Month: November 2019

Syrian Civil War: WWII weapons used. Sturmgewehr (Stg) 44, “assault rifle 44”

In August 2012, the ISIS affiliated Syrian Al-Tawhid Brigade posted a video clip on their YouTube channel showing a cache of StG 44 in their possession, which they claim to have captured amongst 5,000 StG 44 rifles and various ammunition from a weapons depot in the city of Aleppo.

Photos later surfaced of the rebels using them in combat.

Note: The video was removed by Youtube for unknown reasons.

The al-Tawhid Brigade was formed in 2012. Reportedly backed by Qatar, al-Tawhid was considered one of the biggest groups in northern Syria, dominating much of the insurgency around Aleppo. The al-Tawhid Brigade was formed in 2012 in order to coordinate the Battle of Aleppo, with the stated mission to found a “civil state in Syria with Islam being the main source of legislation.

Some StG 44s were fitted with the Zielgerät 1229 infra-red aiming device, also known by its codename Vampir (“vampire”). This device consisted of a large scope, rather like modern starlight scopes, and a large infra-red lamp on top, the scope being able to pick up the infra-red that would be invisible to the naked eye. The user had to carry a transformer backpack powered by a battery fitted inside the gas mask canister. Electric cables connected the power unit with the IR reflector, with the cathode ray tube mounted on the rifle imaging IR from the spotlight. The Vampir had only 15 minutes of battery life, but was able to sight within 200 meters in total darkness. A conical flash hider was added to the barrel to keep the muzzle flash from blinding the shooter.

The StG 44 was the first assault rifle-type weapon to be accepted into widespread service and put into mass production. “The principle of this weapon — the reduction of muzzle impulse to get useful automatic fire within actual ranges of combat — was probably the most important advance in small arms since the invention of smokeless powder.” The StG 44’s effect on post-war arms design was wide-ranging, as made evident by Mikhail Kalashnikov’s AK-47, and later Eugene Stoner’s M16 and its variants.

The rifle was chambered for the 7.92×33mm Kurz cartridge.

At the end of the war, Hugo Schmeisser claimed that 424,000 MP 43/MP 44/StG 44 rifles were built between June 1943 and April 1945 in four plants: 185,000 by C.G. Haenel in Suhl; 55,000 by J.P. Sauer & Sohn in Suhl; 104,000 in Erfurt; and 80,000 by Steyr-Daimler-Puch AG in Steyr, Austria. This was fewer than the 1.5 million ordered, and far fewer than the 4 million planned.

Some 822 million rounds of 7.92×33mm Kurz ammunition were produced from 1942 to 1945. At the beginning of March 1945, the troops had 273.9 million rounds, with a replenishment reserve of 69.6 million rounds on standby.

National identity. Thanks, but we’ll keep ‘mother’ & ‘father’: Putin rejects politically correct ‘parent #1 & #2’ titles

During a discussion on Russian national identity, President Vladimir Putin made sure to politely but firmly reject any notion of replacing traditional family structures with more “progressive” examples implemented in the West.

You said the word ‘mother’ cannot be replaced. Turns out maybe it can: they’ve replaced it in some countries with ‘parent number one’ and ‘parent number two.’ I hope that never happens here,” Putin said on Friday at the meeting of the Council for Interethnic Relations, a Kremlin advisory body.

His remarks came in response to lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky, who talked about efforts to cultivate a unifying identity among Russia’s youth without infringing on any other ethnic, religious or group identities. The words “mother” and “parent” are functionally the same, but carried a very different emotional weight, Vodolatsky argued, just like “motherland” and “country.”

Smiling as he replied, Putin may as well have winked and nudged in the westerly direction. One notable place where motherhood and fatherhood had been replaced in the name of “social equality” is France, where in February school forms were updated to “parent 1” and “parent 2” in order to reflect new “family diversity.”

Certain families were finding themselves stuck in “rather old-fashioned social and family models,” Valerie Petit, an MP with President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party REM, said in February.

A similar measure was underway in Italy, but Deputy PM Matteo Salvini restored “mother” and “father” on government forms in April. It is unclear where the proposal may be on the agenda of the current government, which was put together in September to shut out Salvini without an election, in yet another display of EU democracy at its finest.

