‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 163: Top EU official says Israel failed to prove its accusations against UNRWA
Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah despite the international red line. Meanwhile, the U.S. has sanctioned two illegal settler outposts in the West Bank for the first time.
@TurdFerguson I agree that the decision to arrest a number of illegal squatters on palestinian land while disabling... neutralizing... #IDF soldiers protecting those illegal squatters/immigration law violators, was a decision soley up to the #palestinians and their only protective force #Hamas.
A day or two ago, I posted an excerpt from this letter written by a delegation of 23 US Christians who recently went to Gaza. A friend of mine, Wendell Griffen, who is a Baptist pastor, was circulating it on email and I shared the copy he provided.
As Mark Wingfield notes, the delegation of Christians writes that Gaza is now a "killing field," and the response of Israel to the Hamas atrocities is "disproportionate by orders of magnitude.'
The delegation uses the word "genocide" to characterize what Israel is doing in Gaza, and states unambiguously, "This is a U.S. war. We are party to genocide."
"Following Jesus, listening to Jesus’ gospel message, loving your neighbor, even your enemy — that is our call. It is morally derelict that some Christians insist on undying loyalty to Israel. Scripture is not to be manipulated to crush one of God’s peoples for the gain of another.”
#UNRWA / How the Biden Administration Kneecapped the Most Essential Aid Group in Gaza and how the pause may become permanent
In January 2024, following accusations by Israel that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in a #Hamas attack, the #Biden administration paused contributions to UNRWA despite the agency's head firing the accused employees and initiating an independent investigation. Over a dozen U.S. allies followed suit, putting around $450 million in donations on hold and pushing UNRWA to its "breaking point," according to its leadership. At the same time, the U.S. has continued providing military aid to Israel, despite allegations of war crimes during its assault on Gaza.
With #Gaza is on the brink of famine, the move has imperiled UNRWA's unique capacity to deliver aid, as it operates schools, clinics, and food distribution networks serving millions of Palestinian refugees. Experts are warning that attempts to redirect funds through other organizations is not a viable solution given UNRWA's unparalleled infrastructure and institutional knowledge in the region.
For Biden, the real problem in the #extermination of Palestinians in #Gaza is that it means bad PR for Israel, and thus diminishes their geopolitical status, influence and usefulness.
Ink in the blogosphere is beginning to spread about the proposed #Biden#HumanitarianAid bridgehead on the Mediterranean coast of #Gaza.
Some are saying it’s a distraction to appease #voters while Biden continues to provide arms and cover. Some, that the intention is to actually benefit the #zionists by providing a place to evacuate #palestinians. Some go so far as to claim it’s intended as the terminus of the #Israeli#RiverToTheSea dream.
My take? These theories fail to understand the #evil genius leaders in the U.S. are capable.
. 👆 Read all about the US plan to build an oil terminal at #Gaza and call it an 'aid pier' for #Palestinians. They've already tapped a company named '#Fogbow' to be 'boots' on the ground.
The 'boots' includes:
"Mick Mulroy, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Middle East
20 years of service in the Central Intelligence Agency
Leader in CIA Special Activities Center ground and maritime operations"
Israeli media: Kan channel, from sources: The Biden administration will consider delaying arms shipments to #Israel if the operation in Rafah is carried out now when there are crowds of #Palestinians.
Is it going to be another one of those lies #Biden administration keep sending about their actions in pleasing the criminal gang of #Netanyahu.
"What possessed Republican U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann to shout he would support Israel forever and “Goodbye to Palestine”? In a video shared widely on social media, Rep. Fleischmann is shown shouting, 'Goodbye to Palestine,' amid an array of stridently pro-Israel declarations. …
Fleischmann treats Palestinians as subhumans. He dehumanizes all Palestinians in his awful statement."
"Netanyahu is the problem. We should pay attention because Netanyahu shows us what Trump will do if he becomes president in 2024.
Israel was lulled into believing Hamas wouldn’t dare start a war because Netanyahu had led them to believe this illusion. He was banking on Israel’s voters to say, “We don’t need a peace process. And not only that, but we can also afford to elect the most radical Jewish supremacist government in the history of the country."
The project will take several wks, involving hundreds or thousands of #UnitedStates#troops on ships just off shore, in keeping w/ #POTUS#Biden’s mandate that no #American soldiers be on the ground inside #Gaza as the conflict rages. Briefing reporters,admin ofcls said that the port would be constructed in cooperation w/other countries in the region, but it was unclear whether #Israel would be joining the effort.
Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy by Ben White, 2012
Palestinians in Israel considers a key issue ignored by the official 'peace process' and most mainstream commentators: that of the growing Palestinian minority within Israel itself.
A man was reportedly arrested yesterday for attacking Pro-Palestinian protestors in #Toronto#Canada while carrying a nail gun, threatening to kill #Palestinians as protesters were demonstrating outside of an Israeli #realestate company event at a Toronto synagogue which only appeared open to Jews. It's the latest example of tensions in North America amid the war in #Gaza WATCH: https://shorturl.at/vwIQT
"Biden must lead: he cannot just telephone his friend Bibi, give counsel, and then, as has been reported, call him 'an asshole' behind his back.
Biden must present the Israeli public with a stark choice: a detailed regional plan with credible American guarantees or Netanyahu’s defiant isolation …."
"Trump’s Middle East policy will consist of less humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, more domestic repression of pro-Palestinian speech, no efforts to restrain the IDF, and more willingness by the US government to greenlight a much larger regional conflict. That’s reality."
~ Matthew Iglesias quoted by Greg Dworkin
But sure, go ahead and vote for Trump by voting third-party or not voting to protest Biden's Israel policy.
In German media every tiny bit of information about events in the US - Super Bowl, Taylor Swift, wildfire in California, the latest school shooting - gets mentioned in the news far more often than any similar happening in other countries. You just can't flee into attention deficit being overpowered by news from the US especially the sort of celebrity and society excitement which perform on tabloid level.
But three days after #AaronBushnell chose to give his life for the ultimate act of protest I'm waiting in vain for any news outlet of greater reach and importance to cover this story not only, if at all as a two-sentence newslet although aside from its political implications it has all you need to make up headlines.
The absence of any serious reporting about his tribute to the plight of #Palestinians in #Gaza and protest against the complicity of his country and military in this war tells everything about the ideological and military support Israel gets from Germany in carrying out this #genocide.
To raise the question what could have been his motives for public self immolation seems to be informally verboten. It could contribute to the growing doubt whether German complicity might not be so ethically pure and peace loving as it's sold.
So Rest In Power, Aaron Bushnell, there are still some people who admire your courage and empathy even in the dark night of consciously contributing to this bloodshed out of sheer opportunism.
"In this conversation, Said addresses comparatively his years of experience during #ForeignPolicy briefings, notably on Palestine, at the #USStateDepartment and #WhiteHouse, with focus on the current war on #Gaza."