TV News LIES

A leading scholar of the Holocaust and genocide warned Tuesday the continued "silence" of many in his field of study regarding Israel's massacre of Palestinians in Gaza "has made a mockery of the slogan 'never again''" as he outlined in a New York Times opinion piece how he came to conclude that Israel is committing genocide in the besieged enclave.

At that point, about 1 million Palestinians had been ordered to the so-called "safe zone" of al-Mawasi—which was then targeted in numerous attacks.

Months after one top Israeli official called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza—home to more than 2 million people—Bartov concluded that the government's "actions could be understood only as the implementation of the expressed intent to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for its Palestinian population."
"I'm a Genocide Scholar," reads the essay's headline. "I Know It When I See It."

Like a number of other experts who were at first reluctant to designate the assault on Gaza a genocide—the term coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944—Brown University professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies Omer Bartov gradually came to recognize Israel's campaign of targeted starvation, bombings on civilian infrastructure, forced displacement, and other attacks as genocidal violence as he watched the early months of the war in late 2023 and early 2024.

By May 2024, he wrote at the Times, "it appeared no longer possible to deny that the pattern of [Israel Defense Forces] operations was consistent with the statements denoting genocidal intent made by Israeli leaders in the days after the Hamas attack," including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's threat to turn Gaza into "rubble" and his call for Israeli citizens to remember "what Amalek did to you"—a reference to the biblical passage calling on the Israelites to "kill alike men and women, infants and sucklings" in their fight against an ancient enemy.

At that point, about 1 million Palestinians had been ordered to the so-called "safe zone" of al-Mawasi—which was then targeted in numerous attacks.

Months after one top Israeli official called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza—home to more than 2 million people—Bartov concluded that the government's "actions could be understood only as the implementation of the expressed intent to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable for its Palestinian population."

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Ali Awad is tired. The 27-year-old resident of Tuba, one of the dozen or so villages that make up Masafer Yatta in the arid south Hebron hills of the occupied West Bank, had been up all night watching as a masked Israeli settler on horseback circled his family home.

“When we saw the masked settler, we knew he wanted violence,” said Awad, his eyes bloodshot. They were lucky this time: the settler disappeared into the darkness before police could show up.

The men in Masafer Yatta rarely sleep these days. They take turns standing watch at night, fearful that nearby Israeli settlers will attack under the cover of darkness.

Daylight brings little respite. Residents work with an ear pricked up for the sound of approaching vehicles, scanning the horizon for Israeli bulldozers which could signal their homes are next to be demolished.

Israel designated Masafer Yatta a military training zone – named firing zone 918, where no civilians can live – in 1981. It has been working since to push out the roughly 1,200 residents who remain. These residents have been fighting in Israeli courts for more than two decades to stop their expulsion, a battle which has slowed, but not stopped, the demolition of Palestinian homes there.

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After 21 months of Israeli offensive in Gaza, humanitarian agencies are warning of an imminent operational collapse. What little aid is being delivered to those remaining in the strip risks stopping entirely. Meanwhile, the civilian death toll is on the rise. On Sunday, at least 95 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes, including children collecting water and market-goers in Gaza City.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has confirmed the death of yet another malnourished infant, as eight UN agencies signalled that without fuel, their lifesaving work may soon come to a halt. Gaza’s Health Ministry now reports over 58,000 deaths and 138,000 wounded since the war began on the 7th of October 2023.

The high and rising death toll comes as no surprise, given that the Israeli military has intensified its bombardment. As of the morning of Monday, the 14th of July, it claimed more than 100 new air raids in the last 24 hours alone. Ground operations also continue across northern Gaza.

Aid is scarce, and attempts to collect it have proven deadly after two people were killed near an aid centre in Rafah on Sunday, the latest victims of many since the controversial US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation stepped in after other agencies were banned or blocked from entering the Strip.

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A US appeals court has for now blocked the Trump administration from removing the temporary protective status of thousands of Afghans in the United States, court documents showed on Monday.

An administrative stay on the termination of temporary protected status for Afghans will remain until 21 July, the US court of appeals for the fourth circuit said in an order granting a request from immigration advocacy organization Casa.

The group had filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Homeland Security to challenge the terminations of the temporary protected status for Afghans and Cameroonians announced by the Trump administration in April.

Casa had filed for an emergency motion for a stay on Monday, when the protected status for Afghans was scheduled to be terminated. The protected status for Cameroonians is set to end on 4 August, according to the court document.

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US president Donald Trump has claimed that the Club World Cup trophy that has featured prominently in the Oval Office will stay there, and that Fifa made a copy of the trophy that was awarded to Chelsea after their win in the tournament’s final on Sunday.

Trump attended the final along with numerous members of his cabinet and Fifa president Gianni Infantino. The pair of presidents jointly presented the trophy to Chelsea captain Reece James, with Trump staying front-and-center despite the apparent confusion of Chelsea players and the pleading of Infantino.

The incident is just the latest in a long series of intersections between the US president and the world of Fifa, which began in earnest this year soon after Trump started his second term in office. Infantino unveiled the Club World Cup trophy for the first time in an event at the Oval Office in March, and the trophy has stayed there for all subsequent events in the historic space since.

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The Justice Department’s senior ethics attorney, a position tasked with ensuring all employees abide by the department’s moral principles, announced Monday that Attorney General Pam Bondi had fired him.

Joseph Tirrell said he received notice from Bondi on Friday and shared a copy of her letter to him on LinkedIn. The notice did not provide any reasoning for his firing, which was effective immediately, but says he may appeal the decision.

Tirrell said in his LinkedIn post that he was “responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics” and led a team of 30 people dedicated to upholding ethics across the Justice Department.

His public service career spanned a quarter of a century, Tirrell wrote in his announcement, saying he began as a U.S. Naval officer before earning a law degree and working at the FBI before moving to the DOJ. He’s led the ethics office since 2023.

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Dr. Mehmet Oz, the current Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, doesn’t seem to know who actually relies on the programs he oversees.

In an interview with “Fox & Friends” Monday, Oz claimed the program was originally intended only to assist young children, the elderly and the disabled ― and that in the last few years it’s been gamed by “able-bodied” people who “just hang out” and watch television all day.

“When the program was created 60 years ago, it never dawned on anyone that you would take able-bodied individuals who could work ― and put them on Medicaid,” Oz claimed.

“Today, the average able-bodied person on Medicaid doesn’t work. They watch 6.1 hours of television or just hang out. That’s not fair. Go out and try to get a job.”

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President Trump on Monday pivoted in favor of Ukraine, arranging for U.S. weapons to be delivered to Kyiv and threatening new sanctions on Moscow if Russia’s war stretches later in the year.

Speaking in the Oval Office alongside NATMore...O Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump outlined the parameters of a deal to sell U.S.-manufactured weapons to NATO, with the expectation that they’ll be delivered to Ukraine.

The systems include Patriot missile defense batteries, which are seen as critical for Ukraine’s defenses as it seeks to guard its skies from Russian bombardment.

Trump cast the agreement as a win for the U.S., which has approved more than $175 billion in aid for Ukraine since the war started in 2022. It comes after most NATO countries agreed to ramp up their defense spending.

“We are going to be sending them weapons and they’re going to be paying for them,” Trump said.

The president also set a 50-day deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring an end to the war.

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