Kernow Damo | Podcast on RSS.com

Kernow Damo

by Damien Willey

News Commentary Politics

Israel HUMILIATED As Boycott Leaves Them Without A Backer

Right, so for decades, Israel has been flogging government bonds to anyone keen to prop up the state. You hand over your cash, Israel pockets it for the general budget, and in return you get a pinky promise that the state will pay you back with interest. What could go wrong? But if Israel wants to hawk these bonds to the average European punter, it needs a shiny prospectus rubber-stamped by an EU financial regulator. This legal necessity spells out what’s on offer, the fine print, and all the ways you might get burned. Once one member state gives it the nod, Israel Bonds can peddle the same deal across most of the bloc and for the last year, that state was Luxembourg. Luxembourg’s approval quietly expired on 31 August, and-shock horror-they didn’t bother to renew it and as of today, still not a single EU country had leapt at the chance to take over. The European Securities and Markets Authority, ESMA, which wrangles the bloc’s market rules, has confirmed it hadn’t received even a polite email about a transfer. So now Israel Bonds-the same outfit that’s spent weeks loudly insisting the boycott movement is a total flop-finds itself wandering Europe like a desperate contestant on a bad dating show, begging anyone to slap their regulatory signature on the paperwork so they can keep rattling the tin for European cash. Before Brexit, Britain played host. Then Ireland took the hot potato after Britain flounced out of the EU single market. Good heavens we’ve found a Brexit benefit at last! By September of last year, Luxembourg had the job, thanks to the mounting political heat over the bonds. Luxembourg managed a whole year of carrying the growing flak for that it seems before quietly dropping it like a bad habit, evidently unprepared to make it two.

Israel Tried To Punish Britain - But Only Exposed Its Panic

Right, so Israel has thrown a real temper tantrum against Britain, but not because Britain has stopped arming it, because of course we haven’t done that. Britain announced restrictions on goods from illegal settlements, curbs on British firms selling or promoting settlement property, sanctions on several extremist settlers and a refusal of export licences that materially sustain the occupation. Israel responded by ordering British personnel out, freezing Britain out of Gaza coordination and moving to close the British consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, shame on us for having even established one there. Britain's answer is less a slap on the wrist, which in itself was grossly insufficient, it was in fact limper than a vicar’s handshake. And yet it was still enough to have Netanyahu and his crazy cabinet of despots squealing like stuck pigs. British personnel given just a week to leave. The consulate in East Jerusalem was allowed 30 days to depart. Immediately thereafter, Israel began to bar British politicians and other public figures from entering the country, badges of honour for all concerned, all of the Green Party MP’s, Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana and others, because nothing quite says 'We are not afraid of you' so much as making a blocklist of people you are quite clearly afraid of to let through passport control.

Netanyahu Wanted More War-So Lebanon Made Him Pay For It

Right, so, Benjamin Netanyahu wanted to send more troops to the war in Lebanon. He wished to drive Hezbollah away from the Israeli frontier, destroy its military infrastructure, prevent its reconstruction, and retain a security belt in southern Lebanon until Israel, as paranoid as they appear to be, is finally convinced that the threat is over. Not just one or two more attacks and a few raids. It’s not enough to be in the South for a week or two. We need a real war. More soldiers, more territory, more attacks, more bombing of whatever Israel thinks might be a threat to its security. More war to keep Benjamin Netanyahu out of his corruption trial. But now the bill for all of this has arrived, faster than the Knesset can say pass this on to Donald, and it’s not as cheap as it looks. Lebanese newspaper Bint Jbeil, quoting Yedioth Ahronoth, says that hundreds of Israeli Humvees have been destroyed there, so that the IDF is experiencing a severe shortage. The poor darlings are having to walk more it seems.

Trump To Go On Trial Over Israel? The Whole West Could Be Next

Right, so South Africa has stomped back into the World Court, brandishing a big fat new dossier and accusing Israel of treating those three binding orders the court had imposed like so much junk mail that’s come through your door that you shove straight in the bin without reading: stop genocidal acts and incitement, let aid into Gaza, and maybe don’t flatten Rafah while you’re at it. And as if Netanyahu wasn’t already sweating through his suit, Israel’s suppliers might soon find themselves yanked into the dock right alongside him, kicking and screaming or not. And there he is, basking in his own adulation like a radioactive satsuma. The head of Israel’s biggest supplier, generously reminding the world that Israel is basically propped up by his own two undersized hands. Now Trump meant that as a flex, obviously. Look at me, look what I built, look how the universe would collapse if I ever took a day off. But when South Africa has continued to busy itself compiling all those receipts for what Israel has kept doing after three binding World Court orders, and you have Donald J Trump bragging on camera that Israel depends on US weapons, cash and political cover, he is basically volunteering himself as Exhibit A.

