orbit. The system, named after a popular science fiction novel, is described by its developer as the world’s first space computing satellite constellation.

The satellites are equipped with advanced AI capabilities, remote sensing devices for Earth surveys, and deep space observation instruments. The satellites are connected via lasers, with data transmission speeds reaching 100 Gbit/s. The project is part of the Star Computing program, which will launch a total of 2,800 devices. They will merge into a supercomputer with a combined processing power of 1,000 petaflops (or one billion calculations per second).

“The constellation can meet the growing demand for real-time computing in space, as well as help China take the lead globally in building space computing infrastructure, seize the commanding heights of this future industry. The development could mark the beginning of space-based cloud computing as a new capability, as well as open a new arena for strategic competition with the US,” said ADA Space, an Al satellite Internet technology company.

According to the developers, the smart satellite will help astronomers detect various events (for example, gamma-ray bursts) and identify objects in deep space. The scope of applications of orbital supercomputers in the national economy is extremely wide: from disaster relief to promoting tourism. All the officially announced goals and tasks of the project are, of course, for peaceful purposes.

At the same time, putting computing power in orbit would significantly improve the efficiency of space equipment.

There is no longer a need to send gigabytes of raw data – analysis is performed directly in orbit. This eliminates the bottleneck: currently, due to limitations in the communication channel, less than 10% of the data collected from satellites is transmitted to Earth. Now, complete analysis reports will be sent down, which significantly reduces latency. For example, an AI satellite can identify forest fires in photographs on its own and immediately send a warning signal rather than waiting for the lengthy transmission of the original image.

According to some sources, a similar satellite system based on Elon Musk’s Starlink network could actually become part of the US “Golden Dome” missile defense system. However, according to experts, implementing and maintaining such an ambitious project is not easy.

Placing a supercomputer in space presents a major technical challenge. It requires energy-efficient processors, radiation protection, and the ability to withstand extreme temperatures. Another important issue is how to upgrade AI while the hardware is in orbit. In space, it is impossible to replace damaged equipment quickly – if a satellite fails, it will be necessary to cease operations and launch a new one to replace it.

Yet, in China and beyond, people believe these challenges can be solved.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has also proposed launching data centers into orbit. To that end, he bought the California-based space company Relativity Space. In this way, the billionaire hopes to address the biggest challenge of the AI era – energy shortages. At a congressional hearing in April, Schmidt noted that a typical nuclear power plant in the US produces 1 gigawatt of electricity. Meanwhile, plans are underway to build data centers that will consume up to 10 gigawatts of energy.

“People are planning 10 gigawatt data centers,” Schmidt said. “Gives you a sense of how big this crisis is. Many people think that the energy demand for our industry will go from 3 percent to 9 percent of total generation. One of the estimates that I think is most likely is that data centers will require an additional 29 gigawatts of power by 2027, and 67 more gigawatts by 2030. These things are industrial at a scale that I have never seen in my life. There is always sunlight in space, and for small satellites – the components that make up the ‘brain’ of the universe – this energy source is abundant.”

Meanwhile, Russia also plans to place a supercomputer in space – on the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS) national space station. The supercomputer will receive and process data from satellites and then transmit it to Earth, thereby improving the efficiency of satellite groups, conserving communication energy, and increasing the capacity of useful information. However, much work is needed to realize these ideas – especially the rapid development of laser communication technology.

Currently, it appears that China holds a significant advantage in this new space race over other space powers.

*

Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

9 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Paul Craig Roberts

Introduction

For a number of years Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was my colleague at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Tom, after whom the F-14 Tomcat fighter is named, expressed to me his concern that US politics and foreign policy was in the clutches of Israel and that America was being led into war with the Arab Middle East. Admiral Moorer and the State Department and Pentagon at that time did not think that war with the Arab countries served the interests of the United States. However, Admiral Moorer thought that the war could not be avoided because of the hold Israel has over the US government.

What convinced him of this was Washington’s coverup of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty which resulted in 208 killed and wounded Americans. Tom was disheartened that Admiral John S. McCain Jr., the father of the current US senator, for career reasons had cooperated with the coverup. Tom worried that careerism had destroyed the integrity of the US military.

Last month was the 49th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the American ship. I raised the issue of the USS Liberty eight or nine years ago in a syndicated newspaper column, which, as I suspected would be the case, only a few news sources dared to publish. However, the article editor at Hustler magazine saw the article and contacted me. He said that Hustler was popular among US sailors and now that they were again thrust into needless war they should be aware that the US government could sell them out without notice. Would I write the USS Liberty story for the sailors so they would be aware of the betrayal that might await them?

