War, War, War

[etienne]

[...]
Don't fall into the trap of always blaming things on one party and then promote the Lesser Evil. It almost always makes you part of the Greater Evil and corrupts your soul.

Cool statement. Valid for both Gaza and Ukraine. It's time we realize that going to war makes you evil, whatever the reason of the war is. Who is the Greater or the Lesser only depends on which side you stand because in any situation you will find some historical explanation that makes your position right. Look at the fruits, don't listen to the talks.

Added : it is never the population that goes to war, but the governments. The population doesn't bear any responsibility.

[zenith]

Problem is, who will rule Gaza? Nobody wants it. The Egyptian fence is even stronger than Israel's. The madhouse should be theirs, but no. No-one wants them, not Jordan, not Lebanon. (There's your Apartheid!)

....P.S.: Hamas sh#s on any conventions. How to fight such an enemy? Should terrorists hiding under hospitals and behind children be allowed to claim victory? Hard questions for wannabe moralists.

there are already millions of palestinians in surrounding countries including egypt, jordan and lebanon, why should they help the israelis steal more of palestine? why should they absorb millions more refugees when they had homes and land?

israel supported/created hamas to split the palestinians, divide and conquer. you're just repeating every racist nonsensical trope that get repeated endlessly by zionists to justify what they're doing.

under international law, which israel cares nothing about, the occupied have the right to fight back against their occupiers.

[Richard Rathbone]

(...)
It is difficult to see any other end result than Gaza being unlivable, with little prospect of accessing adequate funds for any meaningful reconstruction to establish a self-sustaining society.

And the Politicians of the West, Russia, China, the East? Just playing power games.

ps: The Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war are history.

Dresden survived, Hiroshima survived, Grozny survived, etc.

Problem is, who will rule Gaza? Nobody wants it. The Egyptian fence is even stronger than Israel's. The madhouse should be theirs, but no. No-one wants them, not Jordan, not Lebanon.

The  refugee influx destroyed the state of Lebanon, it nearly destroyed the state of Jordan and Egypt is scared it would destroy them. Both Jordan and Egypt gave all their claims on the occupied territories to Palestine in their peace treaties with Israel. Both Jordan and Egypt aspired to rule over Palestine, but they lacked the armed force and powerful allies to support their imperial ambitions and abandoned them when they made peace with Israel. Israel wanted the

Israel wants Gaza, but it wants it populated by Jews, not Palestinians. At the moment its using the conflict as an opportunity to grab more of the West  Bank while attention is on Gaza, rather than as an opportunity to drive the Gazans out of Palestine and Egypt is doing its best to make sure it is utterly obvious that if the Palestinians are cleansed from Gaza by Israeli terror, that it is obvious to the world that is what happened, and not successfully hidden the way the Zionist terrorism of 1947/48 was.

[The Walrus]

[...]
Don't fall into the trap of always blaming things on one party and then promote the Lesser Evil. It almost always makes you part of the Greater Evil and corrupts your soul.

Cool statement. Valid for both Gaza and Ukraine. It's time we realize that going to war makes you evil, whatever the reason of the war is. Who is the Greater or the Lesser only depends on which side you stand because in any situation you will find some historical explanation that makes your position right. Look at the fruits, don't listen to the talks.

Added : it is never the population that goes to war, but the governments. The population doesn't bear any responsibility.

Yes, very nice statement.  One cannot rail against the evils committed by one side, while ignoring those of the opposition.  Too few ignore the evils and extol the virtues.  Maybe some day.

[zenith]

oh yes, sitting on the fence is a wonderful message. let's watch the powerful annihilate the powerless and call the powerless evil for fighting back. that's not how international law sees it, that's the law of the jungle though.

by this reasoning the jews in the warsaw ghetto who fought back were evil too. absurd.

[Neven]

Given how difficult it is to know what's really going on in Ukrainian society with regards to public opinion etc, I can recommend this YouTube channel called Ukrainian Interviews, where videos are regularly posted of interviews with people on the street (I guess in Kiev). Of course, this isn't representative, but one can try and read (whatever one likes) between the lines.

For instance, the latest video revolves around the question how the war is going to end. There's one guy from Zakarpattia who is pretty blunt, a soldier with a SS-Totenkopf on his cap, a foreigner who wants to fight till the last Ukrainian, and so on.



