There have been decades of photos of dead Palestinian women and children, and kids being beaten, humilated and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. The historic killing rate in this “conflict” has been fairly consistent at about 40:1.
None of this ever caused more than a raised eyebrow and a mild tut-tut from the western “liberal” Establishment. I can’t recall camera crews ever pursuing any zionist politicians down the street demanding that they use the word “condemn” of the latest Israeli atrocity.
The paroxysm of hatred in the political and media class, unleashed by a single day of the boot being on the other foot is instructive. It is particularly instructive in their near complete unanimity – what percentage of the discussion on broadcast TV or radio have you heard this last 48 hours given over to Palestinian or pro-Palestinian voices?
Yet it is very plain from social media that the public is by no means as unanimous in their support of Israel as are the political and media class.
But then the public are not bought and paid for.
Asymmetric warfare tends to be vile. Oppressed and colonised peoples don’t have the luxury of lining up soldiers in neatly pressed uniforms and polished boots, to face off against the opposing army in an equality of arms.
A colonised and oppressed people tends, given the chance, to mirror the atrocities perpetrated on them by their oppressor.
This of course feeds in, always, to the propaganda of the Imperialist. A paroxysm of resistance by the oppressed always ends up portrayed by the Imperialist as evidence of the bestiality of the colonised people and in itself justifying the “civilising mission” of the coloniser.
Thus the “Indian Mutiny” became a Victorian tale of rape and murder of British women and of the Black Hole of Calcutta. Thus the Mau Mau were evil butchers, and the IRA were terrorists, which is the modern term of art for those resisting evil and foreign rule.
The Israeli Ambassador to the UN yesterday described the Hamas fighters as “animal like”. This of course is not true. They are people, but people who have been crazed by unbearable levels of injustice and oppression.
I am extremely sorry for all those who die, as in all wars. I am sorry even for the deaths of individual Israeli soldiers, and more so for all the innocents who died and are now dying.
But I will not condemn Hamas.
For this I do not even need to delve into the backstory of Hamas’ initial sponsoring by Israel to split Fatah. They have grown well past that. I do not condemn Hamas because the resistance of the Palestinian people is a reflex response to their slow genocide.
Yes it is an inchoate and violent response. Of course I wish it did not have innocent victims.
The people I do condemn are the political class internationally who, with one voice, put out statements supporting “Israel’s right to self-defence”. A right they grant to the oppressor but deny to the oppressed.
Those are the people who need to be condemned.
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Craig has said it all; I can think of nothing to add. I feel angry, frustrated and deeply sad.
At present I’m not following events in any media. I have been told by friends that Israel has Gaza besieged.
Murdering 260 unarmed revellers and exulting in it cannot be self-defence because revelry is not attack and exultation is not defence. This act is simply the vicious expression of murderous hatred. Whether or not the impulse is shared by both sides does not change its nature or the deep moral defect Mr Murray’s perspective reveals in him.
You are just making up stuff he didn’t write. He wrote asymmetric warfare is vile. Even British politicians know that ‘Israel’s 9/11’ is Palestine’s 24/7. You are posturing as a moralist even as the apartheid State of Israel is genociding men, women and children in Gaza — roared on by the UK and EU governments. You very conspicuously make no mention of it, so how could you imagine you would be treated on here as CM’s moral superior?
Learn to read before you write. “The people I do condemn are the political class internationally who, with one voice, put out statements supporting “Israel’s right to self-defence”. A right they grant to the oppressor but deny to the oppressed.”
Yes, self-evident and indisputable. Surely not even you believe they grant the same genocidal licence to the Palestinians as they do to their colonizers/ oppressors?
Tdg
If Israel can freely murder Palestinians for 60 years, why these crocodile tears when Palestinians respond in kind? By the way, just to make clear: Is murdering over 700 Palestinians, including 140 children, self-defense? Because that is what Israel have committed over the past 2 days. Could we get a clear condemnation from you on this?
Any evidence of these alleged deaths?
What was going on is murky at best. This is from The Times of Israel:
“The directive to the forces is clear. Find terrorists and destroy them,” Hagari said. “We are making a strong defense on the border. There were infiltration attempts today, but the terrorists were eliminated before they reached the fence.”
Hagari also said the bodies of 103 terrorists were found in Kibbutz Be’eri alone, after they were killed in clashes with troops. More than 100 Israelis were murdered by the terrorists in the kibbutz.
——
Seems like “terrorist were detected”, kibbutz was covered by an artillery barrage, and the 200 hundred bodies were found. Israeli bodies were declared “murdered by terrorists”. Or the lack of mention of military casualties stems from labelling them as part of “murdered by terrorists”.
Responding to Jack above, the stated goal is to liquidate “Hamas officials”, and two such killed officials were identified, so few hundred “collateral damage” per official? How many buildings and market places were identified as locations of those “Hamas officials”?
Tdg. Assuming it’s true that so many were killed, and it’s not a gross exaggeration, where do you think this murderous hatred stems from? I have no doubt whatsoever that the Israeli fascists who have been running the show from the outset, enjoy doing everything they can to cultivate such hatred in the Palestinians.
Cont: They are like mega bullies who are many times stronger than their victim, and therefore know that they can beat the hell out of them and torment them and there’s nothing they can do about it, and THAT amuses the evil at the center of their being no end.
Geezo oh, the Zionist loving BBC has really gone over the top today, on its support for the occupying oppressive apartheid military regime known as Israel. Their sheer bias towards the Zionists is on a par with their sheer bias towards Ukraine and its neo-Nazi regime.
The Western media (or as Nato likes to call it the civilised world, which in reality is just North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) is disgusting. These Zionist loving “news” outlets turn my stomach.
Long live Palestine and its people.
The Palestinians’ plight rarely gets mentioned thus these occasional flare-ups of violence draw consternation with the British public and politicians asking why Palestinians are so angry, as if peace and harmony has been ruptured for no reason. The blackout on Palestinian suffering isn’t by chance imho, it’s by design. Take a look at key BBC public opinion formers and those who control the BBC ‘s political output and narratives. All of the following are Jewish, at the risk of conspiracy theorist accusations, it’s hard to believe this overrepresentation of one faith and the indifference to Palestinian suffering isn’t linked and hasn’t simply happened by chance:
Mark Urban (Newsnight)
Gabriel Gatehouse (Newsnight)
Emily Maitlis (Newsnight)
Jo Coburn (Politics Live)
Nick Robinson (Radio 4)
Laura Kuenssberg (succeeded Nick Robinson as political editor of BBC News)
Emma Barnett (Radio 4)
Robert Peston (ITV Peston)
It’s likely hiring and editorial roles would reflect a similar bias. And before someone says highlighting this is anti-Semitic, just imagine the right-wing press key opinion formers were Muslim and overwhelmingly pro-Palestine.
“The Western media (or as Nato likes to call it the civilised world, which in reality is just North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) is disgusting”.
I have come to like the expression “the golden billion”.
that gold turned brown, can’t you see?
All UK Government Buildings Ordered To Fly Israeli Flags.