I had already seen that Admiral Moorer’s prediction that Israel would have us in war against the Arabs had come true. I still hear his bitter statement that “no American president can stand up to Israel.” Tom was deeply wounded by the betrayal of the US Navy by the Commander-in-Chief. The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff was powerless before the Israel Lobby.

I understood that to take on this task meant much work. I would have to hunt down USS Liberty survivors and interview them. I would have to find Captain Ward Boston and a pilot or commander of the rescue fighters that Washington called back, denying protection to the American sailors aboard the USS Liberty. They would have to be willing to talk. I undertook the task, and the story is below.

***

Surviving Sailors Break Their Silence 40 Years After Israeli Attack on US Navy Ship

By Paul Craig Roberts, Hustler Magazine, July 2008

June 8, 1967 — the fourth day of the Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan — was a beautiful day in the Mediterranean. The USS Liberty was in international waters off the coast of Egypt. Israeli aircraft had flown over the USS Liberty in the morning and had reported that the ship was American. The crew, in close proximity to the war zone, was reassured by the presence of Israeli aircraft. But at 2:00 p.m. sailors sunbathing on the deck saw fighter jets coming at them in attack formation. Red flashes from the wings of the fighters were followed by explosions, blood and death. A beautiful afternoon suddenly became a nightmare. Who was attacking the USS Liberty and why? The attack on the Liberty was an attack on America.

The Liberty was an intelligence ship. Its purpose was to monitor Soviet and Arab communications in order to warn both Israel and Washington should the Soviets enter the war on behalf of its Arab allies. The Liberty was armed only with four machineguns to repel boarders. Its request for a destroyer escort had been denied.

The assault on the Liberty is well documented. With no warning, the Liberty was attacked by successive waves of unmarked jets using cannon, rockets and napalm. The attacking jets jammed all of the US communications frequencies, an indication they knew the Liberty was an American ship.

The air attack failed to sink the Liberty. About 30 minutes into the attack three torpedo boats appeared flying the Star of David. The Israeli boats were not on a rescue mission. They attacked the Liberty with cannon, machineguns and torpedoes. One torpedo struck the Liberty mid-ship, instantly killing 25 Americans while flooding the lower decks. The Israeli torpedo boats destroyed the life rafts the Liberty launched when the crew prepared to abandon ship, sending the message there would be no survivors.

At approximately 3:15 two French-built Israeli helicopters carrying armed Israeli troops appeared over the Liberty. Phil Tourney could see their faces only 50/60 feet away. He gave them the finger. Surviving crewmembers are convinced the Israelis were sent to board and kill all survivors.

The Israeli jets destroyed the Liberty‘s communication antennas. While under attack from the jets, crewmembers strung lines that permitted the ship to send a call for help. The USS Saratoga and the USS America launched fighters to drive off the attacking aircraft, but the rescue mission was aborted by direct orders from Washington.

When the Liberty notified the Sixth Fleet it was again under attack, this time from surface ships, the Fleet commander ordered the carriers America and Saratoga to launch fighters to destroy or drive off the attackers. The order was unencrypted and picked up by Israel, which immediately called off its attack. The torpedo boats and the hovering helicopters sped away. Israel quickly notified Washington that it had mistakenly attacked an American ship, and the US fighters were recalled a second time.

The USS Liberty suffered 70% casualties, with 34 killed and 174 wounded. Although the expensive state of the art ship was kept afloat by the heroic crew, it later proved unsalvageable and was sold as scrap.

Why Didn’t Help Come?

No explanation has ever been given by the US government for Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s orders for the Sixth Fleet to abort the rescue mission. Lt. Commander David Lewis of the Liberty told colleagues that Admiral L. R. Geis, commander of the Sixth Fleet carrier force, told him that when he challenged McNamara’s order to recall the rescue mission, LBJ came on the line and said he didn’t care if the ship sank, he wasn’t going to embarrass an ally. The communications officer handling the transmission has given the same account.

A BBC documentary on the Israeli raid reports that confusion about the attacker’s identity almost resulted in a US assault on Egypt. Richard Parker, US political counsel in Cairo, confirms in the BBC documentary that he received official communication that an American retaliatory attack on Egypt was on its way.

