Written by Julian Macfarlane, Tokyo based investigative journalist, writer, author, geopolitical and military analyst
This was my voiceover for SouthFront’s video on war “reigniting” in the Middle East, with the US attack on the Houthis and Israel’s subsequent attack on Gaza.
One could say that the war in the Middle East never stopped—just slowed down in Lebanon and Gaza as the Israelis sought to take advantage of the Turkish and American sponsored overthrow of the Assad regime in Syria, adding new territories to Greater Israel in the South of the country that and they hoped provide a base for future attacks on Iran.
So, the war did not “reignite” in the Middle East: it continued to smolder in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon while the flames ravaged Syria.
The US played its role too — having sponsored both the ceasefire in Lebanon and that in Gaza. How could they NOT know what was going to happen?
I have written articles on Substack about all of this, indicating how for the Israelis a “ceasefire” does not mean a stop to violence but just easing off on the death and destruction enough to recoup, re-arm and redeploy forces elsewhere for more killing. I called it an “easefire”. In the case of Gaza and Hamas, it also served to get a few hostages released to placate public option.
I suggested that in the case of Gaza once enough hostages had been let go –Netanyahu would ease off on “easefire”. He. didn’t actually care about the hostages— just about public opinion There would be no Phase 2 for that celebrated ceasefire.
The Israelis would blame Hamas. So would Trump.
Trump is even more Zionist than Biden. After all, his son-in-law Jared Kushner has been, and continues to be an advocate for Israeli Zionism: he is a personal friend of Netanyahu with links to the Zionist extremist West Bank settler movement. He’s an AIPAC man.
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He is another genocidaire in a grand tradition.
Trump’s own plan to relocate Gazans elsewhere recalls Hitler’s early attempts to relocate Jews from Germany. The US, the UK and Canada all turned away Jewish refugees. The Poles, who were as anti-Semitic as the Germans, had the idea of sending them to Madagascar. That failed, Then came the “Final Solution”.
The Israelis violated the terms of the ceasefire in Gaza egregiously from Day One. When Hamas objected—Israel then blamed them for violating the agreement, which they had actually been honoring. The US blamed them too.
Netanyahu’s visit to the White House and his gift of a gold-plated pager, presumably without explosives inside was an obvious success.
And Trump has stacked his “team” with people who are arguably worse than Biden’s Zionist neocon handlers.
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Ending the fictional ceasefire raised the question of Iran, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, who would almost certainly react.
As things got worse and worse in Gaza, the Houthis had said that if the Israelis continued to violate the agreement with Hamas, they, the Houthis, would once again target Israeli shipping in the Red Sea. It was a matter of “principle”. A very Un-American idea.
But the ceasefire was still technically in place. So, to set things up, the Americans struck Yemen on March 16, bombing residential areas, hoping to kill as many Houthi leaders as possible, as Israeli did Hezbollah leaders in Beirut last year. That meant killing civilians, of course – mass slaughter – but the Americans have a history of this kind of things, for example mounting strikes on wedding parties to kill maybe on “suspected” insurgent.
The strikes killed 53 people and left hundreds wounded.
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Israel restarted it war on Gaza shortly after on March 18 with their Operation Strength and Sword, killing more than 400 people, among them the spokesman for the Islamic Jihad, Abu Hamaza.
That’s the Israeli way. The American way.
Hundreds of women and children killed to get to a single spokesperson.
The Houthis responded with four strikes on the American fleet which were successful insofar as they forced the fleet to move out of range. They used drones and missiles. Nobody knows if the missiles hit anything, The Americans would never admit that. But the US Navy really did have to retreat. To stay in place or, worse get closer to the shore, would increase the chance of a missile doing major damage that could not be denied.
The Houthis also launched two Palestine 2 hypersonic missiles at Israel, the second one at Ben Gurion airport.
The Israelis claim to have intercepted them both – outside of Israeli airspace –which they always say, not matter what, despite their claims having been proven overstatement at best in the case of Iran.
It is possible that they intercepted the warheads, after they had separated from the main body of the missiles, but that would be inside Israeli airspace, with the warhead slowing down from Mach 15 to Mach 5 or less as it descends through denser atmosphere.
In addition, these were single shots, so the Israelis could saturate the predicted path of the missile with interceptors.
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Assume some exaggeration here. You still have a formidable weapon. Its main problem is terminal guidance and targeting, which would require a good satellite system.
