Charlie Kirk
I’d never heard of Charlie Kirk until he was shot, which was an awful, despicable crime. I’ve since learned that I profoundly disagree with him on almost everything but I am in awe of his courage and encouragement of open debate. It’s a sharp contrast with our weak, cowardly, mainstream politicians who don’t have the balls to debate difficult issues. Despite our differences, I think he was a hero and a martyr for democracy and free speech.
The Greater Israel Project. Netanyahu’s Real Agenda
Netanyahu and his ultra-Zionist regime are pursuing the ‘Greater Israel’ project (Eretz Yisrael HaShlema). This claims the entire area from the River Nile, north-east to include the southern part of Turkey and south-east to include Iraq, Kuwait, west to include a large part of Saudi Arabia and about two-thirds of Egypt. This is based on the Zionist belief that around 2000 BC Abraham said ‘God’ had told him he and his descendants have the exclusive right to this land as defined in the Torah.
This includes annexation of half the Red Sea, the Suez Canal, the Sinai, Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon. Even the island of Cyprus is included in their ambitions. There is uproar in Cyprus right now from the native inhabitants as great tracts of land in the south of the island are being bought by Zioinist Israelis.
Ridiculous you may say and I would agree with you it seems so but Netanyahu has repeatedly shown his map of his ‘Greater Israel’ in public briefings confirming his government’s intent. Google it. You can see him holding a map with the area shaded in green.
There is also the ‘Ben Gurion Canal Project’ to cut a canal from Ashkelon, just north of Gaza, down to Eilat at the northern tip of the Red Sea. This would bypass the Suez Canal, just in case that ambition cannot be realised.
This is the reality of the ambition of the regime which is crazed with blood lust, expansionism and Zionist supremacy. Everything it is currently doing in Gaza and the West Bank is part of the process.
References
‘It’s Time to Confront Israel’s Version of “From the River to the Sea”’, The Nation, 22nd Nov 2023. https://www.thenation.com/article/world/its-time-to-confront-israels-version-of-from-the-river-to-the-sea/
‘What is the ‘Greater Israel’ movement?’, The Week, 18th Oct 2024. https://theweek.com/world-news/what-is-the-greater-israel-movement
‘Netanyahu says he’s on a ‘historic and spiritual mission,’ also feels a connection to vision of Greater Israel’, Times of Israel, 12th Aug 2025. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-says-hes-on-a-historic-and-spiritual-mission-endorses-vision-of-greater-israel/
‘The “Greater Israel” Plan Has a Colossal Reach’, Fair Observer, 19th Dec 2024. https://www.fairobserver.com/politics/the-greater-israel-plan-has-a-colossal-reach/
‘Greater Israel—From the Euphrates to the Nile’, Times of Israel, 8th Jan 2024. https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/greater-israel-from-the-euphrates-to-the-nile/
‘Greater Israel’, Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Israel
The Justification for Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Japanese disdain and disrespect for individual life was demonstrated by their treatment of prisoners of war and their suicidal attitude to military duty.
It was already clear by Iwo Jima that the Japanese strategy was to extract maximum casualties from their opposition in the certainty that they had no hope of victory. Data on casualties show the the US typically suffered three times as many wounded as killed but the Japanese literally fought to the death leaving very few wounded.
The two major battles before the atomic bomb was dropped were Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Iwo Jima Deaths
US. 6,821
Japan. 17,845
Okinawa Deaths
US. 14,010
Japan. 77,823
Okinawan civilians. 149,634
US deaths for the invasion of Japan were estimated to be between 400,000 and 800,000. Japanese deaths were estimated to be over a million with civilian deaths of millions more.
The Hiroshima bomb is estimated to have killed 135,000 including immediate and longer term deaths. The Nagasaki bomb caused a total of 50,000 deaths.
In my view the atomic bombs saved millions of lives and were justified.
Starmer Fiddles While Israel’s Genocide Gathers Pace
Possibly the best insight into what is really going on in Gaza is the video released yesterday from outside the areas where huge quantities of aid are stored waiting for the IDF to let it in.
It shows Israeli parents bringing their children to sit in the road to block lorries carrying aid to starving Palestinian children.
Israel is a perversion of humanity.
It is a moral imperative to recognise Palestine to advance its cause in the face of Israel’s genocide. But Starmer is a self-declared Zionist, a disciple of the death cult that prescribes death or forced displacement of native peoples to make way for Israel. He has repeatedly supported Israel’s war crimes, openly calling for it to cut off food and water to the besieged Gazan people. He provides surveillance flights over Gaza to assist the IDF with targeting civilians and he tacitly supports ‘settler’ terrorism in the West Bank.
