#sanctions against iran

[ummnews]

India, UAE agree to ditch US Dollar and use local currencies in bilateral trade

17 July 2023; MEMO: India and the UAE have signed an agreement to start using a rupee-dirham payment mechanism to settle cross-border trade, following Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi yesterday. An agreement was also signed to link their fast payment systems, namely the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) of India with the Instant Payment Platform (IPP) of the UAE. Modi who made the…

[zvaigzdelasas]

[H]undreds of legal experts and groups on Monday urged the global community—and the United States government in particular—"to comply with international law by ending the use of broad, unilateral coercive measures that extensively harm civilian populations."

In a letter to U.S. President Joe Biden, the jurists and legal groups wrote that "75 years ago, in the aftermath of one of the most destructive conflicts in human history, nations of the world came together in Geneva, Switzerland to establish clear legal limits on the treatment of noncombatants in times of war."

"One key provision... is the prohibition of collective punishment, which is considered a war crime," the letter continues. "We consider the unilateral application of certain economic sanctions to constitute collective punishment."

Suzanne Adely, president of the National Lawyers Guild—one of the letter's signatories—said in a statement that "economic sanctions cause direct material harm not only to the people living on the receiving end of these policies, but to those who rely on trade and economic relations with sanctioned countries."

"The legal community needs to push back against the narrative that sanctions are nonviolent alternatives to warfare and hold the U.S. Government accountable for violating international law every time it wields these coercive measures," she added.[...]

"Hundreds of millions of people currently live under such broad U.S. economic sanctions in some form, including in notable cases such as Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela," the letter notes. "The evidence that these measures can cause severe, widespread civilian harm, including death, is overwhelming. Broad economic sanctions can spark and prolong economic crises, hinder access to essential goods like food, fuel, and medicine, and increase poverty, hunger, disease, and even death rates, especially among children. Such conditions in turn often drive mass migration, as in the recent cases of Cuba and Venezuela."

For more than 64 years, the U.S. has imposed a crippling economic embargo on Cuba that had adversely affected all sectors of the socialist island's economy and severely limited Cubans' access to basic necessities including food, fuel, and medicines. The Cuban government claims the blockade cost the country's economy nearly $5 billion in just one 11-month period in 2022-23 alone. For the past 32 years, United Nations member states have voted overwhelmingly against the U.S. embargo on Cuba. Last year's vote was 187-2, with the U.S. and Israel as the only dissenters.

According to a 2019 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C., as many as 40,000 Venezuelans died from 2017-18 to U.S. sanctions, which have made it much more difficult for millions of people to obtain food, medicine, and other necessities.

"Civilian suffering is not merely an incidental cost of these policies, but often their very intent," the new letter asserts. "A 1960 State Department memo on the embargo of Cuba suggested 'denying money and supplies to Cuba, to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation, and overthrow of government.'"

"Asked whether the Trump administration's sanctions on Iran were working as intended, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded that 'things are much worse for the Iranian people, and we're convinced that will lead the Iranian people to rise up and change the behavior of the regime,'" the signers added.

12 Aug 24

[magz]

Palestine related news summary from LetsTalkPalestine, May 1 to May 4, 2024.

[Ways to help, sources, and more: LetsTalkPalestine Linktree]

May 1.

(Instagram reel of UCLA protest. Includes footage of treating n washing a pro-palestine protestors' bloody head)

Day 208

🇨🇴 Colombia to cut diplomatic ties w/ Israel

•⁠ ⁠33 killed, 57 injured in the last 24 hours. Real number likely higher

⚖️ US lobbying ICC not to issue arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, after Israel's threat to respond by retaliating against Palestinian Authority for sparking ICC investigation

🇫🇷 France denies selling weapons to Israel used in Gaza, claiming what's sold will be re-exported to 3rd countries via Israel, but did supply Israeli Iron Dome defense system

🇹🇷 Turkey set to follow Columbia & Nicaragua by joining South Africa's ICJ case against Israel

🎓 Zionist mob attacked Palestine protestors at UCLA w/ fireworks & pepper spray for 3 hours, police didn’t intervene (📹👆). Columbia & CUNY asked NYPD to raid & arrest 280+ student protestors. New encampments across UK, Tunisia & Canada

🚚 First aid trucks enter through Beit Hanoon crossing to north Gaza despite Israel's promise to open 1 month ago. Nearly half of aid convoys to north Gaza denied by Israel.

May 2.

(Instagram post, news update. The Israeli occupation has killed Palestinian Dr. Adnan Al-Barash.)

Day 209

• 28 Palestinians killed, 51 injured in last 24 hours. Note that the toll is underreported.

