Western media and politicians are now firmly coalesced around the Israeli government narrative. Israel is unwillingly fighting a war of self-defence in Gaza after hostilities were commenced by aggressive Hamas military attack. The storming of Al Aqsa mosque, the shooting at people in prayer, the right wing mobs attacking East Jerusalem, the Krystallnacht style destruction of Palestinian businesses and lynching of Arab Israelis, none of that ever happened at all. What happened was that Hamas launched a missile war and Israel was obliged, ever so reluctantly, to exercise its right of self defence, with enormous care not to hit civilians, except that, entirely accidentally, the IDF has killed a couple of hundred civilians including scores of children.
Palestinians die in the passive voice in western media. The media always says they “have died”; they were never “killed”, and there is virtually never any attribution of the death. By contrast, Israelis are active voice “killed by Hamas” or “killed by missile strikes”. Look out for this journalistic sophistry – once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
I used to be a firm opponent of missile strikes from Gaza. My view was firstly, that they cannot be militarily targeted so constitute an attack on civilians, secondly that they were a gift to Israeli propaganda, and thirdly that they were militarily ineffective. All of those remain true, and yet my view has changed and I find myself celebrating the fact that Hamas has, against all odds, managed to acquire more and better missiles. Part of that change of view is that I have come to see that there is no such thing as an innocent adult coloniser. But the bigger part is that I cannot see what on earth else the Palestinians are supposed to do.
Western politicians obviously believe that the Palestinians should accept apartheid quietly, and should have the good grace silently to wither away. The ultra-venal leaders of the majority of Arab states also wish the Palestinians would just die and allow them to enjoy the lavish personal benefits of their new alliances with Israel. It is absolutely plain there is no political process of any kind in train to alleviate the Palestinian plight, that even those “liberal” western politicians who floated the idea of a “two state solution” meant, at best, internationally recognised apartheid and bantustans. Joe Biden manages the remarkable feat of being still more zionist than Donald Trump.
Were I a Palestinian, I should undoubtedly have concluded that for an entire nation to turn the other cheek to a power which is seriously intent on genocide, is not a viable policy. Military resistance may seem hopeless, but sometimes to attempt to live with a shout of defiance and an effort to fight is the only dignified option remaining to a human.
It was a beautiful day in Glasgow yesterday for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Committee demo, and it was great to be able to meet up again with so many magnificent and public-spirited people. It was an especially young crowd, which was excellent, and I was able to meet many Palestinians who drew comfort from the public support at a traumatic time.
Watching Mick Napier very much in charge of events, I was struck by the thought that there are so many really excellent and altruistic people who put their heart and entire lives into good causes for very little credit. Mick has been involved with SPSC as long as I can remember, has won important court victories in Scotland against ridiculous definitions of anti-semitism, and I have seen him at vigils on cold wet nights with a dozen people there. It made me realise how many Mick Napiers I have had the great privilege to know. We must not take the good-hearted for granted.
———————————————
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The US, EU and UK want the resistance to end so they can go back to pretending Palestinians don’t exist and that Israel is a state to be singled out to be Friends with. “Please protest peacefully so we don’t have to acknowledge you exist….”
“you wasted your chance to elect a genuine non-metropolitan elite, non-Blairite, nonThatcher Lite, working class WOMAN”
OK, whom do you want Labour members to elect as party leader?
The BBC trumpets that ‘Joe Biden now supports a cease fire in Ghaza’. We are being bamboozled with shiners and the pretence that the US has not just failed to support such terms, for the third time, at the UN security council session.
This disgraceful faking of news is a disgrace to a public broadcaster doing the bidding of politicians who are actively supporting Israel’s military onslaught with delaying their actions.
All arm sales and or deliveries to this abusive Zionist regime occupying Palestine should be halted, dockworkers should refuse to tally or shift arms and munitions deemed for delivery to this regime and or third party supporters of it.
Time to stop the illegalities in East Jerusalem, return the Golan to its rightful owner and start reversing settlements taken by forced.
I am appalled that politicians/ police support violence by right wing civilians against Arab citizens and that elected MPs like crybaby Jendrick are using the same kind of language here to make anti Zionism, a nasty political ideology, illegal.
Shame on them all, for they are prolonging the agony business they are engaging in, denying their own and other people a peaceful future in Palestine, by being inhuman and nasty. Balfour is weeping in his grave.
Here is an excellent analysis of the situation that arose in Palestine.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/may/18/a-jewish-case-for-palestinian-refugee-return
It outlines how there is a total inequality and non-equivalence between how Israel came about, the right of Jews to ‘return’ based on biblical promises whilst denying the same rights to those who were deliberately made homeless. Incidentally the article’s logical conclusion is that the only solution will be a single state of Palestine with all its inhabitants having equal rights.
As I said above SA it seems to be a rushed fig leaf to cover their blushes (Whiner and co) and it is not open to comments.
Please check that and other eminently reasonable journalism at the original site
https://jewishcurrents.org/
There’s no point in whining about the messenger. This is an excellent article, with a detailed history of the Nakba and the absurd, inhumane, hypocritical exceptionalism of Israel. It deserves widespread dissemination, many people have no idea of the ruthless barbarism which started the conflict.
I agree the article is brilliant.
BUT. It in no way represents the Guardians ‘Opinion’ which is anti Palestinian and Pro Zionist – a supporter of BoD and detractor of Corbyn by their stinking stable of presstitute opinion formers.
