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Forums - Politics Discussion - Israel-Hamas war, Gaza genocide

SvennoJ on 06 February 2024

Kudos to Bernie Sanders, keep it up

Senator Bernie Sanders decries influence of pro-Israel lobby groups on US politics

Sanders has slammed “lobbying groups like AIPAC [the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee] and Christians United for Israel [CUFI]” for using their considerable financial resources to advance “unquestioning support for Israel’s right-wing government”.

In remarks to a US think tank on Tuesday, Sanders said that AIPAC is expected to spend about $100m in a push to remove progressive candidates who have spoken in favour of Palestinian rights during the upcoming election cycle. “The message was clear: if you criticize Netanyahu, you will be targeted,” Sanders said, linking the influence of lobbying groups that promote the interests of governments such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the larger issue of the role that money plays in US politics.

Last edited by SvennoJ - on 06 February 2024

Around the Network
SvennoJ on 06 February 2024

People are starting to catch on

UK MP asks FM for details on ‘flimsy’ Israeli report on UNRWA

Tommy Sheppard, an MP with the Scottish National Party, has sent a letter to UK Foreign Minister David Cameron asking if the UK government suspended aid to UNRWA based exclusively on an Israeli dossier.

Several outlets have reported that the dossier, which formed the basis for Israeli allegations that a handful of UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack, includes no evidence for those claims. “I urge you to review the decision made to suspend funding in light of the revelations surrounding the 6-page document and resume support for UNRWA while it carries out its internal investigation,” the letter concludes.





US Education Department to investigate rights claim against Harvard

A statement from the rights group The Muslim Legal Fund of America says that the department responded to a complaint it filed against Harvard University last week, alleging that the institution failed to protect students from “harassment, intimidation, and threats based solely on their status as Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and supporters of Palestinian rights”.

“In recent months, students endured harassment while attending vigils for Palestine, physical assaults while walking to the library, doxxing on campus, stalking by classmates, and racial profiling by professors,” the statement says. “Students who reported the harassment to Harvard administrators received slow and ineffective responses and often met with closed doors, and in some cases threats to limit or retract their future academic opportunities,” it continued.

Numerous incidents of harassment against Palestinian and Arab citizens of the US have been reported since Hamas’s October 7 attacks against Israel. In late November last year, three Palestinian university students were shot in Vermont.

Texas police investigating stabbing of Palestinian man as possible bias crime

Police in Austin, Texas, have said that they are probing the stabbing of a 23-year-old Palestinian-American man over the weekend as a possible “bias-motivated incident”. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said that a man identified by police as Bert James Baker approached a Muslim family in their car at a stop sign as they were on their way back from a rally in solidarity with Palestine, shouting obscenities and trying to rip a “Free Palestine” flag from their vehicle.

The victim, identified by his father as Zacharia Doar, was trying to stop him when Baker allegedly stabbed him in the chest. He underwent surgery and is now recovering, according to his father. “The entire Austin Muslim community stands in solidarity with these young members of our community, who appear to be the latest victims of a surge in anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian hate across our nation,” CAIR Austin chapter’s board chair, Fayyaz Shah, said in a television interview.



SvennoJ on 06 February 2024

What are the odds...

ICJ elects Judge Julia Sebutinde from Uganda as vice president

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has elected Judge Julia Sebutinde from Uganda for a three-year term as vice president. A former judge at the Special Court for Sierra Leone from 2005 to 2011, Sebutinde has been an ICJ judge since February 2012.

Last month, Sebutinde was the only judge on the 17-member ICJ panel to vote against all six measures adopted in a ruling ordering Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide by its forces in Gaza. Following the ruling, the government of Uganda issued a statement explaining that Sebutinde’s vote was “her own individual and independent opinion, and does not in any way reflect the position of the government of the Republic of Uganda”.

Sebutinde will serve alongside Lebanon’s Judge Nawaf Salam who was elected as president.

However I guess she can be the counter point to

ICJ elects Lebanon’s Judge Nawaf Salam as president

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has elected Judge Nawaf Salam of Lebanon as its new president. Salam was previously Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN in New York before becoming an ICJ judge in February 2018. He was elected president on Tuesday as five judges began new terms on the 15-member court in The Hague.

