I have a confession to make.
When a journalist writes this it generally means they will proceed to reveal something they hope will actually show them in a good light or justified in some way. But I have a real confession to make, of something I did that was wrong.
Somewhere in the UK, among the papers of a dead loved one which nobody has the heart to throw out, in cardboard boxes in dusty attics or deep in the filing cabinets of Jeremy Corbyn, exist still a few copies of thousands of letters bearing my authentic signature.
These letters, on expensive paper with an impressive Foreign and Commonwealth Office crested header, state that the British Government will not deal with the African National Congress because it is a terrorist organisation.
Many of them go on to state that Nelson Mandela is a terrorist who was rightly convicted of terrorism by a South African court after a free and fair trial.
I really did write those thousands of letters, not just sign them. I did not believe a single word of it, and was only “doing my job” as a civil servant, but in a sense that makes it worse.
So I know how many government functionaries currently feel in carrying out the government’s policy of supporting and indeed actively participating in genocide.
When I joined the FCO, in my “fast stream” intake of 22 I was one of only two who was not public school and the only one who was not Oxbridge. I also had the unusual background of being a member of CND, Friends of Palestine and various other activist groups.
I could not be excluded because in the several days and stages of public examinations I had (tied with 2 others) outperformed everybody else of the 80,000 people who had entered the Civil Service administrative exams (it was 1984 with 3.5 million unemployed).
But the security services were not happy, and my “positive vetting” was delayed. This is an extremely exhaustive process (nowadays direct vetting) for those with the highest security clearance. An MOD officer, usually retired military, is assigned to investigate everything about you for months, including interviewing many who know you.
So while I joined the FCO in September 1984, for five months I was not given a job but rather put on full time French language training together with three other misfits (one of whom I think was being given extra investigation because his uncle was Roger Hollis).
In the end my positive vetting was left with a query, and I was pulled in to see the Head of Personnel Department. They said that they had decided to grant my vetting certificate, but that I was going to be placed on the South Africa (Political) desk as a direct test of whether it was possible for me to put my politics aside and function as a civil servant.
So I did. You tell yourself many things to get by, chiefly that the UK is a democracy and ministers are elected by voters to determine policy; whereas you as a civil servant are merely carrying through the wishes of the voters.
Thatcher was Prime Minister and she simply was a straightforward supporter of apartheid. This is much denied but I am an eye witness. Geoffrey Howe was Foreign Minister and it was never easy to determine what he thought about anything. Junior ministers running day to day policy were Lynda Chalker and Malcolm Rifkind, who were both viscerally anti-apartheid.
But the line that Mandela was a terrorist and the ANC a terrorist organisation was dictated by Thatcher and absolutely insisted upon.
It is difficult now to explain the intensity of feeling in the UK and the strength of the anti-apartheid campaign. Scores of letters would arrive every day, many from MPs, and – this bit is hard to believe now – in those days every letter would be answered point by point, not with a generic reply.
I was writing those replies by hand, and then giving them to the secretaries to type up. In 1985 the Department got its first word processor and I was able to draft forty template paragraphs and select from those for the replies. But out those replies went from Craig Murray, stating that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist, thousands of them.
I was very actively involved in the Whitehall battle to change the policy, but that is a different story which I have in part explained before.
But this is an extremely important thought that I want you all to ponder.
In 1985, the Terrorism Act 2000 was still 15 years away. There was no such thing as a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act.
Under today’s legislation, every single one of those people writing in support of the African National Congress or out campaigning for the release of Nelson Mandela would have been liable for arrest under Section 12 1 (a) of the Terrorism Act.
That is the danger of allowing the state to dictate whom you must consider a terrorist and punishing those who disagree with the state.
In 1985 the official position of the British state was that the ANC were terrorists and apartheid South Africa were the good guys.
In 2024 the official position of the British state is that Hamas and Hezbollah are terrorists and apartheid Israel are the good guys.
The state can be wrong.
It is therefore not an irony that Starmer and Cooper banned Nelson Mandela’s grandson from entering the UK as a “terrorist sympathiser” because of his support for Palestine. In this as so much else, Starmer is a follower of Thatcher.
The difference forty years later is that the state is now persecuting British citizens and locking them up for daring to say that the state can be wrong.
The ANC example explains why it is essential we do not give way to this pressure.
Let us face facts. Like most resistance units against colonialism, the ANC were indeed forced by the exigencies of asymmetric warfare into actions that were careless of, or even targeted the lives of, colonial settler civilians.
That did not put them on the wrong side of history. Apartheid South Africa was wrong just as Apartheid Israel is wrong. Occupied people have, in international law, the right of armed resistance. Within that context of lawful struggle, individuals remain accountable for individual war crimes.
The Terrorism Act, abused by the Israel lobby to make it illegal to support Israel’s opponents, is fundamentally bad legislation. It literally provides for up to 14 years in jail if you “express an opinion” in favour of a proscribed organisation.
40 years ago it would have been used against the large majority of the population who “expressed an opinion” in favour of the ANC, officially viewed as a terrorist organisation.
The sickening ratcheting up of pressure on Palestine supporters by super Zionist Keir Starmer continued yesterday with a 6am raid on highly distinguished journalist Asa Winstanley. All his electronics and journalistic materials were seized.
Today 10 UK police launched a pre-dawn raid on the home of Asa Winstanley, one of Britain’s leading and most celebrated investigative journalists.
All this devices, so all his journalistic materials, were seized and are now with the authorities.
He was not charged with a crime. pic.twitter.com/bT9fpnE8rU
— Matt Kennard (@kennardmatt) October 17, 2024
Panicked Zionist “elites” who run western states are lashing out in fear at their opponents. As their popular support evaporates in the face of clear evidence of appalling Israeli atrocities, they are resorting to the methods of fascism.
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Public money – used to shut down free speech.
(CST) “Formally a charity, the Community Security Trust (CST) is a Zionist influence organization that among other things played a central role in the undeclared war against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.”
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Community_Security_Trust
“The British Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, has announced a £7 million procurement process for anti-semitism training in schools, colleges and universities, where she claims there’s been a huge increase in anti-semitic incidents.
However, the statistics on which she’s relying has been provided by the Community Security Trust (CST), which has links to Israel’s overseas spy agency, Mossad.
The British government has announced that its response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine is that it will spend £7 million on tackling anti-semitism in education.
Meanwhile, the government has failed to earmark any money at all to tackle the epidemic of anti-Palestinian and Islamophobic racism whipped up by the Zionist movement.”
Click the link below to see where else some of the £7million of taxpayers cash is going to.
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/10/20/735624/Education-Secretary-funds-Genocidal-Jewish-chaplains-at-UK-Universities-to-the-tune-of-7-million-pounds
@RoS – It wouldn’t surprise me if they have already moved on from
1. identifying potential “terrorists” among toddlers, school pupils, university students, workers, etc.,
to
2. going around the room, and using one-on-one sessions whenever the program says they’re needed, asking children and youngsters to say “in their own words” why “anti-Semitism” is such a danger, and to explain why saying stuff against Israel is filthy and antisocial and can get you in Big Trouble. And giving them a report on their social credit record accordingly. So it will be difficult to get a job, use public transport, get banking facilities, etc.
That is part of how you condition people to the max. It’s not just expose them to propaganda on the wall and from the mouths of those who stand above them in the opinion chain (e.g. schoolteachers, journalists, community organisers, and everyone else who “follows Prevent procedures). It’s not even just make them think they will be in big trouble if they dissent. It’s get them to spout the garbage back to you, and to believe it, as if they themselves had thought of it.
It’s utterly schizoid. The regimes that tell us men can give birth, some men are women, etc., tells us genocide is merely self-defence of democracy against exterminationists.
The planned massification of “smartwatches” for “health reasons”, combined with local all-purpose “stations” (i.e. if you don’t allow the tracking of your biological functions including your sleep patterns, you are a burden on everyone else’s social wellbeing and health; and if you show any signs of dissent, goons from the state unit at the end of the road will be around your door within minutes) shows I was absolutely right to view Xinjiang as the intended future for everywhere.
On the use of “nudge watches” for those “subject to restrictions outside prison”, see yesterday’s article in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/oct/21/england-and-wales-sentencing-overhaul-could-bring-in-home-detention
“A senior prison source said nudge technology could help offenders with “chaotic” lives. “We are particularly interested in nudge technology, like a wristwatch that says: ‘Have you got in touch with your probation officer? Have you turned up at your mental health treatment appointment?’” the source said.”
I love this next bit:
““They’re not things that restrict your liberty, but they are very helpful in terms of behaviour compliance and nudge compliance.”
Sure! They’re freedom watches! They’re passports to health, to which you have an entitlement!
There’s also this:
“Officials have also been examining plans for Texas-style reforms that would allow prisoners to reduce their jail sentences by earning points.
