A HEARTBREAKING STORY FROM DEIR YASSIN (LAST ITEM IN THIS NEWSLETTER) / Air strike update for Nov 1, 2023)
This story from 1948 will help you understand that Israeli genocide is nothing new, and why the non-western world is finally turning against the Zionist Entity. The US is powerless now.
A story from Deir Yassin
This is a translation from a Spanish-language report I found several years ago.
Donald Hank
The delegate of the Red Cross in the area, Jacques de Reynier, was the first person to arrive at the place while the Irgun militias were still present: "Among the troops there were some very young people, almost adolescents, all in military clothing and helmets, men and women armed to the teeth with pistols, machine guns, grenades and also big knives, most of them still bloodied. A very beautiful young woman showed me her blood still dripping like a trophy [from her knife]...
I made my way between them and entered a house. The first room was dark with everything in disarray but nobody could be seen. In the next room I found, under the furniture and the busted mattresses, several corpses aIready cold.
The cleansing operation had been done first with machine guns, then with grenades and finally with the long knives, without any worries that it would be discovered. The same scene we found in the next room but as I was about to leave I heard what I thought was a sigh.
I removed the corpses until I touched a small foot that was still warm. She was a ten-year-old girl, badly injured by a grenade but still alive. I picked her up and one of the officers tried to block me at the door, I pushed him and left with my precious body ...
We checked the other houses and in all of them we find the same spooky scene. We only found two other people alive, two women, one of them an old woman huddled in the kitchen, she had been hiding there for hours ...
The village had four hundred inhabitants, some fifty managed to flee, three had survived, the rest had been thoroughly massacred, following the orders of their chiefs as they are admirably disciplined troops ... "[3]
Jacques de Reynier gives the figure of 347 dead in the killing of Deir Yassin; other sources speak of 250. In any case, it is not about the number of victims – because in those months of 1948 there were similar massacres in many other villages of Palestine – but about the echo that the killing had, the panic movement it provoked, which made Deir Yassin one of the keys to the exodus of the Palestinian peasants.
[In my debates with Israelis and Zionits at Quora, I keep encountering the argument that the Arabs left of their own free will and that the Zionists are not responsible for this. They never mention these massacres, of course.]
In fact it became one of the elements of the military strategy to achieve the "spontaneous" evacuation of the Arab population of rural Palestine. A pattern that was repeated with assiduity was to surround the villages and broadcast through loud speakers a messages to its inhabitants: Leave the village or you will get the Deir Yassin treatment.
In view of the above, it seems that when the Israelis say they have a right to this land, what they really mean is that the Arabs have no rights, not even the right to life, and that the Israelis have the right to kill them with impunity. [Ironically, one of the features of US Evangelicals is their campaign for life. Yet to them, this does not apply to Palestinians]
**
Here’s your air strike update for Nov 1, 2023
You can use the maps linked here to locate the different places mentioned in texts related to air strikes.
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
1 November 2023, 21:13
The Russian Armed Forces continue attacks on deep Ukrainian rear areas
The main targets are airfields in Mirgorod [Poltavskaya oblast, east of Kiev] close to the front lines, ] and Starokonstántino [Khmelnitskaya oblast, west of Kiev, far from font lines], from where planes with NATO cruise missiles take off, and where as ammunition and fuel depots are located. Thus, in Kremenchug [also in Poltavskaya oblast], a strong fire started at a refinery after an explosion. [Not mentioned here is the fact that Kremenchug, near Mirgorod, has a military airport from which attacks are launched on Russian targets using NATO missiles. This was hit on June 29 and Sept 23 as well. We can reasonably expect more strikes in the future]
[Yesterday, we also learned that the same airfield in Starokonstantinov (Khmelmitskaya oblast) was hit. I did a search and found that this airfield had been hit in May, June, in July twice, and in October twice. Airfields are vast pieces of real estate and must be struck several times to rid them of dangerous aircraft. Since Starokonstantinov has a heavy concentration of NATO missiles and aircraft adapted to carry them. Russia is focused on hitting this airfield repeatedly. Look for this name to show up in the future as well. Destroying NATO weapons is an important security task for the Russians]
And more from the Ministry of Defense report. Our aerospace fighters shot down two enemy Su-27s. Three tanks were destroyed in the Donetsk direction, including the German Leopard. The Kiev regime, due to a lack of equipment, is forced to throw Western tanks into battle, and the statistics of their losses immediately began to creep up: at least six in a week.
