(September 10, 2026)
The Tuesday trifecta – sanctions, weird party slate and the Haaretz Oct. 7 bombshell – could have more impact later.
Archiv: Militäreinsatz im Inland / Ausnahmezustand / Kriegsrecht / Kriegszustand / domestic military operations / martial law / state of war
Coalition strengthens as People of Israel crosses threshold, despite Likud dropping one seat – poll
After the submission of party lists ahead of the Knesset elections, the coalition bloc has strengthened by three seats to 50, following People of Israel’s crossing of the electoral threshold. This is according to a Maariv poll conducted by Lazar Research, headed by Dr. Menachem Lazar, in cooperation with Panel4ALL.
However, Likud has lost one seat, falling to just 19, its lowest figure since May 29, 2025.
1984 By George Orwell
In some ways she was far more acute than Winston, and far less susceptible to Party propaganda. Once when he happened in some connexion to mention the war against Eurasia, she startled him by saying casually that in her opinion the war was not happening. The rocket bombs which fell daily on London were probably fired by the Government of Oceania itself, ‘just to keep people frightened’. This was an idea that had literally never occurred to him. She also stirred a sort of envy in him by telling him that during the Two Minutes Hate her great difficulty was to avoid bursting out laughing. But she only questioned the teachings of the Party when they in some way touched upon her own life. Often she was ready to accept the official mythology, simply because the difference between truth and falsehood did not seem important to her.
(…)
War, it will be seen, accomplishes the necessary destruction, but accomplishes it in a psychologically acceptable way. In principle it would be quite simple to waste the surplus labour of the world by building temples and pyramids, by digging holes and filling them up again, or even by producing vast quantities of goods and then setting fire to them.
But this would provide only the economic and not the emotional basis for a hierarchical society. What is concerned here is not the morale of masses, whose attitude is unimportant so long as they are kept steadily at work, but the morale of the Party itself. Even the humblest Party member is expected to be competent, industrious, and even intelligent within narrow limits, but it is also necessary that he should be a credulous and ignorant fanatic whose prevailing moods are fear, hatred, adulation, and orgiastic triumph. In other words it is necessary that he should have the mentality appropriate to a state of war. It does not matter whether the war is actually happening, and, since no decisive victory is possible, it does not matter whether the war is going well or badly. All that is needed is that a state of war should exist.
25 Years Ago, 9/11 Triggered a US Crusade of Torture
Despite public pressure, Bush vetoed a version of the Intelligence Authorization Act in March 2008 that would have required CIA interrogators to adhere to Army Field Manual regulations. As soon as Barack Obama became president, he issued an executive order rescinding the free hand for the CIA director on interrogations that Bush had reaffirmed in a July 2007 order. Obama’s directive removed the CIA’s detention power and required the agency to follow Army Field Manual rules.
Yet five and a half years went by before President Obama acknowledged, in his notable words, “We tortured some folks.” He told a news conference: “When we engaged in some of these enhanced interrogation techniques, techniques that I believe and I think any fair-minded person would believe were torture, we crossed a line.”
The acknowledgement came four months before the long-awaited release of a report in December 2014 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. While heavily redacted, it was a political indictment of torture. “CIA personnel, aided by two outside contractors, decided to initiate a program of indefinite secret detention and the use of brutal interrogation techniques in violation of US law, treaty obligations, and our values,” wrote the committee’s chair, Senator Dianne Feinstein. …
Twilight’s Last Gleaming
There is a point in the decline of republics when the problem is no longer that government breaks its own laws. Governments will always behave unlawfully. The deeper problem comes when the constitutional machinery designed to prevent those acts stops functioning — when spending becomes detached from arithmetic, presidential power becomes detached from law and Congress and the courts become detached from the Constitution.
That’s where America is today.
(…)
The twilight of our constitutional republic has not arrived because the sun suddenly disappeared. It has arrived because, little by little, nearly everyone became accustomed to the darkness.
The Guardian view on Israel’s death penalty: capital punishment is always wrong. This new law is doubly so
(March 31, 2026)
Execution will be the default for Palestinians found guilty of lethal attacks deemed as terrorist acts in the West Bank’s military courts – which have a conviction rate of around 96%. Amnesty International says that the system routinely relies on evidence extracted through torture and abuse. The death sentence will be imposed even if prosecutors do not seek it. Convictions need no longer be unanimous. There is no possibility of pardon. Executions must take place within 90 days. Within Israeli civilian courts, the new law imposes the death penalty for deliberately killing a person with the intention of “negating the existence of the State of Israel”. Life imprisonment can only substitute in unspecified “special” circumstances.
