Israel is Coming Apart at the Seams, It Seems

Yeah, about that...

Al Jazeera journalist outed as Hamas commander by IDF

The Israel Defense Forces has revealed that a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera is a Hamas officer, citing documents recovered by the military during operations in the Gaza Strip.

“In the morning, he’s a journalist on the Al Jazeera channel, and in the evening, a terrorist in Hamas!” Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, tweeted on Sunday.

According to Adraee, troops operating in northern Gaza several weeks ago found a laptop at a Hamas base that belonged to Mohamed Washah, who has appeared in Al Jazeera broadcasts since the Oct. 7 massacre.

Information on the laptop showed that Washah, 37, from central Gaza’s Bureij neighborhood, is a “prominent commander” in Hamas’s anti-tank missile unit. In late 2022, he began working on research and development in the terror group’s air force.

“Who knows how many details we will reveal about the presence of other terrorists in journalistic garb in the near future,” wrote Adraee.

Israel’s government on Monday morning moved to shutter the Al Jazeera offices in Israel. A draft bill to close the local bureau passed in a telephone vote.

The Qatari network is vehemently anti-Israel, and incites hatred and violence against the Jewish state in the Arab world, the Israeli government has long maintained.

Last month, the IDF presented evidence that two Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike were terrorist operatives, and said that they were operating drones that put soldiers at risk.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during his Middle Eastern diplomatic swing, called the deaths of Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of the son of Al Jazeera ’s Gaza correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuria an “unimaginable tragedy.” The statement came after Al Jazeera reported that two of its employees were killed in the strike on a vehicle in the Rafah area. The Qatari state media accused Jerusalem of deliberately targeting the freelance journalists.

However, a document that the IDF posted to social media appears to prove that Thuria was a Hamas operative. The document lists him as a deputy squad commander in a battalion of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the terror group’s “military wing.”

Other documents found by the IDF indicate that Dadough was a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative whose specialty is electronic engineering and who previously served as a deputy commander of a platoon in the Zaytoun Battalion. Before his death, he was in charge of a section of PIJ’s rocket unit.

Additionally, Israel said that Dadough had carried out terrorist attacks against Israel.

Al Jazeera journalist outed as Hamas commander by IDF (msn.com)

Okay, so that's the first time they've properly substantiated a claim like this. It doesn't retroactively justify targeting journalists in general, to the extent that they've killed vastly more than the number who died in the entirety of World War II or the Vietnam War.

Also, I wonder how many Israeli journalists have been involved in the IDF? All of them?

Also another "trans person." I forget whether we're doing collective guilt and "police your 'own.'"

She wasn't trans, it was of course her own child she used as a human shield.

She had used fake IDs that were male in the past, as she evidently had a long criminal history.

This is contrary to what I have read.

Question - do you think your news feed might be disproportionately skewed towards reporting the sort of articles you agree with?

Turns out I hunger strike a couple of times a week

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/...stinian-rights-lawyer-without-trial-or-charge

I looked for the other side of the story on this arrest and I haven't found anything, it seems pretty indefensible to me at this point.

Israel continues to withhold food and Gazans continue to suffer from starvation.

South Africa requests further urgent additional measures from the ICJ concerning the imminent assault on Rafah.

The US confirms that there will be no consequences should Israel defy it and attack Rafah.

The UN refuses to co-operate in expelling the population of Rafah, maintaining that doing so is impossible.

Netanyahu rejects yet another outline deal presented by his own guys to free all of the hostages.

The worst is increasingly likely.

Now it is revealed that the Egyptians are constructing a "buffer zone" (i.e. a concentration camp) in Sinai to receive expelled Gazans.

Link

Whether this is merely a contingency or they have some agreement to facilitate ethnic cleansing remains unclear. The solutions proposed around moving more than a million people back north are clearly unworkable. Creating a situation where this was seen as the least worst option was always the goal.

In other atrocity news:

The IDF are attacking Nasser hospital, the largest in the south of the strip, partially functioning.
They've had it under siege for a couple of weeks and have been murdering anyone who moved outside. The bodies have piled up.
They bombed the orthopaedic department.
They sent a handcuffed captive into the hospital with the evacuation order, and then shot him dead when he came out.
They've begun arresting medical staff and those who were in the hospital have now been sent into the streets.
As usual, they cite "intelligence" about Hamas operating in the hospital but provide no evidence.

