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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Do you remember that Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 on an Interpol Red Notice on a request by Spain. He committed atrocities against Spanish citizens. https://www.theguardian.com/world/1998/oct/18/pinochet.chile
Maybe this is a route to get at Netanyhu or Blinken or Sunak. Claire Daly could get the Irish Government to ask for a similar warrant. Anything to harass them. I remember how outraged Margaret Thatcher was at this treatment of her dear friend, the murderer Pinochet. Grrrr!
Yes one should try that route but one should also remember that it had already been tried before:
2014: Israeli minister Tzipi Livni given diplomatic immunity for UK visit
UK government awards ‘special mission’ status to head-off would-be arrest warrant sought for alleged war crimes in Gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/13/israel-tzipi-livni-diplomatic-immunity-uk
But as you say “Anything to harass them”; any means should indeed be used.
It’s worth an attempt. I agree. But then don´t expect anything from it. Pinochet was insignificant by then.
There are two outcomes, if we are honest with ourselves: Either the militant groups supporting Palestine will wage a big war which we have not seen yet, risking pretty much everything; or Palestinians will be treated like cattle from one place to the other.
This is clearly intended as a constant open “wound” to keep the rabble busy. The US basically lighting up every spot they can using their Allies.
And that’s the new global state of emergency. For the next 20 or so years. Increase the level of pain. For the Israeli government both outcomes are fine.
Since there is no superpower involved here the Palestinians carry the entire burden alone. And the US will never back off. Never.
I guess it’s like Vietnam. That too took 15 years. So this might turn out a real long-shot shit show. Sorry to be so pessimistic. Of course on the other hand Vietnam too ended among others due to public pressure.
P.S. anything close to peace is a threat to the US. May be they even figure turning the region into a new WMD hot spot is not a bad option.
“I guess it’s like Vietnam. That too took 15 years”
I think you could be right AG, I feel it can’t stop any time soon. The slaughter in Gaza is the beginning of a new sequence of events. So many new beginnings will spring from so many dreadful ends.
They called WW1 “The War to end all wars”. They were wrong, unless the war that started in 1914 is still going on – a war against the mass of humanity. Civilians and mass conscript armies have paid in “blood, sweat and tears”, investors in the MIC and sundry ghouls have raked in the profits. Ordinary people are the target, this much is clear to me. No holds are barred, no methods unsound
I ask you to consider “Citizens United” as a watershed and everything that has proceeded it, happening because of it. Imperial policy is for sale to the highest bidder, openly – for those in the know, it is a market.. This, for me, explains the inhumanity, and apparent inconsistency of the Empire’s policies in the last 20 years – there is no plan, there is just cash – market logic.
WM: “I ask you to consider “Citizens United” as a watershed and everything that has proceeded it, happening because of it.”
Indeed, but arguably the 1886 “Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad” case was even more significant, because that case gave rise to the notion that corporations are persons in the first place.
That wasn’t even the decision of the court. The court reporter wrote up that “This court found that corporations are persons”, despite the Judge having said no such thing. Generations of lawyers have acted upon this false assumption, the rest is history.
glenn_nl, your point is well made and I include it in my thesis – the last 120 years or so, is the history of those who made colossal fortunes in the 19th century (from slavery, opium, colonial appropriation and the supply of the means to control and provision industrialised society, the means to control continents, e.g. the railroad, the telegraph etc.), attempting to protect their extreme wealth. The “corporate person-hood” notion is one of the early mileposts on the road to now – massive concentrations of wealth controlling Western societies and profiting from the cycle of destruction and rebuilding that this extreme wealth engenders with the commencement of each new war or revolution. This is the business model – IBM crunched the numbers for Nazi genocide till 1944, as I mentioned up-thread!
The amount of cash generated by WW1 by private business is hard to believe – yet most countries involved were immiserated. The newly formed mega-corporations profited massively from helping the Bolsheviks industrialise the Soviet Union! The transfer of military technology to Nazi Germany in the 1930s by American and British corporations is staggering, all with the explicit sanction of their respective governments. LendLease – “the Arsenal of Democracy”, the Korean War, Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex”, Vietnam, the Cold War; in 1991 there was no peace dividend just a professional village idiot proclaiming “the end of history” – Fukayama – the shill of all shills.
Now the cycle begins again. Start a war, generate massive profits and when the deed is done, profit from the rebuilding. This is the essence of modern oligarchy and unless we change it, expect another century of blood, death and tears. As searing as this current moment is for us, the bystanders, watching the mass-murder of civilians in Gaza – we ain’t seen nothing yet.
“Hey, you. Wait a minute. Let’s have a good look at you. Hey. Mr. Choo-Choo. It’s easy to find you. Bastard! I don’t have to kill you now. You leave a slime behind you like a snail. Two beautiful shiny rails.”
Cheyenne (Jason Robards) in Once Upon A Time In The West, Sergio Leone (1968)
I guess “Citizens United” and “Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad” are significant as part of the same thread.
Even though I remind myself every day that history is not determined, the forces of production, to borrow one of David Noble´s greatest book titles https://www.amazon.com.be/-/en/David-Noble/dp/113852364X (great work) are in every corner of our social fabric.
And as such, 1914 and 1886 are as close to us now as if they had taken place this month.
The implementation of linear thinking (when exactly did that take shape?) is convient and as much a trap. Implementing the assumption every new year is pure progress. I don´t belong to those who believe the past “per se” was better, but the quality of mistakes is new and the power to commit those without punity is unprecedented. So that way the phenomena haven´t changed but the risks. Sometimes I get the impression despite all their fancy laws and tech and bombs and non-think tanks the MIC minions still think with brains used to catastrophe unfold with a different speed. They might game out the future(s). But after all games are simulations. And people like simulations so much for the very reason that they don´t hurt. Until, completely unexpected the pain sets in.
“The British political class supports the genocide”
Not only that, they have framed anybody who even terms it genocide a fanatical extremist. The only genocide acknowledged on BBC Daily Politics is the made-up one they claim protesters want against Jews.
The moderate citizens to whom the British political class do yield include businessman Lance Forman who this week tweeted a picture of himself leaving 10 Downing Street giving a victory sign. It was captioned “Excellent meeting .. All sorted!”
https://x.com/DillyHussain88/status/1735225057977254045?s=20
Last month Mr Forman provoked outrage (outside the political class) by stating that Gaza should be nuked and that British troops should open fire on people in London calling for a ceasefire.
Last week he was approvingly quote-tweeted by the Metropolitan Police for demanding that the term “intifada” be criminalised.
Unbelievable.
It is. They simply do not care how they appear. It looks like the Muslim community is going to be sadistically targeted again, first by the Tories, then by Labour FoI liberals.
I agree with Mr Murray that the Gaza massacre is Genocide, which many International law experts agree is also a textbook example.
