Al Jazeera are leading their news with the execution of Palestinian civilians, including women and toddlers, inside the school in Jabalia where they were sheltering. They were all shot at point blank range, with no signs of a bomb or missile strike.
On the BBC, the Daily Politics show – which consists of discussion between senior British MPs – does not discuss Palestine at all, because the British political class supports the genocide, so for them there is nothing to discuss.
Also in Jabalia, the Israelis today destroyed the last remaining bakery.
It is worth stating why this is plainly a genocide in Gaza:
1) Deliberate destruction of the infrastructure which supports the civilian population, including water treatment, electricity, sewerage systems, bakeries and fishing boats;
2) Deliberate destruction of almost all medical facilities;
3) Deliberate destruction of educational facilities, from universities to primary schools;
4) Deliberate destruction of the infrastructure of civil society, including Supreme Court, Parliament, Ministries and Council buildings and deliberate destruction of administrative records;
5) Deliberate blocking of food aid inducing mass starvation;
6) Massive and indiscriminate bombardment. In wars the general percentage of children among those killed varies from 6 to 8%. In Ukraine it is 6%. In Gaza it is 42%. This is indiscriminate destruction of an ethnic group;
7) Mass executions of civilians;
8) Acts of dehumanisation of the Palestinians, including parading prisoners naked for public and media show and humiliation, beating and sexually abusing them;
9) Forced mass movement of population;
10) Deliberate targeting of religious and cultural heritage buildings;
11) Deliberate targeting of intellectual leadership, including journalists, doctors, poets, university lecturers and senior administrators;
12) Numerous declarations of open genocidal intent from the President and Prime Minister down through almost the entire fabric of both civilian and military establishment.
This is the official definition of Genocide in international law, from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide:
Article II
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
Yesterday I attended a session called by Palestine at the United Nations in Geneva. Over 120 states attended. While the formal session consisted of statements of national position with few surprises, I was able to discuss with a large number of delegates in the corridors why the Genocide Convention has not been activated triggering a reference to the International Court of Justice.
The answer is now clear to me. It is not that people are worried that a claim of genocide will not be successful at the International Court of Justice. It is that everybody is quite sure it will succeed. There is no respectable argument that this is not a genocide in the terms outlined above.
The problem is that once the ICJ has determined that this is a genocide, it follows that not only are Netanyahu and hundreds of senior Israeli officials and military personally liable, but it is absolutely plain that “Genocide Joe” Biden, Sunak and members of their administrations are also criminally liable for complicity, having provided military support for the genocide.
The International Criminal Court cannot ignore a judgment of genocide from the International Court of Justice and will have no choice but to issue arrest warrants.
A genocide is the worst of crimes. Just how appalling this one is has been shown to the world like never before, through the power of social media.
But to the global 1% whose interests rule the world, no number of dead Palestinians makes any real difference to their interests. On the other hand, the ramifications for the international system of wealth concentration, if western political elites start to be held accountable for their crimes, are uncertain and therefore carry more risk. This is particularly the concern of ruling classes of both Western and Arab states.
It may sound astonishing, but to the world’s diplomats the enormity of a genocide appears less troubling than the enormity of doing something about it.
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On reading this, I immediately switched from BBC2’s “Politics Now“, to Al Jazeera. As I write the channel is covering another (possibly related) story, but I’m sure they will get there.
Thanks, Craig, for the heads up.
The Channel’s 1 o’clock news now leads on the story.
An atrocity with multiple witnesses.
Mr. Murray, I’m sure many readers of your blog have a heavy feeling of powerlessness and despair. Perhaps you could create a template for letters from ordinary people to this damn court? Since no state is doing this, maybe we ordinary people can at least create a call to investigate?
Moreover, it seems that the UN was able to pass a ceasefire resolution yesterday, and I saw the news that Hamas welcomed it.
I’d be more than happy to send such a letter. At least Canada voted for a ceasefire in the UN yesterday. There are some liberal MPs and I suspect all the torys who are very upset about this. The vote may mean that the government is actually aware of the huge support for Palestine in the country. Maybe all our emails, petitions and rallies are being noticed.
You are right about the powerlessness and despair. What is happening in Palestine is horrific and now the poor souls are wading in water because of the weather. I read the Israeli government will not accept a Palestinian state between Jordan and the sea, so a two-state solution isn’t part of their policy – and I bet never was.
My reading of this is that all support for Israel should cease. It doesn’t deserve to exist in its present form. The Palestinians are entitled to kick it out, the same as other countries in Africa and Asia kicked out the colonial powers. Sadly the indigenous peoples of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have never been in a position to do this, but they are using other means to assert themselves and their culture and traditions.
If you think there are two sides to the Israel-Palestine question, listen to this son of an Israeli general:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZGUGh6Qo78 (starts at about 5.00 minutes)
Thanks np this was a compelling watch
I saw this man 10 years ago and he seems more urgent and clear here, than he was then.
Despite the destructive effects of today’s media maelstrom on my jaded palate, I felt a simple pleasure listening to a blunt presentation, delivered with great conviction – a clear depiction of the grassroots
There is a monstrous effort by politicians in Britain and the USA to fixate people on fears of an imaginary genocide (“from the river to the sea”) while enabling a brutal, sadistic genocide of Palestinian women, children, journalists etc. In the USA Bernie Sanders has been an enthusiastic participant in this cynical distortion and deflection. In fact he has been singled out by AIPAC for commendation.
– “From the river to the sea,
– Palestine will be free!”
Why do these media and politicians object so much to freedom?
The Palestinians say this refers to freedom from apartheid, and I agree – why would anyone object to that!?
Items 10 and 11 in your list do not constitute acts indicative of genocide. The web page of the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect states the following:
“Cultural destruction does not suffice [to establish intent of genocide], nor does an intention to simply disperse a group.”
In addition, case law shows that killing intellectual, social and political leaders is not indicative of genocidal intent. In fact, the International Commission of Jurists found that targetting of such people mitigates against the intent to destroy the victims in whole or in part.
I admire and respect your work, and offer assistance only to avoid inaccuracies.
They are not sufficient to indicate genocide; but taken together with all the other elements they most certainly do.
A court would disagree. Genocide requires a very high standard of proof and narrow definition of intent (dolus specialis) for establishing guilt. Genocide is considered the worst crime that we can commit, and must be distinguishable from massacres or other crimes against humanity.
If we allow dilution of the dolus specialis, then we lose the capacity to distinguish it from other atrocities that result in large numbers of fatalities,. That is one reason why the UN has officially recognized only a few, rare instances as genocide, notwithstanding popular perceptions to the contrary.
You have established genocidal intent with ample evidence in the other items that you listed. There is little doubt that the dolus specialis requirements have been met. Moreno Ocampo gave an illuminating explanation on this topic recently.
If we add such unrelated criteria to the definition of the criminal intent, future readers may be confused into thinking they are necessary or sufficient on their own to establish guilt. A court would either strike them down or fail the pleading to avoid propagating such confusion into precedent.
I don’t think adding 10 and 11 dilutes the intent of genocide. They may not be enough on their own, but I agree they are important things to consider. I don’t think including them would do any harm to world understanding of genocide. The (supposed) reason we have court hearings is so these things can be discussed carefully.
11 describes the covering up of genocide by killing, and therefore silencing, educated people who might have a following and who are speaking out about the crimes. Also the killing of medical professionals who can treat the injured. And 10 describes the destruction of cultural heritage: to literally remove the memory of a people.
These things are relevant.
@Ozy, I agree with Lydia, these elements (10 and 11) are components of the system of genocide. They speak of intent, planning, execution of the overall project, as well being most serious crimes in their own right.
