It is illegal to report from Lebanon without prior accreditation by the Ministry of Information.
On the day Niels and I arrived in the country, a new rule was introduced by the Ministry specifically excluding online media from accreditation, which is now limited to print newspapers and broadcast TV stations only.
All freelance journalists and independent TV production companies are also specifically excluded.
The specific instruction from the Ministry of Information states:
not: web or digital or online or production house
The new policy is given in writing to journalists who apply, by the Press Bureau of the Ministry of Information. I have been unable to find any evidence of it being announced or what its statutory basis is, but that is probably available in Arabic. None of the many Lebanese journalists I am in contact with were aware of this rule or its implications.
As you will have noticed, by restricting legal publication and reporting from Lebanon to only print newspapers and TV stations – overwhelmingly billionaire- or state-owned – the Lebanese Government is in effect saying “Zionist, pro-Israeli coverage only”.
To illustrate this starkly, when we were in the Ministry of Information on Thursday presenting our credentials from Consortium News, the team from the Murdoch-owned, Zionist Wall Street Journal were being accredited. Consortium News on the other hand was refused as an online publication, even though it hosts some of the most distinguished and experienced journalists on the planet, including Chris Hedges and Joe Lauria.
Consortium News is of course pro-Resistance and was refused permission to report from Lebanon. The Zionist Wall Street Journal was accepted to report from Lebanon.
I am not reporting from Lebanon, merely telling you of my personal affairs in trying to get established to report here. Future articles once we can publish are well advanced – including on American influence in the Lebanon (ahem), the reality of life in carpet-bombed Dahiya, and the multiple functions of Hezbollah – and we plan to visit Tyre, Baalbek and the Resistance in the South.
Being prepared to deploy infinite persistence and resource, we have now been commissioned to report, and designated as correspondents, by a media outlet which does meet the Ministry of Information’s stipulations. We will be presenting our new media credentials first thing on Monday morning.
While not doing any journalism myself until accreditation, I have been advised there is no restriction on myself being interviewed, as a well-known person visiting Beirut, by accredited journalists who can operate and publish from here.
I can’t publish those interviews here, but if you search Russia Today or Wartime Cafe you may find me.
This is a very expensive operation and we have already spent a five-figure sum on travel, accommodation, subsistence, transport and administrative expenses.
Constant liaison with multiple authorities (and, sadly, lawyers) is required, and for what we want to do in both video and written content we need a car and driver, interpreter and production assistant, as well as workspace.
Niels and I both earn our living from this and money goes to us too and, as regular readers know, keeps me in Lagavulin. At the moment not only are we are both not receiving any income, but we have put substantial personal funds into working towards bringing you the real narrative from Lebanon.
I believe we will soon become a force from here in countering the Israeli and Western state propaganda, across multiple outlets.
There is no source of income except the readers of this blog.
I am very grateful indeed to those who have already helped, and I do not want anybody to cause themselves any financial discomfort. Even the smallest subscription does help. Monie a mickle maks a muckle. I intend to launch a full crowdfunder once credentials are finally established, but in the meantime we need funds rather urgently. If you can help by any of the established methods below, it would be greatly appreciated.
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The Emmerdeur in the Elysée will face a dilemma if France win the football match against Israel, or score any goals.
Does he
1. Dare to punch the air and risk insulting the visiting team by forcing them to relive their forebears’ experiences at the hands of the Black Hundreds, or
2. Do nothing, and risk being viewed as insufficiently supportive of the brand he is supposed to be president of?
The playing of the Zionist national anthem should be interesting. Can people across France who oppose genocide come out onto their doorsteps and turn their backs or something? Or switch lights on and off? Or toot their horns in some prearranged way? (Learn from the other side during the Algerian war, when toot-toot-toot toot-toot meant “Al-gé-rie Fran-çaise”.)
Another thing that should be interesting is who’s in the box with Macron. The Israeli ambassador? Even possibly Smotrich?
2 israelis interviewed, apparently they were sooo scared during their Amsterdam stay. These are the same people that support what their government do in Gaza. And they, THEY have the gall to claim they are “afraid”, that they are “scared”??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoJKGPjFrwQ
Another 2 israelis interviewed, father began to rant about “mooslem” cab drivers and then later on in the interview he try to elicit some tears but fail.
https://www.nhnieuws.nl/nieuws/342497/israelische-vader-en-dochter-op-schiphol-nederland-voelt-niet-meer-veilig
It is like the israelis lack self-awareness. Their state conduct acts of genocide, how could they be so ignorant and not realize that racist, pro-genocide israelis are not going to be embraced by anyone outside of Israel?!
What if football hooligans from any western nation came to Israel and chanted “Death to Jews” and ripped down israeli flags. How would the israelis react then?
Time and time again these hooligans have been involved in disgraceful behavior:
Maccabi Tel Aviv fans waved a banner that said ‘Refugees Not Welcome’ – they play Chelsea in London on Wednesday night
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/european/maccabi-tel-aviv-fans-waved-a-banner-that-said-refugees-not-welcome-they-play-chelsea-in-london-on-wednesday-night-10499567.html
But no fines, penalties against these fanatics.
