There is literally no act so vile that the UK, US and Germany will not support if perpetrated by the terrorist state of Israel.
Yesterday Israel:
- deliberately attacked UN peacekeepers in three separate bases;
- bombed residential central Beirut killing and maiming hundreds;
- abducted, beat up and held an American journalist;
- slaughtered 30 Palestinian refugees in an UNRWA school;
- was found by an official UN Commission Report to be guilty of the crime against humanity of “extermination” in Gaza.
Any single one of these outrages would be roundly condemned if committed by any country at all except Israel, and would lead to repercussions.
But Israel can commit them all in a single day and suffer not one word of obloquy from the leading Western powers (although it does appear that the attack on UN peacekeepers may have snapped Macron’s subservience – whether it’s just a blip remains to be seen).
The UN Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, dated 11 September but released yesterday, is incredibly damning and will be a key document for the ICJ Genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa et al.
It notes 498 Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities in the Gaza strip and – much less known – 500 attacks on healthcare facilities in the West Bank, although individually less severe.
Here are some highlights of the report:
9. Hundreds of medical personnel, including three hospital directors and the head of an orthopaedic department, as well as patients and journalists were arrested by Israeli security forces in Shifa’, Nasr and Awdah hospitals during offensives. In at least two cases, senior medical personnel died in Israeli detention. Reportedly, 128 health workers remain detained by Israeli authorities as at 15 July, including four Palestine Red Crescent Society staff members.
10. As at 15 July, 113 ambulances had been attacked and at least 61 had been damaged. The Commission documented direct attacks on medical convoys operated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations, the Palestine Red Crescent Society and non-governmental organizations. Access was also reduced owing to closure of areas by Israeli security forces, delays in coordination of safe routes, checkpoints, searches or destruction of roads.
11. The Commission investigated the 29 January attack in Tall al -Hawa on a Palestinian family and a Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance that had been called to their aid. The family consisted of two adults and five children, including 15-year-old Leyan Hamada and 5-year-old Hind Rajab. They were attacked while trying to evacuate in their car. The ambulance, carrying two paramedics, Yousef Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun, was dispatched after its route had been coordinated with Israeli security forces. It was hit by a tank shell at a distance of some 50m from the family’s car. Hind was still alive at the time that the ambulance was dispatched. The presence of Israeli security forces in the area prevented access. As a result, the family members’ bodies could not be retrieved from their bullet-ridden car until 12 days after the incident. The ambulance was found destroyed nearby, with human remains inside.
I find it impossible to get inside the head of our Zionist politicians. Have they persuaded themselves that somehow these things did not really happen, or have they convinced themselves that this is a price worth paying in some wider scheme of things?
If so, what precisely is that wider scheme of things?
22. According to the Media Office of the de facto authorities in Gaza, more than 500 bodies were found in mass graves located on hospital grounds, including at Shifa’ and Nasr hospitals. Satellite images from 23 April show at least two possible mass graves at Nasr Hospital. The de facto authorities in Gaza have said that several bodies were found undressed and handcuffed, indicating that the victims might have been executed. One witness involved in the exhumation of bodies near Nasr Hospital told the Commission that he had seen bodies with gunshot wounds in the head or neck. Israeli security forces have denied burying bodies in mass graves, although they acknowledged that soldiers searching for the bodies of hostages had exhumed some mass graves.
It is very well worth reading the entire report. It was very hard to extract highlights for you because it is all worth posting. I skip over a huge amount on the devastating consequences of the destruction of medical facilities, and on torture of detainees. But this next really is a must read:
62. The Commission documented more than 20 cases of sexual and gender-based violence against male and female detainees in more than 10 military and Israel Prison Service facilities, in particular in Negev prison and Sde Teiman camp for male detainees and in Damon and Hasharon prisons for female detainees. Sexual violence was used as a means of punishment and intimidation from the moment of arrest and throughout detention, including during interrogations and searches. Acts of sexual violence documented by the Commission were motivated by extreme hatred towards and a desire to dehumanize the Palestinian people.
63. The Commission found that forced nudity, with the aim of degrading and humiliating victims in front of both soldiers and other detainees, was frequently used against male victims, including repeated strip searches; interrogation of detainees while they were naked; forcing detainees to perform certain movements while naked or stripped and, in some cases, also filmed; subjecting detainees to sexual slurs as they were transported naked; forcing naked detainees into a crowded cell together; and forcing stripped and blindfolded detainees to crouch on the ground with their hands tied behind their back.
64. Several male detainees reported that Israeli security forces personnel had beaten, kicked, pulled or squeezed their genitals, often while the detainees were naked. In some cases, Israeli security forces personnel used such objects as metal detectors and batons. One detainee who had been held in the Israeli security forces personnel Negev prison stated that, in November 2023, members of the Keter unit of the Israel Prison Service had forced him to strip and then ordered him to kiss the Israeli flag. When he refused, he was beaten and his genitals were kicked so severely that he vomited and lost consciousness.
65. The Commission also received credible information concerning rape and sexual assault, including the use of an electrical probe to cause burns to the anus and the insertion of objects, such as sticks, broomsticks and vegetables, into the anus. Some of those acts were reportedly filmed by soldiers. In July, nine soldiers were questioned and several arrested for allegedly raping a detainee and causing life-threatening injury at Sde Teiman.
66. The Commission has determined that detainees were routinely subjected to sexual abuse and harassment, and that threats of sexual assault and rape were directed at detainees or their female family members. One detainee held in Sde Teiman reported that female soldiers had forced him and others to make sounds like a sheep, curse the Hamas leadership and the prophet Muhammad, and say, “I am a whore”. Detainees were beaten if they did not comply. In another case, a soldier took off his trousers and pressed his crotch to a detainee’s face, saying: “You are my bitch. Suck my dick.”
67. Female detainees were also subjected to sexual assault and harassment in military and Israel Prison Service facilities, as well as threats to their lives and threats of rape. The sexual harassment included attempts to kiss and touch their breasts. They reported repeated, prolonged and invasive strip-searches, both before and after interrogations. Women were forced to remove all clothes, including the veil, in front of male and female soldiers. They were beaten and harassed while being called “ugly” and had sexual insults, such as “bitch” and “whore”, directed at them. In one case, a female detainee in an Israel Prison Service prison was denied access to her lawyer after she had informed him of rape threats.
68. The Commission received reports from the Palestinian Authority about the rape of two female detainees. It is attempting to verify the information.
69. Female detainees were photographed without their consent and in degrading circumstances, including in their underwear in front of male soldiers. In one case, a detainee was subjected to repeated and invasive strip-searches following her arrest at a police station in northern Israel. She was beaten, verbally abused, dragged by her hair and photographed in front of an Israeli flag. The photos were posted online.
You will recall that a UN inquiry was by contrast unable to confirm any of the allegations of rape by Palestinian resistance on 7 October 2023 – despite the fact that Israelis are obviously much freer than Palestinians to communicate and provide evidence.
The commission does however go on to state that there is credible information that some Israeli hostages held in Gaza have been subject to sexual abuse.
The heart of the conclusions of the Commission’s report is this:
88. The offensive on Gaza since 7 October has resulted in the destruction of the already weak health-care system in the Gaza Strip, with detrimental long-term effects on the civilian population’s rights to health and life. Attacks on health-care facilities are an intrinsic element of the Israeli security forces’ broader assault on Palestinians in Gaza and the physical and demographic infrastructure of Gaza, as well as of efforts to expand the occupation. The actions of Israel violate international humanitarian law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and they are in stark contravention of the International Court of Justice advisory opinion of July 2024 .
89. The Commission finds that Israel has implemented a concerted policy to destroy the health-care system of Gaza. Israeli security forces have deliberately killed, wounded, arrested, detained, mistreated and tortured medical personnel and targeted medical vehicles, constituting the war crimes of wilful killing and mistreatment and the crime against humanity of extermination. Israeli authorities carried out such acts while tightening the siege of the Gaza Strip, resulting in fuel, food, water, medicines and medical supplies not reaching hospitals, while also drastically reducing permits for patients to leave the territory for medical treatment. The Commission finds that these actions were taken as collective punishment against the Palestinians in Gaza and are part of the ongoing Israeli attack against the Palestinian people that began on
7 October.
I understand that there may be nothing here that you did not already know. But to see it all set out starkly, by a UN Commission which has verified the information, makes it much more difficult for the political class simply to ignore.
I am simply unable to begin to understand, on a personal basis, the politicians who can condone, support and in fact participate in what Israel is doing. It is simply beyond me.
Every time I worry that public interest is faltering and people have become inured to genocide, the Israelis manage to do something still more outrageous. Thankfully social media makes it very hard to hide this.
The political class will never restrain Israel from empathy for the suffering or any sense of moral duty. They may start to do so from a sense of self-preservation.
