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We’re joined by Beirut bureau chief Séamus Malekafzali to look at another eventful and disturbing week of events in Israel and its neighboring countries. Starting with yesterday’s assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh - potentially by remote bomb planted months ago in his Tehran residence - we discuss Iranian intelligence failures, Israel’s intentional sabotage of the peace negotiating process, western reporting on the Israeli rape riots, policies of pure revenge, sexual assault as imperialist ideology, and the ever-looming chance regional war. Then…when will we be able to finally find some peace from all these killings we’re doing so we can enjoy a dang game of baseball?

Find all of Seamus’ writings at: https://www.seamus-malekafzali.com/

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Comments

Semine

Hello

J.P. McD.

It is happening again. (The RSS download issue)

Smith

impeccable timing! heading in for a night job.

That’s Crazy

Wow I was hoping for Seamus and we got him let’s go

tanmantincan

Seamus is awesome, glad he’s on todays episode

NYCM&AHole

Saw the name and thought baseballcrank

Zach Pierce

Baseball is shitty right now. No one is hitting like they did last year. They’re MESSING WITH THE DAMN BALLS.

MoldyTolge

Night/Evening Alliance

Shiv

As an Irish name haver on a twitter break, I miss me some Séamus

Shiv

i just want him back

Shiv

don’t forget to 💩 on company time

Casey S

It occurred to me that Israel is hunter biden

Zen Ben

Higher quality content Middle East political analysis than any MSM source.

Michael S. Judge

As is well known, every run scored in baseball involves the umpire turning to the crowd and declaring "SAFE AT HOME"

Michael S. Judge

"A 9-inning win over the Astros"? Yeah we hoped they were gonna take it in 4, but a win's a win

Charlie Moonbeam

Great Ep! What was the song at the end?? It’s beautiful

Jonathan Nathan

That WSJ piece had me doing the full Christman STFU like seven separate times.

Jonathan Nathan

That one's gonna stick with me as a classic Willism. Right up there with "visiting research feller."

ray hafez

The reason American politicians won't even countenance stopping the flow of money and weapons to Israel is because it flows back to them in the form of lobbying money. The financial motivation for them is stronger than any humanitarian rhetoric.

Ernest Ambrus

What song is the outro? It’s a banger.

Blank

Too long since baseball crank and DND gameplay

Matthew

Oh, the ananity!

Brent

Baseball metaphors are the paint by numbers of writing

Paul Steiner

* decade and a half long championship drought when they lose again in October

Hardcore Virgin

It is pathetic and small and only for me but the howling guffaws at 26 minutes felt cathartic

C. Andrew

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance!

Matthew

Benjamin Yahoo Serious Film Festival

Doug Cartel

The fact that IDF needed to sap forces from gaza to put down the riots does not speak well for their current force integrity

Budget Hireling

Ah shit, a bummer episode. Well, thanks still I guess. Time to cry angrily again….

Nolan

Yankees suck

Ardy Rezv

We got genocide Joe and holocaust Harris. What’s Trumps pro isreal name going to be?

William

With cowards and bullies, every accusation is a confession

Hilary is Pant-suited Syphilis

Say what you will about the Nazi’s, they were monstrously evil, but I doubt they were ever as annoying as your average Zionist

Tim O'

Fairly confident that I lost a couple of IQ points from the baseball article

Secret Agent Manwich

Didn’t Israel already invent a shitty sport? Isn’t that what those dumb GaGa Ball pits I’ve seen popping up at schools/churches/playgrounds over the last 15/20 years are?

Jaime Christley

War with Iran would be fucking suicidal for the US on many many levels, not the least of which will be the cold realization that our military fucking sucks. I know we all know this, but it’s still bracing to think about. Grandpa Sawyer ass country

grymm

Have a good day everyone

Eran Greenberg

Great sensitive insight by Seamus into how Israelis see the world. Thank you.

Demented Avenger

The story about Israelis rioting to let its soldiers rape Arabs is like Der Stürmer meets The Onion. Der Zwiebel, I guess.

ohnoitsthefuzz

Oy, no politic here! No politic here! ☝️No politic! Am Israel cccchhhhhhhai!

Waffle Poet

Good rant 3/4 of the way in, Mr. Menaker. Well said.

dingbat44

25:43 Felix quick act like Matt did in the old episodes so they keep listening

Warbs

I know it was rhetorical but how can Americans continue to support Israel despite international headlines regarding the rape riots? Americans are the most propagandized people in the world. The WaPo article is all that Americans see: "unrest at a military base".

Rasha H2G2

Yes it is. Zahrat El Mada'en, a song about Jerusalem (Quds).

Rasha H2G2

It's called Zahrat El Mada'en, a song about Jerusalem (Quds), by Fairouz.

Rasha H2G2

It's called Zahrat El Mada'en, a song about Jerusalem (Quds), by Fairouz.

Rasha H2G2

It's called Zahrat El Mada'en, a song about Jerusalem (Quds), by Fairouz.

Kamran Husain

israel should steal rounders next

Rasha H2G2

I think the intermission was Li Beirut, right? The outro was Zahrat El Mada'en.

Rasha H2G2

Great pulls for both Fairouz songs in the intermission and the outro. Li Beirut is a gem. Zahrat El Mada'en is a classic. Thanks, Chris ❤️

William

The only thing I disagree with Seamus about is that nettin yay hoo and his ilk will never think “omg, we made some poor decisions”. There is a finite supply of iron dome missiles, though, so a big enough swarm could deplete reserves enough that israllys would actually start to feel what it’s like to live in gaza

Jaime Christley

Will thank you for reading that stinger twice, it was just the push I needed to drink the rest of this 64 oz bottle of Liquid Plumr.

Omar Ghannam

Zahrat El Mada'en is the perfect ending to that episode. Chris please cue Julia Boutrous for the response episode

Travis

Benjamin Yahoo

jsobrie

Benjamin NetscapeYahoo!

Travis

lmao

Geronimo

Well maybe America also doesn’t really want the conflict to end, and they also have to play pretend that they oppose escalation. After all, Iran is getting really close to China and Russia while there’s pressure on America to withdraw from Syria, and look into the GECF that’s bad news for America. Maybe a rally around the flag as we murder the middle easterners early 2000s style is exactly what can push Kamala Harris over the top. Really I just don’t understand the idea why a new middle eastern war would be so apocalyptic, terrible, or unimaginable for the US

Michael

Israel. The one issue still capable of upsetting Felix Biederman.

Cody

weirdos thinking Ukraine is the nights watch

b-rar

Love da mets

b-rar

Zionist rape lovers adorably rebrand as Netanyahooligans

Ahmed Razick

Modern warfare is gonna be such a punch in the face. They already write off Ukraine like it's the Ruso-Japanese War.

AKorgar

FREE FREE PALESTINE *doot doot*

AKorgar

Can you imagine how mad Julius Streicher would be if he found out he missed out on that happening

AKorgar

Tel Aviv Trump?

AKorgar

Would not be surprised if there was a coup at some point. Like it's going to be some psycho Kahanist military leader seizing power because Netanyahu isn't enough of a brute

AKorgar

Here we goooo

Mosie

Seamus is so handsome ♥️♥️

dwarrow_shent

Bet you get published in Tablet with something like “Shohei Ohtani is more Jewish than you think—Here’s why”

Dylan

Regarding the Fuad Shukr’s assassination, it is very likely that this was indeed a bomb that was placed in the hotel days earlier. This is a famous tactic of Father Patrick Ryan, a priest that had invented a timer that the IRA used in the Brighton bombing IIRC. An IRA member planted the bomb in the hotel bathroom a few days prior. Im pretty sure this was also a scene in Munich lol

Quadabyte

God that last article... literally "I'm going to leave my genocidal country that I moved to while it continues to genocide, and support it away from danger to myself, which I put me and my family in."

Ryan

Excellent episode, would love to send this to some non subscribers bc the great reporting on so many counties in the Middle East.

John Atherton

they play american football in the “Kraft Family Israel Football League”. my friends and i got drunk in high school and watched a coach get ejected for screaming at a ref

Michael

“Air sirens go off and we have to run to the basement.” So basically like tornado season in the American Midwest except those tornados probably have a higher body count than Hamas rockets.

Rasha H2G2

Thanks Seamus! And Intro ep on Fairouz would be amazing 😍

Schwartz666

You talking about Seamus? Cuz that's just how he laughs.

