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"There’s no “collateral damage” in Gaza. Collateral damage is when you unintentionally kill civilians. You can’t drop military explosives on places you know are densely packed with children and then call their deaths unintentional. It’s like calling the death and destruction caused by Hiroshima and Nagasaki unintentional."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

The US Is Just As Culpable As Israel For The Atrocities Committed In Gaza

The Israeli government dropped thousands of leaflets on Gaza telling everyone who lives in the northern part of the strip that they have 24 hours to evacuate to the southern part, and then bombed the people who were trying to evacuate.

United Nations spokesman Stephane Dujarric denounced the evacuation order, saying the UN “considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences.” Many Palestinians have said they’re going to stay where they are because they have nowhere safe to go, despite being told by Israel they must leave if they want to “save their lives”.

We’re about to see the death and destruction get much, much worse in Gaza, and it’s already very, very bad. As of this writing the official death toll from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza is speeding past 1,900, a number which includes 614 children. The primary job of Israel apologists in the coming days will be producing and circulating narratives explaining why this self-evidently terrible thing is actually perfectly fine and acceptable.

It’s so incredibly obvious what we’re looking at here. The only thing putting a wobble on people’s perception is the immense amount of propaganda distortion the media is churning out on this issue, plus the fact that the demographics look a bit different from what history has conditioned people to watch out for. If there were two million Jewish people trapped by Christians in a giant concentration camp and placed under total siege, being told that half of them had 24 hours to relocate into the other half or be killed, nobody would have any confusion about what they were witnessing.

And top-down commands are being issued within the US government to support this massacre unconditionally.

The Huffington Post reports that the State Department has been circulating internal emails telling staff to avoid calls for peace, instructing them to refrain from using phrases like “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed” and “restoring calm.”

Asked about progressive congressional members calling for a ceasefire, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “we believe they are wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful.”

On the question of whether there are any potential Israeli actions that the White House would not tolerate, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters “I’m not here to draw red lines or issue warnings or give lectures to anybody.”

So be perfectly clear, the US government is fully behind this massacre, and is just as culpable for everything that happens in Gaza as the Israeli government. These abuses are being perpetrated using US weapons, US funding and US consent. Washington could end this mass atrocity with a word, and instead they’re fully aligning themselves behind it. Israel’s crimes in Gaza are not meaningfully separate from the crimes of the US war machine.

This is just a continuation and extension of the violence and bloodshed the US government has been inflicting around the world for generations. There’s a clip of George W Bush going around from a California event on Tuesday in which, for some bizarre, unfathomable reason, the former president was asked to provide his opinion on what Israel should do in response to the Hamas attack on October 7.

Bush said pretty much what you’d expect him to say: “You’re dealing with cold-blooded killers,” “negotiating with killers is not an option,” “one side is guilty.” The same book he’s been reciting from since September 11, 2001. What I find much more interesting is, why is anyone asking the absolute worst person you could possibly ask about what should be done in response to such an attack?

I mean, Bush is literally the very last person in the entire world who anyone should be asking what to do in this situation. Literally dead last; there are eight billion people walking this earth right now who are infinitely more qualified to answer such questions than George W Bush. The agendas Bush set out to advance in the wake of 9/11 plunged the middle east into violence and chaos which wound up killing millions and displacing tens of millions, all supposedly in response to an attack which killed three thousand. What is this man doing holding a microphone and publicly opining on what Israel should do in response to the Hamas attack?

As we discussed earlier, 9/11 marked the beginning of some of the most deadly and catastrophic decisions ever made in US history. Israel has demonstrated that it is eager to repeat these profoundly depraved decisions to the furthest extent possible, and the US has demonstrated that it will fully support it in doing so.

The is because the United States never learned any moral lessons from its warmongering after 9/11 — if it had, George W Bush would be sitting in a prison cell, and the US wouldn’t be backing a mass atrocity in Gaza. The US-centralized empire is the most murderous and tyrannical power structure on earth, of which Israel’s criminality is just one component.

Pretty sure there’s a name for this. pic.twitter.com/aFxXmrsWET

— Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) October 14, 2023

"Gaza Is Running Out of Life": Human Rights Watch Sounds Alarm on Israel's Collective Punishment

As Gaza Turmoil Deepens, Some Leaders Dial Back Pro-Israel Rhetoric—But Won't Call for Cease-Fire

The United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories expressed concern on Sunday that the international body has so far not publicly advocated for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as rhetoric from the United States and other influential countries has offered tacit approval of an Israeli air campaign in the blockaded enclave where at least 2,670 Palestinians, including more than 700 children, have now been killed.

