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December 18, 2023
Palestine Open Thread 2023-308
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In his latest interview, Major Ritter made a number of telling comments…the most significant I believe is that Hamas had literally years, maybe even more than a decade, to so design their tunnel networks, divided into separable cells, some extremely deep underground; so intricately that the IDF is totally incapable of erasing them.
Upshot is that while the genocidal attacks upon the people of Gaza may continue from their aerial supremacy; Hamas is well led, thoroughly organized and highly trained and are hard-asses to the max.
Meanwhile the invading elements are akin to fish out of water as they attempt to negotiate all the destruction of the urban infrastructure that their airfarce has committed.
In order to calm possible domestic discord, the Nuts n’ Yahoos regime is totally downplaying their actual casualty lists, particularly of the KIA’s…though there is wide agreement that wounded invaders are jamming Israeli hospitals in numbers topping 5,000. Roadkill Israelis may well be in excess of two thousand. Only a relative handful have been captured in the past few weeks. Meanwhile, losses in armor, particularly in first-line tanks are rapidly becoming unsustainable.
Smartest thing Nuttyahoo could do would be to make a trek to the Di$trict of Corruption…allegedly for even more financial and military support. This trip would allow Mossad and CIA to dump Nutsy and set up a new regime in West Jerusalem, one which would necessarily be a national coalition which would engender a “strategic” withdrawal from Gaza.
Following that, in order not to spend the rest of his meteoric career in prison, Nuts would demand the U$$A to give him sanctuary. Via orders from the financier shotcallers, the puppet regime in Washington would accede to his desperate demands.
Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 18 2023 18:22 utc | 2
“They Can Wait at Leisure, Whilst Netanyahu Labours – and Errs” is Crooke’s title for his SCF essay, which is a riff on Sun Tzu. It expands on his al-Mayadeen column I linked to on Saturday. The additional insight provided is excellent and most needed. Crucial excerpt:
Hamas has transformed: It is now the ‘liberation movement’ that Sheikh Yasin foresaw – liberation of all living under occupation, and again, Yasin-like, is centred around non-ideological Islam on the civilisational icon of ‘Al-Aqsa’ mosque which is neither Palestinian nor Shia nor Sunni, nor Wahhabi, Brotherhood, nor Salafist.
And it is this – Hamas’ liberation framing – that chimes directly with the new global ‘independence push’ that we are witnessing today, and that perhaps explains the huge marches in support of Gaza, across the global south, as well as in Europe and the U.S. The punishment meted out to Gaza civilians has that unmissable ‘old colonial’ touch to it – one that evokes wide resonance and anger.
Read it to find out the why to the above.
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/hezbollah-bombs-two-israeli-iron-dome-systems
The Islamic Resistance in Lebanon on Monday attacked two Israeli Iron Dome batteries in the northern Israeli settlement of “Kabri” near the occupied Palestinian-Lebanese border area.
Interestingly, however, Hezbollah’s operation was carried out using artillery shells that rocked the Iron Dome batteries and all-out destroyed them.
As opposed to RF using hypersoncic Dagger coming straight down at it. Waiting for more confirmation.
Posted by: paxmark1 | Dec 18 2023 18:23 utc | 4
U S putting together an international coalition to deal with the Red Sea situation.
Looks like a major esculation by US.
Who would be stupid enough to join that coalition on insanity.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 18 2023 18:26 utc | 5
Karlof1 @18L22
Thanks for sharing Alistair Crooke’s insightful and masterfully presented analysis. It stands to fill in some more of the blank areas in the jigsaw puzzle.
Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 18 2023 18:36 utc | 6
Earlier this morning, I came across a blog that referred to this article: https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/external-pressures-are-ruining-our-operations–israeli-soldi
Last four paragraphs are significant. 103 of 444 Israeli KIA are Captain and above, including five Colonels.
The blog in question posits that unless Hamas has some way to identify and target senior officers specifically, perhaps IDF soldiers might be fragging them. That level of casualties among the higher ranks does seem somewhat high.
Thoughts?
Posted by: DougK | Dec 18 2023 18:59 utc | 7
g @ 7
Palistinians have a right to self-defence.
Your projecting Israels crimes on to its victem as usal.
American ?
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 18 2023 19:02 utc | 8
Palestinians have a right to overthrow their occupiers by force according to the UN.
Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Dec 18 2023 19:25 utc | 9
European public opinion does not seem to share the worries of the ISW. A recent poll by the European Council on Foreign Relations is discussed in Foreign Affairs :
But, for the most part, European citizens do not perceive their own countries to be implicated in this war. People rarely see their own country as being at war with Russia: only 11 percent in Romania and Switzerland believe so, and the highest result is Estonia, with 31 percent. Meanwhile, at least a quarter of the respondents in every European country polled think that the United States is at war with Russia—with the highest result in Italy, where this belief is held by 51 percent.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/europes-emerging-war-fatigue
These numbers are a pleasant surprise to me. As formidable as it may seem, our mind control industry can hold back reality for a limited time only.
Posted by: neutrino | Dec 18 2023 19:26 utc | 10
#11 above was intended for the “Total Defeat (…)” thread. I don’t know how it landed here. I apologize for this mess.
Posted by: neutrino | Dec 18 2023 19:31 utc | 11
Re: Fragging IDF officers ?
It’s possible given the brutal pummeling the IDF is getting on one hand and on the other hand the politicians issuing crazy orders from Tel Aviv.
The divisions on Israeli society are deep and high strung. The racism of Askanazi against other Jewish people is enormous. We do know from the on site videos that the infantry abosoluetky refuses to support the Amour.
There’s also been beaucoup friendly fire incidents with at least 23 IDF KIA’d by other IDF reported
Posted by: Exile | Dec 18 2023 19:33 utc | 12
RE: Thoughts?
Posted by: DougK | Dec 18 2023 18:59 utc | 8
The article was a good read.
I’ve a couple of thoughts for the reported numbers:
1) Possible that IDF simply promotes soldiers Willy-nilly, like the U.S. does now, meaning, McGregor stated in WW2 there were 4 (5?)5 Star Generals, and now there are 44. I’m guessing every other soldier is a Captain or Colonel, so those casualties could be accurate because of that.
2) It was reported by various sources that the initial attack on Oct. 7 Hamas secured boatloads of Intelligence, briefs, notes and information. It’s possible they have (had) all the names and locations and were able to target them with specificity.
I think what struck me the most about the article, is the “daze and surprise” the Israeli military leaders feel about the lack of support they feel they are getting.
They had gotten so comfortable with their massacres getting hands down support that the “changes” globally over the last 5-8 years, they have ignored. They are perplexed why the US would come in and suggest they “tone down” their operations.
We see the same “perplexing” tone in DC.
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 18 2023 19:36 utc | 13
RE: Posted by: g | Dec 18 2023 18:52 utc | 7
Reality check. Oil prices are higher because:
A strategic choke point waterway Nation state declared an embargo against genocidal actions by Israel in Gaza against Israel nation state alone and no other nation. It’s certainly they’re sovereign right to respond as their citizens expect.
If any oil tanker in the Gulf was attacked and blown up…guess what? Oil prices would rise. Know what else causes oil prices to rise? Production cuts.
Gosh… it would be nice if “bigotry & hatred”… could actually move needles on a clock somewhere… but alas… we’re stuck here in reality…
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 18 2023 19:54 utc | 14
All valid reasons trubind, but the #1 reason gas prices rise: the companies see a new reason to rape the people. From Money Watch:
“Global oil companies have rebounded since the pandemic to post their highest ever profits since people started using petroleum.
Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon and Shell all reported record profits in 2022 — a year in which Russia’s war on Ukraine collided with the post-pandemic economic recovery to drive oil prices to their highest levels in history.
