No shit! This is flat out nasty stuff.
Doesn't look like him
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/israel-lied-so-much-about-gaza-massacre-that-the-western-med
'Israel' lied so much about Gaza massacre that the Western media didnât question it at all
"Israelâs" brutal three-day military aggression on the Gaza Strip left 49 Palestinians dead, including 17 children and four women. When "Tel Aviv" lied and claimed that misfired Palestinian rockets were responsible for the killing of the majority of kids in Gaza, the Western media didnât question it. Even worse, the US government used "Israelâs" disinformation at the United Nations Security Council.
An Israeli strike that took place on August 7, inside the Jabalia refugee camp Al-Fallujah cemetery, killed five children, with the youngest Jamil Najim Al-Din Nejm being as young as three years old only. Despite the reports at the time from leading Palestinian human rights groups, such as Al-Mezan center, that held the Israeli military side responsible for the crime, "Tel Aviv" denied it, despite it being its own doing. Instead, the Zionist regime claimed that the massacre was the result of a misfired Palestinian Resistance rocket, a claim they also made for other massacres in Beit Hanoun and Al-Bureij camp, as well as the Jabalia camp the previous day.
What was the response of Western media to this? You guessed it right. The Western mainstream media, which claim to be scrupulous in their fact-checking in terms of dispelling any possible âdisinformationâ, didnât do any due diligence and instead refused to push back on the claims of the Israeli military. This happened despite the evident lies of the Israeli regime, on political, intelligence, police, and military levels, when it came to the assassination of veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. In the case of Shireenâs murder - evidently perpetrated by the Israeli military - not only did the Western media initially echo the claims of "Israel", blaming what it called âPalestinian terroristsâ at the time, but they also didnât bother to apologize for their misleading headlines.
Even when the Israeli police were found to have doctored footage of Palestinian mourners in Al-Quds, who were attacked when carrying the coffin of Shireen Abu Akleh, the Western media, which blindly reiterated claims that Palestinians had thrown objects at Israeli forces to start a brawl, failed to apologize for spreading disinformation. The question is: If they know that Israelis lie constantly and still quote them, giving legitimacy to Israeli lies over the Palestinians who are eyewitnesses on the ground, are they not deemed complicit in "Israelâs" crimes?
Letâs be very clear: "Israelâs" advanced military technology allows it to know precisely what and where they are hitting and cancel many of its munitions up until the last few seconds. This means that Israeli forces were hiding miles away from Gaza in fortified areas like cowards. They clearly saw that they were striking a group of children in an open graveyard and decided to kill them intentionally. This is a war crime. There can be absolutely no dispute that the Israeli military knew about the timing of every strike conducted, yet they chose to claim for 9 days that they did not launch strikes at the time of the massacre. They lied, once again. Then, Haaretz news finally got an admission out of senior Israeli military sources that they were the ones who caused the massacre, not misfired Palestinian rockets.
Imagine that, once again, with the absence of irrefutable evidence, "Israel" claims that the people they are attacking are killing their own civilians, and the Western media outlets are copying it. The Associated Press, whose office in Gaza was blown to pieces based on false Israeli claims of Hamas military presence in the building in May of 2021, even published a piece attempting to corroborate Israeli claims that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement was responsible for killing 15 children in Gaza. The AP piece, in its title, stated that âmisfired rockets may have killed over a dozen in Gaza battle," which by the admission of Israeli military sources, as quoted by Haaretz, has already been discredited and proven as false. In Reuters news, the following headline appeared: âIn Gaza, denial and doubt over misfiring rocket claimsâ, in which the writers quote Israeli sources and then provide no reasonable pushback, attempting to paint PIJ and Hamas in Gaza as working to cover up the facts.
