In an unprecedented escalation which could reshape alliances in the Middle East, American officials have confirmed that Israel was behind an airstrike on an Iraqi ammunition depot operated by a pro-Iran militia last month, according to The Associated Press:

Two American officials said Israel carried out an attack on an Iranian weapons depot in July that killed two Iranian military commanders. The U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

The admission comes after two more mystery explosions rocked paramilitary bases in and around Baghdad within the last two weeks, resulting in multiple paramilitary members killed, at least one civilian death, and dozens of injured, and which prompted Iraq's Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi to close the country's airspace to all “unauthorized flights"

The Iranian tanker which had been detained for the past five weeks in Gilbraltar has suddenly switched its ship data to show it is headed to a Turkish port, instead of arriving at waters off southern Greece, as previously planned.

Reuters has cited real-time ship tracking website MarineTraffic to show the change in the Adrian Darya's (formerly called Grace 1) destination. This after the US State Department threatened that should Greece provide any aid or facilities to the vessel carrying 2.1 million barrels of Iranian oil, it would be tantamount to "material support to terrorism".

The Unites States says the tanker is controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and thus deems any state's interaction with it support of a formally designated terrorist group. There's still an active US seizure warrant for the vessel.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has acknowledged for the first time the presence of Russian military fighting alongside Syrian regime forces in the Idlib assault, confirming numerous earlier reports.

During a press conference he held following a meeting with Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Botchway yesterday, Lavrov confirmed that “There are Russian soldiers on the ground in the Syrian province of Idlib,” stating that Russia would respond to any attack on its soldiers in Syria.

The acknowledgment by Russia of its direct military presence on the ground in the province is the first which has been made following months of speculation and reports of the troops’ presence over the past month, particularly after Syrian opposition forces sighted the deployment of Russian troops in July.

In what is a severely under reported but perhaps the most alarming development out of the Middle East this week, Iraq's government has said it's ready to down any aircraft violating its airspace amid a blanket ban on 'unauthorized' flights not specifically approved by the prime minister's office. Military Times reported the day after Iraq closed its airspace on Thursday:

U.S. military officials in Iraq will now seek out Iraqi approval before launching any air operations, a move made a day after that nation’s prime minister announced a ban of unauthorized flights, including those involving coalition forces fighting ISIS.

Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi called for an end to all “unauthorized flights” including US drones, spy planes, jets, or helicopters on Thursday. The directive demanded that all aerial vehicles comply with Iraqi law and operations must be under Iraqi government authorization.

Netanyahu also related to the furor caused by the decision to bar entry to US congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

B

The Israel Project’s head of fundraising was caught on camera denigrating his own donors.

Israeli police clash with Palestinian Muslim worshipers in the al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the start of Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice) festivities.

War over Peace, by the Israeli sociologist Uri Ben-Eliezer, raises several questions about the nature of Israeli society, chief among them being: Why has Israel attempted to solve virtually every conflict it has encountered or engendered by military rather than diplomatic means?

Israel officially decided Thursday to bar Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) from entering the country, according to a statement by Tipi Hotovely, the country’s deputy foreign minister.

Reuters, quoting Hotovely on Israel’s Reshet Radio, said: “The decision has been made, the decision is not to allow them to enter.”

What is happening under our very eyes should shame us all, it is the unresolved question that should never be separated from the Holocaust and that the “Jewish state” again and again as a license for their crimes against human rights and international law, robbery, raids and use Zionist propaganda.

Arab Member of the Knesset Ahmad Tibi said he does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem or Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Speaking on Israeli television, Tibi said that he could not accept the presence of any Jew in Al-Aqsa Mosque, adding that Al-Aqsa is exclusive to Muslims, adding that Jerusalem is an occupied city.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing US President Donald Trump to give the go-ahead for Israel’s annexation of the West Bank before the country’s upcoming general election.

Officials in the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office told the Times of Israel’s Hebrew-language site on Sunday that Netanyahu is seeking a public declaration from President Trump in support of Israel’s annexation of “Area C” of the occupied West Bank, where the majority of its some 500 illegal settlements are located.

Netanyahu is pushing for President Trump to issue such a declaration before Israel’s general election on 17 September in a bid to secure his Likud party’s victory and therefore his re-election as prime minister.

