[Garowe] Æthiopian troops stationed in Somalia’s Gedo region have issued a three-day ultimatum to Somali government forces, including former security minister Abdirashid Janan, to vacate the town of Beled-Hawo, a local official said Tuesday.
Gedo regional governor Abdullahi Shimbir, who supports Somalia’s federal government, told news hounds that Æthiopian forces in Doolow summoned local elders and conveyed a stern directive demanding the withdrawal of Somali troops currently based at the UK camp in Beled-Hawo — a facility recently retaken by federal forces.
"The Æthiopian forces have issued orders concerning the federal troops at the UK camp and bigwigs, particularly Abdirashid Janan. They were given a deadline of three days," Shimbir said during a presser.
He criticized the ultimatum, describing it as a violation of Somali illusory sovereignty.
"Let it be known that the area they are asking troops to vacate is Somali land — Beled-Hawo is not part of Æthiopia," he said. "We see this as an act of aggression, and we, as the regional administration, do not accept it."
The governor also warned that the move could strain improving diplomatic ties between Somalia and Æthiopia.
"This is harmful to neighborhood relations and regional stability. We don’t want war with Æthiopia, but we will not tolerate injustice," he added.
The standoff follows a recent incident in which Æthiopian forces reportedly attacked a Somali intelligence (NISA) base in Doolow, destroying the facility and arresting its commander. The federal government in Mogadishu has not yet issued an official response to the incident.
[IsraelTimes] Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says that “the war in Gaza is no longer a war to achieve diplomatic objectives or to free hostages — it has become a war of starvation, annihilation, and the elimination of the Paleostinian cause."
All the fault of Hamas and those who enable them. Which means you, Your Excellency.
At a press conference in Cairo with Vietnamese President Lương Cường, Sissi adds that “history will hold many countries accountable for their stance on the war in Gaza, and the global human conscience will not remain silent for long.”
#3
IDF: UN enabling Hamas through aid mismanagement in Gaza In a closed-door briefing, Israeli defense officials accused UN agencies of legitimizing “false data” from Hamas and failing to protect the humanitarian aid system from systemic exploitation.
[DAILYPOST.NG] A community leader in Bokkos local government area of Plateau State, Da Yohana Margif, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to urgently declare a State of Emergency in the state to stop the incessant killings and bloodshed by Fulani ... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity... militia gangs.
Da Margif, the Waziri Mushere in Bokkos LGA, who made the passionate appeal to the president during a presser in Abuja on Tuesday, said the call has become imperative, following repeated violence perpetrated by the Fulani marauders who have continued to lay siege to several communities, killing the natives, sacking them from their homes and taking over their lands.
Margif, a former Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in the 2023 governorship elections in the state, said with the way the Fulani militias have continued to unleash violence on the people of Bokkos, it will be a matter of time before they will all be exterminated.
While arguing the need for Tinubu to declare a State of Emergency in Plateau, Margif said it is the only way to stop the ongoing bloodbath and land-grabbing by the armed murderous Moslems who have already taken over control of seven villages in Bokkos.
''The savage killings and destruction of homes continue even as of today, Tuesday, August 5th, 2025,'' the Waziri said while addressing the presser.
''Seven communities have been captured, and many lives have been lost. No one knows what will happen next. The people cannot sleep and are helpless.
''Innocent villagers have been slaughtered, their homes burnt, and their ancestral lands forcefully taken over. Displaced families now roam as refugees in their fatherland.
''I call on President Bola Tinubu to declare a State of Emergency in Plateau State before we are all gone.
''The primary duty of any government is to protect lives and property. If it fails to do that, then it has no business being in existence,'' Margif lamented.
He, however, warned that unless the federal government intervenes immediately, more blood will flow, and entire communities in the state will go into extinction.
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08/07/2025 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Iranian nuclear scientists visited Russia last year on a secretive trip to view Russian facilities working on technologies relevant to nuclear weapons production, the Financial Times reports.
According to the report, which is based on various official letters, travel documents and corporate records, Iranian nuclear scientist Ali Kalvand and four of his employees traveled to Moscow on August 4, 2024, claiming to be employees of a Tehran-based consulting firm. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the report says, they all entered Russia on diplomatic passports, issued just weeks before the trip.
During their time in Moscow, the Financial Times says the nuclear scientists visited a Russian scientific institution that produces dual-use technologies, which both have civilian applications and are related to nuclear weapons research.
The outlet notes that it was unable to identify the specific technologies that Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... was seeking from the Russian facilities, but says that one of the Iranian scientists, Soroush Mohtashami, is an expert on neutron generators — a component that can trigger detonation in some nuclear weapons.