🏥 Dr. Adnan al Barash killed in captivity after IOF abducted him in Dec (📷👆)— 496 medical personnel killed in Gaza + 309 in captivity

🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia arrests many for anti-Israel online posts, incl. an executive & media figure. Timing suspicious w/ reports of renewed normalization talks

• IOF attacks aid convoy, killing 1

🇹🇷 Turkey stops all trade w/ Israel after banning 54 exports to Israel

🇺🇸 US House pass “antisemitism awareness” bill using repressive IHRA definition of antisemitism despite antisemitism covered in anti-discrimination law. Why is IHRA definition problematic? See tinyurl.com/ynsfy8sx

• IOF airstrike in central Gaza killed 5, incl. a child

🪨 37m tons of rubble in Gaza, heavy contamination w/ unexploded ammunition & 800,000 tons of asbestos

🎓 Columbia & Emory University face federal investigation for anti-Muslim discrimination, reports of doxing & harassment

May 3.

Day 210

• World Press Freedom Day: Israel killed 100+ journalists since Oct 7 + holding 53 captive

• 26 killed, 51 injured in the last 24 hours. Note the toll is underreported.

• Israel attack on Rafah killed 7, incl. a mother & her children — the children’s bodies were shredded by the airstrikes

🇹🇹 Trinidad & Tobago recognizes the State of Palestine as West Bank & Gaza

🇬🇧 UK sanctions 2 Israeli groups + 4 settlers for violence in West Bank, warns of more sanctions if no Israeli action against settler attacks

• Israeli strike on Bureij camp killed 5, incl. a child

💰 UN estimates cost to rebuild Gaza at $40bn; more than post-WWII reconstruction

🎓 Goldsmiths University students in London win & obtain demands after occupying library — @ goldsmithsforpalestine on instagram for details

🎓 University encampments for Gaza go global spreading to 🇨🇦 🇮🇳 🇳🇿 🇪🇸 🇦🇷 🇯🇵 🇰🇼 🇱🇧 🇹🇳 🇯🇴. US crackdown w/ 2,200 students arrested

• Iran-backed Bahraini militia launches attack at southern Israeli port Eilat

May 4.

Day 211

✝️ Israel blocks entry of many Palestinian Christians to Jerusalem for Holy Saturday celebrations

•⁠ 32 Palestinians killed, 41 injured in Gaza in last 24 hours. Toll underreported

•⁠ ⁠IOF killed 5+ in 15-hour siege on Tulkarem (West Bank) & clashes with Hamas resistance fighters. IOF targeted fighters’ homes w/ women & kids inside, demolished homes trapping many under rubble

•⁠ ⁠Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 11 incl. 3 in bombings of tents in Rafah

•⁠ Head of UN WFP says north Gaza experiencing “full-blown famine” and it’s only a matter of time before south Gaza faces same level of starvation

🇫🇷 British-Palestinian @ dr.ghassan.as denied entry to France for Senate address as witness of Gaza Genocide as Germany put year-long ban on his entry to Europe (Schengen)

🇺🇸 88 US lawmakers warn Biden that Israeli aid blockade violates US ‘foreign assistance’ law

•⁠ IOF abducts 5 overnight in West Bank

🎓 Uni encampments spread to Switzerland, Ireland, Germany, Cuba & Costa Rica

[a-very-tired-jew]

Another day, another weird conspiracy from the antisemite crowd.

This time it’s about the helicopter crash.

In one of my circles we have a few people who toe the line between outright antisemitism and anti-Zionism/anti-Israel. They’re millenials and Gen X professionals so they’re a bit more careful in their language.

However, some days they just say the idiotic stuff outright and you have to bap them with a proverbial newspaper. In this case, someone was blaming the USA’s sanctions against Iran that allowed Israel to somehow conduct an assassination. Another person thankfully pointed out that they flew their helicopter into a foggy ice storm that turned into a blizzard. There’s no helicopter in existence that could navigate that successfully. But if they want to blame the Jews for deadly weather and imply that they have magic weather powers, go on ahead.

But yeah, the USA and Israel totally coordinated their weather control lasers and freedom wizards to do it. /s

Seriously, watching these people grasp at straws to try and make this into something has been amusing and exasperating at the same time.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Government of Canada has announced multiple rounds of sanctions against various parties in the Middle East since October 7. On Friday, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced sanctions against Iran's minister of defence and its general staff. On February 3, she announced that Canada would impose sanctions on both leaders of Hamas involved in the October 7 massacre and extremist Israeli settlers involved in violent attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. But there's an important difference between the sanctions announced against Palestinians and Iranians and the ones announced against Israelis — the ones against Israelis have not been gazetted and therefore never took effect.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

The biggest news in my country today, is that Israel has agreed to appear before the International Court of Justice, despite not recognizing the ICJ or its authority.

