The Genocide of the Palestinian people began 76 years ago. What may be drawing to a close is merely a particularly intense phase in the Genocide.
Gaza is destroyed. 92% of its housing has gone. Its water treatment and sanitation, electricity generation, food processing, farming, and fishing are all now incapable of sustaining much life. Its hospitals, health centres, universities, colleges, and schools are all now destroyed, as are its municipal buildings, waste disposal, road surfaces, drainage channels, theatres, cultural centres, cinemas, cafés.
What is left is 1.8 million cold and starving people, malnourished, soaked, ill-clothed, living in tents and defecating in trenches. Tens of thousands will die in these conditions however fast aid comes – and you can be 100% certain Israeli obstructionism will prevent it from coming fast.
But even if they can be physically saved, the culture and fabric of society are damaged beyond repair. The psychological damage is immense. The institutions of normality that might permit recovery are non-existent.
Nobody really knows the true number killed so far in the genocide. The Palestinian health authorities, run by the elected Hamas representatives, have been scrupulous in giving out numbers only of those officially certified dead following the recovery and identification of their bodies.
Given the almost total destruction of Gaza’s buildings and the unavailability of rescue equipment and the lack of ceasefire for body recovery, I suspect the 46,707 official death toll as of last night (and the Israelis already killed over 80 again today) may prove to be way short of the truth, which could be double or more from unaccounted bodies.
That is without the Lancet study suggesting that 50% again may have died subsequently from wounds. A similar number to the dead are permanently maimed.
The worst effects may not in the long term even be in Palestine at all. The Western world has, in the support of its rulers for Israel as it commits Genocide, abandoned any pretence to wish to maintain the system of international law that had been extended and developed post World War 2. Untold horrors of war may be unleashed as a result in the next decade.
In both the USA and the UK, governments ignored their own senior officials and legal advisers to break the human rights constraints which those nations had imposed upon their foreign policy, particularly with regard to the supply of weapons.
In Poland, France and several other NATO countries, the governments have openly repudiated their duty to enforce warrants of the International Criminal Court.
In the UK, Germany, USA, France and throughout the Western world, there has been a massive rolling back of long-cherished and hard-won rights of freedom of expression and assembly, explicitly to prevent criticism of Israel and support for Palestine.
There has been concerted social media suppression to the same end on all major online platforms, and a seizure of Tik Tok in the USA avowedly because of its failure to repress speech critical of Israel.
The unanimity of mainstream media support for Israel, and the tiny or no space for any dissenting view, has become so established a part of the political landscape it can go unnoticed. But it needs to be highlighted.
In his closing address, the one useful thing Biden said was the correct observation about the USA becoming an oligarchy. The whole world is becoming intensely oligarchic, with an astronomical expansion of the wealth gap between rulers and ruled these past twenty years.
The impunity of Israel, and the decline of international law, is a direct consequence of this. There is a particular truth that encompasses almost every Western country and, interestingly, unites both the Arab and the Western worlds.
That truth is this. The wealthy oligarchic elites who control media and politics are extremely pro-Israel. The people are not.
The gap between the support for Israel among the super wealthy and powerful, and the view of the majority of normal people, really deserves serious study to explain it. Not the least interesting is the fact that not even the almost 100% mainstream media pro-Israeli propaganda has been enough to convince the peoples of the world to support the Genocide, outwith the special cases of Germany and the US religious Zionists.
So, what happens now? Well, I was in Beirut when it was carpet bombed in the hours immediately before the ceasefire here took effect, and I expect Israel to massively bomb Gaza’s tent cities in the next three days.
I have also seen Israel break the ceasefire in Lebanon every single day, and I expect them to do that in Gaza too.
Israel daily breaches the ‘ceasefire’ in Lebanon both inside and outside the demilitarised zone. Three days ago they killed 5 civilians. pic.twitter.com/MiAQpZ4AZI
— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) January 15, 2025
So long as the USA and Israel designate Hamas as a terrorist organisation, they will claim the right to bomb and kill at any time as a “counter-terrorism operation”, irrespective of any ceasefire agreement. That is their formal position, just as it is their formal position with regard to Hezbollah and the ceasefire agreement with Lebanon.
The Israelis did not start killing Palestinians on 8 October 2023 and they will not stop killing them now.
