Israel Declares War For The First Time Since 1973.

This time is not like the last. The first time it was Trump surrounded, with a few exceptions (eg, Steven "Nosferatu" Miller), by staff who were still loyal to Country and Constitution and Rule of Law and many of whom worked to protect the country from Trump's worst impulses. For example, on 01 June 2020 Trump twice called for mobilizing active duty troops against the demonstrators in Lafayette Square so that he could stage his Satanic display (displaying a Christian symbol, the Bible, upside down) in front of St. John's Episcopal Church and both times that was nixed by Defense Secretary Mark Esper.This time Trump will be surrounded both by sycophants who will only agree with him and will do nothing to hold him back and also by extremists intent on using their positions of power in the new Trump Administration to pursue and prosecute their own agendas. It was the latter who composed Project 2025 which outlines their plans and goals. Trump is far too lazy, illiterate, and just plain stupid to have formulated that 920-page plan, but rather it was created by extreme right-wing ideologues eager to exploit Trump's power.It's like what I seem to recall Bill Maher having said in the 2016 Republican primaries when that race was mainly between Trump and Ted Cruz -- I seem to recall him recommending Trump over Cruz (interspersed with gargling bleach):

from memory:

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Trump in the White House would break everything around him like a bull in a china shop, but he's too stupid to do too much damage. Cruz, on the other hand, knows exactly where to place the explosives to destroy the entire building.

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Several years ago I heard a historian's opinion that Hitler was not the architect of the atrocities of the Hitlerzeit ("Hitler Time", the Nazi Regime), but rather a catalyst. Hitler was too lazy and unimaginative to have accomplished all that, but rather he was surrounded by ambitious men who wanted to build their own bases of power and realms within Hitler's Reich. It was those power-hungry ambitious followers who, seeking to draw some of Hitler's power for their own, would try to curry favor by formulating and implementing operations that would appeal to dem Führer. Just like it will be in Trump's incoming administration.BTW, Mike Godwin (Godwin's Law, 1990) has approved of comparing Trump to Hitler:

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In 2023, Godwin published an opinion on The Washington Post stating "Yes, it's okay to compare Trump to Hitler. Don't let me stop you." In the article, Godwin says "But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump’s 2024 candidacy and Hitler’s progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren’t joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy."

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Last I checked, that article was still behind a pay wall.Also from that same Wikipedia article:

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In August 2017, while commenting on the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Godwin himself endorsed and encouraged social-media users to compare its "alt-right" participants to Nazis.

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Godwin has denied the need to update or amend the rule. In June 2018, he wrote, in an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times: "It still serves us as a tool to recognize specious comparisons to Nazism – but also, by contrast, to recognize comparisons that aren't." Additionally, when a potential subject of Godwin's law seems "intent on making the Hitler comparison", the comparison with fascism may be appropriate rather than devaluing the argument; a "MAGA" corollary to the Law recognizes the pernicious embrace of Nazi-inspired tropes and phrases by the "alt-right".

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A quote from memory:  

Steven Miller reminds more of Mr. Burns from The Simpsons, but Nosferatu is pretty good too.For the military, I don't think you have to go down the chain of command too far before you hit a general who's just going to say no. They swear an oath to the Constitution, not the President.Elsewhere in government there are going to be plenty of lifers who are more than willing to slow walk anything they don't like. Trump has a 4 year expiration date, so you just have to outlast him. Hitler dissolved the German parliament and became dictator. I don't see that happening here. Other Republicans still want to get re-elected, so I'm hoping there is a red line they won't cross. Their rejection of Gaetz is one sign they might actually have a rudimentary spine remaining. Democrats will also be fully aware of all that is going on within government, so they will at least hold Republicans accountable for what they do and inform the American people of what is going on.Or, it could be I am at the bargaining stage in the 5 stages of grief.

Virtually no aid has reached besieged north Gaza in 40 days, UN says
From the article:

BBC:

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Palestinians are "facing diminishing conditions for survival" in parts of northern Gaza under siege by Israeli forces because virtually no aid has been delivered in 40 days, the United Nations has warned.(...)Meanwhile, the US vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution that demanded an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.

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The 14 other Security Council members voted in favour, but the US said the text did not explicitly call for the immediate release of the hostages being held by Hamas as part of a ceasefire.

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The resolution "demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages".