Along with Kalvand and Mohtashami, the other members of the Iranian delegation are identified by the Financial Times as Javad Ghasemi, the former CEO of a US-sanctioned nuclear weapons-related company in Iran, and Rouhollah Azimirad, a senior scientist at Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), which is widely viewed as the successor to Iran’s official nuclear weapons program.
In a letter Kalvand sent to Russian scientist Oleg Maslennikov ahead of the visit, he said that the purpose of the trip would be "to discuss and agree on technical and production aspects of electronic device development," the Financial Times said, and "to consider general potential paths for expanding scientific co-operation."
According to documents reviewed by the Financial Times, the visit by the Iranian scientists also had a secondary purpose — acquiring radioactive materials.
In May 2024, the report says, Kalvand sent a letter to a Russian supplier of nuclear isotopes, in which he requested three radioactive isotopes, for research purposes, in unspecified quantities: Tritium, Stronium-90, and Nickel-63.
The three isotopes all play different roles in the production and testing of nuclear weapons. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the Financial Times says it found no evidence that Kalvand ever received the isotopes he was seeking.
In June of this year, Israel attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, triggering a 12-day war with the Islamic Theocratic Republic, after Jerusalem determined that it had taken unprecedented steps toward building a nuclear weapon.
[IsraelTimes] Coordinated protests to call for Greece not to become ‘a place of relaxation for genocidal people,’ following string of anti-Israel incidents in the popular vacation destination
Three Greek pro-Paleostinian, anti-Israel groups are planning a "Day of Action" on Sunday against Israeli tourists, vowing that the country will not become a "refuge" for "genocidal people."
The effort by the groups, first announced last week, comes on the heels of a string of anti-Israel incidents in Greece, a popular nearby tourist destination for Israelis. Near-identical Instagram posts in Greek by the three groups — March to Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Greece, Paleostinian community in Greece and BDS Greece — celebrated some of those incidents and called for protests at "on islands and tourist destinations."
"Let’s turn the islands, beaches, alleys, mountaintops, and shelters into places of solidarity — not relaxation for the murderous IDF soldiers," the announcement said. "The organized effort to make Greece a ’refuge’ for those who participate in or support the massacre in Paleostine will not pass!"
The announcement added, "Let’s light our own fire in the heart of summer. For Paleostine. For dignity. So that our place does not become a place of relaxation for genocidal people."
The posts don’t specify exactly what form the "Day of Action" will take, but appear to be geared toward protest activities. On Tuesday, March to Gaza urged in a post that people should "take keffiyehs, stickers and Paleostinian flags with us" to "mobilize on the islands and in every tourist destination and shout loudly that we stand by Paleostine until the end."
On the island of Zakynthos, a group has called for an evening "protest rally and march against the genocide and starvation of the Paleostinian people." The post also draws parallels between the Holocaust and the war in Gaza, and condemns Israelis who have invested in the island’s real estate.
Zakynthos is known for having sheltered the island’s Jewish community during the Holocaust.
"More and more areas of our islands, that is, are passing into the hands of Israelis to increase their wealth — wealth stained with the blood of thousands of Paleostinians," the post said.
As part of the "Day of Action," March to Gaza is calling for Greece to adopt an arms embargo against Israel and to end all military cooperation between the countries. It is also calling on Greece not to allow entry to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who, it claims, have participated in the war, nor to West Bank settlers.
"They are not ’tourists’ but potential suspects for war crimes and crimes against humanity," the post said. Current and former IDF soldiers have faced calls for arrest, and even police questioning, over alleged crimes in Gaza in countries across the world, in part after pro-Paleostinian organizations identified them and notified local law enforcement.
The Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the "Day of Action."
It follows a string of anti-Israel protests and altercations in Greece. Israeli cruise ships have met crowds of protesters, who in one case prevented a ship from docking in an incident the Greek government condemned. Multiple Israelis have said they were attacked after speaking Hebrew in public places.
#3
You did your vacationing abroad when you lived abroad, Grom. My parents, after living so many places before they met, were very happy to stay home. They didn’t even take vacations, being happily busy with work and children.
#4
It occurs to me that support for the "Palestinian Cause" varies proportionally with the distance from Gazoo. Israel and Jordan, having been in close proximity with the Paleos are noticeably sour on the idea.
#6
I could never understand the passion my fellow Israelis have for vacationing abroad.
Probably the usual tourist reasons. According to the Encyclopedia Galactica, in our solar system, Earth is the most beautiful of the rocky planets, with many stunning views and scenic wonders. They also note that the place is over-run with a sort of monkey and there are some places where you should wear body armor when visiting. Also, watch out for cows.
[IsraelTimes] A German soccer club has decided not to move ahead with its planned signing of Israeli striker Shon Weissman, reportedly after fans protested against the move in light of social media posts published by Weissman in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -led onslaught that recently drew public attention.
