Do you remember when you were young? Well if you do, you weren’t there man!

Or am I thinking of Vietnam, or the Sixties, or something? I’m getting old and confused and little is making sense to me anymore. But t’was not always the way. I do remember a time when everything seemed very clear to me. Oh to see the world again through the prism of youth, where light shined upon me only to fragment into a rainbow of insight and determination.

So how could my wizened old heart fail to melt when seeing dearest Greta dancing with joyous abandon only moments after having told the world that all right-minded people should be on the side of the Palestinians? It is so reassuring to see that taking on the role of moral guardian to the masses hasn’t sucked her totally dry of her joie de vivre or, at the very least, the joie de danser.

Yes, dance my fair Greta. Dance at the sheer thrill of having so many of the older generation bowing to your youthful wisdom on matters as far ranging as climate science and genocide. Dance to the tune of tolerance and justice you so eloquently and wisely spoke of only moments earlier, just before you had the microphone ripped from your hands. And most of all, dance for those who no longer can. Dance for those who were raped, beheaded and set alight by the Hamas ‘freedom fighters’ descending upon the outdoor music festival near Re’im. Those who danced that day no doubt shared your innocence and hopefulness. They too will have had much to say regarding the failings of the older generations and would have been anxious to introduce a new world order based upon respect for their fellow man and the environment. But unlike you, Greta, they will have been brought up to understand from their elders just what genocide means.

Dance for them, Greta, because they can no longer dance for themselves. But before you choose again to preach peace, tolerance and justice to the Israelis, spare a thought for those who danced before you, and just pray that the next time you feel like a little jig of joy there should be no-one around with an AK47 to acquaint you with the true horror of Middle Eastern politics.   

100 Comments

  2. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
    Off topic and I don’t give a damn”

    Who can forget Rosie Jones’ advice to the lass:

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Can’t be long before oppressed Climate Justice Jihadists take their revenge upon Big Oil shills and Climate Deniers.

    “Mum, Dad! I killed ten climate deniers today. Ten!”
    “Gaia bless you son”

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Jaime,

    I was about to question whether you had been partaking of the vine again, before I remembered how similar the writings of Roger Hallam are to the Unabomber’s manifesto. 😬

    Liked by 1 person

  5. John,

    I’m pretty sure that in the mind of your average climate activist simpleton, climate change = “basic physics” and climate change prevention = “simple arithmetic”, i.e. one less climate denier/mitigation delayer = thousands of lives saved.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. John,

    Thanks for the update. As I said when commenting earlier today on this story on another thread:

    I find this curious. In Westminster, we seem to have a Uniparty, with broad agreement on all the main issues. In the world of the self-righteous, it seems that uniformity of views exists across all subjects. Whatever happened to independence of thought?

    To develop that point further, what we seem to have is a simple black and white approach to complex issues with many shades of grey. Climate change (whatever the zealots say) isn’t simple. The science isn’t settled. Some (a significant proportion) of climate change might be natural. It might bring benefits, as well as problems (throughout history, after all, a warmer climate has generally been more beneficial to humanity than a cooler one, certainly in northern Europe). International politics complicates the picture hugely (see China, India, et al). Rapid abandonment of fossil fuels and reliance on technologies that don’t work very well (or which might never exist) would probably be massively detrimental to humanity. Many “green” energy policies are certainly hugely damaging to the environment. But to the Gretas of this world, none of that counts for anything. There’s a climate crisis, and that’s that.

    Similar thought processes (or lack of them), it seems, are at work when it comes to the profoundly complex issues and underlying problematic history bedevilling Palestine. Clearly there are bad actors on both sides. Clearly, it’s always the innocent (on both sides) who suffer. Clearly there is no simple solution. To give unequivocal support to one side or the other, without recognising that both sides have behaved appallingly recently and over the past decades, strikes me as remarkably naive. It’s complex. Greta and her ilk should recognise it as such, but regrettably they don’t seem to do so.

    The next point is what on earth does this have to do with her climate message (a point made strongly by the man who tried to wrestle the microphone away from her)? How have we arrived at a situation where people like Greta are bound to have a default view on every subject that divides humanity? I could have guessed that she would take the stance she did even before she did so. It was utterly predictable. But why? What has happened to turn every issue into one where if you believe in A, B and C you must believe in X, Y and Z? If you believe in A, B and C but question Z you’re not part of the group, a pariah? I regard all this as a deeply worrying development. Being part of the group culture seems to matter than independent thought and analysis, and I can’t see that ending well.

    Liked by 5 people

  7. Mark,

    “Being part of the group culture seems to matter [more] than independent thought and analysis, and I can’t see that ending well.”

    Historically, it has always ended badly, for everyone concerned. In the age of instant global communication, it’s going to end very, very badly. Either that, or it ends, once and for all, as cult-like group-think tips precipitously into mass awakening.

    Like

  8. But that still leaves open the question why the group culture and group think dice have fallen the way they have. I reckon it’s all to do with the urge to bien pensantery. The bien pensant doesn’t think good thoughts because they are good in themselves but thinks thoughts that they think other people will think well of them for thinking, if you get my meaning.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. The only further thought I can offer is that young people develop a sense of justice long before they gain a suitable breadth of life experiences and understanding upon which to base it. This may be because most of their lives have been spent being ‘oppressed’ by parental guardianship and the moment they break free, they want to talk about the importance of freedom and justice. University students, in particular, finding themselves surrounded by young idealists of like mind, and tutored by academic staff drawn largely from the left-wing middle-classes, rapidly join in with the culture of simplistic campaigning. But, at the end of the day, Greta Thunberg is just a child prodigy with a precocious talent for self-aggrandisement, peddling ideology that appeals to all who have failed to entirely grow up themselves. And I think that the immaturity was particularly apparent when she did her little jig. To say that it showed an insensitivity to recent events would be an understatement, and I just could not let the irony and symbolism of her youthful exuberance pass by without comment.

    Oh, and just one other thought. The person who grabbed the microphone could see the inappropriateness of receiving lectures on Middle Eastern politics from a young school drop-out, but apparently had no qualms about the same ingénue proselytising on matters of climate science.

    Liked by 2 people

  11. Dear John,
    I gave you a “like” for daring to go off topic, though I almost certainly disagree with you profoundly on the serious situation in the Middle East that you touch on.

    On Palestine, I find myself on the side of Greta, JustStopOil & the rest of the woke far left mob. This is not comfortable position for me.

    In the past I’ve been surprised to find how closely the views of contributors & commenters here tend to align on subjects as varied as vaccines, the reaction to Brexit, and the media treatment of Trump, despite our evident political differences. Without being anti-European, or MAGA, or anti-vax, it’s possible for reasonable people of differing views to find common ground in defence of rational discussion.

