Israel and Saudi Arabia: the rise of rogue states
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Israel
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On 10 July 1985, the bombing, sinking, and fatality aboard the Greenpeace ship, ‘Rainbow Warrior‘, taught New Zealand that as a small country we could be vulnerable to the perniciousness of foreign powers.
Despite being supposed allies; despite the blood of our soldiers shed for their liberation in two World Wars, faraway France sent a team of DGSE secret agents to our shores and committed what could only be described as an act of state-sponsored terrorism.
As a nation, we did not take kindly to being bullied by a foreign power. The NZ History website pointedly observed that;
This incident did much to promote what has been described as New Zealand’s ‘silent war of independence’ and was central to an upsurge in New Zealand nationalism. There was a sense of having to ‘go it alone’ because traditional allies such as the United States and Britain sat on their hands while France worked to block New Zealand exports. The failure of Britain and the United States to condemn this act of terrorism hardened support for a more independent foreign policy line.
Thirty three years later, and another nuclear-armed, aggressive nation is arrogantly throwing it’s weight around and trying to “have a go” at us – Israel.
NZ-Israel relations took a nose-dive last year when singer-entertainer Lorde decided to cancel her planned tour of Israel;
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The bitter reaction from Zionist individuals and organisations could only be described as – at times – reaching levels of insane hysteria. A full page advertisement in The Washington Times by fanatic Rabbi Shmuley Boteach showed the intolerance to dissenting views by hardline Zionists;
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Obviously, Rabbi Boteach’s call to “support our campaign to defend Israel and promote human rights” (bottom of advert) didn’t extend to people having the right to make a decision on whether or not to tour the country he was “defending”.
Two young women who last year called on Lorde not to tour Israel have found themselves on the sharp, pointy-end of Israel’s hard-line extremism when it comes to criticising that country;
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Ms Sachs and Ms Abu-Shanab wrote;
Since 1967, Israel has militarily occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza strip. The occupation is considered an affront to international law and Israeli settlements in the area explicitly violate the Geneva Convention. The military occupation of Palestinian territories has resulted in an apartheid state. Palestinians living in the occupied territories do not enjoy the same rights Israeli citizens enjoy, they are denied freedom of movement and often basic services and necessities.
Today, millions of people stand opposed to the Israeli government’s policies of oppression, ethnic cleansing, human rights violations, occupation and apartheid. As part of this struggle, we believe that an economic, intellectual and artistic boycott is an effective way of speaking out against these crimes. This worked very effectively against apartheid in South Africa, and we hope it can work again.
Israel’s violations are so brutal, Nelson Mandela’s own grandson, Mandla Mandela, said: “The settlements I saw here [in the West Bank] reminded me of what we had suffered in South Africa because we also were surrounded by many settlements and were not allowed to move from one place to another freely. Palestinians are being subjected to the worst version of apartheid.” He added, “Israel is the worst apartheid regime” and called for the continued support of the boycott movement.
They called on Lorde to follow in our country’s tradition of standing up to injustice;
Israel might seem like a world away from New Zealand but that shouldn’t stop us from speaking out and being on the right side of history. In 1981 New Zealanders took to the streets to protest the Springbok tour and South African apartheid. It’s remembered proudly now, so it’s easy to forget that at the time this stuff was seriously fraught. Many argued the politics of apartheid shouldn’t be brought into sport. People will say the same about music.
We’re not just writing to appeal to the past. We’re writing this because we know you agree that our part in movements for justice and equality shouldn’t just be a memory that gathers dust. We can play an important role in challenging injustice today. We urge you to act in the spirit of progressive New Zealanders who came before you and continue their legacy. In 2017, Lorde, reignite the spirit of 1981 and show the world that New Zealanders are the progressive forward-thinking people we say we are. Please join the artistic boycott of Israel, cancel your Israeli tour dates and make a stand. Your voice will join many others and together we can and will make a difference.
