Benjamin Netanyahu

Alarm as Pentagon Confirms Deployment of US Troops to Israel

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

U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Pat Ryder holds a press conference at the Pentagon on September 12, 2024. (Photo: Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel’s behalf,” wrote one journalist.

The Pentagon confirmed Sunday that it has authorized the deployment of an advanced antimissile system and around 100 U.S. troops to Israel as the Netanyahu government prepares to attack Iran—a move that’s expected to provoke an Iranian response.

Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, press secretary for the U.S. Defense Department, said in a statement that at President Joe Biden’s direction, the Pentagon approved the “deployment of a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and associated crew of U.S. military personnel to Israel to help bolster Israel’s air defenses” in the wake of Iran’s ballistic missile attack earlier this month.

“The THAAD Battery will augment Israel’s integrated air defense system,” said Ryder. “This action underscores the United States’ ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel, and to defend Americans in Israel, from any further ballistic missile attacks by Iran.”

The Pentagon’s statement came shortly after The Wall Street Journal and other outlets reported on the Biden administration’s plans.

It is not clear when the U.S. troops are set to arrive in Israel. The U.S. currently has some 40,000 soldiers stationed across the Middle East.

“We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.”

Iran fired roughly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel on October 1 in response to the assassinations of Hezbollah’s leader and Hamas’ political chief. Most of the Iranian missiles were shot down with the help of the U.S., whose Navy fired interceptors at the missiles.

Journalist Séamus Malekafzali argued the U.S. deployment of troops and the THAAD system shows that “the Israelis are clearly planning something for Iran that is going to cause a retaliation they know their own systems are unable to take.”

“U.S. troops being deployed to Israel in this matter is seismic,” Malekafzali added. “The U.S. military is now inextricably involved in this war, directly, without any illusions of barriers. Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel’s behalf.”

Israel’s cabinet met Thursday to discuss a potential response to Iran’s October 1 missile barrage. One unnamed Israeli source told The Times of Israel that “no big decisions” were made at the cabinet meeting. Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Biden said that U.S. and Israeli officials were “discussing” the possibility of an attack on Iranian oil infrastructure.

Iran has warned of a “crushing” response to any Israeli attack.

In a statement Sunday, progressive U.S. Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), James McGovern (D-Mass.), and Greg Casar (D-Texas) said that “military force will not solve the challenge posed by Iran.”

“We need meaningful de-escalation and diplomacy—not a wider war,” the lawmakers added. “Nothing in current law authorizes the United States to conduct offensive military action against Iran. We risk becoming entangled in another catastrophic war that will inevitably harm innocent civilians and may cost billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.”

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

Continue ReadingAlarm as Pentagon Confirms Deployment of US Troops to Israel

Historic ICC War Crimes Complaint Names 1,000 Israeli Soldiers

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

The bodies of victims of the October 31, 2023 Israeli bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in the Gaza Strip are lined up outside the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City. (Photo: Fadi Alwhidi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“This complaint is not only the largest ever submitted to the ICC, but it is also a milestone in documenting Israeli war crimes for future generations.”

A Belgium-based advocacy group on Tuesday announced it “filed an unprecedented and historic complaint with the International Criminal Court against 1,000 Israeli occupation forces soldiers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza,” where more than 150,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded and millions more displaced, starved, and sickened by Israel’s yearlong onslaught.

The Hind Rajab Foundation—named after the 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in January along with half a dozen relatives and rescue workers by Israeli troops invading Gaza in retaliation for the October 2023 Hamas-led attack—said that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel identified by name in the International Criminal Court (ICC) complaint “are accused of participating in systematic attacks against civilians during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”

“This complaint, supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence—including videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation—demonstrates the soldiers’ direct involvement in these atrocities,” the group explained. “All of the named soldiers were located in Gaza during the genocidal assault, and the evidence reveals their participation in violations of international law.”

The foundation accuses Israeli forces of:

  • Destruction of civilian infrastructure: Targeted attacks on homes, hospitals, schools, markets, mosques, and other civilian infrastructure.
  • Illegal occupation and looting: Soldiers were documented occupying civilian homes, looting personal belongings, and exploiting occupied properties.
  • Participation in the Gaza blockade: The soldiers played an active role in enforcing a blockade that deprived civilians of essential goods such as food, water, and medical supplies.
  • Targeting civilians: Audio and video evidence show soldiers deliberately attacking noncombatant individuals, including medical personnel and journalists.
  • Use of inhumane warfare tactics: Indiscriminate bombing campaigns, starvation, and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure were all part of their actions.

The IDF soldiers identified in the complaint include at least 12 American, 12 French, four Canadian, three British, and two Dutch nationals.

“This complaint is not only the largest ever submitted to the ICC, but it is also a milestone in documenting Israeli war crimes for future generations,” the Hind Rajab Foundation said. “By meticulously identifying the perpetrators and detailing their crimes, we are establishing a historical record that will ensure the individuals responsible are remembered and held accountable.”

