FTA: "Israel bombed the Iranian building in Qom housing the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran's next supreme leader on Tuesday, seeking to disrupt the vote-counting."

What kind of military target is that?

Just another war crime Israel and the US commit on a regular basis with little to no repercussions or accountability.

No wonder people in the Middle East hate Israel and the US.

"But it's their religion that teaches them to hate us!"

What was Geronimo's religion, Islam?

From the same Axios webpage:

"President Trumpf told Axios on Thursday that Israeli President Isaac Herzog must pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "today" " calling Herzog "a disgrace" for failing to act over the last year. "Every day I talk to Bibi about the war. I want him to focus on the war and not on the f*cking court case. I want the only pressure on Bibi to be the fighting against Iran," Trumpf bleated in a phone interview.

Trumpf has been pushing for a Netanyahu pardon since last June, arguing that his trial on corruption charges " ongoing since 2020 " is a "witch hunt" akin to the US president's own legal troubles.

But Thursday's comments-- which Trumpf raised himself, unprompted -- marked a dramatic escalation and direct intervention in Israel's legal system at a moment of active war. What he is saying: "The president ... should give Bibi the pardon today. I don't want anything on Bibi's mind other than fighting against Iran," Trumpf whined to Axios."

~snip~

So, the president of the world's strongest military power has now begged a national leader for help and demanded action from another during his unlawful attack on the people of Iran: Ukraine President Volodomir Zelensky and Israel President Isaac Herzog.

Hi AU

Thanks.

I too spent a lot of time in Northern Iraq like you.

The tribal nature of the Kurds-- and their language differences-- is what set them back from having an independent nation, as well as having their populations split amongst the larger powers like Iran, Turkiye, and Iraq.

There was a small Kurdish tribe in northern Iraq that was loyal to Turkiye, probably a historic relationship from the days of Ottoman hegemony. These Kurds worked with the Turkish military against their fellow Kurds in the PKK in the 1990s and 21st century.

Similarly, Saddam Hussein used a Kurdish tribe against the Talabani and Barzani tribes. He called them his "little donkeys" [sic].

Sidenote: Preventing Sikh independence-- "Khalistan" -- was their geographical split between Pakistan and India after the Brits left in 1947. And they all speak the same language unlike the Kurds/.

Yup, they call him the "Crime Minister."

Labor, the Greens, the Makis, have been longing to get rid of "Israel's curse" for two decades.

Peace-loving people have been leaving and 2025 recorded a net migration loss in Israel.

And if a Labor-led coalition ever comes to power again in Israel, how will they restore the lives and property of all the ethnically cleansed Palestinians?

The Likudniks, like US Republicans, behave as if they will never lose power.

In Afghanistan, the major ethnic groups would occasionally war with each other, but they behaved knowing there will be a "tomorrow."

In battle, they always gave their opponent an "out" because they knew they will have to live with their enemies in peacetime.

Your discussion of the Kurds made me think you were there, AU.

There are many excellent books to read about the Kurds, like this one:

Most welcome.