Moon of Alabama Brecht quote
December 17, 2023
Palestine Open Thread 2023-307

Only for news & views directly related to the war in Palestine.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

Comments

During his visit to the Middle East next week, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will announce the formation of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a new international effort deal with Houthi threats, a U.S. military official told The War Zone. That information comes as U.S. and British warships shot down drones the Houthis launched in a wave from Yemen early Saturday morning local time, marking the latest escalation of attacks on shipping in the Red Sea.
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“One-sixth of the world’s commercial shipping passes through the Bab-al-Mandeb Strait and Red Sea,” said First Sea Lord, Adm. Sir Ben Key in a statement. “HMS Diamond deployed at short notice to the region from Portsmouth just two weeks ago and is already delivering effect together with our American, French and other allies and partners.”

(source: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/operation-prosperity-guardian-to-protect-red-sea-shipping)
I wonder if they’ve factored into their calculations that the Houthi might mine the Bab Al Mandeb at some point in the escalation ladder?

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:17 utc | 1

“Operation Prosperity Guardian”
Arch 1
Over my 61 years I have observed that Empire designations are the exact opposite of their meaning such that “Operation Prosperity Guardian” really means: “Operation Penurious Guarantee”

Posted by: canuck | Dec 17 2023 13:35 utc | 2

Has any country or large group ever declared the IDF to be a terrorist organization? It seems obvious enough that they are.

Posted by: farm ecologist | Dec 17 2023 13:40 utc | 3

Has any country or large group ever declared the IDF to be a terrorist organization? It seems obvious enough that they are.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Dec 17 2023 13:40 utc | 6
“terrorism” is merely a classification of “scale”.

The death of one is a “terrorist act”. The death of millions? A “military operation”.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:46 utc | 4

Well, it’s becoming crystal clear this whole US/Israel proxy maneuver was to blow up Middle East, destroy “Iran” to crush (or greatly slow down) China.
GL with that…

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 14:08 utc | 5

A country waltz holiday lyric
Hope to get audio up soon
Chorus
Jesus is buried under rubble in Gaza
And there ain’t no Christmas this year
His bones all crushed in a genocide rush
And there ain’t no Christmas this year
He lies there with babies and toddlers
Whose fathers fight brave for their home
Grand-moms and uncles shopkeepers and plumbers
Dreams crushed by a rain of our bombs
Some may have to flee but they’ll sure keep their key
To their home for a future return.
No time to bury Mary, sweet 13 yr old -girl
She’ll lie next to Christ under stone
It’s a trail of tears going south for a haven
Bodies (line) both sides of the road
The blood and the smell will scar but give purpose
It’s Nakba all over again
No Christmastime in Palestine
Just sorrow from river to sea
No fast to break, for good Gods sake
Just sorrow from river to sea

Posted by: Slim | Dec 17 2023 14:12 utc | 6

now is the perfect time to test flight Iran’s hypersonic missile under the houtis hands for a real target.

Posted by: andreweed | Dec 17 2023 14:37 utc | 7

Poll: Most young Americans think Israel should be ‘ended and given to Hamas’
Over half of young Americans surveyed on Israel’s conflict with Hamas believe the Jewish state should cease to exist, and instead be replaced by a Palestinian entity, according to an online poll conducted this week.
The monthly Harvard CAPS/Harris poll found continuing support for Israel in its campaign against Hamas among every age demographic but 18- to 24-year-olds. (…)
The survey found that 66% of respondents in the 18-24 age group think that Hamas’s October 7 massacre constituted genocide. At the same time, 60% think that the attacks were justified by Palestinian grievances, indicating that they believe that genocide of Israelis is justified. (…)
https://www.timesofisrael.com/poll-most-young-americans-back-ending-israel-many-find-jewish-genocide-calls-okay/

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 17 2023 14:37 utc | 8

Exile 3
Goys are expendable.

Posted by: anon | Dec 17 2023 14:51 utc | 9

@ Surferket 8
“Chinese warships operate under the UN mandate on anti piracy patrols.”
Many countries, even including Iran IIRC, send warships to fight the so-called “pirates”.
Q: why did the desperatly poor people of Puntiland (northern Somalia) turn to pracy in the first place ?
A: Because huge factory trawlers (mostly from Taiwan, but not only) with mile-long nets removed all the fish from the waters, working over a long period of time. Therefore these former fishermen and their families had a choice of starving to death or learning how to seize and ransom passing commercial vessels. What would you have done if that was your choice ? It’s really too bad the “pirates” can’t seize the factory trawlers that ruined their modest occupation, but the trawlers long ago moved to the diminishing areas where they can still ravage the ecosystem on an industrial level.
It takes a lot of nerve to do what the pirates do, and they sometimes die in the boarding attempts. These are acts of desperation.
This destruction of the commons is one more example of the total failure of international law. The victims are dark and poor, so no one gives a fcvk, unfortunately. And the eradicated fish species, well no one speaks up for them either. It’s a shame that no country speaks up for these victims, that no one is trying to end the oceanic ecocide and the genocide of the poorest region in Somalia. The crews on the victim ships are never harmed, and I have no tears to shed for the owners who benefit from globalism. The rare need to ransom their vessels for 2 to 4 million dollars is just “coins dropped in the hat”, compared to their profits. It’s ironic and unfortunate that the British shipping insurance companies are the biggest winners, as they jacked up their rates and their commissions.

Posted by: JessDTruth | Dec 17 2023 14:55 utc | 10

“Sheep-dipped” mercs serving Mammon, the one true god.
The Velcro patch a perfect metaphor for their desperation, role-playing and disposability.”
Posted by: zooka | Dec 17 2023 14:33 utc | 16
Israel was always a U.S./UK military base masquerading as a Nation State. They are hardly “mercs”….but no doubt Goyim atm. US could care a less either way.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 15:06 utc | 11

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:17 utc | 1
Backing up Houthis has one great additional benefit for Iran. Now they both control shipping entry to Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Few mines or missiles can reduce merchant shipping to minimal levels. Huge economic impact.

Posted by: Abe | Dec 17 2023 15:15 utc | 12

So what’s the economy of 10-12 western warships and the associated missilesper day versus land-based drones? I would imaging simpler drones coming in at 10-15k apiece with missiles at 150k+ best case. Operation of such a flotilla at 20m+ USD per day.
Not counting the potential loss of a few destroyers.. at 2bln USD each. Wondering when these will be more expensive than Suez.
Maybe the Houthis just bit off more than they can chew. Instead of selectively targeting Israeli goods now the major shipping corps cancelled Suez. Nice blow to Europe too..
Good for Egypt?

Posted by: SOS | Dec 17 2023 15:21 utc | 13

Slim | Dec 17 2023 14:12 utc | 14
Jesus is buried under rubble in Gaza
Indeed. Palestinian Christians in Bethlehem this year have placed baby Jesus under the rubble in the nativity scene in solidarity with their nearby brothers and sisters.

Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 15:22 utc | 14

https://harvardharrispoll.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/HHP_Dec23_KeyResults.pdf
Question framing in the poll show its purpose is to sell the idea that Israel / Jews are under threat, therefore the Gaza genocide must go on. The Senate Hearing grilling of uni presidents was like Theatre of the Absurd. They kept being asked: do you support the call for the genocide of Jews….and none of them said WTF there have been no such calls.
Dishonest: one question starts with “Do you think the Hamas killing of 1200 Israeli civilians and the kidnapping of another 250 civilians…” but Hamas did NOT kidnap 250 civilians. The poll makes no mention of Palestinians held by Israel. Moreover Israel has put out a statement saying it has no idea which of the people killed on Oct 7 were killed by its own forces and which by Hamas (80% killed by IOF is Ritter’s estimate).
What would you say are the most important issues facing the country today? Israel is #17
Which of these issues is most important to you personally? Israel is at the BOTTOM with a whopping 2%
Across all party lines, INFLATION is the number one concern at 40% but predictably the poll avoids that topic. Never mind the 2% importance, this topic takes up almost half of the poll.
Do you believe that the US should be supporting Israel in its war against Hamas or not supporting Israel? Yes: 65%. 54% support $14 billion aid for Israel. 65% believe aid should be withheld until border dealt with.
18-24: 60% think the attacks on Oct 7 justified by the grievance of Palestinians but only 50% support Hamas.
The question states “In this conflict do you support more Israel or more Hamas?”, it should be either be Israel vs Palestine or IOF vs Al Qassam etc.. False equivalence.
There is a long section on “anti Semitism” and in that is the question Do you think that Jews as a class are oppressors and should be treated as oppressors or is that a false ideology? 67% of 18-24 say yes but only 31% say Israel has no right to exist.
But 70% of the same age group believe Israel is avoiding civilian casualties and 58% think that Hamas would like to commit genocide against Israeli Jews. 76% think Hamas can be negotiated with to create peace but 58% think Hamas should be removed from Gaza…. 64% think Hamas is supported by the majority of Palestinians in Gaza. 51% think Israel to be ended and given to Hamas and the Palestinians.
The answers are all over the place. Nor is there anything on the targeting of pro-Palestinian groups or AIPAC.

Posted by: pq | Dec 17 2023 15:27 utc | 15

esus under the rubble in the nativity scene in solidarity with their nearby brothers and sisters.
Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 15:22 utc | 26
Correction. In the picture, baby Jesus is clearly placed on top of the rubble.
Can you Ziobots not speak a sentence that does not contain an outright lie or distortion of the truth?

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 15:30 utc | 16

IDF sniper kills two women inside Gaza church, Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem says
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sniper shot and killed two women inside the Holy Family Parish in Gaza on Saturday, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees Catholic Churches across Cyprus, Jordan, Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.
The majority of Christian families inside Gaza have taken refuge inside the parish since the start of the war, the patriarchate said in a statement.
The two women, described as a mother and daughter, were walking to the Sister’s Convent, the patriarchate said. “One was killed as she tried to carry the other to safety,” it added.
Seven others were also shot and wounded in the attack.
“No warning was given, no notification was provided,” the statement continued.
“They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish, where there are no belligerents.”
The patriarchate said that IDF tanks had also targeted the Convent of the Sisters of Mother Theresa, which houses 54 disabled people and is part of the church’s compound. The building’s generator, its only current source of electricity, as well as its fuel resources, solar panels and water tanks were also destroyed.
IDF rockets had made the convent “uninhabitable,” the statement said. (…)
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/16/middleeast/idf-sniper-gaza-church-deaths-intl-hnk/index.html

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 17 2023 15:33 utc | 17

Maybe the Houthis just bit off more than they can chew. Instead of selectively targeting Israeli goods now the major shipping corps cancelled Suez. Nice blow to Europe too..
Good for Egypt?
Posted by: SOS | Dec 17 2023 15:21 utc | 25
The problem is that war in the Bab al Mandab will NOT get shipping going again any time soon. Only an end to the war and aid into Gaza will get shipping going again any time soon.

Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 17 2023 15:35 utc | 18

Detailed story, some excerpts.
“The Israelis fired the missile that injured Wael al-Dahdouh and cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa after they were dispatched to the Farhana school amidst calls for rescue from injured and besieged Palestinians trapped there.
While al-Dahdouh managed to reach paramedics on foot, Abu Daqqa’s injuries prevented him from doing so. Israel obstructed ambulances from reaching him as he lay on the ground for hours bleeding to death.
Israel’s killing of Samer Abu Daqqa is the latest in its apparently deliberate and systematic attacks on Palestinian journalists and their families. With Abu Daqqa’s death, the number of journalists and media workers killed during Israel’s genocidal war has exceeded 90, according to Al Jazeera.

He eventually spotted paramedics and signaled to them, but they were unable to reach him. The correspondent walked until he got to them, received first aid and was taken to hospital.
“I asked them to return to Samer,” al-Dahdouh said.
“But the paramedics said that we had to leave immediately and send another vehicle to the location to avoid all of us becoming targets, and we arrived at the hospital.”
Al Jazeera reported that “by the time he reached an ambulance, medics said they could not return to the site of the attack because it was too dangerous.”
“Following Samer’s injury, he was left to bleed to death for over five hours as Israeli forces prevented ambulances and rescue workers from reaching him, denying the much-needed emergency treatment,” according to Al Jazeera.
Al-Dahdouh told the network that one ambulance tried to reach Abu Daqqa but the Israelis fired at it.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/al-jazeera-cameraman-samer-abu-daqqa-left-bleed-death-hours
Israel killed Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on 25 October.
It’s bad enough that people are being killed by Israeli but dying after deliberately imposed suffering crosses every limit.

Posted by: pq | Dec 17 2023 15:42 utc | 19

Israel was always a U.S./UK military base masquerading as a Nation State. They are hardly “mercs”….but no doubt Goyim atm. US could care a less either way.
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 15:06 utc | 23
Agree completely- Israel is a forward base for the empire, manned by zealots, charlatans and “conscripts.” Mercs is meant as a metaphor for all regular and ex- US/UK/NATO military and their “contractors,” as well as “soldiers of fortune.” IMHO, there is no difference anymore, as there are no real enemies of peoples, just enemies of the banksters. I don’t even mean “mercs” to be pejorative- it’s just a job, some benefits and a pension. They hire half the working class to kill the other half- SSDD!

Posted by: zooka | Dec 17 2023 15:58 utc | 20

“terrorism” is merely a classification of “scale”.
The death of one is a “terrorist act”. The death of millions? A “military operation”.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:46 utc | 9
———————————————————————–
So, what was 9/11: An act of terror, the opening act to a long war, or an inside job to wage war around the world based on preapproved Congressional permission?

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 16:00 utc | 21

Has any country or large group ever declared the IDF to be a terrorist organization? It seems obvious enough that they are.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Dec 17 2023 13:40 utc | 6
Name a country or organisation that isn’t either controlled or subservient to the Khazarian mafia?

