Netanyahu Plays Chicken 901


Netanyahu is desperate to keep war simmering along and to draw the USA closer and closer to him. At the same time he cannot send ground forces into South Lebanon where they will take massive casualties.

Israel can assassinate, it can employ indiscriminate terrorism and it can bombard from the air, and it has done all these things against Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. But Israel cannot destroy Hamas nor Hezbollah, cannot get back its hostages from Gaza and cannot make Northern Israel safe for its colonialists.

Nothing Israel is doing in any way advances those declared objectives and in fact makes all of them increasingly unlikely ever to be attained.

But as Biden and Harris accept and reinforce every single escalation and every single illegality, Israel’s stranglehold on its western vassal politicians gets ever stronger. Those have now all (including both UK Labour and Conservative ministers) supported illegality well beyond the stage where there is any going back. They have now to hope that they will be “justified” by military victory.

The Iraq war shows that however illegal the war, if you win you get to write – or at least interpret – the rules of international law. I wish I could come up with good counter-examples. “Justice” is visited only upon losers.

But the problem for Netanyahu, Sunak, Starmer, von der Leyen et al. is that just what victory looks like, nobody seems in the least clear.

We appear to be locked into a hideous distortion of existentialism, where the killing of Arabs of any age and sex is in itself the path of virtue and a reason for living.

Israel’s TikTok army of child-killers, rapists and lingerie-flaunters will take heavy casualties if it advances into Lebanon. It is currently launching intense air attacks, but it cannot destroy Hezbollah that way, not even were it to triple the colossal amount of explosive it has dropped on Gaza.

Netanyahu’s strategy of assassinations and deadly stunts appears to be an attempt to goad Hezbollah out of their own territory into a suicidal advance into Israel. But Nasrullah is not falling for it.

It is worth stressing that, contrary to the propaganda, in the last year Israel has hit Lebanon with five missiles for every one sent by Hezbollah.

Meantime the United Kingdom’s claims to respect international law are exposed as an utter sham as it failed to vote for the UNGA Resolution giving effect to the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territory.

The ICJ’s ruling that the Occupation is itself an illegal act, and that states must do nothing which can assist Israel to maintain it, sets out a clear legal status quo which the UK is equally clearly breaking.

When the ICJ decision came out on 19 July, the FCDO statement was as follows:

We have received the Advisory Opinion issued by the International Court of Justice on Friday 19 July and are considering it carefully before responding. The UK respects the independence of the ICJ.

The promised response has never come; unless you take the failure to vote at the UN General Assembly for the implementation of the ICJ ruling as the response. The decision to suspend 8% of arms export licenses for Israel was framed not in terms of this ICJ ruling – which logically can only require the cessation of all arms sales to Israel – but more broadly in terms of unspecified possible breaches of international humanitarian law.

In its “explanation of vote” at the UN General Assembly, the UK deliberately ignored a key tenet of the ICJ Opinion. The UK stated:

“our abstention reflects our unwavering determination to focus on efforts to bring about a peaceful and negotiated two-state solution,”

This ignores the ICJ ruling that Israel must leave the occupied territories before any negotiations. An occupied people cannot negotiate with, in effect, a gun held at their head. That is explicitly why the ICJ did not accept that the Oslo Accords alienated any Palestinian rights in international law.

The UK is still – directly contrary to the ICJ – attempting to maintain that Palestine’s right not to be occupied was signed away at Oslo.

British military flights, weapons supplies and intelligence cooperation with the Israel occupation continue unabated. Starmer’s total support for Israel is now a fixed part of the governing landscape, as the failure to condemn the terrorist device attacks on the Lebanon makes clear.

The US and UK are now hopelessly yoked to a Netanyahu nihilist strategy of which the primary aim is to retain his own power and immunity from prosecution by permanent conflict, of a kind which makes his allies ever more complicit and which will rope them in to active military support.

That requires constant Israeli aggression against an axis of resistance that has so far refused to be provoked into major conflict. Israel’s plan is to humiliate Iran and its allies to an extent that a full-on regional war becomes inevitable, in which the United States will fight alongside them – and very probably the Sunni Arab regimes too, I am extremely sorry to say.

This is plainly madness that is entirely against the interests of the Western powers themselves. But their politicians, including very directly Biden and Starmer, are so compromised by Zionist-lobby money that there appears to be no escape, short of popular revolt in the West.

The West is bound to Israel by the simple, unalloyed mechanism of cash paid to politicians. That is the truth.

 

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901 thoughts on “Netanyahu Plays Chicken

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  • Harry Law

    IDF Spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told Israelis at roughly 8:30 p.m. local time that the Iranian attack had ended, and that there had been no injuries or deaths. Jake Sullivan US National Security Advisor also said the same thing, however Keir Starmer in his address to the British people said that Iran deliberately targeted civilians in their reprisal attacks against military targets. Starmer is a lying POS and a Zionist shill of the worst kind.

    • Republicofscotland

      Harry Law.

      Yes the Western MSM always play down the extent of attacks against Israel – along with any damage or consequences – I see the UK’s MSM is portraying Israel as a victim today – and not an aggressor committing genocide in Gaza, and generally being belligerent in the region.

      Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said of Operation True Promise-II – the name of last nights attack on Israel – that Iran, has only used its right to legitimate defense based on Article 51 of the United Nations Charter and has only targeted the military and security bases of the Zionist regime.

    • Greg Park

      Starmer would never have got where he is without the efforts of the entire British political and media class. They all knew he was one of the most dishonest and degenerate individuals in public life. All of them saw how brazenly he shed his ‘Sir Remain’ persona and all the pledges that won him the Labour leadership, how dramatically different was his treatment of Julian Assange and Jeremy Corbyn on one hand and Jimmy Savile on the other. Every MP and journalist knew what Starmer really was yet they all agreed to paint him as an incorruptible public servant of unbreakable integrity and unmatched moral fibre. All of them participated in the charade that got him into Downing Street.

      Starmer is proving beyond doubt to be one of the worst human beings in British political history yet among today’s political and media elites in the UK he barely stands out at all.

    • Jack

      I would expect Tories to say this but that a Labour leader say such nasty lies it is really something else. Iran have all legal right to strike Israel – Haniyeh/Nasrallah killing and also the brazen attack against the iranian consulate in Syria – Mohammad Reza Zahedi. It is obvious that Iran certainly did not target civilians, considering that no israeli civilian died! Meanwhile Keir and others are OK when Israel actually target civilians – not once but for 12 months straight! What nasty character.
      Keir is at the same time the typical politician that we have seen such much of lately in the west, with a soft-spoken, sensitive and “kind” face. He fools way too many that he is benign, good.
      Same with Obama, Trudeau, Harris etc. the most dangerous of politicians. Manipulative to the core.

      • Squeeth

        When Bliar courted him as he retired as DoPP there was a competition with the Tories (officials) to get him; it was obvious that Sturmer was the Langley candidate.

        • Pyewacket

          I think that became apparent when a visiting Mike Pompeo assured the Zionist Board of Deputies that there was no way Jeremy Corbyn would get the keys to No:10. The fix was in already, despite his popularity and widespread approval of his policies.

    • Brian Red

      As Genocide Starmer is doubtless aware, you CAN be convicted of crimes against humanity if all you do to assist is propaganda. See Julius Streicher.

  • Republicofscotland

    Iran claims its strike on Israel was 90% successful last night.

    The English state broadcaster and propaganda machine the BBC, in a news report, said that the UK military helped the Zionist regime – which is committing genocide in Gaza, shoot down Iranian missiles.

    “Iran’s defense minister says the Islamic Republic’s retaliatory operation against the Israeli regime, dubbed Operation True Promise II, has been more than 90% successful.

    Brigadier General Aziz Nasirzadeh made the remarks on the sidelines of a cabinet session on Wednesday, after Iran launched a barrage of long-range ballistic missiles towards Israel.

    “Operation True Promise II was carried out with more than 90% success and was fully compliant with international laws,” he said.

    Nasirzadeh went on to say that this countermeasure was carried out based on the United Nations Charter, stressing that Iran took military objectives into consideration.”

    • Goose

      Israel appears to be arguing in the West’s corridors of power, that a devastating attack on Iran will finally bring peace.

      In recent history, they similarly argued that Yasser Arafat, holed up in his Ramallah compound, was the blockage to a final peace deal; neither the US or Israel would negotiate with him. Then they argued Assad must be removed to unlock peace in the region. Meanwhile, post-Arafat, they maintained they didn’t have a partner for peace, despite the fact there’s been a stable govt in the West Bank, led by a dovish academic, in the form of Mahmoud Abbas – a leadership preventing armed resistance for the last 20 years! Now they say they must eliminate Hezbollah and destroy the Iranian regime to finally unlock peace. The Israelis are playing the world for fools.

      However conducive the environment, Israel will always find excuses as to why they can’t make peace and cede land. If King Hussein of Jordan thinks he’s safe, he’s a fool. Israel may pick a fight with him and start attacking Amman in Jordan, if it needs a new excuse.

        • Goose

          I knew that.

          But for some reason had the idea he’d integrated his family name i.e. King Abdullah Hussein bin Talal. Because he was known as King Hussein I.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply Goose. Hussein bin Talal was known as King Hussein (without any ordinal) because there’s only been one king of Jordan called Hussein. The current king is referred to as Abdullah II because the first King of Jordan (or Transjordan as it was called then) was Abdullah I. The family name of the kings of Jordan is Hashim – from the Arab clan that the Prophet Muhammad belonged to.

