Mick Hartley

Blog

  • Syria and the Druze

    lishment of hostile elements and jihadist terrorists near the border and across the entire southern Syrian Golan.

    "Israel's intervention was intended to send a clear message: there will be no change in the balance of power in the southern Syria region without Israel's consent, nor will there be a deployment of capabilities that could threaten Israel within a distance determined by it (in other words: defining a demilitarised zone).”

    Ben-Shabbat placed the events in a wider regional context, identifying Turkey and Qatar as the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood axis who are seeking to fill the vacuum left by the collapse of the Iranian-led Shi’ite axis.

    On the other hand…

    However, Professor Eyal Zisser, vice rector of Tel Aviv University and a chair of contemporary history of the Middle East, offered a different interpretation of events.

    “I do not think he [al-Sharaa] revealed any particular character; this was an event that got out of control,” Zisser told JNS. “But it is clear, firstly, that he does not have full control in the territory over all elements, including elements that are supposedly under his authority. Secondly, this is a regime with an Islamic conception according to which minorities are not really welcome – incidentally, this is exactly the case in Saudi Arabia or the Emirates, where non-Sunni Muslim minorities are not welcome.”

    He added: “The Israeli intervention complicated the situation, but still, the interest of Israel and also of the Syrian regime, and certainly of the United States, is stability – and for this, it is necessary to cooperate, even if tactically, and to talk.”…

    The Druze in Sweida and southern Syria "do not want Israeli patronage – none of them asked for such patronage, and they emphasise that they see themselves as Syrian citizens, because they know that there is no future for Israeli involvement in Syria, and that it will only entangle Israel in the internal conflicts in Syria," he said.

    "Sweida is more than a hundred kilometers from the border, so what's the idea, that we will conquer all of southern Syria, where there are a million Syrian Sunni Arabs, and risk a guerrilla war?”

    Interesting. The nightmare complications of a Jewish state in the middle of a Muslim world. One step forward with the Abraham Accords – then October 7th. One step forward with the downfall of the Assad regime – only for the Sunni militants to rise up and take over. One step forward with the almost-destruction of Iran's terror proxies and Tehran's humbling, only for Turkey and Qatar to take up the reins in the anti-Israel crusade. 

    Meanwhile, in the West, antisemitism is reaching grim new levels not seen since the 1930s, demonstrating once again why Israel is so desperately needed as a Jewish homeland….

  • Keeping men out of women’s sports

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    And, US Olympic and Paralympic officials bar transgender women from competing in women's categories:

    Transgender women will no longer be eligible to compete for the United States in the Olympic or Paralympic Games in women's categories, after a recent policy change from the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC).

    The committee cited President Donald Trump's February executive order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," which mandates immediate enforcement, including against schools and athletic associations that "deny women single-sex sports and single-sex locker rooms," according to the document, and directs state attorneys general to identify best practices for enforcing the mandate.

    In a memo to the Team USA community on Tuesday, obtained by ABC News, USOPC President Gene Sykes and CEO Sarah Hirshland referenced Trump's executive order and said, "As a federally chartered organization, we have an obligation to comply with federal expectations."

    Well good. It'd be nice if they dropped the "transgender women" stuff, which makes it look like this is all about nasty transphobia. They're banned because they're men. Still…excellent news.

  • At the NHS Fife tribunal

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  • Comrade McCluskey

    mer Unite boss Len McCluskey enjoyed private jet flights and football tickets arranged by the firm building a multi-million pound hotel for the union, according to an internal report.

    Flanagan Group, which is run by friends of Mr McCluskey, overcharged Unite by at least £30m for the Birmingham hotel and conference centre project, the Unite report says.

    It also found Mr McCluskey "overruled" advice from staff and the union's lawyers in signing the construction contract with Flanagan Group.

    Unite's report said the private jet flights and football tickets were "consistently organised and paid for by" the Flanagan Group and there is "no indication" Mr McCluskey later reimbursed them.

    It's a huge surprise.

    Before he retired in 2021, Mr McCluskey was one of the most powerful figures in the trade union movement and a leading backer of Jeremy Corbyn, during his time as Labour leader. He remains an influential figure on the left of British politics.

    Previously (6th June):

    There was a "pervasive fraud environment" at one of the UK's largest trade unions Unite, an auditors' report obtained by the BBC has concluded.

