Death of Hassan Nasrallah and Israel winning against terror

Very good, very important and very impressive news. 

Israel has more-or-less ended the entire leadership of a terrorist group, in less than a month.

Israel has maimed and killed many (if not most) Hezbollah fighters, destroyed their communications, destroyed infrastructure, and now their leadership.

Nasrallah has already been replaced. And that new guy, who was to replace him (“Nabil Kaouk”), has already been killed too. 

Iran has to be licking its wounds. Its proxy armies have been utterly decimated. And now, they’re trying to save face from the ridicule of the Arab world. The Ayatollah seems to be in genuine fear of his personal safety.

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The underestimation of Israel

Israel’s enemies now understand how much more powerful Israel is, than they ever thought.

It’s the same mistake every Arab leader since 1948 has made: just don’t understand Israel at all.

And, once again, reeling in shock at their reversal of fortune.

Last October, Nasrallah must have believed that he could attack Israel in solidarity with Hamas on the basis that Israel would be too preoccupied with Hamas. He assumed Israel would be unwilling to “escalate” (i.e. seriously retaliate). He assumed that Iran would actively protect Hezbollah. And finally, he assumed that Israel would be too risk-averse and fearful to “risk” war with Hezbollah (based on the last engagement of the IDF in Lebanon in which they suffered higher than expected losses).

And, yet, Israel has learned the lesson from their former conflict in the Lebanon and adjusted their strategy and methods to avoid repeating such mistakes. Her enemies don’t.

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Israel probably has to continue striking Hezbollah

There are probably 2 reasons for Israel’s continuation of the strikes in Lebanon:

1. There are still over 100,000 Hezbollah rockets, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles etc… and you can’t leave Hezbollah with these rockets aimed at Israel. Most of them are located in Southern Lebanon, but some are also hidden in North Lebanon, close to the Syrian border. With Hezbollah having been significantly weakened, there’s a power vacuum taking place in Lebanon, which raises concerns for domestic unrest.
2. Rather, it is the propaganda and ideology that create terrorists (alongside international proxies). Bombs don’t create terrorists. The Allies bombed the Germany, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam and yet there aren’t major terrorist groups there. 

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Great article in the DT: Telegraph View - Israel is winning its war on terror

First Hamas, now Hezbollah: in a matter of months, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has decapitated the two most powerful terrorist organisations in the world.

Rather than rejoice, however, the West has offered at best lukewarm support, at worst ostracism and obstruction.

Yet Israel’s ingenious military response shows that it has lost none of its capacity to astonish the world, just as it did in 1948, in 1967 and ever since.

Once again, and with remarkable panache, Israel has transformed defeat into victory. On Friday, it scored perhaps its most stunning victory so far. Hezbollah has confirmed that its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, perished in the rubble of his headquarters in Beirut. After three decades, he has finally paid the price for his crimes and for bringing ruin on his own country of Lebanon.

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Just as IDF’s precision strikes have taken out Hezbollah’s command and control centres, so Mossad transformed their pagers into miniature bombs. This brilliantly planned and executed operation neatly turned the tables on the terrorists, some 1,500 of whom are reportedly out of action.

Even if Hezbollah’s boasted strength of 100,000 men and 150,000 missiles is correct, its offensive capabilities have suffered a severe, perhaps irreparable blow. After dismantling Hamas’s forces in Gaza, Israel has now neutralised the two most immediate threats to its civilian population. Iran, which is responsible for unleashing the present conflict, has suffered a strategic defeat. And Israel-haters everywhere have been reminded that those who attack the Jewish people will not escape unscathed.

Yet we should not forget how grim, even desperate, Israel’s predicament appeared after the genocidal onslaught of October 7 last year. That day 6,000 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel, armed to the teeth. They killed almost 1,200 people in cold blood; most were civilians, including 36 children. Many were raped or tortured; 3,400 were wounded. Hamas took some 251 hostages: eight have been rescued by the IDF and 109 were released in exchange deals. The rest are still in captivity, or dead.

