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"Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it."

-- George R. R. Martin

News and Opinion

Israel Cannot Hide From the International Court of Justice

It is easy to be cynical about the international rule of law. No sooner had the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against the Palestinian people than the U.S. State Department declared, “We continue to believe that allegations of genocide are unfounded and note the court did not make a finding about genocide or call for a ceasefire in its ruling…” Israeli leaders declared the case to be “outrageous” and “antisemitic.” Yet the risks for Israel of the ICJ ruling, and its follow-up in the next year or two, are profound. If Israel spurns the Genocide Convention, it imperils its place within the community of nations.

True, the ICJ provisional ruling by itself will not end Israel’s war in Gaza or perhaps the mass killing of the Palestinian people, already at 26,000 and rising (with 70 percent women and children). The ruling by itself will not end America’s complicity in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians. Israel could not fight the war in Gaza one more day without the U.S. providing the munitions and other military support.

Yet the ruling has started the clock on Israel’s future. If Israel continues to act with impunity and finds itself declared as genocidaire in the ICJ’s final ruling, Israel will become a pariah state. Young Americans in particular will pull the plug on U.S. backing for Israel. Israel will stand utterly alone, condemned by the world.

Most of the 193 governments in the United Nations already disdain Israel’s behavior. Most see a country that has occupied the neighboring territories of Palestine for 57 years (since the 1967 war), that has scorned and failed to act on dozens of votes by the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, and illegally and blatantly settled more than 700,000 Israelis in the occupied territories.

Most UN member states hear clearly the expressions of visceral hatred by many Israeli leaders toward the people of Palestine. For example, the statement by Israeli President Herzog blaming all of the people of Gaza, as cited by the ICJ; and they understand clearly the intention of today’s Israeli government to occupy Palestine and rule over the 7 million Palestinian Muslims and Christians living in Israel and Palestine today. South Africa brought the ICJ case against Israel in part because it knows murderous apartheid rule when it sees it, and it sees apartheid rule in Israel’s ongoing domination over the Palestinian people.

Israel has so far not been deterred by global opinion because of its nuclear weapons, its messianic zeal, and most importantly, the military, financial, and public backing of the United States, including its votes in the UN Security Council and General Assembly. Moreover, the U.S. and Israel have acted on the belief that the offer of American money and weapons systems to the Arab nations would induce them to turn their backs on Palestinian people. Israel and the U.S. act with supreme arrogance, believing that military might makes right and that money talks. Yes, Israel also acts out of fear of the Palestinians, but that is the overbearing and grossly unjustified fear of the underdog, the conquered, and the displaced. By recognizing and making peace with an independent state of Palestine, Israel would remove the hate and humiliation that fuels support for Hamas, and thereby diminish the threats that lead to Israel’s own fears.

Israelis should understand that the U.S. cannot—and will not—save Israel in the long run. It will not do so any more than America has “saved” South Vietnam; Iran after the U.S.-U.K. coup in 1953; Afghanistan after 2001; Iraq after the U.S. overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003; Syria after the U.S. attempted overthrow of Bashar al-Assad in 2011; Libya after the NATO overthrow of Moammar Qaddafi in 2011; or Ukraine since the U.S.-led coup in 2014. American military force is useless or worse in sustaining regimes that lack broad international support and legitimacy. America tires of each misguided military adventure and moves on, and will eventually do so vis-à-vis Israel if Israel becomes a pariah and outlaw state.

Nor will U.S. money and weapons systems carry the day with the Arab neighbors. The U.S. is at the end of its financial largesse. The U.S. public debt is already 122.9 percent of GDP and rising rapidly. There is no consensus in Washington, D.C. on how to stabilize the U.S. budget, but one point is clear: large support for foreign countries will not be part of the bargain. The cutoff of U.S. financing for Ukraine, despite the intense lobbying by the politically powerful military-industrial complex, is a vivid case in point. Even access to advanced U.S. weapons systems will not persuade Arab nations to abandon the cause of a Palestinian state. In any event, Russian, Iranian, North Korean, Chinese, and other advanced weapons systems will be on highly competitive offer in future years, and with better financing terms.