I notice how in most of these videos the women and old people use very belligerent and non-compromising language, whereas younger men weigh their words and aren't as outspoken about what this war is about and whether it serves the interests of the Ukrainian people. I've watched most of these videos, and it's interesting to see whether there are changes in how people talk about what's going on.

Of course, I feel sorry for all Ukrainians and how they have been cheated, manipulated and abused by the people that run Russian foreign policy, US neocons and corrupt West Ukrainian oligarchs and neo-Nazis. I'm especially angry with my own European leaders who lacked the independence, moral values and courage to do what is right for Ukraine.

All that is happening, didn't have to happen and shouldn't have happened. I still hope the war ends as soon as possible, and people will quickly adapt to new realities. But it won't end as long as there is money to be made.

[Florifulgurator]

P.S.: Hamas sh#s on any conventions. How to fight such an enemy?

If you're going to fight, fight both Hamas and Israeli Zionism. Don't fall into the trap of always blaming things on one party and then promote the Lesser Evil. It almost always makes you part of the Greater Evil and corrupts your soul.

It is Israel against Hamas. Period.
If I have to choose, I always choose the lesser evil. Period. But also I try to avoid unnecessary choices.
Do you grant Israel the right to defend herself?
Do you have any answer to the question:

Should terrorists hiding under hospitals and behind children be allowed to claim victory?

BTW, Zionism isn't as evil as a century of Islamist/Nazi/Soviet propaganda wants you to believe.

(...)
It is difficult to see any other end result than Gaza being unlivable, with little prospect of accessing adequate funds for any meaningful reconstruction to establish a self-sustaining society.

And the Politicians of the West, Russia, China, the East? Just playing power games.

ps: The Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war are history.

Dresden survived, Hiroshima survived, Grozny survived, etc.

Problem is, who will rule Gaza? Nobody wants it. The Egyptian fence is even stronger than Israel's. The madhouse should be theirs, but no. No-one wants them, not Jordan, not Lebanon.

The  refugee influx destroyed the state of Lebanon, it nearly destroyed the state of Jordan and Egypt is scared it would destroy them. (...)

Israel wants Gaza, but it wants it populated by Jews, not Palestinians (...)

Nonsense! Israel handed Gaza over to the Palestinian Arabs. They forcefully removed any Palestinian Jew from Gaza, and even dug up their graves! You need to get that detail of recent history right.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza

I was talking about e.g. Egypt integrating Gaza, or at least making it a protectorate until Gazans get mature enough to rule themselves. Or some other Arab peace keeping force. (Clearly Israel won't stay in Gaza after the war. They are not stupid, and actually want peace.) Of course the Gazans should stay where they are.

[Florifulgurator]

(...) european colonists out (...)

You missed an important part of the history:

What about the non-European Jews in Palestine? I.e. the Mizrahim, who had to flee Muslim nations after the Arabs lost their 1947 war against Israel. The Mizrahim are half the Jewish population in Palestine! Slightly more in number than the Arab Palestinian refugees. War makes refugees. Who starts the war should complain least. Only exception: The "Palestinians".

https://youtu.be/DnXSOQqzaKA?si=GeWqlB5A024tpHbi

(I could go on about your "colonists"... Perhaps next week. Too much disgust to digest. Queers for Palestine!)

[Richard Rathbone]

Nonsense! Israel handed Gaza over to the Palestinian Arabs. They forcefully removed any Palestinian Jew from Gaza, and even dug up their graves! You need to get that detail of recent history right.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza

I was talking about e.g. Egypt integrating Gaza, or at least making it a protectorate until Gazans get mature enough to rule themselves. Or some other Arab peace keeping force. (Clearly Israel won't stay in Gaza after the war. They are not stupid, and actually want peace.) Of course the Gazans should stay where they are.

