Israel is violating ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and Trump is allowing it

UK Foreign Secretary statement on Gaza and Sudan.

From the woman who, when Home Secretary, made opposing Gaza genocide in Britain illegal!  And absolutely no mention of Israel's recent attacks on Lebanon and breaches of both peace agreements some of which are detailed below.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/11/24/hezbollah-considering-response-israeli-attacks-on-gaza-continue

Israel Lobby EXPOSED: What REALLY Happened at the BBC? Double Down News :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ROBqQGhHsE

From:  jayne.kirkham.mp@parliament.uk

Dear Nigel G

I am contacting you because you have previously e-mailed me about the situation in Gaza. I wanted to update you about the Government’s view on the situation in Gaza and also about its view on the situation in Sudan.

On 18 November, the Foreign Secretary made a statement on the situations in Gaza and in Sudan.
 
The Minister began by talking about Gaza. Through the ceasefire, 20 hostages are now home with their loved ones and the remains of 25 more have been returned so their families can grieve. More aid is entering Gaza, but the ceasefire is fragile and there is still a long journey ahead to reach a lasting peace.
 
I welcome UN Security Council Resolution 2803. It authorises an international stabilisation force for Gaza and other transitional arrangements. The Resolution underscores the essential need for humanitarian aid and reconstruction and points the way to a path to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.
 
I believe it is essential an international stabilisation force and trained Palestinian police can be deployed quickly to support the ceasefire and to avoid a vacuum being left that Hamas can exploit. Transitional arrangements must respect both international law and Palestinian sovereignty and strengthen the unity of Gaza and the West Bank, to enable a reformed Palestinian Authority to resume governance in Gaza. Palestine must be run by Palestinians.
 
The work to implement the first phase of the ceasefire agreement must continue, to release the bodies of the remaining three hostages and to significantly increase humanitarian aid. We need all land crossings open with longer and consistent hours, and the rebuilding of basic public services and to provide shelter as winter draws in. The Israeli Government must remove the restrictions and uncertainty now.
 
I support UK contributions to expertise on weapons decommissioning and ceasefire monitoring, based on the Northern Ireland experience, and on demining and unexploded ordnance.
 
I am concerned the Palestinian Authority is facing an economic crisis due to Israeli economic restrictions, undermining fundamental stability in the West Bank. I condemn further incidents of settler violence during the olive harvest and oppose ongoing illegal settlement building.
 
Sudan is the worst humanitarian crisis this century and it is still unfolding. I understand the UN humanitarian chief has rightly described it as “the epicentre of suffering in the world”. Over 30 million people need lifesaving aid and 12 million have been forced from their homes. Famine is spreading, and cholera and preventable disease are rampant. In El Fasher, following advances by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), there are horrifying scenes of atrocities, with mass executions and graves, starvation, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war, horrors so appalling they can be seen from space. Further horrors will unfold unless greater action is taken.
 
Last year, the UK tabled a resolution at the UN Security Council demanding humanitarian access and civilian protection, but it was shamefully vetoed by Russia. Six months ago, at our London-Sudan conference, the UK brought together international partners and secured £800 million in funding. However, the situation continues to deteriorate.
 
We need even more aid to those in need, although the challenge remains access to the region. Both sides must allow unhindered passage for humanitarian workers, supplies and trapped civilians. I support Ministers in urgently pressing for a three-month humanitarian truce to open routes for lifesaving supplies, but aid will not resolve a conflict wilfully driven by the warring parties, so we desperately need a lasting ceasefire underpinned by a serious political process.
 
The Foreign Secretary has been calling for the same intense international efforts to address the crisis in Sudan as seen on Gaza. I continue to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, for the unimpeded access of humanitarian aid, and for external actors to contribute to the restoration of peace and security. I know Ministers engage intensively with the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United States, which have now together called for an immediate humanitarian truce, and an end to external support and arms that are fuelling conflict.
 
I also supported the UK’s special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which passed a UK-drafted resolution to secure international consensus for an urgent UN inquiry into alleged crimes in El Fasher. Teams must be allowed in to investigate atrocities and hold perpetrators to account. I support the UK Government in bringing forward potential sanctions relating to human rights violations and abuses in Sudan.
 