Starmer’s future is clear. He will end his days in whichever prison cell the justices in the Hague send him.
The Future of the Land Between the River and the Sea
‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!’ is a legitimate, non-exclusive ambition for freedom of the Palestinian people. It’s nothing like the exclusive, racist and hate filled Israeli slogan ‘Between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty’, as enshrined in Netanyahu’s Likud Party constitution.
For all decent people, it makes no difference if you are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Atheist, Israeli, Palestinian, British, American or a Buddhist from Outer Mongolia. To borrow from Martin Luther King, what matters is the “content of your character” and your actions.
The content of Israel’s ‘character’ and the history of its actions since its inception in 1948 are so disgusting, so barbaric that despite enormous support from the West, it has now descended into such sordid inhumanity that, unless it makes radical change, I don’t think it has any future.
Obviously a place is going to have be found for Israeli citizens, irrespective of whether they are Jews or not. The only solution that makes sense is the formal re-establishment of Palestine under supervision of the UN and the world community. Extraordinary safeguards will have to be put in place to protect the rights of all citizens, preserve their religious freedom and ensure there are no reprisals and no return to the sort of supremacist, apartheid society that Israel established.
Clearly this will not be an easy or trouble-free process but a line has to be drawn under the disaster of the past 77 years and the people of the region given a chance to live in peace, mutual respect and, in time, some sort of harmony.
State Political Violence is Terrorism
When Israel steals land, occupies territory, subjugates an entire population and kills them with impunity, it’s called “the right to self-determination.”
When Palestinians resist military occupation, it’s called “terrorism.”
When Israel bombs hospitals, flattens homes, and kills tens of thousands of civilians, it’s called “defence.”
When tens of thousands take to the streets to protest genocide it is labelled a hate march in support of “terrorism”.
When a far-right extremist murders an MP, it’s reduced to just “murder” with no ideology, no wider context.
When a pro-Palestinian chant is raised, it’s accused of “glorifying terrorism.”
When Israelis say from the River to the Sea it’s glorious assertion of biblical “identity”.
When Palestinians say from the River to the Sea it’s genocidal “terrorism”.
When Israel and the US illegally bomb Iran it called “preemptive defence”.
When a protest group supports Palestinian rights, it’s proscribed as “terrorist.”
When a single Israeli is kidnapped or killed it runs 24 hour news cycles and state leaders condemn it as “terrorism”.
When 50 Palestinians are killed in a single day it is….. “nothing”.
Let’s be clear: more people have been killed by Western state violence than by Islamist terrorism.
Post-9/11 wars led by the US and its allies have caused over 4.5 million deaths. All Islamist terror attacks globally since 1979? Around 220,000 deaths. Yet only one of these is consistently labelled “terrorism.” The other is sanitised as “defence,” “intervention,” or “stabilisation.”
Political violence is political violence. Whether it’s a homemade rocket or a billion-dollar airstrike. The only difference is who has the media, the money, and the power to write the story.
Resist and fight the deep state propaganda machine that keeps you from the truth.
Tyranny Now Rules in UK, Not Just of Government but of Most of Our Corrupt Israel-Sponsored Parliament
In my 68 years, I have never been so ashamed of my country. The decision to proscribe a group supporting the Palestinian cause and to deem it as a terrorist organisation because it has carried out action directly analogous with the behaviour of the Suffragettes, the protestors against the illegal Iraq war and South African apartheid is beyond absurd.
Yes, all these protestors committed criminal offences by damaging property but to decide in 2025 that this puts them in the same category as the 7/7, Manchester Arena bombers or the murderers of PC Keith Palmer is ridiculous. It is more than absurd or ridiculous, it is unjust and, should be unlawful. Certainly the protestors should be tried for criminal damage or whatever crimes are appropriate. The power of their protest is in their readiness to accept punishment for such crimes. If, however, the High Court refuses to halt the outrage of deeming them as terrorists then the rule of law has been subverted by a totalitarian government.
Starmer and his cabinet are already proven to be corrupted by huge amounts of Israeli money and hundreds of MPs on all sides of Parliament are sponsored by the Israeli lobby. Britain’s record in standing up to Israel’s crimes is dreadful but the conduct of Israel since the Hamas atrocity of 7th October 2023 has involved hundreds of war crimes and has now, without doubt, become genocide, the most serious crime of all. The previous Conservative government, led by Rishi Sunak, was bad enough but Starmer is far worse, as Israel’s crimes have become more and more outrageous. Sunak, Starmer and many of their ministers and MPs are fully complicit in these war crimes and justice dictates that some of them should face trial on these issues. As I understand it, war crimes are not covered by Crown Indemnity.
