Palestina, erresilientzia (42)

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Thomas Fazi

July 9, 2024  

It seems fitting that Keir Starmer’s international debut should be the Nato summit that kicks off in Washington, DC today. Ostensibly scheduled as a celebration of the alliance’s 75th anniversary, it will no doubt be remembered as the moment that Britain’s new PM pledged his allegiance to his transatlantic overlords.

Ever since Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the Labour Party in 2020, he has gone out of his way to purge it of any hint of pacifism and anti-imperialism — and transform Labour, once again, into the “party of Nato”, war and militarism. In opposition, Starmer’s machine unswervingly followed the Conservative government in aligning itself with American foreign policy — voicing support for Nato’s proxy war against Russia, Western expansion into Asia via Aukus, Israel’s campaign in Gaza, and the American-led bombing of Yemen.

To further signal Labour’s loyalty to Washington, Starmer chose David Lammy as his foreign secretary, the Harvard-educated regular visitor to several establishment fora in the US. In 2022, for instance, he attended the annual Bilderberg Meeting, a secretive gathering of US and Western elites, becoming one of only two Labour MPs to have done so over the past decade. Like Starmer, Lammy has been explicit about his unabashedly pro-American and pro-Nato stance. “If I become foreign secretary, I will not hide my transatlanticism,” he told an audience at Chatham House last year. Similarly, John Healey, Starmer’s new defence secretary, is also a long-time supporter of American interventionism, even backing the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Starmer himself also has longstanding connections to the US-UK security complex, even joining the Trilateral Commission, the powerful CIA-linked organisation set up by American billionaire David Rockefeller, while serving as Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow Brexit secretary. But Starmer had already proven himself partial to American establishment interests during his previous career as a public prosecutor. As head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) from 2008 to 2013, Starmer has been accused of applying the law rather selectively. In 2010 and again in 2012, for instance, he made the controversial decision not to charge MI5 and MI6 agents who faced credible accusations of complicity, alongside American agents, in the kidnapping and torture of various individuals. Starmer also let the police officers involved in the infamous “Spycops” scandal off the hook — a decades-long covert operation in which undercover officers infiltrated more than 1,000 Left-wing political organisations, and even manipulated several women into long-term sexual relationships.

A very different treatment was reserved for alleged “enemies of the state” — especially the American state. Most notably, the CPS under Starmer appears to have played a pivotal role in the Assange case, helping to set in motion the infernal legal machinery that led to the journalist’s 14-year ordeal, which ended only last month. During the period when the CPS was overseeing Assange’s case, Starmer made several trips to Washington, meeting with attorney general Eric Holder and a host of American and British national security officials. What they discussed has never been revealed, though the CPS has admitted to destroying key emails relating to the Assange case, mostly covering the period when Starmer was director.

For his service, Starmer was knighted in 2014, and elected as an MP a year later. In 2016, following Corbyn’s win in the party’s leadership election, he was nominated shadow Brexit secretary. In that position, he was instrumental in overturning the party’s stance on the European Union, advocating for Labour to back a second referendum — a position that alienated many Brexit supporters and significantly contributed to Labour’s defeat in the 2019 election.

And yet, following Corbyn’s resignation, Starmer found himself at Labour’s helm, from where he took it upon himself to “deradicalise” the party, purging it of any socialist and anti-militarist elements. As Oliver Eagleton explains in The Starmer Project, since becoming leader, Starmer has conducted “a merciless crackdown on the mildest forms of internal dissent” — blocking Left-wing candidates from standing for Parliament, proscribing various socialist groups, and targeting MPs and local members who are critical of Nato or Israel (including several Jews).

Given all this, the foreign-policy vision outlined in Labour’s manifesto was hardly surprising. “As the party that founded Nato, we maintain our unshakeable commitment to the alliance”, the document states. This means, first and foremost, fully endorsing Nato’s war against Russia. “With Labour, the UK’s military, financial, diplomatic and political support for Ukraine will remain steadfast,” we are told, including by “play[ing] a leading role in providing Ukraine with a clear path to Nato membership”.

Disconcertingly for anyone concerned about the prospect of escalation, the manifesto also outlines the need to militarise the entire UK economy in preparation for a full-scale war on the continent. This includes a “total commitment” to the UK’s submarine-based nuclear weapons programme, which Starmer said he would be willing to use in principle. Labour is equally committed to moving in lockstep with the US over China by maintaining a steadfast commitment to Aukus, the trilateral security partnership with Australia and the US, and being prepared to “challenge” China. Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, the manifesto explains that Britain’s role as America’s vassal-in-chief will continue regardless of whoever occupies the White House: “The United States is an indispensable ally. Our special relationship is crucial for security and prosperity, and transcends whatever political parties and individuals are in office.”

