/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

>>479785
>The "Biden pier" being made, solely for optics to avoid actually pressuring Israel to stop blocking aid.
Yes, that is true, the most straight forward solution would be to arm-twist an opening for the aid-trucks, but then again why not just twist a little more and make them ceasefire altogether.
Admittedly building a technological solution to bypass "unpleasant people", is still a kind of "FUCK YOU". At least if this thing delivers.

>>479789
Whether or not it's a "fuck you," it still isn't the most practical or effective way to deal with this. It also puts a bunch of American troops there.

Houthis threaten to expand attacks on ships to new waters

The leader of Yemen’s Houthis said in a televised speech that the group’s operations targeting vessels will prevent Israel-linked ships from even passing through the Indian Ocean towards the Cape of Good Hope.

About 34 Houthi members have been killed since the armed group began to attack shipping lanes in solidarity with the Palestinians in the Gaza war, the Houthis’ leader, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, added.

Israel again shoots aid seekers in Gaza City, killing at least 5

Al Jazeera Arabic’s Anas al-Sharif, our correspondent in north Gaza, is reporting an attack by Israeli forces on Palestinians seeking aid at the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City.

He says the shooting caused at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.

The Kuwait Roundabout has been the site of numerous attacks on starving Palestinians as they await the distribution of essential humanitarian assistance.

We will bring you updates on this attack as soon as we get more information.

Israeli army names soldier killed in stabbing attack

Earlier, we reported on a stabbing attack at the Beit Kama junction in southern Israel that left one person in critical condition and the attacker “neutralised”, according to Israeli police and the Israeli ambulance service.

The Israeli army has announced on its website that one of its soldiers, a 51-year-old “foreman in the technology and maintenance department”, was killed in the attack.

US, UK conduct raids in Yemen: Report

The Houthi-affiliated TV channel Al-Masirah says US and UK forces have carried out three raids on the Ras Issa area in al-Salif district of Hodeidah province.

We will bring you more on this as updates come in.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/14/israels-war-on-gaza-live-rafah-attack-coming-soon-despite-pressure

‘Who are you negotiating with if Hamas has been defeated?’

The leader of Hezbollah says Israel has already lost the war on Gaza, even if it launches a ground invasion of Rafah with the stated aim to “destroy” Hamas.

“Even if you go to Rafah, you have lost the war. Despite all the massacres, Gaza’s people will not surrender to you. The people of Gaza are still embracing the resistance,” Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech.

“Who are you negotiating with if Hamas has been defeated?” Lebanese media quoted him as saying.

“All Palestinian factions are unanimous in stopping the aggression, contrary to what is being reported that Hamas is obstructing the negotiations.”

Israeli MPs approve revised wartime budget

Israel’s parliament has adopted a revised budget for 2024 allowing for more spending to finance the war against Hamas, now in its sixth month.

The new budget passed by a vote of 62 lawmakers to 55.

It modifies the budget passed in May 2023, increasing the spending limit by 70.4 billion shekels ($19.4bn), or more than 14 percent, according to a statement from Israel’s legislature, the Knesset.

Of that amount, 55 billion shekels ($15.1bn) could be allocated to the military and 15.5 billion ($4.1bn) could go “to finance civilian needs”, the statement said.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/13/israels-war-on-gaza-live-netanyahu-vows-to-finish-the-job-in-rafah

Italy arms exports to Israel continued despite block, minister says

ROME, March 14 (Reuters) - Italy has continued to export arms to Israel, the Italian defence minister said on Thursday, despite assurances last year that the government was blocking such sales following Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip.

However, Guido Crosetto told parliament that only previously signed orders were being honoured after checks had been made to ensure the weaponry would not be used against Gaza civilians.

Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.

Crosetto announced last year following the explosion of violence in Gaza that the Italian authority which oversees the sale of military goods, known as Uama, had blocked authorisation of the transfer of arms to Israel.

However, picking apart data from statistics agency ISTAT, independent media outlet Altreconomia this week reported that Italy had exported 2.1 million euros ($2.30 million) in arms and munitions to Israel in the last three months of 2023.

In December alone, Italy exported 1.3 million euros worth of arms, three times the level of the same month in 2022.

Crosetto told parliament these were outstanding contracts. "Uama checked them on a case-by-case basis and they did not concern materials that could be used against civilians in Gaza," he said.

Francesco Vignarca, head of a national pacifist network for disarmament, said there was little clarity surrounding arms sales and criticised recent moves to reform the export law.

"With the (proposed) changes, decisions (on exports) will be more political and transparency will be reduced," he said, adding that all outstanding arms contracts to Israel needed to be suspended.

Italy's conservative government offered immediate support to Israel in the wake of the surprise Hamas attack on Oct. 7, but has since criticised the Israeli invasion of Gaza, saying far too many civilians were dying and urging an immediate ceasefire.

($1 = 0.9142 euros)

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italy-arms-exports-israel-continued-despite-block-minister-says-2024-03-14/

>>478136
This is still essential viewing if you guys haven't seen it yet.

>>479790
>it still isn't the most practical or effective way to deal with this.
The problem here is that something like this needs to be worked out, tested and optimized beforehand. However if you do that, and you have a technical solution ready to go if and when the need arises, it can be incredibly effective and fast.

There used to be medium sized military hovercraft that could carry between 3000 to 5000 tonnes and make beach-landings pretty much everywhere. If you got one of those and have it go back and forth to a large nearby cargo-ship, you can deliver massive quantities of aid within days.

Most Hovercrafts got mothballed a few decades ago, but it should be possible to work out something equally effective. It's just that we didn't prepare.

And politically speaking there are advantages in just sidelining genocidal Zionists and rendering them impotent to use starvation as a weapon. Neutralizing weaponized starvation, could mean that it won't be tried again.

>>479792
>Under Italian law, arms exports are banned to countries that are waging war and those deemed to be violating international human rights.
Israel has been condemned for violating human rights for decades, why did they ever export arms in the first place.

>>479794
Why would we prepare for a country we give billions of dollars to every year to launch a genocidal siege against its bantustan?

>And politically speaking there are advantages in just sidelining genocidal Zionists and rendering them impotent to use starvation as a weapon. Neutralizing weaponized starvation, could mean that it won't be tried again.

Sending aid by ship is unlikely to neutralize genocidal starvation. It will also take multiple weeks to build the pier, during which time more people will die of hunger. Aid groups have said it's too time-consuming and also inadequate, and there are multiple roads into Gaza, and Israel is blocking aid from going in at every one of them, but it let the trucks carrying the stuff to build this pier through.

Israel is also apparently handling aid checking at Cyprus, so they could easily just stall aid checks there once this is constructed. This also won't stop Israel from shooting people who go to collect aid, something they are already doing regularly, and it's entirely possible that US personnel are hit by Israel, too… it's happened before:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident

What's more, the US continues to supply Israel with weapons. If your city was under brutal siege and the top-arms-supplier and backer of the country performing the siege started using its military to do construction on your coast, what would you think was going on?
Even if Hamas is too smart to fire on them, there are about two months of construction to go. In a war where the US is the biggest backer of your greatest enemy, US construction in your territory would look like a further act of war. The risk of an "incident" is absurdly high, whether by "friendly fire" from Israel or by panicked Palestinians.

>>479795
I mean, this is a lot more clear-cut. Israel has been actively, continuously, and very visibly committing the greatest war crimes known to man, now, for about 5 months, to the point where nobody has any sort of refuge of deniability. Like, there's never been a point in history until this year where Israel was taken to the highest court on Earth for genocide and the judges said "yeah, probably, stop doing all these things that violate the genocide convention." This has been a clear escalation, and people aren't turning a blind eye to it anymore; instead of asking why they'd bother, now (those lamers! Don't they know I knew Israel was violating human rights before it was cool!), ask why they aren't going further and push them.

>>479791
>Israel again shoots aid seekers in Gaza City, killing at least 5

Update on this:
20 dead bodies from Israeli attack on Kuwait Roundabout at al-Shifa Hospital: Ministry

The Gaza Ministry of Health has provided another update on Israel’s shooting of aid seekers in Gaza City.

It said 20 dead Palestinians and 155 injuries have reached al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

“The wounded lie on the floor in al-Shifa Medical Complex,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that medical teams are unable to deal with the volume and nature of the injuries due to weakened medical capabilities.

We will continue to update you on this attack as we receive more information.

www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/14/israels-war-on-gaza-live-rafah-attack-coming-soon-despite-pressure

>>479797
>Why would we prepare for
>a genocidal siege
Well apparently we live in a world where genocidal sieges still happen. It's very annoying but unless you have an effective means of frustrating this, preparation to ameliorate the damage is the only option we have.

I understand that the point of building this pier is to stall and prolong the Zionist mass murder rampage. However you have to realize that we won an ideological battle here, they have to pretend that they want to help. If you invent a technological solution that can establish an adhoc supply line very quickly, political pressure will compel them to use it. If you can make it have lots of through-put and very cost efficient, it will get copied by many others and that will change the material conditions. Genocidal sieges will become less practicle as a result. I know that this is not the direct path of just using the roads to send supplies. But you have to understand the political dynamics, people only block roads if that gives them power. If you have a means to bypass their road blocks, they won't get power, and then they'll leave the roads alone.

