I can’t type much with my left hand but I wanted to get this out there. It then took me ten hours to upload with a maximum speed here of 0.5mbps. Still more breaking news now. May do a follow-up tomorrow.
[ Transcript now available: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h0C2UQPGZa03_4xcS7kJD5mFyIzOFQaMHrgtQ0i9_v4/edit?usp=sharing ]
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I fully agree with every word. It is really bitter to see that the good elements that the bourgeois system brought forth after the Second World War – leaving aside all the negative aspects – are being turned into their opposite.
But despite the feeling of impotence, we should not despair. We should not do this favour to those who are riding on high towards our common misfortune.
They waited till the war generations were dead – there were communists to fight and “free trade’ to foster and all those assets owned by governments to be captured or recaptured. Around 2008, the last British survivor of the WW1 – the Great War, the war to end all wars, Harry Patch died. In Britain that is when this all came at once – R2P, “rules based order” – the man’s funeral was a joke – the Establishment lied about him – he was completely anti-war and thought the generals and ministers should fight if there was to be a war yet the funeral orations ignored this defining characteristic – lauding his “service” and his sacrifice.
Today it is clear who the enemies of humanity are – they show themselves clearly – the same ones who built the Nazis to catch the Soviets, who tooled the Soviets to take the Nazis – working through the largest international corporations, destroying country after country, slaughtering millions with bombs and death squads,in Korea, in the Americas, in Vietnam, in Iraq and Afghanistan – all these roads leading to genocide in Gaza. What are they not capable of? What will they not do? There are no limits, if Mr Murray is correct when he speaks of bound victims shot, surgeons, doctors, children, men and woman
When the Axis of Resistance takes human losses, I have heard them say, “They died on the road to Jerusalem” Like it or not, we are all on the road Jerusalem today – the creed of the wealth extremists, “all for ourselves, nothing for anyone else” has driven us there and we still fight the war to end all war
Yes, it is monstrous behaviour by Israel. Are we becoming inured to it, more tolerant of depravity? I doubt it, but I’m too old to protest so it’s a subjective view. I do not accept it but anger and justice, like revenge, are sometimes best served cold. Causes have effects, and Israel has forfeited any moral or legal credit.
That it has any support now is the result of the Rules Based Order, a term which disguises total Western disregard for international law. That is of course a US creation, a Pirate’s Code which has been used over and over by the West as a kind of geopolitical fracking: Inject cash into fault lines in state cultures, destabilise, provoke religious and civil war, regime change, and eventually feast on resources released from exploiting the resulting bantustans.
This is not in any sense new. The US used the same approach to steal resources from its own indigenous peoples with a combination of forced resettlement, military conflict and Christian missionary zeal. Post-war, the CIA used it incessantly – Iran Contra, Korea, Iran/Iraq, Vietnam, Serbia, Iraq, USSR, Venezuela, Afghanistan, Syria, Thailand, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Taiwan and, of course, Ukraine, among many others. Palestine is another Western proxy war. The main differences between it and, say, Sri Lanka, are depravity, scale and visibility.
What is curious is how unsuccessful the US seems to be. It has in many cases either lost outright or been obliged to retreat. That may be because these conflicts have the effect of transferring cash from the taxpayer to the political and military-industrial elite regardless of the outcome. The profiteers are outlaws, pirates, who benefit from engaging in conflict as much as from strategic victory.
Gaza cannot find a solution in international law because the pirate king uses the Pirates’ Code, the Rules Based Order, which allows any behaviour deemed convenient. The US ignored the League of Nations and now it discredits and compromises the United Nations. But things change, the US is no longer in its ascendancy and Israel is overstretched by trying to open new fronts in Syria and Jordan. Despite this, I do not think the UN is capable of enforcing anything in the short term. China needs more time to arm for territorial war with the US. Russia needs to stay focused on the SMO. Since any control of the IDF and Israeli Zionists by definition means conflict with the US and NATO, regardless of ICJ and UNSEC decisions, the short term solutions might best be BDS, protests, formal sanctions, blockades on Israeli commerce, and clear statements that regardless of Israeli occupation, all illegal land captured will be seized and returned when circumstances permit a non-Western ‘Coalition of the Willing’.
All woke for Gaza; no wokes in Gaza (or any other Muslim dominated territory).
The WEF loves woke: they wreck Western resistance to globalism and fill part of the spiritual vacuum the materialists leave in their wake. Islam and Christianity are global top down so WEF precursors plus emotional over rational, even better, a la BLM.
