RANT: GAZAGAZAGAZA

 

LEST WE FORGET, Gaza is still the world’s first live-streamed genocide, brought to you by WEAPONS “Я” US^©, a division of EthniCleanse Inc. where quality ethnic-cleansing products and services are to be found.

In business since the Stone Age.💀

 

ISRAEL IS LICKING its wounds and beginning repairs to the extensive damage done to its infrastructure in the “Twelve Day War”, as June’s air barrages between Iran and Israel is called. It’s fair to say that both sides took hits to military bases, missile launching sites, ports, air ports, energy systems, etc. Death tolls of over 600 in Iran were recorded (including dozens of military commanders and nuclear scientists assassinated in Israel’s “decapitation”strike of June 13). The Jewish state says 65 people were killed during the same period by Iranian missiles. Who knows the actual numbers, but the relatively ‘low’ death counts suggest to me that infrastructure and not populations were the primary targets of both militaries, as each attempted to degrade their opponent’s abilities to function as a cohesive state and to remain a significant military threat.

ISRAEL BEGAN THE UNPROVOKED war with Iran on June 13 with ballistic missiles, cruise missiles fired from “stand off” jets and ground launchers, as well as drone and cyber attacks. Iran responded with heavy missile bombardments and drones*. This back-and forth, tit-for-tat confrontation continued until June 24 when a ceasefire was announced by President Trump to go into effect the next day.

The cessation of hostilities came after the June 22 U.S. bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites followed by, in short order, Iran’s calibrated (i.e., staged) ‘counterattack’ against an American air force base across the Persian Gulf in Qatar ending the exchange. Iran’s counterattacking barrage of 14 missiles struck the Al Udide Base in Qatar causing only minor damage and no casualties. It demonstrated Iran’s ability to ‘reach out’ and target American bases should they choose, but the Qatari strike drew a line under the conflict: You hit us. We hit you. One and done. The Iranians attacked the Qatari base after informing the U.S. of their intentions and allowing the evacuation of American personnel and equipment. It was a face-saving performance so Iran could claim it responded to the American attacks on its nuclear facilities, but without escalating the hostilities.

 

    What goes around, comes around.

Some commentators say the June 22 nuclear site strikes in Iran  by the Americans were also a bit of ‘kabuki  theatre’. How else to explain the fact that lines of trucks were seen at the Fordow facility⁺ in the days preceding the June 22 attacks? This suggests equipment and enriched nuclear fuel were removed prior to the U.S. bombers dropping 30,000-pound “bunker-buster” bombs on Fordow and sending submarine-launched cruise missiles into two other sites. They suggest the U.S. gave into Israeli PM Netanyahu’s demand to back Israel up, but made the strike a “one off” event calibrated so that President Trump could claim he still supported Israel without igniting further conflict with Iran.

 

IT IS QUITE POSSIBLE, as the daily barrages continued in the war, that Israel ‘cried uncle’ to Uncle Sam and sought an end to the conflict because it was taking a beating and its aerial defences (the “Iron Dome”, “Patriot Missile” batteries, etc.) were being overwhelmed by incoming Iranian missile fire.¹  Thus, a temporary ceasefire was arranged by the Trump White House. I say “temporary” because no outstanding issues were addressed, like increasing Israeli belligerence against Iran and in the region, and the elephant in the room, namely, Gaza and Israel’s genocide there against the Palestinian people. So, we’ll see how long Israel lasts before it again lashes out against its neighbours, near and far. Don’t touch that dial, folks!

 

AND JUST BECAUSE Israel took a licking from Iran and got a taste of its own medicine, doesn’t mean it can’t continue its genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip. After all, God’s chosen people can do whatever the fuck they want.

 

 

Cheers, Jake.  ____________________________________

* Israel’s drone attacks mimicked Ukraine’s June 1 drone attacks on Russian airfields hosting its heavy-bomber fleets. Hmmm. Could there be an Israeli-Ukraine connection? There's a match made in hell!

 

+ For interesting discussions on the Fordow strike see the “Daniel Davis Deep Dive” podcast with MIT professor Ted Postal, here and the “Dialogue Works” podcast, here. 

 

1. Even with the assistance of interceptor fire from nearby American warships and aircraft, Israel was hard put to stop most incoming Iranian missiles. Significant damage was done to the country’s infrastructure, so much so that the government banned any photography of the bomb sites and instigated a news blackout. It must be said that Iran, also, suffered significant damage during the twelve days of aerial bombardments, with its air defence system badly degraded by Israeli missile attacks. But the question remains: In a war of attrition, who could last longer? Which country has more resilience and social cohesion?

