Palestine Open Thread 2024-020
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.
Posted by b on January 18, 2024 at 16:21 UTC | Permalink
next page »This comes from the Zionist publication MEMRI today:
"South Africa's diplomatic campaign against Israel reflects the political alliance between its ruling ANC party and Hamas, an alliance that was formed several years ago is occasionally accompanied by a deliberate undermining of the Palestinian Authority's status. Since founding its political bureau in 1991, Hamas has made a point of developing its relations with South Africa, while presenting its fight against Israel as a struggle against racism and apartheid, which South Africa shares. The former head of Hamas' political bureau, Moussa Abu Marzouq, states in his biography that the movement's efforts to strengthen its relations with South Africa began in 1995, when it formed a special committee for this issue in Sudan. The committee worked to form ties with South African diplomats in the Middle East, and also established organizations affiliated with Hamas in South Africa, such as the Islamic Al-Aqsa organization and the Middle East Studies Center, in order to develop relations with Muslims in this country."
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jan 18 2024 17:49 utc | 2
From Middleeasteye live feed today:
- According to Wafa, Israel’s military fired white phosphorus bombs on Qaizan al-Najjar, an area south of Khan Younis, and also were reported to be dropping bombs near al-Najjar Hospital located east of Rafah.
- NetBlocks, a telecommunications watchdog organisation, said that the internet blackout in Gaza has now lasted for 144 hours, or six days.
- The Times of Israel said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly rejected a plan set by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that would see Saudi Arabia normalise relations with Tel Aviv in exchange for Israel agreeing to pave a path for Palestinian statehood.
According to NBC, Netanyahu told Blinken he was not ready to accept a deal that would allow for the creation of a Palestinian state.
-------------
- and excerpts from a longer article (link to this article at end):
The mother of a hostage who died says her son inhaled fumes from weapons deployed by the Israeli army in Gaza.
Israel repatriated the bodies of soldiers Ron Sherman and Nik Beizer, and French-Israeli civilian Elia Toledano, from Gaza in December, and initially claimed the hostages were killed by Hamas.
However, Maayan Sherman, mother of Ron, accused the Israeli army of poisoning her son.
“We were told that there is a reasonable possibility that he inhaled toxic gases from the IDF bombs,” she wrote on Facebook.
The Israeli army says it does not know how the men died.[…]
The army said it found the bodies of the abductees in a Hamas tunnel in Jabaliya, near the site where Ahmed Jarandor, commander of Hamas’ northern brigade, had been killed a month earlier.
It claimed that it was not aware of the hostages’ location when they struck the tunnel Jarandor was in.
Maayan disputes this claim, saying army Major General Rasan Alian told her they were aware of her son’s location at any given moment.
She called the army’s latest statement “another lie in the mask of lies”.
Maayan also questioned whether Israel was trying to whitewash the operation, as she believes they may have sacrificed the three hostages in order to kill Jarandor. […]
She said the Israeli army pumped poisonous gas into the tunnel area where her son was being held.
On Facebook, she claimed that her son was “indeed murdered – not by Hamas. Think more like Auschwitz and the showers, but without Nazis." […]
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/war-gaza-israeli-army-unable-confirm-reason-behind-hostage-deaths
Posted by: teri | Jan 18 2024 17:59 utc | 3
A Barfly posted this article on prior thread, I’m reposted here because it’s profound;
...
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/half-of-the-troops-simply-walked-out-israeli-army-crisis-deepens/Posted by: Exile | Jan 18 2024 16:34 utc | 1
... interesting link embedded in that post ...
4,000 Israeli soldiers disabled in ongoing Gaza war
Report highlights severe injuries, raises concerns about potential surge to 30,000 disabled soldiers
Hebrew news site, Walla, said late Friday that 4,000 Israeli soldiers have become disabled since the beginning of the war against the Gaza Strip in October, with estimations suggesting that the number could rise to 30,000."The country is preparing to receive a large number of disabled Israeli soldiers, and after 100 days of the war, around 4,000 soldiers have already been acknowledged as having disabilities," it said.
The site considered Hamas' attack on Oct. 7 as having "led Israel into a war that it had not previously experienced in terms of the number of soldier injuries, but more importantly, the injuries are extremely severe."
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/4-000-israeli-soldiers-disabled-in-ongoing-gaza-war/3107733
If we consider that Isreali admissions are going to low ball the true numbers, then it seems that Arch's back-of-a-napkin calculations might be more accurate than even he supposed when he posted them ...
Posted by: SattaMassaGana | Jan 18 2024 18:24 utc | 4
Tucker Carlson who is the most popular conservative media personality in America and had the highest rated cable show until he was fired by Fox News in April gets as close as possible to naming Jewish donors, intellectuals, editors, and deep state officials as the reason the US is once again nearing a war with Iran.
https://twitter.com/theblaze/status/1747303249684598941
Tucker: "A Nikki Haley presidency is a lot like a war with Iran. It's a terrible idea, no normal person wants it. But because a small, well-funded group of activists are determined to have it anyway, we are perpetually on the verge of getting it."
Posted by: sevenfields | Jan 18 2024 18:25 utc | 5
From a previous thread - am thinking many will want to bookmark and share it forward:
Database of IDF massacres since 2.Oct 2023
Posted by: Exile | Jan 18 2024 6:50 utc | 135 - Thank you, Exile!
Posted by: DuchessAndBob | Jan 18 2024 18:36 utc | 6
The Siege of Leningrad will have started 80 years ago on January 27th.
Gaza has been a ghetto far longer than the Warsaw Ghetto of WWII.
The Siege of Gaza began on 27th of October 2023. It involves the deliberate starvation, denial of medical services to the civilian population of Gaza.
Hitler ordered the mass murder of the population of Leningrad through starvation.
Posted by: Veri1138 | Jan 18 2024 18:43 utc | 7
nearly half of a newly-formed battalion has simply refused to go to Gaza claiming lack of training,the KAN program ‘Hazet Hayom’ reported on Wednesday.Posted by: Exile | Jan 18 2024 16:34 utc | 1
Ridiculous. One fingernail clipping of a jew is more powerful than a hundred goys. Talmud says so or something. Surely they don't need training, spineless assassinations, extortion, child kidnapping, medical poison, a planetary banking cartel, bioweapons, hijacking every political organisation in the world, food embargoes, a hundred years of overwhelming media torture, weaponry that's a century ahead of their targets, hundredfold manpower advantage, every lawyer in the western hemisphere, intentionally picking off children and old people, bombing across borders, helicopter gunships, epstein setups, orange trumps, or tormented golem nations with million-man armies, just to win against a handful of cattle? Chutzpah!
Posted by: Michael A | Jan 18 2024 18:46 utc | 8
This headline is also from MEMRI. Note the whataboutism:
While Palestinian Authority Says Israel Murders Palestinian 'Children' Without Provocation, Fatah Military Wing Praises These 'Children' As Martyrs For Their Attempted Terror Attacks In West Bank During Which They Were Killed By Israel
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jan 18 2024 19:04 utc | 9
nearly half of a newly-formed battalion has simply refused to go to Gaza claiming lack of training
Posted by: Exile | Jan 18 2024 16:34 utc | 1
When you see Herzi Halevi, Chief of the General Staff of Israel, say that what is needed for success is "to train seriously", then you know this doesn't exist up to now.
And if you expect to "train seriously" your green soldiers amidst a war against an adversary that has successfully fought against the Al Nusra Front and ISIS, good luck...
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 19:16 utc | 10
Posted by: Michael A | Jan 18 2024 18:46 utc | 9
Ridiculous. One fingernail clipping of a jew is more powerful than a hundred goys. Talmud says so or something. Surely they don't need training, spineless assassinations, extortion, child kidnapping, medical poison, a planetary banking cartel, bioweapons, hijacking every political organisation in the world, food embargoes, a hundred years of overwhelming media torture, weaponry that's a century ahead of their targets, hundredfold manpower advantage, every lawyer in the western hemisphere, intentionally picking off children and old people, bombing across borders, helicopter gunships, epstein setups, orange trumps, or tormented golem nations with million-man armies, just to win against a handful of cattle? Chutzpah!
Clever sarcasm ,and well put Michael.
Posted by: Áobh Ó'Sheachnasaigh | Jan 18 2024 19:22 utc | 11
From the river to the sea. Remember that is now banned phrase in a few nations . Well Netanyahu just says it for himself.