By all means read the original article and many others at the original site – that the Groan has grabbed this from – to hide behind as the deaths and destruction are fully supported by them, as is Biden, nothing is said about the attack on Journalists in Gaza, why should they? Having started the attack on journalism IN-HOUSE decades ago, they are just as complicit as every Zionist nationalist imperialist fantasy they have supported since …forever
Shoot the poisonous wormtongued messenger as soon as it comes within range – rather then risk being corrupted by it – that is MY opinion.
Very well said.
The Guardian moderators delete posts that are critical of Israel almost immediately. It’s a disgrace of a publication.
Witness too, PMQs today. Starmer had nothing to say about what’s going on in Gaza but went to great lengths to highlight that anti-S attacks would not be tolerated. Not a word about the dead in Gaza or the bombing of press facilities there. Not a word.
An interesting article alright but like many such articles it doesn’t cover the fact that for many Jewish settlers in Palestine this is by no means a “return to the land of their ancestors” as for a great many, probably the majority, their ancestors never came from this part of the world at all, they descend from people who converted to Judaism over the centuries. The expulsion of all Jews from their land by the Romans is a myth and limited to a minority of the wealthy and particularly motivated or who the Romans particularly wanted to expel, Many of the Jews who rebelled were massacred by the Romans but in the countryside the peasant population would almost certainly have done as peasants have always done, go along with the stronger, covert to whatever religion was imposed and carry on digging the land.
Some of the early founders of Israel, Moshe Dayan for example, thought that many of the Palestinians were descended from the Jews and this would facilitate conciliation although they stopped referring to this afterwards apparently. This aspect of the question of Palestine is covered in detail in books by Shlomo Sand who teaches history at Tel Aviv University.
Response to Bruce H:
It doesn’t really matter in this context because 2000-year old property rights are definitely beyond the statute of limitations. However:
Genetic research (Y haplotypes) has shown that the large majority of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews descend from the Middle East in the paternal line. This fits well to the fact that originally it was the paternal line through which being Jewish was inherited. (For the Samaritans this is still the case today.) This doesn’t prove that they all have paternal ancestors who once lived in what is now Israel. It has been hypothesized that some Jewish communities in Europe developed out of Phoenician colonies. But it’s pretty close.
Genetic research (mitochondria) has also shown that most Ashkenazi Jews do NOT descend from the Middle East in the paternal line but from early European women.
I find both results rather surprising in their lack of ambiguity. It seems that Judaism is in fact very effective in keeping a lineage ‘pure’, and that over 2000 years there was next to no conversion to Judaism in Europe, at least when it comes to men.
Excellent replies both.
I would say that the Jewish religion in the Semitic Peoples of the Levant has been there all through actual history. Living alongside with other Semitic religions. As close as neighbouring hamlets and villages. After the Romans until the British Empire broke it.
See any pattern?
the author Peter Beinart used to be a ‘liberal Zionist’, but eventually the atrocities committed by the Jewish state became too much for him to reconcile.
Five things you can do:
https://bdsmovement.net/news/solidarity-with-palestinian-general-strike-across-historic-palestine
A global day of action is planned for Saturday.
gadaffi was sending soldiers opening up prisons sending rape squads to heading to the city to kill the woman and children.
the news said we had to do something and we did like we did in yugoslavia
shame about iraq and animal assad how do we know animal l assad is not dropping barrel bombs on gaza is it not the kind of fiendish plot this doctor of death would do
the children of israel must be protected from the evil doers
if the areas villages of what has always been greater israel since the start of time itself
if the occupied non semites called palestinians have to be removed atomized to save them and to save democracy everywhere
then as churchill once said a serious consideration should be given all options open for a solution to the involving the trouble making arab tribes. i am sure if my lord balfour was here today he would have a cure for this issue
tel aviv is the key to the blooming of the barren deserts into fruits of lovely civil denocracy
gordan. Your children of Israel are so confident about their settler squatting in Palestine, that they have second passports – just in case !
Yes, you’re right, we should treat Netanyahu like Ghadafi.
And arm the “rebels” give them Air cover and create “No fly zone” Peace talk would start within weeks.
What has Ghadaffi got to do with anything here? The comment is just an attempt to generally smear Arabs with their supposed crimes, not even relevant to Palestine. And the same with his following rather illiterate smears.
I have to agree Laguerre Ghadaffi might have been a dictator, but he held Libya together, after his demise by the West, I think he was attempting to move away from the Petrodollar, Libya fell apart and is now a fracture state beset by infighting and a government propped up by the West. Its infrastructure has been razed to rubble in many areas, so whatever you think of Ghadaffi, he at least kept his country moving along in one piece.
The same could be said for Iraq, the USA’s (Great Satan) foreign policy is one of aggression (most of the time) for its own benefit, Iraq and Libya are casualties of this aggression.
“there is no such thing as an innocent adult coloniser”
Spot on Craig. “Colonialism is a scourge”, a form of punishment, and should be ended, according to the UN.
As Aime Cesaire wrote:
“..no one colonizes innocently, that no one colonizes with impunity either; that a nation which colonizes, that a nation which justifies colonization – and therefore force – is already a sick civilization, a civilization which is morally diseased, which irresistibly, progressing from one consequence to another, one denial to another, calls for its Hitler, I mean its punishment.”
Which is why oppressed peoples seek independence and liberation, and have the right to do so under the UN Charter. Perhaps the UN needs to do more?
There is nothing more anti-semitic than what the state of Israel is doing now – and has done since its inception – assuming that that the word means being against Semitic peoples.