 

FUN FACT: Israel now restricts its citizens from leaving the country. I guess those who have dual (or more) passports are taking the opportunity to jump ship before it hits the iceberg. And will the last person exiting please remember to turn out the lights.  

 

RANT: UCMTSU! AGAIN

    

ON JUNE 20, PRESIDENT TRUMP was nominated by Pakistan for the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in bringing a resolution to the simmering India-Pakistan conflict that flared up in India-administered Kashmir where twenty-six tourists were murdered by Islamic militants. I’m not sure of the extent of Trump’s behind-the-scenes assistance in bringing about a ceasefire to April’s flare-up between the two nuclear weapons-possessing South Asian powers, but Pakistan thought his role was significant enough to submit his name to the Nobel Prize Committee for consideration.

UNFORTUNATELY, the Pakistan parliament hastily withdrew its recommendation on June 22 after American bombers attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities. Iran, of course, is a predominately Muslim country. As is Pakistan. Oops! 😝

PERHAPS news travels a bit slower reaching Pakistan because they obviously weren’t aware of the essential support America provides Israel, enabling its genocidal rampage in the Gaza Strip and its military adventures in the Levant: invading Lebanon and Syria, not to mention the on-going forced displacement and murder of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. And as far as the Ukraine conflict goes, there was some hope, early in Trump’s second term in office, that he might enter into genuine negotiations with Russia to end the conflict and “reset” US-Russia relations, but dithering, mixed messages, and the recent deceptions* used by the American president to green light first Israel’s June 13 “decapitation” attack on Iran’s military commanders and nuclear scientists with drones and aerial bombardments meant to “shock and awe” regime change in the Islamic state, and the later B-2 bomber attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Russia and China see this duplicitous behaviour by the American president and conclude he cannot be trusted to keep his word, that any treaties made with the U.S. aren’t worth the paper their printed on. 

 

👉My long-winded point here is that—as far as Ukraine is concerned—there are no worthwhile negotiations to be had with the Americans, given Trump’s deceitful behaviour in the Levant. Putin, no doubt, will resolve the matter on the battlefield.

👉As I said earlier, Pakistan might not have gotten the memo that Trump was complicit in a genocide in Gaza and enabling Netanyahu's fascist government to start illegal wars on multiple fronts.  Trump also has allowed the Ukraine conflict to fester instead of cutting Zelensky off at the knees by stopping shipments of weapons and money. These conflicts may have started under the previous Biden administration but Trump 'owns' them, now. He could have stopped them with a phone call.

👉So, Trump as a “peace” president and legitimate Nobel Peace Prize nominee? GMAB!👎

 

 Cheers, Jake.  ____________________________________

* ISRAEL LAUNCHED its June 13 (Friday) sneak attack on Iran while negotiations were on-going between Iran and the United States to hammer out a deal concerning Iran’s enriched uranium program. Steve Witkoff was to meet with Iranian officials on Sunday, June 15 for the sixth round of talks. It was hoped that a compromise could be found which would allow Iran to develop its civilian nuclear power industry and disavow any attempts towards building a nuclear bomb, something Iran has, for years, stated it did not want to do.

Israel launched its surprise attack using the cover of the negotiations. There are reports the decision to attack Iran was made as early as March, calling into question whether the Americans and Steve Witkoff were bargaining in good faith (they weren’t), and that the negotiations from the get-go were a smoke screen to lull the Iranians into a false sense of security (they were).¹

 

THE SECOND DECEPTION was in Trump’s public statements on Truth Social and elsewhere that he was close to deciding whether to launch an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities, but he’d wait two weeks before green lighting the mission. It was a “head fake”, of course. Instead of a two-week waiting period, the next day (June 22) American bombers and cruise missile armed submarines attacked the large, underground Fordow facility and two other nuclear laboratories.

👉AT THIS POINT, America’s reputation as an actor in good faith, as country that could be trusted and relied on, was circling the toilet and now seems to have been flushed away.

As an aside: there is a high probability that Iran removed critical machinery and uranium stores before the bomber attacks, so there is a “kabuki theatre” feel to the episode, i.e., ineffectual attacks and counterattacks done for show and face-saving. Stay tuned!

 

1. It is interesting to speculate how 'clued in' the American negotiator, Steve Witkoff, was around the deception. Was he in on it from the start? Or only later on? He seemed to have been making headway by early June when he announced the Iranians would accept a deal to enrich uranium domestically up to a maximum 3.67% purity. Then the U.S. flip-flopped on their position saying there could be no domestic enrichment at all. The sixth round of talks scheduled for Sunday June 22 would have continued those negotiations. The Friday attacks by U.S. bombers put the kibosh to any negotiations. So, it will be interesting to learn how culpable he was in the deceptions. Liar! Liar! Pants on fire! 

