UPDATES: NOT GAZA, AGAIN!

    Ankara protest in support of Gaza, condemning NGO ban by Israel

HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all, unless nuclear Armageddon has ended things for our hairy mammalian species. Nukes? Who said anything about nukes? But just so you know, after the Trump-Netanyahu confab at the White House on December 30, President Trump was asked by reporters if he would support another attack by Israel against its regional rival, Iran. He said he would support it. And, this time, not only Iran’s (civilian)* nuclear programme warrant a second attack, now Iran’s missile program is on the verboten list. Its the only effective deterrence the Persian state has against Israeli aggression and I doubt very much if they would forego upgrading and adding to their missile arsenal. 

Dear readers, I worry (and here’s the nuke part) that if Israel launches another attack, and Iran responds with a heavy missile bombardment, that the fascists in charge in West Jerusalem might be insane enough to launch a nuclear attack on Iran.** And then that big, fat genie is out of the bottle for good. If that happens, we may be in for a world of hurt if things spiral out of control and tit-for-tat becomes splat-for-splat. 

Stay tuned.

 

OH YEH, GAZA: First, it’s tip-of-the-hat to ret. U.S. Army Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Aguilar, who said in his recent George Galloway podcast interview that Israel would establish so-called ‘humanitarian’ aid stations along the yellow line that separates IDF-controlled Gazan land (confiscated illegally) from what’s left of Palestinian Gaza, and where food, water, medicines, etc., could be accessed by the captive population. One way to hurry that along is to ban NGOs that are currently operating in Gaza and for Israel to establish its own ‘humanitarian’ supply chain, like we saw this summer with the clusterfuck known as the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation, a sham organization establishing a sham system of food and ‘aid centres' that lasted barelyuntil the fall when Trump's ceasefire came into effect in early October, allowing for increased humanitarian aid reaching Gaza and ensuring there were NGOs in place to distribute it at scale. Things are better, food wise, but Palestinians continue to suffer in the winter rains and cold, with inadequate shelter and no machinery or construction materials allowed in. Hundreds of thousands hunker down as best they can in unsafe and collapsing ruins or underneath ripped and ragged tents, forced to remain in exposed, rain-drenched encampments. Lung infections and diarrheal diseases from unclean water claim lives along with Israel's "mowing the grass" attacks.

 

 👉And Happy New Year to the bastards who came up with this latest war crime in the making: As of January 1, 2026, thirty-five NGOs are banned by Israel. They can no longer perform their duties in occupied Palestine (including the West Bank).

 

“‘Humanitarian organizations that fail to meet security and transparency requirements will have their licenses suspended,’ the Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism stated. The ministry added that groups which had ‘failed to cooperate and refused to submit a list of their Palestinian employees in order to rule out any links to terrorism’ had been formally notified that their licenses would be revoked from January 1.” (AlJazeera)

 

    Palestinian mom and kids enjoy sunny picnic amid ruins of their home

IN A COMMENT to the AFP news agency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity” as they would “pose a danger to our staff and our patients”. (Ibid) And such a scenario, one that would slow down, scale down, or outright eliminate humanitarian aid deliveries for 2.2 million Gazans fits nicely into Anthony Aguilar’s assessment that soon Israel would set up its own distribution network that will be tasked to establish concentration camps centered around food and aid distribution hubs that permanently imprison the Palestinian population behind barb wire and high-tech monitoring, guarded, by bikers. (We can’t forget the bikers!) And to languish in captivity or "voluntarily" emigrate from Gaza (to Somaliland?) 

 

👉BANNED NGOs INCLUDE: Doctors Without Borders, the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Danish Refugee Council, Oxfam, World Vision International, Caritas, CARE, War Child Holland and a couple dozen more. And I would guess that’s for starters. We’ll see. Buckle up!

 

 

CHEERS, JAKE. ________________________________________ 

 

* The Director of National Intelligence in the United States, Tulsi Gabbard, as recently as March of this year reported that Iran had not commenced operations to develop a nuclear bomb. It has increased its enrichment capabilities for weapons grade nuclear fuel, but remains, as far as Gabbard is concerned, a nuclear threshold country, not a nuclear weapons possessing one.  

