Who the hell said it did. They clearly use them to identify people.
Zion and the Art of Armageddon
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They do.
Pegasus has been an all pervasive presence for many years now.
Pegasus, which can seize control of a phone’s microphone and camera and access documents, made headlines when a 2021 leak suggested there were about 50,000 potential victims of the malware around the world, many of them dissidents, journalists and activists.
Media reports but no doubt the US will be asked about it. Benjamin and others are disgusted suggesting there may be some truth in it.
I was also thinking of Lavender. Mobile phones can cause it to reach decisions about a particular person.
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I wonder what some politicians etc clicked on to get the other package installed??????
Anyway. When Palestine tried to obtain statehood via the security council the US who vetoed it said if they hadn't they would have had to cease arms supply to Israel under their law. Odd I thought.
AlJ had a UN consultant on who hoped they wouldn't veto it. He sort of explained why they did. It appears that supplying arms to one UN country that is fighting another UN one just isn't on. Once in the rules are the rules. They have to be peaceful. He did mention that arms supply to Gaza would still be a problem and would need to be stopped but also that conflict solutions can be forced. He doesn't see any chance of an Israeli gov forming that wont demand their solution. He also pointed out that the US has put itself in a rather odd situation that isn't doing their reputation much good. He also feels that Gaza will interfere with diplomatic relationships between Israel and other Arab states. Those previously haven't been too bad but fall short on recognition which is what the US wants for Israel. He also thinks that the reason the US doesn't want to get into a war with Iran relates to the same aspect and suspects that Israel's embassy attack was aimed at achieving that.That attack is against the rules.
Anyway. When Palestine tried to obtain statehood via the security council the US who vetoed it said if they hadn't they would have had to cease arms supply to Israel under their law. Odd I thought.
AlJ had a UN consultant on who hoped they wouldn't veto it. He sort of explained why they did. It appears that supplying arms to one UN country that is fighting another UN one just isn't on. Once in the rules are the rules. They have to be peaceful. He did mention that arms supply to Gaza would still be a problem and would need to be stopped but also that conflict solutions can be forced. He doesn't see any chance of an Israeli gov forming that wont demand their solution. He also pointed out that the US has put itself in a rather odd situation that isn't doing their reputation much good. He also feels that Gaza will interfere with diplomatic relationships between Israel and other Arab states. Those previously haven't been too bad but fall short on recognition which is what the US wants for Israel. He also thinks that the reason the US doesn't want to get into a war with Iran relates to the same aspect and suspects that Israel's embassy attack was aimed at achieving that.That attack is against the rules.
Quick question, do these same rules that have to be obeyed not apply to Iran or Russia?
Actually they do seem to have but you will need to think very carefully about it.
The US-based Axios news site on Saturday reported that Washington was planning to impose sanctions on Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, which has operated in the occupied West Bank, though the Israeli military said it was not aware of any such measures. (Perhaps they should listen to their Fuhrer who said...) “If anyone thinks they can impose sanctions on a unit of the [Israeli army] – I will fight it with all my strength,” Israeli media also identified the unit expected to be targeted as Netzah Yehuda – an infantry battalion founded roughly a quarter of a century ago to incorporate ultra-Orthodox Jewish men into the military. (I don't get it. I thought the Ultras were exempt from army duty? I hope their ammo is kosher.) [Anthony] Blinken said on Friday that he made “determinations” regarding accusations that Israel violated a set of US laws that prohibit providing military assistance to individuals or security force units that commit gross violations of human rights.
Separately, on Sunday, Israeli Labour Party leader Merav Michaeli called for dismantling the Netzah Yehuda army unit, saying it is killing Palestinians “for no real reason”. “The sanctions are an acknowledgment of the reality and an understanding that Israel’s conduct in the territories cannot continue,” Michaeli said on X. “The violent and corrupt conduct of the Netzah Yehuda battalion and those around it has been known for years, and nothing has been done to stop it.”
Earlier this week, the ProPublica investigative news organisation reported that a special US Department of State panel known as the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum had recommended months ago to Blinken that multiple Israeli military and police units be disqualified from receiving US aid, after allegations of human rights violations. The incidents that were the subject of allegations took place in the occupied West Bank and mostly occurred before Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, the outlet said.
Al Jazeera
It's just an excercise in signalling a virtuous stance on Israeli war crimes, though. Palestinians see right through American sanctions on Israel.
Separately, on Sunday, Israeli Labour Party leader Merav Michaeli called for dismantling the Netzah Yehuda army unit, saying it is killing Palestinians “for no real reason”. “The sanctions are an acknowledgment of the reality and an understanding that Israel’s conduct in the territories cannot continue,” Michaeli said on X. “The violent and corrupt conduct of the Netzah Yehuda battalion and those around it has been known for years, and nothing has been done to stop it.”
