John Pilger

A Voice for the Oppressed: John Pilger, Radical Journalist and Documentarian – CounterPunch.org

On peace activism:

The current spoiling for a fight with China is a symptom of this, as is the invasion of Africa….I find it remarkable that I have lived my life without having been blown to bits in a nuclear holocaust ignited by Washington. What this tells me is that popular resistance across the rest of the world is potent and much feared by the bully – look at the hysterical pursuit of WikiLeaks. Or if not feared, it’s disorientating for the master. That’s why those of us who regard peace as a normal state of human affairs are in for a long haul, and faltering along the way is not an option, really.

Source: A Voice for the Oppressed: John Pilger, Radical Journalist and Documentarian – CounterPunch.org

Israel

Key Part Of Netanyahus Judicial Overhaul Overturned | HuffPost Latest News

Israel and Hamas fight back against the Netanyahu Government

There was no immediate reaction from Netanyahu.

In Monday’s decision, the court narrowly voted to overturn a law passed in July that prevents judges from striking down government decisions they deem “unreasonable.” Opponents had argued that Netanyahu’s efforts to remove the standard of reasonability opens the door to corruption and improper appointments of unqualified cronies to important positions.

The law was the first in a planned overhaul of the Israeli justice system. The overhaul was put on hold after Hamas militants carried out their Oct. 7 attack, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others. Israel immediately declared war, and is pressing forward with an offensive that Palestinian health officials say has killed nearly 22,000 people in Gaza.

In an 8-7 decision, the Supreme Court justices struck down the law because of the “severe and unprecedented harm to the core character of the State of Israel as a democratic country.”

The justices also voted 12-3 that they had the authority to overturn so-called “Basic Laws,” major pieces of legislation that serve as a sort of constitution for Israel.

Source: Key Part Of Netanyahus Judicial Overhaul Overturned | HuffPost Latest News

Israel

As Death Toll in Gaza Rises, Israeli Officials Fear Possible Genocide Charges at ICJ

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (L) stand side by side.

The Israeli Supreme Court votes against Netanyahu

“In general, it’s hard to prove an intention of genocide because no public statements to that effect are made during the fighting,” said one expert. “But these irresponsible statements about erasing Gaza will require Israel to explain why they don’t reflect such an intention.”

Source: As Death Toll in Gaza Rises, Israeli Officials Fear Possible Genocide Charges at ICJ

Israel

Israel uses Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza

While Goebellian Propagandists like Dr. Eli David brag about Israel’s generosity for allowing hundreds of aid trucks into Gaza the drivers report they are being shot at by the Israelis. Fewer trucks enter daily for the 2.3M people than did before this war and back then they were only delivering the calorific minimum. Gazans had to supplement their own food sterilize their own water and queued for 12 hours to seek permission for medical help. Often simply refused and turned back.

The hospitals are now destroyed nothing grows and the civilians are totally imprisoned and living in tents or scavenged plastic. They are being killed,shot like fish in a barrel by 2000-pound American bomb, tanks, snipers, and conscripted troops on the ground. Meanwhile, The Supreme Court of Israel isn’t cheering as loudly as the Netanyahu Government would want and troops are being pulled out. Will the ICJ let this genocidal activity pass?

The use of mass starvation as a weapon of war echoes a historical barbarity that humanity should have long transcended. This egregious strategy, reminiscent of past sieges where starvation was deliberately employed as a tool of warfare, highlights the dire consequences of collective punishment on innocent civilians.

In Gaza, Israel has been deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food and other essentials to the besieged enclave’s 2.2 million people.

Source: Israel uses Starvation as a Weapon of War in Gaza

Informed Comment

Chris Hedges: Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust – ScheerPost

The Holocaust was weaponized from almost the moment Israel was founded. It was bastardized to serve the apartheid state. If we forget the lessons of the Holocaust, we forget who we are and what we are capable of becoming. We seek our moral worth in the past, rather than the present. We condemn others, including the Palestinians, to an endless cycle of slaughter. We become the evil we abhor. We consecrate the horror.

