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Star of David

Best of the Web: As the fighting in Gaza continues, civilians are starting to lose hope: 'Israel is killing us without mercy'

Elizabeth Blade
RT
Thu, 04 Jan 2024 20:07 UTC
rafah gaza bombed
© AP Photo/Fatima ShbairPalestinians evacuate from a site hit by an Israeli bombardment on the supposed 'safe city' of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2023
Amid a humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Palestine that no international organization can cope with, locals tell their stories of survival

Since October 7, 2023, an estimated 22,000 Palestinians have lost their lives amid Israel's shelling of Gaza. Most were civilians. As the conflict nears the end of its third month, the humanitarian situation in the enclave is deteriorating. The vast majority of residents lack food, water and basic medications.

Last October 7, mobs of Palestinian militants stormed Israel's southern communities, massacring an estimated 1,200 and leaving over 5,000 wounded. In response, Israel opened a war on Gaza aimed at crushing Hamas, the Islamic group responsible for the deadly attack. But in the process of doing so, more than 21,000 lives have been taken. According to estimates, only 8,000 of these were militants.

Comment: The psychopaths in the Israeli government are hoping to create such a humanitarian disaster, that the world will capitulate to their demands and set up camps in the Sinai for the refugees, so the Palestinians can be pushed out of Gaza once and for all.



Egypt is not on board with this lunatic idea


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Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: 'Global boiling': Finland and Sweden report coldest temperatures in 25 years


Euronews
Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:42 UTC
helsinki finland
© Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via APA man walks on the frozen sea in southern Helsinki, Finland, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024.
The extremely cold weather caused disruptions in transportation in Finland, Sweden and Norway, where snow made rail traffic difficult and ferry lines were suspended.

Thermometres in Finland and Sweden plunged to lower than -40 degrees Celsius in some places on Tuesday and Wednesday, as the two Scandinavian countries reported the coldest temperatures of this winter so far.

In the village of Nikkaluokta in northern Sweden, which is inhabited by indigenous Sami people, temperatures reached -41.6 degrees Celsius early on Tuesday, according to Swedish broadcaster SVT.

Comment: This passed without so much as a 'meh' from globalist media. Of course! It doesn't fit their climate change narrative.

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Bomb

Best of the Web: Over 100 killed by blasts at memorial for Iranian general


RT
Wed, 03 Jan 2024 14:06 UTC
bus wounded
© Stringer/Anadolu/Getty ImagesTreating the wounded • Kerman City, Iran • January 03, 2024
Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike on this day in 2020...

At least 103 people have reportedly been killed as two explosions ripped through a memorial to mark the fourth anniversary of the death of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani in Iran's south-central city of Kerman on Wednesday, according to media reports.

The blasts occurred close to the grave site of the former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, Iranian media reports said. Mohammad Saberi, who leads Kerman's emergency rescue services, initially told state media that 20 people had been killed in the explosions and a further 20 had been injured, Al Jazeera reported.

Iranian media has since reported that 103 people have died, while 141 were injured. These figures are likely to rise in the coming hours. The agency also noted that officials at the scene have described the incident as a terrorist attack, and that two bags containing bombs are thought to have exploded in the crowded area after being detonated remotely.

Comment: According to the Guardian:
Iran's new minister of interior, the hardliner Ahmad Vahidi, did not immediately attribute blame for the attack and no side claimed responsibility for the deadliest single terrorist incident since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. The US state department said it had no reason to believe that Israel was involved.

An early death toll of 103 was revised down [to 95], but Iran's health minister, Bahram Einollahi, said many of the wounded were in critical condition, and the death toll could rise.

The attack could not have come at a more febrile moment in the Middle East. Fighting between Hamas and Israel continues to rage in Gaza, and Hamas accused Israel of launching a drone attack on Tuesday that killed its deputy head in Beirut. That attack saw limited casualties in a densely populated neighbourhood of the Lebanese capital.

Israel's hallmark is the targeted assassination of key military and scientific figures inside Iran, as opposed to mass terrorist attacks on civilians, but it has also said its rules of engagement have changed in response to the Hamas killings on 7 October, for which Israel holds Iran ultimately responsible.

Iran's president, Ebrahim Raisi, responded by saying: "The enemies of the nation should know that such actions can never cause a disturbance in the iron determination of the Iranian nation to defend Islamic ideals."

He added that the attacks only made Iran more determined "to dry up the roots of terror and violence". Iran has shown no desire to become directly embroiled in fighting Israel, preferring instead to provide support to proxy groups.


