No major western leader is ever again going to be able to speak about human rights or ethical values, without attracting howls of derision. They are turning on their own people in order to prevent protest at a genocide they actively support.
Keir Starmer stepped up the pressure on opponents of Zionist genocide on Thursday with the arrest of journalist Sarah Wilkinson and the charging of activist Richard Barnard, both under the draconian Section 12 of the Terrorism Act which carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.
The UK MSM has of course ignored these, but is universally carrying outrage at the conviction of two Hong Kong activists for sedition, which carries a maximum sentence of … 2 years.
But they tell us it is China and not the UK which is the authoritarian dictatorship.
(To be plain, I do view the Hong Kong convictions as also an unwarranted interference with free speech. I merely point out the incredible hypocrisy of the British Establishment and far worse laws here).
Richard Barnard has been charged and will face trial, apparently related to public speeches supporting the Palestinian right to armed resistance.
Sarah Wilkinson was released on bail after about 14 hours. Like the recent arrest and bailing of Richard Medhurst, the arrest and bailing is a device to chill her reporting and activism.
The harassment of dissident journalists at ports, using the extensive powers of the Terrorism Act for questioning and confiscation of communications equipment, has become routine. I myself suffered detention, interrogation and confiscation of equipment for “terrorism” last October.
But the Sarah Wilkinson case is an escalation, in that this is a raid on a journalist whose home was invaded by 16 policemen at 7.30am, while she was arrested and taken to the police station as her home was comprehensively turned over, presumably looking for gunmen under the bed.
More details of the raid have come out which are scarcely believable. Armed counter-terrorism police wearing balaclavas were used against a peaceful, female journalist. She was manhandled and physically hurt. The ashes in her mother’s funerary urn were desecrated in a “search”. And Sarah’s bail conditions include that she may not use a computer or mobile telephone.
It is a fascist government that sends 16 police to bust a peaceful journalist at home at 7.30am.
Like the stopping of Richard Medhurst’s plane on the tarmac by police vehicles and his being dragged from the plane (which had just landed and was en route to the gate anyway) this is an authoritarian theatre of intimidation, a Nazi stamping of the violence of the state.
Richard Barnard is a co-founder of the brilliant Palestine Action, which has done so much to disrupt the Israeli arms industry in the UK as it continues to send vital equipment to carry out the mass destruction of civilians in Gaza.
BREAKING: After a targeted campaign by the zionist lobby, Palestine Action's co-founder Richard Barnard is facing three charges for two speeches.
He is accused of supporting a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act and encouraging 'criminal activity'. pic.twitter.com/cWq0qwk15v
— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) August 29, 2024
Richard has been charged under Section 12 of the Terrorism Act over two speeches he made supporting the Palestinian resistance.
I have of course said this before, but it bears repeating:
Palestine has the legitimate right of self-defence against the illegal occupation.
The occupying power Israel has no right of self-defence. That is the plain position in international law.
Yet in the UK, it is legal to offer full-throated support to Israel’s genocide and to wish that all Palestinians are exterminated.
IDF participants in genocide happily move between Israel and the UK with no legal consequences.
Yet it is illegal to support certain Palestinian organisations when engaged in legal acts of armed resistance.
The state’s actions against activists have been ramped up – as I predicted – since Starmer came to power.
Five young activists in Glasgow were ten days ago given sentences ranging from 12 months to 24 months in prison for direct action against Thales weapons plant in Govan, which makes parts for Israel’s Watchkeeper drones, widely used against civilians in Gaza.
The sentences from Sheriff Judge McCormick were savage – far higher than would normally be given on the specified charges, which were of breach of the peace, vandalism, disorderly conduct and acting in an abusive manner.
These normally would attract at most a suspended sentence on a first offence. McCormick also ignored the Scottish government guidelines not to give custodial sentences of 24 months or less but to seek alternatives.
More tellingly, McCormick completely ignored the elephant in the room: the genocide in Gaza, which Thales are supplying.
(The fact the action occurred before the genocide should be properly viewed as a commendable act of prescience.)
