Frank Penkala

Question everything?

[Frank Penkala @fpenkala]

“We awaken by asking the right questions; when we see popular opinion being wrong but accepted as being right, and what is right being pushed as being wrong. We awaken by seeking answers in corners that are not popular."

~ Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

[Thomas Massie for Congress @MassieforKY]

It’s sad that a week before this election people are making false and unsubstantiated allegations about me in an obvious attempt to influence the outcome of this election.

All of the claims of inappropriate conduct are false. I’ve never offered anyone money in exchange for their silence. I report all of my farm income, including cash, to the IRS.

There are no ethics claims filed against me, nor have there ever been any claims filed against me in my 14 years in office. I have consulted legal counsel and we are considering all options.

[The Cradle @TheCradleMedia]

Sophisticated web of Israeli influence operations designed to manipulate public discourse in Canada exposed in damning report
——
A damning report by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East has exposed a sophisticated web of Israeli influence operations designed to subvert Canadian sovereignty and manipulate public discourse. The findings reveal that Tel Aviv is operating with near total impunity on Canadian soil by utilizing secretly funded polling, biased media narratives, and the hiring of local legal firms to protect the interests of illegal settlements. While Ottawa has historically targeted nations like China and India for so-called foreign interference, it has remained conspicuously silent as Israeli agents bypass transparency laws to sway government policy and public opinion.

The scale of the deception includes the deployment of a mass disinformation campaign spearheaded by the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs which utilized artificial intelligence and fake websites to spread Islamophobic rhetoric. Beyond digital manipulation, the report highlights a broader strategy of transnational repression where Israeli officials have openly called for the restriction of Canadian civil liberties to stifle pro-Palestine advocacy. This systemic interference involves the use of high tech spyware and "propaganda junkets" that use Canadian proxies to shield the Israeli state from the disclosure requirements usually mandated for foreign lobbying.

The advocacy group is now demanding that the Canadian government abandon its double standards and treat Israel as a rogue state actor. The recommendations include the immediate expulsion of Israeli diplomats, a total ban on Israeli manufactured spyware, and the implementation of sanctions against those involved in these clandestine campaigns.

[Trita Parsi @tparsi]

WOW!

@Theintercept reviewed more than 12000 print articles and 5000 TV segments to check for biases on Israel-Palestine.

I thought it would be bad.

I had no idea it was THIS bad.

No wonder Gaza killed what little credibility mianstream media had.

In NYT, Israel's right to defend itself was invoked 99 times. Only once for Palestine.

On CNN and MSNBC, it was invoked 755 times for Israel. But only 8 times for Palestine.

Emotive words such as slaughter and massacre were used frequently when Israelis had been killed. They were NEVER used in print when Palestinians were killed.

In Ukraine, 262 children were killed in the war, and it was mentioned 4223 times.

In Palestine, more than 10,000 children were killed, but it was mentioned only 3632.

The full article is in the subtweet. It's a MUST READ:

[Frank Penkala @leasedirect]

Stephen Lewis was a profoundly courageous humanitarian whose life of service and steadfast dedication to social justice defined the best of Canadian values.

[Hend Amry @LibyaLiberty]

Like many Zionists, you’ve lost sight of your humanity. And capacity for truth.

[Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده @RamAbdu]

In loving memory of the children in this video, cold-bloodedly murdered by Israel.

They are among the approximately 22000 children Israel has slaughtered in about two year.

[Mark Curtis @markcurtis30]

2025 Person of the Year, ⁦@FranceskAlbs⁩

[Israel Exposed @xIsraelExposedx]

Update: We have submitted in total 4 terabytes of Gaza footage, sourced from over 350 Palestinian journalists/medical staff, and multiple research teams.

It includes:

855,318 images
255,032 videos
32,101 HTML files to browse through them, and other related documents.

Link: https://t.co/6Rk4NqkECP

The archive is split into segments. Please help us 'seed' the torrents, torrents are a decentalizrd file sharing method that doesn't allow Israel to ever delete the files. If disk space is an issue, consider seeding just part of the archives.

Thank you to all those involved in collecting this footage, and all those who sacrificed their lives to get it out to the public.

All these files are accessible on ddosecrets website as well. Thanks to the team over there for helping us🫡

[Assal Rad @AssalRad]

John Oliver: “Gaza is being starved by Israel."

A simple and horrifying fact that should be reported that way.

[Scott Ritter @RealScottRitter]

Ben Gvir is a genocidal maniac who, together with others of his ilk, are creating the conditions for the termination of Israel as a nation state. The hate he generates unfortunately will burn not only Zionism and the Zionists, but Jews everywhere, since their continued silence in the face of the crimes committed by Israel will be used as evidence of their complicity, and they will be found guilty by implication. Those who put “I stand with Israel” signs in their yards should bear this in mind, because what you are saying is “I stand with genocide”, and you will very likely be held to account once the dam breaks.