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Colosseum

Best of the Web: The ruined landscape of Gaza after nearly three months of non-stop Israeli bombardment

Jared Malsin and Saeed Shah
The Wall Street Journal
Sat, 30 Dec 2023 19:58 UTC
gaza city ruins bombing
© Loay Ayyoub for The Washington PostGaza City, 2023
The war in the Gaza Strip is generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.

By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza's 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed. The bombing has damaged Byzantine churches and ancient mosques, factories and apartment buildings, shopping malls and luxury hotels, theaters and schools. Much of the water, electrical, communications and healthcare infrastructure that made Gaza function is beyond repair.

Most of the strip's 36 hospitals are shut down, and only eight are accepting patients. Citrus trees, olive groves and greenhouses have been obliterated. More than two-thirds of its schools are damaged.

Comment: The Zionist barbarians even bombed Gaza's main library:



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Info

Best of the Web: Kim Jong-un says North Korea no longer eyeing reunification with South, warns of war 'at any time'


South China Morning Post
Sun, 31 Dec 2023 19:00 UTC
Kim Jong-un
© dpaNorth Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un attends the ninth plenary session of the eighth Central Committee of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea at the headquarters of the party’s Central Committee. Pyongyang has repeatedly blamed the Seoul government for the deterioration in relations in the past.
North Korea's largely isolated leadership dampened hopes of a rapprochement with the South in 2024, with ruler Kim Jong-un saying he is no longer striving for reunification, in comments at the close of a party meeting on Sunday.

Kim said Pyongyang is no longer aiming for reunification, long a goal shared by both Koreas, which have been in a state of war under international law since the end of the conflict between 1950 and 1953.

"We should not make the mistake again of seeing them as a counterpart for reconciliation and unification, as South Korea has declared us its main enemy," Kim was quoted as saying by state media.

Comment: See also:

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2 + 2 = 4

Best of the Web: Corruption, chaos, conflict - Fourth Turning erupts in 2024


The Burning Platform
Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00 UTC
broken american flag
"Americans today are increasingly polarized, as if they constitute two separate nations." - Strauss & Howe - The Fourth Turning
"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph." - Thomas Paine - The American Crisis
Thomas Paine wrote these words 247 years ago, in the most historic year in our history - 1776. That was during the first American Fourth Turning. It's not a coincidence we are now in the midst of our fourth Crisis period in U.S. history, as they arrive like clockwork every 80 years or so, the length of a long human life. Paine's American Crisis began in 1773, ignited by the Boston Tea Party and the British reaction to this revolutionary act of defiance. Our current Millennial Crisis was triggered by the Federal Reserve/Wall Street/Government created financial disaster in 2008 and subsequent outrageously desperate, totalitarian, un-Constitutional, extreme acts designed to keep the ruling class in power, while impoverishing and enslaving the masses in a surveillance state techno-gulag.
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Jet4

Best of the Web: Pushing Ukraine past breaking point: How the largest missile strike in Russian history just unfolded over 18 hours


Military Watch
Fri, 29 Dec 2023 00:01 UTC
Burning Military Warehouse in Kiev
Image allegedly showing burning military warehouse in Kiev.
Following major advances on the frontlines in Eastern Ukraine by Russian Army units, including the capture of the strategically located town of Maryinka which was at the centre of Ukrainian forces' presence in the Donetsk region, the Russian Armed Forces on December 29 launched their largest ever series of missile strikes on Ukrainian positions. Before 7am local time Ukrainian monitoring resources had reported that 18 Russian strategic bombers had taken off, with nine Tu-95MS and nine Tu-22M3 bombers prepared to launch cruise missiles against targets in Ukraine.

The close monitoring of Russian airbases hosting such assets had long been used to provide some warning of impending strikes, although the ability of bombers to loiter in the air for hours, and from October the constant patrols by ballistic missile armed MiG-31K strike fighters, had made this significantly more difficult.

Eighteen of Russia's intercontinental range Tu-95MS bombers would reportedly participate in strikes over the course of the day according to Ukrainian sources, with Ukrainian officers highlighting that the Kh-22 missiles launched by Tu-22M3 bombers in particular had proven effectively impossible to shoot down with not a single one intercepted since the war began.