Together, the four companies saw $1 trillion in sales last year, a sum greater than the total economic output of Colombia, South Africa or Switzerland. TotalEnergies and BP are set to report their 2022 financial results next week. ”
Posted by: hedlykarok | Dec 18 2023 19:58 utc | 15
118 Merkava Main battle Tanks in total have been claimed to be knocked out by the various Arab resistance movements. ( my own tally, others such as Ritter have tallies much higher )
Posted by: Exile | Dec 18 2023 20:04 utc | 16
Your bigotry and hatred are being taken advantage of for profit, and just might get a lot more people killed.
Posted by: g | Dec 18 2023 18:52 utc | 7
You have a serious denial issue, and this gaslighting of every Gaza thread speaks more about you than any hollow and vague accusations of bigotry or being taken advantage of. The latter part is so ridiculous to being beyond laughable.
I’ve decided to try to understand the Israeli Zionist mindset this last half week. I want to know how a society can live in such denial, and with such a massive amount of hypocrisy. Clearly, one of the main requirements for such a society not to immediately disintegrate due to centrifugal forces tearing it apart from the spin at the center, is a tapestry of self-lies. Those lies and false morals people tell themselves so that they can sleep at night when they commit and cheer bigoted, genocidal massacres during the day – as Israeli citizens have done since before 1948 when there became a place called Israel again for the first time in millennia.
Here’s an interesting talk about the indoctrination process in Israeli schools.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWKPRC-_oSg
Needless to say, from a very young age, Israeli children are indoctrinated to regard Arabs and Palestinians as less than human or non-entities. When refugee camps are discussed, only empty camps are shown from long distance – never any actual human beings. Massacres committed by murderous Zionists (and there have been MANY) are always discussed from “mythological” framework – and always such that “This was bad…BUT…it did this good for the Jewish state of Israel!”
The picture that is emerging for me is that Israel is a largely sick society. Not that the USA isn’t, but Israel is still well within its settler colonial apartheid phase. The world watches it as it plays out very intentionally (whereas certain aspects of the NA genocide in the US was in fact accidental). There are no accidents in Gaza. Not when living hospital patients are bulldozed under the ground and suffocated to death. Not when journalists are murdered. Not when children are maimed. Not when hospitals are bombed.
It is all very intentional, on the part of the IDF, Bibi, and Joe Bidet.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 18 2023 20:05 utc | 17
“Hamas has transformed: It is now the ‘liberation movement that Sheikh Yassin foresaw”
It’s lovely that the experts are catching up to what a few billion people around the world have figured out!!!!!!
This is good news indeed.
Speaking of Sheikh Yassin, there is a great interview today on the “Dialogue Works” youtube channel with Ray McGovern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFr3T8PLgrw
I like this Dialogue Works guy. He doesn’t try to show off his knowledge, has good guests and asks a lot of short and important questions without interrupting.
Ray talks about USS Liberty but also some connects some dots on the Empire’s no-holds barred apetite for brutal revenge based on its Exceptionalism.
On 22 March 2004, Israel assassinated Sheikk Yassin, the blind, paraplegic 64 year old spiritual leader of Hamas.
A few days later a group calling itself the “Sheikh Yassin revenge brigade” or something killed and burned four merceneries from Blackwater. (Let’s assume they were genuine and not some Israeli funded guys stirring up trouble).
Never mind that it was four mercenaries. Never mind that on any given night 107,000 actual veterans from the Armed Forces are homeless at home in the USA:
Treating Americans like sh*t at home is totally OK but god forbid Ay-rabs kill invaders. All hell broke lose in Fallujah, all kinds of forbidden weapons were used and the birth defects are quite terrifying even today.
After the crimes are committed, all that is needed is a “sorry, not sorry”.
Posted by: pq | Dec 18 2023 20:07 utc | 18
The Yemenis are insanely brave. The World Food Program has already cut off food aid to millions in Houthi-controlled areas, and they have to know that there are guaranteed to be attacked by US forces in the near future, but they persist in the struggle. Absolutely incredible!
Posted by: Bob | Dec 18 2023 20:12 utc | 19
An interesting opinion article popping up on the Guardian site, which may be feeling somewhat conflicted about the Gaza goings on … how to serve empire while maintaining some shred of credibility …? That they gave space to this author and article points to possibility of ground shifting?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/18/hannah-arendt-prize-masha-gessen-israel-gaza-essay
I don’t like Gessen; but it’s indeed brave to compare Gaza with pre-war European ghettos and the obvious cowardice and cooption of the German Greens is an interesting contrast indeed.
Posted by: Caliman | Dec 18 2023 20:30 utc | 20
RE: Posted by: hedlykarok | Dec 18 2023 19:58 utc | 16
More good points.
I was suggesting to -g- that “MOA’s” “Useful Idiots” “bigotry & hate” as the cause for the oil price rise as disconnected from reality and giving “reality based reasons” as a guide to -g- in the future as to some causes of oil rises.
Your additions were helpful 🍻
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 18 2023 20:43 utc | 21
Israel is and will ALWAYS be a JEWISH state…the palestinians will be removed one way or another and…there is NOTHING that can be done to stop it…
heheheh
Posted by: Hebrew Warrior | Dec 18 2023 20:58 utc | 22
Read it to find out the why to the above.
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 18 2023 18:22 utc | 3
Thank you for that. Really pleased to see Sheik Yasin described. I remember him.
Posted by: Bemildred | Dec 18 2023 21:08 utc | 23
@23
So the solution then is to eliminate israel….good choice!
Posted by: hedlykarok | Dec 18 2023 21:09 utc | 24
#23:
Yes … and the Reich will last 1000 years … “always” is not a human condition …
Posted by: Caliman | Dec 18 2023 21:18 utc | 25
Hoo-brew Warrio:
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/12/18/chris-hedges-the-death-of-israel/
“Despotisms can exist long after their past due date. But they are terminal. You don’t have to be a Biblical scholar to see that Israel’s lust for rivers of blood is antithetical to the core values of Judaism. The cynical weaponization of the Holocaust, including branding Palestinians as Nazis, has little efficacy when you carry out a live-streamed genocide against 2.3 million people trapped in a concentration camp.
Nations need more than force to survive. They need a mystique. This mystique provides purpose, civility and even nobility to inspire citizens to sacrifice for the nation. The mystique offers hope for the future. It provides meaning. It provides national identity.
When mystiques implode, when they are exposed as lies, a central foundation of state power collapses. I reported on the death of the communist mystiques in 1989 during the revolutions in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Romania. The police and the military decided there was nothing left to defend.
Israel’s decay will engender the same lassitude and apathy. It will not be able to recruit indigenous collaborators, such as Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority — reviled by most Palestinians — to do the bidding of the colonizers.”
Israel’s days as an apartheid settler state predicated only on racism and ethnic cleansing are severely numbered now. Moreso than prior to October 7, 2023.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 18 2023 21:25 utc | 26
To T.Q. Collins at
Apparently many of the Israeli settlers are coming from the U.S.A.
There is a “sicko” problem in those U.S. communities from which they come as well.
I’d go so far to say that a good bit of the sickness in Israel in fact comes from those U.S.A. wells.
Hense the intense support by Genocide Joe and posse.
Posted by: Gee Eye Joe | Dec 18 2023 21:27 utc | 27
What the Houthis said was that the shipping blockade would continue whilst Gaza was under siege and denied aid.
The West is deploying around thirty warships to the Red Sea to enable Israel to continue its genocide of the Palestinian people.
They won’t stop the genocide, the West bends over backwards to support it.
How proud those sailors must feel; instead of defending their Country, they are enabling genocide.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/global-trade-risk-shippers-shun-red-sea-over-houthis-attacks
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Dec 18 2023 21:34 utc | 28
I almost feel sorry for the oil industry (not quite though)
What with the goings on with the sanctions against Russia, nord stream and shananguns in the black sea. Now its the red sea, a major major hub and pinch point with implications all around the world.
It will likly play absalute havoc with the ole no claims bonus insuring those tankers.
Whose going to join a coilitan to protect the red sea ?
Take a look at recent failed US coalitions….
Ukraine.
Afganistan.
Syria.
Iraq.
All careless driveing, litraly reckless driving.
