Outrage: Greed And Power Junkies

by Dr. Stephen Frantz

Here we’re talking about the corporations, governments, and individuals with a compulsive habit or obsessive dependency on an intense and selfish desire for wealth [greed] and the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events [power]. In Israel’s war against the Palestinians, there are many dark players, many interacting with one another in order to maximize the killing, maiming, starving, hypothermia, water deprivation, illness and/or psychologically destroying Palestinian men, women and children. More than 45,581 Palestinians have been murdered in Gaza, mostly unarmed civilian women and children; more than 108,000 wounded; (800 killed in the West Bank); 190 reporters and media workers killed and doctors and medical staff with 3-4 times greater chance of being killed compared to other civilians.  Countless Palestinians are buried in bombed-out rubble and in the IDF’s mass graves. Be well aware that these are not just numbers, they are fathers, mothers, babies, children and grandparents; many of whom will never see or hold  one another again. Please do not just say the words, internalize it all. As Pope Francis recently stated in condemning Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This Is Cruelty. This Is Not War.”

-Pope Francis-

The Junkies

Some of the greed and power junkies below will be familiar, others not; the point is that at this very base level people can influence the course of war by: boycotting products; protesting at manufacturing and distribution sites; blockading entry to facilities; and especially at all government facilities. We should also address the core of the arms issue, the Biden/Harris Administration and the US Congress that have given Israel a greenlight to do what it wants and has provided the means overtly and covertly. It has been said many times in many places, without US support Israel could not continue its genocidal war against Palestinians. It is clear that Israel is conducting genocide, ethnic cleansing and an annexation of Gaza.

One of the best sources of information on corporate involvement comes from the American Friends Service Committee. Supporting Israel with arms, through known and obfuscated means represents a form of corporate welfare [greed] not only for major weapons manufacturers which have seen their stock prices skyrocket (e.g., Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing, and General Dynamics); but also for companies that may not typically be seen as part of the weapons industry (e.g., Caterpillar, Ford, and Toyota). Please read the AFSC article to review the grim details of involvement; the list below is not exhaustive.

• AGROVIRONMENT 

• AGILITE 

• AIMPOINT AB 

• AM GENERAL 

• BAE SYSTEMS 

• BOING 

• CATERPILLAR 

• COLT’S MFG. CO. 

• CORSIGHT AI 

• DAY & ZIMMERMANN 

• DJI 

• ELBIT SYSTEMS 

• EMTAN KARMIEL 

• FLYER DEFENSE 

• FORD 

• GENERAL DYNAMICS 

• GENERAL ELECTRIC 

• GENERAL MOTORS 

• GHOST ROBOTICS 

• GOOGLE/ALPHABET 

• HONEYWELL INTERNATIONAL, INC 

• HUNDAI HEAVY INDUSTRIES 

• INFINIDOME 

• ISRAEL AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES 

• JC BAMFORD EXCAVATORS LTD 

• L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES 

• LEONARDO, LEOPOLD & STEVENS 

• LOCKHEED MARTIN 

• MDT ARMOOR (SHLADOT) 

• MERCEDES-BENZ GROUP AG 

• NEXT VISION 

• NORDIC AMMUNITION CO. (NAMM0) 

• NORTHROP GRUMMAN 

• OSHKOSH

• PALANTIR TECHNOLOGIES

• PAZ OIL

• PLASAN

• RAFAEL ADVANCED DEFENSE SYSTEMS

• RENK GROUP

• RHEINMETALL AG

• ROLLS-ROYCE HOLDINGS PLC

• RTX (formerly RAYTHEON)

• SHEILD AI, SK GROUP

• SKYDIO

• SMARTSHOOTER

• SPEARUAV

• TEXTRON

• THYSSENKRUPP

• TOYOTA

• VALERO ENERGY CORP.

• WOODWARD

• XTEND

  
  

There are also companies that provide shipping/logistics and arms transfers, including:

• Atlas Air - Purchase, NY

• CAL Cargo Airlines - Shoham, Israel

• Kalitta Air - Ypsilanti, MI

• National Airlines - Orlando, FL

• Western Global Airlines - Estero, FL

• Hoplite Group - Destin, FL

• Sigmatech Inc - Huntsville, AL

• Overseas Shipholding Group - Tampa, FL

All of the above companies are involved in multifarious ways in the manufacturing and/or providing surveillance and arms, in cooperation with the US government, to murder Palestinians… all in order to try to satiate their desire of power and greed.  Unfortunately, this makes all of us in the US complicit to genocide in Gaza.

“The international community’s seismic, shameful failure for over a year to press Israel to end its atrocities in Gaza, by first delaying calls for a ceasefire and then continuing arms transfers, is and will remain a stain on our collective conscience.”

Agnés Callamard, Amnesty International

AGAINST THE STORM

Speaking of Congress, an unprecedented lawsuit has been made by group of more than 600 Northern California constituents of Democrat Reps. Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman. This class action lawsuit argues that the ‘lawmakers’ illegally forced them into complicity with Israel's genocidal annihilation of Gaza. That is, when the ‘lawmakers’ voted to send more arms to Israel, they violated the US Constitution, the Genocide Convention, the Leahy Law, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the Arms Export Control Act and other federal and international laws.

In different pro-Palestinian actions— in other countries. Whereas numerous Israeli soldiers have posted videos to various social media outlets boasting of their atrocities, such videos enable human rights organizations to build a legal case.16  War crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide may be investigated and prosecuted. Based on the extraterritoriality principle in Article 7 of the Brazilian Penal Code, Brazil has jurisdiction to investigate criminal offenses committed abroad when they arise from international treaties and the perpetrator enters Brazilian territory.”  In this case the courts were very interested in a 21-yr old Israeli soldier-tourist vacationing in Brazil who was alleged to have committed crimes against humanity. However, Israeli intelligence quietly smuggled him out of Brazil to avoid prosecution.

Apparently, a similar case is unfolding in Chile, where attorneys have filed a case against a member of Israel’s combat engineering battalion who allegedly committed actions that violate the Geneva Convention and constitute war crimes and genocide. The case is ongoing.

These lawsuits makes a clear case for the moral revulsion that so many Americans feel about the culpability of the US government (and, consequently, its citizens). If many such lawsuits and arrest warrants could be initiated simultaneously in many states and many countries (that have the backbone to honor the ICC ruling) it might just influence the behavior of the US Congress and the Israeli’s as well. Whatever works to reduce the slaughter becomes humanely and immediately applicable.

Of significant note is that the oldest learned association in the US, the American Historical Association, has passed a resolution condemning Israel’s ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza. The resolution passed with a landslide vote 428-88 at the AHA’s annual conference. They said that Israel’s campaign will extinguish the future study of Palestinian history. The IDF has purposely erased schools, universities, archives, libraries, cultural centers, museums, bookstores, heritage sites, mosques and churches. The resolution called for a permanent ceasefire to halt the documented scholasticide and vowed to “form a committee to assist in rebuilding Gaza’s educational infrastructure.”

There is also some hope from more than 250 humanitarian and human rights groups calling for a boycott of weapons transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups.19  The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned of the “heightened risk of atrocity crimes” being committed in Gaza and called on all UN Member States to stop fueling the crisis. The 251 organizations signing-on are detailed in the article.

When this war does end, it’s important to remember that the UN Agency for Development (UNDP) has estimated it will cost US$40 to $50 billion to rebuild Gaza and require an effort on a scale the world has not seen since World War II. The UN has also recognized “the need for the establishment of an international mechanism for reparation for all damage, loss or injury arising from the internationally wrongful acts of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Unfortunately, this may be falsely premised on assuming Israel (power + greed) intends to allow Gaza to be rebuilt.

MORE

On 27 Dec 2024 the IDF sadistically attacked and largely destroyed the Kamal Adwan Hospital, it had been the last functioning hospital in northern Gaza. The Hospital Director, Dr.Hussam Abu Safiyia, was arrested by IDF soldiers, stripped naked, beaten and taken to Sde Teiman a military base & prison camp (AKA: notorious torture center) in the Negev dessert. While there is a nascent group of Israelis and many students internationally who remain pro-Palestinian, they are all being repressed by government or administrative bodies. We must ask, are most Israelis, Americans and nearly everyone else in the world guilty of turning a blind eye and deaf ear, or do they simply not want want to know, or don’t they care?

EXPOSURE

On 20 Dec 2024, the New York Times published a surprisingly candid article (not overshadowed by typical Israeli propaganda.

This article details interviews with many IDF commanders, soldiers and Palestinian victims.  Something that stood out was the discussion of the IDF’s reliance on “models”, “formulae”, “algorithms” and AI for choosing kill targets (power), as if the war is some big video game!  It becomes clear that Palestinian lives are not viewed as valuable as Israeli lives. The American Joint Special Operations Command and the Israeli command act with impunity  (power + greed) as they ultimately ignore internationally recognized rules of engagement.  It basically surmises that if you are an IDF soldier, you act as a ‘god’ with regard to any Palestinian in front of you, that is, you determine if they will live or die.  What is missing from the article are precursors for the Oct 7, 2023 incursion by Hamas and other militant groups, that is, 141 years of ever increasing humiliation, dispossession, occupation and oppression of Palestinians by Israelis (power + greed). Not mentioned is the Nakba of 1948 during which more than 750,000 Palestinians were driven out of what today is Israel before and during the war surrounding its creation. Thus the NYT came through with some truths… but not all.

Meanwhile, while Israel refuses to honestly work with various international organizations to strike a deal to end the war (= permanent ceasefire; end the occupation; hostages released; Palestinian hostages returned from Israeli prisons; and begin restoration of previously occupied territories), Netanyahu continues to push the war effort in order to protect his own political career and protect himself from prosecution— that war he pushes (power) will result in more hostage deaths because hostages are suffering from Israeli actions just like Palestinians.

“ONLY PEOPLE POWER CAN OVERCOME MONEY POWER”

Ian Masters, KPFK  Radio