Yet another non-binding UN General Assembly has passed, granting Palestinians permanent sovereignty over their natural resources, even as Israel has absolute dominion over their territory. The draft resolution, titled “Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources,” is a perfect example of how the UN glosses over Israel’s colonial violence by refusing to take action, preferring to enact non-binding resolutions which do nothing to protect the Palestinian people’s political rights and their territory.

The resolution demands Israel ceases its exploitation and theft of Palestinian land, while noting all other Israeli violations on Palestinian territory, such as the Apartheid Wall, settlement expansion, destruction of Palestinian infrastructure, as well as the impact of Israel weapons in Gaza. With the passing of such a detailed resolution, it would stand to reason that the UN takes measures against Israel’s colonial violence, rather than call upon Israel to halt its damage. The latter is a futile request, and the UN knows Israel will not abide by the non-binding resolution, in which case it is pertinent to ask why the international institution keeps score of each violation only to mete out some symbolic recognition of Palestinian rights which has so far failed to translate into political value for the Palestinian people.

Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the UN Riyad Mansour described the resolution as confirming the international community supporting full rights for Palestinians. Similarly the Palestinian Authority’s Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki declared that the resolution affirmed Palestinian people’s rights over their territory and called upon the UN to implement international resolutions. Which is where Palestine, as usual, will hit a dead end. The UN’s complicity in Israel’s colonial expansion is the primary reason why non-binding resolutions have taken the place of political resolution for Palestinians.

Does the UN need reminding of how it failed Palestinians since the passing of the 1947 Partition Plan? Or of how its defence of Israel’s security narrative directly ties in to the Palestinian people’s experience of loss, to the point that non-binding resolutions are necessary to remind the world that Palestinians have political rights? Only the periodic reminders mean nothing if the UN refuses to face Israel’s war crimes and international law violations.

Unfortunately, the PA has long supported this disastrous status quo, in which the gap between non-binding resolutions and Israel’s expansion is becoming irreconcilable.

EU diplomats recently visited occupied East Jerusalem, in a visit organised by the Israeli non-governmental organization Ir Amin. The NGO explained the consequences of Israel’s settlement expansion, including forced displacement and the rupture between Palestinian villages and Jerusalem, which is Israel’s next aim.

Yet, at an international level, Israel’s violations are considered separately, with barely ever a connection between one violation and its precedents. If the UN was truly against human rights violations, it would put its research to good use, as well as consistently draw attention to the fact that the earlier colonization process is ongoing.

The PA is also guilty of the same process, preferring to focus on each violation separately rather than take into account how Israel’s actions are collectively contributing to Palestine’s territorial loss.

While shedding light on the cumulative effect of Israel’s violations, the recent UNGA non-binding draft resolution holds no sway over international chastisement of Israel, let alone enforcing punitive measures. Israel’s impunity has been crafted by the UN, in a parallel manner to how the UN facilitated Palestine’s territorial loss. The resolution is no cause to celebrate; rather it is an affirmation of how the international community’s complicity resulted in these belated affirmations that do nothing to reinstate the Palestinian people’s political rights.

Many Israeli commentators are bracketing Trump with Netanyahu. Veteran correspondent Ben Caspit, for instance, asks: Is Netanyahu “a Middle Eastern clone of Donald Trump?”. He continues: “The worst could still be ahead. Barring a last-minute change, the Knesset is scheduled to swear in the new government June 13 … Will Netanyahu in a last-ditch effort, engineer a Capitol-style invasion in Jerusalem? Will he call on his followers to march on the Knesset to prevent being unseated? … his Likud party has issued statements in English, informing the world that deposing Netanyahu means turning Israel into a dictatorship and comparing his designated successor Yamina leader Naftali Bennett to the leaders of North Korea”.

To be fair, Caspit answers his question with a ‘both yes and no’. But actually, the asking of this question is a pure ‘red herring’. Superficially, some parallels might have merit; but to frame the issue in this way is disingenuous, and misses the key point that Israel’s situation is far graver, than widely understood.

Israel has painted itself into a tight corner. Trump certainly helped Netanyahu with this, but the dynamic was as much a child of Clinton-Obama myopia, as that of Trump. Netanyahuism has been a phenomenon many years in the making; although undoubtedly was accelerated, and put on steroids, during the Trump era, when the power and platform of the U.S. government became the echo chamber of the Israeli Right.

So, what precisely, is the smoke-screen of ‘is Netanyahu channelling Trump’ obscuring? It obscures the reality that Israel has turned decisively Right – across the political spectrum. This may be described as Bibi’s personal ‘doing’, but it is no longer a matter of Netanyahu’s personal charisma. Israel has become structurally right-wing. It has become culturally right-wing, too. No longer the secular, ‘socialist’ Kibbutzim of yore (long since marginalised): Israel’s military and political leadership rather, is now predominantly Religious-Nationalist and Settler. This represents a ‘cultural revolution’ largely unnoticed in Europe.

Chen Artzi Sror, writing in Yedioth Ahoronot, observes that whilst formerly, the biggest fear gripping religious Zionists had been that of surrendering territory. The fallout from the 2005 evacuation of the Gaza settlements, pushed the settler community to expand inside Israel. Thus began the move of young religious Zionists to embed themselves into policy making, communication and government.

The early cultural components of hanging on to territory have however, undergone a revolutionary shift: Settling the land of Israel is no longer the main issue occupying religious Zionism. “Most of the Israeli public holds right-wing positions when it comes to issues of security and politics – and the West Bank is positively brimming with settlements that will most likely never be evacuated”, Sror writes. “These once solitary localities have become somewhat bourgeoise … Now, significantly, the ultra-Orthodox nationalists pursue something quite different – a worldview that strictly opposes what they call “post-modernism””.

Which is to say, “Anything that seeks to change the perception of family life and advance gender equality and equal treatment of non-Jews is perceived to be an existential threat to the very foundations on which the Jewish state was built” [emphasis added]. This dictates that the ‘People of Israel’ must be saved from foreign influence – and more particularly from Leftists: “Not those [Leftists] who want to evacuate settlements in order for a Palestinian state to arise, but those who march in the Gay Pride Parade and believe in equality for men and women. The vast majority of religious Zionists are more liberal than this, and as such send their children to pre-military yeshivas and youth movements. But it is in these very places – that such extremely conservative worldviews are often introduced”.

The tensions here, with a Leftist, Biden Admin embracing BLM and LBGTQ, hardly need emphasis.

The incitement amongst the Israeli Right has become very, very aggressive. Though Netanyahu loyalists are attacking Bennett and his Yamina party MPs, they largely believe in the same causes: settlement building, annexation of much of the West Bank, and Jewish supremacy over Palestinian citizens of Israel – “Yet they now feel galaxies apart”.

Netanyahu promotes a clear message that his new rivals are “traitors” who have betrayed the “people of Israel”. He has called Bennett a “habitual liar”; the March election he described as the “biggest election fraud in the history of the country”; and he lambasted the so-called “deep state” in Israel for pushing to form a “dangerous left-wing government” backed by “terror supporters”.

