Tonight has been the most violent bombardment of Gaza so far, notably concentrated on precisely the areas into which Israel ordered the population to evacuate. I find it almost impossible to believe that this genocide is under way with the active support of almost all western governments.
I want to look at two questions – what will happen internationally, and what is happening in western societies.
Israel plainly is on the course of further escalation and intends to kill many thousands more Palestinians. More than 2,000 Palestinian children alone have now been killed by Israeli aerial attack in the last fortnight.
Gaza has no defence from bombs and missiles, and there is no military reason why Israel cannot keep this up for months and simply rely upon aerial massacre. We are perhaps within a week of thirst, starvation and disease killing even more people per day than bombardment.
The population of Gaza are simply defenceless. Only international intervention can stop Israel from doing whatever it wishes, and those countries which have influence with Israel are actively abetting and encouraging the genocide.
The question is, what is Israel’s aim? Do they intend to reduce the Gaza Strip still further, annexing half or more of it? Will starvation and horror enable the international community to force Egypt to accept the expulsion of the population of Gaza into the Sinai Desert as a “humanitarian” move?
That appears to be the end game: expulsion of population and territorial expansion into Gaza. That would require a ground invasion, but probably not until after even more intense aerial bombardment to eliminate all resistance. This territorial ambition of course accords with the violent expansion of illegal settlement in the West Bank which is currently under way, with the world paying almost no attention. It is very hard indeed to comprehend the passivity of Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas at the moment.
Netanyahu’s political stock within Israel is so low, that the only way he can recover is by making a major step towards the complete genocide of the Palestinian people and the achievement of Greater Israel. Netanyahu now knows that there is no violence against Palestinians so extreme that the western political elite will not support it under the mantra of “Israel’s right to self-defence”.
I do not see any salvation for Gaza coming from Hezbollah. If Hezbollah were to employ their vaunted missile strike capabilities, the moment to do it would be now when the Israeli armour is drawn up in massive parks outside Gaza, a perfect target even for longer range missiles of limited accuracy. Once dispersed into Gaza the armour would be far harder for Hezbollah to hit at range.
Hezbollah is even better equipped now to fight a defensive war in Lebanon than it was when it defeated the Israeli advance in 2006. But it is not configured or equipped to fight an aggressive ground war into Israel, which would be a disaster. It also has to worry about hostile militias in its rear. If Hezbollah can provoke an Israeli incursion into Southern Lebanon, that would enable it to inflict substantial casualties, but Israel is not going to do that in a way that detracts from its capabilities in Gaza.
Iran has greatly improved its diplomatic position in the last year. The Chinese-brokered lessening of hostility with Saudi Arabia has potential to revolutionise Middle Eastern politics, and the benefits of this will not lightly be laid aside by Tehran. Iran had also made real progress with the Biden administration in overcoming the blind hostility of the Trump years.
Iran has no desire to throw away these gains. That is why it seems to me extremely improbable that Iran had endorsed the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Iran is now restraining Hezbollah. But there are limits to the patience of Iran. The extraordinary truth is that Iran is probably the only state under discussion here with a genuine humanitarian concern for the lives of Palestinians. If the genocide unfolds as horribly as I anticipate, Iran can be pushed too far.
That said, I offer just a cautionary footnote that Saudi Arabia is not, under MBS, quite the reliable US/Israeli puppet it has historically been. I do not have much time for MBS, as you know, but his high opinion of the importance of the Al Saud and their leadership role among arabs, makes him a different proposition to his predecessor.
Saudi Arabia has leverage. The Biden administration has gone all in on regional domination, sending two aircraft carrier groups into a situation which should it escalate, could send oil prices to highest-ever levels, with Russia blocked from the market. Biden is risking a huge gas price hike in an election year.
Biden’s calculation, or that of his security services, is that nobody can or will intervene to save the Palestinians. They judge the genocide as containable. That is an extraordinary gamble.
There has been an extraordinary amount of vitriol aimed at Qatar by pro-Israel commentators, for hosting the Hamas office and leadership. This is extraordinarily ignorant.
Qatar hosts Hamas, just as Qatar hosted the Taliban Information Office, at the direct request of the United States. It provides a means of dialogue between the United States and Hamas (exactly as it did with the Taliban) both at deniable level, and through third parties, including of course the government of Qatar. Thus when Blinken arrived in Qatar one day and the Iranian foreign minister the next, these were in fact “proximity talks” involving Hamas.
How do I know? Well, at Julian’s request, I visited Qatar about five years ago to discuss whether Julian, and Wikileaks, might potentially relocate to Qatar, which Julian had described as “the new Switzerland” in terms of being a neutral diplomatic venue.