At the moment, the Israeli public ardently backs Israel’s brutality and slaughter in Gaza. The public is gripped by a combination of overwhelming fear, religious zealotry, and state propaganda. Israelis widely believe that the Arab nations are implacably out to destroy Israel. They do not travel in the Arab countries and do not know or understand the attitudes and policies of those neighboring societies. They do not attend to the statements of Arab and Islamic leaders calling for peace based on the two-state solution because Israeli mainstream media, like U.S. mainstream media, is in the grips of relentless state propaganda, brain-deadening patriotism, and relentless war-mongering.

Israeli society is immeasurably traumatized by the Nazi Holocaust, which remains the central fact of modernity and memory of every Jewish family of European roots in any part of the world. An eventual finding by the world’s highest court that Israel itself has now become a perpetrator of genocide will therefore shake Israeli society to the roots and will rupture Israel’s social contract with world Jewry. At that very painful and very dire stage, Israeli public opinion may begin to reconsider its current assumptions.

Yes, despite the ICJ ruling Israel’s killing goes on, but under greatly heightened legal and political scrutiny. Every Israeli murder in cold blood, every bombing of a hospital, every destruction of a Palestinian school or university, every Israeli denial of food and water for Gazans, will be meticulously recorded by South Africa’s superb legal team, and by highly respected legal institutes around the world, including the Center for Constitutional Rights and Law for Palestine. All will be duly conveyed to the ICJ.

Palestine will survive the current horrific ordeal, deeply wounded but with strong worldwide backing. Israel’s future, by contrast, hangs in the balance, as it could soon find itself banished by the community of nations as a stark violator of international law. Israel urgently requires leaders who embrace international law over military force, humility over arrogance, and peacemaking over brutality. And Israel—no less than the United States—must come to understand the self-destructive futility of deploying military force to deny justice and political rights for the Palestinian people.

Pentagon vows ‘all necessary actions’ to defend US troops after deadly strike

US defense secretary Lloyd Austin has vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend US troops after Iran-backed militants killed three US troops and wounded dozens more in a drone attack on a US base in Jordan.“The president and I will not tolerate attacks on US forces and we will take all necessary actions to defend the US and our troops,” Austin said at the Pentagon on Monday.

The statement came as US officials told the Associated Press that the enemy drone – which also wounded dozens of people at the desert outpost in Jordan – may have been confused with an American drone returning to the US installation. ...

President Joe Biden now faces a balancing act, blaming Iran and looking to strike back in a forceful way without causing any further escalation of the Gaza conflict. The White House said on Monday the president was “weighing his options” for a “very consequential” answer to the attack.

US Republicans have suggested they would use Iran as a test case of Biden’s strength ahead of the US elections. “The entire world now watches for signs that the president is finally prepared to exercise American strength,” Republican senate minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate judiciary committee and a leading hawk, urged Biden to “hit Iran now. Hit them hard.”

BOMB IRAN?! Biden Vows RESPONSE After 3 US Troops KILLED In Middle East POWDER KEG

Biden White House Says 'We Don't Want a Wider War.' Analysts Say 'Too Late'

Since October, the United States has bombed Iraq and Syria dozens of times, launched five rounds of airstrikes in Yemen, supplied the Israeli government with more than 10,000 tons of military equipment for its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip, and opposed international efforts to secure a cease-fire in the Palestinian enclave.

Yet Biden administration officials continue to insist that the U.S. is not at war in the Middle East, and is not seeking a broader military conflict in the region.

On Monday, amid reports that the U.S. is weighing how to respond to a deadly drone attack on American servicemembers just inside Jordan's border with Syria—an attack the White House blamed on Iran-backed militia groups—National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said in an appearance on NBC's "Today Show" that "we don't want a wider war with Iran."