Iraq has slammed Israel’s participation in the US-led Gulf maritime mission, stressing that its involvement will only increase tensions in the region.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Al-Hakim wrote on Twitter yesterday that Iraq “rejects any participation of forces of the Zionist entity [Israel] in any military force to secure passage of ships in the Arabian Gulf.”

Israeli police injured dozens of Palestinians praying at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem on Sunday, the first day of Eid al-Adha or Feast of the Sacrifice.

The Muslim holiday this year coincides with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av, which in Jewish belief commemorates the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem.

The Islamic Waqf – the body responsible for Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem – announced on Friday that only the al-Aqsa mosque would open its doors for prayers in Jerusalem on the first day of the holiday.

Israel initially closed the al-Aqsa mosque compound, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif, for Jewish worshippers on Sunday, as is the norm, to avoid clashes with Muslim worshippers.

An East London council banned a charity bike ride raising money for Palestinian children from using its public parks, internal emails revealed last week.

The council also secretly sent a list of proposed speakers to the Metropolitan Police asking if they were “extremist,” The Electronic Intifada can reveal.

The emails indicate that Tower Hamlets secretly based their decision on the “furore within the Labour Party over anti-Semitism” and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s discredited definition of anti-Semitism.

Last week, for the 149th time in a row, Israel demolished the Palestinian Bedouin village of al-Araqib in the Negev desert.

Police raided the village and broke the tin homes belonging to the Bedouins. Tin construction material was confiscated to make it harder for them to rebuild their homes, leaving them homeless in temperatures that could reach 40 degrees Celsius this time of the year.

Israeli home demolitions are well publicised. Solidarity campaigns routinely brief the public opinion about them. But often, the focus is on home demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territories, which have been stepped up dramatically this year as Israel prepares to annex the rest of the West Bank.

The contract to purchase two Iron Dome systems for the U.S. Army’s interim cruise missile defense capability has been finalized, according to the deputy in charge of the service’s air and missile defense modernization efforts.

Iron Dome was co-developed by American company Raytheon and Israeli defense firm Rafael. It is partly manufactured in the United States.

In a response to a recent question inquiring whether or not Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is racist, New Jersey Senator and presidential hopeful Cory Booker said he entered the Senate to stand up for the state of Israel.

Booker was asked about Netanyahu at the Iowa State Fair on August 10 by Jewish Insider’s Ben Jacobs. Booker didn’t answer the question directly and seemingly objected to its premise. His response mainly focused on how he believes the Trump administration has endangered Israel. Booker told Jacobs:

Hundreds of Jewish settlers on Sunday forced their way into Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, according to a Palestinian official, Anadolu reports.

“Since the morning, over 1,729 Jewish settlers have entered the compound,” Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Religious Endowments Authority said in a statement.

“The settlers incursions were backed by Israeli police officers,” he said.

Israeli forces attacked Palestinian worshippers in Jerusalem’s flashpoint Al-Aqsa mosque complex on Sunday, injuring at least 65, according to a Palestinian official, Anadolu Agency reports.

“A number of Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli forces inside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound,” said Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for Jerusalem’s Jordan-run Religious Endowments Authority.

“The Palestinians were injured while they were preventing Jewish settlers from storming the holy mosque,” he added.

Israeli forces mapped overnight Sunday the homes of two Palestinians suspected in the West Bank murder of Israeli soldier Dvir Sorek, ahead of a possible demolition, reports Haaretz.

Cousins Nseir Asafra, 24, and Kassem Asafra, 30, were arrested on Saturday in the Palestinian town of Beit Kahil, northwest of Hebron. Kassem’s wife Enas was also arrested, as was a third man, Akrama Asafra, on suspicion of aiding the two suspects.

The area of Wadi Yasul in Silwan, housing over 500 residents, has been slated for demolition by Israeli authorities.

With nowhere to expand over the decades, the residents of Wadi Yasul have had to build without difficult-to-obtain Israeli permits, subjecting them to demolition orders and displacement.

Scores of Palestinians injured amid protests after hundreds of settlers allowed into the compound on Jewish holiday

ISRAEL and US are heading towards an outbreak of war with Iran, according to a leading US official, amid escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf.