“2 israelis interviewed, apparently they were sooo scared during their Amsterdam stay”.
Did they consider not going there, then? I would be terrified to go to Israel, so I shall not do so.
Brian Red
No, he’ll ignore it and claim that him and his Missus had gone to get a couple of pies before they ran out. Thereby diplomatically covering himself and his wife in one go.
That’s Statesmanship – right there, I think.
Dit, dit , dit, dah.
What’s the handsignal that footballers in the Israeli national team make when singing their national anthem?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GwIqyHQQm8
Some sources say it’s supposed to be over the heart. Why are they doing it over their collarbones then?
Any idiot can put their hand over where their heart really is. Any idiot can make a stylised heart sign too. They’re not doing either of those things.
Is it a letter of the Hebrew alphabet?
Does it refer to fallen soldiers (“plucked flowers”) maybe?
Whatever it is, it seems quite new, at least in the public arena.
Given that one hand is held straight, maybe it’s “half a heart”, meaning that a beloved soldier’s life has been cut short?
Is this an arm version of the same sign? This is from the Israeli song “Hurricane” at Eurovision, renamed from “October Rain”. Watch the whole thing to see how the arm sign doesn’t really fit in with the rest of the performance. It surely has some kind of special meaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K60BWlEhtAA#t=84s
Do they extend their right arm outwards first?
thanks ,I laughed.
In the early 1980s I worked for an Anglo-European civil engineering firm in Beirut installing a new sewage discharge pipe into the Med.
We were very well paid as there was a full-on civil war going on, together with much nastiness from the Yehudis. We were young and fully insured for war zone risk.
We stayed in a very posh hotel in Beirut, where the international journos stayed, also on lavish expence accounts. Being ‘offshore’ types we were pissartists, as are/were so many journos. Multiple times during an afternoon and evening of consuming the amber and clear nectar we would hear the double-crump of an artillery shell being launched and landing, or the characteristic single bang of a car bomb. The journos would always go into a confab and arrive at a concensus ad idem that that particular shot had been Amal or Druze or Shia or Sunni or Yehud or whatever. Their filed Reports never contradicted eachother. Their Truth was whatever they said the Truth was. Bollocks, in other words.
Of course none of them left their barstool to go onto the roof to look at where the smoke plume(s) were actually located. They were neither brave nor stupid enough to do that. A British lady reporter would hitch up her split skirt to show that she was wearing stockings and suspenders as if to bolster the resolve of us males, so to speak. No names, no packdrill. You had to be there – and many of us were.
“I love the smell of
napalman expenses-paid breakfast in a luxury international hotel in the morning“.It’s when the journo tossers market themselves as heroes afterwards, pure as the driven snow guys and girls who’ve really been through hell (e.g Martin Bell, Kate Adie), when you might have thought some shame might kick in. But since when did war profiteer scum have any shame whatsoever?
Probably the books that get ghostwritten for them don’t even earn out their advances.
In other news, Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury who welcomed the ICJ’s “advisory opinion” on the genocide, has bitten the dust. Same time as Gary Lineker, who called for Israel to be banned from international football. What a coincidence.
Note to journalists: regarding Welby, make sure you don’t say anything negative about Winchester College. Just say John Smyth got access to its boys before he departed for Africa, and if you wish you can add that Rishi Sunak was a pupil there – and leave it at that. Make it sound as though John Smyth was mainly a Church of England figure. Don’t even think about listing all the abuse cases at Winchester College, because you’ll tire yourself out.
Justin Welby is a scapegoat.
I believe he is innocent, and that, like Leo Varadkar, Humza Yousaf, and Gary Lineker, he has been removed from his job because he has spoken up in support of the Palestinians. In Welby’s case, he welcomed the ICJ’s opinion on the genocide.
You can read his resignation statement here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq6lzeel2e8o
“When I was informed in 2013 and told that police had been notified, I believed wrongly that an appropriate resolution would follow.”
He is saying he didn’t cover up anything.
He is saying the police were told not to investigate properly.
I believe him.
You can say he should have done more about that, and that he shouldn’t have accepted the job in the first place, or that after he accepted it he should have gone to see the police and banged the table and said you b*stards will investigate this properly or else I’m going to resign, but that is as much as you can say.
What you have to know is this:
1. John Smyth carried out his crimes when he was connected with Winchester College.
2. Most of his crimes in England were carried out against pupils who were supposed to be in the “care” of Winchester College.
3. The headmaster of Winchester College, John Thorn,
a) knew about the sex crimes committed by Smyth and others,
b) kept them quiet from parents,
c) arranged for Smyth to be moved to Africa, where
d) Smyth (can you guess?) continued to commit sex crimes against boys, and even murdered at least one boy.
4. John Thorn is still to this day honoured by Winchester College.
5. There have been frequent reports of sexual abuse against boys at Winchester College – both before and after Smyth.
6. This should be far more of a Winchester College story than a Church of England story. It was Winchester College that was supposed to be looking after the boys.
Come off it, he’s like the doctor who exonerated Stefan Kiszko, then stood by while he was fitted up.