Should be banned.
Then the fuil cost of 4000 extra miles detour.
Count france out they jus got out of Sudan.
I dont think the yanks should pick a fight with Africa. Election year ! Ya all.
But then….
They could of course just declare a cease fire in Gaza or would that be to easy.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 18 2023 21:44 utc | 29
Reposted with link omitted.
The Houthis have stated that their maritime blockade will continue whilst Gaza is under siege and denied Aid.
The West has dispatched around thirty warships in order to allow Israel to continue its genocide of the Palestinians, in preference to ensuring Palestinian survival by means of humanitarian aid.
Those sailors must be so proud, that instead of defending their Countries, they are deliberately aiding genocide.
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Dec 18 2023 21:51 utc | 30
Apparently many of the Israeli settlers are coming from the U.S.A.
There is a “sicko” problem in those U.S. communities from which they come as well.
I’d go so far to say that a good bit of the sickness in Israel in fact comes from those U.S.A. wells.
Hense the intense support by Genocide Joe and posse.
Posted by: Gee Eye Joe | Dec 18 2023 21:27 utc | 28
Guess where the head Israeli sicko spent much of his formative years?
The good old USA.
Bibi Netanyahoo grew up in Pennsylvania, where he attended Cheltenham High School and was part of the debate, chess, and soccer team. You can even find images of Bibi’s high school yearbook photo online.
He would later attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Massachusetts including the “prestigious” Sloane School of Management.
No word if Netanyahoo was also the president of the Nakba Ethnic Cleansing Club, while at MIT.
Why Benjamin Netanyahu is so tough: He’s from Philadelphia
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/03/why-benjamin-netanyahu-is-so-tough-hes-from-philadelphia/
Posted by: ak74 | Dec 18 2023 22:00 utc | 31
Posted by: DougK | Dec 18 2023 18:59 utc | 8
How senior are we talking? Rank doesn’t matter in the IDF, there are lots of Captains and Colonels who are anywhere from 19 to 23 years old. Age by itself doesn’t mean much, we’re seeing some gray haired volunteers getting domed as well, so anybody who’s rank corresponds to the typical age would be the thing to look for.
Posted by: orbi | Dec 18 2023 22:31 utc | 32
So this is Cristmas and what have we done.
Another year over and a new one soon begun.
Repeat….
The jews bombed gaza. Bethlehem living in fear of rampageing jewish settlers killing whole familys.
And so this is Christmas.
So tell the little children what their parents have done.
You get the point so i’ll stop right there.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 18 2023 22:31 utc | 33
21century wire Patrick Henningson….excellent long long interview with Elijah Magnier long term resident war correspondent middle east ..lived Iraq ..Lebanon etc.Does have own website but need to subscribe to get full articles.
Posted by: Jo | Dec 18 2023 22:41 utc | 34
Netanyahu now directly and strongly undercuts Biden and all of Blinkin’s minions by declaring he is most proud of actions denying Palestinians a state. Also, has indicated that any end point beyond complete and total expulsion/genocide of Palestinians is essentially unacceptable. Indicates that Oslo accords were farcical. Leaves USUK mediators with no place to go.
While US is denied support for de facto Houthi embargo, by newly enrolled (to be) BRCIS countries, as well as non aligned or aligned countries being trepidatious owing to complicity in war crimes (ongoing and ever increasing level of atrocity). Biden and Blinkin have painted themselves into a corner. Netanyahu is totally acting on his own recognizance – is the US going to stop/attenuate their arms shipments to Israel?
Posted by: abierno | Dec 18 2023 22:51 utc | 35
aristodemos | Dec 18 2023 18:36 utc | 6–
Thanks for your reply. I found today’s chat between Crooke and Napolitano and added it to my article that includes Crooke’s SCF essay, “Yes, I Must: More Crooke: SCF Essay & Napolitano Chat”. As I stress in my article, the essay really must be read before viewing the video as the sum of the two is greater than its parts. In other words, the melding of the essay into the chat was far more professional than any of their previous chats, which provides much greater learning experience for the student, which is all of us.
karlof1 3
This war is not chameleon Netanyahu’s mistake, much tho’ Crooke would love to pin it on him. Netanyahu is just a populist mouth, like fantacist BoJo, and fascist JellyBaby who articulate the brainfarts of a small team.of mischief-makers and a small team of Atlantacists in London.
Crooke is concealing that this war that was conceived by his team , the chancer, hedgefunding Atlantacist fascists in London and the Ever-losing CIA garbage in US. These guys, Crooke’s team-mates, have no strategy at all against real Islam.
Most of their Bellingcrap propaganda is pure fiction.
They only know how to manipulate cultural , ” Civilisational ” Islam, the Salafi perverts, the Muslim Brotherhood Freemasonry and Saudi headchoppers.
He’s not writing about the gaping intellectual holes in Western imperialism. Like the decrepit military flags hanging in tatters in St Paul’s
He’s not writing about the vacuum of Christianity in Europe and the vacuity of Christianity in the US. He’s not writing about the vacuum.of moral authority demonstrated by Russia and China, both in their own ways handcuffed to Western neoLiberalism.
He’s writing about the re-birth of real Islam and good luck to him. More power to his elbow for saying it, because it will not endear him to his club or clan.
Gone native is the original expression.
Posted by: Giyane | Dec 18 2023 23:08 utc | 37
Israel is not a US proxy, Israel’s unsinkable aircraft carrier, or any of that garbage.
Israel is Uncle Sam’s master.
The Zionist Lobby controls everything in the US – Wall St., Hollywood, all the media, Congress, the White House, everything.
Uncle Sam is the oily rag, the trained monkey. Israel is the organ grinder.
Whatever happens, Uncle Sam will be dragged along on Netanyahu’s coat tails.
Biden is chained to Netanyahu’s chariot.
Biden’s administration is made up of 75% Zionist Jews, Blinken, Sullivan, Yellen, the list is endless. Not much diversity there.
Washington District Of Corruption is even more Occupied Territory than the West Bank.
For optics, Biden may mouth a few platitudes about slowing down the Gaza Genocide, or murdering slightly fewer people. Blinken may even go to Jerusalem and beg for the same thing. But they just get bitchslapped and humiliated and put in their place. The trained monkey just gets a hefty clip round the ear, takes it and grins.
They have no agency. They will do as they are told. They are bought and paid for Zionist whores, like the whole of Congress, the Senate and Biden’s administration itself. Any of them can be broken tomorrow by AIPAC.
It doesn’t matter what cost this imposes on Uncle Sam. He is on the AIPAC plantation and will never break free of Zionist slavery.
People need to appreciate this one simple fact above all else.
Don’t confuse the monkey and the organ grinder.
Posted by: anon | Dec 18 2023 23:12 utc | 38
This reconciliation could not have come at a more opportune favourable time for the ME and the Palestinians in particular. I think it bodes well for the long term future.
Saudi Arabia, Iran commit to implementing Beijing Agreement
Cooperation in various fields discussed at Saudi-Chinese-Iranian Tripartite Joint Committee meeting
JEDDAH: The first meeting of the Saudi-Chinese-Iranian Tripartite Joint Committee concluded in Beijing on Friday with the Saudi and Iranian delegations pledging their commitment to implementing the Beijing Agreement.
Wang Yi — a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office, and minister of foreign affairs — chaired a group meeting with the heads of the Saudi and Iranian delegations, the deputy ministers of foreign affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khuraiji and Ali Bagheri Kani, respectively.
The talks revolved around the improved relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran following the Beijing agreement reached between both countries under Chinese auspices in March, the reopening of the embassies of both countries in Riyadh and Tehran, and the meetings and mutual visits of both nations’ foreign ministers.
The Saudi and Iranian delegations praised China for its important role in hosting the meeting and pledged their commitment to implementing the terms of the Beijing Agreement.
The three parties discussed aspects of tripartite cooperation in various fields, while raising concerns over the ongoing situation in Gaza — which they said posed a threat to regional and global peace and security — and calling for an immediate cessation of military operations in the Strip.