I am in awe of the courage of these two young women.
In the interests of fair, free speech, The Spinoff also published a counter-opinion, by Dane Giraud from the NZ Jewish community.
For their actions, a pro-Zionist group in Israel called “Shurat Hadin” has sued – and ‘won’ a legal case in an Israeli Court – seeking ‘damages against Ms Sachs and Ms Abu-Shanab. The award was for 45,000 Israeli New Shekel ($NZ18,976).
According to a Jerusalem Post report;
In January, Shurat HaDin filed a lawsuit on behalf of Shoshana Steinbach, Ayelet Wertzel and Ahuva Frogel. The three all purchased tickets to see Lorde, and were refunded when the show was canceled. The suit demanded NIS 15,000 in damages for each of the teenagers, claiming that their “artistic welfare” was harmed as was their leisure time, “and above all damage to their good name as Israelis and Jews.” The lawsuit said that Lorde’s response on Twitter to the letter Sachs and Abu-Shanab penned showed a direct connection to the concert cancellation.
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“This is a precedent-setting ruling according to the Boycott Law,” [Shurat HaDin lawyer] Darshan-Leitner said Thursday. “This decision makes it clear that anyone who calls for a boycott against the State of Israel could find themselves liable for damages and need to pay compensation to those hurt by the boycott call, if they’re in Israel or outside it.”
“Shurat Hadin” makes no secret of their hard-line Zionism and willingness to exploit “legal avenues” to further their cause;
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As their website clearly states;
Shurat HaDin is at the forefront of fighting terrorism and safeguarding Jewish rights worldwide. We are dedicated to taking action to protect the State of Israel and its citizens. By putting terrorists and their supporters on trial to compensate victims and block funding of terror, by fighting to end the use of social media for inciting violence and promoting terror, by defending Israel, its leaders, and soldiers against claims of war crimes, and by battling lawfare, BDS and other efforts to delegitimize the Jewish State, Shurat HaDin is using court systems around the world to go on the legal offensive against Israel’s enemies.
Former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer, Philip Giraldi, has accused ShuratHaDin as engaging in lawfare;
Lawfare, as the name suggests, is the concept of using the law itself as a weapon of war. What it has meant in practice is turning American courtrooms into battlegrounds between private actors and foreign litigants seeking leverage in international political disputes. As a court case just concluded this week [February, 2015] in New York against the Palestinian Authority highlights, the increasing abuse of Lawfare litigation in the U.S. courts may soon have dangerous and irreparable implications for American foreign policy interests in the Middle East.
Israel’s Shurat HaDin Law Center has featured in much of the Lawfare litigation, seeking to harass groups and individuals that it regards as hostile, tying them up with litigation so they become ineffectual or even bankrupting them when a friendly judge rules its way. Shurat HaDin is headed by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and her husband Avi, who have described their organization as a means of “fighting back,” particularly appropriate for Israel because “the Jews invented law.”
He pointed out;
More recently Shurat HaDin has been threatening to use litigation on American university campuses where it perceives that there is toleration of “an environment of intimidation and hostility” that fails to protect Jewish and Israeli students against alleged anti-Semitic harassment, by which it means demonstrations by Palestinian supporters and calls for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Shurat HaDin have links to Israel’s security agency, Mossad.
Clearly, Ms Sachs and Ms Abu-Shanab are the latest victims of Shurat HaDin’s ‘lawfare’ strategy to coerce critics of Israel into silence.
Philip Giraldi‘s analysis is backed up by Waikato University law professor, Alexander Gillespie, who said this was an attempt to quell free speech;
“This is political theatre. This is not really a legal issue, this is about a court in Israel trying to create a precedent and it will have quite a large global impact.
A lot of people will start watching this because the fear will be that if you’re critical of Israel, no matter where you are in the world, you could be sued.”
However, Professor Gillespie said it would be difficult for Israel to enforce their Court decision to demand payment from the two women;
“In theory they can apply to the courts here to enforce their judgement, but it’s very unlikely that the judgement will be enforced because it’s completely contrary to our own laws.”
