The National Gallery rehang – pure bliss

Some weeks ago, I finally visited the much anticipated debut of the Sainsbury Wing of London’s National Gallery.

I found it exhilarating.

I walked from room to room bursting with excitement about what I was going to find on the walls. 

The corridors and rooms are fabulously curated with easily-discernible themes and ideas. The architecture and design lend a stately aesthetic to the museum’s prized works.

I must admit I was a little overwhelmed at one point – how lucky to live close to such beauty & treasures which are free to the public. I always tell people that if they’re feeling down or depressed, the National Gallery is a beautiful refuge to forget the outside world.

Rating: 5/5 ★★★★★

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Me at Trafalgar Square with my Van Gogh t-shirt.

London’s National Gallery embellishing with beautiful fountains.

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The Sainsbury Wing’s neoclassical entrance of the National Gallery.

The museum’s repository of early Renaissance paintings.

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The main foyer at the Sainsbury Entrance.

The muted light-coloured stone flooring gives it an elegant and spacious feel.

 

A gift shop, help desk and stairs to the main gallery.

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Palatial staircase to the main galleries.

“Protesters march through London waving Iranian flags”

Pure antisemitism, no more, no less.

Supporting an oppressive, evil and dangerous regime because it wants to wipe the Jewish state.

Meanwhile women in Iran hoping the regime is toppled.

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Natasha Leake & Patrick Sawer writing in “Protesters march through London waving Iranian flags” (Telegraph):

Pro-Palestine protesters marched through London on Saturday chanting “stop bombing Iran”.

Large crowds gathered in Parliament Square waving Palestinian and Iranian flags, while also demanding an end to the bombing in Gaza.

Protesters urged the Government to halt all military support for Israel and lobby the country to de-escalate its actions in the Middle East.

It comes after Israel launched a series of air strikes against nuclear and military sites in Iran on Thursday night.

Tehran then struck back on Friday with missile attacks on Tel Aviv.

“Israel to the Rescue of the U.S.” by William F. Buckley Jr.

National Review have been celebrating William F. Buckley’s centenary birthday with republications of his old articles. 

WFB is a personal hero. A towering, witty and urbane figure of Conservatism and independence of thought. I am currently reading his “God and Man at Yale”. 

In the below article he comments on the Israel’s six-day war and US-Israeli relations, and, I must admit, found myself smiling and chuckling:

I also forgot that the Soviet Union had backed the Arab nationalisms against Israel during the 60s onwards.

Perhaps we should sign that mutual defense pact with Israel — if only for our own self-protection. Let’s face it, that was a blood-stirring show she put on against the Egyptian swaggerer with all his Communist tanks and airplanes, and all his jingoistic rodomontade. One can hardly imagine a better military machine to help us out of a jam than Israel’s. There is courage, tenacity, single-mindedness, skill — all of them put to essentially non-imperialist uses, if you grant the legitimacy of the Balfour Declaration which at this stage you might as well do.

Nasser declared that the Mideast was too small an area for the Arabs and for the Israelis, to which the Israelis’ only response — always assuming they were not prepared neatly to dismantle their nation and march into the sea — was that under the circumstances, the Arabs would have to move over. (Lol) After 36 hours of an Israeli blitzkrieg, the Arab braves have stopped war-dancing long enough to discover that they are surrounded by Israelis, and that their great brothers in the Soviet Union were off at the United Nations jawing about cease-fires, and never mind the old borders, the new ones would be perfectly satisfactory. (Another lol)

Not only might Israel be of great military help to the United States in any future emergency: there is absolutely no limit to the psychological help she can be. Who else but Israel could have turned our doviest doves into tiger sharks? Who but Israel could, for instance, have persuaded Dwight Macdonald, that eminent pacifist, who walks out of the room rather than listen to Hubert Humphrey because Hubert Humphrey is committed to the proposition that the United States has to help small nations around the world when threatened by aggression: who else but Israel could have transformed Macdonald into the very image of Long John Silver, patch over his eye, dagger between his teeth, napalm grenades in his rucksack, boarding the enemy’s ship shouting lustfully Murder! Loot! Rapine! Come one, come all!

