As Al Jazeera has reported this morning:
Israeli forces fired at UNIFIL headquarters in southern Lebanon, injuring two Indonesian peacekeepers.
UNIFIL – the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon – said on Thursday that two peacekeepers were injured when an Israeli tank fired at a watchtower at the force's headquarters in the border area town of Naqoura, causing them to fall.
Any attack on peacekeepers is a “grave violation of international humanitarian law”, UNIFIL said in a statement.
The peacekeeping organisation, which consists of about 10,000 peacekeepers from 50 countries and was established in 1978, said Israeli forces had “deliberately” fired at its positions along the border.
I trust they will forgive me for sharing so much of the report: I thought it important to do so.
As we already know, Israel had already told the UN to take its peacekeeping forces out of this area. The Irish government, which understands more than most what genocide by a foreign power means for a country, was robust in its response and said that its 300 strong contributions to this force were staying in place.
Now, Israel has delivered its response. It is bombing the peacekeepers.
As Jeremy Bowen, the BBC's very experienced Middle East correspondent, has just said on Radio 4, this cannot be by chance: everyone knows where these peacekeepers are based. Israel most certainly does. This must be a deliberate act in that case.
The war crimes continue in that case, as do the aggression and the illegal acts of warfare.
Let's not pretend Israel is acting in self-defence or even has a defence for its actions now. Nothing about 7 October last year can justify this. Israel is now undertaking overt acts of military aggression against its neighbours. Anyone apologising for that is defending its war crimes.
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Thank you and well said, Richard.
One should add Israel declaring the UN Secretary General persona non grata, so he can’t set foot there.
Since 1978, 47 Irish peacekeepers have been killed, largely by Israel and sometimes its proxies like the South Lebanese Army and Falangists.
The deafening silence from the west has not gone unnoticed in the global south. A west in decline will regret the day it sought to undermine international institutions.
Not unrelated, a UK government pension fund has invested in Israeli and Israel linked assets. A few weeks ago, some pensioners took exception and wanted a meeting with fund managers. One government official sympathised publicly with the pensioners. Said official was fired without warning a week ago.
you got there first about the Secretary General.
I get the impression that Jeremy Bowen would say a lot more if he was allowed.
Orla Guerin ( who is Irish ) shows us graphically what the situation is without saying a word of criticism against Israel. She has been accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ before.
I agree about throwing away influence in the developing world.
Trump would be even worse.
The only positive point is the scale and persistence of demonstrations in the west.
Thank you, Ian.
You’re right about the demonstrations.
@ Ian Stevenson
“…Trump would be even worse.”
Perhaps true, but hard to imagine given the enduring support for Israel from over the pond. Including the systematic undermining of the role of the UN since they felt it no longer coincided with their national interests.
If this reads as an endorsement for a Trump presidency; it isn’t.
The US is a bit like the UK in that the STP rules the roost. Trump is the radical choice, but in the wrong direction. IF we carry on the way we are in this country we’ll get Farage. This sort of (lack of) choice should kill FPTP, but in neither country does it seem to be a vital issue at present.
Of the course the West is dying Colonel and maybe a major war in the Middle East will be the dying embers of our domination but not until enough money has been squeezed out every drop of coveted oil, every drop of innocent blood has been drawn by bullets and missiles, all flesh has been burnt by phosphorous and more limbs avulsed by land mines and shrapnel – all bought and paid for by our SMF governments who sit back and watch – at home – queues grow at their food banks, tent cities spring up everywhere and feed their populace’s sewage back to them in the name of ‘market efficiency’ and ‘having no money of their own’.
Fuck! This is a madhouse of a world!
In the name of God, in the name of anything but this! But this!
Various bodies keep condemning these war crimes and says Israel must stop, and Israel just continues to ignore them. What will it take to make them stop?
The USA must stop supporting them while pretending to be the “world’s policeman”. It must (selflessly) support the body which represents all the world’s peoples and upholds real international law, the UN.
Afaik it seems that the Irish troops are choosing to stay there.
The illegal Apartheid Entity has declared Lebanon the main front now instead of Gaza.
There are mass murders of civilians and civilian infrastructure on all their fronts.
And if people still do not understand how f*****d up this all, and why we are in the wrong and how it will end badly for the illegal settler colonists here is what their lunatic elected leaders are now saying loud and proud, as their soldiers run amok taking selfies of the ‘devastated terrain’ warfare! I.e civlian infrastructure.