The Zionist Starmerite Establishment were quick to crow over the jailing – notably Luke Akehurst and John Woodcock (who is laughably called Lord Walney nowadays and is the Government Adviser on political violence) who said “Activists considering breaking the law to get their way need to see there will be consequences”.
This follows similarly harsh sentencing of climate change activists, including those who merely took part in Zoom calls discussing direct action.
The authoritarian reaction of the threatened Zionist ruling class is a worldwide phenomenon. Redoubtable Australian journalist Mary Kostakidis has been ludicrously charged under hate speech laws for retweeting mainstream pro-Palestinian tweets.
American activist Professor Danny Shaw was turned over by the FBI on return to the USA following a trip which included speaking on a panel alongside me at the Palestine International Film Festival.
Also in the United States my friend Scott Ritter has been raided by the FBI and all his electronics and other materials confiscated.
I have spoken to Danny Shaw and to Richard Medhurst. In all of these arrests and detentions, including my own, the emphasis has been on confiscating electronics and on questioning focusing very strongly on contacts, meetings and sources of finance.
The Five Eyes intelligence services are plainly building up Venn diagrams of the democratic opposition to Zionism and the neoliberal project. It is notable that many of those recently arrested over Palestine – including Mary Kostakidis, Richard Medhurst, Scott Ritter and myself – were active in the campaign to free Julian Assange.
I have always maintained that Keir Starmer’s record shows that he will be an even bigger danger to civil liberties than the Tories. It is worth noting that all of the Tory recent draconian legislation – The Public Order Act, The National Security Act and even the Rwanda Act – was not opposed or was supported by Starmer as the pretend “Leader of the Opposition”.
Starmer and Cooper are continuing the Tory policy of challenging a High Court ruling won by Liberty, that Suella Braverman acted illegally in tabling secondary legislation lowering the threshold to ban a demonstration on grounds of inconvenience to the public.
The forthcoming Online Safety Act will be truly chilling, including making it illegal to publish what the government deems misinformation.
Starmer has always been MI5-controlled. The fact that, while a Tory government was in power, the Crown Prosecution Service destroyed all the key documentation revealing Starmer’s involvement in the Assange, Savile and Janner cases (the last being far more important than generally appreciated), shows the extent to which Starmer is a protected Deep State asset.
If we are to survive this descent onto fascism as a society, we need to be prepared to dissent now, and each of us needs to be prepared to go to jail if necessary.
A last word to Craig Mokhiber, the senior UN international lawyer who resigned in protest at UN pusillanimity in face of genocide:
A dark evil has descended over the West. As the genocide in Palestine continues, the US, UK, Germany & other Western governments, instead of cracking down on those committing, aiding and inciting the genocide, are cracking down on those opposing the genocide. Human rights…
— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) August 31, 2024
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If there are any good people left in Poland they must despair at the lunacy of their leaders.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240903/poland-aims-at-world-record-for-military-spending-in-2025—defense-minister-1119999193.html
It doesn’t surprise me that NATO members closer to Russia, who were former members of the Soviet bloc have invested a greater part of their GDP on defense, since Trump threatened to abandon them to their fate otherwise and and encourage Russia to have its way with them. Not to mention his privately discussing pulling out of NATO altogether, thus destroying it, no doubt to Putin’s delight.
MJ
It makes no sense since it is a made up threat. . If these nations are so worried they could go to Moscow and fix whatever issue they have, they are not doing that instead they are propping up and scaring themselves, which in turn cause Russia to become more suspicious of their activities. The relations with Russia/West were, atleast calm, right up until the Madan events in Ukraine, something that Poland played a huge role in.
Funny you bring up Poland, being the prime suspect in the Nord Stream attack, if you were sitting and Russia seeing what Poland just did, well that is basically a declaration of war.
German officials claim Poland sabotaged investigation into Nord Stream explosions
https://www.politico.eu/article/germany-poland-sabotage-investigation-nord-stream-pipeline-explosions-ukrainian-suspect-volodymyr-z/
We have a saying here in Russia “the cat knows whose meat he stole”.
