news

Speech is in 8 minutes and Al Jazeera is just playing a China bad piece

Palestinian ambassador to UN says Israeli strike on Jabalya refugee camp was a crime

Ambassador Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, said the Israeli strike on the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza was a crime and urged the International Criminal Court (ICC) to take action.

Mansour made the comments upon leaving a UN meeting on Tuesday, saying the ICC should hold those responsible for the lethal airstrike.

“Those who are responsible for giving the orders for that crime should hear something from Mr. Khan from the ICC,” Mansour told CNN in reference to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan. “If he has the courage, and I hope he does. We appreciate the fact that [he] came to the crossing, Rafah crossing, and he made a statement there. But it would be also nice to issue a warrant of arrest for those who are responsible for such crimes," Mansour said.

When asked whether Egypt should allow the entry of refugees from Gaza, Mansour replied “no.”

Some context: According to a statement by the Israel Defense Forces, the airstrike targeted and killed Ibrahim Biari, whom it described as one of the Hamas commanders responsible for the October 7 attack on Israel, which left than 1,400 people dead and hundreds taken hostage.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news-10-31-23/h_02a679011417d5e7db852530397b7608

Is there a word or phrase that describes a situation where something is undefined/unexplained but to create misdirection it's still mentioned over and over and over again?

The NYT editorial board came out with this: A Humanitarian Pause in Gaza.

I did a ctrl-f for "pause" and it seems they didn't actually define what a humanitarian pause is or even could be in theory. They did say this...

A pause in hostilities [is not] the equivalent of a cease-fire.

That's like saying an apple is not the equivalent of an orange.

Good new Ian Welsh post: Notes On The Structure Of American Imperial Collapse (State of the World 2023, #1)

China is more dominant than the US was in its prime. (Well maybe not in 1946.)

Now this sort of thing is a leading indicator. Countries who were dominant are able to control more of the world’s resources than they deserve for some time after they lose their dominance.

Be clear, the US has LOST its dominance already. It’s all over except for the shooting. It doesn’t look or feel like that because of generations of accumulation and because the dollar is used for most world trade.

…

This time it’s going to happen faster, because the US has abused its central position in financial networks in ways other countries, like Russia and China won’t tolerate.

Nothing that new for my knowledgable hexbear comrades, but I found Welsh’s writing to be a useful bridge for well meaning lib friends to get a bit more of a materialist view of the world

Israeli strikes near Indonesian hospital in gaza, just moments ago, source is aljazeera

How do you become the religious leader of a guerrilla resistance army and not learn how to write a speech? Man did the dude repeat himself and go off on tangents and meander through. I get the feeling that a few minutes afterwards he said "Ah Fuck. I forgot to talk about [thing that was really important]"

‘Solidarity for humanity’: Hundreds of thousands rally in Jakarta to support Palestine

Massive strategic blunder for the yanks in a region where they hope to "counter China" (though the association of southeast asian nations would've stayed strictly neutral regardless)

In other news

https://www.rt.com/russia/586535-ekaterinburg-russia-snow-penis/

🇵🇸🇮🇱⚡️ Israel stops offensive in residential areas of Gaza

Several Israeli tanks, which broke into the Gaza Strip and blocked the main road connecting the northern and southern regions, left the enclave. According to the press service of the Palestinian government, Israel is not conducting offensive operations in residential areas of the sector.

This is also from earlier and is probably related to the video the tank incursion attacking a civilian vehicle here.

I guess the latest Israeli PR move is to have some journalists go on Twitter and claim to have seen some video of all these “Hamas atrocities”. No you can’t see it or verify it, just trust me bro.

Edit: this is what I’m refereeing to

https://nitter.cz/benjaminbutter/status/1720114810191282512#m

https://nitter.cz/Orlygoldschmidt/status/1720110445699240012#m

🔴 Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine:

—

A call from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine to all the honorable people of our nation and the free people of the world:

In the face of the flowing blood in Gaza, words no longer work: Rise... Revolt... Storm the embassies of the aggressor nations... Burn them... Destroy them.

Demand a halt to the flow of oil and gas to countries complicit in the aggression.

Time is of the essence, and history is unforgiving... Be assured that the people of Palestine will not let you down.

O free people, the fascist enemy seeks revenge on the Jabalia refugee camp, as well as the Nuseirat and Shati' camps, committing horrific massacres, which exceed in brutality what the Nazis did in their dark history, using six tons of destructive American bombs. A tragedy that appeals to human conscience; anyone who remains silent towards this killer is complicit in the genocide and depriving Palestinians of their humanity.

A morally, politically, and militarily defeated entity wants to claim victory over our Palestinian blood.

