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Category: War

Israel has transformed military service from a civic obligation into economic opportunity

Israel has transformed military service from a civic obligation into economic opportunity

Assaf Bondy and Adam Raz write: When Hamas launched its attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel went to war, economists worldwide braced for a familiar pattern. History teaches us that wars devastate economies in predictable ways: people stop buying cars and furniture, businesses shut down, unemployment soars, and governments take over the economy by spending massively on weapons and military equipment. Israel seemed destined for this classic wartime economic transformation. Defense spending has shot up by more…

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Poland scrambles jets as Russia launches a massive aerial attack on Ukraine

Poland scrambles jets as Russia launches a massive aerial attack on Ukraine

CNN reports: Polish and allied military aircraft were scrambled early Saturday after Russia launched a massive aerial assault on Ukraine including strikes that targeted near its western border with Poland. It came hours after NATO intercepted three Russian jets over Estonia’s airspace and with Europe on heightened alert following a series of Russian airspace violations in eastern countries. “Due to the activity of the Russian Federation’s long-range aviation, which is carrying out strikes on the territory of Ukraine, Polish and…

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Trump regime proposes selling nearly $6 billion in weapons to Israel

Trump regime proposes selling nearly $6 billion in weapons to Israel

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration has told Congress it plans to sell nearly $6 billion in weapons to Israel, a fresh surge of support for the U.S. ally as it faces increasing isolation over its war in Gaza. It includes a $3.8 billion sale for 30 AH-64 Apache helicopters, nearly doubling Israel’s current stocks, and a $1.9 billion sale for 3,200 infantry assault vehicles for Israeli army, according to a U.S. official and another person familiar with the…

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Israel is waging a holocaust in Gaza. Denazification is our only remedy

Israel is waging a holocaust in Gaza. Denazification is our only remedy

Orly Noy writes: Gaza City is engulfed in flames, as the Israeli army embarks on its long-threatened ground offensive after weeks of relentless bombardment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, already facing an international arrest warrant on suspicion of crimes against humanity, described this latest assault as an “intensified operation.” I urge you to watch the footage streaming out of Gaza, and see what this euphemism really means. Look into the eyes of people gripped by a terror unmatched even in the…

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Israel massacred 31 journalists as it destroyed newspaper offices in Yemen

Israel massacred 31 journalists as it destroyed newspaper offices in Yemen

Committee to Protect Journalists: Israel’s targeted strikes on two newspaper offices in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, which killed 31 journalists and media support workers on September 10, signal that its deadly pattern of attacking reporters and newsrooms on the grounds that they publish “terrorist” propaganda has spread firmly across the Middle East. Yemen’s September 26 newspaper was the first to name the 31 killed by multiple strikes on its office and that of the Yemen newspaper, both in the government’s Moral…

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Netanyahu says that Israel must become Sparta, hardened against the world

Netanyahu says that Israel must become Sparta, hardened against the world

Ruth Margalit writes: On Monday afternoon, a few hours before the first ferocious attacks of Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza City made buildings tremble as far away as Tel Aviv, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Jerusalem for an economics conference. With his far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, sitting in the front row, Netanyahu took the stage, looking a little peeved, and berated the event’s organizers for muddling his slide show. Then he turned to the audience: a group of…

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Bernie Sanders becomes first senator to acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

Bernie Sanders becomes first senator to acknowledge that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

The Guardian reports: Senator Bernie Sanders said on Wednesday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, calling the conclusion “inescapable” and becoming the first US senator to use the term. “Over the last two years, Israel has not simply defended itself against Hamas,” Sanders wrote. “Instead, it has waged an all-out war against the entire Palestinian people.” Sanders had long received flak from supporters and protesters alike for avoiding the term, which he previously said made him “queasy” when protesters…

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Israel’s attack on Qatar failed and backfired

Israel’s attack on Qatar failed and backfired

Axios reports: A week after Israel’s missile strikes in Qatar, it’s clear not only that the assassination attempt against Hamas leaders failed, but that it backfired. Why it matters: The strike increased the feeling inside the Trump administration and around the world that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is reckless and has become a destabilizing force in the region. How it happened: Israel’s plan was to take out several of Hamas’ top leaders all at once as they met to discuss President Trump’s Gaza peace proposal. Five…