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
https://lenta.ru/news/2023/11/01/v-kieve-i-11-oblastyah/
November 1, 2023
An air raid alert has been declared in Kyiv and 11 oblasts of Ukraine
An air raid alert has been declared in Kyiv and 11 oblasts of Ukraine. This is evidenced by data from the online map of the Ministry of Digital Transformation.
In particular, the signals sound in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kirovograd, Nikolaev, Poltava, Sumy, Khmelnitsky, Kharkov, Chernivtsi and Cherkasy oblasts. In addition, explosions are reported in the Chernigov oblast. The sounds of explosions can also be heard in Kremenchug, reports Strana.ua.
Earlier it was reported that explosions occurred in Mirgorod, in Poltava [see above report on airport strike here] oblast. According to preliminary information, air defense systems were activated. The Ukrainian Air Force announced the tactical activity of Russian aviation, and therefore an air raid alert was declared in a number of oblasts.
**
Laura K Good satire
**
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23893423.top-un-official-steps-genocide-palestinians/
Top UN official steps down over 'genocide' of Palestinians
Excerpt:
In his letter he also hit out at the UK and US governments, saying they “are wholly complicit in the horrific assault”.
The letter added: “The currently wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people, rooted in an ethno-nationalist settler colonial ideology, in continuation of decades of their systematic persecution and purging, based entirely upon their status as Arabs, and coupled with explicit statements of intent by leaders in the Israeli government and military, leaves no room for doubt or debate.
“In Gaza, civilian homes, schools, churches, mosques and medical institutions are wantonly attacked as thousands of civilians are massacred.”
More here
**
Je suis Russia
Film by Regis Tremblay
Send this link to everyone. Russophobia is one of the most dangerous ideologies in the world today. It ought to be banned in the West, and perhaps someday it will be if the Neocons can be thrown out and replaced with non-psychopaths.
But until that day, here is a remedy, thanks to our friend Regis.
I also recommend Regis’ film “The Ghost of Jeju,” which relates to one of the US’ many genocides, this one in Korea.
**
Remember reporter Shireen Abu Akleh? She too — like the reporter described below — was killed in Palestine while covering an event that, like most events initiated by Israel in that region, makes Israel look bad – that is, look like the genocidal ethnical cleanser that it really is.
As in Shireen’s case, the Israeli authorities, which enter Palestine illegally because it is not their land, claimed they did not target Shireen. Somehow she just happened go get dead. Western authorities and journalists stupidly urge the criminal Israeli “authorities” to investigate themselves. Would you ask a mass murderer to investigate himself?
But that’s ok in the US, where the US government and “Christian” Zionists approve Israeli genocide.
And until such time as US politicians stop genuflecting to Israel, and Western journalists start telling the truth about the Israeli crimes, there is no hope for the West to ever abandon is support of crimes against humanity.
But fortunately, we don’t need the derelict West to police itself – an impossibility – because there is the entire multipolar world, including Russia, China, Iran and many other members of the Global South to take over this role of police and do the job Western actors refuse to do. All of these countries already have a significant presence and security role in the Middle East.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lebanon-strike-journalist-preliminary-analysis-1.7012866
Reuters journalist was killed during 'targeted' strike in Lebanon, Reporters Without Borders says
Initial findings released after Issam Abdallah died while covering exchange of fire close to Israel's border
Thomson Reuters · Posted: Oct 30, 2023 4:07 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 30
Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah takes a photo of himself while working in Maras, Turkey, on Feb. 11, 2023. Abdallah was killed on Oct. 13 near the village of Alma al-Shaab in southern Lebanon while covering an exchange of fire along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group. (Issam Abdallah/Reuters)
Reuters visuals journalist Issam Abdallah was killed on Oct. 13 in southern Lebanon by a "targeted" strike from the direction of the Israeli border, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Sunday, based on preliminary findings of its investigation.
"According to the ballistic analysis carried out by RSF, the shots came from the east of where the journalists were standing, from the direction of the Israeli border," the group said.
"Two strikes in the same place in such a short space of time (just over 30 seconds), from the same direction, clearly indicate precise targeting."
The RSF report did not conclude who had launched the strike against the journalists or provide its underlying analysis.