But even assuming it is not, what has been happening over the past 2 months are egregious war crimes in every category of same. Yet when senior members of the Labour party are asked about this, the reply is usually “I am not a Lawyer” or some other facile remark. These people are not human, nor do they have the right not to be assailed in public wherever they appear. They are disgusting immoral whores who will follow Starmer’s pro-Zionist line merely to keep their seats, and to hell with 20,000 innocent civilians killed.
Even local UK public order laws are manipulated by the various recent Home Secretaries to protect Zionists from being caused ‘Distress’ – notably under section 5, Public order Act 1986, causing ‘Alarm or distress’, the offence is exacerbated if a Racial element is included.
Many protestors are being hunted down by the Metropolitan police under this and other offences, yet Keir Starmer can go live on LBC Radio and agree with Nick Ferarri that the Israeli Defence Minister on behalf of the Israeli Government does have the right to starve and deny water and energy to 2.3 million innocent Palestinian civilians obviously causing ‘Alarm and Distress’ to millions of Palestinian and their supporters. There is also a racial dimension to this offence. Yet this barely human gift-wrapped turd can claim to be a legitimate leader of a once-proud Labour party. Do me a favour.
Labour politicians have been suspended [Andy McDonald], for invoking the phrase “From the river to the sea”.
The phrase “from the river to the sea” was also used by the Israeli ruling Likud party as part of their 1977 election manifesto which stated “Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.” This slogan was repeated by Menachem Begin. Similar wording has also been used more recently by other Israeli politicians, like Gideon Sa’ar and also Uri Ariel of The Jewish Home. In 2014 Ariel said, “Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea there will be only one state, which is Israel.” The phrase has been used by the Israeli Prime Minister, Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu, in speeches.[ Similar wording has also been used more recently by other Israeli politicians.
Here is part of the Likud Platform of 1999:
a. “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.”
b. “Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem”
c. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
d. “The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.”
There have been some updates to the platform more recently, reflecting Israel’s withdrawal of settlements from Gaza in 2005. But the Likud Party has *never* in its statements of principles, accepted a Palestinian State. Its electoral partner, Yisrael Beitenu, has likewise categorically rejected the possibility of an independent Palestinian State, insisting that the idea is nothing more than a ploy to facilitate the destruction of Israel.
The question is does this platform not Alarm and Distress millions of Palestinians and others worldwide, and will the Labour party condemn anyone putting forward such a blatant racist and supremacist policy. Don.t hold your breath.
Speaking of murder:
Several weeks ago a German-Palestinian family of 6 from the West German city of Dortmund (4 children, the husband was about to begin working as a doctor at the Dortmud hospital, the wife I assume was taking care of the kids, about her I don´t know more) were killed by an Israeli bomb that hit the apartment block in Gaza, where they stayed.
This tragedy was not really picked up by German media.
At the press conference of the German government a reporter wanted to find out if the lack of the German government´s reaction could have to do anything with the nationality of the perpetrator of the crime. Naturally there was no meaningful answer.
However it is not difficult to extrapolate from everything else, had Hama caused this (the killed German hostage has ben sad media celebrity for months now) or RU forces, it sure would have been cause for all kinds of vile announcements and hostile commentary.
like: it was Hamas´ fault
Not astonishing at all, Craig. To those whose eyes have been open (as yours surely are) it’s been evident for at least two decades that the West cares nothing about human rights and raises the issue only when it is useful as a political tool to discredit rebellious nations and thus as an instrument for its relentless neoimperialism. What’s actually astonishing is that the mask of western legitimacy has now suddenly been ripped off to such an extent that even those who have remained in denial over the blatant though unpalatable truth of Western nefariousness and hypocrisy are at last beginning to wake up.
In spite of its bombast, Israel is terrified of a war with Hezbollah. They know Hezbollah have the means to make Israel unviable.
Uzi Rubin, a former head of the Israel Missile Defense Organization and a preeminent missile expert, has a chilling presentation he gives on the all-but-existential threat posed by precision-guided munitions to small states. Rubin uses Greece as an example, but it’s obvious he’s really talking about Israel. By perusing easily available public sources, Rubin suggests there are roughly 30 facilities in all of Greece that allow modern society as we know it to function there — systems for water, fuel, electricity, sea and air transport, and communications. Generously assuming his tally of critical targets undercounts the actual number by a factor of three, Rubin soberly makes the point that with fewer than 300 precision-guided munitions, an adversary could quickly make life unviable for Greece’s 10 million citizens.
If anything, tiny Israel may be even more vulnerable than Greece. Though the two countries are close in population, Israel’s land area is not even 20 percent of Greece’s. And while Israeli counterproliferation efforts have severely limited Iran’s ability to transfer precision-guided munitions along various routes to Hezbollah, some Israeli officials privately suggest that the terrorist group could already have several hundred in its arsenal. Once it acquires 1,000, it could fire 10 precision strikes at each of Israel’s 100 most critical pieces of national infrastructure. Even assuming a 90 percent success rate for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense, the math at that point will favor Hezbollah, putting the possible paralysis of Israeli civil society within its reach.
He points out that many years ago precision missiles used to cost millions; now with the introduction of the smart phone GPS and all the coordinates can be factored in to the missiles plus winglets for 10’s of dollars, These developments are game changers which even the Houthis have.
This is a must watch Webinar with Dr. Uzi Rubin on The Evolution of Iran’s Precision Guided Missile Threat
https://jinsa.org/watch-webinar-with-dr-uzi-rubin-on-the-evolution-of-irans-precision-guided-missile-threat/
harrylaw, is this Rubin fellow objective? Surely you can see the conflict of interests here? A former employee of the Israeli MIC is bound to hype the threat – eg more money for his chums who still operate the Israeli killing machine etc etc
will moon. “Could be he is hyping the threat” maybe, but I have not heard anyone debunk his claims. The Iranians have a huge desert with underground factories producing these precision missiles in their thousands and are installing them in silos all over the coasts of the Persian Gulf and their vast deserts. Nazrallah has assured everyone that they have sufficient numbers of missiles to reach every part of Israel, in fact he said they have no shortage of missiles, but they need more storage space.
It is a fact that not many years ago a computer took up the space of a whole room as Rubin acknowledged, now he said a small smartphone costing $150 dollars does a better job and with the adjustment of 2 wires can perform the same functions as a massive computer, including GPS etc. Nazralla does not lie, he is so honest even Israeli listeners take what he says seriously.
Iran proved the accuracy of their precision missiles when General Soleimani was killed. Then Iran using just 15 Precision missiles [not their best ones] hit the Al Asad air base in Iraq: 11 got through and hit what they were supposed to hit; 4 did not, for one reason or another. The US/Israel are so arrogant they think that no one else has the brains to master all this new technology. They are wrong, as will be borne out shortly.
In my opinion Israel is hoping Hezbollah attacks Israel in a more aggressive action, then it can call upon the US and allies to assist in destroying hezbollah together with Beirut, as they have done before.