Remark follows reports Israel taking part in US-led mission to secure Western vessels in Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has seized several tankers

A prestigious religious institute for Israeli army officer candidates is embroiled again in anti-human rhetoric. A rabbi at the school has been exposed (Hebrew) calling for the enslavement of Palestinians. The text was discovered by blogger/lawyer Yair Nehorai, who’s been documenting the scandalous teaching of the Bnei David religious college rabbis for over a year.

Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel, the head of Bnei David, a military religious college in the settlement of Eli in the occupied West Bank, was lecturing about “slavery and the position of workers according to Judaism”, and offered a justification of Jewish supremacy and the enslavement of Palestinians under occupation:

Israeli police fired rubber bullets and tear gas inside the Al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem on Sunday after worshipping Muslims objected to around 450 Israeli settlers being allowed into the holy site despite it being the first day of Eid al-Adha.

The Muslim celebrations coincided with the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'av, which sees an increase in Jewish visits to the Al-Aqsa compound.

The Israeli actions broke up the festival atmosphere inside the area as thousands of Muslims worshippers had gathered to celebrate Eid al-Adha.

BDS Malaysia would like to thank Kevin Watkins of Save the Children UK, for elucidating the terrible deprivations now being inflicted on the people of Gaza, especially the children there.

Watkins is absolutely right in that the humanitarian crisis engulfing the Gazan population has not received the highlighting it deserves in the world media. It is but one manifestation of the double standards and hypocrisy of the world’s major media outlets which have helped to prolong the agony and suffering of Palestinians to more than seven decades.

The misleadingly-named Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2019 has been introduced to the US House of Representatives shortly before its summer recess.

Republican lawmaker Doug Collins, who proposed the bill, is portraying it as “an effective tool for investigating whether prohibited discriminatory actions have become a barrier to learning” in universities.

As the legislation notes, however, the Department of Education already is empowered to investigate incidents of anti-Semitism as a form of discrimination.

A careful reading of its text suggests that its real intent is to muzzle students and teachers who oppose Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

SOURCE: RT

Millionaire financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has died in a Manhattan jail, with law enforcement sources saying he killed himself. Epstein was in custody pending trial for child sex trafficking and for conspiracy.

The incident comes two weeks after the 66-year-old was found “injured and in a fetal position” on the floor of his cell, with injuries to his neck. Epstein had been placed on suicide watch as a result.

Law enforcement sources told multiple news outlets that Epstein had committed suicide on Saturday morning, with his body wheeled out and taken to a New York hospital around 7:30am.

Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy. The charges against the millionaire allege that he'd abused dozens of young girls at his properties in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, some of them as young as 14. Aside from the offenses alleged, rumors circulated of further child abuse at Epstein’s private Caribbean island.

SOURCE: RT

Millionaire financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein has died in a Manhattan jail, with law enforcement sources saying he killed himself. Epstein was in custody pending trial for child sex trafficking and for conspiracy.

The incident comes two weeks after the 66-year-old was found “injured and in a fetal position” on the floor of his cell, with injuries to his neck. Epstein had been placed on suicide watch as a result.

Law enforcement sources told multiple news outlets that Epstein had committed suicide on Saturday morning, with his body wheeled out and taken to a New York hospital around 7:30am.

Epstein was arrested on July 6 and charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy. The charges against the millionaire allege that he'd abused dozens of young girls at his properties in Manhattan and Palm Beach, Florida, some of them as young as 14. Aside from the offenses alleged, rumors circulated of further child abuse at Epstein’s private Caribbean island.

The State Department has updated the working definition of anti-Semitism detailed on its website to include comparisons between current Israeli policies and those of the Nazis. The move comes just two weeks after the House passed a resolution denouncing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and amidst consistent attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for introducing a bill that affirms the right to boycott foreign countries in the name of human rights.

The revised definition was first spotted by Israeli-American Council chairman Adam Milstein. On August 6 he tweeted, “The State [Department] just updated the definition of #Antisemitism to include “Drawing Comparison of Contemporary #Israeli policy to the of #Nazis“. Kudos to [Secretary of State Mike Pompeo] and Special Envoy Elan Carr. It’s more clear now, the BDS Movement is disgustingly Antisemitic.”

Israeli politicians and leaders of the settler movement are calling for annexation of the occupied West Bank after the body of an Israeli soldier was found on the side of the road early Thursday morning in the southern West Bank.