To their credit, Ms Sachs and Ms Abu-Shanab have bravely refused to cave to Israel’s abuse of legal process and have set up a ‘Givealittle’ page where donations toward their ‘fine’ will be forwarded to the Gaza Mental Health Foundation.
Hopefully the New Zealand government will act decisively to defend two of it’s citizens from the brazen bullying by a foreign power. If our government fails to act to defend it’s citizen on our own soil, then it has become a weak vassal-state of a foreign regime.
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Saudia Arabia
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Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia – another “ally” of the West – has taken it’s war from the bombing of Yemen to it’s Consulate in Istanbul where apparently it has murdered Washington Post columnist, and critic of the Saudi regime, Jamal Khashoggi.
Not content with bombing and mass-killing in Yemen that has resulted in at least ten thousand killed and tens of thousands more dead from starvation, the Saudi regime has adopted Mossad-style techniques of using execution teams to kill critics. The weapons used to kill innocent men, women, and children in Yemen – such as forty children in a school bus – are American-made;
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Sensitive to ongoing reports of mass deaths of Yemeni civilians, Secretary of State, Michael R. Pompeo, tried to “make good” on assurances that Saudi Arabian warplanes would take better aim in attacks on so-called rebel targets;
Pursuant to Section 1290 of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA), I certified to Congress yesterday that the governments of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates are undertaking demonstrable actions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure resulting from military operations of these governments.
In the same statement, Pompeo also said how much the US government wanted peace in Yemen;
The Trump Administration has been clear that ending the conflict in Yemen is a national security priority. We will continue to work closely with the Saudi-led coalition to ensure Saudi Arabia and the UAE maintain support for UN-led efforts to end the civil war in Yemen, allow unimpeded access for the delivery of commercial and humanitarian support through as many avenues as possible, and undertake actions that mitigate the impact of the conflict on civilians and civilian infrastructure.
Oxfam America’s Scott Paul responded the only way possible to US support of Saudi bombing of Yemen;
“Today, the Trump administration once put its Gulf allies ahead of Yemeni families who are struggling to survive. With Secretary Pompeo’s certification, the State Department demonstrated that it is blindly supporting military operations in Yemen without any allegiance to facts, moral code or humanitarian law.”
Many of the horror-weapons used in Yemen were banned from sale to the Saudis by the previous Obama administration. Trump reversed that ban in March 2017.
Trump has promised a controversial US$110 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia will proceed – regardless of the current storm of international condemnation over the mysterious disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi; regardlss of the fact that the Saudi regime may be engaging in extra-judicial killings; regardless of the the alleged murder taking place within the borders of another country.
In a statement that shows – yet again – the utter moral bankruptcy of the man, Trump explained;
“I know they’re talking about different kinds of sanctions, but they’re spending $110 billion on military equipment and on things that create jobs, like jobs and others, for this country. I don’t like the concept of stopping an investment of $110 billion into the United States. Because you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to take that money and spend it in Russia or China, or someplace else.”
And Americans wonder why they are hated throughout much of the Middle East?
Israel and Saudi Arabia – two regimes that brook no dissent. Both thumb their noses at free expression; democracy; and respect for human life. Neither are hesitant at using lethal violence to pursue their aims.
We certainly have no moral grounds to complain when Russia supports one of their own allies in the region. Russia has Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. The US has Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi ‘Crown Prince’ Mohammed bin Salman.
Russia’s RT News may be a government mouthpiece, but on the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, Yemen, and continuing arming of the Saudi regime, they make a valid point;
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The West should choose it’s friends in the Middle East more carefully.
And New Zealand should have as little as possible to do with Israel and Saudi Arabia as possible. They are both rogue states.
