Lesser Scaup. Wheatridge Green Belt. April 9, 2024. R. Prince photo
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Note: I tried to follow the spread of bird flu these last few years, concerned with the disease jumping from birds to mammals, and eventually to humans. Over the past year little had been reported (either that or I missed what was) and I began to think that the condition on its last leg. Wishful thinking on my part. Good piece in the Guardian. RJP
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Risk of bird flu spreading to humans is ‘enormous concern’, says WHO
Chief scientist voices fears about H5N1 variant that has ‘extraordinarily high’ mortality rate in humans
The Guardian
Hannah Devlin Science correspondent
Thu 18 Apr 2024 10.08 EDT
The World Health Organization has raised concerns about the spread of H5N1 bird flu, which has an “extraordinarily high” mortality rate in humans.
An outbreak that began in 2020 has led to the deaths or killing of tens of millions of poultry. Most recently, the spread of the virus within several mammal species, including in domestic cattle in the US, has increased the risk of spillover to humans, the WHO said.
“This remains I think an enormous concern,” the UN health agency’s chief scientist, Jeremy Farrar, told reporters in Geneva.
An outbreak that began in 2020 has led to the deaths or killing of tens of millions of poultry. Most recently, the spread of the virus within several mammal species, including in domestic cattle in the US, has increased the risk of spillover to humans, the WHO said.
“This remains I think an enormous concern,” the UN health agency’s chief scientist, Jeremy Farrar, told reporters in Geneva.
Cows and goats joined the list of species affected last month – a surprising development for experts because they were not thought susceptible to this type of influenza. US authorities reported this month that a person in Texas was recovering from bird flu after being exposed to dairy cattle, with 16 herds across six states infected apparently after exposure to wild birds.
The A(H5N1) variant has become “a global zoonotic animal pandemic”, Farrar said.
“The great concern of course is that in … infecting ducks and chickens and then increasingly mammals, that virus now evolves and develops the ability to infect humans and then critically the ability to go from human to human,” he added.
So far, there is no evidence that H5N1 is spreading between humans. But in the hundreds of cases where humans have been infected through contact with animals over the past 20 years, “the mortality rate is extraordinarily high”, Farrar said, because humans have no natural immunity to the virus.
From 2003 to 2024, 889 cases and 463 deaths caused by H5N1 have been reported worldwide from 23 countries, according to the WHO, putting the case fatality rate at 52%.
The recent US case of human infection after contact with an infected mammal highlights the increased risk. When “you come into the mammalian population, then you’re getting closer to humans”, Farrar said, warning that “this virus is just looking for new, novel hosts”.
Farrar called for increased monitoring, saying it was “very important understanding how many human infections are happening … because that’s where adaptation [of the virus] will happen”.
“It’s a tragic thing to say, but if I get infected with H5N1 and I die, that’s the end of it,” he said. “If I go around the community and I spread it to somebody else then you start the cycle.”
He said efforts were under way towards the development of vaccines and therapeutics for H5N1, and stressed the need to ensure that regional and national health authorities around the world had the capacity to diagnose the virus.
This was being done so that “if H5N1 did come across to humans, with human-to-human transmission”, the world would be “in a position to immediately respond”, Farrar said, calling for equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics.
U.N. says more than half of the 2.3 million people in Gaza are suffering from hunger and starvation.
Kazerooni and Prince: Netanyahu’s Slippery Slope to the Abyss
This program was produced on April 19, 2024. It covers the very fluid and dangerous situation in the Middle East today.
Laurie Bretz’s last good bye.
Laurie Bretz. February 8, 2023 on S. Platte Trail and 74 Ave. We went birding that day. Had such a fine time.
(Note: Laurie Bretz is a friend – always will be. She died this past Friday surrounded by loved ones. She had Huntington’s Chorea, a genetically inherited disase which also brought down her father and sister)
We will forever miss her physical presence but have been given the gift of her courage.
in a note from Laurie’s sisters
Dear Friends and Family,
I would like everyone to know why I made the decision to depart this world on Friday, April 12, 2024.
This past November, I began to have difficulties with swallowing. I initially thought that it could be because of the Botox Dr. Kumar had used to help control the twitching in my face. In early January of this year, though, I received the sad news that it was the advancement of my disease, not a side effect of the botox.