It was explained to me by the Qataris, at a very senior level, that Qatar hosted the Taliban Information Office and Hamas because the United States government had asked them to do so. Qatar hosted a major US military base and depended on US support against a Saudi takeover. If I could generate a request from then President Trump for Qatar to host Wikileaks, then they would do so. Otherwise, no.
So I know what I am talking about.
One tiny but good result of this brokering in Qatar was the release of two American national hostages. British diplomats have told me that discussions in Qatar have so far held back the Israeli ground offensive, but I am not convinced that Israel really wished to do this yet. They are having sadistic fun shooting children in a barrel.
Qatar has also been the origin of deals allowing in a tiny amount of aid to Gaza, but this is so small as to be almost irrelevant. It is performative humanitarianism by the West.
I have frequently praised China for the fact that their economic dominance has been unaccompanied by any aggressive desire for world hegemony, but this also has its downside. China sees no benefit in assisting the Palestinians in practice. Hopeful reports of China sending warships refer simply to pre-planned exercises, largely in the Gulf. That China is carrying out such joint exercises with Gulf states is indeed part of a long term increasing of influence, but is not relevant to the immediate reality.
Russia of course has its hands full in Ukraine. It is allowing its Syrian bases to be used as a conduit following increased Israeli bombing of Syrian airports, but there is not a great deal more that it can do. Erdoğan is genuinely furious at what is happening in Gaza, but Turkey is struggling to find any way to apply pressure, barring linkage to Ukraine shipping issues (which Erdoğan is considering).
That is a very rough and ready tour d’horizon, but the net effect is that I see no current hope for averting the atrocity which is unfolding before our horrified eyes.
Most of our eyes are indeed horrified. The gap between the western political and media elites and their people on this issue is simply enormous. Western leaders have not only failed to restrain Israel, they have almost unanimously egged Netanyahu on, with the continued repetition of the phrase “Israel’s right to self-defence” as justification for the mass bombing, removal and starvation of an entire civilian population.
The western leadership glee in vetoing every attempt at a ceasefire resolution at the UN is astonishing.
Massive demonstrations have been taking place across Europe against this unspeakable massacre, and the knee-jerk reaction of politicians at their isolation from public opinion has been to try to make such shows of dissent illegal. In the UK people have been arrested for displaying Palestinian flags. In Germany pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been entirely banned. Something similar has been attempted in France, with predictable failure.
I have myself attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations in three different countries, and the most striking thing on each occasion was the strong support of passers-by, and the number of people spontaneously coming out to join the demo as it passed.
A wave of racism has been unleashed in the UK and elsewhere. I am astonished by the Islamophobia and racial hatred released online, with no apparent comeback. UK Ministers claim to be alarmed at the “terrorist sympathies” of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, yet it is perfectly legal to call for Palestinians to be exterminated, to compare them to different types of animal and vermin, and suggest they should be driven into the sea. That does not horrify ministers at all.
I am personally now subject to a police investigation for “terrorism” merely for suggesting that the Palestinians too have a right to self-defence and may offer armed resistance to genocide – a right they enjoy beyond doubt in international law. Remember, Israel has formally declared war. Is it the position in British law that the only belief it is legal to hold and express, is that in this war the Palestinians must simply line up quietly to be killed?
The step change in western authoritarianism is likely to be met by blowback.
After 20 years, we had finally come through the vicious cycle of the “War on Terror”, where terrorism, repression and institutionalised Islamophobia all boosted each other across the western world. Outrage at the appalling genocide in Gaza is very likely to result in isolated incidences of, also appalling, Islamist-inspired violence in Western countries, including the UK, particularly because of the UK’s military support of Israel.
That consequential terrorism in itself will be cited by the political elite as justifying their stance. And so the vicious cycle will restart. This will of course be welcome to the agents of the security state, whose power, budgets and prestige will be boosted. Once again we have to be on the lookout for radicalisation and real terrorism, but also for agent-provocateur-led terrorism and for false flag terrorism.
If we descend back into that nightmare again, the direct cause will be elite support for the genocide of the Palestinian people and the Islamophobic narrative. The major cause of terrorism here is Israel, the terrorist apartheid state.
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I am not surprised at all with the current butchery of Palestinians. It has been no secret for many years that the USA wants an excuse to bomb Iran into oblivion, mainly because if Iran does soon develop a nuclear capability, there is no doubt where the missiles will be aimed.
Therefore the comment about pushing Iran to the brink, as it is the only genuine supporter of Palestinians, is very apposite. Israel can keep the bombardment up until Iran’s leaders crack, and launch some form of retaliation.
