Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!

Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, United States by Abraham A. van Kempen 

By Abraham A. van Kempen
15 November 2024

On the surface, the apparent benefit of a winner-takes-all–political party that hijacks control of the Presidency, the Supreme Court, the Senate, and the House of Representatives is less gridlock. Is less gridlock American democracy? The ruling party can impose its agenda with minimal dialogue and debate at the expense of less democracy to the minority and more autocracy handed down by the ruling party. Is it American hypocrisy? No, it’s uniquely American, an autocratic democracy grounded in the US Constitution.

Is there a chance for the US President-elect to become a dictator for life? No! The US is a form of government fortified by a system of checks and balances. Nonetheless, people fear the unknown.

…

Here’s an excerpt from Michael Moore’s latest blog – in my opinion a bit exaggerated:

If you stop and think about it, we’ve come up with many doozies in our history. Like the genocide of 20 million Native Americans. Or the enslavement of 12 million kidnapped Africans. Or us invading Vietnam and killing 4 million Asian people for no reason at all. We are not a good people.

We have a non-stop cavalcade, a sordid laundry list of evil deeds that led us directly to last week, to the point where we, the people, by popular vote, elected a 34-time convicted felon, a fascist, and a civilly-charged and convicted sexual abuser to be our 47th president of the United States. And we did so after he clearly and quite honestly warned us that he was going to do a mass round-up and deportation of nearly 15 million people. And that he would consider executing people he referred to as “the enemy within” (i.e., his political opponents and those who were disloyal to him).

History may be kinder to us if, next time, the working class doesn’t see our candidate campaigning with Wall Street billionaires. Or having to watch the campaign celebrate being endorsed by war criminals. And not having our side enthusiastically funding and arming the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent women, children, and elderly in a land we call “Holy” in the months leading up to an election where we are seeking to defeat someone who “admires” Hitler’s generals. Oh — and we commit to getting just 1% more of our people who voted with us last time to vote with us next time.

…

Here's a piece that just landed in my inbox – also a bit exaggerated:

The world is already improving, especially the U.S., and President Trump is not even in office. The Cabinet selection will be incredible and filled with loyal and proven world-class picks that make things happen rather than watching and allowing shit to happen.

There will be no convergence to the left because of their evilness that can never be tolerated ever again. The only ones begging for mercy now are those who have never shown mercy since Ronald Reagan….

The prayers of America and, finally, unity, independent of race and some religions, have changed God’s plans for America and the world. -Amen

Gruesome Newscum, the CA governor, is leading a left coalition of flunkies to counter President Trump’s agenda… that won’t last long.

The left points to Kamala’s failure to support its talking points, race, being a woman, etc., as cause for her defeat. The LL (left leaders) 100% knew that she would fail, and she was used as a scapegoat since Biden was incapable of winning even a race against a glacier. The LL couldn’t concede since they would have had to admit to the world's destruction during its tenure in the President's office. All of this to continue the left false narrative. Not even Joan of Arc or any other Demon-crat could have won, for that matter. God stepped in, and the Holy Spirit embedded in America took charge.

We will never bend to the left or reach a compromise with the Demon-crats. Therefore, they better move to the right or be reminded of what God may do, giving them one more chance.

God has Blessed America, and we have witnessed His mercy.

…

So, what will happen to the US if its citizens harbor these two extreme views? It will remain business as usual, and the sun will set from sea to shining sea.

To quote the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, Tim Waltz:

               “While the outcome is not what we wanted, I am grateful to the millions of Americans who joined our campaign and stood up for our greatest ideals: decency, compassion, and love of our neighbor. Now more than ever, we need you to continue fighting for those values and the country we all love."

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz delivered his final speech of the 2024 campaign on Friday from suburban Minneapolis, joining a chorus of fellow Democratic governors who've said over the past few days that they'd protect their states from what they call threats from Donald Trump to reproductive freedom and immigration and regulatory policy.

But the vice presidential nominee notably added that he'd work to find common ground with swaths of people who voted "for the other side" on Tuesday and that "there should be a place in our politics for everyone to be heard."

               "Sometimes, we can quickly judge people who disagree with us, assuming they act out of cruelty, fear, or self-interest.