    Greta, in her response to the current war in Gaza, as in her pursuit of the perfect climate, is harking back to a mythical Golden Age of simple solutions. Politics in our youth was defined by our reaction to the US war in Vietnam, & consisted very largely of responses to a single photo of a naked child with her back on fire fleeing a US napalm attack. The images are more numerous now, and more liable to being doctored.

    On Twitter I comment on articles on many subjects. Of the dozens of climate sceptics I follow, (Barry Woods, Richard Drake, Maurizio Maurabito under his pseudoplume or nom-de-nym of Valerius Anders, Jonathan Jones etc.) I think only Ben Pile shares more or less my views on Israel/Palestine.

    As someone who thinks of himself as “on the left” I’ve never had the slightest problem being in agreement on the climate question with fervent rightwingers like James Delingpole. We’re all rebels after all. On Palestine I am extremely uncomfortable in the company of Greta, Roger Hallam & all the BLM/LGBQ/BLT crowd. It’s a heart & head thing.

    Still, my discomfort is nothing compared to that of the relatives of Israeli hostages, or that of the hundreds of children in Gaza whose photos I see every day on Twitter.

    Liked by 4 people

  13. Geoff,

    When I said that Greta’s position on Palestine was utterly predictable, I should have gone on to make the opposite but equal point that the pretty much unqualified support of Western governments for Israel was equally predictable.

    It’s complicated. Both sides have behaved appallingly. Neither side, IMO, deserves unqualified support. The innocent on both sides deserve better. The Palestinians deserve better than Hamas and the Israelis deserve better than Netanyahu (and vice versa). Palestine will not know peace while either remains in position.

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Geoff,

    I’ve no doubt that if we were to sit down and discuss these issues further that many differences of opinion would emerge. However, I hesitate to say at this stage that they would be profound. My main point is that Greta talks passionately of the existential threat of climate change because that has proven successful in gaining the required attention. But when it comes to commenting upon a truly existential conflict, she is venturing into a topic of such darkness that I fear she is clearly ill equipped to deal with it. I think her choice of celebration after her speech betrays that naivity. Her youthful passion would not have impressed the Hamas raiders had she been at the wrong place to choose to dance.

    Liked by 2 people

  16. The line between good and evil, right and wrong, moral and immoral, is a fuzzy, blurred mess in Gaza/Israel (it’s probably a fuzzy, burred mess all over the shop actually). But we humans cannot abide such an indecipherable mess; we must have nice, clean ape narratives. It’s got to be ape narratives all the way, so we can fool ourselves that we have an intellectual grasp on the situation and comfort ourselves in the knowledge that we are morally correct or at least firmly over the target. Scott Ritter has constructed a nice clean ape narrative: he says that the Oct 7 Hamas raid on Israel was a well planned, meticulous military operation targeting military units and that those nice Hamas soldiers were ‘courteous and polite’ to Israeli non-combatant civilians and that it was Israeli Apache helicopters which gunned down the majority of Israelis fleeing Supernova. You have to read the comments to discover that this is probably not true, but that the actual truth is as difficult to grasp as a slippery eel and probably will remain so, because the truth, as Suella Braverman discovered, is not what the majority of us want to hear or know about. We prefer our own carefully crafted ape narratives – minus the wolf.

    https://www.scottritterextra.com/p/the-october-7-hamas-assault-on-israel

    Liked by 2 people

  17. Jaime,

    I had only just put down Max Hastings’ book on the Cuban missile crisis before reading your latest post. Spookily, one of the closing statements in Hastings’ book was:

    “As we age, we learn that there is no single universal truth or logic: every culture cherishes its own narrative.”

    Yes, ape narrative certainly is the issue, as indeed is simian cherishment.

    Liked by 2 people

  19. Mark,

    The BBC asked how much Greta has achieved, before providing their own answer:

    “Although Ms Thunberg has not devised any specific environmental strategies, she is credited with raising public awareness of climate change across the world, especially amongst young people.”

    So she hasn’t achieved anything then. She has just inspired young people to join her campaign of empty rhetoric. But I’m afraid this is how it works. Her indignant ignorance is her strength because that’s something that every young person can empathise with. I am presuming that she brings the same indignant ignorance and lack of constructive strategy to the Gazza Israel conflict. Anyone can call for a ceasefire prior to negotiations. After all, it’s that simple isn’t it? No need to have read the Hamas Covenant of 1988, which states:

    “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” Article 7.

    “Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement…There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.” Article 13.

    Okay, the 2017 Covenant supersedes this and tries to claim that Hamas has no problem with the Jews, only the Zionist project – which just happens to be prosecuted by Jews. Besides which, the Hamas leader said in 2019:

    “You should attack every Jew possible in all the world and kill them.”

    I’m not trying to take sides here, I merely point out the true enormity of the problem. Little dancing Greta seems to have not thought things through, any more than she took the trouble to understand the statistical theory behind extreme weather event attributions.

    https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp

    Liked by 2 people

  20. John, just like Moslem Resistance manifesting as uncompromising Jihad is the only solution to the ‘Jewish problem’, Net Zero Jihad, manifesting as the devastation of the environment, industry, the economy and the abolishment of personal freedom for all but the elite, is the only solution to the ‘climate problem’. Greta has been an effective but completely empty, vacuous mouthpiece for the wholesale destructive extremist response to an imaginary problem. Not content with that, she’s now moving on to opine on international geopolitical religious ideological conflicts, but I suspect her success in harvesting the support of similarly empty vessels to her latest cause will not be as effective as was her climate activism.

    Liked by 2 people

  21. Jaime,

    >”…but I suspect her success in harvesting the support of similarly empty vessels to her latest cause will not be as effective as was her climate activism.”

    I suspect you are right. I fear she may have gained an overly optimistic view of how influential she could be and she doesn’t fully appreciate who or what she is dealing with. In fact, who does she remind me of? Ah yes, that’s it!

    “Hamas, booby. I’m you’re white knight.”

    Liked by 1 person

  22. Jaime,

    It occurs to me that I never did properly respond to the Scott Ritter claims that the Hamas assault was a military operation and no atrocities were involved, most of the civilian casualties actually having been the responsibility of the IDF.

    I could waste my time going into his claims in detail, but I see no point. The point at which there is an obvious disconnect between his narrative and reality occurs when he says:

    “The Marine Corps defines a raid as ‘an operation, usually small scale, involving a swift penetration of hostile territory to secure information, confuse the enemy, or to destroy his installations. It ends with a planned withdrawal upon completion of the assigned mission.’ This is precisely what Hamas did on October 7.”

    There is nothing in the Marine Corps definition that includes the abduction of civilians to be used as human shields and bartering tools later (as Scott readily admits happened). But you will find such activities included in the definition for terrorism. Scott’s arguments and allegations would be risible if they were not so offensive. He even talks of the raiders having been ‘courteous and gentle when dealing with civilian captives.’ He seems bafflingly incapable of seeing the dissonance in that statement.