Posted by: James Hammett | Dec 17 2023 16:01 utc | 22

Israel killed Dahdouh’s wife, son, daughter and grandson in Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, on 25 October.
It’s bad enough that people are being killed by Israeli but dying after deliberately imposed suffering crosses every limit.
Posted by: pq | Dec 17 2023 15:42 utc | 31
I see these stories in their dozens per day and cannot understand, for the life of me, how there are still trolls like “g”,”antonym”, “genocidal” and “john” somehow still advocating for the Zionists.
What kind of broken mental and emotional architecture must constitute such people? What were their childhoods like?

It’s as if, along with their foreskins, some portion of the humanizing, feeling brain was also excised at birth …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:04 utc | 23

“israeli” ziojew scum are removing anesthesia from any trucks bringing in any aid to Gaza, so how obvious is it that their premeditated cruelty knows no bounds, they take their evildoings to a new zenith every day because they relish the pain and suffering of all non-jews. the worse the death is that they provide to a non-jew, the happier they are. humanity has no future while these vermin are tolerated.

Posted by: DuchessAndBob | Dec 17 2023 16:04 utc | 24

Name a country or organisation that isn’t either controlled or subservient to the Khazarian mafia?
Posted by: James Hammett | Dec 17 2023 16:01 utc | 34
North Korea:

Israel and North Korea do not have official diplomatic relations, and communications between the two countries are hostile.[1][2] North Korea does not recognise Israel, denouncing it as an “imperialist satellite state” of the United States.[1][3] Israel in turn does not recognise North Korea and regards South Korea as the sole legitimate government of Korea.[4] Since 1988, North Korea has recognised the sovereignty of the State of Palestine over all of Israel, excluding the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which it recognises as Syrian territory.[5] Israel considers North Korea and its nuclear missile program a major threat to global security and has called for international action against North Korea. North Korea has responded by threatening to “punish” Israel on several occasions.[5][6]

In my view the North Korean position on Izzrael is the only absolutely moral one.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:07 utc | 25

Interesting:
“North Korea blamed Israel for the start of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war; an editorial published in the state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun stated: “The international community believes that this clash was the result of Israel’s constant criminal acts against the Palestinian people, and that the fundamental way out is to build an independent Palestinian state.“[23] South Korean intelligence later reported that Kim Jong Un had ordered a “wide range of support” for the Palestinian people.[24]”

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:10 utc | 26

So, what was 9/11: An act of terror, the opening act to a long war, or an inside job to wage war around the world based on preapproved Congressional permission?
Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 16:00 utc | 33
It was an inside job and an act of terrorism.
There is no way a NORAD exercise simulating the exact same scenario that transpired “for real” at the same time can be construed as a coincidence.
There is no way fighter pilot communications about a simulated military exercise can suddenly switch to communicating that the supposed “war game” has suddenly become real along the same lines as the planned simulation.
An inside job intended to terrorize the population of the West into supporting a crusade against the Islamic world on a scale not seen in 1000 years.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:22 utc | 27

I wonder if they’ve factored into their calculations that the Houthi might mine the Bab Al Mandeb at some point in the escalation ladder?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:17 utc | 1
It seems clear to me that ‘they’ have failed to factor in any of the real-world responses of the axis of resistance when making their calculations. I’m confident that Houthis shooting missiles at merchant shipping had not been previously war-gamed in the Pentagon, nor the slow-burn escalation of violence by Hezbollah on Israel’s northern frontier.
The American mentality has been shaped toward instant gratification and immediate action. The rather obvious arc of Russo-Chinese economic development and military preparation since Putin and Xi came to power somehow managed to give American planners no clue that their main opponents were making long term plans for a long struggle. I continue to see people complain about Putin’s lack of action or Xi’s lack of resolve (based, of course, on the abandonment of socialism). If they had balls they’d go nuke! If it won’t fit into a 90 minute Hollywood action movie, Americans just don’t get it. It doesn’t occur to them that by not winning the war in Ukraine, or Gaza, in the first ninety days, Russia and China are winning the long-term global conflict with western hegemony.
“The epitome of war is to win without fighting.” Winning with a minimum of fighting isn’t bad either.

Posted by: Honzo | Dec 17 2023 16:25 utc | 28

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:22 utc | 41
———————————————————————
It has been said that there are no coincidences. Like Oswald having a job in the Book Depository well before the JFK procession was announced to the public that it would turn right in front of the Book Depository: Not in a million years.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 16:35 utc | 29

RE: Posted by: zooka | Dec 17 2023 15:58 utc | 20
Yup. A globalized military police mission to maintain status quo hegemony.
Some say it will all end when “the US/West “financially” collapses.
I don’t believe that. The obsession is hell bent.
The U.S./UK are diseased rabid dogs that are incurable by their own hubris.
I see it ending in no other fashion but destruction.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 16:49 utc | 30

“The epitome of war is to win without fighting.” Winning with a minimum of fighting isn’t bad either.
Posted by: Honzo | Dec 17 2023 16:25 utc | 28
—————————————————————–
There is much truth in what you say Honzo. If Russia had entered Ukraine with a large enough force and military equipment to take out the Kiev government in just a few months, the US and NATO would surely have entered the war directly; thus, WW3 and a possible nuclear war. I would say that President Putin played his cards well. Biden on the other hand is holding a dead man’s hand: the dead man being Zelensky

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 16:54 utc | 31

Israel was always a U.S./UK military base masquerading as a Nation State. They are hardly “mercs”….but no doubt Goyim atm. US could care a less either way.
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 15:06 utc | 23
Fiction.
Fact: Zionist terrorists were attacking Arab population and Imperial servants even before victors of WW 2 (that includes the perpetually and allegedly “we were clueless” Russians) all decided to Gift the Zionist Project with official recognition.
The shared notion (US/UK) is also fiction since has-been powers of Europe UK and France teamed up with Israel to “protect our interests” in the Red Sea.
Do these facts from history ring a bell?
Jewish elite are being used as they have always been by the world power as a theocratic temple state and not a military base.
And this notion of US need Israel for a base also flies in the face of perfectly public facts: USA’s military bases in ME are all post “Islamic revolution” and are all on ARAB lands. And unlike the Jews, the Arabs are compliant and are not officially seeking to setup a Chosen People global empire with HQ in Jerusalem.
You need to think of the full richness of the human condition to crack this puzzle. Facile analysis, sentimental analysis, analysis colored by ideological affinity (remember: false flag is a strategy not an event ..) and various other irrational considerations.
////
Prosperity.
Guarding the “Prosperity”. A signal all those who have been “prospering” by the “Empire” are “stake holders”.
Jack Ma, btw, was making political noises that threatened CPC. That is why his public stature was reduced to his physical stature by the actual Power in China. There remain plenty of “prosperous” Chinese members of the CPC.
Respect to the straight speaking Yemen Muslims. God Be with you. Most are not. Know this.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 16:58 utc | 32

As for the Suez, have no fear. The goods can be transported through Russia. No wait…
Wasn’t the point to make Europe suffer to save democracy or something like that? That part is going to plan while the rest is going to hell.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 17:15 utc | 33

From the Financial Times:
It was hard to imagine that Israeli intelligence failed to pick up signs that Hamas had built a tunnel big enough to drive a car through so close to the border. If so, it would be just another in the string of security mistakes that Israeli officials have said will be investigated when the war ends.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 17:27 utc | 34

Lebanese TV reports:
19:02 Zionist media: An Israeli soldier was killed in battles north of the Gaza Strip
Question – are the Al-Qassem brigades still able to raid outside the Gaza wall ?

