it’s impossible. The idea that just because the Gulf states wheel and deal out of necessity, that the Arab grassroot is now not hostile after a 2 year campaign which involved massive war crimes on large scale, is absurd. Ulrich clearly only cares about state leaders, but the Arab authoriarian regimes are not very stable and the Gaza war and how it was fought, will be remembered for quite a few years.
3 Likes
I meant in terms of his promise to destroy Hamas. They are still apparently in control on the streets. Two years of obliterating Gaza and they haven’t defeated them…he hasn’t finished them off. That will rankle.
Ideally he would like the hostages back and then go again…and I bet he is hoping for any excuse to do so like Hamas refusing to give up their weapons.
1 Like
I think he’ll be entirely comfortable with the situation. He’s got his pretext to continue the bombing once all the hostages bodies have been returned. They’re already speaking openly about it just today. Anyone who thinks this is anything other than another temporary ceasefire is kidding themselves.
4 Likes
This comes after very high tensions, including clashes where artillery was used by both sides.
I fervently hope for Syrian stability. I have followed the Civil War since the Arab Spring began and I have worked with Syrian refugees. Camels must be swallowed on all sides to make this work. But it must work. Syria is a very large country with so many millions who have suffered one of the most devastating wars in recent history. This is a very hopeful time, but it’s not going to be easy to integrate Marxist-Leninists with Salafists, and Christians with Salafists and Wahabists, bandits, secularists and Alawites. But it must work.
That is a country that is so desperate for healing and most of the warlords there, including Al Shaara and Mazlum Abdi, understands that, I think.
2 Likes
Interesting clip
https://x.com/xumas_iq/status/1977590991625605207
“Santa Claus was the only one who did not warn us”; that made me grin.
https://x.com/IhabHassane/status/1977769719475163641
Just regular Hill Youth behaviour, I am afraid. I really, really hope that now that there is a ceasefire, light and focus will be lit on the horrific continuing abuses of settlers (and very often the IDF) in the West Bank. Such terrorising of locals dramatically increased after the war began, but now that it is over, there need to be serious media attention on this. It is certainly the only way to stop it.
3 Likes
Executions continues. Who knows what they are truly guilty of or if they are guilty at all.
https://x.com/KhalilJeries/status/1977777071754522984
Obscene
https://x.com/MonicaLMarks/status/1977797391848788363
https://x.com/MonicaLMarks/status/1977798334074003838
3 Likes
Yeah. Without really aiding them and full well knowing that the ceasfire stipulated, as Trump just admitted, that Hamas can clean house without interferance and that they have more than 20 times the forces of any particular clan. Very “activating”. Oldest trick in the book this.
Hamas will be able to slaughter and terrorise whoever they want as long as they have organisation, which is what Netanyahu gleefully hopes will happen after all.
4 Likes
It’s probably just the same as America activating the northern alliance (which isn’t anything apart from a group of tribes) against the Taliban.
One evil replaces the other.
How’s your ceasefire?
https://x.com/FT/status/1978062921864286600[floatl]Image[/floatl]
2 Likes
Two states need to be established asap. Both need to live and let live. Both need the right of self determination. The global community needs to stand up to make this happen. Since they are so unequally matched, Israel will continue to do what it wants.
1 Like
As for the caesefire, the proof of the pudding is always in the eating. Trump got favorable headlines, and in another universe (Trump’s mind) it would have won him the Nobel Peace prize.
But not so fast.
The ceasefire isn’t being observed, and the bigger issue is what happens next? 1M+ Palestinians are homeless. The infrastructure of their society has been decimated. Now what?
1 Like
The irony is that Arab and European countries are now asked to participate in the reconstruction of Gaza, when they have already done that in the past, before Gaza got razed to the ground. Countless billions went into Gaza after the Oslo Accords.
And now that everything is destroyed, these same countries should again raise the money for a reconstruction? If they agree to it, will there be any guarantee that further along the line, Israel won’t destroy everything again?
It’s a difficult problem. Ideally, it’s those who are responsible for the destruction who should rebuild it, and maybe/hopefully the US will at the very least contribute to the effort. Israel however won’t pay a dime, and that is dead wrong.