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/98969
Also widely reported is his refusal to work with usa to a post war 2 state , another trope that it is Arabs that refuse repeated offers.
Posted by: Hankster | Jan 18 2024 19:26 utc | 12
I have not been a huge fan of the BLM nor the DEI but do we realize what is now happening? Now that South Africa is making waves and the former president of Harvard, who was made to resign because of condoning "antisemitism" on campus, was black, the BLM, which was THE thing not so long ago, and the DEI seem to be becoming totally uncool. I can't see how Israel is going to pull this one off.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jan 18 2024 19:43 utc | 13
tangentially related..
indian punchline today..
Decoding Iran’s missile, drone strikes
Posted by: james | Jan 18 2024 19:44 utc | 14
Veri1138 | Jan 18 2024 18:43 utc | 8
The Siege of Leningrad began in September 1941 shortly after Barbarossa was launched. It ended in late January 1944 when Soviet Army forced German troops to retreat.
The actual date is September 8, 1941, but it could be a day, or a few days, before or after due to the fog of war.
Posted by: Joseph B | Jan 18 2024 19:49 utc | 15
The genetic geographical origins of the Caucasian looking trespassers in the illegal apartheid entity in the Levant is now trending throughout the social media sphere. Young people are pointing it out! Like a naked emperors hairy arse.
The Illegal xenophobic occupiers who claim to be an ancient Judaic tribe are NOT Semitic peoples - they have never been. They come from khazaria region of Central Asia. They were the Silk Road slavers and traders who were ordered by their king to convert to Judaism and became the Yiddish and have a different Book to the Hebrew Semitic peoples.
The whole lie of them having a right to occupy Palestine and lay claim to whole Levant predates the ww2 progroms by at least a hundred years.
It was PREPLANNED for generations before they came up with the label of Zionism.
Ashkenazi gives you Nazi. Zionazism. It’s just another iteration of Anglo European imperialism going back centuries.
How else can anyone explain why the l multiple European nations and the 5 Eyes all march in Lockstep when it comes to protecting their Masters last Imperial Colony?
There are plenty of khazarian jewish converts - they go back centuries - who are daily seeing for themselves the lifetimes of Lies that has had them laying claim upon the Levant as the proxy white tribe of Anglo European Imperialsm.
They are packing their bags and going to live with their European cousins, they are refusing to fight and die as the xenophobic ultraviolent murderers of the actual natives of the Levant. They are realising their illegal state cannot be allowed to carry on and the land must be abandoned to its natives and the Palestine State - a single state. Yup nutty from the river to the sea!
Am seeing some very large Palestine flags on the high street shops here in London - never seen anything like that about anything except football!
No illegal flags - invisible like the ukronazios flag now too.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 18 2024 19:51 utc | 16
RE:Hankster @ 13,
One thing the current Israeli government, and Hamas both agree on is a "one state" solution. I fail to see why then all these 3d parties continue to push the "two state" idea. Reality is the "two state" idea is dead. Only question that the Israeli govenment and Hamas are arguing about is what kind of state will the future one state be.
Posted by: Gee Eye Joe | Jan 18 2024 19:53 utc | 17
The cover-up is underway.
The Oct 7th "stand down" false-flag is being explained away as Izzy:
"incompetence, hubris, even claims of chauvinism are being used" as excuses.
Recall how after the invasion of Iraq 2003 they even tried to blame Saddam for fooling us into thinking
he had WMD. They blamed Saddam.
Now that excuse has been resurrected and Izzies are blaming Hamas for lulling the Izzy intelligence services
to sleep. (Yes, the Izzies really are trying that one!)
When planning their false-flag they also had to plan for the cover-up
and now we are seeing it.
Posted by: librul | Jan 18 2024 20:14 utc | 18
@ (real) James at Jan 18 2024 19:44 utc:
Thanks for the heads-up re: India Punchline.
For those that haven't read the latest from M. K. Bhadrakumar (India Punchline), don't let another minute pass by without doing so.
The article addresses the strategic allies defense agreement between Russia and Iran that many have been expecting.
A key excerpt:
On Monday, finally, the Russian Defence Ministry disclosed in a rare statement that Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu called his Iranian counterpart Mohammad-Reza Ashtiani to convey that Moscow has agreed to sign the pact.
Here's the link again: Iran-Russia Strategic Alliance Ready to Sign
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jan 18 2024 20:44 utc | 19
psychohistorian | Jan 18 2024 20:19 utc | 44
Brit shipping has put out a warning to ships about some incident in the Gulf of Aden. The US boat boarding thing was in the Gulf of Aden.
Something going on there not related to north Yemen Houthi.
UAE as far as I know control one or some groups in south Yemen but I don't much about that are and the groups. On the other side of the Gulf is Somalia which I believe is Islamic but I don't know much about Somalia other than the yanks got their arses handed to them with the blackhawk down stuff.
Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Suez - all Islamic.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 20:55 utc | 20
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/98976?single
Mq9 reaper shot down in Iraq.
Posted by: Scot1and | Jan 18 2024 20:57 utc | 21
time for the arab states to encourage courageous men and peacenicks to emigrate and welcome them
Posted by: Minaa | Jan 18 2024 21:07 utc | 22
Posted by: Gee Eye Joe | Jan 18 2024 19:53 utc | 18
Exactly. The two-state solution is a canard and doomed to fail for many reasons, not the least of which is the illegal Israeli settlements in the areas which would naturally comprise the Palestinian's state. But also not least of which is the fact that it has been a canard from the beginning to divide and conquer, much like how Hamas was initially supported and funded by right wing Israelis as a means to divide the Palestinians and curtail any left-leaning or secular tendencies among them.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 21:10 utc | 23
The Oct 7th "stand down" false-flag is being explained away as Izzy:
"incompetence, hubris, even claims of chauvinism are being used" as excuses.
Posted by: librul | Jan 18 2024 20:14 utc | 19
Larry Johnson, "ex" CIA analyst, has been promoting this narrative from the beginning. Although rhetorically aghast at Israeli atrocities, he lays it off to poor training and fear.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:10 utc | 24
The genetic geographical origins of the Caucasian looking trespassers in the illegal apartheid entity in the Levant is now trending throughout the social media sphere. Young people are pointing it out! Like a naked emperors hairy arse.
Posted by: DunGroanin | Jan 18 2024 19:51 utc | 17
All the google and mossad servers (same thing?) will be overheating now, gobbling up the personal info of all these dangerous new "terrorists" and storing it away with feverish, paranoid zeal. Soon half of the human population will be on the kill list... oh, I forgot that they already are :D
Posted by: Michael A | Jan 18 2024 21:12 utc | 25
Thanks Tom and james.
I just started reading the article and something struck me. The Pak return strike into Iran targeted Baluchi... What did Iran target in Pakistan? The Baluchi are tight with India and inhabit Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. US got back into Pakistan when they outed Khan.
There is the possibility Iran and Pakistan are doing each other a favor rather than hostilities.
Back to reading the article now.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 21:12 utc | 26
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/98976?single
Mq9 reaper shot down in Iraq.
Posted by: Scot1and | Jan 18 2024 20:57 utc | 22
They should save a few of those horrible things for a couple of troll missions to select private islands, Antarctica, New Zealand or whatever place the tapeworms are hiding.
Posted by: Michael A | Jan 18 2024 21:15 utc | 27
Posted by: james | Jan 18 2024 19:44 utc | 15
Good assessment. More than tangentially, probably with Israel wanting to widen the war and drag the US in. On one hand the extent of the horror in Gaza and even West Bank is at a level all by itself. But on the other, these issues are all interconnected. In Gaza 390 educational facilities destroyed, 7 days no internet.
Today in West Bank: https://t.me/QudsNen/93686
Israeli soldiers drag a young man after killing him, tying him with a rope in the alleys of Tulkarm refugee camp. Israeli barbarism is unparalleled.
Reading Pakistani news on the Iran Pakistan thing: there seems to be consensus that
a) these terrorist groups act against Iran and Pakistan and are a common enemy
b) misunderstandings between Iran and Pakistan only benefits US; Israel, "ISIS" and other terrorist groups and to some extent India. Dialogue is key as well as cooperation on terrorism based on the 2013 agreement
c) uniting around Palestine is the most important thing
Despite the domestic drama, Imran Khan's lawyer gave a statement on his behalf from jail echoing the government's position.
