In Murder in Samarkand I describe how as a British Ambassador, when I discovered the full extent of our complicity in torture in the War on Terror, I thought it must be a rogue operation and all I had to do was make ministers and senior officials aware and they would stop it.
When I was reprimanded and officially told that receipt of intelligence from torture in the “War on Terror” was approved from the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary down, and it became clear to me that there was a deliberate promoting of false intelligence narratives through torture which exaggerated the Al Qaida threat to justify military policy in Afghanistan and Central Asia, my worldview was severely shaken.
Somehow I mentally compartmentalised this as an aberration, due to overreaction to 9/11 and the unique narcissism and viciousness of Tony Blair. I did not lose faith in western democracy or the notion that the western powers, on the whole, were a positive force when contrasted with other powers.
It is a hard thing to lose the entire belief system in which you were brought up – probably particularly hard if like me, you had a very happy life right from childhood and were highly successful within the terms of the governmental system.
I have however now finally shed the last of my illusions and I am obliged to acknowledge that the system of which I am a part – call it “the West”, “liberal democracy”, “capitalism”, “neo-liberalism”, “neo-conservatism”, “Imperialism”, “the New World Order” – call it what you will in fact, it is a force for evil.
Gaza has been an important catalyst. I am not lacking in empathy, but my knowledge of the horrid butchery by the Western powers in Iraq, Afghanistan or Libya was an intellectual knowledge, not a lived experience.
Sirte, Libya, after Nato “liberation”.
Technology has brought us the Gaza genocide – which has so far killed fewer people than any of those earlier NATO member perpetrated massacres – in gut wrenching detail. I have just been looking at 75kg bags of mixed human meat handed over to relatives in lieu of an identifiable corpse, and am in shock.
That is not the worst we have seen in Gaza.
If only the people of Mosul and Fallujah had had modern mobile phone technology, what horrors we would know.
Incidentally, I tried to find you some images of the massive US destruction of Mosul and Fallujah in 2002‒4 and Google won’t give me any. It will, however, offer thousands of images from fighting there with ISIL in 2017. Which rather underlines my point about the extraordinary lack of imagery of the Second Iraq War.
Of the current genocide in Gaza, again I found myself naively thinking at some point this will stop. That Western politicians would not in fact countenance the total destruction of Gaza. That there would be a limit to the number of Palestinian civilian deaths they could accept, the number of UN facilities, schools and hospitals destroyed, the number of little children torn into shreds.
I thought that at some stage human decency must outweigh Zionist lobby cash.
But I was wrong.
The Ukrainian attack into Kursk also has a profound emotional resonance. The Battle of Kursk was arguably the most important blow struck against Nazi Germany, the largest tank battle in the history of the world by a wide margin.
The Ukrainian government has destroyed all the monuments to the Red Army which achieved this, and denigrates the Ukrainians who fought against fascism. By contrast, it honours the very substantial Ukrainian components of the Nazi forces, including but not limited to, the Galician Division and their leaders.
Kursk is therefore a place of great symbolism for Ukraine to attack now into Russia, including with German artillery and armour.
German politicians seem to have an atavistic urge to attack Russia, and support the genocide of Palestinians to an astonishing degree.
Germany has effectively ended all freedom of speech on Palestine, banning conferences of distinguished speakers and making pro-Palestinian speech illegal. Germany has intervened on Israel’s side in the genocide case before the ICJ, and intervened at the ICC to object to an arrest warrant against Netanyahu.
I do not know how many civilian dead would assuage German lust for the expiatory blood of Palestinians. 500,000? 1 Million? 2 Million?
Or perhaps 6 Million?
The West are not the good guys. Our so-called “democratic systems” give us no ability to vote for anybody who may get into power who does not support the genocide and imperialist foreign policy.
It is not an accident and it is not genius that makes a man-child like Elon Musk worth 100 billion dollars. The power structures of society are deliberately designed by those with wealth to promote massive concentration of wealth in favour of those who already have it, exploiting and disempowering the rest of society.
The rise of the multi-billionaires is not a fluke. It is a plan, and the misallocation of more than adequate resources is the cause of poverty. The attempt to shift blame onto the desperate constituents of waves of immigration forced into life by Western destruction of foreign countries, is also systematic.
There is no longer any free space for dissent in the media to oppose any of this.
We are the Bad Guys. We resist our own governing systems, or we are complicit.
In the United Kingdom it falls to the Celtic nations to try to break up the state which is a subordinate but important imperialist engine. The paths of resistance are various, depending where you are.
But find one and take one.
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Bad guys will always be bad guys:
August 12, 2024 – German government press conference excerpt:
Wolfgang Büchner (formerly DER SPIEGEL and dpa), now deputy government spokesman:
“(…)The Chancellor has also repeatedly emphasized that every civilian victim is one too many. At the same time, we must not turn our backs on responsibility here. As you know, this whole terrible situation in which we find ourselves today began with a bestial terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel. Israel has the right [to defend itself]. The reality on the ground also means that Hamas is using schools, hospitals and kindergartens as command centers and abusing the people of Gaza as shields, completely against their will.(…)”
i.e. Israel has the right to defend itself which includes killing 100 children/people via bombing a school. This is a person who actually by German law should be brought to court for justifying war crimes. But if I openly would demand just that it would be me standing trial.
You really are waiting for Germany to lift a finger? Rather hell will freeze over.
How could germans not see how Israel misuse and abuse the “guilt” germans have for WW2? Besides why should germans bear this guilt? Have you ever seen an israeli feeling any replusion and/or rejection of what the israeli regime is doing? In 50 years now israelis will not feel any guilt for the crimes their regime commited today.
And also, why do Germany just repeating the obvious lies Israel use for their carnage? ICJ, ICC, Red Cross, Oxfam, Amnesty, HRW, even israeli b’tselem time and time again prove that “palestinians deliberately hide”- meme is bollocks.
Even if, even IF, palestinians “hide” in housings for aguments sake, Israel have zero legal right to level whole apartments killing civilians. So why even use this moronic, pathological argument to begin with??
With that depraved logic, palestinians have the right to level apartments in Israel just because some IDF affilate lives there.