               "I don't think that kind of judgment is helpful right now, and I don't think it's right," he said, noting that he'd "try even harder" to keep an open mind and listen to people who don't support his policies.

               "Maybe when we get a little break from this campaign that we're in, we'll be able to look at each other and see not enemies but neighbors, and maybe we'll be able to sit down over coffee or a Diet Mountain Dew and just talk," he added.

…

Finally, to reach the pinnacle, Former President Donald J. Trump endured torture. He went through the wringer. He must have changed for the better. The uniquely American Autocracy does not need to be America’s Achilles Heel. Because of minimal gridlock, it could usher in change, a new America, when least expected.

We’ll see.

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen

ANALYSIS | HAS AMERICA LOST ITS MIND OR WILL TRUMP GET IT RIGHT THIS TIME?

In one of the biggest comebacks since Lazarus, the 45th US president will also be the 47th.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. © Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

By Vitaly Ryumshin
Gazeta.ru political analyst
13 Nov, 2024 12:16
HomeWorld News

Humanity has managed to turn back the clock to 2016—the sense of déjà vu that haunted me. Once again, the US presidential election didn’t go according to plan.

• Sociologists were scratching their heads in bewilderment.
• Their predictions failed
• American liberals are crying
• Internet trolls are gloating
• Western Europeans are tense
• Russians [ed. Plus, ¾ of the world’s population] are jubilant

At the center of it all is Donald Trump, president-elect again, preparing to turn the world upside down—for real this time.

The election results showed that Americans were fed up with the old establishment and the strange, progressive ideas of which Kamala Harris was an ambassador. The false public image created by the Democratic Party’s ‘political technology’ apparatus didn’t help her either. While Kamala was buying up celebrities and giving scripted interviews to loyal journalists under the watchful eye of her PR team, Trump was standing behind the fryer at McDonald’s, driving around Wisconsin in a garbage truck, and chatting amicably with blogger Joe Rogan on his podcast. This eventually resonated with the nation.

For most US voters, he was a more acceptable figure.

However, I will not dwell on the reasons for Trump’s victory. The more relevant question now is what his second term will be like.

               Should we expect something fundamentally new?

               Or will it be a remake of his first rodeo, with managerial chaos, multiple investigations, and endless clowning?

               How will his presidency affect Russia, and what are the prospects for resolving the Ukraine conflict?

The short answer is that no one knows for sure because it is still being determined exactly what kind of environment the Trump presidency will take place in. The Republicans maintained their majority in the House of Representatives, a cheerful [Ed. for the Republicans], but we don’t know all the names of the people who will hold key positions in the White House. And they will influence his policies.

Read more
‘Netanyahu will want a lot from him’: Can Trump reconcile Israel and Iran?

At the same time, there are indications that Trump’s new four-year term will at least be more meaningful than the previous one.

               Firstly, no one will dare question the legitimacy of the elected president. In 2016, Trump’s victory seemed unnatural (Clinton won the popular vote). This led people to consider his presidency a system failure and speculate about [ed—Russian] foreign interference. Now, Trump has safely won both the electoral and popular votes. The Democrats are unlikely to dispute this.

               There could be a flare-up of political tensions if Trump starts taking revenge on all those who have wronged him (which the Democrats are terrified of). But a truce is more likely. The Democratic Party is facing a massive internal showdown, with a search for those responsible for its electoral woes. The president-elect has never been remarkably eager to follow through on his threats (Hillary Clinton wasn’t jailed).

               Second, the Trump of 2024 is different from the Trump of 2016. Eight years ago, a somewhat naive businessman who thought running a government was as easy as building skyscrapers in Manhattan entered the White House.

Since then, however, Trump has matured politically, learned to compromise, and completely taken over the Republican Party. The bitter experience of his first administration, which included random and often disagreeable people, suggests that he’ll have a clear plan of action and a suitable team this time.

The Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor positions are particularly compelling for Russia. These are the people who will determine the foreign policy of the second Trump administration – and whether he will keep his promise to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Read more
Fyodor Lukyanov: This is why Trump’s approach to Ukraine is so different

Of course, whoever Trump picks, we should not expect a ‘‘ceasefire in 24 hours’ — that is, to put it mildly, an unrealistic exaggeration. But I believe serious settlement talks could begin in 2025 under him. Well, there will be an attempt to start a peace process. The other question is, what methods will the president use to achieve this? What will his proposal be, and what will he ask of Russia in return for concessions?

