Kudos to Max Blumenthal! He and Aaron Maté are a few of the rare handful of independent reporters we have left in America. Journalism in the US has become consolidated in the hands of a few powerful media companies whose main purpose is disinforming the public. Hard hitting journalism has been restricted to only pushing the uniparty agenda of Washington.
“One War, One Election at a Time” – One Step Forward for National Liberation, Two Steps Back
by John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
Not even in revolutionary times have Russian elections been waged on the issue President Vladimir Putin proposed a few days ago of what it means, what it costs, what it risks for Russia to lead the national liberation of the world.
Nor has Putin revealed after two days of intensive talks with Emirati, Saudi, and Iranian leaders, and then a telephone call with the Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, what plan of action for the Gaza war they discussed. “Russia is thinking about an initiative on Gaza,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian has announced after the talks concluded.
El-Sisi was so negative about this, the Kremlin record of his Saturday morning telephone call reveals no more than that he and Putin talked over “a number of issues related to Russian-Egyptian cooperation, which has been developing very successfully. Both parties expressed their interest in further expanding cooperation in various areas in a traditionally friendly manner based on the principles of strategic partnership.” The two presidents then wished each other good luck for their re-elections.
The Egyptian presidential vote is running for three days from Sunday with the result to be declared on December 18; the Russian poll will be held on March 15-17. The outcome is certain for both.
Two hours after Putin put down the phone with el-Sisi, he picked it up again to call Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Kremlin communiqué has omitted to report what Netanyahu said.
Instead, Putin gave the Israeli his personal assurance there will be no Russian participation in a Gaza blockade-busting plan to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinians by sea, or across the Egyptian land border. Nor will the Russian military intervene to threaten Israeli aircraft if they commence bombing Beirut and southern Lebanese targets in the war against Hezbollah.
A Russian source on military strategy believes the Russian objective is to protract the Palestine war on all fronts simultaneously, and exhaust the US and Israel by threatening Israeli ports and shipping, Israel’s offshore gas supplies, and the economy’s principal sources of income. Exhausting the US in the Middle East helps exhaust the US and NATO in the Ukraine, the source adds.
Tactically, the source said, this should mean an international humanitarian operation to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza in order to deliver as much aid as the besieged Palestinians need; action at the international level to deter the Israelis using uranium radiation warheads, poison gas, and other weapons to attack the Hamas tunnel network; and a no-fly zone to cover Lebanon and Syria from Israeli bombing and missile attacks. Military action, the source cautions, should be indirect and confined to proxy forces like Hezbollah on the northern front; Iraqi groups in the east; the Houthis in the south; and support for the Palestinians fighting in the West Bank.
Hezbollah forces flying the Hezbollah and Syrian flags in Syrian operations to support President Bashar Assad.
The Israeli reaction – “what we can do in Gaza we can do in Beirut” — is to deter Russia, Iran, and the Arab states from allowing their “initiative” to adopt any of these tactics; and to deter an expanded operation by Hezbollah. “If Hezbollah chooses to start an all-out war,” Netanyahu declared publicly just before he spoke to Putin, “then it will, by its own hand, turn Beirut and southern Lebanon, not far from here, into Gaza and Khan Younis.”
Russian sources acknowledge the blackout on debate of these options in the Russian media, including the military bloggers who have become the most outspoken journalists in the country. “One war at a time, one election at a time”, according to one source. “That’s how Putin is thinking right now. How can the General Staff argue with that?”
The official Russian record on Hezbollah is almost empty; Russian officials are reluctant to pronounce the name in public. In 2005, asked what Russian policy was towards Hezbollah, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: “It is necessary to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559 in all its aspects. Like all the other decisions on the Middle East, they cannot be implemented just by one half or one third. This concerns matters related to Hezbollah and the Palestinians. As to the role of Hezbollah, I think that it is in the interest of Lebanon and the entire Middle East that the political role of Hezbollah should be taken into consideration and that the party receive a possibility to represent its interests through the elections for the power structures to be formed in Lebanon. Russia can help by being in contact with the Lebanese friends and the Syrian friends, the US, the Europeans, and the countries of the region and by advocating a well-balanced, comprehensive and just implementation of UNSCR 1559 and that in its implementation no one would pursue aims which do not relate to it.”