Its you that has the history back to front. Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine, driving those that survived the bombings, death marches, rapes, lootings, tortures, executions, slave labor camps, massacres and biological warfare, which comprise the Nakba, into a couple of enclaves that the Egyptians managed to seize and hold in Gaza and that the Jordanians seized on the West Bank as well as out of the country into Lebanon and Jordan. They seized those enclaves in later wars and continued the process of driving out the Palestinians from them. 2005 was merely a small tactical withdrawal to await a more opportune moment. The rage that it provoked in Israel merely goes to show that the Zionist ambition for a substantial and ethnically pure Israel is not yet sated. Zionists always recognised that the creation of Israel would require the expulsion of the Palestinians and when the UK handed its mandate back to the UN, they seized the opportunity to do it. They got a lot, but not all of what they wanted and have repeatedly come back for more when they've had the opportunity. At the moment they are busy stealing land on the West Bank while attention is on Gaza. And not for the first time, they are doing their best to make Gaza uninhabitable in order to persuade the Palestinians there to flee.

wikipedia does a decent job of not being pure Zionist propaganda accounts, but I suggest reading some of the sources referenced too. For example  The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ethnic-Cleansing-Palestine-Ilan-Pappe-ebook/dp/B07ZVYTSMF/

What is happening in Gaza and the West  Bank now is the same policy, the same tactics, the same propaganda that Israel has been using since 1947. The promises made and immediately broken. The "acceptance" of agreements that are sure will be unacceptable to the Palestinians, in order to blame the Palestinians for the conflict always with the intent to walk back their own acceptance if the Palestinians actually agreed. Covering up their genocide by pretending its done in self-defence.  Its never been the Jews and always been the Palestinians at risk of genocide in 20th and 21st century Palestine.

[gerontocrat]

No comment

[Florifulgurator]

Nonsense! Israel handed Gaza over to the Palestinian Arabs. They forcefully removed any Palestinian Jew from Gaza, and even dug up their graves! You need to get that detail of recent history right.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_disengagement_from_Gaza

I was talking about e.g. Egypt integrating Gaza, or at least making it a protectorate until Gazans get mature enough to rule themselves. Or some other Arab peace keeping force. (Clearly Israel won't stay in Gaza after the war. They are not stupid, and actually want peace.) Of course the Gazans should stay where they are.

Its you that has the history back to front. Israel ethnically cleansed Palestine, driving those that survived the bombings, death marches, rapes, lootings, tortures, executions, slave labor camps, massacres and biological warfare, which comprise the Nakba, into a couple of enclaves that the Egyptians managed to seize and hold in Gaza and that the Jordanians seized on the West Bank as well as out of the country into Lebanon and Jordan. They seized those enclaves in later wars (...)
(...)Ilan Pappe(...)

Who started the wars?
Yes, some Arabs were forcefully driven out in the 1947 war (and other wars). Let's say 1/3. Others went because the Arab agressors told them to get out of the way, assuming they can return after the promised ethnic cleansing. Others fled because they believed Arab horror propaganda (e.g. about Deir Yasin (which Ilan Pappe couldn't even locate correctly...)).

Those who stayed comprise 20% of Israel's population. One even sits in the Israeli Supreme Court. Tell me one Arab nation where Arabs enjoy more freedom (e.g. not get killed for being queer). Queers for Palestine!

P.S. apropos Nakba and Queers for Palestine. If you read Ilan Pappe, you should also listen to this guy. The truth is somewhere in the middle.


But now I seriously pause for a week.

P.P.S.: You might want to look up why the Golan Heights are strategically essential for Israel's survival. And who started that war?

[zenith]

the council on foreign relations must be unhappy if their morning mouthpiece is going on and on about this. hillary clinton looks thrilled.

Morning Joe FUMES At STUDENTS for Protesting US War Criminals

[jai mitchell]

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/avi-shlaim-proof-israel-zionist-involvement-iraq-jews-attacks

Avi Shlaim says he has 'proof of Zionist involvement' in 1950s attack on Iraqi Jews
British-Israeli historian claims in new memoir that Mossad carried out bombings to drive Jews out of Iraq and hasten their transfer to Israel

British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim has claimed in his new book to have uncovered "undeniable proof" of Israeli involvement in attacks on Jewish communities in Iraq in the early 1950s.

Shlaim's autobiography, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew, which details his childhood as an Iraqi Jew and subsequent exile to Israel, was published last week.

According to a review of the memoir printed on Saturday in the Spectator magazine, Shlaim unveils in his book "undeniable proof of Zionist involvement in the terrorist attacks" which prompted a mass exodus of Jews from Iraq between 1950 and 1951.

The historian concluded, after extensive personal research, that while a grenade assault on the Masuda Shemtov synagogue in Baghdad - which killed four Jews in January 1951 - was carried out by an Arab, other bombings were allegedly the work of Mossad, Israel's spy agency.

These were carried out to quicken the transfer of 110,000 Jews in Iraq to the then-newly created state of Israel, he said.