Israels defence position is compromised by the ineffectiveness of its much vaunted Iron Dome System which according to Professor Theodore A Postol Physicist Professor emeritus, science, Technology and National Security policy, ballistic missile defence etc at MIT said iron dome maybe 5% effective.
During the November 2012 conflict, a detailed review of a large number of photographs of Iron Dome interceptor contrails revealed that the rocket-defense system’s success rate was very low—as low as 5 percent or, perhaps, even less The collection of data for Iron Dome’s performance in July 2014 is still in progress. The data we have collected so far, however, indicates the performance of Iron Dome has not markedly improved. https://thebulletin.org/2014/07/the-evidence-that-shows-iron-dome-is-not-working/
From what I have read, there is nothing Israel would like more than Hezbola to get involved. Israeli army would crush them and the Lebanese economy would be even more flattened than it already is.
US would probably let them too.
Geoffrey
I have to correct you.
Bibi No Mates would like to widen the conflict as it keeps him out of jail for longer.
Hezbolla are case-hardened fighters (see Syria against Western backed and funded ISIS for details) and certainly could have an effect in Palestine.
The thing is that if the barrage of missiles continues, it is possible that members of Hezbolla may take matters into their own hands, despite what Iran and the South Lebanese caution about.
Personally I genuinely think that the Two State solution is not on the cards. One side needs to win.
At the moment Israel has the military power to win the battle – but not win the war.
If the US put its foot down, then Netenyahuh and his Crazies can be removed with a less obvious bunch of Israeli politicians who can continue to pretend to be in favour of a Two State Solution, whilst not openly opposing a Two State Solution like Netenyahu and his extremely right-wing friends.
75-years-plus of pretence from The West has ended up in the situation everyone finds themselves in, and no amount of legal wrangling will solve the matter.
In my opinion there is no two State Solution – and this will play out in a few months.
The Israeli economy is going down, and I suspect that the pre-conflict Liberals will leave the country – not dissimilar to Ukraine.
Now: If Trump gets in he has a decision to make as to funding a distressed Israel.
An Israel with the green light from the USA, and with military supplies from the USA, and that does not care how many civilians they kill or homes they destroy would smash Hezbola and probably any other Arab nation that decided to get involved.
Israel does not seem to care what the consequences of its actions are. Whoever follows Netanyahu may use different words but their actions will be the same. Israel has never wanted peace with its neighbours.
Israel “would smash Hezbola and probably any other Arab nation that decided to get involved”.
Only if they are allowed to hide behind American skirts. Israel could then go in and murder unarmed civilians, women and children. They are so fucking brave.
On last night’s (14/12) edition of the Piers Morgan rant fest on Talk TV, Piers asked guest Mark Regev, the principal Israeli spokesperson, whether he supported the view expressed on the previous evening’s show by Israeli ambassador to the UK, Tzipi Hotovely, that the two state solution was dead. Regev said yes, because a sovereign Palestine State could arm itself and might then become an ally of Iran, which Israel ‘…could not allow’ So there you have it, two senior spokespeople of the Israeli Government clearly stating that Israel does not support the two state solution.
Mark, I have to correct you. The West never backed or funded ISIS – or any other Islamist groups in Syria. Instead, they spent billions or dollars fighting them (killing tens of thousands of civilians in the process). Perhaps you’re thinking of Operation Timber Sycamore, which supplied weapons and training to the Free Syrian Army.
Hezbollah only fought ISIS when their caliphate was falling to bits, largely as a result of being bombed to **** by the Western coalition. They still haven’t managed to get anywhere near defeating the 30,000 or so HTS fighters in Idlib province, even with large amounts of assistance from the Syrian Arab Army, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Shabiha militias and the Russian Air Force.
The word on the street is ISIS are a Western-Gulf proxy directed against Syria, coordinated by the CIA/MI6/Mossad etc – the usual suspects – regime change by head-chopping with some slick corporate branding. Did not Israel allow some head-choppers into their country for medical treatment?
I can only refer you to the fleet of brand new Chevrolet gas guzzlers that ISIS drove into town with.
I bet the salesman’s commission of the fleet set him up for life. It was on television and therefore true.
Of course there is “Official” and “Unofficial ” or like Israel’s nukes don’t exist or do exist as does ISIS and their acolytes in Idlib.
Names don’t mean a thing when you are fighting Russia.
They will be taken out of the US draw when required and paid accordingly.
As far as I remember ISIS/Da’ish were funded by Saudi. The ideology was very close to Wahhabism. Or rather by wealthy Saudi princes – a feature of older Islam where jihad was funded by wealthy individuals. Effectively Saudi princes have access to the oil wealth, so it’s the same as Saudi govt support, but it’s distanced and deniable.
i.e not by the US, at least not directly.
Thanks for your reply Will. The word on the street is wrong then. Israel is not generally counted as the West, and it largely does what it wants (see Gaza, where despite US calls for it to minimise civilians casualties, it’s already probably killed more civilians than were directly killed by the Americans in their wars in Afghanistan & Iraq combined). However, there’s no evidence I know of that it supplied weapons to Islamist groups in Syria.
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Thanks for your reply Mark. ISIS helped themselves to half a billion dollars of cash and assets in the Mosul Bank when they took over the city in 2014. That sort of money can buy you a lot of new Chevrolet SUVs – even if you have to pay double or treble the RRP for them. ISIS also like their Toyota Hiluxes – did that mean they were being bankrolled by the Japanese government?
HTS (formerly al-Nusra Front, to all intents and purposes) are not acolytes of ISIS: they’ve hated them ever since the latter broke away from al-Qaeda – and they regularly fought them, as did the Islamic Front (consisting mostly of other Islamist groups), which several people maintain is the only reason that the Syrian regime didn’t fall to ISIS in 2014, though I remain sceptical. If the US had wanted ISIS to take out Russians (or more specifically the Wagners) then why did it spend years bombing their caliphate?
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Thanks for your reply Laguerre. ISIS were never funded by the Saudi government or their princes. ISIS are Salafists: they want to bring the entire Islamic world under their caliphate, with them (not Saudi princes) in charge – something the Saudis are unlikely to be in agreement with. To the best of my knowledge, they weren’t even funding other Islamist groups in Syria. Some elements of the Qatar elite were funding the al-Nusra Front (and a few other Syrian Islamist groups) to some extent, but that’s as far as it went.
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By the way, I’m certainly no expert on ISIS or the Syrian Civil War, but I know the basics.
ISIS is a direct product of the US-UK invasion of Iraq. A lie-based crime which they claimed would undermine jihadis!
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/25/tony-blair-is-right-without-the-iraq-war-there-would-be-no-isis
“The West never backed or funded ISIS – or any other Islamist groups in Syria. Instead, they spent billions or dollars fighting them (killing tens of thousands of civilians in the process). ”
What makes you think that the two are mutually exclusive? The purpose of war is to destroy armaments and munitions, so that the manufacturers can make billions replacing them. How much better if you have both sides doing this. The French hit the sweet spot a few years ago, when both sides in a West Asian conflict were using French-made missiles. As someone commented at the time, “why doesn’t France just declare war on itself and cut out the middlemen?”