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The, er, tactic of firing on the UN seems mad. There are about 100 nations in the UN Force in Lebanon – why do they want to attack, when they don’t even need to? They are Peacekeepers!
The way they shout ‘shame on you’ to Ireland and France for not providing weapons to destroy more innocents etc etc.
It just shows that they have no respect or feelings for anyone else unless they actively support them to the hilt.
They have lost all moral authority, if they ever had any.
Einstein’s letter‚ in 1948 is an important and prescient note
It’s insane in the sense that killing people when you don’t have to and enjoying it is inhuman. No doubt about that.
They don’t see their victims as human beings just like them.
Even if you look at these supposedly impressive protest demonstrations “against Netanyahu” in Occupied Palestine, the main focus has always been on “Return the Jewish prisoners” (or “hostages” as they call them), never on “Down with the war. Stop committing genocide against Arabs. We’re all human beings.”
Incidentally “we’re all human beings” actually WAS one of the notions used on posters printed by Jewish resistants in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943, whose boots Zionists aren’t worthy of licking, in my opinion.
The hate-filled racist murderous surge – the genocide – is not like much of the fighting in WW1, where typically many conscripts much of the time tried when shooting not to kill or even to hit the enemy. Israel is truly a fascist creation, a fascist warrior community.
Even in the Vietnam war there were stories of Vietcong and USA patrols encountering each other accidentally in tunnels, backing into each other, surprising each other, and it was a case of “Oops, sorry, didn’t see you there. No probs. Let’s go our respective ways.” That wasn’t typical but I believe it happened.
(Probably less so in Algeria. As an aside: I wouldn’t put any hope in Macron whatsoever.)
The Zionists hate the UN. They aren’t grateful that the UN recognised Israel in 1948. No way! They aren’t grateful to anyone. If Arthur Balfour or Raoul Wallenberg came alive again, they’d see what dirt they had on him so they could push him to his limit as their tool. They view the UN as a goyish institution that dares lay down “laws” that holy Israel is expected to follow (even if Israel isn’t in fact expected to!), and more than that they view it as an agency that would take Al Quds-Jerusalem out of the Zionists’ hands if only it had the chance. Those are among the connotations of “UN” in the Zionist mind. Another is “UN peacekeepers are wimps – half of them come from Africa or Pakistan or Ireland or bumpkin places like that, and they’ll never shoot back at us when we shoot at them, so hey boys, let’s fill our boots!” This is especially true when UN units have refused to obey Zionist orders, as has happened in Lebanon.
“They’d take Jerusalem from us” is also attached in the Zionist mind to the Roman Catholic church.
The Zionists are moving the envelope.
A key article to read (because it’s so strategic) is the piece by former Mossad boss Ephraim Halevy published after the July 2005 bombs in London:
https://www.building.co.uk/taking-the-fight-to-the-terrorists/3054657.article
Here are some key phrases in it:
“We are now in the throes of a World War”
“We are in for the long haul (…) The Great Wars of the 20th Century lasted less than this particular conflict, and there is no end in sight.
“The rules of combat must be rapidly adjusted”
“What we need are profound cultural changes and constant vigilance.”
They are doing all of this. It’s not hot air.
Seems there could be quite some fireworks night in the USA in 2024 too, as part of the move to “profound cultural changes”.
Worth remembering that the USA/CSA civil war was the most bloody war on the continent of America ever. The proportion of the population who died in that war (2.5%?) was almost as big as the proportion of Europeans (3%?) who died in WW1 half a century later. I don’t like the USA. I think it’s a vulgar, wrestling-watching, gun-toting, burger-munching sh*thouse of a country. (The spiritual home of Europeans such as Piers Morgan.) After violence, gambling, moneylending, protection rackets, drugs, commercial sex, and propaganda, there’s not much of its economy left. But I do wish the large majority of the people who live there well. They’re not responsible for the government and they have little or no influence over it. The USA could well be all over as a great power by the end of the current decade. A Chinese balloon flies over the country and the government cacks itself. I mean seriously! It’s not even easy to see how civil war is avoided by January 2025, unless someone who doesn’t wish for Zionist approval shoots straight in the next 2-3 weeks……Good riddance, yes, but good vibes to the majority of the population too, and one hardly fancies the chances of western and central Europe once the imperial power bites the gravel.
You’ve swallowed NATO propaganda. The transformation of NATO from a defensive alliance into an aggressive alliance, followed by the US-instigated coup in Ukraine in 2014, are the root causes of the current war in Ukraine.\
The USA will always be a powerful country, but like you I expect, and hope, it will cease to be a world-dominating country. In particular, as a European, I’d like to see US influence over European politicians to be eliminated.
Agreed that the US ran the coup in Kiev in 2014.
Then straightaway the Israeli billionaire Kolomoisky, friend of Chabad, was a key figure in the war in Novorossiya after those two regions seceded.
Zelensky wasn’t in the picture at that time.
I am trying to understand your take on NATO. NATO was never really an “alliance”, and I’m not sure how it can be understood as having been “defensive” at any time. It was formed several years before the Warsaw Pact, which itself was only formed in response to West Germany’s entry into NATO. The entry into NATO of all subsequent countries has been about the expansion of US power including militarily.
Once the USA falls, I don’t think western Europe will be taken over by the Russian army. It will just be left to fall into ruin, in the context of a global drop in living standards as world technofascism advances, with China as the leading country. It will be like Venezuela. This is especially true of Britain, with its economy based on property speculation and funny money.
I’m not sure what ruling class interests in Germany and France can do about this, although some of them may have a try. At least they got most of their gold back from New York. That suggests they know that big trouble is coming.
In the USA there could well be civil war.
@Brian red
“The hate-filled racist murderous surge – the genocide – is not like much of the fighting in WW1, where typically many conscripts much of the time tried when shooting not to kill or even to hit the enemy.”
This looks fishy, considering the number of soldiers killed and wounded, about 36% being caused by bullets. Could you have been misled by S. L. A. Marshall’s ‘ratio-of-fire theory’ fabrications?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._L._A._Marshall#Research_methodology
There is definitely one politician who has been expressing empathy for the suffering: Kamala Harris.
Embrace her ‘Campaign of Joy’!
https://x.com/QudsNen/status/1844147444306805065
“I am simply unable to begin to understand, on a personal basis, the politicians who can condone, support and in fact participate in what Israel is doing. It is simply beyond me.”
The following explanation fits the facts:
they are amoral scum whose philosophy is “f*ck you – I’m all right, Jack”, and they operate in an army (mostly civilian) in which you either think like that, or you f*ck off.
They are like automata.
It’s like the Milgram electroshock experiment.
We live in Milgram electroshock society.
“Politicians” is the right word for the pseudo-opposition but not for government ministers etc. when there’s no election on. Civil servants, judges, and cops, etc. shouldn’t be let off the hook. They are just as guilty.
There was a cartoon in the 1960s or 1970s that showed various functionaries in the USA saying things like “I just do the accounts”, “I only drive the lorry”, “I only refuel the planes”, etc., and it had a Vietnamese guy in a conical hat saying “I just get killed”.
Really tough times lie ahead including in countries such as Britain where in global terms they haven’t been tough for most people for a long time. The British state re-broadcast “Threads” a few days ago. Are they trying to tell us something?
It’s clear to all now that Israel has no concept of the meaning of proportionality, or restraint. So what the hell are the US and Germany doing feeding this raging genocidal furnace that risks destroying the Middle East?
In no small irony, German heavy industry and engineering expertise, once so synonymous with building advanced weaponry for the Nazis, is now building up Israel’s naval forces. If Netanyahu ever resorts to using nuclear weapons, they’ll almost certainly be fired from German built submarines. So much for Germany’s post WWII pacifist constitution.
And the US’s never ending delivery of heavy munitions being used in any of Gaza,Lebanon;Yemen,Syria, Iraq, typically against defenceless populations to kill,maim and dismember men, women and kids, is equally atrocious.
“So what the hell are the US and Germany doing feeding this raging genocidal furnace that risks destroying the Middle East?”
Obeying orders. Also we can be sure that very small groups of interests in those two countries will be seen all right. For a while anyway. “The righteous among the nations” would be a phrase sarcastically used.
Which is not to say that some won’t be surprised – very surprised.
Cf. when Iceland collapsed and billions were stolen out of Britain overnight, some officials were flabbergasted to learn what kind of levers could be pulled in such a “crisis”. “Why can’t someone stop the withdrawals? Oh we’ve been told to wait a few hours. What on earth? Oh OK.”
The same was probably true during the Liz Truss heist. One politician isn’t as powerful as was made out. If billions are lost somewhere, they’re gained somewhere else. (The exception being during hyperinflation.) A pretty obvious observation, but too naughty for the MSM, who haven’t asked who profited from the Truss so-called “crisis”.