The soldier was identified as 19-year-old Dvir Sorek, a settler from the Ramallah-area Ofra settlement, and was reportedly stabbed to death by Palestinian attackers affiliated with the Hamas movement, Israeli media reported.

A US court has convicted Lee Elbaz, former CEO of Israel-based Yukom Communications, of three counts of wire fraud and one of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a global binary options scheme.

Barry Pollack, a lawyer for Elbaz, told Reuters by email on Thursday that the court jury in the US state of Maryland “got it wrong” and his client would appeal against her conviction on Wednesday. The US Justice Department did not immediately respond on Thursday to requests for comment.

Binary options involve placing a bet on whether the value of a financial asset – a currency, commodity or stock – will rise or fall in a fixed time, sometimes as short as a minute.

The indictment charged that Yukom provided investor retention services for two websites, BinaryBook and BigOption, that were used to promote and market binary options and that those binary options were fraudulently sold and marketed.

Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Thursday to build settlements across the occupied West Bank hours after a young Israeli was found fatally stabbed in the territory.

The Israeli prime minister was speaking at the inauguration of a new neighborhood of 650 housing units in Beit El, a West Bank settlement.

“These despicable terrorists, they come to uproot – we come to plant. They come to destroy – we come to build,” Netanyahu said.

“We will deepen our roots in our homeland, in all of its parts,” he added.

The family became concerned for their safety as soon as Israel began to bomb Gaza in a major offensive during the summer of 2014. On 8 July that year – the first day of the offensive – all 23 people living in the family’s home were evacuated.

Finding temporary refuge in the homes of relatives, they did not bring anything with them, apart from the clothes they were wearing.

On the evening of 29 July, Abdelrahim received the news he had been dreading. A neighbor phoned him to say the house had been bombed.

On 5 August Fordham University students won a landmark legal victory against the university’s unilateral ban of a Students for Justice in Palestine chapter.

“Palestine Legal has documented over 1,000 such incidents as censorship and suppression since 2014, and this is the first time that we fought back and won in the court,” attorney Sainath tells The Electronic Intifada Podcast.

The legal fight lasted nearly three years.

Earl Blumenauer has represented Oregon’s 3rd congressional district since 1996, but he’ll face two primary challengers in 2020. Charles Rand Barnett, who ran against Blumenauer in 2018, and Albert Lee. Lee is the dean of Portland Community College’s Business and Computing division and running on a progressive platform that includes support for the Green New Deal and Medicare For All. Unlike many Democrats, he also advocates for a progressive foreign policy that aims to challenge the Washington consensus on U.S. hegemony. Lee spoke with Mondoweiss on BDS, the occupation of Palestine, and whether his campaign is pushing Blumenauer to the left on these issues.

The discussion lasted nearly two hours and touched on many issues, but one exchange in particular stood out. At one point, an Israeli man in the audience made a comment that’s familiar from dominant discourses on Israel-Palestine. The man’s narrative – about Palestinians rejecting the U.N. Partition Plan, and Jews’ right to the land based on a two-thousand-year history – represents a generic Zionist Israeli perspective.

Jafar Farah, the only Palestinian panelist, delivered a piercing, comprehensive, and inspiring response. The exchange, translated from Hebrew and lightly edited, is below.

As Israel is set to embark on the US-led naval mission close to Iranian waters, the Islamic Republic can feel free to counter this “dangerous move,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said.

Tehran “reserves the right to counter this threat and defend its territory,” ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi was quoted as saying by local media. The “illegitimate” Israeli regime and its ally, the US, are responsible for “all the consequences of this dangerous move,” he stated.

SOURCE: OILPRICE.COM
The U.S. Maritime Administration has issued a fresh warning regarding commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf and the key oil chokepoint the Strait of Hormuz, saying that vessels in the area may encounter GPS interference and “spoofed bridge-to-bridge communications from unknown entities falsely claiming to be U.S. or coalition warships.”

“Vessels operating in the Persian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz, and Gulf of Oman may also encounter GPS interference, bridge-to-bridge communications spoofing, and/or other communications jamming with little to no warning,” the latest advisory reads.

In at least two of the incidents in the Middle East in the past months, vessels reported GPS interference, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration.

