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Category: War

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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Where is America’s ‘rules-based order’ now?

Where is America’s ‘rules-based order’ now?

Spencer Ackerman writes: No sooner had a nearly unanimous United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding an “immediate cease-fire” in Gaza last month than the United States and Israel acted as if it were a meaningless piece of paper. Israel, unwilling to accept a U.N. mandate, continued bombing the overcrowded southern city of Rafah and besieging Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Shortly after the vote, Biden administration officials called the resolution, No. 2728, “nonbinding,” in what appeared to be…

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Israel braces for imminent Iranian retaliation after embassy strike

Israel braces for imminent Iranian retaliation after embassy strike

Reuters reports: Israel on Friday braced for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer in Iran’s embassy in Damascus. Countries including India, France, Poland and Russia have warned their citizens against travel to the region, already on edge over the war in Gaza, now in its seventh month. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the threat from Iran was real and viable. The…

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‘No tech for apartheid!’: Google workers revolt over $1.2 billion contract with Israel

‘No tech for apartheid!’: Google workers revolt over $1.2 billion contract with Israel

Time reports: In midtown Manhattan on March 4, Google’s managing director for Israel, Barak Regev, was addressing a conference promoting the Israeli tech industry when a member of the audience stood up in protest. “I am a Google Cloud software engineer, and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance,” shouted the protester, wearing an orange t-shirt emblazoned with a white Google logo. “No tech for apartheid!” The Google worker, a 23-year-old software engineer named Eddie Hatfield,…

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American surgeons return from Gaza, call for end of U.S. culpability in genocide

American surgeons return from Gaza, call for end of U.S. culpability in genocide

  We speak with two doctors who’ve just returned after two weeks at the European Hospital in Gaza. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa and Dr. Mark Perlmutter are co-authors of a new piece for Common Dreams titled “As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza.” They describe a hospital “hanging on by a thread,” with the majority of patients being young children, and bombing targeted at Muslim Palestinians “concentrated at the time of evening prayer.” “Genocide was the…

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David Miliband, International Rescue Committee: There’s only a trickle of aid going into Gaza right now

David Miliband, International Rescue Committee: There’s only a trickle of aid going into Gaza right now

There’s a trickle of aid going into Gaza right now, as the population faces imminent famine. There needs to be a deluge. For every hour that the war goes on, the desperate need increases. I spoke to @WagnerTonight about the situation on the ground and the work of @RESCUEorg: pic.twitter.com/bYNsFTXtCC — David Miliband (@DMiliband) April 11, 2024

Israel’s ‘disproportionate response’ in Gaza a global threat, says Spain’s PM

Israel’s ‘disproportionate response’ in Gaza a global threat, says Spain’s PM

AFP reports: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Wednesday that Israel’s “disproportionate response” in the Gaza war with Hamas risks “destabilising the Middle East, and as a consequence, the entire world”. Sanchez also insisted that the recognition of a Palestinian state, long resisted by Israel and its key allies, is “in Europe’s geopolitical interests”. Sanchez had already raised the subject of statehood during a visit last week to Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, when he told reporters that Spain could…

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Israel inflates truck count by halving volume of each truckload then restricting distribution across Gaza

Israel inflates truck count by halving volume of each truckload then restricting distribution across Gaza

Reuters reports: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees is disputing claims by Israel and the US that aid into Gaza has been significantly increased. “There has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north,” UNRWA says in its daily situation report. Red Crescent officials in Egypt say more than 350 trucks had crossed from there into Gaza on Monday and 258 on Sunday. That was much more than in recent…

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