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To continue the Gaza genocide, Israel and the US must destroy the laws of war

Jonathan Cook
Middle East Eye
Fri, 31 May 2024 11:05 UTC
Battletank
© AFPAn Israeli army battle tank operates in southern Israel near the border with the Gaza Strip • May 29, 2024
The world's two highest courts have made an implacable enemy of Israel in trying to uphold international law and end Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

Separate announcements last week by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) should have forced Israel on to the back foot in Gaza.

A panel of judges at the ICJ - sometimes known as the World Court - demanded last Friday that Israel immediately stop its current offensive on Rafah, in southern Gaza.

Instead, Israel responded by intensifying its atrocities.

On Sunday, it bombed a supposedly "safe zone" crowded with refugee families forced to flee from the rest of Gaza, which has been devastated by Israel's rampage for the past eight months.

The air strike set fire to an area crammed with tents, killing dozens of Palestinians, many of whom burnt alive. A video shows a man holding aloft a baby beheaded by the Israeli blast.

Hundreds more, many of them women and children, suffered serious injuries, including horrifying burns.

Israel has destroyed almost all of the medical facilities that could treat Rafah's wounded, as well as denying entry to basic medical supplies such as painkillers that could ease their torment.

This was precisely the outcome US President Joe Biden warned of months ago when he suggested that an Israeli attack on Rafah would constitute a "red line". But the US red line evaporated the moment Israel crossed it. The best Biden's officials could manage was a mealy-mouthed statement calling the images from Rafah "heart-breaking".
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Big Bomb

Blinken confirms Biden change on policy toward Ukraine using US weapons inside Russia

Mike Eckel, Rikard Jozwiak
RFE/RL
Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00 UTC
Biden Blink
© AFP/YeniSafak/Alex Brandon/AP/KJNBiden authorizes, Blinken admits approving Ukraine to use US-supplied arms to target Russian territory
Rocket launcher with US longer-range rockets
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says President Joe Biden has given Ukraine the go-ahead to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending the eastern city of Kharkiv amid pleas from Ukraine to allow its forces to defend the country against attacks originating from Russian territory.

Speaking in Prague on May 31 at an informal meeting of NATO-member foreign ministers, Blinken said Ukraine had asked Washington for authorization to use U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia as it tries to defeat Russian troops that began a full-scale invasion in February 2022.
"Over the past few weeks, Ukraine came to us and asked for the authorization to use weapons that we're providing to defend against this aggression, including against Russian forces that are massing on the Russian side of the border and then attacking into Ukraine.

"And that went right to the president, and as you've heard, he's approved use of our weapons for that purpose. Going forward, we'll continue to do what we've been doing, which is as necessary adapt and adjust."
Blinken's confirmation came after media reports quoting U.S. officials -- including one who spoke to RFE/RL -- that Biden has partially lifted the ban.
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Bad Guys

Ireland writes to NATO seeking closer cooperation, including participation in military manoeuvres

Darragh Mc Donagh
Irish Mirror
Thu, 30 May 2024 19:38 UTC
Micheál Martin
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin
Ireland is one of four neutral countries that have written to NATO seeking closer cooperation with the alliance, including participation in military manoeuvres and increased intelligence sharing.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin confirmed this week that Ireland had prepared a discussion paper and signed an accompanying letter to NATO, along with Austria, Malta, and Switzerland.

Following the accession of Finland and Sweden to the alliance, these four countries intend to position themselves as "WEP4" (four Western European partners), and describe themselves in the letter as "the bloc's closest partners in the pursuit of common values".

Comment: The WEP4 may not be looking to join NATO on paper, but in every other respect they're clearly signalling that they're looking to be neutral in name only.

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Attention

US close to 'fatal' miscalculation - Moscow


RT
Mon, 03 Jun 2024 14:11 UTC
Ryabkov
© SputnikRussian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov
Russia's response to what Washington's "clients" in Ukraine do may be "asymmetrical" and stronger than expected, the senior diplomat has warned.

The US is close to making a "fatal" miscalculation in its attempts to deal with Russia and the Ukraine conflict, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned.

The senior diplomat commented on Monday on the reported US decision to let Kiev use American weapons outside what Washington considers Ukrainian territory. The move is supposedly limited to a small piece of Russia's Belgorod Region relevant to hostilities across the border in Ukraine's Kharkov Region.

