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Category: War

Poll: 74% of Israelis oppose counterstrike on Iran if it harms security alliances

Poll: 74% of Israelis oppose counterstrike on Iran if it harms security alliances

The Times of Israel reports: Nearly three-quarters of the Israeli public oppose a retaliatory strike on Iran for its massive missile attack on the country if such action would harm Israel’s security alliance with its allies, according to a poll published Tuesday. The Hebrew University survey also found that over half the public believes Israel “respond[s] positively” to the military and political demands of allies. Israel has vowed to retaliate after Iran overnight Saturday fired over 300 missiles and drones…

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Leaked NYT memo tells journalists to avoid words ‘genocide,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘occupied territory’

Leaked NYT memo tells journalists to avoid words ‘genocide,’ ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and ‘occupied territory’

The Intercept reports: The New York Times instructed journalists covering Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” and to “avoid” using the phrase “occupied territory” when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept. The memo also instructs reporters not to use the word Palestine “except in very rare cases” and to steer clear of the term “refugee camps” to describe areas of…

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Russian weapons help Iran harden defenses against Israeli airstrike

Russian weapons help Iran harden defenses against Israeli airstrike

The Washington Post reports: Last March, a Russian arms maker invited a delegation of Iranians to a VIP shopping tour of its weapons factories. The 17 visitors were treated to lunches and cultural shows and, on the final day, toured a plant that makes products long coveted by Tehran: advanced Russian air defense systems for shooting down enemy planes. The factory, NPP Start, in the city of Yekaterinburg, is under U.S. sanctions for supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine. Among its…

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Russian trolls target U.S. support for Ukraine, Kremlin documents show

Russian trolls target U.S. support for Ukraine, Kremlin documents show

The Washington Post reports: When President Biden proposed an additional $24 billion in supplemental funding for Ukraine in August, Moscow spin doctors working for the Kremlin were ready to try to undermine public support for the bill, internal Kremlin documents show. In an ongoing campaign that seeks to influence congressional and other political debates to stoke anti-Ukraine sentiment, Kremlin-linked political strategists and trolls have written thousands of fabricated news articles, social media posts and comments that promote American isolationism, stir…

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How Iran attacks exposed Israel’s weakness

How Iran attacks exposed Israel’s weakness

David Hearst writes: Israel, under Netanyahu’s stewardship, has become a pariah state. Once again, Israel needed to play the victim, to sustain the myth that it is fighting for its existence. What better time for Netanyahu, the gambler, to throw the dice and attack an Iranian consulate, knowing full well what that meant? The US also knew what Netanyahu was doing, which was to try to drag America into an attack on Iran for at least the third time in…

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Babies and children hit hardest as famine tightens hold on Gaza

Babies and children hit hardest as famine tightens hold on Gaza

The Guardian reports: Even if the war in Gaza ended tomorrow, for some of the Palestinian territory’s children, it would not help. Hunger and malnutrition have already claimed an estimated 27 young lives, and for many more, it may be too late to reverse the excruciating toll that starvation takes on small, growing bodies. Nuzha Awad’s triplets, Malek, Khader and Moustafa, born two months before the war began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October, did not stop crying as…

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China says Iran can ‘handle situation,’ spare Middle East turmoil

China says Iran can ‘handle situation,’ spare Middle East turmoil

Reuters reports: China said it believed Iran could “handle the situation well and spare the region further turmoil” while safeguarding its sovereignty and dignity, referring to an attack on Iran’s embassy in Syria and its retaliatory strike over the weekend. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian via a phone call on Monday that China appreciated Iran’s emphasis on not targeting regional and neighboring countries, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Tuesday. Wang also said…

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Military aid to Israel cannot be unconditional

Military aid to Israel cannot be unconditional

The New York Times editorial board says: The suffering of civilians in Gaza — tens of thousands dead, many of them children; hundreds of thousands homeless, many at risk of starvation — has become more than a growing number of Americans can abide. And yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and his ultranationalist allies in government have defied American calls for more restraint and humanitarian help. The United States commitment to Israel — including $3.8 billion a year in…

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U.S. tells Israel it won’t join counter-strike on Iran, urges caution