Inmates in Texas can cut down the amount of time spent behind bars by earning credit for good behaviour, as well as earning points for taking part in courses aimed at tackling the root causes of offending.””
This is the step on from putting the whole population under house arrest in 2020-21.
This time they will electronically tag the whole population.
The freedom helpy watches will even monitor sleep patterns.
And “social credit” is intrinsic.
Just as a “smartphone” has almost f*ck all to do with phoning people up, a “smartwatch” has almost f*ck all to do with telling the time.
“Phone” (held in hand, can be put down)
->
“Watch” (tied to wrist, can be taken off)
->
Bit obvious what the next step is.
RoS. I too attempted to prosecute Starmer as a litigant in person..I feel that I have been tricked by the Wirral MC into filling in another complaint form on 15th April 2024, when they knew my complaint would be out of time. the WMC officer said, “Thank you for your letter requesting a private prosecution” and “This must be submitted the application to us on the correct form” sic. In my opinion, ‘must’ in this context is an imperative, which in my opinion is wrong (and an abuse of process). Here are two articles refuting WMC Officer of the courts interpretation of the requirements…
5. A written information is ‘laid’ as soon as it is received in the clerk’s office, even if it is not considered by a clerk or a magistrate until later (R v. Manchester Stipendiary Magistrate ex p. Hill [1983] 1 AC 238). No standard form has to be used. All that matters is that the document sent to the magistrate’s court contains the essential elements of an information about an alleged offence. R v. Kennet Justices ex p Humphrey and Wyatt [1993] Crim. LR 787. https://foregatechambers.co.uk/private-prosecution/
Here is my complaint.
Dear Sir/Madam,
As a litigant in person I wish to bring a private prosecution under section 6 of the prosecution of offenders act 1985.
I wish to make a formal complaint against Sir Keir Starmer MP for Holborn and St Pancras, who is also the leader of HM Official opposition the Labour party. He has offices at Labour Party HQ in London and at the House of Commons, London, SW1A OAA.
On the 9th October 2023, Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, said on behalf of the Israeli government:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel. Everything is closed.”
In addition, according to Bloomberg television, 9th October 2023, he said “We are fighting human animals.”
During an interview with Nick Ferarri, of LBC News on 11th October 2023 at the Labour party conference in Albert dock Liverpool, Mr Ferarri posed questions – regarding Israel’s intention to commit grave war crimes, including collective punishment and the withholding of food, water and energy to approximately 2.3 million men, women and children of Gaza -to Mr Starmer.
Mr Ferarri asked Mr Starmer “A siege is appropriate. Cutting off power, cutting off water?” To which Mr Starmer replied “I think that Israel must have, does have, that right. It is an ongoing situation.” (Video evidence here).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdBU3ufYGTY
I accuse Mr Keir Starmer of a flagrant breach of section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986, i.e.
Causing harassment, Alarm or Distress
1/ A person is guilty of an offence if he…
a) Uses threatening words or behaviour, or disorderly behaviour, or
b) Displays any writing or sign or other visible representation which is threatening within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress thereby.
Because his words condoned and encouraged the Israeli government’s illegal war crimes and in effect gave the Israeli government the green light to deprive the population of Gaza food, water and energy, in effect condemning them to death, Mr Starmer’s comments were directed against all the Palestinian inhabitants of the Gaza Strip, which has caused significant alarm and distress to them and has enraged and alarmed the Palestinian population of the UK, many of whom have relatives living in Gaza. The Muslim population, and millions of other UK citizens in the UK and the wider world, are enraged by Mr Starmer’s endorsement of Israel war crimes. Also there are many local councillors who have resigned because of Starmer’s statement.
The International Court of Justice has ruled that the Israeli assault on Gaza is a plausible case of Genocide, with the necessary ‘intent’. The Israeli defence minister’s threats as endorsed by Starmer were presented in evidence at the ICJ.
Because the Palestinians are defined as a national/ethnic group, his comments do have a racially aggravated dimension to them.
I visited two police stations, who said they would record the complaint, but declined to take any action.
Starmer could not have argued that he did not mean those words since in section 5 Public Order Act the Prosecutor does not need to prove intent [Mens rea]. Starmer should now have had a record.
Those laws do not apply to the ruling class. The talk about how everyone is equal under the law is just a thin smoke screen to hide the fairly obvious reality that laws exist to keep the lower orders in their place, and do not bind the upper classes.
How someone like Mr Starmer could ever become one of the “upper classes” is the truly amazing part. Just imagine how Evelyn Waugh would have reacted! The explosion would have been clearly heard in Vienna.
Why do you believe Starmer is a member of the upper classes? He’s no such thing.
He’s hired help.
You can’t “become” a member of the upper class. You are born into it, or not born into it, as the case may be. (A few extremely rare exceptions do not disprove this statement.)
As the criminal law becomes more criminal, the likelihood of a member of the boss class having it applied to them diminishes, unless they commit gross moral turpitude.
Sorry to read that Harry – at least you tried – and others will, I imagine give it a go as well, though they’ll probably be palmed-off as well – sadly the UK government is in far too deep with Israel to stop now – as is the likes of Biden and Scholz.
There have also been cases of officials at magistrates’ courts telling people who have applied for orders requiring that the police return their property that their applications were “not on the correct form”, followed by a refusal to tell them what the correct form is – even when people have used Form N244 and have referred to the Police (Property) Act 1897.
No f*cking court application is legally required to be ON any particular form.
They might as well tell you “Don’t waste white man’s time.”
An application may be legally required to be IN the correct form. That’s an entirely different matter.
The idea of the rule of law is just going for a complete burton. Petty officials everywhere are completely and utterly complicit. There won’t even be the limited resistance among local authority staff, for example, that there was to the poll tax.
The way they talk about “requesting” a private prosecution – and they dare to do this in writing, with obvious knowledge of complete impunity – illustrates the culture well.
I don’t think the term “terrorism”means a lot. It is what the German occupiers called violence by the French, Norwegian (etc.) resistance movements. Bombing civilians is called terrorism when “they” do it but is ethically OK when our aircraft do it. Apparently. In the pages of the Daily Mail we are (by definition) virtuous and our enemies (by definition) wicked: real life is messier.
The Germans were quite right, legally. France, for example, had surrendered formally. French citizens were assumed – for example, by the “social contract” theory – to have delegated authority to their government – which was democratically elected. That government declared war on Germany (not the other way round) in 1939. When the French armed forces were comprehensively defeated, the French government surrendered and signed a peace treaty.
Thereafter, French civilians who attacked Germans – whether members of the armed forces or civilians – were committing crimes. Whatever your ethical beliefs may be, that was the legal position – with not one ounce of give in it.
@Tom – There was no peace treaty. There was an armistice.
Only because everyone concerned thought that Britain would agree peace shortly. Hitler offered generous terms, which remained open for years after, had the British government indicated any willingness to negotiate. The armistice, in any case, ended hostilities – after which it was a criminal act for French citizens to kill Germans or destroy German property.
“The state can be wrong”.
Surely that’s not at issue. More to the point, can the state ever be right?
So what is the official (if secret) British imperial view of the British public(s)? The British Empire terrorises colonised peoples, calls any who resist ‘terrorists’, designates anyone opposing the Monarchy treasonist felons, exports these templates and methods around the world… and in their safe little offices, regiments of loyal drones protect the Establishment by turning out lies, hiding truths, adulterating facts, fabricating smears, covering up crimes, day after day after day… and going home every night untroubled by all this? How does this system work? What would it take to break it?
Greed and desire to rule others. These traits must be prevalent above other and shown in early childhood. Then you get groomed by the system and tested on small scale issues. Obedience to those that feed you (maintaining their narrative) is also necessary. After proven worthy, you get a limited form of power, to do your masters’ bidding. IMO, you preferably also need a bunch of skeletons in the closet, the nasty kind. Congrats, you can now lead the masses.
@Sleeping Dog -You ask what would it take to break it. It’s not just the British empire or its heir but world capitalism. In answer: the night is going to be very long. There is no point in telling ourselves otherwise. Hope and dignity have to be kept alive among a small minority that knows how to wait, and OFFLINE. Imagine if the hikikomori went offline and teamed up withe bai lan… Dignity is absolutely central.
There is a bill submitted to the UK parliament by Adam Shockat for the parliament to formally recognise the State of Palestine https://x.com/ShockatAdam/status/1848415896278069660 . The bill will be debated on 29 November and has cross party support and has been co-sponsored by: Siân Berry MP, Ian Byrne MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Stephen Gethins MP, Adnan Hussain MP, Kim Johnson MP, Ayoub Khan MP, Iqbal Mohamed MP, Brendan O’Hara MP and Liz Saville-Roberts MP.
I urge you all to write to your MP to be part of the debate and support the bill.
