by Stephen Lendman

Weeks after Israeli's March 17 elections, Netanyahu and four other extremist political parties formed a new coalition government - barely with 61 of 120 Knesset seats.

Bar-Ilan University Professor Eytan Gilboa calls it "a big political mess…Nobody in his right mind believes that this will hold for even a short time."

Coalition partners include:

● Netanyahu's hard-right Likud (30 MKs)

● Naftali Bennett's pro-settler Habayit Hayehudi (8MKs);

● two far-right religious parties - Shas (7 MKs) and United Torah Judaism (6 MKs); and

● Moshe Kahlon's right-wing Kulanu party (10 MKs).

Yisrael Beiteinu party head Avigdor Lieberman refused to join Netanyahu's co alition. It's not extremist enough for him. It didn't annihilate Hamas.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

It's hard remembering how many times Obama pledged full support for Israel - at the same time spurning Palestinian rights. He's done nothing to help them throughout his tenure.

He partnered with Netanyahu's genocidal Gaza war last summer. He supported mass slaughtering noncombatant men, women and children.

He's waging multiple regional direct and proxy wars. He doesn't give a damn about Arab lives and welfare.

At the same time, when asked last March if he'd back Palestinian statehood, he said he wouldn't rule it out.

"We're going to do that evaluation," he added. "We're going to partly wait for an actual Israeli government to form."

So-called reassessment has nothing to do with compromising strong US/Israeli relations. Washington is fully committed to its security.

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen believes Washington may no longer veto Security Council resolutions condemning Israeli settlement construction.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

May 7 general elections approach. Britain is like America. It's all over before polls open. Monied interests win every time.

Ordinary people lose out more than ever in modern memory. It shows in opinion polls.

Only 16% of voters trust politicians. Why anyone besides well-off Brits do they'll have to explain.

It doesn't matter who wins on Thursday. Torries and New Labour are even in polls. They're like Republicans and Democrats in America - two sides of the same coin, not a dime's worth of difference between them.

Neither major party is expected to win a majority. Expect coalition government with smaller parties to follow. They largely support the same regressive policies.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

On Thursday, John Kerry met his Saudi counterpart in high crimes against peace Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh.

They proposed what they called a 5-day humanitarian pause after weeks of US-orchestrated/Saudi-led terror-bombing - including against civilian neighborhoods, refugee camps, schools, hospitals, food storage areas, power facilities and other vital infrastructure.

Their proposal combines PR duplicity with strings. It requires Houthis to lay down their arms and stop fighting.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

Imagine nuclear weapons in the hands of a rogue state waging direct and proxy aggression on its neighbors at its discretion.

Ruling Saudi family dictatorship thugs run things. Decapitations and public whippings are routine.

So are imprisoning people for their political beliefs, torture, state-sponsored assassinations and disappearances, as well as blanket denial of fundamental human and civil rights.

Imagine a regime this ruthless with nukes. Lunatics influencing policy claim a nonexistent Iranian nuclear threat.

Full story »

Eric Zuesse

The Obama-proposed international-trade deals, if passed into law, will lead to "a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots,” says Alfred De Zayas, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order.

These two mammoth trade-pacts, one (TTIP) for Atlantic nations, and the other (TTP) for Pacific nations excluding China (since Obama is against China), would transfer regulations of corporations to corporations themselves, and away from democratically elected governments. Regulation of working conditions and of the environment, as well as of product-safety including toxic foods and poisonous air and other consumer issues, would be placed into the hands of panels whose members will be appointed by large international corporations. Their decisions will remove the power of democratically elected governments to control these things. “Red tape” that’s imposed by elected national governments would be eliminated — replaced by the international mega-corporate version.

Full story »

By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers,

Freddie Gray

The announcement by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby that the six officers involved in the murder of Freddie Gray will be prosecuted was welcomed with cheers at City Hall and in Freddie Gray’s community, car horns were honked in celebration. The welcome announcement is a first step toward justice for the family of Freddie Gray and a hopeful beginning for the kind of accountability that has been missing in Baltimore when it comes to police violence.

This would probably not have occurred without an urban revolt in Baltimore. We won’t know if it was the mass protest marches of thousands of people or the anger boiling over into rage that led to property damage or both that pressured leadership to press charges. We do know that the week after Freddie Gray’s death, Baltimore police were harassing students at the Mondawmin Mall, making unnecessary arrests of students waiting for their buses. On Monday, the day of Freddie’s funeral, police diverted buses from the mall because of Internet rumors, making it impossible for students to go home. Dressed in full riot gear, police created an escalated situation that began the so-called riots. The previous night, conflicts between baseball fans and protesters had erupted into violence.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

"Breaking the Silence is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories."

They recount disturbing experiences Israel wants suppressed - horrific crimes of war and against humanity including mass murdering civilians "excused as military necessities, or explained as extreme and unique cases." Truth is polar opposite. Israel operates lawlessly. Killing, persecuting, ill-treating or otherwise harming Palestinians is longstanding practice.

No Israeli commander or government official was ever prosecuted for horrific high crimes demanding accountability.

Full story »

Eric Zuesse

Both conservative and liberal ‘news’ media misrepresent U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed international trade-deals as if they were about only such things as lowering tariffs and reducing national trade-protectionism — which are relatively minor surface-features of these huge proposed treaties: TTIP with Europe, TPP with Asia, and TISA (Trade in Services Agreement). All of these proposed Obama trade-deals are actually about transferring to panels of international corporations the powers that currently reside in the various individual nations’ regulatory and legal authorities — i.e., that reside in the democratic governments that are accountable to the population that elected them instead of to the few global billionaires who control the international corporations.

Full story »

by Stephen Lendman

Ukraine is a US-installed Nazi-infested fascist police state. Press freedom is banned. Criticizing government policy risks arrest, torture, imprisonment or death.

Last year, independent journalist/RT International stringer Graham Phillips received death threats. Right Sector thugs put a $10,000 bounty on his head.

He was maliciously called a Russian spy. He was arrested, held incommunicado. Later freed, he's lucky to be alive.

So are Russian journalists Oleg Sidyankin and Marat Saichenko. They were detained several days, brutally treated and threatened with death.

Full story »