Why would Israel not recognize it?

The ICJ is the judicial arm of the United Nations. This international body has a KNOWN (and even academically researched) bias against Israel. Which in a sense, is almost unavoidable. The UN as an idea has international representation, with equality for all. No sanctions or a lesser status for non-democratic countries, no sanctions or a lesser status for abusers of human rights, and no sanctions or a lesser status for countries biased against Israel or against Jews (and therefore against Israel, as a Jewish state). Generally speaking, the ADL estimates that about 26% of the global adult population holds antisemitic views. That means that if the UN correctly represents the global population, about 1 in every 4 of its members, is antisemitic. That's before we talk about blocks coming into play (think of the anti-Israel Arab block alone, with its oil and influence. An Israeli diplomat once said, that if Algeria introduced a resolution that the world was flat, and Israel had flattened it, this resolution would pass automatically), or about countries or heads of state, that hold institutional antisemitic positions, such as Iran (where the Islamist regime denies the Holocaust, and has openly been threatening Israel with destruction for years, meaning they are explicitly stating they are looking to kill the biggest Jewish community in the world. Oh, and Iran is currently chairing the UN human rights council).

To appear before the court, is to legitimize it. But there's a catch 22 here. If Israel is being accused at the ICJ of committing war crimes, or even a genocide (which should be harder to prove, because it involves proving intent), and Israel knows it isn't, but it won't appear before the court (to not legitimize it), yet other countries do recognize the ICJ, and no one will defend Israel there if it doesn't appear before the court itself, then how can its innocence of the charges be proven? By not appearing, Israel's conviction is almost a given, regardless of what it actually does.

Yet appearing before the court, and being innocent of the charges, doesn't guarantee an acquittal, when the ICJ is biased. What is worse, a conviction when Israel is absent, where it's clear the trial wasn't fair (since the accused didn't get to defend themselves before the court), or a conviction despite Israel's appearance and innocence, where the trial still isn't fair, but it might not be as immediately evident, since Israel did participate in the trial?

For now, it seems Israel chose to hope the ICJ is not so biased, and decided to appear before it. Let us hope that's not a mistake.

But I can testify from my own experience as a soldier, that we were very much taught to pursue minimal harm to the enemy as an ideal, as a part of the IDF's code of ethics, one of the first things you learn as an Israeli soldier. We were taught that if an order we were given strikes us as immoral (because it carries harm to someone), it is our moral duty to refuse to follow it. I've also heard an interview, with an Israeli fighter pilot, who said he feels calm, knowing every target that he's sent to strike, has been checked by a legal team, that a strike against it does not constitute a war crime. I've also seen strikes being canceled when an Israeli soldier recognized civilians near the target. I'll also say I have heard foreign military seniors say that the IDF fights with a moral standard that they've never seen from any other army. I don't think that's something that any soldier would easily say, since it indirectly criticizes their own army.

So I am as confident as I can be, without serving myself during this war, that if Israel got a fair trial, no court would convict it. Now the only question is whether we would get one. I guess time will tell.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[saint-vagrant]

it's nothing i haven't already said (because it never stops being true) but let me unequivocally state that i stand against genocide and with anyone opposing genocide especially with those to whom it's being done. full stop.

fuck israel. fuck the biggest world powers trying to annihilate not only palestine but yemen, lebanon, iraq, iran, on and on, over over, syria, pakistan, afghanistan, somalia, jesus christ libya— that's just "one" (large) region, but go ahead and name anywhere! a march of death! it turns my stomach. occupies every thought. how can we abide more death and pillaging on top of more death and pillaging! that israel is continuing its western-sanctioned and supported genocide even while dicking around in their own genocide trial... they're confident they're going to get away with this just fine and i mean, they have so far, and the crimes they're accused of are diminished and distorted and blocked from mainstream tv, so that confidence is unfortunately well-founded. all i have is hope and i sincerely hope for them nothing but total dismantling and a future of profound irrelevance. a future where israel is a memory. a future where the US buckles to mobilised solidarity worldwide. palestine will be free. my hopes may be low but it's what i have and that, too, is well-founded.

[luminalunii97]

Some tankie bs detection

I saw this post on my dash. The user is blocked now. But just to educate people so that they won't fall for idiotic claims online, here are a couple of facts:

1. The Islamic Republic is not anti imperialist, they're anti USA. The regime is very much in love with Russian imperialism. At this point, Iran is an unofficial russian colony. And by the support of their imperialist father figure they have their small version of imperialism in middle east. Ask Iraq and Lebanon.

