Collective punishment has been clearly forbidden under international humanitarian law through Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. No exceptions are permitted
Michael Lynk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, 2020
We are fighting human animals and we act accordingly. We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. There will be no electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything will be closed.
Yoav Gallant, Israeli Defence Minister, October 9 2023
@aljazeeraenglish “We are fighting against human animals”. This is how #Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant announced what he called a “complete siege” on Gaza, following a surprise attack by #Hamas on Israel. #palestine #israelitiktok #palestinetiktok #gazastrip
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Pending hard information to the contrary, I take seriously the possibility that the Hamas attacks in Israel were exactly what they appear to be; an act of spectacular resistance to the apartheid state of Israel, for which the people of Gaza will pay a terrible price.
Pending hard information to the contrary, I take seriously the possibility that the Hamas attacks in Israel were in part or whole a false flag operation perpetrated for one or more of the reasons set out by Simplicius the Thinker as featured in my previous post …
NB a false flag op “in part” includes the possibility of IDF, Shin Bet and/or Mossad having advanced warning of an impending attack but choosing to let it happen:
… in the meantime here’s a selection of pieces, all short, collated today, October 9, by Defend Democracy Press.
The first two focus on conditions in Gaza, and on Israel’s already declared intent to impose lethal and indiscriminate punishment on its people as a whole. Both draw the glaringly obvious Nazi parallels.
The third and longest gives, verbatim, Hamas’s own account of the attacks’ objectives. I offer it without prejudice as to the false flag question …
… as I do the fourth, which focuses on jaw-dropping weaknesses in Israeli intelligence systems hitherto deemed world-beating.
The fifth piece gives the view of a Gaza woman who condemns Israel but also – and this is significant to the false flag thesis insofar as that entity was in part an Israeli creation to weaken the PLO – Hamas.
The sixth acknowledges the pain felt by ordinary Israelis but ridicules – as have I in this context and that of the West’s war on Russia in Ukraine – the notion, with its Orwellian approach to truth, that Saturday’s attacks were “unprovoked”. Yet for all its fact-defiant absurdity in these “post truth” times, any member of the British Labour Party, Jews not excepted, challenging the u-word will be branded anti-Semitic and draw the full wrath of Starmer’s NEC, its response the subject of the seventh piece.
Only the eighth and final piece – not of the Defend Democracy collation but my chosen subset – is given over to the false flag thesis. It is co-written by former CIA intelligence officer Philip Giraldi. 1 Unlike Simplicius, who locates both the attacks and predictable response within wider regional realpolitik to ask who gains, Giraldi and co-author Michel Chossudovsky use a narrower lens while applying – if you’ll pardon my mixed sensory metaphors – the sniff test.
(For a broad view of the nature and raison d’etre of the Jewish State within an imperialist world order, see my review of Stephen Gowans’ 2019 book, Israel: a Beachhead in the Middle East. Steve and I may be poles apart on the nature of the war in Ukraine, but this takes away nothing from his invaluable work on Israel.)
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“Nazi” methods against the population of Gaza
Is ‘total’ Gaza blockade a collective punishment against Palestinians? Israel announces a blockade on the Gaza Strip, meaning more than 2 million people will suffer for the acts of a few. Oct 9, 2023 Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip two days after fighters from the Hamas group carried out deadly […]
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Israel is organizing the Holocaust of Palestinians. Israeli Nazis call them human animals
I received 27 positive emails and four negative ones in regards to my last email with an analysis of the situation here. I appreciate both. I also received a dozen emails asking about our safety in the West Bank now blockaded and we are kept in our separate holding pins like Bthlehem Ghetto. […]
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Document: Hamas outlines the causes and objectives of Operation ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ (full Haniyeh speech)
Full speech by Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas Political Bureau, on the first day of Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood “.: Al-Jazeera Translation: resistancenews.org In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. [Glorification of God and His Messenger.] O children of our Palestinian people, O […]
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Al-Aqsa flood… a slap to the Israeli security system
No one expected that this would be the response of the Palestinian resistance to the plan of the fascist and racist Israeli occupation government based on Judaization, displacement, expansion of settlements, annexation of lands, storming the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Palestinian camps in […]
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‘We are completely shocked by the damage’: What are ordinary people in Gaza saying about Israel’s retaliation?
A local resident says no street has been left undamaged as Israeli strikes continue A woman reacts after Israeli fighter jets destroyed a building following the Operation Al-Aqsa Flood launched by Hamas in Rafah, Gaza on October 08, 2023. © Abed Rahim Khatib/Getty Images Since the beginning of its ‘Iron Swords’ operation on Saturday, Israel […]
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Gaza’s shock attack has terrified Israelis. It should also unveil the context
The dread Israelis are feeling after today’s assault, myself included, has been the daily experience of millions of Palestinians for far too long. By Haggai Matar Oct 7, 2023 This is a terrible day. After waking up to air sirens under a barrage of hundreds of rockets fired on Israeli cities, we have been learning […]
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Labour branded ‘cowards’ for its ‘unconditional’ support of Israel’s war with Hamas
Activists branded Labour “cowards” as they condemned Sir Keir Starmer’s “unconditional” support for Israel’s war with Hamas at a protest outside the party’s conference in Liverpool. They blasted the Labour leader for saying there was “no justification” for the militant group’s surprise attack on Israel, which has killed hundreds on […]
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Is the Gaza-Israel Fighting “A False Flag”? They Let it Happen? Their Objective Is “to Wipe Gaza Off the Map”?