I had spent thirteen years on the Wahls Protocol with minimal symptoms, and was able to maintain a level of quality of life with this regime for 13 years. In October of 2023 I moved to Balfour. However, I was not able to enjoy eating since all of my food has to be blended to avoid the risk of choking. Balfour provides the food and then I bring the food to my room in the evening and the next morning my caregiver blends it up for me. I’m having trouble not just swallowing but regurgitating, as well. In addition, my anxiety level is such that I am not sleeping and even having difficulty swallowing the blended food now. Most HD patients have swallowing difficulties. Many have to get feeding tubes. Even with a walker I have trouble walking. I fell down and could not get back up until a big man came along and helped me. I have fallen a couple of times and have a broken nose and holey jeans to prove it! So, my interest in walking has declined making it yet more difficult to be independent. All of you who know and love me understand that this is not the quality of life I wish to live.
My mother’s death was unexpected yet she had a premonition of it. Amy was with her when she had her stroke. I soon arrived at the small community hospital. After Meg and Katie arrived, Katie covered her with the quilt that her “Mimaw” had made for her. At that moment, our Mom breathed her last sigh. It was serene, with music, candles and friends coming to say goodbye.
My mom had a signature dish which everyone loved; her carrot cake. it was known far and wide and will be served at my end of life celebration. and, if I’m lucky, I can sneak a piece with me up into heaven. something like that
okay
Through my experience with my mother I learned that death is very profound. I want to be the one to make the decisions about the terms of my own passing. I want to do this while I still can, while I am still fully autonomous. While I am afraid, I am more afraid of living through the ravages of this disease in the future. I am also incredibly grateful for the full life I have been able to live.
I chose this time very intentionally for all of the symbolism with springtime and the Easter season, death and rebirth, the reawakening of plants and flowers, and rites of passage marking the arrival of spring. The Equinox has significance for all native people. In the northern hemisphere, it marks the end of winter and the beginning of the lengthening daylight hours that allow for growth and expansion of all living beings.
My Huntington’s disease symptoms were mild compared to other people, like my sister Julie who had severe paranoia. She became unsafe for herself and her caregivers so we had to go through legal proceedings to get custody of her in order to find a safe environment for her. She was in a residential psychiatric unit in Denver for about 8 years. My dad was quite explosive and intensely fixated/focused on different things. He died having suffered a lot and was skin and bones. I do not want to see myself suffer as he and my sister did.
“Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife” by Eben Alexander, M.D. has been helpful and inspiring. There is a soul and a spirit that live on. This belief has helped me make the decision to do the MAiD (Medical Aid in Dying) protocol. There are many reasons why this is an advantageous time for me to avail myself of the MAiD program. This program is far superior to any other way I may have chosen to commit suicide. The disadvantage of other ways of committing suicide; i.e. crashing a car, jumping into a river or jumping off a bridge is that I wouldn’t be surrounded by loved ones and be able to have a peaceful and medically supervised experience. This program is where two doctors request medication. Most of the people around me see my suffering and wonder what’s going to happen. The MAiD program is an opportunity for me to recreate the passing of my mother. Quiet music and loved ones around me.
Love Always,
Laurie
A brief not from Laurie’s sisters:
What follows is an addendum from Laurie’s sisters and a few of those present at her End of Life Celebration:
Laurie lived her life championing others’ right to self-determination and she lived her life with the intention of recognizing the good in others, opening doors for those with less power and agency, calling out oppression and evil. Her above letter explains her physical decline and her decision to end her life with dignity and she insisted that those gathered to share special moments with her know that she wanted it called a “celebration”. As we gathered to say farewell to her, she was clear and present, and she received many blessings, abundant love and prayers and meditation from all those that surrounded her.
