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We focus once again on the ongoing genocide in Gaza with Delinda Hanley, executive editor of the \u201cWashington Report on Middle East Affairs\u201d who tells the heartrending story of an undertaker in Gaza who since October 8th\xa0personally has had to bury over 17,000 people. Then, Ralph welcomes back retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft to widen out the discussion to include the war in Ukraine and contends that \u201cthe Pentagon runs America.\u201d

Delinda Hanley is news editor and executive director of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. She writes extensively for the magazine on an array of topics and her stories have also been published in the Arab News, Saudi ARAMCO World, The Minaret, Islamic Horizons and other U.S. magazines, including The Jewish Spectator. She has written extensively on Palestine, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Libya, the emergence of the Muslim voice in Arab politics, and fairness in the mainstream American media.

During this (Gaza) crisis, it's been a meeting point for people on the sidewalk. We've had fundraisers, people just come and vent because they're so upset about our U.S. foreign policy. Diplomats come in and vent about how they don't get a say anymore\u2014it's just top-down foreign policy decisions. We've had ex-military people, who served in Iraq, vent. Everyone just comes here and starts to feel a little better because they're talking to like-minded people. The only people who don't come here are the media. We've never had a story about the magazine. It's just verboten.

Delinda Hanley

While most publications depend on advertising to last, we don't have much advertising. Only charities dare to advertise with us because if you're a lawyer or insurance salesman, you get phone calls from our adversaries saying, "That's an anti-Semitic magazine. Don't do that. You won't have our business." We have a real problem with advertising. And also, may I say, we are so happy to send free subscriptions to libraries\u2026Libraries are afraid to have us on their shelves sometimes because they get complaints.\xa0

Delinda Hanley

Lawrence Wilkerson is a retired U.S. Army colonel. Over his 31 years of service, Colonel Wilkerson served as Secretary of State Colin Powell's Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2005, and Special Assistant to General Powell when he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989 to 1993. Colonel Wilkerson also served as Deputy Director and Director of the U.S. Marine Corps War College at Quantico, Virginia, and for fifteen years he was the Distinguished Visiting Professor of Government and Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Eisenhower Media Network, senior advisor to the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, and co-founder of the All-Volunteer Force Forum.\xa0

AIPAC\u2014the Israeli-government-can-do-no-wrong lobby here\u2014poured over $14 million to defeat Jamaal Bowman, the Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester County just this week in the primary. And it came down to $17,000 an hour they were spending on blanket ads and other media against this super progressive member of Congress who dared a few weeks after October 7th to call for a permanent ceasefire and describe what Netanyahu was doing as genocide.

Ralph Nader

We know, all of us know, that the armed forces of the United States are broken. They are broken from years and years of the all-volunteer force, years and years of war, years and years of stupid idiotic war with no purpose, years and years of wounds, PTSD, suicides just off the charts now. And the armed forces are not doing well.\xa0

Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson

In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard with Francesco DeSantis

News 6/26/24

1. In a story that could have been written 200 years ago, independence activists in the French territory of New Caledonia in the Pacific have been sent to mainland France for pre-trial detention, per Al Jazeera. According to this report, these seven detainees include Christian Tein, head of the pro-independence group Field Action Coordination Cell, or CCAT. Tein\u2019s lawyer Pierre Ortent said he was \u201cstupefied\u201d that Tein was being being held in France, accusing authorities of \u201canswering to purely political considerations.\u201d A lawyer for another detainee said these actions would only create \u201cmartyrs for the independence cause.\u201d Riots broke out in New Caledonia earlier this year when France instituted new rules allowing long-term, non-indigenous residents to participate in independence referenda \u2013 which \u201cIndigenous Kanaks feared\u2026would dilute their vote.\u201d France deployed 3,000 soldiers in response. New Caledonia remains on the United Nations list of \u201cnon-self-governing territories,\u201d the modern euphemism for imperial colonies.

2. Following a decade-long legal battle, the saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finally coming to a close. Defending Rights and Dissent reports \u201cOn Monday, it was announced that Assange had filed a guilty plea in the US District of Northern Mariana Islands. Assange, who faced 17 counts under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud And Abuse Act, pled guilty to [a] single count of conspiracy\u2026 Assange\u2026will make an appearance in court and be sentenced to time served. He will then return to Australia a free man.\u201d However, Policy Director Chip Gibbons was quick to note \u201cPlea deals\u2026set no legal precedent\u2026the US government\u2019s decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act remains unconstitutional due to the First Amendment\u2019s press freedom guarantees.\u201d

3. In an interview with Declassified UK, reported by Yahoo News, Independent MP Candidate and former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn recounted how he was pressured to give blanket support to military actions by Israel. In the interview, he said \u201cDuring one extremely hostile meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party Committee they confronted me and said will you give a blanket undertaking that you, as party leader and potentially prime minister, will automatically support any military action Israel undertakes?\u201d Corbyn responded \u201cno, I will give no such undertaking, because the issue of Palestine has to be resolved and Palestinian people do not deserve to live under occupation\u2026\u201d Corbyn is currently fighting to keep his longtime seat in Islington North after being expelled from the Labour Party by it\u2019s reportedly CIA-linked new leader, Keir Starmer.

