Hamas attacking Israel

[Canuck Surfer]

UK's new govt included commenting that hostages must be released. But this speech is dialogue pressuring Israel.

 

 

[Optimist Prime]

I find it really striking that a Journalist and a Doctor, son and father to each other, were Hamas members AND holding hostages this whole time. 

I think it speaks louder than any one of us could to those saying Journalists and Medical professionals at the hospitals in Gaza should not be targets of the IDF. 

When thinking of where a terrorist may hide: one has to instantly consider behind a MEDIA vest and a Doctors scrubs at UNRWA as the very best hiding spots, and then look for evidence in all the places one may expect to find them. 

This really bore out for the IDF when liberating three hostages held by the family of this Doctor and Journalist in Nuseirat, Gaza, about 11 days ago. I hope it helps to explain why Media credentials and Dr's diplomas do not make someone immune to being a member of Hamas. 

 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/19/middleeast/gaza-neighborhood-israeli-hostages-intl-cmd/index.html

 

Quote

The Aljamal family was widely respected in Gaza’s Nuseirat camp. They were known as pious and prominent members of the community. While people knew they had connections to Hamas, neighbors say no one could have guessed how deep those links truly went.

When Israeli forces stormed the Aljamals’ building on June 8 they found Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv, hostages who had been captured from the Nova music festival on October 7, cowering in a darkened room.

The experience of the three men – alongside that of Noa Argamani who was held in another house nearby, belonging to the Abu Nar family – echoes testimony from previously released hostages. They describe being confined among the civilian population, rather than in Hamas’ vast tunnel network under Gaza.

Quote

In the aftermath of last month’s rescue, neighbors in Nuseirat, a refugee camp in central Gaza, told CNN they were shocked to learn that Ahmed Aljamal, a physician, and his family had kept hostages in their midst.

 

Dr. Aljamal’s son Abdallah, 36, was a freelance journalist who most recently wrote for the US-based Palestine Chronicle, for which he filed regular dispatches on the war in Gaza.

 

Quote

Neighbors told CNN it was no secret that the family had links to Hamas. “We were worried about the Aljamal house. They are with Hamas,” said a neighbor and family acquaintance.

Abdallah had served as a spokesman for Gaza’s Ministry of Labor as recently as 2022, a position entrusted only to Hamas members, according to political analysts. He also showed his support for the group on social media. On Facebook, he posted pictures of his young son dressed in the fatigues of Hamas’ armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and on October 7 openly praised the group’s attack on Israel. In a 2022 video post, Abdallah commended the Hamas operation to kidnap Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was held in Gaza between 2006 and 2011, and proclaimed: “Brothers, all of us are prepared to die for the resistance.”

 A fourth hostage was rescued from the home of a wealthy man. I think it is obvious without having to state it that any wealthy man in Gaza must have ties to Hamas if not outright membership, or they would not be wealthy in a place where the entire population is poor/unemployed and only those connected to the government of Gaza have anything worth having. 

 

Hopefully these traits are being collated and used as a filter to work out where to find other hostages. The sooner they are all recovered or accounted for among the dead, the sooner this war will be over. 

[Canuck Surfer]

 

[Canuck Surfer]

While we are being serious;

 

 

[Canuck Surfer]

www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/iaf-strikes-elkahira-company-operating-in-gaza-responsible-for-transferring-funds-to-hamas

 

IAF strikes 'Elkahira' company operating in Gaza, responsible for transferring funds to Hamas

The Israel Air Force (IAF) struck a structure used by terrorist organizations to build up military operations in the area of Deir al Balah in the Gaza Strip, the IDF reported on Saturday afternoon.

 

The IAF conducted the strikes following intelligence provided by the IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency). 

 

The "Elkahira" company operated in the structure since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas War and was central to storing and transferring funds to terror organizations in Gaza, as well as carrying out terror activities, the IDF noted. 

 

This latest action followed the IDF's Thursday strike on the operative Tahsin Elandim, who operated in the "Elkahira" company. Tahsin transferred funds to terror organizations in Gaza, including to Hamas's military wing. 

