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55327 |
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Date: August 30, 2024 at 15:08:54
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: west bank |
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the latest incursions into the west bank, totally illegal, are so short-sighted and self-destructive...netanyahu and his cronies are so out to lunch...these actions only bolster and solidify the cries of ethnic cleansing and genocide...it seems they are trying really hard to pull the US in more, but the opposite may happen...beware israel, you are cutting your own throat with these expansionist and murderous actions...
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Responses:
[55371] [55338] [55339] [55340] [55329] [55330] |
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55371 |
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Date: September 03, 2024 at 10:59:42
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: west bank |
URL: https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/09/03/israeli-treatment-of-palestinians-remains-unchanged-over-75-years/ |
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a lot of history between these groups...
September 3, 2024
Israeli Treatment of Palestinians Remains Unchanged Over 75 Years
by Melvin Goodman
The Biden administration’s decision to continue funding the notorious Netzah Yehuda battalion, an ultra-Orthodox unit that operates on the West Bank, is the latest indication that the United States is unwilling to take any steps to counter Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. The funding of the battalion marks a major defeat for the human rights experts in the Departments of State and Defense, who argued that Netzah Yehuda should be barred from receiving U.S. support. This marks one more decision by Secretary of State Antony Blinken that ignores the need for accountability with regard to the barbarous actions of the Israeli Defense Forces.
The Netzah Yehuda battalion is particularly violent in dealing with the Palestinian community. The battallion has killed unarmed civilians and suspects in custody as well as committed sexual assault and torture. it has attracted many members of an extreme religious-nationalist settler group infamous for establishing illegal outposts on Palestinian land that have no legal basis in Israeli law. In recent years, the Netzah Yehuda battalion has been involved in at least a half-dozen controversial cases involving its soldiers, resulting in jail time, discharge, or harsh criticism for assaulting or killing innocent Palestinians.
U.S. funding of the battalion is a violation of the Leahy Law, passed in 1997, that prohibits the Departments of State and Defense from providing military assistance to foreign security force units that violate human rights. U.S. embassies and the appropriate regional bureaus of the Department of State vet potential recipients of security assistance. If a unit is found to have been credibly implicated in a serious abuse of human rights, assistance is denied until the host nation government takes effective steps to bring the responsible persons within the unit to justice. As a result, security forces and national defense units in Bangladesh, Bolivia, Columbia, Guatemala, and Mexico have been denied assistance in the past. The United States, of course, plays by different rules when it comes to military support for Israel.
Even before Blinken made his unfortunate decision regarding the battalion, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu obnoxiously proclaimed that “if anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the IDF—I will fight it with all my strength.” U.S. presidents have been unwilling to stand up to Netanyahu who has led six of the eleven different Israeli governments over the past 28 years. This funding decision is particularly reprehensible because the battalion was responsible for the death of a 78-year-old American citizen whose stress-induced heart attack was brought on by being bound, gagged, and left on the ground by Israeli forces. Netanyahu’s government prosecuted no one in this case.
One of the more feckless U.S. moves regarding the war in Gaza was President Biden’s decision to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians via a floating military pier. U.S. officials in the Departments of State and Defense argued that the weather conditions in the Mediterranean would compromise any effort to make the pier workable. The critics were right. They wanted the Biden administration to put pressure on Israel to open land crossings for aid, but Biden refused to do so. As a result, the pier was attached to Gaza’s coast line in May and abandoned in July.
Israeli officials maintain that they are allowing aid into Gaza, but the aid is going in slowly and humanitarian conveys are still being attacked. A UN vehicle, clearly marked, was attacked several days ago and Palestinian aid workers were killed. Meanwhile, more than 560 schools in Gaza have been hit or destroyed, and numerous shelters have been attacked. This points to the moral squalor of Israeli public declarations that deny the targeting of humanitarian missions.
In order to understand the Arab-Israeli conflict (and perhaps appreciate U.S. complicity), it helps to remember the first Israeli edicts against its Palestinian population more than 75 years ago. With the creation of the state of Israel, the Knesset adopted the British Defense Regulations that enabled Israeli military authorities to close off the Arab areas and restrict entry and exit only to those with permits. Every Arab inhabitant had to apply to the military government office or to the police in his/her district to obtain a permit to leave his/her village for whatever reason.
