Jake Sullivan, National Security Advisor and dimwit, had written a laudation of his own and his bosses foreign policy for the November print edition of Foreign Affairs. The piece was finalized before the war in Palestine had begun.
The Sources of American Power
A Foreign Policy for a Changed World
Excerpts:
Indeed, although the Middle East remains beset with perennial challenges, the region is quieter than it has been for decades.
The progress is fragile, to be sure. But it is also not an accident.
...
[The president's] approach returns discipline to U.S. policy. It emphasizes deterring aggression, de-escalating conflicts, and integrating the region through joint infrastructure projects and new partnerships, including between Israel and its Arab neighbors. And it is bearing fruit.
...
This disciplined approach frees up resources for other global priorities, reduces the risk of new Middle Eastern conflicts, and ensures that U.S. interests are protected on a far more sustainable basis. Challenges remain. The Israeli-Palestinian situation is tense, particularly in the West Bank, but in the face of serious frictions, we have de-escalated crises in Gaza and restored direct diplomacy between the parties after years of its absence.
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Alastair Crooke, who has personally negotiated prisoner exchanges between Hamas and Israel, has published a rather bleak outlook.
Escalations Cannot Be Stopped – The White House Is Rattled; Escalations Might All Fuse Into ‘One’
The reality of the necessity of war is permeating widely the consciousness of the Arabic and Islamic world.
...
It is no coincidence that Netanyahu flourished a map of Israel during his General Assembly address last month in which Israel dominated from the River to the Sea – and Palestine (indeed any Palestinian territory) was non-existent.
Tom Friedman in his NYT reflections may fear that just as NATO’s impaired performance in Ukraine has ruptured ‘the NATO myth’, so too the 7 October Israeli military and intelligence collapse and what happens in its wake in Gaza ‘might explode the entire pro-American alliance structure’ in the Middle East.
The confluence of two such humiliations might break the spine of western primacy. This seems to be the gist to Friedman’s analysis. (He likely is correct).
Hamas has succeeded in smashing the Israel deterrence paradigm: They were not afraid, the IDF proved far from invincible, and the Arab street mobilised as never before (confounding western cynics who laugh at the very notion of there being an ‘Arab Street’).
Well, that is where we are – and the White House is rattled.
...
This is what worries the White House Team. They are deeply unconfident that an Israeli invasion of Gaza will put ‘Humpty’ together again. Rather, they fear that events may go badly for the IDF, and further, that the images relayed across the Middle East of Israel using overwhelming force in a civilian urban setting will revolt the Islamic sphere.
In spite of western scepticism, there are signs that this insurrection in the Arab sphere is different, and resembles more the 1916 Arab Revolt that overthrew the Ottoman Empire. It is taking on a distinct ‘edge’ as both Shi’a and Sunni religious authorities state the duty of Muslims to stand with Palestinians. In other words, as the Israeli polity becomes plainly ‘Prophetical’, so the Islamic mood is turning eschatological, in its turn.
That the White House should be floating kites about ‘moderate’ Arab leaders pressing ‘moderate’ Palestinians to form an Israeli-friendly government in Gaza that would displace Hamas and impose security and order shows just how severed is the West from reality. Recall that Mahmoud Abbas, General Sisi and the King of Jordan (some of the region’s most pliable leaders) pointedly refused even to meet with Biden after the latter’s Israel trip.
The anger across the region is real and threatens ‘moderate’ Arab leaders, whose room for manoeuvre is now circumscribed.
So hotspots are proliferating, as are attacks on U.S. deployments around the region. Some in Washington claim to perceive an Iranian hand, and are hoping to expand a window for war with Iran.
...
Should Israel enter Gaza (and Israel may decide it has no choice but to launch a ground operation, given the domestic political dynamics and public sentiment), it is likely that Hizbullah will incrementally be drawn further in, leaving the U.S. with the binary option of seeing Israel defeated, or launching a major war in which all the hotspots become fused ‘as one’.
In a sense, the Israeli-Islamic conflict now may only be resolved in this kinetic way. All efforts since 1947 have seen the divide only deepen. The reality of the necessity of war is permeating widely the consciousness of the Arabic and Islamic world.