The US government’s official position on the USS Liberty corresponds with Israel’s: The attack was unintentional and a result of Israeli blunders. This is the official position despite the fact that CIA Director Richard Helms, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Assistant Secretary of State Lucius Battle, and a long list of US Navy officers, government officials and Liberty survivors are on record saying the Israeli attack was intentional.

According to Helms, Battle and the minutes of a White House meeting, President Johnson believed the attack was intentional. Helms says LBJ was furious and complained when The New York Times buried the story on page 29, but that Johnson decided he had to publicly accept Israel’s explanation. “The political pressure was too much,” Helms said

US communications personnel, intelligence analysts and ambassadors report having read US intercepts of Israeli orders to attack the Liberty. In one intercept an Israeli pilot reports that the Liberty is an American ship and asks for a repeat and clarification of his orders to attack an American ship. One Israeli who identified himself as one of the pilots later came to America and met with US Representative Pete McCloskey and Liberty survivors. The pilot said he had refused to participate in the attack when he saw it was an American ship. He was arrested upon returning to base.

The Liberty flew the US flag. The ship’s markings, GTR-5, measured several feet in height on both sides of the bow. On the stern the ship was clearly marked USS LIBERTY. Mistaking the Liberty for an Egyptian ship, as Israel claims to have done, was impossible.

Tattered Flags Show Ferocity of the Attacks

The Israelis claim the Liberty flew no flag, but two US flags full of holes from the attack exist. When the first flag was shot down, crewmen replaced it with a flag 7 feet by 13 feet. This flag with its battle scars is on display at NSA headquarters at Ft. Mead, Maryland.

Admiral John S. McCain Jr., the father of the current US senator, ordered Admiral Isaac C. Kidd and Captain Ward Boston to hold a court of inquiry and to complete the investigation in only one week. In a signed affidavit Captain Boston said President Johnson ordered a cover-up and that he and Admiral Kidd were prevented from doing a real investigation. Liberty survivors were ordered never to speak to anyone about the event. Their silence was finally broken 12 years later when Lt. Commander James M. Ennes published his book, Assault on the Liberty.

It is now established fact that the attack on the Liberty was intentional and was covered up by President Johnson and every administration since. There has never been a congressional investigation, nor has the testimony of the majority of survivors ever been officially taken. Moreover, testimony that conflicted with the cover-up was deleted from the official record.

Disgusted by the US government’s official stance discounting the survivors’ reports, Admiral Tom Moorer, retired Chief of Naval Operations and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, organized the Moorer Commission to make public the known facts about the attack and cover-up. The Commission consisted of Admiral Moorer, former Judge Advocate General of the US Navy Admiral Merlin Staring, Marine Corps General Raymond G. Davis and former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James Akins.

The Commission’s Report concluded:

“That there is compelling evidence that Israel’s attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew.

“That fearing conflict with Israel, the White House deliberately prevented the US Navy from coming to the defense of USS Liberty by recalling Sixth Fleet military rescue support while the ship was under attack.

“That surviving crew members were threatened with ‘court-martial, imprisonment or worse’ if they exposed the truth; and [the survivors] were abandoned by their own government.

“That there has been an official cover-up without precedent in American naval history.

“That a danger to our national security exists whenever our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests to those of any foreign nation.”

Why did Israel attack the Liberty? Was something super secret going on that is so damaging it must be protected at all cost?

Some experts believe Tel Aviv decided to sink the Liberty because the ship’s surveillance capability would discover Israel’s impending invasion and capture of Syria’s Golan Heights, an action opposed by Washington. Others believe Israel was concerned the Liberty would discover Israel’s massacre of hundreds of Egyptian POWs, a war crime contemporaneous with the attack on the US ship. Still others believe that Israel intended to blame the attack on Egypt in order to bring America into the war. It is known the US was providing Israel with reconnaissance and that there were joint US-Israeli covert operations against the Arabs that Washington was desperate to keep secret.

Survivors with whom I spoke said the attack was the easy part of the experience. The hard part has been living with 40 years of official cover-up and betrayal by the US government. One survivor said that he was asked to leave his Baptist church when he spoke about the Liberty, because the minister and fellow church-goers felt more loyalty to Israel than to a member of the congregation who had served his country. His church’s position was that if our government believed Israel, the survivors should also.

Survivor Phil Tourney said that “being forced to live with a cover-up is like being raped and no one will believe you.”