The Jabalia camp is the womb of the revolution and a symbol of Palestinian resilience and resistance, standing first in the battle of honor and duty, a spirit characterized by its strength, steadfastness, and high bravery. With its ground campaign, the enemy wants to cover its inevitable failure with massacres against Palestinian civilians, saluting the men of resistance in their various formations who are facing this aggression, and our steadfast people who reject displacement plans despite the genocidal war waged against them by the enemy.

Great Gaza, with the stature of its heroes and the blood of its children, is our roots deep in the ground. It will rise from the ashes.

Verbal stances don't shoot down planes or prevent missiles from falling on the heads of the innocent. Therefore, we call:

• To expel the ambassadors of aggression.
• A cry of anger and dignity to the entire the Arab street to stop the flow of oil and gas to countries complicit in the aggression.
• It is time to close the American military bases in the Arab countries.
• For the workers' unions in global ports to refuse to unload or load any weapon shipments from or to the zionist entity.

Let us trust in our people, our self, our dignity, our freedom, and our right to life.

Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

31 October

Local sources| Mosque speakers in #Jenin: Starting tonight, we will enter into civil disobedience and a comprehensive strike in all aspects of life, including all institutions and banks in all cities of the West Bank.

Hezbollah: Earlier this evening, we targeted 19 IDF sites across the border at once, using ATGMs and other weapons

Fire from Israel’s vicinity ‘targeted’ and killed a Reuters reporter in Lebanon, a media watchdog finds.

Issam Abdallah, a visual journalist for Reuters, was “targeted” and killed in southern Lebanon on Oct. 13 by one of two strikes from the direction of the Israeli border, despite clearly being identified as a member of the press, Reporters Without Borders said on Sunday, based on an initial investigation by the media watchdog group.

Six other journalists — from Reuters, Al Jazeera and Agence France-Presse — were also injured in the attack.

According to the organization’s ballistic analysis, the strikes came from the direction of the Israeli border, east of where the journalists were standing. The report concluded that two strikes in the same place in a span of just over 30 seconds, and from the same direction, indicated a targeted attack.

Based on corroborating witness accounts by the journalists who survived, Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, said the first strike killed Mr. Abdallah and seriously injured Christina Assi, an Agence France-Presse correspondent; the second, around 37 to 38 seconds later, targeted a nearby Al Jazeera vehicle, injuring several other journalists.

RSF did not conclude who had launched the strikes against the journalists and did not provide the specific ballistics analysis that supported its preliminary findings, but used it, the group said, in combination with eyewitness accounts and video taken at the scene to reach its conclusion.

Both Lebanon’s government and military have accused Israel of firing the strikes.

Responding to the findings, the Israeli army said in a statement that after a cross-border exchange of fire on Oct. 13, it received reports “a number of hours later” that a civilian had been killed. The statement said the army was reviewing the incident, but noted that “being present in combat zones on either side of the border comes with a severe risk to life.” Israel has asked U.N. peacekeeping forces in Lebanon to ensure that civilians are not present in combat zones.

In a statement, Reuters said it was reviewing RSF’s preliminary analysis and that it had called on Israeli authorities to directly investigate the attack.

“We will continue to fight for the rights of all journalists to report the news in the public interest free of harassment or harm, wherever they are,” the Reuters statement said.

Mr. Abdallah, 37, was killed near the Lebanese village of Alma al-Shaab, which has been a focal point of intensifying clashes in recent weeks between Israeli forces and Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese group backed by Iran.

Footage filmed shortly before the strike, and verified by The New York Times, showed the journalists standing at the roadside wearing helmets and bulletproof jackets marked “press.”

Mr. Abdallah’s death has sparked an uproar in Lebanon as fears mount over the prospect of a wider regional war.

During his funeral on Oct. 14, hundreds of teary-eyed and visibly angry mourners carried his body, draped in a Lebanese flag, in a procession through Khiam, his hometown, in southern Lebanon.

There, cameras were placed atop his grave.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/10/30/world/israel-hamas-gaza-war-news/fire-from-israels-vicinity-targeted-and-killed-a-reuters-reporter-in-lebanon-a-media-watchdog-finds?smid=url-share

There's video at the link.

David Frum is on CNN and besides ridiculously spinning Biden's numbers to make them seem not that bad - he actually just said "Maybe there's something in the voters and not the candidate."

Israeli commander says forces ‘at the gates of Gaza City’

Brigadier General Itzik Cohen said that Israeli troops were deep inside Gaza, “at the gates of Gaza City”.

Speaking to reporters in southern Israel, he said Israeli forces have “we have destroyed much of Hamas’s abilities”, including by attacking strategic facilities and underground tunnels.

He added his division, the 162nd Division, had “received an important task, to go and decisively finish Hamas”.

-Al Jazeera

kinda sad being the only person to leave an emoji react on the DFLP's telegram statement

Israel’s UN ambassador said Sunday that he wore a yellow star at a recent Security Council hearing to “shock” the body into condemning Hamas, after his action drew rebukes even from home.