Israeli analyst, Meron Rapoport, notes that whilst Netanyahu built his political base on extreme polarisation, the discourse of hatred now is eating alive the Israeli Right. And, because Netanyahu believes his only way to maintain power is to call Bennett a traitor, as his supporters threaten to kill Knesset members, the atmospherics are being compared to the days prior to November 1995, when Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated in Tel Aviv. Paradoxically, since these leaders hail from the same right-wing camp and were close to each other, the anger and sense of betrayal are even stronger.

What is the point here? Even the long-serving U.S. ‘peace process’ negotiator, Dennis Ross, writes that at this point, “direct talks on the permanent status issues will go nowhere—the politics on each side, the real gaps on the substance, and the disbelief of their publics guarantee nothing would be achieved”. In other words, talks between Palestinians and Israel are pointless. The Israeli polity effectively is self-locked into entropy. There is no political way out from this very tight corner. Ross suggests that Biden should cynically ‘park’ the Palestinian issue, treating it as a PR exercise, without investing into it much political capital.

The strategic shift Rightwards in Israeli politics – which marks a tectonic change – is understood in Washington to have foreclosed on the two-state solution – and on the one-state solution, too, as a one-state solution is clearly incompatible with Religious Zionism’s ‘post-modern’ shift, and contradicts too, the very essence of Religious Zionism. And so we have Grid lock.

Ross’s comments reflect another entropy – that which is arising within the U.S. For while U.S. state apparatus is locked onto the old mantras of ‘Israel has the right to defend itself’ and Hamas is the ‘threat’, and Congressional élites remain lock-solid, America is experiencing its own tectonic shift. Two surprising polls were released recently: Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNCP) commissioned the Barna Group to survey evangelical Christians about their views on Israel/Palestine.

The poll suggests support for Israel has dropped considerably: only 33.6% of young evangelicals (between the ages of 18 and 29) said they support Israel; 24.3% said they support Palestine; 42.2% said they support neither side in the conflict. Compare this survey to one carried out in 2018 – then a staggering 69% of young evangelicals said they supported Israel.

And it is the same story amongst young Americans more generally: A recent Harvard-Harris poll of registered voters asked: “Who is more responsible for the violence in the Mideast – Israel or Hamas?”. It produced the following results: (18-34 year olds): Israel: 60%, Hamas: 40%; (35-49 year olds): Israel: 51% Hamas: 49%. (Note that the poll specified Hamas, rather than Palestinians – and Hamas is labelled terrorist in U.S. mainstream media, which makes the outcome even more significant)

The Democrats are already freezing solid, committed to old mantra – whilst young progressives, such as AOC, are snapping at Biden’s heels, asking about Palestinian rights. Western politicians can ‘talk the talk’ of two-states, but it is ‘empty talk’. They have no idea what to do next, and Israel’s success in weaponising ‘anti-Semitism’ (Corbyn being its prize scalp) effectively has Europe self-paralysed with fear for their careers.

What happened last month, in wake of Hamas’ defence of Jerusalem, has done two highly significant things:

It succeeded in mobilising the 1948 Palestinians (citizens of Israel) to resistance alongside their fellow Gazan and West Bank Palestinians. And it set the trap by which any provocation on the al-Aqsa compound, or any further Jerusalem ethnic clearances, could trigger a multi-front war. The Hizbullah leader, Seyed Nasrallah, spelled this out explicitly.

It is on this last point that there is denial all around. Israel’s ‘military edge’ has gone. It is the axis of Hamas, Hizbullah, Syria, Iraq, Iran and AnsarAllah (the Houthis), rather, which now has the military – and political/strategic – edge. The strategic balance is inverted: Israel’s control of airspace is unrestricted – over Gaza only. Deeply buried and dispersed smart cruise missiles surround Israel, and radar blocking drone swarms, together with EWS, have altered the military calculus.

The reason the Israeli crisis is graver than many suppose is that no one wants to admit that Israel effectively has wasted its window to any political solution – chasing hegemony and its ‘victory narrative’. It has succumbed to Netanyahu’s narrative of ‘mission accomplished’ – the Palestinian issue supposedly made irrelevant – only to find the window of politics closed shut, at the same time that Israel’s military situation has reversed itself, decisively. The old certainty of Israeli military domination ultimately securing Palestinian acquiescence now looks decidedly frayed.

So fatigued and numbed by their own rhetoric have Israeli and western leaders become, that they will not think or say that Israel has run out of options. And so western policy continues on auto-pilot. Inevitably there will be further Right-wing provocations at al-Aqsa. The IDF will default to its policy of ‘mowing the Gaza lawn’ – only one or other of these times (maybe quite soon), Israel will find itself in a multi-front war.

Are they certain America will spend its blood to extract Israel from its self-made quagmire? Are they convinced Gulf States will be there too, shoulder-to-shoulder?

Israel is undergoing a change of management, with reliably hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu being replaced by extreme nationalist Naftali Bennett. Bennett has at intervals favored the disenfranchisement of non-Jewish Israeli citizens and the ethnic cleansing of all non-Jews from historic Palestine, killing them if necessary. He opposes the creation of any Palestinian state and routinely describes Palestinian protesters as terrorists while stating his belief that they should be shot on sight. He has also boasted of his shooting Palestinians during his military service, saying at one point “I already killed lots of Arabs in my life, and there is absolutely no problem with that.” He was heavily involved in “Operation Grapes of Wrath” in Lebanon in the 1980s, where his commando unit killed numerous civilians, and takes pleasure in recounting his participation in Israel’s war crimes.

All of which means that there will be no respite from the brutal Netanyahu reign of terror which has been prevailing on the West Bank, in Gaza and also in Jerusalem itself. If anything, the pressure on Arabs forcing them to leave will intensify. Evidence that the recently negotiated cease fire was little more than a pause in the plan to mitigate international pressure before continuing to make the former Palestine Palestinian free is already available. Israeli police and army units have been arresting hundreds of Arabs, many of whom are Israeli citizens, not because they have broken any of the “rules” imposed by the Netanyahu government, but as a preventive measure to have them identified, allowing them to be safely locked away when the next round of fighting begins. Eighteen hundred arrests have been reported since unrest began in April, but the figure is probably much higher than that. An estimated 25% of those who are detained are children and 85% of those children arrested report that they were physically abused.  Also, at least 26 Palestinians have been killed while resisting. It has been claimed that the police, embarrassed by being ridiculed by protesting Palestinians, are “settling scores” and “closing accounts,” frequently using savage beatings during arrests and as collective punishment to break the Arab resistance.

Israeli police have also been active at and around the al-Aqsa mosque, where they have been denying Muslims access to the holy site while promoting sightseeing visits by Israeli Jews. This is a clear violation of the rules established for access to the mosque and it sends a strong signal to Palestinians that there is more to come and the intention is clearly that they will eventually be removed by whatever means necessary from Greater Israel.

The Director for the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (ADALAH) Hassan Jabareen observed recently how the violence over the past month was deliberately provoked by Israel both to shore up Netanyahu’s electoral prospects while “the massive arrest campaign announced by Israeli police…is a militarized war against Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is a war against Palestinian demonstrators, political activists, and minors, employing massive Israeli police forces to raid the homes of Palestinian citizens.”