The US military has a significant number of cost efficient cargo helicopters, specifically designed for supply drops in the field. Those can be remote controlled or onboard piloted, 50 of those could probably create an air bridge and relay the supplies of the trucks stuck behind Zionist blockades. They could delicately place large crates full of aid near the refugee camps without risking crushing people like with air-drops from planes. The pattern of IDF soldiers using aid trucks as bait for ambushing aid-seekers, could also be avoided because helis are too fast for ground troops to get into position.

There are 2 struggles in the supply situation. The first one is to get aid to the starving Palestinians, the second one is to render the Zionists incapable of using starvation as a weapon.

I understand that the overarching goal is to block the US and other countries from sending weapons to the Zionists. But that's a different type of struggle. I guess people need to set up protests in front of the weapons producers and supply-depots or something.

>>479806
>Well apparently we live in a world where genocidal sieges still happen. It's very annoying but unless you have an effective means of frustrating this, preparation to ameliorate the damage is the only option we have.
I mean, we could have just not armed/funded Israel. There were a lot of red flags up-to now which were actively downplayed by the powers-that-be. Political elites not only would have access to much of this information, they have a responsibility not to ignore or downplay it.

The thing is, they weren't going to make a decision here which would get in the way of Israel's capacity to do this, because Israel was paying them great deals of money, and they were also, many of them, making a great deal of money from the American arms industry, too. If they weren't going to see the horrible things Israel was already doing, and the horrible things Netanyahu-and-friends were saying, and pull out support for Zionism, then they certainly weren't going to prepare for Zionists to do this. The entire support model was built of denialism, and that's why they've taken so long to even pretend to give a shit about this.

>I understand that the point of building this pier is to stall and prolong the Zionist mass murder rampage. However you have to realize that we won an ideological battle here, they have to pretend that they want to help. If you invent a technological solution that can establish an adhoc supply line very quickly, political pressure will compel them to use it. If you can make it have lots of through-put and very cost efficient, it will get copied by many others and that will change the material conditions. Genocidal sieges will become less practicle as a result. I know that this is not the direct path of just using the roads to send supplies. But you have to understand the political dynamics, people only block roads if that gives them power. If you have a means to bypass their road blocks, they won't get power, and then they'll leave the roads alone.
This is nice, but just nice. I don't believe there is presently a technological solution to this issue, and I don't think that there will be for some years. There is the practical matter of the people who are dying now, and that isn't something which can wait for a workaround. That's, like, an actual place full of actual people, it can'[t ethically be treated like an experiment.

>The US military has a significant number of cost efficient cargo helicopters, specifically designed for supply drops in the field. Those can be remote controlled or onboard piloted, 50 of those could probably create an air bridge and relay the supplies of the trucks stuck behind Zionist blockades. They could delicately place large crates full of aid near the refugee camps without risking crushing people like with air-drops from planes. The pattern of IDF soldiers using aid trucks as bait for ambushing aid-seekers, could also be avoided because helis are too fast for ground troops to get into position.
Interesting. They do also fire on aid seekers with drones and (iirc) helicopters, though.

>There are 2 struggles in the supply situation. The first one is to get aid to the starving Palestinians, the second one is to render the Zionists incapable of using starvation as a weapon.
Why not solve them both with one fell swoop by not supplying the Zionists with any more weapons? It wouldn't take any less long than building the pier would.

>I understand that the overarching goal is to block the US and other countries from sending weapons to the Zionists. But that's a different type of struggle. I guess people need to set up protests in front of the weapons producers and supply-depots or something.
They're doing it. Tbh I feel like they ought to be expanding what they do in that field by now - protesting in front of weapons suppliers should have started months-ago, assuming that the protests I'm seeing now are new. There should be far more done about these deadly shipments; I only recall one group of protesters blocking them at a US port months ago, and I'd hope for more of that.

I contest that it's a different type of struggle, though - the US hasn't used any real leverage against Israel. They should be withdrawing any kind of support they can - first weapons, but then other stuff. They could sever diplomatic ties, stop trade with Israel, etc. They could even bomb an airforce base like they did when Assad was accused of committing considerably fewer war crimes, though that wouldn't be ideal!

Rather than cutting off any of its aid to Israel if Israel continues to do what it has been doing, the US has volunteered to spend billions more to clean up Israel's mess for it, which is probably not the best path for anyone. The US really has no excuse not to cut off aid, continuing to arm Israel is probably illegal.

>>479809
>It wouldn't take any less long than building the pier would.
Ups, meant it would take any more long.

Funny Cornish man has very interesting information about the True Confidence ship which the Houthis attacked.

>>479809
You are assuming that the hand that sends the bombs to Israel is the same hand that tries to send the delayed food aid to the Palestinians. Are you sure that's actually the case ? If there was an efficient way to bypass the Zionist blockade and deliver the food aid, it might just be used.
You are correct that building a efficient technological solution to get around people blocking food transports likely needs time, but the current crisis isn't going to be the only rodeo. The Zionists may try this again. Others may try to emulate them, there's people taking notes, every fucked up strategy the Zionists get away with, may get copied. While i agree that we need a right-now solution, don't try to halt these types of efforts. That stuff likely will be useful in the future.
>They do also fire on aid seekers with drones and (iirc) helicopters, though.
Oh, i didn't know, well that's fucked up. So what strategy works against that ?
>Why not solve them both with one fell swoop by not supplying the Zionists with any more weapons? It wouldn't take any less long than building the pier would.
They don't need the supply of heavy weapons to keep up the blockade, they walled off Gaza and there's only a few entry points. Besides i don't think this is that type of choice where you got the option between building a pier or ending the weapon supplies.
>They're doing it. Tbh I feel like they ought to be expanding what they do in that field by now - protesting in front of weapons suppliers should have started months-ago.
It took a while for people to figure that out.
>the US hasn't used any real leverage against Israel. They should be withdrawing any kind of support they can - first weapons, but then other stuff. They could sever diplomatic ties,
I think this will happen in time, Zionist support in the US political machine is proportional to age, they completely lost younger people. They are now trying to reshape the media landscape to make it relay more Zionist propaganda to the youth. But it's too late, sooo many people got politicized over this, they'll never accept pro-zionist media ever again. Pro Zionist talking points will be how people spot shills.
>stop trade with Israel
I doubt that'll do much, this kind of stuff doesn't personally affect the decision makers, and these people do not care otherwise.
>They could even bomb an airforce base
This doesn't sound rational. Don't just bomb some airforce base unless you have a concrete military reason for it. If the US tried to punish the Zionists by striking one of their facilities, they would likely try to attribute it on Iran and use it for escalation.

>>479816
>You are assuming that the hand that sends the bombs to Israel is the same hand that tries to send the delayed food aid to the Palestinians.

… What?
All due respect, did you read this sentence before posting it?

>If there was an efficient way to bypass the Zionist blockade and deliver the food aid, it might just be used.

1. Tell them if they block more food aid, arm more settler militias, do more genocide, you'll cut off weapons shipments
2. Cut off weapons shipments
3. They have fewer weapons to do those things with, and are facing an actual penalty from their closest ally for doing the things they've been doing.
4. Continue to cut off any benefits and relations with them if they persist.

That's it. The US has applied literally no pressure on them to stop; even past administrations have threatened actual penalties for their brutality, this one doesn't do that. The US needs to actually stop giving them free shit if it expects any of its "concerns" to be taken seriously at all.

>but the current crisis isn't going to be the only rodeo. The Zionists may try this again.

Again?
They could finish it off this time if we don't get off our asses and stop them. There is no long-game based around the possibility that they might do it "again," they are trying to destroy Palestine entirely now, and if they are not stopped then they will succeed. This isn't sports betting here, Zionism is coming to be seen more-and-more for what it is by the people of the world, and that is an intolerable ethno-Fascist ideology. Netanyahu is on a suicide mission and if we put off dealing with this then he is going to take us with him.

>Others may try to emulate them, there's people taking notes, every fucked up strategy the Zionists get away with, may get copied.

This is really understating it.
This has been allowed to happen deliberately. It's not that folks are taking notes ready to "copy" it, it's that genocidal Fascist ideology has been successfully laundered into mainstream western politics on behalf of the MIC by way of organizations like AIPAC. They've been setting this shit up way longer than you might think.

>While i agree that we need a right-now solution, don't try to halt these types of efforts. That stuff likely will be useful in the future.

Or it could literally just be a US military base. Or it could connect to that road Israel is building and be used to transport natural gas into Israel from the Gaza Marine.

The US has time and time again proven itself to be deeply untrustworthy when it comes to the intentions behind projects like this. On top of that, it's a way more expensive, way less efficient way to do this than just telling Israel "no letting aid through = no support," and we're the ones paying for it. They wouldn't halt it if I jumped in the way and yelled "stop!" and that's a problem! It's extremely suspicious to me, what they're doing, and I'm not the only one who thinks it smells fishy.

>Oh, i didn't know, well that's fucked up. So what strategy works against that ?

Stop giving them bullets is a start! No bullets, no missiles, no helicopters, no parts…

>They don't need the supply of heavy weapons to keep up the blockade, they walled off Gaza and there's only a few entry points. Besides i don't think this is that type of choice where you got the option between building a pier or ending the weapon supplies.

I mean, the weapons help.
They can't blow up aid trucks without missiles to do it with.

