Yawn....... Israel attacked by Hamas

Israel Seizes Associated Press Equipment And Dismantles Gaza Live Shot As It Ramps Up Media War
James Farrell Forbes Staff
May 21, 2024
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alison...-trial-as-defense-rests-case/?sh=43690095a519

Israeli officials reportedly seized equipment from the Associated Press and shut down a live shot of Gaza, alleging the news wire service provided images to Al Jazeera in violation of a media law banning Al Jazeera from operating in Israel—escalating tensions between Israel and media outlets covering the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

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Smoke billows after an explosion in the Gaza [+]
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Key Facts
The Associated Press reported the seizure Tuesday, claiming officials from the country’s communications ministry arrived at the AP’s location in the Israeli town of Sderot with a paper claiming the AP had violated its media law.

At the time of the shutdown, the AP was broadcasting a live “general” view of northern Gaza, and claimed it was complying with the Israeli military’s rules prohibiting broadcasts of troop movements, the AP reported.

The outlet, a wire service that distributes articles, images and videos to thousands of news outlets around the world, says Al Jazeera is one of its clients and on Tuesday, Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the AP, accused Israel of acting “not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law.”

The AP reported it had received a verbal order last week to cease the live feed but refused to do so.

Easton urged Israeli authorities to return the equipment and re-establish the live feed “so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”

Forbes has contacted the Israeli communications ministry for comment—but in a statement to the AP, the ministry said it would “continue to take whatever enforcement action is required to limit broadcasts that harm the security of the state,” in accordance with the government instruction.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday stopped short of condemning Israel for its seizure of AP equipment, but said the White House found the reports “concerning” and will “look into it.” She also emphasized the White House’s belief that journalism is “essential” and that it’s necessary that “journalists have the ability and the right to do the job.”

Key Background
In April, Israel passed a new media law that allows Israeli officials to shut down any media outlet and confiscate their equipment if they are deemed to be harming Israeli national security—with Israeli officials signaling their intent to ban Al Jazeera. After the law’s passage, Israel ordered Al Jazeera to shut down, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the Qatari-based broadcaster and digital outlet of being a “Hamas mouthpiece” that “harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers.” Al Jazeera has provided reporting critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and has frequently published comments and statements directly from Hamas officials. But the feud between the outlet and Israel goes back years, with Israeli officials frequently accusing Al Jazeera of biased reporting and Al Jazeera accusing the country of unfair treatment—coming to a head in 2022, when an Al Jazeera correspondent was killed during an Israeli raid.

Contra
Al Jazeera had previously called the Israeli government’s crackdown on its reporting a “criminal act,” accusing the country of suppressing a free press in “an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip.” The outlet says “Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats” will not deter its reporting.

Chief Critic
Israel’s decision to confiscate the AP’s equipment is “an act of madness,” said Israeli opposition leader and Netanyahu rival Yair Lapid, according to a translation of a post on X. “This is not Al Jazeera, this is an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes.”
 
themickey said:
Israel Seizes Associated Press Equipment And Dismantles Gaza Live Shot As It Ramps Up Media War
James Farrell Forbes Staff
May 21, 2024
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alison...-trial-as-defense-rests-case/?sh=43690095a519

Israeli officials reportedly seized equipment from the Associated Press and shut down a live shot of Gaza, alleging the news wire service provided images to Al Jazeera in violation of a media law banning Al Jazeera from operating in Israel—escalating tensions between Israel and media outlets covering the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

0x0.jpg

Smoke billows after an explosion in the Gaza [+]
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Key Facts
The Associated Press reported the seizure Tuesday, claiming officials from the country’s communications ministry arrived at the AP’s location in the Israeli town of Sderot with a paper claiming the AP had violated its media law.

At the time of the shutdown, the AP was broadcasting a live “general” view of northern Gaza, and claimed it was complying with the Israeli military’s rules prohibiting broadcasts of troop movements, the AP reported.

The outlet, a wire service that distributes articles, images and videos to thousands of news outlets around the world, says Al Jazeera is one of its clients and on Tuesday, Lauren Easton, vice president of corporate communications at the AP, accused Israel of acting “not based on the content of the feed but rather an abusive use by the Israeli government of the country’s new foreign broadcaster law.”

The AP reported it had received a verbal order last week to cease the live feed but refused to do so.

Easton urged Israeli authorities to return the equipment and re-establish the live feed “so we can continue to provide this important visual journalism to thousands of media outlets around the world.”

Forbes has contacted the Israeli communications ministry for comment—but in a statement to the AP, the ministry said it would “continue to take whatever enforcement action is required to limit broadcasts that harm the security of the state,” in accordance with the government instruction.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday stopped short of condemning Israel for its seizure of AP equipment, but said the White House found the reports “concerning” and will “look into it.” She also emphasized the White House’s belief that journalism is “essential” and that it’s necessary that “journalists have the ability and the right to do the job.”

