Beaufort Castle, Lebanon

 View Looking Northwest from Beaufort Castle

You may heard that Isreali Defense Forces (the IDF) occupied the ancient Beaufort Castle in Lebanon. I like castles so I go looking for pics. I quickly realize what I want is a 3D view of the place. Google Maps used to deliver that, but that facility (ability) has now been shunted over to Google Earth and response time on Google Earth is abysmal. The 3D view on Google Maps was great, you could pan and tilt to your heart's content and the view on the screen would pretty much keep up with you. 3D view on Google Earth is like that ol' hound dog from Saturday morning cartoons who can't be bother to get up much less fetch anything. What was his name? Droopy?

How about a video? Ask YouTube for Beaufort Castle and all you get is news reports about the Israelis and the only information about the castle is what you get is in the first line of the Wikipedia page.

The IDF has a video which gives you a good view of the castle. Parts of this video have been borrowed (stolen?) by everyone and their mother including Hezbollah, which I thought was pretty weird, but maybe that's just the world today.

Anyway, I looked around and I think I found four views of the castle from the four cardinal directions. Put that together with the video and you might get an idea of how this place is laid out.

Southeast Corner Beaufort Castle

West Side Beaufort Castle

East Side Beaufort Castle - Getty / dpa

View from Beaufort Castle

I tried to logon to United Health Care and it couldn't, so it suggested I delete some cookies from my browser. I did that and now all my pictures and links are screwed up, I so I don't even know what these pics are anymore.

IDF Releases Footage Showing Troops Seizing Historic Beaufort Castle in Southern Lebanon | APT
APT

Beaufort Castle Streetview Map

Google Map's Streetview is notably lacking in Lebanon. This Streetview Map of the castle is only about a quarter mile across. There are no other Streetviews of Lebanon except for one road near the coast.

Espionage is a dirty business

I'm not collaborating
[I am a Palestinian, an honorable patriot, and I do not choose with enemies.]

Drugs, sexual blackmail: shocking confession letter exposes Israel’s Red Crescent spy ring - Kit Klarenberg and Jonathan Urmeneta

This is part of Israel's war against Hamas, the same Hamas that is funded by Iran, the same Iran that we are currently at war with.

Hostages

This image released by the armed wing of Hamas shows the 48 captives held in Gaza [Photo released by Qassam Brigades]

Lest we forget just what kind of scum Hamas are. The sooner Israel eradicates this vermin the better. Taking hostages is akin to signing your own death warrant. Could it be that Hamas is just a death cult ala Kali-Yuga?

Israel's New Iron Beam Laser Interceptor

Jawdropping moment Israel's new Iron Beam laser interceptor blasts drones out of the sky
The Sun

Via The Village Hemorrhoid

Russian Compound

Holy Trinity Cathedral in the Russian Compound

Russia has a church in Jerusalem. Who knew? Tyler informs us Putin wants the whole compound back. I guess they used to own it.

Allenby's march in Russian Compound 1917 - The Library of Congress

Russia Beyond has more old photos of the place.

Wikipedia's page about the Russian Compound:

The Russian Compound is one of the oldest districts in central Jerusalem, featuring 

• a large Russian Orthodox church, 
• the Russian-owned Sergei's Courtyard and 
• the premises of the Russian Consulate General in Jerusalem, as well as 
• the site of former pilgrim hostels, some of which are used as 
• Israeli government buildings (such as the Moscovia Detention Centre), and 
• one of which hosts the Museum of Underground Prisoners. 

The compound was built between 1860 and 1890, with the addition in 1903 of the Nikolai Pilgrims Hospice. It was one of the first structures to be built outside the Old City of Jerusalem. The Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design's main campus is adjacent to the compound.

The Russian Compound covers 17 acres between Jaffa Road, Shivtei Israel Street, and the Street of the Prophets. After 1890 it was closed by a gated wall, thus the name "compound", but it has long since been a freely accessible central-town district. In October 2008, the Israeli government agreed to transfer ownership of Sergei's Courtyard, one of the main buildings inside the complex, to the Russian government.

Russian Compound

Google's satellite image of Jerusalem is blurry and the image doesn't quite square with the roads. Not surpising since it is basically a war zone. Wikimapia at least shows us the layout of the whole compound.

Gaza

Displaced Palestinians wait for aid trucks near a food distribution point at the Zikim crossing in the northern Gaza Strip [Mohammed Saber/EPA]

This picture is from a story on Aljazeera about the Jews are being mean to the Palestinians, the same story that Aljazeera repeats endlessly. Well, too bad. Gaza's not getting any sympathy from me until Hamas is rooted out and every last one of them sons-of-bitches are in the ground. But that's not why this picture is here.