Also, it's just leverage. They want weapons, we have weapons, we say "keep doing what you're doing and we won't give you any weapons" and that creates pressure to do things differently. The US is, as far as I know, Israel's single biggest supplier. And if that doesn't work, then we keep going and keep not giving them other stuff. For example, the US has consistently been vetoing resolutions critical of Israel at the UN - we could stop doing that if we were serious about pressuring Israel to behave like human beings, but we haven't stopped.

And even if this process doesn't stop it immediately, it makes it harder for Israel to carry on doing this shit. Like, they've dropped something like 45,000-65,000 bombs on Gaza since October 7, and I think those were mostly made in the USA.

>I think this will happen in time, Zionist support in the US political machine is proportional to age, they completely lost younger people. They are now trying to reshape the media landscape to make it relay more Zionist propaganda to the youth. But it's too late, sooo many people got politicized over this, they'll never accept pro-zionist media ever again. Pro Zionist talking points will be how people spot shills.

The thing is, the political machine for the time being is still totally Zionist captured. This is why this whole situation is an immediate threat to folks in the USA. The cops are trained by the IDF, AIPAC has bought the entire GOP and the vast majority of the DNC (and a great deal of members of both parties are also war profiteers and co-conspirators), and these interests are essentially steering our state rightwards and buying our elections. They fully intend on cracking down on dissent by any means necessary.

>I doubt that'll do much, this kind of stuff doesn't personally affect the decision makers, and these people do not care otherwise.

I mean, it will send a message. Stopping trade stops trade. We did it with Nazi Germany.

>This doesn't sound rational. Don't just bomb some airforce base unless you have a concrete military reason for it.

I mean, I agree, but I'm just saying they did it with Assad, and Assad was doing way less bad stuff. Military intervention is also legally justified when it comes to stopping a genocide, so it's not like we'd have no excuse, and it might actually finally manage to scare Israeli leadership a bit if they thought they'd have to fight the US.

>If the US tried to punish the Zionists by striking one of their facilities, they would likely try to attribute it on Iran and use it for escalation.

This hypothesis is not very good.
No, they wouldn't blame it on Iran. FFS ordinary Israelis may be bigoted, but they aren't that stupid, the Israeli government wouldn't be able to claim that a US 'warning' attack which the US took credit for was somehow Iran's fault, plenty of Israelis can read English. They'd know who did it and why. Whether or not it would be effective might not be certain, but they'd at least know the US did it.

Gaza War Sit Rep Day 161: A Pier

Good recap and analysis on Yemen's Houthis, Rafah, the Biden pier and the logistical limitations of the current setup, Israeli prisoner exchange policy (and a recent announcement by Israel, apparently without clear evidence, that one hostage from NY had died), etc.

>>479812
Yes Cornish man seems based

There should be no shamrock for 'Genocide Joe' over his stance on Israel

Paul Murphy
The People Before Profit TD says it is unforgivable that Irish leaders are not taking a harder stand on Gaza while in the US this week.

TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR, on his annual trip to Washington DC for the St Patrick’s Day celebration, said that he felt that US President Joe Biden’s heart was in the right place on Gaza. This is a man who has cut funding to Palestinian refugees through UNRWA while continuing to be the biggest financier of the Israeli war machine.

Every night on the evening news people across the world are being presented with images of unparalleled suffering and brutality being inflicted on the Palestinian people.

Images tell a tale of shocking destruction and unimaginable conditions. Stories told of death, disease, starvation and famine are the everyday reality for the people of Gaza since Israel’s unprecedented assault on the people of this narrow stretch of land.

The sustained and unrelenting bombardment of Gaza by Israel has driven over one million people south, to Rafah. Humanitarian groups are deeply concerned that a ground offensive in the densely crowded region will be catastrophic.

US support

The US is by far the biggest supporter of military funding to Israel. Since the foundation of the State of Israel, the US has contributed $130 billion dollars in military aid. On top of the annual $4 billion in military funding, the US is giving an extra $14.5 billion this year to support the genocidal assault on Gaza.

Joe Biden has recently said rhetorically that he would consider an invasion of Rafah by Israel to be a “red line”. However, the President has refused to cut off military aid to Israel. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows this and says that he intends to press ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah.

What can be done about this situation where the largest superpower in the world is sending military aid to a regime that is committing war crimes on the people of Palestine and is unwilling to prevent atrocities from occurring?

What can Ireland do?

The Irish government will argue that it is more effective to go to Washington DC and make the diplomatic case to Joe Biden to stop military aid to Israel. But we can already see that Varadkar and others will give a very soft message. When Varadkar spoke to the political and economic elite of Washington DC at the Ireland Funds dinner, he spoke only of a duty “to bring peace and justice to the Holy Land.” Shamefully, Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill was even weaker, just encouraging “a constructive, critical partnership in terms of what is happening in the Middle East.”

All Irish acts due to play at the SXSW festival in Texas pulled out in protest at the sponsorship of the event by the US Army. Shamefully, Minister Catherine Martin broke the boycott, participating in a panel at the event.

The Irish government and other Irish politicians should follow the lead of those artists, take a principled stand and boycott the St Patrick’s Day festivities. This would send a message across America and the world that Ireland stands with the people of Palestine. It would heap the pressure on Joe Biden amongst the people of the US but crucially Irish Americans which Joe Biden needs in the upcoming Presidential Elections.

If we said today that the world should place economic sanctions and place a diplomatic boycott on apartheid South Africa, nobody would bat an eyelid. People would consider it the right thing to do to put pressure on a state that imposes a racist apartheid system on its population. Amnesty International, B’Tselem and other NGOs have reported that “Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations”.

Indeed, in the case of Apartheid South Africa, in November 1962 the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on all of its members to end economic and military relations with South Africa over its racist and apartheid policies.

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The hypocrisy of the so-called international community is on show in its double standards on Ukraine and Palestine. Economic and diplomatic sanctions have been imposed on Russia. Ursula von der Leyen and Micheál Martin described Russia’s invasion as a genocide.

Yet Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestine is either met with words of criticism, but no action, like from the Irish government, or with overt support and funding from the US and the EU. Why does the international community stand by or cheer while more than 30,000 Palestinians are massacred? Why do world leaders only offer mild mannered calls for Israel to be held to account for imposing a system of apartheid? Why are illegal settlers consistently breaching international law and further encroaching on to Palestinian land in the West Bank? And why is it okay for the US to funnel astronomical amounts of money into propping up the Israeli war machine and its economy which is built on oppression?

The difference of course is the position and interests of US imperialism. While the US administration opposes Russia as a potential rival, it supports Israel. This is why St. Patrick’s Day is so important.

No bowl of shamrock for Mr President

The case for a ceasefire, an arms embargo, and economic and political sanctions on the State of Israel has never been more urgent. Israel is imposing untold suffering, murder and starvation on the Palestinian people.

The Irish government and the Taoiseach as the leader of a country that has felt the sharp edge of colonial oppression should be taking the lead on the international stage. For the people of Palestine who have experienced so much oppression since the foundation of the State of Israel and who are currently facing genocide and a ground invasion of Rafah it would be stomach churning to see Leo Varadkar celebrating St Patrick’s Day with the leader of the state who are sanctioning this violence.

The same goes for Sinn Féin leaders who should not be meeting US leaders for St. Patrick’s Day while they fund genocide. There must be no bowl of shamrock for Genocide Joe.

Paul Murphy TD is a People Before Profit TD for Dublin South West. He was imprisoned by the Israelis after being captured on a flotilla to Gaza in 2011 while he was an MEP.

https://www.thejournal.ie/readme/shamrock-biden-gaza-6327995-Mar2024/

>>479820
>… What?
I think states are not monolithic, the many different institutions can and do act independently from one another to a great extend. So I'm not convinced that all the actions of western governments with regards to the Genocide in the Gaza war are orchestrated. I think it's entirely possible that some institutions are genuinely trying to help Palestinians with aid while others are trying destroy them with weapons.

I agree with you that the Zionist collaborators have to be compelled to halt the weapons shipments. But you make it sound like we should be doing that instead of trying to figure out ways to punch holes into the Zionist starvation curtain to make the aid-supply lines flow. Why not do both ?

I think you are dead wrong about the Zionist intentions. In the hypothetical event where they manage to complete the Palestinian genocide by murder and forced relocation. They are not going to stop, they will find new victims and continue. They will try to fence off a new group of people and subject them to the same conditions. There is a need to create the material conditions where this scheme fails to work at all.

>genocidal Fascist ideology has been successfully laundered into mainstream western politics on behalf of the MIC by way of organizations like AIPAC. They've been setting this shit up way longer than you might think.
You are correct about this, but they are on a declining trend-line. Their main source of strength comes from imperialism, which is a shrinking force in the world. As they loose the ability to prey on the periphery they will try to prey on the core. In the past they managed to remove them selves from democratic influence because they funded them selves by imperial super-profits. But when they try to shift their funding source back to the population in the core they will become subject to democratic influence again. Their attempts at maintaining power will manifest as fascistic attacks on democracy.

>I mean, I agree, but I'm just saying they did it with Assad,
I don't really understand why you see a parallel between Syria and Israel, or Assad and Netanyahu.
>Military intervention is also legally justified when it comes to stopping a genocide, so it's not like we'd have no excuse, and it might actually finally manage to scare Israeli leadership a bit if they thought they'd have to fight the US.
I think the US should just tell the Zionists they will not defend Israel against Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, etc, nor shield them from international political fallout. There is enough local power in the region to police Israel. I don't think it's wise to tie the protection of Palestinians to US military intervention.

