#Iran embargo israel

[digitalguap]

Russia Slams Israel, Iran Wants Arab Embargo, U.S. Targets Iranian Oil

Welcome to our blog, where we aim to provide you with the latest updates and insights into the complex geopolitical landscape. In this post, we delve into the intensifying tensions between Russia, Israel, Iran, and the United States. As we navigate through this intricate web of international relations, we bring you the latest developments where Russia criticizes Israel, Iran demands an Arab…

[wonderhecko]

as you see the inhuman list of items banned from entry into gaza, you should be keenly aware the partner in israel's murder-suicide pact, the united states, has had an embargo on cuba (effectively doing the same to iran with sanctions too btw) for decades that includes medical supplies.

none of this was lifted for covid 19. both our cruel, barbaric countries will deny the absolute bare necessities for our genocidal economic projects

[wezgworld]

Happy 100th Birthday Henry Kissinger

Henry Kissinger meeting Chairman Mao Zedong Henry Kissinger is a political heavyweight. Of that there can be no doubt. Even the harshest of this US politician-come-guru, Henry Kissinger’s critics will have to admit that he is just that – a veteran in the ring of international geopolitics.  Today, 27th May 2023, Henry Kissinger celebrates his 100th birthday. He is the only surviving member of the…

[zvaigzdelasas]

Joe Biden campaigned in 2020 on the promise of new ideas, more competence, and a “return to normality.” But when it comes to economic sanctions, President Biden has chosen instead to maintain the path that his predecessor set. From Venezuela to Cuba to Iran, the Biden administration’s approach to sanctions has remained remarkably similar to Trump’s. On the campaign trail, candidate Biden promised to rejoin the Iran deal and to “promptly reverse the failed Trump policies that have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights.” Yet two and a half years after taking office, the Biden administration has made little progress towards fulfilling these promises. While economic sanctions may not seem important to the average American, they have strong implications for the global economy and America’s national interests. President Biden initially showed promise by requesting that the Treasury Department conduct a swift review of U.S. sanctions policies. However, the review’s publication in October 2021 was underwhelming. It produced recommendations such as adopting “a structured policy framework that links sanctions to a clear policy objective,” and “ensuring sanctions are easily understood, enforceable, and, where possible, reversible.” If the U.S. was not already undertaking these measures, it is fair to ask what exactly was taken into consideration when prior sanctions were implemented. The failure to reenter the Iran deal is the most egregious error of Biden’s sanctions policies. Apart from harming American credibility and acting as a strong deterrent to any future countries looking to enter diplomatic agreements with the U.S., Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy has been a complete failure. As the United States Institute of Peace notes, Iran’s “breakout time” —the time required to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb — stood at around 12 months in 2016. As of today, Iran’s breakout time stands at less than a week. It did not have to be this way. Although Iran violated segments of the JCPOA after American withdrawal, it never left the deal completely, signaling potential for a reconciliation. Yet the Biden administration declined to lift sanctions initially. As Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, told CNN in early 2021, “It was the United States that left the deal. It was the United States that violated the deal.”[...]

Biden has shown similar hesitancy on Cuba. Although the administration has taken certain steps to undo Trump’s hardline stance, there remains much room for progress. Six decades of maximum pressure on Cuba have failed completely, serving primarily to harm Cuban civilians and exacerbate tensions with allies who wish to do business with Cuba. The U.S. embargo of Cuba is incredibly unpopular worldwide. A U.N. General Assembly Resolution in support of ending the embargo received 185 votes in support, with only two against — the U.S. and Israel. Steps such as reopening the American embassy in Havana and removing restrictions on remittances are positive developments, yet the Biden administration could do much more. Primary among these are removing Cuba from the State Sponsors of Terrorism list and ending the embargo once and for all. This would not only improve daily life for Cuban civilians, but increase business opportunities for Cubans and Americans alike. Trump also attempted his maximum pressure strategy with Venezuela, but failed to achieve anything resembling progress. In one of his final actions in office, he levied even more sanctions on Venezuela, further isolating one of the region’s largest oil producers. Venezuela is another country where the Biden administration has taken mere half-measures. Easing some sanctions in late 2022 is a positive sign, but there is no serious justification for keeping any of the Trump-era sanctions in place. All of these actions have had major consequences, not only for the citizens of the sanctioned countries, but also for Americans. As oil prices spiked following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the fact that Iran and Venezuela, two of the world’s largest oil producers, were unable to sell on the U.S. market no doubt led to higher gas prices for American consumers. And the millions of Americans with family in sanctioned countries face serious difficulties in visiting and sending remittances to their family members. Despite these measures, none of these countries are considered serious threats to the U.S. In a March 2023 Quinnipiac poll, Americans rightly ignored Iran, Venezuela and Cuba when asked which country “poses the biggest threat to the United States.” Just two percent chose Iran as the biggest threat, with zero choosing Cuba or Venezuela.