Posted by b on October 27, 2023 at 13:44 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/10/t ... .html#more
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IRAN WARNS ISRAEL ABOUT WAR CRIMES COMMITTED IN GAZA
Oct 26, 2023 , 3:08 pm .

The 10th Special Emergency Session on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (Photo: UN)
This Thursday, October 26, the tenth Special Emergency Session of the UN Assembly began, whose extraordinary agenda focuses on the indiscriminate bombing that Israel is carrying out on Gaza. The 193 member countries are expected to vote on a resolution being prepared by Arab states.
During the meeting, the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, stated his position and offered an assessment of the crimes that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinian people.
Below is part of what the Iranian foreign minister said:
We have been witnessing war crimes committed by Israel for three weeks.
The genocide in Gaza and forced displacement must stop immediately.
The United States and some European countries support the Israeli occupation regime.
The United States and some European countries support the massacre of some 7,000 civilians in less than three weeks in Gaza and the West Bank.
The United States must end the genocide and crimes in Palestine.
With the war in Gaza continuing, we will not be able to ceasefire, and West Asia is our region, and we will not be complacent or conservative when it comes to our security.
The efforts being made to consider Palestinian actions terrorist will not deceive free nations or the world conscience.
According to international law, what Hamas did is legitimate and has a deep-rooted right to self-defense against the occupation regime.
We have to see the reality as it is, which is that the barbaric occupation has become a chronic barbaric apartheid regime.
We tell the United States that if genocide operations continue, we will not stand by.
If the genocide continues in Gaza, the United States will not be spared from this fire.
https://misionverdad.com/iran-advierte- ... os-en-gaza
Google Translator
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Guantánamo in Palestine: Israel Declares War on Palestinian Prisoners
OCTOBER 26, 2023

Israeli repression forces raid Palestinian prisoners’ sections in Ofer Israeli Prison. Photo: WAFA/File photo.
The Israeli campaign of massacres and terrorism against the Gaza Strip has now extended to murdering Palestinian prisoners. The first martyr was a leader in the Hamas movement, Omar Hamza Daraghmeh, age 58, from the city of Tubas. On October 24, another prisoner was martyred. He was Arafat Yasser Hamdan, age 25, from the town of Beit Sira in Ramallah district, imprisoned in Ofer prison.
The occupation forces had arrested Daraghmeh, along with his son Hamza, on October 9, the third day of the Al-Aqsa Flood battle. Omar participated remotely in a court session held in Ofer camp on Monday, October 23. At that time, his lawyer confirmed that he was in good health. However, later that evening, the occupation prison department announced that he had died due to a “heart attack” in Megiddo prison.
Hamdan, on the other hand, was arrested on October 22 during a wave of arrests by the occupation forces.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Affairs Commission and the Prisoners’ Club commented on Daraghmeh’s martyrdom in a joint statement: “the martyrdom of any prisoner, in light of the comprehensive aggression against our people and the genocide of our people in Gaza, is tantamount to a deliberate assassination.” The statement emphasized that “the occupation’s narrative has always been and continues to be a deception. Each time, the occupation creates stories about the circumstances of prisoners’ martyrdom, attempting to absolve itself of the crime.”
In this context, they pointed out that “based on the numerous testimonies of newly released prisoners, who spoke about torture and beatings during their transfer to the courtroom or the room dedicated to court video conferencing, and in light of all the information we receive about torture operations against the prisoners, we are not merely voicing concerns about the possible martyrdom of other detainees, but we are announcing that one has already been martyred.”
After Hamdan’s martyrdom, a second statement was issued highlighting that “the occupation has begun a systematic assassination campaign against the prisoners as part of the all-round aggression against our people and our prisoners.”
While the occupation maintains secrecy about the prisoners, including the number of people detained and the conditions for detention, it has significantly ratcheted up its repression in the prisons. It seeks revenge and death. The occupation prison agency is using the monstrous aggression against Gaza as an opportunity to target the prisoners with torture, assassination, execution, and stricter detention conditions.
After the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, Israeli prison authorities imposed several sanctions against the prisoners:
Removal of all electrical devices, including televisions, food heating plates, and water heating jugs.
Cutting off electricity to the prisoners from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM.