But it is too early to speculate about that. Let’s examine the first steps for the new US president-elect.

This article was first published by the online newspaper Gazeta.ru and was translated and edited by the RT team.

GIDEON LEVY | TRUMP'S 'PRO-ISRAEL' APPOINTEES ARE THE WORST OF OUR ENEMIES

Tragedies are befalling Israel one after the other.

A billboard in Tel Aviv congratulating President-elect Donald Trump the day after the U.S. election reads: 'Congratulations! Trump, Make Israel Great!' Credit: Oded Balilty, AP

By Gideon Levy
Haaretz Israel | Opinion
14 November 2024

Tragedies are befalling Israel one after the other. The next impending one will occur on January 20, when Donald Trump is sworn in as president.

               If the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Adviser, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel stick to their words, the coming years spell disaster for Israel.

The next period will determine its fate as a perennial apartheid state thanks to its apparent –superficial – friends, who are no more than blood merchants, dealers who will deepen Israel's addiction to occupation, bloodshed, and power irrevocably.

‘Trump doesn’t want to inherit the Middle East mess Netanyahu made with Biden.’

They should not be labeled "friends of Israel." They are the obverse. They are the worst of their enemies. The new people in charge of the U.S.'s foreign policy are friends of apartheid, occupation, settlements, and war. Trump is the most moderate and restrained of this lot. He may restrain them somewhat. Itamar Ben-Gvir may also restrain this group of wackos in Washington if only he overcomes the language barrier.

Someone has already tweeted on X that the U.S. may yet impose sanctions on Israelis who don't move to a settlement.

Imaginary?

That's not so certain, judging by the delusional stances of these people. All of them could be panelists on [Netanyahu's mouthpiece] Channel 14's flagship program "The Patriots," even though they are even more extreme than its current participants. Their casting as the top echelon of American foreign diplomacy is horrifying. Imagine Channel 14 presenter Yinon Magal as foreign minister.

Racist and ignorant, they know nothing about the reality in the Middle East other than settler propaganda. They have been brainwashed within evangelical churches and on visits to settlements. The most criminal of Zionist enterprises, the settlements, has never had such adamant propagandists. Settler leader Yossi Dagan is already justifiably celebrating their appointment in front of every camera.

• Trump's new appointees grant far-right Israel its greatest freedom yet
• Only Netanyahu could have chosen a cushier Trump foreign policy team
• MBS was willing to go a long way toward Israel, but Netanyahu has become unhinged.'

They will push Israel into annexation, population transfer, war crimes - which are not crimes in their eyes - ethnic cleansing and genocide. They will dismantle the last global watchdogs, empty of content the international community's institutions, and arm Israel, even more than their predecessors. They will stop the International Court of Justice and, with it, the remnants of global justice. The bell may also toll for NATO and the United Nations. On January 20, Israel will receive a permit to kill, cleanse and deport. The addict will get the keys to the pharmacy's drug cabinet.

The designated Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, sees only Israeli victims in this terrible war:

               "… for almost a year now, over 60,000 Israelis have [been] living in hotels & their kids going to school online,"

They complained about this pro-Israeli propagandist, who hasn't heard about the two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the one million Lebanese who've lost everything they owned, moving around helplessly, terrified. They don't have a hotel to sleep in, and their children do not study online. Israel is massacring them.

You won't hear any of this from Rubio and his friends. Rubio espouses human rights, but only the fate of the Uighur minority touches his heart as part of his campaign against China. The Palestinians don't fall into this category for him. It's doubtful that he knows anything about them or has met one of them. Their fate doesn't interest him because they are all terrorists – that's what the settlers told him.

The new National Security adviser, Michael Waltz, speaks like right-wing journalist Shimon Riklin.

               "We have to let the IDF finish the job," he wrote recently.

The new ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, is a frequent visitor at the settlements and an inveterate supporter of annexation, viewing the 2005 disengagement from Gaza and four West Bank settlements as "one of Israel's greatest failures."

Once, this grotesque American complained that Jews have to visit Joseph's Tomb in Nablus in the dark of night after participating in a pilgrimage to this dubious tomb, donning a kippah. He also said once that he was considering buying a house in one of the settlements.

