The judgments have effectively turned Australian wildlife protection back to the “dark ages” with decisions relying on assessments allowing current forestry operations undertaken as far back as 1997. Current peer-reviewed published scientific research on exponentially increasing localized extinction and risks can be ignored.
Source: ‘Environmental vandals’: Labor must step up on forest and wildlife loss
Israel, where the Orthodox Religious Zionists are the most powerful political group, although a minority, they hold politically privileged positions. The rise of Zionism in the late 19th century and the beginning of immigration to Eretz Yisrael, coming home as it were to the land God promised to Abraham in Genesis, if the timeline is correct some 4000 years ago, to retake the land at first little bit by little bit but since 1948 laying claim to it exclusively for God’s Chosen Ones. Using the communication tools of orthodoxy, to dumb down the argument, refuse to recognise that the people who have lived there for as long as time can be recorded are not defined as a people, but as terrorists, empty slogans which are never explained to denigrate and dehumanise. That was reminiscent of when Nazis tattooed a number of their prisoners, their names were obliterated, they were dehumanised, made a number.
An important question which deserves an answer is which takes precedence, Orthodoxy or humanity? A brief run through history it appears unfortunately that orthodoxy takes precedence.
Source: Orthodoxies or Humanity? – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The Lobby at Work. Foreign interference is decried if by Russia. Celebrated if by Israel. Almost war if by China. But a legitimate tool if secretly applied by America to your country and it has been globally for years
Is Alan Dershowitz untouchable? His relationship with Jeffrey Epstein declared a misidentification 137 times, His plagiarism a misunderstanding, An Israeli Lobby operative, falsely accused
However
The push to oust Liz Magill began when the university hosted a festival celebrating Palestinian literature.
“It was just so eye-opening to me that something as simple as a literature festival could be so threatening to pro-Israel supporters,” said Marie Kelly, a board member for Palestine Writes. The festival was a historic celebration and affirmation of Palestinian culture, Kelly said. “That’s not anything that any pro-Israel academic, millionaire, or politician can take away.”
Source: Pro-Israel Effort to Smear Penn President Started Well Before Oct. 7
Mossad is Israel’s historically and Internationally renowned spy agency known for: 1) spying on its allies. 2) interfering in their friend’s domestic and foreign politics along with media narratives.3) Known as a global undercover assassination agency. They have assassinated more people in third countries using the documents of friendly nations as a cover than any other agency on the planet. They’ve killed hundreds of targets along with civilians during times of declared truce with Hamas. 4) They even kidnap their own citizens from other allied nations and not tell anyone. Yes, Mossad is a law unto its own. That famous Israeli institution has come out to play in the open on social media. Their credibility is (zip). Their effort today is meant to have the world in fear of Hamas who are on a secret mission in Sweden. If any embassy is blown up it’s more than likely to be a Mossad false flag rather than any action by Hamas.
Strange how all this publicity is coming out now at this particular point in time.
In a statement following up on the arrests announced by Danish, German and Swedish authorities, Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency named an alleged Hamas network member in Sweden, without specifying whether he was also in custody.
There was no immediate response from Hamas, which in the past has said its policy was to limit attacks to Israel, the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip – all territories where it seeks a Palestinian state.
Source: Israel accuses Hamas of plot to attack embassy in Sweden
Time is the biggest threat to all oppressors because in time the real facts come out.
A new, in-depth timeline of efforts to help Samer Abu Daqqa reveals that Israel was repeatedly pressed to allow for his rescue, but kept emergency crews at bay for hours.
Source: Israel Blocked Evacuation of Al Jazeera Cameraman Hit by Airstrike
The hidden world of Israel
Pounded by IDF bombs, Gaza’s population is today on the brink of starvation. For decades, Israel has systematically suppressed Palestinians’ independent economic activity — ensuring their dependence on Israel’s own economy.
The man Mossad and their Lobby buried. After this debacle will he be Labor’s Lazarus?
After attending the International Court of Justice hearing on Israeli genocide, Jeremy Corbyn writes on how South Africa’s lawyers are upholding basic human dignity — and how Western states have shamed themselves by defending Israel’s crimes.
Source: Jeremy Corbyn: South Africa’s ICJ Case Puts the West to Shame
Dutton’s for Boycotting Woolies and making BDS illegal
All right, I have no idea whether Dutton has shares in Coles. Actually, he may have shares in Woolworths for all I know but whatever the truth, you can make a lot out of something that hasn’t happened… Still it would be embarrassing if – after calling for the Woolworth boycott – if it were discovered that he did have shares in their biggest rival.
Source: Peter Dutton Still Yet To Deny He Has Shares In Coles! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Genocide is not a political problem. It is a moral one. We cannot, no matter what the cost, support those who commit or are accomplices to genocide. Genocide is the crime of all crimes. It is the purest expression of evil. We must stand unequivocally with Palestinians and the jurists from South Africa. We must demand justice. We must hold Biden accountable for the genocide in Gaza.
By featuring cringeworthy content aimed at an unknown audience, Israeli social media content is backfiring and failing to achieve its goal. Tom Tanuki reports.
Mossad would have had Pilger on their hit list
John Pilger, who died on December 30, had an extraordinary career as a reporter. His journalism informed countless people about the catastrophic impact of US foreign policy during and after the Cold War, from Vietnam and Cambodia to Nicaragua and East Timor.
Source: John Pilger’s Reporting Demolished Western Propaganda’s Myths
American Media claims Australia was there to assist. Was that Murdoch?
Striking the Houthis would seem, on virtually all counts, to be a signal failure. Benjamin H. Friedman of Defense Priorities sees error piled upon error: “The strikes on the Houthis will not work. They are very unlikely to stop Houthi attacks on shipping. The strikes’ probable failure will invite escalation to more violent means that may also fail.” The result: policymakers will be left “looking feckless and thus tempted to up the ante to more pointless war to solve a problem better left to diplomatic means.” Best forget any assuring notions of taking the sting out of the expanding hostilities. All roads to a widening war continue to lead to Israel.
The US and UK have reportedly struck over a dozen sites in Yemen using Tomahawk missiles and fighter jets, backed by logistical support from Australia, Canada, Bahrain and the Netherlands. A statement from President Biden asserts that the strikes against “targets in Yemen used by Houthi rebels” are a “direct response to unprecedented Houthi attacks against international maritime vessels in the Red Sea”.
Source: Western Empire bombs Yemen to protect Israel’s genocide operations In Gaza – Pearls and Irritations
and
Israel’s defence relied on dismissing South Africa’s arguments as implausible, making many assertions it could not really offer conclusive evidence for, and some fancy legal gymnastics. It shared excerpts from its War cabinet documents to prove Israel has taken every precaution to protect civilians and argued they are the only record that matters, not the rhetoric referred to by South Africa of genocidal intent. I hope this will not fool the judges.
Will Israel’s “assurances” be taken seriously by the judges?
Israel killed more than 150 Palestinians and continued to block aid to hospitals in the Gaza Strip while theatrically rejecting South Africa’s charges of genocide at the Hague on Friday.
Source: Israel blocking aid, fuel to Gaza hospitals | The Electronic Intifada
Weapons Of Mass Destruction were originally designed and promised to be a defensive deterrent never to be used. We invaded Iraq on a suspicion that proved to be a lie and not just a myth that they were going to use them. We know Israel has them. We are witness to the fact that they are prepared to use them. They are currently demonstrating it with their illegal use of white phosphorus and the tonnage being dropped on the postage stamp known as Gaza. Bush invaded Iraq and now the worm has turned and Biden says it’s all OK why? Oil, oil tankers, and that Gas field off the coast of Gaza are far more important than any Palestinians
The violence inflicted on Palestinians by an Israel backed so strikingly by President Biden and his foreign policy team is unlike anything we had previously witnessed in more or less real-time in the media and on social media. Gaza, its people, and the lands that have sustained them for centuries are being desecrated and transformed into an all too unlivable hellscape, the impact of which will be felt — it’s a guarantee — for generations to come.
Source: How to Create an Unlivable Hellscape in Gaza | The Smirking Chimp
We invaded Iraq for non-existent WMDs. We are now witnessing Israel using America’s stockpile of WMDs and chemical weapons like white phosphorus yet the West isn’t invading Israel but helping and supporting it in that illegal use
The violence inflicted on Palestinians by an Israel backed so strikingly by President Biden and his foreign policy team is unlike anything we had previously witnessed in more or less real-time in the media and on social media. Gaza, its people, and the lands that have sustained them for centuries are being desecrated and transformed into an all too unlivable hellscape, the impact of which will be felt — it’s a guarantee — for generations to come.
