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Best of the Web: Israel unleashes massive airstrikes on Gaza in reprisal for 2 'accidental' rocket launches - UPDATE


RT
Thu, 14 Mar 2019 16:14 UTC
Israeli jets
© Israeli Air Force
Israeli aircraft bombed Gaza after two rockets allegedly fired from there targeted Tel Aviv. No casualties were reported in the rocket attack.

Explosions were reported in Khan Younis, on the south side of Gaza, early Friday local time. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it was striking "terrorist targets."

The attack comes after two missiles were registered incoming from Gaza on Thursday evening, with air-raid sirens going off in Tel Aviv. Initial reports said the Israeli Iron Dome defense system shot down one of the missiles, while the other hit an open area, but the IDF later denied them, RT's Paula Slier reported.


Comment: Israeli media the next morning widely reported that those two Palestinian 'rockets' were 'probably fired accidentally' during 'maintenance'. What a weird thing to say... unless it's because you know damn well the Palestinians didn't fire anything and are trying to account for why there's no evidence that the Palestinians fired anything and they are vociferously denying having fired anything.


Comment: The timing of the strike allegedly by Islamic Jihad militants, is certainly suspicious, as is the uncharacteristic targeting of Tel Aviv. Did Bibi have infiltrators create a false flag incident so he can polish up his "tough guy" credentials ahead of the elections? The attacks are also a convenient distraction from his corruption charges.

The IDF has hit the Gaza Strip with over 100 missile strikes:
missile attack gaza
© (L) Israel Defense Forces / Twitter; (R) Mohammed Salem / Reuters100 missiles rain down on Gaza March 14, 2019
Israeli jets and helicopters hit around 100 Hamas-linked targets in Gaza on Thursday overnight, the Israeli Army has said. The air raids were conducted in response to rockets launched from Gaza at Tel Aviv.

A Hamas HQ in Gaza's downtown Rimal district, a rocket-manufacturing site and militant training ground, were among the targets hit, according to the military.

The airstrikes were made in retaliation to rockets launched from Gaza into Israeli territory, towards Tel Aviv. Both rockets were intercepted and destroyed by the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense system.


"Hamas terror group bears the responsibility for everything going on in and out of Gaza," the IDF said.

After the IDF raid into Gaza, Hamas fired two more rockets into Israel on Friday, both of which were also destroyed mid-air, the military reported. Aerial attack warning sirens were heard in the city of Sderot and the Sha'ar HaNegev municipality near the Gaza border.


Watch Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett duck and weave when questioned about Israel's part in escalating the cycle of violence.


Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett blames Hamas for firing two rockets into Israel
"Hamas has been shooting rockets at the southern part of Israel for roughly a year now and now they shot two rockets at the Tel Aviv area. It's time to defeat Hamas, it's time to demilitarize the Gaza Strip," he told RT.

Bennett blamed Arabs for turning Gaza into a failed state, to which Israel now must retaliate.

"When we handed it over to the Arabs, they turned it into a radical Islamic terror state and now it's time to fight back against that state and we will."

The minister dismissed as "utter nonsense" the argument that both sides have been equally responsible for the violence that is raging in the region.

"We left Gaza. We want peace. The moment they stop shooting missiles at my children's school and kindergarten is the moment there will be peace."

Bennett, who is a member of the Israeli Security Cabinet and a proponent of his own version of a one-state solution, also brushed off international calls for Israel to stop its rampant settlement construction.

"As long as it's up to me, I would build for Jews anywhere in Israel, because this is our home. I would build much more Jewish communities within our land."

Hamas, the Palestinian militant movement controlling Gaza, and Israel have been locked in a violent confrontation for years. Israel calls Hamas terrorists, whose continued influence and attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians justifies whatever military action Israel choses to inflict on Palestinian territory. The militants pose as a guerrilla force fighting for the liberation of Palestinian lands and people from Israeli occupation and oppression by whatever means they deem necessary.

The situation surrounding Gaza has been tense since last year, when Palestinians began regular protests, which occasionally escalate into riots, on the wall that Israel built to separate the area. Israel is accused of using excessive force against the protesters, with dozens of people killed and hundreds injured by snipers. The Israelis insist that the protests are a ploy by Hamas to give cover to attacks on Israel and undermine the Jewish nation's reputation.

UPDATE 15/03/2019: Hamas vows to find perpetrators of rogue rocket attack on Tel Aviv:
The statement follows Israel Defence Force spokesman Avichay Adraee stating that Israeli troops attacked around 100 targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning in response to the 14 March shelling of Tel Aviv from Palestinian territory.