For context – before 1990 it was impossible for a child to report abuse without being subjected to the victim blaming and public humiliation which adult victims still face in cross questioning. After that date some brave children spoke out against highly respected and powerful men. Even today if a victim/survivor in a public position is outed as a former child victim he is likely to commit suicide. Abuse of power is the issue. In the 1970s there was even a debate in parliament as to whether paedophilia should be legalised like homosexuality. Rape is a terrible thing in any context and powerful groups like male only priesthoods will cover up or deny what they know, rather than be the whistleblower to be cast out for speaking out.
I personally find it unsettling that you are in Lebanon as an avowed anti-zionist reporter intent on exposing their crimes. Reporters have been the no. 1 target from day one of their genocide. They have faced virtually no criticism – and certainly no sanctions – for the hundreds of journalists they have already murdered. What is reassuring you and Nils that you will not be targeted? You have offered no clues to readers and supporters.
I am afraid nothing is assuring us we won’t be targeted, which we would be most unlikely to survive. But there is a genocide happening and expanding, and we have to do what is in our power to oppose it.
If you have settled your mind then please take every precaution. There is no one back here who can replace you.
As sure as night follows day, meanwhile, Trump receives plaudits from the grown-ups for appointing fervid chickenhawks to key foreign-policy positions.
Favourite shitlib geopolitical analyst Ian Bremmer is unequivocal:
“mike waltz and marco rubio are both serious and credible on foreign policy.
us allies around the world feeling more comfortable with both of these announcements.”
https://x.com/ianbremmer/status/1856157151233995204
That comfort is contingent, needless to say, on Trump letting them fully off the leash.
joel
Indeed they’re all hideous picks. Judging by the online reaction, his MAGA supporters clearly aren’t happy at all either. If neocon swamp creature, M. Rubio, wasn’t appalling enough as Secretary of State, his pick for Secretary of Defense (Defence) Pete Hegseth is also a rabid, fanatical Fox News warhawk – a man who thinks Iran should be obliterated and Ukraine wasn’t armed quickly enough. A pick more inconsistent with his campaign messaging promoting peace and non-intervention is hard to imagine.
His pick for Israel ambassador, Mike Huckabee, is fully onboard with the notion of ‘God’s chosen people’ and ‘Rapture’ prophecies: he thinks Palestine doesn’t exist; that Israel should annex Gaza and the West Bank; and if the people don’t like it “they should move somewhere else”. His pick for US ambassador to the UN, Elise Stefanik, is a dumbed-down version of Nikki Haley, if such a thing is possible. She’s another Israeli firster fanatic, who believes in the ‘God’s chosen people’ BS.
His MAGA supporters were told the dreaded NEOCONs wouldn’t have a place in his administration, and they’re dominating it. This is shaping up to be the US’s most right-wing govt ever. It’ll be a complete disaster.
Goose
My point was the telling reaction of the western liberal establishment to these hideous picks. I highlighted Bremmer because for about two decades he has been held up by liberal media as the most sober and trustworthy of judges on international affairs, always Channel 4 News’s first port of call for serious geopolitical analysis. Bremmer says his admiration of the next Secretary of State and National Security Advisor is shared by the power elites in London, Brussels, Ottowa, Berlin etc. The western liberal axis of genocide. (Aka, the sensibles).
joel
Maybe hopes for a dovish administration were too high?
Trump berated both Liz Cheney and John Bolton, as war obsessed freaks, in the campaign, remember, so it’s disappointing.
Talking about these appointments, Ron Paul said on ‘X’ yesterday, that the real divide in the US isn’t between conservatives and liberals, as both parties support the same liberal socio-economic model ; the real divide is between authoritarians and libertarians. Ron is a dovish libertarian, which, I believe, is what MAGA supporters want from a Trump administration.
“It’ll be a complete disaster.” The American electorate will hopefully learn that the hard way, and boot them out, come the next free and fair election (if there is one).
On a similar theme Sinclair Lewis’ novel It can’t happen here has been adapted for BBC Radio:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0023pbn
Someone mentioned ZOG (Zionist Occupation Government) in a comment earlier in this thread, and it reminded me of this wikipedia entry, which I came across at some point during the A/S black op smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn and the Left’
In the wikipedia entry ‘Antisemitism in the British Conservative Party’ there’s a list of Tory MPs who voted against Jews being able to become MPs in 1858 (the legislation was enacted), including a very brief reason for why each of them voted against the legislation, and a couple of MPs – Thomas Dyke Acland and Charles Law – ‘warned that every Jew in Parliament would “displace a Christian” and accused the Jews of the City of London of conspiring to get John Russell elected and, therefore, having John Russell under their control.’
And Charles Newdigate Newdegate claimed that “the wealth of one distinguished Jew had been liberally lavished to obtain petitions in favour of the Bill”[6] and that behind the calls for Jewish Emancipation was a “Talmudic conspiracy… to destroy the free constitution and religion of Protestant Englishmen”.
