- — War Drums in Washington: Netanyahu’s True Ambitions Laid Bare
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at 7/25/24 3:30pmIsrael is participating at the Olympics in Paris while Russia is banned, despite killing at least 80% fewer civilians in Ukraine than Israel has killed in Gaza. Even the United States has prosecuted its own for war crimes. Impunity for Israel. Enforcement of international law for everyone else. No more explicit was this hypocrisy demonstrated than on Wednesday, July 24, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a man with a pending ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity, addressed Congress in order to shore up support for his political survival and request more weapons for his “war” against Hamas. The main thrust of his speech was thematically organized by the supposed war between civilization (the West) and barbarism (Iran), mobilizing imperialistic language that would have made even Winston Churchill proud. During his 60-minute speech, he received 58 standing ovations from Congress in a bi-partisan spectacle of unquestioning adamantine support for Israel and its congressionally anointed king. American Politicians: We must ban TikTok and Russia better not interfere in our elections! Those same politicians 58 times: pic.twitter.com/dhExISwUTe — Greg J Stoker (@gregjstoker) July 25, 2024 Nothing new was said here: atrocity propaganda, the weaponization of the holocaust, feigned concern for the hostages, the vague refrain that Israel is somehow America’s greatest ally, and a mortifying pink-washing comparison between “Gays for Gaza” to “Chickens for KFC.” This was simply state-sponsored propaganda, but Netanyahu’s true intentions bled through the usual talking points in subtext: an eventual war between the United States and Iran. He has undoubtedly elaborated in private on his strategy for a wider war in the Middle East, and his plansperhaps more accurately, his lifelong political fever dreamshould be taken seriously by every American citizen. The war in Gaza has already destroyed or disrupted millions of lives around the globe, and there are many policymakers in Washington contemplating war with Iran. What we are seeing here is an escalation of a narrative push to manufacture the required bi-partisan consent for another interventionist war in the Middle East. For decades, the United States has hopped from unnecessary localized conflict to localized conflict Afghanistan, Iraq, Syrian, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine but a confrontation with Iran would erupt across the region, potentially the globe, in a way that the U.S. military, economy, and citizenry is not equipped or prepared to deal with. Who will pay the price? Hundreds of thousands of innocents across the sea and tens of thousands of American service members, not the policy makers or the defense contractors that profit from these wars. When Veterans for Peace, a global organization of anti-war Military Veterans, says our government is run by “mad men arsonists who set fires around the globe, fires that enrich their corporate masters,” this is what they mean. There is no reason to believe that Iran has greater territorial aspirations or designs on United States sovereignty, half a world away. A war could not be won, and it would be disastrous for America in myriad ways. There is an entire political bloc in Washington who, knowing this, would plunge headlong into war anyway. Join us tonight on State of Play on Mint Press News to dissect the true intentions behind Netayahu’s speech and the protests against it. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a human intelligence collection and analysis background. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post War Drums in Washington: Netanyahus True Ambitions Laid Bare appeared first on MintPress News.- — Was the US Involved in Israel’s Deadly Bombing of Yemen?
- at 7/25/24 1:32pmIsrael claims to have acted alone in the bombing of civilian sites at Yemens Hodeidah Port, which resulted in the deaths of at least nine people and injuries to 87 others. Despite these claims, evidence suggests that the United States may have had prior knowledge of the attack. On July 19, Yemen launched its new ‘Yafa’ drone, successfully targeting a heavily guarded street in Tel Aviv. This strike killed an Israeli reserve soldier and wounded 10 others. The incident has been likened to the October 7 of Israeli Air Defenses by Hebrew media outlet Calcalist, highlighting the failure to neutralize the threat. A furious Israel swiftly retaliated the next day, targeting civilian sites in Yemens Hodeidah Port. The attack, described as a show for Israeli domestic consumption, aimed at blasting electrical infrastructure and fuel tankers, igniting a massive fire. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated, The fire that is currently burning in Hodeidah is seen across the Middle East and the significance is clear The first time that they harmed an Israeli citizen, we struck them. And we will do this in any place where it may be required. While the United States claimed not to have participated in the attack, they offered diplomatic support, stating, “We fully recognize and acknowledge Israel’s right to self-defense.” American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin affirmed Washington’s “ironclad” support for Israel. Unnamed Yemeni sources told Al-Mayadeen News that the attack was likely coordinated with the United States; however, MintPress News could not confirm this information from official sources. Considering the logistics of the Israeli operation, which involved F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets, reconnaissance aircraft, and refueling planes, it is improbable that the United States was unaware. Additionally, if the attack originated from Israeli airfields targeting sites nearly 2,000 kilometers away, the strike group would likely have had to traverse Egyptian or Saudi Arabian airspace to execute their mission, dubbed ‘Outstretched Arm.’ Reports from the Israeli media suggest that there was an Italian effort in refueling Israeli fighter jets. This aligns with the fact that the Italian and Israeli air forces conducted a joint drill in 2022, dubbed ‘Lightning Shield,’ aimed at “improving the operational competence of the F-35I Adir array and expanding its capabilities to possible operational scenarios.” In 2021, Israeli F-35 fighter jets also trained in Italy for a joint multinational drill labeled ‘Falcon Strike 2021,’ which focused on joint action against Iran. Although there is no confirming evidence that Italy was involved in the Israeli operation, this raises questions about the U.S.s potential role. No nation is likely to take any credit for aiding Israel due to the attack targeting civilian facilities. There is an argument that the Israeli air force, due to the lack of sophisticated targets chosen, could have very well acted alone in this regard, as little intelligence gathering was needed for such strikes. Yet the fact that the U.S.-led multinational naval coalition is currently conducting its Operation Prosperity Guardian in the Red Sea and has frequently claimed to have shot down drones fired by Yemen’s Ansarallah towards Israeli targets, suggests that it was more than likely briefed in advance about the attack. Last April, American, British, Jordanian, and French air forces all aided Israel in defending against Iran’s retaliatory attack, following the Israeli bombing of the consular section of Irans Damascus-based embassy. It was also alleged that the UAE and Saudi Arabia played additional supportive roles in confronting the Iranian missiles and drones fired towards Israel. Given such close coordination between Israel and its allies, it seems unlikely that there was no coordination during this highly sensitive mission. Feature photo | Oil tanks burn at the port in Hodeidah, Yemen, Saturday, July 20, 2024. The Israeli army said it had struck several Houthi targets in western Yemen following a fatal drone attack by the rebel group in Tel Aviv the previous day. Photo | 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 Was the US Involved in Israels Deadly Bombing of Yemen? appeared first on MintPress News.
- — BBC Pro-Israel Bias Exposed by Leaked Emails and Internal Studies
- at 7/24/24 8:39amSince the beginning of the war on Gaza, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has faced repeated accusations of pro-Israel bias, not only from the public but also internally. On July 16 and 18, leaked emails between BBC staff highlighted the extent of these grievances, accusing the outlet of complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Jadaliyya, an independent magazine by the Arab Studies Institute, obtained leaked emails from May between Beirut-based BBC correspondent Rami Ruhayem and BBC Director General Tim Davie. Ruhayem also sent these emails to several BBC News departments. The emails and attachments detail instances where the BBC missed key context, allowed guests to make unsubstantiated claims, and provided “evidence of a collapse in the application of basic standards and norms of journalism that seems aligned with Israel’s propaganda strategy.” While Ruhayem detailed various pieces of evidence, he highlighted the BBCs response to a prominent atrocity propaganda story spread on-air four times: A guest on the BBC stated: “… just yesterday I heard one of the women that was pregnant there, this terrorist put his hand in, took out her foetus killed it while the umbilical cord was still attached to her” The presenter let the claim pass without making any inquiries. Days later, another guest said: “…they pulled a baby out of a pregnant mom and then beheaded the baby, beheaded the mom.” This, too, passed without any inquiry by the presenter. Days later, the guest again stated: “… we now know that there was a pregnant woman who had her belly cut open, the baby was removed from her stomach and beheaded in front of her. There’s videos of this.” The BBC presenter responded: Which is unverified, we haven’t seen these videos. The guest replied, You haven’t seen it. I know many people who have seen it. These videos are in existence, there’s countless others In relative terms, this much-needed interjection is a credit to the individual presenter. However, it is also a de facto confession by the BBC that the outlet had allowed this claim to be made at least twice without question despite it being unverified. It would have been reasonable for audiences exposed to the previous two interviews, especially those who trust the BBC, to assume the BBC believes this event occurred. The leaked emails are not the only evidence of the BBCs bias or its staffs grievances. Two separate studies, published by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mona Chalabi, examined the BBCs bias in mentioning Palestinian and Israeli deaths and the language used to describe Palestinians and Israelis. The analysis by Dana Najjar and Jan Lietava reviewed 600 articles and 4,000 live feed posts on the BBC website between October 7, 2023, and December 2, 2023. Commenting on the research, Chalabi stated: This summary doesn’t fully capture all the dehumanization often present in journalism language. For example, Palestinian deaths are frequently mentioned in the context of vengeance (retaliation/retaliatory/retaliated appear 190 times in this dataset) and, unlike Israeli deaths/hostages, these victims are rarely mentioned by name. In November of last year, eight UK-based journalists working for the BBC wrote a 2,300-word letter to Al Jazeera, highlighting a double standard in how civilians are seen in Gaza compared to the unflinching coverage of Russias actions in Ukraine. Then, in January, the BBC acknowledged what it termed a possible mistake in its reporting on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) trial accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. While broadcasting the second day of live public hearings in full, where Israel’s lawyers made their counterclaims, the BBC only partially aired the first day, which featured South Africa’s legal team arguing that Israel violated the genocide convention. Earlier this month, the BBC ran a headline about the murder of a young Palestinian man with Down’s Syndrome, reading “The lonely death of Gaza man with Down’s syndrome.” The article didnt mention until paragraph 16 that Israeli soldiers set attack dogs on him. Following a public uproar, the BBC changed the headline to Gaza man with Down’s syndrome attacked by IDF dog and left to die, mother says. Despite the United Nations and leading human rights groups trusting the Gaza Health Ministry’s statistics due to their long track record of reliability, the BBC continues to label it “Hamas-run” in its footage. On July 14, when over 140 Palestinians were killed by Israel in Gaza, the BBC published a headline reading, “Hamas-run health ministry says 141 killed in Israeli strikes.” Although the Gaza Health Ministry’s casualty figures have consistently correlated with Israel’s in past conflicts, the BBC’s headline implies that the reader should dismiss the death toll figure as Hamas propaganda. Under British law, Hamas is considered a terrorist organization, so the headline suggests that a terrorist-run ministry is making a claim, despite no evidence of Hamas influencing the data or the civilian-run Health Ministry being operated by armed fighters. Feature photo | A video grab of protesters outside BBC Broadcasting House, London, October 16, 2023. Photo | 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 BBC Pro-Israel Bias Exposed by Leaked Emails and Internal Studies appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos Toxic Pro-War Media Empire
- at 7/23/24 12:23pmThese are the sorts of headlines we can expect from a newspaper owned and controlled by one of the world’s richest individuals. In 2013, Amazon owner Jeff Bezos (whose net worth far exceeds $200 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire list) bought the Washington Post and turned it into a vehicle for promoting his own interests. In an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, management acknowledged that Post reporters are pushed to produce almost four times as many stories as their peers at The New York Times. Furthermore, the Post writes and rewrites the same story but from slightly different angles and with different headlines in order to generate more clicks and thus, more revenue. Thanks to new technology, reporters’ every keystroke is monitored, and they are under constant pressure from management not to fall behind. But Bezos is far from alone. Rupert Murdoch, for example, has amassed a media empire spanning the globe, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News in the U.S., The Sun and the Times of London in the U.K., and dozens of titles in his native Australia. This power allows him to set the political agenda across much of the world. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair claimed that Murdoch was an “unofficial member” of his cabinet and one of the four most powerful men in the United Kingdom. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, described him as the world’s “most dangerous” individual. In a sense, Biden is correct. Murdoch has used his media empire to push his deeply conservative agenda, which has included spreading racist and xenophobic conspiracies, as well as relentlessly supporting Israel and its attack on Gaza. On his instructions, all 175 of his newspapers supported the illegal invasion of Iraq. Michael Bloomberg, meanwhile, ran for president while continuing to own his own media network, employing 2700 staff. At the time, he was the world’s ninth-richest individual. A free media, we are told, is the bedrock of democracy. But freedom from what? Certainly, government interference in media exists. But plutocratic elites also exert massive pressure on media, especially corporate-owned outlets. For an excellent list of more reliable independent news sources, go to Project Censored. 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 Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos Toxic Pro-War Media Empire appeared first on MintPress News.
