Another great article by Caitlin Johnston:
The West’s Support For Israel Is The #1 Threat To Free Speech
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-wests-support-for-israel-is-the

Posted by: Zet | Mar 5 2025 18:25 utc | 3

@Posted by: librul | Mar 5 2025 19:01 utc | 4
edits welcome

Posted by: librul | Mar 5 2025 19:01 utc | 5

Yves Engler discusses FindIdfSoldiers.net with Jacob Epstein, the sites founder.
https://youtu.be/sDeJ37yex4w?si=71hPFKxrMV0n8oF8

Posted by: David G Horsman | Mar 5 2025 20:02 utc | 7

Axios
5 hours ago –
Exclusive: U.S. holding secret talks with Hamas
Barak Ravid
The Trump administration has been holding direct talks with Hamas over the release of U.S. hostages held in Gaza and the possibility of a broader deal to end the war, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.
Why it matters: The talks — held by U.S. presidential envoy for hostage affairs Adam Boehler — are unprecedented. The U.S. had never before engaged directly with Hamas, which it designated a terrorist organization in 1997.
Behind the scenes: The meetings between Boehler and Hamas officials took place in Doha in recent weeks.
While the Trump administration consulted with Israel about the possibility of engaging with Hamas, Israel learned about aspects of the talks through other channels, one source said.
The sources spoke with Axios on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the sensitive meetings.
Zoom in: The talks have focused in part on the release of U.S. hostages, which is within Boehler’s remit as hostage envoy.
But they have also included discussions of a broader deal to release all remaining hostages and reach a long-term truce, the sources say. No deal has yet been reached.
White House envoy Steve Witkoff also planned to travel to Doha this week to meet the prime minister of Qatar about the ceasefire negotiations but canceled the trip on Tuesday night after he saw there was no progress from Hamas’ side, a U.S. official said.
Between the lines: Trump’s approach to the conflict has differed sharply from President Biden’s, including repeatedly threatening “hell to pay” for Hamas and proposing a U.S. “takeover” of Gaza.
Directly negotiating with Hamas — particularly without buy-in from Israel — is another step previous administrations have not taken.
State of play: 59 hostages are still held by Hamas in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces have confirmed 35 of them are dead. Israeli intelligence believes 22 hostages are still alive, and the status of two others is unknown.
Among the remaining hostages are five Americans including one, 21-year-old Edan Alexander, who is believed to be alive.
The 42-day ceasefire that was part of the first phase of the Gaza deal expired on Saturday after the parties couldn’t reach an agreement on extending it.
The fighting hasn’t resumed, but Israel halted all humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza where an estimated 1.9 million Palestinians — 90% of the population — have been displaced by the war, and famine looms.
Update: White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Wednesday afternoon that the U.S. was holding direct talks with Hamas, and said Israel had been consulted.
She said Trump believes “it is the right thing for the American people” and added “there are American lives on the line”
The Israeli Prime Minister’s office said in a statement: “During talks with the U.S., Israel expressed its opinion about the issue of direct talks with Hamas”
The White House and the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office did not offer comment prior to publication.
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/us-hamas-talks-gaza-war-israel

Posted by: Menz | Mar 5 2025 20:45 utc | 9

Stop Arab Hate
@StopArabHate
🚨 Keren Yarhi-Milo is the dean at @ColumbiaSIPA
and will be interviewing Naftali Bennett today
He once said: “I’ve killed many Arabs in my life, and there’s no problem with that”
https://x.com/StopArabHate/status/1897020734079463572

Posted by: Menz | Mar 5 2025 20:47 utc | 11

@Posted by: Menz | Mar 5 2025 20:49 utc | 13
“They hate us for our freedoms”,
comes full circle.

Posted by: librul | Mar 5 2025 21:05 utc | 13

I am not surprised that Trump’s people, despite all of the big talk, are communicating with Hamas.
As I have mentioned before, negotiating with Arabs and Persians is a very different task than haggling over NY real estate.
The Palestinians have been fighting and dying for decades. They are dying today.
They are not going to surrender and the Zionists (Americans and Europeans) will have to genocide them all.
There goes Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize bid.
Time is on the Palestinians’ side. Israel is collapsing internally, and Bibi has to produce a budget soon or be forced into elections he will surely lose.
The longer the Palestinians can stall and keep the American bombers grounded, the more they are likely to accomplish towards establishing a state.
About the Arab League deal. They are not dumb. They are cunning and mendacious.
They knew that disarming Hamas was a poison pill. They didn’t expect their deal to be accepted by the Palestinians. Now they can handle their internal critics on the “Arab street” saying, “We tried and Palestine rejected our generous offer.”
It’s a weak answer, but it is an answer. In KSA and the Emirates, people live like (HG Wells’) Eloi. They aren’t in the streets challenging the state to live up to the example of the Prophet (Sallallahu Alayhi Salam). They are kept blissfully in comfort and do not know material struggle. That is the key to how they are ruled.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 5 2025 21:28 utc | 15

