Kamala Harris

I Went to Gaza. What I Saw Was a Holocaust

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https://novaramedia.com/2024/10/18/i-went-to-gaza-what-i-saw-was-a-holocaust/

People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli strike on tents sheltering displaced people at Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, October 2024. Ramadan Abed/Reuters

Unutterable destruction.

by susan abulhawa

Editor’s note: This article was commissioned by the Guardian US as part of its Rise against fascism series, which was published in September. It was spiked by editor-in-chief Katherine Viner following a disagreement about the author’s use of the term “holocaust” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza – the Guardian suggested she amend it to “genocide” and she refused. The context of the incident is documented in this report.

Novara Media has decided to publish the piece in full, including the term “holocaust”, following consultation with several scholars of genocide and Jewish history.

The author spells her name in lower case.

Content note: This piece contains explicit references to torture and sexual assault.

United Nations Resolution 3379 defined Zionism as “a form of racism” because at its core it is a supremacist ideology that seeks to privilege Jews at the expense, even detriment and demise, of non-Jews (the resolution passed in 1975 and was revoked in 1991 following pressure from Israel and the United States). Regardless of how one defines Zionism, it manifests, among other myriad ways, in the subjugation or displacement of indigenous Palestinians.

For the past 12 months, Israel has been implementing a long-held colonial fantasy of not only “finishing the job,” but doing so with a gleeful sadism that echos the social media posts of Tzipi Navon, Sara Netanyahu’s close advisor and office manager, who called for residents from Gaza who participated in the [7 October] massacre to be tortured live on broadcast television: “First removing the nails from the hands and feet … cut off [their] genitals and let [them] see [their testicles] fried in canola oil and [force them] to eat them … Keep the tongue to the end, so that it pleases us with its screams, the ears so that [they] can hear [their] own screams and the eyes so that [they] can see us smile.”

Polling data from Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies suggests that a majority of Jewish Israelis do not think that soldiers accused of torturing Palestinians should face criminal charges.

In a rare moment of candour, the New York Times reported UN findings of systematic torture, including sexual torture. According to the UN’s report, Israeli soldiers have allegedly kept Palestinian captives in severely overcrowded prison cells, subjected them to sleep deprivation and forced nudity, threatened them with gang-rape, and penetrated or electrocuted male and female prisoners’ genitals and anuses with electrified batons and other objects. Released Palestinian hostages and Palestinian civilians in Gaza have reported being mauled and sexually assaulted by trained dogs. A lawyer who has been granted rare access to a Palestinian captive inside an Israeli detention centre reported the activation of a fire extinguisher inside the body of a 27-year-old man through a hose inserted into his rectum.

Many of those who were kidnapped, including prominent surgeons such as Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, director of the orthopaedic department at Al-Shifa Hospital, may have died after torture. Some emerged from Israeli gulags with such trauma that they have reportedly suffered memory loss; some were unable to speak; all of them broken by unspeakable torment in Israeli captivity. And they were the lucky ones who got out.

…

Article continues at https://novaramedia.com/2024/10/18/i-went-to-gaza-what-i-saw-was-a-holocaust/

Discontent Deepens Among Guardian Staff Over Palestine ‘Double Standard’
Trying to find an appropriate nickname for Kamala Harris who fully supports Israel's genocide.
Trying to find an appropriate nickname for Kamala Harris who fully supports Israel’s genocide.
Continue ReadingI Went to Gaza. What I Saw Was a Holocaust

Thoughts of the Day 21 October 2024

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‘Thought of the Day’ is a feature of BBC Radio 4 news at early in the morning. It usually features some religious nutter spouting some very simplistic religious rubbish. It’s a sermon and sermons are usually fantastic babbliing by mad people. The trouble is – of course – that the presentation is within their particular religious framework often with no regard for logic or reason. It used to drive me mad – I’d be thinking “You’re so biased and short-sighted, can’t you see <WHATEVER>?”. I’ve just heard “Prayer for the Day” for the first time ever because I’m up so early, need to remember to change channel in future.

