NoW UPDATES: GAZA: YES, VIRGINIA, IT REALLY IS A GENOCIDE: STAGE THREE

 

IN A HEARTFELT INTERVIEW (at the 1:02 mark of the YouTube podcast) on Monday with Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal, Lt. Col. Anthony Aguilar (Ret.) discusses why he became a whistleblower and reveals how the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is complicit in war crimes in the Gaza Strip. Aguilar, a 25-year combat veteran and Green Beret with the American military, who had worked for GHF since late May, said Gaza was like nothing he’d ever seen in all his deployments to war zones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordon and elsewhere. He said that the former ISIS stronghold of Mosul in northern Iraq, a city that had been mostly destroyed by Russian and American bombardments, even it still had remnants of a functioning civic and social “life” available to its remaining population.  

Not so in Gaza, Aguilar points out, where the links and nodes making for a viable society, from farmland and orchards to apartment buildings, hospitals, schools, pubic buildings, mosques, churches, businesses, power stations, roads, water and sewage facilities, even graveyards*, have been systematically turned to rubble by the IDF (Israeli Defence Force), forcing most of the 2.1-million Palestinian inhabitants to live in tents or out in the open, with only four GHF distribution sites currently operating to provide them with food where, in the past, there had been four-hundred aid centers run by UNRWA.¹

The deaths from starvation we have witnessed these past months have increased with grim frequency in recent weeks and are now daily occurrences. And the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is woefully inadequate in addressing the humanitarian crisis. But then, it was never meant to provide Gazans with food aid and humanitarian supplies commensurate with their needs. Its inability to even remotely supply Palestinians with their basic needs is not a failure of the system. Rather, it is a feature.

 

Aguilar soon realized he was witnessing the weaponizing of aid in the guise of so-called ‘humanitarian’ assistance, the protocols of which Google’s AI helpfully summarizes as: “…a set of principles and guidelines that govern the delivery of aid during crises, ensuring it is delivered effectively, impartially, and with respect for human dignity.” [It seems even a set of algorithms has more empathy and respect for human life than GHF and its site-boss subsidiaries UG Solutions and Safe Reach Solutions!²  Just sayin’. Ed]

 

👉I REFER the reader to a study I posted earlier by Israeli academic Yaakov Garb, here, that analyzes the physical layout of the GHF aid sites and concludes they were designed for military purposes and crowd control, not for humanitarian aid services. For example, Aguilar noted that all the sites have CCTV cameras stationed around the perimeter to monitor the crowds with one camera per site dedicated to collecting facial recognition data on Palestinians accessing the aid centres. Early on, he was puzzled by how narrow the entrance was to the food distribution  arena, funneling Gazans, as it did, into a narrow band that allowed through only one person at a time. He thought it was inefficient and stressful to the hungry crowds waiting in line. Then he noticed how the camera recording facial recognition scans was pointed at the receiving entrance where people's faces were momentarily framed, making for clearer identification of each  and every Palestinian as they entered. Thus, the physical layout of the aid centers, recalling the Garb study, is neither effective, impartial (how many will be screened and deemed ineligible for aid in such a system?), nor is it respectful for “human dignity”. Not by a long shot! The aid sites are designed to serve the needs of the Israeli military. 

 

IN ADDITION, Aguilar was puzzled by the size of one GHF aid centre near Rafah. The footprint of the place was so large that all the GHF sites could be put inside its borders with room to spare. He discussed this with co-workers and concluded it was to be the location of the first “concentration camp” that would eventually hold several hundred-thousand Palestinians who must enter the camp to get food, but are not allowed to leave (unless they leave Palestine altogether). The rest must either live out their lives behind barbed wire, monitored 24/7 with hi-tech screening and guarded by thousands of IDF troops and mercenaries civilian contractors, or else they must die. 

👉Aguilar calls the evolving Rafah camp system as "Stage Three". The first stage was the destruction of Gaza's infrastructure. (Only Gaza City remains mostly intact with Israel recently calling up 60,000 reservists to lay seige to it.) The second stage was the displacement of the population to the southern tip of the enclave. The third, imprisoning the entire population in concentration camps in what was the city of Rafah along the Egyptian border. The fourth stage, the "Final Solution", would be expelling or otherwise eliminating all Gazan Palestinians from Palestine.