She ended her life the way she lived it; with autonomy and dignity. Many of those present feel that she gave us her greatest gift in allowing us to be with her and to be inspired by her courage one final time.She would have had more people present but as you can imagine, she would have been overwhelmed had she made this announcement to a wider group of friends beforehand. Please know that even though you may not have been able to say a farewell to her, you can do that in your meditations, walks in nature and prayers. You can still send your energy and blessings to her. In fact, those were her explicit wishes when others asked what they could do for her. She died peacefully and she felt she was ready and anxious to free her soul and spirit from a body that no longer served her. Shortly after she passed, a twister blew huge tumbleweeds helter-skelter 100 feet up in the air!! We took that as a beautifully portentous sign that she was showing us that her soul had taken leave.
We will forever miss her physical presence but have been given the gift of her courage.
Palestine Tet – 128 – Algeria Watch: War on Gaza: Damage to “critical infrastructure” estimated at $18.5 billion
Constantine, Algeria
War on Gaza: Damage to “critical infrastructure” estimated at $18.5 billion
Israel’s genocidal war against the Gaza Strip has caused damage to “critical infrastructure” estimated at $18.5 billion, according to a report released Tuesday.
This amount, resulting from a study carried out jointly by the World Bank (WB), the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), is the first estimate of the effects of bombings and ground combats carried out by the army of Israeli occupation for six months and corresponds to the equivalent of 97% of the GDP of the entire Occupied Palestinian Territories. The report takes into account the destruction carried out between the start of the conflict and the end of January.
The destruction of housing represents a large part of these “critical infrastructures” destroyed (72%), ahead of health, education and “conveniences (water, electricity)” (19%), the rest concerning commercial and industrial equipment. .
Now more than a million people are homeless, out of the 2.2 million inhabitants of the Gaza Strip before the start of the conflict, twice as many as the previous estimate, published in mid-December. Worse still, more than half of the population is close to famine, while the entire population is malnourished or food insecure.
As for health equipment, 84% of them were destroyed or damaged, compared to 60% at the end of 2023, and those still operating have almost no water or electricity to treat their patients or the injured.
The running water and sanitation system is only operating at 5% of its capacity at the beginning of October; and the Ghazawi education system is considered to have completely collapsed, with all of Ghaza’s children being out of school. While half of the road network was destroyed in mid-December, this is now the case for 92% of the primary road network, while the telecommunications network is considered to be “seriously compromised”.
The report also identifies the most essential actions to begin reconstruction, starting with an increase in humanitarian aid and food production, the provision of large-scale shelter and the resumption of essential services. Israel’s horrific aggression against Gaza has already left nearly 33,000 dead, mostly civilians.
The American Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, also called on Israel to do more to “protect innocent civilians”, after the death on Monday of seven workers from the American NGO World Central Kitchen, killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza.
The White House, for its part, said it was “outraged” after the death of seven employees of the NGO World Central Kitchen and assured that humanitarian workers must be protected. President Joe Biden spoke with the founder of the NGO, Spanish chef José Andres, saying he was “heartbroken,” said White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre, adding that he “will send a clear message to Israel that humanitarian workers must be protected.”
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Szejna said Israel must provide explanations, name those responsible and “compensate” the families of the seven humanitarian workers, including a Pole, from the American NGO World Central Kitchen, killed in Gaza during an Israeli strike. Israeli authorities must establish “who should be held criminally responsible for pressing a certain button” and consider “how to compensate the families of the victims, even if it is impossible to do so with money” , Mr. Szejna told private radio ZET.
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D.U. Institute for Comparative & Regional Studies: Palestine & Gaza: A Pathway for Peace in the Middle East. Monday, April 15 @ 5:30 pm
Support the Denver 15: Colorado Jews Say Ceasefire Now!
Palestine Tet – 127 – MondoWeiss: ‘Come out, you animals’: how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital happened.
Jewish Voice for Peace/Not In Our Name protest at the office of U.S. Congresswoman Diana DeGette, late October, 2024.
(Two lies – or at least misconceptions – 1. that the United States is trying to organize a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza. All the statements suggesting Washington is reigning Israel’s savagery in Gaza are just posturing. Sending powerful weapons to Israel at the same Washington claims to be “concerned” about civilian casualties says it all. 2. Israel claims that the Al Shifa Hospital raid resulted in no civilian casualties, Below, a more accurate account. RJP)
MondoWeiss: ‘Come out, you animals’: how the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital happened.