Source: Chris Hedges: Israel’s Genocide Betrays the Holocaust – ScheerPost

ALP Government,

Nuke policy quietly nuked: Australia to fund US nuclear weapon delivery program – Michael West

AUKUS, nuclear, submarines

Great Deal! That we’d pay was seen coming from the moment AUKUS was first announced by the bankrupt UK and the economically struggling US whispering to Scott Morrison to doublecross the French.

A newly released Congressional Research Service report confirms that Australian funds will be used to support the United States Navy’s nuclear ballistic missile submarine program. The Government has sunk Labor’s nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation pledges. Rex Patrick and Philip Dorling explain.

Source: Nuke policy quietly nuked: Australia to fund US nuclear weapon delivery program – Michael West

Renewable energy

33 new Gigs of Solar: Top 7 Renewables Good News Stories in the US for 2023

There is no room for complacency. The US is on track only to achieve between 66% and 75% of its 2030 emissions reduction goals, even with the IRA. Unless it does a 100% we are in danger of tipping the world over into climate chaos. But the picture is much brighter now than it was in 2015, or in the era of the odious Trump. We need to elect Democrats across the board if we’re going to make it. The task is too big for any institution but government, and the Republican Party’s platform is to fart out enough carbon to doom the planet.

Still, the incredible advances of solar power in the US this year, and the projections for next, are a source of optimism.

Source: 33 new Gigs of Solar: Top 7 Renewables Good News Stories in the US for 2023

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News, Uncategorized

Old Dog Thought- Prophecy said WW3 will start in the Middle East. Will it begin in 2024

May be an illustration of text

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 2/01/24, Truth in Pictures, John Pilger and Israel in 2002, 650 Mass Shootings in ’23, Rex Patrick Awards, Zaka and Oct 7th, 2023 Best Movies and best Reads,

John Pilger

Australian journalist John Pilger dies aged 84

Celebrated Australian investigative journalist and documentary-maker John Pilger has died aged 84.

He new when to close a story and have the last word on any subject. John Pilger died 30/12/2023 it was publicly announced the next and last day of December 2023. Vale- John Pilger.

Australian investigative journalist John Pilger has died aged 84, his family has announced.

Source: Australian journalist John Pilger dies aged 84

International Media,, Media

‘A Giant of Journalism Has Left Us’: John Pilger Dead at 84

Pilger

“He was a fearless challenger of imperialism and colonialism and used his talents behind the camera to expose genocide and war crimes, including the deceit of mainstream media,” said one British MP.

Source: ‘A Giant of Journalism Has Left Us’: John Pilger Dead at 84

Uncategorized

Vale John Pilger – Pearls and Irritations

A bright star in the firmament of justice has gone out. One of the greatest journalists of our era has passed away.

Source: Vale John Pilger – Pearls and Irritations

John Howard

National Times – A Racist Howard Government had no time for Abriginals | Facebook

May be an image of 2 people, the Oval Office and text that says 'Philip Ruddock (left) was minister for Indigenous affairs and Alexander Downer (right) was foreign affairs minister in the Howard government when it bypassed Atsic to campaign against recognising the right of Indigenous peoples to self-determination'. Photograph: Alan Porritt/AAP'

Howard government worked with Canada to oppose UN declaration on Indigenous rights ( Daniel Hurst and The Guardian )

Cabinet papers from 2003 show the government pursued talks without consulting peak Indigenous body – which it then abolished.

The Howard government fought strongly against recognising the right of Indigenous peoples to “self-determination” and worked secretly with Canada to try to change a draft UN declaration, newly released cabinet papers show.