Francesca Albanese, who has served as the special rapporteur since 2022, toldAl Jazeera that Israel must account for exactly "how the dismantlement of Hamas is happening" as it intensifies what it claims is a war targeting Hamas to retaliate for the group's surprise attack on October 7.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have spent the last week bombing residential buildings, schools housing refugees, healthcare facilities, and at least one convoy of people traveling through Gaza after Israel ordered one million people to leave the northern part of the enclave within 24 hours in order to "save their lives" from continued strikes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Sunday that at least 50 entire families in Gaza have been wiped out from the civil registry, with all their members killed in air strikes and shelling.

"I don't have any sign that [a cease-fire] is being considered even at the U.N. secretary-general level," Albanese told Al Jazeera. "It troubles me because, on one hand, you have Israeli officials saying they want to eliminate Hamas. But what we see on the ground is thousands of people including children being killed and injured."

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has called for "international humanitarian law and human rights law" to be upheld, but has not called for a cessation of the strikes in Gaza.

On social media, Albanese said that "there can be no more delay" of a public call by Guterres for a cease-fire, and that atrocities like the mass displacement and killing of civilians "must not only be punished but also prevented."

Once again: I implore the UN to intervene for an immediate CEASEFIRE. There can be no more delay.

Under int'l law, atrocity crimes must not only be punished but also prevented.

The only possible meaning of 'never again' is simply this: never again, for any human being. https://t.co/OIO2BmX2B9

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) October 15, 2023

The U.N. Security Council was discussing calls for a humanitarian cease-fire "behind closed doors" in New York on Saturday, the Vatican News reported, and other officials over the weekend signaled a retreat from the rhetoric of U.S. President Joe Biden and a number of other Western leaders last week.

Biden and the leaders of the U.K., France, Italy, and Germany said in a joint statement last week that they supported Israel's right "to defend itself" without demanding the country act within the bounds of international law as it unleashed its air campaign and called up 300,000 reservists for a likely ground assault.

Speaking to PBS Newshour Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, "Hamas is not the Palestinian people... so I do not think that the people should pay the price" for Hamas' killing of at least 1,300 people, including nearly 300 soldiers.

The European Council also released its first joint statement on the crisis Sunday, saying Israel has the right to self-defense while respecting "humanitarian and international law" and ensuring "the protection of all civilians at all times."

The council said it would hold a meeting on Tuesday "to get a grip on the response to the war between Israel and Hamas," Irish Times correspondent Naomi O'Leary reported, as European officials, diplomats, and members of the European Parliament have grown concerned about European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's stated support for what human rights experts have condemned as Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinians in Gaza.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said Saturday night that he was "deeply concerned by the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip" as people remained without access to electricity, food, and water.

Al Jazeera journalist Sana Saeed noted that Trudeau was one of the leaders who just days ago was "cheering on Israel's 'right to defend itself,' refusing to condemn the assault on Gaza and loss of Palestinian life" even as the Israeli defense minister called all two million residents of Gaza "human animals" as he announced a "complete siege" on the enclave.

"As the Israeli genocide of Palestinians becomes clearer and harder to defend to the public at large, expect more about-faces, backtracking, and softening of stances of people who have cheered this on," said Saeed.

But such comments are mere "posturing," she added, when they are not accompanied by clear calls for a cease-fire to prevent further loss of civilian lives.

Even as Austin was saying Palestinian civilians should not "pay the price" for Hamas' actions, the U.S. was deploying a second aircraft carrier strike group—the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower—to join the USS Gerald R. Ford in the eastern Mediterranean to demonstrate "U.S. support for Israel's defense."

"Note how any liberals (U.S., Canada, Europe) who are now discussing 'minimizing harm' and the 'humanitarian crisis' make zero demands of a cease-fire, zero calls for even restraint by Israel," said Saeed. "Nothing."

Rights activist and photographer Patience Zalanga suggested some officials are "being hit with the reality that there are more people who aggressively oppose the genocide of Palestinians than they realized," as thousands of Americans—and tens of thousands of people worldwide—have joined protests in recent days to demand a cease-fire in Gaza.

"The United States government does not care any more or less for Palestinians," said Zalanga. "But what they do care about is how bad this looks. And it's only getting worse."

