Media Review: US Navy pilot burned himself in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington: "I will no longer be complicit in genocide"

Media Review: US Navy pilot burned himself in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington: "I will no longer be complicit in genocide"

    Monday, February 26, 2024   No comments

Aljazeera reported that the Pentagon confirmed on Monday the death of a US Navy pilot who burned himself in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington to protest the war in Gaza.

Pilot Aaron Bushnell (25 years old) died of the serious burns he sustained yesterday, Sunday. This incident comes amid mounting protests in the United States against the ongoing war in Gaza, a war the ICJ and UN experts found it to be a  genocide.

 The New York Times had previously quoted a US Air Force spokeswoman as saying that Bushnell set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Sunday afternoon in an "apparent act of protest against the war in Gaza."

 The newspaper also quoted a fire department spokesman as saying that members of the US Secret Service were able to put out the fire, and the man was taken to the hospital with serious burns.

 In a video broadcast live over the Internet, Bushnell, wearing military uniform, said he would no longer be complicit in genocide genocide, before setting himself on fire while shouting, “Free Palestine.”

 The New York Times reported that the pilot repeatedly shouted, "Free Palestine," and said before setting himself on fire, "I will no longer be complicit in genocide."

The US troops in Iraq are there to stay unless the US government chooses to pull them out

The US troops in Iraq are there to stay unless the US government chooses to pull them out

    Sunday, February 25, 2024   No comments

 Since the 1990 US intervention in Iraq and the UNSC action after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, Iraq lost control of its economy and that has not changed. The Iraqi government recently asked the US to schedule full withdrawal of the latter’s troops. That is unlikely to happen unless the US needs or wants to pull troops out, because the US maintains tight control over the Iraqi economy which is entirely dependent on oil. Revenues from the sale of Iraqi oil is processed by US banks and the US government is leveraging it to keep troops in Iraq. 

Member of the Finance Committee in the Iraqi Parliament, Jamal Kujar, confirmed that there are three economic files that the United States uses to pressure Iraq, namely the oil file, Iraqi funds in the US Treasury, and the dollar file, and that the release of Iraqi funds in the US Federal Bank has become conditional in accordance with American controls and specifications.

 Koger explained, “These files represent strong and influential pressure cards if used against Iraq, because the Iraqi economy is fragile and depends entirely on oil revenues at a rate of up to 94% of the gross national product.”

 Oil export revenues in 2023, according to data issued by the Ministry of Oil last January, amounted to about 87.6 billion dollars, at a rate of about 7.3 billion dollars per month. The country sold more than 1.23 billion barrels.

 Iraqi funds deposited with the US Federal Bank from oil export revenues, which is a procedure applied within the requirements of Chapter Seven of the United Nations procedures following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and is still in effect, in addition to the inclusion of new Iraqi companies and banks on the sanctions list it issues.

 

China to the International Court of Justice: armed resistance is a legitimate right

China to the International Court of Justice: armed resistance is a legitimate right

    Saturday, February 24, 2024   No comments

 China used its participation in the International Court of Justice hearings on Palestine to counter the US argument that Israel should not be ordered to withdraw unconditionally from the occupied Palestinian territories without security guarantees.

In this context, the legal advisor to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ma Xinmin, told the court that justice “has been delayed for a long time, but it should not be denied,” stressing that “the Palestinians should not be deprived of it.”

He added, "Israel is a foreign country that occupies Palestine, and therefore the right to self-defense falls more on the shoulders of the Palestinians than the Israelis."

Does providing weapons to state that kills civilians and children in disproportionate numbers represent complicity in alleged war crimes?

Does providing weapons to state that kills civilians and children in disproportionate numbers represent complicity in alleged war crimes?

    Saturday, February 24, 2024   No comments

While some other Western countries continue to supply Israel with weapons systems that are used in its war on Gaza that have resulted in the killing of more than 30,000 civilians thus far, Spain announced that it will not sell arms to Israel until the war stops.

Spain will not sell arms to Israel "as long as the current situation continues," said Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on Friday.

During a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York, Albares said no new arms sales license was given to Israel after Oct. 7.

