An eventful day: Houthi attack against Tel Aviv, Crowdstrike and another ICJ ruling against Israel
Lots of events from across the world today: from the Houthi drone attack against Tel Aviv through CrowdStrike to the ICJ ruling on illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
After a few quiet days (I was actually planning an article on the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen to the Presidency of the European Commission), today has been quite an eventful day.
So, let’s start chronologically with the Houthi drone attack against Tel Aviv: as reported by Al Mayadeen in their Short News, in the night or early morning of today, 19th July 2024, a drone crashed into a building in Tel Aviv, causing extensive damage. Initially, no aerial breach into Israeli airspace was detected and the sirens were not activated. The breach was so serious that the Israeli “Defense” Forces could not say what caused the explosion and were examining all possibilities, while Tel Aviv mayor declared that the city was on high alert and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cancelled his trip to the Outlaw US Empire! Even after half an hour from the explosion, Israeli security services were unable to determine its cause and were still considering any possible scenario, when they finally claimed that a large drone had approached Tel Aviv at low altitude from the sea, penetrating through all the defense systems and hitting building in Tel Aviv, causing at least one death and 8 casualties. As reported in this Al Mayadeen article, “the explosion occurred on one of Tel Aviv's major streets in a heavily secured area with additional air defenses, including the nearby US embassy”, while Israeli news initially reported that evidence found on the scene suggested the use of an Iranian-made Shahid drone.
However, soon after that, the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) announced that they had just concluded a “special operation” with a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) called Yafa, capable of bypassing enemy anti-air systems, targeting Tel Aviv and that they will continue to escalate until the Israeli aggression and siege on Gaza cease, with Tel Aviv (whose ancient name was Yafa or Jaffa) becoming a main target for Yemeni weapons, as declared by Brigadier General Yahya Saree, the YAF military spokesperson. As reported by Al Mayadeen in their Short News and in this article, Hizam Al-Assad, member of the Yemeni Ansar Allah Political Bureau, later said:
This operation is the first among upcoming escalatory operations.
We have entered a new strategic phase in operations against the enemy.
with Israeli media responding by saying that Israeli “security and military institutions should work to target Yahya Saree in order to restore some deterrence” (according to Al Mayadeen Short News).
As far as I know, this is the first time that the Houthis manage to strike Israel so deep and Tel Aviv, in particular! (Please correct me with a comment, if I am wrong). In any case, it is obvious that the tension between Israel and Yemen is increasing!
Around midday, panic started to creep across the Western world due to a faulty update by computer security company CrowdStrike, which affected computers using Microsoft Windows operating system - those running on Linux and and Mac were unaffected - in airports, hospitals, supermarkets and businesses across the globe, even major banks and electronic payment platforms such as Visa, Id Bank, Bank of America, M&T, Bluebird, Truist, Merrill, Chase, US Bank, Wells Fargo, Charles Schwab and PayPal. I am pretty sure you have heard/read about it from the Western mainstream media (MSM), e.g. CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Sky News and EuroNews.
Now arises a very big dilemma: the sovereignty of a country's data and control over strategic infrastructure. You should be aware, from this article I published a few weeks ago, about the sale of TIM (Telecom Italia Mobile), the main Italian telecommunications company providing mobile, fixed telephony and Internet services, over to KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts), an American global investment company, a US financial fund. When people cried out that this move was a danger to Italy's national security, they were referring precisely to potential problems such as that of CrowdStrike, and to the fact that from one moment to the next they could decide to push a button and shut everything down or create problems due to IT failures. Where does the problem lie? It lies in the fact that it is one thing to be in control of one's own citizens' data and one's own country's infrastructures, and quite another, very serious matter, to be dependent on financial funds from the Outlaw US Empire. Having control of strategic infrastructures means having sovereignty, a word that has been turned into something terrible to be wary of. Instead, sovereignty is that thing that allows a society to be free, to self-determine because it does not depend, at least in crucial matters, on anyone.
This event tells us two things: the first is that states have given the government of their territory to high finance, which decides who lives and who dies; the second is that Italy has one of the most precarious situations in the world. The third, as a solution, is to return to a system where it is politics that dictates the rules, not world finance.
And the funny thing is that Russia is one of the few nations in the world that is not affected by today's IT problems, because of the use of domestic software by major public companies. As explained by the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation, which has not received any reports of system failures at Russian airports (including those of the capital, Moscow: Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo e Zhukovsky):
The situation with Microsoft once again demonstrates the importance of import substitution of foreign software.
And here is what Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said, commenting what happened today with CrowdStrike:
The challenges facing the world are such that can and should be solved only together. Unification of potentials, cooperation, peace, mutual assistance, friendship and respect - these are not clichés, but necessary concepts today. The West has learnt only to destroy and break, to divide and rule, forgetting that this way leads to caliphate for an hour and only exacerbates global problems.
The Russians are even making fun of us in the West with the following meme:
In the background, “the whole world grapples with the Windows problem”. In the foreground, “Russia”, which has long since abandoned Windows.
In the afternoon, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of what Israel is doing in the occupied territories of Palestine, as reported by Al Mayadeen and even by MSM, such as The Guardian, which paused its “live blog” on the Middle East crisis for the last couple of days.
The President of the Court considered that Israel's practices since the occupation in 1967 violate the Palestinians' right to self-determination. He also pointed out that Israel has disregarded its commitments under the 1965 Convention on racial discrimination, and the relocation of settlers to the West Bank and East Jerusalem is condemned for the umpteenth time because it contradicts Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.
The Court also reiterated that the exploitation of the natural resources of the occupied Palestinian territories is illegal because it contradicts international law and obligations. In this regard, it must be remembered that, among others, BP (British Petroleum), a British multinational oil and gas company, and ENI (Ente nazionale idrocarburi), an Italian multinational energy company, in which the Italian government has a stake, obtained licences from the Israeli government to explore gas fields off the shores of Gaza at the end of 2023, as reported in this Reuters article. In particular in Area G, where 62% falls within the maritime boundaries declared by the State of Palestine in 2019 in accordance with the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). So, BP and, through ENI, the Italian government are making themselves complicit in the theft of Palestinians' natural resources. It is not only endorsing genocide, but also colonialist theft!
This demonstrates what Israel is and how Western governments and multinational energy and oil & gas companies are making a mockery of international law.
And here is the Court's final pronouncement:
The Court concludes that Israel, as an occupying power, treats the Palestinians differently under international law. The Court notes that this differentiation in treatment cannot be justified by reference to reasonable and objective criteria, nor to a legitimate public objective. Accordingly, the Court finds that the regime of generalised restrictions imposed by Israel on Palestinians in the occupied territories constitutes systematic discrimination based on race, religion or ethnic origin.
Netanyahu cancelled his trip to the Outlaw US Empire!
Ha, result! These Yemenis are scoring goal after goal lately 🤩
Very good round-up Ismaele, thanks.