Tonight has been the most violent bombardment of Gaza so far, notably concentrated on precisely the areas into which Israel ordered the population to evacuate. I find it almost impossible to believe that this genocide is under way with the active support of almost all western governments.
I want to look at two questions – what will happen internationally, and what is happening in western societies.
Israel plainly is on the course of further escalation and intends to kill many thousands more Palestinians. More than 2,000 Palestinian children alone have now been killed by Israeli aerial attack in the last fortnight.
Gaza has no defence from bombs and missiles, and there is no military reason why Israel cannot keep this up for months and simply rely upon aerial massacre. We are perhaps within a week of thirst, starvation and disease killing even more people per day than bombardment.
The population of Gaza are simply defenceless. Only international intervention can stop Israel from doing whatever it wishes, and those countries which have influence with Israel are actively abetting and encouraging the genocide.
The question is, what is Israel’s aim? Do they intend to reduce the Gaza Strip still further, annexing half or more of it? Will starvation and horror enable the international community to force Egypt to accept the expulsion of the population of Gaza into the Sinai Desert as a “humanitarian” move?
That appears to be the end game: expulsion of population and territorial expansion into Gaza. That would require a ground invasion, but probably not until after even more intense aerial bombardment to eliminate all resistance. This territorial ambition of course accords with the violent expansion of illegal settlement in the West Bank which is currently under way, with the world paying almost no attention. It is very hard indeed to comprehend the passivity of Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas at the moment.
Netanyahu’s political stock within Israel is so low, that the only way he can recover is by making a major step towards the complete genocide of the Palestinian people and the achievement of Greater Israel. Netanyahu now knows that there is no violence against Palestinians so extreme that the western political elite will not support it under the mantra of “Israel’s right to self-defence”.
I do not see any salvation for Gaza coming from Hezbollah. If Hezbollah were to employ their vaunted missile strike capabilities, the moment to do it would be now when the Israeli armour is drawn up in massive parks outside Gaza, a perfect target even for longer range missiles of limited accuracy. Once dispersed into Gaza the armour would be far harder for Hezbollah to hit at range.
Hezbollah is even better equipped now to fight a defensive war in Lebanon than it was when it defeated the Israeli advance in 2006. But it is not configured or equipped to fight an aggressive ground war into Israel, which would be a disaster. It also has to worry about hostile militias in its rear. If Hezbollah can provoke an Israeli incursion into Southern Lebanon, that would enable it to inflict substantial casualties, but Israel is not going to do that in a way that detracts from its capabilities in Gaza.
Iran has greatly improved its diplomatic position in the last year. The Chinese-brokered lessening of hostility with Saudi Arabia has potential to revolutionise Middle Eastern politics, and the benefits of this will not lightly be laid aside by Tehran. Iran had also made real progress with the Biden administration in overcoming the blind hostility of the Trump years.
Iran has no desire to throw away these gains. That is why it seems to me extremely improbable that Iran had endorsed the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Iran is now restraining Hezbollah. But there are limits to the patience of Iran. The extraordinary truth is that Iran is probably the only state under discussion here with a genuine humanitarian concern for the lives of Palestinians. If the genocide unfolds as horribly as I anticipate, Iran can be pushed too far.
That said, I offer just a cautionary footnote that Saudi Arabia is not, under MBS, quite the reliable US/Israeli puppet it has historically been. I do not have much time for MBS, as you know, but his high opinion of the importance of the Al Saud and their leadership role among arabs, makes him a different proposition to his predecessor.
Saudi Arabia has leverage. The Biden administration has gone all in on regional domination, sending two aircraft carrier groups into a situation which should it escalate, could send oil prices to highest-ever levels, with Russia blocked from the market. Biden is risking a huge gas price hike in an election year.
Biden’s calculation, or that of his security services, is that nobody can or will intervene to save the Palestinians. They judge the genocide as containable. That is an extraordinary gamble.
There has been an extraordinary amount of vitriol aimed at Qatar by pro-Israel commentators, for hosting the Hamas office and leadership. This is extraordinarily ignorant.