        • Wilshire

          New believer, please understand that since King Hussein is dead, he’s an easy target. That’s obviously what was meant in the demonstration above. On top of that, you can easily get lost with these folks who don’t have a proper family name.
          Even reading Wikipedia doesn’t always give the correct answers, you see.

          • Goose

            Whatever, my bad, the broader point stands.

            Don’t you both also sense, that over the last 20-30 years, the emboldened Israeli leaderships – thanks to things like AIPAC and their sway over American politics – think they can have it all : remove Palestinians from Gaza and exploit the offshore gas fields; annex the West Bank via granting new settlement building permits; seize all Jerusalem. It’s sinister stuff, and appalling how the US and UK are aiding a man like Netanyahu in his quest.

            And it won’t stop there, a much ‘Greater Israel’ is the aim; for it’s hard to project military dominance in the region when living on a thin strip of land. Netanyahu’s ambitions are of biblical proportions, and they’re terrifying, in terms of the loss of life realising them will entail.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply Wilshire. I’m not sure that the Israeli are unhinged enough to start bombing mausoleums. As I mentioned above, the kings of Jordan do have a family name. They just don’t use it very often – like the British royals.

            ——

            Thanks for your reply Goose. It’s goes without saying that Israeli governments have moved to the right in recent decades, and there’s various reasons for that – it’s not all down to Netanyahoo. However, it doesn’t matter whether they pursue a ‘Greater Israel’ strategy or not because, unless something weird happens, Israel’s days are numbered. Look at what happened yesterday: Iran’s missile barrage may not have killed (or injured) any Israelis – just one Palestinian – but two Palestinians killed seven Israelis and injured eight more, and all they needed was an assault rifle and some ammo. It’s very difficult to defend against things like that – and when carried out en masse, it’s existential. If Hamas etc could have fielded around 200,000 fighters on October 7th, and have equipped each with a gun and a few rounds, a week later Israel would have been no more. Acquiring small arms is becoming easier and easier for non-state actors, not least because they can now make them themselves:

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FGC-9

          • Goose

            Indeed

            I’m old enough to remember genuinely moderate voices in Israel, and the Labor party. People who were serious about living in peace by giving up some land. I don’t think Netanyahu will ever voluntarily cede any land, not a square centimeter.

            Netanyahu rose like all brutes; by promising eternal security in return for the public giving up basic liberties. And he’s since pushed hugely unpopular judicial reforms to further cement his power.

        • Brian Red

          How is “king” Abdullah’s Arabic coming along? He could hardly speak the language when the US State Department put him in (rather than his uncle) as Jordanian head of state.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply Brian. I’ve no idea – you’ll have to ask him. King Abdullah seems to have a fairly strong claim to the throne of Jordan to me, since he is the eldest son of the previous monarch. By the way, since any refusal by him to grant royal assent to legislation can be overturned by Jordan’s parliament, he has less political power than Bonnie King Charlie.

      • Brian Red

        The Israelis didn’t just refuse to negotiate with Yasser Arafat. They said they were going to kill him. There was a motion in the UNSC in 2003 that they should stop threatening to harm him, but it was vetoed by the United States.

        Israel has long favoured the “murder the leaders on the other side, or take them hostage” approach to “negotiations”.

        They almost certainly did kill Arafat, using thallium. They probably killed Hugo Chavez too.

      • MR MARK CUTTS

        Well this morning on the BBC news they had a ‘Persian’ (big place, was Persia) BBC correspondent on musing as to whether the Opposition in Iran would remove the government?

        It was the MSM equivalent of saying: ‘Aren’t Persian Carpets crap?’

  • Harry Law

    Under the UN charter Iran has the right of self defence as when its Embassy was attacked in Syria and its military leaders were attacked in Lebanon, these attacks were initiated by Israel in order to provoke the Iranians into a wider war and to drag the US into attacking Iran. As well as complying with the UN charter Iran had a right to attack Israel under what is called the doctrine of belligerent reprisal.
    A belligerent reprisal consists of an action that would otherwise be unlawful but that in exceptional cases is considered lawful under international law when used as an enforcement measure in reaction to unlawful acts of an adversary.
    Purpose of reprisals. Reprisals may only be taken in reaction to a prior serious violation of international humanitarian law, and only for the purpose of inducing the adversary to comply with the law.
    (ii) Measure of last resort. Reprisals may only be carried out as a measure of last resort, when no other lawful measures are available to induce the adversary to respect the law.
    (iii) Proportionality. Reprisal action must be proportionate to the violation it aims to stop.
    (iv) Decision at the highest level of government. The decision to resort to reprisals must be taken at the highest level of government.
    (v) Termination. Reprisal action must cease as soon as the adversary complies with the law.
    https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v1_rul_rule145

  • Republicofscotland

    A sure sign the world is dealing with a madman – a madman that the West is backing – a mad man that’s committing genocide – and the West is backing that genocide.

    Netanyahu in a cabinet meeting last night said – I call upon the forces of light in the world to stand by Israel and unite against Iran.

    • Harry Law

      Ros, correct, Netanyahu is a delusional madman, as you say he has the backing of the west, who are also delusional. What last night’s reprisals indicated was that Israel, together with the US navy and military bases throughout the middle east, simply have no defence against Iran’s ballistic missiles which overwhelmed the Iron dome [colander]; and the ‘arrow’ and ‘David´s sling’ – which were purposely designed to intercept ballistic missiles – all failed when 90% of the missiles got through.

      • Steve Hayes

        I’m suspicious that the US is basically standing back on this one. Likely it was Iran that tipped them off about the impending attack and also likely that the US shot down a couple of the two or three hundred missiles to claim they were still defending Israel but it looks like there’s a message being sent by both nations to Netanyahu. Earlier yesterday, I saw Biden looking like an angry rabbit in the headlights and calling for a ceasefire immediately.

      • Squeeth

        No, Netanyahoo is a common criminal; people who have troubled mental health have enough problems without being saddled by association with that criminal against peace, criminal against humanity and war criminal. The clue is in the allegation.

    • Jack

      Hopefully true. The quote is real though:

      I felt a series of large explosions near my home in north Tel Aviv, not far from the headquarters of Mossad, the foreign intelligence agency, and Unit 8200, the signals and cyber intelligence agency. The whole house was shaking.
      (although one has to scroll a bit to find it) https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/10/01/world/israel-lebanon-hezbollah#5a2849f6-7571-5a04-b434-e663b4a830b4

      From the same link:
      Iran certainly have the moral upper hand vs Israel
      Mohammad Bagheri, Iran’s top military officer, said on state television that the missiles Iran fired at Israel today had targeted three military bases — Nevatim, Hatzerim and Tel Nof — and the headquarters of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. He said that Iran deliberately did not attack civilian targets and infrastructure.

      No bs that israeli soldiers “hide” behind civilians therefore we will attack israeli civilians.

      • Republicofscotland

        Jack.

        Quds News Network – reporting that Hezbollah fighters ambushed an IOF unit in Southern Lebanon – with four IOF fighters killed and twenty more injured.

  • M.J.

    I noticed that, whereas the BBC cameras in Israel only focused on looking up and showing Iranian missiles being intercepted, Al-Jazeera showed some of them hitting the ground, though we don’t know what damage might have been done. But since Al-Jazeera have been banned from Israel, I wonder where they got their pictures from.

    On another note, I congratulate President Jimmy Carter on his 100th birthday, which I just found out about, for doing his best over a long period to put the world to rights.
    He wrote “Palestine: peace not apartheid” which opposed the Israeli settlements in the West Bank, though he didn’t know about the well-known books by Ilan Pappé and Susan Nathan, published in the same year (2006).

    • Steve Hayes

      I think those pictures were from ordinary people’s phones, likely posted on social media. The ones I’ve seen show lots of stuff coming down and exploding and not very much going up to intercept. The claim that 90% reached their targets may be inflated but 90% reaching the ground looks plausible. I’d say the Iron Dome is seriously short of rockets now. Of course we get the usual unchallenged claim of minimal damage.

      • Wilshire

        It’s indeed extremely rare that an object flying in the air doesn’t eventually touch down on the ground. Far under 10 percent I would say. Now the extent of damage is obviously difficult to ascertain, since there’s the obvious and necessary propaganda on both sides. Best way to get close to the truth is to watch the aftermath. If Israeli war planes can no longer fly and bomb Lebanon and Syria, then we can reasonably conclude their bases were successfully damaged. Otherwise…

        • Steve Hayes

          It should be pretty obvious that I meant reaching the ground intact as opposed to being blown apart midair. Some reports say 20 F35s were damaged or destroyed. Israel probably has quite a lot more than that but it’s a loss of around 2 billion dollars which they’ll be expecting American taxpayers to stump up.

    • Shibboleth

      On the BBC coverage, it showed three missiles – one behind a building and two to the left reaching the ground w/out any explosion. Subsequent footage online and on other media stations showed a significant flash and explosion from all three. There is too much to process, but it’s perfectly clear the censors and manipulators are working hard to sanitise the images.

  • Vivian O’Blivion

    We are living in a Spookocracy. This is not a term of my invention.

    “A counterintelligence state (sometimes also called intelligence state, securocracy or spookocracy) is a state where the state security service penetrates and permeates all societal institutions, … “

    At Westminster, we have a Prime Minister described by that levelheaded, one nation Tory, Peter Oborne (always worth a listen) as the “MI5 candidate”.

    Not that I follow UK politics closely, but my interest was peaked by the stushie around our Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Sue Gray.

    Gray comes from solidly working class, Irish diaspora stock, having grown up in London. Financial restraints prevented her going to university, and she joined the Civil Service straight from school.

