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A Post by One of the World’s Leading International Lawyers

submitted by Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2023/11/01/the-collapse-of-international-law/

https://archive.ph/KsfLE

THE COLLAPSE OF INTERNATIONAL LAW

By Christopher Black [one of the world’s leading international lawyers], 1 November 2023

International law has essentially collapsed with the US backed Israeli siege of the Palestinian people of Gaza, in response to the Hamas attack on Israeli occupation forces on October 7. The Palestinians have no expectation of mercy from the Israelis, when they have suffered decades of Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestinian lands and their replacement by Israeli settlers, all in violation of international law and several UN resolutions, including of course, Resolution 242 which required Israel to withdraw from all the lands they seized in the 1967 War; a war which they now admit was started on a pretext in order to seize those lands and push out the Palestinians who lived there.

Israel has been granted impunity for its aggression and occupation of Palestinian lands for decades by the nations that helped to create it and support it after World War I and World War II; the USA, Britain and their allies, who granted it impunity to act as it wishes because Israel serves their objectives in the Middle East, acting as the local agent of the nation that seeks to be the world hegemon, the United States.

Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court says nothing about the crimes being committed by the Israelis against the Palestinians in the occupied lands and Gaza, even though it has had a file open on Palestine-Israel since 2019. Its lack of action is in stark contrast to the quick issuance of a warrant of arrest against President Putin some months ago based on no real investigation whatsoever.

Yet in the case of Palestine, the ICC prosecutor states that though her office found that Israel has committed war crimes, it takes time to investigate the allegations, a lot of time, she said, meaning no charges will be forthcoming from her against Benjamin Netanyahu anytime soon, and likely not at all. It appears odd that the Prosecutor did not feel it necessary to take her time investigating the bizarre allegations coming out of Kiev made against Russia, but not so odd when we realise who controls the ICC, the USA and the European Union.

The double standards, the hypocrisy exhibited by the West have become so clearly defined that just last week 842 EU staff members wrote an open letter to Ursula Von Der Leyden attacking her support of Israeli actions in Gaza for completely undermining the credibility of the EU in the world since she claims, against the evidence, that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, and that Russia must stop its military operations while enthusiastically supporting Israel’s attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Gaza and the openly stated objective of the Israelis to ethnically cleanse Gaza and to exterminate the population if they cannot, to commit genocide in fact.

The letter was reported in the Irish Times on October 20tth,

Staff members of EU institutions have written to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen expressing fury over her stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, in a letter that accumulated 842 signatures.

“The letter, which has been seen by The Irish Times, accuses the commission of giving ‘a free hand to the acceleration and the legitimacy of a war crime in the Gaza Strip”.

“It begins by condemning the Hamas attack on Israel, before continuing: ‘We equally strongly condemn the disproportionate reaction by the Israeli government against 2.3 million Palestinian civilians trapped in the Gaza Strip”.

‘We hardly recognise the values of the EU in the seeming indifference demonstrated over the past few days by our Institution toward the ongoing massacre of civilians in the Gaza Strip,’ it continues.

“The letter warns that the EU is ‘losing all credibility and the position as a fair, equitable and humanist broker’ and damaging its international relations as well as risking the safety of EU staff.”

The writers of the letter themselves are equally hypocritical, of course, since the EU, which they work for, has been complicit in the crimes of the Kiev regime and NATO committed against the civilian population of the Donbass and their terror attacks against Russians. Now they find themselves facing a dilemma of their own making. They reveal their fear that the world now realises the West has lost the moral argument they have used to justify and conduct their wars, and in particular the war in Ukraine against Russia.

The veto by the United States and its allies of several resolutions offered by Brazil, Russia and other nations calling for a cessation of the Israeli attacks on the civilians of Gaza and permitting the supply of food, water, medicines, and other supplies to enter Gaza once again shows that the Security Council is unable to function to preserve the peace and security of the region as required under Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The present structure of the United Nations permits the major powers to act in their own interests, and in this case, permits the USA to provide military and financial support for Israel’s actions.

Israel has thrown aside all legality in its war and treats the laws of war and laws concerning crimes against humanity with open contempt. International law itself has been shredded by the West and the insistence by China, Russia, Iran and the rest of the world, outside Western control, that the UN Charter be adhered to, it principles supported and acted upon, is ignored.

It has come to the point at which the US and its allies now claim to be above the law in every respect, to have instead adopted certain unspoken rules which all nations must obey or else. Imperialism has thrown off its cloak of morality and “humanitarian values” that it has worn to fool people into supporting its aggression and colonial aspirations, and now strides the world openly wearing the armour of war and conquest.

They act openly as if NATO is above the United Nations, and that its “rules” that is the rule of American power, is the law. The consequences of this type of thinking are manifold; it means imperialism and colonialism, racism and brutality. It means the Americans regard themselves as superior beings, as above other peoples, or as Mr, Medvedev recently stated, regard themselves as God’s viceroys on Earth, as ubermensch as the word was used by the Nazis, supermen, whom the rest of the world must fear and obey. The United Nations, is, so far as they are concerned, as irrelevant now as the League of Nations became in the 1930s, which led to world war.

Just a few days ago, on October 28, the minister of defence of the Czech Republic, Jana Cernochova, called for her country to leave the United Nations after a General Assembly support of a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. She stated,

“Only 14 countries, including ours, stood up against the unprecedented terrorist attack committed by Hamas terrorists. In my opinion – the Czech Republic has nothing to expect in an organization that supports terrorists and does not respect the basic right to self-defence. Let’s get out.”

The 14 countries she is referring to are the USA, Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Fiji, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and Tonga who voted down the resolution. 121 other nations supported the call for the ceasefire, 44 nations abstained.

NATO was split.  France, Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia supported the resolution while Britain, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Greece, The Netherlands, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Iceland abstained, meaning that they did not oppose it but neither did they support it, that is support international law regarding the treatment of civilians regarding the laws of war, did not support helping the terrible plight of the Palestinians in Gaza.

That France supported the resolution reflects the desire of France to once again have influence in the Middle East though all these nations have their particular reasons to support the resolution or not, but the fact is, the world is divided on an issue which one would think would bring the world together in support of a people facing a thousand pound bombs, rockets, artillery shells and starvation.

Power politics prevails. Not international law. One can argue that the terrible manifestation of power politics we are witnessing renders obsolete all that had been achieved in terms of international law in the 20th century. Often power politics is masked, as stated above, by claims to a higher morality or to “humanitarian concerns” and this is what the Americans and their allies now claim in supporting the siege of Gaza by the Israelis, concern for Israeli’s only.

They allow, and allow because they could stop Israel if they wanted to, Gaza to face the same destruction that the Americans rained down on Raqqa in Syria, a city they totally destroyed, Sirte in Libya, the same in Mosul, Fallujah, Donetsk, Aleppo, and we can go on. The nation that dropped atomic bombs on Japanese cities has no pity or concern for civilians, and never has, except then they can use it to their advantage. They encourage the Israelis in their crimes, and can we expect the Israelis to treat the civilians of Gaza properly when we remember their history in Palestine and Lebanon, when we remember Deir Yassin, and Shatila?

The collapse of the rule of international law into the morass of imperialist, colonial aggression being conducted across the world is further evidenced by the provocative actions of the United States in the South China Sea, risking war with China, the deployment of aircraft carrier groups to the Middle East region to threaten Iran, the attacks on Syria by Israel, the attacks of the Americans against resistance groups opposing the American invasion of Syria to steal its oil, the renewal of the siege against Cuba, the American support of a fascist candidate in Argentina, stirring up trouble in Serbia and the continual aggression against Russia, as if deliberately trying to provoke a large war, as if they want to have a war with the entire world. Is it any wonder that Russia conducted a nuclear war exercise recently, that Iran has conducted military exercises, China, North Korea?

Is there a future in which international law will prevail where nations will treat each other with respect and tolerance, where talking replaces shooting, where swords are turned into ploughshares? I do not know. Human history is one of advances and retreats, of progress then reaction, of noble ideas and depravity. Calls for dialogue with the Americans made by Russia and China and others are met with the rattling of American sabres, with threats and diktats. Is there hope? Well, it’s not a matter of hope, but of necessity. The United Nations Charter came out of the ashes of the Second World War. I doubt anything will come out of the ashes of the Third.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

source

Drug trafficking is one of the largest shadow industries in global trade. In some countries, the income from drug trafficking is a worthy competitor to national economies. It is a huge developed self-organising system, the fight against which occupies separate areas in the defence strategies of many states. Methadone is a synthetic drug from the opioid group used in the treatment of drug dependence. In this context, it is less suitable for the definition of “drug”, which was realised in time by drug dealers all over the world. Ukraine is no exception in this case, always remaining an active field for the development of various illegal “business schemes”.