Judaism is not very populous or wide spread but irrational and top down and also Doomsday style, a mixed bag. Armageddon for the plebs sounds good for eugenic WEF types.
Thank you for this powerful document of grotesque times. It is deeply disturbing that virtually no other public figure will join you in speaking out against these very darkest of crimes. The worst atrocities we have ever seen. The politicians and journalists have the valid excuse of being owned. But the silence among other public figures about what their government is participating in (most likely planned for years, as you suggest) is near total. Gary Lineker and Charlotte Church are the only exceptions I am aware of. Who else in good conscience can we tell our children to look up to in western society?
Apparently, as the UK govt is clearly complicit in war crimes/genocide, you can legally withhold your taxes. The same sort of way as if you cannot financially support a proscribed organisation. It has been tested by an organisation whose name escapes me.
And now aid workers are actively targeted by the IDF. I must point out that National aid workers are targeted every day. This latest incident has now gone global on the MSM simply because the people killed were foriegn aid workers from Poland, Australia, Britain and Canada-US.
Their vehicles were clearly marked with their logos and were travelling 50 metres apart after delivering humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. I believe that the IDF investigation at the “highest possible level” will come to no real conclusions.
Well said, Craig.
There’s no depths to which these bastards (the Israelis) won’t sink. They’re literally getting away with murder. Most people don’t even mention what’s happening (bar politicians and ‘journalists’, who all support it).
There is no democracy. Zionists control the entire Western world. The fact that they all planned the UNRWA defunding is evil. It’s also a conspiracy – not a conspiracy theory, an actual conspiracy. The type they want us to believe never happens.
The only thing I can think of doing (a bit pathetic, considering the scale of the crimes) is small acts like graffiti or putting up documents/posters in public places. I’ve seen Palestine flags (often home made) appearing in people’s windows – people don’t know what else to do, as you say.
In a way, it’s not that surprising (the crime and lack of reaction). As readers here know, the oppression and abuse of, and theft of land from, the Palestinian people has been going on for decades, ignored by the spineless fake media and disgusting politicians. Those who did speak out were silenced/censored by bogus accusations of antisemitism.
western democracy “it would be a great idea” to paraphrase Gandhi.
Israel also responded by bombing the Iranian embassy in Syria.
I thought it was the consulate rather than the embassy?
The two are next to one another. I believe it was the consulate that was flattened.
No justice, just us..
oh and don’t forget that the mainstream press in all those western countries supports the genocide, by mindlessly repeating propaganda and lies.
Craig, I have watched your video, and I thank you for it. I’m trying to work out what best to do.
Readers, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. We need to organise.
Ive had difficulty forwarding, by email, this latest post by Craig. Not for the first time, either!
Keeping the message simple. The UNSC resolution demanded a ceasefire yet Israel destroyed a hospital because they didn’t like the patients. They also executed numerous health workers. All the destruction plus deaths and injuries since the resolution should result in huge economic damages.
The most powerful action with most immediate effect that the people of a country can organise immediately is a General Strike. The demand for such a strike should be that the government support the UNSC Section 7 Resolution that Craig describes.
You should go on the demos to show your support, whatever else you do. I do, every week.
Yes horrendous, but we are seeing history play out – not much can be done now.
US hasn’t been top dog since around 2015-18 and that makes Israel quite undefendable. It will get eaten up by angry Arab states sooner or later.
Madness is what happens at the end of an era – US in Ukraine and perhaps Taiwan. Israel in Gaza. A refusal to accept they no longer lead (combined with an inability to work in a multi-polar world).
It is a new world – Fukuyama ought to be calling it the End of History.
I reckon a Chinese-led Multi-Polar world is going to be a very, very good thing. (Though for Americans and Brits that mght take 50 years.)
Thank you for this Craig.
I think you can lay your fears that the world is, or that people are, becoming inured to the daily and hourly atrocities taking place in Gaza to rest. I am sure that the overwhelming majority of the people of the world remain in a state of shock, horror and disgust at what is happening. And equally so with our politicians and media. I heard Labour’s hand-wringing weasel, Pat McFadden, on R4’s Today this morning saying, self-servingly, that Israel “must abide by humanitarian law”. Both he and the whole world know it is doing nothing of the sort.
The Israeli government is a fully fledged fascist regime, out of control, running amok and mass murdering innocent civilians without restraint. I fully support your call for international physical intervention to bring it to an end.