Source: http://unscr.com/en/resolutions/doc/1559
A year later, Lavrov’s ministry attempted “well-balance” between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah. “The Russian MFA resolutely condemns the abduction of the [IDF] servicemen, and the firing of rockets at Israeli territory. At the same time we regard the military actions launched by Israel as a disproportionate and inadequate use of force, endangering the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon and peace and security across the region…We urge Israel to cease incursions into Lebanon and the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the country and lift the blockade of its territories…In its turn, the Hezbollah movement should give up anti-Israeli actions that endanger the interests of its own country as well, release the kidnapped Israeli servicemen, cease firing into Israeli territory and respect the UN Blue Line.”
The same balancing act is being attempted now, as Lavrov told Al-Jazeera on Sunday in answer to questions on Russia’s policy towards Hamas. “Hamas committed a terrorist attack on the 7th of October, which we condemned immediately. Hamas has a political branch which operates in Doha, and we have relations with this political branch. We immediately got in touch with the people in Doha to negotiate the fate of the people taken hostages, Russian citizens (but not only Russian citizens), Israeli citizens, and citizens of the neighbouring countries to Russia, and some others. We managed to reach a deal which, as far as I can say, Israelis understand and even appreciate it as far as their citizens are concerned.”
Lavrov attempted to distinguish between national liberation as a political strategy which the Kremlin supports, and Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi operations which amount to “terrorism” the Kremlin condemns.
Listen to the exchange on “terrorism” from Min 13:40 to 16:14.
“I don’t believe I am hypocritical or Russia is hypocritical,” Lavrov said. “We never have been hiding the operations which we conducted in the Republic of Chechnya. We never have been hiding what we have been doing in Syria at the request of the legitimate government, member of the United Nations, fighting ISIS, Jabhat al-Nusra, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, and other organizations which have popped up after the American interventions in Iraq when Al-Qaeda was created, then in Libya, Jabhat al-Nusra, and you know this story. And we will continue to fight terrorism. Exactly with the rules.”
One of the “rules” to which Lavrov refers is that Russian military engagement in the Middle East must be requested by a government for the security of its territory. In August 2019, when then- Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri requested Russian intervention after the IDF flew drones over Beirut, the response from the Foreign Ministry in Moscow was: “The Russian side reaffirmed its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and stability of friendly Lebanon and underscored the need for unfailing compliance by all sides with international law.”
There is no reliable evidence that Russian air defence missile systems have been supplied to the Lebanese government. Hezbollah is better equipped, but there is also no reliable evidence for Israeli and US propaganda claiming Russian deliveries of the Pantsir system to Hezbollah since the Gaza War began.
The evidence is much clearer that there has been no Lebanese government request for Russian air cover, nor even a Lebanese government conversation with the Russians since November 2021.
Last official communication between Lebanon and Russia – November 22, 2021.
“If the Egyptians won’t agree to request Russian backing for a blockade-busting operation,” comments a Moscow source, “and the Lebanese government will not request Russian military support for its airspace, what can the Kremlin do, let alone the General Staff? Considering the Russian attitude towards Hezbollah, and the position in Syria leaving gaping holes in their air defence against Israeli attack, I think we should expect nothing. I do not see the Arabs, Russians, and Chinese forming an alliance of any military consequence for now.”
How long is now?
A veteran of NATO military operations in Afghanistan observes: “The Ukrainian lines are breaking up all along the front. The push is on and that’s where Putin will put his effort to keep his credibility at home. If [Chief of the General Staff General Valery] Gerasimov can keep destroying the fascists riding NATO junk at the current rate of a battalion per day and gain ground doing it, everyone is happy — for now. As for the Arabs, no one in the region will directly take Israel on. The Lebanese Government is petrified of Israel — and they know better than to ask for Russian help. Sisi, with the most capable military, is a coward. The rest will make noise while clandestinely helping the Palestinian resistance, and causing trouble for the US in the neighbourhood. The Iranians know how to fight and won’t stop. The Israelis should and do see them as threat number-one.”
“The only way I see a direct intervention is if China takes the lead on, or announces support for, one. But [President] Xi [Jinping] has some trouble at home, and nothing I’m reading shows Chinese popular support for intervening. If anything, they’re indifferent.”