The Knesset added its own restrictions to the British regulations. These enabled the Israelis to deport people from their towns or villages and to summon any person to present himself at a police station or to remain confined to his/her house. Any Arab could be placed under administrative arrest for an unlimited time, without explanation and without trial. Violators were tried by military courts and not civilian ones; this is still true today on the West Bank. Tom Segev, one of Israel’s most distinguished historians, noted in his important book, “1949: The First Israelis,” that “among the soldiers and officers sent to rule over the Arabs were ones who had been found unfit for active service.” They were vengeful, which is true today on the West Bank. Segev is associated with Israel’s New Historians, a group challenging many of the country’s traditional narratives.
Another distinguished Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, recorded in his book, “Ten Myths About Israel,” that the discussion of the forced transfer of the Arab population in Palestine began even before Israel received its independence in 1948. The discussions evolved into a master plan for the massive expulsion of Palestinians, which was known as Plan Delat. Pappe notes that the Israeli Foreign Ministry created the myth that the Palestinians became refugees because their leaders told them to leave Palestine before the “Arab armies invaded and kicked out the Jews.”
The continued violence in Gaza and the renewed violence on the West Bank points to a dark future for the Middle East, particularly for Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinian community. Israel has become increasingly isolated in the international community, and the ultra nationalism of the right wing is increasingly dominating Israeli politics. For the past thirty years, the Israelis have hidden behind false gestures of support for a two-state solution and now the possibility of a cease fire in Gaza in order to maintain military and economic support from the United States. Sadly, it is working, and Israel shows no interest in pursuing any alternative to an endless war.
Melvin A. Goodman is a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy and a professor of government at Johns Hopkins University. A former CIA analyst, Goodman is the author of Failure of Intelligence: The Decline and Fall of the CIA and National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism. and A Whistleblower at the CIA. His most recent books are “American Carnage: The Wars of Donald Trump” (Opus Publishing, 2019) and “Containing the National Security State” (Opus Publishing, 2021). Goodman is the national security columnist for counterpunch.org.
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55338 |
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Date: September 01, 2024 at 04:42:15
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Israel's Invasion of West Bank Parallels Early Stages of War on Gaza |
URL: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israeli-invasion-west-bank-parallels-gaza |
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JEREMY SCAHILL
Israel's Violent Invasion of West Bank Parallels the Early Stages of War on Gaza:
UN Rapporteur on Palestine
JEREMY SCAHILL
AUG 30, 2024
Beginning in the predawn hours on Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli forces in
columns of armored vehicles and bulldozers backed by drones and helicopters
stormed into refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. Israel also carried out
drone strikes and snipers have reportedly been firing on people inside Jenin.
Internet and cell phone service, as well as water and sewage systems, were shut
down in parts of the West Bank as Israeli forces conducted house raids. Local
residents have reported widespread demolitions of their homes and streets and
the blocking of ambulances and medical workers attempting to reach wounded
people. Israeli forces surrounded the main hospital in Jenin and have reportedly
been searching people entering and exiting the facility.
“This is an incredible scaling up of the violence of the preceding months and in
particular weeks,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, “with a full military assault, destroying hospitals,
destroying roads, destroying vital infrastructure which had already been severely
damaged during the preceding months, and Voila!, telling the Palestinians to go,
ordering mass evacuations.”
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In an interview with Drop Site News, Albanese said, “I see a serious pattern
parallel with what is happening in the Gaza Strip”—“patterns of torture, of
destruction, of extrajudicial killings, of uprooting that are very similar to Gaza.”
“It is my responsibility to warn against the risk of the genocide leaking into the
West Bank. There is similar rhetoric, similar patterns, and escalating violence,
ordering similar things.”
Brandishing Israel’s well-worn propaganda ensign of self-defense, foreign
minister Israel Katz has described the operation as “a war in every sense,”
declaring that Tel Aviv would approach its invasion of parts of the West Bank
“exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary
evacuation of Palestinian civilians.”
“We are in the post 9/11 era,” Albanese said. “So resistance movements are
naturally considered terrorist first, and then it's very difficult to dismantle this
perception which is so entrenched, so ingrained in ordinary people's mindset. So
if politicians say that—and journalists amplify it—probably this is going to
convince people that they are protecting all of us from these masses of savages.”
