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"From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step."

-- Denis Diderot

News and Opinion

Find Someone Who Loves You Like Israel Loves Attacking Palestinian Hospitals

The World Health Organization has issued a statement saying that it has recorded 410 Israeli attacks on Gazan healthcare services since October 7, resulting in 685 fatalities, 902 injuries, and damage to 99 healthcare facilities.

As of this writing there is a still-ongoing IDF assault on Al-Shifa Hospital, which according to Israel has resulted in scores of Palestinian deaths and the capture of hundreds of prisoners. This is the fourth time Israel has attacked this particular hospital, which happens to be the largest hospital in Gaza. 

Survivors of the assault have told Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor that they repeatedly witnessed groups of prisoners being walked into the hospital morgue by IDF troops, then heard the sound of gunfire, then saw the IDF troops returning without the prisoners. Which is probably exactly what it would look and sound like if the IDF was conducting mass summary executions at Al-Shifa Hospital.

BREAKING: ISRAEL TAKE MORE CIVILIANS HOSTAGE FROM AL-SHIFA

They took 160 palestinians hostage including;

Intensive Unit Team
Dr. Nihad Abed
Dr. Mu'nis Muhaisen
Senior Nurse Rohi Labban
Nurse Kamal Kishko
Orthopaedic Team
Dr. Murad Al-Quqa
Nurse Yosef Abo… pic.twitter.com/hvN2hrUc8m

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) March 20, 2024

In an article for The Washington Post titled “How Biden became embroiled in a Gaza conflict with no end in sight” (the western press have an extensive track record of constantly framing US military aggressions as passive entanglements that the global superpower keeps innocently stumbling and bumbling its way into by accident), Yasmeen Abutaleb and John Hudson report that according to their sources the Biden White House misrepresented the intelligence whose claims were used to justify the first Al-Shifa raid back in November.

Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, told The Washington Post that there was a marked discrepancy between what White House officials were saying publicly about Al-Shifa and what the intelligence they’d seen actually said:

“Van Hollen, who had received a classified briefing about the U.S. intelligence on al-Shifa, said there were ‘important and subtle differences’ between what Biden officials were saying publicly and what the intelligence actually showed. ‘I did find there to be some disconnect between the administration’s public statements and the classified findings,’ the senator said.”

In December, when it was all long over, The Washington Post published a report which found that “the evidence presented by the Israeli government falls short of showing that Hamas had been using the hospital as a command and control center.” It was obvious that Israel was lying about Al-Shifa at the time back in November, with psyops like a nonexistent Hamas calendar being “discovered” in the hospital and a fake video purporting to show an Al-Shifa nurse saying the hospital was overrun with Hamas fighters being debunked as fast as they could be produced.

Are people not tired of having their intelligence insulted? https://t.co/SVPeXjR4OQ

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) March 19, 2024

The evidence for the justification of this raid doesn’t appear to be any more robust, with the IDF publishing highly dubious footage of what it claims are “Hamas terrorist funds found inside Shifa Hospital”, complete with notes accompanying the money thanking Hamas by name for their “good work”.

Yeah okay sure, people have been somehow sending “Dear Hamas” letters to the militant group with wads of cash enclosed, and Hamas has been keeping both the cash and the letters in Al-Shifa Hospital, where they were kind enough to leave it for the incoming IDF raid to discover. Sounds legit. Definitely not the sort of thing Israel has been caught lying about many times before.

Israel’s constant fixation on attacking healthcare facilities makes no sense from a military strategic point of view, but it makes plenty of sense from a genocidal point of view. Hospitals are where people are brought to save their lives after they’ve been badly injured or have become acutely malnourished or sick, and they’re where civilians would normally take shelter when nowhere else is safe.

All the way back in December we were already seeing reports that Gaza’s healthcare system has been effectively destroyed by the nonstop attacks on healthcare facilities and the siege warfare cutting the enclave off from much-needed medical supplies. Now we are seeing Israel repeatedly re-attacking those same facilities, ensuring that they remain non-functioning despite all the most resilient efforts of the people of Gaza to stay alive.

This is exactly what it looks like. The narrative managers of Israel and the west will try to spin and distort the information you’re seeing right in front of your face to try and make you believe you’re seeing something other than what you’re seeing, but the truth really couldn’t be more self-evident. This is a genocide. If it wasn’t, Israel wouldn’t be methodically destroying hospitals while bombing and starving the population they’ve been oppressing for generations.