- — World Court Rules Against Israeli Apartheid as IDF Assaults Safe Zone
- at 7/22/24 3:12pmPessimism about the effectiveness and enforcement of international law and the concept of a rules-based order is understandable, but not all hope is lost. It is unsurprising that mainstream media have largely ignored the historic and unprecedented ruling of the International Court of Justice against Israels apartheid and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. According to an analysis by Haaretz, this ruling essentially arms countries, institutions, and corporations with justification to penalize Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu has focused much of his career on opposing the Oslo Accords. Now, the Oslo Accords are effectively nullified, but not in the manner he intended. Israel is no longer in a position to condescend to allow the Palestinians the right to self-determination; instead, they are now compelled to do so unconditionally, according to the highest legal authority in the world. If Israel fails to end the occupation, which is likely, there are now legal mechanisms in place to pressure it to comply. There was a massive misinformation push immediately following the World Court’s ruling on Friday, with propagandists on social media characterizing it as an “opinion” and emphasizing the term “non-binding.” This is, of course, a mischaracterization of the nature of international law meant to pacify the layman. According to a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry: It should be clarified that the opinion published today is an advisory opinion and it is not legally binding. The State of Israel adheres to the rule of law, and has an independent and respected legal system. It is committed to international law and it will continue to protect its citizens in accordance with international law.” Israel rejects the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) that was published today regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unfortunately, the Court’s opinion is fundamentally wrong. It mixes politics and law. It injects the politics of the corridors of… pic.twitter.com/cuA1uYU7B7 — Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) July 19, 2024 What it fails to mention is that the World Court has determined Israel is guilty of apartheid, with an institutionally discriminatory legal system against Palestinians. Consequently, Israel is no longer considered an independent and respected legal system capable of investigating itself. The long-term implications of this ruling extend beyond Israels worst fears. We can gauge the significance of this ruling by the mainstream media’s response, which has been minimal, mainly highlighting that it is not legally binding. Although this is true, the ruling sets a clear precedent that will be referenced for years to come, and it does not reflect positively on the situation. This is a legal matter and will not immediately impact the daily lives of Palestinians living under military occupation in the West Bank or those in Gaza enduring what the IDF calls another spear tip into a safe zone. Despite the dire situation, there is a glimmer of hope. The ruling finally addressed the issue of reparations, providing clarity that many legal scholars did not expect at this stage. Join us on State of Play as we explore the significance of this development with Kristen Zornada, an international humanitarian lawyer and federal judicial advisor. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a human intelligence collection and analysis background. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post World Court Rules Against Israeli Apartheid as IDF Assaults Safe Zone appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Israel’s Military Faces Crisis Amid War Plans for Yemen and Lebanon
- at 7/22/24 8:47amAs Israeli leaders scramble to secure diplomatic support, armaments and moral justification to expand the scope of the Gaza war to Lebanon and possibly Yemen, official acknowledgment has come from its army of a crisis in manpower, insufficient ammunition and tanks that require repair. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested last month that his military is “prepared for a very intense operation” against Lebanon, which followed various threats to return the Arab nation “back to the stone age.” Yet, according to Yair Golan, the Israeli military’s former deputy chief of staff, “the reserves and the regular army system have been worn to the bone,” a significant issue that threatens Israel’s ability to launch an assault on Lebanon, let alone Yemen. In early July, the New York Times reported that Israeli Generals had shifted their position in support of concluding a ceasefire and prisoner exchange with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, putting this down to the fact that Tel Aviv was “low on munitions.” As early as January, reports began to emerge that the Israeli military had been forced to limit its bombing campaign against the Gaza Strip due to a global ammo shortage caused by both its unprecedented bombing campaign and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Despite reports that the Biden administration stopped sending 2,000-pound bombs and froze a single weapons shipment, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently vowed to lift restrictions on Washingtons arms shipments to Israel. Weapons transfers carried out through cargo planes reveal arms deliveries peaked in November of last year and have steadily declined since, according to publicly available data. However, this months arms deliveries appear to have reversed that trend. Now, as reported in the Israeli Hebrew media outlet Maariv, comes the first official confirmation from the Israeli military of a crisis in manpower after having lost multiple ranks of soldiers in Gaza, in addition to issues with ammunition supplies and the ability to mobilize tanks that are under repair. This admission from the Israeli army came as a response to a petition by Israel’s Supreme Court demanding the inclusion of female soldiers into the army’s Armored Corps, which the military’s chief of staff, Herzi Halevi, announced was delayed until 2025. Official filings by the Israeli army revealed that a significant number of tanks had been damaged or were entirely out of service due to the losses suffered during the ongoing fighting in Gaza. Although no specific numbers were given, it was stressed that the tank crisis was severe. This means that the current number of tanks is insufficient, whether for war efforts or for training. In addition, the amount of ammunition and resources required to repair machinery is very limited, and the Israeli military is working all the time to expand it, the documents read. It was also noted that there were losses of high-ranking officers and soldiers that needed to be replaced, placing a high demand on the Israeli military. In a conflict that has officially roped in at least 16 nations, Israeli officials are constantly threatening to expand the scope of their Gaza offensive to include other fronts. While it is currently conducting skirmishes along the Lebanese border with Hezbollah, its threats of all-out war are yet to be realized, as are those issued towards Yemen’s Ansarallah, who just last week successfully hit Tel Aviv with a drone strike. Feature photo | Israeli soldiers stand on top of tanks in a staging area near the Gaza border, June 3, 2024. Leo Correa | 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 Israels Military Faces Crisis Amid War Plans for Yemen and Lebanon appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Meta’s Policy on Zionism Exposed: CyberWell Scrambles After Israel Ties Revealed
- at 7/19/24 12:16pmOn July 10, it was announced that social media giant Meta would broaden the scope of its censorship and suppression of content related to the Gaza genocide. Under the new policy, Facebook and Instagram posts containing “derogatory or threatening references to ‘Zionists’ in cases where the term is used to refer to Jews or Israelis” will be proscribed. Unsurprisingly, a welter of Zionist lobby organizations many of which aggressively lobbied Meta to adopt these changes cheered the move. Emboldened, the same entities are now calling for all social media platforms to follow suit. The Times of Israel noted that “nearly 150 advocacy groups and experts provided input that led to Meta’s policy update.” This prominently included Tel Aviv-based CyberWell, mundanely described by the outlet as “a nonprofit that has been documenting the swell of online antisemitism and Holocaust denial since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza.” These malign activities have had a devastating impact on what Western audiences see and hear about the Gaza genocide on their social media feeds. In January, CyberWell published an extensive report on how it was seeking to censor many prominent X accounts that expressed doubts about the official narrative of October 7, including the widely disseminated, proven-to-be-false libel that Hamas fighters beheaded dozens of infants. Users in the firing line included popular anonymous Zei Squirrel, Al Jazeera, The Grayzone chief Max Blumenthal, and famous rapper Lowkey, of MintPress News. CyberWell claimed such legitimate skepticism was comparable to Holocaust denial. The impact of these lobbying efforts isn’t clear, although almost simultaneously, Zei Squirrel was abruptly suspended from X without warning or explanation, sparking widespread outrage. It was only due to relentless backlash that the account was reinstated. More recently, CyberWell submitted formal guidance to Meta on censoring the Palestine solidarity phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which Zionists falsely claim is a clarion call for the genocide of Jews. That intervention is part of a broader effort by the firm to force the social network to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) highly controversial working definition of antisemitism. This definition, which has been condemned by many sources including academic David Feldman, who helped draft it for falsely conflating criticism of the Zionist entity and antisemitism, is a major inspiration for CyberWell. So, too, it seems is a sinister Israeli government psychological warfare blitzkrieg, concerned with “mass consciousness activities” in the U.S. and Europe. 35 Pro-Israel groups have called on social media platforms to copy Meta ban on targeting Zionists. Photo | Adopt IHRA Coalition On June 24, independent journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulson reported that CyberWell was one component of this insidious effort to shape and spread pro-Israeli narratives across the Western world, known as Voices of Israel. In response to the exposé, CyberWell repudiated any affiliation with the long-running, Israeli-funded hasbara operation or receiving government funding “from any country.” As we shall see, though, there are unambiguous grounds to doubt these denials. It is vital to clarify the political, ideological, and financial forces guiding CyberWell’s operations and the malign interests that its censorship activities serve. The non-profit is now a “trusted partner” of Meta, TikTok, and X, ostensibly assisting these major social networks to combat “disinformation.” In reality, this grants a shadowy private firm with open links to Israel’s intelligence apparatus and evident ambitions to take its censorship crusade global, unrestrained power to prevent the reality of Israel’s genocide from emerging publicly. ‘Nothing Wrong’ In response to the exposures of Fang and Poulson, CyberWell which had hitherto operated with a reasonable degree of transparency went scurrying underground. Many sections of its website were pruned of incriminating information or deleted outright. This included a highly illuminating section on the individuals running and advising the outfit. Now, visitors to CyberWell’s website are offered no indication of who or what is behind the initiative, which promises to deliver “more data, less hate” by tackling “antisemitism” online using artificial intelligence. In a comment released to Fang and Poulson, CyberWell claimed they were “forced to remove the ‘Our Team’ page for safety reasons” due to the pair’s reporting “generating false and misleading information.” The statement further alleged: “Following the publication of your story, our analysts were attacked and identified by name on X. Users shared your article and our employees’ names with a wider network and we became concerned for our staff’s safety.” A review of the now-purged resumes of CyberWell’s founders and staff points to a somewhat different rationale. Many members of the non-profit’s “dynamic team” of “academics, retired generals, intelligence alumni and innovative tech professionals” have extensive Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) backgrounds and Israeli government ties. U.S.