This statement comes after media reports have accused the Spanish government of double dealing: by words annouce that they will not sell weapons, while in reality they continue to sell weapons to Israel. News Reports have suggested that Turkiye, too, stated words contradict their action: "Contrary to Ankara’s political rhetoric on the war in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, Turkish exports to Israel rose by 34.8%."

 Stating that Spain announced that it will provide €3.5 million ($3.7 million) in financing to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Albares noted that Spain is looking at how this can be increased in the short term.

In Germany, lawyers acting on behalf of Gazans have also accused German officials of complicy in the alleged war crimes.

 Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas. The ensuing Israeli war has killed more than 29,500 people and caused mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war on Gaza has pushed 85% of the territory's population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

 media reports suggesting that Spain continues to export weapons to the conflict zone:

German government officials accused of complicity in the Gaza Genocide

German government officials accused of complicity in the Gaza Genocide

    Friday, February 23, 2024   No comments

Victims of months of Israel's attacks on Gaza are filing a criminal complaint against top German government officials for supporting Israel's war crimes and "genocide" against Palestinians.

“We're filing a criminal complaint against German government officials for the crime of aiding and abetting genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza by providing Israel with weapons and issuing related export permissions,” lawyers for the Gaza victims told a press conference in Berlin on Friday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, and Economy Minister Robert Habeck all stand accused of “complicity in the genocide in Gaza” by supporting Israel's military offensive, and authorizing the export of €326 million ($350 million) worth of weapons to Israel.

Nadija Samour, one of the lawyers who filed the criminal complaint with federal prosecutors in Karlsruhe, southwestern Germany, said: “Our governments in Europe have a legal obligation not to provide Israel any support in perpetrating the current genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. This has to stop and this is what we hope to achieve by going to court. This lawsuit sends a clear message to German officials: you cannot continue to remain accomplices of such crime without consequences. We want accountability.”

Samour said German law requires a ground for initial suspicion to start investigations on a potential crime being committed.

“The International Court of Justice's interim ruling clearly showed that there is such ground for initial suspicion when it comes to the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza,” she stressed, referring to a Jan. 26 ruling ordering Israel's government to stop genocidal acts and take steps to ensure that civilians in Gaza get humanitarian assistance.

The case against several members of the country's Federal Security Council, which directs national security policy and authorises weapons exports, was announced on Friday (23 February).

In addition to Scholz, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Economics Minister Robert Habeck, Finance Minister Christian Lindner and others were accused.

Media review: The West is losing “liberal Muslims” because of the Gaza War

Media review: The West is losing “liberal Muslims” because of the Gaza War

    Wednesday, February 21, 2024   No comments

The American magazine "Foreign Policy" saw that what it described as "Western indifference towards Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip" alienates what it calls "liberal Muslims" throughout the Islamic world, and "distorts the appeal of liberal democratic values," as it described it.

In an analytical article it published, the magazine highlighted the presence of an unprecedented level of anger towards the United States of America and its Western allies throughout the Middle East and the broader Islamic world, warning that this matter could have “long-term consequences.”

She warned that the current reality “could be much worse than the impact of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003,” because the massacre, committed by the Israeli occupation, is worse than anything that happened during the American wars in the Middle East.

Foreign Policy attributed this anger to millions watching horrific scenes from Gaza every day, explaining that this is often done via live broadcast on television, showing the bombing of entire neighborhoods, and the bodies of children and infants emerging from under the rubble.

The magazine also pointed out the martyrdom of Palestinian civilians by occupation bullets in the West Bank, which is relatively calmer.

Here, it should be noted that the pace of Israeli incursions into various cities and towns in the West Bank has increased since the 7th of last October, and this was accompanied by an increase in the number of Palestinian martyrs who were killed by the bullets of the occupation forces.

When Muslims listen to what Western leaders, such as US President Joe Biden, say about what the occupation is committing in occupied Palestine, all they hear is about “Israel’s right to defend itself,” as the magazine reported.

Moreover, all they see is “granting more American dollars and weapons” to the Israeli government, so that it can continue its war on Gaza, according to what the magazine continued.