“The submission of this complaint represents a significant moment in the fight for justice,” the group continued. “We honor the memory of Hind Rajab and the countless victims who have perished in the ongoing genocide. Their stories will not be forgotten, and their voices will be heard through our persistent legal action.”

The foundation added that the complaint “supports the efforts” of International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan—who is seeking to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leaders—and “pushes for immediate action, including the issuance of arrest warrants for those responsible.”

“We believe this complaint marks a turning point in the global fight to bring justice to Palestine,” the group asserted.

The complaint’s filing came amid Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, for which the U.S.-backed ally is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. In recent weeks, Israel has escalated attacks on Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere, killing and injuring thousands of people and threatening to plunge the Middle East into a wider war.

The filing also came on the same day that Sky News published an investigation confirming that IDF officials lied when repeatedly claiming there were no Israeli troops near the site of Rajab’s killing at the time of the attack. The British network published satellite images showing numerous IDF vehicles nearby and interviewed military experts who identified damage done by bullets and tank rounds to the vehicle in which the family was traveling.

The car was hit multiple times. Hind Rajab and her 15-year-old cousin Layan were the last survivors. In one recorded phone conversation with Rajab’s mother before the two children were killed Layan said, “The tanks are next to us.”

Hamas has no tanks.

The Sky News investigation was at least the second journalistic probe that concluded Israeli officials are not telling the truth about the attack.

In June, the U.K. research agency Forensic Architecture collaborated with Al Jazeera journalists and the advocacy group Earshot to publish an analysis that found Israeli tank fire likely fired the bullets that killed Rajab, her relatives, and two paramedics trying to rescue them in an ambulance that was blown to pieces despite receiving IDF permission to proceed with the rescue shortly before being attacked.

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

Continue ReadingHistoric ICC War Crimes Complaint Names 1,000 Israeli Soldiers

Netanyahu threatens Lebanon with ‘Gaza-like destruction’ as Israel expands genocide

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Original article republished from MEMO under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) holds a meeting with the Security Cabinet after Iran’s missile attacks on Israel in West Jerusalem on October 01, 2024. [Avi Ohayon (GPO) / Handout – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened Lebanon with “destruction and suffering” akin to that experienced by Palestinians in Gaza if the Lebanese people do not “free” themselves from Hezbollah. The ominous warning is interpreted widely as a threat to carry out a second genocide and stoke civil war in the already besieged nation.

Israel is currently under investigation by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for genocide in Gaza. More than 42,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed by the occupation state, in what experts have called a “textbook case of genocide”.

Netanyahu threatened to visit the same fate on the people of Lebanon. In a video address directed at the Lebanese people, the Israeli Prime Minister stated, “You have an opportunity to save Lebanon before it falls into the abyss of a long war that will lead to destruction and suffering like we see in Gaza.” He added, “I say to you, the people of Lebanon: Free your country from Hezbollah so that this war can end.”

Netanyahu’s threat comes as Israel ramps up its ground offensive against Hezbollah along the southern section of the Lebanese coast, deploying more troops and urging civilians in coastal areas to evacuate. More than a million people have been forced to flee due to the Israeli offensive. The escalation suggests that Israel has opted for a regional war rather than pursuing ceasefire deals and the return of Israeli hostages.

The widening of the conflict has not gone unnoticed within Israel’s own military ranks. Reports indicate that 130 Israeli soldiers have declared their refusal to serve unless the government actively pursues a hostage deal and ceasefire in Gaza.

Critics argue that Israel’s actions demonstrate a clear intent to provoke a regional war. Israel has expanded its military aggression beyond Gaza, conducting bombing campaigns in the illegally-occupied West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Iran and Syria. In Lebanon alone, Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,640 people and displaced more than one million since 23 September.

Adding to the controversy, Israel has killed a number of its own citizens being held hostage in Gaza during its genocide in the enclave, fuelling criticism further about its aggressive stance. Hezbollah, in response to the ongoing Israeli attacks, has threatened increased rocket fire on Israeli towns and cities if the bombing of Lebanese population centres continues.

READ: Hezbollah: Without US backing, Israel’s war on Gaza, Lebanon would have ceased

Original article republished from MEMO under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. 

Continue ReadingNetanyahu threatens Lebanon with ‘Gaza-like destruction’ as Israel expands genocide

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

Interview: Harris or Trump doesn’t matter for Gaza genocide

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Original article by Nandini Naira Archer republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Pro-Palestine protest outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August 2024. | Fatih Aktas/Anadolu via Getty Images

A year on and no end in sight to genocide – thanks to US support for Israel, which will continue beyond election

A year on from the outset of Israel’s war on Gaza, Israeli forces have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians – and this is just the confirmed death toll. A recent study by the Lancet medical journal projected that the death toll could exceed 186,000 when counting indirect deaths – from starvation and diseases due to the Israeli blockade on humanitarian aid, food, water and medicines.

To take stock of where we’re at and whether this nightmare is likely to end any time soon, openDemocracy spoke to Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a foreign policy analyst based in New York and US Policy Fellow at Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network.

openDemocracy: It’s been a year since this latest iteration of Israel’s war on Gaza commenced. Is the end in sight? What’s Israel’s end game?

