Over 1,000 Children in Gaza Have Had One or Both Legs Amputated Since Oct 7

International aid workers describe a growing humanitarian nightmare in the Strip

by Kyle Anzalone Posted onDecember 29, 2023

https://news.antiwar.com/2023/12/29/over-1000-children-in-gaza-have-had-one-or-both-legs-amputated-since-oct-7/

International aid workers visiting the Gaza Strip are relaying the horrific situation Israel is inflicting on the Palestinians. UNICEF reports over 1,000 children have lost legs. Israel is forcing the 2.3 million residents of Gaza into increasingly small areas that lack the ability to accommodate basic needs for survival.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said, “Around 1,000 children in Gaza have lost one or both their legs.” He told journalists in Geneva that “every single child is enduring these ten weeks of hell and not one of them can escape.”

Due to the conditions in Gaza, as well as the lack of aid, doctors are often forced to conduct surgeries in unsanitary facilities and without painkillers. “Not only were they amputated without anesthesia, but many of them were amputated in a very quick fashion,” he said.

Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, a London-based surgeon who traveled to Gaza to treat patients, told Middle East Eye that having to perform these operations without anesthetic was “one of the most difficult things I’ve had to do in my career.” At a November press conference, he said, “One night, at Al-Ahli Hospital, I performed amputations on six children.”

The UNICEF official said that even if children recover from the amputation, they do not escape the hell of the threat of death. “As a parent of a critically sick child told me, ‘Our situation is pure misery…I don’t know if we will make it through this.’”

Spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris added that WHO staff in Gaza spoke of not being able to walk in the emergency wards “for fear of stepping on people” lying on the floor “in severe pain” and asking for food and water. She called the situation “unconscionable” and said that it is “beyond belief that the world is allowing this to continue.”

The Israeli military has destroyed most hospitals in Gaza. The medical facilities continuing to operate face frequent attacks and a lack of supplies. A Washington Post investigation recently found that the Israeli Air Force is using 2,000-pound bombs near hospitals.

Elder went on to say that the Israeli military operations make civilians face the constant threat of death. He explained, “Where do children and their families go? They are not safe in hospitals. They are not safe in shelters. And they are certainly not safe in the so-called ‘safe’ zones.” The safe zones are “tiny patches of barren land, or street corners, or half-built buildings, with no water, no facilities, no shelter from the cold and the rain and no sanitation.”

In recent weeks, experts have warned that forcing Palestinians into safe zones with no aid or infrastructure will lead to famine and epidemics. Aid groups have already estimated there are 100,000 cases of diarrhea and 150,000 respiratory infections. In addition, 570,000 Palestinians in Gaza are in a state of starvation. Elder warned the combination of malnutrition and disease will be lethal for the population.

“An immediate and long-lasting humanitarian ceasefire is the only way to end the killing and injuring of children, and child deaths from disease, and enable the urgent delivery of desperately needed life-saving aid,” the UNICEF spokesperson explained.

Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.

 

South Africa files case at ICJ accusing Israel of ‘genocidal acts’ in Gaza

Israel, which has been accused of meting out collective punishment on Palestinians, has rejected the case at the UN court.

29 Dec 2023

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/29/south-africa-files-case-at-icj-accusing-israel-of-genocidal-acts-in-gaza

South Africa has filed a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of crimes of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza after nearly three months of relentless Israeli bombardment has killed more than 21,500 people and caused widespread destruction in the besieged enclave.

In an application to the court on Friday, South Africa described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group”.

“The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” the application said.

The ICJ, also called the World Court, is a UN civil court that adjudicates disputes between countries. It is distinct from the International Criminal Court (ICC), which prosecutes individuals for war crimes.

As members of the UN, both South Africa and Israel are bound by the court.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the occupied West Bank with his country’s past apartheid regime of racial segregation imposed by the white-minority rule that ended in 1994.

Several human rights organisations have said that Israeli policies towards Palestinians amount to apartheid.

Global condemnation

South Africa said Israel’s conduct, particularly since the war began on October 7, violates the UN’s Genocide Convention, and called for an expedited hearing. The application also requests the court to indicate provisional measures to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people” under the Convention.

“South Africa is gravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants,” a statement from South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) said, adding that the country has “repeatedly stated that it condemns all violence and attacks against all civilians, including Israelis.”

“South Africa has continuously called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the resumption of talks that will end the violence arising from the continued belligerent occupation of Palestine,” the statement added.

Israel has rejected global calls for a ceasefire saying the war would not stop until the Hamas group, whose October 7 attack triggered the current phase of the conflict, was destroyed. Some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas attack in Israel. The Palestinian group has said its attack was against Israel’s 16-year-old blockade of Gaza and expansion of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. Settlement expansions pose the biggest hurdle in the realisation of a future Palestinian state comprising Gaza, occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In the latest development in Israel’s war on Gaza, tens of thousands of newly displaced Palestinians in the centre of the Palestinian enclave on Friday were forced to flee further south as Israel expanded its ground and air offensive in the centre of the enclave.

Israel has faced global condemnation for the mounting toll and destruction and is accused of meting out collective punishment on the Palestinian people.

‘A very important step’

The court application is the latest move by South Africa, a vociferous critic of Israel’s war, to ratchet up pressure after its lawmakers last month voted in favour of closing down the Israeli embassy in Pretoria and suspending all diplomatic relations until a ceasefire was agreed.

Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the United Nations headquarters in New York, said the move was “clearly a very important step to try to hold some accountability to Israel.”

“Now that South Africa is pushing this to the ICJ, it will be on [the UN’s] agenda to try to make a ruling on this very important question,” he added.

On November 16, a group of 36 UN experts called on the international community to “prevent genocide against the Palestinian people”, calling Israel’s actions since October 7 a “genocide in the making”.

Palestinians inspect the rubble of a building of the Al Nawasrah family destroyed in an Israeli strike in Maghazi refugee camp, Dec. 25 [Adel Hana/AP Photo]

“We are deeply disturbed by the failure of governments to heed our call and to achieve an immediate ceasefire. We are also profoundly concerned about the support of certain governments for Israel’s strategy of warfare against the besieged population of Gaza, and the failure of the international system to mobilise to prevent genocide,” the experts said in a statement.

Israel rejects South Africa’s accusations

Israel has rejected South Africa’s move as “baseless”, calling it “blood libel.”

“South Africa’s claim lacks both a factual and a legal basis, and constitutes despicable and contemptuous exploitation of the Court,” Israel’s minister of foreign affairs, Lior Haiat, said in a statement posted on X.

“Israel has made it clear that the residents of the Gaza Strip are not the enemy and is making every effort to limit harm to the non-involved and to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip,” the statement added.

“It does rally public opinion to the reality of what’s going on in Palestine, not just in Gaza but also in the West Bank,” said Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara.

According to Article 2 of the Genocide Convention, genocide involves acts committed with the “intent to destroy, either in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.”

“Where the disagreement lies is whether there is intent or no intent,” Bishara said.

“The three leading Israeli officials have declared the intent, starting with Israeli President Herzog when he said there are ‘no innocents’ in Gaza, the defense minister who said Israel will impose collective punishment on the people of Gaza because they are ‘human animals’,” Bishara said, adding that prime minister Netanyahu also used a biblical analogy in a statement widely interpreted as a genocidal call.

The Palestinian ministry of foreign affairs welcomed South Africa’s move and called on the ICJ to take immediate action to “prevent further harm to the Palestinian people”.

“Israel’s stated policy, acts and omissions are genocidal in character are committed with the requisite specific intent to the destruction of the Palestinian people under its colonial occupation and apartheid regime in violation of its obligations under the Genocide Convention,” a statement by the ministry said.

“The State of Palestine appeals to the international community and the Contracting Parties to the Convention to uphold their obligations and support the Court in the proceedings.”

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

The Jewish establishment’s blindness to Palestinian slaughter also hurts U.S. Jews

Israel's racism against Palestinians has subsumed official Jewish life. American Jews have abandoned their best traditions out of deference to a militant state that exists in constant fear of those it subjugates.

BY PHILIP WEISS  DECEMBER 26, 2023 

https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/the-jewish-establishments-blindness-to-palestinian-slaughter-also-hurts-u-s-jews/

Jodi Rudoren of the Jewish Forward newspaper spent days reporting in Israel recently, and on December 20, Brian Lehrer of WNYC radio asked her what Israelis think of the death toll in Gaza, which Lehrer said is “unprecedented anywhere on earth in this century in this short a time.”

The Israelis don’t care, Rudoren said. “It’s really not an active debate in Israel, among Jews anyway.” They are mourning and fearful, she said– then went on to rationalize the 20,000 killed. The death toll “is totally staggering and hard to grapple with… [but] we do need to keep in mind, that the international laws of war are not based on what the total death toll is, they’re based on the proportionality of the civilian casualties and collateral damage of each attack, and it takes a long time to figure that out in the fog of war.”

And therefore, “it’s on the international community to pressure the Palestinians and the Arab world to provide some [diplomatic] alternatives that might work for Israel right now.”

Rudoren’s mental gymnastics in favor of Israel are hardly unique. All across the U.S., Jewish establishment groups and individuals are lobbying for Israel, and if they mention the slaughter of Palestinian civilians, they blame Hamas.  

William Daroff, the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, issued a statement calling for Jewish unity in the face of international protests of Israel and never mentioned Palestinians at all. There has been an “astonishing and alarming rise in antisemitism… in response to Israeli governmental action–” Action? Israel has killed more civilians in two months than have been killed in the Ukraine war in almost two years. But Daroff saw a battle for Jewish survival.  

“The entire Jewish nation is at war,” he says. “Collective determination is also how I know we will overcome these challenges and win… As a people, we are stronger when we are one.”

Liberal Zionists have heeded this call. For instance, the New Israel Fund blames Hamas for “spawning the war that has claimed thousands of lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of individuals.” Thus leaving Israel’s crimes out of it.   

That approach is little different from the approach of the five big center-right Jewish organizations (the Jewish Federations, the American Jewish Committee, the ADL, AIPAC, and the Conference of Presidents) that lately launched a media campaign called the Ten-Seven project aimed at keeping the American media and government’s focus on the Hamas atrocities of October 7 and ignoring the slaughter of Palestinians and destruction of Gaza.  

The Conference of Presidents ran a full page ad in the New York Times saying this war is all about antisemitism. “Hatred of Israel is Endangering American Jews.”  The ad equates anti-Zionism and antisemitism. “Disagreement with or contempt for Israel has become a pretext to attack Jews,” the ad says.

Lehrer echoed these fears when he interviewed Rudoren. “Anywhere Jews have lived as a minority they have been oppressed. In the modern era certainly.”