Bush and Blair drove a coach and horses through international law back in 2003 and the US has been trampling it into the dust ever since. But you should not despair at what can be done.
All over the country this appalling situation is precipitating public action. Public contempt for the response of politicians and the media is itself provoking a widespread response. Galloway’s success is one sign of that, and he says he has 300 individuals – including your good self – prepared to self-fund and stand in the next election. The brilliant Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP, has been selected to stand against Starmer in the general election. The brilliant Tanushka Marah has been selected to stand against Peter Kyle in Brighton. The brilliant Leanne Mohamad will stand against Wes Streeting. A crowd-funding programme ‘We Deserve Better’ ( https://wedeservebetter.uk/ ) has been set up to support independent candidates at the next election. Numerous Labour councillors have resigned in disgust over Labour/Starmer’s “zionist without qualification” position including 20 councillors who resigned en masse in Lancashire just in the last few days. Regular national marches continue to be well attended.
Anybody can act locally to set up an action group.
These developments will only grow.
I have no doubt that you are doing your part Craig – more power to your vocal cords – but, as many others are doing, we all must now look to ourselves to ask what we each can do.
If you haven’t seen this yet, and tbf even if you have, for an example of irrepressible, indomitable resistance and activism, take the time to take in the wonderful, beautiful Rafeef Ziadah’s rendition of her poem ‘We Teach Life, Sir’:
Rafeef Ziadah – ‘We teach life, sir’, London, 12.11.11 –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKucPh9xHtM
A few days ago I went onto UNRWA’s website to check something out, and came across the following statement by the Commisioner General from November 2018 (the one before the present one) in which he or she says:
This brings me to the Agency’s ongoing commitment to neutrality and challenges we are addressing in this field. There can be no doubting how seriously we take neutrality. Neutrality is embraced by us as an action-oriented principle, which is crucial to preserve access, trust and credibility in highly polarized environments.
Among the challenges are this year’s financial crisis which affected capacity in some neutrality functions. We are making internal arrangements to ensure resources focus on critical areas. The Great Marches to the Gaza border posed another challenge, particularly in the social media sphere, as heavy loss of life and massive injuries sparked widespread outrage. So far we have not discovered, nor seen allegations of, social media violations by our staff in this relation – a testament to their dedication to UNRWA’s mission.
Last year – and this is something you’ll see in the report – a number of events in Gaza created some of the most serious neutrality challenges in recent memory. As reflected in my current report to the General Assembly, when an Agency investigation – our investigation – concluded that two staff members held or were elected into senior positions in Hamas, we swiftly ended their employment. Tunnels were also discovered by UNRWA under two of our schools during repair works last year in Gaza. UNRWA issued strong public condemnation, protested vigorously to Hamas, and sealed the tunnels with concrete – a move few humanitarian organizations would make, I think I can safely say.
We will continue being vigilant; should there be other challenges of this kind and we will not hesitate to take action again.
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/commissioner-general%E2%80%99s-statement-special-political-and-decolonization
I think we can safely assume that representatives of the US and UK and Israel heard this at the time, along with many others (or read the transcript afterwards). The point is of course, that as with the previous comissioner general, the present one would obviously have taken every precaution and done everything they can to avoid a situation that could lead to UNRWA’s position being jeopardised. And Israel and the US and UK et al knew it. And KNOW it!
Killing medical staff, aid staff and children is not ‘execution’. I see execution as something done judicially. What is being done is murder, impure and simple.
This could well be a better format than your written pieces. Younger generation seems to have an aversion to reading more than a few sentences at a time.
Also we have the added bonus of hearing the emotion in your words / voice.
I’m more than happy to read as much as you’ll write.
Howabout doing more videos and then using auto dictate to put the video into a written piece..?
Hoping you heal well and soon.
Mr Murray, have you thought of trying an online speech-to-text application? There are many, apparently free ones if you do a Google search. I must admit that I haven’t tried it myself, but I imagine it would save you a lot of time and effort. Keep up the good work, by the way!
It’s the speech-to-tanks application we need to restrain, as Collateral Murder showed us.
Israel is a gas station and a killing machine defending a real estate opportunity.
When the chimp in us all gets out, watch the resource chains harness ‘nation’ rhetorics to eliminate obstructions.
We are all foreign scum.