Kamala Harris Pledges Unequivocal Support for the Israel
Israel’s threat of waging a Gaza-style war against the Palestinians of the West
Bank comes as the White House has spent weeks assuring the public that it is
working “tirelessly” for a ceasefire deal. The administration’s actions, however,
make such claims appear cynical. Since the end of July, there has been a spike in
U.S. weapons shipments to Israel and August saw the second largest number of
military cargo planes delivering munitions and other equipment at Nevatim Air
Base since the launch of the war last October.
In the midst of the attacks on the West Bank, Vice President Kamala Harris did
her first sit-down interview with a media outlet since she was anointed
Democratic nominee for president. Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Harris affirmed
her ironclad support for Israel, saying she would not withhold weapons
shipments. “Let me be very clear. I’m unequivocal and—and unwavering in my
commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself,” Harris said. “And
that’s not gonna change.”
“It is my responsibility to warn against the risk of the genocide leaking into the
West Bank. There is similar rhetoric, similar patterns, and escalating violence,
ordering similar things.”
Harris made no reference to the siege of the West Bank. The Biden-Harris
administration has said little publicly about the Israeli invasion there, reiterating
its line that Israel has a right to defend its “very real security needs, which
includes countering terrorist activity in the West Bank.” An administration official
claimed in a statement to reporters that the U.S. opposes “mass displacements of
Palestinians in the West Bank,” but added, “We recognize that localized
evacuation orders may be necessary in certain instances to protect civilian lives
during sensitive counter-terrorism operations.”
At the Pentagon Thursday, spokesperson Sabrina Singh spoke as though the U.S.
and Israel are not in constant contact with Israel about a war that is being
underwritten militarily and politically by the U.S. “We are aware that the IDF is
conducting operations in the West Bank, but again we don’t have an
understanding of what exactly that is,” Singh said. “We are trying to learn more
about their operation.”
In an English-language post on Twitter/X, Katz, the Israeli Foreign Minister,
charged that Iran is smuggling weapons into the West Bank by transporting them
via Syria through its border with Jordan and accused Tehran of “working to
establish an eastern terror front against Israel through special units of the IRGC,
involved in smuggling weapons, funding, and directing terror organizations.”
Katz claimed Jordan needed Western support to confront “Iranian subversion,”
saying that a “security fence along the Israel-Jordan border must be constructed
quickly to prevent an influx of advanced Iranian weapons.”
Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur, rejected this justification, saying it defied
belief that any significant quantity of Iranian weapons would be coming in
through Jordan, a country that participated in defending Israel against an Iranian
missile strike in April. “Israel is making up arguments to legitimize and normalize
its assault. And the U.S. is providing the most important asset. The United States
continues to provide political, even legal justification, economic and military
support to Israel while it has already committed genocide and escalates its
violence against the Palestinians,” she said. “It’s very clear what the U.S. is doing.”
Israeli media outlets have not focused heavily on the Iran angle, instead citing IDF
sources describing the operations in the West Bank as “mowing the lawn”—the
phrase used by Israel for conducting periodic intense military attacks against
Palestinians to assert its dominance. Israel’s Channel 12 reported that the IDF has
defined two main aims for the operation: "destroying Improvised Explosive
Devices and infrastructure for making IEDs" and “killing as many terrorists as
possible.” Hebrew-language media have also cited an effort to stop weapons
smuggling via Jordan but have not particularly emphasized an Iranian
connection.
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Hamas Vows to Resume “Martyrdom Operations” Against Israel
Since the invasion began Wednesday morning, armed Palestinian resistance
factions, including Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s Al Quds force, Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades, and Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades have launched a defensive guerrilla
campaign. On Thursday, Abdel Hakim Hanini, a senior Hamas official, suggested
that the group was preparing to engage in suicide bombings inside Israel, a tactic
that became common during the Second Intifada, which spanned 2000-2005,
but had ended almost entirely after 2006 when Hamas and other groups
announced an end to the practice.
“The resistance in the West Bank has begun changing its tactics and returning to
martyrdom operations to strike at the occupation within the occupied interior,”
Hamas said in a statement outlining Hanini’s announcement. “The resistance's
change in tactics is a result of the settlers and the occupation government
crossing red lines in their crimes against the Palestinian people.” Hanini also
called on the security forces of the Palestinian Authority to participate in a
popular uprising against Israeli occupation forces and settlers.