Thanks for your reply Bayard. The purpose of war is to destroy armaments? So why doesn’t the US give all its excess stocks – like over 200 M1150 mine clearers – to Ukraine then, instead of Ukraine having to beg and plead for a tiny fraction of them, but fit them with GPS transponders and then tell the Russians where they are? Out of interest, can I ask what was the West Asian conflict in which French missiles were being used by both sides? I’d imagine that one reason France doesn’t declare war on itself would be that then it would have to pay for its own missiles.
“So why doesn’t the US give all its excess stocks – like over 200 M1150 mine clearers – to Ukraine then, instead of Ukraine having to beg and plead for a tiny fraction of them, but fit them with GPS transponders and then tell the Russians where they are? ”
A moment’s reflection would tell you that they have a facade of “defence” to keep up, plus doing so would make it obvious to the US public what they were doing. As Jean-Baptiste Colbert, famously declared about tax, “the art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the minimum of hissing”, although in this case, the feathers are public money being spent with the arms manufacturers.
“I’d imagine that one reason France doesn’t declare war on itself would be that then it would have to pay for its own missiles.”
It wasn’t a serious suggestion. I can’t remember what conflict it was made about; all I really remember was the remark.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. Most of the American public don’t follow their government’s spending that closely* – which is one reason why the US debt-to-GDP ratio is currently around 120% (though some of that is QE). The ones that do are often the biggest advocates for ‘defense’ spending. MAGA purists generally support increased public spending, funded by more debt – as per their idol. Looks like we can probably file the West Asian conflict in which the two sides launched French-made missiles at each other under things that never happened.
* See ‘Get your thieving government hands off my Medicare’ placards etc.
“counted as the West”
But they are in Eurovision and the European football, both nationally and at the club level. They tout themselves as a “democracy”, accusations of deep-seated historical racism swirl around their polity – what could be more western?
“Most of the American public don’t follow their government’s spending that closely”
They would if they did something like what you suggest. They don’t follow government spending because the government keep things vaguely reasonable. Similarly most people in the UK don’t follow government spending, but did get upset when the Tories started shovelling cash at their mates during COVID. The fact that everyone appears to have forgotten all about it doesn’t disprove this point. Most people don’t take much notice of a householder fixing his roof, but they do when he fixes a huge plastic shark to it.
Thanks for your reply Will. Eurovision & UEFA can invite whichever countries they want into their competitions. The general geopolitical definition of the West is North America (excluding the Latin American bits), Western Europe, Australia & New Zealand.
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Thanks for your reply Bayard. The US spent over $50 billion a year in Afghanistan over 20 years, much of it on brand new military equipment for the Afghan defence forces. Americans only cared about that when most of it ended up in the hands of the Taliban. The British public cared more about a few parties in Downing St and Dom Cummings’ ‘eye test’ in Barnard Castle than companies linked to Tory politicians receiving millions in PPE contracts. However, that’s beginning to change, which is why Lady Mone and her hubby felt the need to grant an interview to Laura K at the weekend.
“The general geopolitical definition of the West”
Do you have any sources for this fulsome assertion?
Thanks for your reply Will. Here you go:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world
You may also be interested in the dictionary definitions of the word ‘fulsome’:
1. excessive or insincere
2. extremely complimentary (not standard)
The last article I read that you offered was a bust – you had not even read it!. Can’t you summarise – I mean if you believe this stuff, you could just repeat your beliefs – surely not difficult? As for your source – really? On Israel?
The definition of Israel is fluid, that much is clear – even it’s physical borders are undefined. You can cling to the failing authority of opaque sources but I prefer scholars, failing that journalists, whistleblowers or other sundry purveyors of clear attributeable information.
What of Western values, Western capital, Western colonialism? Outremer drifted socially from Europe but remained an enclave of the West for a couple of centuries after the First Crusade’s capture of Jerusalem. Zionism as promulgated by Herzl was intrinsically of Western origin – even it’s nascent state was midwifed by the Anglo-American Empire – Western Empire
Thanks for your reply Will. The very first sentence of the above Wiki article reads thusly:
‘The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to various nations and states in the regions of Australasia, Europe, and the Americas.’
This summary is what I asserted. However, if you would like a picture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_world#/media/File:Western_World_Latin_America_torn_countries.png
Wikipedia is not an opaque source: it contains plentiful references – something that encyclopedias don’t generally do. The article is about the Western world, not about Israel. Most of Africa was colonised by the European powers well into the 20th century. However, none of it is generally regarded as part of the West, and neither was South Africa under Apartheid.
The article I previously cited wasn’t a ‘bust’, and what I said was that I hadn’t read *all* of it. This was because I didn’t need to (and I haven’t got time to be going through reams of tractor-production figures etc). Here is a direct quote from the introduction (which I did read):
‘There is no doubt that by the late 1970s, the Soviet second economy had grown to be fairly large relative to the first or the official economy. Professor Grossman has estimated that in the late 1970s, private income comprised between 28 and 33 percent of total household income (Grossman, 1987)’ (pages 2-3)
This scholarly article thus tallies with the point I made at the time.
Finally, if it’s of any interest, the neutral third-person singular determiner is ‘its’ not ‘it’s’
“All things are subject to interpretation. Whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth” – Nietzsche
And because of those f***wits, all Britons are now Hamas targets
What of a view that there are legal arguments that can be made that would allow the UN general assembly to render the US veto unlawful?
Raza Nasri explains in his tweet:
https://nitter.net/RezaNasri1/status/1735099960947847388#m
The argument being that peremptory norms exist and:
“publicists have also confirmed the illegality of obstructing the prevention of violations of peremptory norms at the Security Council stating for example that: “a veto made where there is a serious breach of a peremptory norm should be seen as void or ultra vires of the proper exercise of Security Council power.”
I can’t get out of mind the total destruction of Warsaw in 1944 after the uprising. That was in my lifetime and I never expected a repeat. Even the 2003 shock and awe attack on Baghdad was not like this. When I saw the first Star Wars with my children in 1977 the Empire evoked the USA in my mind.
With something as serious as genocide, it must be possible for the ICJ to go after the primary actor – Netanyahu – without that necessarily being dependent on equally chasing the enablers. You’d still prosecute the bank-robber even if you couldn’t include those who provided the intelligence or firearms.
The “all or nothing” defence smacks of yet another excuse to do nothing.