The German second-division club Fortuna Dusseldorf had been close to bringing Weissman onto the team, according to Hebrew media reports, but said earlier today that it had concluded these efforts.
"We’ve looked into signing Shon Weissman intensively, but have ultimately decided against signing him," the soccer club’s X account stated, without offering further details.
The announcement came hours after the club appeared to defend Weissman, telling one fan who opposed signing him that it would not make a decision "based on a Wikipedia article."
The Haaretz newspaper reports, however, that fans had pressured the club to drop its pursuit of Weissman and signed an online petition against the move after unearthing his old social media posts, which it says had been featured in his English-language Wikipedia page.
The Wikipedia page has since been edited by someone whom Wikipedia says appears to have a "close connection" with Weissman, and the social media posts removed.
According to Haaretz, a controversial post in question, published just days after October 7, had asked: "What’s the logical reason that 200-ton bombs haven’t been dropped on Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... yet?"
The Israeli soccer player had also shared posts calling to "wipe Gaza off the map" and claiming there were "no innocents" in the Strip, Haaretz reports.
Weissman responds to Fortuna Dusseldorf’s decision in a post on Instagram, in which he asserts that the fans had been lacking "the full context" of his posts.
"I am a son of a nation still grieving from the horrors of October 7th," he writes. "That black day, when entire families were murdered, kidnapped, and brutalized, remains an open wound for me as a person, as a member of an Israeli family, and as an athlete representing my country."
"It’s both possible and necessary to oppose harm to innocent people on both sides but I won’t allow myself to be painted as someone who promoted hate," he writes, adding that those who suggest otherwise "should take another look at what happened on October 7th."
"While I accept all criticism, it pains me that the full context was not considered," Weissman adds, vowing that he will "continue to proudly carry the Israeli flag wherever I play."
[IsraelTimes] The Leipzig University Hospital in Germany is facing public backlash after the name of Hamas’s slain leader, Yahya Sinwar, architect of the October 7, 2023 invasion and massacre in Israel, was featured in a display of names of babies born in the hospital.
The hospital shared an image of the board on its Instagram page, which showed that on August 3, the name Yahya Sinwar had been written at the top of the list of newborn names, with hearts next to it.
Following criticism, the hospital apologized for sharing the image and for writing the name on the board in the first place, saying that the person who wrote it had been unaware of the notorious Hamas leader that a newborn baby had apparently been named for.
“The person who posted the image was not aware that the name is currently associated with a well-known political figure involved in a highly sensitive geopolitical context,” a hospital spokesperson tells German newspaper Bild.
[IsraelTimes] A newly formed Ottoman Turkish parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing a peace initiative with a Kurdish murderous Moslem group holds its inaugural meeting, marking a further significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency.
The 51-member committee, comprised of politicians from most major parties, has been charged with proposing and supervising legal and political reforms aimed at advancing the grinding of the peace processor, following the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK’s, decision to disband and lay down arms.
Fighters from the group began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony in northern Iraq last month, the first concrete step toward disarmament.
In his opening remarks, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmus calls the committee’s launch a "historic turning point."
"The commission gathered here is no ordinary delegation; it is a historic one, demonstrating the courage to repair our future and the will to strengthen social integration," he says.
"In this hall, we are witnessing the beginning of a new era, representing the will of the nation," he says, before the proceedings were closed to journalists.
The committee is expected to decide on how to proceed and to select an official name.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
08/07/2025 2025-08-07 02:00 ||
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The pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel US protest leader detained by ICE in March calls claims of hostility to Jews at NY university ‘manufactured hysteria,’ in discussion with Ezra Klein
Six weeks after being released from US federal detention, Mahmoud Khalil, the first pro-Paleostinian protest leader to be arrested by President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s administration last spring, has defended Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... ’s onslaught of October 7, 2023, and said concerns about antisemitism at Columbia University reflect a "manufactured hysteria."
Khalil first made the latter allegation in a jailhouse letter in April, soon after he was detained by immigration authorities over his role in the university’s pro-Paleostinian protests, which critics said were fueling antisemitism.
He repeated it in a wide-ranging interview with New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... columnist Ezra Klein published on Tuesday. The interview appeared to mark the most extensive public questioning that Khalil has faced about the allegations of antisemitic activity that made him a symbol of the Trump administration’s crackdown on colleges.
In the interview, Klein delved into Khalil’s arrest on March 10, which stemmed from allegations that he had fueled antisemitism on Columbia University’s campus, and subsequent three-month detainment at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana. In June, in Khalil’s first interview since he was released from federal detention, he told the New York Times that his detainment "felt like kidnapping."
