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Fmr. UNRWA Spox Refutes Israeli Smears
Plus, the founder of HEAL and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund gives an update
February 02, 2024
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Watch the full, unpaywalled episode here:

In early January, a former Israeli Foreign Ministry official said “It will be impossible to win the war if we do not destroy UNRWA. This destruction must begin immediately.”

A few weeks later, UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, had its funding cut after Israel accused 12 of its more than 30,000 employees of involvement in Oct. 7th (its since reduced the number of alleged offenders to six — half the original amount). Their purported evidence came mostly from “interrogations” of Palestinian prisoners — aka, most likely torture. The Biden administration admitted that it hadn’t corroborated Israel’s claims, but nonetheless announced a suspension of US funding for UNRWA. Other countries, including Germany and Canada, have followed suit.

Former UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness joins the show to refute Israel’s claims. “Just as UNRWA is being held up to be accountable,” he says. “I think we have to hold the donors up to accountability and ask: ‘What did Israel give you?’ and ‘Did you independently verify it?’”

Antony Blinken himself told the press: “We have not independently verified this evidence but we think it’s very credible.”

Chris asks: “How would you know it’s credible if you haven’t independently investigated?”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called for ending the agency in yet another sign that the move was political. “UNRWA’s mission has to end,” he said. “UNRWA is self-perpetuating in its desire to keep alive the Palestinian refugee issue.”

So the state which is lobbying thousands of munitions every day, including 2,000-pound bombs, is accusing an unarmed refugee agency of perpetuating the conflict?

Chris argues that the opposite is true. “UNRWA wants nothing more than to go out of business. And UNRWA goes out of business when the refugees are granted full dignity, human development, prosperity, justice, and accountability in the context of a just and durable solution.

Someone who is working hard to achieve this goal is the founder of HEAL and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund Steve Sosebee. He shares stories of the many heroes and losses he has encountered in his thirty years working in Palestine.

He also shares a way to help.

“Just to see their entire lives destroyed is very, very saddening and I think all of us have a responsibility to help rebuild and show them love and compassion and give them opportunities to heal. That’s what my goal is for the rest of my life.”

Hear these important voices share their messages in this unpaywalled Useful Idiots double header.

Plus, catch this week’s Thursday Throwdown: Morning Joe wants to play Battleship with Iran

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Sanctions Are a Form of Warfare

“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”

Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.

“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”

But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:

The ...

00:01:17
"Shameful" New York Times Changes Headline to Protect Sanctions

“Sanctions are a form of war. They’re economic warfare. And they destroy people’s lives.”

Joshua Landis (https://twitter.com/joshua_landis), Sandra Mackey Chair in Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is one of the foremost experts on Syria. This week, as Syria, along with neighbor Turkiye, grapples with the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, Professor Landis joins the Useful Idiots to explain the deadly consequences that sanctions pile on to the damage.

“America likes to talk about all its precision bombing and hitting someone with a drone to avoid collateral damage,” Landis explains. “But sanctions? It’s all about collateral damage. Very little of it is targeted.”

But if you read corporate media outlets like the New York Times or Washington Post, you’d find a much different story. Both papers this week published headlines that were hastily changed when they realized they were being a little too truthful. See if you can tell the difference:

The ...

00:01:24
Free preview: Matt Taibbi Exposes Russiagate Bots

With Matt Taibbi’s Twitter Files and Jeff Gerth’s new in-depth reporting for CJR exposing the years of lies spread by Russiagaters, bitter attacks from outed journalists are rolling in.

Gerth and Taibbi, who come from the old style of journalism where you fact check your work and don’t accept government officials’ claims on faith, have each shown clear, indisputable evidence of disinformation campaigns pushed by corporate reporters. And since the so-called journalists can’t argue the facts, they dig themselves a deeper hole with more lies and name-calling.

Jeff Gerth has been working as a reporter for decades and published, in the very mainstream Columbia Journalism Review, a 20,000-word report on his findings, only to be called a liar and misdirecting magician in the most self-important article by Mother Jones’ David Corn (“The true media failure is that Trump got away with it and that articles like this one that you are now reading are still necessary.”) And possibly worse ...

00:54:34

Emphasized "Dancing with 88

I have altered space here—   to

a rupture in the silent fabric,

where every atom reclaims its song.

A change, seen on my 90° angle,

becomes the pivot of a daring ballet,

the precise intersection where fate unspools.