It is understandable why Jews have such feelings historically, but they are surely inappropriate to a moment when more than 8,200 Palestinian children have been killed. I say that the relentless focus on Jewish suffering poses a greater risk to Jewish life than antisemitism. Fresh images of maimed Palestinian children are on the news every night, and famine and disease are on the doorstep — and the Jewish establishment is fixed entirely on the atrocities against Jews of 12 weeks ago.

The world clearly sees Hamas’s crimes, but it also sees the horrifying scenes from Gaza, which never stop. Almost every nation has called for a ceasefire except the United States, and BBC commentators regularly describe conditions in Gaza as apocalyptic.

The polling indicates that the young and the Democratic base are shocked and distressed by Israel’s actions—but their feelings are unrepresented by our politicians. This awning at a bodega in Brooklyn is a perfect expression of general attitudes in the progressive U.S. community. And P.S., the awning doesn’t blame Jews.

The Jewish leaders want us to believe that only a lunatic fringe cares and America is with us. The Ten Seven project insists on this. But they are wrong. About half the American public is against the Israeli genocide. A startling 46 percent of the U.S. public opposes U.S. military aid to Israel, 45 percent support it, according to a Quinnipiac poll. Among the young the numbers are sharply tilted against military aid — 72 percent of those under 35, 53 percent of those under 50. We can safely assume that the Democratic numbers are at least 60/40 against, based on earlier surveys.

The Israel lobby is fighting these attitudes with wealth, and that is feeding the worst stereotypes about Jewish influence. It is reported that AIPAC is planning to spend upward of $100 million to try to defeat members of the Squad, the only people in Congress who have challenged Israel’s actions.

Daroff brags that a “coterie of philanthropists” is funding the Ten Seven project to influence media. That coterie surely has Joe Biden’s ear. The ADL, the AJC, the Conference, and AIPAC have all met with the White House, Daroff  says. (Just as Obama’s top foreign policy aide had to meet with officials of big Israel lobby organizations more than all other interest groups put together and had to call a list of “leading Jewish donors” in 2011 after Obama dared to suggest a two-state solution must be on the ‘67 lines and Netanyahu lectured him for seven minutes in the White House). 

Israel’s crisis has only made the role of donors in the American establishment more naked. Big Jewish donors have been directing U.S. institutions on how to respond to Israel’s crisis. Harvey Swieca at Columbia’s business school threatened to withdraw funds — and the school suspended JVP and SJP for supposedly making Jews feel unsafe with pro-Palestinian rhetoric. A major Penn donor, Marc Rowan, played a central role in the resignations of the university president and the board chair over campus culture– and now faculty at the school is in an uproar over why Rowan (a financial wizard mentored by Leon Black of Apollo Global Management, of Jeffrey Epstein fame), is issuing mandates about the correct “culture” in campus debates. And, just as shocking, the new chair of Penn’s board is the leader of the Jewish Federations.

The top bosses at CNN and MSNBC, as I have stated many times, are Jews who support Israel. It is hardly a coincidence that CNN anchors insist on an October 7 frame – as opposed to an apartheid frame, or Israel’s siege of Gaza frame – and that Virginia Moseley oversees editorial operations and she’s married to Tom Nides, who has thrown himself into work for the Jewish Federations, which is part of the Ten Seven project.

Liberal institutions are also affected. When authors at the National Book Awards ceremony last month issued calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, it was too much for leading sponsors.  A major Jewish donor, Zibby Owens, withdrew her sponsorship of the presentation because she said there would be “antisemitic” speeches at the event. Owens’s father, Steve Schwarzman, funds the institution where I wasted my youth, the New York Public Library research building

I see this and am ashamed. The official Jewish community is seeking to outlaw robust debate by declaring that only antisemites would speak up for the millions of helpless Palestinians under a historic onslaught.

That stance destroys Jewish traditions. Jews on the left played a key political role in the liberation movements in the U.S. in the last century and in the anti-Vietnam war movement, and in the last 30 years we have gained unprecedented levels of privilege and influence in the U.S. establishment.

And what role do we imagine for ourselves springing from this power?

To demand that a Long Island Santa Claus be fired by the chamber of commerce for asking tough questions of the American Jewish Committee proxies for Israel at a local temple? Are you crazy? To knock out school board officials in suburban Philadelphia because they denounce Israeli “genocide” or say it’s a terrorist state? Don’t they have that right?  

The commandment of supporting Israel has sent my community into complete intellectual freefall. A community that prided itself on Talmudic reasoning and for having three opinions for every two Jews is enforcing one opinion on the U.S. discourse, then claiming that the resulting conformity is actually U.S. public opinion.

How does this end well for Jews? This conduct fulfills the very worst stereotypes of Jews wielding influence, and other Americans are seeing it. The polling says that 67 percent of Americans under 25 believe that Jews are an oppressor class, not a victimized class– and 44 percent of those 25-34 believe the same. Overall, Americans don’t accept these ideas, by three to one. But I find those attitudes concerning. They should be a warning to the entitled Jewish organizations to stop throwing their weight around and ignoring Palestinian genocide. Even J Street is in that gang. (And so is Bernie Sanders, a man I revered but who has failed the simple Ceasefire test – because of your days on the kibbutz, Bernie?)

