Author: Brett Wilkins

As U.S. forces on Friday launched intense airstrikes against Syria and Iraq in retaliation for this week’s deadly drone strike on an American outpost in Jordan, scores of advocacy groups urged President Joe Biden to avoid a wider Mideast war by pressing Israel for a cease-fire in Gaza.

According to U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), American warplanes struck Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and “affiliated militia groups” in Syria and Iraq – countries that have suffered various degrees of U.S. bombardment since 2014 and 1991, respectively.

This, after U.S. and U.K.-led airstrikes last month targeted Houthi fighters in Yemen amid attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

Continue reading “As Biden Bombs Syria and Iraq, 80 Groups Push Gaza Cease-Fire to Avert Wider War”

Undaunted after spending nearly a month behind bars for his conscientious objection to Israel’s war on Gaza, 18-year-old refusenik Tal Mitnick on Tuesday reported for an additional 30 days of military detention.

As Common Dreams reported last month, Mitnick entered the Tel Hashomer enlistment center on December 27 with other members of the Mesarvot Network – a group of young conscientious objectors – and announced his refusal to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), citing the war on Gaza and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

Continue reading “In ‘Solidarity With the Innocent in Gaza,’ Israeli Refusenik Gets 30 More Days in Prison”

UPDATE: On Tuesday night the Senate voted down the Sanders resolution by a vote of 72-11.

Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he will force a Senate floor vote this week on a resolution that would suspend aid to Israel if the U.S. State Department fails to report on how Israeli weapons – many of them supplied by the United States – are being used in Gaza.

Appearing on CNN‘s “State of the Union,” Sanders (I-Vt.) told host Jake Tapper that he will force a Tuesday evening vote on his resolution, which is based on Section 502B(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, legislation empowering Congress to “request information on a particular country’s human rights practices and to alter or terminate U.S. security assistance to that country in light of the information received.”

Continue reading “Sanders to Force Senate Vote on Probing Israeli War Crimes”

ChatGPT maker OpenAI this week quietly removed language from its usage policy that prohibited military use of its technology, a move with serious implications given the increase use of artificial intelligence on battlefields including Gaza.

ChatGPT is a free tool that lets users enter prompts to receive text or images generated by AI.The Intercept‘s Sam Biddle reported Friday that prior to Wednesday, OpenAI’s permissible uses page banned “activity that has high risk of physical harm, including,” specifically, “weapons development” and “military and warfare.”

Continue reading “OpenAI Cuts ‘Military and Warfare’ Ban From Permissible Use Policy”

The Anti-Defamation League came under fire Wednesday after publishing a report that significantly expanded the group’s definition of antisemitic incidents to include demonstrations against Israel’s U.S.-backed genocidal war on Gaza.

“For the first time, the ADL is counting pro-Palestinian rallies that do not feature overt hostility toward Jews in its count of antisemitic incidents,” Jewish Daily Forward antisemitism reporter Arno Rosenfeld noted on social media in response to the organization’s new report, which lists what it claims are 3,283 anti-Jewish occurrences in the United States in the three months after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left more than 1,100 Israelis and others dead and over 200 others taken hostage.

Continue reading “ADL Report Decried for Equating Anti-Zionism With Antisemitism”