-born founder Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor emigrated to Tel Aviv as a teenager and volunteered to serve in the IOF as a “lone soldier.” She then entered the intelligence sphere via Israeli firm Argyle Consulting, which provides private spying services to international companies and “other entities.” She served under Zohar Gorgel, “a decorated IDF intelligence officer with over a decade of experience in various cyber and technology roles.” Together, they struck upon the idea of “driving enforcement and improvement of community standards and hate speech policies across the digital landscape to fight against online antisemitism,” so they launched CyberWell, “encouraged by colleagues and mentors.” Elsewhere, the organization employs Yonathan Hezroni, “a former analyst and analyst team leader” in the IOF’s military intelligence research department. Dina Porat, chief historian of the Zionist entity-funded Yad Vashem, who heavily influenced the IHRA working definition, is named as a CyberWell advisor. So too is Major General Amos Yadlin, a 40-year high-ranking IDF veteran who once led the IDF’s spying wing and was previously defense attaché to the U.S.. Alongside them is Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, a longtime IDF spokesperson. His position raises grave questions about the non-profit’s denials of any connection to Voices of Israel. Israeli corporate records list Lerner as a shareholder and director of Keshet David. As Voices of Israel chair and founder Micah Lakin Avni explained in a December 2018 Times of Israel interview, Keshet David—initially called Israel Cyber Shield—is the research and intelligence arm of his Israeli government-funded organization, then known as Concert. It was headed by Yossi Kuperwasser, former Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs director general and lead IDF military intelligence researcher. Proud to support @CyberWell_org https://t.co/5gqFX4p44r — Lt. Col. (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) July 10, 2024 Israel Cyber Shield attracted significant public controversy in May of that year after it was revealed to have compiled and circulated a “dirty dossier” on prominent BDS activist Linda Sarsour in a bid to discredit her and encourage universities and other organizations not to feature her as a speaker. As Avni acknowledged in his interview, creating a hostile environment for Palestine solidarity activists and events was precisely the unit’s founding purpose: If a person puts up a post, a public post on Facebook, and says I’m a big supporter of this or that anti-Israel organization, not only that but I’m organizing a demonstration on my campus tomorrow if they put that public post out for the whole world to know, that’s public information, so there’s nothing wrong with being aware of that post and making sure that the Jewish students on their campus are aware of it…Concert funds Keshet David and we get all the information.” ‘Tightly Knit’ CyberWell’s deep and cohering if well-concealed ties to Voices of Israel and the Israeli government don’t end there. The non-profit’s 2022 annual report lists its Chief Financial Officer as Sagi Balasha, the very first CEO of Voices of Israel when the operation was still named Concert. He took up the post after leaving the influential Zionist lobby group, the Israeli-American Council (IAC), right around the time IAC donated thousands of dollars to Keshet David under its former name, Israel Cyber Shield. Fast forward to 2021, CyberWell was founded under the title Global Antisemitism Research Center (Global ARC). Almost immediately, the wholly unknown non-profit received a $30,000 joint donation alongside Keshet David from Merona Leadership Foundation, which is run by Gila Milstein, the wife of wealthy CyberWell board member Adam Milstein, who cofounded IAC in 2007 under the express direction of Israel’s then-consul general in Los Angeles, Ehud Danoch. From 2018 onwards, former Israeli police officer Eran Vasker has served as chief executive of Keshet David. Simultaneously, he led Argyle Consulting, the private spying firm where Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor and Zohar Gorgel met, and founded CyberWell. Cohen Montemayor admitted in a podcast interview in January this year that while at the company, she “provided analysis” to Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs, the same agency that founded Voices of Israel. CyberWell audit committee member Arik Becker is an Argyle alumni. As Fang and Poulson write, “In other words, the chief executive of CyberWell and two of its board members previously worked at the same private intelligence spin-off from Voices of Israel, a director of the spin-off is an advisor to CyberWell, and the CEO of Voices became the CFO of CyberWell.” As Poulson tells MintPress News: These groups are so tightly knit you can arrive at the same conclusion ten different ways. These efforts are for sure all an evolution of Israel’s longrunning anti-BDS program.” To make this mephitic web even murkier and more incestuous, CyberWell partnered with the notorious Act.IL, which is closely associated with IAC and the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs. The latter leads Zionist entity anti-BDS efforts globally. CyberWell’s 2022 annual report noted that the non-profit “served as the data provider to Act.IL’s community for their end of year call to action on the state of online antisemitism.” In a bitter twist, it was in 2022 that Act.IL ceased operations. Having secretly for years corralled Zionist activists to target boycotts, justify Israeli oppression and slaughter, and harass human rights groups and Palestine solidarity activists online under the bogus aegis of organic and spontaneous response. The platform abruptly shuttered without much in the way of explanation. This may have been triggered by the crusading work of Canadian academic Michael Bueckert, who amply exposed Act.IL as an Israeli government propaganda connivance from day one. ‘Hateful Rhetoric’ Yet, CyberWell’s pressing desire to disassociate itself from Israels security and intelligence apparatus is undoubtedly motivated by a fear the outfit could go the way of Act.IL if its true nature was exposed and well-known. Markedly, both Argyle and CyberWell executives and Adam and Gila Milstein refused to respond to further requests for comment from Fang and Poulson on their relationship and shared funding with Keshet David. Yet, CyberWell’s Israeli government origins hide in plain sight. In February 2021, Tel Aviv’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs produced a report, “The Hate Factor: policy outline for combating antisemitism online”. Little noticed at the time, among its proposed strategies, was the exploitation of artificial intelligence CyberWell’s USP to root out and neutralize users on social media platforms posting and sharing content critical of Israel. It is no coincidence that CyberWell launched months later. “Our reporting forensically demonstrates that the IHRA advocacy nonprofit CyberWell is a spin out of Israel’s most controversial anti-BDS intelligence collection effort, Keshet David, which further used Argyle Consulting Group as its public face,” Poulson tells MintPress News. The corporate shell game continues, with Keshet being the intel collection arm of the primary propaganda effort of the Israeli government, Voices of Israel. That CyberWell scrubbed its intelligence ties from its website after we exposed how the non-profit was born out of this network speaks volumes.” It is vitally incumbent for Palestine solidarity activists to mount pressure on CyberWell and demand answers to the questions that its executives now stonewall. They and, of course, the spectral actors lurking behind them clearly have grand plans. On July 3, CyberWell circulated a dubious study on alleged antisemitic posting related to that month’s UK general election. Content critical of now-Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s avowed Zionism was specifically cited. An accompanying press release declared: As elections are being held this year in a number of countries including the UK, France, and the US, CyberWell anticipates that antisemitic conspiracies, accusations, and hateful rhetoric will continue to rise online and in the real world. Unfortunately, one of the few things that opposing parties and sides have agreed on throughout history is the use of antisemitic tropes to blame the other for perceived failures and harms.” We can expect similar “studies” to circulate in the wake of every election and political incident in the years to come unless CyberWell’s Israeli intelligence-run operations are brought to a rapid and wholly deserved halt. 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 Metas Policy on Zionism Exposed: CyberWell Scrambles After Israel Ties Revealed appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Meet The Palestinians Paid To Promote Israel’s Genocide
- at 7/19/24 11:47amA common tactic used by political groups facing accusations of bias and racism is to employ voices from the communities they often demonize to present their arguments, making them more palatable. Using Palestinians to advocate for hardline Israeli policies is similar to how Black Americans and former Muslims are used to support points that would otherwise be labeled as racist or Islamophobic. In 2022, the Israeli cabinet approved a project to inject up to $30 million into covertly funding government propaganda in the United States and other Western countries. The plan involved indirectly transferring funds to foreign organizations to spread pro-Israeli talking points without revealing their ties to the Israeli government. In November 2023, the Israeli Finance Ministry announced an additional 63 million NIS for Hasbara [propaganda] funding. A crucial element of effective Israeli propaganda is using Palestinian voices to appear more fair and balanced. This is especially true for prominent figures who attempt to present a two-sides narrative, depicting Israelis and Palestinians as suffering equally in a complex conflict. Many of these talking points are outlined in the 2009 Luntz Report, a 112-page booklet by Republican pollster and political strategist Dr. Frank Luntz. The report serves as a guide for advocating for Israel. Mosab Hassan Yousef The most overtly anti-Muslim and fervently pro-Israel Palestinian voice is Mosab Hassan Yousef, who gained fame for co-writing Son of Hamas. In a recent video, Mosab stated, If it comes down to 15 million Jewish innocent people and 300 million Arab clowns, I will choose the 15 million innocent people who did not start this war. He continued, If I have to choose between 1.6 billion muslims (sic) and a cow, I will choose a cow. Yousef, paraded across Western media as a self-professed Hamas expert and given softball questions by interviewers like Jordan Peterson, has become a prominent Palestinian voice during Israels war on Gaza. However, Yousef is unrepresentative of Palestinians. He was exposed by Israels Haaretz in 2010 as having worked as a spy for the Israeli Shin Bet—internal intelligence service—for over a decade, a fact detailed in his book. The narrative promoted by his Israeli intelligence handler Captain Loui and Yousef himself suggests that the son of prominent West Bank Hamas leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef experienced a sudden change of heart in an Israeli prison and decided to become an Israeli spy to save lives. Yousef later renounced Islam, converted to Christianity, and sought asylum in the United States. There, he built a lucrative career, using his Palestinian identity to lend credibility to his often outlandish claims about Palestinians, Muslims, and the Arab world. In 2016, Yousef claimed he was being paid by Israel, the United States, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas simultaneously. However, many of his assertions, especially those about preventing high-profile assassination attempts, seem exaggerated. Hamas accused him of lying about his access to sensitive military information, highlighting his lack of proven ties to its military wing. Despite his close association with the Israeli government and earnings from his book and work with Shin Bet, the extent of his personal wealth remains unclear. Despite the lack of concrete evidence that Yousefs gay identity was used to blackmail him by Israeli intelligence, media reports suggest that he could be at risk if he returned to the West Bank. Palestinian society is largely conservative, and Israel has historically exploited this by threatening to expose LGBT Palestinians private lives to coerce them into collaboration. A tragic example is Zuhair Ghalith, who was blackmailed by Israeli intelligence to spy on the Lions Den armed group using video evidence of him engaging in sexual activity with another man. After his cover was blown, Ghalith was executed for treason, having aided Israel in assassinating leading fighters in the group. Interestingly, Mosab Yousef is not the only gay Palestinian who switched sides, converted to Christianity and sought asylum in the West. Jnaid Salama, from a prominent Hamas-aligned family in Nablus, changed his name to John Calvin and fled to Canada. He gained attention by exposing Hamas in interviews with Western media outlets like CNN. However, his stint as an anti-Palestinian voice was cut short in 2020 after he wrote $1.5 million in bad checks and tried to pay for a $10,000 nose job, leading to his arrest and charges. Nas Daily Nuseir Yassin, better known for his online persona Nas Daily had taken to X [formerly Twitter] in the wake of the Hamas-led October 7 offensive against Israel, stating that from today forward, I view myself as an Israeli-Palestinian. Israeli first. Palestinian second, yet despite this, he had already begun calling himself Israeli-Palestinian in 2022. Yassin also stated that I only have one home, even if Im not Jewish: Israel, adding that thats the country I want to see continue to exist so I can exist. Personal Thoughts: (not for everyone, feel free to skip) For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like…wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word “Israel” and call themselves “Palestinian” only. But since I… — Nuseir Yassin (@nasdaily) October 8, 2023 Born in Arraba, a village in northern occupied Palestine, Yassin graduated from Harvard University in 2014 with economics and computer science degrees. In 2011, he co-founded the Kindify organization with Gal Koren. Koren, who graduated from MIT and now works for Alteryx, commented that the venture aims to promote collaboration to influence situations in hostile areas like Israel and Palestine. Alteryx signed an agreement with Keyrus to encourage collaboration and initiatives between France & Israel about innovation. Yassin and Koren also partnered with Peregrine Badger, who now works for Cobalt Robotics, which creates security solutions using drones, robotics, and AI technology. After working for two years in New York for Venmo, Yassin quit the industry and began posting 1-minute travel vlogs on his Facebook page, Nas Daily. After 1,000 days of posting and building a following, he met Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in early 2018. His account was upgraded to show status, and by September, he had garnered 8 million followers. In 2020, Yassin launched The Next Nas Daily project, which faced calls for a boycott from the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. It was revealed that Yonatan Belik, the head of training for Nas Academy, served in the Israeli army, worked in public relations to motivate high school Israelis to serve in the military, and was involved in Palestinian-Israeli dialogue and co-existence activities. @nasdaily Emotional At Home We just finished @Nas Summit in my home country. And wow. What an experience. Thank you to everyone for coming. Thank you to the speakers, to the attendees, to the sponsors (DP World and Solana) and to the Nas team for organising. See you soon in London on July 1st! #Nasdaily #NasWeekly #nassummit #isreal #telaviv #fyp ♬ original sound Nas Daily Additionally, Yassins project received support from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) New Media Academy during a time when Tel Aviv had just normalized relations with Abu Dhabi, and Emirati media was promoting the normalization drive. In March, during what the World Court ruled as a plausible genocide in Gaza, Yassin accepted an award from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for his work in building bridges of understanding between Jews and Muslims. Videos released by Nas Daily avoid overt anti-Palestinian rhetoric, instead promoting a narrative of two sides, advocating dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and justifying Israels Apartheid system. Yassin claims to invest in Palestine, but this includes owning property in Rawabi, a West Bank development built partly on confiscated land from surrounding Palestinian villages. Palestinian-American tycoon Bashar Masri, whose firm purchased the land, openly boasted about spending up to $100 million annually on Israeli expertise and materials while constructing Rawabi, calling it part of an economy for peace. Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib Teaming up with billionaire music mogul Scooter Braun to promote Sheryl Sandbergs Screams Before Silence, Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib spoke at an LA screening. He stated that, as a Gazan man, he wanted to keep the focus on the victims of October 7, specifically the Israeli women. I went to the UCLA campus last night and spent a few hours there before the police dispersed the encampment. I wanted to see the pro-Palestine student protests for myself and get a sense of the atmosphere, energy, and students, as well as the movements focus and the desired… pic.twitter.com/bXLKGX6SSA — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (@afalkhatib) May 2, 2024 Al-Khatib is an American citizen and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank. He has been prominently featured in condemning Palestinian activism, specifically referencing student protesters when expressing his horror at the dehumanization of Israeli victims, the celebration of taking women and children as hostages, and relegating that to a mere act of resistance. Sandbergs film has faced widespread condemnation for featuring confession videos from Palestinians who were tortured and interrogated by the Shin Bet, using these as evidence despite their lack of legitimacy, according to UN and human rights reports. Al-Khatib, who left Gaza at age 15 in 2005 before the Israeli siege, uses his Gazan identity in his criticism. Despite his departure from Gaza years ago, he has been vocal in presenting a narrative that aligns with the controversial content of Sandbergs film. Presenting himself as a liberal human rights activist, Ahmed Fouad Al-Khatib has made a name for himself through promoting Israeli talking points, attempting to stimmy and police pro-Palestinian activism in the West. On June 11, he published an article in The Free Press, entitled Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isnt Helping, in which he uses the story of his suffering family members from Gaza City to lecture activists about why they should empathize with Israelis and Zionists. He tells a story of how he wanted to condemn Hamas but was chastised for condemning rocket fire, which culminates in his dissociating with pro-Palestine groups after October 7. Before becoming a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, Al-Khatib worked with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), which John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt describe in their book The Israel Lobby as one of the lobbys prominent propaganda fronts. Al-Khatib posts on social media about interactions with Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza, seeking compromise in America after their return. He condemns Netanyahu but advocates engaging with Zionists for peace with Israelis. In a 2017 Haaretz piece, he recounted nearly being killed by an airstrike that killed my close friend yet expressed compassion for Israelis and belief in peace. Talk to Israeli soldiers? Recently, I had two separate conversations with newly discharged IDF soldiers who participated in the Gaza war. Both began in a confrontational manner and subsequently went in two different directions that I wanted to share. The first was while I was at… — Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib (@afalkhatib) July 7, 2024 Accused of being a grifter, Ahmad Fouad Al-Khatib has always maintained a two-sides stance, advocating for peace and reconciliation amid conflict. His recent endorsement of a film exploiting forced confession tapes and citing the discredited ZAKA rescue group elevates his controversial position. He justifies this shift by saying: I was compelled to put myself out there after I saw what was unfolding. I knew that Gaza, as we knew it, would cease to exist. I was also horrified by the dehumanization of Israeli victims, the celebration of taking women and children as hostages and relegating that to a mere act of resistance.” Israel often promotes Palestinians who preach dialogue and peace during wartime despite the improbability of such outcomes. Another example is Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian doctor from Gaza who lost three children and a niece to Israeli airstrikes and authored the bestselling book I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctors Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity. He has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times and received praise from prominent Zionists. However, unlike Al-Khatib, Abuelaish has not criticized pro-Palestinian activists. Feature photo | Illustration by MintPress News 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 Meet The Palestinians Paid To Promote Israel’s Genocide appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Israel’s Vice-Like Grip Over British Politics, with John McEvoy
- at 7/19/24 8:29amThe MintPress podcast, “The Watchdog,” hosted by British-Iraqi hip hop artist Lowkey, closely examines organizations about which it is in the public interest to know – including intelligence, lobby and special interest groups influencing policies that infringe on free speech and target dissent. “The Watchdog” goes against the grain by casting a light on stories largely ignored by the mainstream, corporate media. While the Labour Party may have triumphed in the recent British parliamentary elections, the real victors may have been Israel. Israel and its lobby have deep connections to the British Labour Party, headed by Sir Keir Starmer, and are likely pleased to see him come to power. On today’s episode of “The Watchdog,” Lowkey is joined by John McEvoy to discuss his work uncovering Israel’s surprisingly firm grip over the British political system. John McEvoy is an investigative journalist for Declassified UK, a media outlet covering British foreign policy and intelligence agencies’ true role around the world. While Labour has achieved a landslide victory, McEvoy warns that this was not because of widespread public support. Instead, it was down to a split in the vote between the Conservatives and their far-right challengers, Reform U.K. And while the public yearns for change, Starmer has been steadfast in his refusal to adopt bold policies to deliver what the people want. “Keir Starmer is poised to destroy a lot of hopes of British people and those who have wrongly invested their hopes in him. And thats a recipe for political disaster and a wider shift to the right here,” McEvoy told Lowkey. Perhaps even more worrying is the level of Israeli influence within the Labour Party. Pro-Israel money has flooded in; more than half of the new cabinet has been bankrolled by the British pro-Israel lobby, McEvoy’s recent study revealed. Starmer has repeatedly refused to condemn Israel or do anything to concretely support a ceasefire in Gaza. His Labour Party has also elevated some of the most shameless propagandists into key positions. One example is Luke Akehurst, the former director of the pressure group, We Believe in Israel. Akehurst has relentlessly campaigned to have Lowkey’s music taken off the Internet, citing phony “anti-semitism” allegations. He was also one of the loudest voices condemning former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, attempting to tar him with the same anti-semitic brush. While leftists and critics of Israeli policy were purged from the party, Akehurst was given a cushy, safe seat in Durham in the north of England and is now a member of parliament. Just before this was announced, he began furiously deleting hundreds of tweets and public statements. “A lot of those tweets contained some of the most horrific anti-Palestinian and Islamic Islamophobic racism that you might be able to find on the Internet,” McEvoy told Lowkey. Throughout its bombardment of Gaza, the U.K. has remained one of Israel’s closest allies. Arms exports have increased since October 7, and London has continued to provide diplomatic cover for the genocide. Moreover, British spy planes continue to fly over Gaza, while military supply planes have made dozens of trips to Israel since the bombardment began, making Britain an accomplice in war crimes. Watch the full interview here, exclusively at MintPress News. Lowkey is a British-Iraqi hip-hop artist, academic and political campaigner. As a musician, he has collaborated with the Arctic Monkeys, Wretch 32, Immortal Technique and Akala. He is a patron of Stop The War Coalition, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Racial Justice Network and The Peace and Justice Project, founded by Jeremy Corbyn. He has spoken and performed on platforms from the Oxford Union to the Royal Albert Hall and Glastonbury. His latest album, Soundtrack To The Struggle 2, featured Noam Chomsky and Frankie Boyle and has been streamed millions of times. The post Israels Vice-Like Grip Over British Politics, with John McEvoy appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Paul Biggar: Google Buyout Won’t Fix Israel’s Spy-Run Tech Sector
- at 7/18/24 5:30pmThe BDS movement, which is a non-violent Palestinian-led campaign that promotes boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel to pressure the nation to meet its obligations under international law, is having an undeniable effect nine months into the catastrophe in Gaza. The effect is significant enough to compel propagandists on the Israeli English network ILTV to characterize the BDS movement as a definite “Trend,” as even state media is struggling to obscure the bleak and deteriorating economic reality of Israel’s wartime economy. Amir Yaron, chief of the Bank of Israel, said in May that the wars in the north and south would cost $67 billion from 2023 to 2025. That in itself is not a damning figure, but taken in conjunction with other economic realities, such as the closure of over 40,000 small businesses in Israel, the decline in tourism, and the lack of young tech workers, a complete recovery looks implausible. Hence, the mainstream media’s two news cycles this week focused on Googles potential acquisition of Wiz, an Israeli cyber tech company. The move has been lauded as a vote of confidence in the strength and resilience of the Israeli tech economy. It is not. It is simply a matter of having the right product at the right time and a once-in-a-lifetime $23 billion acquisition that will not even close this year and will not lessen the geopolitical backlash from the Gaza War. The high-tech industry contributed 20% to Israel’s GDP, almost twice that of a more diversified economy like the United States. Therefore, a loss in confidence in the tech sector will disproportionately impact the economy. According to Uri Gabai, CEO of RISE Israel, a non-profit think tank, half of the total investment in research and development in Israel originates from abroad, highlighting potential consequences if Israel becomes undesirable or feared for investment. These consequences, however, have already come to pass. Common wisdom holds that it is fiduciarily irresponsible to invest in a warzone. Intel recently halted plans for a $25 billion plant in Israel for “responsible capital management.” The simple fact is that Israel is no longer secure. This trend is beginning to be reflected in the data. Several stories are merging a global economic slowdown, a decrease in investments in the United States and Europe, and the instability in Israel, which began with proposed changes to the Supreme Court and was exacerbated by the events of October 7, 2023. Now, more people are morally unwilling to invest in the Israeli tech sector as a blanket stance. It is well known, after all, that military intelligence units like IDF Unit 8200 are pipelines to startups in the tech industry. It is becoming increasingly difficult to separate the war crimes in Gaza from seemingly innocuous business ventures in Tel Aviv. Join us on State of Play as we discuss the current flagging state of the Israeli high-tech ecosystem with Paul Biggar, founder of Darklang and CircleCI and CEO of Tech for Palestine. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a human intelligence collection and analysis background. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post Paul Biggar: Google Buyout Wont Fix Israel’s Spy-Run Tech Sector appeared first on MintPress News.