So here I am giving my own thoughts of the day. While I realise that I am regarded very highly be some of my valued audience, you are so welcome to disagree. I want you to disagree. Make notes. He’s wrong on this, this and this. That’s not how it works because … <YOUR REASONING>. Don’t just disagree, know exactly why and what you disagree with, be able to argue what points you disagree with me.

It’s a real shame that you can’t comment on this blog – that’s because comments are censored probably by UK’s Home Secretary Yvette Cooper with the full knowledge and agreement of UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. That’s a topic for another Thoughts of the Day, let’s just say that it doesn’t really conform with human rights laws, does it? No doubt that there’s some justification for it … OK let’s leave it for now and discuss it soon on some laterer Thoughts of the Day. I’ve also not forgotten that I’m supposed to write a piece on carbon capture and storage but I have been and am still quite ill.

Back to the point, let’s have some thoughts of the day, more thoughts of the day I suppose.

Firstly, you don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes do you? United States providing a missile interception capability to Israel, drones and rockets getting through …

Trying to find an appropriate nickname for Kamala Harris who fully supports Israel's genocide.
Trying to find an appropriate nickname for Kamala Harris who fully supports Israel’s genocide.

Secondly, I think that we should regard public statements by US and UK on Israel to be intended to deceive and mislead. Their actions prove that they’re talking total BS in public. USUK militaries are participating as much as the IDF FFS.

Thirdly, I think that WW3 is on the cards. I was expecting it a few weeks ago actually and it’s getting on a bit really re: the presidential election. People get scared and tend to vote with what they’ve got if there’s a war on. Russia and North Korea [ed and China] will be on Iran’s side. Russia has got some of it’s fleet there already. I know from keeping up with the news that Russia has got some F.O. serious new missiles the capabilities of which have yet to be demonstrated.

There’s a protest on 2 November. I’ve got a bus ticket and some walking boots on the way.

Continue ReadingThoughts of the Day 21 October 2024

There’s now no doubt that the US is preparing for war with Iran

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Original article by Paul Rogers republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Netanyahu meets Harris July 2024.  | Kenny Holston/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

This week, the US quietly deployed more weapons to Israel – particularly those that will be effective against Iran

US and Israeli leaders have celebrated this week’s death of Hamas military commander Yahya Sinwar. But while attention is focused on what it means for Gaza and the unlikely possibility of a ceasefire – few have noticed what this means for the much wider US-Iran war.

The US has, of course, put its military might, money and rhetoric behind Israel in its devastating operations in Gaza since last October. More specifically, the US even has a little-noticed permanent military presence in Israel itself – an advanced long-range over-the-horizon X-Band Radar system in the Negev. It is believed to be particularly effective against Iranian medium-range ballistic missiles. 

But this week, two recent developments point to the US preparing for direct confrontation with Iran as it sharpens its ammunition and shares even more weaponry with its ally Israel. 

First, we saw the US use long-range B-2 stealth bombers in attacks on underground weapons stores in Yemen for the first time. Only the US has these weapons which are thought to be the world’s most powerful ‘bunker-busters’ and can reach 200-feet underground. If there is a war with Iran it will be one of the very few means of inflicting damage on some of Iran’s most heavily protected targets.

That might sound scaremongering but the bombing of the Houthi targets in Yemen with these tools looks uncomfortably like a dry run for any conflict with Iran. 

Secondly, we saw the deployment of an advanced US anti-missile system to Israel, again involving US military personnel. This is the THAAD weapon (terminal high-altitude aerial defence) which will supplement Israel’s own system that has not been as effective as the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) would like.

From an IDF perspective, if Netanyahu agrees to a substantial military attack on Iran, the likely response from Iran will be to do its best to swamp Israeli missile defences. Thus, the US THAAD deployment will reduce the risk of an effective Iranian response.

This all seems a far cry from the repeated US calls for a ceasefire, but these are best seen as part of a smoke screen, behind which lies a long-term enemy

This all seems a far cry from the repeated US calls for a ceasefire, but these are best seen as part of a smoke screen, behind which lies a long-term enemy. Most Europeans, including the British, tend to forget that ever since the Iranian Revolution in 1979 it has been Iran that is seen in Washington as by far the worst threat to US political and economic interests in the Middle East. 