Ryabkov told journalists:
"I'd like to warn American actors against miscalculations that can lead to fatal consequences. For some unclear reason they underestimate how serious a response they could face."
Up to then the stated US policy had been to ban such attacks, to prevent triggering "World War III." Kiev has said it is disappointed by the change, as it wants permission to fire long-range American weapons deep inside Russia.
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Bizarro Earth

Ukraine expert John Mearsheimer: Peace talks without Russia 'laughable'


RT
Sat, 01 Jun 2024 19:30 UTC
Mearsheimer
© uchicago newsProfessor John Mearsheimer
Vladimir Zelensky's Swiss 'peace conference' will achieve nothing without Moscow's involvement, the professor argues

Vladimir Zelensky's so-called 'peace conference' in Switzerland is "not serious" - only face-to-face talks between Moscow and Kiev will settle the Ukraine conflict, American political scientist John Mearsheimer has said.

The Ukrainian leader's summit is scheduled to take place on June 15-16 at the Burgenstock Resort near Lucerne. Russia has not been invited to the conference, China has declined to attend and US President Joe Biden is reportedly skipping the event to attend a fundraising gala with George Clooney in Hollywood.

"This is not serious," Mearsheimer told American podcast host Daniel Davis this week. "If you're going to have a meaningful set of peace negotiations where you're going to try and settle this war, it's going to have to involve the Ukrainians directly negotiating with the Russians."
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Bad Guys

Trump conviction: Which movie will it be?

James Howard Kunstler
Clusterfuck Nation
Mon, 03 Jun 2024 19:14 UTC
"It's almost as if the principals (prosecutors and judge) were performing for their political audience — with a wink, a nod and a stage whisper ("watch this!") as they ignore yet another fundamental element of American due process." — Jack DeVine on "X"
The ninnies of Bidenworld seem to not understand that by subjecting Mr. Trump to a kangaroo court they've made him the kind of outlaw that Americans revere above every other archetypal hero. He's the new American Robin Hood, the people's outlaw — with "Joe Biden" relegated as the wicked Sir Guy of Gisbourne, master of foul play and servant of the evil regent Prince John (Barack Obama). The galvanizing moment in this melodrama was not the verdict in Judge Juan Merchan's kangaroo corral of a court, but the next day in the White House when "Joe Biden" was asked to comment on it as he shuffled away from the podium, halted, turned, and smirked silently at the cameras, a gesture that is sure to live in infamy.
biden smirk trump conviction
"President" Joe Biden smirks when asked about Donald Trumps conviction.
The fun should really kick off when the judge gets to sentence Trump-the-Outlaw July 11, a few days before the Republican convention. Life in some New York state pen? A year on Rikers Island? House arrest? Who knows. But you can bet that just like Robin-of-Locksley, Donald-of-Mar-a-Lago will manage to slip out of his captors' clutches and cleverly vanquish them. In a sane world, of course, the US Supreme Court would be entreated to adjudicate this gross insult to due process as spelled out in Section 1 of the 14th Amendment.
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Question

So, Trump has been found guilty. But of what?

Paul Homewood
The Daily Sceptic
Mon, 03 Jun 2024 18:59 UTC
trump mugshot
© Fulton County Jail, Atlanta, Georgia
The trial of the century has finished, and we are still no wiser as to what the crime was. More importantly, neither is Donald Trump.

Was it paying hush money? No, this is not a crime. Indeed Non-Disclosure Agreements - NDAs - are legally binding agreements, and are not illegal in any way at all.

Keeping the payments secret? No, that is the whole purpose of an NDA. And politicians hide their dirty washing all the time.

Recording the payments in his company's accounts as "legal expenses"? No, even if they were wrongly classified (which they weren't), such a bookkeeping error in the U.S. would be only a misdemeanour, not a felony, for which the Statute of Limitations expired years ago.
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Mail

Germany has broken promise to Nazi blockade survivors - Lavrov


RT
Sun, 02 Jun 2024 07:27 UTC
FILE PHOTO. People collect water during Nazi Germany's blockade of Leningrad in December 1941
© Sputnik / Boris Kudoyarov / SputnikFILE PHOTO. People collect water during Nazi Germany's blockade of Leningrad in December 1941
The current leadership in Berlin feels that the country has "settled accounts with everyone," the Russian foreign minister has said

Berlin has failed to honor its promise to build a hospital for survivors of the World War II Nazi blockade and siege of Leningrad, and refused to pay reparations to non-Jewish survivors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has claimed.

