RANT: TOO CLEVER BY HALF

 

 

 

 

I WANT TO THANK the American Military-Industrial Complex (MIC), their captive politicians, the nation’s propagandizing and sabre-rattling media, and of course, their familiars and followers in the Collective West, for providing me with an eagle-eye view of eastern Europe and the European borderlands of Russia. Before the war started in 2022, if you’d asked me to draw a map of Ukraine as it sits in eastern Europe, I’d probably get the borders all wanky, extending them into Poland or Hungary (which would tee-off Poles and Hungarians, to be sure. Same goes for Slovakia, Romania and Moldova. If you asked where Transnistria was, all you’d get from me was a blank stare and a frown. But today, I’m well versed in Ukraine’s eastern provinces. I know the whys and wherefores around Crimea, where Ukraine’s cities are, where the battlelines are drawn, where rivers flow, the country’s ports, the terrain’s highs and lows, etc.

The same goes for western Russia, from its border with Ukraine, on to Moscow, then the Baltic Sea and Saint Petersburg, up to its Western neighbors, Finland and Sweden,* and that old NATO standby, Norway, and finally north towards the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean. And don’t get me started on the Middle East! I can find Gaza and the various nations of the ME on a map blindfolded! Along with names, dates and places (more or less).

TO ABUSE Samuel Johnson’s maxim: war helps wonderfully to concentrate the mind. And so, I can’t wait for one to break out between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, or in the East or South China Seas! It’ll be another geography lesson brought to you your local MIC oligarchy.

 

   JB: "Heh-heh. Gotcha! Cough, Cornpops!"

AND IT MIGHT BE OUR LAST lesson if things get out of hand in any of these theatres of conflict. In recent days, the increasingly unstable president of Ukraine (though his term in office expired last year and he rules by diktat, no longer the country’s legal president) mused that Ukraine should develop its own nuclear weapons program. Zelensky and “The Bomb”—what could go wrong? BTW, that’s a good way to ensure Kiev gets turned into an ashtray, if el presidente ever ventures down that road. As for the conflict in Ukraine, it continues at pace with both Washington and Moscow doing their share of nuclear sabre rattling. For example, earlier this year, Joe “Where’s my ice cream?!” Biden quietly changed America’s nuclear doctrine. Now, America will expand its nuclear targeting arrays to be able to conduct a “first strike” option against China, Russia and North Korea, all three at the same time. The change in U.S. nuclear launch protocols seems to be in response to China’s declared goals of increasing its nuclear stockpiles to keep its deterrence effect viable and to maintain its ability to strike back.

  

“The Chinese leadership undoubtedly considers its nuclear arsenal to be very vulnerable.” (NZZ) One reason Beijing may feel vulnerable is because of advances in nuclear warhead and delivery platform technologies that make a first strike more 'attractive', if I can put it that way, even winnable.   Incidentally, China is the only major nuclear power to have a “no first use” policy, that is, it will not use nuclear weapons first, in any nuclear exchange. Worryingly, the U.S. and Russia have changed their nuclear protocols, in recent months, to adopt more first-strike scenarios, even against an non-nuclear state if that state's aggression is deemed threatening enough to either Russia or the U.S.

[If the globe’s nuclear weapon states all declared a "no first use" protocol in their strategic defense policies, all of us would sleep better at night. Ed.]

 

    Ted  Postol

MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) PROFESSOR TED POSTOL, someone regarded as one of the top experts on nuclear weapons and missile defense, tells us in this video how the United States proposes to revamp its missile targeting system to include China’s anticipated ICBM (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile) expansion while still being able to target all the Russian missile silos and command and control sites, industrial centres, ports, transportation hubs, energy grid, etc. that it previously targeted. IN THE DIAGRAM below, on the left-hand side we have a hardened missile silo targeted by incoming ballistic missiles, with the “lethal volume” zone, in green, indicating where a 100 kt¹ warhead detonation would destroy the emplaced ICBM. [100 kt=100 “kilotons”, one-hundred-thousand tonnes of TNT. By comparison, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 had a 14 kt and a 25 kt explosive force respectively. Ed.] Note in the diagram: of the nine ballistic warheads launched at the target, only four successfully hit ground zero inside the “lethal volume”. IIUC, Ted’s chart depicts the probability of a successful missile strike, in this case four hits and five misses.