When Israel started bombing refugee camps, an old friend who has always worked and socialized with Jews wrote to me in anger. Not only was Israel exterminating people and possibly costing Biden Michigan and inspiring more kids to become terrorists—it was “reigniting latent antisemitism that mind virus that survives from Roman times…”

The official Jewish community’s indifference to genocide is not only hurting Palestinians but will hurt Jews. “The entire Jewish nation” is not at war. Israel is. A Zionist society that has totally lost its bearings out of a psychosis bred by Holocaust thinking and political impunity is at war with an impoverished people it has oppressed for generations.

Let us celebrate all the young Jews who recognize these truths and have bravely called for ceasefire. They are the only future for the American Jewish community.

As it is, Israel’s racism against Palestinians has subsumed official Jewish life. American Jews have abandoned their best traditions out of deference to a militant state that exists in constant fear of those it subjugates. Israel will only be curbed when American Jews recognize that their own experience of a modern polity – an inclusive society based on equal rights for all and the expansion of civil rights – is the true model.

Cuando todo termine, ¿Se perdonará la burla?

Las futuras generaciones se preguntarán cómo pudo haber sido posible que en 2018 sus padres, abuelos o quizá bisabuelos hubieran sido tan bobamente engañados por un audaz encantador de serpientes.

Juan Antonio García Villa

diciembre 29, 2023

https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/opinion/juan-antonio-garcia-villa/2023/12/29/cuando-todo-termine-se-perdonara-la-burla/

Cuando todo esto termine, porque algún día habrá de terminar, sea dentro de nueve meses o en treinta años, aunque desde luego, cuanto más pronto mejor, sin remedio, la presente generación de mexicanos quedará marcada. Marcada de manera negativa, con huella difícil de borrar. Tan indeleble así, que medio siglo después de que aquello haya concluido, las futuras generaciones se preguntarán sorprendidas, sin encontrar explicación razonable alguna, cómo pudo haber sido posible que en 2018 sus padres, abuelos o quizá bisabuelos hubieran sido tan bobamente engañados por un audaz encantador de serpientes.

Porque ya para ese año, 2018, se sabía sin sombra de duda, por más que los hechos se trataron de ocultar, que aquel audaz, en circunstancias misteriosas jamás aclaradas, había dado muerte a su propio hermano y en un arranque de ira, tan característico en él, en cobarde ataque a mansalva había dejado paralítico a otro joven de su pueblo.

Se conocía también que para concluir sus estudios profesionales en la UNAM, había necesitado más del doble del tiempo que ordinariamente se requiere y sus calificaciones escolares habían sido menos que mediocres.

Igualmente, cómo tantos pudieron ser engañados, si con insistencia y toda oportunidad se dejaron escuchar voces de alerta, que públicamente preguntaban de qué había vivido aquel audaz los doce años anteriores a su gran aventura. Salvo alguna tomadura de pelo, como tantas otras, jamás hubo respuesta sensata sobre este punto.

Con esos antecedentes, sólo un embaucador verdaderamente profesional, ahora lo sabemos, pudo haber sido capaz de engañar a treinta millones de ciudadanos, salvo a los que con él formaron parte de esa gran máquina de falsificación y engaño.

Ya en el poder, el ejercicio de éste se caracterizó por un constante mentir, según se demuestra con la puntual contabilidad y registro que de tales falsedades alguien lleva (Luis Estrada). No le va a la zaga, como nota esencial de gobierno, la escandalosa corrupción, en magnitudes nunca antes vistas.

Y como tercer elemento, cada vez más notorio: la alianza cuasi institucional del gobierno con la delincuencia organizada. Lo anterior, cuando todo haya terminado, seguramente habrá de quedar debidamente probado y documentado. Será en su oportunidad materia no de un libro blanco sino negro, integrado por numerosos tomos y un prontuario.

Las mentiras, la corrupción y las alianzas inconfesables a nadie sorprenden. Lo novedoso de esta etapa ha consistido en que, a lo anterior, se ha sumado ahora la burla. No hay precedentes al respecto.

Van rápidamente cuatro botones de muestra: Afirmar una y otra vez que en un año, en seis meses o en menor tiempo, el país tendrá un servicio público de salud superior al de Dinamarca, tiene más sabor a burla que a otra cosa. Dos: haber recomendado estampitas religiosas para protegerse del Covid, tiene no sólo el tono de burla a la población, sino también a las creencias religiosas de muchos mexicanos.

Tercera: tratar de hacer creer que con la instalación de una súper farmacia, en la que estarán almacenados y siempre disponibles para surtirse todos los medicamentos que hay en el mundo, se terminará por definición su desabasto, tiene todas las características de humor negro. Y cuarta, quizá la peor de todas las burlas, mencionar que se tienen “otros datos” para negar la realidad, patente e inocultable, confirmada incluso por la información procedente de las propias fuentes gubernamentales, es burla y sarcasmo a la vez.

Quizá muchos perdonen y perdonarán casi todo. Pero no la burla.

EZLN: a 30 años del levantamiento

Mario Patrón

https://www.jornada.com.mx/2023/12/28/opinion/012a2pol

En el primer día de 1994 –año que a la postre se tornaría catastrófico en la economía del país–, México se despertó estremecido por vientos revolucionarios que revivieron la esperanza de las comunidades indígenas que, con una historia de 500 años de resistencia a proyectos de opresión, veían nacer desde las montañas del sureste un poderoso esfuerzo reivindicativo expresado en el levantamiento en armas del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN), justo el día que entraba en vigor el Tratado de Libre Comercio de América del Norte, que aparecía como la encarnación actualizada de las fuerzas que han perpetuado la exclusión de las comunidades originarias en el país. Han pasado ya 30 años y esa lucha resiste y persiste hasta hoy.

