WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY AND BERKELEY ARE CONSIDERED HOSTILE TO PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVISM

The California And Michigan Universities Join A List Of Almost 30 Campuses Deemed Hostile To Student Activism In Support Of Palestine.

The University of California, Berkeley (UC-Berkeley) and Wayne State University (WSU) on Monday both found themselves placed on the Council of American-Islamic Relations’ (Cair) list of campuses designated as hostile to pro-Palestinian speech.

Cair’s “hostile campuses” list is meant to serve as a “comprehensive resource” to guide people interested in promoting “supportive learning environments” and features names of institutions “of particular concern due to reported incidents, policies, and discriminatory practices targeting Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and other individuals opposing occupation, apartheid, and genocide,” according to Cair’s website.

Cair designated UC Berkeley as a hostile campus due to “its ongoing suppression of Palestinian advocacy, surveillance of student protests, and failure to protect students and faculty from harassment and retaliation”.

Cair said in a press release that the university “escalated policing, expanded surveillance, and selectively enforced policies that chill protected expression and endanger students and faculty advocating for Palestinian rights”.

Research and advocacy specialist Dr. Maryam Hasan, who led Cair’s research, said she had made her assessment based on two campus incidents and on public information gathered from Title VI complaints, lawsuits, testimonials, news articles, publications, and letters.

“One incident involved a Palestinian law student who was grabbed and pushed by a UC Berkeley law faculty member. UC Berkeley opened an investigation, but nothing has happened so far,” Hasan said.

Another event that Hasan described involved a student who was singled out in class when the professor compared pro-Palestinian symbols on his clothes to those of the Confederate flag.

“Then the professor withdrew from teaching the course the next day. UC Berkeley took no action to support the student or hold the faculty member accountable. It sends a message that Palestinian identity does not matter.”

Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor of communications, said in a statement that the university has an “unwavering commitment to free speech and to effectively confronting harassment and discrimination of every sort”.

“The campus is dedicated to supporting a community where all can thrive and feel a true sense of belonging without regard for their identities, origins, or beliefs. Berkeley’s leadership works closely with the members of the campus’s Advisory Committee on Muslim and Palestinian Student Life in order to understand and address those communities’ needs and interests,” the statement said.

During a press conference held by Cair’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter at UC Berkeley on Tuesday, speakers said that 1,000 University of California (UC) alumni agreed not to donate to the UC system until it stops systemic repression of pro-Palestinian speech.

UC Berkeley was the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in 1964, famously led by Mario Savio, where students protested against the university’s ban on political activities on campus, marking the first act of mass civil disobedience on a college campus. The movement laid the groundwork for successfully championing opposition to the Vietnam War.

WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY MAKES THE GROWING LIST

Cair designated WSU, a public university located in the Detroit area of Michigan, as a hostile campus due to what it says is “its repeated repression of Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, and allied students who oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza”. Detroit is home to one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans and Muslims in America.

“Wayne State University has criminalised peaceful dissent and silenced the voices of its Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and allied students who speak out against the Gaza genocide,” Hasan said.

Hasan said that several factors had influenced the decision to label WSU a hostile campus.

This included a civil rights complaint filed in April about harassment and racial and religious profiling of students; a petition posted by the WSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors about the right to free speech and peaceful protest; inconsistent policies at WSU; and WSU’s board of governors holding virtual board meetings to avoid input from pro-Palestinian voices.

‘Wayne State University has criminalised peaceful dissent and silenced the voices of its Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, Jewish, and allied students’

– Dr Maryam Hasan, Cair

Matt Lockwood, associate vice president of university communications, said that the university was “deeply committed” to supporting freedom of speech, expression and worship.

“As an institution of higher learning, we also continue to uphold our obligation to foster civil discourse and ensure – in a content-neutral manner – that conduct on our campus does not violate the law, infringe upon the rights of others, contravene university policy or disrupt university operations.”

The two universities join a list of 26 other campuses designated as hostile by researchers at Cair.

Universities that make up that list include Ivy Leagues such as Harvard University, Columbia University and Cornell University, as well as other prestigious schools such as Stanford; University of California, Los Angeles; New York University; Emory University; and George Washington University.

Hasan said Cair does not “recommend” hostile campuses to students and advises them to make decisions based on thorough research.

“We are not recommending them,” she said. “We are asking students and parents to look into their campus and make a decision based on safety, policies that are welcoming and inviting to political speech, free speech and academic freedom”.

INSIDE THE CIA’s COVERT WAR TO TOPPLE THE SYRIAN GOVERNMENT

For Over A Decade, The Western Narrative On The Syrian War Has Been Simple: A Peaceful Uprising Turned Into A Brutal Civil War Because Of Bashar Al-Assad’s Ruthless Crackdown On His Own People.

But in Creative Chaos: Inside the CIA’s Covert War to Topple the Syrian Government, the Libertarian Institute’s latest book, William Van Wagenen methodically dismantles this mainstream version of events, exposing it as a convenient fiction crafted to justify one of the most disastrous regime change wars of the modern era.

His central thesis is clear: the war in Syria was not an organic revolution but a deliberate effort by Washington, Israel, and their regional partners to weaken Iran by toppling Assad’s government. And when peaceful protests were hijacked by Islamist militants, instead of helping restore stability, the American regime and its allies deliberately prevented Assad from crushing the insurgency—even as it became dominated by al-Qaeda and ISIS-affiliated groups.

Now, years later, the result is a fractured Syria, ruled by jihadist warlords and occupied by foreign powers, with Israel consolidating its hold over strategic territory.

How and why did this disaster for Syria’s people come to pass? And why were the non-interventionists who called out Washington’s lies always right about the war and its likely outcome?

REGIME CHANGE: THE BLUEPRINT FOR SYRIA’S DESTRUCTION

Van Wagenen carefully documents how regime change in Syria had been a goal of Amerian foreign policy long before the Arab Spring. The Bush administration set the groundwork, but the Obama administration accelerated the effort, seeing it as a way to strike a blow against Iran without a direct war.