And that will be just what the USA will have been waiting for. Out will come the B52s (again) and other hardware designed for slaughter from 35000ft, and the propaganda machine will go into overdrive. With the three main targets (Russia, China, and Iran) all having been shown (with no sense of bitter irony) to be potential warmongering states eager to attack innocent countries and threaten ‘world peace’ (as defined by the USA of course), the Western hawks in cahoots with Satan will have achieved their goals.
Sadly, we seem to be way too far down that road for any form of diplomacy to succeed any more.
And should Iran crack, that too will be called “unprovoked”. It’s the American way.
5 thousand Palestinians killed by illegal occupier and apartheid oppressor Israel. Half children. 1.4 million displaced. Churches targeted. Hospitals. Schools. Shelters. No water. No electricity. No fuel.
All supported by British politicians, MSM, royalty.
Yet we are still expected to treat THESE people as our nation’s moral leaders and respond to their demands that we first condemn the Hamas attacks before voicing opposition to this slaughter. How long after this will people keep treating these clowns / devils as righteous moral scolds of “our” official enemies?
Raz Segal, israeli historian ass. professor on genocide studies clearly lay out that this is genocide
Democracy Now interview: “A Textbook Case of Genocide”: Israeli Holocaust Scholar Raz Segal Decries Israel’s Assault on Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGGjLZNuyg
I have read many comments claiming that Jewish Israelis place no value, or negative value, on the lives of Palestinian Arabs. While this, and its converse, are undoubtedly true of many individuals, we should examine such thinking more closely, considering what propaganda actually consists of.
Any power structures treats all human lives as mere capital to be expended for its own maximum gain, whether they be “enemy” lives, or the lives of those it claims to be protecting. Thus:
– ““His voice trembles when his partner, who was besieged in her home shelter at the time, comes to mind. According to him, only on Monday night and only after the commanders in the field made difficult decisions — including shelling houses with all their occupants inside in order to eliminate the terrorists along with the hostages — did the IDF complete the takeover of the kibbutz [Be’eri]. The price was terrible: at least 112 [kibbutz] Be’eri people were killed. Others were kidnapped. Yesterday, 11 days after the massacre, the bodies of a mother and her son were discovered in one of the destroyed houses. It is believed that more bodies are still lying in the rubble.”
This quote of an Israeli settler was reported in Haaretz in Hebrew. The translation into English was published by mondoweiss.net –
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/a-growing-number-of-reports-indicate-israeli-forces-responsible-for-israeli-civilian-and-military-deaths-following-october-7-attack/
Each and every power structure controls the people it consists of through the propaganda of “us versus them” – divide and conquer – emphasising divisions in humanity, to exert control over the very people that comprise it. And it will kill its own constituents to further its power.
So the individuals of each “side” regarding those of “the other” as subhuman is an effect of the power structures, whereas the power structures themselves treat both “friend” and “foe” as mere currency to be spent to maximum advantage.
As mere individual humans, it is difficult to perceive the structures that mostly succeed in controlling us. There is a word for it – superorganism – more familiarly applied to the social insects. “The devil’s greatest trick was convincing everyone that he didn’t exist”. Gail Bradbrook describes it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjiKLKg_8xc&t=275s
Hi Craig, thanks for the wider geo-political analysis. I wonder what you think might be the knock-on effects in Egypt? The president will probably do what America wants, but the people would be horrified by the suffering in Gaza. It’s not a very stable country, and only 10 years since an uprising. Might the people insist on a stronger stance defending the Palestinians? They share a border and so might feel that something can be done to help. Might the army at a rank-and-file level support this?
There were actually 2 regime change occurrences in Egypt about 10 years ago: first the people unseated the pro-western Mubarak and Muhammed Mursi was elected; Mursi was closer to the “Arab street” and had good relations with Hamas/Palestinian cause. And just like that, there was a pro-western coup against Mursi and he is still in jail on trumped-up charges, and now the pro-Western camp rule again.
Hopefully though there are groups within the military etc. that could once-and-for-all rid Egypt of this Western/Israeli subservience and actually start helping the Palestinians.
Morsi died in 2019, while he was being retried.
This is a wonderful article Craig, one of your finest. Impassioned, insightful and thought provoking. But it doesn’t explain why, why in God’s name do our political and media elites, almost without exception, support the barbaric apartheid Israeli state so unequivocally?
[ Mod: retrieved from spam list – timestamp updated ]
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Really powerful – if pessimistic – analysis. One thing that is glaringly missing for me is when you (rightly) call out the new authoritarianism and its antecedents. The ‘war on terror’ certainly has its place, but the censorship and thought-shaping associated with the covid response, the russia/ukraine war and arguably also increasingly climate change have the same energy. One must also note that in one instance public health was used to trial digital tools for population control that very clearly have wider potential application (most easily, it’s hard to ignore, where man’s entire relationship with the natural environment is reduced to a fetishised single metric – ‘carbon footprint), including the as-yet unrealised connection with forthcoming digital currencies.