During the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital, the Israeli army shot patients in their beds and doctors who refused to abandon the sick, separated people into groups with differently-colored bracelets, and executed hundreds of civil government employees.
Human heads eaten by crows, unidentified and decomposing body parts, and hundreds of corpses piled up and buried in mass graves are all that remained of the victims of the massacre at al-Shifa Hospital. The grim scene was something out of a dystopian movie, the product of the two-week siege of Gaza’s largest hospital that ended in its total destruction.
Following the completion of al-Shifa’s decimation, the Israeli army announced that it had been one of the most successful operations since the start of the war, claiming that it had arrested hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives in the medical compound. But the question that no one seemed to ask is how such a massive number of so-called Hamas and PIJ “operatives” had gathered at al-Shifa with the full knowledge that the place had already been combed by the army once before and that Gaza City has been occupied by the army ever since.
Mondoweiss contacted many survivors of the events at al-Shifa. Most of them refused to speak and feared having their identities known. A few accepted under the condition of anonymity, fearing that their testimonies would make them targets by the Israeli army and that they would be subsequently killed. In light of the testimonies gathered by Mondoweiss, a different picture emerges of what happened.
The intelligence leak
One young man who managed to escape the hospital mere moments before the army invasion began said that there had indeed been hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated employees in the hospital, but none of them were military operatives. They were workers in the Gaza government’s civil branch, including Civil Defense crews, the police force, the internal security services, interior ministry employees, and employees of other branches of the local government. All of them had gathered to receive their governmental salaries at al-Shifa, given that it was one of the few remaining places that was supposed to be relatively safe from the fighting.
“There was a room in the specialized surgeries building that served as an office for the government branches that operated aboveground,” said the young man, (hereafter named “Z”), referencing the Hamas government’s civilian branches.
Z also confirmed that a number of PIJ members who worked non-military jobs were there as well to receive salaries. “There was another building that was an office for the [PIJ] movement, and the men employed by the movement would go there to collect their salaries.”
“It had been a long time since any of these employees had seen one another,” Z explained. “That’s why they were all chatting in the medical compound and catching up with one another.”
The way the Israeli army described the gathering was that it had obtained confirmed intelligence reports of a large number of “terror operatives” from both groups inside al-Shifa, and after the raid, it announced that it had arrested 900 “suspects” and confirmed that 500 of them were “terror operatives,” while announcing that it had killed 200 more “gunmen,” among them “top commanders in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.”
The siege begins
Z told Mondoweiss that he heard the sound of army vehicles and tanks approaching the hospital minutes before the attack. He and his colleague had also arrived at al-Shifa to receive their salaries.
“When we heard the vehicles, I told my colleague we had to leave immediately, thinking they might be headed toward the hospital itself,” Z said, explaining that anyone employed by the Hamas government is regarded as wanted by Israel. His colleague didn’t listen, believing that the army might be invading a nearby area instead. “He told me they were probably headed to the industrial zone.”
At first, Z’s colleague refused to leave, but as the sound of the tanks drew nearer, both decided to leave immediately. While they were both civilians with no military background, they were both members of the Hamas movement.
A few moments later, the invasion started. They witnessed the tanks surrounding the compound and the arrival of quadcopter drones hovering overhead. In an instant, all of al-Shifa was besieged from land and from air.
Another survivor who had managed to escape the compound said that the majority of intelligence regarding who had gathered at the compound was relayed to Israel by informants, collaborators, and undercover Israeli spies.
“On the night of the invasion, there were two street vendors who always sat at the entrance of al-Shifa,” the survivor told Mondoweiss. “One of them sold water, and the other sold canned foods. When the invasion happened, the two merchants revealed themselves to be soldiers. They took out handguns and entered the hospital with other soldiers, and they directed them where to go. They had been there for a long time and knew where everything was.”
The medical compound housed several buildings, including maternity wards, specialized surgery buildings, and cardiac wings. When the soldiers entered the compound, everyone was ordered to evacuate the buildings. Drones carrying speakers broadcast the army’s orders, telling people that they must exit and gather in the courtyard.
“The drones kept saying, ‘come out, you animals,’” Z told Mondoweiss.