Both Hebrew and Arab (including Palestinian) peoples and their languages are Semitic. Hence too, is the diaspora of oriental Jews. There is, however substantial, and accumulating ethnographic and genetic evidence that one of the larger populations of ‘Jews’ – the Ashkenazis – largely from Eastern Europe are not ethnically Jewish – rather they are Khazars who ‘converted’ to Judaism and are therefore only ‘Jews’ in a cultural and religious sense – though most of them are not in any meaningful sense religious. Such people are NOT strictly speaking Semitic.
Jewish authors such as Shlomo Sand, Ilan Pappe, Arthur Koestler relate the true background of pagan conversion in the old Khazar empire in the 7th century to Judaism.
Ironically, some Palestinian Arabs are more likely to be descendants of the biblical Jews of the ‘Homeland’ since their ancestors, for various reasons, converted to Islam during the Muslim invasion of the Holy Land that same century – this is supported by the work of the Israeli geneticist Professor Eran Elhaik whose genome research on Ashkenazi Jews (he is himself Ashkenazi and served in the IDF) suggests that they originated from a region in what is now northern Turkey and areas between the Black and Caspian Seas.
In some ways this is unimportant – no-one should suffer discrimination based on their ethnicity and culture – neither Jews nor Arabs. But Israel is a special case in which the entire case for its existence, particularly for those who believe in a return to ‘Biblical Israel’ – is that it is a return to an ancestral home. They claim it as a patrimony from God – and on this basis a ‘right to return’.
Set aside the absurdity of such a claim – human populations have always been on the move – and our richness and diversity is testament to that – but why should anyone claim a right to return to some mythical place of origin of ancestors of two millennia ago? Even if it were true!
But the absurdity is compounded if that claim is utterly bogus and that these ancestors where actually living on the shores of the Caspian Sea some two thousand years ago. The tragedy is compounded yet further if that ‘right of return’ displaces people from lands that they and their ancestors have occupied for many centuries – and indeed millennia. And that these people are in actual fact the original Semitic people of that land. Such is the reality of Zionism.
This renders the idea that to criticise Zionism as being ‘antisemitic’ doubly meaningless and absurd. By far the greater part of world Jewry do not live in Palestine – and a large proportion of those who ‘returned’ to these lands are not Semitic at all.
Antisemitism is wrong – as are all forms of racism – and morally repugnant.
It is the persecution of the Palestinians that is the true antisemitism – and that is why this truth is suppressed so ferociously.
I appreciate the history. Thank-you Garry.
~
From a practical perspective, I think a boycott of those continuing to perpetuate suffering of innocence is called for and I support it. I hope it goes world-wide to send a crystal clear message. Not only should their goods not be purchased, but the trade goods moving from any port destined to Israel ought not be shipped, or at a minimum, the workers, the dockers, ought refuse to participate in the continuing needless suffering of innocence that we all can literally sense in our hearts – those of us still using our brains. I don’t think the heart of humanity can take too many more knife blows to what any kid in kindergarten could tell you is proper and is wrong. Too much wrongness when there are true weapons of mass destruction in the hands of lunatics does not spell a high probability of survival, so it seems to me, it is now or never.
~
Lets Boycott the bully Israel and then go from there.
~
Moreover I support empowerment of the Palestinians who have had way more than their fair share of suffering in my generation. It has been this way my whole damn life and I’m sick of it. I want things to be better for future generations and old farts who only know war would be advised to die quietly.
~
I support the dignity of the Palestinians and I want offensive behavior to get the justified retribution it deserves. Old Testament style I think is the only option that seems to still be open……..gracious. What a shame it all is. Maybe I’m wrong….I hope so on this cause have you ever read that text? It ain’t perty.
~
Peace is easy,
BK
Thank you Garry for that info, I think it would be fair to say that not all Hebrews are equal in the state of Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israel-to-deport-100-black-hebrews-to-the-us-within-2-months-report-666505
That’s too recondite, zionism was invented as an antisemitic ideology. Theodore Herzl and his cronies intended Judaism to be supplanted by it. You can’t get more antisemitic than that.
In other words Garry the right of return here based on myths, is merely an extension of the right to colonise and is merely a supposed attempt at updating the white man’s burden justification for colonialism.
Indeed. But I would also argue that even if the Zionist are correct, and they are all true blooded Semitic Hebrews descended from biblical Jews, the whole idea is absurd in any case.
If we all had a ‘right of return’ based on who our ancestors were two millennia ago, there would be utter chaos across the globe.
But elite support for Zionsism is nothing to do with some ancient promise of a mythical bronze-age god. It is real-politic here and now. It is the Elite foothold in a very strategic part o the world and a means of projecting power there, and securing resources, pipelines, trade-routes and military hegemony as part of a global system of Elite power.
Zionism was a convenient hook for that – nothing more.
Not really the white man’s burden but the white man’s chance to do well for himself to the detriment of indigenous but weaker populations. The whites who moved to S Africa, Rhodesia or North America for that matter did it to find a better life for themselves. That many were escaping persecution may well be true but did not morally justify the harm they did to the existing native populations, even though at the time colonialism was considered normal. Zionism was born in this colonial period and whereas most societies have moved on and no longer recognise colonialism as legitimate Zionism has not, it is a sort of cultural dinosaur that refuses to change. WW2 and the genocide of the Jews in Europe, at the hand of Europeans, not Palestinians, gave new life, altogether understandable life, to a system that was otherwise bound for extinction… all of which complicates things enormously.
But one thing that is not complicated in my view is that the suffering of the Jewish people doesn’t justify the suffering of the Palestinians. Sorry for the platitudes, the horrors we witness day after day are getting to me a bit.