Source: National Times – A Racist Howard Government had no time for… | Facebook

Gotta Laugh

Why Rupert Murdoch Is Not The Devil… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

When Peter Dutton said the quiet bit out loud about how he wasn’t interested in making it easy for Labor to govern, surely that should have been the signal that he’s not interested in working with them to improve conditions for all Australians by mitigating their poor policy. In other words, Dutton was saying that he wants to screw things up as badly as he can in order to improve his chances of being elected. While he may not be the first Opposition leader to think that way, there’s a danger with making it too obvious. You might as well say, “Yes well, this is a great idea and very much needed but we’re going to try and block it because it might make the government too popular!”

Source: Why Rupert Murdoch Is Not The Devil… – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Informed Comment

Rex Patrick’s Transparency and Opaqueness Awards 2023 – Michael West

Did 2023 see more or less transparency from Government? Is the Albanese Government more or less transparent than the Morrison Government? Transparency Warrior Rex Patrick looks back to answer these questions and give out some awards, many of them likely not wanted.

Source: Rex Patrick’s Transparency and Opaqueness Awards 2023 – Michael West

Israel

Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 86 | Gaza News | Al Jazeera

A picture taken from Rafah shows smoke billowing over Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip during Israeli bombardment on December 30, 2023

At least 100 killed in central Gaza, while night-time raids injure 17 in occupied West Bank – here is the latest.

Latest updates and human impact:

Source: Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 86 | Gaza News | Al Jazeera

Israel

Mouin Rabbani: Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials Advocate ‘Voluntary’ Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

Mouin Rabbani: Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials Advocate 'Voluntary' Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

An analysis of the “voluntary” displacement of the Gaza Strip

Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, are again publicly advocating the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Their proposals are being presented as voluntary emigration schemes, in which Israel is merely playing the role of Good Samaritan, selflessly mediating with foreign governments to find new homes for destitute and desperate Palestinians. But it is ethnic cleansing all the same.

“Alarm bells should have started ringing in early November when US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other Western politicians began insisting there could be “no forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza”. Rather than rejecting any mass removal of Palestinians, Blinken and colleagues objected only to optically challenging expulsions at gunpoint. The option of “voluntary” displacement by leaving residents of the Gaza Strip with no choice but departure was pointedly left open.

While ethnic cleansing has been intrinsic to Zionist/Israeli ideology and practice from the very outset, it also has a flip side: the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians expanded what had been a conflict between the Zionist movement and the Palestinians into a regional, Arab-Israeli one. The second Nakba Israel is currently inflicting on the Gaza Strip similarly appears well on its way to instigating the renewal of hostilities across the Middle East.

Source: Mouin Rabbani: Netanyahu and Senior Israeli Officials Advocate ‘Voluntary’ Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

Israel

Opinion | The Erasure of Palestinians | Common Dreams

A man mourns

It’s jarring to see someone you’ve broken bread with—a former colleague, an acquaintance, a friend—suddenly become a cheerleader for ethnic cleansing. It’s an experience I have had repeatedly since October 7. People who I had believed were thoughtful and kind were now sharing social media posts calling for Israel to bomb mosques, schools, and hospitals in Gaza. They responded to any whisper of a cease-fire with wrath. And their zeal for collective punishment of Palestinians has not abated over time.

Source: Opinion | The Erasure of Palestinians | Common Dreams

Israel

ZAKA Is Not a Trustworthy Source for Allegations of Sexual Violence on October 7 – ScheerPost

ZAKA is one of the leading organizations alleging Hamas atrocities on October 7. But the organization’s volunteers have systematically given false testimonies, and continue repeating them to journalists on behalf of the Israeli government.

Many of the reports in Israeli and international media networks — including CNN, the BBC, the New York Times, and many others — that accuse Palestinians of committing systematic wide-scale gender-based violence against Israeli women on October 7, 2023, rely on testimonies by Israeli ZAKA volunteers.

Source: ZAKA Is Not a Trustworthy Source for Allegations of Sexual Violence on October 7 – ScheerPost

Israel

An Israeli hostage describes her time in captivity in harrowing detail

Mia Shem said her captor brought her to the television to watch her mother, Keren, appeal for Mia’s safety.