British Surgeon Describes Children Suffering "Appalling Injuries" in Gaza

US and UK doctors in Washington to warn of IDF’s ‘appalling atrocities’ in Gaza

A delegation of American and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes. The doctors, who have recently returned from volunteering at Gaza’s besieged hospitals, are expected to meet White House officials and senior members of Congress this week to warn that pledges of increased aid to Palestinians under bombardment are largely meaningless without an immediate ceasefire to allow safe distribution of food and the revival of healthcare services.

Professor Nick Maynard, the former director for cancer services at Oxford University who worked at the al-Aqsa hospital in central Gaza at the beginning of the year, accused the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of “appalling atrocities”.

“The IDF are systematically targeting healthcare facilities, healthcare personnel and really dismantling the whole healthcare system,” he said.

“It’s not just about targeting the buildings, it’s about systematically destroying the infrastructure of the hospitals. Destroying the oxygen tanks at the al-Shifa hospital, deliberately destroying the CT scanners and making it much more difficult to rebuild that infrastructure. If it was just targeting Hamas militants, why are they deliberately destroying the infrastructure of these institutions?” ...

The crisis in the hospitals has been compounded by the killing or arrest of hundreds of healthcare workers by the Israeli military. Last week the BBC reported that medical staff said they werestripped, beaten and tortured by Israeli troops during a raid on the Nasser hospital in the south of the Gaza Strip, where half the population is now displaced.

Israel allegedly carried out mass summary executions at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in summary mass executions of civilians during a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza this week, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said Wednesday. The raid has killed at least 100 people, “many of whom were victims of extrajudicial executions after their arrest,” the human rights group said. Dozens more were detained, beaten and tortured.

Based on interviews with survivors who were detained and tortured at the hospital, Euro-Med said that Israeli forces had been carrying executions for three days in a row. One detainee, identified as MK, told Euro-Med, “The soldiers detained me and handcuffed me in the hospital courtyard; I was left undressed for more than nine hours.” He reported that soldiers repeatedly took prisoners into the morgue, then gunshots were heard, and the soldiers returned without the prisoners. “About four times during that period, I saw soldiers lead groups of detainees—[always] at least three people and [never] more than 10—into the hospital buildings, particularly the morgue building where bodies had previously been kept,” he said. “Gunshots were heard, with the soldiers then leaving the area to bring another group there.”

Another witness, who asked to remain completely anonymous, said, according to Euro-Med, that he “witnessed Israeli forces taking eight or 10 Palestinian civilians at a time towards the morgue area. He then heard heavy gunfire, and the Israeli forces later left without the civilians.” ... The Israeli military claimed to have “eliminated” 90 “terrorists” during the raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility. “Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area,” the IDF said in a statement.

Among those detained, tortured, and stripped naked were medical personnel at the hospital. Emergency surgeon Mads Gilbert, who previously worked at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, said colleagues described torture by Israeli forces. “Medical staff have been arrested and left for hours in the cold,” Gilbert said. “Some were forced to leave the hospital and taken to unknown places. Others were displaced to the south half naked.” He concluded, “One doctor was shot in the chest when he followed the orders to leave the hospital and later went into surgery at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.” He added that the Israeli military does not differentiate “between fighters and medical staff, patients and refugees.”

Nearly 100 Journalists KILLED In Gaza, US Officials Make LAME EXCUSES

Israeli diplomats pre-emptively attack findings of Unrwa inquiries

Israeli diplomats have pre-emptively attacked the findings of two inquires into the role of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, in Gaza, on the day that one of the inquiries submitted its interim finding to the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres.

Unrwa has come under heavy criticism since Israel accused 12 of its Gaza staff of 13,000 of being implicated in the 7 October Hamas attack on southern Israel. The agency denies the charge and says no solid evidence has been presented to support it.

The UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) launched an investigation on 29 January after the Israeli allegations. Parallel to the OIOS inquiry, a broader review of Unrwa’s activities and neutrality is under way, led by a former French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, and supported by three Nordic research organisations. ...

Israeli diplomats in London hit out at both investigations on Wednesday, vowing that Israel would never let the agency back into Gaza regardless of the outcomes. One Israeli diplomatic source said: “A double game has been played by Hamas and Unrwa, so much so that Unrwa is a Hamas strategic asset.” The diplomats said Unrwa could not be reformed and claimed that international donors that have suspended funding for the agency might be misled into restoring it by the inquiries. Both inquiries had been given overly narrow terms of reference and the OIOS inquiry is not taking fresh evidence that Israel was compiling in the field about the alleged depth of Hamas infiltration, the diplomats said.