Limited access to the courtyard for only 20 minutes, and sometimes completely depriving prisoners of it.
Destruction of all sports equipment.
Cutting off hot water supply to the bathing sections, forcing the prisoners to shower in cold water.
Closure of the kitchen and providing only two modest meals.
Regular and daily room searches.
Increasing the number of prisoners in each room from five prisoners to nine.
Converting the sentences of some prisoners whose terms have ended into indefinite administrative detention.
In conjunction with this, the occupation forces arrested more than 50 people, including former prisoners, on the night of October 23. The occupation has arrested more than 1,265 Palestinians since October 7, and this does not include workers or detainees from the Gaza Strip because the occupation authorities have imposed an information blackout on this information. Despite the prisoners’ support organizations’ demands to meet with the International Red Cross, there is no clear data from the human rights institutions or the Red Cross about the numbers or identities of the workers detained by the occupation, nor the places of their detention.
The Israeli barbarism and terrorism against prisoners is not confined to the prisons; it begins at the first moment of arrest, starting with violently storming their homes. According to documentation from the Prisoners’ Club, the arrests are particularly brutal and include using families as hostages, vandalizing and destroying homes, subjecting the detainees to severe beatings causing injuries, and, sometimes, on-the-spot executions.
This campaign coincides with the implementation of strict military orders by the occupation authorities to facilitate arrest operations, torture of detainees, and restrictions on the work of legal teams. The most prominent example of this is the increasing use of “administrative detention”, as a significant portion of those arrested after the start of Al-Aqsa Flood were placed under administrative detention. The occupation has issued more than 300 administrative detention orders during this time. The occupation has also instituted temporary amendments to the administrative detention policies, including raising the initial detention period for warrantless detention (when the occupation determines the possibility of issuing an administrative detention order against them) from 72 hours to six days. Moreover, the time period before administrative detainees receive a hearing has been increased from eight days to 12 days. According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, these amendments are designed “to escalate arrest campaigns, increase the ease of issuing administrative detention orders, and control the growing number of prisoners, including administrative detainees.”
On October 22, the prisoners’ families held a press conference in Ramallah, expressing their profound concern for the fate of their imprisoned family members, while the occupation isolates them and escalates its systematic crimes against them. The families stated that over the last two weeks the occupation’s prisons have become as savage and brutal as Guantánamo or Abu Ghraib prison. “The occupation has deprived the prisoners of visits, including visits by lawyers and legal staff; halted medical treatment; cut off water and electricity; and today, our children are facing hunger after the occupation confiscated food from them and reduced their meals.”
The wife of prisoner Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh said: “Since October 7, our loved ones have been subjected to attacks by severe beatings inside their cells, and to acts of abuse and torture that greatly exceed the abuse and torture that the occupation has previously pursued. [Meanwhile] the world is only speaking about the hostages held in Gaza for two weeks and ignoring the thousands of prisoners in the occupation’s prisons who were, and still are, just numbers to them!”
Since 1967, there have been 238 martyred prisoners, and the occupation still holds the bodies of 11 martyrs.
(Al-Akhbar) by Ahmed Al-Abed
https://orinocotribune.com/guantanamo-i ... prisoners/
USA: The Most Hated Country in the World
OCTOBER 26, 2023

By Janna Kadri – Oct 25, 2023
By dismantling the moral veneer of Zionism, the US manifested that it now holds the reins of decision-making.
October 17, 2023. A day that will eternally etch as the most somber chapter in human history. The aggression on al-Ahli Hospital has exposed a never-seen-before degree of malevolence on the part of the Israeli regime. On October 17, a medical establishment meant to be a sanctuary for the ill, the wounded, and the displaced was blown off with the utmost brutality, extinguishing the lives of almost 500 beating hearts with just one single rocket. The perpetrators of this massacre swiftly emerged on social media, only to later erase their digital traces. After the fact, Biden portrayed the attack as a result of Palestinians’ actions. One may ponder, how can anyone on earth be so evil? And as world leaders remain silent in the face of such an atrocity, one can’t help but wonder: has the world gone mad?