Al Jazeera journalist grieves loss of 3 generations of his family in Gaza
The Israel Defence Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the RSF's findings. It has said it does not deliberately target journalists and that it is investigating the incident.
More here
**
Bolivia, Colombia and Chile recall ambassadors over Israeli genocide
Is this just the start?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/31/bolivia-israel-hamas-gaza-war-crime
South American countries recall ambassadors and cut ties with Israel over war with Hamas
Bolivia’s leftwing government cuts diplomatic ties with Israel, alleging crimes and human rights abuses in Gaza, as Chile and Colombia recall ambassadors
Me:
The US-Israel crime family has tried to ban any activities – including speech (isn’t this unconstitutional?) that detracts from Israel’s image as the Holy Land. State laws in the “Christian” Zionist country have banned the BDS campaign that urges to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel.
It is also an unwritten no-no to oppose anything that Israel does because, according to the US speech police in media and government, anti-Zionism is synonymous with anti-Semitism.
Does that mean the growing number of Jews who oppose Israel are no longer Jews?
This all leads me to suspect that at some point, using the word “genocide” to describe the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians will be considered hate speech and Western journalists will be prohibited from doing this.
**
https://twitter.com/LindseyGrahamSC/status/1719168438805938317
Lindsay Graham approves genocide (but your knew that anyway)
**
Our thanks to AN for this:
German-owned Politico tries whitewashing Nazism
https://www.europereloaded.com/german-owned-politico-tries-whitewashing-nazism/
Please read this timely article.
I have always seen Russophopbia as the main pillar of the Nazi ideology. The current US regime has adopted this salient feature of Nazism in its platform,
And since the Russophobic official US foreign policy and military doctrine has brought us to the brink of a nuclear WW III, I believe Russophobic expressions in public should be discouraged or even banned for the security of our country and our world.
Russophobes like Lindsay Graham and Nikki Haley need to be banned from public office for this reason. They are a threat to our security.
**
Click here to see a HUGE atrocity supported by the US government and your tax money:
https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/10-31-g.jpeg
Now. Think about it, Americans:
Did any elected representative of YOUR government ask you if you approve of massively bombing residential areas in Palestine after Israel had already killed at least 8000 civilians, including 3000 kids?
You know the answer.
And with that in mind, do you REALLY believe that a government that makes a decision to support a crime against humanity committed by a genocidal nation with weapons of mass destruction enabling it to slaughter thousands of children, as well as other civilians, can possible qualify to be called a government of the people, by the people and for the people?
You did NOT consent to this. So it’s not OF the people.
You did not plan or commit this evil crime. So it’s not BY the people.
And lastly, you did not benefit from this crime. So it’s not FOR the people.
It is an act of barbarian TOTALITARIANISM, enabled solely of, by and for a small group of elites who have somehow seized YOUR power, and it is no better than the atrocities committed by the Third Reich.
And would you say Hitler’s government was of the Germans, by the Germans and for the Germans?
You’ve been played by the powerful club of elites in Washington ever since the end of WWII.
No, friends, I do NOT have an answer as to how these elites can be overcome. However, I have made an appeal to the little guy, like myself, particularly in my exposé on "Christian" Zionism.
I chose to target this cultlike belief system because it has millions of followers (most of whom do not use the term “Christian” Zionism or even know that it describes their beliefs), because it is a group I can relate to because I was brought up in a home that taught the tenets of this belief, and because I have had extensive training in its teachings and in the Bible – enough to see how it departs from Biblical doctrine.
Unfortunately, the spiritual leaders who profess this cult are almost impenetrable. They refuse to even believe that “Israel” ever did anything wrong or harmed the Palestinians. They will use any handy excuse to deny the facts.
But the lesser believers – non leaders – who have been somewhat brainwashed are not relying on this cult for their sustenance and can be reached by common sense biblically based arguments showing the fallacies of this set of Satanic beliefs.
Right now is prime time for pointing out these fallacies because the twisted fanatic Netanyahu has just tipped his hand, using a Bible passage from I Samuel as an argument in favor of genocide. He spells it right out, for the first time, and in so doing admits that his aim is indeed genocide, as his critics had concluded long ago. This was a trap of his own making.
Of course, the hide-bound “Christian” Zionists will hardly give up their fanaticism. However, when people’s comfort is at stake, they tend to give in to common sense.
