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"The premise behind this current onslaught and those which preceded it is that you can bomb people into consenting to oppression and apartheid. That you can abuse them into accepting abuse. The whole entire argument is that if you bomb and shoot and teargas and beat and imprison enough Palestinians with enough aggression, eventually they will see the error of their ways and accept the status quo you are trying to impose upon them.

This is of course stupid, and it is of course a lie. The idea was never really to abuse Palestinians into accepting abuse, that’s just the cover story; the real goal has always been to abuse them to the point where you can justify eliminating them. To push an inconvenient people into an impossible corner and then when they push back hard enough say “Well, we did all we can and we learned you just can’t help these savages. They’re going to have to go.”

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

US Warmongers Keep Pushing The Narrative That Hamas Is To Blame For All Deaths In Gaza

One thing I’ve been meaning to highlight for the last few days is the way US warmongers have been forcefully pushing the propaganda narrative that Hamas bears 100 percent responsibility for all deaths in Gaza, and Israel bears zero percent, as Israel ramps up its mass slaughter of Palestinians.

In a New York Times article titled “Hamas Bears the Blame for Every Death in This War,” notorious neoconservative war propagandist Bret Stephens argues that no blame whatsoever should be placed on Israel for the thousands of civilians it has killed in its latest Gaza operation and the thousands more it will continue to kill.

“The central cause of Gaza’s misery is Hamas,” Stephens writes. “It alone bears the blame for the suffering it has inflicted on Israel and knowingly invited against Palestinians. The best way to end the misery is to remove the cause, not stay the hand of the remover.”

Lindsey Graham (who is such a bloodthirsty psychopath that he recently called on Israel to “level” Gaza because “we’re in a religious war here” and said the US should bomb Iran any time Hamas executes any prisoners) echoed Bret Stephens’ sentiments during an interview on Monday.

“Every death going forward I blame on Hamas, not Israel,” Graham said.

Graham’s senatorial colleague Mitt Romney was even more direct.

“You are going to see pictures of Palestinian civilians that are going to be injured, killed by virtue of the conflict, which is ongoing,” Romney said during an appearance in Tel Aviv. “I hope you recognize that those individuals are being killed because of Hamas, not because of Israel.”

“They are using Palestinians to protect Hamas lives,” Romney added. “Therefore, when Israel takes action to try and go after Hamas and take out its leadership, there will be civilians and innocents that will be killed. They will parade that as if this is some horror perpetrated by Israel.”

“Do not forget the lives that you will see lost on TV… Israeli lives and Palestinian lives [lost] are all the result of Hamas,” Romney continued.

Fox News war slut Sean Hannity shares the same opinion, surprise surprise.

“Every single death in this conflict can be blamed on Hamas and their supporters in Iran,” Hannity told his audience. “Because of last week’s brutal terror attack, Israel has no choice. They must defend their country.”

This is about as blatant as war propaganda gets. These imperial narrative managers are using their massive platforms and influence to tell everyone “Remember kids, you’re going to see a whole bunch of innocent civilians get killed, and it’s going to look a lot like those civilians are being killed by Israel. But don’t you believe your lying eyes! They’re really being killed by Hamas. Just because the people dropping military explosives in areas known to be packed full of children are wearing Israeli badges and operating Israeli war machinery doesn’t mean Israel is involved in this butchery in any way. It’s really Hamas doing all that.”

And what’s great about this narrative is that there’s no upper limit on the extent to which it can be applied. If they wind up killing twenty thousand Gazans, then Hamas killed twenty thousand Gazans. If they wind up killing a hundred thousand Gazans, then Hamas killed a hundred thousand Gazans. If they wind up driving all Palestinians out of Gaza into refugee camps in the Sinai desert and seizing that territory as their own, then God damn you for ethnic cleansing the Gaza Strip, Hamas.

No matter how far they extend the bloodshed and abuse, they can still blame it all on Hamas. Per this logic there is therefore no limit on how far things can be taken before the cost of human life and suffering outweighs Israel’s strategic objectives and ceasefire negotiations become necessary. It’s a catch-all innoculation against peace.