"A Textbook Case of Genocide": Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel's Assault on Gaza

Bibi Netanyahu MADE HAMAS Stronger, COMPROMISED Israeli Security

Blinken returning to Israel to try to limit death toll from an invasion of Gaza

A last-ditch attempt to reduce the impact of a potentially catastrophic all-out Israeli land assault on Gaza will be made by the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, amid fears that the already daunting Palestinian death toll will rise and provoke an intervention by Iran or its proxies.

He will return to Jerusalem for a second round of talks in five days with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, ending a whirlwind round of shuttle diplomacy designed to stop the conflict spreading. In a sign of the tensions, Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, warned on Sunday: “If the Zionist aggressions do not stop, the hands of all parties in the region are on the trigger.”

“No one can guarantee the control of the situation and the non-expansion of the conflicts” if Israel sends its soldiers into Gaza, he added.

A second US aircraft carrier group has been deployed to the Mediterranean for what was described by the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, as deterring “hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war”.

Blinken has been working on a plan for safe spaces for Palestinian civilians inside Gaza and on its borders and, in the first sign that Israel may listen to private US entreaties, Israeli officials said they were restoring limited water supplies to southern Gaza, amid a wider water crisis, after a call between Biden and Netanyahu. After a meeting with the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Blinken said the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza would reopen to allow aid in and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders.

Biden BUMBLES Through Israel, Gaza Interview

Israeli Airstrike on Gaza Civilian Convoy Kills 70—Mostly Women and Children

After warning 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground invasion of the besieged enclave, Israeli forces reportedly bombed a civilian convoy on Friday, killing 70 people—mostly women and children—according to the territory's Interior Ministry.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Iyad Al-Buzm said the convoy was struck as around 150 civilians were making their way through the Al-Zeytoun neighborhood in Gaza City. Hamas—which governs Gaza—said the convoy was hit in three places.

Videos posted on social media showed the convoy, including a towed trailer packed with people, before and after it was hit by the Israeli airstrike. Graphic footage of the attack's aftermath showed dead bodies strewn about the street, as well as wounded victims in a local hospital.

The alleged attack came after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned that Palestinians wishing to "save their lives" must evacuate to the south within 24 hours before an expected invasion.

Israel's air, land, and sea bombardment of Gaza—home to 2.3 million people and one of the world's most densely populated areas—has already killed nearly 2,000 people, including more than 600 children, and wounded nearly 8,000 others since Saturday, when Gaza-based Hamas and other militants launched a surprise cross-border attack that left over 1,300 Israelis dead. ...

Many Palestinians said they did not know where they could safely flee, as Israel controls most points of ingress and egress to Gaza. After encouraging Gazans to leave through the Rafah Border Crossing—the sole point of entry and exit along the Egyptian border—Israeli forces bombed it on Tuesday.

Israel Hesitates, Putin Talks to Arab leaders; Talk to Netanyahu, Raisi; MbS Keeps Blinken Waiting

White House seeks weapons package for Israel amid ‘real risk of escalation’

Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan toured the US Sunday morning shows to sell White House policy on the conflict between Israel and Hamas as Israeli forces massed on the border ahead of an expected ground incursion into Gaza amid a deepening humanitarian crisis there and fears over the conflict spreading.

Responding to an Axios report that Iran warned Israel through the United Nations that it will intervene if the Israeli operation in Gaza continues, Sullivan told ABC’s This Week that he could not confirm it.

But, he said, the US is “concerned” about the conflict spreading. “We see a real risk of escalation on the northern border and that is why President Biden has been so clear and so forceful in saying that no state and no group should seek to exploit the situation to their advantage or should escalate the conflict.”

The deployment of the USS Eisenhower from the US to the region is “to give additional capacity to respond to any contingency and also to send a clear message of deterrence that no one should get involved in this, no one should escalate this”, he added.

Sullivan said the Biden administration would seek a new weapons package for Israel and Ukraine, which will be significantly higher than $2bn, and hold intensive talks with US lawmakers. Sullivan said on CBS’s Face the Nation that the Israel arms package would be “to help Israel defend itself as it fights its terrorist threat”. A second US carrier group is also now confirmed headed to the region.

Glenn Greenwald on Rising: HYPOCRITES Exploiting Israel Conflict To Justify CENSORSHIP

State Department Memo Tells Diplomats: No Gaza ‘De-Escalation’ Talk

The State Department has warned its diplomats not to call for de-escalation or an end to the violence as Israeli airstrikes relentlessly hit Gaza, killing hundreds of children.