And further down the page:
After World War I, Joynson-Hicks questioned the trustworthiness of Anglo-Jewish MPs and civil servants. He spoke out against Sir Herbert Samuel when he was appointed High Commissioner for Palestine.[38] Joynson-Hicks also continued his involvement in extra-parliamentary antisemitic agitation. He was involved with groups composed of a “comprehensive cross-section of anti-Jews”: for example, George Clarke (Lord Sydenham), G. K. Chesterton, Nesta Webster, Rosita Forbes and Arnold White.[38] Sir Charles Yate, George Clarke (Lord Sydenham), Henry Percy (Duke of Northumberland) and several other anti-Zionist MPs produced the publication The Conspiracy Against the British Empire, a “boiled-down version” of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.[38] Joynson-Hicks was in favour of self-government by “the majority in Palestine” and proposal of a resolution to that effect, which was perhaps a result of his antisemitism….
The National League for Clean Government was a political reform movement, created partly in response to the Marconi scandal,[39] that directed antisemitism towards the alleged “Jewish plutocracy”,[18] which it believed was conspiring to subvert British politics.[39] A number of its members and supporters were antisemites, including Conservative MP Rowland Hunt.[39][18] At a meeting of the group in 1913, Hunt spoke about the “influence” which controlled Britain and, in a “thinly disguised reference to Jewish financiers”, said, “We are really in danger of being ruled by alien votes and foreign gold… The aliens and foreign plutocrats are driving out British blood”.[18][5] The cartoonist David Low commented on the meeting that the audience was left with the feeling of antisemitism.
After World War I, an informal group known as the Die Hards, who were united “by their national chauvinism, verging on xenophobia, and anti-Bolshevism”, emerged. People associated with the group – such as Henry Percy (Duke of Northumberland), George Clarke (Lord Sydenham), and the MP’s Ronald McNeill, Charles Yate, Charles Taylor Foxcroft, Joynson-Hixs and Henry Page Croft – believed in the conspiracy theory of a Jewish world effort to subvert Britain and its Empire.
And so it goes on (it’s a pretty long entry):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism_in_the_British_Conservative_Party
NB Yes, I know there was A/S in the Labour Party as well back in the day….
PS But Israel and the Jewish zionists certainly seem to have a lot of clout in the ‘West’.
Imagine if we swapped all the zionists for Russians, or Chinese. Would that be acceptable ?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a government whose only loyalties were to us and our country.
The wiki article on G.K. Chesterton has a section on accusations of anti-semitism against him. He may have been less careful what he wrote than people would be nowadays, but he certainly appears to have been anti-Hitler.
Here are some of the articles posted by skwawkbox in the past couple of days, the last of which was just posted, as there’s no comments yet (at the time of writing/typing):
Scratch a liberal – Harris supporters turn fascist at Arab-Americans, Hispanic community over Trump win
Supporters of failed US presidential candidate Kamala Harris have been venting their racist and genocidal spleens after she lost to criminal candidate Donald Trump this week.
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/10/scratch-a-liberal-harris-supporters-turn-fascist-at-arab-americans-hispanic-community-over-trump-win/
Video: Israel bombs Damascus, kills civilians in residential block
Israel has bombed an apartment building in Syrian capital Damascus, according to local reports. Screams can be heard from the building in the immediate aftermath of the airstrike…
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/10/video-israel-bombs-damascus-kills-civilians-in-residential-block/
Video: Israel attacks UN convoy at checkpoint, kills 3 and injures 9
An Israeli drone has attacked a United Nations convoy as it waited at a checkpoint in Sidon, Lebanon injuring at least six newly-arrived Malaysian United Nations ‘Unifil’ peacekeepers. Lebanese authorities said that Israel’s strike killed three Lebanese civilians and wounded three Lebanese soldiers.
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/12/video-israel-attacks-un-convoy-at-checkpoint-kills-3-and-injures-9/
Israeli ‘nuclear facility hacked, data leaked’
Hackers steal over 50gb of data, including personal details of scientists and officials, claim Israeli media
A group of hackers said to be linked to Iran has revealed personal details of an Israeli nuclear scientist and a former senior defence official, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, along with “personal photos and documents allegedly obtained by breaching the accounts of several senior Israeli officials”.
https://skwawkbox.org/2024/11/12/israeli-nuclear-facility-hacked-data-leaked/
On the nuclear story:
original article in Haaretz: https://archive.is/7MDsq
which references another article in Haaretz: https://archive.is/1G97W :
“Three Israelis Charged With Spying on Behalf of Iran in Exchange for Money”. They have been charged with “aiding the enemy during wartime” (i.e. high treason) and “providing information to the enemy with the intent to harm state security” (i.e. espionage).
A third article in Haaretz mentions other cases of Israeli citizens being arrested for alleged spying:
https://archive.is/3NCAC
There may be an Azerbaijani connection. Backed by Israel and Turkey, Azerbaijan recently chased all the Armenians out of the Armenian-speaking enclave, Nagorno-Karabakh. Iran kinda morally supports Armenia (against mostly Shia Azerbaijan) (as does Russia in principle) but didn’t do much to help at the time (nor did Russia)….except it sounds as though this war isn’t over.