I am reminded of when the Romans attempted their genocide of Britons (after their genocidal campaign against the Gauls), they went for the Druids in their base on Angelsey.
“It may sound astonishing, but to the world’s diplomats the enormity of a genocide appears less troubling than the enormity of doing something about it.”
What took you so long ?
“What took you so long ?”
==========
It didn’t.
You forget-or possibly never knew- that Craig sacrificed his own career as a diplomat to blow the whistle on state crimes that fell short of genocide.
Such an unnecessary snark which tells us more about you than Craig (who, by the way, has been saying this for weeks – but sets out the stark, horrifying and necessary legal detail here).
Short Al Jazeera report on the massacre. Apologies for long link i don’t know how to make them shorter*
https://twitter.com/broseph_stalin/status/1734894899852394615
* [ Mod: fixed. (A tip for future reference: you can shorten a long URL by removing the question mark and everything after it.) ]
Thanks.
The US empire is over.
That means Israel is over too.
They are not going down with a fight, they are going down with a scream.
Wishful thinking, my friend.
The US hegemony is past its peak of power and has started its decline; but that decline could last for decades. Meanwhile, the US military forces outgun the military forces of the entire rest of the world.
I don’t know how true that is. They have lots of high tech stuff which the manufacturers have provided for them but we can see from the SMO that a lot of this stuff doesn’t work nearly as well as the Russian stuff. My understanding is that the Russian stuff can be fixed in the field and runs on anything available. The American stuff has to be sent back to the factory to be fixed, and some of their prized tanks run on aviation fuel! The American form of attack is to bomb everything to smithereens but that may be much harder these days. Aircraft carriers are sitting ducks to Russia’s hypersonic missiles. I’m sure other countries have them. I agree with Michael, the US is being outmanoeuvred by Russia, China and all the BRICS. But what do I know, I’m just an old woman living in the woods – keeping watch.
“Meanwhile, the US military forces outgun the military forces of the entire rest of the world.”
The US spends more on its armed forces than most of the rest of the world, but that is just the way that their “defence” expenditure is managed. It certainly doesn’t translate to men and armaments.
Indeed, much of this spending goes into the pockets of the shareholders of the arms companies or into maintaining the economies of communities in US federal electorates to stop job losses and depopulation, possibly leading to the redrawing of political boundaries and loss of seats for US Congress representatives – hence, why so many Congress reps have often favoured shovelling more money into defence spending.
“Meanwhile, the US military forces outgun the military forces of the entire rest of the world.”
The US has many nuclear weapons but so do other nations, and once you fire one so can they. The results are too dire to contemplate so these weapons are unusable and the US knows it.
What about US capital ships? Well, they are virtually defenseless to Russian Kinzhal missiles, with their sophisticated targeting, travelling at Mach 7. Zircon 3M22 missiles run at Mach 10+. Putin has recently declared that there are “no limits” to Russia sharing military technology with China so China will have them too.
US fighter aircraft? The US F35s are hideously expensive turkeys. Just google and read the extensive, multiple horror reviews from aviation experts.
In Nov 2015 China purchased over 24 multi-role SU-35 fighters at a cost of $83 million each. The popular blog The Avionist describes its ability to maneuver: “The Su-35 (NATO designation Flanker E), Russia’s latest version of the famous super-maneuverable multi role fighter jet has demonstrated its stunning capabilities during the first day of the 50th Paris Air Show at Le Bourget. During its display, the 4 ++ generation aircraft has showcased some almost impossible maneuvers, demonstrating unbelievable low-speed handling authority.”
And that’s not to mention its formidable weaponry array. Pakistan has ordered them. The new Canadian government has voiced plans to pull out of its prospective purchase of 65 F-35s.
And since the avionics technology is a major feature of such fighter aircraft then perhaps readers might google the incredible tale of the USS Donald Cook, an aegis class missile launcher which touring the Black Sea in April 2014. It was repeatedly flown over by a Russian fighter aircraft armed only with an avionics pod. They turned off every electronics system the ship had — everything! — radar, weapons targeting systems, the lot! And that was in 2014.
Then there are the drones, currently blowing up Abrams tanks in Ukraine and Ukraine ground forces. Iran, Hezbollah, Yemen and Turkey all have these in spades.
And finally, US ground forces — great against 3rd rate nations like Iraq and Libya but there is no stomach for US casualties against seriously manned opponents such as Turkey, Hezbollah, Iran and China.
Read Andrei Martyanov for details.
Always a good idea to check your sources for extraordinary claims, Damien:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/07/world/europe/anatomy-of-fake-news-russian-propaganda.html
Note: Andrei Martyanov’s blog is usually not a reliable source.
As the lyric goes, when two tribes go to war, a point is all that you can score
Whoever this Martyanov fellow is, he surely can’t compete in depth and ply with the New York Times big lie?
Note: The New York Times is usually not a reliable source
Thanks for your reply Will. Fortunately, the two tribes of the US and Russia haven’t gone to war (yet) – they’ve just been antagonising each other. What is the New York Times’ big lie? Its Moscow reporter Walter Duranty denying there was widespread famine in Ukraine during the Holodomor? That didn’t redound to its credit, but it was a long time ago. These days, some of its columnists may have a few whacky ideas but, on the facts, it’s generally a reliable source. The article about the USS Donald Cook incident is fairly detailed. Any evidence it contains false information?
Enjoy the weekend.
The clue was in the use of “big lie” but it should’ve had capitals like this “Big Lie” – check wikiped for it.
“The Constitution, a noble piece of paper
Would free society. It struggled but then died in vain
And now Democracy is ragtime on the corner
Hoping for some rain
And looks like it’s hoping
Hoping for some rain
And I see the robins perched in barren treetops
They’re watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams
Never had a chance to grow
Never had a chance to grow
And now it’s winter
It’s winter in America
And all of the healers have been killed or betrayed, yeah
But the people know, the people know
It’s winter, Lord knows
It’s winter in America”
Winter in America, Gil Scott-Heron
-That Big Lie
Thanks for your reply Will. So I take it you don’t have any evidence that the NYT article was false. Anyway, I’d put folding money on GSH* never having read the US Constitution which, for all its faults, never tried to cover up the fact that some Americans owned slaves, even defining a slave as being worth three-fifths of a free person. However, slavery was subsequently outlawed, and its 13th amendment ensures that no state can re-instigate it, except as punishment for crime.
What the Constitution doesn’t state is that all Americans are entitled to the same level of income. Nevertheless, whatever your colour or creed, if you work hard and stay away from hard drugs and organised crime, you probably won’t be doing too badly for yourself. A household income of less than $23,000 a year (which you’ll pay very little tax on, and in most states now means you’re entitled to free-at-the-point-of-need healthcare) is officially defined as living in poverty in the US – fortunately, over 90% of Americans have managed to elevate themselves above this hardscrabble existence. So where’s the big lie?
* I quite liked his ‘I’m/We’re New Here’ swansong collabs with Richard Russell & Jamie xx – but not as much as I like this:
Jamie xx – “Seesaw” (YouTube, 4m 28s)
“Always a good idea to check your sources for extraordinary claims, Damien:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/07/world/europe/anatomy-of-fake-news-russian-propaganda.html”
Yeah let’s play “your source is propaganda, but mine is telling the truth”. a game for all the family; the fun can go on for hours, so long as no-one mentions Mandy Rice-Davies.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. So I take it you don’t have any evidence that the NYT article made any false claims either.