[zenith]

Arkansas Woman SMEARS Student Protesters on MSNBC

[zenith]

the due dissidence boys are jewish. max blumenthal, aaron mate, katie halper, ilan pappe, gideon levy, miko peled and many, many more are all jewish and have been warning about the fascism that's taken root in israel, some for a couple decades now.

The Ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Ilan Pappe
https://yplus.ps/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Pappe-Ilan-The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine.pdf

Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/17366045

2014
'I see first signs of fascism in Israel' Gideon Levy - BBC HARDtalk


Gilad Atzmon was born and raised in israel, after he finished his military service he renounced his israel citizenship and judaism entirely and took up being a jazz musician and author.

The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics by Gilad Atzmon
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12272274

the 'self hating jew' appears to have completely removed himself from all political debate these days and just plays music.

Early Blues - Gilad Atzmon European Quartet

[Richard Rathbone]

British-Israeli historian Avi Shlaim has claimed in his new book to have uncovered "undeniable proof" of Israeli involvement in attacks on Jewish communities in Iraq in the early 1950s.

Shlaim's autobiography, Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew, which details his childhood as an Iraqi Jew and subsequent exile to Israel, was published last week.

According to a review of the memoir printed on Saturday in the Spectator magazine, Shlaim unveils in his book "undeniable proof of Zionist involvement in the terrorist attacks" which prompted a mass exodus of Jews from Iraq between 1950 and 1951.

The historian concluded, after extensive personal research, that while a grenade assault on the Masuda Shemtov synagogue in Baghdad - which killed four Jews in January 1951 - was carried out by an Arab, other bombings were allegedly the work of Mossad, Israel's spy agency.

These were carried out to quicken the transfer of 110,000 Jews in Iraq to the then-newly created state of Israel, he said.

Avi Shlaim is another of the few Israeli historians that aren't Zionist propagandists. Its not an accident that both he and Ilan Pappe left Israel and worked at top UK universities instead. Israel adopted the UK principle of opening its state archives to researchers once the papers were 30 years old. This meant that  Israeli historians got to read the private as well as the public actions of their leaders at the time of independence. They found their was a dramatic difference between the myth propagated by the public speeches and the actual actions they took. They published  their findings.

Initially it had some positive effect, but the violent Zionist backlash against the largely peaceful Intifada extended to the history that had revealed that the war of independence was also a violent expulsion by overwhelming military force of largely peaceful Palestinians. School textbooks were rewritten. There was a libel prosecution for revealing a Nakba massacre despite the public confession of one of the perpetrators. Israel just couldn't bear the truth of what it had done 40 years earlier while it was engaged in repeating it. It was as if Holocaust denial had become official German policy and the laws against it in Germany had been reversed. Israel had its "what did you do in the war Daddy?" moment and the younger generation decided to repeat the oppressions and cover ups of their elders rather than renounce them.

The spiritual founder of Likud believed that Palestinians should eventually be second class citizens in Israel, but that they would fight hard for their lands and rights and would have to be militarily repressed for a long time before they were prepared to accept it. I think thats a pretty accurate statement of Israel policy to this day, the "peace" terms they offer, and the methods they use. (Likud is the post-independence political successor to Irgun, the pre-independence terrorist group he founded.)

[zenith]

Rabbi Meir Kahane and Israel’s far right, explained
Understanding the predecessor to today’s Otzma Yehudit party — and his ideology — requires a look at his past
https://www.timesofisrael.com/rabbi-meir-kahane-and-israels-far-right-explained/

Norman Finkelstein: Everything you know about Israel is wrong

[etienne]

oh yes, sitting on the fence is a wonderful message. let's watch the powerful annihilate the powerless and call the powerless evil for fighting back. that's not how international law sees it, that's the law of the jungle though.

by this reasoning the jews in the warsaw ghetto who fought back were evil too. absurd.

you can't make peace with weapons, best case you get a cease fire. Non violent resistance is the best way, the hardest way.

If you read what people like Gandhi wrote, he says that you have the responsibility to do something, and killing is better than staying on the couch, but it won't let you achieve the goal of peace.

An example of non violent action regarding Gaza https://bdsmovement.net/
Regarding Ukraine, it's more complicated. I don't have any example available.