Absolutely right Schem does describe accurately what it’s like living in terror as a Palestinian. They have been doing it for the past 18 years in Gaza. She wasn’t in fear of being raped yelling at her captors. She lacked the trappings she was so used to in Israel and France. Safety, Food, Medical Attention and privacy and most of all space.

Schem, a 21-year-old Israeli French citizen, was kidnapped by Hamas after fleeing the Nova music festival during the October 7 terrorist attack.

Source: An Israeli hostage describes her time in captivity in harrowing detail

Israel, Israel Crimes

The Israel supporter and the sandwich – Pearls and Irritations

Human hands gesture holding sandwich on isolated background. Image :iStock/JuYochi

An Israel supporter walks up to a guy at a restaurant, grabs his sandwich, starts eating it.

Israel supporter: [Walks up to a guy at a restaurant, grabs his sandwich, starts eating it.]

Guy: Hey!

Israel supporter: What?

Guy: That’s my sandwich!

Israel supporter [still eating]: Sandwich? What sandwich?

Guy: Right there! You’re eating it right now!

Israel supporter: No I’m not.

Source: The Israel supporter and the sandwich – Pearls and Irritations

Uncategorized

America’s mad love for guns: 650 mass shootings in ’23

Another day in the US: Police converge on the scene of an August slaughter in Jacksonville, Florida.

Israel would send in the IDF and start bombing any American city mindlessly yelling “it started today, it started today”

If today is a typical day in the United States there will be two mass shootings somewhere in the 50 states.

Source: America’s mad love for guns: 650 mass shootings in ’23

Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

Old Dog Thought- Fake News “It started on Oct7th” Real News ” 1948, 2006, 2008, 2014, and then there were the assassinations during the ceasefire agreements.

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Assassinated Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Fighting Fake News with REAL 1/1/2024, Israel Assassinated Yitzak Rabin, Netanyahu says Israel should hav Control of Egypts Border, Israeli Assassinations,

TAX

Tax Farming – Bleeding Australia Dry! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

It occurred to me the other night how many revenue-raising bodies now exist in Australia. There is a plethora of taxes and levies upon the people that sometimes defies imagination. The other interesting fact being that many of these entities have been sold to private interests, that paid handsome fees in advance for the right to collect such taxes and levies (thus giving governments a temporary yet handy cash flow – often used together with the words of retiring public debt).

Source: Tax Farming – Bleeding Australia Dry! – » The Australian Independent Media Network

Israel, Israel Crimes

List of Israeli assassinations – Wikipedia
3,300+ Assassination Stock Illustrations, Royalty-Free ...
This is a list only during 5 years of this century. The list has many more conducted since 1948. The strategic targets and “collateral damage” runs into the 1000s. It didn’t start on Oct7 Oct7 Oct7
          • 2000s

            • 2000, September 29–2001, April 25. According to Palestinian sources, the IDF assassinated 13 political activists in Area A under full Palestinian Authority, with 9 civilian casualties.[45]
            • 2001 Israel killed 35 suspected Palestinian militants.[46]
            • 2002 Israel killed 72 suspected militants.[46]
            • 2003 (August) The Israeli government authorized the killing of Hamas’s entire political leadership in Gaza, ‘without further notice,’ in a method called ‘the hunting season’ in order to strengthen the position of moderates and Mahmoud Abbas.
            • 2005 In February Israel announced a suspension of targeted killings, while reserving the right to kill allegedly ‘ticking bombs’.[47]
                • 2010s
                • 2020s
                • See also

                Source: List of Israeli assassinations – Wikipedia

                Russia/Ukraine

                Russia says 14 die in ‘indiscriminate’ Ukraine attack

                Russia vows revenge for deadly border city attack

                Putin does a Netanyahu and REVENGE ATTACKS forget the principles

                Russia has vowed retaliation for “indiscriminate” Ukrainian strikes on the border city of Belgorod which it said killed 14 people including two children and injured 108.