Part 1
It doesnât take a genius to tell that "Israelâs" claims make no sense, and any real journalist should have been skeptical, not only due to "Tel Avivâs" long history of lies about such issues but also because the Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets have never caused such massacres against anyone. There is not a single case that shows that Palestinian rockets have caused any such massacres. Even when no Israeli settlers were killed by the PIJ rockets, in this round, with not even any serious injuries reported, "Israel" still claimed that Palestinian rockets committed massacres in Gaza; isnât that enough to raise skepticism? Suddenly, the rockets that never possessed such abilities, as per the Israelis themselves, became able to commit massacres consistent with what Israeli strikes do regularly. How does this make sense, and if it was to be true, is it not the job of a journalist to present irrefutable evidence in order to disprove Israeli claims? Well, for Western media, no, because they donât do journalism; they do propaganda. The biggest problem, however, is that they claim to be âobjectiveâ and âunbiasedâ when they make their propaganda.
Why to single out AP and Reuters? Because these are the top-tier media outlets, amongst the most trusted; the distributors of information that set the tone for the rest of Western media and beyond. Both were appalling on this issue. They did not properly quote journalists on the ground, they did not properly assess the evidence, and they did not listen to the eyewitnesses; despite having full knowledge of "Israelâs" provable lies about âhuman shieldsâ and the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, they published articles in support of "Israelâs" narrative. The United States government even went ahead and stated at a meeting with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) that "Israel" had proven the misfired rockets theory, when they had released one video officially, but Israeli political figures shared another, proving that there were no misfired Palestinian rockets, something that nobody disputes.
"Israel" is still sticking to its claims; that many Palestinians were killed by misfired PIJ rockets, other than the five children in Jabalia. What does this reflect, now that we have an admission of lying about the August 7 attack on the Jabalia camp? It means that "Israelâs" claims of not committing airstrikes at that time were proven false, as much as it means that the so-called âradarâ evidence "Israel" presented was false too. So, other than an unclear video, what claimed "reasonable" evidence does "Israel" have right now? Should we just trust "Israel" that it only lied about the radar tracking and timing of its strikes, or is it not clear that they have been lying in more than one of those cases? It is clear that Israelis are liars; they just commit war crimes and then try to blame them on Palestinians for over a week.
These media outlets who repeat Israeli regime propaganda are not just mistaken, they are complicit in these crimes in so far as they provide "Israel" the cover to avoid accountability. All of these writers for Western media outlets should now be forced to face the families whose children they helped "Israel" lie about.
Part 2 - End
https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/opinion/the-janus-face-of-western-civilisation
The Janus face of âwestern civilisationâ
In ancient Rome, Janus was the god of beginnings, transitions, and endings and thus perhaps the most important of all the gods. As represented in the statuary, the head of Janus has two faces, back to back, facing opposite directions. What Janus meant to the ancient Romans is quite divorced from what the image represents in the modern world, which is someone or something that is two-faced and not to be trusted.
As a metaphor, Janus describes âwesternâ civilization perfectly. One face is how the collective west likes to see itself, as the font of great scientific, philosophical and artistic achievements. The other face is the dark side; a civilization that is not civilized at all when it comes to taking what it wants and is capable of great savagery.
If the âwestâ has been triumphant for the past half millennium; it is not in spite of its capacity for barbaric behavior, but because of it. In conquering the new world and subjugating the old one, the armies representing the âwestâ have been remorseless in their brutality. The colonization of Africa, Asia, and Latin America is a path soaked in blood from the beginning of the westâs ascendancy to the present day.
In the British empire and the US, conquest was seen as proof of Godâs preference for the Anglo-Saxon âraceâ. Their French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch imperial rivals thought they were preferred in the same way.
Manifest destiny â imperialism serving Godâs will on earth â was coupled with social Darwinism, which did not mean the strong had no sympathy for the weak. On the contrary, conquests allowed imperialists to deliver the benefits of civilization and progress to the heathen and barbarians far from their borders. âWhat we are doing for youâ and not âwhat we are doing to youâ was the moral justification. Their invasions were explicitly Christian, even though as Catholics or Protestants, they abused each other inside the Christian club.