Poland is now playing the victim.
Almost everyone knows that before the WW2, Hitler was given the Sudetenland of a now defunct country, Czechoslovakia. But few will remember that Poland also was participating in this cutting up of the country, acquiring the Teschen region. And it’s better not to ask the Poles why their country is monoethnic at the moment.
Please, allow me to entertain you with a joke on this fine Sunday evening:
– My admiral, the alien invasion fleet is ready! We are starting a war with Earth by attacking Poland.
– General, but why Poland?
– For some reason, that’s the custom on this planet.
Tatyana
Certainly a custom that Russia respected.
Polish paranoia – if that is what it is – is entirely understandable and justified.
😂
Jack
You are right of course.
“If these nations are so worried they could go to Moscow and fix whatever issue they have.”
Dead right.
Russia would give them a fair hearing and an equitable settlement, respecting their rights as a small country.
Aye right. (As we say in Brussels.)
(I have a bridge in Moscow that I’d like to sell you btw. Please PM me if interested.)
Jk Redux
Russia would give them a fair hearing and an equitable settlement, respecting their rights as a small country.
Yes they talked before the Maidan events.
2010: Medvedev Pursues ‘New Level’ In Relations During Poland Visit
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia_poland_katyn/2239957.html
Same year: Putin Gesture Heralds New Era in Russian-Polish Relations
https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/remembering-the-katyn-massacre-putin-gesture-heralds-new-era-in-russian-polish-relations-a-687819.html
Instead the poles are the ones that have accelerated the opposite way, their choice and what have they won by that? Nothing.
Jack
Abandoning humour.
Poland has been fvcked about by Russia/USSR for a hundred years since independence after WW1.
They are very wise not to rely on kind words from the Little Dictator.
As that late benefactor of mankind, Mao, said “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun”.
Another quote “Si vis pacem, para bellum”.
(Damn that warmonger Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus…. )
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum
JK redux. @21.15pm.
You comment there, like the West has committed no such crimes – when, for instance the whole of Central and South America – have been terrorised by the USA for decades now. Indeed so enarmoured, by their vile deeds across Central and South America – were the Americans – that they have even penned a document – (The Monroe Doctrine) warning old world European nations, to stay out of its Central and Southern American playgrounds.
I haven’t even mentioned – what the other old European Empires have done across the globe – including Belgium in the Congo.
RoS
Of course the Zapod has committed terrible crimes across the world. As so of course has Russia.
But that is not a reason to support Russia’s current crimes in its “near abroad”.
And Poland is very wise to build up its defences. A weakened (by Ukraine with Western support) Russia is less likely to try to intimidate a strong Poland.
As I said, “Si vis pacem, para bellum”.
JK redux
Well if you are refusing to talk with your neighbor like this, escalation and war is the only way to solve any problems you have. Your choice. And if you pick this very choice, do not be surprised that Russia escalate on their side.
So by not talking you have have made yourself less secure and created the perfect milieu for a war. Read up on how WW1 started and you will learn that your reasoning, on solving issues between nations, is very backwards.
Jack
Apologies for extending this conversation but I’m intrigued when you say
“if you are refusing to talk with your neighbor like this, escalation and war is the only way to solve any problems you have. Your choice. And if you pick this very choice, do not be surprised that Russia escalate on their side.”
What problems does Poland have that Russian can or will solve?
And of course what “escalation ” by Russia would be justified if Poland chooses to strengthen its military?
Jk Redux
What problems does Poland have that Russian can or will solve?
Well this is your point, you are arguing that 1 Poland have problems with Russia and 2 There is no reason to talk to Russia.
So what problems do Poland have regards to Russia I ask you?
And of course what “escalation ” by Russia would be justified if Poland chooses to strengthen its military?
If you delibeately choose not to speak and solve problems diplomatically, peacefully and instead chose escalation, menacing acts, threats and even sabotage like being involved in the Nord Stream sabotage. Then you cannot be surprised if the other side – Russia – pick the same route against you.
