This Saudi Iran Strike Might Be The Stupidest Move They’ve Ever Made

The Planes Meant To Be Protecting Israel Are Now Trapping It Instead

Right, so this is Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main civilian airport. Open, technically. Except the Americans have parked so many airborne gas stations on the tarmac that airport officials are now warning that 50,000 booked journeys could be disrupted. That 50,000 is not a confirmed body count of stranded souls, just the number of bookings at risk if the military keeps treating Ben Gurion like a drive-thru. Each of those bookings belongs to someone desperate to leave, but nobody knows how many will actually end up staring at the departure board. Those are the planes meant to protect Israel aren’t they? Now they're doing a fine job turning the airport into a high-security waiting room for the world's most patient hostages. And yes, there is an asterisk on that 50,000. The figure refers to bookings, and we do not have a confirmed headcount of separate passengers, though it could be for all we know. It is still a lot of people, but we will return to that point. Every one of those bookings still belongs to somebody trying to get out. The airport doors are technically open. Whether your plane can actually depart, however, is another act in this three-ring circus. That is a civilian airport trying to function around America's flying petrol stations. Netanyahu wanted the machinery of war close at hand. Very close. Close enough to keep Israeli and American aircraft in the sky over Iran. Well, he got it. It is now close enough to start chewing through the summer flight schedule. They would love this to sound like a dull row over airport capacity. A bit busy, isn't it? A few parking problems. Someone from operations will sort it out after lunch. Except airport officials have been warning for months that military use has swallowed a huge share of Ben Gurion's working space. At one stage, it was reportedly operating at around one-third of normal capacity. You can call the airport open all day long. That does not help the passenger whose airline cannot get a stand, whose flight gets cut, or whose booking suddenly becomes an entry on a cancellation board. It’s like taking bookings for a hotel, filling every room with military kit, then telling the guests their reservation still exists in principle. Yes, you can leave. In theory. You just need the United States military to move first.

Deranged Land Seizure Comments Backfire On Israel; Minister Quits - Is The End Near?

Right, so there’s Israel Katz, standing in the ruins of northern Gaza, being asked how all that destruction makes him feel. And he says he feels good. Good. Homes flattened. Whole neighbourhoods turned into rubble. Families were driven from whatever was left. And Katz stood there looking pleased with himself, as if somebody had finally just approved his second floor extension. He goes on to call the destruction a deliberate policy. Well, at least nobody has to spend six months waiting for a leaked memo I suppose. But then comes the next bit. Three proposed military-linked outposts in Gaza. Thirty-four newly recognised settlements in the West Bank. Settlement activists are walking into Lebanon and announcing they fancy staying there. All of which requires rather a lot of soldiers. Small snag. Army Radio is reporting that reserve formations are now so badly depleted, all on top of what I covered the other day in regards to IDF numbers and supplies, that one company came back from Lebanon with just one officer remaining. One officer.

This Saudi Iran Strike Might Be The Stupidest Move They’ve Ever Made

Right, so Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces have struck the runway at Sanaa International Airport because they wanted to stop an Iranian aircraft landing there. That was the official justification. The internationally recognised Yemeni government said the flight had entered Yemeni airspace without its permission, that Ansarallah, the Houthis were trying to establish direct Iranian flights into territory they control, and that this was a violation of Yemeni sovereignty. So they bombed the runway. Very decisive. Very muscular. Very “we are absolutely in charge here”, provided you ignore the awkward detail that Sanaa itself is not actually under their control and the aircraft had already crossed into Yemen before anybody started congratulating themselves. The plane was a Mahan Air aircraft coming from Iran, reportedly carrying an Ansarallah delegation back into Yemen. The Saudi-backed government wanted it stopped from landing at Sanaa. That was the point of the strike. Not to send a vague warning. Not to make the arrivals board look untidy. To stop that aircraft entering through a Houthi-controlled airport. And yes, they did stop it landing at Sanaa. For about five minutes, that probably looked rather clever. Then the pilot diverted roughly 150 kilometres down the coast and landed at Hodeidah instead. The plane arrived. The passengers got off. The delegation entered Yemen, back in Houthi controlled territory. So the grand operation to stop the Iranian flight had managed to change the airport code. That was it.

Trump’s Exploding Boats Scheme BACKFIRES - Then It Gets Worse!

Right, so Donald Trump has declared himself guardian of the Strait of Hormuz. Guardian. Protector. Toll collector. Apparently the man saw one of the world’s most dangerous shipping lanes, made dangerous by him of course and thought, yes, what this needs is branding. And a fee, bearing mind Iran was told it couldn’t do that. The orange one has decided he can though. Small thing Donnie, you still don’t control the Strait, but let’s no stop him from hoisting himself by his own demented petard. A 20% fee, no less, because naturally, if there is one thing global trade has been crying out for, it is Donald Trump standing at the mouth of the Persian Gulf with a clipboard and a card reader. But there is one other, rather significant problem with this idea, aside from the idea Trump would have a scooby about how to operate a card reader, he’s more likely to chew it I fancy, and quite aside from the whole who is in control here angle. Hardly anybody is crossing the Strait. MarineTraffic tracked only two tankers completing passage during one twenty-four-hour period. Two. Trump says the strait is open, Trump says America controls it, Trump says America is protecting it, but the ships appear to have missed that memo. Then two UAE-linked tankers were struck, one sailor was killed, eight more were injured, Trump’s scheme has been called piracy and not by who you might expect, and America’s latest contribution to maritime safety involved sending exploding robot boats towards Bandar Abbas. So yes, Trump’s Hormuz protection racket has suffered two fairly substantial blows. The ships don’t trust it. And quite a lot of the world think Trump is doing his best impression of a bright orange Blackbeard.

Israel’s Warfare Is SCREWED - IDF Collapsing With No Way Out!

Right, so Israel is once again rattling the sabre at Iran. Another operation. Another historic mission. Another promise that this time, somehow, the same people who have spent years chewing through soldiers, reservists, vehicles, ammunition, money and basic supplies are going to produce a fresh war out of the cupboard like there’s another fully staffed army hiding behind the beans. There isn’t. The IDF says it is thousands of personnel short. Active reservist numbers are being cut at the same time, which defies logic. The army is still chasing billions of shekels it says it still needs. There are reports of spare-parts shortages, repair backlogs and units struggling just to get basic supplies now on the war fronts they are already on, including water. And yet here comes another Iran plan, because of course it does. Because Netanyahu’s answer to an army worn down by war is apparently more war. The man has one button and he has absolutely battered it. Now, of course this does not mean every Israeli soldier has vanished, every water container is dry and every tank has been abandoned at the roadside with the bonnet up. It means something far more politically damaging than that. The army is still there. It is still dangerous. It is still capable of inflicting enormous destruction as it carries on doing every single day in Gaza, in Lebanon, in the West Bank and so on. But it is also telling its own government that the gap between what Netanyahu wants it to do and what it can keep doing, given all of this, is getting wider. It’s not that “Israel has no army”, it’s that Israel has a government that can’t get it through their heads that the army is finite. Yet when this became too obvious to ignore, Netanyahu and Smotrich appeared together in the most tin-eared way they could.