The Middle East Thread

[Iftikhar]

@PaulRoJo

@Sithbare

billionaires sitting in Qatar

what a sorry excuse for a sand waste that shite hole is.

If you judge Qatar in isolation, they do seem despicable. But if you judge them against regional standard, they will seem as a better option. True, the bar is set too low.

Unlike the Saudis or UAE , Qatar hasn’t carried out massacres (Yemen ) or has supported murderous thugs who are doing it in Sudan and Libya . Also, like it or not, their shrewd policy of maintaining relation with Hamas and Iran is offering a platform for negotiation.

The fact that Qatar looks so good, is perhaps the most damning testimony on how dire the region is.

[Sithbare]

@Iftikhar

The fact that Qatar looks so good, is perhaps the most damning testimony on how dire the region is.

I think Bahrain is probably the best country out of the entire region.

[Limiescouse]

@Sithbare

Few. Not anyone close to the majority.

I listened to an interesting conversation this week with a Palestinian political scientist talking about the wide range of opinions you see in polls of Palestinian people. Her take is that the findings that show greater support for armed resistance and implied support for Hamas come from polls that position the situation, both in terms of the questions asked and the way they are phrased, as one in which Israel has already ruled out any form of Palestinian state. When the polls are more blue sky and leave all options open you tend to see very different perspectives.

[Sithbare]

Wouldn’t rule out a sizable chunk of Palestinians being radicalized.

And most of the opinion polls often reflect the extreme populace more than the general public.

[Iftikhar]

@Sithbare

@Iftikhar

The fact that Qatar looks so good, is perhaps the most damning testimony on how dire the region is.

I think Bahrain is probably the best country out of the entire region.

Hold my

Beitar Jerusalem: UAE sheikh buys stake in racism-tainted Israeli club

World Report 2022: Rights Trends in Bahrain

[Sithbare]

Best of the lot. Doesn’t mean much but it is what it is.

[Iftikhar]

@Sithbare

Best of the lot. Doesn’t mean much but it is what it is.

IMO, Oman and Kuwait are better. They do their best to keep their noses clean. Kuwait even has a functional parliament, but they have increasing corruption. Oman has law & order issues.

[Iftikhar]

@Redbj

@Sithbare

It’s all good asking Israel for a cease fire or to end hostilities.

to be honest, this is all that matters right now.

we are getting bogged down with what comes after, trying to figure out the best possible solutions ‘going forward’.

lets stop the senseless killing…return the civilian hostages…then discuss medium term objectives.

its basically that simple.

I feel very cynical about these ‘day after’ talks, mostly by Blinken. I feel it’s just a charade to distract us (now that the whole world is pissed off by Israel) from what’s happening. The every ‘day after’ since October 8 has seen relentless massacre of civilians. That’s the ‘day after’ if it continues like this.

Today, he even suggested that the Palestinian Authority should assume control of Gaza after the war. The same Palestinian Authority who has been powerless to stop Israeli colonization in West Bank for over two decades.

Meanwhile, another attack on an refugee camp a few hours ago has taken 46 lives. The Day After.

[Sithbare]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-tried-to-send-fighters-to-egypt-in-ambulances-for-wounded-gazans-us-official/?utm_campaign=most_popular&utm_source=website&utm_medium=article_end&utm_content=3

Could be correct or might not be considering the source.

[Sithbare]

Hamas put wounded fighters on departure lists, delaying efforts to evacuate...

Bit more reliable source , if you can call nytimes that.

[Iftikhar]

My friend reported this post on Facebook

This is their reply

[Sithbare]

Your friend shouldn’t be on FB much in all honesty. Social media sites like FB/ Twitter are the absolute dogshit.

I only use Twitter for football related stuff. Been ages since I’ve opened my FB profile. Life’s better that way. Much better.

Expecting cretin like social media trolls to be different is one thing that shouldn’t be done.

If someone still intends to engage in discussions, I’d even recommend forum based sites like reddit.

[Hope.in.your.heart]

So, the 10k bar of dead people has been reached tonight, according to Hamas. Half of this are children.

This is such a clusterfuck… I really hope that one day, the people responsible of this massacre will have to account for their deeds, in front of a court (not holding my breath though).

[Hope.in.your.heart]

Please pay attention to the highlighted quotes at the end of this article. That’s what makes me say that Netanyahou and Hamas are two faces of the exact same medal. Hamas targetted these people because they want to destroy any belief that it is possible for Jews and Palestinians to live together.