His research confirms that the American regime and its allies—including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey—actively supported and armed the so-called “moderate opposition,” despite overwhelming evidence that jihadists controlled the rebellion almost from the start.

Instead of letting the Assad government restore order, Western intelligence agencies funneled billions in arms, logistics, and training to extremist groups, ensuring the war would drag on.

The leaked 2012 email from Jake Sullivan to Hillary Clinton (which Van Wagenen references) makes this reality undeniable: “AQ [Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria.”

This stunning admission exposes the real nature of America’s policy in Syria: at the same time they fought them on the other side of the line in Iraq, Washington was directly supporting al-Qaeda-linked groups because they served its geopolitical interests.

A WAR HIJACKED BY JIHADISTS

One of the book’s most important contributions is its wholesale demolition of the “moderate rebel” myth. While establishment media outlets painted the Free Syrian Army (FSA) as a legitimate opposition force, Van Wagenen presents overwhelming evidence that the so-called moderates:

  • Were always outnumbered and outgunned by Islamist factions;

  • Frequently collaborated with or defected to al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, Jabhat al-Nusra (later HTS);

  • Received direct support from the CIA despite ties to terror groups

By 2013, ISIS and al-Nusra dominated the battlefield, and yet the American regime still prevented Assad from crushing the insurgency. As Van Wagenen documents, Washington:

  • Pressured Jordan to allow jihadists free movement across its border;

  • Supplied weapons through covert programs like Operation Timber Sycamore;

  • Worked with Türkiye and Saudi Arabia to keep a steady flow of foreign fighters into Syria

     

This policy—arming the terrorists who had just a decade previously attacked the United States, and who were attacking American forces in Iraq at the same time—wasn’t just reckless, it was criminal.

ISRAEL’S ROLE: ENGINEERING CHAOS TO CONSOLIDATE POWER

Another key point in Van Wagenen’s book is that Israel was a major driver behind the push for Assad’s overthrow. While the establishment narrative claims Israel was just a passive observer, the book shows that Tel Aviv had a clear strategic interest in Syria’s disintegration.

  • Israel viewed Assad as Iran’s key ally and wanted him removed;

  • Israeli intelligence worked closely with Western planners to fuel the insurgency;

  • Once jihadists took over much of the country, Israel used this as justification for expanding its own territorial ambitions

Fast forward to today, and Van Wagenen’s prediction has come true: Syria is permanently fractured, and Israel has occupied key territories under the pretense that there is “no legitimate partner for peace.”

As Israeli officials have repeatedly argued, Syria is too unstable to negotiate with because groups like HTS (formerly al-Qaeda’s affiliate) control large parts of it. But this outcome was engineered by Israel and its allies, who spent years ensuring jihadists gained the upper hand over Assad’s forces. In effect, the war has allowed Israel to tighten its grip on occupied Golan and extend its influence into Syrian territory.

THE ROLE OF BUREAUCRATIC INTERESTS: WHY REGIME CHANGE ALWAYS WINS

One of the most compelling themes in Van Wagenen’s book is the way he implicitly ties the Syrian War to broader structural issues in American foreign policy—particularly Public Choice Theory and the Iron Law of Bureaucracy. Public Choice Theory teaches us that politicians and government agencies act in their own self-interest, not necessarily in the interest of the public. A subset of this is the so-called “Iron Law of Bureaucracy,” which states that bureaucracies eventually prioritize their own growth and survival over their original mission. The CIA, State Department, and Pentagon all had institutional incentives to prolong the war, expand their budgets, and justify continued intervention, as Van Wagenen’s book shows.

This explains why, despite overwhelming evidence that arming jihadists would lead to disaster, the policy continued for years. The bureaucratic and political interests pushing for intervention simply had too much to gain from prolonging the war.

THE DEVASTATING HUMAN COST

While Van Wagenen’s book is primarily focused on the geopolitical machinations behind the war, he never loses sight of the human cost of Washington’s policies:

  • Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed;

  • Syria’s minority populations—Alawites, Christians, Druze, and Shiites—were slaughtered or driven into exile;

  • Millions became refugees, fueling instability across the region and in Europe

Rather than bringing “freedom” to Syria, American regime intervention ensured endless war, ethnic cleansing, and the rise of brutal jihadist warlords.

THE FINAL VERDICT: A DEVASTATING INDICTMENT OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

Creative Chaos: Inside the CIA’s Covert War to Topple the Syrian Government is a deeply-researched, compelling, and devastating critique of Western intervention in Syria. Van Wagenen’s book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand how Washington and its allies systematically engineered one of the most destructive conflicts of the 21st century. He methodically dismantles the legacy media’s lies, exposes the CIA’s reckless support for jihadists, and highlights Israel’s long-term strategic interest in Syria’s collapse.For those who still believe that the American regime’s intervention is a force for good in the world, this book is a wake-up call. Syria was not a “humanitarian” war. It was a calculated, brutal regime change operation that destroyed a nation for the sake of geopolitical gain. And, as Van Wagenen warns, despite the non-interventionists having always been right, it likely won’t be the last.

Washington must stop its meddling. This is a message particularly timely as Trump seems more and more inclined toward furthering the American regime’s involvement in the region.

ISRAEL ISN’T STOPPING IT’S GENOCIDE

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Said On Thursday That Israel’s Intention With Its Ongoing Genocidal Assault On The Civilian Population Of The Gaza Strip Is To Militarily Control The Entire Territory.

On Friday, Netanyahu’s security cabinet, against the recommendations of the Israeli military, which has already placed 86% of Gaza under a “militarized zone” or displacement orders, approved a plan to complete the takeover of northern Gaza by controlling Gaza City and forcibly evacuate tens of thousands of Palestinians remaining there.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff objected to the plan on the grounds it would endanger the lives of Israeli hostages and exhaust the military.