There could hardly be a more shocking contrast with the near-total impunity of Israelis killing Palestinians in the West Bank, amid increasing – and increasingly systematic – state-backed settler violence.
Israel’s Ben Gvir boasts of planned execution facility for Palestinian prisoners
“In this place, the terrorists will be executed,” Ben Gvir said in a video posted on Instagram, where he has around 150,000 followers.
In the video, Ben Gvir points towards what appears to be an active construction site and says the complex will include “viewing chambers where crime victims will be able to come and watch” Palestinians being hanged.
„We are fulfilling what we promised,“ the minister added.
Eric Burdon – Tobacco Road (Eric Burdon Declares „War“)
(…)
Xavier Naidoo – Halte durch
Xavier Naidoo: „Halte durch“ aus dem Album „Alles kann besser werden“.
ASD (Afrob & Samy Deluxe) – Hey Du (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
ASD (Afrob & Samy Deluxe) – Hey Du (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Hamas’ agreement to Trump’s disarmament plan ‘calls Israel’s bluff’
The announcement that Hamas has agreed to a roadmap for its disarmament can now shift that dynamic, yet it is unlikely things will change on the ground anytime soon.
“The last thing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants going into October’s elections is US pressure to withdraw from Gaza, and it’s likely he will foot-drag any further negotiations as much as possible,” Norman said.
100 soldiers stage mass walk-out at southern IDF base after row with their commander
(July 30, 2026)
Footage posted online showed the soldiers marching out of the base while chanting an obscenity against officers. Other footage from the base showed a disorganized mount of guns left behind by the soldiers, and the wreckage of the removed signs, including one with a hellish motif that read “Kingdom of Devils.”
The soldiers claimed the signs were “part of our company’s tradition.” According to the army, the signs contained materials meant to disparage rookie soldiers.
Infantry soldiers in the IDF have a history of hazing new recruits and of deserting en masse over alleged mistreatment by commanders.
Soldier seriously wounded during hazing ritual, 4 comrades indicted
(May 3, 2026)
In February, a female sergeant in the IDF Artillery Corps was indicted for abusing two corporals in her unit as part of a so-called hazing ritual. She was accused of abusing the two soldiers as a form of “punishment” for minor infractions, summoning them at night, whipping them with her dog tag, striking them with her rifle, and forcing them to sing, despite their pleas for the actions to stop.
Similarly, last summer, seven soldiers serving in the Israeli Air Force’s Arrow air defense system array were detained for the alleged abuse of junior soldiers. According to a Ynet report, the veteran soldiers were suspected of abuse, violence, threats and sex crimes.
Haben „Europäische Union“ oder N.A.T.O. die Notstandsgesetze in Deutschland aktiviert?
(December 8, 2016)
Am 30. Mai 1968 beschloss der Bundestag mit den Stimmen der damaligen „großen Koalition“ das „Siebzehnte Gesetz zur Ergänzung des Grundgesetzes“. Diese Verfassungsänderungen, die u.a. die Gewaltenteilung für das Grundrecht der Bürger auf Brief-, Post- und Fernmeldegeheimnis aufhob und damit die Grundlage für den jahrzehntelangen Totalausfall der Demokratie und Willkür im geheimdienstlichen Komplex schufen, wurden seinerzeit „Notstandsgesetze“ genannt.
Die eigentlichen Notstandsgesetze aber entstanden erst nach 1968. Über die Jahrzehnte wurden eine bis heute öffentlich nicht bekannte Zahl von ausführenden Gesetzen, Verordnungen bzw „Bestimmungen“ oder „Rechtsvorschriften“ (z.B. Dienstvorschriften in Militär und Geheimdiensten) quasi als juristische „Schläfer“ geschaffen, um „nach Maßgabe“ des neuen Verfassungsartikels 80a im Falle des Falles in Kraft zu treten.
Aber welchen Falles? Und durch wen?