Survivor Gary Brummett said he “feels like someone who has been locked up for 40 years on a wrongful conviction.” Until the US government acknowledges the truth of the attack, Brummett says the survivors are forced to live with the anger and dismay of being betrayed by the country they served.

Survivor Bryce Lockwood has been angry for 40 years. The torpedo that killed his shipmates, wrecked his ship and damaged his health was made in the USA.

Survivor Ernie Gallo told me he “has been haunted for four decades” by the knowledge that his commander-in-chief recalled the US fighters that could have prevented most of the Liberty‘s casualties.

Every American should be troubled by the fact that the President of the United States and the Secretary of Defense prevented the US Sixth Fleet from protecting a US Navy ship and its 294-man crew from foreign attack. They should also be troubled that the President ordered the Navy to determine the attack was unintentional.

This article is based entirely on documented sources and on interviews with six USS Liberty survivors, as well as Captain Ward Boston and Bill Knutson, the executive officer of the USS America fighter squadron dispatched on the first aborted rescue mission.

*

Paul Craig Roberts is a renowned author and academic, chairman of The Institute for Political Economy where this article was originally published. Dr. Roberts was previously associate editor and columnist for The Wall Street Journal.

9 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It is one of those things that should be recorded and replayed for eternity: Israel, in order to guard some misplaced sense of security, happily backs Palestinian groups in order to divide themselves.  Hamas, seen now as an existential monster, was tolerated and even supported for lengthy stints in efforts to undermine the various factions in the Palestinian Liberation Organisation represented by Fatah.

In his 2008 work, Hamas vs. Fatah, Jonathan Schanzer, writes how the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the inspirational font for Hamas, was seen as an opportunity by the Israelis when taking root in Gaza. 

“By the late 1970s, the Israelis believed that they had found Fatah’s Achilles’ heel.” 

Israeli strategy permitted the Brotherhood to thrive, going so far as to allow the cleric Sheikh Ahmed Yassin to operate a network of welfare, medical and education services.  These had been sorely neglected by Fatah in the Gaza Strip.  This approach effectively licensed the emergence of fundamentalism, seen, curiously enough, as more manageable than the military adventurism of the PLO.

The First Intifada in 1987 spurred on the creation by Yassin and his followers of Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement”).  The 1988 charter of the organisation we know as Hamas, more youthful, and leaner, and hungrier than their Fatah rivals, made its purpose clear:

“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad”.

In 2009, while surveying the ruins of a neighbour’s bungalow in Moshav Tekuma, the retired Israeli officer Avner Cohen, who had served in Gaza for over two decades, was rueful. 

“Hamas, to my regret,” he told the Wall Street Journal, “is Israel’s creation.” 

Sustenance and encouragement from the Jewish state had effectively emboldened a mortal enemy.

Such a record should chasten wise legislators and leaders.  But the only lesson history teaches is that its grave lessons are left unlearned, with disastrous, inimical mistakes made anew.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is proof of that contention.  His various governments proudly backed the policy of division between the Gaza Strip and West Bank, defanging Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the latter while propping up Hamas in the former.  Every now and then, the Israeli Defense Forces would keep Hamas in bloody check, a strategy that came to be called “mowing the grass”.

Israel’s support for Hamas has come in the form of work permits (up to 3,000 granted to Gazans in 2021, rising to 10,000 during the Bennett-Lapid government), and suitcases, heavy with Qatari cash, entering the Strip through crossings since 2018.  In 2019, Netanyahu was quoted as telling a Likud faction meeting that opponents of a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Hamas.  Five years prior, Bezalel Smotrich, the current firebrand, pro-ethnic cleansing Finance Minister, declared with candour that

“The Palestinian Authority is a burden, and Hamas is an asset.”

With Hamas now the target and sworn enemy, the PM feels that the same, failed experiment adopted at stages since the 1970s can be replicated: backing and encouraging yet another group of Palestinians to undermine any sovereign cause.

The central figure and beneficiary of this latest folly is the shady Yasser Abu Shabab, a Rafah resident from a Bedouin family known for a spotty criminal record. Calling itself the “Anti-Terror Service” or the Popular Forces, and possessing assault rifles and equipment seized from Hamas, his “clan”, as reports have described it, has a committed record of looting humanitarian aid in Gaza.  In Netanyahu’s eyes, these rapacious poachers have turned into opportunistic game keepers, partially guarding the paltry aid that is currently being sent into Gaza under the supervision of the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Georgios Petropoulos, a senior United Nations official based in Gaza last year, calls Abu Shabab “the self-styled power broker of east Rafah.”  For his part, Abu Shabab admits to looting aid trucks, but only “so we can eat, not so we can sell.”  The looting proclivities of such groups is well noted, with the head of the UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in occupied Palestinian territories, Jonathan Whittall, making a damning accusation on May 28:

“The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point in Gaza.”