The above is taken from Adam Shockat’s statement. It would help him is all of you who have a UK MP to urge him/her to support the bill.
Surely you will not get the terrorist squad on your doorstep for asking this!
Interesting post Craig. It’s best to keep away from those organizations if you can. Years ago, about 50, I went to a job interview with the British Council. The woman who interviewed me asked me – you do realise this is a propaganda organisation – something I’d said alerted her to my naivety, I actually hadn’t realised this at all, and I wasn’t then interested in the job. It was just a little job nothing as august as foreign affairs so it was easy to walk away from.
I have a problem wth a separate State of Palestine, if you mean alongside the State of Israel. It could end up having to settle for a small amount of territory, an unviable vassal bantustan fragmented across the West Bank, just grand apartheid in another form. A transformation of apartheid to full democracy (with a right of return for refugees from 1948 and no more special treatment for Jewish immigrants) would make Palestine what it should always have been.
So my question is: why would Palestinians want such a thing? Why agree, even implicitly, with the idea of “two states”?
Or am I missing something?
The two-state solution is a political gimmick that absolutely no one believes in: Not UN, US, UK or Israel.
The Israelis have specifically said that they intend to increase ‘their’ terroritory bit by bit until it includes Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and parts of Egypt and Turkey. Where are the Palestinians to go? Blackburn.
The maps in this previous article demonstrate the impossibility of a two-state solution:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/07/existence-vs-expansion/
The ONLY viable solution is a truly democratic Palestine/Israel – equal rights, equal votes for everyone.
The idea of a dedicated jew-only state is apartheid and, as such, fascist.
“You snakes, you nest of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of Hell?”
“You snakes, you nest of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of Hell?”
The word gennemata in Mt 23:33 means “offspring”. I wonder which translation you got “nest” from. The “New Testament for Everyone” has “You snakes, you nest of vipers, how can you escape the judgment of Gehenna?” which is the closest rendering I can find to your own in translations that are readily accessible online (not including archive.org at present, unfortunately).
Usually there is a number for a bill thats debated, if another bill runs longer it might fall off the alloted timed agenda.
The progress of the bill (called the Palestine Statehood (Recognition) (No. 2) Bill) can be followed here:
https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3796
Never mind the spooked-up micromessaging site owned by Netanyahu’s friend Musk.
The bill seems to have been scheduled for a second reading on 29 Nov.
About 1/4 of private members’ bills reach a second reading.
Some private members’ bills are government jobs, called “handouts”, with the private member just used as a channel. (Not this one, of course. I’m just saying that of the 1/4 that get the second reading, or which are eventually enacted, many are probably government bills in all but name. This means the proportion of “genuine” private members’ bills that get enacted is far lower than 1/4.)
For an intellectual exercise, one could compare private members’ bills with private prosecutions, add a dose of Montesquieu, and write a PhD thesis.
Thanks for enthusing me on my way to Edinburgh, Brian Red. I shall write to my new MP Ben Goldsborough and send him my petition with it.
South Norfolk had no Labour MP forr 72 years, not that it makes any difference, he’s a newbie who likes to conform.
In my view there should be a debate about saving the lives of the Palestinian people, rather than pretending that Israel has the right to kill them all and take all the land. Smotrich has passed a law that says Palestinians cannot sell their homes to Jews because Jews already have the right to any property they choose to take in The West Bank. The intention to annihilate the entire population in Gaza has been declared unequivocally. An international effort to evacuate Palestinians to other countries where there are already diaspora communities should be negotiable, if some leverage can be raised, and assurances not to destroy transport provided. As it is The Former British Protectorate of Palestine, taking the lead on this humanitarian international effort should be ours. Some Palestinians alive today may still have the British passports they were issued 80 years ago.
David Miliband’s International Rescue money spinner should have sufficient funds by now to fund the evacuation, though for his future job as a ‘show pony’ for Britain in America as our government representative after the American election, humanitarian ethics might be good….. or not. Duplicitous fund raising on the other hand might hold him in good stead. I think I’m getting to be too cynical. Decent human beings are running scared from this nightmare dystopian political leadership
“An international effort to evacuate Palestinians to other countries where there are already diaspora communities should be negotiable” Cannot agree Alyson although I know you mean well, this would be ethnic cleansing at the point of a gun thereby justifying the Genocide and ensuring similar war crimes in all the neighboring states. What Jordan, Egypt and other Gulf states must realize is that this is a fight for all the marbles, the Israel/US are going to continue to use them as vassals and buy them off with thirty pieces of silver, then they are cowardly fools. Worse, by failing to fight back they will have proven to have no self respect and deserve to smashed under the Israeli/US imperium.
‘No one expects the Spanish Inquisition’, as someone once said. We don’t believe that it can possibly be true that extermination of all people not of the tribe, everywhere, can possibly be the aim of people who live among us, who pass as European, and yet harbour such exceptionalism beliefs that they can really be such a danger to their neighbours, everywhere. We delude ourselves if we think we are exempt from their paranoid delusions. Acting together, with compassion and humanity, is the only example I can respect. I see no need to kill civilians of any culture or creed, but unless the people who are being starved, poisoned, bombed and tortured, are allowed to leave, they will be killed in unimaginably awful ways, because we, mistakenly I believe, supply the means for the evil ones to carry out the atrocities. TINA
” An international effort to evacuate Palestinians to other countries where there are already diaspora communities should be negotiable,”
Or the zionists could be evacuated.
The alternative is that the Zionists will kill them all
PS. I thought the British Council was an educational and cultural organisation! UK culture yes, but what’s this to do with propaganda? British values? Commonwealth values? Sounds good, go for it! (I’m not talking about laisse-faire capitalism or Zionism).
The UK government is continuing to grant export licences for vital components for F-35s. The fighter jets that have already killed scores of thousands of innocents in Gaza.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-british-officials-warned-criminal-liability-over-f-35-exports-israel
For over a year the British Army has been servicing Israeli fighter jets, ferrying huge transporter planes to Israel and flying surveillance operations over Gaza.
Very early on, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz identified RAF Akotiri in Cyprus as the international logistical hub for the Gaza Genocide, being used by the United States and Israel itself as well as by the British.
For most of this year Britain stopped its funding of UNRWA, knowing very well that Gazans were enduring famine.
Keir Starmer said he believes Israel has the legal right to deny Gazans food and water, and that every other depraved IDF act is merely Israel defending itself. Starmer has increased the number of military flights to Israel.
David Lammy said Israel has the legal right to bomb refugee camps because Palestinians raped babies on October 7th.
Moderate British centrist-liberal values, in practice.
Frankie. Totally agree with what you’re saying.
However as an aside, the F-35 is a propaganda tool. As a military asset it is, IMO, a total failure, it is very costly, has severe performance issues, is not stealthy and even now is not fully ‘in-service’.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20241022/f-35s-ascent-and-nosedive-costliest-weapon-in-history-hits-fresh-turbulence-in-damning-gao-report-1120637661.html
This PR tool is wheeled out on fine days, when there is no threats to it.
All the five eyes regimes have been forced to fund this albatross which is bankrupting their military capabilities – so maybe it’s a good thing !
On what boundaries?
Amazing, mere days after UN investigation proved that Israel had targeted hospital care and doctors as such in Gaza, Israel now use the same lies against Lebanon to destroy lebanese hospitals with the intent to stop people from getting aid:
Israel claims Hezbollah bunker under Beirut hospital holds millions of dollars
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/21/israel-claims-hezbollah-bunker-under-beirut-hospital-holds-millions-in-cash
(Note how the Guardian, once again spread these bs-hospitals-drivel israeli claims as some fact!)
As Craig focused on in a post recently, on the 10th of october, a UN investigation proved that Israel deliberately targeted health care, hospitals in Gaza.
UN inquiry accuses Israel of crime of ‘extermination’ in Gaza
The inquiry found that Israel was committing ‘war crimes and crimes against humanity’ in its deliberate attacks on hospitals
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/10/un-inquiry-accuses-israel-of-deliberately-hitting-gaza-health-facilities
Think about that; targeting hospitals, attacking, kidnapping, torturing and killing doctors. Keeping humans from getting aid. What the hell is this!?
One would think that Lebanon’s stated friends/allies would leap to their defence if they were invaded by a foreign power. So, why isn’t the US, UK, France sending arms and troops to Lebanon to repel the invaders ?
Using the logic of these pigs, if Israel attacked and invaded, say, Scotland then the UK/England and the USA would do nothing. There are no red lines.
‘Think about that; targeting hospitals, attacking, kidnapping, torturing and killing doctors. Keeping humans from getting aid. What the hell is this!?’
