Iran has been there all along. Israel is now using Iran to divert attention from Gaza. And the West falls for it hook line and sinker. Or rather, US and Europe are glad Israel gave them an opportunity to ignore the genocide they're all complicit in.
Some more virtue signalling
European Council sanctions four Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians
The sanctioned individuals “are responsible for serious human rights abuses against Palestinians,” the European Council said in a press release, with two of the individuals taking part in deadly attacks on Palestinians.
It named the sanctioned settlers as Meir Ettinger, Elisha Yered, Neria Ben Pazi, and Yinon Levi.
In addition, the council announced sanctions on two entities – Jewish supremacist group Lehava and radical youth group Hilltop Youth, whose members it said are known for violence in the occupied West Bank.
“With today’s listings, restrictive measures under the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime now apply to 108 natural and legal persons and 28 entities from a range of countries,” said the council.
‘Political persecution’ on the rise in Israel, Knesset member says
As we previously reported, Hebrew University Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released from custody after being arrested on Thursday for calling Israelis “criminals”.
Offer Cassif, an Israeli Knesset member, said that alongside the continuous “assault on Gaza and the ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank is the “political persecution within Israel of anyone who raises a voice different from the mainstream”.
“Too many within the Israeli academia began to collaborate with this hegemonic attitude, and the prosecution of my friend Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is part of it,” Cassif told Al Jazeera.
Cassif added that while the biggest target for the police is Palestinian citizens of Israel, some Jewish citizens are also being persecuted.
Blinken blames Hamas for lack of Gaza ceasefire
“The only thing standing between [Palestinians in Gaza] and a ceasefire is Hamas,” Blinken claimed in his G7 remarks.
The Palestinian group Hamas has “rejected generous proposals from Israel. It seems more interested in a regional conflict than it is in a ceasefire that would immediately improve the lives of the Palestinian people”, Blinken added.
Hamas dismisses Blinken’s accusation that it is obstructing ceasefire talks
“It is a confirmation of the American administration’s blatant bias towards Zionist fascism and a falsification of reality that confirms that whoever obstructs the course of negotiations for [Netanyahu’s] personal political calculations,” Hamas said in a statement.
“The Hamas movement’s negotiating behaviour was based on the interest of our Palestinian people and the priority of stopping the brutal aggression against them, the withdrawal of the occupation, the return of the displaced, and ending their human suffering created by the American-funded killing machine,” Hamas said.
The group added that if the US was sincere in wanting to stop the war in Gaza, it must pressure Israel “and stop the American political and military cover for the crimes of genocide and starvation practiced by the Nazi occupation against defenseless civilians in the Gaza Strip”.