On May 21, Abu Shabab’s group posted on Facebook that

“92 trucks were secured and entered areas under the protection of our popular forces, and exited safely under our supervision.” 

Details on which organisation was behind hiring the transporting vehicles were not given.

With rumours bubbling that the Israeli government had embarked on this latest course of action, Netanyahu came clean.

“On the advice of security officials, we activated clans in Gaza that oppose Hamas,” he announced in a posted video with usual, glowing cynicism.  “What’s wrong with that?”  The strategy “only saves the lives of Israeli soldiers and publicising this only benefits Hamas.”

The advice purportedly given by Shin Bet to Netanyahu to arm Gaza militias opposed to Hamas was an expedient measure, largely occasioned by the PM’s continued refusal to involve the Palestinian Authority in the strip.

Not all Israeli lawmakers were impressed by Netanyahu’s latest effort at supposed cleverness.  Yair Golan, leader of the Democrats in the Knesset, condemned him as a threat to Israeli security. 

“Instead of bringing about a deal, making arrangements with the moderate Sunni axis, and returning the hostages and security of Israeli citizens, he is creating a new ticking bomb in Gaza.”

The leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, Avigdor Lieberman, is of the view that the transfer of weapons to Abu Shabab’s outfit was done unilaterally. 

“The Israeli government is giving weapons to a group of criminals and felons, identified with the Islamic State group,” he told the public broadcaster Kan.  “To my knowledge, this did not go through approval by the cabinet.”

With humanitarian aid now at the mercy of a group scorned by UN officials, humanitarian workers and certain Israeli politicians – a rare coming together of minds – the next round of errors is playing out with rich, quixotic stupidity.  Israel further adds to its own insecurity, while Abu Shabab knows all too well the views of his family, expressed in chilling statement:

“We affirm that we will not accept Yasser’s return to the family.  We have no objection to those around him liquidating him immediately, and we tell you that his blood is forfeit.”

*

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University.  He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

9 June 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Robert Reich

We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. Silence is acquiescence. We must be brave in resisting him. But we must not succumb to violence.

What is our moral responsibility as citizens of the United States when the President of the United States moves to deploy thousands of American soldiers against us?

President Donald Trump signed a memo late yesterday ordering 2,000 members of the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles County after federal immigration agents in riot gear squared off with hundreds of protesters for a second consecutive day.

Trump’s action is extreme although technically legal. California Gov. Gavin Newsom did not call in the Guard. Title 10 of the United States Code allows a president to federalize the National Guard units of states to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” In a presidential memo, Trump said, “To the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

Why is he doing it, and why now?

Because Trump can’t stand to be humiliated—as he has been in the last two weeks. By Senate Republicans’ refusal to quickly enact his so-called One Big Beautiful Bill. By Chinese President Xi Jinping’s refusal to back down on trade (and restrict shipments of China’s rare earths, which American industry depends on). By Russian President Vladimir Putin’s refusal to end the war in Ukraine. By the federal courts pushing back against his immigration policy. And, now, by insults and smears from the richest person in the world, who has a larger social media following than does Trump.

So what does Trump do when he’s humiliated? He deflects public attention. Like any bully, he tries to find another way to display his power—especially over people who are powerless, such as immigrants. Especially over people whom he doesn’t consider “his” people, such as Californians.

He has despised California since the 2016 election when the state overwhelmingly voted against him.

And what better Ground Zero for him to try out his police state than Los Angeles—a city teaming with immigrants, with Hollywood celebrities who demonize him, and wealthy moguls who despise him?

He is calling out the National Guard to provoke violence. As Gov. Newsom said, “that move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”

Trump wants to escalate tensions. He wants a replay of the violence that occurred in the wake of the George Floyd murder—riots, mayhem, and destruction that allow him to escalate his police state further—imposing curfews, closing down parts of Los Angeles, perhaps seeking to subdue the entire state. And beyond.

Please do not give him this. Don’t fall into his trap.

We cannot be silent in the face of Trump’s dictatorial move. Silence is acquiescence. We must be brave in resisting him. But we must not succumb to violence.