“If you can’t beat them, join them,” Arab countries that are allies of the US, (Turkey, Jordan, Qutar, Saudi Arabia) should form superpacs “AAPAC” (American-Arab Political Action Committee) and significantly outspend Israel lobbies such as AIPAC (American-Israel Political Action Committee). Competition is the most effective way Arab countries will be on equal footing when it comes to buying, owning and directing US politicians foreign policy decisions.

Posted by: Willow | Mar 5 2025 22:19 utc | 17

In a post to his TruthSocial platform on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump threatened members of Hamas and residents of Gaza that they would be “DEAD” if they don’t do as he says: release all captives, and leave the enclave.
“‘Shalom Hamas’ means Hello and Goodbye – You can choose. Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you,” Trump wrote on his social media site.
“Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted! I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he warned.
“I have just met with your former Hostages whose lives you have destroyed. This is your last warning! For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza, while you still have a chance. Also, to the People of Gaza: A beautiful Future awaits, but not if you hold Hostages. If you do, you are DEAD! Make a SMART decision. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”

Posted by: JB | Mar 5 2025 23:00 utc | 19

“The West’s Support For Israel Is The #1 Threat To Free Speech”
Last month Norman Finkelstein said that a student resistance movement for Palestine was needed with the leading slogan “Free Palestine, Free Speech” which is what my sign said in the recent action that took place in my city.
FREE PALESTINE
FREE SPEECH

Posted by: Lavieja | Mar 5 2025 23:09 utc | 21

A response to Trump from a Yemeni
https://x.com/Ahmed_hassan_za/status/1897417300585931166
“Tell Trump that we don’t care about him, we don’t care about his threats”
And a video from the Yemeni capital
“We don’t care, we don’t care, we don’t care
Make it a WW3”
https://x.com/Ahmed_hassan_za/status/1897392278395871668
####
This is becoming funny to me. Trump is threatening people who have faced genocide with hell.
The resistance must be slaughtered if Trump wants to stop it. And then probably the Palestinians in Jordan too. He will have to get up to Pol Pot levels of violence.
BS and threats aren’t working on Canada or China. Why does he think they will work on people prepared to die as martyrs?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 5 2025 23:29 utc | 23

@ 7
“Israel was invited to the May 9 parade in Moscow”
Israel has as embassy in Moscow. Israel and Russia are not at war and on good terms. So I am sure the Israeli Ambassador will be at the May 9 Victory Celebrations. Not to be there would show great disrespect to the Russians.
I don’t see how that show any alliance.
Perhaps Israel’s ambassador will be seated next to Palestine’s President Abbas?

Posted by: golddigger | Mar 6 2025 1:14 utc | 25

Perhaps Israel’s ambassador will be seated next to Palestine’s President Abbas?
Posted by: golddigger | Mar 6 2025 1:14 utc | 26
_______
Was the Pu Yi of the Palestinians invited?

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 6 2025 1:54 utc | 27

https://t-me.translate.goog/s/Sohaibpress?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en
Journalist Suhaib Al-Masalma, translation and analysis specialist
Major obstacles and difficulties in implementing the Egyptian plan on the ground hours after the final announcement of the outcomes of the Arab Summit in Cairo: –
The Israeli government and the American government reject the Egyptian plan for reconstruction and the day after in Gaza.
Likewise, the Palestinian factions welcomed the Egyptian plan and had reservations about some of its provisions. Hamas refused to touch the resistance’s weapons and rejected the presence of an international force in Gaza and the West Bank. Also, Islamic Jihad rejected the provision regarding sending an international peacekeeping force to Gaza and the West Bank.
—-
https://x.com/Ahmed_hassan_za/status/1896970114203050310
Ahmed Hassan 🇾🇪 أحمد حسن زيد @Ahmed_hassan_za
The Houthis never left Yemen, how did the blood of Americans get on their hands ?!
https://x.com/SenTomCotton/status/1896947855044313266
Tom Cotton @SenTomCotton
The Houthis are a gang of depraved terrorists with American blood on their hands.
I’m glad to see that Secretary Rubio has redesignated these killers as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 6 2025 3:11 utc | 29

Posted by: Chas | Mar 5 2025 22:41 utc | 19
Thanks for your explanation. It’s probably very hard to do right now. I join in your final wish.