Earlier this week, the ProPublica investigative news organisation reported that a special US Department of State panel known as the Israel Leahy Vetting Forum had recommended months ago to Blinken that multiple Israeli military and police units be disqualified from receiving US aid, after allegations of human rights violations. The incidents that were the subject of allegations took place in the occupied West Bank and mostly occurred before Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7, the outlet said.
Al Jazeera
It's just an excercise in signalling a virtuous stance on Israeli war crimes, though. Palestinians see right through American sanctions on Israel.
The IDF group mentioned are ultra's who have volunteered. They have increased in number. Some years ago the US complained about them and they were moved to the Golan Heights away from Palestinians - I assume, Seems they are now involved in the fighting.
It seems the Americans have finally taken accounts of them executing Palestinians in cold blood seriously.
Maybe they'll get round to other evidence of war crimes sometime.
(not going to hold my breath, though.)
David Leitch, in a book published in 1963, The Age of Austerity, tells how an Irgun member recalled that he came on a mission to London in 1948 to kill Ernest Bevin. He said he "used a three-pronged fish hook to fasten a bomb under the foreign secretary's seat on the government frontbench in the course of a guided tour [of the House of Commons]. It remained there for the month of December 1948, but failed to go off." So, Zionist plots are not that new to the UK.
Dr Anne Deighton
Another piece of evidence against the Zionist terrorists which the Dedicated Followers of Fascism would rather ignore.
Israel has yet to present evidence backing its allegations that employees of U.N. relief agency UNRWA are affiliated with terrorist organizations, said an independent review published Monday. The report, commissioned by the U.N. and led by former French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, revealed that UNRWA regularly shared lists of its employees with Israel for vetting purposes. It also noted that since 2011, the Israeli government has not raised any concerns about UNRWA staff based on these lists.
Politico
And the Zionists managed to deny $450 million of vital aid to Palestinians since making the allegations in February without a shred of evidence. FillyBoy and his Fascist followers must be so proud.
Politico
And the Zionists managed to deny $450 million of vital aid to Palestinians since making the allegations in February without a shred of evidence. FillyBoy and his Fascist followers must be so proud.
The discovery of a mass grave inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip this week has been met with grief and horror from Palestinians and has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and calls for a transparent and credible investigation. More than 300 bodies have been uncovered so far from the hospital after Israeli forces withdrew on April 7. The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday said more bodies were found at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest health facility, which the rights body said was “an empty shell” after a two-week Israeli siege ended there on April 1.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman with the UN’s human rights office, said some of the bodies found at the Khan Younis hospital were “found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes”. In Washington, US Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel described the discovery of mass graves as “incredibly troubling”, adding that US officials asked the Israeli government for information. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement condemned “the continued and unchecked heinous war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, the latest of which is the mass graves discovered in the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis”.
“Let’s be clear, the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” said UN human rights chief Volker Turk, “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law.”
Al Jazeera
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman with the UN’s human rights office, said some of the bodies found at the Khan Younis hospital were “found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes”. In Washington, US Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel described the discovery of mass graves as “incredibly troubling”, adding that US officials asked the Israeli government for information. The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement condemned “the continued and unchecked heinous war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, the latest of which is the mass graves discovered in the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis”.
“Let’s be clear, the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,” said UN human rights chief Volker Turk, “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law.”
Al Jazeera
In Israel, the far right is increasingly influential in politics, with a government reliant for its existence on a settler movement driving an ever-more extreme agenda. Analysts point out that settler and ultra-right-wing voices have come to dominate the cabinet, providing legal and political cover for even more expansion into internationally recognised Palestinian territory, and underpinning much of the ferocity of Israel’s war on Gaza.
As their numbers and political support have grown, settlers have become more confident, attacking Palestinian villages in well-armed and coordinated raids, occasionally with military support, and evicting Palestinian villagers. In tandem with the expansion of the settlements has been a wider rightward drift across Israeli society, which saw the country elect its most right-wing parliament or Knesset in its history in November 2022.
Among its members are extreme-right provocateur Itamar Ben-Gvir – convicted of incitement in 2007 – who acts as national security minister, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose claims to Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank run counter to international law. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, members of the right-wing coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speak to a growing constituency characterised as “messianic” in its approach to Palestinians and their land, according to analysts.
“The US has played a significant role in this rightward shift by ensuring Israel’s impunity for relentless illegal settlement building, thereby undercutting those within Israeli politics who warned of the consequences of unfettered expansionism,” Rahman said. “This demonstrated to the Israeli public there would be no penalty for supporting those in Israel who want all the land ‘between the river and the sea’.”