[zenith]

War on Gaza: Israeli bombing kills 40 in Nuseirat as Jabalia and Rafah fighting rages
Israeli ground offensive in Rafah forces half a million into a new wave of displacement
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-attacks-nuseirat-jabalia-camp-half-million-flee-rafah

"Half a million flee Rafah
Elsewhere on Tuesday, at least three people were killed and nine wounded after Israeli artillery targeted the Zaytoun neighbourhood in central Gaza.

In Rafah, Israeli tanks pushed deeper into eastern areas, entering the neighbourhoods of al-Jneina, al-Salam and al-Brazil, residents told Reuters.

"The tanks advanced this morning west of Salahuddin road into the Brazil and Jneina neighbourhoods," one resident said. "They are in the streets inside the built-up area and there are clashes."

Unrwa, the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, estimates that nearly 450,000 people have fled Rafah since Israeli forces started their wider operations in the area on 6 May.

"People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear," the agency said on X. "Nowhere is safe. An immediate ceasefire is the only hope."

It comes as the International Court of Justice is set to hold hearings on Thursday and Friday to discuss new emergency measures sought by South Africa over Israel's attacks on Rafah.

Qatar, which is negotiating between Israel and Hamas, indicated on Tuesday that ceasefire talks had reached a deadlock.

Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani said that Israel's operation in Rafah sent things backwards, but that talks were still ongoing.

The death toll of Palestinians killed in Gaza in Israeli attacks since 7 October rose to 35,173 on Tuesday. Additionally, 79,061 others have been wounded during that time."

[Richard Rathbone]

South Africa's complaint which the ICJ will hold hearings on 16th, 17th May.

https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240510-wri-01-00-en.pdf

In light of Israel’s ongoing non-compliance with the provisional measures previously indicated
by this Court, South Africa requests that in making that call, the President clarify and confirm those
Orders, including the conditions he considers are required to give them “full effect”.

New evidence of Israeli atrocities across Gaza is emerging, illustrating the extreme risk facing
Rafah’s population and hospitals as a result of Israel’s military incursion. They include what United
Nations experts describe as the “horrif[ic] . . . details emerging from mass graves recently unearthed
in the Gaza Strip. Over 390 bodies have been discovered at Nasser and Al Shifa hospitals, including
of women and children, with many reportedly showing signs of torture and summary executions,
and potential instances of people buried alive”.39 By preventing international observers, fact-finders
and the international press from entering Gaza, Israel is preventing the effective collection and
preservation of this evidence.40 Without it, Israel’s many acts of genocide and other crimes and breaches
of international law of the utmost gravity are likely to remain not only unpunished but unrecorded and
unacknowledged.

I suspect they are right, Israel does want  to capture the Rafah hospitals too, and torture and execute some of the people they capture in them too. Where do those wounded by Israeli munitions go? Hospitals. Where will they find wounded fighters? Hospitals. Where will they also find wounded male civilians of military age? Hospitals. Where will they find medics who might have information on who they've treated that can be extracted under torture? Hospitals. Why did Hamas fight so hard over other hospitals? Not because they were command centres as the Israelis pretended, but because they knew what the IDF does to those on their death lists and they wanted to save their comrades and compatriots from that fate as long as they could.

I've seen testimony from MSF medics caught in those sieges that when the Israelis put out humanitarian supplies, and the MSF medics offered to go and collect them, the Palestinian medics wouldn't let them. They said the Israelis would shoot whoever went to collect them, and this was a risk the Palestinians had to take, not MSF. Palestinian hospital workers did try to collect them and were shot. Use of truces to lure people out to be shot has been a theme of IDF operations. The Palestinians know the Israelis routinely violate truces, yet they go anyway. What do you call a paramedic that goes out under truce to collect a small girl from  the wreckage of a car that contains her dead family? The Israelis call them terrorists. Knowing full well that the truce is liable to be broken? It was. The moment the paramedics arrived they and the girl were used for target practice. The Israelis are, in their own words, "mowing the lawn". Simply being brave in the face of death makes a Palestinian a terrorist that needs to be exterminated.

And in today's news,  they've done it again. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-69006734

The United Nations says one of its staff members was killed and another injured as they travelled to a hospital in southern Gaza on Monday.

India's mission to the UN in New York named the staff member as Col Waibhav Kale, who worked for the UN Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) in Gaza.