Posted by: juliania | Mar 6 2025 3:36 utc | 31

https://x.com/Pal_action/status/1895609402763460610
Palestine Action @Pal_action
BREAKING: Oxford university targeted again over ties to genocide, including investments in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer.
The action against the School of Government sends a clear message to administrators : End your complicity or expect direct action.
https://x.com/RamAbdu/status/1895589508785324308
Ramy Abdu| رامي عبده @RamAbdu
⚠️The image shows the body of a Palestinian young man with special needs who was tortured to death in an Israeli occupation detention center.
Waseem Hassan Ayash, a Palestinian with special needs, was killed under torture in one of the Israeli occupation prisons in the West Bank
https://x.com/MintPressNews/status/1895208499933528257
MintPress News @MintPressNews
Editors from The Guardian and BBC have been exposed for meeting with Israel’s former military chief, one month into the Gaza genocide
Declassified UK has revealed that the former chief of staff for Israel’s military, Aviv Kochavi, held private meetings with the editors of major British media outlets around a month into the Gaza war. This, in addition to various complaints about the coverage of Gaza in the British media has served as evidence of the biased tendencies of the news outlets.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 6 2025 4:08 utc | 33

Israel’s War Decimated Gaza’s Farmlands and Killed Most of its Livestock
The bombing has destroyed agricultural land and poisoned the soil, while Israel’s sweeping blockade has made water scarce for farmers who once provided a third of Gaza’s food needs.
Rasha Abou jalal
Mar 06, 2025
GAZA—On an afternoon in early February, Sami Abu Amr, a 61-year-old farmer, walked through his roughly three-acre stretch of land that lies east of the Gaza City neighborhood of Shuja’iyya where he once tended olive trees and grew seasonal vegetables, including cucumbers, tomatoes, and potatoes. Before the war, the sale of his produce to local residents provided the sole source of income for his family of 13, including his sons and grandchildren. But these agricultural lands are now a scene of devastation: A barren landscape of uprooted trees, bulldozer tracks and soil riddled with craters left by Israeli airstrikes.
Along with the ruin of his farmland, the Israeli military had also destroyed Abu Amr’s agricultural equipment, greenhouse, irrigation network, and poultry farm, amounting to losses he estimates at $70,000. “This land is not just a source of livelihood,” Abu Amr said. “It is my life, my history. I have nurtured it with my sweat for years.”
Before Israel’s assault began in 2023, agricultural land covered approximately 47% of the Gaza Strip and produced enough food to serve up to a third of local demand, offering a critical source of food for Palestinians living under siege for nearly two decades.
Following the “ceasefire” that went into effect January 19, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza returned to their homes and land after months of forced displacement only to find an apocalyptic landscape. In addition to the destruction of homes, shops, bakeries, hospitals, universities, roads, and other civilian infrastructure, Israel has decimated almost all of Gaza’s agricultural capacity.
MORE…
https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/gaza-war-agriculture-farmland-livestock?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Posted by: Menz | Mar 6 2025 4:25 utc | 35

Drop Site
@DropSiteNews
REPORT | President Donald Trump to the Palestinian resistance group Hamas: “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!”
Trump seems unaware that Israel is currently withholding 665 Palestinian bodies, including those of 59 children. This decades-old Israeli policy is rooted in the 1936 British Defense Regulations, adopted by Israel in 1948.
It became institutionalized in 1995 when the Israeli High Court ruled that the army could withhold the body of Hassan Abbas, a Hamas member, as a “bargaining chip.” The practice resumed during the 2015 “Lone Wolf Intifada” and has expanded since, with rulings in 2019 and January 2025 upholding its legality despite widespread condemnation for violating international humanitarian law.
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1897425983180825080