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References
NZ History: Nuclear-free New Zealand – Sinking the Rainbow Warrior
Rolling Stone: Lorde Cancels Tel Aviv Concert After Calls to Boycott Israel
Radio NZ: Rabbi continues criticism of Lorde
The Spinoff: Dear Lorde, here’s why we’re urging you not to play Israel
Shurat HaDin: Main Page
Jerusalem Post: New Zealand BDS activists ordered to pay damages over Lorde Israel boycott
The Hill: U.S. legislation abused by foreign entities
Radio NZ: NZ activist being sued in Israel calls it ‘publicity stunt’
Givealittle: Help Justine and Nadia raise money for Mental Health in Gaza
Jerusalem Post: Op. Harpoon – How the Mossad and an Israeli NGO destroyed terrorist money networks
Chicago Tribune: 50,000 children in Yemen have died of starvation and disease so far this year, monitoring group says
The Telegraph: Dubai Hamas assassination – how it was planned
CNN: Bomb that killed 40 children in Yemen was supplied by the US
US Department of State: Certification to Congress on Actions of Saudi Arabia and UAE in Yemen Under the NDAA
NPR: U.S. Stands By Saudi Arabia, Despite Criticism Over Civilian Casualties In Yemen
NY Times: Why Are U.S. Bombs Killing Civilians in Yemen?
CNN: Trump’s $110 billion Saudi arms deal has only earned $14.5 billion so far
Twitter: RT News – Yemen, Khashoggi, Saudi Arabia
Additional
The Electronic Intifada: Israeli lawfare “backfires” in New Zealand
NZ Herald: Israeli court – NZ activists must pay for Lorde cancellation
Other Blogs
The Standard: Concert Woes
Previous related blogposts
Exclusive: Provocateurs attempt to disrupt March for Palestine, in Wellington!
New Zealand’s OTHER secret shame
To any Israeli solidiers reading this
Wellingtonians say ‘No!’ to Israeli aggression
What to do with the Israeli Ambassador?
Do our bit: boycott Israeli goods and commercial interests!
Trumpwatch: One minute closer to midnight on the Doomsday Clock
Syria: the mendacities of the mainstream media (part rua)
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I think the more relevant point is “So fucking what?”.
Bibi, especially after his bullshit speech about The U.S. Embassy, can wait another month and then he’ll have Trump and the Republicans fighting each other for front of the line privileges to polish his knob and promise to make the US Israel’s subservient attack dog just like how Henry Kissinger made it.
In the meantime, I’m quite happy to have a Prime Minister who will stick to her guns and hold every fibre of decency in what ever alliance, trade negotiation, just to save on the fuzzy moral feelings and headaches and demands of some gangster shake down.
Nicely put with very measured restraint Frank.
You will of course now be on the list.
Any Israeli supporters in NZ should revile at the unfair and draconian victimisation of these two young ladies who are not under Israeli law or jurisdiction, and protest publicly at the attack on free speech by the rogue Israeli element.
Silence implies consent.
Yes, John, I won’t be surprised if I am indeed targetted.
In which case I will document every incident that comes my way. The best ‘disinfectant’, as they say, is the bright glare of public scrutiny.
Yes frank,
The next world war (WW3) is destined to take place around the Red Sea so we have little time to stop it.
https://endtimestruth.com/tigris-and-euphrates-rivers-are-drying-up/
Rev. 16:12
During the coming battles of World War III, just before the attack of China and the other countries to the east upon Israel, the Euphrates River will be removed as being an obstacle by being dried up. This will permit the march of a 200,000,000-man army to reach the Valley of Jehoshaphat (Armageddon) just as Christ returns to fight against them (Rev. 9:16 ). Could the current trend toward drought in this region and the dramatic decrease in the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in recent years be the first stage of the fulfillment of this prophecy? It appears that this is only another important indication of how close we are to the Second Coming!
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Christian Zionism or end-time Advent is simply part of the lie of theism that the people of God inherit power over the earth, via subjugation of all others by “heavenly” force.