I expect the ceasefire agreement to go ahead as projected, with occasional Israeli “anti-terrorist” attacks continuing in Gaza. The prisoner exchanges will happen. The Israelis will continually delay and renege on the provisions on aid access and on withdrawal of troops. Palestinians in Gaza will die in large numbers of disease, hunger and poor sanitation.
Just as the ceasefire in Lebanon led to Israel immediately invading Southern Syria, Israel will now increase its activity in the West Bank, suppressing resistance together with its proxy “Palestinian Authority” forces and continually seizing land from Palestinians.
I do not doubt that it is true that the Gaza ceasefire is due to Trump telling Netanyahu to stop. As I continually said, Biden’s attempts to restrain Netanyahu were a complete subterfuge and Biden was absolutely committed to the Genocide.
Trump is very difficult to read. When he was elected in 2016, I believed he was less hawkish in foreign policy than Hillary Clinton. Had Clinton been elected, for example, I am sure that she would have immediately laid waste to Syria, which would have been destroyed like Libya – eventually achieved by Biden.
Trump II had seemed an altogether more aggressive persona than Trump I, particularly as regards the Middle East. Yet Trump II has told Netanyahu to stop the Genocide – confirming incidentally that Biden could have done so had he wished.
Biden wanted Genocide.
The myth of Western support for international law and human rights died in Gaza, along with the myth of Western support for the “two-state solution”. There never was a viable two-state solution and it was those states who were loudest in pretending to support it, who vehemently refused to recognise the Palestinian state.
The “two-state solution” was only ever a cover for Zionism. With Gaza now utterly smashed and its population ruined, and the West Bank almost totally expropriated, the pretence of a “two-state solution” has to be finally killed off.
Israel has lost any moral authority for its continued existence. It has proven itself to be a genocidal entity driven by ethno-supremacism. (A people who believe themselves to be a superior or divinely favoured race are ethno-supremacists, regardless of whether their claim of ethnic homogeneity is founded or not.)
Within 48 hours of the Hamas breakout on 7 October I wrote my first piece about it. Often in retrospect reactions to a major incident are too influenced by the emotion of the moment, but actually I am as proud of this as of anything I ever wrote.
Asymmetric warfare tends to be vile. Oppressed and colonised peoples don’t have the luxury of lining up soldiers in neatly pressed uniforms and polished boots, to face off against the opposing army in an equality of arms.
A colonised and oppressed people tends, given the chance, to mirror the atrocities perpetrated on them by their oppressor.
This of course feeds in, always, to the propaganda of the Imperialist. A paroxysm of resistance by the oppressed always ends up portrayed by the Imperialist as evidence of the bestiality of the colonised people and in itself justifying the “civilising mission” of the coloniser.
Which is not to say I relish violence, quite the opposite. I am in fact pleased that Israeli prisoners as well as Palestinian prisoners will be returned as part of a ceasefire deal.
While the Palestinian resistance are fully entitled to take as many IDF members and reserves prisoner as they can, I cannot approve of the illegal practice of taking children and other complete non-combatants prisoner – and yes I know the Israelis do it on a much larger scale.
Behaving better than the Israelis should be a permanent guide in life.
Unfortunately, it is not the case that colonial settler, racist states cannot triumph. The white settlers in the USA, Canada and Australia did manage to permanently subjugate and almost extinguish the local populations. I have spoken to some wonderful Arab intellectuals these last few weeks who all tend to take the view that Israel’s ultimate defeat is inevitable because the colonial settler state will never be accepted by the Arab populations. I wish I were so confident.
Where I agree with them totally is that the abolition of the terrorist state of Israel must be the goal, not an accommodation with it.
Israel’s pariah status is now assured for a generation, it is deeply split internally and it is dependent on a parent state, the USA, which is losing its relative power and hegemony. Yet for now Israel is expanding. It occupies significantly more territory than it did two years ago and in Syria and Lebanon it has seized control of vital regional water sources. Israel currently has full military control of over 30% of Syria’s fresh water.
Trump probably supports Israeli annexation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and more. But that does not of necessity mean he supports either the expulsion of their populations or an apartheid state. He may see such heavy state interventions as an interference in the freedom of business to make money, and even undesirable per se.
It is impossible to be certain about what Trump sees as the end goal. From this first indication, it is fair to say his influence is, to this point, more benign than feared.
It is all a house of cards. As of today, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon all have leadership which is, broadly speaking, pro-USA and pro-Israel. Will that still be the case in a decade? Because it is the fact on which Israel depends for its existence.