“Jewish authors .. relate the true background of pagan conversion in the old Khazar empire in the 7th century to Judaism.” According to wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars), “Linguistic and genetic studies have not supported the theory of a Khazar connection to Ashkenazi Jewry .. most scholars view it with considerable skepticism.The theory is sometimes associated with anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism”. The same article, however, notes that some of the rulers or elite may have embraced Judaism as a defense against Christianity or Islam.
You should not be surprised that Zionists and their sympathisers will seek to discredit scholarship that undermines their underpinning mythology.
Readers of Craig’s blog should know Wikipedia is not to be trusted in matters such as this.
Anyone or anything who challenges the ‘right’ of settlers to establish and maintain the Zionist apartheid state will inevitably be labelled ‘antisemitic’. It has replace ‘communist’ in ruling elite demonology.
Page 95 of Muhd Asad’s Road to Mecca argues that Palestinians may have an even greater ancestral claim to the land than Hebrews, for they are descended from tribes who were there before the Hebrews. The Hebrews, of course, would claim divine chosen-ness for the priority of their claim, perhaps that the “Canaanites” were driven out for great sins like human sacrifice, and many American fundamentalist Christians would go along with this. But then, is treating Palestinians as less than humans much better then human sacrifice? Just asking.
I have no doubt whatsoever that the Palestinians have the rightful claim to their own lands – stolen from them by an unholy alliance of mad Zionists (mainly ashkenazis who are not ethnically Jewish – much of Orthodox Jewry repudiates Zionism) , genuine anti-semites who saw it as a means of getting rid of ‘Jews’ from Europe and a hard-nosed Anglo-American Elite who saw Palestine as an important strategic foothold in the Middle East, and others such as the Rhodesians/Milner Group who saw it as part of their scheme of world domination.
Indeed Arthur Balfour specifically mentions that the Zionists could do the same job for the English-speaking hegemons as the Protestatnt planters had done for the Empire in Ireland; Israel would be Ulster in the Middle East.
He has proven prophetic – although it hasn’t worked out quite as he imagines it would.
Garry,
A subject I am well out of my depth on.
Thank you for the short lesson.
Gary, you say
“… research on Ashkenazi Jews (he is himself Ashkenazi and served in the IDF) suggests that they originated from a region in what is now northern Turkey and areas between the Black and Caspian Seas.”
My understanding from tracking history is that is a very important point that needs further enlightening.
I am inclined to believe they arose from the oldest transcontinental trade route – the original Silk Road.
It is obvious such a trade route with staging point markets eventually would have coalesced into a ‘vertically integrated’ supply chain. Such things could for instance happen by families extending their reach with each generation.
Marco Polo didn’t ‘discover’ anything. He just ‘Followed the Money’?
Good luck tomorrow Mr Murray. We all wish you well with your appeal.
Could you put up the hearing phone in details so we can all listen in and support.
I really can’t see the system placing Murray in prison; not on the kind of case; the precedents and the very high public focus ( despite the mainstream media’s reluctance to do true journalism).
Yet – just look at poor Julian Assange.
No wagers please.
“Yet – just look at poor Julian Assange.”
Courtenay.
The above sentence might be just why they’re determined to imprison Craig, he’s friendly with Assange and he has visited him in the Ecuadorian embassy, and he was going to travel to Spain to testify. Of course on the other hand they could keep putting his incarceration back until the Spanish court appearance is over, then decide to fine or give Craig another form of punishment.
Republic…
I think that Murray is politically savvy enough to make a really big issue out of his imprisonment ( not that I wish it) – if it came to it.
Frankly, imprisonment of Murray would be pure bullshit from an establishment point of view and from a defender of the public interest point of view.
Am working on some stuff on this Gaza issue right now.
More anon.
Seconded
Is there any website that will give us the latest news on this (apart from this one)?
Earlier commentators have correctly observed that BDS can be powerful. Can someone please provide a good website showing us what to boycott?
I’m saying this as someone who once hid Israeli dates in Asda!
https://theislamicinformation.com/list-of-israeli-products-to-boycott/
Aidworker I should have added.
“Historically, some have suggested that a barcode starting with 729 indicates a product of Israel. Note that the 729 barcode is sometimes accurate, but not always. Israeli manufacturers try increasingly to obscure the origins of their product to prevent a boycott — hence Israeli products sometimes have non-729 barcodes. It’s best to look for a “Product of Israel” label on the product, or google the company/manufacturer. “
A bigger list.
https://www.cjpme.org/products_to_boycott
Here is another.
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http://bdslist.org/
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I declare that I boycott Israel. I boycott the idea of Israel as it exists presently by virtue of the actions of its leaders. I boycott it and I want it to be boycotted by others. I call for all to boycott Israel in response to the obvious injustice.
~
Buffalo_Ken
Thanks all
I agree with the boycotting of Israel in every sphere.
When apartheid South Africa was boycotted, the SA government (and all its western supporters like Thatcher, Reagan, the Tory party in general etc) all came out with the bullshit that sanctions/boycotts only hurt the poorest. And the SA government claimed that the sanctions meant that the South African defence industries developed more than could have been hoped for so the sanctions were counterproductive.
That too was bullshit. The defence industries did develop but at huge cost and distortion of the remainder of the weak and failing economy. The war in Angola and the later counter-insurgencies in the townships drained what little was left in the state’s coffers. Without the money poured into Israel by the USA and Weapons supplied by the Uk, the Israeli economy couldn’t support diddly-squat.
Don’t believe all the Zionist pr crap. BDS is hurting and the Israeli leaders realise their power is fast evaporating.