Israel also released new figures claiming its intelligence showed that 2,135 Unrwa staff were members of Hamas, representing 17% of the total workforce in Gaza, of whom at least 400 were active fighters. A senior Israeli diplomat said: “Unrwa is so penetrated in Gaza, it cannot be repaired. This is the policy of the state of Israel. We want to see an end to Unrwa activity in Gaza. This is not a case of a few bad apples. It is systemic, consistent and cannot be ignored. It is not possible that Unrwa did not know 17% of its staff were Hamas operatives.

Bibi: Use Biden Gaza Port For Ethnic Cleansing

World Bank report finds imminent risk of catastrophic famine in Gaza Strip

Half the population of the Gaza Strip is at imminent risk of famine as food shortages approach catastrophic levels for more than a million people, the World Bank has warned. Almost six months after the war between Israel and Hamas began, the Washington-based Bank said urgent action was needed to prevent widespread deaths from starvation within the next two months. ...

The Bank’s regular update found that of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million, there were 1.1 million in the highest risk category – people in catastrophe – which meant risk of acute malnutrition or death. A further 854,000 (38%) were in the next category down – people in emergency – where immediate action was needed to save lives. The remaining 12% were in the third category: people in crisis. Nobody in Gaza was placed in the bottom two categories – people stressed or people in food security.

Aaron Maté : More State Dept. Lies

Netanyahu addresses Senate Republicans days after Schumer calls for his ouster

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, virtually addressed Republican senators in Washington on Wednesday, days after the chamber’s majority leader, the Democrat Chuck Schumer, called him an impediment to peace in an unsparing floor speech.

The Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, told reporters, shortly after leaving the Senate Republicans’ policy lunch, that Netanyahu joined the gathering via video link, delivered a presentation, and answered questions.

“We asked him for an update and we got it on the war, on the release of the hostages and in the efforts to defeat Hamas,” the senator John Barrasso, a Republican of Wyoming who invited Netanyahu to speak at the party’s closed-door lunch, told reporters after the meeting. “We told him Israel has every right to defend themselves and he said that’s exactly what they continue to do.”

McConnell said Netanyahu called him last week and asked for an opportunity to address the members of his conference and he accepted. Netanyahu asked to address Senate Democrats at their caucus lunch on Wednesday as well, but Schumer indicated that he had declined.

Israeli General ADMITS War OVER Without US Weapons

While Mulling Israel Claims, Biden Urged to 'Stop Weapons Sales Now'

As the Biden administration wrestles with whether to certify that Israel is complying with a presidential directive requiring human rights assurances from governments receiving American weapons, Palestine defenders on Wednesday renewed calls for a suspension of U.S. arms sales to Israel's genocidal government and military.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has until March 25 to certify to Congress that Israel is adhering to President Joe Biden's February 2023 memo stating that "no arms transfer will be authorized where the United States assesses that it is more likely than not that the arms to be transferred will be used by the recipient to commit... genocide, crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949... or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law."

If Israel fails to provide written assurance that it is using U.S.-supplied weapons in accordance with international law, arms sales would automatically be suspended. According toHuffPost, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew on Tuesday privately claimed to the State Department that Israel is in compliance with domestic and international law.

However, the Israeli daily Haartez reported Wednesday that officials from three State Department bureaus—Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor; Population, Refugees, and Migration; and the Office of Global Criminal Justice—as well as the United States Agency for International Development are deeply skepitcal of Lew's claim.

The Uncommitted National Movement—a coalition of pro-Palestine, peace, and progressive groups urging people to vote "uncommitted" in U.S. Democratic primaries in a bid to pressure Biden to push Israel for a Gaza cease-fire—led demands for a suspension of arms transfers to Israel.

"After over half a million uncommitted votes and counting, it's time Biden administration officials finally listen," Uncommitted National Movement co-chair Layla Elabed said in a statement Wednesday. "We need concrete action to stop weapons aid immediately. America should follow in Canada's steps and stop weapons sales now."

The Canadian Parliament on Monday approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to cut off arms exports to Israel. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly subsequently said that the government would cease future weapons sales to the country.

Other countries including Japan, Spain, the Netherlands, and Belgium have suspended or restricted weapons sales to Israel, whose military forces have killed or wounded more than 113,000 Palestinians since the October 7 attacks while forcibly displacing around 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people and fueling famine and disease by besieging the embattled strip. Most of those killed have been women and children.

On January 26, the International Criminal Court ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts. Both the ICJ and a U.S. federal judge have found that Israel is "plausibly" committing genocide in Gaza. Palestinians, human rights groups, and legal experts have accused Israel of ignoring the World Court's directive.