These sanctions are unpopular, ineffective and quite often counterproductive to American interests. While changing the course of U.S. foreign policy can take quite some time, the dangers of hesitancy are quite clear. Rather than maintaining the Trump status quo on sanctions, which saw record increases, President Biden should fulfill his campaign promises and end the ineffective and costly sanctions on countries such as Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela, and return to the use of diplomacy to further American national interests.

You know things are bad when The Hill is coming after you as a democrat (note the lack of mention about sanctions on China or DPRK)

22 Jun 23

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Adam Kredo

Less than a day before the Biden administration announced its intent to cut off U.S. arms sales to Israel, it issued a sanctions waiver to bypass congressional prohibitions on arms sales to a host of Arab nations that boycott the Jewish state, including Hamas ally Qatar and Iran-controlled Lebanon, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.FreeBeacon

On Tuesday—just a day before President Joe Biden threatened to withhold key weapons deliveries from Israel if the country moves forward with an incursion in the Gaza Strip's Rafah neighborhood—the State Department informed Congress that it intends to bypass laws that bar the United States from selling weapons to nations that boycott Israel, according to a copy of the notification obtained by the Free Beacon.

The Biden administration, which has waived these sanctions in the past, said in the notification that it intends to extend the waiver through April 30, 2025, allowing weapons to be sent to a host of nations that work closely with the Hamas terror group and other Iran-backed terror proxies.

While the administration determined that these countries engage in Israel boycotts, a condition that triggers American anti-boycott laws, bypassing these restrictions remains "in the U.S. national interest" to maintain regional stability, according to the waiver. But this justification is drawing scrutiny on Capitol Hill as the Biden administration threatens key arms shipments to Israel in a bid to force it into abandoning its campaign to eradicate Hamas.

"The Biden administration's policy toward Israel and around the world is to punish our allies and boost our enemies," Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the Free Beacon after reviewing the sanctions waiver. "They have sanctioned Israel and imposed an arms embargo. Meanwhile they've spent hundreds of millions pouring aid into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, dismantled sanctions on Iran, and now are suspending congressional restrictions to send weapons to Israel's enemies such as Qatar and Lebanon."

A State Department spokesman told the Free Beacon that the department "remains committed to Israel's security and defense." While current law "prohibits leases and sales of defense articles to certain countries that maintain a boycott of Israel," the president reserves the right to waive these restrictions if it is "in the national security interest," the spokesman said.

"The United States has routinely exercised that waiver for years to permit continued security cooperation between the United States and regional partners and to enable U.S. officials to continue to work closely with those partners to eliminate further instances of boycott requests," the spokesman said.

In the section related to Lebanon, where the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group continues to attack Israel, the Biden administration admits the nation remains committed to a full-scale boycott of Israel.

[madamepestilence]

A PSA on American Politics

My blog has largely become an America-centric political blog, especially regarding the US 2024 election. I've made a few posts about it, as well as a video essay. (Note: Claudia de la Cruz is no longer a viable candidate; I'll explain in this thread.)

I'm going to speak to y'all directly now.

The Democrats. The Anarchists. The Communists. The Socialists.

Listen to me.

The whole Vote Blue No Matter Who method is only supporting fascism. I'm not sugarcoating it: Biden is a fascist, people who vote for him are voting for fascism, and if you're voting for Biden just because you're scared of Trump winning the election, you are a fucking coward.

I know I'm going to get flak for that, but it needs to be said - I'm not babying Democrats and fellow leftists. We're grown-ass adults and we need to strategize like adults. Both Trump and Biden are fascists; this isn't about, "minimizing the damage," this is about preventing fascism.

So what is my plan? Do I have solutions? Yes, I do, and here they are:

Part I: The 2024 US Presidential Election

Don't vote for Biden. Don't refuse to vote either - anyone who tells you voting is useless is trying to deceive you.

Vote for third party Independent presidential candidate Dr. Cornel West, Ph.D.. Dr. West is a triple-college-educated self-described non-Marxist Socialist candidate for the 2024 US presidential election.

You may initially have your doubts for a few reasons, so let me assuage them for you.

Whataboutism A: What about Trump and Biden?

Biden is not any better than Trump. Trump openly admits his racism, sexism, xenophobia, etc. because the Republican party no longer needs to hide these factors.

We live in a state in which the Democratic party will constantly try to compromise with the Republican party, and the Republican party has had such a significant portion of their party indoctrinated into the alt-right that it's their political base now.

See: (YouTube:) Innuendo Studios: The Alt-Right Playbook: The Death of a Euphemism

Biden just continues using euphemisms to hide his fascist rhetoric. Biden is also directly monetarily and militarily supporting a fascist apartheid colony -- Israel-occupied-Palestine -- who are committing a holocaust in Palestine.

He has also supported known fascist political figures, such as the known fascist Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. Trump and Biden are both fascists - the only difference is how openly they admit their fascism.