- — US Naval Efforts Falter as Yemen’s Blockade Bankrupts Israel’s Eilat Port
- at 7/17/24 8:40amDespite the formation of a multinational naval coalition led by the United States, the Israeli-controlled Port of Eilat has reportedly gone bankrupt and is seeking a government bailout. The situation underscores the failure of U.S.-led efforts against Yemens Ansar Allahknown pejoratively as the Houthisblockade in the Red Sea, enforced until Israel ends its war on Gaza. It must be acknowledged that the port is in a state of bankruptcy, said Gideon Golber, CEO of the Port of Eilat, who has been vocal about the ports dire economic condition for months and is now appealing for financial support from the Israeli government. Speaking to the Knesset’s Economic Affairs Committee on July 7, Golber noted that economic activity ceased following Ansar Allah’s Red Sea blockade. On November 19, Yemen’s Ansar Allah seized the Israeli-linked shipping vessel Galaxy Leader off the coast of Hodeidah, declaring the operation an act of solidarity with Gaza. Brigadier General Yahya Saree, spokesperson for the Yemeni Armed Forces, subsequently announced that no Israeli-linked ships would be allowed passage through the Red Sea. Although Ansar Allah began firing missiles and drones at Israel on October 19, the comprehensive blockade in the Red Sea to prevent ships from reaching the Israeli-operated Port of Eilat wasnt fully enforced until late November. In December, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that the U.S. would lead a multinational naval coalition named Operation Prosperity Guardian to ensure the free passage of ships to Eilat. Within the first month of the blockade, economic activity at the Port of Eilat dropped by 85%, according to Reuters. Despite efforts from the U.S. and U.K. navies to combat the blockade, they remained confident they could restore the flow of ships to Israel. However, after continued defeats inflicted by Ansar Allah, which prevented ships from passing through waters defended by the U.S.-led coalition, another military operation, Operation Poseidon Archer, was announced. This operation aimed to destroy Yemeni military infrastructure but failed to locate critical targets. Following a large-scale Yemeni attack on American vessels on January 10, periodic airstrikes and retaliatory attacks on ships continued. In June, the CEO of the Port of Eilat declared, There has been no work at all for seven months. He attributed this to the coalitions weakness in dealing with Ansar Allah: This issue cannot be neglected despite the war. But there are no solutions, so I am not ashamed to tell clients to pay the Houthis $100,000 to cross, and I will participate in the financing. I dont sleep at night, and if you have to pay the Egyptians to go through the Suez Canal, or the Houthis to go through Bab al Mandab, then thats whats needed.” A month earlier, the Port of Eilat faced criticism for threatening to fire half of its approximately 120 workers. This move drew condemnation from Israel’s top labor union, the Histadrut, and even involved the Israeli Knesset. While the economic collapse of the Port of Eilat has been unfolding over the past eight months, it has been covered in Israeli Hebrew media but received little attention in Western media. This is likely due to the stunning military failure of Operation Prosperity Guardian, which drained significant resources and U.S. taxpayer funds in an embarrassing and ultimately failed attempt to save an Israeli port. Feature photo | The Adelina D Container Ship on its way to Eilat in late 2023. Christophe Geyres | 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 Naval Efforts Falter as Yemens Blockade Bankrupts Israel’s Eilat Port appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Lax Security at Trump Rally Leads to Deadly Shooting: Analysis by Ex-Special Forces Soldier
- at 7/15/24 5:30pmNeutralizing a shooter that gets off eight shots, kills a spectator, injures two more and hits a Former President in the head isn’t a win. There were egregious failures in coverage and protocol within law enforcement and the Secret Service at the Trump Rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. It should have been impossible for the 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks to gain access to a rooftop 400 feet from the podium and set up a sniper position in the most obvious vantage point imaginable. Anyone with basic experience in close protection can credibly tell you this should not have been possible. Incompetence, intelligence failings, understaffing, lack of equity, and other excuses may be rolled out and will be rolled out, but the fact remains: this should not have been possible. Thus, the immediate proliferation of conspiracy theories pulled in the A-listers of “Deep State” villainy. A Mel Gibson fan channel on the social media platform X is a fine demonstration of the level of discourse surrounding this event, boldly asserting: This is the price you pay when you take down elite satanic pedophiles. Just a few days ago, death threats against Donald Trump were posted on X without any consequences. This order most likely came from the CIA, possibly colluding with the following people: 1. Alexander Soros… pic.twitter.com/GzVjYhtVCt — Mel Gibson News (@MelGibsonNew) July 14, 2024 All willful and glaring misinformation aside the shooter posted no death threats and had only a nominal social media presence the details and motivations of the attempted assassination are a temporary distraction and will not change the irrevocably altered political landscape for the upcoming election. According to an Axios report, an unnamed senior House Democrat stated, Weve all resigned ourselves to a second Trump presidency. The Democratic National Committee is in shambles, and even the most ardent and optimistic Biden supporters must see the writing on the wall. Even if the President was replaced by a potential dark horse candidate at the eleventh hour, who could compete with one of the most iconic political photographs of the past decade? Evan Vucci | AP Ultimately, the Democratic party lacks vitality, and the desperation behind the adage, “vote blue no matter who,” is transforming into political fatalism. The efforts by the DNC and associated media outlets to discredit the former president have only served to endear him to his base and reduce a mounting social, economic and political maelstrom into the figure of Trump. The vast corporate forces that dominate our political system have reduced the middle class, instigated a state of perpetual war and interventionism, and created a solidifying police and security state that will not be significantly affected by who sits in the Oval Office. It is true that under a renewed Trump Presidency, we will experience an unprecedented level of systemic change in terms of personal and environmental protections, the slashing of social programs, more tax cuts for the rich and an effort to institutionalize “Trumpism,” but all of this would have happened under a democratic president, albeit slower. Former President Trump will not drain the swamp, for he is the swamp. So is President Biden. Join us tonight on State of Play to discuss the assassination attempt, the corporate state and the changing political situation in America. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a background in human intelligence collection and analysis. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst, and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post Lax Security at Trump Rally Leads to Deadly Shooting: Analysis by Ex-Special Forces Soldier appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Surrender or Survival: Why Hamas Refuses To Lay Down Arms
- at 7/15/24 8:26amIf you listen to Western government officials or pundits on corporate media, the only thing preventing an end to nine months of brutal conflict in Gaza is the conduct of Hamas. If the group simply released the remaining Israeli hostages and laid down their weapons, there would finally be peace and prosperity in the embattled coastal territory. At a NATO meeting in Brussels in April, U.S.Secretary of State Anthony Blinken laid this position out succinctly: What happened after October 7 could have ended immediately if Hamas had stopped hiding behind civilians, released the hostages and put down its weapons, but Israel is not Hamas. Israel is a democracy; Hamas, a terrorist organization. Democracies place the highest value on human life, every human life. As it has been said, whoever saves a life, saves the entire world.” Yet, to so many in Palestine and across the world, the idea that Hamas should unilaterally give up its arms is patently absurd. For one, Israeli government officials have repeatedly stressed that, even in the event of a ceasefire and a return of the detainees, the war will continue. Moreover, polling data suggests that more than half of the Israeli public support reoccupying the Gaza Strip after the war, and only nine percent of Israeli Jews believe that the people of Gaza should decide who governs them. History also suggests that this action would be suicidal. In 1982, the Israeli military invaded Lebanon and besieged the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in Beirut. After two months, the PLO agreed to lay down their arms and fled to Tunisia. With no armed groups to stop them, the Israeli military proceeded to carry out massacres of thousands of defenseless Palestinians, the most infamous of those being the Sabra and Shatila massacres, which killed around 3,500 people in just two days. Thus, Palestinians know precisely what could await them if they lay down their arms. Israeli officials have also made none-too-cryptic statements about their intention for Palestine. President Herzog, for example, stressed that there are “no innocents” at all in Gaza, effectively giving his troops the green light to kill anyone and everyone they wish. A recent article published by the Lancet estimated that around 186,000 Palestinians have already been killed since October 7. Ariel Kallner, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, explained Israel’s goal behind the Gaza war. “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 1948,” he said. The same sentiment was conveyed by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the man responsible for translating Israel’s declaration of war into an action plan: “We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly,” he said on October 9. “Accordingly” meant that “there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed.” “If Hamas lays down its weapons and hands over the Israeli captives, every piece of evidence points towards chaos, devastation, massacres, settlements and occupation,” concluded MintPress’ Robert Inlakesh. Watch Inlakesh’s full report exclusively at MintPress News. 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 Surrender or Survival: Why Hamas Refuses To Lay Down Arms appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Yemen Warms to Russia Amid Plans for Scorched Earth Policy Against Israel
- at 7/12/24 10:04amThe election campaign between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump is heating up. Polls show that issues like the U.S. economy, immigration, whether Trump will be incarcerated and whether Biden is mentally fit for office are at the forefront of most Americans’ minds. Yet a significant issue that could have far-reaching consequences for the American people and the world is being almost entirely overlooked. Neither candidate has thoroughly addressed the risks of a new conflagration in the Red Sea, one which could rival the disastrous U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the issue of Gaza garnered predictable pledges from both candidates to protect Israel at all costs, little scrutiny has been given to the potential risk of a new U.S.-led war, nor the consequences it could have on American interests and the lives of U.S. service members. Forces opposed to Israeli and U.S. actions in the Middle East are intensifying operations, developing vast arsenals of weapons designed to dull the qualitative edge of Western military might and strengthening ties between Washingtons disparate adversaries, particularly Russia. Lying on the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen, perhaps more than any other nation, has openly supported Palestines struggle against Israeli occupation since the devastating war on Gaza began on October 7. Yemeni citizens are so concerned about a possible American intervention in their country, about stopping the genocide in Gaza and about confronting what they see as illegal U.S. and U.K. aggression near their borders that they still gather in the hundreds of thousands every weekend to express their dismay. Yemeni military forces, volunteers, political parties, and tribal organizations are preparing to face what they believe are impending new U.S. and Israeli ventures in their region. They are particularly concerned about the possibility of an Israeli invasion of Lebanon with American participation, which could trigger unprecedented attacks on American interests and bases in the region. Ansar Allah, known in the West as the Houthis, takes Israeli threats against Lebanon seriously and is preparing militarily to participate in its defense. High-ranking Ansar Allah officials told MintPress News that they consider any Israeli or U.S. attack on Hezbollah as an attack on Yemen itself. Ansar Allahs response, according to official sources, will involve targeting U.S. and Israeli assets in the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The group also plans to target Washington and Londons interests across the Middle East and, if needed, to deploy battle-hardened ground troops to conflict zones. These fighters, alongside thousands of partisans from Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, and some Arab Gulf countries, have pledged to liberate Israeli-occupied areas of northern Palestine. A high-ranking source in Ansar Allah stated that the organization is prepared to send fighters to any country, whether to defeat Israel, liberate Palestinian lands, or defend any Arab country, including Lebanon. “Most Intense Combat Since WWII” Pledges of mutual defense by Ansar Allah come as Yemen is undergoing a campaign to bolster local industrial capability and self-sufficiency amidst a near-total blockade by the U.S., ongoing American and British airstrikes on Yemen, growing popular discontent with American policies and a rising sense of patriotism and solidarity toward Palestine and other Arab countries. Ansar Allah recently unveiled an advanced