    How did she end up joined at the hip to Keir Starmer? Well, she resigned from the Civil Service in 2023 to take up the position as his Chief of Staff while he was leader of the opposition. By exercising this highly unusual move, she was found to have broken the Civil Service code.

    Prior to this, her most high profile move was to produce the report into “Partygate” that was credited with bringing down Boris Johnson’s government. Johnson had exhausted his usefulness to the Permanent State by this point and was seen as an increasingly rogue and inept liability.

    One curious note from Gray’s Wiki page; “Gray took a career break in the 1980s, a step described … as “strikingly unorthodox”. During this time, she ran the Cove Bar, a pub in Newry … during The Troubles…. Peter Caldwell, a former special adviser to several ministers, said it had been speculated Gray was a spy at this time, though Gray denied it.” The Cove Bar was a Republican/IRA haunt.

    It’s touching how much loyalty these senior politicians show to their Chiefs of Staff (surely Handlers, Ed.) when the going gets tough. All terribly redolent of Nicola Sturgeon’s visceral attachment to Liz Lloyd.

    • Goose

      Yes, the civil service does seem uniquely all powerful.

      Did you catch this the other day: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/29/malcolm-turnbull-condemns-uks-extraordinary-hypocrisy-over-spycatcher-affair

      This part:

      Turnbull said: “Armstrong’s perjury was really extraordinary. Since then I’ve obviously had a lot of experience as a prime minister in government. To me, it is still mind boggling that the cabinet secretary of the United Kingdom feels so entitled that he could go into a witness box and tell a dead set 100% lie.

      “Not a fudge, a dead set lie, knowing that what he described as ‘totally untrue’ was, in fact, totally true, and evidenced by a memo signed by him sitting in a filing cabinet in Downing Street. The fact that he felt so invulnerable, really staggers me.”

    • David Warriston

      What were these ‘financial restraints’ which prevented Sue Gray attending university in the mid 1970s? Full grants were available at that time under the Wilson/Callaghan governments. That biography sounds a bit ‘Four Yorkshiremen’ to me. As does the term ‘Irish diaspora’ which is resonant of the Irish potato famine. I read that her father worked as a furniture salesman in London.

      • Brian Red

        Running a pub in Newry in the 1980s FFS is an extremely odd thing for a senior British civil servant to have on her CV.
        It’s not explainable solely by saying she was a spook and nodding knowingly.
        That’s the kind of place that the British military preferred to reach by helicopter for fear of IRA ambushes on the roads.
        I don’t know what she was doing, but we can assume the IRA were OK with her doing it.
        She sounds as though she may have been “declared” to them.

        • Goose

          Maybe she handled informants?

          Got to admit, a pub frequented by the IRA would be an ideal recruitment + senior member identification location.

        • Brian Red

          Interesting that we have…

          * Dominic Cummings, prime minister Boris Johnson’s chief of staff in all but name, who worked at, and whose uncle owned, a notoriously hard gangsta nightclub in Durham, before he set up an airline in Russia that operated a single route, from Samara to Vienna, along which doubtless all passengers were thoroughly law-abiding and all cargo was thoroughly licit

          * Sue Gray, prime minister Genocide Starmer’s chief of staff, who worked at and owned a pub in NI’s IRA country during the NI conflict

          I’m guessing Gray’s hubby and fellow pub runner Bill Conlon may have had other interests in his life as well as playing music. (But he probably would have played a fantastic version of “The Men Behind the Wire” at one of those Covid raves at Number Ten.)

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            The recently defunct Klute (once named the second-worst nightclub in Europe) was never a notoriously hard ‘gangsta’ haunt, Brian. In term-time, it was usually chock-full of pissed-up students singing along to Chesney Hawkes et al – and out of term, it was largely empty.

          • Brian Red

            I didn’t say it was a gangster haunt.
            Its reputation was do something there that you shouldn’t and you could get killed. I’d call that “hard” – well hard.

          • Goose

            Wonder if she ran the pub under her real name?

            Or did she adopt some alias like say Máire MacCarthy, replete with an Oirish backstory? The ‘Troubles’ are long since over (hopefully). We’ve had the GFA and now got a Sinn Féin first minister in power in N.Ireland. Why are the UK media so incurious?

            Like with pushing back the 30-year rule the former Australian PM talked about. The public have a right to know. Who do these officials think they are? Because when all said and done, they’re glorified civil ‘servants’. How come they think it is their right to withhold inconvenient or embarrassing information? Who owns the information, who owns government, if not the people who allow it to operate?

            When Blair came to power in 1997 we were promised a cast iron “all singing, all dancing” Freedom of Information Act …by David Clark, now Baron Clark of Windermere. He was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Blair’s first term, handling constitutional reforms. But that idea upset the secrecy-inclined establishment, so Clark lost the role and Jack Straw took over, watering any ‘all singing, all dancing’ F.O.I. plans down.

            Something similar happened with the incorporation of the ‘European Convention on Human Rights’ into UK law; sensibly incorporated, so we wouldn’t have to petition Strasbourg Court. The initial plan allowed UK judges to strike down incompatible law – i.e. how it should be if rights are going to mean anything. Blair backed down on this, and a few months into Blair’s first term I lost faith in his govt.

          • Lapsed Agnostic

            Thanks for your reply Brian. Have you ever been there? I have, several times, and I never even saw a proper fight. As I said, it was usually full of Oxbridge rejects from the Home Counties – they’re not the sort of people who carry knives. No one’s been killed in Klute, which wasn’t even the ‘hardest’ licenced premises in Durham – that would probably have been The Fighting Cocks or Yates’s, but they were usually fine as well. If you want ‘gangsta’, you could always try the less touristy parts of Leeds, though I don’t particularly recommend it.

  • Republicofscotland

    LBC radio and its host – on the topic, of how evil a regime Iran is – the West doesn’t even try to hide its utter bias now – the Israeli genocide in Gaza, has exposed just how deep Israel has its claws into – not just the US, but Europe as well – and it appears that the West is utterly compromised.

    I said that Netanyahu is a madman – he’s not alone, many Western leaders and politicians are on the same wavelength as him.

    What kind of human being backs a regime that’s committing genocide?

      • Jack

        You cannot make this up, the sky interviewer begins by saying: “no country would put up with having 180 missiles being sent against them”, always this perverse caress for poor little Israel that have not done anything against anyone ever.
        Would this Sky news reporter “put up” if hundreds of thousands of brits’ were massacred by another state for 12 months? But as a typical psychopath, he cannot feel compassion or understanding how the “other side” is seeing things. Why is he speaking as he represent Israel??

        No wonder Marandi is smiling. There is no other way to react to the pompous, arrogant putz ruling the western media.
        Hitler’s propaganda bureau got nothing on these people.

    • Goose

      Oh, of course. And because it’s a theocracy it’s very easy to cast as irrational and extremist due to religion’s central role and the general Islamphobia in the West.

      Personally, I wouldn’t want to live under a theocracy. But no govt is perfect, and I’ve always believed the Iranian regime was more sinned against than sinning. All this talk from the US about them being” the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism” was largely based on their support for Hezbollah.

    • Brian Red

      LBC Radio used to be owned by Shirley Porter, a notorious Tory crook who has never served a day in prison.
      Now it’s owned by Ashley Tabor-King, first OBE then CBE, who made much of his money as a bookmaker.
      What a lovely pair.

      • Pyewacket

        I think that became apparent when a visiting Mike Pompeo assured the Zionist Board of Deputies that there was no way Jeremy Corbyn would get the keys to No:10. The fix was in already, despite his popularity and widespread approval of his policies.

      • Pyewacket

        Brian, is the Tesco heiress Dame Shirley, iirc, the one time head of Westminster Council who did a runner to illegally occupied Palestine to escape prosecution? Was a long time ago now, in the 1980s, something about getting likely Labour voters out of Council-owned social housing estates.

    • Wilshire

      This article is certainly very well-written and clearly makes its case. Meanwhile, it’s actually pushing very hard on a wide-open door.
      Even our gracious host, in his current post, uses a diagram basically showing the same thing. However powerful the attacks from Hezbollah, Israel always managed to strike 4 or 5 times harder. But then, from that same assessment you can draw different conclusions. One thing is to say that Israel is the bad guy, looking for full-blown war. Another takeaway can be, regardless of ethics, to admit that currently it faces very weak opponents who find it very difficult to play in the same league.
      The only known victim from Iran’s missiles barrage yesterday was… a Palestinian living in the West Bank, who was struck by shrapnel falling from an intercepted missile. Another case of Murphy’s law!

    • Greg Park

      Iran: this was a success because we had a 90% missile success rate, caused $2bn in damages, destroyed half of Israel’s entire f-35 fleet, and attacked 5 military bases — all in one night.

      Zionists: Iran is weak because they didn’t kill anyone.

      See the difference?

          • Greg Park

            I pointed out the glaring difference between what Iran considers a successful operation and what Zionists (including Zionist concern trolls) consider operational success.
            Do you still not see it?

      • George Porter

        We await reliable confirmation, esp wrt the F-35s.
        [That might be in the form of a Lockheed Martin share price rise.]

        • Wilshire

          So far, only 39 had been delivered to Israel. So half of the fleet means at least 19. That would be an amazing result, considering these aircraft are presumably sheltered in reinforced hangars in various locations.
          As you say, reliable confirmation.
          As I said, future sorties will be the answer.

    • Brian Red

      I would have thought that’s an unlawful act by Israel, or it would be if Guterres wishes to enter the territory it administers and they stop him. The UNSG is elected and if a UN member doesn’t accept his authority they can f*** off out of the UN.