Posted by: Exile | Dec 17 2023 17:31 utc | 35

Posted by: Exile | Dec 17 2023 17:31 utc | 36
Well even the FT speaks of a “string of security mistakes’ so what makes you think they have stopped? After all Israel does kind of suck and is taking the west with it.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 17:34 utc | 36

Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 15:30 utc | 16
Can you Ziobots not speak a sentence that does not contain an outright lie or distortion of the truth
Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:04 utc | 23
I see these stories in their dozens per day and cannot understand, for the life of me, how there are still trolls like… “john” somehow still advocating for the Zionists.
What kind of broken mental and emotional architecture must constitute such people? What were their childhoods like?
It’s as if, along with their foreskins, some portion of the humanizing, feeling brain was also excised at birth …

Some serious bile you’re spewing there, dude. Your slander is corrosive and offensive.
Are you the anointed mud-slinger?

Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 17:35 utc | 37

Houthi strategic victory
https://en.topwar.ru/232487-iz-za-atak-husitov-na-gruzovye-suda-trafik-cherez-sujeckij-kanal-rekordno-snizilsja-the-economist-pishet-o-novom-sujeckom-krizise.html
At 2.5 billion dollars a day is 912.5 billion a year. Almost a trillion dollar global tax on supporting Israel. Support will end long before that happens though I think.
Also almost a 100 attacks on us bases in syria and Iraq, including cross border attacks. Syria joined with Iraq is also a huge strategic threat to Israel.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Dec 17 2023 17:37 utc | 38

I think Arch is just sleep-deprived.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 17:38 utc | 39

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 17:27 utc | 35
Operation Bibi Must Go ™ – FT speaks for the City of London

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 17:40 utc | 40

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Dec 17 2023 17:37 utc | 39
I’ve reassessed my take on this matter somewhat. I was wondering about Yemen’s end game and it has occurred that this is Yemen putting its nominal allies to the test. There is no way IRGC and IRI can wiggle their way out of this matter. One way or another, the Houthis will now know what is what.
Someone on twitter was hinting the Straight of Hormuz is next a couple of days ago. If Yemen takes action in the Gulf of Oman to escalate then we’ll know what they have come to know ..

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 17:45 utc | 41

Can you Ziobots not speak a sentence that does not contain an outright lie or distortion of the truth
Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 16:04 utc | 23
Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 17:35 utc | 38
Apologies john, I got you confused with another john hasbara I was battling with.
I misread your comment as an attempt to cast aspersions on the Palestinians in Gaza.
Friendly fire – the izzies do it all the time.
I stand by my foreskin and lobotomy comments though – but not in relation to you of course.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 17:54 utc | 42

Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 17:35 utc | 38
By the way, if you plan to stick with plain “john” you’re going to end up like poor james.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 17:56 utc | 43

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 17 2023 14:37 utc | 18
#############
And that is why, regardless of how this conflict plays out over the next year, Israel has lost the battle it most needed to win.
Hearts and minds of the next generations.
It’s always the little things like MBS high-fiving Putin on a recent visit. The nuances tell us much more than the obvious big arrow headlines.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 17 2023 17:58 utc | 44

Posted by: g | Dec 17 2023 16:51 utc | 31
No point as usual.
Like talking to a bot.
Pre-chatGPT.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 17:59 utc | 45

RE: “I think Arch is just sleep-deprived”
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 17:38 utc | 40
RE: Are you the anointed mud-slinger?
Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 17:35 utc | 38
And too all other lukewarm… “not angry enough” folks out there:
(“Arch” is perfectly capable of responding in his own way)
Here’s a MSM cheerleader article:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukrainian-special-ops-commandos-are-freelancing-top-secret-sabotage-missions-poisonings-and-assassinations-in-russia-says-military-source/ar-AA1lDxN0
“Ukrainian commandos are freelancing sabotage missions in Russia, a source told The Times of London.
They are trained to carry out sabotage missions, poisonings, assassinations, and diversions.
They dress in civilian clothes, carry fake documents, and use only their steps to orient themselves.”
The missions are so secret even Mykola’s superiors don’t know about them, he said. The need for top-secret assignments is partly due to dwindling funds making their way to Ukraine from the EU and the US, according to The Times.
“It’s off the books,” Mykola told The Times at his classified training camp’s base. “The government is too slow and bureaucratic. We need to train people fast and get them ready. There are no government specialized training camps for the kind of operations needed to fight this war.”
It ends its “justification” with “they have no other way to defeat Russia”. It’s “terrorism” when it’s “Hamas”… it’s an “asymmetric warfare tactic” if it’s the U.S./ally’s…it’s an acceptable and cheerleader on way of life for the West now.
Notice the similarities between Nazi Ukraine & Nazi Zios in Israel.
The rise of absolute Nazi methods & propaganda, an obvious global rise, and people foo-fooing the “over used” Nazi word, diminishing the hard core realities that the extermination of anti-Anglo Saxons is full court throughout the globe without masks anymore. imperial Japan never bothered with the masks, much like Israel.
All the folks wagging their tongues and heads the last 70 years asking: How did the German people “support” such atrocities? How/Why did UK/Pope and others “support” such governances?
People are not angry and fed up enough.
Nuremberg-like, repudiations, prisons, reparations & war crime charges are coming for us all. Not a citizen in the West will escape.
It’s something to lose sleep over frankly.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 18:03 utc | 46

Perhaps the worst account I have heard or read so far:
https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6039/Urgent-int%E2%80%99l-investigation-needed-to-probe-Israeli-war-crimes-after-Palestinian-civilians-buried-alive-at-Gaza%E2%80%99s-Kamal-Adwan-Hospital
These actions are truly depraved. That is the only word I can think of.
Lloyd Austin traveling to Israel to advise on how to conduct the genocide is also DEPRAVED.

