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News and Opinion

Amid mass executions and genocidal rhetoric, US deepens support for Israeli onslaught on Gaza

Amid reports that Israel is carrying out mass executions of civilian prisoners in Gaza and open statements of genocidal intent by Israeli politicians, the US has doubled down on its support for Israel’s war on Palestinian civilians. Before the eyes of the whole world, the bloodbath in Gaza is emerging as “America’s genocide.” On Wednesday, the United Nations and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor published reports accusing Israeli forces of carrying out a mass execution of civilians in northern Gaza. Having either driven away or killed all remaining journalists in the north, Israel has moved from massacring civilians through bombing to summary executions. ...

Israel is starving the 2.2 million people of Gaza. On Monday, Human Rights Watch accused Israel of having “an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare.” According to the World Food Program, the share of Gazans experiencing “very severe hunger levels” has surged from 24 percent to 44 percent.

Against this backdrop, the United States has deepened its categorical support for Israel’s genocide. In a press briefing Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was asked by a reporter to comment on the fact that “much of the world [is] blaming the US and Israel” and “seeing it as America’s war.” Critically, Blinken did not attempt to distance himself from the claim that Israel is waging “America’s war.” Instead, he doubled down:

I hear virtually no one saying, demanding of Hamas, that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow, if Hamas does that this would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that. How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor, and only demands made of the victim?

Blinken’s assertion that the Israeli government is the “victim” in the conflict is so absurd as to not even merit refutation. After orchestrating a deliberate military and intelligence stand-down on October 7, the Netanyahu government has massacred 25 Gazans for every Israeli killed that day. While seizing on the October 7 attacks to proclaim itself a “victim” of the Palestinians it oppresses and dominates, the Netanyahu government moved to implement what Israeli Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter called a “Gaza Nakba 2023”—the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.

With a level of cynicism comparable only to officials of the Third Reich, Blinken proclaimed that Israel’s goal is not to massacre the population of Gaza but to protect them. “Israel conducts its operations, again, with a focus on protecting civilians, minimizing harm, and maximizing assistance getting to them,” he claimed. In a follow-up question, Blinken was asked, “Is there a red line for you?” regarding how many people Israel will be allowed to massacre. To this, Blinken replied that the United States is “intent on seeing this through to completion.”

Gazan Attorney Who Has Lost 60 Relatives in Israeli Attacks Says U.S. Is "Complicit in Genocide"

Israeli commander vows to flatten 'entire' Gaza Strip

An Israeli commander has pledged that the "entire" Gaza Strip will be razed to the ground.

Yair Ben David, a commander in the 2908th Battalion, said in a video posted on social media, that they had “entered Beit Hanoun and did there as Shimon and Levi did in Nablus,” referring to the biblical story in which all the male inhabitants of the city were massacred.

“The entire Gaza should resemble Beit Hanoun,” he added, referring to the ruined city in northern Gaza.

“Gaza must look like Beit Hanoun today.”

David said that the destruction was “only the beginning” and would instil “fear among the nations around us, in the cities of Lebanon, in the cities of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank), and among all those sitting around us who think it's possible to harm the dignity of the people of Israel.”

Max Blumenthal: Are Biden and Netanyahu on a Collision Course?

Israeli military accused of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza

The Committee to Protect Journalists has accused the Israeli military of targeting journalists and their families in Gaza amid the highest death toll of media workers in any recent conflict. The New York-based CPJ said at least 68 journalists and other media workers had been killed in Gaza, Israel and southern Lebanon since the Hamas cross-border attack on 7 October and subsequent Israeli assault.

“More journalists have been killed in the first 10 weeks of the Israel-Gaza war than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year,” it said.

“CPJ is particularly concerned about an apparent pattern of targeting of journalists and their families by the Israeli military. In at least one case, a journalist was killed while clearly wearing press insignia in a location where no fighting was taking place. In at least two other cases, journalists reported receiving threats from Israeli officials and Israel Defense Forces officers before their family members were killed.”

The CPJ called for Israel to “end the longstanding pattern of impunity in cases of journalists killed by the IDF”. Sixty-one of the journalists killed were Palestinian and three Lebanese. In addition, four Israeli journalists were among the 1,200 people, mostly civilians, killed by Hamas in the October attack. ...