Other civilizations were scarcely recognized or were defamed. Few Christians would have questioned the leading 19th-century British orientalist, Sir William Muir, when he wrote that "the sword of Muhammed, and the Kor'an, are the most stubborn enemies of Civilisation, Liberty, and the Truth which the world has yet known."
Technology and not morality, except in the minds of the bearers of western civilization, explained western victories. At Omdurman in 1898, spears and flintlocks were no match for the mass death delivered by the Maxim guns lined up on the battlefield. Some 11,000 Sudanese warriors were cut down in a few hours, unable to get anywhere near the British frontline. Fewer than 50 British soldiers died. The Sudanese wounded were left to die on the battlefield if they could not crawl away to safety. Winston Churchill, who was there, regarded the outcome as the triumph of science over barbarism.
Someone else who was present, the British journalist, G.A. Henty, had a different understanding of what lay behind the British victory: at heart, he thought the British are barbarians, too, capable of any cruelty to get what they want. Omdurman was not exceptional but typical of the gross imbalance when native populations attempted to defend themselves against invading armies. In Algeria, the Mujahidin resisting the French were so short of ammunition that they had to fashion bullets by coating date pits with lead. From the super modern British naval force anchored off Alexandria in 1882 to the missiles and âsmart bombsâ that rained down on Iraq in 1991 and again in 2003, superior technology alone explains the domination of the west.
In the Middle East and North Africa, the âwestâ has been a perpetually running machine of death and destruction for two centuries. Scarcely any part of the region has managed to avoid its destructive embrace. âWhy do they hate us?â was the question asked after 9/11. Looking at the bloody record, the response should surely be âWhy wouldnât they?â.
Part 1
In fact, the west is not âhatedâ as long as it stays in the west. What has embittered its victims is its endless meddling in the affairs of countries far from the borders of any âwesternâ country, its murderous wars, its greed and hypocrisy, and its continuing support for the zionist settler colony it established in the wake of the First World War.
Far worse than Algerian or white South African apartheid settler colonialism, this dagger driven into the very heart of the Middle East has been a motor of death and destruction from the beginning, down to the slaughter of Palestinian children in Gaza last week. They are only the latest of countless thousands of child victims of the zionist settler colony in Palestine and the countries around its borders. Who could look at the faces of these innocents and not feel outraged at what these cowards have done?
But the âwestâ is not outraged. These children are not its children. Their names are not given and their faces are not shown because readers or viewers seeing these sweet innocent faces would be outraged, and zionist lobbies everywhere would bombard editors with complaints. That cannot be allowed, but the slaughter of Palestinian children can be.
The erstwhile feminist columnists writing for the media on the rights of women and children around the world have nothing to say when it comes to the situation of the women and children of Gaza, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, or any other Middle East country torn apart by the âwestâ in conjunction with the occupiers of Palestine. Is this because they are Muslim? The question certainly needs to be asked.
So it is well past time for the âwestâ to be called to account. After two centuries, the message has surely been driven home that it cannot be trusted. It has been said a thousand times before, but the Arab and Muslim worlds need to close ranks against this remorseless force in their histories. This also means calling to account the Arab regimes who pay lip service to the Palestine cause but, more openly than ever, are betraying it.
The global order is undergoing epochal change. All the component parts of the âwestâ have had their day in the imperial sun; Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Now only the US is left but the light is fading fast. The US will not let go easily because empires never do. After only 22 years, the ânew American centuryâ is already grinding to a halt. However, with an addled president in the White House and a team of deluded foreign policy advisors, the US is as dangerous as a wounded snake. It has been outmaneuvered by Russia in Syria and Ukraine and with insane talk in the US and the UK of war with Russia and/or China, a war that would quickly become nuclear, the âwestâ is closing its half millennium of global dominance by bringing the world to a point even more threatening than the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.
Part 2 - End
Some believe that the double face gods, in this case Janus, are Satan, the fallen one, since he was an angel first, then turned bad.