During the interview, Klein repeatedly invoked his Jewish identity, but when he brought up his personal experience with antisemitism and allegations of antisemitism at Columbia University, Khalil pushed back.
"Look, I’m Jewish. I don’t take antisemitism lightly. You should see my inbox. And it can be true that Jews can be unsafe, but the idea — it is real that there was antisemitism at Columbia, yet nobody there ended up as unsafe as you did," said Klein.
"I would push back regarding antisemitism at Columbia. I would really push back on that," replied Khalil, to which Klein responded: "There was none?"
"I wouldn’t say there was none. I would say there is this manufactured hysteria about antisemitism at Columbia because of the protests," Khalil replied.
He added: "Proud Boys were at the doors of Columbia, the very right-wing group. And there are incidents here and there. But it’s not like antisemitism is happening at Columbia because of the Paleostine movement."
Khalil’s arrest in March by immigration authorities marked a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s campaign against antisemitism on college campuses. In its wake, several other non-citizen pro-Paleostinian student protesters faced arrests and deportation efforts, prompting outcry and calls for due process, including from many Jewish groups.
Last month, Columbia, where Khalil earned a graduate degree, reached a $221 million dollar settlement with the federal government over antisemitism allegations. In June, the school released a report that found that nearly two-thirds of its Jewish students reported not feeling accepted for their religious identity during the school year that included Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught in Israel.
"This is why I would always push back," continued Khalil in his response to Klein’s invocation of antisemitism at Columbia. "I have a strong belief that antisemitism and anti-Paleostinian racism rise together. The incidents rise together because the same groups are perpetrating that in different ways."
Khalil also defended the phrases "Globalize the intifada" and "From the river to the sea, Paleostine will be free," which pro-Paleostinian activists claim are nonviolent mostly peaceful but many Jews and Israelis interpret as calls to expanding Paleostinian campaigns of terror attacks on civilians and for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Holy Land.
He also said that Hamas’s October 7 atrocities violated international law because they targeted civilians, but characterized it as inevitable.
Some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were slaughtered in the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel amid acts of brutality including sexual assault, torture, dismemberment and mutilation that overtly targeted civilians in their homes and at a music festival; 251 were kidnapped to the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip, where 49, not all of them alive, are still being held hostage alongside of the body of a soldier killed in 2014.
Early in the interview, Klein asked Khalil whether he thought Hamas attacked Israel to provoke "some kind of war," or whether he saw it "as something that needed to happen to break the equilibrium" in a conflict that had stagnated.
"It’s more the latter — just to break the cycle, to break that Paleostinians are not being heard," said Khalil. "And to me, it’s a desperate attempt to tell the world that Paleostinians are here, that Paleostinians are part of the equation. That was my interpretation of why Hamas did the October 7 attacks on Israel."
While noting that he’s against the targeting of civilians, Khalil repeated several times that "we cannot ask Paleostinians to be perfect victims."
He also implied that the onslaught stemmed in part from the movement toward an Israel-Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... normalization deal.
"At that point, there was no political process," he claims. "It was clear that the Saudi-Israel deal is very imminent, and Paleostinians wouldn’t have any path to statehood and self-determination. So they had to do that, according to their calculations — which, it’s obvious, were not right."
[Rudaw] A bill aimed at further legitimizing pro-Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... armed factions has sparked controversy in Iraq. While the United States has voiced opposition to the move, two politicians affiliated with the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, told Rudaw they reject Washington’s interference.
Mahdi al-Amerli, a PMF-linked politician, told Rudaw on Tuesday that they "will not submit to any external pressures regarding Iraq and Iraq's illusory sovereignty," claiming the law will serve all Iraqis.
"When we say Popular Mobilization Forces, we have Sunni, Shiite, Christian, and Shabak PMFs. Even our Kurdish brothers are present in this institution. This is a security institution linked to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces," he added.
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i is also the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Washington has expressed increasing caution about the bill that aims to regulate the PMF’s structure, salaries, and retirement benefits, a politically sensitive issue given the PMF’s central role in Iraq’s security framework and the political influence it wields.
"Pursuing this law can put Iraq’s reputation at risk both regionally and internationally," Vincent Campos, former public diplomacy officer at the US State Department, told Rudaw on Monday. "This law represents everything that is wrong with Iranian influence in Iraq, and everything wrong with having, essentially, an independent militia doing whatever they want."
In response to an email from Rudaw, a State Department spokesperson on Sunday asserted Washington’s staunch opposition to the law, labeling it a "deeply unhelpful step" and explaining that its passage would empower pro-Iran militias in Iraq that have attacked US forces.
Amerli said they are determined to pass the law despite opposition.
