The departure of the spectacular “Freedom Flotilla” to Gaza carrying 5,500 tonnes of aid has been postponed (again), because the flag state of the major vessels, Guinea Bissau, has withdrawn their registration.
The key question is why the organisers were proceeding with such an unreliable flag state in the first place?
In the 2010 Freedom Flotilla, the vessel Mavi Marmara was boarded by Israeli troops and ten aid workers were executed in cold blood. Just days before sailing, the Mavi Marmara had changed its flag from Turkey to the Comoros Islands.
On a vessel at sea outside the twelve mile territorial limit of a state (as the Mavi Marmara was when boarded), the law that applies is that of the flag state. Had the vessel still been Turkish flagged, the murderers would have been within Turkish jurisdiction and subject to investigation by Turkey and prosecution in Turkish courts.
I flew to Izmir to investigate the case and I concluded that it was Turkish security services who had obliged the change of flag to the Comoros Islands, thus facilitating the Israeli murderous attack.
Plainly the Mavi Marmara incident should indicate to organisers of aid to Gaza the vital necessity of having a vessel registered to a flag state which would be able to react strongly to an attack by Israel on its ship, and indeed whose flag might deter Israel from such an attack.
So it makes no sense to me that the organisers intended to proceed under the flag of Guinea Bissau.
On 8 April I received a Whatsapp message from organisers asking me to publicise the flotilla. This was my reply.
Hi Irfan and thank you. May I ask what are the flag states of the four vessels?
This is extremely important.
The Mavi Marmara organisers made the literally fatal mistake of allowing the ship to reflag to the Comoros Islands before sailing. Outside the 12 mile territorial sea the vessels are under the law of and entitled to the protection of the flag state
After a holding reply I received
Sorry for the late reply. It is still to be confirmed sir
I reiterated
OK, I am very keen that people understand that it is crucially important.
I have always believed pro Israeli security services influenced the change of flag of the Mavi Marmara.
Any Israeli forces boarding the ships beyond the 12 mile territorial limit are subject to the law of the flag state of the vessel. I should be grateful if you confirm to me the organisers fully understand this.
The reply was simply
Thank you sir
I am therefore entirely perplexed that the organisers went with Guinea Bissau as the flag state rather than a state likely to stand up to Israel and the US. Of course it failed.
Is the problem incompetence, or is it again security service influence?
I should make plain that I absolutely support the aims and the strategy of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. I have several friends on board, and I believe my good colleague Ann Wright is among the organisers. I am however intensely frustrated.
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Michael Hudson has an excellent new article in Counterpunch…
https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/04/30/have-you-no-sense-of-decency-mccarthyism-returns-to-campus/
He talks about “our civilization?” “Ethnic cleansing, genocide and treating the Palestinian population as conquered and to be expelled as subhumans is an assault on the most basic principles of civilization”.
Unfortunately in my opinion the United States was established on just those principles. The Pioneers called it ‘manifest destiny’, whereby one group of Settlers ethnically cleansed the American Indians “Savages” this ethnic cleansing was appluaded by the likes of Winston Churchhill, who merely thought of it as one more advanced breed, replacing a lesser breed. A sort of Darwinian survival of the fittest. Although as in most colonial situations, if you are stronger, i.e. have more guns than the natives, then you will suceed, if not, then you will be have to go back from whence you came.
Here is the bottom line, there are approx seven and a half million Jewish people in the whole of Palestine, and seven and a half million Palestinians in the same area. Then Israel is surrounded by 400 million Muslims who are far better armed [precision guided missiles] than any American Indian, do the math. My quick calculation is this, either ‘the suitcase or the coffin’ for the Zionists, similar to the battle for Algiers, so much bloodshed, in the end the the Pied- Noir chose the suitcase, no not the Samson option, the samsonite one.
Even the Humanitarian pier waiting to be built is a giant con. There are thousands of aid trucks waiting at the Rafa crossing from Egypt, they are being stopped by Israeli forces with the excuse that no duel use items will be let in, [what cannot be duel use these days] This is Genocide by starvation and all our political class are responsible, and will pay a severe price in the near future.
It is genocide by starvation, but that is far easier to cover up than relentless bombing of innocent humans who now have no homes to go to anymore. Far easier to restrict any inquisitive media types from poking their noses where the psychopaths would not want them.
The only problem will be how to dispose of all the emaciated bodies, without the wider world reeling in shock and horror? The most bitter human irony is likely to unfold as the months pass.
The genocide of Gaza carried out by a nuclear state should prove that Mearsheimer´s theory and the school of realism, is, I am sorry to say, bullshit.
In the face of hydrogen bombs and their powers, no state will interfere – even if this genocide would turn into a Nazi-style extermination pogram with 2 Mio. Palestinians killed. For that to accomplish you do not need to use WMDs. What you need them for is only to keep away those human rights lawyers and NGO´s and guarantee your free hand in the killing. Because is anyone going to risk the world for a tiny people? Nope.
The realist school after all is entirely built on the naive assumption that political players act “rationally”. This of course was a theory that originated with a Western hegemonic thinking. Thus a system that itself was never subject to genocide, which was too powerful to face “non-rational” behaviour – behaviour practiced by the realist hegemony herself. That being her privilege.
So realism like the rule of intern. law is only as good as it is not questioning the hegemonic powers.
So this is an empty worthless concept. As it only works as long as its not put to a test.
A few first generation (fission based) atom bombs, are probably a liability; but hydrogen (fusion based) thermonuclear weapon possession and viable delivery systems i.e. warhead miniaturisation; solid fuel (quick launch), hypersonic capability, and MIRV’ing (incl. decoys) missiles, really change ‘threat’ perceptions. Ever since N. Korea announced it had joined the so-called second generation club, via that 2017 test, the western hawks have gone awfully quiet about regime change in Pyongyang. This will have been noticed in Tehran. And Tehran and Pyongyang have a history of cooperation in missile development.
If you think about it, there are perverse incentives for Russia or China to provide the technical know-how to make both N. Korea and Iran militarily untouchable superpowers. Having numerous US adversary countries with the power to destroy Israel (Iran) the even pose a threat to the US (N. Korea) would make western hegemonic dominance prohibitively expensive. It’s simply impossible to counter everyone, all the time. We could be headed for a far more dangerous world unless the US reins in Israel and forces them to accept a two-state solution.
“there are perverse incentives for Russia or China”
Is it really that perverse Goose? The progenitors, responsible for your description and many other of the “haemorrhaging of value” lie elsewhere. North Korea, post Soviet Russia etc. – imo desperadoes, running scared, if they have any real independence at all – no long term strategy just reaction. Polities constructed on a non-western model feel every breeze, every zephyr of Western disapproval. I suppose, it is all about Capital – investment. They have little – the “West” has a lot.
Thing is for me Goose from about 1965, I have followed the development of military technology and the shit everyone is crowing about – missile tech is fifty, sixty, seventy years old. If these commentators really think Iran can go toe-to-toe with a super power, good luck to them – maybe they can. But if the shit goes down I personally doubt the Ritter’s, the McGregors and all the rest of them – Hezbollah is firing Katyushkas at Israel. The Katyushka entered service in the early 40’s, late 30’s in the the armies of the Soviet Union. Sure it was noticed – but never for it’s accuracy or military “effectiveness” but merely for abstract destructive power.
I once read a Wehrmacht report from 1943 from the Battle of Kursk, Eastern Front, that a described a fully outfitted mechanised regiment of maybe 3000 – 4000 men, with 400-500 armoured vehicles blundering into a killlzone where 4 or 5 regiments of Katyushkas (about 200 Katyushkas) had pre-registered their fire – the German mechanised regiment was completely destroyed, with no vehicles surviving (including a reinforced company of Panzer V tanks, Germany’s most promising battlefield weapon) and only several troopers, half of whom died before the report was logged at 9th Army, 12 hours after it was written. (Casualities had to be confirmed at every stage of the report’s progress to the archives at 9th Army). The regiment was only under mass Katyushka fire for a couple of minutes.
Yes, it is a terrible weapon, but only under highly structured conditions – other than that, it is virtually useless, militarily. Though firing the rockets anywhere would create fear, and massive fear if the rockets struck home on a target that human beings populated.