The cases on the ICJ’s agenda include two related to Israel and Palestine:

  • Israel is expected to deliver a report to the court later this month on measures it is taking to implement an interim ruling from the court in the genocide case filed by South Africa over the war on Gaza.
  • On February 19, the court is expected to hold public hearings in a separate case on Israel’s policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem.



War rages on

Civilians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Syria

The Israeli military has launched airstrikes on the city of Homs and its countryside, “killing a number of civilians” and injuring several more, reports Syria’s state-run SANA news agency, citing a military source. Israeli warplanes fired missiles from north of the Lebanese city of Tripoli at around 3am local time, targeting several sites in Homs and the surrounding area, SANA reports.

The attacks targeted Syrian army outposts and the Shayrat airbase, the Reuters news agency reports citing local sources. Israel has escalated its attacks on Syria since October, as regional tensions have grown between Tel Aviv Iran-backed groups in neighbouring Syria and Lebanon.

Israeli raids Jenin and Tulkarem, destroy infrastructure

An Israeli convoy of military vehicles and bulldozers has stormed the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank tonight, the Wafa news agency reports. Bulldozers have destroyed infrastructure such as roads in Jenin’s Al-Zahraa neighbourhood and next to the Jordanian field hospital. The Israeli military has also stormed the city of Tulkarem, imposing a siege on the Nour Shams camp while bulldozers have destroyed nearby infrastructure.

Raids and arrests have also been reported elsewhere in the occupied West Bank:

  • In the town of Burqa, northwest of Nablus
  • In the village of Kafr Qalil, south of Nablus
  • In the town of Tammoun, north of Tubas
  • A man has been arrested in the village of Dura al-Qara’, north of Ramallah
  • A man has been arrested in the village of Ras Karkar, west of Ramallah
  • Clashes have been reported in the town of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem

Dozens killed as Israel bombs Jabalia, Rafah, Khan Younis: Wafa

At least 20 people have been killed and 20 more injured after Israeli forces bombed a home east of the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza, the Wafa news agency reports in its daily roundup of attacks in the besieged enclave. Wafa also reports that 14 Palestinians were killed when the Israeli military bombed the Al-Hanawi School, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Six Palestinians were also killed when the Israeli military bombed their vehicle in the Khirbet Al-Adas neighbourhood of Rafah in southern Gaza.

Health Ministry sounds alarm as Israeli siege of Nasser Hospital tightens in Khan Younis

Israeli forces have intensified their siege of the Nasser Hospital – the main medical facility in southern Khan Younis – further endangering the lives of 300 medical staff, 450 patients and an estimated 10,000 displaced people sheltering in the surrounding compound, the UN reports.

Based on an announcement from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also reports that Nasser Hospital has fuel reserves for just four more days of power. There is already a severe shortage of surgical supplies and sutures.

According to the ministry, heavy fighting that started two weeks ago in the vicinity of Nasser and the Al Amal Hospital continues. Between Monday and Tuesday afternoons, a further 107 Palestinians were killed and 143 wounded in Gaza, according to the ministry.

Israeli interference, delays responsible for reduced Gaza aid access: UN

Humanitarian aid missions’ ability to access people in dire need in Gaza worsened in January, compared with October and December, due to Israel’s denial of access to northern areas of the Palestinian territory as well as interference and delays caused by Israeli forces.

Only 10 out of 61 planned aid missions to northern Gaza in January were facilitated by Israeli authorities, while 34 were denied access, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). “In an emerging pattern, the access of an additional nine missions (15%) was initially facilitated, but subsequently impeded as routes designated by the Israeli military proved to be unpassable, or due to the imposition of excessive delays prior to the departure of the missions or at checkpoints en route,” the UNOCHA said in its report.

Aid missions to areas in Gaza’s south were marginally more successful with 65 of 114 facilitated by Israeli authorities. The UN highlights that Gaza’s health facilities were subject to Israeli interference in aid deliveries. “At times, the Israeli military required the provision of justifications for fuel quantities for health facilities. In other cases, it facilitated access under the condition that no delivery is made to hospitals. In some instances, it imposed reductions on the volume of assistance, such as the quantity of food.”