On this point, the good news is that if Donald Trump should return to the White House and decide to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to a close, as he has hinted, the UK would likely follow suit. But it’s also revealing of the extent to which Britain’s ruling elites have internalised the UK’s role as a subordinate to American interests. This is a stance that clearly runs contrary to any notion of the British national interest, unless one assumes the geopolitical interests of the two countries to be always automatically aligned, which is clearly not the case.

Unlike the US, which is a massive continental power with huge military capabilities and a great potential for economic self-reliance, the UK, as a small open economy with relatively underwhelming conventional military capacities, has an obvious interest, for example, in avoiding an all-out war with its Russian neighbour, and maintaining friendly economic relations with the non-Western world, first and foremost China. In this sense, the UK elites’ obsession for the “special relationship” is really just a cover for their abdication of the national interest.

“The UK elites’ obsession for the ‘special relationship’ is really just a cover for their abdication of the national interest.”

The rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn, and Labour’s subsequent pro-US realignment under Starmer, thus reveals a much bigger story than just a successful coup at the hands of the party’s Right, or the British establishment more in general; rather, it should be seen as an epiphenomenon of the UK’s vassal-like relationship to the US — and the limited sovereignty this entails. In his recent book Vassal State: How America Runs Britain, Angus Hanton shows the extent to which US corporations own and control much of the British economy, and how this has resulted in Britain adopting economic policies that align with US interest, often to the detriment of its own economic sovereignty. But the US’s influence over the UK extends well beyond the economic realm.

In intelligence and military terms, the UK is much more heavily reliant on the US than the public realises, leading to the country’s de facto strategic dependence on Washington. Even the UK’s nuclear arsenal is under the complete control of Uncle Sam. This goes a long way to explaining why Britain’s foreign policy, and its security policy in general, has consistently followed American strategic objectives, demonstrating a clear pattern of subordination. This includes the UK’s participation in the long list of 21st-century American foreign policy blunders — in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya among others — for which the UK paid a high price in terms of blowback.

America’s influence over the British policy establishment is further compounded by an intellectual ecosystem — comprising a wide array of think tanks, lobby groups and media enterprises — that is heavily controlled by the US intelligence and security complex. For example, one of America’s most hawkish think tanks, the RAND Corporation, financed by the US government and military-industrial complex, is among the organisations that has the biggest impact on the British policymaking process. The US also directly funds several British think tanks: the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), for instance, the UK’s leading defence and security think tank, is funded by the US State Department.

Britain’s subordination to the US, and its establishment’s commitment to the prioritisation of American interests, also has serious implications for Britain’s democratic process. Indeed, implicit in the unprecedented fearmongering and vilification campaign directed against Corbyn is the existence of an unspoken rule whereby the UK’s American-aligned foreign policy is not up for democratic deliberation.

The result, as we’ll no doubt witness in the coming days, is a British government that appears less sovereign than it’s ever been. Over the next three days, expect Starmer to rubberstamp Nato’s calls for the endless protraction of the war in Ukraine, the boosting of the “European pillar” of Nato, and the blocs expansion into the Asia Pacific. As will quickly become clear, despite all the talk of Brexit being about “taking back control”, Starmer’s Britain seems destined to become even more of a vassal state.

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Thomas Fazi is an UnHerd columnist and translator. His latest book is The Covid Consensus, co-authored with Toby Green.

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Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810225082440007737

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Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810206214615163189

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Tiberius@ecomarxi

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810256009773928931

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Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis@DrLoupis

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Russian Embassy, UK@RussianEmbassy

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Torah Judaism@TorahJudaism

All Jews in Israel are portrayed as pro-Israel and pro-Zionism. This is a big lie. The mainstream media does not show it, but there are hundreds of thousands of Jews against Zionism and they constantly live under the pressure of Zionists.

They do not send their children to Zionist schools and never accept aid from the State of Israel.