In wars for national liberation and in civil wars, the terrorism label is one side’s propaganda against the other – this is the consensus of the Russian sources, unspoken and unpublished for the time being. Russian public policy has yet to resolve the contradiction between Russian support for Palestine’s national liberation and opposition to Hamas’s “terrorism” – this can’t happen, the sources say, before the presidential election in March, and the success of the Russian military offensive in the Ukraine by then too.
“There’s nothing new here. Putin is following the old Soviet line on exercising ‘the greatest possible caution’ towards the ‘frightful collisions’ which Stalin’s famous speech on revolution and tactics spelled out a century ago.”
All Attacks Against US-Israeli Forces in One Day
IDF casualties in context
1956
172 killed
817 wounded
1 captured
1967
776–983 killed
4,517 wounded
15 captured
1973
2,521–2,800 dead
7,250–8,800 wounded
293 captured
via @FotrosResistance
— Al-Qassam Brigades:
(Partially) destroyed 2 Merkava tanks in various battlefield axes inside the Gaza Strip.
Targeted a special Zionist force inside a building in Beit Lahia with “TBG” explosives.
Shelled military positions in the station area in Khan Yunis with mortars.
Shelled military concentrations inside a field command center in the Zanna area east of Khan Yunis with mortars.
Shelled military infiltrated positions in the eastern and northern axes of Khan Yunis with mortars.
— Al-Quds Brigades:
In a joint operation with Al-Qassam Brigades, they managed to inflict casualties, including fatalities & injuries, on a Zionist force inside a building in the Falouja area.
Completely destroyed a military vehicle with a powerful barrel bomb in the Shuja’iya axis, east of Gaza, resulting in the death and injury of those inside the vehicle.
Shelled military positions at the “Kerem Abu Salem” IDF site with Badr-1 IRAM rockets.
(Partially) destroyed 3 Zionist tanks, 1 military vehicle & 1 APC in various battlefield axes in the Gaza Strip.
Shelled military positions around the Al-Zalal Mosque in the eastern Khan Yunis axis with mortars.
Shelled military gatherings in the Juhar al-Dik area with heavy-caliber mortars.
Shelled military gatherings in Street 5, northeast of Khan Yunis, with a barrage of 60mm regular mortars.
Eliminated 2 Zionist soldiers at point-blank range during an engagement with a Zionist infantry force in the Shuja’iya axis, east of Gaza.
Detonated a building where a Zionist force was entrenched, causing casualties between dead & wounded in the Shuja’iya axis, east of Gaza.
Shelled IDF military formations and military vehicles in the eastern axis of Khan Yunis with mortars.
— Martyr Omar Al-Qassem Forces:
Ambushed an IDF infantry patrol with explosives & bullets, killing and wounding all of its members. The resistance fighters withdrew safely.
Ambushed an IDF mechanized patrol unit, destroying the military vehicle & finishing off the soldiers inside of it, leaving them dead or wounded, in Jabalia.
Clashed with IDF military vehicles attempting to invade east of Bureji camp in Khan Yunis, forcing the forces to retreat after dealing big blows.
— Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade:
Shelled military gatherings in the Khan Yunis axis with heavy caliber mortars.
— Mujahideen Brigades:
Targeted a military vehicle with a sticky IED (at point-blank range), blowing up the vehicle with killing and wounding its crew, in the Jabalia axis.
Clashed with IDF forces in the axis of Shujaiya & shelled military concentrations east of Al-Zaytoun
— Hezbollah:
Targeted a group of Israeli soldiers near Al-Samaqa IDF site with suitable weapons.
Targeted Branit IDF military site with artillery shells.
Targeted Al-Rahib IDF military site with Burkan IRAM rockets.
Targeted Hadb Al-Bustan IDF military site with suitable weapons.
Targeted a group of soldiers & vehicles in Al-Baghdadi IDF military site with artillery.
Targeted an Israeli infantry group in the Shtula Forest with suitable weapons.
Destroyed 2 buildings housing Israeli forces in the Metulla settlement with rockets.
— Islamic Resistance in Iraq:
Targeted the American base in Shaddadi, south of the Syrian city of Al-Hasakah, with a large missile barrage.
Targeted the American “Ain al-Assad” base in western Iraq in 2 separate operations with each a suicide drone.
This list did not include rockets fired from Gaza towards settlements.