>The thing is, the political machine for the time being is still totally Zionist captured. This is why this whole situation is an immediate threat
Yes the influence of the Zionist lobby represents a threat to democracy, but they are burning a lot of political capital to do this, if people keep pushing against them they will run out eventually. It's not in the interest of the US or any of the other western powers to have their global diplomatic standing damaged over satisfying the blood-lust of these goons.
>The cops are trained by the IDF
In the US there are a lot of unjustly imprisoned people in the private prison complex that could be deputized to help remedy a rogue police problem.
>They fully intend on cracking down on dissent by any means necessary.
Zionism is on the way out, if they destabilize the US political system with political violence as their last act, they will regret it.
>I mean, it will send a message. Stopping trade stops trade. We did it with Nazi Germany.
I don't see the point of fucking with trade, you can't punish countries or governments because they just view you as an aggressor and try to retaliate. Besides Nazi Germany was pummeled in to submission by artillery barrages and carpet bombing, not trade shenanigans.

>Military intervention is also legally justified when it comes to stopping a genocide, so it's not like we'd have no excuse.
I really have a hard time understanding what you want to get out of this. If you want to demoralize the Zionists find a way to set up a massive military field hospice in Gaza and begin rendering medical aid. If you nurse a bunch of sick and injured Palestinians back to health, that will annoy them to no end.

If you really have to missile strike something, try making a bunch of holes into the barriers that isolate Gaza. Specifically in places where the holes can be used to transport aid.

Israel’s Limits On Aid For Gaza Make U.S. Military Support Illegal, Activists Argue
Over two dozen humanitarian and human rights groups made the argument in a message exclusively obtained by HuffPost and sent to President Joe Biden, after a similar message from eight senators.
March 12

Joe Biden is committing “an apparent violation of U.S. law” by continuing to send military assistance to Israel while the nation blocks American aid for Gaza, 25 prominent humanitarian and human rights organizations argued in a Tuesday letter to the U.S. president.

In the letter, shared exclusively with HuffPost, the groups cited Biden’s decisions in recent days to airdrop aid into Gaza and launch a complex plan to build a floating pier to provide food to people there, some of whom have begun dying of malnutrition and dehydration, as an acknowledgment that Israel is impeding the delivery of crucial U.S. supplies.

“Both efforts are the latest implicit recognition of Israel’s severe restrictions on humanitarian access amid extraordinary human suffering,” reads the message, which was delivered to the U.S. National Security Council. “Your administration has now publicly recognized what humanitarian organizations have reported for months: that the government of Israel is obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians.”

The letter came after eight senators also sent Biden a missive saying Netanyahu is breaching laws governing U.S. military aid.

At question is Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, which says that presidents cannot provide military aid to foreign countries if they know those nations are barring the delivery of U.S. humanitarian relief. In the letter, the groups argued that Biden is violating the law by refusing to end “unconditional arms transfers” and other support for Israel’s ongoing deadly offensive in Gaza, which has so far killed more than 30,000 Palestinians, per local authorities.

…

The Tuesday statement represents a striking accusation from well-respected groups, ranging from rights watchdogs like Amnesty International and the Center for Civilians in Conflict, or CIVIC, to major aid bodies such as Oxfam America, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Refugees International. It will likely intensify conversations about the aid statute among key policymakers — as well as frustration among critics of Biden’s Gaza policy.

Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) have recently urged Biden to invoke the law to force Israel to change its aid approach for fear of losing irreplaceable U.S. military backing.

“About three weeks ago, I asked senior State Department officials to tell me why this law …has not been applied,” Van Hollen said on the Senate floor on Feb. 12. “I haven’t gotten an answer.”

In February, Sanders and 17 Democratic senators supported legislation from Van Hollen that cited Section 620I and would have required Biden to secure assurances from partner countries, like Israel, that they will fully cooperate with U.S. attempts to distribute aid globally. The Biden administration drew on Van Hollen’s bill to roll out a new policy governing arms transfers to nations including Israel. But analysts say it will do little to help Gaza today and could be an “empty promise” in the long run.

Well-known former Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) last week told The Independent that he believes current U.S. aid for Israel is violating a different law he championed barring assistance for military units committing major human rights abuses.

The prospect of applying Section 620I during international conflicts has previously arisen twice — but it has never been fully implemented.

Congress passed the law in the 1990s, when Turkey was restricting humanitarian assistance to Armenia as it feuded with Azerbaijan, a Turkish ally. Legislators pushed for Section 620I to be applied to Turkey — a member of NATO, which works closely with the U.S. military — and then-President Bill Clinton’s administration acknowledged that the statute was relevant, but issued a waiver to maintain military aid despite Turkish aid interference, as Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, noted on X.

And in 2017, under scrutiny from Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), then-State Department legal adviser nominee Jennifer Newstead said that the law could apply to Saudi Arabia, which was receiving U.S. military assistance as it waged war in Yemen and limited how much aid entered that country. Newstead ultimately served as State’s top lawyer from January 2018 to April 2019.

But Finucane added in a later post that the Biden administration may be loath to even acknowledge a violation while the International Court of Justice is still weighing a case on whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza; the U.S. could end up strengthening a suit that might implicate U.S. officials who are enabling the campaign. HuffPost has previously revealed that several U.S. government agencies are tracking whether Israel’s Gaza policy involves violations of international and U.S. law.

Regardless of the Biden administration’s willingness to acknowledge the law, clearly worsening conditions in the Palestinian enclave mean it cannot be ignored for good, activists and analysts argue.

“Restrictions are not isolated instances but the policy of the government of Israel,” the Tuesday letter tells Biden, citing repeated statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Israel’s denials of humanitarian requests and attacks on civilians seeking aid.

“During your own State of the Union address, you implicitly acknowledged that Israel was using humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip,” the message continues. “We demand that you urgently comply with U.S. law, end U.S. support for catastrophic human suffering in Gaza, and use your leverage to protect civilians and ensure the impartial provision of humanitarian assistance.”

The Biden administration has said that Israeli ministers in Netanyahu’s government are deliberately preventing aid from getting to Gaza.

Asked by reporters on March 6 if that assessment meant the U.S. believes Section 620I should be triggered, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said, “That’s not something that I’ve spent a lot of time looking at, but we are always engaged with Israel, as we are with all countries, about their need to fulfill all U.S. statutory requirements, and we have not made an assessment that Israel is in breach of any such statutory requirements at this time.”

Oxfam and Human Rights Watch have said that Israel is deliberately starving civilians as part of its military strategy in what would represent a war crime. Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director at CIVIC and an organizer of the Tuesday letter, told HuffPost that Biden’s current approach of unconditional support for the Israeli strategy and “insufficient” U.S. aid amounts to “a green light for more devastation.”

…

U.S. supplies for the Iron Dome system are not transferred under the law that contains Section 620I and covers most American military exports, so Biden would not risk that shield if he were to enforce the statute over Israel’s handling of humanitarian aid, according to John Ramming Chappell, an advocacy and legal fellow at CIVIC.

“The Biden administration has always been bound to comply with Section 620I — but since it has not done so to date, congressional pressure is also vital to press President Biden to immediately obey the law and ensure lifesaving aid reaches civilians living on the brink of famine,” Chappell told HuffPost.

Since Israel launched its U.S.-backed incursion following an Oct. 7 attack led by the Gaza-based Palestinian faction Hamas that killed around 1,200 people in Israel, its tactics have spurred worldwide horror. Israeli restrictions on aid — affecting both the northern section of the region, which Israel has controlled for months, and the southern town of Rafah, which it plans to capture next and where more than 1 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering — have led to mass starvation and public health crises.

U.S.-backed Israeli attacks have also killed multiple aid workers. On March 8, an Israeli airstrike killed Mousa Shawwa, an employee of the humanitarian group Anera, which signed on to the Tuesday letter to Biden.

The situation has sparked immense alarm and outrage among professional humanitarian groups, many of whom blasted Biden’s recent new proposals for Gaza.

“Oxfam does not support U.S. airdrops to Gaza, which would mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior U.S. officials,” Scott Paul of Oxfam America recently wrote on X.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aid-gaza-biden-illegal-israel-military-support_n_65f03c6ce4b02ad7de1a46fe

>>479825
In this case Biden is overseeing both the arms shipments and the convoluted aid schemes. Using denial of weapons shipments as pressure would be solve both problems, and he should have tried that before anything else; it would have been far more effective and less costly.

>I agree with you that the Zionist collaborators have to be compelled to halt the weapons shipments. But you make it sound like we should be doing that instead of trying to figure out ways to punch holes into the Zionist starvation curtain to make the aid-supply lines flow. Why not do both ?

Well, airdrops and pier-building cost incredibly large amounts of money, cost time, endanger the people assigned to work on them, and are less effective than just pressuring Israel to let trucks in by road and stop shooting at them would be. The thing is, Biden chose to do these and not apply pressure or halt arms-sales, and the president has the power to unilaterally stop arms exports and military support afaik. He instead takes the less effective, more expensive, generally worse routes without even trying the more effective one… and succeeding with the more effective one would mean not having to resort to any of these other schemes.

>I think you are dead wrong about the Zionist intentions. In the hypothetical event where they manage to complete the Palestinian genocide by murder and forced relocation. They are not going to stop, they will find new victims and continue. They will try to fence off a new group of people and subject them to the same conditions. There is a need to create the material conditions where this scheme fails to work at all.

