JacquiP

At the same time, many legal experts, military analysts, and scholars strongly reject the genocide label. Their arguments generally include: Israel’s stated aim is the destruction of Hamas, not Palestinians as a people, genocidal intent (which is legally required) has not been conclusively demonstrated, civilian deaths in urban warfare, while catastrophic, are not automatically genocide under international law, and Hamas embedding itself among civilians complicates the legal and military picture. The key issue legally is intent. Under the Genocide Convention, genocide is not just mass civilian death - it requires intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

And yet almost every major human rights group in the world, including Israel’s top human rights, disagree with you & say it’s a genocide. As do the bulk of genocide scholars & multiple UN investigators. Why do you that is? Oh wait! I’ll save you time. They’re ALL antisemites!

It's very trendy to hate Isreal but I have always said 'fashion for the fragile, style for the brave'.

@sheawilliamsy @BoyGeorge Empathizing with Palestinians does not mean you have to hate on Israelis.

@BoyGeorge I've never met an Irish mammy who I didn't get along with, so you're full of shite there. I've also never met one who hasn't empathised with Palestine. And we're talking LONG before Oct 7th, as you well know. So your defensive rudeness tells me you know she'd be ashamed 🤷

Boy George to make an exhibition of himself in Newbridge rte.ie/entertainment/… Ha. I have done this all over the world!

Pointing out that Russians, Muslims, Chinese people, or Palestinians have also faced discrimination doesn’t disprove antisemitism. It just proves that collective blame exists. The argument is about the extraordinary historical persistence and global nature of antisemitic collective blame - not whether Jews are the only people ever subjected to it.

“The causal chain between a government’s actions and violence against a diaspora is only ever constructed for Jews.” Chinese people in the US during Covid? The China virus? I know plenty of Russians in Vienna that were and have been discriminated against because of Russias attacks against Ukraine.. Muslims after 9/11… Palestinians are being censored or denied their freedoms of speech and demonstrations around the world (see Germany).. Selective memory at play here. Collective punishment is a thing that is NOT limited to Jews but this is what you want it to be..

There is a claim that keeps circulating, presented as sophisticated analysis: antisemitic violence is caused by Israel’s actions. If Israel behaved differently, Jewish communities around the world would somehow be safer. This argument is not analysis. It is a moral inversion. And it collapses the moment you apply it consistently. When China imprisons Uyghurs, does anyone warn Muslim communities in Paris to expect attacks? When Russia invaded Ukraine, did anyone tell Russian restaurants to brace for violence? No. Never. The causal chain between a government’s actions and violence against a diaspora is only ever constructed for Jews. Every other minority is extended the basic moral courtesy of being treated as individuals rather than proxies. Now look at what the data actually shows. The SPCJ, which tracks antisemitic incidents in France in coordination with the Interior Ministry, has documented a consistent and damning pattern: it is antisemitic violence that inspires more antisemitic violence, not Israeli policy. After Mohamed Merah murdered Jewish children at point-blank range at the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse in 2012, antisemitic acts surged by 200%. There was no Gaza operation. No Israeli military action. The massacre of Jews in France produced more attacks on Jews in France. The same logic held after the Hypercacher attack in January 2015: antisemitic acts increased by nearly 300%. Massacres of Jews do not shock antisemites into restraint. They embolden them. They signal impunity. They normalize hatred. And everyone in a position of responsibility knows it. Which brings us to October 7. From the day of the Hamas attack, antisemitic acts in France increased by over 1,000%. A daily average of approximately 25 antisemitic acts was recorded in the 30 days that followed, reaching nearly 40 on some days. In the three months after the attack, the number of antisemitic acts equaled those recorded over the previous three years combined. And here is another detail that makes the “Israel causes antisemitism” argument impossible to sustain: the spike began on October 7 itself, the very day of the attack. Israel had not yet responded. Not a single soldier had entered Gaza. Interior Minister Darmanin sent an urgent message to prefects that same day asking them to immediately reinforce protection of Jewish community sites. Synagogues. Schools. Community centers. By October 10, 10,000 police officers had been deployed to protect 500 Jewish sites across the country. Before any Israeli response existed, the French government already knew that Jewish communities needed protecting. Not because of what Israel was about to do. Because of what had just been done to Jews. Antisemitic violence has one cause. Antisemitism.

This is not the flex you think it is because infrastructure needs to be paid for. The people who can afford it most are those with property values above R5m. So unless Geordin and co come up with another plan, that money won’t come in and a flat rate will most likely be introduced which will hit EVERYONE.

GOOD is the only political party that took this matter beyond the Council chamber to court, at significant cost. It did so because the unlawful tariff scheme targeted groups of people for extra payments they simply cannot afford, including those who have inherited property or whose property values have escalated exponentially due to gentrification or development.  If the Mayor were allowed to charge residents whatever he wishes, it would effectively force members of these groups to consider downgrading their accommodation – the diametric opposite of development. #GOODParty #Tariffs #CapeTown

@ALETTAHA @BiancavanWyk16 @zilevandamme @Our_DA Add the Keller woman and you get the three wicked witches of the west! 🤭

And here these two losers, @BiancavanWyk16 and @zilevandamme bash the @Our_DA 24/7 hoping they'll lose the next election. It's these two fools that want to keep the anc in power to crash SouthAfrica even further than they already have. They are well off so what do they care? 🥱

Ag rubbish…. You’re mixing up municipal infrastructure spending with national welfare policy. Cape Town’s budget is not primarily being spent on “handouts”. A very large portion goes directly into bulk infrastructure, maintenance, water security, sanitation, electricity networks, roads, and service delivery across the metro. As for investment in poorer areas - cities cannot simply ignore infrastructure in densely populated communities because wealthier suburbs are congested. Functional transport routes, sanitation, flood control, and road upgrades in the Cape Flats are also economic infrastructure. And congestion in the Northern Suburbs is actually evidence of growth and migration into Cape Town, not proof that infrastructure spending has stopped. Calling the DA “socialist” because it uses rates and tariffs to fund municipal infrastructure is a stretch. Every functioning city in the world funds shared infrastructure through taxes, rates, and service charges. Don’t be obtuse.

The money Capetonians pay extra are funding grants and hand outs. Infrastructure development doesn’t happen in the areas of the tax payers. Just look at the congestion in the Northern suburbs. Coct doesn’t even want to share costs with Sanral to make Brackenfell Boulevard double lanes. Where you sit 45 min to travel 3 kms. Yet, they build elevated intersections on roads with hardly any traffic on the Cape flats. If they stop grants and hand outs and allow migrants to build new informal settlements everywhere and rather use that money for upliftment and create job opportunities, the whole economy will grow. Taxing the rich just create more poor people. It’s not sustainable. DA is a socialist party.

This isn’t accurate. The money funds infrastructure. Infrastructure is literally what makes Cape Town so investable. That infrastructure (and private sector investment) benefits everyone, not just poor people. It also means property owners have seen the value of their properties rise dramatically, uniquely for SA’s metros. Please don’t complain about collapsing infrastructure in other cities and expect Cape Town’s infrastructure to fall like manna from heaven. It doesn’t work like that.

Cape Town’s infrastructure spend is not “unlimited”. It is exactly because the city plans ahead and maintains infrastructure before total collapse that it remains more functional and investable than most metros in SA. You can argue about the fairness or structure of particular tariffs, but pretending infrastructure can be funded only through borrowings and grants is not realistic municipal finance.

@RyanCoetzee Taxing unrealised capital gains is not the way to fund "infrastructure" budgets. Use borrowings + govt grants, recover cost and interest from infrastructure usage charges. City has to live within its means -annual infrastructure spend cannot be unlimited.

Exactly. There’s also an important difference between funding consumption and funding productive infrastructure. A city investing in water security, sewage systems, roads, electricity upgrades, and maintenance is not “eating seed stock”, it is protecting and expanding the very platform that allows economic activity and investment to happen in the first place. Infrastructure decay is enormously more expensive than infrastructure maintenance.

@Johan62504529 @pookiepolls They will still need to come up with a way to raise the funds. They have to - there’s failing sewage infrastructure all over the show, not to mention residents wanting millions spent on sorting out marine outfalls off Greenpoint, Camps Bay and Hout Bay - and elsewhere.