They also expressed the need for a sustainable system of civilian aid and slammed the forced displacement of Palestinians. Any decision regarding Palestine’s future must reflect the will of the Palestinian people, the trio added, and uphold the right for them to establish their own state and determine their own destiny.
It was agreed that the next meeting of the tripartite would be held in Saudi Arabia in June.
Saudi Arabia and Iran both thanked China for hosting the meeting and for its role in mediating between Riyadh and Tehran.
The three sides also expressed concern over the situation in Gaza and said that any solution to the conflict must adhere to the will of the Palestinian people.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2426356/middle-east
Posted by: Lavrov’s Dog | Dec 18 2023 23:37 utc | 39
Adding to the Alastair discussions of today:
See the Duran Dec 18
https://odysee.com/@theduran:e/palestine-to-ukraine.-conflicts-without:8
Posted by: botete | Dec 18 2023 23:43 utc | 40
“1) Possible that IDF simply promotes soldiers Willy-nilly, like the U.S. does now, meaning, McGregor stated in WW2 there were 4 (5?)5 Star Generals, and now there are 44. I’m guessing every other soldier is a Captain or Colonel, so those casualties could be accurate because of that.”
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 18 2023 19:36 utc | 14
I believe that in 1945 the American arm forces were around 12 million in arms with 4 four star Generals now there are 1.2 Mm (?) and 44.
In Gaza, the zionazis are in the position of Napoleon at Moscow. The Palestinian resistance have followed Kutuzov’s strategy of avoiding set piece battles, refuse to surrender, knowing that time is on their side since the zionazi economy is weakening and the pseudostate’s other enemies, from Hezbollah to Ansarallah, are becoming increasingly a threat to the zio rear. Nazinyahu’s threats towards Lebanon need to be seen in this context. The zionazis haven’t advanced a millimetre in days. They’re getting ambushed in the ruins of the cities ruined by their own bombs and turned indy perfect urban guerrilla territory. Ansarallah is choking the Red Sea. Hezbollah is immensely more powerful than Islamic Jihad and HAMAS put together. But Nazinyahu now desperately needs a distraction from the war he started as a distraction from his own criminal prosecution and his attempted legal “reforms”.
This is not going to end well for the zios.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Dec 19 2023 0:28 utc | 42
RE: Posted by: canuck | Dec 19 2023 0:21 utc | 42
Good point. I also think I put *5 when meant to put 4, so this is better data. Thx.
Posted by: Trubind1 | Dec 19 2023 0:30 utc | 43
The Yemenis are insanely brave. The World Food Program has already cut off food aid to millions in Houthi-controlled areas, and they have to know that there are guaranteed to be attacked by US forces in the near future, but they persist in the struggle. Absolutely incredible!
Posted by: Bob | Dec 18 2023 20:12 utc | 20
If the US and friends get into a fight with the Houthis that would be a third front for the US military and the US Treasury. Which country will be next after Yemen?
Supporting Israel is likely to lead to an escalation in funding by the US.
What will be left of the Treasury when the US finally goes to war with China?
Posted by: Richard L | Dec 19 2023 0:59 utc | 44
At what point —if any— does the US/zionists decide that they have to destroy Israel in order to save Israel? The idea would be to give themselves free reign with US forces.
(And how will they do that? Massive false flag? Dimona? Haifa?).
Or is anything like this already too little too late for them? (I’m thinking it may be but I don’t know and I have no idea what they’re thinking if anything).
· · · · · ·
Right now Europe seems to be making more noise about the genocide than Russia or China is. Appearances can be deceptive of course and it’s all just talk from all of them.
No international airlift operation to break a siege (post-war Berlin way back when), no use of aircraft carrier groups to deliver human aid as done after natural tsunami catastrophes in SE Asia, no concerted international effort to send specialized search and rescue teams from numerous countries as done after earthquakes all over the globe.
All because the zionists can’t stop they bloodlust and no one wants to put the rabid dog down.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 19 2023 1:16 utc | 45
“their bloodlust” not “they bloodlust”. I do preview and proof-read but not well enough :/
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 19 2023 1:19 utc | 46
https://t.me/ResistanceTrench/22119
Tik tok female army shows us how it’s done.
This video Israeli girl boasts of killing Palestinians with bedroom eyes only other psychos would mate with
https://t.me/ResistanceTrench/22133
Posted by: Hankster | Dec 19 2023 1:26 utc | 47
A night on which the Zionists wept
By Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh; ICH; Dec. 18, 2023.
When the Shujaya neighbourhood in Gaza was stormed last week, it was a very dark night, especially for the Zionist enemies. The moon, though, shone brightly in the sky above the besieged Palestinian territory, a territory filled with pride and dignity. …
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant acknowledged that there were heavy losses among the ranks of the so-called “Israel Defence Forces” in Shujaya. One senior military commander described the ambush by Al-Qassam Brigades as a painful blow in which close friends, soldiers and fellow officers were lost. The Chief of Staff of the Israeli Army, Herzi Halevi, described the ambush as difficult and dangerous, while Netanyahu expressed his sadness, describing the battle at the losses in Shujaya neighbourhood as “difficult”. Al-Qassam fighters apparently captured senior officers, including the commander of the 13th Golani Division, the commander of the 13th Golani Battalion, the commander of the 669th Commando Unit, the commander of the 51st Battalion and another battalion commander in the 51st Division, as well as a large number of soldiers. …
Read it all at:
https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/12/18/a-night-on-which-the-zionists-wept/
Posted by: scanalyse | Dec 19 2023 1:29 utc | 48
This video Israeli girl boasts of killing Palestinians with bedroom eyes only other psychos would mate with
https://t.me/ResistanceTrench/22133
Posted by: Hankster | Dec 19 2023 1:26 utc | 48
They all have psycho eyes. The way I pick an Izzraeli out in a crowd is look for the body and eye language of a psycopath on stimulants.
I’m usually right.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 1:49 utc | 49
No international airlift operation to break a siege (post-war Berlin way back when), no use of aircraft carrier groups to deliver human aid as done after natural tsunami catastrophes in SE Asia, no concerted international effort to send specialized search and rescue teams from numerous countries as done after earthquakes all over the globe.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 19 2023 1:16 utc | 46
Compared with the response to the Houthi’s Red Sea blockade of Izzrael.
There is no ‘international law’ just a system of arbitrary preferences.
Humanitarianism is only present where some kind of profits can be made.
The principle notion that all human lives are equal is merely a facade.
Or at least it is a facade as it is practiced by the “U.N World Order”.
(I call it the “U.N World Order” because it’s no longer only the West which is to blame for the betrayal of their own values but most of the RotW as well, who now partake of this corrupt feast by groveling for the crumbs falling from the table of the big powers …)
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 2:02 utc | 50
The picture that is emerging for me is that Israel is a largely sick society. Not that the USA isn’t, but Israel is still well within its settler colonial apartheid phase. The world watches it as it plays out very intentionally (whereas certain aspects of the NA genocide in the US was in fact accidental). There are no accidents in Gaza. Not when living hospital patients are bulldozed under the ground and suffocated to death. Not when journalists are murdered. Not when children are maimed. Not when hospitals are bombed.
It is all very intentional, on the part of the IDF, Bibi, and Joe Bidet.
++++++++++++++++++++++
Zionistan is definitely a sick society.
But the sickness didn’t start there.
It was imported to Palestine by people who were already paranoid, with a violent hatred of non-Jews.
Check out this essay by Ron Unz:
https://www.unz.com/runz/gaza-and-the-dangers-of-jewish-paranoia/
Posted by: Jane | Dec 19 2023 2:03 utc | 51
Megatron
@Megatron_ron
⚡ 🇯🇴 🇮🇱 Israel’s biggest protector is Jordan and King Abdullah’s ll regime
Jordan’s military, says it seized weapons and drugs after clashes with Syria-based armed drug dealers and gunmen linked to pro-Iran militias.
