Crooked Bough News Round-up

— The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil: How the Israel Lobby Fueled a Campus Crackdown

 

at 3/13/25 9:46am

The detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist involved in organizing at Columbia University, is the result of more than a year of pro-Israeli think-tank propaganda and lobbying efforts to tie the students to Hamas and erode free speech protections in the United States. Since the first anti-war encampment at Columbia University last April, a network of pro-Israel organizations—including lobby groups, think tanks, and private security firms—has worked to dismantle the student protest movement. Their influence has been evident in the rapid and coordinated response to suppress demonstrations. Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s public claim that Khalil is a “Hamas supporter,” no evidence has been provided to substantiate the allegation. In fact, a White House official admitted in an interview with The Free Press that “the allegation here is not that [Khalil] was breaking the law.” The Trump administration has offered no evidence of illegal or violent activity to justify its efforts to deport Khalil, a Green Card holder. Instead, his removal appears rooted in political disagreement. Washington has made clear that any speech critical of Israel can be labeled as “pro-Hamas” and “antisemitic” without the need to substantiate such claims. This absence of evidence has been a defining characteristic of the broader campaign—driven by the Israel Lobby—to curtail First Amendment rights on college campuses. While Jewish student groups were among those leading last year’s anti-war encampments, the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters became a particular focus of political scrutiny. A central figure in this push has been the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a neoconservative think tank frequently cited as a source for alleged links between Hamas and SJP. The FDD’s argument hinges on the claim that the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), a major supporter of SJP chapters, has ties to individuals formerly associated with charities shuttered for allegedly financing terrorism. One such case, the Holy Land Foundation, resulted in convictions that have since been widely criticized as politically motivated. The FDD first presented its claims publicly in 2016, but they failed to gain traction, mainly due to a lack of substantive proof. Among its chief concerns was that “AMP does not have to file an IRS 990 form that would make its finances more transparent.” That critique is striking, given that the Quincy Institute recently revealed the FDD itself operates with dark money funding and holds a zero transparency rating. In May 2024, the Washington-based Atlantic Council suggested in an article that Iran was involved in the student protest movement. Corporate media quickly picked up on the claim and attempted to build a case around it. Yet, despite the steady stream of coverage, none of the reports were able to muster any real evidence to back up their accusation. Alex Karp, the CEO of Palantir Technologies—a company with deep ties to the CIA—has taken up a public crusade to reshape discourse on college campuses. His rationale for urgency is blunt: “If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any army in the West, ever.” Safra Catz, the Israeli-American CEO of Oracle and one of the highest-earning women in global business has also weighed in on the protests. When asked about the wave of student demonstrations, she framed the issue in starkly militaristic terms: The reason, in my personal opinion, why theyre out there is because they think Israel is weak. They think the Jews are weak, so they stand up strong. If Israel regains its deterrence capability and America regains their deterrence capability and is strong, they will disperse like they always do. Weve seen this pattern here in Israel—when the terrorists feel strong, theyre out in the streets. And when Israel comes in hard, theyre hiding under the floor.” Not only did Catz compare student actions in the United States, framed as part of a “resurgence of antisemitism,” to “terrorists,” but the Israeli-American businesswoman has also contributed to both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio’s political bids in the past. As CEO of Oracle, which owns OpenAI, Catz doubled her companys investment in Israel following October 7, 2023. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has repeatedly accused the U.S. student movement of antisemitism and supporting Hamas, has openly called for the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil. Pro-Israel groups insist that Khalil has ties to Hamas, yet even the Canary Mission—a site notorious for doxxing pro-Palestine university students—could not produce evidence beyond his participation in a protest chant. In its extensive profile on Khalil, the only supposed proof of “support for Hamas” was his involvement in a demonstration where the crowd chanted, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The site argues that the phrase is pro-Hamas solely because Hamas leader Khaled Mashal has used it in the past. One of the loudest voices behind the crackdown on campus protests is Trump’s UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik, who has openly boasted about her role in forcing the resignations of five university presidents. Even Columbia University’s decision to give in to pressure from pro-Israel lobbying groups did not shield it from White House retaliation. The administration still moved to strip $400 million in federal funding from the university, sending a clear warning to other institutions. This multi-pronged assault on free speech—built on baseless accusations of Hamas ties and antisemitism—is now being used to justify the deportation of a permanent U.S. resident whose wife and future child are American citizens. The campaign is part of a broader effort to erode First Amendment protections under the guise of national security. Feature photo | Demonstrators rally in support of Mahmoud Khalil in New York on March 12, 2025. The Palestinian student leader faces detention and deportation despite no evidence of legal wrongdoing following a pro-Israel lobbying campaign targeting campus protests. Photo | M10s/TheNews2/Cover Images via AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post The Case Against Mahmoud Khalil: How the Israel Lobby Fueled a Campus Crackdown appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, Alex Karp Palantir CIA, Canary Mission doxxing, Columbia University protests Israel lobby, dark money think tanks, Elise Stefanik university resignations, FDD campus crackdown, First Amendment campus protests, Mahmoud Khalil deportation, pro-Hamas allegations free speech, Safra Catz Oracle Israel]

— Professor at Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal is Former Israeli Spy

 

at 3/11/25 1:43pm

The professor at the center of the Columbia University deportation scandal is a former Israeli intelligence official, MintPress News can reveal. Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of the universitys School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), was abducted by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) Saturday for his role in organizing protests last year against Israels attack on Gaza. Khalils dean, Dr. Keren Yarhi-Milo, head of the School of International and Public Affairs, is a former Israeli military intelligence officer and official at Israels Mission to the United Nations. Yarhi-Milo played a significant role in drumming up public concern about a supposed wave of intolerable anti-Semitism sweeping over the campus, thereby laying the groundwork for the extensive crackdown on civil liberties that has followed the protests.   Spooks in Our Midst Before entering academia, Dr. Yarhi-Milo served as an officer and an intelligence analyst with the Israeli Defense Forces. Given that she was recruited into the intelligence services because of her ability to speak Arabic fluently, her job likely entailed surveilling the Arab population. After leaving the world of intelligence, she worked for Israels Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York. While there, she met and married her husband, Israels official United Nations spokesperson. Although she is now an academic, she has never left the world of international security, making the subject her area of expertise. She has made a point of trying to lift womens voices in the field. One of these was the then-U.S. Director of National Security, Avril Haines, whom she spoke with in 2023. But even though Khalil was a student in her school, she had nothing to say about his arrest. Indeed, rather than speak out on the issue (as activists have demanded), she instead chose this week to invite Naftali Bennett, prime minister of Israel from 2021 to 2022, to speak at Columbia. Students protesting Tuesdays event were condemned by university authorities for harassing Yarhi-Milo.   Unprecedented Protests, Unprecedented Repression Columbia was the epicenter of a massive protest movement across university campuses nationwide last year. It is estimated that at least eight percent of all American college students participated in demonstrations denouncing the genocidal attack on Gaza and calling on educational institutions to divest from Israel. The response was equally vast in its scale. Well over 3,000 protestors were arrested, including faculty members themselves. The nationwide movement began at Columbia on April 17, when a modest Gaza solidarity encampment was established. Protestors were shocked when university president Minouche Shafik immediately called in the New York Police Department – the first time the university had allowed police to suppress dissent on campus since the famous 1968 demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Mahmoud Khalil was among the leaders of the movement. The Syrian-born Palestinian refugee was willing to speak calmly and cogently to the press about the protests goals. A permanent resident of the United States, he was abducted by ICE on Saturday. ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come, President Trump stated. Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trumps ominous threat, announcing, We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported. In another clear threat, the Trump administration moved to cancel $400 million in funding to Columbia University, citing the institutions failure to sufficiently crack down on antisemitic incidents on campus. SHALOM, MAHMOUD. "ICE proudly apprehended and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Radical Foreign Pro-Hamas Student on the campus of @Columbia University. This is the first arrest of many to come." –President Donald J. Trump pic.twitter.com/gfuPd0tskf — The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 10, 2025 Khalils eight-month pregnant wife was initially told that he had been taken to a facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. In fact, he had been moved halfway across the country to a center in Jena, Louisiana. Journalist Pablo Manríquez of Migrant Insider explained that ICE often goes immigration judge shopping by putting detainees in detention centers under jurisdictions of courts that very rarely decide in favor of migrants. The very high-profile attempt to deport the holder of a Green Card because of political speech criticizing a foreign government has left many civil rights lawyers deeply worried. Alec Karakatsanis, for example, stated that Ive never seen a more clear-cut First Amendment violation, or a more flagrant government declaration of intent to violate blackletter law. The government does not claim he committed a crime, just that he held views that the government doesnt like about Israel. Bone chilling, he added.   Columbias Billionaire Pro-Israel Backers Much of Columbias funding comes from donations from billionaire benefactors. But those gifts come with strings attached. This became apparent in the wake of the protest movement, as many pro-Israel patrons demanded the university take action. Manufacturing magnate Robert Kraft, for example, publicly announced he was cutting his alma mater off from his lavish funding over its failure to effectively suppress the demonstrations. Hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman did the same, demanding that Columbias crazy kids have to be controlled. These kids evidently also included 61-year-old Jordanian professor Joseph Massad, whose views on the Middle East Cooperman found intolerable, and called for his firing. Soviet-born oligarch Len Blavatnik, meanwhile, urged police to hold the protestors to account. Between them, Kraft, Cooperman and Blavatnik are believed to have donated nearly $100 million to Columbia, giving them considerable influence over the political direction of the university. There were also voices from within the university clamoring for the violent suppression of the student movement. Assistant Professor of Business Management Shai Davidai, for example, denounced the protestors as Nazis and terrorists and called for the National Guard to be set upon the encampment, obliquely referencing the Kent State University Massacre while doing so. Davidai, an Israeli-American, served in the IDF and has publicly expressed his pride in doing so. Given its most recent addition, it appears unlikely that the School of International and Public Affairs will moderate its pro-Israel positions. In January, the school announced that Jacob Lew would join the faculty. Lew had just left his job as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel under the Biden administration, a role in which he facilitated American complicity in genocide, supplying Israel with weapons and providing it with diplomatic support for its efforts.   Defending Israel, Destroying Free Speech Longtime readers of MintPress News will be less surprised than many to hear that Israeli military intelligence officials hold such important positions in American public life. Previous MintPress investigations have uncovered giant networks of former Israeli spies working in top jobs in big tech and social media companies, including Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon. Even TikTok, often labeled a Chinese spying app, has hired former Israeli spies to run its affairs. And in October, we revealed that former Israeli spooks are writing Americas news, with multiple former agents working at top U.S. outlets, including CNN, Axios, and the New York Times. Perhaps, then, the fact that the dean of the very school at the center of a worldwide media storm is a former Israeli military intelligence officer should not be such a shock. But it remains a stark reminder of the level of extraordinary institutional bias in favor of Israel displayed across the United States. Feature photo | Keren Yarhi-Milo poses with Hillary Clinton during Clintons 2023 guest teaching stint at Columbia. Photo | Facebook | Hillary Clinton Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. The post Professor at Center of Columbia University Deportation Scandal is Former Israeli Spy appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Investigations, National, Top Story, academic institutional bias Israel, Columbia University protest deportation, free speech suppression universities, ICE political arrests academia, Israeli military ties academia, Keren Yarhi-Milo Israeli intelligence, Mahmoud Khalil ICE detention, pro-Israel donor influence Columbia, Robert Kraft Leon Cooperman donations, Trump administration campus crackdown]

— Sex, Politics, and Censorship: How a Sex Ed Organization Got Pulled Into the Israel-Palestine Conflict

 

at 3/10/25 12:35pm

In September 2024, MintPress News exposed how Project Shema, an Israel lobby group closely aligned with the notorious Anti-Defamation League (ADL), infiltrated U.S. public schools, seeking to inculcate pupils and teachers alike in liberal Zionist dogma and stifle debate and dissent on Tel Aviv’s deadly war on Gaza, under the bogus aegis of battling anti-Jewish hatred. Fast forward to today, and Project Shema has quietly trained its crosshairs on the unlikeliest of targets the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT). Readers would be forgiven for being unfamiliar with AASECT. Founded in 1967, the organization publishes peer-reviewed journals on sex education and therapy and maintains a directory of certified sexual health practitioners, helping connect those in need with appropriate assistance. Its membership runs to a few thousand people, comprising medical professionals, psychologists, marriage counselors, family planning specialists, lawyers, students, and others. While a highly respected institution in the field, AASECT is not on the mainstream radar and will be wholly unknown to many Americans. This begs the obvious question of how and why the organization ended up in the Israel lobby’s crosshairs. It is a deeply sordid tale, spelled out in often shocking detail in material provided to MintPress News by a whistleblower within AASECT, who wishes to remain anonymous. The documentation shows Project Shema inserting itself into the Association was the culmination of long-running, determined and intensely malign efforts by Zionists within the organization’s ranks to force AASECT to adopt a pro-Israel stance and neutralize internal Palestinian solidarity. Along the way, dissenting AASECT members were viciously attacked and ostracized, their concerns ignored, and the organization’s leadership successfully bullied again and again into capitulating to the excessive, unreasonable demands from Israel’s backers. At one stage, the Association’s president outright resigned due to the pressure. Ever since AASECT’s internal discussion platforms have been heavily moderated. Those speaking up for Palestine are censored, while Israeli propaganda talking points and unabashed Islamophobia abound without hindrance or rebuttal. While AASECT may be a niche entity, the details of how it was aggressively brought to heel by the Israel lobby are of enormous wider relevance. Evidently, no sphere of public or professional life is off-limits to Zionist penetration and corruption. The tawdry saga should serve as an urgent warning to all who are sympathetic to the Palestinians’ plight. “Safe spaces” to express solidarity are ever-shrinking in every sphere and your school, university, workplace, professional organization, or even social club could be next.   ‘Human Animals’ Among AASECT’s key membership selling points is a listserv, a private electronic mailing list providing a platform for networking, collaboration, sharing knowledge, and advertising employment opportunities. It was here, in the wake of Palestinian freedom fighters breaching Gaza’s concentration camp walls on October 7, 2023, that the seeds of the Association’s Zionist debasement were first sown. Nine days later, celebrity sex therapist Caleb Johnson fired off a post to the listserv, with a joint letter “directed towards the AASECT board” attached. Johnson’s accompanying description of the letter, signed by 26 other “dedicated” Association members, suggested it was a simple plea for AASECT higher-ups to issue a statement of “solidarity with our Israeli colleagues during these challenging times.” A fair request, one might argue but the letter’s content made clear Johnson et al. had a nakedly partisan, pro-Isael agenda. Concerns about the wellbeing of Israeli Association members were secondary to demands AASECT “raise its voice in unwavering support of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel”: History has taught us the enduring importance of the phrase ‘Never Again.’ On October 7, 2023, the world witnessed a horrific event, marking the largest single-day loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust…To choose not to act is, in itself, a powerful action. In this time of crisis, remaining silent would send a message of indifference. We urge you to issue a statement in support of Israel, our colleagues there, and the Jewish people’s right to live peacefully in their ancestral homeland.” There was no reference whatsoever to Israeli atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinians since October 7, let alone the decades prior. This was despite the genocidal intent of Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers being writ unambiguously large from the word go. On the evening of October 7, the Israeli leader ominously ordered Gaza’s 2.2 million Palestinian population to “get out now,” as “we will be everywhere and with all our might.” Two days later, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced a total blockade on Gaza: There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed…We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly…Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.” The call for AASECT to prove its commitment to the Israeli cause received voluble support from certain Association members. Not all were so enthused, however. Some drew attention to the listserv’s guidelines, which explicitly prohibit discussions of “political views or political opinions not related to sexuality education, counseling, and therapy.” Others were baffled by the proposition AASECT should take any public position at all on October 7. One suggested that concerned members simply issue personal or group statements without the associations involvement. Another wrote: What does it matter whether the organization writes a letter or not? What does the genocide occurring have to do with our mission and vision? How does such a letter make a difference? I truly do not understand why it’s important…You’ll need to help me to understand why certifying people in a skill related business profession has anything to do with taking action when those people experience a war. Why would they experience a letter as helpful?”   ‘Zionist Bully’ Contributors expressing such fair-minded queries and concerns were aggressively shouted down by hardcore backers of Israel within AASECT. Yet, the most repulsive brickbats were hurled at members who suggested any Association statement on the carnage in Gaza should take into consideration the organization’s “Palestinian colleagues,” who might be “affected by acts of violence.” One pro-Israel hardliner countered AASECT had no comrades in Gaza while manically charging “haters in Palestine…celebrate every Israeli murder by terrorism” and “want every Jew dead.” Elsewhere, an Israeli sexologist disgustingly chimed in: In the AASECT directory, there are 17 members in Israel. AASECT currently has no members in any of the Arab countries and territories, as far as I know. Why don’t we have any members in any of the very many Arab countries? Maybe because as a whole, they are not as advanced or liberal as we are.” The mildest pushback against these monstrous pronouncements elicited even more belligerent responses from AASECT’s pro-Israel ideologues. Their tone, language, and accusations were so frightful an “American Jew and an anti-Zionist” member described experiencing “emotional difficulty in response,” branding their rhetoric “antisemitic.” An anonymized message on the listserv from a concerned AASECT member that was shared with MintPress News The Association whistleblower informs MintPress News that the organization subsequently began purging all traces of Palestinian sympathy from the listserv due to pro-Israel members threatening to quit en masse and falsely alleging antisemitism. As one AASECT member told MintPress: People were making perfectly reasonable statements about Palestine and the humanity and dignity of Arabs and Muslims, only to be viciously verbally harassed by a gang of middle-aged white people. Why aren’t these bullies being held accountable for their actions? Why is AASECT acting as if there was real harm committed against them? There was no antisemitism in any of the listserv posts that got deleted. But shaded racism and xenophobia was somehow allowed in Zionist posts. All of this was disgusting and it’s still there.” Finally, on December 7, 2023, AASECT released a statement namely, that it didn’t take any position on October 7 or the Gaza genocide. Five days later, a “moderation committee” was instituted, meaning anything posted to the listserv was and remains vetted in advance in a blatant crackdown on dissent. According to the whistleblower, at least one prominent “Zionist bully” is part of this committee, while another became AASECT’s communications chief. Still dissatisfied one might say emboldened Israeli exceptionalists kept up the pressure on the Association’s board. An anonymized message posted to the listserv and shared with MintPress The mass backlash against the organization’s refusal to firmly side with Israel raged apace, and some members resigned very publicly. Meanwhile, the listserv became flooded with the promotion of “antisemitism” workshops and pro-Israel propaganda. On January 23, 2024, longtime AASECT president Dr. Rosalyn Dischiavo resigned, citing opaque personal reasons. The next month, the Association issued a follow-up statement, alleging “antisemitic and Islamophobic comments” were posted on the listserv and resolving to prevent further incidents. Come March that year, AASECT members sympathetic to Palestine had had enough. Dozens including many Jews and some who wished to remain anonymous, as they believed naming themselves would “[open] them to harm and removal” from Association committees signed off on a joint letter. It expressed “profound disappointment and frustration” with the organization’s “prolonged inaction” on “harassment and discrimination” from Zionist members, “disparate support for impacted communities within AASECT membership, and unbalanced enforcement of listserv guidelines:” The conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is not only misleading but also silences valid political discourse and dilutes the actual definition of antisemitism. We feel compelled to express our discomfort with what appears to be AASECT aligning itself closely with Zionism. Furthermore, we question the lack of acknowledgment of the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Recognizing the need for a ceasefire is more than a humanitarian imperative it’s a reflection of our organization’s commitment to promoting peace and justice.” A response came in June. AASECT’s new President, Dr. Lexx Brown-James, and the Association’s collective board of directors said they appreciated the dissenters’ “thoughtful and caring response to what you all are perceiving,” calling it “a true model of how to be in community.” An attached letter was purported to “address the points” the signatories had made, but its contents made no reference to a single argument or concern they raised, speaking only in vague terms about “maintaining ethical standards.” Israel and Zionism were unmentioned. Nonetheless, the dissenting letter did seem to have an impact. The next month, AASECT announced it would shutter its listserv altogether. “It’s clear they wanted to just silence the whole lot of us,” the whistleblower says. This was nonetheless reversed in August 2024, albeit only temporarily, “until our tech team, board, moderation committee have had a chance to implement a new forum,” the Association explained. The same communication promised exciting free training on “crucial topics” ahead, including “Understanding Jewish Identity and Antisemitism” and “Reproductive Justice and Gender-Based Violence in the Muslim Community.”   ‘Particularly Underwhelming’ Fast-forward to February 7 this year and all AASECT members were cordially invited to attend a free webinar, Disrupting Anti-Jewish Ideas in the Current Political Climate, scheduled for two weeks hence. It was led by Sophia McGee of Project Shema. Attendees were told they would learn “who Jews are, what antisemitism is, and how it operates” and “leave with a greater understanding of the Jewish community’s identities, lived experiences, and traumas, better prepared to be allies to the Jewish community.” A sex therapist who participated in the event subsequently wrote to their Association peers, expressing grave concerns about its content. They noted that McGee markedly pledged to avoid discussing issues related to the “Israel/Palestine ‘conflict,’” and she was true to her word. At no point did McGee make any reference at all to Israeli land theft, ethnic cleansing, illegal occupation, apartheid or mass repression and murder of Palestinians since 1947. Instead, “there was perpetual language that indicated Zionism is about Jewish right to self-determination.” While McGee claimed she didn’t endorse Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and opened up the floor for queries, unseen AASECT moderators controlled what was asked, and no participant appeared on camera or was able to speak directly. Numerous awkward questions the sex therapist submitted “about how Zionism has been weaponized and used to justify the occupation” of Palestinian lands, the necessity of “separating Jewish people from Zionism,” and whether narratives about self-determination served as “a defense or a side-step for ethnic cleansing” were ignored. Another attendee echoed their concerns and sentiments, voicing disappointment at “the lack of acknowledgment or discussion around Zionism and the occupation of Palestine.” They were also flummoxed by McGee’s claim that the Jewish right to self-determination “does not negate the right to self-determination for other people who share that historic homeland,” given Zionism is an inherently nationalist, supremacist political movement. Perhaps not coincidentally, McGee’s responses to questions regarding “the intersectionality of being Jewish and black” were said to be “particularly underwhelming.” Anonymized messages from concerned AASECT members about Project Shemas training They were, moreover, shocked to learn so many questions were unanswered and “hidden from view,” leading them to “wonder how many others were similarly overlooked or ignored.” In closing, they noted there was a pronounced lack of proposed “practical tools to actually combat antisemitism outside of actively listening and empathizing” during the webinar. In other words, take Zionists at each and every word without challenge. By contrast, “listening and empathizing” with Palestinians and their countless supporters worldwide is, of course, out of the question. Despite these glaring deficits, Project Shema has clearly upped its Hasbara game since delivering its first training days at U.S. public schools last year. Then, the organization framed its tutorials as apolitical in advance before blasting attendees with unrelenting pro-Zionist propaganda propounding the toxic lie that any and all criticism of Israel is antisemitic while extolling Tel Aviv’s supposed cultural and political virtues. Now, the same insidious script McGee delivered to AASECT members is being toured around U.S. universities. Where and what Project Shema will strike next is anyone’s guess. But the anonymous Association whistleblower is under no illusions that the organization’s poisonous tendrils will keep on extending ever further if AASECT’s wrecking by Zionist forces remains concealed from public view. The entire perverse rigmarole has moreover compelled them to sever their longstanding ties with the organization despite potential personal and professional costs involved. They hope others will draw lessons from their experience: This isn’t an isolated case. I’ve seen funding continually being taken away from organizations in my field speaking up against Israel, and others issue statements condemning only alleged Hamas atrocities. I don’t want to be associated with AASECT and their values, so I have not renewed my membership. My professional certification, which I spent a lot of time and money on, will expire. This is fine, I will be okay. I don’t want the record to show AASECT’s actions are innocent and we should continue giving them our respect, money, time, and trust.” AASECT was approached by MintPress News for comment but did not respond prior to publication. Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News Kit Klarenberg is an investigative journalist and MintPress News contributor exploring the role of intelligence services in shaping politics and perceptions. His work has previously appeared in The Cradle, Declassified UK, and Grayzone. Follow him on Twitter @KitKlarenberg. The post Sex, Politics, and Censorship: How a Sex Ed Organization Got Pulled Into the Israel-Palestine Conflict appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Investigations, National, Top Story, AASECT listserv moderation, ADL censorship tactics, free speech suppression academia, Israel lobby institutional influence, organizational neutrality debates, professional association bias, professional ethics conflicts, Project Shema AASECT, workplace political censorship, Zionism advocacy training]