Recoger los 30 años de historia desde el levantamiento del EZLN es todo menos sencillo. Treinta años en que la magnitud de su resistencia, el tono de su narrativa y el peso de sus acciones han experimentado diversas modulaciones. Lo que no ha cambiado durante estos 30 años de existencia es la pertinencia de una lucha por el pleno reconocimiento de los derechos de los pueblos, su autonomía y su dignidad. Su rica historia pasa por el sorpresivo levantamiento armado en 1994 y la toma de cinco cabeceras municipales en Chiapas, las mediaciones con el gobierno, la fundación de los municipios autónomos rebeldes zapatistas (Marez), la creación del Congreso Nacional Indígena, los acuerdos de San Andrés, las múltiples declaraciones de la Selva Lacandona, la creación de los caracoles zapatistas y las juntas de buen gobierno, el impulso de La otra campaña en 2006; los potentes discursos y los comunicados publicados en sus redes, los festivales artísticos, los encuentros internacionales de mujeres que luchan, la creación del consejo indígena de gobierno y la precandidatura independiente de Marichuy en 2018 y la Gira por la Vida en Europa, entre tantas otras acciones que han señalado horizontes de esperanza, especialmente en la agenda de los derechos humanos y en las luchas y resistencias de los pueblos indígenas a escalas nacional y global.

El valor histórico del zapatismo en México no puede disociarse de la consolidación de la lucha por los derechos humanos que precisamente encontró en el movimiento del EZLN un fuerte impulso para reiterar la urgencia de su agenda, sobre todo la imprescindible centralidad de los derechos comunitarios e indígenas para la viabilidad y pertinencia del proyecto político y democrático del país. Es así que avances como el reconocimiento de gobiernos autónomos en municipios indígenas, el respeto a los usos y costumbres, los mecanismos alternativos y comunitarios de justicia y hasta la propia la reforma constitucional de 2011 en que se reconoce la constitucionalidad de los derechos humanos son frutos colaterales de lo que el movimiento zapatista logró, no sólo como resistencia territorial, sino como articuladora de resistencias y movimientos populares en el país y fuera de él.

Sin embargo, 30 años después, las comunidades zapatistas enfrentan hoy, ya no sólo la amenaza de las fuerzas armadas del Estado y el paramilitarismo que desde hace más de tres décadas opera en su contra, sino el creciente control territorial del crimen organizado y las pugnas entre cárteles que han plagado el territorio chiapaneco, especialmente en los últimos meses. El actual rebasamiento institucional por la violencia en Chiapas no debiera sorprender a nadie, pues el EZLN durante los últimos años había advertido con insistencia sobre el avance de los grupos criminales en su territorio. Así, la inacción del Estado y la consecuente descomposición social en Chiapas provocada por la violencia pareciera ser un escenario anticipado que se dejó crecer para desarticular los múltiples movimientos de resistencia en la entidad, en los que han encontrado eco e inspiración muchos movimientos a lo largo y ancho del país.

Esta preocupante escalada de violencia macrocriminal ha dado motivo a los cambios anunciados recientemente por el EZLN relativos a la modificación de sus estructuras civiles, por las cuales desaparecen los Marez y las juntas de buen gobierno, con el traslado del poder a los gobiernos autónomos locales. Estos cambios, según lo anuncian sus comunicados, no afectan la estructura de la autonomía zapatista, pero son medidas orientadas a defender mejor a sus pueblos y comunidades ante una violencia que cada día registra balaceras, secuestros, reclutamiento forzado, cobros de piso, bloqueos, entre otras expresiones.

No obstante, el clima de violencia en Chiapas no impide la conmemoración esperanzada del 30 aniversario de una lucha ardua, en ocasiones oscilante, que ha enfrentado numerosos esfuerzos por debilitarlo, pese a los cuales ha persistido como un referente vivo de la lucha por la libertad, la autonomía y la dignidad de los pueblos oprimidos de México. A 30 años del levantamiento zapatista, su lucha sigue plenamente vigente y su dignidad continúa alumbrando nuevos horizontes para el proceso de los derechos humanos y la democracia sustantiva, entendidos como realidad social y no como meros accesorios jurídicos y método electoral. Muchos aportes deben ser recuperados y mucha reflexión deberá suscitar este 30 aniversario en pos de replantear las formas de una auténtica resistencia en los tiempos actuales; aprender de la lucha del EZLN, hacer un balance de sus mediaciones tácticas y apuestas estratégicas y, sobre todo, fortalecer la articulación de los pueblos y comunidades indígenas que, cinco siglos después siguen resistiendo y reclamando una voz en la toma de decisiones del país.

Blood Money: The Top Ten Politicians Taking the Most Israel Lobby Cash. “Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?”

By Alan MacLeod

Global Research, December 22, 2023

MintPress News 18 December 2023

https://www.globalresearch.ca/blood-money-top-ten-politicians-taking-most-israel-lobby-cash

As the Israeli attack on Gaza, Lebanon and Syria intensifies, the U.S. public watch on aghast. A new poll finds that Americans support a permanent ceasefire by a more than 2:1 ratio (including the vast majority of Democrats and a plurality of Republicans).