Also in today's news some information about how many of the 1200 deaths in the standard account were Israeli combatants. Its roughly 1/3. In round numbers, 200 Palestinian combatants, 400 Israeli combatants and 800 non-combatants. Judged on the fraction of non-combatants, Gaza is where the real massacre is taking place, and October 7th was more like a military defeat.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg300jek94zo

According to Israel's defence ministry, the names of 826 people from the security forces were added to the list of the country's fallen this year, alongside 834 victims of terrorist attacks.

What would a  similar memorial look like in Gaza if the dead ever get counted? 10,000 from the security services and 50,000 victims of terrorist attacks? 

[zenith]

"[Part 1 of 2] Today I got with me an extraordinary scholar, thinker, and activist with many years of experience in the UN system, especially in the field of Human Rights. I’m talking to Dr. Dr. Alfred de Zayas, a Professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy, who used to work as a senior lawyer in the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights and later became the first UN Independent Expert on International Order, serving in that capacity from 2012 to 2018."

USA and EU Are DESTROYING Their Own Order! | Prof. Dr. Alfred De Zayas (Ex-UN Official)


"[Part 2 of 2]. In this second part Professor Alfred de Zayas talks about all the mistakes that were made in the 30 year lead-up to the war in Ukraine and how little the international community and the Europeans cared about the Russian Speaking minorities in the eastern regions as well as the failures to hold Ukraine responsible for implementing the Minsk-Agreements. The most striking failure is of course the double-standards that the Europeans are setting when it comes to Kosovo and the way they handled the wars in Yugoslavia. Rules for thee, but not for me. In conjunction with the decline of US hegemony and the utter depravity of the mass-murder in Gaza, the moral bankruptcy of the West is as glaringly obvious as it has never been before or after the Cold War."

Ukraine War EXPOSES 30 Years Of Western Double Standards | Prof. Dr. Alfred de Zayas

[zenith]

an interesting overview/recap (20 minutes) of the russian northern 'offensive'. ukraine was meant to build defenses but obviously that money wound up elsewhere... likely offshore bank accounts.

Ukraine CRUMBLES After Russian Probing Attacks in Kharkiv

[zenith]

Israeli anti-Zionist academic Ilan Pappe interrogated by US intelligence on Gaza views
Professor says he was subjected to two hour interrogation and questioned about his ties to Muslim groups
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-academic-illan-pappe-interrogated-us-intelligence

[Rodius]

USA and EU Are DESTROYING Their Own Order!

There was never order or International Law or the fallacy that the US and EU were law based countries.... it was never like that.

There were rules for the world to follow or else... and the US just did whatever it felt like.

It is highlighted mostly in the idiotic idea that certain countries have veto rights... there shouldn't be a veto for anyone and it is a stupid notion to begin with.

What has been happening is the US ran to place because nobody could challenge them and now that has changed.

[zenith]

sure, but now the pretense is over. trudeau, for ex., often talks about supporting the rules based international order and international law. he talks about them back to back in the same sentence as though they're one and the same, which of course they're not. when it's convenient they invoke international law, when that's inconvenient it's the international rules based order which amounts to 'might makes right'.

the mask is off, both are rendered illegitimate in this cynical, hypocritical game the west has been playing because they could. the world can easily see through the veneer now.

they've destroyed their international system of finance too by weaponizing it in extremely blatant ways.

[Richard Rathbone]

There's a reason Pappe settled in the UK rather than the US when he was driven out of Israel. I'm unaware of any reports of him being harassed in the UK so far, but I wouldn't rule it out. There's a widespread confusion between anti-semitism and anti-zionism in the UK which is being connived at by UK politicians that are well aware of the difference but are cynically exploiting the public confusion.

e.g. there is a well established policy that counter demonstrations are not allowed in the immediate vicinity of demonstrations. Wearing Palestinian symbols in the vicinity of a pro-Israeli demonstration will result in the Police warning you to keep away, warning you that you will be arrested if you don't, and if you demand a reason they'll tell you that you aren't allowed to be openly Palestinian in the vicinity of a pro-Israeli demonstration. When a Jewish provocateur tried to get into the vicinity of a pro-Palestinian demonstration, he was treated in the same way. Cue massive press outcry about anti-semitic policemen and demands for sackings. No politician, or senior policeman willing to challenge it or to say that this was completely legal and a thoroughly sensible way of preventing demonstrations descending into violence.