“They’re watching last-ditch racists marching across the floor
But just like the peace sign that vanished in our dreams”
Gil Scott Heron 1975
I have heard this guy speak – he might be one of the few that have read it. His political analysis is both acute and relevant as can be seen in my requote. What is Trump but a last-ditch racist? Instead of peace we get HIMARS ($150,000 per missile) and Hellfires, Kinzhals and aircraft carriers, societal decay and mass migration and behind it all endless war. You would never get this impression reading the newspaper you cite. Then to enter to the realm of kvetching about Russia, when reform is needed at home, it sticks in my craw. Who cares about Martytanov? Along as Smoothie doesn’t start disseminating hate speech, like calling some people “human animals” or “subhumans” or whatever, who cares? Apart from his viewers, no one. Having lived through one Cold War, I’m not keen on repeating the experience. So anyone trying to whip one up, gets the tag “radicalised bad actor” – usually not a reliable source
If Smoothie is a clown, he plys his trade in a provincial circus, in the humdrum byways of the information domain not true of the aforementioned newspaper.
You are not trying to trade on an old canard that has it that certain types of people might not have done something, because of what exactly?
Thanks for your reply Will. Plenty of Americans have read the Constitution, more so than ever as it’s now available to read for free at the touch of a button/screen. GSH* had a degree in English/creative writing, not politics. ‘Winter in America’ is not politcal analysis – it’s an almost 50-year-old song with a vaguely political theme. Trump doesn’t care whether people are black, white or Hispanic, as long as they vote for him, or support him in Congress or the courts. Most immigration to the US/UK is by people wanting to be paid more, not people fleeing war. I’ve no idea who you’re referring to as ‘Smoothie’. Is it an Israeli politician?
Re: ‘You are not trying to trade on an old canard that has it that certain types of people might not have done something, because of what exactly?’
I’m not sure what you mean.
* His old man, Gil Heron, was Celtic’s first black player, though he only got five games.
“Mexican rapists” ring any bells? People being pushed in front of trains during “China virus” time? – last ditch racism.
Unless you are knowledgeable about the life and work of Gil Scott-Heron why would you think this person had or had not read something, in this case the Constitution? I am knowledgeable concerning this artist and I would think it highly likely that he had read the Constitution when he lived. Is your presumption based on anything but prejudice?
There is an element of innocence, maybe lack of prejudice is a better term, when he discusses a topic and his thought ranges widely – mainly politics with some history. He charted the Reagan-Thatcher era better than most voices and though not his song “Winter in America” is at the center of his political message
We will have to disagree about the causes of mass migration. You would deny that Western military action has created millions upon millions of refugees?
Thanks for your reply Will. Here’s the full quote from Trump:
“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
It was poor phrasing, but what he meant was that some Mexicans are rapists, which due to the law of large numbers would be true – whereas, as he stated, some Mexicans are good people. SARS-CoV-2 originated in China (almost certainly out of the Wuhan Institute for Virology). Are people referring to the 1969 pandemic as Hong Kong flu also racists?
The reason I don’t think GSH ever read the Constitution is because, if he had, I doubt he’d be referencing it in song as something that guaranteed the freedoms of ethnic minorities in the US. Those only really came about through the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960’s. My opinion isn’t due to prejudice because, based on those lyrics, I would think the same even if I didn’t know that he was black.
I’d certainly deny that Western military actions in the Global War on Terror created millions of international refugees, and indeed the War in Afghanistan probably prevented hundreds of thousands of Afghans becoming international refugees, due the provision of aid towards the end of the 1998-2002 famine in southern Afghanistan.
We will have to disagree about last-ditch racists. As I recall a number of Asian-Americans were murdered and hate crime surged for this minority in the wake of his remarks. You appear to be defending the indefensible. As for Mexicans – I came across the story of the police report filed when Trump’s previous wife had been assaulted – it was quickly withdrawn by the woman but his treatment of her as described was unbelievable. Her graphic physical injuries were tallied in the report I struggled to process the information. I know women’s issues interest you, search it out and compare it to the Russel Brand story, you were promoting with glee recently. You might learn something about the nature of male violence against women but then again, maybe not.
The song doesn’t say the Constitution guarentees anything – you are misreading it – it is talking about the idea of America – the dormant promise of something better than what had gone before. At the time and place Scott-Heron sang it, it was completly “political”. More broadly, Scott-Heron’s work is focused on the human condition thru the lens of politics, race issues are present but they are secondary. You don’t know much about him, yet you make assumptions of dubious veracity – good for you!
I blame mass migration on the West – global economic and military warfare. Fear is a weapon. as terrible as bombs when considering the mass flight of desperate people
Smoothie is Martyanov, thought you would know this since you are slagging him off.
The New York Times is usually not a reliable source. I can’t speak for Smoothie
Thanks for your reply Will. I doubt whether many (or any) Asian-Americans died as a result of what Trump said about the SARS-CoV-2. In any case, the number would be dwarfed by the number of Americans (or all races) who died of Covid – not least due to early treatment being suppressed to protect pharma company profits.
Trump is a rapist (convicted to the civil standard)* – as is Russell Brand (whose behaviour I wasn’t ‘promoting with glee’, and indeed I was slightly upset about it, as I genuinely didn’t think he was like that), though it doesn’t look like he’ll be charged with anything, let alone convicted. Did you put in a freedom of information request to the NYPD or whoever to read the report of Trump’s ex-wife’s injuries? Anyway, where did I say Trump wasn’t a misogynist? What he’s not is a ‘last-ditch racist’, otherwise he wouldn’t have had any black or Asian people in his cabinet when he was President, and would probably have been trying to reverse the Civil Rights Acts. I’m not that interested women’s issues, despite being one myself – and I don’t particularly appreciate being lectured to about male violence against women, but that’s the world we live in.
So is GSH’s song about Americans that haven’t read the Constitution thinking that it guarantees their freedoms then? I knew that his old man played for Celtic in the 50’s. Did you know that till I told you? I bet you didn’t. Most people in the developing world are earning more money than they would have done 30 years ago, but many of them want to come to the West to make even more. Most countries in the West allow mass migration, so yes they are to blame for it – or at least their governments are. It’s been a long while since I read Martynov’s blog (because I try to avoid vatnik shite), so I forgot that he refers to himself as Smoothie X12 for some reason.
Enjoy your evening.
* Like the footballer David Goodwillie. He can’t even get a game for 7th-tier Radcliffe FC these days; Trump will probably be the next President of the USA.
You have several more interesting discoveries ahead of you as regards Mr Scott-Heron’s father life and his relationship to football both as a black man and as an employee. It gladdens my heart that your research have taken you to this place – many citizens of the comfortable West would not deign to learn the history of racial oppression thru the experiences of a person who actually had to live thru that oppression. Yet it is that very oppression and it’s historical antecedents that accounts, in large part, for our privileged position in to-days benighted global order.
Regarding your statements about Smoothie: It is no shame on you that he fooled you for a while, remember these experiences are virtual and patterns are harder to discern in “cyberspace”. To be honest, I came across a short dialogue between the aforementioned Smoothie and a now anonymous internet user concerning armament production in WW2 about 10-15 years ago. Though I blow my own trumpet, this is my specialist subject and I don’t need to check wikiped or a book to know when a person misspeaks regarding such data. Smoothie misspoke and I have never paid any attention to him since that day. To be fair, this Smoothie is a content-creator, not a WW2 anorak like me and he seeks to entertain. I can half-guess what “vatnik shite” is but regardless, it sounds unpleasent. Do you remember when you turned against it? As long as this sort of thing takes place between consenting adults, I can see no legal or moral objection to this activity or indeed to the relationships that foster it but I guess the Integrity Initiative and the other guardians of “reality” may see things differently?