Jack
Excellent thanks.
SPIEGEL?
Unthinkable today!
Turned into war-mongering piece of garbage.
(Although I never really trusted SPIEGEL…)
Jack
I asked “what “escalation ” by Russia would be justified if Poland chooses to strengthen its military?”.
In other words, for Poland to strengthen its military, just as Russia did over the last ten or so years, is not a hostile act warranting escalation by Russia.
Don’t you agree?
I asked “what “escalation ” by Russia would be justified if Poland chooses to strengthen its military?”.
No, Poland are the ones escalating the situation, for example by choosing not to conduct diplomacy and by, most likely, being involved in the Nord Stream attack in one way or another which is an act of war.
In other words, for Poland to strengthen its military, just as Russia did over the last ten or so years, is not a hostile act warranting escalation by Russia.
Russia have not accelerated their expenditures past “ten or so years” as you can see here:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?end=2022&locations=RU&start=2010
Besides, Russia spend quite little compared to Poland considering that Russia is some 55 times bigger than Poland.
JK Redux: “Si vis pacem, para bellum”. Well spoken. You reminded me that after WW2 the Turks deterred Stalin from invading Turkey by saying ‘You’ll have to kill us first.’ Stalin thought better of it. I expect that once the present situation is resolved, Russia won’t be in a hurry to invade Ukraine again.
JK redux. @8.14.
Is it not Zapad?
Anyway – I’d say, that Poland is building up its military defences, because it appears to be – allowing Ukraine, and the West, to use it as a staging post.
Of course the Polish President – Andrzej Duda, isn’t exactly pro-Russian.
Jack
You said that “Russia have not accelerated their expenditures past “ten or so years” as you can see here:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?end=2022&locations=RU&start=2010
Besides, Russia spend quite little compared to Poland considering that Russia is some 55 times bigger than Poland.”
From the link that you included, Russia’s defence expenditure for 2022 was 4.1% of GDP while Poland’s was 2.4% of GDP.
So Russia was far more profligate in its defence expenditure – it peaked to 5.4% in 2016 then dropped to 4.1% in 2022.
I expect that it has increased considerably since given the Ukrainian debacle but I expect that the Kremlin may not wish to divulge the current figures.
Why assume that the RF wants to take up the burden of former Warsaw Pact countries? I bet that they’d rather live in Swansea.
Mostly agreed, basic democratic liberties conquered since the Age of Enlightenment or even the Magna Carta seem to be gradually eliminated in the West (as elsewhere). I do not know if this is temporary or if humanity is entering an era of despotism forever.
Still, I will object with respect to ‘it is illegal to support certain Palestinian organisations when engaged in legal acts of armed resistance’. That ‘when’ is doing a lot of work here. The legality of *some* of the activities of an organisation does not entail the legality of *all* activities of the organisation, or the legality of the organisation itself. Hamas has the right to engage in armed resistance against the Israeli military and security services, but it does *not* have the right to kill random Israeli civilians or to take random Israeli civilians hostage. And since Hamas keeps doing the latter, has done it in the past as well and and does not disavow it, it is reasonable that it should be illegal. To be sure, the fact that the British State now apparently has the right to ban any organisation and even verbal support for it at a whim is unacceptable and incompatible with basic democratic principles. After all, it means that a decision by the State, once taken, can never be undone through normal democratic debate, since even disputing its correctness is outlawed for as long as it is in force. However, in the case of Hamas, PIJ and the like, that decision happens to be justified. If Western elites are going to take away our human rights, let us at least not give them good pretexts by supporting or excusing actual terrorism.
F. Foundling
If Western elites are going to take away our human rights, let us at least not give them good pretexts by supporting or excusing actual terrorism.
You are buying into the western created narrative of who is a terrorist.
Why bother with petty groups like Hamas when whole governments, citizens, individuals are free to hail, support, give IDF every kind of support considering IDF have conducted far more terrorist-related acts than palestinians groups ever have.