And yet, despite this, only 4% of elected members of the House support even a temporary ceasefire, and the United States continues to veto U.N. resolutions working towards ending the violence. Walter Hixson, a historian concentrating on U.S. foreign relations, told MintPress News:

Unfettered support for Israel and the lobby consistently puts the United States at odds with international human rights organizations and the vast majority of nations over Israel’s war crimes and blatant violations of international law. The current U.N. vote on a ceasefire in Gaza [which the U.S. vetoed] is just the latest example.”

Here, Hixson is referring to the pro-Israel lobby, a loose connection of influential groups that spend millions on pressure campaigns, outreach programs, and donations to American politicians, all with one goal in mind: making sure the United States supports the Israeli government’s policies full stop, including backing Israeli expansion, blocking Palestinian statehood and opposing a growing boycott divestment and sanctions movement (BDS) at home.

Internationally, Israel has lost virtually all its support. But it still has one major backer: the United States government. Part of this is undoubtedly down to the extraordinary lengths the lobby goes to secure backing, including showering U.S. politicians with millions of dollars in contributions. In this investigation, MintPress News breaks down the top ten currently serving politicians who have taken the most pro-Israel cash since 1990.

#1 Joe Biden, $4,346,264

The largest recipient of Israel lobby money is President Joe Biden. From the beginning of his political career, Biden, according to his biographer Branko Marcetic, “established himself as an implacable friend of Israel,” spending his Senate career “showering Israel with unquestioning support, even when its behavior elicited bipartisan outrage.” The future president was a key figure in securing record sums of U.S. aid to the Jewish state and helped block a 1998 peace proposal with Palestine.

The support for Israeli policies has continued into the present, with his administration insisting that there are “no red lines” that it could cross that would cause it to lose American support. In essence, Biden has given Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a carte blanche to break any rules, norms or laws he wishes to.

This has included ethnic cleansing and war crimes such as the bombing of schools, hospitals and places of worship using banned weapons like white phosphorous munitions. The arms Israel is using come supplied directly by the U.S. In November, the Biden administration rubber-stamped another $14.5 billion military aid package to Israel, ensuring the carnage would continue.

For his staunch support, Biden has received more than $4.3 million from pro-Israel groups since 1990.

#2 Robert Menéndez, $2,483,205

The New Jersey senator has received nearly $2.5 million in contributions and, in the wake of the Hamas attack on October 7, has been a key figure in drumming up support for Israel. Describing Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as “barbaric atrocities” that were an “affront to humankind itself,” Menéndez gave an impassioned speech on the Senate floor where he addressed Biden directly, stating:

Mr. President, in the face of unspeakable evil, we must not mince words. We must not waver in our resolve. Every single one of us in this chamber has a moral responsibility to speak out — unequivocally and unapologetically — as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and her people. I’ve been staunchly devoted to this cause for 31 years in Congress.”

He went on to claim that Israel and the United States are intrinsically linked and were founded on the same principles.

Menéndez also courted controversy after he demanded that the U.S. help Israel “wipe Hamas from the face of the Earth,” even as Israel was leveling Gaza by carpet bombing it.

In October, he co-sponsored a Senate resolution “standing with Israel against terrorism” that passed unanimously, without dissent.

#3 Mitch Mcconnell, $1,953,160

The Senate Minority Leader is one of the most powerful politicians in America and has used his influence to attempt to force through legislation criminalizing BDS. He has described the peaceful tactic as “an economic form of anti-Semitism that targets Israel.”

McConnell is known to be very close to Prime Minister Netanyahu and supported a bill condemning the United Nations and calling on the U.S. to continue to veto any U.N. resolution critical of Israel. Last month, he strongly opposed steps taken towards applying basic U.S. and international law on weapons shipments to Israel.

Under current U.S. law, Washington is duty-bound to stop supplying arms to nations committing serious human rights violations. McConnell, however, said that applying these standards to Israel would be “ridiculous,” explaining that:

Our relationship with Israel is the closest national security relationship we have with any country in the world, and to condition, in effect, our assistance to Israel to their meeting our standards it seems to me is totally unnecessary… This is a democracy, a great ally of ours, and I do not think we need to condition the support that hopefully we will give to Israel very soon.”

McConnell has received nearly $2 million from pro-Israel groups.

#4 Chuck Schumer, $1,725,324

Next on the list is McConnell’s Democratic opponent, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had taken over $1.7 million from Israel lobbying groups. In recent weeks, Schumer has taken the lead in steering the public conversation away from Israel’s crimes and towards a supposed rise in anti-Semitism across America. “To us, the Jewish people, the rise in anti-semitism is a crisis. A five-alarm fire that must be extinguished,” the New York Senator said, adding that “Jewish-Americans are feeling singled out, targeted and isolated. In many ways, we feel alone.”

The idea that anti-Semitic hate is exploding across the United States comes largely from a report published by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which claims that anti-Semitic incidents have risen by 337% since October 7. Buried in the small print, however, is the fact that 45% of these “anti-Semitic” incidents the ADL has tallied are pro-Palestine, pro-peace marches calling for ceasefires, including ones led by Jewish groups like If Not Now or Jewish Voice for Peace. (MintPress recently published an investigation into the ADL’s fudged numbers and its history of working for Israel and spying on progressive American groups.)