 

HERE, he is talking about the use of “heavy lift” ballistic missiles, and primarily those making up the land-based strategic nuclear arsenal of the United States, those 400 or so siloed missiles that are the first “leg” of America’s nuclear triad, located in the central states of Wyoming, North Dakota and Montana. They are a legacy system from the Cold War when ICBMs where stationed far inland to protect them from attack and to give Washington time to respond with an equally lethal counterstrike. Today, there are submarine-launched ballistic missiles and nuclear capable cruise missiles, tactical nukes, as well as mobile launch platforms and new hyper-sonic missile and anti-ballistic missile (ABM) developments that make siloed missiles increasingly redundant, if not any less deadly. Additionally, because of the speed of today's (and tomorrow's) hyper-sonic missiles, those siloed ICBM  missiles have the potential of launching first in any threat of attack, real or  'false-positive' (due to technical failure), because if they delay, they may lose the launch window and be destroyed by incoming missiles. (It's the old 'use them or lose them dilemma') Incidentally, the U.S. does not yet have a reliable hyper-sonic missile array like the Russians. My concern is there will be a new arms race when the Americans finally perfect hyper-sonic missile technology, especially since all previous nuclear arms treaties between the U.S. and Russia have been cancelled save for the "New Start" treaty,  which is set to expire in 2026 unless the two begin talks now to renew it. ("New Start" capped the number of nuclear warheads each side may possess.)

IT IS WORTH REPEATING that the U.S. announced in July of this year that it would deploy a ground-based Tomahawk missile array in Germany beginning in 2026, along with "a hypersonic missile that is still in development."(Arms Control) These missiles are capable of delivering nuclear payloads. So, the fucktards in Washington, instead of renewing "New Start", are looking past the treaty to 2026 when they can expand their nuclear arsenal and re-introduce intermediate-range missiles into Europe. This type of missile was effectively banned in Europe since 1987 when the INF (Intermediate Nuclear Forces) treaty was signed between Regan and Gorbachev. It remained in effect until 2019 when chump Trump walked away from it.😟

 

IN TERMS OF TED’S DISCUSSION, the vagaries of targeting are such that only a certain number will predictably hit inside the target zone in a ground-blast strike. But, Professor Postol informs us that the United States is developing a very clever work-around to ‘fine tune’ targeting protocols for its ballistic missiles. (And recall, there may be several warheads per missile, each with their own pre-planned target.) The trick is to aim slightly long of the target and to have, instead of exclusively ground-detonations configured into the warheads’ various trajectories, adjust each warhead’s fuse (the “super fuse” as Ted calls it) to detonate at various elevations, but still within the “lethal volume”, as we see in the right-hand illustration. This means fewer warheads are needed per target (perhaps just one), allowing each missile to acquire more targets, and thus quickening a hell-scape on earth, where the only sounds are the breaking of bells and the thunder of hoof beats as the Four Horsemen ride forth to claim their new world. (Just sayin’.)

 

ARMAGEDDON ASIDE, Ted indicates that the development of a “super fuse” has been a hush-hush research project for several years. And I assume America’s advanced satellite observation and space-based monitoring technology enables them to calibrate such intricate “air burst” detonations as depicted in the diagram, especially given the incredible speed of incoming ICBMs. (Thousands of miles per hour.) 

 

👉I PICKED TED POSTOL'S OVERVIEW³ of “super fuses” to cite one example of how technological improvements to nuclear weapon designs, or to their delivery systems and protocols, no matter how clever they may be, if they are introduced at the wrong time and in the wrong manner, could result in the strategic deterrence system becoming unbalanced. This system was a series of treaties and protocols, along with a 'learning through experience' knowledge base since WWII, and was meant to keep a rough parity among the nuclear powers, with each power assured no other would attack them with nuclear weapons without the attacker suffering equally devastating consequences. During the Cold War, it was called the MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine. It was there to remind politicians and other madmen that no one wins a nuclear war. That no one can launch a first strike without the clear understanding their own society will be destroyed by a counterstrike, and that, no matter how hard you hit your opponent, or how much destruction you unleash upon their society, or how many bombs and missiles you use, if their goose is cooked, then so is yours.