Personally, I have been aware of and exercised by the slow-motion genocide of the palestinian people for my entire politically-conscious lifetime. And I have become very much aware of how many of my fellow travellers on that issue have been shocked to find themselves on the wrong side of the thought crime line. But it is sadly a precious few who make the connections I have made, and as few of those on the ‘right’ who haven’t unwaveringly lined up with their ‘tribe’ to cheerlead pro-israeli censorship, just as the ‘left’ lined up for the same to support big pharma, NATO, and the rest.
When things are complex (eg viruses, environmentalism), we’re told they’re simple. When they’re simple (a colonial project producing inevitable genocide), we’re told they’re complex. The end result is the same: tribalism once again trumps humanity, and few will see or accept the greater energies at play. Truly depressing to see so many compartmentalise trust and distrust according to the issue at hand, even when the very same set of powers are at play in each.
“Death toll in Gaza since October 7 reaches 5,791 with more than 16,000 wounded as Israel continues pounding Gaza. 704 killed in the past 24 hours”
Source: AlJazeera
It really is Genocide.
It amazes me that throughout the Western world, and in many places supporting Israel’s ¨right to self-defense”, self-defense laws are regularly limited to such a degree that one is expected to act with a near unthinkable amount of restraint in potentially life-or-death situations lest they end up charged with a crime themselves, such as assault or murder should their assailant be intentionally or unintentionally injured or killed in trying to fight them off.
Yet, the same people who run states with such laws blather on about Israel’s own ¨right to self-defense”! Always, it’s regular people who are held to the higher standard rather than states and the people who control them, even when it should be the other way around! The double standard that is applied to the rights of states is absurd, as if it’s not individuals who run states and make the decisions, and who do so in very different situations where much more restraint should be thinkable and possible than when say, trying to fight off a rapist in hand-to-hand combat.
In case it’s not obvious (and to not distract from my point), note of course I’m not making a case for US-style self-defense (even if I may think one can go too far in the other direction too), but the opposite: most people agree *some* degree of restraint is reasonable and expected in matters of self-defense even in situations of personal danger—often with room for exceptions when appropriate—but in general, it’s obvious to most that it’s absurd to acquire a license-to-kill simply from being mugged. Israel, on the other hand, at the risk of someone coming to arrest me thinking I’m comparing the Hamas attack to a mugging, has given itself such a license-to-kill to the cheers of people who hardly believe in such a right in the first place.
It’s just absurd. It’s hard to tell if our leaders are amoral and lack beliefs altogether sometimes, or if their beliefs are just that inconsistent and self-contradictory. It’s hard to imagine how people can hold such contradictory beliefs, like all the free speech activists suddenly clamouring for suppression of those speaking out against genocide. Amoral or immoral, either way, it doesn’t describe very well what is better put in moral language: evil. They are evil for supporting genocide, and what is going on in Israel is as simple and black-and-white as morality can get.
Early this morning I came across an article on Sky News’ website from Oct 16th in which it said that 22 hostages had been killed by Israeli bombardment in the previous few days:
Dr Basem Naim, Hamas’s head of political and international relations, told Sky News: “I have no idea [how many hostages have been killed altogether] because it is impossible under this heavy bombardment – the communications are totally cut.”
He also said the ruling Palestinian militant group in Gaza was ready to release civilian hostages when “aggression against our people is stopped”.
“At the time the aggression stops, we are ready to release the civilian hostages,” he said.
“I hope that we will have hostages alive at the time the aggression ends because al Qassam Brigade [Hamas’s armed wing] announced yesterday that nine of the hostages were killed under Israeli bombardment.
“And three days ago 13 others were killed – including four foreigners.”
Now what they are saying is quite likely true, and no doubt even more hostages have been killed by Israeli bombs since then, but Netanyahu and Co can’t be sure that it’s true, and that Hamas aren’t just saying it so as to ‘provoke’ relatives of the hostages to bring even more pressure to bear on him and them to get the hostages out of Gaza as soon as possible, and do whatever is necessary to make it happen. But, that said, there’s more-than-likely complete ‘radio silence’ about it in the Israeli media, and it appears that BBC News 24 are keeping schtum about it as well (and BBC News in general), because they are still talking in terms of 220 hostages. So it’s quite likely that many relatives of the hostages are not aware of what Hamas said last week, but then they hardly need to hear it from the horses mouth to be worried out of their minds that maybe their loved one(s) has/have been killed at some point by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, and be thinking that some of the hostages surely must have been killed by Israeli bombs, especially given the scale of the bombing.
