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 would 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 they will 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. At these sites food, water, medicines, etc., could be distributed to the captive Palestinian population. And only at those sites, of course. 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 barely until the fall when Trump's ceasefire came into effect in early October. More NGOs and  humanitarian aid flowed into Gaza and the NGOs were 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.