Seeing the strategy and tactics of Hamas’s attack on Israel yesterday, I wondered for the first time whether Prigozhin was actually alive.
There’s a conspiracy theory going around that his plane crash was staged to conceal the fact that Prigozhin was being sent to a crucial overseas mission. I thought it was complete bunkum. I still mostly think that, but, you know.
I spent the past 18 months staring at the footage of military operations that follow a certain scenario. Day after day, day after day. And then I see the exact same thing but people look a little different and speak another language. One can’t avoid wondering what just happened to transform Hamas in such a way.
I want to reiterate that I don’t believe that the attack on Israel is about Ukraine. Not everything is about everything else. “Distracting attention from Ukraine” is an unserious interpretation, so I’d rather not talk about it at all.
But I do wonder whether Hamas has a new owner.
Oh, and as a post-scriptum, it was fascinating to observe how the entire far-left yesterday stanned for Hamas using the same words as when the far-right stans for the Russians. Both groups are trained monkeys and both detest their own civilization, siding with its enemies.
Clarissa's Blog 
“I wondered for the first time whether Prigozhin was actually alive”
I also thought immediately of russia, not in terms of motives but in terms of modus operandi (and maybe funding thru Iran).
And 30 seconds or so after reading this post I open twitter and the first thing I see is generalsvr (usual caveats) claiming:
“PMC #Wagner and PMC Redut in coordination with the leadership of #Russia took part in the training of #Hamas militants to attack #Israel”
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I’m telling you, it’s so familiar. And it’s several levels above what Hamas has ever done until now. Somebody has had to teach Hamas all these new tricks.
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Right now we have: “Israel estimates over 600 dead; troops in firefights with terror squads in south”
Reading analysis of the situation makes me depressed the most, more even than horrible photos, since everything points to the fact we have no desire to bring change. Ever. And explosions like this last one will only serve to make everybody more extreme.
One Russian telegram blogger rightly notes that there are only two real solutions: ethnic cleansing like in Nagorno-Karabakh a few days ago OR taking responsibility for several million Palestinians and helping them transition from the traditional way of life to modernity, which neither Fatakh nor Hamas will do. Israel won’t do that either, so here we are…
Another blogger predicts Israel will end like South Africa: “It is very possible that this is not so much an Israeli dead end as a civilizational one. That is, nothing can be done – neither by force, nor by education, nor by law. And the world will surrender Israel just as it surrendered South Africa before.”
His post in Russian:
https://sapojnik.livejournal.com/4446809.html
And now some surreal humor for a change:
“The Russian Jewish Congress is ready to help refugees from Israel move to the Russian Federation. Vice-President of the Russian Jewish Congress German Zakharyaev stated this in a conversation with the radio station “Moscow Speaks”.”
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It took two to tango for this situation to occur. The Israeli security establishment failed epically. Sure Hamas had good tactics, but they did not have tanks, APCs, attack helicopters, fighter planes, bombers, etc. to justify such a lack of defensive cohesion on the Israeli side.
I’m not very versed in Israeli politics, but it seems the blame lays squarely on Netanyahu and his cronies.
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That’s exactly what the ABC news headlines said, anyway.
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Am glad an Israeli news website publishes this, even today:
\ For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces
The premier’s policy of treating the terror group as a partner, at the expense of Abbas and Palestinian statehood, has resulted in wounds that will take Israel years to heal from
…
Most of the time, Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.
According to various reports, Netanyahu made a similar point at a Likud faction meeting in early 2018, when he was quoted as saying that those who oppose a Palestinian state should support the transfer of funds to Gaza, because maintaining the separation between the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
While Netanyahu does not make these kind of statements publicly or officially, his words are in line with the policy that he implemented.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
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This was clearly a systemic failure of the Israeli government. Outrageous and unforgivable mismanagement from the Netanyahu government.
This is what happens when despots care more about consolidating power, hollowing out democratic institutions, and playing culture wars with their own population as opposed to keeping tabs on the real problems.