    In a highly critical 35-page document, auditors BDO said in the 2021 financial year "dominant personalities and a weak control environment facilitated opportunities to commit fraud" at the union.

    The BDO report says there were "unusual relationships" between former senior staff and Unite's customers and suppliers, as well as a culture that "did not challenge" financial transactions and "failed to ensure" appropriate financial reporting.

  • The Hamas line to the BBC

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    The claim comes from one source: a man with clear Hamas connections, still lamenting the martrydom of his brother who was an active Hamas fighter targeted by Israel in 2004. But in it goes as the BBC's main headline – like there's a direct line from Hamas to Broadcasting House.

    A reminder: despite the BBC's refusal to acknowledge the fact, Hamas are a terrorist group, driven by Islamist ideology and a hatred of Jews.

  • Anti-Semitism in UK schools

    9 per cent have witnessed or been subject to Nazi-related comments.

    Jewish teaching staff reported being told “it’s not racist to say Jews are rich – it’s just a fact”, while others have faced assumptions that they are Israeli and not British citizens.

    And the NASUWT response?

    The rise in the abuse is being fuelled by “dangerous” rhetoric from the far-Right and misinformation on social media, according to Matt Wrack, the acting NASUWT general secretary.

    How blind must you be to see this as a far-Right issue? The people fomenting Jew hatred now are so clearly from the left-Islam alliance that only a union official – still living somewhere round the 1970s and wilfully determined to stick to the old slogans – could come out with this nonsense. The union problem in a nutshell.

    Update. From the JC – Teachers’ union accused of skewing survey to ignore antisemitism on the far left:

    Britain’s second-largest teaching union has been accused of publishing a antisemitism survey that highlights right-wing hate while ignoring Israel-related incidents.

    Critics also claim that the release of the allegedly skewed survey was timed to boost the profile of a far-left leadership candidate ahead of a critical election.

    The survey was conducted in May 2024 but was only released on July 1, 2025, amid a contentious second attempt by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) to elect pro-Corbyn firebrand Matt Wrack as general secretary.

  • Islamophobia: Labour don’t know what problem they are trying to fix

    or watchlist in 2020, 90 per cent were Islamists. People are acutely aware of the attempt by the governing classes to sanitise, excuse and deny these threats. That’s why there is such fury over the mostly Pakistani Muslim-heritage grooming gangs that raped, pimped and prostituted thousands of young white girls.

    Last month, Baroness Casey’s report said that these gangs hadn’t been tackled by the authorities, partly because they’d feared appearing racist. Yet people can see the government is still determined to downplay and brush all this under the carpet. Astonishingly, it even awarded an MBE for “services to integration” and “cohesion” to Muhbeen Hussain, who in 2015 called on fellow Muslims in Rotherham to boycott the police over their “pernicious lie” that they had failed to act on grooming allegations “because of fears of being called racist”. He claimed this was an attempt to “scapegoat” Muslims over the grooming gang scandal….

    People have been deeply shocked by the nature and scale of that scandal. It has become a lightning rod for the smouldering rage about immigration, national identity and Islam….

    An Islamophobia definition would be a breaking-point because it would be seen as silencing an urgent and legitimate public debate over such matters. That’s because the claim of Islamophobia is designed to stop any criticism of Islam or the Muslim world and, worse still, anything that world decides is insulting or unacceptable.

  • Man kills man

    lacing the sword in its sheath on a stand, a court heard.

    Brighton-killer

    Not a woman though, is he?

    Joanna Rowland-Stuart, 71, was arrested and originally charged with murdering her husband Andrew Rowland-Stuart, 70, after he was pronounced dead at their home in Lavender Street in Brighton on 27 May 2024.

    At Lewes Crown Court on Monday, the jury heard that Ms Rowland-Stuart, who has been deemed unfit to plead, told police she had acted in self defence.

    Jurors heard that Ms Rowland-Stuart, who is transgender, married Mr Rowland Stuart, known as Andy, in a civil partnership in 2006.

    Who is transgender, and therefore not a woman. Not a woman's crime.

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  • We’re not going to take it!

    [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9BsErwwn2Y&w=550&h=309]

  • At the Royal Opera House

    em voiceless, expressionless and helplessly in control by their oppressors.

    “I believe we are currently living in similar times.”

    Yes, in many ways perhaps we are. Unfortunately this buffoon has misread the situation. The current terrifying rise in antisemitism does echo the rise of the Nazis in the Thirties – but he's picked the wrong side.

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