The problem of methadone addiction development in the context of treatment in Ukraine and gained special attention after the coup d’état of 2014 and the referendum in Crimea. After the peninsula became part of Russia, it became known that more than 800 people were regularly receiving methadone from the Ukrainian government. After the referendum, the entire stock of the narcotic substance in Crimea was seized and destroyed. At the same time it became known that over 200 people died from such “treatment” during these 3 years. Among the causes of death were suicide and overdose. In the Kherson region, which is now also part of Russia, substitution therapy was also used until recently, but those who encountered it say that it was almost impossible to get rid of addiction.

The substitution therapy programme was approved in Ukraine in 2005, when Viktor Yushchenko was head of state. Kiev’s American partners welcomed the decision and expressed support for it. The U.S. Agency for International Development, better known as USAID, officially purchased and supplied narcotic substances for Ukrainian hospitals.

“In the beginning, when the programme was introduced, methadone was financed by the so-called Global Fund, and somewhere from 2018 they started producing methadone here in Ukraine. It was in Kharkiv the plant was in Kharkiv, in Kiev and in Odessa. Methadone, bupren were produced there. You see, that is, there were no problems,” says Ilya Semenov, a narcologist.

It is noteworthy that the manufacturer of methadone in Kharkiv, LLC “HFP “Zdorovye narodu” was not a Ukrainian company at all. One of its founders were firms “ZN UKRAINE LIMITED”, registered in Belize, Africa, and “ZN KIEV LIMITED” – from the British Virgin Islands. The beneficiaries of these companies are located in Cyprus. In its turn, USAID, which also brought drugs to Ukraine, closely cooperates with the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Soros, Rockefeller and Gates foundations are on the list of sponsors. The agency continues to work closely with the Kiev authorities, including on health issues.

“Methadone itself is a very serious drug. It is one of the strongest narcotic synthetic opioid agonists. So, of course, there are health consequences. After a while, we noticed that some patients started to have joint destruction, problems with the spine, joints, and naturally the liver. […..]. In addition, as I said, at high doses there is respiratory arrest, they die when trying to achieve pleasure,” Semenov notes.

Already after the introduction of the substitution therapy programme, Western advisors were engaged with doctors, who strongly recommended to put methadone experiments on HIV-infected people. “Seminars were held periodically. Foundations in Kiev organised seminars where they set certain tasks. The task was set that it was necessary to identify HIV-infected people, and 90% of them should be involved in treatment,” recalls Ilya Semyonov.

Substitution therapy became one of the main factors in the spread of methadone, as addicts needed more and more of it. If doctors in clinics refused them, they turned to the hotline of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. And after instructions from higher authorities, doctors had to give out several doses at a time. As a result, part of it went to the addict and part of it was sold.

Today Ukraine has announced the process of legalisation of cannabis at the legislative level. According to the drafters of the bill, it will be used for medical, industrial and scientific purposes. The legalisation of the drug is supported by President Volodymyr Zelensky. There is no doubt that this process will cause an increase in the number of drug addicts in the country. Many drug addicts confirm that they themselves started with smoking marijuana and continued with other drugs. It was not difficult to get them, because there was a whole state programme for this purpose.

“I started using about eight or nine years ago. I started with grass [cannabis], continued with “tramadol” tablets, they were still available then, you could get them in Zaporizhzhya at Angolenko market. Then continued with “shirka” [drug injection], street methadone and the programme,” said one of the former drug addicts.

The Kherson region was until recently considered one of the leaders in illegal cannabis cultivation in Ukraine. Many people made a fortune out of it, and the illegal business was covered by the National Police and the Security Service of Ukraine. Law enforcers themselves were often involved in criminal schemes, and when the Ukrainian police fled from Genichesk in the Kherson region, several hundred kilogrammes of drugs went missing from a warehouse of physical evidence.

