Ask not for whom the bell tolls

It tolls for Israel and the US

Kill, kill, kill….

Got a problem? Feel frustrated?

Kill somebody. It’s OK.

Turn on your TV. All those programs about the plumber or housewife who is a retired CIA hitman …. and get to kill indiscriminately —ummm…"criminals".

Hate your job? Tired of your wife or husband? If only….

How about the boot camp mantra – kill, kill, kill! Invented after World War II when the military discovered that his soldiers had inhibitions about killing. Nowadays it's the American Way – which means it's also the Israeli Way. Americans and Israelis being blood brothers—with the emphasis on blood.

It's why Obama boasted about being good at killing— a manly thing to do.

Of course, this mentality spills over into other areas. In the US, school shootings, police shootings, random violence. Outside the continental US—American wars. In Palestine—genocide. Mindless violence.

In the "Middle East"—which geographically is actually West Asia— the US and Israel want empire —and to get that they need a wider war. That means “escalation.” Yup. kill, kill, kill.

That includes assassinations (a nicer word than “murder”.

Some Events

December 25. An Israeli airstrike hit the home of Iran’s IRGC senior commander Brigade General Seyed Razi Mousavi in a town to the south of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

January 2. The next Israeli assassination targeted Saleh al-Arouri, deputy leader of the Hamas Movement in Beirut.

January 4. It was America's turn.  Mushtaq Talib “Abu Taqwa” al-Saidi, a senior commander of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, was killed in an American drone strike that targeted the headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces in Baghdad.

January 8. Wissam al-Tawil, a senior commander of the Hezbollah elite Redwan Force, was killed in an Israel drone strike in a southern Lebanese town.

The same day, Israel assassinated Hamas senior commander Hassan Akasha, in southern Syria near the Golan Heights.

In addition, over 100 journalists have been killed in Palestine—many of course because they put themselves in harm’s way to do their job— the one that the MSM doesn't do. Others were targeted— murdered by strikes on their cars or their homes, along with their families, women and children. There was no place to hide,

Wael Dahdouh’s family, for example, was killed in an Israeli “safe zone”.

Mohamed Khaireddine died with his entire family.

In the West we don't kill journalists this way. If we assassinate them, we have to make it look like it wasn't assassination—but a random act of street crime violence or death by natural causes or something else. Of course, we have to insist they're not really journalists.

US: CIA reportedly plotted to kidnap and assassinate Julian Assange

International Federation of Journalists

That plan was apparently discarded because it was too obvious – so for Assange it had to be slow death in a British prison. The wheels of the law grind slowly but they grind.

You get the point. The truth is dangerous. Pfizer is working on a vaccine. Until then—kill, kill, kill.

Mainstream media’s faux "journalists" don't expose the American and Israeli campaign against real journalists for obvious reasons.

So right now-- you just read about assassinations of leaders of the Axis of Resistance—which give the impression that "our side" is doing the military things selectively and carefully—on the road to victory. These stories of “precision” strikes which it seems precisely kill a lot of innocent people go back to back with stories of sadistic Hamas fighters torturing. raping, and mutilating young Israeli women and cooking and eating babies. We're the Good Guys, right?

Assassinations

The Zionists are good at murder.

They got their start as terrorists doing this kind of thing long before the Nakba, with targeted assassinations and the massacres of whole villages. It's now a tradition which has been institutionalized and become an essential element of the Israeli national story.

But over the years, the Zionists have been losing control of the narrative.

After October 7, the world could see the Israeli need for self-defense was one Big Lie.

Hamas and Hezbollah have responded to the Gazan genocide – this new Holocaust – by stepping up their efforts incrementally. US and Israeli efforts to suppress resistance refresh support. The assassinations of their leaders in fact renew their organization with new people, with new ideas coming to the fore, new energy. Organizational turnaround can be an advantage.

Well sadly, Israel’s offenses against humanity have been promoting global anti-Semitism around the world with a lot of people are beginning to think the protocols of Zion might have some credibility more and more people are turning to non-Western media and alternative media—that speak the truth—to try to make sense of things.

Escalation …escalates resistance

Hezbollah and Hamas and others are not intimidated by the West's campaign of death — since their people have been dying for a simple cause for half a century— the right to live as human beings. There is a reason they use that term “martyr”.

“Escalation” just escalates resistance. You can kill people but you cannot kill an idea. Hope always survives. There will be a reckoning— but it will take time.

So it is that Iran is upgrading its development of and supply of weapons and training.

So it is that there are more and more attacks on American bases in both Syria and Iraq.

