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 ]
————————————————
Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or republish, including in translation. You are still very welcome to read without subscribing.
Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with every article, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.
Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.
Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:
PayPal address for one-off donations: [email protected]
Alternatively by bank transfer or standing order:
Account name
MURRAY CJ
Account number 3 2 1 5 0 9 6 2
Sort code 6 0 – 4 0 – 0 5
IBAN GB98NWBK60400532150962
BIC NWBKGB2L
Bank address Natwest, PO Box 414, 38 Strand, London, WC2H 5JB
Bitcoin: bc1q3sdm60rshynxtvfnkhhqjn83vk3e3nyw78cjx9
Ethereum/ERC-20: 0x764a6054783e86C321Cb8208442477d24834861a
Oh My Gawd, I just came across THIS (in the Express, and no doubt it’s in many other MS newspapers) from last October, six days after the open letter was published:
« Corrie’s Maureen Lipman says ‘heartless liberals’ should feel ‘shame’ for views on Hamas
Coronation Street actress Maureen Lipman hit out at “heartless liberals” who fail to condemn Hamas attacks, telling those who don’t speak out: “Shame on you!”
Coronation Street fave Maureen Lipman branded Artists for Palestine UK “heartless liberals” after the group – including actors Steve Coogan and Tilda Swinton – accused Israel of war crimes.
Maureen, who signed the October Declaration in support of Israel instead, has declared that Israeli blockades at the Gaza Strip are no justification for Hamas brutality.
I have little doubt that she – and Rachel Riley – are workining with the so-called Intelligence Services. The following passages from the article leave me in no doubt:
In a passionate appeal published in The Telegraph [yep, the Telegraph again!], the 77-year-old exclaimed: “These bleeding heartless liberals care so deeply for the Palestinians (who, since 1937, have turned down no fewer than five offers of a two-state solution) that they espouse their cause at the expense of every other oppressed people of the world.
“When babies were garrotted, women dragged by their hair and a family had eyeballs gouged out and fingers chopped off in front of their children – do they really think that Israeli blockades on the border with Gaza are a justification for such acts of violence?”
The ITV actress quizzed whether those who signed Artists for Palestine’s open letter, which made no specific mention of the Hamas attacks, had no souls, and exclaimed: “Shame. Shame. Shame on every one of you!”
Addressing them directly, she exclaimed: “I would love the signaturists to answer me this question: If your beloved country had been under attack for 70 years, with concrete tunnels under Birmingham and York and Ipswich, and rockets landing daily on Oxford University and Penny Lane and the Tiny Tim toddlers club… how angry and exhausted and how determined to defend your country against any future attacks would you be?”
She added: “You cannot see an inch past your own prejudice that the only good Jew is a homeless, victimised, impoverished one.” »
https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1826915/coronation-street-maureen-lipman-hamas-gaza
It’s full of falsehoods – note she says ‘babies were garrotted’ as opposed to beheaded, and no doubt did so because the beheaded babies claim had been debunked by then – and false assertions, and it was undoubtedly crafted by professional propagandists. No doubt it took them a few days to ‘compose’ it, and that’s why it was six days after the open letter that it was published.
Anyway, so they decided to give the open letter – and those that signed it – a second bashing, some six months later!
Oh NO!!!, there’s even MORE to it, but I’ll keep it REALLY brief (bear in mind that the signatories to the open letter got slated for not mentioning or condemning Hamas and the Oct 7th attack):
Coogan defends open letter condemning Israel and demanding humanitarian support for Gaza
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/coogan-defends-open-letter-condemning-israel-and-demanding-humanitarian-support-for-gaza
Steve Coogan finally condemns Hamas terror attacks after leading celebs signing Gaza support letter
https://www.gbnews.com/celebrity/steve-coogan-condemns-hamas-palestine-open-letter
Outlander star issues grovelling apology for signing letter accusing West of ‘aiding war crimes’ in Palestine
https://www.gbnews.com/celebrity/outlander-sam-heughan-israel-palestine-open-letter-gaza
Forgive me if I include a passage or two from the last of the above:
« Actor Sam Heughan has admitting he’s “trying to educate” himself on the Israel-Hamas conflict after signing an open letter by thousands of “creatives” condemning Israel…..
The likes of Coogan, Frankie Boyle and the other celebrities who signed the document have sparked fury from many for the omission of any mention of Hamas in the letter.
Expressing the outrage felt by many, David Mencer, an expert on the Middle East and former director of Labour Friends of Israel, joined Patrick Christys on his show yesterday where he unleashed his take on the situation.
“This letter is so misguided and misplaced, I simply say to this group of misfits and weirdos, that I invite them to rescue their alien careers and try their chances as artists in Gaza under the Hamas regime,” Mencer fumed
.He continued: “You know, if they do that, I promise to sign a letter when they are locked up by Hamas. They’d be lucky if they’re locked up because they’d be most likely, judging from Hamas record, have their throats cut.”
Christys suggested that the celebrities who signed the letter “don’t understand the problem” or had an “undertone of antisemitism” to which Mencer bluntly replied: “These are special kinds of Jew haters.
“We can’t anymore just forgive people for being ignorant.” »
And it was purely accidental of course that an additional zero was added to the number of Israelis killed by Hamas on Oct 7th at the end of the article – ie 1,4000!
Talking of the number of people killed by Hamas on Oct 7th (putting to one side ‘friendly fire’) – and this really is my final post on the matter – in a DM article posted on October 22nd I couldn’t help but be curious about why they referred to a figure for the number of people killed in Gaza from ‘last week’:
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said last week that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12658849/Steve-Coogan-condemns-Hamas-string-luvvies-including-Tilda-Swinton-Charles-Dance-came-fire-failing-mention-terrorist-groups-brutal-terror-attacks-open-letter.html
The health ministry was releasing figures on a daily basis at the time. Anyway, so I found another article on the issue published on the same day, the 22nd, and this is what it said:
According to the Palestinian health ministry, 4,621 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
Over one thousand more. Hmm…..
https://www.nme.com/news/tv/steve-coogan-defends-pro-palestinian-open-letter-condemns-hamas-attacks-3519293
Using the Firefox browser and pressing F9 or clicking the “Toggle Reader View” icon in the URL address bar often unhides articles behind paywalls. Sometimes using “Print Friendly” works, too.
Oh, the bloody tone deaf actress who’s been sucking on our license payers’ money and the privatised public services her whole career! Part of the media mafia that goes from light entertainment organic intelligentsia who do their job on moulding the working class’s ‘commons sense’ on base hypocrisy:
“If your beloved country had been under attack for 70 years”
Moanin Lipmoan.
Yup, Moanin, that’s exactly how the Palestinians have felt, and for longer than ‘your’ uninvited colonialists.
They arrived with weapons and massacred the natives, put the remaining into ghettoes and then camps as work slaves at best, and have been stealing the homes and lands of more for an apartheid illegal entity that she calls ‘her beloved country’! M
That’s chutzpah, that is. Simple nasty ziofascist type. That’s why I refused to buy a license and stopped watching years ago.
“If your beloved country had been under attack for 70 years, with concrete tunnels under Birmingham and York and Ipswich, and rockets landing daily on Oxford University and Penny Lane and the Tiny Tim toddlers club… how angry and exhausted and how determined to defend your country against any future attacks would you be?”
If we had come from our homes all around the world to invade “our beloved country”, steal all the land, houses, and other property, expel the inhabitants, and kill anyone who resisted… we would not have a leg to stand on.
Whereas in fact the English have possessed England for well over 1,000 years, as have the Welsh, Scots, and Irish their respective countries. Even when the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, etc. invaded and conquered England, and when the Normans did so later, they stole by no means all the property, and they killed only a fraction of the inhabitants.
And that was in the Dark Ages, whereas the genocidal invasion of Palestine happened, with crushing and cynical irony, immediately after the defeat of Nazism and the foundation of the UN.
Incidentally, if Israel is Maureen Lipman’s beloved country, why has she lived in England since her birth in 1946? And to which nation does her true loyalty belong? “A man (or woman) cannot serve two masters”.
Just heard Lord Snooty shilling for Nato war against Russia, Ukraine needs more air defence, more long range missiles and tanks, we need to spend stolen Russian assets, Russia will have to pay reparations, all NATO countries must spend 2% GDP and more on defence, urges US speaker Johnson to get US money to Ukraine.
This POS clown should be in the dock at the Hague, instead of urging on more deaths of Ukrainian and Russian servicemen in a futile and badly losing war. Words cannot describe this human garbage of a so called Foreign Minister. And will someone tell him to take that plum out of his mouth when speaking. !– https://twitter.com/David_Cameron/status/1775976983203053788
Harry Law.