In that crisp right-angle lie the secrets

of all absorbed twilight and reborn dawns,

a moment where geometry becomes prophecy,

transmuting static lines into dynamic rhythms,

inviting the cosmos to twirl in unexpected arcs.

And then—

I find myself dancing with 88,

a numeral of resonance, a muse of mystery.

It whispers in binary beats,

each pulse a portal leading into

symphonies scribbled on the canvas of space-time.

This is no choreographed routine,

but a wild, liberated waltz

where dimensions bend and merge—

where the old order crumbles

under the heat of relentless transformation

and every step unearths a layer of being.

At that 90° juncture,

the universe unfolds like a secret map,

revealing uncharted realms in every fracture,

while 88 becomes the score for a cosmic ballet,

...

Has the Gaza Pier Been Beached? | Army Watercraft come ashore off Gaza and Israel

March 26, 2024

Good to be part of the community. I think that Aaron and Katie do a brilliant job in these hellish times when such great in - depth research and reporting are essential.

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Even Hillary Clinton is Turning On Israel
After Trump makes tentative peace with Iran, the walls crumble around Israel and Netanyahu

When you’ve even got arch-Zionist Hillary Clinton making fun of you and throwing you under the bus, the ride is over.

This week marked a historic moment as Trump finally struck a peace deal with Iran in which the US gives up a whole lot more than it gets in an apparent admission of losing the war they started. But somehow even more striking has been the turn against Israel.

After weeks of rumors that Trump’s relationship with Benjamin Netanyahu has become tumultuous, JD Vance came out and said what the admin’s clearly been thinking.

“You have seen people within Bibi’s cabinet who have come out and attacked the deal and in some ways very personally attacked the President of the United States. My message to them would be twofold.

Number 1: If I was in the Israeli cabinet, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have left anywhere in the entire world.

Number 2: What is your exact proposal? You’re a country of 9 million people. You can’t just kill your way out of solving every single national security problem that you have.”

And after Vance shocked Israel and the world with this statement, other former Israel cronies followed suit. Even Hillary Clinton.

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Trump Accidentally Tells Iran He's Secretly Stealing Their Oil
Plus, a grown adult congressman pretends to be on the phone to avoid a question (and gets caught)

“Are you concerned, Mr. President, about the latest inflation number which came out this morning?”

A simple enough question from a reporter unravels Trump into first ripping off a line on inflation that is now haunting every Republican member of Congress in press conferences, and then into a somehow worse slip of international piracy secrets.

“No, I love it, the numbers were great,” Trump says. “You know what I really love? I love inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now… something you didn’t know…”

At this point you can see in his eyes that he considers the moment. It’s not too late to stop himself, but the thrill of spilling is too good.

“Did you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows it. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran.” He thinks quick. “Until right now.”

And the fallout’s been immediate. Mike Johnson and Republican congresspeople all the way down are being forced to dodge questions from reporters about why Trump loves inflation (we watch one guy embarrassingly get caught faking a phone call while running away). And even worse for the MAGA camp, Energy Secretary Chris Wright got blasted in Congress when pressed on whether he was aware that the US has been illegally stealing millions of barrels of oil from Iran:

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The Most Antisemitic Event of the Year? Watch the American Jewish Committee's Global Forum With Us!
Plus, former Biden and Obama official Brett McGurk wants you to "put aside the horrors of Gaza" for a while...

Subscribe to support Useful Idiots and watch our Friday Free-for-All:

Did you know that Congress is working on a new plan to “distance” the US-Israeli relationship by slowing US aid to Israel and replace it with a “financial partnership”? A partnership which has the power to not only increase the amount of money and weapons the US sends to Israel but also future-proof it from being dismantled by future presidents and lawmakers?

And do you know who invented this plan that allows members of Congress to become more independent from Israel?

Let the words of GOP Rep. Marlin Stutzman speaking on CNN enlighten us all: “This was actually something that came from Prime Minister Netanyahu.”

This, and a whole slew of other remarks that will make your skin crawl were topics of what many people are calling the antisemitic events of the year! The American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum, where Zionists gave speeches on and cheered for things that, if we had said them, would get us immediately kicked off YouTube for being antisemitic.

From bragging that the “Jewish coalition” spent five million dollars to oust Thomas Massie and control US elections, to explaining that Jews can now use AI to “manage and control” social media content, to laughter at John Fetterman’s celebration of Israel’s pager attacks in Lebanon that killed and blinded children and civilians, it was one antisemitic trope after another.

And no condemnations from the Fraudfather over at the ADL yet…

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