fear
Israeli media: Israel ‘totally defeated’ – and terrified of Iran
Source close to discussions about Iran says millions would be fleeing Israel if they knew what was being said
Israeli media are often far more honest about what their country is doing – and what is going on in it – than western ‘mainstream’ media are about the same issues. While UK ‘msm’ still maintain the lie that Hamas ‘beheaded babies’ and raped women on 7 October, Israeli media sometimes freely discuss the truth – and frequently and openly write about the ‘immense’ numbers of Israelis killed that day by the Israeli military.
And now, Israeli media are discussing two further truths that will not be aired by UK broadcasters or printed by UK papers.
First, Haaretz – one of Israel’s major dailies – has splashed a headline concluding that Israel has lost – totally lost – the ‘war’, the genocide, it has been raining down on the innocent civilians of Gaza. Lost so badly that Israel cannot be secure – and will not either regain by force the captives taken by Hamas, or end its pariah status:
And second, journalists with sources close to the Israeli regime’s discussions about Iran – which yesterday achieved a measured but compelling attack on Israel in retaliation for Israel’s bombing of Iran’s consulate in Damascus – are saying openly that those discussions are so terrifying that if the Israeli populace knew what was being said, millions of them would be flooding Israel’s main international airport to try to get out of the country:
The UK government, opposition and media are incorrigibly dishonest about Israel’s genocide and its terrible consequences for the millions of innocents in Gaza and the West Bank – and the ruination of both Israel’s and the West’s always-thin pretence as democratic, humane and law-abiding. But the truth is out there – and will percolate through.
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Former MP Smith quits Labour after suspension for refusing to vote for cuts
Labour under control freak Starmer has no respect or inclusivity, says former Crewe and Nantwich MP Laura Smith, who also cites Starmer’s Gaza stance as a driver for her decision
Former Crewe and Nantwich MP Laura Smith has quit the Labour party with a blistering attack on Labour’s lack of standards and inclusivity under Keir Starmer, after being suspended from the Cheshire East council Labour group for refusing to vote in support of a package of swingeing Tory cuts.
In a public statement about her decision to resign, Smith said that she:
entered mainstream politics back in 2017 after years of activism in social justice
movements after growing up in a family of trade union and socialist values. I stuffed
leaflets In the Labour Party envelopes and served tea and biscuits at the meetings of the local group as a child, and some of my earliest memories were of Saturdays spent In the car with my dad as he drove Gwyneth Dunwoody, the MP at the time around the constituency. I knew my core values from a very early age and I knew from the feeling in the pit of my stomach that my fight was always going to be equality and social justice. I experienced many things growing up that further shaped my beliefs and that feeling only grew as I became an adult.Being supported by my local Labour party and then becoming an MP representing my home towns was something that I couldn’t ever have Imagined. As someone from a challenging background and always struggling to make ends meet, it wasn’t a future that I felt was possible. But it did happen In a whirlwind of political change and hope for an alternative in the snap general election of 2017. I was elevated into a position where I felt that I could make a difference and my motivation was always the same. Those same values that I had harboured since being a little girl.
That two and half years in Parliament was an experience that I will always cherish and struggle with, in equal measures. The stark reality of our political system is one that I cannot pretend hasn’t made me more cynical, less hopeful for a real alternative and unfortunately more worried for the future. When I was elected, I hoped that I could prove to young girls and women who had been just like me that their voices could be heard, that they could make a difference and that they could be the changemakers and creators of a better world. The sad reality is that the system itself hampers the opportunity for real progress.
I would love to say that politics is a safe space for women. It isn’t. I would desperately like to say that debate and conflict is healthy and respectful. It’s not. I wish I could say that the old tropes that politics is a dirty corrupt business were untrue. But sadly it is. And that is from the top of our system all the way down to local politics.
More than anything I would like to say that the Labour Party itself sets a standard of
inclusivity and respect but that would be untruthful in my experience. It has become a place where to have a thought in your head that differs to the Labour leadership and the officials behind the scenes is an offence that can lead to suspension or even expulsion. At a local level it is a space where judgment is felt because as a full-time working mother juggling multiple caring responsibilities as well as often working Saturdays, you can’t sit in meeting after meeting or knock on doors in your rare free hours. I have heard the tutting and watched the finger wagging and listened to the comments and I think that it unfortunately remains the case that to be valued in the party you need to have lots and lots of free time. Naturally that means being either retired, not have caring responsibilities, being healthy both physically and mentally, and more often then not financially secure. Equality right? This Is before even
touching on the factional aspects that rage through the party, manifesting Itself through bullying, belittling, a culture of fear and a general lack of respect.I am not perfect. I don’t have all of the answers. But one thing I am not is a hypocrite. It is for that reason, and after much consideration, I have decided to resign my membership of the UK Labour Party, rather than appeal my recent suspension letter by the local labour group at Cheshire East Council. I was suspended for not voting In line with the whip, but as I stated at the council meeting on the 27th of February I cannot support an austerity budget that places local councillors as the punching bag tor a Tory Government determined to destroy public services. This has not been an easy decision, but it is on balance the right one for me.
