I was born in Poonch (Kashmir) and now I live in Norway. I oppose war and violence and am a firm believer in the peaceful co-existence of all nations and peoples. In my academic work I have tried to espouse the cause of the weak and the oppressed in a world dominated by power politics, misleading propaganda and violations of basic human rights. I also believe that all conscious members of society have a moral duty to stand for and further the cause of peace and human rights throughout the world.
John J. Mearsheimer: On 7 August 2024, I spoke at length with Lt.
Col. (ret.) Danny Davis on his podcast — “Deep Dive” — about the
profound influence of the Israel lobby on US Middle East policy.
From undermining Iran’s new reformist leader to killing off
Gaza ceasefire talks, the Hamas leader’s assassination strengthens
Israel’s hand
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a joint meeting
of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, 24 July 2024 (Roberto
Schmidt/AFP)
919 Shares
Last week’s assassinations by Israel of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, and Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh have brought the region to the precipice of all-out war.
Actually, the region is already at war. But so far it has been a
controlled, carefully calibrated conflict – tit-for-tat, cat-and-mouse.
These institutions were founded to prevent a repetition of the Nazi Holocaust. Instead, they have failed to prevent the genocide in Gaza.
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They have failed because those western nations which established these protocols have abandoned them.
The US, Germany, the UK
and others have armed Israel. They have lent political and moral
support to the killing. They have done virtually nothing to stop it. The
collapse of this international order is their fault.
Escalation of conflict
The New York Times, citing unspecified “Middle Eastern” sources, recently reported that Haniyeh was killed by a bomb smuggled months earlier into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying.
I believe it is likely that this information came via the Mossad, as
one of the reporters on the piece, Ronen Bergman, is known to have close
ties with the Israeli intelligence agency – and only the Mossad would
have such granular, detailed knowledge of the assassination scheme.
The NYT does not say how the device purportedly entered the guest
house, nor how it was placed in the room. If correct, the type of access
this operation demanded seems to indicate that the Mossad had a highly
placed and trusted mole in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) apparatus.
IRGC officials have vehemently denied the Times’ account. They claim that an Israeli missile or drone was used.
Haniyeh killing: What will Hamas look like after the political leader’s death?
They also raise the possibility that Israel was able to pinpoint Haniyeh’s location
by installing spyware on his mobile phone, which offered GPS data
enabling the attack. A senior Hamas official present in the building
also refuted the Times’ account.
This Israeli assassination was directed at its chief regional
adversary, Iran. It may also have been intended to undermine the
political standing of its newly inaugurated reformist president, Masoud
Pezeshkian.
Israel prefers hardline leadership, as its interests dictate regional instability and the escalation of conflict.
The killing is also an affront to the Biden administration’s attempts
to negotiate a Gaza ceasefire. For months, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu has been sabotaging repeated proposals put forward by Qatari mediators and US officials. He did so because he needs the war to retain power.
A former US intelligence officer who resigned in protest over US policy towards Gaza says Israel is seeking a war against Hezbollah for “political purposes”. This too would advance the prime minister’s political interests.
Killing Haniyeh kills the ceasefire talks. Hamas may never return to
the table. This is precisely what Netanyahu wants – a war without end.
Consummate timing
The Biden administration has embarrassed itself in the aftermath of
the killing, claiming it was neither involved in, nor even aware of, the
assassination.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken later offered a bromide which refused to acknowledge the disastrous impact Haniyeh’s murder would have on prospects of a ceasefire.
“It’s urgent that all parties make the right choices in the days
ahead, because those choices are the difference between staying on this
path of violence, of insecurity, of suffering, or moving to something…
much better for all parties concerned,” Blinken said.
“A ceasefire is… in the interests of Israelis; it’s in the interests
of Palestinians. It’s in the interests of the region. So as long as
everyone is focused on what their core interests actually are… we will
reach a deal.”
Clearly, Netanyahu doesn’t agree with this assessment of Israel’s interests.
Netanyahu timed the assassination with consummate precision: just
after his grand address to the joint session of US Congress, where he
sang his own and Israel’s praises.
He also exploited political turmoil in Washington, where a weak US
leader has recently been forced to drop out of the presidential race.
The Israeli premier banked on the administration being unable or
unwilling to mount opposition to, or criticise, the deed (which was the
case). Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has no
policy-making authority, even if she wished to set out a different
approach.