And another aspect of it could be that the relatives of the hostages aren’t getting much media coverage in the Israeli media in respect of what they want Netanyahu to do, but I happened to come across an Africanews article last night from the 16th headlined ‘Israelis demand release of hostages amid mounting criticism of PM Netanyahu’, in which it says the following:
On the Azrieli Tower in Tel Aviv pictures of kidnapped Israelis with the message “Bring them home now!” winding on.
Nine days after the Hamas attack on Israel which left more than 1,400 victims, Israelis demand the release of hostages and for Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign.
During the past week, protests were held outside the headquarters of the Israeli military HQ at Kirya, Tel Aviv, to demand action for the 150 to 200 hostages detained in Gaza….
On the streets of Tel Aviv, Monday (Oct. 16), desperation and calls for a deal dominated.
“I’ve been trusting this man for 15 years of my children’s lives,” Mona, a New Yorker who’s been living in Israel fir 15th years said.
“This is what he does to us because he’s more concerned about his ego and his political career and his bribes and his … everything. His ego and his legacy. This is his legacy, blood on his hands! On his legacy, on his everything. This is his legacy!”
Since then, Hamas has said some of the hostages died in Israel’s retaliatory bombardments.
“I am here for the immediate release and action deal to release all prisoners, all Israeli hostages,” protester Cindy said.
“The way to do it immediately is to release all the Palestinians that are held prisoners, captive in Israel, and it should be done immediately.”
https://www.africanews.com/2023/10/16/israelis-demand-release-of-hostages-amid-mounting-criticism-of-pm-netanyahu/
“Ireland is weirdly entwined with the idea of a Jewish homeland, but not in the way many imagine
Militant Irish nationalists prefer to forget that two future right-wing prime ministers of Israel were profoundly inspired by the IRA”
by Fintan O’Toole (Irish Times, 24 Oct 2023) – article (paywall) – [ archive copy ]
Above is a piece in today’s Irish Times which describes how the “Black and Tans” when they had failed to do their mission in Ireland were deployed to Palastine as law enforcers for the British mandate (as that time is called).
Not something I was aware of until today nor the origin of the phrase “Duffed up.” (I haven’t been able to independently verify if that is correct but it’s as good as any etymological story)
Paywall. [ Mod: inserted a link to an archived copy. Thanks for the prompt. ]
They were joined by a number of RIC, it being too dangerous for them to remain in Ireland. Forty percent of the B&Ts were Irish too, something a lot of people don’t like to admit.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-60031090
One huge part of the problem is of course the pro-israeli bias in media and amongst politicians and of course the israel lobby.
I do not get it, for years the same media and politicians talked about russian meddling, constantly, it was everyhwhere! Why is it so forbidden then to talk about pro-israeli meddling, pro-israel bias? The whole idea to hush this subject down really prove there is something suspicious, murky, sinister about their activity.
Just imagine if there were people on the payroll from Russia that declared that Russia have the right to cut water, to strike hospitals, that they have the right to kill kids.
In the following video (3 mins 48 secs) it says at one point (3 mins) that aid is only trickling in, but that there is no desperately needed fuel for hospitals etc for fear Hamas will use it. But then, in a separate article below the video entitled ‘Hostages influencing Israeli military’s operational plans, spokesperson says’, it says the following:
As the humanitarians conditions in Gaza become more dire by the day, Lerner said fuel will not be among the aid trickling into Gaza.
“Hamas has over a million liters of fuel in their stockpiles in Gaza — they are actually not far away from Rafah. All they need to do is give some to the hospitals,” he said.
I don’t know how much fuel tankers hold, but there were pictures from inside Gaza a couple of days ago of several tankers leaving from somewhere in the south of Gaza going off to distribute fuel to hospitals etc around Gaza, and there was initially some confusion by the presenters (I’m pretty sure it was Al Jazeera I was watching at the time) about whether it had just arrived in Gaza. So I can only assume that that was Hamas’ stash of fuel, although a million liters plus does sound like a hell of a lot of fuel, and maybe the military spokesman was lying/exaggerating (they’ve been known to do so), but the point is that if Hamas DOES have over a million liters, then they are hardly likely to need any more. But it isn’t just the hospitals of course, and they need clean water to make the bread, and they need fuel for the pumps to pump the water, and water to drink of course, and to cook rice or whatever, etc, etc.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/live-updates/israel-gaza-live-updates/?id=104234554
And as you may know (they were showing it repeatedly on BBC News 24 earlier), one of the hostages released last night shook the hand of one of her captors as they were being handed over to the Red Cross, or whoever, but that bit is not included in the ABC News video clip, which you would have thought it would have been. But then again, maybe NOT!