I mean I agree with you that Netanyahu intends to keep going, but I disagree with your, uh… "conclusions" here. First off, if we're planning to let Israel exterminate the Palestinians, then we've already fucking lost. You need to be working on stopping what's going on right now, not hoping that you'll get a second chance some time in a future which is not assured. That means no arms for Israel, that's step one. Planning to only clean up their messes later is not in any way viable, it's ceding the entire region to them, and if they succeed the first time then why would they let you stop them the next time they do it?

Secondly, I just don't trust any of this. Not only do I not trust Biden's stated intentions with the pier, I also don't trust your guesstimations of possible good reasons for it based on hypothetical futures. To me it seems like ass-covering at best and a scheme to get a greater foothold in the region… at somewhat worse.

>You are correct about this, but they are on a declining trend-line. Their main source of strength comes from imperialism, which is a shrinking force in the world. As they loose the ability to prey on the periphery they will try to prey on the core. In the past they managed to remove them selves from democratic influence because they funded them selves by imperial super-profits. But when they try to shift their funding source back to the population in the core they will become subject to democratic influence again. Their attempts at maintaining power will manifest as fascistic attacks on democracy.

Well, this all sounds fair, but I do take issue with, you know, how third-person-y it sounds. Maybe that's silly… but my position is that none of this is assured. We cannot rest on an assumption that the good will triumph, it takes a great deal of work for that to actually occur, and it's work which we'll have to actually do.

>I don't really understand why you see a parallel between Syria and Israel, or Assad and Netanyahu.

I mean, I explicitly told you what the parallel was. The US used accusations of chemical weapons usage, by Assad, to bomb a Syrian base. Israel has been committing various war crimes, including using white phosphorous. If it was a valid pretext to bomb a Syrian airbase, it would be a valid pretext to bomb an Israeli one. That's the parallel.

>I think the US should just tell the Zionists they will not defend Israel against Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, etc, nor shield them from international political fallout. There is enough local power in the region to police Israel. I don't think it's wise to tie the protection of Palestinians to US military intervention.

I didn't say it was wise, but the US still looks hypocritical for not considering it. Also, again, it would be legally justifiable whether it's wise or not. The fact that the US not only refrains from any, even slight, intervention against the genocide and continues to defend Israel at the UN and send Israel weapons and bomb Yemen (and Syria, and Iraq) on Israel's behalf… points to a country which is not only shirking its legal opportunities to intervene, but actively placing itself in a position opposed to international laws against genocide. Yemen is among the only countries who appear to be following the law to the letter, and the US is bombing them for it.

>Yes the influence of the Zionist lobby represents a threat to democracy, but they are burning a lot of political capital to do this, if people keep pushing against them they will run out eventually. It's not in the interest of the US or any of the other western powers to have their global diplomatic standing damaged over satisfying the blood-lust of these goons.

The US isn't going to be retaining its power after this. Best case scenario we re-industrialize and embrace a Nordic model, but that's gonna be hard work, too!

>In the US there are a lot of unjustly imprisoned people in the private prison complex that could be deputized to help remedy a rogue police problem.

This is an interesting take.

>Zionism is on the way out, if they destabilize the US political system with political violence as their last act, they will regret it.

I mean, yeah, they will eventually regret it.

>I don't see the point of fucking with trade, you can't punish countries or governments because they just view you as an aggressor and try to retaliate. Besides Nazi Germany was pummeled in to submission by artillery barrages and carpet bombing, not trade shenanigans.

Ok, well, it should still be on the table. That's the thing, they should be looking at, and pursuing, the options they've got - if trade isn't effective, that doesn't mean they can't consider it, because it's still a potential tool.

>I really have a hard time understanding what you want to get out of this. If you want to demoralize the Zionists find a way to set up a massive military field hospice in Gaza and begin rendering medical aid. If you nurse a bunch of sick and injured Palestinians back to health, that will annoy them to no end.

I'm just saying, it would be legal. In fact, not intervening is arguably less legal for a (current) world power like the US than intervening would be. I'm not endorsing intervention, just pointing out that the US is obliged to stop genocide and it's actively avoiding doing anything to stop supporting genocide instead.

And, again, I think that applying pressure to Israel directly is a better use of finite time and resources than trying to keep cleaning up after them. We shouldn't be focusing on annoying them at all, let alone spending millions-to-billions of dollars to do so.

>If you really have to missile strike something, try making a bunch of holes into the barriers that isolate Gaza. Specifically in places where the holes can be used to transport aid.

Yes, actually! This also would be reasonable!
We could literally bomb the walls down.

An actually good The Hill segment from a few days ago covering the recent TikTok ban insanity. Includes the extremely funny quote ""October 7th really opened people's eyes to what's happening on tiktok"

Houthis, Hamas discuss ‘expanding confrontations’ with Israel in event of Rafah invasion

We reported earlier that senior figures from Hamas and Yemen’s Houthi rebels held a rare meeting to discuss coordinating their actions against Israel, according to unnamed sources cited by the AFP news agency.

The agency has now reported that the discussions revolved around the possibility of “expanding confrontations and encircling” Israel.

A Palestinian source requesting anonymity said those present discussed the “complementary role of Ansar Allah [the Houthis] alongside Palestinian factions, especially in the event of an Israeli offensive on Rafah”.

Houthi attacks on Red Sea ships since the start of the war have disrupted global trade in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The Houthis, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group are all part of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance” hostile to Israel and the United States that also includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and armed groups in Iraq.

Egypt demands Israel to remove restrictions on entry of aid into Gaza through land ports

Ahmed Abu Zeid, the spokesperson of the Egyptian foreign ministry, has said in a statement on Facebook that his country “appreciates and welcomes every effort aimed at alleviating the humanitarian suffering of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.

He thanked “all international and regional parties that contributed to facilitate the arrival of such aid across the maritime corridor”.

Abu Zeid added that “Egypt continues to make all efforts to strengthen the delivery of urgent aid to the sector through the Rafah Crossing and through the air descent.”

He said Egypt is demanding “Israel to remove barriers and restrictions on the entry of aid through land ports, and calling on it to operate the rest of the crossings to bring in more aid to avoid the worsening of the humanitarian situation in Gaza”.

PNC calls on Palestinian factions to take unified stance after dispute over PM appointment appointment

Rawhi Fattouh, the president of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), has criticised the divisions among Palestinian factions about the appointment of Mohammed Mustafa as prime minister.

The representative of the PNC, the highest authority in the PLO considered to be the parliament of all Palestinians, said no one had the right to challenge or object to the president’s constitutional and legal powers.

The decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday to appoint Mustafa to form a new government met criticism by Hamas. In response, Fatah accused Hamas of “having caused the return of the Israeli occupation of Gaza” by “undertaking the October 7 adventure”.

Fattouh called on Palestinian factions to take a unified national stance to avoid “exacerbating the catastrophe lived by our people, especially in the Gaza Strip”, the Wafa news agency reported, and move away from “divisions that only serve the Israeli occupation”.

Israel shoots suspected gunman dead after Hebron attack

A gunman, who allegedly opened fire on an illegal Israeli settlement in Hebron in the occupied West Bank, has been shot dead by Israeli soldiers, according to the Israeli military.

No Israelis were injured and no damage was caused from the attack, the Israeli military statement said.

Hebron, the largest city in the West Bank, has a military-protected Israeli settlement of about 700 people. It has been a longstanding flashpoint of tension in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Hezbollah claims hitting Israel’s Ramim barracks with Burkan missiles

Lebanon’s Hezbollah armed group has said it carried out an attack on the Ramim barracks of the Israeli military near the Lebanon-Israel border with two Burkan missiles.

The incident took place at 1:04pm local time (11:04 GMT), its statement on Telegram said.

It did not say whether there were any casualties.

Israeli military brigade claims killing 250 Palestinian fighters in two weeks

The Israeli military says one of its main infantry brigades – the Nahal Brigade – has killed 250 Palestinian fighters in central Gaza over the past two weeks.

This includes those killed from air strikes, tank fire, and close-quarters combat, according to an Israeli military statement.

Over the same period, Israeli attacks continued to kill dozens of civilians in Gaza each day, including many women and children, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.

Since the war broke out in Gaza on October 7, a total of 31,553 people have been killed in the enclave, representing about one of every 73 residents there.

Terrifying strikes hit overcrowded Nuseirat camp

Tareq Abu Azzoum

The latest Israeli attacks have focused on the Nuseirat camp in the central part of Gaza.

At least 36 people were killed overnight in one strike alone and many of the victims were women and children.

Attacks on the Nuseirat camp have renewed this morning, killing at least seven people.

They are taking place in a small space that is densely populated, and Israel does not take any precautions to protect civilians, so this is absolutely terrifying.

Gaza death toll rises to 31,553: Ministry

The number of people killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since the start of the war has risen to 31,553, the Health Ministry in Gaza says.

An additional 73,546 have been wounded, according to a statement by the ministry on X.

In the past 24 hours, 63 people have been killed and 112 wounded, it added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/16/israels-war-on-gaza-live-will-the-netanyahu-government-attack-rafah

VIDEO: Electronic Intifada: Why does Israel endorse the Gaza port?

>>479828
The Irony in all of this, is the very same national security censorship cudgel will end up getting used to kill off the pro-Zionist media. Because that's the political lesson they are now teaching all those young people. It'll be easy to make an argument that Zionism is an adversarial national security dingdong, to use the technical term.

