A retired intelligence official disentangles Netanyahu’s post-October 7 military strategy, shows how it’s the norm rather than the exception for Israel, and explains why it’s doomed to fail.
I’m a retired State Department foreign service officer. Just about every current and retired State Dept officer who is career and not a political appointee would agree with the former CIA officer. It’s only the idiotic political leadership people (president and vice president, Members of Congress and everyone else in a political position, like Secretary of State, etc.) who support Israel’s genocide because of AIPAC’s money for the never-ending campaigns and re-election.
All or certainly the majority of the career staffs at state, defense, the various intelligence agencies would concur with the person you interviewed. And probably OMB and Treasury because we are buying all of the bombs and poisonous stuff they are spraying all over the land. Oh yes and the EPA staff because of the ECOCIDE of Gaza and Lebanon. But the mainstream media is also controlled by AIPAC and most Americans don’t read or know geography so families, children and babies in Gaza are murdered every single day for months and months.
Wake up America. Read a history book for Pete’s sake or look at a map.
If by any chance any of the current or former State Department officials are interested in talking on or off the record, including you, let me know. Thanks!
Haha. Thanks for the compliment. We career state people don’t talk to the press. That’s for political ambassadors.
I will tell you one fun thing. I love Al Jazeera and watch it every day. Arabic and English. And I served in the U.S. embassy in Doha from 1999-2002 when Al Jazeera was getting started. The Emir of Qatar at that time (Sheikh Hamad, the current Emir Sh Tammim’s father) had a vision for Al Jazeera and in my view the Qatari’s have achieved their vision, which is to cover international news all over the world with local, knowledgeable reporters on the ground. And first rate anchors back in the station in Doha. Every day, 24 hours a day Al Jazeera makes cnn, bbc, and all American network news including PBS look like: BS. The world would not know. Not know. Not know. Not know. What is going on in Gaza or Lebanon or Iran if it was not for Al Jazeera. It deserves a Nobel peace prize for journalism. Or whatever would be the appropriate award. And Hind, Hani Mahmoud, Tariq, Bisan, and all of the rest deserve medals and long vacations and psychotherapy.
Including the former Gaza bureau chief whose entire family was murdered by the IDF and he was gravely wounded, but I’m not sure that even made it in the NYT.
The U.S. media propaganda is so very entrenched. It reminds me of GWB (9/11), "You are either w/us or you are with the terrorists."
The sentiment that all killing is justified because of Oct 7 being the only position to embrace...Or that any compassion for the children, women & families of Gaza, is somehow obscenely twisted into antisemitism, ignoring that this, too, is a holocaust.
I can't believe how many talk show hosts & MSM reporters speak ill of students protesting, typically adding that they are Jew haters without so much as an interview of them, their professors, or any attempt to hear that these students, including the Jewish students, are protesting the WAR & the killing of innocents, pleading for peace.
Thank you for weighing on & for this article. And for endorsing Al Jazeera, a news source seemingly seeking facts & truth.
I never thought I would see quite such full-blown fascism in my lifetime. It's been surreal and infuriating and grievous to watch.
There's such a simple, permanent solution to the Israel problem - Israel ceases to exist. Every Israeli who has or qualifies for a dual passport leaves for those shores. The rest stay, as equal citizens of Palestine. Like Good Germans, they spend the rest of their lives in quiet penitence - and pay enormous reparations to rebuild Palestinian infrastructure.
The only reason it's "complicated" is because Israeli society is insane. And dealing with violently insane people, as any mental health nurse will tell you, is complicated.
Oh and that the US won't fuck off and leave the Middle East in peace, that's the other complication. There's an easy fix there too.
Thanks. I'm a cynical person, hard not to be, but still I never thought I'd see this either. My solution, which will never happen but it should, is a multinational invasion to remove the government, arrest the key leaders and collaborators, try them at Nuremberg, execute some of them, eg Netanyahu & Gallant, and sort it out afterwards.
Jesus Christ - an invasion of a sovereign state, displacement of millions, executions, and the dissolution of the state - these are not normal things to say.
I feel trapped between crazy people. The far-right Israeli government is committing unspeakable crimes - crimes that must be answered for - but the far-left’s answers are just as unconscionable crimes. What kind of hell world is this?
I’m sorry, invasion of a state is the most awful and unusual possibility? And only a crazy left winger could imagine that? There’s been a lot of invasions over the last 20 years. Are you finding it strange because it’s a western state we are talking about?