Posted by: Menz | Mar 6 2025 4:27 utc | 37

Drop Site
@DropSiteNews
“Civil defense crews in northern Gaza retrieve the bodies of dozens of martyrs who were randomly buried in the streets and among tents during the Israeli invasion of Jabalia camp. Most of the bodies are unidentified, as they have decomposed and their features have changed, making them difficult to identify.”
https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1897467844666740903

Posted by: Menz | Mar 6 2025 4:29 utc | 39

From Al Manar

Yemeni Armed Forces announced late Tuesday that its air defenses managed to shoot down a US MQ-9 hostile reaper over Hodeidah Governorate.
In a statement, the Yemeni Armed Forces announced that the drone was shot down using a local-made surface-to-air missile while carrying out hostile missions.
The drone is the fifteenth to be shot down during the battle of “Promised Victory and Holy Jihad” since November 2023, the Yemeni forces announced.

Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results….Insanity = $450 million loss

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 6 2025 4:40 utc | 41

librul 21
‘ Trump is a madman. Period.’
It seems more likely that anybody who can afford psychological medication to treat the mental stress of living in the West has lost the brains they were born with. Chemically lobotomised.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 6 2025 5:14 utc | 43

Arab states still not cutting diplo and commercial relations with the zio entity. Only possible explanation is that they went full Calvinist.
Posted by: Tom | Mar 6 2025 5:48 utc | 45
They never “went” anywhere.
They were created root and stem by Western colonial imperialists.
Their very existence if premised on Western imperialism.
When they go to their bedrooms at night each and every one of these ‘Arab Leaders’ get their batteries taken out by a CIA/Mossad/Mi6/Chabad operative. Their heads then get removed, plugged into a diagnostic console and recalibrated electronically to make sure the next morning they operate according to program.
There’s no “God” involved, unless by “God” you mean the guy that manages the firmware update for these Arab manchurian candidates.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 6 2025 6:45 utc | 45

protests at Columbia Univ against the genocide in Palestine are heating up. see the 2nd 3rd links below
https://x.com/MustafaBarghou1/status/1897419696904839396
Mustafa Barghouti @Mustafa_Barghouti @MustafaBarghou1
President Trump wrote today that “only sick and twisted people keep dead bodies “, does he know that Israel is keeping 665 Palestinian dead bodies including bodies of 59 children ? And that Some Palestinian bodies are withheld by Israel for more than 50 years.
https://x.com/CraigMokhiber/status/1897418963547774994
Craig Mokhiber @CraigMokhiber
Human rights lawyer, justice campaigner, global citizen. Former UN.
This is what fascism looks like. Mobs of armed police attacking unarmed college students on behalf of an oppressive foreign regime simply for peacefully protesting against genocide & apartheid. Wake up, fight this, or be warned: you will be next. Don’t think for a minute that they won’t come for your rights too.
https://x.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1897437787227341068
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine @ColumbiaSJP
NYPD brought detained students into the library they claimed had to be cleared due to a bomb threat…while still supposedly investigating that bomb threat
https://x.com/ColumbiaSJP/status/1897459785605279900
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine @ColumbiaSJP
Instead of evacuating campus @BarnardCollege sent a PRIVATE EMAIL to CUAD (@ColumbiaBDS) claiming there was “threat of a pipe bomb” in the same building as the Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya Liberated Zone.
NYPD ordered protestors move back 1,000 feet from the library, yet on-campus freshman dorms received no notice to evacuate and multiple staff, students, and workers were left on the 2nd floor of the library.
If the bomb threat wasn’t manufactured by Barnard administrators, they put thousands of people on campus at extreme risk in order to arrest and brutalize protestors gathered at the lawn.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 6 2025 7:30 utc | 47

Mary @47
repeating my post at the end of the last thread: comment from a Hamas Spokesman is in the tweet.
US holds direct talks with Hamas! Now we are talking!
Link to X tweet

Posted by: gb_grave | Mar 6 2025 9:19 utc | 49

Nothing that is happening today is funny.
D Trump is not a madman, he is a primitive, ignorant bully with power in his hands based in immense e tools
of destruction. The Americans elected him to do what he is doing to them and to everyone else.
What is funny is talk about the law, international law specifically. International law functions only if it is voluntatrily accepted, respected and implemented by states.
There is one state entity today which openly disregards international law and acts with total freedom on the world stage, that is US/Israel. Nothing new, just in full view now. This entity does not know accountability.
No one on the global stage has attempted to effectively stop US/Israel from committing genocide and a wide range of crimes against humanity each worse than the other, large scale comprehensive material devastation, aggression, occupation of other states’ land, open theft of other states’ assets etc.
Verbal condemnations, hypocrisy and quasi-legal pledges can not replace effective collective and individual action which did not happen even to ensure that vital aid flows into Gaza!!!
The only important thing today, the ultimate human obligation, is to save the Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank from total annihilation they are facing.
The fate of the Palestinians and Palestine is the measure of all things.

