In 1980, the Swedish pop group ABBA released a hit song, “The winner takes it all”. As of December 8, 2024, the armed coalition headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, might be singing that song. In every conflict, there are winners and losers. On a scale from 1 to 10, the various factions involved in the Syrian civil war from 2011 to 2024 are rated below.
On December 9, Egypt accused Israel of illegally seizing a buffer zone in Syria. The area extends from the Golan Heights almost to the outskirts of Damascus. Israel troops and weaponry are now within hiking distance of the capital of Syria. Syria is now under the administration of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an armed opposition group from Idlib, which had been supported prior to 2017 by a covert CIA program.
We express our sorrow at the fall today of Damascus, Syria, - a secular democracy - to takfiri terrorists backed by Western powers. They are led by Ahmed Hussein al-Shar'a, commonly known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. The US listed Al-Juliani as a 'Specially Designated Global Terrorist,' in May 2013, and four years later advertised a $10 million reward for information leading to his capture.
(PDF containing transcript can be found here) Genocide is reliant on the dehumanisation of others to justify inhumane action. Since 7 October, we have heard Netanyahu describe Gaza as a city of darkness and ask people to flee or face certain death. Of the Palestinians, Netanyahu says: 'We are facing monsters.
"Australia is clearly taking sides and showing disregard for the many Australians currently in outright despair." The Independent Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) has expressed alarm about Australia getting involved in the fighting in the Middle East by letting other countries use our air bases up north. IPAN advises that Australia should quickly pull back and not help with the fighting.
On 22 Second August, Riyad Mansour (pictured) Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations spoke to the United Nations. In that meeting, Riyad called upon all the Ambassadors to the Security Council to come with him to Gaza to see for themselves how Israel is destroying the housing, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure whilst killing, so far, by one more conseravtive estimate, more than 40,000 unarmed Palestinian civilians. Much, but all of the discussion is
Ione Belare (pictured), Spanish Minister for Social Justice, explains that the world can and must act to stop Israel's plans to kill 1.4 million Palestinians in Rafah. Rafah is right on the southern border of the Gaza Strip next to Egypt and is home to about 1.4 million displaced Palestinians, who have taken refuge there. Israel's planned attack flies in the face of a peace agreement having been reached in Egypt between Israel and Hamas.
What you can do and how you can stay informed.
On 19 April President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan demanded that neighbouring Armenia surrender to it the territory of its northen-eastern-most province of Tavush. Armenian President Nikola Pashinyan raised no objection and, once more, following a pattern of betrayals which followed his installation as President in the US-orchestrated colour revolution of 2018, acted immediately to use the forces of the Armenian state to facilitate this surrender of territory.
The United States has an appalling record of meddling in the affairs of other countries, which has often taken the form of outright invasion. The most recent example is its facilitation of Israel's known murder of more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October last year. And, since he was inaugurated in January 2021, it appears that US President Joe Biden has actually overseen an organised, undeclared, invasion of his own country. Using multiple, government financed NGOs, Biden has facilitated truly massive illegal human traffic from across the globe, via the United States southern border, plus their transport throughout the country. His government has also financed airline passage for many more illegal immigrants. Estimates of how many illegal aliens now reside in the United States are in the order of 25 million. In the embedded video Redacted's Natali and Clayton and their guest J J Carrell rightly label Biden's conduct 'treason'.
In an 8 minute interview posted to YouTube on 30 April 2024, Yama Wolomsal, a Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation anchor, questioned David Mencer, a spokesperson for Israel, about the almost-7-month-old Gaza conflict in which over 34,000 Palestinians are known to have been killed and thousand more are missing, presumed dead, beneath the rubble. By putting to David Mencer facts from authoritative sources including the World Health Organisation, the United Nations, the Gaza Health Ministry and numerous human rights groups, Yama Wolomsal demolished every one of David Mencer's claimed justifications for Israel's war.
Alison Tahmizian Meuse continues with her Twitter/X account @AliTahmizian to report how Armenians are continuing to resist Armenian President Nikol Pashinyan's most recent betrayal of Armenia - his attempt to hand across to Azerbaijan the region of Tavush. (Below is the latest update of 3 May.)
They are marching to save Armenia. https://t.co/aqO4rmPs0O
— Alison Tahmizian Meuse (@AliTahmizian) May 4, 2024
(Updates from 21 April) After years of surrender of territory to the neighbouring Azerbaijan, by President Nikol Pashinyan, Armenians have stood up and opposed Pashinyan's latest betrayal, the attempted handover of Tavush, the region painted red on the map in the north-eastern corner of Armenia. Currently, Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan is allowing the export of oil to the fascist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu which, has, in the six months since 7 October 2023, murdered over 32,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The oil is piped from Baku in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to the north of Armenia, thence through Turkey to its port of Ceyhan, from where it is shipped to Israel. This is in spite or Turkish President Erdogan's supposed opposition to Israel's genocide. In recent nationwide local government elections, Erdogan's so-called "Justice and Development" party was wiped out because of the disgust by Turkish voters at Erdogan's duplicity. Hopefully these protest in Armenia will not only lead to the ouster of President Pashinyan, buy also of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. For further information, please follow the Twitter/X account of Alison Tahmizian Meuse at @AliTahmizian or her embedded posts here.