Not surprisingly, it was the US that led the way in “progressive” bureaucrat-speak, with the State Department announcing that it would replace “mother” and “father” on passport applications in 2011, during the Obama administration. Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant secretary for passport services at the time, argued that this was due to “changes in medical science and reproductive technology.”

LGBT activist group Family Equality Council left no doubt about the move’s motives, however, cheering the change to a “more global term” that would allow “many different types of families” to feel recognized. This was four years before the US Supreme Court established same-sex marriages as a constitutional right, mind you.

To be fair, mothers and fathers weren’t entirely replaced on State Department forms. The current ones have two entries for “Mother/Father/Parent,” which is clearly unacceptable discrimination against children of throuples and other polyamorous relationships, who still remain unfairly illegal under oppressive US laws.

While Western “human rights” groups may be girding their loins to condemn Putin’s remarks as yet another example of “oppression” in Russia, they should hold their horses before cashing those lobbying checks. In the meeting, he also talked about welcoming and accepting immigrants, condemnation of “ignorance and extremism,” and support for Russia’s indigenous peoples – who live in better conditions and in far larger numbers than Native Americans, it should be said.

That would complicate the virtue-signaling morality plays that pay their bills, though, so we shouldn’t hold our breath.

Full article by Nebojsa Malic, senior writer at RT

Video: Houthis shot down a Saudi AH-64 Apache attack helicopter over Northern Yemen

The Houthis shot down on November 29 an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter of the Saudi-led coalition near Yemen’s border with the Kingdom.

Yemeni sources released a short video supposedly showing the downing of the Saudi attack helicopter.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the Yemeni group, said in an official statement that the helicopter was downed with an anti-aircraft missile “equipped with a new tech” that will be revealed soon.

The spokesman added that a new video of the operation will be also released.

“The Armed Forces affirms that approaching Yemeni airspace is prohibited … and that it will confront all the enemies’ violations until it reaches full protection of Yemeni airspace,” Brig. Gen. Sair said.

According to the Houthis, both the Apache’s pilot and gunner were killed in the incident, which took place south of the Saudi province of Asir.

Around 30 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters are in service with the Saudi Arabian National Guard Forces (SANGF).

More than 90 others are operated by the Royal Saudi Land Forces (RSLF).

Saudi Apache helicopters participate in the offensive and defensive military operations along the border with Yemen on a regular basis.

Despite their vast technological superiority, the Saudis in particular are failing to meet their military objectives.

French helicopters involved in Mali crash were not under IS fire, military says

The Islamic State group’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) claimed responsibility for Monday’s accident, the heaviest single loss for the French army in nearly four decades.

“It’s totally false,” General François Lecointre told Radio France International.

“The truth is that there was a collision during a very complex combat operation,” he said.

“The French army is telling the truth: we owe it to our soldiers and to the families of our dead colleagues.”

ISWAP said its fighters ambushed a French convoy near Indelimane village, in the Menaka area, and opened fire on one of the helicopters that arrived in support.

“After staggering in flight, it then collided with another helicopter, killing 13 Crusaders,” said an ISWAP statement carried on the SITE intelligence group website.

The general said there was no attack by the jihadists that the army was pursuing near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger.

“There was no withdrawal of an aircraft in the face of fire from the jihadists,” he added.

The general said the helicopter black boxes were being analysed for details of exactly what happened.

The accident brought to 41 the number of French troops killed in the Sahel region since Paris intervened against jihadists in northern Mali in 2013.

Since then, armed groups affiliated with the IS group, al-Qaeda and others have advanced into southern Mali as well as neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Header: Coffins of French soldiers who were killed when their helicopters collided at low altitude are seen at Gao French Army base, Mali, November 27, 2019. Handout via REUTERS

Source: FRANCE 24 with AFP

Macron should have his own ‘brain death’ checked before attacking NATO allies, Erdogan says

France has no right to criticize Turkey’s military incursion into Syria, or to make presumptions about NATO as a whole, Erdogan said in a speech at the University of Marmara in Istanbul on Friday. The Turkish leader even attacked Macron personally, retooling the French president’s claim that NATO was suffering from “brain death.”

