Israel hitting military targets, Iran lobbing missiles at civilians

Note the contrast:

• Israel took out military airport, major long-range missile bases, Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment site, the four most senior generals, and now the intelligence chief.
• Iran wants to make Israel “uninhabitable” .

  

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Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program

Wow. This is a serious escalation - but it works to Israel’s advantage. Strengthening Israel without engendering sufficiently potent blowback.

I think there are three points to make.

1) The Israelis have every right and responsibility to defend their citizens from a deranged enemy that has unequivocally declared their wish is to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth. Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions are Israel’s problem. As the Holocaust taught, Jews have to to take seriously those intent on the Jewish extermination. Hitler’s intent was made plain from the start in his Mein Kampf. The Ayatollahs have made the destruction of Israel their major foreign policy goal. Israel must believe them.

2) I think Israel is right to say that a preemptive strike was necessary and that it had to take this threat very seriously. No-one can seriously believe that Iran’s nuclear program is for purely for civil purposes. There is no lack of oil in Iran for production of electricity, and there is no commercial reason for enriching uranium to the levels they have. Plenty of countries operate commercial nuclear reactors without Uranium enrichment. The Trump negotiations in Rome failed. The US was the carrot side of these negotiations, and Israel was the stick. I can’t see how these talks can possibly end in half measures, (like the 2015 deal). It’s either no enrichment and dump the centrifuges, or out comes the stick. As Akhtar Makoii reporting recently in “Iran risks US fury after increasing uranium stockpile” (Telegraph):

A new report from the UN nuclear watchdog revealed that Iran had added 133.8kg of uranium in the last three months, which, if enriched to 90 per cent, would be enough for three nuclear bombs. (Recent increase in uranium extraction)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the Islamic Republic had increased its stockpile of 60 per cent enriched uranium to 408.6kg from 274.8kg in early February. (Doubling the uranium enrichment to 60% which is the weapons-grade uranium)

Tehran now has enough fissile material for 10 nuclear weapons, and the US estimates that it could be converted in less than two weeks. (Only 2 weeks to make 10 nuclear weapons) The accumulation has accelerated despite talks between the two aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for the potential lifting of sanctions.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has warned that any potential nuclear deal with the Trump administration could trigger a revolt within the elite military force, (probably explains why the IRGC commander was executed by Israel) The Telegraph understands. One senior official said: “The commanders have warned the leader that striking a deal with the current American government would risk losing support from a significant segment of society and provoke deep anger among IRGC commanders.”

3) Iran is definitely weakened. Israel has already breached Iranian air space with targeted strikes and Iran has only responded with hundreds of drone/strike ballistic missiles at Israel which could not penetrate the joint air defenses of Israel and the US. None of the Arab nations agree with Iran and many are set to join the Trump Accords. No more al-Assad, the Iranian proxies are debilitated. There’s no reason why negotiations can’t continue. Trump’s bargaining position just got a lot stronger.

Air India Crash

Christ.

Sympathies and condolences to the families who have lost a loved one.

Horrific ball of fire. I can’t even imagine the few moments before it crashed. 

Israel’s moral strength against Hamas

I really wanted to post about this earlier this week, but I was too busy.

There are 3 things worth noting:

1. Another Hamas chief (Mohammed Sinwar) has been sent to meet his 72 virgins. 

2. Hamas communication centre was under a hospital in Khan Younis. He was hiding under sick people.

3. It proves - once again - just how exemplary the IDF is. They set a serious bombs to detonate causing the Hamas’ communication centre to collapse on itself without harming or destroying the hospital and the patients. It’s an incredible feat of engineering, intelligence and moral decency and principles in fighting their enemy. According to the jpost:

The bombs, each weighing about a ton, were designed so that two points within the hospital would be bombed, causing the sand to collapse inward and block the tunnel in such a way that anyone inside couldn’t escape. Simultaneously, aircraft attacked the tunnel at additional points, with the strikes so precise that dozens of bombs landed just centimeters apart, each deepening the penetration for the next bomb. Amazingly, despite dozens of tons of bombs hitting the tunnel, no hospital wing or building was damaged, and only the tunnel was destroyed in a way that trapped the gases from the bombs inside, creating a lethal gas space.

The contrast couldn’t be clearer. 

One side is discerning, careful, high-principled and humane .... and the other hides behind sick people and pregnant mums.

The Israeli military is the archetypal army of the Western world - as careful, meticulous and humane as can possibly be.

The Israeli aid plan in Gaza and deceptive reporting on IDF

The new aid-plan has proved to be a nightmare. I wish there was an easy solution – I can’t think of one. The aid distribution has become nasty and horrible traps for poor, vulnerable and hungry Gazans. You have to walk long distances, and there isn’t any protection that the IDF have installed from the mobs and the mania that can set in. Maybe that is something that Israel could have organised. Maybe. Maybe not.

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Look at the headline below.

Looking at the headline you’d think that the IDF randomly shot at innocent & hungry Gazans – for the sheer heck of it … (and according to “Gaza Officials” = aka: Hamas!)

However, in an IDF statement:

IDF: We are currently unaware of IDF fire during daylight hours that corresponds with the footage circulated in the media. The details are under review.

Overnight (Wednesday), IDF troops fired warning shots toward suspects who were advancing while posing a threat to the troops, in the area of the Netzarim Corridor. 

This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured, the details are under review.

The question here is which is more likely?