This propaganda is being pushed as President Biden vows to support Israel’s ongoing Gaza massacre and tells Netanyahu the US is fully behind Israel’s planned Gaza ground invasion.

Not only is Israel absolutely responsible for the bloodshed it chooses to inflict on the people of Gaza, the United States is too. These crimes are being perpetrated with US weapons, US funding and US consent, and backed by the full might of the US propaganda machine. The US is just as responsible for the destruction of Gaza as Israel is.

All this propaganda is designed to keep people from assigning any blame or responsibility to those who are most guilty in this onslaught, because if everyone clearly understood what’s being done in their name, all that carefully manufactured consent would rapidly disintegrate.

Gov'ts, Media SPREAD MISINFO On Israel, Gaza While DEMANDING Censorship: Michael Shellenberger

Israeli regime continues bombardment of Gaza as ground offensive looms and threat of regional war grows

The Israeli regime continued its savage bombardment of Gaza Thursday, striking targets in the south, where over one million Palestinians were ordered by Israel to flee last week, as well as in the north. On Thursday night, the Israeli military bombed a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza City, where dozens of Palestinian families had sought refuge from the murderous air attacks on civilian targets. As of this writing, the death toll in the bombardment of the St. Porphyrius Greek Orthodox Church had risen to eight, with dozens more reported wounded. Women and children were among those killed in the attack on the church, located in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. Rescuers were continuing to pull people out of the rubble and the toll of dead and wounded was expected to rise.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Majdy Jildah, who had sought refuge at the church, as saying that some 500 people had been sheltering on the church campus, including some 80 in the church council building where the explosion occurred. Dozens were inside the assembly hall of the church, which was also damaged. The church is one of the oldest in the world. The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued its “strongest condemnation” of the attack, stating that “targeting churches and their institutions, along with the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens, especially children and women who have lost their homes due to Israeli air strikes on residential areas over the past 13 days, constitutes a war crime.” ...

The war is rapidly escalating beyond Gaza. On the border with Lebanon, Hamas claimed responsibility for firing 20 rockets into northern Israel Thursday. Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah fighters also exchanged fire throughout the afternoon. An IDF spokesman warned that Hezbollah will “bear the consequences” of the rocket strikes, suggesting that expanded operations in Lebanon are also only a matter of time. ...

The US al-Tanf military base in southern Syria near the border with Iraq came under attack from drones Wednesday. Meanwhile, three attacks took place against American military facilities inside Iraq since Tuesday, including two targeting the Ain al-Asad base with drones and missiles. The Biden administration has already dispatched two aircraft-carrier battlegroups to the region, which are clearly designed to create the conditions for the waging of a broader war against Iran. Each battlegroup includes 8,000 sailors, airmen, and marines, and dozens of fighter aircraft. In remarks in a 60 minutes interview, Biden explicitly linked the Gaza war to broader regional conflicts, stating, “Going in and taking out the extremists, Hezbollah is up north but Hamas down South, is a necessary requirement. Iran constantly supports Hamas and Hezbollah.”

What is developing across the region is the Middle East front in the US-led global imperialist war to secure its hegemony against its strategic rivals, above all Russia and China. The imperialists’ unreserved support for the Israeli government’s brutal massacre of the Gaza population goes hand-in-hand with the reckless escalation of the war with Russia in Ukraine by Washington and its European allies, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands on both sides. Biden’s remarks from the White House Thursday evening, in which he called for military support to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, demonstrate that the US capitalist class is determined to wage a war against the world.

Biden MidEast Debacle, US Vetoes Brazil UN Resolution; Putin Warns Kinzhals Within Range US Carriers

Israel security officials signal readiness for ground offensive into Gaza

Israel security officials have signalled their readiness to embark on a ground offensive into Gaza that they say will be far more comprehensive and ferocious than any previous conflict with Hamas.

Israel’s defence minister, Yoav Gallant, visited troops on the Gaza border on Thursday, telling them: “You see Gaza now from a distance, you will soon see it from inside. The command will come.”