(…)
Ein „internationales Organ“ kann also „im Rahmen eines Bündnisvertrages mit Zustimmung der Bundesregierung“ „Rechtsvorschriften“ unter Bezug auf Grundgesetz Artikel 80a zur Anwendung bringen. Und das selbst unter Umgehung der Feststellung von Verteidigungsfall und Spannungsfall durch den Bundestag.
Wie Absatz 3 Satz 2 von Artikel 80a besagt, müssen diese „Maßnahmen“ von derart in Kraft getretenen Notstandsgesetzen bzw „Rechtsvorschriften“ wieder aufgehoben werden, „wenn der Bundestag es mit der Mehrheit seiner Mitglieder verlangt“.
Was aber, wenn der Bundestag gar nicht weiß, dass solche „Maßnahmen“ überhaupt existieren? Oder nichts vom entsprechenden Beschluss eines „internationalen Organs“ erfahren hat? Oder zumindest die überwältigende Mehrheit der Abgeordneten im Dunkeln gehalten wurde, z.B. von den eingeweihten Fraktionsführungen?
Vorbereitung für den Ausnahmezustand
„Der Zustimmungsfall wird dann relevant, wenn der Bundestag einzelne Regelungen in Kraft setzen will, die im Spannungsfall gelten würden, aber den Spannungsfall insgesamt noch nicht ausrufen will“, sagt Hegemann. Für diese einzelnen Regeln reicht dann wie bei regulären Gesetzen grundsätzlich eine einfache Mehrheit im Parlament.
Das geplante BND-Gesetz formuliert für alle drei Fälle Regeln. Vor allem aber ändert es den Mechanismus, wie der Zustimmungsfall für das BND-Gesetz ausgelöst werden kann. Das soll sich am Zustimmungsfall aus dem Grundgesetz „orientieren“, aber umgeht dabei das Plenum des Bundestags.
An die Stelle eines regulären parlamentarischen Verfahrens soll nämlich ein Vorschlag der Bundesregierung treten, dem das Parlamentarische Kontrollgremium zustimmen müsste. Dann könnten einzelne oder alle Regelungen des Gesetzes zum Spannungs- und Verteidigungsfall „freigeschaltet“ werden. Dass der Bundestag als Ganzes dabei außen vor bliebe, hat noch einen weiteren Effekt: „Eine Veröffentlichung ist nicht vorgesehen.
Prosecutor Investigating U.S. Boat Strikes and Claims of Torture Was Murdered in Ecuador
(July 23, 2026)
QUITO, Ecuador—Alexandra Bravo, the prosecutor assigned to investigate U.S. strikes on three Ecuadorian boats and the 36 survivors’ subsequent accounts of torture and kidnapping, was shot dead in the coastal city of Manta last month. According to police, on June 14 a hitman aboard a black motorcycle opened fire on Bravo as she and her sister were leaving a café at about 11 a.m. Bravo’s sister, who jumped to protect her, was also killed in the attack.
Upon arriving at the crime scene, officers say they found five 9mm shell casings and Bravo’s injured driver, but no sign of the police detail that had been assigned to protect her.
Rare Survivors of Pacific Boat Strikes Allege U.S. Forces Kidnapped and Tortured Them
(April 21, 2026)
Under right-wing president Daniel Noboa, Ecuador has become a critical U.S. proxy in the region; described as a “North American colony” by political analyst and former advisor to Ecuador’s Secretary of International Relations Daniel Granja.
The military regime, which rules by martial law, has stonewalled all inquiries into the whereabouts of the fishermen. “They slammed the door in our face,” Angelica Mero told Drop Site News.
The United Nations Committee on Forced Disappearances, which was already investigating Noboa’s armed forces prior to this incident, has issued a letter demanding answers on La Fiorella. Opposition lawmaker Mónica Palacios echoed those calls, announcing she will bring this case directly to the U.N.
Now, 36 survivors of two Pacific attacks fitting a similar profile alleged that they were abducted and tortured by American forces and taken by boat all the way to El Salvador before being returned to Ecuador. Drop Site spoke to multiple survivors and attorneys from both boats.
The Miller Doctrine
(May 27, 2026)
Yet proposals that skirt the edges of international law didn’t come out of nowhere. The U.S. under George W. Bush created legal mechanisms following the September 11th attacks to torture hundreds of people in CIA black sites and then at Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration’s targeted drone strikes were assassinations by another name. The Biden administration further eroded international norms and subverted its own policies by financing Israel’s genocide in Gaza, in violation of the Leahy Law, which prohibits foreign military assistance to nations that violate human rights.