Just days ago, veteran jewish, zionist holocaust professor Omer Bartov accused Israel of acts of genocide.
Israeli scholar Omer Bartov accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza
https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-scholar-omer-bartov-accuses-israel-genocide-gaza
I remember him from early on in this massacre, thinking he was quite an objective man, not wanting to rush to too early conclusions because he stopped short, back then, in calling what Israel do/did a genocide, but now, today, he have changed his mind. I think that is worth an applaud that someone like him change his mind and be vocal about it.
Apparently western states will not change their mind even though the evidence for overwhelming and severe human rights absues, now including sodomization of male palestinians men in israeli jail.
What a depraved world we live in.
One answer is here, one of the most important quotes from NEW LEFT REVIEW I could find in recent weeks:
“(…)
The persistence of these tropes means that Palestine is rarely placed in its centuries-old Ottoman and Arab context or seen as an integral part of a multireligious Mashriqi region. In the Zionist imaginary, the only possible remedy to the historic plight of the Jews in Europe was to establish a uniquely modern, European-style Jewish state in Palestine. This state, so the story goes, has since its inception been besieged by hordes of Arabs who are afflicted by the kind of antisemitic hatred that European Christians are supposed to have abandoned. In The Jews of Islam (1984), orientalist Bernard Lewis writes that Arab opposition to Israel has little to do with colonialism or dispossession; he claims that its origins lie in a new ‘Arab antisemitism’ which was imported from Europe and brought an end to peaceful Judeo-Muslim coexistence. Palestinians have no place in this story, except as inheritors of Western anti-Jewish prejudice. ‘The Arab’, as Edward Said remarked in Orientalism (1978), ‘is conceived of now as a shadow that dogs the Jew’.
It is no wonder that the Western academic hierarchy, bound to these profoundly misleading narratives, and to the political, financial, and cultural investments that sustain them, has been silent in the face of Gaza’s immolation. To change course is no easy thing. The Western world’s last settler-colonial regime, committed to an ideology born in nineteenth-century Europe, remains remarkably adept at diffusing a story that erases Palestinian humanity, including in the realm of higher education. Most students, however, no longer buy this Eurocentric erasure – nor does most of the global population.
(…)”
see:
https://newleftreview.org/sidecar/posts/overwriting-palestine
The intellectual culture comes up with abstract legitimatising concepts for genocidal actions which enables its readers and audiences to detach from realities that in themselves withstand any misunderstood scholarly demand of objectivity. As if the POV of a given scholar was ever one prescribed by some unchangeable law of nature.
Another case in point is this very good report from Vienna University – Vienna was known to be much worse than Berlin in WWII since Gestapo there excelled in murder. But in this text you will see how those events 80+ years still eclipse any world-shaking events SINCE.
“What may no longer be taught
Universities should be places where critical knowledge is imparted. By banning courses on Palestine, the University of Vienna has abandoned this obligation.”
https://archive.is/ChTyZ
or:
https://www-jacobin-de.translate.goog/artikel/universitaet-wien-gaza-palaestina-protestcamp?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true
To be fair: yes, I have. Google for Miko Peled, an Israeli citizen who has done as much as anybody to bring Israeli crimes to the world’s attention (starting long before 2022).
There are good people to be found in any community. There were good Germans in 1933-1945 and there are good Israelis in 2024.
It’s true that there aren’t very many. In both cases, partly because of unceasing official propaganda
Miko Peled, although born and raised in Israel, now lives in the United States. Omer Bartov, also born and raised in Israel and whose new piece in the Guardian I just read, also now lives in the United States. Sane Israelis are now abandoning the country.
Moving from Palestine to the US is jumping out of one tyranny into another.
Something our MSM seems unable to grasp is that these same “Hamas command centres” that Israel keeps bombing had just been declared – by Israel – as safe zones, to which Palestinian refugees were ordered to flee.
It really is unbelievable. To be ordered out of wherever you are because Israel says they need to bomb it some more, and then get bombed in the exact location you have been ordered into.
We’re really supposed to believe that it was only just found out, that the “safe location” was in fact a Hamas command centre? And that this happens so repeatedly, but it’s all a coincidence?
Are we really supposed to believe that our politicians are accepting all this utter crap in good faith, that every death is a regrettable mistake from The Most Moral Army In The World, so we’re sure it’s ok to keep supplying them weapons?
Volodymyr – in Russian is Vladimir.
Sy Hersh reported – in one of his articles that the culprits were the US and Norway.
“The German Federal Public Prosecutor has issued the first arrest warrant in connection with the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, local media have reported. The suspect is believed to be a Ukrainian citizen identified as ‘Vladimir Z’. It is unclear if the suspect has links to Kiev’s military or intelligence services.
https://www.rt.com/news/602603-germany-reports-arrest-warrant-nord-stream/
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blasts which ruptured the pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022. As a result of the sabotage, gas supplies from Russia to Germany were halted. The parallel Nord Stream 2 line, which was also damaged, had never entered operation, having ben delayed by EU bureaucracy.”
…not sure why RT is wasting a single word on this nonsense…
If you like that AG – you’ll love this one.
“Kiev has the “full support” of the European Union in its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, has said. The remarks mark his first comments addressing the Ukrainian cross-border attack.
Several thousand Ukrainian troops invaded the Russian border region last Tuesday, seizing a few villages before being stopped by Moscow’s forces. The invaders have been reportedly been taking heavy casualties ever since.”
But then.
“The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has asked Moscow for access to Kursk Region in order to verify Russian claims of abuses committed by invading Ukrainian troops.
Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova had called on the UN to condemn Ukrainian “terrorism” and take measures to prevent human rights.”
I recall the OSCE spying for Ukraine in the Donbas – what say – the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Office, wouldn’t do the same in Kursk.
https://www.rt.com/russia/602577-un-human-rights-kursk/
https://www.rt.com/russia/602583-borell-support-ukraine-kursk/
It’s news, surely, that the German Federal Prosecutor has issued an arrest warrant.
It’s also news that the Germans have at last dropped the spectacularly ridiculous claim that Russia blew up its own pipeline.
Whether to give credence to anything the German government says these days is another matter. But it’s worth reporting what they say from time to time, if only to observe that they contradict themselves so often.