4. British humanitarian group Save the Children has published a new report which finds \u201cOver 20,000 children [are] estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves,\u201d in Gaza. A Child Protection Specialist with the group, on the ground in Gaza, is quoted saying \u201cEvery day we find more unaccompanied children and every day it is harder to support them\u2026there is no safe place in Gaza\u2026 Neighbours and extended family members who have taken in lone children are struggling to meet their basic needs, such as shelter, food, and water. Many are with strangers - or completely alone - increasing the risk of violence, abuse exploitation and neglect.\u201d Jeremy Stoner, the group\u2019s regional director for the Middle East, says \u201cGaza has become a graveyard for children.\u201d

5. On Tuesday, a new citizenship law took effect in Germany, allowing new immigrants to obtain a German passport within five years \u2013 but only if they declare that the State of Israel has the right to exist, per the Financial Times. This piece notes that the \u201c[German] government\u2026has\u2026sparked anger by\u2026[cracking] down on\u2026criticism of the Israeli government over its conduct in Gaza, fuelling (sic.) a debate over free speech in Germany, particularly among artists and academics. Sabine D\xf6ring, Germany\u2019s junior minister for higher education, was forced to resign earlier this month after her ministry started exploring legal options to defund the research of German academics who had signed a public letter criticising a police crackdown on anti-Israeli student protests.\u201d

6. AP reports Israel\u2019s Supreme Court issued a ruling this week that \u201cthe military must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox men for compulsory service\u2026[putting] an end to a decades-old system that granted ultra-Orthodox men broad exemptions from military service while maintaining mandatory enlistment for the country\u2019s secular Jewish majority.\u201d The exemption from military service for the ultra-Orthodox Haredim has been a long-term flash-point in Israeli society and the issue has only grown more contentious as the recent campaign in Gaza has dragged on. The Netanyahu regime, which rules in coalition with Haredi parties, fought this ruling tooth and nail, claiming that forcing the Haredim to serve would \u201ctear Israeli society apart.\u201d Many speculate that the ruling will cause the ultra-Orthodox parties to leave Netanyahu\u2019s coalition, which would precipitate the collapse of his government.

7. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, over 20 elder care facilities in the area have closed in just the last few weeks, which this report ascribes to \u201cThe long-term mismanagement of nursing homes by private equity firms,\u201d like the Carlyle Group. Specifically, the paper excoriates how \u201cPrivate equity firms extract money from nursing homes,\u201d using \u201csale-leaseback[s]\u2026selling the land out from under the facilities for lump payments\u2026[meaning] Nursing homes are suddenly forced to pay rent or \u2018management fees\u2019 to occupy facilities they once owned\u2026the same process\u2026that resulted in the bankruptcy of the Red Lobster restaurant chain.\u201d The paper notes that the Biden administration is promulgating a new rule that elder care facilities must disclose their ownership, while acknowledging that \u201cThis will hardly solve the problem, but it will allow families to make informed decisions about their loved ones\u2019 care.\u201d

8. Rumblings suggest Congress may raise the corporate tax rate. POLITICO reports \u201canti-corporate sentiment is running high among increasingly populist-minded Republicans,\u201d and this article quotes Congressman Chip Roy of Texas saying \u201cThere\u2019s a bubbling-up concern that we should not be doing the bidding of corporate America.\u201d Roy is reportedly \u201cconsider[ing] kicking the corporate rate up to 25 percent, from the current 21 percent, if it means being able to extend breaks for individuals and small businesses.\u201d On the Democratic side, Representative Don Beyer said \u201cEvery Democrat thinks the 21 percent corporate rate is far lower than is necessary,\u201d and Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden added \u201cWestern civilization is not going to end if there\u2019s some increase.\u201d

9. The Guardian reports DC area coffee chain Compass Coffee is \u201chiring dozens of friends of management, including other local food service executives and an Uber lobbyist, in an effort to defeat a union election.\u201d Compass Coffee United, the union representing these workers, \u201caccused the coffee chain of hiring 124 additional people at cafes that are attempting to unionize\u2026[and] manipulating worker schedules retroactively to try to make the new employees eligible to vote in the union election.\u201d The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. Senator Bernie Sanders wrote on Twitter \u201cClaiming that a lobbyist from Uber & CEOs from other companies are workers in order to rig a union election is totally absurd & disgusting.\u201d

10. Finally, in more labor news, CNN reports Teamsters President Sean O\u2019Brien will speak at the Republican National Convention. Former President Trump wrote on Truth Social \u201cOur GREAT convention will unify Americans and demonstrate to the nation\u2019s working families they come first\u2026When I am back in the White House, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working Americans, will once again have a country they can afford to live in and be respected around the world.\u201d Trump and O\u2019Brien previously met at Mar-a-Lago in January. According to Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz, \u201cO\u2019Brien\u2019s appearance does not represent an endorsement of Trump,\u201d and \u201cO\u2019Brien has requested the opportunity to also speak at the Democratic National Convention\u2026The DNC has yet to accept that request.\u201d

This has been Francesco DeSantis, with In Case You Haven\u2019t Heard.

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