    If you want to see what being courteous and gentle means, you need to watch the following video describing how the victims’ bodies were prepared for burial and what those involved discovered about how the victims had actually met their fate. Again, I don’t show this in order to take sides. I just think the horrors on all sides should be recognised and factored into the analysis. Whatever else Scott Ritter is, he is a Holocaust Denier.

    Liked by 3 people

  24. Mark: Jonathan Freedland has been a key voice for me since 8th June 2022, not just 7th October 2023. But that would bring in a long story. Simon Sebag Montefiore has been another. He wants Netanyahu to go right now but he’s also written helpfully on the warped idea of decolonisation applied to Israel, a concept which I’d bet has affected young Greta – and perhaps hundreds of millions of others.

    The Decolonization Narrative Is Dangerous and False (via archive.today)

    Last night, after I’d noticed this post by John and was mulling it over I thought I’d take in Steve Koonin on The Limitations of Climate Change Models. And saw this

    The colonial mindset. That Greta has in spades (albeit as a tool of others).

    There’s a conceptual conflict there that I think is well worth Cliscep exploring.

    Liked by 4 people

  25. Richard,

    Thank you for the links. I thought the piece by Simon Sebag Montefiore was a particularly good synopsis of the situation, correcting a number of historical misconceptions. And in case anyone was wondering, I hadn’t failed to appreciate the aggressions perpetrated by the Netanyahu government.

    I think the conceptual conflict to which you refer has been previously pointed out here on Cliscep by Robin Guenier:

    Leadership?

    Liked by 1 person

  26. PS. My apologies, Richard. I now see that you had been aware of the Guenier article.

    Like

  27. I ran across an idea recently that pertains to Greya, the Saint of Nihilism. A wise person pointed out that until the tise of large scale technology we actually lived in a state of climate crisis. That before irrigation, air conditioning, food processing, agribusiness etc, welived and died at the random manifestations of climate.

    Like

  28. hunterson7 – Just read a book called “black gold” by Jeremy Paxman, synopsis here –
    https://www.waterstones.com/book/black-gold/jeremy-paxman//9780008128364?msclkid=8764c562ed1b1e642165a003e41bf29a
    partial quote “a history of the working miners – the men, women and often children who toiled in appalling conditions down in the mines”

    those dark days for women & children are now gone in the UK, since we import our coal from ?

    Click to access Energy_Trends_September_2023.pdf

    Coal imports fell to 696 thousand tonnes during the quarter, the lowest since the 1970s and 49 per cent
    down on the same period last year. The USA was the largest supplier of coal into the UK at 59 per cent of total
    imports. This was followed by Colombia (19 per cent) and the European Union (9 per cent)

    Like

  29. I went on the march against antisemitism in London yesterday. I’ve still been thinking, like Geoff, and indeed Ben Pile, about the links or otherwise with climate scepticism. Here are three sceptics with different views that I’d like to note here.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaCFVcLr_4Q

    Peter Hitchens differs with Montefiore is some key ways – and with other people in other ways! He doesn’t think a two state solution is now going to be possible. He thinks Netanyahu has been underrated by many. He thinks Hamas won people’s hearts in Gaza in some admirable ways. But he gives key examples, from personal experience, of Arabs who are infected with antisemitism of the “protocols of the elders of zion” type. (Google it if you need.) He thinks the bombing of Gaza has probably been a massive mistake by Israel.

    And at the end, when asked for something to be optimistic about, he gives Net Zero as a disaster in the making! There at least we have someone thinking about both areas, like Greta, bless her.

    Peter North commented today on one aspect of the march yesterday:

    https://twitter.com/FUDdaily/status/1729087141769068700

    And I tweeted back, including Norman Fenton’s rather different view:

    https://twitter.com/rdrake98/status/1729128394347200985

    Just so Cliscep knows the range of opinions – well, not including those like Ben and Geoff who may differ greatly again.

    Liked by 3 people

  30. Courageous comment from Norman Fenton, in support of the man who almost everybody loves to hate, or at least express disdain for, because as we all know, Lennon is a ‘far right racist thug’. At the same time, he criticises members of the ‘official’ anti-Semite Jewish community. My admiration for Norman Fenton just keeps growing.

    Liked by 1 person

  33. Yep that’s very likely Jaime. You got a working X handle at the moment? Or are you like that French leftie Geoff mentions on Open Mic and have given up on the twitter world? 🙂

    I have only just read Dr Fenton’s searing piece from 30th October, meaning I was well out of date with what he and his family have been going through. I won’t try and summarise.

    https://www.normanfenton.com/post/israel-and-the-freedom-movement-a-personal-statement-by-norman-fenton

    Liked by 2 people

  34. No, Richard, I appealed against my suspension months ago and Twitter said they were considering my appeal and I never heard back, so I couldn’t be bothered to follow it through.

    Liked by 1 person

  37. Jaime: That’s terrible. I think everyone should be able to read X.

    Meanwhile does this work again?

    Liked by 2 people

  38. Yep, fixed. James Delingpole was impressed with this Newsnight clip years ago now.

    Like

  44. The “woke” have dumbed down if not erased so many boundaries. Science vs. Magic thinking; Terror vs. War; Male vs. Female; History vs. Today; Good vs. Evil.

    Liked by 1 person

  45. Abigail Shrier is best known in recent years for her 2020 book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters. But this was in the Wall Street Journal two days ago. Note the climate extremists.

    Why are the BLM supporters, climate extremists, academic feminists, and trans activists so quick to side with Hamas? Why are those who champion women’s reproductive rights so quick to align themselves with a Hamas-controlled Gaza where women lack the right to drive, let alone get an abortion? . . .

    The great 20th-century economic journalist Henry Hazlitt once noted that Marxism itself ultimately reduces to highly concentrated envy: “The whole gospel of Karl Marx can be summed up in a single sentence: Hate the man who is better off than you are.” Universities may add intellectual arabesque to the expression of this hate. But in the end, when these groups bang their bongo drums, their chants reduce to a single creed: Hate those who have something you don’t.

    That is what unites this motley crew of mutually exclusive values. When they cry for genocide of the Jews across America’s campuses—“Intifada Revolution,” or “Glory to Our Martyrs,” as one George Washington University student group did—they simply want to inflict fear and instill chaos in a peaceable civilization they despise.

    — https://archive.ph/e7C23

    Like

  46. My point being, tentatively, that those who are highly critical of ‘the woke’ are coalescing, not least because of what has been revealed by the horrific Hamas attack on Israeli civilians. Because of spokespeople like Greta, and her dancing in praise of Hamas, they are more inclined to bundle up climate extremists with the rest of a very corrupt package. Which may just be good for us in making headway against the madness of Net Zero.