It’s evil pretty much on a par with the Nazis. And Benny and Co – and much of the Jewish population of Israel it would appear – are just lurvin’ it all. Talking of which, I just happened to watch BBC News at ten last night, and there was a segment by Jeremy Bowen, the first part about the latest atrocity in Gaza, and then in the second part of his report he asks some Jewish Israeli guy what he thinks about what’s happening – and been happening for the past year – in Gaza. The response by the guy was fairly brief, but the only bit I remember in respect of justifying everything is/was that ‘they’ – the population of Gaza – voted for Hamas (a platitude that was being churned out early on by the mass-murdering fascist scum). So, anyway, I just did a search to try and ascertain what percentage of the population of Gaza voted for Hamas, and Hamas won 44.45% of the votes and, as such, 74 seats (I don’t know what the turnout was, or if it’s mentioned anywhere in the wikipedia entry):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Palestinian_legislative_election
And I assume you had to be eighteen to vote, and we know that approximately half the population are under eighteen (although I don’t know if that was the case back in 2006). I expect Bowen is familiar with the result, and he of course knows that children make up a large percentage of the population of Gaza, but he didn’t think to point that out. Now the guy that came out with it was elderly-ish – ie in his fifties/early sixties – and he may or may not be aware of the result of the election and the percentage of people who voted for Hamas, but undoubtedly doesn’t give a fuck anyway. And another nazi-type platitude that the fascist scum were churning out in the early days of their genocide was something along the lines of the women being legitimate tartgets as well because they bear the kids that grow up to become terrorists. I don’t recall this guy saying that, but I have no doubt that HE, along with millions of others, lapped up such diabolical nazi-type propaganda shit. And needless to say, these people are incapable of seeing things from the perspective of the population of Gaza (going back70/80 years or more), because most of them are racist scum and regard themselves as superior beings and god’s chosen fucking people.
Demented goddam morons!
The horrors occurring in Gaza right now are unimaginable – the likes of Sunak, Starmer, Scholz, Biden and Netanyahu – MUST, be held accountable for this terrible genocide that they are fully aiding and backing.
“CNN published a piece today about Israeli soldiers returning from Gaza. One bulldozer driver testifies that they drove over Palestinians, dead and alive, “in the hundreds”. This is genocidal and just breathtakingly evil.”
https://nitter.poast.org/jasonhickel/status/1848380023645868433#m
Just found the CNN article (posted yesterday):
‘He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him’: Israeli soldiers returning from war struggle with trauma and suicide
A 40-year-old father of four, Eliran Mizrahi deployed to Gaza after the deadly Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Israeli military reservist returned a different person, traumatized by what he had witnessed in the war against Hamas in the strip, his family told CNN. Six months after he was first sent to fight, he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) back at home. Before he was due to redeploy, he took his own life.
“He got out of Gaza, but Gaza did not get out of him. And he died after it, because of the post-trauma,” his mother, Jenny Mizrahi, said.
The Israeli military has said it is providing care for thousands of soldiers who are suffering from PTSD or mental illnesses caused by trauma during the war. It is unclear how many have taken their own lives, as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not provided an official figure….
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/21/middleeast/gaza-war-israeli-soldiers-ptsd-suicide-intl/index.html
In a way I’m relieved to hear/read this, as I thought the whole of the f*cking military had gone stark staring blood-thirsty mad. So here are yet MORE victims of Benny’s genocidal insanity. Along with their families and close friends who loved them.
The plan for Northern Gaza.
“The Biden administration has approved the deployment of 1,000 CIA-trained private mercenaries as part of a joint U.S.-Israeli plan to turn Gaza’s apocalyptic rubblescape into a high-tech dystopia.
Starting with Al-Atatra, a village in the northwestern Gaza Strip, the plan calls to build what the Israeli daily Ynet calls “humanitarian bubbles” – turning the remains of villages and neighborhoods into tiny concentration camps cut off from their environs and surrounded and controlled by mercenaries.
This comes as Israel carries out daily massacres and ethnic cleansing in northern Gaza, enacting the proposal known as The Generals’ Plan, originally crafted by former national security chief Giora Eiland to turn Gaza into “a place where no human being can exist.”
https://www.uncaptured.media/p/us-authorizes-cia-mercenaries-to
If reports in websites like the Electronic Intifada about the attrition of IDF soldiers and vehicles in places where Hamas is supposed to have been eradicated are to be believed, these CIA-trained mercenaries might get more than they bargained for. If Hamas take a number of them hostage, I suspect, being an ignorant civilian, that the rest will take off as it were with their pants on fire.
Both of these girls’ parents have already been killed by Israel and now one has been hit by a car so her sister has to carry her
You can see the pain and despair in their eyes. That human filth Starmer thinks it is all self-defence.
https://x.com/jakeshieldsajj/status/1848417941509050421
As we’ve heard on numerous occasions during the past year (this from a couple of days ago in a ToI article):
“The IDF operates in a precise and targeted manner and does everything it can to avoid attacking uninvolved civilians,” the statement [by the IDF] concluded.
Yep, they use ‘precision munitions’ like the thousands of 2,000lb bombs supplied to them by the US with a kill range of 300meters from the point of impact.
The ‘uninvolved citizens’ is a new one, as far as I’m aware. I wonder what an INVOLVED citizen is, and how they differentiate between an INVOLVED citizen and an UNINVOLVED citizen. Needless to say, it’s just yet MORE propaganda B/S. Anyway, here’s the headline and the first part of the article:
‘IDF strikes Hamas target in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, rejects Palestinian casualty claims’
Military says it hit terror target using precision munitions, denounces Palestinian reports that 73 killed as Hamas propaganda
An Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya on Saturday night hit a Hamas target using precision munitions, the military said, rejecting Palestinian reports that as many as 73 people were killed.
In a statement on the overnight strike, the military said: “The numbers published by the Gaza information office — which acts as a communications arm of Hamas — are exaggerated.”
Those numbers “do not line up with the information available to the IDF, the precision munitions used, and the precise damage done to a terror target, of the Hamas terror organization,” it said.
The IDF called on the media to “be careful with the information published by Hamas officials,” noting that “this is an active combat zone.”
“The IDF operates in a precise and targeted manner……
https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-strikes-hamas-target-in-gazas-beit-lahiya-rejects-palestinian-casualty-claims/
Afterthought: So the IDF say (as in the ToI article) that the numbers “do not line up with the information available to the IDF….” and Hamas are exaggerating the number of people killed, but they don’t stipulate an alternative number which, given that they can differentiate between involved and uninvolved citizens apparently, you would think they know exactly how many people were killed, and who was who.
Anyway, for reasons I’ll explain later I did a search re >are hamas affiliated to isis< and this very interesting TIME magazine article came up at the top of the results (In the results it says ‘Hamas Is Not ISIS. Here's Why That Matters’):
What the World Gets Wrong About Hamas
Since Oct. 7, Israelis have struggled to find words raw and powerful enough to convey the trauma of what happened that day. Many have spent the past weeks watching Israeli generals, rescue workers, and forensics experts testify about the grisly ways Hamas killed 1,400 people.
Many Israelis, seeking to understand the horrors of Oct. 7, have turned to comparing Hamas to ISIS. The hashtag “#HamasisISIS” has trended on social media as Israeli leaders—including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—have frequently equated the two. But scholars of Islamist movements like myself, as well as counterterrorism officials, have long understood the comparison to be false. As Gershon Baskin, who has been Israel’s lead hostage negotiator with Hamas since 2006, told me recently: “Its acts of terrorism resemble ISIS, but they don’t have the same ideology.”
The first and most important difference is that Hamas is a Palestinian nationalist Islamist movement. That fused, dual identity differentiates it from ISIS, which is a transnational pan-Islamist movement that wants to gather a universal umma, or community of Muslim believers, into an “Islamic state” untethered from any nationalist project. Hamas, on the other hand, has more localized demands: it identifies “liberation of all of Palestine” from what it terms “the Zionist enemy” as its core goal in its 2017 Charter. There is also the inconvenient fact that ISIS “literally views Hamas as apostates” because of its support from Shia Iran, as the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Aaron Zelin recently posted on X.
A second key difference is their relative religious extremism. Hamas is religiously conservative, but it does not ruthlessly harass or kill non-Muslims in Gaza simply because of their faith or religious comportment. It tolerates women who don’t wear the hijab, people who sport tattoos, and teenagers who listen to American music. Christians and churches also coexist with Muslims in the Hamas-run enclave. None of this would have been possible under ISIS, a far more religiously extremist organization that tortured and mutilated people to compel their adherence to an ultra-radical version of Islam.