The change in strategy was announced Thursday after the killings of resistance
leaders in the West Bank. Most prominent among those killed in the Israeli
operations was Mohammed Jaber, a young Islamic Jihad commander known by
the nom du guerre Abu Shuja’a, Father of the Brave. A well-known resistance
figure whom Israel had previously claimed to have killed in April, Jaber was
reportedly killed Thursday alongside four other Palestinian fighters when Israeli
forces attacked the Nur Shams camp in Tulkarem. The Israeli military claimed
Palestinian resistance forces were storing weapons inside a mosque, but a local
official said Jaber was killed in a nearby house and that Israeli forces took his
body back to Israel. Islamic Jihad, which is a member of the Tulkarem Brigade
that Jaber led, confirmed his death. On Friday, Hamas confirmed that the Jenin
commander of Al-Qassam Brigades was also killed by Israeli forces.
While “the right to kill exists in international law,” Albanese stressed, it can only be
used “as an extreme measure when the person is posing a danger that cannot be
averted. Otherwise, it's an execution.” She added that “targeted assassinations”
of Palestinian resistance figures in occupied territory, including commanders of
armed groups, are illegal.
Albanese, citing international law, UN resolutions, and the Geneva protocols, said
that Palestinians have a right to take up arms against the invading Israeli forces.
“They are in the West Bank and technically they are defending themselves from
an unlawful occupier which takes their land.” Israel, she added, has no claim to
self defense when engaged in an unlawful invasion. In July, the International
Court of Justice issued a ruling reaffirming that Israel’s presence in the West
Bank is illegal.
More than 665 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the West Bank since
October 7. Since then, Israeli forces have carried out nearly daily raids in parts of
the West Bank. During the past 11 months, some 10,200 Palestinians in the West
Bank have been detained or imprisoned by Israel, according to the Palestinian
Prisoners Society.
Since Israel assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran earlier
this month and Yahya Sinwar consolidated his control of both the political and
military operations of Hamas, the group has stated that it won’t participate in
ceasefire negotiations under the current U.S. and Israeli imposed framework.
Hamas has charged that the U.S. is deceiving the public on the negotiations,
saying that Washington has backtracked from the proposal Biden first described
publicly in May, which Hamas said it accepted in early July. The group says the
U.S. is supporting Israel’s demand that it be allowed to continue its war on Gaza
after an initial exchange of captives and to continue occupying parts of the Strip.
Israel has named its violent incursion into the West Bank “Operation Summer
Camps.” Palestinian resistance groups have dubbed it “The Horrors of the
Camps” battle. Combined with the unceasing mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza
and the U.S. backing of Israel’s expansion of the war, the attacks on the West
Bank could prove the spark that leads to a Third Intifada. History may show it has
already begun.
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[55339] [55340] |
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55339 |
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Date: September 01, 2024 at 04:45:56
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: a serious pattern parallel w/ what's happening in the Gaza Strip... |
URL: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israeli-invasion-west-bank-parallels-gaza |
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"UN Rapporteur on Palestine tells me: “I see a serious pattern parallel with what is
happening in the Gaza Strip—patterns of torture, of destruction, of extrajudicial
killings, of uprooting that are very similar to Gaza.”"
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[55340] |
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55340 |
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Date: September 01, 2024 at 04:59:30
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: US Special Rapporteur: "It’s very clear what the U.S. is doing.” |
URL: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israeli-invasion-west-bank-parallels-gaza |
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“Israel is making up arguments to legitimize and normalize its assault. And the
U.S. is providing the most important asset," says UN Special Rapporteur
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur. “It’s very clear what the U.S. is
doing.”
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55329 |
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Date: August 30, 2024 at 15:37:33
From: akira, [DNS_Address]
Subject: out to lunch? Jesus(NT) |
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Responses:
[55330] |
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55330 |
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Date: August 30, 2024 at 17:27:24
From: ryan, [DNS_Address]
Subject: Re: out to lunch? Jesus |
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que? i don't eat lunch...but would if jesus asked me to...
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Responses:
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