We cannot let this system continue. In the modern United States, the American Democratic and Republican parties effectively have the same goals. The Democratic party may claim that it wants progressivism, but it has shown quite the contrary.

Democrats get elected by comparing themselves to the Republican party by being, "not as bad," while Republicans have to come up with increasingly jarring reasons for election - as, the Republican party already achieved their past goals, and have to move the goalposts - and make implications that the Democratic party is not advocating for drastic enough nationalism.

Capitalism and fascism are compatible with each other, as are the primary American politics parties - they are malleable and are merging into fascism. This is the main danger of neoliberalism.

See: (YouTube:) Innuendo Studios: (The Alt-Right Playbook:) Endnote 2: White Fascism

For that matter - I would not be surprised if Biden uses the lukewarm world war occurring right now--

(and yes, I'm calling it that - there are global efforts to support Palestine, embargoes against Israel-occupied-Palestine, polarization about Palestine and Israel-occupied-Palestine, a war in West Asia spearheaded by Israel-occupied-Palestine, Iran is bombing Israel-occupied-Palestine for their genocidal fascism, Iran directly threatened the US if the US retaliates for Iran's anti-fascist action, and even Irish Member of Parliament Clare Daly directly called out Biden for fascism and claimed that Ireland disowned him)

--to declare emergency powers to gain an, "emergency," term (fascist dictatorship). If Trump gets elected, he would also have the possibility of doing the same.

We are entering fascism. It needs to be stopped.

Whataboutism B: What about the Spoiler Effect?

The Spoiler Effect is largely a concern I've been presented with by cowards who want to vote for fascist US president Biden in the 2024 election.

Historically, the Spoiler Effect hasn't really been a problem in the US. Our election system may be the worst election system currently in use, but people have been so focused on the parties they care for that it hasn't really been an issue.

Furthermore, most people have a drastic misunderstanding of how the Spoiler Effect works. People assume that because the Republican and Democratic parties are currently in power that there are no other options.

This is not how elections work or have historically worked in the United States.

When parties have fallen out of favour in the US, they have historically been replaced by different parties. This has happened multiple times.

See: (Wikipedia:) United States presidential election § Electoral college results

and compare to

See: (Wikipedia:) List of United States presidential elections by popular vote margin § Timeline

to see the drastic and broad revisionist application of, "Republican," and, "Democrat," to refer to multiple different parties.

If you're completely unfamiliar with the concept of the Spoiler Effect (or are just interested in viewing alternative voting systems),

See: (YouTube:) Primer: Simulating alternate voting systems

With this in mind, and with our collective agreement that the Democratic party does not have the interests of the people in mind, we can fucking replace the Democratic party with an actually leftist party.

Independent leftists, the Communist Party USA, the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, even a new leftist party (that might even merge the leftist front into a Commu-Socialist Party) -- any leftist party vs. the Republican party?

It will lay bare to the world once anew what a Leftist vs. Fascist party system looks like.

Remember the drastic contrast between the German Democratic Republic (a real socialist country) vs. Nazi Germany (who, by the way, were masquerading themselves as socialists because it was popular, despite initially building camps for communists)?

Let's not let the fascists in power again. A truly leftist America is the only way to the future. Fuck your moderate politics.

We have a problem right now and we need drastic change right now, not gentle fidgeting while we compromise with fascists and let people suffer in the meantime.

Also See: (YouTube:) Innuendo Studios: The Alt-Right Playbook: Always a Bigger Fish

Whataboutism C: What about Gerrymandering?

I'm gonna keep this one short and blunt: Not voting is only going to reinforce gerrymandering. Vote your fucking representatives out and get better representatives. End of.

Whataboutism D: What about Claudia de la Cruz and the Party for Socialism and Liberation?

To be blunt, De la Cruz has not shaken up enough support to cause the national news concern. Dr. West has.

It's even gotten to a point where national news have been trying to avoid discussing Dr. West -- as it keeps increasing support for him -- to instead discuss known fascist candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr..

On a secondary note, the PSL has an internal Conservative 5th Column, and has frequent issues with discrimination.

This runs the risk that De la Cruz may be a Republican plant, and even if she's not, the PSL is not currently the kind of party we want to put in power.

Whataboutism E: What about known fascist Harlan Crow?

For those unfamiliar, I've received complaints about Dr. West's campaign receiving funding from known fascist Harlan Crow. The primary person who shook up a stir wanted an explanation from Dr. West, and apparently didn't look for one.

This amounted to... $3,300. That's not much.

Crow donated $500 directly to now-dropout Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, as well as a whopping $100,000 to Chris Christie's political action committee, Tell It Like It Is.

Dr. West only received about 30% of the equivalent donation Crow granted to Christie. Dr. West has a history of interacting with another Conservative, Robert P. George.

During his life, Dr. West's beliefs have not changed and he's wisely using the system he's been placed in -- and taking advantage of smaller Conservative news media as a pinging board to get airtime on national news media -- without being bought out.