The CPJ said there was a “pattern of journalists in Gaza reporting receiving threats, and subsequently, their family members being killed”. It said the 90-year-old father of the Al-Jazeera journalist Anas Al-Sharif was killed by an Israeli airstrike on his home after multiple threats were made to his son. “The journalist told Al Jazeera that he had received multiple phone calls from officers in the Israeli army instructing him to cease coverage and leave northern Gaza. Additionally, he received voice notes on WhatsApp disclosing his location,” it said.

Meta censors pro-Palestinian views on a global scale, report claims

Meta has engaged in a “systemic and global” censorship of pro-Palestinian content since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war on 7 October, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In a scathing 51-page report, the organization documented and reviewed more than a thousand reported instances of Meta removing content and suspending or permanently banning accounts on Facebook and Instagram. The company exhibited “six key patterns of undue censorship” of content in support of Palestine and Palestinians, including the taking down of posts, stories and comments; disabling accounts; restricting users’ ability to interact with others’ posts; and “shadow banning”, where the visibility and reach of a person’s material is significantly reduced, according to HRW.

Examples it cites include content originating from more than 60 countries, mostly in English, and all in “peaceful support of Palestine, expressed in diverse ways”. Even HRW’s own posts seeking examples of online censorship were flagged as spam, the report said.

“Censorship of content related to Palestine on Instagram and Facebook is systemic and global [and] Meta’s inconsistent enforcement of its own policies led to the erroneous removal of content about Palestine,” the group said in the report, citing “erroneous implementation, overreliance on automated tools to moderate content, and undue government influence over content removals” as the roots of the problem.

Gaza faces ‘highest ever recorded’ levels of food insecurity, UN warns

Gaza is facing a “catastrophic” hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions, according to the UN, with everyone in the besieged coastal strip liable to face acute food insecurity in the coming weeks.

At the same time, hopes of a temporary pause in fighting to allow a new prisoner exchange receded as Hamas rejected talks until Israel halted its military onslaught on Gaza. On Thursday night, the US said it could support an amended version of a UN resolution aimed at increasing aid flows into Gaza, but only after a call for “an urgent suspension of hostilities” was removed.

A vote on the amended resolution was put off until Friday, and it was not confirmed that all the other 14 council members, particularly Russia would vote for the amended version. ...

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, appeared to dismiss the prospect of another truce on Wednesday. “Whoever thinks that we will stop is detached from reality. We will not stop the fighting until all of the goals that we have set are achieved: the elimination of Hamas, the release of our hostages and the removal of the threat from Gaza,” he said in a statement.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said he was astonished that the UN security council, after a month of negotiations, had been unable to back a resolution calling for a humanitarian cessation of hostilities in Gaza. “We need to call things by their real name. We have a crisis,” he said.

A look inside Gaza as mass famine spreads

Oxfam Says Biden Shares Blame for Mass Starvation in Gaza

Oxfam America said Thursday that U.S. President Joe Biden's unwavering military and diplomatic support for the Israeli government has helped fuel a staggering rise in hunger in the Gaza Strip, where more than 90% of the population is facing acute food insecurity and the risk of famine is growing by the day.

That finding is from an alarming new analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), which said Thursday that the entire population of Gaza is in crisis due to increasingly scarce food supplies—shortages caused by Israel's relentless bombing campaign and blockade.

"This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country," the organization said.

More than half a million Gazans, according to the IPC, are "facing catastrophic conditions... characterized by households experiencing an extreme lack of food, starvation, and exhaustion of coping capacities."

Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America, said in a statement that the figures "are a direct, damning, and predictable consequence of Israel's policy choices—and President Biden's unconditional support and diplomatic approach."

Israel Intelligence Chief Says The Quiet Part Out Loud!

Senate Adjourns Until 2024 With No Deal on Ukraine Aid

The Senate adjourned for the holidays on Wednesday without reaching a deal on Ukraine aid and will not return to Washington until January 8.