      Israel has murdered about 300 UN staff in Gaza in the past year.

      This may be about removing all UN eyes and ears from the West Bank before the Zionist scum go and reprise Sabra and Chatila AND the Nakba in one day of “Purge”.

      Regarding the Al-Quds part of the operation, it won’t surprise me if Netanyahu calls Pope Francis a son of a b*tch too.

      • Wilshire

        If this bizarre announcement is confirmed, it would be a major success for Iran. The UN is no longer a political powerhouse, but you can’t deny its legitimacy without consequences…

        • Republicofscotland

          Wilshire.

          Its pretty much confirmed even the Western MSM is carrying the story.

          “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil,” Katz said on Wednesday.

          “This is an anti-Israel secretary-general who lends support to terrorists, rapists, and murderers.”

          The move deepens an already wide rift between Israel and the UN, which has consistently called for a ceasefire in Gaza.

          https://www.politico.eu/article/ban-united-nations-chief-antonio-guterres-enter-israel-katz/

          • Goose

            Why are the Israeli’s obsessed with the idea of Israeli women being raped? There is absolutely no evidence of such things yet the often repeated myth persists. Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate have investigated the claims and found, that like the initial 40 beheaded babies claims, corroborating evidence simply doesn’t exist. Most of the reports are based on third-hand stories from those linked to the Israeli govt in some way: https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1740641517847335009?lang=en

            Embellishing October 7, seems to be national political pastime in the US, where politicians need to dehumanise Palestinians in an attempt to justify the genocidal arms supplies.

          • Republicofscotland

            Goose .

            Yes that’s correct – there’s no evidence of these war crimes – for me its all about Israel portraying itself as the victim – when the opposite is truth. The Western MSM, tries desperately to reinforce the myth that Israel is the victim of Arab aggression – whilst – conveniently omitting 70 odd years of Israel oppression, and war crimes against the people of Palestine.

          • Jack

            Goose

            Indeed, it is a hella icky to indulge and ruminate 24/7 how horribly israelis were mass-raped and that in the most intricate ways, and fiercly defend all those rape-stories…. especially when there is no evidence for this allaged mass-rape event to begin with! All for the victim-card!
            In part this is part of the islamophobia rhetoric we have heard by far-right past couple of decades how muslims come here and rape european women. Thus in part this is a propaganda trick used by Israel to get westerners to sympathize with Israel vs muslims/arabs etc.

            Look also how indifferent israelis reacted when israeli soldiers were caught, on tape, raping palestinian prisoners
            The main suspect in the Sde Teiman gang rape case is now a media star in Israel
            https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/the-main-suspect-in-the-sde-teiman-gang-rape-case-is-now-a-media-star-in-israel/

          • Wilshire

            That makes for good headlines for sure, but considering the bag of worms that the Israeli government is, I’m not sure Mr. Katz has full authority to make this decision. I think we’re in a period when people speak their mind, but often lose control of what they say.

    • M.J.

      Since Israel has declared the Secretary-General of the UN to be Persona Non Grata, can the UNGA now expel Israel as it did apartheid South Africa, without being prevented by any American veto, increasing the pressure for international sanctions to effect a transition from apartheid to full democracy?

      • Wilshire

        You’re absolutely right. This would be the next episode in this soap opera. But my little pinkie tells me that the State of Israel will be wise enough to soften its stance and find a way to backtrack on Katz’s tantrum.
        Otherwise, I would not be saddened one second if the UNGA did what you suggest. But I guess it’s just wishful thinking.

    • Republicofscotland

      George Porter.

      George – just out of curiosity, would you say it, if it were Nazi’s – instead of Zionists, I say that knowing that Zionism is a form of racism/fascism – that even the UN has denounced.

    • Wilshire

      It’s actually no big deal, because no Zionist is reading this blog.
      Unlike UK intelligence services, but I guess nevermind doesn’t mind. Agreed, if he/she resides in Switzerland or somewhere else where the UK Terrorism Act is ineffective, that’s perfectly okay.
      This said, I have to agree on the fact that Netanyahu is a madman. In certain countries, there are institutions for such people.

    • Brian Red

      @George – Events seem to be proving it’s spot-on, don’t you think?
      There are no important divisions among Zionists when it comes to slaughtering non-Jews. You see this right now. It can’t be denied.
      All Zionists are scum.
      It may also be true that all Zionists are mentally unhinged. I don’t think Netanyahu is unusually so.

  • Goose

    BBC Six O’Clock news tonight, bizarrely led with a story about a far-right influencer based in Finland. The individual in question, we were told, may not even face any charges, and yet the BBC designated hunting down this unpleasant individual as its top news priority. The guy apparently supports Hitler and celebrates Hitler’s birthdays and we were shown footage of Hitler speaking and an Israeli flag being burnt. Then the next news item was about Israel – do you see what they did there? Not very subtle, is it.

    They also pushed the idea we desperately need the ‘UK only’ Net nanny, that is the Online Safety Act implemented as soon as possible, to “secure us from the online pests purveying contradictory thoughts” i.e. misinformation and her big scary brother, disinformation.

    • Goose

      As the news started, pictures of Hitler and an Israeli flag burning briefly appeared on screen.

      Not quite subliminal messaging, but not far off

      Having to pay the sodding TV licence fee is bad enough, without mass psychological manipulation techniques being used.

      • Brian Red

        And this totally unsubtle, fast and across the board ramping up of propaganda is happening while Israel are scaling up their attack on nearby countries and within Palestine.

        Meanwhile, what did UNSG Antonio Guterres say that the Zionists objected to? Never mind reports in the BBC or even Al Jazeera. The exact words in full, of both Guterres and Katz are available.

        Guterres said this:

        https://nitter.poast.org/antonioguterres/status/1841167889191112704#m

        I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation. This must stop. We absolutely need a ceasefire.

        And the Zionist foreign minister Israel Katz replied thus:

        https://nitter.poast.org/Israel_katz/status/1841422324890812763#m

        Today, I have declared UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres persona non grata in Israel and banned him from entering the country. Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil. This is a Secretary-General who has yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7, nor has he led any efforts to declare them a terrorist organization. A Secretary-General who gives backing to terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran—the mothership of global terror—will be remembered as a stain on the history of the UN. Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres.

        Note that he refers to sexual violence twice.

        Katz posted his words in Hebrew first, and then he posted the above statement in English.

        You know those daily cartoons that Google posts? The next one may well say something like the world stands with Israel at the time of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year).

        Here’s another piece of propaganda, @Goose, in the Daily Telegraph:

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/02/eight-israeli-soldiers-killed-in-lebanon-invasion-gun-battl/

        ^ They are showing photos of the eight Zionist soldiers who lost their lives in Lebanon.

        Reminder: at least 40000 people have been murdered in Gaza in the past year, probably more, including ~300 UN staff.

  • Jack

    Video in the link below where Nasrallah speak on Jesus, asking the rhetorical question, who would Jesus support if he came back to life? Would he support Israel/US or the victims of these regimes.
    https://www.reddit.com/r/chomsky/comments/1fs3i4g/nasrallah_talking_about_jesus/
    Something for the twisted christian zionists to ponder, do they really believe that Jesus would back the mass slaughter of not only man but toddlers in the thousands?

    It is interesing also how defamed Jesus are in Judaism. Heck they do not even use the common plus (+) sign in Israel since it reminds them of a Christian symbol!
    In Israel’s classrooms, you will find no plus signs in math classes. Instead, they use this symbol: ﬩ . The reason: plus signs look too much like the cross, which, to some, is as offensive as the Nazi swastika.
    https://looking4theblessedhope.com/2022/09/15/3-unique-things-to-know-about-the-cross-no-plusses-allowed/
    And this the nutty regime christian zionists support?!

    • Brian Red

      Jesus WAS a Palestinian refugee – born in Palestine to parents who had fled their homes for fear of a murderous political regime.

    • Stevie Boy

      Jesus is a false prophet in the eyes ofJudaism, unlike Islam, so what he would think would be of no consequence to the zionists. Judaism is not an inclusive religion, it is more of a pagan cult.

    • glenn_nl

      Don’t forget that as far as the evangelical nutcases are concerned, Jews are only there to bring about the second coming.

      When a sufficiently high pile of bodies has been achieved, the baby Jesus will be pleased and come slithering down the pile of corpses and bring about the rapture.

      Jews will then get the choice – convert to KKKristianity or die by the sword!

      Think I’m joking about these swivel-eyed lunatics?

      https://www.raptureready.com/

    • Carlyle Moulton

      Unfortunately some time ago Jesus was replaced by his evil twin Jebus.

      Everthing Jesus said is obsolete according to Jebus. Jebus hates female humans, hates abortion but loves the death penalty.

  • Republicofscotland

    The genocide in Gaza – and the invasion of Lebanon is hurting the Zionists credit ratings.

    Just imagine how bad it would be for the Zionists – if the US taxpayer wasn’t propping the occupying, apartheid military regime up.

    “Global credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) downgraded Israel’s long-term rating from ‘A+’ to ‘A’ on Tuesday amid an escalating conflict with the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon.

    On Friday, Moody’s credit rating agency slashed Israel’s credit rating by two levels, from ‘A2’ to ‘Baa1,’ with a negative outlook.”

    https://www.palestinechronicle.com/geopolitical-risks-israels-credit-rating-downgraded-amid-escalating-conflict/

    • Goose

      What percentage are dual nationals? I mean, given the choice, it’d be a sensible precaution to leave if you have another home in the US or Europe.

