This is Northumberland Calling 18.10.24

The Sometimes it pays to ignore the West's bleating edition

Hello America (Particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland Calling

Yesterday Yahya   Sinwar was eliminated. Israel ignored the West’s bleating and carried on with its objectives and the elimination of this man was a major one. If you happened to read the NY Times obit, you will not understand what a true psychopath this man was. His first and most prolific victims were fellow Palestinians.  He earned the title of the Butcher of Khun Younis in part because he forced one Palestinian to bury his alive brother using a teaspoon while Sinwar watched. He used the keffiyeh,  so beloved of certain radical students to strangle another Palestinian. He used his own people as human shields. He refused to allow them access to the network of tunnels which he had built siphoning off money which was supposed to be used for the betterment of their life. It is momentous happening but who knows where we go from here. Remember the death of Hitler was not the end of WW2 or even the end of the war in Europe. If you require better obits than the NYT, this is the Times: https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/yahya-sinwar-death-obituary-s6fxncw8z or https://archive.ph/LcBbc

And this is the Telegraph’s: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/10/17/yahya-sinwar-hamas-leader-october-7-mastermind-obituary/ or https://archive.ph/oE8MY

This week I have been reading The Siege by Ben McEntyre, although the events he describes happened in 1980, the cause of those events remains pertinent. To recap – a group of Iran-Arabs financed by Iraq and trained by the Palestinian psychopath terrorist Abu Nidal (they do seem to  like their mad leaders) took members of the Islamic Republic embassy staff and others hostage in the London embassy. The SAS eventually freed most of the hostages. Page-turning stuff.

Several things leapt out at me – the IR still has problems with Khuzestan (used to be called Arabistan), an area where the oil wealth is concentrated and the people remain horribly repressed. The Shah had also violently repressed them and they had joined in the revolution only to be even more violently repressed. Part of the way in which the IR deflects attention from this repression and other problems within Iran is to focus on Israel and so-called threat to the Holy Place aka Al Aqsa mosque  or the Dome of the Rock. The great lie from Al-Husseini to get Arabs to rally his cause in the 1920s was that the Jews intended to pulled the mosque down and put up a new temple. No Arab as Eli Lake pointed out in his Honestly podcast is very interested in the ins and out of property rights in Hebron but they do care significantly about the Holy sites. The IR are using this lie to keep the focus away from the huge repression across the entire country and the basic apartheid in Iran with regards to the Iran-Arabs who have been treated as second-class citizens since the time of the Shah.

The names which the IR and its affiliates choose are highly significant to Arabs even if they have no meaning to people in the West (like me). I am now reading a book on the modern history of Iran which my eldest left. (We are currently a parental storage unit for all the children and part of the deal is that I get to read their books.) The region is one of many different tribes and conflicting interests.

 The Sh’ia tradition places a huge emphasis on martyrdom. Both Iranian sides in the Embassy siege embraced the concept. The concept which died out in the West when  the concept of religious freedom was embraced. The hostage who was murdered first chose his martyrdom. He was a true believer in Khomeini’s teachings for example.  However, the hostage takers were also from the same tradition but very much manipulated by Iraq and Abu Nidal. They also embraced martyrdom (even if they were initially duped into believing that they were most likely survive)

The book strengthened my feeling that the West is going to have to deal with IR which is not going to be easy. When the dust has settled, it is going to be up to the people of that region to decide if they wish to live in an empire or have a variety of different states. The Khuzestan question will have to be settled in a way which gives the Iranian Arabs proper status instead of being treated as second-class citizens.  

Here: Badenoch and Jenrick had a debate last night. The big flash point for the Conservative Party is immigration.  Badenoch came across as the more reasonable apparently. Jenrick’s secret weapon appears to be his indefatigable wife. The polling suggest Badenoch will win, but who knows. https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/gb-news-tv-debate-key-moments-highlights-tory-leadership-nl2lfxwzg or https://archive.ph/U3z6a

Dinosaurs do exist in the Conservative Party. One MP appeared to suggest that Badenoch can’t be the leader because she has children. (Newsflash – Jenrick also has young children. Both have spouses)  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/17/kemi-badenoch-too-preoccupied-children-tory-leader-chope/ or https://archive.ph/hiecz

Labour is doing its usual and sending staffers to ‘help out’ with the Democrat campaign. They have done this in the past. The current Home Secretary Yvette Cooper worked on the Clinton campaign. It is no guarantee of anything. It could be seen as a mark of desperation.  However, it should be noted that if Trump wins the White House, the UK government which is Labour run will have to build bridges. Sometimes you should do things differently when you are in government.  The state of the Special Relationship is normally a source of anxiety to the British government. Labour appear to be ignoring this salient fact. There again Lammy is the Foreign Secretary… https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/17/labour-sends-staff-help-democrats-us-election-kamala-harris/ or https://archive.ph/7H6Zp

And it is just not cricket! The ECB decided to ban trans identified males from the professional and semi-professional female leagues, but not at the grassroots level. Where do they think players get their start? The pursuit of inclusion has led to exclusion. What parent wants their 12 year old girl to have a hard leather ball being thrown at them by a middle aged man playing for the other side?  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/10/17/ecb-transgender-decision-elite-grassroots/ or https://archive.ph/SHChy

This is an interesting piece on how the anti-woke billionaires are starting to fund universities and education courses in general , not only in the US (famously the University of Austin) but also in the UK.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/18/why-the-megarich-are-bankrolling-anti-woke-education/ or https://archive.ph/yRqio

My editor has not returned her thoughts yet so I am slowly writing my latest Viking.

I have discovered that you can freeze apples. You don’t need to make applesauce first, but simply freeze them cut up. Such a simple thing and something I never considered before. I am currently working my way through the 2^nd apple tree. The apples were much smaller this year than last…

The bees are basically settled for the winter. I will put a feed of ‘bee candy’ or fondant on mid-November. As the weather grows cold they stop processing sugar water and need the fondant.

Paddy curled up, listening to the rain

Despite the rain on Wednesday Paddy had a good week. He has turned into a really good dog and does return when called. What a difference a year makes.

If you want to find me during the week, I have started putting things on Celia M’s Jottings in Purple  

which is where a number of refuge FP commentators are hanging out as they dislike the current FP policy on comments. The discussion is usually lively as you might expect from former FP commentators. Depending on how firmly my Procrastination Princess tiara is attached (aka how well my actual writing is going), I may end up getting distracted.

Hopefully everyone else’s week was a good one. I look forward to seeing you in the comments.

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