“Too much seems to me to have been mixed up too quickly. The phrase, “Israel’s security is part of Germany’s raison d’état” has never been an empty phrase, and it must not become one. It means that Israel’s security is essential for us as a country. This special relationship with Israel stems from our historical responsibility.”
– excerpt from the speech of German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck on Israel and antisemitism (November 1, 2023)
Germany’s position isn’t up for debate, politicians there say Israel’s ‘security’ is essentially their obligation. This is truly a dangerous stance, when Israel is led by fanatics who believe their religious destiny is to expand into a Greater Israel and dominate the whole Middle East using an increasingly formidable array of naval assets, such as all these submarines, made in Germany. Israel probably chose German yards, because the US would’ve potentially imposed various restrictions on use, and threatened to withhold parts/ servicing etc if not followed. Germany’s misplaced guilt has created a very dangerous situation.
How many American government officials resigned over this by now? Twelve? 20? (I forgot the number)
Germany? Zero.
NO GERMAN PAPER will seriously report this new piece by the UN.
Except may be FREITAG in some pseudo-nonbiased way and the tiny “Junge Welt”. That´s it.
Germans will not hear about this. If they do, only via alternative media.
One of the most important influential dailies, Süddeutsche Zeitung – a paper I grew up with – is complicit in this genocide. They have been featuring the Israeli hostages for a year now.
Over and over and over and over and over again.
One reason I have decreased comments here.
As German it´s completely senseless. I try to tell people about Craig´s texts. That´s it.
Every government building has some blue-white fabric with some star on it hanging outside for solidarity.
People wearing Palestine flags get chased by police.
They are defunding Palestinian NGOs
They are ramping up antisemitism lawfare.
They are suppressing free speech which is addressing one of the worst war crimes since Vietnam.
If I went into public online or in person and lay out what I would have to lay out I could end up in court.
Just the fact that “progressive” weekly FREITAG (important in Assange´s story) has no e.g. Craig-Murray-diary on this – tells you a lot (had I been editor there I would have done that and certainly drawn many readers.)
But what FREITAG did do was to fire their only correspondent who lives in Russia and who knows Russia because he didn´t say Russians are pigs.
So forget German elites.
Fuck Germany. Very simple.
Or as Andrei Martyanov correctly says: Germany is over.
AG
If Israel does something incredibly dangerous, German politicians may be forced to reassess, as may the unquestioningly supportive British. Yoav Gallant says Israel’s upcoming response will be “lethal and surprising” and “the Iranians won’t understand what happened”. Along with China, Israel is believed to have developed neutron bombs. Iran’s nuclear facilities are isolated from large population centres, very heavily fortified and buried deep. Given Yoav’s comments, and Israel’s penchant for doing the unthinkable….
For those unfamiliar:
The neutron bomb is a small hydrogen bomb. The neutron bomb differs from standard nuclear weapons insofar as its primary lethal effects come from the radiation damage caused by the neutrons it emits. It is also known as an enhanced-radiation weapon (ERW).
I can’t see the US Okay’ing Israeli use however, because deployed by Russia against Ukraine, the war would be over very quickly.
AG
The Bundespolizei’s brutal reaction to any public display of the Palestinian flag is the most disturbing thing going on. From the reaction, anyone would think they’d pulled out the banner of the Nazi Party (NSDAP).
Weirdly, Saudi police react similarly; a woman who produced the flag at Mecca, was wrestled to the floor by multiple officers. So much for Sunni solidarity.
AG
Germany’s indulgence of Israel’s behaviour would be bad enough were it isolated to Germany. But EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, is equally dismissive of Palestinian nationhood aspirations. Her speech marking October 7th, was atrocious. She stated that “people were killed on that day solely because they were Jews and for no other reason.” She doesn’t know that, nor do I. As someone brilliantly observed under her silly post on ‘X’
The occupied and oppressed didn’t choose the religion of their oppressors.
By von der Leyen’s logic, the Mau Mau rebelled against the British only because they were Christian. And the native American Sioux tribes resisted early European settlers, like George Armstrong Custer, because he was Protestant. Ludicrous reductive BS from von der Leyen.
Goose
British Foreign Office in the 1930s already had made clear – as you do here – Arab resistance (by then armed) was not against the Jews as such but a classic case of anti-colonial movement. That was Whitehall talking. Not some “man on a camel”. But no need to tell VdL that.
Since it´s not about truth and analysis but war, destruction, murder.
And I assume nothing of our general assessment on this blog from past winter – that IDF could very well use smaller WMDs – has changed.
p.s. Zelenski gave the Pope an oil painting about the “Massacre of Bucha” as a gift. No joke. Everything the Russians were supposed to commit the Israelis have carried out expertly.
To offer a positive antidote which I highly enjoyed:
Aurélie Daher from SciencesPo in Paris in a formidable 25 min. conversation with Doug Henwood gives a damn about Israel, about the EU, about the USA.
She says “of course they can get rid of Lebanon, but for that they would have to kill / expel every single Lebanese.” Good luck with that.
And: Hezbollah has just begun playing “this game”.
So in fact Hezbollah would love to see IDF attack and IDF know darn well and that´s why they themselves do not want to attack.
Daher is the 2nd half. The first half is with none other than Rashid Khalidi. Both uplifting in their own ways, I found:
https://shout.lbo-talk.org/lbo/RadioArchive/2024/24_10_03.mp3
podcast show info:
“October 3, 2024 Rashid Khalidi, author of The Hundred Years War on Palestine, talks about Israeli settler-colonialism and its imperial patrons • Aurélie Daher looks at Hezbollah and the challenges it faces after the assassination of its leader”
homepage:
https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR09T_XX-5zXMtXYBl9LkJ1-3mQuNOohhX3fsYNp-aQa6iPe5GHcioSUpMA_aem_z71VXPeCsiEAoDoOa1aU2A#S240704
As an informative critical addition on Hezbollah see this interview with Joseph Daher in JACOBIN by John-Baptiste Oduor.
“Where the World Sees Crisis, Israel Sees Opportunity”
https://jacobin.com/2024/10/hezbollah-lebanon-gaza-netanyahu-nasrallah
“Jacobin spoke to Joseph Daher, author of The Political Economy of Lebanon’s Party of God, about Hezbollah’s origins, its sources of support both domestically and internationally, and the strategic dilemmas it faces.”
He speaks about the contradictory role and nature of Hezbollah.
I have not the expertise to judge this adequately:
to sum up see this short excerpt from the end:
“(…)
Joseph Daher
Hezbollah is definitely facing its greatest challenge since its foundation, with the assassinations of key military and political leaders, including Nasrallah, who ruled over the party for thirty-two years. However, the party still remains the most important political actor in Lebanon, with strong military capacities and a large network of institutions. Although these institutions have been undermined by the war and are under pressure because of the significant needs of the population, the party will continue to have an influence exceeding its national borders, particularly in Syria, and to represent the upper limit of Teheran’s ability to project power within the region.
John-Baptiste Oduor
Given the strategic constraints that Hezbollah faces, both domestically and internationally, how should the Left, or anyone interested in a just end to the bloodshed, interpret the current moment?
Joseph Daher
Attention to the strategic constraints faced by Hezbollah, as well as its political limitations, should not, however, prevent socialists from maintaining that Palestinians and Lebanese have a right to resist Israel’s racist, colonial, apartheid state violence, including through military resistance. This includes defending the right of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, which are the main actors involved in the armed confrontation with Israel’s occupation army, to resist. Israel’s war against Palestinians and Lebanese is part of its attempt to pursue its historical objectives as a settler-colonial state serving Western imperialism. Central to this project is the elimination of the Palestinian populations through a continued Nakba and the consolidation of a regional order serving US imperial interests. These objectives are, without exception, a mortal threat to the whole region.
(…)
Defending the right of people to resist oppression should not however be confused with political support for the specific political projects of Hamas or Hezbollah in their respective societies, or lead us to imagine these parties will be able to deliver Palestinian liberation or that they have a strategy that could lead to it.
(…)”
“The phrase, “Israel’s security is part of Germany’s raison d’état” has never been an empty phrase, and it must not become one.”
It’s not empty but it’s insane.
It’s also unlawful for two UN members to have a secret treaty of alliance, defence, or anything else – under Article 102 of the UN Charter.
There is NO secret treaty!
(As far as I am infomed)
There was never any public discussion over this.
Most likely the former Ambassador from Israel under Merkel and his German counterpart cooked this nonsense up and then – out of thin air – Merkel in the Knesset I believe it was – gave this idiotic speech about “raison d´état” and what not.
There was never any process legitimitizing this “thing”.
It´s informal. Pure fiction.
At least this positive minor event occuring now:
“Anti-Semitism scandal at Berlin Left: Leading members leave party conference
A motion against anti-Semitism was to be presented at the Berlin Left Party’s party conference. But it cannot be passed – numerous delegates leave the party conference.”