What is needed is peaceful civil disobedience. Americans locking arms to protect those who need protection. Americans sitting in the way of armored cars. Americans singing and chanting in the face of the Americans whom Trump is drafting into his handmade civil war.

Americans who do not attempt to strike back, but who do what many of us did during the Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements—peacefully but unambiguously reject tyranny. To be brave and nonviolent in the face of tyranny, to be strong and restrained, to resist with our hearts filled with anger but not succumb to that anger—is difficult. But Martin Luther King Jr. taught us its importance, and John Lewis taught us how.

A humiliated Trump is the most dangerous Trump. He has manufactured this entire crisis. But he will overreach. He already has. And this overreach will ultimately be his undoing.

As long as we keep our heads.

May we look back on this hellish time and feel proud of what we did.

Be strong. Be safe. Hug your loved ones.

Robert Reich, is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies.

9 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Madelene Kolab braved Israeli naval fire and poverty to feed her family from Gaza’s besieged coast. Now, a solidarity ship named Madelene sails in her honor to break the blockade.

The “Madelene” set out from Catania, Italy, on June 1, 2025, carrying humanitarian aid and international activists determined to break Israel’s 18-year blockade of Gaza.

But this isn’t just a voyage to deliver food and medicine. It’s a journey inspired by one Gazan girl who refused to sink under occupation and poverty—Madelene Kollab, Gaza’s youngest and only professional female fisher.

A Girl, A Net, A Mission

Born and raised in Al-Shati refugee camp, Madelene Kollab grew up on Gaza’s shore. She was just 13 when her father fell ill and she inherited his small fishing boat. There was no time for hesitation. With Gaza’s sea as her only horizon, Madelene became the breadwinner for her family.

“I didn’t choose the sea,” she said in a past interview. “The sea chose me.”

Faced with Israeli naval patrols, constant danger, and poverty, Madelene cast her nets into waters restricted by Israel. Israeli forces seized her boat in 2016. She didn’t give up. She rented a motor and returned to the sea.

“I am a child, but I had to become stronger than fear,” she said.

Every morning before sunrise, she set out into Gaza’s narrow fishing zone—barely 3 nautical miles wide—hoping to bring home enough to feed her family. She named her boat ‘Hasakta’ and learned how to mend nets, navigate currents, and stay calm when Israeli gunboats circled too close.

She taught her brother and sister to help. While others her age played or studied, Madelene fished.

“Madelene” Sets Sail

Now, a humanitarian ship bears her name. The Madelene is the latest mission by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a global movement challenging Israel’s siege nd genocide in Gaza.

The ship carries 12 international activists, including climate justice icon Greta Thunberg and French MEP Rima Hassan. Their goal is to reach Gaza’s shore with food, medicine, and a message: Gaza is not forgotten.

But the voyage is dangerous. Israel has already threatened to stop the Madelene by force. In the past, it attacked flotilla ships, including the deadly raid on the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

Despite the risks, the activists on board remain defiant.

Symbol of a Strangled Coast

In Gaza, Madelene’s story is not just about fishing—it’s about surviving under siege. With daily Israeli attacks, genocide, and hunger now declared “man-made famine” by the UN, even going to sea is a protest.

Her life mirrors the suffocation of an entire generation. And yet, she keeps going.

In an interview in 2010, she said she dreamed of studying fashion design. She studied at Gaza’s Church Alliance Institute when she returned from fishing.

“I love the sea like a friend,” she said. “It gives me peace, even when it is dangerous.”

Madelene is now a symbol. Not just for her family or her fellow fishers—but for a world struggling to understand what life in Gaza means.

The Madelene ship carries limited aid, but its cargo is heavier with meaning. It is sailing in the name of a young woman who refused to give up, who worked while shells fell, who chose nets instead of tears.

Whether the ship reaches Gaza or not, the story of Madelene Kollab already has.

She is, as the fishers of Gaza call her, the “Daughter of the Sea.”

And now, the sea carries her name.

9 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Quds News Network

Occupied Palestine (Quds News Network)- Israel has intercepted and seized a Gaza-bound aid ship carrying Greta Thunberg and other prominent activists, kidnapping those on board while describing the ship as a “selfie yacht” with “celebrities.”

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had “attacked” and “unlawfully boarded” the Madleen, which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza – where more than 600 days of Israeli genocide war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave’s 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis and warnings of a looming famine.