 

    "Must. Not. Sneeze."

BUT IT SEEMS the times they are a’ changing with the introduction of a variety of “tactical” and “strategic” nuclear bomb and missile warhead types⁴ that could become part of a nuclear power’s conventional war plan’s arsenal, and be brought more readily onto battlefields to shore up a losing side or break a dead lock. The cute name for these smaller, tactical, piddly (1 kiloton of TNT give or take) type of nuclear weapon is “baby nuke”, which we may yet see used on tomorrow's battlefields. 

👉Hyper-sonics may be a game changer in the deadliest game on the planet, especially if more countries acquire them to deliver conventional or nuclear payloads. Such missiles could evade ABM (anti-ballistic missile) defenses and be so swift as to destroy the target's ICBMs before they can retaliate. Such capability might make a successful first-launch attack a terrifying possibility. [Of course, there is the problem of nuclear-armed submarines, safe in the deep ocean, that could respond unless they find a clever work-around to dispose of them, too. So far: none yet. Ed.]

👉Finally, changes to nuclear doctrines by the Russians and Americans which lower the threshold to use nuclear weapons in a conflict zone could end in catastrophe. 💀

 

 

Cheers, Jake____________________________________

 

* Of course, Sweden doesn’t have a land border with Russia, but it may be required in the future to stare angrily across the Baltic Sea at Russian ships sailing by. 

 

1. Tonnage of TNT: One kt=1000 tons of TNT. One mt=1,000,000 tonnes of TNT. 

 

2. There are over 400 "Minute Man" nuclear missiles siloed in three central states of the U.S.

👌This is the land-based pillar of America's "nuclear tripod". Most carry a nuclear payload of around 1.5 mt(of TNT).

👌Fourteen Nuclear submarines, the “Sea leg” of the nuclear triad, also fire heavy lift (i.e., larger warheads) strategic missiles, along with nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and torpedoes. Surface ships are also armed with cruise missiles that could carry nuclear payloads.

👌Nuclear bombers fire nuclear-armed cruise missiles and have “gravity bomb” capabilities, which used to mean the aircraft needed to be over the target to deliver its payload. Recently, the U.S. has begun to 'modernize' the one-hundred nuclear gravity bombs it has stationed in several European countries, equipping each with new “glide bomb” capabilities. (Couldn’t they just spruce them up with a new coat of paint? Why not?)

👉Land-Sea-Air: The nuclear “triad” of the strategic arsenal of the United States.

 

3. Ted Postol proposed supplying the Russians (and perhaps all nuclear weapons states) with the satellite imaging technology the U.S. uses to monitor missile launch-blasts globally. His rationale is: if the Russians could have the same system, which is superior to their ground-based "early warning" radars, then they would feel more secure with both powers using the same technology, each having the same capability to detect incoming ICBMs, so there could be no "surprises", thereby deescalating tensions between them.

SIMILARLY, I suggest, making the American's new "super fuse" technology open-sourced so that each (and every?) side would need fewer weapons to provide the same target coverage from their respective nuclear  arsenals. Of course, a nuclear weapons reduction treaty involving ALL nuclear weapons states, including Israel, would be the necessary precondition to receive the technology. 👍

 

  Seriously? Would you trust that handle?

My personal nuke reduction treaty would have each state left with a single 1 kt (of TNT) bomb, using a mule for a delivery system. The delivery of the nuke to the target might take weeks, months, years even, depending on the mule's sense of direction, or perhaps not arrive at all, which gives the opponents time to forget what it was they were fighting about and to return to their respective corners.

[Jake is onto something here, with one caveat: to avoid catching holy hell from the mule lobby, not to mention the S.P.C.A., I suggest an alternative to the mule delivery system: instead, use the first-born son of each state's ruler, strap a nuke on their back and send them on their way. They'd still have to hoof it by foot to get to their target, which gives the warring heads of state plenty of time to sit down with a bottle or two of Jack Daniels, get roaring pissed, realize they really, really love each other, and ink a peace deal on the tablecloth. Ed.]😂

 

4. With explosive power varying from a tiny 1 kt up to 2.3 mt (2.3 million tons of TNT.) The latter are known as "city killers." A popular payload size for nuclear-tipped cruise missiles is 150 kt. to 300 kt. Why use more fissile material than you need to accomplish the same death-dealing from the skies task, but with a smaller payload?