An Israeli citizen who refused to serve in the army, and thus participate in the collective punishment of Palestinians, has compiled a useful collection of evidence from Israeli politicians that they fully intend genocide. in their own words:
https://x.com/ByDonkeys/status/1735246563042111922?s=20
If Israelis themselves can see it, there is no excuse for Western media and politicians to pretend otherwise. A trial is barely necessary, certainly not to determine whether a genocide occurred, rather to determine what the appropriate sentences should be and what reparations should be made.
I just posted the following comment (awaiting moderation) on an Electronic Intifada article entitled ‘Israel admits to “immense” amount of “friendly fire” on 7 October’, published three days ago, so I thought I’d post it on here as well:
By the next day (October 8th) the media were reporting that ‘over 260 people’ at the music festival were killed, and a couple of days or so later the media were citing a specific figure, which had obviously been released by Israeli authorities, of 280 if I remember correctly. And then sometime later (maybe a week or two), the number of people killed shot up by nearly a hundred, to 360-something, without explanation, as far as I am aware. I’ve been trying to determine how long it was after the initial specific figure was released that it was updated, without success so far. but I’m absolutely certain it wasn’t a day or two before the update, or even several days, and this is my point: Why did it take them so long to release the final figure; and the obvious answer I assume is because these 90 or so people had been burnt beyond recognition, and had to be identified by their DNA, and that would have taken a while to do.
I was searching for images/pictures of the aftermath yesterday, and I came across one with several people in a car (taken from behind) who were literally completely charred (and needless to say the damage one saw in so many of the early pictures of numerous cars wasn’t done by Hamas et al). And if I’m right that there was no explanation given for the number suddenly going up by getting on for ninety, then if they were all charred and incinerated, then that would explain WHY no explanation was given.
Anyway, when I was trying to determine when the figure went up to 360-something just prior to starting this post, I came across a really bizarre article dated November 10th by PBS News Hour entitled ‘Survivors, rescuers in Hamas music festival attack recount the day’s horrors’, and one of the rescuers said this:
Eran Massas: There is a group of people who started run. They fell. They just take the gasoline from the generator of the lights to the party, and they burned them…….. They burned them alive.
Ah, so THAT explains it!
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/survivors-rescuers-in-hamas-music-festival-attack-recount-the-days-horrors
And it is of course more-than-likely that the IDF (on the ground) killed many other Israeli people at the festival who were recognisable.
Anyway. I posted the following assessment of a Sunday Times article on a Novara Media YouTube video last week, in which Michael Walker discusses the article. The video is entitled ‘Israel Attacks UN Women But Refuses Investigation Into Sexual Violence’, and at 1min 25secs in the video a section of the ST article is shown on screen as Michael reads it out, so if you haven’t read the article in the ST (or already seen the Novara video), then please just quickly check out the section of the article in the video before reading my assessment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH0U8RJVXlU&t=741s
Here’s my assessment:
The Sunday Times article is behind a paywall, but I managed to quickly copy the following when I refreshed the page:
First Hamas fighters raped her. Then they shot her in the head
The terrorists were ‘on a mission’ to carry out sexual attacks on October 7. Campaigners have asked why the UN stayed silent
Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent, Sitria
Saturday December 02 2023, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times
Israeli soldiers pay their respects at memorials to those killed in the Hamas terrorist raid on the Supernova music festival [this is obviously a caption to a picture]
She had, he says, the face of an angel. Night after night Yoni Saadon, 39, wakes in anguish to the faces of women.
First, that of the young woman hiding next to him under the stage of the Supernova festival where he had been dancing to electronic music as the sun rose on October 7 and Hamas militants opened fire.
“She fell to the ground, shot in the head, and I pulled her body over me and smeared her blood on me so it would look as if I was dead too,” he said. “I will never forget her face. Every night I wake to it and apologise to her, saying ‘I’m sorry’.”
After an hour, he peeked out. “I saw this beautiful woman with…….
That’s all I got, but it explained what I was wondering – i.e. where WAS he when he witnessed all of this happening? But, that said, I don’t buy any of it. Not one word. In the first place, if you know that people are being killed, and HAVE been killed, you are not going to risk ‘peeking’ out and risk being spotted and getting killed. No way! But you see he had to peek out – as opposed to NOT peek out and only HEAR what she said and what was going on – because the story wouldn’t have been so graphic if he didn’t actually see her, and see how ‘beautiful’ she was, and with the face of an angel, etc., etc. (I mean it’s straight out of the propagandists handbook!). She was angelic and pure, you see, and they were evil demons who first raped her, and then killed her.
Anyway, what I captured above finishes just where the section Michael put up on the screen and read out began, and right from the outset it all sounds totally contrived. Yep, she just happened to be a beautiful woman AND with the face of an angel (the section from the ST article is at 1min 25secs). Now if there were 8/10 of them, then one can only imagine that if you are going to rape and fcuk a woman, you want to do the full monty and, as such, climax before letting the next one in the queue have their turn, and even at an average of five minutes each, that would be forty to fifty minutes, and in reality it would probably be TWICE as long as that. Yeah, they’re not bovvered about the IDF turning up and killing them all. As if!
And the dialogue he attributes to her just doesn’t sound real, and you would probably be screaming, or just faint from fear. And what she allegedly said doesn’t make sense anyway. And if she was beautiful, then it doesn’t make sense that they would then just kill her, and surely one or two of them take her back to Gaza as a hostage, where they can rape her every day as often as they feel like it.
And then there was the woman hiding next to him under the stage, who was shot in the head and fell to the ground. I mean surely if you were both hiding under the stage you would both be lying down! But then, suddenly, in the next part of the story, he’s hiding in bushes…… hmm, I wonder how he got from under the stage to these bushes without being spotted, or risked moving in the first place. As if! Oh, right, and now he just happens to witness an even MORE horrific atrocity. B/S!!! And there just happens to be a shovel handy! And he’s the only person that happens to witness these two events. How very convenient! The reality is that had he witnessed such things (he probably wasn’t even at the music festival!) it would’ve been all over the MSM around the world within a few days, and we wouldn’t be hearing about it for the first time NOW, some seven/eight weeks later!
So after raping her, they shot her in the head – i.e. the beautiful woman with a face like an angel – and then they cut off her breast and played with it in the street (see Novara video at 11mins 40secs). Yeah sure, it’s just the sort of thing you would do in the middle of an attack! Needless to say, a bunch of Israeli propagandists sat around dreaming up the most atrocious atrocity propaganda they could think of, as with so many other claims. I repeat, if this guy had actually witnessed what he claims he witnessed, it would have been all over the MSM around the world in a matter of days. And the reason we DIDN’T is because it was concocted and contrived so as to re-energise the demonisation of Hamas after the seven day ceasefire.