Soz to waffle, but my point is we ain’t seen nothing yet in terms of mil tech but we will shortly – probably in the next short while.
@will moon
Indeed, no one can compete militarily with the US. They have a near trillion dollar annual defence budget. If they weren’t ahead technologically, many would be asking what the hell are they doing with that money. US citizens have no right to free universal healthcare though, and infrastructure : bridges, schools etc often stand until they fall, because they pump such insane sums into defence.
As for Iran vs Israel, let’s hope such a conflict never occurs. Speaking purely hypothetically. The only way Iran and presumably Hezbollah, would stand a chance is by going asymmetric; multiple infiltration on the ground in Israel, Cells taught how to use mortars, coordinating their attacks to sabotage & destroy command and control centres, aircraft , key infrastructure eg. disabling key parts of the Iron Dome. I’d imagine that is Israel’s ultimate nightmare scenario, because Israel is around 25% Arab Israeli. Hence Netanyahu’s determination to undermine their rights and status. He’s effectively made them second-class citizens already. It’s a really racist society with Arab Israelis afraid to express opinions on social media, in a way that the Jewish majority aren’t.
As for China and Russia, the US obviously knows it currently has a military edge, more so than at any time in the Cold War – when Russia’s capability was largely unknown because surveillance capability was limited and top-secret information was hard to come by behind the so-called Iron Curtain. This is likely why the US is trying to force the Chinese to lose patience over Taiwan. In ten years, China may be more than a military match for the US and UK.
Octogenarian war horse, Nancy Pelosi, was recently in the UK, She claimed, in an interview, she was ‘sure’ Russia must have a hand in the pro-Gaza sympathy sit-ins on US campuses. She couldn’t comprehend why 34 -35,000 dead Gazans and Israel starving the rest, upsets so many US students. She’s also been spreading disinformation herself : blathering on about mass rapes on Oct 7th that never happened. There’s a few anecdotal reports of some sexual violence, but the cases are isolated and testimony has inconsistencies and has been widely contradicted. The woman leading Israel’s investigation posted images of a Kurdish woman victim, in NE Syria, and tried to pass it off as a picture of an Israeli female victim of Oct 7th. Max Blumenthal highlighted it, and called her out online.
That’s how pernicious such ‘enemy within’ beliefs become : every act of defiance or dissent in the West now, will be quizzed against a McCarthyite test of : is Russia or China behind this?
I have become more aware of the possibility of regional/global war in the last week, after considering Türkiye’s overall position. This NATO member hosts a huge Western base in the east of the country – apparently with some very destructive ordinance present. Yet at the same time it’s rulers express sympathy for the Palestinians but Türkiye’s largest companies are making out like bandits, on the back of tens of thousands slaughtered civilians. I can’t process this unless I imagine a deal has been done with America to allow the creation of a Turkish “super state”
The revanchist dream of a new “Ottoman Empire 2.0” based on linguistic affinities, rather than the fruits of conquest is a tangible thing today. The Gulen Coup was some kind of demonstration. Apparently Turkish citizens were heavily involved in thwarting the coup but whether it ever had “the legs” to succeed I don’t know. Either way, the point was made – play nice and you will be rewarded anything else and you can go and join the other dead cats of civilisation in the dustbin of history. There is also the situation in Cyprus to consider.
I think your right on your point concerning timing – the situation ten years after this moment sits nicely with the urgency. The sky above my city emits the fantastic rumble of high-flying military aircraft, particularly at night. I heard it a few days ago on a bright sunny day but could not see the source with the naked eye. I lie in bed and wonder if this many weapons have been shipped around the world since the Second World War – not easy to get to sleep on such noises and the thoughts they provoke. As the weapons arrive in Israel, Israeli stocks are shipped out – Baku is apparently receiving daily flights currently
There is I have read, infrastructure present in the region that is designed to carry out WMD attacks eg Douma. The Gulf hosts a lot of these “consultant” organisations and they appear to be linked to numerous Western “intelligence” outfits and I can imagine Istanbul hosts a few as well. What better cassus belli can one have?
postscriptum
Türkiye has on May 2 announced that it will end all trade with Israel, including Azerbaijani oil with immediate effect. Worth over $6 billion with 75% being Turkish exports to Israel. The Turkish trade ministry issued the following statement
“Türkiye will strictly and decisively implement these new measures until the Israeli Government allows an uninterrupted and sufficient flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza.”
Türkiye. has joined the South African case at the ICJ. These policy changes don’t convince this watcher. I cynically conclude that the transfer of Israeli weapon stocks to Azerbaijan’s capital Baku are complete and now the “Sublime Porte” feels it can be a jenny-come-lately to the nations who have recognised, from their inception, the events in Palestine for what they are – unacceptable in all possible worlds yet Türkiye drags it’s feet
If the Azerbaijani demand for a corridor through Armenia into Türkiye is denied, Azerbaijan is in a good position to enforce its will on its recently defeated neighbour. I am not sure how long these Israeli weapon shipments have been taking place but it is easy to imagine that as the West flooded Israel with weapons, Israel flooded Azerbaijan with weapons – now the deal is done, PR flannel is employed to wipe the scene clean of the perfidy of Türkiye.
AG
Have you seen this story: Fears of Putin swinging elections behind EU’s Meta crackdown:
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/apr/30/eu-meta-russian-interference-elections-facebook-fake-news?
As a disclaimer, I don’t have Facebook account. I therefore can’t attest to the veracity of the EU’s claims. But being an anti-disinformation industry sceptic, and based on previous claims, I doubt the EU’s claims are very well founded. I only re-activated my old X/Twitter account because someone took the decision to make X inaccessible for reading without logging in.
The politicians themselves blame social media for falling levels of trust in Western democracy, and specifically, sinister ‘meddling’ by outside forces. Russia’s alleged ‘division strategy’ is frequently pointed to. But this is just comfort food for Western elites.
Deeper malaise.
As recently as the 1970s and 80s most Western politicians went into politics broadly for the public good, a public service ethos was required and having principles and discernible underlying easily elucidated guiding political philosophy, essential. Back then, most of them didn’t go into politics as a shortcut to becoming rich, or see it as a cushy career path. Many came from the real world of work, they weren’t the uni-to-political researchers and policy wonks gifted safe seats, of today.
What’s gone wrong with Western democracy? Over the last 40 years, already very wealthy individuals (often political party donors) lobbied politicians for financial deregulation, alongside tax cuts. Politicians obliged, and as a result said wealthy individuals grew into astronomically wealthy billionaires. These financial power players – who’ve typically made their fortunes in ‘deregulated’ speculative finance, or mega corps – own the press/media and can transform a party’s finances and hence its electoral prospects as easily as they can buy a senior politician a new luxury lifestyle. Are there any former leaders who are left impoverished, post-politics, these days? The answer is no, because they are have served these wealthy patrons. So many of today’s leaders are connected to big corporations, e.g. von der Leyen – Pfizergate; corporate finance and investment banking, e.g. Blair – JPMorgan, Macron – Rothschild, to name but a few. The public sense they don’t really control elected politicians and the politicians answer to hidden wealthy financiers. Russia and China’s alleged meddling is imho, just a form of scapegoatism, for the public backlash against unpopular politicians, and their obvious corruption.
(Goose
thx for the Guardian link. I had intended to read that item on that same morning and had forgotten by afternoon. Until you brought it back
p.s. frankly I do not have such a high opinion of politicians in the past.
On the other hand may be you are right and there was more honesty to some degree among certain parts of those circles)
AG
The current political composition of the EU Commission is dreadful, in my opinion – right up to Madame President herself, Ursula ‘Pfizergate’ von der Leyen.
https://www.politico.eu/article/5-things-to-know-about-ursula-von-der-leyens-pfizergate-court-cases/
The man pushing this ‘ Russian meddling’ narrative, as a basis for censoring Europeans. Is the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton. He seems to threaten tech companies every week with massive fines; it’s as if he’s trying to coerce them in to censoring anything critical of the EU? In the UK, the EU Commission postings were viewed as a dumping ground for failed and controversial politicians. Neil Kinnock, a two-time general election loser became one, as did Peter Mandelson – a friend of Jeffrey Epstein.