— What To Us Is International Women’s Day?

 

at 3/10/25 12:34pm

This week, a special Project Censored episode: “What To Us Is International Women’s Day?,” a variation on the question asked by Frederick Douglass: What to the Slave is the 4th of July? March 8th is International Women’s Day, and while many will and do celebrate this day in revolutionary ways, the truth is that IWD like so many other holidays is often used to serve the vehemently anti-feminist goals of the architects of our oppression. So-called white feminism perpetuates the evils of white supremacy, colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and imperialism – but with a femme facade, pushing us to ask what to us is an international women’s day which doesn’t seek to dismantle the very systems that use, abuse & torment women across the US and the globe? Award-winning journalist Mnar Adley and organizer Afeni Evans will join Eleanor Goldfield for this special hour-long dive into the insidious machinations of white feminism, who gets violently othered and why, the internationalist demands of a revolutionary feminism, and what really to us, is – or could be – International Women’s Day?   Below is a Rough Transcript of the Interview with Mnar Adley Eleanor Goldfield: Thanks everyone for joining us at the Project Censored Radio Show. I’m your co host this week, Eleanor Goldfield, along with Mickey Huff. We’re very glad to welcome back to the program, Mnar Adley, who’s an award winning journalist, also the editor and founder and director of Mint Press News. Mnar, thanks so much for joining us. Mnar Adley: Thank you for having me, Eleanor. Eleanor Goldfield: Absolutely. So, I asked you on for a very specific reason today. March 8th is International Women’s Day. And while many might and will celebrate it in a revolutionary fashion, it’s really a kind of a co opted holiday in a lot of ways. A day to uphold many of the ills that women suffer under, whether that be a patriarchal white supremacist capitalist system or imperialism, colonialism. And so I wanted to start asking you about something that has been termed white feminism, and as Koa Beck, the author of the book White Feminism, put it, “White feminism is an ideology. It’s a type of feminism that takes up the politics of power without questioning them, by replicating patterns of white supremacy, capitalist greed, corporate ascension, and inhumane labor practices and exploitation, and deeming it empowering for women to practice these tenets as men always have.” So, with that, Mnar, as a Palestinian American and the first woman to wear hijab reporting the news in U.S. media, you’re obviously no stranger to finding yourself on the quote unquote wrong side of what the U.S. deems acceptable feminism. Could you talk a little bit about your experiences with that? Mnar Adley: Of course. Well, first I’d like to thank you, Eleanor, for having me on today. It’s always an honor to be speaking with you, with my sister in the struggle. You’ve always been someone that I admire and look up to for strength and inspiration in our movement for Liberation, and I’m really glad you asked me this question because it’s something that not only resonates deeply with me as a Palestinian American woman, but I’m seeing the effects of this to this day, since the post 9 11 era specifically. And when I talk about liberation, I’m referring to breaking the chains of colonialism and the Western idea of who deserves liberation and who doesn’t. And that includes how Western feminism defines liberation for women here versus women who are maybe of color and different religion broad. And I’ve been at the forefront of dissecting this narrative as someone who is a Palestinian American woman who visibly wears the hijab living in a post 9 11 America. You know, I founded Mint Press. It’s a leading independent journalism outlet in this country, in the United States that investigates the driving forces behind war policies because after 9 11, I saw how Western feminism was used as a colonial tool to justify the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a means to liberate Muslim women. And we’re seeing the same thing happening today in Israel’s occupation of Palestine and South Lebanon and in Syria. And so after 9 11 when Bush announced his global war on terror, where we saw the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, we were flooded with images of Muslim women in those countries who are being oppressed that needed saving. I remember and I’m sure you remember, I think we’re around the same age, but we were, like, bombarded on our TV screens and on the front pages of, like, the New York Times, the Washington Post, of Afghan women wearing burqas being abused and denied education by the Taliban. And, of course, without any sort of context that our government and military is who funded, armed and propped up the Taliban to put them in power. And so those images of those Taliban women wearing the burqas, having their faces covered, became like the iconic images of what people in the West understood about Islam. So Islam has now been defined just by these simple images as being backwards. It’s a religion led by angry brown men who are controlling and barbaric ruling over oppressed women. These women could not think for themselves. They’re forced to cover. They’re being denied their basic human rights. But, you know, again, without the context that this ideology that the Taliban and others were following is called Wahhabism, which is directly funded by the West and is used to keep the war on terror fueled and people in those countries oppressed. And so this Islamophobia campaign has had really horrific effects because it dehumanized billions of Muslims around the world to justify two illegal wars the U.S. launched that killed more than 2 million people, most of which were women and children. And despite the successes of this program to supposedly save Muslim women, it was Muslim women in the West who wore the hijab, who were being violently attacked and having their hijabs ripped off of their heads. And they were the victims of hate crimes. So this shows how this colonial tactic, which was sold to free Muslim woman was actually dehumanizing us to the point of not being worthy of life, whether it was abroad or here. You know, that life, freedom and liberty, we were not worthy of those things if we just, if we decided to practice wearing the hijab. And so the effects of that did not go away. In fact, they are still evident in the way that Muslim women are perceived in the media. They view the hijab as a patriarchal mechanism of oppression. So it’s on the West to save Muslim women and liberate us. And part of that liberation has meant to undress us too. And it’s like, you know, there’s nothing wrong with a woman not wanting to wear hijab or wanting to wear the hijab, but these rules are being imposed on us by governments that have no moral superiority. These are the same governments that are using white phosphorus chemical weapons to drop bombs, to starve women, to kill women and children. And so they have no moral superiority to tell a woman how to liberate themselves. And so we at Mint Press have spent the last decade trying to dissect this war narrative to look at different functions of different narratives and how they’re being used as tools to oppress people and justify and dehumanize them broad. And I believe this is one of the tools that is being used. Eleanor Goldfield: Yeah, absolutely. That’s very well put. And, you know, I think that one of the images that I saw back in the day that made this, that I think brought home to a lot of women who are not Muslim was a picture of a woman wearing hijab and then a picture of a overly sexualized like Victoria’s Secret model or something. And it’s like, isn’t it really the problem that women are told what to wear, not what they wear? And of course, then you have the Victoria’s Secret ad aspect of sex sells and war pays. So the issue isn’t that women wear a certain thing. It’s that people are so concerned about what women wear and want to tell them what to wear, a bit like the obsession with trans folks or why do you care what’s in people’s pants? Like, just leave it alone. It’s creepy. But this is part of that system of control. And I wanted to kind of hone in on occupied Palestine with this here, because I think it’s such a stark example of this, you know, which women matter. For instance, you had people like Beyonce that were stumping for Kamala Harris saying, I’m coming to you as a mother, which is absolutely grotesque and twisted when you consider the fact that the Biden/Harris policy was to murder mothers and their children in occupied Palestine in some of the most sadistic ways that we’ve ever seen in the history of humanity. I mean, I can think of no other example, especially in modern times, that so starkly makes that distinction of what women matter and what women don’t, according to U.S. Empire. Could you talk a little bit about that? Mnar Adley: Of course. I mean, we can go back to 1948 or we can go back to October 7th when we were told that Hamas fighters committed mass rape without providing a shred of evidence. A lot of the news organizations that talked about this mass rape that happened against Israeli woman have actually had to retract a lot of their reporting. And so we had the situation where we have the horrors of October 7th where we were being told that all of these Israeli women were being raped again by these barbaric Palestinian brown Muslim men, and they’re using rape as a weapon of war, without providing that sort of evidence. And then that was used to justify the United States arming Israel to the teeth, providing every single fighter jet and bomb to drop on civilian homes in Gaza, on schools, on shelters which targeted disproportionately women and children. I mean, we know that in Gaza, that, what is it over 60 percent or 70 percent of the population in Gaza is under the age of 18? And so that means it’s not even just women. Israel with the backing of the United States targeted children. I mean, I have a 15 year old son and I have a seven year old son, and I can’t imagine the horrors that these children and teenagers have had to live through in Gaza. And it goes to show that the media played a very integral role in telling us who deserves life and who didn’t. Malcolm X famously told us that the Democrats specifically are far more dangerous than Republicans because they are the wolves in sheep’s clothing. You know, we know what Trump’s policies are because he already served four years as president and we know that he’s racist. We know that he’s misogynist. He’s racist. We know that he doesn’t like brown people. I mean, that’s been quite evident in his immigration policies, but the Democrats, what’s so interesting about them is that they’re the wolves in sheep’s clothing because they present themselves as these fighters for social justice and change, hope, liberation, women’s rights, and for social change for women and all the things that, you know, women are fighting for, and we’re being told to choose between Democrats and the Republicans as if there’s much of a difference, it’s like having to choose between which killing machine do we prefer Lockheed Martin? Or Raytheon? And so when Joe Biden was president and Kamala Harris was the vice president, they insured and provided and approved and signed off of every single arms deal that the United States provided Israel with, so that Israel could drop the bombs on schools and hospitals, in residential homes in Gaza. And of course, as I mentioned, the majority of those who were killed have been women and children. And yet we have Democratic figures like Kamala Harris who pretend to care about women’s rights and to care about women and our right to abortion and our right to IVF clinics when she and Joe Biden approved all of the weapons going to Israel and every single bomb that Israel used to use in Gaza. You know, destroyed all every single one of the I.V.F. clinics in Gaza. They destroyed every single woman’s hospital in Gaza. They destroyed all of the woman’s centers, mental health facilities inside Gaza. And it’s so interesting because the Democratic Party, despite having this, you know, walking the talk of, you know, we support women’s rights, they are so completely out of touch with their voter base. We saw in the last election cycle that the majority of Democrats saw Israel’s genocide in Gaza as the number one issue. And yet Kamala’s campaign for president set her number one issue is supporting IVF and abortion, which sounds really good on paper. But the picture that I just painted with Israel destroying every single IVF and abortion clinic in Gaza, which they do exist, were destroyed. 181 women were giving birth in Gaza per day without any painkillers. I mean, over 10 miles of aid trucks were being blocked from providing essentials in Gaza. I mean, this is more than just food, but sanitary and essential supplies like tampons, pads, formula for babies, for mothers who can’t breastfeed, life saving medications. I mean, as you can hear from my voice, we still have the trauma of what happened in Gaza. We have not forgotten, excuse me, because as a mother, we know how important these things are. I mean, can you imagine? Like having the menstrual pain that these women were dealing with because they were under such immense stress and lacking nutrition. They weren’t eating enough calories. There was a famine happening inside of Gaza. I’m so sorry. I’m crying. You know, I read a lot about this and it really has affected me personally because this is not just because I’m Palestinian, because I’m a human being watching our sisters in need of this kind of support and they haven’t, they don’t have it. And we have a Western media here in our neoliberal Western societies who pretend to care about women’s rights. But this is the perfect example about how white feminism is just a colonial tactic to kill and dehumanize us women that are living under these bombs. Israel’s genocide really lifted the veil as to the values Israel and the United States represent, which is a bloodlust for war and profits for weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin, like General Dynamics and Raytheon. They don’t care about women. The propaganda balloons have been broken. People across all political fronts, genders, religions, you name it, they now see the truth, but most importantly, they see through the lies of both parties, especially the Democratic party. And so this last year really revived this kind of international solidarity that we haven’t really seen since 2001. And so it’s been quite difficult to watch how the media has played an essential role, the same way it played a role in justifying the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and NATO invasions of Libya, the U.S. genocide, Saudi backed genocide in Yemen. I mean, all of these wars disproportionately target women and children. Eleanor Goldfield: Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for sharing that, Mnar. I know that it’s like ripping open a wound every time somebody asks about that. And I wanted to, because you mentioned International Solidarity and, you know, it is called International Women’s Day, and so I’m curious, what would that look like to you in terms of extracting it from the clutches of white imperialist feminism to actually talk about, okay, well, what would this look like if women and their allies across borders were to enact and engage with legitimate solidarity? Mnar Adley: Well, I think in the last year I have seen solidarity across all political, religious, gender, I mean, every single front you could think of that might have divided us in the past. People have come together, even people who, you know, might’ve even voted for Trump and might be on the conservative side or, you know, whatever, they have all come out. Not all but we’ve seen like this mass movement to come out and say that we’ve we see the reality of the ground in Gaza. We know the people are suffering. We can’t support Israel’s war crimes. And, you know, the solidarity has really, really been beautiful and I think we have to take it to the next level and look at history. What are the things that have worked in the past? And we have movements right now, like Palestine Action in the UK that are being led by a woman, actually, people who inspire me are like the co founder of Palestine Action, her name is Huda Ammori. And a lot of it is woman led and these women are organizing, and of course there’s men involved in Palestine Action. But if you like it, look at the members of Palestine Action, they are majority woman. And they are a grassroots organization that is getting the support of local cities and neighborhoods where Israeli weapons factories are being built in the U.K. And they are not just protesting against these weapons manufacturers, but they’re organizing in a way where they’re breaking the windows, breaking down the doors and bulldozing right into these companies and factories and getting them to shut down. They’ve been so successful. This is beyond protesting. This is like direct action. And because they are getting the support of local communities, they’re going door to door to get people to support these companies to shut down. That’s why they’ve been successful. They’ve cost Israel’s largest arms company, Elbit system billions of dollars worth of weapons contracts with the British government. And so if we look at history, we have to go beyond just, you know, protesting on the streets. We have to do grassroots organizing and we have to be willing to talk to people that we don’t normally agree with so that they can, so that we can have these heart to heart discussions, heartfelt understanding. Get people more on our side. We can do that if we communicate through our humanity, through our hearts, and we can get a lot of people to see the truth and to care about these causes more effectively. The way the internet and the technocracy is created with these big tech platforms is to keep people isolated. You can block people, not engage with people on the other side, oh you’re liberal, oh you’re conservative, and there’s just no sort of like healthy discussion anymore. But if you get on the streets, you go door to door, you know, you visit the churches, you visit the mosques, the synagogues, get to people’s level. You can have that kind of support. And I do see that happening more often now, and it’s a really, really beautiful thing to see. Eleanor Goldfield: Yeah, absolutely. And I think, as an organizer, it’s very frustrating when I see pockets of people that have decided that, like, oh, we can only organize with people we really agree with. And I’m like, well, that’s not organizing. That’s a tea party. And that’s great. And I’m glad for you. But in order to organize, you have to reach out and be a bridge for people and sit down with people who you disagree with on a lot of things. And yeah, I think that that is very important. And before we wrap up here, I wanted to touch on another thing because there is this side of feminism, and not just white feminism, but I think feminism as it stands still today, even in some leftist spaces that dehumanizes men. And I think that this has been particularly stark again with the Palestinian issue. I think Palestine is a lens through which we can see almost any issue, whether that be media or patriarchy, colonialism, et cetera, and how it’s necessary for feminism to recognize how patriarchy destroys men, and how our job has to be as women to recognize that and to bring men in on that level and to basically stop dehumanizing them as patriarchy does, right? It breaks men down and builds them back up in the image of the system, which is rageful. And so I’m curious if you could talk a little bit more about how you feel that feminism, like a legitimate revolutionary feminism can do a better job of incorporating men, not just as a mother of two boys, but also as a Palestinian American woman who has seen how starkly the media has dehumanized Palestinian men to the point that they’re almost never mentioned unless it’s the terrorists, right? Like we talk about the death toll being women and children, but there are also men. So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about that aspect of feminism, including men and boys. Mnar Adley: You know, it’s so interesting to see how the media has played such an integral role to kind of create this very, very narrow lens of what Muslim men are and have been in their role in the Middle East, which has been, you know, patriarchal, aggressive, domestic violence, angry aggressive, all of these things that are negative and toxic traits that are just, you know, they exist in every society. But that doesn’t mean that the majority of men are like that. I mean, look at what we saw in Gaza. Um, you know, it was the men wearing their flip flops, the fathers, you know, they were pulling the women and children and other little boys out of the rubble. The surgeons, the male surgeons that were, you know, crying on screen talking about the horrors of the things that they’ve seen children have to go through in the hospital rooms. The fathers that were carrying, picking up the pieces of their children, the body parts of their children, their wives, putting them in plastic bags. These are the men of Palestine and Gaza. These are the men that have been carrying the weight of all of the trauma that everybody is going through. They’re trying to make, you know, they’re trying to help and save people while also trying to take care of their families for those that did survive, and still make them, you know, take a gentle approach to make their wives and children feel safe. We also saw the videos of, you know, the father is cuddling with their children. I mean, these are the images of normal men. These are not like differentm, like this is how they’re human beings. And so I personally think that we need to take a holistic approach to creating change, which I believe begins healing these generational trauma wounds that we have, because oppression harms the spirit and this doesn’t just affect, you know, Palestinian and Muslim. And yes, we’ve taken the brunt of this kind of abuse by the media. But if we look at a lot of the research in community health and psychology, that has affected like black Americans, Native Americans and Latino communities who have been victims of like mass incarceration, for example, or state sanctioned violence, and systematic discrimination in schools, workplaces, health care and housing. Due to these conditions, you know, racial and ethnic minorities in the US, just like Muslims and Palestinians suffer disproportionately from mental and physical illnesses, all linked to stress and trauma. And so that really is where we have to begin and create a safe space for both men and women to come together, and I do see that. I think people are able to see past this narrow lens that the media has created in terms of the role of men in the movement, but I see men interlocking their hands with the women in the movement. And that’s such a beautiful, beautiful thing. And so we need to see more of that by creating that space for each other to feel safe so that we can heal these wounds. And I do believe like my role as a mother who has two boys is to heal that generational trauma. You know, I don’t want my sons to be watching the news and media to have this subconscious programming about their own selves, that there’s something wrong with them because they’re Palestinian or that they are Muslim. I want them to feel empowered. And I feel like that really starts with the parents, of course, like myself. I have privilege to live in this country, to have the ability to heal those wounds. Yes, I am traumatized by the things that I lived through under Israeli occupation and apartheid, and I’m deeply, deeply wounded by the images that I saw coming out of Gaza. But I also have this privilege living in this country to be able to, you know, peel each layer of trauma and wounding that I have so that I can ensure that I don’t pass on that trauma to my boys, and to ensure that I create a safe space at home for them so that they can always, because, you know, healing always, of course, starts with safety, and so creating that safe space for them. And it all starts with healing my own self so that my boys can lead the next generation of men who are healed. They’re still aware of the world’s ills, but at least they have the correct tools and they feel empowered to deal with them. Eleanor Goldfield: Yeah, absolutely. As the mother of a son, I absolutely agree with that a hundred percent. And Mnar, thank you so much for taking the time and the energy, absolutely, to sit down with us and discuss this very important topic. And I wish everyone a very revolutionary and non white supremacist and imperialist International Women’s Day. Mnar Adley: Thank you. Editors Note | This article was originally published by Project Censored on March 8, 2024, under the title What To Us Is International Women’s Day?. It is republished here with permission from the original source. You can read the original version here. Eleanor Goldfield is a creative radical, journalist, and filmmaker. Her work focuses on radical and censored issues via photo, video, and written journalism, as well as artistic mediums including music, poetry, and visual art. She is the host of the podcast, Act Out, co-host of the podcast Common Censored along with Lee Camp, and co-host of the podcast Silver Threads along with Carla Bergman. Her award-winning documentary film, “Hard Road Of Hope” is about West Virginia as both resource colony and radical inspiration. She also assists in frontline action organizing and training. See more of Elanors work @ ArtKillingApathy.com | HardRoadofHope.com The post What To Us Is International Women’s Day? appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, Opinion & Analysis, colonial feminism, Eleanor Goldfield Project Censored, feminism and imperialism, feminism and war, International Women’s Day, intersectional feminism, Mnar Adley interview, Palestinian women’s rights, Western feminism hypocrisy, white feminism critique]