Keep boycotting Israel and supporting the Palestinian cause.
Ah, so THAT’s where to get Israeli dates. Just kidding. I understand that Khudri dates are very good (for non-diabetics).
Here’s an article about Palestinian child labour in Israeli settlements. The exploitation includes date picking:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2015/04/13/ripe-abuse/palestinian-child-labor-israeli-agricultural-settlements-west-bank
Free Palestine.
Plenty of Jewish precedents for resistance to the occupying oppressor in Lucy Dawidowicz The War Against the Jews (New York. Holt Rinehart Winsten, 1975), even where the balance of forces means that resistance is militarily meaningless: eg p 278: the Bund’s paper Veker: “Let the dogs who dare to bark on the graves of those who fell during that bloody Friday night (sc April 17 1942 – BRC) in Warsaw. Let them not dishonour the peace of the martyrs. Let them not try to argue that it was the Socialists who brought on that misfortune.” So too Mordechai Anielewicz, eventually head of the Jewish resistance in Warsaw: “”he and his comrades had ‘wasted three years in educational and cultural work. Instead they should have learned to use arms and have schooled themselves in a spirit of revenge ‘ (p 312; cf 313-322 passim).
Meanwhile every MP but one (? who? Liz Saville Roberts?) boast and gloat about their vice-signalling in decrying support for minimal Palestinian rights as “antisemitic”.
Btw, do I understand that Craig is currently at liberty? If so, very good luck
Ben Cosin. The most eloquent poetic and honorable people who stand up for Palestinians are Jews.
Good BBC documentary “One day in Gaza”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00052gc/one-day-in-gaza
How much does an Iron Dome missile cost ? I am a bit confused ! If the media is saying that the Palestinians are launching thousands of homemade rockets……..doesn’t really matter, the US tax payer will foot the bill and profits will soar, now they are being used. Good business ! No doubt at the next “Arms Fair” the devastating performance of the residential and Media Towers collapsing missiles will sell like hot cakes.
$100,000 per missile. As you point out the US tax payer will be picking up the bill so …
What is Left for Palestine? is the question.
Not a lot seems to be the answer, just the fact of Palestinian civilian casualties being multiple times more than Israeli, as they have always been, and Israeli ethnic cleansing goes marching on as Israeli fascism strengthens its hold.
The western powers deny the reality of what is taking place. Ironically the position taken by Russia seems to be no different from that of the EU, UK or USA so they all seem to be fellow conspirators in this respect.
Meanwhile the British Parliament seems to be in denial of what is happening, and more concerned about a passing car allegedly hurling racist abuse at the whimpering citizens of North London and the new Scottish government about a few “Protestant” football hooligans chanting Anti-Catholic slogans. How quaint.
Hardly a peep of protest from Starmer Labour, Meanwhile his predecessor works tirelessly on to rally support for the Palestinian cause.
“I find myself celebrating the fact that Hamas has, against all odds, managed to acquire more and better missiles.”
I’ve no feeling for the size, weight and value of 3 thousand rockets. How does one juggle so many rather long weapons? I find it hard to believe that these quantities of fuel-filled pipes can be smuggled into Gaza under the noses of Jewish planes and drones, and even so it cries for an explanation, why the IDF doesn’t simply shut down a launch site as soon as it starts firing rockets instead of going around looking for high buildings to fell like trees in a jungle. The rockets from Gaza are naked propaganda, or special op under direction of IDF/Mossad/CIA/MI6/whatever. The Arabs in Palestine can’t possibly be such idiots to keep launching those useless rockets just for the fun of it, as if they were fireworks, even though you’re quite right to ask “what on earth else the Palestinians are supposed to do”. There’s nothing they can do. The Jewish State does it for them.
How come that state ordered $735 millions worth of fresh JDAM kits from Boeing just a few weeks before the latest round of spontaneous Hamas attacks broke out. In 7 days there were 10 Jews who died when by chance a rocket fell on their head in the open, one every 300 fired missiles, but 200 Arabs, mostly civilians are killed as pay-back for what Hamas is doing to Israel. It doen’t pass the stink test.
Karlo. Most people think that the Palestinians are kamikaze suicidal in their resistance in the face of overwhelming Israeli weapons. As most people thought the Iranians and Yemenis would buckle under blockade. Yet they fight on. Israel in its hubris, as with its sponsors in the collective west, are facing a huge dilemma. Cheap drones and missiles can destroy ships, tanks and strategic infrastructure. Ask the Yemenis what they did to Saudi Arabia Aramco Oil Refinery. Israel made a huge mistake in assassinations and attacking nuclear facilities. People in Gaza are easy targets, yet Israel, despite its bluster has Lebanon, Iraq and Iran to contend with, all having drones and missiles now. What if they also target Israeli infrastructure and nuclear facilities ? People in glass houses, comes to mind.
They use liquid fertilizer in their rockets, it’s all DIY stuff knocked up locally and moved around to various launch sites in urban areas, they also use mortars for the shorter range stuff. Some of it sounds a bit like the IRA back in the day. I’m not sure I’d really classify them as missiles, more rockets, without guidance and fuelled up to travel just so far and pointed in the right direction. Western press make them sound worse than they are of course, they like to pretend the fight is in some way equal. The best you can say is that indiscriminate fire occasionally gets lucky and at $100,000 per iron dome missile they sure will be bleeding the Israeli purse, although it’s the US tax payer that pays for most of that.
I love general strikes.
There is no more a effective social Democratic means of protest against oppression – it kicks the powerful and rich where it hurts, their profits and wealth.