2. There's no "safety" when it comes to economy in Iran. The "national sovereignty" is called "those fvckin thieves in power" here. Iran's regime is one of the most corrupt regimes by international index. Rent, nepotism, embezzlement and money laundering are serious issues in Iran. Done only and only by the governors and people in power. Social class is not only a thing, there's a raging gap between rich people and those in poverty. And the gap is getting bigger and bigger by month. If you have connections in government or you are in the government, you'll get richer and richer. Other wise, soon enough you'll be in poverty too. Many families, including mine, who used to be considered middle class, have incomes lower than the poverty threshold now.

About 15% of Iran's economic failure including inflation is on the sanctions. The rest is on the corruption within the regime.

Iran's banking system is also a corrupted organ. The so called Islamic banking is anything but Islamic. The loan interest rate is one of the highest worldwide, 23%, so that often you have to pay back more than twice the money you've received. It's called Riba in Islam and it's Haram. According to the regime themselves, the banking system in European countries, even in the USA, is more Islamic than us. The fact that some of the biggest embezzlement in Iran has been done by bank managers should give you a picture of how they're drinking our blood.

None of this is on USA imperialism. It's all the Islamic Republic.

3. The Islamic Republic doesn't support Palestinians. The regime is extremely racist and anti Arab. I dare you talk about this with an actual Arab. IR don't give two shites about Palestinians lives. The regime is antisemitic. That's what they are. Palestine is just an excuse to attack Israel. In the past 20+ years of my life, living in Iran and dealing with these posers, not once we've been educated about Palestine and Palestinians lives. Everything I know, I've learned from online resources and documentaries make by Palestinians. The regime doesn't talk about Palestinians when they pose as supporters. I'm pretty sure they don't know or care to know anything noteworthy about Palestine, considering my knowledge of the human rights violations there is always more than basiji people of my country, and I don't even know that much. All the regime talks about is how Israel should be eliminated. IR supports a terrorist organization called Hamas, not Palestinians.

4. Let's forget about everything I said so far. I wonder if tankies like the op has any ounce of humanity in them! The regime has been oppressing women, violating every type of human rights and murdering lgbtq people and other-thinkers for the last 40 years. The spectacular environmental disaster in Iran is the direct result of regime's policies and neglect. This is a case of human rights violation since it's ruining people's lives, especially ethnic minorities, like Arab farmers in south.

No religious minority is safe in Iran, be it atheist, Baha'i, Jew, christian, or Sunni Muslim. They commit crime against children, through labor and through war. IRGC have little regards for human lives in general but it descent into no regards at all for ethnic minorities.

They have MASS EXECUTED 30,000 leftists (members of Marxist Communist parties and their supporters) within the first decade of their autocratic rule. It's unbelievably funny to me when foreign leftists support a regime that has executed many of their fellow thinkers and still arrest and torture any left activist in Iran.

To say the reason the 1979 revolution happened was to get rid of western influence and to establish a democratic free independent government is true. But the Islamic Republic is not that result. Don't be fooled.

[theconstitutionisgayculture]

So I think part of the reason--aside from the usual hatred of the Jewish people--that leftists in particular absolutely lose their minds over Israel is because Israel is a real world example that utterly destroys their worldview that the stronger party in a conflict is always the oppressor, and the weaker is always oppressed.

Israel is one of, if not the, strongest nations in the middle east. They have a stable government, a strong military, modern technology, and they even have nukes. They once fought off the combined forces of three different Arab countries. Their military is so good that they're cleaning house in Gaza right now while most of their army is on the border with Lebanon just in case they decide to try and invade. By almost every measurable metric, Israel is an absolute beast.

And yet they're not the ones oppressing their neighboring countries.

They're almost completely surrounded by countries who have either publicly stated that they want to wipe Israel off the map, or they house and fund terrorist groups who do. Hamas constantly fires rockets, unprovoked, at Israeli civilian centers and buildings from Gaza--a "nation" that only exists because Israel freed it, evacuated all the Jews, and allowed it to govern itself, mind. Iran is in the process of acquiring its own nuclear weapons and when that happens you better believe they're all going to be aimed directly at Israel. On the world stage, oppressive, genocidal kings and dictators are patted on the back and welcomed as friends while Israel is constantly sanctioned and demeaned and told not to defend itself.

And then you have October 7th.

Hundreds of "oppressed" terrorists struck back at their "oppressors" by launching a surprise raid where they murdered, raped, and kidnapped Jewish civilians, some of them children, then scurried back across the border because they knew they could never fight the IDF head on. More than just being evil, these were the tactics of cowards who know they can't stand against their stronger enemy. And what was Israel's response?