@pookiepolls It was a mistake, granted. Hopefully a lesson for the DA. will still vote for them…Be careful what you wish for

As a Cape Town property owner, I strongly opposed the City’s 2025 tariffs: the city-wide cleaning levy, fixed water tariff, and fixed sanitation tariff. These weren’t based on actual consumption – they were charged according to property value. Purely unfair. Today, the Western Cape High Court struck them down as unlawful and invalid, ordering the City to remove them by 30 June 2026. The ruling confirms that municipal services must be charged in proportion to actual use, not property valuations. Municipalities don’t have unlimited power to invent new fixed levies. I’m relieved the court agreed with SAPOA, CTCRA and AfriForum. But I’m also angry. This was a DA-led city government pushing these charges. They defended them in court despite the clear legal problems. This has cost them my vote. After years of supporting the DA, I will not vote for them again. Property owners deserve fair billing, not valuation-based stealth taxes. The principle is now clear: pay for what you use. Nothing more. The City must comply and scrap these unlawful tariffs. Of course, it is the ratepayer who must now be burdened with paying the legal fees, as the city was hit with a cost order. Voetsek, @Our_DA Voetsek, @geordinhl

This is a bit shortsighted, and it ignores how municipal budgeting actually works. The cleansing levy is not new - that has already been explained repeatedly. The fixed water tariff exists to fund maintenance and long-term infrastructure upgrades. Infrastructure does not maintain or expand itself, especially in a fast-growing city facing drought risks and ageing systems. Like it or not, Cape Town remains the best-run metro in South Africa largely because it continues investing in infrastructure instead of waiting for systems to collapse before reacting. The state of infrastructure in many other municipalities across the country is proof of what happens when that investment is neglected. There’s still a great deal to fix across the Cape Town metro - so how exactly should that be funded? Vote for whoever you genuinely believe will do a better job, but vote based on realistic governance and long-term outcomes, not simply on whether a tariff increase feels unfair.

@Massi_Locatelli @WolfReuter3 I think you should read the account published again.

@WolfReuter3 Das ist faktisch schlicht falsch.Die CIA hat selbst die offiziellen Dokumente freigegeben, die ihre zentrale Rolle beim Sturz von Mossadegh („Project Ajax“) detailliert belegen.Auch ehemalige US-Präsidenten haben die Beteiligung öffentlich eingeräumt.Die Aktenlage ist eindeutig.

Wer mal wieder „Mossadegh“ schreien will, weil er das so gelernt hat, darf es gerne nächstes Mal runterschlucken und vorher noch einmal hier nachlesen, was 1953 und danach passiert ist.

The irony is that critics like you mock Reza Shah as “just a military officer” while ignoring that many modern states were built by military reformers during periods of collapse. You don’t have to support the Pahlavis to acknowledge basic historical facts. Calling him the Shah’s “failson” adds plenty of emotion, but very little substance.

@BruceDGilley You mean the fake Shah whose father was a random military officer who proclaimed himself Shah? Give this crap a rest, the Shah’s failson is not going to rule Iran.

Again: the CIA did NOT overthrow the Iranian leader in 1953, a myth born of the left's attempt to delegitimize the Shah.

Interesting read revisiting the events of 1953 in Iran and questioning the simplistic “CIA coup” narrative so often repeated today. History is usually more complicated than political catch phrases, especially when current conflicts are involved.

@chizenbread @rich_toronto Some interesting info for you to educate yourself with.

@rich_toronto Nonsense. Israel bombed Gaza three times in the week before October 7th.