So it is that Israel is in the dock before the world Court of Justice.

Who is the Hangman?

These are all steps. It's a long stairway and what waits at the top? The Hangman. A noose. A long drop.

The “Arab Street”—whether Sunni, Shia, Whabbi, Salafi, Berelvi, Sufi or Deobandi — are unified in their opposition to the West, forcing the hand of even governments formerly beholden to Western cartels.

In Jordan, for example, the government is under strong public pressure to renounce cooperation with the US and Israel.

Up, up, up…. Who is the hangman? No one knows. Just that one waits.

A wider war

The Americans and Israelis have managed to widen the war – but not in the way that they wanted.

The Americans and Israel wanted to get Iran involved more directly.

Iran did respond—with precision missile strikes on the Mossad headquarters in semi-autonomous pro-Western Iraqi Kurdistan and on the headquarters of the American supported Turkestan Islamic Party (ISIS) and also on the headquarters of American supported Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (Al-Qaeda) in Syria.

Among the dead in Erbil was Pesha Dizayee , a pro-American Kurdish billionaire who has been accused of coordinating with Israeli Mossad officials and others to coordinate with Mossad activities in Iraq and Iran and with the Americans stealing Iraqi oil. Four high-ranking Mossad officers and others also died in a British Iraqi businessman Karam Mikhail, also accused of working with the Americans and Israelis.

The Iraqi government recalled its ambassador from Teheran and said it would launch a complaint at the UN. But this is most likely a rather clever ploy to get the Americans to support Iraqi sovereignty, which would make it more difficult for them to refuse a Iraqi demand for them to leave Iraq which a majority of the population outside of Kurdistan want.

The Iraqi government had already asked the Americans to leave—despite some economic benefits, which, in any case are diminishing, Down the road it will now be harder for the Americans to refuse. And the future of the Middle East clearly lies in partnerships with Russia, China, Iran and BRICS.

Following the attacks in Iraq, Iran also struck terrorist groups in Pakistan's Baluchistan province. Pakistan. of course. protested, but was secretly pleased since Baluchistan has been for years a CIA fiefdom mostly outside of Islamabad’s control. While Pakistan benefits from American largess – it gets even more from alignment with China, which these days also means alignment with Iran.

Iran, with notable irony. hoisted the US on its own petard citing the reasons for its attacks as “self-defense’.

Apart from that, the precision and effectiveness of these strikes should have given the US and Israel cause for thought. The Iranians used the Khaybar Shekan missile, now being upgraded by the Mach 15, maneuverable hypersonic Fattah 1 and 2 — more than capable of penetrating Israel's Iron Dome system.

The question arises. What if Hezbollah and the Houthis get these missiles?

The long drop

Will the US and Israel die of exhaustion before they get to the scaffold?

Will they even notice when they are dropping? From Israel's performance before the World Court of Justice and the American defense of genocide, they haven't tired yet and are still climbing.

Now the Israelis are arguing that the WCJ lacks jurisdiction since it can only hear claims of genocide in the case of a dispute between two countries.

You cannot un-see all those dead children. Nor un-hear Israeli leaders cheering on the destruction of the new"Amaleks"—that nation of people whose total destruction – down to the last baby—was commanded by God according to the Old Testament. We all know what that judgment should be.

A moral decision is not really in doubt.

So, should the WCJ not act— using the legal technicality that Israel cites to escape judicial responsibility —that would be the end of not only of the WCJ but of the ICC, perhaps of the United Nations. to which the WCJ belongs as well.

It would be proof some other, newer and more effective organizations are necessary to preserve the safety and security of the majority of the world's peoples.

And it would result in escalation in other areas.

That's where Iranian weaponry and the Houthis come in.

Rules-based order versus law

Technicalities or not, the moral basis of international law on genocide is clear …

All states have a duty under international law to act to stop genocide. Yemen did so by blocking shipping to the offending regime. The US is now bombing them for daring to interfere with the US-supported genocide in Gaza. There is your “rules-based order.”

Craig Mokhiber

If the World Court will not act then Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Iran will.

The US has already up the ante with attacks on Yemen even though it is doubtful whether its attacks on Yemen are even legal under US law.

Imagine if before D-Day, the allies had announced where they were going to attack exactly and when and how? The Houthis, of course, knew well in advance that these attacks were coming.

The damage to Ansar Allah’s assets was minimal. They immediately launched a counterattack .

They fired a missile targeting a US warship, which was predictably shot down by a US fighter—a message – for if they had really wanted to sink the warship they could have, firing a volley of missiles instead of just one.