I happened to be watching Sky News earlier this morning, and they were – as with the rest of the MSM I assume – reporting about the British charity worker (along with six others) who was killed by the IDF. As the presenter pointed out, the seven who were killed were of course liaising with the IDF and keeping them informed of their position, and the segment finished with her speaking to someone about it (I didn’t catch who he was), and he finished by saying – in respect of what happened – ‘whether it was an accident or deliberate…….’. Well, he couldn’t very well say it WAS deliberate, but EVERYONE knows that it was, and by everyone I mean every single MSM journalist and reporter and columnist and editor etc in the country. And every other country. And BN and Co KNOW that they know, and know that either they will play along with Israel, or – in the case of those who would like to say what they really think – have to hold back. And yes, every single MP in the HoC knows it was deliberate as well.
And yesterday evening – when I was on youtube – I came across a recent video by George Galloway in which he is interviewing lawyer Lara Elborno who, at one point, says that ‘just a few days ago’ the US approved new weapons transfers to Israel, including ‘eighteen hundred 2,000-pound bombs’. If you want to go straight to that bit, it starts at around 4 mins:
INTERVIEW: The US is complicit in Gaza genocide. Lawyer Lara Elborno lays it out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHuq-DEgFPI (14 mins)
As for the 2,000-bombs, which must amount to thousands by now that the US have provided/sold to Israel and been dropped on Gaza, the following article is from December:
‘Not seen since Vietnam’: Israel dropped hundreds of 2,000-pound bombs on Gaza, analysis shows
In the first month of its war in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away,
https://edition.cnn.com/gaza-israel-big-bombs/index.html
Oh, right, but they’re not targeting civilians!
There seems to be no end in how many and what kind of gross human rights violations what Israel are capable of: the photos coming out of al-shifa hospital siege of mutilated bodies laying in shallow graves and have on top of that been bulldozed by Israel, testimonies of executions of hospital staff, burning down of the hospital itself.
Then, the strike on the Iranian embassy in Syria, and today the sickening news of 7 NGO aid workers slaughtered when they traveled in their car which bore all the signs of this NGO only to be targeted, note targeted , by an israeli missile, many of the killed where westerners. But no reaction by the western media/politicians!
We are dealing with nazis full stop. There is no other way to describe Israel or rather israelis, because the so called “democracy” have elected Netanyahu and support his genocide.
But while the world tried to fight the nazi menace, the whole of the west instead support the nazis of today.
And not only the west, the arab world as I said many times before are even more rotten – 500 millions muslim in the region and they just sit there, watching this carnage and do not even pretend that they care anymore! The arab leaders have the gall to talk about normalization with israel during these times!?
Blinken cites progress with Saudis on normalising ties with Israel
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/blinken-cites-progress-with-saudis-normalising-ties-with-israel-2024-03-21/
And some weeks back the egyptian FM spilled the beans once again:
Egyptian FM blasts Hamas, declares it ‘outside of Palestinian consensus’
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-787491
Egypt’s Foreign Minister demands accountability for Hamas’ interruption of peace
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240218-egypts-foreign-minister-demands-accountability-for-hamas-interruption-of-peace/
The heinous western/israeli corrupt Palestinian Authority/Fatah are of course as rotten, they have no problem,meeting with the US reps. while US arms, bullets are facilitating a genocide against their own race/ethnic group:
Those “who were responsible for the return of the occupation to Gaza Strip and caused the Nakba which our Palestinian people live… have no right to dictate national priorities,” Abbas’ faction said in a statement on 15 March.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/house-divided-will-crumble
And yes there are more US weapons on their way
Biden administration set to greenlight $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/house-divided-will-crumble
ICC,ICJ,Media, Western politicians/Arab politicians are all complicit, I do not know what to do anymore.
Not Nazis but Zionazis.
Thank you for expressing what most of us feel emotionally.
Fortunately European foreign ministers and justice ministers are in the Hague today for an international conference discussing alleged war crimes, including attacks on hospitals and schools, and allegations of murder, rape and torture.
By Russia.
Meanwhile they reassure us that Israel is investigating itself.
Before making my point, some facts.
Under the capitalist mode of production, only two classes exist: those who live off surplus value in one or more of its forms (profit, interest, rent/licensing) and those who must sell their labour-power in order to survive, the producers of surplus value. The former are termed capitalists, the latter the proletariat.