This picture is here because there must be a zillion people in it. Makes me wonder if maybe Hamas' plan is to kill a half of the people in Gaza, like all good communists do, and it's cheaper if they can get the Jews to do it. I wonder what the kill ratio is. If Hamas kills a Jew, you know the Jews will retaliate, possibly killing half a dozen Gazans. So for the price one bullet you can get six of your fellow Gazans killed. What a bargain.

What to do with Hamas

Stolen entire from Essays in Idleness (by David Warren, Canadian citizen):

What to do with Hamas

The Canadian prime minister — currently Mr Mark Carney — has a job which, like that of most politicians, requires low intelligence and moral vacuousness. At his cleverest he may exhibit a species of rat cunning. His views on Israel and the Middle East are not even interesting, for no rat cunning is required. He simply observes that an anti-Semitic policy is necessary, now that Muslim immigration exceeds the Jewish vote.

To say that Carney is contemptible, would be to recognize him as a moral agent.

Not one good thing has come out of the Liberal Party since Louis St-Laurent retired in 1957. He, at least, achieved mediocrity. But what can we do? Canada’s population is one with the Liberals.

What happened on October 7th, 2023 — the slaughter of huge numbers of mostly unarmed Jews when Palestinians got outside the Gaza perimeter — can happen again and again. It will happen as long as Palestinians are, from childhood, taught or brainwashed to kill Jews throughout their education and social systems. I also protest against the disproportionate Israeli response. I think the Israelis have been much too restrained.

My model for “Palestine” would be Germany, or Japan. These formerly vicious nations became harmlessly bourgeois after they unconditionally surrendered to the United States and allies.  It is ludicrous to think we should have offered them a peace deal, instead.

Hamas, too, has behaved viciously, with the overwhelming support of the “Palestinians” in Gaza (and elsewhere), as Hitler once enjoyed the overwhelming support of Germans. What the Nazis did to Europe, or the Japanese to the Chinese and Americans, you must know to have the right to an opinion. Similarly, you must know what the “Palestinians” have done, and have been doing for decades, to have the right to an opinion on e.g. Hamas.

Our duty is not to force another peace treaty on Israel. It is to help the Israelis exterminate Hamas.

Exactly my line of thinking.

Old Man Of The Mountain

Betty Boop - The Old Man Of The Mountain - 1933 HD
Betty Boop HD

JMSmith is talking about the Old Man of the Mountain, and that sparks a vague memory of old cartoons and YouTube delivers this one featuring Betty Boop. Here's the intro to JMSmith's post:

Notes on Assassination
 

“The extirpation of the Assassins or Ismaelians of Persia may be considered as a service to mankind.” - Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776)

Ismaleans are the largest branch of Shia Islam.  Shia Islam itself is in some respects comparable to Catholic Christianity, at least insofar as it grants great authority to Imams, who are honored as successors to Mohammed, the Prophet, much as Catholic Christians grant great authority to Popes, who are honored as successors to Jesus, the Christ.   Sunni Islam on the other hand is in some respects comparable to Protestant Christianity because it is grounded on the scripture of the Koran and hadith.

The Order of Assassins to whom Gibbon refers was an Ismaelian sect that flourished in the twelfth and thirteenth century.  Although dispersed throughout Syria and Persia (Iran), the Order of Assassins operated with the discipline and policy of an organized state.  Its capital was a mountaintop fortress known as Alamut Castle, located north of Tehran, wherein dwelt a dictator known to West as the Old Man of the Mountain.  This Old Man did not, however, give law to a large territory, but rather to  a large network that spread through neighboring states, much as veins of blue mold spread through cheese.  There were “knots” in this network—minor fortresses subordinate to Alamut—and the whole might be likened without originality to a spider’s web.

The Order of Assassins (or Nizari Ismaili state) is of course best remembered for eschewing open battle and employing the stealthy strategy of targeted assassination, a word that is derived either from the first Old Man of the Mountain, Hassan-I Sabbah, or from their rumored use of hashish.  So, as Gibbon goes on to say,

“Among the hills south of the Caspian, these odious sectaries had reigned with impunity above an hundred and sixty years; and their prince, or imam, established his lieutenant to lead and govern the colony of mount Libanus [that is to say Mount Lebanon, on the Syrian coast] . . . . With the fanaticism of the Koran, the Ishmaelians had blended the Indian transmigration, and the visions of their own prophets: and it was their first duty to devote their souls and bodies in blind obedience to the vicar of God.  The daggers of his missionaries were felt both in the East and West: the Christians and the Moslems enumerate, and perhaps multiply, the illustrious victims that were sacrificed to the zeal, avarice, or resentment, of the old man (as he was corruptly styled) of the mountain.”