As of March of this year, 7,350 Palestinians had been arrested by Israeli forces across the West Bank, many without charge and with no hope of due process. “It’s not just about the present, it’s about the future,” Lurie-Pardes said. “Forty years ago, around 10 percent of school leavers described themselves as [followers of] Orthodox [Judaism]. That’s now 40 percent. For many, especially the young, life is better there. They have better infrastructure, better housing. They’re also much cheaper,” Lurie-Pardes said. “However,” she noted, “it had never really been especially religious. That element only really entered the political mainstream after the 1967 war. From that point, the idea developed that territorial expansion was part of messianic redemption took hold as a specific theology among certain religious Jews.
Nevertheless, while the US may oppose settlements on paper, the Israeli government publicly embraced the settler mission of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in June of last year, overturning legislation that had stood for 27 years, and giving Smotrich effective control of the expanded and accelerated settlement-building process. Netanyahu himself has repeatedly rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, and has presented himself as a bulwark against Palestinian self-determination. At a “Settlement Brings Security” conference in Jerusalem in January, around a third of Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers, as well as up to 15 additional Knesset members, including members of his own nationalist Likud Party, walked past a large map of Gaza with a bold star of David emblazoned above it.
Al Jazeera
As their numbers and political support have grown, settlers have become more confident, attacking Palestinian villages in well-armed and coordinated raids, occasionally with military support, and evicting Palestinian villagers. In tandem with the expansion of the settlements has been a wider rightward drift across Israeli society, which saw the country elect its most right-wing parliament or Knesset in its history in November 2022.
Among its members are extreme-right provocateur Itamar Ben-Gvir – convicted of incitement in 2007 – who acts as national security minister, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, whose claims to Palestinian territory in the occupied West Bank run counter to international law. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, members of the right-wing coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, speak to a growing constituency characterised as “messianic” in its approach to Palestinians and their land, according to analysts.
“The US has played a significant role in this rightward shift by ensuring Israel’s impunity for relentless illegal settlement building, thereby undercutting those within Israeli politics who warned of the consequences of unfettered expansionism,” Rahman said. “This demonstrated to the Israeli public there would be no penalty for supporting those in Israel who want all the land ‘between the river and the sea’.”
As of March of this year, 7,350 Palestinians had been arrested by Israeli forces across the West Bank, many without charge and with no hope of due process. “It’s not just about the present, it’s about the future,” Lurie-Pardes said. “Forty years ago, around 10 percent of school leavers described themselves as [followers of] Orthodox [Judaism]. That’s now 40 percent. For many, especially the young, life is better there. They have better infrastructure, better housing. They’re also much cheaper,” Lurie-Pardes said. “However,” she noted, “it had never really been especially religious. That element only really entered the political mainstream after the 1967 war. From that point, the idea developed that territorial expansion was part of messianic redemption took hold as a specific theology among certain religious Jews.
Nevertheless, while the US may oppose settlements on paper, the Israeli government publicly embraced the settler mission of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich in June of last year, overturning legislation that had stood for 27 years, and giving Smotrich effective control of the expanded and accelerated settlement-building process. Netanyahu himself has repeatedly rejected the idea of a Palestinian state, and has presented himself as a bulwark against Palestinian self-determination. At a “Settlement Brings Security” conference in Jerusalem in January, around a third of Netanyahu’s cabinet ministers, as well as up to 15 additional Knesset members, including members of his own nationalist Likud Party, walked past a large map of Gaza with a bold star of David emblazoned above it.
Al Jazeera
Is it not time to pronounce Israel a rogue state [since] it has violated all international norms and laws throughout its genocidal war on Gaza?
For example, according to international humanitarian law, states and non-state groups engaged in an armed conflict are required to protect civilians, medical staff and humanitarian aid workers and ensure unrestricted passage of humanitarian aid. Israel has heeded none of these rules. We know that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed since October 7 have been civilians. This includes more than 14,000 children. Already back in January, Oxfam International reported that the daily death rate in Gaza was higher than all other major conflicts in the 21st century.
Israel’s tactics on the battlefield have been indefensible. Israeli forces have been insistent in their targeting of medical facilities in Gaza. Throughout the campaign, Israel has conducted more than 900 strikes on healthcare facilities, killing at least 700 medical professionals. Currently, only 10 out of 36 hospitals are partly functional in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities have claimed that hospitals in Gaza were being used as military bases by Hamas. This was the official justification for Israel’s two-week siege of al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest and most advanced medical facility. When Israeli forces eventually withdrew from the complex, witnesses described dystopian scenes of “human heads eaten by crows, unidentified and decomposing body parts, and hundreds of corpses piled up and buried in mass graves”.