Schumer, however, has deliberately tried to conflate opposition to Israel’s bombardment of its neighbors with anti-Jewish racism, writing:

Today, too many Americans are exploiting arguments against Israel and leaping toward a virulent antisemitism. The normalization and intensifying of this rise in hate is the danger many Jewish people fear most.”

He has even gone so far as to label Dave Zirin – a Jewish journalist who supports justice for Palestinians – as an anti-Semite.

As Senate Majority Leader, Schumer has used his influence to push through military aid packages to Israel, even as it carries out actions many have labeled war crimes, writing that:

One of the most important tasks we must finish is taking up and passing a funding bill to ensure we, as well as our friends and partners in Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific region, have the necessary military capabilities to confront and deter our adversaries and competitors.”

He added that “Senators should be prepared to stay in Washington until we finish our work” and that they should expect to work “long days and nights, and potentially weekends in December,” until the deal was done.

#5 Steny Hoyer, $1,620,294

The former House Majority Leader is one of Israel’s most vocal supporters in the House of Representatives. Hoyer has demanded that “Congress must immediately and unconditionally fund Israel,” thereby giving the Netanyahu administration the green light to do whatever it pleases.

An ardent Zionist, the Maryland native explained that he believes it is:

…[T]he world’s duty that set aside a land, a land that Israel has occupied for millennia, and said: this is your place of security, this is your place of sovereignty, this is your place of safety.”

Earlier this month, Hoyer also voted in favor of a bill stating that anti-Zionism is inherently anti-Semitic, thereby declaring all criticism of Israel to be invalid and racist.

Hoyer has received more than $1.6 million in donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups.

#6 Ted Cruz, $1,299,194

Over his career, the Texas Republican has received $1.3 million from the Israel lobby. After October 7, Cruz sprang into action, announcing that it was “critical” that every American supports Israel “100 percent.” “Israel is going to be demonized by Democrats in the current corrupt corporate media. We need to make clear that Hamas is using human shields and Israel has a right to defend itself,” Cruz said, hitting many of the classic pro-Israel talking points.

Cruz also went above and beyond in his defense of Israeli crimes in a bizarre interview with Breaking Points’ Ryan Grim. When asked if he opposes Israeli officials suggesting a nuclear attack on Gaza, Cruz replied:

I condemn nothing that the Israeli government is doing. The Israeli government does not target civilians; they target military targets… There is no military on the face of the planet, including the U.S. military, that goes to the lengths that the Israeli military goes to avoid civilian casualties.”

When confronted with statements from the IDF directly refuting his point, noting that their focus is on damage, not precision, Cruz flipped his answer around, replying, “Yes, damage to Hamas, to terrorists.” And when Grim gave him more statements from senior IDF officials explicitly contradicting his previous statement, Cruz retorted, “That’s simply not true. They are targeting the terrorists,” thereby defending the IDF even from itself.

#7 Ron Wyden, $1,279,376

Senator Ron Wyden (D—OR) has long been one of Israel’s staunchest advocates in Washington, supporting President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and opposing BDS in all its forms.

In 2017, he co-sponsored a bill that made it a federal crime, punishable by a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, for Americans to participate in or even encourage boycotts against Israel and illegal Israeli settlements.

On the settlements, he was one of the most vigorous opponents of UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which describes them as a “flagrant violation” of international law.

For his troubles, Wyden has received $1,279,376 from pro-Israel groups.

#8 Dick Durbin, $1,126,020

In some ways, Dick Durbin owes his political career to the Israel lobby. In 1982, the then-obscure college professor benefitted enormously from AIPAC money to defeat incumbent Paul Findley, a strong proponent of the Palestinian people.

The Illinois Democrat has called for immediate military aid to Israel and co-signed a Senate resolution reaffirming Washington’s support for Israel’s “right to self-defense” in the wake of October 7.

Despite this, he has angered some in the pro-Israel crowd by supporting President Obama’s initiatives to reduce tensions with Iran and has now come out in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza.

#9 Josh Gottheimer, $1,109,370

Despite only being in office since 2017, Gottheimer has already received more than $1.1 million from pro-Israel lobbying groups. The New Jersey Congressman has served as a pro-Israeli attack dog in Washington, co-sponsoring the bill equating opposition to Israeli government policy with anti-Semitism and introducing legislation to block and criminalize boycotting the state of Israel.

In the wake of October 7, Gottheimer has attempted to cancel a number of public figures. Earlier this month, for instance, he tried to pressure Rutgers University into calling off an event on Palestine featuring former CNN anchor Marc Lamont Hill and organizer and journalist Nick Estes, both of whom support Palestinian rights and statehood.

Gottheimer has even caused rifts within his own party, attacking the small, progressive wing of Democrats who have failed to toe the line on Israel and Hamas. “Last night, 15 of my Democratic colleagues voted AGAINST standing with our ally Israel and condemning Hamas terrorists who brutally murdered, raped, and kidnapped babies, children, men, women, and elderly, including Americans. They are despicable and do not speak for our party,” he wrote, making a number of highly incendiary and questionable assertions.

#10 Shontel Brown, $1,028,686

Perhaps no other political case reveals the power of the Israel lobby than Shontel Brown. In 2021, Nina Turner, a democratic socialist, national co-chair of Bernie Sanders’ 2020 election campaign, and an outspoken advocate for justice in Palestine, ran for election in Ohio’s 11th congressional district. Her opponent was the little-known but strongly pro-Israel Brown.