In an interview with Fox News, when asked whether Israel would take control of all of Gaza, Netanyahu answered, “We intend to.”

He went on to say that Israel did not aim to permanently control Gaza but instead to overthrow Hamas, which has been the governing authority there since 2006, and to replace it with some other government.

From the start, Netanyahu has opposed the idea of the Palestinian Authority (PA) governing the Gaza Strip.

For years prior to the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7th, 2023, Netanyahu maintained a policy of utilizing Hamas as a strategic ally to prevent any movement toward peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

After a Hamas-led government was democratically elected in 2006, Israel responded by imposing a siege to collectively punish the civilian population and colluded with the American government and Fatah, the party of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, to overthrow the legitimate leadership.

That effort resulted in violent clashes leading ultimately to Fatah being expelled from Gaza and a divided Palestinian leadership, with Hamas continuing to rule there while the PA continues to rule in the West Bank under Abbas despite his legal term having ended in 2009.

The PA was established under the Oslo Accords to essentially serve as Israel’s collaborator in enforcing its occupation regime, which is one of the key reasons why Hamas fared so well politically in municipal and legislative elections.

Israel has been the occupying power in Gaza since June 1967, when it launched what Israelis call the “Six Day War” with a surprise attack on Egypt. During that war, Israel invaded and occupied the Palestinian territories of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jersualem.

A common refrain among apologists of Israel’s occupation regime is that it withdrew from Gaza in 2005. However, while it’s true that Israel withdrew military forces and dismantled illegally constructed Jewish settlements, Israel has remained the occupying power in Gaza by virtue of its control over its borders, territorial waters, and airspace, in addition to continued administrative management.

The unit within the Israeli Ministry of Defense responsible for implementing the Israeli government’s civilian policies within the Occupied Palestinian Territories is known as the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT.

While Netanyahu denied any intention to establish a permanent military presence in Gaza, effective annexation is precisely what members of his governing coalition have been aiming at from the start.

After the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7th, 2023, dubbed “Operation Al Aqsa Flood,” Israel responded by placing Gaza under a total siege, cutting off electricity and water and blocking entry of food, fuel, and other goods essential for survival.

The siege was accompanied by a military invasion, and in mid-October, the IDF ordered the 1.1 million Palestinians inhabiting northern Gaza to flee south or be deemed “terrorists.”

On October 14th, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, warned the international community that there was a grave danger that Israel would perpetrate a mass ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

In a position paper published on October 17th, 2023, the Misgav Institute for National Security & Zionist Strategy, which has close ties to the Israeli military and security establishment, revealed the intention to ethnically cleanse Gaza of Palestinians.

The paper lauded Israel’s military assault on Gaza as “a unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the whole Gaza Strip.”

Then on October 24th, the Israeli news outlet Calcalist reported on a document from the Israeli Intelligence Ministry stating that the operation in Gaza could “yield positive and long-term strategic results”—namely, the expulsion of Palestinians to the Sinai desert in Egypt.

The full document in Hebrew was published by the Israeli magazine Mekomit, and an English translation was published by +972 Magazine, an independent outlet run by a group of Palestinian and Israeli journalists.

As reported by Mekomit, the argument was made that it would be in the Palestinians’ own best interest to accept expulsion “compared to the number of casualties expected if the population remains.”

Either ethnic cleansing or genocide—that was the choice the Palestinians would effectively be offered.

The document stated that “the most dangerous alternative” to ethnic cleansing would be for the PA to take over Gaza because it could “lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

Another option was to establish a “local Arab authority” other than the PA, but this idea, too, suffered from “significant deficiencies.”

The overall aim was to “motivate” Palestinians to flee Gaza—which would solve the problem of having to find a way to rule over them without any involvement from the existing Palestinian leadership.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office responded to the document’s publication by saying that no plan for governing Gaza after “eliminating Hamas’ governmental and military capabilities” had yet been officially discussed much less decided upon.

On November 10, 2023, when asked whether he supported Israeli resettlement in Gaza, Netanyahu expressed his view that this wasn’t “a realistic goal,” but that he aimed for “full security control.”

HAVING A MILITARY UNIT DEDICATED TO EXCUSING ATROCITIES TELLS YOU HOW EVIL ISRAEL IS

If Israel Was On The Side Of Truth And Morality It Would Not Have A Military Unit Dedicated To Manipulating The Public Narrative About Actions Which People See As Evil.

Israel is so evil that it has a military unit dedicated to coming up with excuses for the IDF’s atrocities. It has been reported that the IDF has a special unit it calls the “Legitimization Cell”, because it is tasked with finding justifications to legitimize the assassination of journalists and other war crimes for the purpose of “public relations”.

Probably goes without saying, but if Israel was on the side of truth and morality it would not have a military unit dedicated to manipulating the public narrative about actions which normal people would see as extremely evil.

Israel: We can’t allow Palestinian journalists to remain alive in Gaza because all the Palestinian journalists are Hamas.

Western journalists: Okay so let us in, that way there can be journalists documenting what’s happening in Gaza who aren’t Hamas.

Israel: [long pause] … No.

We have alienated various readers and online factions over the years with the things we have written, but that has usually been unintentional; normally we don’t like to alienate people who resonate with our work. Gaza was the first time we didn’t really care if we lost someone who disagreed with us.

It’s a sign of developing maturity to be able to see both sides of an issue, but it’s a sign of further maturity to understand that just because you can see both sides doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take sides on important and relevant moral issues with a clear right and wrong side. Stop fence-sitting on a genocide and grow up.

Nothing creates support for Hamas more than Israel’s actions in Gaza. Nothing creates hatred of Israel more than Israel’s actions in Gaza. Nothing creates hatred of Jews more than Israel’s actions in Gaza. Everything Israel’s supporters complain most about is caused by Israel.