BERLINER ZEITUNG reporting:
https://archive.is/zHYz5
“(…)Motion is withdrawn – prominent leftists leave the room
Despite a heated debate, the delegates were unable to reach an agreement and the motion was eventually withdrawn. The quorum then had to be re-established. An initiative motion to vote on it with the agreed changes did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority.
Numerous party members then left the hall, including former Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer , former Senator for Social Affairs Elke Breitenbach, Vice President of the Bundestag Petra Pau, Parliamentary Secretary Hendrikje Klein, legal expert Sebastian Schlüsselburg and interior politician Niklas Schrader. One applicant said in a personal statement that there was no longer any basis for her to continue to participate in the party conference.
After the scandal, the co-state chairman of the Berlin Left, Maximilian Schirmer, told the broadcaster that they did not want anti-Semitism in Berlin. “Nevertheless, we have of course discussed different perspectives on this and different emotional concerns today and we will have to continue to do so.”
(…)”
“emotional concerns”???
Are you fucking serious?
Right: Antisemitism is lurking at every corner! But killing 200.000 Palestinians – any motion over THAT?!
How can you not get looney with people like these sitting in governments?
There are no red lines when the likes of the US Secretary of State gave Israel permission to attack aid lorries, right at the start of the conflict:
https://truthout.org/articles/report-blinken-signed-off-on-israeli-policy-to-attack-humanitarian-aid-trucks/
Spent a highly unpleasant evening with a couple of older people the other day, some Dutch travelling here in Spain, who had appeared nice enough. We agreed the middle east situation was absolutely heartbreaking, but apparently for different reasons. They thought it was terrible for Israel, and clearly didn’t think Palestinians were due even the consideration one should have for cockroaches that might be infesting your place.
After bragging at length about how mighty the IDF were and Israel in general, they flatly denied it was an apartheid state – absolute lies! No truth to it – you are brainwashed! – they denied that aid was not being allowed in. No, it was all being stolen by Hamas! 500 lorries worth a day, all disappearing down tunnels without a trace. No evidence for any of this, of couse.
And so on.
Arguing with a fanatic is impossible enough at the best of times, but with a pro-Israeli fanatic this was simply being treated to argument by sheer volume and beligerence, not to mention shameless lying. I always thought a lot more of the Dutch, and they were not well represented here.
glenn_nl.
The World Food Programme (WFP) is utterly compromised – its head Cindy McCain has attended IDF fund raising events – yet she has the sheer bloody cheek to comment – that things are bad in Gaza for the Palestinian people. Cindy McCain is the second wife of the now deceased US politician John McCain – Cindy also participates in the McCain Institute – of which its chair is a Rothschild.
The previous (WFP) Director Josette Sheeran, she was/is still, a US deep state functionary, and also a member of the McCain Institute.
https://www.passblue.com/2023/11/20/the-world-food-programs-boss-faces-backlash-for-attending-an-event-honoring-israel/
“The World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that it has been forced to suspend distribution of food parcels across all of Gaza, and food distribution “in any form” in north Gaza, as Palestinians across the region starve due to Israel’s humanitarian aid blockade.
The group said on Wednesday that aid entry into Gaza has hit its lowest point in months and that food distribution has been halted this month. “If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived of this lifeline,” the group said in a statement. Commercial goods are also in short supply.
Worse, in northern Gaza — where Israeli forces have been carrying out a horrific raid with the seeming goal of eliminating every Palestinian in the region — the group said that it cannot distribute any type of food, with kitchens forced to shut down. In May, WFP head Cindy McCain had already warned that there was a “full-blown famine” in the north, and Israel’s raid and blockade are now making a dire situation even worse.”
https://truthout.org/articles/israels-blockade-bars-wfp-from-distributing-food-in-any-form-in-north-gaza/
The UN is essentially powerless.
There are no repercussions for the pigs or their supporters.
Unless Russia or China steps in there will be no halt.
Maybe Iran might have a positive affect but I’m not optimistic.
This is all happening because the USA and UK want it to.
Craig Murray..”Simply No Red Lines At All” An Ambassador who was considered friendly to the Palestinians was asked a question.. “What would Israel need to do for his government to act against it? Where was the red line? The ambassador paused as he thought hard. And then, with a shrug of the shoulders, he responded: there was nothing Israel could do. There was no red line. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-israel-war-wants-finish-job-washington-started-after-911
I think there will be a red line, it will be when the military and economic consequences are brought to bear on the Apartheid state. Remember when Zelensky was fated by the US congress, Ukrainian flags adorned the speakers podium, similar scenes occurred in European capitals.
What a difference two years make, Ukraine is proving to be a military and financial drain on the west. Ukraine is clearly losing the war and as everyone knows the US only likes winners, therefore it is likely the US will palm the Ukrainian disaster onto the Europeans, there may be some takers.
Its difficult – to read such wanton death and destruction of the Palestinian people – at the hands of the Zionists – as you say – its even more difficult to understand the vile moral free politicians, who either support this evil genocide – or standby and say nothing to stop it – not to mention the complicity of the media whores who back the Zionists and play down the genocide.
The Zionists genocide will only be stopped by force – for Netanyahu and Biden, or whichever POTUS candidate succeeds him – Trump or Harris, are onboard with what’s happening in West Asia – and the plans for a Greater Israel.
A year of murder in numbers and pictures.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/10/07/734758/Gaza-year-of-devastation-How-Israeli-genocide-claims-lives-decimates-
As many have noted, but it doesn’t stop being true: there is only one language the Zionists understand – the language of force.
You can’t reason in a humanitarian way with genocidalists.
They are willing to wreck the bejeesus out of the USA and both parts of Europe. More than that, this may well be one of their aims.
The use of nuclear weapons seems probable and it will fit with the Halevy doctrine of “big changes”.
Brian Red.
Yes Brian – I totally agree, the only way the Zionists will be stopped is by force – which means an escalation in hostilities.
Paragraph 96: “[Israel] has deliberately created conditions of life that have resulted in the destruction of generations of Palestinian children and the Palestinian people as a group.”
Which crime does that describe, people?
Paragraphs 88 – 110 delineate the Israeli state’s violations of international law, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. For which individuals were executed at Nuremberg and Tokyo. Paragraphs 111 – 112 likewise delineate the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, so the report can hardly be argued to be partial.
I think people didn’t know. I think the facts which are coming to light are just so unbelievable that people cannot begin to comprehend. I think Israel is so dangerous that it literally sees everyone as its enemy.
October 7th full timeline of events and decisions, with evidence.
Brace yourselves:
https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley
Samson option
“I am simply unable to begin to understand, on a personal basis, the politicians who can condone, support and in fact participate in what Israel is doing. It is simply beyond me”.
It’s so simple that it’s hard to believe. You are a decent, moral human being; and they are not.
With all the evidence now available, particularly that from soldiers in the IDF themselves, the UN must act this week. The occupying force must leave Gaza and the West Bank and allow UN Peacekeeping forces to administer order and safeguard the residents. All military action must cease. It will take many days to establish a regular supply of aid and essential supplies, but that must be the priority. Justice and peace will necessarily have to wait.
The lessons must surely have been learned by now. Zionism must be proscribed, prohibited and shown for what it is – another nationalistic, supremacist, quasi-religious cult. But let’s help those in desperate circumstances just now.
Indeed, the evidence for war crimes by Israel keeps growing day by day, the issue is about enforcing the law. 1 year into the massacre and the ICC still cannot decide if the crimes are so severe that Netanyahu should be arrested!?
Everyone should see the new documentary by Al Jazeera where they expose, sometimes by name, the israeli soldiers war crimes often through the perverse videos filmed by the israeli soldiers themselves:
This feature length investigation by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit exposes Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip through the medium of photos and videos posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves during the year long conflict.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPE6vbKix6A
Imagine if this documentary was aired on prime time in the europe, US…
If westerners actually knew what Israel is, and have been, doing the support would vanish just like that.
That would be vetoed by Israel’s little North American helper elves in the UN Security Council, not to mention their oh so cultured bottom sniffers in Britain and France.
These people are not right in the head. Their rage, hatred, they are like, psychotic, mentally unhinged, rabid, cultlike. I do not know what words to use because I have never seen such evil people. They are like, biblical in their hatred, destruction and killing. Indeed, they have zero red lines, they seems to commit all these sickening transgression because they are brainwashed since childhood, that they, israeli-jews, rule supreme, that they are entitled to do whatever they feel like. They are like modern day german nazis or italian fascists.
Haaretz wrote about this the other day:
Opinion | Israeli Soldiers Who Document Their Crimes Know They’re Safe From Prosecution
https://archive.is/K1kw9
It is like they lack self-crticism and lack human decency, empathy. It is like a nation of psychopaths.
Amazing also how all the talk about the Holocaust, all the documentaries that are streamed on Hitler’s terror regime and then…west folds just like that to support another genocide.
