#Israel Scouts

[sister-realness]

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[anon-e-has-a-tmblr]

Monastery of the Cross, Jerusalem. March 2022.

Located in the valley of the cross, Jerusalem. It is believed by the eastern Orthodox Christians that this location had an olive grove, from which the Romans cut a cross for Jesus's crucifixion. Nowadays the valley houses a Jerusalem Pine (pinus halepensis) grove, as well as a scouts building, the national Bnei Akiva administration and the national school for corrective driving

[lordgodjehovahsway]

1 Samuel 26: Saul Travels To The Desert Of Ziph To Look For David

1 The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?”

2 So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David. 

3 Saul made his camp beside the road on the hill of Hakilah facing Jeshimon, but David stayed in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul had followed him there, 

4 he sent out scouts and learned that Saul had definitely arrived.

5 Then David set out and went to the place where Saul had camped. He saw where Saul and Abner son of Ner, the commander of the army, had lain down. Saul was lying inside the camp, with the army encamped around him.

6 David then asked Ahimelek the Hittite and Abishai son of Zeruiah, Joab’s brother, “Who will go down into the camp with me to Saul?”

“I’ll go with you,” said Abishai.

7 So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there was Saul, lying asleep inside the camp with his spear stuck in the ground near his head. Abner and the soldiers were lying around him.

8 Abishai said to David, “Today God has delivered your enemy into your hands. Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I won’t strike him twice.”

9 But David said to Abishai, “Don’t destroy him! Who can lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed and be guiltless? 

10 As surely as the Lord lives,” he said, “the Lord himself will strike him, or his time will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish. 

11 But the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head, and let’s go.”

12 So David took the spear and water jug near Saul’s head, and they left. No one saw or knew about it, nor did anyone wake up. They were all sleeping, because the Lord had put them into a deep sleep.

13 Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the hill some distance away; there was a wide space between them. 

14 He called out to the army and to Abner son of Ner, “Aren’t you going to answer me, Abner?”

Abner replied, “Who are you who calls to the king?”

15 David said, “You’re a man, aren’t you? And who is like you in Israel? Why didn’t you guard your lord the king? Someone came to destroy your lord the king. 

16 What you have done is not good. As surely as the Lord lives, you and your men must die, because you did not guard your master, the Lord’s anointed. Look around you. Where are the king’s spear and water jug that were near his head?”

17 Saul recognized David’s voice and said, “Is that your voice, David my son?”

David replied, “Yes it is, my lord the king.” 

18 And he added, “Why is my lord pursuing his servant? What have I done, and what wrong am I guilty of? 

19 Now let my lord the king listen to his servant’s words. If the Lord has incited you against me, then may he accept an offering. If, however, people have done it, may they be cursed before the Lord! They have driven me today from my share in the Lord’s inheritance and have said, ‘Go, serve other gods.’ 

20 Now do not let my blood fall to the ground far from the presence of the Lord. The king of Israel has come out to look for a flea—as one hunts a partridge in the mountains.”

21 Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Come back, David my son. Because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again. Surely I have acted like a fool and have been terribly wrong.”

22 “Here is the king’s spear,” David answered. “Let one of your young men come over and get it. 

23 The Lord rewards everyone for their righteousness and faithfulness. The Lord delivered you into my hands today, but I would not lay a hand on the Lord’s anointed. 

24 As surely as I valued your life today, so may the Lord value my life and deliver me from all trouble.”

25 Then Saul said to David, “May you be blessed, David my son; you will do great things and surely triumph.”

So David went on his way, and Saul returned home.

[sayruq]

A Girl Scout troop leader in Missouri was threatened with legal action by the organization after her troop tried to sell bracelets to raise money for Gaza, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Nawal Abuhamdeh said that it had been the children’s idea to sell bracelets to raise money for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. She said that the members of her troop, including her own 10 year-old daughter, had been deeply emotionally impacted by Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 29,000 people, and at least 10,000 children. “I’m grieving. We are all grieving. We literally couldn’t muster the energy to sell cookies,” Abuhamdeh said. Soon after making a post about the fundraiser, Abuhamdeh said she received an email from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri organization, alerting her that her troop could not support “partisan politics,” and needed to “stay neutral.” The email said that the fundraiser had violated the organization’s governing documents, and that if the troop went forward with their plan, the organization would engage legal counsel to “protect the intellectual property and other rights of the organization.”

[heritageposts]

Harris has been a staunch supporter of Israel for years. In 2017 she addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual conference and reminded attendees that the first resolution she co-sponsored as a senator was aimed at combating “anti-Israel bias” at the United Nations. “Let me be clear about what I believe. I stand with Israel because of our shared values, which are so fundamental to the founding of both our nations,” she told the crowd. In 2018 she gave an off-the-record speech to the organization, but eventually released her comments. In that speech she claimed that she raised money for the Jewish National Fund as a Girl Scout. “Having grown up in the Bay area, I fondly remember those Jewish National Fund boxes that we would use to collect donations to plant trees for Israel,” she told the audience. “Years later, when I visited Israel for the first time, I saw the fruits of that effort and the Israeli ingenuity that has truly made a desert bloom.”

For those unfamiliar with the Jewish National Fund (JNF), they're a Zionist organization that has been instrumental in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

See Stop the JNF for more information on their history, the way they operate, and their decades-long campaign of greenwashing (i.e. destroying native plants, crops, and agriculture under the banner of 'making the desert bloom').

Continuing, the Mondoweiss article goes:

“The vast majority of people understand the importance of the State of Israel,” she added later. “Both in terms of its history and its present in terms of being a source of inspiration on so many issues, which I hope we will talk about, and also what it means in terms of the values of the United States and those values that are shared values with Israel, and the importance of fighting to make sure that we protect and respect a friend, one of the best friends we could possibly have.” While running for President in 2019, Harris was praised by the lobbying group Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) for running to the right of Obama on the Iran deal. On the campaign trail Harris told Kat Wellman, a voter affiliated with DMFI, that she would reenter the agreement but “strengthen it” by “extending the sunset provisions, including ballistic missile testing, and also increasing oversight.” “I was very impressed with her. I thought she gave an excellent speech, she gave a very detailed, responsive answer to my question,” Wellman told a local paper after the exchange. “I’m pro-Israel, so I was I was very concerned and all about making sure we limit nuclear missiles in any country that could possibly destroy us all. I thought her answer was very good.” Harris has condemned the BDS movement and claimed that is “based on the mistaken assumption that Israel is solely to blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” However, she voted against an anti-BDS bill in 2019 citing First Amendment concerns.