Example:
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 says:
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
So if Netanyahu can use the words in I Samuel admonishing to smite the Amalekites and their whole families to death in order to justify the killing of Palestinian children, why do we not hear pastors or rabbis urging parents to have their recalcitrant children stoned to death? After all, it’s a biblical commandment of God. Shouldn’t we imitate Netanyahu and blindly obey?
The answer is simple. Even though many Christians think of the Bible as God’s immutable word that must be obeyed no matter what, they simply give this verse a pass because to them, murdering their child is unthinkable, no matter how obstreperous he might be.
This is a case of common sense and a sense of self-preservation overcoming an unthinkable biblical command.
Now if we can overcome this unthinkable command with common sense, then we should be able to say no to Netanyahu’s unhinged argument for infanticide/genocide, and I think that even some dyed-in-the-wool fundamentalists, once they have seen videos of the deaths, injuries, grief and carnage inflicted by the IDF on Palestine, will simply say no to this in their hearts.
We also need to pay strict attention to the teachings of Jesus, whose general message was that of common sense and reason – or we could even say wisdom -- over the letter of the law.
Remember his words to the Pharisees regarding the commandment to keep the Sabbath day holy after he and his disciples were caught gleaning and eating grain on a Saturday.
Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?
I am not sure, but I harbor hopes for the Christ-like triumph of reason over fanaticism in the Palestine issue.
A little prayer won’t hurt either.
**
US ditching Zelensky
It is now crystal clear that the US no longer can support Zelensky. He is a liability, not an asset.
One of the first instances of his becoming a liability was when he insisted that a missile that killed 2 Polish farm workers was Russian when in fact, it was a stray Ukrainian missile. Zelensky was steeped in the culture of Russian demonization. He took in this toxic culture with the air he breathed, just like all US-backed agents of the government and military.
And not only did he manufacture this narrative from whole cloth, he insisted that Article 5 should be invoked immediately, bringing the combined West into a Third World War that would inevitably turn nuclear. Of course, NATO and the US were horrified at this thought and they loudly proclaimed that the offending missile was Ukrainian. But Zelensky’s cynical accusation brought the world close to Armageddon and that made Zelensky a major and dangerous liability even for the warmongering West.
Clayton Morris, on Redacted, breaks it down, quoting from Time Magazine, which the CIA has admitted to being linked to (!), showing that the mainstream media are done with Zelensky. Morris flashes photos of past Time front covers praising and lionizing Zelensky, but then shows the latest feature article and cover accusing Zelensky of being unhinged and far removed from reality.
The media have now clearly ditched Zelensky, and they did not do this without the blessings of the CIA and hence the rest of the US regime.
He then interviews ex-CIA agent Larry Johnson, who shares a bombshell opinion, namely, that Zelensky is “not long for this world,” and that either the CIA will off him itself or encourage someone else to do it!
If this happens, we can probably expect Russia to pounce.
Starts here between min 45-6:
I do have an ulterior motive in presenting the above. I had written here and here providing clues from the US and Russian press that Zelensky was on his way out and would no longer be supported personally (though of course, the Ukraine war would) by the US.
One reader emailed me and said this would not happen because the US needed Zelensky. But this was not true. All the US needed was any Russophobic Ukrainian with name recognition to keep sending Ukrainians to the meat grinder. Zelensky had already outlived his usefulness at the July 11-12 NATO summit, where he was politely informed Ukraine was not being considered for NATO membership, and where Ze also was given the cold shoulder by European leaders. It was the beginning of the end for him.
The West should have seen the handwriting on the wall.
I don’t make predictions but let you have the clues needed to know what to expect.
**
Israeli communities near Gaza are on stolen land, former owners consigned to the Gaza ghetto
ALISON WEIR NOVEMBER 1, 2023
Photo link: https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/al-main-village.abusitta-728x410.png
Photo caption to the above: The only surviving picture from al-Ma’in village. Taken in 1944, it shows author Salman Abu Sitta (front row, wearing Tarbouch/fez) with members of his family. In 1948 Israeli forces violently expelled the villagers, destroyed their village, committed atrocities, and stole their land. Today, four Israeli kibbutzim are on the stolen land: Nirim, Nir Oz, Magen, and En HaShlosha. (photo)
The Israeli kibbutz settlements that surround Gaza are built on stolen land. About 80 percent of Gaza’s population are families Israel violently expelled, caged in one small corner of their original lands for over 75 years.
