Friday 29th of November 2024
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

we’re about to experience a propaganda war?... since the crusades? since the romans?...

A year after the capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem was established (Christmas Day, 1100). Thereafter there was no effective check to the expansion of the Crusaders’ power until the capture of their stronghold at Edessa (modern Şanlıurfa, Turkey) by the atabeg (governor) of Mosul, ʿImād al-Dīn Zangī ibn Aq Sonqur, in 1144.

 

Zangī’s anti-Crusader campaign was carried on after his death by his son Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd (Nureddin) and, more effectively, by the sultan Ṣalāh al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (commonly known in the West as Saladin), a protégé of the atabeg’s family. After consolidating his position in Egypt and Syria, Saladin waged relentless war against the “infidel” Franks (Western Christians). On July 4, 1187, six days after the capture of Tiberias, he dealt the Crusaders a crushing blow at the decisive Battle of Ḥaṭṭīn (Ḥiṭṭīn). Most of Palestine was once again Muslim. Further attempts by the Crusaders to regain control of Palestine proved ineffective, primarily because of incessant quarrels among the Crusaders themselves. Ironically, it was left to an emperor of dubious Christian standing, Frederick II, to negotiate in 1229, while under excommunication, a 10-year treaty that temporarily restored Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem to the Christians. In 1244, however, the Ayyūbid sultan al-Ṣāliḥ Ayyūb definitively restored Jerusalem to Islam.

While the Ayyūbids of Saladin’s house were losing ground to the Turkish-speaking Mamlūks in Egypt, the Mongol sweep westward continued, placing the Crusaders, as it were, between two fires. To make matters worse, the Crusaders themselves were hopelessly riddled with dissension. In 1260 the Mamlūk leader Baybars I emerged as a champion of Muslim resurgence. After taking part in the defeat of the Mongols at the Battle of ʿAyn Jālūtin Palestine, he murdered the incumbent sultan and seized the throne; in the years 1263 to 1271 he carried out annual raids against the harassed Franks. His efforts were continued by the sultan al-Ashraf Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Khalīl, during whose reign the last of the Crusaders were driven out of Acre (May 18, 1291). A chapter in the history of Palestine thus came to an end. The Mamlūks and subsequent Muslim regimes ruled the area with only brief interruptions for the next 600 years.

Palestine under the Mamlūks in the 14th century saw a period of prosperity for some; this was especially notable in Jerusalem, where the government sponsored an elaborate program to construct schools, establish lodgings for travelers and Muslim pilgrims, and renovate mosques. Tax revenues, collected mainly from the villages, were spent largely on support of religious institutions. Palestine formed a part of the district of Damascus, second only to Egypt in the Mamlūk domains. The region suffered the ravages of several epidemics, including the great pestilence, the same Black Death that in 1347–51 devastated Europe. The fall of the Baḥrī Mamlūks and the rise of the Burjī Mamlūks (1382–1517) contributed to a gradual economic deterioration and a decrease in security. During the reigns of the second Burjī sultan, Faraj (1399–1405 and 1405–12), the last onslaught of the Mongols, which made the name of Timur (Tamerlane) a synonym of destruction and plunder, took place. Although Palestine was spared the pillage of his hordes, it could not escape its disastrous repercussions as the Mamlūks moved through in a vain attempt to defend Damascus against the invader. The death of Timur in 1405, and the weakness of Iran in the ensuing century, pitted the Mamlūks against the rising power of the Ottoman Empire for the control of western Asia. Hostilities broke out in 1486 when Sultan Qāʾit Bāy contested with Bayezid II the possession of some border towns. The climax came three decades later on August 24, 1516, when the Ottoman sultan, Selim I, routed the Mamlūk armies at the Battle of Marj Dābiq. Palestine began its four centuries under Ottoman domination.