[Dr. Ezzideen @ezzingaza]

For thirty days, we have not seen water.
No, worse than that, we have not seen mercy.
The pipes are broken, and the army forbids repair. It is not a siege.
It is a theology of punishment, delivered in silence and ratified by the world.

So now we boil the sea. Salt seeps into our mouths, our wounds, our prayers.
We bathe in it. We cook with it. We swallow it, as if baptizing ourselves in despair.

And food? Yes, they say more trucks have entered lately.
But what is a crumb to a nation of the crucified? What is one breath to a man drowning?

To reach these trucks, we become beasts.
We sprint, not walk, toward the shadow of aid, toward the thrum of engines beside tanks.
We do not carry weapons.
We carry emptiness.
And for this, they shoot us, as if hunger were a crime, as if longing were treason.

In the hospital, if that name still holds meaning, I see the broken return from death, only to be abandoned again.
Thirty corpses a day.
One hundred wounded, crying for mothers who are themselves unburied.
And we, the doctors, our hands are not hands anymore. They are tools of failure. They tremble, not from fatigue, but from knowing that every attempt at healing ends in more blood.

And yet, God forgive me, I have thought of it.
I have considered charging that aid truck, to wrest a bag of flour from the chaos, to lower my eyes in the market
and pay not in currency, but in dignity.

But something stops me.
No, not pride.
Pride is dead here.
Something older.
Something irrational, perhaps divine.
A sliver of self not yet mutilated.
It whispers: “Do not become what the world thinks you are.”

Then yesterday, a video emerged.
An Israeli hostage, pale and thin.
A soldier reduced to a whisper of flesh.

And oh, how the world wept.
How it suddenly remembered the human form.
The headlines screamed.
The parliaments paused.
The diplomats emerged from hibernation.

But here lies the obscene paradox:
the same group that holds him, Hamas, calls upon Israel to remember its own morality,
to act with compassion.

But where is that compassion here?
Where is it when we, the imprisoned millions, wither into shadows before their very eyes?

Hamas does not flinch.
It does not stutter.
It does not blink.

Two million souls vanish beneath disease, thirst, humiliation, and still they speak of resistance, as if resistance meant sacrificial altars of children.

And Israel?
It unleashes punishment not upon Hamas, but upon those already buried.
We, the ones who neither ruled nor chose, bear the price of others’ ideologies, others’ wars.

And the world? It watches. And doubts.

“Is it really a famine?” they ask. “Is it truly that bad?”

Shall I fetch them the corpse of a girl with bread still clenched in her fist?
Shall I line the bones of infants on white silk and mail them, express delivery, to Geneva?

What more must we give?
What more must we prove?

Has mankind gone blind, or has it simply chosen blindness as a more convenient truth?

No one will save us.
Not the sky. Not the diplomats. Not even God, who, perhaps, has turned His face away in shame for the world He created.

And one day, in the quiet of history,
when the bombs have stopped and the silence has returned,
humanity will open the books and see:

That children died, and men debated whether they were really dying.

That a nation starved, and the world demanded statistics.

That a soul cried out from the bottom of the pit, and was met with hashtags and hesitation.

I do not know what redemption looks like anymore.
But I know what damnation feels like.

And I tell you:
We are already in it.

#GazaGenocide

[Frank Penkala @fpenkala]

A CNN journalist has finally come out with a statement of facts around Gaza.

https://t.co/zCJ9x9H0pG?

[Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil @ivan_8848]

Jeffrey Sachs: Israel's committing mass murder right now.

There is a, a madness, a sickness of the Israeli, government, this extremist, cruel and zealot government, but the, the tragic part is the United States and parts of Europe have backed up this vile behavior.

[Frank Penkala @fpenkala]

https://t.co/0TK68WbIEB

[Sangita Myska @SangitaMyska]

I was chatting to a friend and we were discussing the strange way in which some politicians, presenters, journalists and commentators appear to have had a sudden epiphany about the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza. She then reminded me of this book…

[Frank Penkala @fpenkala]

If there is a reckoning coming for the Israel apologists and silently complicit, it will be interesting to see the rationalisations as they try to squirm away from their responsibility. The shame must linger, or we will not have learned anything. https://t.co/NEVPxAU50n

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

Suddenly, something is shifting.

Israel's apologists have realised that a reckoning is coming.

They understand that they're not going to get away with this abomination.

And they are absolutely right 👇

https://t.co/k9dNOAvVYV

[Mark Carney @MarkJCarney]

My joint statement with @Keir_Starmer and @EmmanuelMacron on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank:

“We strongly oppose the expansion of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The level of human suffering in Gaza is intolerable. Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate. We call on the Israeli Government to stop its military operations in Gaza and immediately allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. This must include engaging with the UN to ensure a return to delivery of aid in line with humanitarian principles. We call on Hamas to release immediately the remaining hostages they have so cruelly held since 7 October 2023.

