Sunday, April 14, 2024

Oh, look, former US government employee Samantha Vinograd is calling Israel 'the homeland'

Anthony Salvanto, Fred Backus, Jennifer De Pinto and Kabir Khanna (CBS NEWS) report, "An increasing number of Americans want President Biden to encourage Israel to stop military actions in Gaza; and Mr. Biden's handling of the situation is now down to its lowest levels yet."  THE HILL adds, "A new CBS News/YouGov poll found that 37 percent of surveyed Americans want Biden to encourage Israel to stop its military actions in Gaza — slightly up from the 31 percent who said the same in February. Another 23 percent said in the new poll that Biden should encourage Israel to decrease its military actions in Gaza."  The American people are speaking.  Is anyone listening?


In Australia, the people are speaking.  And the response is arrests.  Australia's ABC reports:


Fourteen people have been arrested in Melbourne amid protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

In Port Melbourne, 12 people were arrested after blocking a road on Lorimer Street, while another two were arrested for criminal damage in Carlton in the city's inner-north.

Police allege the two individuals in Carlton were tampering with traffic lights at an intersection.

Approximately 100 protesters continued to march through the Melbourne CBD.

The rallies were part of worldwide demonstrations. There was also protest activity in Brisbane. 


ALJAZEERA notes:

Pro-Palestinian activists held protests across Melbourne, including outside a Boeing factory and on the steps of state parliament on Monday.

Demonstrators outside the Victorian parliament in the centre of Melbourne protested against the state government’s contract with Elbit systems.

“It was Elbit drones that killed Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and her colleagues,” said Greens member of parliament Samantha Ratnam.

“And it is Elbit weapons that are continuing to kill thousands of innocent Palestinians,” she added.

A separate protest was also held outside a Boeing factory near Melbourne’s port.

According to a list of companies published by the American Friends Service Committee, Boeing supplies Israel with fighter jets, attack helicopters and bombs, among other weapons.


If you're wondering, Australian bigot and blogger Caitlin Johnstone didn't find time to note this.  She Tweeted 17 times today but all about decrying the US.  She can't call out her own country because she's a coward.  But only a coward would praise the Proud Boys.  She really needs to learn to how to criticize her own country.  I guess she feels brave since, yesterday, she managed to call out an Australian newspaper. 


I hated the movie BREAKING AWAY and I hated that little American character who pretended to be French and was rooting on France until he met the French team and they treated him like the bitch he was.  I hope the same fate awaits Caitlin.


Praveena Somasundaram (WASHINGTON POST) reports, "Vasily Nebenzya, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday that Iran’s attack was a 'reaction' to 'disgraceful inaction' by the U.N. Security Council after Israel’s attack on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria on April 1. Nebenzya said the council’s members --  including France, Britain and the United States -- set Iran’s attack in motion by not 'unequivocally' condemning the April 1 strike."  There is way too much coverage in the US media of this assault -- especially since the bulk of the media can't even acknowledge that Iran's strike was in retaliation for Israel's attack on April 1st.  This nonsense took up too much time and attention on Saturday.  It's now Sunday and outlets around the world can't be bothered with printing anything about the Palestinian people who continue to suffer -- and that includes they can't even offer an updated death toll for today. Biden means this, Biden means that, so-and-so says this and so-and-so says that.  Palestinians are dying.  Can we please focus?


Okay, THE GUARDIAN has the figure.  ABC NEWS (US), NBC, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE NATIONAL, ALJAZEERA, CBS NEWS, etc, etc all can't be bothered.

Speaking of CBS . . . 

The ridiculous Samantha Vinograd appeared on CBS' FACE THE NATION today to promote Israel -- she's a US Jew who has some confusion about where she lives as evidenced by her constant references to "the homeland" when she means Israel: "And that's why I don't believe that there is a homeland security nexus to what unfolded last night in the homeland at this time based on sources that I've been speaking with."


There was a time when someone like that would either be balanced by another guest or just not allowed on due to the clear conflict of interest.  


Instead, she was allowed to pontificate endlessly. She's an idiot and one who should never, ever be allowed back in US government because, again, "the homeland" is not Israel -- not in the United States.  Her loyalties are questionable and she brought it on her own damn self.

And shame on CBS for putting that woman on the payroll.  Again, her loyalties are in question.  She clearly did not even realize that she'd referred to Israel as "the homeland."  It's not America's homeland and she's not acting like an American citizen.


How do we end up with the Jonathan Pollard's who betray their own country (the US) to provide classified information to the Israeli government and to spy on us for the Israeli government?  By looking the other way when they make it clear that their 'homeland' isn't the US, it's Israel.  This isn't minor.  A woman who worked for the NSS and Homeland Security went on television today and called Israel "the homeland."  She  should not ever have a security clearance again.


In terms of her arguments about 'propaganda' and how it's being used to turn people against the government of Israel -- reporting facts that Israel has killed people is not propaganda. April 6th,  AP reported:


Aid workers killed in Gaza: 224, including at least 30 killed in the line of duty

Health workers killed in Gaza: 484

Journalists killed in Gaza: At least 95


Those are facts and anyone who is not an idiot -- and/or working for the Israeli government while posing as an American citizen -- grasps that.  Again, CBS should never have hired this nightmare.


Over 13,800 children have been killed.  That's not propaganda, that's reality and maybe instead of minimizing it, Samantha, since you want to whore Israeli government, you should be apologizing on your master's behalf. 


ALJAZEERA reports:

The US Embassy in Jerusalem has sent its “deepest condolences” to the family of Jacob Toukhy, a USAID staff member killed by an off-duty Israeli police officer in the city of Jaffa on Friday night.

Toukhy, was riding his motorcycle wearing his volunteer paramedic uniform when he was allegedly assaulted and shot by the off-duty police officer, the Times of Israel reported.

The officer has now been arrested.


Those are actual facts, not propaganda -- even if idiot liars like Samantha don't know the difference.


Gaza remains under assault. Day 191 of  the assault in the wave that began in October.  Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion.  The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.  But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets:  How to justify it?  Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence."   CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund."  ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them."  NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza."  The slaughter continues.  It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service.  Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide."   The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher.  United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse."  THE GUARDIAN notes, "Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,729 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry."  Months ago,  AP  noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing."  February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home."  February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:






April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "n addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons.  In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
 

As for the area itself?  Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells."  Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."



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