Notices by Jamie Osborne (jmeosbn@mas.to)

— ‘The series of attacks has prompted unity across Lebanon. Over the past year, the country has been divided over Hezbollah’s war with Israel, with some saying it was necessary to force a ceasefire in Gaza and others ­resenting Lebanon being dragged into the conflict.
…
After the pager explosions, criticisms of Hezbollah’s war against Israel stopped.
…
The secretary general of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, thanked the citizens of Lebanon for their solidarity …’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/21/were-not-safe-any-more-lebanon-reels-from-week-of-attacks-that-have-intensified-war-with-israel

— ‘It is now believed that Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old suspect, was spotted by law enforcement officials on the roof of a glass research company at 5.45pm, nearly 30 minutes before shots were fired …

… a police officer with the county’s emergency services warned a command center that a man with a range-finder had been scoping out the roof of the building that would become Crooks’s reported firing position [and had] later returned with a backpack.’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/16/trump-shooting-butler-pennsylvania

— ‘Investigators also claim “the sums obtained through these sales were converted into cash and incorporated into the ex-president’s personal patrimony, through intermediaries and without using the formal banking system, in order to hide the origin, whereabouts and ownership of those sums”.
…
The police report is peppered with photographs of extravagant gifts from foreign governments that were allegedly misappropriated including … ear-rings worth more than $126,000 …’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/09/alleged-bolsonaro-linked-ring-sold-official-luxury-gifts-worth-12m-brazil-police-claim

— ‘On one occasion, Republicans barred Representative Jim McGovern, Democrat of Massachusetts, from speaking for the rest of the day and deleted his comments from the Congressional Record after he railed against Mr. Trump and his court cases.

“When they censor any mention of Donald Trump’s criminal convictions, they are essentially trying to ban a fact, … I am not aware of any precedent where factual statements have been banned in our lifetime.”’

https://archive.ph/newest/www.nytimes.com/2024/06/21/us/politics/house-republicans-trump.html

News of Gantz exit from govt buried by weekend rescue.

— ‘The Israeli media is busy reporting on the triumphant rescue while contorting itself to avoid mentioning that Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians in the raid …

Gantz wanted to make an election feel inevitable, especially ahead of a key vote about the Haredi draft on Monday. He tried to ignite political momentum by calling on … Gallant to join him and rebel against … Netanyahu from within Likud …’

https://archive.ph/newest/www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-06-10/ty-article/.premium/is-anyone-trying-to-save-israel-from-netanyahu-isolation-and-endless-war/00000190-0312-de5e-a5ff-2796ae980000

“Thoughts and prayers”

Worse, Biden is trailing in marginal states with his arrogance and callous indifference.

— ‘far from having been always there, full American democracy is less than 60 years old. And if its betting markets think that a former president being convicted of multiple crimes is a boost to his prospects, then the world must be drawn to the conclusion that it is currently very sick, and quite possibly without health insurance. You can only wish it well.’

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/31/donald-trump-jail-white-house-felon

#NotADemocracy

— ‘The conversation began with the words, ‘We understand you know about the prosecutor.’”

Megiddo said it was “explained that if I published the story I would suffer the consequences and get to know the interrogation rooms of the Israeli security authorities from the inside”.

“In the end, it was made clear to me that even sharing the information ‘with my friends abroad’, referring to foreign media outlets, would lead to the same results.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/30/journalist-threatened-over-reporting-on-spy-chief-and-icc-israeli-newspaper-says

Haaretz had part of the story on Israel’s ‘war’ on the ICC two years ago, but the journalist was threatened by security services. Now they’ve published another, redactions included.

#FreedomOfThePress (or not)

— ‘Amid growing concern over Israel’s censorship regime, enforced by the military censor’s office and by gag orders issued by the courts, Haaretz published an article on Wednesday with blacked out words and sentences to demonstrate the scale of redactions.’

https://archive.ph/20240530093145/https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2024-05-29/ty-article-opinion/.premium/reason-for-detention/0000018f-c0d3-dade-adef-ecfb884f0000

This term Netanyahu and his apologists are pushing now, ‘the new antisemitism’, seems to mean that which is not antisemitic but is critical of Israel’s actions; especially that which demands accountability.

— ‘Netanyahu said … “This is exactly what the new antisemitism looks like. It has moved from the campuses of the West to the court in The Hague."
…
Smotrich … said the decision was "a display of hypocrisy and Jew-hatred" that "we haven't seen since Nazi propaganda."’

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-05-20/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-new-antisemitism-has-moved-from-campuses-of-the-west-to-court-in-the-hague/0000018f-96c3-da35-a3af-d7eb474a0000

A great roundup of all the ridiculous and blatant western hypocrisy.