** Another scenario might involve Netanyahu demanding the United States step into the fray directly on Israel’s side or else the Israeli PM would be forced to use nukes, that he would have no choice in the matter, that Israel was in dire straits. 

One wonders if a similar threat was made during last June’s so-called “Twelve-Day War” between Israel and Iran that culminated with the U.S. dropping bunker-buster bombs against three nuclear facilities in Iran, then declaring victory and going home.  Did Bibi threaten the use of nukes to get Trump to send in B-52s? It’s possible.   

 

 

 

 

 

QUOTES: ALBERT EINSTEIN

  

 

“A HUMAN BEING is a part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.” —Albert Einstein

 

 (Reading time: 30 seconds; Learning time: a lifetime)

 

RANT: IF AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED, TRY, TRY AGAIN

   

IN KEEPING WITH the Christmas spirit on display across great swaths of the Western world and beyond, I share with you the heart-warming tale of a shepherd and his flock as they…oh wait. My bad. It seems the sheep in question had a different encounter with decidedly un-shepherd-like folk in the Israeli-occupied West Bank last week. Again. And for those who missed October’s epic battle between Israeli settlers and lambs in pens, on December 23 they did it again. And to the same flock belonging to the same Palestinian family. This time they smashed windows and doors of the farmhouse, adding a nice touch by spraying tear gas inside and sending three children under the age of four to hospital. Why?  Because the Palestinian farm happens to be on land that God gave to the Jews two-thousand-or-so years ago. Didn’t the Palestinians get the memo? They must go! It's God's will.😕

As Dave DeCamp of Anti-War News reports: While the settlers were arrested for the animal abuse, assault and property damage (they were caught dead-to-rights on CCTV footage) it is unlikely they will be punished by authorities. “[S]ettlers are rarely held for long or prosecuted for their attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory,” DeCamp adds. Thus, more and more Palestinian land is stolen by Israeli settlers using violence and laws that are heavily weighted in their favour.

 

 Holy Family Church, Gaza, December 21/25

ON THE UP-SIDE for a change, in Bethlehem (also located in the occupied West Bank), Christian ceremonies celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ were held without incident, as was the Christmas mass, conducted by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, at the Holy Family Church in Gaza City on December 21. In his sermon, Cardinal Pizzaballa* offered hope to the embattled population of Gaza:

  

 “We think that the powers of the world will decide our future. But then in reality, it is we the people here who will decide how to rebuild everything,” he said. “I encourage you, don’t lose your hope. Now, we are in a new phase of this situation, we have not just to survive, but also to rebuild life. In this new phase we have to bring the spirit of Christmas, the spirit of light, the spirit of tenderness, the spirit of growth,” added Pizzaballa. “Now it seems impossible, but after two years of terrible war, we are still here.”

 

AND THUS FAR, the October 10/25 ceasefire (“Hamas cease; Israelis fire”) is holding, more or less, if you don’t count the 412 Palestinians killed¹ by Israeli gunfire and bombs since then, as well as the continued demolition of Palestinian homes and infrastructure beyond the “yellow line” in the Green Zone of IDF (Israeli Defence Force) occupation, a crescent of land completely enveloping what remains of Palestinian Gaza. 

 

ISRAEL now controls, and will no doubt keep, over 55% of the Gaza Strip, and soon—you watch—it will open areas in the Green Zone for Israeli settlers. In Phase One of the Trump peace proposal, accepted and ratified by the November 17 vote in the United Nations Security Council, the relentless, murderous bombardments by the IDF trickled down to pre-October 7/23 levels, "moving the grass", in other words. Israeli troops withdrew from western Gaza. More food and aid supplies were let in (still inadequate, however) and Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, living and deceased, were exchanged.