The strongest argument that Israel is committing genocide is that all major human rights groups say it’s a genocide, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Israeli rights groups like B’Tselem, along with the overwhelming majority of genocide scholars and human rights experts. The debate is over. This is a settled matter.

The hasbara machine hasn’t come up with a counter-argument for this. They hate it. Whenever it is used they always try to push the debate in some other direction where they have a counter-argument they’ve been trained to regurgitate, but when we stick to the universal consensus among human rights groups they always get mad.

It’s so undignified how western governments and news outlets keep talking about Israel’s officially stated reasons for its actions in Gaza like we don’t all know they want to get rid of the Palestinians who live there and have been trying to get rid of them for generations.

It is cool when Israel is criticized for something and someone goes “Oh yeah well America does that too!” Like that’s a defense. It’s like yes, those are both evil states who do evil things constantly, and they work in conjunction with each other and are not meaningfully separate.

Being an ally of Israel or the United States is immoral for many reasons, but this is especially the case during their joint genocide project in Gaza. They should both be made pariah states.

Start recognizing Palestinian humanity and then maybe you will be taken seriously when you talk about recognizing a Palestinian state.

Opposition to the Gaza holocaust has always been led from the bottom up. It started with Palestinians documenting their own genocide, then ordinary westerners saw this and began opposing it, then slowly the media and mainstream human rights organizations began following the leadership of the people and applying scrutiny to Israel’s atrocities, and then, even more slowly, western governments began feebly pushing back on Israel.

This has all happened in response to widespread public outcry forcing the western political/media class to respond. The mass media cannot retain its legitimacy in the eyes of the public if it keeps churning out brazen genocide propaganda without ever scrutinizing Israel. Governments cannot retain the consent of the governed if they completely ignore a mass atrocity that the public cares deeply about. So they were forced to start moving, or else risk the public turning on them.

The primary lesson here is that we must keep pushing this issue as hard as we can, because it’s working. They can’t ignore us anymore, and they’re feeling the pressure. Their response has been painfully weak and inadequate, but it’s infinitely more than we were seeing in the early months of the genocide. We need to keep hammering this thing.

The second lesson here is that our “leaders” are not actually our leaders. We are leading them on the most important moral issue of our time, and they are following us. It is an absolute certainty that western governments and media would be ignoring Gaza if the public had ignored it too. They definitely wanted us to ignore it, and for a long time it really seemed like they expected us to get exhausted and drop it. It wasn’t until we made it clear that this isn’t getting shuffled down the memory hole with the daily news churn that we really began to see things change.

We are leading this dance. So we need to keep leading. Keep driving. Keep pushing. The louder our voices get, the more movement we see from them.

So don’t stop!

THE AMERICAN REGIME TREATS ISRAELI PEDOPHILES BETTER THAN WOUNDED PALESTINIAN KIDS

In America The Only Way To Get Wounded Palestinian Children In The United States For Medical Treatment These Days Would Be To Disguise Them As Israeli Pedophiles.

Antiwar has a story out right now with the headline “Rep. Greene: US Should Let Gaza Children in for Medical Treatment, Prosecute Israeli Child Predators.”

It’s a headline that says so much about what’s going on in the world in just a few words. Is the American regime really not letting Gaza children in for medical treatment? Is the American regime really failing to prosecute Israelis who prey on children? Why are these necessary things to say? And why is it being left to Marjorie Taylor Greene to say them?

What’s crazy is that these are entirely true and legitimate grievances, as Dave DeCamp explains:

“The Georgia representative was referring to a recent State Department decision to block visas for Palestinians from Gaza in response to outrage from pro-Trump activist Laura Loomer over wounded Palestinian children arriving for medical treatment, and the case of Tom Alexandrovich, a senior Israeli cybersecurity official who was arrested in a sting operation in Nevada for attempting to lure a child for sexual purposes but was allowed to go back to Israel.”

Things are so screwed up that the only way to get wounded Palestinian children in and out of the United States for medical treatment these days would be to disguise them as Israeli pedophiles.

Israel apologists are still trying to make “we’re not starving children, we’re starving SICK children” work. Bari Weiss’s media outlet The Free Press has a new genocide apologia article out noting that twelve of the emaciated children we’ve seen in photos distributed by the mainstream press have had preexisting conditions like “cystic fibrosis, rickets, or other serious ailments.”

This argument is exactly the same as starting a fire in a crowded building and then claiming you can’t be guilty of murder by arson because many of the people who died in the fire were handicapped and elderly individuals who couldn’t escape quickly enough. Everyone knows the people who suffer first and worst in a famine are small children, the elderly, and the sick.

As others have pointed out, it really shows how desperate the Israel spinmeisters are getting that they would cite “rickets” as a pre-existing condition in their argument to dismiss concerns about starvation in Gaza, given that rickets is a condition caused by malnutrition.

Israel: We have to kill all the journalists in Gaza because they’re Hamas.

Western journalists: Okay so let us in so at least someone’s there to report what’s happening in Gaza.

Israel: We can’t, it’s not safe for you.

Western journalists: Why not?

Israel: Because then YOU’D be Hamas.

A tweet from former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett complaining that “Europe is becoming Islamized,” fearmongering about the number of Muslims who now live in some of Europe’s major cities.

Israelis are something else, man. They don’t want Muslims to live in the middle east, they don’t want Muslims to live in Europe. Kinda seems like they just don’t want Muslims to live.

The New York Post has an article out with the headline “Queens bodega named ‘Gaza Deli and Grill’ ignites fear among Jewish New Yorkers — including Oct. 7th survivor: ‘I’m still not safe’”.

It’s just as ridiculous as it sounds. There’s a bodega in New York called “Gaza Deli and Grill” and Jewish locals are saying it makes them feel unsafe. This happens as an active genocide continues in Gaza, with Israel calling upon 60,000 IDF reservists in preparation for the planned ethnic cleansing of a million civilians from Gaza City.

