We supposedly have a peace deal in Gaza.
I don't suppose it is a fair deal.
I can still hope it will hold.
But I cannot forget a genocide, however wrong what Hamas did in 2023 was.
Some memories cannot, and should not, be erased.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
The genocide will be forgotten as long as governments refuse to call it so.
I have no doubt that the consequences will continue to be felt through the Palestinian community for decades
So hard to imagine that Gaza and its people can ever recover either materially, physically or mentally from the devastation wrought upon them. So sad. And to think we watched it all happen…..
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/15/the-devastating-impact-of-15-months-of-war-on-gaza
I think the Israeli aim was to make the area uninhabitable and so the people have to leave.
The UN should restore the mandate and take it over while a new govt is trained. Israel should not be allowed to occupy it.
The UN needs to find a way around the US veto on Palestinian statehood. Our government needs to follow Ireland, Spain and Norway and recognise it now. I suspect appeasing Trump is more important to them.
UN veto powers should not exist.
Tom
Which UN veto powers should not exist, and why?
France 24 reported that the deal was almost the same as the one made in May 27 2024. Netanyahu, it seems, found reasons not to proceed .
Trump is already claiming the credit. It suits his ‘strong man’i mage. I suspect Netanyahu held out until the inauguration. He will then argue Trump owes him and will support him against those Israelis who want him gone.
In 1981 the Theran hostages were released when Reagan took office. It looks like something similar is happening here.The 444 day captivity helped Reagan win the election. It is pretty certain Reagan’s people did a deal with Iran to keep the hostages. In return he supplied weapons to Iran who had been attacked by Iraq. It broke US law. Most of their weapons were bought from the US in the days of the Shah.
The weapons were supplied to Israel -then lead by Begin-who transferred them to Iran.
The money from those sales was used to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Thy were a terrorist group to fight against the govt of Nicaragua. The US was taken to the ICJ -we can read on the web for details -and basically found guilty. The US did not accept the ruling.
I think there is more grief to come.
Thank you, Richard.
We should not forget that the terms of this cease fire were accepted by Hamas in May 2024, but Israel and her allies, including the UK, sabotaged the cessation.
With regard to 7 October 2023, history did not begin that day. History led to that day.
What does one expect if a Glastonbury style festival is held next to a prison camp annually? It’s not just the music festival. The area also hosts Zionist tourists, including the likes of actors Jerry Seinfeld and Debra Messing, who want to see the camp and even engage in target practice. What does one expect?
What peace deal? Netanyahu is, predictably, playing his usual games.
Richard
Hope and prayers are all that we have now.
This sobering commentary comes from Mehdi Hasan and his Zeteo platform.
We Should Be ‘Skeptical’ About a Gaza Ceasefire, Says Israeli Journalist
A Palestinian and an Israeli journalist discuss the timing, motivations, and consequences of a hostage deal between Hamas and Israel.
TEAM ZETEO AND MEHDI HASAN
JAN 16
Finally, a ceasefire in Gaza is on the horizon, but as we’ve learnt over the past year, hope for a new beginning can turn into a mirage very quickly.
To help add a layer of clarity and nuance to all the headlines and ‘hot takes’ making the rounds, Zeteo’s latest Breaking News Town Hall features two of the smartest analysts on the region: Palestinian journalist Muhammad Shehada, originally from Gaza, and Israeli journalist Noga Tarnopolsky.
Watch the full Town Hall above where Mehdi and the panelists also answered dozens of audience questions. How will the ceasefire hold? Who gets credit – Joe Biden or Donald Trump? What does reconstruction of Gaza look like? And what happens to Benjamin Netanyahu?
Mehdi and his guests started with: how cynical should we be about whether Israel actually commits to a ceasefire?
“I think the question is how cynical are they [the Israeli government] more than us.. I think we should be, like all journalists, skeptical and cautious,” says Tarnopolsky, who adds that she has a “tremendous fear” of this being a “truncated ceasefire.”
Meanwhile, outgoing President Joe Biden and incoming President Donald Trump are more than keen to take credit for the breakthrough in negotiations, although Shehada says he “wouldn’t give the Biden team any credit at this moment.“
“He [Biden] was far from doing enough on the ceasefire itself,” Shehada tells Mehdi, adding that Trump isn’t a knight in shining armor either. “There are already reports that Trump promised to allow Israel to violate the ceasefire, resume the war after phase one, as well as giving them a gift bag, literally, the verbatim quote is a ‘gift bag’, lifting all sanctions on Israeli settlers, extremists, and Israeli shady companies, as well as major land theft in the West Bank.“
It has been a steady 70+yr gradually accelerating genocide, which has escalated dramatically under Netanyahu. The evidence that it is genocide comes primarily from the mouths of Israel’s PM, Cabinet and MPs.
It has been marked by sporadic outbursts of lawful violent resistance to occupation, which has sometimes escalated into unlawful violence (why are we surprised, what would WE do in their situation if WE were occupied for that long and treated that way?), but the sum total of the UNlawful violence from Palestinians comes nowhere near the cumulative constant war-crime-genocidal horror of what Israel has done for decades and accelerated since Oct 7th, with the active enthusiastic support of the West especially Jo Biden.
Israel will wreck this cease fire as they have done so many others. They do not want peace. Only the time scale is uncertain – maybe once Trump has his feet under the desk of the Oval Office at the end of January? Then the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, the W Bank and E Jerusalem will continue, and “Geater Israel” will continue its expansion into Syria and Lebanon and possibly Jordan.