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810255409397014788

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Alternative News@AlternatNews

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810064707681710236

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Sarah Wilkinson@swilkinsonbc

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810291969899254066

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Chay Bowes@BowesChay

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810630817393303954

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red.@redstreamnet

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Sarah Wilkinson@swilkinsonbc

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810383950730121651

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Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810565720549343363

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UNRWA@UNRWA

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1810233791945768981

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uzt. 7

Our new song, “My Name is Gaza”, is dedicated to the children of Gaza experiencing the biggest genocide of the history!… “My Name is Gaza” adlı yeni şarkımız tarihin en büyük soykırımına uğrayan Gazzeli çocuklara ithaf edilmiştir!…

#MyNameIsGaza

Bideoa: https://x.com/i/status/1809903714389385382

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Keir Starmer exposed on Gaza within two days of becoming UK Prime Minister | Janta Ka Reporter

Bideoa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqFZ3Vyp64o

British PM Keir Starmer, who has often faced criticism for his party’s stance on Gaza, has finally exposed himself on the raging issue. It took just two days since becoming the PM for him to expose himself.

Rifat Jawaid digs up evidence to nail the newly elected prime minister for his fake image as a human rights lawyer.

Note: We’ve used a reasonable portion of videos from the ITV News and Sky News broadcasts for the purpose of commentary and critiquing.

The British law on the fair use states, “Fair dealing for criticism, review or quotation is allowed for any type of copyright work. Fair dealing with a work for the purpose of reporting current events is allowed for any type of copyright work other than a photograph. In each of these cases, a sufficient acknowledgment will be required.”

Rifat Jawaid is a UK-based journalist.

Transkripzioa:

0:00

say with your lawyer’s hat on it is

0:02

Vladimir Putin a war criminal yes you

0:05

will be aware of the footage we showed

0:07

on ITV last night of a Palestinian man

0:10

holding a white flag being shot and

0:11

killed by the uh Israeli military uh the

0:16

Prime Minister today refused to say

0:18

whether he thought that was a war crime

0:21

you are a very experienced lawyer surely

0:24

that was a war

0:25

crime well Robert first I have to say I

0:28

haven’t seen the footage what I don’t

0:29

think is wise and this is you know we’re

0:32

always being asked to do this is for

0:34

politicians to sit looking at Clips on

0:38

social media or on programs and forming

0:41

instant judgments about whether it’s a

0:43

breach of this law or that that doesn’t

0:45

seem to me wise hello everybody so one

0:48

story that dominated the news headlines

0:51

yesterday which is Monday was the attack

0:55

on a hospital in Ukraine allegedly by

0:58

Russia we can’t say that it was Russia

1:01

but that’s what uh ukrainians and the

1:04

Ukraine’s allies like USA and the UK

1:07

have been alleging that it was Russia

1:10

behind it and that resulted in the

1:13

killings of about 40 people including

1:17

many children now murder of innocent

1:20

children innocent people are absolutely

1:23

abhorent you cannot justify that whether

1:25

they are ukrainians or whether they are

1:27

Palestinians the problem here is the

1:30

double standard double standard by the

1:33

so-called leaders of the Free World

1:36

so-called leaders of the uh civilized

1:39

world that’s the double standard we are

1:42

talking about so we saw the press

1:43

conferences of the White House and the

1:46

state department in the USA yesterday

1:48

and how the majority of those replies

1:51

and questions were surrounding the what

1:54

happened in

1:55

Kev also showing Nimble footedness and

1:59

moving with lightning speed was our dear

2:03

prime minister the newly elected prime

2:04

minister K

2:06

Tama I don’t think anybody was

2:09

surprised because that Nimble footedness

2:13

that lightning speed we had never seen

2:15

in the last nine months when lot more

2:18

children a lot more children okay they

2:21

are not white they are not Europeans but

2:23

nonetheless they children lot more

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children 177,000 of them have been

2:28

brutally slaughtered by by Israelis in

2:31

Gaza in West Bank and we did not see the

2:36

same lightning speed with which K stama

2:40

reacted but he was quite fast and

2:44

furious yesterday he tweeted he shared

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the visuals of that destruction caused

2:52

by alleged Russian attack and he said

2:56

the attacking innocent children the most

2:58

depraved of actions and he used that

3:03

visuals I went through that prompted me

3:06

to troll through his social media

3:09

timeline and I wanted to see whether he

3:11

used a similar word or even close to

3:14

that sounding word when alifa hospital

3:18

was taken Under Siege and lot of mass

3:21

Graves were discovered and I’m not

3:23

saying that jenta reporter was given the

3:27

first and exclusive footage by the world

3:29

Health Organization and we ran that

3:31

footage here on this channel it was on

3:34

7th of

3:36

April now you compare that Mr K

3:40

stammer not that we expected anything

3:42

great from you given your stand on

3:45

justifying the Israeli Siege of Gaza the

3:48

cutting off of water electricity food

3:51

you had Justified that right but you

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wanted people to give you the benefit of