Posted by: JB | Mar 6 2025 12:11 utc | 51

I think we have a good idea – as to who the real terrorists are.
“A senior Yemeni official says the recent labeling of the Arab country’s Ansarullah resistance movement by the United States “does not matter,” as what is more important now is the besieged Gaza Strip.
Responding to the US decision to place the Ansarullah movement on its so-called “terrorist list” on Thursday, Ansarullah’s Supreme Political Council member Mohammed Ali al-Houthi emphasized that Yemen’s priority now is to send essential supplies to the blockaded Palestinian territory.
He stressed that this priority is more important than Washington’s anti-Yemen decision, which lacks legitimacy.
Al-Houthi’s response came two days after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Washington had re-designated the Yemeni resistance group as a “foreign terrorist organization (FTO).”
“Blocking aid to Gaza and undermining peace agreements are American terrorism, while Yemen’s support for Gaza through maritime operations is a legitimate act,” the high-ranking Ansarullah official stressed, as the Israeli regime has blocked the flow of humanitarian aids into Gaza.”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 6 2025 12:59 utc | 53

Does anyone have a feel for just how much of Hamas is actually deep Mossad?
I have the impression that Trump is actually addressing those folks.

Posted by: Matt | Mar 6 2025 13:41 utc | 55

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 6 2025 4:52 utc | 43
US lawmaker revives PAGER Act demanding Lebanon ‘end any recognition of Hezbollah’
———————————————-
I thought this must be satire, as if from The Onion or similar…. but it’s not.
A US Congressman is actually promoting this stunning display of ignorance and self-absorption.
Followed by the US president bleating on social media a further stunning display of ignorance and murderous threats. Should the massive ordinance supplied on Trump’s orders be actually used on Gaza’s population, the President has already said enough to be held legally responsible for serious crimes, albeit by a court which he himself has sanctioned.

Posted by: jayc | Mar 6 2025 16:08 utc | 57

….intercine racsim….

Posted by: exile | Mar 6 2025 17:50 utc | 59

“The leaders of the Syrian national armed forces”, today announced the establishment of a Military Council for the Liberation of Syria.
— A statement has been published, officially announcing the formation of the ‘Military Council for the Liberation of Syria’:
‘For the homeland and the citizen we sacrifice.
In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
‘O sons of the noble Syrian people, ‘O our brave soldiers who have swallowed their anger after months of injustice, oppression, kidnapping and physical liquidation according to ethnic or religious ideological views, and after the extremist jihadist terrorist regime that seized our homeland with the support of external forces and is currently implementing a policy of fait accompli without any legal or constitutional justification has failed and has been completely unable to protect the homeland and citizens, and the security, economic and humanitarian conditions have deteriorated to unprecedented levels in the history of the country, and after our land has been violated by external forces, we, the leaders of the Syrian national armed forces, announce the establishment of a Military Council for the Liberation of Syria.
This council represents the will of the free national Syrian people, and aims to achieve the following goals:
– Liberating all Syrian territory from all occupying and terrorist forces.
– Overthrowing the existing regime and dismantling its abhorrent sectarian oppressive apparatus.
– Protecting the lives and property of all Syrian citizens.
– Rebuilding state institutions on national and democratic foundations.
– Preparing the conditions for the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes.
Establishing a unified, sovereign Syrian state that respects human rights and guarantees justice and equality for all its citizens. We assure our people that we are not seeking power, and that our only goal is to liberate Syria and build a better future for its people. We call on all Syrians, from different sects, regions and ethnicities, to join our ranks and stand with us at this historic stage.
We also call on the international community to support the will of the Syrian people to be liberated from injustice and tyranny disguised by loose terms, and to stand by us in achieving our noble goals.
We believe that victory is ours, and that Syria will return free and proud, enjoying security, stability and prosperity. May God protect Syria and its people.’
source: Middle East Monitor