Common Dreams reported Tuesday that Human Rights Watch and Oxfam called Israeli assurances that U.S.-supplied weapons are not being used in violation of international law "not credible." The groups also dismissed false Israeli claims that the country is not blocking humanitarian aid from reaching starving Gazans.

The U.S. gives Israel approximately $4 billion in annual military aid. Since October 7, the Biden administration has requested an additional $14.3 billion in armed assistance for Israel, while repeatedly circumventing Congress to fast-track emergency weapons transfers.

Scott Ritter: Russia Beats NATO; Israel Beating Itself

Bad Day For Ukr: Massive Rus Missile Strike Rocks Kiev; Rus Captures Tonenka; Sullivan Empty Handed

Leo Varadkar steps down as Irish prime minister in shock move

Leo Varadkar has announced he is standing down as Ireland’s prime minister and also giving up his role as leader of the Fine Gael party in the ruling coalition, in a surprise move described by pundits as a “political earthquake” for the country. Citing “personal and political” reasons, Varadkar, 45, announced his decision at a press conference in Dublin on Wednesday, saying in an at-times emotional speech that he no longer felt he was the “best person” to lead Ireland.

Earlier this month his government suffered damaging defeats in two referendums on references to family and women in the constitution. ...

Contenders to succeed him as Fine Gael leader and new prime minister include the higher education minister, Simon Harris, who is the bookmakers’ clear favourite; the enterprise minister and former deputy PM, Simon Coveney; the public expenditure minister, Paschal Donohoe, and the justice minister, Helen McEntee.

Until Wednesday’s resignation, however, the political fallout from the debacle had widely been expected to be limited. Varadkar has also faced increasing discontent within Fine Gael, with 10 of its members of the Dáil Éireann – almost a third of the party’s total – announcing they will not stand again at the next election, which must be called by early 2025.

Fine Gael has lost five recent byelections, prompting some to see Varadkar as an electoral liability. ... The main opposition party and former political wing of the IRA, Sinn Féin, has held a wide polling lead over Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil for the last two years, but polls still suggest the coalition stands a fair chance of re-election.

Fourth ex-Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ officer gets 40 years for torture of Black men

A fourth former Mississippi sheriff’s deputy has been sentenced for his part in the racist torture of two Black men by a group of white officers who called themselves “the Goon Squad”. Christian Dedmon was sentenced on Wednesday to 40 years in federal prison, hours after Daniel Opdyke was sentenced to 17.5 years.

Dedmon, 29, did not look at the victims as he apologized and said he would never forgive himself for the pain he caused.

All six of the white former officers charged in the torture pleaded guilty, admitting that they subjected Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker to numerous acts of racist torture in January 2023 after a neighbor complained that the men were staying in a home with a white woman.

Federal prosecutors detailed sexual assaults by Dedmon that made him stand out among the other officers charged.

Jenkins, who still has trouble speaking due to his injuries, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon’s actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him. “Deputy Dedmon is the worst example of a police officer in the United States,” Jenkins said. “Deputy Dedmon was the most aggressive, sickest and the most wicked.”

US reportedly considering plea deal offer for Julian Assange

The US government is reported to be considering a plea deal offer to Julian Assange, allowing him to admit to a misdemeanor, but his lawyers say they have been “given no indication” Washington intends to change its approach.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the US justice department was looking at ways to cut short the long London court battle of the WikiLeaks founder against extradition to the US on espionage charges for the publication 14 years ago of thousands of classified US documents related to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

The report said a plan under consideration would be to drop the current 18 charges under the Espionage Act, if Assange pleaded guilty to mishandling classified documents, a misdemeanor offence. Assange would be able to enter the plea remotely from London and would likely be free soon after the deal was agreed to, as he has already spent five years in custody in the UK.

However, Assange’s legal team said they were not aware of any change in the prosecution strategy.

One of Assange’s defence attorneys, Barry Pollack, said in a statement: “It is inappropriate for Mr Assange’s lawyers to comment while his case is before the UK high court other than to say we have been given no indication that the Department of Justice intends to resolve the case and the United States is continuing with as much determination as ever to seek his extradition on all 18 charges, exposing him to 175 years in prison.”

Biden Camp FREAKING OUT Over Third Parties; Dems Deploy AGGRESSIVE Tactics To FIGHT Them

New York attorney general could soon move to seize Trump’s property

Attorneys in the New York attorney general’s office have written to the state appeals court dealing with Donald Trump’s punishment for business fraud to say that they should disregard the former president’s claims that he cannot raise a bond to cover his massive fine.