    I actually learned about the Shrier piece from renowned sceptic (in the more general, often atheistic, sense) Michael Shermer.

    Leading to this from a climate sceptic whom one remembers from Bishop Hill days:

    There are a number of us climate sceptics using X primarily these days, rather than blogs. It’s a pity but that’s the way social media has gone.

    Liked by 2 people

  47. Richard, since you attended the march against anti-Semitism, I wanted to make sure you had seen this report:

    It looks like it went how one would want all peace marches to go — no chanting and lots of dignity! Is that how you remember it?

    Liked by 2 people

  48. John: The short answer is yes. The longer answer will probably be tomorrow. But I loved it and I drank in the peaceable, jovial nature of everyone I met, police included! But there were chants that did break out. “Set them free!” about the hostages. The Jewish guy I walked with and talked to most apologised for that. “I know this is meant to be strictly just against antisemitism …” he said. I assured him I understood.

    Like

  49. And I meant to say that looks a very good report from Konstantin Kisin, thanks. I almost mentioned him earlier – as another climate sceptic with an interesting (and influential) take on the wider scene. I will finish the video before commenting further.

    Liked by 2 people

  50. I wonder whether that silly, stupid, little girl-puppet will ever grow up and appreciate the startling, almost miraculous humanity revealed in this Substack post by Jewish resident Efrat Fenigson? Palestinian Omer Hermesh was the boy who didn’t grow, up but unlike Greta, he remained true to his inner being and was not corrupted by exterior forces of control:

    “There is a situation, and even a reasonable situation, that Omer would have taken this concept one step further. More in the direction of – “Omer Hermesh, murdered by Hamas in cooperation of the Israel Corporation”. After all, this was almost his last message.

    A prophet of wrath he was. A grotesque soul, full of grace and tormented at times, moving on the seam line between the comic and the tragic. It was easy to paint him as eccentric, extreme, obsessive. All this is true. But there was always a stubborn seed of truth there. of sharp and multi-dimensional observation. of sensitivity and a rare ability to feel the finer layers of reality. of intuition and original thinking. of painful honesty to hide or be ashamed of.

    His directness was at times disturbing and at the same time arousing astonishment and admiration for many. Sad clown, Joker. Preacher at the gate. The boy pointing at the naked king. The one that will never grow up, the one that dogs and children – as innocent as him – touched his heart and he touched theirs. The one who always sympathizes with the weak. The one who was busy day and night with real or imaginary wars. Strikes without a malicious intent at others and especially at himself. Breaks records of cynicism, bitterness, honesty and humor. Lives on borrowed time, indifferent to his fate, feeds on chaos, self-righteousness and the love of his friends and family.

    His heart was pure and honest. and gentle and vulnerable. His heart could barely stand the last three years. He increasingly shut himself between 4 walls, in his own company. With the records and the weed. The world is gradually becoming less nice for the sensitive, for individuals. Walking in the allowed path and complying to authority became “the oral Torah” (the new normal). and Omer turned his back on it all. He didn’t wear a mask just because a sneeze is the new nuclear bomb. He didn’t give a shoulder just because Simon said or because you get a pizza as a gift. He did not dress up as a slave, he did not block the Ayalon (highway) and did not chant “democracy or shame”. It all felt like nonsense to him. a charade. an empty lie. Brainwashing. Diversion and plagiarism. Divide and rule. And he didn’t bother to hide his feelings from the public. For him it was all a crusade. He abhorred anything that did not align with his quiet inner voice. He listened to his gut, an almost extinct art nowadays. He knew the revolution won’t be televised. And to him, while the crowd is barking up the wrong tree, his country, which is no longer his, will sell him and everyone else out. It’s only a matter of time, he used to say, until they spared our blood, enslave us. Until everything is taken from us.

    So we’re all somehow together here. Going through hell. At least we can all agree on that. We are barely walking, tumbling through this valley of the shadow of death. We are all here. Our deceased loved ones are with us. hovering above. Not in a hurry to say goodbye. As well as our kidnapped loved ones. As well as our physically injured friends. as well as all of us. Each one of us – the living dead – walking stricken, with a scarred soul, can’t comprehend. Our body is heavy, layers of ice around our broken heart. Ranging from despair to pain to rage to indifference, again and again. On the edge. Homeless, displaced people. Every day feels like a year. We hang on to rare glimpses of grace, to a child’s smile, the help of a friend, the presence of those who survived the massacre; we hang on to small moments of dark humor, in a glass a quarter full.

    Millions of human beings sleepwalking, struck in a shock. Here and in Gaza. Forced to take part in this terrible blood game of the dark forces. A nightmare. Led like sheep to the slaughter by despicable rulers guided by the devil. Can’t digest what will become of life and how to move on from here. In addition, humanity at its peak – the rest of the world around us – chooses a side. Cheering, cursing, demonstrating. Making for and against arguments. Stoking the fire, the hatred, division, and revenge. Distracted by the state media. Like they’re all watching some twisted football game.

    Our sons and daughters were slaughtered with a cruelty that the heart could never bear. In a moment the initial shock and grief will pass. Then the deep sadness will take root. Emptiness will enter through the front door, followed by rage. The rage of a mother who lost her children. The rage of orphans. Rage that this country may not have seen before. A new generation will arise. Their voices are already heard. Steady and determined voices. Voices that will cry out for the blood of our brothers and sisters until the earth trembles and turns its face. Until every ruler and position holder who betrayed our people – pays the price. Until we push them out from within us.

    We will investigate them one by one and not let go – where were you for 8 hours? Who committed treason? Who sold our people and our families? Who forsaken their blood? Who allowed the Gaza envelope holocaust? Who cleared the way for the Hamas monsters?

    We will ask all security establishment leaders – the chief of staff, the head of the Shin Bet, the head of the Intelligence Forces, the Mossad, the Air Force, Southern command, Gaza command, division commanders, senior commanders, whoever was sitting in the headquarters: Where were you?? Up until two years ago, every one of them knew how to locate, trace, and quarantine any innocent asymptomatic Covid carrier. A month ago, dozens of Toyotas and tractors disappeared from their radar despite months of warnings.”

    Just simply stunning. For me, there are no more powerful and wise words spoken by anyone concerning the Gaza-Israel ‘War’.

    https://efrat.substack.com/p/omer-hermesh-the-boy-pointing-at

    Liked by 1 person

  51. “‘No climate justice without peace’: Gaza becomes flashpoint for climate activists
    Many in the global movement are divided on whether or how to take a stand on the conflict”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/05/no-climate-justice-without-peace-gaza-becomes-flashpoint-for-climate-activists

    When Greta Thunberg posted a photo of herself holding a “stand with Gaza” sign on Instagram in October, the backlash in Israel and Germany came hard and fast.