PHASE TWO NEGOTIATIONS are set to begin (presumably) when the last Israeli hostage is released. The body of an Israeli police officer killed during the October 7/23 Hamas incursion into southern Israel is proving difficult for Hamas to locate, but I fear once this is accomplished Netanyahu will unleash his forces in Gaza once more. The peace negotiations in Qatar are set to discuss, in Phase Two, the makeup of an International Stabilization Force (ISF) that’s meant to monitor and secure the peace in Gaza, to oversee the phased withdrawal of IDF troops from Gaza, [Good luck with that. Ed.] and to monitor and facilitate the disarmament of Hamas², [Ditto]. Phase Two will also select a “Board of Peace” to act as a transitional government with the goal of creating an indigenous Palestinian governance system in two years. The board is supposed to monitor and direct ISF forces, coordinate reconstruction and economic development in the Gaza Strip, ensure humanitarian aid flows in, among other potential duties. And….

 

…Well, if you think peace is breaking out all over and that Gazans and Israelis are set to sing kumbayas, think again, dear readers. Phase One was the ‘ceasefire’ and prisoner exchange, which has lasted 82 days thus far (again, if you don’t count Israel’s daily infractions of bombings and demolitions.) There’s less mayhem and murder than before but still no true ceasefire. Even so, that was the easy part! Phase Two negotiations in Doha, when they begin, will focus on establishing an, as yet unnamed, oversight committee (“Board of Peace”), and an, as yet unformed, International Stabilization Force. Particularly thorny issues include disarmament of Hamas, and IDF troop withdrawals.³ 

👉The White House last week issued statements indicating announcements will be forthcoming in January concerning the Board of Peace and who will be on that oversight committee, as well as ISF troop composition. Folks, put a pin in mid-January to see if this clusterfuck will fly.

 

NOTE: WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED with Netanyahu’s December 30 visit to the White House, his fifth trip to see Trump this year. (It’s about time these two came out and started buying furniture together!) So, what’s on the agenda for this end-of-year confab? Possibly Iran, with the U.S. joining Israel in a second attempt to destabilize the government in Tehran, or Netanyahu may tell Trump that Israel needs to renew its military operations in Gaza or elsewhere in the region. Who knows?

 

👉ONE INTERESTING PREDICTION on Gaza's near-term future comes from ret. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Aguliar whom we've met before.⁴ During his interview on George Galloway's "MOATS" podcast last Sunday, Aguliar predicted that Israel will set up aid distribution centers along the yellow line of contact. Palestinians would be required to register at one of the stations in order to receive food and medicines, when Israel once more takes control of humanitarian aid distribution in the enclave. Aid seekers would be scanned, have their biometric data taken, then given an access card that can be used only at the site where they first registered, making it easier for the IDF to corral the population into concentration camps where they can be monitored 24/7 by whatever gee-whiz, super technology those plucky Israeli masterminds cook up in their digital hellholes laboratories. Israel could then continue its ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip. 

Currently, relief aid is entering the Palestinian enclave in greater quantities, though supplies like tents, sleeping bags, etc. are deliberately not let in. A number of NGOs are operating food distribution centers, bakeries, soup kitchens, etc., a situation that no doubt gives the fascistic Israeli cabinet heartburn. UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) currently operates services like education, healthcare, social services, etc.  It was the main provider of meals and food aid in the occupied Palestinian lands until Israel and the United States claimed it had been inflitrated by Hamas and Israel subsequently banned the organization from distributing food in October 2024. Now, it provides non-food aid to Gazans.

Things like healthcare, winter shelter materials, proper water and sanitation services are woefully inadequate still. Several infants have died from exposure since October when the winter season, with its winds and rains,  sets in. Other Palestinians have been killed by collapsing walls of their destroyed homes. 