Who knows what advances in “Area 51” weaponry for population control will be developed to serve this corrupt cause?
Having once been a supporter of israel, my opinion changed many years ago after watching there treatment of the Palestinians, land theft, apartheid treatment, the Gaza concentration camp and much more. As for the saudis murdering tens of thousands of innocent people, let us be very clear that without the total support of the uk, usa etc. none of this would be possible. But hey who cares as long as billy bob blow has a job in the bomb factory in the good old usa. Let us also be very clear that our toy soldiers are up to there necks in supporting the murderous wars instigated for financial gain by usa uk and various hangers on. If one more person gives me the spreading democracy and freedom line i will puke. Has anybody noticed that our joke news services (direct from cnn) can dish up wall to wall coverage of a few americans having trouble with a cyclone, tornado, but is literally silent on tens of thousands being murdered in Yemen
“Has anybody noticed that our joke news services (direct from cnn) can dish up wall to wall coverage of a few americans having trouble with a cyclone, tornado, but is literally silent on tens of thousands being murdered in Yemen”
Nailed it!!
I blame the Russians
Why?
Because everyone blames the Russians. Didn’t you know the Russians are responsible for everything that goes bad anywhere. Including the latest Star Wars movie tanking; https://www.indiewire.com/2018/10/star-wars-last-jedi-backlash-study-russian-trolls-rian-johnson-1202008645/ [sac]
They may not be so safe as you think. We have a number of statutes reciprocally recognizing overseas civil judgements.
https://www.wilsonharle.com/legal-information/nz-legal-guides/enforcing-foreign-judgments-in-new-zealand
I understand this was recently updated or new legislation enacted as part of a trade agreement. Is Israel now on the list? If not could they get the judgement recognized in Australia and then enforced using the statue we have that recognizes Australian civil judgements? Scary stuff.
Well said Frank.
Israel, Saudi Arabia, hold the purse strings to the continuing flow of international money and oil. The jingle jangle of cash, speaks volumes in the Western world. Hence the reason both murderous states are not brought to justice. Pathetic and sick to the extreme.
And Saudi it is alleged, has been funding middle eastern terrorism!
Yep, The West’s cowardly silence speaks volumes, thereby complicit to Zionist and Saudi atrocities!
We are all under Zionist occupation now, as effectively anyone who opposes Zionist occupation of the West Bank is now a targeted individual – and any nation state is a targeted nation state.
As an MK put it, if the Palestinian teenager Ahed Tamimi had slapped him he would have put his foot on her head, using a metaphor from the writing of George Orwell – a foot on the head of humanity forever.
Benjamin Netanyahu said just a few weeks back, that the strong do not make alliances with the weak, but the strong … .
Of course the weak are the ones to be crushed under foot.
It is part of chosen people culture to either be the victim of judgment or the means of judgment against others. Their PM has determined that the time of playing the victim card is over and now others are to be the victim.
First it has been, and will continue to be, those Jews who resist Zionism where it involves injustice to others. A recent law in the state of Israel allows Jews identified of being unZionist (the test for now is supporting BDS) to be banned from visiting their “national” homeland. Other Jewish critics who visit are detained at the airport and questioned, as to who they are visiting and where they will go.
So we begin to witness the exercise of total war against all resistance to Zionist occupation of the West Bank, and on a global scale.
The US does Israels bidding, Israel gets billions in free military and financial aid. Nato with US as the leader are doing worse things than the Nazis, check war in Ukraine, Syria, South America, Iraq. this is a truly evil syndicate. They have total control over the entire media world. Big oil really is their name. When the CIA can’t pull of covert activity they send in the US military. Also we should demand transparency of why our army is in Iraq.
Excellent report Frank. You’ve presented a compelling case why NZ should have as little to do with Saudi Arabia and Israel as possible. Both countries flout international law and use the legal system only when it suits them. Their death squads are vile, evil murderers.
