US, Allies Massacre at Will, Yet Condemn Russia

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The announcement last week by the United States of the largest military aid package in its history to Israel
was a win for both sides.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu could boast that his lobbying had boosted aid from $3.1 billion a
year to $3.8bn a 22 per cent increase for a decade starting in 2019.
Mr Netanyahu has presented this as a rebuff to those who accuse him of jeopardising Israeli security interests
with his governments repeated affronts to the White House.
In the past weeks alone, defence minister Avigdor Lieberman has compared last years nuclear deal between
Washington and Iran with the 1938 Munich pact, which bolstered Hitler; and Mr Netanyahu has implied that
US opposition to settlement expansion is the same as support for the ethnic cleansing of Jews.
American president Barack Obama, meanwhile, hopes to stifle his own critics who insinuate that he is antiIsrael. The deal should serve as a fillip too for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic partys candidate to succeed Mr
Obama in Novembers election.
In reality, however, the Obama administration has quietly punished Mr Netanyahu for his misbehaviour. Israeli
expectations of a $4.5bn-a-year deal were whittled down after Mr Netanyahu stalled negotiations last year as
he sought to recruit Congress to his battle against the Iran deal.
In fact, Israel already receives roughly $3.8bn if Congresss assistance on developing missile defence
programmes is factored in. Notably, Israel has been forced to promise not to approach Congress for extra
funds.
The deal takes into account neither inflation nor the dollars depreciation against the shekel.
A bigger blow still is the White Houses demand to phase out a special exemption that allowed Israel to spend
nearly 40 per cent of aid locally on weapon and fuel purchases. Israel will soon have to buy all its armaments
from the US, ending what amounted to a subsidy to its own arms industry.
Nonetheless, Washingtons renewed military largesse in the face of almost continual insults inevitably
fuels claims that the Israeli tail is wagging the US dog. Even The New York Times has described the aid
package as too big.
Since the 1973 war, Israel has received at least $100bn in military aid, with more assistance hidden from
view. Back in the 1970s, Washington paid half of Israels military budget. Today it still foots a fifth of the bill,
despite Israels economic success.

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But the US expects a return on its massive investment. As the late Israeli politician-general Ariel Sharon once
observed, Israel has been a US aircraft carrier in the Middle East, acting as the regional bully and carrying
out operations that benefit Washington.
Almost no one blames the US for Israeli attacks that wiped out Iraqs and Syrias nuclear programmes. A
nuclear-armed Iraq or Syria would have deterred later US-backed moves at regime overthrow, as well as
countering the strategic advantage Israel derives from its own nuclear arsenal.
In addition, Israels US-sponsored military prowess is a triple boon to the US weapons industry, the countrys
most powerful lobby. Public funds are siphoned off to let Israel buy goodies from American arms makers.
That, in turn, serves as a shop window for other customers and spurs an endless and lucrative game of
catch-up in the rest of the Middle East.
The first F-35 fighter jets to arrive in Israel in December their various components produced in 46 US states
will increase the clamour for the cutting-edge warplane.
Israel is also a front-line laboratory, as former Israeli army negotiator Eival Gilady admitted at the weekend,
that develops and field-tests new technology Washington can later use itself.
The US is planning to buy back the missile interception system Iron Dome which neutralises battlefield
threats of retaliation it largely paid for. Israel works closely too with the US in developing cyberwarfare, such
as the Stuxnet worm that damaged Irans civilian nuclear programme.
But the clearest message from Israels new aid package is one delivered to the Palestinians: Washington
sees no pressing strategic interest in ending the occupation. It stood up to Mr Netanyahu over the Iran deal
but will not risk a damaging clash over Palestinian statehood.
Some believe that Mr Obama signed the aid package to win the credibility necessary to overcome his
domestic Israel lobby and pull a rabbit from the hat: an initiative, unveiled shortly before he leaves office, that
corners Mr Netanyahu into making peace.
Hopes have been raised by an expected meeting at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday. But their
first talks in 10 months are planned only to demonstrate unity to confound critics of the aid deal.
If Mr Obama really wanted to pressure Mr Netanyahu, he would have used the aid agreement as leverage.
Now Mr Netanyahu need not fear US financial retaliation, even as he intensifies effective annexation of the
West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu has drawn the right lesson from the aid deal he can act against the Palestinians with
continuing US impunity.
- See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/2016-09-19/palestinians-lose-in-us-military-aid-deal-withisrael/#sthash.fL4Eq28N.dpuf
US, Allies Massacre at Will, Yet Condemn Russia
By Finian Cunningham
October 24, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - " Sputnik "- We really have entered a macabre twilight zone
when US-led warplanes are massacring civilians in several countries and yet Washington and its allies
condemn others for war crimes.
Of course, governments that act criminally cannot be expected to be honest. But what about nominally
independent organizations like the United Nations and Western media? The collective deception is damning
of systematic complicity.
What makes it more disturbing is that if criminality can be so capriciously covered-up by institutions that are
relied upon for law and accountability then the world really is in a dangerous, dark place.
The latest atrocity involved US coalition aircraft reportedly killing 15 women and injuring 50 others when they
hit a funeral procession near the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Friday.