“I am tasked with leading us to victory,” Gallant told the soldiers. “We will be precise and forceful, and we will keep going until we fulfil our mission.”

Soon after Gallant’s statement, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, broadcast a video of himself with troops near the border also promising victory. At a meeting with his visiting British counterpart, Rishi Sunak, Netanyahu said: “This is our darkest hour.”

US Says It Intercepted Missiles and Drones Fired from Yemen ‘Potentially’ Headed Toward Israel

The Pentagon said on Thursday that a US warship in the Red Sea intercepted missiles and drones that were fired by Houthi forces in Yemen.

“The crew of the guided-missile destroyer USS Carney operating in the northern Red Sea earlier today shot down three land attack cruise missiles and several drones that were launched by Houthis forces in Yemen,” said Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder.

“There were no casualties to US forces and none that we know of to any civilians on the ground,” he said. Ryder said it was unclear what the missile and drones were targeting but said they were headed north in the Red Sea, “potentially toward targets in Israel.”

UN chief pushes to get essential aid into Gaza as trucks remain at Egyptian border

Israeli Attacks on Journalists Stifle Reporting on Gaza Horrors

The Israeli communications minister’s attempt to shut down Al Jazeera’s bureau in Jerusalem—on the grounds that the Qatari news outlet is biased in favor of Hamas and is actively endangering Israeli troops (Reuters, 10/15/23)—should inspire some déjà vu. In the last war in Gaza, an Israeli air strike destroyed a Gaza building housing both Al Jazeera and Associated Press offices (AP, 5/15/21). And just months ago, Al Jazeera (5/18/23) reported that “the family of Shireen Abu Akleh,” a Palestinian-American AJ journalist killed by Israeli fire while on assignment, “has rebuked Israel for saying it is ‘sorry’ for the Al Jazeera reporter’s death without providing accountability or even acknowledging that its forces killed her.”

Since the launch of the network’s English service, Americans interested in Middle East news beyond what can be found in US broadcasting have often turned to Al Jazeera, and even more so as the BBC’s foreign service has declined (Guardian, 9/29/22).

But the ability of Al Jazeera and other Arab reporters to cover the assault on Gaza is jeopardized by the alarming number of newspeople Israel has killed since the crisis began. The Committee to Protect Journalists (10/18/23) has counted 13 Palestinian journalists killed by Israel in Gaza since the crisis began, with two more missing or detained. Three Israeli journalists were also killed in Hamas’s October 7 attack, with another taken prisoner.

While the primary focus of this conflict is Gaza, journalists have wondered if a second northern front would open between Israel and the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, creating a multifaceted regional war (New York Times, 10/17/23; CNN, 10/17/23). Israeli fire in southern Lebanon injured Al Jazeera staffers, along with Agence France-Presse personnel, and killed a Reuters journalist (Reuters, 10/14/23). Lebanon has planned to file a complaint with the United Nations over the incident (TRT World, 10/14/23), calling the attack deliberate (Telegraph, 10/14/23).

Press advocates fear those numbers will rise, and it is all happening as the humanitarian situation in Gaza worsens (UN News, 10/13/23).

The BBC (10/15/23) reported that its own journalists “were assaulted and held at gunpoint after they were stopped by police in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv,” and that they were “dragged from the vehicle—marked ‘TV’ in red tape—searched and pushed against a wall.”

In addition, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said in a statement that the Israeli military caused “severe damage to 48 centers of press institutions,” including “the Palestine and Watan towers, and other buildings that include media institutions,” including the AFP office. It said that the army had also “completely or partially demolished the homes of dozens of journalists.”

War reporting always carries risk. The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented the deaths of media workers in the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria. Middle East conflicts have always been dangerous places for journalists; it’s hard to ignore high-profile deaths of journalists like Marie Colvin of London’s Sunday Times in Syria (CNN, 2/1/19), or freelance photographers Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington in Libya (Washington Post, 4/21/11). In that sense, the war in Gaza and a possible war in southern Lebanon are no exceptions.

