Gaza

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-827925

Just in case there is anyone left who still believes that what the racist apartheid regime is doing in Gaza is a military operation and nothing to do with ethnic cleansing :

Palestinians will not be allowed to return to homes in northern Gaza, says IDF

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/06/palestinians-will-not-be-allowed-to-return-to-homes-in-northern-gaza-says-idf

Israeli ground forces are getting closer to “the complete evacuation” of northern Gaza and residents will not be allowed to return home, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said, in what appears to be the first official acknowledgment from Israel it is systematically removing Palestinians from the area.

How many more war crimes does Israel have to commit before the UK government stops supporting them?

Bit by bit Israel’s international isolation grows.

Looks like Israeli propaganda machine in full overdrive and it is clearly working.

It’s an open and shut case of hooliganism and racism by Israeli fans. If any other club had done that they’d be looking at a stiff sanction.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgerp2d5pn5o.amp

Seems more likely a bunch of Israeli football hooligans wanted a fight and a bunch of pro Palestinian protestors kindly obliged.

I also understand UEFA have stopped any sanctioned match in Israel.

So it turns out that Israel’s response to a US ultimatum to increase aid into Gaza is to in fact reduce the aid.

Could Israel show any greater contempt, and could the US look any more spineless?

Aid to Gaza falls to lowest level in 11 months despite US ultimatum to Israel

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/nov/11/aid-gaza-trucks-food-lowest-level-year-despite-us-ultimatum

The amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show, despite the US having issued a 30-day ultimatum last month threatening sanctions if there was no increase in humanitarian supplies reaching the territory.

In October, 57 trucks a day were allowed to cross into Gaza on average – far short of the 350 trucks a day demanded by the US and the 600 a day that aid agencies say are necessary to meet basic needs.

The US has previously demanded that Israel allow in more aid but done little to enforce its requests, even reportedly ignoring its own agencies after they concluded that Israel had deliberately blocked deliveries of food and medicine to Gaza.

US law requires that weapons shipments be cut off to countries that prevent the delivery of US-backed aid.

Presumably US law makes an exception if the country speaks Hebrew rather than Arabic?

That BBC link doesn’t mention Isreal at all. I assume it has been changed and used to link to the violence in Amsterdam?

US law requires that weapons shipments be cut off to countries that prevent the delivery of US-backed aid.

It’s similar to their reluctance to call Rwanda a “genocide”. Once you call it genocide, the law requires you to act. There was an amazing press conference the other day – journalists speechless in the face of the lies and gaslighting.

That BBC link doesn’t mention Isreal at all.

No, the point of the link was just to evidence what UEFA can do when it wants to. Of course punishing Israeli hooligans is “antisemitism”, so they won’t do that.

I posted this in the Trump thread but it should have been here really:

Incase anyone’s in any doubt which direction Trump is going to head in regard to Israel and Gaza:

As we’ve been reporting, Mike Huckabee is Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US ambassador to Israel

The former Arkansas governor and Baptist minister made his first trip to Israel in 1973 and has since led dozens of Christian missions to the country, with whom he he has declared a “visceral, personal” connection. During a 2018 visit, he donned a hard hat and laid bricks for a new housing complex in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, saying he “might one day like to purchase a holiday home” there.

In his first run for president in 2008, Huckabee said: “There’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” When he ran again in 2016, before dropping out and endorsing Trump, he vowed to back the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, which he called “an integral part” of Israel

So, yeah…

No, the point of the link was just to evidence what UEFA can do when it wants to. Of course punishing Israeli hooligans is “antisemitism”, so they won’t do that.

I think you are missing the point that it takes UEFA months to consider a case and issue sanctions. I agree that any the Israeli and Dutch clubs should be sanctioned for the violence and/or racism of their fans. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet is not evidence of a cover up as you seem to be implying.

I think you are missing the point that it takes UEFA months to consider a case and issue sanctions. I agree that any the Israeli and Dutch clubs should be sanctioned for the violence and/or racism of their fans. The fact that it hasn’t happened yet is not evidence of a cover up as you seem to be implying.

I’ll bear that in mind. But I’m not holding my breath.

Yep, definitely the right man for the job.

Mike Huckabee once said that ‘there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian’

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/12/politics/mike-huckabee-palestinian-comments-trump-israel-ambassador/index.html

US: “You absolutely must have implemented these 15 things by 13th November or we will definitely suspend some arms supplies this time. We’re, like, really cross now”.