October 7 was Israel’s darkest day. Its military had become complacent and its failure to protect civilians came as a shock. They had come close to defeat in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 by falling for the myth of their own invincibility. Fifty years later, the IDF’s hubris was again followed by nemesis. Israel’s enemies could not wait to exploit its apparent vulnerability. Hezbollah began firing rockets across the border almost immediately, forcing the evacuation of more than 60,000 civilians from northern Israeli cities such as Kiryat Shmona.

In Yemen, the Houthis began a campaign of piracy against Red Sea shipping which continues to this day. Last April, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched a barrage of drones and missiles in its first direct assault on Israel.

None of this, nor even the horrors of October 7, intimidated the Israelis. They fought back to reduce the vast underground fortress that Gaza had become under Hamas rule, constructed largely with money diverted from aid.

Despite the difficulty of fighting a ruthless foe that shielded itself in hospitals, schools and apartment blocks, the IDF kept the ratio of civilian to military casualties in Gaza lower than in any comparable conflict.

Despite that, the global consensus turned against Israel. Even its allies in the United States and Europe have blown hot and cold, constantly blaming Israel for the humanitarian crisis that the terror regime in Gaza had brought upon its own people. Lately, the Labour government has gone further, accusing Israel of blocking food supplies to Gaza.

The Prime Minister has told the House of Commons that he is bound by law to prohibit certain arms exports to Israel. Both these claims are demonstrably false.

Israel has ignored this hostile consensus and carried on exercising its right to self-defence. It has routed two terror organisations which between them had more men under arms and bigger arsenals than many sovereign states.

Whether judged by military prowess or humanitarian scruples, the IDF is the most formidable fighting force on earth. Rather than preaching to the Israelis, we in the West should admire their daring, emulate their creativity and learn from their example. Like any nation state, Israel is not perfect, but it has survived and flourished in a dangerous region by its own efforts.

The ordeal of the past year has tested Israelis to the limit, but they have emerged all the stronger for it.

Dame Maggie Smith (1934–2024)

Such sad news today. 

Dame Maggie Smith dies aged 89.

She had a very long and productive life. 

Although I have never watched any “Downton Abbey” (of which she is esteemed) — I remember her as Granny Wendy in “Hook”, “Sister Act”, and the imperishable & quintessential Professor McGonagall from the Harry Potter films.

My earliest childhood memory of her is as the house mistress, Mrs. Medlock, in “The Secret Garden”. That film enchanted me most of my childhood, and I rewatched it a few years ago only to be shocked (1) that it was Maggie Smith and (2) how young she looked.

I came across this photo on the BBC:

“Queen Elizabeth II was presented to Maggie Smith by Sir Laurence Olivier at the 1966 London charity premiere of the film Othello.”

What a treasure!

Israel’s right to defend itself

The Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has recently spoken on TV:

Nasrallah, speaking for the first time since twin pager-and-radio attacks killed dozens across Lebanon, said Israel had crossed all ‘red lines’.
The attacks could be seen as “a declaration of war,” he added.

Hezbollah attack Israel – and then cry victim when Israel hits back in response.

They have been attacking Israel for years. The firing of the over 7,000 rockets into northern Israel since the Hamas massacre of Oct-7 was the latest phase which began on Oct 8 – well before Israel responded militarily in Gaza. 

And yet, somehow, the Jewish state’s right to defend itself is being gainsayed as amounting to a “declaration of war”.