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Israel said the text was a "resolution for appeasement" of Hamas, but France said the resolution "very firmly" required the hostages' release.

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In my opinion, the hostages are likely casualties of war by now. Israel insists on fully eliminating Hamas in its current form.

BBC:

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The Israeli military has said its six-week-long offensive targets regrouping Hamas fighters, and that it is facilitating civilian evacuations and supply deliveries to hospitals.

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It appears that the IDF military strategy is to coerce the Palestinians to reject the Hamas fighters and crawl to Israel for survival. The IDF wants...indeed insists that Hamas and Hezbollah formally surrender (or else they will be killed.) In my mind, Israel would never accept surrender without bringing Hamas and Hezbollah to justice. Will they allow the global community to be as tough on them? (No)At any rate, it is the same old story. As long as the US supports Israel, we place ourselves at odds with the global community.

No 10 indicates Netanyahu faces arrest if he enters UK

BBC:

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces arrest if he travels to the UK after an international arrest warrant was issued for him, Downing Street has indicated.

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A No 10 spokesman refused to comment on the specific case but said the government would fulfill its "legal obligations".

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On Thursday the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, along with Israel's former defense minister Yoav Gallant, over alleged war crimes in Gaza.

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. Biden calls it "outrageous". The rift between Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant indicates that the wartime "Unity Party" may be breaking up.

What we know about Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire deal
This sounds like good news, at least better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.
From the article:

BBC:

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US President Joe Biden has announced a ceasefire deal to end 13 months of fighting between Israel and with Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia supported by Iran.

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In a joint statement, the US and France said the agreement would cease fighting in Lebanon and "secure Israel from the threat of Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations". (...) Biden told reporters that the agreement was "designed to be a permanent ceasefire".

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Under the terms of the ceasefire, over 60 days Hezbollah will remove its fighters and weapons from the area between the Blue Line - the unofficial border between Lebanon and Israel - and the Litani river, about 30km (20 miles) to the north.

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Hezbollah fighters will be replaced by Lebanese army forces in that area, who will ensure that infrastructure or weaponry is removed and that it cannot be rebuilt, according to a senior US official.

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Over the same 60 days, Israel will gradually withdraw its remaining forces and civilians, Biden said, adding that it would enable civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes.

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All I can say is it's about time! A lasting peace in the Middle East is often elusive and fleeting. It is a 60-day ceasefire and will take us into the Trump administration.

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Biden told reporters that the agreement was "designed to be a permanent ceasefire".

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It's also worth observing which side violates the terms first and, more importantly, NEXT! One main difference between GAZA and Lebanon is that the Palestinians have no army.

reuters.comWell that didnt take long. And (surprise!) Israel shot first, and "justifies" firing based on unsupported accusations.

I'm surprised how long this topic has been inactive.History, Trauma & the Lack of Empathy — Alternative Radio
Explains a lot about the relationships between the Israeli and Palestinian people.Search for Gabor Maté History, Trauma and the Lack of Empathy - You might be able to find a free podcast version.Or you can PM me and I can connect you up with the audio via a Google Drive or DropBox link.Moose

Watched Colbert last night. Two candidates for NY mayor, Zohran Mamdani and Brad Lander guested. I like both, particularly Lander. (please god, do not let ANOTHER horrific sexual abuser, Andrew Coumo, win the election again).Like Bernie Sanders, Lander has credibility (see photos below). We would never ever ever see the current president risk his life for others.Colbert asked both candidates whether Israel has the right to exist.I know New York has a high percentage of Jews that Colbert HAS to fluff. But I wish an equally important question was asked, “Do the people in Palestine have the right to exist?”With the genocide happening in Palestine (55,000+ dead, half are woman and children), that question just cannot be asked.

In a move reminiscent of the St. Louis (a ship laden with Jewish refugees fleeing German atrocities on the eve of WWII) being denied entry to the United States and having to return to Europe where over 250 of the over 900 passengers subsequently died in the Holocaust, the Trump administration has halted all visas from Gaza, including those for humanitarian and medical aid. See US suspends visitor visas for people from Gaza.The move apparently resulted from Laura Loomer's criticism that refugees from Gaza "threaten our national security." She specifically criticized Heal Palestine, a nonprofit that provides aid to Palestinian families, especially those with children requiring medical care.--Percy

For some, (mainly pragmatic conservatives) , the only way to truly "free" Palestine is to eliminate Hamas. At least that's what Netanyahu and the IDF believe.
What do we know about the Israeli strike on Hamas in Qatar?The question that hangs in the air, among many, is:

Will eliminating Hamas (if even possible) cause Israel to stop killing Palestinians who get in the way?

