Hamas Israel War

[1andrew1]

More taxpayers' money being wasted by baseless allegations.

Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, has today tweeted a full retraction of her false allegations about Professor Kate Sang and agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to her.

In October 2023, Michelle Donelan wrote to the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) suggesting that newly appointed members of an EDI board, Professor Kate Sang and Dr Kamna Patel, had shared extremist material or, in the case of Professor Sang, had expressed support or sympathy for Hamas in the aftermath of the Gaza attack. She also claimed they had breached the Nolan principles and suggested they should be removed from the Board. Unusually, the Minister posted this letter to her personal X account to very large numbers of people.

In fact, the allegations were false. Professor Sang is not a Hamas supporter or sympathiser. She had tweeted a link to a Guardian article which described the wider aftermath in the UK of the Hamas attack and simply commented ‘this is disturbing’. Dr Patel had not shared extremist material and there had been no breach of the Nolan principles as Ms Donelan had suggested.

Unfortunately, the basis for Michelle Donelan’s false allegations was a seriously misleading press release from the lobby group Policy Exchange which did not include the link to the Guardian article tweeted by Professor Sang, just the headline which referred to a crackdown on Hamas support by Suella Braverman.

https://www.bindmans.com/knowledge-h...ments-on-gaza/

Taxpayers money ? How do you work that out ?

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Paul

Taxpayers money ? How do you work that out ?

The government (ie us taxpayers) paid the compensation not Donelan personally.
https://news.sky.com/story/taxpayers...hamas-13088671

[daveeb]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

The government (ie us taxpayers) paid the compensation not Donelan personally.
https://news.sky.com/story/taxpayers...hamas-13088671

It's just more of the same really. Ministers never responsible for their actions and Joe public ends up bailing them out.

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

The government (ie us taxpayers) paid the compensation not Donelan personally.
https://news.sky.com/story/taxpayers...hamas-13088671

Well thats just plain wrong, she was personally responsible so should be paying the bill.

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-...-24/index.html

US President Joe Biden is set to announce new steps to establish a port in Gaza for humanitarian aid during his State of the Union address Thursday evening, senior administration officials said.

The port will include a temporary pier, a second senior official said, which “will provide the capacity for hundreds of additional truckloads of assistance each day” to be coordinated with Israel, the United Nations and humanitarian nongovernmental organizations. Initial aid shipments will come via Cyprus, the official said. It was not immediately clear when the port would be up and running.

A senior US administration official said the Israeli government has also "prepared a new land crossing directly into northern Gaza," a development that comes after weeks of increasing US pressure as the humanitarian crisis worsens.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Hugh

https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-...-24/index.html

Looks a bit desperate.

I guess Biden doesn't have sufficient numbers in the House to be able to lever Israel's funding and weapon supply to get them to allow more aid into Gaza through conventional routes.

[1andrew1]

Messaging seems to be please don't do it, but if you do, no adverse repercussions will occur

White House warns Israel against ‘smashing into Rafah’

US sees no ‘credible plan’ to protect civilians in southern Gazan city, says Jake Sullivan

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan has warned the Israeli government against “smashing into Rafah” as the Biden administration underlines its opposition to the planned assault on one of Gaza’s biggest cities.

The US was continuing to urge the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to protect civilians and find a path for a long-term peace, Sullivan said. But an assault on the southern Gaza city was not necessary in the effort to “crush Hamas”, he added.

“[President Joe Biden] believes there is a path to do that, and that path does not lie in smashing into Rafah, where there are 1.3mn people, in the absence of a credible plan to deal with the population there,” Sullivan said on Tuesday. “We have not seen a credible plan to protect those civilians.”

In an interview over the weekend, Biden suggested a military operation in Rafah, the last remaining population centre in southern Gaza unoccupied by Israeli forces, could further strain Washington’s relations with the Jewish state.

But the president has stopped short of saying he would deny military assistance to its ally Israel and the US has not said what repercussions the Netanyahu government would face for ignoring Washington’s warnings on Rafah.

Sullivan also declined to speculate on whether the US would begin placing any conditions on the $3.8bn in annual lethal aid it provides to Israel.

https://www.ft.com/content/7657510b-...3-7808f59ea5e0

[1andrew1]

Israel arbitrarily denying entry of aid to Gaza, says Cameron

Foreign secretary’s statement marks escalation of his criticism of the Israeli government amid rising concerns about humanitarian catastrophe in the territory

Israel’s “arbitrary denials” of aid being sent to Gaza is now the “main blocker” to providing humanitarian assistance to the territory, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton has warned.

In a marked escalation of criticism of the Israeli government, Cameron told the foreign affairs select committee that it was “an enormous frustration” that aid had been “routinely held up waiting for Israeli permissions”.

The foreign secretary also contradicted claims by the Israeli government spokesman, Eylon Levy, that the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip had been closed on Saturdays at the request of the UN.

Cameron said: “I can confirm that the UN has not requested that the Kerem Shalom crossing is closed on Saturdays. It is our understanding that Israel closes it due to the Sabbath.”

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i...eron-9kpj2250l

[jfman]

How the mighty have fallen. America finally calls for an immediate ceasefire as hundreds of thousands of people face starvation.