The residents of these Israeli kibbutzes and “farming communities” on the perimeter of Gaza have been able for years to prosper, swim in pools, dance, sing and celebrate “unity and love” in large concerts just a few kilometers away from where over 2.1 million people live on 365 squared kilometers, usurped from their lands, subjugated to daily humiliation, purposely impoverished and caged in, unable to move, live, fish in the sea, and certainly unable to celebrate “unity and love.”
And all of this is largely hidden from the world, especially the ruthless, lethal violence by which Israeli forces wiped out their villages and stole their land – and the accompanying atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers.
For example, Nirim, now in the news about the Gaza prison break, was the site of a gang rape in which 17 Israeli soldiers raped and then killed a Palestinian girl:
“The victim, a 10 to 15-year-old Palestinian girl, was given a bath and a haircut in full view of the platoon’s members before they serially raped her, (which, it must be admitted, was decided democratically by a vote at the mess hall during that Saturday eve gathering in Kibbutz Nirim, newly established on Abu Sitta’s private land). Later, they execute the girl and bury her body in a shallow grave.”
Me:
The above-described atrocity was par for the course for the ethnic cleansing actions (crimes) performed by the three European Jewish terrorist groups (the Irgun, Lehi and haganah) that cleared the Palestinian lands of their original mostly Arab populations in preparation for their settlement by an alien group of criminals, whose descendants we now know as “Israelis.”
**
Our thanks to JS for this:
Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups. Genocide is directed against the national group as an entity, and the actions involved are directed against individuals, not in their individual capacity, but as members of the national group.
-- Raphael Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe: Laws of Occupation - Analysis of Government - Proposals for Redress, p 79.
**
A story from Deir Yassin
This is a translation from a Spanish-language report I found several years ago.
Donald Hank
The delegate of the Red Cross in the area, Jacques de Reynier, was the first person to arrive at the place while the Irgun militias were still present: "Among the troops there were some very young people, almost adolescents, all in military clothing and helmets, men and women armed to the teeth with pistols, machine guns, grenades and also big knives, most of them still bloodied. A very beautiful young woman showed me her blood still dripping like a trophy [from her knife]...
I made my way between them and entered a house. The first room was dark with everything in disarray but nobody could be seen. In the next room I found, under the furniture and the busted mattresses, several corpses aIready cold.
The cleansing operation had been done first with machine guns, then with grenades and finally with the long knives, without any worries that it would be discovered. The same scene we found in the next room but as I was about to leave I heard what I thought was a sigh.
I removed the corpses until I touched a small foot that was still warm. She was a ten-year-old girl, badly injured by a grenade but still alive. I picked her up and one of the officers tried to block me at the door, I pushed him and left with my precious body ...
We checked the other houses and in all of them we find the same spooky scene. We only found two other people alive, two women, one of them an old woman huddled in the kitchen, she had been hiding there for hours ...
The village had four hundred inhabitants, some fifty managed to flee, three had survived, the rest had been thoroughly massacred, following the orders of their chiefs as they are admirably disciplined troops ... "[3]
Jacques de Reynier gives the figure of 347 dead in the killing of Deir Yassin; other sources speak of 250. In any case, it is not about the number of victims – because in those months of 1948 there were similar massacres in many other villages of Palestine – but about the echo that the killing had, the panic movement it provoked, which made Deir Yassin one of the keys to the exodus of the Palestinian peasants.
[In my debates with Israelis and Zionits at Quora, I keep encountering the argument that the Arabs left of their own free will and that the Zionists are not responsible for this. They never mention these massacres, of course.]
In fact it became one of the elements of the military strategy to achieve the "spontaneous" evacuation of the Arab population of rural Palestine. A pattern that was repeated with assiduity was to surround the villages and broadcast through loud speakers a messages to its inhabitants: Leave the village or you will get the Deir Yassin treatment.
In view of the above, it seems that when the Israelis say they have a right to this land, what they really mean is that the Arabs have no rights, not even the right to life, and that the Israelis have the right to kill them with impunity. [Ironically, one of the features of US Evangelicals is their campaign for life. Yet to them, this does not apply to Palestinians]
If I had a magic wand I would give Gaza and Sinai to the Palestinians, help them develop the port in Gaza, help them develop their oil and gas supplies, and use a lot of the Israeli technology to help green the desert. And give Israel clear borders...and the right to exist. Seems like the logical solution at this point.