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I think we have normalised the firing of rockets into Israel because of its amazing (but not imperfect) air defense system. Yet 2 points should be made:

1. Hezbollah have been firing rockets killing civilians indiscriminately. Israel detonated explosives via an ingenious method targeting Hezbollah fighters and personnel discriminately. Military communication devices are a valid military objective. The pagers were distributed by Hezbollah to Hezbollah operatives (and, therefore, non-civilians). Hezbollah is an active participant in the international conflict, and so discrimination can be proven overwhelmingly. The harm to the civilian population cannot and did not outweigh the military advantage conferred.
2. Hezbollah isn’t some silly nuisance. They do serious harm to Israel. Imagine living in the country, and wondering if today is the day there is a malfunction and a rocket slips through, killing you or your loved ones. It makes day-to-day life intolerable. Hezbollah is a serious material threat to the territorial integrity of Israel and the security of its citizens. Tens of thousands of Israeli citizens and others (like the Golani Druze) live and thrive under its protection. 

To question Israel’s attacks on Hezbollah – let alone characterise it as terror (as Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister Petra De Sutter did) – discloses either a deep-rooted nasty antisemitism or a brain-addled stupidity so profound as to be literally unfathomable.

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Israel must maintain military action against Hezbollah – despite the significant risks.

Citizens must be able to return safely to their homes and businesses in Israel’s northern communities.

Hezbollah second-in-command, Ibrahim Aqil, was killed in an Israeli air strike in Beirut. 

Paul Gauguin’s legacy and his Tahitian painting

I recently visited the Courtauld Gallery at the Strand in London. 

I revisited Paul Gauguin’s famously mysterious and captivating “Nevermore”; and got to see “Te Rerioa” (The Dream) for the first time. 

The more I delve into art history, the more incredible and groundbreaking Gauguin is. I must admit that I have a soft-spot for him; and it is hard to know where one should stand concerning his behaviour in the Polynesian chapter of his life.

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With that said, Nikhil Krishnan has written in the Daily Telegraph recently (“Racist sexual predator? That isn’t Paul Gauguin’s full story”) reviewing Sue Prideaux’s biography of Paul Gaugin.

She argues that we ought to reassess his standing and tarnished reputation a bit more fairly — especially against the present zeitgeist of identity politics and cancel culture. I will write more about this particular point soon; but here’s a classic example from the wonderful BBC.

Nikhil Krishnan’s main points:

1. Gauguin did not bring syphilis to Polynesia. Analysis of his teeth evinced no traces of cadmium, mercury or arsenic which was used to treat the disease. The introduction of syphilis to Tahiti and the other Pacific Islands can be traced to the late 18th century with European explorers.
2. It is unfair to criticise Gauguin as being a mere “colonialist” who abused Tahitian women and disdained the locals. She argued and proves that Gauguin devoted himself to fighting for the rights of Tahitians under the stuffy French colonial rule he despised. Writing:

Certainly Gauguin’s presence in Tahiti wouldn’t have been possible had he not been French; nor was he exactly a saint. His “marriages” to girls in their early teens were regarded with alarm even in an age with different attitudes to the age of sexual consent. But he was no ideologue: he used every opportunity to decry, eloquently and publicly, French policies in Tahiti. He was a stout defender of the indigenous culture of Polynesia against the attempts of missionaries, both Protestant and Catholic, to destroy every last trace of it. Prideaux finds evidence of Gauguin’s attitudes in a long-lost manuscript of a long, illuminating essay, Avant et après (“part memoir, part last testament”) that has only recently been made available to researchers.

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Nevermore by Gauguin

Very captivating.

This is probably Gauguin’s 15-year-old “companion” while living in Tahiti which makes it a difficult subject. If I’m not mistaken, the culture at the time on Tahiti permitted this kind of “relationship”. I am entirely sure about this as a matter of historical fact, but it raises a question of whether it matters?

There is a feeling of unease and pathos. While not at rest, it seems her hand might be asking tears, or just her posture. She’s anxiously observing two figures in the background.

The face bears emotion through the shades of colour.

And a hint of a tear?

This is really beautiful and the Tahiti southern Pacific themes are obvious in the flowers embellishing the walls.

Why “Nevermore”?