We’re not part of the EU, as you’ll obviously know. One of the big arguments the Leave campaign deployed successfully, before the UK referendum, was that the unelected Commission was trying to grab more and more power unto itself, despite not having any direct democratic mandate.
In some ways it’s a good sign, it means they’re afraid. The Russians don’t need to do anything at all, to discredit the current western regimes. They’ve managed that well enough on their own.
The constant harping on the Russian bogey-bogeys, by now provokes far more eye-rolling, disgust & cynicism than it does popular support.
Although funnily enough the socioeconomic, political & narrative decay we see around us mirrors the late U.S.S.R in some key ways.
No-one really deep down believes in mature neo-liberalism, whilst in the full knowledge that the promise of fully automated luxury neo-liberalism was always a sort of mass-formation delusion.
The regime sticks with the ideology, because it benefits a large caste of parasites. Of course for many such “loyalty” will flip in a heartbeat, if the benefits change.
As representation to legislatures increased, their powers were diminished in favour of the executive. They have been moved from the efficient to the dignified part of the constitution. It doesn’t matter what fools, frauds, pimps and perverts become MPs because they’re there to do as they’re told.
I don’t think I agree with that definition of realism. A realist should be able to cope with zealot ideologues, as the Israelis are. Indeed. Mearsheimer used to be very concentrated on American national interests, the only thing that interested him. Now he’s relaxed and taken a wider view.
What would happen if the sycophantic Columbia President Shafik declared, “I have ordered the complete siege on the protesting students, there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel and no water, everything is closed”?
And she added, “we are fighting with human animals, just like Yoav Gallant Israeli Defence Minister said on 9th October last year. Thinking what her billionaire donors like Robert Kraft might want, she would do it in a heartbeat.
don´t paint it on the wall
Harry Law,
The double-standards and hypocrisy are writ large.
One acceptable standard for ‘them’ and no acceptable standard for ‘us’. We (the pro-Israel supporters) can say, do and act in any and all outrageous, inhumane, and extreme ways – but, please, please, please – don’t on the other side protest.
Simply stated – we need to keep bombing HAMAS women, children and babies plus all those residential apartments where all the HAMAS families live – until we rid Gaza of all the HAMAS ‘human animals’. Simple as that.
Got it?
President Shafik could call out the Columbia University air force to bomb Columbia itself, but unfortunately the CAF seems to be made up of model aircraft only.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/aiaa/
What, Eleanor Stein, a 1968 Columbia University protester makes of today’s pro-Palestinian encampment:
It seems like universities today are afraid of holding open and free discussions about issues of Palestine and Israel. I agree with what the students have done. They may have broken some vague university rules about how you congregate on campus, but they have not interfered with people going to class, certainly haven’t detained anyone or harmed anyone. They just want to have their points of view displayed and discussed and have it be on the agenda. And how could it not be on the agenda? It’s one of the great issues of our day.
The purpose of a university is the open expression and exchange of ideas. That is our fundamental purpose, and especially ideas that are contentious and that have consequences.
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1247405879/do-columbias-pro-palestinian-protests-resemble-the-ones-against-the-vietnam-war
And lo and behold there are tunnels under the university!
Students (in 1968) also made use of the tunnels to travel between buildings occupied by strikers and to bring them supplies.[11] Though the tunnels helped students occupy many of the buildings on campus, they were also accessible to the agents of the administration; university staff and eventually the police used them to capture and remove the protestors, with the added benefit that they could do so away from press coverage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_University_tunnels
…I assume that the tunnels now must be obliterated because the pro-palestinians of course keep their weapons down there.
Alastair Crooke in a new article quoting Theodore Postol, Professor of Science, Technology and National Security Policy at MIT.
The leading Israeli daily, Yediot Ahoronot, has estimated the cost of attempting to down this Iranian flotilla at between $2-3 billion dollars. The implications of this single number are substantial.
Professor Postol writes:
“This indicates that the cost of defending against waves of attacks of this type is very likely to be unsustainable against an adequately armed and determined adversary”.
Postol is saying that neither the U.S. nor Israel has more than a partial defence to a potential attack of this nature – especially as Iran has dispersed and buried its ballistic missile silos across the entire terrain of Iran under the control of autonomous units which are capable of continuing a war, even were central command and communications to be completely lost.
https://www.eurasiareview.com/30042024-the-interlocking-of-strategic-paradigms-oped/
Just came across the following on UNRWAs website, posted on April 26th:
Statement from the Spokesperson of the UN Secretary-General on the OIOS investigation regarding allegations against UNRWA staff
We have some information to share about the investigation by the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) into the allegations made by Israel that some staff members of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were involved in the 7 October attacks.
OIOS has been investigating 19 UNRWA staff members – the 12 we were informed of in January, whose contracts were terminated by UNRWA, and 7 more that we have since received information about – five of them in March and two in April.
First, I want to talk about the initial group of 12 staffers.
Of that group, 8 staff members remain under OIOS investigation.
One case was closed…….
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/statement-spokesperson-un-secretary-general-oios-investigation
So that’s three months now and counting. You would think it could be sorted out in a couple of days! Either Israel has conclusive proof (in respect of each of the people accused), or they don’t. Surely it’s that simple.
Anyway, the following video was posted today:
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini update on the situation in the oPt – UN Briefing
https://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/videos/unrwa-commissioner-general-philippe-lazzarini-update-situation-opt-un-briefing (2mins 47secs)
Even if the lies had been true they could never have justified in a million years 16 Western governments immediately ending funding to UNRWA, knowing it would fast track famine in Gaza.
By that moral logic – presented as unimpeachable by the BBC et al – the Harold Shipman case should have brought an immediate end to all NHS funding in the UK, abruptly shutting down Great Ormond Street, every A&E, cancer unit, etc. Pitilessly punish every vulnerable soul who relies on the NHS. Just kill them all. Let them all die.
Western values, c. 2024.
Yes, it was a contrived – and planned – over-reaction. And it was just purely coincidental of course that Israel waited until just after the ICJ made its ruling to notify the media about these UNRWA staff members.
It’s beyond cliché these days to say imagine the reaction of Western politicians and media the reaction if Russia was inflicting famine on Ukraine. But we don’t even need to imagine. Before the Gaza genocide NATO supporters had been constantly referencing a famine that happened in Ukraine a hundred years ago, suggesting they were disgusted by it.
This livestreamed famine gripping Gaza right now is being inflicted in the name of those same people by their democratically elected governments.
What have you heard from them?
The total conflation of Russia with an avowedly & proudly ideological, internationalist, multi/anti-ethnic and revolutionary Bolshevik regime. Is a very old dirty trick.
As is ignoring the famine in the wider U S S.R unless it suits them. They also ignore that the main local responsibility was in the hands of Ukrainian Bolsheviks, based in Kharkov at the time.
Also the fact that the Donbass an epicenter of the 30’s famine in Ukraine, is today the most pro-Russian (and even Sovietphile) part of the former Ukrainian SSR outside of Crimea.
Whilst the most Bandera supporting and pro-nazi collaboration parts, were actually Polish territory and thus weren’t directly effected by the Soviet famine.
Could never be breathed in public, because it’s so at odds with the historical propaganda narrative. It simply breaks it.
Why hasn’t Israel simply killed these “19 UNRWA staff members”, like it kills the workers of all the other relief organisations, the entire families of doctors and journalists, babies, people with white flags, and hundreds of its own citizens? Killing everyone and everyone around them seems to be Israel’s default, so why not these? Just because Israel would then have to stop complaining about them, or am I being too cynical?
“I should make plain that I absolutely support the aims and the strategy of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla” – CM
What ARE the aims of the GFF?
Have they got permission from the US and Israel to land supplies? – Seems most unlikely
Is it all about publicity? – To demonstrate that aid is not allowed in?
IMPORTANT POINT
Blinken has been careful to isolate one or two units of the IDF for possible sanctions. Therefore we should be making strongly the point that only a portion of HAMAS is to blame for Oct 7th and also other incidents. I’ve never been comfortable that everyone assumes every member of Hamas be it military or political deserves to be killed.
It is ridiculous how they falsely try to portray themselves as critical of Israel, do they really believe this ploy will shut up protests, criticism against Biden admin. support for Israel?
The US government has determined that at least five Israeli units committed gross violations of human rights prior to the latest war with Hamas, but Washington has no plans to impose sanctions or restrict military aid to West Jerusalem.
All of the allegations stem from incidents that occurred in the West Bank long before the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza last October.
https://swentr.site/news/596787-israeli-troops-human-rights-abuses/
Hey look at us, we condemn… these units in the…. West Bank for crimes commited…years ago.
We are so tough on Israel!!!
Sigh.
Blinken, imho, is a wholly disingenuous actor. Everything he does is calibrated to be the bare minimal; while trying to appear concerned and as if he’s doing something. He’s not really fooling anyone though. Well, nobody except the POTUS perhaps? His knowing glances and smirks sat alongside Netanyahu, give the game away.
Privately, he’s probably aligned with the views of former Obama adviser, Stuart Seldowitz. Zionism seems to be mandatory mindset to be at the State Dept when you look at senior figures in that Department.
Craig Murray claims to be an activist. Why doesn’t he join the freedom flotilla instead of just talking about it? Talk is what politicians are good at – is Craig Murray a man or a pipsqueak of a politician?
Dear Debbie, will you join him? This would be nothing but another PR exercise against Craig?
No need for him to join virtue signalling, he is not Blinken. Craig has shown his active service to many humanitarian causes and I recommend that you read the vast back catalog of his past endeavours on his blog, before you disengage your brain again and goad.
“ before you disengage your brain again and goad.” – lol that phrase has pleasing rhythm nevermind
He’s done more than anyone here, I’d wager, to walk the walk and not just talk the talk on the causes he supports.
He’s in, or was recently in Pakistan, protesting Imran Khan’s unjust detention. He’s good, but he’s not omnipotent, he can’t be everywhere. lol
Be Fair … Craig’s doing far more than you and I for Human Rights and Justice.
Debbie.. Who do you Work for? Tell the Truth
The Israeli whack job Smotrich wants the utter destruction of Gaza, if they get away with this it will be a template for further distruction in the West Bank and Lebanon, these psychopaths must be stopped using any means available.
“Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the “utter destruction” of Rafah and other cities in Gaza while slamming Israel’s ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas.
“No half jobs. Rafah, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, total and utter destruction,” Smotrich said, referring to the two cities in Gaza and the Nuseirat refugee camp.
Smotrich’s remarks underscore the pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces among members of his governing coalition to press ahead with an attack on Rafah, the southern Gaza border city where over one million displaced Palestinians are sheltering.”
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-finance-minister-calls-utter-destruction-gaza-end-truce-talks
Idi i smotrich….
Jonathan Cook’s prediction for what will happen in the coming weeks and months (posted on April 30th):
‘The Israel-US game plan for Gaza is staring us in the face’
The western media is pretending the West’s efforts to secure a ceasefire are serious. But a different script has clearly been written in advance
1. In public, Biden appears “tough” on Netanyahu, urging him not to “invade” Rafah and pressuring him to allow more “humanitarian aid” into Gaza.
2. But already the White House is preparing the ground to subvert its own messaging. It insists that Israel has offered an “extraordinarily generous” deal to Hamas – one that, Washington suggests, amounts to a ceasefire. It doesn’t. According to reports, the best Israel has offered is an undefined “period of sustained calm”. Even that promise can’t be trusted…….
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2024-04-30/israel-us-plan-gaza/
The reality is that had Netanyahu et al agreed to a permanent ceasefire, the hostages could have been released months ago.
Not to mention Netanyahu have already denied such an “generous offer” even exist,
Israel will send troops into the city of Rafah regardless of whether it reaches a ceasefire and hostage-release deal with Hamas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday
https://swentr.site/news/596814-israel-invade-rafah-hostagers/
Blinken and western MSM acted like the useful idiots again for Israel…
Johnathon Cook is correct an all points.
The trade off for not attacking Iran ( first through Lebanon and maybe Iran itself) is a – not yet trade off.
The other part is to allow the Israeli’s to clear Rafah by one means or other.
The big problem for Israel is even if they could magic away all the Palestinians who are overwhelmingly unarmed they cannot magic away other enemies/threats in the region. So, if Israel wants to go back to Safe Mode again it is impossible.
Israel’s Invincibility has been shown to the world as a mirage. Even if they could get a One State Solution that State would still be vulnerable to attack.
The Nuclear one sided ‘MAD’ theory (literally Mad) in order to scare off would be attackers would be to threaten enemies with pre- Nuclear annihilation – as in – We already have weapons and you haven’t got them yet. That would only last so long, though, until Iran got some of their own. We would then be in proper ‘MAD’ territory. Now – how Lunatic would that be?
I hope that doesn’t happen, but it is a future possibility in my opinion.
The Stuxnet/Iran uranium enrichment incident was in 2010 and it was claimed at the time that Iran was developing nuclear weapons. It took the USSR three years to develop theirs and Iran has now had at least 14 years. With an obvious reason to get on with it and the knowledge far more widespread than in 1945. Iran seems to have ballistic missiles able to penetrate Israeli defences. It’s rather unlikely that they don’t right now have nuclear warheads to put on them. This fits with the reported remark that if Israeli cabinet discussions were put on YouTube, there’d be four million people at Ben Gurion Airport trying to get flights out.
Excellent article. I’m a passenger on the Flotilla. I had same question but transparency was not a major concern of organization. My friend Ann Wright was extremely frustrated but seemed to be silenced by the main organization. I hope that you can write about how, who and why of the flag removal. Also, doesn’t GB put its reputation as a neutral flagging country at peril? Will the country of GB face any blowback from its thousands of client vessels around the world sailing with what we now know is just a shill for Israel and The Empire ultimately?
Well done, Tighe. You, Medea and Code Pink are an inspiration. As are all the college students across the U. S. Keep going!
I was just checking out the latest gaff by Biden (in which he implores voters to choose freedom over democracy), and there were only a few results when I did a search, one of which was Fox News, so I clicked on that. Anyway, that in turn led to me checking out another article on the page entitled ‘Media can’t admit Biden’s disasters and campus hate, so they blame it on ‘conservatives pounce’’, in which it says the following about the student campus protests:
But Americans, particularly Jewish Americans, are coming to their own conclusions about how terrifying these protests are.
They witness students taking over public areas, pounding on windows and accosting people, demanding that Israel surrender unconditionally to Hamas terrorists.
They read about activists cheering for Iran over the United States, disappointed that the ayatollah’s missiles didn’t kill more people. It’s ignorance and bile spewed on social media……
No, it is not “peaceful” to chant “From the river to the sea” and call for the eradication of Israel. It is not moral to rip down the posters of kidnapped Israeli civilians. It is hate, pure and simple.
Yep, the fascist scum just lurve hate-mongering and ‘transforming’ people into the opposite of what they are. And you’re most unlikely to hear from the MSM that there are many Jewish people involved in the campus protests, just as with the British MSM in respect of the marches. And in both cases, the media and the hate-mongers are well aware of that.
And their hate-mongering also serves the purpose of fear-mongering to some degree or other amongst some American Jews, or at least that’s the objective. But I doubt it amounts to more than a miniscule amount of Jews, and I have no doubt whatsoever that the vast majority of Jews who (still) support Israel know that it’s all black propaganda B/S lies concocted and contrived to demonise and discredit the students, and not just Israel-supporting Jews in the US, but wherever they live in the world.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/media-can-t-admit-biden-s-disasters-and-campus-hate-so-they-blame-it-on-conservatives-pounce/ar-AA1nVF0n
Every single time a nation on the USA’s naughtiness list, has a protest kerfuffle.
The protesters are lionised or whitewashed by the MSM no matter who they are or what they stand for. Even if they’re blatantly terroristic or fifth columnist traitors.
So boo f**king hoo if some people in the US are calling for regime change or are even serving other masters. It’s due time for some balated FAFO to take effect.
Please enlighten me!