                Source: Russia says 14 die in ‘indiscriminate’ Ukraine attack

                Israel, Israel Crimes

                Israel crime against Gaza grows with intense indiscriminant Bombing.
                Take this video, where an Israeli soldier brags about killing a twelve-year-old girl and jokingly laments that there are no babies left to kill in Gaza. Are there any forthcoming excuses from entities and individuals supporting Israel’s ethnic cleansing? The IDF’s standard statements can no longer pose as a veneer for Israeli colonial violence, whether this is committed by the state’s institutions or individual acts. And international silence has been so consistent that the parameters for what constitutes a human rights violation or, indeed, a war crime have been expanded beyond recognition.

                What we are witnessing in Gaza must not be separated from the UN’s deafening silence since 1948.

                World’s Decades of Silence on Israel’s Colonial Violence is being Reaped in Gaza
                Informed Comment

                Israel is conducting a pogrom against the Palestinian people
                Israel is conducting a pogrom against the Palestinian people
                Media

                Big media outlets ‘lack balance’ in Gaza reporting – Pearls and Irritations

                Media manipulation and controlling the narrative or directing the conversation as news censorship or political fake news persuasion controlling the story as a symbol of managing and marketing in a 3D illustration style.

                Five out of six major Australian media outlets have substantially imbalanced reporting when it comes to covering the Gaza conflict, new research claims.

                Source: Big media outlets ‘lack balance’ in Gaza reporting – Pearls and Irritations

                Israel

                Genocidal Tremors: Taking Israel to the International Court of Justice – » The Australian Independent Media Network

                In some ways, South Africa, with its historically thick layering of scar tissue regarding racial hatred, segregation, policing and administrative detention may be better suited than most in understanding the zealots prosecuting the war in Gaza. Far from proving a blood libel, the case may turn out to be something of a bloody revelation.

                Source: Genocidal Tremors: Taking Israel to the International Court of Justice – » The Australian Independent Media Network

                Israel

                Israel: SA Is Anti-Semitic to Invoke Genocide Convention

                While Israel Cries “Anti-Semitism” against South Africa. Ethiopian Jews Israeli citizens want out of Israel and crying “Racism”

                False accusations of anti-semitism are all Israel and its defenders have left.  Once the “But Hamas!” and “But Oct. 7!” excuses are spent, false accusations of hating Jews is all that remains, writes Caitlin Johnstone.  By Caitlin Johnstone CaitlinJohnstone.com.au Listen to Tim Foley read

                Source: Israel: SA Is Anti-Semitic to Invoke Genocide Convention

                Israel

                South Africa Is Right To Invoke the Genocide Convention Against Israel’s War on Gaza

                South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice to rule that Israel is guilty of “genocidal acts” in Gaza. The architects of the Genocide Convention intended it to be used to stop the mass killing of civilians before it is too late.

                Source: South Africa Is Right To Invoke the Genocide Convention Against Israel’s War on Gaza

                Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

                Old Dog Thought- The Last day of 2023 can we progress? We seem to have gone backwards,

                Fighting Fake News with REAL, 31/12/23, Every Picture Tells a Story, Ethnic Cleansing, Utterly Illegal, Amputations without Anethesia, Scam of the Year, Breaking Fox News Erection,Palestinians are being censored, Idiot at News Corp,

                Israel

                Meta’s Nick Clegg assures EU that Palestinians are being censored | The Electronic Intifada

                Nick Clegg learned long ago that pleasing Israel is mandatory to have a successful career in politics or business. (UK National Archives/Wikimedia Commons)

                Former British politician has conveniently forgotten his call to stop arming Israel.

                The argument for why politicians should never be trusted can be summed up in two words: Nick Clegg.

                Fifteen years ago this week, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead – the first in a series of major attacks on Gaza.

                Nick Clegg was leader of the Liberal Democrats, a British political party, at the time. He responded to the attack by urging a ban on weapons exports to Israel.

                From 2010 to 2015, Clegg was in a position to insist that such a ban be introduced. He was deputy prime minister in a coalition government with the Conservatives.