In a message circulated Friday in emails viewed by HuffPost, the State Department said that high-level officials do not want these three phrases in press materials: “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed,” and “restoring calm.”

The State Department’s orders demonstrate how strongly the US is backing Israel’s onslaught on Gaza despite the massive civilian death toll. The White House has also disparaged calls for de-escalation.

When asked about calls for a ceasefire made by some progressive Democrats, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, “We believe they are wrong, we believe they’re repugnant, and we believe they’re disgraceful.”

Arab States ERUPT As US Force Looks MORE Likely

Australia rejects proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in constitution

Australians have resoundingly rejected a proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the country’s constitution and establish a body to advise parliament on Indigenous issues. Saturday’s voice to parliament referendum failed, with the defeat clear shortly after polls closed.

To succeed, the yes campaign – advocating for the voice – needed to secure a double majority, meaning it needed both a majority of the national vote, as well as majorities in four of Australia’s six states.

The defeat will be seen by Indigenous advocates as a blow to what has been a hard fought struggle to progress reconciliation and recognition in modern Australia, with First Nations people continuing to suffer discrimination, poorer health and economic outcomes.

More than 17 million Australians were enrolled for the compulsory vote, with many expats visiting embassies around the world in the weeks leading up to Saturday’s poll. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, called for Australians to show “kindness” to each other after the referendum. “This moment of disagreement does not define us. And it will not divide us,” he said. “We are not yes voters or no voters. We are all Australians. And it is as Australians together, that we must take our country beyond this debate without forgetting why we had it in the first place.”

The vote occurred 235 years on from British settlement, 61 years after Aboriginal Australians were granted the right to vote, and 15 years since a landmark prime ministerial apology for harm caused by decades of government policies including the forced removal of children from Indigenous families.

Matt Gaetz: 'The SWAMP' Is Trying To DELAY Jim Jordan House Vote; Ascent THWARTED By Neocons?!

Jim Jordan races to try to change minds of holdouts in bid for House speaker

The rightwing congressman Jim Jordan is seeking to shore up support for his bid to succeed Kevin McCarthy as House speaker, with plans to appear on the House floor early this week to try to sway Republican members of Congress who signaled in a secret ballot vote they will not support his bid.

Jordan, a staunch ally of Donald Trump, claimed in a brief interview with Politico he believes he will get the 217 votes required to secure the speakership in a vote now set to happen on Tuesday at noon.

“We think we’re going to get 217,” Jordan said. ...

With Republicans holding a slim majority of three seats in the House, any group of Republican holdouts could cause any nominee to fail to secure the speakership. Several Republicans have publicly said they remain no votes on Jordan’s speakership. Mike Rogers of Alabama and John Rutherford and Carlos Gimenez of Florida are in this group, according to Politico.

Meanwhile, yet another potential Republican candidate has emerged if Jordan’s effort fails. Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson plans to jump into the race if Jordan stumbles, according to NBC News. “If Jordan cannot get to 217, Johnson intends to step up,” a source told the television network. “Many members are asking him to do so.” NBC added: “Johnson would seek to be a consensus candidate, attempting to bridge hard-right conservatives and moderates who have been waging a war against one another”.”

Toxic PFAS from US military bases polluting drinking water

Plumes of toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” flowing from at least 245 US military bases are contaminating or threatening to pollute drinking water for nearby communities, and hundreds more are likely at risk across America, a new Department of Defense report finds.

The number of communities threatened by the military’s pollution is likely to increase as further more investigations are carried out. The defense department has only looked at about one-third of more than 700 facilities suspected of having contaminated the ground with PFAS.

While the report acknowledges the pollution, it does not clarify which drinking water sources are polluted, how high PFAS levels are in the polluted water systems, or provide information about the plumes’ locations. The sheer number of bases and the lack of clarity is “shocking”, said Scott Faber, the vice-president of government affairs at the Environmental Working Group non-profit, which tracks military PFAS pollution.

“A good neighbor would let you know that their use of PFAS was the reason your water was contaminated, and a bad neighbor would only tell you: ‘Hey, a plume is heading in your direction,’” Faber said.