The Israelis, who clearly have a sense of humor, called the first phase of the mass arrests “Operation Law and Order.” The raids themselves have been carried out inside Israel itself and on the West Bank. Those Palestinians who are citizens of Israel have what has frequently been described as “second class rights” in the country’s judicial system. Although Israel claims its Arab citizens—roughly 20% of the nation’s population—have equality under the law, even the pro-Israel US State Department has repeatedly accused Israel of practicing “institutional and societal discrimination” toward its Arab citizens.

As a consequence, Palestinians who are arrested are indicted, charged and in some cases detained indefinitely under existing state of emergency and anti-terror legislation. A common charge is “incitement” which requires little or nothing in the way of evidence. Many of the arrested Palestinians have in fact been released after payment of exorbitant bails, averaging about $1,000. One Palestinian activist reportedly paying $7,400 to be set free.

It should be noted that the armed Jewish settlers who rioted in the lead up to last month’s fighting, destroying Palestinian homes and other property, have not been identified and detained by Israeli authorities. Activist Remi Kanazi notes how “Apartheid inside Israel is when Jewish Israeli mobs chant ‘Death to Arabs’ and brutalize Palestinians in their neighborhoods, while the cops do nothing, only for those same cops to conduct mass arrests of Palestinian citizens two weeks later.”

Outside of Israel proper, other Palestinians, who are citizens of the Palestinian Authority or who have United Nations documentation, have no rights at all under Israeli law and are being detained at will and, in many cases, indefinitely, without any access to legal counsel or to family members. Most of them were not doing anything illegal, even by Israeli standards, when they were arrested. They were guilty of being Palestinian.

In one example of how the process works, well-known Palestinian activist Iyad Burnat, who had previously been arrested at age 17 and imprisoned for two years for having thrown stones at Israeli soldiers has been targeted. He lives in Bil’in on the West Bank and has had his two sons abducted from their home in recent night invasions by Israeli security forces. Abdul Khaliq, 21 years old, was taken away on May 17^th and Mohammed, 19 years old, was abducted on May 24^th. They are being held in the Almasqubia detention center in Jerusalem and have been denied any contact either with their parents or legal counsel. The Israeli authorities have provided no explanation of why they were arrested in the first place.

In another recent example of the brutality of the Israeli police, al-Jazeera reports in detail how thirteen-year-old Mohammed Saadi was kidnapped, blindfolded, beaten and threatened with a gun to his head by five policemen working undercover in his hometown of Umm al-Fahem. Saadi was among thousands who gathered for a funeral procession held for Mohammed Kiwan, a 17-year-old boy who had been shot and killed by Israeli police a week earlier.

Activists among the Palestinians observe that the Israeli repression has proven counter-productive. Most Palestinians now understand that the Israelis intend to exterminate them. One observer notes that “The fear barrier has been broken. Israeli forces are up against a people who no longer have anything to lose. The young men in Jerusalem don’t see they have a future to look forward to, due to socioeconomic factors that is either the result of or exacerbated by the occupation policies towards them. These people are defending their right to exist, their homes and their homeland, and had it not been for their resistance, Jewish settlers would have taken control of many places in Jerusalem.”

Clearly, the Joe Biden administration will do nothing even if the Israeli government were to arrest and torture 100,000 Arabs, but there is growing sentiment even in Congress and the Zionist controlled media that “what is wrong is wrong.” Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s has twice introduced a bill, which is languishing in congressional committee, that calls on the United States to block aid to Israel that can be perceived as being used to arrest, beat and imprison children. Her legislation the Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act​ H.R. 2407 amends a provision of the Foreign Assistance Act known as the “Leahy Law” to prohibit funding for the military detention of children in any country, including Israel.

McCollum argues that an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children have been detained by Israeli security forces and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system since 2000. These children between the ages of 11 and 15 have sometimes been tortured using chokeholds, beatings, and coercive interrogation. As of September 2020 there were an estimated 157 children still detained in Israeli prisons, a number that has certainly gone up dramatically given the current crackdown by the police and army. Even though Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi will surely block any attempt to let the McCollum bill see light of day one can at least honor the Congresswoman for what she is attempting to do and hope that some day the United States government will finally act honorably and help deliver liberty and justice for the long suffering Palestinians.

The post WW2 policy iceberg – like that of the Artic Cap – may still be solid – but only just. And, like the real Ice Cap, it too is disintegrating. It no longer serves purpose for our internationalist oligarchs. Bits of it are crumbling; some are purposefully being offered up (i.e. Gates/Fauci). Though, to extend this metaphor to geo-politics would be to say that we may be on the cusp of a multi-facetted cascade of the post-war, ‘forever’ political certainties – some intended; many not; but all disruptive.

On the one hand, the U.S. outsized military establishment demands a new raison d’être – just as Russia and China unveil their smart new weaponry. The ‘bigger play’, of course, is that the social decay eating away at the fabric of America has become all too visible – and damaging to the desired recasting of the American mission (Green-washing and now LBGTQ ‘washing’ – as mechanisms to firstly disrupt, and then reset, politics and geo-finance).

Belligerent ‘competition’ with China is ramped as the means to reunite this fragmented America. Yet, however much Washington keeps pushing Europe and Japan to decouple from both China and Russia, a Cold War 2.0 on two simultaneous fronts has very few takers. The (self-harming) EU provocations of China and Russia over Belarus or the Uyghurs – as naively woke, as they are – are no accident, however.

They are intentionally disruptive. As the U.S. acquiesces to the inevitable – and accepts the reality of Russia-China-Iran primacy in Central Asia – Team Biden plans to pivot out, as best it can, from the region to China, leaving the EU busy with keeping Russia off-balance, and isolated.

Bizarre EU policies are not hard for global Big Finance to conjure up: The EU began life as a cartel (and now boasts double the corporate lobbyists than occupy ‘K Street’ in DC). In its present iteration, the EU tail of small anti-Russian states can easily be triggered to act as the ‘tail wagging the EU dog’ – especially as this allows the Euro-bureaucracy to play the tail against the bigger EU states – and thereby advance their own distinct ‘Brussels ideology’ of centrally-guided empire.

Less noticed perhaps – amidst all this other noise and theatrics – is that the Middle East may be close to its own separate ‘definitive moment’. In a nutshell, just as Iran has surprised the world by constructing real deterrence – with tens of thousands of deeply buried smart missiles, rather than ‘nukes’, encircling Israel – the latter is facing the absolute collapse of its Netanyahu ‘certainties’.

Which is to say, ‘the collapse’ is that of the meme that the Palestinian issue has been put to sleep; that ‘the world’ has ‘moved on’; and that the ‘defeated’ Palestinians ultimately must, (and will), reconcile to Israel’s military dominance – that Gaza will be domesticated; the West Bank bantustanised; Jerusalem encircled from without, and de-Palestinianised from within – and Palestinian refugee rights will be erased through the help of co-operative Gulf States.

This, effectively is the Netanyahu ‘mission accomplished’ narrative. And Kushner played his part, as a prime facilitator.

This grand narrative collapsed with the recent clashes in Jerusalem, Gaza and inside the Green Line. Not in a simple way, but in a way that is much more profound than most in the western sphere seem willing to acknowledge. (Not surprisingly, Netanyahu desperately has been trying to revive the ‘Iran threat’ narrative, to divert from the more fundamental long-term crisis facing Israelis).