 

  

 

JUNE CRINGE PIC: UKRAINE’S ZELENSKY: THE GIFT THAT JUST KEEPS ON GIVING

 

  

    Co-joined twins attend NATO summit

HE WASN'T INVITED to the NATO summit at The Hague this week but he came anyway. The diminutive Ukrainian president gained entrance to the defence confab via the venue’s restaurant and “dumbwaiter” lift. He surprised attendees as he yelled a hearty, “Hello, guys! I made it!” during the lunch break when he arrived alongside trays of the popular Dutch dessert, stroopwafles and cream.

FOR the first time in over three years, Ukraine spending was not front and centre for the septuagenarian defence alliance founded in 1949. President Zelensky crashed the party came to remind everyone that he was still relevant and that his country needed infusions of guns and money to keep the Slavic giant (Russia) at bay.

The above pic is of President Zelensky and the lanky, melon-headed NATO chief Mark Rutte. The two were inseparable for the remainder of the conference which had as its major ‘takeaway’ the decision for the thirty-two member states to increase their defense budgets to 5% of annual GDP by 2035.* 

👉And for the first time since 2022 there was no mention of Ukraine’s future membership in NATO, something the Trump administration opposes.

  

 

FIVE EYES INTELLIGENCE NETWORK (U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, N.Z.)

Intra-cranial Intercept (ICI) Division

Target Location: NATO Summit: 24 June 2025

The Hague, Netherlands

KEY:

Mark Rutte (MR)

Volodymyr Zelensky (VZ)

 

MR: “I am so much tall than dis toad. My head is twice bigger of his. My brain is bigger. Everything of me is bigger dan Vova! I could squash him like a bug! He is so needy. So desperate. And yet, there is somethink abouts him that is so…attracting. He clutches onto me for der cameras and follow me everywhere, even to washrooms. I am just use to him, I guess, like that bad smell you get use to until it becomes part of your life. But what then that make me? I can’t tells where he stop and I begins. I am so confuse, so intertwine with dis Ukraine devil! To be alones wit him, even for jus one hours. What I wouldn’t give!”

 

VZ: “Dey all cocksuckerz! Dey try keeps Vova from partyz? Nah! Dey doanz! I comez. I herez! I smilez witz Ruttez. Dutch dummyz! He thinkz he so mucky-muck. Look downz all time on mez. I shake his handz and whatever. His hand clamyz and his breath bad. I smilez. Make pokey-pokes wit him maybe laterz. We see. I shakes everybody handz. Even big prick Trump. Smelly, old manz! Like my Oppa. Pah! All dees big shot, they sayz dey spenz more on weaponz. Good. Then they give more to Vova! I dooz what I haff tooz to get moneyz for Ukraines and me. I am Volodymyr the First, Kingz of Ukrainee. I no am some clownz to makes laffz at circus! They will payz to makes laffs at Vova. You see. Oh yaz!  I send my tough guys to their countries. Take in Ukrainee refugees. My guys make troublez in their countries. Car bombz, drone attacks. Hey, why not? Jus’ blame Russians. So, send more moneyz to Vova to keep Bear in cage. Or else! Or I send someone to break kneecaps like Tony Soprano. Yah, surez!”

 

The 5-👀 ICI installation recorded all summit attendees’ thought waves and found most were conflicted by a deep revulsion for the Ukrainian president alongside a sickly attraction. Zelensky, for his part, was critical, even contemptuous of all attendees but he also had erotic attractions to many. Significantly, he had very strong, sadomasochistic fantasies about the U.S. president such that President Trump's Secret Service detail was alerted.

ICI recorded attendees’ resolve to rearm their countries so they can unite as a powerful European military ready to combat the Russian Federation in the scheduled anticipated 2030 war, even if the social safety net Europeans (and Canadians) have known since the end of WWII might fray under the burdening costs of rearmament. Most attendees spent considerable time thinking about how to pad their investment portfolios with additional defence industry stocks before the NATO summit’s final communique went public announcing the 5% annual defence spending target for the alliance.

Attendees’ thought patterns were within proscribed limits and functioned as expected.

 

 

Cheers, Jake. ____________________________________

 

* PM Mark Carney announced that by 2035 Canada’s budget for military spending (including weapons, ports, infrastructure, services, salaries, cyber security, ETC.) would increase by 150-billion dollars per year, and since he won’t be around we can just keep printing money, they’ll be no consequences or downside for our standard of living or social cohesion infrastructure.