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Apparently, in the words of a survivor of the Young People’s Music Festival that was attacked in the early morning of Saturday, it took THREE hours before the Israeli army was able to intervene effectively. Three hours is not an appropriate response time.
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Avi, new information is coming to light explaining what happened. I believe in a few days more info will be published. Here:
\ How did this happen? new information on Hamas attack, comes to light
After communication systems are destroyed, the IDF is unable to rally its troops to respond; despite desperate calls for help from border area communities under attack, hours pass before forces arrive to battle the terrorists
https://www.ynetnews.com/article/bkrn5xg11a#autoplay
The latest numbers are:
“Death toll from Hamas onslaught passes 700, over 100 kidnapped, as Israel strikes Gaza
2,200 wounded”
“Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan on Sunday claimed “dozens” of U.S. citizens are among the hostages captured by Hamas in Israel currently being held in Gaza”
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You’re absolutely right, el. It’s still too early to know the whole story and I didn’t want to put the blame on Tsahal or the Cabinet.
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The apologists are sickening.
Doesn’t matter what your politics are. The people parading civilian corpses around in the backs of pickup trucks, to cheering crowds, are not the good guys. Doesn’t matter how much you think they’ve been wronged. Even I have been sympathetic to the predicament that Palestinians are in– and many Orthodox Christians ended up on the wrong side of the partition, and have not always been treated nicely by the Israeli government.
But you know what the Israelis are not in the habit of doing? Kidnapping civilians, shooting up music festivals, slaughtering people at bus stops, parading naked corpses through the streets… like, what do you have to tell yourself to make that OK in your head?
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…or is it like the riots here, where they have a pre-arranged deal with western media outlets to minimize the evil, and show only the footage of IDF retaliating– spin-doctor the heck out of that for them? Who is paying them to do it?
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When a blogger I like expressed opinion that this Hamas attack was to draw attention and money from Ukraine to Palestinians again, I was sceptical. However, after reading some news, he may be right:
[Sept 19] Gaza border riots intended to pressure Qatar for more aid money …
Qatari aid included a transfer of fuel directly to the Gaza power plant, which Qatar bought from an Israeli company and was delivered by Israel. The second part of the package was a sum of money paid directly to families stricken by poverty. It is now the third allocation, which was meant to pay the salaries of Hamas officials in Gaza, that has been held up.
…
The problem arose because Hamas had agreed to a deal whereby Qatar buys Egyptian fuel for resale in the Gaza Strip, and the money collected from the sale of fuel would then be used to pay civil servants. Due to rising fuel and transport costs, it could no longer afford to pay them.
The terrorist group is now trying to put pressure on the Qataris to pay more money, a request reportedly rejected by the Gulf state. According to the Kan report, the riots on the Gaza Strip’s northern border were intended to pressure Israel to request that Qatar accede to the Hamas demand, though the terror group has said it was due to “violations of the status quo at the Al-Aqsa mosque.”
[Oct 4] “Qatar is still undecided about whether it will provide additional economic aid to the Gaza Strip as part of their efforts to restore calm to the strip, despite Hamas appealing to the Gulf emirate to increase its financial support of Gaza residents due to their difficult economic conditions.”
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There’s always the possibility that one faction of the DC oligarchs is looking to ditch Ukraine and has engineered a new money-laundering “good war” front by targeting Israel using internal traitors and taking advantage of regional hatreds.
I could imagine Russia enthusiatically supporting that move.
It’s not as any of the DC oligarcy is concerned about brutally slaughtering innocents of any country. They pushed (and still push) a poorly-tested, often contaminated novel biological on millions of helpless children for status, power, and profit.
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What would Racheal Corrie do?
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About what? And how is she relevant to anything?
Is this a spam account?
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Hi Clarissa, anyone can post as “anonymous” in the new WordPress interface without making an account or giving an email address. The posts you see from “anonymous” come from multiple people, not one person.
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People keep mentioning a new interface. This is freaking me out. Maybe I should go check it out.
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