For the full article, which includes Kamala's response to Israel post Al-Aqsa Flood, see Mondoweiss (July 22, 2024)

[sintagma11]

Control de Calidad

Escribir para comprobar el estado y calidad del flujo de pensamiento, el interminable diálogo interno que determina la calidad de vida seg��n Marco Aurelio por lo que hay que aprender a controlarlo, así como al cuerpo, ya que de hecho, la mente se domina dominando el cuerpo y viceversa, somo Biná y jojmá, como Boaz y Jaquin, o el Ying y el Yang.

La polaridad de las energías es un axioma que hay que interiorizar en el ejercicio de comprensión de la naturaleza de la realidad y así está consignado en el Kybalión, junto a otras seis máximas de las cuales la primer es que todo es una creación mental, elaboración perceptual impregnada de historia personal.

Ayer mientras ayudaba en el trasteo de un amigo se dañó la pantalla del celular que tenía para comunicarme y las cosas esenciales de cualquier milenial, así que lloré para desahogarme al sentirme afrentado por el Universo con tan desafortunado episodio teniendo en cuenta el paro laboral temporal en el que me encuentro, la situación particular, sintiéndome atrapado en el seno de una familia que me ha brindado un techo y un plato de comida al coste de asumir sus creencias heredadas y adquiridas, más o menos en los mismos términos según cada generación, y en esta presente, el sincretismo toma su parte como en toda la historia de la humanidad para garantizar una mínima convivencia decente, la cual observo amenazada por las energías sutiles que se perciben en pequeños actos, detalles, miradas, que delatan las reales intenciones de las personas al rededor, identificando los malos deseos producto de la insatisfacción que lleva cada quien con su propia vida, como viven amargados quieren amargar a los demás, y cuantas veces yo mismo no padecí tan triste ceguera de toxicidad.

La Consciencia siempre llega para hacer el control de calidad, y en esta oportunidad lo que trae son mensajes de urgencia, la mayoría desde el inconsciente colectivo, hablando de estar listo y preparado para cualquier tipo de emergencia mundial que pudiera sobrevenir en pleno 2023 surcado por una reactivación económica del complejo militar industrial como lo definió Eisenhower, el mismo presidente Petro habló literalmente de estar ad portas de la IIIWW Dios no lo quiera pero si así lo quiere lo menos es estar preparados, ya que como hijos suyos su orden es clara: Velad y Orad porque no sabéis el día ni la ora, Id por el mundo y haced discípulos a todas las naciones, fortalézcanse con el gran poder del Señor, pónganse toda la armadura de Dios para que puedan hacer frente a las artimañas del diablo, Porque nuestra lucha no es contra seres humanos, sino contra poderes, contra autoridades, contra potestades que dominan este mundo de tinieblas, contra fuerzas espirituales malignas en las regiones celestiales.

En tal marco la preparación que se hace por amor a mi mismo y a mi familia, es contar con un botiquín de primeros auxilios, equipo de supervivencia (linterna, pito, bengalas, navaja suiza, encendedor, vela unos 10 metros de cabuya y 2 metros de cordel, costurero con hilo y aguja. un espejo personal y unos 2 litros de agua potables). equipos de radiofrecuencia para emitir y captar con sus correspondientes complementos (2 micrófonos, consola mezcladora de 2 canales, antena, radios bidireccional intercomunicadores con 32 km de alcance) suministros suficientes para uno o dos meses, calzado adecuado para diferentes tipos de caminata: botas de caucho y tenis. Unos 5 metros cuadrados de plástico grueso, bolsa de dormir, carpa e impermeable.

Todos estos elementos así como los que componen el cuadro de mis sueños cumplidos ya están en mi presente, yo ya los tengo, -me explico- hablo desde el pasado, un instante en el inexistente tiempo que no es más que otra elaboración del sistema nervioso central, por lo que puedo, -todos pueden- modificarlo a gusto o conveniencia, para ubicarse en la línea temporal que deseen.

Espero que todos puedan lograr sus sueños, aunque bien sabemos que el sistema cultural en que vivimos está diseñado estructuralmente para que no sea así, sin embargo, el sistema cósmico en que habitamos si está diseñado para que sea así, así que depende de mi y solo de mi conectarme con el sistema cósmico, -con el cielo- para hacer descender los secretos del cielo que están disponibles para aquellos que piden.

Lo más duro es cuando subes de nivel por los secretos del cielo asignados, porque vendrá el fiscal general del cosmos, el adversario o satán como en el caso de Job a acusar de cualquier violación u omisión a la divina Ley Natural, falta o pecado cometido ante el espíritu de Amor Absoluto que es Dios, la fuente divina universal y su omnipresencia.

Es el control de calidad que le están aplicando a uno, entre Dios y el diablo, entre el ying y el Yang, Entre Boaz y Jaquin, es encontrar el Daat secreto para habitar en su justicia silenciosa seguro como castillo en fuerte.

[vicholas]

July 26, 2024

(...)With the Paris Games starting on July 26, Israel's killing of athletes and players in Gaza, along with its destruction of the enclave's sports facilities, has triggered mounting demands to disqualify Israel from the tournament as activists and spectators question the legitimacy of its participation.

Palestinian writers and sports commentators contend that Israel's Gaza onslaught, which has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, also represents an attempt to eliminate sports and athletic achievement.

"It's a genocide ... ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people, and the attacks on athletes and sports in particular in the Gaza Strip are all very systematic attacks to obliterate and erase sports in the territory," Abubaker Abed, a Gaza-based sports journalist told Anadolu.