 

"A nuclear war cannot be won, and must never be fought." --President Ronald Regan, 1984.

    

CRINGE PIC: NOVEMBER

 

[Hot mike recording of President Zelensky after meeting with African leaders in Kiev, June 16, 2023.]

—President Volodymyr Zelensky (PZ)

—President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa (PR)

 

PR: “…and you cannot be so particular in these matters, Voldemort. Much depends on how you present yourself. It is a rule in life that a mirror reflects the man or frames the fool. Learn this lesson.”

PZ: “But Sigh-rull…”

PR: “Si-rull. The “i” is short. Is this so hard?”

PZ: “Sigh-rull. Okay. But I don’t feel comfortable in them. I’m sorry…”

PR: “You don’t need comfort when you are the president! We have wasted half a day on this business. It is time for you to choose. We have one more haberdasher to try. You must decide when we arrive there. Life is too short, my friend! And you need to let the waist out a size or two. We all sag when we age. And so, we dress to hide such things, no? You need not hold your belly in when you wear proper clothes. Girth, I am told, is more pleasant. I am told this often.”

PZ: “I promise I will, Sigh-rull, but they must be green, khaki-green. My dresser says so. My people are used to me in army fatigues….”

PR: “This is not army fatigues. You do not wear the camouflage, thanks be to God! Think, Voldemort! You are not a soldier. You are too short! You would not be accepted into the army of my country. And green- green-green! Are you colour blind; are you a hobbit, my friend? Should I call you ‘Frodo’? You seem more like a Sam….”

PZ: “Quit kidding, Sigh-rull. I have my image to maintain. I’m the leader of a great country…”

PR: “Yes-yes. Yes, you are the president. This is a fact. You need to dress like one. Look at my suit. Look how well it fits. Look at our comrades’. They dress nice. I dress nice. Why cannot you be like that? Dress nice. Why can not you dress nice like your beautiful wife? Such a figure! Her calves are marvelous! Yes, I would mount her...her picture on my wall. Ah yes! But you—you look like that kid who hangs around street corners looking for trouble. Do you want the rest of us to be ashamed for you? There will be photographers at our meeting. Is this how you want to dress? What if a bomb falls on your head, would you want to die dressed like this, like a bum?”

PZ: “’Cum-on, Sigh-rull. I wash them all the time. They’re clean. I have my pants steam-pressed every morning. Sigh-rull, I th…”

PR: “No-no. No thanks needed, Voldemort. Just make a choice you and your country can be proud of, eh? Let us go and find you something to wear. Remember, Voldemort: the emperor does have clothes! Ha-ha! Come, your majesty! Come! Ha-ha!”.

PZ: “I will. I promise, Sigh-rull.”

PR: “Si-rull. Si-rull. The “i” is short.”  

PZ: “Sorry.”

[END]

 

 

Cheers, Jake.

 

 

 

QUOTES: PHILIP K. DICK

 

“If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others.”

—Philip K. Dick

 

RANT: WHO'S IN CHARGE OF THIS SLOW MOTION TRAIN WRECK?

 

IN CASE IT’S NOT CLEAR FROM THE PICTURE, this is a still photo clipped from a cell phone video taken at the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza last weekend. It was taken just after Israel bombed the refugee tent camp located within the hospital grounds. In the foreground there is a young man lying on a hospital bed with an I-V line in his arm. He is burning to death. Gazans use fire extinguishers to try and douse the flames and smother the blaze with carpets, but the fire is too intense. The young man in the photo was later identified by his younger brother as Sha'ban al-Dalou. He was a 19-year-old software engineering student at the Al-Azhar University in Gaza when he and his family were forcibly displaced last year during an IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) attack that destroyed his home. Last week, he was injured during an Israeli air strike on a mosque which killed 20 people. He was taken to the Al-Aqsa Hospital where he and his mother perished in the fire that engulfed the tent camp where they had been sheltering. He is survived by his father, two sisters and and two brothers.*

 

    Sha'ban al-Dalou

After a year of such atrocities, we are almost numb to it. There is just too much to be taken in, or even believed possible, as Israel wages its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people of Gaza. Yet we must look, and continue to look, and never forget what we have seen. **

