"Why didn't you bang the sides of the tank?"

#DeGrowth for people & the planet

[Hussein @Huss_Kob]

A stunned Jimmy Dore asks Prof. Marandi to explain why Lebanese leaders are seemingly colluding with Israel against their own people during wartime?

US comedian & political commentator Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) recently asked Iranian Professor Muhammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) to explain why the current Lebanese government was seemingly colluding with Israel against its own people'?

Transcript (below):

- Jimmy Dore: Um, why would Lebanon be…why would the government of Lebanon...so it's almost like they're, they're in collusion with the people attacking them? Is that, is that what I'm...is that what I'm hearing you say?

- Prof. Marandi: Yes. That's exactly what they’re doing…

- Jimmy Dore: I don't understand ...I... can you explain that? Why would they, why would they be in collusion with people attacking their own country? I don't understand this.

- Prof. Marandi: Well, there's a lot of that going on in our region because almost all of the countries in our region are in the US camp, and they are mostly proxies of the United States. Some may have a bit more independence, like in Türkiye, some less independence, but they're all in the American camp.

And the Americans, and with the help of Saudi Arabia and others, installed the current president and the prime minister, and they've been carrying out peace negotiations with the Israeli regime, which is against the constitution of the country, and which is a huge concession to the regime as it's killing people in southern Lebanon. And, they're basically obedient to the United States. They were put in place, put in power by the Americans, and they will pursue American policies.

And so Western NGOs in Lebanon, which have a lot of funding, they promote, and the Western embassies, they promote these positions... and the same is true with those who are funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and the others in the Persian Gulf, these despots that are in the American camp. They're all against the people who support the resistance. So they're preventing aid from getting in, they're preventing (displace Lebanese citizens) from moving to different parts of Lebanon as refugees...and they're preventing us from sending aid. Why? Because they want to crush the resistance. They want to humiliate them. They want to bring them to their knees because that's what empire wants. That's what the empire demands.

- Jimmy Dore: Wow. Um, so it's, it's…

- Prof. Marandi: I mean, Jimmy, let's just go back to Yemen. Remember when the Saudis and the Emiratis waged that genocidal war in Yemen?

- Jimmy Dore: Yes…

- Prof. Marandi: What they were doing to Yemen is not all that different to what was going on in Gaza and in Lebanon. All these regimes in our region were supporting this. They all supported the Saudis and Emiratis. The West were giving—they sent advisors. They were giving weapons, ammunition, so that the Saudis could wipe them out.

I remember a former US official—someone who became critical—he said that he was actually on the ship in the Red Sea, an American naval ship, and they stopped a boat that was taking medicine, (that was) smuggling medicine into Yemen, and they went and dumped all that medicine into the sea. That was during the genocidal war against Yemen. All these countries were supporting the Saudis and the Emiratis, including Qatar and Türkiye. But later on, Qatar and Türkiye split from the Saudis when the Saudis and Emiratis imposed that siege on Qatar.

So this is not new. None of these countries helped the people of Gaza. None of them gave a single bullet to the people of Gaza to defend themselves. Türkiye…(and) the regime in Azerbaijan, (which) sells cheap oil Israel. Türkiye, under Erdogan, transports that oil to Israel. Even now, when there's global shortage, they are sending their oil (to Israel). Sisi (and) the Egyptian government, (they) buy gas from the Israeli regime. The Jordanian government does trade and collaborates with intelligence. Syria, a huge part of their country is now occupied. They won't lift a finger to end the occupation, and they're actually collaborating against the resistance in Lebanon. And in the Persian Gulf, we saw how they assisted the United States in invading Iran. They are part of the aggression against the country. So, you know, the empire is on the decline, but its power has always been very quite immense.

- Jimmy Dore: so, I mean, I'm sure you've heard people from Naftali Bennett to, you know, everybody's saying that the next war for Israel and the Greater Israel project is going to be with Türkiye. And so isn't Türkiye aware of this? Why, why would they still be…

- Prof. Marandi: You know, Jimmy, there are many questions in this world that I'd love to have the real answers to. I have my own views, but, you know—Tucker Carlson, you saw his interview with the US ambassador (to Israel)—

- Jimmy Dore: Yes ... to Israel.