From the Pakistani perspective, they would have accepted a nice apology from Iran but since that did not come in the first 24 hours they responded.
One Pakistani analyst observed that it was almost as if the Iranian foreign office people themselves had no idea it was coming. The FM and PM were meeting at Davos, there were joint exercises taking place.
The only difference in the Iranian perspective from the Pakistani one is that following the terrorist attack in Kerman, Iran feels more directly targeted by US Israel than Pakistan does, leading to the more aggressive stance. Not to mention being blamed for being the "string puller" behind "Iran backed" Hamas, Hezb and AnsarAllah.
Iran has been the subject of numerous such terrorist attacks and one of the Pakistani officials recalled meeting an Iranian delegate on the sidelines of some conference. The Iranian was visibly still upset about some previous attack believing that it came from Pakistani terrorist groups.
"Meanwhile, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulation Authority (Pemra) directed all satellite TV channel licensees to exercise “utmost care” while reporting on tension between Pakistan and Iran."
Seems like both are trying to downplay. Balochistan, like Kurdistan is where the US Israeli terrorist proxies congregate.
Both Pakistan and Iran claim that a a couple of children were killed in both attacks...god only knows what really went down but I hope the score stays at 1-1. Don't need more drama.
Posted by: pq | Jan 18 2024 21:16 utc | 28
Bhadrakumar also used the term Anglo Saxons. There was some debate over it here when Lavrov and Putin were commonly using the term.
I was watching a video the other day, something to do with British history, can't remember what but it was by a retired British policeman. Of interest was that he talked a bout how learning British law was a very big part of the training. Learning British law begins with the Saxons making (my take) the Saxon period the foundation of British law.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 21:24 utc | 29
Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Jan 18 2024 20:44 utc | 20
The article doesn't address Pakistan's response to the Iranian attack on Balochi terrorists in Pakistan: Attacking Balochi terrorists in Iran. The US may not have the willing ally in Pakistan that it thinks it has.
It would be beautiful if Pakistan and Iran continued to trade airstrikes against the terrorists in each other's countries, but I think that neither feels confident at this time that the forces that would be required for a serious anti-terrorist campaign in greater Baluchistan won't be needed soon on other fronts, so for now this exchange is more symbolic than anything.
I anticipate, though, that at some point Chinese and Russian negotiators will achieve some kind of win-win solution for the Balochi's on both sides of the border, and the 'good terrorists' will embrace BRI and prosperity, while the diehards are provided with Russian buses to take them somewhere else. No doubt, negotiations are already underway.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:26 utc | 30
Mq9 reaper shot down in Iraq.
Posted by: Scot1and | Jan 18 2024 20:57 utc | 22
This won't play for me (I seem to have a lot of problems with Telegram), do you have a non-telegram source?
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:27 utc | 31
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:10 utc | 25
Then he's not taking into account the well documented (if also well memory holed) conversations on the night of October 6 and early in the morning on October 7 among high-ranking Shin Bet, Izzy government officials, Mossad, IDF, etc. in which they knew something was coming that very day.
From Haaretz: 'This Massacre Should Have Been Prevented' | Despite Israeli Intelligence Warnings About a Hamas Attack, the Army Didn't Evacuate the Nova FestivalTop defense officials held urgent consultations the night before October 7 about a possible Hamas attack. But no one in the IDF notified the the Nova festival organizers or the party-goers, hundreds of whom were mown down – and for nine hours, no one came to save them.
At 3 A.M., an IDF spotter at the Kisufim Outpost reported a suspicious figure across the border, approaching almost to the fence and pointing at Israel. A force of Golani troops arrived on the scene, fired a few tear gas grenades, and left.According to the spotter's testimony to Haaretz, her commanders complained that she "warns them of everything," and demanded that she be more selective in mobilizing troops.
At 4 A.M., following concerns by some in the security establishment, a few teams of the special anti-terror unit at the Latrun base, were notified to be on alert until dawn.
According to information reported in Haaretz for the first time, at around 5 A.M., lookouts mobilized a Golani force that was near the Nahal Oz outpost due to someone touching the border fence.
The force mounted a jeep and left for the location, but en route received orders from their commanders not to approach the fence area "due to fear of anti-tank or rocket fire from Gaza."
Throughout that night, no one from the IDF or Shin Bet came to the area of the party to update the party's security team on the warnings, and no one demanded to stop it. The party received military approval as it was held in an area west of Route 232, under the responsibility of the Gaza Division and the northern brigade.
Some two weeks prior to the festival, the organizers were invited to a meeting at the Gaza Division, at which they were presented with the commanders' conditions for holding the event. The permit, signed by Col. Cohen, says among other things that "the northern brigade is responsible for regional security during the event in the fence space across from the Gaza Strip."
But at 6:30 A.M., the festival attendants found out that the required forces were not stationed by the fence. One of the commanders on alert in the area even claimed to Haaretz that no one informed the forces that were placed on alert that the festival was even taking place.
He's also ignoring the fact that many warnings of several different types were ignored.
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/israels-shin-bet-ignored-crucial-intel-before-7-october
LIHOP (high level) + lack of training (mid-level) + fear (grunt level) + Hannibal doctrine (multi-level) = October 7th
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 21:32 utc | 32
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:27 utc | 32
It won't play for me either but I don't think it's a video, but rather a photo.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 21:33 utc | 33
pq | Jan 18 2024 21:16 utc | 29
What you have put there further reinforces my thought that Iran and the Paks are working with, not against, each other.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 21:34 utc | 34
Also, with respect to October 7th, this hasn't gotten much traction here at MoA, but also speaks to (nearly exact) foreknowledge.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 21:35 utc | 35
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 21:34 utc | 35
I don't think it was quite this coordinated but anyway here's a tongue in cheek perspective:
From Angelo Giuliano:
Iran to Pakistan : "hey bro, I have got those US funded motherfckers terrorists who want to create this independent Baluchistan state...can you help out ?
Pakistan : "you mean those bastards, got the same ones here in Pakistan, fcking terrorists that are targeting Belt and Road initiative, traitors taking CIA money... maybe I can hit some missiles at yours and you can target my US funded terrorists... I cannot target them directly otherwise those western morons will come at us and create some BS stories about genocide."
Iran : "alright bro, let's do it....but let's make some show, pretend we are angry at each other"
Pakistan : "sure...they will be overexcited and think we are going to war with each other..."
https://x.com/angeloinchina/status/1747903031319114151?s=20
Posted by: pq | Jan 18 2024 21:39 utc | 36
Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:10 utc | 25
Very early on, Hamas stated they trust Russia. The trappee using the trap against the trapper is a specific Putin hallmark.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 21:42 utc | 37
Honzo and Tom_Q_Collins,
As they were planning a stand-down false-flag they did not want alarms bells going off from anywhere.
They did not want to be compelled to do any "standing-up", such as returning the IDF troops that
had just been temporarily deployed to the West Bank. And they didn't want Hamas warned off from proceed with their jail-break.
They also would not appreciate warnings coming from the rest of the 5-eyes. "No alarm bells, please".
They didn't want to stand-up and afterwards they didn't want to have to explain away why they had ignored warnings
coming from the rest of the 5-eyes.
In which case they would clue in, for example, the CIA as to their false-flag plans.
The CIA knew? MI6 knew?
Posted by: librul | Jan 18 2024 21:59 utc | 38
indian punchline today.. Decoding Iran’s missile, drone strikes
Posted by: james | Jan 18 2024 19:44 utc | 15
and rightly applauded by Tom Pfotzer
good read yes very worth the time Thanks!
reciprocating:
https://globalsouth.co/2024/01/18/the-worlds-new-political-architecture/
from that page you can get to Ramin Mazaheri's substack, too. He is always worth reading in my book. His book on China is a real eye opener; you'll see it listed/mentioned anyone interested
Total Global Geopolitical Upheaval we're going through is no joy but so very overdue. If only the Palestinians weren't paying such a heavy price for all of us to be allowed into a better future. Humanity owes them more than we can ever repay. Curses on my wicked, worthless usa government.