Posted by: JB | Mar 6 2025 19:09 utc | 61

The Electronic Intifada Podcast [MUST WATCH]
https://x.com/intifada/status/1897693742850769144
“Day 47 of the Gaza ceasefire.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 6 2025 19:20 utc | 63

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Mar 6 2025 20:23 utc | 65
##############
Laws are only as good as the mechanism to enforce them is.
Who is there to put anyone of stature “in the dock?”
Relying on these international institutions that have no teeth is naive.
The UN, ICC, ICJ cannot maintain justice. Similar to a lifeguard that can’t swim.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 6 2025 20:54 utc | 65

Needs confirmation: When asked whether US planes would join the IAF in strafing Gaza, he stated “You’re going to find out.” (Haaretz) This is not only a direct act of war against a very tiny, impotent venue of marginalized status but also directly involves the US as a country as a principal in the genocide of Gaza. Apparently without reference to any review by Congress. Will this also involve boots on the ground as well? Is this action a part and parcel of Trump’s revanche on all Gazans, big and small, young and old, for refusing to relocate? Is the US joining with the many followers of Ayelet Shaked, who famously named Palestinian children as “little snakes” and indicated that “they all should die”, to make this statement a reality?
Again, all of this needs confirmation. But stunning if the US can become a principal in an operation of this magnitude and geopolitical consequence without any public discussion or Congressional approval.

Posted by: abierno | Mar 6 2025 21:40 utc | 67

Lead us not into Temptation.Trump has been led by the snout into Satan’s trap of Worldly Power and supreme arrogance, rejecting the institutions of International Law and of Divine Guidance.
Chapter 7 , A’raf.
10. We have established you firmly on earth, and made for you in it livelihood—but rarely do you give thanks.
11. We created you, then We shaped you, then We said to the angels, “Bow down before Adam;” so they bowed down, except for Satan; he was not of those who bowed down.
12. He said, “What prevented you from bowing down when I have commanded you?” He said, “I am better than he; You created me from fire, and You created him from mud.”
13. He said, “Get down from it! It is not for you to act arrogantly in it. Get out! You are one of the lowly!”
14. He said, “Give me respite, until the Day they are resurrected.”
15. He said, “You are of those given respite.”
16. He said, “Because you have lured me, I will waylay them on Your straight path.
17. Then I will come at them from before them, and from behind them, and from their right, and from their left; and you will not find most of them appreciative.”
18. He said, “Get out of it, despised and vanquished. Whoever among them follows you—I will fill up Hell with you all.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 6 2025 22:40 utc | 69

Posted by: whale | Mar 6 2025 22:45 utc | 71
###########
Mearsheimer, like many academics, does not understand anything about that region or its cultures.
He may be right about the outcome but it will be a coincidence, not from deduction. He judges those states as though they were Western states. There is no concept of martyrdom or spiritual solidarity in Western societies.
The West has had the same problems trying to understand Russia and China.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 6 2025 23:26 utc | 71

There is no concept of martyrdom or spiritual solidarity in Western societies.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 6 2025 23:26 utc | 72
_______
There also seems to be no concept of martyrdom or spiritual solidarity among Uncle $am’s MENA satrapies or their bloodthirsty hired thugs, oops, armies. Exceptions do exist but are very much the minority (Hamas, Ansar Allah, a few others).

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2025 2:12 utc | 73

see the 12-second video at the last link
https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1897733094901530989
Gaza Notifications @gazanotice
🚨Breaking: Palestinian journalist Moaz Al-Amour was shot by the Israeli army while on a reporting assignment near Abu Khadra Mosque in central Gaza City.
A bullet fired from an Israeli tank positioned on Al-Muntar Hill along the eastern border struck his right leg and remains lodged in it.
https://x.com/ejmalrai/status/1897709578982232072
Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 @ejmalrai
The new authorities in Syria r gathering forces from Idlib, Hama, Homs & Aleppo to push them towards Lattakia on the coast, the Alawite stronghold, in what the local leadership claims will be a major military operation. More than 15 security personnel have been killed so far.
https://x.com/MenchOsint/status/1897797656874733853
MenchOsint @MenchOsint
Jolani’s goverment forces dragging body of a Syrian in the streets

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 7 2025 2:23 utc | 75

@ michaelj72 | Mar 7 2025 2:23 utc | 76
Always worth noting that Jewlani will fight any perceived threat except the “Israeli” one.

Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2025 2:31 utc | 77

Syria seems to be headed towards failed state status faster than I expected.

Multiple Syrian channels report that Al-Julani Gangs and “Syrian Security Forces” completely lost control inside Jableh and on the Jableh Bridge.
They are reportedly retreating toward the highway between Jableh and Latakia.

Turkey invading from the North, Israel from the South.
Another failed shithole, thanks to Zionism.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Mar 7 2025 3:58 utc | 79

@ michaelj72 | Mar 7 2025 2:23 utc | 76
Always worth noting that Jewlani will fight any perceived threat except the “Israeli” one.
Posted by: malenkov | Mar 7 2025 2:31 utc | 78
Exactly. agreed.
I say, once a head-chopping jihadist always a fascist head-chopper….
more than willing to do some of the dirty work for israel/USA/turkey and the zionist pigs who run that supremacist neo-colonial outpost.
& by the way:
https://t.me/Middle_East_Spectator/16177
Middle East Spectator – MES
—❗️🇸🇾/🇮🇷 NEW: Brigadier General Ghiath Suleiman Dalla, former officer in the SAA’s 4th Division, is leading the uprising in Syria
He is demanding a total HTS withdrawal from Syria’s majority Alawite coastal region, including Latakia and Tartous, in exchange for releasing HTS prisoners unharmed.
Ghiath Dalla is known as extremely loyal to Iranian interests, and was widely considered one of Iran’s most influential men inside Maher Al-Assad’s 4th Division, leading the 42nd ‘Ghiath Brigade’.
https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1897834060652986391
DD Geopolitics @DD_Geopolitics
🇸🇾 HTS forces walked straight into an ambush by the Coastal Resistance Forces—now firing blindly in panic. Chaos unfolding on the frontlines.
See the 45-second video at the last link

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 7 2025 4:51 utc | 81

Gaza Notifications
@gazanotice
🚨Breaking: The body of Mahmoud Baroud, Director of the Ministry of Youth and Sports in Gaza, was found after being missing for months. He was killed by the Israeli army during the ongoing genocide in Gaza, joining his five children—Malik, Mohammed, Ahmed, Mo’men, and journalist Haneen—who were also killed in the attacks.
https://x.com/gazanotice/status/1897731573606199399

Posted by: Menz | Mar 7 2025 6:13 utc | 83

Sydney Criminal Lawyers.
Antisemites Under the Bed: Full Blown McCarthyism Hits Australia
by Paul Gregoire published on 4 Mar 2025
The last week suspension of a grant presented to renowned Palestinian academic and author Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah has led commentators to declare that a version of 1950s US McCarthyism has now taken hold in Australia, with the latest iteration targeting local cultural figures evidently harbouring antisemitic thoughts, rather than any fears of “reds under the bed”.
Abdel-Fattah has been a central figure of this witch-hunt and demonising smear campaign, as she’s someone who’s dared to transgress an unspoken social decree that considers public statements of solidarity with Palestinians being tantamount to expressions of antisemitism, or prejudice against adherents of Judaism, which in 20th century Europe led to the Holocaust.
The absurd quality of this conflation has been lost on none of those opposed to the mass slaughter of the Palestinians of Gaza by the apartheid state of Israel, as how can criticism of a nation and its government over the commission of genocide, with evidence widely available to support this claim, suddenly be misconstrued as proof of the critic displaying hatred towards a religious group?
McCarthyism, or the reds under the bed scare, involved a United States cold war crackdown on alleged domestic communist threats posed by left-wing figures. This commenced with government employees, and then spread through the private sector, as suspects were taken into custody and required to confess details about their secret allegiance to the Soviet Union or face incarceration.
Right now, the antisemites under the bed threat in this country is being fuelled by the local Israel Lobby in cahoots with the Coalition and the Murdoch press, via the propagation of the conflation of political criticism of Israel with the illegal expression of antisemitism, despite obvious discrepancies, as such political fear campaigns dispense with rationality early on and replace it with blind ignorance.
Suspended for opposing Israel
A prominent author of the last two decades, Dr Abdel-Fattah has long spoken out about the Palestinian struggle against the settler colonial onslaught of the Israeli state in historic Palestine, and although she’s been joined by a chorus of others speaking on behalf of the cause since the outbreak of the Gaza genocide in October 2023, Randa had been a voice in the past when others hadn’t been.
The Australian Research Council awarded Abdel-Fattah an $870,000 grant in 2022 to research Arab/Muslim Australian Social Movements since the 1970s. Yet, while her research topic and her outspokenness on the Palestine cause posed no apparent issue in terms of granting her the award three years back, the political climate has shifted significantly since the genocide commenced.
The ARC suspended Abdel-Fattah’s grant on Wednesday, 26 February 2025 at the behest of Australian education minister Jason Clare, because she’d publicly stated that she’d broken the grant requirement of conducting an academic conference and instead held an online workshop. And this nonissue gave the establishment an excuse to attempt to silence Abdel-Fattah, after Murdoch had been targeting her since April 2024.
That the establishment has taken action against Abdel-Fattah based on such a trifle change to grant requirements is a clear example of how political fear campaigns, like McCarthyism, take hold, as any apparent anomaly was excuse enough to take action against the academic because of her outspoken advocacy on behalf of her people, no matter how unrelated the offending action may be.
A climate of fear and lies
MORE…
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/antisemites-under-the-bed-full-blown-mccarthyism-hits-australia/