The Israeli premier has given the Democrats a black eye, despite their robust support for Israel’s attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
Insult to national honour
Iran’s Grand Ayatollah Khamenei convened an emergency national
security meeting within five hours of the killing. He ordered Iranian
retaliation, although it’s unclear what that entails.
Clearly, Tehran intends to land a powerful blow to avenge this insult
to its national honour. That could entail Iran’s closest regional ally,
Hezbollah, striking Israel as well. Once this happens, Israel can be
expected to launch its own retaliatory response.
Israel has sought a war with Hezbollah since 7 October 2023. In fact,
its defence minister, Yoav Gallant, urged a pre-emptive strike against
the Lebanese militia before attacking Hamas. But this plan was abandoned
in the face of US opposition.
He did so because Hezbollah is a far more powerful adversary than
Hamas. It can rain tens of thousands of advanced missiles down on
Israel’s major cities, including Tel Aviv (where the Israeli military’s
headquarters are located) and Haifa.
Ismail Haniyeh killing: A moment of truth for the Middle East
These attacks and counter-attacks could lead to an all-out regional
war. If Israel launched direct air attacks on Iranian soil, Iran would
likely take this as a casus belli. Then we would face a conflict over
which no one would have control. The physical damage and death toll
would be enormous.
Nor would it be confined to Israel and Iran. All of the latter’s allies in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen would be drawn in too.
On the other side, the US promises to become a direct combatant in
the first Middle East regional conflict since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war,
with Axios reporting
that Blinken held a conference call on 4 August with G7 foreign
ministers, in which he told them to expect an Iranian-Hezbollah attack
in the next 24 hours.
Biden has assured
Netanyahu of military support against such an attack and promised to
increase the US military presence. The US defence secretary, Lloyd
Austin, expanded
on the naval and air force resources to be sent to the region: “The US
is sending a carrier strike group, a fighter squadron and additional
warships to the Middle East as the region braces for an Iranian
retaliation,” noted a CNN report.
The American administration’s policy flies in the face of US public opinion, which opposes Biden’s and Israel’s approaches to the conflict.
Americans don’t want to be dragged into yet another Middle East war – one the president is promoting, knowingly or unknowingly.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
Richard Silverstein writes the Tikun Olam blog, devoted to exposing
the excesses of the Israeli national security state. His work has
appeared in Haaretz, the Forward, the Seattle Times and the Los Angeles
Times. He contributed to the essay collection devoted to the 2006
Lebanon war, A Time to Speak Out (Verso) and has another essay in the
collection, Israel and Palestine: Alternate Perspectives on Statehood
(Rowman & Littlefield) Photo of RS by: (Erika Schultz/Seattle Times)
After failing to
achieve his military objectives, the indicted war criminal travelled to
the US to incite a war against Iran and prolong his genocidal campaign
in Gaza
The first US response to the double assassinations this week in Beirut and Tehran came from Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin on 31 July.
In the wake of Israel's targeted killing of Hamas political bureau head Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and Hezbollah's top military commander Fuad Shukr in Lebanon, Austin reiterated the US's "unwavering support" for Israel and pledged to come to its defence if attacked.
As Israel ramps up its military provocations, it is now more apparent
than ever that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bellicose address in
Congress last week was the opening salvo of a wider regional war - to the rapturous applause of US lawmakers.
Indeed, in the days before and after Netanyahu's visit to Washington,
the Israeli regime attacked and killed scores of civilians in Hodeidah port in Yemen, Majdal Shams in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the southern Dahiya neighbourhood of Beirut in Lebanon, and crossed a new threshold by assassinating Haniyeh in Tehran.
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This escalation has taken place as Palestinians mark 300 days of Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, in which at least 50,000 people were killed or buried beneath the rubble and more than 100,000 injured.
Over the past week, many observers have speculated that Netanyahu's
congressional address and his subsequent meetings with President Joe
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and other US officials
gave him the green light to continue Israel's rampage unabated.
In Congress, Netanyahu stated his objectives for an all-out war in no uncertain terms
Regardless, however, of what was spoken behind closed doors,
Netanyahu stated his objectives for an all-out war in no uncertain
terms.
The indicted war criminal, who has failed to achieve his military objectives in Gaza, arrived in Washington to drum up war against Iran and prolong his genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.
So if Netanyahu took advantage of his visit to expand the war - the disastrous results of which the world had already seen this week - then why was he invited to Washington in the first place?