In view of this, a number of people, especially in the Islamic world, believe that the lives of Israelis are, for Western leaders, “more important” than the lives of Palestinians, according to what Foreign Policy reported.

The magazine also saw that the West is practicing a “historical denial” of the liberal values that its governments have adopted and defended since the end of World War II, with regard to “universal human rights.”

In this context, the magazine explained that some say that “these noble ideals were never fully achieved,” as national interests, alliances, and hypocrisy led to “double standards.”

The “loss of faith” in Arab standards does not affect people who tend to oppose the United States, or criticize the Western-led global order, and among these Muslims are those with liberal tendencies, which leads to “discrediting the West and its liberal narrative, in the eyes of the rest of the world.” According to Foreign Policy.

In light of all of this, the magazine borrowed the satirical political principle of the German thinker, Carl Schmitt, which states that “sovereign powers are able, according to their desire, to determine exceptions to their rules,” in reference to the West’s disavowal of the responsibility it has shouldered for itself, and which it has used as an excuse to fight its wars. It claimed the lives of millions around the world and the Middle East.

Lula da Silva: What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, but rather annihilation... and “Israel” is behaving like Hitler

Lula da Silva: What is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, but rather annihilation... and “Israel” is behaving like Hitler

    Sunday, February 18, 2024   No comments

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Israel of committing "genocide" against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, likening what it was doing to the Holocaust during World War II.

Lula told reporters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where he attended an African Union summit, that “what is happening in the Gaza Strip is not a war, it is genocide,” adding that it is “a war between a highly prepared army, and women and children.”

He continued, "What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has not happened at any other stage in history. In fact, it had already happened when Hitler decided to kill the Jews."

These are among the harshest statements made by the leftist Brazilian president regarding the Israeli aggression against Gaza and the Hamas movement since its outbreak on October 7, and since then he has strongly criticized the retaliatory military campaign launched by Israel against the besieged Gaza Strip.

As a result, the Foreign Minister of Israel, Israel Katz, decided today, Sunday, to summon the Brazilian ambassador to “Israel” to rebuke him in the wake of the Brazilian president’s statements, which he described as shameful against “Israel,” according to the Israeli media.

For his part, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, described Lula da Silva's statements as "shameful and dangerous."

He said that comparing "Israel" to the Nazi Holocaust and Hitler is crossing a red line, noting that "Israel" is fighting to defend itself and ensure its future until complete victory.

Previously, the Brazilian President denounced the provocative actions carried out by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza, stressing that they had “reached an unacceptable extent.”

He stressed the need to "pressure Israel to comply with United Nations resolutions," stressing that he came to deliver a message of support to the Palestinian people, and that Brazil is against the war, pledging to provide financial aid to UNRWA.

Russia’s space nuclear weapon that does kill people but can paralyze global communication; what else can it do?

Russia’s space nuclear weapon that does kill people but can paralyze global communication; what else can it do?

    Sunday, February 18, 2024   No comments

The American newspaper "The New York Times" revealed concerns within the Biden administration after intelligence reports indicating that Russia was preparing to place a nuclear weapon in space. These concerns prompted US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to ask China and India to try to talk with Russia.

The newspaper says that American spy and intelligence agencies have discovered that Russia is working on a new type of space weapon that could threaten the thousands of satellites that keep the world connected, and that a launch is being prepared from Moscow to install a “nuclear weapon” in space that would cause a global catastrophe.

It is true that this weapon will not cause the destruction of humans, such as what would happen when used on Earth, but it will destroy satellites scattered in their various orbits, which will cause the collapse of global communications systems, and make everything from emergency services to cell phones to the regulation of generators and pumps It malfunctions, according to estimates by US agencies.

The newspaper adds: Debris resulting from the explosion will spread throughout low Earth orbit and make navigation difficult if not impossible for everything from Starlink satellites, used for Internet communications, to spy satellites.