A single advertisement sponsored by the “Americans for Democracy in the Middle East,” whose text I myself heartily endorse, is signed by Theodore Draper, critic of LBJ; Michael Harrington, a pacifist of sorts; Robert Heilbroner, the economist and critic of LBJ; Irving Howe, the critic and editor of “Dissent,” which is to the American left what the John Birch Society’s “American Opinion” is to the American Right; H. Stuart Hughes, who loveth man so much that he would have had the U. S. disarm unilaterally years ago — leaving us, Sir Stuart, with what means of implementing the action you call for now in Israel?; Norman Podhoretz of “Commentary,” Joe Rauh of the ADA, and so forth and so on.

Any nation with the strength to compel such men as these to start talking in terms of international obligations, the demands of honor, the necessity for the use of force thousands of miles from home, is a priceless national asset, quite apart from the sentimental value of the country. Indeed, one should consider giving to Israel a few square miles of territory in South Vietnam, in West Berlin, in the Straits of Formosa, and at other likely pressure points where East and West are likely to meet on unfriendly terms. 

The antisemites on the right

Very interesting comments by Jeffrey Blehar in “The Wail of the Israel Haters“ (National Review):

And as soon as the first Israeli strikes were announced on Thursday, the weirdos scuttled out from behind the woodwork and poured forth over Twitter/X, chirruping angrily and helplessly about Israel, about Jews, and about worldwide conspiracy theories to yoke America to the Zionists. Yes, old-fashioned nuttery was once again out in the open, as all the most obvious suspects ran rampant.

There was Candace Owens — a woman who swears she is not an antisemite even as she “just asks questions” about the myth of Simon of Trent — reverting perfectly to form upon hearing the news: “Get ready, white American men! It’s time for you to go die for Israel again.” There was Tucker Carlson’s favorite “historian,” Darryl “MartyrMade” Cooper, offering prayerful words of consolation to his followers: “Don’t worry, friends: as arrogant and invincible as he may seem, in the end the devil and all his children are cast into the lake of fire.” (Remember, my friends: Cooper — who also believes that Churchill was the villain of World War II and that Europe would have been better off had Hitler won — insists that he is in no way an antisemite.)

As if to top them all, purported comedian Dave Smith — last seen sidekicking as a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist spouting accusations of Israeli genocide in Gaza on Joe Rogan’s hyperpopular podcast — went one step further. Referring to reports that Trump is fully supporting Israel’s action, he called Trump a traitor to his own movement:

If this is true, Trump is the most impotent b**** of a leader imaginable. He’s allowing one side of a war, who clearly wants to drag us in, to lie about our involvement while not correcting the record.

Either way, Trump has betrayed MAGA and every principle of America First. He is no longer worthy of any of our support. He probably never was.

I am as worried about the potential outcome in the Middle East as any sane man would be. (In particular, I would be very careful about breezily calling for immediate “regime change” without further consideration of what a post-mullah Iran, brought to heel by Israeli military action, would look like.) But it does my heart good to see all the worst people absolutely enraged, and in such repulsively sputtering ways, about Israel’s success to date.

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For those who don’t know, Dave Smith is a total moron. I’ve heard him “debate” on the Israel-Gaza conflict and he knows nothing. He would babble about a two-state solution on the popular 1967 borders until he realised Egypt and Jordan occupied Gaza and Judea and Samaria from 1948. And even if we pretend that there was a country called “Palestine”, and that we could revert to the 1967 borders, or even the 1948 borders; why did the Arabs reject every single partition plan before these borders were demarcated and tried to take the entirety of the land by force? No answer. These people parrot “ending the occupation” or “from the river to the sea” which is an antisemitic dog whistle. It means the eradication of Israel and the Jews. 

Tucker Carlson is an isolationist conservative. The problem here is that this inclination is apt to sometimes involve conspiracies about the Jews and world dominion. Tucker did also “interview” Putin and, worst of all, gave Darryl Cooper a platform on his show for his deplorable David Irving historical revisionism of WW2.