They declared war, then waged that war by sending their own citizens into danger instead of carpet bombing Gaza into slag. Which they could have done. They had a ready excuse, if they wanted it. Even without using nukes, which would have been bad for them too with the fallout so close, they could have utterly wiped Gaza off the face of the Earth. If they were oppressors, if they were the genocidal monsters the Mohammadans and their enablers in the west claim they are, they most likely would have done exactly that, hostages or no.

The fact that they didn't, that the truly oppressive actions are coming from the "weaker" party, exposes the leftist lie on power dynamics. Strength doesn't automatically mean oppression. Weakness doesn't automatically assign virtue. Instead, it's actions that determine morality.

And the left can't stand that. Because it means all the vile shit they do in the name of fighting "oppression" is no longer justified.

And that's not at all a conversation they're ready, or able, to have.

[sayruq]

Did you see that Biden said it would be "a huge mistake" for Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip?

According to Middle East Eye: https://www.instagram.com/p/CycHSCHIzhg/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

I'm not sure if he's backtracking on his own insistence on a ground invasion because he knows it's doomed or if he's trying to repair his own tarnished image after literally spreading fake news and war mongering propaganda over the past week, but it's so pathetic

It's been obvious for a while that the Biden administration knows a ground invasion will go badly for Israel. At the very least, it will lead to a regional war and it might even unite all of West Asia against a common enemy - America.

You know, I've posted about how Israel isn't behaving strategically. They're just bombing Gaza without causing damage to or even slowing down Palestinian militia groups but America also has the same issue. It's trying to prevent a regional war by speaking to Iran while also asking Israel to slow down because the bombing of Gaza is losing Israel a lot of good will

However, America is also doing things like this

Does America support a ground invasion or not? It looks like they know it's a bad idea but they're willing to support Israel by sending soldiers (which would trigger a regional war) even though there are people in the government that know it's a terrible strategy

They're also easing sanctions in Venezuela which is a big deal because it means they need Venezuelan oil since it might be harder in the coming months to get oil from West Asia if there's a regional war. They did this when the Russia-Ukraine war started and they were trying to stop countries from buying Russian gas.

I saw someone say that there are different factions within the administration which would explain a lot of things, like why they keep going back forth between escalating and calling for restrait (without using the word restrait of course).

Personally, I think it's because internal polling likely shows that Americans aren't interested in another expensive war after Biden sent tens of billions to Ukraine

So, they can't exactly afford to go all in on the ground invasion of Gaza and the subsequent regional war that will follow. At least not without first trying to change the public's perception.

[mirkobloom77]

‼️🇵🇸🇮🇱🇮🇷 Latest round of sanctions against Iran unlikely to make major impact

🔸 Sources: Al Jazeera

[zvaigzdelasas]

[VoA is US State Media]

27 Mar 24

[girlactionfigure]

Israel Waits on the Edge of War

Israel has been in crisis mode for two weeks, waiting for a promised attack from Iran. At the same time, the Biden-Harris administration is trying to force Israel to accept a cease-fire agreement with Hamas. How are these things related?

The US administration is heavily invested in stopping the Gaza war and preventing Israel from obtaining full security control over Gaza both for domestic political reasons, and in order to advance its long-term goal of unifying the Palestinian territories under the control of single authority that can be a candidate for statehood.

The US has no leverage over Hamas, so the approach is to apply pressure to Israel, its client state, and to Iran, which is concerned that the US does not interfere with its progress toward nuclear weapons, which is currently at an advanced stage.

Pressure on Israel is multifaceted, including both carrots and sticks. The carrots are promises of future military aid and protection against attacks from Iran and its proxy Hezbollah. The sticks include slowdowns in delivery of promised munitions and threats to abandon Israel in the event that the war blows up into a major regional conflict. There is also the continuing political activity against PM Netanyahu, including various forms of support for his domestic opponents.

To Iran, the administration promises further sanctions relief and protection against a possible Israeli attack on her nuclear facilities.

At this point, the US has warned the Iranian regime against carrying out its planned revenge attack against Israel or allowing its various proxies, especially Hezbollah, from doing anything that might cause Israel to abandon the negotiations for a cease-fire deal. It has moved military assets into the region to back this up. The Iranians seem to have accepted the American demand. It is in their interest to avoid a confrontation with Israel now, before their nuclear umbrella unfolds, and while Israel is at peak readiness. In addition, the likely cease-fire arrangements will constitute a victory for the Iranian-led “axis of resistance.”