 Ottoman rule

Under the Ottoman Turks, Palestine continued to be linked administratively to Damascus until 1830, when it was placed under Sidon, then under Acre, then once again under Damascus until 1887–88, at which time the administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire were settled for the last time. Palestine was divided into the districts of Nablus and Acre, both of which were linked with the province of Beirut and the autonomous district of Jerusalem, which dealt directly with Istanbul. With varying fortunes often accompanied by revolts, massacres, and wars, the first three centuries of Ottoman rule isolated Palestine from most outside influences. The prosperity of 16th-century Ottoman Palestine was followed by an economic and political decline in the 17th century. Ottoman control in the 18th century was indirect. Ḍāhir al-ʿUmar (c. 1737–75) dominated the political life of northern Palestine for nearly 40 years. Aḥmad al-Jazzār, the Ottoman governor of Acre, had control of most of Palestine, and in 1799, with English and Ottoman help, he successfully defended Acre against Napoleon I.

https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine/The-Crusades

 

 

An ancient conflict which still persists
Tensions between Jews and Arab Muslims have existed for years, and still persist. Historians say that two groups populated the region and deemed it holy since ancient times.

The holy city of Jerusalem is regarded as such by both Muslims and Jews. It has the Temple Mount, which houses sacred monuments including the Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The image shows the Jewish rescuers searching for victims among the rubble of the destroyed buildings on Ben Yehuda Street in downtown Jerusalem Feb 2,1948.

https://www.wionews.com/photos/how-israel-was-formed-a-nation-whose-history-can-be-traced-back-to-iron-age-647305#

 

 

Although the United States supported the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which favored the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt had assured the Arabs in 1945 that the United States would not intervene without consulting both the Jews and the Arabs in that region. The British, who held a colonial mandate for Palestine until May 1948, opposed both the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state in Palestine as well as unlimited immigration of Jewish refugees to the region. Great Britain wanted to preserve good relations with the Arabs to protect its vital political and economic interests in Palestine.

Soon after President Truman took office, he appointed several experts to study the Palestinian issue. In the summer of 1946, Truman established a special cabinet committee under the chairmanship of Dr. Henry F. Grady, an Assistant Secretary of State, who entered into negotiations with a parallel British committee to discuss the future of Palestine. In May 1946, Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced persons into Palestine and in October publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state. Throughout 1947, the United Nations Special Commission on Palestine examined the Palestinian question and recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state. On November 29, 1947 the United Nations adopted Resolution 181 (also known as the Partition Resolution) that would divide Great Britain’s former Palestinian mandate into Jewish and Arab states in May 1948 when the British mandate was scheduled to end. Under the resolution, the area of religious significance surrounding Jerusalem would remain a corpus separatum under international control administered by the United Nations.

Although the United States backed Resolution 181, the U.S. Department of State recommended the creation of a United Nations trusteeship with limits on Jewish immigration and a division of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab provinces but not states. The State Department, concerned about the possibility of an increasing Soviet role in the Arab world and the potential for restriction by Arab oil producing nations of oil supplies to the United States, advised against U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews. Later, as the date for British departure from Palestine drew near, the Department of State grew concerned about the possibility of an all-out war in Palestine as Arab states threatened to attack almost as soon as the UN passed the partition resolution.

Despite growing conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Palestinian Jews and despite the Department of State’s endorsement of a trusteeship, Truman ultimately decided to recognize the state Israel.

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/creation-israel

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh2NVyxiomg&t=156s

Gutfeld: We’re about to experience a propaganda war

 

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

two states time....

Australia’s biased friendship towards Israel undermines peace and forsakes justice for Palestinians, while serving neither Australian nor Israeli interests, writes Ben Saul.

Former prime minister Gough Whitlam wrote in 1985 that while Australian governments always claimed to take a balanced approach to Israeli-Arab disputes before his own government was elected, “in practice they were thought to be favouring Israel”.

Former foreign minister Alexander Downer even boasted that Australia is more pro-Israel than 99 per cent of the world. Under the Abbott Government, Australian policy has sunk to new lows in unabashedly favouring extreme, illegal, and destructive Israeli government positions.

The signs of pro-Israel bias are all around. In 2014, the Attorney-General, George Brandis, refused to call East Jerusalem “occupied”. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly welcomed this as a change of Australia’s position. Brandis provoked a damaging diplomatic rift with Arab countries. There is a near-universal consensus that East Jerusalem is occupied under international law and does not belong to Israel.