While the West is governed by moral cowards, the genocide will continue.
We are complicit in war crimes as long as we wring our hands and do nothing.
I could reference all this, and will if challenged, but it isn’t hard to find the evidence.
I’m afraid that the Israelis have a long, long history of not negotiating in good faith going back to the days of the PLO. Their almost paranoid fear is that the Palestinians will seen as reasonable people that can be compromised with so the Israelis continually invoke propaganda campaigns and deliberate breaches of ceasefires to ensure that the hostilities continue.
It is not for nothing that it is a tenet of the Muslim religion that they cannot break a contract that they have given their word to and every single ceasefire and breakdown in negotiations has been brought about by the Israelis/Americans, usually through subterfuge and nefarious means.
As an exercise in context one has to simply look at a map of Palestine when under the British mandate and what constitutes Palestine now then just ask yourself…. how has this come about?
For reference:
10 Myths about Israel – Ilan Pappe.
Understanding Hamas and why that matters – Collective authors.
Deluge; Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm- Collective authors.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jan/16/israel-gaza-war-live-blog-updates-strikes-hamas-ceasefire-talks
No comment.
The crimes continue.
So, they think the ceasefire will ‘park’ the issue and we can leave it at that?
Is it Israel playing for time so that they can stock up on kit? I’ve heard that they have lost personnel and that their tanks have taken a bashing.
Whatever happens I know what I have seen since October 2024 with my own eyes and I will never forget or forgive until I’ve seen the protagonists – including those who let the Israeli guard down – made accountable.
This whole episode has been absolutely disgusting. It makes me sick to my stomach and then some. ‘People of the book’ – I ask you?!!
I agree with all the comments above @ 14:37.
I understand that Netanyahu has already found some glitch in the ceasefire plans…probably waiting until Trump gets in. I have no faith in Israel’s adherence to any peace plan. Like they have been doing in Lebanon after that supposed ceasefire that France and the US were supposed to be monitoring; they have broken it almost daily with no consequences. There seems to be far more sympathy for the Israeli hostages and their families while hardly any recognition of all those Gazan families who will NEVER see their loved ones again and all those kids especially facing a future with no legs, one arm , one hand etc. Considering that many of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners Israel holds who have never been tried or convicted of anything, they are as much hostages as the Israelis. They should all be released as a matter of course. What is wrong with the world ? Biden tried to brush over his culpability in his speech yesterday but he could have stopped the weapons months ago. He needs to be added to the ICJ war crimes list. If the US and Israel will not commit to a lasting peace and fair settlement what can the rest of the world do? Do we just quietly succumb in the hopes it wont hurt our trade balance? Those countries who think it is important for peace to last for both parties need to get together and do something tough. Another book for your reading list; “The killing of Gaza Reports on a Catastrophe” by Israeli Haaretz reporter Gideon Levy who has for many years criticized the Israeli government and whose reporting during this “war” was responsible for the Israeli Gov. cutting all contacts with the paper, presumably hoping it will die of starvation like the Palestinians.
Of course Bibi will renegue on any treaty. It is a ruse de guerre. Primarily, I must say that I am not in the least anti-semitic, I`ve been aware of Carleton Coon`s imbecility, and that of his antisemitic predecessors for a long time. The Israeli junta is committing yet another industrial holocaust against semitic people. No-one dares to say this. Some of the facts, but no unbiased opinion is allowed. The Independent published a `factsheet` which led with how many rockets Hamas fired, not did not mention how many airborne strikes have taken place on Gaza and its tented people.
How do I feel about this? RIchard, you allow me to express an opinion in this space, and I thank you for it. I am outraged.
@p
Your use of the word “holocaust” to describe the carnage in Gaza, would be enough to have your post censored on many outlets, for what is called “holocaust reversal”. I’ve had it happen to me on “Fediverse/mas.to”.
But that is small beer compared to the use of anti-terrorism legislation in the UK, to silence/arrest/harass journalists and pro-palestine campaigners, the control of debate in UK academic institutions, and even the harassment of the managers of public venues showing documentary films about it – censorship carried out by the Labour Party and some Trades Union or pro Israel bodies usually citing “concerns” about “antisemitism”.
Of course in Palestine itself, it is far, far worse. The journalists are targeted and murdered – Shireen Abu Akleh was one of many, it happens week after week.
Imagine the outcry if Jeremy Bowen or Orla Guerin were murdered by IDF snipers, or their families targeted by IDF missiles, while RAF planes were flying surveillance missions, and MPs weren’t allowed to ask questions about the surveillance evidence they gathered? Imagine if that happened week after week for years?
Well it’s happening right now, but those murdered aren’t working for the BBC so it doesn’t seem to matter. These are not “collateral damage”, not people caught in crossfire. These are targeted killings, systematic, and on a large scale. This article names them, humanises them and shares their messages.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/longform/2024/12/31/know-their-names-the-palestinian-journalists-killed-by-israel-in-gaza
They are no less human than Paul Douglas (2006, Baghdad, car bomb) Lyra McKee (2019, Derry, possibly by dissident Republicans) or James Millar (2003, Gaza, IDF), but they aren’t British.
The targeted murder of journalists in a war zone is a war crime. But if you help the ICC (International Criminal Court) bring the guilty to justice the USA may sanction you and may freeze your assets. That’s the “law” in the USA.
Please don’t be silent.
We should not be silent.
Thank you.