The proletariat can be further subdivided into intellectual (“middle class”) and manual (“working class”) fractions, but this does not affect their relationship to the means of production: the natural resources of the world are held as the private property of the capitalist class. In numerical terms, capitalists c.1%, intellectual working class c.10%, manual working class c.89%.
There is, however, one important distinction between the intellectual and manual working classes: the former, educated to the highest levels to fill positions in the professions and the State’s apparatuses, run and reproduce ideologically (via the “education” system) the capitalist mode of production “on behalf” of the capitalist class. It is in this respect that they have “two faces” (the definition of two-faced, of course, having multiple derogatory but insightful synonyms: double-dealing, hypocritical, deceitful, duplicitous, deceptive): one “cheek” facing the manual working class (we too must sell our labour-power in order to survive) and one “cheek” facing the capitalist class (we run your system and try to ensure its survival because we do “Very nicely, thank you very much” out of our politico-economic position). It is in this latter role that they constitute what is more commonly referred to as “the liberal elite”.
Filling most importantly, from an ideological point of view, positions in the academy and the media, they “demand to be heard” (hence the Guardian’s determination not to retreat behind a pay-wall) on all matters economic, social and political, but always from a certain (idealist) slant: in specific disciplines, economism, voluntarism, psychologism, behaviourism, humanism (i.e. philosophical anthropology), historicism, functionalism, structuralism et al; in philosophy, empiricism, positivism, post-structuralism et al, all with a joint reliance, in the last instance, on the category of “human nature” and the methodology of models/analogy/formalism. Absent? Materialism, either in philosophy or in its applications in the academic disciplines.
So, the “good” liberal education that you received (and that facilitated your rise to ambassador) systematically “lied” to you about the reality of the economic and political processes of Capitalism, and it did so (in general) to enable the (largely) non-violent/non-overtly coercive reproduction of the system – it is a lot easier (and cheaper!) to control a population if they “believe” in the way that their society is organised, even if with some reservations, rather than at the point of a gun. (To avoid any mechanistic overtones, as Noam Chomsky explained to Andrew Marr in a now-famous interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjENnyQupow), there is no “conspiracy to deceive/mislead” as there would be if this were a case of propaganda: the “lies” referred to above are sincerely believed in/”lived” by all participants – “You wouldn’t be here…”.). It therefore “told you” that Capitalism was “naturally”/”obviously” the best way of organising society (ideological discourses never “prove themselves” – they are always just “obviously right”) and that Communism (or rather, since an advanced communist society has never yet existed on Earth, Stalin’s USSR, China’s Mao, Castro’s Cuba et al “standing in” for Communism) was/is “anti-democratic” or even a form of fascism (the famous “circular” depiction of political views whereby fascism and communism abut one another, thus becoming “two cheeks of the same arse” as George Galloway might put it).
How does one emerge from under this “comfort blanket” of ideological brainwashing? Unlike the “red pill” method depicted in the Matrix films, in reality the process is a struggle as one’s lived conditions throw up contradictions with one’s ideological certainty. In your case, your opinion of the UK State in general and its legal apparatus in particular has changed since 2002 to become one of the typical “enraged liberal”: the system is corrupt, I have largely lost faith in the “complaints procedures” of State/world organisations and we, as individuals, are powerless to change anything. However, you have not yet reached the point where you understand that mass class action is the only way to challenge organised State power, and I believe that you never will because you have an entrenched general contempt for the manual working class, expressed many times in these columns. A political Catch 22 that is immensely sad on a personal level for all the troubles that you have been through these past 20 years, and yet a warning of the power of ideology to distort one’s view of reality should anyone doubt it.
Alone, far from home, injured and degraded in his main means of expression, he bewails the breakdown of his life’s work of negotiation and diplomacy, watching Israel’s manual working class macerate entire communities.
The call is for us all to wake up, as the old ideas don’t seem to be working.
How patronising, ideologically narrow, and full of platitudinous certainties your post is. And not an ounce of imaginative human empathy in it. Craig is far better than your miserable low credit award suggests. Being hectored by a dyed-in-the-wool old Marxist is like the proverbial dead sheep savaging.
He’s like some sort of robot. I only got to about half way through John S’s comment when I initially read through the comments, and didn’t realise where he was headed. Some people enjoy kicking a man when he’s down.
”you have an entrenched general contempt for the manual working class, expressed many times in these columns.”
I’ve read a good bit of CM’s stuff and I have not been left with that impression.
John S your facts are not facts they are a theory.