“This decision, which applies to all government buildings, including town halls, council offices, and national institutions, comes amidst heightened tensions in the Middle East. The flags are expected to fly for a specified duration, marking a significant move by the UK government to express support for Israel.”
And I bet you thought that Westminster wasn’t that integrated with Zionist Israel, Westminster uses the the company Cellibrite to monitor phones, its head once worked for the Zionist 8200 Unit.
We should all fly the Palestinian flag just to piss them off.
They’ll need more flagpoles what with the Zionist flag and the Ukrainian flag fluttering in the wind.
https://nitter.net/Lowkey0nline/status/1711693018925854930#m
Westerners are off the rail again, one day they raise the flag for occupied Ukraine, next day they raise the flag for the occupier in Israel.
Well there we have it again, the support for Ukraine have obviously nothing to do with west having a higher-moral standard, following international law etc as they claim. Western states do not realize that outside of the west, people are astonished by their hypocrisy.
Across the west Israel has successfully lobbied for Hezbollah and Hamas to be proscribed.
It speaks more to the venal, corrupt nature of our politicians and officials, that they agreed without reciprocal demands regarding peace process progress. The Palestinians were so close to statehood in the mid-late 1990s and it’s been western supported Israeli backsliding ever since. Western govts are correctly seen by all others as part of the problem not the solution.
Goose.
Israeli/Western Zionists have courted fascism for decades even they don’t really care about Jewish folk.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/israel-long-supported-europe-anti-semitic-extremists/285906/
Unsurprisingly Zelensky has come out in defence of the Zionists.
“President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Monday condemned Hamas for its surprise assault on Israel and likened the attack to Russia’s invasion of his own country. In a speech to NATO, he also criticized Iran for its support of Hamas and Moscow.
It is the second speech that Mr. Zelensky, who spoke to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Sunday, has delivered in support of Israel since Hamas’s incursion into Israel. In another sign of the Ukrainian government’s strong backing for Israel, electronic billboards in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, were lit with the Israeli flag on Sunday night.
Mr. Zelensky said that Hamas and Moscow were “the same evil.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/09/world/europe/zelensky-ukraine-russia-israel.html
No mention from Zelensky of the eighty years of terrorism form the Zionists on the Palestinians.
The obvious parallel is the one of illegal occupier that Russia and Israel share. Quite how Zelensky can support the occupier and oppressor against the oppressed idk? His bizarre inconsistency undermines his country’s fight against Russia.
Zelensky has been begging for Israel’s Iron dome. Thus far, afaik, Israel have rejected his pleas lest they risk upsetting Russia. Israel has to walk a tight path given the number of Russian emigrés playing a decisive role in Israel’s elections. And if they lose the Kremlin’s friendship to say Iran, things can get very bad for Israel indeed across the whole region. Iran could quickly attain nuclear capability and hypersonic missile delivery systems with Russia’s help.
Were Russia to provide both N. Korea and Iran with such technologies, the US would also lose, facing multiple threats and nuclear proliferation; too many to defend against and too many to sabotage. I honestly think that only a credible nuclear threat against Israel will bring about a change in Israeli behaviour, as scary as that scenario is.
The Ukraine flag had been flying on Norwich city Hall as well as County Hall for month on end. Now the Rogue state get their emblem publicised ad nauseum.
Thanks for your eloquent and very public take on this ‘prepared’ shitshow by the torture specialists.
I’m thankful that Iran is supporting the Palestinians.
Nevermind
Iran (at best) bullies and threatens its women and girls into conformity with its medieval dress code.
At worst of course it murders them and their male allies.
The Ayatollahs are miserable misogynistic old shits.
I pity Palestinians if they depend on Iran.
Yes, JK redux, religious leaders can make things worse.
Consider the despicable Rabbis who tell their followers to follow the ancient Jewish custom of spitting on Christians and command them to desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque and use force to turn it in to a Jewish place of worship. I pity secular Israelis who have to depend on these fanatics, who now form a large part of the Israeli government.
What better way to start a war, JK redux?
“Police in England and Wales should treat Palestinian flags, chants and other symbols displayed in certain contexts as hate speech, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said in a letter of instruction sent on Tuesday”
https://www.rt.com/news/584599-uk-palestine-flags-police/
Wendell Griffen is an Arkansas circuit judge and pastor of New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark.
What he writes below is very much worth reading:
“President John F. Kennedy said in 1962, ‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable’.”
As someone who has visited the region, who studied political science, served in the US military, and who knows that the US defense and intelligence establishment provides a security guarantee for Israeli land theft, mineral theft, human rights and international law violations, apartheid, and genocide against Palestinians, I know that the Israeli-Hamas war was inevitable. Palestinians have the moral, legal, and political right to not be invaded and terrorized by Israeli settlers. They have the right to conduct their affairs free from Israeli military occupation. And they have the right to defend themselves against US-subsidized and Israeli-perpetrated apartheid and genocide. Only moral, ethical, cultural, and political incompetence prevents people from saying so.
“We should deplore the casualties that have occurred and will continue in Gaza, Israel, and across Palestine. Nevertheless, we should also acknowledge that Hamas exposed the folly and moral lunacy of the 75-year US-European-led diplomatic, military, intelligence, and cultural strategy concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rational people understand that when oppression cannot be stopped by non-violent means, people with the ability to fight it violently will eventually decide to do so.”
“However, the prerogative of moral violence has always been considered the exclusive right of white people. Israel followed the lead of other white imperialists and colonizers since the Western Christian Church established the idolatrous and blasphemous fifteenth-century Doctrine of Discovery. The key difference is that Zionist zealotry, rather than Christian missionary zealotry, is the excuse given for Israeli imperialism and colonialism in Palestine. Israeli Zionist imperialism and colonialism and Euro-American imperialism and colonialism are merely different sides of the same white supremacist hateful faith coin”.
I might add that “the folly and moral lunacy of the 75-year US-European-led diplomatic, military, intelligence, and cultural strategy concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” has an underlying rationale that Rev Griffen does not adequately explore, and that is that it is in the financial and strategic interests of Global Finance Capital.
The reason this is not reported in this way by our biased media is because the same people own that media, and because they also own our government, the State Broadcaster follows suit.
Someone here helpfully provided a list of some of the most ardent Zionists in that media.
Noam Chomsky – who is of course Jewish himself, but fervently anti-Zionist – provided the answer to that issue in his famous interview with BBC House Jock Andrew Marr:
“How can you know that I’m self-censoring?” Marr asks.
To which Chomsky replies: “I’m not saying you’re self-censoring. I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying. But what I’m saying is that if you believe something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting.”
Ditto the BBC Zionists
“President John F. Kennedy said in 1962, ‘Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable’.”
Both – I am tempted to make that “all”, but for Teddy and some of the current crop – Kennedys were so humane, decent, and charitable that it seems inevitable they would be murdered.
RFK, Jr right now seems to me to be telling the criminals who run the USA, “Go ahead – make my day”. If they kill him, could that possibly be glossed over? “Once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; the third time it’s enemy action”.
RFK Jr says all the right things, but like most western politicians he has stated he 100% supports Israel.