Climate activist Thunberg and Rima Hassan — a French member of the European Parliament — are among those on the “Madleen.”

“(The vessel) is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed in a post on X on Monday.

The FFC had earlier said the ship had come “under assault in international waters,” in a Telegram post.

“Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,” the FFC said.

In a video live streamed from the boat, activist Yasmin Acar showed a white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel. Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes.

The FFC group also posted a video on Telegram, showing members of the crew sitting inside the boat with their hands in the air and following an order to throw their phones into the sea.

[https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla/status/1931872075653980567]

After losing communication with the vessel, the FFC began posting pre-recorded video messages from Thunberg and others onboard.

“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel,” Thunberg said in her video.

[https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla/status/1931886800634818871/history]

In a statement, the FFC said Israel had acted with “total impunity” and that the vessel’s cargo, which included baby formula, food and medical supplies was “confiscated.”

“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen,” said Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer.

“This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the (International Court of Justice’s) binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.”

Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza, and described the ship as a “selfie yacht” carrying “celebrities.”

“I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the ‘Madleen’ flotilla does not reach Gaza,” Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday

The Madleen is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.

The crew, which had publicized the location of the ship with an online tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the Israeli military. On Monday morning, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza, but the tracker has since appeared to have stopped.

“We know that it’s a very risky mission and we know that previous experiences with flotillas like this have resulted in attacks, violence and even cases of death,” Thunberg said on Saturday.

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report last month warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed since May 27 by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.

Gaza-Bound Activists Urge Governments to Act for Their Release After Being Kidnapped by Israeli Forces

Pro-Palestine activists aboard the Madleen, a Gaza-bound aid ship, have called on their governments to take action to secure their release and to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza. This comes after Israeli forces seized the vessel on Monday and kidnapped the crew.

Among the crew are Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and Rima Hassan, a French member of the European parliament.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said the Israeli military had “attacked” and “unlawfully boarded” the Madleen, which was attempting to deliver aid to Gaza – where more than 600 days of Israeli genocide war, and an 11-week Israeli blockade of all aid, has pushed the enclave’s 2.1 million people deeper into a hunger crisis and warnings of a looming famine.

“(The vessel) is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed in a post on X on Monday

The FFC has posted prerecorded videos by nearly all of the people on board the Madleen.

[https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla/status/1931888550162903357]

The videos were prepared in case Israel intercepted the Gaza-bound boat. They call on supporters to speak up and pressure governments to act to release the activists and to end Israel’s war on Gaza.

[https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla/status/1931886800634818871/history]

“My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden,” Thunberg said in the video prerecorded on board the Madleen before being kidnapped.

“If you see this video, we are being intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel,” she said.

“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”

[https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla/status/1931886800634818871/history]

The FFC had earlier said the ship had come “under assault in international waters,” in a Telegram post.

“Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance. Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio,” the FFC said.

In a video live streamed from the boat, activist Yasmin Acar showed a white substance on the deck, saying it had been dropped on the vessel. Acar was later heard saying it was affecting her eyes.

The FFC group also posted a video on Telegram, showing members of the crew sitting inside the boat with their hands in the air and following an order to throw their phones into the sea.

[https://twitter.com/GazaFFlotilla/status/1931872075653980567]

In a statement, the FFC said Israel had acted with “total impunity” and that the vessel’s cargo, which included baby formula, food and medical supplies was “confiscated.”

“Israel has no legal authority to detain international volunteers aboard the Madleen,” said Huwaida Arraf, human rights attorney and Freedom Flotilla organizer.

“This seizure blatantly violates international law and defies the (International Court of Justice’s) binding orders requiring unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza.”

Israel had repeatedly vowed to stop the aid boat from reaching Gaza, and described the ship as a “selfie yacht” carrying “celebrities.”

“I have instructed the IDF to ensure that the ‘Madleen’ flotilla does not reach Gaza,” Israeli defense minister Israel Katz said on Sunday

The Madleen is part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, an organization that has campaigned against Israel’s blockade of Gaza and tried to break the siege by boat.

The crew, which had publicized the location of the ship with an online tracker, began preparing for the possibility of interception by the Israeli military. On Monday morning, the UK-flagged civilian vessel was north of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea, slowly approaching the coast of Gaza, but the tracker has since appeared to have stopped.

“We know that it’s a very risky mission and we know that previous experiences with flotillas like this have resulted in attacks, violence and even cases of death,” Thunberg said on Saturday.