SvennoJ on 06 February 2024

Israeli forces drag Palestinian-American woman from home in West Bank

Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian-American woman after breaking into her home and pulling her from her bed in the occupied West Bank, family members told the Associated Press news agency. Relatives said Israeli soldiers burst into Samaher Esmail’s home, in the town of Silwad, while she was asleep in the early hours of Monday and pulled her out of bed.

A video of the raid and arrest posted to social media by her son showed soldiers surrounding his handcuffed mother and putting her into an armoured vehicle. “They broke into her house and pulled her out, took her out of her bed,” the woman’s brother, Mubarak Esmail, told the AP. “They didn’t even let her put on her hijab,” he said.

The AP reports that the Israeli military said Esmail was arrested for “incitement on social media”. Esmail is from Gretna, Louisiana, the same hometown as 17-year-old Palestinian-American Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, who was recently shot dead by Israeli forces in a nearby village in the occupied West Bank.



Stay silent and they'll come for you next, speak out and they'll come for you now.

Either her Facebook page was always empty or has been scrubbed, no posts, no pictures, just a few details confirming it's her.


Six people reported killed in Israeli shelling of vehicle in Rafah

Six people were reported killed in the Israeli shelling of a vehicle with a police logo in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, according to reports from Wafa and the French news agency AFP. Witnesses told the AFP that the six people were travelling in the vehicle which had been securing the passage of an aid truck carrying flour in Rafah’s Khirbat al-Adas neighbourhood.

Photographs from the scene show first responders taking a body covered in blankets to an ambulance. The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the attack when contacted by the AFP.

Houthis fire missiles at cargo ships in Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, US military says

Iran-backed Houthi militants on Tuesday fired six anti-ship ballistic missiles from Yemen toward commercial vessels, US Central Command said. One missile exploded in the Gulf of Aden near the MV Star Nasia, causing minor damage to the Marshall Island-flagged, Greek carrier, CENTCOM said. No injuries were reported.

Other Houthi missile attacks likely targeting MV Morning Tide, a Barbados-flagged, UK-owned cargo ship operating in the southern Red Sea, "impacted the water near the ship without effect," CENTCOM said.

In a statement Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Houthis vowed the militants would increase their attacks on US and UK ships if Israel's war in Gaza does not stop.


The Houthis are having more success than I thought.



LurkerJ on 07 February 2024
SvennoJ said:

People are starting to catch on

UK MP asks FM for details on ‘flimsy’ Israeli report on UNRWA

Tommy Sheppard, an MP with the Scottish National Party, has sent a letter to UK Foreign Minister David Cameron asking if the UK government suspended aid to UNRWA based exclusively on an Israeli dossier.

Several outlets have reported that the dossier, which formed the basis for Israeli allegations that a handful of UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack, includes no evidence for those claims. “I urge you to review the decision made to suspend funding in light of the revelations surrounding the 6-page document and resume support for UNRWA while it carries out its internal investigation,” the letter concludes.




What a story. wtf are we doing....



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zeldaring on 07 February 2024
LurkerJ said:
SvennoJ said:

People are starting to catch on

UK MP asks FM for details on ‘flimsy’ Israeli report on UNRWA

Tommy Sheppard, an MP with the Scottish National Party, has sent a letter to UK Foreign Minister David Cameron asking if the UK government suspended aid to UNRWA based exclusively on an Israeli dossier.

Several outlets have reported that the dossier, which formed the basis for Israeli allegations that a handful of UNRWA employees took part in the October 7 attack, includes no evidence for those claims. “I urge you to review the decision made to suspend funding in light of the revelations surrounding the 6-page document and resume support for UNRWA while it carries out its internal investigation,” the letter concludes.




What a story. wtf are we doing....

Nothing surprises me and the double standards is just disgusting. 



zeldaring on 07 February 2024
SvennoJ said:

Kudos to Bernie Sanders, keep it up

Senator Bernie Sanders decries influence of pro-Israel lobby groups on US politics

Sanders has slammed “lobbying groups like AIPAC [the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee] and Christians United for Israel [CUFI]” for using their considerable financial resources to advance “unquestioning support for Israel’s right-wing government”.