Found on internet, forgive me if posted earlier:
“I am having a hard time processing many impossibilities. How is it that Joe Biden is the president, that Trump is the most popular alternative, that RFK jr., Bernie Sanders and other erstwhile popular “leftist” politicians, have green lighted the “genocide under way” because Israel has the right to “defend itself.” That we send billions in “aid” to Israel so they can provide universal healthcare to their citizens that the U.S. citizens lack, that billions are going to Ukraine for a war that never should have started, that “Operation Mocking Bird” continues on, but openly this time where, again, “leftist” applaud the censorship, that pundits and podcasters that I agreed with on most topics have become rabid supporters of the “genocide under way,” that it’s possible to print money endlessly, that servicing the national debt is as large as the oversized defense dept. budget, that students will graduate as debt slaves, that big pharma funds most of the MSM’s budgets and have repeatedly lied with no consequences, that both political parties unanimously support Israel but can’t agree on anything else, and on and on and on…the cognitive dissonance is rattling my brain.”
Jesus, over 700 palestinians killed past 24 hours.
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2023/10/358521/israeli-airstrikes-kill-704-palestinians-in-past-24-hours
And west keeps doubling down,
France’s Macron says anti-ISIL coalition should fight Hamas
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/24/frances-macron-the-latest-western-leader-to-visit-israel
The arab street needs to wake up now, only them can dethrone their pro-western/sraeli governments, only them can save palestnians.
Just did a search and it looks like it’s being widely reported right across the MSM around the world, the following from the WSJ, which is mostly behind a paywall, but I post it because of what it says in the sub-headline:
« ‘Israel-Hamas War Updates: Hamas Hostage Explains Why She Shook Hands With Captors’ by Anat Peled (WSJ, 24 Oct 2023) – link
World leaders press Israel to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.
Hamas hostage Yocheved Lifshitz said her captors treated her “with softness and supplied all our needs,” after being asked by reporters why she shook the hand of her Hamas captor upon her release on Monday night.
In the video released by Hamas, two workers from the Red Cross led Lifshitz away from the Hamas militants while saying, “It’s OK. Let’s go.” Lifshitz began to walk with them, but then looked back at a masked militant, shook his hand, and said “shalom,” meaning hello, goodbye and peace in Hebrew….. »
Afterthought: I wonder if Netanyahu and his mass-murdering fascist buddies intensified the bombing of Gaza over the past couple of days so to kill as many Palestinians as possible because what with the releasing of hostages – along with the public outcry by millions around the world about the slaughter and destruction – he/they anticipated that they were going to start coming under increasing pressure from their allies, and internationally, to stop the bombing. I wouldn’t be at all surprised. Netanyahu probably sits at home each evening watching recordings of the bombs exploding and pictures of the victims and the damage being caused repeatedly. He is a totally evil inhuman monster!
We are corrupt. Hansard doctored:
Skwawkbox (24 Oct 2024): “Video: Labour asks Parliament to edit out Eshalomi’s call for Gaza ceasefire
Seems Keir Starmer and his war-hungry corporateers do not want peace and safety for the civilians of Gaza”
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/10/24/video-labour-asks-parliament-to-edit-out-eshalomis-call-for-gaza-ceasefire/
Are the pro-israelis a cult? What is even the meaning of these new made terms “ceasefire corridor”? Terms, that of course is made up by the israeli lobby for people to say.
And that is something I do not understand, people of color that support Israel. That is so backward because blacks are discriminated against in Israel.
African immigrants have been stopped for years from going to Israel as this documentary below shows:
Max Blumenthal and David Sheen small documentary from 2016: “Israel’s New Racism: The Persecution of African Migrants in the Holy Land”
https://www.facebook.com/jewishvoiceforpeace/videos/persecution-of-african-migrants/10155084529704992/
Any hospitals that haven’t been bombed by the murdering fascist Zionists are within hours of running out of power.
https://www.bmj.com/content/383/bmj.p2470
Remember the dis-untied kingdom politicians that backed this – come the next GE get them OUT of office.
As Craig and others suspected, Israel’s goal in this massacre and genocide is the final solution to the Gaza ‘problem’ – the entire ethnic cleansing of the area and forced relocation of people who are already refugees from their houses and villages in Palestine. The goal is to evict people from their houses, which half have already been forced to, flatten the place, making it uninhabitable, with no facilities whatsoever, no hospitals, schools utilities. Then take it over, once Egypt and other are forced to take 2 million people just to save them from being murdered by forced starvation, dehousing and without water or medicine.
Israeli think tank lays out a blueprint for the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza
An Israeli think tank with ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a report on October 17 promoting the “unique and rare opportunity” for the “relocation and final settlement of the entire Gaza population.”