Opera Singing Cockatiel

Israel hitting military targets, Iran lobbing missiles at civilians

Note the contrast:

• Israel took out military airport, major long-range missile bases, Iran’s primary nuclear enrichment site, the four most senior generals, and now the intelligence chief.
• Iran wants to make Israel “uninhabitable” .

  

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Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program

Wow. This is a serious escalation - but it works to Israel’s advantage. Strengthening Israel without engendering sufficiently potent blowback.

I think there are three points to make.

1) The Israelis have every right and responsibility to defend their citizens from a deranged enemy that has unequivocally declared their wish is to wipe the Jewish state from the face of the earth. Iran’s nuclear weapon ambitions are Israel’s problem. As the Holocaust taught, Jews have to to take seriously those intent on the Jewish extermination. Hitler’s intent was made plain from the start in his Mein Kampf. The Ayatollahs have made the destruction of Israel their major foreign policy goal. Israel must believe them.

2) I think Israel is right to say that a preemptive strike was necessary and that it had to take this threat very seriously. No-one can seriously believe that Iran’s nuclear program is for purely for civil purposes. There is no lack of oil in Iran for production of electricity, and there is no commercial reason for enriching uranium to the levels they have. Plenty of countries operate commercial nuclear reactors without Uranium enrichment. The Trump negotiations in Rome failed. The US was the carrot side of these negotiations, and Israel was the stick. I can’t see how these talks can possibly end in half measures, (like the 2015 deal). It’s either no enrichment and dump the centrifuges, or out comes the stick. As Akhtar Makoii reporting recently in “Iran risks US fury after increasing uranium stockpile” (Telegraph):

A new report from the UN nuclear watchdog revealed that Iran had added 133.8kg of uranium in the last three months, which, if enriched to 90 per cent, would be enough for three nuclear bombs. (Recent increase in uranium extraction)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the Islamic Republic had increased its stockpile of 60 per cent enriched uranium to 408.6kg from 274.8kg in early February. (Doubling the uranium enrichment to 60% which is the weapons-grade uranium)

Tehran now has enough fissile material for 10 nuclear weapons, and the US estimates that it could be converted in less than two weeks. (Only 2 weeks to make 10 nuclear weapons) The accumulation has accelerated despite talks between the two aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear capabilities in exchange for the potential lifting of sanctions.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has warned that any potential nuclear deal with the Trump administration could trigger a revolt within the elite military force, (probably explains why the IRGC commander was executed by Israel) The Telegraph understands. One senior official said: “The commanders have warned the leader that striking a deal with the current American government would risk losing support from a significant segment of society and provoke deep anger among IRGC commanders.”

3) Iran is definitely weakened. Israel has already breached Iranian air space with targeted strikes and Iran has only responded with hundreds of drone/strike ballistic missiles at Israel which could not penetrate the joint air defenses of Israel and the US. None of the Arab nations agree with Iran and many are set to join the Trump Accords. No more al-Assad, the Iranian proxies are debilitated. There’s no reason why negotiations can’t continue. Trump’s bargaining position just got a lot stronger.

Air India Crash

Christ.

Sympathies and condolences to the families who have lost a loved one.

Horrific ball of fire. I can’t even imagine the few moments before it crashed. 

Israel’s moral strength against Hamas

I really wanted to post about this earlier this week, but I was too busy.

There are 3 things worth noting:

1. Another Hamas chief (Mohammed Sinwar) has been sent to meet his 72 virgins. 

2. Hamas communication centre was under a hospital in Khan Younis. He was hiding under sick people.

3. It proves - once again - just how exemplary the IDF is. They set a serious bombs to detonate causing the Hamas’ communication centre to collapse on itself without harming or destroying the hospital and the patients. It’s an incredible feat of engineering, intelligence and moral decency and principles in fighting their enemy. According to the jpost:

The bombs, each weighing about a ton, were designed so that two points within the hospital would be bombed, causing the sand to collapse inward and block the tunnel in such a way that anyone inside couldn’t escape. Simultaneously, aircraft attacked the tunnel at additional points, with the strikes so precise that dozens of bombs landed just centimeters apart, each deepening the penetration for the next bomb. Amazingly, despite dozens of tons of bombs hitting the tunnel, no hospital wing or building was damaged, and only the tunnel was destroyed in a way that trapped the gases from the bombs inside, creating a lethal gas space.