 

ONE OF THE MOST COMPELLING  and disturbing observations Aguilar made during his time as a UGS contractor was during a rotation when he was stationed in the control room monitoring the live feed from the site's CCTV cameras. The cameras showed the line of Palestinians as they entered the ‘funnel’, packed tightly together in the narrowing entryway to the central food distribution arena. One Palestinian father lifted his two young sons up to sit atop the berm that formed one wall of the funnel so his children wouldn’t be crushed by the crowd. Inside the control room, the Israeli liaison officer told Aguilar to tell his UGS guards to remove the children from atop the berm. Aguilar said they were handling the situation and to let his guards do their work. The liaison officer then phoned his IDF counterparts, speaking in Hebrew, so Aguilar didn’t understand what he was saying. A UGS staff member who spoke Hebrew told Aguilar the officer called for military snipers to target the two boys. Fortunately, in the meantime, they climbed back down to join their father, but Aguilar was shocked that the Israeli officer would call on snipers to shoot children. This made a great impression on him, causing him to reflect on what kind of outfit he was involved with and whether he should leave. Shortly afterward Aguilar had a conversation with his supervisor who said he should not go against the wishes of "the client". When Aguilar asked him what he meant, his supervisor said the IDF was the client and UGS took their marching orders from them! A 'charitable' organization running its operation at the behest of an occupying army....hmmmm? A conflict of interest, one would think. Humanitarian aid? Nuh-uh.

 

👉Finally, I think for Anthony Aguilar the straw that broke the camel’s back and made him decide to become a whistleblower, exposing the the policies and practices of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, its sub-contractors, and IDF soldiers guarding the sites' perimeters, came when  a 10-year-old Palestine boy named Amir, who'd walked 10km barefoot to get a few scraps of food, came forward and kissed his hand, thanking him for the tiny amount of aid he’d gotten. Tragically, Amir was killed a short time later when IDF soldiers fired into the crowd near the distribution site that, presumably, failed to disperse quickly enough. [Naughty! Bad crowd! Bad! Ed.]

 

IF ONLY our political leaders had such moral courage to stand up like Anthony Aguilar and say: “I will abide this no longer!” And then shun (in the fullest sense of the word) this half-mad, pariah  state called Israel.

 

FUN FACT: Switzerland has ordered the dissolution of the Swiss branch of GHF because the foundation did not fulfill its duties and obligations under Swiss laws of incorporation. And here the word “sketchy” should come to mind! The short-lived ‘charitable’ organization’s duties were taken up by its Delaware, USA incorporated partner of the same name and tasked with raising funds to staff and run the day-to-day operations. The on-the-ground work would ultimately be done by two private contractor companies  UG Solutions (Aguilar's former employer) and Safe Reach Solutions.

 

Aguilar was hired by UGS to be part of the security team at the four food distribution sites in southern Gaza. Point being, that UGS is there to make money and has no experience in running humanitarian aid distribution centers, and the same goes for the foundation side of things, that Aguilar suggests is little more than a shell company.

BTW: Just who funds GHF is apparently a secret. Wanna bet a good chunk of change comes from the Israeli government, Zionist billionaires, the CIA, leftover USAID slush funds and perhaps an EU state or two that wants to continue supporting Israel, but on the down-low (wink-wink), so as not to rile their populations that are increasingly critical of the "Jewish state". 😉

 

FUN FACT: Nearly 2,000 Palestinians seeking food aid have been murdered by IDF soldiers at or near GHF food distribution sites and over 13,500 have been wounded. One commentator suggests the much larger “wounded” figure indicates a deliberate policy on the part of the Israeli military to stress Gazan health services by causing mass casualty events. Nice touch. 👌

 

FUN FACT: 266 people so far have died of starvation since the Gaza genocide began on 7/10/23, including 122 children.