— ‘Only the codependent arrogance and ignorance of those leading Israel-friendly countries explains the tolerance afforded long-established patterns of atrocious behaviour. In Britain, Rishi Sunak called the ICC move “deeply unhelpful”. What is he thinking? Is it “unhelpful” to try to curb lawless killing? Is it “unhelpful” to seek justice? This is not moral equivalence. It’s total moral confusion.’

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/25/call-to-prosecute-netanyahu-for-war-crimes-exposes-the-wests-moral-doublethink

— ‘The flag, then, is just the latest reminder of a disturbing reality: that as the Republican party further radicalizes against democracy, the supreme court – the body which is tasked with checking these unconstitutional impulses – has become their ally. The rule of law cannot be relied on to stem the tide of rising authoritarianism, because our legal institutions have been captured by the authoritarians.’

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/20/supreme-court-alito-flag

The only way you could accept Alito missed this flag, is if he was not home during that period (and nobody informed him).

Since he was so quick to throw his wife under the bus, he would have surely said so if that were the case.

But all that is to miss that the flag is a symbol of the politics within his household. It only highlights the bias, whether he knew it was being highlighted so publicly or not.

If I were a journalist, I’d be looking for records indicating his whereabouts.

It’s not just pro-Trump, it’s denying the election was valid because their messiah did not win.

The flag was up for ”several” days – if you accept he was ignorant of its meaning(!) it’s a sign of either extreme distress or disrespect.

— ‘we now have [two] conservative justices whose spouses have engaged in apparent pro-Trump political activity.
…
Gillers … did not believe Alito knew the upside-down flag was flying, or that it was a coded message for “stop the steal”.’

https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/may/18/samuel-alito-flag-supreme-court-ethics-election

— ‘But asking why Alito feels he can get away with it misses the point: he knows he can get away with it … Alito knows that he does not need to maintain any pretext of integrity, intellectual commitment or seriousness in his work. The … justices have done a sufficiently good job of insulating themselves from any accountability or consequence … He’s comfortable being a partisan operative right out in the open.

And why shouldn’t he? He’s not even the worst offender.‘

— “The hysterics and lies about Jonathan Glazer’s honest, humane and brave Oscar speech simply reaffirms his point – that Zone of Interest was made to ‘confront us in the present – not to say, ‘Look what they did then,’ rather, ‘Look what we do now,’” Zimmerman said.

“Glazer is part of a significant, growing Jewish voice across the world that opposes the abuse of Jewish history to justify Israel’s campaign of dehumanization and genocide against the Palestinian people.”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/mar/20/jonathan-glazer-speech-jewish-groups-defense

The UK and allies need to show more courage – and less craven hypocrisy – by holding allies to the same standards as adversaries.

What has the UK done to fulfil its obligations to the ICJ regarding Israel’s noncompliance?

This could be one small point of leverage.

— ‘Cameron’s claim … could be challenged on the basis that the scale or supplier of the arms is immaterial …

Cameron [also] argued the UK and its allies had to show more courage in facing down adversaries.’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/09/david-cameron-says-uk-will-not-follow-us-in-withholding-arms-sales-to-israel

The US confirms its complicity in Israeli war crimes.

— ‘Van Hollen … called it “contradictory”, pointing out that it found evidence of violations while it accepted Israeli assurances of compliance to be “credible and reliable”
…
“While the administration reaches this general conclusion, it fails to do the hard work of making an assessment and ducks the ultimate questions that the report was designed to determine with respect to compliance with international law.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/10/us-weapons-israel-human-rights-law

Cruder than these weapons is Israel’s warfare – it says it needs them to eliminate Hamas; by flattening every block in Gaza?

— ‘A surprise was that the US was even considering supplying the 1,700 500lb bombs and in particular the 1,800 2,000lb bombs … powerful enough to blow up a small apartment block and leave behind a crater 12 metres wide.
…
CNN, using satellite imagery, concluded that 500 large impact craters had appeared in Gaza during the first month of the war …’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/09/does-israel-need-more-us-arms-for-a-rafah-offensive

Finally. Biden has done the very least he could have done, at the very latest.

A “pause” that is a “policy decision” and (ostensibly) isn’t due to any legal determination.

— ‘There is nervousness in the administration about making legal judgments in case they are used against Israel in legal disputes before the international [courts].

… conversations in recent months have focused on how the Israeli military’s use of certain munitions diverges from the Pentagon’s …’

https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/08/us-signals-to-israel-more-arms-shipments-could-be-paused-rafah-offensive-gaza

It would be an outrage if Israel’s “assurances” are treated as credible, and their obstruction of supplies and various glaring atrocities are ignored.

But if they are “cleared”, and only then attack Rafah, Biden will be humiliated.

— ‘the state department is also due Wednesday to deliver a formal assessment to Congress … assessing whether the IDF are conducting its campaign in accordance with humanitarian law – in other words, whether the IDF is committing war crimes.’

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/07/biden-israel-palestine-policy