Puppet MastersS


Target

Leaked docs reveal plan to brand anyone 'undermining' UK gov't as extremist

John Ungoed-Thomas, Mark Townsend
The Guardian
Sat, 04 Nov 2023 14:10 UTC
London Protest
© afplivefiveLondon's Gaza Protest
Leaked documents spark furious backlash from groups who fear freedom of expression could be suppressed...

Government officials have drawn up deeply controversial proposals to broaden the definition of extremism to include anyone who "undermines" the country's institutions and its values, according to documents seen by the Observer.

The new definition, prepared by civil servants working for cabinet minister Michael Gove, is fiercely opposed by a cohort of officials who fear legitimate groups and individuals will be branded extremists. The proposals have provoked a furious response from civil rights groups with some warning it risks "criminalising dissent", and would significantly suppress freedom of expression.

One Whitehall official said:
"The concern is that this is a crackdown on freedom of speech. The definition is too broad and will capture legitimate organisations and individuals."
Gove's Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities started a review of non-violent extremism in spring this year. A national cohesion and counter-extremism plan with the new definition is expected to be launched shortly. Internal departmental documents marked "official - sensitive" say the proposed definition could "frame a new, unified response to extremism". It lists a number of organisations which it considers would be "captured" by the new definition.

Among them are the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), Palestine Action and Mend (Muslim Engagement and Development), which has featured at some Conservative party conference fringe events and in 2021 provided evidence to parliamentary committees.
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Star of David

Kremlin raises questions on alleged nuclear arms in Israel after Minister's comments


Middle East Monitor
Tue, 07 Nov 2023 19:55 UTC
Maria Zakharova
© RUS Foreign Affairs Ministry/Anadolu AgencySpokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, in Moscow, Russia on November 27, 2020
Russia said, Tuesday, that statements by a far-right Israeli Minister that the country could launch a nuclear strike on the Gaza Strip raises "a huge number of questions" about Tel Aviv's long-cryptic stance on its alleged possession of such arms, Anadolu Agency reports.
Question number one is, are we hearing an official statement that Israel has nuclear weapons?
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, asked in a live TV interview after the comments by Israeli Heritage Minister, Amichai Eliyahu, to local media on Sunday.
Where are the international organisations? Where is the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)? Where are the inspectors?
Zakharova added.

Comment: Well, there's Israel's nuclear "strategic ambiguity" shot to hell.

Netanyahu admin suspends minister who suggested dropping nuclear bomb on Gaza

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Eye 2

Israel-Palestine war: Israel's endgame is much more sinister than restoring 'security'

Richard Falk
Middle East Eye
Fri, 03 Nov 2023 08:34 UTC
Young girls mourn the Palestinians killed
© ReutersYoung girls mourn the Palestinians killed during Israeli strike at a hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, on 3 November, 2023
Israel has seized this opportunity to fulfill Zionist territorial ambitions amid 'the fog of war' by inducing one last surge of Palestinian catastrophic dispossession

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres was recently pilloried by Israel because he stated a truism, observing that the 7 October Hamas attack "did not happen in a vacuum".

Guterres was calling the world's attention to Israel's long record of severe criminal provocations in occupied Palestine, which have been occurring ever since it became the occupying power after the 1967 war.

The occupier, a role expected to be temporary, is entrusted in such circumstances with upholding international humanitarian law by ensuring the security and safety of the occupied civilian population, as spelled out in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Israel reacted so angrily to Guterres's entirely appropriate and accurate remarks because they could be interpreted as implying that Israel "had it coming" in view of its severe and varied abuses against people in the occupied Palestinian territories, most flagrantly in Gaza, but also in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
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Attention

Russia's public pivot to Palestine

Pepe Escobar
The Cradle
Tue, 07 Nov 2023 17:43 UTC
As the west's support for Israel's Gaza war becomes indefensible, Moscow aligns itself with the global majority in defense of Palestine.
Gaza and RUssia
© The Cradle
The complex, nuanced issue of Russia's geopolitical neutrality in the Israel-Palestine tragedy was finally clarified last week, in no uncertain terms.

Exhibit A is Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing - in person, on 30 October - his country's Security Council, top government officials, and heads of security agencies.

Among other notables, his audience included Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Speaker of the Duma Vyacheslav Volodin; Secretary of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov; and Director of SVR (foreign intel) Sergei Narishkin.