Is anyone here aware of a single Jewish organisation in the UK (as opposed to individual Jews) which has publicly denounced Israeli action in Gaza and, specifically, the 33,000 plus death toll?
Doctor Jung: try Jewish Voice for Labour.
…”There cannot be peace without justice, dignity and equality for all, Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Christians and Muslims – all who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
WE SAY:
NOT IN OUR NAME
STOP KILLING GAZANS
NO MORE APARTHEID
END THE OCCUPATION
FREE THE HOSTAGES
FREE THE DETAINEES”
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/jews-against-the-war-on-gaza/
They actually shame the Labour Party. As it shames itself.
I believe every interview of an Israeli official or British Israel apologist – such interviews are almost a daily occurrence – should start with the question of whether the interviewee believes that Israel is in conformity with international law in annexing the Golan heights and occupying the West Bank and expanding its settlements in that occupied territory.
Once that’s been established, the interview could continue.
Should the interviewee refuse to answer, or equivocate, the interviewer should terminate the interview forthwith.
What theory do you entertain as to how Israel or the US got to the fleet organizers to not better flag the convoy?
I assume that is pretty easy with smaller less powerful states like Guinea Bissau. Just a call from the israelis and/or americans.
It’s almost like the Crew or most of them Have Agreed a Suicide Pact. If they can Slaughter Raffa ? and get away with it ?
George on Form Again Last night – I Weep.
https://youtu.be/Kneio6JwGac?t=1421
Here is a question for any Labour canvasser you meet. “Do you believe that Israel has the right to starve one million women and children to death, and is that a war crime”?. Keir Starmer [lawyer] Emily Thornberry [lawyer] Lisa Nandy and David Lammy do not know, and if they did they would not say so. These Labour leaders are human filth with no morals, and when they appeal for your votes, tell them to their faces to G F Themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWPzXcNNDwI
Here is information for the Labour party leadership on the denial of food and water to a protected civilian population.
Collective punishment.
This is one of the fundamental guarantees established by the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their 1977 additional protocols,
This guarantee is applicable not only to protected persons but to all individuals, no matter what their status or what category of persons they belong, as defined by the Geneva conventions [GC1V Art 33].
Of course they know this, but the protection of Israel is far more important to these weasels than telling the truth.
Just prior to coming on to Craig’s website I came across this video from a couple of days ago (and came on here specifically to post a link to it) and, to repeat what Brian said earlier, George is on form again (as he usually is of course), and he treats the GMB presenters with the contempt they deserve:
Susanna Questions George Galloway on Rishi Sunak’s Comments After Rochdale By-Election
(I just this second noticed that it’s actually posted on GMB’s Youtube channel!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNDAmrLZr3k (10mins 44secs)
And having just read a couple of dozen or so of the comments, I see that most of them are supportive of George, and critical of Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley. GMB quite obviously only got him on the programme to try and discredit him
Allan Howard, George did make them look like fools, however when Madeley questioned George on his opposition to the Iraq war, he missed an opportunity to skewer him by saying that he (Madeley) was a Tony Blair supporter and supported the Iraq war at the time, so is complicit in up to one million unnecessary Iraqi civilian and UK servicemen’s deaths. Madeley is a sneering hateful POS.
I think he does Harry, later on in the vid when Madeley brings up the Saddam Hussein thing again.
People are just sick of hearing the old tropes, particularly since damn-near everyone knows this has been dragged up before and answered numerous times by GG over the span of decades now.
Who f**king cares if he embarrassedly flattered Saddam, to try get some concession out of him. Galloway wasn’t one of the “reputable” people, sending him guns, intel & poison gas, during the Iran-Iraq War.
Hell, Galloway could’ve actually fellated Saddam on camera and what harm would that’ve done in the grand scheme of things?
Whereas establishment political figures don’t get repeatedly hard-timed for dealing with tyrants & monsters with far more corrupt deals involved, and far more recently.
To illustrate this. Tony Blair can aid & abet numerous war-crimes, leave a legacy of ashes. Then spend fifteen years grifting his way across the globe, taking every bribe going in return for “favours”.
Then still get treated as a reputable public figure, same with his wormtongue Alistair Campbell etc.
The inherent glaring BS of that, is so blatant anyone can intuitively grasp it. Regardless of what they think about GG.
I think it was Donald Rumsfeld who went to Baghdad and did the fellating
Apparently, Prez Bush dubbed Donald “the RumStud”, maybe because of his intimate encounters with so many receptive dictators, always through “back channels” though it could be also be a comment on “the RumStud’s” consumption of WH interns.
Was “the RumStud” a pimp or a whore? Or maybe a bit of both?
harrylaw when you speak of “ageing lotharios” have you considered the premier ageing lothario of our era? This was one who breathed poison gas and gave the biggest bang for your, or any others buck – enough to set the world on fire and boy did he.
Watched a bit of TV to see the student protests in America:
Peaceful protest being met by state violence (aka the police).
Police warning (using loudspeakers) that if protesters don’t disperse, they’ll be arrested.
‘Flash-bang’ rounds being used to disorientate and scare the protesters. Burly officers zip-tying women’s hands behind their backs and getting them to kneel on the floor.
Police physically removing barriers and material of the encampment.
One commenter on Al-Jazeera noted that similar protest camps against apartheid South Africa were permitted, not dismantled in this way. Freedom of speech and the right to protest are being eroded as the world descends into fascism under corporate/zionist governments.
The gloves are coming off the US regime against its own citizens, for all to see (in reality, they’ve been off for years – this is just a high profile example).
Republican Congressman Rick Allen from Georgia, questioned Dr. Shafik at a Congressional hearing, asked whether she was familiar with the passage in Genesis 12.3. As he explained” “It was a covenant that God made with Abraham. And that covenant was real clear. …‘If you bless Israel, I will bless you. If you curse Israel, I will curse you.’… Do you consider that to be a serious issue? I mean, do you want Columbia University to be cursed by God of the Bible. Shafik smiled all the way through this bible thumping, and replied meekly, “Definitely not.” She might have warded off this browbeating question by saying, “Your question is bizarre. This is 2024, and America is not a theocracy. And the Israel of the early 1st century BC was not Netanyahu’s Israel of today.” She accepted all the accusations that Allen and his fellow Congressional inquisitors threw at her. The bottom line is that Craig Murray and George Galloway and all their supporters will be cursed by God. You could not make this up.
I have to say, that’s jolly convenient isn’t it? To have a God who loves all the people that do you a solid, and hates everyone who doesn’t. What an amazing coincidence, and incredibly lucky, that your God hates everyone that you hate! But to get someone else to buy into that steaming pile of manure too, in your favour, is simply mind boggling.
“To have a God who loves all the people that do you a solid, and hates everyone who doesn’t”.
It’s par for the Bronze Age. Very much the same as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”.
In 2024 it does seem a trifle passe.
Penny for your thoughts, protests are now being set up in many UK Universities including Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, and Liverpool.
I have sent an email to my son, (I have a Grandson at Sheffield Uni), hoping he is not involved and that I will horse whip him if he is. /S
Protesters must be met with an “extremely strict response” if they attempt to replicate violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations at US university campuses, according to Penny Mordaunt. https://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/national/24294294.mordaunt-strict-response-needed-uk-campus-gaza-protests-replicate-us/
The only violence I’m aware of is the Zionist thugs attacking the UCLA students in the early hours of yesterday morning (when no doubt most of them were asleep). I haven’t checked out media reports on it, but the BBC reporter reporting on the police clearing the camp and removing the protesters last night referred to it as a ‘violent confrontation’, but the BBC must have received lots of angry phone-calls, because later the reporter referred to the pro-Israel protesters attack on the pro-Palestinian protesters.
Yep, the only way to get BBC News to tell the truth is to goddam ‘police’ them!
To be honest I think George Galloway had a lustful eye on Penny Mordaunt in the past, [I Do] remember her in swimming costume
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshowbiz/video-1081370/Penny-Mordaunt-dons-swimsuit-diving-TV-Splash.html
however George thought her strict manner was a result of her former training as a Naval Officer, and that other Tory Ministers would be inclined to appreciate her threatening them with a severe spanking, and would support her, hoping they would receive Penny’s punishment. Public School and all that.