"We have completed the procedures and the first and second readings, and God willing, soon there will be a vote on the PMF law. We will not care about any external threat, whether from America or anyone else, regarding Iraq. We are the decision-makers regarding the PMF law, and it will pass, God willing, soon," he stated.
Falih al-Khazali, another Iraqi politician and PMF leader, told Rudaw on Monday that they reject US intervention.
"We reject American interventions, especially regarding the issuance of laws that protect our security institutions. We believe that issuing the PMF law means transferring this force to institutional work... We insist on passing this bill and call on all political forces to cooperate as a gesture of loyalty to the deaders' blood," he said.
Kurds are reluctant to endorse the bill.
Jamal Kochar, a Kurdish member of the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw on Monday that the bill seeks more legitimacy for armed factions operating outside the state control.
"The US has made clear and explicit threats against passing this bill. This [bill] would grant legitimacy to groups outside the state and allocate a massive budget to them. There are several places in Iraq that even the Prime Minister [Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani] cannot visit, like Jurf al-Sakhar [near Baghdad]... Therefore, in our view, this matter is very sensitive, and the first to be harmed will be Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds," he warned.
Steven Fagin, charge d’affaires of the US embassy in Baghdad, met with the Iraqi parliament’s First Deputy Speaker Muhsin al-Mandalawi on Sunday, where he "reiterated U.S. concerns with two proposed PMC/PMF bills," the embassy said on X.
Mandalawi’s office did not mention the PMF bill in its own statement, which broadly discussed bilateral cooperation and regional security.
The PMF is composed of various armed factions, including groups designated as terrorist organizations by the US. Among them is Asaib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), whose leader Qais al-Khazali is a senior member of the Shiite-led Coordination Framework, a key component of Iraq’s governing coalition. In March, AAH and the State of Law Coalition boycotted a parliamentary session after the PMF bill was excluded from the agenda, forcing its postponement.
[Rudaw] Iraq has issued monthly salaries to more than 2,200 Yazidi women and girls who survived Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) atrocities and has launched numerous reconstruction and development projects in the Yazidi heartland of Shingal (Sinjar) in Nineveh province, an advisor to the prime minister said on Tuesday.
Khalaf Shingali, advisor to Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i for Yazidi affairs, told Rudaw that 2,428 Yazidi women and girls are covered under the Yazidi Survivors Law (YSL), including 809 living in the Kurdistan Region and 1,619 outside the country, adding that monthly salaries have been allocated to 2,216 survivors so far.
Iraq’s parliament passed the YSL in 2021, aiming to provide assistance to victims of ISIS atrocities. The law formally recognizes acts of genocide and crimes against humanity perpetrated by ISIS against the Yazidi, Christian, Turkmen, and Shabak communities. It envisages a fixed salary, the provision of land, and allocates two percent of public sector jobs.
One of Shingal’s long-standing issues - land ownership - is also being addressed, according to Shingali, who said that Baghdad plans to issue 14,000 property deeds across 11 Yazidi communities, with 2,000 deeds to be distributed in the coming days, including 224 for female survivors.
He said 89 reconstruction and development projects have been approved, with work already underway on 23 of them. The federal government has also committed to building a 100-bed hospital in the center of Shingal and another hospital in the Sinune subdistrict.
Additional projects include the establishment of Sinjar University and a strategic water project linking Shingal with Baaj and Rabia, with a budget of over one trillion dinars (about $764 million), according to Shingali. Planned agricultural projects are also expected to benefit thousands of farmers and generate job opportunities.
To ease the ongoing housing crisis, the government will also begin constructing new residential communities in the Sinjar district, he said.
ISIS launched a brutal offensive across swathes of northern and western Iraq in June 2014. By August, the group began its onslaught on the Yazidi community in their heartland of Shingal in Nineveh province, killing an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 Yazidi men and older women.
The jihadists also kidnapped some 7,000 women and girls for sexual slavery and human trafficking. Around 400,000 Yazidis were forced to flee, with most seeking refuge in the Kurdistan Region, according to data from the Office for Rescuing Abducted Yazidis, operating under the Kurdistan Region Presidency.
The Yazidis were subjected to heinous atrocities under ISIS’s brutal rule, including mass killings. The jihadists brought destruction to many villages and towns populated by the community and committed genocide.
The United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... and several Western countries have recognized ISIS’s crimes against the Yazidis as genocide.
Although Iraq declared the full liberation of its territory from ISIS in 2017, around 21,000 Yazidi families remain displaced, primarily in camps in the Kurdistan Region’s Duhok province.
[IsraelTimes] Letter signed by key donors to Israel demand premier ‘enforce the law in the West Bank’ and commit to rejecting use of ‘starvation or expulsion as weapons of war’
Nearly 2,000 prominent Jews around the United States and United Kingdom — and counting — have signed a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging him to end the war in Gaza.