Source: How Israel Killed Gaza’s Environment and Created an Unlivable Hellscape
The American Israel Lobby would never accept a black American woman with morals
Would Harris stand aside and be prepared to be Obama’s vice presidential running mate? That’s a big ask for someone who’s already the current heir to the throne. Why would she agree to be relegated to a spare?
And yet, a Michelle Obama/Kamala Harris ticket is not only compelling, it may just save the Democrats and may yet save America from repugnant Trumpian Republicanism.
A presidential Trump loss would hopefully chasten the Grand Old Party and rejuvenate it. Force it to reform; shed its skin. It ain’t healthy to have a weak political opponent in Federal or state politics, let alone have weak governments as incumbents.
Can Michelle Obama defeat Donald Trump?
Yes, she can.
Source: Michelle Obama for President? Yes, she can! – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Israel’s Mossad is strategically aiming at eliminating independent reports from antisemitic global Aid agencies in it’s defense.
Israeli military killing 250 Palestinians per day with many more lives at risk from hunger, disease and cold.
The International Court of Justice has begun hearing South Africa’s case against Israel under the Genocide Convention today. South African jurists have presented a careful, rigorously documented brief that exposes the deliberate slaughter of civilians in Gaza.
Source: South Africa’s Genocide Case Is a Devastating Indictment of Israel’s War on Gaza
And on a personal note, how do you view the fact that Israel stands accused of genocide?
I come from a family of Holocaust survivors, and the very fact that we are even talking about this, and that the accusation is not without grounds, is heartbreaking. My grandfather, the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, wrote about the syndrome of victims who aspire to become victimizers, and why efforts must be made to prevent this. I fear that we have failed.
Within what time period is the Court’s decision expected?
There are no set rules, but in the Gambia v. Myanmar case, there was a decision within a month. It should be remembered that this [Gaza] case will continue after the hearing on the interim order. Israel will have to present evidence that will exonerate it from the claim that it is committing genocide, but in doing so could get into difficulties with the ICC. For example, it may explain that it bombed a certain place because it was pursuing a military objective, but it may thereby make admissions that create a basis for the claim that it used disproportionate force.
“How many more alarm bells have to ring and how many more civilians must unlawfully suffer or be killed before governments take action?” asked one human rights expert.
For us as Palestinians, boycotting Israeli goods has been a method of non-violent resistance for many decades, wielded against illegal occupation, colonization, ethnic cleansing, land theft, killing, persecution and apartheid. Now, defending the right to boycott Israel and to stand for justice for the Palestinians is becoming a new battle ground in defending democracy and free speech in the west.
The hearing at the ICJ is not only a determination of the genocidal nature of Israel’s assault on Gaza, it is also an adjudication on the morality of the West.
Source: The Morality of the West on Trial – CounterPunch.org
Having come to the realization that we have damaged the planet with fossil fuels the LNP now wants the promise of a nuclear energy world that will really destroy it. BP and Exxon’s corporate promise of an accident-free energy source turned out to be a farce but now the LNP is barking for the promise of a no-accident nuclear world versus a happy-to-have-accident on a renewable energy planet.
Proponents for a nuclear energy industry in Australia increased their media activity following the announcement of the AUKUS agreement. Their campaign has been taken up by the Coalition. The international campaign reached a crescendo during the COP28 climate meeting.
“Guantánamo has been universally condemned by every human rights, civil liberties, and civil rights group in the world that has expressed an opinion, as well as by the United Nations, and most countries in the world,” writes John Kiriakou.
Source: An Ex-CIA Agent Looks Back at 22 Years of Torture at Guantánamo Bay – ScheerPost
There is no doubt an inquiry into supermarket pricing is a positive step in light of crippling food prices. Certainly, instigating mandatory requirements instead of a voluntary code that sets out some nice suggestions can only be a good thing. Anyone familiar with the banking industry would know that voluntary codes of conduct are not worth the paper they’re written on.
There is yet another source of the answer that now responds to the question: what is to be done? The qualities of democracy that have been achieved within the G7, the BRICS, or most other countries, to date have been more formal than substantive. Where elections of representatives occur, the influences of wealth and income inequalities, the social power wielded by CEOs, and their controls over mass media render democracy more symbolic than real. Many people know it; still more feel it. Extending democracy into the economy and specifically into the internal organization of enterprises represents a major step in moving political democracy beyond merely formal and symbolic to substantive and real. And much the same applies to moving socialism beyond its earlier forms.