Unforttunately Galloway, Murray and Myself are merely ageing lotharios, although in my case an extremely good looking one, who could never catch the eye, or the ire of Penny, but we can dream, can’t we?
I’m just sitting here quietly, exercising my legendary restraint, hoping Mods add new achievement to my dossier 🙂
Tatyana, have no fears regarding the current status of your dossier – I have no doubt that it is up-to-date and shipshape lol.
This “legendary restraint” intrigues me – what is it’s nature and how does it manifest itself over time? It might be the base myth for a “Steppe Cult” that sweeps all before it! If you carry on like this I venture to suggest you are straying into “Vissarion” territory lol.
While trying to find news of the protests on Gaza in liverpool, I was sidetracked by this piece from Ian Williams.
Last weekend, some 60 survivors gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Liverpool University senate house in 1970 to protest the university’s investments in South Africa and the views of the then chancellor, Lord Salisbury. His lordship’s family name had been given to the capital of Southern Rhodesia, and he was a supporter of apartheid and holder of racist views so extreme that Cameron’s Conservative party would not now countenance them (or at least their public expression). https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/mar/24/liverpool-university-protest-south-africa Hope this is a rerun
These people at the Grayzone are doing a Wonderful job, here they uncover a Columbia Uni Professor who moonlights as the head of the NYPD counter terrorism bureau.
Columbia crackdown led by university prof doubling as NYPD spook
Rebecca Weiner is a Columbia U. professor who also serves as intelligence director of the NYPD. Mayor Eric Adams credits her with spying on anti-genocide student protesters and directing the militarized raid that dislodged them from campus.
During a May 1 press conference, just hours after the New York Police Department arrested nearly 300 people on university grounds, Adams praised adjunct Columbia professor Rebecca Weiner, who moonlights as the head of the NYPD counter-terrorism bureau, for giving police the green light to clear out anti-genocide students by force.
“She was the one that was monitoring the situation,” Adams explained, adding that the crackdown was carried out after “she was able to — her team was able to conduct an investigation.” https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/02/columbia-crackdown-university-nypd/
It makes me wonder why anybody wants to go to a spook-run, genocide-supporting university.
Johnny you lack ambition and obviously don’t like getting your hands “dirty” – you’ll never get on
Whilst having a blast of some Beatles tracks on youtube, I spotted the following vid in the recommends by The Hill (posted less than an hour ago at the time of typing) about the UCLA students/protesters being set upon by the fuzz, in which they say that rubber bullets were fired by the police, which is news to me, and seems unlikely, but who knows. It’s not that long (12mins 47secs), but be sure and check out the first five minutes or so, which includes Biden getting his psychopathic, mass murdering oar in re the campus protesters. The presenters also mention an ‘antisemism bill’ which was passed by the House of Representatives yesterday (in response to the campus protests), which I was unaware of.
The Hill:
UCLA Protesters ASSAULTED By Cops Who Did NOTHING About Pro-Israel Attacks; Biden Weighs In
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awtIrUI5HRg
The Bill:
US House votes to pass antisemitism bill in response to campus protests
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/may/01/house-antisemitism-bill-university-protest
Surely the antiantisemitism bill.
I think we need such a bill in the UK /S Did everyone see that innocent Jewish person simply out for a stroll on 13th April 2024. He tried to cross the road when stopped by a policeman who said he looked openly Jewish. This was front page news on all MSM and tv studios were lining up to see this poor Jewish man discriminated against in such fashion. The 55 sec clip caused an uproar, R Sunak said it was appalling, the Home Sec said serious questions must be raised and the former Home Sec called for Mark Rowley to resign. This was all a well engineered hoax, a longer Sky News clip nearly 15 minutes was released which showed Gidion Falter Chief Exec of the Campaign against antisemitism, (CAA), walking to the Gaza march with 5 heavies one of whom was a minder employed by the Israeli gov. Falter had earlier been seen to step off the pavement and walk against the march; he was later seen to try and barge through the police cordon (at least 4 times). He was an provocateur, intent on showing how the police force under the direction of Mark Rowley could not protect Jews in London, and that he should resign and end the “Hate Marches” up to now he has failed.
Jonathan Cook has a detailed article here:
https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/how-an-antisemitism-hoax-drowned
Other prominent people viewing the longer version – such as Labour tsar Lord John Mann – appeared on BBC News and said that Falter and the CAA have other objectives in this, and are not playing it straight
It’s been blatantly obvious for years that the CAA is nothing more than a propaganda outfit, and it’s a joke that they are allowed to retain their charity status, and especially in view of their recent stunt. And guess when they were granted charitable status….. *October 1st, 2015 (the process takes about 2/3 months to complete, and JC had been hot favourite to win the leadership election since the June/July, but it’s just coincidence of course).
https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-search/-/charity-details/5062067/charity-overview (*see under Governance)
You would have thought they would have celebrated the fact and, as such, posted about it on their website at the time, but they didn’t for some strange reason.
Here are their two most recent articles::
Six months.
It has been six months.
Six months of war. Six months of hostages in captivity. Six months of weekly anti-Israel protests and antisemitic rhetoric on our streets. Six months of surging antisemitism — on campuses and online, in workplaces and in our public life. Six months of police failures.
But we are resolute, and we will continue to fight for justice for the Jewish community, no matter how many more months or years it takes.
https://antisemitism.org/six-months/
What is the real everyday impact of antisemitism on British Jews?
On 9th March, Niyak Ghorbani held a sign condemning Hamas as a terror organisation next to an anti-Israel demonstration in London. Footage appears to show that he was abused by protesters and potentially assaulted.
https://antisemitism.org/what-is-the-real-everyday-impact-of-antisemitism-on-british-jews/
It’s very odd that they don’t link to the footage (that appears to show that Ghorbani was abused etc), and most unlike the CAA. Perhaps it’s because it only APPEARS to show the abuse etc.
And what’s even odder is that they haven’t posted an article about poor Gideon trying to cross the road.
As far as I know, the main reason for hostility and suspicion directed toward Jews everywhere is the appalling, inhuman, and vilely immoral behaviour of the Israeli government and everyone who supports it.
The root of the trouble is that there was never any need or justification for a “Jewish state” in Palestine – or anywhere else. Zionists apparently wish to have their cake and eat it. Unlike virtually everyone else, they want to be accepted as citizens in good standing of all nations, with full civic rights – but also to have their own separate state which, in principle, admits only Jews as citizens or even residents.
If Jewish people had accepted with good grace the opportunity to “assimilate” into the nations where they lived – which arose during the 19th century – things would have been far better all round. They could have gone on practising their religion, as do others, and following their rituals and customs, while accepting the laws and values of their host countries.
The Zionists were horrified by that prospect – that all Jews everywhere would become assimilated, as British or American or French or German or Russian or whatever, and simply be loyal citizens who had a particular religion. In the Zionist view, Jews are absolutely different, “unique”, “exceptional”, and “indispensable”. (Odd that so many US citizens have tried to appropriate those qualities for their own nation). Zionists used any and all methods to prevent assimilation; and the very best method was to set up an exclusive Jewish state that would forever be distinctive, independent, assertive, and above all for Jews only.
As an additional benefit, this arrangement maintained the ambiguous status of Jews. Is a Jew a person who follows the Judaic religion? A person whose mother is Jewish? A person who seeks, however vaguely, to trace descent from the Jews of 2,000 years ago? A citizen of israel? Those multiple overlapping categories afford broad options for having one’s cake and eating it.
That was bad; but its full horror could not have developed but for the spineless, amoral politicians who accepted the Zionist plans and threw themselves wholeheartedly into realising them. After all, who would lose? Only a bunch of unimportant “natives”. With luck they would either disperse and be forgotten, or even just die off like the native Americans.
Not many people stopped to consider that the Palestinians, just like the Jews, might want a state of their own – or that it was their inalienable right. Once embarked on a course of amoral wickedness, things were bound to get worse and worse. They will go on doing so until the root of the evil is removed: not by harming a single hair on the head of a single Jew, but by abolishing the “state of Israel” – or, as the Palestinians more correctly call it, “the Zionist entity”.