After such concord, let us not allow the definition of “last-ditch racists” sour, this the moment of our shared achievement, exploring history together. You may remember AG mentioned a name, Goldschlagg, recently – a Jewish woman who hung around with Nazi’s whilst searching out other Jews during WW2 – so as you can see, disparate elements can come together and cohere for a while.
Finding the Trump story should a doddle for an old internet pro, such as yourself – It took me 5 mins. If I said Smoothie had assaulted his partner/ former partner and the police report told of “chunks” being ripped out of the victim, by bare hands, you would have been all over it like a rash. Partiality to some information, rather than other information is of itself information – meta-information. And it is the same fault I see in the propaganda rags, they shill for the 1% of 1% which leads me to the following statement.”The New York Times is usually not a reliable source”
Thanks for your reply Will. I haven’t done any research on Gil Heron (apart from to check how many games he played for Celtic on Wiki – I knew it wasn’t many). I just know about him because I follow the Bhoys – even though they’ve now gone 15 games without a win in the Champions League, which is a record for a UK side, and lost at home to the Jambos at the weekend.
I wasn’t fooled by Martynov. I just briefly read his blog early on in the War in Ukraine to try to get some idea what was happening with Russian SEAD efforts etc, before concluding that he doesn’t know what he’s writing about most of the time, because, despite being senior ex-Russian forces, he’s just a gobshite vatnik. All I can find from a brief internet search for reports of Trump assaulting his ex-wife is this:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/donald-trump-exwife-claim-he-raped-her-resurfaces-in-new-documentary-a6836151.html
I’d imagine that if there were readily accessible police reports / newspaper stories about Trump subjecting former partners to grievous bodily harm, Team Hillary would have been all over them in 2016, to go along with the “grab ’em by the pussy” stuff.
Scrupulously fair and logical assessment.
The signs have been clear for some time, including, but not limited to, the defenestration of Jeremy Corbyn under the bogus ‘antisemitism’ rubric that now permeates all civic space, and his replacement by a zionist deep state insider, to maintain continuity of neoliberal (plutocratic) rule, under a sham democratic overcoat.
The dismal conclusion you draw is the only logical inference to be made from events and the obvious hard uniformity of the establishment position, and across so-called political parties and the media.
A decision has been made to put in operation the final solution to the Palestinian problem, and the consolidation of the Empire’s redoubt in occupied Palestine.
The world will simply looks on – its peoples captured by the global plutocratic behemoth.
God help Palestine in this benighted Christmas season.
God help us for letting it happen.
We would scorn God Himself if we ask His forgiveness.
Our turn will surely come.
Israel and its accomplice the US are playing into the hands of the BRICS led by Russia and China, Russia and China have been making inroads into the middle east and doing lucrative deals with both Saudi Arabia, Iran and many others. The US are aghast at this and are trying to wreck these partnerships including the belt and road initiative, which is a win win for all participants, of course the US have a different approach, they threaten sanctions and other economic measures through their control of the IMF and World Bank.
Most Arab leaders can see the US is the facilitator of the Genocide in Gaza and will be more fearful of their own people and their own grasp on power if they act like sycophants to US/Israeli bluster. In other words the US/Israel are saying reject Russia and China or we will do ‘a Gaza’ on you’. I hope the people of the Middle East have the self respect and good sense to reject US threats.
It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire
1%? It’s not even 0.1%.
Somebody estimated that US politics is effectively controlled by about 800 very wealthy families. I haven’t seen the evidence, maybe it’s ten times as many. But the population of the USA is about 330 million.
I believe it was the Economist Stiglitz that coined the 1% even though it’s 0.1%. It was just to make a point. Then it was used by Occupy Wall Street and now it’s 1% instead of 0.1%.
It matters, because it’s possible for an ordinary person to get into the top 1% if he or she is bright, gets a good education, and works hard – the threshold for the top 1% in 2020/2021 was only £183k/year (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/percentile-points-from-1-to-99-for-total-income-before-and-after-tax). Of course, if you earn £183k/year or even £200k/year you’re still a pleb as far as the real ruling class is concerned; remember Boris Johnson’s famous gaffe, in a live TV interview, where he described income of £250k/year as “chicken feed”. Banksters and the CEO class take 7-figure annual incomes.
There are one or two well-publicised cases of people getting into that class by ability and hard work, but mostly it’s by inheritance and cronyism. And even a 7-figure income won’t necessarily get you into the ruling class. The Duke of Westminster inherited approximately £8 billion when in his early twenties (avoiding most inheritance tax, I believe, by some offshore trust loophole that the politicians leave for their cronies). If your income were £1,000,000/year after tax, and you didn’t spend any of it, it would take you 8000 years to accumulate as much money as the Duke of Westminster acquired at age 25 by doing nothing.
I didn’t say it doesn’t matter!
Btw earnings have nothing to do with the wealth as you pointed out.
Actually 0.01%. the US population is 330million, 0.01% of that is 33,000 the number of donors that supply about 1/3 of the money spent on financing US elections. Can the political parties afford to listen to the remaining 99.99%?
The US has the best politicians money can buy, what’s not to like?
The highlighted link no longer leads to the school execution report, but it can be viewed here:
https://x.com/QudsNen/status/1734901272958882201?s=20
[ Mod: Sorry – which highlighted link? Do you mean this one (which shows the same video clip, and still works), or the one in Craig’s article (which obviously wasn’t linking to the same clip)? ]
‘Babies were killed “execution-style” by Israeli forces while sheltering in an UNRWA school in northern Gaza two days ago, according to an Al Jazeera report.’
Allow that to sink in ..
‘Babies were killed “execution-style” by Israeli forces’
Every zionist accusation a confession.
Thanks Craig for getting to the bottom of why ICC and ICJ won’t actually commit to prosecuting the culprits in this genocide. It would appear that some folk are above reproach, and the law does not apply to them.
It all stinks to high heaven.
This explanations unfortunately make sense!!!!!
It seems like Israel keeps pushing it all the time – escalating atrocities which, finding no push-back, leads to further and even more murderous outrages.
They bombed a hospital right at the start of this ‘war’, denying it at first, pretending it was a Hamas bottle-rocket. That lie was pretty transparent, but the whole thing was soon forgotten, and now they realise they can bomb hospitals with impunity and do so regularly.
Bombing refugee camps, on the pretext there was some important Hamas general or whatever there. No proof needs to be offered, not even a claim that this mission was a success in that it killed the alleged leader.
Bombing and evacuating a hospital on the grounds there were Hamas tunnels beneath. What sort of monster would put tunnels under a hospital, they asked?? Well, turns out the Israelis themselves made those tunnels at the time the hospital was constructed. But never mind, the accusations stick and attention has moved elsewhere.
When they see how they are getting away with execution of obvious innocents (without even the need to bother with the usual BS of “Taking the utmost care to avoid civilian casualties”), how long before Israel starts setting up extermination camps? Or is that already decided, and Gaza itself is designated as a death camp.
Good résumé.
Were any new discoveries under Al Shifa hospital that I missed? I am happy IDF dismantled that command centre and Khama’s is headless 😏.
PE: Former Israeli Prime Minister admits that Israel had made the tunnels :
https://edition.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-11-20-23/h_91e66ecbf3286b946f264a3b8016c37e
It was claimed that they were now some huge command centre, like some massive SPECTRE outfit beloved of James Bond films. Evidence for such was discovered to be a little thin on the ground, to say the least.
But not to worry, the story had now moved on – the idea is to leave the accusations hanging there for the uninformed. Like…. didn’t Saddam Hussain have WMD that we found…? And wasn’t it established that SH perpetrated the 9/11 attacks…?
“It seems like Israel keeps pushing it all the time – escalating atrocities which, finding no push-back, leads to further and even more murderous outrages.”