"We don't want a wider war in the region," said Kirby, "but we gotta do what we have to do."

The disconnect between the White House's stated intention to avoid a broader conflagration in the Middle East and its escalatory actions has become increasingly stark in recent weeks, with potentially dire consequences for the region.

Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, told Common Dreams that—contrary to Kirby's suggestion—the U.S. is not obligated to continue the tit-for-tat strikes that are fueling the intensifying cycle of violence and risking an all-out war.

"They don't 'gotta do' what they're doing," Bennis wrote in an email. "What they've 'gotta do'—if there's any reality to the claim that they don't want to expand the war in the region or risk war with Iran—is exactly the opposite of what they're now doing."

"That means stop the military provocations," she added. "Withdraw the aircraft carrier groups and destroyers from the area. Stop bombing Iraq and Syria, and withdraw the 2,500 U.S. troops from Iraq (isn't that war officially over?) and the 900 or so U.S. troops from Syria (who are we fighting there, anyway?). Stop bombing Yemen, killing civilians as well as Houthi fighters."

The attack on American troops in Jordan—reportedly carried out by a drone that was initially mistaken for a U.S. aircraft—immediately set off the drumbeats of war, with Democratic and Republican members of Congress demanding that the Biden administration respond forcefully with strikes inside Iran.

Biden signaled in a statement Sunday that the U.S. will retaliate "at a time and in a manner of our choosing." Kirby declined to say Monday whether the president is weighing strikes within Iran—which has denied involvement in the Jordan attack—but vowed that the U.S. "absolutely will" retaliate.

Analysts and anti-war campaigners warned that a military response would be a potentially catastrophic mistake, further inflaming a conflict that already involves at least 10 countries.

Thanassis Cambanis, director of The Century Foundation's Center for International Research and Policy, argued late Sunday that with the U.S. already "fighting on multiple fronts," it is "too late to avoid regional war."

Unless the U.S. "deescalates immediately" across the region and pressures Israel to stop its war on the Gaza Strip, President Joe Biden "will have ended one war in Afghanistan only to start a bigger one that stretches from Iran to the Suez Canal," Cambanis wrote.

"It's too late for 26,000 dead Gazans," he added. "It's too late to avoid colossal self-harm to America's reputation. But the U.S. can snap to its senses, end the Gaza war, and climb down from pointless escalations across the Middle East."

Stephen Miles, president of Win Without War, also made the case for urgent deescalation efforts, saying in a statement that the attack on U.S. servicemembers in Jordan was "a painful reminder that President Biden's current policy in the Middle East is simply not working."

"The same voices who advocated for never-ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, arguing victory was forever just around the corner, now want the American public to believe that the path to peace lies with yet another war in the Middle East—this time with Iran. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now," said Miles. "The only genuine path to significantly reducing the current spasm of violence in the Middle East is securing an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, pouring cold water on the fire at the heart of this regional inferno."

Matt Hoh: Can the US Fight Two Wars?

Biden CAUGHT: US Troops IN YEMEN

Pentagon Admits It Has No Evidence Iran Was Behind Drone Attack That Killed 3 US Troops in Jordan

The Pentagon on Monday said Iran “bears responsibility” for the drone attack in northeastern Jordan that killed three US troops but admitted it has no evidence that Iran was directly involved.

Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said the responsibility fell on Iran due to its support for Iraqi Shia militias the US believes carried out the attack.

“In terms of attribution for the attack, we know this is an [Iran]-backed militia. It has the footprints of Kataib Hezbollah, but [we’re] not making a final assessment,” Singh said at a press conference. “Iran continues to arm and equip these groups to launch these attacks, and we will certainly hold them responsible.”

When asked if the US knew Iran and Iranian leaders were “actually behind this attack, as in planned, coordinated, or directed it,” Singh admitted the US had nothing to show that.