The reasons that I have stated combined with the position the Labour Party leadership is taking on international policy as well as domestic issues is now completely at odds with my personal beliefs and unfortunately, I feel that an alternative voice is no longer respected within the party structures. I would like to thank the great many friends that I have within the party who I hope will continue to value and respect me as I value and respect them. I will continue to serve my ward of Crewe South as an independent socialist councillor on the political values that I have always openly and honestly shared and was elected on.
I remain dedicated to fighting for true equality and Justice for the people in this country who quite simply are not receiving anywhere near the service and quality of life that they deserve. There is a complete void of honesty, decency, ambition and leadership from those with the true power to change things. Talk is cheap and the dishonesty that I have encountered on a daily basis in politics is something that I simply could not have imagined.
Bravery is required in desperate times, and democracy can only really work when fear and desire for power is not the driving force behind people’s motivations. It is our actions that define who we are and we owe it to ourselves to be true. I will be true to the little girl I once was and not allow my voice to be erased and my opinions silenced.
Smith was re-elected last year as councillor for Crewe South and will continue to serve, but as an independent.
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Video: Merseyside Metro Mayor Rotheram refuses to say Israel is committing genocide
Rotheram says he’s come to ‘speak to the community’ – but apparently not to the member of the community asking him to give a simple yes or no answer
Merseyside ‘metro mayor’ Steve Rotheram has been confronted by a local woman who asked for a yes or no answer whether Israel’s slaughter of Palestinian civilians is genocide.
Rotheram squirmed, he obfuscated – but he wouldn’t even give a multi-worded answer, let alone a yes or no one. Nor would he ask the local woman whether she thought it’s genocide, so she can show how simple it is to say.
Instead, he wittered about ‘part of the problem’ and wanting to ‘speak to the community’ while having ‘a private conversation’ (which is it, Steve?):
Video used by courtesy of The Art of Resistance
Keir Starmer’s corrupting influence on the Labour party is seen all too clearly in the actions of many local ‘Labour’ politicians – and Starmer’s war on anyone within the party who dares speak out against the actions of Israel has many party representatives too terrified to do so, in spite of the overwhelming moral need for solidarity with Palestinians and condemnation of Israel’s genocide – yes, genocide. Sadly, it seems like Mayor Rotheram is one of them, despite the massive solidarity among the people of Merseyside with the oppressed and murdered in Gaza and the West Bank.
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Well over 100 civilians murdered as Israeli tanks, gunboats fire on crowd waiting for aid delivery
Terror and chaos in Gaza City after IDF ‘trap’
Injured wait on lorries and a donkey cart (social media image)
More than a hundred Palestinian civilians have been slaughtered and many more injured, after Israeli tanks, gunboats and armoured vehicles opened fire on a crowd of people waiting for a scheduled aid delivery to arrive. The Israeli military has admitted opening fire, claiming that troops felt ‘endangered’. The IDF also tried to blame the civilians for their own deaths, saying some were trampled – presumably as terrified people tried to escape the fire zone.
Some reports have put the death toll at 170, with more than a thousand wounded. Social media posts show the carnage and the attempts to evacuate the injured. The Al Jazeera news service reported that the victims had fallen into a ‘trap’ set by the Israeli military:
Palestinians who witnessed the Israeli attack on aid seekers in Gaza city say it was a trap.
According to human rights group Euro-Med Monitor, Israeli forces have killed almost 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October last year, the vast majority of them civilians and a large majority women and children, and have wounded more than 70,000 others, many of them severely. The World Health Organization and others have reported that more than a million people are in, or at imminent risk of, starvation because of Israel’s blockade and military assault, and victims of starvation have already died.
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‘Elite’ IDF brigade ‘too scared’ to go back into Gaza
Givati Brigade refuses to return to service, reports Israeli newspaper
Image blurred intentionally
Soldiers of an ‘elite’ Israeli military brigade have refused to go back into Gaza, according to Israeli paper Haaretz.
So heavy have been the Givati Brigade’s losses to Hamas’s guerilla tactics, that the group of troops are ‘too scared’ to return to service in Israel’s genocide of Palestinian civilians.
The soldiers told their commanders that they were too traumatised to return to the field and were afraid for their lives. Haaretz said that the IDF command is unsure how to react to the refusal.
According to IDF figures, around six hundred of its troops have been killed or severely wounded in Gaza since the start of the ground invasion but Israeli media, collating figures from the country’s hospitals, estimate numbers in the thousands and Hamas’s media outfit releases videos showing its successful guerilla attacks on Israeli tanks, infantry and fortifications almost daily.
