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The photograph, taken by Italian photojournalist Pietro Masturzo in the village of Idhna, west of Hebron, documents Israeli settlers and occupation soldiers obstructing Palestinian farmers at the start of the olive harvest. Masturzo described armed settlers, some in military-style clothing, arrived with Israeli forces and prevented residents from accessing their land, describing the scene as part of a wider pattern long recorded across the West Bank.
Do not be seduced by these otherwise interesting Islamicist articles. Yes – Israel is committing genocide – but the nuclear-armed Pakistan has been a loyal lap-dog of the US in the past and has sponsored endless anti-Socialist movements (the Taliban originates in Pakistan and Osama Bin Laden was permitted to hide-out there). It is a thoroughly corrupt State that imprisons its leaders if they dare express any secular Socialist attitudes. In many ways, Pakistan has shifted toward Iran’s Islamicist stance whilst many supposed leftists in the West dance to their tune without thinking. Criticising Israel does not hide the fact that a regime has more in common with Israel than it does the Palestinians. The very fact Iran does not seek the release of Imran Khan speaks volumes and should alert Western leftists to the threat of militant Islamicism masquarading as left-wing politics.
Iran, despite the sanctions preventing it from trading, building-up wealth, and importing resources, developed its missile and drone forces over many decades. Iran is now using-up all these supplies whilst the US is destroying the infrastructure of Iran – that very same infrastructure which built the missiles in the first place – no infrastructure – no missiles. On the face of it, these US losses are only significant from the perspective of the US (and Israel) rarely losing their expensive warplanes during the asymmetric wars they start. The only exception I can recall is the events of 1973, which involved the USSR secretly providing the Palestinians with sophisticated surface-to-air missiles. These Soviet missiles destroyed the Israeli Airforce in around 20 minutes during the Yom Kippur War. The problem was that a United Arab Army lost to the Israelis on the battlefield.
Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf urged global audiences to read three UN reports on Zionist war crimes, stating that awareness is a vital part of resistance and key to understanding why Iran fights for humanity.
The US representative, Dan Negrea, claimed that the resolution was “highly problematic in countless respects”, the UN News agency reported.
The US government stressed that it “does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred”.
The representative of the European Union made the same argument on the floor of the UN.
The EU criticized the resolution for implying “suggestions of a retroactive application of international rules which was non-existent at the time and claims for reparations, which is incompatible with established principles of international law”.
“References to claims for reparations also lack a sound legal basis”, the EU argued, stressing that the “principle of non-retroactivity, a fundamental cornerstone of the international legal order, must be strictly upheld”.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said the same, in a statement explaining its decision to abstain.
The British representative argued that there is “no duty to provide reparation for historical acts that were not, at the time those acts were committed, violations of international law”.
The UK insisted “that the prohibitions on slavery, the slave trade, and what are now considered crimes against humanity had not yet been established in international law at the time of the transatlantic slave trade”.
Quite often a religion takes on the prevailing manifestation of the society it inhabits – this explains the totalitarian nature of the Christian Church (and the monastery) which is premised upon a hierarchical feudal society administered by an absolute monarch. Zulu religion reflected the warrior culture that Shaka Zulu created (premised upon past tribal conventions with new innovations). Tribes in the Amazon possess religious beliefs that reflect the forest, etc. Religion is reactionary and can only orientate itself existentially – promising the adherent that some type of ethereal “escape” is possible (a claim that is never proven). It is fascinating that the religionists compound their illogicality by assuming that monotheism is an improvement upon polytheism. Really? At least if a tree is worshipped – the tree actually exists and is a material object existing in the physical world. Of course, religions can be studied and understood (as a type of history) – but such a researcher must not fall into the mire of religiosity. Such a researcher must not get high on his own supply – or get caught sipping his own bar supplies. What I find interesting about Iranian ideology is that it talks about opposing capitalism – whilst practicing capitalism within its society. Capitalism has not be over-thrown in Iran – only moulded to fit an Islamicist theism. Where, then, is the “Revolution”? It would seem that this refers to rejecting the Western imperialism projected into Iran (by the West) – and replacing it (or re-establishing) Islam (which is the right of the Iranian people). But consider this, Iran has a pre-history of thousands of years that was not Islamic – but polytheistic. Indeed, it was this astonishing culture that ruled a huge empire – the soldiers of which fought the Spartans at Thermopylae. Iran possessed a great culture prior to the rise of Islam – but this is denied or portrayed as an “error” by the theology extracted from the Holy Qur’an. How can this attitude be logical or true?