In January 2014, foreign minister Julie Bishop doubted the illegality of Israel’s settlements in the Palestinian West Bank. Again, there is universal legal consensus that the settlements violate the Geneva Conventions. The conservative International Court of Justice said so 20 years ago.

Of the five General Assembly resolutions on Palestine adopted in 2013, Australia joined a handful of countries in voting against three, and abstaining from two. The resolutions were not anti-Israel, but pro-international law, which Israel persistently chooses to violate.

By encouraging or tolerating Israeli violations of international law, Australia weakens the international rule of law, undermines peace, and forsakes justice for Palestinians.

Australian policy is also biased because it routinely condemns Palestinian violence, but rarely condemns Israeli violence and illegality as stridently.

Australia is right to condemn violence against Israeli civilians and to support Israel’s right to protect them. But Australia should equally condemn Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territory, its purported annexation of East Jerusalem, its destructive blockade and collective punishment of Gaza, and its forcible repression of Palestinian self-determination.

Australia should condemn Israel’s refusal to readmit Palestinian refugees, and to provide remedies for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs – documented by Israeli historians – which accompanied the foundation of Israel in 1948.

Australia should condemn the periodic Israeli military operations which cause excessive civilian casualties, illegally destroy property, and sometimes even deliberately target civilians. We should also condemn the frequent impunity for Israeli soldiers who violate the law.

Australia should condemn terrorist and ‘price tag’ attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians. We should oppose the routine humiliation of Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints. We should condemn the virulent anti-Arab racism in Israeli politics and society.

A balanced Australian policy would insist that peace negotiations must respect Palestinian rights under international law, including the full return of Palestinian land. We must stop saying that the Palestinians should have accepted the peace deal offered at Camp David in 2000, when that deal did not fairly guarantee basic Palestinian legal rights.

The root cause of the Israel-Palestine conflict is the near-60-year occupation of Palestinian territory by Israel and the illegal colonisation of Palestinian land. Violence to liberate Palestine is inevitable unless Israel withdraws and complies with international law. Australian governments have failed to understand that there will never be peace unless there is justice.

To that end, there are new policy initiatives that Australia could take to pressure Israel. First, Australia should prohibit Australians from serving as foreign fighters for Israel in the occupied territories, just as Australians are prohibited from fighting with terrorist groups.

Second, Australia should prohibit all economic dealings with the Israeli government, settlements, and companies in relation to the occupied territories. This is not a call for a general boycott of Israel, but the targeting of Israeli activities violating international law.

Thirdly, Australia should urge the UN Security Council to refer alleged war crimes by Hamas and Israel to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

Fourth, Australia should attempt to sue Israel in the International Court of Justice for violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.

Finally, Australia should offer to contribute personnel to a future UN peacekeeping force to guarantee the security of borders between Israel and the Palestinian state.

Australia’s biased friendship towards Israel has served neither Australian nor Israeli interests. It has alienated us from the rest of the world, including Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. It is unpopular with the Australian public, which polling shows favours a policy based on law and human rights. It fuels radicalisation against the West, when Australia is struggling to defuse terrorism.

Our friendship has also been unreciprocated. Recall that Israel forged Australian passports to assassinate an unarmed Palestinian in Dubai, endangering genuine Australian travellers.

Being a fawning friend encourages Israeli lawlessness and pushes peace further away. Even a former Israeli security chief, Yuval Diskin, wrote in 2014 that the Israeli government’s inflammatory actions are radically undermining, not aiding, Israel’s security. Israel has become an outlaw state, exploiting its power over Palestinians to take and keep what it wants.

Australia should stop being an extreme, pro-Israel outcast, and join the rest of the world in being a responsible, pro-international law adult.

 

Ben Saul is Professor of International Law at the University of Sydney.

This is an extract of a speech given at Parliament House, Canberra, on July 16, 2014.

Originally posted by ABC News on 25 Jul 2014. Updated 17 Oct 2023.

https://johnmenadue.com/its-about-time-australia-put-pressure-on-israel/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

killing the sick....

The World Health Organization (WHO) has denounced the attack on a Gaza hospital that killed at least 500 people on Tuesday, calling for “immediate” protection of civilians in the Palestinian territory. Israel has denied responsibility for the strike and blamed Hamas.

