Seig Heil, Ben!

Israeli Leader of Genocide Arrives to Lecture Congress of the Fatherland of Genocides

Jessica Corbett of Consortium News (Netanyahu) reports on the efforts of an American legal group, the Center for Constitutional Rights, to pressure the U.S. Department of Justice into opening a criminal investigation into Netanyahu and other officials for committing or authorizing genocide, war crimes, and torturing Palestinians in Gaza.

“We believe ample credible evidence exists to sufficiently establish that serious crimes falling within U.S. criminal jurisdiction are systematically being perpetrated in Gaza…There is overwhelming evidence that under Netanyahu, Israeli forces and authorities are committing genocide, war crimes, and torture against Palestinians in Gaza, acts that are proscribed under federal criminal statutes and prosecutable by HRSP.”

International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, writes Corbett, is seeking

“Arrest warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, and Israel faces a South Africa-led genocide case at the International Court of Justice — which on Friday issued a non-binding advisory opinion that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible.”

But in the US, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit against the president, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Palestine

A piece by Tarik Cyril Amar for RT (What the Top UN Courts' Ruling Means) discusses the recent ruling of the ICJ as “a devastating condemnation of Israel’s policies and crimes in the territories which it conquered more than half a century ago, as a consequence of the Six Day War of 1967, which it still holds today”.

It strikes a blow against the entire Zionist project based, Amar argues:

“On the irreparable injustice of violently depriving the Palestinians of their inalienable right to national self-determination…. It calls into question the foundations of Israel as a state, as it is built around the systematic defiance of justice, law, and elementary ethics”.

The ICJ has made it clear that all settlement must cease and that the settlers already on these territories must leave. This would affect 700,000 and 750,000 Israeli illegals on over 100 settlements they never had a right to establish. The Israeli state has an obligation to evacuate them. Israel’s expropriations, tens or thousands of acreas of land are also illegal.

As for Gaza, the court rejects the argument that Israel withdrew in 2005 and notes that because of its stifling control, it has remained an occupying power, with all the attendant obligations. Further, the court has determined that Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amount to segregation or apartheid in breach of internstional law. The court rejects the argument that Israel can justify its continuing, pervasive criminality by alleged “security” needs. The ICJ findings confirm that Palestinians have a right to armed resistance under international law.

As was easily anticipated, the The whole Israeli political spectrum has rejected the ICJ findings. But the ICJ notes that all other states have a duty to co-operate with the UN in order to bring about an end to Israel’s illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinisn Territory, and that international organizations, specialized agencies, investment corporations etc. must not cooperate “in any measures undertaken by Israel to exploit the resources of the occupied territories or to effect any changes in the demographic composition or geographic character or institutional structure of those territories.”

Houthi and Hezbollah Resistance to Genocide

A piece by Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism (Israeli-Houthi-Hezbollah War) comments on Hezbollah’s and Yemeni strikes against Israel in retaliation for the Israeli response against a Houthi drone attack on Tel Aviv last Friday.

Israel’s enemies may perceive Israel as weak.

Israel’s strike on a Yemeni port city of Hodeidah blew up fuel storage tanks and indicates Israeli intention to curb food supplies to Yemen, which has suffered from both food shortages and outbreaks of cholera during its war with the Saudis. The Houthis’ purpose is to punish Israel until Israel stops its genocide in Gaza. The Houthis have experienced success with low tech tactics such as sending of unmanned boats full of explosives into ships and also claim to have modern missiles.

The head of the US Joint Chiefs, Charles Brown, has told Israel that the US can do little to help. When Iran responded to Israeli murder of Iranian revolutionary guards in Syria, some weeks ago, it successfully hit two Israeli airbases, demonstrating its ability to penetrate combined US and Israel defenses even under textbook conditions for Israel.

US insistence that Israel should ship eight Patriot systems to Ukraine and that Ukraine should get top priority for new missile deliveries may encourage the Houthis, Hezbollah and perhaps even Iran, to strike now.

Former colonel Larry Wilkerson has estimated that Israel has lost 10% of its forces. Replacing these with fresh conscripts is hardly a reassuring measure to restore confidence. Further, Israel has admitted to a tank shortage. A substantial number of tanks has been withdrawn from service. There is an insufficiency of training programmes for personnel and the resources needed to maintain the tanks. More than 500 armoured vehicles of various types have been damaged since October 7, along with their crews inside. Al-Qassam claims to have hit more than a thousand tanks and armoured vehicles inside Gaza. Strikes between Hezbollah and Israel have forced the relocation of between 60,000 to 100,000 settlers from Israeli border towns, who are being housed at government expense.

In a story republished in Popular Resistance, investigative reporter Kit Klarenberg, dissected an AP news piece about US naval personnel returning from Red Sea duties. The AP reported that the aircraft-carrier Eisenhower and its accompanying ships had been bombarded relentlessly by Ansar Allah drones, and ballistic and cruise missiles. These attacks sometimes penetrated multiple layers of on-ship defenses, totally unprecedented in modern history. Most sailors were not used to dealing with an enemy that fought back.

A purported Western alliance - Operation Prosperity Guardian - to combat this situation assembled last year has simply fallen apart, with France, Italy and Spain announcing that they would not take part. A DIA report found that container shipping through the Red Sea, which typically accounts for approximately 10-15% of international maritime trade, had declined by approximately 90% since Operation Prosperity Guardian began. Many ships were forced to take alternative routes around Africa, adding approximately 11,000 extra nautical miles, up to two weeks further transit time, and approximately $1 million in additional fuel costs for each voyage.