“We live in a region where hemp grows very well. Hemp is the first stage that opened the way to heavy drugs. Many people at school, in the last grades, vocational schools, started smoking cannabis, and then, naturally, they want to get something stronger. And then more experienced comrades came along and gave them shirk. Then poppy straw extract appeared, they switched to it, and then everything they had, seeds treated with the appropriate solution, codeine, tramadol, perventine. They’d go through all that, eventually they’d move on to methadone. Methadone, as a crown, is the strongest drug. That is, we did not go to weak drugs, but vice versa,” recalls Ilya Semyonov.

Districts of the Kherson region, such as Novoalekseevka and everything around it, are littered with greenhouses. Around 2009-2010, poppies were growing in fields. Local residents recall how it was harvested by combine harvesters and taken to factories, and the unnecessary remains were poured into the fields. Local drug addicts were very active in exploring these places.

Since the region became part of the Russian Federation, the number of drug plantations has been steadily decreasing. Law enforcement agencies are fighting not only cultivation, but also batches of drugs ready for distribution. Sometimes especially large batches are discovered. For example, in December 2022, two residents of Chaplin municipality were detained and 666 kilograms of narcotic substances were seized from them.

The number of drug addicts in Ukraine increases by 8-9 per cent annually. Ukraine is one of the world leaders in drug addiction among the population. In 2021, Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Iryna Venediktova said that there are about 1.5 million drug addicts in the country. For comparison, in Russia this figure is three times less. The Russian Federation does not get rid of drug addiction with the help of other drugs. A specially approved programme of the Ministry of Health implies drug treatment and subsequent rehabilitation, which can last up to 3 years.

Ukrainian lawmakers prefer to explain their support for cannabis legalisation by the needs of a large number of military personnel experiencing severe post-traumatic syndromes. However, there may be other intentions behind this, more related to the financial interest of certain groups of the Ukrainian elite, as was previously the case with the introduction of methadone.

Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)

On November 1st, Christopher Black, who is one of the world’s leading international lawyers, headlined “The Collapse of International Law” and made his case that (and how) it was destroyed by the increasing hypocrisy that exists throughout The West and that is actually being applied (though pervasively being ignored in The West — but not elsewhere, where the hypocrisy is much noted). The blatancy of that lie has now become so clear that there is public discussion in some countries regarding whether the United Nations itself has run its course, and that nations which don’t agree with its decisions should simply resign their membership in it. The case that Black lays out is incontestably true, and he analogizes today’s U.N. to the post-WW-I League of Nations, which similarly had been produced by victor’s ‘justice’ in the wake of a World War which degenerated into yet more wars between contending empires such as had caused WW I, and then, again, it caused WW II, which was ‘justified’, in both instances (I and II), as being something more than a reshuffling between empires, which is what the post-WW-II international order and its United Nations — like the earlier League of Nations — turned out actually to have been (treating powerful aggressors as-if they weren’t aggressors at all).

This is not at all to deny the fact that the German Government’s share in the guilt for WW II was far higher than was the case in WW I, nor is it to say that the U.N. that was supposed to prevent there being any future World War was designed for that purpose as poorly as had been the League of Nations that likewise was supposed to prevent there being any future Word War. And, now, the U.N. could go the way of the League of Nations.