“We know that Iran certainly plays a role with these groups, they arm and equip and fund these groups. I don’t have more to share on — terms of an intelligence assessment on if leaders in Iran were directing this attack,” she said.

Israeli Gov Allows Protesters To STARVE GAZANS

Israel seeks destruction of Palestinian refugee agency and establishment of Jewish settlements in Gaza

Israel responded to the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) ruling last Friday, requesting it to “take all measures within its power” to avoid acts of genocide, by redoubling its efforts to starve the Palestinians and planning for the repopulation of Gaza with Jewish settlements. The same day that the ICJ’s preliminary findings were issued, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said that Israel had provided the organisation with information alleging that 12 of its employees had taken part in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led incursion and participated in massacres. One was accused of kidnapping a woman, another of handing out ammunition and a third of taking part in the massacre at a kibbutz where 97 people died. Seven were said to be teachers at UNRWA schools and two worked at the schools in other capacities.

Israel initially said that its “information” on the 12 was the result of its interrogation, i.e. torture, of captured “militants”. It then changed its story, stating that intelligence services had monitored their cell phones.

The move was a carefully planned counterblast to the ICJ. Israel had in fact handed its information to UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini last Sunday. He flew to New York for discussions with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, before informing donors midweek and then making his announcement on Friday just as the ICJ was delivering its verdict. UNRWA announced it would fire the employees in question and refer them for criminal investigation. Nine were fired and two are reported dead.

In sharp contrast to the months of polite appeals for Israel to abide by international law while it has murdered 30,000 Palestinians and reduced Gaza to rubble, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken immediately suspended funds to UNRWA. The was followed in quick succession by the UK, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Romania, Finland, Canada, Australia and Switzerland. The European Union called on UNRWA to investigate all its staff to “confirm that they did not participate in the attacks.”

Israel’s accusations and attempts to permanently delegitimise UNRWA have escalated since then. The Wall Street Journal and the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel had presented American officials with intelligence estimates that around 1,200 of the 12,000 people UNRWA employs in Gaza (other estimates of UNRWA’s employees range up to 30,000) “have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, enough to warrant the suspension of funding to UNRWA. And about half have close relatives who belong to the Islamist militant groups.” A senior Israeli government official commented, “UNRWA’s problem is not just ‘a few bad apples’ involved in the October 7th massacre… The institution as a whole is a haven for Hamas radical ideology.”

This is the answer of Israel and its backers to the meaningless appeal by the ICJ for it to “take immediate and effective measures immediately to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance”.

'SOON': Israel Promises IMMINENT Lebanon War

Framework for ceasefire deal being put to Hamas, Qatar’s PM says

The framework for a deal that could lead to a ceasefire and the release of hostages held in Gaza is being put to the Hamas leadership, Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, said on Monday. Speaking after talks in Paris between officials from the US, Qatar, Egypt and Israel, he said: “We are in a better place than we were a few weeks ago.” ...

The basis of the deal is a 45-day pause in the fighting leading to the release of 35 Israeli hostages and as many as 4,000 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails.

Israel remains opposed to a permanent ceasefire and wants to retain a right to recommence hostilities against Hamas – something the Hamas leadership wants ruled out.

Late on Monday, Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine reiterated that Israel must halt its offensive and withdraw from Gaza before any prisoner exchange takes place. ...

Earlier, a Hamas spokesperson, Sami Abu Zuhr, said: “The success of the Paris meeting depends on Israel agreeing to the cessation of aggression in the Gaza Strip.”

Israel Struggles to Destroy Hamas Tunnels

US and Israeli officials believe about 80% of Hamas’ tunnels under Gaza are still intact after over three months of Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.

The report is another sign that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s goal of wanting to “eradicate” Hamas is unrealistic as the tunnels are a key part of the group’s infrastructure.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz recently reported that sources within the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said they would be unable to destroy most Hamas tunnels and that the underground network is significantly larger than Israel initially thought.