Posted by: DuchessAndBob | Jan 18 2024 21:59 utc | 39
pq | Jan 18 2024 21:39 utc | 37
That about covers it. Spot on :)
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 22:00 utc | 40
This will spark some discussion (if it wasn't already posted in a different thread):
https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/war-gaza-european-philosophy-ethically-bankrupt-exposed
magine if Iran, Syria, Lebanon, or Turkey - fully backed, armed and diplomatically protected by Russia and China - had the will and the wherewithal to bomb Tel Aviv for three months, day and night, murder tens of thousands of Israelis, maim countless more and make millions homeless, and turn the city into a heap of uninhabitable rubble, like Gaza today.Just imagine it for a few seconds: Iran and its allies deliberately targeting populated parts of Tel Aviv, hospitals, synagogues, schools, universities, libraries - or indeed any populated place - to ensure maximum civilian casualties. They would tell the world they were just looking for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet.
Ask yourself what the US, UK, EU, Canada, Australia and Germany in particular would do within 24 hours of the onslaught of this fictional scenario.
Now come back to reality, and consider the fact that since 7 October (and for decades before that date), Tel Aviv’s western allies have not only witnessed what Israel has done to the Palestinian people, but have also provided it with military equipment, bombs, munitions and diplomatic coverage, while American media outlets have offered ideological justifications for the slaughter and genocide of Palestinians.
The aforementioned fictional scenario would not be tolerated for a day by the existing world order. With the military thuggery of the US, Europe, Australia and Canada fully behind Israel, we helpless people of the world, just like Palestinians, do not count. This is not just a political reality; it is also pertinent to the moral imaginary and philosophical universe of the thing that calls itself “the West”.
Those of us outside the European sphere of moral imagination do not exist in their philosophical universe. Arabs, Iranians and Muslims; or people in Asia, Africa and Latin America - we do not have any ontological reality for European philosophers, except as a metaphysical menace that must be conquered and quieted.
Beginning with Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and continuing with Emmanuel Levinas and Slavoj Zizek, we are oddities, things, knowable objects that Orientalists were tasked with deciphering. As such, the murder of tens of thousands of us by Israel, or the US and its European allies, does not cause the slightest pause in the minds of European philosophers.
Tribal European audiences
If you doubt that, just take a look at leading European philosopher Jurgen Habermas and a few of his colleagues, who in an astoundingly barefaced act of cruel vulgarity, have come out in support of Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians. The question is no longer what we might think of Habermas, now 94, as a human being. The question is what we might think of him as a social scientist, philosopher and critical thinker. Does what he thinks matter to the world anymore, if it ever did?The world has been asking similar questions about another major German philosopher, Martin Heidegger, in light of his pernicious affiliations with Nazism. In my opinion, we must now ask such questions about Habermas’s violent Zionism and the significant consequences for what we might think of his entire philosophical project?
If Habermas has not an iota of space in his moral imagination for people such as Palestinians, do we have any reason to consider his entire philosophical project as being in any way related to the rest of humanity - beyond his immediate tribal European audiences?
In an open letter to Habermas, distinguished Iranian sociologist Asef Bayat said he “contradicts his own ideas” when it comes to the situation in Gaza. With all due respect, I beg to differ. I believe Habermas’s disregard for Palestinian lives is entirely consistent with his Zionism. It is perfectly consistent with the worldview in which non-Europeans are not completely human, or are “human animals”, as Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant has openly declared.
This utter disregard for Palestinians is deeply rooted in the German and European philosophical imagination. The common wisdom is that out of the guilt of the Holocaust, Germans have developed a solid commitment to Israel.
But to the rest of the world, as now evidenced by the magnificent document that South Africa has presented to the International Court of Justice, there is a perfect consistency between what Germany did during its Nazi era and what it is now doing during its Zionist era.
I believe that Habermas’s position is in line with the German state policy of partaking in the Zionist slaughter of Palestinians. It is also in line with what passes for the “German left”, with their equally racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic hatred of Arabs and Muslims, and their wholesale support for the genocidal actions of the Israeli settler colony.
We must be forgiven if we thought what Germany had today was not Holocaust guilt, but genocide nostalgia, as it has vicariously indulged in Israel’s slaughter of Palestinians over the past century (not just the past 100 days).
The charge of Eurocentrism that is consistently levelled against European philosophers’ conception of the world is not based merely on an epistemic flaw in their thinking. It is a consistent sign of moral depravity. On multiple past occasions, I have pointed out the incurable racism at the heart of European philosophical thinking and its most celebrated representatives today.
This moral depravity is not just a political faux pas or an ideological blind spot. It is written deeply into their philosophical imaginations, which have remained incurably tribal.
Here, we must recap the glorious Martinican poet Aime Cesaire’s famous statement: “Yes, it would be worthwhile to study clinically, in detail, the steps taken by Hitler and Hitlerism and to reveal to the very distinguished, very humanistic, very Christian bourgeois of the 20th century that without his being aware of it, he has a Hitler inside him, that Hitler inhabits him, that Hitler is his demon, that if he rails against him, he is being inconsistent and that, at bottom, what he cannot forgive Hitler for is not crime in itself, the crime against man, it is not the humiliation of man as such, it is the crime against the white man, the humiliation of the white man, and the fact that he applied to Europe colonialist procedures which until then had been reserved exclusively for [Arab, Indian and African peoples].”
Palestine is today an extension of the colonial atrocities Cesaire cites in this passage. Habermas appears ignorant that his endorsement of the slaughter of Palestinians is completely consistent with what his ancestors did in Namibia during the Herero and Namaqua genocide. Like the proverbial ostrich, German philosophers have stuck their heads inside their European delusions, thinking the world does not see them for what they are.
[...and so on...]
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 22:04 utc | 41
If only the Palestinians weren't paying such a heavy price for all of us to be allowed into a better future. Humanity owes them more than we can ever repay.
Posted by: DuchessAndBob | Jan 18 2024 21:59 utc | 40
Very much so.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 22:09 utc | 42
Seems that, for the moment, the strategic goal of torpedoing Israel-Saudi normalization has been fulfilled. From Middle East Eye:
* Netanyahu says Israel needs to control 'from the river to the sea'
* Saudi Arabia says no Israel normalisation without path to Palestinian state
Bonus: Biden says air strikes are not stopping the Houthis, but will continue
Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity.
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 22:12 utc | 43
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 21:32 utc | 33
I think he's aware of all those things. He's just pushing a narrative.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 22:23 utc | 44
From what I've seen it is an American ship, 'Chem Ranger', which was struck by Yemeni missiles in the Gulf of Aden
Posted by: Hankster | Jan 18 2024 22:25 utc | 45
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 22:04 utc | 42
Powerful piece, thank you for posting.
In ancient times, when people lost wars to other people, they assumed also their gods, since they were deemed to be more powerful.
Ever since the era of colonization and particularly after the industrial revolution, most of the world assumed the West's gods as supreme: individualism and self-interest (entrenched in the philosophical roots of capitalism and the free market), competition, materialism and money worship, diabolic power vs symbolic power (as Patroklos put it a few days back).
Now the West's hypocrisy and exceptionalism are becoming evermore clear to everyone that has eyes to see.
Through the Empire's inevitable decline, the peoples of our world have the tremendous opportunity to cast away those gods, find anew and reassert themselves.
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 22:34 utc | 46
Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:10 utc | 25
Very early on, Hamas stated they trust Russia. The trappee using the trap against the trapper is a specific Putin hallmark.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 18 2024 21:42 utc | 38
The CIA knew? MI6 knew?
Posted by: librul | Jan 18 2024 21:59 utc | 39
I don't doubt that the CIA knew, or even picked the start off date. Whether Putin knew, I have no idea, but I have no doubt that Russia and China have been communicating a certain style of response to western aggression/oppression and signaled how they would respond, and what those actions might achieve in the larger global conflict.
I knew 10/7 was a falseflag on 10/8. Among other things, Bibi told us it was. "Israel's 9/11"
My point about Larry Johnson is that he's a 'former' CIA analyst and he's been pushing the 'incompetence' narrative since the first couple of days of the conflict. To be absolutely explicit, I think that it's mistake to ever credit the 'former' or 'ex' part of this kind of designation. What you're getting is limited hangouts, running stuff up the flagpole, and previews of the official narrative to make people outside the mainstream more susceptible to buying it because they heard it months before the MSM started pushing it.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 22:34 utc | 47
veri1138
The Siege of Leningrad ended eighty years ago on January 27. It began in 1941, in September I believe.
Posted by: bevin | Jan 18 2024 22:34 utc | 48
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/98976?singleMq9 reaper shot down in Iraq.
