Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a speech, regarding the ceasefire proposal between Israel and Hamas, in front of the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on June 3, 2024 [Saeed Qaq – Anadolu Agency]
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, yesterday urged Israel to impose “ entire civil management of the Gaza Strip,” and announced plans to reduce humanitarian aid to the bare minimum mandated by international law once US President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month.
According to the Times of Israel, during a Facebook live session, Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionism Party, also emphasised the term “occupation”, stating: “Yes, occupation, we don’t need to be afraid of this word.”
Throughout the broadcast, he repeatedly issued warnings that Israel was prepared “to unleash the gates of hell on Hamas,” expressing confidence that Trump’s administration would provide both military and diplomatic support for the attacks.
“We’re readying for a new approach to conquering the Gaza Strip, of holding onto it, of dividing it into regional brigades,” he said, calling for Israel to occupy the territory “for a very long time.”
Moreover, Smotrich criticised ongoing negotiations with Hamas aimed at securing a hostage-ceasefire deal. He argued that Israel would have greater leverage in talks once Donald Trump returns to the White House.
“The military pressure will be stronger — not entering and exiting but capturing territory,” he explained.
Smotrich also slammed Israel’s judicial system, claiming it had “completely lost its judgment.” He noted the ongoing case involving the theft and leak of classified Israeli army intelligence linked to the Prime Minister’s Office as a prime example of systemic failure.
“I am not prepared to abandon this important task of investigating October 7 to a system I have no faith in,” he added. “I am in favour of an independent investigative committee that will turn over every stone.”
Original article by Jasper Jackson republished from TBIJ under This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
With tech titans openly disregarding the truth ahead of Trump’s second term, 2025 is likely to herald a new era of disinformation
The online information ecosystem has been in critical condition for some years now, but the prognosis for 2025 is looking more dire than ever.
Already this year two of the world’s richest men, who between them control a huge chunk of our communications infrastructure, have made it clear that they are not interested in our access to the truth.
On Tuesday, Mark Zuckerberg announced that his company Meta – which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – would be scrapping its fact checking programme. The only exception to this for now will be in the EU, where strong regulations require it to police its platform.
The core purpose of this programme was to check content that had been flagged as containing potentially harmful misinformation, such as false claims about vaccines or military conflicts. These checks were carried out by third-party organisations, which had to follow rules around process and transparency – and which received significant funding from Meta.
In their place, Meta will now adopt a “community notes-style” system, which enables users themselves to weigh in on content that might be false. A similar set-up has already been adopted by X, where it has proven open to manipulation and failed abysmally to curb misinformation on the platform.
To be clear, Meta’s fact checking programme was not without its problems. For a start, there was no way it could catch every falsehood on the platforms. Meta’s financial arrangements with these organisations also raised questions. And ultimately, there is no definitive proof that showing people fact checks has any real impact on whether they believe the false claims.
But the programme did provide vital financial support to newsrooms that did hugely valuable work, from uncovering Russian propaganda campaigns to exposing online scam artists. And while it was only ever a partial solution at best, Meta’s programme was a sign that the company at least wanted to be seen to care about the accuracy of the information spreading across its platforms.
Zuckerberg’s about-turn came after a week in which another tech tycoon, Elon Musk, had been weighing in on UK politics, most notably with twisted falsehoods about the handling of child grooming cases and messages of support for Tommy Robinson, the far-right figure currently in prison for contempt of court after targeting a Syrian refugee with lies. On Monday, Musk suggested in a poll posted on X that “America should liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government”.
The recent behaviour of Zuckerberg and Musk can only be seen in light of the impending second term of Donald Trump, whose propensity for lying is legendary. Musk was already all in on Trump’s presidency. But since the election, much of the rest of the tech world has sought to curry favour with the incoming president, with many prominent figures making big donations to his inauguration.
Like the Trump presidency itself, Musk and Zuckerberg’s dismantling of systems that help protect the truth are logical consequences of the digital structures we have built. An online economy that rewards attention above all else has given new power to false claims. Outlandish lies spread quicker than boring truths. Telling people what they want to hear is more engaging than telling them what they need to hear.
And all the signs suggest that the problem will only be worsened by the tech world’s latest obsession: generative AI. Systems such as ChatGPT, which can come up with content that seems human and accurate but is often simply a convincing lie, are rapidly being incorporated into all our major channels of information and communication. Apple is putting inaccurate headlines on curated news articles. Meta is planning to flood its social networks with AI bots mimicking humans. Google is pushing AI-driven search that regularly throws up false results.
A huge amount of money has been poured into generative AI, and much of the tech industry is banking on it to deliver another lucrative boom. But it has turned out to be even worse than humans at telling fact from fiction – and even more willing to make things up. Dealing with this problem is vital for democracy, but it also threatens the industry’s next big payout. As Zuckerberg proved this week, it’s a lot easier to simply give up on accurate information altogether.