 

 

NoW UPDATES: DROP YER COCKS AND GRAB YER SOCKS!

 

THEY SAY A WEEK IN POLITICS is a very long time, and these past couple of weeks have certainly shown there is a lot of truth in that old chestnut. The recent drama in the Middle East seems like it’s been going on forever, and what everyone feared might happen finally came to pass when the maniacs in Tel Aviv launched missile and drone barrages into Iran ostensibly to cripple Iran’s nuclear research capabilities, but it’s plain to see Israel’s goal is, and has always been, regime change in the predominately Shia Muslim country of ninety million.

The unprovoked, June 13 attacks by Israel targeting Iranian missile defenses, military installations, defense industries and assassinations of high-ranking army personnel and nuclear scientists occurred while Iran and the United States were in negotiations to work out an agreement on Iran’s civilian-only nuclear power system that everyone could live with. In fact, Steve Witkoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, was to meet with Iranian officials the next day. Since then, both sides have been lobbing drones, ballistic and cruise missiles against the other in a tit-for-tat arrangement.*

The Americans entered negotiations to resolve issues around Iran's nascent  nuclear power generation system which would include indigenous nuclear fuel enrichment capabilities, something the Iranians saw as their legal right under the international   NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) of which Iran is a signatory in good standing. This, however, was bug-a-boo for both the Americans and the Israelis who felt Iran would secretly enrich uranium to levels where the radioactive fuel could be used to make a nuclear bomb, despite assessments from the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) on-site inspectors in Iran, and from American intel agencies, even Israel’s Mossad, all concurring that Iran was not developing a nuclear weapons program. Just last March, the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified before Congress that Iran was not working on a nuclear bomb.

IN REALITY, the June 13 attacks fulfilled a decades-long desire by Israel to take out their chief rival for dominance in the region. Some commentators even suggest that the talks with Iran, begun shortly after Donald Trump became president, were a smoke screen, that the negotiations were a façade to lull Iran into a false sense of security so Israel could launch a surprise, “decapitation” strike. It’s hard  to disagree, given that President Trump, instead of being furious with the Israelis for disrupting his peace talks, praised PM Netanyahu, saying he’d known of the impending operation. The next several days saw calibrated attacks and counterattacks on military and civilian infrastructure between Iran and Israel until a week later when the other shoe dropped. 

 

IN THE EARLY MORNING HOURS of Saturday, June 21, American heavy bombers and submarines launched cruise missiles striking three Iranian nuclear facilities including the large, underground “Fordow” laboratories. On Friday, the American emperor president said he would take “two weeks, within two weeks” to decide whether or not to use American forces against Iran directly. And, again, it’s hard to see his pronouncement as anything other than another subterfuge, masking the launch of B-2 heavy bombers loaded with fourteen 30,000 lbs. GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators (MOPs) munitions, the next day. Incidentally, planning for the sortie was begun during the Biden administration, so hardliners in the U.S long had their eye on Iran’s nuclear sites. It is still too early to assess the damage from Saturday’s attacks, but there is evidence that the plants had been largely evacuated. According to the IAEA, which has staff monitoring, there does not appear to be any radioactivity released after bombardments by Israeli and American aircraft, which suggests either the enriched uranium had been removed or that the strikes were largely ineffective in damaging the facilities located deep underground.

Talks between Tehran and Washington have been suspended until the attacks against Iran stop.

 

👍HOLD THE PRESSES! I hope you won't get whiplash with all these rapidly changing events, but a ceasefire has just been brokered by the American president between Israel and Iran. Both sides almost immediately accused the other of infractions to the deal hammered out in the early hours of Tuesday morning, June 24, but President Trump apparently read PM Netanyahu the 'riot act', prompting Israeli jets to turn around before they attacked Tehran. That's good news. 😂 

 

SOME TAKEAWAYS from this overall foreign policy FUBAR are:

👉Donald Trump, the “peace” President, has just started (and perhaps ended?) another Middle Eastern war (bombing Iran). Regardless of what happens, he ‘owns’ it. Like he owns Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Lebanon and Syria and any other country Israel decides to invade with its arsenal of American-made weapons and political 'cover'.  He came into office with a mandate to end foreign wars. So far, it’s “Promise (not) kept!” Ukraine's still on fire [He owns that, too. Ed.] Iran's starting to boil, and Gaza is dying. And his supporters are beginning to notice.

👉Attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities is a sure way to incentivize Iran to develop a nuclear weapon as a deterrence against just such invasions. (And, to make the Israelis think twice before using nukes against them.)⁺

👉Air bombings, the only realistic intervention America can muster against Iran,  will not ensure regime change, or even conclusively eliminate Iran’s nuclear laboratories. By the way, under international law it is illegal to attack nuclear sites. But when did legal niceties ever stop Tel Aviv? Or Washington, for that matter.