The Palestinian Hamas militant group, which openly calls for Israel's destruction, has pledged to take action against those who launched rockets on Tel Aviv on Thursday.

"We are following up on the firing of rockets from Gaza against the national consensus and the ministry will take measures against the violators," the Hamas-run Interior Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The statement comes as the Times of Israel quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying that the group "has no interest in an escalation" with Israel. The official added he "has no idea" who fired rockets toward Tel Aviv on 14 March.

Daoud Shehab, spokesman for the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad (PIJ), for his part, rejected reports of the PIJ being behind the rocket fire, slamming them as "baseless lies and claims".

He also pointed out that his group is "committed to the ceasefire understandings [between Hamas and the Jewish state]" as long as Israel "halts its aggression against the Palestinian people".

Earlier on Friday, Israel's Kan public broadcaster and Palestinian media reported that Tel Aviv and Hamas had agreed on a ceasefire after the Thursday rocket fire. Israel has not confirmed the reports.

Israel Defence Force spokesman Avichay Adraee, in turn, wrote on his Twitter page that "in response to the rocket fire at Israel, some 100 [Hamas] terrorist targets have been hit across the Gaza Strip".

The rockets fired toward Tel Aviv were the first such shelling since 2014, and they reportedly did not hit residential areas and caused no direct injury.

Hamas seeks the creation of an independent state of Palestine and wants Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it occupied after the 1967 war. The movement, which is blacklisted by Israel as a terrorist organisation and repeatedly exchanged rocket strikes with Tel Aviv, governs the Gaza Strip independently of the Palestinian Authority.


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USA

Former Obama officials ordered by judge to answer questions over Clinton emails

Sara Carter
SaraACarter.com
Sat, 16 Mar 2019 18:02 UTC
Susan Rice
© ReutersFormer national security adviser Susan Rice
A federal judge ordered multiple senior Obama Administration officials, State Department officials and former Hillary Clinton aides Thursday to provide answers under oath to questions requested by Judicial Watch after a roughly four year court battle.

Judicial Watch, a leading conservative non-profit watchdog group, announced the schedule of depositions in their case in a press release Thursday. The Judicial Watch questions regard two separate cases regarding the Obama administration's actions during the Benghazi terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate and CIA Annex in Libya, and Hillary Clinton's use of a private server to send classified government emails.

District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered senior officials - including Susan Rice, Ben Rhodes, Jacob Sullivan, and FBI official E.W. Priestap - to respond under oath and submit the answers in writing to the questions provided by Judicial Watch. The decision from Lamberth was made this past January.

Lamberth ordered the discovery from the watchdog's July 2014 FOIA lawsuit, which was filed after the State Department failed to respond to an earlier request made May 13, 2014.
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Toys

US presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar invokes Putin to justify staff mistreatment


RT
Fri, 15 Mar 2019 23:01 UTC
Amy Klobuchar
© Reuters / Jim YoungDemocratic 2020 US presidential candidate and US Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)
If you're a boss whose staff are complaining you're too tough on them, US Senator Amy Klobuchar may have just given you an excuse to keep cracking your whip: just say it's the only way you can be tough and face the Russians.

Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), who announced her presidential bid in February, has been recently haunted by allegations of treating her Senate staff too harshly, creating a "hostile" environment and setting tough conditions for those who wanted paid maternal leave. Her response when confronted? It was all in the name of opposing Russia.

Telling CNN's Poppy Harlow that she simply has "high standards" - for herself, her staff and the country - Klobuchar launched into an explanation about how mistreating her staff means she is an ideal presidential candidate capable of standing up to Russian President Vladimir Putin personally.

Comment: If this presidential hopeful, who incidentally isn't actually well known on the 'world stage', needs to deflect blame to Russia and sexism for her own inadequacies, you can be sure she won't take responsibility for any of her failings were she to reach any position of significance:

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Snakes in Suits

North Korea may suspend talks with "gangster-like" US


AlJazeera
Fri, 15 Mar 2019 12:00 UTC
Kim-Trump summit
© Leah Millis/Reuters
North Korea is considering suspending talks with the United States and may rethink a ban on missile and nuclear tests unless Washington makes concessions, news reports from Pyongyang have said quoting a senior diplomat.

Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui blamed top US officials for the breakdown of last month's summit in Hanoi between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Russia's TASS news agency and the Associated Press said on Friday.