He goes on to talk about assassination and Israel's recent targeting of Iran's nuclear scientists. 

Which reminds me of an old story about a man going to visit a scientist at his home. The scientist is working on building some fearsome new weapon. The man tries to dissuade the scientist from completing his weapon, as the leader to whom the new weapon will be entrusted is seriously deranged. The scientist refuses on the basis that he is not responsible for what fearless leader does. While the scientist is distracted, the man slips into the scientist's imbecile child's room and places a loaded revolver in the kids bed. He then leaves. The scientist discovers the gun and asks 'what kind of lunatic would give a loaded gun to a imbecile?'

Meanwhile, France denied Israel permission to participate in their air show, and here's Israel's response:

Israel Defense Industries

Iran has been stirring up shit in the mideast ever since their last revolution. It's time somebody smacked them down.

Guns

Why Civilians carry Weapons in the streets
Marcio Tour Guide Israel

I kinda think Israel has the right idea, I especially like the bit about how everyone is trained in the use of firearms. Don't think we could get away with making it mandatory here, but having firearms classes available in all high schools might be a good idea. Might have fewer fools shooting someone by accident.

Wind Changes Direction in Gaza

Anti-Hamas protests in Gaza (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)

I was beginning to think that this was never going to happen.

Rare Anti-Hamas Protests Erupt In Gaza As Residents Call For Peace by Kassy Akiva

Of course, you can't tell if this protest is 'organic' or paid for by some freedom loving psychopath, but I'm encouraged.

Other People, Other Problems

A couple of well written essays about problems in other places.

• The True Faces Of Evil by Ben Shapiro, talking about Israel and the terrorists.
• US-Ukraine ties falling apart – former Ukrainian diplomat - RT
• The fantasy of British defence - We can offer Ukraine nothing but dreams by Aris Roussinos

a local take on political discussion.

• Capital chatter: Readers respond to plea for civility by Dick Hughes

an amusing take on Germany.

• Mean JD Vance Makes Germans Cry by Andrew Klavan

Accidentally Glorifying Terrorists

Zakaria Zubeidi is held aloft by the crowd on his release.

I'm stepping through stories on Feedly and this picture shows up, sans caption. Okay, we've got a picture, but who is this guy? Maybe the story will tell us, so I click through to the article, but the picture does not appear on that page. What's up with that? So I ask Google to identify this image, and it comes back with a half dozen pictures of what looks like the same guy, but no exact matches. I stole the caption from The Guardian which has a similar image.

So who is this guy? He is Zakaria Zubeidi, known terrorist with a long resume of murder and mayhem.

I suspect somebody at The Times of Israel slipped up and posted the story with this picture, which Feedly gobbled up and reposted, but then somebody at the Times realized they screwed up and deleted the image from the article. Too late, it's already out there.

It's a sad state of affairs when Israel has to release a hundred terrorists in order to secure the release of half a dozen hostages. Hopefully, once this cease fire collapses, Israel will resume the extermination of the vermin camped on their border. That may be harsh, but going by history, that is the only solution that will actually bring lasting peace.

Accurate Missile Attack

An Israeli missile hits a building in Ghobeiry, Beirut. [Bilal Hussein/AP Photo]

Al Jazeera has the story and several more pictures of the missile on it's way to the target. You might think the missile is going to hit the roof, but it actually impacts the building a few stories above ground level.

I like this excerpt. Al Jazeera is usually all Israel-bad all the time.

The strike on Tuesday came roughly 40 minutes after an Israeli military spokesperson posted a warning in Arabic on social media, notifying people in and around a pair of buildings in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital that they should evacuate the area.

He did not explain why the buildings were being targeted, other than to say they were near “interests and facilities” associated with the Hezbollah group.

The warning prompted many people to flee the busy, densely populated neighbourhood, even as others, including a few journalists, kept watch. By the time of the attack, the building had been evacuated and there were no reports of casualties.

Minutes before the missile brought down the building, two smaller projectiles were fired at the roof in what Israel’s military often refers to as warning strikes, according to the AP journalists at the scene. It is a practice Israel has followed in strikes in the Gaza Strip.

Jerusalem

Everybody's packin' and nobody's freakin'. So okay, it is like on verge of becoming a war zone at any moment, but everyday life goes on including this old dude playing the guitar.