Russia shut off Nordstream 1 on the 31st August, a month before the sabotage, having reduced flow to 20% of capacity a month earlier. Russia blamed sanctions but Siemens Energy and the German Government rejected this.
That’s what they call a “Mandy Rice Davies” – they would wouldn’t they.
“They would say that wouldn’t they”
Funny that there is still an average of 42 million cubic metres (1.5 billion cubic ft) of Russian gas flowing into Ukraine every day via soviet era pipelines then on into Europe, despite the war. Ukraine is being paid $2 billion by Gazprom for this.
Didn’t Nordstream 1 begin flowing again a few weeks after that shutdown in 2022 albeit at a much lower flow rate.
Not sure what’s happening with it now.
One pipeline remains undamaged but the flow was never re-started.
That is the point: the Nordstream that was blown up had never been used. Biden said it never would be and he – by complete chance – was correct; chance was thanked by Sikorski.
Had it been used, Ukraine would no longer have received payments of €2Bn pa, nor would it have de facto control over Europe’s gas supplies. Hence you have the perfect motive.
Hunter Biden was on the board of directors in some Ukrainian gas and oil company. I wonder if that company runs the Ukrainian gas pipeline?
Germany Might Charge…It’s Beyond the mind of reality that it can be true..But they – Germany can’t bring themselves to Tell the truth that it was the US – with much Help From Norway..This was an Act of War against Germany ..And Yet ..
Thanks for this. It’s a very good article. After much procrastination I have now subscribed with a monthly donation.
I reached a similar position in recent years. In fact, there’s a striking similarity between one of your paragraphs here and how I said it: I feel betrayed by the entire system of thought I grew up with. I was fooled and used.
You’re also right, it is a hard thing. For a while as the Israeli attacks on Gaza began and they stated their intent to depopulate the area by any method, I was stunned and thought and spoke in outraged terms of “they”. Now I think that was a mistake. We are they. That is our destiny.
FT: Barclays planned to pull out of Israel’s bond auctions under activist pressure
Activists or not, I wouldn’t think Israeli bonds are investments with much of a future.
When I heard the news that 6 of the G7 nations refused to attend the Nagasaki atomic bomb memorial recently, I labelled them the Genocide 6. How this disgusting psychopathic political elite have taken over western governments bewilders me.
The disturbing realisation that many of us have come to (some more recently than others), is that there is no going back from this… ever. We are facing emboldened acts of pure evil that are being carried out in our names, and these politicians have no will to make it stop.
Do not look away, and continue to care and resist, because the alternative is despair.
Those six should be called out: US, UK, Canada, Germany, France, and Italy. Not Japan, of course.
Hello Craig, I just wanted to thank you for this column. The truth can be hard to hear and people are often loathe to hear it, especially when it casts a dark shadow upon themselves. People simply don’t want to feel poorly about themselves. Being forced to look into an honest mirror is uncomfortable, because of course it is. It brings me no joy whatsoever to admit humanity’s folly. But I take solace in speaking truth.
I rely on writers like you to give language to the things I know and feel in my heart, clarity to ideas I feel in my gut. I am intelligent but uneducated, that is my curse. Much of humanity is the same. The current anger and rage that exists in society at large is obscured by the powers that be, by design and on purpose, for profit and power alone.
You could have taken advantage of this and also talked about Russia’s historical behavior towards its neighboring peoples and nations.
Hypocrisy, or money, didn’t let you do that.
Craig’s article was to highlight western support for two regimes he assumed that would be anathema on the basis that apartheid is implicit in their existence. If not shunned diplomatically, then surely at the level of denying them armaments. However neither the Ukraine regime from 2014, nor the Zionist regime from 1948 has ever had much of a problem receiving arms from the west. On the contrary they have been showered with weaponry despite their openly declared oppression of Russian-speaking and Palestinian peoples respectively.
Craig belongs to a post war generation which often satirised militarism; he was brought up in a UK where arms sales to the apartheid South African government or the fascistic Pinochet junta in Chile had to be carried out secretly behind the scenes for fear of outraging public opinion. A Labour Party reliant on trade union subscriptions in the mid-1960s could not bullied by the USA into joining the Vietnam War. He regrets that these checks and balances against warmongering no longer apply.
Craig can speak for himself obviously, but your attempt to divert the issue on to Russia is stillborn in his case. Craig Murray opposed the use of Russian forces inside Ukraine from February 2022 and has just opposed the use of Ukrainian forces inside Russia.
DW
I think that Craig has rather resiled from his opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
And his comment on the Ukrainian counterattack (for that is what it is) in the piece above is rather equivocal, noting the significance of Kursk in WW2.
You refer to “openly declared oppression of Russian-speaking and Palestinian peoples respectively” by Ukraine and Israel.
A false equivalence imo.
Israel has certainly oppressed the Palestinian people.
Ukraine on the other hand has been under constant Russian pressure for decades to stay in the Russkiy Mir. Remember the “little green men” used by Russia to take Crimea?
As for Donbass, are you in any doubt that the insurgency there was instigated and supported by Russia?
1. “Ukraine on the other hand has been under constant Russian pressure for decades to stay in the Russkiy Mir”.
Not true at all. Ukraine’s achieved independence in 1992. Russian Federation only came into existence formally in 1993. Ukraine went quickly into anti Russia mode under massive western pressure and backing as soon as it came into existence. Until Putin stopped the rot Russia more than Ukraine was under the greater existential threat. I did some work there in 2000 – 2002 and found the country sad, sorry, highly uncertain and insecure and not at all powerful with the West hovering over it like vultures.
2. Russia’s main concern with Crimea was to protect the Sevastopol naval base, which came under threat from USA backed banderite Ukraine after the Maidan 2014 coup and acted with the full approval of the people of Crimea who were also frightened of the banderites taking over.
3. There was no insurgency in Donbass. The people of Donbass did not go along with the Maidan coup, stood up for their rights and went on doing so when their own government mounted a vicious campaign against its own people. That is not insurgency. More like people of the Donbass exercising their right to self defence. Russia’s main support was to accept up to a million refugees from the Donbass by the end of 2014 escaping from the banderite repression.