‘S p r i n t e r
@SprinterFamily
Oct 9
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich:
I openly declare that we want a Jewish state that includes Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Oct 9, 2024 · 10:22 PM UTC’
And yes the U.K. and Starmztrooper is up to our eyeballs in it. We have gone back to the future, back to the days when Mandela was considered a terrorist by us by banning his grandson coming to the UK and Sheffield!
‘ Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, a South African MP, has been barred from entering the UK to attend a Palestine solidarity meeting in Sheffield.
He was set to address the gathering today, but now he will have to do it via Zoom instead.
This decision comes amidst controversy surrounding Keir Starmer’s stance on Israel’s actions in Gaza.‘
https://t.me/DDGeopolitics/126028
Thank you.
Smotrich was born and raised in Ukraine.
Have you come across the new Israeli spokesman? He’s from here and looks and sounds like a red faced toff .
Mencer?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-israeli-spokesman-slammed-accusing-bbc-causing-attacks-jews
France has just called in the Israeli ambassador for an explanation. One wonders if Lammy will.
Chirac stood up to IOF soldiers. So did David Mellor, who was ultimately brought down by zionist proxies.
I’m sorry but by any measure, the attack on two UN soldiers is a declaration of war for me on the United Nations.
It is indefensible.
It seems to be that Steve Bannon’s ‘Judeo-Christian’ era is actually with us after all.
There is something fundamentally unhinged about all of this.
And whats worse, it is Western arms supplies that feed it.
The countries supporting the Palestinians, that include Iran, are referred to as an ‘axis of evil’. So how do the countries that have supported Israel unquestioningly whilst they have brutally persecuted over the decades look from the perspective of Palestinians, their supporters and other less interested parties? When Israel’s arms budget, mostly supplied by the USA, is greater than all its neighbours combined? The bombs being poured into Israel from the USA whilst the world watches the resulting slaughter.
The regimes in countries such as Iran, Syria or South Yemen are deeply unpleasant regimes and may well be supporting the Palestinians as it suits their own selfish agendas. However, as long as Israel, supported by much of the West, continues as an apartheid state pursuing a policy of genocide against the Palestinians, it is hypocritical to condemn those who support the Palestinians. At least we are seeing some Western countries breaking ranks, but far too few with the UK bottling out. We need far more boycotts of Israeli goods. Pressure on retailers to declare Israeli products. Limits or blocks on Visa for Israeli citizens. Anything that will get the message across.
Thanks Robin
This whole issue is so extremely and dangerously volatile we must tread with enormous care. Hence, startled by the apparently brazen ‘quote’ of Smotrich on his view of Israel’s goals, I checked with the documentary – and, though crazy and extreme, they are not quite as stated by DunGroanin. The origins of this apparent ‘quote’ are in an exchange with the interviewer in a new documentary. It goes like this.
After Smotrich has said that he wants a “Jewish state”, one which “operates according to the values of the Jewish people”, the interviewer asks/states “The sovereignty of the State of Israel starts at the sea and ends at the river – is that all at this stage or do we want more beyond the river in the next stage?” Smotrich responds, “OK, bit by bit.”; he inclines his headas though in agreement and adds, “It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.” and after a barely audible/translated interjection, he adds with a smile, “Only Jerusalem, until Damascus.” The documentary extract is here at https://thecradle.co/articles-id/27227
Crazy, destabilising, dangerous – but not exactly news about Smotrich’s brand of messianic fundamentalism – but NOT the full inflammatory ‘quote’ that has been going the rounds.
This awful situation doesn’t need any more tinder than it has already got to hand.
Late to post but I dismissed it. There are approx seven million Jewish Israelis . There are over 100 million in Egypt and many more in Jordan, Iraq and Syria.
I wonder how anyone could take it seriously.
It seems there is no red line Israel will not cross with regard to violations of the UN charter. Although Israel should have been reined in a long time ago for their attacks on inocent civilians and critical infrastructure; attacking UN peacekeepers should be the final straw. Al Jazeera journalist Richard Sanders has compiled a number of very well researched documentaries. One exposed the whole Anti-Semitism smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn, another documented the best evidence of what actually took place during the Hamas raid into Israel. This included identifying a number of deaths that were falsely attributed to Hamas, but were actually carried out by Israeli forces.