The Israeli Government’s denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law. We condemn the abhorrent language used recently by members of the Israeli Government, threatening that, in their despair at the destruction of Gaza, civilians will start to relocate. Permanent forced displacement is a breach of international humanitarian law. 

Israel suffered a heinous attack on October 7. We have always supported Israel’s right to defend Israelis against terrorism. But this escalation is wholly disproportionate.

We will not stand by while the Netanyahu Government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response.

We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank. Israel must halt settlements which are illegal and undermine the viability of a Palestinian state and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians.  We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions. 

We strongly support the efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt to secure an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. It is a ceasefire, the release of all remaining hostages and a long-term political solution that offer the best hope of ending the agony of the hostages and their families, alleviating the suffering of civilians in Gaza, ending Hamas’ control of Gaza and achieving a pathway to a two-state solution, consistent with the goals of the 18 June conference in New York co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France. These negotiations need to succeed, and we must all work towards the implementation of a two-state solution, which is the only way to bring long-lasting peace and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve and ensure long-term stability in the region.

We will continue to work with the Palestinian Authority, regional partners, Israel and the United States to finalize consensus on arrangements for Gaza’s future, building on the Arab plan. We affirm the important role of the High-level Two-State Solution Conference at the UN in June in building international consensus around this aim. And we are committed to recognizing a Palestinian state as a contribution to achieving a two-state solution and are prepared to work with others to this end.”

[Barry Malone @malonebarry]

Read this. It's remarkable. The UN is begging - literally begging - Israel to allow it to deliver to Gaza 160,000 pallets of food aid it has ready to go. Israel will not allow that. There is only one inescapable conclusion: Israel is deliberately starving Gaza to death.

[Matt Kennard @kennardmatt]

Unforgivable. Totally unforgivable

[Davide Mastracci @DavideMastracci]

For months now, The Maple has been the target of a multi-faceted campaign to take us offline.

It started in February, right after I published Find IDF Soldiers — a database of Canadians who have joined the Israeli military, which is based entirely on public information. It’s the largest of its kind in Canada, by far, and offers rare insight into why some Canadians become “lone soldiers.”

The response was immediate. It broke our traffic records. Academics, journalists and activists in several countries reached out, thanking us for the project.

But the attacks began just as quickly.

In the weeks after publication, this is some of what we faced:

*Hundreds of hacking attempts on the Find IDF Soldiers website

*A co-ordinated campaign to try to get our domain registrar and host to take the site down

*People supposedly reporting us to law enforcement agencies across Canada

*Public discussion of plans for a class action lawsuit against us

*An email campaign to try to get me fired

*A media assault in Canada, Israel and the United States effectively calling me a Nazi

*Several death threats against me

The truth is, attacks like this against journalists often work.

We’ve all seen what happens. Advertisers pull out. Funders get spooked. Legal threats drag outlets into silence. Even publications with 100 times our budget have folded under pressure like this.

So why didn’t we?

Because we’re a 100% reader-funded publication. No corporate sponsors. No government grants. No ad clients to keep happy. This means there was no one for those opposed to our journalism to pressure — except us.

And we didn’t budge.

The site is still live. The project is growing. And instead of backing down, we’ve been preparing a major update.

If we’re going to keep publishing work like this, we need to be able to withstand whatever comes next. The major attack over the past few months probably won’t be the last one we face.

If you believe in what we’re doing — fearless, independent journalism that can’t be bought or bullied — then consider becoming a Maple member. Every membership is a lifeline. And if we’re going to keep publishing, we need more of them.

https://t.co/OeQzEOTgab

Next week, we’re launching a major update to Find IDF Soldiers. The database is expanding. 

And yes — that means we’re expecting more attacks. More pressure to take it down. More attempts to shut us up.

That’s why your support matters so much right now.

This kind of journalism isn’t just time-consuming, — it’s expensive. Legal reviews. Tech infrastructure. Protection against cyberattacks. It adds up fast. The cost of simply keeping the site online when people are actively trying to shut it down is high.

Your support doesn’t just help us do this work — it helps protect it.

It ensures we don’t have to be afraid of hitting publish. It gives us the capacity to keep pushing forward, even when we know there will be blowback. It can be the difference between publishing something and shelving it.

If you believe in fearless, independent journalism that won’t back down — even when it’s under attack — I hope you’ll support it. 

Check out this link to become a Maple member now: https://t.co/OeQzEOTgab

Thank you for your support.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

To everyone who has marched for Gaza—once or a thousand times—THANK YOU.
From London to Sana’a, Cape Town to Melbourne, we walk one street: the long path to justice. Against genocide, racism, apartheid, and those who profit from it. And we are one.