Posted by: Jane | Dec 17 2023 18:08 utc | 47

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 18:03 utc | 47
Thanks for your contribution So when I read in another thread that Germany is banning Christmas presents from Russia, I should be really angry? All these self-important muckamucks have is my unreserved contempt for them and nothing else. Like Bibi and Christian Zionists with their Bible stories.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 18:21 utc | 48

https://youtu.be/0UvwK4weFZU?si=mS2WX4dRzC4UCKGP
Egypt revealing itself as Izzrael’s missile shield against the Houthi.
Pathetic really.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 18:22 utc | 49

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 16:35 utc | 29
#############
Oh, so now you don’t believe in coincidences and random accidents. 😂

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 17 2023 18:31 utc | 50

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 18:22 utc | 50
###############
I think you mean “excellent”.
It is truly a gift when people reveal their true character to us.
Let everyone who enables genocide make themself known to the world.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Dec 17 2023 18:39 utc | 51

RE: “another thread that Germany is banning Christmas presents from Russia, I should be really angry?”
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 18:21 utc | 49
It’s not about “the punishments” per se, it’s about “the source” “the core” “the mind set”…in this case, not just against the resisters in Russia against tyranny in Ukraine, but against their own citizens that don’t have “right think”.
Some grandma in Russia sending her dual citizen grandkids in the EU a Xmas present. The spread of Nazi fascist methods of “group think” and acceptance as normalcy.
The “Hail Hitler” of today manifested to subjugate the globe.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 18:47 utc | 52

Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 17:54 utc | 43
Apologies john, I got you confused with another john hasbara I was battling with
Yeah, confusion’s a state of mind.
S’alright.

Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 18:56 utc | 53

The Ignatius piece in the WaPo is certainly of interest, not least because of his privileged position as a stenographer for national security interests. It’s also a rare “balanced” view of the realities of the occupation. Perhaps reading too much into it, but it may signal the U.S. “deep state” is arriving at a place similar to the late 1980s when a decision to abandon the South African apartheid state was made. That earlier situation was not based on enlightened humanitarianism, it was based on maintaining geopolitical interests in an important regional state in which internal politics had become toxic to world opinion. All of Israel’s sins can simply be transferred to the agency of the most fanatical settler advocates, who can then be seen to be marginalized and neutered. This would suggest the “normalization” process is the active plan, rather than destroy Hezbollah and Iran. Israel’s “security” will be re-branded.

Posted by: jayc | Dec 17 2023 18:58 utc | 54

17.12.23 BREAKING: The Jerusalem Post: “Israel should make Gaza look like Auschwitz – council head” “David Azoulai, head of the Metula Council, proposed sending all Gazans to refugee camps in Lebanon and flattening the whole Strip so it becomes an empty museum like Auschwitz.”
Israel should be sending Palestinian Gazans fleeing the fighting to refugee camps in Lebanon, with the entire Gaza Strip being emptied and leveled and turned into a museum like the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, Metula Council head David Azoulai told 103FM.
“After October 7, instead of urging people to go south, we should direct them to the beaches. The Navy can transport them to the shores of Lebanon, where there are already sufficient refugee camps. Then, a security strip should be established from the sea to the Gaza border fence, completely empty, as a reminder of what was once there. It should resemble the Auschwitz concentration camp,” he said in an interview with Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal.
“Tell everyone in Gaza to go to the beaches. Navy ships should load the terrorists onto the shores of Lebanon. The entire Gaza Strip should be emptied and levelled flat, just like in Auschwitz. Let it become a museum, showcasing the capabilities of the State of Israel and dissuading anyone from living in the Gaza Strip. This is what must be done To give them a visual representation.

Posted by: Geraint ap Iorwerth | Dec 17 2023 18:59 utc | 55

Some serious bile you’re spewing there, dude. Your slander is corrosive and offensive.
Are you the anointed mud-slinger?
Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 17:35 utc | 38
———————————————————-
Just shut up John. Of course, we are slinging mud at the zionazi trolls. They are too stupid to have a real discussion and too fascistic to just go away. Try having a discussion about Zionist on most MSM outlets: The ZeoNazis are ferocious. But now you whine and howl when you get as good as you give.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 19:00 utc | 56

Perhaps reading too much into it, but it may signal the U.S. “deep state” is arriving at a place similar to the late 1980s when a decision to abandon the South African apartheid state was made. That earlier situation was not based on enlightened humanitarianism, it was based on maintaining geopolitical interests in an important regional state in which internal politics had become toxic to world opinion.
Posted by: jayc | Dec 17 2023 18:58 utc | 55
Just to let you know, I had that exact same thought exactly 24 hours ago. As Paul Simon says there are lot of ways to leave your lover, that is not the problem but making the decision is.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 17 2023 19:15 utc | 57

Would the USA “go apeshit” if the threatening Eisenhower were hit largely?
What would happen next?

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 17 2023 19:23 utc | 58

“Israel should make Gaza look like Auschwitz – council head” “David Azoulai, head of the Metula Council
Beginning to think Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein were correct in describing Israeli leaders as Facsists who posed a danger to Jews everywhere.

Posted by: Exile | Dec 17 2023 19:27 utc | 59

Jews are Not “Khazars.” This is a Jewish hoax to throw a decoy at the goy. Call them what they are, “JEWS,” who are syndicated throughout the world via International Jewish Finance. Hitler hoped to stop it but got “decoyed” into a war he could not win.

Posted by: Brother Nathanael | Dec 17 2023 19:27 utc | 60

Coordinated messaging? Published same day as the Ignatius WaPo piece, in The Guardian:
Two-State Solution Would Require Relocating 200,000 Settlers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/17/two-state-solution-would-mean-relocating-200000-settlers-says-israeli-lawyer-who-has-david-camerons-ear
“Seidemann stressed that he did not see a two-state solution as an objective, saying: “The objective is ending the occupation in a way that is compatible with the interests of both sides. If the occupation does not end, it is going to be the end of Israel and of the Palestinians. The only way to end the occupation is a border. I wish it were otherwise, but it is not.” …
“He also predicted that “Netanyahu will be gone. The only question is how much damage he will cause on the way out. All of the people of consequence in Israel have zero faith in him. What comes after him is unknowable. But there is a sense that we have to reestablish the state of Israel.”

Posted by: jayc | Dec 17 2023 19:34 utc | 61

Whatever solution one-state, two-state, protectorate – Israeli citizens remain liable for beaucoup reparations as per UNR 194, UNSC 2334, and ICj opinion from 2004.

Posted by: Exile | Dec 17 2023 19:44 utc | 62

59 Chaka Kagan
As I posted at Slayyan… SSBN’s and Carriers have nuclear reactors that have way higher % of UR235 in use than commercial and fuel rods stay in place for way longer. About the most high level waste around. If sunk and if reactor breached, zirconium cladding burns under water as does Uranium. And if not breached immediately, some year or century later it will. Better if not sunk in narrow bays.