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the doubt that okay it was In the Heat

3:56

of moment you could not explain yourself

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properly

4:00

but you had nine months to come clean on

4:02

that topic and you said your stand had

4:05

changed the party that you were leading

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it stand had

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changed so you tell me that on 7th of

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April when World Health Organization a

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United Nations body that you all

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recognize their team went to alifa

4:21

hospital and found the destruction that

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is I mean you are talking about the

4:26

destruction here although as I said you

4:28

cannot justify the you know attacking or

4:31

targeting of any hospitals any

4:33

hospitals but I want you to see the

4:37

destruction caused at alifa hospital by

4:40

the weeks of Siege weeks of Siege by the

4:43

way by Israeli terrorists disguised as

4:47

Army and the destruction that was caused

4:51

by the so-called Russian attack on this

4:54

Hospital

5:04

this is what used to be the emergency

5:06

department and uh as you can see it’s

5:08

totally destroyed you can see the total

5:10

Destruction everywhere and the most

5:12

important there’s a smell of um SE and

5:16

of the rotten bodies around me

5:54

it is there where

5:57

the so we are working on it once we have

6:00

a a first draft I will share

6:15

with here I am in what remains of the

6:18

emergency room of the biggest Hospital

6:20

of Gaza alifa unfortunately as you can

6:23

see around me it’s only the rubbles what

6:25

used to be the beds what used to be the

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uh oxygen uh pipes what used to be the

6:30

rooms for doctors and for the patients

6:32

patients used to be here to receive

6:34

their first aid but unfortunately now

6:36

everything is burned and as you can see

6:38

behind me there’s nothing left of the

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emergency room love to have that but

6:44

only one miss and this one

7:16

shifa hospital was the core of the

7:19

health system in Gaza Strip This is what

7:22

remains of Gaza hospital

7:26

now just

7:30

chfa Hospital uh normally in the normal

7:35

circumstances take care of

7:38

40% of the

7:40

health uh burden in Gaza Strip and what

7:44

you also see here in the uh yard of the

7:46

hospital are the graves of people who uh

7:50

have died some of them have been buried

7:52

some of them are not yet even buried so

7:54

you can see here here and in many other

7:58

places you can see the bodies that are

8:00

rottening under the Gaz and Sun this is

8:02

horrible and this is unimaginable this

8:05

war should stop

8:08

[Music]