The minority Palestinians in Israel have taken that step.
https://apnews.com/article/hamas-gaza-middle-east-israel-israel-palestinian-conflict-ab0bfc2b25d2a03756fb0c084fca1a3d
Why? At least this:
‘Israeli attacks have damaged at least 18 hospitals and clinics and destroyed one health facility, the World Health Organization said. Nearly half of all essential drugs in the territory have run out.‘
Euronews used ‘killed’ to refer to victims on both sides this morning. They also interviewed a former Israeli battalion commander who no longer agrees with Israel’s policies.
I want to recommend this article, written by a NZ Jew after visiting family in Israel and then Ramallah in the West Bank. It starts “My mother, a survivor of Auschwitz, always thought Israel’s postion on Palestine was a greater threat to the peace and security of Israelis than the Palestinians ever could be”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/125172617/as-a-jewish-new-zealander-i-am-ashamed-by-israels-long-history-of-inflaming-tensions-in-the-mideast
Service providers may restrict content here using the new ‘Online Safety Bill’ which details a ‘risk assessment’ to curtail anything it deems as ‘harmful’ or ‘illegal’. or improper.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/985033/Draft_Online_Safety_Bill_Bookmarked.pdf
On the face of it, the bill aims to censor the ‘wrong’ views. Given its poor framing, it invites the authorities, tech companies, and complainants to go even further, way beyond the notional aim to protect the vulnerable, potentially to criminalise and shut down serious dissent and disagreement made in good faith.
thanks for that snippet of concoctions Mark, a new set of teeth for the ministry of truth.
They just don’t like it when their sordid affairs and wasting of good mony on cronies gets nailed to the mast/church door. Some active times ahead.
Israeli police use a “skunk gun” to spray Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem with a rancid-smelling mixture, a form of collective punishment.
https://mobile.twitter.com/alexnunns/status/1394669933192155146
The country our politicians clamour to be Friends with.
True Dominic Raab is associated with Beit Alpha water canons having enlisted at one time for duties with the survivals of ‘Hashomer Hatzair’ in Northern Palestine, he is a trusted promoter of protest control, propulsion solutions and canon enhancement that is described as the worst, most foul thing you have ever smelled. An overpowering mix of rotting meat and the pungent waft of an open sewer that builds a severe psychological drive to dispel and cleanse.
GKH just spent PMQ’s hacking off another of his own parties limbs – by diverting from the military attacks of the IDF and ultraviolet Zionists fascists by pussyfooting around Amber Zones and at the very last question added o. A addendum that CONDEMNED some NON-VIOLENCE against one rabbi in London – without a SINGLE MENTION OF PALESTINIAN KILLED AND DESTRUCTION OF GAZA HOSPITALS AND TOWER BLOCKS IN THE LAST 7 DAYS.
What a Complete And Utter C***!
Labour members- I told you so – you wasted your chance to elect a genuine non-metropolitan elite, non-Blairite, nonThatcher Lite, working class WOMAN – and you have to bear responsibility for that massive error.
Will you wake up? Will you admit to being suckered? Will you attone? Will you attempt to make right?
Recall him, have a new election and replace him – not with Nandy or Phillips or any cloned muppet of the BoD or the sinister Community Charity Trust, that both Bozo and the Great Knight Hope copiously bowed to – happily endorsed by the limpest Speaker in decades.
Just like the SNP supporters ,Labour members are blinded by the mesmeric MSM narratives they do easily swallow. Dumb Dumbs.
Special interview by Going Underground of “John Pilger Interview : Israel is a LYING MACHINE, Palestine Has The Right to Resist ! ” On YouTube if someone could post link please.
RT News (19 May 2021) – John Pilger Interview: Israel is a LYING MACHINE, Palestine Has The Right to Resist! (YouTube, 28m 38s)
Thanks for the link Amy.
I wonder just how long that article will remain available!!
Frustrating days DunGroaning albeit some gross cataclysm will tip the balance against all Friends of Israel.
Starmer’s silence about Palestinian casualties is appalling.
I joined Labour when JC was voted leader, and left after Starmer was voted leader (I voted for Rebecca Longc-Bailey). Starmer now has lower approval ratings than Corbyn ever did, even without the all-out media assault that Jeremy was subjected to. In fact, the MSM love Starmer and report on him in glowing terms – even though he’s done F.A. bar spout BS about antisemitism.
It’s a shame, but Labour’s looks over. When the likes of Blair and Madelson are still players in the party, despite their ongoing history of lies, corruption and war-waging, it’s time to say sayonara.
The Greens are far from perfect, but at least they seem to be not on the side of the eternal exploitation/war machine that the rest of the Establishment is on.
If people just can’t bring themselves to vote at all (understandable with the crap FPTP system we have), then joining a trade union will give some small level of power back (especially if enough people join). Maybe the pendulum can swing back…
James thanks for that. RLB was a major threat to the controlled opposition. Because she ticked all the boxes that Labour has been attacked with ever since Thatcher.
A grass roots, socialist FEMALE leader.
She may not have been completely there with regards experience- but that would have come and Bozo wouldn’t have been able to get away with his bollocks waving that the GKH sets up for him like a good butler. As does Robertson of the SNP.
You can see their self satisfied mugs when they have finished dressing themselves into a piñata that Bozo, the current CEO of their ancient enterprise can smack like a incompetent entitled child he is.
Even John Crace can’t see the act or ignores it – not a single mention of Gaza in his PMQ’s report and comments were turned off so couldn’t read them this morning until they are ‘re-opened’.