Go figure. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss, the dance macabre never ends …
Haaretz reports Netanyahu as saying the following:
“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas,” Netanyahu told his Likud party’s Knesset members in March 2019. “This is part of our strategy”
Murkier and murkier.
The lack of reaction to dozens of paragliders and fence breaches seemed odd considering the normal patrols and hypervigilance.
Shin Beth, along with Aman and Mossad, is the most effective national security intelligence service in the world. Totally ruthless too.
It is, very literally, incredible that the Israeli intelligence services did not know every detail of the planned attack(s) by Hamas weeks or months ahead.
They quite certainly knew that it was going to happen, when it was going to happen, how and where is was going to happen. Yet they did nothing to intercede or disrupt the plot. Why not?
My guess is that they knew that most world opinion would be that is the Palestinians who are the alien invaders in Palestine and that most countries will look away as the Zionists obliterate every part of Hamas and terrorise the surviving populace into cowering submission for generations.
Bibi has openly declared “we are going to change the Middle East”. He didn’t clarify what he meant by that, but a total wipeout of Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation does appear to be the strategic objective of the hard-liner Zionists such as Netanyahu.
You’re confusing the BBC with the world. Netanyahu knows better than anyone that the world is not with him.
https://x.com/AlanRMacLeod/status/1711370375085605187?s=20
Article in Canadian dimension comparing the situation in Israel/Palestine to Vietnam re: end of security – /canadiandimension.com/articles/view/hamas-campaign-recalls-tet-offensive-could-this-also-be-a-turning-point
Interestingly Democracy Now, in case of UKR/RU is more aligned with US official view, whereas, I believe, it does very much support Palestine. Which doesn´t mean the interviewees do not criticize Hamas. Read for yourself. But they sort of always try to keep the big picture in mind, to always show the causes too. In one case, whether they have lost friends in these attacks themselves or not.
currently 4 pieces/interview:
“Hamas Killed His Friend, But Knesset Member Cassif Says End the Occupation Now, All “Pay the Price””
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/9/knesset_member_occupation_hamas_attack_israel
““Dark Days”: Israeli Human Rights Leader Orly Noy on Israel’s War on Palestinians After Hamas Attack”
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/9/israel_human_rights_lawyer_hamas_israel
““Do You Hear the Bombing?”: Gazan Human Rights Lawyer Raji Sourani Describes Israeli Siege of Gaza City”
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/9/gazan_human_rights_lawyer_raji_sourani
“Historian Rashid Khalidi: Palestinians “Living Under Incredible Oppression, … It Had to Explode”
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/10/9/rashid_khalidi_palestine_israel_explosion
* * *
Moon of Alabama had linked this “Egypt says Israel ignored warnings Hamas planned major offensive – Yedioth Ahronoth” but the link/article seems to be gone. Traditionally the left Israeli papers are much more frank and informed than almost any publication in Europe. Whenever I see that it strikes me as remarkable. In a certain way it’s a bit like Ukraine papers, when they were reporting about matters that were not popular in the West, albeit much more convoluted in their case. But there is a parallel which you won’t find in the US media if it concerns domestic affairs. For them it’s always easier to talk about others than oneself.
* * *
From the Finkelstein podcast – on the young 20s who carried out attacks and might have been outside Gaza for the first time in their life since they had been locked up for 18 years – I think people here can hardly imagine what that meant. And those who write for the papers and do their superficial reporting from afar just lack the imagination and information.
“(…)
Norman Finkelstein
I would like to add one more point. I recognize the distinction between civilians and combatants. [Moulin: Yes, that’s the key distinction.] However, I know I will seem to be contradicting myself, and that’s because I think neither legal formulas nor sociological texts can, in all circumstances, capture the complexity of life. Most of the Hamas militants, probably the ones who broke through the fence, okay?
Mouin Rabbani
It’s probably their first time out of Gaza.
Norman Finkelstein
It’s their first time out of Gaza because you assume they’re mostly in their 20s. The blockade has gone on now for 18 years. They grew up in a concentration camp. They want to be free. One of the natures of the current technology is they get to see on the screen all these people walking free. They want to be free. They joined Hamas, they volunteered. Yes, by international law, they constitute combatants. Do I think they’re legitimate targets because they’re combatants? You’ll never convince me. You will never convince me.
I know what the law says. I know what I’m legally obliged to say. I know what as a scholar or reported scholar I’m supposed to say. But, are you going to convince me a person who grew up in a concentration camp and wants to breathe free air, is – to use the language of international law – a legitimate target, I can’t do it. I cannot. Now, people are going to say, “you’re a hypocrite, you say you uphold international law, you know the fundamental principle of international law is the principle of distinction. Now you’re contradicting yourself.” Yeah, I’ll admit it. I don’t think legal formulas can capture every situation. And I don’t believe a child who was born into a concentration camp is a legitimate target. If he, in this case, it is he, if he wants to be free. I can’t see it.
(…)”
Future generations will remember the 21st Century as the century of race wars. Wars instigated by the Anglosphere in the paroxysm of its dying.
Distasteful as the German word may seem, it’s very largely a matter of Lebensraum. Space to live in. As the world population soars past 8 billion, adding over 80 million every year, people are being squeezed too close together. If you do that to rats, at a certain point they go mad, stop eating, and become violently and indiscriminately aggressive. Mothers actually eat their own young.
We differ from rats less than we would like to think. Although I do admit it’s very hard to explain Israel in terms of need for living space. Jewish people, most of whom were comfortably well off if not actually rich in their countries of birth, decided to create a brand new state in the land of other people who had been there for centuries. And why? Because the “Jewish people” needed a “homeland” that is exclusive to them.
Yet if a Scottish person wants Scotland to be his exclusive homeland, he is abused as a racist. I have been rebuked on this blog for saying that I am “a pure-blooded Scot”; yet in Israel one cannot be a first-class citizen unless one is a pure-blooded Jew.
the “Jewish people” needed a “homeland” that is exclusive to them – that’s right.
By that moment they have already had a land in Russia, I mean the Jewish Autonomous Region. The point about Israel is land that is exclusive to them
“The point about Israel is land that is exclusive to them”.
Yes, exactly, Tatyana. A right that the current Western establishment view denies to all other nations – such as the Scots.
I dont think many people here will understand what you mean.
You should explain that a Jewish Homeland was set up in Russia historically.
I only discovered that recently.
As I understand it, Western public opinion lacks the fact that the Jews still have another land. And Israel itself also does not mention this, building an image of poor fellows without a choice who may lose their only home. Right?
If the zionists achieve their aims and kill or eject all the Palestinians, then what? Does anyone believe that this pack of rabid dogs will then live in peace with its neighbours?
Stevie
Let’s be fair. We need to be aware that it’s not all of the Palestinian people, but Hamas, and these are quite rabid dogs too.
As for Israel’s prospects for surviving among hostile neighbors, I think a lot depends on how this conflict develops.
In my opinion, if Israel now, with the support of its partners, simply destroys indiscriminately everyone in Gaza in order to defeat Hamas, then international partners may face not only the disappearance of Israel from the face of the Earth, but also a wave of terrorism in their own countries.
Considering the number of refugees from this region in Europe, and the wise policy of the United States (I mean being the instigator of the conflict, supporting Israel, but flows of refugees still land in Europe), the wave of terrorism is unlikely to seriously affect the United States, but in Europe it could break out very hot.
I don’t have a ready-made solution, but trying to escalate the conflict even more is very dangerous.
Tatyana.
I take your point, but I find it hard to believe that any Palestanian is happy with their predicament. Hamas may be extreme but who else is fighting Palestine’s corner?
BTW, I read a report that implies that Hamas was essentially set up with the help of Mossad, to destablise Yasser Arafat, if so maybe this is a case of reaping what you sow, in many ways.
The question is ‘what does peace and normalcy look like for Israel?’.
Judaism is only clinging to a few hundred ancient square kms; compare that to the millions of km2 that the “religion of peace” wants to hold forever, the “Dar-el Islam”. Israel is peanuts in the factual bigger picture but not in the in places like here and other biased limited hangouts. Strict framing is the name of the (old) game.
Zionism has many faults, but Islam made those same faults a zillion times bigger in the past.
Let the hypocrite avalanche begin…
People supporting Hamas in UK will be ‘held to account’, says Rishi Sunak – Guardian
Are they supporting Hamas or the Palestinians? Notice how every report like this in the Guardian, Telegraph, BBC et al is accompanied with an image of people waving Palestinian flags. Imagine trying to prove that equates to support for Hamas or their tactics.
I don’t think proof comes into the picture, Goose. The deliberately vague threats made by everyone from the PM down (or should that be “up”?) are obviously intended to have a chilling effect. Those who might have demonstrated may only protest; those who might have protested may only mumble a few criticisms; and those who might have criticised will shut up.
It’s clear that the intention is for everyone to get the idea that “supporting” Hamas in any way is wicked, and should be punished. In due course I suppose it will be.
In the UK, people will probably be okay if they’re just waving Palestinian flags, Goose – but the Terrorism Act 2000 is sufficiently broad brush to catch pretty much all other expressions of support for Palestinian resistance (for example, saying that Palestinians have a moral right to fight against the IDF in Gaza). Under Section 12, it is an offence (punishable by up to 14 years in prison and/or an unlimited fine)* to:
‘Invite support for a proscribed organisation (the support invited need not be material support, such as the provision of money or other property, and can also include moral support or approval) (section 12(1))
Express an opinion or belief that is supportive of a proscribed organisation, reckless as to whether a person to whom the expression is directed will be encouraged to support a proscribed organisation (section 12(1A))’
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/proscribed-terror-groups-or-organisations–2/proscribed-terrorist-groups-or-organisations-accessible-version#
The military wings of Hamas & Palestinian Islamic Jihad have long been proscribed but, since 2021, the non-military section of Hamas, that’s responsible for the provision of public services in Gaza, is also classed as a proscribed terrorist organisation.
This is one of the reasons why I don’t use my real name on here.
* In contrast, the maximum penalty for treason against HM the King is just 7 years, apparently:
https://inews.co.uk/news/punishment-treason-penalty-uk-law-2126837
That’s because obviously HM the King is far less important than Israel. To British people, that is, in Britain. I feel sure he himself would agree.
Thanks for your reply Tom. I’m not so sure about that – despite his best efforts over the years, Bonnie King Charlie is still fairly popular with a large section of British society.
I like him personally, and we probably have a good deal in common – although I have no time for his woke attitudes.
But politically he is about as significant as one of the paintings on the walls of Buck House. Purely ornamental. Even parliament is no more than a rubber stamp.
Back in 2017 the late Clive James pointed out, with his customary acuity,
“Totalitarianism takes over a state at the moment when the ruling party is taken over by its secretariat: the tipping point is when Stalin, with his lists of names, offers to stay late after the meeting and take care of business. The same vulnerability applies to any learned institution at all”.
HMG has long passed that point. The King is irrelevant. Parliament is irrelevant. The Cabinet is of marginal influence. The real work goes on in the Cabinet Office – not one member of which is elected or accountable to the people. One may hazard various guesses at the identity of our current Stalin, which will vary in accuracy according to the political knowledge of the guesser. He or she is certainly unknown to the general public.
“One may hazard various guesses at the identity of our current Stalin, which will vary in accuracy according to the political knowledge of the guesser. He or she is certainly unknown to the general public.”
The UK has always been an oligarchy where the oligarchs are largely invisible and unknown. Indeed we sneer at countries with visible oligarchs and call them “autocracies” and “dictatorships”.
Thanks for your reply Tom. British monarchs haven’t really had any significant political power since the days of the first King Charles. I’m a Clive James* fan, but I’m not sure he’s on the money vis-a-vis Stalin. Right from the earliest days of the Russian Revolution and before, Stalin was at the top table of the Bolsheviks; he didn’t start off as some humble apparatchik who gradually got to know where all the bodies were buried.
* According to Wiki, he was born 9 days before my late mother, and died 10 days before she did. That’s a bit spooky if you ask me.
Lapsed
It’s only related but eventually will connect: in forthcoming updates Microsoft will ask all users of its online programs/services to agree to terms of contract that basically grant MS permission to check your private files on those online servers any time. And they will terminate your account if they find content of the kind that we have already become accustomed to with Youtube’s censorship. I assume in GB this would suggest that you could lose your account (most likely also get into legal trouble) if they find Hamas-related material and views that you describe.
(Perhaps MODERATION knows more about this. But that’s how I understood it today.)
Sorry that this is off topic, but it’s important and I am just posting this one comment. For years I have held out against dumping Windows because it is just too convenient and who wants to learn a whole new slate of software.
But announcements like these will give me no choice. As soon as my Windows 10 expires, I am off to Penguin land. I should have gone years ago, if not in 2000.
My computer, my information, my rules. Piss off Microsoft, EU, HMG, the whole lot of you.
Thanks for your reply AG. I’m not particularly worried about not getting any more updates from MS: if the journals will only take Office 2025 files or whatever, my ex-boss can sort it out himself. It’s the 7 years (if I behave myself) in HMP Low Newton or wherever – and/or substantial contribution to HM Treasury – that I’d be more worried about.
The answer is – don’t put your data into online servers, beyond the very minimum necessary for sending files. certainly not storing your files online such as in OneDrive, etc. I haven’t since the time when I was involved in the opposition to the invasion of Iraq, and was at risk, having information that could have led to prosecution. As far as I can see, it is still possible to get round Windows in such a way as to not allow them to rummage through your files, though you might have to miss out on some of the latest bells and whistles.
What about people supporting Israel?
Here’s an aspect of the reality for numerous Palestinians that doesn’t get much coverage:
No Peace of Mind – Palestinian Mental Health Under Occupation (June 2022)
No Peace of Mind, a report released today by AIDA and Médecins du Monde highlights the often hidden impact of over half a century of occupation has had on the mental health of Palestinian communities…..