    An Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson initially told Politico that “whoever identifies with Greta in any way in the future, in my view, is a terror supporter,” although later retracted his comments. The official X account of Israel said “Hamas doesn’t use sustainable materials for their rockets” and told Thunberg to speak up for its victims. The Israeli education ministry said it would strike any reference to the Swedish climate activist from its curriculum.

    In Germany, politicians and pundits across the political spectrum demanded that the national branch of Fridays for Future, the student protest movement that Thunberg started in 2018, distance itself from her views. The group put out a statement underlining its support for Israel’s right to exist and, in the weeks that followed, explicitly distanced itself from social media posts made by the international group. Germany’s leading news magazine Der Spiegel ran a lengthy article with personal comments on Thunberg’s childhood character and appearance under the headline: “Has Greta Thunberg betrayed the climate movement?”

    The violence in Israel and Gaza since 7 October has become an unexpected flashpoint for climate activists in rich countries. As world leaders meet for the Cop28 summit in Dubai, the loose collection of movements, many of which have built their support around inclusivity and global justice, are divided on whether or how to take a stand on the conflict….

    Like

  52. Yesterday the BBC posted this:

    “Israel Gaza: Hamas raped and mutilated women on 7 October, BBC hears”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67629181

    Two thoughts occur to me. Firstly, the headline not only establishes when these particular atrocities occurred, it also establishes when the BBC heard of them. Or so they would have you believe. The fact is that this testimony has been available for weeks. See, for example, the video I posted earlier on this thread. So what is the BBC playing at?

    Secondly, despite the abject horror detailed in the reports, the BBC still refers to the Hamas terrorists as ‘fighters’. Nowhere is the term ‘terrorist’ used; not even at the point where the ‘fighter’ shot the woman in the head at the moment of ejaculation.

    And then, having belatedly reported upon the full depravity of the October 7th terrorist attack, the BBC seeks to regain its perverted concept of journalistic integrity by following up today with:

    “Israeli settler violence brings destruction and fear to West Bank as war rages”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67617920

    So you see, it’s just swings and roundabouts as far as the BBC is concerned. Except that the Israeli settlers are referred to as ‘extremists’ rather than ‘fighters’. I suppose one has to be grateful that that the BBC had not used the modifier ‘freedom’ to fully articulate where Hamas was coming from.

    Remind me again what the BBC has said regarding the avoidance of false balance in debates such as climate change.

    Liked by 3 people

  53. Richard Drske,
    Your observation and evidence listed brings to mind inevitably the implication that all of those movements align so organically because they share in a root cause: destruction.

    Liked by 1 person

  55. Jaime: On my current trip to London I’ve learned more about Efrat Fenigson from Israelis and Jews I trust. (I asked directly.) Best go carefully with her output would be their advice. That doesn’t invalidate the pain, terror and loss described by Lino Hermesh, of course.

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  56. I’m sure she has a bit of a reputation as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ Richard. I don’t follow her work that closely, but what I do remember is that she was a voice of sanity during Covid and she was very vocal in pushing back against the Israeli government, their Green Pass scheme and the mass vaccination program.

    Like

  57. “We won’t stop speaking out about Gaza’s suffering – there is no climate justice without human rights
    Greta Thunberg and Fridays for Future Sweden”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/05/gaza-climate-justice-human-rights-greta-thunberg

    Interesting to see no more than a token reference to (but no condemnation of) “The horrific murders of Israeli civilians by Hamas”. It would have been nice (indeed, appropriate) to see active condemnation of all the terrible violence, on both sides, perpetrated against innocent civilians.

    I share the anger and anguish of Greta and her friends regarding Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, and I condemn it unreservedly. But I also condemn unreservedly the behaviour of Hamas on 7th October and subsequently. I am very disappointed indeed that Greta and her friends didn’t find it in themselves to do the same.

    Liked by 1 person

  58. God help me, I agree with all of this.

    “The horrific murders of Israeli civilians by Hamas cannot in any way legitimise Israel’s ongoing war crimes. Genocide is not self-defence, nor is it in any way a proportionate response. It also cannot be ignored that this comes within the broader context of Palestinians having lived under suffocating oppression for decades, in what Amnesty International has defined as an apartheid regime. While all of this alone would be reason enough to comment on the situation, as a Swedish movement, we also have a responsibility to speak up due to Swedish military cooperation with Israeli arms companies, which makes Sweden complicit in Israel’s occupation and mass killing.

    We are now seeing a sharp increase in antisemitic and Islamophobic statements, actions and hate crimes in Sweden and the world. The leader of the largest member of Sweden’s rightwing governing bloc is speaking of demolishing mosques, and the Israeli flag was burned in front of a synagogue in Malmö. This is unacceptable. We unreservedly condemn all forms of discrimination, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. Everyone speaking out on this crisis has a responsibility to distinguish between Hamas, Muslims and Palestinians; and between the state of Israel, Jewish people and Israelis.

    We grieve the lives lost over the past several weeks and are appalled by the fact that those numbers have been allowed to continue to rise. The death rate in the Gaza Strip is at a historic high, with thousands of children killed in just a few weeks. This amount of suffering is incomprehensible and cannot be allowed to continue. When UN experts call upon the world to act to prevent a genocide, as fellow humans, we have a responsibility to speak out.”

    But what the hell has this got to do with so called ‘climate justice’? Bugger all, I suggest, because any reasonable person with a moral compass pointing due north, regardless of whether they believe in a ‘climate crisis’ which is supposedly inequitably wreaking havoc upon the world’s oppressed ‘minorities’. would share the same opinion. Greta Goblin does not have a privileged platform to opine upon world events merely because she happens to be a high profile and highly deluded ‘climate activist’.

    Liked by 2 people

  59. John Ridgway – the way BBC report this conflict makes me uneasy.

    they seem to belatedly report on the true horror on 7 October by dribs & drabs (maybe as facts come in).

    but they seem to have imbedded reporters on the Gaza side with horror stories to make the UK public sympathize with them/Hamas.

    there is no easy answer to this conflict, but Israel looks like it throws Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki as examples for outsiders to consider past actions to win wars.

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  60. dfhunter, Jaime,

    When I think about the Israel Gazza conflict I cannot get angry or judgemental. The only thing I feel is profound sadness and a sense of despair. The Israelis are behaving as though they are engaged in an existential struggle, and I can understand that without approving of the consequences. With their continued existence at stake, it is no wonder that they have responded in the way they have but that doesn’t mean that atrocities are not being committed in retaliation. What I don’t understand, however, is their end plan, other than their espoused intent to destroy Hamas. They must surely understand the implications of achieving such a goal but have yet to explain how the Middle East will be able to move forward from the apocalyptic consequences.

    Unlike Greta and her ilk, I do not feel qualified to pass judgement, other than to point out that some observers are very selective in what they observe or choose to acknowledge. This is particularly notable in the case of the BBC because it contrasts with its proclamations of journalistic impartiality.