The Senate was initially due to break for holiday recess at the end of last week but Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had senators return on Monday to try and reach a border deal to unlock a massive $111 billion spending package that includes military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.

US Eyes Frozen Russian Central Bank Funds to Fund Ukraine

The Biden administration is quietly signaling its support for seizing more than $300 billion in frozen Russian central bank funds to use to fund Ukraine, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

The central bank funds are held in the US, Europe, and Japan and were frozen using sanctions implemented after Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Stealing the funds and giving them to Ukraine would be an unprecedented move and would take the US-led Western economic war against Russia to another level.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen previously said that seizing the funds without action from Congress is “not something that is legally permissible in the United States.” US officials have also been concerned that the move could make other countries hesitant to keep funds in dollars or at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Police fatally shoot Black woman who called 911 for domestic violence

A Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 27-year-old woman who had called 911 to report that she was under attack by a former boyfriend, police officials and lawyers for the victim’s family said on Thursday. Records show the deputy had killed another person in similar circumstances three years ago.

On 4 December, Niani Finlayson called police and “reported that her boyfriend would not leave her alone and then screaming and sounds of a struggle could be heard”, the LA sheriff’s department (LASD) said in a statement. When deputies arrived at the apartment in Lancaster, a city in the northern region of LA county, they could hear screaming, LASD said.

Finlayson was inside with her nine-year-old daughter and had been injured by her ex-boyfriend and wanted him removed, her family’s attorneys said. The exact circumstances that led to the fatal shooting are unclear and LASD has so far declined to release body-camera footage.

LASD alleged in a statement that Finlayson had a knife and was threatening her boyfriend, at which point deputy Ty Shelton opened fire. The family disputed the police account, saying Finlayson was clearly a victim of domestic violence who needed help and posed no threat to the officers. The coroner said she died from “multiple gunshot wounds”.

Finlayson was a mother of two, and her daughter, Xaisha, witnessed the shooting. “The police lied that my mom was threatening them,” Xaisha said at a press conference on Thursday alongside her grandparents, calling for Shelton to be prosecuted. ... Finlayson’s family filed a legal claim against the county and sheriff’s department on Thursday, alleging wrongful death, assault and civil rights violations.

Jack Smith Has NO AUTHORITY to Go After Trump; Former AG Bashes ILLEGITIMATE Prosecution

US utility firms offer builders cash and trips to fit new homes with gas appliances

Dozens of US gas utilities, serving more than 35 million customers, offer builders and contractors incentives to keep fossil fuels in buildings, the Guardian has found.

Washington state’s NW Natural offers builders $2,000 for each new single-family home they equip with gas appliances, while Texas’s Corpus Christi Gas offers $1,000. And in Minnesota, CenterPoint Energy participates in a program that offers paid vacations to builders who outfit homes with gas.

Meanwhile, gas utility trade groups are training members to sell builders on the continued use of the planet-heating fossil fuel, including through trainings at conferences and webinars. “Stress the lifestyle benefits that come with a natural gas home,” one instructor said in a recording of a training session heard by the Guardian.

The initiatives are part of gas interests’ decades-long effort to capture builders, contractors and real estate agents – trusted figures to homebuyers and developers – according to an investigation by the Guardian. It’s part of a larger influence campaign that dates back to collaborations with esteemed chefs like Jacques Pépin, newly unearthed archival documents show.

The longstanding relationship between gas interests and the building sector could be a major impediment to decarbonizing buildings, which account for roughly one-third of US greenhouse gas emissions.

Rainforest Watchdog Accuses Peru of 'Predatory' Attack on Amazon

In what opponents called a rushed vote without adequate notification or debate, Peru's right-wing congressional majority on Wednesday effectively decriminalized illegal logging, a move Amazon defenders warned will empower criminal groups to destroy ecosystems critical to the survival of Indigenous peoples and biodiversity.

El Comercio reported that after less than 10 minutes of debate, Peru's Plenary Congress approved amendments to the country's Forest and Wildlife Law following a request for legislative reconsideration filed by Congresswoman Nilza Chacón Trujillo, a member of the right-wing Popular Force party. The vote was 69-35, with five abstentions.

"Most experts in Peru agree that the interest behind modifying the Forestry Law is to adapt to the new import restrictions of products that deforest the Amazon in the European and U.S. markets in an underhanded way," said Ricardo Pérez, Peru's communications adviser at Amazon Watch—which said the amendments "will effectively make it 'open season'" for Amazon exploitation, including by organized criminal groups.

Changing climate casts a shadow over the future of the Panama Canal – and global trade

In 2022, more than 14,000 ships traversed the Panama Canal, transporting fuel, grain, minerals and goods from the factories of east Asia to the consumers of New York and beyond. More than 40% of consumer goods traded between north-east Asia and the US east coast are transported through the canal. To make the journey, ships – some up to 350 metres long – enter through a narrow waterway and rise more than 26 metres above sea level into the man-made Lake Gatun through a series of locks. On the other side of the canal, the process is reversed and the ships descend to sea level through another series of locks before exiting the canal on the other side of the continent.

The locking system relies on fresh water from Lake Gatun and another nearby reservoir to function. Every ship that passes through the canal uses 200m litres of water most of which then flows out into the sea. The same sources also provide water for more than half of Panama’s 4.3 million inhabitants, forcing administrators to balance the demands of international shipping with the needs of the locals.

For decades, this has rarely been a problem. Panama is one of the wettest countries in the world and the canal and its surrounding lakes have been blessed with an abundance of water. However, in 2023 a rainfall deficit, exacerbated by the El Niño weather phenomenon, led to the water levels in Lake Gatun dropping. The twin demands of the canal and the local population have left the lake facing a water deficit of 3bn litres a day.

Lake Gatun’s water level is now close to the lowest point ever recorded during a rainy season, forcing the Panama Canal authority who manages the waterway to restrict the number of vessels passing through. In normal times, the Panama Canal has capacity to handle 36 ships a day. But as water has grown scarcer, the canal authority has reduced that number to 22. By February, it will be just 18. ...

With attacks on the world’s busiest trade route in the Red Sea leading many companies to avoid the Suez Canal altogether, restrictions at the Panama Canal will only pile more pressure on global supply chains – just as governments around the world attempt to tame inflation.

French city of Montpellier makes public transport free for all residents

The French city of Montpellier in southern France became the latest European metropolis to allow all its residents to ride public transport for free.

The entire European country of Luxembourg including its capital of the same name scrapped fares in 2020, after Estonia’s capital Tallinn introduced the policy in 2013.

From Thursday evening, Montpellier residents with a special pass were able to ride trams and buses free of charge in the southern city. Visitors and tourists will still have to pay 1.60 euro ($1.70) a trip. ...

Michael Delafosse, the Socialist mayor of the city of 500,000 people, promised free public transport when he was elected in 2020. He started by introducing free rides at the weekend that year, then the following year extended them to all those younger than 18 or older than 65 throughout the whole week. Delafosse said the initiative was part of a “European commitment to … the climate and purchasing power”. ...

The city has said a new transport tax on companies with more than 11 employees will help fund the free transport initiative.

Also of Interest

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

Israel's military zones in on Gaza hospital directors in persistent attack on healthcare

UN Report Says Over 570,000 People Are Starving in Gaza

Ben Gvir calls to disband war cabinet if Gaza assault scaled back

The case of al-Shifa: Investigating the assault on Gaza’s largest hospital

Half Of Gaza’s Population Is Now Starving

US Students for Palestine Under Attack

He’s raising millions in aid for Gaza. But still he couldn’t save his family

Patrick Lawrence: What? Ukraine Is Not Winning the War?

China Bans Exports of Rare Earth Tech as Critical Minerals Race Heats Up

A Little Night Music

Taste - Blister On The Moon

Taste - Sugar Mama

Taste - Born On The Wrong Side Of Time

Taste - What's Going On

Taste - On The Boards

Taste - Same Old Story

Taste - Sinner Boy

Taste - It's Happened Before, It'll Happen Again

Taste - Leaving Blues

Taste Rory Gallagher - Morning Sun

Taste - Dual Carriageway Pain

Taste - Hail

Taste - Catfish

Taste - If I Don't Sing I'll Cry