Yes, after the Donald Trump shooting, now is a good time to talk about the need for better gun laws.
Labor’s insistence that Australia will only recognise a Palestinian state as part of a “peace process” leading to a two-state solution wilfully dodges one very basic question – how can you negotiate a two-state solution, or any solution for that matter, without the participation of two states?
Australia’s Palestine problem
The new Labour government in Britain last week took steps to remove the ban on onshore wind farms instituted by the Conservative government, which made it possible for such projects to be forestalled even by a single objection.
New Labour Government in UK Unleashes Onshore Wind, with 61% of British Electricity now Low-Carbon
Chris Hedges’ thoughts on the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Chris Hedges: Statement on Attempted Trump Assassination
Large numbers of Palestinians and Ukrainians were killed in missile strikes days apart, writes Jonathan Cook. The differing coverage of these comparable events is the clue to the media’s true function.
Over the past 6 months, the diarrhoea tsunami that is Australian political discourse found its new favourite meaningless phrase: ‘social cohesion’.
Those who use the phrase claim that it is about maintaining a respectful society, so we can all come together around the campfire at the end of the day and sing Kumbaya. Oddly enough, the ongoing genocide, which is attempting to wipe out an entire society, does not seem to count as a ‘threat to social cohesion’. Just the protests against it.
The real threat to ‘social cohesion’ is the ongoing genocide of Palestine
Assassination attempts targeting populist leaders have had a track record of boosting their popularity.
So, what is in a name? Not much, instead, what Trump says or doesn’t say should be the focal point of this presidential campaign. Donald Trump has not said he will accept the outcome of the 2024 election if he loses. Indeed, he said there would be a “bloodbath” if he loses the election, so Mike Pence may wish to stay home on January 6 2025. Donald Trump said he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member, so it is safe to say Vladimir Putin is rooting for Trump to win the 2024 Presidential Election. Then there is Donald Trump’s desire to be a dictator, even only walking it back to one day (that is all a dictator needs), as well as using Adolf Hitler’s rhetoric of referring to Latin American people as being vermin. Donald Trump’s stated economic agenda of reducing taxes, including abolishing corporate tax, has been dismissed by economists and business leaders as nonsensical and will increase inflation, not to mention the economic disaster he caused during his first term.
Joe Biden is right: Listen to what Donald Trump says, and what you hear will terrify you.
It is essential to acknowledge the diversity within Jewish communities and the spectrum of opinions regarding Israel and Zionism. Many Jews support Palestinian rights and advocate for a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that respects the dignity and rights of all involved. These voices are crucial in the broader conversation about justice, human rights, and political accountability.
Defending dissent in the Jewish community
Israel ordered the “Hannibal Directive” on October 7 by ordering the killing of captive Israeli soldiers and civilians. But the U.S. media continues to hide the truth.
Israel’s Leading Paper Says Its Own Army Deliberately Killed Israelis on October 7. But US Media: Silence
Not only do they refuse to intervene to stop this genocide, but the U.S., U.K., and much of Europe are actively supporting it.
Israel’s Relentless, Cruel, and Grotesque Assault on the People of Gaza Must End—Now
Jul 12, 2024
Since October 7, the US Department of Education has opened at least 40 investigations into K-12 schools for “discrimination based on shared ancestry,” including alleged antisemitism — many of which appear aimed at stifling criticism of Israel.
“There’s a very good chance that they will fire me,” said Katherine Franke, a tenured professor who has defended students protesting for Gaza.
Columbia Law Professor Smeared by Israel Supporters Could Lose Her Job
Government in damage control
The Albanese government was forced to employ new language following evidence given by a Defence Department official in a recent Senate Estimates hearing.
Orwell revisited. The Government playing word games with weapons to Israel
In 2005, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon decided to pull 7,000 Israeli settlers, as well as Israeli troops, out of Gaza.
He cited disengaging Israel from the security risks of trying to hold on to Gaza.