Posted by: Scot1and | Jan 18 2024 20:57 utc | 22
Note to NATO propagandists: this is how you demonstrate an aerial object has been destroyed. Evidence. I realize your societies have been faith based for some time, but the concept of verification should not be a foreign one.
Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jan 18 2024 22:39 utc | 49
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 21:27 utc | 32
Here's a video of the downed drone: https://twitter.com/IranObserver0/status/1748056222035550459
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 22:44 utc | 50
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 22:23 utc | 45
Gotcha. I agree. And check out his comments section for some pretty good pushback on that narrative. I haven't been keeping up, and don't know if he's still talking about October 7th, but he was a few weeks ago. Which gets me thinking that if he is still publishing pieces "explaining" the "failures" of October 7, then yes, he's 100% running the narrative "up the flag pole" so that it can be better massaged for eventual mass consumption.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 22:45 utc | 51
On the day that Saudi Arabia issued a statement to the effect that there could be no 'normalisation' of relations with Israel until Israel commits itself to the founding of a Palestinian state, Netanyahu had confirmed that Israel is officially committed to the positionthat there won't be a state for Palestinians-not in Palestine anyway.
"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a televised address that Israel needs to have control over all areas of occupied Palestine, which is in direct opposition to the Biden administration's calls for a Palestinian state.
"The prime minister said that every area in which Israel has previously withdrawn from, including Gaza and the now occupied West Bank, has led to "terrible terror" for Israel.
"In the future, the state of Israel has to control the entire area from the river to the sea," Netanyahu said."
https://www.middleeasteye.net/live-blog/live-blog-update/netanyahu-says-israel-needs-control-river-sea?nid=334146&topic=Israel-Palestine%2520war&fid=498281
The ball is now in the US court. It is beginning to look as if Kier Starmer's recent decision to end the Labour Party's longstanding commitment to a Palestinian state, came directly from the Trilateral Commission.
Posted by: bevin | Jan 18 2024 22:50 utc | 52
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 22:34 utc | 47
I also liked the 'open letter' that was written to Habermas by the Iranian sociologist. The hypocrisy is so glaring at this point; and TPTB are ramping up their tools for narrative management/information totalitarianism in direct proportionality; no coincidence at all there. At least the rubes within the Imperium must be managed and assuaged until it all comes crashing down.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 18 2024 22:34 utc | 48
Which reminds me of a different Larry Johnson post over at SONAR21 in which he attempted to push the bullshit line that the explosion at the hospital in Gaza was in fact an errant Hamas missile. He got shut down completely in comments and I think deleted several of them, which was also complained about - rightly so. I definitely do not think Johnson is 100% reliable.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 22:50 utc | 53
Netanyahu had confirmed that Israel is officially committed to the position that there won't be a state for Palestinians-not in Palestine anyway.
Posted by: bevin | Jan 18 2024 22:50 utc | 53
Nothing changed. Basically, he just said the quiet part out loud this time ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 18 2024 23:11 utc | 54
Both Pakistan and Iran claim that a a couple of children were killed in both attacks...god only knows what really went down but I hope the score stays at 1-1. Don't need more drama.
Posted by: pq | Jan 18 2024 21:16 utc | 29
That alone tells you the (casualty) claims are bollocks prima facie.
Just kids, hanging out in an empty complex doing nothing ... just waiting to be bombed.
No adults, just kids in the middle of nowhere. not even a goat to add some diversity.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 18 2024 23:17 utc | 55
Nothing changed. Basically, he just said the quiet part out loud this time ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 18 2024 23:11 utc | 55
Indeed, but what has changed is that for the first time we are seeing visible cracks between Israel and the USA, which is, in my opinion, very significant.
This is from the Guardian's live stream:
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told the Biden White House that he rejects any moves to establish a Palestinian state when Israel ends its offensive against Gaza, and that all territory west of the Jordan River would be under Israeli security control. His public statement on Thursday represented his sharpest rebuttal of US foreign policy. The White House responded by saying the US would continue working towards a two-state solution and that there could be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza when the war concluded.
In his speech, he says that he must say "no to his friends".
Since this disrupts the plans "his friends" have, he soon may find out who's a real friend.
This interesting read from none other than NBC should point in a direction: Biden administration officials are laying the groundwork with other Israeli leaders in anticipation of a post-Netanyahu government.
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 23:38 utc | 56
Tom Collins @ 42
"It is also in line with what passes for the “German left”, with their equally racist, Islamophobic and xenophobic hatred of Arabs and Muslims, and their wholesale support for the genocidal actions of the Israeli settler colony."
[quoted material]
+++++++++++++++++
It seems to me that this statement may be confusing and conflating two things: (1) the response of the German "left" to the contemporary issue of pushback against the recent surge of Muslim migrants into Germany, which the left interprets as right-wing AfD racism and (2) supposed historical German racism against all Muslim peoples. Has the writer by chance missed the giant rallies in Berlin and other German cities in support of the Palestians?
As it stands I don't agree with the statement, but not being a professional philosopher, very likely I do not understand it . . .
The writer needs to provide documentation for his charges against the German people. As in just about every "western" country today, government actions do not reflect the people's will.
Americans of any intelligence and historical awareness should be now have realized that we have failed every "test" regarding knowledge of and complicity in genocide that we have so gleefully subjected the German people to. (Actually Germans saved more Jewish Germans than did any other European people, so there is that.)
As for Habermas, well, yes, he seems to be extremely confused---guilty as charged. But he is an individual, not a people.
Recently I have read staements in two articles in the same issue of the London Review of Books, one of them by Neal Ascherson, to the effect that the postwar German state's fundamental building block was support of the State of Israel. That was pretty dumb. But the Germans did not have agency at that point to challenge such a "building block" for their state, and an argument can be made that they never have had since WW1.
Did the German people choose this short-sighted guilt-based building block? Did anyone ask them?
It seems like there are no limits to the accusations of racism that can be hurled against the German people. It is an easy-to-win sport. Accusations and throw-away comments that would be considered anti-teutonic "hate speech" in a non-German context, if that concept even existed) are A-ok when it comes to Germans.
Hmm, I think I'll just coin that phrase right now. I am sick of gratuitous, shallow, hypocritical and, yes, racist, anti-teutonism.
Pfui!
Posted by: Jane | Jan 18 2024 23:41 utc | 57
Bbc Radio 4 news at 10 pm
(1) tells us biden administration is distencing them self from netinyahoo.
(2)live report from someone in Gaza dispte the internet being down. The sheer amount of explosions, shells and gunfire that can be hered in the background is beyound beleave.
Iv never ever hered that kind of volume before Gaza or anywhere. It must be thousands of tonnes of munitions per day.
Where are the mass murdering israelies getting that from, no word of it running low.
What is the supply chain and oragin.
Who are the murdering basterds supplying it.
And why arent they in prison.
The report came from a large hospital where thousands are fleeing in fear at this very momment.
I'l leave the above without personal opinion for obveous reasons.
So where the hell are
Posted by: Mark2 | Jan 18 2024 23:49 utc | 58
If only the Palestinians weren't paying such a heavy price for all of us to be allowed into a better future. Humanity owes them more than we can ever repay.
Posted by: DuchessAndBob | Jan 18 2024 21:59 utc | 40
They are heroes and they will be honored for years to come. They deserve only admiration.
The Israelis, I pity. Socrates said that it is better to be wronged by someone than to wrong someone. The burden they create is much heavier.
I find that this powerful video encapsulates that juxtaposition.
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 23:51 utc | 59
We think its israel cold bloodedly murdering Palistinians, it isnt its england and america. Full stop
Posted by: Mark2 | Jan 18 2024 23:58 utc | 61
Can someone from America explain why Tulsi Gabbard is not running for anything? Also how negative she is, towars Russia and China? What i could follow she seemed almost to Ritter's, Johnson's etc. scope. But she also sounds very Trumpist - that is bad for Ukraine, but somehow better for Israel, if she ever was.
Posted by: whirlX | Jan 19 2024 0:30 utc | 62
"... The White House responded by saying the US would continue working towards a two-state solution and that there could be no Israeli reoccupation of Gaza when the war concluded."
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 23:38 utc | 57
Time for a re-circulation of the Epstein files. Their tune will change quite soon ...