Qatar hosts Hamas, just as Qatar hosted the Taliban Information Office, at the direct request of the United States. It provides a means of dialogue between the United States and Hamas (exactly as it did with the Taliban) both at deniable level, and through third parties, including of course the government of Qatar. Thus when Blinken arrived in Qatar one day and the Iranian foreign minister the next, these were in fact “proximity talks” involving Hamas.
How do I know? Well, at Julian’s request, I visited Qatar about five years ago to discuss whether Julian, and Wikileaks, might potentially relocate to Qatar, which Julian had described as “the new Switzerland” in terms of being a neutral diplomatic venue.
It was explained to me by the Qataris, at a very senior level, that Qatar hosted the Taliban Information Office and Hamas because the United States government had asked them to do so. Qatar hosted a major US military base and depended on US support against a Saudi takeover. If I could generate a request from then President Trump for Qatar to host Wikileaks, then they would do so. Otherwise, no.
So I know what I am talking about.
One tiny but good result of this brokering in Qatar was the release of two American national hostages. British diplomats have told me that discussions in Qatar have so far held back the Israeli ground offensive, but I am not convinced that Israel really wished to do this yet. They are having sadistic fun shooting children in a barrel.
Qatar has also been the origin of deals allowing in a tiny amount of aid to Gaza, but this is so small as to be almost irrelevant. It is performative humanitarianism by the West.
I have frequently praised China for the fact that their economic dominance has been unaccompanied by any aggressive desire for world hegemony, but this also has its downside. China sees no benefit in assisting the Palestinians in practice. Hopeful reports of China sending warships refer simply to pre-planned exercises, largely in the Gulf. That China is carrying out such joint exercises with Gulf states is indeed part of a long term increasing of influence, but is not relevant to the immediate reality.
Russia of course has its hands full in Ukraine. It is allowing its Syrian bases to be used as a conduit following increased Israeli bombing of Syrian airports, but there is not a great deal more that it can do. Erdoğan is genuinely furious at what is happening in Gaza, but Turkey is struggling to find any way to apply pressure, barring linkage to Ukraine shipping issues (which Erdoğan is considering).
That is a very rough and ready tour d’horizon, but the net effect is that I see no current hope for averting the atrocity which is unfolding before our horrified eyes.
Most of our eyes are indeed horrified. The gap between the western political and media elites and their people on this issue is simply enormous. Western leaders have not only failed to restrain Israel, they have almost unanimously egged Netanyahu on, with the continued repetition of the phrase “Israel’s right to self-defence” as justification for the mass bombing, removal and starvation of an entire civilian population.
The western leadership glee in vetoing every attempt at a ceasefire resolution at the UN is astonishing.
Massive demonstrations have been taking place across Europe against this unspeakable massacre, and the knee-jerk reaction of politicians at their isolation from public opinion has been to try to make such shows of dissent illegal. In the UK people have been arrested for displaying Palestinian flags. In Germany pro-Palestinian demonstrations have been entirely banned. Something similar has been attempted in France, with predictable failure.
I have myself attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations in three different countries, and the most striking thing on each occasion was the strong support of passers-by, and the number of people spontaneously coming out to join the demo as it passed.
A wave of racism has been unleashed in the UK and elsewhere. I am astonished by the Islamophobia and racial hatred released online, with no apparent comeback. UK Ministers claim to be alarmed at the “terrorist sympathies” of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, yet it is perfectly legal to call for Palestinians to be exterminated, to compare them to different types of animal and vermin, and suggest they should be driven into the sea. That does not horrify ministers at all.
I am personally now subject to a police investigation for “terrorism” merely for suggesting that the Palestinians too have a right to self-defence and may offer armed resistance to genocide – a right they enjoy beyond doubt in international law. Remember, Israel has formally declared war. Is it the position in British law that the only belief it is legal to hold and express, is that in this war the Palestinians must simply line up quietly to be killed?
The step change in western authoritarianism is likely to be met by blowback.
After 20 years, we had finally come through the vicious cycle of the “War on Terror”, where terrorism, repression and institutionalised Islamophobia all boosted each other across the western world. Outrage at the appalling genocide in Gaza is very likely to result in isolated incidences of, also appalling, Islamist-inspired violence in Western countries, including the UK, particularly because of the UK’s military support of Israel.