'GO BACK TO CHINA': Pelosi SHAMES Ceasefire Protestors, Suggests They're FOREIGN ASSETS

Swedish music stars call for Israel Eurovision ban over Gaza

More than 1,000 musical artists from Eurovision host country Sweden have signed an open letter calling for Israel to be excluded from this year’s edition of the song contest over its “brutal warfare in Gaza”. Published in Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet, the open letter says that by allowing Israel to participate, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) “is exhibiting a remarkable double standard that undermines the organisation’s credibility”.

“The fact that countries that place themselves above humanitarian law are welcomed to participate in international cultural events trivialises violations of international law and makes the suffering of the victims invisible,” says the letter, published late on Monday.

The letter comes after a similar petition signed by about 1,400 artists from Finland and Iceland who also called for Israel to be excluded from the song contest, which will be held in Malmö from 7 to 11 May.

In response, EBU announced that Israel would not be excluded, emphasising the event’s apolitical status and arguing that the Eurovision song contest was a contest between public service broadcasters rather than states. But countries have been excluded from Eurovision in the past. In 2022, EBU banned Russia from the event, saying its entry “would bring the competition into disrepute”. The decision was made by the broadcasting union’s executive board after it initially insisted that Russia would be allowed to compete.

Ukraine ADMITS $40 Million STOLEN from War Effort By CORRUPT Government; Zhaulzhny FIRED?

Pennsylvania case challenging ban on Medicaid abortions back in court

Pennsylvania’s supreme court ruled on Monday that a lower court must hear a case challenging a ban on the use of government-funded healthcare to pay for abortions, raising hopes among reproductive rights advocates for an expansion of abortion access in the state and the establishment of a constitutional right to the procedure.

The case, brought by abortion providers in the state, challenged a decades-old state law barring Medicaid from covering abortions, arguing that it should be overturned because it violates the broader rights guaranteed by the state constitution’s Equal Rights Amendment.

Monday’s 3-2 ruling both overturns a lower court decision to dismiss the case and puts aside a 1985 state supreme court court decision that upheld the law banning the use of state Medicaid dollars for abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.

The majority said the lower court must reconsider whether Medicaid can legally draw a distinction “between pregnant women on Medical Assistance who would seek to obtain abortions and pregnant women on Medical Assistance who would seek to carry their pregnancies to term”.

Two of the justices also wrote that abortion is a “fundamental right” under Pennsylvania’s constitution, signaling the possibility of a broader ruling if the case makes its way back up to the state’s highest court.

Did Biden lose the election in Gaza?

Georgia lawmakers advance bill that could punish Trump prosecutor

Georgia legislators in the state house passed a bill on Monday to revive a panel that can punish or remove elected prosecutors, potentially adding to career headaches for the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis.

When creating the first version of the Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission last year, lawmakers cited the inaction of prosecutors in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case as its basis. They also referred to a decision made by the Athens-Clarke county district attorney to forgo charges on minor drug possession cases as an impetus for the law.

Accusations that Willis, who is leading the sprawling corruption case against Trump and his allies over their efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia, may have had an inappropriate relationship with a special prosecutor have been central to the effort to revive the law. ...

The new version of the law passed on Monday by Georgia’s house on a 90-75 party-line vote.

Fears back-to-back cyclones may have damaged Great Barrier Reef

Back-to-back cyclones crossing the Great Barrier Reef have experts concerned vast flood plumes and heavy waves may have damaged parts of the world’s biggest coral reef system. Reef scientists and conservationists went into the summer worried that an El Niño weather pattern would elevate the risk of mass coral bleaching. But so far the greatest concerns have come from December’s Cyclone Jasper and last week’s Cyclone Kirrily, which have seen river catchments push out vast quantities of freshwater laden with sediments and nutrients.