The Crocus Hall terrorists have finally admitted that Ukraine ordered the attack, a minefield was partially cleared to allow the terrorists to flee back into Ukraine where they would’ve received $11,000 dollars each for the attack, personally I think all they would’ve received was a shallow grave for their troubles.
The main goal of the attack was to try and cause ethnic division within the RF with Ukrainian (SBU) personnel flooding X (Twitter) looking for sympathy for the Tajik’s and other ethnic groups in the RF by claiming the terrorists were being wrongly persecuted.
The theory of interethnic conflict in Russia was last tested in Moscow in January 2022 by the Levada Centre, a pollster registered as a foreign agent in 2016. Levada has been surveying ethnic Russian attitudes towards other ethnic groups since 2011.
You don’t think they might have been ‘incentivised’ somewhat to make such an admission?
We know the suspects were tortured before they were even charged which must’ve been an embarrassment to those who liked to believe that those nice Russians didn’t do such nasty things. I’ve yet to see an explanation of how they thought they’d get through the Russian lines and THEIR minefields.
Harry Law.
Are you opposed to helping countries resist aggression in principle?
Perhaps you are a pacifist?
If not, would you have opposed US assistance to Britain before the Nazis declared war on the US?
The US started this war in 2014 by staging a coup led by Victoria Nuland who spent $6 Billion dollars to achieve that aim, then Crimea held a referendum and voted for independence, they then applied to join the Russian Federation, which was allowed by the UN Charter, it is called Secession. The other breakaway Russian speaking regions followed suit later, all within International Law.
Crimea never got to vote for independence.
Choice 1: Do you support the reunification of Crimea with Russia with all the rights of the federal subject of the Russian Federation?
Choice 2: Do you support the restoration of the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea in 1992 and the status of the Crimea as part of Ukraine?
Many commentators, including The New York Times, Kyiv Post, and Fox News argued that both choices would result in de facto independence. It was only after this vote that Russia accepted Crimea into the Russian Federation. Choice one received 97% of vote on an 83% turnout. This was all in breach of the Ukrainian constitution, but entirely within International Law as explained here.. https://mickestenssononrussia.wordpress.com/2021/12/24/was-the-annexation-of-crimea-to-russia-an-illegal-annexation/
“Re-unification with Russia” is not independence, ‘de-facto’ or otherwise. It’s direct rule from Moscow. Crimea isn’t even an autonomous region any more, it was absorbed into the Southern Federal District, run from Rostov on Don by Kremlin apparatchik Vladimir Ustinov.
Pears Morgaine, how can you deny the people of Crimea the right to self-determination, if the Scottish people voted by such large majorities, would you deny them such right by saying such a vote breached the territorial integrity of the UK. The ICJ considered self-determination for Kosovo more important than territorial integrity, see here…
When the KLA started its campaign to secede from Yugoslavia (as it was still called) the matter was taken to the ICJ by Yugoslavia (Serbia). They argued that, in international law, the right to secure borders meant that Kosovo did not have the right to secede. The Kosovan argument was that, in international law, the right to self-determination meant that Kosovo did have the right to secede The ICJ agreed that the two were contradictory and they would need to rule on which had precedence. They ruled that self-determination was more important than secure borders.
N.B. The administration of Kosovo declared independence without going to a referendum but the ICJ ruled that, since they were a regional government, they could be said to be expressing the will of the people of Kosovo.
Applying the, now, established principle to Ukraine would mean that Crimea had the right to secede and ask to join Russia (even if they hadn’t bothered with a referendum), and that Lugansk and Donetsk had the right to declare independence … and later to apply to join Russia.
Harry law
@ 13.03
Is right and Putin said something like
We are opening Pandora box.
I can not find or remember the question about his view on Catalan or Scotland Independents and he read statements from Germany and few others countries regarding Kosovo self determination priority above the integrity of the borders.
I hope you get my point
Ha, Ha. Maybe Reflux should learn a little history !
The USA, and UK, funded the Nazis rise. Industrialists and bankers like the Bush family were up to their bloodstained armpits in funding Hitler. And this continued even after war was declared. Incidently, Hitler only declared war on the USA after, the false flag, pearl harbour attack.
Maybe pacifists have got it right ? Rather than supporting forever wars by the genocidal crazies maybe the world would be a better place if the senseless and pointless killing just stopped.
If Pearl Harbour had been a false flag, Stevie, you’d have thought some people of note in Japan might have said something about that at the time.
Pearl Harbor didn’t need to be a false flag – it was something far better (from FDR’s point of view).
He managed, over a period of years, to put the Japanese government in such a position that it had only two practical choices: to attack, or to surrender. Being a lifelong student of naval warfare, and being aware of Japanese culture and previous history (including the Russo-Japanese War which the Japanese began with a surprise attack on the Russian fleet), it was obvious to him that they would choose attack, in the hope of delivering such stunning blows that the far more powerful USA would agree a favourable peace.
Given that Japan was to attack, Pearl Harbor was the utterly obvious first target. FDR, through his tiny group of insiders and experts, followed the planning of the attack almost day by day, and received reports on the progress of the attack fleet across the Pacific. All he had to do was to take steps to make sure surprise was complete – easily done.
For details, see Robert Stinnett’s excellent and comprehensive book, “Day of Deceit”. It’s amazing how very similar FDR’s methods were in 1939-41 to the US government’s methods today. (The Ukraine provocation, for example, has been worked along very much the same lines).
Thanks for your reply Tom. I’m afraid that, just as there was no need for Russia to invade Ukraine, there was similarly no need for Japan to attack Pearl Harbor. The intention behind it was to delay a US counterattack on the Philippines until Japan had had time to install proper fortifications. However, there was understandably considerable resistance to this plan within the Japanese High Command, and Admiral Yamamoto had to threaten resignation to get his way*. A far better plan would have been to simply leave the Philippines (and other US territory such as Wake Island) alone – particularly since, unlike the Dutch East Indies, it had no substantial oil reserves. Stinnett’s thesis is dubious to say the least:
https://www.salon.com/2001/06/14/fdr/
* He later came to realise that all he’d done was to ‘awaken a sleeping giant’, but then for many people, the owl of Minerva only spreads her wings with the coming of dusk – which for him would arrive just a little over a year later after he pointlessly managed to get himself killed in New Guinea.
It is curious – in my mind Roosevelt’s rhetorical flourish to describe the attack on Pearl Harbour and the death of over 3000 American military personnel, “a date that will live in infamy” has become irrevocably conjoined with the footage of the atom bomb exploding, a mushroom cloud over Hiroshima and the death of around 100, 000 civilians.
The detonation of “Little Boy” at Hiroshima on August 6 1945 is a date that will live in infamy, long after the doings at Pearl Harbour have been forgotten.
“It’s 8:15
And that’s the time that it’s always been
We got your message on the radio
Conditions normal and you’re coming home
Enola Gay
Is mother proud of little boy today?
Ah-ha, this kiss you give
It’s never ever going to fade away”
— Enola Gay, OMD (1988)
“ maybe the world would be a better place if the senseless and pointless killing just stopped.”
These utopian statements sound good Stevie Boy but they are always built on the destruction of the rights of despised minorities – in this case the shareholders of Raytheon, GEC-Marconi etc., who are some of the most despised people on the planet. Why should their right to earn an honest crust be sacrificed on the alter of “human rights”? It’s politically correctness gone mad lol!
In the 1930s you would be called a “Nazi apologist”, in the 1970s a “Communist stooge”, and now in the 2020s an “antisemite”, and of course in the Great War, simply a “coward” – if you’re a toff, a white feather delivered by a defunct Suffragette – and if you are from the lower orders? Well we won’t speak about that, and everyone knows where that nasty road ends…
Interestingly, not all the Pankhursts sought to legitimise themselves by courting the jingoists. Sylvia was and remained a pacifist and was virtually erased from the history of women’s suffrage as a result.
George Lansbury, leader of the Labour Party 1932-35, said that if he ever became Prime Minister he’d abolish Britain’s armed services and say to the rest of the world ‘do your worst’.
Having seen the worst that the Axis could do in places like Auschwitz, Malaya etc would that really have been such a sound idea?
Bramble thanks for the heads up on Sylvia – for a “broad brush” person such as myself, it is easy to forget the detail of the historical weave yet in this case it is important – to think there was at least one who held to the “idea” – what with WW1 and then WW2 approaching, she chose a difficult position to maintain – anti-war people tend to be heroes/heroines to me – whether the war is won or lost, they always seem to pay a heavy price for their opinions
Pears, maybe he was responding to the British military using poison gas as a method of imperial policing in the 1920s? This method was noted by Mussolini, Hitler etc with the Italians using it as a civilian pacification tool from 1931. The British introduced the Kurds to poison gas attack so when S Hussein attacked them 60 years later, it was not new to them, thanks to the Brits
As a bastion of unearned privilege, the British military is surely in a league of their own. G Galloway recently pointed out a rule change for naval officers – servants no longer have to be Chinese! All the officers have servants and up till now the “rules” have stipulated they must be Chinese. I don’t want to think about why this rule is extant – our dark imperial past preserved in amber for posterity lol!