That consequential terrorism in itself will be cited by the political elite as justifying their stance. And so the vicious cycle will restart. This will of course be welcome to the agents of the security state, whose power, budgets and prestige will be boosted. Once again we have to be on the lookout for radicalisation and real terrorism, but also for agent-provocateur-led terrorism and for false flag terrorism.
If we descend back into that nightmare again, the direct cause will be elite support for the genocide of the Palestinian people and the Islamophobic narrative. The major cause of terrorism here is Israel, the terrorist apartheid state.
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Abby Martin, in conversation here with her brother, dares us to interrogate the West’s and Netanyahu’s justification for this genocide.
https://soundcloud.com/media-roots/99-layers-of-hasbara-to-sell-the-israeli-killing-machine
(from 25 min mark)
Why have we still not seen the names let alone the bodies of the 1,400 Israeli victims of October 7?
Why is there no footage of the killings, as there always is when there are mass shootings in the USA?
What are we to make of last week’s Haaretz article which said the number killed on October 7th was not 1,400 but 300 – and that 70% of those casualties were IDF?
Does anybody other than Abby and the Electronic Intifada dare to question the official justification for this slaughter of Palestinian children?
I have also posted elsewhere wondering how many IDF were in Ukraine and had been killed. Left burnt and mutilated. Answer is None, apparently. Because there were none deployed!
Hmm.
I’m referring to the hundreds of alleged Israeli *civilian* casualties. The justification being used for this genocide.
In any case there’s not a chance in the world the IDF would go and fight Russia. They are cowards raised on shooting old ladies and children.
Oh, they’ve been there, in their thousands.
It’s no secret.
I find that interesting but hard to believe, many Israelis are of Russian descent after all and Ukraine is more or less a Nazi state. I will look it up myself but I’d be grateful if you would share where you found out about it.
The most represented group in the list of Israeli casualties so far released in Haaretz are IDF (170 +) with Police (43) and civilian (106). Some survivors claim many civilians died when IDF went all Hannibal at the kibbutzim and others could have been killed in crossfire between Palestinian fighters and police/security when leaving the rave. A very different story to the one we are all being asked to believe with 40 babies decapitated amidst a frenzied massacring of innocents
The foundation story has fallen to pieces yet there is no acknowledgement let alone retreat by Western politicians or media. They want the slaughter to continue irrespective of any spurious “justification”.
The latest Haaretz article, comparing the ages of those Israelis killed only gives the number as 683, of which none are babies and 307 are 18-29.i.e. of military service age. What happened to the other 717?
OCOS: “one country, one state, freedom and justice for all” is the only long term solution to the problems of Palestine/Israel.
Politicians (Nandy et al) who still pontificate about a “two state solution” are obviously blind to the established facts on the ground.
Ethnic cleansing and hand washing are the likely outcomes – much to the joy of future generations of shareholders in the armaments industry.
OCOS is not rocket science, but probably too simple for those who benefit from the world being a mess. My personal contribution is on bitbarn.co.uk/.ocos.
Gaza’s fate seems to have been sealed since the discovery of oil & gas along its coast.
I would not rule this out as being the main motive and reason for the security lapse too.
A PM who sells his whole people as guinea pigs to Pfizer knows no boundaries.
Israel can only be a democracy if it is a state for all its citizens of whatever origin. But the West, whilst advocating lots of colour revolutions for the sake of democracy, only encourages apartheid in that part of the world.
“Early in life I have noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper, but in Spain, for the first time, I saw newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts, not even the relationship which is implied in an ordinary lie. I saw great battles reported where there had been no fighting, and complete silence where hundreds of men had been killed. I saw troops who had fought bravely denounced as cowards and traitors, and others who had never seen a shot fired hailed as heroes of imaginary victories; and I saw newspapers in London retailing these lies and eager intellectuals building emotional superstructures over events that never happened. I saw, in fact, history being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various “party lines.”
― George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia
Thank you, Mr Murray, for this analysis. It’s the clearest and has the most explanatory power of any I’ve seen or heard.
I found the poll quite telling and encouraging.
Commentators predictably focused on Labour just having 9% Israel supporters, but the real, big messages were this:
2/3rds think Hamas is a terror organisation.