The Israelis of course had sirens blaring and the population scurrying underground —not because of the possible damage from one missile —as much as possible damage from the dozens and dozens of interceptors fired, exploding and raining shrapnel down.
Only two Houthi missiles indicates that these missiles, however, were not intended to destroy any particular facility, which would require a lot more than two, as much as to remind the Israel public that they are vulnerable.
In the meantime, the Israelis struck at Hezbollah in the Beqaa Valley, perhaps hoping for retaliation—which I am sure will come with appropriate timing. They also struck targets in southern Syria to define their control over new territories.
As for the US, it hopes to unleash its attack dog, Israel, on Iran and it wants help from Russia. Dream on!
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ahmad shah massoud’s views – part 2 – historic speech against taliban in mosque this is the second part of ahmad shah massoud’s views, which is on of his most famous speech against the taliban. the first part of ahmad shah massoud’s views with a full analysis of them can be read here. this speech is the transcript of a recorded speech on video. afghan resistance leader ahmad shah massoud (1 sep 1953 – 9 sep 2001) delivered a speech against the
in today’s episode, from the various incidents that have happened to you and us, one incident is this incident. according to my understanding and my calculation, a more dangerous situation occurred for us last year. last year, people were optimistic about the taliban. last year, the people (afghans) were looking at the taliban as the symbol for peace, security and justice. last year, people thought that the taliban would be the savior and would save afghanistan from this misery
and groups of troops joined the taliban without a single bullet, while this year, there was no talk about that (defection).this year, wherever the taliban’s unfortunate footsteps reached, men and women took up arms and went to the mountains. no one was willing to surrender to this disgrace and submit to this humiliation by the taliban. they understood that they (taliban) are people without culture, religion, morality, conscience;
they are people who have sold themselves to foreigners, (and are) in the hands of foreign agents, in opposition to islam, against islam, in the name of islam they are used by someone else. when they (afghan people) were capable, they confronted them, else they went to the mountains. and in this way, not only inside of the country but also outside, at an international level, people became familiar with the true face of the taliban.
officials of various countries announced that even if the taliban takes over the whole of afghanistan, because it (taliban) is in the hands of a foreign country, although they do not explicitly mention the name of pakistan, afghanistan is occupied by a foreign country, (they say,) “we, european countries, won’t recognize it (the taliban regime).” believe me, we and you, who are with the truth, praise be to god, we understand ourselves to be with truth,
rationally we understand ourselves to be with truth: we are from this country, and are in this country, we didn’t go to punjab, we didn’t go to peshawar, we are on the path of truth, and thus there is no need to explain more about it. when we are with truth, it is not like this that we may face difficulties like the ones that happened in the past. (we are) people who are with truth, who stand up (for our rights), who practice piety, and who are all according to the noble verse
(of the holy quran): “in the name of allah, the most gracious, the most merciful, do not falter or grieve, for you will be victorious, if you are true believers.” (3:139) if we truly believe, if we have complete faith, observe islamic ethics, remove (from our hearts) fear, cowardice, fear of death, consider surrender to the enemy as a disgrace, are united, by god, few punjabis are with it (taliban), the world won’t back it. against a determined people no one can stand.
let’s make an oath (right now), this decision, brother: if i am alive, i live as a man, i live as a mujahid and if i die, i die as a man, next to hundreds of martyrs who are buried here. if you say, you won’t be a martyr, according to the fatwa of the great scholars, if you get killed by taliban (in battle) you are a martyr and if you kill the talib (in battle) you will be the judge. the talib is a rebel, a mercenary, the enemy of islam and the people.
this is my personal decision: i will have a gun with me. i will defend islam, my homeland, against the pakistani mercenary and the uncultured taliban, and will shoot him. you, they young and old people, the stone and wood of panjshir, history of this land are witness that the people of panjshir, the mujahideen of panjshir, in the most difficult historical conditions, against the worst enemies of islam and the homeland, thank god, have shown their steadfastness and resilience.
you faced the khalqis (afghan communists), you faced the russians, the strongest army of russia attacked this valley. russian generals and marshals were planning for days what to do in relation to this valley and the defeat of this valley. thank god, it was the grace of god, that the resistance and defiance of the women, men, and stone and wood of panjshir that made all the russian plans fail at that time. and you can see the books that russian generals wrote, a big part o
them are complaints about panjshir.and after it, it was the grace of god, that god chose you to overthrow (ex-president) najeeb (mohammad najibullah), and transferred power from the communists to muslims. and you, the mujahideen and you people, became victorious in this battle. the international conspiracies increased and more than the international conspiracies our own desires became dangerous.