However, one wonders if in the long term a plan to do to Gaza what Israel is doing today was always to be the reality? That’s why 7000 Israeli settlers were moved to the safety of Israel as they couldn’t do to the West Bank or East Jerusalem what they are currently doing to Gaza
Israel disengaged from Gaza in 2005, but has conducted five major wars since, killing thousands of Palestinians.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza: A guide
It should come as no surprise to those of us with even a cursory understanding of the history of U.S. imperialism that the once sovereign Kingdom of Hawai’i became the very first state in the nation to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. Hawai’i is an occupied nation, and has been since 1893 when the U.S. launched a coup to overthrow the sovereign rule of Queen Liliʻuokalani. We don’t need to dive that far back into historical memory to discover that even this imperialist overthrow was acknowledged by none other than then president Bill Clinton, who, in 1993 (on the centennial of the coup) issued an official apology to the Hawaiian Kingdom—an apology that notably did not include a return of the land to the people of this occupied island nation.
In fact, we only need to turn the dial of history back less than one year to the devastating wildfires that occurred in Maui in August of 2023 to understand the imperial and settler colonial legacies of U.S. intervention in Hawai’i — a legacy so potent that it even made it to the opinion pages of the New York Times, as Yarimar Bonilla put it,
Settler Colonialism and the Engineering of Historical Amnesia
No mention of what the Be’eri witnesses said at the time. After 9 months Gallant says an investigation is needed to ascertain how they died. It was exactly what they said 9 months ago and no progress has been made. These people simply lie through their back teeth. They are ignorant of everything yet they expect us to believe they know the words spoken in the house itself. What’s even stranger is the witnesses of 9 months ago appear to have been silenced. What we do know is the Hannibal Directive was in place at the time and Israel denied it.
“The team found that the civilians inside the house were not hurt by the tank shells,” the summary said; however, it argued that further investigation is needed to determine how hostages inside died, with signs pointing to them having been killed by the gunmen.
StoryJul 11, 2024
Former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy discusses ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas, the ruling party in the Gaza Strip, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s continued hostility to compromise and the Biden administration’s ineffectual mediation. Contrary to its claims of brokering peace, the U.S. “will continue to send the weapons” Israel uses to devastate Gaza, unremittingly fueling an increasingly unpopular war, says Levy, who is now president of the U.S./Middle East Project.
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/7/11/daniel_levy_on_ceasefire_negotiations?jwsource=cl
Fmr. Israeli Peace Negotiator Daniel Levy: Netanyahu Is “Trying to Do Everything to Prevent a Deal”
Immediately following the surprise victory of left party coalition New Popular Front in France’s parliamentary elections last week, Jean-Luc Mélenchon — the leftist leader of the bloc’s largest party, France Unbowed — vowed to see France “recognize the Palestinian state as soon as possible.”
France’s far-right National Rally party, alongside conservative centrists, had spent weeks painting the left’s support of Palestine as an electoral poisoned pill. In attacks all too familiar in the U.S., they conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism, slamming Israel’s critics as antisemites. Israeli officials explicitly backed the far-right party. In this last election, at least, it didn’t work to prevent left-wing success.
Supporting Palestine Helped the Left Win in France and Britain. Will Democrats Learn From It?
“Restraining Israel in October rather than enabling its operations in Gaza,” said one international policy expert, “could have avoided a lot of dead and mangled children.”
Israeli Use of Fragmentation Bombs Eviscerating Children’s Bodies in Gaza, Say Doctors
The Zionist lobby has been making its presence felt within the walls of Parliament both here and in the UK, as well as disrupting social cohesion.
Zionist lobby shaking up politics in Australia and UK
ZIONISM |
The Israeli genocide in Gaza continues unabated with no vision for how the war would wind down, generating a political crisis in Israel that provides Smotrich with the cover he needs to eat up the rest of the West Bank. The U.S. gives Smotrich what he wants in exchange for a fleeting restoration of the economic status quo ante, and the World Bank can rush in to further bolster the financial sector in the West Bank. But all this amounts to little more than a morphine shot, allowing the PA a temporary respite before a potential collapse.