The report draws from interviews conducted in August and September 2021 across ten communities of the West Bank in Area C, and reveals Palestinians suffer widespread ailments symptomatic of mental health conditions such as trauma, depression and anxiety arising from rights violations, primarily settler violence, excessive use of force from the Israeli Secuirty Forces, confiscations and demolitions.
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/no-peace-mind-palestinian-mental-health-under-occupation-june-2022
How could it be any different living in such a situation and conditions – i.e. trapped in such a situation with no way out. Thing is, though, that for millions of people who have swallowed all the demonisation and the terrorist B/S it never enters their heads how so many of them suffer.
Rules of propaganda.
If you are going to run a story about 40 babies with their heads cut off, don’t smirk while you are telling it.
https://twitter.com/EylonALevy/status/1711725099299053922
I just did a search and this is being widely reported in the MSM in the past few hours. But the odd thing is that whilst some media outlets are reporting that 40 babies have been beheaded, others are saying that ‘some’ of the babies killed were beheaded. Well it can’t be BOTH, and it’s more than likely neither, and it’s concocted and designed to marginalise those of us sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians during the past seventy-five years plus. I’m sure everyone remembers the ‘babies being thrown out of their incubators’ story which turned out to be a big lie.
Here’s a couple of clips from the ‘Summary’ (on the right-hand side of the page) of a Live BBC article:
Babies were killed in their bedrooms, says an Israeli general who has been removing bodies of adults and children from the kibbutz
Israeli soldiers also told BBC International Editor Jeremy Bowen that some of the dead had been beheaded
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-67050350
Surely the general would have said as much if babies had been beheaded.
Make that left-hand side of the page!
“If you are going to run a story about 40 babies with their heads cut off, don’t smirk while you are telling it.”
Ah yes, dead babies, I wondered when they were going to turn up.
PS, it looks like this story has already been debunked, by the IDF of all people.
In conflicts it is always the civilians that suffer the most.
It was the Israel civilians followed by the Palestinian civilians in larger numbers.
Some wonder why attack Israel when you know the response will be to kill far more Palestinians.
Some hope against hope that the world will see this reprisal attack on Palestine and at last come to Palestine aid.
But this is naïve. even if they wanted to dismantle the prison that is Palestine they know that there would be attacks in Israel from the Palestinians and other groups. So this would not be allowed.
Some wonder if Ukraine even with the West’s support can resist Russia.
Palestine has little support from the West. How can it resist Israel?
What is the answer for the 2 million people living in Palestine. There are more than 4 million refugees in Turkey.
The only answer I can think of is that a new homeland is found for the Palestinians.
This may not be just like many native people driven from their homeland. But better than the alternative.
Exchange Israel for Russia, and Gaza for Ukraine and watch the western hypocrites change their tune.
Western leaders have been engulfed by evil.
Evil is a very subtle influence, and can portray itself as ‘the honest and good path’ from time to time; but if one gets to the point where the only path to fighting evil is vastly more death and destruction, then the rest of the world should be brave and say “enough is enough”.
The fight for good will always attempt to find the most peaceful solution, with the least damage to anyone.
Change Israel for Ukraine and Gaza for Donbass and watch the western hypocrites do not change their tune. With one hand they sign fake diplomatic solutions, and with the other hand they support the oppressor, while their lying tongues scream UNPROVOKED!
I’m sorry that you can’t see any differences between Israel and its enemies.
The main difference that I can see is that Hamas uses rifles and knives to massacre civilians whereas Israel uses warplanes and heavy artillery, largely provided by a conniving, and therefore complicit, West. Many observers have compared Saturday’s attack to the persecution of the Jews by the Third Reich, but a far more apposite analogy can be drawn with the wholesale massacres perpetrated by Zionist terrorists at Deir Yassin and sundry other sites as part of ethnically cleansing the Palestinians from their historic homeland. Indeed, and to paraphrase Malcolm X following the Kennedy assassination, the weekend’s events, like those on 9/11, can only be seen as turkeys coming home to roost.
Yes, it’s much more civilised to blow people to pieces.
Just came across the following article:
‘Ten-year gap between Palestinian and Israeli life expectancy: report’
The life expectancy of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza is about ten years lower than that of persons in present-day Israel, according to a new report. Meanwhile, infant mortality and maternal death rates are also four times higher in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The data compiled by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-I) reveals the disparities in health, which the organization says are direct impacts of the Israeli occupation.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/ten-year-gap-between-palestinian-and-israeli-life-expectancy-report
Israeli Zionists have been committing war crimes for decades now, the evil Zionists are even bombing Palestinian civilians attempting to flee the open air concentration camp known as the Gaza Strip.
“After demanding that Palestinians leave Gaza, the Israeli army is now bombing and reportedly killing civilians attempting to escape through the Rafah crossing to Egypt. This is hardly the first time it’s done this.”
https://nitter.net/MaxBlumenthal/status/1711745549215367377#m
I’m surprised that Nato hasn’t fired some depleted uranium shells into the Gaza Strip yet.
The UN is an utter joke they bitch about the Rohingya people, and the Uyghur people in China on the infringements of their human rights, and how something MUST be done about it, yet here we are almost eighty years on from the 1948 massacres of the Palestinian people who suffer from brutal oppression day in and day out at the hands of the Israelis, and as usual the UN does nothing. The EU, in their kowtowing to the Israeli Zionists, imposed sanctions on the Palestinian people by stopping their aid to them.
On top of this the oppressors of the Palestinians have cut off the water, power and food supplies to the concentration camp (aka the Gaza Strip).
Home Secretary Suella Braverman says that waving the Palestinian flag may become a criminal offence in the UK.
https://nitter.net/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1711819737393414350#m
I Carry the Palestine Flag when on AUOB marches…Myself and some others do so.. Braverman can F off.
Brian.
You might find this short clip amusing.
“Sheffield Council followed orders from the British government and flew the Israeli flag today as it bombed Gaza.
A protestor climbed the council building and replaced it with the Palestinian flag.”
https://nitter.net/Lowkey0nline/status/1711816234067444086#m
I would dare to say that the mood of the public in general does not match that of the Zionist-loving Westminster government, or the Zionist-loving media in the UK.
Re: the waving of flags, here’s a big lie The Times of Israel concocted a few months back:
Protesters who waved Israeli flags at a Roger Waters concert in London were kicked out of the venue in two separate incidents, while those waving Palestinian flags were reportedly not bothered by security at the performance Wednesday.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/protesters-waving-israeli-flags-booted-from-roger-waters-concert-in-london/
Needless to say, no-one goes to a RW concert and waves a Palestinian flag, let alone a number of people.
to that logic waving Union Jack should be outlawed too.
what is going on with these people?
dont tell me they are not informed about the true history of Palestine/Israel….
If the Prime Minister gets those secret service files and the launching codes Home Secretary will be put into the picture as much.
In Germany they like to say, you cannot seriously have contact with AfD supporters or party members.
Were I to suggest the same with British politicians they would call me nuts since the AfD people are allegedly Nazis while the other ones are democratically minded sensible people.
