Biden on Trump: “No one is above the Law;” Except for Israel’s Netanyahu Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Donald J. Trump, found responsible for rape and found guilty of a whole raft of election fraud felonies, is a horrible person and bears no comparison to Joe Biden. But in one respect they have an unfortunate resemblance. Both have shown profound disrespect for the courts adjudicating their or their […] |
In his remarks on Trump’s guilty verdict on Friday, Biden said, “I just want to say a few words about what happened yesterday in New York City. The American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed. Donald Trump was given every opportunity to defend himself. This was a state case, not a federal case, and it was heard by a jury of 12 citizens—-Americans, 12 people like you, like the millions of Americans who have served on juries. This jury was chosen the same way every jury in America is chosen, and it was a process that Donald Trump’s attorney was part of. “The jury heard five weeks of evidence, and after careful deliberation, they reached a unanimous verdict. They found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts. He will be given the opportunity, as he should be, to appeal that decision, just like everyone else has that opportunity. That’s how the American system of justice works. “It is reckless, dangerous, and irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged just because they don’t like the verdict. Our justice system has endured for nearly 250 years and it literally is the cornerstone of America, our justice system. The justice system should be respected and we should never allow anyone to tear it down. It’s as simple as that. That’s America, that’s who we are, and that’s who we’ll always be, God willing.” Those are noble sentiments. Biden was pushing back against Trump’s unhinged rants against the court that convicted him. Trump alleges that Judge Juan Merchan had “conflicts” though he refuses to specify them. He says he didn’t testify because; “The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify — anybody, if it were George Washington, don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong, and then they sue you for perjury.” Actually, if you don’t commit perjury then you won’t be charged with perjury. He said of the New York County District court and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, “They are in total conjunction with the White House and the DOJ. Just so you understand, this is all done by Biden and his people.” This allegation is entirely untrue. Biden has no authority over a state court. Trump also asserted that he is innocent of the charges and said he never shtupped that porn star. But Biden contradicted himself on every single point when it came to his reaction, and that of his spokesmen, to the request for warrants by the International Criminal Court for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. When ICC prosecutor Karim Khan announced the warrant request, Biden immediately said, “Let me be clear, we reject the ICC’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders.” He went on to parrot a talking point circulated by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbyists, who work closely with Israel’s “Ministry of Strategic Affairs” psy-op outfit, saying that there is no equivalence between Israel and Hamas. But Karim Khan’s warrant request, which also targeted three Hamas leaders, charged them with different crimes than it did Netanyahu and Gallant. It made no equivalence between the two. Biden’s purloined talking point is without substance. Biden said he did not believe that Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza. But the ICC did not charge Israel with genocide in the warrant request, but rather with war crimes and crimes against humanity. So that assertion was a mere red herring. Biden challenged the jurisdiction of the ICC over Israeli war crimes in Gaza: “We don’t recognize their jurisdiction, the way it’s been exercised, and it’s that simple.” But by the rules of the Rome Statute, signed by 124 of the world’s nations, including several key NATO countries that are close US allies, the court does indeed have jurisdiction. Palestine became a non-member observer state of the UN in 2012 and signed the Rome Statute in 2015. In 2018 the Palestine Authority, which was created by Bill Clinton’s Oslo Peace Treaty, asked the ICC to take up war crimes in Palestine, and in 2021 the court concluded that it had jurisdiction. Biden’s rejection of jurisdiction is anyway hypocritical, because his administration jumped up and down for joy when in 2023 the ICC indicted Russian strongman Vladimir Putin for war crimes in Ukraine. Neither Russia nor Ukraine are signatories to the Rome Statute and so ICC jurisdiction there is far less well grounded than its jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories. Biden’s State Department was ordered, likely by Biden, to falsify a report “to absolve Israel of responsibility for blocking humanitarian aid flows into Gaza, overruling the advice of its own experts, according to a former senior US official who resigned this week.” Just as Trump rejected the right of the Manhattan district attorney to prosecute him, Biden dismissed the right of the ICC to take up Netanyahu’s obvious war crimes. Just as Trump thinks he’s above the law, Biden thinks Netanyahu is above the law. Just as Trump falsifies his business records, Biden falsifies government reports on Israel. Biden ultimately does not respect the rule of law when it comes to Israeli actions and policies any more than Trump respects the rule of law when it comes to Trump. Beyond a Two State Solution – Why Recognising the State of Palestine is Important ( Middle East Monitor ) – In politics, context is crucial. To truly appreciate the recent decision by Ireland, Spain and Norway to recognise the State of Palestine, the subject has to be placed in proper context. On 15 November, 1988, Yasser Arafat, then Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, declared Palestine as an independent […] |