A one-state solution in which Jews and Palestinians have equal rights is supported by many peaceful Palestinians. Its clearly anti-Zionist, because Zionism is a racist ideology that demands a racially pure state for Jews. Its asking for equal treatment for all in Palestine, rather than the current racist apartheid regime. Yet the ones that get demonised as the racists are the ones that are calling for an end to racism in Palestine!

The founding generation in Israel wanted a state that was Jewish and democratic. In the years after Independence they lusted after more territory but abstained from taking it because their judgement was that the Arabs wouldn't run away again. If they took arab populated territory, they thought Israel could not remain both democratic and Jewish, one or the other would go. The politicians didn't intend to acquire the West Bank in 1967, just Jerusalem, but the Jordanian army ran away and the IDF followed them, and once they actually had control, the lust for territory overwhelmed them and they refused to give the territory up. Faced with the options of giving the Palestinians democratic rights, and ceasing to be a racially pure Jewish state, or keeping them under an apartheid style of military occupation, and ceasing to be democratic, Ben-Gurion's successors sacrificed their democracy.

[etienne]

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/eu_arms_to_israel_21/
Sign the petition

President Von der Leyen, President Macron, Bundeskanzler Scholz, and all EU leaders:

European weapons are being used to commit war crimes in Gaza. With 1.4 million Palestinians trapped in Rafah, an Israeli invasion could be the most deadly thing Israel does since the start of their brutal attack on Gaza. President Biden has already warned that the US will end arms sales to Israel if they invade Rafah - it’s time for Europe to do the same.

[zenith]

Hegemonitis: Why The West Has Become So Dumb | Professor Glenn Diesen

[jai mitchell]

International Criminal Court submits request for warrants of arrest for leaders of Hamas and Israel

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-state

[zenith]

good.

Will the ICC approve arrest warrants for Israel and Hamas leaders?
The international criminal court’s chief prosecutor has applied for warrants; what will happen now?
https://www.theguardian.com/law/article/2024/may/20/will-the-icc-approve-arrest-warrants-for-israel-and-hamas-leaders

"Will arrest warrants now be issued against Netanyahu, Sinwar and the others?
Not necessarily. The application for warrants now goes to one of the pre-trial chambers in the ICC, and will be decided on by a panel of three judges. At the moment, the chamber involved is made up of judges, from Romania, Benin and Mexico. It is not a foregone conclusion that they will approve all Khan’s requests, but legal scholars point out that the threshold of evidence for a warrant is just “reasonable grounds to believe”, rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt”, which is the standard for conviction at trial.

Iva Vukušić, an expert on international legal institutions at the Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, said: “The prosecution is not dumb; they would not mess up at this stage at such an important case everyone is looking at. So I believe the judges will agree on the warrants.”

However, a huge amount of global political pressure is likely to descend on those three judges in the days to come."


Jewish Biden Staffer RESIGNS Over "Disastrous" Israel Support

[zenith]

the imperialist west and israel are freaking out.

“A Watershed Event”: ICC Charges Against Netanyahu First Time Court Has Gone After Western Leader

[zenith]

they're all reading from the same hymn sheet. i wonder which channels of gov't the script for these sorts of things travel through, intelligence agencies or diplomatic/foreign affairs? does israel or the united states write it?

World leaders react to ICC warrant against Israeli, Hamas officials: "Just plain wrong"


it could get very interesting, plenty of ass covering will ensue.

"Tayab Ali is an international lawyer who is leading a criminal investigation into the complicity of UK politicians and commentators in Israeli war crimes. Seem far fetched? Well, the ICC Prosecutor issuing an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu once seemed unthinkable. Here's why it could be far more likely than you think."

UK Politicians Face WAR CRIMES Arrests After ICC Warrant Requests - w/. Tayab Ali

[zenith]

ICC Seeks ARREST WARRANT For Netanyahu, America COPES Hard

[zenith]

the united states is a bad joke. monsters are real.

Journalist DISMANTLES State Dept Spokesman on ICC Arrest Warrant

[jai mitchell]

you. . . literally. . . cannot. . . make. . .this. . . up

[jai mitchell]

in related news.

The ICJ has inserted itself based on facts on the ground that, based on the rules adopted by Israel when they signed onto the International Convention Against Genocide, Israel must end their Rafah operations and allow full access on the ground to determine the status of their potential crimes.  They are bound under international legal obligation to follow the order of the court.

[zenith]

some good news.