“Seems like Miller is sort of taking what he was already willing to do during the first term and then combining that with what Israel has been doing in the way it has just been completely ignoring any kind of international law, Geneva Conventions, any of it in its conduct in Gaza and Lebanon, to then influence U.S. foreign policy,” Annelle Sheline, a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said in an interview.
In other words, Miller and the Trump administration have been able to steamroll what was left of international law; they just had to figure out how to do it.
The farce of Israel’s ‘liberal’ investigative journalism
Two weeks ago, the investigative program HaMakor on Israel’s Channel 13 aired a 60-minute report on the December 2023 killing of three Israeli hostages — Yotam Haim, Alon Shamriz, and Samer Al-Talalka — who were shot by Israeli soldiers in Shuja’iya, eastern Gaza City, after emerging from a hiding place carrying a white flag.
Even without intimate knowledge of the details, one thing should have been clear from the outset: When soldiers fire from inside buildings at three shirtless men carrying a white flag, kill two of them, then pursue the third, call him out of hiding, and shoot him dead, the issue is not merely “mistaken identity.” The issue is that Israeli soldiers routinely shoot innocent people. One would have to be extraordinarily naïve to believe that the single time this happened, the victims just happened to be Israelis.
Why the Price of Gas Is the Most Important Number in US Politics
Gasoline accounts for a shrinking share of household budgets, but its political power can still make or break a presidency.
Israel uproots thousands of grapevines in Hebron to expand settler road
Zuhur Tarwa stood in shock as Israeli army markers appeared across her vineyard, declaring it confiscated.
The 68-year-old Palestinian had spent years tending the land with her two daughters in the fertile Baqa’a Valley, east of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
Their 200 grapevines once filled the plot with broad green leaves, promising a strong harvest.
Before that could happen, the confiscation order arrived – followed soon after by bulldozers.
“They razed the entire land, uprooting the grapevines and other crops,” Tarwa told Middle East Eye.
Israeli forces demolish dozens of commercial and industrial facilities in al-Eizariya southeast of occupied Jerusalem
According to available data, these shops are threatened with removal as part of the occupation’s dangerous colonial project known as the “Fabric of Life” plan, which represents a practical implementation of the Israeli annexation plan for the area known as “E1,” aiming to establish full geographical contiguity between the colony of Ma’ale Adumim and occupied Jerusalem.
This would result in the separation of the northern West Bank from its southern part and the seizure of nearly 3% of the occupied Palestinian Territory for formal annexation under the so-called “Greater Jerusalem” plan.
Occupation Soldiers Detained Solidarity Delegations Supporting Palestinian Victims of Settlers Terror
he delegations to Bethlehem and the Jordan Valley, were stopped by soldiers and police officers, and activists held protests on the scene. In other areas, activities proceeded as planned. “While settler terror gangs operated across the West Bank unhindered, the police and army blocked hundreds of activists this morning who came to demonstrate solidarity with the victims,” one of the participants told Zo Haderekh.
Hundreds of activists from a wide range of organizations took part in the protest, including Partnership for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights, Peace Now, Hadash, Zazim, The Parents Circle-Families Forum, Standing Together, Jordan Valley Activists, Looking the Occupation in the Eye, Women Wage Peace, A Land for All, Combatants for Peace, Breaking the Silence, and Mothers Against Violence.
Partnership for Peace stated: “Hundreds of Israelis who set out to oppose terror and demand the state enforce the law in the occupied territories were detained at all checkpoints. It was proven that when the army wants to, it can act efficiently. We expect authorities to show the same determination in protecting innocent people who undergo daily violent pogrom attacks. We will not stop striving for peace, justice, and equality for all residents of the region.” “We will continue the struggle against the occupation and ethnic cleansing! They will not succeed in stopping us!” they emphasized.
WATCH: The Palestinian shot dead hours before his son was born
Nayef Samaro left work in Nablus to run errands for his wife, who was hours away from delivering their first son by caesarean section.
The 26-year-old soon-to-be father was excited, despite the Israeli army raiding his city.