Genocide is something I would like to see less normal. What do you think is the best way to deal with this?
I agree with you, but it will also be absolutely necessary to prosecute every individual in Israel, the US, UK, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, and other countries who participated in this genocide, either directly or indirectly. Without an exhaustive international war crimes tribunal process, there can be no justice and hence no long-term peace.
In the meantime, there need to be laws created in the U.S. re citizens approving $. That BILLIONS have been sent to Israel for YEARS or anywhere for that matter, should be an ongoing decision for the American taxpayers.
Ken, thanks for your bravery in continuing to tell the truth while 99% of the media adheres to the AIPAC narrative. I’m sure it comes with an enormous cost personally…gratitude for being willing to pay it.
Thanks, David, I sincerely appreciate it & also appreciate you subscribing, as I just saw. Tbh, I think the amount of bravery that's required to speak out at a moment like this -- as a journalist and as a human being -- is highly overrated, so if I look good it's only by comparison. We haven't hit fascism here, for now anyway, so what's the cost? I lose a few Twitter followers and Substack subs, as usually happens when I write critically about Israel, or lose a freelance opportunity? I get on AIPAC and the Israeli government's enemies list? That's a badge of honor, if I haven't made their lists I must be doing something wrong.
Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University, and he covered the early Dahiya doctrine development as the deliberate application of “disproportionate force” published by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. The article was posted by the Guardian Tuesday, December 05, 2023. The Guardian has up to date material lately under the October 2024 heading of the "Israel-Gaza war." There is a kind of mass historical psychosis being perpetrated here, and the rest of us are in a kind of shock under a globally politicized schizophrenia. Thank you for your truth to power.
I've been thinking that too. There's some form of collective psychosis, for sure. And the info ops components are designed to invert our common humanity. We are dealing with some 1984 type shit on steroids.
Well, now they’ve just gone and said it out loud: Trump’s version of DisneyWorld, or the Riviera, will be built on the land formerly known as “Gaza”, and 2 million Gazans can go to Madagascar, or somewhere.
Ken, please do a quick post inviting people to come up with appropriate names for this new joint Netanyahu-Trump Properties development:
My ‘favourite’ parts so far have probably been the IDF gassing one of their own in a tunnel, letting a ‘friendly’ reporter demolish a house (in Lebanon if not mistaken), the shooting of hostages holding white flags, and maybe the alleged sales or preorders of land that definitely isn’t theirs.
One question please, I am asking in the best of intentions,
What does it mean "in full support of the west"?
Not sure how the west "supports" Israel... what is the meaning of the word "support" here? they (west) literally do anything in the book and more, much much more! it almost looks as if life of the west is dependent on "Israel"... so the word 'support' seem a little weak to the length the west had gone here (and not only with regards to this genocide). This is not some semantics or trying my luck at trolling. I obviously know very well of AIPAC activity and all this... I don't blame anyone for thinking this. I myself (kind of) thinking just like it!! But the way the west is adopting Israel is SO deep I'm just cognisant there may be another option here. The picture this portrays is that Israel (or some mega-rich Jews on its behalf) have this MASSIVE store of cash which they go around the world bribing everyone in order to do some crazy Zionist crimes which the West actually HATES but because of the bribing they keep schtum for decades... do you see that there is something here that is not quite right...? Or is it just me? Have I missed something?
I just saw this and I don’t really have time in the moment because I’m jammed so maybe I’m missing something, but it Doesn’t say “in full support of the west,” it says with the full support of the west, which is quite different anyway my hands are literally tied at the moment, so that’s the best I can do, but I’m not understanding what you’re asking other than what appears to have been your misreading of the headline, in which case, let me know.
The facts are the facts. (a) Israel is involved in crimes for decades. Nothing much to add. It is what it is. (b) The west however (all along!) systematically, continuously, methodically, creatively, facilitates and removes any obstacle for bringing this pattern to an end. This 'dynamics' looks a bit more than "support", maybe even more than "complicit". In simple terms it could be the west is not "supporting Israel" but supporting itself (and in this case “Israel” functions as distraction/confusion of the public) Yes, this relates to the version presented by this official. Or also, Israel acts on behalf of -and- for the west! (Israelis do it almost for free as they are "worried" about safety etc)
They have kompromat on many if not all Western leaders (cf. Epstein/Wexner/Maxwell ops). What's worse -- and I can't confirm that this is true, but it has been conveyed to me by several intel people -- is that they may have placed suitcase nukes in all major Western cities ("Samson Option").