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Religious Endowments has revealed that Israeli occupation forces carried out 75 violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron last month alone, Quds Press reported on Tuesday. Changes are being made to Ibrahimi Mosque and access for Muslims on an almost daily basis, it added.

According to a report issued by the ministry, the Israeli forces also raided the Muslim prayer area next to Al-Rahma Gate several times in July, removed everything inside it and arrested or expelled worshippers. It was also noted that the Israelis banned the call to prayer at Ibrahimi Mosque on 46 occasions during the month.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz says he is working toward “transparent normalization and signed agreements” with a number of Persian Gulf littoral states as the countries do not shy away from disclosing their clandestine relations with the Tel Aviv regime following years of secretive contacts.

Katz told a ministers' meeting in Jerusalem al-Quds on Tuesday that he recently met with a "high ranking persona" from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to improve ties between Israel and Arab states.

The top Israeli diplomat further noted that the two reached “substantial agreements.”

“We do not have a conflict with them (Arab states),” Katz commented.

An Israeli settler is facing multiple charges of sex crimes, including rape and sexual harassment, against 105 victims most of whom are said to be underage girls. Named by Israeli sources as 26-year-old Uriah Asis, the settler is from Emmanuel, an illegal Haredi settlement in the occupied West Bank, the same location was the centre of separate scandal two days ago involving a resident who is wanted for 74 counts of child sexual assault and rape in Australia.

It’s reported that Asis used a variety of alias online to lure underage girls and prey on women. The Jerusalem Post reported that his list of crimes include alleged rape, sodomy, sexual harassment and holding and manufacturing obscene materials.

Ben-Mosh is wanted by Colombian authorities for running a child prostitution ring in the small fishing village of Taganga, located on the South American country’s Caribbean coast. He, along with a group of ex-Israeli soldiers, reportedly turned the luxury Benjamin Hostel into a “sex and drug den” in which more than 250 underage girls were subjected to sexual exploitation.

The Benjamin Hostel became known to locals as “little Israel”, and acted as a base from which Ben-Mosh ran similar clubs exploiting children in Cartagena, Medellín and the Colombian capital Bogotá. His empire is also thought to have extended to Ecuador, Mexico and Brazil.

It’s not that Israel is shy about collective punishment. In 2014 and 2015, when a wave of Palestinian violence shook Jerusalem, Israeli authorities used violent measures that targeted hundreds of thousands of innocent East Jerusalemites. But even then, nothing came close to this.

What more, the term “collective punishment” is probably not applicable to the events in Issawiya: I have found no reports of violence originating from Issawiya that could – according to the logic of the occupation – be the reason for Israel’s violent campaign against the neighborhood.

Which begs the obvious question: why is this happening?

The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, was caught on tape on Wednesday urging four European leaders to help him undermine a provision of a European Union trade agreement that imposes an obligation on Israel to respect the rights of the millions of Palestinians it rules in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In private remarks to the leaders of Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia that were accidentally broadcast to members of the Israeli media outside the room, Netanyahu was overheard calling it “crazy” for the E.U. to insist that Israel honor Article 2 of an association agreement signed in 1995 which makes trade with the bloc conditional on Israel’s “respect for human rights and democratic principles.”

Israel has advanced plans for more than 2,300 illegal settlement homes in the occupied West Bank, the latest in a surge of such approvals since US President Donald Trump took office in 2017, according to an NGO.

Israel's Higher Planning Committee issued the approvals while meeting over the past couple of days, Peace Now said in a statement on Monday.

The 2,304 housing units are at various stages in the approval process, according to Peace Now, an Israeli group closely monitoring settlement building.

When I heard the first news report, I assumed it was an Israeli air raid on Gaza. Or Syria. Airstrikes on a “terrorist camp” were the first words. A “command and control centre” destroyed, many “terrorists” killed. The military was retaliating for a “terrorist attack” on its troops, we were told.

An Islamist “jihadi” base had been eliminated. Then I heard the name Balakot and realised that it was neither in Gaza, nor in Syria – not even in Lebanon – but in Pakistan. Strange thing, that. How could anyone mix up Israel and India?

Well, don’t let the idea fade away. Two thousand five hundred miles separate the Israeli ministry of defence in Tel Aviv from the Indian ministry of defence in New Delhi, but there’s a reason why the usual cliche-stricken agency dispatches sound so similar.