— Love From Glasgow to Gaza: Why Celtic FC Fans Support Palestine

 

at 3/10/25 8:27am

The cold terraces of a Scottish football stadium are not the first place you might expect to find a hotbed of organized support for Palestinian liberation. But travel to Celtic Park on match day, and you will see thousands of fans wearing keffiyehs, eating falafels, and waving Palestinian flags. A storied organization, Celtic F.C. is one of only 23 teams to have won the UEFA Champions League (previously known as the European Cup), Europes premier club competition. But their fans, particularly the hardcore supporter group the Green Brigade, see the club as a vehicle for progressive and radical social change, including backing Palestinian resistance. This cause has long put them at loggerheads with footballing authorities. In 2016, Celtic hosted a Champions League qualifier game against Israeli team Hapoel Beer Sheva. In protest at Israeli actions in Palestine, the Green Brigade organized a mass display of Palestinian flags, turning much of the stadium into a wall of black, white, green, and red. UEFA, European footballs governing body, punished Celtic for their actions, fining the club £8,600 (over U.S.$11,000). In response, the Green Brigade launched a Match the Fine for Palestine campaign, aiming to raise a similar amount for the Medical Aid for Palestine charity. The campaign went viral, raising £176,000 (well over U.S.$200,000). Political messages like this are common at Celtic games. During the 2018 Scottish Cup Final, the Green Brigade unveiled giant banners at the 70th minute of play, commemorating the 70th anniversary of the 1948 Nakba (ethnic cleansing of Palestine). The banners read, End genocide. End Zionism. Since October 7, 2023, and the Israeli onslaught that followed it, open displays of support for Palestine have become more frequent and better organized. At league games, it is common to see walls of Palestinian flags replete with messages such as Free Palestine. Victory to the Resistance. And at a Champions League match with Atlético Madrid, fans sang Youll Never Walk Alone, dedicating it to the people of Gaza. In September, Celtic played SK Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia, and the fans sent a message of support to the people of Palestine: They can oppress you. They can imprison you, but they will never break your spirit. Celtic won the tie 5-1. Celtic’s Green Brigade spelling it out They can oppress you, they can imprison you, but they will never break your spirit! Gaza, Jenin, Tulkarm, Nablus, you’ll never walk alone! pic.twitter.com/p8baXQ0pXj — Chris Hazzard MP (@ChrisHazzardSF) September 18, 2024 But Celtic fans solidarity goes far beyond words and fundraising. In the wake of the Hapoel Beer Sheva incident, the Green Brigade helped establish a sister team, Lajee Celtic, for residents of the Aida Refugee Camp in Bethlehem. The new clubs academy has over 80 children registered as players and an adult first-team squad attempting to secure a spot in the Palestinian Premier League. Lajee Celtic players wear the colors of the Palestine national flag but also with green and white hoops – an homage to their Scottish sister club. Lajee Celtic is more than a club; its mission, in its own words, is to break barriers and bring hope to the country. Authorities have not taken kindly to Celtic fans actions and have attempted to punish them. Celtic F.C. management, too, has expressed their dismay and has even banned many Green Brigade members from attending matches. But their actions have also drawn praise from around the world. Last month, Turkish champions Galatasaray displayed a gigantic banner reading, We Thank The Celtic Supporters For Their Unwavering Support For Palestine.   By Refugees, For Refugees But what explains the affinity between Celtic fans and the Palestinian cause? Daniela Latina, an academic from Glasgow and a Celtic fan, told MintPress that understanding the clubs roots is the key to that question. The club was born out of the Great Famine of the mid-19th century, a largely man-made genocide that saw a collapse in Irelands potato crop. British authorities – who ruled Ireland at the time – insisted on the continued export of Irish food to England and blocked efforts at famine relief. The result, Latina explained, was the death of around 1 million people and the mass exodus of millions more. The Great Famine continues to haunt Irish society. Today, Irelands population has still not recovered to its 1830s level. One group that did offer genuine help to the starving Irish was the Palestinian people. As Latina told MintPress: Sultan Abdülmecid I of the Ottoman Empire, of which Palestine was a part of, granted £10,000 of aid to the Irish, but Queen Victoria intervened and demanded he only send £1,000 as she had sent £,2000, and did not want to seem parsimonious. The Sultan ignored Victoria and sent £10,000 and a further five ships of grain, food, and medicines.” English courts rejected the aid ships requests to dock. Undeterred, the fleet traveled in secret to Drogheda Harbour in Ireland to deliver their aid. As a gesture of appreciation, Drogheda United Football Club still bears the Ottoman star and crescent today, she noted. Protesters wave Palestinian flags and Iraqi flags outside Shannon Airport, Ireland, June 25 2004, before the arrival of President George Bush. John Giles | AP Nevertheless, the famine caused hundreds of thousands of Irish to flee to Scotland, especially to the bustling city of Glasgow. These refugees were often treated poorly and lived in destitute conditions. In 1887, a local priest founded the Celtic Football Club as a social enterprise, aiming to use the profits from ticket sales to fund soup kitchens for the Irish Catholic community. Hence, from its very beginnings, Celtic represented refugees and the most marginalized in society. At the same time, the movement for Irish independence was gaining momentum. Ireland had been colonized by England for over 700 years, with British authorities going so far as to import large numbers of Protestant settlers to the island. These settlers were given special privileges and land, from which locals were expelled. And even though the Republic of Ireland secured independence in 1921, the island is still divided into two states to this day, with the Protestant-dominated north still part of the United Kingdom. Thus, Ireland– despite being a Western European nation geographically – has a history more akin to colonized nations in the Global South than those of its neighbors. This goes a long way in explaining why it has been one of Palestines most steadfast backers internationally. It was the first European Union member to call for Palestinian statehood and the last one to grant Israel permission to open an embassy. And it has been Europes harshest critic of Israeli aggression, often allying itself with Asian, African, and Latin American countries over European ones. Because of its history as a nation fighting for an independent state, one that many see as still cleaved in two and occupied by a foreign power, and because so many Irish people come from refugee backgrounds, many feel a natural affinity with Palestine, seeing links between their two struggles. Perhaps it is only natural, then, that Celtic, Glasgows Irish Catholic club founded by refugees, would see a lot of themselves in the Palestinian people.   Israels War on Football As part of their war on Gaza, Israel has attempted to erase symbols of Palestinian culture and identity. This includes football. Since October 7, 2023, at least 500 Palestinian athletes, referees, or sports officials have been killed. Perhaps the most notable is Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, head of the Palestinian Football Associations medical department. Al-Bursh was captured, tortured, and likely raped to death by Israeli forces, who, to this day, refuse to return his body. The attack on Palestinian football did not begin in 2023, however. In 2014, cousins Jawhar Nasser Jawhar, 19, and Adam Abd al-Raouf Halabiya, 17 – young stars about to be called to the national team – were traveling home from a training session near Ramallah. They were ambushed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), who shot al-Raouf in the legs. Jawhar rushed to his aid, only to be peppered with bullets himself, including seven in his left foot, three in his right, and one in the hand. An attack dog was unleashed on them, and soldiers subsequently broke al-Raoufs leg for good measure, suggesting they knew who the pair were. Israel has also deliberately destroyed Palestinian stadiums and, for decades, has regularly blocked the Palestinian national team from leaving the country, thereby forcing them to withdraw from international competitions. Subsequently, the national team is now filled largely with players from the diaspora community. As a result, there is a growing, grassroots movement to bar Israel and Israeli teams from international competitions – and it is being led by Celtic fans. At their recent Champions League clash with Bayern Munich, supporters unveiled a huge banner demanding authorities Show Israel the Red Card. Similar demonstrations have been seen at games in Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Ireland, Turkey, and Malaysia. Speaking to MintPress News, a spokesperson for the group Red Card Israel explained that suspending Israel from sporting events would illustrate that the violation of human rights results in exclusions on an international level and that it cannot continue to blatantly disregard international law while still enjoying the privilege of international participation in sport. Supporters of the ban note that authorities regularly take action against nation-states. In the 1990s, Yugoslavia was banned from competing at the 1994 World Cup amid a civil war in the Balkans. And in 2022, Russia was banned from both the World Cup and the Olympics due to its invasion of Ukraine. Yet with Israel, the situation is more complicated, primarily because those in positions of power have consistently stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Tel Aviv and taken action against those protesting its genocide. Whether the campaign will be successful is highly uncertain. But one thing is beyond doubt: Celtic fans will stand with Palestine, come rain or shine. Feature photo | Celtic Glasgow fans light pyrotechnics and don Free Palestine shirts and flags at the UEFA Champions League game against Borussia Dortmund, October, 2024. Photo | AP Images Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. The post Love From Glasgow to Gaza: Why Celtic FC Fans Support Palestine appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Investigations, Top Story, Celtic FC, Celtic FC refugee origins, Celtic Green Brigade Palestine, Hapoel Be'er Sheva protest, Irish famine Ottoman aid, Israel sports ban campaign, Lajee Celtic Bethlehem, Nakba banners Celtic Park, Palestinian athlete killings, Red Card Israel movement, UEFA fines Palestinian flags]

— Australia Revokes Visa of Muslim Scholar Under Pro-Israel Pressure

 

at 3/7/25 9:46am

Following a pressure campaign from pro-Israel forces, Australia has revoked the visa of Hussain Makke. The British-born Muslim scholar and motivational speaker had been scheduled to carry out a speaking tour across the country. But pressure from Sky News Australia and local pro-Israel politicians, who highlighted his pro-resistance stances and his attendance at the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, convinced the government to act. Australia, which shares a similar settler-colonial past to Israel, is one of Tel Aviv’s strongest international supporters and has officially designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. It was this angle that Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson used to lead the charge against Makke’s entry into the country. In a live TV segment, Markson accused him of spreading “dangerous views” and “defending terrorism.” Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson echoed Markson’s argument, telling Sky News that “No one who praises a deceased terrorist, let alone attends the funeral organized by a listed terrorist organization, should be welcome in Australia.” Using American-supplied bunker-buster bombs, Israel assassinated Nasrallah in Beirut in September. The attack drew widespread outrage and an outpouring of grief in Lebanon. An estimated 700,000-900,000 people participated in his funeral procession in February, nearly one-sixth of the country’s population. Makke, who resides in Lebanon, was among those attending. In a post on Twitter, he described himself as the victim of a “smear campaign” organized by Sky News. Sky news ran a smear campaign against me today to get me banned from Australia. Zionist accounts are currently tweeting MP Tony Burke under this tweet to pressure him into rescinding my Visa. If you would like defend against this attack on free speech and oppressive censorship -… https://t.co/nOEgFUCnZ7 pic.twitter.com/yAvWg5YQ8m — Hussain Makke (@HMakke91) March 6, 2025 In addition to being a journalist and television presenter, Markson is an open and vocal supporter of Israel and its attacks on its neighbors. In October 2023, she flew to Jerusalem to interview an Israeli Defense Forces commander who was participating in the bloodshed, calling him a “hero” and someone full of “bravery and courage.” The pinned post on her official Instagram account shows her standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The caption describes it as one of the highlights of her career to meet him and hear how he is “fighting [ing] to ensure Israel’s survival in the face of terror and the hostile international community.” Sky News Australia’s unrelenting support of Israel and its war on Gaza is predictable, given that the network is part of Rupert Murdoch’s massive media empire. Murdoch is a close friend and ally of Netanyahu. Indeed, a leaked handwritten list compiled by Netanyahu himself highlighted the Australian billionaire as one of his best sources of campaign contributions. Last year, Murdoch’s son, Lachlan, who runs much of the News Corp empires day-to-day business, flew to Israel for secret talks with Netanyahu and former prime minister Benny Gantz. While the details of the meetings remain murky, it is clear that they discussed how the media could better support Israel’s offensive in Gaza and beyond. Murdoch has enjoyed extremely close relationships with successive Israeli leaders for decades. In the 1980s, the Australian mogul vacationed at former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s Israeli farm. And he has publicly stated that he sees Israel as the linchpin holding together Western society. At a 2009 meeting of the American Jewish Committee, he said: “In the West, we are used to thinking that Israel cannot survive without the help of Europe and the United States. I say to you: maybe we should start wondering whether we in Europe and the United States can survive if we allow the terrorists to succeed in Israel… In the end, the Israeli people are fighting the same enemy we are: cold-blooded killers who reject peace… who reject freedom… and who rule by the suicide vest, the car bomb and the human shield”. Unsurprisingly, he also has deep economic interests in Israel. In 2010, he became a director of Genie Energy, an oil and gas firm that was awarded the license to drill for hydrocarbons in the Golan Heights, an area of Syria that Israel has illegally occupied since 1967. A journalist, teacher and filmmaker, Makke has amassed an audience of hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, commenting on matters of religion and the political situation in the Middle East. He graduated from Brunel University with a degree in journalism and from SOAS University of London with a Master’s degree in religion and global politics. He moved to Lebanon in 2012 to join a seminary. The revocation of his Australian visa is part of a broader wave of a Western crackdown on public figures who have expressed support for resistance forces. British professor David Miller, who also attended Nasrallah’s funeral, was detained by counter-terrorism police upon his reentry into the United Kingdom. Last month, Canadian author Yves Engler was arrested for social media posts criticizing Israel and its supporters. Independent journalist Richard Medhurst was detained and interrogated by Austrian authorities, who claimed that they believed Medhurst – a Christian Englishman – was a member of Hamas. And in January, Swiss authorities deported Palestinian-American intellectual Ali Abunimah before he could give a lecture in Zurich. Makke still has time to appeal his ban, but given both the influence of the Murdoch empire in Australia and the country’s steadfast support for Israel, it is far from certain that an appeal would be successful. Instead, the case will likely serve as just one more point of reference in the argument that an unexpected victim of Israel’s onslaught has been freedom of speech in the West. Feature photo | Left: Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. The post Australia Revokes Visa of Muslim Scholar Under Pro-Israel Pressure appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Australian foreign policy Israel, Hezbollah funeral backlash, Hussain Makke Australia ban, Hussain Makke smear campaign, Murdoch media Israel bias, Pro-Israel visa censorship, Pro-resistance speech crackdown, Rupert Murdoch Netanyahu ties, Sky News Australia bias, Western free speech suppression]

— Trump’s Deportation Drive Stalls—Is Erik Prince’s Private Army Back on the Table?

 

at 3/7/25 9:43am

Former CEO of Blackwater Erik Princes plan to create a privately run force to aid the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts is gaining renewed steam. First reported by Politico, A 26-page document details the proposal, which seeks $25 billion to establish a force capable of deporting 600,000 people monthly. The plan, which includes deputizing at least 10,000 private citizens, would be central to achieving Trump’s stated goal of removing 12 million undocumented immigrants. With Trump’s deportation agenda ramping up, new reports indicate the administration is looking for ways to overcome logistical hurdles that are slowing removals. According to sources familiar with internal discussions, officials have grown impatient with the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to execute mass deportations at scale, fueling speculation that Prince’s plan could be revisited. Prince, who has deep ties to Trump, resisted characterizing the proposal as a “private army” during an interview with NewsNation. When pressed on the specifics of the plan, he dismissed concerns, insisting, “This is not some idea of a private army.” However, the document explicitly suggests granting a privatized force the authority to conduct arrests and removals on U.S. soil. For his part, Trump has refused to rule out the proposal, stating he “wouldn’t be opposed” to the idea. His track record on immigration enforcement has already sparked controversy, including a previous suggestion to detain undocumented immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. That idea has drawn legal challenges, with civil rights groups arguing it would violate constitutional protections. Last week, Republican lawmakers introduced a bill aimed at further expanding Trump’s authority over immigration enforcement, including provisions that could make it easier to deputize private citizens for removals. Meanwhile, ICE has already announced increased workplace raids, a move many see as a precursor to wider crackdowns. Prince’s proposal remains unconfirmed, but frustrations within the Trump administration over logistical hurdles have fueled speculation that such a plan could gain traction. Reports suggest that officials are growing increasingly impatient with the slow pace of removals, making the Prince-led blueprint—featuring a fleet of 100 private planes and a network of detention camps on military bases—a more attractive option. Since the downfall of Blackwater, once closely tied to CIA operations and even described as the “private wing” of the U.S. military, Prince has been aggressively working to stage a comeback. His legacy is tainted by the 2007 Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad, where Blackwater operatives killed 17 Iraqi civilians in what Human Rights Watch described as a “deadly rampage.” The incident became one of the defining failures of U.S. military interventions in the Middle East. After being sidelined during the Obama years, Prince’s ties to the Trump administration created a renewed opportunity. In 2017 and 2018, he pitched a $5 billion plan to privatize the U.S. war in Afghanistan. However, his alleged involvement in a botched mercenary operation in Libya undercut his efforts to rebrand himself. His ambitions have since extended beyond U.S. wars. In August 2024, Prince posted a video addressing anti-government forces in Venezuela, declaring, “Your friends from the north, though we’re not with you today, we’re coming soon. We support you to the end.” Reuters had previously reported that in 2019, he lobbied the Trump administration to allow him to deploy a private army into the country. Prince has also publicly boasted about aiding Israel’s genocide against Gaza’s civilian population, claiming he “provided the Israelis a fully funded, donated ability to flood Gaza with seawater.” Meanwhile, a United Nations group monitoring the arms embargo in the Democratic Republic of the Congo found evidence that Prince attempted to broker a deal to send mercenaries into the mineral-rich North Kivu region. The prospect of privatizing mass deportations raises concerns that the same human rights abuses linked to private military contractors overseas could be replicated domestically. As Trump’s immigration policies grow more aggressive, other private firms are already positioning themselves to profit, with the private prison industry already reaping significant financial rewards and as deportation raids ramp up and the administration seeks ways to meet its targets, the idea of privatized immigration enforcement is no longer fringe. Feature photo | Erik Prince speaks with political commentator Gordon Chang at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 22, 2025. Zach D Roberts | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe.’ Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Trump’s Deportation Drive Stalls—Is Erik Prince’s Private Army Back on the Table? appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, News, Blackwater Nisour Square, Erik Prince deportation plan, Gaza genocide involvement, Guantanamo Bay detention, immigration policy human rights, private military contractors, privatized detention camps, privatized immigration enforcement, Trump mass deportations, Venezuela mercenary operations]

— Trump’s New Favorite War: Zelensky Out, Netanyahu In

 

at 3/7/25 8:10am

While President Donald Trump has halted military aid to Ukraine as part of a wave of politically motivated spending cuts, his administration has doubled down on taxpayer-funded handouts to Israel. The shift comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatens to escalate his ongoing multi-front conflict—one that risks entangling the United States. Netanyahu was welcomed at the White House as a guest of honor in early Februar, where Trump not only reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to faithfully serve Israeli interests but made a show of deference—pulling out the Israeli leader’s chair as he took his seat. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky received far less accommodating treatment during his February 28 White House visit. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly humiliated the Ukrainian leader, signaling a stark shift in Washington’s policy priorities. On Monday, the Trump administration announced it would halt military aid to Kiev, a decision that followed the heated public exchange between Trump and Zelensky. Meanwhile, with far less media scrutiny, Secretary of State Marco Rubio quietly signed off on a $4 billion taxpayer-funded aid military package for Israel—circumventing Congress to expedite the transfer. In less than two months, Trump has greenlit $12 billion in weapons shipments to Israel, including 35,000 2,000-pound bombs—munitions previously withheld under the Biden administration due to their use in mass civilian casualties in Gaza. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth confirmed that the administration approved additional munitions “that were previously not supplied” to Israel. The surge in U.S. arms transfers comes as Netanyahu continues to defy the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement signed in January, raising the prospect of renewed hostilities. In a move that openly violates international humanitarian law, Tel Aviv has now declared its intent to once again impose a complete blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Israeli media recognizes billionaire Israeli government asset Miriam Adelson as a "modern day Rothschild" using her vast fortune to dictate Trumps policy on Gaza, where he is now supporting Israels blockade on humanitarian aid in criminal abrogation of the ceasefire terms pic.twitter.com/orwoNAVQ9X — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) March 4, 2025 In a speech before the Knesset earlier this week, Netanyahu declared that his armed forces were preparing “for the next stages” of what he called a “seven-front war.” Pledging unwavering military action, he vowed, “We will not stop until we achieve total victory—returning all our hostages, destroying Hamas’ military and governing power, and ensuring Gaza is no longer a threat to Israel.” While Trump has stressed the need for a ceasefire in Ukraine—warning that Zelensky is “gambling with World War Three”—Israel is reportedly weighing potential strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. Though Tehran does not possess nuclear weapons, Israel is believed to have between 90 and 300 warheads. Following repeated Israeli attacks on Iranian soil last year, some Iranian policymakers have hinted at reconsidering their stance against developing a nuclear deterrent. As Israel expands its occupation of Palestinian, Lebanese, and Syrian territory, Washington risks being pulled into a widening regional conflagration. In a show of force, the U.S. recently flew nuclear-capable B-52 bombers over Gaza for the first time, with Trump warning that “all hell” could break loose there. In response, Yemen’s AnsarAllah has threatened to re-enter the fight alongside Hamas and other Palestinian factions if Israel resumes its offensive. Meanwhile, the U.S. has redeployed its USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to the Central Command area of responsibility, with more B-52 bombers arriving in the region and Washington posturing against Iran on Israel’s behalf, concerns are mounting over the possibility of another costly war in the Middle East. As Washington accelerates arms shipments to Israel while dialing back support for Ukraine, the strategic calculus of U.S. foreign policy is increasingly being driven by Tel Aviv. With Netanyahu openly preparing for a multi-front war and regional tensions on the rise, the White House now finds itself at a crossroads: rein in its closest Middle Eastern ally or be dragged into yet another devastating and costly conflict. Feature photo | Screenshot | C-SPAN Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Trumps New Favorite War: Zelensky Out, Netanyahu In appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, News, Gaza ceasefire violations, Iran nuclear tensions, Marco Rubio Congress bypass, Middle East conflict escalation, Netanyahu seven-front war, Trump Israel military aid, Ukraine aid cut, US B-52 bombers Middle East, US foreign policy Israel focus, Yemen AnsarAllah Hamas alliance]

— Elise Stefanik Brags About Purging University Leaders for Failing Israel’s Loyalty Test

 

at 3/6/25 9:34am

In a revealing moment during her recent CPAC speech, Donald Trump’s newly appointed UN ambassador, Elise Stefanik, openly took credit for the ousting of multiple Ivy League university presidents on Israel’s behalf. “Do you remember that famous Congressional hearing with the anti-Semitic university presidents from Harvard and Penn?” she asked the crowd. “I should say former presidents after my questions. Five down and so many to go.” Stefanik was referring to her high-profile exchanges with university leaders, which she claims exposed their alleged tolerance for anti-Semitism and failure to combat calls for genocide against Jews. A widely circulated clip from the hearing showed Stefanik grilling then-Harvard President Claudine Gay, repeatedly pressing her on whether calls for the genocide of Jews were considered permissible speech on campus. However, the full video provides a broader context to the exchange. Gay, who was later pressured to resign amid supposedly unrelated plagiarism accusations, faced Stefanik’s pointed questioning, which escalated into a demand for a yes-or-no answer. “A Harvard student calling for the mass murder of African Americans is not protected free speech at Harvard, correct?” Stefanik pressed, and Gay refused to give a direct yes-or-no answer. Last April, a wave of protests swept across college campuses in the United States, leading to the formation of student encampments demanding that their universities divest from companies complicit in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The movement, which quickly gained international traction, began at Columbia University after Gay was pressured into calling the New York Police Department to forcibly disperse student demonstrators. Stefanik, who received at least $796,829 from pro-Israel donors between 2023 and 2024, argued that pro-Palestine student protests were calls for the murder of Jewish people. Central to this claim was her misrepresentation of the phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as incitement to genocide. Ironically, the phrase originates from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, yet when used by pro-Palestine demonstrators, it was framed as a call to kill the Jewish people. As a foreign leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, led the charge in demanding that American students be stripped of their free speech rights, likening peaceful anti-war encampments to Nazi rallies that preceded the Holocaust. Stefanik took up the cause domestically, amplifying accusations of rampant “anti-Semitism” on college campuses and spreading widely discredited hoaxes—among them, the false claims that a Jewish student was “stabbed in the eye” with a Palestinian flag and that protesters had chanted “death to the Jews.” She also pushed for an ultimatum: universities could either suppress student protests against Israel or risk losing federal funding. Stefanik tours the Illegal Israeli settlement of Kfar Aza with IDF Major Liad Diamond on May 20, 2024. Photo | repstefanik | Instagram On December 9, Stefanik took to X (formerly Twitter) to gloat: “One down. Two to go,” celebrating the forced resignation of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill. Magill had fought to uphold the First Amendment rights of her students, yet Stefanik and the Israel Lobby framed their campaign to crush campus protests as a fight against anti-Semitism. Despite Columbia University President Minouche Shafik caving to pressure from politicians aligned with the Israel Lobby and major pro-Israel donors, her decision to crack down on criticism of Israel apparently did not go far enough to appease her critics. Shafik was subjected to relentless media attacks and accused of permitting anti-Semitism for allowing students to criticize Israel. Ultimately, she, too, was forced to resign. The mass arrests of peaceful protesters, the violence against students by outside agitators, and the forced resignations of at least five university presidents together amount to the most significant assault on academic freedom in U.S. history. Never before have university leaders been ousted simply for allowing free speech on campus—an unprecedented crackdown that Stefanik now openly boasts about. One down. Two to go. This is only the very beginning of addressing the pervasive rot of antisemitism that has destroyed the most “prestigious” higher education institutions in America. This forced resignation of the President of @Penn is the bare minimum of what is required.… — Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) December 9, 2023 The crackdown is far from over. The Department of Justice has launched an investigation into alleged discrimination “against employees who are or are perceived to be Jewish or Israeli” at the University of California. Meanwhile, President Trump has vowed to deport foreign students who participate in pro-Palestine activism on campus, branding the demonstrations “illegal protests” and accusing participants of supporting Hamas. Despite his rhetoric about cutting government spending, Trump has created a nationwide task force—funded by U.S. taxpayer dollars—to combat alleged anti-Semitism on college campuses. Even more concerning to free speech advocates is the administration’s exploration of methods to revoke the tax-exempt status of organizations critical of Israel, framing such speech as anti-Semitic or supportive of terrorism. This move could have far-reaching consequences, potentially affecting universities, independent media outlets, including MintPress News, and civil society groups. Although there is no evidence that pro-Palestine encampments have called for violence against Jewish people based on their identity, corporate media and pro-Israel lawmakers in Washington continue to portray the protests as extremist gatherings. The Trump administration, despite its positioning as an “anti-woke” champion of free speech, is leading an unprecedented assault on First Amendment rights—on behalf of a foreign government. Feature photo | Elise Stefanik walks to the House Chamber to vote, at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., February 25, 2025. Graeme Sloan | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Elise Stefanik Brags About Purging University Leaders for Failing Israel’s Loyalty Test appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, academic freedom assault, Columbia University protests, Elise Stefanik university presidents, First Amendment suppression, Harvard Claudine Gay resignation, Israel lobby campus protests, Ivy League antisemitism claims, Palestine divestment protests, pro-Israel donor influence, Trump anti-Semitism task force]

— Chainsaw Diplomacy: Javier Milei’s Argentina Destruction Is Nightmarish Model for Musk, DOGE

 

at 2/28/25 12:50pm

Javier Milei made a special appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) earlier this month. The Argentinian president gifted Elon Musk a custom chainsaw, which he promised to use to drastically reduce public spending in his new role as the de facto leader of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk and Milei have become close bedfellows of late, the former clearly impressed by the latter’s wholesale slashing of government programs and entire ministries and his anarcho-capitalist politics. If Musk is indeed using Milei’s Argentina as inspiration for his own mission with DOGE, that bodes extremely poorly for the United States. Milei’s rule has led to mass impoverishment of the Argentinian people, the enrichment of the country’s elite, and the vast expansion of a burgeoning police state. Many Argentinians are watching on concerned, seeing parallels between Milei’s tactics and the Trump-Musk administration’s plans.   Economic Shock Therapy Milei joined Musk on stage at CPAC, the most influential right-wing gathering of the year. Accusing the Democrats of “treason,” Musk lifted the shiny chainsaw – emblazoned with Milei’s slogan, “¡Viva la Libertad, Carajo!” (“Long live liberty, damn it!) – above his head. “This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy! Chainsaw!” he shouted to an excited crowd. Milei has made the tool a symbol of his rule and his willingness to make sweeping cuts to government spending and eliminate entire government ministries, in alignment with his libertarian ideology. Musk has long been a fan, tweeting that “prosperity is ahead for Argentina” following Milei’s election victory in November 2023. A few months later, the two met in person, with Musk declaring, “I recommend investing in Argentina.” “There is an affinity, in ideological terms, between Milei and Musk,” Jodor Jalit, an Argentine journalist, lecturer and researcher, told MintPress, explaining that: They both sponsor a downsizing of the state, but for different reasons. For Milei, it is a crusade to order the macroeconomy. For Musk, it is a power grab move. He is trying to displace any potential rivals within the state. But Milei is trying to downsize the government for economic reasons.” That Musk – in charge of implementing a massive government cost-cutting project – is so inspired by Milei should concern all Americans. In barely over a year in office, Milei truly has taken a chainsaw to Argentinian society, shuttering 13 ministries and firing 30,000 public employees, equivalent to around 10% of the federal workforce. This includes the Ministries of Transport, Education, Public Works, Culture, Social Development, Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security. “I am the mole that destroys the state from within,” he declared. “A number of the policies he implemented pretty much amounted to a shock doctrine,” Jalit noted. Upon his assumption of the presidency, Milei immediately removed rent controls, leading to the cost of housing in Buenos Aires increasing by 135% in one year. Price controls on key goods were also rescinded, leading to food becoming unaffordable to millions of people, who are now forced to scavenge in the streets. Utility rates have exploded: spending on gas for cooking and heating, for example, increased by 715% between December 2023 and October 2024. Then-presidential hopeful Javier Milei brandishes a chainsaw during a rally in La Plata, Argentina, Sept. 12, 2023. Natacha Pisarenko | AP The outcome has been mass destitution. Poverty has risen to 53% of the population, the highest seen in decades. New pro-business laws currently being considered would increase the workday from eight hours to twelve and allow companies to pay workers not with cash but with tickets that can only be redeemed in certain supermarkets or shops. Milei and his supporters argue that this shock therapy is a necessary medicine to cure the country of its longstanding economic problems. Nevertheless, the policies have led to deindustrialization and a brain drain, as those with the skills and opportunity to leave the country have often done so. A recent poll found that 72% of Argentinians consider themselves worse off under Milei. And yet, the president has managed to hold on to approval ratings of above 40%. “It is complicated because the ones who voted for him say that the president is making all these crises happen because it is all part of his plan,” Javier Gomez, an Argentinian influencer and political communicator, told MintPress, adding that a common conception among those sympathetic to him is that, “We need to suffer first, in order to pay the debts from previous governments. And so, anything that he does that may be wrong, stupid, or make people poorer, they say that it is fine. That is exactly what we expected.” Jalit also noted that the past weighs heavily on the populace’s will to endure such an upheaval, stating that: Even though his measures and economic policies have had a big [negative] impact on purchasing power, people still support him. What this shows is that Argentinian society was ready for a change, which did not happen under [previous president, Mauricio] Macri.” While social spending has been cut to the bone, money going to the country’s security forces has been drastically ramped up. The budget for the police, spying agencies and the military—the very groups that will handle any challenges to Milei’s rule—has more than tripled. He has also proposed selling off Argentina’s existing prisons and allowing the construction of mega-jails housing up to 6,000 people each.   Chaos In Washington In his role at DOGE, Musk is taking a not-so-dissimilar approach to Milei. Earlier this month, the South African-born billionaire sent a mass email to all federal employees, instructing them to reply with a bullet-pointed summary of around five tasks they had completed at work in the previous week. “Failure to respond,” Musk announced, “will be taken as a resignation.” Those responses are being fed into an artificial intelligence system “to determine whether those jobs are necessary,” according to those familiar with the operation. Musk’s rationale is that thousands of federal employees are dead or do not exist but are still receiving a paycheck and that a great number of others are doing socially useless work and are there merely as DEI hires, pushing a woke agenda. In January, the new government halted payments to USAID on the grounds that it constitutes a “viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America,” in Musk’s own words. In the process, they exposed a Washington-funded network of over 6,000 journalists around the world who were being paid to promote pro-U.S. propaganda, as an earlier MintPress News study found. Musk’s email telling thousands of people that they were all being reassessed for their jobs and that AI would decide whether they would keep it caused widespread panic and a rebellion from other branches of the government. The heads of the Justice Department, the FBI, the State Department, the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence all instructed their employees not to respond. President Trump, however, squashed the rebellion even as it was starting. “I thought it was great,” he said of the email, echoing Musk’s reasoning. “We have people that don’t show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government, so by asking the question ‘tell us what you did this week,’ what hes doing is saying are you actually working. And then, if you don’t answer, like, you’re sort of semi-fired, or youre fired,” he said, adding that “a lot of people are not answering because they dont even exist.” Later, on live television and in front of his entire cabinet, Trump doubled down, stating that if anyone were unhappy with Musk’s leadership, they would be “thrown out” of government. Musk sent a second email to federal workers, telling them they had “another chance” to justify their jobs to him.   Crypto Grifters In line with their anarcho-capitalist ideologies, Milei and Musk are strong supporters of cryptocurrency. This obsession with digital money has left both in hot water. On Valentine’s Day, Milei promoted the newly established $LIBRA coin, claiming that it was a new tool to stimulate economic growth across Argentina through investment in small businesses and startups. As a result, $LIBRA’s value skyrocketed from less than one-thousandth of a penny to $5.20 each. The endorsement from the president of Argentina made $LIBRA’s founders tens of millions of dollars, as some 50,000 people flocked to invest in the project. Just hours later, however, Milei mysteriously deleted all his posts promoting $LIBRA, and the coin’s price cratered, almost instantaneously destroying more than a quarter-billion dollars of investor wealth. The fiasco, however, did make a small number of people extraordinarily wealthy. The nine founding accounts of $LIBRA earned more than $87 million by cashing out their coins while the price was high. The project bears all the hallmarks of a classic “rug pull” – a scam where insiders jack a cryptocurrency’s price up and quietly sell their assets, leaving the project to tank and investors holding worthless digital tokens. Amid widespread allegations of fraud, an Argentinian judge has been tasked with leading an investigation into Milei’s actions. Musk, too, has relentlessly promoted cryptocurrency, encouraging his millions of followers to invest, particularly in Dogecoin, which he once called “the future currency of the Earth.” Detractors claim that these appeals to invest amount to market manipulation. Musk faced a lawsuit claiming that his actions amounted to rigging the price of Dogecoin. However, as cryptocurrencies are not regulated in the same way as stocks, the suit eventually fell apart. It is no coincidence, however, that Musk himself chose the acronym “DOGE” for his newly created department.   Cry for Me, Argentina Internationally, Milei’s policy turnabout has been no less drastic, radically altering the country’s trajectory. Argentina had not only applied but had also received a formal invitation to join the BRICS economic bloc, which was viewed as something of a golden ticket across much of the Global South. Yet Milei publicly rejected the offer, claiming that he would never do business with “communist” countries, such as China or Brazil, and pledged to cut economic ties with the pair. “Our geopolitical alignment is with the United States and Israel. We are not going to ally with communists,” he insisted. The commitment to serving Washington’s interests has been a rare constant theme of Milei’s presidency. He has regularly invited top American military commanders to the country, pledged to purchase U.S. military hardware, and begun the construction of an American naval base in the far south of the country. This base will allow Washington to surveil and control the Antarctic region and shipping traffic passing by Cape Horn, South America’s southernmost point. The United States will also have a major role in Argentina’s burgeoning security apparatus. Milei invited CIA director William Burns to Buenos Aires and signed an agreement that would see the CIA train Argentinian intelligence and security services. Javier Milei gazes upwards towards an Israeli flag during a rally in Argentina. Photo | AP Unlike most Latin American nations, Argentina has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine. Milei met with President Volodymyr Zelensky and has provided Ukraine with both humanitarian and military assistance. In recent weeks, though, this support has shifted. As soon as the United States under Trump began to flip its position on Ukraine, Milei and Argentina followed suit, abstaining from supporting Ukraine at United Nations General Assembly votes. Under his leadership, Argentina has often found itself in the extreme minority at the U.N. In October, he instructed Foreign Minister Diana Mondino to vote alongside the U.S. and Israel and refuse to condemn Washington’s blockade on Cuba and fired her when she refused to do so. The resolution passed 187-2. Two weeks later, Argentina was the only country in the world to vote against a bill opposing violence against women and girls. Milei has positioned himself as part of a global movement of right-wing populists that include Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, and Marine Le Pen of France. Also included in that list is the State of Israel. During his political campaigning, he made sure to very visibly wave the Israeli flag. Once in office, he swiftly designated Hamas as a terrorist group, the first and only Latin American nation to do so. Last February, at the height of the Israeli attack on Gaza, he traveled to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli officials and to publicly weep at the Western Wall. There, he vowed to move Argentina’s Israeli embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, thereby endorsing Israel’s land grab, considered illegal under international law. Last week, Milei also declared two days of national mourning over the deaths of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, two children Israel claims (with little evidence) were killed by Hamas. His decision earned him accolades from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who described him as a “dear friend.” Your exemplary decision to declare two days of national mourning for Kfir and Ariel Bibas—two innocent children brutally murdered by the terrorist monsters of Hamas—should serve as an inspiration to all leaders of the civilized world. Thank you for your unwavering integrity and outstanding leadership. I look forward to welcoming you to Israel soon,” Netanyahu wrote. Therefore, if Milei and his actions in Argentina truly are a model for Musk, Americans should be deeply concerned. His maladroit slashing of his country’s government and social services has sparked chaos, poverty, and uncertainty in Argentina. His policies, however, have greatly enriched those at the top of society. Musk’s erratic and sweeping cuts bear a striking resemblance to Milei’s. Argentinians are watching Musk’s moves with a sense of déjà vu: they have seen this one play out before. Feature photo | President of Argentina Javier Milei arrives on stage with a custom chainsaw before Elon Musk and Nesmax Host Rob Schmitt before speak, during day 1 of the 2025 Conservative Political Action Conference, February 20, 2025. Graeme Sloan | AP Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. The post Chainsaw Diplomacy: Javier Mileis Argentina Destruction Is Nightmarish Model for Musk, DOGE appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Investigations, News, Top Story, Argentina economic shock therapy, Argentinian poverty crisis, BRICS rejection, cryptocurrency Argentina, Elon Musk DOGE, Javier Milei CPAC, libertarian politics, Milei Musk collaboration, Milei Netanyahu, US-Argentina relations]