Richard Sanders’ latest documentary is gaining a lot of attention as it is both shocking and graphic. Mondoweiss commented on the content at this link:
https://mondoweiss.net/2024/07/the-end-of-israels-economy/ . Another review of the content is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4nks8iUoh0 The YouTube documentary itself features a lot of footage posted by IDF soldiers boasting about their aberrant behavior in TikTok videos and on Facebook posts. ‘GAZA – EXPOSING IDF GENOCIDE’ is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2rmCei05JI
Richard Sanders points out how he was seriously shocked how blatant these IDF soldiers were regarding their intentions. Some of the content is just really unprofessional while other material documents war crimes. There is no attempt to hide identity and some of this content was posted on dating sites. This documentary clearly exemplifies the exceptionalism these soldiers demonstrate in the belief that they will never be held accountable for their actions. After the video was posted online there was a mad scramble to delete accounts, but all of this material is saved for future prosecution.
The ‘Investigating War Crimes’ YouTube video offers a snapshot of a huge cache of incriminating material. This video is not easy to watch, but it is reassuring to know that so much evidence is being documented. Israel imust be held fully accountable for the Genocide they are commiting in full sight and while openly admitting their vile intent to exterminate Palistineans. A failure to prosecute Israel would totally eviscerate any last vestige of protection from future Human Rights violations by any nation at any time in the future.
Thank you
And will the BBC be showing Sanders film – since it has had no less than 3 programmes on October 7th from Israel’s perspective including I believe some of the falsehoods.
I heard on the radio today that Israel is now pursuing a plan made by an Israeli General to completely annihilate Gaza pushing all Palestinians out of the land if any manage to survive. Lebanon is proving a useful distraction from what is going on in Gaza as our MSM seem incapable of dealing with more than one horror at a time. American hurricanes taking precedent over genocide in Gaza, and the start of what looks like it could be genocide in Lebanon as well.
Owen Jones covered this on YouTube 2 days ago. The details are shocking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fv4ZynyLrM
The attitudes of the Israeli military have not changed. I recommend Tony Judt’s fantastic book Thinking the Twenty First Century based on conversations with Timothy Snyder. Judt had deep Jewish heritage with family from Eastern Europe, many of whom died in the Holocaust. He started as a committed Zionist and spent some years in Israel but experienced first hand the racism towards the Palestinians and Arabs, especially amongst the Israeli military with whom he worked as a translator. As a results his attitudes to Israel and Zionism changed fundamentally. And that was 60 years ago.
Their conversations are wide ranging but at their core they are about politics and democracy in Europe. They track how totalitarianism and nationalism have surged and diminished at different times. Right up to the present day with the likes of Trump and Putin – and Netanyahu.
Thanks
I did read a piece some time ago suggesting that a past US president did ‘picked up the phone’ and stopped Israel in its tracks in a previous war – threatening to cut off arms supplies.
It ls really the Biden adminstration that have been fuelling this ‘war’ from the first day when he gave Israel carte blanche to do whatever it wanted – while knowing they were a fundamentalist regime
.The Tooze piece in the Guardian does paint a plausible picture that US and Israeli extremists – see this as an excuse to ‘reshape’ the middle east – to rebuild it to ‘the West’s ‘advantage.
BBC often have John Bolton on as an eminence grise – continuing to advocate his disastrous 2003 ‘dismember Iraq’ strategy – by now ‘dismantling Iran’.
They are implicating all of us in this. We are on teh wrong side.
We are not on the wrong side. A large proportion of the UK population is on Palestine’s side. This can go one of two ways, Starmer falls, or Tory laws are used to outlaw any protest. My money’s on the second. I can see a monstrous conjugation of events coming, open war, disruption here, Trump winning.
Israel follows a pattern of disregard for international humanitarian law. This was evident in Gaza where the IDF deliberately attacked hospitals, schools, aid convoys, refugee camps, etc. What is clear is that Israeli forces are now following a similar pattern in Lebanon.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) which is comprised of 10,000 peacekeepers from over 50 countries and established under UN Resolution 1701 – see Link A – has reported that the IDF fired on several of its positions in southern Lebanon on Wednesday and Thursday – see Link B
Link A: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/10/02/un-resolution-1701-israel-lebanon-iran-conflict/
Link B: https://www.politico.eu/article/united-nations-peacekeeper-injure-israel-fire-lebanon/
The IDF specifically targeted UNIFIL’s headquarters at Ras Naqoura, with anti-tank weapons hitting the entrance to a bunker where members of peacekeeping force were sheltering, and damaged vehicles and communications systems. Israel also targeted a UNIFIL observation tower. Two peacekeepers from Indonesia were injured – see Link C. These actions come in the wake of Israel declaring the UN Secretary General persona non grata.