unmanned surface vessel (USV), colloquially known as a drone boat, equipped with warheads that they say are capable of sinking merchant and military vessels. Dubbed Tufan al-Modammer (Flood of Destruction), the ship is cost-effective compared to the aerial drones and ballistic missiles that comprise much of Yemen’s arsenal. It carries a 1,000- to 1,500-kilogram warhead, sails at 45 nautical miles per hour (over 83 km/h), and can perform missions in all maritime conditions. It is also equipped with advanced technology, featuring both manual and remote control capabilities, and can evade radar systems. Before this, the Yemeni army officially revealed that they possessed hypersonic missiles and began deploying them after launching production lines for these advanced, difficult-to-intercept weapons. On June 27, Yemen’s Armed Forces announced a hypersonic ballistic missile, identified as Hatem-2, targeting the vessel MSC SARAH V in a video released by the Yemeni army media. The Hatem-2 missile features solid-fuel propulsion and an intelligent control system, with multiple generations offering different ranges. Following the announcement, the head of Ansar Allah, Abdul Malik Al-Houthi, issued a stern warning to U.S. aircraft carriers against approaching Yemeni waters. He stated, “We say from now on that the arrival of any new aircraft carrier in the Red Sea will make it a target for our armed forces, and if the new aircraft carrier wants to venture, get involved, and get into an impasse like the Eisenhower was, it will be exposed to danger and advanced missile capabilities that cannot be avoided.” Violent battles between U.S. aircraft carriers and Yemeni forces in the Red Sea can be likened to “a game of cat and mouse,” with Ansar Allah relentlessly chasing down their locations and targeting them, and the aircraft carrier is constantly moving and changing location to avoid being hit. In a televised speech broadcast live from the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, the leader of Ansar Allah Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said: Battles in the Red Sea have attested to the fact that U.S. aircraft carriers are an obsolete weapons system and are not worth spending money on. He confirmed that Yemeni forces are employing more anti-ship ballistic missiles with pinpoint accuracy. In facing Ansar Allah, the U.S. Navy has admitted facing the most “intense combat” since World War II. On June 30, CBS News reported on the crew of the destroyer the USS Carney, which withdrew from the Red Sea and returned to Florida last May. Commander Jeremy Robertson told CBS then, “We are seeing a target heading towards us at a speed of Mach 5 or 6 (Mach equals 1,235 kilometers). You only have between 15 and 30 seconds to confront them.” He stressed the difficulty of “protecting commercial ships from Houthi attacks,” noting that the battles fought in the Red Sea “have not occurred the likes of them since World War II.” The military spokesman for Ansar Allah released a statement saying it had hit the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, the aircraft carrier leading America’s response to Yemen’s operations, but that the US is keeping this secret. Ukraine War Enters the Middle East The preparations and coordination by Yemeni forces come amid ongoing confrontations between the Yemeni Army and American troops in the Red Sea. The situation may worsen for American forces due to strengthening ties between Yemen and Russia. President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow could provide long-range weapons to others to strike Western targets, responding to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use its arms to attack Russian territory. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and special envoy to the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, met with the head of the Yemeni negotiating delegation, Muhammad Abdel Salam, to discuss the situation in the Red Sea and Israeli aggression on Gaza. Bogdanov condemned ongoing American and British strikes on Yemen and emphasized the importance of accelerating broad national dialogue among Yemenis under United Nations auspices. Ansar Allah welcomed the announcement. “The Yemeni army has the intention and audacity to target the most important U.S. vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, including aircraft carriers and destroyers, which are viewed in Yemen as military bases to attack the Yemeni mainland. The talk is not only about hitting or damaging them but also about sinking them. This could happen if the Yemeni forces obtain weapons that achieve this goal,” an Ansar Allah military official told MintPress. Recently, the Yemeni military took another step up the ladder by sinking ships instead of merely disabling them. مشاهد استهداف سفينة (TUTOR) بزورقين مسيرين في البحر الأحمر وإغراقها.. والقادم أعظم.. ولدينا مزيد.. pic.twitter.com/sppLQKzQr8 — العميد يحيى سريع (@army21ye) June 19, 2024 The source went on to say, “In terms of interests, this is the best opportunity for Moscow to take revenge on Washington for its support for Ukraine. Given the extent of the suffering that both the Palestinian and Yemeni people are experiencing and the ongoing raids, Yemeni officials will not hesitate to accept any military support from Washington’s enemies. Thanks to American politicians.” The Yemeni military, which has widespread support across the region due to its blockade on Israel, has maintained a low tempo of action but recently increased its attacks. It still has rungs left to ascend on the escalatory ladder, including using advanced weapons that can sink a destroyer or aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, commercial vessels signaling “no contact with Israel” or those owned or flagged countries not actively supporting Israel’s actions in Gaza safely pass through. Dozens of countries have already contacted Sana’a, expressing that they do not support genocide in Gaza or Israel at all. However, the costs imposed on maritime shipping are the fault of nations backing Israel. “If the genocide is halted, the blockade ends. This is not complicated.” Steps in the Escalatory Ladder Given that the siege and Israeli war on civilians in the Gaza Strip continues, a high-ranking Ansar Allah military source told MintPress that Yemeni forces are about to announce the fifth phase of support operations for Gaza. According to the source, the next phase will differ entirely in its objectives and operations. Washington was not only wrong in assuming that the presence of a U.S.-led naval coalition would frighten Ansar Allah but also wrong in conducting 450 indiscriminate bombings in Yemen. Instead of dissuading the Yemeni military, these actions have infuriated Yemeni civilians. Ansar Allah’s announcement comes at a time when both the Yemeni army and the Iraqi resistance launched joint operations against vital Israeli facilities and Israel-linked ships in the Mediterranean Sea. All technical and logistical preparations have been completed, and a series of field experiments targeting Israeli interests in the occupied territories and the Mediterranean Sea have been conducted. The latest operation was on July 2, when the Yemeni army and the Iraqi resistance targeted a vital site in Haifa with winged missiles. Additionally, the Waller oil ship was targeted in the Mediterranean Sea on June 28. The first joint operation was on June 6, when two ships carrying military equipment for Israel were targeted in Haifa. It is expected that many armed and well-trained groups, particularly those from countries that blame the United States for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, will join in operations against both Washington and Tel Avivs interests. The joint operations room for the Yemeni army and the Iraqi resistance marks a significant shift in deterring Israel and holds strategic value. A military source in Ansar Allah stated, The joint operation aims to reunite the region, rearrange its geography, and unify it after long-standing divisions among Arab countries. Israeli news channel i24NEWS reported that Yemen is expanding its operations into North Africa, including Sudan, Egypt, and Morocco, with the intent to target Israel from these regions. According to the report, Ansar Allah is allegedly attempting to transfer weapons and military forces to these areas. Exclusive to i24NEWS: What the military censorship has allowed to be published is that the Houthis have begun to expand their influence in the North African region with the aim of targeting #Israel. There have recently been indications that the Houthis, who operate from… https://t.co/j7SJMZKAxS — Middle East Observer (@ME_Observer_) June 30, 2024 Saudi Arabia Risks It All Yemenis continue to suffer under intense U.S. pressure aimed at forcing them to abandon their support for Palestinians. This situation is compounded by Saudi Arabia allegedly retreating from its commitments to de-escalate hostilities. The threats to Yemeni banks, the closure of the SWIFT system, and the restriction of imports to the port of Aden have effectively shut down the port of Hodeidah. Additionally, the recent closure of Sanaa airport has stranded Yemeni pilgrims in Mecca. The Yemeni army has given Saudi Arabia a deadline to demonstrate good intentions for peace after evidence emerged of Saudi Arabias active participation in the U.S. campaign against Yemen. The campaign seeks to pressure Ansar Allah to halt its operations in support of Gaza. A military source reported that a U.S. KC-135R refueling aircraft took off from Saudi Prince Sultan Air Base on July 3, heading towards the Red Sea. Ansar Allah has previously warned Saudi Arabia against involving itself in American-led aggression, stressing that such actions would face a severe response. The escalating tensions come at a critical time for the region, as Yemens internal and external conflicts continue to wreak havoc on its civilian population. The situation is further exacerbated by the blockade imposed on Yemen, cutting off essential supplies and humanitarian aid and leading to a worsening humanitarian crisis. Yemens demands that Saudi Arabia honor its peace commitments underscore the fragile nature of the regions geopolitical landscape. With the added pressure from the United States, Yemen remains resolute in its support for Palestinian causes despite the heavy toll it has taken on its own people. The coming days will be crucial in determining whether Saudi Arabia will respond to Yemens ultimatum and take steps toward de-escalation or if the region will see further conflict and instability. Feature photo | Ansar Allah supporters shout slogans during a rally against the U.S.-led strikes against Yemen and in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, May 10, 2024. Osamah Abdulrahman | AP Ahmed AbdulKareem is a Yemeni journalist based in Sanaa. He covers the war in Yemen for MintPress News as well as local Yemeni media. The post Yemen Warms to Russia Amid Plans for Scorched Earth Policy Against Israel appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Biden Appointee Maryam Hassanein Reveals Reasons for Resignation Over Gaza Policy
- at 7/11/24 5:30pmConventional wisdom holds that if you want to change a system, you must do so from the inside. It is the most effective and responsible way to implement institutional change. While this is an expansive subject ranging from perceptions of social institutions the established patterns of beliefs, behaviors and relationships that organize social life to governmental organizations that oversee the massive cogs of U.S. foreign policy, an overriding conclusion is that any systemic change takes time. The frustration over the Biden Administration’s patent unwillingness to check Israeli violence in Gaza in any meaningful way has brought the question of institutional change into a sharp focus. On November 13, the Guardian published an article describing a memo wherein 100 U.S. government officials from the State Department and International Development Agency criticized the White House for “disregarding the lives of Palestinians” and showing an “unwillingness to de-escalate” in the Israel-Hamas war. The heedless violence, the disregard for international law, and the rank hypocrisy manifested between Russia and Ukraine and Israel and Palestine have undoubtedly complicated the jobs of the U.S. diplomatic corps. According to a Politico article published the week prior, a memo stated that the distance between America’s private and public messaging “contributes to regional public perceptions that the United States is a biased and dishonest actor, which at best does not advance, and at worst harms, U.S. interests worldwide.” State Department officials have resigned and described submitting complaints to the Department of State dissent channel. Likewise, a string of service members in the United States Armed Forces have filed for conscientious objector status. Those who detest war and champion diplomatic solutions applaud these symbolic acts of dissent and resistance. Yet, the question remains: what do they really accomplish in terms of influencing a demonstrably self-destructive foreign policy stance? Upon examining the turnover rate in President Biden’s a-team and cabinet, we see that senior position resignations are no greater than those of prior administrations, even accounting for this turbulent past year, and are significantly below former President Trump’s. Ultimately, it is difficult to gauge the internal political climate within an administration from the outside. Tonight on State of Play, we interview Maryam Hassanein A political appointee at the U.S. Interior Department and the most recent to resign as the Biden Administration continues to fund and enable Israels genocide of Palestinians. Special Assistant and Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, Hassanein said in a statement last week: Marginalized communities in our country have long been denied the justice they deserve. I joined the Biden-Harris administration with the belief that my voice and diverse perspective would lend a hand in the pursuit of that justice.” Join us on MintPress News for a conversation about institutional dissent and internal disillusionment and whether or not this will affect shifting policy in the long term. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a background in human intelligence collection and analysis. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst, and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post Biden Appointee Maryam Hassanein Reveals Reasons for Resignation Over Gaza Policy appeared first on MintPress News.