 

WEST JERUSALEM’S CAMPAIGN in Lebanon has taken the world’s eye temporarily from the war crimes committed daily by the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) in Gaza, but Israel’s plan to ethnically cleanse the enclave continues at pace. The latest campaign, called the “Generals Plan”, named after retired General Giora Eiland and other retired Israeli military chiefs, calls for the expulsion of all Palestinians from northern Gaza by attacking infrastructure (like the Al-Qusa hospital) and the remaining populated centres in the district. There’s nothing new in that, except Israel has ratcheted it up a notch by blockading all humanitarian food supplies from entering northern Gaza—as per the Generals' suggestion of using starvation to depopulate the district—warning the remaining inhabitants (some estimates suggest there are between 300,000 and 400,000 Palestinians who have remained in place) to move south of the Netzarim Corridor (see map).¹ Otherwise, they will be considered Hamas operatives and become legitimate military targets. It seems starvation and slaughter are the tools de jour that Israel will use to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza of Palestinians.² And as more and more of the world watches in horror, will this finally prove a bridge too far? Will the international community condemn Israel’s genocidal rampage in Gaza (and its "scorched earth" assault into southern  Lebanon) and take action to stop it? Will the United States rein in this out-of-control, sociopathic Israeli government, which it easily could have done on day one by stopping military and financial aid? Time will tell, but don’t hold your breath.

 

RECENTLY, ISRAEL ANNOUNCED that it would be confiscating UNRWA’s (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) headquarters in Gaza City (what’s left of the place) and will develop it as an Israeli settlement.³ The headquarters is, of course, United Nations property.⁴ UNRWA has said it has great difficulties in getting aid into Gaza and to the Palestinian people, not only because of the blockade and the problem with so much of transportation infrastructure having been destroyed, but also because of the nature of the conflict whereby UNRWA workers, vehicles, warehouses and shelters are periodically attacked by Israeli drones and bombs. Thus far, 182 staff members of the UN aid agency have been killed.

 

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION earlier this week has warned, in writing, mind you, to withhold⁵ military shipments to Israel if aid relief to Gaza, including the northern district, is not brought up to humanitarian standards. Yea! [Applause!] Genocide Joe, you sure taught that Netanyahu a thing or two! Oh…wait. Why does the Israeli PM have a whole month to open the borders for food and medical supplies to get into Gaza? Why not immediately? That a real puzzle. What could be the reason? Let’s see. Could it be, maybe…the upcoming U.S. elections? Biden doesn’t want to tick off donors, those rich, American-Zionist Christians and Jews, zealots, and Israeli lobbyists who pour millions into Presidential and down-ballot political campaigns. Trump, for example, got $100 million from Miriam Adelson. Wowzers! He and his Democratic rival, Harris, who also gets scads of money from the same sources, are Israel supporters to the max, no matter what! At least until after November 5. 

 

IN OTHER WORDS, no U.S. political leader has the balls to really sanction Israel, to cut off arms and financial aid by using America's real leverage to tamp down this sick, rogue nation’s dangerous and genocidal military adventures. And Western nations, in Europe and elsewhere, while they raise complaints about Israel's behaviour, none of them will do anything because they're afraid of what the U.S. will do to them (sanctions, etc.). So, it's a roost full of cucks in the Western world!  Though it must be said that the recent attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon have raised the ire of several European countries, including Spain, France and Italy, who have issued harsh condemnations of such flagrant violations of international law. Some columnists have even called for the expulsion of Israel from the UN. 

 

Just to make the point: Biden sent Netanyahu a ‘sternly worded’ letter the other day which warns the Israeli PM that there needs to be an improvement in the conditions of Gazan relief or the U.S. may stop the flow of arms and money into Israel. And to show Netanyahu he really means business, he's sending him an anti-missile battery. So there! 😆 Biden sent a THAAD missile defense system and 100 American troops to operate it. That’ll teach ‘em! You won’t get any more weapons from us a month from now, boyo, if you don’t get with the program! In the meantime, Bibi, pleasepleaseplease don’t bomb any more hospitals or starve any more Gazans, or use toddlers for target practice. Okay? Thanx.⁶

 

A FINAL NOTE: We will probably see before the November 5 U.S. elections the long-awaited Israeli response to the Iranian missile barrage of October 1. [Which, please remember, was a response, to the assassination of the Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on July 31, while he attended the presidential inauguration ceremonies in Tehran, and for the assassination in Beirut of the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Ed.] The October 1 Iranian barrage was directed at Israeli military targets and caused just one accidental civilian death in a tit-for-tat, non-escalatory reprisal meant to signal that Iran would not initiate further attacks unless Israel makes good on its threats to launch a "lethal and surprising" strike in the coming days.