That the IDF randomly shot at tired and hungry Palestinians begging for food or that the Hamas brutality and rivalry (over control) led to the Palestinian deaths?

While accidents do happen, the IDF does NOT have a policy of opening fire at random civilians. It does NOT have a motive to “make” mistakes or shoot at non-combatants. I say this acknowledging that the IDF have sometimes appeared to have covered-up its mistakes. No army is perfect, and those incidents are the exception: not the rule.

Instead, the so-called “support” that Hamas “enjoy” is never earned. It is taken by force and oppression. They have impoverished and exploited the inhabitants through their brutality, control of food and aid distribution, civilian infrastructure, prevention of civilian evacuation, never mind so much as a protest.

I argued in a previous blogpost that the quondam UNWRA food distribution was one of Hamas’ major weapons in this conflict (both for PR purposes and to enslave its people). Israel removed that weapon. Ergo, now Hamas sabotage efforts to feed its own people to get that weapon back. It’s insane that NGOs, aid groups and the international community are otherwise implicitly supporting Hamas.

The GHF issued a statement saying that their humanitarian staff were violently attacked by Hamas as they were travelling to an aid distribution centre in Gaza. 5 of their members killed. 

And thus, the absolute of depravity that leads one to attack people providing food for your own people is breathtaking ... while Israel is framed as the nasty party.

The Trump-Musk divorce

So, the romance has died – in such open nastiness and bickering. 

As I always said, Trump is not a conservative. No fiscal hawk. Cutting spending was merely a pretext to do away with programs he disliked and people he distrusted. And, now they’re gone: he’s perfectly happy to spend the savings (and then some) on stuff he wants.

Musk was naive. He bought into the notion that Trump actually wanted to get spending under control. I honestly think he was taken in with the hype of MAGA. Thus, he felt used and stupid with the tariffs and when the budget bill coming out. Musk torched his career thinking he was rescuing America just to find out he got suckered.

We all knew it would end this way. And, as always with Trump, taking the low road with insults and pettiness. This time, they both went to the gutter. Nothing more than a national embarrassment. Musk had a nasty side too. I remember him using the pedo accusation against someone who attacked him. Musk, this time, uses Epstein.

We have another 3.5 years of this embarrassment to end.

Nothing is serious anymore

The “bigly beautiful bill”.

Is everything a slogan?

Photo: the yellow door

Westminster Bridge and Big Ben

After the restoration.

The cover-up of Biden’s decline

This is a scandal. 

I watched this interview by Channel 4 with Tapper on his new book “Original Sin”.

It shows that the Democrats were willing to put the nation at risk to hold onto power.  They covered up for a man whose cognitive decline would disqualify him from any ordinary job.

Tapper would have us believe that the American journalistic community were not aware of the senility of President Biden because his inner circle kept a “tight lid” on the situation. 

The omerta-like attitude among the Democrats and the bullying by the Biden administration is interesting … but I’m just a blogger who reads the news, and it was v. clear to me that Biden was losing the plot. He looked like a confused old man most of the time last year, trying to find his words, forgetting names, trying to spit out 2-3 thoughts all at the same time resulting in garballed sentences, wandering around looking confused, falling over. Some people believed his decline was “fake news” until that disastrous debate. Since the mainstream media covered for him.

The truth is that America’s “establishment” journalists, for the most part, knew, or tried to avoid full knowledge of, the situation because (1) Biden was a Democrat, and (2) it could be “justified” because they wanted to avoid a Trump redux.

The scandal is not only about who ran the White House – but how the White House and the Democrat establishments deceived the American people, but how the mainstream media went along with it.

Samson and Delilah by Peter Paul Rubens

Stunning.

There are 2 paintings at the National Gallery by the 17th century Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens which are breathtaking. Truly incredible works which stop you in your tracks. This one is “Samson and Delilah” painted in 1609. The next one to follow.

It depicts the Old Testament tale of Samson and Delilah – a tale of lust, deception, betrayal, and revenge. Delilah was bribed by the Philistines (origin of the word “Palestine”) to seduce Samson and discover the secret of his great strength. God gave him great strength because of his vow to never cut his hair. Delilah kept on pestering him, and eventually he gave in and told her his secret. As he slept in her lap, she beckoned soldiers and an assistant to cut his hair.

In Rubens’s painting, Samson’s crimson dress is incredible. Especially its crevices and folds, on top of a golden shimmering fabric. You can almost feel its sikliness. Dramatic lighting is a nod to Caravaggio. The painting has so many vivid and powerful colours to match the power and drama of the story.

The lust is powerfully depicted. Delilah’s bosoms exposed & Samons is half-dressed.

It’s interesting just how beautifully curly & short Samson’s hair already is!! And I love the curvature of the fingers and the arms. The heel of the foot appears to stick out of the painting (over an exquisitely decorated rug).

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There were interesting articles a few months ago about this painting being a potential forgery. See Dalya Alberge writing in “Fresh doubt cast on authenticity of Rubens painting in National Gallery” (Guardian) and Abigail Buchanan writing in “The National Gallery ‘masterpiece’ that’s probably a fake” (Telegraph). I am persuaded by the NG’s belief it is a genuine painting by Rubens. They examined the painting’s materials and concluded it was consistent with that period. The spokesman said: 

“Samson and Delilah has long been accepted by leading Rubens scholars as a masterpiece by Peter Paul Rubens. Painted on wood panel in oil shortly after his return to Antwerp in 1608 and demonstrating all that the artist had learned in Italy, it is a work of the highest aesthetic quality. A technical examination of the picture was presented in an article in the National Gallery’s Technical Bulletin in 1983. The findings remain valid.”