If anyone asks what is to become of the Jewish Israelis when their “state” is abolished, the answer might be: the same as the palestinians have been expected to do for the past 100 years.
Exactly what is a jew ?
Is it a racial identifier or just a religious identifier ?
It cannot be a unique racial identifier because the modern Jews are a complete melting pot, and this is just as true in Israel as worldwide. There is no evidence of a specific jewish DNA, they’re the same as everyone else.
So, IMO, it is purely a religious identifier. So what does that make of the idea of an Israel. It all comes down to a state based on extreme religious intolerance directed towards the majority of humanity.
While I am completely horrified by Zionism, Stevie, I think it’s exaggerating to say that “There is no evidence of a specific jewish DNA”. From what I have read, there seem to be several, of which the Ashkenazim are the most important, coherent, and well-known. (I read that “Ashkenazi” is Hebrew for “German”, referring to where they lived for centuries before many moved east).
A fair amount of research has been done by well-qualified and distinguished scientists, but unfortunately the issues are so vexed and politically critical that science seems to be being drowned by vested interests and dogma. I wish someone would do an authoritative study – it would be helpful to know, for instance, whether it’s true that many present-day Palestinians have more Jewish genes of any kind than some of the Zionist settlers.
It does seem that there is a hard core of Jewish identity that transcends both religion and genetics. Rituals, customs, sayings, speaking Yiddish and/or Hebrew, eating kosher even if not rigidly, even just having a lot of Jewish family and friends – all these contribute to membership of a community, which brings very definite benefits. Jewish groups seem to be the quintessential example of in-groups, which stick together through thick and thin – with the downside that they base their identity largely on NOT being goyim.
How far does one go back to be classed as pure? Apparently we all came out of africa 100,000 years ago, and the core of our DNA is limited to a very small number of individuals, indicative of a historic catastrophic event. However, recent discoveries in China have identified humanoid fossils dating to 100,000 years. So our ancient history is still a work in progress.
IMO. It’s ironic that the only ‘pure’ races appear to be blacks and Asians. All the european white nations are a right bunch of mongrels. Even old Mr Hitler had to cast his net wide to build his master race, as the average German didn’t measure up.
‘How far does one go back to be classed as pure?’
Pure relative to whom, Stevie? Y-chromosomal Adam? Mitochondrial Eve? That will be 150-300 thousand years then. There have been several waves of migration of Homo Sapiens out of Africa in the last 100,000 years – not least in recent decades.
Re: ‘It’s ironic that the only ‘pure’ races appear to be blacks and Asians. All the European white nations are a right bunch of mongrels.’
What are you on about? Several European nations are among the most genetically homogenous in the world. Take for example Wales, where 92% of the male population has the Y-chromosome haplogroup R-M269 (with most of the remainder very likely being recent immigrants or their offspring). Ireland & Scotland aren’t too far behind on 82% & 70% respectively. Overall, in Western & Central Europe collectively, nearly half of the male population have R-M269.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R-M269
Despite unprecedented rates of immigration into Europe in recent decades, and miscegenation taboos being largely erased, mongrels (or to use the more politically correct terminology, mixed-race people) still only constitute a small fraction of the populations of European countries.
LA: Re. Wales…
Possibly that’s because we’re one of only a handful of countries that has the distinction of never having invaded another. And, possibly, that very few people move here -mostly because the English have sneering distain for Wales and its inhabitants, and nobody in the rest of the world has ever heard of us.
An Afghan taxi driver in Holland recently asked me where I was from, as he didn’t recognise my accent. Wales? Never heard of it. I explained it was a small colony of England’s. He nodded sympathetically.
Stevie Boy
Judaism is not a race: it’s a religion, a belief system. Anyone can convert; you can’t change your race.
Court cases have settled the fact there’s no such thing as a Jewish genotype – or genetic marker denoting Jewishness. Most European and US Jews have no direct ancestry line to the Middle East – this despite their silly claims about being the ‘chosen ones’. Something many in Congress and other Western legislative chambers can’t seemingly get their heads around.
Why the confusion and conflation between race and religion?
I believe it’s because the Nazis (1933-45) believed Jews were a race, and discriminated as such. The Aryan ‘master race’ theory promoted by the Nazis, resulted in an attempt to prove common characteristics, e.g. eye colour, nose width. Their vile, extreme discrimination required it. What the Nazis did had all the characteristics of racism, because to all intents and purposes, it was. The Nuremberg trials were in 1945-46. Pre-1960s, the precursor to gene editing was the discovery of the “double helix”, but that was only pioneered in 1953 by James Watson and Francis Crick, giving rise to the modern study of biology, and genetics.
“Court cases have settled the fact there’s no such thing as a Jewish genotype – or genetic marker denoting Jewishness”.
It’s worth asserting as a general principle that no court case has ever “settled” a scientific question, nor ever will.
Yeah, I could’ve phrased it better: Empirical evidence was referenced in said court cases.
It’s doubly strange therefore, how today, in 2024, the way the media & politicians use the word ‘Jewish’; it’s always ‘Jewish students this, or Jewish MPs that, as if their religion is their defining characteristic, even when the subject is completely unrelated.
It’s so predictable:
Violence erupts as pro-genocide mob assaults peaceful pro-Gaza students
Despite the one-sided violence, UK and US press have persisted in headlines that ‘both-sides’ the violence, presenting it as ‘clashes’ or ‘violence between groups’ in a sick echo of the language used by media to hide the reality of Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinians…
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/05/01/violence-erupts-as-pro-genocide-mob-assaults-peaceful-pro-gaza-students/
Skwawkbox has it that the assault began just before 6am, UK time, but I thought it was in the early hours of the morning local time, but I just found an article that said it was 10.50pm (on the Tuesday night).
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/01/1248433624/protests-campus-ucla-universities-israel-gaza-palestinians
And regards the police raid on the camp, I just came across this Sky News article headlined:
UCLA protests live: Riot police fire rubber bullets at pro-Palestinian protesters amid violent clashes as ‘students and professor detained’
Footage is now emerging that appears to show police shooting rubber bullets at protesters.
A series of videos have been posted online that shows officers in riot gear opening fire on demonstrators after tearing down barricades.
Fox 11 in Los Angeles is among the outlets to have captured footage, with the reporter Gina Silva heard exclaiming “oh my goodness” as shots are seen being fired by the police.
“They’re shooting rubber bullets,” she says.
“They are extremely painful. If they hit your arm, your leg – they could break your arm.”
Separate footage posted on X shows an armed officer telling people to “move back” for their “own safety” – while other police fire on protesters.
In an earlier post I doubted that the police had done that, but it looks like I was wrong. Can you imagine the police in the UK doing such a thing!
https://news.sky.com/story/us-campus-protests-live-violent-clashes-erupt-on-ucla-campus-13126732
If you consider Northern Ireland as part of the UK then you don’t have to imagine anything.
SB, It occurred to me shortly afterwards that I should have specified what I meant, and what I meant was the police in the UK firing rubber bullets at a bunch of students peacefully protesting about something or other. It’s unimaginable, but in the US…..
Allan. I understand what you are saying, but for me the scenario of UK Police firing rubber bullets at students is entirely imaginable. There are too many cases of police brutality to think they wouldn’t jump at the chance to ‘crack a few heads’. Consider Taser abuse, Covid extremism, Bristol protests and the continual push for arming the Police. Couldn’t happen here, I’m not so sure about that.
I haven’t checked to see if outrage is being expressed by whoever in the US regards the police using rubber bullets on the students, but if it happened here in response to some peaceful demonstration, I’m sure there would be outrage expressed from many quarters.
And obviously I’m not saying the police here are all angels, but as I’m sure you know, they don’t want to be armed, and hopefully they never will be. That said, the police in many European countries have guns, and yet it’s not something that you really give any thought to when travelling in France or Spain or Germany etc. The thing is with the US is that guns and firearms are legal, and so it’s just completely insane over there, and many cops seem to be trigger-happy.