Israel: “We’ve not done them. We’ve made token efforts at the easy ones and ignored the others. We’re going to pretend we have, you know otherwise. Soz and all that”.

US: “Well, that thing about arms supplies. We’re actually going to carry on ‘as is’. But we think you ought to stop the war soon”.

Israel (covering the phone mouthpiece and laughing whilst making the internationally recognised sign for ‘tosser’ to muffled laughs in the room): “Oh yes. Absolutely. We know you aren’t messing around here. We’ll get onto stopping the war right away”.

US puts the phone down and sighs feeling cheap and dirty.

Israel puts the phone down and ignores it.

No doubt Israel will brand the testimony of Nizam Mamode as an antisemitic slur on the most moral army in the world, one thing for sure is he will not be allowed back into Gaza.

Matt Gaetz, the new attorney general: 

In 2018, he brought a right-wing Holocaust denier to the State of the Union, and later tried to expel two fathers who lost children in a mass shooting from a hearing after they objected to a claim he made about gun control.

So not keen on Jews it’s probably fair to say.

Then we have the new secretary of state, Rubio:

Rubio is against a ceasefire in Gaza, and has said he wants Israel to destroy the Palestinian group Hamas.

So he’s not keen on Palestinians it’s fair to say.

I mean, does Trump think two wrong’uns make a right’un here?

Who to hate the most has sometimes been a difficult conundrum for those who follow far-right hate-based ideologies.

Hating black people presents no obvious problems but when you also hate Jews and Muslims it all becomes a little bit more complex.

Although Muslims are generally easier to identify than Jews American neo-nazis have a long tradition of hating Jews dating back to the early pro-nazi sympathies of ethnic German Americans.

^^ I have to “marvel” at how trump has managed to sell different hated to different groups whilst still increasing his vote share. Pick ‘n’ mix hate.

It’s like a shared hypnosis to allow them to only hear the incitements that apply to them and ignore the rest.

Well Sir Keir  says he is clear that there is no genocide taking place, so that’s settled, then.

^^ I have to “marvel” at how trump has managed to sell different hated to different groups whilst still increasing his vote share. Pick ‘n’ mix hate.

We’ve done something similar here with Schrodinger’s Immigrant who simultaneously lives on benefits and steals your job.

Well Sir Keir  says he is clear that there is no genocide taking place, so that’s settled, then.

Kier is obviously turning a blind eye to Israel/IDF shooting children in the head whilst they laugh about it/keep a score card, the Israeli lobby and money in this country obviously buys morals on the cheap

the Israeli lobby and money in this country obviously buys morals on the cheap

Please don’t push the ‘Israeli lobby and money buys Western governments’ line. Not only does it feed the anti-semitic global Jewish conspiracy theory but it isn’t true.

The reason that Western governments support the horrific and criminal Israeli apartheid regime is simply because they believe that it serves Western interests to do so, it has nothing to do with Israeli money. And the Israeli “lobby” exists purely to remind Western governments how important it allegedly is to support Israel.

Pol Pot didn’t have a pot to piss in (pun intended) and yet Western governments, including the UK, still supported his genocidal and barbaric regime. Because they believed that it served Western interests to do.

Israel is the West’s client/colonial state in the Middle East. It is not the other way round.

Please don’t push the ‘Israeli lobby and money buys Western governments’ line. Not only does it feed the anti-semitic global Jewish conspiracy theory but it isn’t true.

Really?, you are conflating Israeli vs Jewish which are very different. The Israeli lobby in this country is a real entity that has been reported on, you have AIPAC in the U.S. as well.

Obviously it does not control policy but it does exert a malign influence over reporting and the silencing of journalists

I believe you posted this link to an interview with Ilan Pappe a while ago

link to evidence in parliament regarding the influence of the Israeli lobby

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_lobby_in_the_United_States

you are conflating Israeli vs Jewish which are very different.

No not at all, I haven’t mentioned anything about Jews. I am simply attempting to point out that that talk of Israeli money buying governments is risky because it feeds this global zionist conspiracy theory which is much pushed by the anti-semitic far-right.

Yes much of the current Cabinet have received funds from zionist sources but that is because they are highly sympathetic to Israel anyway and zionists would rather have politicians sympathetic to Israel in positions of power. So helping them in their election campaign obviously helps Israel. It isn’t because they have been “bought” by Israel.