"We have no intention to yield to the US demands [at the Hanoi summit] in any form, nor are we willing to engage in negotiations of this kind," TASS quoted Choe as telling reporters in the North Korean capital.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton "created the atmosphere of hostility and mistrust and, therefore, obstructed the constructive effort for negotiations between the supreme leaders of North Korea and the United States", Tass quoted Choe as saying.

Comment: The Hill provides further detail on where the problems might be originating from:
Pompeo shoots down North Korea claim he created distrust, hostility at summit

[...]

"I want to make it clear that the gangster-like stand of the U.S. will eventually put the situation in danger," Choe said, according to The Associated Press. "We have neither the intention to compromise with the U.S. in any form nor much less the desire or plan to conduct this kind of negotiation."

When asked about the remarks at the State Department on Friday morning, Pompeo doubted that the comments would hamper negotiations going forward.

"It's not the first time," Pompeo told reporters. "I have a vague recollection of being called gangster-like from a visit I took one time previously. Following that, we continued to have very professional conversations where we tried our best to work together to represent our respective sides. I have every expectation that we will be able to continue to do that."


When the international community is calling you a gangster, there's a good chance that you are.


Earlier, Pompeo noted that Choe in her remarks "left open the possibility that negotiations would continue."

Bolton also disputed Choe's comments as "inaccurate" Friday.

"In Hanoi, on multiple occasions, he spoke directly to the president and made a commitment that he would not resume nuclear testing nor would he resume missile testing," Pompeo said. "That's Chairman Kim's word. We have every expectation that he will live up to that commitment."


Why should we believe Pompeo? A proven liar.


The second summit between Trump and Kim ended abruptly late last month without any agreement on further steps toward denuclearization. Trump said North Korea had made unacceptable demands about lifting sanctions, telling reporters at a press conference, "Sometimes you have to walk." North Korea, meanwhile, has disputed the Trump administration's account of their demands.

Pompeo repeatedly insisted Friday that the administration intends to continue discussions with North Korea, but would not offer details on the current status of negotiations over Pyongyang's nuclear program.

"It's the administration's desire that we continue to have conversations about this," Pompeo said. "As the president said in Hanoi, the offer that they made simply didn't rise to the level that was acceptable given what they were asking for in exchange."
The US has made it clear that it won't ease up any of the crushing sanctions until North Korea removes the only thing saving them from US aggression, nukes. And yet, even though there's no risk to the US in agreeing to relaxing the sanctions, and they'd have the support of China, South Korea and Russia, they won't even do that. One would think that certain players in the US like the situation as it is: Also check out SOTT radio's:

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Megaphone

No hope for change: 70% say Macron's 'great debate' was a PR stunt


RT
Sun, 17 Mar 2019 10:54 UTC
video macron great debate
© RT
France has ended two months of citizen debates in which Yellow Vest supporters were invited to air their grievances. Parisians who spoke with RT said the meetings were a stunt used by Emmanuel Macron and won't lead to real change.

The French president launched his "great debate" in mid-January in response to the popular Yellow Vest protest movement. Up to 500,000 people participated in 10,000 meetings nationwide, with discussion topics ranging from taxes to the environment. The national dialogue has been credited with giving Macron a much-needed boost in the polls - but few seem optimistic that the debates will lead to concrete changes.

"It would surprise me if he takes any measures, but I don't expect anything," one Yellow Vest supporter told RT.

"Macron has a habit of just talking, but with no results in the end," another activist said. "In my opinion, nothing will come of it." Several Parisians who spoke with RT mused that the debates were also designed to boost support for his centrist party ahead of European elections.

Comment: Meanwhile the Yellow Vest protests continue into their 18th week (Macron has spent the weekend at a ski resort), with some of the better known members of the Yellow Vests and other populist representatives gaining traction in the run up to the EU parliamentary elections: Also check out SOTT radio's:




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Hourglass

Brexit delay makes sense 'only if UK says what the plan is' - German FM


RT
Sat, 16 Mar 2019 00:00 UTC
An anti-Brexit protester
© REUTERS/Henry NichollsAn anti-Brexit protester walks outside the Houses of Parliament in London
As the UK government struggles to delay Brexit beyond the looming March 29 deadline, the German foreign minister says London can still buy some time if it tells the others "what the plan is."

"No one can want the unregulated Brexit," Heiko Maas tweeted, saying he supports making "a lap of honor with a short extension before it comes to this."

The EU "should not miss any opportunity to prevent [the UK's] exit without an agreement," but the delay has certain conditions, Maas warned.