This fits in substantially with the Israeli position where Iran is, in the longer term as by far the greatest threat to its security – far worse than Hamas, Hezbollah or any other political movement.   Moreover, an an Iran equipped with nuclear weapons really would be seen as an existential threat. That existential threat may not fully extend to the US view, but Iran is by some measure the greatest challenge to US Middle East policy.

As one US military journal put it this week:

“Israeli military strikes are targeting Iran’s armed allies across a nearly 2000-mile stretch of the Middle East and threatening Iran itself. The efforts raise the possibility of an end to two decades of Iranian ascendancy in the region, to which the 2003 US invasion of Iraq inadvertently gave rise.” 

Israel wants rid of the regime in Tehran but that would also be a very good outcome for the many hawkish elements in the US political system. While world attention may be on the war in Gaza with this week’s killing of Yahya Sinwar, a potential conflict involving Iran may turn out to be even more significant.

Original article by Paul Rogers republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Continue ReadingThere’s now no doubt that the US is preparing for war with Iran

With $75 Million Gift, Musk Joins Right-Wing Billionaires Bankrolling Trump Campaign

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends a campaign rally with Republican nominee Donald Trump on October 5, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

In the third quarter of 2024, Elon Musk, Miriam Adelson, and Richard Uihlein donated a combined $220 million to super PACs supporting the Republican nominee.

Prominent members of the United States’ billionaire class have shelled out massive sums in the final stretch of the 2024 campaign to elect one of their own, Republican nominee Donald Trump, to the White House, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk donating nearly $75 million in recent months to a super PAC supporting the former president’s bid for a second term.

According to federal filings made public Tuesday, at least six other billionaires joined Musk in donating to pro-Trump super PACs in the third quarter of 2024: Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; businessman Richard Uihlein, the heir to a brewing fortune; David Millstone, co-CEO of Standard Industries; Diane Hendricks, co-founder of ABC Supply; Kelcy Warren, the chair of Energy Transfer Partners; and financier Ike Perlmutter.

Combined, Musk, Adelson ($95 million), and Uihlein ($49 million) funneled around $220 million over the past three months to super PACs supporting Trump, whose campaign has also received huge financial support from reclusive GOP megadonor Timothy Mellon.

Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of the critical social media platform X, sent roughly $75 million in donations to his pro-Trump America PAC, which has been accused of voter deception. The Guardian‘s Hugo Lowell noted that Musk’s PAC is “doing the bulk of the Trump campaign’s ground game work across the battleground states,” and the billionaire has been using his social media platform to incessantly promote the former president.

As The New York Times reported earlier this month, America PAC has offered to pay $47 to those who help the organization “find Trump voters.”

Trump—whose campaign has focused heavily on delivering more billionaire-enriching tax cuts—has said that, if he wins next month’s election, he would put Musk “in charge of cost-cutting.”

The head of the American Federation of Government Employees expressed alarm last month over Trump’s push for a “government efficiency commission” headed by Musk, warning that the two billionaires only “care about one thing: lining their own pockets.”

In an X post early Wednesday, Musk announced that he “will be giving a series of talks” throughout the key battleground state of Pennsylvania over the next several days as part of his effort to boost the Trump campaign, whose fundraising operation has struggled to keep up with that of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.

CNN noted Wednesday that Harris, who has also received support from prominent billionaires, “has set a blistering pace—raising $1 billion since she became the Democratic standard-bearer in late July—a milestone achieved faster than any other presidential contender.”

“Tuesday’s filings show that a high-dollar fundraising committee that channels money to her campaign and aligned Democratic committees, took in $633 million during the third quarter—four times the amount raised by Trump’s equivalent fundraising arm in that time,” CNN added.

The Washington Post emphasized that “a full picture of the financial strength of the Trump and Harris efforts will not be available until Sunday, when the campaigns and parties file detailed reports with the Federal Election Commission.”

This year’s election is on track to be the most expensive in U.S. history, according to the campaign finance watchdog OpenSecrets, with at least $15.9 billion flowing to candidates for federal office and super PACs—an outgrowth of the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision.

A report published last month by the progressive advocacy group Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) estimated that by the end of August, just 150 billionaire families in the U.S. had spent nearly $1.4 billion attempting to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.