    Liked by 1 person

  61. John, I suspect that the Israeli government’s principal objective is not specifically to destroy Hamas; their current tactics point to the conclusion that they want to clear Gaza of occupation by Palestinian citizens. IF, as reported, the Israeli intelligence services knew about the plans for October 7th a year in advance and chose to ignore those plans as not credible, then this does beg the question as to whether the Israeli government has used the Hamas terrorist atrocities as a pretext for the Gaza invasion and ‘clearances’. I don’t know, maybe the displaced Palestinian civilians will be allowed to return to their bombed homes quite soon, but I’m fairly certain that the true situation will start to become increasingly clear in the near future.

    Liked by 1 person

  62. Jaime,

    I don’t have enough background knowledge to comment on how likely it is that the lapse in security was just a part of a long term plan, but I do accept that, historically, genocidal rhetoric can be found on both sides. This may explain why the destruction of Hamas looks more like the destruction of Gazza. It’s difficult to say, given how Hamas is so deeply embedded within the community, both figuratively and physically. I return to the observation that this is seen by both sides as an existential conflict and it has always been so, even before October 7th.

    Liked by 1 person

  63. Jaime: in reverse order of your comments, and briefly.

    Genocide is not self-defence, nor is it in any way a proportionate response

    Yesterday evening, on the last train back to the West Country before the strike today, I read David Aaronovitch’s A tug on the thread which he’s made free to all readers, unlike most of his Substack pieces. Genocide was first coined because of the Holocaust and it’s used very lazily by now. I think he’s 100% right. Tragic but not in any way comparable.

    I’m sure [Efrat Fenigson] has a bit of a reputation as a ‘conspiracy theorist’ Richard. I don’t follow her work that closely, but what I do remember is that she was a voice of sanity during Covid and she was very vocal in pushing back against the Israeli government, their Green Pass scheme and the mass vaccination program.

    The main person I met and discussed Efrat with would agree with all of this. They know her very well in fact. But they don’t agree with her at all about the background and reaction to 7th October. I will disclose more about my sources when I have permission to do so.

    Liked by 1 person

  64. I should add that I agree with Peter Hitchens, not David Aaronovitch, on “an OPCW investigation into chemical weapons in Syria which might absolve Assad” towards the end. Life, and atrocity within that, is complex. So I agree not with 100% of the piece but with 100% of the majority, the Holocaust-related bits.

    Like

  65. The essay linked to in Richard’s post is well written and heavily documented. It is a a chilling perspective into the debacle we find ourselves in.

    Liked by 1 person

  66. The Aaronovitch article is extraordinary and wholly compelling. I had a colleague and friend (he died about four years ago) who, a Hungarian Jew, was transported by the Nazis to Belsen. He survived – although most of his family perished. Subsequently, he went to the US where he became a remarkable and very senior electronics engineer (one of the inventors of GPS). He was a hugely cultured, erudite, kindly and sensitive man; he was very critical of many of the Israeli government’s policies. Much as he hated the Nazis, it’s utterly impossible to imagine that, had he been able to escape from Belsen, he – or any of his contemporaries – would, given the opportunity, have indulged in anything even remotely akin to the October 7th atrocities. The views expressed by Kostakidis and other ‘liberals’ are despicable.

    Liked by 3 people

  67. Richard,

    Thank you for the link to the David Aaronovitch article. It makes a very important point regarding moral equivalents. I also take your point regarding the overuse of the term ‘genocide’. There are matters concerning the right to nationhood and the occupation of territories, but these are not to be equated with the concept of the liquidation of a peoples. It is arguable that some of the rhetoric, such as ‘from the river to the sea’, is open to interpretation, but the actions taken on the 7th October are not.

    My position is to try not getting too drawn into judgements of right and wrong when dealing with the history of the Middle East – to begin to do that I would need to do a lot more research. We should acknowledge the intractable hatred that is now driving both sides but try not to project onto it our own political and ideological mores — particularly not from the comfort of our own armchairs. However, I do not feel I need any historical perspective to recognise when others are misusing terminology, in the sense that the dictionary definition clearly does not match the deed.

    Liked by 2 people

  68. Robin,

    “The views expressed by Kostakidis and other ‘liberals’ are despicable.”

    I entirely agree.

    Liked by 1 person

  69. John:

    My position is to try not getting too drawn into judgements of right and wrong when dealing with the history of the Middle East – to begin to do that I would need to do a lot more research.

    Yep, absolutely. There are some interleaving climate alarmism issues – and covid ones – which are suggestive, though, which is where you began with Greta.

    Liked by 1 person

  70. Robin:

    Much as he hated the Nazis, it’s utterly impossible to imagine that, had he been able to escape from Belsen, he – or any of his contemporaries – would, given the opportunity, have indulged in anything even remotely akin to the October 7th atrocities.

    The parallels being drawn are absolutely reprehensible, agreed.

    Liked by 1 person

  71. hunterson:

    Richard Drske,
    Your observation and evidence listed brings to mind inevitably the implication that all of those movements align so organically because they share in a root cause: destruction.

    Nihilism as the common driver? I think that does go deep. Sorry for not responding sooner

    Like

  72. Before I make my point, I wish to say that the death toll in Gazza must be horrendous and, no matter what the IDF says, it was inevitable that its tactics would lead to a catastrophic impact on the civilian population. The justification for pursuing Hamas further in this way is now wide open to debate (if it wasn’t from the outset), but I do not wish to express an opinion. Nevertheless…

    The BBC has just posted the following item under their ‘BBC Verify’ branding:

    “Israel Gaza: What Gaza’s death toll says about the war”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67764664

    Given how notoriously unreliable claims for death tolls are during a war, one might expect that the first thing the BBC would wish to do is to make that point. The second thing one might expect in an article purporting to provide verification is that it should offer an independent means. However, in this instance the BBC fails on both counts. Instead, the figures offered by Hamas are repeated unquestioned, with nothing more than a quote from a WHO representative saying that he, for one, believes them. This may be okay in the run of the mill report, but it is definitely not okay under the pretence of a supposedly authoritative fact-check. It is not the BBC’s job to serve as the Hamas’ journalistic arm.

    Liked by 1 person

  73. P.S. Just to be fair, I should point out that the article does reference another BBC Verify article that takes a more sceptical position.

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  75. Dfhunter,

    Sometimes the bias is not particularly subtle. Here is an article posted today by BBC Verify that looks into false accusations of fakery when it comes to casualties:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67760523

    It runs to 34 paragraphs, 33 of which address false accusations against the Palestinians. The single paragraph that points out that the Israelis have also been victims of false accusations starts with “On the other hand…” before the article quickly returns to its main purpose.