Key Background
In April, Israel passed a new media law that allows Israeli officials to shut down any media outlet and confiscate their equipment if they are deemed to be harming Israeli national security—with Israeli officials signaling their intent to ban Al Jazeera. After the law’s passage, Israel ordered Al Jazeera to shut down, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accusing the Qatari-based broadcaster and digital outlet of being a “Hamas mouthpiece” that “harmed Israel’s security and incited against soldiers.” Al Jazeera has provided reporting critical of Israel’s military actions in Gaza and has frequently published comments and statements directly from Hamas officials. But the feud between the outlet and Israel goes back years, with Israeli officials frequently accusing Al Jazeera of biased reporting and Al Jazeera accusing the country of unfair treatment—coming to a head in 2022, when an Al Jazeera correspondent was killed during an Israeli raid.

Contra
Al Jazeera had previously called the Israeli government’s crackdown on its reporting a “criminal act,” accusing the country of suppressing a free press in “an effort to conceal its actions in the Gaza Strip.” The outlet says “Israel’s direct targeting and killing of journalists, arrests, intimidation and threats” will not deter its reporting.

Chief Critic
Israel’s decision to confiscate the AP’s equipment is “an act of madness,” said Israeli opposition leader and Netanyahu rival Yair Lapid, according to a translation of a post on X. “This is not Al Jazeera, this is an American media outlet that has won 53 Pulitzer Prizes.”
More...

In my opinion it was unwise on the part of Israel to ban Al Jazeera and to seize this AP equipment just because Al Jazeera is one of the thousands of news outlets worldwide which uses AP news stories and footage.
 
Israel’s war on Gaza live: ‘Catastrophe, nightmare – all these and worse’
AA-20240519-34613517-34613508-PALESTINIANS_IN_RAFAH_QUEUE_FOR_FOOD-1716119812.jpg


By Stephen Quillen and Umut Uras 21 May 2024

The critical distribution of food in Rafah is suspended because of Israeli attacks and a lack of supplies getting through, with one United Nations official describing the situation as a “catastrophe, nightmare, hell on Earth – all of these and worse”.
  • At least 85 people were killed and 200 wounded over the last 24 hours, Gaza health ministry says.

Rights group denounces US government ‘complicity’ in Israel’s ‘crimes’

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned the ongoing deadly attacks by Israeli forces against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.

“As the [US] Biden administration continues to fund and deny Israel’s ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced starvation, the far-right Israeli government is escalating its war crimes and human rights abuses against Palestinian civilians in not only Gaza but also the West Bank. Our nation’s complicity in these crimes and abuses must stop,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the US-based CAIR, in a statement.

Video obtained by Al Jazeera shows Israeli soldiers removing corpses from a morgue at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital in November. More than 100 bodies were reportedly loaded onto a truck and taken to Israel.

AFP__20240408__34NW7LR__v1__HighRes__PalestinianIsraelConflict-1712622705.jpg

Forensic and civil defence workers recover human remains at al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest [AFP]
 
I thought UNRWA stated they were going to distribute all of this aid. They have done nothing -- well except steal some of it. Whatever aid left the pier area was either taken by Hamas or by desperate mobs near the pier. Most of the aid delivered already is simply being stored near the pier.

This is a complete cluster -- in context that this pier was eventually expected to support the needs to 25% of the Gaza population.

Pentagon says none of the aid unloaded from US pier off coast of Gaza has been delivered to broader Palestinian population
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/21/politics/us-gaza-pier-aid-not-delivered/index.html
 
Ricter said:
The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel

After 50 years of failure to stop violence and terrorism against Palestinians by Jewish ultranationalists, lawlessness has become the law.

May 19, 2024 Ronen Bergman, Mark Mazzetti

settlers-ic-5-19-2024-2.jpg

A member of a group known as Hilltop Youth, which seeks to tear down Israel’s institutions and establish ‘‘Jewish rule.’’,Peter van Agtmael/Magnum, for The New York Times.


This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power.

PART I.
IMPUNITY
By the end of October, it was clear that no one was going to help the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta. A tiny Palestinian community, some 150 people perched on a windswept hill in the West Bank near Hebron, it had long faced threats from the Jewish settlers who had steadily encircled it. But occasional harassment and vandalism, in the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, escalated into beatings and murder threats. The villagers made appeal after appeal to the Israeli police and to the ever-present Israeli military, but their calls for protection went largely unheeded, and the attacks continued with no consequences. So one day the villagers packed what they could, loaded their families into trucks and disappeared.