 

FUN FACT: Since October 2023, over 230 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli bombardments and targeted assassinations, including six Al Jazeera journalists killed last week. And over 1,500 medical services personnel have been killed during the same period. [Fun new word: "Medicide"]

 

CHEERS, JAKE. ____________________________________

 

* ANUDDER FUN NEW WORD: "Necroviolence”—“Violence performed and produced through the specific treatment of corpses that is perceived to be offensive, sacrilegious, or inhumane by the perpetrator, the victim (and her or his cultural group), or both.” - Jason De Leon in The Land of Open Graves, p.69 [2]

 

1. There are other charitable organizations operating in Gaza, but not nearly at the scale they were at prior to October 7/23. They are hampered by desperate Palestinians looting vans and trucks, criminal gangs, the same, and by the destroyed transportation infrastructure making access to Palestinians in need difficult. But the plan is for GHF to scale up to feeding the entire Gazan population. HOWEVER, the real ‘plan’ is to lure Palestinians into southern Gaza using food aid as bait, to corral them in one area until such a time as they emigrate, ‘voluntarily’ or otherwise, or else die in the giant concentration camps the Israeli government is building on the ruins of Rafah City. Not to put too fine a point on it but using food as a weapon and deliberately starving a civilian population are war crimes. They are against the Geneva Conventions and just about any international law you’d care to mention and, as a crime against humanity, those who perpetrate such heinous acts should be given the same sentences dished out at the Nuremberg trials following the end of WWII.

 

2. UG Solutions (UGS) is a private military contractor that provides guns for hire armed personnel to various hot spots around the world. It, along with Safe Reach Solutions (SRS), provide security at the various distribution sites in Gaza. And they are set to expand operations when Israel finishes building its hellscape concentration camp system in Rafah, something former American diplomat Chas Freeman scathingly calls: "Auschwitz on the Mediterranean." 

 

[1 phoney "shell" foundation + 2 guns-for-hire sub-contractors = 0 humanitarian aid. It's just math! You can't argue with the math, damn it! 😖] 

 

 

 

 

NoW UDATES: UKRAINE, WHERE ARE YE NOW?

 

SO FAR, about where it was before yesterday’s Alaskan summit meeting between Presidents Trump and Putin. I haven’t seen any read-outs of what was said and/or agreed to at the meeting but I think it’s fair to say that America’s involvement in Ukraine—sending billions of dollars worth of weapons and financial support—is drawing to a close. Neither Zelensky nor the Europeans were invited, suggesting that Trump is re-prioritizing American military spending away from Eastern Europe. It’s interesting that Trump stated that the conflict in Ukraine will only end with a peace “treaty”. 

👉After his three-hour meeting with Putin, the American president seems to have changed his stance on how the conflict will be resolved—not with an immediate “ceasefire” and ‘freezing’ of the 1,000 km. line of contact, but rather through substantive negotiations addressing the Kremlin’s core demands: Ukrainian neutrality (No NATO and perhaps no EU), the four eastern oblasts and Crimea are to be acknowledged as Russian territory; elections to establish a legitimate government in Kiev; denazification and demilitarizing of a future rump Ukraine. And all to be formalized in a peace "treaty". 

 

👉PERHAPS Trump’s discussion with President Putin helped him understand Russia’s legitimate security concerns and why a ceasefire is unacceptable to the Russians. We can only hope Trump doesn’t change his mind by Monday when he reads Zelensky and his EU buddies the riot act talks with President Zelensky and his EU counterparts. Trump may be tacitly signaling that without Zelensky’s approval of the “peace plan” based on Russia’s legitimate security concerns as part of a larger European security architecture, the war and its outcome will be decided exclusively on the battlefield and facts on the ground as they develop. Just what America’s involvement in the conflict will be re: supplying weapons, etc., to Ukraine is unclear. We’ll have to see which way the wind is blowing next week.

 

CHEERS, JAKE. ____________________________________ 

 

NoW UPDATE: AWAY UP NORTH!

   

AS WE ENTER the doldrum days of summer, an event happening TODAY (Friday) merits some discussion, namely the summit in Alaska between the U.S. president Donald Trump and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. MSM is abuzz with predictions and possibilities, chiefly around ending the Ukraine-Russia war on terms Ukraine and the Europeans, and the Americans, can live with. We shall see, but I’m not expecting any breakthrough or ceasefire in the conflict coming out of today’s talks, what with Russia’s and Ukraine’s positions so far apart.

SINCE THE MAIDAN COUP in 2014, Ukraine has gradually become a NATO member in all but name, having been trained and equipped by Western militaries to operate seamlessly with NATO armies when the time came for it to become the thirty-third member of the U.S. led military alliance. As a NATO member, Ukraine could host intermediate-range missile arrays along its border with Russia, something Moscow regards as unacceptable and an existential threat.* For Russia, any post-conflict, rump Ukraine would have to be neutral¹, with limits on the size of its military, its weaponry, etc. Its government would have to be purged of Banderites and neo-Nazi elements, and have legal safeguards established to protect the rights of minorities, including Russian speakers and ethnic Russians. Ukraine would have to withdraw its forces from the remaining sectors it holds in the Donbass and acknowledge Russian sovereignty over the the eastern oblasts, including Crimea. And any treaty must be signed by a legitimate government in Kiev, not Zelensky's, because his term in office expired in 2024, yet he remains in power, citing marshal law as the reason new elections cannot be held.

Thus, neutrality, “denazification”, new elections, and territorial annexations are must haves for Moscow and I don't see Putin compromising much around any of them. He doesn't have to, he's winning.

So, it’s doubtful Zelensky and his yapping band of EU cheerleaders will find Russia’s list of demands acceptable, and the war will continue. In the coming weeks, Russia may advance to the Dnieper River as Ukraine's armies collapse. They may move on Odessa or Kiev. Or both. At that point all bets are off.

 

👉I DON’T SEE an end to the bloody, three-plus-years of war other than on the battlefield (the Alaska summit notwithstanding). Russia will take the Ukrainian territory it needs to ensure its security. Besides, Zelensky won’t agree to any of Russia’s demands and the meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, as far as ending the war, will probably be a wet squib. Nevertheless, the fact that Russia has sent a large delegation to the summit suggests there may be parallel discussions in other areas, for example improving U.S. and Russian relations (e.g., a permanent ambassador to Moscow; upgrades to Russia’s diplomatic mission in Washington, etc.); sanctions relief; trade talks, and hopefully strategic arms treaty initiatives, like a commitment to renew the New Start treaty that’s set to expire in February 2026.

👉WE WILL HAVE TO wait and see what comes out of the Alaskan summit. At least they’re talking and not throwing spitballs at each other!

 

 

CHEERS, JAKE. ____________________________________ 

 

* What do you think the Americans would do if China were to install medium-range ballistic missiles at Windsor, Ontario? It’s only 610 km to Washington as the missile crow flies. Answer: They would turn Windsor into an ashtray!

 

1. Ukraine declared itself to be a neutral, non-aligned nation in its founding constitution, after it gained its independence following the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. 

 

NoW UPDATES: DROP YER COCKS AND GRAB YER SOCKS!

 

THEY SAY A WEEK IN POLITICS is a very long time, and these past couple of weeks have certainly shown there is a lot of truth in that old chestnut. The recent drama in the Middle East seems like it’s been going on forever, and what everyone feared might happen finally came to pass when the maniacs in Tel Aviv launched missile and drone barrages into Iran ostensibly to cripple Iran’s nuclear research capabilities, but it’s plain to see Israel’s goal is, and has always been, regime change in the predominately Shia Muslim country of ninety million.

The unprovoked, June 13 attacks by Israel targeting Iranian missile defenses, military installations, defense industries and assassinations of high-ranking army personnel and nuclear scientists occurred while Iran and the United States were in negotiations to work out an agreement on Iran’s civilian-only nuclear power system that everyone could live with. In fact, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, was to meet with Iranian officials the next day. Since then, both sides have been lobbing drones, ballistic and cruise missiles against the other in a tit-for-tat arrangement.*

The Americans entered negotiations to resolve issues around Iran's nascent  nuclear power generation system which would include indigenous nuclear fuel enrichment capabilities, something the Iranians saw as their legal right under the international   NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) of which Iran is a signatory in good standing. This, however, was bug-a-boo for both the Americans and the Israelis who felt Iran would secretly enrich uranium to levels where the radioactive fuel could be used to make a nuclear bomb, despite assessments from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on-site inspectors in Iran, and from American intel agencies, even Israel’s Mossad, all concurring that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapons program. Just last March, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that Iran was not working on a nuclear bomb.

IN REALITY, the June 13 attacks fulfilled a decades-long desire by Israel to take out their chief rival for dominance in the region. Some commentators even suggest that the talks with Iran, begun shortly after Donald Trump became president, were a smoke screen, that the negotiations were a façade to lull Iran into a false sense of security so Israel could launch a surprise, “decapitation” strike. It’s hard  to disagree, given that President Trump, instead of being furious with the Israelis for disrupting his peace talks, praised PM Netanyahu, saying he’d known of the impending operation. The next several days saw calibrated attacks and counterattacks on military and civilian infrastructure between Iran and Israel until a week later when the other shoe dropped. 

 

IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS of Saturday, June 21, American heavy bombers and submarines launched cruise missiles striking three Iranian nuclear facilities including the large, underground “Fordow” laboratories. On Friday, the American emperor president said he would take “two weeks, within two weeks” to decide whether or not to use American forces against Iran directly. And, again, it’s hard to see his pronouncement as anything other than another subterfuge, masking the launch of B-2 heavy bombers loaded with fourteen 30,000 lbs. GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) munitions, the next day. Incidentally, planning for the sortie was begun during the Biden administration, so hardliners in the U.S long had their eye on Iran’s nuclear sites. It is still too early to assess the damage from Saturday’s attacks, but there is evidence that the plants had been largely evacuated. According to the IAEA, which has staff monitoring, there does not appear to be any radioactivity released after bombardments by Israeli and American aircraft, which suggests either the enriched uranium had been removed or that the strikes were largely ineffective in damaging the facilities located deep underground.

Talks between Tehran and Washington have been suspended until the attacks against Iran stop.

 

👍HOLD THE PRESSES! I hope you won't get whiplash with all these rapidly changing events, but a ceasefire has just been brokered by the American president between Israel and Iran. Both sides almost immediately accused the other of infractions to the deal hammered out in the early hours of Tuesday morning, June 24, but President Trump apparently read PM Netanyahu the 'riot act', prompting Israeli jets to turn around before they attacked Tehran. That's good news. 😂 

 

SOME TAKEAWAYS from this overall foreign policy FUBAR are:

👉Donald Trump, the “peace” President, has just started (and perhaps ended?) another Middle Eastern war (bombing Iran). Regardless of what happens, he ‘owns’ it. Like he owns Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria and any other country Israel decides to invade with its arsenal of American-made weapons and political 'cover'.  He came into office with a mandate to end foreign wars. So far, it’s “Promise (not) kept!” Ukraine's still on fire [He owns that, too. Ed.] Iran's starting to boil, and Gaza is dying. And his supporters are beginning to notice.

👉Attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities is a sure way to incentivize Iran to develop a nuclear weapon as a deterrence against just such attacks. (And, to make the Israelis think twice before using nukes against them.)⁺

👉Air bombings, the only realistic intervention America can muster against Iran,  will not ensure regime change, or even conclusively eliminate Iran’s nuclear laboratories. By the way, under international law it is illegal to attack nuclear sites. But when did legal niceties ever stop Tel Aviv? Or Washington, for that matter.

👉If it comes down to a war of attrition between Iran and Israel, Iran has the advantage in terms of withstanding a prolonged siege. Israel, not so much.

👉The ceasefire brokered on Tuesday suggests a couple of things:

The American air strikes on three Iranian nuclear installations may have been for show. A bit of theatre. Why do I say this? Recall that in the days leading up to bombings, fleets of trucks were seen at the installations, suggesting critical machinery and nuclear fuel were taken and hidden elsewhere. The Iranians even said the sites had been emptied of critical material and personnel. Recall last summer when Iran launched its first wave of drone and missile attacks against Israel in response to Israeli targeted attacks on Iranian military personnel and diplomats. The Iranians 'telegraphed' the time and routes of their counterattack so the majority of drones and missiles could be taken out by Israel's "Iron Dome" defense grid. A couple of missiles reached their targets. Point made: We can hurt you if we want; now it's time to deescalate. 

A SIMILAR CASE can be made for this summer's American bombings of Iranian nuclear sites. The Americans saying, in effect: we can hurt you, so stop attacking Israel and agree to a ceasefire. Done and done. This also suggests that Israel could not effect regime change in Iran or destroy its nuclear program without U.S. assistance. Hence the kabuki  theatre of "destroying" a (non-existent) nuclear weapons program. 

👉A final point suggesting the events of the last few days was theatre and face-saving demonstrations was Iran's so-called 'counterattack' in response to America's 'attack' on its nuclear installations. The Iranians lobbed a few missiles into an American base in Qatar, across the Persian Gulf. "No significant damage" or injuries. They blew up some sand, but point made. You hit us, we hit you. A nothing burger of a counterstrike when Iran could have flattened the Qatari base. Done and done. Now the ceasefire.

  

INCIDENTALLY, the reason Iran enriched uranium in their plants to 60% of weapons-grade¹  in the first place was to use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States to gain relief from sanctions that had been imposed on the country for years. Let's see if there are discussions down the road whereby Iran gives up its enriched uranium  cache for sanctions relief.

 

IT'S A WIN-WIN-WIN SCENARIO  for the United States, Iran and Israel: The U.S. can crow about its superior military might and the efficacy of its 'big stick' diplomacy; Iran can gain a path forward to establishing a civilian nuclear power industry and gain sanctions relief; Israel can claim to have eliminated the threat of a future Iranian "bomb" [Even though what it really wants is to destroy Iran as a functioning state. Ed.] And for now, Israeli aggression is muzzled at least with respect to Iran.

Please folks, take the wins!

 

Cheers, Jake. _____________________________________ 

 

* The barrages have inflicted damage on both sides, but the question is whether Israel can stick it out in the long run, given Iran’s size, both in terms of land mass and population. Israel is a small country. Targets there are closely spaced and difficult to camouflage. Needless to say, Israel is experiencing unprecedented levels of damage to its cities and infrastructure. [Ain't karma  a bitch! Ed.] 

 

+ IT'S BEEN OVER TWENTY MONTHS since Israel’s genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip began, and Palestinians there are still being starved and murdered, dozens every day, as they are corralled into the southern city of Rafah where the so-called ‘humanitarian’ aid organization, the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation, which has been roundly condemned by the UN and other legitimate aid organizations as a cruel “weaponization” of aid relief run by armed mercenaries using inadequate food distribution networks whose "aid centres" are venues for daily massacres by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). Iran has not wavered in its support of the Palestinian people. Their plight remains the moral issue of our time. War crimes are committed there daily, and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and now with Israel’s maniacal wars in Lebanon, Syria, and now Iran.

 

👉TWO REASONS Israel gets away with this illegal and depraved behaviour is because the United States backs it, in the UNSC for example, vetoing UN sanctions against the apartheid state. They, literally, get away with murder!

The second reason is: Israel has nukes, an estimated cache of 90 to 200 warheads. Israel has never declared it's nuclear  weapons program and is not a signatory to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) unlike Tehran which is a signatory. If Israel cannot deter Iran’s daily drone and missile attacks, which have continued unabated since June 14, and if the country's stability is in question, there is a possibility,  some say probability, it will use nuclear weapons. [See above update: "Hold the Presses.] It may also target Iran’s deep underground nuclear facilities with nukes. And if  the Israeli nuclear arsenal is unleashed, then all of us are crossing the Rubicon, whether we want to or not. 

 

1. Uranium has to be enriched to 90% purity to make a Bomb.