But comparisons between Hamas and ISIS abound in part because they can be politically useful. Insisting that Hamas is ISIS enables Israeli leaders to muffle criticism of the country’s treatment of Palestinians, including airstrikes in Gaza since Oct. 7 that have left at least 8,000 people dead, two-thirds of them women and children. The conflation could also help win over U.S. leaders and public opinion. “Since 1973, every Israeli war has ended early, from Israel’s perspective, because of dwindling support from the U.S.,” one former Israeli diplomat told me recently. “Keeping the U.S. onside here is very important, so this is useful hasbara [public relations] for Israel.” This rhetorical sleight of hand helps convince people that Hamas is not just a threat to Israel, but to French boardwalks or American nightclubs in the way ISIS was.
https://time.com/6329776/hamas-isis-gaza/
There was also an article at the top of the results by The Alantic (which I've not read yet) entitled 'Hamas Is Not ISIS':
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/hamas-isis-war-in-gaza/675786/
And it was as a consequence of coming across this article on the Sun's website (which was no doubt in the printed edition as well) – much of which I find hard to believe – in the process of trying to find how they covered the Beit Lahiya massacre a couple of days ago (I didn't find anything in the end):
10 YEARS IN HELL ISIS sex slave who was kidnapped at 11 reveals she was fed cooked babies before being kept prisoner by Hamas in Gaza
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/31056306/isis-sex-slave-kidnapped-fed-babies-hamas-gaza/
NB And when I checked, it appears the story was quite widely covered by the MSM.
PS And just to be clear, I’m well aware that Hamas are not remotely like ISIS.
Every decent person in the world should do something to assist the Palestinians, even if it’s just making sure the vegetables they buy aren’t from the Jewish Nazi terrorist occupation entity and letting others know what they’re doing. Or calling a “man” like Starmer who supports genocide the filth that he is.
It is extremely simple. It is only hasbaranik scum who say it is “complex”.
And for those of you who may be interested in the agricultural problems suffered by occupied territories in Palestine, here’s a good summary
https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cuag.12318
Al Jazeera has a good article “The grand failure of Israeli hasbara” by Dr Jamil Khader, Dean of Research and Professor of English at Bethlehem University, Palestine. As he explains, “hasbara” is Hebrew for propaganda:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/8/22/the-grand-failure-of-israeli-hasbara
Yes Craig, fascism is at the ‘root of colonialism’ (Cesaire). Wherever we see colonialism we can be sure that fascist behaviour is not far away. More especially ‘whenever colonialism is imperiled’ (Fanon).
@Alf – Interesting reference to Cesaire.
Three years ago, Martinique and Guadeloupe were probably the most resistant places in the world:
https://ibw21.org/editors-choice/strike-in-martinique-why-islanders-are-furious-with-the-french-state/
The background is that people there are very sussed about chlordecone and the damage it has caused to their health:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlordecone
Yes, people eventually have enough of colonialism. Cesaire remarked that following limited devolution in Martinique after WWII the French state actually increased the number of officials sent there from the mother country. Scotland has experienced arguably the same. Lets hope us Scots continue to oppose our ongoing colonial oppression.
The size of the Scottish Office has almost certainly declined since 1945 and many of its functions were taken over by the Scottish Government in 1999.
I would guess that the number of Scotland-born officials working in senior civil service jobs in England is far greater than the number of English-born officials working in senior civil service jobs in Scotland. Ditto in finance and the media.
Scotland is not a colony and never has been, and its rich were just as deeply involved in the crimes committed by the British Empire as England’s were. The British Empire was British not English. Of course there were local compradores and collaborators in Algeria, Vietnam, etc., with blood on their hands (just as there are scum in practically every country in the world today – including Palestine – who either cooperate with the USA or would love to) but the difference is that Algeria is in Algeria, whereas the slave estates owned by Scots weren’t in Scotland.
There was more anti-fascist consciousness in those protests in Martinique and Guadeloupe against compulsory vaccination than there has ever been in the SNP or Alba.
Brian ‘Red’ (white and blue?);
Perhaps you should read this article by Prof. Baird and maybe learn something….
“Brexit proved that the Scottish nation is treated more or less as a colony, with Scots forcibly dragged out of the EU against our democratic will. The recent UK Supreme Court ruling that Scots are unable to organise a referendum on independence, despite several electoral mandates in favour of a referendum, serves to reinforce a colonial status.
Welsh and Irish nationalist movements have little doubt about their colonial status, but for some reason many Scots still believe we are not an oppressed people. This is despite half the Scottish population living in or close to poverty in what is a resource rich nation. The Scots have been fed a narrative of a ‘union of equals’, which is difficult to comprehend whenever our 59 MPS or 9 percent of Westminster sovereignty is outvoted, which is most of the time.
Colonialism is not that difficult to understand. Colonialism is first and foremost economic plunder. Everything is taken from the country cheaply – oil & gas, energy, aggregates, food, whisky – with goods sold back to the natives at higher cost. The role of a colony is primarily to serve the needs of the mother country, in this case England.
Colonialism involves external political control, and is always a co-operative venture with native elites. These elites assume the culture and language of the colonial power and help manage the territory in the colonizers interest.
Another aspect of colonialism is settler occupation from ‘the mother country’. The largest in-migration of any ethnic group to Scotland over the past century and more has been people from England, oriented towards the professional and managerial class, according to census records. All the best jobs in Scotland are advertised mainly in the London press, and the only linguistic requirement is the English language.
Scotland has also been subject to population displacement, initially through genocide and clearances from the 1700s. This was followed by over a century of state sponsored transportation and emigration of Scots to Britain’s overseas colonies. The result was a loss of around 4 million Scots, one of the largest losses of population in Europe for a country of our size and population.
‘Cultural assimilation’ is a key feature of colonialism. Here a supposedly ‘superior’ culture which includes the values, ‘history’, heritage and language of the colonial power replaces that of the native people. In a colonial environment it is only the values of the colonizer that are sovereign. The colonized are effectively ‘out of the game’ internationally and in terms of history. An Anglophone unionist cultural hegemony, which includes native elites, controls the territory in the colonizer’s interest.
Cultural assimilation leads to institutionalised socio-linguistic prejudice, inequality, and development of internalized racism within an oppressed society. Only the language of the colonizer opens the doors of opportunity, while the language of the colonized is deemed invalid and made subordinate, as are those who speak it. The outcome is manifest in a people with a colonial mindset, what we know as the Scottish Cultural Cringe. This is a psychological condition which develops in an oppressed people a feeling of self-hatred, a belief that they are incapable of running their own affairs, and even rejection of their own liberation.
Colonialism is therefore mainly about economic and political exploitation, which is achieved through cultural control mechanisms. The exploitation of a people and their land by another culture leaves the nation and its people under-developed and marginalised.
There are only two main protagonists in colonial theory – the colonizer and the colonized. This reality is obscured in that colonized elites also become colonizers through adopting the colonizer’s values, and end up suppressing their own people and nation.
Peoples in self-determination conflict are invariably linguistically divided. The Scots, who are deprived of learning their language, are no different. The formation of an independence movement depends on the solidarity of the oppressed ethnic group, in this instance Scots language speakers.
In a colonial society there are only two possible outcomes: either the people secure independence, which is decolonization and liberation from oppression, which includes self-recovery of native culture, language and sovereignty, or; cultural assimilation and oppression continues, in which case the native culture, language, identity and national consciousness ultimately perish.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/10/22/video-shows-israeli-strike-collapse-multi-storey-building-in-beirut
^ Zionist terrorists destroy a residential block of flats in Beirut with single missile targeted at ground or first floor.
No doubt the BBC if they mention it at all will say the Zionist “defence” forces have confirmed it was a terror factory, nest of vermin, infrastruct of Khhhezzzbolaaa, command centre, hate hate, they started it, they want to kill us, don’t tell Jews what they shouldn’t do, what do you mean when you say we’ve got rabies, foam foam, etc. etc. etc. And of course the BBC have BBC Verify, so they’re reliable.
NYT: Harris advisers say the empathy she has expressed for Palestinians should not be confused with any willingness to break from U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/18/us/politics/harris-israel-gaza-war-biden-trump.html#
It’s not about a military need, or some sort of twisted defence policy, that’s all BS to fool the gullible and satisfy the faux conscience of its supporters. It’s all about creeping expansionism.
Gaza is almost cleared, the developers will move in soon, the West bank clearances are underway. A buffer zone is needed in Lebanon, but that won’t protect the settlements that will spring up in the buffer zone, so Lebanon must be cleared. Then Jordan, then Syria, etc.
Expansionism.
Coming soon to a country near you. Israeli flags at British ports, I thought this was the UK …
Many Israeli apologists point to the Wests fire bombing and total destruction of Dresden also Hiroshima and Nagasaki as justification for its Genocide in Gaza, some have argued that the Genocide and ethnic cleansing of 100 million? native Indians [you know the ‘savages’] was justified even by Winston Churchill as being legitimate [one superior breed replacing another, a Darwinian perspective] followed by slavery which was prevalent all over the US. Many say a country whose existence is founded on mass murder and then graduates to slavery over the course of 250 years is in no position to tell other countries how to behave, remember it is only in the 1960’s that segregation was abandoned. They have a point, in my opinion the UN Charter was introduced in 1945 was some kind of order established. In the article below Jonathon Cook has a good take on what has gone wrong…
“The year-long genocide in Gaza is entirely a western co-production. The US and Europe send the weapons, provide the diplomatic cover, orchestrate support from their pliant state- and billionaire-owned media, and stifle all domestic dissent.