In fact, though the intensely anti-imperialist FDR had invented, initially conceived, and even named, the United Nations in August 1941, even prior to America’s entrance into WW II, and he did so on the conviction that WW I had been caused by contending imperialisms and so imperialism itself must terminate and become replaced by a global federal republic of all nations, which he then worked on designing the U.N. to be, he died on 12 April 1945, just weeks before the 25 April 1945 till 26 June 1945 global San Francisco Conference that was to start the organization by drafting its constitution or “Charter.” FDR’s successor, Harry Truman, became the organization’s chief designer, but many features in it were already unstoppable because of FDR’s work on it; and, so, the U.N. that exists today operates under a Charter that is a combination of the anti-imperialist FDR and the pro-U.S.-imperialist Truman, who, on 5 January 1946, wrote to his right-hand man, James Byrnes, “At San Francisco no agreements or compromises were ever agreed to without my approval.” Today’s U.N. was Truman’s creation, more than anyone else’s: Truman’s was the guiding hand that wrote all of it. It’s not 100% his; he compromised where he had to, but he was the document’s ultimate editor. Everything that’s in it was acceptable to him. The Conference’s attendees had far less power over the final document than he did. Everything that’s in it had received his “approval.” And, then, during the Potsdam (Germany) Conference, which was to be the new President’s introduction to other world leaders, he became convinced mainly by his hero, the pro-U.S.-imperialist General Eisenhower, but also by the pro-English-imperialist Churchill, that if the United States would not come to rule over the entire world, then the Soviet Union would, and so Truman finally decided, on 25 July 1945, that this was the case, and that the U.S. must therefore win control over the entire planet. It meant that FDR’s plan, for his U.N. to be designed to be the global democratic federal republic of all nations, and to be the source and the power to produce and to enforce all international laws and no national laws — that there would be no authority or power for the U.N. over domestic or “national” (i.e., intra-national) laws — never was able to come to fruition. (On 25 July 1945, Truman not only decided that a U.S.-v.-U.S.S.R. war must follow after the Allies’ anti-fascist war, but demanded from Stalin that America must have a say-so in what domestic laws would be in the countries that the Soviet Union had conquered from Nazi German control; and, Stalin, of course, said no to that.) The ONLY influence that (according to FDR’s plan) the U.N. would have regarding NATIONAL laws would be the international community’s free-speech right to comment about those, but nothing mandatory — ONLY advisory. Truman’s U.N. is what we instead have; and, as Black’s recent commentary makes clear, it’s dying, if not already (in fact) dead. The U.S. and its allies have long been violating international laws; and, as Black points out, always did it with absolute impunity. So: in what sense can this even possibly be international justice, or even international law? Or any kind of international democracy of nations?

This explains (as Black makes clear) not only Israel’s actions regarding the Palestinians; but, also, America’s actions regarding Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Russia, China, Libya, Syria, and others. Regime-change here there and everywhere — except in the U.S. empire itself. However, because Western media suppress, if not totally block, such information (the illegality of those U.S. actions: coups, invasions, and illegal sanctions) (and they even penalize publishers that report, instead of hide, this illegality), the U.S. and its allies are able to get away with calling themselves “democracy” (which is clearly a lie). Censorship is the handmaiden to any dictatorship, and the killer of any democracy.

If there doesn’t exist a democratic federal republic of all nations regarding international laws and their adjudication and enforcement, then any nation’s being any sort of democracy (other than a rhetorical one) is and remains impossible. Where international dictatorship (i.e., empire) exists (and this is the system that Truman imposed and which has grown since), democracy isn’t even possible. FDR was working on a solution to that problem but it got terminated on 25 July 1945 by Truman. Subsequently, that Trumanism became called “neoconservatism,” but it’s really a support for the U.S. Government to win control over the entire world. FDR had the opposite aim: to outlaw ANY empire.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

 

 

Biden White House aims to scapegoat Netanyahu
The Duran: Episode 1739

Eric Zuesse (blogs at https://theduran.com/author/eric-zuesse/)

On November 3rd, Reuters headlined “US, allies try to craft Gaza endgame as deaths, destruction mount”, and reported:

The process is still at what another U.S. source terms an informal “idea-floating stage.” Key questions include whether Israel can destroy Hamas as it has vowed and whether the U.S., its Western allies and Arab governments would commit military personnel to stand between Israel and the Palestinians, overcoming a long reluctance to do so.

The White House said on Wednesday there were “no plans or intentions” to put U.S. troops on the ground in Gaza. …

It is also unclear whether the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has limited autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank while Hamas rules Gaza, would be able or willing to take control. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday held out the prospects for a “revitalized” PA, but President Mahmoud Abbas’ administration has been plagued by accusations of corruption and mismanagement. …

Even if Hamas’ leadership is toppled, it would be all but impossible to eradicate pro-militant sentiment from the Gaza population, raising the threat of new attacks, including suicide bombings, against whomever assumes power.

“If the Israelis succeed in crushing Hamas, I think it’s going to be extremely difficult to get a governing structure in there that is going to be legitimate and functional,” said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Middle East negotiator.