- Prof. Marandi: And in that interview, the ambassador said if the Israelis take the entire region, that's fine. That includes parts of Türkiye, that includes all of Syria, that includes Lebanon, that includes Jordan, that includes part of Iraq, that includes major parts of Saudi Arabia, that includes parts of Egypt. What did these governments do? What did they say? Nothing. Nothing. They just wrote a, a joint communique saying this, you know, they condemn this. That's it?! That is the real policy of the United States. That is the policy of European governments, the unofficial policy, Greater Israel, and that's why they're allowing for the slaughter in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

I mean, European diplomats just today, they've been tweeting about—(I mean) European diplomats in Israel—they have been tweeting about participating, I think, in the, uh, pride, what's it called?

- Jimmy Dore: Pride parade. The gay pride…

- Prof. Marandi: Yeah, the gay pride parade. But they don't tweet about Gaza. They don't tweet about ethnic cleansing in the West Bank. You know? So this is the world that we live in…

[Colter Louwerse @ColterL]

In 1981, the PLO laid down its arms in Lebanon, scrupulously upheld a ceasefire for nearly a year, and offered to recognize Israel via a two-state settlement.

Israel responded with an unprovoked invasion, killing 15-20,000 Palestinians and Lebanese.

[courtneybonneauimages @cbonneauimages]

I just heard the @BBC radio say that the Israeli army was attacking Hezbollah targets yesterday & they also platformed someone bloviating about how Iran is ‘occupying’ Lebanon.

As a frontline journalist on the ground for the last 18 months, I would like to reiterate that I have not see any Iranian occupation bases in Lebanon. I have not seen any children killed here by Iranian bombs. I haven’t seen the IRGC massacring entire families on a daily basis. The IRGC has not shot at me or killed dozens of my colleagues in targeted attacks. Iran has not been systematically murdering healthcare workers (over 130) in Lebanon.

Israel has violently invaded and occupied Lebanon. The flag flying over the base in Al Khiam is an Israeli flag, not an Iranian flag. (Photo below)

The Lebanese Ministry of Health yesterday reported that 3,613 civilians have been killed and 11,072 have been wounded in Israeli attacks since March 2nd.

[the woodlander @thewoodlander1]

Whilst we were distracted, the groundwork for our AI control grid has slowly been growing. The map below shows Data Centers in Britain. Each one of these data centres use up to 5 million gallons of water per day and enough energy to supply 50,000 homes.

[Spencer Althouse @SpencerAlthouse]

holy crap this is easily the best Tony Award speech of the entire night. hell yes to all of this

"This is dedicated to the beautiful tapestry of immigrant families who make this country really special. May you one day not have to audition for the empathy that should be freely given by this country that benefits from your beauty. To the queer and trans communities that always will exist, no matter what people in power try to take away from them. To the people of Palestine who deserve to live a free life – a full life – without occupation. ... If there's one thing we can learn from vampires, it's that life is short, but that's its gift. Find beauty in the ephemeral and gratitude in what is not promised."

—Ali Louis Bourzgui, winning Featured Actor in a Musical for The Lost Boys

[Mike Levin @MikeLevin]

This is really stupid, and it’s not getting enough attention.

The Trump administration is pulling a working $368 million ocean monitoring system out of the water, equipment taxpayers already bought, built, and sank into the deep ocean.

And they are doing it right when the oceans are behaving in ways that alarm the scientists who study them.

Record-breaking temperatures.

A system of Atlantic currents that may be lurching toward collapse.

The response?

Yank out the instruments and walk away.

That is not budgeting. That is smashing the gauges while the engine is on fire and calling it efficiency.

For what? The Trump administration dressed it up as a “nimbler approach” and “smart lifecycle management,” which is fancy nonsense for “we shut it off and hoped nobody would ask why.” There is no return-on-investment analysis. They cannot show taxpayers save a dime, because the gear is already paid for and the science it produces protects real money and real lives.

The kicker: the same people killing the monitors want to mine the deep sea for minerals. So they are destroying the only tools that could measure what that mining does. That is not an accident.