I'm past beyond the age of having a baby sitter and being lectured. Sharing an opinion I read once doesn't mean I'm presuming anything. It's just something I read once. You are the ones presuming and you think you know me. Why jump on the gun? Go take a walk outside to freshen your mind a bit.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/montenegro:-no-confidence-vote-topples-government
Montenegro: No-confidence vote topples government
The Montenegrin administration was brought down on Saturday by a no-confidence vote in parliament, which ended the tenure of Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, who took power in April 2022. The government's recent contentious agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) was at the heart of the 50-1 vote.
Political tensions have been simmering in Montenegro with President Milo Djukanovic, a staunch opponent of the SPC, attempting to undermine the coalition government and force early elections. "We need an election and a stable government," said parliamentarian Danijel Zivkovic, whose motion triggered the confidence vote.
Countering Serbian 'influence'
In 2006, the Adriatic nation seceded from Serbia, however, a third of its people still identify as Serbs, with the SPC as the dominant religion.
With the country divided over the church's significant role and the country's ties to Serbia, opponents accuse SPC of aiding Serbia's interests. In addition, the SPC leadership does not fully recognize Montenegro's independence.
Pro-Western Montenegrins saw the agreement with the SPC as evidence of Serbian and Russian meddling in their country, especially given the war in Ukraine.
The motion comes just months after another coalition government's rule was ended by a no-confidence vote in February. For the time being, Abazovic will most likely continue to lead on an interim basis until a replacement is found.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/ukrainian-forces-take-revenge-on-zaporozhye-shell-cities:-of
Ukrainian forces take revenge on Zaporozhye, shell cities: Official
The regular shelling of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP), as well as the local civilian population, is included in Kievâs revenge for the imminent loss of Zaporozhye Region, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the main council of the regional military-civil administration, told Sputnik.
Rogov considered that "the constant shelling of cities and towns by the Ukrainian troops is dictated by their revenge, anger and impotence from the fact that the Zaporizhzhia region will never return to Ukraine."
"The Zelensky regime is aware of the inevitable loss of the Zaporozhye region, and therefore is trying to harm my countrymen as much as possible, intimidate and force them to leave the region, including blackmailing them with strikes on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant," the official explained.
Russian forces have had complete control over the NPP since March, but drone attacks by Ukrainian forces have regularly targeted the facility, leading Russia to request help from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to address security issues.
Such incidents have triggered fears of a possible nuclear catastrophe and were the subject of an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council last Thursday.
At the beginning of the meeting, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated that there is no immediate threat to nuclear safety at the NPP at the moment, "but that could change."
Moscow affirmed it was willing to assist the IAEA with a potential visit to the Zaporozhye NPP. However, it accused on Thursday the office of the United Nations Secretary-General of obstructing the work of IAEA experts and preventing them from visiting the NPP.
Earlier this month, Russia refuted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's claim that Russian forces were using the Zaporozhye NPP as a military base, according to a statement issued by the Russian Mission to the United Nations.
No threats can make Zaporozhye deter from joining Russia
Rogov underlined that no threats or ultimatums on the part of the Kiev authorities or Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can make Zaporozhye deter from its path of joining Russia.
Earlier this month, Rogov told Sputnik that the Zaporozhye Region plans to hold a referendum on joining Russia in September.
According to the administrations of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, election commissions have already been created to hold a referendum on the issue of joining Russia.
It is noteworthy that the Kherson Region and most of Zaporozhye Region of Ukraine are now controlled by Russia's military as a result of the special operation that began on February 24, after the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) requested help from Russia amid intensifying attacks by Ukrainian troops.
Local military-civil administrations have already been formed in the two regions, the broadcasting of Russian TV channels and radio stations has been launched, and trade ties with Crimea are being restored.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/22-million-to-face-hunger-by-september-in-the-horn-of-africa
22 million to face hunger by September in the Horn of Africa
The World Food Programme (WFP) organization said on Friday that the number of people at risk of starvation in the drought-ravaged Horn of Africa has increased to 22 million.
