#OnThisDay Sept. 17, 1939: Soviet Union invades Poland, in accordance with the secret provisions of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact….
Polish mathematician Marian Rejewski, the man who broke the Nazis' "unbreakable" Enigma cipher, had fled Warsaw & found refuge in Eastern Poland. When the Soviets invade, he & 2 young colleages flee again, this time to Romania… @OrenNahari@MilHistNow #War_Of_Shadows
Exploiting the chaos at the border, master codebreaker Rejewski & his colleagues evade internment by the Romanians & reach Bucharest.
There they ask the British embassy for help…
An overwhelmed British official tells them to come back the next day. Desperate, they turn to the French embassy. French intelligence knew the Polish codebreakers…
The French embassy gives the 3 Polish codebreakers passports, visas, and tickets. Rejewski & colleagues board yet another train—this time across the southern rim of Europe, through Yugoslavia and Italy to France...
Poland is doomed, but its secret weapon - Marian Rejewski - has escaped with his life...
The refusal of help by a British official in Bucharest, though, means that Britain loses the potential services of Polish codebreakers. The British don't fully know what they've lost…
Because British codebreakers can't believe Rejewski broke Enigma on his on. They're sure he received a stolen Enigma machine. …
The full consequences of this mistake are unknowable. It's possible that they would have to be measured in British ships sunk in the Atlantic while Bletchley Park struggles with the tougher German navy version of Enigma. ...
US Sect of State Blinken saying that Israeli settlements in West Bank are "inconsistent with international law" is indeed important symbolically.
However, news items on this are mixing up the history of US policy on settlement illegality.
The Carter administration wasn't the first to label settlements illegal. That was US policy from 1967 onward. As seen in this cable of 8 April 1968 from the State Dept to the US embassy in Israel:
In 1976, the US ambassador to the UN, William Scranton, said in the Security Council that settlements violate IV Geneva and are illegal.
This @washingtonpost deep dive, like others, confirms Hamas deliberately provoked the invasion of Gaza, knowing that it was sacrificing countless Palestinian lives.
@washingtonpost The deaths of thousands in Gaza are as much part of Hamas's plan as the deaths of Israeli civilians on October 7.
The goal was to set off greater conflict, in the name of achieving Hamas's goal - both cruel and utterly without a chance of success - of destroying Israel.
@washingtonpost Hamas fought its way through the thin line of Israeli soldiers on the border in order to reach civilians - to kill, take hostages, and commit other atrocities.
Churchill's knowledge of Nazi mass murder in occupied Soviet territory came from Bletchley Park, where master codebreaker John Tiltman's team had cracked the cipher used by special German police units to report how many people they'd shot. (2) @calder_walton@spyhistory
Like this message from 18 July 1941, in which a Nazi police regiment reports that it had shot "1153 Jewish plunderers."
The reports were coldly bureaucratic.
אז @OferShelah אומר שלמפלגה חייבת להיות דרך. כלומר, מדיניות, תוכניות. אזי אני שואל, מה תוכניתו בעניין:
⦿ חידוש חתירה להסכם שתי מדינות
⦿ הפסקת מימון להתנחלויות והרחבתן
⦿ העלאת מסים על העשירים, כדי לממן -
⦿ כיתות קטנות, שכר נדיב למורים... @dahliasc@AnshelPfeffer@chaimlevinson
עוד שאלות ל- @OferShelah - מה אתה מציע על מנת
⦿ לרפא את מערכת הבריאות המורעבת
⦿ לאפשר לצעירים להשיג דיור
⦿ להחזיר מקומות עבודה בעקבות משבר הקורונה
⦿ להוזיל ולהרחיב תחבורה ציבורית במקום תלות ברכב פרטי...
ועוד שאלות ל- @OferShelah - מה אתה מציע על מנת
⦿ לסגור את הפערים העדתיים בהשכלה ובהכנסה שלמרות ההכחשות עוד קיימים
⦿ להבטיח שוויון מלא לאזרחים ערביים
⦿ לשנות את פני החינוך החרדי...
So @OferShelah says a party actually needs a program. Totally true. Therefore asking for his program on:
⦿ Achieving 2-state outcome
⦿ Settlements, & defunding them
⦿ Raising taxes on wealthy, to pay for -
⦿ Smaller classes, better-paid teachers...
More questions to @OferShelah - what do you propose to
⦿ Heal underfunded health system
⦿ Make it possible for young people to afford apartments
⦿ Restore jobs lost to pandemic
⦿ Make public transport affordable, efficient, replace cars...
And more questions to @OferShelah - what do you propose to
⦿ Deal with long-lasting effects of Ashkenazi-Mizrahi wealth & education gap
⦿ Ensure full equality for Arab citizens - incl place in govt for their representatives
⦿ Transform haredi education...