But as FAIR (5/19/21) documented during the previous Israeli military operation against Gaza, Israel has a long history of targeting Palestinian journalists, as well as harassing foreign journalists and human rights activists entering the country. Over the summer, the International Federation of Journalists (7/4/23) reported that “several journalists have been directly targeted by Israeli snipers as they were reporting on Israel’s large-scale military operation in Jenin.”

Inside Israel, the situation for journalists is relatively safer, but the far-right government has—like authoritarian governments in Poland and Hungary—attacked journalists and the ability to critically cover institutions in power. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019 accused the owners of Israel’s Channel 12 of committing a “terror attack against democracy” for reporting on the corruption charges against him (Times of Israel, 9/1/19).

In 2020, Netanyahu  (Ha’aretz, 6/11/20) indicated that “Channel 13 journalist Raviv Drucker should be arrested and jailed” for airing “recordings of Netanyahu crony Shaul Elovich and his wife, which demonstrated how they sought to tilt news coverage in the prime minister’s favor.”

Galit Distel-Atbaryan, who recently resigned from her role as public diplomacy minister (Jerusalem Post, 10/14/23), reportedly said this summer that she wanted the “authority to deny press credentials to foreign journalists critical of Israel” (Ha’aretz, 8/30/23).

The threat to journalism has only become more explicit as Israel’s assault on Gaza escalates. An Israeli security officer interrupted a live report by Ahmed Darawsha, correspondent for Qatar-based Al-Araby news (Arab News, 10/15/23):

What are you saying? I don’t care if you are live…. You better be saying good things. Understood? And all of these Hamas should be slaughtered. Am I clear? If you don’t report the truth, woe is you.

The officer then shouted at the camera: “Detestable! We’ll turn Gaza to dust. Dust, dust, dust.”

Israel’s siege of Gaza becomes more nightmarish as the days go on, and as that happens, the ability of journalists to document the horror becomes next to impossible. Palestinian journalist Sami Abu Salem told the International Federation of Journalists (10/12/23) about working in Gaza: “We have no internet service, there is a lack of electricity, no transportation, and even the streets are damaged. That’s why we cannot tell lots of stories—thousands of stories.”

Because audiences in the US and the Anglosphere depend on Al Jazeera, as well as local journalists in Israel and the Occupied Territories, to receive news from the region, these attacks do act as filters through which the truth is diluted. In many ways, Americans can see in real time how the powers that be attempt to control information coming out of the region.

State Dept Issues Global Travel Warning Over "Increased Tension" Following Biden’s Israel Trip. PLUS: Interview w/ Israeli Lawmaker—Ofer Cassif—Just Suspended for Denouncing War on Gaza

Hundreds arrested as US Jews protest against Israel’s Gaza assault

Leftwing Jewish activists campaigned against Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza this week in Washington, culminating in protests that have seen hundreds arrested for civil disobedience outside the White House and Congress.

But groups like the Anti-Defamation League have dismissed the actions as unrepresentative of fellow Jews, signalling a growing rift in the community as the war in the Middle East continues to claim thousands of lives.

Police detained about 400 demonstrators on Wednesday after they staged a sit-down protest on Capitol Hill inside the Cannon Building, the oldest congressional office building, demanding an immediate ceasefire in the latest hostilities between Israelis and Palestinians.

The arrests followed a similar protest on Monday, when 50 activists were detained for blocking the gates of the White House. The events were organised jointly by Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, two leftist groups campaigning on an avowedly anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian platform.

Demonstrators – some of them waving Palestinian flags – have accused Israel of preparing to commit genocide in Gaza in retaliation for the 7 October attacks by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 Israelis and resulted in nearly 200 being kidnapped.

US ATTACKED In Iraq, Syria As Navy SHOOTS DOWN Missile Towards Israel

MUTINY' Brewing Over ISRAEL-PALESTINE Among Biden State Dept Officials

US official resigns over Biden’s ‘destructive, unjust’ arms to Israel

A veteran US state department official has quit over what he described as the Biden administration’s “intellectual bankruptcy” in sending more weapons and ammunition to Israel, as Gaza health officials said Israeli bombing had killed more than 3,700 people. Josh Paul, the director of congressional and public affairs for the state department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, said in a letter posted on LinkedIn that the government “rushing” to provide arms to Israel was “shortsighted, destructive, unjust, and contradictory to the very values that we publicly espouse”.