The German boss class put loadsa money into the DNVP and a small amount into the NSDAP to keep it going. The boss class overthrew the Weimar Republic in 1930 but couldn’t get a compliant Reichstag because Weimar Germany was a democracy, unlike the western slave empires. Bruning, Papen and Schleicher got round the Reichschtag using Article 48 but as the electorate polarised, the DNVP lost votes to the NSDAP, which was used as a last resort and hogtied into a coalition…. Ooops. Foreign interference was a minor issue if at all in this.
The terrorist methods used by Israel is really something.
Take the King David Hotel bombing, a terrorist attack by jewish terrorist organisation Irgun in 1946, the organisation was lead by Menachim Begin who became the prime minister of Israel some decades later.
So his organisation carried out this terror attack that killed+harmed some 150 people.
Like the gall of carrying out this cold blooded murder was not enough, after the attack, Menachim Begin blamed the victims. Why? Because the victims had not heeded the warning by the terrorists that there will be an attack against the Hotel.
Begin claimed in his memoirs that the British had deliberately not evacuated, thereby creating a possible opportunity to vilify the Jewish militant groups
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_David_Hotel_bombing
See how Israel always twist the truth so they always become the victim of the story.
Israel use this logic to this day, they seems to believe if they only warn about the human rights violations that is to occur, everything is legitimate and excused.
With that logic Palestinians could apparently just have sent out a warning that if israelis do not evacuate the kibbutz before 7th of october, people will get killed and everyone that gets killed, well that is their own fault. Of course no one is as sick as using such a twisted logic but Israel.
Nicaragua’s case against Germany at the ICJ is now shining the spotlight on Europe’s role in the slaughter and further tearing the mask off European liberalism. (In the past 6 months Germany has increased its arms sales to Israel tenfold, purely in order to exterminate Palestinian women and children).
Last week Caitlin Johnstone highlighted a determined effort that has begun among the liberal establishment and its supporters to pin the Gaza genocide on Netanyahu and his far-right coalition. The goal is to pretend that the liberal Anglosphere, liberal institutions like the EU and BBC and liberal bulwarks like Germany and France weren’t involved. The British foreign office for example has announced it is now sending 20,000 “dignity kits” including things like shampoo to the starving people in Gaza, whom the UK has withdrawn UNWRA funding from and is still helping bomb.
This effort is even evident among the responses to your video with very few engaging with what you actually said and instead preferring a comforting liberal dreamscape in which the problem is Netanyahu, Maureen Lipman, Trump, the Daily Express, GBNews, etc. The vital role in Gaza’s erasure of the British Army, the BBC, the US Democratic Party, Trudeau, Macron, the EU and Germany must be itself erased from memory so that when they’re finally satiated these western liberal sacred cows can be returned to their previous status as the light of the world. The early signs are that most will play along.
More recently Caitlin Johnstone has written an article “As Support For Gaza Goes Mainstream, Don’t Let The Empire Co-Opt The Movement.”
“We cannot allow them to neuter this political moment with spin and propaganda.”
Reputation management appears to be the next stage in this process. “They’re going to try to wash the western empire’s hands of the mass atrocities it directly facilitated in Gaza.” The corrupted “Church (Cult) of Democracy” is pure even if now and again there are some bad actors. Time and again it happens, reputations being more important than admitting mistakes and realigning policy.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2024/04/07/as-support-for-gaza-goes-mainstream-dont-let-the-empire-co-opt-the-movement/
Indeed. Western governments are already pretending to be on our side against “a few bad apples” in Israel. Even as they continue to facilitate mass starvation and super heavyweight bombing in Gaza. Gaslighting and rewriting history while still fully participating in a genocide. Their media will try and ensure they get away with it. This is why the ICJ cases of South Africa and Nicaragua are so important.
Today’s Ceasefire Talks FAIL.
https://www.newarab.com/news/eid-truce-hopes-dashed-64-bodies-recovered-khan-younis
I think the whole talk about ceasefire is incredibly misleading, there is no war, there are not 2 parties here, a ceasefire in turn implying both are at fault, but – there is only one party – massacring another ethnic group day in and day out. The only reason there could possibly be a ceasefire is the day Israel feel they have accomplished their goals and/or seek some good PR.
As veteran diplomat Chas Freeman said some weeks ago: What is going on in Gaza is mass lynching
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ip8YGeLMUMY
Thus no one would urge a “ceasefire” between KKK and the mass-lynching-victims of the KKK.
(nothing against you Republicofscotland I am speaking of the western MSM/political discourse).
With Respect to Republic of Scotland… Well said Jack
I remember reading an article about a week or two after the Hamas attack in which Trump was quoted as saying that the attack wouldn’t have happened if he’d been president, but I’d never heard the following until just now when I was checking out a recent video by The Hill in which they say, in passing, that in his first comment about the Hamas attack, Trump was very critical of Netanyahu in respect of Israel’s intelligence failure. So anyway, I then paused the video and did a search, and the following CNN article (posted on October 12th) was the first in the list of results:
Trump sharply criticizes Netanyahu over intelligence failure in latest sign of soured relationship
Former President Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Israeli prime minister was caught unprepared by Hamas’ attack and praising the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as “very smart.”
The remarks reflect the soured relationship between the two men and are notable at a time when Trump’s Republican presidential rivals have uniformly sought to position themselves as steadfast supporters of Netanyahu during Israel’s war with Hamas.
“(Netanyahu) has been hurt very badly because of what’s happened here. He was not prepared. He was not prepared, and Israel was not prepared,” Trump told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade in an interview clip that aired Wednesday night.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/12/politics/trump-criticizes-netanyahu-hamas-attack/index.html
As for the topic being discussed by the folks at The Hill:
Trump Breaks with Pro-Bibi Corner; Tells Israeli Media He Supports ENDING War In Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u02XFXLoM4Q (10 mins)
Apparently Trump got flak for what he said, but as you will see, what he said can be taken TWO ways.
Trump spoke on it the other day too, in an interview he said:
Trump says Israel ‘losing PR war’ in Gaza, should finish war ‘fast’
Former US President criticises Israel for releasing ‘most heinous’ videos of air strikes in Gaza.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/5/trump-says-israel-losing-pr-war-in-gaza-should-finish-war-fast
“What I said very plainly is get it over with, and let’s get back to peace and stop killing people. And that’s a very simple statement. Get it over with. They’ve got to finish what they finish. They have to get it done. Get it over with, and get it over with fast, because we have to, you have to get back to normalcy and peace,” Trump told The Hugh Hewitt Show.
Trump noted, “They’ve got to finish what they started, and they’ve got to finish it fast, and we have to get on with life.”
Trump continued arguing Israel had an issue with its public messaging and said, “Israel is absolutely losing the PR war.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/04/politics/trump-israel-comments/index.html
Why is that the american-first president is so scared of taking on the israeli lobby? Kick Jared Kushner and similar israel-firsters out of the command and influence!
No American, or British, politician would survive more than five minutes if they opposed the zionist Israeli lobby.
I am inclined to agree but perhaps not for much longer Stevie. Douglas McAdams at the Ron Paul Institute writes about the significant fall in US support for Israeli actions in Gaza. Perhaps the ground is shifting though I won’t be holding my breath.
https://ronpaulinstitute.org/israel-is-crossing-all-boundaries-as-america-tires-of-its-endless-wars/
George Galloway has survived for much longer than five minutes. It will be interesting to see how his Workers Party does in the impending general election.
Fair point. However, if he ever becomes a ‘real threat’ then he will be nullified. Already he is treated as a bit of a joke with terrorist sympathies. These are just shots across the bow. The destruction of Corbyn is the template for the establishment.
“The destruction of Corbyn is the template for the establishment.”
Spot on. We have a slavish unquestioning media. A slavish unquestioning Labour Party. A slavish unquestioning Tory Government. A slavish unquestioning EU.
Ironically the only questioning is going on in the US. And double irony in Israel itself.
The US used to be called ‘The Paranoid Nation’. Israel is its son/daughter now.
There is (I think) a genuine fear amongst Israeli population that the whole game is up. If everything gets out of hand and it kicks off in the region then Israel may cease to exist – in its current form at least.
Netanyahu knows this and he’s going for broke. Keeps him out of jail and ensures US support.
A dangerous game for Israel: because if it fails, then what?
Then what? Same as for French Algeria. La valise ou le cercueil.
Craig Murray was on Galloway’s MOATS today. Turns out he’s standing for the Commons seat for Blackburn for Galloway’s Workers Party. As the Germans say, Na, es wird.