- — What Hezbollah’s New Drone Footage Reveals About Israel’s “Impenetrable” Defenses
- at 7/11/24 8:15amA second video of Hezbollah drone reconnaissance was released this Tuesday, detailing 23 Israeli military and intelligence sites in the illegally occupied Golan Heights region. Not only does this demonstrate the Lebanese armed groups Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capabilities, but it also indicates future targets and the depth of knowledge possessed on what they seek to hit. On June 18, Hezbollah’s military media released its first aerial reconnaissance sortie carried out by a Hudhud drone over the Haifa Bay area. The video lasted 10 minutes and was edited to point out critical infrastructure that could be targeted if Israel launches its frequently threatened “all-out war” against Lebanon. Not only did this cause hysteria among Israelis living in Haifa, but it also triggered a series of Israeli media outlets and institutes to conduct analyses of various aspects of what was shown. #بالفيديو | الإعلام الحربي في المقاومة الإسلامية ينشر مشاهد إستطلاع جوي لقواعد استخبارات ومقرات قيادية ومعسكرات في #الجولان العربي السوري المحتل عادت بها طائرات القوة الجوية في المقاومة الإسلامية.#الميادين #الهدهد pic.twitter.com/VImIZ2GYXP — قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) July 9, 2024 One such analysis was provided by the Alma Research and Education Center, run by Israeli Reserve Army Lieutenant Colonel Sarit Zehavi, which attempted to work out what kind of drone was used by Hezbollah and whether the footage was taken over the past weeks or months, failing to ascertain much at all. The lack of knowledge from Israeli organizations (with ties to its military and who brief U.S. politicians) was telling. What has not been disputed are Hezbollah’s claims that the sites depicted included an industrial site run by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Iron Dome platforms, missile warehouses, and missile component manufacturing sites. Commenting on the release of the first Hudhud footage, the Secretary General of Lebanese Hezbollah, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, addressed the Israeli attempt to understand what they had all witnessed and stated that the footage was all taken from a single drone on one journey and that some two hours of total video were collected. The nine-minute Hudhud part two video, despite featuring a region less sensitive to the average Israeli, is even more of a cause for concern to their military. While the illegally occupied Golan Heights represents a skiing holiday destination in the minds of regular Israelis, it is a pivotal region for military operations, intelligence gathering and defending against cross-border operations. In the new video, the drone traveled at least 46 kilometers deep into Israeli-held territory, mapping out “six strategic sites for electronic surveillance, in addition to various military sites that were set up in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas-led assault on southern occupied Palestine. The second episode covers the occupied Golan heights. https://t.co/3GfvcgVa6g pic.twitter.com/L232gRKo34 — Ali Hashem علي هاشم (@alihashem_tv) July 9, 2024 Hezbollah also revealed that this was not the first time it had conducted reconnaissance over these areas. Corroborating this claim is the fact that some of the sites shown in the video were previously targeted by the Lebanese armed group, including the Mount Hermon military base. In fact, on the same day that it published the new Hudhud drone footage, Hezbollah fired dozens of Katyusha rockets in response to an Israeli airstrike that assassinated a member of the group in Syria the day prior, killing two Israelis in the Golan Heights when their vehicle was struck. During Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah’s latest speech this Wednesday, he stated that “the enemy [Israel] is terrified, not only of the resistance entering the Galilee but of the mere idea of infiltration, prompting them to enhance their human presence to compensate for technological losses.” Mocking the Israeli military and political leadership, Nasrallah said of their demands to move Hezbollah forces back from the border that “the enemy initially talked about pushing Hezbollah 3km away from the borders. We revealed our Kornet weapon with an 8km range, so the enemy wanted to push us 8km away. Then we revealed our al-Mass missile with a 10km range, and now the enemy wants to push us 10km away”. If Israel launches an offensive against Lebanon, it has been demonstrated that Hezbollah possesses not only the fighters and offensive capabilities to respond successfully but also the intelligence capabilities. Operation al-Aqsa Flood, led by Hamas on October 7, demonstrated an intimate knowledge, by the groups armed wing, of sensitive military sites belonging to the Israeli southern command and led to its temporary collapse that day. Hamas has nowhere near the capabilities of Hezbollah, which has demonstrated its ability to operate UAVs for reconnaissance purposes deep into Israeli-held territory without even being engaged by Israel’s air defense systems. Although the element of surprise may not be there in the event of Hezbollah attacks, the wealth of its knowledge and ability to hit targets it has acquired supersedes that of Hamas, which is a clear cause for concern to an Israeli military that has had many of its monitoring positions gutted by over 2,000 attacks by Hezbollah since October 8. Feature photo | A screenshot from video released by Hezbollah and taken by a Hezbollah reconnaissance drone shows sensitive Israeli military sites. Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker 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 What Hezbollah’s New Drone Footage Reveals About Israels Impenetrable Defenses appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Like Biden, NATO Is Aged and Unfit to Lead
- at 7/11/24 8:14amAs NATO wrapped up its Summit and Biden held a crucial press conference, the media frenzy focused on Biden’s age and cognitive abilities. Is he too old and disoriented to lead the “free world”? Did he get through his press conference without stumbling too many times? Lost in the media coverage about the Summit, however, has been a serious discussion of NATO’s advanced age and its ability to lead the “free world.” At 75, NATO has not aged well. Back in 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron was already sounding the alarm, accusing NATO of being “brain dead.” While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has given NATO a new lease on life, NATO’s embrace of Ukraine makes the conflict–and the world–more dangerous. Let’s remember why NATO was founded. As the contours of the Cold War were emerging after the devastation of WWII, 10 European nations, along with the U.S. and Canada, came together in 1949 to create an alliance that would deter Soviet expansion, stop the revival of nationalist militarism in Europe through a strong North American presence on the continent, and encourage European political integration. Or, as the alliance’s first Secretary General Lord Ismay quipped, its purpose was “to keep the Soviets out, the Americans in, and the Germans down.” It has been decades since the Soviet Union disintegrated, and European nations have been well integrated. So why is NATO still hanging on? When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, along with its military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, NATO could have–and should have–declared victory and folded. Instead, it expanded from 16 members in 1991 to 32 members today. Its eastward expansion not only violated the promises made by Secretary of State James Baker to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, but it was a grave mistake. U.S. diplomat George Keenan warned in 1997 that “expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold-War era.” Indeed, while NATO expansion does not justify Russia’s 2022 illegal invasion of Ukraine, it did provoke Russia and inflame tensions. NATO members also played a key role in Ukraine’s 2014 coup, the training and arming of Ukrainian forces in preparation for war with Russia, and the quashing of negotiations that could have ended the war in its first two months. After two years of brutal war, the NATO Summit focused on how to shore up Ukraine’s flailing efforts to repel Russia. The insistence on setting up a “Trump-proof” scenario that would guarantee Ukraine billions in military aid for years to come and an “irreversible path” to NATO membership is a guarantee that the war will drag on for years–precisely because NATO membership is Russia’s number one concern. There was no talk at the Summit about ending the war by moving towards a ceasefire and peace talks. Why? Because NATO is a military alliance. The only tool it has is a hammer. We have seen NATO illegally and unsuccessfully wield that hammer in country after country over the past 30 years. From Bosnia and Serbia to Afghanistan and Libya, NATO has justified this violence and instability as defending “the Rules-Based Order” while repeatedly violating the core precepts of the UN Charter. NATO is now a military behemoth with partners far beyond the North Atlantic that encircle the globe from Colombia to Mongolia to Australia. It has proven to be an aggressive alliance that initiates and escalates wars without international consensus, exacerbates global instability, and prioritizes arms deals over humanitarian needs. NATO provides a cover for the U.S. to place nuclear weapons in five European nations, bringing us closer to nuclear war in violation of both the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. NATO is endangering us all in a desperate attempt to reassert U.S. global hegemony in what is now a multipolar world. NATO’s 75th anniversary is an opportune time to assess its outdated worldview and violations of international law. NATO should be laid to rest so we can revitalize and democratize the proper venue for dealing with global conflicts: the United Nations. Feature photo | President Joe Biden speaks at a news conference following the NATO Summit in Washington, July 11, 2024. Susan Walsh | AP Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange. She is the author of 11 books, including War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, coauthored with Nicolas J.S. Davies. Her most recent book, coauthored with David Swanson, is NATO: What You Need to Know. The post Like Biden, NATO Is Aged and Unfit to Lead appeared first on MintPress News.