Note also how the west keep moving the goal-post on this topic:
First they even deny that hospitals have been attacked. ‘We will wait for the investigation’ they say but then when the investigations are done they either gaslight the investigation altogether or claim ‘well we do not agree with the conclusion’.
Just watched an interview Sir Richard Dearlove – interviewed on Times radio (Youtube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ttiVoqYAX4 from 4 days ago. He believes Israel will will view this as “an opportunity to cut the head off the snake” – “the snake” being their regional tormentor, Iran, and “to hell with the consequences.”
Iran has a population of 90 million, anyone else think it’s totally irresponsible for a former head of MI6 to hold such a view, when millions of lives are at stake? Netanyahu is crazy. and the consequences for Europe and indeed the UK from Iranian mass migration away from a failed state or civil war, will be catastrophic. In the course of the interview Dearlove, also told presenter, Adam Boulton, he isn’t a particular expert on the Middle East and the complexities of the Sunni vs Shia dynamics, while mentioning Palestinians are for the most part Sunni Muslims, not Shia as per Hezbollah. Not exactly comforting to know, is it.
And then we wonder why the politicians make poor decisions.
According to Worldometer, as of October 11, 2024, the population of Iran is 91,804,164
Reading through the other demographics, the median age is some 33.4 years. which is relatively young – Germany’s, for reference, is 45.3.
Aaron Bastani, has raised the risks of the West creating another Libyan type ‘failed state’ scenario, with a predominantly young population on the move. It’s just insane logic, to think a tiny little state like Israel, should take precedence and decisions with global repercussions, lasting decades, and leaders in the West just shrugged.
Some claim the Greater Israel designs are just conspiratorial nonsense being put about as mis/disinfo by Israel’s critics. But these are the words of Israel’s Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smoteich:
“I want a Jewish state that includes Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. According to our greatest sages, Jerusalem is destined to extend all the way to Damascus.”
https://x.com/ShaykhSulaiman/status/1844179103227969768
One of the staffers who brought down Corbyn were linked to the Israeli state, speaking in the Panorama hatchet programme, one of them stated, ‘in thirty years, I’ll know I did the right thing” – which seemed like a strange comment at the time, I mean, why was a young woman talking of 30 years from now? But many ‘true believer’ Zionists really do believe it is their god-given right to confiscate land and displace existing populations for ‘the project’.
You’re right. Dearlove doesn’t understand much about Middle East dynamics. The Sunni-Shi’a split is on the way out, as the Israeli threat is so much greater, nay existential. The split was in any case about keeping minority Sunni regimes in power over Shi’a populations in the Gulf. In Iraq they’re already gone. In Bahrein and Saudi still there (in Saudi, it’s a Shi’a majority only in the oil-producing province). Both these states are becoming less and less pro-American, having formerly relied on the Yanks for security. Now it’s clear that the US prioritizes Israel.
Anyone who thinks Iran is Israel’s “regional tormentor” sure as hell isn’t genned up on the complexities of Sunni vs Shia. It’s not just Palestinians who are mostly, albeit not exclusively, Sunni (or even Muslim). Hamas specifically is Sunni. But this isn’t about religion. The Jewish terrorist state has blown up churches as well as mosques in Gaza.
The word “complexities” sounds very hasbaranik. I wonder how Dearlove’s bank accounts are doing.
Regarding politicians’ motivations. It is the latter – those in the know know something they value far more than human life is at stake.
At Keir Starmer’s level they just trust what their paymasters tell them.
At some point Craig you will have to accept that there is a secretive game being played by a few for a prize most of us can hardly imagine.
It’s the only possible explanation for this barbarism.
With Gaza and Lebanon in mind – I’d say those Western proxy states fear reprisals from Iran – if the Zionists strike the Iranian energy sector.
“Several Arab states in the Persian Gulf have lobbied the US to restrain Israel from striking Iranian oil facilities, fearing that Tehran could take revenge by hitting their production and disrupting global markets.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have reportedly told Washington they will not allow Israeli jets to use their airspace for an attack.”
Could be an attack launched from their new submarine, INS Drakon (Dragon) – the most expensive vessel Israel have developed. It carries a supadupa new long-range ballistic missile. Reports that the Israelis are concerned that a Russian spy ship may have collected its acoustic signature.
Unless it’s a nuclear-tipped missile, it won’t have much effect on Iran. Quantity of bombardment is what will be needed.
Given how they are talking (boastful) I wouldn’t be surprised if they use some experimental weapon. Small neutron warhead guided missile perhaps? Against Iran’s isolated facilities.
Impossible? This is Israel, as we saw with the utterly reckless pager attacks the normal moral codes don’t apply. They’ve assassinated nuclear scientists before too. Taking out a load of them at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant would suit Israel as it’s the know-how that worries them not the current state of the Iranian nuclear programme.
From reviewing the assassinations of Iranian officials in Damascus, Hamas’ lead peace negotiator in Tehran, the Israeli state will not officially declare their actions. Therefore I think any future attack by Israel against Iran will not be publicly acknowledged. My big worry is that Isareli’s will recruit a faction they collobarate with in ISIS and use a use a dirty bomb in Iran. The Israeli’s have the uranium. Needless to say I hope this is just a worrying shadow cast by my febrile imagination.
Yeah – it possible, the Zionists could also launch conventional missiles from it, I think they have four, or six subs – built by the Germans, on Lebanon – recently Modi of India commissioned two-nuclear subs to be built, the majority of the subs parts will originate in India – Modi has also bought 31 Q9 – American Reaper Drones from the USA – apparently with one eye on China’s growth in the region.
It all sounds fantastical, doesn’t it. But so did the idea of an A.I.-assisted , remote-control killing of the alleged head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh.
It is estimated that 95 Iranian university professors have been killed, though many say the real figure is higher.
With that knowledge, anyone still think such a surprise that they won’t understand sounds fantastical?
No, not fantastical, but also not necessarily successful. The pager attacks weren’t successful apart from a temporary psychological effect (and think how much effort was involved in organising the project.
Lets see how the (ICC) handles this – I say it will be kicked into the long grass for years – and wrapped up in unwrappable red tape.
“A Belgium-based rights group, the Hind Rajab Foundation, has filed “an unprecedented and historical complaint” with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against 1,000 Israeli soldiers for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“These individuals, all of whom have been identified by name, are accused of participating in systematic attacks against civilians during the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“This complaint, supported by over 8,000 pieces of verifiable evidence—including videos, audio recordings, forensic reports, and social media documentation—demonstrates the soldiers’ direct involvement in these atrocities,” the organization explained.
“All of the named soldiers were located in Gaza during the genocidal assault, and the evidence reveals their participation in violations of international law,” ”
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/unprecedented-rights-group-files-icc-case-against-1000-israeli-soldiers-for-war-crimes-in-gaza/
Many of the people – and most likely just about ALL of them – who participated in the A/S black op smear campaign against Jeremy and the left and, as such, had no qualms whatsoever about causing concern and consternation amongst many British Jews in their quest to sabotage Jeremy and the party’s chances of winning power, no doubt fully support the mass murder of Palestinian civilians and the total destruction of Gaza. And as with Netanyahu and his fascist buddies, none of them really give a fuck about the hostages. And my point is this: That they don’t give a damn about Jews in general, but have an affinity and a kinship with the fascist psychopaths running the show in Israel, being fascist psychopaths themselves. As I’ve said before, they are so evil that it’s beyond most people’s comprehension. And THEY know it.
Their is no doubt whatsoever that BN and Co (and Biden and Blinken et al, as such) knew long before the attack on October 7th that Hamas were planning and training for such an attack and, as such, let it go ahead, and did so for a variety of obvious reasons, and had no problem whatsoever with hundreds or possibly thousands of Israelis being killed (and thousands more devastated at the loss of one or more loved ones), or maimed, and just about the whole population of Israel being totally traumatised. THAT’s how evil the mega psychopaths ARE. They are literally inhuman monsters. And here is yet MORE proof (from September) that a cabal of the ruling Zionist elite let the attack go ahead (which I happened to come across a few days ago when doing a search in relation to the Nova Music Festival):
‘Report shows IDF’s silence on fears ahead of Nova, failure to react as massacre unfolded’
On the eve of the Supernova music festival on October 7, the security professionals responsible for the event repeatedly asked for information about a potential terror threat from Gaza, and were rebuffed by senior IDF commanders, according to a television report on Sunday.
Deputy Superintendent Nivi Ohana of the nearby Ofakim police station, who oversaw security for the event, even asked the military explicitly about a potential terrorist infiltration, according to the Channel 12 report, and did not receive a response.
The 24-minute TV exposé included details from documents in the days leading up to the event showing expressions of concern from the festival’s security team, communications between police and the military during the massacre, and recently released footage of fighting during the invasion.