The old cry to workers of the world to unify—“You have nothing to lose but your chains”—was an early, partial answer to the question: What is to be done? After a century and a half of development and socialisms, we can now provide a much fuller and more specific answer to that question. To get beyond capitalism’s core—the production relations of employer versus employee—we need explicitly to replace those relations with a democratized workplace, to substitute workers’ self-directed cooperatives for hierarchical capitalist business.
Can we stop them? Yes. But only if the 8 billion citizens of this planet are willing to give up their deadly addiction. First, like all addicts, we have to understand clearly the damage it is causing. And this, the fossil fuels industry with its pet politicians and multi-billion dollar propaganda machine built to mislead us, are determined we shall never do.
There is, unfortunately no other path open to us. We can wait for fossil fuels people to recover their sanity and altruism – but this seems improbable. Or we can leave them behind, in our quest for a world which our children can inhabit, safely.
Source: We are exhuming the teeming Dead – Pearls and Irritations
The very opposite of what Israel is doing today. For well over 16 years Hama’s political branch practiced social welfare and won the hearts of ordinary Palestinians. For the same period, Israel practiced policing, control, bullying, imprisonment,and administrative detention all the characteristics of a colonial power so much so it even lost the hearts of over 66% of Jews.
This is precisely what we indicated in our July dossier, “The World Needs a New Socialist Development Theory.” A future that centres the well-being of humankind and the planet will not materialise on its own; it will only emerge from organised social struggles.
Source: Despite Growth, Only Social Movements Will Bring Progress
The action, launched in the Federal Court of Australia, is intended to cast some light on the arms exports permits being granted by the Australian Defence Minister to Israel since the initial Hamas attacks. Only then can we get a better sense of Australia’s complicity in the genocidal apocalypse currently unfolding in Gaza.
Source: Corporate murder: the Australian companies behind Gaza’s destruction – Pearls and Irritations
The tail is wagging the dog in Israeli domestic politics and Netanyahu’s desperation has been laid bare in order to stay in office the ethnic cleansing and genocide will continue. He needs extreme right-wing support and along with it the terror and fear to maintain power. The US blindly supports them because Israel is still their power base in the Middle East. The majority of Jews who live elsewhere certainly aren’t rushing to save this Israel. Even they feel the impact and are divesting of the shameful embarrassment rebounding on them in the form of unwarranted antisemitism.
Strikes in southern and central Gaza have intensified despite a pledge by Israel that it would pull out some troops and shift to a more targeted campaign, and pleading from its ally Washington to kill fewer civilians.
Source: Despair in Gaza as fighting intensifies despite pledges
There is no genetic connection between Ashkenazi Jews and Palestine ( The Middle East). Their only common genetic marker shows they’re bordering on incest with cousins marrying. Yet Ashkenazis are 80% of Israeli Jews who lay claim to a mythical land that was never theirs. History has shown that they are, and continue to be “the invading force, the colonizers of land”. In 1948 Israel was officially gifted 52% but since has taken illegal control of much more. Over 85% of Palestine and they want even more lot despite being the minority peoples there. The Israeli approach has been to simply to take it, and argue the case with pro bono lawyers, not even Israeli, forever. Possession is 90% of any law. How victimised of them!
Two Israeli lawmakers from right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party doubled down Wednesday on calls to destroy or depopulate Gaza, prompting an admonition from the country’s attorney general on the eve of an emergency hearing in the South African-led genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.
Referring to Palestinian civilians trapped in northern Gaza, Vaturi added that he has “no mercy for those who are still there.”
“We need to eliminate them,” he asserted.
Source: Israeli Lawmakers Reaffirm Genocidal Rhetoric on Eve of ICJ Trial
Palestinians will never, given current conditions, be permitted sovereignty and anything remotely resembling a thriving, viable state. Israel, whose very existence is based on predation, dispossession and war, will never permit a Palestinian entity to be given equal standing at the diplomatic or security table. The US, in the tatty drag of an independent broker, will go along with the pantomime, promoting, as Blinken is, a sham, counterfeit form of autonomy, one forever subject to conditions, demarcations and restraints. And one thing is almost certain about any future rump Palestinian entity: it will be deprived of any right to defend itself.