Neither are they scientific either, they are more like religion, a set of beliefs that you want to be true. The religion of Capitalism/AntiCapitalism created over a few decades a couple of centuries ago by a bunch of hired clever guys. It is not science such as that developed by Darwin and others to explain the observed facts of evolution by the theory of Natural Selection. Do you see?
Yes you describe the guardianista mind set well and its MO as a means of propaganda for a certain section of society. But for sure guardinistas are not the only ‘educated let alone middle classes’ because obviously other papers readers are probably as educated too yet they disagree on many things including their choice of poisonous media. There are probably as many uneducated readers of the Guardian, Times, Telegraph and Mail and even other tabloids and educated ones as well – for the quizzes and sports news !
Whatever motivation for your beef with the author it is based only on your own beliefs – just don’t claim it as scientific facts and/or theories.
The recent Court case in the High Court brought by Al Haq produced a pathetic defence from the UK Government after representations from the Israeli government and the Israeli Embassy in London. Below is an example from the case link to summary grounds of defence…
https://www.glanlaw.org/_files/ugd/26e1a5_14f16c2640e24bc99211ee41243e9c45.pdf
“We assess that Israel has made formal commitments to comply with IHL and has the capability to comply with IHL. However, we have been unable to make a conclusive determination of Israel’s record of compliance, to date, in the ongoing conflict. As noted above, we are seeking further information as regards the interpretation and application of the principle of proportionality.
Given the paucity of information, the scale and intensity of the conflict, the death toll, the unusual civilian population density coupled with their inability to evacuate and the concomitance mounting effects of the conflict on civilians, HMG’s current inability to come to a clear assessment on Israel’s record of compliance with IHL poses significant policy risks.”
The assessment submitted on 27 November analysed five specific allegations highlighted by Amnesty International in its report on airstrikes dated 20 October 2023.
In relation to these specific allegations, the MOD’s analysis illustrates the limitation, identified by the Court of Appeal in CAAT 1: that information from NGOs can assist in establishing what may have happened but is of limited utility in determining why events of concern have happened.19 For example, a statement that “If Israeli forces attacked this residential building knowing that there were only civilians present at the time of the attack, this would be a direct attack on a civilian object or on civilians, which are prohibited and constitute war crimes” merely begs the question as to what Israeli forces knew and intended to achieve at the time of the strike. In relation to each of Amnesty International’s five specific allegations, the MOD concluded that there was insufficient information to draw any conclusions as to whether they might constitute breaches of IHL.
Dearbhla Minogue for the prosecution later commented that the UK government had simply asked the Israeli government whether they were applying IHL standards, they of course said they were, which was good enough for the UK goverment.
Asking the perpetrator whether he was guilty is no way to arrive at the truth. Craig Murray gives an Excellent truthful assessment of the current state of International law, which has been replaced by the new US led ‘Rules based order’.’Do as we tell you OR ELSE’. Of course no Law or Justice mean the rules of the jungle will prevail [strongest will survive] the tiny postage sized Israeli state with a small population, with no strategic depth, with most of its Industry and population within 50 sq kilometres around the Tel Aviv Metropolitan area and with many of its population getting out of Dodge before the SHF cannot survive for long. The ‘Arc of resistance’ will see to that.
The lengths the UK government will go to protect Israel was illustrated when due to a change in the law, private prosecutors are now unable to ask a Magistrates court for an arrest warrent for war criminals like Tzipi Livni and General Amog or any other war criminal visiting this county. Now the DPP’s permission is required, much to the consternation of Daniel Machova solicitor specialist in this field.
https://www.kingsleynapley.co.uk/insights/blogs/criminal-law-blog/private-prosecutions-for-crimes-of-universal-jurisdiction
Keir Starmer when DPP is alleged to have blocked Livni’s arrest two days before her arrival, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and law firm Hickman & Rose requested on behalf of a civilian Palestinian victim of Israeli attacks that Starmer, then DPP, authorise Livni’s arrest. The CPS has refused access to Starmers e mails.
The application was supported by “extensive evidence indicating Ms Livni’s individual criminal responsibility” for war crimes committed in Gaza, and was compatible with the new legislation.
Starmer deliberated on the evidence for long enough that the Foreign Office was able to retroactively attribute “special mission” status to Livni’s visit, designed to grant her temporary diplomatic immunity.