This bunch's term in office will shape the future almost irreparably. The hope that they will cast off their positions, as sometimes happens to Israeli politicians, is our last hope, and it too seems to be baseless.

TRUMP’S PICK FOR SECRETARY OF STATE DOESN’T EVEN SPEAK MAGA

Marco Rubio is a neocon warmonger through and through, having subscribed to Washington’s every foreign power play in recent years.

FILE PHOTO: Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. © Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

By Rachel Marsden, a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk shows in French and English. rachelmarsden.com

HomeWorld News
13 November 2024

Of all the people that US President-elect Donald Trump could have picked as America’s chief diplomat, he's chosen Marco Rubio, Florida senator and neocon talking-point guzzler.

I guess it makes sense on one level. They need a guy who can talk the same language as the neocon desk jockeys at the State Department. It's like an African grey parrot that can speak English with humans and bird language with other birds. The bird-brains at State speak mainly neocon, like Rubio. And he could be the MAGA-to-neocon translator for Trump, packaging the 47th president’s vision in a way that’s palatable enough for them not to spend the entire time trying to regime-change him like they did last time he was elected.

But how well does Rubio speak MAGA – the language of Trump’s non-interventionist, America First, and pro-peace base? Not very well, if his record is any indication.

Case in point: Back when the Nord Stream pipelines were mysteriously blown up, Rubio was one of the first out of the starting blocks to blame Russia for blowing up their economic lifeline to Europe. But he quickly tripped over his shoelaces.

               “The only people in that region with the motive and the capability to have done it are Russian or Russian forces. So I think, for me, it’s not an intelligence matter at this point. It’s a common sense matter,” Rubio said after the attack.

It turns out that even the dumbest establishment fixtures didn’t buy the narrative of “Russia blew up its pipeline.”

They consider it to be even less of a viable scenario than some drunken Ukrainians with Aquaman-grade diving skills blasting through concrete and steel in highly monitored waters, despite Zelensky trying to stop them at the behest of the CIA, of course. And then punishing the general, they claim to be responsible for the operation, Valery Zaluzhny, by sending him to… London, where he’s currently the Ukrainian ambassador to Britain.

I guess Western officials and intelligence sources went to the trouble of making all that up to hide Russia’s involvement. Because that’s the only way Marco Rubio’s confident assertions could be considered credible. Or maybe the actual responsibility lies with another nation-state with the same capabilities? Who could that possibly be? Rubio is so brainwashed that he can’t imagine. Either that or he does know and is being deliberately dishonest.

Back in 2021, Rubio was calling on Biden and Germany to do something to stop the pipeline.

               “US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to President Joe Biden, ahead of his meeting with Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, asking him to convey to her 'that there is broad bipartisan support for preventing the completion of yet another pipeline that bypasses Ukraine.'” Rubio also highlighted that “completing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline will only endanger our democratic allies in East and Central Europe and embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin in his aggression towards them,” he wrote.

So, Putin, “emboldened” by Nord Stream, according to Rubio, then decided to blow it up? Yeah, okay.

Even in establishment Washington, Rubio stood out as being exceptionally indoctrinated by kneejerk anti-Russian thinking. But just like these guys who go “all-in” on fad diets or fitness trends, Rubio can’t even seem to bring himself to cherry-pick neocon causes. He passionately double-fists them like Joey Chestnut scarfing hotdogs in a competitive eating contest.

Read more
It’s the deep state, stupid: Why US foreign policy won’t change much under Trump?

A tour of recent press releases on his website is like reading a Neighborhood Watch newsletter authored by a nosy grandma, peering into everyone’s windows: Iran, Yemen, China, Venezuela. One of his latest targets is the private US consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). “Instead of distancing itself from Communist China, PwC has opted to strengthen its relationship with the regime,” Rubio wrote, referring to the firm’s business with “government officials in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, where Beijing is committing genocide against Uyghurs and other groups.” Maybe PwC has a different view of things, given that they’ve been there, unlike Rubio.