Israel's intentions go further than eliminating Gaza's current athletic capacity, according to writer and lecturer Abdaljawad Omar, who held that it was part of a concerted effort by Tel Aviv to undermine Palestinians' achievements in all areas, with sports being no exception.

"Israel systemically seeks to ensure that Palestinian accomplishments and potential in all realms remain dampened and always dwarfed by its own achievements.

"This applies to political, intellectual, economic, and literary fields, where historically, many talented and highly accomplished Palestinians have been targeted. Sports is no exception in this sense," he explained.  

The situation is "extremely worse" for athletes in Gaza, according to football journalist Abed, adding that many players have been killed in the territory.

According to the Palestinian Olympic Committee and Palestine Football Association, about 400 athletes have been killed since Oct. 7, with the football association noting that the war has claimed 245 players in that sport alone, including 69 children and 176 young men.

Some 33 scouts and 70 members of sports unions have also been killed.

According to the association, Israeli forces have also detained players, including 12 in the occupied West Bank.

Israel's attacks have killed several Olympians as well. Sixty-nine have been killed during Israel's ongoing assault, says the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, launched in 2004.  

Besides athletes, sports facilities also have not been spared. Dozens, including gyms, training halls, fields, and stadiums, have been damaged or destroyed since Oct. 7.

A total of 42 facilities have been leveled in Gaza, while seven were destroyed in the West Bank, says the Palestinian Football Association.

Abed pointed out how Israel has destroyed football schools, including the Al-Wahda Academy and the Champions Academy, which "was one of the most promising football projects" in Gaza.

He pointed out how Israel has eradicated talent in football, the most popular sport among Gaza's residents, leaving only one stadium, the Al-Dorra stadium, intact out of the enclave's 10.

Israeli forces have been seizing stadiums in Gaza and turning them into detention centers.

Human rights monitor Euro-Med highlights that the Israeli army turned the Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City into a detention center "to hold and humiliate hundreds of Palestinians, including children, shown naked and stripped of their clothes in footage published by the Israeli media in December 2023."

A report by the group published in May indicates that facilities bulldozed and destroyed include "300 five-a-side courts, 22 swimming courts, 12 covered sports halls for basketball, volleyball, and handball, and six tennis stadiums.

"Twenty-eight sports and fitness centers have been targeted, damaged, and destroyed."  

Israel's offensive has also caused the death of prominent players in Gaza.

This includes Palestine's first-ever Olympian and flagbearer, Majed Abu Maraheel, who died due to kidney failure in a refugee camp in June.

The 61-year-old Olympic distance runner died as Israel's ongoing blockade of humanitarian assistance left many, including Maraheel, lacking medical treatment and facilities.

Maraheel had competed in the men's 10,000-meter race at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

In January, the Palestinian Olympic football team's coach Hani Al-Mossader was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

The same month, Nagham Abu Samra, a karate champion who was set to participate in the Paris Olympics, died in a hospital in Egypt after succumbing to her injuries.

She had been severely wounded by an Israeli attack that left her with head injuries and led to the amputation of one of her legs.

(...)With hours left until the Paris 2024 Games' opening ceremony, experts are still questioning the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to keep Israel in the tournament.

"Athletes, whether footballers ... whatever the sport is, they don't belong to political factions ... they are targeted and are illegitimate targets for Israeli forces, and this is absolutely prohibited by all international laws and all FIFA regulations," says Abed.

He argued that Israel's actions show that it lacks the Olympic values of peace, tolerance, forgiveness, love, and sportsmanship.

"So, how could Israel even participate in the Olympics?" he asked.

Russia, meanwhile, has been banned from Olympic and FIFA tournaments after it launched its war on Ukraine in 2022, noted Abed, who maintained that Moscow's actions in that conflict were mild compared to the devastation Israel has caused in Gaza.

This "disgraceful stance," he asserts, revealed the hypocrisy of the IOC, as well as the world governing body for football.

The organizers of this year's Olympics have said their decision to keep Israel in the Games while upholding the ban on Russia and Belarus is due to Moscow's annexation of Ukrainian territory, while Tel Aviv has not formally seized territory in Gaza.

Fadi Quran, senior director at US-based rights group Avaaz, said the Olympics and the IOC's current leadership will be remembered for "turning a blind eye to a country committing what the ICJ ruled is a plausible genocide, and said is apartheid."

He was referring to a preliminary ruling by the International Court of Justice that recognized genocide as a plausible risk in Gaza. Israel stands accused of genocide at the top UN court, which in its latest ruling has ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

Quran expects that athletes will protest Israel's presence at the Olympics and fans will boycott events where the Israeli flag is raised.

"Now that the IOC has refused to ban Israel, activists across the world will take action to ensure that the Paris Olympics are branded as the 'Apartheid Olympics,' or 'War Crime Olympics'," he said.

According to Abed, it will take a decade to revive sports in the Gaza Strip.

"The war on Gaza has changed everything. The war on Gaza has killed the dreams of many."

[plounce]

researching stuff for a post about misinformation regarding girl scout cookies and man this article (10/28/23) about this palestinian-american girl scout nearly made me burst into tears

In her short 17 years on earth, Amira Ismail had never been called a baby killer.

That’s what happened one Friday this month, Amira said, on New York City’s Q58 bus, which runs through central Queens.

“This lady looked at me, and she was like: ‘You’re disgusting. You’re a baby killer. You’re an antisemite,’” Amira told me. When she talked about this incident, her signature spunk faded. “I just kept saying, ‘That’s not true,’” she said. “I was just on my way to school. I was just wearing my hijab.”

Amira was born in Queens in the years after the Sept. 11 attacks. She remembers participating as a child in demonstrations at City Hall as part of a successful movement to make Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha school holidays in New York City.

But since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, in which an estimated 1,400 Israelis were killed and some 200 others were kidnapped, Amira, who is Palestinian American, said she has experienced for the first time the full fury of Islamophobia and racism that her older relatives and friends have told stories about all her life. Throughout the city, in fact, there has been an increase in both anti-Muslim and antisemitic attacks.