Crispa
You ignored the role of the “little green men” (Russian troops operating incognito) in the seizure of Crimea.
You also use the word Banderite to deny the legitimacy of the Ukrainian Government.
Would you agree that the Russian government is an authoritarian kleptocratic autocracy and that accordingly it is illegitimate?
No?
Signs of unease at least in the Russian media world
https://youtu.be/T3Af4KzIzho?si=QqLVIZ_3sJhsIEZC
Bickering about underestimating Ukrainian military and overestimation of Russian military.
It was the Banderites who did the Odessa Massacre, not the Russians.
JK redux and others:
Today the German government research office responsible for such matters answered the official inquiry of an MP in the Bundestag about the source where Putin had claimed that he intends to restore the USSR.
The clear answer (it couldn´t be more official than that):
“(…)”Statements by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, according to which a restoration of the Soviet Union is intended are not known to the Federal Government.”(…)”
source: Bundestagsdrucksache 20/12418, page 33
Mearsheimer said it, Tatyana said it, I said it, several others did before.
JK redux
The “green men” came in after ukrainians threatened ethnic russians during the Maidan. The “green men” had been placed in Ukraine for decades and they did nothing, it was only after the ultra-nationalist Maidan events that they moved in.
You do agree that Zelensky is ruling an autocratic regime kleptocracy? After all Zelensky banned countless of parties, oppositional figures, banned multiple oppositional media. He even banned elections. There is no transparency how decisions are being made or where all the money/aid goes to. So, you do agree that Zelensky is an autocrat and illegitimate right?
Jack
Ukraine is at war with a pitiless enemy.
It cannot and does not tolerate 5th columnists.
Did Britain allow Mosley’s Blackshirts to operate during WW2? (No.)
As to your assertion that “the “green men” had been placed in Ukraine for decades and they did nothing”.
Do you have any evidence for this? It seems unlikely that the armoured vehicles that they used could have been hidden, serviced, fuelled and prepared for use for “decades”. Nor that the lgm could have remained combat fit for so long.
I don’t believe you, I’m afraid.
JK,
The little green men and their equipment wouldn’t need to be concealed per se, they were probably hidden in plain sight. The Sevastopol Naval Base (which Russia leased from Ukraine after the breakup of the USSR to house its Black Sea Fleet) is a huge site and they wouldn’t have looked amiss at all there. It would be fairly easy to transport them and their equipment from Russia in anticipation of something just like Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland’s little putsch.
And if Ukraine was at war with a pitiless enemy there would be a lot more devastation to all of its towns and cities, not just a small strip in the East of the country. If you want to see how a pitiless enemy behaves, look at the ‘before’ and ‘after’ aerial photographs of the Gaza Strip. That’s how a pitiless enemy behaves
I think that nice Mr Putin has shown admirable restraint so far.
And Zelenski is an autocrat – his mandate ran out on 20th of May, whereas Mr Putin’s mandate was overwhelmingly renewed by an adoring electorate in March for another 6 years!
JK redux
Picture this (it´s not adequate though): in 2025 by some marvel Scholz gets reelected in Germany until there is a far-right coup installing a new ad-hoc government with Neonazi militia parading the main streets of Berlin. And this very government would suddenly tell the US to get out of Germany and Germany would threaten to take over Büchel air base with its F-35s equipped with nuclear war heads and Ramstein NATO HQ. I assume all those little green American men would sit by idly and say good-bye to Germany. At that time roughly 70.000. All this while Russian warships would openly violate US waters at Naval Base Kitsap in Wahington State after the RU Navy has attempted to buy real estate there for planned constructions…
” Mr Putin’s mandate was overwhelmingly renewed by an adoring electorate in March for another 6 years! ”
Please tell me that was sarcasm.
” this very government would suddenly tell the US to get out of Germany and Germany would threaten to take over Büchel air base with its F-35s equipped with nuclear war heads and Ramstein NATO HQ. I assume all those little green American men would sit by idly and say good-bye to Germany. ”
Well they left Chad and Niger when told to do so. Taking their aircraft with them.
Pears Morgaine
“Well they left Chad and Niger when told to do so. ”
But have failed to leave Iraq though ordered to do so by the legitimate government. Chad and Niger are scarcely important issues.
Pears Morgaine
“Please tell me that was sarcasm.”
Why would it be sarcasm?
” have failed to leave Iraq though ordered to do so by the legitimate government. ”
They weren’t ordered to leave and no timetable was set.
US troop numbers in Iraq have been run down since the official end of the combat mission in 2021 and now number about 2,500 mainly support staff and air support for Iraq against Islamic militants.
JK redux
That is the ultra-right-wing propaganda you are repeating now. There was no issue between russians and ukrainians pre the extremist Maidan events. The extremists believe, just like you believe, that russians per se is a fifth column by itself. And thus Ukraine have the right to crackdown on everything from political parties, media and even ban elections on this fabricated nationalist lie, do not buy into that.
The Green Men had been at place in the russian base in Crimea for decades, you did not know that?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharkiv_Pact
Also, I await your response to my question. You do realize that Ukraine is a kleptocracy? You do recognize that Zelensky have banned media, parties, election? You do reckon he is authoritarian no?
Pears:
“Please tell me that was sarcasm”
No. I’m going to be a complete and utter cad and keep you guessing.
JK redux
You are repeating typical authoritarian argument, again Zelensky is a authoritarian ruler, you cannot deny that. Everything russian get a “fifth-coumn” label by the nationalists ruling Ukraine today.
Yes the green men had been in bases in Crimea since last 90s, through a contract between Russia/Ukraine. 2 plus decades. So, for 2+ decades the green men did not “show up”, only after the ultra-nationalist event of Maidan.
Pears Morgaine
It was indeed a legal order to leave Iraq, though I agree no deadline was set. The presence of US troops has nothing to do with Islamic militants now. That’s just a pretence. The function is to provide a logistical lifeline for the illegal US occupation troops in Syria. If the US were not still trying to overturn the Syrian government, there would be no need. They are even now so hated, that you hear of US soldiers being killed or injured on the supply convoys, which are run as quietly as they can, so nobody notices.