By Jonathan Ofir (Mondoweiss, 23 Oct 2023)
https://mondoweiss.net/2023/10/israeli-think-tank-lays-out-a-blueprint-for-the-complete-ethnic-cleansing-of-gaza/
Appalling beyond any words that this can happen after the bloody history and carnage of the 20th Century and that one of the biggest of its victims are perpetrating such a blatant, planned and deliberate horror and destruction on an entire population, half of them children. And the West turns a blind eye and ‘sympathises’ with them in their bloodthirsty terrorism, apparently saying they have a ‘right’ to do this. Has any of them ever learned the most basic history lessons of the 20th Century and the reason for the Declaration of Universal Human Rights? That ideal, born out of the carnage of WW2, is no buried under the rubble and dead bodies of Gaza. History will judge them and their enables severely. Terrorism will of course now increase massively as others seek revenge and vengeance.
Israel never miss an opportunity to cleanse the palestinians, remember what Netanyahu said in 80s:
“Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China [Tiananmen Square], when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories.” (Israeli Journal Hotam, November 24, 1989)
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2009/3/26/netanyahu-on-peace
This is a man that have no scruples at all. A manipulative sociopath that do what he feel is right for the moment with the aid of all type of lies and deceit. The ego-boost Netanyahu get from western support now is incredibly dangerous.
I am old enough to remember when the popular attitude was one of genuine and widespread admiration for the state of Israel: when Gerald Kaufman could refer to the IDF as being a genuinely “noble” army. Has the Israeli government no idea that, apart from making even more profound enemies of more generations of Palestinians, they are irredeemably losing, if they have not already lost, any vestige of that respect – within the culture they claim unironically, to be protecting?
Israel try to appeal to the popular islamophobia in the west
Israel fighting World War III against ‘radical Islam’ – Netanyahu ally
“The war is also within Europe. In radical communities,” he said. “Today, this world war is being waged by Iran.”
https://swentr.site/news/585667-israel-katz-wolrd-war/
Nope, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah are local groups that stems directly from the israeli occupation, thus certainly not the world’s problem.
According to Al Jazeera news the Zionists murdered 704 oppressed Palestinians on Monday, meanwhile French president Macron was in occupied Palestine pledging France’s support for the evil Zionists, of course Macron like many other Zionist-loving politicians in the West doesn’t speak for the people of his country – the massive pro-Palestinian demos around Europe show us that.
The European politicians are backing the murdering Zionists without the consent of the majority of Europeans. Effectively most European politicians are sticking two-fingers up to their respective countries citizens and saying “we don’t give f*ck what you think – we are supporting the Zionist genocide of the oppressed Palestinians”.
Let’s not forget that the Western media is also backing the Zionist genocide. We MUST NOT buy any products linked to them or the Zionists who are occupying Palestine. Boycott the lot.
The West has allowed the Zionists to be above International Law. This includes the UN and the EU. These bodies have no credibility left.
A leaked document on the Zionists “Final Solution” on how to deal with the oppressed Palestinians can be read here.
https://thegrayzone.com/2023/10/24/zionist-think-tank-palestinian-genocide/
If you didn’t see Newsnight last night (Tuesday) then check it out on Iplayer, and specifically the last ten minutes or so in which Kirsty Wark speaks with Rachael Riley about the increase in A/S as a consequence of the so-called war. And hear Riley come out with a string of enormous big black Goebbels-type lies and falsehoods. It really is quite extraordinary. And if anyone knows how to get that clip up on youtube, that would be brilliant, because she really needs to be exposed for the nasty, vicious, malevolent woman that she is.
Mr Murray, I understand and share your outrage. Obviously many of the criteria for the establishment of a genocide in Gaza exist, such as impunity for the murderers of civilians and a massive ideological campaign to demonise an ethnic group. However, a genocide is when you actually wipe out the ethnic group, as in the Hutu assault on Tutsis in Rwanda, or the Turkish assault on Armenians during World War I. What the Israelis are doing is much more like what the more extreme Serbs were doing in Bosnia in the 1990s, except on a somewhat larger scale. It is a terrible racist crime committed by a fascist state, but it is not, yet, genocide. To call it genocide is to accept the NATO propaganda which defines any mass murder of an ethnic group as genocide when that suits their political agenda, and I’m sure you are a better man than that. Granted, using the term genocide has rhetorical echoes, but it is not appropriate. Especially since there is a possibility that the Israelis might commit actual genocide in future, and especially since many Israeli supporters are calling for genocide. Ironically, next to his supporters Netanyahu looks like a moderate.
Otherwise, good for you and for all that you say, and sorry that you are suffering for your convictions.