Dr. Cornel West actually directly responded to these concerns, having directly argued that any donations he have will not have any strings attached, and that he cannot be bought out.

Whataboutism F: What about poseur politics?

To be fair, I haven't seen a single person bring this up, but I have no doubt this worry is sitting in the back of people's minds. I'd like to assuage this concern pre-emptively.

Dr. West is fortunately not a poseur. Dr. West has a long history of participating in leftist politics, including, but not limited to:

Civil rights protests inspired by the Black Panthers and Malcolm X in his teenage youth

Supporting social spaces in neglected areas such as prisons and churches

Becoming the first black person to graduate from Princeton University with a Doctorate of Philosophy (Ph.D.) with a dissertation called Ethics, Historicism, and the Marxist Tradition (later renamed to The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought)

Protests and divestment to help free apartheid South Africa

Participating in the Million Man March

Being arrested for protesting the shooting of Michael Brown

Being the senior advisor for 2000 Democratic candidate Bill Bradley, then Green Party candidate Ralph Nader

Obstructing the front of the US State Department in protest of Israel-occupied-Palestine's oppression of Palestine in 2000, including similar free Palestine protests in 2007 and 2011

Being an advisor for 2004 Democratic candidate Al Sharpton

Being arrested for participating in the 2011 Occupy D.C. and Harlem Wall Street protests

Affiliating with the Revolutionary Communist Party USA in 2014 and directly contributing to the formation of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network

Rescinding support for Barack Obama in 2014 after realizing his imperialist tendencies

Participating in 2017 counter-protests against the Unite The Right Rally, in which he directly commented that Antifa saved their lives

You don't have to worry about Dr. West being a poseur. He's been doing this for a long time.

Whataboutism G: What about Project 2025?

If you believe that winning a single election is going to make the fascists spontaneously give up on Project 2025 -- which you're likely basing on the specific year in the project's name -- you are a fool.

They're going to continually attempt it until they succeed. We can't let fascists into power, and this includes Biden.

Vote for Dr. Cornel West.

Whataboutism H: What about Ballot Access?

Dr. West has actually been very intelligent with how he's working for ballot access across the US. However, it's not a magic black box - you as a voter need to actively help him get ballot access.

If you don't know how to do that, Dr. West has a website with an interactive US state map, which include instructions for how many votes are required to gain ballot access in each state.

Dr. West also provided the actual necessary legal documents to gain signatures, instructions for how to get votes from people, and even created political propaganda -- both free and merchandising -- to help raise awareness for Dr. West's political action.

He was also wise with how he's gathering ballot access. In states where Independent candidates have an actual chance of ballot access, he's remained Independent.

In states where it's not really possible, he's either joined a local leftist party, or created a new party called the Justice for All Party, which allows him party backing for ballot access.

With this process, Dr. West has successfully already gained ballot access in 5 states: Oregon, Utah, Alaska, Colorado, and South Carolina.

If Dr. West is creating events, he has a page where he show's he's going, of which he's already done many nationally. Alternatively, if you'd like to create your own, he also has a page where you can host campaign-approved volunteer events.

If you're wondering about how well Dr. West listens to people, he largely interacts with any news media - even if it's small - to discuss his campaign and beliefs. I also reported some broken links on their website, and within a few days all of the reported links were prepared.

Dr. Cornel West will make an ideal socialist president.

Part II: Legislative, Judicial, and Local Elections

We cannot let this start and end at presidential elections. We need to seize power in all parts of politics.

Affiliate yourself with leftist parties - or create your own - and run for local elections. It's become clear that socialism is extremely popular in the US right now, and the US has a rich history of socialism.

See: (YouTube:) Second Thought: America's Forgotten Socialist History

We also need to go past that. We need to seize power in the legislative and judicial branches of the US, in that order. Using those same leftist parties, get leftists elected into positions within Congress and the House of Representatives, and push the US into majority leftist legislative power.

Once this has been achieved, we need to combine a leftist president with the majority leftist Congress and House to pass legislation to create term limits for the Supreme Court.

We can then have further legislation passed for SC Justices to be elected by the common people, rather than fucking appointed by whoever happens to be the current president.

This can let us fill the Supreme Court with more leftists, and having seized all three branches of government, we can begin major modifications to the US Constitution - or even retiring it for a new US Constitution - to initiate the socialist age of the US.

Whataboutism I: What about the history of attempts of Socialism/Communism?

Hakim, a West Asian leftist YouTuber, has excellent videos on what actually caused the fall of the Soviet Union, the mistakes of former socialist attempts, a response to a worldbuilder's assumptions about why (socialist) revolutions fail, and instructions for how new leftists can contribute to modern socialism.

(Also, if you're just looking for more blatantly leftist YouTubers, I also recommend Slavic leftist Yugopnik.)

Also See: (YouTube:) Sisyphus 55: The Revolution Will Not Be Uploaded (Also has a donation fund for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund)

Part III: Micronations

Wait, what?