                Far from banning weapons exports to Israel, that government kept on authorizing them.

                Britain granted licenses worth millions of dollars for deliveries of arms and their components to Israel during the six months before the 2014 war against Gaza. The Liberal Democrats were similarly treacherous on domestic issues, famously breaking a pledge not to increase students’ tuition fees.

                Today, Nick Clegg is a senior figure in Meta, the corporation which owns Facebook and Instagram.

                Both of these social media platforms have been actively censoring Palestinians. Clegg is directly involved in assuring the authorities that the censorship is far-reaching.

                Source: Meta’s Nick Clegg assures EU that Palestinians are being censored | The Electronic Intifada

                Economics

                The future will be decided by economic influence, not military dominance – Pearls and Irritations

                China US Economic Risk.

                America is falling into a trap. It thinks the future will be decided by military dominance, despite losing one war after another. China, on the other hand, recognises that the future will be decided by economics. (A repost from October 2023).

                Source: The future will be decided by economic influence, not military dominance – Pearls and Irritations

                WAR

                5 Budding Wars we hope the World can Avoid in 2024

                By Jessica Genauer, Flinders University | – (The Conversation) – Sadly, 2023 has been a violent one on the global stage. War broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, leading to the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis, including many children on both sides. And the bitter war between Russia and Ukraine continued with no end in sight. As a result of the focus on these two conflicts, other countries have dropped off the radar for many people. Some of these nations have been dealing with simmering unrest, however, which could erupt in 2024 and seize

                Source: 5 Budding Wars we hope the World can Avoid in 2024

                Israel

                Gaza After the Deluge

                Finally, if there appears little short-term prospect of peace taking root in Gaza’s scorched soil, seeds of hope have sprouted elsewhere, as a solidarity movement of unprecedented size and vigor sprang to Gaza’s defense. In Western Europe and North America, massive demonstrations have mobilized for week after week opposing Israel’s onslaught. Progressive Jews are in the militant vanguard. In the United States and Britain, public opinion backs an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, even as not one major political party endorsed this position. And right in the heart of the political establishment, from the European Union to the US State Department and White House, hundreds of officials have risked their careers to demand an end to complicity in Israel’s war crimes. Gaza has become a symbol for injustice, inequality, and the hypocrisies of power writ large, and around this symbol, the glimmer of a New International can be espied. If the Gaza cataclysm resonates so widely, especially among the young, it might be because, in this age of yawning inequality, hollowed-out democracy, and a futureless future circumscribed by economic stagnation and climate crisis, the global “99 percent” see in Gazans’ plight an extreme version of their own.

                Source: Gaza After the Deluge

                Israel, Israel Crimes

                Dead End: Israel Gets Lost in Gaza – CounterPunch.org

                Israel wants it all with it’s application of Fake News. It will pay Arab States to take Palestinian refugees is predicated on America and the West will Pay. It’s simply a lie. Like Kim Jong Un Israeli Zionists are begging, no forcing the West to help. However, the diaspora lead by progressive Jews along with the people of those nations that once supported them aren’t any longer listening to Netanyahu the IDF or what his extreme Right-Wing Government are insisting.

                The lies of Netanyahu and the IDF speak of desperation. On December 12 when the northern part of Gaza was supposedly secured by the IDF, Hamas ambushed an IDF unit killing ten Israeli soldiers. More importantly, there was the lie that Hamas had a headquarters beneath al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. No evidence was ever produced for that. The video that the IDF looked like the work of an eight-year old. A Washington Post article of December 21 found no evidence to support it. Israel under Netanyahu’s policy of no Palestinian state under any condition is on a collision course with reality. Now it appears that the Hamas attack on October 7 has not only changed Israel but the calculus of the Middle East. Israel is more isolated than ever. Its military response to October 7 is only increasing its isolation, even making more people in its most powerful ally the US question its relationship with Israel.