[Optimist Prime]

The other night Yemen struck Tel Aviv with a drone that made it somehow into Israeli airspace.

A few hours ago, Israel responded using F-35's, a mid air refueling aircraft, and good intel on targets of military significance to the Houthi's in Yemen. 

[Canuck Surfer]

 

Plenty of division in the region. Note the difference of perspective to both sides of this conflict, Christians vs Muslims who 'cannot' live together just a few 100 km's from Israel, Gaza.

 

 

[Optimist Prime]

I think if the Houthi group running the breakaway rebel states of Yemen cared even one iota for their people, they would spend the money they are using on firing rockets at international shipping instead on their people. Looks so incredibly poverty stricken, and this in their capital. 

[Canuck Surfer]

33 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

The other night Yemen struck Tel Aviv with a drone that made it somehow into Israeli airspace.

A few hours ago, Israel responded using F-35's, a mid air refueling aircraft, and good intel on targets of military significance to the Houthi's in Yemen. 

 

[Ilunga]

9 hours ago, Optimist Prime said:

I think if the Houthi group running the breakaway rebel states of Yemen cared even one iota for their people, they would spend the money they are using on firing rockets at international shipping instead on their people. Looks so incredibly poverty stricken, and this in their capital. 

 

We are such a stupid species.

 

While a bit dated, the figures are in the same ballpark today in regards to what we spend on the military, and what it would take to end poverty. 

 

" Just 10 percent of world military spending could knock of world poverty "

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/just-10-percent-of-world-military-spending-could-knock-off-poverty-think-tank-idUSKCN0X12EP/

 

We are going to pay $368 billion to buy three and build another 8 nuclear powered submarines, while 761,000 Australian kids live below the poverty line. 

 

 

And just so you know, I put my money where my mouth is.

I sponsor 2 " smith " family kids. 

According to them 1 in 6 australian kids live below the poverty line.

 

https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/

 

 

Edited July 21 by Ilunga

[Optimist Prime]

52 minutes ago, Ilunga said:

 

We are such a stupid species.

 

While a bit dated, the figures are in the same ballpark today in regards to what we spend on the military, and what it would take to end poverty. 

 

" Just 10 percent of world military spending could knock of world poverty "

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/just-10-percent-of-world-military-spending-could-knock-off-poverty-think-tank-idUSKCN0X12EP/

 

We are going to pay $368 billion to buy three and build another 8 nuclear powered submarines, while 761,000 Australian kids live below the poverty line. 

 

 

And just so you know, I put my money where my mouth is.

I sponsor 2 " smith " family kids. 

According to them 1 in 6 australian kids live below the poverty line.

 

https://www.thesmithfamily.com.au/

 

 

I am with you there, even if it doesn't come from defence: i have been pushing for 6 years now to get my paper on Guaranteed Living Income for Seniors in Poverty past the convention floor and into Government order papers for voting as a bill.

 

Last two times I got to the convention floor and first time was combined with another paper and then defeated, last time it was voted in by the delegates but not yet proferred as a party platform plank in an election: but i suspect 2025 it may be there.

 

In Canada at least, only 3.5 billion more will erase Senior Citizen poverty, yet every voter/taxpayer who doesn't have to resort to cat food casaroles to stretch their pension income will say its too expensive and they don't want to pay for it. (yes i did meet an old lady who did exactly that cuz a tin of Cat tuna was 40 cents versus 4 dollars for human grade)

 

 

[Ilunga]

11 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

I am with you there, even if it doesn't come from defence: i have been pushing for 6 years now to get my paper on Guaranteed Living Income for Seniors in Poverty past the convention floor and into Government order papers for voting as a bill.

 

Last two times I got to the convention floor and first time was combined with another paper and then defeated, last time it was voted in by the delegates but not yet proferred as a party platform plank in an election: but i suspect 2025 it may be there.

