Middle East War Briefing

[GURPS]

Michael Moore Says Israel Should Stop Fighting Hamas As White Christians Are the Real Enemy​

The 69-year-old filmmaker explained he supported the campaign to help prevent a Trump victory in November:

The reason why those of us started this campaign, is to basically save Biden from himself. Because of what he’s done, to support this massacre, to fund it, to be the bank, for Israel in the slaughter of these people. That he is essentially guaranteeing that thousands and thousands of Americans are going to stay home and not vote on Election Day. Because they’re not going to vote for [Donald] Trump. But this is how Trump could win.

Why would you risk that, President Biden? This is when you need to be a politician. What you should do is the moral thing which is stop the carpet bombing, stop the slaughter, make sure aid comes in — don’t be dropping aid with parachutes like it was some kind of Looney Tunes cartoon.

Moore added that as well as risking the return of Trump to the White House, Biden was also enabling a "genocide" in the Gaza strip:

The fact that Joe Biden isn’t listening to the people, it’s a sad thing. It’s going to hurt him, if he doesn’t change, and change now. And going on TV a couple of days before the primary, with Seth Meyers, poor Seth. Stuck with the ice cream cone… when Biden promised that there would be a cease-fire by this Monday. From your reporting here on MSNBC, that doesn’t sound like that’s going to happen.

Listen to the families right now that have been directly impacted, but also listen to majority of Americans that are saying enough. No more wars, no more using our dollars to fund a genocide.

Although the Biden administration has indicated its support for Israel, there are growing concerns among his strategists that his stance is alienating key Democratic constituencies such as young people and American Muslims.

Last week, Biden expressed hope that the U.S. could help broker a ceasefire agreement before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 

[GURPS]

America's B-1 Bomber Needs to Chill Out​

 

[GURPS]

At least 5 killed after airdropped aid falls on them in Gaza​

 

[GURPS]

Yemen's Houthis vow 'major' expansion in attacks on international shipping and claim to have new hypersonic missiles that could dodge West's defence systems​

Yemen's Houthis have vowed to expand their attacks on international shipping and have claimed to have new hypersonic missiles that could dodge the West's defence systems.

The Houthis having hypersonic missiles, if true, could raise the stakes in the ongoing attacks by the terrorist group on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways in protest of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza.

The new weapons - which could potentially evade the West's defence system due to their speed and maneuverability - were reported by Russian state media, which cited an unnamed official, but provided no evidence for the Houthi claim.

However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about 'surprises' they plan for the battles at sea to counter the US and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Mideast waters.

On Thursday, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis' secretive supreme leader, said the rebels will start hitting ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope in Africa's southern tip.

 

[stgislander]

Yemen's Houthis vow 'major' expansion in attacks on international shipping and claim to have new hypersonic missiles that could dodge West's defence systems​

Yemen's Houthis have vowed to expand their attacks on international shipping and have claimed to have new hypersonic missiles that could dodge the West's defence systems.

The Houthis having hypersonic missiles, if true, could raise the stakes in the ongoing attacks by the terrorist group on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways in protest of Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza.

The new weapons - which could potentially evade the West's defence system due to their speed and maneuverability - were reported by Russian state media, which cited an unnamed official, but provided no evidence for the Houthi claim.

However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about 'surprises' they plan for the battles at sea to counter the US and its allies, which have so far been able to down any missile or bomb-carrying drone that comes near their warships in Mideast waters.

On Thursday, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, the Houthis' secretive supreme leader, said the rebels will start hitting ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope in Africa's southern tip.

That would up the stakes. Way to go Joe.

 

[GURPS]

That would up the stakes. Way to go Joe.

This administrations is So inept ....

I'm not sure you could bomb the Houthi's BACK to the Stone Age - given how Medieval that country is

but I would be removing ever site with a missile platform from the face of the earth, all Gov buildings and Military facilities, power plants and communications infrastructure

 

[stgislander]

This administrations is So inept ....

I'm not sure you could bomb the Houthi's BACK to the Stone Age - given how Medieval that country is

but I would be removing ever site with a missile platform from the face of the earth, all Gov buildings and Military facilities, power plants and communications infrastructure

A week or two ago, there was video of a "swearing-in" ceremony in a square in Sana'a of new Houthi recruits. You mean to tell me we didn't have any intel or surveillance that would have allowed us to "send our congratulations" to the new recruits?

 

[Kyle]

A week or two ago, there was video of a "swearing-in" ceremony in a square in Sana'a of new Houthi recruits. You mean to tell me we didn't have any intel or surveillance that would have allowed us to "send our congratulations" to the new recruits?

 

[stgislander]

Unfortunately somebody didn't get the message.

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

The NY Sun reported Monday:

President Biden, keeping Prime Minister Netanyahu at arm’s length, is reportedly considering leaving Israel short of the armaments it needs to fight Hamas. Such a politically based move risks harming America’s global interests.

By Sunday, Israel must tell America that it is complying with international restrictions on arms supplies, including by facilitating ample humanitarian assistance to Gaza, the national security adviser, Jacob Sullivan, told reporters Monday, adding that it is yet to do so.
Meanwhile, a Jerusalem official noted a recent reduction of American arms supplies to Israel, ABC news reports. The Israel Defense Force is running out of 155 mm artillery shells and 120 mm tank shells, as well as sensitive guidance equipment, the official said. (…)
In a deep analysis of the Gaza war, the chairman of urban warfare studies at West Point, John Spencer, concluded that Israel “has painstakingly followed the laws of armed conflict and implemented many steps to prevent civilian casualties, despite enormous challenges.” Denying arms to Israel, then, would be a “political decision” that is “not backed by what has actually happened in Israel and Gaza,” Mr. Spencer tells the Sun.
It could also backfire if the IDF runs out of precision bombs, Mr. Roggio adds. As in Iraq during the war there, he says, once supply of such arms dwindles, a military quickly moves to using less discriminating munitions, resulting in higher civilian casualty rates.

​

Biden tells Netanyahu not to attack Rafah stronghold without ‘Washington’s approval’​

The revelation comes as President Joe Biden ‘warned’ Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu not to undertake the planned large-scale military operation in Rafah aimed at eliminating Hamas leadership and freeing the remaining hostages.

In a phone conversation that took place on Monday, Biden “warned” the Israeli prime minister “not to act without approval from Washington in a stern phone call on Monday,” the Jerusalem Post reported. “Israel lacks a viable military strategy to eliminate Hamas in Rafah,” the U.S. president said, according to the newspaper.

The Qatari-funded Al Jazeera called it the “strongest public warning yet to Israel against invading” the terrorist bastion.

Biden Admin Turns Up Pressure On Israel Not To Capture Hamas Rafah Stronghold, Arms Supplies Reportedly At Risk

Prime Minister Netanyahu: Biden admin "asked us not to carry out the operation in Rafah, but we don't have any other choice."

legalinsurrection.com

 

[GURPS]

 

[GURPS]

We’ve looked at the Proxy War a bunch lately, now the pace of events requires us to turn back to our Shadow War in the Middle East. Fox News ran a not-April-Fool’s story yesterday headlined, “Iran not likely to retaliate after alleged Israeli strike: ‘Not ready’.” Wildly, Israel missiled part of the Iranian embassy in Damascus, Syria, killing several military folks including a top-ranking Iranian general.





It’s hard to understate how significant was this attack. It must be seen as a major escalation. Syria may be a failed rump state, and Damascus may lie right outside Israel’s borders, and Israel may regularly have bombed the Damascus airport, and Iran may often launch proxy strikes against Israel from there, but Syria is still nominally a sovereign state. And its embassy is considered Iranian sovereign territory.

While Western corporate media downplayed the story, the non-Western world was accumulating outrage. Here’s one example, from a popular independent Muslim journalist (400K followers), with whom I do not fully agree, but gives you a pretty good idea of how folks outside the West are thinking about things these days:





CLIP: Muslim journalist blames US for worldwide terrorist attacks (6:44).

It is fair to say the consular strike hit the Arab world very much like a swarm of enraged hornets. In the linked clip, the Muslim journalist connected the U.S. to the Nordstream bombing, various assassinations, the attacks on the Kremlin and the Crocus concert, economic sanctions against Russia and China, and Israel’s war in Gaza.

It’s a bad look for us. Biden’s inexpressible neocon foreign policy — whatever it is — is rapidly turning the U.S. into a pariah state with a majority of the world’s population.

Iran, which remained disquietingly measured in its response, officially blames the U.S. for Israel’s attack on its embassy. Here’s what Secretary of the National Security Council in Iran, Ali Shimkhani said:

"Even if the U.S. knew or not about Israel's intention to carry out the attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, this does not remove its direct responsibility for this crime - the Zionist entity made a serious mistake and will pay a heavy price for it."​

Of course, the Iranians blame the U.S. for everything and say lots of crazy stuff. So.

Even giving Israel the benefit of the doubt that it had a compelling reason to attack the Iranian embassy, a reason that is not yet publicly clear, the “shadow war” between Israel and Iran is starting to look a lot less shadowy and a lot more kinetic.

Which means it is time for someone to ask what, exactly, is Biden’s Middle East strategy? Does he even know or remember the strike happened? Or tomorrow will he deny it happened, like yesterday when he denied proclaiming that Easter was the 145th transsexual day of whatever:





When yesterday I wrote my fake April Fool’s article about Biden wandering off on Easter in a deranged fog of confusion, I didn’t realize it would immediately become a metaphor for Biden’s brain wandering off in a deranged fog of confusion about his Easter trans declaration.

☕️ ANTI SOCIAL ☙ Tuesday, April 2, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

C&C primer on how to (not) talk to the FBI about your social media posts; Israel-Iran “shadow war” leans out of the shadows; Trump pays massive bond; surprising jab guidance change in Australia; more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

Joe Biden Rages Against Israel, Throws Ally Under the Bus After Aid Workers Are Killed​

Biden demanded "accountability" and further proclaimed that "incidents like yesterday's simply should not happen." Of course, when a nation is fighting a hot war, incidents like the one that occurred will happen. They are unavoidable. Do you know who should know that better than anyone? That would be one Joseph R. Biden, who droned seven children during his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

At no point following that tragic incident did Biden express even a tenth of the anger he is showing towards Israel in this situation. As for accountability for that strike and the broader deaths that occurred during the evacuation, none was ever delivered. Not a single Biden official lost their job or was disciplined for what turned out to be one of the most botched military operations in modern history. Worse, Biden reportedly remained "defiant" in the aftermath, refusing to take responsibility for his actions.

 

[GURPS]

Iran warns US must 'bear responsibility' for Israel strike in Syria as Tehran vows revenge​

Two of Iran's most senior military commanders were killed – Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' (IRGC) elite Quds Force, and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, a deputy commander in the Quds Force.

Israel has not commented on the strike but is widely believed to be responsible having carried out numerous strikes similar to this one in the region.

But Iran has warned that the US must also be held accountable despite the fact Washington has said it played no role in the attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said: “The director of the U.S. Department in Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Chargé d’affaires at the Swiss Embassy whose country represents U.S. interests in Tehran.

 

[GURPS]

Aid to Palestine has a vetting problem, endangering Biden’s Gaza policy​

The Biden administration’s plans for post-war Gaza center on boosting the Palestinian Authority (PA), which currently controls significant portions of the West Bank and is ruled by the Fatah party, to take control despite consistent corruption warnings and poor governance, Just the News reported last week.

Recently, the Biden administration announced it would help construct a special pier to deliver humanitarian resources to the strip while Israel prosecutes its war on Hamas.

However, the records of the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in delivering funds to Palestine and other terrorism hotbeds, like Afghanistan, are less than stellar.

For example, the grant money to the Phoenix Center for for Research and Field Studies, the Gaza-based group, is just one brick in a larger structure of U.S. aid that ends up in the hands of hostile groups.

Two State Department grants to the Phoenix Center for for Research and Field Studies, a Gaza-based group with alleged terrorism ties, illustrates a key problem, one foreign policy expert told Just the News.

 

[GURPS]

Iranian Hardliners Say Revolutionary Guard Officer Killed in Syria Designed and Implemented Oct 7 Attack​

After an Israeli air strike in Syria on Monday killed Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, a hardline Iranian political coalition has seemingly admitted that Iran played a significant role in Hamas' attack on Israel on October 7.

In a statement on Thursday memorializing Zahedi, the Coalition Council of Islamic Revolution Forces (SHANA) said he played a "strategic role in...designing and implementing" the barbaric ambush attack on Israeli civilians:

Major General Mohammad Reza Zahedi with a group of others His warriors received the reward of years of sincere struggle...
Martyr Zahedi's strategic role in forming and strengthening the resistance front, as well as designing and implementing the Al-Aqsa storm, are great honors that will make the silent efforts of this great commander immortal in the history of the anti-occupation regime.
The deadly blows that are inflicted on the occupiers of Jerusalem these days have pushed the Zionist crime leaders to the border of helplessness and desperation, and the cowardly attack on the consulate of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Damascus is a clear proof of this claim.
Supporters of Tel Aviv should know that the harsh and regretful response of the Islamic Republic of Iran to this bloody crime is on the way.

For those not familiar, Hamas calls the attack the "Al-Aqsa Storm."

 

[GURPS]

This week we got an odiferous whiff of shambolic Biden Administration desperation, if not an outright sign the Administration is at risk of completely collapsing. Let’s begin with the Yemenese Houthis, who are currently a thorn in Joe Biden’s side, because their scrappy desert fighting forces have effectively bottled up cargo ships in the Red Sea:




Following a few months of relentless U.S. military air and sea attacks against Houthi targets, absolutely nothing has changed. Yesterday the Biden Administration appeared to throw in the towel and, whereas there’s no way in Hades we’ll ever negotiate with that rascal Putin since the Ukrainians would rather die first, but when it comes to desert terrorists, Biden called for diplomacy:




Most corporate media sources reported this week that the Biden Administration — communicating through the papers — offered the Houthis a bribe, I mean an olive branch: removing them from the designated terrorist list. Bloomberg:




The Bloomberg article set the table pretty well:

The comments suggest Washington is once more leaning on diplomacy after a nearly three-month-long campaign of airstrikes against Houthi facilities in Yemen. Those have failed to stop the group’s missile and drone attacks against merchant vessels and warships, though the US says it has managed to degrade the Houthis’ military capabilities.​

“My hope is that we can find diplomatic off-ramps,” Tim Lenderking, President Joe Biden’s special envoy for Yemen, told reporters in an online press briefing on Wednesday. “To find ways to deescalate and allow us to pull back, eventually, the designation and of course to end the military strikes on Houthis’ military capability.”​

So, in Ukraine, we must fight to the last Ukrainian. No diplomacy. Never! But in Yemen, after a short three-month try — only airstrikes, no troops — America is prepared to cave, offering to bribe the terrorists by removing their terrorist label even though they are terrorists.

In other words, it’s a “quid pro quo,” which you’ll recall was an impeachable offense when Trump did it, but is now supposed to be masterful leadership or something:

Asked by Bloomberg News after the briefing if the US was offering the Houthis a quid pro quo to end their attacks on ships in return for revoking the designation, Lenderking said: “We would certainly study that but not assume it’s an automatic thing.”​

It is a humiliating defeat for the increasingly-desperate Biden, not least because he began his term in office by revoking Trump’s original declaration that the Houthis were terrorists. It was one of the very first things Biden did in February of 2021:




In other words, Biden is a moron. The Houthis were so grateful to Biden they repaid his unsolicited generosity by terrorizing the Red Sea and attacking U.S. warships with cheap underwater drones. In January, a frustrated Team Biden jammed the Houthis back on the terror list, presumably as punishment for jamming up the Red Sea:





But the Houthis apparently found this re-labeling especially humorous, and responded by increasing their water-drone attacks:





Lest we lose the thread, Biden’s much ballyhooed “Operation Prosperity Guardian” has failed. A bunch of wild Arabs in motorboats have defeated the U.S. Navy and Air Force, or at least held them to a standstill.



So now, three months after re-designating the Houthis as a terror group — which Trump had already done four years ago until Biden flipped it — now Biden is offering to re-un-designate the Houthis, or however you say it.

Joe Biden fails at everything he does, except failing. He’s wildly successful at failing.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for diplomacy. But all this flip-flopping, shilly-shallying, political back-and-forth-ism, one day you’re a terrorist and the next day you’re not, not only looks disorganized, reactive, and desperate, but it fails to withstand even meagre analysis that someone like Joe, well maybe not Joe, but even someone like Tony Blinken should be able to perform.

Explain this: Biden is sending a message to all terrorists that, hey, if you’re successful enough as a terrorist then we will reward you and pretend you’re not a terrorist.

How does that possibly makes sense? What is Biden’s foreign policy? Is it encouraging terrorism? I wish that sometime, one of the White House reporters would ask Karine whatshername to explain his “foreign policy.” Is it on the website somewhere?

Biden lost Afghanistan. Biden lost against the Houthis. Biden lost the sanctions war against Russia. Biden’s losing Ukraine. The best we can say is Joe Biden is not a winner. “Winning is overrated,” he’d be likely to quip, if he could quip anymore.

But Biden and his Administration got even more disorganized, reactive, and desperate this week.

☕️ DESPERATE AND DISORGANIZED ☙ Saturday, April 6, 2024 ☙ C&C NEWS 🦠

More coincidences in NY quake; Ukraine narrative spiraling down; Biden admin has a desperate, disorganized week; odd, urgent calls to world leaders; Florida leads with anti-tent-city law; and more.

www.coffeeandcovid.com

 

[GURPS]

Celebrity Chef José Andrés Is An Anti-Israel Dupe​

Seven aid workers at the World Central Kitchen mission in Gaza were tragically killed this week in an Israeli attack while delivering trivial amounts of food, bolstering imaginary accusations of “famine” and “genocide.” The man who sent them into a war zone, celebrity chef José Andrés, now contends the workers were “targeted deliberately” and “systematically killed” by Israel. The war in Gaza, he says, is “not a war against terrorism anymore” but a “war against humanity itself.”

One might forgive Andrés, who is likely racked with guilt, for spreading this slander. But there isn’t, of course, a scintilla of evidence to back up the accusation.

Israel has absolutely no logical, tactical, or military reason to target aid workers. For ethical reasons, Israel does not target innocent civilians, nor would it want to hand Jew-haters and anti-Israel activists more fodder. Israel is a liberal democracy with civilian oversight of the military, where investigations into military misconduct regularly occur, and the guilty are punished.

Whatever mistakes it makes, Israel fights to preserve life. It does more to protect civilians than perhaps any military, despite its enemy intentionally putting civilians in harm’s way.

And the best way to protect Palestinians and Jews is to destroy Hamas. Recall, though, that Andrés called for a “ceasefire” only a week after the mass murder, rape, and kidnapping of more than 1,000 Israeli civilians — before Gaza had even invaded. “Ceasefire,” obviously, is a euphemism for Israel’s capitulation. That is what Andrés demanded.

Indeed, Andrés has harsher words for the Jewish state than for Hamas, the entity wholly at fault for propagating this conflict and bringing misery to its people. What am I saying? In a New York Times column headlined “Let People Eat,” Andrés doesn’t even bother mentioning Hamas by name.

The day Andrés published his self-aggrandizing essay, 217 trucks of humanitarian aid were delivered to Gaza with 179 food packages carrying more than 150,000 meals. I wonder if any of the women who have been kidnapped and sexually tortured by Hamas will get one?

 

[GURPS]

Moral Midgets Cook Up a War Crime​

By Clarice Feldman


Citing fake casualty reports generated by Hamas and lies about restricted aid into Gaza, Nancy Pelosi and 37 leftist Democratic Congress members signed a letter to the President and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating, “we believe it is unjustifiable to approve these weapon transfers until the investigation into the airstrike is concluded… And we again urge you to endue that any future military assistance to Israel, including already authorized transfers, is subject to conditions to ensure it is used in compliance with U.S. and international law.”

All this is pretext by an administration that has released billions to Iran, the country that funds the proxy war from Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen against Israel, and which has done everything it can to hamstring Israeli forces from responding


War is Hell

The investigation of the incident revealed that a gunman was seen atop a WCK vehicle earlier and another was suspected nearby. (It appears that this is normal going with Hamas-posted gunmen at food depot drops), the logos on the WCK vans were invisible by night to infrared monitoring, and the officers in charge did not follow procedures, procedures set by a military which successfully has done everything possible to minimize incidental civilian casualties in circumstances where the enemy’s cynical plan is to use those civilians as shields.

Khaled H. Zakariah, a native Egyptian with 14 years’ experience in national security and counter-terrorism, points out a significant number of accidental killings of civilians by militaries, including ours, and notes if the UK and US stopped selling arms to countries responsible “we would stop manufacturing or buying arms for OUR OWN military, which has repeatedly killed civilians by mistake in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and elsewhere.”

Here’s his list of similar war zone accidents:

• Khair Khana wedding Afghanistan, 2008 – 47 civilians, including women and children
• Al-Adaala Camp Bombing Sudan 1998 -- (number of civilians killed unknown)
• Al-Majalah Airstrike, Yemen 2009 -- 41 civilians including women and children
• Bola Boluk Airstrike, Afghanistan 2009 -- 27 civilians
• Sanaa Funeral Hall Strike, Yemen 2016 -- at least 140 people killed and more than 500 injured
• Mansoura Airstrike, Syria 2017 -- deaths of at least 150 civilians,
• Amran Airstrike, Yemen 2015 -- at least 30 civilians killed
• Ghaziabad, Afghanistan, 2008 -- deaths of at least 90 civilians

Most recently, under the Biden Administration, in 2021 a U.S. drone strike in Kabul killed as many as 10 civilians, including seven children. The U.S. responded that it was a “tragic mistake” and no one responsible was punished.