Outside the western world history will look back on these times extremely unfavourably. Perhaps in many ways worse than the Holocaust. The true horrors of what the Nazis did was largely hidden and discovered late into, and after, World War 2 ended. Due to the scale of the war the ability to intervene - even if it was known - would have been limited.

The western world has stood by complicit, at best silent and at worst enabling the horrors committed by the Israeli regime. This has all happened in plain sight with critics smeared as anything from terorist sympathisers to antisemites. Only the intrinsic bias (and outright racism) of the west will mean they continue to deny what is obvious in the global south.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by jfman

How the mighty have fallen. America finally calls for an immediate ceasefire as hundreds of thousands of people face starvation.

Outside the western world history will look back on these times extremely unfavourably. Perhaps in many ways worse than the Holocaust. The true horrors of what the Nazis did was largely hidden and discovered late into, and after, World War 2 ended. Due to the scale of the war the ability to intervene - even if it was known - would have been limited.

The western world has stood by complicit, at best silent and at worst enabling the horrors committed by the Israeli regime. This has all happened in plain sight with critics smeared as anything from terorist sympathisers to antisemites. Only the intrinsic bias (and outright racism) of the west will mean they continue to deny what is obvious in the global south.

The Western world stood by complicit enabling the horrors committed by Saudi Arabia, Saudi backed militants, Iranian backed Houthis, Al-Qaeda and Islamic state. more than 227,000 (that was 2021) killed by war and famine, including 11,000 children.

All happened in plain sight, no one cared, no marching in the streets every weekend

People only care now because it's Israel that's doing it.

[ianch99]

Originally Posted by jfman

How the mighty have fallen. America finally calls for an immediate ceasefire as hundreds of thousands of people face starvation.

Outside the western world history will look back on these times extremely unfavourably. Perhaps in many ways worse than the Holocaust. The true horrors of what the Nazis did was largely hidden and discovered late into, and after, World War 2 ended. Due to the scale of the war the ability to intervene - even if it was known - would have been limited.

The western world has stood by complicit, at best silent and at worst enabling the horrors committed by the Israeli regime. This has all happened in plain sight with critics smeared as anything from terorist sympathisers to antisemites. Only the intrinsic bias (and outright racism) of the west will mean they continue to deny what is obvious in the global south.

Not sure what you say about being worse than the Holocaust is correct. Trying to equate them would be a mistake. In fact, the Allies knew about the mass killing of the Polish Jews in mid-1942 but decided to prioritise on their war efforts and so, later on in the war, did not target the death camps even though they knew about them in 1944.

You are right about the power & influence of the pro-Israel advocates in shouting down the protests when it was clear the IDF were on a revenge mission and 1000,s of women & children were being killed. The West, with a few exceptions, should be ashamed by their hand-wringing while they watched this play out. So many times, they trotted out the "Israel has a right to defend itself" card while they watched the killing & ethnic cleaning.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by ianch99

Not sure what you say about being worse than the Holocaust is correct. Trying to equate them would be a mistake. In fact, the Allies knew about the mass killing of the Polish Jews in mid-1942 but decided to prioritise on their war efforts and so, later on in the war, did not target the death camps even though they knew about them in 1944.

Considering the allies in 1942 would have had limited, if any, capability in the middle of a war to intervene I’m not sure how you find your comparison valid.

The equivalent role to that the United States have played to date would be actively arming the Nazis.

You are right about the power & influence of the pro-Israel advocates in shouting down the protests when it was clear the IDF were on a revenge mission and 1000,s of women & children were being killed. The West, with a few exceptions, should be ashamed by their hand-wringing while they watched this play out. So many times, they trotted out the "Israel has a right to defend itself" card while they watched the killing & ethnic cleaning.

This was evident from October 8th. I’ve said it before and will again, the first few pages of this thread age extremely badly. Nobody doubts the horrors of October 7th however judgement was very significantly impaired throughout.

Originally Posted by jfman

How the mighty have fallen. America finally calls for an immediate ceasefire as hundreds of thousands of people face starvation.

Outside the western world history will look back on these times extremely unfavourably. Perhaps in many ways worse than the Holocaust. The true horrors of what the Nazis did was largely hidden and discovered late into, and after, World War 2 ended. Due to the scale of the war the ability to intervene - even if it was known - would have been limited.

The western world has stood by complicit, at best silent and at worst enabling the horrors committed by the Israeli regime. This has all happened in plain sight with critics smeared as anything from terorist sympathisers to antisemites. Only the intrinsic bias (and outright racism) of the west will mean they continue to deny what is obvious in the global south.

I remember reading your equally vociferous condemnation of the Rohingya genocide, the Russians undertaking genocide in Chechnya, the Darfur Genocide, and the Ethiopian and Eritrean genocides…

Oh wait, the USA hasn’t been involved in those…

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Hugh

I remember reading your equally vociferous condemnation of the Rohingya genocide, the Russians undertaking genocide in Chechnya, the Darfur Genocide, and the Ethiopian and Eritrean genocides…

Oh wait, the USA hasn’t been involved in those…

Likewise the “Israel has the right to defend itself… something something… (justify war crimes)” brigade.