The US and Israel only respect one thing, military power. Got no guns? It’s the Melian dialogue for you then.
I sincerely hope you were able to re-enter the UK unmolested this time and without being ‘detained’.
I am not back in the UK. Still awaiting the all clear from the lawyers.
I am rather pessimistic that the outrage of genocide can be countered meaningfully. Power resides with those in whose interests the genocide is occurring or being carried out. The only comfort I can find, is that I suspect that the dominance of the US may be ending. My recent interactions with Americans indicates a collapse of the public realm. Public Education in the US is lamentable and the public health system, exists only in a theoretical sense. If Trump is re-elected the process of decline will simply lurch to a new level of inadequacy. American capitalism is reaching the point of devouring itself.
These are dark times, getting darker.
“UK must resist” I think is what Julian said, and resist we must, somehow.
I’m following George Galloway’s Workers Party with interest. Don’t agree with everything he says or does, but he has courage like our host and he is resisting.
I have never seen such ferocity that Israel display and they are not to shy to show it. Everything, from israeli citizens, old, young that mock palestinians suffering in viral videos to israeli soldiers that loot, bomb, commit sodomy, kill kids and laugh after their crimes in videos to israeli politicians that openly use genocidal rhetoric like it is something normal about it…. This not only about warcrime or crimes against humanity, genocide etc. There is a perverse racist sadistic mentality on display – where a group of people kill another people, and enjoy it to the fullest – they are having a blast – remember there are not 1 single israeli party that support 2 state solution – so what is left with such parties? Well obviously ethnic cleansing and genocide: decades of dehumanization have created an israeli population that is as brainwashed, hateful and dangerous to the outside world right on par with Hitler’s Germany.
In the best of worlds the outside world would move in military and occupy this callous regime, dismantling it. Of course it is a pipedream, I fear the whole ICC talk is also a pipedream, AG shared a good link the other day in the forum section:
ICC’s Karim Khan centers Israelis in Palestine investigation
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/iccs-karim-khan-centers-israelis-palestine-investigation
ICC will likely act but only against Hamas.
And look at these videos, small palestinian children undergo surgery without anesthesia, what the hell is this? This is pure nazi-like cruel mentality.
https://twitter.com/ArorraThomas/status/1722690729401606281
https://twitter.com/Africa4Pal/status/1726423436942274630
https://twitter.com/ME_Observer_/status/1716249659612508495
And for those pro-israeli jewish groups that support this racist slaughter, I do not want to hear them ever again talk about antisemitism or their historical suffering after this bloody support they have been given to Israel it would be as absurd as pro-ISIS lobby groups whine about islamophobia.
To follow up on the racist dehumanizing mentality that is Israel:
Israelis produce another viral video mocking palestinian suffering
https://twitter.com/DrEliDavid/status/1734870284082020857
An israeli mother brainwash her kids, mocking palestinians
https://twitter.com/ldfmra96995/status/1734878776855564301
Israeli soldier mock and showcase a bracelet of a dead palestinian
https://twitter.com/centonuvole/status/1734975880777039936
Or take this, israeli soldiers invade an ambulance and start to to pull and drag out a wounded palestinian! Who the fck do this? Where do one learn this sickening attitude?
https://twitter.com/Chilliebeanz/status/1734925096551067819
All crimes made possible very much to the demented guy in the White House that do not seems to understand what is going on in Gaza:
Biden: “After October 7th, my father returned to his Kibbutz to salvage what he could….”
Joe Biden’s father died 20 years ago.
ihttps://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1734942383521833162
I kind of get this explanation but there’s still something amiss:
Why doesn’t Fatah want to bring down the House of Cards?
Yes why?
Maybe these diplomats are, among other concerns, frightened by the Samson Option?
On Sunday, Israeli spokesman and former ambassador to the UK Mark Regev appeared on BBC News with the book The Samson Option clearly displayed on the bookshelf behind him. A quote:
– “We can still remember the smell of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Next time we’ll take you all with us”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
– “We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: ‘Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.'”
– “If you force us yet again to descend from the face of the Earth to the depths of the Earth—let the Earth roll toward the Nothingness.”
From The Samson Option by Seymour Hersh:
– “…Israel threatened to use nuclear weapons on the third day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, blackmailing U.S. President Richard Nixon into airlifting military supplies.”
Now THAT makes much more sense out of this situation.
I take it that the first three quotes are from Seymour Hersh’s book and not directly from Regev to Beeb News, Clark?
Perhaps, but Israel did recently muse about dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza. That would be kind of difficult if they didn’t actually have such a weapon, something which has never been admitted to before.
https://www.irishtimes.com/world/middle-east/2023/11/05/palestinians-should-go-to-ireland-or-deserts-and-using-nuclear-bomb-on-gaza-an-option-says-israeli-minister/
Makes the stench of hypocrisy even greater, when the West (for which read the USA) gets all hysterical about Iran even thinking about developing an ability to start producing such a, erm, defensive weapon.
Thanks for your reply Glenn. I’m aware that Israel has a fair few nukes*. I wonder why Eliyahu singled out Ireland; though, that said, the way things is going I can see most of the surviving Gazans – and quite possibly West Bank Palestinians – coming to Ireland and the UK within the next decade. (I’ve recently found out just how horrible Sinai is – never thought it was that bad. ISIS’s Sinai chapter have certainly been punching above their weight).
* as will several more countries besides Iran before too long if, as looks likely, the US abandons Ukraine.
glenn_nl – On your worrying note about A-bombing Gaza, I heard the deputy Mayor of Jerusalem dispense with the “human animal” canard altogether and describe the residents of Gaza as “sub-human”, a couple of days ago.
For anyone who has looked at the after-action reports of the various Einsatzgruppen’s activities or the Wehrmacht “anti-partisan” sweeps on the Eastern Front, this use of “subhuman” is both telling and portentous.Telling because it aligns Israeli behaviour with the worst elements of Nazi genocide. Portentous because it indicates the killing will continue unabated without any moral re-assessment by the killers.
“If one has to use atomic weapons, it is better to use them on sub-humanity”; I guess this is the logic in Tel Aviv – and by extension the elites of France, America and Britain
Before the Atomic Bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese were depicted or referred to as “sub-human”. (following a long Imperial tradition – “little yellow monkeys” etc etc) but not afterwards – almost as if atomic holocaust purged them of their “sub-humanity” Is this one of the many blessings of the glorious MIC? I wonder how much cash and lives the MIC has consumed since its inception at “The Opening Guns” at the battle of Tannenberg in 1914 at the outbreak of WW1 – heralding a 110 years of bumper profits measured against death by way of de-humanisation and de-personalisation.
It would be difficult to use a nuclear weapon on Gaza, it should be said. The backwash over Israel would be very considerable, radiation and blast effects. That’s the problem of such small territories. That’s why the Israelis talk of bombing Iran, or Europe.
Sufficiently-elevated airbursts produce very little fallout, Laguerre. In addition, Hiroshima-sized nukes in Gaza would only have small blast effects in Israel. Alex Wellerstein’s Nukemap illustrates this well, and also lets you play about ‘nuking’ cities:
https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
The Samson option is suicide for Israel, as the moment it starts attacking NATO countries such as Italy, Turkey, France, Or Germany, the combined response would focus on Israel.
The reciprocate action would have to be a nuclear response, as fighting a nuclear attack with conventional weapons would have little effect
If the US /Uk/France did not respond in kind, then NATO would be a dead duck swimming upside down.
A nuclear attack on Gaza would be equally suicide, as nobody in the ME would trust the Israeli Zionists not to bomb them as well, resulting in a massive chaotic response against it.
Nuclear is nonsensical.