That is the point. You cannot see the damage if you break the instruments first.
https://t.co/MzE4AW1QBv

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Israel executed baby Sam today with a bullet to the face in the occupied West Bank.

They killed his mother too.

Sam was only 7 months old.

They murdered a mother. And her infant.

[The Saviour @TheSaviour]

🇵🇸💔A father bids farewell to his 7-month-old infant, Sam, who was killed by Israeli forces after being shot in the head.

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

The Israeli army shot dead a 7-month-old Palestinian baby in the West Bank.

It was in broad daylight.

The father says:

"I stopped as I was instructed to, and then they simply shot at the car."

Israel routinely kills babies - and the West is silent.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

A tenured professor of art therapy was suspended by her university and placed under formal investigation for the crime of using a Palestinian in a hypothetical example for uses of art therapy.

This is not 10th grade. It's a college, for adult students.

https://t.co/EIoWAJU0Bw

[susan abulhawa | سوزان ابو الهوى @susanabulhawa]

ZIOS: it's antisemitic to say Jews control the media

ALSO ZIOS: controlling all the media is a lot of work. "Instead of trying to control the whole world," [yes, that's a direct quote], all we have to do is control AI, because people trust AI and that's where everyone is getting their information.

[Chris Hedges @ChrisLynnHedges]

An audience member at a Q&A recently asked me why I'm so apocalyptic. The genocide in Gaza, beyond being a tragedy, marks an irreversible shift in the global world order. Before the genocide, the imperialist ambitions of the Western oligarchic class were partially constrained by the utopian ideal of the rules-based order. Now that ideal is gone, and unrestrained barbarity will characterize the methodology of the war-making ruling class. In other words — our future is an apocalyptic one.

[Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz]

People like me take great pains to avoid coming across as antisemitic in our criticisms of Israel, and then Jewish Zionists go to these events all “Yes we Jews need to be actively manipulating western institutions in order to deceive everyone and control society.”

[irish_hcworkers_for_palestine @IrishhcwforPal]

"We just want to provide humanitarian services."- Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya.

Do not forget Dr Hussam. Demand his release, and also the release of all abducted Palestinians.
#FreeDrHussamAbuSafiya
#FreeThemAll

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

This shows that Germany obviously still doesn't get it: their "historical responsibility" isn't to support Israel even as they commit genocide.

When the lesson of Nazism is obviously a universal one about justice, they instead think it's a blood debt to a particular people.

Which is, when you think about it, the Nazi way of looking at it: hierarchizing peoples and assigning collective responsibility - or collective impunity - on that basis.

[Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah]

🚨My latest:

The UN has now verified rapes of Palestinians by Israeli forces.

But almost three years after 7 October, it still cites no Israeli rape victims.

This exposes how atrocity propaganda was laundered through the UN to justify genocide

https://t.co/h0ZvRqabgY

[Global Sumud Flotilla @gbsumudflotilla]

URGENT UPDATE: Illegally detained Sumud volunteers are now on their 4th day of a dry hunger strike (no food, no water) and their condition is critical.

Since Monday, ten people detained in Benghazi have been refusing food, with many also refusing water, in protest of prolonged illegal detention, mistreatment, and being denied legal counsel. Some have been forced to break the strike, but many continue as their health deteriorates.

Their lives are at risk. They’ve received no medical care and are being held in “black sites" (unknown areas).
We demand their immediate release and we need you to act now.

Call. Post. Pressure the authorities. Share this update widely.

Email the foreign ministries of those detained at https://t.co/jixZ6iF35U

[neyi kaybettiğini hatırla @neyikaybettik]

Hussam Ebu Safieh, "İsrail'in rehineler için ölüm cezası" ile öldürülecek olan Filistinli doktorlardan biridir (diğer 95 doktor arasında).

Onu öldürmelerine izin verme.
Bunu yeniden yayınlayın.

[Nathan J Robinson @NathanJRobinson]

I'm sorry, I didn't realize Israel had now escalated to the "quadruple tap" where they just keep killing and killing as people try desperately to help the wounded

[ALUTHEDON @Mbakaza4L]

Americans be like: "9/11, the most shocking day in world history, when we knew we werent safe at home"

The rest of the world on a daily basis for the past century under Isreal and american t*rrorism: