[Philip Marlow]

Netanyahu's sole motivation is keeping himself out of prison.

Indeed. and the bastard doesn’t seem to care how many innocent people he slaughters in pursuit of that end.

He’s wildly unpopular in Israel but, except insofar as it might relate to intelligence failures in the lead up to October 7th, that unpopularity has very little to do with Gaza, or his government’s support for settler violence in the West Bank. The mass movement initially sparked off by his attempts to effectively castrate the Supreme Court has remained a mass movement by explicitly leaving questions about the occupation, two states etc. off the table. The ‘total victory’ rhetoric will be for domestic consumption, although whether it’s enough to save his skin we shall have to see.

[Abernathy]

I see that the Tories’ newly agreed line on all this is to characterise Keir Starmer’s representations to Lindsay Hoyle about his concerns that Labour MPs are already suffering borderline murderous abuse from angry constituents, as well as that all MPs might suffer worse if they were not able to vote on the Gaza ceasefire issue in accordance with both their party whip and their consciences, and Hoyle’s decision to allow both the government and the Labour amendments, as “giving in to extremists”. If we respond to pressure from members of the public by departing from parliamentary “convention” , see, we are “giving in” and we must never do that, oh no. Sir Geoffrey Deepvoice, the former attorney general who “gave in” himself by assenting to Johnson’s illegal prorogation of parliament, was on Newsnight tonight trotting out this bollocks, and Sunak will take the same line tomorrow.

I’m still very disappointed in Hoyle, though. For once in his speakership career, he had the chance to do the right thing in the circumstances. He is the bloody speaker, and it is absolutely within his power and discretion to do exactly what he did according to the very particular circumstances of the situation, notwithstanding the advice from the clerk of the house that he was departing from convention. He was fully entitled to make the decision that he did. His predecessor, John Bercow, did so on many occasions, and was loathed by the Tories for doing so. Bercow would have stuck to his guns, and so should Hoyle, instead of making grovelling apologies to the likes of that pompous bald twat Flynn. Get those cojones pumping, Lindsay, for fuck’s sake.

[Andy McDandy]

In the aftermath of 9/11, there was a running joke about how not doing X would mean that "the terrorists have won". Good to see it back.

[AOB]

From what I saw the other night, Stephen Flynn is an aggressive little man. The type of loudmouth who gets into fights outside kebab shops at 3am on a Sunday morning before going home to give the "wee lass" a darker shade of eye shadow.

[Killer Whale]

In the aftermath of 9/11, there was a running joke about how not doing X would mean that "the terrorists have won". Good to see it back.

Turns out that when Thatcher put up those gates to Downing Street she was giving in to extremists. Who knew?

[Philip Marlow]

Ever since the regular demonstrations/hate marches (delete as your inclinations dictate) got started, there has been angry muttering from certain quarters about the MET needing to ‘take back control’ of the streets and for the demonstrations/hate marches themselves to be explicitly criminalised. Call me a crusty old cynic, but I suspect we’re about to see a lot more of that, with knobs on.

[Andy McDandy]

What they mean is give the wogs and hairies a good shoeing. Backlogs in the courts and no room at the jail, but some rough justice can be dealt out at street (or kerb) level.

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Government hasn't tried to ban the marches so far. Maybe that's down to the Home Secretary personally being relatively sensible, but I reckon it's more likely that they've had legal advice that this is a non-starter. They've not hesitated to go after Just Stop Oil direct action stuff, and I expect the difference is that they know they're on surer legal ground with that.

We might see it in the Tory manifesto, perhaps combined with some British Bill Of Rights stuff.

[davidjay]

Dozens of JSO protesters have been jailed but that doesn't fit the narrative that they're all allowed to get off by the woke police and judiciary.

[Philip Marlow]

From the culture wars related to the war

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... -berlinale

Germany’s minister of state for culture has insisted she was only clapping the Israeli but not the Palestinian half of a film-making duo that won one of the major awards at the politically charged closing ceremony for the Berlin film festival.

I’m aware that there are certain, special considerations for German politicians to bear in mind in matters related to Israel, but this is pathetic. And made more so by the fact that the Israeli in question is this fellow, who I sincerely doubt considers being singled out in this way to be much of a favour.

The film in question sounds utterly depressing, but worthy of a watch.

https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/n ... 19336/amp/

It is any parent’s hope that their children won’t inherit their battles, or at the very least, that they can pass the generational baton with some ground gained. For young Palestinian lawyer and activist Basel Adra, a West Bank native who grew up watching his activist parents fight to protect their land from Israeli occupiers, there has been no such progress: Time has stood dispiritingly still as he has aged into his elders’ shoes. Adra is a resident of Masafer Yatta, a network of Palestinian villages in the southern Hebron Hills, recently subject to an aggressive campaign of demolition and forced transfer by the Israeli army. As his community is literally bulldozed before his eyes, Adra has little scope to do anything but keep his camera on: “I have nothing else, only my phone,” he despairs.

[The Weeping Angel]

Jonathan Freedland continues to be far better writer on this than other Guardian columnists.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... alks-paris

I say “both sides”, though that can easily get forgotten. The Israeli bombardment of Gaza has been so relentless, the destruction so intense and the death toll so high, that many stopped seeing it as a war long ago. It was striking how often in Wednesday’s Commons debate on Gaza, before it descended into chaos, the shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, had to remind colleagues that they could not simply issue a demand that Israel stop, because “a ceasefire, by necessity, means both sides.”

If the reminder was necessary, it’s because Hamas has become an invisible player in this conflict. That’s literally true on the battlefield. “They don’t show themselves. They avoid contact. You see the targets for a few milliseconds,” one Israeli reservist who fought in Gaza told my colleague Jason Burke, describing how Hamas fighters would emerge only fleetingly from their vast network of underground tunnels to open fire.

It’s true, too, of the coverage of the war. Israel says that it has killed some 12,000 Hamas men, which would represent about a third of the organisation’s fighting force: Hamas says it has lost half that number. Either way, those thousands of Hamas dead are all but unseen and rarely discussed. The health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, gives a daily total of those slain, often adding that almost all were women and children. The heartbreaking footage that comes out of Gaza matches that account: it shows civilians rather than fallen fighters. Hamas combatants remain out of sight.

[The Weeping Angel]

Hamas's leader here

I'm not sure how getting 30,000 of your own people killed is a sign progress but then I'm not the leader of a bunch of religious maniacs so what do I know.

[The Weeping Angel]

Are these people so high on their own self-righteousness that they completly fail to see how this looks to normal people.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Yes and yes.

[Youngian]

Muppet civil war.

[Killer Whale]

Irish rappers Kneecap, who recently took tea with Corbyn, you may recall, have pulled out of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, in protest at the USA's support of the Israeli military.

This despite being named in celebration of an actual terrorist torture and punishment technique.

[kreuzberger]

The toe-rag taigs, Kneecap, are ripping the piss out of absolutely everything (including Uncle Declan and his colourful past), while being one of the freshest, most exciting noises to have come out of these islands in the last fourty-plus years. I thought that I was done with punk until I heard them for the first time. They are fucking sensational.

Their reasoning behind pulling out of SXSW (and a bucket full of cash) is both rational and laudable.

[MisterMuncher]

Irish rappers Kneecap, who recently took tea with Corbyn, you may recall, have pulled out of the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, in protest at the USA's support of the Israeli military.

This despite being named in celebration of an actual terrorist torture and punishment technique.

Well, kinda. It's a bilingual pun, Ní Ceap being pronounced the same but meaning "didn't think".

I'm not so sure either is in celebration, otherwise quite a few band names might come under such suspicion

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Kneecappers, foot-tappers...

[Andy McDandy]

Don't anyone tell them about Joy Division/New Order...