What lies did the aspiring regional hegemon tell Congress to sell his devious plans, and how did he get away with it?
Saving face
The congressional address on 24 July was Netanyahu's first
international trip since he waged his genocidal campaign in Gaza last
October.
Even though the Israeli prime minister was indicted on several
corruption charges by his own Zionist regime and is facing arrest for
war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal
Court (ICC), US congressional leaders extended an invitation to him
anyway.
Netanyahu spoke before a joint session of Congress for an unprecedented fourth time.
Only a failing US empire would be so blind as to cheer Netanyahu and his genocide
This was an "honour" not even afforded to the British imperialist
statesman and one of the iconic leaders of World War Two, Winston
Churchill, who addressed the US Congress three times during his tenure
(in 1941, 1943 and 1952).
Remarkably, all of the invitations to the belligerent Israeli prime
minister were extended by Republican House Speakers during the terms of
Democratic presidents, namely Bill Clinton in 1996, Barack Obama in 2011
and 2015 and Joe Biden in 2024.
Each occasion was a sinister Republican attempt to showcase their
pro-Israel fidelity for political gain against their Democratic rivals.
During his last address at the United Nations General Assembly in
September 2023, Netanyahu boasted about Israel's perceived invincibility
and its pivotal role as the anchor for the region's security, stability
and economic prosperity.
In the UN speech, he had entirely erased Palestinians and their
plight as he held up a map in which Israel was drawn up to include all
of the territories of historic Palestine.
A line was drawn that extended from India through the Persian Gulf, the
UAE, Saudi Arabia and Jordan to the port of Haifa in Israel and from
there to Europe. Dubbing it the India-Middle East-Europe Economic
Corridor (Imec), Netanyahu bragged that Israel would play a central role
in this new geopolitical structure. But the whole scheme may unravel in
the aftermath of the Hamas October attacks.
Unable to achieve any of his military and political objectives
after waging an all-out genocidal war in Gaza, Netanyahu is in trouble
not only at home but also internationally because of his conduct in the
war. The world is no longer able to look away. As the mass murder
reaches unprecedented numbers, as some estimates say, the total number
of victims could reach as many as a staggering 186,000 dead.
That's almost eight percent of Gaza's population, with over 70 percent of the victims being women and children.
By comparison, one of the worst civilian atrocities during the Second
World War was carried out by the Allies against the German city of
Dresden in 1945. It resulted in about 30,000 dead out of 1.2 million, or
less than three percent of its population.
In the 55-minute speech,
Netanyahu was applauded almost 80 times by some servile members of
Congress, who seemed to be hanging on his every word (exceeding the
previous record of 58 applauds in 2015).
While half of the Democratic members of both chambers of Congress boycotted the speech, including prominent
congressional leaders (131 boycotting versus 128 attending), only one
Republican congressman shunned the event, Representative Thomas Massie
of Kentucky (out of 268 Republican House members and senators).
Iranians hold portraits of late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
during his funeral procession, in Tehran, on 1 August ahead of his
burial in Qatar (AFP)
Netanyahu's performance was pathetic and full of flagrant lies and
hubris on many levels. It was not lost that he was trying to resemble
what US presidents usually do during their annual State of the Union
addresses. He flaunted several Israeli soldiers and former hostages,
sharing fabricated tales of valour amid one of the most humiliating and
humbling days in the history of the Zionist regime.
He claimed to have freed or reclaimed 135 captives and dead bodies,
disguising the fact that only five were freed through military
operations. Many more, in fact, were killed either by Israel's bombing
of Gaza or by Israeli soldiers during failed rescue attempts.
Meanwhile, 110 of the captives were released last November through a
negotiated deal, which had been offered by the Palestinian resistance in
the early days of the conflict.
Needless to say, had Netanyahu been serious about a deal to free the
captives, he would not have killed the chief Palestinian negotiator this
week.
He did not acknowledge the fact that no other deal to free the
remaining Israeli captives has been reached due to his continuous refusal to end the war or withdraw from Gaza as demanded not only by the Palestinians but also by UN Security Council resolution 2728 of last March, as well as the UN General Assembly resolution of last December.
Doing so could result in him being held accountable for the 7 October
attacks, triggering new elections and his possible ouster in disgrace as
prime minister.
Netanyahu has also vehemently rejected all rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), issued in January, March and May, to stop the genocidal war, as well as the ICJ advisory opinion issued in July regarding the illegality of the Israeli occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the demand to end it.
