August 22, 2024

List of Articles for 8/22/24

'Incomprehensible': US Approves $20 Billion in New Arms for Israel as Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000

By DemocracyNow!

War Crimes: Does the Talmud Explain Why Jews Have Openly Murdered 17,000 Children?

THE INTEL DROP

Israel Sought to Bypass Foreign Agent Law to Spread Propaganda in US: Report

By The Cradle

Israeli atonement should include returning stolen Palestinian lands 

Solidarity with Palestine must be about decolonisation, not just ceasefire

Samer Jaber

US guilty of criminal interference to overthrow governments

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro Re-elected Despite US Backing His Rightist Would-be Plotters 

  Jeff Mackler

Why do presidents kill?

When Presidents Kill

Andrew P. Napolitano

'Incomprehensible': US Approves $20 Billion in New Arms for Israel as Gaza Death Toll Tops 40,000

By DemocracyNow!

Health officials in Gaza said Thursday that the official death toll from Israel’s 10-month war has topped 40,000, though that is believed to be a vast undercount of the true figure. The grim milestone was reached just days after the Biden administration greenlit $20 billion in additional weapons sales to Israel, including 50 F-15 fighter jets, tank ammunition, mortar rounds, tactical vehicles and advanced air-to-air missiles.

The U.S. approved the sales despite growing calls for an arms embargo on Israel. “This is just a continuation of a policy that has been going on now for 10 months of the U.S. providing to Israel all the arms that it requests,” says Josh Paul, a veteran State Department official who worked on arms deals and resigned in protest over Gaza policy in October. “It is a dark day for American foreign policy.” We also speak with Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, who says it’s “incomprehensible” that the U.S. keeps supplying Israel with weapons. “There should be no more arms going into that place before there is a ceasefire.” READ MORE

War Crimes: Does the Talmud Explain Why Jews Have Openly Murdered 17,000 Children?

THE INTEL DROP

Editor's note: This brief snapshot of ideology found in the Talmud needs an explanation from theological experts. That is not this editor. But in view of the accusations of genocide, might Jewish religious extremism in Israel be partly to blame? And if true, how can such pathological religious directives be overcome? ~ R. Kotila, Ph.D.

Israel Sought to Bypass Foreign Agent Law to Spread Propaganda in US: Report

By The Cradle

The Israeli government sought legal advice on how to bypass US federal law governing the spreading of propaganda among the US population by foreign states, an investigation published on 17 August by The Guardian in collaboration with journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulson shows.

US federal law requires the disclosure of foreign-backed lobbying campaigns, but leaked documents reviewed by The Guardian show the Israeli government sought legal advice concerning the law out of concern that Jewish and Christian Zionist lobbying groups working in coordination with the Israeli government would be required to register as foreign agents and disclose their ties to Israel.

The documents, which include emails and legal memos originating from a hack of the Israeli justice ministry, show that Israeli officials proposed creating a new US nonprofit in order to continue Israel’s activities in the US while avoiding scrutiny under the law. READ MORE

https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/20/israel-sought-to-bypass-foreign-agent-law-to-spread-propaganda-in-us-report/

Israeli atonement should include returning stolen Palestinian lands 

Solidarity with Palestine must be about decolonisation, not just ceasefire

Samer Jaber

The global pro-Palestinian movement must not fall for short-term goals that do not address Palestinian demands for justice and freedom.

• EXCERPTS
• The spread of the student protests and their mass appeal pushed the student movement beyond the ability of the establishment to contain it. It now has the potential to transform itself into a popular movement with the capacity to influence popular culture and lifestyles.
•  
• While protests play a vital role in expressing public dissent, their effectiveness in influencing international or external political issues can be limited. In some cases, protests act as a pressure valve, letting public frustration out without impacting policy.
•  
• Moving beyond the call for a ceasefire
• Instead of focusing on a ceasefire, the pro-Palestinian protest movement should embrace demands for decolonisation. It needs to place the Palestinian question back into an anticolonial framework and reaffirm its place within the history of the decolonisation struggle. ... 
•  READ MORE

US guilty of criminal interference to overthrow governments Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro Re-elected Despite US Backing His Rightist Would-be Plotters                           

Jeff Mackler

EXCERPTS

 With 80 percent of voting stations counted, the country’s election authority reported that President Maduro had received 51.2 percent of the vote. Edmundo González, the US imperialist backed and financed “opposition” candidate received 44.2 percent. González had declared in advance of the election, based on spurious polls orchestrated by his rightwing supporters, that any result other than his victory would be rejected. ...

Some 1100 international observers from around the world, including a broad spectrum of the US left and social justice organizations did verify the result. Due to a US-backed cyber attack a final result, now being tabulated by Venezuela’s Supreme Court, is still pending. ... To date, the opposition has refused to submit its rigged tallies to the Supreme Court not to mention to any other independent authority. 

... With the world’s largest oil reserves the US ruling elite has spared no horror to bring down the Venezuelan government, from illegally seizing Venezuela’s financial assets in foreign banks to orchestrating a number of outright military coups, “appointing” Venezuela’s president – the corrupt and discredited Juan Gaido – assassinating Venezuelan leaders, sabotaging its infrastructure, and imposing crippling sanctions and a near total blockade. A UN report estimated that the US-imposed sanctions alone took the lives of 50,000 Venezuelans due to starvation! An estimated seven million Venezuelans have left the country, mostly to the US, fleeing from the terrible conditions imposed by the US ruling class. ... READ MORE 

Why do presidents kill?

When Presidents Kill

Andrew P. Napolitano    Antiwar.com

Andrew P. Napolitano, a former judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, is the senior judicial analyst at Fox News Channel. Judge Napolitano has written seven books on the US Constitution. The most recent is "Suicide Pact: The Radical Expansion of Presidential Powers and the Lethal Threat to American Liberty."  https://JudgeNap.com.

The presidential use of drones to kill persons overseas began in 2002 with Bush-ordered targeted killings. It continued under President Barack Obama – who even killed Americans overseas. The rules for killing were made up by each president. They were relaxed under President Donald Trump, who gave CIA senior personnel and military commanders the authority to kill without his express approval for each killing. Trump’s folks infamously murdered an Iranian general and his companions on their way to lunch with Iraqi generals to negotiate peace between the two countries.

The laws of war – a phrase itself that is oxymoronic – which are generally codified in the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter, all of which were spearheaded, written and ratified by the United States, mandate essentially that lawful wars can only be defensive and must be proportional to the threat posed or the harm already caused. Stated differently, treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory restrain the president from killing persons in other countries with which the U.S. is not lawfully at war.  

Today, American troops are on the ground in Ukraine showing Ukrainian forces how to use American weapons to kill Russian troops and in Israel showing the IDF how to kill civilians in Gaza. This was done by secret presidential orders that have never been publicly acknowledged. Russian troops and Gazan civilians pose no threat whatsoever to life, liberty or property in America. READ MORE