Plus:
A vessel that was heading towards Israel’s Eilat port was targeted with a projectile by Yemen, setting part of the vessel on fire.
Palestine – Occupation Forces Have Serious Losses
via Moon of Alabama
The Israeli army is slowly recognizing and acknowledging that its enemies are serious fighters:
In Gaza itself, the military is amazed at the scale of Hamas’ strength in the region, building a de facto terror army stationed 50 minutes away from Tel Aviv over the past 14 years, including hundreds of thousands of weapons ranging from various types of RPGs that constitute the main weapon in targeting soldiers, advanced rocket launchers, strike drones and strike drones modeled to counter Israeli ones.This also includes mortar shells, AK-47 rifles, Dragunov sniper rifles, communication devices, operational telephone lines and explosive charges in various sizes.
The resistance is stubborn. It doesn’t give up even in areas the Israeli Occupation Forces have claimed to have cleaned:
In Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, located just yards away from Sderot, the IDF has been operating from the early days of the operation, achieving tactical successes. However, the risks still remain. Last week, Hamas terrorists came out of a mosque in the town, and new weapon caches were also discovered.The IDF is targeting Hamas commanders, and most of these terrorist cells are local and small, but as Beit Hanoun can testify, it will take months to completely clear it of enemy forces- and this isn’t the location in which Hamas is at its strongest.
The occupation forces have relatively high losses, much higher than they admit. Via Haaretz:
IDF Reports 1,593 Wounded Since October 7, but Hospital Data Is Much Higher (archived)
Making its first such announcement since Hamas attacked on October 7, Israel stated on Sunday that 1,593 Israeli soldiers have been wounded during this period.The military noted that 255 soldiers had suffered serious injuries, 446 moderate injuries and 892 minor injuries. The army released the information on the numbers of wounded soldiers and their condition after Haaretz reported two weeks ago that it had been refusing to do so.
…
As of Sunday, the number of fallen soldiers in the war that Israel had dubbed “Swords of Iron” stands at 425 (97 of whom have been killed since the launch of the ground operation. An examination conducted by Haaretz with the hospitals where the wounded soldiers have been and are treated shows a considerable and unexplained gap between the data reported by the military and that from the hospitals. The hospitals’ data shows that the number of wounded soldiers to be twice as high as the army’s numbers.For example, Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon alone reports treating 1,949 soldiers hurt in the war since October 7 (out of 3,117 injured people treated there during the war), whereas the army reports a total of 1,593 wounded soldiers. Assuta Ashdod reportedly treated 178 patients, Ichilov (Tel Aviv) 148, Rambam (Haifa) 181, Hadassah (Jerusalem) 209 and Sha’arei Tzedek (Jerusalem) 139.
In addition, another 1,000 or so soldiers were treated at Be’er Sheva’s Soroka Medical Center, while another 650 were treated at Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer. This is a partial list, as the data does not include soldiers currently in rehab wards who have already been counted as wounded upon arrival at emergency wards and inpatient wards.
The Health Ministry has counted over 10,000 wounded.
There are likely also more dead soldiers than the occupation forces admit. Some special units, which are generally small, have taken serious hits:
Verum Reports @VerumReports – 13:25 UTC · Oct 14, 2023Israel Special forces have taken heavy losses:
Unit 5101 Shaldag: 5 KIA, 3 officers/NCOs
Shayetet 13: 2 officer/NCOs KIAs
Yahalom: 1 officer KIA
Yamam: 8 KIA
LOTAR: 5 KIA (3 officers)
Sayeret Matkal (Israel’s elite SOF): 11 KIA (10 officers/NCOs)
Within a somewhat small but open community it is difficult to hide the real numbers.
How many will there have to be to make the Zionist less bloodthirsty?
The Occupying Israelis in Gaza
Confirmed: 85%-90% of the men stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and paraded around in the world’s media as “Hamas terrorists” by Israel were in fact civilians.
That’s according to “Israeli security officials” as quoted in Haaretz.
IDF captures Palestinian men en masse in Gaza, indiscriminately.
All men are stripped down to their underwear, searched, blindfolded, and then loaded onto transport to be sent to filtration camps, where prisoners are checked for connections with Hamas.
“Israel Cannot Win” – Jordanian FM
Jordan’s foreign minister has claimed Israel cannot achieve military victory in Gaza and has already suffered a strategic defeat by alienating the entire region.
