Some things changed in politics in Washington, DC when on Wednesday Republican United States senators via a secret ballot vote selected Sen John Thune (R-SD) to become Senate Republican leader, replacing Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in the position. One of the things that remained the same, though, was that the Senate Republican leader position, along with the other three top leadership positions — Republican and Democrat — in the Senate and House of Representatives, remains held by a politician espousing devotion to the government of Israel and its war effort.
Tag: Israel
We are now a year into the Israel government’s military action devastating the people and infrastructure of Gaza and since expanded into escalating violence against countries including Lebanon and Iran. Yet, even today, United States Senate members are repeating flagrant lies produced in the war’s early days to trick Americans and others around the world into supporting Israel’s war.
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J.D. Vance, Israel Firster
Donald Trump likes to talk about how he puts America first. Last night, Trump’s presidential race running mate J.D. Vance made it clear that Vance has other priorities. In answer to the first question of the vice-presidential debate, Vance asserted that his allegiance is to Israel first. Indeed, he suggested that America does not even come in second.
In March, I wrote about eight United States Senate members sending a letter to President Joe Biden declaring that Section 6201 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 requires the termination of offensive military aid to the Israel government because the Israel government “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance.” This declaration seemed then and continues to seem now true to observers of the situation where Gazans suffer from the deprivation of daily needs including food and medical supplies as they also suffer from bombs and bullets. Still, the US military aid flow to Israel has continued at a high rate.
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Major Draft Resistance in Israel
Facing mounting deaths, injuries, and exhaustion among its troops in its ongoing war in Gaza, while desiring to escalate the war in Lebanon and beyond, the Israel government began in July to expand conscription to include “ultra-orthodox” men who were previously exempt. That plan, in its first month of implementation, seems not to be going well for the government.
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Will Israel Nuke Lebanon and Iran?
The Israel government won’t stop its decimating of Gaza. Plus, it keeps lashing out at other nations in the region. Doesn’t it worry that it will end up defeated by engaging in war too broadly? The worry may be small because the Israel government has a couple big weapons in its back pocket.
In the first few weeks after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, Max Blumenthal was alerting people via his writing at The Grayzone that a significant portion of the killing the Israel government was blaming on Hamas appeared to have actually been done by the Israel government itself. Apparently contributing to this outcome, wrote Blumenthal, was an Israel government policy called the Hannibal Directive.
Last month, I wrote about how the death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza may be significantly higher than the commonly cited estimate that has lately been stuck at under 40,000 individuals. A Friday article at The Lancet medical journal makes the case that the death toll, conservatively estimated, may be more than four times higher — even if the war were to end immediately.
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The Gaza Death Toll
The often-reported death toll from Israel’s war in Gaza has been stuck at under 40,000. But, the death toll continues to increase and appears to significantly exceed that reported number.
An effort is being undertaken in America to broaden the definition of antisemitism from its commonly understood meaning to include criticism of the government of Israel. The absurdity of this effort is demonstrated by the fact that there are many Jewish people in America and around the world who criticize the Israel government in regard to its war efforts and a variety of other actions.