Speaking on journalism, Owen Jones conducted an interview with a dutch woman that recorded one of the most replayed videos from the Amsterdam events. A video that in reality show how maccabi hooligans chase and assault dutch people but in the western msm the video is used to portray how a dutch mob chase and assault the israelis!
Witness To Israeli Hooligan Rampage Exposes How Media LIED About Her Footage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HFM_V1rnPA
Could you imagine if the russian media lied this brazenly? A video that purported to show x but was framed to show the exact opposite!? Besides are not Amsterdam one of the most CCTV-recorded cities? There must be hour long footage of the israelis running arround assaulting people, commiting hate crime by chanting racist threats, pulling down flags etc.
That is our media. 40 years on, the BBC have yet to acknowledge that they swapped around footage to say striking miners started a conflict and the police responded when the truth was the opposite sequence. We can point these things out over and over but the leopard never changes its spots. It just wails about “disinformation” when it gets caught out.
The BBC only admitted to a ‘mistake’ (after being called out on it) when Johnson fan-girl, the descredited Laura Kuenssberg, faked an interview with Corbyn. In it, she played on air his response to a different question than the one actually asked – giving the impression that Corbyn would be incredibly soft on terrorism.
Despite this appalling fakery in service of the Tories, she stayed on as chief political correspondent. It doesn’t get much more blatant than that.
English-language piece in Le Monde about Smotrich’s “possible” visit to a “gala” in Paris tomorrow:
https://archive.is/dqfrq
Many French Jews have signed a letter saying Smotrich should not be welcome in France:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/11/10/war-in-the-middle-east-israeli-minister-bezalel-smotrich-a-supremacist-and-revisionist-should-not-be-welcomed-in-france_6732288_23.html
By “revisionist”, they mean he says the Palestinians are a people invented in the last 100 years and who have no culture and no other history. (He has indeed said precisely this.)
One could argue that the majority of Israeli Jews are ‘invented’ and have only materialised in the last 75 years, or less. Also, many have argued that the Palestinians are the only true ancestral relations of the historic Jews.
Ironic really.
DNA Never Lies
A John Hopkins Genetic Study has concluded that 97.5% of the “Judaica” living in the Zionist settlement known as Israel have no connection to the ancient Hebrews and neither do they have blood ties to ancient Israel. The study also pointed out that 80% of Palestinians carry ancient Hebrew DNA and blood.
Another study (New York Genome Centre, 2021) revealed that the DNA of modern Palestinians matches that of Bronze Age people who lived in the Holy Land around 2500-1700 BCE.
A third study (John Hopkins School of Public Health) strongly backed the hypothesis That says Khazars, a confederation of Turkish tribes who lived north of the Caucasus, decided to change their religion and convert en masse to Judaism and as such were identified as Jews by Eastern Europeans. The descendants of these Khazars (mostly from Ukraine, Poland, and Russia) founded Zionism, settled (1918-1948) in Palestine and established the Israeli colonial state in 1948
From VT Blog.
Just the other day Smotrich called for Israel to annex even more of the West bank
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/11/far-right-israeli-minister-orders-preparations-for-west-bank-annexation
He recently also called for Israel to occupy Lebanon
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240730-smotrich-calls-for-war-to-reoccupy-southern-lebanon/
But what to expect, France still today glorify their own colonialism, they even have a law that french teachers must teach about the positive(!) results of french colonialism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_law_on_colonialism
Adding to that is the strong right-wing, pro-israel sentiment in France.
Will Macron use the (likely upcoming) riots that this and the football-event in France will result in in a way to crackdown on immigrants/muslims/arabs in a way to to strengthen his rule against Le Pen?
I just went on the Guardian’s website (as I’ve been meaning to do the last couple of days) to see how they have been reporting the kerfuffle in Amsterdam, and spotting an article posted just four hours ago when I did a search, I of course clicked on THAT one first to see what the heck it was about. I can’t begin to summarise it, as it’s all over the show, but it’s about a report the local mayor has put together about last week:
‘Toxic cocktail’ led to Amsterdam violence, mayor says
Antisemitism, hooliganism and anger over Gaza war all factors in trouble that broke out last week, report says
Here’s a taster:
« Halsema presented the preliminary findings to an emergency meeting of the city council on Tuesday. She lamented to the council that “injustice has been done to both Jews in our city as well as people of minorities who sympathise with the Palestinians”.
The mayor stressed that “even though a more complete picture emerged” of Thursday evening’s events, “and all sorts of terrible things happened, it in no way negates that a ‘hunt for Jews’” was called for.
Ten residents of Israel were among those arrested, the report said, in the first public acknowledgment that Maccabi supporters may have broken the law.
The report shows that police were concerned about “fanatic” supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv a day before Thursday’s game, and confirmed police reports that Maccabi hooligans, some in face coverings, pulled down a Palestinian flag, shouted slogans and attacked a taxi with their belts. The police later saw “online calls that appeared for taxi drivers to mobilise” against the Maccabi fans. »
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/12/toxic-cocktail-led-to-amsterdam-violence-mayor-says
And here’s a link to the mayor’s letter (in English), which I haven’t got round to reading yet, and suspect I’ll need a few days to prepare myself before I DO:
https://assets.amsterdam.nl/publish/pages/1060864/council_letter_11_novermber_2024.pdf
Halsema presented the preliminary findings to an emergency meeting of the city council on Tuesday. She lamented to the council that “injustice has been done to both Jews in our city as well as people of minorities who sympathise with the Palestinians”.