Executions of doctors and suspected government employees
When everyone left the buildings, the army began to separate the crowds of people into groups, making each group wear differently-colored plastic bracelets. The soldiers told them that these bracelets were connected to a system that alerts snipers to their movements. They were divided into two colors: yellow, which was attached to hospital staff and whoever the army considered civilians, and red, which was given to people who could not move on their own, such as patients, the injured, amputees, or people with broken limbs.
The army also gathered people who were suspected of belonging to Hamas or the PIJ and separated them from the rest. They were not given bracelets, but were separated from the injured and hospital staff, who were sent to a different building.
A third much larger group was ordered to leave the hospital entirely — thousands of displaced persons who had been sheltering in the compound, in addition to some members of the hospital staff. Some of the staff members, including doctors, refused to leave. Those who persisted in refusing orders were executed immediately and without argument.
The army then brought out a huge number of men from the group of suspected Hamas and PIJ members and employees, gathering them in the center of the courtyard. It then proceeded to execute them, one after the other. When the slaughter was done, army bulldozers piled up their corpses in the dozens, dragging them through the sand and burying them.
As this was ongoing, other soldiers stormed various buildings in the compound in search of people who had refused to evacuate when the initial order was given. They killed anyone they found, regarding them as suspects.
There were some in the hospital who resisted and attempted to open fire, including police officers carrying handguns. That number of people was minor, and their resistance did not save them — they were killed along with those who did not put up any resistance.
A video published on social media filmed by a journalist at the hospital shows a female doctor, who identified herself as Amira al-Safadi, describing what happened.
“After the first day of the attack, which we were surprised by at 2 a.m., the army ordered us not to leave when it entered,” Dr. Safadi says. “Then, on the second day, it gave us the bracelets and emphasized that we had to wear them and that anyone who left the building without wearing one would be immediately killed.”
“We were sent to four different buildings,” she continues, describing that she joined a number of other doctors and nurses with their patients. “Around 16 injured patients died because we were unable to treat them.”
By the time the army withdrew from al-Shifa, the entire compound had been all but decimated, reduced to rubble and burnt buildings.
One of ‘largest massacres in Palestinian history’
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the massacre at al-Shifa was one of the largest in Palestinian history, estimating that at least 1,500 people had been killed, about half of whom were women and children. The organization also confirms that at least 22 patients were shot while in their hospital beds, while the number of displaced persons sheltering at the hospital who were forced to evacuate southward was estimated to include 25,000 people. Moreover, 1,200 housing units in the vicinity of al-Shifa were destroyed.
Despite the army’s claims about the al-Shifa operation’s strategic and military importance and the number of alleged Hamas and PIJ members it had arrested and killed, it overshadowed the intended purpose of the operation, which was to destroy the health system in northern Gaza and worsen the already disastrous humanitarian conditions. The entire compound is now unfit for use. Even the morgue, containing countless bodies of the slain, was burned down.
Israel’s “operation” at al-Shifa was, indeed, a success, and that success was to put Gaza’s largest hospital out of service.
Tareq S. Hajjaj
Tareq S. Hajjaj is the Mondoweiss Gaza Correspondent, and a member of the Palestinian Writers Union. He studied English Literature at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. He started his career in journalism in 2015 working as a news writer and translator for the local newspaper, Donia al-Watan. He has reported for Elbadi, Middle East Eye, and Al Monitor. Follow him on Twitter at @Tareqshajjaj.
The Our World Podcast – Rob Prince – Part Two: An AntiZionist Jew, Me.
This link is to the second part of an extended interview with me done by The Our World Podcast. It gives background to the current murderous Israeli offensive in Gaza, A lot of it deals with the bumpy relationship between Zionism and Judaism. It ws conducted in Lakewood, Colorado on April 2, 2024.
The Our World Podcast – Rob Prince – Part One: History of Zionism, Palestinian Nationalism
Speer and Champa. December 3, 2023. Jewish Voice for Peace member being escorted to a paddy wagon, getting arrested at a civil disobedience protesting a conference held by the Jewish National Fund in Denver, and in support of an immediate ceasefire which the Biden Administration still opposes months and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives later.