2/3rds also refuse to back either side/can see both sides’ points and thuggeries.
In essence, that means the elite and Israel have lost most of the Western public on that conflict.
Yes, Israel’s previous almost-total control of the narrative has taken a hefty spank this time around.
Israel won’t do a thing without support from the US.
The US (as an empire) is drowning under the weight of its own hypocrisy and contradictions.
As the Polish PM recently said, it is dangerous to approach a drowning man, because he might take you down with him. Especially if said man has nuclear weapons.
So I fear the rest of the world is watching the Gaza genocide and the death of the US Empire: Gaza is the price the world seems willing to pay to get rid of US Empire.
And compared to the wanton destruction in Ukraine with over one million victims, and counting,, it may seem an acceptable price for the survivors.
The sole difference between going into the history books as either terrorist or as freedom fighter and founder of a nation is success.
A lasting one, still in place at the time of writing the history book.
The Boston tea party et al. would have been terrorist acts if Britain had succeeded.
Thatcher still deemed Mandela to be a terrorist.
Etc..
As for Israel’s biblical claim:
How many real estate moguls in New York, e.g. DJT and the many Jews among them, would gladly sign over their properties to the Native Americans if they now demanded just that?!
None.
So they above all should be able to see what’s wrong with that claim, with how Israel came into existence and what enmity that inevitably created – even Ben Gurion was.
This does not excuse the unrealistic all-or-nothing response of Palestinians and Arabs for many decades.
They always played their bad hand terribly.
But how Israel then behaved, going all or nothing itself by occupying and ignoring the UN resolutions, building an apartheid state in the West Bank and acting with duplicity reg. Oslo, 2 state, Hamas etc. is just as bad and inexcusable.
The current power balance favours an enlarged apartheid one-state Israel.
The future trends strongly favour a one-state Palestine.
But the reality will likely be a continued muddling through and mess on the current basis for many decades.
My hope is that, like the French and Germans, the Erbfeindschaft between the two people can one day be buried.
But realistically that would demand either total surrender of one side plus many centuries, or a common external threat, like communism was in Germany’s and France’s case.
Holocaust
at least in world war 2 the world had the excuse that people didn’t know exactly what was happening. here, we see it unfold nightly on screens, and all the western governments do is clap.
Close gaps in law over ‘jihad’ chants, says Starmer.
Jihad ‘chants’? Genocide underway and he’s more bothered about what someone who wasn’t part of the main protests (Hizb ut-Tahrir held a separate protest) said “jihad” (Arabic: “struggle” or “effort”). Think about this logically for a moment. Jihad is mentioned in 41 instances in the Qur’an. Is Starmer considering banning reading the Qur’an in public? Because a ban on a word would necessitate this. How about calling for a ceasefire as the best way of defusing anger?
Oh that moron do not even know what Jihad is. He is taking the Islamophobic right-wing-shortcut myth that Jihad means some chant only al-Qaeda and other groups use. His ignorance is absurd! And he is supposed to be a human rights lawyer??
What is the Truth About American Muslims?
Misunderstood Terms and Practices
14. What does “jihad” mean? Isn’t it a “holy war”?
https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/publications/what-is-the-truth-about-american-muslims/misunderstood-terms-and-practices
‘Jihad’ is not a dirty word
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2017/07/08/jihad-is-not-a-dirty-word/
The UK elite are clearly furious that their stance of uncritical support for Israel, isn’t reflected in the wider population.
On Politics Live they were discussing why Hizb ut-Tahrir hasn’t been banned? Given all the recent spycop revelations, I’d imagine it isn’t banned because it’s heavily infiltrated? Informers to keep tabs on extremists. So any stunts they pull are automatically suspect.
The Telegraph’s Tim Stanley, speaking on the programme ten minutes ago, said “I’m not Jewish, but nobody’s perfect” – which sums up the mentality those protesting for a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, are up against.
Regarding the disconnect between political classes and public, I sent emails to Sunak, Cleverly and Starmer making that point (amongst others) and calling for a ceasefire. I could have made a better job if I had already read our host’s latest article, although the most important issue is to add to the clamour for a reversal of the UK support for Israel.
Police will have to explain the response to a pro-Palestine protester chanting “jihad”.