Yeah, but it was the Jewish Israeli hooligoons wot started it ffs!
Not Jewish, zionist.
Seems to me there was a ‘hunt for Palestinians/Arabs’ on the part of the Israeli mob in the first place!
Put it this way, if the Israelis hadn’t acted in the way they did, then it’s unlikely anything would have happened. Anyway, I just read the first couple of paragraphs of the mayor’s letter, and the first paragraph finishes thus:
The local authorities (consisting of the mayor, police chief, and chief public prosecutor) explicitly emphasize that violence by one party is never an excuse for violence by another.
So they are (now) acknowledging and conceding that the Israelis started it BUT in effect saying that if Nazi Germany attacked your country (say Holland, for example) then you shouldn’t react in kind or defend yourselves, because that – ie what they said – is what it amounts to, and is just totally divorced-from-reality B/S. I mean if they had been anything other than (Israeli) Jews, would the authorities be saying such things.
JfC, have there ever been supporters of a football team in the history of football who have gone to another country and chanted such things, never mind ripping down flags etc like they owned the fucking place. They are fascist fucking scum, and should be treated as such. and their religion or ethnicity or nationality or whatever is totally TOTALLY irrelevant.
Can someone explain this to me please. Is there a principle in international diplomacy according to which a government minister in State A is “normally” allowed to visit State B whenever he likes, so long as A and B have “full diplomatic relations” with each other?
In 2017 an intended visit to Germany by Mevlut Cavusoglu, then the Turkish foreign minister, was considered problematic, and something similar to this principle was invoked. I seem to recall Cavusoglu saying the foreign minister can go wherever he likes.
Nonetheless the Dutch government blocked him from coming to the Netherlands:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39241417
Now Michel Barnier, PM of France, is saying Bezalel Smotrich “could, in compliance with international law, travel to Paris in a private capacity.” What I don’t understand is what he is saying about international law. How often does international law (e.g. a bilateral treaty) give a citizen of state A the absolute right to enter the territory of state B? What is he talking about?
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/11/12/possible-visit-of-bezalel-smotrich-to-paris-causes-controversy_6732537_4.html
“Not needing a visa” to enter a foreign country doesn’t mean you have the “right of entry”. What am I missing?
Has France agreed with Israel that all Israeli passport holders can enter France whenever they want, and that the footling issue of French national security can go hang, whenever his lordship an Israeli presents his excellent self at the French border? Even if they have, I can’t see that they would admit it. So ???
It just occurred to me to check out the CAA and, as one would expect of them, they report the events in Amsterdam in a factual and impartial manner. Here are a few clips from a piece entitled ‘Modern-day pogrom in Amsterdam as antisemitic thugs attack Israeli Jews’:
Last night, Jewish Israeli football fans were reportedly targeted in a series of violent attacks [ah, reportedly].
We have received reports of shocking scenes across Amsterdam last night, where Jewish Israeli football fans appear [ah, appear] to have been targeted in a series of violent attacks. Footage from the evening shows people running for their lives [yes, chased by Israeli thugs], an unconscious body being kicked in the street and a man begging for mercy as attackers yell ‘Free Palestine’.
Others were reportedly [ah, reportedly] run over, and at least one man apparently [ah, apparently] had to jump into a canal to avoid further attack.
And so it continues:
Information is still emerging but it appears that these attacks were pre-planned, with bands [ah, bands, I suspected as much] waiting at designated spots with knowledge of where the Israeli Jewish fans were and were staying [I can well believe it]. The attackers were reportedly [ah yes, reportedly] armed with knives, clubs and other weapons, with information about the locations of fans even provided by taxi drivers [yes, well Dutch taxi drivers are renowned for it].
One of the supporters said of the evening: “We don’t feel safe. You come to the game to have fun, but I can’t believe what happened here. I come here for a holiday, but it looked like a war zone.”
Media coverage of the event has been appalling, with many major outlets rushing to victim-blame the Israeli fans and play down the apparently [ah, apparently] orchestrated violence against them.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “This is what ‘globalising the intifada’ looks like. We are receiving shocking reports….
Check it out, it’s fairly brief:
https://antisemitism.org/modern-day-pogrom-in-amsterdam-as-antisemitic-thugs-attack-israeli-jews/
Only those journalists who will report the genocide in a skewed fashion will be accredited – the Western media is full of pro-Zionists. I salute your bravery Craig – your actions put many to shame.
Meanwhile.
“The German parliament has approved a controversial resolution supporting Israel
The resolution urges the government to continue actively defending the existence of Israel and its “security” interests”
And.
As Dutch police beat the living daylights of protestors who want the Zionists genocide to stop – a French MP (Macron’s party) comes out with this.
“A proposal by a Zionist member of French parliament to criminalize all criticism of Israel has sparked outrage among activists and politicians.