- — France’s Left-Wing Victory: A Blow to Israeli Diplomacy
- at 7/8/24 7:39pmThe far-right party experienced a significant loss in the French election over the weekend, and officials in both the Israeli and French diplomatic corps are criticizing the conduct of Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli during the French election campaign. Ever since French President Macron called a Snap Election, minister Chikli was publicly and vocally in support of Marie Le Pen and her far-right National Rally Party, saying that Le Pen as president would be “excellent for Israel” and adding that Netanyahu was of the same opinion. However, when it became clear on Sunday that an alliance of left-wing parties had been victorious, Chikli posted on X that the leader of the New Popular Front, Jean-Luc Melenchon, was “the French version of Jeremy Corby, an Israel Hater in heart and soul who refused to condemn the events of October 7 and to call Hamas a terrorist organization.” As one can imagine, this conduct has damaged Franco/Israeli relations, with one Israeli official characterizing the Diaspora Affairs Ministers behavior as a “diplomatic bomb.” They took this misstep seriously enough to prompt a response from Foreign Minister Israel Katz that “Israel does not intervene in elections in France and respects French democracy – just as we expect other countries to respect Israeli democracy.” This drama, far less scandalous than other diplomatic gaffes surrounding the Israel/Gaza war, is significant nevertheless in that the recognition of Palestinian Statehood was a central promise of the New Popular Front during their campaign. That political party will now be a vocal force within the French Parliament if it manages to stay united and will further increase the socio-cultural normalization of the idea of Palestinian Statehood throughout Europe. France is commonly referred to as one of the Big Four of Western Europe, along with Italy, Germany and the UK the major European powers and the only EU countries individually represented as full members of the G7, the G8, and the G20. Therefore, Israel’s anxiety over losing French support is acute and could signal a future cascade failure in unilateral European support for its military action in Gaza and Southern Lebanon. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, NATO countries have presented a generally united front in terms of funding foreign wars and international sanctions. However, the unforeseen and unprecedented global backlash against Israeli military violence in Gaza and the subsequent mass awakening to Israeli interference in Euro-American governments have contributed to a great polarizing event amongst the Western voting public. The future is difficult to predict, but this much is clear the era of compromise politics is over. The collective West will experience increasing internal strife over these conflicts, highlighting our societal failings, our class differentials, the apparent falsehood of representative democracy, and the perpetuation of conflicts that net the average citizen absolutely nothing. Is the Left on the Rise? Will the United States, forever ironclad in its support of Israel, eventually be at loggerheads with European powers? Join us tonight on State of Play at Mint Press News as we examine the accelerating fragmentation of the trans-Atlantic world. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a background in human intelligence collection and analysis. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst, and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post Frances Left-Wing Victory: A Blow to Israeli Diplomacy appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Violence Sweeps Northern Syria and Turkey Amid Diplomatic Shifts
- at 7/8/24 10:41amRiots erupted across northern Syria and throughout Turkey on Monday, fuelled by Turkish anti-Syrian sentiment. While social media fuelled hysteria and led to the outburst of violence, the underlying issues on both sides that underpinned the chaos may be indicative of an imminent deal to secure a normalization of ties between Ankara and Damascus. Dozens of Syrians and Turkish soldiers were killed and injured in north-west Syria on Monday after Syrians responded with violent protests against the targeting of refugee communities living in Turkey. Fuelled through social-media-driven allegations regarding the reported sexual abuse of a Turkish child by a Syrian refugee, anti-Syrian mobs took to the streets to attack businesses and assault random people identified as being from Syria. Armed demonstrators and Turkish forces engaged in armed clashes in the city of Afrin, it was later reported in al-Monitor, while exchanges of fire also took place in Jarablos. For some time, a major issue in Turkish politics has been the desire to relocate millions of refugees who fled Syria due to the war that began in 2011 back to their country of origin. A large part of the major push to achieve this goal of repatriating the refugee population has been the growing anti-Syrian and broader anti-Arab sentiments in Turkish society. Turkeys President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has long sought to conclude this issue and pledged to send some 1 million refugees back to Syria last year. The outbreak of violence at the beginning of the week represented a long-festering resentment that has been on the rise against Syrians in Turkey, as well as anger from opposition groups based in north-west Syria towards reports that Ankara was moving towards normalizing ties with Damascus. Last week, Turkish President Erdogan said that he doesnt rule out meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to discuss re-opening ties between both nations, sparking outrage from the range of armed groups that control the north-western Idlib province of Syria. It was therefore not surprising that Syrians, carrying the flag of the countrys opposition, decided to confront Turkish soldiers with weapons along the border area between both nations after protesters took to the streets and flocked to points of contact such as the border. According to a Syrian security source, who chose to remain anonymous due to the issues sensitivity, a normalization agreement is currently being worked on behind the scenes and is allegedly 90% finished. MintPress was informed that a deal mediated by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Iran and Iraq is currently working to normalize ties between Ankara and Damascus comprehensively. The source says that the agreement would be aimed at dealing with the Kurdish issue in north-eastern Syria, equivalent to an Adana 2.0, referencing the 1988 agreement, which coordinated upon the expulsion of the Kurdish PKK party from Syrian territory in collaboration with Turkey. A detail noted to have been discussed was allowing a situation in which Turkey will be able to launch operations against the Kurdish SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] with a depth of 30 km into Syria but in a joint capacity with the Syrian army. In addition to this, there are still discussions ongoing to ensure a Turkish withdrawal will start from north Aleppo and end in Idlib, although the timeline for the withdrawal of forces is yet to be settled. If a deal of this nature is being negotiated as the source suggests, it would be a game-changer on the road to concluding the bloody civil war that has plagued Syria since 2011. Under such an agreement, the US militarys occupation of roughly one-third of Syrian territory will be put to the test, especially if Turkey sends its armed forces further into north-west Syria to fight the SDF that maintains control of the area. When Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in 2018 and Operation Peace Spring in 2019, the US withdrew its forces, abandoning its Kurdish allies, to prevent any conflagration between it and its NATO ally. While talk of Syria-Turkey rapprochement has gone on for years, the recent clashes may make the possibility of such a deal more likely. How such an agreement will play out and whether it leads to further escalation remains to be seen. Feature photo | Syrians participated in the funeral of a man killed during clashes with Turkish forces in Afrin, northern Syria, on July 2, 2024. Rami Alsayed | AP Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker 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 Violence Sweeps Northern Syria and Turkey Amid Diplomatic Shifts appeared first on MintPress News.
- — American Military Crisis: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson Speaks Out
- at 7/8/24 9:11amIt is clear to at least half the world, some four billion people, that the United States is not the power that it once was… Our reputation is in tatters in the world.” That is what retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson told MintCast host Mnar Adley today. “When you talk about history and the history of empire in particular, what you find are examples of precisely what is happening to us today,” Wilkerson added, noting, in particular, the fall of the Western Roman and Persian empires and how, after they began to teeter, their leadership started to reinforce failures in military operations, in diplomacy and foreign policy in general. “Look at Ukraine. We are reinforcing what is clearly a defeat for NATO, Washington and London (Washington’s poodle). And yet, we are reinforcing. We are sending billions more dollars,” he said, noting that U.S. policy in Gaza and Afghanistan were similar stories. Lawrence Wilkerson served in the Army for 31 years before joining the State Department, where he was Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yet, in recent years, he has become one of the most vocal critics of American foreign policy. Today, he is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. The military is facing a severe recruitment crisis. Public confidence in the armed forces is at a modern low. According to a November poll, one-third of Americans would actively discourage their friends and family from military service. In 2023, the Army, Navy and Air Force all fell well short of the recruitment goals—a common occurrence in recent years. It appears Generation Z simply does not want to fight. Wilkerson says this has led to a serious dilemma for war planners in Washington. “If the United States were to go to war with China or Russia today, we would lose badly,” he told Adley, stressing that America has neither the mobilization capacity nor the defense industrial base to defeat their largest foes, and certainly not both of them together. If this were the case, the U.S. would likely fall back on its gigantic nuclear arsenal to equalize the playing field. Yet one major nuclear engagement would likely be enough to permanently devastate organized human life on this planet, meaning that the consequences of U.S. imperial decline could hardly be more significant. In today’s interview, Adley and Wilkerson touch on many of the key geopolitical hotspots of the day, including the Israeli assault on Gaza. Wilkerson is horrified by what he has seen there and suggests that U.S. support for Israel is costing Washington dearly on the world stage. Part of the reason why it continues to support Israel’s aggressive maneuvers is the power of the domestic Israel lobby and the extent to which the Apartheid state interferes in U.S. politics. “Israel is the greatest and most dangerous foreign agent operating on US soil. There’s no question about that,” Wilkerson said. 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 American Military Crisis: Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson Speaks Out appeared first on MintPress News.
- — Consent for War: Think Tanks and the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
- at 7/8/24 8:40amThink Tanks have a benign dictionary definition an organization that gathers groups of interdisciplinary scholars to perform research around particular policies, issues or ideas ranging from social policy to culture and technology. However, the great unspoken negative aspect of think tanks is the power they wield. They control information, shape and legitimize government policy, and serve as a waiting room for politicians out of office. Their established business model sells political influence in Washington and manufactures consent amongst the voting public. The Military Industrial Complex, a voraciously for-profit industry, is the primary donor for many leading think tanks, which engenders a bias toward military solutions and the perpetuation of global war. In this episode of State of Play, we examine the hawkish world of prominent think tanks within the context of the defense industry and the war in Ukraine. How do they function, and how have they influenced US policies towards Russia? Russia is a primary geostrategic adversary of Western global hegemony and has been used as a perennial bogeyman both during and after the fall of the USSR to justify exorbitant defense spending by Washington. Think Thanks, therefore, have an overriding profit incentive to push for a belligerent posture towards Russia as they are inextricably joined to an industry where war or the possibility of war is profitable and peace fails to produce attractive quarterly returns. Let us take the RAND Corporation as a case study. According to their About page, “RAND is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous.” However, even a cursory examination of their 2023 fiscal year revenue casts serious doubt on their self-proclaimed “objective analysis.” Over $43 million from the US Army, $50 million from the US Air Force and $68.9 million from the US Secretary of Defense and other national security agencies. There is an inescapable nexus between think tanks, governments and the military-industrial complex. The military, intelligence community, and various governmental departments sponsor think tanks, which in turn advise those institutions with confrontational policy stances. The advisory product of these think tanks is then used to legitimize hawkish policy and the government funding defense contracts. Research and development contracts for next-generation weapons and deterrents, which may never even be used beyond existing theoretically, are the most stable and reliable sources of income for the military-industrial complex. The amount of public money flowing into defense R&D dwarfs the amount spent on other prominent innovation policy tools in the United States. Consent for armed belligerence can be easily manufactured as long as a convenient and established boogeyman exists. In 2019, the RAND Corporation released a report titled “Over Extending and Unbalancing Russia,” espousing the US goal of undermining Russia just as it did the USSR during the Cold War. It is easy to condemn Russian military action in Ukraine, but one must also recognize a bellicose Western foreign policy that bulldozed over very public Russian diplomatic and military redlines. You will never hear of these. Consent and legitimacy for the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine are manufactured and legitimized by the Media and think tanks, portraying the West as all good and Russia as all bad. The truth, however, exists in the gray and is inextricably linked to the profit motive. Join us tonight for an in-depth discussion on the world of think tanks. Greg Stoker is a former US Army Ranger with a background in human intelligence collection and analysis. After serving four combat deployments in Afghanistan, he studied anthropology and International Relations at Columbia University. He is currently a military and geopolitical analyst, and a social media “influencer,” though he hates the term. 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 Twitch, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Subscribe to MintCast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and SoundCloud. Also, be sure to check out rapper Lowkey’s video interview/podcast series, The Watchdog. The post Consent for War: Think Tanks and the Russia-Ukraine Conflict appeared first on MintPress News.
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