“Israel” ceased to exist
The moment the genocide was sparked, “Israel” had already ceased to exist. As a regime that struggled to maintain its credibility on the world stage, it no longer retains any semblance of legitimacy. Carrying out a massacre of such magnitude would not only spell disaster for the Israeli working class but also exposes the extent to which Western morals and values are fragile.
The ruling settler classes have historically expanded their capacity for accumulation via means of expropriation and depopulation. However, in this specific instance, they no longer appear to wield this power. By dismantling the moral veneer of Zionism, the US manifested that it now holds the reins of decision-making. This is evidenced by the fact that the war in Gaza is not primarily aimed at exerting psychological pressure on Hamas fighters but rather at sending a clear message of war to Iran.
Why Iran?
The Iranian revolution has faced continuous sanctions since its inception, leading to economic challenges and a strong sense of self-reliance and resentment towards the West. Over the years, the Iranian government has gained wide popular support but the true achievement of the revolution lies in Iran’s autonomy, which challenges imperialism. Iran has also shown a willingness to reform on social issues, particularly concerning women’s rights, and its stability can lead to social progress.
For quite some time now, the US has been itching to wage a war against Iran. Since the start of the genocide, Iran has issued several warnings to the regime that it would be compelled to intervene should the war on Gaza prolong. However, in its attempt to incite a response, the US failed to anticipate that Iran would refrain from launching a military response. Consequently, the US shot itself in the foot by revealing on the world stage the extent of its actions’ unparalleled brutality and injustice. But so far, it seems that the US remains oblivious to the magnitude of the self-inflicted damage.
Understanding Israeli aggressions
The regime has a history of perpetrating similar acts of atrocity, with a pattern of constant disregard for human rights and international law. We have seen similar episodes in the Qana massacre in 1996 when the IOF bombed a UNIFIL shelter housing women, children, and UN staffers in southern Lebanon. Syria is neither a stranger to Israeli crimes as it has over the years been the target of multiple aggressions via airstrikes. Despite constant appeals to put a halt to Israeli aggressions, no concrete steps were ever taken to act in defense of international law.
When the regime was first conceived under Resolution 181, its primary objective was to establish a Western foothold in the Arab region. At that time, the pan-Arab movement posed a substantial threat to Western interests and was gaining momentum throughout the region. Through the defeat of pan-Arabism, “Israel” effectively isolated the Arab masses from the fallout of development in the productive forces. The effort was one where the US and several EU countries had joined forces to arm the Zionists, and thus, contrary to Zionist claims, the regime’s actions against Arab states were never primarily driven by existential threats but rather served to act on the behest of imperialism.
But this time, the West no longer has the capacity to exonerate “Israel’s” war crimes. The warning signs were evidenced by the fact that the regime had been embroiled in political upheaval over the past ten months. Netanyahu’s extremist cabinet and the proposed judicial overhaul plan had weakened the liberal basis of the Zionist regime which would have opted for a more strategic approach to negotiate superficial concessions with the Palestinians and to ensure the regime’s credibility and durability.
Moral decay
Anti-US sentiment initially pervaded countries like Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Yemen which endured the harshest consequences of US intervention and policies. Anti-US sentiment has also been steadily growing over the past decade throughout the Gulf region, including by key allies like Saudi Arabia, which has sought to establish greater autonomy in matters of national defense. But since the genocide began, this sentiment has grown immensely out of proportion among the Arab masses. Videos circulated all across social media of protesters attacking US embassies, as well as resistance groups resorting to attacking military posts and warships. Likewise, numerous protests erupted across the West, but the silence of Western leaders implies a desire for more massacres to occur.
Western amorality is explained by the fact that the commodification of labor under capitalism not only objectifies labor but also establishes the moral framework for how capital treats human resources. Eurocentric perspectives tend to focus on partial facts as absolute truths, emphasizing class-desirable information to guide moral actions. The rejection of the categorical imperative, due to its lack of alignment with ruling class interests, leads to various shortcuts and eclectic approaches to ethics, which erode the universality of moral conduct. In some cases, morality is reduced to a form of lifeboat ethics, justifying actions like shooting refugees at sea to protect Europe or provide benefits to the majority white population. This perspective is also reflected in the justifications provided by US presidents for war, where the focus is on protecting a way of life that perpetuates profit rates and imperialist exploitation, rather than safeguarding life itself. In this particular context, the US capitalizes immensely through the dehumanization of both Palestinians and Jews.