“Why does Hitler still cast a shadow over the world?”

A fascinating question on the BBC.

I think my answer would be on two fronts:

1. The mechanised nature of human destruction marks it out. More people died under Stalin and Mao. Most of the people died because of disastrous communist economic policies which brought on famine. Otherwise, executions and imprisonments were targeted at specific groups and/or individuals. The Holocaust was a systematic, intentional, industrial killing machine. The Holocaust was organised and operated as a business, with efficiency and cost optimisation.
2. The Holocaust is still very recent & changed our world. Genghis Khan’s empire caused the 10 to 80 million deaths, but the conquest brought gunpowder to Europe, and opened trade between the east and the west (Silk Road) etc. Hitler’s unintended aftermath was laying the foundations of the EU (e.g. through the European Coal and Steel Community), the use of nuclear power as an energy source, and the creation of the state of Israel for the Jews.

Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander released

Back with his family: 🙂 

The TOI suggested a rift between the Trump and Netanyahu administrations on war plans & priorities. All then denied.

See article below. Hamas saw an opportunity to place a wedge between the US and Israel with the Trump Administration and grabbed it. Alexander was released to pressure the cracks between the two administrations. I don’t think it will work.

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Nava Freiberg and Jacob Magid writing in “Witkoff said to tell hostage families Israel pointlessly extending war, US urging deal” (TOI):

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff recently told families of hostages held in Gaza that he disagrees with Israel’s approach to the war in the Strip, and believes reaching a new ceasefire and hostage release deal is the correct next step to take, a report said Sunday, as reports of the growing rift between the US and Israeli leaders mount.

According to Channel 12, Witkoff told the families that the US “wants to return the hostages, but Israel is not ready to end the war.” 

...

What Israel has referred to as the “Witkoff proposal” — which sources told The Times of Israel at the time is in fact more of an Israeli offer — provides for the release of around half of the living hostages in return for an extended truce, followed by the release of the rest of the hostages alongside an end to the war.

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The Hamas statement, issued ahead of Trump’s trip to the region this week, was meant as a goodwill gesture in the hope that Washington will coax Israel to end the war in Gaza, a source involved in the mediation effort told The Times of Israel.

The source said Hamas has received assurances from the US through mediators that Alexander’s release “would go a long way” with Trump, who wants to see the remaining hostages released and for the war in Gaza to end.

...

According to a source familiar with the negotiations, the US did not brief Israel on the effort to release Alexander until after the deal with Hamas was reached, saying Israel had generally been aware that efforts were ongoing, but only knew about them from its own intelligence operations.

Hyde Park sunshine

India’s response to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism

India is well within its right to protect its borders and citizens by attacking Pakistan.

India has been fighting a very long battle against terrorism & most of it fueled by Pakistan’s support for extremist groups. India has been putting up with these heinous massacres on her territory for too long. It’s also worth pointing out that India’s secular & democratic credentials have held-up since 1947, flaws included. Pakistan is run by the military with their sham elections.

At best, you could say that Islamabad has completely failed to root out terrorists; or, at worst, complicit in indulging them. Attacks such as the 2001 Parliament attack, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, and the Pulwama bombing in 2019 were all linked to terrorists based inside Pakistan. Indeed, the Taliban were an offshoot of Pakistan’s ISI to control neighboring Afghanistan. And so, as usual, Pakistan then continued to deny any involvement while giving safe haven to groups like Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

On 22 April 22 2025, 26 tourists (mostly Hindus) were slaughtered in Pahalgam, Kashmir. The details are psychopathically evil. Shooting loved ones in the head at point-blank range and, especially, to a newly-wed couple on their honeymoon. 

India’s response couldn’t be more different. Her defensive moves included surgical strikes and airstrikes on terrorist infrastructures at nine Pakistani sites with “Operation Sindoor.” India’s response makes clear that these barbaric attacks will not go unanswered. 

While everyone in the West seems to urge calm (in responding), there is never any sense of accountability against the perpetrator. India is expected to “reign it in” and bank on Pakistan’s goodwill. De-escalation sounds wonderful; but until Pakistan stops being a terrorist safe-haven, it’s just optics. 

So far, Washington has overseen a ceasefire. Let’s see what happens.

VE Day celebrations of 8 May 1945

The proud time to be American and British, I can just imagine the feeling.

There are some great photos on The Guardian.

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“US soldiers hug a woman in Piccadilly Circus, London, as they celebrate Germany’s surrender on 7 May 1945”

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“Crowds pack Times Square in New York on 7 May 1945 to celebrate the news of Germany’s unconditional surrender”

The expansion of the Gaza offensive

This blogpost covers two issues:

1. The UN’s approach to Israel’s new proposals to reverse its humanitarian blockade which I posted recently (see “The Israeli blockade of aid supplies”) and,
2. Why it makes sense for Israel to expand her military operations to get ready to move into Gaza to seize and secure land.

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The UN’s ivory tower

Why does the UN oppose Israel’s proposals to resume humanitarian aid? 