Gilad Erdan’s choice a week ago to wear the badge, which has come to symbolize the oppression of Jews since its imposition in Nazi-occupied Europe, was swiftly criticized by Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial, which urged him to wear the Israeli flag instead.

“This act disgraces the victims of the Holocaust as well as the state of Israel,” the memorial’s chair Dani Dayan said in a Hebrew-language post on X, formerly Twitter.

Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Erdan defended the move and denounced the Security Council again for its “silence” over the unprecedented attacks by Hamas Palestinian militants against Israel on October 7.

“I just want to emphasize that my goal was to first of all shock the Security Council,” Erdan said of his controversial choice to wear the star.

The deeply divided 15-member body has yet to adopt a single resolution on the attack or on Israel’s decision to launch a retaliatory war against Hamas.

“I wanted to shock them. I wanted to remind them of their silence and I wanted to convey a message that we - not like in the past - we are not weak as we were during the Holocaust,” Erdan said Sunday.

That's The Guardian quoting Agence France-Presse.

---

I'd like to meet Gilad Erdan in private. And have a pleasant discussion about the yellow star and Minecraft.

wake up babe new Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah teaser dropped

I love the man but he has gotten the Zelenskyvirus of Hollywoodification of war

In less than a week, we went from "let's turn Gaza into Dresden" to "let's turn Gaza into Hiroshima."

The deranged Zionist libertarian is back: https://nitter.cz/moshefeiglin/status/1719605249806135439

Israeli military yet to comment on explosion in refugee camp

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the blast at the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has blamed an Israeli air strike for the blast, saying at least 50 people were killed.

Photos filed by by a Reuters photographer at the scene show levelled buildings and bodies being carried out of rubble.

BBC News has contacted the IDF for comment.

- BBC

---

Edit

Red Crescent trying to transfer casualties, situations ‘absolutely horrific’

A spokesperson from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society says teams are working on the ground to try and transfer the casualties to hospital following the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.

“The situation is absolutely horrific,” Nebal Farsakh told Al Jazeera from Ramallah. “We have been witnessing this increasing number of casualties among Palestinian civilians in Gaza due to attacks against residential buildings, homes, streets, as well as places of worship and hospitals.

“Hospitals are already overwhelmed, and they barely can deal with the increasing number of casualties they are dealing with every single hour,” Farsakh said.

“[They] are working on full capacity. This comes at the same time all hospitals are literally collapsing due to shortages [of] medical supplies as well as medicines, and they are running out of fuel, which is urgently needed”.

-Al Jazeera

Iraq's PMF on maximum alert amid concerns of regional escalation over Israel's war on Gaza

The chief of staff of Iraq's PMF's says the current conditions in the region are alarming for a war as a consequence of Israel's relentless war on Palestine and the Gaza Strip.

Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) were set on maximum alert on Thursday, 2 November, as concerns grow that Israel's brutal war on Gaza will expand into a regional conflict.

Deputy commander and PMF chief of staff Abdul Aziz al-Muhammadawi, also known as Abu Fadak, on Thursday held an urgent security meeting with PMF's top commanders in which he stressed the current conditions in the region are alarming for a war as a consequence of Israel's relentless war on Palestine and Gaza strip.

He also said that they should support the Palestinians and protect the sovereignty of Iraq. He also said the PMF forces went on maximum alert since early Thursday.

https://nitter.net/ME_Observer_/status/1720049308660076765

⚡️Yesterday::Secretary General of the
Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Sheikh Akram
Al-Kaabi:

The Iraqi resistance decided to liberate
Iraq militarily from America and the
matter was settled, and what is coming
is greater

"We are passing through hard and sensitive conditions that the country and the area one hundred per cent depends on our abiding on what we agree on," Abu Fadak told the attendees, according to a video published by PMF's official media.

His statements come just one day after Akram Al-Kaabi, head of the Iran-backed al-Najaba militia, announced that the so-called Islamic Resistance in Iraq had decided to liberate Iraq [from the US existence] militarily.

It also comes as the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah is scheduled to speak on Friday afternoon, the first time the leader will appear in public since the beginning of the fighting with Israel on 7 October. He is expected to announce a major escalation with Israel that might also include Iraq.

"The Iraqi Islamic resistance decided to liberate Iraq militarily; this matter has been settled, blessed be the Mujahideen. There will be no stopping, no ceasefire, and no retreat," Al-Kaabi said in a post on the X platform, previously known as Twitter.

Immediately, Ashab Al-Kahaf, another Iraqi militia that had announced multiple drone and missile attacks targeting bases hosting US forces in Iraq, joined Al-Kaabi's call to fight against the US and the coalition forces in Iraq.