Whenever you see the western press centering the feelings of western Jews with extreme aggression, it’s a safe bet that Israel has something especially ugly in the works.

It really seems to have taken the empire by surprise that the public has not played along with this. They really expected us to forget about Gaza within the first few weeks and let it fade into the background. The fact that the outcry has only gotten louder says encouraging things about ordinary members of the public, and about the future of the human species.

AN EXTREME TURN HAS TAKEN PLACE IN NETANYAHU’S “TOTAL VICTORY” RHETORIC

From Throwing His Military Under The Bus To His Expanded ‘Greater Israel’ Vision, The Prime Minister Has Observers Worried That Even Worse Policies Will Follow.

As Israel’s war on Gaza escalates with IDF troops now moving to take over Gaza City, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been deploying more extreme language than usual to describe his plans for “total” victory over Hamas. He has eschewed ceasefire talks, and is instead leaning into his expansive vision for a “Greater Israel,” which not only includes an Israeli takeover of Gaza but of neighboring territories too.

His public remarks and media appearances over the last week have caused some to observe that the prime minister may be taking his approach, which is already heavily influenced by the hardline right wing in his cabinet, to an even more maximalist level.

For example, Netanyahu completely dismissed the idea of a political solution for Gaza at a Newsmax conference hosted in Jerusalem last week.

“In the search for an alternative to victory, this idea emerged — what they call a ‘political solution,’ which is nothing more than another term for defeat and surrender. That will not happen,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew.

During the same remarks, Netanyahu appeared to be throwing his own military under the bus, suggesting IDF chiefs who had been calling for the Gaza campaign to end have lost their commitment to “victory.” “I will not give up on victory. The people of Israel will not give up on victory,” Netanyahu proclaimed, alleging that “victory” was now the last word in the army’s lexicon.

Appearing on an Israeli media channel last week, Netanyahu also said that Israel was looking for other countries to take in Palestinians, just as Trump had proposed to do back in Spring. “I think that the right thing to do, even according to the laws of war as I know them, is to allow the population to leave, and then you go in with all your might against the enemy who remains there,” Netanyahu said.

During an interview, Netanyahu also endorsed the Greater Israel vision, which calls for Israel to expand to include other Middle Eastern countries. Arab nations widely condemned his comments, alleging that Netanyahu’s support for that idea threatens their security, and risks peace prospects in general.

And at the Newsmax conference, moreover, he also said there was “no starvation” in Gaza. “Hamas needs ozempic,” Netanyahu mused, referring to the popular weight loss drug.

Some spoke with experts about what Netanyahu’s more recent rhetoric means for his political trajectory, and for the future of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip. Broadly, observers suggest his amped up language points to a grim reality in which Netanyahu’s government has stripped away any pretense of a political solution and is closer than ever to carrying out a maximalist endgame of absolute control over the Gaza strip, with no regard for the Palestinians who live there.

UNPACKING NETANYAHU’S RHETORIC

Israeli political analyst Ori Goldberg said Netanyahu, as a political leader, operates on a complex duality: his long-term reign as prime minister gives him a veneer of political stability, but also gives him leeway to make hard, even risky, choices for the sake of Israel’s future.

In this respect, Netanyahu’s recent rhetoric, which Goldberg describes as “more extreme” than usual, showcases his willingness to commit to these high-stakes choices — even if they are irreversible, or otherwise risk Israel’s security or international standing.

Netanyahu “is going for broke, he’s committed. He doesn’t have any other options,” Goldberg observed. “He is playing ‘chicken’ with the international community. He has made his choice and will be happy to let both Israel and Palestine go down in flames.”

Israel is reportedly in talks to send Gazans to South Sudan, and Israel is sending aid to the impoverished country as a likely sweetener. Whether the transfer of Gazans materializes does not matter, said Goldberg.

“It’s about making noise,” he charged. “It goes to show that Israel still has some international clout,” and that it has partners it can make political deals with, “even if [it has] to bribe them into it.”

Carol Daniel-Kasbari, Quincy Institute non-resident fellow and senior associate director of the Conflict Resolution Program at the Carter Center, said that Netanyahu’s rhetoric “point[s] to an endgame of open-ended Israeli security dominance, shrinking space for a two-state outcome, and a coalition calculus that rewards ideological consistency over diplomatic compromise.”

Daniel-Kasbari said Netanyahu “governs with partners to his right whose agendas prioritize settlement expansion and permanent Israeli control.” Considering this political reality, “rejecting a negotiated track for Gaza and hinting at Gazan ‘emigration’ are not rhetorical flourishes; they’re policy signals,” she said, also highlighting Netanyahu’s historical opposition to a sovereign Palestinian state west of the Jordan river.

Daniel Levy, President of the American Middle East Project, said the Israeli prime minister has always supported this “Greater Israel” vision and cautioned not to over-interpret his comments.

As per the interview, however, Netanyahu now seems to be endorsing an “expansive definition which has been more regularly referenced by [Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich,” Levy pointed out. Smotrich has repeatedly advocated for a Greater Israel that would include parts of Palestine, Syria, and Jordan.

Nevertheless, Levy said Netanyahu has always “been very clear, including presenting bills to the Israeli parliament, that he opposes a Palestinian state, seeks to expand Israel’s borders, and he has acted on these intentions, including the intention to annex Palestinian territories.”

“This is indeed a decades-long project,” he said.

WILL ISRAEL ANNEX GAZA?

Israel is now positioning itself to force Palestinians out of Gaza City, where the IDF, pursuing a plan the Israeli security cabinet approved earlier this month, aims to displace about one million people. To that end, many Israelis are critical of such plans because of their perceived capacity to harm the remaining hostages, further weaken the IDF, and worsen the humanitarian crisis on the ground.