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 19 2024 0:54 utc | 63
Time to seize our land and our destiny…ocean front property in Gaza is going for a good price (only for Jewish Winners of course!)…
There is nothing that MOA losers can do about it!!!
Posted by: Hebrew Conqueror | Jan 19 2024 1:14 utc | 64
LIHOP (high level) + lack of training (mid-level) + fear (grunt level) + Hannibal doctrine (multi-level) = October 7thPosted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 21:32 utc | 33
That equation needs to be repeated. Conspiracies happen and many of them fail to be smooth operations. People pooh-pooh conspiracies' existence because of the assumption they must be flawless in execution.
False. And in fact "conspiracy theory" was coined by CIA intelligence agency to bandage the curtains from revealing them. Many times the ideal is planned, the plan goes sour, and instead of ending and backtracking it is too far gone to anywhere else but onward through with things. Reality is ugly and messy and you'll be surprised how much people will cling to denial than face the truth.
This ethnic cleansing genocide is planned. Many things messed up, and are currently messing up, in execution. Onward they march with illegal & immoral seige tactics trying to get some success.
It is our job to look with open eyes, bear witness to a horrible truth in all its layers, and stop it from continuing. They give no quarter to their Palestinian victims, we should give no quarter to their excuses for genocide. Their behavior can be many layers of evil, stubborn, stupid, and incompetence blended together in a very human mix of villainy.
Zionists are not special; they are as pathetic and banal as the evil of Nazis before, and Nazis now in Ukraine, and of colonists the world over throughout history. Again, just another human behaving abominably, not special. Villains!, Return to humanity before you are wholly lost, reject your claims of being special and repent. You are a failure as old as humanity, though you 'mayest have power over evil' in your own heart.
Posted by: titmouse | Jan 19 2024 1:20 utc | 65
First time posting...a round & a toast...one reason for the carnage in Gaza...they want to destroy the deeds & titles of property ownership held by the Palestinians in places like Haifa...etc...
Posted by: Prometheus1200BC | Jan 19 2024 1:23 utc | 66
Jonathan Cook on UK's Ephraim Mirvis:
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/18/uk-chief-rabbi-blesses-war-crimes-in-gaza/
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jan 19 2024 1:26 utc | 67
by Hebrew Conqueror | Jan 19 2024 1:14 utc | 65
You should build a wall around the Holy Land, so that Arabs can fill it up to the brink. It must be a paradise living with a gun and hate all your life, surrounded by 350 millions of angry neighbors. What better geographical position for having a tiny piece of land that does not belong to you.
.
If America turns back on you, you are are in a big trouble.
What gives?
A Shinbet and Mossies spiting victorious slogans here?
Posted by: whirlX | Jan 19 2024 1:31 utc | 68
Posted by: Lathe Biosas | Jan 18 2024 22:44 utc | 51
Thanks! Apparently this didn't make a controlled descent like the one over Iran.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 19 2024 1:46 utc | 69
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jan 18 2024 22:45 utc | 52
Not so much 10/7 now, because his comments section is too well informed, but he goes on and on about IDF training failures and how this atrocity or that atrocity is because of a 'lack of professionalism.' As if that explained 100 days of bombing civilian housing, refugees going where the Zionazis told them to go, etc. I think his comment section is starting attract a lot of better-informed people, though, so he may have to retire soon.
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 19 2024 1:50 utc | 70
Can someone from America explain why Tulsi Gabbard is not running for anything? Also how negative she is, towars Russia and China? What i could follow she seemed almost to Ritter's, Johnson's etc. scope. But she also sounds very Trumpist - that is bad for Ukraine, but somehow better for Israel, if she ever was.
Posted by: whirlX | Jan 19 2024 0:30 utc | 63
Tulsi another WEF plant. She denies it, but she fits the pattern of someone who 'comes out of nowhere,' ticks some diversity boxes, and takes controlled-opposition positions so that when the powers that be get in real trouble, the tainted figureheads can be replaced by somebody who 'has a long track record' of speaking out against the most egregious policies. Obama, Ramaswamy, Gabbard, and Bernie Sanders 1.0 all fit the pattern very neatly. She was already in congress, but to stay would have required her to vote in ways that wouldn't contradict her image later when she was really needed. Now is not the time for her to run again, for the same reason. Whatever happens to Trump, if we're still having elections in the next cycle, maybe she and/or Vivek will run for the top job as 'outsiders.'
Posted by: Honzo | Jan 19 2024 2:01 utc | 71
@ pq | Jan 18 2024 21:39 utc | 37
Israel to US : "hey bro, I have got those Iran funded motherfckers terrorists who want to create this independent Palestinian state...can you help out ?
What is the going rate these days at MoA: 1 Palestinian dead is worth more than 100 Ukraine war deads? White straight guys are less than junk in woke eyes compared to virtuous light brown Gazan angels. The Ukraine had weeks of 20,000 deaths, the total of the Gazan 'Genocide'.
Damn our white culture, anything is better, even Hamas: the WEF couldn't agree more and got the borders open.
Reading above, they have a point.
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 19 2024 2:03 utc | 72
.they want to destroy the deeds & titles of property ownership held by the Palestinians in places like Haifa...etc...
Posted by: Prometheus1200BC | Jan 19 2024 1:23 utc | 67
===============
Of course.
That is why the Zionists destroyed the Municipal Building in Gaza. Because that is where many such records have been stored.
Posted by: Jane | Jan 19 2024 2:12 utc | 73
An interesting development is Jordanian air force bombs a Syrian captagon drug dealer . Sounds like the usual Mafia enforcer move to solidify a turf but with jets and bombs not mobsters in black cars with Tommy guns
Posted by: Hankster | Jan 19 2024 2:24 utc | 74
This a post from Aarsen Ostrosky, who Wikipedia describes " Arsen Ostrovsky is a leading international human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum"
You may remember him from his IJC speech on Israel's defence team.
Here is one of his x posts
https://twitter.com/dd0wney/status/1746808409792684498?t=TFX7TkkmHNF0ySK_eLlmsw&s=19
Posted by: Hankster | Jan 19 2024 2:46 utc | 76
I would like to posit this...the source of so much evil & warmongering emanates from Britain. Can we put forth the idea that the world should boycott Britain until is ceases planning wars, financing wars, implements wars, advocates for wars, propagandizing for wars, creates alliances for wars, this country must not be a pariah state until this is effectuated...also is there any brilliant barfly that can post all the wars this nation has implemented since say...1776...also...I think the Palestinians should sue Britain for a minimum of 30 trillion dollars for reparations...none of this genocide would be happening without this nation...and I insist on buying Jane a drink...
Posted by: Prometheus1200BC | Jan 19 2024 3:08 utc | 77
by Honzo | Jan 19 2024 2:01 utc | 72
Well, thanks, as it is time for some non-geriatrics to take over America. Trump is funny still old, and I think that he can fade away lost and surrounded with utter idiots, surfing on a deep state wave - as he was in his first turn.. Difference to today;s state of the mind, is the same, just Biden is very evil and Trump is not.
Tulsi and Vivek might take some high positions still to lear the business there, for further push.
Never the less, Trump bought 4 years for Russia and that will not be forgotten. I hope he changes a foreign policy 180° and not 360° like the last time..
Posted by: whirlX | Jan 19 2024 3:11 utc | 79
A barfly posted this personal accpunt on the thread "Mainstream Media Lies" today. Worth surfacing again. Observations?
Posted by @ RLTW | Jan 19 2024 1:09 utc | 72
Forget about who the PM of Iraq was at any given time over the last 21 years. The man who runs Iraq is the Supreme Judge of Iraq, Faiq Zidan. Zidan was jointly appointed by Bush and as far as I can tell, Iran, immediately after we invaded Iraq in 2003. In US terms, Zidan is like the AG, SCOTUS, President and Legislature all rolled into one man. He has executive powers exceeding that of the PM. This is the man who has been running Iraq since 2003, obviously as a proxy of the US and I believe also Iran. He has very cozy relationships with DOD and DOJ. Don’t know the why behind any of this. Those are all nuts I’m still trying to crack.
2006, the moderate Sunni tribes of Iraq are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Shia to the east want to kill them because they’re Sunni. ISIS to the west wants to kill them because they’re not radical. They decide to call themselves “The Sons of Iraq” and ally themselves with Coalition forces. They are the ones who turned the tide. Dirtbag McChrystal loves to take the credit but it wasn’t him.