8:14

now in the last three years who has

8:18

invested an important amount of time

8:20

effort and more than 5 million USD to

8:24

make sure that patients surgical

8:27

patients that were coming in shifa

8:29

Hospital during mass casualty incidents

8:32

would be getting proper care we’ve

8:34

invested in the surgical WS we’ve

8:36

invested in supplies we’ve invested in

8:39

human resources and capacity building

8:41

and now these place that used to save

8:43

lives and limbs it’s all Tor down to

8:46

Pieces there’s nothing

8:57

left behind me is the remains of the

9:00

neonatal intensive care unit and the

9:02

nursery where very sick young children

9:05

and infants were receiving their care uh

9:08

here in

9:17

Gaza found

9:43

this is the place where babies have been

9:46

treated yes now that’s nothing

10:03

just to

10:28

focus for

11:01

we’re standing here where it used to be

11:05

the uh uh front of the hospital and

11:08

where in front of the emergency room

11:10

behind me where ambulances used to bring

11:12

the cases now all the area is

11:17

destroyed in addition to the hospital

11:20

and in addition to that the dead bodies

11:23

are still underneath us we can smell the

11:26

dep out while we’re standing here

11:53

you are moved by the attack on Ukrainian

11:57

hospital but you were not moved by The

12:00

Siege and destruction sustained

12:03

destruction over the period of weeks in

12:07

Al shifa

12:08

hospital and that led to a lot of mass

12:12

Graves war crimes so that is a double

12:14

standard we are talking about that why

12:17

had you not tweeted once using the word

12:20

that most depraved of action now let me

12:23

highlight some more double standard and

12:26

hypocrisy of these our new prime

12:28

minister who also happens to be the

12:31

champion of Human Rights well he spent

12:33

he made money and he built his career

12:35

fighting human rights

12:37

cases taka has been a fake human rights

12:40

Crusader because if he was human rights

12:43

Crusader he wouldn’t have indulge in so

12:46

much of hypocrisy and double standard

12:48

when Putin when ICC international

12:52

criminal court launches an investigation

12:55

into the allegations of war crimes

12:57

against Putin

12:59

kmer welcomes it as as the opposition as

13:03

the main opposition leader in this

13:04

country he welcomes

13:09

it but when the IC launches a similar

13:13

investigation against war criminal

13:15

Benjamin Netanyahu what does he do does

13:18

he tweet does he welcome he picks up a

13:21

phone after becoming the prime minister

13:23

speaks to

13:24

him and not even there’s no mention of

13:27

Raza there is no mention of aaza in the

13:30

similar fashion there’s no warning from

13:32

Benjamin Netanyahu forget about

13:34

welcoming he doesn’t even doesn’t even

13:37

advise Benjamin Netanyahu that please do

13:41

not kill innocent people he doesn’t even

13:43

have guts to say

13:50

that that is a bloody double standard

13:53

that I’m talking about let’s talk about

13:55

one more incident you remember when

13:58

Ukraine war was at its PE he appeared on

14:02

um on on on Sky News and he was asked by

14:06

the presenter to say if what is

14:09

happening in Ukraine amounted to war

14:11

crimes you know what was his

14:13

answer he wasn’t

14:16

vague he wasn’t you know mincing

14:19

words he was absolutely emphatic to say

14:23

that yes it was a war

14:26

crime with your lawyer’s hat on is

14:29

Vladimir Putin a war criminal yes yes

14:31

what I’ve seen already amounts to war

14:34

crimes uh particularly uh the awful

14:38

attacks on civilians um and I think it’s

14:40

very important that he’s held to account

14:44

and is responsible and all those that

14:45

are acting with him know that they too

14:48

will be held to account and this is

14:50

something which we need to make clear

14:52

now um so that those who are involved at

14:55

the moment know what the consequences

14:56

are there’s a gap that we’ve got to plug

14:59

and that is in relation to the

15:01

aggression of the invasion that is not

15:04

something that at the moment can be

15:06

dealt with by International tribunals

15:08

which is why I and others have suggested

15:10

that we set up a tribunal uh to deal

15:12

with this bit like the nurenberg

15:14

tribunal so that the act of aggression

15:17

itself the aggressive Invasion that’s

15:19

going on is itself something for which

15:21

Putin and everybody who is acting with

15:24

him can be held to account for Fast

15:26

Forward two years later when Israel laun

15:29

launched its genocidal campaign in Gaza

15:32

he was asked the similar question by ITV

15:35

presenter Robert piston Robert peston my

15:38

former BBC colleague now works for the

15:40

ITV and by the way he himself is a

15:42

Jewish journalist he asked this question

15:46

in the wake of you remember that famous

15:48

incident that ITV had covered that there

15:50

was a father who wanted to um you know

15:54

go to safety and he was flying the White

15:56

Flag so that the Israelis don’t kill him

15:59

and guess what immediately after that

16:02

Israelis brutally killed him in front of

16:04

his children and that was captured by

16:07

ITV not janaka reporter ITV and that was

16:12

a reference to Robert pest’s question

16:15

when he asked him that whether that

16:17

would amount to war

16:19

crime now Kama wasn’t emphatic there

16:24

what he was saying is that it’s not a

16:26

politician’s job to give judgment on

16:28

where whether any incident is a war

16:30

crime or not that is for the icj and ICC

16:33

to decide you will be aware of the

16:36

footage we showed on ITV last night of a

16:39

Palestinian man holding a white flag

16:40

being shot and killed by the uh Israeli

16:43

military uh the Prime Minister today