      Israel undoubtedly have powerful weapons, but in terms of land area and considering their narrowest points, the country is obviously very vulnerable. As an analogy, It’s hard to take seriously someone threatening you, when that person lives on a duck island, regardless of what weapon they’re brandishing. Israel’s population is also very heavily concentrated in its major cities. So Iran’s threats to plaster the country in missiles are plausible.

      Israel say they want rid of the Mullahs in Tehran, but the quickest route to achieving that would be through a peace deal with the Palestinians. The Iranians would’ve lost a major grievance or cause, that sustains the regime.

  • Wilshire

    To keep you up to speed, it’s been reported that Iran forwarded warnings just before its attack on Israel, though the usual channels that is, not through Mr. Guterrez of course…
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/iran-informed-us-shortly-attack-israel-report?nid=394896&topic=Israel%2527s%2520war%2520on%2520Gaza&fid=532396
    It’s also a necessary precaution to avoid any potential misunderstandings since their missiles have to fly over other countries before reaching their targets.

  • MR MARK CUTTS

    You don’t get a Sir before your name by being a thorn in the Establishment’s side.

    The UK is just backside cover in all this aside from the MI6 Spooks. Its Military is useless, and even if they spent billions it would all take time to build up.

    In fact the government’s overarching slogan (three words as usual) should be: Nothing – Very – Soon.

    I like the Yank phrase (3 words again) ‘Follow The Money’. If all the Sabre Rattlers are sincere the I suspect they will not have moved their stashes out of Israel. (Make a good set of stories if they have, I reckon.)

    God is one thing – money is quite another. Unless you think there are Banks in Heaven?

    • glenn_nl

      MC: “God is one thing – money is quite another. Unless you think there are Banks in Heaven?

      As my long since departed grandmother liked to say, “They don’t put pockets in a shroud”.

  • Brian Red

    Has Google attacked Russia? The vile pro-Zionist megacorporation’s [*] “Gmail” service (email for gumbies) has stopped working on computers running iOS in that country. So it could be that Apple are in on the act too. (Who’d a thunk it?)

    The company has moved against Russia in other ways recently too.

    I hope Russia bans Google.

    Watch this space.

    Footnote
    (*) Anyone else remember this?
    https://web.archive.org/web/20050313003341/google.com/explanation.html

  • Allan Howard

    OMW, just this minute came across this, which is the first I’ve heard about it (posted on December 4th):

    Israel investigates possible trading knowledge ahead of Oct 7 Hamas attack

    Israeli authorities are investigating claims by U.S. researchers that some investors may have known in advance of a Hamas plan to attack Israel on Oct. 7 and used that information to profit from Israeli securities.

    Research by law professors Robert Jackson Jr from New York University and Joshua Mitts of Columbia University found significant short-selling of shares leading up to the attacks, which triggered a war nearly two months old.

    “Days before the attack, traders appeared to anticipate the events to come,” they wrote, citing short interest in the MSCI Israel Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) that “suddenly, and significantly, spiked” on Oct. 2 based on data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

    “And just before the attack, short selling of Israeli securities on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) increased dramatically,” they wrote in their 66-page report.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-investigates-possible-trading-knowledge-ahead-oct-7-hamas-attack-2023-12-04/

    • Allan Howard

      In his condemnation of UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres for not condemning Iran for its missile attack, Israel Katz, the Israeli Foreign Minister, said that almost every country in the world has condemned Iran:

      “Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to set foot on Israeli soil” (Source: Skwawkbox article)

      According to the American Jewish Committee, as of yesterday 24 countries have condemned Iran (out of 195 recognised by the UN, or 237 listed by the CIA):

      https://www.ajc.org/news/tracking-which-nations-have-condemned-the-iranian-regimes-ballistic-missile-attack-on-israel

      Zionists just can’t help themselves!

      • Brian Red

        @Allan – “Zionists just can’t help themselves!

        Zay are keeping zee lists.

        The other list would also be interesting to see – of national leaders who have made it clear they won’t “condemn” Iran for responding against the aggressor. Then we could see how many of them will still be in office in a month’s time.

        Every leader will be put either on the good dog list or the bad dog list.

        You can be sure that in all countries leaders who are being a bit tardy will have been contacted and told what’s expected of them, and asked whether, just to be clear, “just so you know”, here are the photos, and you may find our reach is longer than you thought.

        Hopefully at least one country that still hosts an Israeli ambassador will give him 30 minutes to get to the airport and get his genocidal arse out of the country.

        • Squeeth

          Netanyahoo: I am making notes, Captain, and when we win the war, you will be brought to account

          Mainwaring: You can write what you like. You’re not going to win this war.

          Netanyahoo: Oh, yes we are!

          Mainwaring: Oh no you’re not!

          Netanyahoo: Oh yes we are!

          Pike: [sings] Whistle while you work / Hitler is a twerp / He’s half barmy, so’s his army / Whistle while you work.

          Netanyahoo: [pointing at Pike] Your name will also go on zee list. What is it?

          Mainwaring: Don’t tell him, Pike!

          Netanyahoo: Pike.

          • M.J.

            Nice ‘Dad’s Army’ sketch from an ‘alternative history’ point of view.
            Speaking of alternative histories, Churchill had earlier advised De Gaulle to move to North Africa to form a French government in exile. If De Gaulle had moved to Casablanca, I wonder how WW2 would have played out.

    • Allan Howard

      Also came across this excellent article on Counterpunch by Ralph Nader earlier, posted a few days ago:

      September 30, 2024
      Netanyahu – “Nothing Can Stop Us” – Not Even the Majority of Israelis

      In an ocean of lies, starting with his mysterious, still officially uninvestigated collapse of the multi-tiered border security system on October 7, 2023, which opened the door to the Hamas attack, Netanyahu has uttered one truth: “Nothing will stop us.” The nuclear-equipped Israeli regional Empire dominates the Middle East. But it always needs an enemy for its internal domestic politics and for expanding its very advantageous alliance with the United States Empire…..

      https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/09/30/netanyahu-nothing-can-stop-us-not-even-the-majority-of-israelis/

      PS At the end of the article it links to a very interesting book that RN wrote in 2009 that I’ve not come across before.

  • Jack

    Oh great, Guterres budge down to Israel, excusing himself and double down on Iran:

    UN chief condemns Iran after Israeli outrage
    ”As I did in relation to the Iranian attack in April, and this should have been obvious yesterday, in the context of the condemnation I expressed, I again strongly condemn yesterday’s massive missile attacks by Iran on Israel,” Guterres told the UN Security Council on Wednesday.
    https://swentr.site/news/605136-un-secretary-general-condemns-iran/

    Disturbing that the UN leader, although an obvious western puppet, could be swayed and influenced like this. Also disturbing how he condemn what Iran did since Iran had all legal right, according to the UN charter, to respond Israel’s constant provocations, acts of war against Iran.
    Take the consulate attack in Syria by Israel earlier this year. Did Guterres then call out Israel like he called out Iran in his condemnation yesterday? No of course not. No atttribution.
    UN chief criticizes strike on Iranian consulate, warns against ‘further escalation’
    https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-chief-criticizes-strike-on-iranian-consulate-warns-against-further-escalation/

    Not to mention, Guterres have not once, explicitly, called out Israel by its name in a condemnation during the whole 12 months slaughter of Gaza.

      • Allan Howard

        I see that in the RT article Jack linked to above it says the following:

        His comments came after Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz denounced the UN chief for failing to “unequivocally condemn Iran’s heinous attack” and claimed Guterres has “yet to denounce the massacre and sexual atrocities committed by Hamas murderers on October 7,” or to declare the Palestinian group a terrorist organization.

        Well I think the vast majority of people on the planet know who the terrorists are, and it ain’t Hamas! As for the massacre committed on October 7th, if there were two hunded or so Hamas fighters who were burnt beyond recognition and had to be identified by their DNA, I think we can safely assume that at least as many Israelis were also burnt and incinerated by tanks and helicopters that had to be identified by their DNA, and quite possibly a hell of a lot more.

        As for the ‘sexual atrocities’, I happened to come across the following article on Counterpunch a bit earlier which has a few details I’ve not heard before:

        March 15, 2024
        Claims of Mass Rape by Hamas Unravel Upon Investigation

        https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/03/15/claims-of-mass-rape-by-hamas-unravel-upon-investigation/

        NB Given that if it were true – which it wasn’t of course – that Hamas beheaded 40 babies, then one would expect Katz to mention and include THAT in his description of what Hamas (alledgedly) did on October 7th, but he doesn’t. Hmm, I wonder why not.

        I mean these people usually go on repeating their lies and falsehoods endlessly.

        • Jack

          The whole alleged rape-mass narrative reminds me of the claim the west pulled on Libya where they justified the regime change in Libya by claiming Khadaffi handing out Viagra for libyan soldiers to rape women:

          2011:Gaddafi ‘supplies troops with Viagra to encourage mass rape’, claims US top diplomat Susan Rice
          https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/29/diplomat-gaddafi-troops-viagra-mass-rape

          Having said that, rape is of course a horrible, heinous crime that are often used in war but the evidence for mass-rape is obviously lacking here.
          Considering how propaganda-savy Israel is one would have assumed that Israel would have no problem producing real or fabricated evidence for these claims but they have not. I think that says it all.

    • Brian Red

      That is disgusting by Guterres. We should all be making slurping sounds. What a gutless scumbag the man is.

      @Jack – “Disturbing that the UN leader, although an obvious western puppet, could be swayed and influenced like this.