In heavily Muslim parts of Queens, she said, police officers are suddenly everywhere, asking for identification and stopping and frisking Muslim men. (New York City has stepped up its police presence around both Muslim and Jewish neighborhoods and sites within the five boroughs.) Most painful though, she said, is the sense that she and her peers are getting that Palestinian lives do not matter, as they watch the United States staunchly back Israel as it heads into war.

“It can’t go unrecognized, the thousands of Palestinians that have been murdered in the past two weeks and even more the past 75 years,” Amira said. “There’s no way you can erase that.” That does not mean she is antisemitic, she said. “How can I denounce one system of oppression without denouncing another?” she asked me. The pain in her usually buoyant voice cut through me. I had no answer for her.

Many New York City kids have a worldliness about them, a certain telltale moxie. Amira, a joyful, sneaker-wearing, self-described “Queens kid,” can seem unstoppable.

When she was just 15, Amira helped topple a major mayoral campaign in America’s largest city, writing a letter accusing the ultraprogressive candidate Dianne Morales of having violated child labor laws while purporting to champion the working class in New York.

“My life and my extremely bright future as a 15-year-old activist will not be defined by the failures and harm enabled by Dianne Morales,” Amira wrote in the 2021 letter, which went viral and helped end Ms. Morales’s campaign. “I wrote my college essay about that,” Amira told me with a slightly mischievous smile.

In the past two years, Amira has become a veteran organizer. Last weekend, she joined an antiwar protest. First, though, she’ll have to work on earning her latest Girl Scout badge, this one for photography. That will mean satisfying her mother, Abier Rayan, who happens to be Troop 4179’s leader. “She’s tough,” Amira assured me.

At a meeting of the Muslim Girl Scouts of Astoria last week, a young woman bounded into the room, asking whether her fellow scouts had secured tickets to an Olivia Rodrigo concert. “She’s the Taylor Swift of our generation,” the scout turned to me to explain.

A group of younger girls recited the Girl Scout Law:

“I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place and be a sister to every Girl Scout.”

Amira’s mother carefully inspected the work of some of the younger scouts; she wore a blue Girl Scouts U.S.A. vest, filled with colorful badges, and a hot-pink hijab. “It’s no conflict at all,” Ms. Rayan told me of Islam and the Girl Scouts. “You want a strong Muslim American girl.”

At the Girl Scouts meeting, Amira and her friends discussed their plans to protest the war in Gaza. “Protests are where you let go of your anger,” Amira told me.

Amira’s mother was born in Egypt. In 1948, Ms. Rayan told me, her grandfather lost his home and land in Jaffa to the state of Israel. At the Girl Scout meeting, Ms. Rayan was still waiting for word that relatives in Gaza were safe.

“There’s been no communication,” she said. When I asked about Amira, Ms. Rayan’s eyes brightened. “I’m really proud of her,” she said. “You have to be strong. You don’t know where you’re going to be tomorrow.”

By Monday, word had reached Ms. Rayan that her relatives had been killed as Israel bombed Gaza City. When I asked whom she had lost, Ms. Rayan replied: “All of them. There’s no one left.” Thousands of Palestinians are estimated to have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza in recent weeks. ... Ms. Rayan said those killed in her family included six cousins and their children, who were as young as 2. Other relatives living abroad told her the cousins died beneath the rubble of their home.

As Ms. Rayan spoke, I saw Amira’s young face. I wondered how long this bright, spirited Queens kid could keep her fire for what I believe John Lewis would have called “good trouble” in a world that seems hellbent on snuffing it out. I worried about how she would finish her college applications.

“I have a lot of angry emotions at the ones in charge,” Amira told me days ago, speaking for so many human beings around the world in this dark time.

I thought about what I had seen over that weekend in Brooklyn, where thousands gathered in the Bay Ridge neighborhood, the home of many Arab Americans, to protest the war. In this part of the city, people of many backgrounds carried Palestinian flags through the street. Large groups of police officers gathered on every corner, watching them go by.

The crowd was large but quiet when Amira waded in, picked up her megaphone and called for Palestinian liberation. In an instant, thousands of New Yorkers repeated after her, filling the Brooklyn street with their voices. My prayer is that Amira’s generation of leaders will leave a better world than the one it has been given.

i believe she recently got her gold award (which, if youve never been in girl scouts, is really difficult - way more difficult than eagle scout awards), or is almost done with it. i hope she's doing okay.

this article (no paywall) about muslim and palestinian girl scout troops in socal also almost made me cry (it's like 2am). i really really hope all these kids are doing alright. god. they and their families all deserve so much better

[antisemitism-eu]

The innocent civilians Israel killed yesterday

Out of 36 people who were killed by the pager/walkie-talkie attacks - 34 were Hezbollah fighters.

One was a kid in Hezbollah's scouts (think Hitler Jugend)

And one was a girl. The lone "innocent victim".

(She was an innocent victim because someone in her life let her hold a pager that is only given to military commanders.)

That means Israel had a success rate of 99.97%

And still that's not enough.

And that's assuming you believe Hezbollah. According to some claims, Hezbollah lost many more commanders, which means that Israel's success rate is even higher.

But even if it would be 99.999999999999999999999%

Israel will be condemended.

If you're sharp-eyed - you will notice a few kids in the picture. There's a 16yo and 19yo who are both SOLDIERS.

When you quote Hamas figures about how Israel is killing children, remember that a significant number of those children were holding guns while they were killed

Does the UN or US democrats care about Hezbollah giving weapons to young kids and sending them to the battlefield? Of course not.

Banning weapons is only a thing in the US. If those same weapons can kill Jews? Why would anybody be against it?

Because there are important things: encouraging the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Jews.

And there are non-important things: child soldiers, using hospitals as military HQ, civil wars that kill millions, teaching your children to kill Jews, famine and floods etc. etc. etc.