See details in Amichai Stein in Jerusalem Post (“Israel, US lobby UN to join proposed Gaza aid distribution mechanism - exclusive“). Also, James Mackenzie and Emma Farge writing in “European leaders, aid groups criticise Israeli aid plans for Gaza” (Reuters):

U.N. agencies, aid groups and European leaders condemned Israel’s plans, calling for the aid blockade to be lifted and for supplies to be distributed by humanitarian organisations that are not party to the conflict.

The European Union said humanitarian aid “must never be politicised or militarised”, echoing concerns expressed by leaders including Germany’s newly elected Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who said the situation in Gaza was “the worst we’ve ever seen”.

I think I know why the UN oppose it. Here’s my rationale.

The UN has the very laudable “humanitarian principles” of neutrality and independence. Those principles are said to kick-in when it comes to the distribution of humanitarian aid.

So far as I see it, the problem is that those lofty principles are abstractions about conduct in conflict. They are rooted in a priori assumptions about states as rational & (somewhat) civilised actors that actually care for their native populations.

So, when it comes to the delivery of aid to Gaza, the UN can only really regard the issue through that conceptual lens. It cannot afford to adapt its historic normative framework for Hamas. It has to pretend that they (Hamas) haven’t thrown a huge wrench through the UN’s entire approaches. Pretend as though Hamas haven’t exploited the UN to harm Gazans.

As we all know, the UN doesn’t really have an effective monitoring or controlling system over how this aid is ultimately used and distributed in Gaza. So, while the UN may condemn Hamas for bullying and intimidating aid groups and Gazan citizens – its “humanitarian principles” mean it cannot say that Hamas can’t control Gaza and, as such, control the food distribution. 

Whatsmore, all hell breaks loose if Israel so much as suggests using its military forces to ensure that the aid gets to the truly innocent and hungry Gazans.

For the sake of appearing to be without “agenda”, or “non-political”, or “neutral” etc.; Hamas gets to maintain ultimate and de facto control over the food distribution. And, as we know, if Hamas controls the food distribution; they are strengthened.

And so the UN towers a strange morally inverted world.

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Gaza expanded offensive

From Times of Israel, “Israel okays ‘conquering Gaza, holding the territories,’ as IDF chief said to warn ‘we could lose’ the hostages”:

The official said it will see the IDF take control of territory in Gaza, move the civilian population toward the south, attack Hamas, and prevent the terror group from taking control of humanitarian aid.

The plan is gradual and focuses at first on a certain, unspecified area within the Strip, before expanding to other places, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday, adding that the intense fighting was expected to go on for months.

Additionally, the Israeli official said, the security cabinet approved a proposal to renew aid deliveries into Gaza while overhauling the mechanism in order to minimize diversion of the goods by Hamas to benefit its operatives.

I agree with the proposals. I think it is right that the IDF protect the Gazan population and restore humanitarian aid. Although, as I have argued, Israel is within its rights; it isn’t really any effective tool at bringing pressure to bear on Hamas.

There are two more points to make:

1. Israel isn’t getting anywhere right now. It needs to expand ground operations against Hamas. There can never really be any ceasefire deal that cede to Hamas any legitimacy over Gaza, so these 3-part ceasefire deals were always doomed. The aid blockade was not really sustainable or effective against Hamas. At the moment, Hamas have lost their ability to effectively resist. Veterans have been killed, weapons stockpiles depleted, and command structure completely debilitated. 

2. So far, Israel has been negotiating on a hostage to terrorist-prisoner release ratio. This was always deeply objectionable (see my comments on the “principle of negotiating with terrorists”) but it hasn’t given Israel any more (if any?) meaningful gains. It needs to use conquered Gazan lands to squeeze the hostages out of Hamas’ grip. Only about 40% of the tunnels have been blown up. Israeli strikes can only do so much, and the IDF doesn’t know where the remaining hostages are. So, it needs to seriously ramp up the pressure on Hamas. This must also involve depriving Hamas of its tactical advantage of having human-shields. That’s why the IDF has taken the v. difficult decision to move the Palestinian civilian population out of harm’s way and change the rules of the game.

Deportation via the Alien Enemies Act

Very recently U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. issued a permanent injunction against the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelan immigrants from South Texas who have been accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang.

In short, the judge ruled that TdA may be harmful to society, but they did not constitute an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” as per the Alien Enemies Act. Thus, the President did not have lawful authority (under the Alien Enemies Act) to detain or deport Venezuelan immigrants.

Here is a summary of the judgment by Chris Geidner. Also CBS News.

I agree with the judgment, and want to make 4 points.

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1. The President simply cannot give himself war powers (via declaring a phony invasion) to despatch illegal aliens without any notice or hearing. Even if the 10 million or so illegal aliens in the US can be regarded as a “severe threat”, it doesn’t justify shortcuts around the law.

2. The President has no inherent power to deport anyone – that authority rests entirely with Congress. The Executive can only ever act within the terms and limits of legislation (which include constitutional procedural safeguards of due process – not optional). As Andrew C. McCarthy of National Review explained (concluding that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was unlawful):

to the extent he had protection against being deported to El Salvador, it was based on a remedy — withholding of removal — that is implemented by regulations based on Congress’s statutes … the involvement of the courts in immigration enforcement is extremely limited — confined to the narrow authority Congress has vested in them … Illegal aliens detained inside the country, if they don’t agree to rapid expulsion (as many do), are entitled to a hearing before an immigration judge and an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals — again, Justice Department tribunals.

3. It is important to remember that these hearings before an immigration “judge” (technically, as McCarthy points out, from the executive and not the judicial branch of government) actually protect Americans. A tiny percentage of detainees, before an immigration judge every year, are accidentally arrested due to mistaken identity & then let go.