For many shipping companies, the combined costs of crew bonuses, war risk insurance (roughly 1000% more than pre-war costs), and Suez transit fees make the additional time and financial costs traveling around Africa less expensive by comparison. Insurance premiums for Red Sea transits have risen to 0.7-1.0% of a ship’s total value, compared to less than 0.1% prior to December 2023.

Suppression of Social Media Criticism of Israel for Genocide

Investigative journalist Kit Klarenberg (Meta Mega Suppression) reports on how social media giant Meta intends to broaden the scope of its censorship and suppression of content related to the Gaza genocide. Posts containing “derogatory or threatening references to ‘Zionists’ in cases where the term is used to refer to Jews or Israelis” will be proscribed. In January, CyberWell (a private Israeli-linked “trusted partner” of Meta, TikTok, and X, supposedly helping them to combat “disinformation.”), published an extensive report on how it was seeking to censor many prominent X accounts that expressed doubts about the official narrative of October 7th.

CyberWell has submitted formal guidance to Meta “on censoring the Palestine solidarity phrase ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ which Zionists falsely claim is a clarion call for the genocide of Jews”. The firm is trying to force social media to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) highly controversial definition of antisemitism which falsely conflates criticism of the Zionist entity and antisemitism.

Many members of Cyberwell’s team have extensive Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) backgrounds and Israeli government ties and ties to Voices of Israel. Voices of Israel describes itself as a non-partisan, apolitical organization that funds and partners with a broad range of Israeli and international NGOs, with the common goal of strengthening the positive perception of the State of Israel and combating hate speech and incitement around the world. Voices of Israel’s activity is part of a joint venture with the State of Israel. The chief executive of CyberWell and two of its board members previously worked at the same private intelligence spin-off from Voices of Israel, a director of the spin-off is an advisor to CyberWell, and the CEO of Voices became the CFO of CyberWell.

BBC’s Isrsaeli Propaganda

A BBC Beirut-based journalist, Rami Ruhayem has accused the BBC of “a collapse in the application of basic standards and norms of journalism that seems aligned with Israel’s propaganda strategy,” reports Media Lens this week (Media Lens.) BBC management has failed to respond to ‘a mass of evidence-based critique of coverage’ from members of staff. The evidence of a collapse in BBC journalism standards, in line with Israel’s propaganda strategy had been pouring in for months “at a dizzying pace.” Those who object, whether employees or viewers, are treated dismissively. Media Lens comments on the “Kafka-esque contortions performed by BBC management to avoid proper accountability even to their own journalists”.

Ruhayem had asked the BBC whether instructions had been given:

“To drop requirements for applying scrutiny regarding the most serious, unverified claims that were being repeated by propagandists for Israel? Would they be able to explain why, and offer a defence of such decisions based on BBC values and standards? If that is not the case, would the editors be able to explain why – upon observing these standards being repeatedly cast aside – they did not intervene? In any case, would upper management clarify what it thinks its own duties are in such a situation?’

He complained that Israeli claims about the events of October 7 were given an” open, uncritical platform by the BBC”. When Ruhayem’s email to the BBC Director General was leaked to the right-wing press, their reports “downplayed the seriousness and extent of his collated evidence and emphasised the ‘outrage’ of ‘Jewish staff’ with the inevitable and insidious deployment of the ‘antisemitism’ card.

Ruhayem’s analysed 22 interviews with Israeli guests – mostly current officials, a few former officials, army officers, politicians, and a ‘human rights activist’…Media Lens reports his main findings as including:

“There was no challenge about different manifestations of what appears to be the Israeli government’s drive to destroy any chance of Palestinian self-determination, about Israeli officials in positions of power who had incited extreme violence against Palestinians prior to October 7, or what all of that might suggest about the motivations driving Israel’s conduct of the war”.

In one exception to the rule, the issue was framed in terms of the potential legal and reputational harm to Israel.

The so-called Dahiya Doctrine, essentially an Israeli military doctrine that overrides any sense of ‘proportionality’ in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians was not mentioned in any of these interviews.

There was, Ruhayem maintained:

“A growing body of evidence indicating that the BBC may have been withholding vital information from the public, contributing to incitement against Palestinians, and spreading and reinforcing Israeli war propaganda.”

Presenters constantly failed to use crucial evidence to challenge Israel’s west-facing propaganda.

“The main assumption is that Israel is trying to avoid harming Palestinian civilians as it conducts a war of self-defence. Thus, discussions between BBC presenters and Israeli propagandists are centred on the question of whether Israel is trying hard enough, or acting intelligently enough, to achieve its goal of “crushing” and “dismantling” Hamas without harming civilians – or its reputation. This framework is cemented because evidence to the contrary is erased.”

In the context some of the most lurid and ultimately unsubstantiated or provenly false claims of what happened on October 7, 2023:

“Claims and testimony that encourage the most extreme portrayals of Israel’s enemies are allowed to be repeated without challenge – regardless of whether or not they’re backed by evidence. Claims and testimony that raise the possibility of Israeli disinformation around the events of October 7 are ignored – despite the evidence.

By seeking to place Hamas on the most extreme end of the spectrum of evil, propagandists for Israel seemed to believe they’d be able to defend whatever Israel chose to do – and set the stage for more. The seeming suspension of basic standards of scrutiny on the BBC most likely encouraged that strategy.’

Such coverage is likely to have aided Israel’s efforts to ensure political support in the West for its actions, and to intimidate those opposed to them and portray them as supporters of the most hideous atrocities.”

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