A little thread on that image floating around. But lets start with a story. A friend of mine went to a festival in the 80s, might have been somewhere like Castlemorton. One of the bands was an anti-racist anti-apartheid punk/rock outfit known for making political statements. So between songs, the lead singer calls out to the crowd to cheer support for some notable political figures at the time:
"Thomas Sankara!"
*crowd cheers
"Nelson Mandela!"
*crowd cheers louder
"Bobby Sands!"
*no response
"Bobby Sands!!!"
*crowd murmurs awkwardly

🧵 Latest call with my father was a bit different. Where before we have gone over the latest events and what we think happened, this time I did most of the listening and the topic was what is happening with an urgency and clarity, perhaps a touch of panic. Wider picture time. Below is largely his line of thinking and I've filled it out into 280 character statements. He requested that I make this thread because he wanted this perspective from inside Israel to be better understood, or at least discussed whether there are disagreements or not.
So ...

Reminded of when I was phone canvassing for Labour in 2019 in Stratford Upon Avon district and one man said "get rid of No.1 and No.2 and that awful black woman (Diane Abbott)" and how I was screamed at on the street as an antisemite. Where did THAT extremism come from? If you've being paying attention then the answer is as obvious as it is banal. It didn't start in 2019. In one form or another it's been a consistent feature of how UK politics and media has operated for centuries. It's the quid pro quo for ruling classes 'allowing' democracy.

🧵 on next UK General Election. I'll try to keep this short. Conventional wisdom: UK needs (FPTP will deliver) a clear result of a majority governing party, most likely to be Labour if headline polls are to be believed. This will deliver political stability. TL;DR: it won't ... So Labour win with a clear majority. SW1 and the Establishment breathe a huge sigh of relief. The adults are back in charge. Their manifesto was full of sparkling garnish but the professional tea leaf readers knew it was full of caveats and double-speak - no threat at all.

🧵When I use the phrase Polidia Class (POLItical & meDIA) to describe an alignment of interests between SW1 print & broadcast media and Westminster this is a good example. No-one denies MPs face threats that are sometimes horrifically and fatally realised. That's not new however. Here's the list of sitting British MPs killed. The frequency picks up at the end of the 1970s and the start of the Thatcher revolution, an ideologically extremist and callous project of brute force redesigning of the entire political-economy, also the apex of the Troubles.

🧵 Just got off the phone to a relative in Israel. An update on the situation from their perspective. First off the bat, despite the Govt and it's client media's onslaught of propaganda the most success Israel has with the hasbara is largely abroad amongst media and politicians. Israelis are, despite their voting preferences, a population highly attuned to the double-speak of their own nation and cynical about it. They are not afraid of questioning the Govt's official line and will challenge it openly, unafraid, unlike in the west, of being smeared.

I'm not at all a fan of Hamas but holy shit State of Israel every day you just add evidence to the case that you are the single greatest threat to the lives of Jews there and around the world. The great irony is that had my Zionist Grandparents not emigrated to Palestine in 1934/5 to avoid the coming persecution that killed their families I wouldn't be here today. For 13yrs they didn't need an Israel to be able to live in Palestine. And that's a whole different story.

Update from Israel 🧵: 2 weeks before the Hamas attack Netanyahu asked coalition 'partner' Yair Lapid to be briefed by Shabak (Israel's MI5) who told Lapid that the situation with the Palestinians security wise was more severe than normal e.g a threat of a major action or attack He did that because Netanyahu wanted Lapid's support in the Knesset to pass his legislation overhauling the judiciary and Bibi only has a majority of about 4 votes. Knowing Lapid didn't trust him, Bibi told him to be briefed by Shabak (from the horse's mouth) about the threat.

🧵 A little update on context of Saturday from Israel. Prior to the attack, Netanyahu was about to sign a normalisation agreement with KSA. He was touting this is a sign of a new era of stability and security for Israel. At the same time, he was leaving Israelis unprotected ... A lot of Kibbutzes had small groups of members who were armed with serious weapons in the event of an attack. In the weeks leading to the attack, the Govt took those arms away and left only small side-arms in place. This worried IDF & reservists who requested reinforcements.