Tag Archives: turkey

Is THIS what Hamas hoped to gain from the October 7 incursion into Israel?

It seems The Spectator has been speculating on what Hamas hoped to achieve by breaking into Israel, attacking Israeli Defence Force positions and kidnapping civilians, who were taken as hostages into Gaza.

Israel was bound to strike back, and under current prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that response was always going to be extremely forceful; genocidal.

So, why do it?

Here are my thoughts; let’s see if they coincide with those of that other magazine.

Well, sadly it seems this organisation has been playing with the lives of Gazan citizens in the same way one might play chess; sometimes, sacrifices have to be made in order to win.

Most of the analyses This Writer has seen suggest that Hamas in Gaza works in isolation, but this could not be further from the truth. Hamas is an international organisation – meaning Israel’s stated intention to destroy that organisation altogether is nonsense; part of its leadership is always based in other countries.

Hamas has allies in the governments of Qatar and Turkey. It used to be allied with Hezbollah in Lebanon, with Syria and with Iran but those relationships have been strained recently.

How, then, could Hamas bring all of these countries together to oppose Israel and its persecution of Palestinian people?

Isn’t it possible that the answer, for the organisation’s leaders, was to sacrifice thousands of Gazan citizens – in order to turn international public opinion against Israel?

So on October 7, Hamas breaks out of Gaza and acts according to stated intentions: eliminating the Israeli Defence Force’s Gaza Battalion and taking hostages to be traded with Palestinians the organisation claims have been jailed by Israel for no reason at all.

The operatives taking part in the operation stick rigidly to that plan; there are no atrocities – no beheaded babies, no rapes of girls or young women, and the hostages are all treated humanely. Israeli propaganda claiming otherwise then backfires, making that country’s government and military look like liars.

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Israel then retaliates – not with a surgical strike intended to recover the hostages and remove the Hamas threat in Gaza, as should have been possible after years of espionage, but with a genocidal show of strength intended to act as a warning of what will happen to anyone challenging Israeli power.

This is in accordance with the so-called “Hannibal Directive” demanding that IDF troops kill Israelis rather than allow them to stay in the hands of an enemy.

This provokes Hezbollah to strike Israel from Lebanon in an act of solidarity. Yemen, said to be part of a so-called ‘Axis of Resistance’ against Israel alongside Hezbollah and Hamas, has also struck at Israel from the south.

What happens next?

That is a matter for Israel.

Will it turn its formidable arsenal – most of which is still idle, despite the constant and extreme bombardment of Gaza – onto Lebanon and Yemen?

If so, will that prompt Iran to turn its own considerable firepower on Israel, to defend its allies?

You see, the countries/organisations that have stepped in already have been able to claim a legitimate interest in defending the defenceless; and if they are attacked, any countries that step in to defend them will be able to claim a legitimate interest in defending their allies.

The logical choice is for Netanyahu to respond to Hezbollah and Houthi (Yemeni) attacks only in defence – for the time being.

But he is still losing the propaganda war, because his forces are murdering hundreds of Gazans every day.

And the fact of those deaths is likely to stir many more members of the Muslim world – Palestinians, Lebanese, Yemeni, Iranians, Qataris, Turks or whoever – into taking up arms against Israel.

So, whatever Israel does, it loses. And this is partly because of the unacceptably violent decisions of that country’s leaders.

All it will have cost Hamas is a few thousand Gazan lives.

Let’s remember: there are no “good” sides in this conflict. As This Writer wrote in another article, weeks ago, “there are only murderers in this room”.

That’s why I’m willing to believe that this is exactly the way the leaders of Hamas have planned it.


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Controversy over PPE intensifies after Turkey delivers one-twelfth of expected amount

Only a fraction of the gowns expected in a much-publicised shipment from Turkey actually arrived in the UK on Wednesday, according to the Health Service Journal:

Senior procurement sources have said just 32,000 of an anticipated 400,000 gowns were delivered — just a few hours’ supply for the health service, which currently goes through approximately 150,000 per day.

The government expected the gowns to arrive as part of a bulk delivery of personal protective equipment on Sunday.

Yet again, the Tories promised a lot and delivered little.

And people are dying in their hundreds every day – because they ignored advice in the run-up to the crisis and dithered when it overtook them.

Source: Exclusive: Turkish delivery contained just a few hours’ worth of gowns | News | Health Service Journal

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A US village voted to make a turkey mayor. Here in the UK we made one prime minister

Theresa May: We made our turkey prime minister, and in return – with Brexit, she is stuffing us.

“Our animal control officers are pretty good, but he has some ninja-like moves. They have a hard time getting him,” admitted local public safety commander Randy Tewes.

“We’re a divided country, and here this turkey is directing traffic for folks on their way to work, and it gives them something to cheer about.”

He was talking about a turkey called Smoke, who captured the imagination of people in the village of Ashwaubenon, near Green Bay, USA, so much that they decided to appoint it as mayor – if only in an honourary role.