The definition of genocide includes intention to eliminate an ethnic group (because of course it is never possible to eliminate any ethnicity 100%, as both Armenians and Jews have discovered). That is why the description of genocide is correct here.
If you could forbear lecturing Craig for a moment on your own conception of what genocide is, you might care to acquaint yourself with the legal definition of the crime, something of which I am sure Craig is very well aware:
The UN convention on genoocide, and its subsequent adoption into international law states that two elements are necessary for the crime of genocide:
1) the mental act of intention to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, religious or racial group
2) the physical acts of violence, harm and destruction of people who are targeted because of their membership of that group
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml#:~:text=To%20constitute%20genocide%2C%20there%20must,to%20simply%20disperse%20a%20group.
You will see, therefore, that Craig and others are correct in their attribution according to this internationally accepted definition.
And while you are educating yourself on the definition of genocide you could do likewise re the Yugoslav wars – a dismemberment by western powers to suit themselves, the Serbs being propagandised as scapegoat and sacrificed in the process.
Can somebody, anybody, explain to me how the Israelis are able to control what and how many aid trucks are allowed to cross into Gaza via the Egyptian border crossing at Rafah?
Israel have Gaza under blockade/occupation. Unfortunately Egypt is playing along with this because the egyptian rulers do not like Hamas.
The same rulers of Egypt put the 2012 elected democratically Muhammed Morsi (now deceased) behind bars; Morsi had great ties to Hamas.
Wiki on the subject (written by Israel) notes “while the Israeli army kept a video watch from a nearby base and retained control over the movement of all goods and trade in and out of Gaza.” after 2005. As expected, the article places all the responsibility for closure on Egypt.
Qatar and Türkiye FM just met and talked to the press: nothing but feebleness and muted criticism. Do something instead of talk, west is not going to change!
Qatar seems also more interested to get applause and approval by the west and Israel for trying to get Hamas to release the captives. One thought that the biggest concern would be to get Israel to stop commiting the genocide. Apparently not.
Queen of Jordan: We are witnessing West’s ‘glaring double standard’
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231025-queen-of-jordan-we-are-witnessing-wests-glaring-double-standard/
We are also witnessing arab leaders “glaring” double standard.
After all one should perhaps not expect much from these states, Qatar, Turkey, Jordan all backed the Qadaffi regime change along with western military assault.
I wouldn’t expect too much of Qatar, a desert peninsula with very little native population, but a vast US base, the biggest base in the Gulf. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that there are more Americans in Qatar than native Qataris. Qatar hosts the Taliban and Hamas at the request of the US.
Whatever Qatar does, does not necessarily say much about Turkey’s policy.
Horrific:
Starvation as weapon of war being used against Gaza civilians: Oxfam
https://www.dawn.com/news/1783651/starvation-as-weapon-of-war-being-used-against-gaza-civilians-oxfam
With that knowledge, UK just is still unfazed:
UK supports humanitarian pause, not ceasefire: Sunak
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2023/10/24/israel-hamas-war-live-fuel-shortfall-could-force-un-to-halt-work-in-gaza-2
Being against a ceasefire in a war that in majority kill civilians, kids? Have you ever heard of such an inhuman declaration?
I know next to nothing about the politics of the middle-east. So just an off-the-cuff question – if an opposition were intent on taking action against Israel, given that massive loss of life in Gaza is inevitable either way (unless Israel desists), would the most sensible option be to wait until Israel clears and annexes Gaza in part or whole, and then attack the annexed territories? It would allow a free hand to bombard and have support under international law.
The dis-untied kingdom’s PM Sunak daren’t support a ceasefire – by ceasefire I mean a halt to the extermination of the oppressed Palestinian people. He and his wife have business interests in Israel.
“With every passing minute, another human being in Gaza is killed.
Why did the Prime Minister instruct our representatives at the UN not to support a ceasefire?”
https://nitter.net/jeremycorbyn/status/1716516731730977105#m
The entire political system is rotten to its core, and needs pulled down and rebuilt with maximum oversight.
The majority of dis-untied kingdom politicians don’t see the genocide of the oppressed Palestinian people as something worth speaking out on.
Israel lobby “barrister” group, on BBC, was free to spread every heinous lie to justify the collective punishment.
This is Natasha Hausdorff of UK Lawyers For Israel
@UKLFI stunning @BBCkatyaadler into silence. She challenges Ms Hausdorff to justify Israel’s sanctions under international law.
https://nitter.net/DaveAtherton20/status/1716392163506819197#m
This is of course a woman that would wear a brown shirt, and defend and justify German atrocities in WW2.
As I said before, these people act like they belong to a sect or a cult.