Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features r&b singer Wilbert Harrison. Enjoy!

"All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out."

-- I. F. Stone

News and Opinion

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Culture of Deceit

Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians are always greeted with lies. I heard them. I recorded them. I published them in my stories for The New York Times when I was the paper’s Middle East Bureau Chief. I covered war for two decades, including seven years in the Middle East. I learned quite a bit about the size and lethality of explosive devices. There is nothing in the arsenal of Hamas or Islamic Jihad that could have replicated the massive explosive power of the missile that killed an estimated 500 civilians in the al-Ahli Arab Christian hospital in Gaza. Nothing. If Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) had these kinds of missiles, huge buildings in Israel would be rubble with hundreds of dead. They don’t.

The whistling sound, audible on the video moments before the explosion, appears to comes from the high velocity of a missile. This sound gives it away. No Palestinian rocket makes this noise. And then there is the speed of the missile. Palestinian rockets are slow and lumbering, clearly visible as they arch in the sky and then tumble in free fall towards their targets. They do not strike with precision or travel at close to supersonic speed. They are incapable of killing hundreds of people.

The Israeli military dropped “roof knocking” rockets with no warheads on the hospital in the days leading up to the Oct. 17 strike, the familiar warning given by Israel to evacuate buildings, according to al-Ahli hospital officials. Hospital officials also said they had received calls from Israel saying “we warned you to evacuate twice.” Israel has demanded that all hospitals in northern Gaza be evacuated. ... Since the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel by Palestinian resistance fighters, which reportedly left some 1,300 Israelis dead, many of them civilians, and saw some 200 kidnapped as hostages and taken to Gaza, Israel has carried out 51 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza that have killed 15 healthcare workers and injured 27, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Out of 35 hospitals in Gaza, four are not functioning due to severe damage and targeting. Only eight of the 22 UNRWA primary healthcare centers are “partially functional,” the WHO says. ...

After the bombing of the hospital, Israel first released a video that purported to show Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets which struck the hospital. The Israelis hastily removed the video when journalists noticed that time stamps showed the images were taken 40 minutes after the strike on the hospital. Israeli propagandists — aware that Palestinian rockets have little explosive power — then claimed that Hamas stored munitions under the hospital. This caused the massive explosion, they said. But if this was true, it would mean there would be a secondary explosion. There was none. And now Israel has released what they say is a recording of two Hamas militants discussing the missile strike on the hospital. The militants ask each other, in a self-incriminating conversation that is too ridiculous to believe, if Hamas or PIJ carried out the strike. Please. How was Israel completely in the dark about an incursion by thousands of armed Palestinian militants from Gaza into Israel on Oct. 7 and able to capture this incriminating conversation by two supposed militants?

Israel has also long targeted medical facilities, ambulances and medics, as Middle East scholar Norman Finkelstein points out. It bombed a Palestinian children’s hospital during the 1982 war in Lebanon, killing 60 people. It also carried out missile strikes on clearly marked Lebanese ambulances during the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon. It damaged or destroyed 29 ambulances and almost half of Gaza’s health facilities, including 15 hospitals, during the 2008-2009 assault on Gaza known as Operation Cast Lead. It routinely prohibited wounded Palestinians from being picked up by ambulances during this operation, often leaving them to die. During Operation Protective Edge, the 51-day assault on Gaza in 2014, Israel destroyed or damaged 17 hospitals and 56 primary healthcare centers and damaged or destroyed 45 ambulances.

BREAKING: The hospital was hit with a very high probability by a JDAM bomb.

- This means it was the Israeli airforce.
- This means it was a targeted attack.

No words …

UPDATED with comparison to the missiles. https://t.co/uKC8pI8kV4 pic.twitter.com/CJXQa8uMWU

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) October 17, 2023

Google is doing what it can to limit the spread of truth about what is happening in Gaza by pretending that news videos have some sort of inappropriate material in them. You may have to log in to see a video that has no pictures of carnage or naked women.