— AI’s Dark Architects: Palantir, USAID and the Alt-Right Pipeline

 

at 2/28/25 12:49pm

We are living in turbulent times. U.S. media and politicians are busy carving up Syria, balkanizing a once proud nation, and are supporting Israel’s attempts to annex the entirety of the south of the country. Israel has switched its focus to the West Bank and even further, with rumors of a wider war against Lebanon and Iran circulating. And that sentiment has been backed by pro-U.S., pro-Israel media around the world. The big winners in any such war would be the hi-tech U.S. military-industrial complex, who stand to make billions supplying the Israeli war machine with the machinery it needs to continue its destructive course – companies like Palantir, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. And yet, it has recently come out that so many of those media outlets so loudly backing American and Israeli imperial ambitions are actually quietly funded by the U.S. government through USAID. Joining MintCast host Mnar Adley today to talk about all of this are Robert Inlakesh and Alan MacLeod. Robert is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and is the author of the recent article, “Palantir CEO Alex Karp Teams Up With the Alt-Right to Censor Israel’s Critics,” which he discussed today. Alan is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017, he published two books, Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. Today, he discussed findings from his recent article, “USAID Falls, Exposing a Giant Network of US-Funded ‘Independent’ Media.” Israel’s occupation of Palestine relies heavily on hi-tech equipment and the latest technology, including artificial intelligence and facial recognition cameras. One of the most dystopian weapons it has produced is an AI-powered robotic gun installed at checkpoints around Palestine. Ordinary people passing through the checkpoints tremble in fear as an automated system with the ability to instantly kill anybody it chooses watches over them. Much of the technology Israel needs to prosecute its wars comes courtesy of U.S. tech company Palantir. At the height of the Gaza onslaught, Palantir announced it had entered into a new “strategic partnership” with the Israeli Defense Ministry to “supply technology to help the country’s war effort.” “Both parties have mutually agreed to harness Palantir’s advanced technology in support of war-related missions,” the company’s executive vice-president, Josh Harris, said, adding: “This strategic partnership aims to significantly aid the Israeli Ministry of Defense in addressing the current situation in Israel.” Palantir founder Peter Thiel is known as one of the most influential men in Washington, D.C. The Silicon Valley oligarch has deep ties to the CIA and the military-industrial complex and is one of the Republican Party’s most powerful backers. Vice-President J.D. Vance is a Thiel protégé. The pair met while Vance was still at college. From there, Thiel secured Vance his first job in 2013. Two years later, Vance joined his venture capital firm, and in 2020, he provided the seed money for Vance to start his own investment group. In 2021, Vance ran for Senate and was bankrolled to the tune of $15 million by Thiel, who has constantly guided his political trajectory all the way to the White House. Today, Vance and Trump hold the purse strings, not only of the gigantic U.S. military budget but also decide the direction of U.S. foreign policy. While the new administration’s decisions have harmed many, Thiel’s interests have always been most peculiarly attended to. Mnar Adley is an award-winning journalist and editor and is the founder and director of MintPress News. She is also president and director of the non-profit media organization Behind the Headlines. Adley also co-hosts the MintCast podcast and is a producer and host of the video series Behind The Headlines. Contact Mnar at mnar@mintpressnews.com or follow her on Twitter at @mnarmuh. MintPress News is a fiercely independent media company. You can support us by becoming a member on Patreon, bookmarking and whitelisting us, and subscribing to our social media channels, including YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post AIs Dark Architects: Palantir, USAID and the Alt-Right Pipeline appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Behind The Headlines, Foreign Affairs, News, Top Story, AI warfare Israel, Alan MacLeod, Lockheed Martin Raytheon profits, Palantir military technology, Peter Thiel influence, Robert Inlakesh, Syria occupation tech, US military-industrial complex, US-Israel Syria balkanization, USAID media funding]

— Ethno-State Strategy: Israel’s Backing of Druze Militias Is Reshaping Syria’s Borders

 

at 2/28/25 8:23am

When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called upon the Syrian army to withdraw from the nations south, using the plight of the Druze minority as an excuse, he did so based upon a decades-old plot to divide the country. After co-opting Druze militia leaders, Israel plans to end the Syrian State as we know it. “We demand the complete demilitarization of southern Syria in the provinces of Quneitra, Daraa and Suwayda from the forces of the new regime. Likewise, we will not tolerate any threat to the Druze community in southern Syria”, Netanyahu announced on Sunday. His calls were denounced by the new Syrian transitional government’s President, Ahmed al-Shara’a (also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammad al-Julani), who also heads Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Syria. Within the first twenty-four hours of the former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ousting, the Israeli military scrapped the 1974 disengagement treaty with Damascus. It proceeded to occupy more Syrian lands while launching its largest-ever air campaign that destroyed the country’s military. In response to this, Syria’s new leadership initially responded by offering Israel an olive branch and even floating the idea of normalization with Tel Aviv. Instead of responding positively to the rhetoric from Damascus, Israel began developing a plot to exploit the predicament of two Syrian minority groups: the Kurds and the Druze. The two territories where these minority groups live are key to the implementation of a plot aimed at Israel extending its de-facto control east of the Euphrates River. Following “Operation True Promise,” Iran’s retaliatory ballistic missile and drone attack against Israel following Tel Aviv’s attack on Tehran’s embassy in Damascus, Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant declared that an opportunity had arisen to form a new strategic relationship “against this grave threat by Iran.” Gallant’s words were widely interpreted as a call to establish a joint front with Arab regimes and the Kurdish movements against Iran. Last November, Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar made it clear that Tel Aviv’s priority should be to back the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that control northeastern Syria. Hebrew-language media reports claimed the SDF had officially requested help from Israel. The SDF has long been backed by the United States, acting as a proxy to enable Washington’s control of Syria’s oil fields and fertile agricultural lands. Less well-known is that Israel has long maintained its own ties to the SDF. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a former senior military official of the previous Syrian government told MintPress News that Israel had transferred military assets such as drones into northeastern Syria as early as 2017. The official alleged that the purpose was to launch operations against Iraqi militia groups and Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces. Conversely, the strategy to leverage Druze separatist groups in southwestern Syria was a far more complex operation—one that only began to take shape in earnest by 2020.   Conspiracies Coming To Life It has been well established that Israel provided direct funding, in addition to medical as well as military support, to at least a dozen Syrian opposition groups from as early on as 2013 with the goal of supporting regime change in Syria. One of those militant groups was the infamously violent HTS, a group led by Syria’s current president, Ahmed al-Shara’a. At the time, there was little mention in the press of Israel’s recruitment of agents within the Druze community. The Druze population is spread primarily across southern Syria, Lebanon, and northern occupied Palestine, with each community following a distinct historical trajectory. During the British Mandate in Palestine, the Palestinian Druze aligned themselves with the Zionist movement—a position they had firmly adopted by the 1936–39 Arab Revolt. In contrast, the Druze communities in Syria and Lebanon have followed markedly different political and social paths. In 1925, Sultan al-Atrash, a prominent Druze leader in Syria, spearheaded the Great Syrian Revolt against French colonial rule, becoming a symbol of resistance across the Arab world. While the Druze in Palestine later aligned themselves with the Israeli state—serving in its military and identifying as Israeli—those in the occupied Golan Heights took a different stance. When Israel annexed Syrias Golan Heights in 1981, most of the Druze population there rejected Israeli citizenship, maintaining their allegiance to Syria. Druze clergymen stand beneath a portrait of Bashar al-Assad in the village of Majdal Shams on the border with Syria, Jan. 10, 2020. Ariel Schalit | AP During Syria’s civil war, the Druze largely sided with the Syrian government, as it had historically acted as a bulwark against the threat posed by groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda. This presented a challenge for Israel, which had long sought to establish a “buffer zone” inside Syria. By February 2013, Israel had proposed a buffer zone extending ten miles into Syrian territory, aiming to secure strategic land it had failed to retain during the 1973 war against Hafez al-Assad’s government. Later that year, two additional buffer zones were drafted in coordination with Jordan and the United States. One stretched from south of Damascus to the Jordanian border, while the other spanned the area between Dara’a and the Druze-majority province of Suwayda. To reinforce these proposed buffer zones, it was suggested that the United States position a force of 20,000 soldiers on standby in Jordan as a security guarantee. At the same time, Israel pursued a dual strategy—backing sectarian militant groups that targeted Syria’s minority communities while simultaneously attempting to cultivate ties with Syrian Druze factions. The goal was to form a protective alliance against the very groups Israel was covertly supporting. In 2015, as Israel was backing al-Nusra (now Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS), the group carried out a massacre of 20 Druze civilians. This atrocity became the basis for another Israeli push to establish a buffer zone, with officials arguing that it was necessary to prevent a mass genocide against Syrian Druze. Despite these efforts, the proposal for a buffer zone once again failed to gain traction. However, Israel did not abandon efforts to cultivate ties with the Druze. Even as the war in Syria began to reach a standstill in 2018, Israeli outreach continued. Meanwhile, the Druze population endured a series of devastating attacks, including an ISIS-led massacre in Suwayda in July 2018, which left more than 200 people dead.   The Plot To Prop Up Druze Separatists In 2019, the Trump administration approved the Caesar Act sanctions, which took effect the following year, dealing a devastating blow to Syria’s already fragile economy. As the country’s financial crisis deepened, Israel and the U.S. saw an opportunity to exploit growing tensions between Damascus and Syria’s Druze. By June 2020, the impact of the sanctions was already being felt on the ground. The Syrian pound’s value plummeted, exacerbating economic hardship across the country. Against this backdrop, protests began to emerge, initially small but steadily increasing in scale and intensity with each passing year. On July 7, 2021, a Druze separatist group known as the Syrian Liwa Party emerged, quickly forging ties with Washington through al-Tanf Province, a U.S.-occupied area located west of Suwayda. The group’s rise marked a significant shift in the region’s power dynamics, as it aligned itself with American interests despite broader opposition within the Druze community. Armed Druze men patrol the village of Rami in the southern province of Suwayda, Syria, following an attack by ISIS. Hassan Ammar | AP The Syrian Liwa Party maintained direct links to a Druze sectarian militia called the Counter-Terrorism Force, which publicly stated that its primary mission was to curb the regime’s facilitation of Iranian militias, most notably Lebanese Hezbollah. In 2022, as anti-government protests in Suwayda grew larger, Israel took a more active role in shaping the region’s political trajectory. Sheikh Mowafaq Tarif, the head of Israel’s Druze community, was dispatched to Moscow to advocate for the federalization of Syria, a move that aligned with Israeli interests in weakening Damascus. By September 2023, protests erupted again, but this time, Western corporate media reframed them as women-led demonstrations, amplifying their visibility on the global stage. That same month, the U.S. Congress moved to tighten its already debilitating sanctions on Syria, further deepening the countrys economic crisis. Following the fall of former President al-Assad, a group calling itself the Interim Military Council emerged from Suwayda, led by Tareq al-Shoufi. On the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded the withdrawal of all Syrian army forces from southern Syria, al-Shoufi announced the formation of the Suwayda Military Council (SMC). The SMC, a coalition of separatist Druze militias, quickly aligned itself with Israel. Its leader, Commander al-Shoufi, openly welcomed Netanyahu’s promise to protect Syria’s Druze. However, the council does not represent the majority of Syria’s Druze population, many of whom remained in dialogue with Damascus. Prominent Druze leaders, including Hikmat al-Hajeri, the community’s spiritual leader in Syria, denounced the SMC, calling it illegitimate and rejecting its authority. Despite Israeli and Western attempts to fragment the community, significant segments of Syria’s Druze leadership continue to reject foreign interference in their internal affairs. Syria: A Druze militia in Suweida forms a “Military Council” and allies with the US-backed SDF in northeast Syria (Video) Soon after, Netanyahu demands demilitarization south of Damascus from the new Syrian government forces and warns against threats to Syria’s Druze(Photo) pic.twitter.com/SKTWG2vSzj — Warfare Analysis (@warfareanalysis) February 23, 2025 Despite questions of legitimacy, Israel’s efforts to carve out a Druze state in southern Syria persist. Plans are already in motion to offer Syrian Druze salaries of approximately $100 a day to assist in building illegal settlement infrastructure in the occupied Golan Heights. The strategy is modeled after Israel’s Good Fence policy of the 1980s, which was used to secure a foothold in southern Lebanon through the use of local proxy forces, which at the time were composed of predominantly Christian militias. Israeli tanks continue to push deeper into Syrian territory, with some even spotted flying the Druze national flag. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes hammer targets across the country with impunity, further destabilizing a nation already teetering on the edge of fragmentation. Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News | Original photo by AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Ethno-State Strategy: Israels Backing of Druze Militias Is Reshaping Syrias Borders appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, News, Top Story, Druze minority Syria, Golan Heights settlement, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Israel Syria conflict, Israeli airstrikes Syria, Netanyahu buffer zone, Suwayda protests, Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), Syrian Liwa Party, US Caesar Act sanctions]

— Pro-Israel Think Tank WINEP Outed as “Dark Money” Operation Driving US Wars

 

at 2/26/25 9:02am

The AIPAC-aligned Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), which often refers to itself simply as The Washington Institute, was recently outed as a dark money think tank for its lack of transparency on donors and is continuing to push the United States to engage in conflicts overseas to Israel’s benefit. Its case raises questions about how the Israel Lobby functions through think tanks across the board, shaping U.S. foreign policy behind closed doors. WINEP has a long history of shaping U.S. foreign policy. It was deeply involved in the neoconservative push for regime change in Iraq, joining calls for the Clinton administration to topple Saddam Hussein as early as 1998. They also pushed for U.S. military intervention and helped justify the eventual invasion in 2003. At the beginning of the year, the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft unveiled the Think Tank Funding Tracker, a one-of-a-kind project that examined the funding sources of the top 50 U.S. think tanks since 2019 and rated their transparency from 0 to 5. WINEP and 16 others—including the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD)—received a zero transparency rating, exposing its reliance on dark money contributions. While WINEP claims to be funded exclusively by U.S. citizens on its website, it does not publicly disclose its donor list. Its AIPAC roots were first exposed in 2006 by Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer in The London Review of Books, where they described WINEP as an AIPAC cutout advancing Israels agenda under the guise of independent research. The pair wrote at the time that The Lobby created its own think tank in 1985, when Martin Indyk helped found WINEP.  Although WINEP plays down its links to Israel and claims instead that it provides a balanced and realistic perspective on Middle East issues, this is not the case. In fact, WINEP is funded and run by individuals who are deeply committed to advancing Israels agenda. This claim that AIPAC created WINEP was later corroborated by former AIPAC official MJ Rosenberg, who wrote in HuffPost: How do I know? I was in the room when AIPAC decided to establish WINEP. The now-deceased WINEP co-founder, Martin Indyk, was also the head of the Saban Center for Middle East Studies, funded by Israeli-American billionaire Haim Saban. Recent U.S. foreign policy developments have only strengthened WINEPs influence. The Biden administrations unwavering support for Israels war on Gaza, including a $14 billion emergency military aid package, aligns with WINEPs long-standing push to ensure that U.S. military assistance to Israel remains untouchable. WINEP actively shaped public discourse as the war progressed, with Executive Director Robert Satloff praising Bidens refusal to support an early ceasefire, calling it correct and courageous. When House lawmakers convened hearings in late 2023 to attack the administrations Iran policy, their rhetoric mirrored WINEPs narratives, particularly opposition to any sanctions relief. Witnesses from WINEP-adjacent institutions like FDD and JINSA were brought in to reinforce the case for a more aggressive posture toward Iran. Meanwhile, WINEP continues to push for U.S. military leverage in post-Assad Syria, another key policy area where the Biden administration has quietly followed its recommendations by maintaining a military foothold and targeting Iranian assets with airstrikes. WINEPs revolving-door relationship with the U.S. government does little to shed its reputation for shaping policy. In May 2023, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan delivered a keynote address at WINEPs annual Soref Symposium, praising Satloffs extraordinary work. Sullivans participation wasnt just symbolic—it reinforced WINEPs position as an informal but essential policy hub. This is evident from the administrations embrace of the Abraham Accords, another WINEP priority. Former WINEP fellow Dan Shapiro was appointed the State Departments senior advisor for regional integration, carrying out the think tanks long-standing vision for Arab normalization with Israel. WINEP is currently led by Michael Singh, Robert Satloff, Dennis Ross, and Dana Stroul. Stroul, who serves as WINEPs Research Director, returned to the position after serving as the Biden administrations deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East from 2021 to 2024. During her tenure, she played a central role in Washingtons anti-Iran initiatives, the response to the Gaza war, and shaping U.S. Syria policy. THROWBACK: Ex-Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for the Middle East Dana Stroul gloats that the US owns the most hydrocarbon & grain-rich one-third of Syria and that the US will use it as leverage to pursue regime change The architect of Syria’s tragedy is the USA pic.twitter.com/wjdqWQXkPB — Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) December 2, 2024 Beyond WINEP, the broader issue of think tank influence is now facing increasing scrutiny. In 2023, lawmakers introduced the Think Tank Transparency Act, which requires policy organizations to disclose foreign government funding and contractual agreements. While WINEP does not receive direct funding from Israel, watchdogs have highlighted that its pro-Israel agenda is sustained through wealthy American donors closely linked to AIPAC. Using domestic contributions to advance a foreign policy agenda has enabled WINEP to operate without falling under the scrutiny of foreign lobbying laws, even as its scholars shape U.S. positions on Iran, Syria, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Currently, the two primary issues on WINEPs agenda are how to best leverage American influence to shape outcomes in post-Assad Syria and how to assure regime change in Iran. Indicative of the think tanks influence is that not only was its hardline Syria strategy the exact model used by the U.S. to aid regime change in Damascus, but its chief researcher was taken on as a senior official by the previous administration. As demonstrated by the Quincy Institutes new report, the lack of transparency over who exactly finances the AIPAC lobbys cutout think tank presents serious questions about who is actually shaping U.S. foreign policy and to whose benefit. Feature photo | Saudi-based Sunni cleric Mohammad Al-Issa speaks to Robert Satloff at an event organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Photo | WINEP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe.’ Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Pro-Israel Think Tank WINEP Outed as “Dark Money” Operation Driving US Wars appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, News, AIPAC and WINEP ties, AIPAC think tanks, Israel lobby US policy, pro-Israel think tanks, Quincy Institute Think Tank Tracker, US foreign policy Israel influence, Washington Institute for Near East Policy funding, WINEP dark money, WINEP regime change Iran, WINEP Syria policy]

— Palantir CEO Alex Karp Teams Up With the Alt-Right to Censor Israel’s Critics

 

at 2/25/25 8:46am

Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently appeared for an interview on CNBC, during which he endorsed Elon Musk. He also advocated stifling free speech on college campuses, which he claims is to protect Western values but has admitted in the past that it has more to do with shielding Israel from criticism. As CEO of the CIA-backed analytics company Palantir Technologies, Alex Karp has been using his position to push a new agenda, which is clearly laid out in his new book, “The Technological Republic.” His message weaponizes a wave of opposition to cancel culture, pushing back against identity politics unpopular with the populist American right while proposing that Western Capitalist and Zionist identity politics replace it. “At some point, Silicon Valley lost its way,” Karp proclaims in his book, arguing that the problem the U.S. faces is that its private sector has been softened by its focus on consumer markets and should return to the American nationalist “collective project.” In his recent CNBC interview, after which Palantir Technologies stock soured, he focused on how university students have fallen victim to an environment in which they are critical of their government and resent Western imperial values. “What you have been taught in college that you basically should have no beliefs, that the West is inferior” is incorrect, claims Karp, asserting that “the West is obviously superior.” He then says that “a pagan religion has infiltrated our universities,” “that pagan religion basically says everything that’s good about America, everything that actually works, is ipso-facto bad, and by the way, you can’t talk about it not working because its a religion.” While the Palantir CEO rarely explains his disagreements in detail, he has explicitly aligned himself with Elon Musk, advocating a hawkish approach to foreign policy as a solution to America’s domestic woes. pic.twitter.com/dMIXm1Th1J — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 18, 2025 Despite identifying as a “liberal,” Karp recently remarked that people “do not want to hear your Woke pagan ideology” about the Democratic Party while arguing that Americans will only be safe when their alleged foreign enemies are scared. Speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, Karp argued that the U.S. should focus on instilling fear in its adversaries, stating that America’s enemies should “wake up scared and go to bed scared.” He made this argument in the context of American citizens being taken captive. The only recent cases of such incidents have occurred in Gaza, where Israeli-Americans were seized by Hamas, and in Israel, where Palestinian-Americans have been detained by Israeli authorities. In May of 2024, Karp let slip his motivation for opposing the intellectual traditions emerging on college campuses in the United States, that being his support for Israel. He strongly criticized the historic pro-Palestine encampments, stressing that they can not be taken as “a sideshow” and revealed the actual reason behind the need to confront them: “If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any army in the West, ever.” In early 2024, Palantir Technologies held its first board meeting of the year in Tel Aviv, a decision the company publicly celebrated on social media with the declaration, “We stand with Israel.” Yet Palantir’s involvement extends far beyond symbolic gestures or political endorsements. The American tech firm is not only an advocate for the military-industrial complex and foreign interventionism but also a direct player in aiding Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. Ret. Gen. Mark Milley says the US has committed so many war crimes over the years, it has no right to criticize Israels devastation of Gaza Palantir CEO Alex Karp chimes in: The peace activists are actually the war activists, and were the peace activists. Karp says of Gaza… pic.twitter.com/Ktc5H4uYJi — Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) May 8, 2024 As one of the most sophisticated data-mining companies in the world, Palantir has equipped the Israeli military and intelligence agencies with cutting-edge targeting capabilities for battlefield operations. Israel has leveraged these technologies in its military campaigns, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. Years ago, Palantir CEO Alex Karp acknowledged the lethal nature of his company’s products, admitting, “Our product is used on occasion to kill people.” He even reflected on the ethical implications, once wondering, “If I were younger at college, would I be protesting me?” More recently, however, any reservations Karp may have once harbored appear to have diminished. In February, he spoke with enthusiasm about his company’s role in military operations, declaring, “Palantir is here to disrupt and make the institutions we partner with the very best in the world and, when it’s necessary, to scare enemies and on occasion kill them.” Palantir’s growing involvement in Israeli military operations has also sparked concerns over how such technologies might be deployed in the United States. Israel’s reported use of artificial intelligence to generate kill lists has raised alarms about the broader implications of integrating similar AI-driven surveillance and targeting systems domestically. In addition to Karp personally aligning himself with the views expressed by the self-styled alternative right, which has now built itself a network in new media, his company’s connections to the halls of power extend directly to US Vice President JD Vance. It turns out that Donald Trump’s second in command was groomed and supported by Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel, who even spent a record-breaking 15 million dollars to ensure his success in becoming a senator in Ohio. Feature photo | Elon Musk, CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, left, and Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies, take their seats as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks surrounding artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 13, 2023. J. Scott Applewhite | AP Feature photo | Elon Musk, CEO of X, the company formerly known as Twitter, left, and Alex Karp, CEO of the software firm Palantir Technologies, take their seats as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D, N.Y., convenes a closed-door gathering of leading tech CEOs to discuss the priorities and risks surrounding artificial intelligence and how it should be regulated, at the Capitol in Washington, Sept. 13, 2023. J. Scott Applewhite | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Palantir CEO Alex Karp Teams Up With the Alt-Right to Censor Israels Critics appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, AI-driven warfare, Alex Karp censorship, Elon Musk Alex Karp, Israel AI warfare, Palantir AI targeting, Palantir Israel military, Palantir surveillance technology, Peter Thiel JD Vance, pro-Israel censorship, US tech military industrial complex]