Over the past two months, The Our World Podcast” crew conducted two interviews with me, Rob Prince. This first one concerns background to Israel’s murderous incursion into Gaza, done with full U.S. support. Conducted in January, 2024, it is long, an hour and forty minutes.
There was a second extended interview held in April, 2024.That will be posted later.
No, Israel does not have the “right to self defense” – in Gaza, according to international law: some citations
1. Jadaliyya: No, Israel Does Not Have the Right to Self-Defense In International Law Against Occupied Palestinian Territory
“A state cannot simultaneously exercise control over territory it occupies and militarily attack that territory on the claim that it is “foreign” and poses an exogenous national security threat. In doing precisely that, Israel is asserting rights that may be consistent with colonial domination but simply do not exist under international law.”
2. MondoWeiss: Israel does not have a right to self-defense for its occupation by Mitchell Plitnick
“So here’s a news flash: Israel actually does not have the right to defend itself in terms of the West Bank and Gaza. It has the right to protect its citizens, but it does not have the right to use overwhelming military force against people under its occupation. ”
(Note: We hear ad nauseum of “Israel’s right to defend itself”. Above are two articles which challenge that notion, arguing that, according to international law there is no such “right”. RJP)
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WHERE ARE WE NOW? After two months in Russia, including two trips to Donbass, allow me to offer a realistic appraisal of the NATO-Russia proxy war, based on numerous deep-digging conversations with serious players, including commanders in the field.
Russia is de facto de-populating Ukraine of neo/crypto Nazis of all persuasions. That was one of the objectives of the SMO from the beginning – alongside de-militarization.
The ultimate objective remains the same: whatever’s left of Ukraine should be a neutral, non-NATO state.
This is NOT about gaining control of territory. Russia already has waaaay more land than it’s able to develop – an issue I discussed in some detail with people from several oblasts (I’m dying to go to Kamchatka, Altai, Buryatia, Yamal…)
The Kremlin/Security Council has a clear strategy. Terrorism – against civilians and against infrastructure – will NOT deviate them from the strategy.
USUKEU – short for NATOstan – and their Ukronazi puppets in Kiev are growing more desperate every passing second. THEIR preferred strategy from now on is Terror.
There’s every possibility of another strike on the Crimea bridge – Budanov already said so. Not to mention against civilians in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
Mr. 87% has a popular mandate to do whatever it takes. Depending on the terror escalation, retribution may go off the charts and reach real Highway to Hell. Or not.
The Brits will continue to be obsessed with sinking as many Black Sea ships as possible with drones and cruise missiles. Targeting info comes from USUK spy planes based in Romania. Russia is not “neutralizing” them – yet.
Drones/missiles/HIMARS are wrecking refineries deep inside Russia; decimating the Black Sea fleet; and constantly wiping out combat vehicles. NATO does have a tech advantage over Russia on some key fields – and that’s why the proxy war is dragging on and on and on.
And the proxy war will continue to drag on.
Because Russia still does not have all it takes to wear the Americans and NATO out. The only certainty is that there will be more asymmetrical warfare “surprises” in store. CIA/MI6 will continue to weave their terror architecture via all sorts of proxies – and not only ISIS-K.
There’s no indication that Moscow is going to strike back directly. Because that would mean a Russia-NATO open/hot war.
All of the above explains the current – avowedly infuriating – Russian strategy. Meat grinder along the frontlines. Minimal Russian casualties. Detailed targeting to take out virtually all of Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure.
Yet de-militarization – certainly in progress – will eventually have to reach the stage of regime decapitation.
And the corollary will be inevitable: Unconditional Surrender. There’s simply no other possible scenario for Moscow. Towards the endgame, Russia will not call for “negotiations”.
The meat of the matter was laid out in the December 2021 draft treaty on “indivisibility of security” – which the Americans barely read, and certainly did not understand.
The Bear can wait. It’s all there. It will be up to the Hegemon to finally decide to sit on the table. Before being totally humiliated, sooner or later, terror or no terror, in the black soil of Novorossiya.
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Lebanon. South of the Litani River. June, 1981. Shot from Rashidiyyah Palestinian Camp south of Tyre. (R. Prince photo)
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Note: This article is a “google translation of a piece that appeared in Arabic at Raialyoum, an Arabic news source. I print it mostly because we in the USA virtually never get news about the fighting going on between Hezbollah in S. Lebanon and the Israeli forces in N. Israel.