In remarks to a US think tank on Tuesday, Sanders said that AIPAC is expected to spend about $100m in a push to remove progressive candidates who have spoken in favour of Palestinian rights during the upcoming election cycle. “The message was clear: if you criticize Netanyahu, you will be targeted,” Sanders said, linking the influence of lobbying groups that promote the interests of governments such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the larger issue of the role that money plays in US politics.

At least he is trying, but i hate how he makes hamas so evil and disgusting yet isreal which has been doing  Genocide for  3 months is just a fascist government.  



SvennoJ on 07 February 2024
zeldaring said:
SvennoJ said:

Kudos to Bernie Sanders, keep it up

Senator Bernie Sanders decries influence of pro-Israel lobby groups on US politics

Sanders has slammed “lobbying groups like AIPAC [the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee] and Christians United for Israel [CUFI]” for using their considerable financial resources to advance “unquestioning support for Israel’s right-wing government”.

In remarks to a US think tank on Tuesday, Sanders said that AIPAC is expected to spend about $100m in a push to remove progressive candidates who have spoken in favour of Palestinian rights during the upcoming election cycle. “The message was clear: if you criticize Netanyahu, you will be targeted,” Sanders said, linking the influence of lobbying groups that promote the interests of governments such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the larger issue of the role that money plays in US politics.

At least he is trying, but i hate how he makes hamas so evil and disgusting yet isreal which has been doing  Genocide for  3 months is just a fascist government.  

If you don't you'll be dismissed as anti-semitic by default in the US. Here in Canada as well. Sarah Jama is still not re-instated, was ousted from local government here for saying the conflict started long before October 7th and not condemming Hamas enough. And there are many other stories of people being fired, suspended, cancelled for not condemning Hamas enough and being critical of Israel.

If you're not careful with your words and repeat you condemn Hamas before anything else you want to say, people dismiss you by default...

The grip of Israel is tight on the US, anti-zionism has been declared as anti-semitism in congress. University presidents have been called to congress and sacked for not suspending pro-palestinian student organizations, saying 'from the river to the sea Palestine shall be free' is a hate crime.

So I understand why he is tip toeing around that 'line'. What disappoints me is that he doesn't push harder for a ceasefire.



LurkerJ on 07 February 2024
zeldaring said:
SvennoJ said:

Kudos to Bernie Sanders, keep it up

Senator Bernie Sanders decries influence of pro-Israel lobby groups on US politics

Sanders has slammed “lobbying groups like AIPAC [the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee] and Christians United for Israel [CUFI]” for using their considerable financial resources to advance “unquestioning support for Israel’s right-wing government”.

In remarks to a US think tank on Tuesday, Sanders said that AIPAC is expected to spend about $100m in a push to remove progressive candidates who have spoken in favour of Palestinian rights during the upcoming election cycle. “The message was clear: if you criticize Netanyahu, you will be targeted,” Sanders said, linking the influence of lobbying groups that promote the interests of governments such as Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to the larger issue of the role that money plays in US politics.

At least he is trying, but i hate how he makes hamas so evil and disgusting yet isreal which has been doing  Genocide for  3 months is just a fascist government.  

He's on a late night show, the late night hosts have had a political awakening and have been covering Trump non-stop since 2016, they're not educated on anything else and are incapable of anything besides making fun of Trump and interviewing the even less educated Hollywood figures. Their audience tends to be older people who grew up being brainwashed by the mainstream media that always had pro-Israel bias, Bernie couldn't have said what he said any other way to that specific audience. 

I still think it took him longer to speak out but here we are. 



SvennoJ on 07 February 2024

Blinken is doing his groundhog day routine with Netanyahu

Blinken and Netanyahu discuss efforts to release hostages and increase Gaza aid, US State Department says

A meeting between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began Wednesday at 11:50 a.m. local time (4:50 a.m. ET) in Tel Aviv and lasted for about an hour, according to a pool of reporters traveling with the secretary.

Blinken and Netanyahu “discussed the latest efforts to secure the release of all remaining hostages and the importance of increasing the amount of humanitarian assistance reaching displaced civilians throughout Gaza,” according to a US State Department readout of their meeting.