Laguerre I read recently of a new type of atomic bomb that is detonated underground, causing very little fallout.
I think it is just the airing of the topic – we have seen what “do you condemn etc.?” functions as in the media – blocking the flow of contextual information concerning the killing of Palestinians.
My point is mostly linguistic. As far as I can tell from history, when you talk about a nation of “sub-humans” you are talking about killing large numbers. Hitler spoke of killing 50 million Slavs – sub-humans – specifically comparing it to the genocide of the First Nations peoples in North America or the European treatment of Africans – as a matter of no consequence.
To see a minor Israeli functionary (an indivisible element of the Zionist bureaucracy) use the tern “sub-human” – the very term that justified killing tens of millions of Russians, millions of Poles and millions of Jews etc. – and there to be no response from Western governments, is to see the field of action cleared for the deaths of millions. You may remember the chemical attack on Douma – one of these WMD false-flag operations carried out against Israel and the atom bombs will be going off in Iran, Syria, Lebanon, etc.
Who knows what sociopaths consider right and proper? “Big Money” made Hitler and “Big Money” backs Israel. They don’t give a thought to how many “sub-humans” are murdered – wealth-extremists only care about their own wealth and the political and military power required to maintain their exalted status. IBM serviced the data processing requirements of Nazi genocide until 1944, see Edwin Black’s “IBM and the Holocaust”. Wealth-extremists will, literally, do anything, including the killing of whole populations without even a thought, dismissing them as “externalities”, irrelevant to the commercial process
“Newly-released documents expose more explicitly the details of IBM’s pivotal role in the Holocaust — all six phases: identification, expulsion from society, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination.”
In response, I doubt whether the use of a nuclear weapon on Gaza could be without effect on people in Israel, although various techniques might in theory produce little radiation or pollution of the environment. I’m not convinced. The distances are really very small. And Israelis are very sensitive to Jews being killed.
Thanks for your reply Laguerre. I’ve just been on NukeMap, moved the target to the centre of Gaza City, set the controls for a 15 kiloton airburst*, and pressed the big red detonate button. The 1 psi overpressure radius (which is just about sufficient to smash windows) just touches the Israel-Gaza border. The overpressure at the nearest Israeli settlement, the Nahal Oz kibbutz – which is probably still evacuated – would be lower.
* NukeMap automatically detonates airbursts at the height which maximises the blast damage – in this case 800 metres.
Lapsed Agnostic
I wouldn’t rely on that if I were an Israeli decision-maker. An unexpected change of wind and you’ve irradiated half the Israeli population.
Thanks for your reply Laguerre. Time for a physics lesson: Hundreds and hundreds of nuclear tests have taken place over the years, with radiation levels being carefully monitored. The results fit the theory. Airbursts above a certain altitude (depending on the weapon yield) cause virtually no fall-out. This is because the highly radioactive fission products are tiny particles (often just single atoms), and they dissipate in the air and don’t fall back to earth, even if there’s no wind. These particles typically get to kilometres in altitude before they decay, and the gamma rays they emit are almost always absorbed by the air before they get to the ground.
Ground bursts are different. They churn up a lot of larger particles of earth, which the radioactive particles/atoms stick to. Since they’re heavier, they’re not dissipated and fall back down to earth in a pattern that depends on the wind direction/speed. This is what causes fall-out. These radioactive particles on the ground can emit gamma rays close to people. If they don’t have proper shelter, people in the fall-out area can die of acute radiation poisoning. Hope this is of some help to you.
Laguerre, I don’t know whether Gaza is too near for Israel to use conventional atomic bombs without blowback – my point is when one talks about “sub-humans” there are no upper limits on the number of people who will be killed – the usage negates the application of morality
Using atomics on Gaza might not be in the form of a bomb/ explosive device. There are several who claim that some kind of “neutron bomb” has been used by America and Israel since the first Gulf War. The basic idea is that weapons may exist which attack by means of genetic degradation of the target population over time
“What Biden and President Vladimir Putin secretly suspect is that Israel has already escalated to tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield, to genetic destruction warfare against the Palestinians, — and to something like the neutron bomb.
This is not the Cohen version of forty years ago. Nor is it the depleted uranium (DU) artillery shells and air-dropped DU bombs or rockets, which have been used for years by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) in Gaza and Lebanon.
Here is the case, the physical evidence, that the Israelis are using a new type of uranium radiation weapon.”
https://johnhelmer.net/biochemical-weapon-for-race-war-uranium-warhead-poisoning-is-the-specialty-of-us-against-russians-israel-against-palestinians/
Whether these claims are true or not, people forget America spends trillions of dollars on weapons. Is it not suprising that no major technological advances have been made? Psychotronic weapons have existed for at least 50 years, according to Russians who have had some connection with the Soviet MIC during the Cold War. Directed energy weapons are, apparently, a going concern, electro-magnetic pulse devices etc etc ad nauseum. Putin spoke recently of weapons “based on new physical principles”. We, the general public, live in the past, by about 30-40 years as far as modern weapons are concerned
One thing I am sure – Israel will be using all available methods, genetic degradation included to “cleanse” the “sub-humans” from the face of this earth. How do I know? Becaue of the language – it is the same as the Nazi’s used when they made the conquered areas “judenfrei”
“The reciprocate action would have to be a nuclear response, as fighting a nuclear attack with conventional weapons would have little effect. If the US /Uk/France did not respond in kind, then NATO would be a dead duck swimming upside down.”
If Israel attacked a nuclear armed country with nukes, that country wouldn’t dare attack what is effectively part of the US with nukes in retaliation. If the target country doesn’t have nukes, then they would get to feel how the Palestinians feel, that’s all. NATO might be a dead duck, but what difference would that make? The US would still be calling the shots.
If this happened Bayard, it would represent the transition from sham republic to the dictatorship of a MIC imperium.
“Let them hate me as long as they fear me”
attributed to Caligula
“If this happened Bayard, it would represent the transition from sham republic to the dictatorship of a MIC imperium.”
That is the status quo. The for us in one of the vassal states of the imperium, our own sham republic is allowed to make decisions on the day-to-day matters, but all international policy is decided by the imperial rulers in Washington. The illusion of independence is maintained by giving the vassals quite a bit of autonomy, but when it comes to the important matters, any dissenters are brought back into line.
This is so horrifying it is difficult to know what to do in response that will make any difference. Israel has bred monsters – the indoctrination of its citizens is a stark illustration of the question often asked of how ordinary Germans were complicit in the terror against Jews and minority groups. Their utter indifference to the lives of others, their contempt and hatred, has been nurtured and ingrained for decades, and this is the result, as anybody can see with the horrible videos their troops produce, as they laugh and revel in destruction, humiliation and massacre. Of course there are honorable exceptions, such as Daniel Levy, but the vast majority are appallingly ignorant, by design of course, of the lives of Palestinians and the history of their own ruthless occupation. If you go to Israel it is blatant, not hidden or disguised, and so commonplace that they it doesn’t even register with them. Such is the atmosphere their children grow up in, before they are shipped off to military service, the perfect indoctrination vehicle which empowers them to attack, harass and humiliate Palestinians with impunity and encouragement. I am told their tv channels show nothing but propaganda of the troops, sentimental cameos and incessant coverage of the hostage’s families. With nothing whatsoever on the shocking destruction and erasure of the entire Gaza strip and the forced ejection of most people from their homes. Just think for a second of the reaction if that was Jews who were being carpet bombed and massacred. The absence of the slightest amount of human empathy is just staggering. The grotesque inversion of their own past is too terrible, making you doubt the human capacity for merciful humanity (and incidentally nothing to do with their social or cultural historical identity, unless they want to claim there is something inherently Jewish about such psychopathic behaviour – which I don’t believe).