4. Respect for the Constitution and the rule of law are solid conservative positions.

Houthi missile attack at Ben Gurion airport

Thank God this missile didn’t hit a plane at the gate, then easily killing over 100 people.

The rebels have been firing ballistic missiles at Israel for some time now; but the IDF appears to have missed intercepting this one.

Every strike from the Houthis should be met with a retaliatory strike sufficient to degrade their ability to strike outside of Yemen. They were a tool to oppose Saudi Arabia, but have now been let loose. And they’ve already been put on notice by both Israel and the US that port infrastructure is not off limits.

Tehran did not directly attack Israel. So Israel should focus on debilitating the proxy.

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Addendum: this is the crater in today’s DT!

The God complex

Trump posted this!   I actually found it funny. 

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From: “Trump criticised after posting AI image of himself as Pope” (BBC News)

US President Donald Trump has attracted criticism from some Catholics after posting an AI-generated image of himself as the Pope.

The New York State Catholic Conference accused Trump of mocking the faith. The post comes days after he joked to media: “I’d like to be Pope.”

The Israeli blockade of aid supplies

Israel has been imposing a two-month blockade of aid and food supplies. As we can imagine, Israel has been endlessly criticised as “cruel” and “harsh” etc.

There are 2 points to make:

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(1) Why is Hamas not being criticised (anywhere near Israel) to release all the tortured hostages, dead and alive; and surrender unconditionally? 

This would end the terror of Hamas – against Israel and the Palestinians. This will ALL end once Hamas releases the hostages and lay down their weapons. 

It’s shocking just how little news coverage is given to the thousands of Palestinians marching against Hamas in the streets of Gaza, as well as Hamas torturing and executing Palestinian civilians who attempt to access aid meant for them. 

In the messiness of war, we must never lose sight of who the bad guys are: Hamas. They’re evil incarnate. 

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(2) Who is responsible for the blockade?

The truth is that – while Israel is fighting to defeat Hamas, save lives and bring the hostages home – Hamas is the one blocking humanitarian aid. There have been endless reports now of Hamas seizing the aid, then SELLING it to Gazans at extortionate prices, and thus starving “their own” people to keep their stranglehold on power. 

(See this recent article at the Times of Israel: “Cash-strapped Hamas can’t pay fighters as Israeli offensive hits funding sources” – “Sources tell Wall Street Journal terror group used seized goods from humanitarian aid supplies to raise money, but with deliveries cut off, it is running out of resources”).

The ICJ case should be easy for Israel. They should be able to prove sufficient calories and nutrition were allowed into Gaza to feed every single person. Much of it was then given to UNRWA and then diverted to Hamas who sold it in Gaza or smuggled it into Egypt to sell.

In effect, this means that the aid goes towards funding Hamas’ war efforts against Israel. That is why it’s reasonable and legal for Israel to stop the transfer of aid.

Israel isn’t blocking the aid. It's trying to stop Hamas weaponising it.

Israel’s responsibility is to allow & facilitate the transfer of aid. It’s the role of the UN, NGOs, and local civilian administrations to distribute it. If there was any credible organisation that could guarantee that aid would actually reach the Gazan civilians – and not Hamas’ pockets; Gaza would be flooded with supplies.

It is worth noting that the UN just rejected Israel’s aid plan proposal (which they’ve been working on with an international humanitarian aid group for weeks and with US backing) which would ensure that people are fed without the aid being pilfered by Hamas. As per the Times (“UN humanitarian agency rejects Israeli plan to majorly alter Gaza aid delivery mechanism”):

... the IDF would not be directly involved in the distribution of aid, but troops would be tasked with providing an outer layer of security for the private contractors and international organizations handing out the assistance. Israel believes this method will make it harder for Hamas to divert aid to its fighters, the officials said.

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It seems to me obvious that Israel is not engaging on blockades as a “weapon of war” (or “collective punishment” etc.) - it is seeking to weaken its enemy while trying to help the vulnerable and weak of Gaza.

Prince Harry, a selfish brat

My God. What a car-crash interview.

For those not in the UK, Prince Harry has just lost a judicial review case about him and his wife not being granted state protection. He does get security every single time he visits the UK. It just isn’t with gun-carrying outriders by his side.

And the first thing Harry did was run to BBC ... and he then wonders why the King wants nothing to do with him.

Everytime he doesn’t get what he wants — he runs to the media, bad-mouthing his family, calling the King’s wife a racist. His father has cancer and he is giving him more stress. Harkles keep telling the world how charming & wonderful they are; but they’re unpleasant and vindictive.

We don’t forget what he did to his ailing grandparents. Now he is doing it to his sick father. He is a selfish delusional spoiled brat.

Venetian doors

I’m going through an old album of photos from my last trip to Venice. Over 2 years ago.

I like taking taking photos of charming and eccentric doors. And there were so many in Venice.

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Little pathway with a small restaurant

Post?

This is someone’s door!

Trump is a menace to the Western world

God. Depressing news today.

Canada was all set to elect the most conservative, pro-American, pro-Israeli government in a generation.

Then, Trump had to go trolling. He made those sophomoric jokes about Canada “the 51st state” to his MAGA base of idiots. And then, he couldn’t shut up about it. He never gave Poilievre or anyone else in Canada a moment’s thought. God forbid, he’s not at the center of something.