I don't know how much they're going to really help, but it doesn't hurt to have alternatives in the event the US fully sinks into a fascist dictatorship.

If you lead or participate in a leftist micronation, establish mutual recognition and trade routes with other micronations and work on true independence that doesn't rely on the US's assistance (water, plumbing, electricity, internet, etc.).

Utilize your lack of recognition as a country to have dual citizenship, where you can provide for your citizens, but also, more importantly:

PARTICIPATE IN AMERICAN ELECTIONS.

Being a part of a micronation does not absolve you from your duty as an American citizen to fucking vote. Vote in local elections and vote in national elections. Get. Leftists. In. Power.

Micronations are the backup plan in the event of an emergency as a point of resistance against state oppression.

Prioritize voting in American elections. Vote for leftists.

Vote for Cornel West for the 2024 US presidential election.

[girlactionfigure]

🟤 Thu night - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

This is a choice that Israel will have to accept.”

Senior officials in the American administration conveyed a message to senior officials in Israel: "Biden exaggerated his statement about not transferring the weapons, we will find ways to lower the flames and transfer what is needed."

🇮🇱 PRIME MINISTER.. “We are determined, and we are united to defeat our enemy and those who seek our souls.

If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone.

I already said that if we have to - we will fight tooth and nail.  But we have much more than nails, and with the same greatness, with God's help together we will win.”

▪️US AIR FORCE CHIEF.. testifying to Congress: “If Iran carries out an attack (on the U.S.) as it did in Israel in April, we do not have the necessary means to deal with it.  Our capabilities in these areas are not sufficient to deal with an attack of this magnitude.”

▪️IRAN SAYS.. “If Washington allows Netanyahu to commit new crimes in Rafah (Gaza), the consequences will be severe.”

🔸DEAL ACTIVITY..  The delegations returned from Egypt with no progress.

.. Hamas confirms the US CIA Director suggested the changes that blew up any possibility of a deal.

▪️TURKEY TRADE EMBARGO LOOSENED.. Turkey releases the sweeping boycott it imposed on exports to Israel. The Turkish Ministry of Trade decided to allow suppliers to continue exporting products to Israel after obtaining individual permits.

♦️The IDF bombarded the Al-Masri Tower in the center of Rafah with artillery fire, a tower from which terrorist fire was fired.

♦️The IDF has begun construction in the Philadelphi Corridor of a spot that will serve as a permanent military base.

⭕ 4 rounds of SUICIDE DRONE attacks across northern Israel today.

⭕ 2 rounds of ROCKET attacks, including very-large rockets, at northern Israel today.

▪️520 IDF orphans due to the Hamas war.

▪️AL JAZEERA.. Israel finds a secret studio in Nazareth, confiscates equipment and closes.

▪️UNRWA offices were set on fire in Jerusalem.

▪️AID PROTESTS.. blocking of aid trucks from Jordan to Hamas continued in Mitzpe Ramon throughout the day.  The police have brought in the riot squad and water cannon.

Egypt: will stop all aid trucks (most aid arriving through Egyptian port El-Arish) until Israel specifies when it will re-open the Rafah crossing.

 Residents of the Gaza Strip: UNRWA workers steal aid and sell it at an exorbitant price.

[trans-girl-nausicaa]

seriously, there are so many instances in which the current Israeli invasion of Gaza reminds me of the JNA/VRS invasion of Bosnia.

The siege of Sarajevo and the blockade around Gaza both causing starvation. The cruelty of Israeli and VRS snipers both targeting civilians. The arms embargo against both Bosniaks and Palestinians, forcing both resistance movements to arm themselves with whatever equipment they can smuggle in or scrape together.

The VRS and Israeli bombing of civilian buildings.

Early in the Bosnian homeland war, the major global powers turned a blind eye to the whole thing. UN “safe areas” got overrun and refugees were slaughtered. Now the major global powers are turning a blind eye to the Palestinians, with the US even supplying the genocidal occupation forces with ammunition. Again the UN’s schools and hospitals get bombed, UNRWA gets slandered, and the UN doesn’t defend itself, doesn’t defend Palestinians.

So much for a “rules-based international order.”

In Bosnia, NATO arguably only intervened because it served their interests. And to this day there is NATO and US military presence and a Western-instituted ethnicity-based form of government in Bosnia reminiscent of the governments that European countries set up in their foreign colonies in past centuries. Furthermore, the Western powers tacitly accepted the ethnic cleansing of Eastern Bosnia in the formation of the borders of the statelet of Republika Srpska laid out in the Dayton Accords.

(Imagine if ethnic Germans were allowed to set up some sort of Deutsche Republic in Western Poland after WWII?)

But who will intervene on behalf of Palestine? Whose geopolitical interests are served by helping them?

Western media reports that Iran sends weapons to Palestinian resistance fighters, but it seems that at this point Palestinian arms are mostly sourced from local manufacturing.