As this article notes – Israel continues to “break red lines” in an effort to provoke Hezbollah to launch a full scale war against Israel that Netanyahu is counting on, would draw the U.S. directly into the conflict.
Extremely tense, fluid times … as both Israel and the USA suffer from “wounded beast syndrome’
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“Hezbollah” announces the targeting of Israeli soldiers and sites, and clashes escalate with the Israeli army.. and martyrs, including two members of the party.. and an Israeli raid on a center for the Amal Movement in southern Lebanon.
Wassim Saif Al-Din/Anatolia
Hezbollah announced launching attacks with artillery and rocket shells, on Friday, on Israeli soldiers and military sites after occupation raids on towns in southern Lebanon that killed two people.
This came in various statements published by the party through its social media accounts.
The party reported that its fighters targeted, with “appropriate weapons” (which it did not specify), “the spy equipment in the Israeli “Zarit” military barracks, and “directly hit it.”
He added that his fighters targeted with artillery and rocket shells a movement of Israeli army soldiers and vehicles at the Al-Malikiyah site, and “achieved confirmed hits.”
Hezbollah indicated that its fighters targeted, with a guided missile, a military vehicle at the gate of the “Al-Matula” site, “hitting it directly, which led to its destruction and its crew being killed and wounded.”
He pointed out that they also targeted the “Hadab Yaron” Israeli military site with artillery shells and “directly hit it.”
The party also targeted with artillery shells a deployment of Israeli army soldiers in the vicinity of the “Al-Manara” military site, and “hit it directly,” according to its statements.
There was no confirmation from the Israeli side of these “Hezbollah” announcements until 15:05 GMT.
On Friday, Hezbollah announced the martyrdom of two of its members in clashes with the Israeli army in southern Lebanon, bringing the number of its martyrs to 267 since last October 8.
In separate statements, Hezbollah mourned the racists, “Bilal Haidar Halal, born in 1996 from the town of Qana in southern Lebanon, and Ali Nasser Abd Ali, born in 1998 from the town of Aytit (south).”
The party explained that its members “rose martyrs on the road to Jerusalem,” as it put it, without details about the circumstances of their killing.
With the martyrdom of two members, the party’s death toll as a result of clashes with the Israeli army rises to 267 since October 8, according to Anatolia monitoring.
Earlier today, two people were killed and a third was injured in an Israeli air strike that targeted a house in the town of Aita al-Shaab in southern Lebanon, according to the official Lebanese News Agency.
It added that Israeli warplanes also bombed 4 homes in the towns of “Kafr Kila,” “Tair Harfa,” and “Al-Zaloutiya,” and on the outskirts of the town of “Zibqin,” without clarifying the identity of the targeted homes, and whether or not this resulted in casualties.
Subsequently, Hezbollah announced launching attacks with artillery and rocket shells on Israeli soldiers and military sites in Zarit, Al-Malikiyah, Metulla, Hadab Yaron, and Al-Manara, in which it achieved “direct hits.”
The Israeli army claimed, in simultaneous statements, that it had targeted Hezbollah sites with air strikes, including “infrastructure, two military buildings, and a reconnaissance site.”
Three people were martyred and another wounded, on Friday, in an Israeli raid that targeted a center for the “Amal Movement” in the Nabatieh Governorate, southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese News Agency reported that “three martyrs and one wounded were killed in an enemy raid that targeted a center for the Amal Movement in the village of Jdeidet Marjayoun.”
The agency reported that this afternoon, Israeli forces fired machine-gun fire towards the town of Al-Dhahira.
No statement was issued by the Amal Movement about the raid until 17:00 (UTG).
In the wake of a devastating Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, which led to Tel Aviv being brought before the International Court of Justice on charges of “genocide,” the Israeli-Lebanese border has witnessed, since October 8, 2023, an exchange of fire between the Israeli army on the one hand, and “Hezbollah.” And Palestinian factions, on the other hand, led to deaths and injuries on both sides of the border.