👉If "Bibi's" plans for segragating Gazans into camps located at strategically-placed aid centres goes ahead, Palestinians would be entirely beholden to the state of Israel for their survival with food distrubution managed by an Israeli controlled food aid system (and patrolled by bikers! See below). Israel could then withold or release aid as it sees fit. If this scheme sounds familar it should because plans for such a dystopian and criminal operation have been in the works for some time. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation's summertime clusterfuck was a trial run in using relief aid as a tool of war, just as its digital monitoring systems, biometric-scanning techniques and new weapons development are trial run in Gaza to be packaged and sold internationally. The Israeli motto is never let a good genocide or ethnic cleansing go to waste. Starving people to flog your 'battle tested' security software, it just makes good business sense. Yet another Israeli war crime? But, we've lost count. There have been so many.  

 

 CHEERS, JAKE. _____________________________________ 

 

 * Cardinal Pizzaballa had been nominated for Pope in the recent Vatican elections. One wag quipped that Pizzaballa should have been chosen, if only for the name recognition he’d bring to the office!

1. BTW, in the West Bank there have been increasing attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian farms and businesses. Since January 2/25 the Israeli operation “Iron Wall” has displaced nearly 40,000 Palestinians, primarily from refugee camps, and over five hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and settler violence there since October 7/23.

2. Hamas has said it would disarm only when a Palestinian state is created. It has recently said, however, during the peace negotiations in Doha, Qatar, that it would be open to having its weapons stored as one solution to the thorny issue of demilitarization but a recognized and legitimate pathway towards a Palestinain state must be established first.

3.  Of course, Emperor President Trump could solve all this by cutting off aid and military equipment to Israel until it makes peace with the Palestinians (and with Iran and the rest of its neighbours). But he won’t. Between Netanyahu and Trump, it's always confusing to decide who’s a ‘top’ and who’s a ‘bottom’ in their sicky, psycho relationship. Only time will tell.

4. [Aguliar's Interview with George Galloway starts at the 27.07 mark on the show. Ed.] Anthony Aguliar was the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) whistleblower who exposed the true intentions of the aid organization and its corrupt administration. Recall the short-lived, so-called humanitarian aid organization that was quickly assembled to counter global oprobrium for Israel's genocidal starvation of Gaza's Palestinian populaton for months, earlier this year. GHF was supposed to counter the bad press Netanyhau's administration was getting by feeding the Palestinians, a task it failed miserably to accomplish. 

Aguliar had been hired by UG Solutions (UGS), to provide security at the various GHF aid distribution sites (five sites for two-million Palestinians!) He witnessed how humanitarian food aid was being weaponized and used to control and coerse the Palestinian people. He resigned in protest and went public. 

👉He notes that his former employer (UGS) has been hiring hundreds of bikers from the Infidels Motor Cycle club  who are eager to pick up lucative security positions in Gaza. I'm sure the new food distribution scheme will go fine-and-dandy with bikers patrolling and keeping the peace. UCMTSU! 😕   

FUN FACT: Israel may have taken the first step towards their ultimate goal of evicting Palestinians from Palestine with its recognition of the breakaway Somalian province of "Somaliland" (Israel was the first state to do so) located on the strategic Horn of Africa. Might Somaliland be the 'final destination' for all those pesky Palestinians? Oh, and Israel is building a military base there, in exchange for recognizing Somaliland as an independent country. 'Sup with that? Stay tuned.

 

    Cogs Breaking Free

       

 

RANT: WHEN OUT ON THE ROOF THERE AROSE SUCH A CLATTER…

   

  

WHO SAYS SANTA DOESN’T KNOW* who’s been naughty or nice? Well, I guess I do. Because the rewards for being bad pay off so much better than anything parlayed by lame do-gooders who appear on our screens and in the news every so often. And it’s hard to deny that karma—while it may be there in some undetermined future—for the here-and-now it mostly sucks. 

 

TAKE the example of the direct-action protest group, “Palestine Action”, who have staged demonstrations, most notably at Elbit Systems factories in Britain that manufacture drones and other war materiel for Israel. But, the group came to international attention in June this year, when five members gained access to the Oxfordshire airfield at RAF Brize Norton and spray-painted the turbine engines of two Voyager aircraft used in air-to-air refuelling by Israeli warplanes during their bombing sorties over Gaza. It was the subsequent over-reaction by the Starmer government that had many observers taking note.