Precisely why the CPS was not able to reach a “concluded view” on the strength of the evidence against Livni before the Foreign Office’s intervention remains unclear. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/03/27/censored-keir-starmers-emails-about-israeli-war-crimes-case/
Keir Starmer’s response to the bombing of the aid truck (reported presumably since it contained UK citizens) was replete with legal language.
He called for an immediate end to ‘the war.’ Thereby implying that Hamas has a professional army, navy and air force and is engaged in a battle of equals inside Gaza. Indeed suggesting that the Geneva Convention was being observed in some way.
He also noted that ‘too many innocent people have already died.’ Notice his insertion of the word ‘innocent’ which in my view is quite telling.
I wonder at what point he decided it had become ‘too many’.
Who needs levers when you can easily buy baseball bats?
Hi Craig, thanks for your message. It certainly reflects my feelings of helplessness and horror over Gaza, and Palestine, and the Shifa hospital stories coming out. You are right our governments are not listening to us or don’t even think we are worth listening to – despite emails, phone blitzes, rallys, rational discussions. Here is a CBC report of Poilievre meeting with a synagogue in Montreal – he will most probably be our next prime minister – https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/pierre-poilievre-middle-east-synagogue-1.7160436. It is quite sick making in its weasel words. He is a complete and total zionist and so is his party. Canada has restored funding to UNRWA and ceased sending arms to Israel (I hope) under pressure from the NDP, but no more. Poilievre will reverse both.
About the concept of international law, I do still believe it is our best bet for controlling bad situations around the world – I mean really bad situations, not those made up by eg the US to destabilize and pillage. My only hope at the moment is the BRICS countries and those countries outwith the west dumping the US dollar as an international trading currency which is happening quite fast. So I hope the west will lose its power and influence even faster than it has done recently. I suspect countries like China, Russia, Iran, South Africa are watching this and playing a waiting game. The US and Israel are far too unstable and reactive – they are nuclear powers – for anyone to go to the aid of Gaza at the moment in that it might provoke a far wider catastrophe. Anyway thanks for your message!
PS On a completely different note: has anyone heard from Tatyana recently? I count her as a friend and I know she has family, some of them young, in Moscow. The Crocus tragedy affected so many people and could have impacted her and her family.
Interesting how your blog brings people together, Craig!
Tatyana has posted on other threads in the discussion forums since the crocus event.
Thanks ET!
Thank you for this video, Craig – the format works quite well.
If the knowledge of what is happening in Gaza was not enough to leave anyone with even the slightest conscience truly sick at heart, we have to endure the obsequious interviewing of murderers, the IDF scum, by the BBC.
After some Palestinian representatives are questioned by a sceptical BBC news host, we turn to the IDF spokesman. A hideous example of this took place on Radio 4’s World at One yesterday. There, after some respectful, good humoured banter about the rank of the IDF thug as he came onto the programme, we were treated to the most blatant lies, distortions and denials concerning Israeli war crimes. No interruptions, no push-back, no countering any of this. This was to be the softest of soft-ball interviews.
A few questions were asked, always in the form of “Pardon me, sir, but _some_ people are saying / suggesting that / reports of…” – and the lies in response were all accepted at face value.
The level of deference was obvious from the first introduction, and remained throughout. You could hear the demeanor or the news host change, he became a subservient, grateful underling. You could hear the air of eagerness to please in his voice. It is as embarrassing as it is infuriating, as if we should feel honoured that IDF spokepeople grace us with time from their important work.
Oh Craig, what can we do? Your speech moved me to tears even more than your writing does. You should speak more often. Thank you.
Just came across this on Al Jazeera’s website, posted three days ago:
Belfast mural artists put up powerful show of solidarity with Gaza
Belfast’s iconic International Wall has been transformed by local artists into the Palestinian Wall.
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2024/3/30/belfast-mural-artists-put-up-powerful-show-of-solidarity-with-gaza
And if you’ve not heard about it (I don’t think anyone else has mentioned it):
Israel moves to shut down Al Jazeera after new law allows for ‘security threat’ bans on international media
In his statement on X Monday, the prime minister accused the network of being a trumpet for Hamas and accused it of “actively participating in the October 7 massacre and inciting against IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) soldiers.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/01/middleeast/israel-al-jazeera-media-law-intl-hnk/index.html
I’m sure I read in a couple of articles yesterday evening when I first heard about this that they had BN as saying Al Jazeera is antisemitic, but I can’t find them now. But I came across the following article which, shall we say, goes into a lot more ‘detail’, posted yesterday:
Netanyahu Pushing Law Empowering him to Shut Down Al Jazeera Tonight
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday asked coalition chairman MK Ofir Katz (Likud) to make sure that the Al-Jazeera law is approved by the Knesset on Monday evening in second and third readings, the Likud Party announced Monday morning.