Fuck the Groaniad after 40 years of DAILY purchase and being party to providing them a whole new stream of income from the mid 90’s, they will not get a single penny from me – let them shut their paywall. They have already expelled many thousands of us over the last few years for daring to call out their presstitute propagandists and DS lies about most major issues. Disappeared in the night whilst the sod of brain readers fail to see the repression of free speech and facts.
As for the Labour Party.
It is down to the local party members to actually have control over their local offices and find local representatives to be their member of Parliament candidate.
And replace these they don’t want to have carrying on representing them at the next election. That MP can go into retirement or jump ship or go hang … but will not be the candidate even if a incumbent minister of state.
The Top Down parachuted careerist DS owned Borg types must be EVICTED.
Get back up into the party that you believe in and FIGHT, locally!
Only then can the scum that had taken to float above the parties members be blown away.
That is the only way to clean that stable full of Lobby owned or Zionist water carriers stinking crap.
I have absolutely nothing against any personal and private religious belief and most Jewish socialists are not Racist Zionist imperialists child murdering scumbags, they really are NOT. I would stand and fight against any black shirt types as many did pre war in the battle of Cable street – where the police, the Met, were the vanguard of the Blackshirts, while their leader prepared for marriage to the Aristo Mitford with Hitler and Mussolini as the chief guests in Germany.
The scum who are right winger fascists and Zionists are one and the same – just try and explain why Mosley was released in 1945 by the Labour Home Secretary Herbert Morrison (Mandys Uncle!) to set about recreating the fascist leagues immediately?
Yup the betrayals, corruptions and conspiracies are well old as is the continuing cultural propaganda that is aimed at protecting the fascists dressed as Zionists whilst encouraging religious intolerance.
Sharing my worry with you, unverified military intel conversations of late suggests that the Scottish Defence League known to be infiltrated by SO15 cut-outs has met with others, possibly Mossad operatives, in Britain, to plan a clandestine operation intended to enhance and strengthen a United Kindom whose shout is a history of championing counter-terrorism. These united struggles identify terror hits such as the Manchester Arena bombing, London Bridge attack, Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, Amesbury poisonings and the 2020 Forbury Gardens stabbings.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-plans-new-counter-terrorism-centre-says-chemical-or-nuclear-attack-likely-2021-03-16/
This is the bit were agent provocateurs could easily hook in.
“It would also make it a legal requirement for owners and operators of public spaces to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks, while working to strengthen aviation security, to “ensure the effective implementation of global security standards, anticipating evolving threats to aviation”.
Hope I am wrong.
“It would also make it a legal requirement for owners and operators of public spaces to keep the public safe from terrorist attacks, “
Sounds like a license for thuggish Jobsworths to bully and harass.
Important piece yesterday from Labour Friends of Israel chair @steve_mccabe on the ongoing conflict in the Middle East..
“There is no equivalence between the indiscriminate actions of Hamas and the targeted military response by a democratic ally with the right to self-defence.”
Parliamentary members of Labour Friends of Israel (as of March 2020) – Wikipedia
So the warhawk Antony Blinken US Secretary of State says the US is reaching out to Palestinians, calling for quiet diplomacy, yet Blinken refuses to press for a ceasefire. The US has already blocked a unanimous decision by the UN’s Security Council on a statement that would’ve clearly show the civilian casualties toll, of course the Palestinian victims of Israeli aggression are much higher than those of Israel’s so the US doesn’t want those figures in the public domain.
Biden another US warhawk, who met with Netanyahu on Monday expressed support for a ceasefire but stopped short of joining Democrats in Congress to vote for it.
The US could end the murdering and the persecution of the Palestinian people anytime they wanted to, but they won’t there’s too many powerful lobby groups, and business folk who contribute to both the Democrats and the Republicans with Israeli interests at heart for that to happen, so the murders and systematic persecution continues, whilst the world looks on pretending not to see what’s really happening.
Until the trial of America for homicide including manslaughter, assassination, rubouts, torture and lies under oath all in my lifetime…
I missed any pro Scottish independence protests in Gaza or the West Bank the last decades. Or those pro Kurdistan, Baluchistan, Yemen, Xinjiang etc. in Scotland.
Feeble stuff. Is that all you’ve got? A 5 year old’s cry of whatboutery?
No wonder the Great Satan doesn’t want the Palestinian casualty toll released, the IDF are murdering already traumatised Palestinian children.
“The Norwegian Refugee Council confirmed today that 11 of over 60 children killed by Israeli air strikes in Gaza over the last week were participating in its psycho-social programme aimed at helping them deal with trauma.”
https://www.nrc.no/news/2021/may/11-children-killed/
Unfortunately, no surprises here. It’s the usual suspects profiting from the oppression and murder of weaker, brown skinned peoples. Scum every one of them.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/arms-trade-which-countries-companies-selling-weapons-israel/5745688
Good link Stevie Boy.
The UK is up to its neck in it when it comes to Israel, yet the media doesn’t report it.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-05-15-how-the-uk-military-supports-israels-combat-operations-against-palestinians/
Watching parts the sorry excuse for a ‘debate’ on Israel – Palestine, in parliament. Tory after Tory, speaking in favour of Israel – a true backing of Goliath, as you’d predict from the party that worships money and power. They’ve coalesced around the argument that Hamas militants are somehow cowards for not standing and fighting out ‘in the open’ where Israel, with its billions of $$$ of high-tech weaponry can vaporise them into red mist within seconds.
Minister James Cleverly claims the UK is exerting quiet pressure on the Israelis to halt the Sheikh Jarrah evictions and those in other Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem, and limit West Bank settlement expansion. Since this has been going on for for decades now. It’s either it’s a lie; British diplomacy is useless; or the Israelis don’t care, ….or all three.