We’ve got genocide going on, and the govt are preoccupied with one silly individual at an unofficial protest? I’d guess because nobody wants to defend land theft and genocide. This is the political equivalent of ‘Oh look a squirrel!’
Hate to say it, but, one could almost feel sorry for Tubby Starmer. On the one hand the PLP will throw any election chances if he’s seen to waver on Israel, and on the other he’ll lose in vital constituencies that have a large Muslim vote if he keeps coming out with nonsense like today’s offering.
He’s no politician that’s for sure, but hey, there’s not too many of those about right now.
“I find it almost impossible to believe that this genocide is under way with the active support of almost all western governments”.
It is sad to see such a kind, gentle, and moral person as Mr Murray being forced to accept the wickeness of our masters and – equally horrible – the acquiescence of most Westerners.
But to tell the truth there is absolutely nothing new or different about it. Such massacres have taken place from the beginning of recorded time – and no doubt long before it. Given a chance, and very heavy odds on their side, chimpanzees will sometimes seize the opportunity to descend on their neighbours and kill them or drive them out.
Do you believe that human beings are so different from chimpanzees that such deeds cannot be done, with the smug tacit approval of the majority? If so, you are mistaken.
I see two possible cases. Either the Israelis and their friends believe that the inhabitants of Gaza are literally “subhuman”, and therefore fair game (as the European colonists in America saw the Native Americans, for example), or they see the Gazans as fully human and hence the full equals of Israelis, yet consider it perfectly OK to kill them en masse.
Which would be worse, do you think?
Good article Craig, Sy Hersh had an article up a week ago in which he says that the IDF are extremely hesitant to send troops into the North of Gaza, as they might not be up to going toe-to to-toe with Hamas or whoever is willing to defend the oppressed Palestinians.
He too (Hersh) says that the current bombing will continue, with even heavier bombs used, as you say the Zionists will continue to commit genocide, and they’ll get away with it because the West’s politicians are complicit in the genocide.
What is going on now is not a war. One should stop calling it that – it’s a racist ethnic cleansing, a genocide that has been going since at least 1948.
The Nakba did not start or end in 1948: Key facts and figures on the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948
• In 1948 at least 750,000 Palestinians were deliberately expelled by Israel.
• in 1967 war at least 300,000 Palestinians were deliberately expelled by Israel.
These refugees are then refused the right to return. Why? Because Israel want to rid as many non-jews from the soil as possible. It is a racist colonial regime.
This is the overall and constant goal of Israel, and as the veteran Israeli historian Ilan Pappe said a couple of days ago in an interview: this is not going to be a genocide which is to be carried out in a week or 2; as I said above, it is a genocide that has been ongoing incrementally with slow tactics, since ’48, and as Pappe also say – that is why the West approve it because it is so slow-moving that west are no realizing what the Israelis are up to and thus justify every action by Israel.
https://youtu.be/d6TI2ekYEg0?t=719
I assume next week Israel will invade. They will occupy Gaza and will try to push Palestinians into Egypt, they will bring regime change – Hamas, Islamic Jihad and others will be eradicated – and move in their puppets from Fatah/Palestinian Authority to rule. Gaza will shrink and the occupation will go on as usual.
I also assume that ICC will soon wake up and claim that only Hamas are responsible of grave war crimes.
Meanwhile Western head of states just flock to Israel. Yesterday it was Italian right-winger PM Meloni, today it is Greece PM that just cannot wait to support the genocide. How can they become so depraved?
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/greek-pm-mitsotakis-lands-israel-meet-netanyahu-2023-10-23/
Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, Red cross and other similar organisations should unify their information and let the world know, let the west know, of the Israelis’ senseless racist crimes. They should call them out and let the West know that they are complicit in what is going on.
“Because Israel want to rid as many non-jews from the soil as possible. It is a racist colonial regime.”
Whereas it does seem that the purpose of Israel is to get rid of as many Jews as possible from every other country. “You’ve got your own country now, so go there!”
A strong piece. I agree with you but ask a question on the number of deaths of children. Sorry if this seems pedantic but I think it’s the kind of thing that critics latch on to. I’d heard a figure initially, a few days ago of 1,000 deaths and then yesterday of approximately 750 deaths from the health ministry. Can you quote a source?
