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.

 

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