Lysias mentioned . ‘La valise ou le cercueil’ .in reply to Mark Cutts, ‘the suitcase or the coffin’
The Suitcase or the Coffin) is a 2011 French documentary about the pieds-noirs who fled from French Algeria to mainland France after the Évian Accords at the end of the Algerian War. It was directed by Charly Cassan, who was awarded a knighthood in the Order of Academic Palms for the film.
Corbyn destroyed himself.
If ever there was an opportunity for outsiders and dark horses in a General Election, it is now. All the “main” parties are stained and discredited.
If there were no candidates except from the established parties, I would abstain from voting and advise everyone to do the same. My only reason for voting in future will be to cast votes against them.
If you vote in a FPTP election, you are rigging your vote against yourself.
Sigh and there we have it, trump trying to appeal to the lobby:
Trump says Jews who vote for Biden do ‘not love Israel’ and ‘should be spoken to’
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-jews-vote-biden-not-love-israel-spoken-rcna146972
Someone should ask Trump what Israel has ever done for the US interests.
It isn’t a lobby, it’s a proxy.
How blimmin’ long is it gonna take the UN to complete their investigation? It’s been over two months now….. I mean why on earth would it take so long! And given the circumstances, you’d think they would have wanted to complete it as quickly as possible. I say two months, but it has in fact been ten weeks now. It just doesn’t make sense that it could possibly be taking so long to conclude. I mean WHAT’s involved?! Why would it even take them more than a couple of weeks at the very most.
Anyway, I’m not sure if this is the video I posted on here ten/twelve days ago of Philippe Lazzarini (the UNRWA Commissioner General) being interviewed by Sky News, but I think it must be, but I can’t remember now what my angle was in posting it. Anyway, I still had it up and, as such, played it again, and I definitely couldn’t have listened to the whole thing before because…… Well, I won’t elaborate, except to say please check out what he says in response to a question the interviewer puts to him at 6mins 40secs which, in effect, further exemplifies what lying, conniving, smearing b’stards BN and Co are (said sequence is around a minute from start to finish):
Sky News – UNRWA Commissioner-General on his denial of entry into the Gaza Strip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoo6n8zTAYM (17 mins 29 secs)
How do ICJ judges talk to each other internally?
How is it possible to not order an immediate ceasefire?
None of the events that would urge any human being to demand a cessation at once are beyond dispute.
What else do those 9 other judges need to read, to see, to hear?
After all the idea behind the genocide convention is to prevent it. Not condemn it after the fact.
Otherwise this all makes zero sense.
On the 7 judges who differed:
“(…)Judge Nawaf Salam from Lebanon noted that “Gaza has become a death zone.” He said that the new ICJ orders “can only take full effect if the ‘immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan’ demanded by the Security Council in its resolution 2728 (2024) . . . is duly and fully respected by all parties ‘and leads to a lasting sustainable ceasefire.’”
Judge Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf from Somalia wrote that the situation in Gaza “has grown much more gruesome.” He declared that “It is indeed the very right of existence of the Palestinian population of Gaza that is currently at risk of irreparable prejudice. Nothing less.” Judge Yusuf characterized the ICJ’s January 26 orders as “tantamount . . . to an injunction to bring to an end any military operations which may contribute to the commission of [genocidal] acts.” The atrocities can be ended, he added, only “through the suspension, with immediate effect, of Israeli military operations.”
Judges Xue Hanqin of China, Leonardo Nemer Caldeira Brant of Brazil, Juan Manuel Gomez Robledo of Mexico and Dire Tladi of South Africa signed a Joint Declaration stating that “we deeply regret that this measure does not directly and explicitly order Israel to suspend its military operations for the purpose of addressing the current catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza.” They added that “the present scale of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the overwhelming consensus that, without the suspension of military operations, this catastrophe will even worsen, constitute circumstances that require the Court to explicitly order a suspension of military operations.”
Judge Hilary Charlesworth from Australia wrote that the court should have explicitly ordered Israel “to suspend its military operations in the Gaza Strip,” which “is the only way to ensure that basic services and humanitarian assistance reach the Palestinian population.”
“The impact of the International Court of Justice’s order is significant,” the Republic of South Africa said in a statement. “The changing circumstances in Gaza warrant the implementation of new strategies.” But, it noted, “As a number of Judges pointed out, these responsibilities [to prevent genocide] can only be fulfilled by halting military operations in Gaza and adhering to the court’s directives. If there is non-compliance, the global community must ensure adherence when it comes to the sanctity of humanity.”
(…)”
by Marjorie Cohn
https://marjoriecohn.com/world-court-ordered-israel-to-allow-aid-into-gaza-but-failed-to-order-ceasefire/
Came across this about a week ago from the end of March ( I don’t know if any of the MS newspapers covered it, but I would imagine the Jewish newspapers did, both in the UK and the US and elsewhere).
« Netanyahu: Whole world is ganging up on us. It’s a combination of ignorance and antisemitism
In the final minutes of his press conference, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns to an earlier partial question put to him about why it is that the world is apparently siding against Israel.
“What has happened in the past few months was that the terrible massacre” of October 7 “was quickly forgotten,” he says, “and the whole world is ganging up on us……”. »
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-whole-world-is-ganging-up-on-us-its-a-combination-of-ignorance-and-antisemitism/
I suspect the question was arranged in advance, and both the question and the answer for domestic consumption, along with the diaspora, and for the obvious reason. Manipulation is the name of the game.
Check out what he says next.
I just went back to The Times of Israel article to save it and then close the tab, and I noticed the headline to the following article in a column on the left-hand side (which you can scroll down):
GOP senators introduce bill aimed at downgrading Qatar ties if it doesn’t pressure Hamas
A group of Republican senators has introduced legislation that aims to strip Qatar of its status as a major non-NATO ally (MNNA) of the US if Doha doesn’t exert all leverage it has over Hamas to secure the release of the American hostages in Gaza, in addition to expelling all members of the terror group currently residing in the Gulf state.
Oh, what irony! If any of these SOBs gave a flyer about the hostages, they could have brought about their release months ago, and done so by calling for a permanent ceasefire, and putting the utmost pressure on Biden to do so.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gop-senators-call-to-downgrade-qatars-status-as-major-us-ally-if-it-doesnt-pressure-hamas/
actually I have no right to be overly upset over comments like the one above by sick son of a bitch Bibi Netanjahu considering that the German government wipes away any criticism of its own conduct in the light of what 90% of the world says and knows and what South Africa has put forward at the ICJ. And what every child can see in the news.
The hypocrisy in Berlin is of fantastic proportions. And so is the entire intellectual culture filled with pitiful cowards clinging to their pitiful university chairs and teaching positions, their pitiful positions in TV, radio and press.
Just this week sociologist Nancy Fraser who has been a darling of German feminism suddenly has fallen out of their favour because she signed an open letter critical of Israel. She was supposed to give a lecture in honor of the Albertus Magnus chair at Cologne University. Not any more.
You could argue that a coward and totally disposable individual as Scholz, or Habeck, or Merz, or Söder, or Baerbock, or Faeser, or Münkler (historian), or Gaub (NATO think tank clown), or any of those ridiculous ridiculous morons and third rate gangsters, are in some form bound by protocol by and large playing a part in some sick public play.
But the universities are not that much in the public eye. They in fact are obliged to guarantee freedom of speech and foster independent research.
Still they humiliate themselves, their discipline, their institutions, ridicule intellectual maturity and above all guests from abroad in ways that can make it impossible to find the tiniest of respect for those people.
In the name of keeping up the memory of Holocaust and the Third Reich dictatorship they censor free thought.
Wow.
Not a week passes without a new case where a scholar who says 1+1=2 is being canceled by a German institution.
I guess to quote Andrei Martyanov in a different context: Send ’em to Gaza and let them think about Israel being “raison d´État” for Germany and the free world.
Or to quote an Israeli official “Let them eat cement.”
AG, an excellent comment, Baerbock and Scholz are merely US vassals.
Annalena Baerbock, just said that she doesn’t care what the German voters think, she’s going to drag Germany into hell for US/NATO…
https://www.facebook.com/RevolutionIreland/videos/this-green-party-idiot-german-foreign-minister-annalena-baerbock-just-said-that-/3202456449974946/
AG, you are very brave, however you are wrong: in our system 1+1 equals 11 not 2. There may be a loud knocking on your door soon.
Google is making it awkward to reach this site and the whitewashing MSM is trying hard to exonerate Biden and Sunak from their genocidal marriage to Netanyahu’s action.
Meanwhile Germany is trying its hardest to excuse their two-faced support in Gaza.
Sunak says that he is relying on some secret lawless advice from a u-bend specialist, also known as a plumber, that says he can carry on delivering his explosive turds to kill Palestinians, whilst at the same time supplying food from the heavens above wearing his humanitarian halo.