Coming amid a flurry of open statements to similar effect, the letter is notable because it has garnered signatures from influential Jewish voices with an extensive track record of donations to Israel, some of whom have not previously weighed in publicly on the nearly two-year-old war, which was sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 people in southern Israel.
Among the signatories are Charles Bronfman, the Jewish Canadian-American billionaire philanthropist; the philanthropist Marcia Riklis; Dame Vivien Duffield, chairman of the Clore Foundation; and Trevor Chinn, the president of United Jewish Israel Appeal, a leading British Jewish charity that funds initiatives in Israel.
The letter is an initiative of a new liberal Zionist network called The London Initiative, founded earlier this year to “strengthen Israeli democracy, advance a fairer shared future for all citizens of Israel, revive hope in the prospects of achieving secure peace, and improve relations between all Israelis and world Jewry.”
The initiative is helmed by Mick Davis, a former CEO of the British Conservative Party, and Mike Prashker, the founder of Merchavim: The Institute for the Advancement of Shared Citizenship, in an effort to “to reverse the direction” of the State of Israel, Prashker, who lives in Israel, told eJewish Philanthropy at the time of the launch.
The letter, titled “A protest letter to PM Netanyahu from world Jewry,” outlines four requests for Netanyahu: to “permanently restore and enable the provision of food and humanitarian aid to the Gazan population; end the war; enforce the law in the West Bank; and commit that neither you nor any member of your government will again advocate policies of starvation or expulsion as weapons of war.”
The support for the letter underscores growing criticism of the Israeli government from Jewish communities in recent weeks amid allegations of widespread starvation in Gaza and reported plans by Netanyahu to further occupy the Palestinian enclave.
It focuses primarily on the harm to Israel and Jews caused by Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war and handling of widening violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.
“We are under no illusions about the actions and intentions of Hamas, other extremist forces and the states that support them, and we acknowledge the painful dilemmas any Israeli government would face in addressing these threats,” the letter reads. “Yet we also cannot escape the fact that the policies and rhetoric of the government you lead are doing lasting damage to Israel, its standing in the world and the prospects of secure peace for all Israelis and Palestinians.”
It continues: “This has severe consequences for Israel but also for the wellbeing, security and unity of Jewish communities around the world.”
Some of the letter’s signatories also signed onto a letter in early 2023 urging a halt to Netanyahu’s efforts to overhaul Israel’s judicial system, which they said would erode democracy in a state they had invested billions of dollars to strengthen.
Menachem Begin responded to similar advice back in 1981:
THIS is former PM Menachem Begin's sharp response to Germany's Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's remark on a Palestinian Arab state in 1981. THIS is leadership.
#1
So what? Who cares? If a bunch of foreigners sign a letter asking us to do..something? Anything?
Do we pay attention to them?
Joe Biden was a Catholic,if he got a letter from the Pope is he obligated to do what His Eminence says?
Hell no!
#2
I, too, call on Netanyahu to end the conflict. Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the robot dogs of war. I realize this is the Middle East where tribal conflict has been a popular sport since Jesus was a kid, but this has gone on long enough.
Given 23,000+ Truck loads of Food and Supplies, have been officially verified as brought and been delivered to the designated locations in GAZA by several high level non-Israeli Gov agencies.
So I have to ask, can the 2,000 "claiming to be" Jewish Elite do basic math, or just want to run their mouths.
Basic logic dictates. If the food and supplies are not reaching the intended needy people despite being delivered. Then someone on that end is to blame?
Let me make a wild ass guess here!
Maybe HAMAS and various Gazans and/or other terrorists groups.
So will the IDF have to personally spoon-feed each Gaza refugee to make the 2000 happy? Or will the 2000 then just complain about the size of the spoon next?
#5
a lot of the signatories run NGOs that donate $ to charities in Israel - so it does matter
having said that I think a lot of the signatories have unconsciously been swayed by the bucketful of blood libels that Hamas and its auxiliaries have concocted. they may think,'well this isn't completely true but it must be based on something' or possibly they are just weak minded fools
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
08/07/2025 12:43 Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] Attorney for capital’s top Muslim cleric says ban is over sermon about Gaza delivered at flashpoint holy site, asserts it contained ‘nothing inappropriate’; police do not comment
Police have banned Jerusalem’s top Moslemholy man from entering the Temple Mount compound for six months over a recent sermon, according to his attorney.
Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, will be prevented from entering the holy site, known to Moslems as the al-Aqsa Mosque compound, until January 2026, lawyer Khaldoun Najem told AFP.
He was barred over a Friday sermon he gave at al-Aqsa in late July, which Najem contended "contained nothing inappropriate."