Comment: See also:

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Biohazard

Best of the Web: It's not just bullets and bombs. I have never seen health organisations as worried as they are about disease in Gaza

Devi Sridhar
The Guardian
Fri, 29 Dec 2023 13:00 UTC
Rafah, Gaza
© Xinhua/Shutterstock‘These aren’t anywhere near what we would consider safe public health zones.’ Temporary shelters for displaced people in Rafah, Gaza, on 8 December 2023.
The Israel-Gaza war has set several world records. It's the deadliest conflict for journalists in 30 years. It has caused the largest single loss of life for United Nations staff in the history of the organisation. It is set to have the worst ever total number of attacks on healthcare facilities and their personnel, and has devastated schools, with 51% of education facilities damaged. International rules such as the Geneva conventions have not been respected: hospitals and ambulances have been targeted, medical relief organisations such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Save the Children are under attack, and have lost staff members.

The Israel-Gaza war is also deadly for children, reportedly the deadliest conflict for children in recent times: roughly 160 children were being killed a day last month according to the World Health Organization. Compare this with three a day in the recent conflict in Syria, two a day in Afghanistan, and 0.7 a day in Ukraine. The total number of children killed is already more than 5,300 says Unicef, the United Nations Children's Fund. They didn't choose to be born there, and are innocent, but are bearing the brunt of these attacks.

Tragically, the nearly unprecedented death and injury we have seen so far is likely to only be the beginning. From looking at similar conflicts across the world, public health experts know that we are likely to see more children dying from preventable disease than from bullets and bombs. While the Israeli government has spoken about safe zones for families to flee to, these aren't anywhere near what we would consider safe public health zones. They don't have clean water, functional sanitation and toilets, enough food, or trained medical staff with medicine and equipment. These are the basic needs that any human, especially babies and children, need to stay healthy and alive.

Comment: See also:

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Better Earth

Best of the Web: Building a just world order: How Russia and the Arab world defied Western pressure in 2023

Murad Sadygzade
RT
Mon, 01 Jan 2024 08:11 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on December 6, 2023
© Sergey Savostyanov / Sputnik / PoolRussian President Vladimir Putin and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi on December 6, 2023
By putting their own national interests first, Moscow and its partners work towards a more balanced multipolar reality

The year 2023 did not bring any radical changes to Russia's relations with the Middle East, but the trend towards strengthening relations continued, despite unprecedented pressure from Western countries led by Washington. The countries of the region increasingly demonstrated their commitment to neutrality, and in some cases even took steps towards integration into non-Western associations, declaring their special path of sovereign development in the context of geopolitical turbulence. Thus, in August 2023, Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates were granted membership in BRICS.

Overall, the year 2023 was a positive one for Russia's relations with the Middle East. Russia's economic, political, military, and cultural influence in the region continued to grow. This trend is likely to continue in the years to come, as Russia seeks to expand its presence in the Middle East. The following are the main points that characterized Moscow's relations with Middle Eastern countries in 2023.

Comment: See also:

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Russian Flag

Best of the Web: Ivan Timofeev: Here's why Russia enters 2024 in a better position than it was in 12 months ago

Ivan Timofeev,
RT
Sat, 30 Dec 2023 07:49 UTC
Russian President Vladimir Putin
© Sputnik / Evgeny BiyatovRussian President-elect Vladimir Putin during the inauguration ceremony in the Kremlin on May 7, 2018.
Russian politics has moved from crisis mode to a new normality. And the divorce from the West is permanent.

Back in 2022 high stakes were at play. Everyone wanted to know whether Russia would be able to withstand the tipping point. Could Moscow keep its economy from collapsing under sanctions and would it be able to consolidate both the elites and broader society?

Last year ended with a lack of clear answers to these questions. However, 2023 has brought more certainty. The rupture is over: Russia is living in new conditions of confrontation and is coping with them.

The main outcome of the past twelve months is the transition to a new normal in foreign and domestic policy. By comparison, 2021 was a time of gathering stormclouds. Back then, an imminent turning point was in the air but many wanted to believe it wouldn't happen. The mood of the thirty years since the end of the Cold War - peace, openness and cooperation - had become too familiar.

In relations with the West, the tide began to turn long before 2021. Cracks started to appear as early as the late 1990s and, since 2014, have become increasingly irreversible. But, as is often the case, the possibility of major change was hard to believe precisely because the inertia of everyday life distracts from signs of tectonic shifts. Of course, in hindsight they are always clearly visible and make sense. But, in the past itself (ie, what was then the present), few people want to believe in what's coming.

Comment: See also:

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