Years of insufficient rainfall across Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia have caused the worst drought in 40 years and conditions akin to famine in the hardest-hit areas, according to the organization.
An unprecedented four failed rainy seasons have killed millions of livestock, destroyed crops, and forced 1.1 million people from their homes in search of food and water.
"The world needs to act now to protect the most vulnerable communities from the threat of widespread famine in the Horn of Africa," said WFP executive director David Beasley.
"There is still no end in sight to this drought crisis, so we must get the resources needed to save lives and stop people plunging into catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation."
At the start of 2022, WFP warned that 13 million people across the three countries faced starvation, and appealed for donors to open their purses at a time of great need.
But funds were slow in coming, with the war in Ukraine among other crises drawing attention from the disaster in the Horn.
The blockade on Russian oil and the war with Ukraine also sent global food and fuel prices soaring, making aid delivery more expensive.
By the middle of the year, when rain failed to appear again in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia, the number in extreme need soared to 20 million, and warnings of famine grew more urgent.
WFP says by September, at least 22 million people could face starvation.
"This number will continue to climb, and the severity of hunger will deepen if the next rainy season⌠fails and the most vulnerable people do not receive humanitarian relief," WFP said in a statement.
"Needs will remain high into 2023 and famine is now a serious risk, particularly in Somalia" where nearly half the population of 15 million is seriously hungry.
WFP said $418 million was needed over the next six months to help the worst-off.
Last month, the US announced $1.2 billion in emergency food and malnutrition treatment to help avert famine in the Horn of Africa, and urged other nations to do more.
>> Here goes the 22 again.
In early June this year, the President of Senegal and of the African Union, Macky Sall, held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and called for the lifting of sanctions imposed on Moscow, specifically those affecting the export of wheat and fertilizers.
During the meeting, held in the city of Sochi, the Senegalese president declared that âthere are two main problems: the (food) crisis and the sanctions. We must work together to solve these problems so that sanctions on food products are lifted.â
âThe sanctions against Russia have worsened this situation and now we have no access to grain from Russia, mainly wheat. And, most importantly, we have no access to fertilizers. The situation was bad and now it has worsened, creating a threat to food security in Africa,â he warned.
Russia and Ukraine together account for 29 percent of the worldâs wheat exports, which is why African nations depend on this grain.
For years, the US appeared to be the largest donor to the WFP. The reality, however, is that it is largely responsible for instigating this crisis.
Since the Green Revolution, US agribusiness and financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have sought to hook farmers and nation states on corporate seeds and proprietary inputs as well as loans to construct the type of agri-infrastructure that chemical-intensive farming requires.
End
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/us-to-supply-ukraine-with-excalibur-precision-artillery-muni
US to supply Ukraine with Excalibur precision artillery munitions
The US is set to supply Ukraine with Excalibur precision-guided artillery munitions in a new military aid package, including five new types of hardware that have not yet been delivered to Kiev, Politico reported, citing sources.
On Friday, the White House said that US President Joe Biden signed a memorandum authorizing a drawdown of $775 million worth of military assistance to Ukraine. This constitutes the nineteenth drawdown of equipment from the US department of defense inventories for Ukraine since August 2021.
The Excalibur shells were not included in this round, and the exact delivery date is still being under discussion, the report said.
The US is set to provide the Ukrainian forces with new precision weapons, which are reportedly able to target "dug-in Russian positions and command posts," according to the report.
The package consists of 16 of 105mm howitzer artillery cannons, 15 ScanEagle reconnaissance drones, 1,500 tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided (TOW) anti-tank missiles, 40 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) light vehicles, and 2,000 anti-armor ammunition for Carl Gustaf rifles. It will also include 1,000 Javelin anti-tank missiles and ammunition for high mobility artillery rocket systems (HIMARS).