 

In Canada at least, only 3.5 billion more will erase Senior Citizen poverty, yet every voter/taxpayer who doesn't have to resort to cat food casaroles to stretch their pension income will say its too expensive and they don't want to pay for it. (yes i did meet an old lady who did exactly that cuz a tin of Cat tuna was 40 cents versus 4 dollars for human grade)

 

 

 

What you are doing is even more important than donating money.

You are trying to change the system.

I wish there were more people like you in our societies. 

 

It's when I am discussing things like this, that I regret the path I took in life when I left school.

I wish I could be a real difference maker in the society I live in. 

 

There are some retirement units about 500 metres, Sylvan Glades, down the dirt road across from my farm.

Over the last 30 years I have visited a number of the pensioners Iiving there.

Bring them a bunch of flowers, have a chat and a cuppa.

In our " shire ", council zone, there are a number of services for the elderly, including meals on wheels. 

Still there are elderly in our society who do have to resort to not using heaters in winter and not having enough to eat. 

[Optimist Prime]

1 hour ago, Ilunga said:

 

What you are doing is even more important than donating money.

You are trying to change the system.

I wish there were more people like you in our societies. 

 

It's when I am discussing things like this, that I regret the path I took in life when I left school.

I wish I could be a real difference maker in the society I live in. 

 

There are some retirement units about 500 metres, Sylvan Glades, down the dirt road across from my farm.

Over the last 30 years I have visited a number of the pensioners Iiving there.

Bring them a bunch of flowers, have a chat and a cuppa.

In our " shire ", council zone, there are a number of services for the elderly, including meals on wheels. 

Still there are elderly in our society who do have to resort to not using heaters in winter and not having enough to eat. 

We have meals on wheels here too, haha.

 

I havent been successful yet in my ultimate goal but there have been three rounds of 10% increases to old age security and the supplement in the time I have been bending Liberal Cabinet Ministers ears about it, and have had about 3 hours of face to face time with our PM over the last decade, which in some ways speaks to my good fortune. It is only right to help the less fortunate. And I do feel fortunate compared to what I have seen around the world and here in my quiet valley on Vancouver Island. Not to mention all this shitty news now for years.

[Canuck Surfer]

There are those that think Biden, Trump AND Bibi are too conservative?

 

 

[Ilunga]

37 minutes ago, Canuck Surfer said:

There are those that think Biden, Trump AND Bibi are too conservative?

 

 

 

No doubt Erik Prince, a Christian fundamentalist nut job thinks this way. 

 

I suggest you read 

Blackwater

The Rise of The World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, by Jeremy Scahill. 

 

You are welcome to borrow it if you want. 

[Canuck Surfer]

Speaking of nutjobs; the Arab league is all deteriorating as Assad has been reluctantly allowed back in.

 

Over 500,000 civilian deaths, 14 Million displaced, 5.5 million internal refugee's over 13 years. 

 

I'll repeat a personal editorial that a massive amount of military alliances, supply routes and black markets are the primary backers, and source of income & arms for Hamas.

 

 

[Optimist Prime]

3 hours ago, Canuck Surfer said:

Speaking of nutjobs; the Arab league is all deteriorating as Assad has been reluctantly allowed back in.

 

Over 500,000 civilian deaths, 14 Million displaced, 5.5 million internal refugee's over 13 years. 

 

I'll repeat a personal editorial that a massive amount of military alliances, supply routes and black markets are the primary backers, and source of income & arms for Hamas.

 

 

i hate this guy as much as i hated his dad.

[Gnarcore]

22 hours ago, Optimist Prime said:

I think if the Houthi group running the breakaway rebel states of Yemen cared even one iota for their people, they would spend the money they are using on firing rockets at international shipping instead on their people. Looks so incredibly poverty stricken, and this in their capital. 

Well being a proxy victim of Iran vs. SA has not helped matters there....

[Bob Long]

10 hours ago, Optimist Prime said:

We have meals on wheels here too, haha.