U.S. tells Israel it won’t join counter-strike on Iran, urges caution

Politico reports: President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the United States will not join an offensive counter-strike on Iran should Israel choose that road after Tehran attacked it this weekend, according to two people familiar with the conversation. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are urging Israelis to be measured in any response, two U.S. officials and a diplomat familiar with the issue said. The Biden administration is trying to defuse an armed confrontation that could drag the Middle…

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The staggering cost of Israel’s defense against Iran’s missile attack: $1.2 billion per night

The staggering cost of Israel’s defense against Iran’s missile attack: $1.2 billion per night

Ynet reports: Iran’s massive missile attack overnight between Saturday and Sunday on Israel was stopped by Israel’s sophisticated defense systems. It obviously cost a lot of money, and the question, among others that arise the next morning, is how much? Brig. Gen. Reem Aminoach, former financial advisor to the IDF chief of staff, tried to estimate. “The defense tonight was on the order of 4-5 billion shekels,” he said in a conversation with Ynet studio. “If we’re talking about ballistic…

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Iran attack was ‘declaration of war’, Israeli president says – but insists ‘we are seeking peace’

Iran attack was ‘declaration of war’, Israeli president says – but insists ‘we are seeking peace’

Sky News reports: Iran’s attack on Israel was a “declaration of war”, Israel’s president has told Sky News. Isaac Herzog said it was “about time the world faces this empire of evil in Tehran”. World leaders need to “make it clear” to the Iranian regime that its behaviour is “unacceptable”, Mr Herzog added. “We should be looking lucidly at the phenomena called Tehran and Iran.” Israel has not sought war since its creation in 1948, the president insisted. [Continue reading…]…

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Netanyahus hide in luxury villa with advanced missile shelter during Iranian attack

Netanyahus hide in luxury villa with advanced missile shelter during Iranian attack

The Jerusalem Post reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara stayed at the luxury villa of Simon Falic, an American Jewish business man, in Jerusalem, where they had resided at the start of the war. Reports suggest that, amidst concerns of an Iranian reaction to the assassination of a senior official in Damascus, the house includes an advanced missile shelter. Sources close to Netanyahu confirmed to Walla! News that he stayed there, though no response was provided by…

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Western governments increasingly concerned about their complicity in Israeli war crimes

Western governments increasingly concerned about their complicity in Israeli war crimes

The New York Times reports: For months, Western governments have provided military support for Israel while fending off accusations that their weapons were being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. But as a global outcry over the growing death toll in Gaza mounts, maintaining that balance is becoming increasingly difficult, as was clear on a single day this past week. On Tuesday, in a United Nations court, Germany found itself having to defend against accusations that it was complicit…

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Is this Israel’s forever war?

Is this Israel’s forever war?

Keith Gessen writes: For many people, in Washington and beyond, the American response to the 9/11 attacks settled an old question about the U.S. and its commitment to human rights. Clearly, it seemed to them, the U.S. had no such commitment. It was happy to preach to other people—to Serbs, Russians, Chinese—about human rights. But, when it came under attack, it would do just about anything to wipe out the threat. Paradoxically, though, it could be argued that the American…

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Iran seizes cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz after threats to close waterway

Iran seizes cargo ship in Strait of Hormuz after threats to close waterway

Reuters reports: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, days after Tehran said it could close the crucial shipping route and warned it would retaliate for an Israeli strike on its Syria consulate. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that a Guards helicopter had boarded and taken into Iranian waters the Portuguese flagged MSC Aries, saying it was linked to Israel. MSC, which operates the Aries, confirmed Iran had seized the ship…

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Israel’s military objective in Gaza: ‘Kill them all’

Israel’s military objective in Gaza: ‘Kill them all’

Yagil Levy writes: The Israeli attack on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza in early April that killed seven aid workers with the U.S.-based aid group World Central Kitchen has ignited a fierce global backlash against Israel’s policies of engagement in the territory. The attack involved the successive firing of three missiles at three vehicles, driven by suspicions of a Hamas combatant’s presence within the convoy, according to reports. In Israel, the event is being portrayed as an accident, “a grave…

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