“We have local factories for everything, for rockets with ranges of 250 km, for 160 km, 80km, and 10 km. We have factories for mortars and their shells. … We have factories for Kalashnikovs (rifles) and their bullets. We’re manufacturing the bullets with permission from the Russians. We’re building it in Gaza,” Ali Baraka, head of Hamas National Relations Abroad, is quoted as saying.

But even with a resourceful and determined group of Palestinian resistance organizations, the huge power imbalance between the Palestinian resistance fighters and the IOF means that Palestinian casualties are mounting at a rapid pace.

If the IOF keeps killing at the same rate they have, their kill count is “on track” to outnumber the total number of civilians of all ethnicities killed in the Bosnian War, which is truly horrifying.

Remember, fellow Americans: Your tax dollars are helping fund an historic genocide of Palestinians. President Biden sent ammunition to Israel, to ensure that Israel is not even at risk of running out of ammunition for their assassination factory.

[thoughtlessarse]

An immediate arms embargo on Israel. When I met Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf last month and he unequivocally backed such a move, the case was already overwhelming. Yet this week, the UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron doubled down – even as Gaza is razed from the face of the earth, the position was “unchanged”. It should not take the spilling of Western blood to make this point – given the mass slaughter endured by the Palestinian people, including more than 200 aid workers – but even the Israeli military killing three Britons working with World Central Kitchen hasn’t shifted the Government’s position. You can only imagine what would have happened if, say, Iran had blown up an aid convoy in similar circumstances. According to the Campaign Against Arms Trade, the seven aid workers were killed by a Hermes 450 drone, which is powered by a UK-made R902(W) Wankel Engine. That a leaked recording of senior Tory MP Alicia Kearns – the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee – made clear that the Government had received legal advice that Israel is violating international humanitarian law, clear to anyone at this point who isn’t either deceitful or living in a parallel universe. That would necessitate stopping arms sales, as well as the sharing of intelligence. Yet the British government remains determined to continue its complicity with one of the great crimes of our age. […] The Israeli investigation was an absurd whitewash, suggesting a military which describes itself as amongst the world’s most advanced made a “grave mistake” by exterminating the convoy in these circumstances. Well, it gets so much worse. A fascinating piece of investigative journalism in The Telegraph – not words you often read me type – has a sensational finding. The most senior commander in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) dismissed for his role in the attack is a hard-line settler in the West Bank who, in an open letter signed in January, demanded Gaza was deprived of aid. It demanded the Israeli War Cabinet and the IDF chief of staff “do everything in your power” to prevent “humanitarian supplies and the operation of hospitals inside Gaza City”. Here’s another astonishing detail: the retired military officer who led the investigation into the strike is the CEO of the defence firm that makes the drone missiles used in the strike. 

read complete article

[clarafordahwin]

Helpful context for the US support of Israel (which extends far further than the occasional end-times evangelical)

But Israel’s new role as US watchdog was not just regional. In fact, in the ensuing decades, Israel carried out this role globally: providing arms to dictators and regimes worldwide that the US could not openly support and training military and police forces in repressing uprisings and controlling migration. After 1967, Israel began to establish its own full-scale arms industry. Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, Israel covertly and overtly supported Latin American dictatorships, apartheid South Africa, and the Iranian shah with arms and paramilitary training. At times, it served as a direct conduit for US arms, providing weapons to regimes notorious for their brutality that the US could not support directly. Israel supplied the vast majority of arms imported by the right-wing military government of El Salvador and its paramilitary death squads and gave millions to the Salvadoran regime. Israel acted as major arms supplier to Guatemala’s police force, even as it was “condemned by Amnesty International and other human rights groups for its part in official death squads responsible for the murders of thousands” and to the Somoza regime of Nicaragua, supplying more than 90 percent of its arms as the regime killed tens of thousands. Somoza bombed the slums of Nicaragua “mainly with Israeli-made Arava and West Wind planes.” This pattern was widespread, as Israel also supplied arms to dictatorial regimes in Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina. All these regimes killed and disappeared thousands in their “dirty wars.”

The US also used Israel to supply and train repressive regimes across Africa, including Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), Malawi, and apartheid South Africa. In South Africa—where the racism of the state had isolated it from most of the world’s countries—the US funneled helicopters through Israel to circumvent the embargo. Israel did the same with South African products, selling them globally. This was in addition to extensive economic and military collaboration between the two states. This same pattern was repeated in Asia, with Israel supplying the regimes of Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan. Israel even sold arms to Iran, including during the hostage crisis, with Ronald Reagan’s covert consent. In short, Israel has supported regimes around the world bent on crushing democratic movements that might pose a challenge to an oppressive status quo—one that both the US and Israel rely on to maintain their global dominance.