    Liked by 1 person

  76. Also, returning to yesterday’s article, you will note that its purpose in referencing the second BBC article was just to make the point that counting casualties can be very difficult in times of war. So the BBC says that the Hamas figures regarding Palestinian casualties, although coming from a reliable source, are going to be an underestimate because they don’t include estimates of the number of bodies buried in rubble. Not only is this an unjustified assumption to make (the Hamas figures are unqualified estimates), the BBC still fails to point out that Hamas has a vested interest in exaggerating civilian casualties, buried or not — just as much as the IDF has a vested interest in playing them down. Truth is the first casualty in war, but BBC Verify doesn’t seem to have to worry about that — it can generate its own truth.

    Liked by 1 person

  77. John, I’m not disagreeing with you about the veracity (or otherwise) of casualties estimated by Hamas or the BBC. It’s clear that the Hamas estimate is likely to be higher than the true figure, but I can see no reason why the figure used by the BBC should be any different without any additional evidence. Certainly the BBC attributes the estimates to Hamas and sometimes warns that they might be deliberate overestimates.

    I also see no merit in a BBC verified figure. As far as I can see there is no way any agency can produce verifiable numbers in a war situation (or whatever the latest fad of nomenclature the conflict is labelled). I think we have all come to terms with the non-veracity of any numbers originating from Gaza, as most of us have with the attribution of right or wrong with regard to the warring states.

    Liked by 1 person

  78. Alan,

    I think we can agree on most things here, but I believe the BBC oversteps its brief when it seeks to endorse one set of figures over another whilst offering no objective means of verification. I agree that they sometimes concede that Hamas might seek to exaggerate the casualty figures, but they are definitely not conceding that point here under the BBC Verify banner. Even worse, the article references another BBC Verify article to support its position, even though that article actually takes a different position. And that, I think, is the real problem here. No matter what position is taken, the BBC Verify branding is used to lend credibility. I don’t mind inconsistency, in fact I think it is a good thing that differing messages get a chance, but you can’t be inconsistent when you are purporting to be a fact-checking arbiter of truth. I just wish the BBC would drop the pretence.

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  79. John and Alan,

    I think the BBC has a problem of which it is finally (but vaguely) becoming aware, namely that it is no longer quite the “trusted” brand it once was. It’s not at all uncommon these days to hear a sceptical and disenchanted public saying things like “Is that true, or did you hear/read it on the BBC?”.

    Being vaguely aware of the problem (while not truly comprehending it) I suspect BBC executives thought that BBC Verify would be a great way of restoring trust. Unfortunately, BBC Verify makes all the mistakes that caused the BBC its reputational problem in the first place. It (and the BBC fact-checking teams) tend to be deployed to “debunk” stories the BBC doesn’t like or to support narratives of which it approves. It’s also showing itself to be unreliable, as John demonstrates above.

    Despite my ongoing criticisms of the BBC, I hold its memory in high regard, and I really do wish it could once again achieve the gold standard of objective and unbiased reporting on the news, rather than it current mission of making and shaping the news. Let’s hope the newly-appointed BBC chairman can get the executive team to understand what they are doing wrong and to focus on putting it right.

    Liked by 2 people

  80. “Israel-Gaza war: Hamas reports 241 killed in Gaza inside 24 hours”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67825465

    Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry has said at least 241 people were killed in the past 24 hours, as Israel’s military operation continues in the territory….

    Hamas’ claims reported without question by the BBC. As I have said earlier on this thread, my sympathy is with the civilians on both sides. There seems to be little doubt that the IDF is responsible for the deaths of thousands of Gazan civilians since early October. I am not defending the IDF, I am not certainly not denying the deaths of large numbers of Gazan civilians. But I do wonder if Hamas (which is responsible for starting off the latest iteration of the ongoing conflict) should be quoted uncritically with regard to specific claims of numbers of deaths? Can it be trusted? Should it not be accompanied by at least a comment that the BBC has been unable to verify the numbers? No sign of BBC Verify here, the Hamas claim is just quoted pretty much as though it’s an accepted fact.

    Liked by 1 person

  81. Mark,

    I think the BBC declared its editorial position when Merlyn Thomas wrote her 21st December piece on “What Gaza’s death toll says about the war”. It seems that Hamas figures do not require independent verification because some guy at the WHO believes them, therefore they can be quoted unchallenged under the BBC Verify banner. If anything, according to Thomas, Hamas numbers can be assumed to be underestimates because of the ‘technical difficulties’ in counting the dead during times of war.

    Incidentally, this is the same Merlyn Thomas that the BBC would have us believe is sufficiently expert in climate science as to be able to call out all climate change disinformation whenever she perceives it, such as claims that climate models are subject to uncertainty:

    In Your Face, Zuckerberg!

    So it seems that Greta is not the only pundit that is both an expert on climate change and Middle Eastern politics. The two talents seem to go hand in hand.

    Also of note, Thomas was the BBC correspondent who wrote a hit piece on The Creative Society that was, at the time, an excellent candidate for the John Ridgway Climate Hypocrite of the Year award:

    The BBC Gets Creative

    Liked by 1 person

  82. Also, regarding the Thomas article, I have two further comments.

    Firstly, the article’s title initially referred to a “death toll” but it has now been changed to refer to “20 000 dead”. One wonders why.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/what-gaza-s-reported-20-000-deaths-say-about-the-war/ar-AA1lOaaq

    Secondly, I have previously stated that Thomas called up another BBC article that took a more sceptical position. This, I must now concede, is not really a justified statement. Although the referenced article does indeed say that the Hamas figures are disputed, it then proceeds to give detailed reasons why the figures should nevertheless be believed. So, on balance, the referenced article is actually supportive of Thomas’ position and that is what I should have said. Consequently, I now withdraw my accusation of BBC inconsistency and apologise for having misadvised. The truth is that Thomas holds a position that perfectly reflects the wider BBC position and I really shouldn’t have suggested otherwise.

    Like

  83. Meanwhile, slightly (but only slightly) O/T:

    “BBC ‘Disinformation’ Reporter Plans Six-Month Sabbatical to go on Climate Course Funded by Green Billionaires”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2023/12/28/bbc-disinformation-reporter-plans-six-month-sabbatical-to-go-on-climate-course-funded-by-green-billionaires/

    Marco Silva is taking time out from his role as a senior reporter for BBC Verify specialising in ‘climate disinformation’ to enrol on a six-month course at the Oxford Climate Journalism Network (OCJN), a green activist operation funded by billionaire foundations promoting the collectivist Net Zero project. Past direct funders of this course include the Laudes Foundation and the European Climate Fund, the latter heavily supported by Extinction Rebellion funder Sir Christopher Hohn. Also signed up for the course is Mora Morrison, a BBC World Service producer….