The Paleostinian Authority’s official news agency WAFA said the sermon had focused on deteriorating conditions in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and featured claims that Israel is pursuing a policy of starvation in the war-torn territory amid the ongoing war, sparked by Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... ’s October 7, 2023, massacre.
Police had already issued an eight-day ban against Hussein following that sermon, according to the outlet.
Najem said police "did not interrogate" or hold a hearing for the mufti prior to the decision.
Police did not respond to a request for comment by The Times of Israel.
The Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site, and its al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam’s third-holiest site and a frequent rallying point for Paleostinian nationalists, making it a frequent flashpoint for tensions between Israelis and Paleostinians.
Earlier this month, National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led morning prayers on the Temple Mount during the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av—a contentious move that violated a long-standing, vague status quo governing the site, which is administered by a Jordanian religious trust, with the Israel Police in charge of security.
A growing number of right-wing Israeli Jews have been protesting the ban on Jewish prayer, viewing it as religious discrimination and urging the government to permit it and allow Jews greater access. While Moslems can enter the site at all hours of the week, Jews and tourists can do so only for several hours on weekdays, with overtly religious Jews being taken on a predetermined route while closely supervised by police.
While Ben Gvir has repeatedly visited the site and declared that it is his policy to permit Jewish prayer, and while police have increasingly tolerated Jewish prayer there under his watch, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that Israel doesn’t seek to change the status quo.
Changes to the Temple Mount’s status quo evoke strong emotions and are frequently cited as a motivation for Paleostinian terror attacks. The site is of central importance to Hamas, which termed its October 7 massacre "Operation al-Aqsa Flood." Jordan has threatened in the past to nix its peace treaty with Israel if the status quo is changed.
[IsraelTimes] Security cabinet expected to okay phased proposal despite top generals’ warnings this would endanger hostages; it would drive a million Palestinians southward, while boosting aid
Israel was expected Thursday to approve a phased plan to conquer vast new areas of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip, potentially over five months, newly displacing around a million Paleostinians and despite warnings from top military officials that this would endanger the lives of hostages being held in those areas, according to various Hebrew media reports Wednesday.
The plan is reportedly aimed at destroying what remains of the Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... terror group and pressuring it to free the 50 hostages it is still holding, around 20 of them alive, after recent talks for a deal broke down. It would begin with taking over Gaza City and camps in the central Strip, driving around half of the enclave’s population southward toward the Mawasi humanitarian zone.
Despite a few ministers potentially opposing the plan, multiple reports said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would likely secure a majority within the high-level security cabinet to support the plan when it convenes at 6 p.m. Thursday.
During a three-hour security discussion among a smaller group on Tuesday, Netanyahu was presented with several options for continued military operations in the Gaza Strip by IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir.
THE PLAN’S REPORTED CONTENT
The plan reportedly focuses initially on seizing Gaza City and expanding aid distribution centers in coordination with the United States.
According to Channel 12 news, in the plan’s first phase, Israel would issue an evacuation notice to the residents of Gaza City — estimated to number around 1 million people, roughly half the Strip’s population — to allow time for the establishment of civilian infrastructure in central Gaza, including hospitals and camps for evacuees. This phase is expected to last several weeks.
Israel would then launch a military offensive in the second phase, during which US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... is expected to deliver a speech announcing the acceleration of humanitarian aid in coordination with Israel, the report continued.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Bloomberg News Wednesday that there was a push to quickly add 12 aid sites to the four currently operated by the Israel- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
"A quadrupling over two months, if possible. It’s all about funding," Huckabee said, signaling that this would be coordinated with IDF military advancements: "I think there’s still some question about areas of the north that may depend on whether the IDF can clear those areas and make it safe."
The expansion would be funded by approximately $1 billion in donations from the US and other countries, Channel 12 said, adding that the goal would be to enable Gazooks to access aid that bypasses Hamas while Gaza City falls under Israeli control.
Reports by the Ynet news site, the Kan public broadcaster and Channel 13 news said the military campaign was expected to last between four and five months and involve four to five IDF divisions. Kan reported that in addition to Gaza City in the Strip’s north, the plan was to expand to the camps in central Gaza, where the IDF has barely maneuvered so far.
The civilian population is expected to be further pushed toward the southern Strip, while maneuvers take place in areas where hostages are believed to be held, with efforts toward avoiding any harm to them.
Kan added that mediators Egypt and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... were pressuring Israel — via the US — not to implement the plan, while also urging Hamas to resume negotiations.
The broadcaster cited unnamed security sources as saying the goal was to quickly push more Gazooks toward the southern Mawasi zone, in hopes this would serve the stated plan to encourage emigration from Gaza.