Who bulldozed the village after that is a matter of dispute. The Israeli Army says it was the settlers; a senior Israeli police officer says it was the army. Either way, soon after the villagers left, little remained of Khirbet Zanuta besides the ruins of a clinic and an elementary school. One wall of the clinic, leaning sideways, bore a sign saying that it had been funded by an agency of the European Union providing “humanitarian support for Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank.” Near the school, someone had planted the flag of Israel as another kind of announcement: This is Jewish land now.

Such violence over the decades in places like Khirbet Zanuta is well documented. But protecting the people who carry out that violence is the dark secret of Israeli justice. The long arc of harassment, assault and murder of Palestinians by Jewish settlers is twinned with a shadow history, one of silence, avoidance and abetment by Israeli officials. For many of those officials, it is Palestinian terrorism that most threatens Israel. But in interviews with more than 100 people — current and former officers of the Israeli military, the National Israeli Police and the Shin Bet domestic security service; high-ranking Israeli political officials, including four former prime ministers; Palestinian leaders and activists; Israeli human rights lawyers; American officials charged with supporting the Israeli-Palestinian partnership — we found a different and perhaps even more destabilizing threat. A long history of crime without punishment, many of those officials now say, threatens not only Palestinians living in the occupied territories but also the State of Israel itself.

settlers-10-ic-5-19-2024.jpg


After Oct. 7, some settler reservists began manning unauthorized roadblocks in full I.D.F. uniform, an open but usually unpunished violation of orders.Credit...Peter van Agtmael/Magnum, for The New York Times

Many of the people we interviewed, some speaking anonymously, some speaking publicly for the first time, offered an account not only of Jewish violence against Palestinians dating back decades but also of an Israeli state that has systematically and increasingly ignored that violence. It is an account of a sometimes criminal nationalistic movement that has been allowed to operate with impunity and gradually move from the fringes to the mainstream of Israeli society. It is an account of how voices within the government that objected to the condoning of settler violence were silenced and discredited. And it is a blunt account, told for the first time by Israeli officials themselves, of how the occupation came to threaten the integrity of their country’s democracy.

How we reported this article:

The reporters spent years interviewing more than 100 former and current Israeli government officials — including...

Article in full...
More...

Portside.org? So you are Hot for Hillary, Canadian, and get your 'news' from a place called Portside.org. Its no wonder nobody takes you seriously.
 
Yeah ok, so now the real truth comes out.
(American politician puts foot in mouth and tells the truth unintentionally).
(This is the same American clown who suggested recently Israel should nuke Gaza.)

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What I hope to happen is that we level sanctions against the ICC for this outrage,' says Lindsey Graham
22.05.2024
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/i...ncern-over-icc-arrest-warrant-request/3226488

'If they do this to Israel, we're next': US Senator raises concern over ICC arrest warrant request
WASHINGTON

US Senator Lindsey Graham raised concern Tuesday over the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor's application for arrest warrants for senior Israeli officials, saying "if they do this to Israel, we're next.”

"Hopefully, together, we will find a way to rest our displeasure with the ICC because if they do this to Israel, we're next," Graham said while US Secretary of State Antony Blinken testified before a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing.

"At the end of the day here, what I hope to happen is that we level sanctions against the ICC for this outrage to not only help our friends in Israel but protect ourselves over time," Graham added.

"I welcome working with you on that," Blinken responded when asked by Graham whether he would support sanctioning the ICC.

Blinken also told lawmakers Tuesday that the State Department will work with Congress to develop an "appropriate response" after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan filed applications for arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

"Sen. Risch, in short, let's look at it. We want to work with you on a bipartisan basis to find an appropriate response. I'm committed to doing that," Blinken said under questioning from Sen. Jim Risch, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's top Republican.

"As you say, the devil's in the details, so let's see what you got. And we can take it from there," he added.

Blinken's comments mark the strongest signal of a shift within the Biden administration after the White House on April 30 pushed back against threats from US lawmakers to retaliate against the Court's officials, their families and associates if the ICC issues arrest warrants for Israeli officials.

The Biden administration has maintained that the Court lacks jurisdiction over Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. While Israel is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, the ICC's founding document, Palestine acceded in 2015.

While the Biden administration has rejected the Court's jurisdiction over Israel because it is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, it lauded the ICC's decision to issue arrest warrants for senior Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Like Israel, Russia is also a non-signatory to the Rome Statute.
 
Opinion
Netanyahu’s response to the ICC invokes another genocidal biblical reference
Netanyahu’s rant against the ICC quoted a biblical verse that warns against the dangers of not completely wiping out your enemy’s society. It doesn’t take much to figure out what this means for Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
By Jonathan Ofir May 21, 2024
Netanyahu-delivering-the-Hebrew-statement-addressing-the-ICC-application-1024x572.png

Screenshot of Netanyahu delivering the Hebrew statement addressing the ICC, May 20, 2024. (Photo: Screenshot from IsraelPM Youtube Channel/Government Press Office)

The news about the ICC case against Israel’s top leaders is everywhere. The court’s Chief Prosecutor, Karim Khan, wants to issue arrest warrants for PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (in addition to three top Hamas leaders) on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity, but the biggest bombshell in the whole affair was that Israeli leaders’ impunity seems to be eroding.