Israeli Journalist Amira Hass: How Can the World Stand By and Witness Israel's Slaughter in Gaza?

The Mainstream Press Keep Slamming Israel’s Hospital Bombing Story

A new report from the UK’s Channel 4 News adds to the surprising amount of opposition we’re seeing in the mainstream press to Israel’s narrative about the deadly explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza this past Tuesday.

The report, led by Channel 4 chief correspondent Alex Thomson, spotlights glaring plot holes in Israel’s claim that a failed rocket by Palestinian Islamic Jihad was responsible for the blast, and in the supposed audio clip Israel published which it claims is an intercepted conversation between two Hamas fighters saying Israel was not responsible. It also presents an argument that will be inconvenient for Israel apologists who’ve been claiming photos of the damage to the hospital rule out the possibility of an Israeli airstrike.

Who was behind the Gaza hospital blast - visual investigation https://t.co/2tHYj5vdCX via @alextomo

— alex thomson (@alextomo) October 18, 2023

“So what of Israel’s explanation?” says Thomson. “Sensing a major problem they worked through the night to get their version out. Press conference first thing. Conclusion: an Islamic Jihad rocked caused it all.”

“They present what they say is two Hamas operatives talking about the attack,” Thomson reports. “Hamas call this an obvious fabrication. Two independent Arab journalists told us the same thing, because of the language, accent, dialect, syntax and tone. None of which is, they say, credible.”

“Equally, Israel claims the Islamic Jihad failed missile was fired from here: a cemetery very close to the hospital,” Thomson continues. “But look again at the video of the event — the trajectory of the missile doesn’t line up with that location. Too high. Too horizontal. Confusingly, the Israelis’ presentation also says the missile was fired from a location down in the southwest; it can’t be both.”

Thomson also reports that while the photos of the blast site do appear to rule out a ground-detonating Israeli munition, they’re entirely in keeping with other munitions used by Israel which could easily have taken such a toll on human life.

“This is what you see at the hospital today — small craters you’d expect to see from a mortar strike or artillery round, not a missile,” says Thomson. “Surrounding buildings have only superficial damage, not structural collapse. Some of the windows of an adjoining church remain intact. This makes a ground-detonating Israeli missile strike unlikely, but it doesn’t rule out an airburst munition, which could cause major loss of life, but would produce far less structural damage.”

Thomson also notes that “Israel has form when it comes to war propaganda”, citing its false denials of the IDF killings of British filmmaker James Miller and Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

On Twitter (or whatever we’re calling it now), Thomson’s remarks on the Israeli audio file were even more pointed.

“Several experts confirm Hamas’ view to Channel 4 News that the audio tape of ‘Hamas’ operatives talking about the missile malfunction is a fake,” tweeted Thomson. “They say the tone, syntax, accent and idiom are absurd.”

This is a still developing story with much still to be revealed, but this to me might be the most damning evidence against Israel yet. If Israel didn’t bomb that hospital, then why is it publishing fake audio clips of people posing as Hamas fighters agreeing with each other that Israel definitely didn’t bomb that hospital?

Israel DRAGGING U.S. Into WWIII?! Biden Says He WOULD Join IDF WAR Against Hezbollah

Biden tells Israel not to ‘repeat mistakes’ made by US after 9/11

Joe Biden has appealed to Israel not to be “consumed” by rage in its response to the attack by Hamas, as the US president pledged stalwart support for Israel for its self-defence and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to allow aid into Gaza via Egypt.

Speaking in Tel Aviv towards the end of his one-day visit to the region, which did not include any meetings with leaders from the Arab world, Biden compared Israel’s predicament after the massacre of more than 1,300 of its citizens to the US’s crisis 22 years ago after the 9/11 attacks. His country had “sought and got justice”, but also “made mistakes”, he said.