ACTING QUICKLY, the government pushed through legislation that “proscribed” or officially banned Palestine Action (PA) within the United Kingdom, labelling it a “terrorist entity”. Under the new law, there can be no public support given to the group, or funds and other aid supplied to it. Of course, no one can join the group that has had its website and social media presence scrubbed. Even expressing support for the group in peaceful protests at Parliament Square in London, wearing tee-shirts and carrying placards with “I am against Genocide. I support Palestine Action” on them can get you arrested under Britain’s expanded “terror laws”. And wearing keffiyehs and chanting “From the River to the Sea, Palestine shall be Free” are definite no-nos, condemned by the government as promoting violence and anti-semitism. 

IN BRITAIN, the crackdown on protesters demonstrating their support for the banned direct-action group have reached absurd levels with over 2100 arrested in England and Wales since the June proscription of PA with 2,000 expected to go to trial in 2026. So far, one-hundred and twenty have been charged with “low level terrorism offences”¹, including 83-year-old Reverend Susan Parfitt and a mannequin. They have been charged under the terrorism act and are at ground zero for the government’s draconian legislation curbing freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

 

AS FOR Palestine Action, itself, it did not target individuals in any manner. No threats or incitements to violence were made. They attacked physical assets—buildings, machinery, and now aircraft. Such activity is not a threat to national security, and to use a charge under the terrorism statutes is a dangerous overreach by the government. Rather, PA’s direct actions are in the realm of property damage, which are criminal acts, granted, but ones that can be adjudicated and punished under general criminal law procedures. Observers conclude the government’s use of proscription and charging Palestine Action (and its growing number of supporters) with ‘terrorism’ under an ever-expanding definition of the word, is a way to get around the likely prospect that juries, impanelled in trials of PA members accused of criminal damage to property belonging to a company or the state, entities currently supplying the tools of genocide to rogue, apartheid Israel, would consistently fail to convict them on anything larger than a parking ticket.

 

IT IS SHAMEFUL AND DISTURBING that in the land of the Magna Carta, where English Common Law was introduced to the world, political pigmies currently in power are doing their damndest to chuck a thousand years of jurisprudence into the garbage bin of history.

👉FUN FACT: There are Palestine Action members in prison awaiting trial for actions taken prior to June’s Brize Norton action. Called collectively the “Filton24” and “Brize Norton5”, two members have been on remand for over a year which is contrary to Britain’s legal practice of pretrial detentions. Worryingly, several members of the imprisoned Filton24 have gone on hunger strikes, with four considered medically at risk without solid food. Two have been refusing food for nearly seven weeks. One has been hospitalized, but only after MP Zarah Sultana took up her case and lobbied for the PA member to get immediate medical care.

Folks, will we have to wait for one of the hunger strikers to die before any of their demands are aired and addressed, demands like:  

   

“Immediate bail, the right to a fair trial (which they say would include the release of documents related to “the ongoing witch-hunt of activists and campaigners”), ending censorship of their communications, “de-proscribing” Palestine Action, which is classed as a ‘terrorist’ group, and the shutting down of Elbit Systems, the Israel-based defence manufacturer with several UK factories.

The protesters have also called for an end to their alleged censorship in prison, accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls and books.

Looking ahead, the six prisoners are expected to be held for more than one year until their trial dates, well beyond the UK’s six-month pre-trial detention limit.” (Al Jazeera)

 

👉FUN FACT: This past Christmas Eve, international terrorist and supreme anti-Semite Greta Thunberg was arrested by the British constabulary for sitting on a sidewalk, holding a placard that states: “I support Palestine Action Prisoners. I oppose Genocide.” Thankfully, alert bobbies removed the offending sign and arrested the 22-year-old before more of the public could be exposed to the message Greta’s words were meant to convey. [She’s out on bail until a March 2026 court date. Ed.] Move along. There’s nothing to see here…