Speaking on Sunday at the Doha Forum – an annual gathering of diplomats in the Qatari capital – Ayman Safadi said the goal of Israel’s operation against Hamas is to oust the Palestinian population rather than to defeat the militant group.
The destruction in Gaza over the past two months “is an indication of an Israeli policy that seems determined to expel the residents” of the enclave, he said, adding that top Israeli officials, including Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have been quite candid about that intention.
Safadi brought up the Friday vote at the UN Security Council, in which the US vetoed a proposal by Arab nations urging for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. It was the only vote against, with the UK, a key American ally, being the only member of the 15-strong body to abstain.
The top Jordanian diplomat noted that despite the veto, Washington was publicly calling on Israel to change its military tactics.
“Simply put, Israel is defying everyone – its allies, international law, and the United Nations,” he said. “Israel has created an amount of hatred that will haunt this region, and that will define future generations. It harms its people as much as it affects everyone in the region.”
This is a war Israel cannot win. Israel has already suffered a strategic defeat.
The minister blamed Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and systematic obstruction to the creation of a Palestinian state as the root cause of the hostilities.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who attended the event in Qatar via video link, remarked that the US has blocked several proposals for a ceasefire in Gaza at the UN. He called the unresolved status of Palestinian statehood the “single most dangerous factor igniting extremism in the Middle East.”
READ MORE: Russia explains relationship with Hamas
Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza after Hamas fighters broke through the border wall on October 7 and raided several settlements and military bases in southern Israel. Israeli officials said over 1,200 people were killed as a result.
The death toll in Gaza stood at more than 17,700 as of Sunday, as updated by the local health ministry. Around two-thirds of the Palestinians killed were women and children, the report noted.
Gaza: Mass Arrests by the IDF of Naked Young Men
The Israelis are in panic mode. They lost the narrative and the battle. Not a good sign for the future.
The IDF continues to round up military aged men day and night.
As they admit themselves here, they don’t know who is a militant and who is not, and just arrest en-masse.
For some reason they do not allow them to get dressed again.
EU Strikes Sweeping AI Regulation Deal
The EU hammered out a deal on the comprehensive regulation of AI. Thierry Breton, commissioner for internal market of the European Union, took to the X social media platform to hail the AI Act as harnessing the potential benefits of the rapidly advancing technology, while mitigating possible risks.
The draft agreed by EU lawmakers would ban:
▪️Use of real-time surveillance and biometric technologies, with three exemptions;
▪️Untargeted extraction of facial images from the Internet or CCTV footage for setting up facial recognition databases;
▪️Emotion recognition in workplace and educational institutions;
▪️Social scoring – determining an individual’s social behavior – based on social performance or personal characteristics;
▪️AI systems able to manipulate human behavior to bypass their free will;
▪️AI used to exploit the people’s vulnerabilities based on age, disability, etc.
Special obligations, such as “fundamental rights impact assessments,” are set out for AI “high-risk systems,” which could potentially cause harm to health, safety, fundamental rights, environment, and rule of law.
General-purpose AI systems will adhere to “transparency requirements,” with obligations including disclosure of data used to teach the machines.
Only Half of US Young Adults Believe that The Holocaust Happened
Half of US adults under age 30 either believe that the Jewish Holocaust perpetrated by Nazi Germany is a myth or are not sure that it happened, a new Economist/YouGov poll has revealed.
The poll, released on Friday, found that one in five Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 agree with the statement that “the Holocaust is a myth,” while 23% believe that it has been exaggerated. An additional 30% are unsure, while 51% of respondents disagree with the statement.
Overall, 7% of Americans deny that the Holocaust is real, while 16% are not fully convinced, the poll showed. Responses were divided sharply by age, with just 2% of respondents between the ages of 45 and 64 and less than 1% of those 65 and older saying the Holocaust did not happen. Americans also are divided on the issue by race, with Holocaust denial and doubts more than twice as high among blacks and Hispanics as whites. While 13% of blacks and 12% of Hispanics say the Jewish genocide is a myth, just 5% of whites agree with the statement.
Footage of Street Fighting in the Gaza Strip
Footage of street fighting in the Gaza Strip from the perspective of fighters from the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and Palestinian Islamic Jihad brigades.