To repeat the point, many Western politicians believe that propping up Israel serves Western economic and geopolitical interests and the plight of the Palestinians doesn’t rank very highly in their priorities, zionists exploit that, they don’t however dictate Western policies.

And I am fully aware of the zionist lobby, no one has mentioned hasbara more than me on this thread. But again, to repeat a point, it exists to remind and propagate the idea that propping up Israel allegedly serves Western interests. It helps to spread the narrative that Israelis are Western educated settler-colonialists who share a common culture with the West in a region which is vital to Western interests but mostly under the control of hostile indigenous peoples. But they aren’t the authors of that narrative.

The West owes nothing to Israel and Israel owes everything to the West. Even if Israelis are knowingly or unwittingly pawns of Western neocolonialism.

Here’s the inspiring Francesca Albanese laying out the facts regarding Israel’s occupation and genocide

Yes much of the current Cabinet have received funds from zionist sources but that is because they are highly sympathetic to Israel anyway and zionists would rather have politicians sympathetic to Israel in positions of power. So helping them in their election campaign obviously helps Israel. It isn’t because they have been “bought” by Israel

I’m not sure there’s much of a difference between “helping” a friendly politician and “buying” one. Both subvert the democratic process and prolong the agony of colonialism.

Most republics have an AIPAC minder, according to this guy:

legometeorologyFree Member
Most republics have an AIPAC minder, according to this guy:

Bassem Yousef also lays out the influence here,

https://youtu.be/mQKb37bWa34?si=J2GwuQ_QZeFyfGlp&t=623

I’m not sure there’s much of a difference between “helping” a friendly politician and “buying” one.

There is an important difference between the two imo. Those politicians who unwaveringly support Israel to the hilt whilst it openly commits genocide do so not because they receive funding from zionist sources (which many in the current Cabinet do) but because of an ideological commitment to neo-colonialism and the last Western colony in the third world.

Even if the funding stopped they would still parrot the “Israel has the right to defend itself” line, as it commits genocide. They haven’t been corrupted by financial inducements, they have been corrupted by a twisted worldview, an important distinction imo.

Those politicians who unwaveringly support Israel to the hilt whilst it openly commits genocide do so not because they receive funding from zionist sources (which many in the current Cabinet do) but because of an ideological commitment to neo-colonialism and the last Western colony in the third world.

These things are not unrelated. AIPAC and other groups poor money into pro-Israeli candidates’ campains, and fund attack ads etc. against candidates they don’t like (like anyone calling for a ceasefire in Gaza).

They help to embedd the ideological commitments you rightly highlight into the goverment. From their perspective, it’s probably much easier to help get ideologues into power than to pay people to believe in things they don’t.

https://abcnews.go.com/538/pro-israel-groups-spent-big-oust-squad-members/story?id=113675889

“An Islamic scholar in Gaza has issued a legal ruling – or fatwa – denouncing the October 7 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. Salman al-Dayah’s fatwa condemned Hamas’s actions for violating Islamic principles governing jihad, because they resulted in harm to Israeli and Gazan civilians.”

“This fatwa is significant for at least three reasons. First, the ruling suggests divided opinion about Hamas’s actions among Gaza’s population of 2.2 million. Second, the fatwa represents the latest attempt by prominent Islamic scholars to develop a form of counter-terrorism rooted in religious teaching. And third, the condemnation of the October 7 attacks opens up debates on whether criticism of Hamas – proscribed by the US and UK governments as a terrorist organisation – risks undermining efforts to secure justice and prosperity for all Palestinians.”

https://theconversation.com/islamic-scholars-fatwa-criticising-october-7-attack-echoes-growing-unhappiness-in-gaza-towards-hamas-243492

https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/the-bibi-files-review-benjamin-netanyahu-1236209596/#utm_campaign=syndication&utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=referral

Read the above article about a documentary film built around leaked tapes of Bibi where it’s clear that the Gaza war is continuing because it’s his way of avoiding being taken to court over corruption allegations. Also, it’s the support from the ultra-Right encouraging the ethnic cleansing of Palestine so the land can be stolen by settlers, which has been going on for years, which then encouraged Hamas to fight back, this giving Bibi all the excuses he needs to continue his genocide against the Palestinian people.
There’s a clear connection between Bibi and Trump in their claims of “hey, I’m the victim here!”.

There’s a clear connection between Bibi and Trump in their claims of “hey, I’m the victim here!”.

I believe that is an inherent characteristic of narcissists/psychopaths, they invariably see themselves as victims.