Israel should be remembered for ever for this, on a par with the worst massacres in history, of an innocent people who had no defence whatsoever against an infinite supply of the most deadly, advanced weaponry, without any mercy, strategy or conscience. And the western liberals turn a blind eye, or blame the victims, encourage censorship and camouflage of the truth, ably assisting genocide. So shocking, words are inadequate.
Great post, my feelings too – almost verbatim, yeah just imagine if palestinians killed 20000+ jews for 80 days. Would anyone accept it? Of course not and just this very fact is the exhibit A of the racist western core support for the slaughter of palestinians. Palestinians have become the jews (of the 30s) sort to speak.
Most westerners have no idea what kind of horrific state Israel is, the general westerner take their cue from populistic, propaganized media, they have no idea of facts like this video below show:
Israel is a Racist, Supremacist State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JzGzyaUnz0
What is also tragic to watch is the inaction by people in the human rights organization, sphere, one thought that after Craig Mokhiber stepped down in protest that other people like him would follow, but no, nothing happend.
Yes, thanks Jack. It was going there three times over a decade ago that really opened my eyes. The cognitive dissonance required to believe what was totally in your face was a revelation. I don’t know if it inspired The City and The City by China Mieville, but the notion of citizens learning to ‘unsee’ the other half of their city and its inhabitants seemed on the money to me. And if you want to see a microcosm of Israel in action go to Hebron, where 1000 Israelis lord it over 200,000 Palestinians with eager assistance from the IDF, in a Palestinian city. The abuse and harassment, the daily humiliations and deprivations are astonishing in their calculated, micromanaged and planned detail – no petty rule, detention or the opportunity of blocking school routes or water resources, however minor, is missed by the eager oppressors in their zeal to make Palestinians’ lives wretched and miserable, in their own homes and neighbourhoods. The bureaucracy of oppression is Kafka-esque in its deliberate undermining of any consistency of its application or its rationality. It is only possible to devise such a comprehensive system with a superhuman dedication to the most malignant doctrine of repression and permanent psychological torture.
And now we are seeing this on a scale we haven’t before, it is a kind of culmination of the years of occupation. As Daniel Levy has consistently said for years – the occupation corrupts Israel absolutely and tears down any of the claims that were made for the founding of the state as a humanitarian enterprise. It has hollowed out and destroyed any legitimacy that it once had. And none of it was necessary. Especially not for the reasons given.
Thanks for sharing I have never been there so I can only imagine what it is like to actually be in person visiting these places, Rashid Khalidi also made this very point, that when people actually see with their own eyes the brutalization that Israel commit, then people tend to change their mind about the conflict.
I was there last in March, and it was obvious that the situation was on the point of exploding. One has to be there to see exactly how awful occupation and dispossession and decades of living as people have had to live, whether in refugee camps or in other parts of occupied Palestine, whether they’re Palestinian citizens living as fifth-class citizens in Israel, whether they’re in the Gaza Strip, whether they’re in the West Bank, whether they’re in Jerusalem. I should say that my wish is that every single one of you has a chance to go there. People who have been there have found it a transformative experience. You actually cannot believe what settler colonialism is like, you cannot believe that in the 21st century this is being done to an entire people, unless you see it. You can read about it, you can understand it theoretically, but you have to see it. And I urge those of you who have the opportunity to please try and go there.
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/24/ta_nehisi_coates_and_rashid_khalidi
“Palestinians have become the jews (of the 30s) sort [sic] to speak.”
I don’t think these comparisons are effective.
What did Jewish German civilians in the 1930s do? In that country which was about 95% christian? Personally or through any organisations they formed or elected or supported? Apparently the Palestinian president Abbas in a TV show a few years ago said it was the Jews’ fault, something to do with money? He’s also tried to reduce the murder statistics. But it seems to be accepted the Nazis murdered by design approx 1.5 million children.
Col Douglas Macgregor is interviewed by Judge Napolitano on the Gaza conflict. Because he has been proven 100% right on the war in Ukraine I took a special interest in his assessment. He states that none of the Arab states want war, but the Arab street is enraged to such an extent that the likelihood of a wider war engulfing the whole region is real. He emphasizes that Netanyahu has been demonizing Iran for years in the hope of dragging the US into confrontation with it. He said Iran would not let Hezbollah be defeated. Well worth a watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSw8Rj_VyPc
Harry Law – agree with you on Napolitano’s interview with Douglas Macgregor.
I listen to all of Napolitano’s interviews via his podcast Judging Freedom. All 30-minute interviews with a very impressive group of guests who appear weekly. Highly recommended for anyone interested in intelligent informed discussion.
” Col Douglas Macgregor… ….has been proven 100% right on the war in Ukraine ”
Funniest thing I’ve heard in a long time.
https://nationalfile.com/col-douglas-macgregor-on-ukraine-were-in-the-final-phase-of-this-war/
Even the BBC this morning is admitting that Ukraine is not winning (which means in reality that they’ve definitely lost, and are in a state of collapse). Your link dates from before the massive US and EU intervention in the war. Any commentator can be overtaken by events.
So you agree he’s not been ‘100% right’? He’s another circulating the ‘500,000 Ukrainian dead’ meme for which there is nil evidence and has made comparison with American casualties in WW1 without bothering to mention that 63% were caused by Spanish Flu and not combat.
Insisting on 100% is ridiculous. At least MacGregor is closer to correct than the outrageous lies emanating from Kiev (which you seem to believe, shall we say, 100%).
Macgregor is a military man. He doesn’t understand the politics. In the case of his Napolitano interview, he is just following on from Alastair Crooke, who predicted the split between the Arab governments and the Arab man-in-the-street much earlier. The new religio-nationalist synthesis in the Muslim world is very powerful, much more so than the old Arab nationalism of the Nasser/Arafat style from 50 years ago.
Of course Israel, the US and Western media always preferred dealing with autocratic Arab leaders, as there’s only one person to deal with, the unelected head of state. In the case of the Gulf micro-states, that works, as they consist of a ruling family, their oil-fields, and a couple of thousand national population; the migrant workers don’t count. Anywhere else, Saudi, Egypt, etc, there’s an important national population whose views have to be taken into account, even if theoretically dictatorships. If Israel succeeds in its genocide, all those rulers are at risk, as Erdogan has already shown.
Since the CIA coup against Morsi, the Arab man in the street has had no chance of influencing or overthrowing their rulers. The perception of the split in opinion is a banal observation that has been true for generations. The mistake is to believe it will have consequences.
I can’t say I agree. The new religio-nationalist synthesis is quite a different phenomenon from the old nationalism. It’s always been said that Muslims in time of trouble take refuge in religion, and successful political movements always have a religious tinge. Think Saladin. I do think Sisi is at risk, if he gets things wrong. The street feeling is why he’s absolutely refused what was expected by Israel and the US, that he accept the Gazan population fleeing into Sinai.
I am sorry, I don’t mean to be argumentative, but the synthesis of Islam and anti-colonial nationalism is not new in any sense. Ask General Gordon or Alexander Burnes. I don’t see this new thing.
Well it is new in the current situation (I mentioned Saladin, and my thinking was working from my experience of older Islamic history), a change from the secular Arab nationalism of the 20th century. Secular military dictators like Sisi are likely to be on the way out, but difficult to get rid of because of the penetration of the army into the Egyptian economy, and Morsi never got to grips with that. But Sisi’s refusal to conform to US/Israeli demands speaks volumes to me. He’s treading a very narrow path.
Craig,
Agree with you about a lot of stuff.
