File: Gaza

Targets

There has been a lot of discussion about the severity of the Israeli bombing, the following extensive article has details on the number of attacks in previous wars:

A mass assassination factory: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza Permissive airstrikes on non-military targets and the use of an artificial intelligence system have enabled the Israeli army to carry out its deadliest war on Gaza By Yuval Abraham November 30, 2023 - A +972 and Local Call investigation

Attacks and targets against Gaza:

Year	Operation	Targets	Days	Targets/Day
2008	Cast Lead	3400	22	155
2012	Pillar of Defense	1500	8	187
2014	Protective Edge	5266-6231	51	103-122
2021	Guardian of the Walls	1500	11	136
2023	Swords of Iron	15000	35	429

Typology of Targets in Gaza

• Tactical targets: standard military targets, armed millitary cells, weapon warehouses, rocket lauchers, millitary headquarters etc
• Underground targets: tunnels dug/built by Hamas
• Power targets: high rises and public buildigs such as Universities, banks, and government offices … exert ’civil pressure on Hamas
• “Family homes” or “operatives’ homes”: private residences in order to assassinate a single resident suspeected of being a Hamas or Islamic Jihad operative

Understanding how Israel uses ‘Gospel’ AI system in Gaza bombings ~8min FRANCE 24’s Gavin Lee talks with journalist Yuval Abraham, from the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972, in Perspective (@France24)

A group of independent journalists have spent weeks investigating how Israel uses artificial intelligence to carry out air strikes in Gaza. Officially, the IDF has said little more than admitting it uses an AI system known as “Habsora”, or “The Gospel” in English. The journalists’ research raises the question of whether the high civilian casualty rate in Gaza is a result of Israel’s extensive use of this AI system.

Started: Thu, Dec 21, 2023

Books to translate in Greek

The following books as far as I know have not been translated to Greek yet, but they should.

Geopolitics and Foreign Policy

John Joseph Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago:

The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities by John J. Mearsheimer (Yale University Press, 2018)

How states think : the rationality of foreign policy by John J. Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato (Yale University Press 2023)

An Endgame for the Ukrainian War ~80min Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) and Alexander Mercouris (@amercouris) talk with John Mearsheimer - Sep 9, 2023.

Glenn Diesen is Professor at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Geoeconomics of Technological Sovereignty by Glenn Diesen (I.B. Tauris 2021)

Russophobia: Propaganda in International Politics by Glenn Diesen (Palgrave Macmillan 2022)

The Think Tank Racket: Managing the Information War with Russia by Glenn Diesen (Clarity Press 2023)

The Ukraine War & the Eurasian World Order by Glenn Diesen (Clarity Press 2023)

Jeffrey D. Sachs is Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

A new foreign policy : beyond American exceptionalism (Columbia University Press 2018)

The ages of globalization : geography, technology, and institutions (Columbia University Press 2020)

US Efforts to Strangle China & Reassert Hegemony ~68 min Glenn Diesen (@Glenn_Diesen) and Alexander Mercouris (@amercouris) talk with Jeffrey D. Sachs - September 15, 2023

History and Culture

The West: A New History In Fourteen Lives by Naoise Mac Sweeney (Dutton 2023)

Note It develops a critical attitude towards our perceptions of the past, important as global geopolitical changes will force us to reconsider our place in the Western world.

Technology and Society

Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O’Neil (Penguin 2017)

Note Very useful as quantifiction and algorithms are starting to play a role in Greece too.

One of the most vocal proponents of quantification is Niki Kerameus, currently Minister of Interior, and previously Minister of Education and Religious Affairs of Greece (2019–2023). She was also member of the Class of 2020 of the Forum of Young Global Leaders which is an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

There is recently opposition for the new digital IDs in Greece because people assumed they will be used for tracking while the real issue is single number identification which simplifies database operations and data analysis among other things. The much bigger issue is the use of algorithms in society decisions. The books examines these issues and is needed if the opposition to government is to be more focused.

• Third version: Tue, Nov 14
• First version: Tue, Sep 12, 2023

Suggestions for TNT Radio!

After listening to TNT Radio (@tntradiolive) for some time asking for new guest and host suggestions I have finally got my act together, here is the first version:

Jim Jatras (@JimJatras) Retired former U.S. diplomat, GOP Senate foreign policy adviser

M. K. Bhadrakumar (@BhadraPunchline) Former Indian diplomat. Blog Indian Punchline

Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) Columnist at The Cradle Media, former Senior Associate, St Antony’s College, Oxford Univ.

Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) Journalist and host of Dispatches on @BTnewsroom, cohost of @UnauthorizedDis.

Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) Academic, Author, Director of @tri_continental thetricontinental.org Editor @LeftwordBooks, Chief Correspondent at Globetrotter

Martin R Jay (@MartinRJay), award-winning British journalist based in Morocco, editor of Maghrebi.org

Peter Levenda (@Peter_Levenda) Researcher and author. Substack Sinister Forces on Culture, Politics, Synchronicity, Spirituality, and the UFO/UAP Phenomenon

Joseph P. Farrell (@gizadeathstar) Researcher with a doctorate in patristics from Oxford, interested in alternatives in physics, history and science with an emphasis on anomaly. The Giza Community

Jon Rappoport (@jonrappoport), author and investigative reporter for over 35 years at NoMoreFakeNews.com.

One of the issues that Jon Rappoport has investigated is the following Five thousand inventions in limbo and under “secrecy orders” at the US Patent Office blog post from December 11 2019. this a topic that needs to be talked about and raised through TNT: perhaps Bruce de Torres, Hrvoje Morić or the guys of Sky Dragon Slaying.

Toby Green (@toby00green) and Thomas Fazi (@battleforeurope) authors of The Covid Consensus.

Dan Collins (@DanCollins2011), engineer founder Hippogriff Data Security, US citizen who studied and worked in China for 20 years

Angelo Giuliano (@angelo4justice) Political & financial analyst, Swiss / Italian 25 years in China, contributor to a number of media organizations including Press TV, and China Daily.

Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) Entrepreneur at MeAndQi.com a website that explains Chinese medicine.

Aly-Khan Satchu, Nairobi Kenya (@alykhansatchu) Substack Aly-Khan’s Newsletter

People that should be invited more often:

George Galloway (@georgegalloway) and (https://www.georgegalloway.com/). Member of British Parliament 1987 - 2015, author, documentary maker and presenter of The Mother of All Talk Shows.

George Galloway on The Freeman Report with James Freeman - 10 October 2023 Starting at 21 min. The Israeli Palestinian conflict.

Judith Curry (@curryja), President, Climate Forecast Applications Network, Professor Emerita Georgia Tech, blog at Climate Etc., author of Climate Uncertainty & Risk.

Version 3 - Oct 26, 2023

About Metagora

This is not quite a blog yet, more of an adjunct to my Twitter/X account @metacode. I hope eventually to collect information on various topics posted there into files here.

I use hashtags to make it easier to search for previous posts, so if you are on Twitter/X you can search using my handle and whatever terms you are interested in: for example searching for my posts on predictive policing you should enter @metacode #predictivepolicing in the search form and the top of the response page would be something like this:

Caveats:

• older posts may have links that do not work because pages have been moved, searching on the external site may help
• I started using hashtags consistently only 3-4 years ago, hence older posts may be hard to find

Having said that, feel free to use my account as a database.

First version: Wed, Oct 11, 2023