Tag: Palestine

Iran
Iran Protests

Podcast: neither Jewish State nor Islamic Republic II

With Israel’s criminal air-strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites releasing radioactive contamination, Bibi Netanyahu cynically invokes the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement that shook Iran for months from September 2022. Of course nothing is less conducive to pro-democracy civil resistance in Iran than to have this cause associated with the foreign power that is bombing the country’s territory—and is itself oppressing the Palestinians with biblical justifications. In Episode 282 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg again 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. (Photo: Ottawa protest in support of Iranian uprising, via Wikimedia Commons)

Iran
Iran

UN urges restraint as Israel strikes Iran nuclear sites

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged both Iran and Israel to exercise “maximum restraint” amid a sudden escalation between the two states following Israeli attacks on Iran’s nuclear installations. Condemning the Israeli strikes, the statement from the secretary-general’s office expressed concerns about a wider conflagration throughout the Middle East, warning that “a descent into deeper conflict” would be “a situation that the region can hardly afford.” (Map: PCL)

Planet Watch
Saksonov

Podcast: in defense of dissident minorities

Amid the massive war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine and Israel in Gaza, there are dissident Russians and dissident Israelis who are courageously protesting, and resisting the consolidation of a pro-genocide consensus. Recent violent and deadly attacks on perceived Israeli or pro-Israel human targets in the US meanwhile point to the dangers of the notion of collective guilt. In Episode 281 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg urges that dissident minorities must not be dismissed as irrelevant, but encouraged and offered solidarity. (Photo via Novaya Gazeta)

Palestine
settlement

Israel again expands West Bank settlements

The Israeli government announced the establishment of 22 new settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank—including the recognition and expansion of several already existing “wildcat” outposts, built without government permission. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that building the settlements was “a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.” The announcement comes amid expanding Israeli military operations and settler violence on the West Bank, and open calls from Israeli officials—including cabinet members such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—to annex the territory.  (Photo: delayed gratification via New Jewish Resistance)

Palestine
Gaza

Podcast: humanitarian intervention for Gaza?

As Israel escalates its genocide in Gaza and prepares to execute its final cleansing or “transfer” of the populace of the Strip, calls are mounting for humanitarian intervention to protect the Palestinians. In Episode 280 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores the concrete steps already taken by elements of the international community to implement the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine in the Gaza Strip—as well as exploring the critique of humanitarian intervention repeatedly raised in other contexts by Noam Chomsky and the anti-imperialist left. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Greater Middle East
Gulf states

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the Gulf State tyrannies

Amid the hype about how Trump “snubbed” Netanyahu on his Middle East trip come reports that his White House is pushing a plan to relocate some 1 million Palestinians from Gaza to Libya—which is in the midst of a massive human rights crisis. Even while on the ground in Qatar, Trump plugged his relocation scheme for the Gazans, who now face complete ethnic cleansing from the devastated Strip. In Episode 279 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg debunks the notion of a Trump tilt away from Israel, and asks why some “progressives” are joining with paleocons to view massive arms deals with the repressive and arch-reactionary monarchies of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar as a good thing. (Map: PCL)

Palestine
Gaza

Gaza: aid agencies reject Israel’s ‘humanitarian’ plan

Amid growing warnings of starvation, the Israeli military allowed humanitarian aid into Gaza for the first time in more than 11 weeks. The first trucks were permitted to pass through the Kerem Shalom crossing after the UK, France and Canada threatened to sanction Israel if it did not allow in assistance. UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher welcomed the move, but said it was a “drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed.” In an open letter issued the same day the first trucks were allowed in, nearly a dozen international aid and human rights groups warned that a US-backed organization set up to take over aid distribution in Gaza is “a dangerous, politicized sham.” They charged that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been launched without Palestinian involvement, while the population in Gaza remains under siege. (Photo: Maan News Agency)

Palestine
Gaza

Israeli cabinet approves ‘conquest’ of Gaza

The Israeli government unveiled a new military plan for the Gaza Strip, an operation forebodingly dubbed “Gideon’s Chariots” after an Old Testament conqueror. Approved unanimously by the security cabinet, the plan calls for the “conquering of Gaza” and retaining the territory indefinitely, an official said. The plan also includes concentrating the Palestinian civilian population in a “sterile area” in the south of the Strip. The official said Israel will give Hamas until the end of US President Donald Trump’s upcoming trip to the Middle East to agree to a hostage deal. Otherwise, “Operation Gideon’s Chariots will begin with great force and will not end until all its objectives are achieved.” The military is already calling up tens of thousands of reservists in preparation for the new operation. (Photo: Jaber Jehad Badwan via Wikimedia Commons)

Palestine
NYU

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism

In Episode 272 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg discusses the Israel-hosted “International Conference on Combatting anti-Semitism” that featured speakers from the European and American neo-fascist (and even anti-Semitic!) far right. The established phenomenon of paradoxical fascist pseudo-anti-fascism has now been joined by anti-Semitic pseudo-anti-anti-Semitism. While Trump’s 2019 executive order on anti-Semitism sought to conflate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, the new posture would actually substitute the prior for the latter entirely as the ideology to be opposed, in all but name. Anti-Semitism is now acceptable as long as it is pro-Israel, fulfilling Zionist founder Theodore Herzl‘s 1895 prediction: “The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” (Photo of rally at NYU: CounterVortex)

Palestine
anti-semitism

Israel anti-Semitism confab embraces fascism —yes, really

The Zionist-fascist convergence under Bibi’s regime is getting too blatant even for the habitually pro-Israel Anti-Defamation League, whose leader stayed away from a supposed “International Conference on Combating Antisemitism” held in Jerusalem under the auspices of the Israeli government, headlining Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu—and also featuring several figures from the European and American xenophobic (and even anti-Semitic!) far right. (Image via frgdr Blog. Hebrew lettering in background spells names of places in Europe where Jews were exterminated.)

Greater Middle East
Lebanon

Lebanon ceasefire —real or fiction?

The ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese political and militant group Hezbollah is on shaky ground following an Israeli air-strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs. It was the first strike on Lebanon’s capital since a pause in hostilities came into effect in November last year. Israel—which has bombed southern Lebanon almost daily despite the ceasefire—said it was retaliating for a rocket attack into northern Israel. Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem warned that if Israel continues to carry out strikes in Lebanon, and the Lebanese government does not act to stop it, then his organization will take matters into its own hands. (Image via Flickr)