But before the birth, an Israeli soldier shot Nayef in the head, leaving him to bleed out in the street.
He never saw his son.
Watch our report here:
‚Killing like we haven‘t since 1967‘: Top Israeli general brags about shooting Palestinians in occupied West Bank
“A plasterer in [the West Bank city of] Ramallah earns 1,500 shekels ($510) a month and a plasterer in [the Israeli town of] Ramle earns 7,000 shekels a month, so of course he‘s willing to risk being shot in the knee or a week of detention, if he succeeded in crossing over and can work in a bakery,” Bluth explained.
“There are a lot of ‘limping monuments’ in Palestinian villages, of those who tried to [cross the barrier], so there is a price being paid,” he boasted.
The Israeli general also said Palestinians throwing rocks were engaged in “terrorism,” while bragging about how many his troops had killed last year.
Israel killing Palestinians ‘like we haven‘t since 1967’, top commander says
Israel’s top commander in the occupied West Bank has said the army is killing Palestinians at levels “not seen since 1967”, according to Haaretz.
Avi Bluth, head of the Israeli army’s Central Command, made the remarks in a closed forum, where he also defended looser rules of engagement allowing troops to fire at unarmed Palestinians.
He acknowledged a discriminatory approach whereby Jewish Israeli stone-throwers are not targeted while Palestinians carrying out similar acts are fired at.
„In three years, we have killed 1,500 terrorists,“ he said, referring to Palestinians.
„So how is there no intifada? Why aren’t they taking to the streets? Why is the Palestinian public indifferent? Why are there no disturbances?“ Bluth, a settler who has been the Israeli army commander in the West Bank since 2024, added.
Netanyahu trial cross-examination interrupted as PM leaves for urgent security meeting
The proceedings were significantly interrupted, however, after he excused himself from the Tel Aviv courtroom just 30 minutes after the hearing began for what he said was an urgent security-related call at the Kirya military headquarters.
He was granted permission to halt proceedings for the security consultation despite the court rejecting a request from the premier’s lawyer Amit Hadad to shorten Wednesday’s testimony by three hours due to a “security-related schedule.”
Israeli court rejects Netanyahu request to delay today’s corruption trial session until noon: Report
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Netanyahu had requested overnight that the Jerusalem District Court limit his appearance on Wednesday to three hours, but the court denied the request.
The report added that Netanyahu cited “security-related schedule” to justify shortening the duration of the hearing.
Hadash Announces Primary Elections and Push for Joint List Consolidation
During the session, political leaders, including the Communist Party of Israel Secretary-General Adel Amer and Hadash Secretary Amjad Shbita, addressed the regional political situation. Discussions centered on the fragile ceasefire, the risk of renewed war on Iran and Lebanon, and the concerning rise of internal fascism and ongoing occupation of Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian territories.
“The establishment of the Joint List is not merely a tactical maneuver,” Hadash stated in an official communique. “It is a fundamental mission to shift the political balance of power and intensify the struggle against the occupation.” In addition to election preparations, Hadash leadership issued a formal call for public mobilization. Activists and supporters are urged to participate in International Workers’ Day events on Friday, May 1, in Tel Aviv, on Saturday, May 2 in Nazareth and other localities.
The Imperial Presidency Is Bigger Than Donald Trump
A future Democratic-controlled Congress should take up the job that Obama and the party’s old guard abandoned: put strict limits on the use of drones that won’t simply be alternately loosened and tightened by whichever president comes to power, explicitly outlawing “targeted killing” and any other attempt at finding a loophole for the already existing ban on assassinations; finally repeal the 2001 Authorization of the Use of Military Force that has been serially abused by presidents to fight often secret wars all over the world; end mass surveillance, whether in the form of the National Security Agency’s warrantless backdoor searches that Democrats actually expanded under Joe Biden, or in the warrantless spying that the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies now do through private data brokers; close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp that Trump is now trying to send migrants to; and embark on a twenty-first-century version of the Church Committee to investigate and lay bare national security abuses.
Netanyahu Corruption Trial Testimony Delayed Due to ‚Security and Political Reasons‘
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s request to delay testifying in his criminal trial was accepted by judges on Sunday due to „security and political“ reasons related to „the dramatic events that have occurred in the State of Israel and throughout the Middle East in recent times,“ according to a letter sent to judges.