The other point on which Israel relies is the support of Western governments. But throughout the Western world, the electoral and party systems which maintain the neo-liberal consensus and give voters no real choice at elections across issues ranging from economic policy to support for Israel, are fracturing.
This requires an article in itself, but in the UK, France, Germany and countless other states there is a tectonic shift happening with voters demanding a shift away from the tiny window of orthodox policy.
To date, the populist right has been quickest to take advantage of this shift, and of course benefited from mainstream media cooperation. But the fluidity indicates an impending seismic shift in western domestic political alignment.
That coincides with the disillusionment of Eastern Europe with the EU and NATO and the consequent desperate attempts of the NATO powers to subvert democracy in Georgia, Romania and Moldova.
At some stage China will take a more active interest in the Middle East. Once the Ukraine war has concluded, Russia will undoubtedly turn more attention to the Mediterranean again.
The situation is dynamic. I would not know whether to be more surprised if Trump initiated US attacks on Iran or initiated rebooted nuclear talks and the lifting of sanctions. I suspect the latter surprise to be the more likely.
Today there is at least a moment of hope that the horrible deaths and mutilations in Gaza may be slowed. Let us take that for a moment of respite, and feel the sun upon our faces. Then we continue the fight against evil.
———————–
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Further to – np
January 16, 2025 at 22:07
Blinken’s last press conference interrupted by real questions: –
Free Speech in Action –
https://x.com/Stella_Assange/status/1880097846688698399?
Was just about to post this. What a disgusting display, and no one else in the room raised up and defended Husseini.
If this happend in Russia it would be top news all over the western msm by now with condemnations, sanctions. These are the authortarian values of the western political/media class.
One could view this symbollically, the defeseless pro-palestinian arab vs the pro-israel jew.
Between 2016-20 the silent journalists in that room (and all the TV pundits who condemned Sam and Max) were constantly shrilling about Trump’s authoritarian treatment of the press.
Watch them all rediscover their high principles from next week.
Old Biden’s farewell address finally acknowledged the dangers of the impending oligarchic government in the US, despite its power having grown enormously under his administration: “I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern, and that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people. Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms…”
Perhaps Biden had been reading the 1907 novel “The Iron Heel”, in which Jack London predicted with uncanny accuracy the forthcoming Trump administration (for Plutocracy, read Oligarchy):
“The Plutocracy has all power in its hands today. It today makes the laws, for it owns the Senate, Congress, the courts, and the state legislatures. And not only that. Behind the law must be force to execute the law. Today the Plutocracy makes the law, and to enforce the law it has at its beck and call the police, the army, the navy, and, lastly, the militia, which is you, and me, and all of us.”
What a joke, Biden warned about “tech oligarchs” taking over, implying Twitter/Musk. But who gave Biden the most money during his term?
According to this avaiable data, multiple of the top campaign funders to Biden came from big-tech., the biggest funder was Alphapet (Google, Youtube).
https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/joe-biden/summary?cid=N00001669&cycle=CAREER
Also
The president likes to criticise Trump for being too cozy with his fellow billionaires. But Biden’s biggest backers are worth roughly $170 billion—more than triple the collective net worth of Trump’s top tycoons.
https://www.forbes.com.au/news/billionaires/who-are-joe-bidens-top-10-biggest-billionaire-donors/
Excellent article – and analysis, of what, has and might happen.
For me International Law, and in some cases, democracy is on the wane as you say when you mentioned Romania – where the incumbents and the authorities – guided by the US, just annulled the results because they didn’t like the person that was winning policies.
I think multiple countries need a revolution by the people on the streets – the likes of the UK and Germany, their governments don’t give a toss about what the people think – the people who elected them, need to rise up and remove the anti-democratic, pro-genocide, pro-war politicians – who are not only backing the genocide – but they are also aiding and abetting the Zionists.
Western bodies such as the UN, EU etc all need a good clean out of pro-Zionist entities and lobbyists, and the pro-Zionists bullyboys club Nato must also be disbanded – no one knows just how many people they’ve killed – or displaced to further US and Western Imperialism.
Every so often these revolutions need to take place – to reel in those who seek to undermine and suppress the people at large – and often to halt an evil agenda that has gained traction – when will these revolutions take place? who knows, the people (individual nations) will decide – but they need to happen to restore a country’s balance.
The removal of Israel goes without saying.