In the letter, first reported by HuffPost, Paul said Hamas’s attack on Israel was “a monstrosity of monstrosities”.

“But I believe to the core of my soul that the response Israel is taking, and with it the American support both for that response and for the status quo of the occupation, will only lead to more and deeper suffering for both the Israeli and the Palestinian people,” he wrote. “This administration’s response – and much of Congress’s as well – is an impulsive reaction built on confirmation bias, political convenience, intellectual bankruptcy, and bureaucratic inertia.”

“Divide and Rule”: How Israel Helped Start Hamas to Weaken Palestinian Hopes for Statehood

FCC Takes 'Great Step' Toward Restoring Net Neutrality Rules

Open internet advocates applauded on Thursday as Democrats on the Federal Communication Commission voted to begin reestablishing FCC oversight of broadband and reviving net neutrality rules rolled back under former President Donald Trump.

"Today's vote is an important start to restoring internet freedom and openness," said Public Knowledge president and CEO Chris Lewis. "Over the next few months, the FCC and the public at large will have an opportunity to look carefully at the benefits of having broadband included in the communications networks that fall under FCC authority."

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel announced her plan to ensure broadband is treated as a public utility last month. Commissioners Anna Gomez and Geoffrey Starks on Thursday joined her in voting for the related notice of proposed rulemaking, which was opposed by Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington.

"The notice of proposed rulemaking adopted today seeks comment on classifying fixed and mobile broadband internet service as an essential 'telecommunications' service under Title II of the Communications Act," the FCC explained. "The proposal also seeks to restore clear, nationwide open internet rules that would prevent internet service providers [ISPs] from blocking legal content, throttling speeds, and creating fast lanes that favor those who can pay for access."

Lewis asserted that "this commonsense classification is a no-brainer to the millions of Americans who want the FCC to work to ensure that all of us are connected to quality, affordable, open, and secure broadband networks."

US House in chaos as Jordan schedules third vote and interim speaker plan fails

The leaderless House was plunged deeper into chaos on Thursday after Republicans refused to coalesce around a speaker and a plan to empower an interim speaker collapsed.

The party’s embattled candidate for speaker, congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, vowed to press ahead, scheduling a long-delayed third vote on his nomination for Friday morning. But angry and exhausted, the House Republican conference ended the day of fiery closed-door sessions no closer to breaking the impasse that has immobilized the chamber for a 17th day. ...

Earlier in the day, Jordan had briefly reversed course and backed a novel, bipartisan proposal to expand the authority of the temporary speaker, a position currently held by Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, for the next several months as Jordan worked to shore up support for his bid. But a group of hard-right conservatives revolted, calling the plan “asinine” and arguing that it would effectively cede control of the floor to Democrats.

As support for the idea crumbled, Jordan told reporters that he would continue to press ahead with his candidacy despite entrenched opposition from a widening group of members, some of whom accused the Ohio Republican of deploying intimidation tactics.

US supreme court allows delay in redrawing Louisiana map that dilutes Black voters’ power

The US supreme court said on Thursday it would not immediately lift a lower court’s order blocking a judge from holding a hearing to consider a new congressional map for Louisiana that increases the power of Black voters. The decision could mean that Black voters in Louisiana will have to vote under a map that has been found to illegally weaken their votes for a second time.

The decision, which had no noted dissents, is the latest step in an increasingly complex legal battle over Louisiana’s congressional maps. A federal judge last year ordered the state to redraw its six districts to add a second district where Black voters could elect a candidate of their choice. Black voters currently represent about a third of Louisiana’s population but have a majority in just one district.

The US supreme court put that decision on hold while it considered a similar case from Alabama. After the court upheld a ruling requiring Alabama to redraw its maps in June, it allowed the Louisiana case to move forward.

