Provocations to Disappear a Genocide
A political assassination and a terrorist attack look like a program
[A composite. The background is Nasrallah from today’s address. Top right is Qassem Soleimani who was assassinated by the US 4 years ago on 202-01-03 (along with Mahandis). Bottom right is Saleh al-Arouri who Israel assassinated yesterday.]
Published: 2024-01-04
Connecting the Obvious Odious Dots
Two roadside bombs were placed and exploded to attack a parade, commemorating the honor of Qassem Soleimani four years after his assassination, as they walked to his grave. Over 100 people were killed and over 200 injured in Kerman, Iran.
This was a terrorist attack on a religious celebration.
The US, under President Trump, assassinated Qassem Soleimani and Abu al Mahandis at Baghdad Airport on 2020-01-03. Mahandis was a senior military leader in the Iraqi "Popular Mobilization Units" which had been formed, after the fatwa from Shia Cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani in 2014, to defend the holy city against the advancing ISIS hordes which had also be supported by the US.
Soleimani was the Iranian general who designed, coordinated, trained and fought with the PMU. Mahandis reported to Qaassem Soleimani.
A problem which Iran had when the US assassinated Qassem is that there was nobody in the US who even came close to being as important as Qassem as a target for a revenge killing. Even assassinating the entire Chiefs of Staff wouldn't have come close, in Iranian eyes.
I mention this so you one can understand what was done. This attack will have caused serious outrage in Iran. This was the purpose of the attack.
Nobody has yet claimed responsibility and Iran have not formally annouced who they believe are responsible.
But everybody knows.
[The cities of Kerman, Beirut and Tel Aviv are circled.]
A day earlier, Israel assassinated Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of Hamas, in Beirut. al-Arouri was Hamas' liaison with Hezbollah who though independent of Iran, are strongly supported by the regional power.
Hamas is a different thing. It is Sunni, rather than Shia. Hamas fought with other local Sunni groups against Syria during the dirty war. Iran supported Syria, as did Hezbollah (and Russia). But, the local chessboard, due to efforts by both Russia and China, has changed since then, as signified by the rapproachment between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Hamas' outrageously successful October 7th, 2023, attack on the occupying Zionist entity known as Israel significantly raised its stakes in the Axis of Resistance, a political project with a military arm which Soleimani had worked to create with Hezbollah. Indeed, the relationship between Soleimani and Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, was extremely close.
Hezbollah's recent campaign against the Jewish occupying settlers in the Golan and Galilee, which is Syrian territor illegally captured by Israel in the 1967 6 Day War, has been in support of Hamas. It places military pressure on the IDF and political pressure on the Zionist leadership. The occupying settlers chose to leave because the IDF could not defend itself, let alone them.
The assassination of the Hamas deputy leader, also killing 6 civilians in Beirut, was Israel. The terrorist attack in Kerman is almost certainly Israel. Israel is provoking both Hezbollah and Iran, hoping that they will respond violently so that Israel can then drag the US into a widened conflict. Max Blumethal agrees (see the Judging Freedom episode). This will serve Israel extremely well, on two fronts.
Firstly, and most significantly, the US media will immediately swing to covering whatever the US is doing. If the Zionists have any influence over this, it will be Hezbollah in Lebanon to which the US will be directed. This will mean that the Zionist's continued genocide and ethnic cleansing operation in Gaza will receive almost no attention in the English language media, which both they and the US would like. Be clear. The US regime doesn't care at all about Palestinians. It only cares that the genocide is not reported. The people who profit from US wars, ie. the Military Industrial Comples / MICIMATT, will be very happy about a few US soldiers dying if billions of USD are spent on re-supplying all of the missiles and other things which will be destroyed if a widened conflict against designated terrorist organization Hezbollah. Recall that Hezbollah has elected representatives in the Lebanese parliament.
The second advantage for Israel woudl be that Hezbollah will be fighting the US, which frees the IDF to continue its ethnic rampage in Gaza. Nobody should expect Israel to risk anything by fighting with the US. They will not. They want the US to fight and die on their behalf.
The second strategy which Israel is running is to increase the internal political pressure in Iran for it to become overtly involved in the conflict. This again serves both of the above purposes for Israel, and especially so because of the raging neo-con idiots like Senate psychopath Lindsay Graham.
Recall Graham's joy at Ukrainians dying who-cares-how-many so long as at least some Russians were dying? Yes, that psychopath would serve Israel very nicely, thank you. Then the other neo-con idiots who have club up with the MEK, a straight up terrorist organization which the CIA and other nasties have been supporting in its attempts to destabilize Iran, for decades, will come out of the woodwork. And voila! the US is fighting Iran for Israel.
As soon as that happens things get extremely dangerous, or perhaps not.
A short summary of the above and some further ruminations are included in the associated podcast.
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Sources
Iran Vows a 'Harsh Response' for Bombing That Killed Over 100 Iranians, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-01-03
Criminals behind Kerman attacks must await fitting punishment, harsh response: Ayatollah Khamenei, no author, PressTV, 2024-01-03
"at least 103 people were killed and 211 injured in two explosions against mourners who were on their way to visit the tomb of Qassem Soleimani"
White House Says 'Nobody Should Shed a Tear' for Senior Hamas Official Killed by Israel in Beirut, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-01-03
"The White House on Wednesday gave tacit backing to the Israeli drone strike in Beirut that killed Saleh al-Arouri" deputy leader of Hamas, who was also liaison to Hezbollah.
Note that the drone assassination also killed 6 civilians. It was a massive explosion, as can be seen from the damaged to the building.