Letitia James, the attorney general, could initiate action to seize Trump assets as soon as Monday, coinciding with Trump’s deadline to acquire the $454m bond demanded to cover the civil fraud judgment during his appeal process. ...

The New York Post reported on Wednesday, citing friends of Trump, that he might let Monday’s deadline pass and leave it to James to make her move, including pursuing his flagship Trump Tower on New York’s Fifth Avenue, where he worked before becoming president, announcing his first run for the White House after descending on the golden escalator at the skyscraper.

Trump’s lawyers said two days ago that to post a bond covering the full amount of the $454m civil fraud judgment against him while he appeals was “a practical impossibility” after 30 surety companies turned him down.

World’s top fossil-fuel bosses deride efforts to move away from oil and gas

The bosses of the world’s leading oil and gas companies have poured scorn on efforts to move away from fossil fuels, complaining that a “visibly failing” transition to clean energy was being pushed forward at an “unrealistic pace”. The oil executives, gathered at the industry’s annual Cera Week conference in Houston, Texas, have taken turns this week to denounce calls for a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels, despite widespread acknowledgment within the industry, as well as scientists and governments, of the need to radically reduce planet-heating emissions to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis.

“We should abandon the fantasy of phasing out oil and gas, and instead invest in them adequately,” said Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, to applause in the room.

Nasser dismissed projections by the International Energy Agency (IEA) that global demand for oil and gas will peak by 2030, claiming that rising energy costs mean that people will require “the importance of oil and gas security” rather than shift to renewables. “In fact, in the real world, the current transition strategy is visibly failing on most fronts,” Nasser added, criticizing solar, wind and electric vehicles for what he said was a minimal impact in cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

“And, despite our starring role in global prosperity, our industry is painted as transition’s arch-enemy,” Nasser complained. This skepticism was echoed by other leading executives at the conference, which gathers industry leaders and politicians in Texas’s oily heartland. Meg O’Neill, chief executive of Woodside Energy, said that the transition to clean energy cannot “happen at an unrealistic pace”, predicting that cleaner fuels could take up to 40 years to develop.

Emissions connected to top oil and gas firms may cause millions of heat deaths by 2100, study finds

The emissions from burning oil and gas produced by the world’s leading fossil fuel companies could cause millions of excess heat deaths before the end of the century, according to a new analysis. The study from Global Witness found that the combined emissions from fossil fuels produced by Shell, BP, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and Chevron up to 2050 could result in 11.5 million excess deaths from heat by 2100. The findings represent the first attempt to quantify heat deaths resulting from planned oil production by big oil and add weight to calls to drastically reduce fossil fuel extraction. ...

The report used the mortality cost of carbon model devised by academics at Columbia University and used by Oxfam – among others. It calculates that in a high emissions scenario – which is predicted to happen to the climate if no further concerted action is taken to rapidly reduce warming – there will be 226 excess heat deaths worldwide for every million tonnes of carbon released.

It then used data from leading analysts Rystad Energy to calculate projected emissions from fossil fuels produced by the oil firms. It calculated that together they would add 51bn tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere by 2050. Based on the high emissions scenario that would result in 11.5 million excess heat deaths by the end of the century.

The analysis found that if the world managed a lower emissions scenario, reaching net zero globally by 2050, excess deaths associated with the companies’ production would come to about 5.5 million people.

Also of Interest

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

The Urgency of Diplomacy

Patrick Lawrence: Authorized Atrocities

Vast majority of Israelis abroad say 'no intention to return': Poll

Inside the anti-Syria lobby’s Capitol Hill push for more starvation sanctions

U.S.-Trained Niger Junta Kicks Out U.S. Troops, Drone Base

Judge suggests key Trump witness Michael Cohen committed perjury

GIGO: The Past of Google Search Is the Future Of LLM AI Models

"Humanitarian Violence" in Gaza: Architect Eyal Weizman on Mapping Israel's Genocidal Campaign

Hollywood FUMING Over Jonathan Glazer's Oscar Speech; Will He Be BLACKLISTED?

RFK Jr. Makes CNBC Heads Explode Over Nordstream Truth

A Little Night Music

Lightnin' Slim - Rooster Blues

Lightnin' Slim - Mean Ole Lonesome Train

Lightnin' Slim - Nothin' But The Devil

Lightnin' Slim - You Know You're So Fine

Lightnin' Slim - It's Mighty Crazy

Lightnin' Slim - The Strangest Feeling

Lightnin' Slim - Hoodoo Blues

Lightnin' Slim - That's Alright

Lightnin Slim - Rock Me Mama

Lightnin Slim - Just Made Twenty-One