Ireland, Spain, Norway Announce RECOGNITION of Palestinian State

[Human Habitat Index]

October 7 was a false flag.

It is impossible for things to have played out as reported.

Hamas therefore is complicit.

[etienne]

October 7 was a false flag.

It is impossible for things to have played out as reported.

Hamas therefore is complicit.

False flag is probably a too strong word, but Hamas surely couldn't be what it became without Israeli support.

Closing your eyes and supporting is not the same.

[zenith]

Headless child, charred bodies: Survivors recount Israel’s Rafah camp massacre
Strike on displaced Palestinians kills 45 and leaves many grappling with the devastating aftermath
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/headless-child-charred-bodies-survivors-recount-israels-rafah-camp-massacre

[etienne]

https://www.visitluxembourg.com/place/aviation-monument

What is said on the link is not completely right. The plane was shouted down by the US army (friendly fire) and killed 3 Belgians, 2 UK and 1 NZ citizens. Most were under 25 years old. The Belgians were on their last mission, but the weather was so bad that they were going back to England.

It was on March 21st, 1945.

[zenith]

more and more western countries are signing off on ukraine using their weapons to strike inside russia, the lunatic ukrainians have hit a russian nuclear early warning radar as though blinding russia is a good idea for safety and security in the world.

the west is getting desperate so they do the only thing they know how to do... escalate, escalate, escalate.

US/NATO escalation to strike Russia


let's have a nuclear war.

How to Start a War with Russia

[zenith]

we really are on the brink.

Dr. Gilbert Doctorow, PhD. : How Close #Ukraine Is to Defeat.


oops, we did it again.

Israel Strikes Rafah Tent Camp, Calls it "Tragic Accident"


the west has turned to complete $hit.

[zenith]

as soon as western missiles strike inside russia then russia will respond against the western countries that the missiles originated from. western troops are in ukraine firing these missiles using western intelligence, nato has essentially declared war on russia.

Scott Ritter: Russia’s Strategic Advances

[morganism]

@RyszardJonski

On May 30, 2024, the defense authorities of Japan, France and Germany signed the "Implementation Guidelines for Cooperation in Railgun Technology"
(no link)

[zenith]

desperation and panic in the west.

Is Zelensky the 'Legitimate' President of Ukraine After His Term Expired? w/ Mark Sleboda


SITREP 5/29/24: NATO Ramps Up Figleaf of Cross-Border Strikes
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-52924-nato-ramps-up-figleaf

"I’ll start with what is the most interesting news to me: Ukraine’s defense minister Umerov has stated in a new Reuters interview that Russia plans to insert an additional massive 200-300k troops into Ukraine.

This is obviously huge, if true. The 500k figure is roughly what we already know as Russia’s contingent currently involved in the SMO, but the addition of another 200-300k—the equivalent of multiple field armies—is a far greater force than most imagined Russia would utilize in the next wave."

[zenith]

US "Green Lights" Strikes on Russia, Reality Behind Kerch Port Attack, Czech Ammo Bid Falls Short

[Ajpope85]

I don't understand why Palestinians won't just let Israel violently expel them peacefully. It's so confusing.

[etienne]

What to think of this extract of a Letter from Tolstoy to Gandhi
https://www.mkgandhi.org/selectedletters/07a_tolstoy.html

I think that it would give you pleasure to know that with us in Russia, a similar movement is also developing rapidly under the form of the refusal of military services augmenting year after year. However small may be the number of your participators in non-resistance and the number of those in Russia who refuse military service, both the one and the other may assert with audacity that "God is with us" and that "God is more powerful than men".

All the letters between both are available here : https://www.mkgandhi.org/Selected%20Letters/Leo-Tolstoy-and-Mahatma-Gandhi-correspondence.pdf

[gerontocrat]

Gaza

Ethnic cleansing is similar to forced deportation or population transfer. While ethnic cleansing and genocide may share the same goal and methods (e.g., forced displacement), ethnic cleansing is intended to displace a persecuted population from a given territory, while genocide is intended to destroy a group.

It seems to me that Israel is making GAZA a place where people cannot survive by complete destruction of the environment required to support life, at the same time with total disregard to the collateral deaths of the civilian population. Ethnic cleansing yes, perhaps not genocide (yet) which requires the intent for the death of the entire population - as in Hitler's "Final Soilution".

The attached image supports ethnic cleansing.