Mandela, now hailed by the same west that are quick to use the term terrorism, was considered a terrorist in the west until like 2013. Impyling that the term is wholly political, for the west, to begin with.
“Hamas … does *not* have the right to kill random [civilians] or to take random [civilians] hostage”
If 1srael is allowed do this, then by established precedent so is Hamas, PIJ, etc.
Unless Britain designates 1srael as a terrorist group, that designation of Hamas is just hollow propaganda.
“all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others” George Orwell, Animal Farm.
The UK is run by pigs.
Wow, that’s some fascinating deep reading you must have done there, SB. Bet nobody has come across that quote before – it certainly blew me away!
Back to an earlier quote you ran away from – why is polio vaccination, and vaccinations in general, all BS in your esteemed opinion?
Even more to the point, why did Israel want to vaccinate its entire population against Covid-19, while trying its best to deny the Palestinians the same?
Cognitive dissonance is a bitch, eh? 😉
Stevie Boy.
The CIA, funded the making of the film Animal Farm, in order to smear Communism and Socialism – when I look at the fat greedy pigs in the film – I always think of fat cat capitalists, who don’t give a toss about anyone but themselves.
Orwell died in 1950 – his younger wife, and widow, Sonia – sold the rights to the film to – Carleton Alsop, an undercover CIA officer at Paramount Studios, and Finis Farr, a Los Angeles writer, on the condition that she met with the movie star Clark Gable.
The CIA, and the FBI – pumped out several propaganda films.
“The CIA used hundreds of millions of dollars from the Marshall Plan for European recovery to finance its ‘cultural’ activities, according to Stonor Saunders. In the early years, money was no object.
”We couldn’t spend it all,” Gilbert Greenway, a former CIA agent, recalled in The Assassinations. ”There were no limits, and nobody had to account for it. It was amazing.”!”
https://spyscape.com/article/spy-tricks-the-cia-mission-to-turn-orwells-animal-farm-into-cold-war-weapon
Yes. To actually get a better understanding of where Orwell was coming from it’s important to look at his life. Spanish civil war, civil servant, journalist, etc. It’s best to read the source material and ignore third party interpretations, particularly Hollywood.
An excellent resource is at:
https://www.orwellfoundation.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orwell%27s_list
Orwell was a grass.
Sir Keir Starmer and the British government do not consider shooting Palestinian toddlers twice in the head to be terrorism. they do not accept that it even meets the threshold of being a crime. they will never accept that.
Should a true pluralist society allow everyone to serve as a representative, regardless of an old fashion party political system and or an electoral system that can be manipulated by political agendas and or corrupt powerbrokers, cheated as proven by past records?
Should representatives be chosen at random, without much cost of an election, some 300 million plus?
Would it be fairer?
In a Guardian article posted on October 9th it said the following near the end:
Many family members of those attending the party headed to a missing persons centre at a police station near Ben Gurion airport on Sunday. Relatives were told to bring items, such as toothbrushes, that could contain DNA.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/09/how-the-hamas-attack-on-the-supernova-festival-in-israel-unfolded
On November 8th (and the following days) the MSM reported that Israel had revised the number of Israelis killed on October 7th from 1,400 down to 1,200, and did so without explanation:
Israel Revises Death Toll Estimate to 1,200, Down From 1,400
By Gordon Lubold, Wall Street Journal November 8th
The Israeli government revised its death toll for the number of people killed in the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 from the prior estimate of 1,400 to a new count of about 1,200.
It couldn’t be determined what led to the revised figure. A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lior Haiat, said Friday that the estimate could change again as more bodies are identified.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip-2023-11-08/card/israel-revises-death-toll-estimate-to-1-200-down-from-1-400-OCJ3lf9HQUmM0u6VLrmY (scroll down a tad)
On November 18th Skwawkbox reported that the former Israeli ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, inadvertently let the cat out of the bag:
Challenged by MSNBC interviewer Mehdi Hasan about Israel’s revision of its claimed death toll from 1,400 to 1,200, Regev answered that two hundred bodies they had thought were ‘ours’ were in fact Hamas operatives [who were identified by their DNA because they were burnt beyond recognition, and obviously weren’t killed and burnt beyond recognition by other Hamas fighters]
https://skwawkbox.org/2023/11/18/video-israeli-govt-spokesman-lets-slip-that-kibbutz-victims-killed-by-israel-not-hamas/
Two or three weeks after the figure was revised down to 1,200 it was further quietly revised down again, without explanation, by another 50 or so, and they were undoubtedly also Hamas fighters burnt beyond recognition, making around 250 altogether.