Update 18 April: George Galloway's guest predicts that Israel will start World War 3 on Saturday.
As the newly-elected UK MP George Galloway recently stated, on Episode 334 of his Mother of All Talk Shows (MOATS), "Will they, won't they, will they won't they, will they they join the dance - Biden says 'no', Netanyahu says 'yes'. Who is going to prevail? How can Netanyahu not say 'yes' because his cabinet have, by a majority, already decided that, within 24 to 48 hours, what will effectively become World War 3 will begin. So, hold your children close and listen carefully to tonight's show, the Mother of all Talk Shows. Who knows? It may be the last time that we ever talk. It's going to be the Mother of all Talk Shows. Stay tuned."
Gideon Levy gives very clear, succinct, and unvarnished opinions in this bombshell interview by Afshin Rattansi of Gideon Levy, author of The Punishment of Gaza and Israeli Haaretz Newspaper journalist.
House of Representatives (Australia) Monday, 18 March 2024. Chamber. Unfortunately this motion, of which you can read the detail and debate below, failed with 6 for and 63 against.
In the recent 29 February by-election for the UK seat of Rochdale, George Galloway campaigned against Israel's mass-murder of Palestinians in Gaza and for Julian Assange's freedom. He defeated the two major pro-war parties, Labor and the Conservatives, to become the new MP for Rochdale in the House of Commons. In the attached 18 minute YouTube video, he is interviewed by Syrian-born British journalist Richard Medhurst.
George Galloway has been declared winner of the Rochedale by-election in the United Kingdom. Previously, Galloway had been an elected member of the House of Commons in 1987 for 8 years, in 2005 for 5 years and in 2012 for for 3 years. In all those years George Galloway has been an outspoken supporter of struggles against imperialism, against apartheid in both Israel and South Africa and for the rights of the working classes and underpriveleged at home.
On 29 February 2024, Israeli soldiers machine-gunned crowds of Palestinians in north Gaza while they stood waiting for food to arrive. Something between 80 and 200 Gazans were killed and hundreds are wounded. "How can this still be possible?" a friend wrote in an email sent to me at 02:19 hrs.
Proposed motion: "The need for the Government to cease using one of the most secretive military export systems in the world to hide from the public the export of Australian military equipment to the State of Israel, particularly as the Chief Economist of DFAT has acknowledged that DFAT data showing millions of dollars in 'arms and ammunition' being exported to Israel is credible." (Senator McKim - Australian Green, Tasmania.) Extract from "Matters of Urgency, Israel" [Australian]
The following has been adapted from a leaflet PDF file. (See Appendix for how to print the PDF file, from which this article was adapted.) In the face of overwhelming votes for a ceasefire by both the United Nations General Assembly on 22 December and by several meetings of the UN Security Council, the Israeli ‘Defence’ Forces (IDF) have continued their latest war against the men women, children and babies of the Gaza Strip. This war began on 7 October, 134 days ago. Since then, with aerial bombardment, tank and artillery shells, rocket fire, banned phophorous, bullets - and who knows what else – the IDF have killed as many unarmed Palestinians in Gaza as they were able to. At the outset of this war, Israel also cut off power and stopped supplies of food, water, medicine and other essentials from going into Gaza, thereby causing many to die of starvation, thirst and illness.
Both houses of the Australian parliament, the House of Representatives and the Senate, are meeting tomorrow, Tuesday 6 February 2024 (Update, Wednesday 9:56am: nothing said about Gaza on Tuesday). Based on past experience, if the Gaza conflict, in which, so far, nearly 27,000 Palestinian civilians are known to have been killed, is to be discussed, there has to be a Suspension of Standing orders. Should any debate occur, most of the Labor government members will just state, as fact, many of the lies from the Israeli and Corporate/Legacy newsmedia, whilst feigning concern for the plight of Palestinian civilians. The Liberal/National Opposition, for its part, will wholeheartedly support Israel's action and show almost no concern for the Palestinian civilians.
This article was inspired by Israeli and western press characterisation of Hamas-tunnels in Gaza, as if they were novel and somehow shameful and outrageous defensive constructions, when Israel itself has plenty.
In this video, journalist Owen Jones summarises South Africa's very detailed and horrific case against Israel for genocide against Gaza. A ruling by the court could take years that we don't have.
The group ‘Unionists for Palestine’ will rally tonight outside Patrick Terminal in Port Melbourne to make clear that Israeli-owned ships and shipping companies are not welcome in Australian ports. They will protest the Israeli-owned Cali, and publicly welcome the news that ZIM’s Sparrow changed course to Port Kembla after the announcement of the planned picket.
The University of Melbourne is censoring graduating Palestinian and pro-Palestine students and is withholding graduation images from ceremonies taking place this week at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton, Melbourne.
Across multiple faculties and departments, graduating students are expressing solidarity for Palestine by wearing keffiyeh’s and carrying signs demanding that Uni Melb divest from arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
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