This is definitely a lie on Jordan’s part.
The weapons are likely destined for the West Bank and the Palestinian resistance. Jordan protects Israel along the entire eastern border of Israel and Palestine.
In doing so, it prevents and disallows the transport of weapons and supplies to the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank. Making Israel’s job easier to the point that thanks to Jordan, Israel is still standing.
Also, since a few days ago, Jordan joined the import route to Israel, which serves to bypass the Houthi blockade.
If Jordan sided with Palestine and not Israel, today the West Bank would be as armed as Gaza.
The people of Jordan if they want to help the Palestinians stop the Israeli genocide, they will have to escalate the protests and tie the hands of the regime.
https://twitter.com/Megatron_ron/status/1736696784062181758
Posted by: Menz | Dec 19 2023 2:07 utc | 52
Gone native is the original expression.
@ Giyane | Dec 18 2023 23:08 utc | 37
Alastair Crooke has gone Islamo-native! That explains a lot. I had been puzzled by his elegies to “traditional values” — the phrase instantly raises questions about how far back to wind the clock, and where to find such a bygone, beloved tradition. Now we know.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Dec 19 2023 2:22 utc | 53
Meanwhile back in the US Senate building: “Man, it’s been a long and hard week. The boss has been riding my ass day and night.”
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Dec 19 2023 2:34 utc | 54
Arch Bungle: yes. I would love to disagree but I can’t, I think you’re entirely right it’s a sham, the lack of reaction on part of almost the entire world makes it so.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 19 2023 2:36 utc | 55
Posted by: g | Dec 18 2023 23:32 utc | 39
The hasbara, having run out of actual “hasbara”, now turn to the argument of random text generation to confuse with bullshit instead of convince with reason …
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 2:39 utc | 56
Why Benjamin Netanyahu is so tough: He’s from Philadelphia
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/03/03/why-benjamin-netanyahu-is-so-tough-hes-from-philadelphia/
Posted by: ak74 | Dec 18 2023 22:00 utc | 31
+++++++++++++++++
Only sort of . . .
“Born in Tel Aviv to secular Jewish parents, Netanyahu was raised in Jerusalem and in Philadelphia in the United States. He returned to Israel in 1967 to join the Israel Defense Forces.”
His father was Jabotinsky’s personal assistant. They only camped in the USA for awhile.
Netanyahu is a made-up name.
“Netanyahu was born in 1949 in Tel Aviv.[24][25] His mother, Tzila Segal (1912–2000), was born in Petah Tikva in the Ottoman Empire’s Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, and his father, Warsaw-born Benzion Netanyahu (né Mileikowsky; 1910–2012), was a historian specializing in the Jewish Golden age of Spain. Netanyahu’s paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was a rabbi and Zionist writer. When Netanyahu’s father emigrated to Mandatory Palestine, he hebraized his surname from “Mileikowsky” to “Netanyahu”, meaning “God has given.” While his family is predominantly Ashkenazi, he has said that a DNA test revealed him to have some Sephardic ancestry. He claims descent from the Vilna Gaon.[26][27] . . . ”
Moe on the Netanyahu family:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzion_Netanyahu
Typical Zionist background.
Posted by: Jane | Dec 19 2023 2:43 utc | 57
The jews bombed gaza. Bethlehem living in fear of rampageing jewish settlers killing whole familys.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 18 2023 22:31 utc | 33
The Jewish King Herod reincarnated as the Ukrainian Jew Netanyahu orders the mass murder of Palestinian toddlers in the Holy Land in the hope that a liberator will not be born to Hamas …
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 2:51 utc | 58
Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 18 2023 22:52 utc | 36
I haven’t yet been able to access either link, karlof1, but I’ll go ahead and ask my question after only reading your substack. (I suspect my problem is with my fairly primitive computer. I will try again in the morning.) I understand that the reason for all of this horror is because of Netanyahu – his resolve to manipulate everyone into an unending conflict, in order to perpetuate his own survival. But then, why is it impossible to remove him? I would think even members of his cabinet would by now be realizing that his continuance in power threatens everyone, no matter their ideology. Has it then just become a waiting game? Is that what we are all waiting for, that inside realization by someone close to him which will eventually bring him down?
Posted by: juliania | Dec 19 2023 2:57 utc | 59
fyi,
https://t.me/ResistanceTrench/22118
🇮🇱 John Kirby on Israeli massacres in Gaza: “We haven’t seen any evidence that the Israelis are making it an aim of war… to go out and slaughter innocent people. It is happening, and people are being killed, people are being wounded, and we recognize that. But that’s a far cry from saying it’s part of the war aims, as it is for Putin”
AND
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/100-killed–100-under-rubble-in-new-jabalia-massacre
100 killed, 100 under rubble in new Jabalia massacre
The strikes in the Jabalia refugee camp have killed at least 100 Palestinians, and another missile attack on a house resulted in the killing of 24 people from the Shehab family.
“Israeli occupation forces conducted deadly attacks across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, targeting a refugee camp in the north, a hospital in the south, and massacring scores, including a teenage girl who had previously lost her family and leg in an earlier strike.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, the strikes in the Jabalia refugee camp killed at least 90 Palestinians, and another missile attack on a house resulted in the killing of 24 people from the Shehab family……”
Posted by: michaelj72 | Dec 19 2023 3:05 utc | 60
re: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 2:51 utc | 59
The Jewish King Herod reincarnated as the Ukrainian Jew Netanyahu orders the mass murder of Palestinian toddlers in the Holy Land in the hope that a liberator will not be born to Hamas …
Posted by: Perimetr | Dec 19 2023 3:22 utc | 62
Re: Hasbara Bots
Yes of course – why didn’t we realize this sooner ? So obvious
Posted by: Exile | Dec 19 2023 3:24 utc | 63
Nations need more than force to survive. They need a mystique. This mystique provides purpose, civility and even nobility to inspire citizens to sacrifice for the nation. The mystique offers hope for the future. It provides meaning. It provides national identity.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Dec 18 2023 21:25 utc | 27
Believing to be part of a superior race fighting a war of national survival against subhumans that have to be exterminated is a powerful mystique.
Posted by: Satepestage | Dec 19 2023 3:50 utc | 64
@ 20
Houthis sanctioning the U.S./Israel – in reality their tactics are doing just that. If the U.S. petrodollar could be sanctioned – and that is in process, slowly – the U.S. will be greatly weakened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rANxVjfODFU
Posted by: Foreigner | Dec 19 2023 3:51 utc | 65
This is from FAIR’s website.
It concerns everybody’s favourite Democrat Bernie Sanders. Ryan Grim writes:
“At the end of November, my colleague Dan Boguslaw caught up with Bernie Sanders on his way into a meeting with Democrats in the Capitol, and had a chance for a brief interview. He asked Sanders if he had any plans to force a vote that would condition military aid to Israel on the country’s willingness to abide by international laws of war. Sanders responded in the affirmative.
“I covered the exchange the next day on Counter Points, and added that there actually is an obscure procedural tool Sanders could use to force a vote. It’s outlined in Section 502(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act, and it’s never been used in this way, but the law is extremely clear. Two weeks later, Sanders has now introduced a resolution to force a vote using 502(b). It has to sit in the Foreign Relations Committee for 10 days before it can be brought to the floor, which means it’ll be ripe in the New Year when the Senate returns.
“If a majority of senators approve the resolution, the State Department will have 30 days to report back on whether Israel is following the laws of war. (Politico reported the resolution would have to pass both chambers; that’s untrue, a simple Senate resolution would trigger the State action.) After the 30 days, all of Congress would then be able to vote on a joint resolution to disapprove military aid — which would be binding — if the report found Israel was out of compliance. With Republicans controlling the House, that’s perhaps an insurmountable bar, but Sanders is setting up the first serious effort to put people on record….”