Rubio also condemned China’s foreign adoption ban. “There are approximately 300 American families, including Floridians, who have been matched with Chinese children,” the statement read. “Flashback… In December 2012, Rubio released a statement urging the Obama Administration to condemn Russia’s foreign adoption ban forcefully.” What is this world coming to when countries won’t send their kids to a foreign nation? Hey, isn’t that a war crime these days? Or only if they’re Ukrainian and sent to Russia?

“Rubio demands Biden-Harris admin stop importation of slave-made pharmaceuticals,” Rubio said in an October 2024 statement. If it’s Chinese, then of course it’s “slave-made,” but if it’s about electric lithium car batteries mined by kids in Africa for “American-made electric vehicles,” then he’s apparently all for it.

“Designate Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization,” Rubio pleaded to current Biden Administration Secretary of State Antony Blinken in another release dated November 1. Yeah, I’m sure that’ll change things – unlike the other two million times that the Iran-linked Houthis have been added to and subtracted from the terrorist list. I’m sure that dudes currently waging war against US Middle Eastern adventurism in their own country and the region, all while dressed like California surfers who just woke up from a nap on the beach, are super concerned about Washington’s bureaucratic wrangling. Next.

Just kidding. There is no “next” when it comes to Rubio and Iran. “While Iran continues to fuel terror from the sales of illicit oil, which mostly benefit Beijing, the Biden-Harris Administration has failed to fully implement the Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum (SHIP) Act,” Rubio wrote. Doesn’t he have a neighborhood garage sale transaction that he could insert himself into instead – on the other side? Same thing.

“Edmundo Gonzalez is the rightful president-elect of Venezuela,” wrote Rubio on August 3, 2024. “This is the moment for those military officers in Venezuela to fulfill their constitutional oath & defend the legitimate interim President [Juan Guaidó] in this effort to restore democracy,” Rubio wrote five years earlier in 2019. Who’s next, Marco? Antonio Banderas?

The only way Rubio could ever possibly serve Trump’s non-interventionist vision of peace over the continued rampant global conflict that characterizes American foreign policy is if the neocon rhetoric is switched out. He’d have more success if Elon Musk shot him into space and forced him to adapt to a different planet.

WILL TRUMP END THE PROXY WAR IN UKRAINE?

Glenn Diesen interviewed by Weltwoche
_______

Watch the Video here (1 hour, 39 minutes, 14 seconds)

The 2-minute, 38-second introduction is in German. The rest of the interview is in English.

By Glenn Diesen
Substack.com
14 November 2024

Roger Köppel interviewed me from Die Weltwoche about the possibility of Trump ending the proxy war in Ukraine. Among other topics, we discussed the energy of Putin and his engagement with the media, to what extent Russia made a mistake when it invaded in February 2022, Europe’s propensity to ideology and moral crusades, Trump’s recovery from the last election, and winning seemingly against all odds.

SEYMOUR HERSH | THE ACCUSATIONS THAT COULD BRING BIBI DOWN

It’s a story out of the tabloids of the 1920s. Israeli Judge Mizrahi has now jailed five senior military and government officials in a rapidly expanding criminal investigation that could end Benjamin Netanyahu’s third term as prime minister. He has ordered the case sealed.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu points at a screen during a press conference at the Government Press Office in Jerusalem on September 4. / Photo by Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images.

By Seymour Hersh
Substack.com
12 November 2024

Menachem Mizrahi is a highly respected judge in Israel. He is a conservative jurist whose magistrate court is the most basic in the country’s court hierarchy. It has jurisdiction over criminal matters and family disputes.

               Mizrahi has now jailed five senior military and government officials in a rapidly expanding criminal investigation that could end Benjamin Netanyahu’s third term as prime minister. He has ordered the case sealed.

Few outside the media are questioning Mizrahi’s caution, given the issues surrounding the case. They essentially involve actions taken by Netanyahu, desperate to stay in office. He was allegedly the catalyst of blackmail, theft of highly secret documents, and falsification of transcripts of secret cabinet meetings, all stemming from his casual public release of one of the Israeli military’s most sensitive documents on Hamas’s operational control of the October 7 hostages, who, if still alive, have been captive for thirteen months.

The issues have energized and enraged the sometimes—but not always—accommodating Israeli press, who realize that underneath the media hoopla is the fact that the cases, once unraveled, could tell the distraught and embittered families of the hostages that they were right all along:

               Netanyahu did not make a hostage release deal with Hamas when one was possible because to do so would have jeopardized his standing with Israel’s religious far right.