Israeli forces have similarly targeted aid workers. There was global outrage and condemnation in early April after seven workers from the food relief organisation World Central Kitchen were killed in a “targeted Israeli strike”. But that attack was simply one of many. Gaza has been the most dangerous place for humanitarian workers for more than six months, and close to 200 workers have been killed thus far. Israel has also restricted aid flows into Gaza – this despite warnings from aid agencies that famine is imminent. In violation of Article 79 of the additional protocols of the Geneva Conventions that require that journalists be protected as civilians in a war zone, it has systematically attacked journalists and media personnel in Gaza, including their family members. In fact, 75 percent of all journalist killings in 2023 were in Gaza as a consequence of Israel’s military campaign. Israeli forces have also reduced all Palestinian universities in Gaza to rubble.
Numbers do not lie either. That Israel is largely isolated was self-evident in the voting tally for the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a ceasefire back in December. While 153 countries voted for the resolution, only 10, including Israel and the US, voted against it. In the last UNSC vote on March 25, 2024, 14 out of 15 members voted in favour of the resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Notably, the US chose to abstain rather than do what it usually does – veto any resolution that seeks to restrain Israeli actions against Palestinians.
Israel is able to persist with its rogue conduct and obstinate circumvention of international laws, regulations, and norms because it has strong, all-season allies like the US in the West. But labelling Israel as a rogue actor and treating it as such, is an essential condition for any punitive actions the international community can take against a country that has violated the rights of Palestinians for 75 years with utmost impunity.
With countries like Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, and Belgium suspending arms sales to Israel, it would seem that its rogue nature is gaining some recognition. Eventually, one would hope that supporting Israel would become too much of a liability, even for the US, and this would make way for Palestinian liberation.
Somdeep Sen@Al Jazeera
For example, according to international humanitarian law, states and non-state groups engaged in an armed conflict are required to protect civilians, medical staff and humanitarian aid workers and ensure unrestricted passage of humanitarian aid. Israel has heeded none of these rules. We know that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians killed since October 7 have been civilians. This includes more than 14,000 children. Already back in January, Oxfam International reported that the daily death rate in Gaza was higher than all other major conflicts in the 21st century.
Israel’s tactics on the battlefield have been indefensible. Israeli forces have been insistent in their targeting of medical facilities in Gaza. Throughout the campaign, Israel has conducted more than 900 strikes on healthcare facilities, killing at least 700 medical professionals. Currently, only 10 out of 36 hospitals are partly functional in the Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities have claimed that hospitals in Gaza were being used as military bases by Hamas. This was the official justification for Israel’s two-week siege of al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest and most advanced medical facility. When Israeli forces eventually withdrew from the complex, witnesses described dystopian scenes of “human heads eaten by crows, unidentified and decomposing body parts, and hundreds of corpses piled up and buried in mass graves”.
Israeli forces have similarly targeted aid workers. There was global outrage and condemnation in early April after seven workers from the food relief organisation World Central Kitchen were killed in a “targeted Israeli strike”. But that attack was simply one of many. Gaza has been the most dangerous place for humanitarian workers for more than six months, and close to 200 workers have been killed thus far. Israel has also restricted aid flows into Gaza – this despite warnings from aid agencies that famine is imminent. In violation of Article 79 of the additional protocols of the Geneva Conventions that require that journalists be protected as civilians in a war zone, it has systematically attacked journalists and media personnel in Gaza, including their family members. In fact, 75 percent of all journalist killings in 2023 were in Gaza as a consequence of Israel’s military campaign. Israeli forces have also reduced all Palestinian universities in Gaza to rubble.
Numbers do not lie either. That Israel is largely isolated was self-evident in the voting tally for the United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a ceasefire back in December. While 153 countries voted for the resolution, only 10, including Israel and the US, voted against it. In the last UNSC vote on March 25, 2024, 14 out of 15 members voted in favour of the resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Notably, the US chose to abstain rather than do what it usually does – veto any resolution that seeks to restrain Israeli actions against Palestinians.
Israel is able to persist with its rogue conduct and obstinate circumvention of international laws, regulations, and norms because it has strong, all-season allies like the US in the West. But labelling Israel as a rogue actor and treating it as such, is an essential condition for any punitive actions the international community can take against a country that has violated the rights of Palestinians for 75 years with utmost impunity.
With countries like Canada, the Netherlands, Japan, Spain, and Belgium suspending arms sales to Israel, it would seem that its rogue nature is gaining some recognition. Eventually, one would hope that supporting Israel would become too much of a liability, even for the US, and this would make way for Palestinian liberation.
Somdeep Sen@Al Jazeera
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