But my observation on all this is that, if you don’t want really bad stuff to happen then don’t kick it off. Historical example: invading Poland, or attacking Pearl Harbour. After that all bets are off, don’t care who “started it”.
Dresden, Hiroshima, Gaza until it is Hamas-free from the Egyptian desert to the Mediterranean sea. Sorry ’bout that; it’s the way things work.
Your treatment by HMG doesn’t make you right about this 🙁
Come on. Proportionality is demanded by International Law, particularly if it’s carried out by a country to which we give absolutely unqualified support.
Would you expect the UK to get the thumbs up from the respectable countries of the world, if we started dropping high explosives on Dublin after, say, the Warrington bombing by the IRA?
Anyway – back to the first point – why should we be wholeheartedly supporting and arming a country delighting in on-going blood-lust, on-going genocide, like Israeli apologists (eg the USA, UK, EU) are currently doing?
“But my observation on all this is that, if you don’t want really bad stuff to happen then don’t kick it off. Historical example: invading Poland, or attacking Pearl Harbour. After that all bets are off, don’t care who “started it”.
You do realise you’ve just contradicted yourself there, don’t you? Either the entire Gaza slaughter is the fault of Hamas for kicking it off, or we don’t care who started it, it’s appalling anyway.
“Dresden, Hiroshima, Gaza until it is Hamas-free from the Egyptian desert to the Mediterranean sea. Sorry ’bout that; it’s the way things work.”
Remember when the UK bombed the Catholic parts of Belfast flat in response to the IRA’s terrorism? Of course you don’t, it never happened, because that is not “the way things happen”. Ironically, Dresden was partly a response to the news of what had been going on at the concentration camps reaching the UK, to the parents and grandparents of some of the people currently doing the same to the Palestinians.
gareth
No, it’s not the way things work. And anyway Israel is not really succeeding in its genocidal campaign. No-one can see what a final result favourable to Israel would look like. They’ve already been forced to draw back on the original ambition to push the Gazan population into Egypt. That means that in order to eliminate the Gazan population, they will have to kill them, or they will always have Palestinian Gaza on their border. That’s not a success.
What about using the UN Resolution 377, can it be rolled out on this occasion?
“United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 377 A,[1] the “Uniting for Peace” resolution, states that in any cases where the Security Council, because of a lack of unanimity among its five permanent members (P5), fails to act as required to maintain international security and peace, the General Assembly shall consider the matter immediately and may issue appropriate recommendations to UN members for collective measures, including the use of armed force when necessary, in order to maintain or restore international security and peace. It was adopted 3 November 1950, after fourteen days of Assembly discussions, by a vote of 52 to 5, with 2 abstentions.[2] The resolution was designed to provide the UN with an alternative avenue for action when at least one P5 member uses its veto to obstruct the Security Council from carrying out its functions mandated by the UN Charter.
To facilitate prompt action by the General Assembly in the case of a deadlocked Security Council, the resolution created the mechanism of the emergency special session (ESS).[3] Emergency special sessions have been convened under this procedure on eleven occasions.”
It IS surreal. The Israelis claim they are going after Hamas, and the civilians are collateral damage. Can somebody please just come out and say that, actually, no, they’re going after the civilians and Hamas are the collateral damage. I mean, could it be more obvious?
There is no question it is a genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crime. Not 1% doubt. Their own words confirm it, for eternity.
If anyone of us had suffered the injustices of a Palestinian what would you do? That is the question.
If your answer is rightly to ‘fight back against a brutal oppressor’… then that makes you a ‘terrorist’.
I am sure that is exactly the same bullshit ‘reasoning’ on which they have spuriously gone after you Craig.
It’s exactly what Israel did, right at the start of this injustice. Irgun and the Stern Gang were only two of Israel’s terrorist organisations who killed many, including of course British troops, most notoriously in the King David Hotel bombing, which Israel celebrates to this day. And of course what Israel does now, and has done for decades, is the very definition of state terrorism.
Also of note – Israel was the first state or organisation to pioneer the letter bomb, which it sent to British authorities – although it was intercepted or failed. BBC Timewatch did a doc on it many years ago – can you imagine them doing it now? – to howls of protest from the usual suspects. But in those days, they stood up the bullying, in the interests of factual reporting.
The Israeli TERRORISTS even planted a bomb in the House of Commons as well as sending letterbombs.
It surprised me at the time of watching, the said BBC programme, that this wasn’t Common Knowledge. Every schoolboy & girl, knows about that other attempt by Guy Fawkes, so why had i never heard of the Jewish attempt?
When i originally downloaded this BBC article, i also received a message from Google, saying, ” This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and analyse traffic …..etc, etc.
this Genocide must stop.
There is also talks of Palestinian men being disappeared , and photos of hundreds of them sitting in mass graves waiting to be shot. One of those photos was on the inteldrop.
They are truly out of control. Also, the sea water they are pumping in is polluting the last underground water resources, which in turn could, besides destroying the reservoir, kill also the soil.
I don’t see any solution hider than a military one.
Someone needs to evoke the genocide convention and find the courage to go into Gaza with the aid, and if they get fire on, then …
Thank you Craig, your voice is our voice “humanity”.
Stop the genocide.
Just to add the horrifying list of deliberate, wanton cruelty and disregard for lives is the latest news that there is no sanitation, and very little, if any clean water in Gaza, and certainly no ‘safe’ areas. This is a perfect storm for the spread of disease, which will particularly affect children, leading to many, many deaths. Yahoo has told his soldiers to ‘carry on’ what they are doing, as if they were achieving something noble, deliberately ignoring the pleas from the UN and aid agencies desperate to tray and alleviate this unprecedented horror – much of which is avoidable and unnecessary.
You can only conclude from this savage barbarism that the plan is to continue to degrade the environment that these poor, benighted people are already in, even more. So that the only humanitarian solution will be expulsion and transfer, where these Israeli monsters will expect somebody else to spend billions in order to try and save them, while they crow about annexing Gaza. It is unconscionable, brutally depraved barbarism on a scale we haven’t seen since WW2. It is hard to believe we are witnessing this and witnessing the lack of any political or legal response to these butchers and sadistic madmen. How can any of us carry on and pretend our lives are ‘normal’ while this is going on. It is excruciating that nobody with power will help these human beings whose lives are equal in every respect to those of Jews.
Meanwhile the UK government, spearheaded by Foreign Secretary Cameron, announces in a press release:
“The UK has sanctioned 7 further individuals linked to Hamas, to counter the ongoing threat posed by the terror organisation, cut off its access to finances and impose fresh travel restrictions on individuals linked to the group to disrupt its operations. [As if they would want to visit the UK or USA]
“Today’s move, coordinated with the United States, is the UK’s second round of targeted sanctions imposed on figures associated with Hamas since the 7 October attacks on Israel. —
“The UK and the US stand united in their solidarity with Israel (and its fight against Hamas).” [My brackets].
And as Basil Fawlty would have it really best not to mention Hamas – from the same press release “Membership and expressing support for Hamas is an illegal act in the UK, punishable by up to 14 years in prison”. So there we have it from the bastions of freedom and democracy.
I don’t doubt the information in the article; the dynamics of countries not wanting to trigger ICJ is fascinating and appalling:
But I do have a lingering doubt. Wikipedia says that the GC has 152 state parties as of 2022. That means there is perfect unanimity between all 152 parties with exactly zero dissenters. Is that not unlikely? Even if most of them are effectively blackmailed by the United States, would there not be one state willing to roll the dice, even if the fabric of international capitalism were to be completely torn as a result? Even if some part of capital (not sent to prison) were to seek revenge after the trigger, would it not be worth doing to save thousands of lives, and to obtain justice for the slain?