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

SOTT Focus: The Christchurch Shooting and the Normalization of Anti-Muslim Terrorism

Whitney Webb
Mintpressnews.com
Sat, 16 Mar 2019 21:34 UTC
Christchurch shooting casualty
The real forces responsible for the destruction of many Muslim-majority countries and the current chaos present in many Western countries are not generated by civilian populations or religions but instead by the global oligarchy that engineers and profits from this chaos.

Comment: While the author's analysis is accurate, to a large extent, there is one crucial piece of the puzzle that she has missed: the Christchurch mosque shootings - and many other similar terror attacks in recent years in Western nations - are very likely the work of state actors seeking to inflame social tensions in Western nations and thereby better control their populations.

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Snakes in Suits

Macron feigns friendship with Africa, issues warnings about China

Simon Rite
RT
Fri, 15 Mar 2019 15:15 UTC
macron airforce
© AFP / POOL / Ludovic MARIN
When I see Western leaders smiling, shaking hands and offering sage and heartfelt advice on tours of Africa, I just can't help settling in for the show because you know some top level hypocrisy is just around the corner.

By far, my favorite part of politics is watching its highest level practitioners ignore whatever inconvenient facts from the past are getting in the way of the blatant self-interest of the present. The French leader visiting Africa? Well you know this is going to be a good one.

Africa is full of elephants, and many of them are political, sitting in the corners of rooms and trumpeting away merrily at the likes of Emmanuel Macron. His ability to ignore the weight of history has proved commendable.

Comment: Africa will take what it can get, even from impressively duplicitous puppets like Macron. In the end, the projects and the benefits they bring will speak for themselves: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Révolution Jaune? France Revolts Against Macron

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Pirates

Pentagon "does not know" how $2.1 billion was spent on F-35 parts


RT
Fri, 15 Mar 2019 23:40 UTC
F-35
© Reuters / Lockheed Martin / Fred ClingermanFILE PHOTO. F-35 fighter jet seen at an assembly line.
The Pentagon has failed to properly manage and account for $2.1 billion worth of parts for F-35 fighter jets, a new report by a government watchdog reveals. Now, the military simply has to take the word of Lockheed Martin on that.

The US military failed to account for 3.45 million pieces of government property - parts and equipment for F-35s, according to a new report issued by the Department of Defense's (DoD) Office of Inspector General. Pentagon officials have "failed to implement procedures, and failed to appoint and hold officials responsible, to account for and manage government property for more than 16 years."

Lacking the paperwork and even people to hold responsible for the blunder, the Pentagon has no actual idea how much the aforementioned pile of parts cost, and has to simply trust the word of the main contractor - Lockheed Martin - and its subcontractors, according to the report. The corporation valued the parts at $2.1 billion.

Comment: This is merely symptomatic of the damningly corrupt US military industrial complex that's holding Americans to ransom: Russia wipes US in Rand corp wargame, just in time for a defense budget increase

And the financial blackhole that is the faulty F-35 program isn't the only harbinger that something is incredibly wrong with the US military:

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Star of David

UN fails to name and shame firms profiting from illegal settlements in West Bank

Jonathan Cook
jonathan-cook.net
Sun, 10 Mar 2019 18:34 UTC
Israeli settlement Har Homa West Bank
© UPI/Debbie HillA Palestinian stands on his property overlooking the Israeli settlement Har Homa, West Bank, February 18, 2011.
The United Nations postponed last week for the third time the publication of a blacklist of Israeli and international firms that profit directly from Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied territories.

The international body had come under enormous pressure to keep the database under wraps after lobbying behind the scenes from Israel, the United States and many of the 200-plus companies that were about to be named.

UN officials have suggested they may go public with the list in a few months.

But with no progress since the UN's Human Rights Council requested the database back in early 2016, Palestinian leaders are increasingly fearful that it has been permanently shelved.

That was exactly what Israel hoped for. When efforts were first made to publish the list in 2017, Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, warned: "We will do everything we can to ensure that this list does not see the light of day."

He added that penalising the settlements was "an expression of modern antisemitism".


Comment: Doublespeak at its best. Doubleplusgood, in fact. Because penalizing illegal, ethno-nationalist colonization is "anti-Semitic".


Both Israel and the US pulled out of the Human Rights Council last year, claiming that Israel was being singled out.

Israel has good reason to fear greater transparency. Bad publicity would most likely drive many of these firms, a few of them household names, out of the settlements under threat of a consumer backlash and a withdrawal of investments by religious organisations and pension funds.
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