3 Likes
Israel has indeed “activated” a couple of militias in northern Gaza.
These guys. They are not clans who are against Hamas, like we have seen Hamas target in the last few days, but genuinly Israel supported millitias
https://x.com/EYakoby/status/1978205303297421693
For observers, it is incredibly difficult to know what is what
My source is Ihab Hassan, because he has never lied or greatly exaggerated as long as I have followed him, which grants him my trust.
This
https://x.com/History__Speaks/status/1978528186637156865
(He doesn’t get fundding from AIPAC).
https://x.com/IhabHassane/status/1978566811726581894
https://x.com/Najjaaar/status/1978544349982933021
Israel tortured and sexually humiliated activist Greta Thunberg whilst she was taken by the Israeli regime.
Here are excerpts from her interview with the Swedish paper Aftonblatet (barely covered by the British press):
“They grab me, pull me to the ground, and throw an Israeli flag over me.”
“They dragged me to the opposite side from where the others were sitting, and I had the flag around me the whole time. They hit and kicked me.”
“They moved me very brutally to a corner that I was turned towards. ‘A special place for a special lady’, they said. And then they had learned ‘Lilla hora’ (Little whore) and ‘Hora Greta’ (Whore Greta) in Swedish, which they repeated all the time.”
In the corner where Greta was sitting, the police placed a flag.
“The flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched me, they shouted ‘Don’t touch the flag’ and kicked me in the side. After a while, my hands were tied with cable ties, very tightly. A bunch of guards lined up to take selfies with me while I was sitting like that.”
She speaks of her comrades held with her:
“They were thrown to the ground and beaten. But I could only see it out of the corner of my eye, because every time I lifted my head from the ground, I was kicked by the guard standing next to me.”
Greta was then taken into a building to be searched and undressed. “The guards have no empathy or humanity, and they keep taking selfies with me. There’s a lot I don’t remember. So much is happening at once. You’re in shock. You’re in pain, but you go into a state of trying to stay calm.”
Outside, she was forced to take off her clothes again, she says. “It was mockery, rough handling, and everything was filmed. Everything they do is extremely violent.”
“It was so hot, like 40 degrees. We begged the whole time: Can we have water? Can we have water? In the end, we screamed. The guards walked in front of the bars the whole time, laughing and holding up their water bottles. They threw the bottles with water in them into the trash cans in front of us.”
“When people fainted, we banged on the cages and asked for a doctor. Then the guards came and said, ‘We’re going to gas you.’ It was standard for them to say that.”
“This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”
Thunberg says the Swedish government greatly downplayed the abuse she and her fellow Sumud Flotilla activists suffered, and wouldn’t even bring them water.
“We were together and told them about the treatment we received. About the lack of food, water, about the abuse. The torture. We showed them the physical injuries we had – bruises and scratches. We gave them all our contact details – I gave them my father’s number and the number of our contact in the organization. We were clear: everything we say now must be released to the media.”
“They didn’t do anything, they just said: ’Our job is to listen to you. We are here and you are entitled to consular support.’”
"We said over and over again: we need water. And they saw that the guards had water bottles. The embassy staff said: ’We’ll make a note of that.’ One of us, Vincent, said: ’Next time we meet you, you must bring water.’
Then it took two days before the embassy staff showed up again.
“They didn’t bring any water, except for a small bottle of their own that was half empty. Vincent, who was in the worst shape, got to drink it. We kept asking the guards, ‘Can we have some water?’ but they just walked around with their water bottles and didn’t answer.”
“I said, ‘Are you going to leave us like this? If you leave now, they will beat us up.’ But they just kept walking.”
When Aftonbladet compares emails sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to relatives, with what the captives describe telling embassy staff, it becomes clear that the seriousness of the situation has been downplayed.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes the scene at the port, where Greta Thunberg was beaten for hours, as follows: “She told us about harsh treatment and that she had been sitting on a hard surface for a long time.”
On Saturday, several media outlets published testimonies that Greta had been subjected to torture.
Aftonbladet has spoken to three other members of the flotilla who confirm what Greta Thunberg says and who have all experienced various types of abuse and humiliation. We have also spoken to relatives. Everyone is highly critical of how the Swedish embassy staff acted.
9 Likes