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Welcome back to Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, where we bring you news, politics and culture - without the red and blue treatment. I am John Kiriakou here with Michelle Witte.
The United Nations confirmed yesterday that one Vietnamese and two Filipino seamen were killed by a Houthi rocket fired at the Barbados-flagged and Greek-owned ship on which they were working in the Gulf of Aden. The ship was heavily damaged and the crew abandoned it. These are the first fatalities caused by Yemeni attacks on commercial shipping. The Houthi government says that it will continue to attack commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden until hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians cease. // We told you that Israeli War Cabinet member and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz was in Washington earlier this week. Well, today he’s in London to meet with senior British officials, who, by all accounts, told Gantz that the Israelis have to stop killing Palestinian civilians, allow emergency food aid into Gaza, and cease the establishment of illegal Jewish settlements on Palestinian land. Don’t hold your breath in advance of any action on the British complaints. // The South African government is asking the International Court of Justice to act quickly in the shadow of what is turning out to be mass starvation in Gaza. The US and its allies have airdropped enough food for only 34,000 people over the past week, while at least a million are starving. The World Food Programme said again yesterday that the food crisis in Gaza is of historic proportions and is utterly man-made, caused by the Israeli government simply not allowing food, water, and medical supplies into the area. // The OPCW has finally confirmed whistleblower reports from several years ago indicating that the 2015 chemical attack in Marea, Syria was carried out by the Islamic State and not by the Syrian government. The United States, the UK, and other western countries blamed Syria for killing its own people, and used that accusation as reason to attack and occupy parts of the country. // The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that Ukraine has sent special forces to Sudan, of all places, to fight Russians there. Elements of the Russian military have been in Sudan to fight alongside Sudanese rebels, and Ukraine calculates that it can work to bog the Russians down if it fights them outside of Ukraine. Ukrainian government officials haven’t explained how that’s a winning strategy when it is consistently ceding territory to the Russian military in eastern Ukraine.
We are joined by international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda.
Questions:
Thanks for joining us, Mark. Let’s start with the situation in the Gulf of Aden. Ansar Allah, also known as Yemen’s Houthis, launched an attack two days ago on a Greek commercial ship, killing three crewmen and seriously injuring two others. The ship is sinking. These are the first deaths attributed to Houthi attacks on commercial shipping. We all get what the Houthis are trying to do. But attacking non-belligerents, attacking civilians, is just going to get a lot of innocent people killed and it’s going to invite retaliation from the west that’s going to get even more innocent people killed. Why continue with this policy, especially when it’s having no positive effect for the Palestinians?
Israeli War Cabinet member Benny Gantz is in London, and he’s not getting much in the way of support, either from the US earlier in the week or from the British now. Do you have a sense for whether Gantz made this trip on his own or at the behest of Benjamin Netanyahu? What, if anything, has the trip accomplished? And what do you think Gantz wanted to go home with?
The food situation in Gaza is worsening by the day, with starvation becoming widespread. US food drops are only symbolic and are doing nothing to alleviate the overall situation. We mentioned yesterday that Democracy Now reported that Palestinians are eating dogs and cats. We heard several weeks ago that people were eating grass to stay alive. The World Food Programme can’t warn the public in any stronger terms that this is a disaster unfolding. Why isn’t anything significant being done to help? And what could be done in the near term?
The South African government has filed a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice demanding that the Court intervene in what it calls the genocidal starvation of the Palestinian people. Can the ICJ actually do something here? Or is this, for lack of a better term, window dressing?
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, has finally formally and officially confirmed Aaron Mate’s 2015 reporting that the chemical weapons attack against civilians in Marea, Syria was carried out by ISIS, or the Islamic State, rather than by the government of Bashar al-Asad. Several OPCW whistleblowers said the same thing in 2017. But western governments used the Asad trope as a reason to attack and partially occupy Syria. Now that the truth is finally out and confirmed, will it matter in any way?
Tell us what we’re seeing in Sudan in terms of hostilities between Ukrainian and Russian troops there. This seems to me–and I am in no way a military analyst–to be a very stupid idea on the part of the Ukrainians. If they can’t defend their own territory, then why in the world would they want to fight the Russians a quarter of the way around the world? What do they hope to accomplish?
A Popular Israeli Minister’s Meeting in London Sends a Message to Netanyahu - The New York TimesMiddle East Crisis: Houthis Claim Lethal Attack on Commercial Ship Near Yemen - The New York Times
OPCW identifies ISIL as perpetrators of 2015 chemical attack in Marea, Syria
Ukraine Is Now Fighting Russia in Sudan - WSJPutin the only winner as Poland’s Tusk flounders over Ukraine border fight – POLITICO
Houthis strike US-owned ship, killing two — RT World News
Biden announces new method of delivering aid to Gaza — RT World News
Benny Gantz's visit to Washington shows change in Israel-US strategy - The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)
Israel’s Gantz concludes ‘unauthorized’ visit to UK (aa.com.tr)
A Popular Israeli Minister’s Meeting in London Sends a Message to Netanyahu - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Israel Must Let More Aid Into Gaza, U.K. Tells Israeli Official - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
Britain to warn Israel's Gantz over famine in Gaza | Reuters
Netanyahu allies lash out at Benny Gantz over Washington trip (ft.com)
Evidence mounts that Ukrainian forces are in Sudan (economist.com)
Ukrainian special forces ‘in Sudan operating against Russian mercenaries’ | Sudan | The Guardian
By bombing Yemen, the west risks repeating its own mistakes | Mohamad Bazzi | The Guardian
The Costs the Houthis Are Poised to Inflict on the Global Economy | TIME
Biden announces new method of delivering aid to Gaza — RT World News
Houthi Attacks on Israeli/Western Shipping in Red Sea Continue & Claim First Casualties, Benny Gantz's Western Genocide Tour, Gaza Starving, Ukrainians Fight Wagner in Sudan, more...