 

Did that for a year before I left SK. Saddest part was they seemed to want the few minutes of conversation as much as the food 

 

10 hours ago, Optimist Prime said:

I havent been successful yet in my ultimate goal but there have been three rounds of 10% increases to old age security and the supplement in the time I have been bending Liberal Cabinet Ministers ears about it, and have had about 3 hours of face to face time with our PM over the last decade, which in some ways speaks to my good fortune. It is only right to help the less fortunate. And I do feel fortunate compared to what I have seen around the world and here in my quiet valley on Vancouver Island. Not to mention all this shitty news now for years.

 

How far up in the party system are you?

[Canuck Surfer]

9 minutes ago, Gnarcore said:

Well being a proxy victim of Iran vs. SA has not helped matters there....

 

That is just new (ish). A most recent conflict anyway since the Arab Spring? To the profit of dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh for decades prior. Houthis first impoverished then ally for him strategically. Saleh an ally for the US in George Bush's war on terror and against Iran when the Shah was deposed. Then deposed by the Houthi's with a shifting allegiance to Iran themselves during upheaval.   

 

https://www.csis.org/analysis/saleh-and-war-yemen

 

Spoiler

Few are likely to mourn the assassination of Yemen's former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh. His rule over Yemen presided over decades of failure to deal with his country's desperate levels of poverty and its steadily growing problems with overpopulation, a lack of water, and a dependence on Qat—a drug so unrewarding that the only country that would import it was the even poorer nation of Somalia.

 

The UN warned as early as 2002 that Yemen was one of several Arab states whose population growth and economic problems were critical. Its population had already increased from 4.8 million in 1950 to 23.9 million in 2011. It is 28 million today and will rise to 46 million by 2050. Saleh did nothing meaningful to address this population growth or its impacts.

 

Long before the war, Yemen was critically dependent on food imports and foreign remittances. It was rapidly depleting its fossil water, was underfunding education and medical services, had critical unemployment problems, and had one of the lowest per capita incomes in the world.

 

Moreover, Saleh's failures to govern left Yemen vulnerable to Al Qaida and ISIS, led to serious tension and some fighting between his government and the Yemenis who were part of the former separate state of South Yemen, and laid the ground work for much of the misery in Yemen.

 

As for Saleh, he already was largely a spent force when he was killed. He had given up power in 2011, and then tried to recover it by shifting from an alliance with the Saudis to one with the Iranian-backed Houthi. He was outmaneuvered by the Houthi, however, and they steadily gained power relative to Saleh and the remnants of Yemen's military forces who remained loyal to him. A man who had once kept power by the kind of political maneuvering that he described as "dancing on the head of snakes," now found the snakes dancing on him.

 

The end result was that Saleh's alliance with the Houthi collapsed. The Saleh faction and Houthis began to fight, and Saleh turned back to the Saudis and UAE. This seemed to offer some hope that the civil war in Yemen could be resolved, but it was the Houthis that were winning, and the Houthis that killed him. Unless his surviving supporters are much stronger than now seems likely, the end result has left the Houthis without any strong internal challenges in the region they control and locked into the same grinding war of attrition with the Saudis and UAE that they have been fighting for months.

 

If there is any tragedy in Saleh's death, it is that it will make it even harder to put an end to the conflict and negotiate a meaningful settlement. This is a remarkably brutal war, and one where both sides have had a major impact in putting civilians at risk.

 

There has been a tendency to blame Saudi Arabia and the UAE—the backers of the Hadi government recognized by the UN and most outside states except Iran—for Yemen's current level of suffering. Some of this blame is legitimate. Saudi Arabia and the UAE did launch an air and land campaign that made far too optimistic assumptions about the effectiveness of air power and the limited use of Saudi and UAE land forces. This campaign did score some initial victories, but for months, the result has been a stalemate on the land.

 

As a result, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have focused on the use of air power. However, their air attacks have not yet dramatically altered the course of the fighting. What they have produced is serious civilian casualties and collateral damage, and Saudi and UAE efforts to seal off the few major ports open to the Houthis—who control key portions of the most populated areas of the country—have made things worse. A lack of food, medicine, and other critical supplies has sharply increased civilian suffering and disease.