A family sheltering in their house requested assistance to evacuate with their disabled child. The IDF shot the parents, maimed the child with a grenade and turned him and his siblings into the street.

The seven year old girl whose mutilated body was widely shared after the IDF attacked civilian homes as a "diversion" was revealed as a relative of the Palestinian Ambassador to the UK. He has vowed not to rest until her killers are brought to justice.

IDF soldiers continue to widely circulate videos of their crimes. Fortunately there are attempts to collect and catalogue this evidence in the hope that their impunity may one day be at an end.

Perhaps time for the US state department to have yet another frank and at times difficult conversation with their Israeli friends and partners.

Oh, and I just realized - the person saying that the 2017 charter is for political purposes to get people to think that Hamas will accept the 1967 borders as part of a two state solution is Khaled Rashel.

Who is Khaled Rashel?

The man who published the 2017 charter.

You can't make this shit up.

And they've been saying since day one they didn't really mean it, they still plan on destroying Israel. Like here:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN1862O4/

There's a shortage of weed in Israel. Turns out that Morroccan drug dealers have more scruples than most western governments.

That's legitimately hilarious.

But if they really wanted to help Gaza they'd keep selling to Israelis but lace it with fentanyl.

Leader of Israeli's largest trade union federation, Histadrut (like Israel's AFL-CIO):
- calls on Netanyahu to resign as PM
- expresses hope elections will come without a wave of protests, but
- "if the people take to the streets, the Histadrut will be there"
https://en.davar1.co.il/490308/

https://bsky.app/profile/aaronsojourner.org/post/3klnj5xxvsf2q

From an American doctor writing in the LA Times.

These snipers know exactly what they are doing.

IDF forces also discovered un-opened boxes of medicine bearing the names of Israeli hostages. The packages were found sealed and undistributed, raising concerns about the previous breached agreement in which Qatar would distribute medicine for the chronically ill hostages.

The medical assistance includes essential treatments such as inhalers for asthma patients, medications for diabetics, insulin injections, glucometers, medications for heart disease and blood pressure, as well as treatments for intestinal infections and thyroid gland imbalances.

During talks, Qatar had committed to providing verifiable proof to Israel that the medications will indeed reach the hostages. However the IDF finding the France-sent boxes with medicine, indicates the never reached the hostages.

https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/isra...sraeli-hostages-found-in-nasser-hospital-raid

There are hardliners that oppose any sort of ceasefire or peace treaty because they believe the Palestinians can't be trusted under any circumstances. News like this doesn't exactly prove them wrong.

Things that "the IDF say" are basically irrelevant at this point unless verified by a third party.

News right now of a possible resolution at the UNSC for a temporary ceasefire is little and late, but very welcome. The text includes several things the Israelis won't want to pass. This will be the first actual breach between the US and it's client.

Here we have the Israelis broadcasting the torture and humiliation of Palestinian prisoners on prime-time TV. They expect us to take information arising from this at face-value as evidence to justify their crimes.

https://twitter.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1759571535637954816

https://twitter.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1759368514798825569

https://twitter.com/ireallyhateyou/status/1759081361539813847

Yeah, the IDF are not covering themselves with a lot of glory.

In war, a lot of unacceptable actions become tolerable and understandable, but Israel has been burning through stores of those and patience is running thin.

Ceasefire-wise, we might get another pause, but as long as Hamas won't take them having a say in Gaza in the future off the table, a permanent one isn't going to happen until closer to the US elections. Fear of a Trump admin will get a lot of heads back below the parapet, mostly as whilst you can account for what Biden will do, you've no idea if Trump will send love letters or bombers.

Have to wonder WTF is going in the north of Gaza, Hamas activity there should be practically zero, so the people in Rafah can be cleared to there before rolling in. You don't leave the enemy behind you to continue flinging missiles, you make damn sure they're fertilizer, and you've somewhere to place refugees.