Posted by: paxmark1 | Dec 17 2023 19:52 utc | 63

Middle East Eye reporting on more similar messaging from influential US figures:
1 – US Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC News on Sunday that “Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries cannot normalise with Israel if they’re seen as throwing the Palestinians under the bus…I think the Arabs are going to demand some form of two-state solution to recognise Israel. I think Israel’s going to demand security buffers different than before, and they need to make those demands. I don’t know how this ends, but I’ll tell you this. If we don’t get this right this time, we’re talking about another generation of just tit-for-tat death,” added Graham.
2 – The US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, is expected to discuss the Biden administration’s vision for how Israeli forces should carry out a new phase of the war in Gaza during his visit to Israel this week, the New York Times reported. Austin is set to meet with  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. The US vision for the next phase will involve small groups of elite Israeli military forces conducting precise, intelligence-based attacks to root out Hamas leaders, rescue captives and destroy tunnels while moving in and out of Palestinian population centres, according to the New York Times report. In a sign of the urgency of this moment in the war, General Charles Q. Brown Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will join Austin in Israel.
“In a sign of the urgency of this moment…” Don’t really see phrases like that used to describe US foreign policy too often in NY Times.

Posted by: jayc | Dec 17 2023 19:54 utc | 64

In the urgency of the moment…
Send in the clowns.
Send in General Charley Brown.
And Austin Powers
The Powers Of Raytheon

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 17 2023 20:02 utc | 65

Salaam,farm ecologist @3- Ayatollah Kamenei has stated that the occupying entity is a “terrorist nest”.

Posted by: 4q8 | Dec 17 2023 20:05 utc | 66

The carrier battle group is multi-billion dollar sitting duck. It is the equivalent of the horse Calvary in the turn of the last century. With the advent of the machine gun and the tank the horse became obsolete overnight whereas the Calvary had been the dominant force on the battlefield for millennia. The US is a naval and AirPower military force. Do an internet search on Dr Karber’s West Point lecture. He basically informs the cadets that they will be slaughtered if we go to war with Russia. Our Air force will be shot out of the sky within days.
The US military ground forces are likewise a joke. Over 70% of our military are classified as obese. SOCOM primary directive for the last three years is to get women, blacks and sexual deviants into the ranks. In order to accomplish that objective they eliminated all standards. There is no physical fitness test to enter the Special Forces year long Qualification Course. No requirement to pass any patrols or to find any points on the legendary SF Star Land Navigation trial. There are literally no standards.
75th Rangers are in the same boat. In 2009 I was on a mission with 2/75 Rangers. I witnessed an E-4 mouth off to an E-6 Squad-Leader. I said “Sergeant, you need to smoke that little motherfucker until he shits buttermilk.”
He said “Sir, we can’t do that anymore. Hazing is a court marshal offense.” Hazing? Hazing is what happens in frat houses. Psychological brutality in the military builds brain callousness. Which is the best you can do when preparing young men for the nightmare of war.
It’s my understanding that the SEALS have not lowered their standards to accommodate women, sexual deviants and blacks. God bless the Navy SEALS. As Army SOF, I never thought I would say that. Get after it Frogs!

Posted by: RLTW | Dec 17 2023 20:15 utc | 67

“ The missions are so secret even Mykola’s superiors don’t know about them, he said. The need for top-secret assignments is partly due to dwindling funds making their way to Ukraine from the EU and the US, according to The Times.”
I suppose now he knows. So super secret that this “source” knew about it and blabbed to the Times but not this chump Mykola who read about it in a newspaper. This is why these things are called the funny pages. They are genuinely funny and this sort of content does make up for the lack of comics.
I’m somewhat(*) miffed that no “source” ever blabs to these august journals about super secret plans to fuck the rest of us over economically, socially, politically. It’s always the “super secret” “geopolitical” stuff somewhere else. Confusing. I sure hope they will do an “explainer” and clear that up.
(*): as a non paying reader i need to be fair. I can’t even imagine who pays for this stuff. It’s not that funny.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 20:20 utc | 69

Posted by: Geraint ap Iorwerth | Dec 17 2023 18:59 utc | 56
——————————————————————————
Put that in your pipe and smoke it John @ 38: “David Azoulai, head of the Metula Council, proposed sending all Gazans to refugee camps in Lebanon and flattening the whole Strip so it becomes an empty museum like Auschwitz.”
David Azoulai is what we call a ZIONAZI. Not all Jews are Zionazis, but people like Mr. Azoulai is certainly one if the story is true.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 20:21 utc | 70

Sorry, I just noticed Jane posted this story above.

Posted by: KMRIA | Dec 17 2023 20:22 utc | 71

Others may have already commented on this….I find it extraordinary that very high level US government officials such as the Secretaries of State and Defense, National Security advisor, and the Director of the CIA have to travel TO Israel. Why on earth would that be necessary? We have very secure comms and all of these meetings could have done with video conferencing.
I also found it curious that Elon Musk had to make the trip there to have a sit down with the Israeli capo. Immediately after he made comments about how bad Hamas is and how Israel must defend itself all the charges of antisemitism disappeared. In other words Musk did bend the knee.
I have been watching this blog since before the beginning and people often question if it is the US running Israel or is it the other way around. Just looking at how things are going now, it really seems to be the latter.

Posted by: dan of steele | Dec 17 2023 20:22 utc | 72

Posted by: 4q8 | Dec 17 2023 20:05 utc | 67
Salaam 4q8. Ali Khamenei is not an Ayatollah, not even by the standards of Qom. This is to say nothing of the requirements of the house of the prophet (SAWS). The Household of the prophet has designated Ali Khamenei as “Guardian” of Muslims.
Ali Khamenei is a political and ideological creature. The fact that he may utter self evident facts, such as the terrorist nature of the Zionist Project are not indicative of his spiritual station. They are indicative of the Islam and IQ of you and those who call Ali Khamenei a VALI.
WaSalaam.
P.s. to the forum. An instance of “False Flag” strategy. Here, we have a comrade biped masquerading as a divinely guided (that’s the claim) seat warmer for the Hidden Imam of the Ummah.

Posted by: robinthehod | Dec 17 2023 20:26 utc | 73

RE: “Hitler hoped to stop it but got “decoyed” into a war he could not win.”
Posted by: Brother Nathanael | Dec 17 2023 19:27 utc | 61
Yes, WW1 “reparations” and financial stranglehold indeed set him & his party on an path of correction indeed. However, corruption & greed (funding of UK/US & Pope) changed trajectory to eliminating Soviet Union and any resistant Jews.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 20:32 utc | 74

The US vision for the next phase will involve small groups of elite Israeli military forces conducting precise, intelligence-based attacks to root out Hamas leaders, rescue captives and destroy tunnels while moving in and out of Palestinian population centres, according to the New York Times report
Sound like the failed Seal Death Squads in Afghanistan and the throughly discredited Phoenix program in Vietnam.

Posted by: Exile | Dec 17 2023 20:32 utc | 75

Correction: The Household of the prophet has NOT designated Ali Khamenei as “Guardian” of Muslims.
The entire support for him and his “station” and “religion rank” is sadly rather profane in nature and consists of a paramilitary organization, the fabled “elite” IRGC, which denuded of its (“Velcro”) badges, flags, and other outward displays of affiliation, is rather quite easily identifiable as a component of a statist system.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 20:33 utc | 76

Why the parade of Washington bigwigs to Tel Aviv ?
You can’t carry suitcases of cash on a video call.