There is also this:
“…We’ve also continued following the prosecution of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is (falsely) accused of mishandling a classified cable reported on by The Intercept in August. As we’ve said, he wasn’t our source, but the case against Khan hinges on a claim by prosecutors that revealing the contents of a cable allows an adversary to then crack the encryption system used by Pakistan. But the ISI studied the question of whether the revelation of the cable’s contents would compromise the system, and concluded that it most certainly would not. My colleague Murtaza Hussain and I obtained that ISI analysis. ”
It should be at The Intercept website.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 19 2023 3:59 utc | 66
Satepestage | Dec 19 2023 3:50 utc | 65
As John Helmer suggests today in his long, long autobiographical entry at Dances with Bears, Israel’s ideology consists of self worship.
A potent but brittle construct, prone to shattering as soon as it runs into reality. In this case the reality that all men are equal, a message that appears to eluded ‘the only democracy inthe middle east.’
Posted by: bevin | Dec 19 2023 4:04 utc | 67
Posted by: DougK | Dec 18 2023 18:59 utc | 8
Scott Ritter said that Hamas didn’t just bring back hostages from the Oct 7 attack.
Hamas brought back computer servers and documents.troves of Israeli intelligence operations and capabilities.
Scott Ritter 2000 IDF permanently disabled, Israel actually lost this war
Posted by: Laura Roslin | Dec 19 2023 4:04 utc | 68
Laura Roslyn @69, I had thought that Hamas probably had hackers. I never mentioned it but that might have been one of the objectives of 10/07. A distraction from what they really wanted to do.
Posted by: Immaculate deception | Dec 19 2023 4:13 utc | 69
Alastair Crooke has gone Islamo-native! That explains a lot. I had been puzzled by his elegies to “traditional values” — the phrase instantly raises questions about how far back to wind the clock, and where to find such a bygone, beloved tradition. Now we know.
Aleph_Null@54
The admiration of the British ruling class for Arab society and muslim traditions long predates TE Lawrence and has outlasted the discreditable tendencies towards zionism, an ideology which rots on contact. Remember Glubb Pasha and Kim Philby. There is a Boys Own Paper quality about the simple chivalry and honesty of the Bedouin. Remember that every state in the Arabian Peninsula (with Yemen excepted)owed its ruling family to British,or Indian Raj, connivance. Most of the Arab rulers up until recently were educated in London or Sandhurst- I remember the young Hussein crashing his motorbike outside our house! My father who could speak Arabic in Yemeni, Egyptian and Syrian dialects
was never happier than when among them.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 19 2023 4:16 utc | 70
Posted by: bevin | Dec 19 2023 3:59 utc | 67
“This is from FAIR’s website.
It concerns everybody’s favourite Democrat Bernie Sanders. Ryan Grim writes”
The Real Bernie Sanders
Posted by: Menz | Dec 19 2023 4:24 utc | 71
I remember watching a nature documentary as a kid where this supposedly alpha-predator shark was slowly dying an anguished death by getting harassed by killer whales that surrounded the shark and were constantly sort of flipping the shark back and forth between them.
I can’t think of a better metaphor for Israel getting harassed (Hamassed?) between Lebanon, Yemen, and the Gaza strip. It’s sort of amazing that the country keeps uttering hollow bellicose threats and just massacring both its own youth and random Arab civilians instead of trying to find a solution out of its self-imposed stupidity, but I guess maybe the political and military establishment are too smart, powerful, and superior to bother with survival.
Posted by: Schadenfreude | Dec 19 2023 4:40 utc | 72
By the way, a fantastic summary of Yemen’s history for those who like these sort of Twitter threads:
https://nitter.net/Aldanmarki/status/1736550356132180228#m
Posted by: Schadenfreude | Dec 19 2023 4:46 utc | 73
https://x.com/tommyma95268002/status/1736863745400308045?s=48&t=cUxnDOW8oB9lx1GTr7ZrzA
The Invincible TikTok Army strikes again!
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Dec 19 2023 4:54 utc | 74
anon 38
Israel / Zionism is the monkey, because their strategy is to oppose the Creator.
The US fears the Creator through its understanding of the message of the Gospels, but like a cat always has a token try to scratch some earth over its poopois in the flower bed.
Of course Israel controls the political classes all over the world by all the usual tools. But even politicians understand subliminally that taking the monkey’s money is acceptable so long as you retain your Gospels touchstone.
The monkey has Zero fear of Allah. It has annoyed Allah for countless generations.
The Jewish xcriptures are of less value to the Jews than their discarded foreskins.
What has a people that was cursed by the tongues of Moses AS and Jesus AS got
to fear by escalating their impudent disobedience ? Yes, the Christians fret about israel’s destination in Hell, but the Jews embrace it and openly challenge their Creator to increase it.
If the Gisoel followers’ miserable , part – time, semi-awareness of God makes them like humans, humanitarians, so the followers of the Last Prophet makes them like angels…
Animism is a psychological projection of power onto inanimate , powerless objects.
We should never make the mistake of ascribing agency to the Zionists zombies.
They gave been trying to outwit God for two millennia. Don’t animate them with imaginary powers as if they were Pharaohic mummies . It spooks the neighbours.
Posted by: Giyane | Dec 19 2023 4:57 utc | 75
If the US and friends get into a fight with the Houthis that would be a third front for the US military and the US Treasury. Which country will be next after Yemen?
Supporting Israel is likely to lead to an escalation in funding by the US.
Posted by: Richard L | Dec 19 2023 0:59 utc | 45
Ummm…there will be no country “next after Yemen. None. Because anybody stupid enough to risk war with Yemen just to not meet Yemen’s demands won’t last very long.
Yemen has straight up said that it will not end its blockade of Israel until Israel ends its blockade of the Palestinians. Do you think the US is stupid enough to risk WWIII for something as trivial as that?!? Not a fvcking chance.
The coalition is also interesting. You may remember that Australia was asked to join and was “considering it”. They clearly thought the better of it. Also, Saudi Arabia and the UAE also refused–very possibly because Yemen made it clear that it has no compunctions whatsoever about destroying every single oil field in both countries if they try, and the countries clearly understand that YEmen is both willing and able to carry out its threats.
So returning to the US–do you think a country that has spent almost 80 years in the Middle East to guarantee oil supplies is stupid enough to risk those supplies now because a small number of genocidal maniacs feel like starving a few hundred thousand children–contrary to the US electorate’s own wishes? Or does the US think that Bahrain and the Seychelles are going to provide it the credibility it needs to scare the Yemenis away from attacking after the US supported almost a decade of the Saudis bombing them to hell?
But maybe Biden doesn’t care about geostrategy/schmategy nonsense or is too dumb to understand and just wants to get re-elected. That’s maybe a fair assessment. In that case, how would risking the price of oil rising to $300 or $400 help his reelection bid?
This is just a nothingburger–it’s just like Israel threatening to invade Lebanon and flood 500km of tunnels and all the other idiotic public statements it’s made (there are too many to even remember them all, but all of them were good for about a day’s of headlines and then disappeared) in a pathetic attempt to gain some leverage in an inevitable “negotiation” that will amount to nothing more than a humiliating capitulation that will cause Netanyahu to go to ail and serve as the template for Zelinsky a few months down the road.
Posted by: Schadenfreude | Dec 19 2023 5:10 utc | 76
The NYT revealed that d’Izzy intelligence services had Hamas’ Oct 7th plan (Jericho Wall) months before the IDF pulled the majority of their troops away from the Gaza border timed to coordinate with Hamas’ planned jail break.
Then, in July, just three months before the attacks, a veteran analyst with Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence agency, warned that Hamas had conducted an intense, daylong training exercise that appeared similar to what was outlined in the blueprint.
But a colonel in the Gaza division brushed off her concerns, according to encrypted emails viewed by The Times.
“I utterly refute that the scenario is imaginary,” the analyst wrote in the email exchanges. The Hamas training exercise, she said, fully matched “the content of Jericho Wall.”
https://archive.is/I8SGt
Netanyahu wanted this. He needed license to ethnically cleanse Gaza. But a jail break was not enough, a high death count of colonists was needed too, thus they implemented the Hannibal Directive.