Just as the very nature, and size, of the U.S. warfare state directly causes entropy in America – so too, this ‘mission accomplished’ mantra has resulted in a significant entropy in Israel: Its citizens have fallen asleep, blindfolded by years of such propaganda. The Israeli Jewish political class – from centre-left to hard-right – swallowed it whole. It represents a phenomenon many years in the making, but was accelerated, and put on steroids during the Trump era, when the power and platform of the U.S. government became the echo chamber of the Israeli Right.

What is the point here? A survey conducted by direct polls in Israel, found that 72% of Israelis didn’t want Israel to negotiate a cease fire – they wanted the attacks to continue. But why should this be so significant?

It is not only because it shows how much the Netanyahu’s ‘mission accomplished’ meme has been internalised (defeat must be seared into the Palestinian psyche through the rubble that the IDF wrought in Gaza); but rather because this poll points to the true nature of the ‘corner’, into which Israelis have been painted by Netanyahu and Kushner.

What happened, as Shir Hever underscores, is that “Palestinian citizens of Israel [often called 1948 Palestinians] went on a strike. [This was the] first time since the ’30s, that there was a strike on the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and inside the borders of Israel – [It] demonstrated a level of unity and solidarity that we haven’t seen before. This struck a lot of fear into Jewish Israeli society – to see Palestinians united more than ever before … This unity cost them a lot. Thousands of Palestinians were fired for going on that strike”.

Why? What is going on? What happened is that “the liberal message of the liberal Zionists has completely collapsed. There was this sort of promise, which is a mirage, that if the Palestinians are good citizens, if they’re loyal, if they don’t talk about politics too much, eventually they would be allowed to integrate into Israeli society – and have better public services and job opportunities and so on”.

‘Just hang in there: In one or two generations, you’re going to be fine’. This was a lie, of course – for now it is very clear that it was a lie, and the reason that it’s so clear is because the Netanyahu government made no pretence of working towards equality; but rather, was intent on asphyxiating the Palestinian issue in toto: The ‘world moved on’.

The Israeli Right is still clear: They say this is a state where only Jews can have equal rights and full rights – only Jews. So if you’re not a Jew, you have no hope of equality in that state. Which means that Palestinian citizens of Israel understand they too have to resist.

The Palestinian population inside Israel have long faced structural discrimination, but that discrimination now has been institutionalised into law (with the Nation State Law of 2018), leading to Israel’s principal human rights organization B’Tselem, as well as Human Rights Watch, designating Israel and the territories it controls (occupies) as being guilty of the crime of apartheid under international law.

The backlash from such statements identifying apartheid “is very, very violent, aggressive” (Shir Hever again), “and we’re seeing this [again] … whenever there is a bombardment of Gaza. There are some anti-war demonstrations in Israel. Some lefty Jews are organizing demonstrations, for example, in Jerusalem, not far from where I used to live, in so-called Paris Square, where ‘Women in Black’ used to stand every Friday, in protest at the occupation”.

“Now – last week, a bunch of lefty Israelis organized a demonstration against the bombardment of Gaza, in Paris Square, and the police came up to them, and said there are a thousand armed right-wing Israelis coming this way. They’re going to be here in a few minutes. We are not going to protect you. If you want to stay, do whatever you want. The police left, and of course, the protestors didn’t stay. It would have been a massacre. And this has never happened before”.

“I think what we see now is a post-traumatic society which is reacting with extreme fear, violence and racism towards Palestinians most of all, but not just towards Palestinians. There’s also a lot of hate between different groups within Israeli society. It’s not just the Orthodox and the secular, because you have national orthodox and ultra-orthodox, you have Zionist ultra-orthodox and anti-Zionist ultra-orthodox. The tensions are very high”, Shir Hever warns.

Did most Israelis (i.e. the 72%) understand what triggered the clashes with Hamas?

“I think they understand it on a much deeper level. Jerusalem was chosen by Netanyahu to start this [chain of events that began with rockets fired at Jerusalem], because Netanyahu knew that he has until a certain date to form a government [but he was unable so to do]. So the chance to form a government was passed to his main opponent, which is Yair Lapid from the opposition.

“At that moment, Netanyahu knew that if he triggers some kind of security crisis, the coalition talks are going to break apart. Lapid will not be able to form his coalition. And that means there’s going to be another election, a fifth election within a two year period. And Netanyahu will stay the interim prime minister again – and as long as he’s doing that, he cannot go to jail. And he has a very serious corruption trial going on against him. So everyone understands that. The amazing thing is that you have political parties that are trying to build a coalition. They had the coalition talks. They knew that they have a majority. They were just ironing out the details. And then the police entered Sheikh Jarrah, then the police entered Al-Aqsa, and they knew exactly what was going on. They understood exactly what Netanyahu was doing, but they didn’t dare to say a word. Not one of them said, oh, this is just a political, cynical manoeuvre by Netanyahu to prevent us from forming a government, because if they had said that, they would brand themselves as leftists. And you can’t have a worse tag in Israel than being a leftist now – it’s like being called a communist in the ’50s.”

The point here is that this is the new ‘reality’ Netanyahu has constructed, and it will out-survive him. Evidently, the Palestinians – on their own – do not represent an existential threat to Jews in Israel. (There is, however, much effort expended to persuade people that they are precisely such a threat.)

The Palestinians do, however, pose a real, existential threat to apartheid: “I think when the fear comes from having a colonial society where you know that you are maybe part of this hegemonic group within that society, but actually you’re the minority. Jews are a minority in the whole area of Israel Palestine, and they [Jews] know that. And they know that if Palestinians unify, they risk losing all their privileges. So that is a different kind of fear. And it’s a paralyzing fear … And the only thing that has kept Israel somehow glued together, has been Netanyahu’s populism”.

Now that Netanyahu’s ‘mission accomplished’ bubble – including the part of the storyline was that Arabs inside Israel were undergoing a process of Israelisation, delinked from any Palestinian identity – was popped by Hamas last month. It leaves Israel to face its own internal demons. And the truth of those demons is disturbing – as Zvi Bar’el acknowledges in Haaretz:

In Israel, the ‘glue’ holding it together is coming unstuck amidst profound internal animosities. The state gradually is morphing into an entity in which organizations, religions, ethnic minorities and gangs become the real rulers of the country. The physical and legal territory controlled by the Israeli government covers only selected portions of it. Each of the autonomies has a system of self-rule. One that withdraws a fortune from the state coffers; yet is permitted to do with it whatever it desires – and to decree its own rules and regulations.

The crisis, however, is much bigger than the disintegration of the Israeli body-politic – It is a crisis that Israel is only just beginning to appreciate, as the Netanyahu thrall fades. The crux of it is that there is no solution.

Jews are a minority between ‘the river and the sea’. The prospects of a two-state solution are destroyed: Oslo’s key pillars – that demography alone would compel Israel to implement a two states outcome; that Palestinian security co-operation would assuage Israeli hesitations to endorse a Palestinian state; and thirdly, that a Palestinian state would bring an end to occupation – all these key assumptions have proved false, over the last two decades and more.