[shellshocklove]

interlude: does anyone know where the love of god goes? | joel miller

pairing/AU: joel miller x female!reader – post breakout & no ellie AU

summary: a dark shadow lurks in the woods, searching for his angel.

warnings: this is an 18+ fic so mdni!!! canon-typical violence, age gap (reader is mid to late twenties), dark content, swearing, guns, some tags are left out to avoid spoilers, no use of y/n

a/n: the plan for this series was always three parts, but then i got this small idea for an interlude that i really wanted to include so here it is <3 this is a little different but i hope it's enjoyable still! happy reading <3

main masterlist / series masterlist / ao3 / playlist

from the river to the sea, palestine will be free 🇵🇸 this account stands with palestine. the creator of tlou is a zionist, and the second game is largly based on israel/palestine. please, everyone who interacts, educate yourself about the genocide happening right now, and support/donate.

The snow moaned with each step he took. The muscles in his shoulders ached from the strap of his gun where it gnawed, and his arms were tired from carrying it around all day. On top of that he was cold. His fingers felt like icicles wrapped around the trigger.

Why was it always so fucking cold, Adam wondered.

The woods had started to grow dark around him as a crow played hide and seek between the trees. It had followed him all day. Back and forth he’d walked – on lookout, always ready. For what, he didn’t know, they hadn’t seen anything or anyone since they came upon the cabin.

How he wished to be back there right now. Back in the warmth with a warm meal in his belly.

He looked to the sky with disinterest. Over the treetops twilight deepened into a deep purple, like the color of an old bruise faded to black.

Nothing. No one.

The wind moved and cut right through him, down to the bone, and Adam started to wonder about when the last time he’d felt truly warm had been. The fire, maybe? When the curtains caught fire, it hadn’t taken long before the whole house was aflame.

Something deep inside him shrunk each time he recalled that day. Jonah had barked his hoarse voice at him. Orders, orders, orders. Do this, kill them, kill them all, and take what’s of value.

It had started to get old long before that night, and Adam couldn’t find a reason for why he followed the guys and Jonah anymore. The constant traveling was harsh and hard, especially in winter, with no place to settle for longer than a week at a time, killing and raiding whatever and whoever they came across. Maybe in the beginning it had been worth it, back all those years ago when Adam had felt like he’d had something to prove, something to prove to Jonah, to show his potential, a potential to lead.

But no, it had been years and Adam was always stuck on fucking scout duty. He hated scout duty.

He hated Jonah, too.

Adam wondered what he’d done to that girl. That bitch deserved to get put in her place, that’s for sure– she’d almost given him a speed ticket to hell if she’d been a good shot. She’d ran down the stairs while waving a loaded revolver around, sent most of the rounds into the walls. Somehow, he’d managed to grab ahold of the old woman, used her as leverage with his gun pointed to her temple. The bitch had gone dead silent, and Adam had known he had a clean shot had it not been for the old man. He’d been stronger than he’d looked, attacking Barkley, and giving Adam no other choice than to shoot the old woman. Adam could still feel the spray of her warm blood against his face.

Everything after that happened so fast. Adam couldn’t get a clean shot on the old man, and the girl had gone all crazy, shooting bullet after bullet into the floor, and now Barkley’s leg most likely had to be amputated.

If the wound doesn’t get you, the fucking infection will.

The bullets had drawn the rest of the crew to the living room, and soon both the girl and the man had been pressed against the floor with their hands tied behind their backs. Adam don’t know what happened next, too busy raiding the rest of the house for valuables, but somehow Jonah had decided to take the girl with them while they’d left the man for dead in the snow.  

Adam felt a shiver run through him at the memories while the wind howled like a hound in his ear.

He should get back.

Wading through the snow, Adam dreamt of summer. His hand around his gun slackened in his grip while he filled his head with thoughts from before. Of long days at the public pool during summer break, the smell of a barbeque and freshly cut grass, of his mother waiting for him on the porch after a long day of running around the neighborhood with supper ready.

In his daydreaming, Adam failed to notice the shadow trailing him, how it kept to the darkness of the forest.

No mother stood ready for him on the porch of the cabin, only Jack on guard duty tonight. He looked as bored as Adam had felt in the forest.

“Did you see anything?” Jack asked as Adam approached him.

“Nah,” Adam shook his head as he walked past Jack up the porch stairs. “I’ll let Jonah know I’m back.”

“He’s with the girl,” Jack told him, “said he didn’t want to be disturbed.”

Adam felt a frown form across his face. Jonah with the girl? Jonah might be a hard son of a bitch, but he’d never laid a hand on a woman for as long as Adam had been a part of the crew. Not that the opportunity hadn’t presented itself… multiple times. Spoils of the raids Adam had taken advantage of time and time again. A man gets tired of his own hand after a while, and nothing beats a tight cunt. At first, Adam had thought Jonah didn’t swing that way, but nothing stays sacred for long in a crew like this, and one night Barkley had told him about Jonah’s wife, and how she’d died. Jonah killed and plundered, set fire to the world, but would never take a woman again as long as it was not his wife. Adam guessed that some things remained sacred, even after death.

A wall of warmth hit Adam as he stepped inside the cabin. The room was stuffy from the heat of the fire and men, and he could already feel drops of sweat bead on his forehead. The men paid him no mind, their chatter loud and obnoxious where they huddled together over bowls of food.

His stomach growled at the sighed, and he quickly served himself a bowl of brown mush simmering away over the flames. Looking down at his bowl, Adam knew he’d kill for something else to eat, something that wasn’t this fucking diarrhea-looking slop.

Looking over at the men where they sat, Adam mulled it over and shook his head He wasn’t in the mood for whatever ‘jokes’ they had for him today. Quietly, he grabbed another bowl of brown and walked down the hall. Curiosity grabbed a hold of him when he passed the door where Jonah kept the girl locked away. The two bowls shook in his hands as he pressed his ear to the door as he held his breath, listening.