On 15 November, 1988, Yasser Arafat, then Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, declared Palestine as an independent state. The proclamation took place within important and unique contexts: One, the Palestinian uprising of December 1987, which ignited international support and sympathy with the Palestinian people. Two, growing expectations that the Palestinian leadership needed to match the popular Intifada in the Occupied Territories with a political program so as not to squander the global attention obtained by the uprising. There were other issues that are also worth a pause, including the growing marginalization of the PLO as the main political front of the Palestinian struggle. This irrelevance was the natural political outcome of the forced exile of the PLO leadership from Lebanon to Algeria in 1982, which largely severed the connection between this leadership and an influential Palestinian constituency. Though Arafat’s announcement was made in Algiers, Palestinians in Occupied Palestine and across the world rejoiced. They felt that their leadership was, once more, directly involved in their struggle, and that their Intifada which, by then, had cost them hundreds of precious lives, had finally acquired some kind of political horizon. The countries that almost immediately recognised the State of Palestine reflected the geopolitical formation at the time: Arab and Muslim countries, which fully and unconditionally recognized the nascent state. Additionally, there were countries in the Global South which expressed their historic solidarity with the Palestinian people. A third category, which also mattered greatly, was represented by countries in Asia and eastern Europe – including Russia itself – which revolved within the Soviet sphere, posing a direct challenge to American hegemony and Western militarism and expansionism. Soon after the Algiers Declaration, the geopolitics of the world received its greatest shock since World War II, namely the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent fragmentation of pro-Soviet states, thus the isolation of the Global South amid growing Western hegemony. That, too, had a direct impact on Palestine. Though Arafat and his PLO made their fair share of mistakes and political miscalculations – leading to the Oslo Accords, the formation of the Palestinian Authority and the fragmentation of the Palestinian front itself – the Palestinian leadership’s options, from a strict geopolitical analysis, were quite limited. Back then, the PLO had one out of two options: either to continue with the struggle for freedom and independence based on the national liberation model or to adopt a purely political approach based on negotiations and supposed ‘painful compromises’. They opted for the latter, which proved to be a fatal mistake. Political negotiations can be rewarding when the negotiating parties have leverage. While Israel had the leverage of being the occupying power and receiving unconditional support from the US and its Western allies, the Palestinians had very little. Therefore, the outcome was as obvious as it was predictable. The PLO was sidelined in favour of a new political entity, the PA, which redefined the concept of political leverage altogether, to essentially mean direct financial benefits to an Israeli-sanctioned ruling class. Since 1988, more countries recognised the State of Palestine, though that recognition remained largely confined within the geopolitical formations at each phase of history. For example, between 2008 and 2011, more South American countries recognized Palestine, a direct outcome of new and assertive political independence achieved in that part of the world. Guardian News Video: “Ireland, Norway and Spain recognise Palestine as independent state” In 2012, Palestine was voted by the United Nations General Assembly as a non-member observer state, allowing it to officially use the name ‘State of Palestine’ for all political purposes. All Palestinian efforts, since then, have failed to overcome the power paradigm that continues to exist at the UN, separating the UNGA from those with veto power at the Security Council. The events of 7 October, and the genocidal war that followed, have certainly ushered in a massive global movement that challenged the pre-existing geopolitical paradigm regarding Palestine. If the war, however, had taken place, say ten years ago, the global response to the Palestinian plea for solidarity may have been different. But this is not the case, since the world is itself experiencing a major state of flux. New rising global powers have been boldly challenging, and changing, the world’s status quo geopolitics for years. This includes Russia’s direct confrontation with NATO in Ukraine, China’s rise to global power status, the growing influence of BRICS and the more assertive African and South American political agendas. For its part, the Gaza war has also challenged the concept of military power as a guarantor of permanent dominance. This is now obvious in the Middle East and also globally. The latter realisation has finally allowed for new, significant margins to appear, allowing Western European countries to finally accept the reality that Palestine deserves to be a State, that the Palestinian aspirations must be honoured and that international law must be respected. Now, the challenge for Palestinians is whether they will be able to utilise this historic moment to the fullest degree. Hopefully, the precious blood spilled in Gaza would prove more sacred than the limited financial gains by a small group of politicians. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor or Informed Comment. Via Middle East Monitor . Israel’s Experiments in Gaza are the new Face of America’s imperial Laboratory ( The New Arab ) – On Saturday, October 7 2023, a significant shift occurred in the Palestinian-Israeli narrative. A normalised, gradual genocide over 76 years of Zionist colonialism, peppered by savage episodes of “mowing the lawn”, obscured by liberal Zionist propaganda and backed by imperial Washington, became an unapologetic, even gleeful mass murder of […] |
A normalised, gradual genocide over 76 years of Zionist colonialism, peppered by savage episodes of “mowing the lawn”, obscured by liberal Zionist propaganda and backed by imperial Washington, became an unapologetic, even gleeful mass murder of Palestinians, grotesquely captured on video for the world to witness.
Throughout its history, the Zionist movement has exploited fear-mongering and the lure of land and resource theft to subjugate and entice its populace into compliance.
In the aftermath of October 7, Israeli propagandists escalated their gaslighting of Palestinians and their allies, silenced opposing viewpoints in the media, concocted atrocity propaganda to justify Israel’s brutality and rallied support for extensive military action utilising Judaic motifs of revenge and trauma.
For nearly eight months, Israel’s settler colonial, white supremacist genocide has systematically shattered international taboos with its military accused of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide.