Big Tech is no longer even keeping up the pretence that it is committed to the truth. Keeping our information ecosystem healthy is going to be up to the rest of us.
Reporter: Jasper Jackson Deputy editor: Katie Mark Editor: Franz Wild Production editor: Alex Hess Fact checker: Frankie Goodway
TBIJ has a number of funders, a full list of which can be found here. None of our funders have any influence over editorial decisions or output.
Original article by Jasper Jackson republished from TBIJ under This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
This image added 11/1/25
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
People demonstrate against U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Panama City, Panama on December 31, 2024, as the country marks the 25th anniversary of the United States’ handover of the Panama Canal. (Photo: Arnulfo Franco/AFP via Getty Images)
Trump claimed both the canal and the Danish territory are needed for U.S. “economic security.”
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has been rebuked in recent days by the leaders of both Panama and Denmark for his insistence that the Panama Canal and Danish territory Greenland must be under American control, and his latest comments on Tuesday were expected to garner more anger—and eye-rolling—from abroad.
At a press conference at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, the Republican leader refused to rule out using military force to take over the canal and Greenland.
“It might be that you’ll have to do something. The Panama Canal is vital to our country,” said Trump. “We need Greenland for national security purposes.”
He added that both the canal and Greenland, the world’s largest island and home to a U.S. military base, are needed for U.S. “economic security.”
Under President Jimmy Carter, who died late last month, the U.S. signed a treaty returning the Panama Canal Zone to Panama in 1979, and the waterway connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has been solely controlled by the Panamanian government since 1999.
Trump repeated a false claim that the canal is being “operated by China.”
Last month, after the president-elect demanded “that the Panama Canal be returned to the United States of America in full, quickly and without question,” Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino posted a video to social media in response.
“As president, I want to clearly state that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjoining zone is Panama’s and will remain so,” Mulino said. “The sovereignty and independence of our country is non-negotiable.”
Trump’s comments came as his son, Donald Trump Jr., joined right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and other Trump allies on a visit to Greenland.
The president-elect suggested in a social media post that the trip was made in an official capacity, writing: “The reception has been great. They, and the Free World, need safety, security, strength, and PEACE! This is a deal that must happen. MAGA. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”
But Greenland officials clarified that Trump Jr. was visiting only as a “private individual” and said no representatives would be meeting with him.
Trump said at his press conference that “people really don’t even know if Denmark has any legal right to [Greenland], but if they do they should give it up because we need it for national security.”
Greenland is home to 60,000 people, and is self-ruling with its own legislature while its foreign and defense policy are controlled by Denmark. The Arctic island lies in a region where global powers are vying for military and economic control.
Trump also expressed a desire to purchase Greenland during his first term, a goal that was dismissed at the time as “absurd” by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
“Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders,” Frederiksen reiterated on Tuesday.
Injured Palestinians, including children, are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah for treatment aftermath of Israeli attack on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Bureij Camp, Gaza on January 4, 2025. (Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“The Biden administration is ending its tenure as it has acted throughout it,” said A New Policy co-founder Josh Paul, “with a complete disregard for Palestinian humanity, American laws, and American interests.”
Human rights advocates in the United States and around the world on Monday condemned outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden for continuing to fuel Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip with a pending $8 billion weapons package.
Since Axoisrevealed late Friday that his administration had notified Congress of the deal, Biden has faced a fresh flood of outrage, with critics calling the president “morally bankrupt” and his decision to keep arming Israel “willful madness.”
“Too many kids still alive in Gaza for Joe Biden’s liking,” Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian American political analyst, said on social media. “This is an administration of cowards and criminals and will go down as a historic worst.”
Two men who resigned from the Biden administration over U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza—which has killed at least 45,854 Palestinians and led to a genocide case at the International Court of Justice—shared sharp critiques on Monday.
“The Biden administration is ending its tenure as it has acted throughout it,” said ex-U.S. State Department official Josh Paul, “with a complete disregard for Palestinian humanity, American laws, and American interests.”
“The precedent set by the Biden administration will surely haunt our nation for many years to come.”
Paul and former Education Department official Tariq Habash launched the lobbying group A New Policy in October. Habash also took aim at Biden’s new effort to arm Israel with missiles for fighter jets and attack helicopters, 155 mm artillery shells, small-diameter bombs, 50-pound warheads, bomb fuzes, and kits used to convert “dumb bombs” into precision-guided munitions.
“Americans continue to struggle here at home, so the notion that the Biden administration would push another $8 billion in weapons to Israel on the backs of American [taxpayers] demonstrates how unmoored this administration has become from its values and its commitments to the American people,” said Habash. “The precedent set by the Biden administration will surely haunt our nation for many years to come.”
