Itâs just been announced that 90 Palestinian âprisonersâ have been released by Israel, including several women and children as young as 8 years old. Our unbiased MSM, including the BBC sadly, always refer to Palestinians as âprisonersâ, but Israelis are always âhostagesâ. Language matters, get with the program!
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What an eye-opener this Bob Vylan and Kneecap lark is.
Now I am one of the few people whoâd heard of both prior to this weekend. Bob Vylan have a particularly vicious track that I was into last year.
The act has been dropped from a load of other festivals as a result of their chant, âDeath, Death to the IDFâ, something that has been characterised as antisemitic because most Israelis get conscripted into it.
The wiser might point out that âhey, the IDF is an institution, not a raceâ and theyâd be right, but who the fuck is listening to the wise these days?
Even if they are, are they brave enough to speak out?
Itâs weird when you think about the numbers. Even if you assumed that every Jewish person in the UK supported what is going on in Gaza, thatâs only 270k people.
Itâs a bit like asking the population of Southampton to be the arbiters of a foreign conflict.
Thing is, you canât really make that assumption. Iâve been on marches with Jewish people that were as vehemently opposed to Israelâs treatment of Palestinians as I was.
The absolute best critics of Israel are Jewish and normally do live in Israsl, but even that is a country that has a smaller population than London.
If there is one good thing about Trump running the US, I think his ego is bigger than his political acumen. I will say that Biden never pushed this hard for a ceasefire, which Trump claims to have achieved tonight.
I also think he will get fucked off with being fucked over in a way that few American Presidents have.
But returning to the original point, it is insane that the chant is bigger news than the people whoâve been shot darting to get food from aid trucks.
The link between the IDF and Jewry is even more insane.
Itâs like saying someone is Islamophobic because they call for the death of ISIS or the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
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Tbf if you went about shouting death to the IRG in the same way then the Ayatollah (not mine) would Fatwah the shit out of you
Ask Salman Rushdie - all he did was write a book
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It wasnât really my point, which was more about calling for the death of an institution Vs inciting imminent violence.
Iâve got a piece coming up on the Almanac about authority.
We might not have gulags for dissidents, but we are scarily capable of destroying people within the system.
Bob Vylan probably ainât getting tour work for the foreseeable.
I reckon they might sell a few albums or get more listens on Spotify.
How long before they get delisted? I would take a bet right now about how long they will be on the streaming platforms?
Rather than taking a bet, Iâd sooner go for the moral position.
Toby Young, who I donât really have a lot of time for, was on a good Channel 4 News debate with Ash Sarker.
Both were on opposite ends of the spectrum when it came to the legitimacy of what the IDF are getting up to in Gaza, but even Young felt that Bob Vylan should not be prosecuted, and that the chants did not meet the threshold for prosecution.
Interestingly, he thought that the Kneecap performance did. They were calling for a riot, at a specific place and at a specific time.
And while Rushdie has suffered tremendously over the fatwah, this is one man. I disagree in the strongest degree that this is the way to solve problems. The whole episode feels medieval and out of place post 1945.
But then so does Israeli treatment of Palestinians. Siege warfare. Collective punishment. Forced starvation. Indiscriminate murder.
There is an ICJ case going on which is investigating whether they are doing a genocide and a couple of ICC arrest warrants out for Bibi and the defence minister.
Israel gets very upset when it says people say it doesnât have a right to be a state. I would argue that they should start acting like a proper state, respect international law.
Its leaders moan that Israel gets singled out. That is true, but for good reason. No-one else is doing what theyâre doing.
Sure, there are tinpot dictators all over the world, but most of them have the grace not to try and convince everyone that what theyâre doing is a good thing, or destroy those who criticise them in public.
Youâve been calling your missus the Ayatollah for years. Has the IRG ever come after you?
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Unless one of you lot have joined up, then I reckon I am pretty safe!
There is obviously some post holocaust hang up about making sure they, the Jewish people, never find themselves in that position again. Compounding that is that they are surrounded by nations / organisations that have vowed to wipe them off the map
That has to induce a sense of paranoia and leads to their modus operandi of striking first - like a cornered rat lashing out
Now I am not trying to rationalise what they do, more try to understand why they act the way they do
The whole place is fucked - every time we draw a line on a map itâs a shit show - Ireland, India / Pakistan
I totally get that, and it has long been argued that part of the reason Israel gets so much support among the diaspora is because they want to have somewhere to go if the shit hits the fan.
That rationale for support really doesnât look as strong now.
It could be safe, but not with the extremists presently in charge.
Thatâs the problem - when the extremists get in charge
If you removed all the loons from the Middle East then I am pretty sure everyone of all faiths would rub along just fine
Take Singapore for example - the extremists are not tolerated and every faith has a public holiday that everyone takes. And everyone gets along just fine
You can say the same about the Gulf states.
The awkwardness is Saudi who are the protectors of the Holy Shrines. Not only does every nutter want to run that so do all the Shia nations.
A balancing act keeps them in the hated by all category
Re the loonies in Israel they have made the lives of âpersons with Jewish rootsâ far more unpleasant world wide kids whose only foray into their roots was blowing out candles at Hannakah getting horrific abuse at age 7 because of the cvnts around netzeropooh
I cannot, for the life of me, understand how Netanyahu gets away with what he is getting away with, with the backing of Starmer and Trump.
Well I can, money, but I would have thought that other nations of the world would have said something.
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Who though?
That money or the âstern lookâ from US shuts everyone up.
And also when it comes to reaction, ask why no Arab Country has offered to rehouse the Gazans.
A because they might not go back (as what happened when Israel annexed the West Bank in the 60s)
B because they cannot vet all the refugees and they dont want Hamas in their respective manors.
Airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians overnight, including 45 who were queuing for humanitarian aid Associated Press are reporting. Dozens were killed in airstrikes that hit tents where many displaced Palestinians were sheltering on Wednesday night according to doctors and health service workers. A separate strike on a school in Gaza city sheltering displaced people also killed a further 15. The death toll is now close to 60,000 people since Oct 7th 2023, more than half of the dead are women and children. All the while our Western political leaders are wringing their hands and uttering platitudes, whilst supplying the barbaric Israel regime with the means to carry on with the killing. Glorying in the slaughter.
âWhat we are doing in Gaza now is a war of devastation: the indiscriminate, limitless, cruel and criminal killing of civilians.â
Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Haaretz, May 27th 2025.
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Parliamentary silence has been bought by the Friends of Israel Club. 
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But you can bet your lot will be lobbied to take themâŠ
Do not forget.
USA has stopped arms shipments to Ukraine as they donât have enough.
Lets all guess whats happening with shipments to Israel
The US stopped shipments to Ukraine because they were trying to get the Donâs big beautiful bill through
As soon as he signs it they will start again
Had a mate in school that ended up being close to the top of Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East.
Luciana Berger was about to become my MP. I have met her and I was impressed when she remembered my daughterâs name in Parliament
My mate said she was the defacto head of LFI, they were spending millions on candidate selection alone, before addingâŠ
âWeâve got no money!â