Savannakhet

Israeli cricket team having to tour Pakistan and Bangladesh would be quiet funny to be fair.

Trevor Wookfield

What was the song and version of song at the outtro pls

Savannakhet

Nah they planted it weeks prior and had been reconnoitering for a few years. The only reason it didn't work was that the weird architectural design of that particular hotel forced the blast outwards and upwards rather than inwards. To paraphrase John Dolan, 'they're very impressive people'.

dawood

going out on fairouz, ya rayes

Josh Link

Just want to point out that the Reds swept the Yankees in this series.

K H

Lets hope that changes. Get those numbers UP.

K H

Canticles of Lebowitz here we go. There was a lady who resigned from the Biden admin on Katie Halper that was saying something really weird about how "war doesn't always make America stronger." and a nuclear war isn't guaranteed to make the US stronger. Which seemed to indicate people in HER circles were saying that. Complete idiot lunatics are at the reins.

K H

I feel like a less gutless administration would have killed Bibi already. Simply because he's making them look bad. Then you blame Iran. Everybody* wins. *who matters.

Tina Paracord

I moved my family to the West Bank and it really gave us a new perspective on Stealing Home! ⚾

Ameen Farsakh

Fairuz - Zahrat el Madaen One of the most famous songs about Palestine and the city of Jerusalem specifically by the famous Lebanese singer.

T

The only sport Israelis should be allowed to play is Russian roulette

Andrés Morera

57:40 I don't think it was just the Iron Dome that shot all that Iranian ordinance down. It is my understanding the preponderance of drones and missiles were shot down by US and European forces, as well as those of Jordan. The Israelis shot down relatively few things. This doesn't take away from the overall message. But it highlights how much Israel depends on the US, and how much they need to drag the US into a war if the Israeli state is going to do what it intends to do. It also makes me wonder if that drone that struck Tel Aviv might have been "let through" by the US et al. to help drive up opposition to the Israeli government among the populace to pressure them to stop... maybe?

Dylan

That’s wild. It sounds like it did work if Shukr was the target, no? I haven’t read up on it since the news came out but you’re saying it was triggered remotely once they knew Shukr was in the room? Either way it was truly insane they pulled off both of these hits in a day

Robert

The guy from Philly ?

Robert

Great ep. - the Israeli impressions at the end were hilarious.

Ardy Rezv

Israel is the boss here bro not America lmfao

K H

In this case yea. Structurally there is no reason any American president could not delete most of the Israeli government to thunderous applause. In fact if I were to coup the government that would be my opening gambit to clinch power.

Fat Cobra

I absolutely love it when this fucker laughs!

Cardboard

Much love to our boy Seamus

Kamran Husain

you have no idea how fired up this imaginary event makes me

Patrick Burke

Inshallah my unborn Jewish child will never have to hear the word Isr@el spoken in the present tense and will only know Palestine 🇵🇸 exists

Jimmy McMillan

Just like how white Americans have accused black people of being violent rapists. Or how churches accuse gay and trans folk of being molesting, child groomers

Sam Ray

Excellent discussion. Great outro music

Aaron Friedland

Haha Séamus is so much like Matt. Great guest

Ryan

Shower and go outside

Cascadia Breadloaf

I'm too busy getting my prostate massaged by your mom

protob1

Will Menaker is a very smart guy. He attended university and reads allot. Because of this, he understands, perhaps on some abstract level, that his lot is inextricably tied with the fortunes of American imperialism. This is why he can casually mention that the Russian Federation as a state is the 'epiphany of all evil', quite casually, apropos of nothing. He can lament the genocidal policy of Israel in every single episode - this makes him a standup kind of guy in his narrow social milieu - but condemn the state and the people fighting imperialism, and winning as 'evil'. He hates it because unlike the people in Palestine and Lebanon, the Russian Federation and the people fighting America in Ukraine are an actual threat to American hegemony, and ultimately, Will is paid in USD. US Imperialism is dying slowly and inexorably in Chasiv Yar, in Toretsk, in Volchansk, in Gorlovka...where Russian heroes and their allies write the final chapter of US Imperialism and that makes Will dubious on a good day, or an instrument of empire on a bad one. Also, it is wroth mentioning that he is under 170 cm and incredibly gay.

