“Complete hypocrisy”: US continues to serve Israel as fear of Middle East conflict grows

Tensions in the Middle East are growing as Israel anticipates a retaliatory attack from Iran in response to the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh. The US has expressed their full support of Israel and approved an $18.82 billion sale of 50 F-15IA multirole fighter jets and other related equipment to the Israeli government, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said on Tuesday.

“It’s complete hypocrisy. The US spokespeople say they’re working tirelessly for a ceasefire. They, the US is providing the weaponry that's causing this genocide, that's being used in this genocide. So, the US could have ended this, this genocide on day one or any time since then by simply telling Israel no more money, no more weapons,” said Robert Fantina, an author, journalist, and activist who joined Sputnik’s The Backstory on Wednesday to discuss the growing tensions in the Middle East.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas Political Bureau member, said in an interview that the US is no longer being seen as a reliable negotiator who is capable of bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza, Sputnik also reported on Wednesday. The bureau member added that Hamas no longer sees Israel as negotiating in good faith and that they believe the Biden administration can no longer influence Israel to make a deal.

“Netanyahu knows he would not win in another election,” Fantina added. “So, he wants to stay in power, he wants to stay out of prison and in order to do that he has to appease these right-wing zealots in his cabinet.”

“Israel is interested in fostering more war in the area, getting more support from the US, eliminating any potential rivals in the Middle East, whether that's military rivals or economic rivals. And, Iran is their chief rival for power influence in the Middle East. So if Israel can foment a war with Iran, knowing that the US will come to its defense, well, that's in Israel's best interest as a rogue and pariah state,” said Fantina.

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"Absolutely complete bull feces, cockamamie cover-up story" by German authorities - analyst

International relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program to discuss the latest developments in the Western proxy war on Russia as well as the sabotage of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as German prosecutors claim to have identified a suspect for the crime.

“The German news that broke is pretty interesting,” said Sleboda, referring to the German government’s release of the name of a supposed suspect behind the sabotage of the Russo-German Nord Stream Pipeline in 2022.

The German government has claimed an amateur Ukrainian scuba diver by the name of “Volodymyr Z” is responsible for the explosion that blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that formerly transported cheap natural gas from Russia to Europe.

“This Volodymyr Z – according to German privacy laws, the full name is not released… this is the absolutely complete bull feces, cockamamie cover-up story that the United States and Germany have centered on,” the analyst emphasized.

“They can’t admit that the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipelines because that would mean the end of NATO,” Sleboda added. “It would be a member of NATO attacking a member of NATO. They can’t admit that. So they came up with this.”

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Zombie ‘Russiagate’ conspiracy persists as US stokes fear, hatred of Moscow

“Russiagate continues to survive like a science fiction monster, resilient to bullets,” writes former CIA analyst Ray McGovern in a piece on Consortium News, noting the longevity and usefulness of the conspiracy in continuing to stoke hostility towards Moscow among the American public.

The notion that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election or played a role in hacking leaked Democratic Party emails has persisted even after sworn testimony from the cyber security firm CrowdStrike confirmed the lack of evidence for the claim.

“The mainstream media has been incredibly adept at suppressing all this stuff,” McGovern noted on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program. “No matter what we write in Consortium News or other outlets – it's on antiwar .com now, too – or however much you and I share this information, we're fighting an uphill battle.”

“Why is this important? Just to remind folks who might not reflect on this, Russia has been demonized to the point where Donald Trump has been blamed on the Russians – think what you will of that,” he continued.

“And all kinds of other things have been blamed on the Russians to the point where if these not very emotionally stable people in the White House decide to go after the Russians in Ukraine or even get involved against the Russians in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East, most of the American people say, ‘oh yeah, those damn Russians, didn't they give us Donald Trump?’”

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'They need a scapegoat': US favored Japanese leader to step down

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has announced his plans to step down as leader of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). The move comes after Kishida's sinking approval ratings, which follow a corruption scandal surrounding the party, as well as rising living costs and a weakening yen, Sputnik reported.

“Japan has been a one-party state since that period. And so, to casually dismiss that is nonsense. But, what it does show is that they do need a scapegoat. Japan's economy is crashing. It's going the way of Germany or the UK. And so, they need a scapegoat,” said peace activist, writer, and teacher, K.J. Noh who joined Sputnik's The Critical Hour on Wednesday.

In November, Kishida had reportedly taken drastic action to replace top members of his cabinet following voter anger in response to a fundraising proceeds scandal. Lawmakers in Japan’s ruling party had been accused of underreporting funds with over 100 million yen ($680,000) of fundraising proceeds failing to be officially reported on.

“And then on top of that, when the US forced Japan, as a member of the G7, to stop importing oil and natural gas from Russia, that put an even greater impact on an already ailing economy. And so, they need a scapegoat for this economic collapse. And so, Kishida is on his way out,” Noh added. “He's going to fall on his sword and they're going to put in somebody who's essentially a clone.”

“Japan is yet another sacrifice zone in the US global economic war against China. It's essentially a bumper, a crash test dummy,” the educator said.

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