US intelligence agencies believe that even if Russia were to place a nuclear weapon in orbit, US officials agree in their assessment that the weapon would not be detonated, but would remain like a time bomb in low orbit, as a reminder from Putin that if he was subjected to pressure sanctions or military resistance to his ambitions in Ukraine or elsewhere, it may destroy the economies of countries without targeting humans on the ground, according to what was reported by the New York Times.

The newspaper said that these estimates prompted US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken to talk about them with his Chinese and Indian counterparts during the Munich Security Conference, which is currently underway.

 “Blinken’s message to China and India was clear: any nuclear explosion in space would destroy not only American satellites, but also those in Beijing and New Delhi,” the newspaper reports.

 Washington is counting on Beijing and New Delhi to exert the necessary pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin, because the latter despises Washington and does not accept its intervention, especially since the escalation of tensions between the two sides since the invasion of Ukraine.

 Some intelligence officials have objected to sharing much of what the United States knows because details of the Russian program remain top secret, US officials said.

 But others argued that the United States needed to share enough to convince China and India of the seriousness of the threat.

 During the Munich meetings, the two men (the foreign ministers of China and India) took in the information, and the former repeated China's usual phrases about the importance of the peaceful use of outer space, the officials said.

 Representative Michael Waltz, Republican of Florida and a member of the House Intelligence Council, said: “Relying on our biggest adversary to deliver messages to Moscow is not a great exercise, but in this case, if the reports are true, China will have a special interest in getting the message across.”

Pakistan government commissioner admits election fraud; Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of Pakistani Islamic Scholars Association, admitted that the overthrow of Imran Khan by Army Commander, General Qamar Javed Bajwa

Pakistan government commissioner admits election fraud; Maulana Fazlur Rehman, head of Pakistani Islamic Scholars Association, admitted that the overthrow of Imran Khan by Army Commander, General Qamar Javed Bajwa

    Saturday, February 17, 2024   No comments

 Today, Saturday, a government commissioner surprised everyone when he publicly admitted that he had falsified the results of the general elections held on February 8, announcing his resignation from his position, and demanding that everyone who participated in the fraud be punished.

Liaquat Ali Chatha, a government commissioner in the city of Rawalpindi (southeast of Islamabad), admitted to falsifying the results of the elections that took place under his supervision in the city of Rawalpindi.

Meanwhile, protest demonstrations swept through many Pakistani cities against what they called the manipulation that occurred in the elections, demanding a recount so that the results are correct, stressing the right of supporters of Imran Khan, founder of the Tehreek-e-Insaf Party, to win more seats.

“I bear responsibility for all these violations,” Chatha said at a press conference in Rawalpindi on Saturday afternoon. "The Chief Election Commissioner and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are involved in this matter," he added.

"We made independent candidates who received between 70,000 and 80,000 votes lose by submitting fraudulent ballot papers," he added.

In a handwritten letter, Chatha said he was resigning from his position because he was deeply involved in the "serious crime of rigging the 2024 general elections."

The handwritten letter was addressed to the governor of the Punjab province, the interim prime minister of the province, Mohsin Naqvi, and the secretary general of the province.

In front of the media, Chatha said that he “stabbed the country in the back,” referring to election fraud, so he cannot sleep.

He further said, "I must be punished for the injustice I committed, and others who participated in this injustice must be punished."

Earlier, Chatha said that he was under intense pressure not to announce the fraud to the point that he thought about committing suicide, but he finally decided to present matters to the public.

In response to Chatha's allegations, the Election Commission of Pakistan said it "strongly rejects the accusations leveled against her or her boss."

In a press statement, the election monitoring body said that none of its officials had issued any instructions to Chatha to “change the election results.”

He added, "But the Election Commission will conduct an investigation into the matter as soon as possible."

For his part, interim Punjab Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi ordered an “impartial investigation” into the allegations leveled by Chatha.

Yesterday, the leader of the Pakistani Islamic Scholars Association, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, detonated a heavy political bomb when he admitted that the overthrow of Imran Khan from power in April 2022 came based on directives from the then Army Commander, General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

Fazlur Rahman explained that he was personally against the move of no confidence in Imran Khan's government, but this position would not have worked in light of the insistence of other parties, most notably the Muslim League led by Nawaz Sharif and the People's Party led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

Fazlur Rehman was the head of the People's Democratic Movement coalition that ousted Imran Khan and the PTI in April 2022 and took power, after which Shahbaz Sharif led a multi-party coalition of the country for 16 months before handing over the reins to the interim government.