Caroline Yadan, the member of the French National Assembly, will submit a bill that, among other things, would ban “the denial of the State of Israel.”
The bill would also prohibit expressions like “from the river to the sea,” during protests against Israel.
European lawmaker Rima Hassan wrote in a message on X that Israel “deserves criticism,” since it has “violated all United Nations resolutions for decades and commits the most heinous international crimes.”
Yadan, who belongs to President Emmanuel Macron’s party, “seeks to suppress the freedom of thought, criticism, and writing,” Jean-Philippe Cazier, French poet and author wrote on X.
The lawmaker, Cazier said, is seeking “to prevent condemnation of the genocide committed by Israel in Gaza.””
Poor me, I thought no US president can be more pro-Zionist than Genocide Joe. How wrong! Trump has just appointed several Palestine-haters Netanyahu-lovers to the key posts overseeing the Middle East affairs.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/us-politics/us-election-trump-israel-ambassador-huckabee-b1193721.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/12/trump-picks-pro-settlement-mike-huckabee-as-us-ambassador-to-israel
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vlndv0yxpo
Exactly. The writing was on the wall.
But it felt much more comfortable to most commentators to pretend that there was ‘no point in choosing between two evils’
We’ll soon find out. Possibly even before January 20…
Will we have found out that your Genocide Democrats have ended the slaughter by then? What do you reckon?
Indeed, one cannot vote for the same woman that actually enabled/carried out a genocide, a woman that is responsible for killing some 15000 children and a woman that did not have the decency to promise to be tougher on Israel if she won the election. She could not even put up a feigned concern. That says alot.
Norman Finkelstein spoke about this some days ago:
Norman Finkelstein — “I can’t vote for them. They murdered 15,000 children” (Let’s Just Talk with Hammi, 1 Nov 2024) – YouTube, 58m 22s
Also on the subject: Norman Finkelstein “lashes out” Harris, Trump, Noam Chomsky, Democratic Party and Republican Party. (India & Global Left, 6 Oct 2024) – YouTube, 22m 9s
I believe that if Trump keep the genocide ongoing, he will face increasing protests by the whole world, not least by the DNC. No one would support the continuation of the genocide under a Trump regime, however, if Kamala were to be re-elected the genocide would go on, business as usual, and there there would be significantly less criticism.
Remember how and rejection Trump got last time
2019: EU says it will not follow Trump in recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Golan
https://www.timesofisrael.com/eu-says-it-will-not-follow-trump-in-recognizing-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan/
Overall, one should be happy that there will (likely) be a split between the US/EU now during Trump.
Jack, you can see it right now. The genocide is continuing unabated under the Democrats. No winding down or dialling back whatsoever. Yet even on the Craig Murray site we see their apologists, feigning horror at Trump in order to try and diminish what the blue team has done and is still doing.
Trump’s picks as National Security Advisor and Secretary of State will be far more powerful and influential than Huckabee, an ambassador to Israel. They are both extreme neocons/ warmongers but have been hailed by liberal administrations across the west as reassuring appointments.
Favourite shitlib geopolitical analyst Ian Bremmer is unequivocal about how these names have been greeted:
“mike waltz and marco rubio are both serious and credible on foreign policy.
us allies around the world feeling more comfortable with both of these announcements.”
https://x.com/ianbremmer/status/1856157151233995204
joel
Rubio’s appointment as Secretary of State makes no sense whatsoever; not if Trump is serious about keeping the US out of military entanglements. Tulsi Gabbard or even Vivek Ramaswamy would’ve been more sensible picks. Rubio loathes Trump and MAGA, or at least he did at one point. He may say he’s been converted to MAGA, but someone who was that opposed, a man who was deeply insulted by Trump’s mocking podium taunts of “Little Marco” in the primaries, doesn’t simply come around.
When Rubio jets off to talk privately, off-the-record, to various ministers, prime ministers; presidents, to Nato officialdom and Eurocrats, all of whom are opposed to Trump’s policies esp. Ukraine, what faith can Trump/Vance have that this man won’t simply be frustrating their agenda, an agenda he doesn’t share? I wouldn’t trust Rubio at all.
OTOH. Maybe Trump is applying the Lyndon B. Johnson quote; “It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in.”
Stevie Boy
That copium take is doing the rounds with some of Trump’s supporters; namely, the idea Rubio would otherwise be leading opposition in the Senate. Also there’s the fact that Rubio could be shunted out of politics altogether, should Trump fire him from his Secretary of State role – he doesn’t just get to resume being a senator.
Others allege these appointments are linked to Miriam Adelson’s $100m donation to Trump’s campaign?
Goose, I don’t know what Trump’s agenda is on Ukraine. Zelensky pronounced himself very pleased after a phone call with Trump the day after the election.
Well he (Zelensky) would say that, wouldn’t he.
Thanks Craig for continuing the struggle to bring accurate accounts of what the occupying fundamentalist army is doing in the region of Palestine. By focusing the attention of this particular disaster we might be distracted momentarily from understanding the full nature of the problem for humanity, the system that allows all this to happen. By which I mean capitalism. There is an excellent essay here: https://www.wheresyoured.at/lost-in-the-future/ that offers a clearer understanding of the source of many of our modern ills, and indicates ways in which we can disentangle ourselves from this mess.