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The lies Washington tells itself about the Middle East

The lies Washington tells itself about the Middle East

Hussein Agha and Robert Malley write: On any given day during the long war in Gaza, a Biden administration official could be expected to assert any of the following: a cease-fire was around the corner, the United States was working tirelessly to achieve one, it cared equally about the Israelis and the Palestinians, a historic Saudi-Israeli normalization deal was at hand, and all this was bound up with an irreversible path to Palestinian statehood. Not one of those pronouncements bore…

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Why Putin has no intention of ending his war against the West

Why Putin has no intention of ending his war against the West

Politico reports: When Vladimir Putin sent at least 19 drones into Poland last week, the Russian president was delivering a message: He’s not planning to end his war against the West anytime soon. The Russian incursion into NATO airspace follows weeks of aerial attacks in Ukraine that killed dozens of civilians, damaged buildings housing the EU and British delegations and struck for the first time a government building in central Kyiv. Far from being ready to strike a peace deal…

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As the world recognizes a Palestinian state, Israel’s E1 plan moves to bury it

As the world recognizes a Palestinian state, Israel’s E1 plan moves to bury it

+972 reports: On the scorched hills to the east of Jerusalem, the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim spreads outward, casting a long shadow over the bustling Palestinian town of Ezariyah. These are the hills where Israel is set to break ground on its E1 settlement bloc, carving the West Bank in two in a bid to erase the possibility of a Palestinian state once and for all. If realized, the Israeli plan to build 3,400 new settlement homes — which…

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NATO to beef up defence of Europe’s eastern flank after Poland shot down drones

NATO to beef up defence of Europe’s eastern flank after Poland shot down drones

Reuters reports: NATO announced plans to beef up the defence of Europe’s eastern flank on Friday, two days after Poland shot down drones that had violated its airspace in the first known action of its kind by a member of the Western alliance during Russia’s war in Ukraine. At the United Nations, the United States called the airspace violations “alarming” and vowed to “defend every inch of NATO territory,” remarks that appeared aimed at assuaging Washington’s NATO allies after President…

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Russia tested NATO in Poland. NATO failed

Russia tested NATO in Poland. NATO failed

Phillips Payson O’Brien writes: The small incursion of Russian drones into Poland overnight was a test of NATO’s capabilities—a test that the Western military alliance should have easily passed. Polish authorities say 19 unmanned aircraft traveled through Ukrainian territory to enter their country’s territory. The scale of the attack was modest compared with the barrage of hundreds of drones, plus cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, that Vladimir Putin’s forces unleash against Ukraine nearly every night. For NATO air defenses with…

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The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich

The Gaza family torn apart by IDF snipers from Chicago and Munich

The Guardian reports: Daniel Raab shows no hesitation as he watches footage of 19-year-old Salem Doghmosh crumpling to the ground beside his brother in a street in northern Gaza. “That was my first elimination,” he says. The video, shot by a drone, lasts just a few seconds. The Palestinian teenager appears to be unarmed when he is shot in the head. Raab, a former varsity basketball player from a Chicago suburb who became an Israeli sniper, concedes he knew that….

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Israel’s attack on Qatar should be a wake-up call for the Arab world

Israel’s attack on Qatar should be a wake-up call for the Arab world

Mohamad Elmasry writes: If any state should have felt safe from an Israeli attack, it would have been Qatar. It is a small country that poses no real threat to Israel. It is an ally of the United States and hosts the largest American military base in the Middle East. In May, Qatar pledged to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the US economy. Qatar has also cultivated a reputation as a peacemaker, mediating in numerous conflicts. Just last…

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How UK bureaucracy enables Israel’s genocide

How UK bureaucracy enables Israel’s genocide

Katie Fallon writes: For the last four years, my job has been to comb through government statements, along with policy and legal documents, and then brief members of parliament on exactly what linguistic and legal gymnastics the government of the day is using to justify exports of military equipment – despite evidence that these exports are likely to be used in war crimes. At a certain point, I recognised these documents and legal arguments for what they really are: the…

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