Posted by: librul | Dec 19 2023 5:11 utc | 77
Aleph_Null 54
bevin 71
Thanks for your interesting responses.
As I’ve mentioned before there is evidence in Viking graves that Norsemen, later to become Normans, encountered and maybe embraced Shi’a Islam. That’s a long pedigree.
I’m intrigued by photos of Netanyahu’s professor father in his old age. How could somebody so Ignorant have been sired by somebody so Intelligent?
That’s why I am not deceived by Netanyahu’s bloodthirsty rhetoric.
Imho he is playing somebody else’s fiddle, I can only conceive of that other person being A the US neocons and B their UK Atlantacist partners.
On waking up after a good sleep, the first thing that came to my mind was that what I had written about Crooke was utter garbage. He is simply acknowledging that his gaffers , exhibit A and B, are Ignorant arseholes.
Posted by: Giyane | Dec 19 2023 5:25 utc | 78
Many have been speculating on which country Uncle Sam will invade next (on command of his Zionist/Neocon masters).
The pattern I’ve observed over the years is that America never invades a middle eastern country without a lengthy,multi-decade process of “softening up” through sanctions, sabotage, destabilization and bombardment.
The following countries fit this profile perfectly:
1. Lebanon
2. Yemen
3. Syria
What about Iran? America’s efforts at the softening up’ process have been a complete failure with Iran, achieving exactly the opposite thanks to the guidance of the Ayatollahs and the Supreme Council of Iran.
So who’s next on the menu? By process of elimination:
– Not Syria (Due to the presence of Russian forces)
– Not Yemen (Due to Ansar Allah’s capacity to wreck global shipping)
That leaves Lebanon.
The country with the non-state actor that has been the biggest thorn in the side of the Zionist Empire since the 1980s.
The country that if destroyed would bring Izzrael closer to the vision of “Eretz Israel” and Palestinian genocide camps.
A country split along ethnic, religious lines standing on foundations so fragile they could crumble at a single breath.
Aside:
Has anyone ever figured out why the Izzraelis steal Palestinian bodies and refuse to hand them back to their families?
…invasion of the kosher bodysnatchers
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 5:46 utc | 79
Which country will be next after Yemen?
Posted by: Richard L | Dec 19 2023 0:59 utc | 45
Remember: everything we are seeing now is an answer to the question: which country will be next after Afghanistan? The answer is: All of them.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 5:51 utc | 80
Netanyahu wanted this. He needed license to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
Posted by: librul | Dec 19 2023 5:11 utc | 78
To be fair, the NYT makes it clear that this was an intelligence failure of epic proportions. But one cannot help thinking that this admission is a “limited hangout” to divert attention from what Ritter said (also referenced above) that Hamas got the IDF’s intelligence. Just look at how even hasbara is breaking down before our very eyes.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 5:58 utc | 81
Did you get banned from Freerepublic.com yet ?
Posted by: Exile | Dec 19 2023 3:11 utc | 62
I don’t think he’s letting me in the front door:
Your password has been mailed.
In a few moments, you should receive an e-mail message containing your password. Please follow the directions in the message to log into your account. If you have not received your authorization code within 24 hours, please write Jim Robinson at jimrob psnw com (be sure to include your chosen screen name in such correspondence.)
While you wait,
Visit our home page and learn more about Free Republic!
Perhaps my screen name is giving him pause for thought: “KosherBodySnatcher”
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 6:02 utc | 82
…..Has anyone ever figured out why the Izzraelis steal Palestinian bodies and refuse to hand them back to their families ?……
Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent
Ian Black, Middle East editor @ian_black
Mon 21 Dec 2009 10.10 EST
Israel has admitted pathologists harvested organs from dead Palestinians, and others, without the consent of their families – a practice it said ended in the 1990s – it emerged at the weekend.
Posted by: Exile | Dec 19 2023 6:11 utc | 84
I know this subject was broached in an earlier thread but it is a joy to read it in the NYT:
“Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza have been unguided, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment, which Pentagon officials say may help explain the high civilian death toll.
Even the precision-guided munitions that the United States military has favored in its campaigns in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan produced high civilian casualties. Unguided munitions — so-called dumb bombs — pose an even greater threat to civilians, analysts say.
As the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, visits Israel, Pentagon officials say that one of his key messages in meetings with top Israeli leaders is the importance of limiting harm to Gazans. Israel, Mr. Austin recently predicted, could face “strategic defeat” that would leave the country less secure if it does not do more to protect civilians.
Critics of Israel’s bombing campaign say the message is long overdue, as the death toll in Gaza nears 20,000, according to health officials there.
An I.D.F. official acknowledged that the Israeli air force used unguided “dumb bombs” in Gaza but said the U.S. intelligence assessment was too high.”
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 6:15 utc | 85
I just have to add this: For whatever it is worth, Sheykh Imran Hosein (who suffered a massive heart attack a month ago) predicts, based on his reading of the Quran, that there will be a muslim army marching to Jerusalem, from Khorasan – somewhere in the east. What makes this interesting is that ISIS, which was set up by the West in a mock fulfilment of this prophecy, sported black flags of Khorasan but did NOT march to Jerusalem.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 6:40 utc | 86
“U S putting together an international coalition to deal with the Red Sea situation.
Looks like a major escalation by US.
Who would be stupid enough to join that coalition on insanity.”
I notice that Australia decided NOT to participate. Finally something useful out of Australia. sign of some sanity, in stead of blindingly following the US? i hope so!
Can I put in a good word for TNT radio? If you have not heard it, you should try: https://tntradio.live/
Posted by: g wiltek | Dec 19 2023 6:47 utc | 87
The admiration of the British ruling class for Arab society and muslim traditions long predates TE Lawrence
Posted by: bevin | Dec 19 2023 4:16 utc | 71
You are right, but with the limitation that it is for the bedouin of the desert, not the townsmen of the Levant, who are considered shifty and unreliable (i.e. the Palestinians). I remember a lecture by Glubb Pasha back in the seventies, when he must have been in his dotage, arguing that the chivalry of the British aristocracy had its origin in the code of the Arab bedouin. Yes, nobody believed it even when heard from the lips of the great man.
“Remember that every state in the Arabian Peninsula (with Yemen excepted)owed its ruling family to British,or Indian Raj, connivance. ”
That’s not right. Saudi was the exception, in addition to North Yemen. Ibn Saud re-established his state against British policy, which was to support Sharif Hussein of Mecca.
Posted by: laguerre | Dec 19 2023 6:48 utc | 88
Israel grows more unhinged by the day.
Israeli mayor calls for turning Gaza into ‘Auschwitz-like’ museum, prompting rebuke
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israeli-mayor-calls-for-turning-gaza-into-auschwitz-like-museum-prompting-rebuke/
This is Israel’s vision of a “Final Solution” for the Palestinians.
Posted by: ak74 | Dec 19 2023 7:12 utc | 89
“Last week, after eight years of self-imposed nonentity as a British private, T. E. Lawrence returned to Arabia as a British plenipotentiary and arrived at San’a, the Capital of the Imamate of Yemen.”
TIME July 16, 1928
Lest we at the bar in our admiration of the Yemenis do likewise.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 7:22 utc | 90
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 7:22 utc | 92
Lawrence was a fake nonentity who lasted two years as a private in the Royal Air Force after the war. His anonymous recruitment had personally to be signed off by General Allenby (commander in Palestine) who knew perfectly well who he was.
Posted by: laguerre | Dec 19 2023 7:40 utc | 91
Dr. Mads Gilbert
@DrMadsGilbert
Yesterday, my good friend and dear colleague, Dr. Hani Al-Haitham, head of Shifa emergency department, was brutally murdered by Israel, along with his beloved wife, Dr. Sameera Ghifari and their five children Shireen, Tia, Sameer, Wafa & Sara. In cold blood, coward Israeli soldiers killed seven more unarmed civilians.
Another attack on all of us, on all humankind. You will never be forgotten, we pledge: we will rebuild Shifa, Gaza, Palestine!
