The ceasefire in Lebanon will not last long

 Al Jazeera English

And so it has come to pass. Late on Tuesday night, Israel agreed to a ceasefire in Lebanon, which came into effect at 4am (02:00 GMT) on Wednesday. The deal, in theory, puts an end to a nearly 14-month war that has killed thousands of Lebanese and dozens of Israelis. Over a period of 60 days, Israel will withdraw its forces from Lebanon, and Hezbollah will pull back from the border area. The Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip will meanwhile carry on undeterred.

Those familiar with Israel’s modus operandi could sense the imminence of a ceasefire in Lebanon, given the recent surge in manic bombardment by the Israeli military, which has a habit of stepping up its acts of lethal barbarism whenever there is a looming danger of temporary peace.

True to form, Israel spent much of the day prior to the ceasefire announcement bombing the living daylights out of various parts of Lebanon, including the capital, Beirut, where its sadistic pounding of residential areas – pardon, “Hezbollah infrastructure” – sent much of the population fleeing in terrorised panic. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.

ICC arrest warrants: Netanyahu is certainly a criminal, but …

 Al Jazeera English

Yesterday, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, “for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed from at least 8 October 2023 until at least 20 May 2024”, as per the ICC press release. . . .

Among the war crimes charges against Netanyahu and Gallant are that “both individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024”. The latter date refers to the day that the ICC prosecutor filed the applications for the arrest warrants and is not, obviously, an indication that Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip have abated over the past six months.

Officially, the Israeli military has killed nearly 45,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, although the true death toll is undoubtedly many times higher. And while a United Nations committee recently found Israel’s methods of warfare in the Gaza Strip to be “consistent with genocide”, the ICC has stopped short of calling Israel out on this front, instead specifying that the court “could not determine that all elements of the crime against humanity of extermination were met”. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.

Biden (maybe) wants Israel to stop using US bulldozers for ethnic cleansing

 Al Jazeera English

On Sunday, Israeli media reported a freeze in certain bulldozer shipments from the United States to Israel. The prominent English-language website Ynet News, for example, went with the sensational headline: “D9 bulldozer shipment stalled by US embargo, leaving Israeli soldiers exposed.” To be sure, there is nothing more tragic than “exposed” soldiers belonging to a genocidal army.

According to the article, 134 bulldozers “ordered and paid for” by the Israeli military are currently “awaiting export approval from the US State Department” but their shipment has been stymied by internal US opposition and an apparent decision by President Joe Biden’s administration to freeze deliveries “for several months”. The D9 model is manufactured by the US firm Caterpillar Inc.

Some observers have taken this move to mean that the Bidenites are registering their displeasure with the Israeli war crime of ethnic cleansing. But if you’re going to be against ethnic cleansing, why not go all the way and be against genocide too? READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.

Prepping Readers to Accept Mass Slaughter in Lebanese ‘Strongholds’

FAIR

Back in May 2015, the New York Times’ Isabel Kershner decided to moonlight as an Israeli military propagandist by penning an alleged exposé (5/12/15)—headlined “Israel Says Hezbollah Positions Put Lebanese at Risk”—in which she diligently conveyed all that Israel had to say about Hezbollah’s infrastructure in south Lebanon.

The minuscule hamlet of Muhaybib, for example, was said to contain no fewer than “nine arms depots, five rocket-launching sites, four infantry positions, signs of three underground tunnels, three anti-tank positions and, in the very center of the village, a Hezbollah command post.” In the village of Shaqra, home to approximately 4,000 people, the Israeli army had meanwhile identified some “400 military sites and facilities belonging to Hezbollah.”

Only after 11 full paragraphs of transmitting the Israeli line did Kershner manage to insert the disclaimer that “the Israeli claims could not be independently verified.” But by that time, of course, the damage had been done, the reader having already been persuaded that south Lebanon was one big Hezbollah military installation, where Israel could not afford to concern itself with civilian lives in any future conflict. Driving the point home was former Israeli national security adviser Yaakov Amidror, who informed Kershner that “many, many Lebanese will be killed” in the next showdown with Hezbollah. READ MORE AT FAIR.

It was anger that won Trump this election

 Al Jazeera English

Despite obviously belonging to America’s financial super-elite, the billionaire Trump has wooed a wide sector of the domestic working class into viewing him as a saviour from their economic plight in a plutocratic system of which he himself is an integral part. The indignant appeal to “Make America Great Again” deliberately ignores the fact that there was never anything great about a nation predicated on mass socioeconomic inequality, where Republicans and Democrats alike perpetuate plutocracy under the guise of democracy. READ MORE AT AL JAZEERA ENGLISH.