10 Takeaways From Nasrallah's Speech Today

PALESTINIANS SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS FOLLOWING AN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE IN THE JABALIA REFUGEE CAMP NORTH OF GAZA CITY, OCTOBER 31, 2023. (PHOTO: © FADI WAEL ALWHIDI/DPA VIA ZUMA PRESS)

Secretary-General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addressed the world today, Friday afternoon, from an undisclosed location in Lebanon. It seemed to my husband and me quite an important speech, historic and international in scope. 

My takeaways:

1) It sounded and felt like a wartime speech from a credible leader. He characterized what's happened since October 6 as a regional war but one with real potential to become global. He also expressed that world history has been changed significantly by Oct 6 and subsequent events. We are all now divided into those who stand with Palestine and those who don't.

2) Nasrallah said Hezbollah knew nothing in advance of the Al-Aqsa Flood.

3) Nevertheless, they are in complete solidarity with Hamas and have been active on Lebanon's southern border engaging Israeli military and drawing them off from Gaza since Oct 8. Many settlements near that border have already been evacuated of Israelis.

4) For those who ask when will Hezbollah enter the conflict, see #3 above.

5) Other resistance forces in Iraq and Syria have repeatedly shelled U.S. military bases in those countries since the events of Oct 6. This pressure will continue and increase.

6) It is clear to the whole world that Israel's war on Palestinians in Gaza is the U.S.'s war. The U.S. military failed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria -- and it will fail in Palestine.

7) Israel's military is weak and would not be able to pursue the war on Gaza without significant support and funding from the U.S.

8) The resistance remains stronger than ever and will continue the struggle with perseverance, solidarity, and despite any pain the occupier can inflict. He said, the people who kicked you out of Lebanon in the early 80's are still here, and now their children and grandchildren have joined them.

9) We see you, countries that continue to sell oil and gas to Israel. Your consequences will be different from those who stand with Palestine.

10) The U.S. Navy and Air Force are vulnerable, particularly in the Mediterranean, and if they are used to attack, for example, Iran or Lebanon, they will find out how vulnerable.

Disclaimer: I only heard the simultaneous translation to English on Press TV and the translator stumbled a couple of times, so I'll reserve final thoughts after I've had a chance to read through a solid translation.

Get Mad, Get Sad -- Then, Get Active!

A short post to share a couple of items that made me mad, sad, and motivated to act this week. 

Above, we see the Israeli delegation to the United Nations pinning on yellow stars meant to evoke those forced on Jews in Germany and Ukraine by Nazis during the Holocaust. They explained that they would be wearing the stars until such time as the UN condemns Hamas. Israel went on after this bit of victim theatrics (which many actual Holocaust survivors have said they were appalled by) to kill 9,000 people in a few days -- a large portion of them children -- by incessant bombing of the concentration camp that is Gaza. 

https://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?531487-1/white-house-daily-briefing

Here we see White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre attempting to draw a parallel between pro-Palestine protesters on college campuses today and the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017 where marchers literally chanted "Jews will not replace us" on the campus of the University of Virginia. The question that prompted this unforced error occurs at 38:05 in the video.

You can read her statement as text here on the WH press site. 

She was not convincing, possibly because she is so full of shit that she felt the need to use the word "very" 58 times in her briefing.

Get active!

Many people are headed to Washington DC November 4 to demand a ceasefire for Gaza. Details here. If traveling from Maine, bus details are here.

Help activists demand that Rep. Jared Golden sign on to a congressional letter calling for an end to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Message me for details on how to connect with this action on Wednesday November 9 in Bangor. Or just ring congressional phones off the hook: (202) 225-3121.

Print and radio ads will run next week reaching audiences around Acadia.

Join us in Portland on Monday November 6 to protest plans to build a rocket launch site near Acadia National Park. We'll be in front of the Holiday Inn on Spring Street from 11:30am-12:30pm as the Maine Space Conference breaks for lunch. If this seems a bit off topic, consider that the Pentagon and SpaceX launch multiple times each week in order to fill low space orbit with small communications satellites that are of critical importance to conducting wars in the 21st century. And that is exactly what you can expect from any launch site built in Maine.