On October 6, senior IDF officers even held several late-night meetings about the situation — as has previously been reported — but in none of the discussions did anyone bring up the Supernova party, according to Channel 12.
“Israel Police received no indication that anything was taking place. Maybe if we had been a part of [the discussions], we could at least have made a decision to shut down the party,” Azulai said.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tv-report-details-idfs-silence-on-security-fears-failure-to-react-to-nova-massacre/
As for Human Shields that AREN’T Human Shields, that is just another massive Big nazi-type Lie of course so that they can bomb and kill and maim and terrorise women and children and babies and the elderly and non-combatant men sheltering in schools etc. Or are we really supposed to believe that Hamas are so stupid and suicidal that they just keep on setting up command centers in such locations. Needless to say, it’s highly unlikely that they ever did so in the first place.
According to the UN (as I read in a BBC News article in respect of the latest school/shelter bombing), the IDF have now bombed over 200 schools/shelters.
At latest when the decision was made to blow up Nordstream, they were planning to use offshore oil and gas from Gaza (and presumably from Lebanon too) to replace what Nordstream had been providing. For the plan to work, Gaza had to be depopulated.
From recent developments, it looks as if they may get around to depopulating Lebanon too.
Very much like Generalplan Ost, isn’t?
If it was a (sub-par) replacement for Nordstream, they needed to have started work on those fields years ago.
Gas infrastructure doesn’t come on stream overnight. So I think that particular angle is out.
Everything is in place, Fox. Since the 1990s when the Brits agreed with the PA to access the gas, but when it was ready to start pumping, Israel said No, to when the Dutch built all the pipelines to Cyprus and beyond, and then Israel said No again. They made it clear that Europe will only get the gas when Gaza is totally Israel. Profits before people.
What else is there to say after this succinct summary:
“Gaza has been transformed into an industrial-scale slaughterhouse,
And I use the word slaughter advisedly because, frankly animals in most abattoirs in the world are killed more humanely than the women and the children of Gaza.
Shame on all of us”
UNRWA’s former chief spokesperson Christopher Gunness.
[ YouTube ]
Israel has embarked on a deliberate, systematic policy of the utter destruction of Gaza and all who live there. They are now threatening the same for Lebanon. We have seen the pattern: systematic destruction of the entire health system; schools and refugee camps bombed without warning; aid workers and their institutions targeted; journalists who might alert the world to what is happening; snipers shooting all and sundry who move – children, women, elderly people, handicapped people and hospital patients. Deliberate starvation and the cutting of water supplies and electricity, denial of life-saving medicines, drugs and other treatments thus knowingly allowing the spread of preventable diseases, destruction of all housing which residents might have returned to; destruction of civil and administrative buildings and facilities; destruction of significant archeological sites which told the story of the Palestinians, destruction of mosques and churches.
There is nothing left, and that is entirely deliberate and planned. These people are a psychopathic nation, enabled by Western governments who readily supply their weapons in unlimited amounts in order to slaughter an entire people. The same governments who the Israelis hold in contempt but who will be expected to pick up the multibillion dollar tab, and also house the millions more refugees who are being created. The betrayal of humanity by these people, in defiance of all their so-called international ‘rules’ as well as the wishes of their populations, should never be forgotten. Israel is destabilising the whole world so that they can live in their luxury bubble propped by the taxpayers of the complicit zionist supporting elites. Utter shame and despair is all you can feel at the gross cruelty and depravity.
The US was in on the planning. So presumably were at least some other Western countries.
Brilliantly summed up Ian.
Anyway, I was going to leave it until tomorrow, as it’s been a long day, but now I’m typing again, I’ll mention it briefly (but just how brief it turns out to be is another matter!). So a bit earlier, about an hour or so after I posted my second comment above, something occured to me whilst I was out having a smoke – ie that it seems highly unlikely that Deputy Superintendent Nivi Ohana of the nearby Ofakim police station, who oversaw security for the event (the rave), just happened to have a hunch, or a feeling, about a possible terrorist threat from Gaza. We know that the spotters surveilling the border had had their concerns dismissed by a senior commander, and that some of them were convinced that an attack was imminent. And we know that the original location of the rave fell through for some reason, and it ended up being transferred to the site relatively close to the border with Gaza just a couple of days before it was due to begin. And it seems highly HIGHLY unlikely that the spotters wouldn’t have been notified of exactly where, and exactly when, it was happening (and quite likely approximately how many people would be attending). Seems to me that either the deputy superintendent or one of his team were warned by one or more of the spotters, but presumably he couldn’t tell senior IDF officers that, as he wouldn’t just be jeopadising the job of the spotter(s), but also his own job if they demanded that he name the person(s) who told him and refused to do so. And the spotters were probably sworn to secrecy, and at risk of a prison sentence if they were found to have divulged any information in respect of their work to anyone. But it no doubt occured to the senior IDF officers that he – or one of his team – HAD been warned by one or more spotters.
There are other aspects to it that have occured to me, but I’ll leave it there for now, except to say that there’s only one reason I can think of why they didn’t respond to Nivi Ohana, or why they didn’t invite him or one of his colleagues to one or more of the meetings on the Friday evening/night. And I think we can be pretty darn certain that HE and his team AND the families of those of his team who were killed (and I believe many of them were if I remember correctly) know why the IDF didn’t!
Simply put, in terms everyone can understand, this is a Holocaust – the deliberate, planned extermination of an entire people.
The Zone of Interest [wiki] was horribly prescient about what is happening right now.
Despite the fact Israel was since inception a Western colonial project, it was contradictorily home to many many brilliant socialist intellectuals, indeed once the state became established its strength lay precisely in its comparably advanced form of socialism and egalitarianism. Whatever remnants of this latter culture survived into Netanyahu’s present reign seem positively designed to be eradicated virtually wholesale along with the physical extermination of most life in Gaza. Perhaps this constitutes a fundamental dimension of Netanyahu’s and the Biden White House’s yearlong course of action.
I always thought it curious that these “many brilliant socialist intellectuals” nevertheless went along with this evidently foreign colonial enterprise, put in place by terrorist gangs such as the Irgun and the Stern gang.
Having read the full report on October 7th and the deliberate annihilation of all witnesses, see link above; having read Isabel Hilton’s book about how deliberate policies of rape and in some places, extreme violent rape, create military brothels full of captives, still referred to as Comfort Women by Japan, or traded from owner to owner, as with the Yazidi, or brutally murdered by sexual violence as in the Congo, and these crimes are still not acknowledged because they are hard to believe; I am now reading Ilan Pappe’s history of the Ethnic Genocide of Palestine. Every few pages I stop and think, surely not, this has been know about for decades. The people in Gaza are those who were dispossessed from the rest of Palestine, who were not previously slaughtered, or who didn’t get to leave and move abroad. The horror of live-streaming what has been happening for a century unseen, means we cannot now say we don’t know. We cannot say we don’t believe it can possibly be true. And Israel has now declared that the ICC and the UN have declared themselves enemies of Israel and are now legitimate targets.
What are our leaders thinking? Was the promise of Gaza’s gas all it took? What is the endgame they envisaged when they agreed to supply Israel with money and weapons? Is it going to plan? Is a Greater Israel a good idea? When will Israel have enough? Can it ever stop genociding all its neighbours?
Biden has had his eye on Iran as the prize for the oil companies, and Bin Salman is happy to receive the contracts, but Israel will let America do its bidding there, because if the Agreement still holds, then Russia will respond against the US and Britain and not against Israel.
If Europe decides to stop arming Israel then Israel will attack Europe (Victoria Nuland ‘fuck Europe’) and if Biden has already riled Iran then we have been peaceful for too long. And if Trump makes an agreement with Putin and tells Israel it can have all it wants, or pulls the US out of NATO as he has threatened to do, then all we have are the Israeli arms companies which have built factories on our former military bases. If/then is barrack room lawyer stuff, and every If takes us a step into unknown possibilities.
Israel will not stop. It has been protected from Iran by Russia which has threatened Iran if it attacks Israel. The American oil and gas companies want Iran’s and Russia’s oil and gas. Russia has not shown its hand and has been proportionate in its response to provocation. Israel is willing to manage all the resources across Greater Israel for America in return for all the land. Kolnoyski is the dual national Jewish Ukrainian billionaire who funds Zelensky and Hunter Biden’s bio weapons labs in Ukraine. We are only minions and on a need to know basis community cohesion matters most to us and divide and conquer must be called out wherever Tony Robinsons and Farages tickle the nation’s underbelly.
The UN cannot stop it. Lebanon, Syria and Iran are just going to have to take a leaf from the VietCong and the NVA and say “fuck it, let’s do it”. If they don’t, they are going the way of Gaza. Nothing to lose now.
US Democrats, UK Labour, Macron, Scholz, Trudeau, Albanese. The most sensible, grown up moderates the western world could offer. It belongs to them. The liberal agenda of human rights, the rules based system, the primacy of democracy, all the liberal bullshit has been set of fire by the liberals themselves in a way I could hardly have imagined.