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American-led coalition warplanes, including from Britain, France, and Turkey, are bombing Iraq, supposedly
to help defeat the Islamic State (Daesh) terror group.
Shamefully, the Western news media, which have been blaring allegations of war crimes against Russia
over its military operations in Syria, were largely silent on the massacre near Kirkuk.
Only days before that barbarity, there were several other mass atrocities committed by American allies
elsewhere in the Middle East.
In Syria, two F-16 fighter jets belonging to NATO member Belgium killed six civilians in the village
of Hassadjek, near Aleppo.
Within hours of that murderous assault, warplanes from Turkey, another NATO member, were responsible
for killing some 150 Syrian civilians in multiple air raids also in Aleppo countryside, according to Syrian state
media.
Meanwhile, in Yemen, the US-backed Saudi air bombardment continued its slaughter of innocents
despite cynically declaring a non-entity ceasefire earlier in the week. Three farmers were killed in Saudi air
strikes in Saada province almost a week after American and Saudi warplanes massacred 140 people
attending a funeral ceremony in the capital Sanaa. Another grotesque anti-terror operation.
Washington and its allies are now openly bombing sovereign countries without any legal mandate. As such,
these actions constitute the crime of aggression the most grave violation of international law. This is a redux
of 1930s fascist banditry by Western states who haughtily pontificate to Russia.
In Syria, the US-led coalition including Britain and France have been carrying out air strikes on that country
for over two years, killing hundreds of civilians all in the name of fighting terrorism. Three months ago,
in late July, US and French warplanes murdered over 100 civilians, including women and children, in and
around the town of Manbij, near Aleppo, in wave after wave of bombings.
Occasionally, the Western news media do give reports on such crimes. But, generally, their duty is
to minimize, by describing such incidents as unfortunate collateral damage, if not to willfully cover-up, as in
the latest atrocity near Kirkuk.
Nevertheless, the entire hideous Western charade is gradually being exposed.
In Syria, for nearly six years the Arab country has been almost completely destroyed by a US-led covert war
for regime change. To achieve this illicit objective, Washington and its NATO and regional allies funded,
armed and directed a proxy army of the most vile terror groups.
When Russia and Iran intervened last year to help their Syrian ally against this international criminal
conspiracy, the country was brought back from the brink of devastation. The terrorist proxy army supported
by Washington, London, Paris, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has been routed from hundreds of towns and
villages.
Syria is being liberated from a scourge unleashed in March 2011 by US-led insurgents under the guise of a
pro-democracy uprising. That narrative has always been absurd for anyone with critical thinking. Headchopping jihadists for democracy? Sword-wielding Saudi and Qatari despots advocating pluralist elections?
Besides, Syria already had a relatively robust democracy under President Bashar al Assad. Before the USled war for regime change, Syria enjoyed a reputation for religious freedom, peaceful coexistence and benign
social development.
The Western media, in the service of promoting their governments geopolitical agenda, have grossly
distorted events in Syria. Instead of investigating a Western-backed criminal subversion involving statesponsorship of terrorism, the media have violated honest, independent journalism with outright lies and
fabrications. The Western public have been told that Washington and its allies are bombing a (sovereign)
country to defeat terrorism when in fact any genuine, critical inquiry shows the opposite to be the case.
In the northern city of Aleppo, the Syrian army supported by Russia is liberating tens of thousands of civilians
who have been held under siege, against their will, by the Wests terror proxies since 2012.

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Western media coverage on Aleppo is a diabolical sham. The US, British and French governments, as well
as other Europeans, are jumping up and down with accusations of war crimes against Russia and its Syrian
ally.
Scarcely any evidence is presented to substantiate these unhinged Western claims of what is happening
in Aleppo. Virtually all the information that the West relies on for its allegations is sourced from Western and
Saudi-funded organizations such as the so-called White Helmets and Aleppo Media Center, both of whom are
embedded with proscribed terror groups like Jabhat al Nusra and Ahrar al Sham.
The Western capacity for denial is astounding. The vast majority of Aleppo residents some 1.6 million
people are living willingly under the protection of the Syrian army. Yet the Western media never report this.
Rather they focus on a minority district besieged by terrorists whom they lionize as heroic rebels.
Even when verifiable live broadcasts in Aleppo, set up at the humanitarian aid corridors established
by Russian and Syrian authorities, demonstrate beyond doubt that the truces are flagrantly violated by the
Western-beloved rebels, still the myth-making continues. During three days of humanitarian pause to help
vacate civilians, the militants were seen shelling neutral transport arrangements and of holding people
as human shields.
However, Western media vaguely and mendaciously report on lack of security hampering aid delivery.
Washington and its European allies, primarily Britain and France, as well as UN chiefs Ban Ki-Moon and
Staffan de Mistura, the special envoy to Syria, are a disgrace. So too are the Western corporate news media
who have lied all the way to conceal the real criminals in Syria.
In this mayhem and madness, it might seem perhaps counterintuitive to be optimistic. But good reason
for optimism is that Western governments and their servile media are exposing themselves for the criminals
and liars that they are.
The rogue-state behavior of Washington and its allies has become so rampant it is no longer possible to hide.
The public anger and disdain for this murdering cabal is fueled not only by what they see in Syria and the
region. People all around the world are making the connection that US-led warmongering and dirty wars are
rooted in the same murdering and plundering capitalist system that is killing their own societies and
communities.
People are realizing more than ever that the high and mighty Western leaders who presume to sit as judges
casting condemnations on others are actually the lowest, most despicable criminals.

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