“Will Israel take this next step and carry out crimes against humanity after they have been officially approved by the Israeli government?” Goldberg asked, noting the obvious American regime’s complicity — where Washington has unconditionally transferred bombs, guns, ammo, and other supplies necessary for an Israeli military incursion and occupation. “Without being armed by the United States, nothing will happen.”

For its part, Washington has frequently deferred to Jerusalem regarding its possible plans for the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Early this month, Trump said it was “pretty much up to Israel,” to decide whether it would pursue occupying the territory.

Netanyahu said earlier this month that Israel would proceed with this takeover, deeming it “the best way to end the war and the best way to end it speedily.”

“If Israel decides to do this, the images will be horrible,” said Goldberg, who doubts that a complete takeover is possible, given the practical and logistical hurdles Israel would need to clear to achieve that goal.

“But then again…Netanyahu is so committed to this course, he has no other option. The Israeli military is desperate for a win,” he added.

“All of this may happen. And if it does, then, there really is no going back.”

AS MANY PEOPLE CAN BE KILLED BY SANCTIONS AS BY WARS

Economic Coercion Doesn’t Receive As Much Attention As Military Conflict — But It Can Be Just As Deadly And Just As Racist And Evil.

Amir Hossein Naroi was an Iranian boy afflicted with thalassaemia, an inherited blood disease that is treatable with transfusions and drugs that reduce toxic concentrations of iron. These drugs are produced by Novartis, a Swiss-American company, which stopped shipping them to Iran after President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in May 2018. Four years later, Naroi died at the age of 10 due to complications caused by his lack of treatment. Naroi is one of nearly 150 patients that have died annually of the disease in Iran, where it is prevalent due to genetic factors, compared to fewer than 40 a year prior to the reimposition of sanctions.

Similar examples abound. Humanitarian agencies in Venezuela had their American bank accounts closed shortly after the American regime imposed oil sanctions on the country in 2019, hampering efforts to deliver food assistance to vulnerable people. Efforts to assist victims of the 2023 earthquake in Syria were hampered when banks refused to process donations for fear of being found in violation of American sanctions. A 2023 WHO-sponsored review found consistent adverse effects of sanctions on health and health systems in low and middle income countries.

Proponents of sanctions often dismiss these findings as inconclusive. Correlation does not imply causation, they argue. Mismanagement and corruption of governments under sanctions are frequently blamed as the primary culprits of socio-economic collapse. American regime officials routinely claim that sanctions include humanitarian exceptions, and typically refer to any humanitarian consequences of sanctions policies as “unintended” and resulting from “overcompliance” by financial institutions and other economic actors.

In an article published this month in The Lancet Global Health with co-authors Silvio Rendón and Mark Weisbrot, these claims were addressed by analysing the causal effect of international sanctions on age-specific mortality rates in a panel dataset of sanctions episodes for 152 countries between 1971 and 2021. A battery of econometric methods were applied that specifically designed to identify causal effects from observational data.

There was robust evidence of a significant causal association between sanctions and increased mortality across most age groups, with particularly pronounced effects for infants and young children. Being subjected to sanctions, for example, leads to an estimated 8 per cent increase in the mortality rate of children under five in the affected countries. This framework was used to quantify the number of deaths attributable to sanctions in targeted countries. It was estimated that, over the past decade, sanctions were associated with approximately 564,000 excess deaths annually. This death toll is comparable to current estimates of civilian and battle deaths from armed conflict during those years.

The deadliest sanctions are those imposed outside the multilateral UN framework — and particularly those imposed by the American regime. One possible explanation is that American sanctions often explicitly aim to cause a deterioration in living standards in target countries under the assumption that worsening socio-economic conditions will cause regime change. The use of so-called “smart sanctions” that target specific wrongdoers rather than entire populations often replicate the effects of comprehensive sanctions by focusing on central banks and state-owned enterprises that play vital roles in the functioning of the economy. These targeted sanctions can have effects — including excess deaths of civilians — nearly as damaging as those of less targeted measures.

Over the past few decades, the use of economic sanctions has expanded dramatically. The share of the global economy subject to unilateral sanctions grew from 5 per cent in the 1960s to 25 per cent between 2010 and 2022. The findings suggest that these measures cause direct harm and many excess deaths. Indeed, it is difficult to think of any other policy instrument with such severe adverse effects on human life that is used so pervasively.

Woodrow Wilson once described sanctions as “more tremendous than war”, a “silent, deadly remedy” that no nation would be able to withstand. He believed their sheer destructiveness would lead them to be used sparingly. A century later, the opposite has happened: sanctions have become a default weapon of statecraft, wielded routinely. But a policy that kills hundreds of thousands of civilians is neither peaceful nor defensible. It is an economic weapon of mass destruction — used by the very powers that claim to uphold global norms.

PRISONER MONITORS SAY THAT PALESTINIANS FROM GAZA ARE ‘ENDURING HELL’ IN ISRAELI CUSTODY

According To The Monitors, Several Detainees Showed Up To Lawyers’ Visits “Weeping And Terrorised”.

Palestinians seized from Gaza and placed in Israeli detention are enduring “the worst levels of torture and abuse” compared with other detainees, two prisoner rights monitors have said.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs have published a report collecting testimonies of lawyers of prisoners that showcase ongoing “severe crimes”.

Titled “Enduring Hell: Gaza Detainees Face Severe Israeli Torture and Terror Behind Bars”, the report is based on accounts from Ramla prison and the Sde Teiman military camp. The testimonies from Ramla come specifically from the underground Rakevet section, where detainees are reportedly held in total isolation and subjected to psychological torture.

According to the monitors, several detainees appeared at meetings with their lawyers “weeping and terrorised”.

In one case, a prisoner appeared severely beaten and unable to express what happened to him, communicating only with his eyes.

“His case is not isolated; all detainees showed severe psychological distress, with fear dominating the entire lawyers’ visit,” the rights groups said. The Commission of Detainees and PPS note that all prisoners were subjected to beatings and threats before seeing their lawyers, with prison guards often forcing them to lie and say they were being kept in “excellent” conditions.