Of course, I never thought it was an authentic ideology, and was always just reification of individualism and the market and therefore intrinsically undemocratic. But I never thought that the liberal political and media class would throw it all away themselves to support Israel so completely. That they would prefer to turn to Orwellian inverted totalitarianism, double speak and soviet style propaganda rather than to bring their colonial attack dog to heel. A white supremacist settler project supported even to genocide, by means of denying sustenance, destroying hospitals, inflicting disease, snipering children. The liberalism of the lords of white settler colonialism in the USA, UK, Germany and Australia, their liberalism is very clearly closer to fascism than to anything left. Tbf, that was always my position, but I had supposed that it would be an argument that would gave to continue to be made theoretically amid all the opaque, concealed, evidence. I never thought they would play it out themselves. They have reduced the people of their own societies to cynical, apolitical and helpless citizens who have no effect whatsover on the political and media class’ project. Nothing we do, no march, no boycott, no civil disobedience, no violence, no House of Commons motion, no ICC conclusion ever makes them waver from their unrepresentative and undemocratic “management” of society at home and military imperialism abroad. And now in Britain, as our own people can’t keep themselves warm at night, while the last breath arrives hours before an ambulance for 999 heart attack victims, the liberals reject any limit to funding their precious white settler goblin genocide.
By way of example of the lengths they’re prepared to go to now, a year in, to keep portraying themselves as righteous victims, check this out from The Guardian – the liberals’ Bible and leftmost mass media publication in the UK.
“Tales” of infanticide in Gaza are a “blood libel” being used to demonise Jews.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/06/tales-of-infanticide-have-stoked-hatred-of-jews-for-centuries-they-echo-still-today
Always these made up bogus claims, I have never seen anyone using..”infanticide” for why Israel kill children. People simply judge Israel based on what Israel say and do. Like when Netanyahu use jewish scriptures to justify his child-killing:
“This is a war between the children of light and the children of darkness,” Netanyahu said using these words of religious connotation. “We will not relent in our mission until the light overcomes the darkness; the good will defeat the extremist evil that threatens us and the entire world.”
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/premier-netanyahu-continues-to-use-scriptures-to-defend-israeli-war-on-gaza/3042801
Note also the hasbara whataboutism.
Only compare reporting from Gaza with reporting from Ukraine. Bombs have fallen there, too, but how often is the burial of Ukrainian children the lead story?
Save the Children foundation put the children killed in Ukraine at 633 in a nation of 38 million ppl in 2+ years of war.
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/ukraine-child-casualties-see-alarming-spike-2024-war-marks-900-days
In Gaza children killed is about 16500 in a nation of 2 million people.in 1 year of war.
I cannot even calculate how many ukrainian children would be dead by now if they were killed in the same amount that have been killed in Gaza. It must be multiple hundreds of thousands which in turn prove what a chilling pace Israel serial murder children in Gaza.
The term is appropriate if we believe the testimony of doctors operating in Gaza. US doctors who operated there have recounted a pattern they observed of children under ten being shot in the head.
Even the New York Times, another major liberal zionist publication, has reported it.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html
Clearly however Guardian writers know better. These doctors are confecting a dreadful slur and blood libel against good people.
The dumb-dumbs can’t grasp that the opposite may be true. That Israeli crimes & lies in the present.
May cause people to wonder about “anti-Semitism” in the past. Was it all just blind bigotry, or did the historical actions & attitude within Jewish communities sometimes help stoke the ire of the many peoples (plural) that they’ve lived amongst?
Or to put it another way the Islamist terrorist attacks & grooming gangs etc., may have fueled the bigoted narrative of fascist types in Britain. However there *is* an issue there, and simply denying or covering it up (as the regime does) doesn’t make it untrue. It actually makes it worse…
Just a week back Israel cried like the spoiled crybaby they are because the secretary of general of the UN had allegedly not condemned Iran. Now, a week later Israel have delliberately target UN soldiers multiple times, no condemnation or apologies by Israel. Not to mention atleast 200+ UN staffers have been killed by Israel, an unprecedented number. So, Israel demand full support from the UN while they hate, despise and even murder reps. from the UN!
.UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said at least 220 UNRWA staff have been killed in the Gaza Strip
https://www.politico.eu/article/un-six-staff-killed-israel-strikes-refugee-camp-gaza/
But this is also what you get when you constantly bow down to the killer and accept his lies about he had to kill UN workers. Gutless-Guterres should have resigned long time ago.
Look also at the weird framing, the desanitized headline BBC put up when irish peace-keeping forces were attacked by Israel:
Irish troops ‘accounted for’ after reported Lebanon strike
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crm211mnev0o
Al Jazeera recently put up a documentary on western MSM complicity in the genocide,
Inside Western media’s reporting on Gaza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAmk4efA2t0
Let me help you.
Most politicians care about one thing above all others: getting re-elected. Since most voters have the mentality of sheep, that means pleasing the people who own or run the mass media.
No, most voters have an attention span of about ten seconds. Any blog containing reasoned argument, however simple, hides itself from 90% of the population.
By the way, I have a substantive disagreement with the Commission’s report:
The ongoing Israeli attack against the Palestinians began long before 7 October. My Netanyahu would love the world to believe that history started on 7 October 2023. It didn’t.
Good article and worth restating until someone in power takes notice and changes their behaviour. I’ve been watching Al Jazeera’s film about Israeli war crimes in Gaza and it painstakingly builds a well-documented picture of illegal acts since October 7th. It is a shocking film which should be required viewing for Biden, Starmer, Harris and Germany. Here’s a link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/investigations/2024/10/7/war-crimes-in-gaza-i-al-jazeera-investigations
If you mean politicians, they never will.
Readers of Craig’s blog probably constitute less than 0.1% of the UK electorate. Therefore, as far as politicians are concerned, we don’t exist and should be ignored. The voters who matter are the human sheep who get all their news and comment from the MSM and Youtube.
Admittedly, there are politicians in Parliament (Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell, David Davis … probably still some on the Labour benches until Starmer gets around to expelling them) who are decent human beings. But there aren’t many, because being a decent human being is a handicap in politics.
Ex State dept David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a former US State Department official who has worked on counter-terrorism operations in the Middle East penned an op-ed in the WSJ on Thursday titled “A Strategy for Striking Back at Iran”. In it he said Israel must target key leadership, military support and financial infrastructure of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Intelligence and Security Ministry. Israel should first neutralize the immediate missile threat posed by the regime, then on and on. What he proposes is delusional, notwithstanding the fact that the Iranian Ballistic missiles are in hardened silos situated deep underground and disbursed all over the Iranian desert, to destroy even a fraction of them is a fool’s errand. What he proposes is all out war with Iran, best of luck with that.
Many Zionists are of the opinion that their settler colonialism is not unlike the the way the US Colonialists took over the United States before and after the US civil war in the eighteenth century. Then millions of native American Indians were slaughtered in unspeakable violence, with the remainder put into reservations. In fact Hitler talked about this period in US history as a justification for his plundering of Europe.
Today it cannot be done since since the immediate Muslim presence approx 400 million compared to the approx 7 million Israelis.
The native Americans did not possess hundreds of thousands of precision ballistic missiles etc. The bottom line is, we (the Muslim majorities in the area) are many, they (the Israelis) are few. The few are concentrated in the Tel Aviv municipal area approx 50 sq miles with their ports and other vital infrastructure very vulnerable. Should the Israelis attack, it is goodbye to the Apartheid entity.
The idea of territorial expansion by those rabid settler types is bizarre just in a mathematical sense. Before you even consider the other issues.
They simply don’t have the sheer numbers to settle, control & exploit that territory. The demographic well of Jewish people outside Israel who’d actually want to move there, or it’s occupied territory has largely run dry (in fact more people are leaving Israel right now).
The last big influx was Jewish (or passing for Jewish) people from the former U.S.S.R & WTO countries. That was thirty years ago, there are no other untapped sources.
The Israeli Jews do have nukes. If they are defeated, it had better be gently. Unless a way can be found to neutralize their nukes.
Thanks for continuing to cover this and other important issues.
You say you are aware you may be saying things we already know, but we should continue to express our objections. If we remain silent then it can be interpreted as us not caring.
I have again sent an email to my MP pointing out what I feel is important to me. but this passive action has little impact I think.
The wanton slaughter of tens of thousands of innocents in Gaza has become the USA Empire’s equivalent of the Amritsar Massacre of April 1919 which defined the beginning of the end of the British Empire. The gratuitous excess violence, now spread to Lebanon, is surely simply too much for the rest of the world to stand by and watch.
The next time I hear anyone including Starmer speak of Israel’s right to defend itself as justification for the slaughter I shall scream. It simply does not wash. The next time I hear Washington spokesmen and women shrugging it off as nothing to do with them, I shall also scream.