I then posted the following a few days later:
Several other things have occurred to me since I posted my comment above: 1. Surely it would have been the most obvious thing in the world to Hamas fighters to think to look under the stage to see if anyone was hiding there; 2. It was a relatively small gig with around 4,000 people attending, and it was a rave, with just DJs playing their sets, so there would be absolutely no need for a massive big stage, and I’d be surprised if it was more than three foot off the ground, and three and a half feet at the most, so it seems highly unlikely that the woman that was hiding under the stage with this guy fell to the ground when she was shot in the head, because it would have been impossible to stand up, apart from which, as I said before, the most obvious thing would be to be laying down; 3. And how come SHE was spotted and, as such, shot in the head, but this guy wasn’t spotted? I mean how do you get seen, and then shot as a consequence of being seen, if you’re hiding under the stage? I mean you have to be seen to get shot, and what reason would she have to peep out and risk being seen and potentially killed, or have a Hamas gunman (or two or more) come running over and discover that there’s two people, and kill them both; 4. If the woman was somehow seen and shot as such, and was kinda under the stage when she was shot, then the most obvious thing in the world would be for the gunman (and any other Hamas fighters with him) to go over to the stage and look under it to see if anyone else is under there. Of COURSE he/they would. And why shoot and kill her anyway, and not take her as a hostage?
And Yoni Saadon doesn’t mention her name in the ST article as far as I am aware, and yet they must have at least exchanged first names (very quietly, obviously), and you would of course say what her name was in the article. Of course you would. But he didn’t. Hmm……
Anyway, if you didn’t see Channel 4 News a couple of days ago, a section of it was about the festival, and they posted this particular section on their YouTube channel later that evening. It’s self-explanatory, but the guy in the clip goes to the festival site to look for his brother and, would you believe it, whilst doing so – and in the middle of a raging battle – just happens to see this woman with one of her breasts cut off in the back of a vehicle…… But like the guy in the ST article, we’re only hearing about it now, some eight/nine weeks later. It’s so transparent it’s laughable. Yeah, he just happens to corroborate what the ST guy said, and MORE besides!
Oops, here’s a link to the Channel 4 News segment:
‘Horrors of Hamas attack on Israel investigated’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpKybAHZ69k&t=300s
Thank you for posting that clip, which I first saw when it was broadcast live.
It confirms something I heard right at the end of the clip:
“As well as militants, civilians AND CRIMINALS crossed into Gaza on October 7. Eyewitnesses have told us some robbed survivors of the festival at knife point.” (my emphasis).
Presumably, militants is the reporter’s shorthand for fighters from Islamic Jihad and al-Qassam (the militant wing of Hamas).
If there was the sexual violence alleged, was it not more likely to have been perpetrated by escaped criminals some of whom also “robbed survivors …at knife point?”
‘If there was the sexual violence alleged, was it not more likely to have been perpetrated by escaped criminals some of whom also “robbed survivors …at knife point?”’
Maybe, but I don’t think so, because in another report I read a few days after I read the ST one, it said that when these guys were all raping her, the final one handed her over to a guy in uniform, and then he raped her and, whilst doing so, shot her in the head. I’m not sure if I saved the article, but it’ll be in my History, so I’ll try and dig it out.
But irrespective of who these guys were that allegedly raped her and then shot her in the head and then cut her breast off and played with it ‘in the street’, it doesn’t take anything away from the ‘disparities’ I pointed out in relation to the guy who said he was hiding under the stage (and witnessed it all). And all whilst they were in the middle of an attack! And just like the forty beheaded babies and the woman that had her stomach cut open and the foetus taken out etc, it’s just so obviously blatant atrocity propaganda lies.
The main point I was making in pointing out all the ‘disparities’ of the guy who claimed he witnessed all this is that he didn’t, and it was all lies concocted by Israeli propagandists for him to ‘deliver’ (via the Sunday Times) to the world. And as I said, if he had REALLY witnessed it (along with the OTHER atrocity when he was then hiding in a bush (or some bushes), we would have heard about it within a few days of him witnessing it, along with the other atrocities we heard about at the time.
Now I’ve only just thought of this, but was the ST article the first time the story came to be in the public domain, because that would be really weird if that’s the case, and he didn’t first approach one of the main Israeli newspapers about it, or one of the main TV stations. And time wise, it wasn’t just that we didn’t hear about it at around the time we heard about the other atrocities, but at the very latest the ST would have had the story the day before they published it – ie the very next day after Israel resumed its daily mass killing and mass destruction after the seven day truce. And if THAT in itself isn’t a giveaway, I don’t know what is! BN and Co obviously wanted to move the ‘climate’ away from all the stories of released hostages about being taken care of by their captors – ie Hamas – and sharing what food and water they had with them etc, and get it back to them being evil monsters, and were undoubtedly concocting all this stuff within a couple of days of the truce starting, ready to churn it out almost immediately it ended.
After spending getting on for an hour yesterday trying to find an image or video footage that caught the stage in it, and eventually given up, I just went on to a page that I must have saved and didn’t get round to checking out, and there was a video on the page in a small box, for want of a better way of describing it, and the very first shot is of the stage, literally for a split second, and it almost immediately pans to the left, and then pans back to the stage for a couple of seconds (and then changes to another segment of people dancing). The video is taken from about 15/20 yards back fom the stage with lots of people dancing inbetween, but I paused it a number of times and eventually got the best perspective to gague how high the stage is, and I was right, and it’s about 3ft to 3ft 6 inches high, and very nice too, with a massive great big buddha on top of it. I got a couple of snapshots of it, but whilst taking a third the video just completely dissapeared….. I just tried refreshing the page and I got it back!:
https://www.wsj.com/video/series/in-depth-features/how-hamas-turned-an-israeli-music-festival-into-a-massacre/F24366C2-CB00-49C9-BF6A-08A2B275C5CD
PS The video can of course be enlarged to full screen
There is virtually no acknowledgement in British media that this orgiastic, ever more depraved attack on a captive population has been enabled all the way by the UK government and military. The RAF has been ferrying in weapons from Cyprus and supplying the IDF with reconnaissance for targeting journalists, hospitals, UN humanitarian institutions etc. The media is suppressing this while trying to justify mass slaughter of civilians, deprivation of food, water and electricity, under a thin pretence this is a high minded War. The UK’s major role in this Genocide should be a stain on the conscience of every British citizen.
I did not know about this israeli/jewish connection:
New EU foreign minister volunteered in a kibbutz
While he was in Israel, Josep Borrell Fontelles, who currently serves as the Spanish FM, also met his first wife and the mother of his two children.
https://www.jpost.com/international/new-eu-foreign-minister-volunteered-in-a-kibbutz-594564
https://www.timesofisrael.com/spains-new-foreign-minister-met-his-first-wife-on-an-israeli-kibbutz/
So the EU foreign minister not only lived in a kibbutz but also met his first wife there, a french-jewish woman, with whom he had 2 children.
Then, there is no wonder that Borell have more affinity with jewish/israeli people than with palestinians.
With people like that in power in the EU the palestinians should not hold their breath waiting for aid, help.