“First of all, have your own brain death checked. These statements are suitable only to people like you who are in a state of brain death.”

The broadside comes just a day after Paris and Ankara exchanged heated words over NATO and the conflict in Syria. Macron had warned that NATO could not show solidarity with Turkey’s controversial military operations.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu quickly shot back that France was a “sponsor of terrorism,” apparently referring to Macron’s previous meetings with Kurdish representatives.

Excerpts from a recent ”analysis” published by Haaretz – ”Netanyahu’s End: A Frightful Spectacle”

Post-mortem reports on the twilight of the Netanyahu era will zero in on the week after he was formally indicted for criminal behavior. Ministers and MKs will solemnly recount how they trooped to the Prime Minister’s Office and found there an alarmed and gloomy figure. They will say he looked like a general who had led his troops to defeat after defeat. All his planes had been shot down, his warships sunk, and he stood brooding over a battle plan from which emanated a foreboding silence.

Like an obstinate commander who refuses to internalize his terminal condition, he manufactures in his feverish mind divisions and squadrons and sends them to the front. The force commanders surrounding him, whether for fear of his wrath or out of empathy and pity, play along with him. They come and go, pretending to be doing things, pretending that as long as he’s there, there’s hope. He looks at their faces and wonders what’s going through their heads. Who will defect, who will betray. Who will rise against him.

He is haunted. Thirteen days remain to the end of the last extension to set up a government. On the one hand, it’s eternity. On the other hand, it’s a fraction of a second. Sixty-one signatures – that’s all it takes to stop the headlong slide toward the insanity of a third election.

 

Read the full article on Haaretz

A Look Inside Hitler’s 1936 Nazi Olympics Through Amazing Photographs

Hitler used the Olympics as the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the prowess of the Third Reich and these Olympics were the first ever to be televised, with radio broadcasts reaching 41 different countries around the world.

Hitler’s Nazi regime built a brand new, state-of-the-art 100,000-seat track and field stadium, six gymnasiums, and many other smaller arenas.

Header: A German technician checks the Television canon put in the Olympic Stadium at 01 August 1936 – a huge electronic camera built by Telefunken which broadcast live for the first time, 8 hours each day, the Berlin Olympics Games show. (Photo credit CORR/AFP/Getty Images)

Gallery: HISTORY COLLECTION

 

Yair Netanyahu compares Israeli media to Nazi filmmaker Riefenstahl

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair compared journalists to a Nazi propagandist on Thursday evening, tweeting that the Third Reich’s filmmaker “Leni Riefenstahl could learn a lot from the Israeli media.”

Riefenstahl was close to Adolf Hitler and directed a number of Nazi propaganda films, including the infamous “Triumph of the Will,” which debuted in 1935.

Israeli journalists swiftly condemned the comparison.

“As a journalist and son of a Holocaust survivor, I am shocked by the comparison,” tweeted Maariv’s Knesset reporter Arik Bender.

Challenged by Uriah Canaff, the deputy editor of Haaretz’s weekend magazine, Yair Netanyahu replied that he should “ask your bosses at Dumont Schauberg. They know something or two about about Nazi propaganda.”

German publishing house Dumont Schauberg, which supported the rise of the Nazi party through its Kölnische Zeitung newspaper, has a 25 percent interest in Haaretz.

The prime minister and his elder son are both harsh critics of the Israeli media, which the senior Netanyahu has accused of spreading “fake news.” Netanyahu has also accused the press of participating in a “witch hunt” against him alongside the left and law enforcement agencies.

Video: Russian soldiers from WW2. Deciphering death soldiers medallions. Less known facts.

The Soviet (Russians) had a different identification method in WW2, somehow unique – a bakelite capsule contains a form that the missing soldier had to fill in active duty: full name, date of birth, place of call-up and other kind of information.

Sometimes it wasn’t a standard form but a piece of paper that the soldier got somewhere and filled in as he himself wanted. The standard capsule was provided by the Soviet (Russian) army.

Opening a medallion find near the missing soldier is always an anxious thing because there are not very well preserved in time and any careless movement can ruin a form.