 

And we are waiting to see what Netanyahu and his cabal will do. They have said they will not attack Iran’s nuclear facilities or its oil infrastructure, just its military. We’ll see. But, if their attack is severe enough, then Iran will respond with significant force and then all bets are off. Fun times in the Levant. 😱

 

ADDITIONALLY: Russia has sent to Iran shipments of defensive armaments and, I believe, advanced jet fighters (which would probably be flown by Russian pilots). Iran entered the BRICS trade alliance this year and is in the process of negotiating a security pact with Russia. Therefore, Putin sent military equipment to support its Iranian partner as the two strengthen their ties within BRICS and unilaterally. Interestingly, Putin has publicly warned Israel against attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Such an attack would not deter Iran from a nuclear weapons program, rather it would encourage Iran to develop nuclear weapons and the necessary rocketry, and keep them as a deterrent against a nuclear strike by Israel. [Iran may already have “The Bomb” or be capable of developing one within a short period of time. Ed.] Because of the fuktards in charge of the White House and U.S. foreign policy, the nuclear genie may be out of the bottle again, with Iran and possible other countries in the Middle East becoming nuclear powers as the region becomes more and more unstable. Good job, guys!👍

 

👉FUN FACT: The new Iranian president, a newcomer to politics, Masoud Pezeshkian, is seen as a moderate reformer. In fact, he reached out to the United States before the July 31 Israeli attack to renegotiate the original JCPOA (Joint comprehensive Plan of Action) nuclear deal that Donald Trump walked away from in 2018. The plan, though imperfect, kept Iran from developing a nuclear weapon's program. It’s off the table now that Israel, along with  the U.S., may be set to start a war with the Persian state. And, to be clear, the United States does not want to be drawn into a war with Iran because of the danger of it escalating into a conflict with Russia and China who support Iran. But, because of America's obscenely close ties with Israel, may be forced to follow them into the maw of a greater war. 

What an absolute clusterfuck! All this could have been avoided had the United States acquired a bit of humility, ate some crow and, instead of “gunboat” diplomacy, practiced real diplomacy.

 

 Cheers, Jake.______________________________________

 

* Sha'ban's 10-year-old  brother Abdulrahman was also burned in the tent fire and later succumbed to his injuries.

 

** Here’s an interesting, short article on how the media reported (or didn’t report) last Sunday’s attack on the Al-Aqsa hospital the seventh attack since March. For example, there was more coverage of Hezbollah's drone killing four young active-duty Israeli soldiers  in their barracks south of Haifa, than Israel’s attack on the Palestinian civilians at the Al-Aqsa hospital. It took a couple of days before MSM covered the Gazan hospital bombing in any detail. The horrific images of Sha'ban al-Dalou being burned alive [There were three others who also died in the flames, including Sha’ban’s mother] and shown globally on social media, prompted, presumably, even the New York Times to highlight the hospital’s bombing in its Sunday news coverage, a change from its normally ‘Israel-centric’ reporting. It is getting harder to ignore such visceral images or to wash our eyes of them.

 

👉1. FUN FACT: “Netzarim” was the name of the last kibbutz settlement evicted by the IDF from the Gaza strip when Israel withdrew its civilian and military presence there in 2005.