                Source: Dead End: Israel Gets Lost in Gaza – CounterPunch.org

                Israel

                Opinion | Israel’s Long History of Ethnic Cleansing | Common Dreams

                Displaced people prepare food in Gaza

                “Transfer,” often presented as the encouragement of voluntary emigration either by providing material incentives or making the conditions of life impossible, has become increasingly mainstreamed in Israeli political life.

                Source: Opinion | Israel’s Long History of Ethnic Cleansing | Common Dreams

                Israel, Israel Crimes

                The Long History Of Zionist Proposals To Ethnically Cleanse The Gaza Strip – ScheerPost

                The destruction of Libyia’s Gaddafi, the invasion of Iraq to rid it of Saddam and the failed removal of Syria’s President Bashar al-Asad and his ruling Ba’ath (Arab Socialist Renaissance) Party and the kneecapping of Iran were a systemic planned effort to put the brakes on any Pan-Arabic Military Union that might stand against Israel and the West’s domination of the global fossil fuel market

                Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu are again publicly advocating the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. Their proposals are being presented as voluntary emigration schemes, in which Israel is merely playing the role of Good Samaritan, selflessly mediating with foreign governments to find new homes for destitute and desperate Palestinians. But it is ethnic cleansing all the same.

                While ethnic cleansing has been intrinsic to Zionist/Israeli ideology and practice from the very outset, it also has a flip side: the 1948 expulsion of the Palestinians expanded what had been a conflict between the Zionist movement and the Palestinians into a regional, Arab-Israeli one. The second Nakba Israel is currently inflicting on the Gaza Strip similarly appears well on its way to instigating the renewal of hostilities across the Middle East.

                As importantly, the 1948 Nakba did not defeat the Palestinians, who initiated their struggle from the camps of exile, those in the Gaza Strip most prominently among them. It would take a Blinken level of foolishness to assume the expulsion of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip would produce a different outcome.

                Source: The Long History Of Zionist Proposals To Ethnically Cleanse The Gaza Strip – ScheerPost

                Israel

                Palestinian Christians in Gaza fear being ‘swept under the rubble or into the desert’ | +972 Magazine

                Palestinian Greek Orthodox Christians attend a Christmas Eve Mass, led by Greek Orthodox Archbishop Alexios at St. Porphyrios Church in Gaza City, January 7, 2022. (Atia Mohammed/Flash90)

                “The general thought among all Palestinian Christians now is to immigrate, after their homes and businesses were destroyed, and since there is no political horizon signaling an end to this crisis,” he added, expressing his fear that the total destruction of Gaza is “sweeping away everyone either under the rubble or into the desert.”

                Source: Palestinian Christians in Gaza fear being ‘swept under the rubble or into the desert’ | +972 Magazine

                Israel

                South Africa seeks ICJ genocide order against Israel

                Israeli warplanes have attacked locations in the south and north of the Gaza Strip.

                South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice for an urgent order declaring that Israel is in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its ongoing crackdown against Hamas in Gaza.

                Source: South Africa seeks ICJ genocide order against Israel

                Media

                #6 TOP IA STORY OF 2023: Indigenous arguments against the Voice did exist — but the media hid them

                While many Indigenous figures support the proposed Voice to Parliament, there are still some who oppose it, but the mainstream media won’t tell you why, writes Tom Tanuki.

                Source: #6 TOP IA STORY OF 2023: Indigenous arguments against the Voice did exist — but the media hid them

                Informed Comment

                Amoral Compass: Palantir and its Quest to Remake the World – » The Australian Independent Media Network

                While confidence curdled, as with much else with tech assets, leading to the company stock falling by as much as 87% of value. The language ignores what Palantir really does.

                As Gaza is being flattened and gradually exterminated by Israeli arms, Palantir remains loyal, even stubbornly so. “We are one of the few companies in the world to stand and announce our support for Israel, which remains steadfast,” the company stated in a letter to shareholders. With a record now well washed in blood, the company deserves a global protest movement that blocks its appeal and encourages a shareholder exodus.