Posted by: Exile | Dec 17 2023 20:35 utc | 77

Egypt revealing itself as Izzrael’s missile shield against the Houthi.
Pathetic really.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 18:22 utc | 50
That source is an unreliable Indian channel and they only refer to one drone “reportedly” being shot down by Egypt.
Not saying that Sisi would not do something like that, he is after all the US strongman over there but the channel is not very reliable.
Imho there is a sort of tacit agreement that for now Yemen should be allowed to do their thing if it ends Israel’s rampage sooner rather than later.
In theory Israel may be Empire’s foothold in the region, but in practice it behaves as if it is The Boss.
In practice, Israel owns the US Congress, Senate as well as most of the UK government. These people have zero moral problems with Israel’s genocide but they are a bit concerned about “optics”.

Posted by: pq | Dec 17 2023 20:40 utc | 78

https://twitter.com/qudsnen/status/1736042867418661194?s=46&t=xMSVoozWYuD7NoMxmxbC5A
Scenes from the Kamal Adwan hospital. Warning, disturbing content.

Posted by: KMRIA | Dec 17 2023 20:40 utc | 79

“But there is a sense that we have to reestablish the state of Israel.”
Posted by: jayc | Dec 17 2023 19:34 utc | 62
—————————————————————
Yes! To at least the 1967 borders, if not the original 1947 UN agreed on borders. That would require the removal of at least 600,000 illegal Jewish settlers. Tough nuggets: But the Jewish settlers are the law breakers and the illegal occupiers on Palestinian lands. If, the Lukid Zio-Nazis get their way, and the Palestinians are removed, then the fascist win: The west might as well have supported the Hitler’s invasion of Russia; after all, he only wanted more land to breath!

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 20:44 utc | 80

RE: Posted by: jayc | Dec 17 2023 19:54 utc | 65
Thx for the post. I’ve been enjoying reading all the U.S./Israel “plans”, plots and schemes being tossed about by Western media.
It would appear for them… they are alone in the universe, able to proceed as it suits them, untethered to any reality on the ground.

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 20:48 utc | 81

Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 17 2023 20:32 utc | 75
Adolf Hitler got his start in politics as an agent of the secret police. This is all you need to know.
Secondly, regardless of how you feel about x, y, or z, to not recognize that Adolf Hitler was ‘somewhat’ unhinged mentally and that the apparatus that he commanded inflicted unspeakable evil against many parties and delighted in projecting an image of cruelty (skulls on uniforms, enough said), and that the legacy of his pied piper career for the long suffering German people is one of utter humiliation and subjugation that continues to this very day.
Quit worshipping false idols.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 20:48 utc | 82

Ed | Dec 17 2023 19:00 utc | 57
But now you whine and howl when you get as good as you give
Hmmm, I guess you’re as confused as our friend, Arch Bungle. Actually, maybe more so.
Have another drink.

Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 20:53 utc | 83

Dan of steele:
I’m sure there could be all sorts of other reasons but here are two different possibilities that might apply (they seem contradictory but aren’t necessarily).
1. It’s because they don’t dare to trust the people —anyone, no matter who— running their communication systems. It says plenty about how incriminating or potentially damaging the content of their meetings could be (this fits nicely into point 2 in case there’s actually nothing all that important happening in these meetings).
2. It makes for nice filler material in the MSM and elsewhere about how supposedly important and busy they are. Beats sitting in their office twiddling thumbs, improves the implied stature of their positions, departments, organizations, countries, budgets…
Compare it with all the “important” people traveling long distances in luxury to wine and dine and talk about climate change. “Some people are more equal than others” and so on. Ie. clown world.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 17 2023 20:57 utc | 84

Ali Khamenei is a political and ideological creature. The fact that he may utter self evident facts, such as the terrorist nature of the Zionist Project are not indicative of his spiritual station. They are indicative of the Islam and IQ of you and those who call Ali Khamenei a VALI.
WaSalaam.
P.s. to the forum. An instance of “False Flag” strategy. Here, we have a comrade biped masquerading as a divinely guided (that’s the claim) seat warmer for the Hidden Imam of the Ummah.
Posted by: robinthehod | Dec 17 2023 20:26 utc | 74
———————————————————————
Hallelujah brother robinthehood: And the same thing applies to all the Christian and Jewish religious windbags who want to bring their religious superstitions into a discussion about modern day Geopolitics.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 20:59 utc | 85

I’m yet to see some colourful graphs and stat’s regarding how much the global economy is bleeding to allow Israel’s genocide. If the financial times is coming out saying enough. It must be hurting. Gaza kids and grandma’s don’t matter, but a billionaires bankroll does. Operation bullshit full steam ahead. Time to test some submarine drones out in the seas. Ukraine has shown they are difficult to defend against, smart to move to outside of usa Zionist air power and navy

Posted by: Hankster | Dec 17 2023 20:59 utc | 86

No one, certainly no leading member of various Shia communities in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere can be ignorant of the fact that Ali Khameni fully lacks the requisite scholarship and practice as a spiritual guide in Islam.
They also can not be ignorant of the fact that the very title of Ayatollah was first handed out in Iran in 20th century.
The system that Ruhollah Khomeini, also designated “Ayatollah”, created is very clear about the requirements for the premiere post: the Vali that represents the ‘Faqih’ (spiritual authorities).
Anyone who allied themselves with IRI, due to religious notions, needs to confront this fact. The system they are dealing with, the people they are dealing with, are going along with this LIE.
What sort of Muslim would fail to see the problem here?
If at least IRI had managed to put an actual religious authority in that position their system may have some claim to legitimacy. However as with all things Satanic, as it is -clearly- indicated in the Qur’an, Satan is “an open enemy”.
The enmity, the lie, by God’s decree, must be open.
This is so no one can say “we did not know”.
And now you know.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 21:02 utc | 87

Have another drink.
Posted by: john | Dec 17 2023 20:53 utc | 84
———————————————————–
Thank you, I think I will!

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 21:02 utc | 88

Reports only now beginning to appear on the US MSM:
Omar Jimenez
@OmarJimenez
Incredible reporting from @clarissaward
, showing the reality inside of Gaza. Worth a watch if you get a moment. There are also journalists inside Gaza that have been continuously reporting on what’s happening there, many have died in the process.
https://twitter.com/OmarJimenez/status/1735300676635271366

Posted by: Menz | Dec 17 2023 21:02 utc | 89

“terrorism” is merely a classification of “scale”.
The death of one is a “terrorist act”. The death of millions? A “military operation”.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:46 utc | 4
I disagree, Arch. Traditionally – and in reality*- “terrorism” is an arbitrary and jingoistic definition that those in power who use violence or the threat of violence to maintain what they call “order” bestow on the actions of individuals or groups that oppose the prevailing order and use violence in so doing.
* Of course, in reality, the accepted definition entails using violence to effect political actions and affect political consciousness.
Scale really isn’t important. A single letter containing anthrax or an assassination would both be called “terrorism.”
And as we’ve seen the working definition change and grow, it no longer just applies to violence against, or which also affects, civilians.
The “West” (including Israel) wantonly and capriciously (and hypocritically) use the term to smear geopolitical or socioeconomic enemies and “hostile foreign powers” for domestic and international consumption.
Somewhat ironically, the Rebels in the “Star Wars” movies would be labeled “terrorists” if they weren’t a plucky band of mostly white (and furry) justice seekers.
Speaking of cinematic “terrorism” – I think the closest analogy for the Palestinians in their fight for justice against Israel are the Resistance, led by Kuato in the Verhoeven flick “Total Recall” (based on a Philip K Dick story). There’s even a mystical/religious aspect. The mutants (and their supporters – plebes) are being oppressed and segregated on the (settler colonial apartheid genocidal) Mars colony, choked off at the whim of Vilos Cohagen, who is quite the excellent stand-in for Sharon and NuttyYahoo.