I'm still hoping that people wake up to the need of censorship resistant media technology and legal frameworks, and choose that instead of retaliatory censorship.

Holy shit

>>479827
>In this case Biden is overseeing both the arms shipments and the convoluted aid schemes.
On further investigation it seems that the pier building might be part of a scheme to circumvent UNWRA. So yeah.
>Well, airdrops and pier-building cost incredibly large amounts of money, cost time, endanger the people assigned to work on them, and are less effective than just pressuring Israel to let trucks in by road and stop shooting at them would be.
You think this is a political problem, and Israel should be compelled to stop using it's ability to starve the Palestinians. And at present you might be correct about this. However i think that Israel having the power to starve the Palestinians is a problem all by it self, even if they can be compelled to not use it.
If we can find a technical solution to negate this medieval siege strategy, starvation as a means of power will disappear. The inability to wield starvation as a weapon has to be considered the default state of normalcy we want. A technological workaround against weaponized starvation, will be better and more enduring than perpetually bullying horrible people like the Zionists to behave like civilized people.

As for the technical part, there are a lot more avenues that haven't been tried yet. Maybe it's possible to get china to donate 5000 little cargo drones that can lift about a pound, that should enable dropping 1 aid package per person every 2 days for 2 million people. Lets say you need 5000k calories for 2 days worth of rations, that's doable within a pound. You would also need at least 10000 volunteers to remote controle the drones in 2 shifts. Plus about 100 people doing technical support.

>if we let Israel exterminate the Palestinians, then we've already fucking lost.
If we consider our selves on the side of trying to improve conditions for the thriving human life, we're clearly not succeeding. However the Zionists murdering the Palestinians isn't a "victory condition" for them, the Nazis didn't win by holocausting the Jews either. The Struggle against Zionism would just intensify.
>no arms for Israel
I agree with that
>Planning to only clean up their messes later is not in any way viable
You don't understand the point isn't to clean up after them. The point is to create a world with material conditions where atrocities like this are infeasible.
>it's ceding the entire region to them, and if they succeed the first time then why would they let you stop them the next time they do it?
You speak as though the Zionists were winning. You don't win wars by slaughtering civilians. The Palestinian resistance fighters are not being defeated by this. By any measure the Zionists are destroying the viability of Israel as a state, they'll become a rogue state, that will disintegrate after a short while.
>I'm just saying, it would be legal. In fact, not intervening is arguably less legal for a (current) world power like the US than intervening would be. I'm not endorsing intervention, just pointing out that the US is obliged to stop genocide and it's actively avoiding doing anything to stop supporting genocide instead.
I'm confused, the US just has to stop sending them weapons, that's enough to make this stop.
>I think that applying pressure to Israel directly is a better use of finite time and resources than trying to keep cleaning up after them. We shouldn't be focusing on annoying them at all, let alone spending millions-to-billions of dollars to do so.
The Zionist destroyed the hospitals in Gaza, therefore it would be a good idea to set up a military field hospital to ameliorate the lack of medical facilities.

>>479829
>Yemen’s Houthi rebels held a rare meeting to discuss coordinating their actions against
<an outpost of the galactic empire in the Israel star system.
<Where Darth Netanyahu is slaughtering the indigenous inhabitants of planet Palestine
>The Houthis, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group are all part of the Iran-backed “axis of resistance”
Why do they write these articles like a star wars prologue?

Chile has uninvited Israeli weapons producers from a large globally important tech convention, because of Gaza. That will likely cut into their arms sales profits.

Are measures like this effective ?

>>479831
What were they trying to achieve by sending the helicopter gunship ?
Those are meant to destroy things like tank columns. Not sort out hostage situations.

>>479833
It just evokes the comparison tbh. Star Wars being based on WWII and Vietnam also helps.

>>479842
On that note, the weirdest Star Wars parallel is imo the one with the dogshit writing in the last art of the sequel trilogy. "Somehow, Darth Sidius came back" really doesn't seem like such a dumb twist when you realize that Israel is blatantly Fascist and has just been hanging around with US support for decades. "What the fuck, the emperor is back and he's building… another death star?!!!11" is about the same level of creative laziness as has been employed by actual life.

>>479834
>Are measures like this effective ?
Yes.
Literally anything you can do to impact:
1. Israel's arms sector
2. Israel's arms supply/imports
is effective, and more people should do it. If your government isn't doing that, then organize and take it up yourself.

>>479838
Good question!
Probably this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive

>>479843
Honestly shocked that there's a Wikipedia article on this. Wikipedia is an absolute cesspit of lies and propaganda on any other contemporary geopolitics subject.

Dimitri Lescaris - Yemen's Red Sea attacks sink Israel's Red Sea port

>>479844
Wiki really isn't that bad imo. Like, it's not perfect by any means at all, it has tons of flaws, and obviously there are intelligence agencies, Hasbarists, etc. constantly actively fucking with it, but loads of info gets through. Should be better, could be way, way worse.

How does this twerp get keeping invited to serious academic debates? I'm totally baffled by it. The breadth of his debating skills seems to be talking fast and trying to make his opponents angry (Norm admittedly took the bait here). Should we blame Professor Richard Wolff for giving him that economics lesson one time, and thus lending him some legitimacy on politics? I just don't get it. He's not even good at video games.

>>479850
Tbh I'm not convinced that Norm calling these guys morons is even a liability at this point, he keeps getting paired with idiots who are so blatantly so far out of their depth, and yet insist on pretending like they aren't. Destiny is literally just some chronic masturbator who does this to get off.

Entire Gaza population now 100 percent severely food insecure

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken highlighted Gaza’s deteriorating food situation where hundreds of thousands of people face famine.

“According to the most respected measure of these things, 100 percent of the population in Gaza is at severe levels of acute food insecurity. That’s the first time an entire population has been so classified,” said Blinken during an official visit to the Philippines.

“We also see, according to the United Nations, 100 percent the totality of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance. Compare that to Sudan; about 80 percent of the population there is in need of humanitarian assistance; Afghanistan, about 70 percent.”

Humanity needs to ‘look at ourselves in horror and dismay’

South Africa accused Israel of setting a precedent for some world leaders to defy the top UN court as she again alleged a campaign of “mass starvation” in Gaza.

Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said Israel defied a January ruling by the International Court of Justice to prevent “acts of genocide” during its bloody war.

“The provisional measures have been entirely ignored by Israel,” Pandor said at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC.

“We’re seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes. I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example.”

Israel’s actions may mean other nations will believe “there’s licence – I can do what I want and I will not be stopped.”

At least 23 dead in Israeli attack on Gaza aid committee

Al Jazeera’s correspondent and local Palestinian sources say that at least 23 people were killed in the Israeli army’s attack on the Kuwaiti roundabout in the south of Gaza City.

The attack was directed at a tribal committee coordinating the distribution of aid in Gaza City, and our correspondent says they were at a location belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), deemed “safe” from attack.

New video challenges Israeli explanation for killing Gaza journalists

An investigation by The Washington Post is raising “critical questions” about Israeli justification for the killing of two journalists in Gaza in January.

Hamza Dahdouh, the eldest son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, was killed in an Israeli missile attack in Khan Younis, along with another journalist Mustafa Thuraya and their driver. Two others were seriously wounded.

In a statement following the attack, the Israeli army said a military aircraft “identified and struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to [Israeli] troops”. It added, “We are aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit.”

According to The Post, the journalists were operating a consumer model drone to capture footage of a building hit during Israeli bombardment. The video from Thuraya’s drone, obtained by The Post, showed no “Israeli soldiers, aircraft, or other military equipment” were visible.

The newspaper also interviewed witnesses and colleagues of the reporters, who provided detailed accounts.

“The Post found no indications that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day. Both passed through Israeli checkpoints on their way to the south early in the war. Dahdouh had recently been approved to leave Gaza, a rare privilege unlikely to have been granted to a known militant,” it said.

Despite global claims, US says Israel not using starvation as a weapon of war

US Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel has told reporters that the US has “not yet seen conclusive evidence indicating that Israel is using starvation as a weapon in the Gaza war”.

These comments come as top officials of the EU, UN and major NGOs worldwide have accused Israel of weaponising hunger in its war on Gaza.

Yesterday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that the widespread starvation in the Gaza Strip is “unacceptable”.

Starvation is being used as “a weapon of war”, said Borrell.

Also, in a new report, UK charity Oxfam said Israel’s policies of obstructing aid are creating the “perfect storm for humanitarian collapse”, and earlier today a spokesman for the UN’s human rights office said that these policies may amount to a war crime.

Still, the State Department’s Vedant said that the US is “concerned” about a UN-backed report, which found that famine is imminent in Gaza.

Top Trump adviser: ‘Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable’

Video has emerged of Jared Kushner, former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law who served as one of the chief Middle East dealmakers during Trump’s tenure in the White House, giving his vision for the future of post-war Gaza during an interview at Harvard University.

“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable … if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner told Harvard Professor Tarek Masoud on March 8.

Kushner also said that it’s a shame that “all the money” in the territory went towards building tunnel networks and arms instead of education and “innovation”.

He suggested that, were he in charge, he would move civilians in Gaza to somewhere in the Negev desert while Gaza is “cleaned up.”