Although the precise terms of the latest deal as proposed by the Americans, Qatar, and Egypt are not public, we know that the first stage will include return of only some hostages (not including soldiers and possibly other males), a cease-fire of about six weeks, and a release of a number of Hamas terrorists in Israeli prisons. Issues in dispute include whether Israel will keep forces on the border between Gaza and Egypt, in the “Netzarim corridor” that separates the northern and southern parts of the Gaza strip, and in a security zone on the Gazan side of the border with Israel. The number and identity of the terrorists to be released in return for hostages is also an issue, and where they will be released. Hamas demands include that no Israeli forces may remain anywhere in Gaza, that the cease-fire will be extended as long as negotiations continue, and that the released prisoners include some of the most dangerous terrorists. Hamas also is demanding international aid to rebuild (in effect, to reconstitute itself as a military force).

Among the consequences of any agreement that even comes close to meeting Hamas’ conditions will be that Hamas remains in power, and strengthens itself in Palestinian politics. Terrorism in the territories and in the rest of the country can be expected to increase with the release of prisoners; and the international investment and presence in Gaza will deter Israel from periodically “mowing the grass” in Gaza. Israeli residents of the western Negev will soon face renewed threats from Gaza in the form of rocket fire and even incursions.

It is probable that only a mass release of thousands of convicted terrorists will bring home the male prisoners and soldiers that remain alive. It’s hard to imagine the chaos that this would bring. In the area of information warfare, the survival of Hamas will be presented (not incorrectly) as a massive victory and will encourage the other members of Iran’s “axis of resistance.”

In the next few days, the Israeli government will have to decide whether to take the deal that is being demanded by the US and by the opponents of PM Netanyahu. Israelis are being told by their media that this will “bring the hostages home” and end the fighting in the north as well as in Gaza. In fact, it will bring fewer than half of the hostages home. Iran and Hezbollah will not be deterred from continuing their attacks in the north; and it’s likely that American diplomacy will be brought to bear to protect them from Israel as well. The tens of thousands of Israelis that are internal refugees today from the north and south will not be able to safely return to their homes.

It’s true that two right-wing parties that are part of Netanyahu’s coalition have threatened to quit if the government agrees to a disadvantageous deal. Unfortunately the result of this would only be that the Opposition will support the deal and it will pass. Netanyahu’s coalition will be castrated and elections will soon follow.

Those in Israel who see the removal of Netanyahu as PM as a higher priority than the defeat of her enemies are idiots at best and traitors at worst. Our future here depends on our ability to stand up to American pressure, to defeat Hamas and keep security control of Gaza, and to successfully prosecute the coming war against Iran and her proxies. No political objective is more important than this.

[tonya-the-chicken]

Like, I don't mind you calling out hypocrisy but when you attach a negative meaning to "caring for Ukraine" you are ultimately fucking shit up for me personally. How about

"Oh, you care about Ukraine? That is great! Do you know what would help Ukrainians? If the Iranian regime, that supplies weapons to Russia, was overthrown"

Or

"You care about Ukraine? Because you hate authoritarianism? Me too! That is why I support protests in Iran! Have you heard of them? I think we shoudl support each other in our fight"

Or

"You care about the Russian invasion of Ukraine? I remember the way they bombed Syria and invaded Georgia. This ongoing horrid behavior must be stopped"

Or

"You are concerned about the persecution of Muslims in Crimea? It's so awful! I've recently read that Russia promoted islamophobia in western countries too, sponsoring far-right nationalists like Le Pen"

Or

"You support Ukraine? I've just found out about the way Turkey and Azerbaijan help them bypass sanctions. No weird these countries stick together, all of them have imperialist tendencies and serious problems with democracy"

Like... Idk how to tell you but Russia sponsors nazis all over the world, befriends as many dictators as they can, sends their paramilitary groups to massacre Africans, and suppresses democratic protests in neighboring states. It's not like this conflict is isolated. Fascists stick together, they help out each other. Even in Ukraine, pre-war fascist groups had connections to Russia. You want to build a unified front against them, not pit different freedom fighters against each other in the hope to receive more attention

There's only one side benefitting from your framing of people's support of Ukraine as coming from (internal) racism. You think you are engaging in intellectual debate, I think you should think about how your words influence people in a life-death situation. There is something more important than you feeling right

And, the end note. For eigth years world didn't give a fuck about the war in Ukraine. It didn't give a fuck so much most of you don't know when the war started. And you know what? Not even once have I seen Ukrainians writing "what about Ukraine" under news about Palestine, Yemen, or Syria. Do us the same grace

[phoenixyfriend]

Calls for Action, Call Your Reps: 4/23/24

This is USA-specific, as that is the place I live and know.

Find your elected officials. Remember, emails are good, but calls make the most impact. Suggested verbiage and strategies for calling your elected officials. We’ve recently seen politicians, including Biden, start to pivot towards the “Israel is increasing danger to itself” argument in public statements.

There's a LOT on the floor this week, but this is what I'm going to encourage:

Call your senators. Aid to Israel has already passed the house, but has not yet been voted on by the Senate. Call TODAY.