What happened on Oct 7, 2023 isn’t what we initially thought it was. At first glance, the terrorist attack that Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists committed against Israel seemed to be the declaration of war between Israel. War did break out, but that wasn’t what it was about. I believe that history will show October 7, 2023 as the day Islamism declared war against the world, and the start of WWIII. The Muslim Brotherhood. The Free Palestine movement. The IRGC. Islamism. That is the day the sleeper cells around the world were activated, instantly starting street celebrations (of the terrorist attack) and protests (of a response that hadn’t yet begun). That is the day that Islamism, through the Free Palestine movement, started to globally recruit soldiers to join their cause. That is the day that Islamism, through its terrorist cells in Western countries, mobilized and started to rise up against the West. That is the day that Islamism, through its strategically placed operatives in politics, education, unions snd all fabrics of Western society, slowly started to turn up the rhetoric, planting the seeds to delegitimize Israel. And “Zionists”. Jews. That is the day that Islamism, through various strategies and initiatives and attacks throughout the world, entered a new phase in its objective to conquer Western nations. The attack on Israel was both the lighting of a fuse and a distraction. The attacks were a sign to the sleepers that it had begun. A call to arms. The ongoing war was used as a justification for the protests and encampments, which had nothing to do with Israel. This distracted Western nations from realizing what was going on. Palestine is now used as a platform issue in elections. And not just federal elections. Local elections. The Islamists are using the false plight of “Palestine” to divide nations. To gain support for their protests. For their violence. For their attacks. And for their politicians. Their causes. Their goal is to delegitimize Israel in the minds of the planet, which will remove support for them, thus making Israel an easier target. Accomplishing this would weaken the West’s ability to wage war in the Middle East, as Israel is the only true democratic nation there, with unwavering ties to the US, British and other Western allies. At the same time, they’re trying to get their people and left parties elected into power, to assist with both removal of support for Israel, and the implementation of Sharia in Western nations, which is the ultimate goal. They don’t want anyone who follows any religion other than Islam. It’s been said for a long time that the next major World War would be a religious one. Those who said it were right. And it’s already begun. On Oct 7, 2023.

@nick24005652 @ItsDecado How do YOU know? Lol.

@ItsDecado Ridiculous propaganda lol ⬆️

We need to correct the record. The Starlink story was a cover. Hesam Alaeddin was not murdered just for seeking a connection to the free world. He was murdered in an armed cartel robbery. The actual motive was cryptocurrency. Hesam used Starlink to bypass the regime's digital cage so he could trade freely. He held massive digital assets, and the IRGC knew it. Because their foreign financial networks are being systematically choked off, the terrorist Islamic Regime is completely bankrupt. They have only one revenue stream left to fill their deficits: plundering the Iranian people. They targeted the Alaeddin family because they were the perfect mark: deeply wealthy (their great-uncle owns the famous Alaeddin Mall), religious, but fearlessly and openly anti-regime. Here is the exact timeline of how this slaughterhouse operates: Weeks ago, dozens of security forces raided the Kamranieh apartment of Hesam’s brother, Hamid, using "Starlink" as the excuse. Hamid resisted. They shot him in the leg and dragged him to the hospital in handcuffs. When Hesam and the family went to the hospital to check on him, the agents set a trap. They demanded everyone's phones and belongings as a condition for the visit. When the visit ended, they returned everything—*except* Hesam’s phone and his belongings. They wanted his digital wallets. Then they took Hesam. They dragged him into the dark and broke him under brutal interrogation and torture. Later, they brought him back and dumped him in the lobby of his own building. Right there, in front of his twin little daughters, they beat him with batons. When the neighbors killed their lights and started chanting against the regime in the dark, the executioners screamed back: *"Everything you have is from the charity of the regime!"* The clash escalated. They dragged Hesam away one last time. The next phone call his family received was to come and collect his corpse. They are out of money, and they are openly executing citizens to liquidate their assets. They are not a government. They are a bankrupt terrorist syndicate robbing the hostages at gunpoint.

@chizenbread @rich_toronto For no reason whatsoever? Yeah riiiiight. You forget that we saw rockets being launched at Israel constantly prior to 7 October. Or do you think we are all stupid?

@ewnupdates Like it or not, AI is being used as an accelerator to get jobs done. I don’t get the negative connotation.

Two independent law firms appointed to review Home Affairs policy documents after it emerged AI was used ow.ly/ayfn50YT53m

@raashah @JChimirie66677 @Cyclefree2 @DissidentScot @Ostrov_A Jesus you’re thick. There was no ethnic cleansing. If there was, 2 million Arabs wouldn’t be living in Israel right now.

@JChimirie66677 @Cyclefree2 @DissidentScot @Ostrov_A The Scottish nationalist wants a country to call home. The Zionist wants the same thing. Only one of them engaged in ethnic cleansing in order to achieve it.

This is one of the most jaw-dropping, chilling interviews I have seen. Watch this Rabbi from London, respond to question about the terror stabbing in Golders Green!