Early Saturday October 7, 2023, Hamas launched “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” led by Hamas’ Military Chief Mohammed Deif. On that same day, Netanyahu confirmed a so-called “State of Readiness For War”. Military operations are invariably planned well in advance (See Netanyahu’s January 2023 statement below). Was “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm” a […]
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- Giraldi sails too close to the wind of anti-Semitism for my liking. (See this wiki page under the header, Assertions about Jews and Israel. ) That doesn’t stop me taking him seriously but is so useful to the standard Israeli Lobby charge –opposition to Israel = anti-Semitism – as to invite speculation in the inescapably paranoid swirl of conspiracy theorising (a term I use neutrally) as to whether Giraldi is himself a false flag op!
I’ve been reading Chussodovsky(who was harking back to a Philip Giraldi post on CN) and was reminded of why Israel used Operation Cast Lead as a cover for the real reason, which was the huge gas and oil deposits off the Gazan Coast belonging to the Palestinian peoples. Eliminating the Palestinians from Gaza is just a way for Israel and Britain to maintain a false claim of ownership of these fields. Britain then gets a token legitimacy for not sharing the profits from them – no wonder we are so in the pocket of Israel, there’s profit to be had. Explanation enough for why Tories & Starmerites side with Israel.
There’s not an ounce of honesty or integrity between the lot of them.
Will be busy reading the above mentioned offerings,
Thanks,
Susan:)
I do recommend the Gowans book, Susan. Or at least my review of it. In my opening words I say the book is a timely response to three groups:
those yet to grasp that Israel in its current form is an outrage comparable to apartheid South Africa;
those who do recognise this but fail (as had many sincere opponents of apartheid) to see the bigger picture of a Faustian bargain with Western elites;
those who say the USA is a vassal – a client state of Israel.
I was listening to BBC Radio 4 this afternoon, and a programme called ‘The Mandates’ gave a pretty good account of the historical events behind the Palestinian situation, laying most of the blame on the UK government and British Army. I imagine a bit of close listening would find all sorts of evasions and minimising, but all in all it was really quite devastating. Sometimes the BBC actually comes up with the goods, and the timing was spot-on (probably not deliberately). But was anyone listening?
On 1, Ron Unz is another who lingers on the edge of being anti-semitic – but can a Jew be anti-semitic? Is it not a contradiction in terms? Not if you ask the Zionist government or Barmy Starmer, of course – ‘self-hating Jews’ – Freud would have a field day with that one – sometimes a cigar is a penis – pencil! pencil! I meant pencil! Another good guy is Norman Finkelstein, and the crew at Mondoweiss.
My thoughts here, Jams:
To be effective propagandists when our rulers most need that, organs like BBC, Guardian and their equivalents across the west have to be truthful on some things, even important things that embarrass while not seriously wounding power. What all corporate media fail to do is hold power to account on matters critical to power – in full, at the time and with an intensity of coverage commensurate with the scale of evil. Meanwhile, I’m off on a rubber tramp trip early doors tomorrow but will see if I can get the Beeb prog onto my phone.
I’ve read that left wing Jews have been disproportionately expelled – as anti-Semites – from the Labour Party under Starmer.
Funny you should mention Finkelstein. The man who alerted me to the Kevin Ryan interview on 9/11 told me yesterday he’s reading his latest book. He finds it super informative, which didn’t surprise me – the guy’s ace at having the facts at his fingertips and very effective in adversarial debate – but what did surprise me is him saying the book is also very funny. In video clips he can come across as dourness incarnate!
Thank you for this Phil. It is brilliant. I have sent it on to many friends. Some of whom are in deep conflict as they are Jewish and not particularly politically aware but have been profoundly shocked at the Israei resoponse. This gives me a few glimmers of hope that the establishment here and n the US have got it seriously wrong (Well I know they have but also wrong in the sense they are not carrying the people with them into their lies and distrotions of reality) I know many Jewish people and without exception they are extremely distressed at what Israel is doing to the poor Palestinian people. As always I feel for the poor ordinary people on both sides of this war who just want their children and animals to be happy, to have dinners with families and friends, to enjoy life in whatever way their freedom takes them. No one wins a war, not really. This is terrible for us all. So thanks again Phil. Keep up the good work!
Hi Anne – thanks for your kind words and for forwarding. Well meaning people are going to go seriously astray on this if they confine their news consumption to mainstream corporate media systemically incapable of telling the truth on something as vital to western hegemony as apartheid Israel.
At time of writing my masthead quote is from Caitlin, writing today:
Nobody in Hamas has to be in cahoots with Israel for this whole process to be heavily manipulated by the Netanyahoo faction. Hamas could be predictably triggered by events at the Temple Mount etc. to launch rocket attacks and then Gazans could be tempted to wander over Southern Palastine by leaving the gates open and unguarded. Next step is prepared war atrocity stories, uniting a divided Israel and leading to ethnic cleansing.
Of course Mossad wants to infiltrate Hamas, but for Hamas to remain credible it has to consist mostly of sincere people and take actions contra to the interests of Israel.
Yup, atrocity stories as predicted:
https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/10/12/40-babies-beheaded-bullshit-blatant-propaganda-in-the-israeli-war-on-palestine/#
What is so notable about the propaganda is the feebleness of it. This is instructive:
https://twitter.com/i24NEWS_EN/status/1711718195025821976
It’s always a giveaway when the reporter has to TELL you that “these images are horrific”.
This was the first time I heard the“40 babies” meme. And I can think of no more telling contrast than the “completely destroyed” sidewalk at the 3 minute mark (actually a few dislodges bricks) and the total devastation in any number of photos from Gaza over the decades.