Hi Craig
It’s a point well made that the fear of a successful referral to the ICJ puts the willies up any states that need to keep on the good side of the US and its allies. But why then wouldn’t other states who are not so aligned – maybe Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, even China – not make the referral? Any thoughts on that?
Had to cogitate quite a while on the revelations in Craig’s post. Essentially its a matter of force. The ICC can issue the warrants, essentially demanding the arrest of leaders of Israel, the US and the UK. Either the ICC will be shown as toothless, or, even the possibility that the states named then take their war to the ICC and either start bumping them off. It’s existential for the ICC. The world system will be shown for what it is, imperialism without limits, the “rules based order” is not even close to the international legal order. Everyone lives in a world where might is right and no-one can hold their governments to account. We’ve not had democracies in the west since the 1980s in any case but they still like to pretend that they are. Except when it comes down to it there’s no choice of policies to vote for and all the bodies of enforcement are either too weak, complicit, or can be dismantled. The issue is, I suppose, it exposes the lie and the base nature of what sort of world we live in.
“We’ve not had democracies in the west since the 1980s in any case but they still like to pretend that they are. ”
Even before that, the so-called “democracies” weren’t democracies. How could they be? The modern state is far too complicated to be run by the people, or even the people’s elected representatives, that small part of them that are chosen, not by the people, to form part of the executive arm of the government. and not just its legislature. True power resides in the unelected permament members of the executive and their “advisors”, what in the UK we call “The Establishment”. Every other “democracy” is the same and none of their “Establishments” want to emphasise the fact that, in reality, they are an oligarchy with a small elected element and that the world system is basically oligarchy, as it always has been.
Will the US intelligence agencies take a closer look at Mr Murray and many commentators on his blog.
US Terror List Hit 2 Million People, Nearly Doubling In 6 Years
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-terror-list-hit-2-million-people-nearly-doubling-6-years
The Criteria for Listing and Its Implications
According to Russ Travers, a four-decade veteran of the U.S. intelligence community who helped create the watchlist: “It doesn’t mean they’re a terrorist. It means there’s something that has led a department or agency to say, ‘This person needs a closer look.'”
It was suggested that “I’m sure that there are a lot of people that are in the database that are dead, that we don’t even know it,”
Well they should know who they are since this agency are probably responsible for their deaths.
It couldn’t be US Foreign Policy that has anything to do with this increase, surely not.
harry law
I hope I’m on this list, at least. Honestly, I have such a boring routine life now and so lack of exciting events that I’ll probably entertain myself with thoughts that the CIA might be watching me 🙂
On a serious note, if the state allocates money for such purposes, then there must be some lists, right? The money must be spent and reports written. That is how it works – the state gives money and people do their job.
In our country there are also talented businessmen in our area I recently found out. Leonid Volkov from Navalny’s organization was able to sell to the American government
a bridgean interesting startup under the intriguing name “Navalny’s propaganda machine.” I kid you not, that’s the exact name.The idea is to call ordinary Russian citizens and, over the course of a telephone conversation, convince them to abandon their support for Putin.
I wish I had the marketing talent to convince the American government to give me money for things like this.
Just imagine the reaction of an average Russian who gets a call from a stranger inviting him/her to discuss politics and criticize the current government 🙂
I think that whoever lobbied for the budgeting of Leonid’s startup had his share of this money, otherwise I can’t understand who would consider this project to have any chance for success.
Lists like this define replicants who need to be retired. Getting off the list is harder than getting on it unless you die.
oh, so depressing! Come on, Squeeth, let’s have some fun.
Hey CIA, if you’re reading this, I would like you to assign a gay man to monitor me. Because I strongly suspect that the KGB is also watching me, and judging by the reaction to my provocations, they are also gay.
I just thought it would be nice to arrange an ‘accidental first meeting’, as both agents will inevitably bump into each other while following me.
Well, in the style of “he suddenly realized that they were made for each other,” all sorts of ‘chemistry’, ‘romantic interest”, ‘a dance as old as time’ all common love story cliches 🙂
So, how do you find it? I personally find it fascinating! Make love, not war!
Think you missed Squeeth’s reference to replicants…….from the superb sci-fi “Blade Runner” movie. When you get your assignment of agents ensure you run them through the “voight-kampff” test first:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Umc9ezAyJv0
Great movie if you’ve not seen it, Tatyana, and in the circumstances an apt reference.
Thank you very much, ET!
I haven’t seen this film, although when I was at school I definitely read the book by Philip K. Dick on which it was based. My deepest gratitude! Now I know what to do during the Christmas holidays 🙂 Moreover, now my English has improved greatly and I’ll be able to watch this film in English (вот что Интернет животворящий делает) – thanks to the fact that our kind host did not kick me out of this place many years ago 🙂
And Ridley Scott is a great name, time will definitely not be wasted. It looks like this will be an encounter with something precious. I’m already looking forward to it. Thank you!
It’s not at all astonishing.
Every nuclear state is prepared to commit genocide if its vital interests are threatened. In 1996 the UN’s International Court of Justice concluded that it was not illegal under humanitarian law or existing treaties to use nuclear weapons – in the most extreme of circumstances. The International Criminal Court, while permitted by the Rome Statue to pass judgement on use of Chemical or biological weapons, is not allowed pass judgement on the legality of nuclear weapons – and their use. The tragedy in Gaza has to be seen in the broader context: the movement towards another world war. That too will be a tragedy for the Palestinians, and everyone else. What the Great Powers (and the smaller ones) do not see is that every empire eventually gets the conflict it is trying to avoid. Of course, no one wants WW III. If they fail to see the pattern of history they will certainly plunge humanity over the abyss.
https://patternofhistory.wordpress.com/
James O’Brien at LBC Radio had some great radio-shows since the slaughter by Israel started:
James O’Brien explores Joe Biden’s ‘shift’ on Israel’s bombing of Gaza | LBC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjCV4qFhgFE
As he touch upon in the video above, how could this even be called a “war against Hamas”? It is not a “war”, that word do not cover it since it implies 2 sides somewhat equally fighting but turning off the water/food/aid and some 18k civilians dead imply the war is directed toward the whole of the population: this is now a what, 80 day full-on, massacre.
One must also question how Israel could justify a “right to defend themselves” after a ceasefire? I mean, if the alleged threat is so big that you have to use force, how come then you can agree to a ceasfire in the first place? Obviously the alleged threat do not justify /warrant this destruction by Israel.
Thanks for the James O’Brian link, Jack
It wasn’t murder. 1400 March of return marchers with three to five bullet wounds. Sniped at through the fence. They survived.
Then the fence rose. Would it be murder if they returned to where they used to live and found the snipers?
I don’t see why, in your last (and concluding from the penultimate) paragraph, you write “to the world’s diplomats” instead of “to the West’s diplomats”.
Well how much action do you see by the non-western world? Zero. From Russia, to China to Africa, Arab states, South Americas, not one of these actors do a single thing about the situation. The only states that had some courage are South Africa and some smaller South American states that have cut ties with Israel and called upon ICC to act.