👉If it comes down to a war of attrition between Iran and Israel, Iran has the advantage in terms of withstanding a prolonged siege. Israel, not so much.

👉The ceasefire brokered on Tuesday suggests a couple of things:

The American air strikes on three Iranian nuclear installations may have been for show. A bit of theatre. Why do I say this? Recall that in the days leading up to bombings, fleets of trucks were seen at the installations, suggesting critical machinery and nuclear fuel were taken and hidden elsewhere. The Iranians even said the sites had been emptied of critical material and personnel. Recall last summer when Iran launched its first wave of drone and missile attacks against Israel in response to Israeli targeted attacks on Iranian military personnel and diplomats. The Iranians 'telegraphed' the time and routes of their counterattack so the majority of drones and missiles could be taken out by Israel's "Iron Dome" defense grid. A couple of missiles reached their targets. Point made: We can hurt you if we want; now it's time to deescalate. 

A SIMILAR CASE can be made for this summer's American bombings of Iranian nuclear sites. The Americans saying, in effect: we can hurt you, so stop attacking Israel and agree to a ceasefire. Done and done. This also suggests that Israel could not effect regime change in Iran or destroy its nuclear program without U.S. assistance. Hence the kabuki  theatre of "destroying" a (non-existent) nuclear weapons program. 

👉A final point suggesting the events of the last few days was theatre and face-saving demonstrations was Iran's so-called 'counterattack' in response to America's 'attack' on its nuclear installations. The Iranians lobbed a few missiles into an American base in Qatar, across the Persian Gulf. "No significant damage" or injuries. They blew up some sand, but point made. You hit us, we hit you. A nothing burger of a counterstrike when Iran could have flattened the Qatari base. Done and done. Now the ceasefire.

  

INCIDENTALLY, the reason Iran enriched uranium in their plants to 60% of weapons-grade¹  in the first place was to use it as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States to gain relief from sanctions that had been imposed on the country for years. Let's see if there are discussions down the road whereby Iran gives up its enriched uranium  cache for sanctions relief.

 

IT'S A WIN-WIN-WIN SCENARIO  for the United States, Iran and Israel: The U.S. can crow about its superior military might and the efficacy of its 'big stick' diplomacy; Iran can gain a path forward to establishing a civilian nuclear power industry and gain sanctions relief; Israel can claim to have eliminated the threat of a future Iranian "bomb" [Even though what it really wants is to destroy Iran as a functioning state. Ed.] And for now, Israeli aggression is muzzled at least with respect to Iran.

Please folks, take the wins!

 

Cheers, Jake. _____________________________________ 

 

* The barrages have inflicted damage on both sides, but the question is whether Israel can stick it out in the long run, given Iran’s size, both in terms of land mass and population. Israel is a small country. Targets there are closely spaced and difficult to camouflage. Needless to say, Israel is experiencing unprecedented levels of damage to its cities and infrastructure. [Ain't karma  a bitch! Ed.] 

 

+ IT'S BEEN OVER TWENTY MONTHS since Israel’s genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip began, and Palestinians there are still being starved and murdered, dozens every day, as they are corralled into the southern city of Rafah where the so-called ‘humanitarian’ aid organization, the Gazan Humanitarian Foundation, which has been roundly condemned by the UN and other legitimate aid organizations as a cruel “weaponization” of aid relief run by armed mercenaries using inadequate food distribution networks whose "aid centres" are venues for daily massacres by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force). Iran has not wavered in its support of the Palestinian people. Their plight remains the moral issue of our time. War crimes are committed there daily, and in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and now with Israel’s maniacal wars in Lebanon, Syria, and now Iran.

 

👉TWO REASONS Israel gets away with this illegal and depraved behaviour is because the United States backs it, in the UNSC for example, vetoing UN sanctions against the apartheid state. They, literally, get away with murder!

The second reason is: Israel has nukes, an estimated cache of 90 to 200 warheads. Israel has never declared it's nuclear  weapons program and is not a signatory to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) unlike Tehran which is a signatory. If Israel cannot deter Iran’s daily drone and missile attacks, which have continued unabated since June 14, and if the country's stability is in question, there is a possibility,  some say probability, it will use nuclear weapons. [See above update: "Hold the Presses.] It may also target Iran’s deep underground nuclear facilities with nukes. And if  the Israeli nuclear arsenal is unleashed, then all of us are crossing the Rubicon, whether we want to or not. 

 

1. Uranium has to be enriched to 90% purity to make a Bomb.