The modern era of international humanitarian law that the West proclaimed, as well as the institutions the West championed to uphold it, are going up in flames”. https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/gaza-genocide-israel-burning-alive-destroying-world-as-we-know-it
Harry Law,
To piggy-back on your thoughts.
There are two main candidates for the US November elections. I reason that relative to any betterment and/or improvements it is a choice between the lesser of two evils; how so and why so?
Rule of law – what rules? – which laws – when it comes to US policies on Israel?
Well, Harris is an establishment approved candidate ( i.e. won’t rock the boat over US Israel foreign policy). Trump is a bit worse – but – why so?
Consider that with the so-called ‘Abrahams Accord’ Trump formally cancelled any hope for Palestinian statehood. How so. By placing the US Embassy in East Jerusalem, Trump is saying that the location designated by the UN as the capital for the Palestinian state – there is no such existence and/or possibility – for Israel lays claim to the land and the US approves by placing the US embassy for Israel on Palestinian soil. Game. set and match – and Biden has endorsed by in no way disapproving of the move. Harris, I guess, will just ride along while no one notices the flagrant injustice and complicity of the US.
Lesser of two evils – indeed – and there you have it.
To the US power elites and their managers the problem with Trump is not what he does but what he says. Basically, he can’t keep his big mouth shut and limit his pronouncements to their approved narrative. His “We’re keeping Syrian oil; US troops are there for the oil” remarks to Erdoğan are but one example.
Okay, there is one thing he might do that worries them – take some kind of action against the US intelligence services. He blames them for working to undermine his election (which they do for the above reason). So, as neocon Republicans rush to endorse Harris, there is one former Democrat (now independent) politician who has endorsed Trump, viz. Robert F Kennedy Jr who, like Trump, has issues with the CIA for reasons to do with certain assassinations.
Beyond that there is no way Trump will rock any boats. But still he portrays himself as the anti-establishment candidate and benefits from belief in that fantasy by much of the US electorate suffering from years of neoliberal deprivation inflicted on them by both parties. Amusingly, I’ve seen Democrats recently try to erode that support by claiming they’re the party that’s not in the pocket of billionaires while Trump’s Republican party is. Just another absurd fantasy foisted on the US electorate.
Rocking boats is what Trump does best. I note that the UK is working more closely with Germany and France, this week, on supplying planes and coordinating the surveillance of Russian subs around Britain – yes they are there – and supporting the better organised, French, ground based armed forces, which already exist, by manufacturing weapons parts. One of Trump’s throwaway lines was his threat to pull the US out of NATO if Europe didn’t pay them for being there. That would change things considerably. There are hundreds of thousands of US troops in Germany, and similar numbers all along the border with the Eastern Bloc, such as it still is. Trump is a wild card. Melania is Russian as was his previous wife. Business is what motivates him and he is not owned by corporate America, or AIPAC as Kamala is. Unknown unknowns.
Alyson..
“One of Trump’s throwaway lines was his threat to pull the US out of NATO if Europe didn’t pay them for being there”
Trump is a joke. As the leader and head of NATO, the US get to use the whole of NATO as a sort of cutting edge for US geopolitical machinations; also NATO countries are expected to contribute at least two-and-a-half percent of their GDP to armaments: for example, Germany would need to spend $4 trillion dollars. Who benefits mostly from this? Why Uncle Sam, of course, since aircraft, tanks etc. have to be interoperable and as the US has the largest armaments industry, (by far) surpassing the next 9 countries including China and Russia combined, it is a no-brainer to know who gains most.
Trump says a lot of things. He says them to appeal to a certain demographic within the US electorate. As threats to foreign states they’re just hot air. “Mexico will pay for a wall,” is one he made in 2016. Did Mexico pay? No. Will he pull the US out of NATO? Monkeys will sooner fly out of his arse.
Melania is not Russian. She is Slovenian.
Neither is Ivana . Czech American.
@Mart – Trump is insane and he won’t be allowed to make big decisions on foreign policy or anything else. As for whether the USA will withdraw from NATO, the question is wrong because NATO is nothing but a USA bumlickers’ club. It gives the elite that makes money from the USA project a lot of influence – much of it, as you say, cashed in on by selling weapons. But what happens when the only money that USA bumlicker regimes in places like Britain and Germany can find to pay for USA weapons is funny money that isn’t worth sheeyit? Or to put it another way, when the USA dollar, the euro, and sterling all collapse. You then get “structural adjustment programmes” in international banker-speak. The scale of asset stripping that will be required will dwarf anything that’s gone before…and the curious thing is that a major war could be the way to do it – and to do it properly with optimal megadeaths NATO would be useful. A completely insane “circle”, but welcome to the capitalism of the mass cull epoch. To look at it from another angle, it’s all a great opportunity for the elite within the ruling class…and the huge level of submission that’s been built using the internet, and then Covid, won’t be left uncashed-in on. No way will it. NOT having a mega-cull simply doesn’t make financial sense.
And there are currently only 50,000 US troops stationed in Germany, in decrease compared to 5 years ago.
But this is probably not very important here.
Courtenay Francis Raymond Barnett
On the US elections – could you imagine the uproar – if several Russian politicians took time-off to campaign for Trump, as Labour politicians are doing for Harris.
“If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you will always have evil, and you will always have less.” — Quote by Ralph Nader
Harry Law
Good bringing this topic up, I thought about it myself. I fear this is the very reason why west will never wake up regarding Gaza. There will never be a day when the west will come to terms and realize what Israel did was wrong, I fear they will justify the slaughter and point to Nagasaki, Dresden bombings that ends justify the means. Their argument seems to be, ‘well civilians die and it is bad and so on and so forth, however civilians die in war’.
And importantly, who brought that nasty argument to the table? The israelis themselves of course and since useful idiots in the west have repeated this callous nonsense:
16 october 2023, just above a week after 7th of october:
Israeli Official – Tzipi Hotovely – Invokes World War Dresden Bombings to Defend Israeli Assault On Gaza
https://www.mediaite.com/uk/israeli-official-evokes-dresden/
It was the same depraved woman that threatened early on that Israel could likely kill thousands of palestinian civilians to get to their goal:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-may-kill-600000-civilians-says-ambassador
Note how she say that with ease. That is what dehumanization do. Like there is no emotions, empathy in that woman. Totally devoid, stripped of everything. What a creep. This woman should not be free, she should not be in jail but in a straight jacket.
The atrocities of the past are not an alibi for the present.
I watched some videos interviewing Alan Hart (1948-2018) recently, ex-ITN Middle East correspondent and former BBC Panorama presenter, 17 mins in total. Any memories of him ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvluK2VNGAI&t=19s part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzj2JhUNn0g&t=4s part 2
The only conclusion must be, that Israel is above International Law.
“Israel Defense Forces troops recently forced their way into a United Nations peacekeeper base in southern Lebanon and fired white phosphorus munitions in close enough proximity to injure 15 U.N. personnel, according to a report published Tuesday.
The Financial Times reviewed “a confidential report outlining a dozen recent incidents in which the IDF attacked international troops in Lebanon.” The newspaper said the report was prepared by a country contributing troops to the 10,000-strong U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
UNIFIL forces and facilities have been repeatedly attacked by Israeli troops since the IDF launched a ground invasion of Lebanon earlier this month amid heavy aerial bombardment that has killed or wounded thousands of Lebanese. UNIFIL has condemned attacks on its positions and personnel as a “flagrant violation of international law.””
https://www.commondreams.org/news/white-phosphorus-lebanon
So they attacked a Unifil position using white phosphorus. That’s even worse than I thought. I thought it was zinc chloride.
Although UNRWA does a lot of good work in Gaza, and hundreds of its staff have been murdered by Zionist state terror, nothing whatsoever of any seriousness has been done by the UN political inter-state system to stop the Zionist advance since last October.
You gotta wonder whether they’re going to nuke Iran at the same time as they pull whatever number they will pull in US domestic politics in the next few weeks.
My hunch is there’s going to be a NYC side to this…
Not pro-Israeli – not pro-Zionist, then you’re not welcome.
A former Democratic candidate for Congress and prominent Muslim in Metro Detroit has been removed from US Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s rally in Michigan.
Ahmed Ghanim, who is opposed to US support for Israel’s military actions, said on Tuesday that he had accepted an invitation to the event and was seated in the Royal Oak Music Theatre the day before when a campaign organizer ordered him to leave, without giving him a reason.
“She took me to the door, and she closed it, and I found two police officers waiting there, and she said, ‘You have to leave right now,’” Ghanim said.
“I asked why she was kicking me out. She wouldn’t answer. I was very calmly asking why I was being kicked out,” he added.
The prominent Muslim Democrat said that he had told her, ‘OK,’ and left., while a police officer said, ‘You either leave now or I’ll put you in the back of my car.’”
Ghanim further said that he and many other Muslims feel alienated by the Democratic Party and that Harris’s campaign will be impacted by it.
“They keep saying they want the Muslims and the Arabs, but we aren’t even welcome at an event,” he said, stressing, “If that happened to me, imagine what would happen to any other Muslim.”
The US Democratic Party is in the global vanguard of feminism and anti-racism, and of genociding Arab women and children.
joel
What their vanguard includes is only certain types of females kids and adult males. Not the Foreign ones who fight Israel.
They don’t like them. How do we know?
Because they keep sending the weaponry to bomb and kill the ones they don’t like to the Israelis who they do like.
Look at the British authorities’ rearguard action after the Chris Kaba killing and the ensuing court case, with the usual collaboration of the media, and imagine what happens in places where there are no witnesses or courts.
Did anyone get a hint of what the judge prevented the jury from saying?
English governments have a long history of terrorism, and aiding and abetting in genocides – so we shouldn’t be surprised at their aiding and abetting in the Gaza/Palestinian one.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/gaza-britains-seventh-genocide/
Israeli spy – threatens Western journalists if they get in the way of Israel’s plans – Piers Morgan looks to terrified to speak – a first if you ask me.
https://nitter.poast.org/5149jamesli/status/1848815148993286556#m
We are all scared of Israel, and rightly so
Alyson
IDF troops laugh and joke, its all just one big laugh to them – as they snipe women and children – whilst photographing their tours (war crimes) in the Gaza genocide.
https://nitter.poast.org/trackingisrael
This time the ascendancy is no paper tiger…
On this “we have the right” business, young Zionists are taught that “we have the legal right, we have the moral right, and we have the physical force so you can’t stop us”.
Useful servant-turds like Starmer aren’t told to yap the third bit.
Mosab Yousef is the author of the book Son of Hamas. He is a Palestinian, the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas. His story is also told in the documentary film The Green Prince, available on internet and DVD. He became an agent of Shin Bet, being recruited while in detention. When he tired of it, the Israelis helped him move to the USA, and when his activities became public, his family disowned him. I felt sorry for his father when reading about his reaction to the revelation of how comprehensively his son had sold him out. Since Oct 7, the father of Mosab Yousef has been detained again. Mosab Yousef himself seems to have become increasingly reactionary in his pronouncements with time. There are many Youtube videos of him over the past 14 years.
It looks like Israel is putting the last remaining six Al Jazeera journalist, (who are reporting from Gaza) on a hit list – after saying that they are terrorists working for Hamas – the Zionists have already murdered scores of journalist – and some journalists family members for reporting on the genocide.
https://nitter.poast.org/ASE/status/1849108640680014098#m
I am late to the party but had anyone mentioned already that Chechen terrorists were never listed by DoS as terrorists despite their horrific terror acts, and that Maggie invited Aslan Maskhadov to dinner?
Interestingly, Chechens were aquitted of their actions by the US mass madia with Fareed Zakaria playng the fronman [How Russia Created Its Own Islamic Terrorism Problem, Time, Jan 27, 2011] because of the war. There were even academic papers published that concluded that Chechen terrorists had “traumatic experiences” that later made them do some bad things [Speckhard A & Akhmedova K, The Making of a Martyr: Chechen Suicide Terrorism, in Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, Volume 29, Number 5, July-August 2006, pp. 429-492(64); Vilkaite E, Analysis of the Beslan Massacre, E-Int. Rel. Feb 13, 2013]. In other words, Russians deserved their terrorists.
Of course, the “traumatic experience made them do it” logic does not apply to Hamas or al-Qaeda. They kill Russians because Russians are so bad, but they kill us because we are so good!
There is an interesting autobiography by Khassan Baiev, The Oath, the story of a Chechen doctor which I read during a transatlantic flight many years ago. He got into hot water from both sides in the Chechen war, thanks to his keeping the Hippocratic Oath and treating anyone who needed it.
It seems the fatal attack today on an arms manufacturer in Turkey was probably Kurdish group. I guess revenge because
“TUSAS designs, manufactures and assembles civilian and military aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and other defense industry and space systems. Its UAVs have been instrumental in Turkey gaining an upper hand in its fight against Kurdish militants both on its own territory and across the border in Iraq.”
Specifically
https://www.turkiyetoday.com/turkiye/turkish-military-eliminates-11-pkk-ypg-terrorists-in-northern-iraq-67373/ Oct 19 slick vid of ground and air missile attacks, not sure if generic footage
P. S. Lately I keep not seeing the latest posts/comments here despite refreshing. Then suddenly they all appear all at once, sometimes days after.
Aaron Maté….
“It’s not just critics who say that US policy in Ukraine is to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian. Here’s LindseyGrayham saying that as long as the US arms Ukraine, “they will fight to the last person.” And four months in, he says, “I like the structural path we’re on here.”
He also complains about the Ukrainian natural resources the Russian and Chinese will acquire, he thinks the US should get the lion’s share. Is it any wonder the rest of the world hates the US?
https://x.com/aaronjmate/status/1554486803431886848
Jonathon Cook preeminent Journalist on Israel /Gaza war crimes outlines the hypocrisy and double standards inherent in government and mainstream media and how the two highest courts in the world seem to be dragging their feet, he implies [correctly] that crossing the US is a suicide mission.
“As far as the West is concerned there appear to be no meaningful red lines, at least so far, for the world’s two highest courts in responding to Israel’s destruction of Gaza.
The ICJ agreed to put Israel on trial for genocide back in January, after hearing the case made by lawyers representing South Africa, and Israel’s response.
One might have assumed, given that genocide is the ultimate international crime, that the court would have fast-tracked a definitive ruling. After all, the people of Gaza do not have time on their side. But a year into the slaughter and imposed starvation, there is only silence.
The same court has in the meantime ruled belatedly that Israel’s 57-year military occupation of the Palestinian territories is illegal, that Palestinians have a right to resist, and that Israel must withdraw immediately from Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Western politicians and media have ignored the significance of that ruling, for obvious reasons. It provides the historical context for Hamas’s breakout from Gaza after its illegal siege by Israel for 17 years. Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist group in the UK and other countries.
The problem for the ICJ is twofold. It is under enormous pressure from the US global superpower not to declare a genocide in Gaza by Washington’s favourite client state. Such a verdict would tear off the veil, exposing western powers as fully complicit in that supreme crime.
Secondly, the court has no enforcement mechanisms outside the UN Security Council, where Washington enjoys a veto that it routinely wields to protect Israel.
On much the same grounds, the ICC is also dragging its feet. Khan says he has enough evidence to issue arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for crimes against humanity. European states are obligated to enforce any arrest warrants, so unlike an ICJ ruling, this one could be carried out.
But for months, the judges of the ICC have delayed approving the warrants, despite the urgency, apparently because they, too, are fearful of incurring Washington’s wrath”.
Both courts can be in no doubt that taking on Washington in these circumstances is a suicide mission. https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2024-10-11/war-gaza-israel-job/
You know it is bad when even right-wingers in Germany now voice public dissent against Israel:
Germany: AfD leader rejects arms exports and ‘one-sided’ support for Israel, calls for end to ‘blanket Islamophobia’
Germany’s AfD party leadership is against sending weapons to Israel and calling for an end to the “one-sided partisanship” in support of the country
https://rmx.news/article/germany-afd-leader-rejects-arms-exports-and-one-sided-support-for-israel-calls-for-end-to-blanket-islamophobia/
It is absurd that so many anti-immigration parties in europe do support israel considering that it is because of the wars that Israel wage that drive refugees towards europe. On the one hand anti-immigration parties give a blank check for Israel to ethnically cleanse Gaza then they whine when the same refugees inevitably go towards europe! Not to mention Israel want palestinians to go to Europe.
Israeli MKs Call on West to ‘Welcome’ Refugees From Gaza
In a WSJ article, the two MKs – from both the coalition and opposition – said transferring tens of thousands of Gazans to Europe is a ‘moral imperative – and opportunity – to demonstrate compassion’ towards the people of Gaza. Far-right ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir were quick to express support
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-11-14/ty-article/israeli-mks-publish-plan-to-transfer-gazans-to-europe-to-alleviate-humanitarian-crisis/0000018b-ce7c-d168-a3ef-dffeed320000
Trump at a town hall in Zebulon, Georgia, USA, said if things don’t work out for him in the US election he could go to Israel and be elected prime minister there, and 97% of Israeli voters would support him.
He then implied that he was only kidding and that anyone who reported what he said as if he wasn’t kidding would be spreading “fake news”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N50hLleeZ84#t=20m20s
Reference to “fake news” begs the question of why does he say such stuff.
I thought I would post this because AFAIAA it hasn’t been commented on at all in the MSM, and it’s a window on how the skein of truth, lies, and taking the f*cking piss currently operates in the political spectacle.
(For more of what Trump says about Israel, roll back to about 18:20. He says for example that he gave Israel jurisdiction over the Golan Heights.)
Terrible. Doesn’t mean anyone should embrace the AIPAC Genocide “Democrats” though, does it Brian “Red”?
If Trump wins then the question is, how much sh*t is the labour regime going to be in ?
Labour actively helping the Democrats (election interference) and the Labour Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) actively working with the Democrats to try and cancel Musk’s X.
https://www.rt.com/news/606165-censorship-ngo-kill-musk/
I thought the tories were bad, but Starmer’s Labour is in another league.
Kamala Harris is running as a Bush-Cheney Republican, so why are British libs so desperate for her to win? I suspect it is because they fear Trump might end the war in Ukraine, or at the very least decisively rule out the escalation Starmer is pushing for.
@Greg – I assume you mean leftwing people in Britain rather than liberal democrats or libertarians. We want Harris to win because Trump is a fascist who will inspire many fascist cracker morons in the USA to get killy-killy with their Second Amendment freedom phalluses, partying like it was 1860 and they hadn’t lost the civil war yet. (Or maybe like it was 1960 in Alabama). Among other reasons.
Believe me – it’s not because we secretly want the Russo-Ukrainian war to continue.
The insane failed casino owner from New York couldn’t stop the Russo-Ukrainian war if he could even point to Russia and Ukraine on a map. Who on earth would listen to the berk? Even those who are normally quite good at controlling themselves, people like Angela Merkel and Justin Trudeau, couldn’t keep it under wraps that they thought Trump was a twat, as almost every grownup person in the world does. Also the argument that Trump didn’t back the starting or continuation of any wars in 2016-2020, so he won’t in 2024-28, is logic for people who probably can’t even spell “logic”. The international situation is serious. It isn’t the wrestling.
The USA is being deliberately destabilised. This is not to the benefit of the left. There is practically no left to speak of, and to the extent that a left exists 99% of it picks at smartphones most of the time and even if they do anything sensible they will be easily distracted.
The destabilisation of the USA will have a knock-on effect in much of the rest of the world.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/23/trump-and-harris-are-neck-and-neck-this-is-a-five-alarm-fire
^ That’s by Robert Reich, who was US Secretary of Labour under Bill Clinton.
What is most interesting is how he finishes the piece:
“This is an all-hands-on-deck moment. A five-alarm fire. A category 5 hurricane.
Do whatever you can.“
DNC have the backing of neocons. Does not that say it all? Why do neocons hate Trump? They hate him because he is not as a big as warmonger as Kamala Harris. If Trump win he will have to deal with the bureaucracy, the military, media, the intelligence services which is all in the hand of the DNC. Trump will have gigantic problems if he want to start any wars. However Kamala Harris will have no such problems because these above named groups are her friends.
Remember also that neocons are not only pro-israeli warmongers, they are also anti-russian crazies. It was neocons during Reagan that pushed Reagan to take he most hawkish, aggressive stance against the Soviet union. LIke Richard Pipes.
Without a doubt, the reason why there is so much bruhaha against Trump is because of his stance on foreign policies. Russia-gate proved that. It was not about Trump’s crude statements on immigrants, women etc. It was about him being an anti-interventionist.
Just look how DNC copy Trump’s view on immigration. They even kept building his wall after his departure. Why should DNC be given a free pass when they are no better than Trump on most issues?
The DNC, Labour and socialists in europe need to get back to their roots, away from the neoliberalism, away from the warmongering, away from the general right-wing steer and for that to happen it seems that Trump must win.
No, I mean bog-standard liberals like you and the Starmerites who are over there campaigning. The type of people who are still impressed by the corporate-liberal “serious grown ups” who have given the world a year of racist genocide. The type of people for whom a year of racist genocide was never going be a red line. Not for one millisecond.
Robert Reich is one such, you are clearly another.
@Brian Red, what has the Biden regime not done that another Trump regime will do?
Anyone taking the USA election seriously is deluded. It’s a bit like trying to justify voting for Starmer because he isn’t Sunak, utter madness.
All the western regimes essentially have uni-parties, voting will make no difference. As a wit said before the UK election: ‘voting for Starmer is like changing your shirt when you’ve sh*t your pants.’ Same with Trump and Harris.
Trump will win, and I think that’s excellent, specifically for the comedy value. The world is already destabilised, the election will make no f*ckin difference.
Comedy value:
https://babylonbee.com/news/9-ways-trump-is-exactly-like-hitler
Democrats planned the war in Ukraine. I haven’t forgotten Victoria Nuland’s ‘Fuck Europe’ remark in the Congress planning session for overthrowing the elected president and getting Kolnoyski’s star actor-comedian Zelensky to play the role for real. Putin has kept to the specifics of ‘protecting’ the regions which were being shelled by the Ukrainian forces after they had banned the Russian language which is spoken there.
If Trump wants to deprive the energy sector of its dreams of obtaining control of Russia’s oil and gas then he will be playing by the rules. If he wants to respect the partition of Ukraine which the regions voted to secede from, he will be playing by the rules.
He may say he approved the seizing of the Golan Heights, and maybe he did, but Netanyahu got Putin’s permission first, (source ToI at the time) before occupying the area and pushing the shepherds and farmers into Syria, where they await the right to return. Russian planes closely monitored the invasion and its boundaries.
Ukraine serves Israel because the original Democrat plan stated that it’s purpose was to deplete Russia of its weapons and armed forces within a limited or European war, and Russia holds the balance of agreement between Israel and Iran. Israel will not attack Iran, but the US might consider it is not bound by the 3 way agreement between Israel, Iran, and Russia. They will weigh the risks and tell us proxies to take the hit for their recklessness. Fuck Europe and the Russian people can be sacrificed next for the US energy companies. No worries it’s a MAD MAD world
FYI : Al Jazeera is broadcasting the film Israelism to see free of charge, in (probably) two parts. Part 1 was broadcast earlier today, but will be repeated on Saturday 26th October at 2pm, Monday 28th October at 1pm, and Wed 30th at 2pm. Not sure yet when part 2 will be broadcast.
It is apparently available on various internet sites for subscribers, but I look forward to a DVD coming out (if it does).
Another Hamas command centre bombed – says I, whilst tongue pressed firmly into cheek – I’ve lost count of the Zionist war crimes in Gaza.
“The Israel occupation just bombed the Martyrs School in Al-Nuseirat camp in central Gaza resulting in at least 16 Palestinian killed including women and children.”
https://nitter.poast.org/SuppressedNws/status/1849402108409176111#m
Today is a special day, when the English fascists who underpinned and created the Zionist usurpation of Palestine from a very small beginning in 1918 – then some 3% of the overall population – to today’s US-UK-GER alliance of racist fascists from all over Europe.
Germany and the colonies of England have today signed a military agreement – without Parliamentary debate or mandate from voters – to create a military alliance against Russia.
We are beginning the last dance to exploit what is left to exploit in the world by force and war.
Starmer declares that Putin’s attack on Ukrainian grain shipments is starving Gaza the middle east and Africa. Well, the majority of us heard when he declared that all gloves are off on LBC.
Israel took his announcement as a go ahead for the most hideous and murderous genocide ever, with our help and millions of tons of food aid stopped from reaching Gaza – nowt to do with Putin.
It was Starmer and Biden who stopped the food reaching hungry mouths; instead they enabled bombs to drop on innocent humans.
While the world is focused on Gaza, what is going on in the West Bank for decades, every single day, is also nothing but terrorism, Where you have the violent, racist jewish settler groups prowling around to harass, violently assault and sometimes also murder defenseless palestinians. They uproot and destroy their precious olive-trees (their livelihood), they drive them out of their houses – all done with the support of the IDF army that let the settlers attack palestinians and the judge toss most complaints against the settlers directly to the bin.
What is going in the West Bank is not too different from white racists in the south that went around harassing and lynching afro-americans with the backing of the corrupt police, judiciary. That this going on, today 2024, with the support of the west, I have no words for it.
Violent Israeli Settlers Are Starting to Resemble the KKK
https://archive.is/nR4Lm
‘The New KKK’: A Frightening Look at Israeli Settler Violence Against Palestinians
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/podcasts/2022-02-17/ty-article-podcast/the-new-kkk-a-frightening-look-at-israeli-settler-violence-against-palestinians/0000017f-e18e-d9aa-afff-f9de1f980000
Smotrich has changed the law to make it legal for any Jews to kill Palestinians and destroy or take their homes. He has made it illegal for Palestinians to sell their homes to Jews in the West Bank