Meanwhile, lawyers are not allowed to share any information with the detainees regarding their relatives.

FINGER-BREAKING, ISOLATION AND STRESS POSITIONS

The latest testimonies reveal Palestinians from Gaza are enduring torture methods including finger-breaking, isolation, humiliation and being placed in stress positions for long periods.

“The interrogation period stands out as one of the clearest reflections of the level of torture and grave violations inflicted by interrogators against detainees abducted from occupied Gaza,” the report said.

‘I was beaten daily for 30 days straight. I currently suffer from torn chest muscles’

– Prisoner ‘AY’

According to the monitors, the detainees are only allowed in the yard for 20 minutes every other day, and denied sunlight for the rest of the time.

One prisoner, identified as AY, said he was held in a cell for a month “without knowing day from night”.

“They would strap me to a chair and then throw me to the ground while my hands and feet were bound. I was beaten daily for 30 days straight. I currently suffer from torn chest muscles and severe pain due to prolonged shackling of my arms behind my back,” he is quoted as saying.

Another detainee, identified as YD, described violent interrogation methods, where he was placed in a “disco” room – where detainees are psychologically abused through blaring music – and forced into stress positions.

“The beating was so violent that my handcuffs came off twice… Now I suffer from rib fractures and I can’t sleep. The torture also caused a tear in my left ear, vision impairment, and kidney pain,” he said.

Detainee AB recalled similar abuse, noting that during his interrogation he was placed in the “banana” stress position and beaten.

“The interrogators would grab my testicles and beat me on them, trying to pressure me into confessing,” AB added.

Several former detainees have told the United Nations and the media that they were routinely beaten on their genitals or other sensitive parts of their body.

After AB’s transfer to Ramla prison, guards broke his fingers.

“FAMINE” IN ISRAELI DETENTION

The monitors said all the testimonies confirmed that prisoners endured starvation, with one describing it as a “famine”.

Food portions are extremely small and often inedible, with the amount of food given to several prisoners sharing a cell less than a meal for one person.

“Most are experiencing severe weight loss, emaciation, and extreme exhaustion, along with worsening illnesses and health conditions,” the report said.

Additionally, diseases and infections continue to torment prisoners, with scabies becoming one of the most pressing health issues among detainees.

The two monitors stressed that the prison system’s deprivation of basic hygiene and medical care is exacerbating the spread of diseases.

ZIONISM IS EXACTLY WHAT IT DOES

Zionism Means Exactly What We See Before Us Today. Genocide. Ethnic Cleansing. Apartheid. Nonstop Violence And Abuse. That’s What Zionism Means. And Anti-Zionism Means Opposing These Things.

Israel apologists always attack anti-Zionists by saying “Zionism just means self-determination for Jews! If you hate Zionism then you hate Jews!”

No, that’s not what Zionism means. Zionism means exactly what we see before us today. Genocide. Ethnic cleansing. Apartheid. Nonstop violence and abuse. That’s what Zionism means. And anti-Zionism means opposing these things.

There is simply no argument to the contrary. This is indisputably what Zionism looks like. There is no other alternate reality iteration of Zionism you can point to where genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and nonstop violence and abuse are not happening. This is the only way Zionism looks. The Zionist experiment has been run, and these are the results.

Trying to argue that Zionism doesn’t mean genocide, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and nonstop violence and abuse is exactly the same as trying to argue that Nazism doesn’t mean all the things that happened when the Nazism experiment was run. Nazism means all the things that happened under Nazism. You can’t legitimately say “No, actually, Nazism just means a safe and prosperous homeland for the German people.” We’ve seen what Nazism looks like, and we’ve seen what Zionism looks like. To argue otherwise is to argue with reality.

It’s just so obnoxious how Israel supporters are like “Zionism means these nice things and nice words, so if you’re against Zionism you’re against the nice things and nice words!” No, that’s not how it works. You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own reality.

Israel is what it does. Zionism is what it does. You can’t separate them from their actions. The debate about the true nature of these things has been settled by the reality of what is happening.

It doesn’t matter if you believe Israel just wants to live in peace. It doesn’t matter if you believe Zionism is just the idea that Jews deserve self-determination. Reality says you’re wrong. Reality says Israel and Zionism mean nonstop violence and abuse. Reality says Israel and Zionism necessarily entail genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Because that’s the reality on the ground.

Them’s the facts. If you disagree with them, you are objectively wrong.

LEARN HOW PRO-PALESTINE YOUTH ARE RESPONDING TO ONLINE CENSORSHIP

Faced With Digital Fatigue And Heightened Surveillance, Gen Z And Millennial Organizers Are Turning To Zines, Posters, Stickers And Embroidery To Express Solidarity With Palestine.

When Israel initiated plans to evict Palestinians from their homes in occupied East Jerusalem to make way for illegal settlers, millions of young people around the world got involved in a high-profile social media campaign to raise awareness.

Using the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah, more than 40 million people joined in, forming part of a wave of online organizing that set the stage for a new era of pro-Palestine digital activism.

That trend continued as Israel launched its ongoing genocide in Gaza in October 2023 with activists dedicating their instagram feeds and TikTok reels to spreading awareness of Israeli atrocities.

But mounting censorship on social media, digital fatigue and a hunger for deeper forms of engagement, are forcing organizers to shift gears and adopt new modes of activism.

Many Gen Z and millennial activists are going analog, turning to tangible and material means of information sharing.

This buregoning shift allows them to overcome surveillance on social media platforms and lets them share their message directly with people in the “real world” in ways that feel more personal and engaging.

In south-east London, the Peckham Keffiyeh collective sells hand block–printed tote bags and scarves to raise funds for Gaza while spreading political messages.