👉FUN FACT: Just one more story of Christmas cheer to warm the cockles of your heart as you sit with the family around your cozy hearth roasting chestnuts:

There have been jury trials in England since the late Saxon period of the 12th century. Recent legislation by cockroach Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy has rescinded the right of defendants to a jury trial if the crime they are charged with is likely to have a sentence of less than three years imprisonment (he originally wanted five). Instead, a judge or magistrate will be the final arbiter in such court cases. What say ye prompted the change? The backlog of cases in many jurisdictions in England and Wales is one reason given for blaming jury trials for clogging the courts with ‘small change’ crimes. I have no idea if jury trials are the culprit here, but…yeh…methinks they came up with this scam to ensure Palestine Action members get up to three years imprisonment for their crimes if found guilty by a judge. The British government feared, and rightly so, that with a jury of their peers, the PA defendants stand a very good chance of being found not guilty by jurors that believe the direct-action group’s members were acting in the public interest, or else could fine them nominal amounts to pay in compensation for the damage their protests caused.

ALSO, we should watch next year to see if civil suits are launched against the activists, perhaps even from other government agencies. Is that a 'conspiracy theory'? Let’s see what happens when the PA members’ trials start next year. Let’s also watch what happens to the Filton24 and Brize Norton5 currently remanded in prison. Will they be granted bail or remain incarcerated until their trial dates which could come as late as the fall of next year? If they are kept inside—it will be obvious that “lawfare” is at play. If they are harassed by lawsuits or pursued by over-zealous minions of the government, then we’ll know that the process of having to spend so much time and energy in and out of prison, of encurring ever-growing legal fees, with constant 'bombardments' by government bureaucracies and corporate interests is the punishment. And don't forget the roughly two-thousand  PA supporters who have been arrested. What will be the "terror" charge they receive, and if found guilty, what will be their sentence? Stay tuned. 

👉In Canada, what happened to the trucker protesters in 2022, with the govenment freezing people’s bank accounts, court appearances, court delays, legal expenses is an another example of lawfare at its best/worst, depending on which side you’re on.² We are, of course, reminded of Julian Assange who spent five years in a maximum-security prison until he got his day in court. His case is a prime example of the rapacious nature of lawfare and, in the case of Palestine Action members and its supporters, the Starmer government's heavy-handed use of new "Terror Laws".  

👉This new "terror" legislation is meant to chill dissent, to dissuade anyone contemplating similar acts of civil disobedience, like the property damage caused by Palestine Action (and its shining a light on the Starmer government's active support of genocide in Gaza). The government also wants to crackdown on the rabble and those members of the public rallying in PA's defence with protests and placards. Nevertheless, using the new terror laws to silence protests against government perfidy is a nice touch, Minister Lammy. Let’s get those airplanes spic-and-span but keep helping Israel bomb babies in the meantime.

 

👉AND SANTA, if you’re still delivering presents to corrupt elites like Keir Starmer and those supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and who favour clamping down on freedom of speech and assembly in the UK, then you are a fucktard deserving to be out of a job. I’m sorry, Santa, or Saint Nicholas, Père Noël, or whatever alias you go by, but somebody has to let you know where the greater part of humanity stands on things.

 

CHEERS, JAKE.

AND MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS!

_______________________________________ 

 

* That Santa’s “gonna find out who's naughty or nice” presumably means he’ll know where to make deliveries after he reviews 2025’s register for offenders and do-gooders. It may also be a veiled threat by Santa’s intel community that bad folk are at risk of being ‘found out’ or “doxed”, perhaps an unintended admission that Santa and his elf army operate a globe spanning blackmail ring. Just sayin’. [Is it a conspiracy theory that’s been debunked for centuries? Or is Jake onto something?  Also, his stocking was empty this year.  So he's a bit ticked off with the jolly, fat fuck. Ed.]

1. A charge that nevertheless comes with a potential six-months in jail. 

2. In April this year two chief organizers of the Trucker Protest rec'd several months of house arrest followed by a probationary period. Ed. 

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