Yet, the American Empire will happily sell billions of dollars of weaponry to both regimes. Hypocrisy at its most odious!!
Donation on its way to that Givealittle page!!
Good article Frank
I remember in 2014 the mass demonstrations against Israel during their attack on Gaza, while Key feebly uttered the phrase clearly sent around to all the 5 Eyes countries
“Israel has the right to defend itself”
Any govt move to take the side of Israel against these 2 brave young women
is not going to end well.
I wonder how that free trade deal with Saudi Arabia is going?
Effing Key wouldn’t defend any New Zealander against foreign harassment. The capitalist pig couldn’t even take time to sttend the service for two dead NZ soldiers killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan. The prick was too busy, attending his son’s baseball game. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10828343
“Corporal Luke Douglas Tamatea wasn’t impressed with the decision by John Key not to attend funerals of two soldiers killed earlier this month.
Instead Mr Key had flown to the United States to watch his son play in a baseball tournament, skipping the funerals of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone, who were killed in an ambush in Afghanistan on August 4.
Just days before he was killed, Corporal Tamatea voiced his belief that the Prime Minister should have stayed in New Zealand to honour the slain soldiers.
“If I was a leader of a country I would attend the funerals of our fallen soldiers….. I wouldn’t be at a f****** baseball game!!” he posted on Facebook on August 9, TVNZ reported.”
That’s how seriously the pig took his duty to fallen New Zealanders. So don’t hold out he would’ve come to the defence of those 2 young women.
Justine Sachs and Nadia Abu-Shanab are both heroes!! (Forgot to write that in my earlier post.)
Absolutely they are MJOLNIR.
Be interesting to see how Israel will enforce the fines! Use scurrilous intimidating tactics through Mossad perhaps?
I presume Lorde will now be celebrated as a revolutionary hero, for taking her stand.
And Israel will shiver, so will Saudi Arabia’s new Prince in charge, frightful of the voices expressed on social media and blogs.
You will soon see, money buys you almost everything, and also ensure you get away with oppression, discrimination and even murder.
The present state of affairs is highly worrisome.
Trump is already trying to defend the US arms sales signed when he was in Riyadh, stuff an alleged murdered ‘journalist’ in a Saudi embassy in Istanbul, so what?
The Saudis will carry on as usual, as if nothing much happened.
Human rights activists have a point, but the vast majority of people are nowadays so damned disinterested, they are focused only on their own personal interests, and what they can get out of life, whether fighting for survival or defending their middle or upper class perks.
The world is as corrupt as even, perhaps more so, and double standards, crime and appalling behaviour is everywhere, blatantly displayed, and moral preachers are like the lonely prophets in the old scriptures, giving up on humanity, going into exile into the desert, the caves and into the mountains.
Donald will not let his sword dance friends down, I bet, it will all be swept under the carpet, that Kashoggi ‘issue’, only Qatar based AJE are making a big fuss of it, as they now have little good to say about their hostile Saudi neighbour government in Riyadh.
We have Mafia like governments, in Washington, Riyadh, Jerusalem and MANY other places. Even little NZ Inc based in Wellington is not all that kosher a place and government.
‘I bet, it will all be swept under the carpet,’
Yes, like the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty was quickly swept under the carpet. Most people don’t even know the attack happened.
‘A former Navy attorney who helped lead the military investigation of the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 American servicemen says former President Lyndon Johnson and his defense secretary, Robert McNamara, ordered that the inquiry conclude the incident was an accident.
In a signed affidavit released at a Capitol Hill news conference, retired Capt. Ward Boston said Johnson and McNamara told those heading the Navy’s inquiry to “conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”
https://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ussliberty.html
Yes, thanks for the reminder!
Why does the spinoff need to publish an opinion that runs counter. There is this weird thing that says that truth has two sides – it does not.