Yeah right.
p.s. on the other hand there are slips of conscience like this one by Anthony Blinken and his deleted Twitter post:
“Blinken Deletes Tweet Encouraging Ceasefire Between Israel and Hamas”
https://news.antiwar.com/2023/10/09/blinken-deletes-tweet-encouraging-ceasefire-between-israel-and-hamas/
That almost makes me like the guy since I have always thought he should just have taken a nice post at Sorbonne University and maybe write poetry like former French SoS Villepin. And besides Villepin with just 3 employees in his company in 2014 alone still made 1.8 million Euros.
In fact, several progressive professors of political science or sociology turned political advisors eventually would do the opposite of what they had once taught their university students. I find that really tragic. It’s self-destructive.
This evil Israeli Zionist propaganda minister is calling for the Gaza Strip to be nuked.
https://nitter.net/davidsheen/status/1711597471967621584#m
Meanwhile Rishi Sunak has said that the UK is poised to offer military help to Israel if required. As if the poor Palestinian folk aren’t oppressed enough, the English PM wants to add to that oppression.
https://nitter.net/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1711393182305464777#m
The Israelis are apparently shelling Gaza’s seaport.
Senseless destruction that serves no military objective and can only be described as collective in nature. Gaza fishing is already limited to small boats and area restricted making fishing difficult at the best of times. They are truly scoundrels and I don’t think most US, UK and EU citizens cheering them on, realise how bad they’ve made life in Gaza.
Steve Bell has had a cartoon – ‘Netanyahu’s pound of flesh’ – rejected by the guardian…
Notice the guardian has not opened its comments anywhere, in what amounts to a huge suppression exercise. This is how liberals always behave when faced with opinions they don’t like – by being censorial. Viner knows exactly what the readers will say about the Israel-Palestine situation, therefore refuses to let them. The Telegraph, to its credit, has comments open, although the expected ‘slaughter them all’ bunch are predictably overcome with bloodlust, as are the opinion pieces. Especially that of the typically vicious Richard Kemp, a former British army officer who comes across as a truly nasty piece of work. (Wasn’t he on the UK’s national security council at one point?) Kemp recently took flak in the comments, for claiming Ukraine was down to conscripts, with its army now broadly destroyed.
Who is Steve Bell?
Asking as a Neanderthal from across the Channel.
@AG
A mildly famous UK cartoonist who’s been accused of antisemitism in the past.
He isn’t anti-Semitic, not in any way, but his cartoons can be deliberately controversial.
There are multiple parallels here:
9/11
The Ukrainian invasion/Special Operation.
The revolt of Palestinians.
They revolve around hubris and the backing of a nation/people into a corner wherein which they end up having no alternative other than to fight their way out of the corner.
The de-humanising of a people leads to a nastiness and hatred on all sides. But as Craig says, the bottom line is that for 75 years the Colonialists handed over Arab lands that were not theirs.
Since the Colonialists have defended their illegal (and possibly moral) error due to the way the Nazis treated the Jews they came across in WW2 quite rightly as a special case. The problem is that the Zionists used that deserved sympathy as a carte blanche to do whatever they see fit to ‘Defend’ the State of Israel at any cost.
We are witnessing the results of that massive error now. Unfortunately no one wants to admit that error. Particularly the US.
I must remind everyone that Israel is a Nuclear Armed State. If Iran becomes involved directly then that is extremely dangerous.
quoting Moon of Alabama:
“The Israeli government has called up another 360,000 reservists for a total of 660,000 reservists plus the 170,000 in the regular standing forces. Israel’s total labor force is 4.4 million.
This is not sustainable for more than a week or two. With 660,000 mostly young people, 15% of the total workforce, suddenly absent, Israel’s economy will immediately tank. The Shekel and the Israeli stock market have already dropped significantly and the central bank had to intervene to keep the currency stable.
Meanwhile 200,000 out of a total of 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza are now displaced. Israel bombed their homes to smithereens and they have nowhere to go.
A few days ago Netanyahoo told people in Gaza to leave. The only place they theoretically could go is Egypt. Today Israel bombed the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
A ground invasion of Gaza will be difficult and likely lead to massacres – on both sides. Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria would likely see a ground invasion of Gaza as a reason to intervene. It has missiles and drones that are precise and can reach any part of Israel. Israel may then retaliate by attacking the Syrian government. Iran and Russia would thereby get involved in the war. The U.S. of course would jump in on Israel’s side.
This war could really, really escalate and do so soon.”
The view on Finkelstein´s podcast was more calrm or routine, expecting cycles we have witnessed in the past 30 years.
Why should they blow everything up over a piece of desert?
I might be totally wrong but it would make little sense to draw strategic comparison to the Ukrainian War.
p.s. doesn´t mean Neocons don´t intend to take advantage and start some operation against Iran. But then this would be like coincidence. Unless rumours are substantial and IDF did intentionally look away while Hamas was arming up as suggested by some. But I like my explanations to be simple so far.
You wonder whether Israel realises the world is watching and the ‘Israel first’ octogenarians running the US political system are fading away. The next generation won’t be anywhere near as sympathetic to propping up apartheid, and special pleading about being the ‘chosen people’. One hell of a reckoning is coming in the West.
Just offering blanket support to the massacre Netanyahu has planned may be dangerous to western intel and military people, in the event of future political accountability.
No idea about the next generation.
My fear is currrent lack of philosophical and political education.
I recently had a discussion with someone from school service (a combination of teacher and coach for non-aggressive behaviour.)
We talked about racism. But then came those over-bearing allegations that many people would not realize what racism is. As if people are just too dumb.
It was no big step to the deformations where the misunderstandings of identity politics are dominating every inch of the current “leftist” public discourse.
Of course I made it crystal-clear that it was Marxist analysis of economic capitalist rule that was the real issue here and only a materialist approach would offer any remedy to ALL problems we have to deal with.
Unless that will happen groups will handily be played off against each other.
How can someone claim same rights for individuals (especially minorities), demand tearing down barriers and hierarchies, and then patronize others by telling THEM how things work, because these “teachers”, being from minorities themselves, were entitled to tell non-minorities what racism is.
To deny any form of analytical understanding and abstraction to non-affected individuals in these matters questions the very foundation of European Renaissance thought that would eventually put an end to slavery and feudalism. Galilei´s fight with the Catholic Church revolved around this very point – to believe and understand phenomena that you cannot experience and see. But in 2023 there are educated folks who do not grasp this.
Not by coincidence were major African-American activists of the Civil Rights era socialists, like MLK or Fred Hampton, and not by coincidence has this very part of their legacies been erased from history books.
25 years ago I would not have been forced to make that detour into the history and significance of Classical Marxist thinking.
It was known. So I am not sure about what will come after we are gone.
* * *
re: Palestine peace protests:
p.s. below piece on Consortium News by Phyllis Bennis has a map with Palestinian protests 2018-2020 against border patrols and numbers of killed and injured.