And a one-state solution has been hobbled by the Victory narrative of the new Right, and the empowerment of street level racist right-wing thuggery among Israeli Jews (to which authorities turn a blind eye), especially with Netanyahu promoting and securing the entry of the Kahanists and Otzma Yehudit into the Knesset after the latest election. The alienated 1948 Palestinians now stand united with Hamas. A one-state solution, in theory, could see the unitary state governed by Hamas.

All of which returns us to our initial point, and to the bigger story – which is that Iran may be on the cusp of a momentous directional change. We may see this as part of a progressive strengthening of the Arc of Resistance which links Iran, the People’s Mobilization Units in Iraq with Syria, Hezbollah, the Houthis in Yemen – and, now, a more unified Palestine. Or, we may observe it through the lens of an Israel decaying into existential crisis, with no solution to the quandary of which it (or Netanyahu and Trump) may be said to be the author.

Hamas’ strategy during the recent episode was rigorously co-ordinated with the IRGC and Hizbullah. Its’ aim was to impose new rules of engagement on Israel – leap-frogging beyond tactical objectives pertaining to Gaza. The aim was to create a deterrence to Israeli actions – across the whole Palestinian spectrum – and further, for Hamas to become the protector of al-Aqsa, and of the Holy City, Jerusalem. It represents the Resistance’s ‘solution’, as it were.

Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, who often speaks as the authoritative voice of the Resistance Axis, addressed Israel. He warned: “you should be aware that violating Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa mosque stands unlike any other violation you practice … The enemy’s leadership must review its calculations after the war on Gaza … and any violation to Al-Aqsa or Islamic sanctities in general, shall not be faced by the resistance in Gaza, standing alone. But rather, the new equation must be regional war for Al-Quds”. He stressed that “should Islamic and Christian sanctities face threats, there will be no red lines”.

A provocation at the al-Aqsa enclosure by one or other of the extreme Settler cults, is not probable – it is inevitable.

And so, we may be at the cusp of a momentous shift – that, one way or another, could upend all regional certainties.

The National Director Emeritus for the Anti-Defamation League has announced on Twitter that he is cancelling his subscription to The New York Times, claiming that a front-page story featuring the photos of children killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza this month constitutes “blood libel” against Jews.

“I am cancelling my subscription to NYTimes,” tweeted Abraham Foxman. “I grew up in America on the NYT- I delivered the NYT to my classmates- I learned civics- democracy and all the news ‘fit to print’ for 65 years but no more. Today’s blood libel of Israel and the Jewish people on the front page is enough.”

Foxman’s statement drew criticism from all corners, including from loyal establishment pundits like Jonathan Chait, for his ridiculous assertion that merely humanizing Palestinian children killed by Israel is the same as promoting the ancient antisemitic canard known as blood libel.

To be clear, what has incensed the former leader of the @ADL is that the @nytimes, after decades of trivializing Palestinian death, has humanized our children by showing their faces & printing their names. #Gaza https://t.co/TCNAj8GY1J pic.twitter.com/Vehj9wTjZL

— Huwaida Arraf (@huwaidaarraf) May 28, 2021

Supporters of Israeli apartheid and mass murder are losing control of the narrative, which has led to redoubled perception management efforts ranging from the cringey to the iron-fisted. In the former category we’re seeing them pen entire articles attacking Seth Rogen for tweeting a fart emoji at virulent Israel apologist Eve Barlow and claiming that putting “fart” in Barlow’s name is the same as a literal pogrom. In the latter category they’re blowing up entire press offices and arresting Palestinian journalists. This is narrative management at its least subtle.

From a new statement titled “Israel now holding 13 Palestinian journalists” by Reporters Without Borders:

“Two Palestinian journalists were arrested by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem yesterday and were placed in administrative detention today, bringing the total now held administratively by the Israelis to 13. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns Israel’s misuse of administrative detention to hound Palestinian reporters.”

“Administrative detention” is one of the many apartheid abuses which Israel has come under criticism for employing, as Israel-based +972 Magazine explained last year:

According to human rights group B’Tselem, as of September 2020, Israel is holding 376 Palestinians, including two minors, in administrative detention. Israel uses administrative detention to indefinitely detain Palestinians (and on extremely rare occasions Jewish extremists) without charge or trial. Administrative detention orders, handed down by the IDF commander in charge of the occupied West Bank, are reviewed every six months, but the detainees are not told what crimes they are being accused of, nor shown the evidence against them.

According to lawyers who defend Palestinian detainees, administrative detentions are almost always based on “confidential material” handed over ex parte to the courts by the Shin Bet, to which the detainees themselves and their lawyers have no access. As a result, it is virtually impossible to defend oneself against an administrative detention order.

Israeli forces just arrested two Palestinian journalists from Sheikh Jarrah:

Wahbi Makiya and Zeina Al-Halawanipic.twitter.com/j0Tkgptcaa

— لينة (@LinahAlsaafin) May 27, 2021

Before the Gaza ceasefire last week Israel managed to deliberately blow up over 20 offices for Palestinian media outlets, as well as the tower hosting the international outlets AP and Al Jazeera.

“The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what happened today,” AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt said in a statement after the building was destroyed.

Which, of course, is the whole idea: for the world to know less about what happens in Gaza. The Israeli government has a decades-long history of threatening and targeting journalists in order to exert control over the public narrative about what happens under its rule, and as that narrative slips from its grip we are seeing this pattern ramp up with greater and greater aggression.

“Rather than reduce the cruelty, the Israeli government keeps trying to reduce accurate news coverage,” author and activist Norman Solomon writes. “The approach is a mix of deception and brutality. Blow up the cameras so the world won’t see as many pictures of the atrocities.”

The Israeli authorities will keep the journalists arrested in Sheikh Jarrah last night in jail for 5 more days before trial.

This is a clear message: attempt to document & expose Israel’s colonial violence, you will be punished with incarceration & silencing. #SaveSheikhJarrah

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 28, 2021

As Alan MacLeod wrote in Mintpress News, the Overton window has shifted on Palestine. During 2014’s far more deadly Israeli attack on Gaza we saw a low-level local Democratic official sparking outrage and scandal by merely posting “Palestine ” on Facebook, now you have words like “apartheid” being routinely used by mainstream media outlets and national US political figures to describe Israeli abuses of the Palestinian people.

People are just becoming too conscious of the Palestine issue to tolerate its existence as a taboo subject anymore, even in the most mainstream circles of discussion. The old tactics of silencing and marginalizing Palestinian rights advocates simply do not work anymore, and politicians and pundits can no longer get away with painting themselves as progressive-minded humanists without acknowledging the brutal and unjust nature of Israeli occupation.

Palestine is simply not a third rail anymore, and it’s been this way for a while now. By the time I started doing commentary in late 2016 people were still saying you’ll be smeared as an antisemite and dragged through the mud if you criticize Israel, but my experience this entire time has been that I get a lot more vitriol and attacks coming my way by criticizing US imperialist agendas toward nations like Russia, China, Syria and Venezuela than by criticizing the Israeli government. There’s pushback to be sure, but it’s not nearly as vituperative as what I’m used to.