— US Tech Companies Aid Israel’s War Crimes—You Could Be Their Next Victim

 

at 2/25/25 8:03am

American tech companies are deeply intertwined in Israel’s military operations, with investments and partnerships expanding significantly since the start of the war in Gaza, which to date has killed nearly 50,000 people, with some estimates placing that number closer to 400,000.  Newly surfaced data indicates that collaboration between the Israeli government and U.S. companies has intensified. Yet, most Americans remain unaware of how these companies are involved—or how it could affect them. Israel’s use of artificial intelligence in warfare isn’t new. In May 2021, during an 11-day assault on Gaza, the Israeli military described the campaign as “the world’s first AI war.” The offensive relied on targeting programs developed by Unit 8200, Israel’s elite intelligence division. Among them were “Gospel” and “Alchemist,” AI-driven systems designed to analyze vast amounts of data and rapidly select targets. These tools didn’t disappear after the ceasefire. Instead, they were refined and enhanced. By October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its latest assault, these AI-driven targeting programs had become central to its military strategy. By its own admission, the Israeli military had depended upon commercial AI technology before developing its own AI programs. This technology came from various American companies that began developing deeper ties to the Israeli army. Although Israel’s highly classified AI systems are often portrayed as the product of its own intelligence apparatus, recent reporting by the Associated Press suggests a more complex reality. According to the investigation, Israel’s military dramatically increased its reliance on commercial AI technologies after launching its latest assault on Gaza. Among the most notable findings, Microsoft and OpenAI tools were reportedly used to assist in battlefield decision-making. The extent of their involvement remains unclear, but they appear to have played a role in processing intelligence, analyzing surveillance data, and even informing targeting decisions. JULIAN ASSANGE: ‘Artificial intelligence is being used for mass assassinations in Gaza’ “The majority of targets in Gaza are bombed as a result of artificial intelligence targeting.” The US, UK, EU and Israel have created an AI dystopia. https://t.co/o27GVIoxwZ pic.twitter.com/Ohfm5HEQ4s — Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) November 14, 2024 “The implications are enormous for the role of tech in enabling this type of unethical and unlawful warfare going forward,” said Heidy Khlaaf, chief AI scientist at the AI Now Institute and a former senior safety engineer at OpenAI. Collaboration between the Israeli military and US big tech is in no way limited to only a handful of companies but extends from tech giants all the way down to smaller private security firms. The Washington Post revealed recently that Google rushed to sell AI tools to Israel in October of 2023. Meanwhile, Oracle, one of the largest U.S. tech firms, pledged to double its investments in Israel just as the Gaza offensive escalated. The companys CEO, Safra Catz, an Israeli-American billionaire, put her loyalty to Israel on full display when she traveled to Tel Aviv in the early days of the assault to meet with key figures in the country’s government and military sector. Catz is a well-connected political figure in the United States. A major donor to Donald Trump, she also contributed to the current U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign. In 2018, she was even shortlisted for the role of National Security Advisor, though she ultimately remained on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence (NSCAI)—a role that positions her at the nexus of U.S. tech, intelligence, and military strategy. Despite knowing that much of the AI technology used by the Israeli military carries a false-positive rate of roughly 10%, the system remains a key tool in determining who lives and who dies. Israel has long treated Gaza as a testing ground for its military technology, raising serious concerns about how these tools could eventually be deployed elsewhere—including against American citizens. The integration of AI into Israeli warfare has not gone unnoticed by the very workers who build the systems. Both Google and Amazon faced internal revolts after signing a $1.2 billion contract with Israel for “Project Nimbus,” a program that leverages cloud computing and artificial intelligence to enhance surveillance and targeting capabilities. Employees at both companies protested, warning that their work was being used to enable human rights abuses—concerns that executives ignored. Googles *Project Nimbus* is a $1.2B deal to Israel using artificial intelligence to target homes… The technology was used to target a home that just killed 2 adults and 18 CHILDREN… Google employees who were aware of the cloud technologies used by Israel in its genocide on… pic.twitter.com/13lQGUTySx — Pelham (@Resist_05) April 24, 2024 One of the most unsettling aspects of Project Nimbus was the sale of sentiment analysis technology for military use. Not long after, an Israeli company introduced its “Smart Shooter” system in the West Bank, mounting AI-powered turrets on checkpoints and military vehicles. According to the company, these turrets could analyze a person’s behavior to determine whether they were likely to commit violence—potentially opening fire based on that assessment alone. While many US citizens may hold concern for Palestinians who are being targeted with the help of AI systems and technology made available by major US tech giants, they may not know that the testing grounds in Gaza often aid in repression at home. Google and Amazon, for example, have aggressively pursued contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and state and local police departments. These major companies are also heavily tied to the government. This problem continues to grow under the Trump administration, which announced a 500 billion taxpayer dollar investment in an AI infrastructure program called “Stargate,” a joint venture between OpenAI, Oracle and Softbank. The project’s stated goal is to bolster national security and streamline data processing, but critics warn that it could also lead to widespread surveillance. Feature photo | Tech workers from Google, Meta and Amazon protest against Big Tech supplying Israel with intelligence tools outside Google offices in Chelsea, Manhattan, NY, April 16, 2024. Cristina Matuozzi | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post US Tech Companies Aid Israel’s War Crimes—You Could Be Their Next Victim appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: National, AI military technology, AI surveillance warfare, Google AI military contracts, Israel AI warfare, Israeli AI targeting, Microsoft OpenAI Israel, Oracle Israel investments, Project Nimbus Amazon Google, US military AI expansion, US tech companies Israel]

— USAID Falls, Exposing a Giant Network of US-Funded “Independent” Media

 

at 2/18/25 11:39am

The Trump administration’s decision to pause USAID funding has plunged hundreds of so-called “independent media” outlets into crisis, thereby exposing a worldwide network of thousands of journalists, all working to promote U.S. interests in their home countries. In late January, President Trump—along with help from the head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk—began implementing sweeping changes to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the premise that the organization’s promotion of liberal and progressive causes was a gigantic waste of money. The group’s website and Twitter account have disappeared amid widespread speculation that it will cease to exist or be folded into Marco Rubio’s State Department. The pausing of aid immediately sent shockwaves across the planet, not least in the international media, many of which, unbeknownst to their readers, are totally dependent on financing from Washington. In total, USAID spends over a quarter of a billion dollars yearly training and funding a vast, sprawling network of more than 6,200 reporters at nearly 1,000 news outlets or journalism organizations, all under the rubric of promoting “independent media.” With the money tap unexpectedly turned off, outlets around the world are panicking, turning to their readers for donations, and thereby outing themselves as fronts for U.S. power.   Media on the Dole: Cash Flow Crisis Hits Hard Perhaps the country most affected by this sudden change in policy is Ukraine. While criticizing the decision, Oksana Romanyuk, the Director of Ukraine’s Institute for Mass Information, revealed that almost 90% of the country’s media are bankrolled by USAID, including many that have no other source of funding. Olga Rudenko, the editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent (an outlet MintPress previously revealed receives funds from Washington), also denounced the decision. Last month, she wrote that the USAID freeze is a greater threat to independent Ukrainian journalism than either the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russian invasion. The Kyiv Independent has since asked its readers to support a funding drive to keep pro-U.S. Ukrainian media alive. Other large Ukrainian outlets, such as Hromadske and Bihus.Info, have done the same. Anti-government Cuban media have been plunged into a similar predicament. Miami-based CubaNet published an editorial asking readers for money. “We are facing an unexpected challenge: the suspension of key funding that sustained part of our work.” they wrote; “If you value our work and believe in keeping the truth alive, we ask for your support.” Last year, CubaNet received $500,000 in USAID funding to engage “on-island young Cubans through objective and uncensored multimedia journalism.” Cynics, however, might visit the website and see little but anti-communist talking points. Madrid-based Diario de Cuba is also in dire straits. Last weekend, the outlet’s director, Pablo Díaz Espí, noted that “aid to independent journalism from the government of the United States has been suspended, which makes our work more difficult” before asking viewers to subscribe. Since the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the United States has spent giant amounts of money financing media networks in an attempt to bring the government down. Between 1985 and 2013 alone, Radio and TV Martí received over half a billion dollars in taxpayer money. Samantha Power, then-head of USAID, visits an exhibition of destroyed Russian military equipment in Kiev, Ukraine. October, 2022. Photo | AP Across the world, the funding freeze has put outlets in immediate danger of shutting down. Burmese organizations have already begun firing staff. Around 200 journalists are thought to be directly paid by USAID. “We are struggling to survive,” Wunna Khwar Nyo, chief editor of Western News, told Voice of America. “I cannot imagine [how people will manage] without a salary to pay your rent,” worried Toe Zaw Latt of the Independent Press Council Myanmar. A recent survey of 20 leading Belarusian media outlets found that a staggering 60% of their budgets come from Washington. Speaking about the USAID funding pause, Natalia Belikova of Press Club Belarus warned, “They are at risk of fading away and gradually disappearing.” In Iran, U.S.-backed media have already had to fire workers. A BBC Persian report noted that more than 30 Iranian groups held a crisis meeting to discuss how to respond to the aid cuts. Like in Iran, anti-government Nicaraguan media is highly dependent on subsidies from Washington. U.S.-backed Nicaragua Investiga condemned Trump’s decision as a “serious blow” against a media that “depends largely on the financial and technical support provided by agencies such as USAID.” Another country awash in Western NGO cash is Georgia. On January 30, Georgia Today noted that USAID financing has been a “cornerstone” of the country since its independence. It warned that many organizations would immediately shutter their doors for good without the constant flow of money. Similar reports have emerged from Serbia, Moldova, and across Latin America. Meanwhile, social media users have noticed that many of the most prominent anti-China voices on their respective platforms have gone strangely silent since the shutdown.   “Independent” Media, Brought to You By the US Government The cuts to USAID, therefore, have highlighted that the United States has consciously created a vast matrix encompassing thousands of journalists worldwide, all producing pro-U.S. content. Yet, in discussing the USAID cuts, corporate media has insisted on describing these outlets as “independent.” “Independent outlets in [the] former Soviet Union are poised to be hurt by temporary shut down at key US agency,” wrote The Financial Times. “From Ukraine to Afghanistan, independent media organizations across the world are being forced to lay off staff or shut down after losing USAID funding,” The Guardian told its readers. Meanwhile, The Washington Post went with “Independent media in Russia, Ukraine lose their funding with USAID freeze.” Perhaps most notably, even organizations like Reporters Without Borders (RSF) did the same. Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF U.S., commented, “Non-profit newsroom and media organizations have already had to cease operations and lay off staff. The most likely scenario is that after the 90-day freeze, they will disappear forever.” There is already a serious problem in modern discourse with the term “independent media,” a phrase commonly defined as any media outlet, no matter how big an empire it is, that is not owned or funded by the state (as if that is the only form of dependence or control to which media is subject). But even at this extremely low bar, all these outlets fail. Indeed, Weimers’ warning underlines the fact that none of them are independent in any meaningful way. They are, in fact, completely dependent on USAID for their very existence. Not only that, but some USAID-backed journalists candidly admit that their funding dictates their output and what stories they do and do not cover. Leila Bicakcic, CEO of Center for Investigative Reporting (a USAID-supported Bosnian organization), admitted, on camera, that “If you are funded by the U.S. government, there are certain topics that you would simply not go after, because the U.S. government has its interests that are above all others.” While USAID specifically targets foreign audiences, much of its messaging comes back to America, as those foreign outlets are used as credible, independent, and reliable sources for newspapers or cable news networks to cite. Thus, its bankrolling of foreign media ends up flooding domestic audiences with pro-U.S. messaging as well. While the press may be lamenting the demise of USAID-backed media, many heads of state are not. “Take your money with you,” said Colombian President Gustavo Petro, “it’s poison.” Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, shared a rare moment of agreement with Petro. “Most governments don’t want USAID funds flowing into their countries because they understand where much of that money actually ends up,” he wrote, explaining that: While marketed as support for development, democracy, and human rights, the majority of these funds are funneled into opposition groups, NGOs with political agendas, and destabilizing movements. At best, maybe 10% of the money reaches real projects that help people in need (there are such cases), but the rest is used to fuel dissent, finance protests, and undermine administrations that refuse to align with the globalist agenda.”   Controlling the Narrative USAID influences global media and the means of communication in far more profound ways than simply sponsoring news outlets. Last March, a 97-page USAID document was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The document revealed a vast operation to censor and suppress wide swaths of the internet, including Twitch, Reddit, 4Chan, Facebook, Twitter, Discord and alternative media websites. There, USAID lamented, users were able to build communities to create “populist expertise” and develop opinions and viewpoints that challenge official U.S. government narratives. Although its internal justification was halting the flow of mis- and disinformation, it seemed particularly concerned with “malinformation” – a concept it defines as speech that is factually correct but “misleading” (i.e., bothersome truths the U.S. government would prefer the public does not know). Chief among the methods USAID outlines to suppress independent media is what it calls “advertiser outreach” – in effect, threatening advertisers into cutting ties with smaller websites to throttle them financially. The report makes clear that its main concern is not China or Russia, but its domestic population: Discussions on disinformation and misinformation often revolve around assumptions of state actors driving the issue. However, problematic information more regularly originates from networks of alternative sites and anonymous individuals who have created their own ‘alt media’ online spaces.” USAID suggests directing the public towards mainstream, corporate sources of information and “psychologically inoculating” them against inconvenient facts that challenge U.S. power by “prebunking” information before people see it. Prebunking includes “discrediting the brand, the credibility and reputation of those making false allegations”—in other words, a state-directed attack against alternative media and critics of the U.S. government. The full report – and a MintPress News investigation on the subject – can be read here. USAID, however, is far from the only government institution attempting to control global narratives. The National Endowment for Democracy (reportedly also in Musk and DOGE’s crosshairs) also sponsors media around the world. The Department of Defense, meanwhile, fields a giant clandestine army of at least 60,000 people whose job is to influence public opinion, the majority doing so from their keyboards. A 2021 exposé from Newsweek described the operation as, “The largest undercover force the world has ever known,” and warned that this troll army was likely breaking domestic and international law. The Twitter Files further exposed the Department of Defense’s shadowy actions. It showed how the DoD worked with Twitter to carry out a Washington-run influence project across the Middle East, even as the app claimed it was working to shut down foreign-backed disinformation operations. And investigations from MintPress News have revealed how the highest echelons of top social media apps, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, TikTok, and Reddit, are filled with former officials from the CIA, USAID, and other national security agencies. Furthermore, U.S.-based groups with close government links, such as the Ford Foundation, the Open Society Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, all give huge grants to journalists and foreign media outlets.   A Shady Organization Some might ask what the problem with receiving money from USAID is in the first place. Supporters of the organization say it does a great deal of good around the world, helping to vaccinate children or providing clean drinking water. Looking at the organization’s (now defunct) website, one would assume it is a charitable group promoting progressive values. Indeed, many on the conservative right appear to have taken this woke veneer at face value. Explaining his decision to close the organization down, Musk described it as a “viper’s nest of radical-left Marxists who hate America.” This, however, could barely be further from the truth. In reality, USAID, from its inception, has consistently targeted leftist and non-aligned governments, particularly in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In 2021, USAID was a key player behind a failed Color Revolution (a pro-U.S. insurrection) in Cuba. The institution spent millions of dollars funding and training musicians and activists on the island, organizing them into a revolutionary, anti-communist force. USAID offered up to $2 million per grant to applicants, noting that “Artists and musicians have taken to the streets to protest government repression, producing anthems such as ‘Patria y Vida,’ which has not only brought greater global awareness to the plight of the Cuban people but also served as a rallying cry for change on the island.” USAID has also created a number of covert apps aimed at regime change. The most notorious of these was Zunzuneo, often described as Cuba’s Twitter. The idea was to create a successful messaging and news app to dominate the Cuban market, then slowly drip-feed the population anti-government propaganda and direct them to protests and “smart mobs” aimed at triggering a color-style revolution. In an effort to hide its ownership of the project, the U.S. government held a secret meeting with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey to entice him to invest in it. It is unclear to what extent, if any, Dorsey helped, as he has declined to speak on the matter. USAID employees along with politicians and activists gather outside the Capitol Building in Washington DC to protest funding cuts to USAID, February 5th 2025. Photo | AP In 2014, USAID’s Cuban program was again exposed. This time, the organization had been running fake HIV-prevention workshops as a cover to gather intelligence and recruit a network of agents on the island. In Venezuela, too, USAID has served as a force for regime change. It was intimately involved in the failed 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez, funding and training key coup leaders in the run-up to the insurrection. Since then, it has consistently attempted to subvert Venezuelan democracy, including by funding self-declared president Juan Guaidó. It was even at the center of a disastrous 2019 stunt where U.S.-backed figures attempted to drive trucks full of USAID-sponsored “aid” into the country, only to light the cargo on fire themselves and blame the government. In an attempt to stamp out the threat of socialism, USAID agents are also known to have taught torture techniques to right-wing Latin American dictatorships. In Uruguay, USAID’s Dan Mitrione taught police how to use electricity on different sensitive areas of the body, the use of drugs to induce vomiting and advanced psychological torture techniques. Mitrione wished to demonstrate on live subjects, so he would kidnap beggars from the streets and torture them to death. The notorious Guatemalan police, complicit in the country’s genocide of the Mayan population, also relied heavily on USAID for training. By 1970, at least 30,000 police officers had undergone counterinsurgency training, organized and paid for by USAID. USAID was even more heavily implicated in genocide in Peru in the 1990s. Between 1996 and 2000, Peruvian dictator Alberto Fujimori ordered the forced mass sterilization of 300,000 mostly indigenous women. USAID donated some $35 million to the program, now widely understood to constitute a genocide. No American official has faced any legal repercussions. USAID’s beginnings can be traced back to 1961, an era when national liberation movements in Latin America, Africa, and Asia were fighting – and winning – independence. Progressive revolutions, such as in Cuba, were inspiring the world, and Communist states like the USSR were developing rapidly, challenging the dominance of the United States. USAID was established as a counterweight to all this, an attempt to shore up conservative, pro-U.S. governments and undermine or redirect more radical ones. Since its inception, it has worked hand-in-glove with the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1973, Senator Ted Kennedy wrote a letter to the CIA, directly asking if they were using USAID to carry out operations in Southeast Asia. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger himself responded in the affirmative. For that reason, former CIA officer John Kiriakou labeled USAID as little more than a “propaganda adjunct of the agency.” Surprisingly, The New York Times published a similar assessment. In 1978, its correspondent, A. J. Langguth, wrote that the “two primary functions” of the USAID global police training program were to allow the CIA to “plant men with local police in sensitive places around the world” and to bring to the United States “prime candidates for enrollment as CIA employees. Today, the institution presents itself as trying to empower civil society to take the lead in promoting democracy. But, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wrote, the past fifty years have authentic civil society actors, such as churches and unions, hollowed out, leaving only astroturfed think tanks and NGOs, “whose purpose, beneath all the verbiage, is to execute political agendas by proxy.” In the panic surrounding its closure, many USAID figures have let the cat out of the bag and made this point directly themselves. “It’s not a generosity project,” one employee told Fox News, adding, “This is a national security agency and effort at its core.”   Our Unfree Media Ultimately, what this story reveals is that our media is not free; it is dominated by powerful interests. The most powerful of these is the U.S. government. To Washington, controlling public discourse is as important as controlling the seas or the skies. That is why they invest billions of dollars into doing so. It also explains the reaction whenever actors challenge the U.S.-dominated media ecosystem. In the 2000s, the U.S. military deliberately bombed Al-Jazeera buildings after the network challenged Washington’s narrative around the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. After RT began gaining a foothold in the 2010s, the network was demonized and canceled. TikTok is on the verge of being banned in the U.S., and independent media is constantly shadowbanned, demonetized, defamed and deplatformed. We like to think we are free thinkers. Yet the revelation that USAID funds a vast network of journalists around the world, shaping narratives favorable to U.S. interests, should highlight the fact that we are swimming in an ocean of propaganda – and most of us do not even realize it. The U.S. is spending billions to promote its interests and demonize China, Russia, Cuba, Venezuela and its other enemies, all in an attempt to curate our realities. While USAID as an organization looks to be formally gone and subsumed by the State Department, Secretary of State Rubio said that many of its functions will continue as long as they are aligned with “the national interest” rather than “charity.” As such, it likely will not be long until the money spigot is turned back on for these pro-U.S. outlets. However, at least USAID’s demise has done at least one good thing; it has exposed vast swathes of global media for what they are: imperial propaganda projects of the United States. Feature photo | Signs and flowers are left by advocates of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) outside their headquarters in Washington DC, February 8th, 2025. Aaron Schwartz | AP Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. The post USAID Falls, Exposing a Giant Network of US-Funded “Independent” Media appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Investigations, National, Top Story, global media funding crisis, independent media USAID, Trump USAID shutdown, U.S. government media influence, USAID foreign influence, USAID journalism funding, USAID media funding, USAID propaganda network, USAID-funded journalists, USAID-funded news outlets]