“After two years, the result was 214 Palestinians killed, including 46 children, and more than 36,000 injured, including 8,800 children. More than 8,000 of those injured were hit by live ammunition. By the time the protests waned, in 2019, the United Nations reported that 1,700 of the protesters faced amputation of legs or arms because Gaza hospitals had insufficient health care funding to provide advanced care for those shot by Israeli snipers.”
see:
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/10/uprooting-the-causes-of-violence-in-gaza-israel/
I don’t see the loyalties of the current gen being replicated. Of course elements in the Military/security establishment will try to maintain the status quo and current foreign policy positions, but they won’t succeed.
This tweet sums up the current madness:
I feel like I’m going mad, every politician is like “the killing of civilians is never acceptable and that’s why we must stand with Israel as it drops apartment blocks on children.”
The demographics in the West are changing, the incomers hold different views to the corrupt old men who currently hold power. It may take time but the clock is ticking for places like Israel, the USA and its lapdogs.
The irish republicans understood this during ‘the troubles’, whilst their enemies talked, they had babies.
To Allan Howard,
You make two accusations against me. One, that I accused CM of saying that Israel ‘had it coming’. I did not. Read my original post again. I was referring to ‘posters’, one of whom wrote this:
‘Hear, hear Craig. The lyric “you’re gonna reap just what you sow” has been running through my head for the last 3 days. Hopefully it will become clearer to more Israelis that without a just and durable peace settlement they are living in a fools paradise.’
And there are others in a similar vein.
As for evidence of CM’s ‘adoration’ of Jeremy Corbyn, I think if you read ‘The Framing of Jeremy Corbyn’ where he talks about how inspirational it was to share a platform with the former Labour leader, it is quite clear he is a fan.
BTW, for clarity, I don’t despise Corbyn and I don’t believe I have fallen for any propaganda about him, I just think that when 1000 people, including babies we now hear, are slaughtered simply for being of a certain ethnicity the only possible response is immediate and unqualified condemnation.
There is no justification, no ‘context’ for beheading babies.
“There is no justification, no ‘context’ for beheading babies.”
==========
Indeed.
Same true of “Belgian babies impaled on Hun bayonets” narratives from the Great War?
Many of the reports come with the important caveat of ‘claimed’ – usually by Israeli spokespeople i.e. not independently verified.
Western media just want sensational stories to sell and justify Israel’s cruel disproportionate retaliation. Which speaks volumes as to who owns the press. It’s reported tonight that the murdered and paraded German ‘desert rave’ girl wasn’t in fact dead at all, merely unconscious. She’s allegedly phoned her mother from a hospital bed somewhere in Gaza. How many others among the supposed 260 killed aren’t actually dead? No blood no bodies, lots of abandoned cars, it all seemed strange.
The guardian reports the Israeli emphasis will be on damage not precision.
And the EU leaders and US want to support the firing of tank shells into densely populated areas – the way Israel usually conduct themselves in these operations? Would that be an acceptable way to conduct an anti-terror operation in the west? How is Israel anything other than a more lethal version of Hamas at that point? They lose any moral high ground if they had it to begin with.
Guardian always on the wrong side. Shades of their misguided ‘Iraq: the case for decisive action’ editorial in today’s coverage.
Why are Russians not entitled to peace anywhere, incl. Moscow, while conducting a military occupation , but Israelis apparently are? Wish someone would ask these hypocritical politicians, officials and journos.
Sometimes the stories turn out to be true.
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-when-propaganda-turns-out-to-be-fact-871763.html
Yes, but not when the IDF denies them.
There is absolutely zilch adoration of Jeremy Corbyn in the article you refer to Philip, and you know it. And the only time Craig mentions the word inspirational is when he refers to the meeting:
On Sunday I spoke alongside Jeremy Corbyn and others at a packed meeting in Oslo to discuss freedom in the modern world, with particular reference to Julian Assange and to Guantanamo. It was a truly inspirational event.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2023/06/the-framing-of-jeremy-corbyn/
You are twisting things Philip to suit your agenda. And you of course know why he mentions Jeremy initially….. because THAT was who his article was about, and how he was framed and fraudulently smeared yet again by the malevolent and deceitful black propagandists. The way I see it, only psychopaths are capable of smearing and demonising people, because they are devoid of a conscience and integrity on the one hand, and because they are sadistic bullies on the other, who derive pleasure and amusement from blackening someone’s character, and deceiving and duping and misleading people and manipulating and playing with their emotions.
As for beheading babies, it’s probably a Big fat Lie.
What made the meeting inspirational Allan, if not the people involved? And why refer to him as ‘Jeremy’ if they are not close?
As to your ‘probably a big fat lie’ comment, well, that is what is being widely reported, along with multiple other horrors, much backed up by video and first hand evidence. And none of it has been denied.
But if you know better, and have evidence that it’s not true, and it actually wasn’t really all that bad out there in the desert, then I’d be very interested to see it.
The Israeli army has officially disowned the “babies were beheaded” lie.
Now, do you have any kind of answer to my question below?
“As to your ‘probably a big fat lie’ comment, well, that is what is being widely reported, along with multiple other horrors, much backed up by video and first hand evidence. And none of it has been denied.”
So, what do you want to be true, is it:
a) that 40 babies were killed and beheaded and 260 tortured and killed at a rave, or
b) it was all a “big fat lie” and no babies or ravers were either tortutred or killed?
If it turns out it was all a big fat lie, would you either be relieved and pleased that 300 human beings that were thought to be dead, having died horribly, are actually safe and well or pissed off that 300 people you thought were dead aren’t and you have been shown to be wrong?
Jeeeze Bayard, THAT must have taken some contortion of logical thinking to come up with!
If the beheading of 40 babies was a big fat lie – which we now know that it was (as many of us suspected it was, and for the obvious reasons) – then that in itself brings other claims of a particularly atrocious nature into question, and you would either be incredibly naive not to acknowledge that (and I don’t believe you are naive), or being totally disingenuous.
One thing is for certain….. the Palestinians have never needed to concoct and invent anything in respect of the Israelis.
PS Just in case you didn’t see it:
Israeli army can’t confirm that Hamas beheaded babies. IT DIDN’T HAPPEN
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2023/10/11/israeli-army-cant-confirm-that-hamas-beheaded-babies-it-didnt-happen/
PPS I only just spotted your post
AH, I am baffled by your comment. My comment was aimed at Philip Patrick, not you, and was supporting your view that the stories about the dead babies and the tortured ravers were both big fat lies. I am not sure where naivety comes into it, especially since the “babies” story has already been debunked and the evidence for the “rave” story is looking pretty shaky. I am just puzzled that people seem to want these stories not to be the propaganda they seemingly are. I can’t think of any other reason why they refuse to be sceptical about things that always looked too bad to be true.
Philip Patrick
You bring up Craig being a fan of Jeremy Corbyn, clearly intending it as an accusation.
Can you explain why?
” when 1000 people, including babies we now hear, are slaughtered simply for being of a certain ethnicity the only possible response is immediate and unqualified condemnation.”
But have they?
I’m a fan of Jeremy Corbyn and I also think this is correct “Hopefully it will become clearer to more Israelis that without a just and durable peace settlement they are living in a fools paradise.” That is not a statement that sets out to justify war crimes and atrocities.