The containers showed in this video were recovered recently – find near the remains of two unknown soldiers.

Statistical data sets: How Russia pay for the Israeli welfare system

On June 6, 2016, Israel and Russia signed an agreement on cooperation in the field of social security. The Agreement determines the procedures for granting old age, disability and survivor pensions and other benefits to citizens of the Russian Federation and the State of Israel who live on their territory and are covered by their laws.

On November 28, 2019, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that 20,000 Israelis, who have pensionable service in the Russian Federation or the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (a part of the USSR) have been recognized as eligible for payments of pensions by Russia. A total amount paid to Israeli citizens is over 870 million rubles (approx. 14 million USD).

Additionally, on July 8, 2017, the Russian President issued a decree giving lifetime benefits to some WWII veterans from the Former Soviet Union who now live in Israel. According to the decree, a monthly benefit to the tune of 1,000 rubles (approx. $16) will be awarded to Israeli nationals who used to live in the USSR and fought for their country between 1941-1945 or who were underage prisoners of concentration camps. 500 rubles (approx. $8) will be paid per month to Israeli citizens who hold the title of “Citizen of Besieged Leningrad,” as well as to widows and widowers of service members who died fighting Nazi Germany and its allies, or during the Soviet war with Finland (1939-1940) and the war with Japan (August-September 1945), and former adult prisoners of camps. The Russian Foreign Ministry says that as of November 2019, Rusisa paid 800,000 rubles (approx. 12,500 USD) to Israeli citizens under this decree.

In 2017, Russia spent 41.5 billion rubles to pay pensions to citizens of other countries that have pensionable service in the Russian Federation or the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic. At that time, Russia was paying pensions to citizens of 129 states, including Israel (41,400 people), Germany (101,400 people), and the United States (21,800 people). Thus, the number of Israeli citizens receiving Russian pensions doubled thanks to the 2016 agreement.

These actions of the Russian government are expected to demonstrate that it, as the successor of the USSR, did not forget about the role that people who immigrated to other states for one reason or another contributed to the development of the Soviet economy.

Since May 2019, the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and the National Insurance Institute of the State of Israel have been exchanging electronic pension files, and this makes it possible to process applicants’ requests much faster. In all, over 870 million rubles (13.58 million USD) have been allocated for pension payments over this period.

To obtain the relevant payments, applicants should submit the necessary documents under the established procedure to the Consular Department of the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Russian Consulate General in Haifa.

Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

“The State of Israel v. Benjamin son of Benzion Netanyahu”

63-page charge sheet says premier was party to illicit deals and conflicts of interest, harmed public trust, and, in 3 cases against him, abused his office.

Prosecutors, as the indictment details, are charging Netanyahu with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust in Case 4000, and fraud and breach of trust in Case 1000 and Case 2000.

The felony of “fraud and breach of trust” applies when public servants have compromised their ability to act in the public interest, according to Prof. Barak Medina, the former dean of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Law faculty.

“You don’t have to take money or get benefits to be guilty, you don’t even have to discuss it,” Medina noted. “Actively putting yourself at risk of not acting in the public interest is the very definition of fraud and breach of trust. That’s it.”

Bribery, however, is considered an even more severe crime and carries with it the additional label of “moral turpitude” — defined in law as “an act or behavior that gravely violates the sentiment or accepted standard of the community” — which prohibits politicians from running for office for a full seven years after the end of a prison or community service sentence.

And, according to the penal code, a public servant can be found guilty of bribery for requesting or agreeing to receive a bribe, even if the bribes were ultimately rejected or if the deal fell through before implementation.

Header: Dr. Avichai Mandelblit Attorney General, Ministry of Justice

Read the full alegations on The Times of Israel

‘Harassment & disrespect’: Indian govt urged to confront Spain after Sikh pilot forced to remove turban at Madrid airport

The dastaar literally means ‘dast-e-yaar’ or the hand of G-d and is an important part of the Sikh culture.

A prominent Sikh leader has called on New Delhi to confront the Spanish government, after an Indian Air Force pilot told him he was subjected to a ‘discriminatory’ search in Madrid.