“I do think right now opening up the Negev, creating a secure area there, moving the civilians out, and then going in and finishing the job would be the right move,” he said.

When asked if this is something that’s being discussed by decision-makers in Israel and the US, Kushner did not elaborate.

“I’m sitting in Miami Beach right now,” Kushner said. “And I’m looking at the situation and I’m thinking: What would I do if I was there?”

Should Donald Trump be re-elected to the US presidency this November, Kushner could again feature prominently in his administration. His comments give a window into what Trump’s policy on Palestine could be during his second term.

‘Unimpeded’ access of food, medical supplies needed for Gaza: World Bank

The bank has called for “urgent action” to deal with the hunger crisis in Gaza.

“We join the international community in calling for immediate, free, and unimpeded access of medical supplies, food and life-essential services through all available means at speed and scale to the people of Gaza,” it said in a statement.

Israel says ‘dozens’ killed at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital

The Israeli army has alleged that it also apprehended some 300 people during its operations at the largest hospital in the coastal enclave.

“The forces apprehended dozens of prominent Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists at the Shifa Hospital, involved in directing terrorist activities in Judea and Samaria, and operatives in the Rocket Unit of Islamic Jihad,” it said in a post on X.

The Israeli army on Monday launched a new attack on al-Shifa, raiding and opening fire on the facility where thousands are taking shelter.

Hezbollah attacks Israeli positions near Lebanese border

The Lebanese armed group says it struck Israeli positions at Baranit site in southern Lebanon.

Fighters also targeted Israeli soldiers and a military logistical vehicle on al-Tayhat Hill by a guided missile, which the group said led to an unknown number of casualties.

Moreover, the group said it hit Israeli soldiers at the al-Malikiyah site in southern Lebanon with missiles.

Exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah have largely remained confined to border regions, but several Israeli bombings on Lebanese territory have hit areas further north in recent weeks, raising fears of a full-blown conflict.

Israel’s Lieberman calls for war on Lebanon

Opposition lawmaker Avigdor Lieberman has called on Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war cabinet to take the war to Lebanon, as Hezbollah and Israel trade fire across the border.

“After 165 days it is clear to everyone that the Israeli government has given up the north,” Lieberman said in a post on X.

Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah began trading fire at the beginning of the war on Gaza. Some 80,000 residents have been displaced from northern Israel due to incoming rockets.

“I call on the war cabinet, the chief of staff and the general of the northern command to come to their senses and transfer the war to the enemy’s territory,” Netanyahu’s former defence minister added.

‘Time has long passed’: US must end arms sales to Israel, HRW and Oxfam say

The US should immediately suspend arms transfers to Israel, Oxfam and Human Rights Watch (HRW) say, citing evidence that Israel is violating international law.

“There are good reasons why US law prohibits arms support for governments that block life-saving aid or violate international law with US weapons,” Sarah Yager, HRW’s Washington director, said in a statement. “Given ongoing hostilities in Gaza, the Israeli government’s assurances to the Biden administration that it is meeting US legal requirements are not credible.”

The organisations submitted a report to the US government listing a wide range of Israeli violations of international law, including indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks on or near hospitals and systematic blocking of humanitarian assistance, despite Israeli assurances to the contrary.

“The time has long passed for the Biden administration to end lethal arms sales to Israel, and we call on them to do so now and work to end the death and suffering in Gaza,” Scott Paul, associate director for peace and security at Oxfam America, said in a statement.

Israeli aggression against civilians as means of pressure won’t work: Hamas official

Izzat al-Rishq, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, has said that the Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings is “evidence of the state of confusion that [Israeli PM Benjamin] Netanyahu and his army are living in”.

He added that “the victory that Netanyahu imagines is a mirage and a distant dream thanks to the steadfastness of our people and our valiant resistance”.

Al-Rishq also said Israel’s attempt to use the escalation of “barbaric aggression” against civilians as a means of pressure to achieve its goals would not work.

Houthis say fired missiles at US tanker in Red Sea, southern Israel

Yemen’s Houthi rebels have launched naval missiles at a US tanker — the Mado — in the Red Sea, according to spokesperson Yahya Sarea.

He also said the group fired winged missiles at Israel’s coastal region of Eliat, which borders the Red Sea,

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Houthis have pledged to continue attacks on Israeli, US, or British-linked warships in the Red Sea as long as Israel continues its war on Gaza.

Last week, senior Houthi and Hamas leaders held a rare meeting to discuss ways to coordinate their “resistance” during the war, according to reports.

‘Israel has launched Rafah invasion quietly to avoid international reactions’

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel began its aggression on Rafah without announcing the move to avoid international reactions.

In a statement, the ministry condemned the escalating bombardment and systematic destruction carried out by the Israeli forces in Rafah, saying that by carrying out these attacks, Israel is purposely ignoring international warnings about the danger of invading the city.

The population of Rafah has swelled to about 1.5 million, which includes hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the centre and northern areas of the Gaza Strip.

Gaza death toll climbs

At least 31,819 people have been killed and 73,934 wounded by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 7, according to the latest figures shared by the Health Ministry.

The statement added that 93 people were killed and 142 wounded in the past 24 hours.

The West is giving Israel weapons while discussing delivering aid to Gaza

Simon Speakman Cordall

As lawmakers across much of the West debate the extent to which Israel may be hampering the passage of life-saving aid into Gaza, the weapons exports that underpin much of Israel’s war on the besieged enclave continue to flow.

Since the war began, the volume of weapons entering Israel has increased as huge volumes of ordinance are used to flatten areas of Gaza as well as kill, maim and displace its civilian population.

“On the one hand, we have this dire humanitarian need, on the other hand, we have this continual supply of weapons to the country Israel, [which is] creating that need,” Akshaya Kumar, director of crisis advocacy at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said.

While “Western states have recently been going to great lengths to have Israel recognise its role in creating the suffering we’re seeing in Gaza”, she said, “we’re not seeing any corresponding reduction in the flow of weapons from states such as the US, Germany and beyond”.

How the uncommitted vote against Biden’s Gaza policy is going ‘national’


Joseph Stepansky
Reporting from Washington, DC

[/i]The organisers of Listen to Michigan – an effort to protest against Joe Biden’s policy towards Israel’s war in Gaza – have a message for the United States president: The conflict is not a “niche” issue for only some segments of the political left.

Listen to Michigan emerged earlier this year as a grassroots movement focused on the state’s primary. It called on voters to cast “uncommitted votes” instead of backing Biden’s re-election effort, in an attempt to signal displeasure over the president’s stance on the war.

But that movement has kicked off a domino effect in other key states, with similar “protest votes” emerging. On Monday, Listen to Michigan unveiled plans to take its campaign to the national stage.

Al Jazeera journalist describes ordeal in Israeli custody

Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded.

“The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us for about 12 hours from the early morning to the afternoon, until the arrival of Israeli military intelligence units,” he said.

“They interrogated the journalists that work at this location. We were left in the room we were kept in, where we stayed for several hours, in cold conditions, naked and blindfolded.”

Al-Ghoul said that he has heard that some of his colleagues have been released but he does not have enough information on their whereabouts to confirm any details.

Israel has issued 100,000 new gun licences since October 7

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has announced approving 100,000 new gun licences since Hamas’s attacks on October 7.

“This week, we reached a milestone at the National Security Ministry: The 100,000th citizen received their firearms license,” Ben-Gvir said at the Israeli parliament, according to The Times of Israel. He made the announcement standing in front of a poster with an image of a handgun and the slogan “100K Israelis armed”.

“In fact, out of 299,354 applications submitted since the war… more than 100,000 citizens have already been approved to arm themselves, because weapons save lives,” he was quoted as saying.

Former Israeli PM hails Chuck Schumer’s call for new elections

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has labelled US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a “great friend of Israel” for calling for an election to be held to replace Netanyahu, The Times of Israel reported.

Olmert, a vocal Netanyahu critic, sent a letter to Schumer praising him for the “courage that you have showed in saying [what] so many of us Jews across the world and traditional supporters of Israel feel today”.

He added that the “prime minister of Israel is not worthy of the responsibilities bestowed upon him”.

Schumer, the US’s highest-ranking Jewish politician, said last week that Israel must make “significant course corrections” to achieve lasting peace, adding that “so many Israelis have lost their confidence” in Netanyahu’s government.

US ‘complicit in starvation of Palestinians’, says UN expert

Michael Fakhri, the UN special rapporteur for the right to food, has urged the United States to do more to end the ongoing hunger and starvation crisis in Gaza.

“If the US was very serious about preventing famine, it would pressure Israel for a ceasefire. It would no longer supply weapons and financial support to Israel,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The United States is complicit in this starvation of the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Fakhri said US airdrops and plans to build a temporary pier on the coast of Gaza were largely a political move.

“It might alleviate hunger for a small number of people and for a very short amount of time but in the grand scheme of things, these are political performances done for political purposes,” he added.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/19/israels-war-on-gaza-live-israel-holds-al-jazeera-reporter-for-12-hours

UNRWA chief says visit to Gaza rejected by Israeli authorities

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), says Israeli authorities have denied him entry into Gaza.

“UNRWA has by far the largest presence among all humanitarian organisations in Gaza. My visit today was supposed to coordinate & improve the humanitarian response,” Lazzarini wrote on X, noting that the Israeli authorities’ move happened on the day that new data on famine in Gaza were released.

“This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity. Too much time was wasted, all land crossings must open now. Famine can be averted with political will.”