This decision comes ahead of Ukraine's threat to damage the Zaporozhye NPP to which many have argued could result in a "large-scale catastrophe that could lead to radiation contamination of vast territories", according to the Kremlin.
Russian forces have had complete control over the NPP since March, but drone attacks by Ukrainian forces have regularly targeted the facility, leading Russia to request help from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to address security issues.
>> Where are you swordy?
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/ties-with-israel-will-build-new-momentum:-erdogan
Ties with "Israel" will build new momentum: Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes that the relations between Turkey and "Israel" will gain new momentum after they have recently restored full diplomatic relations, Erdogan's office said on Friday after the Turkish President and his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, discussed bilateral ties and regional issues in a phone call.
On Wednesday, Turkey and "Israel" agreed to mutually reappoint ambassadors and restore full diplomatic ties. To Erdogan, this is "an important step taken in order for the bilateral relations to advance in a positive direction."
"Noting that the re-appointment of the ambassadors will add momentum to the [Turkey]-Israel relations, President Erdogan said [Turkey] favors the improvement of cooperation and dialogue on the basis of respect for mutual sensitivities," the presidential office said on Twitter.
Relations between Turkey and âIsraelâ deteriorated due to the occupationâs policies toward Palestinians, culminating in the withdrawal of both countries' ambassadors in 2018.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was considered by some a vocal supporter of the Palestinian cause. However, he has been lately reaching out to âIsraelâ, aiming to repair relations as Turkey's official inflation rate was at a 20-year-high in April, which posed a significant challenge to Erdogan's government.
It is worth noting that the talks between Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog took place amid a widespread Israeli crackdown on Palestinians during the holy month of Ramadan.
Many of Turkey's social issues, economists contend, are the result of Erdogan's unusual economic policy, which has pushed many foreign investors away from the once-promising growing market.
One of the reasons why Erdogan decided to open his country's doors to the Israeli occupation is to quench Turkeyâs thirst for investors, turning a blind eye to the ongoing murder of Palestinians and the endless violations of human rights.
>> They've always been buddy buddies, but in secret. Now it's in front of everyone.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/venezuela-stops-oil-shipments-to-europe
Venezuela stops oil shipments to Europe
The European Union is going to be struggling to find any fuel sources it can find to supply electricity and heating through the coming winter, according to OilPrice, amid natural gas imports from Russia being cut by 80 percent through Nord Stream 1 along with the majority of oil shipments. Iran and Venezuela were two sources that were originally suggested as alternatives.
Increased Iranian oil and gas exports to the West highly depend on the undecided nuclear deal, but such a deal is unlikely anytime soon as deadlines on proposals have not been met, according to Goldman Sachs.
After two years of US sanctions, Venezuela restarted shipments to Europe under a deal that allows them to trade oil for debt relief. Nonetheless, the country's government has suspended those shipments now, saying it has no interest anymore in oil-for-debt agreements and wants instead refined fuels from Italy and Spain in exchange for crude.
This might appear like a backward exchange, but Venezuela's own refineries are grappling with the ability to remain in operation due to a lack of investment and repairs. Refined fuels would help Venezuela get back on its feet in terms of industry and energy. Some of the country's own heavy oil operations need imported diluents to continue. The EU says it presently has no plans to lift restrictions on the oil-for-debt deal, which means Europe has lost yet another energy source now.
Venezuela's oil industry has been strangled by the sanctions on the country and the declining investments. Consequently, the overall production dropped by 38 percent this July in comparison with last year. Joe Biden's initial moves to restart talks with President Nicolas Maduro triggered hopes that Venezuelan oil would flow once again and relieve tight global markets and rising prices. Europe, in particular, will be desperate soon for energy alternatives, which will probably lead this autumn to the scouring of markets to meet the bare minimum requirements for heating.
If this happens and they did not find regular sources of energy to fill the void left by sanctions against Russia, prices will rise very steeply in the EU, not to mention that available sources of energy supplies will also shrink for every other nation including the US.