He heard a muffled voice, deep, Jonah’s. Adam couldn’t catch the words being spoken behind the door, but he never heard the girl reply. She hadn’t said a word since they dragged her away with them. She’d kicked and screamed, spat out words of ‘how they’d regret this’ and ‘how they’d soon be dead if they didn’t let her go,’ but the fight in her had died out quickly. Adam wished Jonah would put a bullet in her already. She’d shot Barkley– she needed to pay for it, he thought.

The room smelled sweetly of disease. Adam wanted to crack open the window, but Barkley had begged him not to the last time he’d attempted it. He crept closer to the bed where his friend was sleeping, his dark hair sticking wetly to his forehead from sweat.

The infection had taken him now, Adam thought as he sat the bowl on the bed side table. They should take the leg, but he knew they wouldn’t; Barkley was already dead. Adam shook his friend’s shoulder, but he wouldn’t wake, only mumbled words Adam couldn’t understand – the ramblings of fever dreams.

With a sigh, Adam sat down in the chair in the corner. He’d slept in the chair since they found the cabin, watching over Barkley. The guys had teased him about it, but he’d rather sit in a room stuffed in the rot of disease, than pretend to like any of the guys. He let his eyes wander over Barkley as he ate his food.

His friend was dying. His only friend soon to be dead. What would be the point anymore when he’s not there anymore?

He hated everyone else. The praise and promotion he’d expected from Jonah, would never come. Maybe he should just slip out in the night, go about the land himself, find someplace to settle, leave this all behind.

Adam scraped the bowl and sighed. It was a foolish thought. He knew Jonah would come after him. He didn’t tolerate deserters much. You either followed him or swallowed down a bullet.

He had no choice; it was scout duty for Adam.

The snow moaned with each step he took, and the sun failed to make sense. The trees had been eerily silent today, something different in the endless wilderness. Adam moved about his route, back and forth, back and forth. He couldn’t put his finger on it but all day, it was like he was being watched. He’d watched his six, gone off his usual path, went a little deeper than he used to, but Adam had seen nothing but white snow-covered trees.

He waded back the way he’d came as a nervousness ran through him, bubbling under his skin. His grip around his gun tightened and he couldn’t fight the urge to check it again. A heat flushed his cheeks when he saw it was still loaded and ready, just like it had been ten minutes ago.

He was losing it.

Shaking his head, Adam tried to keep himself steady with calming breaths.

In… One… Two… Three… Out… One… Two… Three.

Over him he heard a branch snap, and his heart stopped. His arms worked on instinct, aiming his gun at the sky. An owl flew overhead, cooing in the silence of the forest, and Adam’s hands fell to his side.

A small breathy laugh escaped him. What was wrong with him today?

He continued on his path, kicking snow with each step. The snow had soaked through the cuffs of his jeans, but he’d stopped caring long ago. Then the wind moved, it cut right through him, making the trees rustle like living things. Adam looked up again, catching a glimpse of the sun through the trees as the world slowly darkened around him.

Then, a warm hand clamped over his mouth. He had no time to react before he felt the barrel of a gun against his back.

“Drop the gun,” a gruff voice ordered in his ear, full of authority.

When Adam didn’t move, the gun pressed harder into his back, the metal burning against his spine. If his mouth wasn’t covered he’d probably let out a whine.

“Drop. The. Gun,” the voice repeated, and Adam felt his gun slip from his fingers. He made no move to resist when the man grabbed his hands and twisted them behind his back.

He thought about Barkley, and Jonah, and the men. What did he have to fight for?

Around him the world darkened, it was like the forest came alive, the quietness blooming with sounds. A crow cawing somewhere, and then accompanied by another. The shadows had turned strange, small half-mooned shapes making patterns in the snow.

The man pushed him up against a tree as he tied his hands. The rope he used was thick– no, not rope, it couldn’t be. Adam twisted his hands, fingers dancing along the material. A belt. The man had used his belt to tie him up.

He could just run, wrangle his hands from the man’s grip and run. Adam looked past the tree, gauging his chances through the thick snow–

Bang.

Fuck.

Adam fell to his knees.

Motherfucker.

Blood bubbled in his ears. Blood stained the snow in crimson, pooling out of his left leg. The pain burned and Adam couldn’t figure out where he’d been shot, it was like it could’ve been anywhere in the growing red staining his jeans.

The man grabbed a hold of him, twisting him around and pressed him to the tree trunk. Adam cried out in pain, he couldn’t hold it back, the pulsing in his leg too strong – it beamed up his thigh. The back of his head slammed against the bark, and Adam was forced to look at him.

“Where is she?” the man asked in a calm voice.

Older. Brown hair. Brown eyes. A patchy beard with streaks of grey. He was larger than Adam. Maybe he’d been able to run from him, if he’d not been shot.

Sucking in a shaky breath, Adam tried to calm himself. “Who?” he tried and earned himself a sucker punch – his jaw aching and blood filling up his nostrils.

The man shook his head, “Wrong answer. Where is she?” The void in the man’s eyes made a chill run through Adam; or maybe it was the snow, or the blood pooling out of him.

The man’s grip in his hair tightened as he slammed Adam’s head into the tree bark. The world spun before him, dark as it twisted it into something strange.

Fuck, he was about to die.

“S-she’s alive,” he tried, his voice not louder than a whisper.

“Where?”

Adam sucked in a breath, tried to focus on keeping his eyes open. A clanging sound filled his ears before metal glinted in the strange light. He couldn’t hold back his scream when he felt the knife in his gut.

“Ah! Fuck! Fuck!” he cried, “The cabin– the cabin.”

Over him the man towered and his grip in his hair tightened even more.

“WHAT CABIN!?” he screamed.

Adam clung to life with both hands. The man before him turned into two, and he couldn’t figure out where it hurt the most.

“H-hunting cabin… a-a f-fifteen-minute walk t-that way.” Adam tilted his head in the direction, as much movement he could manage through the grip of his hair.

The man let go of him, and his head fell back against the bark. The world was suddenly brighter again – or was he walking towards the bright light he’d heard so much about?

“S-she’s alive– I-I swear,” he whispered.