Panic begets panic
There was a time when the US had the ability to implement wars similar to those in Libya and Iraq. However, the changing global balance of forces no longer allowed for such scenarios to be repeated. With the rise of China and Russia on the global stage, there seemed less of a free hand to engage in direct military intervention. Russia forged alliances with Iran and the DPRK, de-dollarized its own economy, and gained new territory by defying NATO’s expansion to the East. China, on the other hand, supports the sovereignty of developing states and recognizes the national rights of the Palestinian people in Al-Quds, which poses a challenge to “Israel”, seen as a spearhead of US-led imperialism. The US felt it could not keep up with China as it offered a more compelling offer for peace: While the US promoted a version of peace based on the unchallenged supremacy of the US military, China promoted peace via trade and development projects.
For the US to get directly involved through the monstrous dispatch of arms and carriers speaks volumes about the deteriorating state of US influence in the Arab region. With an awareness that attempts to drive a wedge between China and Russia have failed, the US is taking actions that continue to erode its global reputation. It brings to mind the adage that “panic begets panic,” that is, the US is increasingly losing its strategic composure on the international stage and resorting to a full-scale destruction of anything in sight amid despair to reaffirm dominance.
Could this be cause for concern? Quite so, since the reconfiguration of power structures could potentially lead to a nuclear conflict.
(Al Mayadeen – English)
https://orinocotribune.com/usa-the-most ... the-world/
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The resistance fighters of Gaza have signalled the end of the zionist project
Cast about as it may, there is no way for Israel now to free itself from a hook that it baited itself.
Proletarian writers
Thursday 26 October 2023

While the world looks on aghast at the atrocities being carried out daily by the US-backed Israeli fascists, it is becoming increasingly clear that none of the options available to it offers the chance of a real victory. By refusing to come to terms with the Palestinians years ago when they had the chance, the Israelis have made themselves ‘secure’ of only one thing: Israel as a supremacist ‘jewish’ state is doomed – and sooner rather than later.
Operation Al-Aqsa Flood has delivered a body blow to the fascist Israeli state, humiliating the Israeli army (IDF) and throwing down a challenge to Tel Aviv’s imperialist backers.
The operation has sent shock waves throughout and beyond the middle east, uniting millions of the oppressed around the world, who have come onto the streets to denounce the genocidal Israeli regime and pour forth their passionate support for the heroic and self-sacrificing resistance forces of Palestine.
Let traitors in the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and beyond who flirted with “normalisation” of relations with Israel now hide their faces from their own countrymen in shame, as their weasel words are drowned out by the anti-imperialist voice of the masses.
The liberation fighters were indeed a human flood that poured unstoppably across the Gaza border, brushing aside all obstacles in their way. They came in by land, sea and air, wave after wave, some even on foot.
In the streets and squares of Iran, Lebanon Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Pakistan, thousands upon thousands are pledging support for the resistance forces and denouncing the war criminals of the zionist criminals. Be they from Hamas, Hezbollah, the PFLP or other fraternal forces that have united to serve the people, these fighters are fighting for the future, sacrificing their own lives for the sake of generations to come.
The IDF has failed to make any headway getting to grips with the resistance fighters. Like their US counterparts a half-century ago in Vietnam, they were outfoxed by an enemy who knew how to fight guerrilla-style, and how to profit from constructing a deep network of tunnels for defence, storage, communication and flexibility of engagement.
Targeting civilians, committing war crimes
In the words of one resident, as posted by Nur Alsalibi on the @voenkorKotenok Telegram channel: “The situation in the city is very difficult. The intensity of the strikes is growing every day. Rockets can fly anywhere at any time. Even if they don’t hit your house, but the neighbouring one, blast fragments will fly into your house …
“Israel says Hamas was there, but that’s a lie – they weren’t there. Hamas fighters have gone into the tunnels under the city; Israeli missiles cannot even reach them. More than 90 percent of the dead were civilians. The figure of 4,385 dead is only those who could be found under the rubble.”
Thwarted by their inability to engage the resistance on the ground, the IDF, doubtless acting under Pentagon orders, resorted to the carpet-bombing Gaza’s civilian population, including schools, medical facilities and housing blocks. Just like the Italian and German fascists before them, the Israeli fascists administered collective punishment in retaliation for the heroic deeds of the partisans, hoping that by this means that they would drive a wedge between the partisans and the people.
But this policy is failing. The claim that “the population is allegedly leaving Gaza is an Israeli lie. Most remained in their homes. People are not leaving even under the threat of death. At the same time, phones are constantly receiving threatening messages from Israeli numbers. You may also receive a notification that ‘your house will be bombed’ so that people feel in danger every minute.”
But Palestinians will not tolerate a second Nakba and are refusing to budge. In this resolve, they are backed up by Russia: “We know that Russia opposes the west and does not support Israeli crimes. In Gaza they love Russia and the Russian people very much.
“Among the Arab countries, there is a very good attitude towards Qatar, Algeria and Yemen. Among non-Arab ones – towards Iran. We believe that Iran and Hezbollah will intervene and prevent the genocide of Gaza.”
According to the Jerusalem Post there is “growing concern that Hezbollah is waiting for the moment that most IDF ground forces are committed to Gaza to open a full front with the IDF in the north”.
Lie machine in overdrive but failing to convince
On the propaganda front, the mainstream press has been the faithful servant of the Tel Aviv lie machine, churning out demonic and outlandish headlines about decapitated babies and barbaric “terrorists”, but enforcing silence over any story that tells the truth about what the real terrorists and their imperialist backers are up to.
But enforcing that silence is proving difficult when the facts on the ground run so obviously counter to Tel Aviv’s desperate fabrications. The Israeli missile attack on the Al Ahli Baptist hospital in Gaza, murdering and maiming hundreds of patients and staff, is one such fact.
At first, the IDF brazenly asserted that the hospital was a legitimate target because it was occupied by Hamas. When the surviving hospital workers denied the occupation story, the IDF changed tack, claiming that the culprit was a misfiring Hamas rocket, later deciding it was in fact an Islamic Jihad rocket.
With IDF lying its head off and constantly changing its story, even the BBC had in the end to distance itself from Tel Aviv’s transparent mendacity, admitting that the Al-Ahli hospital bombing was in fact carried out by none other than (US-supplied) Israeli missiles.
To invade or not to invade? Either way Israel is damned
Rumours and statements abound about the Israelis’ intentions at this time. On the one hand, the most demented section of the zionist body politic is desperate to raze Gaza from the map, expel all its two million citizens into the Sinai desert for Egypt to worry about and fill the resistance tunnels with poison gas – and is expressing all these heinous desires quite openly before the eyes of an incredulous world.
On the other hand, cooler heads are aware that the IDF, made up in the main by part-time soldiers whose only real military experience has been in harassing civilians in the occupied territories, is no match for the professionalism and self-sacrificing dedication of the resistance, even with all its supposedly insurmountable technological wizardry – a paraphernalia of gadgetry that Palestine’s fighters have shown themselves to be remarkably adept at finding the weaknesses in and getting around by various means.
As the delay continues, laughably justified by a vacillating government as owing to ‘bad weather’, the strident calls to ethnically cleanse two million civilians from the tiny stamp of land that remains recognised by Israelis as ‘Palestine’ is not winning Israel or its backers any friends. Quite the reverse.
Across the region and across the world, the demonstrations in support of Palestine are huge and growing. In the West Bank and across the 1948 Palestinian territories, intifada is spreading. And in the wide middle east, the determination to evict the hated imperialists and their stooges for good is growing too, inspired by the heroic feats of a few thousand Palestinian fighters, who have already inflicted huge damage on the structures of the occupation, on the confidence of the enemy, and on the fighting strength of the IDF.
The longer the zionist maniacs pursue their genocidal plans, the more united will become the forces of the resistance, and the entire Arab and progressive world will be lined up behind them. Already, steeled anti-imperialist warriors from Yemen to Afghanistan have stated their intention to come to the aid of their Palestinian brothers-in-arms.
In the end, it is going to take more than a couple of American aircraft carriers to face down the growing wrath of half a billion citizens in the middle east, backed up as they are by all of progressive humanity.
Victory to the intifada!
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