The contrast couldn’t be clearer. 

One side is discerning, careful, high-principled and humane .... and the other hides behind sick people and pregnant mums.

The Israeli military is the archetypal army of the Western world - as careful, meticulous and humane as can possibly be.

The Israeli aid plan in Gaza and deceptive reporting on IDF

The new aid-plan has proved to be a nightmare. I wish there was an easy solution – I can’t think of one. The aid distribution has become nasty and horrible traps for poor, vulnerable and hungry Gazans. You have to walk long distances, and there isn’t any protection that the IDF have installed from the mobs and the mania that can set in. Maybe that is something that Israel could have organised. Maybe. Maybe not.

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Look at the headline below.

Looking at the headline you’d think that the IDF randomly shot at innocent & hungry Gazans – for the sheer heck of it … (and according to “Gaza Officials” = aka: Hamas!)

However, in an IDF statement:

IDF: We are currently unaware of IDF fire during daylight hours that corresponds with the footage circulated in the media. The details are under review.

Overnight (Wednesday), IDF troops fired warning shots toward suspects who were advancing while posing a threat to the troops, in the area of the Netzarim Corridor. 

This is despite warnings that the area is an active combat zone. The IDF is aware of reports regarding individuals injured, the details are under review.

The question here is which is more likely?

That the IDF randomly shot at tired and hungry Palestinians begging for food or that the Hamas brutality and rivalry (over control) led to the Palestinian deaths?

While accidents do happen, the IDF does NOT have a policy of opening fire at random civilians. It does NOT have a motive to “make” mistakes or shoot at non-combatants. I say this acknowledging that the IDF have sometimes appeared to have covered-up its mistakes. No army is perfect, and those incidents are the exception: not the rule.

Instead, the so-called “support” that Hamas “enjoy” is never earned. It is taken by force and oppression. They have impoverished and exploited the inhabitants through their brutality, control of food and aid distribution, civilian infrastructure, prevention of civilian evacuation, never mind so much as a protest.

I argued in a previous blogpost that the quondam UNWRA food distribution was one of Hamas’ major weapons in this conflict (both for PR purposes and to enslave its people). Israel removed that weapon. Ergo, now Hamas sabotage efforts to feed its own people to get that weapon back. It’s insane that NGOs, aid groups and the international community are otherwise implicitly supporting Hamas.

The GHF issued a statement saying that their humanitarian staff were violently attacked by Hamas as they were travelling to an aid distribution centre in Gaza. 5 of their members killed. 

And thus, the absolute of depravity that leads one to attack people providing food for your own people is breathtaking ... while Israel is framed as the nasty party.

The Trump-Musk divorce

So, the romance has died – in such open nastiness and bickering. 

As I always said, Trump is not a conservative. No fiscal hawk. Cutting spending was merely a pretext to do away with programs he disliked and people he distrusted. And, now they’re gone: he’s perfectly happy to spend the savings (and then some) on stuff he wants.

Musk was naive. He bought into the notion that Trump actually wanted to get spending under control. I honestly think he was taken in with the hype of MAGA. Thus, he felt used and stupid with the tariffs and when the budget bill coming out. Musk torched his career thinking he was rescuing America just to find out he got suckered.

We all knew it would end this way. And, as always with Trump, taking the low road with insults and pettiness. This time, they both went to the gutter. Nothing more than a national embarrassment. Musk had a nasty side too. I remember him using the pedo accusation against someone who attacked him. Musk, this time, uses Epstein.

We have another 3.5 years of this embarrassment to end.

Nothing is serious anymore

The “bigly beautiful bill”.

Is everything a slogan?