Recently, threats have escalated from Israeli officials to expand attacks on Lebanese territory unless Hezbollah fighters withdraw away from the border with northern Israel.
Linda Sarsour’s talk at Colorado State University. April 3, 2024.
This is the second time within a month that Palestinian author and activist, Linda Sarsour, was invited to speak at a Colorado university. Earlier she spoke at the University of Colorado – Boulder.
In both cases there was resistance to her presence from Zionist student organizations and pro-Zionist Jewish Community elements who tried to get her talks cancelled. Then as now, these efforts failed; the students involved in bringing Sarsour to their campus fought successfully to overcome these efforts to silence free speech.
I would guess about 200 people were in the audience last night, overwhelmingly students. From what I could tell, very few, if any, faculty members were in attendance. The audience had a similar makeup during her Boulder talk.
Had a chance to exchange a few words with Linda Sarsour before her presentation.
In attendance were three women – all in their 60s. Using gorilla glue – good stuff – they had glued themselves to the wall of the city council building in protest to the Ft. Collins city council for refusing to pass a ceasefire resolution. I guess gorilla glue works pretty well as it was necessary to call the fire department to separate the women from the wall.
“Come Learn About Palestine”. Video from talk given in Raton, New Mexico. Saturday, March 30, 2024
The event was sponsored by the Colfax/Las Animas Forum for Peace and Justice.
The State Department official who quit over the Biden Administration’s support for Israeli genocide against Gazay is Annelle Sheline
Palestine Tet – 125 – Day 180 – Euro-Med Monitor: The Israeli Genocide in the Gaza Strip
Numbers of casualties here are always about 25% higher than what we hear from other sources. I have found their reporting accurate in the past.
Two million people displaced, nearly 118,000 dead and wounded, nearly 400,000 completely and partially destroyed homes, 869 targeted healthcare professionals either dead or wounded …
Josh Paul, former State Department official puts just a bit of the horror into perspective:
Israel’s murder of World Central Kitchen aid workers comes on the day that Israel wrapped up its operations in al Shifa Hospital that have left the ground littered with decaying body parts.
And nor is it by any means the first strike on humanitarian aid workers. In February Israel murdered US citizen Mousa Shawwa, logistics coordinator for Anera. In November it murdered three doctors from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and in December it murdered Reem Abu Lebdeh, who was a Board Member of MSF UK.
It has murdered over 100 journalists, many of them on-the-clock and wearing press jackets. It has murdered hundreds of UN aid workers.
It has struck hundreds of “deconflicted” humanitarian sites, including churches, shelters, and pharmacy storehouses.
And of course in February after having given direct permission for an ambulance to retrieve 6-year-old Hind Rajab from the car where she sat surrounded by the dead bodies of her parents, it struck that ambulance, murdering the medics within it.
In that context, last week the U.S. Department of State authorized the transfer of over 2,000 more bombs and 25 F-35 fighter jets; this week it will likely authorize 1,000 more munitions and notify Congress of the proposed sale of 50 F-15 fighter jets and associated upgrades worth over $18.8 billion dollars.
The Biden Administration cries wolf of concern for Palestinian civilians while rushing a major shiop of powerful bombs to bolster Israeli stockpiles.
This is Washington’s war as well as Tel Aviv and the term “Genocide Joe” applied to Biden and his administration is apt.
Six months into Israel’s genocidal attack – with new horrors inflicted on the Palestinian people of Gaza every day – the world is becoming exhausted by the Palestinian issue. But then there is a growing fatigue and fear growing both in Washington and Tel Aviv, a fatigue that has a strong element of panic as their global isolation intensifies and Washingont watches its prestige plummet with every doctor and aid worker killed in Israeli missile strikes, with every child that dies of starvation while gleeful Israelis – with the support of the Netanyahu government – prevent the aid caravans from entering Gaza.
Regardless, we have work to do, to stop the genocide, We thought Israel’s war on Gaza would be a sprint, over in a few weeks, like earlier conflicts. Instead it is a long-distance race. We need to adjust to this fact and continue our work for a ceasefire, to end the genocide, and to bring Washington and Tel Aviv to justice for the crimes against humanity they continue to carry out everyday.
Nothing else matters ….
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 