The World War II blockade of Leningrad, conducted by the Nazi Army Group North and forces of their ally Finland for almost 900 days, killed 1 million people, more than 600,000 by starvation.

Comment:
From the same source:
1 Jun, 2024 17:17
NATO expansion fueled surge in neo-Nazism - Lavrov
The US and its allies cynically use extremists as a tool in the fight against Russia, the foreign minister has said

The West is willing to ignore Ukraine's obvious support for neo-Nazi ideology because it serves its purposes in the stand-off with Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

In an interview with the educational project 'No Expiration Date' published on Saturday, Lavrov stressed that Russia attaches great importance to preserving its historical memory and legacy, arguing that it remains one of "the guardrails of our sovereignty." He expressed outrage that Ukraine, along with several other nations, was trying to "rewrite history."

Those countries, Lavrov said, seek "to equate those who defeated Nazism with the Nazi hordes themselves," saying that Ukraine had become an especially notorious example in this regard.

However, the resurgence of Nazi ideology in Europe started long ago, after the Baltic countries joined the EU and NATO in the early 2000s, Lavrov continued. He recalled that when Russia expressed concerns about the pace of integration, the West gave Moscow assurances that the Baltic states would become less "Russophobic" after joining the two blocs. However, the opposite happened, with support for Nazi ideology becoming more apparent in the region, the minister said.

"Soon after they were accepted into the 'civilized' European family, demonstrations and torchlight processions kicked off in honor of the Waffen SS Nazis," Lavrov remarked.

Meanwhile, the West and the US turned a blind eye to Ukraine's crackdown on Russian culture and the flourishing of neo-Nazi ideology in the ex-Soviet republic, the minister noted. "Duplicity and acquiescence... [and a desire to] forgive anything, including an open push to introduce Nazi theory and practice, have become common only because the West and the United States feel comfortable having [Ukraine] as a tool in the fight against Russia," he stated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that Moscow's key goals in the Ukraine conflict are the "denazification" and "demilitarization" of Ukraine. Another key objective is Ukraine's neutrality, which implies abandoning its aspirations to join NATO. Russia views the expansion of the US-led military bloc towards its borders as an existential threat.
Lies and deceit are two words now written on the cornerstone of "Western Values".

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Explosion

What has Israel done for Americans in the past week?

Philip Giraldi
The Unz Review
Thu, 30 May 2024 00:00 UTC
dead Palestinian children
They've taken our money & weapons and made us complicit as war criminals

The Jewish Virtual Library asserts that "The US-Israel relationship is based on the twin pillars of shared values and shared interests. Given this commonality of interests and beliefs, it should not be surprising that support for Israel is one of the most pronounced and consistent foreign policy values of the American people." That is, of course, the big lie among the many that constitute the tie that binds the two countries together. The back-up lies, regularly spouted in Congress, are that Israel is a democracy and an ally. It is, of course neither, as it is a Jews-only apartheid regime that has no fixed borders and no reciprocal security arrangements with the US.

Israel and its promoters never tell the truth, particularly when they are conning the United States government into providing more money and more weapons, as has been occurring both openly and secretly over the past eight months during the horrific ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
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Extinguisher

Trump is convicted: What comes next?


jonathanturley.org
Fri, 31 May 2024 00:00 UTC
Trump mugshot
This morning, many of us are emerging from the late coverage last night after the conviction of former President Donald Trump on 34 felonies. I was in the courtroom for the verdict, which hit like a thunderclap (particularly after a strange snafu with the judge). The question that everyone is asking: what happens next?

The scene in the court was a madhouse. Judge Juan Merchan told the court that the jury had not reached a verdict and would be dismissed for the day. Many reporters in the overflow courtroom were leaving when Merchan suddenly said that there was a verdict. People came running back into the courtroom. That was followed by 34 guilty verdicts.

I am obviously saddened by the verdict, but not surprised. Until the very end, I was hopeful that there would be a hung jury, a result that could restore some integrity to the New York criminal justice system. However, I previously noted that the jury instructions made conviction much more likely. I referred to the deliberations as a legal "canned hunt" due to instructions that made conviction a near certainty.

Comment: See also:

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