Their openly stated goal is to gain control of Gaza and the West Bank, as mandated by a passionate reading of the Bible. And to hell with the fate of the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank continuously under murderous Israeli military attack.

The judge’s actions have made headlines around the world. The emphasis was initially on a Netanyahu aide who leaked a distorted version—friendly to the prime minister—of what the Israeli intelligence community had learned about the plight of remaining hostages to the Jewish Chronicle, a newspaper in the UK.

A distorted version was provided to the Bild, a right-wing tabloid in Germany known for supporting Netanyahu’s government. The British article’s thrust was to support Netanyahu’s contention that the off-and-on talks with Hamas would never result in a ceasefire because Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas leader who was killed last month, was prepared to flee Gaza for Iran via Egypt and would take the hostages with him.

I was cautioned by a well-informed American who told me that the Biden administration, although continuing to supply intelligence and weapons to Israel, “cannot provide political guidance to the Israeli leadership without gaining access to all of the records in the case.” He acknowledged that the implications of Biden’s past and present support for Netanyahu’s wars “are indeed serious. So serious that we must have all the facts” before accusing an allied leader of not making a hostage deal when one was on the table.

The families of the remaining hostages have gone much further in their constant marches and protests against Netanyahu, whom they claim is guilty of what they repeatedly call “the murder” of the remaining hostages for his reluctance to agree to a ceasefire, which Hamas has demanded in exchange for any further hostage release.

A revelatory moment came on September 4, when Netanyahu convened a televised press conference for foreign reporters to explain why a pending hostage deal and ceasefire with Hamas would not occur. The prime minister explained that there were dangers posed to the IDF if Hamas were to get access to a narrow strip of land bordering Egypt known as the known as the Philadelphi Corridor. A decade ago, Egypt controlled a series of tunnels bordering Gaza for nearly nine miles that were named after the Philadelphi Accord of 2005.

               “Once we got out [of Gaza], once we left the Philadelphi Corridor,” Netanyahu told the foreign press, “Iran could carry out a plan to turn Gaza into a base, a terrorist enclave that would endanger Tel Aviv, Jerusalem . . . the entire country of Israel.”

The tunnels had been a source of widespread smuggling after Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005. They were sealed a decade ago, and Egypt has remained responsible for controlling its side of the border. But Netanyahu was not done with his fantasy talk. A moment later, he walked over to an easel that contained an enlarged photograph of a page in Arabic. He did not say that the page came from one of the most highly secret documents in the Israeli intelligence archive.

               “You should see this,” he said, pointing to the page.

               “This is their tactic. This is Hamas orders for psychological warfare, found in [a] Hamas underground command on January 29. . . .

               And this is the original document in Arabic.”

Repeating the claim from the Jewish Chronicle, Netanyahu said that the document showed that Sinwar planned to move some or all of the remaining hostages to Egypt for relay to Iran via the Philadelphi Corridor if the IDF was close to capturing him.

The prime minister’s display of one of Israeli intelligence’s most highly classified documents, which was among Israel's most closely held secrets at the time, triggered the judiciary inquiry. The document could only be read in a designated secure location under close monitoring in the archives of the Israeli military intelligence headquarters, known in Israel by its Hebrew initials as Aman.

I have been told by a well-informed Israeli that the actual pages in the document flatly contradict what Netanyahu claimed to be Sinwar’s last-minute gambit to keep the hostages out of the hands of the IDF by fleeing with them to Egypt. The following two pages of the twelve-page document made clear that Sinwar had categorically rejected that idea. Subsequent analysis of the document by experts at the intelligence headquarters determined that Sinwar may not have written the document but by a top Hamas commander.

Netanyahu’s casual public disclosure and display of secret papers from the military’s intelligence archives triggered the inevitable investigation.

One obvious question was, if Netanyahu could access the Sinwar papers, what else had been removed or shared without any official record? The penalty for gaining access to such material without formal approval is at least fifteen years in prison.

The court ordered the prime minister’s office to return its top secret documents. It was reminded that any attempt to alter or change the wording of such documents is also punishable. The display of the classified materials in the Jewish Chronicle in the UK led to Judge Mizrahi’s decision initially to order the case sealed.