snudge crunkies

What's the time stamp on that statement I didn't hear it

Geronimo

Russia’s bourgeoisie, Putin’s own generation, killed the USSR and raped its corpse, and you equate their regime with Hamas and Hezbollah who are fighting Israel. There are wars for national liberation, then there are wars of capitalist redivision of spoils (Ukraine war), even if Ukraine is on the wrong side, the fact is still that Russia’s bourgeoisie is sending its working class young men to miserably die so their middle class can start selling knockoff Coca Cola and McDonalds and their bourgeoisie can get even more disgustingly rich. That shits evil and Russia wants nothing more than for the US to fold up in Ukraine and give it a nice bear hug bag into the imperialist fold, where Russia can finally get back to lopping up cheap energy for the UK and Europe’s soy rebrand of the third Reich known as the “European Union.” Dumb guy anti imperialism flattens everything and you start to sound like tulsi gabbard, knock that shit off get woke don’t let these dumbass Ben Norton types throw you off guard cause they’re full of shit

Adam

Absolutely sickening how people can support an evil entity with near-unlimited funding and claim to be oppressed. But enough about Yankees fans.

Jake Nodwell

☝️ Israel has hypnotized the world. May Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel, AND the United States ☝️

Cruz Nix

I am no expert but I was reading up on some of the specifics regarding arms transfers to Israel. I think it’s worth while to take a look into to how their constant escalation completely games the QME (quantitive military edge) components of our arms transfers. In as basic terms as I am comfortable elaborating on the more enemies they accrue the more expensive top of the line force multiplying armaments we are “obligated” to send in order to maintain their dominance in the region.

Chantz

Hey, at least the Yankees have legitimate claims of being beset on all sides by true haters who wish for our demise

Broadway Joe

I was so happy when the Israeli baseball team got whipped in the World Baseball Classic. Their whole team is made up of Americans named Colton and Kyle. There’s only one guy on the team that’s actually Israeli and you can tell because his name is Shlomo.

Abbi

Bro the Mets are literally owned by Steve cohen, the Steinbrenners are the poverty owners now

ZeeBee

Just when you thought Yankees fans couldn't get any more insufferable...

protob1

If you insist on speaking to me with multiple dicks in your mouth I will have to deploy a range of military and technical measures upon your ugly mongrel face.

James Gillam

So glad that article didn’t mention (to my knowledge) the only Israeli American baseball player

Hassan

Chris had to do it to em with the Fairuz outro 🙏🏼🇱🇧🇵🇸

AbeLinkin

Russia sucks just a little more than America

AKorgar

Yeah sorry about your prostate problems don't worry though she's a good proctologist she'll have you peeing normal in no time

Harry P. Ness

The best non-Matt/Amber episode ever? After like 9 years of listening in secret, I might literally clip bits of this and send them to my boomer dad. Thank you.

A RQ

Seamus with almost Cushbomb levels of gale force laughter at the end. Bravo.

C. Andrew

Israel gaslit John Kirby or whatever his name is so much he no longer believes in causality.

Mike R

Tldr

Thomas Silva

Fuck all governments and power structures that have ever existed, they are all illegitimate, and if you believe anything different you're a cuck.

Michael Naatjes

Anyone else experiencing the Libs justifying Genocide via identity politics.

Occhio

WHAT is the deal with Will’s sound? this is so crazy. am I the only one distracted by this? this is how I imagine an epileptic aura to feel like.

fivefootone

I thought the exact same thing after the Will read the NYT headline

M Varnzo

Not even if they were hoops fans from Houston.

Son of El Topo

Just ruined my family cabin retreat by making my sister in law cry cause I said Israel is an apartheid state. Good times

Chris T

Been listening to old Bad Religion lately

Konarrrr

Terrible guest wow

Konarrrr

leave your dad alone, he already has to deal with having you as a kid good lord

Dogface Reilly

There needs to be an episode of 24 in which Jack Bauer has to find out which of six Palestinians in captivity knows the location of a ticking bomb. And the only way to get the information is to rape all of them.. They’ve got him on intravenous Cialis by terrorist #4.