Netanyahu insisted that once the war ends, Israel’s IDF will remain in control of Gaza. He said that Israel will have “overall security responsibility” over the Gaza Strip. “IDF forces will remain in control of the Strip, we will not give it to international forces.” In addition, Netanyahu has, in the words of The New York Times, “made clear he has no intention of resigning after the war in Gaza ends.”
Control signifies victory. Such control involves the further “concentration” of a shrinking Palestinian population and habitable land area. Israel may likely be forced to establish a quasi-permanent military presence – an unofficial “occupation force” – in preserve “security.” This also assumes, for example, that the U.S. will not cut a deal with Egypt to absorb the forced displacement of, say, one million Palestinians or those of the West Bank to Jordon.
Murdoch promises No News.. Only attention and Influence for sale.
After implying that he would move to take President Joe Biden off the 2024 ballot if the Supreme Court allows Colorado to bar former President Donald Trump from appearing on the primary ballot, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has continued to threaten to use that precedent to persecute Democrats. While Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade gave Ashcroft an uncritical, amiable platform to argue his point, CNN anchor Boris Sanchez seized on the opportunity to ask clarifying questions and correct false claims.
Why is there more homeless today, per capita, but fewer squatters? Fifty years on, Wendy Bacon looks back on the landmark protests of Victoria Street, Kings Cross.
Fifty years ago this week, hundreds of people gathered in Victoria Street, Kings Cross, to support a group of squatters who had been evicted by truckloads of Kings Cross bouncers hired by a property developer Frank Theeman.
Source: The battle for Victoria Street, Kings Cross – fifty years on – Michael West
The LNP threw the fundamental pillars of this country’s Democracy out the window. The believed they were the rulers not the elected employees of the Federation. The Separation of Powers was a concept disposed of in their trash can of history. The Judiciary, Religion and Public Service weren’t just absorbed but taken. They rid the nation of ASTIC as they couldn’t acknowledge first peoples but rather than a Multicultural mistake. Indigenous Australians weren’t be truly recognized with a voice as other Colonial states had in the past they were immigrants aliens in Australia. The Intervention was Howard’s major redirect of policy and control along with budget cuts increased by their self-declared best mate Tony Abbott and celebrated by the IPA and Mining Companies in the Murdoch and other corporate mainstream media as long as Abbott and the LNP promised to neuter the ABC.
Justice Helen Murrell says principles of open justice trump national security and urges Albanese government to publish initial ruling ‘with as few variations as possible’
From “Israel has the right to defend itself” the worm has turned to “In Israel’s pathetic defense” History might excuse Russia’s creep into Ukraine but not Putin and his method. Partly the result of the NATO offensive and America’s support. However, Israel stands alone in its genocidal attack on Palestinians living in the man-made Israeli concentration camp.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urges Israeli leaders to avoid harming civilians as it presses its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
A quantitative analysis shows major newspapers skewed their coverage toward Israeli narratives in the first six weeks of the assault on Gaza.
Source: New York Times and Other Major Newspapers Skew Pro-Israel
But perhaps this foretold tragedy can explain to Israelis that the systematic killing of innocent Palestinians and the subsequent tactics of denial, cover-up, and stalling come at a price for Israelis too. And that this price, once in a while, is the lives of three hostages waving a white flag.
Source: The ‘mistaken’ killing of three Israeli hostages was a tragedy long foretold
Israel’s current narrative “we are letting in more trucks than before” 1) Slowly no even slower than before 2) Before the war they only allowed a calorific minimum into the 18 year concentration camp called Gaza 3) They bombed all agricultural land that supplemented the food needed) 4) Now the Israeli is claiming a huge generosity on their part
The Israeli government “can, if it chooses to,” save more than 2 million people who are starving in Gaza by ending its blockade on aid, an Israel-based human rights group emphasized in a report on Monday, condemning the country for continuing to allow just a fraction of the food needed in the enclave through border crossings as it relentlessly bombs civilian targets.
Nothing illuminates the mutant perversion of Zionism under Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (Bibi) more clearly than this: He proposes to forcibly evict all Palestinians from Gaza (Palestine), and move them to Congo. This is what Great Britain proposed in 1903, as a solution to the “Jewish problem.” Rather than allow Jews to immigrate to Palestine and create a new Jewish homeland, they proposed to move them to Uganda, where the British Crown had plenty of room.
Source: How Israel’s “Send Palestinians to Congo” plan Evokes British Colonial Plans to send Jews to Uganda
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