The fears come just days before a 1 February deadline for the federal government to report on commitments to protect the reef to Unesco, to avoid it being placed on a list of world heritage sites in danger.

Freshwater can cause corals to bleach and turbid water can starve reefs and seagrass meadows of light and promote the growth of algae, making it harder for corals to grow and multiply. Cyclones also whip up strong waves that can damage reefs and tear up seagrass meadows that are habitats for dugongs and turtles and act as nurseries for fish. Despite cyclones usually helping to cool waters, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) told the Guardian that sea surface temperatures remained at least 1C above average across the reef.

Dr Jane Waterhouse, a water quality scientist at James Cook University’s TropWater research group, said there appeared to be “no relief for the reef”.

“We’re quite concerned about the potential impacts from the run-off on the reefs in the northern areas,” she said. Marine ecosystems “do not like freshwater”, she said, and some freshwater bleaching had already been observed this summer. ... Waterhouse said a new pattern could be emerging under climate change where coral bleaching was interspersed with intense rainfall, giving little time for recovery.

Texas Regulators Allow Fossil Fuel Polluters to Escape Accountability

Biden Pauses Approvals for New LNG Terminals

Move to sustainable food systems could bring $10tn benefits a year

A shift towards a more sustainable global food system could create up to $10tn (£7.9tn) of benefits a year, improve human health and ease the climate crisis, according to the most comprehensive economic study of its type. It found that existing food systems destroyed more value than they created due to hidden environmental and medical costs, in effect, borrowing from the future to take profits today.

Food systems drive a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, putting the world on course for 2.7C of warming by the end of the century. This creates a vicious cycle, as higher temperatures bring more extreme weather and greater damage to harvests.

Food insecurity also puts a burden on medical systems. The study predicted a business-as-usual approach would leave 640 million people underweight by 2050, while obesity would increase by 70%.

Redirecting the food system would be politically challenging but bring huge economic and welfare benefits, said the international team of authors behind the study, which aims to be the food equivalent of the Stern review, the 2006 examination of the costs of climate change. ///

The study proposes a shift of subsidies and tax incentives away from destructive large-scale monocultures that rely on fertilisers, pesticides and forest clearance. Instead, financial incentives should be directed towards smallholders who could turn farms into carbon sinks with more space for wildlife.

Also of Interest

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

The US & Nine Other Nations Now Helping Israel Starve Gazans

Craig Murray: UN Court Spurned Israel’s Key Argument

ICJ Israel Ruling and the 1984 Judgment Against the US

Patrick Lawrence: The Palestinians Won in The Hague: So Did the Rest of Us

The Tower-22 Strike in Jordan Triggers US, Israel Into All-Front War – The Arabs and Iran Are Ready, the Russians Too

War On The Middle East - The Time Of Monsters

Palestinians detained and abused in Israel's 'safe corridor' from Khan Younis

New role for Amy Coney Barrett’s father inside Christian sect sparks controversy

The Pentagon Tried to Hide That It Bought Americans’ Data Without a Warrant

How a Black Miami neighborhood became ‘ground zero for climate gentrification’

Ex-US air force pilot claims he may have located lost Amelia Earhart plane

Estates of Jimi Hendrix bandmates can sue over royalties dispute

Joy Ann Reid CAUGHT SLAMMING BIDEN on HOT MIC Over 'ANOTHER F***ING WAR' at the Border

WATCH: IDF Refuses to Show CNN Hamas Tunnels Underneath DESTROYED Cemetery

A Little Night Music

Big John Wrencher - Lucille

Big John Wrencher - Maxwell Street Alley Blues

Big John Wrencher -Back Porch Boogie

Big John Wrencher - Ha-Ha Baby

Big John Wrencher - Honeydripper

Big John Wrencher & Eddie Taylor ~ Telephone Blues

Big John Wrencher - Runin' Wild

Big John Wrencher - Goin' Upstairs

Robert NightHawk & Big John Wrencher - Blues Before Sunrise