Use this script:

Israel has been engaging in human rights violations, as confirmed by US State investigations, even prior to Oct. 7th. In that regard, it is a violation of the Leahy (lay-hee) law for the US to provide funding to the battalions and units accused credibly of these violations. With commentary from Netanyahu and his government opposing the threat of sanctions against SPECIFIC units and ongoing refusal to cooperate with United States demands to increase aid and reduce civilian casualties in Gaza, it is unlikely that they will be discretionary with the $26 billion in aid that the House passed.

As a constituent, I strongly oppose the passing of aid to Israel until strong, practical conditions are placed on that aid, as the existing process has proven ineffective. It is unreasonable to continue providing aid to Israel while sanctioning Iran when we have seen Israel instigating this third front in what appears to be a bid by Netanyahu to secure US funding through endangering his own people by attacking the Iranian consulate in Syria.

To support my blogging so I can move out of my parents’ house, I do have a ko-fi. Alternately, you can donate to one of the charities I list in this post.

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

After Iranian-financed-and-trained Hamas terrorists – together with Palestinian Authority and civilian Gazan terrorists – murdered, gang-raped, gouged, mutilated, dis-limbed, beheaded, burned and tortured over 1,200 Jewish Israeli babies, children, men and women (including dozens of Americans), wounded over 5,000 more and took another 250 more hostage on October 7th, President Biden correctly declared that Hamas’ atrocities were “pure, unadulterated evil.”

Yet now, the Biden/Blinken/shadow-Obama administration is deliberately siding with and defending pure, unadulterated evil. This is sinister. During Biden’s April 4, 2024 phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Biden threatened Israel and demanded an immediate Israeli ceasefire, aligning the U.S. with Arab terrorist Hamas’ demands. (On the same day, Hamas launched a series of rockets into Israel’s civilian areas. So how on earth can Biden be demanding an Israeli ceasefire?) Biden threatened surely hostile-to-Israel policy changes if Israel doesn’t accede to U.S. demands.

If Israel succumbs to Biden’s immediate ceasefire demand, this would leave the remaining hostages subject to Hamas’ continuing rape and torture indefinitely; leave Israel with no negotiating leverage or military options for obtaining the hostages’ release; and would enable Hamas to emerge victorious, regroup, rebuild, and murder and torture Israelis again and again and again in the future, as Hamas leaders have promised. Biden’s demand thus calls for Israel to lose the war against Arab terrorist organization Hamas, a proxy of our arch enemy, the evil terrorist Islamic Republic of Iran. 

Moreover, on the same day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken falsely, sickeningly and outrageously suggested that Israel is at risk of becoming indistinguishable from Hamas if Israel loses its reverence for protecting every human life – but ignored Israel’s real, extraordinary efforts and record of protecting Gazan civilians. As Colonel Richard Kemp, former British Commander in Afghanistan explained, Israel has the world’s most moral army and takes risks to protect civilians that no other army in the world has ever taken – while Hamas’ official policy is committing war crimes. Similarly, the Chair of West Point’s Modern War Institute, Major (ret.) John Spencer, and human rights lawyer Arsen Ostrovsky noted that “accusing Israel of intentionally targeting civilians . . . is a malicious distortion of truth,” and that in fact “The IDF has gone to unprecedented lengths, not seen in the history of modern warfare, to abide by the laws of war and avoid harm to civilians, even when doing so puts the IDF’s own soldiers at risk.” Israel has the lowest ratio of civilian-to-combatant terrorist deaths in history.

From this U.S. administration’s outset, it has pursued policies deliberately designed to weaken, harm and endanger Israel and empower Iran and Iranian proxies bent on destroying Israel. Upon taking office, Biden immediately stopped enforcing maximum sanctions – and enabled Iran to advance from near-bankruptcy of $4 billion in reserves to $100 billion in reserves, rescuing Iran’s ability to fund its proxies Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s attacks on Israeli civilians and armed forces. Biden also immediately resumed funding UNRWA (which is full of Hamas terrorists, hides Hamas weapons and control centers, and teaches children to murder Jews); and resumed funding Palestinian Authority government functions (enabling the PA to continue its $400 million per year of pay-to-slay payments to Arab terrorists to murder Jews).

And virtually every person Biden appointed to an important post is hostile to Israel or Jews, or both.

In May 2021, when Hamas launched 4,500 rockets at Israel in 10 days, Biden demanded that Israel agree to an early ceasefire that enabled Hamas to regroup, rebuild and prepare for October 7th.