Posted by: Menz | Mar 7 2025 6:17 utc | 85

Ghiath Dalla is known as extremely loyal to Iranian interests, and was widely considered one of Iran’s most influential men inside Maher Al-Assad’s 4th Division, leading the 42nd ‘Ghiath Brigade’.
Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 7 2025 4:51 utc | 82
The Wheel of History turns again.
It turns until the lessons are learned.

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 7 2025 6:47 utc | 87

https://x.com/KevorkAlmassian/status/1897775194837578094
Kevork Almassian @KevorkAlmassian
Anyone with half a brain cell knew Julani was never brought to power to rule over Syria. His role was to facilitate the balkanization of the country after starting a sectarian war.
—-
https://x.com/MaxBlumenthal/status/1897715056298934640
Max Blumenthal @MaxBlumenthal
Not seeing many of the leading progressive “anti-hate” NGOs condemning the Trump admin’s meeting with one of the world’s leading fascists and advocates of genocide
https://x.com/jacobkornbluh/status/1897335549326934117
Jacob N. Kornbluh @jacobkornbluh
Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister who was boycotted by the Biden administration and Jewish American organizations, celebrates his first official meeting with Treasury Sec. Bessent.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Mar 7 2025 8:11 utc | 89

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 7 2025 6:52 utc | 89
Mearesheimer is very good, but he doesn’t know the Middle East. The lack of knowledge shines out. His thing is the Jewish Lobby in a US context, not the countries which surround Israel. The Ashkenazi colonialists don’t think in the same way as the colonized.

Posted by: laguerre | Mar 7 2025 10:49 utc | 91

Any half-decent military force will have wiped the floor with these HTS rabble. I can’t even imagine the level of damage those Alawites rebels would do if they have even half of the number of drone operators that the Kurds have considering also the geography of the region in Latakia.
Alas, I don’t think they have. It was expected that HTS would start to slaughter any Alawite civilians they encounter. They are Al-Nusra after all.
Strangely the Kurds/Druze are fairly quiet which means whatever support the Alawites expected from these 2 minorities is not there. Maybe the Druze “uprising” that was seen a few days ago was a deceptive operation for the Alawite faction to come out of the shadows but take the brunt of the assault from the HTS subhumans.

Posted by: JamesBond | Mar 7 2025 11:41 utc | 93

Mearesheimer is very good, but he doesn’t know the Middle East.
Posted by: laguerre | Mar 7 2025 10:49 utc | 92
I agree that he doesn’t know the middle east.
I’m saying he gets quite a long way on common sense alone.
Some with all the knowledge of the M.E don’t even get that far …

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Mar 7 2025 12:05 utc | 95

From Israel’s perspective
Posted by: John Wick | Mar 7 2025 11:16 utc | 93
##################
Israel is a psychopathic colonial regime famous for its lies, and in its last days.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 7 2025 13:43 utc | 97

The assault on the Palestinian people is part of the Zionist project, obviously. But so too is the assault on Iran. Trump is pursuing that vigorously.
His man Treasury Secretary Bessent has made that very clear. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-treasurys-bessent-says-fsoc-will-drive-regulatory-change-outlines-tariff-2025-03-06/
It is not surprising that the Trump worshippers don’t want to discuss Palestine, the Zionist project or colonialism/imperialism.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Mar 7 2025 15:20 utc | 99