Palestine: A Socialist Introduction edited by Sumaya Awad and Brian Bean (2020) Click here to download the free ebook from Haymarket Books

[cinemafromcinema]

Iran has urged Muslim countries to cut all relations with the Israeli regime as means of pressuring Tel Aviv to end its ongoing genocidal war on the Gaza Strip. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Saturday, addressing the 15th Heads of State and Government Summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Gambia’s capital Banjul. “Beyond doubt, this time period will also pass by, despite all its hardships and adversities for the Palestinian nation,” he said. “However, the manner and quality of the role that is played by us, Muslim states, in the face of this crisis will go down in history,” the top diplomat added. “Undoubtedly, severance of diplomatic and economic ties and [imposition of] practical arms and trade embargo [on Israel] serves as an important means of cessation of its genocide in Gaza and atrocities in the West Bank and the Noble al-Quds.” At least 34,654 people have died in Gaza since October 7, when the Israeli regime began the war in response to al-Aqsa Storm, a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups. Despite the unabated campaign of bloodshed and destruction, the regime has so far fallen short of realizing its goals, including defeating Gaza’s resistance, causing forced displacement of the territory’s entire population to neighboring Egypt, and enabling the release of those who were taken captive during al-Aqsa Storm. Amir-Abdollahian said Gaza’s developments proved that elimination of the Palestinian resistance “was nothing but an illusion.” “Because the Israeli regime is not a legitimate government. It is only an occupying apartheid power,” he said, adding, “Passage of time is not going to lend legitimacy to an occupying power.” The foreign minister asserted that realization of sustainable peace and security in the region was only possible through cessation of the regime’s occupation of Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, return of the Palestinian refugees to their homeland, and manifestation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination.

[mightyflamethrower]

Iranian-backed militias have attacked American installations and forces in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan some 170 times.

Ostensibly, these terrorist groups claim they are hitting US forces to coerce America into dropping its support of Israel and demanding a cease-fire in the Gaza war.

In reality, these satellite terrorists are being directed in a larger effort by Iran to pry the US. out of the Middle East, in the manner of the 1983 Marine barracks bombing.

That way, Iran will be free to fulfill its old dream of becoming a nuclear shield for a new Shiite/Persian terrorist axis from Tehran to Damascus to Beirut to the West Bank and Gaza—surrounding Israel and intimidating the Gulf regimes and more moderate states like Jordan and Egypt into concessions.

These Iranian appendages have made a number of unfortunately correct assumptions about America in general and the Biden administration in particular.

One, after the recent serial humiliations of the flight from Afghanistan, the passivity of watching a Chinese spy balloon traverse with impunity the continental United States, the mixed American signals on the eve of the Ukraine war, the troubled Pentagon’s recruitment and leadership lapses, and the destruction of the US southern border, both Iran and its surrogates feel that the United States either cannot or will do much of anything in response to their aggression.

They see the U.S. military short thousands of recruits, its leadership politicized, its munition stocks depleted by arms shipments to Ukraine and Israel, and the massive abandonment of weapons in Kabul.

Two, they view Joe Biden’s serial appeasement as a force multiplier of these perceptions of American weakness. After entering office, the Biden administration begged for a renewed Iran deal from a preening theocracy. It sought to ensure calm by delisting the Houthis from global terrorist designations and sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Hamas and radical Palestinians to buy good behavior.

Biden may have agreed that Iran was the spider in the center of the Middle East Islamic terrorist web, but only thereby to win over it with bribes such as lifting embargoes and sanctions to ensure an Iranian windfall of $90 or more billion in oil sales revenue.

Biden greenlighted a bribery payment of $6 billion to Iran to return American hostages, thereby ensuring more will be taken. It loudly distanced itself from the Netanyahu government. The gulf encouraged radicals to believe they could coerce Israel into accepting radical Islamic states on the West Bank and Gaza.

Three, after hitting American stations and bases 170 times and seeing little sustained, much less disproportionate, responses, Iran and its satellites now feel they are winning proxy wars with the US.

They have all but shut down the Red Sea as an international shipping route—damaging Europe, Egypt, and Israel, which all depend on Red Sea commerce for vital imports and exports.

Iran has forced Biden to publicly alienate the Netanyahu government and push a ceasefire down Israel’s throat. And it has helped to spark international pro-Hamas protests throughout Europe and the US that timid and compliant left-wing governments fear could lose them close elections.

But most damaging are administration spokesmen who mouth the same empty script after each serial attack: 1) The US will respond at the time and place of its own choosing. 2) The US finds no direct evidence of Iranian involvement, although it clearly has supplied the attackers; 3) The US does not wish a wider war and has no plans to attack Iran itself.

Translated to our enemies, it means an 80-year-old non-compos-mentis president is in no position to prevent, much less win, a theater-wide Middle East war that his own serial appeasement has now nearly birthed.

Biden and the Democratic Party know, as National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan pointed out just prior to the October 7 attacks on Israel, that the administration inherited a deterred and quiet Middle East. And then it blew up on their appeasing watch.

Now they are terrified of a theater-wide conflict breaking out during an election year—a fact known to all of America’s Middle East enemies.