Following hours of talks with Netanyahu and his war cabinet, Biden said Israel had agreed to allow the opening of the Egypt-Gaza border to deliveries of desperately needed food, water and medical supplies after an 11-day total blockade on condition that the humanitarian assistance was not diverted by Hamas for its own use.

“The Palestinian people are suffering greatly as well, and we mourn the loss of innocent Palestinian lives like the entire world,” the US president said. “The people of Gaza need food, water, medicine and shelter.” He vowed that the US would continue to provide for Israel’s security needs, and supported Israel’s assessment that a devastating blast at a Gaza City hospital on Tuesday night was not the result of an Israeli airstrike, but of “an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza”.

After his departure, the Israeli prime minister’s office said in a statement: “In light of President Biden’s demand, Israel would not foil the supply of humanitarian aid via Egypt.” The statement noted that aid to civilians in the southern Gaza Strip would be allowed “so long as these supplies do not reach Hamas”, which has political control over the enclave.

At the UN, the US objected to a resolution calling for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Think about that.

— Medea Benjamin (@medeabenjamin) October 18, 2023

US vetoes UN’s call for ‘humanitarian pause’ and corridors into Gaza

The US has used its veto at the UN security council to block a resolution calling for Israel to allow humanitarian corridors into the Gaza Strip, a pause in the fighting and the lifting of an order for civilians to leave the north of the besieged territory.

The text – supported by 12 of the 15 members of the security council on Wednesday – contained criticism of “heinous terrorist crimes by Hamas” and made no direct reference of Israel. In an attempt to win US support, the draft resolution did not explicitly call for a ceasefire, instead referencing a “humanitarian pause”.

But the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, said the resolution, carefully crafted by Brazilian diplomats, was unacceptable because it made no mention of Israel’s right to self-defence. The UK abstained, saying the resolution lacked mention of the way Hamas was using ordinary Palestinians as human shields. ...

Israel thanked the US for using its veto. China described the move as “nothing short of unbelievable” while Russia said it was an example of US double standards. Two members of the G7 on the council – Japan and France – broke with the US by backing the motion.

The draft resolution also called for “humanitarian pauses to allow full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access for United Nations humanitarian agencies”. Its failure to pass represented another blow to the authority of the world body.

Biden Backs Israel; Jordan Cancels Summit; Global South Turns Against West; Kinzhal vs. ATACMS

Netanyahu Says Biden Pledged to Help Continue War on Gaza

After meeting with President Biden on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he secured a pledge that the US would help Israel continue its bombardment of Gaza.

“We agreed on actions and deeds that ensure the continuation of our just war. We agreed on cooperation that will change the balance on all fronts, and help us to achieve the war aims,” Netanyahu said, according to The Times of Israel.

Netanyahu said the US and Israel “are working together to secure the release of the hostages by all means possible.” He also said Israel has secured a “massive, unprecedented” military aid package.

Blinken lurks, Biden trusts Pentagon data. Putin, Kinzhal patrol Black Sea. Kallas triple hypocrisy

US gives Israel ‘private backing’ for ground invasion of Gaza

Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, has won private backing from President Biden to press ahead with a ground invasion of Gaza, according to accounts of closed-door meetings between the two men.

On a visit to Israel, Biden told Netanyahu he remained “fully in support” of Israel’s plans to launch an incursion in order to “eradicate Hamas”, despite continuing outrage at Tuesday night’s explosion at a hospital in Gaza which killed hundreds of civilians.

France deploys water cannons and tear gas against peaceful pro-Palestine protesters. Nothing says "this is a free country" like using chemical warfare against those trying to prevent genocide. pic.twitter.com/yuMKsPvr41

— Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) October 13, 2023

'Not In Our Name!' Hundreds Arrested at US Capitol as Jewish-Led Protest Demands Gaza Cease-Fire

Hundreds of Jewish Americans and allies were arrested at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday during a protest demanding members of Congress push Israel for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, where nearly 3,500 Palestinians have been killed over 12 days of relentless Israeli bombardment.