Third-rate con artist
Netanyahu tried to demonstrate strength and resolve by declaring that
he would not stop the war unless achieving what he called "total
victory."
He defined that term as total Hamas surrendering in defeat,
supplanting their rule in Gaza with collaborators or compliant
Palestinians, and freeing all the Israeli captives without any prisoner
exchange.
These demands did not take into account the realities on the ground, where his army has failed miserably
to achieve a military victory after 10 months of wreaking havoc on
Gaza's civilian population and causing massive destruction to the strip.
Netanyahu used bait-and-switch tactics before riveted members of
Congress who acted like extras in a poorly scripted play featuring a
third-rate con artist
In fact, Netanyahu used bait-and-switch tactics before riveted
members of Congress who acted like extras in a poorly scripted play
featuring a third-rate con artist.
He started his speech by invoking the 9/11 tragedy, saying what
happened on 7 October was the equivalent of 29 9/11s when adjusted to
the US population. What went unsaid is that what has happened to
Palestinians in Gaza since October is equivalent to 2,900 9/11s when
adjusting to the population. In other words, what Netanyahu and his army
have done in Gaza is equivalent to killing 7.5 million Americans,
injuring 22 million Americans, and destroying all American civilian life
and infrastructure.
Perhaps one of his most blatant lies was to assert that his invasion
of Rafah last May, while killing "1,203" resistance fighters,
"accidentally" caused a few civilian casualties.
Ordinary observers would have to suspend their mental faculties or live in an alternate universe to believe such nonsense.
As the images of thousands of women, children and civilian body parts
are shown every day before the whole world, only puppets and stooges
masquerading as members of Congress would enable an unhinged certified
liar to make fools out of them as they applaud him in unison.
One of the most pathetic moments of this spectacle was when Netanyahu
stopped them from applauding until he reached his punch line. They
acquiesced immediately.
Debunked lies
The racism and ethnosupremacy that this Israeli sociopath displayed during his congressional appearance was incredible.
Ismail Haniyeh killing: Netanyahu's only goal is to set the region on fire
Netanyahu had the audacity to talk about the "sanctity of life" upheld by the Israelis and the "culture of death" by Muslims.
Such proclamations come from a genocidal maniac who is prosecuting a war that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said has
caused suffering on an "unprecedented" level - the worst he's seen in
his seven-year tenure - which has claimed tens of thousands of lives in
the tiny enclave, displaced 85 percent of its population and rendered
Gaza uninhabitable.
For months, Netanyahu prevented all aid from entering the Gaza Strip,
including food and medicine to over two million people, prompting
famine, starvation and communicable diseases.
He claimed, against uncontroverted evidence,
that Israel never prevented essential aid of food and medicine from
entering the doomed Gaza Strip and that 40,000 aid trucks have entered Gaza since last October.
But what he failed to mention was that, according to the United Nations,
the number of trucks that used to enter Gaza before he imposed his total blockade was 500 per day, which were less than the needed supplies for a land-locked strip blockaded by the Zionist regime since 2007.
This means that out of a minimum of 150,000 truckloads that should
have been allowed since Israel waged its war on Gaza, less than 27
percent of the needs had been delivered.
Adding to this is the loss of the entire agricultural and industrial
production and the cutting off of electricity and energy supplies,
creating a situation in Gaza that is nothing short of catastrophic.
All of these facts were omitted in the fairytale Netanyahu presented.
He also continued to peddle the lie that Hamas was stealing the
humanitarian aid, a charge that UN officials have already rejected. And, of course, his own army and extremist settlers have been blocking supply trucks and attacking aid workers for months.
Political theatre
Netanyahu's congressional address was an act of shameless theatre set
up by the Israeli leader himself and his cronies in the US, who are
backed by the Israel lobby, primarily the American Israel Public Affairs
Committee (Aipac).
Its main goal was to send an image of a strong and defiant leader to a sceptical and shaken Israeli public.
If anything, the havoc and hell Netanyahu has been inflicting on Gaza
over the past 10 months could not have happened without unprecedented
US support
With no political and military achievements in Gaza to his name or
any willingness to change course, Netanyahu instead has been trying to
escalate the conflict and drag the US into a regional war.
However, the US has repeatedly claimed that it is trying to avoid this
Middle East conflagration at all costs since it would disrupt its global
responsibilities and derail its geopolitical strategies. It could also
result in an overwhelming Democratic defeat in the November elections.