In my view there has not been a more serious juncture in our history since we stood alone against the Nazis in 1940. Israel’s conduct today is of the same nature and Britain’s part in it is a national disgrace. Wherever we go from here, even if the High Court does rein in this latest, disgusting episode, there are senior British politicians who must face trial.
The London Drugs Commission. Off Target and Misleading.
If anyone thinks it will achieve anything to publish a report on cannabis policy that runs to over 300 pages with 42 recommendations, you can spend an hour or so reading it here.
Of course, the recommendation for decriminalisation is correct. Criminalising people for personal possession of any drug, or for growing a few cannabis plants, achieves nothing. We know from multiple studies across the world, including from the Home Office, that the level of enforcement and the severity of penalties makes no difference at all to levels of use or harm, except the harm caused by giving someone a criminal record. Enforcing these laws also takes huge amounts of police time and resource. Their disproportionate enforcement among ethnic minorities also damages community relations. It’s a ridiculous policy. Yet another example of how detached from reality and public opinion are our political leaders.
But the report fails to address the real issue. By far the most harm around cannabis and all drugs is from the markets through which they are produced and sold. Both the Home Office and the National Crime Agency acknowledge that most crime and violence is caused by criminal drugs markets. These markets exist to meet the unstoppable demand for drugs. Our political leaders like to pretend that they can reduce this demand but the evidence over more than 50 years proves them wrong. The cannabis market is by far the biggest and it is organised crime’s single largest source of daily cashflow. It provides the funding for every other sort of criminal activity imaginable. There is no other solution to stopping this catastrophic harm except to offer a legal alternative where consumers can purchase cannabis from licensed retailers that has been produced to quality standards by licensed producers.
All sort of other benefits would flow from this sensible change of policy. Thousands of new jobs would be created. Taxing the products would deliver vast amounts of cash for the health service, housing, social care, other public services and this is after paying for the costs of running the regulatory system. Huge amounts of police time would be freed up to start focusing on real crime that causes people harm. We know that this can work from the experience in other places. In Canada, six years after legalisation, 80% of all cannabis purchases are now made through legal channels. More than $2 billion is collected each year in local and federal taxes after deduction of expenses. This in a country with half the population of UK.
The report makes weak excuses for failing to recommend legal regulation of the cannabis market, excuses which are not supported by evidence and in many instances are directly contradicted. It says that legalisation has not been a “panacea”, “risks remain”, “it by no means abolishes the illicit cannabis market” and there are “too many unknowns, particularly those relating to public health”.
These excuses are disingenuous at best, deceitful at worst. They take no account of the very large body of evidence over more than 10 years from the USA and Canada, of the benefits of the coffeshop system in the Netherlands over 50 years and more recent experience in several European countries. It is wilful ignorance or, I suggest, political cowardice. I attended the Commission on two occasions to give evidence and after several hours in discussions, I am convinced that Lord Falconer and his colleagues fully understand that imperative for legal regulation and the evidence that supports it. The conclusion I draw is that they felt recommending legalisation would be politically unacceptable and would likely lead to the report being rejected. In truth the report was always going to be rejected, as it has been, so there was no benefit in holding back from the obvious recommendations it should have made.
Reading between the lines, my judgement is that this is all down to the near-hysteria about cannabis and its ‘links to mental illness’ which is pretty much unique to UK and Ireland. Nowhere else in the world comes close to the wildly unbalanced narrative that predominates here. It’s based on decades of systematic misinformation from the Home Office and ruthless exploitation by the tabloid media. The ‘one puff and you’re psychotic’ mythology has sold millions of newspapers and in recent years generated billions of clicks. It’s false. The facts are that the risk of a psychotic episode associated with cannabis use is 1 in 20,000, with alcohol use 1 in 2,000, with a life threatening reaction to peanuts 1 in 100 or shellfish 1 in 25. Hysteria perhaps doesn’t put it strongly enough!
Reform will come eventually to the UK but it’s hard to predict when. The legalisation of medical access came suddenly and unexpectedly and only because the government was shamed in the media by its appalling treatment of two epileptic boys who were forced overseas for life saving cannabis medicine. Media embarrassment seems to be the only thing that makes British politicians act and I think the powers that be think the move on medical access has gone quite far enough to keep the plebs in order.
The sheer stupidity, stubborness and inertia of the political establishment on drugs policy is extraordinary. We have no option but to keep fighting the good fight in the knowledge that eventually we will prevail.
Peter Reynolds 