"Then came October 7, which Netanyahu’s government and the military immediately saw as a golden opportunity, and probably a unique one that would never come around again, to speed the process up by taking out a sledgehammer and using it hard and fast."
I suspect that the entire October 7, 2023 event was a false flag. We know that Netanyahu supported Hamas in Gaza as a controlling faction, don't we? There has never been a fresh election since 2006 ensuring that Hamas remained in power there. How hard would it have been to put green silky bandanas on some IDF, and send them into that festival to murder and kidnap, citing the Hannibal Directive if anyone happened to notice that the perpetrators were Israeli?
I don't think Netanyahu saw a golden opportunity to use a sledgehammer in retaliation..... I think he and his brainwashed military WERE the sledgehammer from the very start.
Good. Only, the thesis of a "happy accident" for Netanyahu on 7.10.23 is a little confusing. It should not be assumed that Israel, which always plans all its attacks, suddenly "relaxed" and surrendered to "the will of chance." Such an assumption already directs us to the "direct path" of explaining what happened. Maybe we should model the situation in an alternative version or assume - what could Israel achieve using "chance"; for how long did it expect; what responses from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other resistance participants; world "public opinion"?! You know, I see the actions of Israel as a zombie addict who does not see or hear anyone or anything around! Even suicidal !And, his intentions , discussed and condemned now, may be more sinister and beyond the reach of a healthy mind .We need to dig from the very beginning ...
I’m a retired State Department foreign service officer. Just about every current and retired State Dept officer who is career and not a political appointee would agree with the former CIA officer. It’s only the idiotic political leadership people (president and vice president, Members of Congress and everyone else in a political position, like Secretary of State, etc.) who support Israel’s genocide because of AIPAC’s money for the never-ending campaigns and re-election.
All or certainly the majority of the career staffs at state, defense, the various intelligence agencies would concur with the person you interviewed. And probably OMB and Treasury because we are buying all of the bombs and poisonous stuff they are spraying all over the land. Oh yes and the EPA staff because of the ECOCIDE of Gaza and Lebanon. But the mainstream media is also controlled by AIPAC and most Americans don’t read or know geography so families, children and babies in Gaza are murdered every single day for months and months.
Wake up America. Read a history book for Pete’s sake or look at a map.
If by any chance any of the current or former State Department officials are interested in talking on or off the record, including you, let me know. Thanks!
Haha. Thanks for the compliment. We career state people don’t talk to the press. That’s for political ambassadors.
I will tell you one fun thing. I love Al Jazeera and watch it every day. Arabic and English. And I served in the U.S. embassy in Doha from 1999-2002 when Al Jazeera was getting started. The Emir of Qatar at that time (Sheikh Hamad, the current Emir Sh Tammim’s father) had a vision for Al Jazeera and in my view the Qatari’s have achieved their vision, which is to cover international news all over the world with local, knowledgeable reporters on the ground. And first rate anchors back in the station in Doha. Every day, 24 hours a day Al Jazeera makes cnn, bbc, and all American network news including PBS look like: BS. The world would not know. Not know. Not know. Not know. What is going on in Gaza or Lebanon or Iran if it was not for Al Jazeera. It deserves a Nobel peace prize for journalism. Or whatever would be the appropriate award. And Hind, Hani Mahmoud, Tariq, Bisan, and all of the rest deserve medals and long vacations and psychotherapy.
Including the former Gaza bureau chief whose entire family was murdered by the IDF and he was gravely wounded, but I’m not sure that even made it in the NYT.
The U.S. media propaganda is so very entrenched. It reminds me of GWB (9/11), "You are either w/us or you are with the terrorists."
The sentiment that all killing is justified because of Oct 7 being the only position to embrace...Or that any compassion for the children, women & families of Gaza, is somehow obscenely twisted into antisemitism, ignoring that this, too, is a holocaust.
I can't believe how many talk show hosts & MSM reporters speak ill of students protesting, typically adding that they are Jew haters without so much as an interview of them, their professors, or any attempt to hear that these students, including the Jewish students, are protesting the WAR & the killing of innocents, pleading for peace.