A military agreement now exists between Israel and the United Kindom. UK Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan said he was “delighted” to announce that Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Sir Nicholas Carter and the IDF’s Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi had agreed “to further deepen our military co-operation”.
Access to Israel’s Rhino mobile headquarters, designed by Elbit Systems is a pre-cursor to £multi-million deal between Elbit and the Ministry of Defence. Britain already use Israeli drones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A11EyAstwMY
What is secret however is that Israel has access to a wide range of intelligence from the Ayios Nikolaos Station and Troodos in Cyprus which can intercept satellite signals and much more. The station is run by the military for GCHQ and the NSA who fund about 50% of the lease and running costs. For the technically minded the range of UK & US intelligence facilities include:
(Comsat, HF) and Masint collection/SD
Masint transmission
Golf Troop Comint (V/UHF) and Elint/SPACOL/FIS/Proforma collection and SD at Troodos.
Weapons related collection from Troodos used to support technical Sigint analysts esp. Middle East
Don’t know so much that cooperation between Israel and the Five Eyes is secret, it’s just that it’s not widely broadcast. One can safely assume that most of the bulk data collection carried out by GCHQ and the NSA is made available to Israel.
The Israelis have had troops stationed on Cyprus for decades, supposedly as part of the UN peace keeping force. Recall that Ayia Napa is also a favorite holiday destination for Israeli rapist gangs.
The Troodos station served as a groundstation for the UK Military Skynet Satellites – not sure if that continues, but capability continues.
There is also heavy presence of the usual suspects at the ‘RAF’ Base at Akrotiri and Special Forces training and pre and post operational mission support carried out around the large camps at Episkopi. Rumours suggest Akrotiri as a US rendition stop off. Other rumours suggests UK intelligence on Palestinian boats is provided to Israel.
The reality is that Cyprus is the staging point for middle east operations by the West. It’s a lovely Island but who in their right mind would want that infestation of weasels on your doorstep.
US cooperation appears to have deepened substantially under Trump (Kushner),and Biden doesn’t appear to be in any rush to roll that back. Not just Israel either, look how Trump and Pompeo courted other ‘leaders’ in the ME. The Saudis, Egyptians, Moroccans :Trump recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara; Trump called Egypt’s el-Sisi his “favourite dictator” and boasted how the House of Saud would probably fall within two-weeks – to an insurrection? were it not for US support.
Did Five Eyes (FVEY) help with the technology and infrastructure, for the Global Centre for Combating Extremist Ideology Riyadh, Saudi Arabia? The opening of which produced that now infamous image of the then leaders of KSA , Egypt and the US touching that glowing orb. Given KSA and Egypt see democracy movements as a dangerous threat, its rightful name should probably be ‘Global Centre for Combating ME Democracy’. Really obnoxious if the UK and US helped build a surveillance HQ that monitors democracy activists comms?
Since these decisions are political in the UK too, and given the fact that the UK right see themselves as attuned with Israel’s right, represented by Likud et al. And since they’re overwhelmingly in the ascendancy in Israel; Israel’s once powerful left is on its knees due to Netanyahu successfully talking up security threats & playing the ‘National security’ card as much as possible.
Surely a rethink is in order. The UK has made an error getting so close to what many hold to be a state with a system akin to the apartheid system in South Africa. I don’t see how anyone in the UK political, intel community or militarily establishment would want to be associated with ethnic cleansing and forced evictions.
The people in Gaza are in a large open-air prison and the prisoners riot every now and then. Conditions may eventually improve but it is always a prison and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Israeli Zionists believe their tribe is far superior to any other grouping and many don’t believe Arabs are anything but vermin (I’ve heard this directly from Israelis and American Zionists). Thus not change will come from the Israeli side–hoping for compassion on their side is utterly futile. They will act in their own self-interest. The US supports them with a caveat that the Israelis at least not kill all Palestinians in ovens or slave-labor camps. We should thank God that Washington restrains Israel from committing total genocide.
Unless the Imperial Capitol in Washington decrees otherwise, things will remain as they are. Politics in the US being what it is, Israel will always be supported. Washington, after the failure of the Oslo Accords, permitted Israel to slowly take over more and more land on the West Bank and keep Gaza as a permanent prison. There is NO political pressure to change that policy. I think Palestinian activists hope that a revolt in Gaza will begin to change things but they are dead wrong–there is even less likely to be political pressure towards justice in Palestine now than there was in the 90s.
Hopefully the current administration, particularly with Bernie Sanders’ influence, might make more progress (or prevent more harm) than the previous one.
Delusional M.J. wIth just a glimpse, just a look at https://www.globalresearch.ca/arms-trade-which-countries-companies-selling-weapons-israel/5745688 and just a listen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxgqlUIRetM
Watch this powerful piece of reporting yesterday from Bethlehem, “watching Israeli snipers target Palestinian rock-throwers.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2O1j170yVE
There’s around 27 congress members posing difficult questions, all Democrats. It’s a start, but the leadership of the party are basically ignoring them. The party’s leadership Nancy Pelosi (House leader) and Schumer (Senate leader), are very much still under the spell of then pro-Israel lobby and AIPAC’s narrative, at least from what I’ve read. Biden offered his sympathies to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, whose family ancestry is Palestinian, while visiting Detroit the other day, but even that seemed somehow more like a Presidential shrug.
Thank you ET – This will be important evidence in the trial of America for homicide including manslaughter, assassination. rubouts, torture and lies under oath.