I know the UK will play its full part to ensure that it is the Sudanese people alone that determines Sudan’s future. Wars that rage unresolved cause untold harm to civilians, radiate instability, undermine the security of neighbouring states, and lead migrants to embark on dangerous journeys.
 
The UK is striving to meet urgent humanitarian needs and to secure the presence of lasting peace. From Gaza to Sudan that can only be done through international co-operation, and through countries coming together for peace.

Thank you again for the concern you have shown.

Yours

Jayne

Israel is violating ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon, and Trump is allowing it

In recent days, Israel has dramatically escalated its violations of the ceasefire in both Gaza and Lebanon, which have been met with utter silence from the United States. Could this mean a return to the full-scale atrocities of the past two years?

By Mitchell Plitnick  November 27, 2025

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “ceasefire” means: “a suspension of active hostilities.” The so-called “kids’ definition” is: “a temporary stopping of warfare.” That all seems clear enough.

But Israel’s definition differs significantly. They understand “ceasefire” to mean: “they cease, we fire.” 

This is not news to Palestinians, Lebanese, or any of Israel’s neighbors. Much like how Israel and its supporters like to say that there was “peace” before October 7, 2023, questions of violence are always defined not by whether there is shooting or bombing but by whether Israelis are getting hit with those bullets and bombs. 

When the United States imposed or brokered ceasefires between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah, it was well understood by all that Washington would have to keep Israel on a tight leash for the agreements to hold. It was not hard to anticipate that the attention to that task would not be sustainable under Donald Trump.

Recent events have proven that to be true. Israel has never held to either ceasefire, of course. But in recent days, it has dramatically escalated its violations in both Gaza and Lebanon, and these violations have been met with utter silence from the United States. 

Are we about to see a return to the full-scale atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon that became so sickeningly familiar these past two years? And why did the U.S. go to the trouble of brokering these ceasefire agreements if they were just going to let Israel destroy them so flagrantly and easily?

Above all, what is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trying to achieve, as he seems to be calling all the shots, directly or indirectly?

Israel’s aims

Israel’s goals are clear enough: endless war. 

After the United Nations Security Council shamefully voted to endorse Donald Trump’s colonialist plan to impose conditions on the Palestinians as the price for stopping Israel’s full-scale genocide in Gaza, Netanyahu reacted not like a leader who had gotten what he wanted, but like a man who just saw a development he needed to prevent.

“Israel extends its hand in peace and prosperity to all of our neighbors” and calls on neighboring countries to “join us in expelling Hamas and its supporters from the region,” he said in a series of posts on X. 

Expulsion of Hamas was not part of Trump’s plan or the Security Council’s resolution. Netanyahu obviously added this to prick Hamas, add fuel to his efforts to undermine the Trump plan, and to toss a bone to his right flank. 

Israel had never heeded the ceasefire to begin with. More than 340 overwhelmingly non-combatant Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was put in place, and over 15,000 more structures in Gaza have been destroyed, just as flooding, overflowing sewage, rains, and the cold weather of approaching winter start to hit the already battered population. 

In just the past few days, though, Israel has killed more than 60 Palestinians in Gaza, a sign of escalation. It is no coincidence that this uptick comes on the heels of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman’s (MBS) visit to Washington where he once again insisted, much to Trump’s annoyance, that if Donald Trump wanted to see a normalization deal between his kingdom and Israel, there would need to be a clear, committed path to a Palestinian state with a timeline. Whether MBS was sincere about that or not, Netanyahu has no intention of making even the slightest gesture in that direction, and the escalation in Gaza was, at least in part, his response to that part of the Trump-MBS confab. 

Israel’s justifications for its attacks on Palestinians are threadbare and reflect how little Washington cares. 

Netanyahu claims that Hamas has repeatedly violated the ceasefire by sending their people across the arbitrary line Trump drew in Gaza, when, in fact, these are Hamas members who were caught on the wrong side when the ceasefire was imposed and have been cut off from their commanders. 

Other Israeli claims are equally thin and disingenuous, such as the false claim that Hamas is killing Palestinian civilians or that they staged a body recovery, which is true but hardly merits the mass slaughter Israel engaged in response. 

