Israel

Greater Middle East

Podcast: neither Jewish State nor Islamic Republic

Israel’s long-awaited strikes on Iran targeted military and industrial installations in Tehran, Khuzestan and Ilam, with air-strikes also reported in the Syrian cities of Damascus and Homs. It is now Iran’s turn to retaliate in the escalatory tit-for-tat game, as the brink of regional and even world war looms ever closer. In Episode 249 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg advocates a neither/nor position that rejects the militaristic and reactionary regimes of both Zionism and political Islam, and looks to a secular order in the Middle East. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image: @iranprotest2019)

Palestine

Anti-Semitism versus anti-Zionism: beyond parsing III

In Episode 248 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg examines the New York Times coverage of the ugly turn in the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University, and warns against the targeting of Jews in the guise of a misguided supposed “anti-Zionism.” The ongoing genocide in Gaza urgently demands protest, but just as urgently demands tactically and analytically astute protest that does not play into the cynical weaponization of the accusation of anti-Semitism by Zionist propaganda. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image via frgdr Blog. Hebrew lettering in background spells names of places in Europe where Jews were exterminated.)

Palestine

UN: Israeli attacks on medical facilities are war crimes

A UN report documented Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and medical personnel in the Gaza Strip in violation of international human rights law, calling the attacks war crimes and crimes against humanity. Citing the World Health Organization, the report states that between October 7, 2023 and July 30, 2024, Israel engaged in “498 attacks on health care facilities in the Gaza Strip,” with 747 people killed, 969 injured, and 110 facilities affected. The report—written by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel—also condemned Israeli treatment of detainees, citing instances of abuse, torture, sexual assault, and arbitrary detention. (Photo: Mohamed Solaimane/TNH)

Palestine

Report finds Israeli criminal interference with ICC investigation

A joint media report has led Dutch prosecutors to consider a criminal case concerning claims that Israeli intelligence officials have interfered with the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into alleged crimes in occupied Palestine. The Guardian newspaper and the Israeli publications +972 Magazine and Local Call jointly investigated what they allege are nine years of illegal surveillance and intimidation of the ICC prosecutor’s office since a preliminary inquiry was opened into the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2015. Twenty complainants, predominantly Palestinians, have filed a criminal complaint requesting the Dutch prosecution service investigate the allegations of interference. The complainants’ lawyers said in the filing that “Israel’s many attempts to influence, sabotage and stop the investigation constitute a direct violation of their [the clients’] right to justice.” (Photo: OSeveno/WikiMedia)

Greater Middle East

Iran cites international law in attack on Israel

Iran launched scores of ballistic missiles into Israeli territory, in what it described as an exercise of its “legitimate right to self-defense under the UN Charter.” In a statement, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the attacks aimed to avenge the deaths of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and IRGC general Abbas Nilforoushan. Gen. Nilforoushan was apparently killed in the same strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in which Nasrallah was slain. The Iranian attacks came hours after Israel announceda ground incursion into Lebanon, and as UN experts warned of the dire consequences of regional hostilities. (Image: Pixabay)

Planet Watch

CounterVortex meta-podcast: ranting against the apocalypse

In the first CounterVortex meta-podcast of February 2018, we noted the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists‘ decision to advance the minute hand of its Doomsday Clock to two minutes of midnight, citing the threats of nuclear weapons, climate change and “cyber-based disinformation.” The clock… Read moreCounterVortex meta-podcast: ranting against the apocalypse

Greater Middle East

Lebanon: humanitarian crisis under Israeli bombardment

UN officials warn of a rapidly worsening humanitarian crisis in Lebanon as death tolls mount from Israeli air-strikes. Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council: “Hell is breaking loose in Lebanon and we should all be alarmed by the escalation.” Human Rights Watch has called for urgent UN action, reporting that some 1,600 Israeli strikes have killed at least 700 people, including 50 children, and injured thousands in the span of four days. The UN Refugee Agency reveals that some 90,000 Lebanese residents had been displaced. (Photo: UNICEF/Dar Al Mussawir via UN News)

Greater Middle East

HRW: detonating communication devices violates international law

Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated that the simultaneous detonation of thousands of communication devices across Lebanon and Syria violated customary international law. The explosions killed some 35 people and injured more than 2,000. The devices were evidently part of the Hezbollah communication network. Israel is widely believed to be behind the explosions, but has not commented. According to HRW, the targeting of the communication devices contravened Rule 80 of Customary International Humanitarian Law. The rule prohibits the use of booby traps attached to objects likely to attract civilians, or “objects in normal civilian daily use.” HRW also stated that the detonation of the devices “whose exact location could not be reliably known” was “unlawfully indiscriminate,” as both military and civilian populations were struck “without distinction.” (Image: Pixabay)

Palestine

Chile files intervention in genocide case against Israel

Chile filed a declaration of intervention in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The South American country submitted its declaration under Article 63 of the Statute of the ICJ, which gives states a right to intervene in the interpretation of a multilateral convention. Chile’s intervention focuses on the duty to prevent and punish genocide under the Genocide Convention. (Photo: ICJ)

Palestine

Israeli strikes hit aid convoy in Gaza

An Israeli air-strike hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza, killing several employees of a transportation company associated with the US-based NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). Israel says it was attacking “armed assailants” who were trying to hijack the truck, but Anera said the only people killed worked for the transport company and they had confirmed their route as part of a “humanitarian deconfliction” program intended to stop hits on aid. The hit on the convoy, which eventually arrived at the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, came days after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint shot at a vehicle marked as belonging to the World Food Program, which said it was pausing staff operations in Gaza until further notice. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Palestine

Israel’s new West Bank operation assailed by UN

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for an “immediate cessation” of Israeli military operations in the occupied West Bank, saying that the latest “dangerous developments” are “fuelling an already explosive situation” there. The appeal came one day into Israel’s new “counter-terrorism operation,” the largest in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, with hundreds of troops raiding the city of Jenin and other areas of the territory. At least 14 Palestinians have been killed in the raids, either by air-strikes or gun battles on the ground. In the dark hours of the night, Israeli bulldozers moved into Tulkarm, tearing up roads, followed by an armored convoy. Air-strikes were also carried out on targets in the town of Tubas. The total now killed on the West Bank since Oct. 7 stands at over 640. (Photo: JVP)

Watching the Shadows

Anti-Semitism versus anti-Zionism: beyond parsing II

With anti-Semitic and Islamophobic violence in the US both rising since Israel began its campaign of genocide in Gaza, it is incumbent upon Palestine solidarity activists not to play into this dynamic by engaging in rhetoric and tactics that demonize Jews as the “other.” Cynical weaponization of the accusation of anti-Semitism by Zionist propaganda increases rather than decreases our responsibility to be clear about recognizing and opposing actual anti-Semitism. Alas, in cases from Chicago to Seattle to Philadelphia to Washington DC, activists have failed to make this critical distinction—not only providing propaganda ammo to Israel’s supporters, but displaying a paradoxical point of convergence with the MAGA right. In Episode 241 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg rises to the odious task of calling them out. Listen on SoundCloud or via Patreon. (Image via frgdr Blog. Hebrew lettering in background spells names of places in Europe where Jews were exterminated.)