I am become reply guy

Should have spent more time watching tv and less reading Dostoevsky comrade…

protob1

So, a position completely aligned with the USA Department of State...with some nuances around the 'class' nature of the Russian state, and Vladimir Putin. Understood. When you are defeated in Ukraine the result will be your further drift the right, even further in support of US imperialism. When America's imperial project ends, all of your fake left organizations will end with it.

Bobby Lasers

3rd time trying to listen to this episode. Last 2 my baby daughter foiled me with sleep deprivation

Geronimo

You think the US Department of state wants American imperialism expelled from Ukraine? Idiot no they do not but communists do - difference is communists don’t live in la la land, in denial that Russia is a capitalist class society run by the pillagers of the USSR. Overrating Russia’s “anti-imperialism,” and elevating them to the levels of heroic Palestinian groups like Hamas, that requires you close your eyes, ears, and deny all of history. Russia exported hundreds of thousands of settlers to “Israel” for christs sake, is that the action of an anti-imperialist bourgeoisie?

Joe

I like Felix's 'mousetrap' bit 😆

Matt

glad someone else noticed this. When has this ever been said by a human. It's somehow dumber than if AI wrote it

ohnoitsthefuzz

My 3rd time as well. I tend to listen to Chapo while I'm welding or working in the shop, so I need three listens to really get the most out of it. It also helps me make my slop ration go further, much like adding sawdust to flour or sewer effluent to infant formula. In these lean, turbulent times, every little bit of slop helps.

August1612

boooooo 🍅🍅🍅

August1612

longtime free episode listener, subscribed for more Seamus correspondence

LPO Crane Jefferson

Will called it blindness, I call it brain rot and severe mental illness. Americans and Israelis, are a sick bunch. Hell, the Germans too.

Ross Moore

I dont see how we can get more independents to join our side when people like Will just shit on liberals all day and never go after the right who are objectively worse

etienne

goo goo ga ga brain

Cormac

This kind of comment is something you guys should consider when you're bashing the US and Israel, completely ignoring the shit Iran has pulled all across the middle east for the last 50 years.

T

The only sport you should be allowed to play is caving in Nutty Putty

Christopher Price

a. you obviously don't understand sarcasm, so go hide back in your little neet hole and don't show your disgusting little face again. b. russia is very much an empire, but they can get away pretending otherwise because sometimes--in a broke clock sort of way--they side with countries on the wrong end of US aggression. but they very much do not care about palestine, since their chief concern in the levant is to protect their client state Syria, so they can't risk aggravating Israel who can drag Turkey and the US into further escalation. plus, Russia probably has more Israeli dual-nationals than the US. also, a lot of Russian telegram channels have been cheerleading the British far right as they firebomb asylum seekers. Looking past the fig leaf of "Islamic terrorism", they say the same shit of anyone from the Kavkazi, whether they're muslim, christian, buddhist or animist.

YourBabysFather

Israel first and foremost is the 51st state in the union. It is not a sovereign nation. It’s basically Delaware in the Middle East so funding and arming will never cease The United States makes weapons and its economy prospers during armed conflict, what is so hard to understand? Weapons will flow everywhere they’re wanted no matter what especially to the US military outpost/state called Israel In 2024 with everything we know we think optics mean anything to the US? get the fuck out of here man come on man let’s grow up

YourBabysFather

Israel first and foremost is the 51st state in the union. It is not a sovereign nation. It’s basically Delaware in the Middle East so funding and arming will never cease The United States makes weapons and its economy prospers during armed conflict, what is so hard to understand? Weapons will flow everywhere they’re wanted no matter what especially to the US military outpost/state/colony called Israel In 2024 with everything we know we think optics mean anything to the US? get the fuck out of here man come on man let’s grow up

mariol struga

so basically america was the original isreal that legitimized itself after ww2… america arabs were native americans

burkina fatso

thank you Séamus for offering us a classic Matt jokerfied laugh in these trying times 🙏🏼🙏🏼 so needed

Ross Moore

Good one you stupid faggot

snudge crunkies

Fun parallel thinking or maybe subconscious homage - there's an old bill hicks bit about Christians wearing crosses : Jackie O rifle pendants that resembles the joke will made about trump seeing the image of himself being shot.

Reece Coren

love séamus and his beautiful moustache

No Relation to Henry

Your logic was bad, and calling people faggots isn’t going to help you.

Lamb

Does anyone know the song that is played in the outro of this episode?