The British loved the Third Reich until it marched into Poland and Czechoslovakia … the steps too far. How much more carnage will it take before the UK government wakes up to the merciless destruction it is supporting proactively?
They’re fully awake. They know what they do, and they’re proud of it.
This https://x.com/CENTCOM/status/1844858920122331193 CENTCOM post that’s gone up in the last 24 hours is bizarre, given the US separation of church and state and normal reticence about displaying overtly religious symbols in a multi-faith country like the US. >20% of Israel is Arab, so the idea of a “Jewish State” is offensive to many.
What’s the Hebrew translation? Probably something innocuous, but still … with so many US bases in the region.
I believe that’s a shofar (horn) in the CENTCOM image.
The shofar was also attributed the magic power of frightening and dispersing evil spirits and gods of the enemies who helped their people in battle.
I make it: gemara hatimah tovah. Which I think would mean something like: Talmud good conclusion. The reference to the Talmud in a US military text, if I have interpreted “gemara” correctly, I find most disturbing.
It’s Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) – my bad. Fri, 11 Oct 2024 – Sat, 12 Oct 2024
A time primarily centred on atonement and repentance. Someone ought to tell Netanyahu then, judging by today’s fresh bombings.
I don’t like this new fad our govt and military, plus intel agencies have of feeling the need to post on these occasions. Religion is a private matter; it looks like pure virtue signalling. Same with the ‘gay pride day’ stuff, as Glenn Greenwald has written about.
No stars and stripes for CENTCOM, religious symbols of an Apartheid, supremacist Genocidal state are now de rigueur.
Nancy Pelosi to AIPAC, “That’s fundamental to who we are.” Nancy Pelosi: “If capital crumbles to the ground, one thing that’ll remain is our commitment to Israel”. If Pelosi was asked is Israel more important than Religion and/or life and death, she would probably say, oh its more important than that. Stupid Harridan
Harry Law
We were told the Iranian mullahs were the dangerous religious fanatics, beginning to think our own leaders are.
“A vote for Kamala Harris is a vote for genocide. Hear it from her husband…”
https://x.com/propandco/status/1844920530618515910
TV campaign ad, Jill Stein, Green Party.
The Zionists are using depleted uranium weapons in Lebanon – they also used them in Gaza.
“The Israeli regime has breached many international laws that ban the use of these weapons, such as the law that regulates engagement rules, the Fourth Geneva Conventions, and the Hague Regulations.”
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/10/12/735084/how-israel-wreaking-havoc-lebanon-banned-depleted-uranium-bombs
Would they be behaving like this if not nuclear armed?
Would they be goading and provoking Iran were Iran armed as Pakistan is?
Turning a blind eye to Israel’s deliberately opaque nuclear status has been a calamitous error that’s emboldened the leadership into believing they are invincible. Israel is the main source of instability in the Middle East today, not Iran.
The argument for not demanding full Israeli disclosure in the West, used to be that everyone in the region hated them. If it wasn’t true back then, it likely is now.
“Would they be behaving like this if not nuclear armed?”
Good point, however I’d say yes – the West has their backs, and they feel as though they can do whatever they like.
Thanks to Mordechai Vanunu, we know that the Zionists possess nukes – yet Western politicians and their media whores, only prattle on about how evil Iran is for wanting nukes – possessing nukes – appears to be the only way, to stop Western hegemony from pillaging a country.
This was discussed previously here. But possessing nukes i.e. detonating a simple fission-based atom bomb, is no guarantor of a country’s safety. North Korea only gained that ‘safe’ status by testing a hydrogen based device in 2017, when it . tested a thermonuclear weapon (hydrogen bomb) with a yield of 250 kilotons(US estimates). The ability to manufacture : miniaturise and produce hypersonic missile delivery systems, systems that also have multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is an engineering holy grail to some countries. India have moved ahead of Pakistan in this regard. MIRV’ed warheads can hit hundreds of miles apart.
But interestingly, Iran recently showed off a MIRV’ed missile with iirc, 8 independently targetable reentry warheads a few weeks ago. Thus, Iran may have its own nasty surprises. In terms of missile tech, Iran has puts lots of money and effort in.
I’ve looked on X and I can’t find the the Iranian military presentation.
But here’s a picture posted on X of Pakistan’s MIRV’ed nuclear deterrent. https://x.com/TeamPakFouj313/status/1258696469881794561
I put that they hit – they actually detonate at around 500m altitude and it’s the pressure, heat and shockwave that does the damage. Let’s hope we never see a modern nuke go off. Hiroshima had a 16 kiloton yield (i.e. it was equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT) putting the N.Korean 250 kiloton test into some perspective. Standard Russian nukes have have yields of 500 kilotons, 800 kilotons and even 1 megaton — equivalent to 1 million tons of TNT.
Vile weapons, but many argue they’ve maintained the peace.
I believe it’s the case that Ukraine also used depleted uranium shells – supplied by the UK.
As the Israelis apparently say: ‘forget all your rules and laws, it’s the truth on the ground that counts’.
They don’t care, there are absolutely no repercussions.
Just ponder…In under four weeks, Trump may be US President again.
All those Ukrainian losses and all that US/UK, EU training, blood and treasure, for nought.
With Trump looming, I do think our govts should’ve been more realistic and done more to prepare the groundwork for a territory for peace deal. A deal that ends the war and locks Russia into any agreed new boundaries. This, in return for Russia’s acceptance of the remainder of Ukraine de-facto joining NATO, sans provocative NATO forces build up on Ukrainian territory along any new border via a buffer zone.
Just consider the latest unhinged comments coming out of Poland:
“Poland and its allies will instantly launch a long-range strike on St. Petersburg if Russia attacks any NATO frontline state, Rajmund Andrzejczak, a former Polish chief of the General Staff, has said.”
https://www.rt.com/news/605600-poland-threat-attack-petersburg/
As such, I agree with Russia that Ukraine cannot be permitted to join NATO, in any form.
Obviously, there are similar issues with the baltic states but, I suspect TPTB are observing what happens in Ukraine before getting too uppity.
Alexander Mercouris thinks [in my view correctly] that the US is abandoning Ukraine. They usually do this by not talking about it, he also thinks because the second so called peace conference has been cancelled as well as the meetings scheduled for Manheim. The very idea of the first peace conference not inviting one of the participants in the war they hoped to resolve was prepostorous, but that is what the wests lunatic foreign policy amounts to.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgjy7Co2Hjo
Because Zelinsky is delusional he will not negotiate with Russia since not negotiating with Russia is incorporated in Ukranian law. The US wants to concentrate on the middle east, I have to tell them another disaster awaits them
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Goose.. “Just ponder…In under four weeks, Trump may be US President again”. that’s true, but I think Trump is all bluster, especially about Iran, just remember when Trump was threatening North Korea, he ordered, was it three carrier battle groups to surround North Korea, then did nothing, sorry he did have a very fruitful meeting in person with the ‘dear leader’ Trump is all hat and no cattle. Thank goodness.
As Richard Dearlove said, in his recent Times radio interview, Trump is totally unpredictable.
He could do a lot of good, or equally, a lot of bad. He certainly likes his fellow strongmen leaders’; Putin and Netanyahu seem to be his role models. Some say Putin can manipulate Trump through flattery, but if it leads to a safer world, is that such a bad thing? I really don’t see what the alternative is in Ukraine, Ukraine can’t take the territory back, let alone hold it if they somehow could.
For all the people slating Trump and Vance’s plan, and claiming it’s a recipe for total capitulation: what is their alternative? Giving Ukraine the weapons to win, they say – but how can Ukraine out-escalate Russia?
Yes, Trump actually did sit down and talk with some of the USAs imagined opponents, how outrageous, smacks of diplomacy, nobody died, must be a commie.
In four weeks, Trump may be president elect again. If he wins the election, he won’t actually be president until two months after that.
Lysias
Technically, that’s correct, but de facto, Trump, or indeed, Harris, would be President. The 2025 United States presidential inauguration will take place on Monday, January 20, 2025. Quite a wait.
In recent years there have been some calls to change things.
I once read the election day to inauguration delay, stems from the fact they were once reliant on the Pony Express horse-and-rider mail system. So collating various results from all parts of the country took a long time. And they never bothered to change dates that had become a tradition.
“I believe it’s the case that Ukraine also used depleted uranium shells – supplied by the UK.”
Stevie Boy.
Indeed – and Netanyahu said in an interview, or at the UN – I can’t quite remember, that Western military powers hadn’t a leg to stand-on when it came to morality with regards to war.
The UK is supplying weapons to Ukraine that are designed to kill people, Stevie, whether they contain depleted uranium or not. There’s no evidence that depleted uranium in itself has killed anyone – including people who have spent much of their working lives involved in its manufacture.