It is a matter of time before EU adapt the same broad definition of antisemitism as the american congress just passed. The so called “new antisemitism” definition has been brewing in the background now for some time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_antisemitism
As there is a “Godwin Law”…
Godwin’s law, short for Godwin’s law (or rule) of Nazi analogies,[1] is an Internet adage asserting: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
There should be a “Antisemitism Law” as, apparently, every act against Israel sooner or later is framed as antisemitism. Now we are on the level where it is forbidden to criticise the jewish state for genocide – that is antisemitism.
Lets argue that antisemitism have surged for arguments sake, and not to justify racism, of course not – but to be honest, is that surprising when one see close to 100% of israeli jews backing what Israel is doing but also jews throughout the world? It is not a good look for them. How could they not understand that? Or is this a sign of supremacy? They stand above and have the right to do this or that?
I am a white, westerner, if I supported a pro-white, racist genocide against non-whites, should I be surprised that if non-white people began to hate me? No! I would have myself to blame. What you give is what you get.
Steady on… an awful lot of Jews worldwide don’t support this genocide at all.
Jews are over-represented at the US college protests, for example – they are supporting Palestine in numbers way out of proportion to their percentage of the student population as a whole.
Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) student banners are saying (at those supposedly so concerned about their feelings) “Stop pretending to speak for me!”
Yes that is true, not every jew support Israel of course but the majority unfortunately do support Israel.
American Jews are overwhelmingly united in support of Israel continuing its ground operation in Gaza and also approve of President Joe Biden’s response to the war, according to a new survey commissioned by the Israel on Campus Coalition.
https://jewishinsider.com/2023/12/poll-overwhelming-majority-of-american-jews-support-israels-fight-against-hamas/
An overwhelming majority of U.S. Jews say Israel’s reasons for launching a war against Hamas are justified, and a substantial majority approve of how Israel is conducting the war.
https://www.jta.org/2024/03/21/politics/majority-of-jewish-americans-support-israels-war-against-hamas-and-how-its-fought
And it is these people: pro-israeli jews, that then keep brining up the antisemitism card, I think such claims is therefore disingenuous at best.
Yes, ‘they’ want Israel to stop the, public, genocide but ‘they’ don’t, in general, want to give up on the idea of an dedicated apartheid state for Jews. The rot goes deep.
Chris Hedges´ show has been taken off the REALNEWSNETWORK (I assume after pressure by donors) due to his criticism of Biden concerning Gaza.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/my-show-on-the-real-news-has-been
They used to provide each of his shows with an additional transcript. Which was very helpful for people who don’t speak English.
I’d encourage pro-Palestine/ Gaza-solidarity activists at US/UK campuses, to take five minutes to study the history of Israel/Palestine. A couple of key dates in particular…
Read about the outrageous Balfour Declaration (1917) – how the British govt supported demands for a Jewish homeland in what was Palestine, then an Ottoman region. Jews only made up around 10% of the population at that time. Historical context: Ottoman Turkey and Germany had been defeated in WW1, and their African and Asian possessions were distributed among the victorious allies under the authority of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations (itself an Allied creation). The British were given the Mandate for Palestine. The reasoning behind the Balfour Declaration was anything but wholesome:
“The British government hoped that the declaration would rally Jewish opinion, especially in the United States, to the side of the Allied powers against the Central Powers during World War I (1914–18). They hoped also that the settlement in Palestine of a pro-British Jewish population might help to protect the approaches to the Suez Canal in neighbouring Egypt and thus ensure a vital communication route to British colonial possessions in India.”
Then there’s what happened in 1948, with the founding of the State of Israel. Post-WW2 triggered a huge influx of Jews. Zionist paramilitaries forced the displacement of 750,000 Arabs from their homes.
Arming oneself with a few historical facts, will, if anything bolster a sense of righteousness, not weaken it. There have obviously been many other injustices since then, which continue to this day – all worth reading up on.
Arming oneself with a few historical facts, will, if anything bolster a sense of righteousness, not weaken it. There have obviously been many other injustices since then, which continue to this day – all worth reading up on.
Exactly, and one get more confident arguing, debating the topic in public by reading up – because then you know you are right, that you have the facts etc. Some/many people do not really dare to take a stance because they are afraid of being accused of antisemitism or they do not take a position because they believe the topic is too hard to grasp. Part of the reason is also the deliberate creation of fog, confusion created by Israel and the useful idiots to journalists in the west that keep time after time spread israelis lies, disinformation.
“Which is worse, Israel’s lies about Gaza or its western backers who repeat those lies?”
by Mehdi Hasan
Useful idiots keep parroting provably false Israeli talking points.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/may/02/israel-gaza-lies-western-backers
You’re suggesting they’re ignorant yet still denying it’s a genocide.
Netanyahu is engaged in a furious battle with the ICC, and has complained to Biden. The US already condemns the ICC and warns them not to arrest any US citizen or Ally. If they do they will face an invasion from US forces, in what has become known as the Hague Invasion Act, signed into effect by George Bush [the Stupid]. ICC officials and their families have been barred from entering the US and have been threatened with having their assets frozen, etc. So much for International law., John Bolton warned an UN official that he should step down, if he did not, he, Bolton knew where his children went to school.
“A full diplomatic war with the International Criminal Court (ICC) over the possible impending arrest warrants which could be issued anytime for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top officials, including the defense chief.
The back-and-forth rhetoric has grown so heated that the Hague-based ICC has issued a new Friday statement warning against ‘intimidation’ of the court. While not naming Israel or any specific officials or actions, the statement warns that legal action could be take against those “threatening to retaliate” or else trying to “impede or intimidate” its officials and the world court’s work.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/icc-threatens-action-over-intimidation-tactics-netanyahu-arrest-warrant-looms
Of course if an indictment materializes??? it would only be embarrassing since many countries like the UK make arrangements to protect Israeli Officials, as they have done recently in the last couple of months with a prominent Israeli General involved in war crimes.
These people – Bush, Bolton, Biden, Clinton et al – are just fucking gangsters. Living in a gangstas paradise!
It’s worth remembering that the pick for vice president in the US, usually goes to someone who makes the boss look majorly better by contrast. Bush senior had Dan Quayle, Bill Clinton had ‘boring’ Al Gore; GW Bush chose snarling Dick Cheney. Obama will have opted for Biden for this reason. Just as Biden opted for the deeply unpopular, near invisible, inappropriate-giggling prone, Kamala Harris.
Biden’s nomination bid was only saved after the entire media attacked Sanders constantly, and talked up Biden, as if, picking anyone else would amount to collective insanity. So many intelligent Americans today, rally to Biden’s defence solely because the alternative is Trump. The elite manipulate the fact the US Presidential system is less about who voters want, and more about who they least fear, to impose their favoured candidates.
“It’s worth remembering that the pick for vice president in the US, usually goes to someone who makes the boss look majorly better by contrast”.
This “Private Eye” cover from 1968 makes the same point, quite amusingly.
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/181_big.jpg
And for a bonus, this other one from five years later:
https://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/covers/full/309_big.jpg
It is amazing how ICC could keep quiet about Gaza even though the killing and intentions is on display every day by Israel:
Israel’s Far-right Minister Smotrich Calls for ‘No Half Measures’ in the ‘Total Annihilation’ of Gaza
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-30/ty-article/.premium/smotrich-calls-for-no-half-measures-in-the-total-annihilation-of-gaza/0000018f-2f4c-d9c3-abcf-7f7d25460000
If ICC do not pick up the case against Israel and/or only charge Hamas, then the global south should unify and leave ICC.
George Galloway could However..Do himself some Favours…And Me some favours..
I had a hard time trying to defend him on @ Inverclyde for Independence…Why ? because in the the clip I posted Above, h Calls SNP the Scottish Nationalist Party ..Why must he …Would George like it if we reffered
to his party as The Preety Peoples Party or some such..Anyhoo thanks George for the Haslle I got..Getting. .
Maybe I should Stick to Richard Medhurst .
” He’s Crank..Craig Murray is a Crank Too..Say Useless Ones.. ..
Thank god I had Beach Fire Therapy today With Ed .. on the lower Clyde,,
Oh yes Richard Medhurst. There’s a sound reliable source who always gets it right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBi99ogFh_E