War Day #263. Musing on: Cuba & the UN

Tuesday, June 25 - Snarky daily war updates from Jerusalem

The world has reached new heights of Orwellian doublethink.

* On Saturday, UN Special Rapporteur and fairly well-established antisemitic voice of the UN Francesca Albanese, accused the Israeli army of using human shields.

https://m.jpost.com/opinion/article-807264

Israelis have gotten pretty used to being unfairly bashed by the UN in general and Albanese in particular, but this latest accusation is particularly galling, since Hamas hides behind its civilians consistently, to the point where Hamas leader Sinwar last week actually said, “Tens of thousands of Gazan civilian deaths are a necessary sacrifice.”

(Yahya Sinwar, Hamas and Gazan leader, quoted in the Wall Street Journal)

Also, I know Francesca is very very busy and has a lot to do, so likely she missed Lebanon’s announcement that it is storing explosives and weapons at the Beirut CIVILIAN airport, including Iranian Falaq missiles, short-range Fatah-110 missiles, M-600 missiles whose range reaches more than 240 km, Cornet-type anti-tank missiles, and a large number of Burkhan ballistic missiles.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/23/hezbollah-stores-large-quantities-iranian-weapons-airport/

Hezbollah had amusingly denied the charges and invited journalists to tour the airport, but the Saudi Al-Hadath channel just reported that the journalists were prevented from entering the air cargo handling center, and then the tour was abruptly suspended, apparently because of the pesky weapons that were in fact there. Ahem.

But no cowering behind civilians from Hamas and Lebanon - it’s Israel we blame!

(Francesca, do you know the word ‘hypocrisy’?)

* In much the same Orwellian vein, Cuba is joining The Hague ICJ genocide case against Israel.

Cuba??????!!!!!!!

Cuba, an authoritarian state, in the US 2022 Department of State report on human rights, was declared guilty of the following human rights violations:

extrajudicial killings by the government; torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of political dissidents, detainees, and prisoners by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detentions; political prisoners; transnational repression against individuals in another country; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media, including violence or threats of violence against journalists, censorship, unjustified arrests or prosecutions of journalists, and enforcement or threat to enforce criminal libel laws to limit expression; serious restrictions on internet freedom; substantial interference with the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental and civil society organizations; severe restrictions on religious freedom; restrictions on freedom of movement and residence within the country and on the right to leave the country; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections; serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence, including femicide; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; and outlawing of independent trade unions. Government officials, at the direction of their superiors, committed numerous human rights abuses. As a matter of policy, officials failed to investigate or prosecute those who committed these abuses. Impunity for the perpetrators remained widespread, as was impunity for official corruption.

But by all means let’s hear what Cuba thinks about Israel.

#PotKettle doesn’t even do it justice.

https://www.state.gov/reports/2022-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cuba/

#NoGoodWords

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