The Sikh pilot, identified as Captain Simranjeet Singh Gujral, was reportedly harassed while passing through security at Madrid’s airport.

“The Madrid airport officials demanded him to remove his turban and asked for a manual check-up of his turban which is an offence in the eyes of a Sikh,” Manjinder Singh Sirsa, president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee and a member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, wrote in a letter to External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.

He noted that the air force captain was subjected to the invasive search even after clearing the airport’s metal detectors.

“Truly, this is a case of bias and racial attitude towards Sikhs at the Madrid airport,” Sirsa said.

Sharing his letter on Twitter, the Sikh politician expressed hope that the External Affairs Ministry would raise the issue on a “global level.” He also noted that Madrid airport officials “continue to hurt our sentiments and play the ‘ignorance’ card to their advantage.”

There are no reports so far of Madrid airport responding to the allegations. Sikhs are routinely subjected to discriminatory behavior while traveling or living abroad, usually on account of their distinctive headgear.

In April 2009, Capt. Kamaljit Singh Kalsi and 2nd Lt. Tejdeep Singh Rattan challenged a U.S. Army order that they remove their turbans and shave their beards. In March 2010, Rattan became the first Sikh to graduate Army Officer School at Fort Sam Houston since the exemption was eliminated in 1984; a waiver was granted for his religion.

Monument to Jihad operatives killed by Israel in US college

Students set up a memorial to the 34 who died in IDF bombings during Operation Black Belt in the Gaza Strip earlier this month, most of them Islamic Jihad operatives, according to newspaper Yediot Ahronot.

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, US. It is the oldest coeducational liberal arts college in the United States and the second oldest continuously operating coeducational institute of higher learning in the world. The Oberlin Conservatory of Music is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. In 1835 Oberlin became one of the first colleges in the United States to admit African Americans, and in 1837 the first to admit women (other than Franklin College’s brief experiment in the 1780s. It has been known since its founding for progressive student activism.

The students are Jews belonging to the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and students belonging to the Palestine Liberation Students’ Organization.

The college administration reportedly did not remove or condemn the memorial, and even admitted giving a green light to the move on the grounds of freedom of expression.

The student group’s display located in Wilder Bowl, a central space on campus where students gather, didn’t mention the terrorist organization affiliation and is a group that advocates for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

Source: FOX NEWS

French defense chief takes aim at US for ‘unanswered’ Iran attacks

French Defense Minister Florence Parly took aim Saturday at “gradual US disengagement” in the Middle East and said its failure to respond to provocations blamed on Iran set off a dangerous chain of events.

Since May, tensions in the Gulf have escalated alarmingly with attacks against tankers, a US unmanned drone being downed, and strikes on key Saudi oil facilities in September.

Iran was blamed but denied involvement.

Despite the attacks on its Saudi ally and having one of its own drones shot down, the United States has avoided equivalent retaliation.

“We’ve seen a deliberate gradual US disengagement,” Parly said at the annual Manama Dialogue on regional security, adding it had been “on the cards for a while” but had become clearer with recent events.

Parly said the US drawback was a “slow process” and acknowledged that a US carrier strike group had just entered the Gulf.

“But the trend is, I think, quite clear and thus probably irrespective of who wins the next elections.”

The US aircraft carrier strike group Abraham Lincoln sailed through the Strait of Hormuz last week to show Washington’s “commitment” to freedom of navigation, the Pentagon said.

It was the first time a US aircraft carrier group has passed through the strait since Iran downed a US drone in June in the same area.

The French defense minister also put herself at odds with the US on maritime security in the Gulf, after Washington earlier this month launched a maritime coalition based in Bahrain to protect shipping in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

France instead favors a European mission which Parly said should be able to start “very soon.”

“We want to make clear that our policy is separate from the ‘maximum pressure’ American policy,” she said, referring to Washington’s increasing sanctions against Tehran.

“I would like to add that we are not subtracting anything, we are adding, as a number of countries would not have participated in the American initiative anyway.”

She also homed in on strains on NATO, saying it remained the cornerstone of security in Europe but that it was “time to move from the brain-dead to the brainstorm.”