Again this is pedantic but when discussing this I have found that people are latching on to things like this.
Thank you for the article..
I’m sorry to say that this is to do with the losing the SMO and the success of the Multipolarists.
It’s the bargaining position to stop the major defeat there. Using the massacre of Palestinians.
Something like ‘Let us keep our illegal land purchases and Odessa etc’ or we’ll murder ever more innocents right here where we can’.
It’s what bullies and mafioso do.
The Collective Wasteral leaders have been running around like headless chickens as the BRI has moved on with the majority of the world and have been left like mongrels barking at them.
That’s why I believe the long-suffering Palestinians are being beaten and killed – ‘look what you are making us do’!
F***ing Psychos who supposedly are our Leaders, the ones who support actual Nazis and have brought about fascist regimes here.
If the Multipolar can be marshalled into its first geopolitical intervention on behalf of the Palestinians, it’s over for the UN and Rules-based plunder and murder of the conquistadors.
BDS on a worldwide scale and defenestration of all Israeli embassies is what will halt this very quickly.
Sanctions on steroids as blowback. Sanctions that actually work. The western stock markets and currencies collapsing overnight.
I’m watching Lavrov and Co.
Xi and Putin will have known this was on the cards.
Hopefully the answer will be the end of the Israel Project in the Levant and their exodus to a rump Ukraine, where they will forever remain neutral without any further attempts at expanding into EurAsia or returning to Palestine. For these who want to go; others could stay if they want.
Pray it will be settled within hours and not days.
Thank you, Craig. I went back to Twitter/X so I could keep up to the minute with what’s happening. The videos of injured and dead children, grieving children and adults, devastation of entire areas, overwhelmed hospitals and staff, are heart-breaking. And with most world leaders and MSM collaborating, what hope is there for these poor people?!
Just like Ukraine, based on lies – this time mostly by the US and Israel, but NATO is trying to back them too.
I agree with Tom Welsh that genocide is entirely normative behaviour for the West.
I suspect that this is the beginning of the ‘final solution’ – and I use that term very deliberately. We are back in C17th Spain.
I think we will see the mass extermination and/or expulsion of all Palestinians from the Occupied Territories, the destruction of the Al Aqsa complex and it’s replacement by a ‘temple’, and the expulsion of (Muslim and Christian) Israeli Arabs – that means 1 in 5 Israeli citizens.
I assign personal, individual and collective responsibility for this genocide to the leaders and regimes of the West, especially those of the USA, the UK, France and Germany – the four countries who have played the most important roles over the last 100 years.
I suspect I am not alone in these views.
We will not forget.
Centre for Constitutional Rights would totally agree with this assessment and have produced a very good document.
EMERGENCY LEGAL BRIEFING PAPER: Israel’s Unfolding Crime of Genocide of the Palestinian People & U.S. Failure to Prevent and Complicity in Genocide (18 Oct 2023) – pdf (44-pages; 14,000 words)
Thanks, SA.
Brexit torpedoed Britain’s little platform in the EU to pose punching above its weight on the international stage and the Tories are still regretting kicking themselves in the balls for the sake of jingoistic pride. So I see Sunak’s genocidal posturing as trying to make up for Britain’s lost voice in the world.
Message to Sunak: the more you want it the less you’re going to get it, because this genocidal posturing will finally cancel any vestiges of good reputation Britain enjoys in the world.
If my M.P. Liam.Byrne can say this to Russia: “the more Putin wants security, the less he’s going to get it”, let’s assume Labour will be even more stupid than the Tories, by trying to keep up with the clamour for genocidal revenge.
The US refusal to accept Jeremy Corbyn and his opposition to the 70-year-old Palestinian genocide means that responsibility for British disgrace in the eyes of the world is imposed on us from the outside by Atlanticist supporters of NATO.
The US sees Europe only as a competitor which it must de-stabilise, by blowing up Nordstream, by starting a war against Russia in Ukraine.
When will the penny drop in high places in government that the US hates Europe and we need to align ourselves against the US in order to retain our traditional, hard- earned Christian and Socialist values?