Exploding Pagers

Not much new in the news this morning. Oh wait, what's this? Exploding pagers:

• AlJazeera: Hezbollah members among hundreds wounded as pagers explode in Lebanon
• ZeroHedge: Hezbollah's '9/11': Iranian Ambassador Among 1,000+ Wounded After Israel Remotely Detonates Pagers

No real information on how it was done. Did someone insert an explosive into all these pagers? Or did some whiz kid figure out how to put a pager in melt down mode that somehow caused the lithium battery to explode? I'm not sure you can make a battery explode simply by messing with the controlling program, but they do pack a lot of energy in a small package, and lithium batteries can be dangerous. So, maybe.

The news reports imply that someone (Israel) managed to infiltrate the pager distribution channel, and went in and loaded explosives in a bunch of pagers. The bad guys switched to pagers only recently, and this was only done when they figured out that someone (Israel) was listening to their phone calls. I wouldn't wonder if Israel had all those pagers prepped and were just waiting for the bad guy's leader to order the switch to pagers. The trigger? Israel leaked the idea that they were listening to Hamas' and Hezbollah's phone calls.

Gaza

Hamas is a a terrorist organization funded by Iran. Terrorists deserve nothing less than death. A strong society can withstand small scale terrorist attacks, but the October 7, 2023 massacre was horrific and deserves a horrific response.

Some people seem to think that only a fraction of the people in Gaza belong to Hamas, that is, most of the people in Gaza are not terrorists. Numerous idiots have been calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. What Israel needs to do is mount a full scale war on Hamas (if they haven't already), but call it a war of liberation for the Palestinians. In other words, they need better PR (Public Relations). Wipe out Hamas, annex Gaza and make it part of Israel. To the victor go the spoils. Just hope that the spoils are not rotten.

Vlad the Impaler

There has also been some whining about how captured terrorists are treated. What Israel should do with captured terrorists is impale them on ten foot tall spikes. All these mideast Jihadists are uncivilized savages. They are behaving like they are living in the 15th century, so we should be treating them as we would have in the 15th century.

Mideast

Mideast

The Ayatollah is a dirty commie. He may not proclaim himself a commie, but by his actions you may know him. Doesn't it say something like that in the Bible, the Christian Bible? According to the Ayatollah, it's either his way or prison, which is the modus operandi of ever good, er, dirty commie. It doesn't matter whether his way makes any sense or not, which is why they have a hard time putting together a military force that is powerful enough for anyone to consider it a threat. Anyone who has a brain is going to be insulted by the Ayatollah's bullshit. The only way anything gets done is if you have slimey weasels to run interference, people who can takes the Ayatollah's blabber and translate it, transform it, or possibly even deflect it before it reaches the ears of those who are actually capable of doing the work. That would be a tough job, I don't think I could do it, and I certainly don't want to be in a position where I would be compelled to.

Israel, you may have heard, has killed two top terrorists in the last few days. One was a leader of Hamas and the other was a big shot in Hezbollah. I couldn't be happier, especially when I read the nonsense coming out of Al Jazeera.

I've been wondering why someone doesn't quash some of these tin-pot dictators and set up a new system of government, like we did with Japan and Germany in WW2. Then I realized doing something like this generally means war, and wars are expensive. These days it has become a question of economics. If you invade and take over some country, are you going to be able to extract enough money to make it worth while? I mean the chief-jerks-in-charge would be fine with it as long as it doesn't impact their whores, toot and private jets, but with inflation the cost of whores, toot and private jets ranks right up there with funding a small army. So as long as North Korea and Iran are just spouting off and aren't seriously bothering anybody, it's easier and cheaper to just let them go along their merry way.

Hamas went over the line and Israel is angry, they are going to continue their war against Hamas and Hezbollah until they are eliminated from the face of the earth. At least I hope they are. It certainly doesn't make any sense to stop now. Iran might get involved, but I think they are just going to continue  doing what they are doing, which is spouting nonsense and funding terrorists. They are unlikely to do anything serious, even assuming they are cabable of launching a competent attack, given that the USA might take offense. But that's all idle speculation and I'm not going to worry about it. It would be a shame if someone carpet bombed Tehran, but it's no more than they deserve. It could be an opportunity to create a new society in Iran, one that wasn't hell bent on picking fights with its neighbors.

Screw The New York Times

The Daily Wire informs us that The New York Times is spewing bullshit again. This time they pissed off the Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu.