At this point, I was told by an informed Israeli that things began to get recklessly out of control and much more sordid. Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Tzachi Braverman, wanted to have other highly classified documents in his office, presumably dealing in some cases with Netanyahu’s ties to the far right, altered to insulate Netanyahu from potential accusations.

Braverman learned that one of the senior male officers on duty at Aman was having an affair with a 21-year-old female subordinate. The officer later told investigators that he was approached by someone from the prime minister’s office who warned him that the office had compromising material on him. To prevent the information from leaking, he would have to turn various secret documents and transcripts to Netanyahu’s office—obviously for possible tampering or deletion.

The officer did not take the bait. Instead, he met with General Herzi Halevi, the army’s chief of staff, and told him about the blackmail attempt. The senior officer did not submit documents to the prime minister’s office.

A lingering question is: how did Netanyahu get access to the closely held Sinwar hostage document he made public at his press conference on September 4?

The Israeli media had reported before its suppression by court order that it was obtained by a Netanyahu press aide, Eli Feldstein, whose name has been made public by the media. He is a follower of the religious right in Israel and was formerly a press aide to the extremist Itamar Ben-Gvir, now minister of national security. It was Feldstein who allegedly provided the misleading, highly classified information about the Hamas hostage document trove to the Jewish Chronicle in the UK two days before Bibi’s press conference for foreign journalists.

It is believed by many in the Israeli media that Feldstein was in contact with fellow religious extremists inside the Aman top-secret archives—some 40 percent of the IDF identify with the religious right—and enlisted them to ensure that the most sensitive documents on file in Aman presented Netanyahu in the best possible light.

The court is now studying the recklessness and illegality of the religious-driven chain of document corruption.

With his assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and his destruction of Iran’s advanced anti-missile system in Isfahan, Netanyahu is once again riding high in the polls in deeply traumatized Israel.

There is little reason, however, to believe that the Israeli prime minister and the chain of religious fanatics who support him will be able to influence the judgments of Judge Mizrahi, who is said to be ready to release more information, possibly later this week, to the public.

It must be noted here that some members of the Israeli press corps, operating in wartime, have been at the forefront of reporting on ethical issues inside the prime minister’s office. The daily media, led by the Yedioth Ahronot, revealed months before the current scandal that officials in Netanyahu’s office had been altering official documents dealing in part with the pre-Gaza war days to put Netanyahu in a better light. One goal of the falsifications was to minimize the prime minister’s responsibility for the military’s lack of intelligence and preparation on October 7.

What is already known makes it clear that Netanyahu has turned his office, as an Israeli friend said to me, “into an office of organized crime. He has taken the country hostage and is willing to sacrifice his people to keep out of jail.”

OPINION | THE AMSTERDAM ATTACK SHOWS ISRAELIS' DENIAL OF THE REALITY THEY CREATED

An ugly, criminal pogrom against Israeli soccer fans took place in Amsterdam on Thursday. Similar pogroms, carried out by settlers, occur almost daily in the West Bank.

Supporters with Palestinian flags demonstrated in Amsterdam on Thursday, the sidelines of a Europa League football match between Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Credit: Jeroen Jumelet/ AFP

By Gideon Levy
Haaretz
10 November 2024

“That's how it is when you live in the warm, cozy bubble, completely disconnected from reality, in complete denial, that the Israeli media builds for us:
We are always the victims and the only victims;
there was a massacre only on October 7;
all of Gaza is to blame;
all of the Arabs are bloodthirsty;
all of Europe is antisemitic.
Do you have any doubts?
See Kristallnacht in Amsterdam.”

An ugly, criminal pogrom against Israeli soccer fans took place in Amsterdam on Thursday. Similar pogroms, carried out by settlers, occur almost daily in the West Bank. The pogroms in Hawara, for example, surpassed in their scope and violence, even Holocaust II in Amsterdam. The day after the pogrom in the Netherlands, violent settlers rampaged in Surif; two days before it, they rampaged in Al-Maniya.