Biden, Scholz and Sunak are the angels of death the media is trying to whitewash. It’s impossible to wash the bloodstains away, they will smear their personal histories and they have destroyed the falsehood of democracy they sell at every election.
Their conduct is unsustainable, their policies lead to nothing but more war; they have to go. Let’s hope they take their dope Cameron with them on their journey to Hades.
In what way is google making it difficult? I’ve just done a search for “Craig Murray” on 5 search engines, Google, Qwant, Bing, Duckduckgo and Brave. Each of them returns this blog site as the first result with CM’s twitter usually being next. It’s not that I believe Google wouldn’t do so but what have you noticed so we can all be wary?
ET, it came back with ‘site; unavailable’ three times. Switched phone off and on before it slowly loaded.
Sometimes this (or any) site is down for a short while maybe whilst they update something. More likely is that your phone temporarily lost internet access, something that happens not infrequently, at least, it does to me on both mobile and wifi.
It is evident that the ICJ (not to mention he even more corrupt ICC) have been left paralyzed by what israel is doing.
The ICJ, that was of course never meant to deal with the crimes of the western world or their allies, are now completely dumbfounded not knowing what they should do and thus end up doing nothing.
‘Examining western/allied crimes, we? We, who are the good guys? What should we do to get out of this situation to save our reputation!?’ Seems to be their motto.
Remember, ICC just need days before they initiated and called out Russia for their war. But ICJ, ICC dragging their feet, deliberately, on Gaza.
And the germans being germans, what a disgrace.
Germany tells ICJ Gaza hearing arms sales to Israel ‘defensive’
https://euobserver.com/world/158330
Germany tells ICJ it is ‘doing everything it can’ to stop Gaza suffering
https://www.thenationalnews.com/news/europe/2024/04/09/germany-tells-icj-it-is-doing-everything-it-can-to-stop-gaza-suffering/
Note that germany spewing such lies almost on the commemorating day for the Rwandan genocide!
But the truth is out there, even the veteran Democrats can no longer be silent:
US Senator Elizabeth Warren says there is ‘ample evidence’ of Israel genocide in Gaza
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240410-us-senator-elizabeth-warren-says-there-is-ample-evidence-of-israel-genocide-in-gaza/
That could prove very significant from Warren, although I note a “spokesperson” is now trying to deny she said genocide is happening. Bernie Sanders by contrast is a resolute genocide denier. Still insisting that Genocide Joe is a fundamentally decent man who is sickened by bad guy Netanyahu.
If Bernie Sanders is a genocide denier, then you must be a truth denier.
He should be praised as one of the few notable American politicians to disagree with the Biden administration and ask for justice in the Gaza Strip.
Please think twice before smearing fully worthy people…
Aren’t you the person who smeared Craig Murray’s supporters as anti-Semites?
As for Sanders, he spent the first five months of this genocide refusing to call for any ceasefire because he insists Israel has “the right to defend itself”. He continues to reject a permanent ceasefire until the Palestinian resistance has been completely destroyed, a stance for which he has been praised by AIPAC. Sanders is continuing to shill for Joe Biden and trying to suggest Netanyahu is solely responsible for the genocide.
Except he angrily refuses to accept the notion that it is a genocide. He repeatedly rejected the opportunity to describe it as such in an interview with Novara media in London in late February.
https://novaramedia.com/2024/02/20/does-bernie-sanders-think-israel-is-guilty-of-genocide/
Later on that same trip, in Dublin, he tried to further discredit the ICJ description of what Israel is doing by saying it makes him “queasy”.
https://www.instagram.com/ahmedeldin/reel/C3aPk–odlY/
Also in that Novara interview Sanders said he is not even in favour of sanctioning Israel, claiming “I’m nervous about that for any country.” A straightforward lie since he has voted to sanction Venezuela, Russia, North Korea, also Iraq, which led to the death of over 500,000 children.
So why not Israel? Because Bernie Sanders is an ardent Zionist who in his most recent public statement claimed Israel was great and admirable in the days of Golda Meir, etc, before Netanyahu, who is the only problem.
This is the narrative that Sanders and all other liberal genocide deniers are now desperately pushing, hoping it will stick and that the US Democratic party et al can quickly return to being viewed as the conscience of the world.
When I read these words
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
I get this funny feeling I may have told the truth
Thanks for that Joel. ” Melrose ”
is a conman, in my opinion and like some others, i don’t bother reading anything they have to say.
M: “I get this funny feeling I may have told the truth”
Sounds like it doesn’t happen that often. Was it an accident?
Bernie Sanders was the ‘official’ opposition to Killary who then enabled Biden to gain power. He’s part of the establishment and has a well defined role to play – and that doesn’t involve honesty or justice. Like most of the political class ‘nice old Bernie’ is a hypocrit only concerned with hanging onto power.
Sanders isn’t a saint.
But for the last decade at least, he’s always been on the right side of history. Pretty significant for a member of the American establishment!
Three former supreme court judges say UK arming Israel breaches international law.
When More than 600 prominent lawyers sign letter that calls for end to exports as a ‘measure to prevent’ genocide because it breaches obligations the Government has towards both its own and International law, then when our own Foreign Secretary can’t remember all pieces of paper put in front of him by his legal team, the time is now to say … Houston, we have a problem. In this case facts cannot be ignored, the government are making political decisions while ignoring the legal facts. If the courts do not hold them accountable, history will.
Importantly, the Convention establishes on State Parties the obligation to take measures to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide, including by enacting relevant legislation and punishing perpetrators, “whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals” (Article IV).
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide-convention.shtml
The Houthis are doing all they can to uphold this convention, ironically they are being bombed relentlessly by the West.
“If the courts do not hold them accountable, history will.” Unfortunately by the time history ‘kicks in’ all these smarmy scumbags will have their honours and riches. There will be no consequences for the genocidal actions of the political classes.
Whatever one thinks of Owen Jones (re JC and A/S), he is firmly on our side when it comes to BN and Israel’s genocide and the total destruction of Gaza. In the following video posted sixteen hours ago (at the time of typing), he covers a CNN investigation into the so-called Flour Massacre, which proves that the IDF et al were lying through their nasty little mass-murdering fascist teeth. You don’t need to watch/listen to all of it, just the first nine/ten minutes will suffice.
Yes, WE all know that it was a massacre and that ‘Israel’ was lying through their teeth regards what happened and, as such, we didn’t need actual proof, but it’s good when a major news outlet does an investigation and proves that they WERE, although I have a feeling for some reason that the MSM in the UK won’t be informing their readers and viewers etc about the CNN investigation:
One of Israel’s SICKEST LIES Torn Apart
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01O5zgDhfsk (15 mins 43 secs)
OJ also posted the following vid about three hours ago (at the time of typing), which is worth checking out just for the sequence a couple of minutes or so in:
Germany TRIED For Gaza Genocide: Justifies Actions Because Of The Holocaust
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PzqaCDwsKY (19 mis 55secs)
David Cameron is already guilty of breaching the Genocide convention, the ICJ’s finding of plausible risk, together with the profound and escalating harm to the Palestinian people in Gaza, constitute a serious risk of genocide sufficient to trigger the UK’s legal obligations.
(2) States are required “to employ all means reasonably available to them” to prevent genocide and responsibility is incurred if “the State manifestly failed to take all measures to prevent genocide which were within its power”. The notion of due diligence is of critical importance in this obligation.[63]
(3) The “obligation to prevent, and the corresponding duty to act, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed. From that moment onwards, if the State has available to it means likely to have a deterrent effect on those suspected of preparing genocide, or reasonably suspected of harbouring specific intent (dolus specialis), it is under a duty to make such use of these means as the circumstances permit”.[64]
(4) The UK cannot deny from 26 January 2024, when the ICJ issued its order for provisional measures, knowledge of the plausible risk of genocide through the actions of Israel in Gaza. The ICJ’s finding of plausible risk, together with the profound and escalating harm to the Palestinian people in Gaza, constitute a serious risk of genocide sufficient to trigger the UK’s legal obligations.
https://lawyersletter.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Gaza-letter-FIN-3-April5.pdf
Mouin Rabbani in his interview on Democracy Now has 2 good comments, useful to quote in any discussion over whether 1+1=2 or rather 11.
– “Well, President Biden referred to Israeli policy towards the Gaza Strip as a “mistake.” I mean, a mistake is when you take a wrong turn at a traffic light or perhaps when a surgeon removes the wrong kidney. But when over the course of six months, half a year, you kill tens of thousands of people, with perhaps additional tens of thousands buried under the rubble and decomposing, that’s not a mistake. That’s a deliberate policy. And that’s why Israel has been hauled in front of the International Court of Justice on charges of genocide.”