The Israel Narrative Is Crumbling Because Of Phone Cameras And The Internet

There are only so many viral videos of unconscionable acts that can be dismissed with “Actually this is way more complicated than it looks.”https://t.co/RYWZVyMdpW

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) May 11, 2021

This last attack on Gaza was just the ignition of a powder keg in shifting public sentiment that had been building for several years, and it hasn’t been due to any top-down effort at perception steering by the establishment narrative managers, but by ordinary people sharing ideas and information and moving the Overton window of acceptable debate through sheer force of will.

The fact that this can be done makes one wonder in what other ways we can collectively move the narrative in a way that benefits ordinary people instead of the oligarchic empire of the US and its allies. This is an exciting time to be alive.

caityjohnstone.medium.com

By Jessica BUXBAUM

In a video posted on activist organization Jewish Voice for Peace’s Twitter account, Muna El-Kurd explained why social media is so vital for the Palestinian cause.

“We rely on the honorable people standing in solidarity with us, people who tweet #SaveSheikhJarrah everyday,” Muna El-Kurd said. “Even a short tweet or post is a treasure.”

El-Kurd and her family are under threat of forcible displacement by Israel settlers and Israeli government forces from their home in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in Occupied East Jerusalem. Over the past week, Palestinians on the ground have documented both Israeli police brutality and settler violence.

In response, the world rallied behind Palestinian home defenders online by sharing information related to Sheikh Jarrah, al-Aqsa Mosque, and Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine. However, activists claim their content was met with censorship from the very platforms with which they’re engaging.

Instagram disabled Muna El-Kurd’s account last week and her brother, Mohammed El-Kurd, had several of his Instagram stories removed and was threatened with account deletion.

A flurry of content removal and banning

Activists reported that social media companies have been removing their content, stating it violated community guidelines or deeming it “hate speech.” Reports also included suspended and deactivated accounts and text-only content labeled “sensitive,” a designation usually reserved for photos and videos containing violence, gore or derogatory images. The “Save Sheikh Jarrah” Facebook group was also deactivated, according to Mohammed El-Kurd.

Reports were largely centered on Instagram and Twitter, with some restrictive behaviors conducted by Facebook and even TikTok.

Instagram just disabled the account of Mona Elkurd, a journalist in Jerusalem and one of the Sheikh Jarrah residents who has been providing daily coverage of what’s been happening.

This happens to be one day before the trial that puts out the final verdict on Sheikh Jarrah. pic.twitter.com/ACIJJlrbly

— هَزار SaveSheikhJarrah# (@hazarwlabgad) May 5, 2021

A lot of my IG stories regarding last night’s colonial violence in Sheikh Jarrah have been removed because they were considered “hate speech,” even though most of them featured no writing. I got another notification that my account may be deleted.

— mohammed el-kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 6, 2021

I had 10k followers on @tiktok where all I did was speak on social justice issues. All I have been doing is speaking up on Palestine. And about sheikh Jarrah and Gaza but of course silencing Palestinian voices is a priority. pic.twitter.com/Fc9Wk6G49u

— Hebh Jamal (@hebh_jamal) May 12, 2021

Instagram is deleting Palestinian activists’ stories on the ethnic cleansing happening in Sheikh Jarrah. This is not a conspiracy, this is not a fluke. Social media companies have been & will always be antithetical to revolution & resistance. #SaveSheikhJarrah

— Dr. Yara Hawari د. يارا هواري (@yarahawari) May 6, 2021

Our #SaveSheikhJarrah FB group, which had 10k+ members, was disabled. Zuck supports ethnic cleansing.

— mohammed el-kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 13, 2021

Our #SaveSheikhJarrah FB group, which had 10k+ members, was disabled. Zuck supports ethnic cleansing.

— mohammed el-kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 13, 2021

Our #SaveSheikhJarrah FB group, which had 10k+ members, was disabled. Zuck supports ethnic cleansing.

— mohammed el-kurd (@m7mdkurd) May 13, 2021

This is really striking.

I follow @subhitaha_, a young Palestinian-American on Insta. He’s been posting about #SheikhJarrah and almost all his content is getting labelled as “sensitive” and potentially upsetting when often he’s just sharing information.

One example: pic.twitter.com/RchUdmLWZp

— Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) May 8, 2021

?……..Instagram is labeling these and several other #SheikhJarrah posts I’ve seen today as “sensitive content.” Overlays like this on social media, by design, tend to deter sharing/limit the reach of posts. pic.twitter.com/WwtHaEVrcO

— suhauna hussain (@suhaunah) May 8, 2021

I’ve been sharing so much on Instagram about #SheikhJarrah and my content gets censored? Once again, no public outcry in the news about what is happening in Palestine and social media giants are doing whatever they can to silence the voices of the oppressed.

— Safa #SaveSheikhJarrah (@safaatiya) May 8, 2021

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Публикация от KEY48 – مفتاح٤٨ (@key48return)

Over the weekend, hashtags related to al-Aqsa Mosque, Sheikh Jarrah and Jerusalem could not be found on Instagram.

According to internal employee communications provided to Buzzfeed, al-Aqsa — the third holiest site in Islam — was flagged by Instagram as associated with “violence or dangerous organizations.” The label is typically reserved for terrorist groups.

During the last days of Ramadan, worshippers at al-Aqsa were attacked with stun grenades and rubber bullets by Israeli police in riot gear. More than 170 Palestinians were injured. Social media users hoping to publicize the state violence instead found their content removed from search results.

Twenty-four rights organizations signed a statement demanding that Facebook and Twitter reinstate affected accounts and explain their actions:

The removed content and suspended accounts on both Instagram and Twitter are involved in documenting and reporting what is happening in Sheikh Jarrah, as well as denouncing Israel’s policies of ethnic cleansing, apartheid and persecution. These violations are not limited to Palestinian users, but also affect activists around the world who are using social media to raise awareness about the grave situation in Sheikh Jarrah.

Nadim Nashif, founder and CEO of 7amleh, one of the letter’s signatories, said the digital rights organization had received approximately 200 cases of social media censorship related to the recent events in Palestine. However, he believes the actual number could be well into the thousands, as many users experiencing censorship may not report it.

When reached for comment, a Twitter spokesperson said “Our automated systems took enforcement action on a small number of accounts in error by an automated spam filter.”

“We are expeditiously reversing this action to reinstate access to the affected accounts, some of which have already been reinstated,” Twitter said.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, responded to requests for comment from MintPress by issuing a statement that reads in part:

We know there have been several issues that have impacted people’s ability to share on our apps, including a technical bug that affected Stories around the world, and an error which temporarily restricted content from being viewed on the Al Aqsa mosque hashtag page. While both issues have been fixed, they never should have happened in the first place. We’re so sorry to everyone who felt they couldn’t bring attention to important events, or who felt this was a deliberate suppression of their voice. This was never our intention.

Corporate and government collaborative censorship

As previously reported by MintPress, social media suppression of Palestinian media is not a new phenomenon. 7amleh’s research unveiled significant cooperation between social media behemoths and Israel in targeting Palestinian content: According to a 2020 7amleh report on the systematic erasure of Palestinian content, the Israeli Ministry of Justice’s Cyber Unit is responsible for submitting removal requests to tech companies based on purported violations of domestic law and the companies’ community guidelines.