      Probably levers are being pulled that western leaders didn’t previously know existed. Hooked into guys who’ve helped Israel all their lives and who thought the men they were serving would be grateful to them (think again!), who were even allowed to spout a bit of “balance” occasionally, decide precise wordings of a few sentences by themselves, declare that in principle at some future time some “good” Palestinians might deserve a few biscuits, etc. – and who now realise they were never viewed as anything more than useful cretins with no self-respect, as servants, as slaves. A few of them sometimes have the “guts” to say something when they’re about 95 years old and they can safely be described as a bit confused or prejudiced.

      About 300 UN staff have been murdered by Israelis in the past year in Gaza.

      A strike by UN staff in other countries would be good.

      • Jack

        One could imagine the behind-the-scenes lobbying/task-force efforts that went on where, where western states, Israel, pro-israel lobby groups held long talks with Guterres to change his view. It is like a racket going on.

    • Pyewacket

      Hitler, they say, only had one Ball. While gutless Guterrez has none at all. 300 UN employees murdered on his watch, with nowt said. That alone should be enough to kick them out. Now this; a bleating whinge from pussy Katz, and the gutless one cowers like a whipped puppy. Begs the question; wtf have they got on him ?

    • Republicofscotland

      Jack – UNSG’s are usually US puppets – one that wasn’t was Boutros Boutros Ghali – so, the US successfully blocked his bid for a second term as UNSG in1996 – because he wasn’t compliant enough.

  • Alyson

    I saw that. The reply mode wasn’t there for discussion of rape as a weapon of war.

    I am screwing my courage to its limit to read Christina Lamb’s book ‘Our Bodies Their Battlefield’ which should be required reading for all politicians. The embarrassment and uncomfortable squirming which is an inevitable reaction by readers of both genders, to acknowledging the brutality of the war crimes carried out against women and children cannot be understated.

    In terms of numbers Russian soldiers in WWII were the worst, and Putin is openly encouraging Russian soldiers today to rape beautiful Ukrainian women, as a weapon of war in the regions which had already been pummelled by Nazi Azov shelling from 2014-2018, and which considered themselves to be Ethnic Russians even before the Russian soldiers turned up in their towns and villages.

    Daesh’s creative brutality caused more deaths from rape, eventually, and killed them in horrific ways, so for Israelis to fear retaliation now that their soldiers have broadcast their crimes to the world, can be no surprise.

    As war crimes go, these have to be the worst, and there must be open acknowledgement of rules of war and crimes against humanity. I heard that German Nazi soldiers who raped were shot by their commanding officers. Americans were worst after Russians at the end of that war. These crimes must not be swept under the carpet. They are war crimes and must be prosecuted as such.

    • frankywiggles

      The mass rape hoax was invented to try and justify the west’s genocide in Gaza. It is still being perpetuated today, by the highest officials, to try and justify advancing the genocide into a second year. There is no evidence *at all* of rape by Hamas on October 7th. indeed there was not even any mention of rape until months later when Hillary Clinton started promoting this gross lie, a lie still being cynically promoted by the genocidal Kamala Harris to this day, still completely unchallenged by any journalist or debate host or “fact checker” in western mass media.

      • Alyson

        That is true. The Hamas hostages were taken to live with families in Gaza. They were for the purpose of negotiating a ceasefire. Many armed groups have no such intentions however. It would be good to have it on the record which groups approve such war crimes, and bring them to UN justice, at least to make it understood that such war crimes will not be ignored.

        • frankywiggles

          One such group is the general public of the state of Israel. At least two thirds of them when polled recently said they consider rape to be a perfectly legitimate military tactic. When soldiers were caught on CCTV this summer gang raping a Palestinian prisoner it was greeted with great popular approval across Israeli society. The rapists have since become beloved national celebrities, invited onto all manner of popular TV shows.

          It is exceedingly clear by now that the Hamas mass rape hoax was projection of the highest order.

      • Allan Howard

        Franky: The way I remember it, it was only in the week or so before the truce that the stories about rape started coming out. Anyway, I just did a search re >hamas rape< and the earliest article I found in the results was this Haaretz article from November 8th. Here's the headline and some clips (and check out the pictures/photos, one at the top and one down the page… there's no way on this planet that Hamas caused such damage, as with the scenes in so many other photos):

        Israeli Police Collect Eyewitness Testimony of Gang Rape During Hamas Attack

        Captured Hamas terrorists have revealed that they had planned to seize control of a town or city in central Israel for a substantial amount of time and take its residents hostage. They also intended to plant mines in the area. According to their accounts in interrogations, the plan went wrong because of confrontations with security forces, the communities’ guards, and civilians.

        Oh, right, so they had lots of time to rape and mutilate women (and babies!) and throw breasts to each-other whilst being confronted by security forces and guards and civilians. As for planning to seize control of a town, or a whole city even, in central Israel, I think we can take it that THAT is complete and utter fabrication bollox (it seems highly HIGHLY unlikely that in the event that Hamas had planned to seize control of a town or a city, that they wouldn't have designated a specific town or city to take control of, and there would of course be no reason why these captured 'Hamas terrorists' wouldn't have divulged – revealed – that information to their captors as well).

        And at the end of the article it says the following:

        The suspect said in his interrogation that he had trained for the invasion for years and that each team participating in the attack had received precise orders about its assignment.

        He said he and his men had received religious permission to kill children “because they’ll grow up to be soldiers” and to decapitate “to sow fear among the Israelis.” [Oh, what a coincidence, the same thing as some Israeli Zionist scumbag said in relation to Palestinian children in the days after Oct 7]

        The suspect said he “didn’t regret for a moment” what he had done. Asked what the difference was between the acts he oversaw and those of ISIS, he replied: “In terms of the brutality, there’s no difference.”

        Sounds totally plausible of course. NOT! Just yet more total bollox of course.

        https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-08/ty-article/israeli-police-collect-eyewitness-testimony-of-gang-rape-during-hamas-attack/0000018b-b025-d3c1-a39b-bee5ef400000

        NB It goes without saying – but I'll say it anyway! – that Hamas are hardly gonna do stuff that they know would alienate millions of people around the world who support the Palestinians (in Gaza, and the West Bank) and sympathise with their situation. Of course they wouldn't!

    • Brian Red

      @Alyson –
      required reading for all politicians
      ^ You have a lot of confidence in politicians.
      But why? (Serious question.) Parliamentary democracy isn’t the way. Do you project confidence in it because any other conceivably possible way seems worthy of rejection, by reason of appearing freakish, risky, headbangy, pie in the sky, bloodbath causy, or having some other obvious “NO” written on it?
      For obvious reasons (including we know we want one), there must be a way.
      So give yourself permission to recognise that convincing politicians isn’t it 🙂

      • Alyson

        Rule of Law.

        On 19 June 2008 the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1820 on the use of sexual violence in war, indicating that ‘rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity, or a constitutive act with respect to genocide’.

        Leaders who call for such acts to be perpetrated should be called to account, and those who perpetrate such acts should know that legal routes exist to punish them. Politicians make laws. Or fail to uphold them. Accountability is key.

        • Squeeth

          Do you have any sources for Putin inciting Russian troops to rape Ukrainian women? Even if he stooped that low, I’d be surprised if he wanted Russian-speaking Ukrainian loyalists to be raped.

          • Urban Fox

            You’re expecting a good faith answer from someone spouting actual Nazi propaganda, which was then used in the Cold War and now by Banderites.

            The Germans were in fact the worst offenders where it came to rapine at least in Europe (Japan gets the honours in Asia) during WW2, bar none.

            The Germans institutionalised slavery snd by extension sex slavery. They didn’t bother to punish sex crimes by their troops at least in the East, German rapers had field-day until they got what was coming to them.

            That isn’t true of the Soviet command, who did belatedly try to reign in the neigh-genocidally (and understandably) pissed off Red Army when it got to Germany.

            In modern day events: No there is no source, for that brazenly made up BS. At least from Russia.

            Because it’s the AFU, Azov & SBU that has the form for torture, rape & murder.

            It’s projection. Same thing as the Zionists vis-a-vis Palestine…

          • Alyson

            I saw Putin’s twinkly eyed speech but cannot find it on YouTube.

            As for WWII – from a BBC article from 2015:
            “But the rapes had affected women in households across Berlin. Ingeborg recalls that women between the ages of 15 and 55 were ordered to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases. “You needed the medical certificate to get the food stamps and I remember that all the doctors doing these certificates, had waiting rooms full of women.”
            What was the scale of the rapes? The most often quoted number is a staggering 100,000 women in Berlin and two million on German territory. That figure – hotly debated – was extrapolated from scant surviving medical records.
            In a former munitions factory which now houses the State Archive, Martin Luchterhand shows me an armful of blue cardboard folders. These contain abortion records dated July to October 1945 from Neukolln, just one of Berlin’s 24 districts – it’s a small miracle that they survived intact.
            Abortions were illegal in Germany according to Article 218 of the penal code, but Luchterhand says “there was a small window for those women because of that special situation of the mass rapes in 1945”.
            Altogether 995 pleas for abortion were approved by this one district office in Berlin office between June 1945 to 1946. The files contain over 1,000 fragile scraps of paper of different colours and sizes. In childish round handwriting, one girl testifies that she was assaulted in the living room of her home in front of her parents.
            We will probably never know the true scale of the rapes. Soviet military tribunals and other sources remain classified. The Russian parliament recently passed a law which says that anyone who denigrates Russia’s record in World War Two could face fines and up to five years in prison.
            Vera Dubina, a young historian at the University of Humanities in Moscow, says she knew nothing of the rapes until a scholarship took her to Berlin. She later wrote a paper on the subject but struggled to get it published.
            “The Russian media reacted very aggressively,” she says. “People only want to hear about our glorious victory in the Great Patriotic War and now it is getting harder to do proper research.”