The Sons of Iraq were a 100k, native born Iraqi Sunni army. They knew all the smuggling routes and all the bad actors from the foreign fighter facilitators to IED cells etc. Within 6 months they helped us track down and kill Al Zarqawi, the original leader of ISIS. With them on our side the next year was a non stop slaughter of ISIS.
Around summer of 2008 I was pulled in to conduct the site survey for then acting Attorney General Mukasey’s visit to the Green Zone(what the hell business does the US AG have in a war zone? Meeting with Faiq Zidan maybe?). I reconned the routes and meeting places but part of the mission involved sitting in a SCIF and reviewing the various threats.
What I found surprised me. The current leader of ISIS at the time was Al Baghdadi who had been captured and was sitting in the Bucca prison. ISIS was estimated to have been attritted down to approximately 60 fighters. My overall assessment was that the threat to AG was low. I remember thinking, why the hell are we even here? War looked like it was over. AG’s trip went off without a hitch.
But a Presidential election was going on at this same time. A guy named Obama was campaigning on pulling all US troops out of Iraq by June 2009 as well as getting out of Afghanistan. Lo and behold, come November Obama becomes President. I’ll say this much, I never agreed with Obama on much of anything but I really liked him for his efforts to get us out of Afghanistan and Iraq.
In January 2009 I’m back to DA mode. Rolling up HVTs but now it’s different. We are limited to targets that are designated by the Iraqi MOI, I.e. at the behest of Faiq Zidan. Of course all of our targets were Sunni. Any Shia targets developed of our own accord were denied. We were literally OPCONed to Faiq Zidan/Iraqi MOI. I’m pretty sure that’s not legal under the UCMJ or the US Constitution.
Saddest of all, as you might have guessed, we were being tasked to roll up our staunch allies, The Sons of Iraq. We rolled up guys who had access badges to restricted areas of the Green Zone. Adjacent commands would call us up and ask WTF are you doing? This guy has been working with us for two years. Sickening.
I told myself that at least we were getting to these guys before Iraqi Doklia and that they would at least be safe in US custody. But then I heard rumors that they were being turned over to Nidal to be convicted of “terrorism” and executed. A conviction of terrorism in Iraq constitutes an automatic death sentence to be carried out within 30 days under the new Iraqi judicial system that the United States government set up in conjunction with US JAG and Nidal. Kind of sounds like a genocide if you ask me.
So now you know why the ranks of ISIS suddenly swelled by thousands per month after Obama was elected. Those were our allies, The Sons of Iraq, who had no alternative but to flee west and join ISIS. Furthermore, I later found out that Baghdadi was released from the Bucca prison and of course fled west and began rebuilding the ranks of ISIS. Who the hell authorized the release of Baghdadi and under what pretense?
I have never seen a document that says what the geopolitical goal of the Bush administration was. But given the fact that Obama was set to pull us out of Iraq and that if the status quo had remained the same in summer 2009 as it had been in 2008, Obama would have been fully justified in doing so. Well that would have ended the gravy train and that was simply unacceptable to the Bush/Cheney/MIC.
I believe this operation against the Sons of Iraq was engineered by the Bush administration and Nidal in order to radicalize the moderate Sunnis, release Baghdadi, flood the ranks of ISIS, kickstart the war back into high gear and sabotage any possibility of Obama pulling us out of Iraq.
I just can’t figure out what the secret alliance is between our deep state and Iran. I first saw it in 2007 when the adjacent team called out jackpot and said the Iranian general’s name. I can’t for the life of me remember. TBI. But I knew that our raid would be all over the news the next day. But nothing. Then I found out later he was quietly released back to Iran.
That’s the part I can’t figure out. What is this secret alliance between the United States and Iran?
Posted by: RLTW | Jan 19 2024 1:09 utc | 72
Posted by: Patrick al-Henrygazh | Jan 19 2024 3:22 utc | 80
Honzo | Jan 18 2024 22:34 utc | 48
To watch Dier Ezzor day by day the step back, see the big picture and marvel.
Ukraine. The Afghan bear trap. The bear steps in - wtf ... then Nato is trapped in its own trap.
The easily missed key in Gaza is that Hamas statement. Hamas having prior knowlage does make it look like the Israelis are just incompetent and there is certainly an element to that. Although they have the same ideology, they are not the hardened terrorist of bygone days of Israel renown. Like the US, running on hubris.
The combination of Israel incompetently setting a trap, Hamas knowingly triggering it - knowledge of the trap made their raid even more successful as they knew they could go all in and knew what to go for...
...Americans are Americans. I have no issues with Johnson. Him and others like him are already part of the multi-polar world.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jan 19 2024 3:39 utc | 82
Yanis Varoufakis
@yanisvaroufakis
The French government has joined the German government in stating that international law on genocide does not apply to Israel - that, because Jews have been subjected to genocide, Israel has moral & legal immunity for any war crime, even a genocide, it chooses to commit.
https://twitter.com/yanisvaroufakis/status/1747888452694163909
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
Unbelievable. Stéphane Séjourné, France's new minister of foreign affairs, essentially said that France wouldn't support the ICJ's decision if it rule against Israel because accusing them of genocide is "crossing a moral threshold" and is "exploiting the notion of genocide for political purposes".
Here's the exact quote (translated):
"As for the International Court of Justice, we firmly tell the Israelis that international law applies to everyone, the systematic strikes in Gaza must stop... but words have meaning and accusing the Jewish state of genocide is crossing a moral threshold! We cannot exploit the notion of genocide for political purposes, that is our consistent position."
So first of all it's an egregious lie that it would be their "consistent position" that "we cannot exploit the notion of genocide for political purposes" because less than a year ago the French parliament (including Macron's party) voted to recognize as "genocide" the Holodomor in Ukraine, and the year before that they voted (also including Macron's party) to recognize the so-called "Uyghur genocide"; both clearly done for political purposes (on the Uyghurs only some Western countries - led by the U.S. - have ever called it a "genocide" and a UN Human Rights Office investigation on the ground did not retain this designation)... So when it's directed at geopolitical foes of the West, France happily exploits the notion of genocide for political purposes.
And in this case this isn't even about this, since we're speaking about an official ruling by the International Court of Justice, of which France is a founding member. So if the ICJ ruled in the sense that Israel was indeed committing genocide, by definition it wouldn't 'be an "exploitation of the notion of genocide for political purposes" but a ruling based on international law.
So as I've said since the very beginning, this demonstrates once again that the war in Gaza is essentially the war of the "rules-based order" with all its double standards vs "international law". And sadly now France has made it clear that faced with the choice, they opt to side with the rules-based order against international law 😢
https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1747806233711743122
Posted by: Menz | Jan 19 2024 3:57 utc | 83
Menz @357
Ironic sidenote is that earlier today I read an account of France doing well in their sales to other nations of munitions. So are they becoming a Jr. Grade U$$A, where the WarDefense industry is the most profitable and employee-rich in the world, let alone the country.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 19 2024 4:04 utc | 84
James 15
Indian Punchline
'There were signs already by the latter half of 2023 that the US with Israeli axis was planning to use terrorism as the only viable means to weaken Iran and restore the regional balance back in favour of Tel Aviv, which is critically important for Washington’s prioritisation of Asia-Pacific and yet need to control oil-rich Middle East. Indeed, a conventional war with Iran is no longer feasible for the US, as it risks the potential destruction of Israel. "
This article is saying here that US Empire, for whom Old Empire and Empire Dream both work, is making the genocide bombs and calling the genocide shots.
Netanyahu is Roman Provincial Governor. Sunak is Roman Senator, and it is Emperor Biden who will destroy Israel , not Hamas, if Israel tries to embroigle Empire into an unwinnable war against Iran Russia and China.
Empire uses State Terror like Al Qaida and Daesh to.operate in West Asia. But Israel runs the Terror Network and wants to cash in on the Khazar mythological Chosen Land. Neither in 73 A.D. nor in 2024 will Empire give Zionism the Empire of which they dream. Russia , China and Iran are too powerful for Empire to fight direct.
Even the Iraqi Kurds are starting to see who runs the Barzani Zahawiri Oil Network. Mossad. And a Roman Governor who can't control the local political infighting will get Zapped. Who will the FoI in Old Empire England be Friends of next? Putin? Yes!
Kissinger was correct, that the only thing to do with a hornet in the bedroom is to whack it.