Tariq: Unfortunately, I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel here. There is no end in sight to Israel’s genocide in Gaza. And that’s mainly because Israel hasn’t faced an ounce of accountability or pressure to de-escalate from the international community (the US and other western benefactors) to end this.

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I’ve tended to be doubtful when people insist that Israel doesn’t have a plan in Gaza and is just destroying and killing for the sake of it. Israel does have a plan and it has been acting on it. It truly sees this moment in history, as well as the blank check from the US, as a golden strategic opportunity to take leaps towards its ultimate goal of ‘maximum land with minimum Palestinians’ and wider regional domination through brute force.

Israel’s end game in Gaza is erasure, and for the last 12 months, they’ve been laying the foundation for a new reality in Gaza for us all to see. In addition to “thinning out the population,” as Netanyahu said, through genocide, collective punishment, and ethnic cleansing, Israel has been effectively chopping up the Strip into smaller, more controllable enclaves that will come to represent the new “facts on the ground.”

openDemocracy: Has anything about the conflict surprised you?

Tariq: I think one of the most surprising aspects about both the genocide in Gaza and now Israel’s escalation across the region is that it has gone on uninterrupted and without international intervention for so long, despite the fact that just about every massacre has been broadcast for the world to see on social media.

As someone who is part of a generation that grew up being taught that the phrase “never again” really meant something, this is what I have found most jarring. Of course, Gaza is not the first time the international “rules-based” order has been exposed as a crutch for Western hegemony. From Vietnam to Iraq, the West’s selective application of international law has long been exposed for what it is. But Gaza is the first postwar genocide both entirely perpetrated by a Western ally and funded, facilitated, and justified by the West itself, not to mention the first to be so thoroughly recorded for the world to see.

openDemocracy: Now with recent escalations including Iran, do you think realistically we’re on the verge of all-out war in the region?

Tariq: I think we are already seeing an all-out regional war by every definition of the term. Israeli fighter jets are bombing Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Iran. This is not to mention the strikes the US, UK, and other Israeli benefactors have carried out on Israel’s behalf.

It boils down to this: Israel will continue to escalate across the region in hopes of achieving its extremist, expansionist goals as long as the US taxpayer continues to foot the bill and US assets and personnel are off the coast of Haifa to come to Israel’s defence if need be.

openDemocracy: It seems that the Biden administration actually gave Israel the green light to mount large-scale attacks on Lebanon. Has the US ever really been interested in stabilising the region? Does the US want an all-out war?

Tariq: The Biden Administration has either explicitly or implicitly (through uninterrupted weapons transfers and diplomatic shielding) given Israel the green light for a year of genocide and regional escalation.

I believe it is clear that the US ultimately shares the same strategic objectives as Israel, which range from silencing Palestinians once and for all to destroying groups like Hezbollah to causing significant damage to Iran. These are all outcomes that the US would celebrate (just take the public statement the US made following Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah as one example).

Does the Biden Administration wish Israel could go about some of their operations differently? Perhaps. But at the end of the day, the costs of Israel’s unparalleled violence, the mass death of Arabs and the destruction of their lands, is a price the US is willing to accept. If the US didn’t want an all-out war, they would stop giving Israel all the weapons and diplomatic space to keep escalating at will. Because while every US administration has been pro-Israel, other US presidents have stood up to Israel when they felt US interests were at risk.

openDemocracy: Do you think things will change after the US elections on November 5?

Tariq: Nothing will fundamentally change, regardless of who wins the elections on November 5. For Palestinians, the genocide will continue because neither candidate has exhibited any indication that they intend to hold Israel accountable for war crimes and genocide or use any of the ample leverage that the US has to influence Israel’s conduct.

In fact, it’s the opposite. Donald Trump insists he would let Israel “finish the job” in Gaza, while Kamala Harris promises that she will continue the Biden Administration’s policy of giving Israel “everything it needs” and continues to make it clear that she intends to be a carbon copy of the Biden Administration. The truth is, both Harris and Trump spell continued disaster for both Palestinians and the wider region, and there is no “lesser evil” here.

The truth is, the Biden administration’s resume on Israel-Palestine, even long before October 7, has in many ways mirrored that of Trump’s.

If Biden wanted to make good on his commitment to a “two-state solution,” he would have at least started by reversing the norm shattering pro-Israel policies of his predecessor. The Biden Administration has actually given Israel more military and diplomatic assistance than any previous administration.

The only substantial difference between Trump and Biden has been their rhetoric. But one could argue that Biden’s lofty, yet empty words actually does more harm than good by distracting us from the fact that he has given Israel everything it needed to get away with genocide right in front of our eyes. If Harris wins in November, it will be more of the same, and you don’t need to take my word for it, she has made it abundantly clear herself.

Original article by Nandini Naira Archer republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Continue ReadingInterview: Harris or Trump doesn’t matter for Gaza genocide