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War is a racket
US weapons manufacturers set to rake in huge profits
Two of the largest US weapons manufacturers – Lockheed Martin and RTX – are in for a major boost in sales as the US demands more pricey military equipment to send to Ukraine and Israel.
On Wednesday, Biden signed a law that designates $17bn in new military aid to Israel and $61bn to Ukraine.
That means the US will need to buy and restock military equipment, including missiles and drones produced by RTX and interceptors that arm the Patriot missile defence system produced by Lockheed Martin.
Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet told investors this week that the new demand will “provide a strong underpinning for future growth” in the upcoming years.
‘Fire and forget’ in Gaza
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/23/fire-and-forget-in-gaza
Not one Jordanian, British, French or American warplane was deployed in defence of the 50 Palestinian women killed every day for the past 200 days by Israel. But they all scrambled to protect Israel from Iranian drones and missiles.
Now the world has shifted its focus to Iran. Israel has been made into the victim again. No one speaks about the right to self-defence of Palestinian civilians living through genocide and crimes against humanity.
“Fire and forget” in Gaza appears to be a global policy.
More Israeli blackmail
Israeli finance minister calls for cutting ties with Palestinian Authority
Bezalel Smotrich says Israel should subvert the Palestinian Authority (PA) and hold back its funding if the UN formally recognises Palestinian statehood or the International Criminal Court (ICC) issues arrest warrants against senior Israeli officials.
In a letter to Netanyahu, Smotrich said the best way to deal with such international moves would be to cut ties with the PA to “bring about its immediate fall”. He also said his ministry would withhold funding to the PA, whose tax funds Israel largely controls.
“Unilateral measures will be met with unilateral measures,” Smotrich said in the letter.
Empty threats anyway since the PA is just another tool of the occupation.
‘Shame on you’, Israeli protesters tell Netanyahu after captive video release
Police in Israel moved in to break up protests outside the prime minister’s residence after a new video was released of a captive in Gaza.
Many families say not enough has been done to get a deal to free the Israelis held since October 7.
Lebanon ‘on the brink of imploding’
Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, warns the war in Gaza has pushed Lebanon to “the brink of imploding”.
“It simply cannot continue like this,” said Egeland, following a visit to the country. “People fleeing southern villages in search of a safe place end up in overcrowded shelters. Their livelihoods have been destroyed, but we have insufficient funding to help them.”
More than 90,000 people have been forced to abandon their houses in southern Lebanon since October 7. There have been nearly daily attacks by Hezbollah and the Israeli army.
On Tuesday, the Iran-backed group said it struck Acre, marking its deepest attack into Israeli territory since the conflict began.