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Is Israel really helping to bring about peace by eliminating what it sees as cancer in the "body"?

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Will the people who support "freeing Palestine" realize that Hamas is the cancer or will they continue blaming Israel for genocide and rallying a global coalition against them?!

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When both religious and non-religious people reach the same conclusions then you know religion isn't the reason.--Percy
God alone is God *but* God is not alone~Ellis Potter
We see Monsters where Science shows us Windmills.~Phat, remixed

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Critics would of course say that "God" is a product of human imagination...but then again God may well declare that all of creation is a product of His imagination! It is all in the perspective of the observer.~Phat

To Netanyahu, every Palestinian and everypne sympathetic to Palestinians counts as Hamas.Don't be naive Phat. Look at the pictures from Gaza. The Palestinian civilians aren't "in the way." This isnt even about "human shields." This is about American 2000 lb bombs dropped indiscriminately on civilian populations when precision weapons have always been available, snipers shooting small children in the head, snipers rotating which body part they shoot. It's about using famine as a weapon of war, intentionally and systematically blocking nearly all aid, allowing in just enough to keep the ignorant appeased but not enough to actually keep Palestinians alive.It's a genocide. An extermination campaign. Don't be a genocide apologist.Watch some of the Israeli politicians making speeches in Hebrew.Here's a hint: if they're speaking English, you are the audience. When they want to speak to Israelis, they speak Hebrew. And they don't say the same things in both languages.Israel wants the "peace" of the Final Solution for the Palestinians whose families lived in that land (peacefully, with Jews and Christians and Muslims) since before Israel was unilaterally created ex nihilo after WWII.

Gaza is the modern Warsaw Ghetto, a reversal of history previously unimaginable.--Percy

Looks like the shooting at food distribution sites in Gaza may not be the IDF after all. BBC(And I bet that they can’t tell a Christian Palestinian from a Muslim - and don’t care).

It's amazing to me how the media tries to form public opinion rather than simply inform the public. I wont deny the evidence of genocide. Feelings in Israel run high. Many Israelis, however, are on your ideological side. To them, Netanyahu is as bad or worse than Trump.These days, the media *is* the public-at-large. And from what I am reading and hearing, our culture is in a civil war of words.I still support free speech, however.

Netanyahu has since the 70s been advocating for giving all Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza residency. See YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo7Ixmf5ZB4The United States Ambassador to Israel (2017-2021) is a man of peace. I have talked to him personally, and he indeed supports full residency and rights for the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank - with freedom of movement and freedom to jobs - in ALL of Israel. He speaks to Arabs in the West Bank as often as he can. He often crosses the line where Israel has absolutely no policing powers, and will then ask the Sunni Arabs (all that is left in the West Bank, honestly) of the West Bank want.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFyZ6NiWVZANetanyahu's Minister of Economy is the former Mayor of Jerusalem (2008-2018), Nir Barkat by name.Barkat just attempted - this summer - to get the conservative Palestinian people of Hebron to break from the PLO and join Israel!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAPj8U7waLs&t=104sSeems like the PLO will probably kill peaceful "collaborators". It happened in the past. The idea was good, but doomed.

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How the Wall Street Journal fell for the trap of the Hebron ‘emirate’
The Wall Street Journal would have you believe its report on a "sheikh" who wants to form a Hebron "emirate" under Israeli control is a groundbreaking political revelation. But anyone with basic knowledge of Palestine will tell a different story.
By Qassam Muaddi July 8, 2025

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A failed old story
It is not the first time that a Palestinian individual or group has tried to start a local leadership in complete compliance with Israeli dictates, often as an alternative to the Palestinian national movement. In fact, shortly after the occupation of 1967, a group of local elites in Hebron and in Nablus approached the Israeli military authorities, seeking recognition as representatives of their regions in exchange for collaboration.

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Then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Israel organized a series of local councils made up of collaborators and traditional rural elites who agreed to participate in order to create an alternative to the political influence of the PLO. These councils were called the Village Leagues, and were given wide municipal powers to start local development projects, control the administrative needs of Palestinians, like granting building and travel permits, and even driving licences.