Blinken “reiterated the United States’ support for the establishment of a Palestinian state as the best way to ensure lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians alike and greater integration for the region,” according to the statement.

Blinken also stressed to Netanyahu “the urgent need to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and prevent the conflict from expanding.”

So nothing new apart from

Blinken said Tuesday he would discuss Hamas' response to a proposal meant to secure the freedom of the remaining hostages and a sustained cessation of the fighting in Gaza with Israeli officials. 




Starts to sound like another delay tactic

"A lot of work to be done" on deal between Israel and Hamas, top US diplomat Blinken says

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said, “there is a lot of work to be done” to achieve a deal that would see the release of the hostages held in Gaza, “but we are very much focused on doing that work and hopefully, being able to resume the release of hostages that was interrupted so many months ago.”

The US and Israel are looking at the Hamas response to the proposal "intensively," he said in remarks at a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog. The full Hamas response proposes three phases, each lasting 45 days, including the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, a massive humanitarian effort, and freedom of movement for people throughout Gaza, according to a copy obtained by CNN. 

Herzog noted that Blinken’s visit to Tel Aviv “comes at a very critical time in the conflict.” “We are yearning and praying for the immediate release of our hostages. We want to see them back as soon as possible,” the Israeli President said. “The hostages are foremost on our minds and in our hearts,” Blinken said.

You know, maybe you could stop bombing and shooting every male that moves and bring food, water and medical aid in before the rest of the hostages die as well...

The hostages have been taken hostage by politics to keep the war going. We must put more pressure on Hamas by bombing more civilians and they'll release the hostages... any day now...

'Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.' - Albert Einstein.

 

Top Israeli general says there is no plan in place yet for how to minimize civilian deaths in Rafah

The top commander in charge of Israel’s military operation in southern Gaza has said that there is no plan in place yet for how to minimize civilian deaths in Rafah, as fears mount that an Israeli offensive in what is now the enclave’s most populous city could result in mass casualties.

Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfuss, who oversees the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division, said on Sunday he would work on such a plan “if and when” he receives the order to maneuver his forces into the area, and that as of Sunday, the order had not been issued yet. An IDF spokesperson told CNN that as of Wednesday, the information was still accurate – an order to move into Rafah has not been issued yet.

As the IDF pushed on with its ground operation from the north, it has consistently instructed civilians across the Gaza Strip to evacuate south, first to Khan Younis and then to Rafah, creating what it calls “safer zones.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed last week that the IDF would move into Rafah.

CNN has previously reported on Palestinian civilians who followed evacuation orders being killed by Israeli strikes, underscoring the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimated that 1.3 million people had been displaced to Rafah. But there is nowhere to go from Rafah, a city that sits right at Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which is closed to refugees.

I guess the original plan was to secure the Philadelphia corridor and then drive the population into Egypt. Egypt won't have it though.

Civilians shot near hospital in Khan Younis, according to local reports and witnesses

Video and witness accounts from across Gaza indicate significant combat in several areas, including in Gaza City and Khan Younis in the south of the enclave. Injuries were reported among people in the vicinity of Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis. Local reports said several people had been shot by Israeli forces, which have surrounded the hospital. 

CNN cannot confirm the details of the shooting, but social media video showed several apparently injured people being removed from a street adjacent to the complex.

A doctor inside the hospital, Dr. Ahmad Al Moghrabi, posted a video on Instagram showing people waiting at its main gate, claiming that if anyone goes outside the gate, "they will be killed." He said Israeli snipers were standing on the roofs of some buildings. CNN has asked the Israeli Defense Forces about the presence and purpose of snipers in the vicinity of the hospital.    

The Hamas-run health ministry said the Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in Khan Younis are running out of oxygen, with the Palestine Red Crescent Society also saying Al-Amal has had "a severe oxygen shortage for days." 

In Rafah: Further south, the Hamas-run Civil Defense directorate said its crews recovered a number of bodies after Israeli airstrikes targeted three properties that had been crowded with displaced people.

In Gaza City: A journalist in Gaza told CNN that crowds of people had fled after coming under fire while waiting for a distribution of humanitarian aid in the Al-Zaytoun neighborhood.