Knesset member: Marwan Barghouti’s life in danger in Israeli prison

Palestinian-Israeli politician and Israeli parliament member Ahmad Tibi says the life of prominent Palestinian prisoner Marwan Barghouti is in danger inside the country’s prison system.

He told a press briefing that Barghouti has been beaten at least twice this month in solitary confinement, once on March 6 and again on March 12. He also said several Palestinian prisoners have died behind bars recently, with families and judges saying their bodies bore marks of torture.

“If Marwan Barghouti and all the prisoners are harmed, the responsibility will be on the Israeli government,” Tibi said.

“The responsibility will be on the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The prison manager is also responsible for everything that happens to him, as is [Israeli Prison Service] Shabak.”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/3/18/israels-war-on-gaza-live-ceasefire-push-as-rafah-invasion-looms

>>479855
>Humanity needs to ‘look at ourselves in horror and dismay’
>“We’re seeing mass starvation now and famine before our very eyes. I think we, as humanity, need to look at ourselves in horror and dismay and to be really worried that we have set an example.”
>Israel’s actions may mean other nations will believe “there’s licence – I can do what I want and I will not be stopped.”
This might be unfortunately true.

That said the Zionist conducted genocide is also destroying Israel as a state, and the viability of pro-Zionist politics in the west.

>>479855
>‘Israel has launched Rafah invasion quietly to avoid international reactions’
>The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Israel began its aggression on Rafah without announcing the move to avoid international reactions.
Yeah that probably won't work.

This Lee Camp episode shows Israelis pouring concrete into a well… in the West Bank!

Also, at around 41 minutes, he cites Electronic Intifada (citing the Jerusalem Post) that Netanyahu had actually come up with the Biden pier in October, before the pressure over the man-made famine.

Novara -
Irish PM/Taoiseach Leo Varadkar suddenly resigns - why?

Canada halts arms transfers to Israel.

Netanyahu suggests in the Knesset that the Biden pier can be used to remove Gazans.

Jared Kushner, currently drooling over Gaza real estate, was a family friend of Netanyahu in the 1990s.

Trade unionists in Scotland and England blockade major UK arms factories.

Skip to 23:46 for a hilarious sequence of Yosse Landau (of ZAKA) being asked if he has a photo of a crime scene which he claims occurred on Oct. 7 (but which doesn't match any of the known victims from that day), claiming he does have a photo, offering to show the photo to journalists (as long as they don't show it on camera), and then none of the photos he has actually match his description of the scene.

Pro-Israel online influencing operation has been targeting UNRWA: Report

A new report says a network of fake accounts across multiple platforms has been promoting Israeli attacks on the United Nations agency.

Washington, DC – An online influencing operation using fake social media accounts has targeted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), according to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which cited a new report from a disinformation watchdog.

Fake Reporter, an Israeli group that studies online disinformation, found that the accounts echoed Israeli government accusations about links between the UN agency and Hamas, spreading them in comments on social media websites.

As described by Haaretz, the report — released in Hebrew — says the influencing campaign relied on a network of hundreds of social media accounts, as well as three newly created “news websites”, to promote pro-Israel narratives.

But in recent weeks, the influence campaign has focused its efforts on UNRWA, an agency that supports Palestinian refugees.

The report showed that the fake accounts have been replying to posts from United States legislators and Western media outlets with screenshots of a Wall Street Journal story claiming connections between the UN agency and Hamas.

“The people targeted the most with such comments by the campaign’s avatars were American politicians, specifically the social media accounts of Democratic lawmakers, and accounts considered pro-Israel,” the Haaretz article reads.

“An analysis of the campaign’s content over the span of the war reveals that UNRWA has been the single most popular topic.”

That Wall Street Journal report on UNRWA, which relied entirely on uncorroborated Israeli accusations, was co-authored by a former Israeli soldier.

Marc Owen Jones, an expert in online influence campaigns and an associate professor of Middle East studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, had also noted the same network of fake accounts last month.

“Discovered hundreds of sock puppets promoting Israeli propaganda on X, Threads, FB & Insta. It also includes ‘fake’ websites,” Jones wrote in a series of social media posts on February 2.

“Recently, it has been spreading anti-UNRWA #disinformation, & trying to undermine solidarity between Palestinians & Black people.”

The fake accounts, which Jones described as a “massive cross platform pro-Israel deception operation”, come at a time when Israel is aggressively pushing to end the mandate of UNRWA.

>>479871
How so?

>>479877
src: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/19/pro-israel-online-influencing-operation-has-been-targeting-unrwa-report

UK workers blockade factories accused of sending arms to Israel

Trade unionists in the UK are blockading weapons factories accused of alleged arms sales to Israel amid the devastating Gaza war.

Hundreds of trade unionists and workers have shut down arms factories in England and Scotland accused of supplying the Israeli military with essential components or weapons.

The action's stated aim is to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it prepares for a ground invasion of Rafah and to urge the UK government to support an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the workers' groups said.

It follows the Canadian government's announcement on Tuesday that it will halt future arms sales to Israel, having already reduced its weapons shipments to Israel to non-lethal equipment, such as radios, following the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Israel's war on Gaza has killed around 32,000 Palestinians, the vast majority women and children, while a blockade has led to deaths by starvation.

Workers, including teachers and artists who are members of trade unions, are shutting down GE Aviation Systems in Cheltenham and Leonardo UK in Edinburgh – factories that produce components for F-35 fighter jets, the world's most advanced fighter jet.

A Leonardo spokesperson told The New Arab: "This morning a group of protestors assembled outside the Edinburgh site. The safety and wellbeing of our employees, contractors, and neighbours is our first priority. Police were in attendance. Leonardo UK complies fully with all the UK Government's export control protocols, the legal obligations and the processes in place to operate those protocols."

When asked whether the company provides components for the F-35 used by the Israeli air force, Leonardo UK told The New Arab they supply "F35 components to our customer in the United States".

GE Aviation did not respond to a request for comment by The New Arab by the time of publication.

"Israel is on the brink of invading the very area they told the people of Gaza it was safe for them to flee to. Such atrocities could not take place without the political and military support of governments like Britain," says Zad, a housing support worker and union member taking part in the blockade in Cheltenham.

"We're demanding our government follows in Canada's footsteps by immediately halting arms supplies to Israel before it launches this offensive in Rafah using British-made bombs," Zad added, highlighting that the workers are taking action themselves to stop the flow of arms to Israel before an assault on Rafah.

The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) found that 15 percent of the components of every F-35 that Israel uses in its war on Gaza is made by firms within the British arms industry, which is estimated to have brought in at least £336 million since 2016.

Cam, a resident taking part in the Edinburgh blockade, said: "We can't allow arms being used to massacre Palestinians to be supplied in our name and funded by our taxes, and as local residents we don't want murder being manufactured on our doorstep. It makes us feel complicit."

"We don't blame the workers at these sites. We blame the bosses who decide to sell these components to Israel so they can be used in an ongoing genocide."

These blockades are part of plans for a month of disruptive direct action, answering a call by Palestinian unionists for workers worldwide to help stop their governments' complicity in war crimes being committed by Israel.

Campaigners in the UK have called on the government to end its complicity in the war on Gaza.

London is considering restricting some arms exports to Israel, believing Israel could breach international humanitarian law if it were to launch a ground invasion of Rafah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have sought refuge.

The campaigners note the criteria is the same obligation as that of the Netherlands, where a Dutch court in February ordered a halt to parts for F-35 fighter jets Israel is using in Gaza.

The UK government's arms export criteria include halting exports where there is a "clear risk" that such weapons might be used to violate international humanitarian law.

https://www.newarab.com/news/uk-workers-block-factories-accused-sending-arms-israel

>>479874
>Israelis pouring concrete into a well… in the West Bank!
I mean they're just going to dig another well. And when the cement is dried it can be chiseled into bricks for building material. But the level of mental derangement necessary for attacking life-support systems. Wow.

>>479875
>Netanyahu suggests in the Knesset that the Biden pier can be used to remove Gazans.
So Genocide Ben wants it to be a deportation-pier.

>>479877
>influencing operation has been targeting UNRWA
The Zionist propaganda narrative pushers stand out like a sore thumb, the dumb fucks are so incredibly pushy, aggressive and downright grating, that they generate anti-zionism as a core value in people they touch.

I think the article somewhat misses the core of the problem. The problem isn't that they can create sock puppet accounts on social media to spread bullshit, the problem is that they're a military using information war-fare tactics against civilian populations. This is a problem in the military hierarchy failing their responsibility.

>How so?
People will realize what's going on anyway, and the Zionist silence will be understood as malicious intent.

>>479881
>So Genocide Ben wants it to be a deportation-pier.
Sounds like it, yeah.
>>479882
>The Zionist propaganda narrative pushers stand out like a sore thumb, the dumb fucks are so incredibly pushy, aggressive and downright grating, that they generate anti-zionism as a core value in people they touch.
Hasbarists are remarkably similar to Swarmfront.
>I think the article somewhat misses the core of the problem. The problem isn't that they can create sock puppet accounts on social media to spread bullshit, the problem is that they're a military using information war-fare tactics against civilian populations. This is a problem in the military hierarchy failing their responsibility.
This is true. The fact that they have such a huge dedicated propaganda wing is an obvious problem, and it's a fact which their quislings in the west deliberately ignore.