7amleh wrote in their report:

The Israeli Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked, stated that ‘Facebook, Google, and YouTube are complying with up to 95% of Israel’s requests to delete content that the Israeli government says incites Palestinian violence.’ This shows a significant focus on Palestinian content and efforts to label Palestinian political speech as incitement to violence.

The Israeli government and non-governmental organizations also encourage citizens to participate in these censorship efforts by making their own content removal requests with regard to Palestinian information.

“The big issue of the voluntary takedowns is that there aren’t any legal or bureaucratic procedures to clarify them,” Nashif said.

In 2019, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) filed a joint petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice against the Cyber Unit on the grounds its mechanisms violate the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and due process. Last month, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected that petition.

Nashif could not confirm that Israel’s Cyber Unit is behind the latest alleged censorship. But through Adalah and ACRI’s use of the Freedom of Information Law, 7amleh knows the government entity made more than 15,000 requests last year to social media platforms. Nashif explained:

We don’t have evidence about what’s happened in the last week because neither the Cyber Unit nor Facebook is transparent about the takedowns. But it’s clear from following them, researching their policies, speaking with people working in Facebook and from the different appeals in the court against the Cyber Unit, we know that this is obviously happening.”

Escalating violence, growing grassroots action

Tensions in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine have intensified in recent days. At the time of writing, Israeli airstrikes have killed 87 Gazan Palestinians, including 18 children, and rocket fire from Hamas, the resistance movement governing Gaza, has killed six Israelis and one Indian national. More than 530 Palestinians have been injured and 28 Israelis wounded.

Israeli forces have fired skunk water and stun grenades at crowds demonstrating against the expulsions of Sheikh Jarrah residents. Armed groups of Israelis are currently storming Palestine’s streets—chanting “Death to Arabs,” destroying Palestinian properties, and attacking Palestinians.

Palestinians carry the body of a child found in the rubble home destroyed by a precision Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, May 13, 2021. Abdel Kareem Hana | AP

A relative mourns over the bodies of four young brothers from the Tanani family killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, May 14, 2021. Khalil Hamra | AP

A wounded boy lies on a stretcher following an Israeli attack in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, May 10, 2021. Mohammed Ali | AP

An paramedic checks the blood pressure of a young Israeli girl after her building was hit by a rocket in Ashkelon, May 12, 2021. Tsafrir Abayov | AP

The body of Israeli soldier Omer Tabib,21, killed by an anti-tank missile near Gaza, is carried during his funeral. Sebastian Scheiner | AP

The Israeli Supreme Court postponed a court hearing on the possible dispossession facing Sheikh Jarrah families, including the El-Kurds. The court is expected to set a new date in 30 days.

While the Israeli authorities continue crushing Palestinian dissent on the ground, Nashif said Palestinian voices remain silenced online as well.

“Our feeling is that it’s less now because we are getting fewer requests to appeal. But it is still happening,” Nashif said, referring to how the Israeli Cyber Unit, artificial intelligence, and pro-Israel internet communities like Act.IL are all part of the campaign to diminish the Palestinian perspective on social media.

“You have to understand that this is a fight on narrative,” Nashif said. “There is a strong attempt to suppress the Palestinian narrative.”

mintpressnews.com

By Miko PELED

As the holy month of Ramadan comes to a close, it is becoming clear that the violence against Palestinians in Jerusalem has been ramped up in a coordinated effort by the Israeli government, the Jerusalem municipality, the Israeli police, and violent Zionist gangs.

These latest events must be seen in the larger context of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in general, and of Jerusalem in particular. They should also be seen in the context of internal Israeli politics. Jerusalem is burning and Israeli politicians go on about their business of mud-slinging as if this was not their problem and not a single one thinks anything is wrong with the way the Israeli authorities are handling the situation.

Sheikh Jarrah

That the assault on the residents of the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jerrah — which holds a particularly important historic, cultural and political significance to the city — is happening at this particular time is not a coincidence.

The neighborhood is home to the Orient House, which, aside from being a symbol of Palestinian independence in the city, is perhaps the most impressive home built in the neighborhood and one of the finest in Jerusalem.

Sheikh Jerrah is also home to Dar Al-Tifl Al-Arabi — established by the remarkable Hind Al-Husseini, originally as a school and boarding house for orphans who survived the Zionist massacre in the village of Deir Yassin. Today it still functions as a school and it stands as a constant reminder of the Zionist atrocities and Palestinian resilience.

Pushing out Palestinians and allowing settlers to take their homes is always good for politics, particularly if it sparks “violence.” Now the authorities can show the Israeli people that they know how to deal with the “Arabs.”

The town of Silwan, also known as Wadi Hilweh, sits right outside the Old City. It has been a victim to a violent and particularly brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing, violence, and destruction. For years the residents of Silwan have been subjected to destruction of their homes and evictions so that Settlers may take over and excavations may take place. Needless to say, the people who had been evicted and whose homes were destroyed or taken received no compensation.

Ramadan and the upcoming “Jerusalem Day” celebrations always mean violence against the Silwan’s residents.

The Old City of Jerusalem

Zionists do not recognize the fact that the city of Jerusalem, and particularly the Old City, has for the better part of 2,000 years been a majority Muslim and an Arab city. The culture, architecture, monuments, and the residents of the city are mostly Muslim and Arab as well, with several minority communities coexisting alongside them, including a small and impoverished Jewish community that lived within the Jewish Quarter.

In the aftermath of the Israeli assault of 1967, East Jerusalem along with the Old City fell into Zionist hands. Since then, the State of Israel has been engaged in a massive campaign to boost the Zionist mythology, which claims a connection between Zionists and the biblical King David.

The city’s Jewish Quarter has been expanded and built to a point where it is an eyesore in what is otherwise a uniquely beautiful ancient city. As Zionists have done throughout Palestine, in Jerusalem, too, they have evicted Palestinians from their homes so that Jewish settlers can take their place.

To make things worse, there is a massive Israeli military and police presence in the city. Their role is to intimidate Palestinians and embolden settlers, creating a tense environment where it is dangerous to be a Palestinian. On top of this, in an effort to drive out Palestinian merchants who have had stores in the Old City for generations, international and Israeli tour guides who have Israeli licenses to conduct tours in the city, instruct tourists not to shop in Palestinian-owned stores, only in stores that are Jewish-owned.

Laylat al-Qadr

Laylat-al-Qadr is considered to be among the holiest nights in the Islamic calendar. It falls within the last ten days of Ramadan. It is believed that it was the night when the first verses of the Holy Qur’an were revealed to the Prophet Muhammad. As these words are being written, this night is being observed throughout the Muslim world, with worshippers filling local mosques for long sessions of worship and reflection that often run well into the night.

In Palestine, worshipers from all parts of the country travel to Jerusalem to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque. This year, however, the Israeli police have blocked roads, denied entry, and forcibly attacked worshipers within the Al-Aqsa Mosque itself. Palestinian medics report that at least 180 Palestinians have been hurt in the violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including 80 who were hospitalized.

Israeli forces clashing with worshipers in Jerusalem inevitably leads to Palestinian resistance and, more often than not, to Palestinian casualties. During the Holy Month of Ramadan, and particularly on this night, it can lead to disaster.