In a highly unusual move, a split three-judge panel from the US court of appeals for the fifth circuit issued an order in late September blocking a judge from holding a hearing on a remedial map. The two highly conservative judges in the majority, Edith Jones and James Ho, said the lower judge had not given Louisiana Republicans enough of a chance to defend themselves or prepare a legally compliant map.

The challengers in the case immediately appealed to the US supreme court, warning that putting off the hearing could mean that Louisiana might not get a new congressional map until after the 2024 election. Such a ruling would mean that Black voters in the state would have to be subject to two federal elections under maps that illegally weakened their votes.

Young Dems Will DITCH Biden Over HAWKISH Israel Support, FOREIGN WAR Funding

Speeding boats push critically endangered whales closer to extinction

The lives of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are being put at risk by ships speeding in designated “slow zones”, according to a new report. Only about 340 of the species remain, and collisions with boats are a leading cause of injuries and fatalities as the whales often swim close to the surface, and their dark colour makes them difficult to spot.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a speed rule in the US in 2008 that all vessels 65ft or longer must travel at 10 knots or less in specific zones called seasonal management areas along the US east coast, in order to help protect the whales. But vessels, from cargo ships to luxury yachts, have been recorded travelling at more than three times the speed limit, according to the report, from the conservation group Oceana. “Speeding boats can and do kill North Atlantic right whales,” said Gib Brogan, campaign director for Oceana. “Well-enforced speed zones are the most effective way to protect whales from this known threat.

“Slow zones are comparable to school slow zones to protect children – they act as required speed limits to offer protection from boat strikes where North Atlantic right whales are found.”

‘Very disturbing’: crackdown on oil pipeline protests in Uganda concerns UN rights expert

In mid-September, four dozen university students marched through Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, to deliver a petition to parliament calling on the government to end fossil fuel investments and scrap the 900-mile east Africa crude oil pipeline (Eacop). The young climate activists were led by 29-year-old Abduh Twaib Magambo, an environmental science student, who carried the two-page typewritten petition that said: “As students and young people of this country, we are the direct and major victims of [the] climate crisis living in a country that is among the most affected by climate change yet one of the least prepared to respond and tackle its effects.

“Parliament should put people over profit for our survival and future to rely on a healthy planet free from fossil fuels.”

Police officers refused to let them enter parliament. Most were chased away, but four male students were corralled under a table near the main entrance, where they say police kicked and punched them, and beat them with wood.

After the beatings, the students were handcuffed and taken to a police station, where they say officers accused them of having been paid to protest against the pipeline. The four students spent the weekend in one of the city’s most notorious and overcrowded prisons, before being charged with public nuisance and released on bail.

“Young people are the majority in our country and we are the most vulnerable to the climate crisis. But anyone rising up against Eacop is facing the brutal wrath of the regime,” said Magambo, who suffered a dislocated ankle and damage to his left eardrum. “It is a laughable case, but they want to keep us busy in court so that we can’t organize and protest. But we have to join the global community’s fight against fossil fuels,” he said.

Also of Interest

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

From Applauding Nazis To Backing An Actual Genocide In Under A Month

Patrick Lawrence: Roger Waters and the One-State Solution

Pipeline dreams: the desert city out to surpass Phoenix by importing water

‘I got to know the wolf’: how Spain’s shepherds are learning to live with their old enemy

Israeli Journalist Amira Hass, Daughter of Holocaust Survivors, Calls for Gaza Ceasefire Now

WAR SUPER PACKAGE: Biden Drafts $105B Bill For Israel, Ukraine

A Little Night Music

Kim Wilson - Tiger Man

Fabulous T-Birds - Can't Stop Rockin'

Kim Wilson with Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughan - Keep my Business to Yourself

Kim wilson & Bonnie Raitt - I Believe I'm in Love With You

Kim Wilson - Big Walter's Boogie

The Fabulous Thunderbirds - Don't Say That No More

Willie J. Campbell feat. David Hidalgo & Kim Wilson - This Time

Kim Wilson - Eyesight to the Blind

Kim Wilson - Smokin' Joint

The Fabulous Thunderbirds Full Concert 09 09 87 Capitol Theatre