— Pariah State: Israeli Soldiers Face Arrests and Travel Bans Worldwide

 

at 2/14/25 9:57am

On January 5, 2025, Yuval Vagdani, an Israeli army reservist, fled Brazil while on vacation after a federal judge in the country opened a war crimes investigation into Vagdani over his alleged involvement in demolishing homes in the besieged Gaza Strip. The Brazilian judge used a legal tool called “universal jurisdiction” to pursue Vagdani. Universal jurisdiction allows governments to prosecute individuals for serious crimes, regardless of where they’ve been committed. The case itself was the result of a complaint filed by the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), a Belgium-based legal group pursuing action against perpetrators, accomplices, and inciters of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Palestine. Since its establishment, the foundation has submitted more than 30 complaints against members of Israel’s military — from senior-level officials to lower-ranking personnel — around the world, as well as filing a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against 1,000 Israeli soldiers (including dual nationals from France, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Gaza. We have officially submitted our ICC complaint along with the evidence, to 8 countries through their embassies in The Hague. We call on these countries to issue Interpol arrest warrants against 1000 Israeli soldiers. Among these countries are Spain, Ireland, and South Africa. — The Hind Rajab Foundation (@HindRFoundation) October 12, 2024   Tracking War Crimes HRF’s complaints are primarily based on information Israeli soldiers have posted on social media engaging in possible war crimes, such as the destruction and occupation of Palestinian civilian infrastructure and looting of personal belongings. “Never before have we seen a national military organization like the IOF [Israel Occupation Forces] publishing their crimes,” HRF’s lead lawyer, Haroon Raza, told MintPress News. “They think theyre superior. The only way in which you can publish this stuff is when you think youre right, because the other side is inferior as a people.” But it’s not just HRF that’s motivated to hold Israeli soldiers accountable. An X account called “Israel Genocide Tracker” documents Israeli soldiers’ activities in Gaza and Lebanon, as well as where soldiers spend their vacations. Media uploaded to the platform shows Israeli soldiers detonating civilian properties, vandalizing homes, fooling around in abandoned hospitals, and even smiling and smoking next to a blindfolded Palestinian detainee. [Content of the first tweet] — Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) [Date of the first tweet] [Content of the second tweet] — Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) [Date of the second tweet] [Content of the third tweet] — Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) [Date of the third tweet] [Content of the fourth tweet] — Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) [Date of the fourth tweet] [Content of the fifth tweet] — Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) [Date of the fifth tweet] [Content of the sixth tweet] — Israel Genocide Tracker (@trackingisrael) [Date of the sixth tweet] In New Zealand, activists with the Palestine Solidarity Network, Aotearoa (PSNA), launched what they called a “genocide hotline” to track Israeli soldiers vacationing in the country. John Minto, the network’s national chair, told MintPress News the organization has been pushing the New Zealand government to suspend visas for any Israeli soldier who’s served in the military since October 2023 and any Israeli citizen with an address in an illegal Israeli settlement, but said lawmakers haven’t responded to their actions. “Our government has absolutely done nothing,” Minto said. “They will not condemn any of Israels war crimes. So we felt that it was important to take a civil society initiative in the case of these soldiers.” “Where our government wont act, civil society will,” Minto added. Reports emerged that New Zealand had changed its visa requirements, requiring Israeli visitors to disclose their military service during the application process. However, the country’s Immigration Ministry denied these reports, saying its policies hadn’t changed. Minto said that despite New Zealand’s Human Rights Commissioner, Stephen Rainbow, requesting the hotline be taken down, it’s still active and has received over 200 calls since its launch on January 22, 2025. Minto said the goal is to then hang posters outside where Israeli soldiers are staying, organize protests in front of these accommodations, and hand out leaflets to guests. “If we know Israeli soldiers are there, [then we] look for any opportunity to tell these Israeli soldiers theyre not welcome here,” Minto said. In response to Israeli soldiers facing increased targeting abroad for their involvement in Israel’s war on Gaza, Israel’s military tightened restrictions on media coverage of soldiers in January. Under the new rules, press interviewing soldiers with the rank of colonel and below can’t publish their full names and faces and can’t be linked to a specific combat operation. Additionally, military personnel with multiple citizenships must have their faces obscured and names not disclosed in interviews. While announcing the new protocols, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli military spokesperson, said soldiers weren’t allowed to post footage from war zones on social media under existing military rules “even though that’s never perfect and we have a large army.” Even before a Brazilian court ordered an investigation into Israeli reservist Vagdani, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate was already warning soldiers serving in Gaza about posting on social media and keeping their profiles public after a discharged soldier shared photos from the frontlines. The images led to activists publishing his identity while he was on holiday in Prague. “[The directive] didn’t say don’t commit crimes; it says don’t publish them,” HRF’s Raza said,  emphasizing it’s too late now. “Everything has already been saved,” Raza said, referring to HRF and other organizations’ databases, which can save information whether it remains online or not.   How governments are cracking down (or not) Having long evaded international accountability for its continued violence against Palestinians, Israel is now facing scrutiny worldwide. On November 21, 2024, the ICC issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant over crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed during Israel’s war on Gaza. Countries that are party to the ICC and thereby legally obligated to implement its decisions have been split about whether they’ll comply with the warrants. According to Just Security, an online publication focused on national security, over 30 out of the 125 countries that are party to the ICC have promised to abide by the court’s decision, including Canada, the UK, Chile, Jordan, and South Africa. Meanwhile, 13 countries, also ICC signatories, have announced they won’t comply, haven’t committed to upholding the warrants, or expressed criticism over the ICC’s decision, including China, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Argentina, Hungary, and Austria. Some countries have also recently changed their positions, such as Germany, which shifted its stance from suggesting it wouldnt comply with the warrants to now indicating it would uphold the law. On the other hand, France hinted it may not arrest Netanyahu, arguing he has immunity given Israel is not a party to the ICC. “Such immunities apply to Prime Minister Netanyahu and other relevant ministers and will need to be taken into consideration should the ICC request their arrest and surrender,” the French Foreign Affairs Ministry announced. The U.S., which isn’t an ICC party and has largely funded Israel’s war on Gaza, recently sanctioned the court — citing arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant in its reasoning— at the start of President Donald Trump’s second term. The sanctions may hinder ongoing investigations, making it difficult for ICC officials to travel and access funds or scaring individuals from cooperating with ICC probes. On July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible.” The court also ruled Israel must stop all new settlement activity, pay reparations to Palestinians, and affirmed some of Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) amount to apartheid. In light of the ICJ’s opinion, the Brussels Parliament passed a resolution on February 3, 2025, placing an arms embargo and trade restrictions on Israel. The resolution now heads to the European Commission, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and to the Belgian federal government for final approval. Also in response to the ICJ’s ruling, Ireland decided to revive its Occupied Territories Bill, which criminalizes trade between the country and Israeli settlements in the oPt. The bill was introduced in 2018 but has stalled over claims it goes against EU trade law, which Ireland, as an EU member state, is beholden to. Both Ireland and Belgium are ICC party states and have stated they will comply with the ICC arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant. In the Netherlands, a coalition of Palestinian and Dutch civil society groups organizations sued the state in October 2024 for failing to prevent genocide, which the Netherlands, as a signatory to the Genocide Convention, is legally bound to. “Yet, despite mounting evidence, UN expert warnings, and the most recent ICJ Advisory Opinion, the Dutch government continues to export arms and dual-use goods to Israel, contributing to severe human rights violations in Gaza,” Law for Palestine, one of the parties supporting the case, said in a statement. More recently, on January 31, 2025, representatives from nine countries convened in The Hague, Netherlands, to establish The Hague Group, an international alliance committed to holding Israel accountable under international law. The founding members—Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal, and South Africa—announced their shared objectives in an inaugural statement that referenced the International Court of Justice’s opinion and the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Israeli officials. The group pledged to uphold the ICCs arrest warrants, ensuring their enforcement against Israeli officials. It also committed to preventing the provision or transfer of arms, munitions, and related equipment to Israel in cases where there is a clear risk of their use in violations of international law. Additionally, The Hague Group vowed to block the docking of vessels at their ports if there is a risk that the ships are transporting military fuel or weaponry to Israel. “It was born out of necessity given Israels ongoing crimes against the Palestinians, breaches of international law, and the wider attacks on international law and accountability, as we saw in the previous U.S. administration and that have been sped up by the new U.S. administration,” James Schneider with Progressive International, which convened the historic meeting, told MintPress News, referring to Trump’s ICC sanctions. While initially, public resistance to Israel and support for the Palestinian people in the wake of Hamas’ 2023 attack was low, Raza remarked, this attitude has now changed over a year later. “Finally, Amnesty [International] and all the other organizations woke up to their responsibilities,” Raza said, recalling the human rights group’s December 2024 report concluding Israel is committing genocide. “There is a clear pattern of human rights violations or crimes against humanity, et cetera, which has resulted…in even legally calling it genocide.” “You see very slowly, especially because of the ICJ rulings, that things are starting to change,” Raza added. A precedent has been set, and Israeli crimes are no longer being ignored by the international community. For the first time, Israel might not be able to escape accountability. “People who have committed war crimes from Israel are scared,” Raza said. Weve got them literally on the run, which hadnt happened up until now. Foot soldiers and corporals and captains, et cetera always thought that they could keep on vacationing in Europe and other exotic places, and they cant do that anymore. And I think theyre waking up to the fact that they will be pursued legally wherever they are.” Haroon Raza, Feature photo | Baz Ratner | AP | Editng by MintPress News Jessica Buxbaum is a Jerusalem-based journalist for MintPress News covering Palestine, Israel, and Syria. Her work has been featured in Middle East Eye, The New Arab and Gulf News. The post Pariah State: Israeli Soldiers Face Arrests and Travel Bans Worldwide appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Investigations, Top Story, Gaza genocide investigation, international court Israel, Israeli military accountability, Israeli soldiers war crimes, Netanyahu ICC arrest warrant, New Zealand genocide hotline, Palestine solidarity actions, travel bans Israeli soldiers, universal jurisdiction Israel, war crimes tribunal Israel]

— Trump’s Lebanon Agenda Is Regime Change on Fast-Forward

 

at 2/14/25 9:56am

The Trump administration has been actively working to push Hezbollah out of Lebanese politics—a move that, by extension, seeks to marginalize the country’s Shia Muslim population. Such an effort risks not only dismantling what remains of Lebanon’s fragile democracy but also triggering a civil war. On February 13, Lebanese authorities blocked Iranian civilian airliners carrying returning Lebanese religious tourists from landing at Beirut International Airport. The decision left many Lebanese stranded in Iran, unable to afford alternative flights home. In response, protests erupted across Beirut, with demonstrators blocking major roads and triggering a violent crackdown by the Lebanese military. This incident did not occur in isolation. The U.S. had previously pressured Lebanon to restrict Iranian air traffic, and the ban came just one day after Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee accused Iran of using civilian flights to transfer cash to Hezbollah. Israel provided no evidence for the claim, yet Beirut appeared to act in accordance with Tel Aviv’s demands—despite the fact that the two countries remain in a formal state of war. During her first visit to Lebanon as U.S. President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy, Morgan Ortagus openly praised Israel’s military campaign against the country, showing little regard for the devastating toll it had taken. Between September and November 2024, Israeli airstrikes and ground assaults killed approximately 2,720 people, yet Ortagus made no mention of the civilian casualties. Instead, she appeared at a press conference in Beirut wearing a prominent Star of David ring—an unmistakable sign of her support for Israel’s war, even as she stood on Lebanese soil. We are grateful to our ally Israel for defeating Hezbollah, Ortagus declared. She went on to thank Lebanese President Aoun, Prime Minister-designate Nawaf Salam, and everyone in this government who is committed to an end of corruption, who is committed to reforms, and who is committed to making sure that Hezbollah is not a part of the new government in any form. Defying the Trump administration’s “red line” on Hezbollah’s inclusion in Lebanon’s new government, the country’s 24-member cabinet was formed with five Hezbollah-aligned ministers. However, the Shia duo—Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Movement—fell short of securing the one-third share needed to veto key legislation. Trump’s State Department has made little effort to conceal its interference in Lebanese politics, openly exerting pressure on the new government. While much of the discussion surrounding Ortagus’s visit focused on the ring she wore during her press conference, there is no ambiguity about her Zionist convictions. A longtime vocal supporter of Israel, Ortagus formally converted to Judaism before marrying her husband, businessman Jonathan Weinberger, at Washington’s conservative Adas Israel Congregation. Although rarely acknowledged in Western media, the Hezbollah-allied bloc, democratically elected in 2022, remains the largest political force in Lebanon. In the most recent parliamentary elections, the bloc secured 58 of the 128 seats, while the U.S.- and Israeli-backed anti-Hezbollah coalition won just 47. However, the 2022 election was widely seen as a setback for Hezbollah and its allies, as they lost the parliamentary majority they had held since 2018. Their previous coalition, which controlled 71 seats, suffered losses primarily due to a decline in support for the Christian Free Patriotic Movement, one of Hezbollah’s key partners. Lebanon’s political system is shaped by deep sectarian divisions, a legacy of its colonial past. The country operates under a confessionalist model, first imposed by the French, which allocates political positions along religious lines: the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament a Shia Muslim. The U.S. currently backs the Lebanese Forces, a party led by Samir Geagea, a convicted murderer and former warlord with ties to fascist militias. Historically, the Lebanese Forces have enjoyed support from Israel and, until recently, Saudi Arabia. Despite its violent past, the party remains Washington’s preferred political vehicle in Lebanon, positioned as a counterweight to Hezbollah and its allies. Meanwhile, the U.S. is constructing what will be its largest embassy in the region, an expansive complex in Beirut that resembles a military and intelligence hub more than a traditional diplomatic mission. Another firestorm that has been slowly brewing in Lebanon is over the United States’ continued support for Israel’s occupation of the country’s south. Despite the terms of the initial 60-day ceasefire agreement, which took effect on November 27, 2024, Israel has violated it daily and unilaterally pushed back its departure from Lebanese territory to February 18—an extension that Lebanon’s government has begrudgingly accepted. Throughout the war between Israel and Lebanon, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) remained conspicuously absent from the battlefield, even as Israeli airstrikes repeatedly targeted their positions, killing Lebanese soldiers. Despite these attacks, the military did not retaliate once. Following the ceasefire agreement, the LAF received $117 million in U.S. State Department funding—aid explicitly conditioned on efforts to remove Hezbollah from southern Lebanon. Lebanon’s Shia Muslims are an integral part of the country’s social and political fabric, yet U.S. policy appears singularly focused on undermining them. With Israel’s war crimes still fresh in Lebanese memory and the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah further inflaming tensions, emotions remain high, and the specter of another major war looms large. Feature photo | Hezbollah supporters block a road to the international airport during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, Feb. 7, 2025. Bilal Hussein | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Trumps Lebanon Agenda Is Regime Change on Fast-Forward appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, Hezbollah Lebanon politics, Hezbollah U.S. sanctions, Israel-Lebanon conflict, Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea, Lebanon U.S. military aid, Morgan Ortagus Lebanon, Trump Lebanon policy, Trump Middle East strategy, U.S. foreign policy Middle East, U.S. intervention Lebanon]

— Gaza Ceasefire? Israel Has Violated It 270 Times—And Counting

 

at 2/13/25 9:43am

While Hamas announced a delay in the next round of prisoner exchanges—prompting accusations that it violated the ceasefire—Israel has been in breach of the agreement since the first hours of its implementation on January 19. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear from the outset that he viewed the deal as merely a temporary pause. Just one day before the ceasefire was set to take effect, Netanyahu publicly declared, “President [Donald] Trump and President [Joe] Biden have given full backing to Israel’s right to return to combat,” emphasizing that the truce would not be permanent. The ceasefire was scheduled to begin at 8:30 AM local time on January 19. Yet, in the final 30 minutes before its implementation, Israeli officials threatened to scrap the deal, citing Hamas’s delay in submitting a list of three Israeli captives set to be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners later that day. The agreement contained no clause allowing Israel to postpone the truce on these grounds. At the ceasefire deadline that morning, Israeli military spokesperson Daniel Hagari announced that military operations would continue until Hamas provided the required list of captives. In the interim, Palestinians briefly took to the streets, celebrating what they believed to be the official end of the war. The moment was short-lived. Within 15 minutes, Israeli drones returned to the skies, followed by airstrikes and gunfire from Israeli forces, killing at least 19 Palestinians. Hamas submitted the list soon after, repeatedly insisting that the delay was due to a technical issue. However, the ceasefire did not officially take effect until 11:15 AM. Despite the delay, Hamas upheld its side of the agreement, releasing three Israeli female captives on time. Israel, in contrast, postponed the release of 92 Palestinian women and children from 3:00 PM to 3:00 AM the next morning. Israeli forces also fired on families waiting near Ramallah in the West Bank for the release of their relatives. The BBC is reporting that Israeli forces have opened fire on Palestinians trying to return to their homes in the north of the Gaza strip pic.twitter.com/7J0O4Gd0zR — Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) November 24, 2023 On January 20, the first day of the ceasefire, a harrowing video circulated widely on social media, capturing the execution of 15-year-old Zakariya Hameed Yahya Barbakh. The footage showed an Israeli sniper in Rafah shooting the Palestinian teenager. As bystander Nader Ajlan attempted to drag Barbakh’s body to safety, he too came under Israeli gunfire. Despite the formal ceasefire, airstrikes, incursions, and shootings continued. On January 28, an Israeli airstrike targeted a horse-drawn cart in Gaza’s Nuseirat area, killing two Palestinian civilians, including 5-year-old Nadia Mohammed al-Amoudi. Meanwhile, Hamas and other Palestinian factions had not responded with a single bullet or rocket. A document shared with MintPress News and other media outlets by a senior Hamas official details what the group claims are 270 recorded Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement between January 19 and February 11. According to Hamas, these violations resulted in the deaths of 26 Palestinians and injuries to 59 others. The report further alleges 105 airspace violations, 36 instances of gunfire, nine bombardments, 29 unauthorized ground incursions, and the detention of five drivers and fishermen. The document states that “The occupations aircraft continued to fly on a near-daily basis during the designated prohibition periods (10-12 hours daily). A total of 105 violations were recorded involving the flighting of reconnaissance planes and drones, including (Hermes 450, Hermes 900, Super Heron, Zoveit, Quad Copter), with many of these carrying ammunition, particularly over areas designated for captives handover.” Regarding the prisoner exchange, the document accuses Israel of delaying the handover of a list of 400 Palestinian prisoners. Specifically, it states that the release of detainees in the third batch was postponed from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Additionally, Hamas claims that Palestinian prisoners were subjected to beatings and humiliation upon their release from Israeli detention centers. The document also highlights Israel’s continued obstruction of humanitarian aid, fuel, and essential supplies from entering Gaza, a violation that has been independently documented by multiple sources. Israeli authorities are on record denying entry of critical aid to the civilian population. Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, underscored the severity of the situation, stating, “Only 9,500 tents—small and poor in quality—have arrived in Gaza, while 120,000 are urgently needed. Hundreds of thousands remain without shelter, yet Israel has failed to fulfill its obligations under the ceasefire.” From the outset, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled his intent to undermine the ceasefire before it could transition into its second phase. Some Israeli officials even proposed prolonging the first phase of the agreement to prevent the war from ending and to maintain the ongoing prisoner exchange. Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has taken an aggressive stance, warning that if Hamas fails to release all Israeli captives by noon on Saturday, he will “open the gates of hell.” Feature photo | Palestinians walk through the destruction caused by the Israeli air and ground offensive in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on February 12, 2025. Majdi Fathi | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Gaza Ceasefire? Israel Has Violated It 270 Times—And Counting appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, News, ceasefire agreement violations, Gaza ceasefire breach, Gaza humanitarian crisis, Hamas prisoner exchange, Israel ceasefire violations, Israeli military airstrikes, Netanyahu Gaza war, Palestinian civilian casualties, Trump Israel policy, West Bank violence]

— From Anti-War Progressive to Pro-Drone Militarist: Tulsi Gabbard’s Odd Political Trajectory