Mark Twain was a fierce opponent of US imperialism. His reaction to the holocaust in Gaza would have been very unlikely to be “but Russia..”. You should be going under the name Lindsey Graham.
Mark Twain’s post also confirms that rumours of his death have been greatly exaggerated!
“John Steinbeck” would be more a appropriate penname. The tail end of Steinbeck’s writing career was spent boosting the Vietnam war.
Thank you Craig
I’m sorry, but it continues to shock me that one educated as you were does not develop the ability to read, apparently. You have to really ignore most of modern history to build a worldview wherein it is an acceptable thing, morally, to join the British government. I have no sympathy for your tragically belated revelation.
There are some rumours that an iranian attack could occur coming days, so prepare for the usual bullshit from the “good guys” .
Like ‘We condemn Iran’s illegal attack on Israel, Israel have the right to respond, we will always stand with israel’-bla bla.
The whole international system/UN is so in need of an overhaul, the non-western world need to step up and break the hegemony and brazen hypocrisy being upheld by the western powers, interests.
[ Mod: a.k.a. ‘Yvette‘ ]
—
Which brings us to the next US presidential mock elections. The brainwashed masses will either vote for Zionist shill Trump or Zionist shill Harris.
What about the third man, RFK Jr? Israel was most likely part of the plots that killed JFK and his father (because JFK didn’t want them to get nuclear weapons in the first place) and RFK would have found the real killers if elected.
Why is he supporting Israel since October 2023 and not saying a word about the current genocide, the ongoing war campaign and the ultra corruption of congress who now takes direct orders from war criminal netanyahu (with ovations)?
What if RFK Jr. who is the only real anti-establishment candidate stopped once and for all to suicide his reputation and his campaign and started to do the right thing: exposing Israel, the Zionist lobby and denouncing the genocide?
Millions of voters are just waiting for this move as they know that Harris and Trump are the establishment and war candidates, the Zionist lobby cherry-picked candidates.
56% of Americans are now against a war with Iran even if they attack Israel.
This is a huge electorate, ignored by the controlled media and corrupt politicians.
Will RFK Jr. have the courage and vision for such a move?
Or will he stay in oblivion as he is now?
If there’s one man that could change things, it’s him, but not by doing the exact same as the others.
And the fourth man, Jill Stein, is standing for the Greens.
RFK is standing against the corporatocracy and in favour of exposing rigged narratives which hide facts from the masses.
Trump fears losing votes to RFK. Kamala could lose votes to Jill if people remembered she was there.
Israel is in the driving seat of our western governments. Zionist Jews or their spouses have manoeuvred into position. There is no separation between Israel’s fate and ours.
Kolnoyski funds Ukraine, he is the Israeli/Ukrainian billionaire who made the television series which made Zelensky president, and he funds the 26 bio weapons labs which Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive exposed. Rebuilding Ukraine has been divvied up between the main hedge funds, especially Black Rock which is leeching national infrastructure in many countries.
Russia’s oil and gas, Gaza’s gas, and Iran’s oil are the dollar hegemony targets. Acknowledging this might allow a little leeway for protecting the pawns who are being sacrificed for this outcome.
If Craig has a plan it will be a template for decent humanitarian attitudes. We have a democracy and it has not been hijacked. But plans which are now coming to fruition have been a long time gestating and are playing out as intended
Craig finally admits what I’ve known about him all along.
There is a hope, however, that the massacre will stop by loss of funds. See https://mondoweiss.net/2024/07/the-end-of-israels-economy/.
“No state on Earth has been able to inflict so much damage to the Israeli economy as the State of Israel itself, and the result is growing indications that the Israeli economy has reached an impasse, with no path forward as long as the state remains an apartheid Zionist state rejected by the whole world except the U.S and Germany.
When Israeli protestors against the government carried a huge sign with the BDS slogan “From startup nation to shutdown nation” it was nothing short of a copyright violation. But this was in February 2023. After October 7 everything changed.”
And so on. For example, nobody wants to export coal to them, and their industry is run by coal.
A boycott campaign by now would perhaps do a real difference?
Brian Becker in an interview with Professor Marandi is informed that the US are funding Genocide and wrecking the image of the US and the West in general, and are potentially creating a regional war that could destroy the global economy. Is that [Israel] an asset to the West? Imagine if the US gets involved in a war with Iran: all US bases in the Persian Gulf will be destroyed, some US citizens think their armed forces are like supermen, their bases are widely accessible to Iran across the Persian Gulf very close to Iran. Iran has hundreds of thousands of drones and missiles – but more important than the US bases are those family dictatorships across the Gulf. If the US gets into a war with Iran those regimes will be considered as hostile and will be destroyed immediately; all of their gas and oil assets will disappear this would cause a global economic disaster far worse than the 1929 depression. Does that make the Israel regime an asset or a liability?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6-oWohp4CI
Speaking of which, it is absurd that not even the shia-majority nation of Iraq have the guts to kick out the americans, countless of american bases/camps are still in Iraq.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_military_installations_in_Iraq
For a couple of years there was talk that US had “lost” Iraq to Iran but it does not look like that at all.
This was also also quite daunting:
2021: Over 300 prominent Iraqis publicly call for full peace with Israel
Unprecedented event in Erbil features Sunni and Shiite leaders and activists demanding that Baghdad join Abraham Accords; Lapid: Event in Iraq is a ‘source of hope and optimism’
https://www.timesofisrael.com/250-prominent-iraqis-publicly-call-for-full-peace-with-israel/
Especially kurdish fractions seems to have a soft spot for the US and Israel…
You haven’t got it quite right. The Iraqi parliament has called for the US to leave, but doesn’t have the ability to force them to do so. Sudani has not as far as I know repeated the call. This last is for a very particular reason: that is that the US has retained the right to have a representative from the embassy in the room when the vote for a new prime minister takes place; so obviously the US can approve or reject the choice.
The “Over 300 prominent Iraqis publicly call for full peace with Israel” is about Kurds in Erbil, not Iraqis. The Kurds have had Israeli agencies in place since before 2003, and continue their close relationship, but that is not Iraqis. I notice your source is the Times of Israel – a publication not known for its impartiality and objectivity.