The changes needed are too great, tinkering around the edges will achieve nothing, and the corrupt are embedded too deeply in the organisations of the regimes: the government, the police, the military, as well as the MSM.
unfortunately, I believe, only a war could effect the changes needed. So, we’re stuck with the corrupt, fetid, pile of two faced hypocrites for the foreseeable future.
“The changes needed are too great”
Stevie Boy.
That’s what they want you to think – yes the task at hand is significant – but our forefathers overcame (to a point) what would be equivalent to what we need to overcome – they shed, blood, sweat and tears to leave us with rights – rights that have only come about in some cases, forceful change.
Civil wars may be inevitable – to redress the deficit, by deficit I mean governments and their affiliated bodies, along with corporate giants – just doing wat they want regardless of the will of the people – there’s no real difference between the Tories and Labour, and this scenario is played out in many nations now – no matter which party wins the an election, the agenda carries on behind the scenes regardless.
The alternative, do nothing or very little – and things will only get worse – as the new kid on the block, AI is used to suppress us even further.
Given the high tech surveillance systems already in place and the addition of AI, revolution may be impossible. Authority may be able to determine the likely revolutionaries before these people have even thought of action and use death squads to eliminate them.
Carlyle Moulton.
Indeed see my 14.53pm comment – so we do nothing for fear of being discovered – our crime acting against oppression.
That’s your revolution?
Over one million people are killed on the roads globally every year, and millions more sustain life-changing injuries, And it is undoubtedly the case that the vast majority of fatalities and life-changing injuries are caused by excessive speeding. The following article mainly relates to the US, but it makes a pertinent point regards the US and European countries. It doesn’t actually cite the UK, but for some years now the UK has one of the lowest rates of road deaths in the world. Here’s the passage I’m referring to:
There also are differences among richer countries. In 1994, Europe and the United States had the same traffic death rates*, but by 2020 Americans were over three times more likely to die on the road than Europeans. https://www.youtube.com/embed/jLMm83I4dqc?wmode=transparent&start=0 Traffic deaths in the U.S. rose by more than 10% from 2020 to 2021.
Today, 12 people are killed in traffic per 100,000 annually in the U.S., compared to 4 per 100,000 in the Netherlands and Germany, and only 2 per 100,000 in Norway. The difference reflects more aggressive programs across Europe to reduce speeds, greater investment in mass transit and stricter drunk driving enforcement.
https://umbc.edu/stories/deaths-and-injuries-in-road-crashes-are-silent-epidemic/
*Around 50,000 a year.
And as it says in the BBC News article you linked to:
The cameras are designed to capture drivers who are going through red lights as well as telling how fast they are going.
Sgt Jamie Dobson, from Hampshire’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “Speeding is one of the ‘Fatal Four’ most common causes of fatal and serious injury collisions on our roads.
“Speed cameras like these act as a deterrent to would-be speeders and are vital in helping us ensure the safety of all motorists….”
——————
The woman who established RoadPeace did so because her son was killed by a driver going through red lights.
https://www.roadpeace.org/about-roadpeace/mansoor-chaudhry-award/
And needless to say, millions more people every year are totally devastated by the loss of a loved one and their lives changed forever.
I just registered that the picture at the top of the article of the wrecked car is in Gaza (I didn’t read the caption before). The article is from May, 2022, which I forgot to mention….
“I think multiple countries need a revolution by the people on the streets – the likes of the UK and Germany”
Let’s call it Britain rather than by the name of the current monarchist regime.
(A plea from your fellow republican.)
Yes Brian, I agree – since their was no union of the crowns, or countries to begin with – their couldn’t have been a UK, a glaring point on this – is the fact that there’s still two-Crown Offices, Scotland (A country) is effectively a colony of England’s – Scottish sovereignty is utterly incompatible with English sovereignty – in Scotland the people are sovereign in England its the monarch.
No monarch can be accepted in Scotland – without first swearing an oath to uphold the Scottish Claim of Right – and none have done so.
So yes Brian the geological term Britain is the term to use.
https://yoursforscotlandcom.wordpress.com/2024/06/02/fictional-kingdom-fraudulent-state-2/
Excellent article by Chris Hedges:
“Israel plays a cynical game. It makes phased agreements with the Palestinians that ensure it immediately gets what it wants. It then violates every subsequent phase and reignites its military assault. …
If this latest three-phase ceasefire deal is ratified — and there is no certainty that it will be by Israel — it will, I expect, be little more than a presidential inauguration bombing pause. Israel has no intention of halting its merry-go-round of death.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2025/01/16/chris-hedges-the-ceasefire-charade/
Context post
So we have
* Russia-Iran treaty on cooperation in “all areas”, scheduled for signature today, Friday
* British stock index the FTSE-100 at all all-time high (!), today, Friday
* ceasefire between Palestinian resistance and Zionist occupation scheduled to start on Sunday
* Chinese-owned Tiktok scheduled to cease ops in USA, also Sunday
* inauguration as US president of Narcissist Boy, Monday
What could possibly go wrong?