On March 2, Israel announced the closure of Gaza’s main crossings, cutting off food, medical and humanitarian supplies, worsening a humanitarian crisis for 2.3 million Palestinians, according to reports by human rights organisations who have accused it of using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinains.

An Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report last month warned that almost a quarter of the civilian population would face catastrophic levels of food insecurity (IPC Phase Five) in the coming months.

After more than 80 days of total blockade, starvation, and growing international outrage, limited aid has allegedly been distributed since May 27 by the GHF, a scandal-plagued organization backed by the US and Israel, created to bypass the UN’s established aid delivery infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.

Most humanitarian organisations, including the UN, have distanced themselves from GHF, arguing that the group violates humanitarian principles by restricting aid to south and central Gaza, requiring Palestinians to walk long distances to collect aid, and only providing limited aid, among other critiques.

9 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Medea Benjamin

Recent reports say that US AID is considering giving $500 million to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF)—an “aid” initiative launched at Israel’s request. At first glance, that might sound like a generous effort to help desperate Palestinians in Gaza. But peel back even one layer, and you’ll find a deadly political scheme masquerading as humanitarian relief.

This is not about helping hungry people. It’s about controlling them, displacing them, and starving them into submission.

Let’s start with some basics. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is not a humanitarian organization. It’s a U.S.- and Israeli-backed scheme run by people with no track record in neutral aid work. Its first director Jake Wood, resigned on May 25, saying the organization failed to uphold humanitarian principles. Then the Boston Consulting Group, which had secretly helped design GHF’s aid operations, pulled out and apologized to staff who were furious about the firm’s complicity in a system that enabled forced displacement and sidelined trusted UN agencies. 

GHF brand new director is Johnnie Moore, an American evangelical PR executive best known for helping Donald Trump recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and push the U.S. embassy move there—a move that only fanned the flames of conflict.

GHF’s entire premise is rooted in deception. It was launched with Israeli government oversight, without transparency, without independence, and—critically—without the participation of the United Nations or any respected humanitarian agencies. In fact, the UN has refused to have anything to do with it. So have groups like Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross, and the World Food Programme, whose leaders have warned in no uncertain terms that GHF’s model militarizes aid, violates humanitarian norms, and places Palestinian lives at even greater risk.

GHF has never been about delivering aid. It’s about using the illusion of aid to control the population of Gaza—and to give cover to war crimes.

People in Gaza are starving because Israel wants them to. There are thousands of aid trucks, many loaded with supplies from the United Nations, that—for months—have been blocked from entering Gaza. They contain food, water, medicine, shelter materials—the lifeblood of a besieged civilian population. But instead of letting them through, the U.S. and Israel are pushing their own version of aid: a privatized, militarized operation. Armed U.S. contractors working with the GHF are reportedly earning up to $1,100 per day, along with a $10,000 signing bonus.

The GHF plan is to make aid available only in the south, forcibly displacing people from the north—driving them toward the Egyptian border, where many fear a permanent expulsion is being engineered. 

From the very start of GHF’s operations, with the opening of two distribution sites in southern Gaza on May 26, the chaos turned deadly, with Israeli military shooting at hungry people seeking food. In its short time of operation, nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds more wounded. These are not tragic accidents—they are predictable outcomes of militarizing aid.

Let’s also address the fear-mongering claim that when the UN was in charge of aid delivery, food was being stolen by Hamas. There is no credible evidence of this and Cindy McCain, head of the World Food Programme, has publicly refuted this allegation, saying that trucks have been looted by hungry, desperate people. 

The real threat to aid integrity isn’t Hamas—it’s the blockade itself, which has created an artificial scarcity and fueled black markets, desperation, and chaos..

To truly help the people of Gaza, here’s what needs to happen:

• Shut down GHF and reject all militarized aid schemes.
• Restore full U.S. funding to UNRWA and the World Food Programme—trusted, experienced agencies that know how to do this work.
• Demand that Israel end the blockade. Let aid trucks in—UN trucks, Red Cross trucks, WFP trucks. Flood the strip with food, medicines, tents. 
• Demand an immediate ceasefire to stop the killing and create space for meaningful relief and political solutions.

The starvation in Gaza is not a logistical failure. It is Israel’s political choice. And GHF is not a lifeline. It is a lie. It is complicity. It is diabolical. And U.S. taxpayers should not be forced to fund it.

Medea Benjamin is the cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and the author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

8 June 2025

Source: countercurrents.org