And my point in posting all of the above is that if the helicopter gunships and tanks incinerated 250 or so Hamas fighters, then it’s more-then-likely that they killed and incinerated at least as many Israelis, and quite possibly a lot more than that, and the Israeli authorities and BN and Co obviously must know exactly how many Israelis were killed and incinerated by ‘friendly fire’ (or to be more precice, the Hannibal Directive).
But they will never-ever reveal the number of course, and the only way it will ever be determined is by a newspaper like Haaretz investigating the matter and asking all the families whose relative(s) had to be identified by their DNA to contact them.
Just came across this, from three days ago:
«Israeli forces accused of killing their own citizens under the ‘Hannibal Directive’ during October 7 chaos
Israelis are still reeling from the horror and pain of the Hamas-led terror attack, which was the bloodiest single day in Israel’s history.
But the Israeli military is coming under increasing pressure to reveal just how many of their own citizens were killed by Israeli soldiers, pilots and police in the confusion of the Hamas attack on southern Israeli communities.
Survivors and relatives have been asking not just “what went wrong”, but whether the military invoked the controversial — and supposedly rescinded — “Hannibal Directive”.
The IDF has not confirmed or denied a version of the Hannibal directive was applied on October 7, only saying it is one of many things from that day under investigation.
In response to questions from the ABC, the Israeli military provided a statement saying: “The IDF is currently focused on eliminating the threat from the terrorist organisation Hamas.”
“Questions of this kind will be looked into at a later stage.”
‘This was a mass Hannibal’
In July, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed commanders in the IDF gave the order to fire on troops who had been captured by Hamas at three separate locations, explicitly referencing the Hannibal Directive.
One former Israeli officer, Air Force Colonel Nof Erez, told a Haaretz podcast the directive was not specifically ordered but was “apparently applied” by responding aircrews.
Panicked, operating without their normal command structure and unable to coordinate with ground forces, they fired on vehicles returning to Gaza, knowing they were likely carrying hostages.
“This was a mass Hannibal. It was tons and tons of openings in the fence, and thousands of people in every type of vehicle, some with hostages and some without,” Colonel Erez said.»
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-07/israel-hannibal-directive-kidnap-hamas-gaza-hostages-idf/104224430
Thanks for bringing it up again especially those sources/quotes.
(Perhaps you wanna “archive” your most important finds in the forum: Gaza thread. So we have them in one space for research etc.)
Re. “Israelis are still reeling from the horror and pain of the Hamas-led terror attack, which was the bloodiest single day in Israel’s history.”
Apparently, the stated objective of the Hamas attack on the 7th Oct. was to gather Israeli hostages to use as bargaining chips for the release of some of the many thousands of hostages Israel holds. Hamas was also very surprised at how easy they were able to cross into the occupied zone and how little resistance there initially was.
There are many obvious conclusions from this episode …
Somewhat interesting.
Pierre de Gaulle, the grandson of the late French leader General Charles De Gaulle – intends to move to Moscow – de Gaulle said he was disillusioned by French politics, and the direction it is taking.
De Gaulle – also said – that it would be an honour, if he could become a Russian citizen.
From his website:https://fondationpierredegaulle.com/en/about-us
“I remain faithful to the political thinking of General de Gaulle, my grandfather, who, beyond the circumstances and difficulties of his era, defended the freedom of peoples to determine their own destiny, as well as the necessity of a friendly and partnership-based relationship with Russia, the sole guarantor of prosperity and peace in France, the Francophonie, and the world.”