 

at 2/13/25 8:29am

Editors Note | Originally published on November 24, 2021, this investigation by Alan Macleod delves into Tulsi Gabbards political metamorphosis—from self-proclaimed anti-war progressive to champion of military intervention. Given her recent confirmation as Director of National Intelligence, we are republishing the piece to shed light on the ideological journey that has led Gabbard to the helm the Americas most powerful intelligence apparatus. While many on the American left have denounced the acquittal of Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse as handing a get-out-of-jail-free card to racist militias, former Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard openly celebrated the verdict. “The jury got it right finding Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges,” said the 40-year-old lieutenant colonel, adding that the prosecution was so obviously politically motivated and his innocence so obvious that bringing charges against him should be considered “criminal” in itself. The Rittenhouse trial was clearly flawed from the start. Among other decisions, Judge Bruce Schroeder refused to allow into evidence either video showing Rittenhouse fantasizing about killing Black Lives Matter protesters just days before the Kenosha shooting or images of him partying with the far-right group Proud Boys, flashing white nationalist hand gestures. Schroeder, who has a long history of questionable rulings, also ruled that those killed by Rittenhouse must not be referred to as “victims” in court, preferring the terms “looters” and “arsonists.” To Gabbard, however, those questioning the verdict had merely had their minds poisoned by “pro-Antifa” mainstream media, a phrase she has repeatedly used over the past week. She tweeted: With no evidence, mainstream media and antifa-loving politicians immediately labeled Rittenhouse a white supremacist terrorist. It’s obvious now that he was just a foolish kid who felt he needed to protect people and the community from rioters and arsonists because the government failed to do so. “Anyone who disagrees with pro-antifa mainstream media bias on [the] Rittenhouse trial is smeared as a white supremacist terrorist. Disgusting,” she added. Doubling down on her stance, on Tuesday she released a video condemning those trying to view the shooting through the prism of race and racial justice. “We are all connected. We are all children of God, no matter our race, religion, or where we come from. So, please let us stop the RACIALIZATION of everyone and everything. This is what our country and world need most right now,” she wrote. We are all connected. We are all children of God, no matter our race, religion, or where we come from. So, please let us stop the RACIALIZATION of everyone and everything. This is what our country and world need most right now. pic.twitter.com/oDChWad848 — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) November 23, 2021 The former congresswoman’s words did not convince everyone. “Tulsi going all in on All Lives Matter,” remarked California-based media analyst Steve Patt. “I have never seen any politician move right as fast as Gabbard,” he added. Today, Gabbard posted a clip of her on Tucker Carlson Tonight condemning the handling of the Waukesha murder case an incident where an SUV drove into a crowd of spectators at a Christmas parade, killing six people. Gabbard argued that the incident showed that leftists are endangering America. Linking defunding the police to the release on bail of the suspect charged with multiple murders, she said: We have politicians, we have activist judges and prosecutors who are not enforcing the law, people trying to defund the police, people who have really screwed up priorities who seem to be more interested about protecting criminals than protecting our community. “They are let out on to our streets, continuing their terror sprees,” she added.   Fox News star These positions might surprise many who remember Gabbard from the 2016 and 2020 election cycles as a “rising star” on the progressive left. However, in recent weeks, she has pivoted hard to the right, appearing on Fox News virtually daily, espousing traditionally conservative talking points. In the past month alone, she has appeared on Fox shows Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hannity, Gutfeld!, Neil Cavuto Live, Fox News Primetime, The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton, and Watters World. Over the same timeframe, she has not appeared on MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, CBS or ABC. She has spent most of her time on the network chastising the Democratic Party, despite once being DNC vice-chair. In a Fox News Prime Time segment last week titled “Dems Target their Political Enemies,” she presented her own colleagues as perhaps the greatest threat to liberty in America, warning: You’re either with them – agreeing with them, supporting them, carrying the water for them or you’re not. You’re either part of their team or you’re not. And if you’re not (and this is what we’re seeing happening now. It is what I’ve experienced), then they will target you, censor you, demonize you and call you a domestic terrorist and sick the attorney general on you. This built on a previous interview with Steve Hilton titled “Dems have become the party of hate and division,” where she warned against the ominous “darkness” of the “far-left” party, and a Tucker Carlson segment where she claimed her party was pursuing “an intentional strategy to tear us apart based on the color of our skin.” The problem is that we have leaders who are intentionally trying to tear us apart based on the color of our skin for their political or financial gain, and they dont care about the destruction they leave in their wake. pic.twitter.com/IGFnHIEjnW — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) November 18, 2021 Gabbard also openly celebrated the Republican victory in the Virginia gubernatorial election earlier this month, which saw Glenn Youngkin defeat Democrat Terry McAuliffe, telling Carlson that “McAuliffe’s loss is a victory for all Americans.” “This is where I find hope for the future,” she added. She also condemned leftists who complain about Republicans using racial dog whistles, claiming that they were comparing the American public to dogs. “Please let us stop the racialization of everyone and everything. Racialism. We are all children of God and are therefore family in the truest sense, no matter our race or ethnicity,” she said, adding, “Please, let us not allow ourselves to be led down this dark and divisive path of racialism and hate.” Choosing to do this on Fox News a network whose entire business model is dedicated to spreading animosity and riling up their overwhelmingly elderly, white base against minorities and liberals is a particularly noteworthy decision. President Joe Biden himself has also been a key target of Gabbard’s ire. In September, at the height of the Haitian migrant scandal, where Border Patrol Agents were filmed whipping black people trying to cross into the United States, Gabbard attacked Biden from the right, claiming that his “open border policy” was hurting America and helping gang members and sex traffickers enter the country. Going further, she presented Trump as a sensible leader, praising him for his efforts to shore up the southern frontier with Mexico (In reality, “open borders” Biden has deported nearly 1.3 million people in less than a year in office nearly three times the figure Trump achieved in four years). This was not the only recent shot Gabbard has aimed at the 46th president. Earlier this month, she directly accused him of “undermining the fundamental principles of our country” and “tearing our country apart.” Four days later, she warned Fox viewers that his Build Back Better bill will allow “unelected bureaucrats” to “stick their noses into every aspect of our lives, furthering this cradle-to-grave mentality of government dependence that makes us lose even more of our autonomy.” “Government is already too big and powerful as it is. The Build Back Better bill will only make it worse,” she concluded, using classic conservative rhetoric.   From anti-war hero to drone queen Perhaps the most surprising shift in her metamorphosis into boilerplate conservative is her seemingly shifting stance on war. Appearing on Fox News just after the Biden administration was forced to admit that a drone strike it ordered on “terrorists” in Kabul actually targeted ten civilians, she vehemently defended the policy. Clearly not expecting such an answer (the segment was titled “Afghan Disaster: Who Is Getting Fired?”), host Tucker Carlson looked surprised as Gabbard launched into a spirited defense of both drones and the endless war on terror. “I think it’s important for the American people to understand that Islamist jihadists are continuing to wage war against us,” she said. Then, barely acknowledging that the slain Afghan children were not terrorists, she added: We have to work to defeat them militarily and ideologically. And militarily, we have two choices in how we do that. Number One: We can continue to invade and occupy in nation-building [sic] countries around the world just as we did in Afghanistan at great cost. Number Two: We can take a targeted approach using airstrikes, using our special forces to go in and go after these terror cells. “Weve seen a near-180 from Tulsi Gabbard this year. Her opinions on many subjects are now indecipherable from Fox News which is why theyve been inviting her on regularly,” Lee Camp, a political comedian who has followed Gabbard’s career trajectory closely, told MintPress, adding: Many of her tweets seem to pretend race is not an issue in America a country with overwhelmingly white-supremacist foreign and domestic policy. Much of her ire and concern has shifted from those without healthcare to those refugees coming through our open borders. Tulsi now feeds into the toxic nationalism and xenophobia that has allowed the American empire to abuse other peoples and cultures for generations (ironically including white Americas annexation of her home state of Hawaii). Gabbard’s heel turn accelerated in the fall after she returned from active deployment on what she called a “Special Operations mission to go after al-Qaeda affiliated jihadists,” in the Horn of Africa. Many congratulated her on her promotion to lieutenant colonel, but others were surprised to hear that the U.S. military was at war in Africa at all. All this seems a far cry from the woman who resigned from the DNC in 2016 in order to stand with Bernie Sanders. Gabbard consistently shared anti-war opinions on potential conflicts with Russia or Syria, to the point where she was constantly accused of being an agent of both governments. She also gained plaudits and followers after condemning the Saudi war on Yemen and attacking establishment figures like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris when few others would. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., holds hands with Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, during a town hall at Gettysburg College, April 22, 2016, in Gettysburg, Pa. Evan Vucci | AP On race, too, she has taken an even more abrupt rightward shift. In 2017, she demanded that America must “dismantle the systemic racism that causes Black men to disproportionately receive harsher sentences compared to other races and ethnicities for the same types of crime.” Yet when a movement emerged raising these same points, she attacked it, siding with Rittenhouse. Likewise, on immigration, only last year she condemned Trump for the policies she now says were correct. During the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination debates, she said: Our hearts break when we see children at these detention facilities whove been separated from their parents, when we see human beings crowded into cages in abhorrent, inhumane conditions. We can have both secure borders as well as humane immigration policies. We have to stop separating children from their parents, make it easier for people to seek asylum, make sure that we are securing our borders and [sic] by reforming those laws. While it is certainly possible to hold left-wing economic views without subscribing to liberal social values (many Americans do just that), claiming that Biden’s border policy, which is demonstrably far more authoritarian than Trump’s, constitutes an “open border” is harder to understand, as is scaremongering about the perils of big government. The grift in pursuit of power by this Lieutenant Colonel is unmatched. Started as bigot anti-gay official; became generic mainstream Dem to get into Congress; then an “attack Obama from the right” Dem; to “Bernie progressive” bandwagon; to a Bernie-Lite candidate; now full MAGA https://t.co/PI1Ae00LRM — Mike Prysner (@MikePrysner) November 26, 2021   A big fan of Modi, Sisi, Apartheid While many have been surprised by Gabbard’s rightward shift, there were a number of warning signs in her past that suggested her progressive, anti-war bona fides were not as rock solid as they might appear. Tulsi is the daughter of Republican-turned-Democratic State Senator Mike Gabbard, who came to prominence nationally as a leader in the anti-LGBT movement. In the 1990s, he was president of the group “Stop Promoting Homosexuality America” and host of the radio show “Let’s Talk Straight Hawaii.” Tulsi took after her father in many respects. One of her first political gigs was working for an anti-gay group that promoted conversion therapy. “As Democrats we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists,” she said. To be fair to her, her public pronouncements on the subject have greatly changed since then. In 2013, she joined the LGBT Equality Caucus and consistently voted for increased rights for sexual and gender minorities. This is a video with Tulsi Gabbard’s father, Mike Gabbard. He was the founder of “Stop Promoting Homosexuality America” and she is the daughter in this video. Tonight she is skipping the LGBTQ town hall. I wonder why. pic.twitter.com/j8xu0q2W56 — Rachel R. Gonzalez (@RachelRGonzalez) October 10, 2019 Perhaps even more alarming are her links to far-right Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) paramilitary movement. Modi, a Hindu nationalist, first came to worldwide attention while he was chief minister of Gujarat state during the massive wave of anti-Muslim pogroms in 2002 that saw over 2,000 killed and 200,000 Muslims driven from their homes thanks to RSS handiwork. As prime minister, Modi has led drives to strip millions of Indian Muslims of their citizenship and overseen other anti-Muslim violence. Members of Modi’s cabinet have floated the idea of genocide against India’s Muslim population (thought to be nearly 200 million). Gabbard, a practicing Hindu, gifted Modi her childhood copy of the sacred text “The Bhagavad Gita,” condemned the U.S. 2014 decision to block his entry into the country owing to his history of inciting religious violence, and voted against a House resolution condemning his attacks on Muslims. Senior members of the RSS an organization often compared to the Ku Klux Klan or Hitler’s brownshirts attended Gabbard’s Hawaii wedding. Hindu extremist and BJP spokesperson Ram Madhav at Gabbard’s wedding. Source | Pieter Friedrich Whether Modi has influenced Gabbard’s views on Islam is unclear. However, what is evident is that her beliefs about the religion drive much of her domestic and foreign policy positions. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015, she fumed that President Barack Obama was not nearly tough enough on Islamic extremism, telling Fox News that “radical Islamic ideology” had to be defeated militarily, not just ideologically. She also constantly attacked Obama on his deal with Iran, calling the Islamic Republic “the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.” On U.S. ally Saudi Arabia, however, her position was completely the opposite, saying that it was “understandable” if they developed atomic weaponry. Another Middle Eastern dictatorship she supported was Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s Egypt. In 2015, she traveled to Egypt to meet Sisi, who has already suggested he might rule for life. There, she offered a glowing endorsement of his autocratic rule. “President el-Sisi has shown great courage and leadership in taking on this extreme Islamist ideology, while also fighting against ISIS militarily to keep them from gaining a foothold in Egypt,” she said, urging the U.S. to recognize him and stand with him in this fight against Islamic extremists. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard meets with #Egypt President el-Sisi and other leaders in Cairo. https://t.co/ndadcSiRnz pic.twitter.com/sHB4U6CXX5 — Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiPress) November 24, 2015 This rhetoric is a far cry from the image of a sober, war-skeptical outsider many of her champions presented her as. While she does challenge many U.S. policies, it does not come from a position of being against war (she is, after all, a high ranking member of the U.S. military). “When it comes to counterproductive wars of regime change, I’m a dove… When it comes to the war against terrorists, I’m a hawk,” she explained, while failing to recognize that the war on terror is inextricably linked to regime-change wars and that one begets the other. Iraq, of course, supposedly started because of Saddam Hussein’s involvement in 9/11 and terrorism, but quickly morphed into a regime-change war lasting two decades, destabilizing an entire region and turning it into a breeding ground for radical Islamic terror. On Israel, Gabbard has also been a loyal ally and was even chosen to speak at Christians United for Israel, a far-right pro-occupation organization. There, she shared a stage with Benjamin Netanyahu, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. So forthright was her support for the Apartheid State that the next year she received the Champion of Freedom award from the controversial Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an acolyte of mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. Nevertheless, she still managed to cultivate an image of being against war and empire. with philanthropist Miriam Adelson and Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii at our Gala Dinner on 5 May pic.twitter.com/GhUXVWolXA — Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) May 17, 2016   Playing both sides Gabbard has been courted by the right-wing for a long time, so her recent shift should perhaps not have come as such a surprise. A favorite of individuals such as Mike Cernovich, Richard Spencer and David Duke, she even went to Washington to interview for a position in the Trump administration. This was reportedly presidential advisor Steve Bannon’s idea. “He loves Tulsi Gabbard. Loves her…[he] wants to work with her on everything,” a source close to Bannon told The Hill. Last year, she also sided with notorious right-wing organization Project Veritas to promote the idea that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) had cheated her way to election victory, stuffing ballot boxes with votes. In this light, then, her decision not to vote to impeach Donald Trump (an action that infuriated her own party), might seem less like a principled stand and more like a long-term strategic move. American politics is often compared to the charade of pro wrestling, with participants secretly working together to put on a show for the public. Gabbard’s latest heel turn is merely the latest in a long line of metamorphoses from conservative anti-LGBT campaigner to progressive anti-war activist to boilerplate Republican. Her latest actions might disappoint some on the anti-war left. However, a closer look at her past suggested her opposition to militarism was always limited in scope. Unfortunately, the United States is so starved of genuine anti-imperialist leaders that many are willing to compromise to an incredible degree. “Gabbard has switched from championing the oppressed to championing the oppressors. Its tough to say whether she ever truly believes anything she says or merely points her trajectory towards the greatest number of clicks and attention,” Camp told MintPress, adding: Rather than stick to her (supposed) beliefs, she has now recalibrated to the Fox News audience. Most of our ruling elite in both parties are sociopaths who dont actually have empathy for others. Perhaps Gabbard has always been just more of the same. Feature photo | Tulsi Gabbard, applauds during Gabbards Senate Select Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing, January 30, 2025. Tom Williams | CQ Roll Call via AP Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams. The post From Anti-War Progressive to Pro-Drone Militarist: Tulsi Gabbard’s Odd Political Trajectory appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Daily Digest, Investigations, National, Top Story, Tulsi Gabbard, Tulsi Gabbard anti-war, Tulsi Gabbard conservative, Tulsi Gabbard drones, Tulsi Gabbard foreign policy, Tulsi Gabbard Fox News, Tulsi Gabbard Fox News transformation, Tulsi Gabbard military, Tulsi Gabbard progressive, Tulsi Gabbard right-wing, Tulsi Gabbard Rittenhouse, Tulsi Gabbard Trump, Tulsi Gabbard war hawk]

— Richard Medhurst, Leading Gaza Reporter, Arrested and Charged with ‘Terrorism’ in European Crackdown

 

at 2/12/25 8:03am

Well-known British journalist Richard Medhurst now finds himself facing accusations from Austrian authorities, who claim he is linked to the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas. The charges follow a wave of arrests and home raids, reportedly tied to his outspoken views on Palestine. Medhurst’s legal troubles began in August 2023, when upon landing at Heathrow Airport in London, he was immediately surrounded by six law enforcement officers. They informed him he was being arrested under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act—legislation often cited in cases involving proscribed organizations. In a nine-minute video he later uploaded, Medhurst described his treatment in custody. “I was placed in solitary confinement, in a cold cell that smelt like urine. There was no light, and the bed—if you can even call it a bed—was simply a small concrete ledge with a paper-thin mattress,” he recounted. He also stated that at no point was it made clear what, specifically, he was being charged with. The UK’s legal battle against Medhusrt shows no sign of slowing. Recently, the investigation into the embattled journalist was extended for another three months, requiring him to report for another check-in regarding his case. Then, on February 6, he posted a video on his social media pages revealing that Austrian authorities had raided his home in Vienna. Nearly all of his electronic equipment was confiscated, marking yet another escalation in what he describes as an ongoing campaign of political persecution. I was detained this week by the Austrian police and intelligence services. They raided my house, office, and took all my devices. They are accusing me of being a member of Hamas and threatened me with 10 years in prison. Journalism is not a crime. pic.twitter.com/gztm4bmLuY — Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) February 6, 2025 “They essentially lured me into a trap,” the British journalist said of the Austrian authorities. “I received a letter from the government last week, from immigration, summoning me for some interview about my residency,” he stated. But when he arrived, he was met with a different line of questioning—one focused not on bureaucratic formalities but on his political views. Medhurst was soon threatened with the revocation of his residency before being arrested by Austrian intelligence agents. His home was raided, and nearly all of his electronic equipment was seized. While it was clear that the well-known journalist had been targeted for his outspoken criticism of the ongoing genocide in Gaza—commentary that has gained significant traction over the past 16 months—the exact charges against him remained ambiguous until later. Then, on February 9, Medhurst published an update on his predicament, revealing the severity of the allegations against him. “The Vienna state prosecutor accuses me of being a Hamas member, specifically the military wing Izzal Din Qassam Brigades, since at least July 2024 and working to destroy Israel and establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate,’” he stated. Medhurst, a British Christian of Armenian-Syrian descent, has publicly stated that he believes that Palestinians living under occupation have the right to armed resistance under the Fourth Geneva Convention. However, no evidence suggests he supports Hamas or any specific Palestinian political or armed faction. What makes the accusation even more dubious is the claim that he seeks to establish a worldwide Islamic caliphate—a concept that Hamas itself explicitly rejects. Hamas and its armed wing define themselves as a localized Palestinian national liberation movement focused solely on resisting Israeli occupation. The group has never advocated for a global Islamic caliphate and has not conducted military operations outside the borders of historic Palestine. The notion that a Christian British journalist based in Vienna has joined the military wing of a Palestinian faction—one that does not seek territorial expansion beyond Palestine—strains credibility to an almost absurd degree. British authorities have increasingly relied on anti-terrorism legislation to target pro-Palestine journalists and activists, including Richard Medhurst, the Electronic Intifada’s Asa Winstanley, and 61-year-old activist Sarah Wilkinson. The application of the Terrorism Act against members of Palestine Action has drawn international scrutiny, prompting four United Nations officials to formally raise concerns with the UK government over the treatment of political activists. The charges against Medhurst are not only an attack on his personal freedoms but a reminder of the deteriorating room for dissent in Western democracies. When governments use counterterrorism laws as a weapon against journalists and dissenters, the lines between national security and political repression become blurred. Austrias case is not just about Medhurst—it is about the fate of free speech itself. Feature photo | @richimedhurst | X.com Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the occupied Palestinian territories and hosts the show ‘Palestine Files’. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’. Follow him on Twitter @falasteen47 The post Richard Medhurst, Leading Gaza Reporter, Arrested and Charged with Terrorism in European Crackdown appeared first on MintPress News.

[Category: Foreign Affairs, News, Austria, Free speech Europe, free speech under threat, Hamas, journalist targeted for reporting, media repression europe, palestine activism crackdown, press freedom, pro-palestine censorship, richard medhurst, richard medhurst arrest, richard medhurst terrorism act]

As of 3/16/25 9:24am. Last new 3/13/25 11:09am.