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The Village Leagues lasted for less than five years, and they failed miserably. The fact that all Palestinian political expression in the West Bank and Gaza was severely punished at the time by Israeli authorities gave the false impression that the Leagues would find no competition. But events proved that it wasn’t about political competition — the reason Israel tried to create an alternative to the PLO in the villages was that it had previously failed to do so in the cities.

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In the 1970s, Israel allowed municipal elections in Palestinian cities, expecting that “moderate” candidates friendly to the Israeli authorities would easily win. Many of them did in the 1972 municipal election, but in an unpredictable twist of events, independent candidates known to be close to the PLO took the municipalities in a landslide victory during elections four years later in 1976.

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It was then that Israel decided to try again in the countryside, expecting that the more “traditional” social structure and clan-based social ties would make them amenable to collaborating with Israel. In 1978, the first League of representatives of the Hebron villages was proclaimed, and then two others followed for the villages around Nablus and Ramallah. Israel invested so much in these Leagues that Israel’s then-Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon, decided to hand their leaders 100 firearms in 1981.

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In the space of five years, between 1978 and 1983, the most well-known figures of the Village Leagues were either assassinated by Palestinian militants or disowned by their own families. Simultaneously, a whole movement of volunteer youth groups had risen across the West Bank and Gaza, offering community-supported alternatives to the Leagues’ proposed development projects. Villages, one after the other, began to receive the volunteers to build farm walls, paint schools, or pave streets instead of the Village Leagues, and then formed their own local volunteer committees. In 1981, delegates from 40 volunteer committees from Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem met in a founding conference for the movement, where they explicitly announced their rejection of the Leagues. Eventually, Israel abandoned the project altogether.

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The fight against the Village Leagues in its different forms laid the grounds for a mass movement that continued to brew until it erupted in the First Intifada of 1987, lasting for six years. The uprising was entirely led by the Palestinian grassroots and included the participation of all sectors of Palestinian society, including unions, voluntary and neighborhood committees, and women’s groups.

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This part of Palestine’s history and social development has been alien to most of western mainstream media. In most cases, it’s hardly been interesting. But that is to be expected of the mainstream media, which has never shown any genuine interest in the cultural, social, and political composition of Palestinians as a people. A clan figure or tribal “sheikh” — even a fake one — who is willing to recite the U.S.-Israeli political canon without reservations is far more preferable.

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How the Wall Street Journal fell for the trap of the Hebron ‘emirate’ – Mondoweiss

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So much for that latest try.Israel has already offered citizenship to the Golan Heights residents.Israel might be willing to create a safe zone independent nation for the Druze and Kurdish areas of Syria. Even the anti-Israel Sunni Girl admits that the Sunni government of Syria is slaughtering Alawites in the north-west.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNGcDkaDXsk&t=10sIsrael keeps trying to bring a unified Israel-Palestine with rights for all, regardless.When the Jordanian Arab Legion took East Jerusalem in 1948, all Jews were expelled from there and the West Bank (17,000 total, and Jews were an outright majority in East Jerusalem in the 1922 British census).Israel took East Jerusalem in 1967 an gave all Muslims and Christians legal blue card residency and a pathway to citizenship.All Jews were driven out of Gaza twice - 1948 and 2005. Even Christians are down to around 700 left in Gaza, though they were over 20% at the start of the 21st century. Seems there actually is a real GENOCIDE in Gaza. No significant numbers left in Gaza for non-Sunnis ------ Jews, Druze, Christians, Shia, etc.The West Bank is over 99% Sunni Muslim.In 1922 Jews were 11% of Palestine, and Christians were also 11%. Druze were over 1%.There are 150,000 Arab Christian residents/citizens of Israel. Only 50,000 left in the West Bank.Israel has an outright majority of humans born in Muslim-majority countries.40% of all Israeli Jews are non-European, non-Spanish Jews.Arab Jews are 19% of the residents of the state of Israel.Arab ethnicity Muslims, Christians, Shia Druze are 21% of Israeli residents.Ashkenazi Jews and non-Arab Sephardic are only 40% of the Israeli population.Israel is a pluralistic society. The West Bank and Gaza is a Sunni Muslim only "Palestine", and it became so ethnically-cleansed only in the post-television world, right before the world's eyes. This is not the historic Palestine. This is the new murderous "Palestine", a land of genocide.That is the problem, in a nutshell. That is the root of the conflict.