In October 2022, the administration pressured Israel to surrender 330 square miles of natural-gas-rich maritime territory to Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon, thereby enriching Iranian terror-proxy Hezbollah with billions of dollars, and weakening Israel. Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel in recent months have displaced some 80,000 Israelis.

Biden imposed a boycott on Israeli scientific and academic cooperation over the artificial “green line.” And the Biden administration initiated a Negev Forum that transformed the Abraham Accords from a Sunni-Israeli alliance against Iran into a Sunni-U.S. alliance against Israel. The entire basis of the Abraham Accords was to end the Palestinian Arab veto over Middle East peace; but Biden and Blinken reversed this.

During the past six months, the administration has intentionally ratcheted up harmful-to-Israel actions and anti-Israel propaganda. The administration released $26 billion to Iran – while Iran is financing Hamas’ and Hezbollah’s terror wars against Israel. The administration also repeatedly falsely accused Israel of not doing enough to protect Gazan civilians – despite Israel’s extraordinary record of protecting civilians while fighting vicious terrorists; demanded “pauses” and other forms of ceasefires; demanded that Israel cannot leave a buffer zone in Gaza to prevent future October 7ths; and tied legislation to aid Israel to unpopular unrelated legislation – which would prevent or hamper the aid to Israel from being enacted.

The administration also repeatedly betrayed Israel (and Israeli and American hostages) at the United Nations Security Council. On November 14, 2023 (the same day that 300,000 Jews demonstrated support for Israel in Washington, D.C.) the Biden administration enabled the passage of UNSC Resolution 2712 (2023) calling for days-long “urgent and extended humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout the Gaza Strip.” On December 22, 2023, the Biden administration enabled passage of UNSC Resolution 2720 (2023), which helped Hamas obtain supplies to continue its war crimes and called for urgent measures towards stopping the destruction of the Hamas terrorist evil. And on March 25, 2024, the administration enabled passage of UNSC Resolution 2728 (2024) calling for an immediate ceasefire – without making the ceasefire conditional on releasing the hostages.

The administration also used the occasion of Israel fighting for its life to repeatedly demand that Palestinian terrorists must be rewarded with a Palestinian Arab terror state; and to try to undermine Israel’s binding legal rights to Judea/Samaria and Jerusalem. In February 2024, the administration falsely declared that Jews building homes in Judea/Samaria is illegal (reversing the “Pompeo Doctrine” which confirmed that Jewish communities in Judea/Samaria are legal). And on February 1, 2024, Biden issued an antisemitic executive order, accompanied by a coordinated State Department announcement, imposing sanctions on Jews in Judea/Samaria, while ignoring rampant Arab terrorism in and stemming from Judea/Samaria, incited by the Palestinian Authority’s Nazi-like “pay-to-slay” rewards to terrorists to murder Jews.

Biden also falsely condemned Israel for “indiscriminate bombing” in Gaza and an “over the top campaign.” Such false charges are hardly the statements of a true friend and ally. And Biden/Blinken’s latest condemnation of Israel unintentionally killing members of a food convoy, when Biden/Blinken knows that these tragic mistakes happen in any war – including in America’s wars against Iraq and Afghanistan – again shows the U.S. attempting to weaken the U.S.-Israel alliance. 

In addition, Biden’s March 7, 2024 State of the Union address was the most hostile, anti-Israel SOTU address ever: Biden demanded a Palestinian state “solution” that imperils Israel’s very existence; overstated displaced Gazans and never mentioned the 200,000 Jews still displaced by Hezbollah’s bombardments in the north and Hamas’ destruction of southern Israeli communities; wrongly demanded that Israel must make protecting Gazan civilians Israel’s “first priority (not defeating Hamas and recovering the hostages); parroted Hamas’ unverified and surely false propaganda casualty numbers; falsely intimated that Israel is using humanitarian aid as a “bargaining chip” and isn’t “doing its part” – while completely ignoring that Hamas steals the massive humanitarian aid that Israel has facilitated into Gaza; spoke of working for an immediate ceasefire; and omitted Iran’s role in Gaza, Lebanon, and the October 7th massacre.

Unfortunately, the horrors listed above are only a partial list of the Biden/Blinken/Obama shadow administration’s deliberate acts to weaken Israel and strengthen the terrorists that are trying to destroy Israel. For instance, see more here, here and here.

It is deeply disturbing that our nation’s administration is intentionally siding with the forces of pure unadulterated evil against our human-rights-loving ally, the democratic Jewish State of Israel.

It is painful for us to say this, but all of the evidence indicates that the Biden/Blinken/Obama policies are not mere attempts at misguided appeasement, or the results of stupidity or ignorance or false hope. But, in fact, these anti-Israel policies are made with full understanding of their dangerous import. All the evidence indicates that this is a conscious attempt to weaken Israel, or worse.