The Conservatives’ platform of law and order, free markets, standards of living, stricter controls on immigration, and pushing back on the left’s social engineering and wokery, and various other social excesses was the exactly what an ailing Canada needed.

Carney’s case to voters was that he was the guy to trust & stand up to Donald Trump. And that was just enough for voters to overlook ten years of stagnation under Liberal governments, and more of the same mentality to follow.

But it seems to me that a right-wing conservative candidate would stand firmer against Trump and the U.S. — as much (if not more) than a leftist candidate. Conservatives are by nature more defensive and staunch about their national integrity and sovereignty. Canadians should have stayed with their conservative candidate for the same reasons they stood with him prior to Trump’s retch.

And what did Trump gain out of the hostility and aggression to Canadian sovereignty? What did America achieve? 

In so many areas, we would have been better off having Prime Minister Poilievre. And so would Trump. Trump complained about the Fentanyl smuggling. But well under 1% of Fentanyl entering the US comes from Canada. And, if it is access to Canadian resources, we could easily buy them from Canada. And yet, Trump engineered precisely the worst for American interests.

As long as Trump wins; conservatism and America loses.

Israeli military taking accountability

I originally wrote this post a week ago — but decided to wait for the Israeli military investigation.

For those that aren’t aware, the IDF recently admitted to have mistakenly identified a convoy of aid workers as a threat. Video subsequently emerged proving that the ambulance was clearly marked when the Israeli forces opened fire on 15 humanitarian workers.

Below is the IDF statement (from Sky News):

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The key overarching point here that is that Israel has behaved in a way that her enemies can never:

1. The IDF have acknowledged that the killings were an error. 
2. They released an initial flawed statement, then corrected the record - publicly. 
3. They launched an internal investigation. 
4. They reprimanded and dismissed a respected and high ranking commanding officer for (1) breaches of orders, and (2) a failure to fully report the incident.
5. They said they will take measures to prevent a repeat of this in the future.
6. They didn’t censor the press or detain whistleblowers.
7. They didn’t parade bodies, or burn footage, or pretend it never occurred - like Russia.

That’s accountability.

It is impossible to execute a war without mistakes being made. Soldiers mistakenly shooting at targets is something that happens all the time in war. It’s very unfortunate, but it does happen - especially in conditions of poor visibility. 

And who doesn’t adjust, or admit, or even care?    Hamas.

Hamas have still not admitted that they’ve executed their own protesters. Or used ambulances to convey terrorists. Or launched rockets from hospitals etc.

The killing of non-combatants by soldiers within the IDF does not represent Israeli policy - unlike Hamas.

Israel’s oldest Holocaust survivor Nechama Grossman dies on Remembrance Day, aged 109

I sometimes forget how recent the Holocaust was. 

It can seem so distant and so removed - the black and white photos etc. This isn’t ancient history – it really happened and within living memory. We recently marked 80 years since the liberation of the Nazi camps.

I came across the recent death of Nechama Grossman (Ynet): 

Born in 1914, Grossman survived the Holocaust and went on to raise a large family in Israel. Her son, Vladimir Shvets, said earlier this week that his mother had endured unimaginable suffering but overcame it with strength and resilience.

“She experienced the worst and survived,” he said. “She raised her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and taught them that unbridled hatred cannot win.”

Shvets added, “We must all remember her story, remember her survival, so that her past never becomes our future.”

Elena Shvets, Grossman’s granddaughter-in-law, said the trauma of the Holocaust remained with her until her final days.

“They fled the Nazis, and she suffered terribly during the war,” she said. “Lately, she had dreams—she even dreamed the Nazis were choking her. These memories never left her. I hope she is at peace now. Until the very end, she was sharp and spoke with us. She passed away quietly.”

Remembrance days, for me, feels different.

October-7 was the Holocaust reattempted. It was the largest number of Jewish people deliberately targeted and killed in a single day since the Holocaust.

When we saw the videos of young people trying to run away in the Nova music festival — it was the same as the historic photos of Jews running to escape from Nazis, being shot at, and being caught and tortured. The recent video footage of October-7 brings back the memories of our most dark period.

It is important to remember — as I was today reading the obituary of this lovely lady whose courage and strength and compassion I salute.

Lincoln’s Inn library

Took these photos in the early morning.

A sense of repose & tranquility.

The Kashmir terrorist attack

What a horrific act of terrorism on Indian soil.

Pakistan is now apparently “denying” involvement. They’re acting all defensive.

Of course this was by a Pakistani sponsored terrorist organisation.

Pakistani ISI are well-known to have sponsored Islamic-jihadi terrorism - even to the extent of it backfiring (e.g. the attempted assassination on Musharraf).

Portrait of Constantijn Huygens and his Clerk by Thomas de Keyser (1627)

Fabulous portrait.

This masterpiece from the National Gallery in London features a picture which opens my new book.

Constantijn Huygens was a polymath. Secretary to two princes of Orange, diplomat, poet, musician, aficionado of painting, and owned a huge library and engaged in animated written correspondence with great intellectuals, including Descartes and contemporary painters - Pieter Lastman, Jan Lievens, Gerard Gerrit van Honthorst, Anthony van Dyck, Rembrandt etc. A giant during the Dutch Golden Age.

The objects on table - globe/maps, books, quill, papers etc. refer to a broad intellect.

Navigation instruments (?) and exquisite table cloth. So beautiful.

