Here we are, watching the Western press give Netanyahu cover to commit more war crimes in full confidence that he will be supported by the Adelson asset in the White House.
Protest outside the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., in early February while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was staying there during his visit to the Trump White House. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
Israel has once again laid siege to Gaza, this time in full coordination with the Trump administration. All goods are being blocked from entering the enclave, including humanitarian aid. This comes after a 15-month U.S.-backed Israeli bombing campaign deliberately made it impossible for people to survive in Gaza without extensive amounts of aid.
The move is an effort to pressure Hamas into changing the terms of the ceasefire deal they agreed to in January by shifting to a new Trump administration plan to extend the first phase of the deal instead of negotiating the second stage as scheduled.
So Israel is breaking international laws against collective punishment by laying siege to an aid-dependent population in order to force changes to a ceasefire deal. You might assume such a straightforward act of psychopathic criminality would be correctly conveyed by the headlines of the Western press, but if you assumed such a thing you are adorably naive.
As we anticipated yesterday, the official Western propaganda line is spinning this to blame Hamas for rejecting a peace deal, but some of the headlines have been even worse than I would have guessed.
“Hamas rejects extending first phase of Gaza ceasefire, ties hostage release to phased deal,” reads a headline from Reuters.
“Israel halts aid to Gaza as Hamas rejects revised ceasefire proposal,” says the Financial Times.
“Israel says it will block aid going into Gaza until Hamas agrees to ceasefire extension,” says CNN.
“Israel Halts All Aid Into Gaza as Cease-Fire Expires,” says The New York Times in its signature passive-voice framing.
“Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu presses for Gaza ceasefire extension,” reads a particularly obnoxious headline about the story from Australia’s state broadcaster ABC.
To be clear, it is Israel who is rejecting the ceasefire, not Hamas. Hamas already agreed to a ceasefire, and has been honoring it. It is Israel who is pushing to change the terms of the deal instead of moving forward with the deal as agreed.
Israel is doing this because moving ceasefire negotiations on to their second stage would entail moving toward a commitment to lasting peace and the removal of Israeli troops from Gaza.
A new deal isn’t even necessary to extend the first phase of the ceasefire; as Muhammad Shehada noted on Twitter, phase one would renew automatically as long as phase two negotiations are ongoing. Phase one of the ceasefire isn’t the issue here: killing phase two is.
And it’s important to understand that Netanyahu never intended to move forward to the second phase of the ceasefire. As soon as the agreement was signed in January the Netanyahu-aligned factions of the Israeli press were already asserting that the prime minister would never allow the ceasefire to move on to phase two. In early February the Israeli outlet Haaretz reported that, according to insider sources, Netanyahu intended to sabotage the ceasefire before it could move to its second stage.
It’s important to be aware that Netanyahu always intended to sabotage the ceasefire because it shows that none of the reasons being given for Israel’s actions today are the real reasons. It has nothing to do with hostages. It has nothing to do with anything Hamas has done since the signing of the agreement. It has nothing to do with the Bibas family. Those aren’t the reasons, they’re the excuses. The excuses for Netanyahu to do what he always intended to do.
It’s probably also worth noting at this juncture that Donald Trump has publicly admitted to being bought and owned by the world’s wealthiest Israeli, virulent Zionist Miriam Adelson. The president openly acknowledged on the campaign trail that the first time he was president, Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon were at the White House “probably almost more than anybody” demanding favors for Israel like moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and acknowledging Israel’s illegitimate claim to the Golan Heights, which he eagerly granted. Miriam Adelson gave the Trump campaign $100 million last year.
It used to be considered an antisemitic conspiracy theory to say that Trump is controlled by Adelson cash; back in 2020 Roger Waters was internationally denounced as an evil Jew hater for saying what Trump himself openly admitted to last year. Now here we are, watching Trump rush weapons to Israel and push to permanently ethnically cleanse Gaza of all Palestinians while Netanyahu happily commits war crimes in full confidence that he will be supported by the Adelson asset in the White House.
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This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
It did take long for Tulsi to show her true colors. This does not speak well for the future involvements of CIA and the U.S. intelligence community.
I have to wonder about Trumps love affair with Putin and how Tulsi reads that.
The hope was that Trump would be attacked by the Democrats for doing exactly the same as Genocide Joe, but with no crocodile tears and more braying. Miriam Adelson’s “clinic” donated less than 7% of Trump’s campaign funds, according to opensecrets.org; Kamala received TWICE as much as Trump from rich donors, dominated by Zionists. Actually a win by Kamala, continuing Joe “I am a Zionist!” Biden’s genocidal policies might be worse; Trump is a lame duck and no longer obligated to his donors, Kamala could run again.