Link C: https://unifil.unmissions.org/unifil-statement-10-october
Princeton University’s dictionary – Link D – defines a rogue state as “a state that does not respect other states in its international actions”.
Link D: https://wordnet.princeton.edu/citing-wordnet
Following its attacks on UNIFIL, and its actions against the UN Secretary General, it is worth asking whether Israel’s actions reflect those of a rogue state?
We will not see a cessation of tensions across the middle east, and indeed with Russia and with China until the USA changes its attitude as the dominant force for ‘democracy and good’ in the world. USA stands for some of the most hideous religious/capitalist fundamentalism, amorality and pure hypocrisy on the face of the earth. It has no right to proclaim and judge other states which differ from it in its religious foundations.
I, as an atheist, see religion as the fundamental divider of humankind. Despite the so called tenets of kindness and tolerance most religions claim to have at their centre, each religion also has a flip side of suppression of humanistic values. These ‘values’ are so deeply held by the instigators of religious separatism, and so ingrained into the lives of their followers we cannot as outsiders (humanists) expect to see a paradigm shift in any short space of time.
But we CAN, through the UN, aim to respect the differences (both religious and political) and start to work towards reducing tensions by agreeing on a humanistic level to extend love and co-existance instead of war and hatred. And this has to start by a global agreement on deescalating nuclear and heavy war machinery on the surface of the globe and indeed in the space that surrounds us.
We have much bigger fish to fry as a global community, and banning heavy weapons globally would be one major way low cutting carbon emissions, I can’t imagine how many tonnes of CO2 Israel is currently pumping up over Gaza, Lebanon and potentially other ME countries.
Until we start respecting difference can we expect the more extreme elements of fundamentalism and their fanatic following to moderate their philosophies in the name of world peace, and climate survival.
The UN is the only forum where such agreements can be aired and ratified. The supremacy of this organisation, formed to save the people of the world from war, suppression and suffering must be recognised by all nations, and as such the US has a clear lead to take by declaring itself to be a peacemaker not a warmonger, to lead the way in disarming Israel, and declaring itself a neutral player on the global political scene, withdrawing its forces, or at least using its military bases across the globe for only humanitarian purposes.
Someone needs to take the first step, and America will find plenty of allies for peace. It could be the turning point in the real battle we face of climate change and the massive displacement of people that it could force upon us. A disaster that maybe nearer than we think according to many eminent climate scientist who are deeply concerned about a double blue ocean event as early as next year – to read more go https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/10/double-blue-ocean-event-2025.html
Israel at war with UN. Stop.
No official declaration so far. Stop
Israeli ambassador to UN says it is all a big mistake. Stop
UN soldiers were in wrong place at wrong time – always (Israeli ambassador). Stop.
Stop.
This is one of the most sickening, geopolitical experiences in my life time. Anything but , Bibi being tried for mass slaughter, is not acceptable in a just world.
How do we stop this now? Clearly the American admin doesn’t know how?. So cotastrphe unfolds before our eyes. Our week was has become a given
This is one of the most sickening, geopolitical experiences in my life time. Anything but , Bibi being tried for mass slaughter, is not acceptable in a just world.
How do we stop this now? Clearly the American admin doesn’t know how?. So cotastrphe unfolds before our eyes. Our weakness has become a given
Two of my recent posts: https://dearscotland.substack.com/p/the-fanatic-in-the-middle-east-is
https://dearscotland.substack.com/p/israel-beats-and-arrests-american
So-called democratic governments – the US and UK among them – are waging an all-out war on free speech, threatening, intimidating and imprisoning ordinary citizens and the few brave journalists who are trying to do their job – to inform the public and hold power to account. Earlier this week, an American journalist was kidnapped and beaten by Israeli police for reporting on the damage caused by Iranian airstrikes in Israel. The US has been silent.
The UK has arrested and threatened journalists and citizens in recent months for reporting on Gaza or even just posting on social media, charging some under Section 12 of the UK Terrorism Act 2000.
Unless more of us speak up and openly resist these fascist moves by our governments, those of us who express opinions at odds with state-sanctioned narratives could face the same fates.