Jerusalem Day pogroms

Jerusalem Day, the day when Zionists celebrate the 1967 conquest of the city, is upon us. This year it follows (or rather is a continuation of) the terrorizing of Palestinians by Israeli authorities and armed Zionist gangs.

Rafi Perets — Israel’s minister for Jerusalem affairs, a neo-fascist, and member of the Religious-Zionist movement — made no comment at all about the violent events happening in the city. He says that he is excited to prepare for the “celebrations” of Jerusalem Day. This is a day where Zionist gangs raid the Old City and terrorize Palestinian residents and merchants in what can only be described as a psychotic celebration of conquest and destruction.

Having experienced the so-called “celebrations” within the Old City of Jerusalem, I am horrified to think what they could bring in 2021, as Israeli youth march through the city’s narrow alleyways chanting “death to Arabs” and “expel the Arabs.”

All it takes is a spark

For close to one hundred years, Zionists have been stealing Palestinian land, claiming that Jews had once lived where the Palestinians now reside and it is, therefore, permissible to evict them and take their homes and land. This is the case in Sheikh Jerrah, in Silwan, and it is the case in all of Jerusalem, and indeed all of Palestine.

The State of Israel, with its politicians vying for popularity and its armed Zionist gangs, will not rest until every Palestinian leaves Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa compound is in ruins. This will be their “mission accomplished” moment.

Images of Israeli forces shooting gas grenades and rubber-coated bullets within the Al-Aqsa compound and inside the walls of the mosque itself leave no doubt that an “accidental” fire could bring down the ancient Mosque, and it would no accident. As these words are being written, there is every reason to believe the tragic (and seemingly unbelievable) scenario that one of Jerusalem’s holiest sites, and one of the world’s most revered monuments, could soon lay ruined in ashes as Zionist forces smile in satisfaction.

mintpressnews.com

There has been considerable controversy regarding Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s Republican National Convention address pre-recorded at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem and aired last Tuesday night. As usual however, the discussion, if one might dignify it using such a term, has been partisan in nature and focused on issues that one might consider to be of secondary importance. The perceived problems for Democrats and their media allies have been first of all the inappropriateness of a Secretary of State getting involved at all in an electoral campaign and also the possible illegality of overseas Embassy money and resources being used in support of a political speech. Misuse of government property is, perhaps not coincidentally, a charge also being leveled against President Donald Trump for his use of the White House as a prop in his final address to the convention.

To be sure, the money issue can be fixed by the Republican National Committee reimbursing the federal government proportionate to the expenses incurred by Pompeo on his trip for the actual costs associated with the speech. The other issue, which effectively comes down to enforcement of the Hatch Act prohibiting government employees from engaging in political activity, is admittedly more difficult, and it also runs contrary to the tradition that the Secretary of State represents the entire country and should avoid participating in explicitly partisan events. Congress’s Oversight committee is currently looking into the options for responding to the Pompeo speech, though it is already clear that it will turn out to be the usual partisan political finger pointing exercise.

Pompeo started out by stating how Donald Trump’s policies had made every American, including his own family, safer. He then went on to provide the evidence, how among “bold initiatives” all over the world in foreign policy “The president has held China accountable for covering up the China virus and allowing it to spread death and economic destruction in America and around the world and he will not rest until justice is done.” Pompeo then went on to give Trump top marks for brokering the historic “peace deal” between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. He enthused that “This is a deal that our grandchildren will read about in their history books.”

Pompeo also praised other foreign policy “successes” to include the assassination of Iranian General and “terrorist” Qassim Soleimani and the “defeat” of ISIS, both of which are, to put it mildly, greatly exaggerated. But he saved his best news for last, praising how President Trump had moved the U.S. Embassy to “this city of God” the “rightful capital of the Jewish homeland, Jerusalem.” It was inter alia an in-your-face show of support for Israel, which was the one foreign country praised by multiple speakers on every night of the Republican convention.

If the underlying issue is that Pompeo was clearly in a political mode when praising Donald Trump and his policies, then it should be observed that the Jerusalem address differs little from what Pompeo has said on a score of occasions in Washington and elsewhere. That he made the comments to a narrow audience drawn from one political party is disturbing, but it could still be framed as a discussion of foreign policy before a gathering of Americans. And as for possible consequences, Pompeo and Trump would certainly ignore any actions initiated by inspectors general in the State Department and executive branch who might try to sanction the Secretary based on “political” comments that are sandwiched into what will be described as a foreign policy briefing. Pompeo has in fact already fired one State Department inspector general who was reportedly investigating the Secretary’s spending on gatherings that were political in nature. The House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Eliot Engel also is working on a motion to hold Pompeo in contempt for his refusal to respond to subpoenas over his “transparently political misuse of Department resources.”

An additional complaint about the speech has been the fundamentalist Christian content, which, though not in any way illegal, was regarded by many as unseemly. But that, it might seem, is part of the more significant issues raised by the content and venue for the address. Pompeo’s trip to Jerusalem was timed to coincide with the Republican conference. It was not just coincidence that he was in Israel and was able to photo-op his shaking of the hand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, guarantee the Jewish state’s security and appear on the big screen at the convention with Jerusalem behind him. It was, in short, once again playing the Israel card to raise the enthusiasm level of the GOP’s most loyal constituency, the Christian Zionists. And to ensure that the message was received, it was delivered by the Trump administration’s leading Christian Zionist, Mike Pompeo.

But the ultimate irony is that the presentation by Pompeo was essentially a bit of theater, relying on a fraudulent rendition of America’s hypothetical foreign policy successes under Donald Trump. Trump’s campaign against China is very much a work-in-progress that could have a very serious downside, while simultaneously the relationship with the Kremlin, involving per Pompeo “deterring Russian aggression,” has become worse than it was when the Cold War ended. Meanwhile America’s European allies regard Trump and Pompeo as dangerous sociopaths.

And the “Deal of the Century” agreement between Israel and the UAE is already in tatters, with UAE representatives canceling a meeting after learning that the Jewish state has been pressuring Pompeo and the White House to block any sale of advanced F-35 fighter aircraft to the Arab state to “preserve Israel’s military advantage.” The agreement was a sham in any event, intended to give Trump a “victory” to help his electoral prospects at the expense of the hapless Palestinians, and no other Arab states, with the possible exception of basket case Sudan, appear willing to follow the UAE’s lead.

Since the so-called agreement, the Israeli air force has reverted to normal, pounding targets in both Lebanon and Syria, very little of which is being reported in the U.S. media. Nor have accounts of American provocations against Russian military personnel in Syria made the front pages, which, given the danger involved, is probably where they should be if the media were in any way responsible. Indeed, one has to go to the Grayzone to learn just to what extent both of America’s leading political parties are itching for more intervention in Syria to increase pressure on Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

Unfortunately, the message coming from Pompeo in Jerusalem is not just an isolated political gambit. The United States of America has become the instigator and sustainer of a disproportionate share of global violence. With a hotly contested election coming up, there may be some hope that the brutal foreign policy prevailing since 9/11 will change, but, unfortunately, the reality is that in Washington some things will always remain the same.