Iraq have certainly not called for the US troops to leave every base, camps. They make these noise about US eventually having to leave every now and then to gain support, votes. But nothing happens. Because there is obvious, behind the scenes, good relations between US, Iraq even though Iraq try to cover this up by just these type of tough-on-the-US noises.
Kurdistan is not a nation, its an autonomous region of Iraq. It was not kurds as such but reps from both sunni and shia fractions.
If you believe everything that israeli media claims is a lie you are could not be more wrong. They are often more honest than any western publication on these issues.
So no, you got it wrong, as usual.
As usual you put words into my mouth. I didn’t say the Times of Israel lied. You invented that. I said it was an unreliable source, by which I mean only occasionally lying but definitely distorting an event reported on by them. And so it turns out. This was an event organised by a Moroccan Jew from New York with his private think-tank, who rounded up some people who were willing to be invited to a bash in Erbil, and could be said to be agreeing to a call for “normalisation”, but basically they were having a nice weekend in Erbil, which is a nicer place to be than Baghdad, as it’s subsidised.
The position of Kurdistan is that it is legally an autonomous region, but pretends to be a sovereign country that lives off the subsidies from Baghdad oil money. They wanted to be independent, but stopped when they found Baghdad withdrew the oil subsidies and they had nothing to live on.
Laguerre
I did not say you believe they always lie, I said “if you believe”, do not put words in my mouth.
It does not matter who initiated it, the people of the arab,kurdish world have their own views, thoughts and agency and many of those positions without a doubt align with the US, Israel interests.
“many of those positions without a doubt align with the US, Israel interests.”
Not many. The mass thinking now is pro-Palestinian. There used to be those who didn’t want to be bothered with the Palestinians, a viewpoint encouraged by Israel, but that all ended with October 7th. It’s just westerners who haven’t kept up to date.
Yes it is true that the arab population is pro-palestine, but since the arab leaders are not, it does not matter much what the arab individual on the streets think about Palestine since they lack power and are discriminated against just because this view.
If there going to be a change, the arab population need to rid themselves from their corrupt leaders first and foremost. The Arab Spring must come again and make clean house this time.
“but since the arab leaders are not, it does not matter much what the arab individual on the streets think about Palestine since they lack power and are discriminated against just because this view.”
That is too simplistic. It matters a lot what people on the street think, but you’re forgetting the Israeli campaign of the last 20 years to have the US break any Arab power capable of resisting, one after another – Iraq, Syria, Libya. It was a very successful campaign, unfortunately. Those states don’t have the power today to fight Israel. Egypt is the only one that’s really corrupt. Jordan doesn’t have a choice, for economic reasons, though the king is a dimwit.
Al-Huq
I’m not against a new Arab spring, but it’s unlikely to happen like the last one. More likely to be jihadis taking independent action. The Jordanians are very afraid of that.
Laguerre
Since when have the corrupt arab leaders cared for the arab population? In every state the (pro-palestinian) opposition is banned.
Almost 100% of the saudi population oppose normalization with israel, still the corrupt saudi leaders are not calling the option off. Its not only Egypt, it is the whole 20+ arab leaders that are corrupt. The only state that have showed some compassion and tried to set in motion some action is Algeria but to no avail since the rest of the leaders simply care too much for better US/Israel relations than the plight of the palestinians.
Poll: 96% of Saudis oppose normalisation with Israel
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231223-poll-96-of-saudis-oppose-normalisation-with-israel/
If 96% of the saudi population is against normalization and you believe arab leaders care what their people say, why are not the saudis calling the normalization off for good?
“Since when have the corrupt arab leaders cared for the arab population? In every state the (pro-palestinian) opposition is banned.”
Egypt is about the only one that conforms to that model. The reason it works is that Egypt is a very centralised country, and you only need to control Cairo. The others no.
You misread Saudi – I thought I’d mentioned it already. Although Israel and the US both announced numerous times that Saudi is just on the point of signing, it never has. For the reason you correctly cite. There was another case this last week. You may not know the story from a few years back: Netanyahu flew by night to a secret meeting with MbS to conclude the deal, a meeting in Saudi at the new unfinished, or unstarted, 100km linear city of Neom in the NW of Saudi. He waited 14 hours but MbS never showed, and he had to fly back to Tel Aviv humiliated. They’ve kept this failed event very secret. But it tells you everything about Saudi and Israel; Israel is desperate to get Saudi to sign. I think it was Patrick Cockburn who reported it. Saudi never will sign.
Realizing how one has been bamboozled, is, indeed, a shock! But, I prefer “knowing” to “not knowing”, because then I am freer to find ways to speak up! Thank so much.
Depending on how you were bamboozled, you might find the film “Israelism” by Erin Axelman and Simone Zimmerman worthwhile. They have given an extended interview to Al Jazeera which is on Youtube.
Other stories by ex-bamboozled people (both on Youtube and in print) are by Avigail Aberbanel, Miko Peled and last but not least Ilan Pappé.
Craig Mokhiber has a short piece on BDS. He suggests that ICj now offers a legal basis to fight BDS-bans.
https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/15/the-icj-finds-that-bds-is-not-merely-a-right-but-an-obligation/
“(…)
In its historic ruling, the ICJ found that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza is entirely unlawful, that Israel practices apartheid and racial segregation, and that all states are under a duty to help bring this to an end, including by cutting off all economic, trade and investment relations with Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In other words, as a matter of international law, all countries are obliged to participate in an economic boycott of Israel’s activities in the occupied Palestinian territory and to divest from any existing economic relations there.
(…)
Israel and its allies also defensively claim that advisory opinions of the ICJ are “non-binding” and, indeed, the court cannot compel a state to comply with its findings. But what this tactic ignores is that the laws to which the court refers in its authoritative opinion are, in fact, binding on all states. For example, the court observed that the right of the Palestinians to self-determination, their rights under international human rights and humanitarian law, and the prohibition of Israel’s acquisition of territory by force impose so-called “erga omnes” obligations, that is, binding obligations that apply to all countries.(…)”
This article explains the West is capable to do anything taking orders from “Israel”
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/08/15/bibi-war-of-terror-agenda/
Norman Finkelstein points out that the bombing of Gaza has been far more intense than the bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, that there has never been a higher proportion of child casualties / woman-child casualties, but that 60% of Israelis still think the genocide has not gone far enough.
https://x.com/HaShem_GAZA_/status/1823813207783563288
Biden-Harris have taken account of this and have decided to send Netanyahu a fresh $20 Billion worth of bombs to make sure the genocide does go even further and becomes even more intense.