But for the most part, Israel is not even bothering to justify their actions. They simply say, “There was a Hamas person there,” and that is good enough for the U.S. and most of the mainstream Western media. This is despite the fact that Hamas has stuck to their side of the agreement, in terms of refraining from attacks on Israelis, despite the fact that, legally, they have every right to attack an occupying army. 

Setting sights on Lebanon

Yet as much as Israel continues to escalate in Gaza, they are wary of reigniting the global outcry that has quieted a bit as some people — mostly those eager to go back to disinterest in the plight of the Palestinian people — accept the idea that the slightly slower pace of genocide occurring now can be called a “ceasefire,” and an end to “the war.” 

Israel is hoping that the isolation that was created, mostly by popular movements, during the genocide might ease. Netanyahu, who is always seeking ways to have the best of both worlds, will not end the killing in Gaza to achieve this, but is hoping the illusion of an end to genocide might take hold. So far, it has not, despite the fact that many sources, even some Arab ones, persist in referring to the ceasefire as if it were genuine. 

Netanyahu needs perpetual war. An Israel that faces diplomatic challenges abroad and internal questions at home is not a hospitable one for Netanyahu’s election chances next year. 

Lebanon offers an alternative. While there may be protests regarding attacks on Lebanon as well, it has not generated the same kind of global response as attacks on Gaza. With even less provocation from Hezbollah than they have gotten from Hamas (which, itself, was virtually nil), Israel has stepped up the attacks on Lebanon that it also never ceased. 

There could not be better proof that Israel has no interest in peace and regional stability,  but prefers a state of constant war. 

The ceasefire deal that was struck last year between Israel and Lebanon calls for the Lebanese military to take over the defense of the country in the south, where Hezbollah has been the de facto defense force for decades. The new Lebanese government agreed to do this and to work with Hezbollah to bring about the absorption of the group’s armed wing into the Lebanese military, unified under the solitary command of the Lebanese government.

This should be exactly what Israel wants. It would mean that Hezbollah, which would continue to be a political entity in Lebanon, would no longer have an independent armed wing. Their fighters and arms would instead be controlled by a government that is not only friendly to the West but also heavily dependent on it for its economic recovery. 

The Lebanese military made it clear from the outset that they would not — and indeed, they could not — disarm Hezbollah by force. They are not about to risk another civil war after the way the last one devastated the small country. 

Persistent Israeli attacks and Israel’s refusal to leave key areas in southern Lebanon have greatly complicated matters. Hezbollah has evacuated its sites in the south, but they are not prepared to disarm while Israel continues to occupy Lebanese territory and launch regular attacks. That is not an unreasonable position; they are simply asking that Israel fulfill its side of the ceasefire.

Israel assassinated Hezbollah’s chief of staff Haytham Ali Tabatabai last Sunday, in a clear escalation that was widely interpreted as a warning to Lebanon and the U.S. over what they considered the “slow pace” of Hezbollah disarmament and their claims that Hezbollah is slowly building up an arms cache again. 

Indeed, the pace is slow, and it seems that Hezbollah is likely rebuilding its stock of weapons. However, their support from Iran is greatly diminished, as are their domestic manufacturing capabilities; therefore, any rearming is a much slower process than it might have been in the past. 

Israel’s refusal to abide by even one moment of the terms of the ceasefire agreement is the greatest impediment to the process that the Lebanese government has been insisting is the only way they can not only disarm Hezbollah, but also normalize the country’s entire security apparatus, bringing it under one authority. 

The U.S.’ short attention span

At first, when the ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel was announced, the United States seemed to understand that the Lebanese military, weak as it is, would need to work with Hezbollah, not against it, in order to achieve the outcome everyone seemed to want. The Trump administration also seemed to get it.

But neither the outgoing Biden administration nor the incoming Trump one was prepared to push Israel to abandon its positions in southern Lebanon. Nor was either prepared to rebuke Israel for its continuous attacks, even when those attacks were directed at civilians, or even United Nations personnel.

American diplomats have sent mixed signals. Trump’s Special Envoy for the region, Tom Barrack, has vacillated between complimentary words on the progress being made by the Lebanese government in its talks with Hezbollah and threats of Israeli action if the process of disarming Hezbollah is not completed soon. 