Our vision is clear now, that it is the US that has to leave us alone. Atlanticism is a busted flush, dead in the water. We refuse to take the blame for a Gaza genocide imposed on us by a small clique of British diplomats and politicians that get rich poodling themselves to the Teenage World.
Liam Byrne sounds very foolish. He seems to be threatening a country whose government could kill virtually everyone in the UK within half an hour by launching a handful of ICBMs.
Why?
Toxic inferiority complex & historical bigotry, after Suez Britain lost any vestige of being a “great power” and thus the big three became two.
After that the UK became embarrassingly sycophantic to the USA, in an attempt to leverage the “bigger boy” to its advantage via the “special relationship”. Of course the USA for its part, treats the UK as just another vassal state, deservedly so.
Russia on the other hand, despite the turbulent times following the disastrous dismantling of the U.S.S.R. Has reconstituted itself as a major power and a sovereign geopolitical actor. Something Britain will not – and perhaps at this point *cannot* – do.
The collective ego of the UK ruling class can’t stand this horrid reality, and they don’t have the power or imagination to break away from the Americans. So they froth at the mouth and try to be a constant irritant to Russia. Which for its part regards Britain as Airstrip 1, again deservedly so.
You can see this evolve over nearly twenty-five years, as soon as Yeltsin was ousted in a Russian deep state coup, because of his pro-NATO stance on Yugoslavia. And it started to dawn on people after the turn of the new millennium, that Russia wasn’t “finished”. Relations quickly tanked and establishment media coverage became derogatory, hostile & frankly racist.
Of course, they’ve claimed all sorts of goodie-two-shoes pretexts for it, but anyone who actually knows anything on the subject will tell you that’s all BS.
Thank you Craig.
“The question is, what is Israel’s aim?”
A mouse doesn’t fart in Gaza without Shin Bet (& Mossad and Avan) knowing all about it. The massive mobilisation of 2,000 fighters and four or five thousand of those pissy wee firecracker home-made rockets took weeks, or more likely months, to prepare and amass.
Of course Netanyahu knew what was coming. He avoided interdiction because he knew that Western public and government opinion would be persuaded to look the other way, or even to participate in what he knew would be regarded as a “just” retaliation or “self-defence”.
The aim is nothing short of biblical, very literally. He wants to drive the Palestinians out of Palestine and into the wilderness of Sinai for at least 40 years. He wants to terrorise the Palestinian Authority into abject submission and for the remaining Palestinian people in the West to cower in fear lest the self-styled “chosen people” come after them in the same way that they did with the Gazans.
His profoundly evil plan is more or less on track.
Thank you, Craig Murray, for your informative opinions on Israeli and Western Governments complicity in this Genocide.
Keir Starmer replying to the question posed by Nick Ferrari [LBC News] – i.e. Does Israel have the right to lay a siege on Gaza denying the population food, water and energy? – replied, “I do consider Israel has that right”. Shadow International Development Secretary and former Shadow Foreign Minister Lisa Nandy was asked three times whether Israel was in breach of International humanitarian law; she refused to answer. Of course she knows, as does “Human Rights lawyer” Keir Starmer, they are condoning Genocide they know it, we know it and the majority of World opinion knows it. These cowardly Genocidal monsters will pay a price in the future.
As for Hezbollah and the other “arc of resistors” I think it is way past the time for them to act, as Craig admits the Genocide of Gaza is underway, and it is quite possible for the Genocide of Gaza to occur simply by the Israelis completely flattening Gaza by air, without any IDF incursion. If this is allowed to happen, by the ‘Arc of resistance’ Hezbollah et al. could be accused quite rightly of (in the words of Professor Finkelstein) being “Wind Bags”. I think Hezbollah need to do more than border skirmishes. Hezbollah knows if Israel gets away with this, Hezbollah and other resistors will be next – that is guaranteed.
I agree – it’s a very terrible thing to see our governments today in the 21st century openly approving of genocide. After all the fake stuff that’s put out about democratic values.