        • Urban Fox

          @ Alyson.

          BBC – red flag
          Post-war “German sources” double red flag.

          The singular (racist) fixation on so called “Russian crimes” is telling. As is the conveniently left-out fact that Germany was nearly starving in 1945-6.

          That might be a more mundane reason for large scale abortion, with the Red Army being an acceptable fall guy. For something that was controversial at the time.

          As for Russia tightening up it’s laws. Good they shouldn’t give Western bad faith actors ammunition to blacken Russia’s (and only Russia and maybe Belarus within the former U.S.S.R) reputation.

          Considering the CW is whitewashing/equivocating the O.G Nazis, their collaborators & modern successors, at the same time.

          The “young historian” is stupidly naive, if she doesn’t realise this. Such “revisionism” is *so* 1990’s. Nobody wants it for, perfectly good reasons.

  • Harry Law

    Gutless Guterres, the Israeli regime consider the UN Anti Semitic and accuse the General Secretary of backing terrorists, rapists, and murderers from Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and now Iran—the mothership of global terror.
    That being the case would it not have been better to allow him in, then arrested him, put him on trial, then murdered him, just like they have murdered 100’s of UN workers in Gaza and in 1948 when the Stern Gang murdered Count Bernadotte [a UN official] who they saw as a puppet of the British and the Arabs and therefore a serious threat to the emerging State of Israel. Most immediately, a truce was in force, and Lehi feared that the Israeli leadership would agree to Bernadotte’s peace proposals, which it considered disastrous.
    It is impossible to take the Zionists seriously, they must be put down with extreme prejudice.

    • Brian Red

      Agreed.
      Everybody with a good humanitarian heart should have realised many years ago that it’s impossible to be intellectually honest and at the same time to take any Zionist accusation of anti-Semitism against anyone seriously. It’s rather akin to taking the Aryan Brotherhood seriously if they go on about discrimination against white people.

      The culture in a place like Britain is psychotic. It cannot rightly be called other than psychotic. It does not deserve to be engaged with on its own terms.

      While the BBC paint it as excellent parenting to congratulate your son on deciding he is really a girl (and quite soon it may do the same if he says he is really a horse, wolf, or dinosaur), the sheeple also get told about how a member of the pro-Israeli gangster machine tries to start a streetfight against anti-genocide protestors (on a demonstration in which many people of Jewish descent were participating), asserting that the only reason the anti-genocidalists had a problem with him was because he was Jewish.

      This is a bit like stabbing the air in front of someone’s face with a zombie knife and saying the air belongs to everybody.

      See my second sentence above.

      • Goose

        Zionism is like a mental illness for some.

        Affecting otherwise rational human beings; columnists, in our broadsheet media write about the total destruction of Iran. population 90 million, in response to an attack, that according to the Israelis and US, didn’t injure a single Israeli. If that’s not the definition of fanaticism, don’t know what is?

        And not one of these murderous asshats argues for a end to Israel’s obscenely excessive bombing in Gaza. Or for Israel to cede land for peace. And yet authorities are trying to pick through those who want peace’s words, to try to find something in them that doesn’t remotely justify a prosecution.

        • Goose

          You’ve also got BBC radio presenters attacking one of their own, Jeremy Bowen, for having the temerity to report honestly

          Bowen said Iran risked losing respect in the wider region if it hadn’t responded.

          He’s correct of course. Iran saw Hamas leader, Haniyeh, assassinated in Iran, while he was attending the new Iranian President’s inauguration. Then the pager attacks, which blinded their ambassador in Lebanon. Then the assassination of Nasrallah along with a top Iranian general: senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan.

          Soaking up punches like that, they’ve been incredibly restrained.

          But some online, claim the missile salvo was unprovoked e.g. presenter Liz Kershaw, who called Bowen’s report “a new low in BBC bias”
          https://x.com/LizKershawDJ/status/1841530466639425552

  • iain

    As Max Blumenthal has said, Iran’s operation against zionist terror bases was the moral equivalent of bombing the railroads to Auschwitz.

    The zionists have responded to the righteous missile attack by bombing an orphanage in Gaza.

    • Jack

      And now Israel have begun to censor media that speak on the well …apparent destruction from Iran’s attack
      Israel censors reporting on sites hit in Iran’s retaliatory attack: Report
      https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/10/03/734464/Israel-censors-reports-Iran-retaliatory-attack

      Satellite images reveal Iran’s massive missile attack damaged Israel’s F-35 airbase
      https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/10/03/734470/Palestine-Iran-Israel-missile-attack-Nevatim-satellite-images

      Once again we see how the west got played by Israel’s disinformation that “all missiles were shut down-no-destruction-occured” etc

      • Goose

        Logically, if it did no damage, any retaliation should be token or perfunctory. The fact Israel are talking about a inflicting serious damage suggests otherwise. Which brings us to a bigger question:

        When is America going to rein in the rabid dog they’ve empowered with all their advanced weaponry?

        I genuinely think Israel’s leadership is stupid enough / hubristic enough to start a fire no nation on earth can contain .In these three steps:

        i. Israel destroys Iran’s oil refineries
        ii. Iran responds with largest salvos ever seen, causing mass destruction in Israeli cities. Possibly attacks on other regional energy producers (KSA) and US bases in the region.
        iii. Netanyahu orders nuclear strikes from his subs, killing millions of people.

        How could anyone in the US want such an outcome?

        • Goose

          The message from the Gulf Cooperation Council – made up of the UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait – to Iran is “please de-escalate”, he said.

          Oh look, they’ve finally found their voice when their oil infrastructure is threatened. Anyone else been thoroughly disgusted with the Arab response to Israel’s genocide? Iran destroying all the energy production in the region and mining Hormuz is the one means by which they can inflict serious pain on the West, i.e. us.

          As for the Arabs and the lack of a collective position on Gaza, Lebanon, you can see why they were defeated in the Six-Day war (1967 Arab-Israeli war).

          • Brian Red

            Yes – the UAE for example hasn’t even cut back on its diplomatic relations with the terror state. How can anyone take them seriously? I am also disgusted with the Lebanese government’s response. But they eventually decided to return fire when the Israelis – who had already bombed the Lebanon extensively, terrorising 1 million people to flee their homes (about 1/5 of the population), killed about ~2000 people, and blown up pagers in what no serious person could deny was a terrorist attack – invaded the Lebanon and started shooting at the Lebanese army. In other words, when they had no choice, because they may have found that the order “Just lie down and let the enemy kill you, loot and smash up your house, and post photos online of themselves ransacking your underwear drawer” was widely disobeyed.

            Better late than never though. There obviously does need to be what the BBC etc. are painting as the most wicked thing possible – an axis of resistance. This is absolutely no time for sectarianism of any kind.

  • Republicofscotland

    Apparently – the US lied, about Netanyahu knowing that a ceasefire was in the offing.

    “We now learn that Nasrallah had agreed to the ceasefire shortly before he was assassinated and Israel or the US was affirmatively duplicitous, as if that comes as a surprise. Antiwar summarizes a CNN interview with the Lebanese foreign minister:

    Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has said that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah agreed to a US and French-proposed 21-day ceasefire with Israel right before Israel killed him.

    Habib said the US and France told Lebanon that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also agreed to the ceasefire proposal.

    “They told us that Mr. Netanyahu agreed on this, and so we also got the agreement of Hezbollah on that. And, you know what happened since then,” Habib told CNN host Christiane Amanpour.”

    • Allan Howard

      ‘Habib said the US and France told Lebanon that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also agreed to the ceasefire proposal.’

      A ruse, no doubt (and maybe they – Israel/Netanyahu and the US/Biden – even duped ‘France’ as well}.

      • Republicofscotland

        Allan Howard.

        Yes, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian – noted in a speech that the order to assassinate Nasrallah came from New York – Pezeshkian – added that it will not be forgotten.

  • Allan Howard

    Whist doing a search for an article on the Times website (which I couldn’t find) I came aross the following which I wasn’t aware of. It was behind a paywall, but I did my little trick of refreshing the page and quickly copying it before the wall came up again. This is what I managed to capture:

    MIDDLE EAST CRISIS

    ‘We knew what would happen’: how Hamas attacked on October 7

    Israeli watchwomen say their fears were ignored. Then, minute by minute, terrorists turned those fears into unthinkable reality
    Militants commandeered tanks and fired rockets on Israel in the surprise attack [this must have been the caption to a picture/photo]

    Gabrielle Weiniger, Tel Aviv
    Friday November 10 2023, 5.20pm, The Times

    The first signs of unusual activity were reported by women who sit in watchtowers as observer soldiers, staring at the screens monitoring the Gaza border fence, day in and day out. They knew days, weeks and even years before the attack that something was afoot; that whatever it was would play out in the morning, that there would be air-raid sirens, that their cameras would be shot down, that hostages would be taken.

    “We knew exactly how it would happen,” an unnamed soldier who monitors the border told Israel’s public broadcaster this week. Hamas was undertaking training exercises with more and more frequency, “testing how quickly they could reach the fence, right in front of our eyes”.

    The attack on October 7, in which Hamas’s…..

    So the Times covered it as well, along with JVL, and the BBC, who did a really long article about it, interviewing some of the women/spotters at length. I won’t bovver posting a link to the Times article, but if you happen to subscribe and, as such, have access to the full article and want to check it out, the headline is in fact: ‘We knew what would happen’: how Hamas attacked on October 7.
    .