“Anonymous sources briefed the New York Times that Israel will be prepared to end the war before all of its objectives are achieved,” Netanyahu fired back. “I do not know who these anonymous sources are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: This will not happen. The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages. The Government directed the IDF to achieve these war objectives and the IDF has all the means to achieve them. We will not capitulate to the winds of defeatism, neither in the New York Times nor anywhere else. We are inspired by the spirit of victory.”

Hamas are lying, thieving terrorists and deserve to be destroyed. Anyone who is talking about a cease-fire or peace with Hamas is a fellow traveler and deserves the same fate as Hamas.

Death to Hamas

Hostage rescue tactics:

Hen Mazzig reports on the Summer Seeds raid by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) into Gaza to rescue four hostages.

Richard Fernandez speculates on how they might have been able to get close enough to pull this off.

In Western Civilization, kidnapping hostages is the worst kind of crime. You do that and all bets are off. Best you can hope for is a quick and painless death. There might be some civilians in the area who do not support Hamas and get caught in the violence, but if you associate with psychopaths you are liable to be mistaken for one yourself.

Today's Lesson

Stolen entire from JMSmith.

The Secret Badges that we Wear

“She bound the scarlet line in the window.” Joshua 2:21

A shibboleth is a special kind of password, which is to say a key or badge that opens a social door and grants admission to a social group.  As everyone versed in scripture knowledge knows, shibboleth was at first a word that the lisping Ephramites could not pronounce, and that the Sons of Giliad therefore used to identify the survivors of a shattered Ephramite army.  When a bloodied and bedraggled warrior staggered down to the ford of the Jordan, he was challenged to pronounce the word “shibboleth,” and thereby show his secret badge. Those who pronounced it “sibboleth” were immediately slain.

As I explained some years ago, shibboleths often take the form of sacrilege.  The password that grants admission to one social group is in such cases a violation of the norms of that group’s enemy.  Thus anti-Christian secret societies used to require an aspiring member to trample on a crucifix, spit on a Bible, or otherwise treat the sacred objects and words Christianity as profane.  In on-line culture, such sacrilegious shibboleths are called “shill tests,” and in these tests an aspiring member is required to type words that an undercover agent would find it very hard to type.  As I explained in that long-ago post, to get past the sentries of one group, you must often slay another group’s sacred cow.

A shibboleth is a password that prevents infiltration by spies.  A “scarlet thread” is a secret badge with which a traitor makes himself known to his new compatriots, and is thereby passed over when his new compatriots descend like wolves on the people whose compatriot the traitor only pretends to be.  Like shibboleth, the term “scarlet thread” comes from the Old Testament, and more particularly from the curious tale of a traitor known as Rahab the Harlot.

Rahab the Harlot dwells in the city of Jericho, and when Joshua sends two spies into that city, the two young men somehow fall in with Rahab, who we must never forget is a harlot, and she hides these two handsome young spies in her house.  This house was built on, or rather up against, the city wall; and on its city-wall side had a high window that looked out over the countryside.  It was from this high window that Rahab lowered Joshua’s spies on a “scarlet thread,” after telling them that her people were ripe for conquest because they were rotten with fear.

“Your terror is fallen upon us . . . the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.”

Rahab’s reward for betraying her people is that she and her family will be spared when Jericho is sacked and its citizens are slaughtered.  But to assure their deliverance, Rahab must keep her family in her house (of ill repute), and must display the “scarlet thread” in the front window. of that house.

“Behold, when we come into the land, thou shall bind this thread in the window which thou didst let us down by; and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee” Joshua 2: 18.

Thus a “scarlet thread” is a means whereby a traitor escapes the destruction brought down by his or her treason.  One wonders how many who “miraculously” survive some near-universal destruction owe their deliverance to display of a secret badge or “scarlet thread.”  Rahab was a harlot, so she knew how treachery works.

“She bound the scarlet line in the window.”

Not long after, as every Sunday-school scholar knows, Joshua’s army compasses the city of Jericho and “the walls came a tumbling down.”  Then, as many Sunday-school scholars do not know, before the sack and slaughter begins, a house displaying a “scarlet thread” is sought and a traitorous harlot is saved.   Which was very fortunate for that traitorous harlot and her family, because of Joshua’s army we are told:

“They utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword.”  Joshua 6: 21

Like a shibboleth, a “scarlet thread” is a special kind of password, although it grants its possessor the privilege of escape and not admission.  It is a secret badge with which traitors and spies show their true colors to their true friends, and by which traitors and spies are exempted when their true friends utterly destroy their pretended friends with the edge of the sword.