I’d suggest that morre than 60% of Israelis support the genocide. Their future depends on wiping out every single Palestinian and, thanks to the west, that’s going just fine. Israel is a cancer on humanity.
A study back in may found that 34% of the israelis believe the war had not been fought far enough
https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/05/30/israeli-views-of-the-israel-hamas-war/
The israelis need to be de-brainwashed one way or another, the best, not going to happen though, should be a foreign occupation, teaching the israelis to respect other ethnic groups than their own.
They’re far from being outliers. Biden and Harris agree with that section of the Israeli population (now 60% according to Finkelstein). European governments must agree with them too as I’ve not heard any objections from them to this new $20 Billion weapons delivery. Not one.
A survey for the US election suggests that for independent voters Harris´s position for/against Gaza could be decisive in some battleground states. Something I did not hear about the Trump voters. So the question is are the Dems. capable of changing the US position towards Gaza if it helps them win the election?
I don´t believe this but I wanted to bring it up.
Craig Murray, thank you! from the bottom of my heart, for bringing us the truth and the facts, to educate us, to be our powerful voice!, our example for all of us to fallow.
My heart is angry and bleeds every day, to see and to witness the heinous, cruel and barbaric actions committed with impunity by those terrorists, backward israelis and those complicit evil, corrupt, cowards political subservient leaders in government, who suppose to serve and represent all of us.
With all my love, respect and admiration!
From Elsa Collins, Alan Collins and Family from London.
I will never give up! Our struggle for freedom, for the truth, for justice, for equality continues.
An info by FAIR
“Students Left Out of Discussions About Student Gaza Protests”
“Recent student-led campus encampments in solidarity with Palestine prompted considerable media conversation. But, according to a new FAIR study examining TV and newspaper discussions in the period from April 21 to May 12, those conversations rarely included students themselves—and even fewer included student protesters.”
https://fair.org/home/students-left-out-of-discussions-about-student-gaza-protests/
FAIR = Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, founded 1986 by Jeff Cohen as an attempt to voice independent media analysis. They are still around. They are worth regular visits. Something I had forgotten about lately.
(I was going to post a link to the same article, having just seen it mentioned by Der in The Lifeboat News.)
In one way, the data are [is?] not surprising, but in another way – if looked at objectively and naively – the level of bias is utterly astonishing.
Mods/Anyone,
On a recent blog posting Craig put forward the proposal of a new, single focus, political organisation to support and campaign for the Palestinians that would be based on a rejection of the ‘two-state’ solution as unviable; a thoroughgoing rejection of zionism; and a dismantlement of the apartheid regime in favour of a ‘one-state’ solution encompassing all peoples of the area in a ‘one person, one vote’ democracy. I recall that someone commented along the lines that ‘is this not what Galloway is doing?’.
I seem to have a blind spot and can no longer find that post. Has it, or that part of it, been deleted?
Mods, if you can direct me to that proposal I would be happy for this request/comment to be deleted.
Many thanks in advance.
Maybe you’re thinking of this tweet? It matches your description quite closely, but not totally.
https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1818962375464140802
“In Blackburn last night discussing the need for a new movement which:
1) Is truly anti-zionist, ie completely rejects any continuation of the apartheid Israeli state and supports a single inclusive state of Palestine
2) Openly supports the legal right of an occupied people to armed resistance.
Am I correct in the perception that no current organisation in the UK explicitly promotes these views?
11:49 AM · Aug 1, 2024
25.7K Views”
Twirlip,
Yes, thanks, that looks like what I was looking for.
Much obliged.
Miriam Adelson, Sheldon Adelson’s wife, just donated $100 million to Trump’s campaign. Shortly after making the donation she urged Trump to support Israel annexing the West bank and to pledge to never allow the formation of a Palestinian state. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law famously stated Gaza could provide lots of high-value beachfront property for Israel. Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner.
A Trump presidency would clearly be disastrous for the Palestinians then. But would a Harris presidency be any better? It could produce the same result albeit delivered with more international support due to her being perceived as a moderate. Though in reality, the US position would be the same whoever becomes the next President. Biden didn’t reverse Trump’s outrageous unilateral decision to recognise disputed Golan as Israel, proving that’s the case.
Many liberals seem to think Russia wants Trump to win, because he’s promised to somehow quickly end the Ukraine war. Again, I don’t think it matters really, as Harris won’t want the liability of arguing before Congress for tens of billions more for Ukraine. The Republican opposition is becoming more of a problem to continued funding than Trump’s possible opposition. As Russian politician Maria Butina pointed out in a recent interview on Newsnight, Trump is so unpredictable, the idea Russia favours him over Harris, is nonsense. She highlighted how despite the silly ‘Russiagate’ allegations, the Trump administration, in actual fact, implemented some of the toughest sanctions against Russia. Trump could even end up increasing support for Ukraine. Listening to Butina, the Russians seem to view him as totally unpredictable/erratic.
A Trump presidency would clearly be disastrous for the Palestinians then. But would a Harris presidency be any better? It could produce the same result albeit delivered with more international support due to her being perceived as a moderate. Though in reality, the US position would be the same whoever becomes the next President. Biden didn’t reverse Trump’s outrageous unilateral decision to recognise disputed Golan as Israel, proving that’s the case.
Exactly, if Trump were to become the president there would be much more ciriticism against his pro-israeli policies and acts even though the policies and acts would be the same under a Kamala Harris regime – but she would face no criticism and the genocide would go on as usual.
EU would not support Trump’s lead on Israel, there would definately be a break in relations between US/EU. A positive thing for palestinians in the long run.