Putin took no time to cut to the chase detailing the official stand of the Russian Federation in the current geopolitical incandescence of two intertwined wars, Ukraine and Israel-Palestine. This was addressed as much to his high-profile audience as to the political leadership of the western Hegemon."
There is no justification for the terrible events taking place in Gaza now, where hundreds of thousands of innocent people are being killed indiscriminately, without having anywhere to flee or hide from the bombing. When you see blood-stained children, dead children, the suffering of women and old people, when you see medics killed, of course, it makes you clench your fists as tears well in your eyes.
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Star of David

'Weeks' left to destroy Hamas - former Israeli PM


RT
Tue, 07 Nov 2023 14:19 UTC
Ehud Barak
© Amir Levy / Getty ImagesFILE PHOTO: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak
The Israeli military only has weeks to destroy Hamas before Western governments withdraw their support for the operation in Gaza, former prime minister Ehud Barak has said.

The Israeli military has but weeks to inflict damage on Hamas, before Western governments reduce support for the operation in Gaza, former Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Barak believes.

"Listen to the public tone - and behind doors it is a little bit more explicit," said the 81-year-old, who also served as defense minister and a general with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

"We are losing public opinion in Europe and in a week or two we'll start to lose governments in Europe," Barak told Politico, as reported on Tuesday. "And after another week the friction with the Americans will emerge to the surface."

US officials have been advocating for "humanitarian pauses" in Gaza, but have not publicly threatened to withdraw Washington's backing. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to stop hostilities. Barak believes Israel will have to "come to terms with the American demands within the next two or three weeks, probably less."

Comment: Indeed, Israel's actions are too egregious to be able continue indefinitely. Support will eventually dry up if it keeps on as it has intentionally bombing designated refugee centers, evacuation zones, hospitals, and so on. Will Israel stop or will they be made to stop is the question.

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Vader

Zelensky rebuke of top general signals rift in Ukrainian leadership

Andrew E. Kramer, Maria Varenikova and Constant Méheut
The New York TImes
Sat, 04 Nov 2023 07:43 UTC
A soldier of the 63rd Mechanized Brigade in a contested frontline area near Kreminna, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
© Tyler Hicks/The New York TimesA soldier of the 63rd Mechanized Brigade in a contested frontline area near Kreminna, in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
The presidential office said Gen. Valery Zaluzhny's declaration that the war is at a stalemate was helpful to the Russians.

The office of President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday chastised Ukraine's top military commander for publicly declaring the war at a stalemate, suggesting the comments would help the Russian invasion. It was a striking public rebuke that signaled an emerging rift between the military and civilian leadership at an already challenging time for Ukraine.

Speaking on national television, a deputy head of the office of the president, Ihor Zhovkva, said Gen. Valery Zaluzhny's assertion that the fight against Russia was deadlocked "eases the work of the aggressor," adding that the comments stirred "panic" among Ukraine's Western allies.

At the same time, Mr. Zelensky disputed the general's characterization of the fighting.
"Time has passed, people are tired, regardless of their status, and this is understandable," he said at a news conference on Saturday, adding: "But this is not a stalemate, I emphasize this once again."
The public censure of General Zaluzhny came a day after the president's office replaced one of his deputies, the head of special operations forces, who after his firing said he had been blindsided by the dismissal. It was unclear whether General Zaluzhny, the overall commander of Ukraine's forces, knew in advance of the planned dismissal.

Comment: See also:

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Star of David

Netanyahu admin suspends minister who suggested dropping nuclear bomb on Gaza

Sarah Fortinsky
The Hill
Sun, 05 Nov 2023 19:06 UTC
Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu israel nuke gaza
© Yonatan Sindel/Flash90Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu arrives to a government conference at the Prime Minister's office in Jerusalem on January 29, 2023.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu on Sunday after he suggested dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza was a possible way to deal with the threat from Hamas.

Asked in a radio interview Sunday whether Israel should drop an atomic bomb on Gaza, Eliyahu replied that that was an option, The Jerusalem Post reported, noting that the comment came in a larger discussion about humanitarian aid.

"We wouldn't have given the Nazis humanitarian aid," he said, according to the reporting. "There's no such thing as innocents in Gaza."

Netanyahu sharply rebuked the comment, saying they were "not based in reality" and stressing Israel's commitment to abide by international law and avoid unnecessary deaths.

Comment: Eliyahu wasn't suspended for the suggestion, he was suspended for openly admitting Israel had the means to do it.
tweet Israel nukes Amichai Eliyahu
© Middle East Observer/X
More gems from the "Jewish Heritage" Minister:





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Георгиевская ленточка

Zaporozhye Region governor: Ukraine's counteroffensive has been halted


RT
Mon, 06 Nov 2023 18:29 UTC
russia soldiers howitzer training
© Sputnik/Stanislav KrasilnikovRussian soldiers fire a 2A18 D-30 howitzers at a training ground during Russia's military operation in Ukraine, at the unknown location.
The attempt to cut Russia's land corridor to Crimea in Zaporozhye Region has failed, Evgeny Balitsky has said

Moscow's forces have stopped the Ukrainian counteroffensive dead in its tracks, Evgeny Balitsky, the governor of Zaporozhye Region, has said.