The distant gaze and the general expression of thoughtfulness and contemplation. 

His neatly trimmed beard and mustache suggest a refined gentleman.

Pope Francis’s death 1936–2025

Poor man. Pope Francis was really ill.

He appeared publicly only 24 hours earlier wishing worshippers in St Peter’s Square a Happy Easter.

He had a remarkable life.

A v. interesting article about his life in “Pope Francis – obituary”. I have excerpted: 

Bergoglio soon confronted a matter of life and death. As Provincial, he had asked some priests living in a “base community”, in a very poor district of Buenos Aires called Villa 1-11-14, to return to living in a Jesuit community house. Two of the priests, Fr Franz Jalics and Fr Orlando Yorio, refused to obey. The matter dragged on for more than a year, and in March 1976, after the intervention of Fr Pedro Arrupe, the worldwide head of the Society of Jesus, the priests were deemed to have resigned from the Jesuits. Bergoglio urged them to leave Villa 1-11-14 for their own safety and he offered them rooms in the provincial curia until their own plans were finalised. Five days later, a military coup overthrew the government.

On May 23, the two priests were abducted. Days after his election, Pope Francis was accused of having done too little to prevent their kidnap and torture. The accusation was that if Fr Bergoglio had let the regime know that he endorsed the priests’ work among slum dwellers, then the death squads would not have picked upon them. But it was by no means clear that this would have saved them. Once they disappeared, Bergoglio took brave and repeated steps to rescue them from the armed forces. He even appealed privately in person to the dictator Jorge Videla. The priests were released after five months. Yorio died in 2000, but the surviving priest, Franz Jalics, issued a statement in March 2013 making it clear he did not blame Pope Francis for his abduction. The two men had been reconciled in an emotional meeting.

In other cases, Bergoglio sheltered people on church property, often hiding refugees at the Colegio Máximo. To help one man, he even gave him his own identity papers, since they looked alike, allowing him to travel from Argentina disguised in a dog-collar. While Bergoglio was Provincial, none of the Jesuit priests for whom he was responsible lost his life. In looking back at the Dirty War, he emphasised its moral confusion: “There were Christians who killed as guerrillas, Christians who helped save people, and repressive Christians who believed they were saving the Homeland.” Bergoglio sought to recover from the horrors he had seen with the help of visits to a psychiatrist.

In 1980, after nearly seven years as Provincial, Fr Bergoglio was made rector of the Colegio Máximo. He built up the numbers of recruits to the Jesuit vocation and founded a new church in a poor district. When rampant inflation impoverished ordinary people, he raised sheep and pigs on the college land to provide food. Soon 400 children a day were being fed, which kept the Jesuit students very busy.

The National Gallery's major rehang - “from the tube to Titian in a minute and a half”

Finally London National Gallery’s major rehang is being unveiled May 10.

It’s being celebrated as CC Land: The Wonder of Art.

Jackie Wullschläger writing, in “The National Gallery’s rehang is a fine achievement — proof that it is a sanctuary of beauty” (FT) has shared some big changes (most especially the 1000 works on display and the Jan van Eyck self-portrait):

More paintings are on show (more than 1,000), and all look better, thanks to muted wall colours throughout, allowing the canvases’ chromatic richness to shine. The hang plays to the building’s strength, those numerous corridor-like galleries which entice you on, promising revelations, broad vistas, intriguing associations.

‘Algernon Moses Marsden’ by Jacques Joseph
Tissot (1887) © The National Gallery

At other times, fresh arrivals shift a room’s whole tenor ... Interloper among Renoir, Pissarro and Sisley, Tissot’s assertive businessman “Algernon Moses Marsden”, elbow resting on a flamboyant tiger’s rug, reminds us how diverse the 19th-century avant garde was. Marsden looks unreliable and was — he went bankrupt three times. Delightfully, his great-grandson, fund manager Martyn Arbib, made this recent purchase possible. 

Spurring the entire overhaul was the Sainsbury Wing closure in 2023, for its foyer to be redeveloped. Architect Annabelle Selldorf will vanquish what Finaldi called the “forest” of obtrusive pillars, to provide a better, brighter main entrance, not yet unveiled. It will deliver, Finaldi promises, “a warm welcome” and speed: “from the tube to Titian in a minute and a half.” 

An artist’s impression of the reconfigured Sainsbury
Wing of the National Gallery © The National Gallery

Compared with current queues and security checks, that sounds heartening: straight upstairs to room nine, the splendid Venetian gallery, now opening on a room for the first time dedicated solely to Titian — destination pictures “Bacchus and Ariadne”, “Diana and Actaeon”, “The Death of Actaeon”, pagan myths of seduction, cruelty, fate, brought alive in the richest, fleshiest painting, foundational to art history. 

Piero della Francesca’s pellucid, calmly geometric “Baptism of Christ” is back in its chapel-like setting. Jacopo di Cione’s “Coronation of the Virgin” with its orchestra of angels returns within a new carved frame, every finial and column painstakingly gilded, uniting its two parts. In an inlaid wood frame with wave decorations, Uccello’s gleaming, restored “The Battle of San Romano” — snow-white chargers, crimson/gold hat, grid pattern of broken lances — looks almost modern; “like de Chirico”, Finaldi says. 

Northern Renaissance pictures large and small, amply though not sparsely hung, have also settled into this faux nave setting. Watching over them is Van Eyck’s quizzical “Portrait of a Man”, another restoration success: overpainted black ground removed, narrow sloping shoulders clearer, contrasts of light and shadow thrown by the extravagant creased turban more vivid.