Netanyahu claimed that the US needs to give Israel the "tools needed
to finish the job", insinuating that the US administration has been
withholding the arms that Israel seeks. It is, of course, a false charge
designed to divert blame for his lack of victory, let alone the "total
victory" he's been advocating.
If anything, the havoc and hell he has been inflicting on Gaza over
the past 10 months could not have happened without unprecedented
American support.
Such aid by the US and its western allies for Israel's war against defenceless Palestinians included massive armaments
that exceeded in total the destructive value of five Hiroshima-size
bombs - including "smart" bombs, artillery shells, missiles, fighter
jets - in addition to intelligence services, massive economic aid,
diplomatic protection, political cover and the support of a compliant
mainstream media and elite political class.
A man carries children as people inspect the damage
following Israeli bombardment at al-Bureij refugee camp in the central
Gaza Strip on 23 July (Eyad Baba/AFP)
Citing the US arming its allies during World War Two as an example,
Netanyahu claimed that the faster the Zionist regime could receive arms,
the faster it could finish the job.
What he didn't say was that the Allies could not finish the job with US
weapons alone. They needed the massive US army to fight alongside them,
resulting in the eventual loss of more than 400,000 American soldiers.
Beating the war drums
Netanyahu spent about a third of his speech beating the drums of war against Iran.
Ismail Haniyeh killing: A moment of truth for the Middle East
He claimed that Iran was responsible for all of Israel's troubles - not its occupation
of Palestine, its denial of Palestinian rights or its construction of
illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian lands. Israel's policies of
dehumanisation and dispossession of the Palestinians, the Judaisation of
Muslim holy sanctuaries and daily incursions of Palestinian towns,
villages and camps, assassinating hundreds and detaining thousands of
Palestinians are also not to blame.
This record, detailed in the recent ICJ ruling
a few weeks ago, was expediently dismissed in Netanyahu's speech as he
condemned the ICJ and ICC rulings to yet more cheers from his audience.
Such condemnations not only ignore facts that are overwhelmingly
recognised globally but also significantly undermine the rules-based
order the US has been allegedly trying to enforce for decades.
Netanyahu brazenly carried on with his lies by claiming that the
Israeli army was the most moral army in history. In fact, his army has
been perpetrating the worst war crimes record since World War Two,
according to the top European diplomat Josep Borrell.
In fact, because of the conduct of this most immoral army in decades, the ICC prosecutor has called for his indictment and arrest along with his partner in crime, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
"Israel's enemies are the US's enemies," Netanyahu asserted, making
his objective very clear: to incite against Iran and implore American
policymakers to support or even wage a US war against Iran. He also
called for the creation of a regional coalition that he dubbed the
"Abraham Alliance". It would include America's Arab allies that would
join Israel's dangerous war against Iran and its allies in the
resistance axis.
If the US lost thousands of lives, trillions of dollars, and suffered
a tarnished reputation and a geopolitical setback in Iraq, how much
will it lose to an even more devastating war with Iran?
This agitation was reminiscent of the rhetoric used over two decades ago against Saddam Hussein's Iraq, now resurrected to drum a war against Iran.
Given Israel's recent attacks on Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and Iran, it seems that Netanyahu's plan has already been set in motion.
In contradiction to its own stated interest of not expanding the war into a wider conflict, the US continues to be dragged further into Israel's war.
Following the assassinations and expected retaliation by Hezbollah and Iran, the US deployed 12 warships
in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf on Thursday. It also follows
the US and its western and Arab allies bailing out Israel during Iran's
retaliatory strikes in April.
If the US lost thousands of lives, trillions of dollars and suffered a
tarnished reputation and a geopolitical setback in Iraq, how much will
it lose to an even more devastating war with Iran?
The degree of such Zionist hubris is breathtaking.
'Useful idiots'
For many Americans, perhaps the most insulting claim in a stream of
falsehoods was Netanyahu's sensationalist and totally baseless assertion
that the massive anti-genocide protests across US cities and college
campuses were instigated and paid for by Iran.
Despite there being no evidence to support this outrageous charge,
members of Congress applauded him, while making a mockery of the sacred
First Amendment protections, constitutional rights and rich tradition of
campus anti-war activism and dissent.
In 2007, American academics John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt argued in their book, The Israel Lobby and American Foreign Policy,
that the only plausible explanation for the US's calamitous policy in
the Middle East and the submission of many American politicians to
Israeli policies and interests, which often contravene America's
strategic interests and stated principles, is the grip the Israel lobby,
led by Aipac, has over US politicians.