After that, on January 15, they targeted an American cargo ship—the Gibraltar Eagle which they did hit — but did not sink —with a missile. That ship may or may not or have been taking cargo to Israel but again the message was clear. Regardless of their destination, American and British ships in the Red Sea are not safe.

The Americans predictably responded with more strikes on Yemen.

So, on January 16, the Houthis struck and hit the Zografia on its way to Israel.

The Houthis are well prepared thanks to Iran. Ansar Allah has been hardened by years of war with the Saudis who were able to buy the best kit the West could supply. Yemeni resources are mobile, often hidden in caves and tunnels so Western airstrikes have done little but to convince people in Yemen that the war on Gaza is a war on them too. Sectarian differences between Shia and Sunni are forgotten.

2022

2023

Once a ragtag bunch of rebels, Houthis now have regional reach.

However, since their missiles have a long way to go to reach Israel, economic war is the better option. And US and UK airstrikes do as much as Houthis missile attacks to scare off shipping companies, who would just as soon take the longer route around the Cape and add on bit of extra margin for the trouble. Fight with less against the more powerful enemy you have to learn to fight smart.

In addition, the American and British ships will soon and run out of missiles, which cost an average $2 million each, to counter mostly bargain-basement drones. Ships cannot restock at sea and must return to base for their—taking aircraft carriers with them since their primary function is to protect the carriers.

Money, money, money— it's all about money although it is you who ends up paying.

Shipping costs rose sharply after the Americans and British launched airstrikes on Yemen – they are up as much as 310% and insurance, 10 to 15%.

What is surprising is that the Houthis have been so restrained in their attacks. Like Hezbollah and Hamas, they benefit from the training, organizational coordination and strategic advice of the IRGC. The ghost of Qasem Soleimani speaks — and they listen.

Should Iran supply them with their longer-range ballistic missiles such as the ones used to target Syria or the new long-range Fattah (1 &2) hypersonic vehicles, then the Yemenis would be a real threat to Israel— and US bases as well.

We confirm to the whole world that as it continues, the American-British aggression will contribute more and more to developing our military capabilities even further. Abdul-Malik al-Houthi (NYT)

What does “developing our military capabilities mean? It means Iran.

Two can play the proxy game.

Do you believe in yesterday?

Right now, the Houthis and the Axis of Resistance in general are just maintaining the pressure. They leave it to the West to escalate— which it does. Kill, kill, kill…. Mindlessly.

“Are the airstrikes in Yemen working?” a reporter asked.

“Well, when you say working, do you mean stopping the Houthis, no,” the president answered. “Are they gonna continue? Yes.” The Daily Caller.

The US launched more airstrikes—despite knowing that they are ineffective. The Houthis responded on January 18 by strikes on two American-owned ships— the Genco Picardy and Chem Ranger. They are aiming at the pocketbook not the heart .

With an enemy like this it is better to play the Long Game just like Russia in Ukraine. The longer it takes, the better it is for them.

Justice is not blind, deaf, and dumb

Justice has both eyes open. The Law however is another matter. The Law is a whore.

Like everyone else, the Axis of Resistance is waiting to see what the WCJ does in the next few days —and how the US and its allies in Israel respond. I doubt they are optimistic. Up until now, the United Nations has been of no help at all.

Still, by ignoring world opinion—the Americans and the Israelis —will be losing whatever “soft power”, they had last year. They are increasingly seen as international criminals.

And who wants to do business with the Mafia?

Only those who don't have a choice— or are criminals themselves.

But with BRICS and multipolarity the world is being offered choices they didn't have before. And suddenly crime does not pay.

As I wrote recently, the world is listening to a new Liberty Bell and ringing out the old. Sabbatical began as

There is a New World and an Old World— the U.S. and its empire is so yesterday.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

Now it looks as though they're here to stay

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be

There's a shadow hanging over me (Yesterday. The Beatles)

Personal Note

This article began as something quite different better than just something quite different. As an analyst, I know better than to just react to international events since different sources provide different perspectives. What exactly happened? You can never be quite sure. But even if you are sure, you have to figure out what that event means, as part of a larger picture, a matrix, if you like.

Maybe I got this one right— maybe not. But I tried.

If you liked the article and you approve of my methods, please support me by buying me a coffee. Right now, the coffees go to buy medicine for my oldest cat, Jet, who is going on 19 this year and has not been well recently. He will be pass — as we all do— but I want him to go peacefully in his own way, in his own time, warm and loved. That is the best any of us could hope for.

Click here— or on the picture.

I reply with a personal note to everyone buying me a coffee and an update of recent articles – although the update may take a day or two right now.