16:46

refused to say whether he thought that

16:49

was a war crime you are a very

16:51

experienced lawyer surely that was a war

16:55

crime well Robert first I have to say I

16:57

haven’t seen the footage yet I’ve been

16:59

working around the clock haven’t stopped

17:01

today uh yet I will of course see it

17:04

I’ve been sent the link to it but I

17:05

haven’t seen it um yet um but what I

17:08

would say is this we’ve been absolutely

17:10

clear throughout this that yes of course

17:13

Israel has the right to self-defense but

17:15

it’s got to be in accordance with

17:16

international law and they’re two sides

17:19

of the same coin it’s why we’ve said uh

17:22

that the ICC should be in there with

17:24

jurisdiction with the prosecutor

17:26

Gathering evidence because there’s got

17:28

to be accountability under international

17:30

law what I don’t think is wise and this

17:33

is you know we’re always being asked to

17:35

do this is for politicians to sit

17:38

looking at Clips on social media or on

17:42

programs and forming instant judgments

17:44

about whether it’s a breach of this law

17:46

or

17:47

that he wasn’t saying all that when the

17:50

question was about Ukraine two years ago

17:53

and that is a bloody double

17:55

standard I know a lot of you say that

17:57

you know he’s married to a Jewish lady

17:59

he himself may be a Zionist and all but

18:02

that cannot be a justification to turn a

18:05

blind eye to genocide I mean we talking

18:07

about officially you say 40,000 people I

18:10

have been saying for last several months

18:13

that the the the actual death figure

18:15

could cross

18:17

100,000 the lanet magazine quite reputed

18:20

Journal across the world has now said

18:22

that actual death toll could be close to

18:27

200,000 and this primary Minister a

18:30

so-called human rights lawyer is not

18:32

even moved that cannot be a

18:35

justification the fact you know that

18:37

you’re married to a Jewish lady or you

18:39

yourself are a Zionist are you saying

18:42

that that then justifies the killing of

18:44

you know slaughtering of these many

18:45

people innocent

18:47

people as I said what if they were

18:50

whites what if they were

18:52

Europeans would you have remained as as

18:56

indifferent as you are in the case of

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palestin ience these are the bloody

19:01

double standards that we must never be

19:03

tired of talking about thank you very

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much for watching this video If you

19:08

haven’t subscribed to my Channel please

19:09

do so because that’s one of the many

19:11

ways you can support independent

19:13

journalism God bless you all

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Macro n Cheese Podcast #MMT@CheeseMacro

From macroncheese.captivate.fm

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How The West Was Lost with Thomas Fazi

Audioa: https://macroncheese.captivate.fm/episode/how-the-west-was-lost-with-thomas-fazi

*On Tuesday evening we’re gathering for a listening party and discussion of this episode of the podcast. Get the Zoom link here https://realprogressives.org/event/macro-n-chill-284/   

If anyone still thinks adopting the Euro was a good idea, this episode should set you straight. 

Writer and journalist Thomas Fazi joins Steve to talk about the critical issues surrounding the European project, beginning with elite reaction to the recent election of Marine Le Pen in France, which Thomas calls a script that, as an Italian, he has seen play out many times: 

“And that is one where as soon as a “populist” or “anti-establishment” government comes into power, or has a good chance of coming to power, as Le Pen does now … then the kind of democracy-proofing mechanisms of the European Union, and of the Euro, kick into action.” 

Markets begin selling off the bonds of the country in question, in this case France, because they’re said to be spooked by the election results. The mainstream media frames this as the market’s natural reaction to “irresponsible” politicians gaining power.  

“But in fact, this is a very simplistic narrative, because, as MMT teaches us, it’s the central bank that ultimately controls the interest rates on the government bonds…markets can only spook governments and countries, and can only put [financial] pressure on countries, so long as a central bank allows markets to do it.”  

The European Central Bank has every interest in using financial markets to discipline governments, ensuring they don’t stray off the neoliberal path.  

The discussion goes into the US role in European geopolitics, the importance of economic and industrial sovereignty, and the negative impacts of relying on imports and being subordinate to the US. They go into the purpose of the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, the petrodollar system, and the destruction of Ukraine. 

They also question the MMT community’s disturbing reluctance to speak out on geopolitics, especially the ongoing genocide in Gaza.    

Thomas Fazi is a critically-acclaimed writer and journalist. His books include The Battle for Europe: How an Elite Hijacked a Continent — and How We Can Take It Back (Pluto Press, 2014), Reclaiming the State: A Progressive Vision of Sovereignty for a Post-Neoliberal World (co-authored with Bill Mitchell; Pluto Press, 2017) and The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor — A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green; 2023). He is the co-director of Standing Army (2010), an award-winning feature-length documentary on US military bases featuring Gore Vidal and Noam Chomsky; His articles have appeared in numerous online and printed publications. He is a columnist for the British magazine UnHerd and a contributing editor for the American magazine Compact.  

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