Netanyahu, of course, was livid. It was the moral comparison with Hamas that seemed to have enraged him most, and he was, in fact, not alone — Israeli liberal leaders who have fiercely criticized Netanyahu for his conduct during the Gaza war now rallied to his defense, including opposition leader Yair Lapid, war cabinet minister Benny Gantz, and former PM Ehud Olmert.

But for Netanyahu, the ICC news was an occasion to once again make allusions to the biblical war of extermination against “Amalek.” This was the same biblical reference Netanyahu invoked in a statement on October 28 at the outset of the Israeli ground invasion in Gaza. “Remember what Amalek did to you,” he said, quoting the biblical verse where God commanded the Israelites to wipe out the enemy nation of the Amalekites down to their babies and animals. South Africa submitted Netanyahu’s statemet at the ICJ as evidence of Israel’s genocidal intent in Gaza.

This time, Netanyahu is using the same reference to rally the nation against its enemies — which apparently now includes the ICC — using coded language in the Hebrew version of his rant against the Court. Apparently, Netanyahu believes that if he makes his Amalek references more vaguely, that they will fly under the radar.
The version of the address that he delivered in English (text here) was also unhinged, calling the ICC application a “blood libel” and likening the ICC’s Chief Prosecutor to a Nazi judge. But that’s where the English version ended, with an invocation of the Holocaust in asserting that “never again is now.”

The Hebrew version was different. It ended with a Hebrew phrase — “Netzah Israel lo yeshaker” — which means “the Eternal One of Israel shall not lie.” This was the phrase he directed at “the lies at The Hague,” as he said in the statement. The significance of this phrase will not be apparent to the general public, as it draws upon loaded codes in both biblical and Zionist history and mythology.

The phrase itself comes from Samuel I, 15:29. Context here is everything.

King Saul was admonished by the prophet Samuel for not completely eradicating the Amalekites — Saul had spared their king Agag and “the best of the sheep and cattle,” which the Israelites “were unwilling to destroy completely.” According to the Bible, this level of annihilation was not enough and displayed King Saul’s supposed weakness. That is why the Prophet Samuel admonished the biblical king:

“The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And he sent you on a mission, saying, ‘Go and completely destroy those wicked people, the Amalekites; wage war against them until you have wiped them out.’ Why did you not obey the Lord? Why did you pounce on the plunder and do evil in the eyes of the Lord?”

Saul seeks to defend his actions, but Samuel delivers an uncompromising message:

“You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”

Saul seeks forgiveness, but Samuel delivers the unrepentant message:

“The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors — to one better than you. He who is the Eternal One of Israel shall not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

(Author’s emphasis)
This was the sentence Netanyahu used at the end of his Hebrew address reacting to the ICC application. In other words, he is sending a message that he will not make the same mistake as King Saul by not completely eradicating Amalek. He will go all the way in Gaza. He will continue into Rafah. He will “wipe off the seed of Amalek,” as Israeli soldiers were recorded chanting back in December.

But the importance of this verse is not just in its biblical significance — it has acquired contemporary relevance in Zionist history, signifying defiance against the powers that be. Israelis will know this from their Zionist history lessons.

‘Netzhah Israel lo yeshaker’ forms the acronym, “NILI.” NILI was a Zionist underground spy ring that operated during WWI between 1915 and 1917. It was an intelligence-gathering group that worked for the British against the Ottomans, who still ruled Palestine at the time. The Zionist movement’s alliance with the British at that critical historical juncture delivered the infamous Balfour Declaration of 1917, which promised the Zionists a “national home” in Palestine.

Netanyahu’s invocation of “the Eternal One of Israel shall not lie” isn’t just a biblical reference to the dangers of not going all the way in annihilating Amalek (who, in this instance, are the Palestinians that remain in Rafah and the rest of Gaza) — it is also a historical reference to the Zionist movement’s defiance of power when it is unfavorable to the Zionist cause, with the suggestion that it can be replaced in one way or another (much like the Ottomans were replaced by the British, with NILI’s assistance).

Netanyahu is a master at political survival, and he is also a master of rhetorical manipulation. He knows how to speak to his public, how to hide his codes, and how to press emotional buttons — for his religious-nationalist supporters in particular, but also for many other Zionists. Most of all, he has a shrewd sense of timing and is adept at exploiting international opprobrium to garner local support.

He now seems to be doing just that, enjoying the support of his usual critics and political rivals. Nothing unifies a nation quite like war, and today, that war is apparently against the ICC.
 
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