Some well-meaning witches on a heath have confirmed to me that their thumbs are pricking.
Fair is foul, and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air.
Hail the king and his minion
Stars do link under Elon
So I found that Qatar started mediating conflicts in the 1990s, becoming the main regional player in the late 2000s.
Because it never colonised nor attached itself to a particular ‘Great Power’. Yet also because of its wealth (twice the UK per person average) and personal business connections. It has embraced deregulated open markets, and intertwined its gas profits with the US economy. Even though other Arab countries have accused it of supporting Iran-backed terrorists (the wrong Islamist terrorists apparently)
https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-how-qatar-used-its-business-connections-to-become-a-leading-mediator-in-the-middle-east-218461
(following a link within there, apparently the Qatar government has given money and weapons to hardline Islamist groups in Syria. Yet, from another Reuters source, has been the only country apart from Turkey trying to get the UN to designate the Syrian Kurdish protection units as terrorists, why)
Could you imagine similar destruction if let us say around a third of London utterly devestate.
Or what about scores of 11th Seotember New York airial attacks. But that is exactly what the USA and GB assisted Israel in facilitating in Gaza.
The ceasefire, for what it is, could have been achieved long time ago. But Biden kept on feeding in the weapons and support..
Far be it for me to pronounce on political events but it does seem that the incoming President Trump may have played a, large part in bringing this genocide to a ceasefire. Maybe he will do similar in the war with Russia.
Ceasefire aside, the last two years in Gaza will not heal. Not unless there is radical, and I mean radical change. The killing fest, the trauma of millions, the destruction will now be reinforced in the DNA.
To every force there is an equal and opposite reaction That is, a universal law. Equal forces of course creates equilibrium. But equlibriam has not been created here.
And so, on a, wider scale, the USA, the UK and certain parts of Nato see themselves as the world power. But are they. They wage war because they think they win. But can they. It’s a big world out there. The world has changed.
Unfettered carpet bombing is one thing. Economic sanctions are another.. But quite frankly is the West going to be able to continue in that vein. The gun boat diplomacy and brutalising of populations only works for a while.
And so peace in the Middle East and in Ukraine has to be a step in the right direction. Millions of lives trashed, well millions on one side, but not the other.
One suspects that this could change, and that the current hegemony is maybe actually starting to realise that things have changed.
And maybe president elect Trump, one time New York property developer, understands just how lose lose mafia wars can become.
Palestinians offered to release israeli captives back in october 2023 if israel released palestinian captives in turn.
“A top Hamas leader said on Monday the group “has what it needs” to free all Palestinians in Israel’s jails, indicating the militant group may try to use the Israelis it kidnapped as bargaining chips to secure the release of Palestinian prisoners”.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/former-hamas-chief-meshaal-says-israeli-captives-include-high-ranking-officers-2023-10-16/
–
“Israel won’t negotiate with Hamas on hostages now, will remove it from power”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/hanegbi-israel-wont-negotiate-with-hamas-on-hostages-now-will-remove-it-from-power/
The fact that Israel, allegedly, now agreed to just that offer 15 months later prove also that Israel engaged in a 15 month long reprisal attack against a civilian population.
Acts of reprisals are forbidden by international law:
Rule 146: Belligerent reprisals against persons protected by the Geneva Conventions are prohibited in international armed conflicts. Rule 147 : Reprisals against objects protected under the Geneva Conventions and Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property are prohibited in international armed conflicts.
https://guide-humanitarian-law.org/content/article/3/reprisals/
‘As I continually said, Biden’s attempts to restrain Netanyahu were a complete subterfuge and Biden was absolutely committed to the Genocide.’
Sir Jimmy Starmer is also suddenly pretending that this is what he wanted, although even his unwanted ceasefire statement is ultra-zionist in its framing.
Just one more abomination from Sir Jimmy & his GAP Party government.
(Genocide, Austerity & Paedophilia).
This journalist – was physically dragged out the room for asking probing questions on the Zionists genocide.
https://nitter.poast.org/Documark/status/1880201643205226545#m
[ Mod: This was also reported by Brian Fujisan @ 8:17am, and by Craig on X yesterday:
https://xcancel.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1879956626339426810#m ]
Meanwhile the aider and abettor in genocide, Starmer – is still allowing RAF military spy-flights from Cyprus, to fly over Gaza – and identify targets (civilians) for bombing even though the ceasefire is in operation.
https://nitter.poast.org/kennardmatt/status/1879127717205127309#m
How many thousands of Ukrainians and Russians have died thanks to the UK ?, and now:
“The UK and Ukraine will sign a 100-year partnership agreement during British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s first trip to Kiev since taking office, London has said.”
https://www.rt.com/news/610990-uk-ukraine-starmer-zelensky/
Let’s not forget Starmers greatest hits:
– Jimmy Saville
– Pakistani Rape gangs
– Julian Assange
– Jeremy Corbyn
– Israeli Genocide
– To the last Ukrainian
– Lord Ali, the royal dresser
Almost forgot.
– Skripals [1] [2]
[1] https://johnhelmer.net/new-book-published-today-long-live-novichok/
[2] https://johnhelmer.net/the-british-attack-on-the-skripals-didnt-kill-them-instead-british-novichok-has-killed-the-mainstream-and-alt-media/
The hell with every publication that describes the occupier captives as “hostages” but the Palestinian captives as “prisoners”.
Most of the Palestinian prisoners were captured after the breakout operation and precisely to serve as hostages. Many have been tortured and humiliated by their ethnic supremacist captors. As far as I am aware, no occupier captives have been tortured or humiliated, and I certainly hope that is the case.
All of the prisoners on both sides are human beings who will be relieved to be returned to their families. That is a simple humanitarian observation that’s missing from most western MSM reports.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/17/israel-security-cabinet-approves-gaza-ceasefire-agreement
Brace for a huge difference between how the western MSM shows occupier captives returning to freedom and how it shows Palestinian captives returning from captivity…to what freedom there is in merely being occupied.
Great point that often irritate me too, note the humane touch the western media now frame the israelis held by palestinians vs the palestinians held by Israel. When it comes to the israelis held, one are delivered a very touching, personal coverage you get to know their name, face, however when it comes to the palestinians, there is hardly any reporting about them at all, framing them as “prisoners”, implying they are criminals and should not have been released.
Israel have kidnapped palestinians for decades, systematically and no one said a word, but when palestinians themselves commit the same acts, it is suddenly top news in the media.
From october 2023:
As of November 1, Israeli authorities held nearly 7,000 Palestinians from the occupied territory in detention for alleged security offenses, according to the Israeli human rights organization HaMoked. Far more Palestinians have been arrested since the October 7 attacks in Israel than have been released in the last week. Among those being held are dozens of women and scores of children.
The majority have never been convicted of a crime, including more than 2,000 of them being held in administrative detention, in which the Israeli military detains a person without charge or trial.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11/29/why-does-israel-have-so-many-palestinians-detention-and-available-swap
I take your point Brian, but let’s remember another difference.
– All the thousands of Palestinian hostages have essentially been held captive for being patriotic Palestinians.
– All the hundreds of Israeli prisoners are, or have been, members of the Israeli military and have chosen to live as an enemy occupation force within Palestine.
According to israeli media, Trump’s envoy to the Middle East – Steve Witkoff seemed to have acted pretty tough with the israelis, forcing Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire:
“Trump’s Mideast Envoy Forced Netanyahu to Accept a Gaza Plan He Repeatedly Rejected”
https://archive.is/MDl9d#selection-905.0-905.351
Last Friday evening, Steven Witkoff, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy, called from Qatar to tell Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aides that he would be coming to Israel the following afternoon. The aides politely explained that was in the middle of the Sabbath but that the prime minister would gladly meet him Saturday night.
Witkoff’s blunt reaction took them by surprise. He explained to them in salty English that Shabbat was of no interest to him. His message was loud and clear. Thus in an unusual departure from official practice, the prime minister showed up at his office for an official meeting with Witkoff, who then returned to Qatar to seal the deal.
What is really the hurry for Trump? What did Netanyahu get in return by Trump?
I’m almost lost for words on this one.
First we had the Yanks – and the Brits, meet with their proxy terrorists group HTS in Syria – then some European nations – and the UN sent delegates to meet with these evil head choppers – with handshakes and smiles all round – now we have the ICC, which has also sent delegates to meet and greet these vile Western/Israeli/Saudi backed monsters.
https://nitter.poast.org/RealAlexRubi/status/1880298237736939647#m
Yes, totally obscene. It’s obvious, if it wasn’t before, that ‘we’re on our own’. Both national and international law is corrupted. If you want justice you’ll need to act as a proscribed organisation.
When Israel falls, there won’t be a single factor to which we can point. But the holocaust in Gaza has surely hastened that day. And I don’t think international pressure will be as decisive as the internal loss of cohesion and purpose accompanying this horror. Yes, Israel has stripped off its mask of humanity, but it’s done so in front of a looking glass. This is not a viable society, a sane polity, a satisfying existence. I don’t mean the populace will experience a moral conversion. Clearly, that’s impossible. But survival on the only basis now available is not worth fighting for. I think Israel will sink into the miasma that always presages collapse. Their vision of themselves will be unendurable. All those soldiers returning from Gaza will be unfit for domestic life. No matter how indoctrinated, their families will beg the authorities, the medical services, anybody, to take them back.
People will retain their illusions, but those illusions will no longer suffice. In fact, the high-minded lies on which the country was founded stand in irreconcilable contrast to what the army and the society it represents have done. No Israeli today can describe their nation state as a democracy, as a benign beacon of enlightenment. They know now that they operate a slaughterhouse with no other aim than murder. No human being, however depraved, can function with the broken psychological tools left after embracing the demonic. This time the blood will not wash off.
Israel has committed suicide in Gaza, using the bodies of Palestinians. The death may be lingering. But the patient cannot recover.
Maybe 15000 Arab Palestinians were killed by Zionists in 1948-49 during the Nakba, and maybe 750000 were made homeless.
No irreparable damage to Zionist power was caused. It was a Zionist victory.
Multiply those figures by ~3 for what the Zionists have done in 2023-25.
There is talk of Marwan Barghouti being released as part of the ceasefire deal.
Barghouti was kept in prison for four years from the age of 15, and later he was imprisoned again and he has been in prison for the past 23 years.
His personal courage is not in doubt, and of course he should be released along with all the other Palestinian prisoners in occupation jails. But nonetheless it should be remembered that he is in favour of a two-state solution, and he refers to the Israeli state as “our future neighbour”, which is just ridiculous.
The sheikhs might be pushing for a Gaza-and-West Bank regime under Barghouti.
Dunno how he gets on with the Doghmush clan.
“The Genocide of the Palestinian people began 76 years ago.”
This first sentence alone constitutes the decisive difference to many, many other comments. It expresses a bitter truth and thus testifies to Craig’s unconditional focus on reality, and I would like to thank him for the entire text. It gives me hope because it proves that there are people who do not allow themselves to be corrupted. Thanks Craig.
Stop the War posted this yesterday:
Even at this late hour, we urge that our protest be allowed to march [to BBC HQ]
Police are allowing those opposed to Palestinian cause to try to curtail our right to protest, says Stop the War [or, alternatively, those who support the genocide and ethnic cleansing]
The scale of attack on the Palestinians in Gaza over the past 15 months has been unprecedented in scale and intensity, carried out by a government widely accused of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes. Our London demonstrations in solidarity with the people of Gaza have also been unprecedented in terms of size, diversity and unity. We welcome the ceasefire, which is desperately needed, but recognise that this is only a very small beginning to addressing the injustice done to the Palestinians, in which our government and its allies have been complicit.
From the very beginning the demos have been attacked as ‘hate marches’ and discriminatory towards Jewish people. They are nothing of the sort but peaceful manifestations of solidarity with the people of Gaza…
https://www.stopwar.org.uk/article/even-at-this-late-hour-we-urge-that-our-protest-be-allowed-to-march/
The following is from a Middle East Monitor article posted yesterday:
Gaza ceasefire ‘only a starting point’ to act on ‘tremendous suffering’: UNRWA chief
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) head, on Friday, hailed the recently announced Gaza ceasefire deal, describing it as a “starting point” to respond to the ongoing suffering, Anadolu Agency reports.
“We need rapid, unhindered and uninterrupted humanitarian access to respond to the tremendous suffering in Gaza. A ceasefire is only a starting point,” Philippe Lazzarini said during a news conference at UN headquarters in New York.
Pledging UNRWA’s readiness to support global response to bolster aid delivery, Lazzarini said: “We are ready to support the recovery of Gaza by resuming education and continuing to provide primary healthcare.”
Lazzarini warned that the Israeli Knesset’s new legislation preventing the Agency from operating in Palestinian Territories implementation in less than two weeks “will be catastrophic”.
“In Gaza, it will massively weaken the international humanitarian response. This will immeasurably worsen already catastrophic living conditions,” he said.
But the following is what I mainly wanted to draw attention to:
Lazzarini said that he pointed out the “global disinformation campaign against” UNRWA at the closed UN Security Council on Gaza today.
“Intense diplomatic lobbying by the Government of Israel and affiliates has targeted parliaments and governments in top donor countries,” he told reporters, recalling the advertisements against UNRWA in various cities, including New York.
Lazzarini said the advertisements were paid for by the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Israel has repeatedly equated UNRWA staff with Hamas members in efforts to discredit them, providing no proof of the claims, while lobbying hard to have UNRWA closed as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees. If the agency no longer exists, argues Israel, then the refugee issue must no longer exist, and the legitimate right for Palestinian refugees to return to their land will be unnecessary. Israel has denied that right of return since the late 1940s, even though its own membership of the UN was made conditional upon Palestinian refugees being allowed to return to their homes and land.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250117-gaza-ceasefire-only-a-starting-point-to-act-on-tremendous-suffering-unrwa-chief/
Does ‘Israel’ ever do anything that isn’t evil!
20 min contribution to an International Peace Coalition meeting from a London based ex-Israeli academic, Professor Bresheeth, naming his Israeli colleagues standing up to the genocide and correspondence they have collected and sent to the ICC
from 1:11:30, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZP0sNrTnX0
In 1982 Joe Biden met with Israel’s prime minister Menachem Begin shortly after Reagan told him to stop the “holocaust” in Lebanon (20,000 dead).
According to Begin, Senator Biden commended the Israeli war effort and boasted that he would have gone further, even if it meant killing women and children.
Begin, a terrorist himself, was shocked by Biden’s depravity and informed him that killing women and children was unethical.
What Joe Biden is has been known in Washington for decades, yet twice he was nominated by the Democratic Party for President.
That Trump was able to force Netanyahu to stop the killing even before assuming office merely confirms that Biden wanted Genocide, as Craig says.
There is simply no shadow of a doubt.
Nevertheless there are still last-ditch efforts by the Democrats to paint him as a great person .. “the greatest president of my lifetime,” zio ghoul Bernie Sanders told CNN this week. (Echoing what AOC and the rest of the Squad said at the height of the Genocide last summer).
Whatever Trump may do in his second term, we must never forget what the other wing of the U. S. war machine/oligarchy are.
Biden certainly is willing the genocide to continue but why? Do the Zionazis know some secret of his worse than his corruption and influence peddling?
Here is a Good interview with Peter Ford On Syria –
Peter Ford served in the UK Foreign Ministry for many years including being UK Ambassador to Bahrein (1999-2003) and then Syria (2003-2006)
How the West Destroyed Syria –
https://dissidentvoice.org/2025/01/how-the-west-destroyed-syria/?
I’m not sure if incoming USAmerican President Donald Trump’s expressions of UN-charter-violating expansionism are primarily statements of annexation intent, or not-very-subtle threats of overwhelming military force against states or regions which might want to secede from, and therefore shrink, the USA. Or is “thy shalt covet thy neighbour’s land” the only way to MAGA when rising sea levels eat your real estate?
If there is now a ceasefire, why have the police arrested Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell after they took part in a pro-Palestine Rally yesterday? The BBC never mentioned the protest until these two protesters were arrested.
London police detain 70 Pro-Palestinian protesters ahead of Gaza truce (Al Mayadeen News, 19 Jan 2035)
The recent arrest of over 70 pro-Palestinian protesters in the UK is not an isolated incident but part of a broader pattern of crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests over the past 15 months of Israeli genocide.
Israel and its facilitators’ depravity knows no bounds; an advert just played on TuneIn whilst listening to Times Radio “inviting” the audience to visit Gaza and experience its culture while staying in hotels etc. then abruptly (like the sound of a needle scratching an LP) changes to something along the lines of “or this is what Gaza could have been WITHOUT HAMAS”, dripping with venom at the end.
Seriously, WTAF.