Dominica’s mountain chicken frog disappears in ‘fastest extinction ever recorded’

They were once so numerous they were cooked as the national dish of Dominica. Every year, thousands of mountain chicken frogs, roasted with garlic and pepper, were eaten by islanders and tourists. Two decades later, the animal – one of the world’s largest species of frog – has in effect disappeared from the Caribbean island. A series of ecological disasters has reduced its former healthy, stable population of hundreds of thousands of animals to a total of 21 frogs, according to scientists’ most recent survey.

The startling rapidity of Leptodactylus fallax’s decline has stunned biologists who believe it is one of the fastest eradications of a wild animal ever recorded, an ecological calamity that demonstrates how quickly wildlife can be damaged and destroyed.

“This is an amazing animal,” said Andrew Cunningham, head of wildlife epidemiology for the Zoological Society London (ZSL). “It can grow to around 20cm in length and weigh more than a kilo. Both males and females play important roles in raising their young and it was one of Dominica’s top predators that ate insects, small mammals, snakes – and other frogs.”

The island used to buzz with the sound of the call of the male mountain chicken frog, added Cunningham. “Today there is only silence. This is a species facing imminent extinction in the wild, yet it was in a healthy state only a couples of decades ago. Its fate sends us a very clear warning about the dangers facing wildlife on Earth today.”

The initial cause of the mountain chicken frog’s misfortunes was a chytrid fungus that first emerged in the last century and which infects amphibians’ skin through which many of them drink and breathe. Frogs become lethargic and die within a month. The fungus has been blamed for significant amphibian declines in many parts of the world but nowhere has its impact been so rapid and all-consuming as it has been on the island of Dominica. Within 18 months of its first appearance in 2002, it had eliminated 80% of the island’s population of mountain chicken frogs.

IMF should give poor countries $300bn a year to fight climate crisis, says Joseph Stiglitz

Poor countries should be provided with $300bn (£246bn) a year from the International Monetary Fund to finance their fight against the climate crisis, the Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has said. Speaking to the Guardian at the IMF’s annual meeting in Marrakech, Stiglitz said developing nations needed their equivalent of the US Inflation Reduction Act – a package of grants and subsidies designed to promote green growth and jobs.

Stiglitz said the battle against global heating would only be won if poor countries were onboard but there was no hope of them coming up with their equivalent of the act, which he said was expensive and flawed but working. Instead, he said rich countries should support the creation of $300bn of IMF special drawing rights (SDRs) each year to finance a global green transition.

The US economist admitted it would be impossible to get his plan through the US Congress in its current deadlocked state but said he would continue to campaign for it. “As the scale of climate change impresses itself more and more on us, we are going to need bolder things. When the time comes and we are frying and somebody says: ‘How do we get out of the frying pan?’, this [annual SDR allocations] is one way of doing so.”

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Lawless in Gaza: Why the West Backs Israel No Matter What

Bombing Kids And Blaming It On Hamas

The US Quandary Over Gaza

The World Is Being Blinded To What’s Happening In Gaza

Papers That Ignore Causes of Violence Can’t Help Prevent It

Chaos and horror inside Gaza's hospitals as bodies litter the floors

Gaza medics say Israel targeting ambulances, health facilities

Israel Accused of ‘Blatant War Crime’ as Human Rights Watch Confirms White Phosphorus Used in Gaza

Settlers take advantage of Gaza war to launch West Bank pogroms

Jewish and Muslim Americans fear rise in hate crimes amid Israel-Hamas war

Has Israel’s govt recruited a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee?

Dear Dove

Critics Warn Biden $7 Billion for Hydrogen Helps 'Industry Ploy to Rebrand Fracked Gas'

The lost world: Venezuela’s unique tepui frogs face new perils

Europeans CRIMINALIZE Palestinian Protest

MSNBC BENCHES Muslim Anchors After ADL Commands

How This Could DETONATE The Entire Middle East! w/ Mark Sleboda

'Muslims Must Die': 6-Yr-Old Palestinian-American Stabbed To Death By Landlord, HATE CRIME Charge

A Little Night Music

Slim and Slam - Jump session

Slim Gaillard - Groove Juice Special (Hit The Jive Jack)

Slim and Slam - The Flat Foot Floogee (With A Floy Floy)

Slim Gaillard - Blue Skies

Slim and Slam - Tutti-Frutti

Slim Gaillard - How High The Moon

Slim Gaillard - The Hip Cowboy

Slim Gaillard - Babalu (Orooney)

Slim Gaillard - Serenade in Sulfur-8 (Live)

Slim Gaillard - Slim Slam Boogie, Pt. 2