I need to do a piece about expecting a UK General Election to be called soon.
There is no discernible difference between the main parties – the currently ruling Conservative Party under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and the likely victors at the election UK Labour Party under “I support Zionism without qualification” leader Keir Starmer.
Both parties and party leaders actively support Fascist Israel’s genocide in Gaza and intend to continue destroying the planet for the benefit of the oil and gas industry. Both parties and party leaders are happy for Julian Assange to rot in a US prison for telling the truth and despite not committing any obvious crime and certainly not any crime under UK law. There are strong suggestions that Labour leader Keir Starmer was involved in the early persecution of Julian Assange.
Any half-decent responsible government would object instead of assist Israel’s Fascist Gaza genocide and take action on climate instead of promoting and accelerating climate destruction as they are actually doing. By assisting Israel in it’s Fascist endeavours, they are exposing themselves as being just as bad themselves.
If you agree with this analysis or even most of it I ask you to participate, take part in the election campaign by opposing the main parties that support Israel or climate destruction. It’s unclear where the Scottish Nationalist Party is on the climate yet. It is not enough to let Fascism go, it needs to be actively opposed. Creatives please get involved – you can always publish anonymously.
Response to Rishi Sunak’s extremism speech at Downing Street 1 March 2024. Second version of this image with text slightly altered. Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel’s Gaza genocide.
U.S. and Israeli troops assemble the Trident Pier off the shore of the northern Gaza Strip on April 26, 2024. (Photo: U.S. Army Central Command)
“It’s completely absurd,” said one humanitarian worker. “The solution to the problem here is obvious.”
As humanitarian shipments began trickling into Gaza via a U.S.-built temporary floating pier, Palestinians and aid workers on Friday renewed criticism of what they called an expensive and largely ineffectual publicity stunt that is no substitute for a cease-fire and opening of more land crossings into the besieged coastal enclave.
U.S. Army Central Command said that “trucks carrying humanitarian assistance began moving ashore” at around 9:00 am local time Friday as part of “an ongoing, multinational effort to deliver additional aid to Palestinian civilians in Gaza via a maritime corridor.”
The $320 million Trident Pier—which consists of a floating offshore barge and 1,800-foot causeway to the shore—is expected to eventually accommodate up to 150 trucks per day. According to United Nations agencies, an average of 200 trucks entered Gaza each day last month, far fewer than the prewar daily mean of more than 500 truckloads that U.S. and U.N. officials say are required to meet the needs of a population facing critical shortages of food, water, medicine, and other lifesaving supplies.
“We don’t want ships. We want the border crossing to open for people to come and go. We want safety.”
However, as famine grips northern Gaza—with malnutrition and dehydration killing dozens of people, mostly children—and at least hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians starve, Israel has been accused of blocking aid from those who desperately need it and using starvation as a weapon of war.
“We don’t want ships. We want the border crossing to open for people to come and go. We want safety. We want official borders,” Hassan Abu Al-Kass, a forcibly displaced Palestinian man, toldThe New York Times on Thursday.
Al-Kass compared the pier to the humanitarian aid airdropped by U.S. and other troops over Gaza, whose officials say that more than 20 people have been killed by the parachuting parcels, either by crushing or drowning while trying to reach offshore drops.
“Those planes, as well, that they bring here with the parachutes, and they throw food at us like dogs, like beggars, that does not work,” he said. “It falls on houses. It falls on people. It brings us problems.”
One unnamed humanitarian aid worker told U.S. investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill: “It’s completely absurd. The solution to the problem here is obvious and we need to end the occupation… Once the siege is lifted, humanitarian aid can roll in. A pier is a PR move.”
The fact that the US is establishing a pier off the Gaza coast because the genocidal Israeli government, which the US funds, arms, politically bolsters & shields from international & US law, won't allow aid into Gaza by land is a damning statement about the Biden administration.
Farhan Haq, deputy spokesperson for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, said Thursday that “to stave off the horrors of famine, we must use the fastest and most obvious route to reach the people of Gaza—and for that, we need access by land now.”
Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor noted on social media Thursday that “no major humanitarian organization has asked for this pier, and most see it as a costly distraction that will do little to make a dent in meeting Gaza’s overwhelming humanitarian needs.”
“For that,” he added, “you need a cease-fire and open border crossings and less military obstruction.”
According to a report published last month, officials at the United States Agency for International Development concluded in a confidential memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is violating a White House directive by blocking humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. Critics pointed to the leaked memo as more evidence that the Biden administration is breaking the law by supporting Israel’s assault on Gaza—which Palestinian and international officials say has killed, wounded, or left missing more than 125,000 people—with arms and diplomatic cover.
Parties to the South African-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, as well as human rights groups, accuse Israel of flouting the ICJ’s January 26 preliminary ruling ordering the Israeli government to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza and ensure immediate delivery of humanitarian aid. Israel rejects charges of genocide and blocking aid.
Hundreds of U.N. and other aid workers—overwhelmingly Palestinians—have also been killed or wounded by Israeli forces in Gaza since October 7. Israeli troops have been accused of deliberately attacking both humanitarian workers and Palestinians trying to receive aid, including in the February 29 “Flour Massacre,” in which nearly 900 starving Gazans were killed or wounded while waiting for food distribution south of Gaza City.
.@UNinIndia joins the Govt and people of India & UNSG @antonioguterres in expressing our deep sadness and condolences to the family and loved ones of Colonel Waibhav Anil Kale (retd). A UN Officer in Gaza, Col Kale sacrificed his life serving the high purpose of peace & security pic.twitter.com/o9HCXGVqDD
— United Nations in India (@UNinIndia) May 15, 2024
Critics have slammed U.S. President Joe Biden for offering token aid to Gazans with one hand while lavishing Israel with billions of dollars of weaponry used to kill Palestinians with the other.
Earlier this month, Biden said he would stop sending bombs, artillery shells, and other arms to Israel in the event of a major invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled Gaza Strip are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents.
However, as Israeli air and ground attacks pound the southern city, killing civilians including 22 members of one family in a single strike, Biden—who previously implored Israel to stop its “indiscriminate bombing” of Palestinian noncombatants—informed Congress this week that his administration will soon send another $1 billion in arms and ammunition, including tank and mortar rounds, to the Israel Defense Forces.
This, despite the Biden administration last week acknowledging “reasonable” evidence that Israel is using U.S.-supplied weapons in the commission of war crimes in Gaza, with the caveat that “we are not able to reach definitive conclusions” on the matter.
