American officials are trying to determine the source of the leak, which describes military drills and weapons placement, and how damaging it might be.
The leak of a pair of highly classified U.S. intelligence documents describing recent satellite images of Israeli military preparations for a potential strike on Iran offers a window into the intense American concerns about Israel’s plans. It also has U.S. officials working to understand the size of the improper disclosure.
The two documents were prepared in recent days by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which is responsible for analyzing images and information collected by American spy satellites. They began circulating on Friday on the Telegram app and were being discussed by largely pro-Iran accounts.
The documents, which offer interpretations of satellite imagery, provide insight into a potential strike by Israel on Iran in the coming days. Such a strike has been anticipated in retaliation for an Iranian assault earlier this month, which was itself a response to an Israeli attack.
I don’t like how the news is trying to lay this entirely at Netanyahu’s feet. This is like trying to blame South Africa’s apartheid on the last president during apartheid, instead of the actual system.
Israel is a settler colonial project, its national project requires apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
Any alternative to Netanyahu would be doing the same thing, and if they failed to do so, they would be replaced by someone who would be more competent at it.
The protests in Israel aren’t against the genocide, they’re at the failure to rescue the hostages. Non-arab Israelis overwhelmingly support the amount of firepower used by the IDF in Gaza and the use of starvation as a weapon.
This is why there are Israeli “civilians”, sometimes wearing IDF uniforms, who burn aid trucks, and why there was a successful riot to protect Israeli prison guards from being prosecuted for the rape of prisoners.
I’m no expert, but I remember Netanyahu’s opposition supporting two state solutions and other much more reasonable approaches than the horrible status quo. But it never quite hit critical mass, right?
And Netanyahu sure seems like the person who clung to power and just barely stopped that opposition from ever taking root.
Any 2 state solution was dead on arrival for the last 30 years, as such a Palestine would be effectively dependent on, and always at the mercy of Israel by virtue of Israel having already stolen the best arable land, water sources, and strategic locations.
If Yassir Arafat had gone back to the Palestinian people with “We’re gonna live forever at their mercy, and none of you will ever return to the homes Israel stole”, the Palestinians would have assassinated him.
If Ehud Barak had gone back to the Israeli people with “You have to give them back their houses and stop encircling/blockading their settlements”, he’d have been assassinated by the Israelis.
Case in point: Yitzhak Rabin.
Isn’t that the nature of a “winner takes all” knife’s edge political system, though? If the opposition were in power, they would have done something like this, and Israel would hate it, but they’d have to take it just like they took what they didn’t like over the past decades. Maybe they’d lose the next election (and get assassinated), but the deed would already be done.
…Or maybe I’m totally wrong.
None of the governments between the Netanyahu governments, his first one started in 1996 after Rabin got assassinated by a Likud fanatic, ever stopped the settlement expansion.
So while they maybe talked about a two state solution, they continued to steal Palestinian land ,further undermining any possibility of a two state solution.
Correct. The whole settler state of Israel is like a spoilt brat that throws the toys out the pram and cries “antisemitism!” every time anyone criticises their evil, sick and twisted behaviour. They can only ride on the back of WWII Holocaust guilt for so long before it gets old. Call me an antisemite all you want, I no longer give a fuck. It makes no sense anyway. “Semitic people” is an obsolete term for people who originate from that part of the world which includes Arabs, Jews, Akkadians, and Phoenicians. Most Jews in Israel today are either of American or European descent. Personally, I hate all religions, but Judaism has got to be the most fucked up and genocidal out of all the monotheistic belief systems. I loved how after Oct 7th 2023 Israel started with the rhetoric “we want our Holocaust survivors back”. Holy smokes! There can’t be many of those left, the Holocaust happened 80 years ago and I doubt many of the survivors would be attending a drug fuelled rave (I mean “music festival”). I don’t like cruelty of any kind, the Holocaust was an appalling event in human history, but it’s not Holocaust surviving Jews that are acting like Nazis. So fuck Israel, fuck Zionism and quite frankly fuck Judaism in general along with all the other monotheistic brainwashing religions that separate us rather than unite us. “We’re all Jock Tamson’s bairns” as we say in Scotland.
You understand Israel’s actions have nothing to do with Judaism, right?
Religion is a justification used after the fact, in the same way the US used Christianity to justify genociding the native americans. There’s nothing in the bible that says “Destroy the native American’s food sources and take their land”, the Americans were going to do that anyway.
I would say that a culture’s prominent belief system has everything to do with the way that a culture behaves. The Torah and Old Testament in general is full of cruelty, genocide and elitist ideology. Even their god is described as a jealous sadist.
You’re putting the cart before the horse, when a belief system is incompatible with what the ruling class requires, they change it the way its expressed accordingly.
And I would suggest that there’s plenty of evidence in the religious belief itself for followers to justify cruelty. The so-called “chosen people” think they’re entitled to the land since it’s promised to them in the Torah. Even taking into account Zionist misinterpretation, this highlights the problem with belief systems in general. People interpret it the way that suits their agenda. I have no time for any of it.
Then you understand it’s not the belief system causing these people’s behavior, their agenda determines the belief system.
America doesn’t support Israel because the bible says so, even though some people might come up with some wacky interpretation, we support it because it helps facilitate imperialism throughout the middle east.
There’s plenty of jews who don’t interpret their religion that way, but their interpretations aren’t convenient for the ruling class so they’re not promoted. You can observe the same with philosophy, I’d hardly call philosophy bad just because those in power are able to amplify ideologies that serve their material interests.
I think it’s possibly more of a feedback loop. Beliefs through interpretation can empower people to behave appallingly. The more they act on their beliefs the more they adjust their interpretation to justify their behaviour. Whilst I agree that not all Jews support the attrocities of Israel, I think it’d be interesting to get a percentage breakdown of just how many globally do. If the percentage is high, then you can safely assume that there’s a fundamental flaw in the belief system. Let me be clear, I am no racist. I consider every human being equal. I just object to the term antisemitic being used when Judaism is not a race but a belief system. I think there is a reluctance to criticise Judaism out of fear of being labelled antisemitic. This is a term that gets brandished about too often and fuels Israel’s abhorrent behaviour. You don’t get the same reaction if you criticise other religious ideologies, however Judaism seems to be off the cards, mainly due to the Holocaust but mostly because it’s been weaponised by Zionists to counteract criticism. People are complex and beliefs are dangerous since they stifle critical thinking. Just to be clear, I’m no atheist either as that is also a faith based ideology. The correct stance, in my own opinion, is to be honest and humble enough to admit we know very little about the nature of reality and existence and reject absolutism wherever it rears it’s ugly head.
You’re still approaching this from a non-materialist perspective; do you think that if Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations in ancient Egypt, they’d have stopped making pyramids and started making iphones? Why was this new belief system suitable to Britain at a time when the power of the bourgeoisie was surpassing that of the aristocracy and not ancient Egypt?
No, because it’s not their belief system that’s causes zionism, it’s zionism being useful to the ruling class that causes that interpretation to be amplified. Zionist jews get articles republished in NYT and spots on cable news. Antizionist jews get silenced (or in Israel and Germany, literally arrested).