“It’s okay…” the man nodded, his voice laced with pity as he stood before him, a giant shadow against the brightening day, arm raised and blade glinting in his hand. “I believe you.”

i hope someone liked this? i'm very curious about what your thoughts for the last part will be, so if you have them please leave a comment, reply or an ask. they are always super welcomed, and they make me super happy <3 other than that, thank you for reading!!

next part -> here!

© shellshocklove, 2024 i do not give any permission to repost, translate, feed to AI or redistribute any of my writing, with or without credit!

[girlactionfigure]

This is the story of Staff Sergeant Nitai Metodi, of blessed memory.  

Nitai, the son of Lara and Lior, and the older brother of Shai and Niv, grew up in Ashkelon. He loved his city, was a counselor in the Scouts movement, and spent every free moment with his family and friends.  

Nitai was a person with a heart of gold, full of charm and charisma. He did everything with a smile, always showing care and sensitivity to those around him.  

He served as a combat soldier in the Nahal Orev unit and was discharged from regular service.  

On October 7th, Nitai was on his long-awaited trip to Australia. However, without hesitation, he searched for the first flight back to Israel and immediately returned to join the reserves, to defend the country he loved so much and to fight alongside his team.  

On August 23rd, after months of intense combat, Nitai fell in Gaza at just 23 years old. A whole life was ahead of him, but he gave his life for our country.  

May his memory be a blessing. A hero of Israel 🇮🇱🕯  

May we be worthy.

[collapsedsquid]

A 21-year-old man who died fighting for the Russian army in Ukraine has been identified as the son of a senior official in the CIA. Michael Gloss was killed on the front line in the eastern Donetsk region in April last year, Important Stories, a Russian investigative outlet, reported. He was the son of Juliane Gallina, the CIA deputy director for digital innovation, and Larry Gloss, a US navy veteran who took part in Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War of the early 1990s. On social media and in online chats with members of the Rainbow Family, a countercultural group that traces its roots to the activism of the 1970s, Gloss spoke of his disgust with America. He wrote on Telegram: “When I finally figured out how the US political system works, I realised that violence is an integral part of it.” On Instagram, he posted a picture of himself putting up his finger to the US Capitol. Another post showed a burning American flag. Acquaintances of the former boy scout and high school lacrosse player said he was enraged by Israel’s war in Gaza and had become an avid consumer of conspiracy theories. According to Important Stories, he told one friend that Western hegemony was fading and that the future would be a “multipolar world” dominated by the Brics nations, a line familiar from Russian propaganda. Brics is an intergovernmental group comprising Russia, India, China, Iran and several other countries.

[...] In May 2023, he wrote online: “Mum was telling me I could just come back any time. She was trying to make me collapse and call her for a ticket home.” But he said he was set on his path. He said: “I find myself more and more alive by the minute. Hungry for blood and glory. “It will be a sad day for ItthoBa’al [a name he had adopted] when the club must be passed on to the next incarnation. But as of now, I might have just incarnated in time to defeat mortality AND the military industrial complex.” When asked how he planned to defeat the latter, he said people would not believe him if he said.

[...] By Sept 5, he had enrolled in the Russian military, and an entry with Michael Alexander Gloss’s data appears in the EMIAS medical database. His address was listed as that of a medical examination room given to foreign recruits, Important Stories reported. During training for the 137th airborne regiment in the city of Ryazan, he told fellow recruits that he wanted to gain Russian citizenship so he could pursue environmental infrastructure projects in the country, Important Stories reported. Videos posted by Nepalese and other foreign recruits show Gloss smiling with his head shaved. He told “Mert”, a Rainbow Family friend, that he joined not to fight but to gain a passport. In one message, he said: “My goal in life is to build an infrastructure for the oxidation of water in a supercritical state. To put an end to environmental pollution and the diseases and deaths associated with pollution, that is: cancer, lymphoma and all the hormonal problems associated with microplastics and estrogens in water.”

[somecluelessidiot]

Bit of a deviation from the stuff I normally post, but I just wanted to address what the fuck is happening with our world right now??

The last five years have honestly just felt like a fever dream. Like, if I woke up right now and found out that none of that actually happened, I'd be a bit concerned for what my brain came up with, but I wouldn't question it one bit.

I mean, there's been COVID (obviously), the election of The Tangerine, the wildfires all over the world (from Australia to LA), the Russia-Ukraine war, the fact that TikTok was banned only to be fixed a few hours later (don't come at me for this, I know), Elon Musk threatening to invade the UK to save us from our 'tyrannical government' (we don't want his help, btw), the fact that both Musk and Trump were allowed at the Notre Dam reopening, too many of the world leaders supporting Trump, Putin sending a submarine with a nuke too close to the UK, the implosion of the Titanic scout submarine (rip 🕊), the Palestine-Israel war, and probably so many more things that I can't think of off the top of my head.

It's just absolutely insane. This generation has to be cursed or something because wtf?

2025 was supposed to be a good year?? That's not going too well so far, is it?

[sayruq]

On Monday, April 15, the Palestinian Football Association announced that three children from the Al-Wahda Sports Academy had been killed during Israeli raids in Deir al-Balah, located in the heart of the Gaza Strip. “We announce the martyrdom of players Sami Bilal Abu Issa and Muhammad Bilal Abu Issa,” Al Wahda Academy announced on its Facebook account, which followed up by announcing the death of Adam Ramez Nabhan in another Israeli bombing. “Our hearts break for their loss.” The three children—the youngest of whom was was four years old, with the other two aged six—are among the hundreds of Palestinian athletes who have been killed since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023. Later that same day, the PFA revealed that at least 182 athletes and sports officials had been killed amid Israel’s destruction of Gaza, including no less than 28 children. An overwhelming number of the athletes killed were members of Gaza’s once vibrant football ecosystem. Among the notable names is Hani Al-Masdar, a former player and manager of the Olympic team, and Mohammed Barakat, Gaza’s first centurion of goals and a former national team player known as the “Legend of Khan Younis.” Israel has also destroyed or partially dozens of football facilities in Palestine since the start of the war. These include all of Gaza’s professional football stadiums, as well as the PFA headquarters, which was also targeted by Israeli airstrikes. Meanwhile, smaller facilities and dirt pitches have been transformed into makeshift refugee camps, field hospitals, and mass graves.