    Liked by 2 people

  84. Mark: re Marco Silva, you just beat me to it. I was about to note that a few days ago you said about the BBC:

    ‘… I really do wish it could once again achieve the gold standard of objective and unbiased reporting on the news, rather than it current mission of making and shaping the news. Let’s hope the newly-appointed BBC chairman can get the executive team to understand what they are doing wrong and to focus on putting it right.’

    Well, the Chris Morrison article this morning (which you cite) would seem to destroy that hope. Another extract:

    ‘The OCJN runs what is described as an intensive programme for about 100 journalists/activists around the world. Participants can expect to be immersed in the correct political narrative surrounding climate collapse, the so-called ‘settled science’ and the need for extreme Net Zero measures, whatever the economic and societal cost.’

    Chris’s article is worth reading in full. I liked his conclusion.

    Liked by 2 people

  85. Mark,

    Your comment is very much on topic if we are talking about what qualifies people to stand on a platform and preach to others. I question Greta’s credentials just as I question those of Merlyn Thomas. The latter has a degree in French and Arabic and that seems good enough for the BBC to appoint her to the position of Senior Climate Change Disinformation Specialist. I have no idea what qualifications Marco Silva has, but he used to be a BBC crime correspondent before gaining the same title. Nor do I know exactly why the BBC feels it necessary to belatedly send him on a journalist course. Perhaps it is to teach him how to write English, since he obviously struggles with the basics. Evidence the following gem he came out with when trying to emphasise just how powerful the ‘bad actors’ are who seek to misinform on climate change:

    “And their power cannot be underestimated…”

    He could have said “cannot be overestimated” or “should not be underestimated” but he came up with a conflation that ends up saying the exact opposite of what he meant. This is a common error, but not amongst those who are paid good money to get it right.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative/how-to-tackle-climate-disinformation

    Liked by 1 person

  91. Charles Moore seeing a link between ‘Just Stop Hoyle’ and the original:

    Central to BLM, as to Islamism, as to the eco-fanaticism of Just Stop Oil, is the idea that our Western democratic way of life is a greedy, racist, “phobic” fraud. Although some extremists are godless and others are religious fanatics, all unite around a story of exploitation, “colonialism” and victimhood. So self-righteous are they that they take positive pride in besetting not only Parliament but even MPs’ private houses.

    They have been brilliant at making people who reject their version of history very uncomfortable, thus inhibiting free speech.

    — Parliament has taken the knee to the Islamists who rule by fear

    Liked by 3 people

  92. I try so hard not to be swayed one way or the other by images/film which invoke an immediate very strong emotional reaction, but seeing the body of a naked young woman, bruised, bent and battered, tossed into the back of an open truck, squatted upon by ‘men’ with guns, spat upon by the cheering public, plus naked women being dragged along in the dirt by motorcyclists, you can’t help but be affected. Those women are Jewish. Their abusers are Hamas supporters and Hamas terrorists – if these videos are genuine. You can’t ever unsee such horror. I don’t support Netanyahu, by any means, and I remain highly suspicious re. the circumstances leading up to 7/10, but one thing is for sure, Islamic terrorism is real and those who support it as a legitimate ‘resistance’ are utter scum.

    Liked by 2 people

  93. The siren song of false equivalences, normalization, even romanticization, of brutality and genocide have a corrosive effect…

    Like

  96. It’s worse than I thought:

    Mr Ali is a man with connections. For, I can further reveal, he’s a well-known Green Party activist who is (for now, at least) due to stand as one of its approved candidates in May’s local government elections.

    Perhaps astonishingly, the Greens last night refused to condemn or even censure Ali’s video targeting Rabbi Deutsch — which sparked an outpouring of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial on TikTok — on the grounds that the party ‘believes in free speech’.

    To understand how things have come to this, we must wind the clock back to October 7, when Hamas terrorists attacked Israel from Gaza, slaughtering more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, including 360 revellers at a music festival, carrying out mass rape and taking more than a hundred people hostage, including several babies.

    Mothin Ali responded to that awful day by posting a two-and-a-half minute video to TikTok suggesting that the atrocities were justified because ‘Palestinians have the right to resist occupying forces’. He urged viewers to ‘support the right of indigenous people to fight back’.

    https://archive.ph/fPmvI#selection-2753.0-2756.0

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  97. Jaime,

    I’ve been looking into this and it seems that you’ve got the Green Party all wrong. In its literature it quite clearly states:

    Green Party councillors are bridge builders and consensus builders for whom ‘actions speak louder than words’.

    Adding:

    Green Party councillors come from every walk of life but share a common set of values.

    What values might those be? Well, it’s all about inclusivity, as is clear from their recruitment blurb:

    Could I be a Green Party councillor? YES!

    No questions asked then.

    https://www.local.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/7%2075%20Be%20a%20Councillor%20Green%20Party_03.pdf

    Liked by 2 people

  98. “Ghent students occupy university building in climate and Gaza protest

    More than 200 expected to join protest calling for climate action and to cut ties with Israeli institutions”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/06/ghent-students-occupy-university-building-in-climate-and-gaza-protest

    More than 100 students have occupied Ghent University in the first European protest to fuse demands about Gaza and the climate crisis.

    Ghent’s centrepiece UFO building was peacefully taken over by students calling for concrete action to meet the university’s 2030 climate plans, and asking the university to cut ties with institutions connected to the Israeli military…

    …A spokesperson for the Ghent students who gave her name as Joelle said their action had grown out of an occupation last year by End Fossil Gent, and student rage over events in Gaza. A joint mobilising leaflet with Gent Students for Palestine used the theme of “free Palestine is a climate justice issue”.

    “We realised that both our struggles were against the university’s failure to commit to values they claim to hold,” Joelle said.

    “We can see that the struggle for Palestine is also a struggle for climate justice. The Israeli occupation force is committing an ecocide in Gaza, destroying all elements of life and nature.

    “Israel’s settler ‘green colonialism’ destroys indigenous land and plants non-indigenous trees over ethnically cleansed villages.

    “There are also issues of toxic pollution by settlers and the allocation of water and land. The two struggles are interconnected so climate activists are in solidarity with us on Palestine, and we realise that this is also a climate issue. Our demands go hand in hand.”…

    Which leads neatly to this:

    “‘Israeli Bombing Has Destroyed Thousands of Buildings, Many of Which Were Roofed With Solar Panels’: Is Carbon Libel the New Blood Libel?”

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/05/06/israeli-bombing-has-destroyed-thousands-of-buildings-many-of-which-were-roofed-with-solar-panels-is-carbon-libel-the-new-blood-libel/

    Liked by 1 person

  99. Pro-Palestinian activists outside Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Repulsive.

    Now, with the intersectional alliance of climate activists and pro Hamas/pro Palestine activists, it is probably only a matter of time before they come to an agreement to temporarily relax the ban on gas ovens so that planet destroying Zionists can be disposed of more effectively. No, seriously, dark humour aside, these people really are that sick.

    Like

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