Thousands of protesters led by members of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), IfNotNow, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JFREJ), and other groups rallied on the Capitol grounds and inside the building, where hundreds of people took part in a sit-in.

Their chanted slogans—including "not in our name" and "cease-fire now"—resounded thunderously under the Capitol Rotunda, while at other times they clapped their hands and sang with solemn determination in Hebrew.

"We're here to say: not in our names, and never again," JVP declared. "And we'll continue our civil disobedience until Congress calls for a cease-fire in Gaza, or until they force us to leave."

"Cease-fire is the first step to stop the ongoing genocide by the Israeli military of the over 2 million Palestinians in besieged Gaza, unable to leave," the group continued. "In the past week, over 3,000 Palestinians, including 1,000 children, were murdered by Israeli and U.S. bombs. Over 1 million people are displaced. We have the power to stop this violence."

"What we know from past Israeli state atrocities against Palestinians is that the bombs only stop once there is a sufficient mass outcry from the international community," JVP added. "It's on us to build that outcry—as fast as we possibly can."

Putin calls US supply of ATACMS weapons to Ukraine ‘another mistake’

Vladimir Putin has called the US delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Kyiv “another mistake by the United States” in his first public comments since an unprecedented Ukrainian strike destroyed helicopters at two airfields in Russian-occupied territory this week.

The Russian president also claimed that the delivery of the army tactical missile system (ATACMS) missiles, which can strike targets more than 100 miles away and deliver salvoes with cluster munitions, would “not do Ukraine any good either. It will simply prolong [their] agony.”

Yet the missiles have struck one of the worst blows against Russian aviation since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, despite warnings from military experts and bloggers that Russia’s forward military bases could be at risk from newly provided American weapons. The strikes could force Russia to pull back its attack aircraft from the frontlines of the conflict.

“War is war,” Putin said on Wednesday. “And, of course, I have said that [ATACMS] pose a threat. It goes without saying. But what counts most is that they are completely unable to drastically change the situation along the line of contact. It’s impossible.” ...

Putin on Wednesday said the US was now “more deeply involved” in the war in Ukraine. He also announced that a limited number of Russian fighters armed with hypersonic missiles would be deployed to the Black Sea in response to a US deployment of two carrier strike groups to the coast of Israel, amid fears of a larger regional war. “I have warned that this is not a threat, yet we will exercise visual control, weapon control over what is going on in the Mediterranean Sea,” Putin said.

Instagram users accuse platform of censoring posts supporting Palestine

Instagram users are accusing the social network of purposefully censoring posts in support of Palestine – underscoring longstanding concerns about unfair moderation as war rages in Gaza. Hena Mustafa, an Instagram user with 866 followers based in New York City, said that since she began posting about developments in Palestine as Israel mounted its siege in the past week, her Stories – photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours – have been receiving “significantly less views”. Friends and followers have messaged Mustafa to tell her that her posts are no longer appearing at the top of their Instagram feeds, her name has become unsearchable on the social network, and they are unable to interact with her posts.

Hundreds of others have shared similar experiences, said Nadim Nashif, founder and director of social media watchdog group 7amleh, the Arab Center for Social Media Advancement, which has been tracking the issue. 7amleh and others suspect the platform is shadow banning, or demoting content related to the conflict in the algorithm.

“Unfortunately, shadow banning is just one of the many ways in which we have seen Palestinian content silenced and censored over the last week,” he said. “This has been a trend of Meta in times of crisis, and we saw a significant spike of Palestinians and allies reporting limited reach and errors with content they posted about the ongoing crisis in Palestine.”

Meta said in a statement that “it is never our intention to suppress a particular community or point of view”, but that due to “higher volumes of content being reported” surrounding the ongoing conflict, “content that doesn’t violate our policies may be removed in error”. The company additionally attributed some issues to glitches in its algorithmic moderation system that reduced the reach of posts “equally around the globe” – regardless of subject matter. However, Nashif noted that Meta made similar excuses in May 2021, during a separate series of escalations in Palestine during which Facebook and Instagram users posting about Palestine reported a similar reduction in the reach of their posts.

