Category Archives: Middle East

Update: 3000 ton US arms shipment to Israel postponed/rerouted

The carefully-worded caveats surrounding the veracity of our earlier piece were unnecessary: despite earlier prevarication, the Pentagon has confirmed that the US were sending 3000 tons of munitions in 25 containers from Greece to Israel, timed to arrive at the end of January. This volte face obviously had nothing to do with the leaking of [...]

Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel: Are the US and Israel Planning a Broader Middle East War?

By Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research The contents of this article, which can be viewed in full at the link below, are summarised here with no endorsement or comment by Thus Magazine or guarantees as to their accuracy, save that, where indicated, attributed sources or comment in the public domain has been checked. This piece, which [...]

Update: Israeli reservists move in for the endgame as Gaza leaves the front pages

  Tony Blair has come back from yet another much-needed holiday and New Year at his multi-million pound country seat, formerly owned by that other consummate actor, Sir John Geilgud, to go through the motions with beacon of democracy, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, earning his corn with insights such as: ”I am hopeful we can [...]

Update: Hamas and Israel reject UN ceasefire resolution

  Despite the early optimism of UK Foreign Minister, David Miliband, who greeted last night’s UN Security Council Resolution for an immediate ceasefire as ‘the world speaking with one voice,’ the problem was – it wasn’t. Although the vote was carried 14-0, the US, as predicted (Thus passim) abstained. Israel, which doesn’t care much for the [...]

Europe is failing two life-and-death tests. We must act together, now

Weak, divided, incoherent, hypocritical and infuriating – that’s how you hear the EU described privately in Beijing and Washington. The events of this first week of 2009 suggest that its critics are right. By Timothy Garton Ash. Look at the mess we’re in. Europe faces two acute crises that threaten both our interests and our values. [...]

Bloodshed and Diplomacy in Gaza: Where will it end?

Nothing from me about Gaza, but I trust the judgement of my friends at The Economist who, even though they are not allowed into Gaza, know plenty of people who are. I am a good friend of one of the people who wrote this piece. Like me, the piece conjectures that Israeli politicians are having second [...]

I know nothing at first hand about Gaza so I should stop commenting . . . . . . .

. . .and it would be a good idea if other people did the same. However, I do know a bit about media. It is pointless of Israel to complain about the possible bias of quoted ‘sources in Gaza’ from the world’s news gatherers if they employ totalitarian tactics (selectively used by the US in [...]

Iraqi civilian daily death toll returns to pre-surge levels

“We don’t do body counts” – General Tommy Franks Apart from the grim news of 23 people dead at a Sunni meeting four days ago, followed by over 40 deaths at a Shia shrine on 4 January, there are ominous signs that rumours of a peaceful withdrawal from Iraq are sadly exaggerated. Iraq Bodycount, the [...]

Jerusalem Post reports 'no international pressure to end op' (Gaza ethnic cleansing)

“After all, who remembers the Armenians?” (Adolph Hitler). By John J Kelly. Israel is feeling “no real pressure” from the world to end the operation in the Gaza Strip, and the amount of time the international community will sit relatively quietly on the sidelines depends on how things develop, senior diplomatic officials said Sunday. According [...]

Israel delivers a housewarming present to Obama – Armageddon

  Remember the PFLP? Well, they’re back, thanks to helicopter gunship diplomacy. By John J Kelly from sources in Gaza There is still time for Israel to pull back from the endgame, but we are being told that the wanton slaughter of the past two days has met with ‘widespread public approval on all sides [...]