Why blaming the Israel lobby for western Middle East policies is misguided
Years earlier, in 1992, American author and former presidential
candidate Pat Buchanan condemned "Israel and its Amen Corner" as he referred to American politicians under Aipac's influence. He further described Congress as "Israeli-occupied territories".
After more than 30 years, the circus displayed last Wednesday afternoon
had all but confirmed those strong words. The physical military Israeli
occupation may be in Palestine, but there is arguably one of a different
nature on Capitol Hill as well.
While the US's imperialist designs and other military interests
contribute to this support, the blind enthusiastic reception of a war
criminal and one of the most hawkish Israeli leaders by US politicians
signals the impact of the lobby, which has also long advocated for war
against Iran.
Within a week of Netanyahu's address, some US politicians are openly calling for US involvement in Netanyahu's hegemonic war.
During a phone call with the Israeli prime minister, Biden once again reaffirmed
his support for Israel while pledging to continue to support and defend
the Zionist regime. Meanwhile, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham
introduced a war powers bill on Thursday that called for a direct US attack on Iran while further urging Israel to bomb Iranian oil refineries during a Fox News appearance.
While Netanyahu insulted countless Americans who are vehemently
protesting his war of genocide and ethnic cleansing in Gaza - and his
attempt at regional supremacy - as "useful idiots", it turned out that
the useful idiots were not outside the halls of Congress but
enthusiastically celebrating their master in the People's House.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
People take part in the National march for Palestine in central
London organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, August 3, 2024
TENS of thousands of Palestine supporters marched in towns and cities
across Britain on Saturday in defiance of threats of continuing
far-right violence.
In London an estimated 100,000 marched as the Palestine Solidarity
Campaign (PSC) staged its 17th national demonstration in the capital
since Israel began its invasion of Gaza in October last year.
Hundreds turned out in Manchester marking the 300th day of Israel’s
genocide in which more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed
including 20,000 children.
Norma Turner, chair of Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine which
brings together a dozen Palestine campaign groups in north-west England,
said: “Three hundred days — 60 children killed by Israel every day —
and we demand our government stops arming Israel.
“We grieve for three children randomly killed in Southport.
“We condemn the fascist thugs trying to cause discord on the back of
people’s grief. And we mourn the 40,000 martyrs in Gaza — we will
continue to protest and take action until Palestine is free.”
In London PSC coupled its demands for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end
to British arms sales to Israel with an appeal for funds to maintain the
protests nationwide.
“Saturday’s march cost us over £40,000 to organise. We need to raise
more funds to meet this cost and escalate our campaign to end Israel’s
genocide in Gaza and system of apartheid across Palestine,” the group
said.
PSC also highlighted Israel’s shocking treatment of more than 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners held in its jails.
“Since October Israel has rounded up, detained, stopped and tortured
thousands of Palestinians, over 10,000 held in the West Bank alone,”
said PSC.
“Last week the UN produced a report which documented the systemic torture and abuse, including rape, of these detainees.
“We also saw a member of the Israeli Knesset claiming that Israeli
forces were entitled to use rape against Palestinian detainees and that
no action should be taken against those who do. This is the true face of
Israel’s genocidal regime.”
PSC will draw up plans to step up its Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions campaign against Israel at a conference in Westminster Central
Hall on Saturday August 10.
Prominent Israeli human rights group denounces decision to place victim in a situation where he could face his abusers
Soldiers lock a gate at Sde Teiman detention facility, after Israeli
military police arrived as part of an investigation into the suspected
abuse of a Palestinian detainee on 29 July (Reuters)
A Palestinian detainee hospitalised in Beersheba after allegedly being raped by Israeli soldiers in Sde Teiman detention centre has been returned to the notorious facility, according to the Israeli news outlet Haaretz.
The prisoner was discharged to a field hospital at Sde Teiman.
He suffered from “a ruptured bowel, a severe injury to his anus, lung damage and broken ribs”, according to Haaretz and Arab48.
On Monday, nine Israeli soldiers at Sde Teiman were arrested on suspicion of raping a Palestinian detainee, sparking a riot when far-right activists and MPs stormed the facility.
The reservists, who are members of Force 100, a unit tasked with
guarding the prisoners in Sde Teiman, were brought to the military court
at the Beid Lid base for a bail hearing.
They claimed the prisoner attacked them during the search process, according to Haaretz.
Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights denounced the prisoner’s return to the facility where he was allegedly abused.
‘Serious ethical and professional failure’
“The return of the detainee to the clinic at Sde Teiman, the facility
where he was subjected to torture, is a serious ethical and
professional failure of the medical officials and hospital management
who were involved in his medical care,” the organisation was quoted as
saying in Haaretz.
“Through this decision, the medical teams exposed the detainee to the
possibility that he would once again meet the soldiers suspected of
raping him, thereby putting his life in danger.”
Yoel Donchin, a doctor at Sde Teiman who has attended the prisoner, was also quoted as saying that he “couldn’t believe an Israeli prison guard could do such a thing”.
He said: “If the state and Knesset [parliament] members think there’s
no limit to how much you can abuse prisoners, they should kill them
themselves, like the Nazis did, or close the hospitals… If they maintain
a hospital only for the sake of defending ourselves at [the
International Criminal Court] the Hague, that’s no good.”
About 4,000 Palestinians have been detained from Gaza in Israel since
October 2023. Most are detained and interrogated in the enclave but
many are brought to Sde Teiman, even if they are a non-combatant.
Torture, rape and murder have all been reported as rife at the
facility, one of several facilities where Palestinians have been
mistreated for decades.
On 15 July, Israel’s High Court issued a conditional order seeking to close Sde Teiman in response to the reports of abuse there.
The court’s order seeks an explanation as to “why the Sde Teiman
detention facility is not operated in accordance with the conditions set
forth in the law governing internment of unlawful combatants”.
Twelve US warships are assembled in the region to protect Israel
Dave DeCamp, Antiwar. com, August 1, 2024
President Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
on Thursday and promised the US would help defend Israel from any
reprisal attacks it may face from Iran or its allies in response to
recent Israeli escalations.
Iran is vowing revenge for the Israeli assassination of Hamas’s
political chief in Tehran, and Hezbollah is warning it will escalate in
response to the Israeli strike in Beirut that killed one of its top
commanders.
“The President reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against
all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas,
Hezbollah, and the Houthis,” the White House said in a readout of the
Biden-Netanyahu call.
Biden also said the US was deploying more military assets to the
region. “The President discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense
against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to
include new defensive US military deployments,” the readout said. The
White House said Vice President Kamala Harris was also on the call.
A Pentagon official told The Washington Post that the US had
assembled 12 warships in the Middle East that were already in the region
to prepare to defend Israel. The aircraft carrier USS Theodore
Roosevelt and six US Navy destroyers are in the Persian Gulf, while
three amphibious ships and two destroyers are in the Eastern
Mediterranean.
US officials told Axios that the US is preparing for a direct Iranian
attack on Israel and believes it could be bigger than the April 13
missile and drone attack that came in response to the Israeli bombing of
the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. The next attack could include
Hezbollah and other Iranian allies.
Biden, Harris, and other US officials claim they’re trying to reduce
tensions. But unconditional US military aid for Israel and vows to
defend Israel no matter what it does in the region only emboldens
Netanyahu and leads to more escalations.
Phyllis Bennis says the killing of Haniyeh in Tehran was a deliberate provocation that matches Netanyahu’s longstanding goal of drawing the U.S. into a potential Israel-Iran war.
Ismail Haniyeh speaking in Gaza in April 2012. (Joe Catron, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)
A new assassination campaign aimed at Israel’s opponents has erupted across the Middle East, imperiling already shaky Gaza ceasefire talks and threatening an even greater regional expansion of war.
While Israel
continues its genocidal attack on desperate Gazans, killing scores,
perhaps hundreds just in the last several days, the latest moves were
clearly designed to escalate Israel’s war in Gaza and expand the
military tensions already simmering on its border with Lebanon, in
Syria, Iraq, Yemen and elsewhere into a full-scale war, potentially
drawing in both Iran and the United States even more directly.
The
lethal attacks on top military and political officials of Hezbollah and
Hamas, in Beirut and Tehran respectively within 24 hours, demonstrates
the centrality of assassination — and the irrelevance of diplomacy — in
Tel Aviv’s strategic calculus.
Tuesday
evening in the Lebanese capital, an Israeli airstrike hit the
neighborhood of Dahiyeh, destroying a residential building very close to a major hospital, killing and injuring still-unconfirmed numbers of people.
Israel
claimed it killed Fuad Shukr, a top military official of Hezbollah, and
a close adviser to Hassan Nasrallah, head of the political-military
resistance organization in Lebanon. [Hezbollah has confirmed Shukur’s death.]
Just hours before that Israeli strike, U.S. State Department
spokesman Vedant Patel said that U.S. officials “do not believe that
all-out war is inevitable and we still believe that it can be avoided.”
That followed his statement that “our commitment to Israel’s security is
ironclad and unwavering against all Iran-backed threats, including
Hezbollah, and we are working on a diplomatic solution.”
But
the U.S. has made clear by its actions — regardless of some
politicians’ rhetorical support for ending the war — that it is not
prepared to do the one thing that would result in a permanent ceasefire:
stop sending Israel the weapons that enable the war in Gaza.
To
the contrary, the possibility of a diplomatic solution was grievously
undermined again just hours after the Beirut attack when another
airstrike, widely assumed to be Israeli, assassinated the political
leader of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, in a guest house in Tehran.
He
was visiting the Iranian capital for the inauguration of just-elected
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Haniyeh, who had briefly served as
prime minister of the Palestinian Authority after Hamas won the 2006
Palestinian elections that were initially welcomed by the United States,
lived in exile in Qatar.
In
recent months he played a key role in the Qatar-sponsored and
U.S.-backed Israeli-Hamas negotiations aimed at ending Israel’s assault
on Gaza, ensuring access to humanitarian aid, and releasing illegally
held Palestinian prisoners and Israeli hostages.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian in 2024. (Khamenei.ir, Wikimedia Commons, C BY 4.0)
All
the talk about Washington and Tel Aviv supporting a ceasefire or
wanting the hostages returned means little when a top negotiator on the
other side can be assassinated with impunity.
Haniyeh
was widely recognized as pragmatic and supportive of negotiations; in
2006, just three months after Hamas won the Palestinian election in both
Gaza and the West Bank, Haniyeh wrote to then-President George W. Bush
urging negotiations between the U.S. and Hamas, and offering acceptance
of a two-state solution and a long-term truce with Israel.
The current situation, he wrote, “will encourage violence and chaos in the whole region.” Bush never responded.
The
negotiations the Hamas leader was participating in will almost
certainly be stalled, if not derailed entirely, as a result of Haniyeh’s
killing. The resulting continuation of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza
matches the goal of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has
resisted ceasefire efforts and pledged to keep fighting until Hamas is
destroyed.
Biden announcing Israel’s three-phase ceasefire proposal for Gaza on May 31. (White House, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
The
likelihood of an expanding regional war is now exponentially higher —
with the danger of a much more direct conflict between Israel and Iran,
and the possibility of even greater direct U.S. involvement.
The assassination of Haniyeh in Tehran was a deliberate provocation, aimed at forcing an Iranian reaction.
Any
government whose intelligence assets were powerful enough to know
exactly where the Hamas leader was staying during a temporary visit to
the Iranian capital would have known where he lived in Qatar, where an
assassination, while of course still illegal, would not have had the
same consequences.
Forcing
Iran’s hand, particularly at the highly symbolic moment of the
inauguration, will severely limit the options for the new president, who
has called for renewed negotiations with the United States on nuclear
issues and signaled the possibility of reopening the Iran nuclear deal.
Preventing
that would match Netanyahu’s longstanding goal of undermining any hint
of a U.S.-Iranian rapprochement and bringing the United States directly
into a potential Israeli-Iranian war.
While
details on the exact nature of the missiles or other kind of
projectiles used in the two assassinations have not yet been made
public, it is likely that one or both were U.S.-produced and/or
U.S.-funded.
In
that circumstance, the U.S. complicity in genocide by providing the
weapons Israel is using in Gaza, could expand to direct U.S. involvement
in what could escalate into a major regional war — exactly the war that
U.S. officials claim they are trying to prevent.
The
work of the movement for a permanent ceasefire — a ceasefire that
includes an end to the killing, the resumption of humanitarian
assistance and funding of UNRWA, and an end to U.S. arms transfers to
Israel — is about to get a whole lot harder, and a whole lot more
urgent.
Phyllis
Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and serves on
the national board of Jewish Voice for Peace. Her most recent book is
the 7th updated edition of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer (2018). Her other books include: Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer (2008) and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power (2005).
This article is from Common Dreams and was co-published with Foreign Policy in Focus.
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