    • Allan Howard

      It just occured to me to go back to the Times article and check the picture/photo, and it wasn’t a photo at all, but something concocted by the Times. And the reason I went back to check it is that it suddenly occured to me that there is no way Hamas – militants – ‘commandeered tanks and fired rockets on Israel…’. It’s a falsehood contrived to account for the severe damage done to buildings and vehicles and account for those who were burnt beyond recognition. The Times is obviously banking on the fact that the vast majority of people don’t know that the reason Israel reduced the number of Israelis killed on Oct 7th from 1,400 to 1,200 is because 200 or so of those burnt beyond recognition were Hamas fighters.

      • Allan Howard

        Many thanks Brian… I was really dying to read the whole article!

        On second thoughts I’d better rephrase that:

        I was really longing to read the whole article.

  • Republicofscotland

    Australian politicians falling over themselves to denounce, or imprison, anyone that shows the slightest bit of support for Hezbollah.

    “And it should here be noted that Australia is the only so-called democracy in the world which has no national charter or bill of rights of any kind. A tremendous amount of faith has been placed in state and federal legislators to simply do the right thing.”

    https://consortiumnews.com/2024/10/03/punishing-pro-hezbollah-speech/

    • Jack

      Comical to see westerm leaders being played time and time again by Israel. Not realizing that Israel do not give a hoot about the west but only use the west for their own interest.

      Some month after the 911 attack some 60 israelis had been detained/arrested in the US. Prior to 911 some 140 israelis had been detained/arrested.
      All reported by Foxnews(!) back in 2001: Quite explosive reporting below:
      Israel Spying on America – Carl Cameron Investigates
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh04uu1EkIU

      • Goose

        And I’d imagine any junior officer, diplomat or official, proposing a full investigation of their behaviour, faces either being demoted by those more senior, who are loyal to Israel; or accusations of antisemitism followed by potential disciplinary action, blighting their careers.

        Feels like they’ve got the whole West tying ourselves in knots in their defence. It wasn’t always like this; Israel’s rightwing Zionists, realised foreign governments were easy to manipulate at some point. And they knew Western intelligence agencies wouldn’t do anything to stop them.

    • Republicofscotland

      Goose.

      If I recall correctly the Dutch – invaded England in 1688, maybe BoJo sought revenge, mind you the Dutch are in it up to their necks, with the BS, Flight MH17 report – not to mention Geert Wilders, and his protege Mark Rutte – Nato’s new mouthpiece.

      As for the Zionists in reality they are friends with no one – they spy on there allies – and if needs be, attack them, as in the USS Liberty Incident.

      “Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has revealed a planned “raid” on a NATO ally to steal COVID-19 vaccines amid a UK-EU dispute in 2021.

      Johnson’s memoirs published by the Daily Mail on Saturday cited an extract in which the ex-UK PM claimed British military officials had put forth a secret plan to steal COVID-19 vaccines from a factory in the Netherlands.

      According to the memoirs, the factory was holding approximately 5 million Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine doses manufactured by subcontractors at the Dutch Halix plant.

      Johnson claims in his memoirs that British military officials told him the plan to steal the vaccines was “feasible.”

      However, they also warned Johnson that pulling off the operation undetected would be nearly impossible and Downing Street should be prepared for potential diplomatic fallout with both the EU and NATO if the raid was carried out as relations with Brussels were already sour over Brexit.

      “If we are detected, we will have to explain why we are effectively invading a long-standing NATO ally,” Johnson in his memoirs quoted one top UK military official as saying.”

      • Goose

        All this go-Israel! BS from Trump. Do you think they respect him, I mean genuinely? They’re flattering and using him, imho. They certainly like slumlord Jared Kushner, Trump’s creepy son-in-law. Speaking of whom, did you read Jared Kushner’s long post on X urging Netanyahu to basically set the region on fire?

        I’ve no doubt at all Netanyahu could do anything he wished under another Trump administration. If Obama is advising Harris(?) she may note.only may, be less indulgent of Israel. Remember, Obama was caught in a hot mic incident agreeing with Sarkozy’s assessment of Netanyahu, that he was a liar and a schemer.

        • Republicofscotland

          Yip Trump is pro-Zionism – when he was last POTUS he scuppered the JCPOA deal with Iran, and invited every country to set their embassy to Israel in Jerusalem, even though Jerusalem has special UN status that doesn’t permit that.

          We have to remember that its a prerequisite for any POTUS to be pro-Israel and pro-Zionism, powerful and rich Jews – along with very influential pro-Israeli lobby groups – hold sway in Washington. Long gone are the days when a POTUS could pay them no heed.

          • Goose

            The funny thing is, at his recent rallies, Trump still repeats that c.2016 claim that he doesn’t need anyone’s money…therefore, ‘they’ don’t own him and by extension ‘they’ will never control you (his supporters). Campaigning in 2015-2016 remember, he claimed to a gathered Jewish business audience, that the reason prominent wealthy Republican Jews, like them, didn’t support him, was because he didn’t need their money… therefore they couldn’t control him. His comments were widely reported.

            In others words, many in the Jewish community are prepared to tolerate all sorts of overt anti-Semitic tropes from Trump ,providing he keeps giving Israel and Netanyahu everything they demand. How shallow and opportunistic does this make them all look?

          • Goose

            There are quite a few Telegraph journalists who’ve come out in support of Trump in 2024 too, ignoring his past overtly anti-Semitic comments. These days, whether you are classed as anti-Semitic or not, depends entirely upon where you stand on Israel’s aggressive expansionism. If an individual supports that, then repeating any other anti-Semitic trope is viewed as okay.

            This is true in Starmer’s Labour too, where pro-Palestine MPs have been kicked out of the party for the smallest of infringements, whereas alleged anti-Semitic posts by pro-Israel MPs have been ignored e.g, when Starmerite Barry Sheerman tweeted about a “run on silver shekels” in an apparent reference to a rumour about two high profile Jewish businessmen missing out on peerages.

      • Goose

        As funny as this ‘shitty’ behaviour is by Netanyahu. It speaks to how they gather intel on all western politicians and try to shape our politics in their interests, promoting their preferred candidates in the media they own. Shai Masot famously even boasted he could get UK ministers removed / ‘take down’, Israel critic Sir Alan Duncan being in his sights.

        Why do MI6/MI5 indulge this? They are forever going on about potential Russian and Chinese influence attempts – which typically don’t amount to a row of beans; when all the while Israel and people like Masot treat our political system like a glorified cattle market.

    • Brian Red

      @Goose – That’s interesting. The last time I was in London there was a round-the-clock pro-Israeli “protest” presence on King Charles Street. For those who don’t know it, this is a narrow street that runs off Whitehall between the Foreign Office and the Treasury. The theme of the protest camp was (probably still is) denouncing the IRGC in Iran. It’s obvious the presence must be okayed. Gotta wonder what they’re doing there. It’s not a busy street. Whatever it’s about, it’s not about delivering a message to lots of people, as for example Brian Haw’s anti-war protest in Parliament Square was.

      @Craig – any ideas?

      • Goose

        I dunno, some of the Iranian opposition abroad, are a fairly radical bunch, especially the Mojahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) crew. How radical? Some of their leaders favour the West bombing the country, that’s how radical.

        Aaron Bastani, half Iranian himself, has commented about this and them in the past. They are often connected to CIA/MI6 destabilisation activities in the country, and they’ve lost people (killed and/or tortured) and as a result have become radicalised/warped in their hatred of the regime. In 2013, a bunch of MEK were found tied up and shot in the head in Northern Iraq. The Iranian regime were blamed for this, but tribal locals reported seeing /hearing black helicopters land and there were no signs of a struggle. Another cleaning up exercise, related to Syria? What a world, eh.

        Virtually nobody in Iran, even critics of the regime, believe bombing the country into being a failed state, like Libya, a good idea.

      • Goose

        Oh, you’re talking about the pro-Israel flash mobs. Yeah, we saw these under Corbyn. Hundreds of people would suddenly appear from nowhere all holding identical printed placards. Known figures from the Israeli embassy were seen among them, chanting anti-Corbyn stuff.

        As to why they’re allowed to gather in areas other demonstrators aren’t – e.g. directly outside parliament etc. – I honestly don’t know? Maybe Netanyahu is mates with the head of the London Met; or it’s political orders from Westminster or something, giving special privileges?

  • Tom74

    It’s a mistake to take to take anything Johnson says at face value. The subtext of his allegation of a Israeli bug plot is to hype up the Israeli military capabilities and/or deflect from whoever else might have bugged him (most likely the US). The same goes for the possible raid of the covid vaccine factory in the Netherlands – basically a veiled military threat to the EU (ie more Brexit propaganda on behalf of his American sponsors). No surprise either that Johnson is regularly going to Ukraine to consort with far-right Zelensky as they are both of a similar mould.

  • Harry Law

    Israel is fighting a six front war Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Gaza, Yemen and Iran. It was General Soleimani who planned this war of attrition, it is a war Israel (used to fighting shortish wars) cannot win, Iranian technology is supplying all the arc of resistance for a long haul. Israel will go bankrupt and the US fleet cannot stay on station for months on end. The blog Simplicius take note of the second video of an Iranian missile strike which must be a hypersonic one judging by its speed. The Israelis have no defence against ordinary ballistic missiles; their defences, including all western assets, were completely overwhelmed by this game-changing barrage.

    • Brian Red

      Simplicius is a good writer. I haven’t read his stuff for years. Thanks for this. Good that he’s devoting attention to the Middle East conflict.
      What is the conclusion then? An Israeli nuclear attack on Iran and maybe also other countries too? Surprise Israeli-caused events in the wider world?

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