A popular Facebook group called Smoked Turkey has been flooded with pictures and videos of the bird, and a report from The Washington Post showed he had brought joy and community spirit to the town, despite being a terror.

Here in the UK we have a turkey of our own – albeit only in the terms of US slang that defines one as something that is extremely or completely unsuccessful.

She has also inflicted a large amount of mischief on us, although it would be entirely inappropriate to find any of it amusing.

Nevertheless, the electorate of the UK has allowed Theresa May to become prime minister of the entire country, rather than just mayor of a small community.

And, with her plan for Brexit, it seems clear that – unlike Christmas turkeys – she has stuffed us.

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Were ‘Leave’ voters comparable to turkeys voting for Christmas? ( #Brexit )

You decide. Either way, this is an amusing and thought-provoking infographic:

[Image: @DocRichard/Twitter.]

[Image: @DocRichard/Twitter.]

Feel free to comment. Barry Davies undoubtedly will.

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Lord Young – a talking example of why working people should never vote Conservative

Unrepentant: Ignorant old Tories like Lord Young cannot see anything wrong with starving workers - and, through lack of tax revenue, the benefits bill - to make fat profits for greedy business bosses. The families of all those who have died because of these policies might have a different point of view.

Unrepentant: Ignorant old Tories like Lord Young cannot see anything wrong with starving workers – and, through lack of tax revenue, the benefit budget – to make fat profits for greedy business bosses. The families of all those who have died because of these policies might have a different point of view.

Apparently we are living in an excellent time for businesses to boost their profits – because labour is cheap.

That is what Lord Young, who advises David Cameron on enterprise, told the cabinet yesterday (May 11). His words make it crystal clear that working people who vote Conservative are classic examples of turkeys voting for Christmas. They beg to be exploited.

He said low wage levels in a recession made larger financial returns easier to achieve – in other words, he actually admitted that bosses could use the current state of the UK economy, as caused by his own government (not the previous Labour administration, for reasons we’ve covered in the past), to push workers’ wages down and keep more moolah for themselves.

Vox Political has accused the Conservatives of exactly this behaviour in the past, but we never expected to see a member of the government admit it so brazenly.

Perhaps this is more of the government’s pet ‘nudge’ theory at work. We have seen that benefit increases have been lowered in order to instil fear of destitution in the jobless, and in those who have low-paid jobs. Now, businesses are being urged to capitalise on this, exploiting their workforces with the obvious threat: “There are plenty of other people out there who’ll do it for less!”

Let’s just back this up with some statistics, courtesy of The Guardian , shall we? UK employees’ average hourly earnings have fallen by 8.5 per cent, in real terms, since 2009. That’s adjusting for inflation, and the newspaper got its figure from the Office for National Statistics.

Meanwhile, the 1,000 richest people in the UK are now worth more than £414 billion – up more than £155 billion in the three years to December 2012. And in April, the Tory-led government gave those people a £100,000 per year tax cut.

Lord Young is not to be confused with Sir George Young, the Tory Chief Whip who once famously said “the homeless are what you step over when you come out of the opera” – but he is cut from the same cloth.

He had to apologise after telling the Daily Telegraph that “for the vast majority of people in the country today, they have never had it so good, ever since this recession – this so-called recession – started”.

For this reason it is easy to suggest that he would have stepped over the body of Stephanie Bottrill, had he been the first to find it.

Oh – do you think that statement goes too far? Please, reserve your judgement until I have explained my reasoning.

Like so many members of the Tory government, this is a man who absolutely point-blank refuses to understand the relationship between the decisions he makes and the conditions in which the majority of us are forced to live.

This former advisor to the Prime Minister on health and safety laws has advocated relaxing them, ignoring the fact that this will increase the likelihood of work-related injury that makes it impossible for people who need the money to go to work.

This enterprise advisor was asked to conduct a “brutal” review of the relationship of government to small firms, presumably with a view to cutting off as much public assistance for small businesses as possible.

This former chairman of the Manpower Services Commission advised the late Baroness Thatcher on unemployment, and we may take it that it is due to this advice that joblessness skyrocketed during the Thatcher years.

He refuses to see that his attitude is causing the problem: By ensuring that Britain’s labour market remains “flexible” (read “low-wage”), he ensures that the national tax take remains far lower than it should be; low-paid workers form the overwhelming majority of the workforce. In turn, the low tax take means the government cannot pay off its debts and provides it with an excuse to cut public spending – especially on benefit payments.

Stephanie Bottrill had an auto-immune system deficiency, Myasthenia gravis, which meant she was permanently weak and needed constant medication. Doctors said she was too ill to hold a job, but she never qualified for disability benefits.

She committed suicide because she could not afford the cost of living after the Bedroom Tax was forced on her, and it has been said by others that she died for want of £20 per week.

It is the attitude of Tories like Lord Young that has deprived her of that money – and ultimately, of her life.