He further described what he called Kiev's last-ditch attempts to breach Russian defenses as not particularly impressive. In recent months, Zaporozhye has emerged as a scene of some of the fiercest fighting.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Balitsky stated that "the enemy has been halted, as has been its much-hyped counteroffensive." He said that the ongoing fighting near the settlements of Rabotino and Shcherbaki and on the Vremievsky Ridge was "almost an agony for the Ukrainian regime."

The official declared that Ukrainian forces, which have been trying to storm Russian positions for months, have "completely run out of steam."

Comment: Slowly and methodically, Russia is turning the tide. Its industrial might, the only thing that matters in an attrition war, simply cannot be matched by the West.

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Attention

The Four Wars

James Kunstler
kunstler.com
Mon, 06 Nov 2023 17:20 UTC
"There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited." — Sun Tzu
Joe Tzu!
© patriots.win
China's grand strategy to take its turn at dominance over the global scene depends on bogging down the USA in four wars at once. How's it working so far? Pretty darn well. Amazingly, China hardly had to lift a finger to make it happen — though it did write some bank checks to the soulless old grifter sitting in the White House. Our country has arranged its collapse and downfall masterfully on its own.

War No. 1: There was absolutely no need to start the war in Ukraine, you understand, which has by now not only bled Ukraine's young male population to the bone, but drained our own military of field weapons and ammunition. After the Soviet collapse, Ukraine existed as a poor backwater in Russia's orbit, causing no trouble for anyone — except itself, due to world-beating corruption — until the USA started a push to include it in NATO. Our neocons made it clear that the purpose of this was to hem-in and weaken Russia. (Why? "Reasons," they said.) This policy alarmed and infuriated the Russians who made it clear that NATO membership wasn't going to happen.

The US persisted, engineered a coup in 2014 against the Russian-leaning president Yanukovych, and spurred his replacements, first Poroshenko and then Zelensky, to pound the ethnic Russian provinces of the Donbas with rockets and artillery for years on end. Meanwhile, we trained, armed, and supplied a large Ukrainian army and refused to negotiate the NATO expansion in good faith until Mr. Putin had enough in 2022 and moved to put a stop to all this monkey business.

After some initial mis-steps, the Russians began to prevail in early 2023. Now, there is a general consensus that Russia controls the battle space with its superior ordnance and troop strength, and the conflict is close to being over. Our NATO allies are not hiding their disgust over the fiasco. Ukraine is wrecked. What remains is how the "Joe Biden" regime reacts to yet another major overseas humiliation. As I see it, Mr. Putin must do his level best to not rub it in, since our country is in the throes of a psychotic fugue and might be capable of world-ending craziness.
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Attention

The Great Schism - Will it be quietly ignored?

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 06 Nov 2023 17:00 UTC
Fires in Gaza
© TRT HAber
Dominique De Villepin, former Prime Minister of France, who famously led France's opposition to the Iraq war, recently described the term 'Occidentalism' (currently the prevalent sentiment in much of Europe) as being the notion that "the West, which for five centuries managed the world's affairs, will be able to quietly continue to do so". He continues:
"There is this idea that, faced with what is currently happening in the Middle East, we must continue the fight even more, towards what might resemble a religious or a civilizational war".

"That is to say, to isolate ourselves even more on the international stage".

"They've gone "all in" on a certain moral and ethical framework of the world, and faced with a situation where the West's moral fabric has been openly exposed and refuted, they find it extremely difficult — and perhaps fatally impossible — to withdraw".
It is ditto for an Israel (which is umbilically linked to the West): Were Israel to imagine that its former Arab allies might look the other way, whilst the Jewish state attempts to annihilate resistance in Gaza,- and then expect these allies to help police and pay for a Gaza security apparatus to rule there, they would be guilty of wishfull thinking.

And, if either Washington or Israel assume this 'after-Gaza' plan can unfold in the same moment that militant settlers on the other side of the terrain build their settlement kingdom with the express goal of founding Israel on the Land of Israel (thus expunging Palestine altogether), that notion too would constitute a fantasy, both strategically and morally incoherent.

It won't work. Israel will not be able to generate either the Palestinian partners, nor the global allies, it needs to co-operate in such a scheme.

The situation in the Middle East has radically transformed. Whereas Palestine was about national liberation, today Palestine is the of the symbol of a wider civilisational re-awakening - the 'end to centuries of Regional humiliation'.
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