Bit of interesting politicking going on in Parliament around this topic - it's an Opposition Day, so the SNP tabled a debate on Gaza, and the government put forward an amendment, but Labour also did, and both were selected by the Speaker which runs against convention.

It's a very blatant bit of bias from the Speaker to save Starmer from another revolt of MPs.

Not often SNP outrage is anything other than performative, but they're rightly upset that they've been sidelined to save Starmer's face on this.

Ha! Labour blackmailed him by the looks of it - threatened to block Labour votes from re-electing him as Speaker.

Be interesting if that snowballs, he's got quite the target on his back now, and I can't see there not being any blowback on Labour for doing that.

Yes, the Westminster Parliament really distinguished itself. Hoyle needs to go, and ideally there are consequences for Starmer too.

Meanwhile, let's see what others are saying about this over the last couple of days.

US ambassador to the UN, after vetoing a Gaza ceasefire resolution: “We will continue to actively engage in the hard work of direct diplomacy on the ground until we reach a Final Solution."

Knesset member Hanoch Milbitsky to Arab member Ayman Odeh: "You will die, your children will die, your grandchildren will die - there won't be a Palestinian state, there will never be."

Minister of Social Equality & Women's Advancement, May Golan of Likud, in the Knesset: "I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did."

Congressman Andy Ogles (R-TN) on Palestinian children in Gaza: "I think we should kill them all."

In case anyone thinks the genocidal rhetoric has abated.

Unpicking things:

• the SNP decided to use Gaza as a political football and to put Labour in a bind
• Labour MPs have been on the receiving end of threats
• Labour asked Hoyle for their amendment to be put forth out of concern for MPs (and also spike the SNP plan)
• Hoyle, against advice, did, apparently out of concern for MPs (which is reasonable enough)
• It blew up in his face and, basically, mob rule won the day

Given the SNPs own (non-Westminster) leader has been impacted by Gaza, it beggars belief they used a war and humanitarian disaster in order to play politics and try to harm Labours prospects in Scotland. They may have pivoted from being Tartan Tories to the acceptable face of nationalism, but they're still gutter scum.

They're entirely justified in their rage at what happened, but maybe don't play political games with this kind of thing?

Left wing and Islamic mobs are still being given a pass on unacceptable behaviour, had "Tommy Robinson" types tried that kind of shit, they'd rightly be cooling their heels at Casa Police.

Any left-wing or Islamic groups celebrating getting Labour to do this might want to consider the consequences of mob rule, having friends who were entangled with extremes of left and right in their youth, I know which side would benefit the most from going down that route, and it's not anyone with a prayer mat or patchouli oil.

I'd be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and he meant an actual solution to stop the war, not exterminate the Palestinians.

Three more people to join Hamas in the Thunderdome if I had my way...

The Thunderdome idea is where I fall on this. Let us just get it over with. Two sides enter, one side leaves.

Apparently there's a ceasefire deal that looks more likely to be accepted by all sides. 40 hostages to be freed, a few hundred Palestinian prisoners, a 6 week ceasefire, some (but not total) IDF withdrawal, and return of people to the north.

How about freeing all the hostages if those animals were actually serious about peace and protecting their people?

Obviously they should release the hostages unconditionally.

But there already was a deal on the table exactly as you describe - all of the hostages for peace. The Israeli side rejected it.

And just today they're actually firing water cannons at the hostages families, who are protesting in favour of such a deal.

You sure do like to cherry pick your facts. The actual purpose of the demonstrations in Israel today was to demand Netanyahu's resignation and call for an early election.

Not defending the police action as I don't have all the facts, but saying that police specifically targeted hostage families and that people were only there to ask for the release of the hostages is some serious bending of the truth.

No, the purpose of the protest was to call for the removal of Netanyahu and an agreement to release the hostages.

Good thing I didn't say "specifically targetted" or "only there" for that. But I did mention it because you talked about getting all hostages freed.

Here's a report confirming: https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-ho...-chaos-erupts-at-nearby-anti-netanyahu-rally/

It's obviously a great pity that they are able to employ harsh measures against these protestors while they allow others to block humanitarian aid to starving children in Gaza.