– “And again, you know, there’s been this decades-long attempt to seek to show the Palestinians as somehow not having any legitimate grievances of their own, as always acting on behalf of someone else’s agenda rather than on behalf of their own rights and interests. You know, it used to be they used to be Soviet proxies. Then they became jihadists. Now they’re Iranian proxies. Who knows what they’ll be tomorrow? But even if Iran didn’t exist, this conflict and this Palestinian struggle for freedom and liberation would essentially be undiminished. And, you know, this particular article makes a lot of claims, but provides virtually no evidence to substantiate those claims.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/10/mouin_rabbani_gaza_biden_netanyahu
Today in Berlin there was a pro-Palestine protest. I don´t know of any unusual events so far.
On the other hand a German TV anchor was fired after on INSTAGRAM, as she suggested to boycott Israeli products from Alpro company, which via Danone apparently has a Israel connection. (Swiss & Israel & violating labour rights, Danone doesn´t have it easy, really…)
Well, it’s so laughable. If I were to post on INSTA or TWITTER what I think is appropriate, by e.g. merely quoting historical records and scholarship (thankfully I never started with social media), I would probably spend my life in prison.
Israel are nothing but cold blooded serial killers.
News coming out that Israel just assassinted sons and grandchildren to Ismail Haniya, the leader of Hamas in an targeted strike on the first day of muslim celebration Eid al-Fitr.
War on Gaza: Israeli strike kills sons and grandchildren of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-war-gaza-ismail-haniyeh-hamas-sons-grandchildren-killed
What if someone murdered Netanyahu children like this during a jewish religious holiday? Imagine the reaction by Israel.The fact that palestinians have not killed off the israeli hostages by now show palestinians are humans while the sick perverted people that rule Israel is, well not animals, that would be an insult to animals, no, this is a new kind of sick grotesque, cruel ghoulish creatures that only know of racist hatred and murdering.
In a month the disgraceful nationalistic Eurovision song contest will be played out in Sweden.
They have faced increased criticisms after they OKd Israel to participate
https://twitter.com/Eurovision/status/1777713370495439005
Today, they posted a statement where they framed Israel as a victim and a call to stand up against any discrimination against the israeli particpant! Israel is of course the epitome of discrimration, of racism! This is orwellian in so many layers.
https://twitter.com/Eurovision/status/1777713370495439005
Note how they removed the possibiltiy to comment below the article. The only ones that are allowed to comment are approved bootlickers.
Meanwhile the same Eurovision had of course no problem blocking Russia from participating:
Eurovision chief says Russia ban stands for ‘ultimate values of democracy’
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/dec/30/eurovision-chief-russia-ban-stands-for-ultimate-values-democracy
I hope someone will crash this heinous event by pulling the electrical cord when the israeli artist sing or someone making a stance, statement on Gaza etc.
Hmm.
Israel is using murderous tactics against Palestinian people in Gaza (and the West Bank).
Russia is using murderous tactics against Ukrainian people in Ukraine.
Totes different of course.
Hmm indeed. Has Russia done the following:
– Killed tens of thousands of women and children, and innocent civilians?
– Killed medics, journalists and aid workers in their hundreds (at least)?
– Created a famine, such that the entire population is now starving to death?
– Bombed, attacked and destroyed every hospital in Ukraine?
– Prevented food, water, electricity, medical supplies, etc. entering Ukraine?
– Intentionally harmed and displaced a massive proportion of the entire population?
– Kept the population under apartheid rules and cruel occupation for decades?
Of course not, and the above is by no means an exhaustive list.
Pretending there is equivalence between the two is just silly, and it would make you look a bit more honest if you stopped doing it.
Then there’s the Ukraine’s genocidal aggression against Russian speakers living within its then-borders from 2014 onwards.
As JK hasn’t responded, Glenn, here are some answers to your (rhetorical) questions:
– The Ukrainians claim that Russia has killed at least 10,000 Ukrainian civilians, but that figure is incomplete because it doesn’t include all of those that have died in territory currently held by Russia. The former mayor of Mariupol claimed that over 20,000 of its citizens were killed in the first few weeks of the war/SMO alone.
– Many of the people currently being killed on the frontlines, on both sides, are not professional soldiers or even volunteers; they are conscripts direct from civvy street. It’s possible that over 100,000 of them have been killed, with many more seriously injured.
– If we assume that every Ukrainian platoon has a designated medic, then Russia will have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of them. It’s killed almost no journalists because very few of them are allowed anywhere near the frontlines.
– Fortunately, Russia isn’t able to cause a(nother) famine in Ukraine, or prevent medical supplies etc from entering. Thanks to Ukrainian air defences, unlike in Idlib, it also isn’t able to bomb every hospital in Ukraine, although it has bombed one or two.
– Over 7 million Ukrainians fled the country when the invasion began – though many have since returned. Millions more have been internally displaced.
– Russia hasn’t kept the Ukrainian population under cruel occupation for decades because the Ukrainians resisted and, in any event, the war/SMO only began just over two years ago. Apart from Operation Cast Lead etc, Israel hadn’t occupied the Gaza Strip since 2005.
There’s plenty of equivalence between what’s happening in Gaza & Ukraine – though one way in which the situations differ is that the Ukrainian Armed Forces didn’t kill hundreds of Russian civilians in villages near the border shortly before the war/SMO began.
If yu believe the propaganda, the Allies bombed 120-odd% of the hospitals in Syria. In the Ukraine civil war, the Allies have bent over backwards to avoid civilian casualties, unlike the US-ukronazi putsch regime. The Palestinian resistance didn’t kill “hundreds” of civilians in the concentration-camp blag-out, the US-zionazis did.
For one or two hospitals read 1,468 with 193 being completely destroyed. Some were hit more than once and subject to the ‘double tap’ tactic Russia is known to use.
Given the much vaunted accuracy of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ munitions this can only be deliberate policy; as it was in Syria.
That’s pretty lazy stuff, LA, I am surprised at you. And you needn’t thank me for this reply, either, unless you’re simply doing so out of snark.
Russia is absolutely not committed to eliminating the entire population of Ukraine. It has not systematically worked to ensure the destruction of all institutions and infrastructure necessary to supporting life and a society. Hospitals are not systematically destroyed, its medics executed in staggering numbers. Journalists murdered in a clear programme of silencing the war crimes being perpetrated, and aid workers targetted. Universities demolished. Infrastructure obliterated, while the population dies at a faster rate than anything the Nazis perpetrated in their occupations.
You are surely aware that Russia was ready for negotiations from the beginning, and still is. The only compromise Israel is willing to accept is for every last Palestinian to be either dead or far away. The 7/Oct offence by Hamas was a pretext, and Israel hardly even bothered with one in all its previous atrocities.
Israel’s supposed goal of returning the hostages is a clear lie – like absolutely everything else they ever say – and the supposed negotiations with Hamas were held by people not even authorised to agree on a ceasefire under any circumstances. Either you’re simply unaware of all this, or you’re pretending otherwise.
Russia is not seeking the total destruction of Ukraine. This false equivalence might be an entertaining little intellectual game for you, but it is nothing but apologia for genocide.
Israel has moved from holding an apartheid occupation, to perpetrating a colonial massacre. They have turned Gaza into an extermination camp.
Some people may not like what I write, Glenn, but no one should be surprised at my employing facts and logic in my arguments. I note that, unlike Pears (who I’ll try to get back to later this afternoon after I’ve finished some ‘work’ stuff), you don’t appear to have taken issue with any of my answers to your questions.
Where have said that Russia is absolutely committed to eliminating the entire population of Ukraine? And why do you think that Israel wants to eliminate the entire population of Gaza? If it did, the easiest way to do that would simply have been to nuke it, which might have killed the hostages but would have saved the lives of over a hundred IDF members and prevented the big dip in the economy caused by many thousands of reservists having to leave their jobs after getting called up – and, no, they wouldn’t have had to worry about fall-out over Israel provided the airblasts were of sufficient altitude.
Short of a massive nuclear strike, Russia could only destroy all of the infrastructure in Ukraine if it possessed hundreds of thousands of guided cruise missiles, which fortunately it doesn’t. On average, over 5000 people a day were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust, who also killed millions & millions more in World War II. Let’s keep things in proportion. One of Russia’s red lines in any negotiations is the complete de-militarisation of Ukraine, leaving it wide open for conquest at any future date, and which any responsible government could only agree to if it was facing imminent military collapse, which isn’t the case for Ukraine just yet.
As I stated above, there’s plenty of equivalence between what is happening in Gaza and Ukraine – I’m not playing any intellectual games, entertaining or otherwise. Here are the facts: Tens of thousands of people have been killed and seriously injured in Gaza, and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. The moral responsibility for this lies with the Israeli government. Tens of thousands of people have been killed and seriously injured in Ukraine, and hundreds of thousands have lost their homes. The moral responsibility for this lies with the Russian government. It really is that simple*. A plague on both their houses. As for my being accused of being an apologist for genocide: as Greta Thunberg almost said, how very ****ing dare you! I would like an apology, but I’m not holding out for one.