Thank you for weighing on & for this article. And for endorsing Al Jazeera, a news source seemingly seeking facts & truth.
This was really comforting to read, Aleta, as mad as this world now is.
Thank you very kindly for this clear-eyed view.
I never thought I would see quite such full-blown fascism in my lifetime. It's been surreal and infuriating and grievous to watch.
There's such a simple, permanent solution to the Israel problem - Israel ceases to exist. Every Israeli who has or qualifies for a dual passport leaves for those shores. The rest stay, as equal citizens of Palestine. Like Good Germans, they spend the rest of their lives in quiet penitence - and pay enormous reparations to rebuild Palestinian infrastructure.
The only reason it's "complicated" is because Israeli society is insane. And dealing with violently insane people, as any mental health nurse will tell you, is complicated.
Oh and that the US won't fuck off and leave the Middle East in peace, that's the other complication. There's an easy fix there too.
Thanks. I'm a cynical person, hard not to be, but still I never thought I'd see this either. My solution, which will never happen but it should, is a multinational invasion to remove the government, arrest the key leaders and collaborators, try them at Nuremberg, execute some of them, eg Netanyahu & Gallant, and sort it out afterwards.
Jesus Christ - an invasion of a sovereign state, displacement of millions, executions, and the dissolution of the state - these are not normal things to say.
I feel trapped between crazy people. The far-right Israeli government is committing unspeakable crimes - crimes that must be answered for - but the far-left’s answers are just as unconscionable crimes. What kind of hell world is this?
I’m sorry, invasion of a state is the most awful and unusual possibility? And only a crazy left winger could imagine that? There’s been a lot of invasions over the last 20 years. Are you finding it strange because it’s a western state we are talking about?
Genocide is something I would like to see less normal. What do you think is the best way to deal with this?
I agree with you, but it will also be absolutely necessary to prosecute every individual in Israel, the US, UK, Germany, France, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, Greece, and other countries who participated in this genocide, either directly or indirectly. Without an exhaustive international war crimes tribunal process, there can be no justice and hence no long-term peace.
In the meantime, there need to be laws created in the U.S. re citizens approving $. That BILLIONS have been sent to Israel for YEARS or anywhere for that matter, should be an ongoing decision for the American taxpayers.
Brilliant
Damn, Ken. This is a helluva story. Thank you.
My pleasure.
Wow. It’s so heartbreaking. Not the least because there’s no fixing this.
Feel exactly the same way.
Ken, thanks for your bravery in continuing to tell the truth while 99% of the media adheres to the AIPAC narrative. I’m sure it comes with an enormous cost personally…gratitude for being willing to pay it.
Thanks, David, I sincerely appreciate it & also appreciate you subscribing, as I just saw. Tbh, I think the amount of bravery that's required to speak out at a moment like this -- as a journalist and as a human being -- is highly overrated, so if I look good it's only by comparison. We haven't hit fascism here, for now anyway, so what's the cost? I lose a few Twitter followers and Substack subs, as usually happens when I write critically about Israel, or lose a freelance opportunity? I get on AIPAC and the Israeli government's enemies list? That's a badge of honor, if I haven't made their lists I must be doing something wrong.
The doctrine has been used in Gaza during the four previous wars since 2008, especially the 2014 war.
Thanks, I will add that, think it got lost among the items I collected during the research.
Ken:
Paul Rogers is emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University, and he covered the early Dahiya doctrine development as the deliberate application of “disproportionate force” published by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University. The article was posted by the Guardian Tuesday, December 05, 2023. The Guardian has up to date material lately under the October 2024 heading of the "Israel-Gaza war." There is a kind of mass historical psychosis being perpetrated here, and the rest of us are in a kind of shock under a globally politicized schizophrenia. Thank you for your truth to power.
Will fix now, tried yesterday & couldn't find the article I had seen it in -- this is it.
I've been thinking that too. There's some form of collective psychosis, for sure. And the info ops components are designed to invert our common humanity. We are dealing with some 1984 type shit on steroids.
I wrote on the topic in April: https://www.paleoconpub.com/p/bibis-blatantly-bad-battlefield-behavior
Well, now they’ve just gone and said it out loud: Trump’s version of DisneyWorld, or the Riviera, will be built on the land formerly known as “Gaza”, and 2 million Gazans can go to Madagascar, or somewhere.