Brown received more pro-Israel money than any other politician nationwide during that two-year election cycle, helping her overcome a double-digit polling deficit to defeat Turner. Over $1 million was spent plastering Cleveland with attack ads against Turner. In her acceptance speech, Brown praised Israel and later thanked the Jewish community for “help[ing] me get over the finish line”

Since then, she has supported Israeli actions in Gaza and rejected the idea of Israel as an apartheid state, writing:

Let’s be clear: Israel is not an apartheid state. Any mischaracterizations otherwise attempt to delegitimize Israel, a robust democracy, and will only serve to fuel rising antisemitism. I will always advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship founded on our shared values.”

A Dark Force in US Politics

The most well-known and likely most influential group in the loose coalition referred to as the Israel lobby is AIPAC. With a staff of around 400 people and annual revenues that frequently top over $100 million, the organization is a huge, conservative force in American politics, flooding the system with gigantic amounts of money. Worse still, the group does not disclose the sources of its funding.

AIPAC’s stated goal is:

To make America’s friendship with Israel so robust, so certain, so broadly based, and so dependable that even the deep divisions of American politics can never imperil that relationship and the ability of the Jewish state to defend itself.”

Yet Israel is widely recognized by international bodies such as the United Nations and human rights groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as an apartheid state. It has near total control over the Gaza Strip, which, even before the latest attack, was an “unlivable” “open-air prison.” It is this state and these injustices that AIPAC and others seek U.S. support for.

American intransigence on Israel has helped make it a pariah nation, one that constantly has to veto U.N. resolutions and has lost its voting rights at UNESCO.

Not only does it give more money to Republicans than Democrats, but AIPAC also floods conservative Democrats’ coffers with funds, especially when they are up against progressive, pro-Palestine challengers.

In 2022, it spent $2.3 million in a (failed) bid to stop leftist Summer Lee from being elected to Congress. However, it fared better in North Carolina, where $2 million was given to Valeria Foushee over Nida Allam, the director of Sanders’ 2016 campaign. Meanwhile, $1.2 million in donations to Henry Cuellar might have been the deciding factor in an extremely close win over progressive activist Jessica Cisneros in Texas’ 28th congressional district. And a number of prominent Michigan Democrats have come forward claiming that AIPAC offered them $20 million each to primary Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian-American in Congress.

“Certainly the lobby can influence elections, but it doesn’t win them all,” Hixson, the author of “Architects of Repression: How Israel and Its Lobby Put Racism, Violence and Injustice at the Center of US Middle East Policy,” said, adding:

It targets the aforementioned House progressives every two years but can’t always dictate the outcome of localized elections. They do better with broader canvasses; hence, no one in the Senate other than Bernie takes them on. When it comes to Israel, most American politicians are craven hypocrites.”

Yet Sanders’ recent refusal to endorse a permanent ceasefire (a position held by virtually the entire world) has earned him AIPAC’s praise.

Is the Tail Wagging the Dog?

As such, AIPAC acts as a bulwark against progressive political change. In such a divisive political environment, few political issues unite Democrats and Republicans, as well as Israel and shutting down anti-establishment figures. As Hixson told MintPress:

Other than a handful of progressives (Bernie Sanders, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, etc.), the U.S. Congress invariably gives the lobby everything it wants, namely massive regular funding for Israeli militarism and an endless series of resolutions condemning Israel’s international foes and domestic critics.”

The question that arises from this is why? Why does Israel always seem to receive full support from Washington? Is the lobby really that effective? Why do so many U.S. politicians go along with it? Mazin Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem University, characterized Washington as full of amoral careerists, telling MintPress that:

They [Senators and Congresspersons] do not buy the Zionist argument. It is strictly personal interest: money and good media coverage and avoiding blackmail, as the Zionists have their dirty secrets which they could expose if they step out of line.”

Yet Israel also serves a vital purpose for the American empire. The region is not only geographically strategic but home to the world’s largest resources of hydrocarbons. Washington has always made it a top priority to control the flow of oil around the world, and Israel helps them do this. Militarily, Israel serves as a conduit the U.S. can work through, farming out its dirty work to Tel Aviv. It, therefore, represents an unofficial and beneficial “51st state.” As Joe Biden said in 1986 and has regularly repeated, Israel is the best investment the U.S. makes. “Were there not an Israel, the United States of America would have to invent an Israel to protect our interests in the region,” he added.

Many other nations or industries have lobbied in Washington, D.C. But few have proven to be as organized or effective as the pro-Israel one. Nevertheless, public opinion, particularly among young people, has begun to drift away from it. The Overton Window is shifting; Professor Qumsiyeh told MintPress. “When I first went to the U.S. in 1979, the average citizen did not know anything about Palestine or knew only a negative, distorted picture driven by Hollywood and biased media. Things [have] changed,” he said.

Things have indeed changed. The streets of America have been filled with demonstrations against Israeli aggression. Millions of Americans have participated in Palestine solidarity protests, including hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C. alone. Celebrities have spoken out against injustice. And social media is filled with posts showing sympathy for Gazans. There, too, Israel and pro-Israel groups have attempted to use their financial clout to influence the conversation, but to limited effect.

Fortunately for Israel, for now, at least, they can still rely on the unwavering support of senior American politicians, their pockets filled with AIPAC money, turning the other way as Israel carries out another genocide against Palestine.

Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017, he published two books, Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.org, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

The original source of this article is MintPress News

Copyright © Alan MacLeod, MintPress News, 2023