Those incidents prompted a letter signed by more than 200 Meta employees demanding the company address such shortcomings. A subsequent independent analysis commissioned by Meta found that the social networks had violated Palestinian human rights by censoring content related to Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Flame retardant pollution threatens wildlife on all continents, research finds

More than a hundred species of wildlife found across every continent are contaminated with highly toxic flame retardants, and the pollution is probably responsible for population declines in some species, a new analysis of published research shows. The dangerous chemicals have been detected in everything from sea urchins to bobcats to Arctic foxes, and at alarming levels in endangered species such as red pandas, chimpanzees and killer whales.

The analysis examined about 20 years of flame retardant research and includes an interactive map showing the location and type of animal found to be contaminated. It brings into sharp focus the breadth of flame retardant pollution and dangers it poses. The paper’s lead author, Lydia Jahl, said she expected to find widespread contamination, but was “still blown away by the sheer number of studies finding harmful levels of all sorts of flame retardants everywhere”. ...

Several chemical classes are utilized as flame retardants and in an effort to help reduce fire risks are added to thousands of consumer products from furniture to electronics to auto interiors.

The paper found high levels of phased-out flame retardants like PCBs and PBDEs, as well as allegedly safe, newer replacements chemicals, such as chlorinated paraffins and organophosphates, across the globe. All are thought to be toxic and various compounds are linked to liver, thyroid and kidney cancers, while others harm IQ, attention and memory in children. Many of the same health problems found in humans also affect animals, Jahl said. ...

Most flame retardants are highly persistent in the environment and can take decades to degrade. Because of their resilience, they can accumulate in animals, and as larger predators eat smaller organisms, the chemicals accumulate in higher quantities further up the food chain. The highest levels have been found in large marine mammals and birds of prey, and the chemicals are suspected of decimating killer whales’ population because they do so much harm to the species’ calves and immune systems. Some research predicts the chemicals could wipe out half the world’s killer whale population.

Also of Interest

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

US Faces Defeat in Geopolitical War in Gaza

West's Pro-Israel Position Accelerates Its Loss Of Power

Israeli Intelligence Suddenly Able To Intercept Hamas Communications

Backing the Slaughter & Silencing the Critics

Patrick Lawrence: Decency Becomes Indecent

Understanding the Israeli Project

West Bank settlers run riot as Palestinians are shot and abducted

Biden Gets Zelensky Treatment in Middle East as Israel Tries to Escalate

Iran Calls For Middle East States to Start Economic Escalation Via Oil Embargo On Israel

Failed Venezuelan coup leader Juan Guaidó lands new gig as visiting prof at Florida International U

Stop obsessing over heirloom seeds and let plants change

Annexation, Ethnic Cleansing & Genocide: Mustafa Barghouti Decries Israel’s Deadly Campaign in Gaza

Biden Wants 100 BILLION For Israel, Ukraine Wars

Gigi Hadid TARGETED By ISRAELI STATE Online; MSM CENSOR Dissident Views On Palestine: Report

Tucker Carlson, Vivek Ramaswamy WARN Against 9/11 2.0, Starting WWIII Over Israel-Palestine

A Little Night Music

Wilbert Harrison - Stagger Lee

Wilbert Harrison - Florida Special

Wilbert Harrison - Let's Stick Together

Wilbert Harrison - Baby Don´t You Know

Wilbert Harrison - Please Forgive Me

Wilbert Harrison - Happy in Love

Wilbert Harrison - Near to You

Wilbert Harrison - Peepin' and Hidin'

Wilbert Harrison - Women and Whiskey

Wilbert Harrison - Let's Work Together

Canned Heat - Let's Work Together