                Source: Amoral Compass: Palantir and its Quest to Remake the World – » The Australian Independent Media Network

                Australian Scams, financial scams, Political Scams

                Scam of the Year 2023: nine of the niftiest scams in Australian business and politics – Michael West

                Michael West Media, scam of the year

                Announcing the Scam of the Year awards in Australian business and politics. What an embarrassment of rorting riches it is. Michael West with the countdown of elite scams, the creme de la creme, unvarnished, what you will not read in fossil media.

                Source: Scam of the Year 2023: nine of the niftiest scams in Australian business and politics – Michael West

                Fight against Fake News, Fighting Fake News

                Old Dog Thought- Not all Jews are Israelis, Not all Israelis are Ultra-Right-Wing bent on genocide and ethnic cleansing. Can you imagine Israel without American arms?

                Fighting Fake News with REAL, 30/12/23, Every Picture tells a Story, Turkeye’s Erdogan Calls Out Israel, The Rich and Bankruptcy, Words Matter, CPAC Intelligence, Former Negotiator, Israeli Numbers, The Age,

                Education

                Higher Education Cannot Train a New Generation Without the Humanities | The Smirking Chimp

                 With no history, no sociological analysis, no works of art as ‘touchstones,’ a newly educated populace will offer little or no resistance to those who want to obliterate the ‘vermin’ who oppose ruling elites and their values. Who, then, will raise questions about who we are and where we are headed?

                Source: Higher Education Cannot Train a New Generation Without the Humanities | The Smirking Chimp

                Australian Scams, financial scams, Political Scams

                OECD boss in PwC scandal – The Klaxon

                “Cormann was issued equity in Sayers Group in ‘December 2020’, just weeks after leaving Federal Parliament”

                Source: OECD boss in PwC scandal – The Klaxon

                Israel

                Israel-Hamas war: Benjamin Netanyahu cannot destroy Hamas and he can’t control Gaza. He has no endgame

                Illustration: Andrew Dyson

                How long can Biden spend American taxpayer money?

                Just how long Israel can maintain the scale and intensity of its ground campaign is also a constraining factor in what level of victory it will ultimately achieve. Mobilisation on this scale is a strain on the Israeli economy and at some point a decision will have to be made to reduce its forces in Gaza.

                Israel’s tactical victory though, doesn’t necessarily convert into strategic success. It has largely lost the information campaign, as the indiscriminate savagery unleashed by Hamas on October 7 recedes into the background, replaced by imagery from a devastated Gaza. Incidents like the one in which Israeli soldiers shot and killed three half-naked Israeli hostages, reportedly escaping under a white flag, add to suspicions about the degree to which the Israeli military discriminate between targets of necessity and targets of choice.

                Source: Israel-Hamas war: Benjamin Netanyahu cannot destroy Hamas and he can’t control Gaza. He has no endgame

                Israel

                No Difference between Netanyahu and Hitler says Erdogan, leader of NATO Member Turkey

                There is “no difference” between what Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is doing in the months-long attacks on Gaza and what Nazi leader Adolf Hitler did decades ago, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today.

                At a science awards ceremony in the capital Ankara, Erdogan said: “How do you [Netanyahu] differ from Hitler? These [actions] will make us look for Hitler as well. Is there anything Netanyahu does that is less than Hitler? No.”

                Just like 80 years ago in Nazi Germany, Erdogan said that today, scholars worldwide who have the courage to decry the oppression and persecution in Gaza are facing pressure and threats, referring to academics in the US and elsewhere being fired or censured for standing up for Palestinians.

                 

                Source: No Difference between Netanyahu and Hitler says Erdogan, leader of NATO Member Turkey

                Israel

                Israeli Draft Resister Tal Mitnick Is a Hero

                The Israeli Education System doesn’t capture everyone

                Eighteen-year-old Israeli Tal Mitnick has just been sent to prison for refusing to enlist in the army and participate in what he calls a “war of revenge” in Gaza. He’s a hero.

                Source: Israeli Draft Resister Tal Mitnick Is a Hero