Vilos Cohaagen is the main antagonist of the 1990 science fiction film Total Recall. He is the corrupt governor of the Mars Federal Colony who maintains an iron-fisted rule through his monopoly on Mars’ most valuable commodity: air. He concocts a scheme to rid Mars of its mutant population and all resistance to his rule by erasing the memory of his ally Carl Hauser and having him lead Cohaagen to the Resistance leader Kuato as he searches for his true identity.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 17 2023 21:05 utc | 90

About Israeli kompromat; its existence would also mean that a lot of people would have hidden motivation to seek the destruction of Israel and not be particularly keen on actually rescuing or successfully aiding them.
Thus when Israel makes big mistakes they could be happy to help them continue their mistakes.

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 17 2023 21:08 utc | 91

IOF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said on Saturday night: « the soldiers who mistakenly killed the hostages violated the rules of engagement ».
https://m.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-778411
Violated the rules of engagement! According to the customary jus in bello they committed a war crime.
See article 41 of the Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949:

Safeguard of an enemy hors de combat
1. A person who is or who, in the circumstances, should be recognized to be ‘ hors de combat ‘ shall not be made the object of attack.
2. A person is ‘ hors de combat ‘ if:
(a) he is in the power of an adverse Party;
(b) he clearly expresses an intention to surrender; or
(c) he has been rendered unconscious or is otherwise incapacitated by wounds or sickness, and therefore is incapable of defending himself;
provided that in any of these cases he abstains from any hostile act and does not attempt to escape. »

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-41
« Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, “killing or wounding a combatant who, having laid down his arms or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion” is a war crime in international armed conflicts. »
« Practice recognizes that the duty to give quarter is to the benefit of every person taking a direct part in hostilities, whether entitled to prisoner-of-war status or not. »
https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule47#Fn_C1A1087A_00005

Posted by: Leuk | Dec 17 2023 21:09 utc | 92

Ibn Riad – ابن رياض
@IbnRiad
In particular, martyr Qassem Soleimani was instrumental in providing Gaza with the capabilities that it has today, and his martyrdom at the hands of the US empire came as a result of this, as well as his instrumental role in defeating US-Zionist proxy ISIS.
https://twitter.com/IbnRiad/status/1736396717656846545

Posted by: Menz | Dec 17 2023 21:11 utc | 93

The enmity, the lie, by God’s decree, must be open.
This is so no one can say “we did not know”.
And now you know.
Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 21:02 utc | 88
——————————————————————–
But! But! robinthehood, Jesus was only a mere carpenter, certainly not an educated man, and he became God in the flesh. But what f**k does this have to do with Genocide in GAZA?

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 21:13 utc | 94

Incredible reporting from @clarissaward
Posted by: Menz | Dec 17 2023 21:02 utc | 90
I’m glad something is being shown on MSM but Clarissa Ward is a major attention seeker who will never show the worst of how bad it is. Her visit will have been carefully coordinated to visit the hospital in the best state and Israel will not bomb while she is there. Only boomers and older watch CNN, I think.
Until they talk about the massacre at Kamal Adwan and do a full hour long documentary on how Israel systematically destroyed the ENTIRE healthcare structure, they are not worth anyone’s time.
Unlike all the Palestinian / Muslim / Arab journalists who have been killed, whose families have been killed and who have been left injured and bleeding to die a slow death as ambulances trying to reach them are targeted.
Clarissa Ward is most famous for diving into a ditch in early October on a road where nothing was happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux99b7hsSvU
Sorry if I sound upset, I have no time for sheisters like Ward. 20,000 people have to die with 8,000 more under the rubble before they show that it’s bad and send someone into Gaza. Am furious.

Posted by: pq | Dec 17 2023 21:15 utc | 95

@robinthehood
“Adolf Hitler was ‘somewhat’ unhinged mentally and that the apparatus that he commanded inflicted unspeakable evil against many parties and delighted in projecting an image of cruelty (skulls on uniforms, enough said)”
The Totenkopf (skull) symbolized the contempt for death of the soldiers and was already used by Prussian regiments:
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prussian_hussar_uniform_Totenkopf_(death%27s_head)_etc_Mus%C3%A9e_de_l%27Arm%C3%A9e,_Les_Invalides,_Paris.jpg

Posted by: Apollyon | Dec 17 2023 21:17 utc | 96

Unimelb for Palestine
@Umelb4Palestine
·
12h
Students at the University of Melbourne have been continually silenced. Despite national cultural symbols being accepted this student was kicked out of his own graduation simply for displaying a Palestinian flag.
https://twitter.com/Umelb4Palestine/status/1736313123936879072

Posted by: Menz | Dec 17 2023 21:17 utc | 97

“terrorism” is merely a classification of “scale”.
The death of one is a “terrorist act”. The death of millions? A “military operation”.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 17 2023 13:46 utc | 4
Actually, upon second reading, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. But acts of scale (and groups capable of acting at scale) are also still labeled terrorism if it suits a geopolitical/geo-economic need. For example, the Iranian IRG – The Trump administration added them to the “official” list of terrorist organizations. If and when they act and more than a few hundred Israelis or others die, it will be called terrorism, you can bet your you-know-what.
And I know we agree on this unstated fact: The USA is the world’s pre-eminent terrorist organization and has been since before the end of WWII.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 17 2023 21:18 utc | 98

Posted by: Ed | Dec 17 2023 20:59 utc | 86
If that was directed at me, the reason we need to interject in these matters is precisely because our religion is hijacked and used by these geopolitical actors and if not publicly voiced, then de facto the rest of the planet will believe their b.s. This appears to have upset you, “brother Ed”.

Posted by: robinthehood | Dec 17 2023 21:30 utc | 99

Has been mentioned but bears repeating: the parallels between nazis and zionists are not coincidental, that is how our monkey brains work. Cycles of violence…
Via personal experience: the most psycho school kids I’ve taught have all been abused.
Via Herodotus: the tragedy of war builds from escalating tit-for-tat.
We need to try and break the cycle. As per juliana in the open thread: stop the killing.

Posted by: Rae | Dec 17 2023 21:34 utc | 100