The painting’s title associates the bird on the ledge with Edgar Allan Poe’s poem ‘The Raven’. In it, a poet, driven mad by the death of his lover, hears a raven endlessly repeating ‘nevermore’. This sense of loss may allude to Gauguin’s disillusionment at the destruction of Tahitian culture by French administrators and Church missionaries.

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Te Rerioa (The Dream) by Gauguin

Painted only weeks after Nevermore.

It's quite striking. Here are 2 silent, rather distant, women. They are watching over a sleeping baby. Ancient Egyptian style cat (lack of 3D effect).

I like the position and posture of the seated lady with her chin in her hands. 

The room is ornately decorated with elaborate wood reliefs.

Responding to Hezbollah’s war with Israel

In today’s WSJ, Israel is being (1) “warned” by the US against “escalating the fight with Hezbollah in Lebanon”; and (2) pushed to revive Biden’s so-called “ceasefire” agreement in Gaza.

In my opinion:

1. Gallant is entirely correct to say that military action would need to be deployed against Hezbollah to counter the rockets and drones which continue to pound northern Israel. 
2. The Biden “ceasefire” does illustrate the chasm between Israeli security concerns and the American “approach”. The Biden administration believes that Hamas can be ultimately “negotiated” with as a rational party. And yet, Israeli security requires its defeat & bringing those who planned and committed Oct-7 to justice. How can there be a “diplomatic solution” with an organisation that want Israel’s destruction?
3. Sinwar has publicly stated that Hamas is prepared for a “long battle of attrition” against Israel — and indeed a war of attrition against ordinary Palestinians who are not Hamas. Although Sinwar’s days are now numbered, I think he may have a point. Hamas’s last few supply line through the Philadelphi Corridor and Rafah Crossing are finally gone. Not even the thefts by Hamas from the Gaza aid trucks (or Gazans) can prevent its food, water, and weapons from dwindling. Israel is also continually reducing Sinwar’s available hiding places as they find and destroy tunnels. Time is clearly against him. Israel needs to see their Gaza operations through to their end. But, it cannot ignore the Hezbollah offensive, which is tied to Hamas, and the belief that through violence Israel will stop “taking their land”, end its “occupation”, ... or the usual tropes. Violence against Israel should be costly. Israel cannot let them enjoy the fruits of their crimes.
4. Nobody talks of the 120K civilians exiled from their homes — in Israel & Lebanon — because Hezbollah has opened a front against Israel ... to kill Jews.

I agree with Gallant against a major military operation in Lebanon on the basis the Iranian-militias’ activities. For now, Israel should undertake security operations against Hezbollah operatives and their assets in Lebanon. But, it would need to be careful not to attack Lebanon directly.

Lebanon has been in this lose–lose situation for decades at this point. Tiny country, mixed religious populations, mired between Israel and Syria, increasingly corrupt government. 

It’s sad because it’s a beautiful place taken over by a foreign backed group seeking to destabilise it in order to provoke a war.

Update:

It seems Mossad may have effectively castrated over 1000 terrorists today!!

I wonder how much tracking & eavesdropping was done by Mossad on these pagers before they decided to blow them all.

Unfortunately, Nasrallah wasn’t taken out.

The case of Dominique Pélicot - repeatedly sedating his wife and inviting men to rape her while unconscious

This case is pure horror.

Gisèle Pélicot is a 72 year-old French lady. She was repeatedly assaulted while unconscious by 80 men at her husband’s behest. France is still trying to identify 30 of this grandmother’s rapists.

This lady is beyond heroic. And, it sounds like her children are strong also. Her daughter is also a victim (but to a much lesser extent). 

And, today’s headline ... he admits “I am a rapist” in the French mass rape trial.

This guy is a total unhinged psychopath. 

What gets me is how some of the men apparently didn’t think it was rape ... because they had the husband’s permission. What is this? The Dark Ages?