The plan’s goals were also said to include pressuring Hamas to free the remaining hostages. Kan cited an Israeli official, however, as estimating the chances of Hamas returning to the negotiation table before the plan is approved to be "almost zero."
According to Channel 12, another goal is to possibly align with a proposed US-led framework for a comprehensive deal. While Israel may pause operations if that framework advances, officials see it as unlikely, the network said.
By the end of the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu is expected to seek a mandate to authorize himself and Defense Minister Israel Katz to make operational decisions, including phased steps.
An alternative plan on the table, according to Kan, is to encircle Gaza City and the central Gaza camps, block aid to those areas and launch pinpoint raids, rather than full conquest, aiming to wear Hamas down. The downside would be that it would take time, but security officials were cited as saying this could be an initial step before taking over the areas. Netanyahu has reportedly shot down this plan.
According to Channel 13, Shas party leader Aryeh Deri is expected to take part in the meeting, and while he and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar are leaning toward opposing the full takeover plan, analysts expect Netanyahu to have a majority in favor of approving it.
TRUMP NOT OPPOSED TO PLAN, THOUGH IDF CHIEF IS
Trump said this week that the question of taking over all of Gaza was "pretty much up to Israel," indicating that he would not interfere in Jerusalem’s decision-making on the matter.
The Axios news site cited an unnamed US official Wednesday as affirming that Washington was indeed not planning to intervene, adding that a recent Hamas propaganda video — showing hostage Evyatar David emaciated and forced to dig what may become his own grave — influenced Trump to make the decision "to let the Israelis do what they need to do."
The official added, however, that the Trump administration does not support the idea of Israel annexing parts of the Gaza Strip.
However,
there's more than one way to skin a cat... many reports in recent days have said Zamir and other military officials have warned against the plan for the full occupation of Gaza, with Channel 12 quoting Zamir as saying in closed-door meetings: "Occupying the Strip would drag Israel into a black hole — taking responsibility for two million Paleostinians, requiring a years-long clearing operation, exposing soldiers to guerrilla warfare and, most dangerously, jeopardizing the hostages."
A security bigshot also cautioned to Channel 12 that Israel "could end up knowingly entering a Vietnam model" — a reference to the US getting bogged down in a years-long, costly military campaign that yielded limited results during the Vietnam War.
Military officials also believe that if Israel proceeds with the plan, it will lead to heavy casualties among Israeli troops, the Kan public broadcaster reported earlier Wednesday.
The defense officials estimate that "dozens" of soldiers could be killed, and a large number would be maimed in the operation, Kan reported. Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 459. The toll includes two coppers and three Defense Ministry civilian contractors.
Possibly alluding to the tension between Zamir and Netanyahu over the reoccupation plan, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor, the chief of the IDF Southern Command, appeared to confirm Wednesday that there are "disagreements" in the military’s top brass.
A report earlier in the day by the Yedioth Ahronoth daily accused the general of sparring with the head of the Air Force during a recent meeting on Gaza.
"The fighting in Gaza is often accompanied by tension, and sometimes there are disagreements between various parties," Asor said during a ceremony for the fallen soldiers of the 401st Armored Brigade, in a video released by the IDF.
"It’s important for me to say clearly: these are disagreements with the best of intentions. These are substantive and professional discussions, driven by the sincere desire of all IDF commanders to do what is right for the security of the State of Israel," he said.
According to the Yedioth report, during a video call meeting some 10 days ago, Asor demanded that Israeli Air Force chief Maj. Gen. Tomer Bar stop overturning his decisions to carry out strikes in Gaza.
Bar, according to the report, had intervened in strikes after increasing reports of civilian casualties in the Strip since March, which has led to growing tension between him and Asor.
Asor, in the meeting, lashed out, reportedly saying to the other generals: "You there in Tel Aviv are disconnected from the [what is happening] on the ground."
CAIRO SLAMS ISRAEL OVER AID CRISIS
Meanwhile Wednesday, Egypt’s foreign minister, on a visit to Greece, described the international response to the escalating humanitarian crisis in Gaza as shameful, and urged powerful Western nations to increase pressure on Israel.
"The international community should be ashamed of the tragic situation unfolding in Gaza and the devastating actions being carried out by Israel," Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told news hounds in Athens.
"What is unfolding is a human tragedy, and the suffering witnessed is a stain on the conscience of the international community," he said.
The Egyptian minister described Israel’s military campaign in the territory as a "systematic genocide," reiterating his government’s position that it "firmly rejects any displacement of the Paleostinian people from their ancestral lands."
The ongoing war erupted after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre, in which some 5,600 gunnies invaded the country, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages to Gaza.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 60,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 gunnies inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
... a peculiarly brutal tribe of Moslem herdsmen infesting Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and probably other places that are light on law and order and heavy on tribal identity...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