Posted by: Giyane | Jan 19 2024 4:07 utc | 85
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 19 2024 4:04 utc | 85
France has always pretended to be civilized while acting in the most barbaric manner. South East Asian rubber plantations are a classic example.
Posted by: Menz | Jan 19 2024 4:10 utc | 86
The land titles are also kept online these days. No idea how vapid these electronic titles are. Agreed that the IDF blind rage attacks are intended to wipe out all traces of Arab inhabitants. The bulldozing of cemeteries and taking bodies from graves is the most clear sign of the Likud’s intentions.
Palestinian Land Society
https://www.plands.org/en/maps-atlases
The book - a compendium of photos of Arab life in Palestine
https://cigacriticalvoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/The-book-1983.pdf
Posted by: Exile | Jan 19 2024 4:16 utc | 87
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 19 2024 2:03 utc | 73
Whatever chatbot replaced Antonym needs a whole new training dataset.
GIGO.
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 19 2024 4:29 utc | 88
The Ukraine had weeks of 20,000 deaths, the total of the Gazan 'Genocide'.Damn our white culture, anything is better, even Hamas: the WEF couldn't agree more and got the borders open.
Reading above, they have a point.
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 19 2024 2:03 u
Ah yes, the trite comparison of a Israeli fascist.
Whereas one - NATO vs Russia - is a military conflict, with two sides having armored vehicles, and air force and all the modern technology supporting war.
The other - Israel and USA vs the Gazans - is cowardly ethnic cleansing, where the same apparatuses directed against a civilian population without armored vehicles or an airforce, just a handful of teenaged militia who through pure courage and righteousness resist those whonwould slaughter the women and children around them.
If you're looking for the monster have a look in the mirror. The Palestinian children who may, despite the crimes of the IDF, yet survive the horror being inflicted on them may grow up to visit people just like you, who pretend not to see inhuman crimes because it suited their bigotry and greed.
Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jan 19 2024 4:44 utc | 89
Posted by: Minaa | Jan 18 2024 21:07 utc | 23
Thanks for the Tony Greenstein piece. A scary insight into what the Western system has devolved into.
I don't want to get into picking on the guy, and this is not said with malice, but when he said:
"As a Jewish atheist, socialist and secularist, I naturally..." it got me to thinking.
For brevity: He is a self-described atheist, judaism is a religion, he was born and raised around Liverpool England, his father was born and raised in the East-end of London, the surname "Greenstein" sounds Yiddish ie: likely of European descent, likely the family has Germanic, possibly general European, possibly Khazarian background.
I'm of the opinion that a more accurate descriptor would be that he is English, or Germanic-English, or Khazarian -English (without going on a mission to research the specifics of his familial background prior to the UK). Why feel this necessity to self identify with an opt-in/opt-out religious cult that you don't even believe in..?
My mother grew up Presbyterian like my nan. Grandfather Catholic. Atheist and Catholic on dad's side. Family been here in Australia since the Second Fleet. I'm Australian. That's it.
The seeming conflation of Judaism with race or one isolated tribe (which is false unless you are wholly from that North Iraqi/old NW Persian region that the religion arose) really appears part of the core problem/illusion/delusion that has led to this neo-fascist ideology of Zionism.
Not supposed to be discussed in polite company, I know, but without analysing these subtleties, we may never understand just how we got here, nor how to extract ourselves with minimal death and destruction.
To me, Tony Greenstein is just a really cool, collected, intelligent Englishman, who's opinion is mostly worth hearing out.
Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Jan 19 2024 4:46 utc | 90
It is ironic that Zionists like Dershowitz are trashing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) while NYT's DealBook runs stories about the need to tackle antisemitism - at the WEF in Davos. If you get to take your concerns to the WEF you may not be as oppressed as you may like to think. Some people's delusion knows no bounds.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jan 19 2024 7:23 utc | 91
From the New York Times:
And indeed, some experts argue this case may already be affecting Israel’s actions. “The Israeli attorney general has announced that she’s now going to start investigating certain statements that might qualify as incitement to harm uninvolved civilians,” Shany said. “I believe it’s not accidental that this was issued a few days before the hearings.”
Becker noted that in the weeks since South Africa filed its case, the Israeli government has also announced that it will soon scale back its military operation in Gaza, and that it has reached a new agreement to allow more humanitarian aid into the territory.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jan 19 2024 7:28 utc | 92
Terrorists.
Bastards.
Animals.
Though I have no doubt more than one here would pay for the decapitated head of a fallen Israeli soldier.
Posted by: Augusto Pi | Jan 19 2024 8:12 utc | 93
Assal Rad
@AssalRad
·
10h
Watch reporter Matt Lee push StateSpox Miller on the destruction of a university in Gaza yesterday by Israel.
Lee: “You have nothing to say?”
Miller: “It is something we are raising to Israel…I don’t know what was under that building”
Lee: “It doesn’t matter what was under…”
https://twitter.com/AssalRad/status/1748099572529025400
Posted by: Menz | Jan 19 2024 8:28 utc | 94
Posted by: Augusto Pi | Jan 19 2024 8:12 utc | 94
Still trying to disseminate the atrocity propaganda at this stage. Just like the boy who cried wolf most people have stopped listening to compulsive liars after the false antisemitism claims, fictitious baby beheadings, the fantastical orgy at the rave. Turns out the Israeli forces killed most of the victims that day. What about last week at ICJ Genocide court hearing “we have increased food and fuel supplies to Gaza”, “we are taking care not to murder civilians”, “we really want to get the hostages out”. Patent lies.
The evidence of the 84 page genocide indictment suggests that all these things are made up by Zio fascists and spread by their media sources, which you without a functioning brain, enthusiastically try to spread here of all places.
Posted by: Lev Davidovich | Jan 19 2024 8:34 utc | 95
Though I have no doubt more than one here would pay for the decapitated head of a fallen Israeli soldier.
Posted by: Augusto Pi | Jan 19 2024 8:12 utc | 94
Why? It's probably infected with some virulent zombie fungus.
Toxic enough when attached to the living host. Ain't coming near that shit!
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 19 2024 8:37 utc | 96
Here's hoping she wins the Australian Open:
Jackson Hinkle 🇺🇸
@jacksonhinklle
💔🇵🇸 Tunisian tennis player Anas Jaber says she will donate her prize money to PALESTINE in an emotional speech.
https://twitter.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1748136530554614097
Posted by: Menz | Jan 19 2024 8:46 utc | 97
Terrorists.
Bastards.
Animals.
Though I have no doubt more than one here would pay for the decapitated head of a fallen Israeli soldier.
@ Posted by: Augusto Pi | Jan 19 2024 8:12 utc | 94
Had you blocked since the day you arrived, but I'm fairly sure everyone knows where YOUR HEAD is at!
Down the sewers. LOL
Now back to Block. (Thanks Arch)
Posted by: Lavrov's Dog | Jan 19 2024 8:51 utc | 98
How both Shia Iran and Sunni Pakistan suppress a free (mostly Sunni) Baluchistan just like Israel is fed up with Hamas-Gaza: national security: https://www.dawn.com/news/1806777/trust-issues-why-are-pakistan-and-iran-up-in-arms
A long history...
Posted by: Antonym | Jan 19 2024 8:51 utc | 99
But, but ... I thought Northern Gaza had been "cleared out" ?
10:28 Fierce clashes reported between resistance fighters and Israeli occupation forces east of Jabalia in northern Gaza Strip
I thought the Shebrew Warriors had sliced North from South, Left from Right and Coast from the hills ...?
Haven't they divided tiny Gaza into halves and quarters, eighths and planck squares?
Didn't they flood all the tunnels with the Mediterranean sea??
Or blow them all up ten miles at a go?
And gassed every Hamas fighter with Zyklon B,C and D?
Haven't those F35s been working day and night over land and sea?
Haven't they flattened every standing building, pit latrine and tree?
What about those 2000 pound bombs?
The ones too dumb to see and the ones too smart but far from free?
The IDF is certainly making heavy weather of something that should be so easy.
And these fools want to take on Hezbollah?
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Jan 19 2024 8:52 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
A Barfly posted this article on prior thread, I’m reposted here because it’s profound;
https://www.palestinechronicle.com/half-of-the-troops-simply-walked-out-israeli-army-crisis-deepens/
Posted by: Exile | Jan 18 2024 16:34 utc | 1