Regarding the recent elections, Fazlur Rehman pointed out that it is clear that fraud occurred in the elections, and that the PML-N party is the biggest beneficiary of that.

He said to me, "Parliament has lost its credibility." He added, "Decisions will no longer be made in Parliament, but will be taken in the streets," indicating that there will be protests in the country against the results of the elections, the validity of which is being debated.

What is the value of the life of a Muslim person compared to the life of a Westerner?

What is the value of the life of a Muslim person compared to the life of a Westerner?

    Monday, February 12, 2024   No comments

1/25, that is the value.

At the peak of the "war on terror" and the during the course of Israel’s assassination campaigns in the last two decades, a media commentator and former US military official was asked about what would be an acceptable collateral damage. He said: if killing a "high-value" terrorist or conducting an important security operation results in the deaths of 25 civilians or less, then, such collateral damage is acceptable. That is 25-to-1 ratio.

According to a study by Brown University, the US-led global war on terror, that took place mainly in Muslim-majority countries including Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen, “nearly 1 million people” have been killed. Adding all persons of all Western countries killed by acts that could be categorized as “foreign terrorism” (a category coined to designate acts carried out by persons who might Muslim) as well as troops killed in battle fields (including US and NATO troops), the 25/1 ratio becomes a very aspirational figure. The data shows that for every one Western person killed in any incident involving Muslim actors, 100 Muslims--mostly civilians--were killed. 

This formula for revange establishes that the life of non-Westerners as being worth less compared to Western lives. The dehumanizing formula was crudely, yet illustratively articulated by Trump last year. Speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference on Oct. 28, 2023, the former US president declared: “If you spill a drop of American blood, we will spill a gallon of yours.”

To add to the body of evidence of dehumanizing people from non-Western nations, Israel just acted on that equation, killing 100 civilians to rescue just two Israelis. During this conflict alone, comparing the reported total of 1,139 Israelis killed since Oct. 7 (695 Israeli civilians and 373 security forces and 71 foreigners), and comparing it to the 29,000 Palestinians killed thus far, produces a ration of exactly 25 Palestinians killed for every 1 Israeli--the formular still holds--though the killing is still ongoing and likely to reach the 50-for-1 ratio should the war on Gaza lasts for another five months.

In the light of the above data and the comments by US officials that the civilian toll in Gaza “remains too high”, one must ask Israeli officials: How many Palestinian civilians must die for every Israeli death before this revenge war comes to an end? And one must ask US officials: what is an acceptable “toll of civilian deaths”?

The lack of awareness of how bigoted the view that there is an acceptable “toll of civilian deaths” that can be excused and justified when every single Western life is avenged by unimaged level of destruction and death is confounding. When one adds the number of children killed thus far in Gaza, such callousness becomes cruelly mind-bending.

 Acceptance of some level of civilian toll destroys Western rhetoric about their commitment to universal rights. It clearly shows that there is no universal right to life; that some lives are superior and worth saving at any cost and some lives can be destroyed to avenge the loss of the superior lives. The troubling part is that, now, US officials acknowledge that the military operation is "over the top" and that too many civilians have been killed and displaced, yet the US administration blocked every UN intervention that could have stopped the war.

Biden’s phone call with Netanyahu comes a few days after the president offered one of his sharpest rebukes to date of Israel’s military conduct in Gaza, saying the operation to go after Hamas had been “over the top.”

 “I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in Gaza – in the Gaza Strip – has been over the top,” Biden told reporters at the White House on Thursday, describing his own efforts to open up Gaza so more humanitarian aid could flow in.

 Last week, Blinken told Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials that the civilian toll in Gaza “remains too high” as violence continues in the region.

“Nearly 2 million people have been displaced from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are experiencing acute hunger. Most have lost someone that they love. And day after day, more people are killed,” Blinken said at a news conference after meeting with top Israeli officials.