Category: News

On COI #109, Libertarian Institute writer Connor Freeman returns to the show to break down this week’s events in Palestine.

Days of heated protests over looming evictions of Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem prompted harsh police crackdowns, including around Al Aqsa mosque, among the holiest sites in Islam. The clampdown prompted flurries of Hamas rocket fire into Israeli cities, followed by hundreds of IDF strikes that hammered the blockaded Gaza Strip, leaving more than 100 Palestinians dead by Thursday night. At least six Israelis have also perished in the flare-up. 

Connor, Kyle and Will give background on Israel’s decades-long military occupation of Palestinian land in the West Bank, where illegal settlements continue to expand onto Arab-owned property with full support of Tel Aviv’s advanced, US-funded military.

On YouTube or audio.

From Tales of the Empire:

President Barack Obama’s plan to reduce American combat forces in Afghanistan failed after the large city of Kunduz was overrun in September 2015. This was the first Afghan city to fall to insurgents since the war began in 2001. This embarrassment was magnified after a C-130 transport aircraft crashed while taking off from Jalalabad that claimed the lives of six American airmen and five contractors. The Taliban claimed credit, but the Americans were unsure why it crashed. The American CIA’s aerial assassination program was failing to suppress the insurgency and senior American officials were angry. Someone wanted revenge and ordered an aerial attack on a hospital in Kunduz where Taliban fighters were being treated, killing 24 patients and 18 medical staff, leaving 33 persons missing and over 30 wounded.

SOURCES

Dr. Akram Kewidar, an assistant professor at the Israa University, Gaza, has sent me videos of the Zionist carnage occurring in the Palestinian enclave. Israeli bombs are reducing entire residential buildings to dust and rubble; bodies lie mangled in pulverized cars; corpses are strewn on the streets like the remains of flattened houses. As I write these words, nearly 83 people, including 17 children, have died; another 500 are injured.

There seems no possibility of respite in the ferocious Israeli attacks. Benny Gantz, the Israeli defense minister, has stated: "Israel is not preparing for a ceasefire. There is currently no end date for the operation. Only when we achieve complete quiet can we talk about calm." Even as the air offensive continues, plans are being made for a ground operation in Gaza.

In spite of the totally indefensible nature of what is going in Gaza, the desensitized and deafening support for Israeli terrorism continues. After speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 12, 2021, US President Joe Biden told reporters at the White House that "Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory." Biden is not even trying to hide his hypocrisy. He shows no parallel concern for Palestinians as Israel continues to assault Gaza in the most atrocious way.

Continue reading “Israeli Barbarism in Gaza”

From Conflicts of Interest with Kyle Anzalone:

Dave DeCamp, News Editor at Antiwar.com, returns to Conflicts of Interest to discuss Biden’s foreign policy through his first 100 days in office. As a candidate, Biden pledged to end the forever wars and scale back tensions with Iran. While he has reduced some US support for the Saudi-US war in Yemen, Biden has continued to provide Riyadh with the support needed to wage its lethal bombing campaign. In Afghanistan, Biden announced the withdrawal of US forces, though statements from administration officials reveal plans to continue the war through less transparent methods.

On the campaign trail, Biden pledged to save his former boss’s agreement with Iran. As president, he has dragged his feet and refused to undo Trump’s disastrous policies. Biden has kept his pledge for an aggressive China policy, however, increasing hostile US war games in the South China Sea and American support for Taiwan. Dave warns this path could lead to war.

Israel’s military faced war crime accusations Tuesday after carrying out an airstrike that completely destroyed a high-rise apartment building in densely populated Gaza City, prompting a massive barrage of retaliatory rocket fire as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to further escalate violence that has already left over 30 people – almost all of them Palestinians – dead.

Israeli media and a United Nations official report residents of the 13-story apartment building in the Al-Rimal neighborhood of western Gaza City were repeatedly warned – including by telephone and a “roof-knocking” airstrike – of the impending attack, which occurred around 8:30 pm local time.

Video of the Israeli strike shows multiple explosions followed by the tower’s collapse. International observers promptly noted that the deliberate destruction of homes when not “imperatively demanded by the necessities of war” is a war crime.

Continue reading “Israel Condemned for ‘Unambiguous War Crime’ After Destroying Gaza Apartment Tower”

At the High Line, a popular tourist attraction in New York City, visitors to the west side of Lower Manhattan ascend above street level to what was once an elevated freight train line and is now a tranquil and architecturally intriguing promenade. Here walkers enjoy a park-like openness where they can experience urban beauty, art, and the wonder of comradeship.

In late May, a Predator drone replica, appearing suddenly above the High Line promenade at 30th Street, might seem to scrutinize people below. The “gaze” of the sleek, white sculpture by Sam Durant, called “Untitled (drone),” in the shape of the U.S. military’s Predator killer drone, will sweep unpredictably over the people below, rotating atop its twenty-five-foot-high steel pole, its direction guided by the wind.

Unlike the real Predator, it won’t carry two Hellfire missiles and a surveillance camera. The drone’s death-delivering features are omitted from Durant’s sculpture. Nevertheless, he hopes it will generate discussion.

Continue reading “Art Against Drones”