“Billionaires are making their ‘voices’ heard—make sure theirs don’t drown out yours,” ATF wrote in a social media post on Tuesday, urging people to turn out to vote next month.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingWith $75 Million Gift, Musk Joins Right-Wing Billionaires Bankrolling Trump Campaign

Ex-Israeli PM Says Netanyahu Wants to Draw US Into ‘Reckless’ War With Iran

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

U.S. President Joe Biden was pictured with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on July 25, 2024.  (Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

“I’m afraid that if Israel will start a war, a comprehensive war against Iran… America will join in to help Israel,” said former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. “And that is what Netanyahu believes.”

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the British outlet Channel 4 on Monday that he believes current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants to drag the U.S. into a war with Iran, an effort that the ex-Israeli leader called “reckless.”

Asked whether he thinks Netanyahu “wants to draw the United States into a confrontation with Iran,” Olmert replied, “I suspect that he does.”

“I think that’s reckless because I’m afraid that if Israel will start a war, a comprehensive war against Iran, and it will expand and Israel will not be in a very comfortable situation, America will join in to help Israel. And that is what Netanyahu believes to be the case,” said Olmert, who served as Israel’s prime minister from 2006 to 2009 and was succeeded by Netanyahu.

Olmert expressed support for Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah—a move that prompted Iranian retaliation earlier this month—and said that “something needs to be done” with regard to Iran.

“What needs to be done needs to be done with care, with sensitivity, with responsibility, and with a sense of proportion,” Olmert added. “And I’m not certain that Netanyahu wants this proportion. He looks at the leadership of the international community, the Western world, and he says, ‘Who are they? I’m Bibi Netanyahu.'”

Watch the interview:

Olmert’s remarks came amid growing concern that the U.S.-armed Israeli military could be preparing to bomb Iran’s nuclear energy facilities in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack last week. The New York Timesnoted Monday that “there is a rising call inside Israel, echoed by some in the United States, to seize the moment” and strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

Former president Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP nominee, said over the weekend that Israel should “hit the nuclear first and worry about the rest later.”

Speaking to reporters last Thursday, U.S. President Joe Biden said that the U.S. and Israel are “discussing” a possible attack on Iranian oil infrastructure. The president has said he would oppose an Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Iran has pledged to retaliate against an Israeli attack with a “crushing” blow, heightening fears of a full-blown regional war as Israel continues its devastating assault on Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon.

Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, said Monday that “President Biden needs to decide if he is finally going to rein in and end his unconditional arming of Netanyahu, or if he will let Netanyahu draw the United States and its forces into war with Iran—a country that is nearly four times the size of Iraq and has twice the population.”

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has done nothing to distance herself from Biden’s unconditional support for Israel despite vocal calls for her to back an arms embargo against the country.

In a closely watched “60 Minutes” interview that aired late Monday, Harris said that “Israel has a right to defend itself” while conceding that “far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”

But she did not say she would be willing to use U.S. military aid to Israel as leverage to secure a cease-fire agreement.

Harris also named Iran when asked which country she considers to be the United States’ “greatest adversary”—an answer that CBSdid not air as part of its televised broadcast of the “60 Minutes” interview.

Harris went on to say that one of her “highest priorities” as president would be to “ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power.” Asked whether she would take military action in the face of “proof that Iran is building a nuclear weapon,” the vice president responded that she is “not going to talk about hypotheticals.”

Sina Toossi, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, called Harris’ answer on Iran “completely out of touch” and said it underscores “the irrational U.S. obsession with Iran, which is driven by politics and donor money, not U.S. interests.”

Last week, a coalition of more than 80 advocacy organizations warned the Biden-Harris administration that “it is not in the national interest for the U.S. to be led into a war with Iran by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in Israel.”

“It is in the strong national interest to utilize diplomacy, backed by full American leverage—including withholding further offensive weapons transfers to Israel’s military—to move all the parties back from the brink and toward a ceasefire that ends the devastation of Gaza and Lebanon and reverses the slide to regional war,” the groups added.

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Continue ReadingEx-Israeli PM Says Netanyahu Wants to Draw US Into ‘Reckless’ War With Iran