While Israelis were being beaten in Amsterdam, in the Gaza Strip, dozens of people were killed indiscriminately, including many children, as they are every day. The daily pogroms in the West Bank and, of course, the war in Gaza were not compared to the Holocaust; the chair of Yad Vashem was not interviewed about them; no rescue force was dispatched to save their victims; Israel's foreign minister and Knesset speaker did not view them as a chance for a photo op. These pogroms happen every day, and no one bothers to report most of them to you.

• Resistance is a just struggle.
• After the settler attack on a Palestinian village, locals fear there's no one to save them.
• Israeli settler violence in the West Bank isn't the exception. It's the rule.

Israel set another record Thursday for the self-victimization it so very much enjoys, and the media set another record for the incitement, exaggeration, fearmongering, and, above all, the concealment of information that doesn't fit the narrative that its consumers enjoy.

Amsterdam provided an unmissable opportunity: Once again, Jews were beaten in Europe.

A Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer fan related that just the day before, he had visited the Anne Frank House –a spine-chilling coincidence – and the radio host almost burst into tears. The right-wing, ultranationalist, German Israeli propaganda correspondent in Germany, Antonia Yamin, explained that "Europe does not understand the problem." In the last year, 300 members of a family from Khan Yunis came to Berlin, some already known to the police. Gaza is to blame in Amsterdam, too. Yamin forgot to mention the hell this family had come from and who created it.

That's how it is when you live in the warm, cozy bubble, completely disconnected from reality, in complete denial, that the Israeli media builds for us: We are always the victims and the only victims; there was a massacre only on October 7; all of Gaza is to blame; all of the Arabs are bloodthirsty; all of Europe is antisemitic. Do you have any doubts? See Kristallnacht in Amsterdam.

And now for the facts

In Amsterdam, some of the Israeli fans rampaged in the streets even before the pogrom: disgusting, shouted chants of:

               "We'll screw the Arabs" (in Hebrew), and the removal of a Palestinian flag legitimately hanging from the balcony of a building were rarely shown in the Israeli media, which could spoil the image of antisemitism.

No one asked the first question that the sight of the violence and hatred in Amsterdam should have raised: Why do they hate us so much? No, it's not because we are Jews.

Not that there isn't antisemitism: Of course there is, and it must be fought, but the attempt to pin everything on it is ridiculous and mendacious. An anti-Israeli wind blew in Amsterdam Thursday, and that's what ignited the pogrom. The North African immigrants, the Arabs, and the Dutch people who rioted saw the horrors in Gaza over the past year. They are not willing to remain silent about them.

For them, the victims are their brothers and their compatriots. And who can remain indifferent when your people are slaughtered so cruelly? Every Moroccan waiter in every remote Dutch town has seen much more of Gaza than the experts on Arab affairs in Israel. No decent person could remain indifferent to the images from Gaza. The rioters in Amsterdam committed egregious violence and deserve condemnation and punishment. Nothing can justify a pogrom, neither in Amsterdam nor in Hawara.

               But the Amsterdam riots also have a context, and Israel is unwilling to address it. It would instead send a bodyguard with every Israeli soccer fan who travels to Europe from now on, then ask why it is that they hate us so much and how this hatred can be quelled. After all, it did not erupt like this before the war in Gaza.

This is another cost of the war in Gaza that should have been considered: The world will hate us for it. Every Israeli abroad will be a target of hatred and violence from now on. That's what happens when you kill almost 20,000 children, carry out ethnic cleansing, and destroy the Gaza Strip.

It's a little quirk of the world; it doesn't like those who commit these crimes.

BUILDING THE BRIDGE! | A WAY TO GET TO KNOW THE OTHER AND ONE ANOTHER

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

Those who commit to 'healing our broken humanity' build intercultural bridges to learn to know and understand one another and others. Readers who thumb through the Building the Bridge (BTB) pages are not mindless sheep following other mindless sheep. They THINK. They want to be at the forefront of making a difference. They're in search of the bigger picture to expand their horizons. They don't need BTB or anyone else to confirm their biases.

Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Accurate knowledge promotes understanding, dispels prejudice, and awakens the desire to learn more. Words have an extraordinary power to bring people together, divide them, forge bonds of friendship, or provoke hostility. Modern technology offers unprecedented possibilities for good, fostering harmony and reconciliation. Yet its misuse can do untold harm, leading to misunderstanding, prejudice, and conflict.

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