The demo last Saturday in London didn’t get properly mentioned. The police figure was 100k and the organisers estimated 300k. This is serious demonstration numbers, and it’s going up. The first demo the week before was quite small, mainly Muslims and Arabs. This time a third of the participants were white Europeans, according to someone I know who took part. I’ve always found that there is a very widespread sympathy for Palestine among Brits – much changed from 1967, when (I’m ashamed to say) my brother wanted to go and fight for Israel. He wouldn’t say that now.
many here seem hysterical. this is not genocide, it is an insult to the 8 million plus jews that died under hitler and his henchmen.
so far this is half a day’s quota. europe, the usa and canada need to find a home for the homeless now and qatar will fund it. it is a simple solution.
this is genocide. it is insulting to the memory of the jews that died in another genocide to pretend that this isn’t.
Remember “never again” is not exclusive to any race or group. Inhumanity to any people who are bombed whilst incarcerated is a crime, and there is no relativism in racism.
” it is an insult to the 8 million plus jews that died under hitler and his henchmen.”
It’s 8 million, now, is it? It used to be 6 million. When did they find the extra 2 million and how come no-one noticed them before?
A lot more peoples than Jews died due to Nazi policies of extermination and slavery. To start with, they weren’t even the primary victim group, by sheer numbers. Zionist attempts to monopolise victimhood notwithstanding.
Furthermore considering the CW ongoing denial, historical rehabilitation of Nazi collaborators and now open support for its political heirs. Coupled with the obvious apartheid & fascistic characteristics of the Israeli polity.
Mean the boring & predictable comparisons with the CW’s geopolitical rivals to the Nazi’s and constantly exploiting the Holocaust to justify their own murderious depredations abroad. Is rightfully regarded with ever growing scorn & cynicism.
They’ve used the same damn script too many times, in my own rather short living memory.
Sunak and Starmer claimed that they have consulted with ‘the Jewish community’ in the UK, yet deliberately ignore that within the UK Jewish population, there are many who are wholly opposed to Israel and its actions.
Sunak and Starmer are maliciously misrepresenting the Jewish community in the UK.
Additionally, I was taken aback that the Jewish population in the UK is just c.300k – or about 0.4% of the UK population of 67m.
Why is there such an obvious over-representation for Israel support in the UK media and politics?
The large marches across the UK are now highlighting this massive disconnect with the greater UK population.
Proud to have attended 2 marches so far.
“Why is there such an obvious over-representation for Israel support in the UK media and politics?”
To repeat the reply that I have often been giving to such reasonable questions:
“Money”.
If anyone is interested in the axis of resistance reporting, Almadeen from Lebanon is a good source
https://english.almayadeen.net/
We cannot allow these freaks ever again to say one word to us about “human rights”. Last Wednesday, a day after the hospital atrocity, Washington and its cronies had the audacity to issue a UN resolution condemning China for “HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS”! .. Against MUSLIMS!! Israel was among the signatories. It shows they intend to continue gaslighting us even in the wake of their glaring genocide. Even in the feckin midst of it!!
No-fly zone now.
I’m a little more optimistic about Ooh-aah Hezbollah but not that the zionist bloodbath will continue. It leaves us hoping for a joker in the pack.
Definition of genocide is quite clear and no doubt that is what we are seeing
General dictionary definition:
the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group
More genocidal crime has 2 parts to it:
1 A mental element: the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”; and
2 A physical element, which includes the following five acts, enumerated exhaustively:
“ a Killing members of the group
b Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
c Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
d Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
e Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group”
https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/genocide.shtml
One must ask, why is Israel so bent on destroying women, children? Targeting of women is a well-known infamous warfare tactic used in earlier genocides as a way to prevent one race or ethnic group from giving birth more.
It seems that there is no other explanation than that the Israelis see the Palestinians as subhuman, and would like them all to disappear.
“Will no one rid us of those annoying brown people cluttering up the land that God gave us?”
According to Twitter/X Russian allows Iran to use its base at Khmeinmim – Israel bombed the landing grounds at Aleppo and Damascus. Also Hezbollah has destroyed the two biggest electronic warfare bases in the Middle East which cost billions over years to build – Al Abad and Ruaisat Al Alam.
“Also Hezbollah has destroyed the two biggest electronic warfare bases in the Middle East which cost billions over years to build – Al Abad and Ruaisat Al Alam”.
Good men. The more I hear about Hezbollah, the more I admire them.
As I often say, war is God’s way of showing racial supremacists that they are not superior to anyone.