Israel has sought to obliterate Palestinian society by bombing hospitals, aid trucks, churches, mosques, schools, universities, UN facilities and tent encampments, while targeting women, children, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, journalists, healthcare workers and academics, among others.
Yet, in the process, Israel has done more than devastate the besieged Gaza Strip. It has intensified an inevitable unravelling of its internal apartheid fabric, with significant implications for global neoliberal dominance.
As Israeli actions continue with impunity – backed by financial, diplomatic, and military support from Western countries, led by the United States, and complicity of many countries in the Global South – they threaten to trigger a cascade of global acts of fascistic aggression.
“All Eyes on Gaza,” by Juan Cole, Digital, Dream/ Dreamworld v 3, IbisPaint, PS Express, 2024
The ethical fabric of human society
An orderly society shares a common ethical fabric, upheld by taboos at its extremes. Taboos shape human communities by regulating behaviour, defining identity, maintaining social control, preserving cultural practices, protecting communities, and influencing norms.
Ethical boundaries define the societal mainstream and are typically codified by laws and enforcement practices. For example, the United States Constitution defines rights and restrictions, with evolving interpretations empowering or disempowering individuals within society.
Taboos can be broken in various ways: (i) Violation: Deliberate acts against the taboo, like incest or forbidden rituals; (ii) Ignorance: Unintentional breaking due to lack of awareness; (iii) Rebellion: Acts of defiance against societal norms; (iv) Cultural change: Evolution of societal values can modify or eliminate taboos, and; (v) Contextual exceptions: Taboos may be relaxed in specific contexts, such as religious ceremonies.
Breaking taboos can lead to social progress and dismantling oppressive norms but also cause social tensions and conflicts. Societies constantly face conflicts between forces aiming to stretch or shrink ethical boundaries to serve specific agendas — ideological, social, political, or economic. Taboos are deeply embedded in the human psyche, making their erosion a process that requires both resistance and persistence.
Trial balloons
Breaking taboos and redefining behavioural boundaries often start with experimentation – trial balloons. Successful experiments, where society is conditioned to accept change while maintaining structural integrity, set precedents that shatter taboos. If these experiments face little resistance and set precedents, ethical and moral boundaries may stretch, shifting society in a regressive or progressive direction.
Importantly, trial balloons are effective within a broader context of a society primed for a particular change. In addition, an experiment must receive sufficient support so as to withstand a variety of challenges to its integrity, whether from within the society or external to it.
For example, bombing of hospitals has been deemed a war crime. To justify targeting hospitals in the Gaza Strip, Israel initially claimed, with no proof, that there were Hamas command centres underneath Gaza’s hospitals.
On October 17, a massive explosion hit Al Ahli Hospital, causing hundreds of casualties. Israeli officials suggested a failed rocket launch by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) caused the explosion, while Palestinian authorities, reports from the ground and several independent investigations (e.g. see here) attributed it to an Israeli airstrike.
Regardless, the event was used by Israeli leaders as a trial balloon to assess public and imperial reaction to such a grave violation of a societal taboo.
Since it deemed opposition to it, most significantly the US, inconsequential, and despite the negative reaction of the West to a Russian attack on a maternity hospital in Ukraine in 2022, the Israeli military has targeted many more hospitals throughout the strip.
The Ahli Hospital incident was one of many trial balloons the Israelis carried out in Gaza, including the targeting of schools, UN facilities, universities and aid delivery convoys.
How Israel scapegoats to obscure criminality
The calculated dehumanisation and scapegoating of the Palestinian people echo a historical pattern of white supremacist colonial atrocities masking subsequent land grabs and gangster-like corruption of society from its highest echelons.
In fact, current Israeli genocidal aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have served to conceal failures preceding October 7, and have extended to targeting any perceived and manufactured threats to the colony.
This signals an impending escalation of conflict between Israeli military/Zionist militias and opposition to apartheid and genocide in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and within Israel itself.
Of particular concern are Arab citizens of Israel, constituting over 20% of Israel’s population, primarily identifying as Palestinian but also encompassing Druze, Circassians, other Muslims, Christian Arabs, and Armenians, all of whom are already subjected to an array of discriminatory laws. Such an escalation may very well unravel the existing apartheid structure of Israeli society, leading to civil chaos and its ultimate collapse.
Further, the genocidal imperial laboratory in Gaza could serve as a template for future aggressive episodes in the Global South and against dissent in the imperial core, potentially marking the beginning of the end for the neoliberal mirage of “the West” in which, under the guise of “promoting democracy” and “humanitarian interventions,” the United States and its allies in the global north have aimed to extend their capitalist dominance whilst disrespecting and attacking international legal bodies.
In this scenario, naked fascism constructed of US-imposed taboos and lack thereof would prevail, propelling a colonial race to plunder global resources while scapegoating BIPOC communities. Israeli actions thus serve as a trial balloon for continued US imperial corruption and exploitation on the road to climate change-induced international turmoil.
Resistance to erosion of taboos on the one hand, and the promotion of accountability for criminal actions toward decolonisation on the other, may serve to blunt this dangerous downward spiral toward lawlessness and violence.
Reprinted from The New Arab with the author’s permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.