[screenshotted from an ABC News article.]
Palestine SitRep - Hizbullah's Response To Assassinations By Israel In Lebanon, b., MoonOfAlabama, 2024-01-03
"Today, at 16:00 UTC, Nasrallah is expected to give a speech. This was originally planned as a commemoration of the assassination in 2020 of the Iranian General Qassam Soleimani and the Iraqi resistance leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis by U.S. forces. PressTV will have live coverage of the speech. Nasrallah will surely include a response to yesterday's attack."
The killing of Hamas's deputy leader marks a new phase in the war. Now the question is, what will Iran do?, John Lyons, ABC News, 2024-01-04
"Neither Israel nor Hezbollah wants a new war. The two were at war between 1982 and 2000 when Israel withdrew from its almost 20-year occupation of Southern Lebanon. If Israel or Hezbollah wanted a new war, both could have triggered it by now. ...
From Hezbollah's point of view, Lebanon is already in a desperate situation. The economy is an appalling condition, something which has been exacerbated in recent years by the war in Syria.
Lebanon is now trying to support a huge number of refugees from Syria. According to Human Rights Watch, Lebanon hosts more than an estimated 1.5 million refugees who fled Syria since 2011, making it the country with the largest number of refugees per capita in the world."
Hezbollah leader warns Israel against waging war on Lebanon, (AFP), The New Indian Express, 2024-01-04
BEIRUT: Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel Wednesday against waging war on Lebanon, a day after a strike blamed on Israel killed Hamas's number two in the group's southern Beirut suburbs stronghold.
"If the enemy thinks of waging a war on Lebanon, we will fight without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions," Nasrallah said in a televised speech.
"We are not afraid of war," he said, adding that "for now, we are fighting on the frontline following meticulous calculations".
Max Blumenthal： Max takes on the Israeli Press., Napolitano interviews Blumenthal, Judging Freedom, 2024-01-03
Background
2022: The Hypocrisy Gloves are Off, YesXorNo, 2022-01-04
“… on January 3rd 2020, the USA assassinated two men, Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes, deputy commander of Iraq’s Hashd al-Shaabi forces (PMU). It was Soleimani who organised the leadership to coordinate the defense of Bagdad against the advancing ISIS forces. Pepe Escobar has given a fuller coverage of this event and its place in history. I will also fully quote Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s recounting of Soleimani’s visit to request commanders to lead the volunteer force to confront the ISIS threat:
At that time, Hajj Qassem traveled from Baghdad airport to Damascus airport, from where he came (directly) to Beirut, in the southern suburbs. He arrived to me at midnight. I remember very well what he said to me: ‘At dawn you must have provided me with 120 (Hezbollah) operation commanders.’ I replied ‘But Hajj, it’s midnight, how can I provide you with 120 commanders?’ He told me that there was no other solution if we wanted to fight (effectively) against ISIS, to defend the Iraqi people, our holy places [5 of the 12 Imams of Twelver Shiism have their mausoleums in Iraq], our Hawzas [Islamic educational institutions], and everything that existed in Iraq. There was no choice. ‘I don’t need fighters. I need operational commanders [to supervise the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units, PMU]. This is why in my speech [about Soleimani’s assassination], I said that during the 22 years or so of our relationship with Hajj Qassem Soleimani, he never asked us for anything. He never asked us for anything, not even for Iran. Yes, he only asked us once, and that was for Iraq, when he asked us for these (120) operations commanders. So he stayed with me, and we started contacting our (Hezbollah) brothers one by one. We were able to bring in nearly 60 operational commanders, including some brothers who were on the front lines in Syria, and whom we sent to Damascus airport [to wait for Soleimani], and others who were in Lebanon, and that we woke up from their sleep and brought in [immediately] from their house as the Hajj said he wanted to take them with him on the plane that would bring him back to Damascus after the dawn prayer. And indeed, after praying the dawn prayer together, they flew to Damascus with him, and Hajj Qassem traveled from Damascus to Baghdad with 50 to 60 Lebanese Hezbollah commanders, with whom he went to the front lines in Iraq. He said he didn’t need fighters, because thank God there were plenty of volunteers in Iraq. But he needed [battle-hardened] commanders to lead these fighters, train them, pass on experience and expertise to them, etc. And he didn’t leave until he took my pledge that within two or three days I would have sent him the remaining 60 commanders.
If you want to know who defeated ISIS, ask the Iraqi’s and the Syrians who fought them. Then ask who lead them.”
The Role of International Organizations in Diplomacy, YesXorNo, 2023-04-20
Assassinating a Warrior turned Diplomat
Please excuse me while I delve into a little topic which gets nowhere near the attention I believe it deserves.
Recall that General Qassem Sulemeini and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis (Jamal Ja'far Muhammad Ali Al Ibrahim) were murdered by the USA on January 3rd 2020 outside the Baghdad International Airport. Sulemeini was on a diplomatic mission which was no doubt a part of this gradual diplomatic effort being quietly coordinated by Russia (and perhaps others too). Both had played key roles, with Iranian backing, in directing the Popular Mobilization Forces which defended Baghdad against an advancing ISIS following the call to arms (fatwa) by Iraqi Shia Cleric Ayatollah Ali Sistani in 2014. Five and a half years later after defending the holy city of Baghdad they were assassinated by USA military under the command of President Trump. The call for careful revenge issued by Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, echoing the English phrase that revenge is a dish best served cold, was heard loudly across the Shia and Arab world.
I can assure you they have not forgotten. The problem is that the USA does not have anyone even close to the equivalent of late Qassem in their eyes.
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