As far as I’m aware, our host hasn’t provided any accounts recently. We live in hope …
The Genocide now taking place in Occupied Palestine is not the first or the last one, the genocide of the native American Indians approx 100 Million carried out both before and after US independence in 1776 is the history of the US in its first 200 years with the remainder stuck in reservations, so that their murder does not offend you. The US existence is founded on mass murder.
This fact is what Hitler relied on when he wrote of Lebensraum and claimed the US as being hypocrites.
Similarly when the German occupiers murdered 200 [yes two hundred] civilians in the town of Lidice in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, which is now a part of the Czech Republic1942 this was considered a heinous war crime, so much so they made a film of it, the Butcher of Prague [2011].
Fast forward 80 years and now the West is cheering on the mass murder of 200,000 [the Lancet] mainly women and children. Because the Israelis have the right to self defence. Is this the fate of all people who resist? Or are given 14 years in prison by UK authorities for thinking about the right to support resistance.
According to a 1992 online book by a political science professor, Rudolph Rummel,
“In competition for who can murder proportionally the most human beings, the Japanese militarists come closest. The annual odds of being killed by the Japanese during their occupation of China, Korea, Indonesia, Burma, Indochina, and elsewhere in Asia was one in 101. Given the years and population available to this gang of megamurderers, the Nazis have been the most lethal murderers; and Japanese militarists next deadliest”
It’s not wholly clear, but it seems Smotrich’s visit to Paris has been cancelled:
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241113-smotrich-cancels-paris-trip-amid-security-concerns-before-france-israel-football-match/
And…
“Barrot [French foreign minister] was also asked about the French Foreign Ministry’s summoning of the Israeli ambassador to Paris, Joshua Zarka, on Tuesday, over a diplomatic incident last week during the French minister’s trip to Israel: ‘This is an opportunity for France to reiterate that it will not tolerate the entry of Israeli armed forces into areas under its administration and protection, and to strongly reiterate that this incident must never happen again.’
He stressed that recalling an ambassador is the ‘first’ degree of sanctions without answering a question about any other possible sanctions.”
Reminder: the
piratesoccupation forces didn’t just enter the French-run domain – they detained “French consular employees holding diplomatic status”.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consulate_General_of_France,_Jerusalem
One so frequently gets the impression that no degree of submission to Israel is considered sufficient by the Israelis.
Some might dispute that claim, or at least the claimed hierarchy. Just saying.
Interesting that even a right-wing hawk like Reagan had the decency to call out Israel and point out what they did in Lebanon in the 80s was akin to a holocaust:
Begin says Reagan used word ‘holocaust’
Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin said Sunday President Reagan ‘hurt me very deeply’ when he described a massive Israeli airstrike on Beirut as a ‘holocaust’ during an angry phone call.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/08/29/Begin-says-Reagan-used-word-holocaust/3133399441600/
When Reagan accused Israel of committing “a holocaust” in Lebanon
https://www.reddit.com/r/Presidents/comments/17iru0j/when_reagan_accused_israel_of_committing_a/?rdt=62715
Today, western liberals/labour/socialdemocrats and even some alleged leftists, cannot even condemn Israel plus they would never ever use the word holocaust. This really proves how extreme the discourse have become in the west.
Jack
Reagan would be accused of being anti-Semitic or a Putin asset expressing such balanced, sensible views today. If you don’t lust for WW3 you’re automatically down as a suspected Putin sympathiser these days.
On which, Trump’s latest appointments of Matt Gaetz (for Attorney General) and Tulsi Gabbard(for Director of National Intelligence), are his best appointments thus far, imho. Gaetz is a tenacious inquisitor; a defender of civil liberties; a Trump/MAGA loyalist, skeptical of the Deep State and forever wars. He’s also a so-called ‘Khanservative’ trustbuster(named after the FTC’s Lina Khan) he’s skeptical of big business monopolies : https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/lina-khan-ftc-antitrust-khanservatives-a6852a8f The Republican old guard dion’t like him because he represents something refreshing; a break from the status quo. Gaetz has also tweeted his support for pardoning Edward Snowden.
Tulsi Gabbard is another refreshing pick, as Trump’s choice for Director of National Intelligence – a cross-agency role that reports to the president. Tulsi isn’t an ideologue, or a warhawk, she too is skeptical of forever wars. Of course, this appointment has brought the ire of those who want a crazed neocon ideologue like John Bolton in this role.
As Glenn Greenwald stated, these two will face the toughest confirmation hearings, whereas the Zionist ultras Trump has appointed; Stenfanik, Rubio and Huckabee who buy into the idea of ‘God’s chosen people’ and in Huckabee case ‘rapture,’ will sail through their confirmation hearings.
Who would have thought that the very country being bombed by the zionists is also a US/zionist owned puppet government?
You should give names as the names I have like Mr Berri are obviously the resisting side.
I just hope that the Christian Lebanese do not collaborate with the worst enemies of Christianity, the zionists.