After a two year legal battle, a group of students at Fordham University have won a landmark victory and a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) club can now be established on their campus.

Israeli forces installed a huge metal gate on Monday separating two towns in Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.

The gate was installed at the between the town of Jabaa to the southwest of Bethlehem and the town of Surif to the north of the occupied municipality.

Sources told Palestinian Authority's news agency WAFA that Israeli forces removed earth mounds that had been for years preventing Palestinian movement between the two towns and instead upgraded their measures with the metal gate.

In the course of a TV series on the Jerusalem police force, police planted a weapon in the house of an East Jerusalem Palestinian resident and then documented its discovery.

The police later apologized for the incident, and said they will investigate the matter, while the producers said it would "draw conclusions."

Opinion: The gulf between the interests of the nation and those of its leader is growing as the prime minister places his own preservation above everything else, and now his party is required to declare he is their one and only leader

Israel has reportedly volunteered intelligence and assistance in “other unspecified fields” to the US-led coalition against Iran after bonding with the Emirates over a shared opposition to Tehran’s influence in the Persian Gulf.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates have reached “substantial agreements” regarding the “Iranian threat,” foreign minister Yisrael Katz told a closed session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, according to Ynet News. Katz also said he has instructed the ministry to include Israel in the US-led “policing” mission, adding that participating in the initiative will improve its relationship with the Gulf Arab states.

Human rights groups have criticized American tech giant Microsoft for funding an Israeli facial recognition company, which is spying on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Microsoft’s M12 venture capital arm announced in June that it participated in a $74 million round in funding for the Israeli company AnyVision, whose face-recognition technology is used by the Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. Other European and American investors also joined the funding round.

Haaretz published a report in mid-July that said the Israeli army was using AnyVision’s technology at checkpoints on the way into Israel and across a network of cameras within the West Bank.

Most of the tweets posted by COGAT, the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation, are frankly ridiculous.

Binary options fraud flourished in Israel for years before the industry was gradually outlawed by the Knesset which first made binary options illegal only for Israeli investors. Finally, in 2017 the Knesset managed to ban the sale of binary options altogether (with a three month grace period). The legislation followed superb investigative reporting by The Times of Israel that began with a March 2016 article entitled “The Wolves of Tel Aviv.” At its peak, thousands of Israelis were employed by hundreds of Israeli companies engaged in the fraud.

Young American Jew against Zionism

It is unfortunate that Tulsi Gabbard succumbed to the Israel Lobby. The forces of the Empire saw it as a sign of weakness and have set about destroying her.

The ruling elite see Gabbard as a threat just as they saw Trump as a threat. A threat is an attractive political candidate who questions the Empire’s agenda. Trump questioned the hostility toward Russia orchestrated by the military/security complex. Gabbard questions the Empire’s wars in the Middle East. This is questioning that encroaches on the agendas of the military/security complex and Israel Lobby. If fear of Israel is what caused Gabbard to vote the AIPAC line on the bill forbidding criticism of Israel, she won’t be able to stick to her line against Washington’s aggression in the Middle East. Israel is behind that aggression as it serves Israeli interests.

Israeli spies go on to pursue questionable careers upon leaving the military.

Two cyber warfare and data collection companies that have recently been put under scrutiny were founded by graduates of the Israeli military’s Unit 8200, a high-tech spy branch responsible for the training of some of the country’s top technology experts and leading cyberwarfare efforts.

Israeli tech company Onavo, owned by Facebook, and Israeli cyber warfare company NSO Group were both founded by unit veterans.

This demonstrates how expertise developed in the unit can and has been used to create commercial tech platforms that put consumer security at risk.

Israel Police has recommended indicting Yaakov Litzman, Israel’s Deputy Health Minister and head of ultra-Orthodox party United Torah Judaism (UTJ), for helping an alleged paedophile avoid extradition.

The UTJ chair is suspected of having used his influence in Israel’s Health Ministry to influence the professional opinions of his subordinates regarding Malka Leifer, a former school principle wanted in Australia on 74 counts of child sexual assault and rape.