French President Emmanuel Macron stirred controversy this month saying he believed NATO was undergoing “brain death,” lamenting a lack of coordination between Europe and the United States, in an interview with The Economist magazine.

Parly said proposals will be laid on the table at the alliance’s summit in London in December including for a group of “wise persons or elders to think about the future of NATO.”

Sources: Turkey refuses to back NATO plan until group supports incursion in Syria

Turkey is refusing to back a NATO defense plan for the Baltics and Poland until the alliance offers Ankara more political support for its fight against Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria, four senior alliance sources said.

Ankara has told its NATO envoy not to sign off on the plan and is taking a tough line in meetings and in private conversations, demanding the alliance recognize the YPG as terrorists in the formal wording, the sources said.

Turkey’s NATO delegation was not immediately available for comment. Turkey’s defence and foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

The dispute, before NATO holds its 70th anniversary summit in London next week, is a sign of divisions between Ankara and Washington over Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria against the YPG militia, which it regards as terrorists with links to Kurdish militants on Turkish soil.

NATO envoys are seeking formal approval by all 29 member states for the military plan to defend Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the event of a Russian attack.

Without Turkey’s approval, it could be harder for NATO to step up its defences in the Baltics and Poland quickly.

“They (the Turks) are taking eastern Europeans hostage, blocking approval of this military planning until they get concessions,” one of the diplomatic sources told Reuters.

A second source called Turkey’s behavior “disruptive” as NATO tries to show it is united after U.S. President Donald Trump voiced scepticism about the alliance and French President Emmanuel Macron suggested it was experiencing “brain death”.

Asked about the issue, NATO’s spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said: “NATO has plans for defending all allies. NATO’s commitment to the safety and security of all allies is unwavering.”

Turkey began its offensive in northern Syria after the United States pulled 1,000 troops out of the area last month. Ankara’s NATO allies fear the incursion will undermine the battle against Islamic State militants.

The plan for the Baltic states and Poland, drawn up at their request after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, has no direct bearing on Turkey’s strategy in Syria, but it raises issues about security on all of NATO’s frontiers.

Under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s 1949 founding treaty, an attack on one ally is an attack on all, and the alliance has military strategies for collective defence across its territory.

Turkey made its demands before its offensive in northern Syria but the issue has come to a head because of next week’s summit, at which security documents are to be approved.

NATO envoys still hope for a compromise because Ankara also needs leaders to approve a separate, upgraded military plan detailing how NATO would defend Turkey in the event of an attack, two of the diplomatic sources said.

Macron, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will meet on the summit’s margins to discuss Ankara’s Syria operation.

“Everyone is criticising them (the Turks), but if they give in, it will be at the cost of non-interference in their Syria strategy,” one of the diplomatic sources said.

FEAR

Yesterday, the most disconcerting of all the videos shown on the stage, however, came near the end of the pro-Netanyahu three-hour rally.

Set to more eerie music, this clip showed floating words over a Matrix-style graphic picked out from the terrifying text being read out by a deep booming voice. It’s worth quoting in full.

“FEAR,” opened the clip as the word emerged from the Matrix.

“I want for a moment to talk about the fear. Yes, the fear. The fear of a crime family. But not a Mizrahi one. I want for a moment to talk about the fear. The fear of lawbreakers, but not from a broken neighborhood. They are not just lawbreakers, the are the law creators. They are the law and they are above the law because only they can interpret it, however they want,” the voice continued, as more words floated across the screen.

“I want for a moment to talk about the fear. The fear of an elite rule. Sick. Dark. Fear of a dark dictatorship with its own agenda. one that was never elected and that we are never under any circumstances allowed to criticize. And they have black cloaks and poison pens, and many, many, many soldiers. And they are working and working and working, like ants. Working, abusing, taking down, inventing, fabricating, overthrowing, boring a hole in the boat… I want for a moment to talk about the fear,” the clip ended, as far from the cheery atmosphere that opened the rally as possible.

Before finishing the event with the Hatikva national anthem, the organizers said “the next rally will be here or in Rabin Square,” the huge Tel Aviv plaza named for prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated there 24 years ago.

One protester shouted in response, “Not Rabin Square. Netanyahu Square.”