Ken, please do a quick post inviting people to come up with appropriate names for this new joint Netanyahu-Trump Properties development:
Trumptopia?
Mar-a-Gaza?
The Jarediera?
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-02-05/ty-article/.premium/trump-says-u-s-will-take-over-gaza-after-permanently-displacing-palestinians/00000194-d38c-dd4f-adbe-ffcf6d620001
Thank you for your well- thought-out and well written post.
Thank you, it's nice to hear that, appreciate it,.
Thank you.
My ‘favourite’ parts so far have probably been the IDF gassing one of their own in a tunnel, letting a ‘friendly’ reporter demolish a house (in Lebanon if not mistaken), the shooting of hostages holding white flags, and maybe the alleged sales or preorders of land that definitely isn’t theirs.
As the saying goes, you can’t make this stuff up.
Great reporting! Thanks 😊
Thank you, I appreciate it!
You're welcome😊
One question please, I am asking in the best of intentions,
What does it mean "in full support of the west"?
Not sure how the west "supports" Israel... what is the meaning of the word "support" here? they (west) literally do anything in the book and more, much much more! it almost looks as if life of the west is dependent on "Israel"... so the word 'support' seem a little weak to the length the west had gone here (and not only with regards to this genocide). This is not some semantics or trying my luck at trolling. I obviously know very well of AIPAC activity and all this... I don't blame anyone for thinking this. I myself (kind of) thinking just like it!! But the way the west is adopting Israel is SO deep I'm just cognisant there may be another option here. The picture this portrays is that Israel (or some mega-rich Jews on its behalf) have this MASSIVE store of cash which they go around the world bribing everyone in order to do some crazy Zionist crimes which the West actually HATES but because of the bribing they keep schtum for decades... do you see that there is something here that is not quite right...? Or is it just me? Have I missed something?
I just saw this and I don’t really have time in the moment because I’m jammed so maybe I’m missing something, but it Doesn’t say “in full support of the west,” it says with the full support of the west, which is quite different anyway my hands are literally tied at the moment, so that’s the best I can do, but I’m not understanding what you’re asking other than what appears to have been your misreading of the headline, in which case, let me know.
The facts are the facts. (a) Israel is involved in crimes for decades. Nothing much to add. It is what it is. (b) The west however (all along!) systematically, continuously, methodically, creatively, facilitates and removes any obstacle for bringing this pattern to an end. This 'dynamics' looks a bit more than "support", maybe even more than "complicit". In simple terms it could be the west is not "supporting Israel" but supporting itself (and in this case “Israel” functions as distraction/confusion of the public) Yes, this relates to the version presented by this official. Or also, Israel acts on behalf of -and- for the west! (Israelis do it almost for free as they are "worried" about safety etc)
They have kompromat on many if not all Western leaders (cf. Epstein/Wexner/Maxwell ops). What's worse -- and I can't confirm that this is true, but it has been conveyed to me by several intel people -- is that they may have placed suitcase nukes in all major Western cities ("Samson Option").
"Then came October 7, which Netanyahu’s government and the military immediately saw as a golden opportunity, and probably a unique one that would never come around again, to speed the process up by taking out a sledgehammer and using it hard and fast."
I suspect that the entire October 7, 2023 event was a false flag. We know that Netanyahu supported Hamas in Gaza as a controlling faction, don't we? There has never been a fresh election since 2006 ensuring that Hamas remained in power there. How hard would it have been to put green silky bandanas on some IDF, and send them into that festival to murder and kidnap, citing the Hannibal Directive if anyone happened to notice that the perpetrators were Israeli?
I don't think Netanyahu saw a golden opportunity to use a sledgehammer in retaliation..... I think he and his brainwashed military WERE the sledgehammer from the very start.
Good. Only, the thesis of a "happy accident" for Netanyahu on 7.10.23 is a little confusing. It should not be assumed that Israel, which always plans all its attacks, suddenly "relaxed" and surrendered to "the will of chance." Such an assumption already directs us to the "direct path" of explaining what happened. Maybe we should model the situation in an alternative version or assume - what could Israel achieve using "chance"; for how long did it expect; what responses from Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other resistance participants; world "public opinion"?! You know, I see the actions of Israel as a zombie addict who does not see or hear anyone or anything around! Even suicidal !And, his intentions , discussed and condemned now, may be more sinister and beyond the reach of a healthy mind .We need to dig from the very beginning ...
He old testament today
True