Leifer was formerly a principal at the Adass Israel School, an ultra-Orthodox girl’s school in Melbourne, Australia. In 2008, allegations that Leifer had sexually abused several former pupils were raised. On the same evening the allegations were raised, members of the school board arranged a flight for Leifer and several of her children to Israel, before local police had been informed of the case.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem filed a suit in an Israeli court yesterday “seeking to overturn a court ruling that three strategically placed properties in the Old City of Jerusalem had been legally sold by the church to Ateret Cohanim”, reported Haaretz.

The suit claims “new evidence shows that the sale of the properties was tainted by corruption on the part of representatives of Ateret Cohanim” – which works to boost the settler presence in occupied East Jerusalem – and that its “conduct was tantamount to that of a criminal organisation”.

The new legal action seeks to have a district court verdict reopened in light of the new evidence, following a June decision by the Israeli Supreme Court which confirmed the earlier ruling.

But now Israeli and regional media, citing western diplomats, have confirmed it was a nearly unprecedented Israeli operation on Iraqi soil — representing a major escalation and expansion of Israel's anti-Iran operations.

Israel reportedly launched a total of two separate air strike operations on the camp using its US-supplied F-35 stealth fighter jets.

Two years ago, Benjamin Netanyahu was heard complaining that the European Union was “crazy” for attaching “political conditions” to its relations with Israel. By the prime minister’s yardstick, matters have become less “crazy” since then: the EU has quietly expanded the financial support it gives to Israeli government bodies directly responsible for oppressing Palestinians.

He also saw the revolting video, posted on social media, in which an IDF captain and two policemen exult and embrace to celebrate the demolition. That, he says, was the hardest moment. “When I saw people happy over the explosion – that was harder than seeing my building being blown up,” he said."

One day this week, after midnight, Abu Tair sent a text message: “We think everyone tricked us. The IDF and the High Court were quick to demolish so they could help Netanyahu win more seats in the Knesset. Why? The right is great at screwing the Arab population.”

Billionaire reportedly told investigators he was angered upon reading that Netanyahu sought to undermine the Israeli daily owned by the Adelsons

n Monday, House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will be bringing a large delegation of freshman Democratic members of Congress to Israel. The Trip is sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). A Republican group is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Friday.

These trips to Israel are organized in August of every off-election year for new members of Congress. Hoyer will be joined by chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). The presence of these party leaders shows the importance the trip has to party leadership. It is part of the effort to squash some of the questioning of the US-Israel relationship that has been growing within the party.

US President Donald Trump pardoned Israeli-born Ronen Nahmani on Monday, who had served four years of a 20-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute synthetic drugs he bought from suppliers in China.

[...] "Today, President Donald J. Trump commuted the prison sentence of Ronen Nahmani, an action strongly supported by many notable leaders from across the political spectrum, like representatives Hakeem Jeffries and Mark Meadows," according to a White House statement.

"Mr. Nahmani is a non-violent, first-time offender with no criminal history. He has five young children at home and his wife is suffering from terminal cancer. These extenuating circumstances underscore the urgency of his request for clemency."

US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, accompanied by a White House team including Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and State Department official Brian Hook, began last week a Mideast tour to rally support from Arab leaders for the White House’s Mideast peace plan aimed, they said, to tackle the Palestinian-Israeli long-standing conflict.

Kushner, the plan’s main architect, made stops at Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, and Morocco reportedly to address roles of each Arab country in the suggested plan and to strengthen the situation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the general elections on 17 September as the latter seeks to be the Israeli leader who oversaw Trump plan came to effect, political analysts said.

However, Kushner’s tour included no Palestinian officials.

On Monday, House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD) will be bringing a large delegation of freshman Democratic members of Congress to Israel. The Trip is sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). A Republican group is scheduled to arrive in Israel on Friday.

These trips to Israel are organized in August of every off-election year for new members of Congress. Hoyer will be joined by chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). The presence of these party leaders shows the importance the trip has to party leadership. It is part of the effort to squash some of the questioning of the US-Israel relationship that has been growing within the party.

The devastation is vividly visible through his office window: the scene of an explosion. The remnants of a blasted apartment building, his life’s enterprise, a house of cards that imploded. He had planned to build 13 stories here, and had completed nine, but last week the forces of destruction swept across the site and brought down it and nine other buildings. They left only the bottom two floors intact, but the blast wrought above them by soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, with crates of explosives scattered on every floor that produced a tremendous aftershock, makes it impossible to use the remnant of the bottom floors.