And the predictable circus goes on, first Israel manipulate the west that Iraq…I mean Iran is the enemy and then they try to goad the west to attack Iran:
Israel expects US and other allies to help bomb Iran
Israeli FM has urged British and French counterparts to “publicly clarify” their commitment
https://swentr.site/news/602709-israel-expects-france-uk-attack-iran/
Look at that bozo Lammy in the photo, what a useful idiot. Lammy should study how people of color are treated in Israel:
Black lives do not matter in Israel
Israeli state and religious authorities’ racist attitudes towards African refugees may have deadly consequences.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2018/3/29/black-lives-do-not-matter-in-israel
“But would a Harris presidency be any better?”
As Caitlin Johnstone said, this is like ‘debating which car salesman is most likely to give you a free car’.
The Pope calls Israel’s actions terrorism.
https://youtu.be/XUX3PoGI25c?si=ze1b4Lh1n5A8pRb4
The entire Liberal Western establishment is now to the political right of the Roman Catholic Church.
Think about that.
I am not a Christian, even though I fully respect people of that faith, as long as they abide by elementary ethics.
Meanwhile, I have to agree with you. As strange as it may sound, the catholic leader called The Pope is certainly more concerned with current issues of the world than most politicians of what you call the Western establishment. But to be fair, we don’t recall many Chinese or Russian officials blaming the ongoing slaughter of Gaza civilians.
Tells a lot. WE (?) may be the bad guys, but the other side is sadly no better. Unless you want to stick to the old saying “Grass is greener…”
Just stop with the nonsense. The Liberal Western establishment has been arming and funding the genocide for 10 months, denying that a single war crime has been committed, justifying every IDF atrocity and act of barbarity as Israel “defending itself”.
Putin, by contrast, said last month, “There is NO justification for the terrible events taking place in the Gaza Strip…when you look at dead children, at how women, the elderly are suffering…of course fists clench and tears come to your eyes.”
Russia and China, like the rest of the world, have been demanding since last October an immediate, genuine and permanent ceasefire. Not the disingenuous, Israeli-approved kind suggested by the Liberal Western establishment, where hostages get surrendered in exchange for nothing but a brief pause in the genocide.
Ask the Palestinians – or the entire rest of humanity – if the Liberal West is no worse than anyone else.
I guess you’re judging yourself in your last sentence. Very brave of you.
Past a certain age, or experience, you generally stop believing in the bad guys/ good guys rigmarole. I personally assume Craig Murray knows what I’m talking about.
But if you’d rather think of my comments as “nonsense”, why should I try to contradict you. Don’t forget I posted to say I was agreeing with you…
Never going to yield to bullshit I’m afraid, old chap. Was I supposed to nod agreement that Russia and China are as bad as the West on Gaza?
Well, we also don’t recall China or Russia handing Israel billions in bombs – but hey, they are probably even more evil, just sitting there, not sending any bombs to the poor Israelis. Thanks for opening our eyes to how evil the other side is. Very observant.
Same comment. Kudos for the choir.
I don’t know what news sources you’re relying on but Western ones never report anything Chinese or Russian officials say unless they can spin it to fit our media’s favoured narrative. Correcting the NYT’s motto: “All the news that fits, we print”.
Exactly. And quite often this is also true vice versa. I believe this what is sometimes called ‘hybrid warfare’.
Not to mention that official statements are only words, and usually cover some hidden agenda.
It takes courage to post truth to power. It gives new meaning to we are outspoken.
I’m not surprised that Paypal payments don’t reach you. Paypal has been known to boycott people before for political reasons, see the Paypal article at wikipedia. I suggest that Paypal be used as little as possible and that people send the money through their regular bank account to an IBAN address.
Craig,
I saw you just now on Alex Salmond’s “Scotland Speaks” show talking about Julian Assange.
You said he is having an extended family holiday and is on a beach in Western Australia. I’m hoping you know this for a fact having spoken to him yourself, rather than heard it somewhere? You are one of Assange’s most prominent previous advocates.
As Julian himself said (when he WAS still actually able to speak for himself) on 17th August 2017: “Only unmediated statements coming directly from me can be considered authoritative”. He doesn’t speak through third parties, so if he wants everyone to know he is having a holiday with his family (rather than being extremely sick or being held under “national security” laws), the only logically plausible way anyone can be expected to accept that is for him to directly say it himself.
Until I hear from him directly in his own words, I will continue to be concerned that the people who have long wanted him silenced may well be getting their wish – one way or another.
A reminder, there are people of conscience in positions of power.
Diplomat Mark Smith’s resignation letter.
https://aoav.org.uk/2024/senior-british-diplomat-mark-smith-resigns-over-uks-arms-sales-to-israel/
The group “Writers Against the War on Gaza” has published a study comparing NYT reporting about Gaza v. Ukraine for 6 months of reporting.
It came out today so I had no time to go through, yet. It´s obviously a longer read.
I assume the findings won´t surprise us since we have written about it many times.
It´s still helpful to have it in this comprehensive official form.
So circulating it might be a good idea.
“‘Words Like Slaughter:’ a Comparative Study of the New York Times Reporting in Ukraine and Gaza”
https://scheerpost.com/2024/08/17/words-like-slaughter-a-comparative-study-of-the-new-york-times-reporting-in-ukraine-and-gaza/
“(…)
Through a survey of every article The Times wrote during the first six months of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (and quite a few beyond that point), Writers Against the War on Gaza / The New York War Crimes conducted a comparative, qualitative study of The New York Times coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with its coverage of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
We’ve separated this study into four sections: War Crimes; Resistance; Ukraine Needs Weapons!; and Culture. Each section demonstrates a contrast between coverage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
The Times reporting consistently condemns war crimes committed by Russia while in Gaza, it either obfuscates their nature or legitimizes Israel’s excuses for committing them. In Gaza the accusation that resistance fighters operate amongst civilians grants carte blanche for Israeli war crimes; in Ukraine the tactic is framed as that of a wily and brave resistance struggling against a military with vastly superior firepower. Ukraine’s “outgunned” army always needs more weapons, while the notion of The Times suggesting so for Hamas is absurd. And while the paper has provided in-depth coverage of the art and culture that is at risk of being lost in Ukraine, it has categorically ignored Israel’s violent campaign to erase Palestinian cultural production.
(…)”