Iran Just Handed Trump His Backside On A Plate!

Right, so Donald Trump decided the best way to make the Strait of Hormuz 'safer' was to lob a few bombs at an Iranian island because nothing screams 'secure shipping lane' quite like a handful of American explosives raining down from the sky. A few hours later, Iran fired missiles and drones against American positions in Jordan and the UAE. Jordan reported that eight missiles had crossed into its airspace; the UAE responded to an unmanned attack. Ships were avoiding the Strait of Hormuz, and oil prices have exceeded the ninety-dollar mark. Trump strikes, Iran returns, and the apparently "secured" shipping lane is once again about as free as a nightclub at four o'clock in the morning during a raid. But as usual with all things Strait of Hormuz adjacent, the truth was somewhere Little Donnie wasn’t and retaliation is a b*tch. Anyway, let’s start this story properly with this: "Almost total control," he says. Trump claims the mines are all gone, and oil prices will soon be falling, all in response presumably to his enormous ego because he’s got bu**er all else to be going on. Somebody should let the tanker crews, the underwriters, Jordan, the UAE, and the oil traders know about this edict that now been issued, because Trump's fantasy press office must have forgotten to send them all the necessary memo. The picture Trump was drawing is of course very simple, because so is he. America has taken out the launchers, America has eliminated the threat, and now America is running the Strait.

Finland And Israel’s INSANE Secret Deal Backfires Already

Right, so Finland and Israel had already signed a military-technical co-operation agreement. So far, so bad enough. The contract was to be renewed every five years and covered development, research and procurement. But when the old agreement was due for renewal in early 2024, Finland didn't just sign on for another five years. No, the Defence Ministry quietly wrote a brand-new ten-year memorandum that continued the military friendship until 2034. Now this also included the usual military R&D and procurement sort of stuff, and the Defence Ministry didn't bother to inform the public because when do Defence Ministries ever cite transparency as their driving interest after all. But now that people have found out, Finland's president, Alexander Stubb, beautiful Finnish name, has already been asked if Finland should continue to purchase Israeli weapons. And this was his rather unfortunate reply. Stubb is a perfect example of how to dodge a question so hard that you end up leaving a vapour trail. He suddenly discovered that whatever was waiting at the end of that pavement was far more urgent than explaining Finland’s arms trade with Israel.

Andy Burnham Has Been Up To Starmer’s Israel Tricks. Now He’s Been Caught.

Right, so a British military aircraft flying from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus to Tel Aviv. You can see it before you right there, so not exactly subject to supposition is it? The only thing we can’t see is what was stuffed inside it, though thankfully we have independent media helpfully providing what it could be carry in the form of journalist Matt Kennard, who has picked up that it was an Airbus A400M Atlas, which according to him can carry a payload of 81,600 lbs or 116 fully equipped soldiers. So what was in it? Why did it go? Why was an aircraft of that size required to carry whatever was inside? Of course we don’t know do we, yet aircraft taking off from RAF Akrotiri and going to Israel isn’t exactly new, it’s just the first time its been seen happening under Andy Burnham, so again, is this another case of no change from Starmer? The plane flew to Israel, circled there for about an hour and then scuttled back to Akrotiri. Beyond that, the cargo and the mission have basically been filed under 'none of our business.' But this flight is just one more reason why Burnham's carefully contrived bedtime story about Britain only ever giving defensive help is now being challenged. And for all his promises of change and renewal, and of not being Keir Starmer with a northern accent, Burnham has already been caught in one of Starmer’s old tricks it would seem.