This would be a great time for BRICS, Non-Alignment movement, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, African Union and so on to step up but nope, no activity. By not even attempting to do anything, you become in my view complicit in the crimes unfolding.
I would claim that individuals commenting here regularly have spent more time, effort trying to stop the carnage than the time, effort by many of nations combined.
“The only states that had some courage are South Africa and some smaller South American states that have cut ties with Israel and called upon ICC to act.”
And what has been the result of that? Absolutely nothing, just like all the protests in the Western world. Yes, it makes a government look good if it cuts ties with Israel, but it doesn’t actually achieve anything. Once they have stopped talking to Israel, their options for influence are extremely limited. Short of threatening armed intervention, there is very little any other country can do about the slaughter of the Palestinians and no country is stupid enough to do that. What little they can do, like votes in the UN, they have done. The best any country can do is not support Israel, and that most outside the West are doing.
May I introduce you to John Helmer’s blog “Dances with bears”. Read his ten or so most recent articles. He is an Australian journalist based in Moscow.
There is plenty going on behind the scenes in Russia and China, coordinating between each other activities in the UN Security Council as well as the General Assembly.
Scheerpost has a 20 min. conversation from “Redacted” with investigative journalist Whitney Webb about the alleged Chinese hacking of US infrastructure last week.
https://scheerpost.com/2023/12/15/was-the-chinese-cyber-attack-a-false-flag-operation/
She argues in essence that this time a Chinese version of the Russiagate could await us in form of false flag cyberattacks.
Some of the US organisations involved in past simulations of such incidents, I believe we already know from the Twitter Files.
Apparently Douglas Macgregor suggested recently that martial law could be used to suspend the 2024 elections (which I find a bit far-fetched though. It´s not as if the Republicans are the good guys in this and have to be suppressed. The system is working way too smoothly for such a necessity to arise.)
Naturally the names of perpetrators of any attack can be freely chosen according to wished script, Chinese, Iranian, North Korean.
This procedure of not giving any evidence that could be checked we have been witnessing in Gaza every single day.
The parliamentary vote on a ceasefire in last month confirmed for the ages that virtually all British MPs support the genocide.
So too does their client media. That is evidenced not only by pro-genocide framing and selective suppression of key facts (particularly Britain’s major role), but most vividly by the fact British client journalists do not care that fully NINETY journalists have been murdered in Gaza – with British assistance. Contrast with their bogus concern for journalists in places like Russia and Turkey.
Whilst I abhor what Israel is doing in Gaza (and what Hamas and its entourage did on October 7), I tend to agree with Chomsky’s observation that accusations of genocide are bandied about far too freely. As a former prosecutor, I see significant difficulty in proving beyond reasonable doubt that Israel is acting with “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such” (especially given the usual problem in imputing the intent of those giving the orders from the actions of those carrying them out). As I witness the brutalism and extent of the carnage, I wonder whether Israel hopes to make Gaza so uninhabitable that it forces the Palestinians out and enables a further ‘land grab’, but I cannot prove this. I do think that it would be possible to prove that Israel is guilty of ethnic cleansing, having regard to the IRC definition as “a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas,” if such an offence existed in these terms under international law.
Yes, I’m sure it is not 100% proven while the crime of genocide is actually going on. You can only be sure after the crime has been finished and carried out. Pity really, according to this view, one can’t stop a crime while it is being committed.
I must say it’s very hard to see much point in lengthy discussions of whether a given appalling act of deliberate mass murder is “genocide”. After all, that’s only a word – and apparently it all depends on the perpetrators’ _intentions_.
As far as I can see the main effect of such debate is to divert attention from the indisputable fact that masses of civilians are being deliberately killed by a supposedly civilised state – while many other supposedly civilised states stand around doing nothing.
One might just as well argue whether any specific persons planned acts of “genocide” against the Native Americans in North America. If they did, they were spectacularly successful. And if they didn’t, they were still spectacularly successful.
Right from the very start of the Zionist movement in the 1880s, Zionists were very clear that for their plans to succeed, all non-Jewish people would have to disappear from the new Jewish state. As far as I can see, they were (and still are today) supremely indifferent as to whether the Palestinians disappear by leaving the country or by dying.
The Indian Act Canada 1876 was a very oppressive and restrictive. A good example of ethnic cleansing and genocide from what I’ve read of it and probably formed the basis of the Nuremburg laws. It is quite sickening what happened to the indigenous people of Canada. A governor of Nova Scotia, Edward Cornwallis, gave a bounty for “Indian” scalps and was commemorated in street names, school names, statues around the province. I went to Cornwallis Junior High as a child. All these names are being changed and consigned to the dustbin, and not before time. Many of the oppressive and restrictive regulations in the Indian Act have been changed in recent years but it is still in effect.
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-act
I am not an expert in this in anyway; it does make me shudder.
The Zionists programme has been the same for many years; in fact it has been implementing it since 1967 when it illegally occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan Heights.
Here is part of the Likud Platform of 1999:
a. “The Jordan river will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel.”
b. “Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State of Israel and only of Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian proposals to divide Jerusalem”
c. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.”
d. “The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.”
It has expanded its territory and population to at least 600,000 settlers in breach of the Geneva Conventions 1949 Article 49 para 6, ‘It is a grave war crime to transfer your own citizens into occupied territory’.
In a sane world, the UNSC should have severely sanctioned such actions. Unfortunately the most they can do is say ‘this is not helpful’; but worse, they conclude new trade deals with Israel on the grounds that not to do so is Anti-Semitic, an accusation of which is worse than death to the sycophants in the West. Putin was right, the West is entirely responsible for the present state of affairs. It is to be hoped that Russia and China can put right the stupid policies of successive Western governments.
Interesting that Israel today admit that they ‘incidentally’ killed 3 of their own hostages. Such an admission could be a cover for a way high number of israeli hostages killed by IDF. After all this is a regime that have pounded Gaza indiscrimimentaly and even had (or still have) a policy for it.
What’s Israel’s Hannibal Directive? A former Israeli soldier tells all
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/3/whats-the-hannibal-directive-a-former-israeli-soldier-tells-all
What it suggests is that many, many more civilians waving white flags, Palestinians, UN employees, journalists, Hamas soldiers surrendering, etc., have been ruthlessly gunned down by the IDF. We just wouldn’t hear about it unless they were the unfortunate hostages.
Jack, your stoical efforts over the past few months have even surpassed our Host, Mr Murray. I would even say they surpass the leaders of the one and a half Billion Muslims in the world. Please don’t think your efforts are without acclaim, many more people than you know are influenced by opinions on this blog..
harry law
That was very kind, thank you, I applaud your own tireless efforts in return that must to be credited, I remember you from Goingtotehran blog like 10–15 years ago where I used to comment (by a different nick), I saw back then you stood out and were very gifted on the topics discussed.