It has been decried as “hellishly authoritarian” by critics for proposals such as dismantling the US Department of Education and replacing thousands of non-partisan federal employees with political appointees aligned with Trump’s policies.
Project 2025 was developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank headed by key staffers from the previous Trump administration. It has an advisory board of more than 100 conservative groups.
The Heritage Foundation previously created a ‘Mandate for Leadership’ in 2015, and boasts that Trump instituted more than half of its policy recommendations within the first two years of his presidency.
These ranged from the US leaving the Paris Agreement on climate to increased military spending.
Project 2025: US far right’s ‘hellish’ plan
Haaretz, published the results of its thorough, comprehensive investigation into what actually happened when Hamas attacked on October 7. So far, the U.S. mainstream media has not said a word about the shocking results of that investigation
The appointment of Jillian Segal, immediate past president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s new ‘Anti-Semitism Envoy‘ is a response to the demands of a powerful lobby, designed to conceal Australia’s collusion with the beyond belief cruelties imposed by Israel on the Palestinian people. “There can be no ceasefire until every hostage has been released,” Segal stated in November; joining with the Zionist Federation of Australia to criticise the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, for saying “we all want to take the next steps towards a ceasefire” in Gaza.
“No ceasefire” in Israel’s Gaza genocide, says ‘Anti-Semitism’ envoy
After fleeing west at the Israeli army’s instruction, Palestinians quickly found themselves encircled and under fire from tanks, drones, and snipers.
Israel ordered thousands to ‘safe’ areas in Gaza City — then bombed them
Count himself “lucky” others have been assassinated.
Uproar Over Detention of Prominent French Scholar for Gaza Solidarity Posts
A missile struck a children’s hospital in Kyiv on Monday during the heaviest Russian bombardment on Ukraine in months, which stretched across five regions and reportedly killed some forty people.
After the inhuman destruction of Gaza’s health system, looks like bombing hospitals is bad again
By Caitlin JohnstoneJul 11, 2024
The Prime Minister says he has appointed an antisemitic envoy and will soon appoint an islamophobia envoy, because the population does not understand the complexity and seriousness apparent in a perceived threat to Australia’s social cohesion. But the boot is on the other foot. He and his government have shown an abysmal lack of understanding or perhaps wilful blindness to the causes of misplaced anger with racist overtones. Defacing war memorials and attacking the offices of members of parliament, which I do not condone, are protests against our government for not sanctioning Israel for its gross violations of international law.
Canada’s arms export data reveal a disturbing trend: billions in military goods flowing to authoritarian governments accused of human rights abuses. Global autocracies now outnumber Democracies, and Canada appears happy to sell arms to the highest bidder.
Canada Is Arming the World’s Bullies
07.10
Recipients include the prime minister and his deputy, the new foreign secretary and home secretary, reports John McEvoy. The attorney general appointment, however, was surprising.
Pro-Israel lobbyists have donated to 13 out of Labour’s 25 cabinet members since they were first elected to parliament, Declassified can reveal.
The list of recipients includes Prime Minister Keir Starmer, his deputy Angela Rayner, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Jonathan Reynolds, who will oversee arms exports to Israel as U.K. trade secretary, is another beneficiary, alongside Labour’s election mastermind Pat McFadden, whose responsibilities now include national security.
Some of the donations were provided by Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), a lobby group which takes MPs on “fact-finding” missions to the region.
Last month, Clooney co-hosted an event with Julia Roberts that raised more than $US30 million ($44 million) for Biden’s re-election campaign — the largest Democratic fundraiser in history.
The directive means the Israeli military could use any means to prevent Israelis from being taken captive even if it puts their life in danger.
A report published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Sunday confirmed that the Israeli military implemented a secretive procedure known as the “Hannibal directive” during the response to the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.
The directive allows Israeli forces to prevent Israelis from being taken hostage, even if that means putting their lives in danger. The directive had historically only applied to soldiers, but it was also used on Israeli civilians during the October 7 response.
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