 

“The motivation behind the disengagement was described by [Prime Minister] Sharon's top aide as a means of isolating Gaza and avoiding international pressure on Israel to reach a political settlement with the Palestinians” (Wikipedia)

 

UNDER INTERNATIONAL law, an occupying power has certain obligations it must adhere to with respect to its occupied population. By unilaterally withdrawing its settlers and occupation forces from Gaza in 2005, the Israeli government hoped to bypass such obligations. The withdrawal occurred swiftly, in a matter of days, with the Israelis leaving the enclave to the Palestinians to govern for themselves. When elections were held there in 2006, the Hamas political wing broke with the Fatah Party. After a minor civil war between the two factions, the rival Fatah party, which had governed the Palestinian enclaves of the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem since the mid-1990s, quit Gaza, leaving Hamas in charge. Most Gazans by that time had grown tired of a Fatah administration, seeing it as little more than a “cat’s paw” for Israel, keeping the peace in the Palestinian territories but not doing enough for the millions of Palestinians they purported to represent. [Of course, Israel did not want a unified Palestinian government, so it secretly funded Hamas to ensure it ended up ruling in Gaza. Divide and conquer is an age-old problem solver for despots and zealots, alike, though there is often blowback against such policies, given enough time, as we have seen recently.

AND FINALLY, some commentators suggest that if Hamas were allowed to run a slate of candidates in the West Bank, it would beat Fatah hands down. Ed.]

 

DURING ITS CURRENT CAMPAIGN of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip, Israel created the Netzarim land corridor, bisecting the enclave and separating the north from central and south Gaza, with the intention of removing the remaining Palestinians and re-colonizing the northern district with Israeli settlers. Recall that the Netzarim kibbutzniks, mentioned earlier, were the last to leave the enclave in 2005. Wanna bet who’ll be first in if Israel’s resettlement plans start to gel?

 

2. Heated discussions between Washington and Tel Aviv have forced concessions on the part of the Netanyahu government with some food aid entering northern Gaza, a “trickle” according to UNRWA officials. And it is to be noted that aid “…is at its lowest level in months, and both the north and south of the enclave are at a ‘breaking point’, UN humanitarians said on Friday.” NOTE: There has been no aid entering Gaza since the October 1 missile attack on Israel by Iran. Deliberately withholding, or stopping altogether, necessary food and medical supplies from reaching a captive population is a war crime. It’s called “collective punishment”, and it occurs when civilians/non-combatants are kept from the necessities of life by one or the other combatant in a conflict.

 

3. QUESTION: “ALEXA, is UNRWA’s HQ a waterfront property and, if so, when can I buy a condo timeshare there?”

 

4. Israel has every intention of recolonizing the entire Gaza Strip using the tried-and-true methods of confiscation of Palestinian lands, settler re-developments, breaking up the enclave piecemeal and absorbing it bit by bit as they have done, and continue to do, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. As for the Gazans who live there, it’s a choice between submit, move or die. Or fight. What would we do if in the same situation? Just sayin’.

 

5. Well, the letter actually says that the U.S. Zionist State Department will do an “assessment” as to whether Israel is in compliance with strictures put in place for using U.S. weaponry in its wars in the Levant. I guess that means dropping a couple dozen two-thousand-pound, U.S. made, “bunker-buster” bombs on an apartment complex in Beirut to kill one Hezbollah leader, or deploying its snipers to shoot children in the head are no-nos. The letter is a cynical ploy attempting to bring back into the Democratic fold those under-30 voters who are appalled at the brutality and war crimes they witness daily on social media, war crimes that are aided and abetted by the current Democratic administration. “Genocide Joe” and “Killer Kamila” can preen and cluck and point to the letter and say: “See, we’re trying to stop the dying.” Liars, of course. Because all politicians lie, particularly around election time. They’re doing nothing and after November 5, all bets are off. The letter can then be discarded and shredded along with the bodies of tens of thousands Palestinian children torn up by Israeli bombs and buried under the rubble in Gaza.  

 

6. I think like a lot of people I am dumbstruck by the utterly feckless and appallingly inept leadership across almost the entire American political class, (and really Western leadership as a whole). We have never been this close to a broader regional war in the Middle East, with the real possibility of an escalation to the nuclear level. There is also the potential for an equally dangerous escalation in the Ukraine conflict if we do not tone down the rhetoric and hostility towards Russia (and China), and demand of our elites that they reacquaint themselves with the necessary art of diplomacy. Not to put too fine a point on it, but all of us, today, are being driven full bore in the clown car known as Western Civilization straight into that brick wall known as the End of History.     

 

HERE IS a short and inspiring (or damning, depending on your point of view) video recently put out by the Türkiye government.