if not in our beliefs, in our manners and in our character came negative effects, (thus) god subjected us to a severe test but despite that, it was because of you (that the taliban failed), else the whole place would be taken by the taliban. the taliban was stopped before the entry of panjshir, took losses and was forced to retreat. and once again, the people understood that there are people who can withstand against the (pakistani sponsored) taliban. and again a new phase began.
later, you saw that the enemy reached takhar and raised its flag in nahrin. it blocked the road in khanjan. salang, which is next to us, unfortunately found a problem, in panjshir and in the north. with trust in god, praying before god, the decisive determination of the nation, steadfastness, you saw how god has given us victory (against all this). it was because of that victory
that the sufferings that existed also during the kabul government were forgotten by the people and they have started to believe again that these people of panjshir are really the ones that god has bestowed mercy upon. panjshir has reemerged as a center of resistance and revolution has been created from there. lessons from massoud’s historic speech against the taliban this speech by ahmad shah massoud
do you remember the people who fought against the taliban? they were men who protected the world from terrorist psychopaths. sami sadat said that it was only a matter of time before terrorists would repeat september 11th. i repeat, afghanistan had men, but syria only has russian prostitutes.and the day will come when the russian brothel will be disbanded and the yakuts will also live in a free country. my calculation shows that russia will be dissolved as soon as a democrat gets into the wh.
trump is purposely trying to cause an inflammatory response from muslims as anyone in the united states would quite rightly presume that a large muslim population in the west is a ticking time bomb. trump baiting muslims into violence is a good way to assign a task force to such people with legal pretext.
way to go mr. trump!
that pete hegseth really looks like a slimy greasy sleazeball. even when he was working at fox news he gave that impression.
he’s all good from top to bottom
no doubt, he’s both.
russia must erase “us” from the surface, and the houthis must sink the aircraft carriers. its risk that europe will be target for a intensified killing of the old, the sick, fetuses and bees. the difference are that the indians noticed it, the europeans do everything for to get killed. the terror against the survivors of the fake pandemic have increase in sweden.
leave christianity, russia ! wipe out the source to nazi germany this time, they which extinct 200 peoples in north america.
that was mussolini that savaged the oldest christian empire on earth, ethiopia.
you can’t read too welll, huh derpster?
more rubbish from the left wing liars
more rubbish from a fascist closet-case. keep up the good work, twink.
the funding of the assad venture includes the eu. this suggests there is no real rift in usa/nato/globalism but a change in strategies. in order to bring ameican people/military back while stabilizing the usa economy then putting a new face on globalist methods splitting russia from it’s alliances in preparation of future wars.
chumpo is planning to attack iran in a few weeks time. this explains the urgency in winding down his involvement in ukraine. a war is expected in 2 months.v
the drumpf entourage all look like third-world gangsters. the american great divide, maga slime and woke kooks.
the jewsa and its assorted jackals and poodles are looking increasingly shaky and turning to repressive legislation, rigid censorship and blanket surveillance to intimidate their alienated, disaffected and restive populations. this is a sign of weakness, not strength. they have been forced to take off the mask and discard all pretence of human rights and civil liberties. free speech and all other rights have been stripped away. they have lost all legitimacy through their complicity in genocide.
this loss of legitimacy and prestige is difficult to quantify but is a significant development probably greater than any military failure. these regimes cannot climb on their high horse and give pious lectures and lofty sermons to darkies and brown folks about their human rights failings. they still do, of course, but they are met with contempt and derision, when people are arrested, jailed and deported for carrying a palestinian flag, or praying silently, or using the wrong pronouns.
these regimes are increasingly rejected by their populations when sham elections are held, though these are now regularly cancelled or postponed when they produce the “wrong” result, with opposition figures and parties banned, jailed, or simply disappeared or murdered. and these ruling elites are tottering, and they will become increasingly vicious, violent and repressive as their grip on power is challenged.
it is not trump that are calling the shots. it is the jews. how difficult is it to understand it. and who was gassed. please provide a single piece of forensic evidence.