Enjoy the weekend.
* Oh, and while we’re at it, just in case anyone still thinks I’m writing this in between bites of Ginsters pasty at Denison Barracks: Tens of thousands of civilians were killed and seriously injured in northern Iraq & Syria as a result of Operation Inherent Resolve (though officially it was only 1300 killed), and hundreds of thousands lost their homes. The moral responsibility for this lies with Western governments. Hardly anyone in the West appears to care about this though – including on this blog, where people appear more concerned about the US ‘stealing’ some of Syria’s (shit) oil.
Thanks for your reply Pears. I didn’t mean ‘one or two’ literally, but I very much doubt that nearly 1500 Ukrainian hospitals have been damaged in the war, since I doubt that there are that number of hospitals in Ukraine. I found the following site which claims that there have been over 700 attacks on hospitals & clinics since February 2022, though many will have been attacked multiple times, and some appear to be located in territory that was Russian- /separatist-held before then:
https://www.attacksonhealthukraine.org/
Enjoy the weekend.
According to the UN report, 487 children were killed during the 1st year of war in Ukraine by both sides of the conflict; in Gaza, about 600 children were killed during the 1st week.
The war in Ukraine is very unusual. This is the only modern war where far less civilians were killed than soldiers.
Quotes like this make me think you are Utterly Brainwashed by the BBC..Sky..NYT etc. ..And the biggest propaganda Blitz in history.
JK redux
you can be forgiven for being totally uninformed given your information sources but Israel has deliberately killed the most aid workers in recorded history; the most journalists in recorded history; the most UN staff in recorded history; the most doctors and nurses in recorded history; and the most children, as a proportion of overall deaths, since records began.
none of these distinctions could have been achieved without the full and unconditional support of western politicians and media. the next big target the west is focused on achieving in Gaza is famine.
Let me highlight this particular conversation between Chris Hedges and Ali Abunimah from Electronic Intifada from mid-March.
They talk about the particulars of how the Western anti-Palestine propaganda works exactly.
Hedges initally makes clear that almost everyone bought into the Israeli PR including THE INTERCEPT
(which always makes it difficult to post their stuff in the forum. But depending on the article I usually hope that in such positive cases the advantage outweighs the PR.)
“The Chris Hedges Report with Ali Abunimah, founder of The Electronic Intifada, on the Israeli propaganda machine and a compliant press that reports Israeli lies as fact.”
60 min.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-chris-hedges-report-with-ali
p.s. Abunimah stresses that the alleged non-biased reporting theory of “showing both sides” is a scam as they do not draw conclusions from the evidence presented. Instead argueing “well, you don´t know what is true.”(when however political will demands there is no question over what the truth is.)
This in fact touches on the invention of what is today called “fake news” and which is why I do not use that term.
At least in Germany it became pervasive at a time when “fake news” became a political label and not a criticism of bad journalism.
In fact the term itself is nonsense.
When you start to define something that is so fundamental to communication itself you isolate it and start instrumentalizing it.
Instead of looking at the entire structure of journalism and understanding that there are 100 different levels of information that lead to something . But there is never a complete set of news which are to be determined as false. Because where there is “false” – and that´s the “genius” of this fabrication – there must be “correct/true”. And of course people who scream “fake news” automatically are asked: Well if THAT is false what is true? And then you already have won the game.
No coincidence that “fake news” became a buzz word with the rise of social media conglomerates.
In the early days of internet and the advent of altern. media there were no “fake news”. Only news reported in various forms of quality. But this manichean think is only feasible where news and communication serve as product and not as means in themselves.
So the introduction and use of “fake news” also signals the demise of genuine news as a fundamental concept.
I don’t know if it’s been mentioned on news bulletins this evening:
Breaking Biden says US may drop Assange case
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/04/10/breaking-biden-says-us-may-drop-assange-case/#comment-254137
Biden says he is ‘considering’ Australian call to drop Julian Assange charges
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/10/biden-assange-espionage-charges
For some weird reason, the link I posted to the skwawkbox article (which is where I first heard about it) takes you to a comment I posted on there earlier??!
yeah I put my own info in the earlier Assange post by Craig.
Being skeptical if this is again some false flag or to win over votes for Nov.
We´ll see…
We shall see….. very soon, hopefully.
I wonder if Julian has heard about it???
And I see that Michael Norton posted about it hours ago in the ‘Assange’ thread in the forum. Apologies Michael.
“Biden says US may drop Assange case”, let’s judge real actions rather than words – particularly in an election year.
Alastair Crooke wrote an great article about the same thing:
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/04/08/brutal-chaotic-war-norms-conventions-and-laws-of-conduct-are-being-erased/
Mr. Murray, rest and heal! I (we!) need your excellent work.
It is with glee one watch the global south putting the self-aggrandizing western states to shame at the ICJ, having to defend the undefendable.
Nicaragua tells ICJ Germany is ‘facilitating’ genocide in Gaza
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/nicaragua-tells-icj-germany-facilitating-genocide-gaza
I just wished more nations from the south would join in, taking a unified lead against the hypocrisy of the western behavior – this is their chance to “get back”, unfortunately big players like China, Russia are, as usual, nowhere to be seen.
“Softly, softly, catchee monkey”, this old Engllish proverb means that if do not rush or if you avoid being too hasty, then eventually you will achieve your goal – in other words, be patient.
I had an email exchange with Professor Finkelstein several years ago over Israels war crimes in Gaza, with the latest bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Syria and US/Israeli threats to bomb Iran if they have the gall to retaliate I thought this interpretation of the right to retaliate was correct.
Dear Professor Finkelstein, thankyou for your informative youtube videos about Gaza, in your ‘connections’ video with Mouin Rabbani you talk about Belligerent reprisal, here is my take on that subject with analogy
Hamas does have the right to use Belligerent reprisal against Israel who target as a matter of policy innocent civilians [see Dahiya doctrine], it is also simply a matter of common sense, an example, if two boxers agree to the marquess of Queensbury rules, and one kicks the other in the groin and stands on his opponents neck, the other is allowed to strike out with his foot in order not to be killed, although kicking is not allowed.
State practice establishes this rule as a norm of customary international law applicable in international armed conflicts. A belligerent reprisal consists of an action that would otherwise be unlawful but that in exceptional cases is considered lawful under international law when used as an enforcement measure in reaction to unlawful acts of an adversary.
Purpose of reprisals. Reprisals may only be taken in reaction to a prior serious violation of international humanitarian law, and only for the purpose of inducing the adversary to comply with the law.
(ii) Measure of last resort. Reprisals may only be carried out as a measure of last resort, when no other lawful measures are available to induce the adversary to respect the law.
(iii) Proportionality. Reprisal action must be proportionate to the violation it aims to stop.
(iv) Decision at the highest level of government. The decision to resort to reprisals must be taken at the highest level of government.
(v) Termination. Reprisal action must cease as soon as the adversary complies with the law.
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule145
When western leaders talk about the aims of Putin, they always quote Putin’s words about regretting the demise of the old Soviet Union, which westerners imply means he will not stop with Ukraine, and will invade western Europe.
What they endlessly repeat is the first part of the sentence and conveniently leave out the last [and most important] part of the sentence. Here John Mearsheimer explains Putin’s reasoning…
“When you said that no one’s talking about this as imperialism, in Putin’s speeches he specifically refers to the “territory of the former Russian Empire,” which he laments losing. So it seems like he’s talking about it.
I think that’s wrong, because I think you’re quoting the first half of the sentence, as most people in the West do. He said, “Whoever does not miss the Soviet Union has no heart.” And then he said, “Whoever wants it back has no brain.”
https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/why-john-mearsheimer-blames-the-us-for-the-crisis-in-ukraine
“A sentence is but a cheveril glove to a good wit. How quickly the wrong side may be turned outward!” *
The Israeli ambassador to Ireland, Dana Erlich, has written a piece in today’s Irish Times. The announcement by Ireland and other european countries of imminent formal recognition of Palastine seems to have provoked this piece.
https://archive.is/G5Tp8
“A unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state at this point sends a dangerous signal to Hamas and its supporters, since it will be viewed as rewarding terrorism.” So she says. It’s full of all the usual Israeli talking points, “contagion of anti-Israel sentiment in Ireland,” “empathy or humanity expressed toward Israel has been bullied out of public spaces due to an environment of hostility that has been allowed to prevail.”
No Dana, what people are pointing out is Israel’s total lack of any empathy or humanity at all towards the civilian population of Gaza.
It’s repulsive to read but worth reading anyway.
The corollary to the recognition of Palestine is the end of the recognition of “Israel”.
Squeeth,
Consider this:-
https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/magazine/the-one-state-solution.html
Either there are two sides of the 1967 border or there is one state. At present it seems more like a two state solution with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
ET,
The Israeli Ambassador is off target on the issues at many points.
For example:-
” The Irish Government, although officially condemning what happened on October 7th and calling for the release of those kidnapped, has scarcely condemned Hamas itself.”
The Israeli position appears to be wanting to destroy and eliminate HAMAS. However, even if that were to occur, the overarching reality is that the conditions which gave rise to HAMAS would still exist. Therefore, by whatever name there would be a reaction against Israeli occupation and denial of Palestinian sovereignty – so, another group would emerge to seek freedom for Palestine, and the difference in name of the group would not for a moment imply any difference in objectives.
She is again wrong about HAMAS not wanting a solution; it is the Israeli government that has repeatedly stated that it will not tolerate a Palestinian state, builds settlements on Palestinian land and calculatedly separates the land so that there isn’t contiguous land to establish a Palestinian state. That is the reality she blindly ignores.
She also equates ‘Zionism’ with Jewish national identity – as with Irish national identity. She is incorrect. Not all Jews are Zionists and many do distance themselves from Zionism and acknowledge that the Palestinians also have rights to be acknowledged and recognised in tangible terms.
She is in fact acknowledging that the narrative has changed, the lights have shifted for focus on Palestinian rights – finally – and she does not like this new dawning reality.
Talking of anti-Zionists, or, to be more precise, Jewish people who don’t identify as Zionists, I tried to go on JVLs website yesterday evening – and tried again several times in the following hours – but couldn’t. I can’t remember what the message was that came up each time, but when I tried the last time (last night) in the early hours of this morning, the following message came up, and did so just now when I tried to get on there again:
Firefox detected a potential security threat and did not continue to http://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk. If you visit this site, attackers could try to steal information like your passwords, emails, or credit card details.
What can you do about it?
The issue is most likely with the web site, and there is nothing you can do to resolve it. You can notify the web site’s administrator about the problem.
Anyone else had a problem trying to go on their site? I go on there regularly to check out any new articles they’ve posted/reposted – more-or-less every single day – and never encoutered this problem before (I should add that I opened the user-account I’m now using two or three weeks ago and just haven’t got round to changing the search engine to duckduckgo, which I usually do straight away when I open a new user-account, but it hasn’t been a problem….. until yesterday evening).
Using firefox 124.02 I can see the site though http not https. It’s a common enough thing to see where a site has no https functionality.
yes, only http, but it works from Germany
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/
In Philippines.
It’s working OK now but a day or two ago, I first couldn’t connect at all, then could but only had a barebones site without pictures. Presumably something wrong at the server. The paranoid among us will assume it was somehow hacked. I couldn’t possibly comment.
The Israeli Ambassador’s comments (in Ireland) invite reflection.
Israel at core is an example of settler colonialism. And just as with all settler colonies there is a pattern and a path which Israel itself is following. Resistance is a natural reaction to occupation.
Put in more detail here:-
https://www.globalresearch.ca/inherent-irony-palestinian-israeli-struggle/5746034
The US concedes Operation Prosperity Guardian has totally failed and that Yemen cannot be militarily defeated by the combined NATO powers. DC has secretly offered a stunning array of concessions to Ansarallah to halt its naval operations in support of Gaza but has been rebuffed. Ansarallah say they will “continue operations as long as Israeli aggression against Gaza persists”.
https://thecradle.co/articles-id/24357
The fatigue and apathy from the outside world regarding what is going on in Gaza is frightening to see, every day one can see obvious war crimes being committed but there is no accountability for these hundreds, thousands of crimes being committed – the human carnage has become disgustingly normalized.
As the phenomenal Bassem Youssef said the other day, first people were shocked that 3000 people were killed in Gaza, and now that number is likely beyond 35000, still the voices, protests has not soared accordingly.
Bassem Youssef: ‘The West has lost its balls’ | ITV News
https://youtu.be/4E-ayKq7S_w
What’s also frightening is the establishment of new ‘normals’. When the Israelis bombed the Al-Alhi hospital very near the start of their latest ongoing pogrom, they took the trouble of lying extensively about it , telling ludicrous falsehoods such as blaming it on a Hamas bottle-rocket.
Having weighed up the collective ‘meh’ reaction to it from our peace-and-freedom loving representatives in the oh-so-moral West, they understood that they had successfully established a new normal – they can now bomb hospitals with impunity.
So despite this being an absolute and clear breach of International Law, they set about the complete destruction of every single hospital in Gaza, and summarily executed doctors for good measure.
But that’s ok! You’re not criticising Israel for doing that, are you? Because you must be some sort of disgusting anti-semite or Hamas supporter if you do.
Israel has so far in 2024 declared a record amount of the occupied West Bank as state-owned land, a move that could see a rapid expansion in settlement construction.
According to data obtained by NGO Kerem Navot, 2,743 acres in the West Bank have been declared state-owned land, with the biggest bloc consisting of nearly 2,000 acres in the Jordan Valley.
A further 650 acres were designated state property near Abu Dis, as well as 42 acres near the Herodion National Park.
It is plain Israel are going for broke, will the ‘arc of resistance’ stop them before they de facto annex the whole region? Negotiating with Israel/US is futile, only force will succede.
Many years ago, some Indians decided to be good and make peace with the Yangeese, some rebelled. The Creeks, for example, who inhabited contemporary Georgia and Alabama, were split. The Red Sticks Creek tribe fought against the American settlers while the rest of the Creeks and the Cherokees sided with the Yangeese. After the defeat of the Red Sticks in the Battle of Horseshoe Bent in 1814 the surviving Red Sticks escaped to Florida and there was peace for about 15 years. Then in 1830 Andrew Jackson, that very man who commanded the coalition forces at Horseshoe Bent, signed Indian Removal Act and all Cherokees and Creeks were exiled into Oklahoma. And Junaluska, the Creek chief who sided with Jackson at Horseshoe Bent, was exiled too, along with his people.
Buttom line: if they want to take your land, it does not matter if you are a good Indian or a bad Indian or even an ugly Indian; you’ll have to go. Dead or alive, your choice. Gaza is inhabited by bad Arabs who elected HAMAS; West Bank is inhabited by good Arabs who did not elect HAMAS, but this does not matter. They all have to go, dead or alive, their choice.
“Buttom line: if they want to take your land, it does not matter if you are a good Indian or a bad Indian or even an ugly Indian; you’ll have to go. Dead or alive, your choice” Jabotinski had a similar point of view, but that was in relation to Colonizers who whether they were good or bad met the same resistance from the native populations. Only when the native populations were physicall defeated would the finally negotiate and accept to be but in Reservations, Bantustans and such like until they faded away.
As Nasrallah said, Israel is weaker than a spiders web, three ports, Ashdod, Haifa and Ben Gorian airport could be closed easily with a steady threat of missile/drone, naval mine attacks. Unfortunately negotiation will not work since the US/Israel have abandoned International law totally, and they have no moral justification for their genocidal behavior, we await the results of the Israeli/US might is right doctrine. 400 million Muslims surrounding the 7 million Israelis, and 2 billion Muslims and others world wide can mean only one thing as Lysias said upthread.. The ‘suitcase or the coffin’. [Battle of Algiers]
Chaim Rumkowski’s attempt to make the Lodz Ghetto essential to the Nazi war effort, in the hope it might spare his people, was equally fruitless. His Lodz Ghetto eventually shared the same fate as the Warsaw Ghetto where a large scale resistance had taken place. Genocide is indifferent as to whether the victim resists or complies.
Yet the Warsaw Uprising remains a powerful founding memory of the present day Israeli state. Many are the Israeli politicians who claim some allegiance to the Warsaw fighters, all the while helping to create a heroic martyrdom in respect of Hamas in the Gaza Ghetto.
The Gaza Strip looks more and more like a desolate beach on some abandoned Greek island, but without the dance and Ouzo
https://youtu.be/2AzpHvLWFUM?si=alxQlGCfxKNXaRQV
Would just like to observe that Craig’s latest appeal for funds seems to have stalled but my donation in GBP directly into his account (and possibly others) because I was unable to use the funding link has not been listed in Swiss frank equivalency so perhaps the true total is somewhat larger than is shown?
Mods can you address this situation?
—
[ Mod: Unfortunately we can’t help, as moderators only deal with the blog; we have no access of any kind to the financial services provided on other websites. ]
Well perhaps Craig could give us the information. I would be happy to make a further donation but would like to see the full picture.as it stands.
All the noise on our media (UK) about an imminent attack on Israel by Iran, is starting to give me the jitters, I think we’re being set up for a false flag attack.