The BBC’s anti-Israel bias

Readers of this blog will have heard me criticise the BBC’s v. obvious anti-Israel bias in its reportage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Living in the UK, I see it all the time. They won’t call them “terrorists” ... they’re quick to jump on Israel but have to then backtrack their “inaccuracies” (by which time, damage was done).

And the most common approach is to focus on what Israel does but scarcely address what Israel is responding to.

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Camilla Turner, in “BBC ‘breached guidelines 1,500 times’ over Israel-Hamas war” (The Daily Telegraph):

The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the height of the Israel-Hamas war, a damning report has found.

The report revealed a “deeply worrying pattern of bias” against Israel, according to its authors who analysed four months of the BBC’s output across television, radio, online news, podcasts and social media.

The research, led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, also found that Israel was associated with genocide more than 14 times more than Hamas in the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.

The Asserson report analysed the BBC’s coverage during a four-month period beginning Oct 7, 2023 – the day Hamas carried out a brutal massacre in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 251 into Gaza as hostages.

Researchers identified a total of 1,553 breaches of the BBC’s editorial guidelines, which included impartiality, accuracy, editorial values and public interest.

“The findings reveal a deeply worrying pattern of bias and multiple breaches by the BBC of its own editorial guidelines on impartiality, fairness and establishing the truth,” the report said.

It also found that the BBC repeatedly downplayed Hamas terrorism while presenting Israel as a militaristic and aggressive nation.

It claimed that some journalists used by the BBC in its coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict have previously shown sympathy for Hamas and even celebrated its acts of terror.

Jeremy Bowen, the BBC’s international editor, is accused of excusing Hamas’s terrorist activities and comparing Israel to Putin’s Russia, while Lyse Doucet, the BBC’s chief international correspondent, is also cited for allegedly “downplaying” the October 7 attacks on Israel.

The report singles out the BBC’s Arabic channel, saying that it is one of the most biased of all global media outlets in its treatment of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

I do not pay the TV license fee.

Masaccio - The Virgin and Child

In art history, Masaccio is important.

He is regarded as the greatest of the early-Renaissance Florentines.

Real name: “Tommaso Giovanni di Simone” ... AKA: “Masaccio” = “big ugly Tom”.

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The Virgin and Child (1426) by Masaccio

In this egg tempera on wood, the Virgin and Child are seated on a stone throne with classical columns.

Masaccio’s Virgin and Child is an affecting picture which seeks to stir both the basic &  profound in human emotions. 

This is especially clear if, for example, you compare it to Giotto’s Maestà of an earlier Florentine generation. Masaccio revolutionised the art of painting during his lifetime & formed a bridge between Giotto and Michelangelo.

Giotto - Maestà

Not only did Masaccio paint a very believable, rather sweet, humanist and dignified Christ — but he imbued the painting with feeling and emotion ... and, as with the Renaissance, it is clear that the human is the central measure of all things.

Angels playing lutes, and Christ eating grapes.

And yet, the Christ is still god-like with the grapes referring to the blood of Christ.

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Two panels from the Santa Maria Maggiore Altarpiece (1428-9) by Masaccio & Masolino

Masaccio painted the right-hand panel. It shows St John the Baptist and St Jerome. Jerome in his red cardinal robes.

Masolino painted the left-hand side with Pope St Gregory and St Matthias.

The earliest known original colour film of London in 1924 - hundred years ago

I came across a Daily Mail article about this video which says it was “made by Claude Friese-Greene, a cinema technician and son of moving-image pioneer William.”

It’s a funny thing to see so many people smiling and waving at us ... a hundred years ago.

Trafalgar Sq and the National Gallery behind it.

There is a McDonalds today where that oncoming omnibus is positioned.

I noticed people showing their respects with flowers at the Cenotaph.

Very touching. The Great war ended - at that point - only 6 years ago.

It was “unveiled on Armistice Day, 11 November 1920. 

The memorial became a central point for all those whose family and friends had died during the First World War with no known grave.”