🖤🇵🇸❤️🩹Dr. Mads
Shifa 2019, Dr. Hani to the right
https://twitter.com/DrMadsGilbert/status/1736788184841777515
Posted by: Menz | Dec 19 2023 7:56 utc | 92
Posted by: Menz | Dec 19 2023 7:56 utc | 94
They wish to create of the Palestinians a people as devoid of humanity as the ‘Israelis’.
I do not think they will succeed.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 19 2023 8:18 utc | 93
Thanking Karlof1’s for his website discussion of Alistaire Crooke’s very informative and disturbing (imo) Strategic Culture article “They Can Wait at Leisure – Whilst Netanyahu Labours and Errs,” in which Crooke writes that Netanyahu, in order to remain in power, must continue to supply his base (the Israeli public) with the spectacle of the IDF savaging the Palestinians, which brings to mind the lions and the Christians that the Roman audiences were distracted by Of Hamas, Crooke reveals how they have “transformed …(into)… ‘the liberation movement’ that Sheikh Yasin, the founder of Hamas, killed by an Israeli missile sometime after the meeting with Crooke, foresaw.” The time frame for this is of course unclear. Netanyahu wants an indefinite amount of time – has no exit policy — to keep this going and himself in place apparently. I would rather Crooke had edited out of his title the words ‘at Leisure.’ The ‘They’ in the title refers to Hamas and the Axis. Hamas is not waiting at leisure either physically or spiritually as Palestinian deaths are now at 20,000+. As for the Axis, so far they have done nothing except for the Houthis (who are doing a lot), even though Iran would have taken some action if the others had agreed. Crooke says they are waiting for Nut. to continue to err, as he is already by enraging the world by the treatment of Palestinians. Also to keep his place, Nut. has to do another thing says Crooke, which is to return the Israelis to their homes in the towns on the northern border with Lebanon, displaced by Hesbollah’s presence there. If Nut. is going to make war on Hesbollah anyway, which is predicted to bring on the wider regional war which all the leaders in the region and Russia (emphasized over and again), are claiming to be ‘taking actions to avoid’, might not they as well do something – like some embargoes or at the very minimum do the legal –Putin’s forte — and bring the charge of genocide on Israel to start.
Very breif news item on bbc radio last night…
Lots of fuil stations in the UK had to close yesterday as a result of their electronic pumping systems malfunctioned,
Believed to be caused by Israelie hackers.
That tells us israel is seareously unhappy about oil tankers detouring around Africa.
Crazy people do crazy things.
Watch out for false flags attacks.
Posted by: Mark2 | Dec 19 2023 8:26 utc | 96
Posted by: laguerre | Dec 19 2023 7:40 utc | 93
What is interesting though is the parallelism between the Arab revolt fomented by Lawrence and the revolt against Arab rulers, in their turn, channeled through ISIS which was – I think we can all agree – an outfit put together by Israel and the West. Hence perhaps the (perceived) caution of the Arab governments in regard to Gaza.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Dec 19 2023 8:43 utc | 97
Israel is not a US proxy, Israel’s unsinkable aircraft carrier, or any of that garbage.
Israel is Uncle Sam’s master.
The Zionist Lobby controls everything in the US – Wall St., Hollywood, all the media, Congress, the White House, everything.
Biden’s administration is made up of 75% Zionist Jews, Blinken, Sullivan, Yellen, the list is endless. Not much diversity there.
Washington District Of Corruption is even more Occupied Territory than the West Bank.
Posted by: anon | Dec 18 2023 23:12 utc | 39
In a nutshell! Wnatever the “strategic” objectives of US / UK / USSR may have been in the late 19th and first half 20th century (objectives set by the Zionist lobby within those countries), once it was established and up and running, Israel took overt control of the reins.
One might say the exact moment this became true is when they attacked the USS Liberty in 1967 and pulling off 9/11 while blaming it on KSA, and convincing the US to start the 22 year War of Terror to try and destroy Israel’s enemies is the pinnacle of their success.
Ray McGovern in the most recent episode of Dialogue Works (youtube channel) describes meeting a USS Liberty survivor by chance at one his talks. The surviving crew were forbidden even to talk to their wives about it.
However, it seems that 9/11 was the high point.
A parasite can only feed on the host for so long before the host starts dying. The cost of the US / UK foreign policy wars have hollowed out their domestic economies. Even the money printer is breaking down. The overall corporate kleptocracy in NATOstan has only accelerated the downfall.
Will the District of Corruption ever liberate itself or will Hamas have to do it for them?
Posted by: pq | Dec 19 2023 9:05 utc | 98
88 – “Did not march to Jerusalem”. Well, colour me surprised.
The British counter-insurgency theorist Brigadier Kitson referred to the creation of what he called “pseudo-gangs” for use against real insurgents or as deniable assets for counter-insurgency or other state purposes. ISIS are almost certainly that. There have been other groups with similar behaviour patterns. For example, a group arose in the Basque Country called GAL which targeted real or supposed ETA members. The Spanish authorities denied GAL was linked to them but few believe the denial.
Posted by: Waldorf | Dec 19 2023 9:09 utc | 99
The Ministry of Health in #Gaza: Israeli occupation forces have turned Al-Awda Hospital into a military barracks. They are detaining 240 individuals inside the hospital without food or water.
https://twitter.com/bld9q/status/1737033129116803446
Dec 17
The great Dr Ahmad Muhanna, Medical Director of Al Awda hospital arrested yesturday by the Israeli army and taken to an unknown location. We worked together in the 2nd Intifada, the 2012 and 2021 wars, the Great Marches of Return in 2018 .
An outstanding anaesthetist.
https://twitter.com/GhassanAbuSitt1/status/1736680834621378857
Tweet from yesterday
Palestinian hospitals giving any health care, even as a First Aid stations, are being re-targeted by the Israeli army. Yesturday it was Al Awda hospital. Morning they shelled Shifa Hospital. This afternoon they attacked Al Ahli hospital and are rounding up the staff and wounded.
Recap: Al Ahli Baptist bombed, attacked Nasr and Al Rantisi, laid siege to Al Shifa and arrested the director and half the medical staff, Indonesian Hospital destroyed. The massacre at Kamal Adwan. Now Al Awda and they’ve gone back to Al Shifa and also Nasr. I missed a few.
At least a 100 doctors killed, hundreds injured and many dozens taken hostage.
Haaretz reported yesterday on the condition of the Palestinian hostages of which six have already been killed through torture. I think the original is in Hebrew. PC has reported on it.
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/several-prisoners-from-gaza-died-inside-israeli-detention-camp-haaretz/
“The detainees are blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day, and the lights are on at the facility throughout the night,” the report stated.
According to the Israeli newspaper, citing Israeli army officials, the prisoners are held in the Sde Teiman military base, near Bir al Saba (Beersheba), in southern Israel.
Haaretz reported that the detainees are held in fenced compounds, blindfolded and handcuffed for most of the day.
Among the prisoners, there are also children, according to Haaretz. “The detainees at Sde Teiman are all male and range in age between those under 18 to those who are elderly,” the Israeli newspaper said.
According to the report, the prisoners are held in accordance with Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law of 2002.
The “detainees are held in very harsh conditions, inside places resembling chicken cages, in the open, and left without food or war for long periods”.
Euro-Med Monitor also stated that the prisoners are prevented from meeting with their lawyers or representatives of the Red Cross International Committee.
The group also cited the Hebrew version of Haaretz report as saying that one of the prisoners, a Palestinian from Gaza who used to work inside Israel, requested medical attention but the Israeli army ignored it.
Meanwhile, in this paywalled article the headline suggests Israel racing against time to create a propaganda campaign to “document” the “horrors” of Oct 7.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-12-18/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-race-against-time-to-document-the-horrors-of-the-october-7-massacre-in-southern-israel/0000018c-77be-d250-a1af-ffbf61640000
Posted by: pq | Dec 19 2023 9:33 utc | 100