Win Without War executive director Sara Haghdoosti also denounced the effort, saying in a Monday statement that “these weapon sales won’t bring hostages home and don’t get us closer to a viable long-term solution that ensures Israelis and Palestinians can live with dignity without the threat of violence.”
“Many of the types of weapons reported to be part of this $8 billion package have been used—or are likely to be used—to kill and wound Palestinian civilians in Gaza, in a war that drags on because the president and his advisers refused to exercise real leverage to end it,” she noted. “This new tranche of weapons will surely be used to the same horrific ends.”
Haghdoosti highlighted that “President Biden and his senior advisers continue skirting U.S. laws that should prohibit the sale of deadly weapons while Israeli officials restrict humanitarian aid and seek to make Gaza uninhabitable.”
Violating U.S. and international law one last time on their way out. https://t.co/ZCShUa807B
Despite attempts by progressives in Congress such as U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to block some arms to Israel, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly voted to send more—including with the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2025 that they sent to Biden’s desk last month.
News of the $8 billion package comes just two weeks away from the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
Paul said that “there is no need to rush these sales to completion, but it is clear President Biden and his appointees at the State Department do not have confidence in the Trump administration to follow through on their decision to rush arms to Israel with no questions asked, which is why they are pushing through these sales now.”
While the current administration is clearly aiming to push the package through ahead of the looming transition of power in the United States, Trump is widely expected to serve as an ally to Israel, as he did in his first term. Haghdoosti sounded the alarm about the Republican’s return to the White House with a GOP-controlled Congress.
“These latest sales mark a bleak handoff to the incoming Trump administration, whose senior nominees openly ally with far-right Israeli government ministers who plan to settle Gaza and annex the West Bank, all but guaranteeing another generation of displacement and deprivation that will undermine security for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” she said.
Trump and far-right leaders in Israel—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—”will use these sales to advance that violent project,” Haghdoosti added. “It is an utter shame that President Biden has chosen to abet it during his final days in office.”
CHORUS:
I'm Genocide Joe, Genocide Joe
Genocide is my name
Genocide is my game
I'm Genocide Joe, Genocide Joe
Just so you know
Do you know?
I'm Genocide Joe, Genocide Joe
Anything Bibi wants
I'm there every time
As soon as I can
There every time
CHORUS
There at his beck and call
All that Bibi wants
200lb feck off bombs?
Sure you don't want some more?
CHORUS
I bend the rules, bend the rules
Get away with mass murder, Genocide
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CHORUS
8.10 GMT 7/1/25. I posted this originally at approx 23.30 GMT 6/1/25. This blog was immediately disabled with a “we are checking your connection” endless loop. I’ve since disabled Cloudflare CDN and need to fully disengage it. Please be inspired by the song – it can be developed in so many ways. Son with a gun … Pardon?
RISING RIGHT: Activists wearing masks of far-right politicians (L-R) Marine Le Pen, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Vox leader Santiago Abascal, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni protest before the EU elections, Madrid, May 19 2024
Driven on by novel forms of hard-right populism like Modi and Trump, European neofascists are skillfully rebranding themselves and taking power by copying the left’s language — just as they did in the last century, writes JOHN GREEN
AROUND the world, we have been witnessing the rise of new right-wing and neofascist political forces at the same time as we have experienced the demise or marginalisation of strong left-wing forces.
We face a new and more virulent Donald Trump presidency in the US, we have seen the success of Giorgio Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia party in Italy, Modi’s fundamentalist Hinduism in India, Javier Milei’s neoliberal extremism in Argentina, Victor Orban’s authoritarian regime in Hungary and the jack-in-the-box rise of Nigel Farage, who sees himself as a prime minister in waiting, here in Britain.
…
The right loves using the German fascists’ full name, National Socialist German Workers Party, rather than the shortened term Nazi in order to deliberately conflate fascism with socialism and communism in the public’s mind.
As we know, Hitler only belatedly incorporated the term socialist into his party’s name in order to sow confusion and win over working-class voters, which he managed to do very successfully. The National Socialists were soon demasked as firm upholders of rampant capitalism, not socialism.
Of course, drawing comparisons between 1930s Germany and our world today can be dangerous, but there are undoubted parallels from which we can learn. Once again, world capitalism is in a deep crisis, and fascism is seen in some quarters, once again, as offering an apparent way out.
Just as the Nazis did, the neofascists today, recognising the widespread anger among large sections of the population at the way the super-wealthy are destroying our societies with impunity, are pretending to attack the unaccountable oligarchs and super-wealthy tech CEOs, big pharma and authoritarian government.
This is, however, mere rhetoric in order to win over the disaffected working classes; they have no intention of doing anything about the super-rich and tech monopolies who are or will be funding them.