Their latest design features the slogan “Make proscription unenforceable”, a reference to the UK’s crackdown on pro-Palestine direct action group Palestine Action.

The artwork includes drawings of police cars, a keffiyeh-print border, and images of balaclavas, a nod to Irish hip-hop group trio Kneecap, whose member Liam Og O hAnnaidh is facing terrorism charges in the UK after allegedly displaying a Hezbollah flag during a concert.

Elsewhere, Maqam Books, a nomadic community bookshop run by Mahmoud Masoud, brings rarely available Arabic and English titles on Palestine to pop-up art events and creative gatherings across the UK.

By curating literature often absent from mainstream bookstores, Masoud offers young audiences an entry point into Palestinian history, politics, and storytelling.

“SENSE OF PURPOSE”

“With social media, posting something will take you two seconds,” says Naiema, a student at University College London.

“But crafting something and putting in that extra effort makes you feel more connected to the cause. It gives me a sense of purpose, like I’m actually doing something rather than sitting around.”

Naiema incorporates analog forms of activism in several ways, from designing calligraphic posters and distributing leaflets to baking Palestine-themed cupcakes.

“Crafting something and putting in that extra effort makes you feel more connected to the cause. It gives me a sense of purpose”

– Naiema, student at UCL

In the second year of a degree in History and Politics, Naiema said social media often feels fleeting, with posts easily swiped past and forgotten.

In contrast, a leaflet or banner demands attention and engagement, confronting people in ways that are harder to ignore.

She cites the impact of stickers, which she frequently sees plastered across London’s public transport network and she displays on her own belongings.

“My laptop is completely covered in them,” she said. “I’ve had people approach me about my stickers, sometimes positive, sometimes negative. Regardless, it sparks a conversation.”

Naiema said she draws inspiration from her grandfather, who fought for Bangladesh’s liberation from Pakistan in 1971 and relied heavily on analog forms of resistance.

“It’s important not to stop using those older methods, because they were still very effective. Analog media is something that can’t be censored as easily as social media,” she said.

STIFLING ACTIVISM ONLINE

Through social media, Palestinians in Gaza, and their supporters across the globe, have challenged mainstream media narratives by documenting Israel’s brutality.

They have captured everything from Israel’s bombardment of designated safe zones to the kidnapping of doctors treating patients in hospitals.

But young activists are increasingly facing algorithmic shadow bans and the removal of pro-Palestinian content by major social media platforms.

The New York-based art collective, 8-Ball, reported that its fundraising campaigns for families in Gaza have been suppressed on Instagram.

In December 2023, Human Rights Watch released a 51-page report detailing how Meta’s content moderation policies on Instagram and Facebook have increasingly censored pro-Palestinian voices.

Meanwhile, TikTok has come under criticism for its July 2025 hiring of Erica Mindel, a former American State Department contractor and Israeli army instructor, to oversee hate-speech policies.

Responding to accusations of censorship, a Meta spokesperson said: “We have been public about the fact that we adopted a number of temporary product and policy measures in response to this conflict, and we also have broader policies on recommendability and demotion that can impact pages like this.

“We acknowledge we make mistakes, but any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false.”

As part of its initiatives, 8-Ball has been distributing Palestine zines at fairs and running pro-Palestine zine-making workshops.

“Zines let you reach people directly, without algorithms, and it feels safer,” one volunteer, who requested anonymity, explained.

“Plus, they break out of social media’s echo chambers. You can bring them anywhere, leave them anonymously, and reach different age groups and communities. That kind of autonomy makes them powerful.”

DIY zines, small, self-published pamphlets that are easy to circulate, were popularised during the feminist movements of the 1980s and ’90s. They have since seen a strong resurgence within Palestinian activism

The volunteer attributed a renewed popularity in zines to a growing desire for community and tangible connection.

“Online, we’re overloaded with information – something profound followed instantly by something trivial. It’s hard to internalise. Analog slows things down.”

STATE-SPONSORED CENSORSHIP

Posting on social media has also become an particular source of anxiety for international students in America, many of whom have faced threats of deportation over their pro-Palestine activism since the Trump administration took office.

In June, the American State Department announced that all student visa applicants would be required to set their social media profiles to “public”.

“We’re under constant surveillance online,” another 8-Ball volunteer added.

“Every gesture is tracked: what you scroll past, how long you linger. Platforms like Instagram don’t have our best interests in mind, and relying on them as the primary source of information feels dangerous. They can be useful tools, but they shouldn’t be the only ones we use.”

According to scholars Alice Mattoni and Diego Ceccobelli, young activists are instead turning to face-to-face organizing as a way to secure greater privacy and evade surveillance.

Sharing physical space for meetings, they noted, has become a valued activity in itself.

Within these gatherings, the creation and circulation of physical media about Palestine is common.

Activists prepare banners and other art work for demonstrations and write the names of slain Palestinians for posters, a practice intended to counter desensitisation to the rising death toll in Gaza.

“Global crises feel overwhelming, but at the community level things feel more manageable. It might sound cheesy, but community and reciprocity go a long way in sustaining activism,” the 8-Ball volunteer said.

Gen Z and Millennial consumers have driven the resurgence of analog products in recent years, from vinyl, to film cameras to CDs.

ANALOG APPEAL

While once dismissed as nostalgia tied to retro trends in entertainment and fashion, researchers suggest this shift reflects the tactile appeal of analog objects, which foster deeper, more immersive, and emotionally fulfilling experiences than digital screens.

“I think young people like to have analog mementos of culturally significant events or moments, something they can hold on to and reflect on, as opposed to reading Instagram captions or insipid Instagram graphics,” said Jynann Ong, a member of Baesianz, a London-based collective that fosters cultural awareness and solidarity of Asian identities.

“Pamphlets, posters, leaflets, flyers, stickers, help young people feel like they are part of something. It is a reminder that they were there and stood up for something they believed in and had the courage, freedom, and energy to say something with their chest,” she added.

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