The Israeli military was mocked on social media after announcing that it had foiled a "terror" operation by confiscating boots headed for Gaza.

The unbranded boots, which Israel's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) claimed were "military shoes", were in a shipment of other goods entering the besieged Gaza Strip.

London Borough of Tower Hamlets refused to host the closing rally of the annual bike ride raising money for Palestinian children in the besieged Gaza over claims it would breach the IHRA’s anti-Semitism criteria, the Guardian reported on Saturday.

The council told the Big Ride for Palestine, which was established on the first anniversary of Israel’s 2014 offensive on Gaza and which has raised nearly £150,000 for sports equipment for children in the enclave, that the event could not go ahead in the borough “without problems”.

However, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign won a Freedom of Information battle in an effort to discover the reasons behind the council’s refusal to host the event. Internal emails revealed that council staff agreed not to make public “anti-Semitism concerns”.

The “new trend in summertime fun” for Israeli schoolchildren is “military-themed summer camps and courses”, reported Israeli publication Calcalist on Friday.

In one centre – “The Squadron” – a reservist brigadier general provides children with “briefing rooms” and flight simulators, where participants recreate the 1981 Israeli attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor.

During week two, the children “have their first taste of air battles and air strikes”. One of the camp leaders told the paper:

They are not here to pass the time, they are here to receive values.

Israeli authorities are set to advance more than 2,400 settlement housing units this week, in parallel to granting retroactive approval to four unauthorised settlement outposts.

According to settlement watchdog Peace Now, the Higher Planning Committee of the Civil Administration – a branch of the Defence Ministry which deals with a number of matters pertaining to the occupation – will convene today and tomorrow to discuss the plans.

The published agenda for the meeting includes at least 2,430 housing units in settlements all over the occupied West Bank. Reports indicate that the vast majority of the housing units set to be advanced are located in settlements outside Israel’s illegal Separation Wall.

Like all settler-colonial ideologies, Zionism has always been obsessed with race. Having emerged at the height of European colonialism and race science, it sought to learn from both.

Zionists understood that making racial claims was foundational and essential for their colonial project, a realisation that still informs Israeli colonial and racial policy today.

Speaking to reporters over the weekend, Defense Secretary Mark Esper claimed that he believes there is “rising support” for the US-led naval fleet in the Strait of Hormuz

The US has been pushing that plan for over a month, on the idea that the US would get access to a large fleet to confront Iran, and would only have to contribute about 10-20% of the fleet themselves. So far they’ve gotten no commitments to join the fleet.

Despite Esper’s optimism, the US still has no commitments to join the fleet, though he suggested that some countries might sign up soon, citing 30 nations attending a meeting last week in Florida to talk about it.

Australia seems like a likely candidate, though why Australia would join the US fleet and not the British alternative is unclear. Even then, most nations have flat out rejected the scheme, and Australia’s willingness to consider it at all is still something.

Israeli forces have attacked anti-occupation Palestinian protesters gathering near the fence separating the besieged Gaza Strip from the occupied territories, leaving at least 51 people injured.

The Gazan Health Ministry said 24 of the wounded were hit with live bullets during the Friday protests.

Ashraf al-Qedra, the spokesman for the ministry, said two journalists were among those wounded on Friday.

Palestinians have held weekly rallies in the area since last year to protest the siege on the enclave and stress the right to return of the refugees who have fled Israeli aggression since 1948.

"Israel drives US foreign policy" on Iran, says American writer and sociopolitical analyst Walt Peretto in response to the imposition of sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif by the administration of President Donald Trump.

The US Departments of State and Treasury announced the imposition of sanctions on Wednesday against Zarif stating he “acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

In June, Trump announced new sanctions against Iran targeting Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top commanders of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Video goes viral showing Israeli forces laugh and cheer as they blow up a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said Thursday that all the agreements with Israel don't exist anymore after Israel disavowed them.

The PLO executive committee said in a press statement issued following its meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah that "Israel is doing its best to undermine the basics and the references of the peace process."

"The aim of the Palestinian leadership decision not to abide by all the signed agreements with Israel is to move from the status of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to the status of the Palestinian state," said the PLO statement.