Abhorrent statement:
Israeli lawmaker calls for using ‘doomsday weapons’
https://www.globalvillagespace.com/israeli-lawmaker-calls-for-using-doomsday-weapons/
And then we have the collective West turning a blind eye to this statement and the massacre going on in Gaza now. Are they not realizing that they are complicit in these massacres? It is their weapons, it is their support that make this killing possible??
Well said, sir.
Good article by Tariq Ali
“Uprising in Palestine”
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/uprising-in-palestine
He is saying that palestinians have tried every alternative in the book, nothing has led to an independent state or even living in security and during the same time the aid has vanished. Labour has even banned the claim that Israel could be defined as an apartheid state:
UK: Labour Party bans the use of ‘Israeli apartheid’ during conference
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231004-uk-palestine-solidarity-campaign-urges-labour-party-to-confront-reality-of-israeli-apartheid/
I could understand this pro-israelism if it came from the Tories, the right-wing of politics, but the left? The socialists? Treasonous!
Even ex-IDF generals claim that this (apartheid) is precisely what is going on!
Ex-IDF general likens military control of West Bank to Nazi Germany
Amiram Levin accuses the IDF of being a ‘partner in war crimes’ when it stands by as settler extremists attack Palestinians, says situation in West Bank is ‘absolute apartheid’
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-idf-general-likens-military-control-of-west-bank-to-nazi-germany/
On top of that we have a PLO in the Westbank that says nothing, an OIC (organisation of islamic states) besides Iran, that says nothing and a Saudi Arabia that is about to recognize Israel.
Saudis Agree With U.S. on Path to Normalize Kingdom’s Ties With Israel
https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-saudi-arabia-agree-to-broad-terms-for-israel-normalization-ac6d549c
With “friends” like these, the palestinians are on their own and they will use the whatever means to fight for their rights.
China says their position on this conflict:
“… the long-term marginalization of the Palestinian issue by Western countries, particularly the US, is extremely cruel. Western elites often ignore the actual humanitarian disasters while enthusiastically discussing abstract human rights, which is very hypocritical.
We have noticed that many voices in the West are trying to create pressure for “taking sides,” listing which countries “have not condemned Hamas.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken even openly “advised” Saudi Arabia during a conversation with the Saudi Foreign Minister to “clearly condemn” the attack. To be honest, Washington is not in a position to educate anyone on this issue.
All acts of violence and attacks targeting civilians are unacceptable in any civilized society and must be strongly condemned by the international community, regardless of the perpetrators. When conflicts erupt, the most rational and responsible approach is to call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and calm and to achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible.
However, in this case, we still see that the words and actions of the US and many Western countries are, in fact, fanning the flames rather than cooling down the situation. This is a consistent pattern for Western countries in many conflict regions, where they often create substantial obstacles to crisis resolution.”
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202310/1299541.shtml
—
When the war broke out in Ukraine, Chinese diplomat Hua Chunying won my heart. She put it this way: “When you see two people fighting, you need to make efforts to stop the conflict. It’s wrong to encourage one of the parties and give them weapons.”
Tatyana
You posted:
“When the war broke out in Ukraine, Chinese diplomat Hua Chunying won my heart. She put it this way: “When you see two people fighting, you need to make efforts to stop the conflict. It’s wrong to encourage one of the parties and give them weapons.”
Of course it is only “wrong” if the two parties are morally equivalent.
The PRC armed Cambodia when it was ruled by the genocidal Khmer Rouge.
Essentially enabling the Khmers rouges barbaric treatment of their own people.
Was that not “wrong”?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge
Nobody who truly understands zionism can be shocked by the latest “babies were beheaded” lie. This is simply what being a zionist entails. The entire ideology of zionism requires you to be a liar. A deceiver. It requires you to muddy and obscure the truth. It is why every single hardcore zionist you will ever encounter is a disingenuous creep. Without exception.
The UK government is totally controlled/infiltrated by outside forces. They do not work for the people of the UK.
OpenDemocracy has previously revealed that CFI is the biggest donor of free overseas trips to MPs. The group took MPs on 155 free trips in the decade from 2012-22. The outlet called it “an unprecedented charm offensive to promote the country in Westminster”.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/pro-israel-lobby-group-paid-for-uk-foreign-and-home-secretaries-first-trips-as-mps/
“The UK government is totally controlled/infiltrated by outside forces. They do not work for the people of the UK”.
Nothing new about that. What is rather unsettling is that they have stopped pretending otherwise.
Israel have now killed some 260 children in Gaza,
https://t.me/intelslava/51771
meanwhile Israel psycho leaders keep terrorbombing Gaza and brags about it openly, this time a university, levelling whole streets, apartments indiscriminately.
Video https://t.me/intelslava/51770
Where are you van der Leyen? Where are you, so-called, socialist Josep Borell? And where are you Karim Khan from the ICC?
Ursula von der Leyen still tweeting encouraging Israel, and emphasising the right of retaliation, no calls for restraint.
This is a woman who feigns outrage over a stray air defence missile hitting a civilian building in Ukraine, here applauding Israeli tanks shells and 500 lb bombs being dropped and directly fired indiscriminately into a imprisoned densely populated Gaza. Israel doesn’t even hide their intention to cause mass destruction and to hell with the civilian toll. The EU is backing the equivalent of Hitler’s Lidice massacre.
Israel doesn’t follow the norms of civilised European behaviour, you don’t fight ‘terror’ by slaughtering civilians. The fact western politicians are apologists for this slaughter is utterly nauseating.
von der Leyen is cast from the same mould as Christia Freeland and Victoria Nuland – you should see their lampshade collection …
Ursula’s grandfather did undertake important administrative work for the German authorities in Ukraine during the early 1940s.
Some more about the beheaded babies allegations.
“https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/factcheck:-israel-has-no-information-on-hamas-murdering-babi”
Would Netenyahu encourage the propagation of a lie about Hamas beheading babies?
Well he has form for the grotesque lie that a Muslim persuaded Hitler to proceed with the holocaust (Hitler didn’t want to kill the Jews apparently), and you can’t really get worse than that. Even the BBC called him out on this lie.
Speech
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9HmkRYlVZw
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34594563
Meanwhile, “Gaza will eventually turn into a city of tents… There will be no buildings,” an Israeli security official tells Israel’s Channel 13.
Israel prepares ground offensive; Biden decries ‘sheer evil’ of Hamas.
Public opinion is being primed in the media to tolerate the genocide of Palestinian civilians that will follow.
That security general are spewing genocidal threats – where are the “responsibility to protect”-westerners? Remember Bernard-Henri Lévy, who has urged liberal interventions by western powers in Libya, Syria, Ukraine and so on, but now he is quiet.
https://twitter.com/BHL/status/1505176634936238080
It is truly nauseating that there are no efforts to stop this senseless violence, or rather, racism, because that is what this really is about.
During the 70-90s there were at least calls from the west for ceasefires, condemnations, but now the west are egging on massacres. How can this be? Even Arab states pretend nothing is happening; Egypt even closed their border with Gaza as soon as the fighting erupted!