If people ask Lorde not to go to Israel because of Israeli policy they are allowed, how she responds is up to her and any consequences need to fall on her because SHE made the choice but the Israeli’s go after the small guys (tells you all you need to know) and for that they are rewarded with soft pieces – which is why I don’t read Spinoff much
These people are a nothing but a bunch of ruthless murderers and we gave them 11.5 million for a dodgy trade deal that never eventuated. We have no problem locking up our Maori people for committing crime especially murders, violence and thefts. Yet in this Saudi case these are committed by some of the most wealthiest and powerful people in the world now is this acceptable? That 5 billions of surplus we need to invest some of this money into alternative sources of fuel and based on the Saudi and Russians bad, immoral, illegal and unethical behaviour we need to do this ASAP.
+1
The title for this article should say ‘the rise of evil states’
It gets even better with the Saudi’s.It appears their diplomatic group who appeared at the consulate had purchased a bone saw. And one of the group was an expert in body dismemberment![Remember the Sopranos and their mincer.] It seems they then left the premises ,with each carrying handy packages. The one with the bowling ball cover of course had the head.[Gruesome Jimee!!] Now we can watch as this story is spun by the U.S Empire complicit vassal media so that the arms sales by the U.K, France, and the U.S. can continue!!!
Thank you Historian Pete the plot thickens and they must think we are all thick to. I see the saudis are now doing a putin, acting dumb and blaming others. 15 hit men arrive with their special skills to kill equals premeditated murder but alas the king knew nothing it was some rogue group, really! do they expect us to believe this.
Thank you Michelle , except for your remark about Putin. There is a campaign to demonise Russia as the main threat to U.S. Empire hegemony. This includes the relationship with Syria and numerous false flag events,the downing of the Malaysian aircraft in the Ukraine-MH17, the concocted Russia doping scandal which was a CIA/FBI construct, the Skripal poisoning in the U.K.which was actually carried out by the U.K. Intelligence Services MI5,MI6, the continual reference to Russia as a “regime” ie dictatorship, even though their elections are more democratic than those of the U.S.Unfortunately many , including yourself have been sucked in by a compliant Western media that is owned and controlled by the 1% super Rich.In essence , you have been brainwashed. But you have the power to free yourself !!!
The demonising of Russia is well documented and goes back many decades.
Similarly with Northern Korea and cCina.
Don’t take news of reports from the Western media without using them as a just starting point to investigate what is really taking place.
RNZ plays news, US scripted and acted out in US propaganda studios.
I have heard the same background sound effects across several conflicts.
Only the stupid don’t ask questions.
To Michelle regarding Putin, he will go down as one of the great leaders of our time. He has guided Russia through bogus sanctions imposed by the US and managed to come out with a rebuilt Russia, they have almost saved the Syrians from 7 years of murderous terror care of the US, Israel, Saudi coalition. The west media ( propaganda) are part of the evil new world order eg Rothschild etc syndicate. Just lucky we don’t have any oil
Sorry I don’t agree with you on putin if he has done so much for his beloved country how come millions are hungry and extremely poor. I see America is helping the Saudis with a plot but if what they are trying to say is that the interrogation in the consulate went wrong how did the Kashoggi end up carved up in pieces? and how come they took a bone saw ?and how come 15 men all specialist in their so called fields turn up just for an interrogation that supposingly went wrong, ‘whoops let chop him up’ no one will care he is one of us. Pure evil and her we are locking more people up in our prions for lesser crimes. But we can just turn a blind eye here nothing to see bloody hypocrites!
All very pertinent questions, Michelle. For something that went “horribly wrong” they sure came well prepared to kill and dismember the corpse to carry away for easy disposal.
Yes Frank I have been to enough court cases to know the difference between an accidental killing = manslaughter in our country and a premeditated killing. One is the result of an accident or dispute gone wrong the other is intentional. Come on folks why would they have in there possession a bone saw unless they intended on using it. This factor alone shows there true intent and there intent was to kill and dismember and then dispose of Khasoggi and to make matter worse they thought they could get away with this and they may well still do.