On the other hand, an official source within PMF told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, The New Arab's Arabic sister website, that the directive from Abu Fadak to raise the state of maximum alert and prepare for any emergency "Was due to real American threats to respond to the airstrikes that the US army has been subjected to in Iraq and Syria, in addition to the possibility of Iraqi factions escalating their military operations against the American presence in the coming days."

The source, who requested not to be named, also stated that the PMF forces have been on high alert since Thursday morning in all operation areas, with a particular focus on desert regions, as well as border areas with Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia.

"Security measures have been taken at some locations, which could be targeted by US forces since they are outside residential areas, as well as other security measures that cannot be disclosed due to their sensitivity and confidentiality," the source added.

The attempted trial of French leftists for a 'terrorist conspiracy' seems to be falling apart, but knows if that matters or it's just a show trial by the state. Jacobin

Hezbollah's 'Ridwan' Special Forces posted a cryptic message on Telegram:

وَٱسْتَمِعْ يَوْمَ يُنَادِ ٱلْمُنَادِ مِن مَّكَانٍۢ قَرِيبٍ

'And listen! On that Day the caller will call out from a near place."

It is an excerpt from the Quran.

Reading a document co authored by Antony Blinken and a bunch of other ghouls in 2008 titled "Strategic Leadership: Framework for a 21st Century National Security Strategy" Because let's face it, Blinken is basically the president now, and I'm looking for insights as to how the USA will proceed. Some interesting excerpts about Israel and the Middle East.

Middle East

• Develop a comprehensive, integrated strategy for the entire region.
• Draw down militarily and build up diplomatically in Iraq.
• Pursue a dual-track strategy of deterrence and engagement towards Iran.
• Ensure a high-level and sustained diplomatic role in Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts.
• Develop mechanisms and structures for regional security cooperation as well as economic modernization and democratic reform.

Reaching a full Arab-Israeli peace — a two-state, security-enhancing agreement between Israel and Palestine; an Israeli-Syrian peace treaty; and Arab League recognition of Israel — is a high and pressing priority. Roles can be usefully played by key neighboring states such as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia as well as by the EU, UN and Arab League. None of this will suffice, though, without an active U.S. role and full clarity both in the peace process and more broadly on the inviolability of America’s commitment to Israel’s security and survival as a homeland for the Jewish people. Within these parameters, as with other vital allies, any U.S.-Israeli policy differences are to be worked out constructively.

So no US mass troop deployment to Israel, but full support for Zionism, as well as manipulating neighbouring countries. Already seen that in Egypt and Jordan. Security enhancing agreement probably means the attempted elimination or removal of political power from Hamas, for a two state solution involving a subdued Palestinian authority subservient to Israel.

Iran

With regard to Iran, the overall strategy should be along two tracks: maintaining deterrence and containment by reinforcing defense commitments to regional allies and increasing economic pressure, while also actively engaging Tehran in an effort to resolve particular issues and transform relations. The threats that Iran poses should neither be underestimated nor overhyped. Iran must be convinced, and others in the region must be reassured, both of America’s resolve and its capacity to provide leadership in meeting threats — and of a new administration’s genuine commitment to pursue directly, and without precondition, opportunities for mutually beneficial improvements in relations.

Within this overall strategy, remaining concerns about Iranian nuclear proliferation need first to be addressed diplomatically. While no action can be categorically ruled out, the decision to use force must weigh possible damage inflicted on Iranian nuclear facilities against the potential costs incurred and the risks of Iranian retaliation, increased terrorism, global political fallout, and strengthening of the hardliners within the Iranian regime. The United States must also follow the lead of courageous Iranian reformers in devising an effective strategy to encourage democratic progress in Iran. Engagement between the U.S. and Iranian governments can potentially create a more favorable environment for democratic change within Iran, whereas confrontation likely serves to strengthen the opponents of political change.

Seems like the Iranian nuclear deal was extremely important to the US foreign policy, and that regime change is the goal, not outright war now that Iran can't make nukes. As further suggested by this paragraph:

Prospects for diplomatic progress with Iran need to be assessed, not dismissed out of hand. We can be tough negotiators, but still negotiate. Past experience with Pinochet’s Chile, Marcos’s Philippines, and the Soviet Union show that careful and firm diplomacy with autocratic regimes can not only help to change regime behavior but also foster a permissive environment for democratic change.

Disgusting I know, but it's always insightful to see how the ghouls think.

I've been away for 2 days. Did anything noteworthy happen? Are certain factions still writing angry letters or making threats about doing something?

More from former UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness

Gunness has said there is a very real prospect of communicable diseases spreading in Gaza amid widespread displacement and the lack of clean water and other critical supplies.

“That’s the prospect, and let’s be clear, this is a matter of political choice,” he told Al Jazeera.

“This is a humanitarian catastrophe which world leaders in giving Israel a greenlight to continue … the war, they are responsible for this.”

-Al Jazeera