Mladić Has Died And It’s Left Israel With A HUGE Problem

Right, so Ratko Mladić is dead. And Israel has a problem it cannot put away with him as a result. The files. No, not those files, another set of files. The files which gather dust like a guilty conscience, or would do if I thought Zionism had one. Israeli records of arms-export licences and the Defence Ministry's decisions concerning the former Yugoslavia between 1990 and 1996 remain closed. Even the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the state's refusal to publish them under freedom-of-information law, considering their release might harm national security or damage foreign relations. Well it’s not as if your current genocide has done that much good either, but was Israel involved in this one as well? Well, all the ruling tells us is that the state is still withholding these files. It does not tell us what is in them. So we cannot claim, as established fact, that Israel delivered weapons to Bosnian Serb forces, authorised any transfer, provided training, knew where weapons ended up, or that any Israeli-supplied material was used in Mladić’s crimes. And yet Israel is not suspected of involvement here merely because it sealed some files. It is suspected because multiple wartime leads pointed towards Israeli weapons, training or intermediaries, and then the state refused to release the records most capable of confirming or knocking down those leads. Now why might they do that then?

Sailors Jumping Overboard Was Bad Enough, Then Hegseth Did THIS

Right, so Donald Trump's Iran war is eating away at the American Navy from the inside out, even more than we already knew about in fact. Not enough that sailors have tried throwing themselves overboard and have been wading through, their own effluence in the corridors, it seems that for the Trump administration they haven’t paid quite a high enough price yet, and I do mean pay. You see the Navy is playing musical chairs with the payroll to offset war costs. A war tax. The music itself coming from a closed cash register that isn’t stumping up cash for anything else these troops need either. Military training? Only if cancelling the preparation for the next war counts as preparing for it. Maintenance? Maybe when hell freezes over. The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed for 279 days, over 200 in a combat zone, and nine months without a real port call. The crews work hours that would make a Victorian factory owner blush, and supplies of food and water have dwindled; getting post from home basically ceased and sailors have been pushed past the point of exhaustion. Mental health is going down the drain or even overboard, the sea more attractive than working another day on Trump's floating sweatshop. This much of course isn’t new, the vessel is now being relieved. But the military magazine Stars and Stripes had dared to report the conditions in which life aboard the Lincoln had become and in retaliation for that, Pentagon officials have sent senior journalists packing. How dare you tell the truth! Trump’s war now seemingly being paid with their wages now. His big, strong fleet, but their cancelled training. His photographic opportunity. Their nervous breakdown. You would think, with one-point-five trillion dollars that have been so readily given to the military, that they would have been able to keep the war going without having to beg the sailors for their wages too? Beg not really the operative word of course – as if they asked!

Trump CAVES To Israel Again But It’s Left Netanyahu VERY Unhappy

Right, so Benjamin Netanyahu has been playing Donald Trump again and again. Trump has handed Netanyahu exactly what he wanted: Israel gets to stay put in Gaza until Hamas has surrendered every single weapon. And what has Trump got back for that concession? No withdrawal. Not a deal. Not even a promise that Netanyahu will stop adding more conditions, because he’s always got another one hasn’t he? Just another chance to stand next to him and pretend this is going brilliantly. We are of course talking about Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace here. The body sold as the bridge between a ceasefire and Gaza actually being rebuilt. Its job, in theory, was to oversee the handover from war to something resembling normal life again, which of course is what we all want to see: weapons dealt with under international supervision, Israeli forces withdrawing in stages, and a Palestinian administration taking over. The Yellow Line is the Israeli military line inside Gaza. The point beyond which Israel was supposedly meant to begin pulling back. Now, the Board did not throw every part of that plan in the bin. It only tore up the bit that made it an actual exchange. Its own representative described a neat little dance: weapons decommissioned in stages, Israeli withdrawal in stages. One side performs, the other side has to move too. But then the Board met Benjamin Netanyahu and then it announced that Israel would not leave beyond the Yellow Line until Hamas had completed full disarmament. So Israel gets to remain on the line it already holds, actually having taken more than that and moving up to an orange line. Netanyahu had bragged on camera that they had control of 70% of the strip and would go for more, all while Hamas is expected to hand over the last rifle, pistol, slingshot and, presumably, every remaining scrap of dignity before Israel has to give up a single inch. The Board took a phased, reciprocal arrangement and moved the risk almost entirely onto Gaza. What an absolute shocker, with people like the orange dunce and Tony Blair involved, I can’t imagine how this panned out.

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