When Trump took office, he sent similarly mixed messages. While he voiced his support for the Lebanese government, he almost immediately started pushing the government to accelerate the process of disarming Hezbollah. 

While Trump seemed to understand that Israeli attacks made this already difficult task much harder for the fledgling Lebanese government — asking Israel to “scale down” its attacks — he continued to show impatience with a process that requires careful steps, not bluster.

For Trump, his aims were largely achieved by his ability to claim a ceasefire in Gaza, however false a claim that may be. In Lebanon, the truce was not technically of his making; he likely would not mind a new round of large-scale warfare, which he could then claim to have brought to an end. The reality of such claims, and how they actually play out on the ground, is of no importance to him. 

In recent days, Trump has focused his attention on Russia and Ukraine, and, as a result, he is paying even less attention to Gaza and Lebanon than he was before. Netanyahu noticed.

In looking at what Trump is pursuing in Ukraine, and the potential wealth he personally stands to gain from his plans there, it is obvious that any interests he may have had in Trump casinos and towers in Gaza or Beirut are insignificant next to the mineral and other forms of profit he hopes to leech out of Ukraine. 

In the end, Trump decided to act in Gaza largely out of his concern for his business partners in Qatar, after Israel’s attack there crossed a line. That rebuke has now been registered, and his interest lies elsewhere. 

No one is reading this more clearly than Netanyahu. He will continue to pursue his Genocide 2.0 in Gaza, allowing a quarter of the aid needed into Gaza rather than none of it, and featuring daily killings of a slightly lower number than before. 

Lebanon is where he envisions a return to larger-scale fighting, but, at least for now, he needs Hezbollah to retaliate for his provocations. So far, they haven’t taken the bait. 

But how much more provocation can they realistically be expected to stand for? That is the bet Netanyahu is making with the full knowledge that Trump has turned his attention away from these actions. Trump, being his mercurial self, could pivot back, but there is little reason for him to do so at this point. 

The Third Reich of Dreams: The Nightmares of a Nation

“This is the kind of book that haunts your dreams. Essential reading for anyone who has known what it is like to live within a totalitarian state―or is worried they’re about to find out.”―Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth

The hidden history of a nation sleepwalking its way into evil

Charlotte Beradt began having unsettling dreams after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933. She envisioned herself being shot at, tortured and scalped, surrounded by Nazis in disguise, and breathlessly fleeing across fields with storm troopers at her heels. Shaken by these nightmares and banned as a Jew from working, she began secretly collecting dreams from her friends and neighbors, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Disguising these “diaries of the night” in code and concealing them in the spines of books from her extensive library, she smuggled them out of the country one by one.

Available again for the first time since its publication in the 1960s, this sensational book brings together this uniquely powerful dream record, offering a visceral understanding of how terror is internalized and how propaganda colonizes the imagination. After Beradt herself fled Germany for New York, she collected these dream accounts and began to trace the common symbols and themes that appeared in the collective unconscious of a traumatized nation. The fear of dictatorship was ever-present. Dreams of thought control, even the prohibition of dreaming itself, bore witness to the collapse of outer and inner worlds.

Now in a haunting new translation by Damion Searls and with an incisive foreword by Dunya Mikhail, The Third Reich of Dreams provides a raw, unfiltered, and prophetic look inside the experience of living through Hitler’s (or Netanyahu's (Ed.) terror.

Meanwhile back in the Fourth Reich .....

Israel Approves Gun permits for 10,000 Settlers in Occupied West Bank

CJ Werleman Dec 2, 2025

New fears for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank now that the Israeli Government has approved the issuance of weapons permits for approximately 10,000 additional settlers in the occupied West Bank, a decision authorized by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Defense Minister Israel Katz...

From 'X' : 

Trump Invites Netanyahu for Fifth White House Visit

Last updated

36 minutes ago

The leaders discussed dismantling Hamas's military power in Gaza, demilitarizing the strip, and building on peace deals like the Abraham Accords. The invitation follows Trump's call for Israel to engage in dialogue with Syria's new leadership amid recent tensions from Israeli strikes there. These regular meetings reflect the close U.S.-Israel partnership, even as both leaders face their own domestic challenges. A visit could come by month's end, though details remain unconfirmed.