The law that Netanyahu is pushing gives the prime minister the authority to shut down Al Jzeera’s broadcasts in Israel. The Likud announcement states that as soon as the bill is passed, “the Prime Minister will act immediately to shut down Al Jazeera in accordance with the procedure established by the new law.”
The explanatory notes attached to the motion state: “Even though the Government has already passed regulations and approved a process that would enable the closure of the channel, the Prime Minister has not brought the matter up for a debate and vote in the Ministerial Committee on National Security, and has not advanced the channel’s immediate closure. In the meantime, the channel, which serves as the Hamas movement’s mouthpiece, is broadcasting from within Israeli territory while transferring information to our enemies, inciting against the State of Israel and expressing support for Hamas.
“Every minute that the channel continues to broadcast from the State of Israel harms state security, jeopardizes the safety of our citizens and soldiers, and even constitutes a show of weakness and flaccidity in the face of the terror, which has supporters within the Al Jazeera channel.”
According to Israeli media, Netanyahu was unlikely to shut down Al Jazeera, which is sponsored by the pro-Iran and pro-Hamas State of Qatar, as long as there was hope that Qatar would be able to maneuver Hamas in Gaza into a deal to release the Israeli hostages. Monday’s decision to shut down the channel in Israel suggests that the PM has abandoned hope for such a gesture on Qatar’s behalf.
During last December’s committee meeting, MK Forer said “Qatar has funded and armed Hamas for years, with the backing of the Government of Israel. Qatar is not a partner, but rather a country that continually funds terror, beyond Hamas…….
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/middle-east/qatar/netanyahu-pushing-law-empowering-him-to-shut-down-al-jazeera-operations-in-israel/2024/04/01/
With the backing of the Government of Israel???! If that were actually the case – ie that Qatar has funded and armed Hamas for years – it beggars belief that they didn’t ban Al Jazeera years ago.
Most people who follow Craig are probably aware of this, but I don’t think anyone on here posted about it:
‘Moral failure’: US House approves bill that would ban UNRWA funding
Palestinian rights advocates decry push to de-fund UN agency for Palestinian refugees amid starvation crisis in Gaza.
The United States House of Representatives has approved a $1.2 trillion funding bill that would ban funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amid the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The measure, which passed in a 286 to 134 vote on Friday, would keep the government fully functioning in advance of a partial shutdown deadline.
Twenty-two Democrats, many of whom had expressed concerns about the UNRWA provision, joined Republicans in opposing the plan [the Republicans weren’t voting against the bill on account of UNRWA de-funding]……..
Maya Berry, executive director of the Arab American Institute (AAI), called the passage of the bill “an incredible moral failure”.
“Our political process has chosen to cut US funding to literally the only entity that can address the level of suffering and scale of suffering that’s happening in Gaza right now,” Berry told Al Jazeera.
Several progressives had slammed the ban on US aid to UNRWA, which provides vital services on the ground to Palestinians in Gaza and across the Middle East.
In a speech on the House floor on Thursday, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib accused Israel of committing “some of the most horrific crimes against humanity” in this century.
“The Israeli government has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people,” she said.
Tlaib, who is of Palestinian descent, added that UNRWA is the “major organisation that provides desperately needed food and humanitarian assistance to starving Palestinians”.
“Members here – all of them – are now going to be contributing to the starvation of Palestinian families,” she said.
Senator Chris Van Hollen also decried the looming ban, expressing disappointment and frustration at the measure.
“UNRWA is the primary means of distributing desperately-needed assistance in Gaza – so denying funding for UNRWA is tantamount to denying food to starving people and restricting medical supplies to injured civilians,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
“It also means cutting support for services – including schooling and healthcare – for over a million Palestinians [I’m pretty sure it’s several million on more] in the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/3/22/moral-failure-us-house-approves-bill-that-would-ban-unrwa-funding
Keir Starmer has called for an “immediate ceasefire” according to an article in the Guardian. Took the killing of 3 British nationals to force that from him. 30,000 plus Palestinian lives didn’t provoke him to call for an immediate ceasefire before now.
https://archive.is/XAS89