 

At the same time, these impacts must be kept in perspective. Saleh's death makes it even more important to properly assign the blame and put pressure on both sides to resolve the conflict. Yemen was an economic basket case before the air campaign and embargo with extreme poverty, poor medical and education facilities, and serious malnutrition problems. The Hadi government was at least nominally elected—albeit in a one-candidate election—and had broad international recognition.

 

The Houthis have done much to divide Yemen along sectarian and regional lines, have been closely linked to Iran, and have done little to either show they can govern effectively or make any coherent efforts to negotiate. They have been all too willing to keep fighting regardless of the human consequences. They have not shown they have any plans or capabilities to govern in ways than can help Yemen develop or break out of its grind cycle of growing poverty, or that they offer Yemen any credible future if they win.

 

It also makes little sense to blame the Saudis and the UAE for the bulk of the casualties in fighting when there are no credible sources of such casualty estimates, and some estimates only attempt to guess at the casualties coming from the air (without seriously trying to estimate the impact of the fighting on the ground).

 

War is inherently brutal, and stalemates and embargoes do immense damage to the civilian economy over time. But, this is a two-sided war, and putting excessive blame on one side seems more likely to extend the conflict by reducing the incentive to negotiate. Far too much reporting on the air war seems to ignore the actual ways in which the Saudis and UAE actually manage the air war.

 

A visit to the Saudi command center in Riyadh is almost like visiting the U.S. Combined Air Command Center in Qatar. The Saudis, UAE, and other Arab air forces use virtually the same targeting tactics and rules of engagement to limit civilian casualties from air strikes as the U.S. and its allies use in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Saudi command also uses the same advanced command and control displays to warn where civilians are present, to limit strikes on civilian facilities, and to place the same emphasis on precision strikes and the careful review of strike plans—as well as damage assessment.

 

The key difference between the wars is that the Saudis and UAE are far more dependent on airpower, while the U.S. could rely on Iraqi and Afghan ground forces for a major part of the fighting. This does mean that Saudi and UAE air attacks inflict a larger portion of the total civilian casualties and collateral damage.

 

Yet, the Houthi unwillingness to negotiate and determination to prolong the war is equally destructive. Any valid analysis of the air war also needs to address the fact that the Houthis use tactics that rely heavily on human shields, and use exaggerated claims of civil casualties as a key propaganda weapons. It needs to take a hard look at how the Houthis deal with governance, the management of their resources, and allocation of aid. And, it needs to take a hard look at the role of Iran as it seeks influence over Yemen, in providing missiles and arms, and supporting another war that does so much human damage.

 

Most important, Saleh's death is a warning that both sides can keep fighting indefinitely. In this war, it is unclear that either side can hope to quickly win by defeating the other. Unless both sides can be persuaded to negotiate, what is clear is that the losers will be the Yemeni people.

 

 

Incarnations of such militant leaders has never stopped. History not kind to its masses. Fought over by feudal & colonial powers, empires, marauders. Slave trading amongst its legacies. Herding slaves itself not a well paying job? A commodity moving through its ports due to location.          

[Optimist Prime]

8 minutes ago, Bob Long said:

 

Did that for a year before I left SK. Saddest part was they seemed to want the few minutes of conversation as much as the food 

 

 

How far up in the party system are you?

its a dog eat dog world out there and i am wearing milk bone underwear. haha. 

Not far at all in other words, but it is very easy to actually be involved and have input. I have had input since Stephane Dion was the party leader, I joined because of him.

[Canuck Surfer]

Saleh himself accepting economic aid from the US, which he corruptly banked not shared with his people. 

 

Ironically used the Houthis to guard the Bab el Mandeb strait against pirates and other militants to keep shipping lanes open! 

[Canuck Surfer]

Some more history.

 

 

[Canuck Surfer]

 

[Bob Long]

32 minutes ago, Optimist Prime said:

its a dog eat dog world out there and i am wearing milk bone underwear. haha. 

Not far at all in other words, but it is very easy to actually be involved and have input. I have had input since Stephane Dion was the party leader, I joined because of him.

 

I'm considering getting more involved as I wind my way out of consulting, not sure what the party is looking for tho, I'm not really much for door knocking.