According to human rights group Euro-Med Monitor, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed and severely wounded well over 100,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, imposing famine on hundreds of thousands more and bombing schools and hospitals. Israel has been put on trial for genocide and has been ordered to protect Palestinian lives, but has intensified its assault and is now regularly bombing and shelling Rafah, the tiny enclave it ordered Palestinians to move to as a safe haven, before what is expected to be a ground assault that will cause an even greater and completely avoidable humanitarian disaster.
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Bookies slash Galloway Rochdale odds to 2/1
Reaction against Labour candidate and warm welcome for Workers’ Party GB hopeful cuts odds from 16/1
Betting companies have slashed their odds against George Galloway winning the Rochdale by-election from 16/1 to 2/1 after the campaign saw the Workers’ Party GB candidate’s warm welcome contrast starkly with the hostile reception given to the Starmerite candidate, especially by local Muslims.
The phenomenon aligns with the catastrophic national fall in Labour Westminster voting intention among Muslims voters who voted Labour in 2019 – from 86% then to half that now – because of their outraged at Keir Starmer’s appalling support for Israel’s genocide and other war crimes in Gaza.
Not the Andrew Marr Show presenter Crispin Flintoff, who has been in Rochdale covering Galloway’s campaign, said:
I am still buzzing over what I saw around George Galloway’s campaign. There were hundreds of people at the launch and his campaign is extremely well organised. At the same time, other parties and candidates seem to be in disarray.
Starmer’s advisers have anonymously admitted that they fear the the impact of their enthusiasm for apartheid Israel, despite the ICJ’s findings against Israel for genocide, on the vote among Muslims and others horrified by the mass slaughter of Palestinians civilians in Gaza, mostly women – as well as the more general issue of the Labour right’s rampant Islamophobia and racism – and have already been proven correct in London boroughs and other areas after catastrophic local election results.
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OCISA opens applications for candidate to contest Starmer’s seat in next general election
Left-wing group has been campaigning against friend of genocide in Holborn St Pancras constituency – and is now inviting potential candidates to apply
A Corbyn-inspired group of left-wing activists is inviting applications from would-be candidates to stand against the figure at the head of what used to be the Labour party – ‘Labour leader’ would be inappropriate – in the Holborn St Pancras seat he currently holds.
Labour’s polling lead over the Tories has slumped dramatically in the last few weeks as outrage has grown over Keir Starmer’s support for the slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza and for Israeli war crimes and apartheid – and as awareness sinks into the voting public’s consciousness that he represents a continuation and potentially even a worsening of Tory policies and attacks on human rights and civic freedoms. Many Labour MPs in once-secure seats now fear the consequences, among Muslim and ethnic minority voters, of their collusion in the slaughter of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.
A press release from the group this morning explains:
An effort to change British politics enters its final phase. OCISA will be advertising for a democratic, progressive, and community-focused candidate to stand against Sir Keir Starmer in Holborn St Pancras at the general election.
For 9 months OCISA has been surveying the electorate in HSP. The overwhelming opinion is voters feel excluded from the political process, 50% want more face-to-face access with an MP who listens and prioritises their concerns.
The candidate selection process will be open and democratic. Several people have made it
known they are interested, but applications are sought from anybody with a commitment to representing their community, regardless of their previous political experience.HoIborn St Pancras is one of the most diverse areas in the country. The electorate is mostly
under forty, cosmopolitan, and progressively minded. OCISA hopes to find a candidate who
can represent their ideals, aspirations, and demands.OCISA wishes to make clear that the UK has a representative parliamentary democracy, and that a political party may win a majority in parliament without their leader in place. The UK does not have a presidential national election between leaders of the two main parties. The electorate has real political power in their hands if they use it locally to choose an individual to represent them, rather than accepting that politics only happens at the national party level where they are entirely powerless.
OCISA is not a political party and has no intention of becoming one. It solely exists to choose a candidate and provide them with campaign !funds and advice from experienced
organisers.Advertisements will be going out to a range of publications in print and on line. Applications should be sent to ocisacampaignshsp@gmail.com with a CV and an
explanation of what you can bring to the role. Deadline for applications is December
11th, 2023.A shortlist of potential candidates will be chosen by a selection panel elected from and by
the membership of OCJSA, with diversity requirement and a built-in bias towards
residents in the constituency. The final choice from the shortlist will be by a democratic
vote of all OCISA members. To find out more, to join OCISA and take part in the selection
process, or to donate to the campaign fund, go to ocisa.org.uk.Members of the news media wanting further information please email ocisacampaignshsp@gmail.com or telephone Eric Jarvis on 0207 733 5997 to arrange an
interview with one of the OCISA Steering Group.
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FRIGHT Friday - Stretched to Breaking Point
Dan Holloway gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.
FRIGHT Friday - Gothic Horror: Medicine and Monsters
Dr Andrew Papanikitas gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.
FRIGHT Friday - Fear and Flesh: Gothic Medicine
Dr Barry Murname gives a talk for the FRIGHT Friday series of talks, held in the Ashmolean Museum on 25th November 2016.