Sadly ALL DC politicians favor the eradication of the Palestinians; any who state otherwise are likely ‘removed’ by AIPAC. Lest we forget, genocide has been a constant in US military ‘adventures’ — Libya, Yemen, Syria, Madeleine Albright’s 500,000 Iraqi toddlers, and ethnic Russian Ukrainians on-going. Most Palestinians have left their homeland long ago. Israel IS the US’s Middle East foreign policy.
There’s no business like war business.
Trump has openly stated he wants no Palestinians in Gaza, so of course Netanyahu thinks he can count on US support. And it’s more than just aid that’s likely to be cut off: see Middle East Eye, ‘Israel plans to cut off electricity and water to Gaza after blocking aid’.
I keep coming back to the old saying, “All wars are banker wars.” Follow the money to understand what drives all the conflicts raging in the world. Changing puppets only determines which faction of the empire decides which conflicts to concentrate on. In every case, the innocent are the expendables. It’s long past time to get rid of the system that finances slaughter for profit. Whether it’s Israel or Ukraine, both are proxies for imperialist domination. Enough! If we don’t get off this neanderthal treadmill, no one will survive.
I wish people wouldn’t insult Neanderthals. As far as I know, archaeologists have not found millions of neanderthal corpses all from the same time period that they call The Neanderthal World War. And not a Second Neanderthal World War either. Let us not forget that the Neanderthals were the victims of genocide. The first?
I think your claim that “the Neanderthals were the victims of genocide’ is far from being a proven fact.
Ever wonder why every worthy cause has to plead for money constantly year after year? It’s because we live in a “for profit” society. Profit is “sacred” or rational, not altruism, not charity… profit. Having to defend capitalism is the Achilles Heel of the Democratic Party. It’s a trap they can never get out of.
It is uncomfortably shocking to be so surprisingly surprised by our surprise at the completely predictable and genocidal actions of the Israeli government and US officialdom. Usually we reserve this degree of rejection of humanitarian values for Africa and East Asia (where, of course, our disinterest is still in effect). We’d best pay good attention as this disinterest moves closer and closer to home.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.
Since a post might come from anywhere in the world, I’ll point out that I live in America. America, the nation that had better hope that the world does not apply a “Three Strikes and You Are Out” approach to Genocide, because America already has the prior form of two major genocides on its permanent record. Here in America, we are very good and experienced at the disinterest in human values for what is happening just over the hill. Welcome to America, where the people manage not to acknowledge the genocide in progress oh so very well.
BTW, Covid is still killing people. Just mainly the ones with gray hair, so everyone manages a great deal of disinterest. All they had to do was change “pan” to “en” and the disinterest in the “demic” became total. Hey, what’s a lot of gray haired corpses among friends? The stats aren’t final, but Biden appears to have beaten Trump I’s previous American Record for dead Americans in four years.
The disinterest in your mirror may already be a whole lot closer than you think. As long as the cure does not cost more than the disease.
Thanks for filling out the argument…of course, the US got its start right here on Turtle Island, but that history has been largely ignored in consciousness while still informing a version of Manifest Destiny to be applied to any part of the world with “our oil, minerals and other resources”.
Some of the best understanding of Neanderthals to date is that they were within the sapiens range of mental functioning, but without the drive (need?) for domination of the ecological space.
Hey, Hey, R F K
How many kids did you kill today?
Hey, Hey, Don-ald Trump
How many kids did you kill today?
Measles outbreak in West Texas killed one child at least, so far. This from a disease that is preventable with a vaccine that didn’t kill me. In 2000, measles was considered eradicated in the USA. Ain’t a return to anti-science grand!
The disinterest may be a lot closer than you think.
The way the Western (Zionist) media report on which side is supposedly violating the ceasefire deal is an absolute classic display of Israeli subterfuge, prevarications and verbal slight of hand. Classic! This is what they’ve been doing for 80 years. Now with the rise of the Internet and social media, informed people are able to more easily see through the obfuscations, distortions and verbal dexterity.
When the Zionists can so easily muddy the issues, it makes it easier for busy working people to merely throw up their hands and blame both sides.
And Putin knows each 4 years that promises made by the “Change” to come is a “Nothingburger”
At least from past experience , blind trust will not exist during daylight hours without clear skies and the sun .