They are on the exact same page as Netanyahou and those batshit crazy settlers.

Israel Gaza live news: Gaza hit by intense strikes as Israel says it has cut...

Adva Adar has been telling me about her 85-year-old grandmother, Yafa, who was kidnapped by Hamas and taken into Gaza on a golf cart.

But Yafa is not the only member of Adva’s family caught up in the 7 October attacks.

Her cousin Tamir is also missing. He left his wife and two children in their shelter at the kibbutz Nir Oz and went to protect his community when he heard that Hamas gunmen were on the ground.

At 08:00 he called his wife. “He didn’t think that they were going to make it,” Adva tells me. “He told her not to open the door to anyone and he said his goodbye.”

He has not been heard from since. The family don’t know if he was taken to Gaza, murdered or injured.

Adva also has a grandfather, an aunt, and another cousin, who survived the attacks.

Her grandfather, Yoram Adar, “aged 50 years in a day,” she says. “He was scared to leave the hospital…scared is not an emotion I would have ever used to describe him in the past.”

She tells me her family “have nothing to go back to,” adding:

“Everything was destroyed and what wasn’t destroyed, was stolen. And it’s so sad because it was heaven in that kibbutz.”

People from Gaza worked in the kibbutz, they ate in the eating hall with the kibbutz members, they wanted to believe that you can live together, that you can see above the terrorists of Hamas.

"And it’s so sad that they were the people that got hurt. The people that most of all wanted to have a better future for everyone and people in Gaza.”

[Iftikhar]

Check the website and social pages of UNICEF-MENA. I tried to download/share some of the posts and videos. Definitely NOT Hamas propaganda.

[ISMF]

The heads of all UN departments, and major charities joint letter

“We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”

NEW YORK/GENEVA/ROME, 5 November 2023 – For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart.

In Israel, some 1,400 people have been killed and thousands have been injured, according to the Israeli authorities. More than 200 people, including children, have been taken hostage. Rockets continue to traumatize families.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced. This is horrific.

However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel.

In Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health, nearly 9,500 people have been killed, including 3,900 children and over 2,400 women. More than 23,000 injured people require immediate treatment within overstretched hospitals.

An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable.

More than 100 attacks against health care have been reported.

Scores of aid workers have been killed since October 7 including 88 UNRWA colleagues – the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.

We renew our plea for the parties to respect all their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law.

We renew our call for the immediate and unconditional release of all civilians held hostage.

Civilians and the infrastructure they rely on – including hospitals, shelters and schools – must be protected.

More aid – food, water, medicine and of course fuel – must enter Gaza safely, swiftly and at the scale needed, and must reach people in need, especially women and children, wherever they are.

We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It’s been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now.

Signatories:

• Mr. Martin Griffiths, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
• Ms. Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, Secretary General, CARE International
• Ms. Jane Backhurst, Chair of ICVA Board (Christian Aid)
• Mr. Jamie Munn, Executive Director, International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA)
• Ms. Anne Goddard, Chief Executive Officer and President a.i., InterAction
• Ms. Amy E. Pope, Director General, International Organization for Migration (IOM)
• Ms. Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, Chief Executive Officer, Mercy Corps
• Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
• Ms. Janti Soeripto, President and Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children
• Ms. Paula Gaviria Betancur, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (SR on HR of IDPs)
• Mr. Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
• Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
• Mr. Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
• Ms. Maimunah Mohd Sharif, Executive Director, United Nations Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat)
• Ms. Catherine Russell, Executive Director, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
• Ms. Sima Bahous, Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Women
• Ms. Cindy McCain, Executive Director, World Food Programme (WFP)
• Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO)

[RedOverTheWater]

They are quite right, but Israel will do whatever it wants. Unfortunately. If they won’t listen to America, they won’t listen to the various UN officials.

[PaulRoJo]

Might be time to stop subsidising and encouraging all the Zionist support groups.

[Bekloppt]

The chasm between the US/Israeli viewpoint and the rest of the world is huge.
The days when the US dared to speak for the ´International Communityˋ are long gone.
God knows what happens next, but it’s not going to be good.

[Iftikhar]

Netanyahu says Israel will have ‘overall security responsibility’ in Gaza...

Yeah, the same security responsibility you now have in West Bank. Imagine the world we live in; a fascist has the audacity of proclaiming colonial authority in middle of carrying out a massacre.

The Day After