Some very joyous new displays loftily transcend culture wars, celebrating individual (male) genius — all the Monets, from the realistic choppy seascape “La Pointe de la Hève” to the abstracting “Water-Lilies”, gather for the first time in one room, demonstrating continuity as well as sustained experiment — and personal taste. 

A theatrical gallery partly reprises Charles I’s rare collection, reuniting famous pictures of turbulent post-execution provenance: Tintoretto’s vigorous, intense narrative “Esther before Ahasuerus”, from the Royal Collection; Correggio’s soft, blue-gold-white harmony of figures in a landscape “The School of Love”. Charles’s reign, Finaldi says, “was a key moment when the English court was at its most refined and engaged with Europe — and he lost his head!”

Pivotal to Finaldi’s vision are particular relationships between artists, taking Turner’s demand that his seaports hang alongside Claude’s as “nodal points, steering elements”. Rembrandt’s “Self-portrait at the Age of 34” hangs with its model, Titian’s “Portrait of Gerolamo Barbarigo”; Dutch Caravaggesque follower Gerard van Honthorst is next to the master.

JMW Turner’s 250th birthday - Pick your favourites of Britain’s greatest painter

Turner’s 250th birthday is celebrated in 2025.  Born 23 April.

Jackie Wullschläger (see below) has written a wonderful essay about why JMW Turner still excites and enthrals us. Comparing him to the post-impressionist artist; “Turner and Van Gogh painted what they imagined”. 

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Top 10 Turner paintings

1. Venice, Noon (1845)

2. Fishermen at Sea   (only 21 y/o when painted this)

3. Caligula’s Palace and Bridge (1831)

4. Norham Castle, Sunrise

5. Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps

6. The Fighting Temeraire

7. Regulus

9. The Shipwreck

10. Frosty Morning

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Wullschläger writing in “Turner at 250 — why is he so beloved?” (FT):

The immediate answer is that the pictures are deeply pleasurable. As museums tend towards the conceptual and political, Turner guarantees painterly delight. His impact is instant and sensuous, his themes vast and inclusive: man and nature, present versus past, the rise and fall of empires. He engages and immerses.

Turner is theatrical, and also ambivalent — so we go on talking about him. His most political painting, “The Slave Ship”, subsumes man’s inhumanity to man into a tempest where, dashed with maimed bodies thrown overboard, a violent lurid ocean “burns like gold, and bathes like blood,” wrote Ruskin.

In painting, he did both. His idol, 17th-century painter Claude Lorrain, inspired his ambition, monumentality and grandeur. But coming of age during the French Revolution, Turner belongs to romanticism’s disorder. Smashing Claude’s classical equilibrium, he created pictures for a churning industrialising age, uncertain of its relationship with the natural world, thus newly fixated on landscape in painting and poetry — Turner’s peers are Constable (born 1776), Wordsworth (1770) and Coleridge (1772).

When Turner finally reached Italy in 1819, he was over 40, and responded not to its classical tropes (he was a hopeless figure painter) but to its radiant light. From then on, a golden luminosity suffused and heightened his paintings, not only of Italy — though his Venice views, converging shifting watery effects with themes of imperial decline, have a special elegiac beauty. 

The 19th-century age of materialism and realism, when artists from Constable to Monet insisted they painted their own visual experience, is fascinatingly bracketed by Turner and Van Gogh, who painted what they imagined. Van Gogh’s agitated spirals are descendants of Turner’s spinning vortices — a direct line felt if you go from the National Gallery’s Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers exhibition to the Clore.

Both Turner and Van Gogh were northern European artists who found their fullest expression under the Mediterranean sun, unprecedentedly raising the colour key to challenge what painting could be. Dazzling, consoling, beguiling, they brighten the winter and troubled times like rare northern lights.

Cherry blossoms on my street

Happy birthday Leonardo da Vinci - The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

Today is Leonardo’s birthday. 

Below is The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne from the Louvre.

This painting depicts St. Anne (grandmother to Christ), the Virgin Mary, and the infant Jesus. Christ grapples a sacrificial lamb. Christ holding the lamb, to be scarified ... and, thus, Mary holding Jesus, in turn.

This had to have been a very difficult composition. The Virgin Mary has to sit on her own mother’s lap! 

Either way, very beautiful. A serene landscape, balanced composition, and such charm in the love and passion evident in the delicacy and sweetness among the trio.

According to Waldemar Januszczak (in “Art review: Leonardo da Vinci, Louvre, Paris” The Times), this is his greatest painting;

... the awesome showing of Leonardo’s Virgin and Child with St Anne, a picture that usually hangs in the Louvre’s longest corridor, where the glare does it no favours. This, too, has been cleaned, and the results are staggering. What finesse they reveal. What beautiful physiognomy.

What gorgeous treatment of fabrics. What clever symbolism in the dark chasm above which the perfectly arranged group is balanced.

Leonardo’s greatest painting isn’t the unfortunately absent Mona Lisa, available only in a virtually real comic interlude at the end of this event. It isn’t even the gorgeous Madonna of the Rocks, which is here. No. His finest surviving achievement as an artist is this religious masterclass, filled with light, whose contribution to this strained exhibition is to show up everything else on display and to argue irrefutably for the primacy of painting.

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Being a tourist at the Louvre ! 😆