The Israel Defense Forces criticized the far-right Channel 14 TV network for a clip the station broadcasted on Tuesday that made fun of IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi. The military accused the channel of “inflammatory and defamatory content that harms the IDF.”

The video made fun of an incident in which Halevi, while visiting Golani Brigade troops in southern Lebanon, removed a velcro patch from a soldier’s sleeve on which was written “Messiah.” These have become popular among some religious soldiers during the war.

The patches are associated with Messianic fundamentalist Jewish beliefs, and Halevi told the soldier that, while he was free to keep the patch in his shirt pocket, only official IDF insignia could be presented externally.

The following is a statement issued by the office of the South African presidency.

South Africa has filed its Memorial to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today, 28 October 2024, in its case on the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa v. Israel).

In accordance with the Rules of Court, the Memorial may not be made public. The filing of this memorial takes place at a time when Israel is intensifying the killing of civilians in Gaza and now seems intent to follow a similar path of destruction in Lebanon. The action taken by South Africa since December 2023, culminating in the filing of this Memorial has generated overwhelming national and international interest. 

In 2015 and 2016, Donald Trump swept to a surprise victory, in part, because of his shrewd use of traditional legacy and cable news media. I don’t think he ever turned down an interview request and the media gobbled it up because they never expected him to win.

      by Larry C. Johnson

U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT-2) has been chosen for one of Australia’s top civilian awards.

Courtney is one of a few Americans to be given the Order of Australia, which recognizes extraordinary service by a non-citizen.

Courtney said he is deeply honored by the award. He has been working with Australia for the past decade, and co-chairs the Friends of Australia Caucus.

He has also been instrumental in the AUKUS trilateral defense agreement between Australia, the UK and the U.S. to help provide nuclear submarines to Australia. It’s the first time the U.S. has entered into such an agreement with another country.

This week I read an article in Al Jazeera describing the killing in one day of hundreds of Palestinian civilians. The same day I read a piece in CNN, “Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide”. The article tried to elicit sympathy for soldiers who were traumatised from bulldozing Palestinians.

According to the testimony of IDF bulldozer driver Guy Zaken on many occasions he and others had to “run over terrorists, dead and alive, in the hundreds.”

“Everything squirts out,” he said. Seeing all that “meat and blood” had made eating meat difficult for him.

This German grey eminence is trying for another color revolution
The recent election in Georgia did not go the EU’s way, and the chief of the Bundestag’s foreign policy committee has sprung into action

The Caucasus country of Georgia has had elections, and they did not go the way Western elites wanted.

Historical revisionism began as soon as the Second World War had ended. Both the Serbs and Russians were involved in this process and allowed history to be reinterpreted in front of their eyes. We had once believed that evil wouldn’t repeat itself if we acted like “gentlemen” and graciously turned a blind eye to the actions of our neighbors, compatriots, and allies during WWII. Even today, we often talk about “Nazi Germany.” 

Serbia’s deputy PM: Why the West has been twisting history since WW2

Since the end of WWII, there’s been a campaign to criminalize the Soviet Union, its descendants and partners

By Aleksandar Vulin

Aides accompanying Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga on a tour of African countries have tried to get RT thrown out of a press conference in Pretoria, offending their South African hosts in the process.

Sibiga arrived in South Africa on Sunday, seeking to lobby the government there to favor Vladimir Zelensky’s “peace formula,” and to shift the BRICS member away from Russia. He and his aides then became upset by the presence of an RT microphone at the joint press conference with South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola.

“They tried to revoke RT’s press credentials and presence in this meeting,” RT’s Noluvuyo Kunge said on Monday. “Even now, after the meeting has come to an end, they keep checking if we’re still here. Not entirely sure what they’re trying to achieve.”

The Washington Post has abandoned its decades-long tradition of endorsing a US presidential candidate to earn back the trust of the American public, the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has said. The billionaire explained his reasoning in an op-ed published by the Post on Monday after facing a backlash from current and former staff. 

The newspaper had endorsed candidates since 1976, but announced the suspension of the practice on Friday, prompting several editors to resign. The Post’s editorial board endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. According to CNN, the newspaper’s staffers had drafted an endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the election next month, but it was ultimately not approved by the management. 

Lock up criminally minded children and teach them a firm lesson. Mind your cars, mind your keys. Chat about the Olympics and moan about whether stadia should be built or refurbished. Mumble about water, dams, and roads. Bridges for cassowaries that are not used by those magnificent yet inconsiderate birds. Marvel at members of parliament with duplicate names such as Grace Grace.

Clichés so clotted they would build the tower of Babel, including a nice touch by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation: a presenter dressed in garish pink blending into the counting board and talking down to her audience.

FROM THE ALBO-HATING MURDOCH MEDIA AND JOE HILDEBRAND...

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago, President Biden's response was stronger and swifter than many expected. 

"I think Biden surprised the world. He certainly surprised the Russians by his decision to create a broad democratic alliance to defend Ukraine," said Anne Applebaum, an author and historian who writes extensively on the war. 

Matthew Kroenig at the Atlantic Council also gives Biden high marks for his initial backing of Israel when it was attacked eight months ago by Hamas.

"The Biden administration's instinct right after the Oct. 7th attack was the correct one, to have Israel's back in its goal to eliminate Hamas," said Kroenig.

Former President Donald Trump called Kamala Harris a "sh** vice president" and implied golfer Arnold Palmer was well-endowed during a rambling Saturday rally in Pennsylvania that capped off a tumultuous week on the campaign trail.

Speaking in Latrobe, Pa., where Palmer was born, Trump delivered a lengthy monologue about the late golfer's life story and praised him as "all man," including an off-color joke about Palmer's anatomy.

"Arnold Palmer was all man, and I say that in all due respect to women — and I love women," Trump said. "But this guy, this guy, this is a guy that was all man. This man was strong and tough. And I refuse to say it, but when he took showers with the other pros, they came out of there, they said, 'Oh my God, that's unbelievable.'"

Born in the wake of the Second World War, the UN "mistaken" from its very first steps, endorsing or sponsoring a colonial-style dispossession that, more than seventy-five years later, seems almost irreparable. The original sin? It was making the legitimate owners of the land pay (Asshab al Ared), namely the populations present in Palestine since time immemorial, a crime in which they had nothing to do with it, the Holocaust "discovered" in the Nazi camps upon their liberation being the work of Europeans (the Germans, but also many other "collaborators").

by Michael Raimbaud

Last week Al Jazeera released Investigating War Crimes in Gaza.1 The 81-minute documentary is a searing indictment of the treatment of those who always suffer most in war – women and children – during Israel’s retaliation for the horrid murders Hamas inflicted inside Israel a year ago this week.

Gaza after a year of war

A new documentary chronicles destruction and abuse

von Seymour Hersh

Israel’s initial ground attack failed to rescue all the Israeli hostages or to destroy the several hundred miles of the Hamas tunnel system.