“The sole guarantor of prosperity and peace in France, the Francophonie, and the world”!
Aye right.
The apple fell far from the tree…
That is from the English version of that site. The clumsiness and ambiguity of the construction – which lends itself to interpretation that Pierre de Gaulle is saying something crazy as you note – all that suggests it is a poor translation from the French, and it is.
The original – decently translated into Spanish there – is:
Je reste fidèle à la pensée politique du Général de Gaulle, mon grand-père, qui a dédié sa vie à la France et aux Français, dans la grandeur, l’honneur et l’espoir. L’alliance avec la Russie était un des fondements de sa stratégie : « Pour la France et la Russie, être unies, c’est être fortes. Se trouver séparées, c’est se trouver en danger. Il y a là comme un impératif catégorique de la géographie, de l’expérience et du bon sens. »
Google renders it far better than the English version of the site:
I remain faithful to the political thinking of General de Gaulle, my grandfather, who dedicated his life to France and the French, in grandeur, honor and hope. The alliance with Russia was one of the foundations of his strategy: “For France and Russia, to be united is to be strong. To be separated is to be in danger. There is a categorical imperative of geography, experience and common sense.”
Worst of all, the English version, besides butchering language and meaning does not show that Pierre is quoting his grandfather! (A speech from Dec 21 1944). General de Gaulle was just reprising a very traditional geopolitical observation once more proven true in WWI & WWII, that France and Russia, having Germany between them, are natural allies.
The de Gaulles’ sentiments here are underlined by the fact that Charles de Gaulle had earlier fought for Poland, against the Soviets in the 1920 Polish-Soviet war and received Poland’s highest military decoration!
Its been reported – that Brussels will move ahead with, withholding funds due to be given to Slovakia, or the European Commission might also claw-back the roughly $3 billion in Covid Grants to Bratislava. Slovakia is also due, $14.2 billion in funds from the EU Cohesion Programme.
Why is the funding being with held – well, the Slovakian PM Robert Fico is opposed, to supplying Ukraine with weapons and aid – he also rejects – the Wests proxy war with Russia via Ukraine – and has publicly stated, that Ukraine will have to cede territory to Russia; this stance has greatly upset Nato and the EU, and on the 15th of May this year – there was a failed assassination attempt against the Slovakian PM, Robert Fico.
https://thegrayzone.com/2024/05/31/robert-ficos-assassination-western-plotting/
Thanks for this Kit Klarenberg article, RoS, it adds a few puzzle pieces to the pucture. From day to day it is becoming clearer that global hegemony by all means possible, regardless of law structures, Goverments or public opinion, is the overarching goal and objective of those who steer and govern the US, regardless of who is elected there, or anywhere else.
I repliex to your post but it disapeared.
Oh there it is . Hurrray
Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – has spoken about his dream.
“The mission of my life is to build the land of Israel and thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state. That is why I have taken upon myself, in addition to the position of Minister of Finance, responsibility for civil issues in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank),” Smotrich wrote in a post on X on Monday.
“I will continue to work with all my might so that the half a million settlers who are on the front line and under fire enjoy the rights of every citizen in Israel and establish the facts on the ground,” he added.
“My plan is not a secret. I will fight with all my might the danger of establishing a Palestinian state; for the sake of Israel and its citizens, I will continue, through my powers, to develop settlements in the West Bank and strengthen security,”
To think much of the West – is backing this mad man’s plans – its just frightening.
Disgusting and oppressive behaviour
I think Caitlin deserves the last word in this thread:
“Why Should I Care About Gaza?”
So I’ve had a bit of a think about it, and I’ve come up with the most honest and complete answer to this question that I am able to produce right now. It might not convince anyone, but it is a well-reasoned answer.
Why should you care about Gaza? Because we can’t keep living like this. Our species cannot continue living on this planet as though what happens to other people and other organisms around the world has nothing to do with us…..
https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/why-should-i-care-about-gaza-e4f46159c71e
Check it out….. she gets right to the heart of the matter!
Excellent article. I agree thoroughly.