Biden and company have forgotten the ancient wisdom that preparing loudly only for peace guarantees war. To prevent war, it should return to oil sanctions on Iran, embargo its banking transactions, slap a travel ban on Iran and its allies, cut off all aid to Hamas and the West Bank, and restore a true terrorist designation for the Houthis.

US officials must stop aimlessly babbling. If the administration must speak, Washington should do so by conveying disproportionality and unpredictability. And if, and when, America were to strike, it should do so in silent and devastating fashion.

When serially attacked, loudly responding that we will only proportionally strike back and wish no wider war will only ensure a big, ugly one.

[beesandwasps]

As with 9/11, the reason we’re supposed to be so shocked and angry about the attack on Israel is because the victims of western violence aren’t supposed to be able to hit back.

Americans hold guilt for their foreign policy, but in recent decades, the overwhelming majority of Americans have very little idea of what their own country’s foreign policy is doing around the world. That doesn’t eliminate their guilt, but if you talk with most of those ignorant Americans you will find that they don’t have any significant malice against the people being harmed — they have no clue that the harm has been happening, that it continues under Democrats and Republicans alike, that the genial smiling figures of Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Obama, and Biden could possibly be deliberately harming people overseas. (Trump, of course, was not genial, was actively vicious in fact, but he’s an outlier — he also got less than half the popular vote in an election with significantly less than ⅔ turnout, so he doesn’t have and never had majority support from the population.) The US’s geographical isolation helps keep this ignorance going — it’s much easier for a US citizen to go without (socially) meeting a refugee than it is for nearly anybody else in the world. Thanks to carefully orchestrated avoidance in media and teaching materials, Joe Shmoe who worked in the World Trade Center and died there was probably not aware of, say, the half-million children estimated to have been killed by the US embargo of Iraq, or the US’s role in the overthrow of the democratic government of Iran and installation of a notoriously bloodthirsty and repressive puppet dictator. (It seems incredible, but it’s true — Americans mostly don’t know about these things.) If most of them had a vague sense that the US hadn’t been “nice”, that was the extent of their understanding, and in general they didn’t bear any actual malice towards the mideast — had they been asked, most of them would not have been able to give any reasons why people outside the US might hate it. That doesn’t make them innocent, but it does make them somewhat sympathetic.

Israelis, on the other hand, cannot possibly reach maturity without being aware of the treatment of Palestinians. Their political figures and public discourse talk about it, and the overwhelming majority of them are required to join the IDF, which — among other things — serves as guards for the open-air concentration camps in which the Palestinians live. Even the best-intentioned Israelis, the minority who are vocally against the whole thing, can’t live without participating in the systems which directly dehumanize and actively harm Palestinians. I therefore have strictly limited sympathy with the “innocent victims” of Hamas.

But in both cases, my sympathy for the direct victims takes the form of: yeah, okay, it’s sad that you, personally, had to pay the price for your country’s ongoing ridiculously evil policies. But this was not really a surprise, any more than an earthquake in California or a hurricane in Florida is a surprise. And unlike those natural disasters, your country’s government has chosen to create the conditions for this attack, and at least in theory you have a say in that government. Complain to them about your misfortune; it didn’t have to happen and they made something like this inevitable.

And, of course, in both cases the actual reaction is massive violence instead of concessions, and a refusal to learn a thing or try to understand the opposition in any meaningful way, because that would be an admission of guilt.

[emadakn]

This is definitely a book about Palestine, but it is also so much more.

It is a book about the hypocrisy, greed and disregard for human rights by the “good guys”.

It is about Israel providing arms to the brutal Hutu regime in Rwanda before and during the genocide.

It is a book about Israel supplying arms to General Pinochet and the junta in Chile and negating the US arms embargo.

It is about Israel supporting and arming Iran under the Shah, death squads in Colombia and the apartheid regime in South Africa.

It is about Israel supporting the Argentinian dictatorship, knowing that they were torturing Jews

It is about Israel currently supporting Russia in the invasion on Ukraine.

Ceausescu's Romania, Duvalier’s Haiti, Suharto’s Indonesia, Somoza’s Nicaragua, the list is huge

It is a book of governments spying on their citizens to suppress democracy, dissent, homosexuality, religious freedom or any civil liberties expected in society today.

It is a book about Facebook, Google, Instagram and Twitter suppressing the voices of Palestinians and Kashmiris and allowing hate speech from Israelis and Indians.

Books like this always take me a long time to read because I find many parts so difficult to believe that I have to check the facts myself; I haven’t managed to catch the author out on any of his assertions.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62790909-the-palestine-laboratory

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Arab News is Saudi Media]

[The New Arab is Saudi Media]

Members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) should impose an oil embargo and other sanctions on Israel and expel all Israeli ambassadors, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Wednesday.

18 Oct 23

[cadavidson]

Branco Cartoon: Israel vs. Iran, Hamas, and BLM terrorists

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