The WHO “strongly condemns the attack on Al Ahli Arab Hospital in north Gaza,” said the organizations’ head, Dr. Tedros Adhenom Ghebreyesus. “We call for the immediate protection of civilians and health care, and for the evacuation orders to be reversed.”

An Israeli airstrike killed more than 500 Palestinians, both patients and civilians seeking shelter, while “hundreds” more remain under the rubble, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza. 

“Hitting a hospital containing women, children and innocent civilians is the latest example of Israel’s attacks devoid of the most basic human values. I invite all humanity to take action to stop this unprecedented brutality in Gaza,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said on X.

“The expansion of Israeli attacks over the Gaza Strip to include hospitals, schools, and other population centers is a dangerous escalation,” Qatar’s foreign ministry said in a statement, strongly condemning the strike.

https://www.rt.com/news/585192-israel-bombs-gaza-hospital/

 

An international conference resulting in a limited time being given to Israelis and Palestinians to negotiate a two-state resolution of their conflict is the best hope for reducing the violence in the Middle East, Abdel Hafiz Nofal, the ambassador of the Palestinian Authority to Moscow, told RT on Tuesday.

“It’s the only way. Otherwise, the gates of hell will be opened,” he said, referring to the proposed creation of a Palestinian state, which has been endorsed by the UN.

“We are not against the Jewish [people]. We are not against the Israeli state. We believe that we must live together with a two-state solution, where we can make a difference in our life,” he added.

The region is currently undergoing a dangerous surge of violence, after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a deadly incursion from Gaza into southern Israel earlier this month. The group largely controls the coastal enclave, while the Palestinian Authority is based in the West Bank.

The Israeli military has retaliated with intensive bombardments of Gaza and an escalation of its blockade, which has been in place since 2007. The Jewish State said it was determined to obliterate Hamas.

There are fears that Israel may launch a ground invasion of the Palestinian enclave, potentially triggering intervention by the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and other players.

https://www.rt.com/russia/585150-palestinian-ambassador-russia-interview/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

pontification....

'Gutfeld!' panelists weigh in on the media suggesting Israel was to blame for a blast on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City despite President Biden and the Israeli government claiming otherwise...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfdNgsRfGXM

 

 

GUTFELD'S TIRADE IS PATHETIC... HE HAS NOT UNDERSTOOD ONE IOTA OF SOME PEOPLE'S TRAGIC LIVES — IMPRISONED FOR BEING WHATEVER, OR BOMBED FOR BEING RUSSIAN FOR NINE YEARS, UNTIL THE RUSSIAN PRESIDENT DEMANDS THE BOMBING TO STOP... AS THE BOMBS STILL RAINED DOWN, AS DIPLOMACEEEE WENT SHITTOOO DUE TO AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISMMMMM, RUSSIA WAS LEFT WITH ONE VIABLE OPTION: RETAKE FORMER RUSSIAN PROVINCES POPULATED BY RUSSIAN PEOPLE AND TELL ZELENSKY AND HIS DECEITFUL FRIENDS TO FUCK OFF. SIMPLE. 

SAME WITH ISRAEL. THE DEAL WAS ALWAYS TO HAVE TWO STATES, BUT THE RIGHT WING ISRAELI GOVERNMENTS, IN BED WITH THE LEFT WING HAS ALWAYS NIBBLED AT THE PALESTINIAN LANDS AND CREATED HAMAS TO GIVE THEMSELVES A "TERRORISM" TARGET THAT JUSTIFY THEIR STEALING OF PALESTINIAN LANDS...

THERE IS A NEED FOR NEGOTIATIONS, BUT THE USA DO NOT WANT ANY OF THIS, BECAUSE THAT DEPRIVES THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT FROM ITS COMMITMENTS SINCE 1917: DESTROY RUSSIA... 

SO, GREG, SHUT UP AND LET THE INTELLIGENT PEOPLE COME TO TERMS WITH REALITY:

 

 

 

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

 

 

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

 

A PROPER PALESTINIAN STATE.

 

EASY.

 

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....

 

SEE ALSO:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQVbN7T1kuI

 

keys to their home....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiRPpf-ot4I&t=1643s

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW....