Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine - Page 271

According to an exclusive report from DailyMail.com, the US Air Force has quietly deployed a new type of missile that can destroy the electronics of Iran's nuclear facilities using high-power microwaves, without causing any fatalities.

The missiles, known as the Counter-Electronics High Power Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP), were developed by Boeing's Phantom Works for the US Air Force Research Laboratory. After successful testing in 2012, around 20 of these microwave missiles became operational and were deployed to various locations around the globe in 2019.

As DailyMail.com reports, the CHAMP missiles are air-launched cruise missiles fitted with an electromagnetic pulse cannon that generates a concentrated beam of high-power microwave energy. This energy can fry the computer chips and electronic systems of targeted facilities, rendering them inoperable.

"We hit every target we wanted to," said Boeing's CHAMP Program Manager Keith Colman after the successful 2012 test, adding "Today we made science fiction into science fact."

Mary Lou Robinson, former chief of the Air Force's High Power Microwave Division, confirmed to DailyMail.com that the missiles are "ready to take out any military target, including nuclear facilities."

The key advantage of these microwave weapons is that they can penetrate buried bunkers and command centers through electrical and communications connections, disabling electronics without causing structural damage or loss of life. "The beauty of the HPM missile is that its microwave beam can penetrate bunkers where facilities are hidden without harming humans inside," DailyMail.com reports.

They also have the ability to disable defensive radar systems, striking their targets undetected. "Most amazing of all, the missile renders inoperable any radar that might detect it as it flies to and from a target. Thus, a country cannot take out CHAMP before it strikes and has no way of knowing why its facilities have suddenly gone dead," according to DailyMail.com.

While details are limited due to operational security concerns, the existence of this operational microwave missile capability highlights the stealthy options available to the US military to counter threats like Iran's nuclear program through electronic disruption rather than kinetic force.

On April 21 2024 23:57 Magic Powers wrote:


I would ignore that report. The only source for that claim is one reporter working for the DailyMail which is known for spreading conspiracy theories.
There are also no credible sources confirming that this technology is even real to begin with, and there is no mention of an application against nuclear facilities.

Israel has yet to provide supporting evidence of its claims that employees of the UN relief agency Unrwa are members of terrorist organisations, an independent review led by the former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has said.

The Colonna report, which was commissioned by the UN in the wake of Israeli allegations, found that Unrwa had regularly supplied Israel with lists of its employees for vetting, and that “the Israeli government has not informed Unrwa of any concerns relating to any Unrwa staff based on these staff lists since 2011”.

Israeli allegations of the involvement of Unrwa staff in the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel led major donors in January to cut their funding to the agency, the main channel of humanitarian support not only to Palestinians in Gaza but to Palestinian refugee communities across the region.

The funding was cut despite the dire needs of 2.3 million people in Gaza, most of whom have been forced from their homes by the Israeli offensive since 7 October and have been struggling to find water, food, shelter or medical care.

On April 23 2024 00:15 Jockmcplop wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/22/israel-unrwa-staff-terrorist-links-yet-to-provide-evidence-colonna-report



Almost as if it was never real in the first place.

Israeli leaders thanked the United States after the House passed a foreign aid bill Saturday that provides $26.4 billion in military aid to Israel and humanitarian assistance, including some for Gaza.

It also includes $9 billion in humanitarian assistance, some of which will be allotted to Gaza. None of the assistance, however, can go toward the largest humanitarian group serving Gaza, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). The United States suspended funding for the agency after Israel alleged that a handful of its employees participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks.

The measure received bipartisan support, passing 366 to 58 in the chamber that’s narrowly controlled by the GOP. Twenty-one Republicans and 37 Democrats voted against the bill. Nearly 20 of those Democrats said in a statement that, while they support Israel’s right to self-defense, supplying more offensive weapons to Israel “could result in more killings of civilians” in Gaza. “Most Americans do not want our government to write a blank check to further Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war in Gaza,” they said.

The Senate is expected to take up the bill this week, and Biden is expected to sign it.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out strikes in the city of Rafah overnight, killing 16 people, including nine children, the Palestinian state news agency Wafa reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to within days announce sanctions against the Israel Defense Forces "Netzah Yehuda" battalion for human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, three U.S. sources with knowledge of the issue told Axios.

It would be the first time the U.S. imposed sanctions on an Israeli military unit.

The sanctions will ban the battalion and its members from receiving any kind of U.S. military assistance or training, the sources said.

On Thursday, ProPublica reported that a special State Department panel that investigated alleged violations of human rights based on the Leahy law recommended months ago that Blinken disqualify multiple Israeli military and police units that operate in the West Bank from receiving U.S. aid.

At a press conference in Italy on Friday, Blinken was asked about the recommendation and said he had made determinations based on the panel investigation. "You can expect to see them in the days ahead," Blinken said.

A U.S. official said Blinken's determination about the Netzah Yehuda unit is based on incidents that occurred before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel and all took place in the West Bank.

He said the intention to impose the measures as the IDF fights Hamas is the "height of absurdity and a moral low" and that his government will "act by all means against these moves."

The incidents under review mostly took place in the West Bank and occurred before Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. They include reports of extrajudicial killings by the Israeli Border Police; an incident in which a battalion gagged, handcuffed and left an elderly Palestinian American man for dead; and an allegation that interrogators tortured and raped a teenager who had been accused of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.

Recommendations for action against Israeli units were sent to Blinken in December, according to one person familiar with the memo. “They’ve been sitting in his briefcase since then,” another official said.

“If we had been applying Leahy effectively in Israel like we do in other countries, maybe you wouldn’t have the IDF filming TikToks of their war crimes now because we have contributed to a culture of impunity,” said Josh Paul, a former director in the State Department’s Bureau of Political-Military Affairs...

On April 23 2024 05:40 Magic Powers wrote:
It's astounding with how much disrespect Netanyahu has gotten away with. He's practically spitting in Biden's face and continues to receive all the aid he wants, as if it was the US that depended on Israel and not the other way around.

On April 23 2024 05:40 Magic Powers wrote:
It's astounding with how much disrespect Netanyahu has gotten away with. He's practically spitting in Biden's face and continues to receive all the aid he wants, as if it was the US that depended on Israel and not the other way around.

Bibi Netanyahu, the man that I did more for than any other person I dealt with. ... Bibi could have stayed quiet. He has made a terrible mistake."

"I haven’t spoken to him since," Trump said of the former Israeli prime minister. "F**k him."

On April 23 2024 06:52 Gorsameth wrote:
The US as a country is not dependent on Israel.
But US elected officials are dependent on the Jewish vote, which can lead to the same outcome.

About 82% of Congress members were more supportive of Israel, and just 9% more supportive of Palestine during this period. The remainder had “mixed” views. Legislators categorized as supportive of Israel received about $125,000 on average during their last election, while those supportive of Palestine on average took about $18,000.

The volume and breadth of the donors’ spending is considerable: over $58m went to current Congress members, and all but 33 received donations.

On April 23 2024 17:29 Elroi wrote:
My impression is that antisemitism on the right is a very marginal phenomenon on the whole today. There is a pretty sharp dividing line between the old far-right and the new populist right. It's on full display, for example, with the Front national/ Rassemblement national purging the old guard (most significantly Jean-Marie Le Pen himself). The populist right seems to rather embrace Israel as culturally similar (Judeo-Christian heritage). It's also a model of a successful modern state that incorporates elements of ethnonatonalism.