“The ‘day after’ exercises right now strike me as fantastical,” Miller said. …

There is a growing realization that massive amounts of international aid will be needed to rebuild Gaza, and such an infusion would be nearly impossible to secure from Western governments with Hamas still in charge. …

Among the options that U.S. officials have discussed is creation of a multinational force to maintain order. Its composition could include some mix of European or Arab countries, though no government has openly expressed interest in joining such a force. …

Some policy analysts have also floated the idea of deploying to Gaza a United Nations-backed force – either a formal U.N. peacekeeping force, as it does on the Israel-Lebanon border, or a multinational force with U.N. approval.

But diplomats say there have been no discussions at the United Nations about such a move, which would require agreement among the 15 members of the U.N. Security Council. …

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for saying the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 “did not happen in a vacuum.”

Israel expects a long war but says it has no interest in re-occupying Gaza.

Outside experts, some known at times to have the ear of U.S. policymakers, are weighing in on what a post-war Gaza might look like.

If Hamas can be stripped of its “veto power” and Gaza is demilitarized, “that could open the way for establishment of an interim administration with a technocratic Palestinian-led government that operates under some kind of international and/or regional umbrella,” said Dennis Ross, a former Middle East negotiator and White House adviser. …

An article authored by Ross and two of his colleagues at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, proposed that once Israel withdraws, security in Gaza be provided by a “consortium of the five Arab states who have reached peace agreements with Israel – Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco.”

But there is some skepticism that such an arrangement could be struck.

“Arab states aren’t going to put boots on the ground to kill Palestinians,” said former negotiator Miller, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

Those were the only ideas that Reuters’s 7-member team were able to identify from the U.S. Administration, now, after Biden had said, in closing his October 7th speech, “Remarks by President Biden on the Terrorist Attacks In Israel”: “Let there be no mistake: The United States stands with the State of Israel, just as we have from the moment the United States became the first nation to recognize Israel, 11 minutes after its founding, 75 years ago.”

Biden is backing up those words, by actions. On October 15th, the N.Y. Post headlined “US Navy sends second carrier group back to Israel as Gaza invasion nears” and described the vast flotilla of weaponry, men, and aircraft carriers, that the Post described as each being “a floating airport for fighter jets and other military aircraft,” which Biden was sending to support Israel’s operation against the Gazans.

Whereas the Gazans are born, and live, and die, as inmates in the world’s largest open-air prison (with Israeli guards blocking their exits and entrances), the Americans are expecting Arabs and Muslims to help Israel to conquer them. But if that wish were to be fulfilled, then the millions who now are marching and demonstrating against Israel’s slaughter of those born inmates might instead start demonstrating and marching for the overthrow of their own leaders. Why do America’s officials expect those leaders to do that? But they apparently do. Apparently, they take seriously these insane proposals. It very publicly displays the caliber of America’s leadership.

And this insanity is entirely bipartisan, because both political Parties are controlled by their billionaires, who are even stronger in their support for Israel against Palestinians than their voters are. Thus, on November 3rd, Vanity Fair magazine headlined “Donald Trump, After Bashing Netanyahu, Is Trying to Shore Up His Pro-Israel Cred: While Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war is drawing rare praise from Republicans — “A+” says one GOP donor — the former president is doing damage control in speeches and privately with Jewish leaders on the right.” Trump “positioned himself as the most pro-Israel candidate in the field. ‘I will defend our friend and ally the State of Israel like nobody has ever defended,’ Trump told the 1,000-plus crowd of donors and activists. Twice Trump said: ‘I love Israel.’ After his RJC speech, Trump reportedly had a private dinner with Miriam Adelson, the widow of late GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson.”

The caliber of America’s leadership is determined by the caliber of America’s billionaires. It’s an aristcracy, not a democracy. And this is the caliber of those aristocrats. And, after all: every aristocracy is highly tribal. One can’t reasonably blame democracy for this insanity, because it is in service to America’s aristocracy — these ‘philanthropists’, who endow ‘charities’ (and buy politicians) (so as to reduce their taxes).

Is America the world’s most corrupt country? Maybe. But it’s got lots of competition. Israel, for example.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.