You can find the entire list of athletes murdered or injured by Israel in link above

[absoluteocellibehavior]

Detective Noel and the Jewish Cycle of Exile and Return

This lil mini essay will already have the assumption that Noel is Jewish! If you are interested in my reasoning of such, this will take you to the post where I talked about it for the first time. Again, disclaimer that your homegirl is a Catholic, not Jewish, but does her damnedest to study other religions and associated cultures because the world is beautiful and diverse in it. I am always open to corrections or more insight and try my hardest to be as respectful about it as possible (albeit brief because this is Tumblr). Additionally, this contains spoilers about Part 52: The Wager so listen to that first.

A lot of respect needs to be had for the Jewish people. Probably some of the scrappiest and resilient people out there. I mean quite literally from the jump in Ancient Israelite culture, this tiny community was constantly either trying to be killed or assimilated by much larger nations. I mean, if you really want to take it from the beginning, the story of exile and return starts at the Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve are exiled. This, and the eventual hope to return to back to G-d, sets the framework of a consistent theme of Exile and Return throughout Jewish history. We see this very clearly starting out with Abraham in which G-d promises to bless him and his descendants as a great nation. In addition to this, is the promise of a “promised land” in the land of Canaan. Therefore, Abraham and his tribe are called to travel out of their home in Ur in Mesopotamia to this promised land (remember this). Again, this narrative is continued in the Book of Exodus, where the Israelite people are enslaved under Pharaoh after the generations of Pharaohs had forgotten about their favor with Joseph and his people (the Israelites). The Israelites are released from their enslavement in Egypt after the Plagues and split of the Red Sea and sent to wander for forty years to the edge of the Promised Land. [It’s also fun to note that Moses’ taking into the house of Pharaoh and eventual joining back to his people reflects the story of Israel as a whole <3]. However, after all but two of the scouts that were sent into Canaan told the Israelite people that there was no way they were going to take over the land. This sparked yet another exile into the desert as a punishment from YHWH. Another forty years of wandering until the new generation of Israelites under Joshua were allowed to try to conquer Canaan with marginal success.

Two additional major exiles need to be noted. In around 734 BC, the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken and deported by the Assyrians with the capital of Samaria being taken around 724 BC. Only the Southern Kingdom of Judah, who had separated from the other tribes of Israel prior to Assyrian occupation, remained mildly independent during this time. This changed when the Babylonians took over the Assyrians in the early 7th century BC, deporting political and religious leaders to Mesopotamia. Hey, you remember that place that I said Abraham was from? That’s right. Mesopotamia. Basically, some of the Jewish people (that of the Kingdom of Judah) were sent back to square one while others remained still in Jerusalem directly under Assyrian control (though there’s an implicit argument in the Book of Ezekiel that because *that* group of people returned to Abraham’s homeland and kept up with their religious practices that *they’re* the legitimate Jewish people rather than the ones that were held in Jerusalem. Crazy, I know). The Jewish people were allowed to return to Jerusalem (not any of the Northern Kingdom to their homeland) by Cyrus the Great after his defeat of the Babylonians in 538 BC. Again, this cycle of exile and return.

I’m no history buff but even in far more recent history of the Jewish people, this theme of a very small population of people (we’re talking only 15 million worldwide and 0.2% of the population of the world’s religious community), attempting to be killed or assimilated has not stopped.

So, what does this have to do with Detective Noel? Well, take a look at Noel’s life. He too has experienced this theme. He’s likely a child of immigrant parents who started fresh in Harper’s Hill. His life is entirely uprooted when he and his best friend are drafted for war. He’s able to return home albeit after a very important piece of home is ripped from him. It doesn’t feel like home anymore. So, he starts again in Arkham. For two years, that is his home. He has a stable job and close friends that are like family to him. Yet, he says what he thinks is a temporary goodbye to this family when he is sent to Egypt to join the expedition for the Grey Stone. He sends this stone to his partner back home and flees. We aren’t entirely sure how long it takes him to get back to the US, but we do know he spent two years over in Egypt and I’ve mapped a potential route he took to shake them off his tail before returning to the US (fun that Iraq and Iran are included in this as Mesopotamia covered that area).

What happens when he returns home? Home, again, is a nightmare. The little family that he had is gone. Roland is gone and assumed on the run from murder (Noel knows this can’t be the case). Delphine has been murdered. And he has no idea where Sarah is. Noel barely has time to scrap together what little of home he has left before he is haunted by The King in Yellow. He is again pulled from his home in Arkham down the Dreamlands. Where he is tortured and abused. A little glimmer of home is pulled out for him. Roland. Only for that to be literally ripped apart in front of him because he couldn’t convince The King that he truly didn’t know anything. Noel fights for any sort of control over himself in the Prison Pits wanting to spit in the face of this “god” that holds him. Since I headcanon him as both culturally and religiously Jewish, I think he sets his own clock. He keeps to his times of prayer and dietary laws even if that means going days without eating what they provide to him. He will not break. He will survive this. And he does. New York. Another fresh start. Home can change again, can’t it? A new name. A new job. Relying on no one but himself.

Yet again the cycle must continue. Kayne mentions an interesting thing in Part 52 when talking about Noel. A familiar place. “Threshold.” This could mean a couple of different things, but I find one to be the most convincing. There is an early Call of Cthulhu module known as “The Lurker at the Threshold” which takes place in a place known as Billington Woods. Billington Woods is north of ARKHAM. You know what else is in the woods north of Arkham? The Stanczyk mansion. You know… the one’s who’s undercroft currently holds Roland Cummings’ body??? YEAH. THAT ONE. Additionally, one of Yog-Sothoth’s is also known under the titles/names of “The Lurker at the Threshold” and “Charon” which makes me think that not only is our dearest detective forced to be back at Arkham, but he’s with YOG (though that’s not the important part here). He can’t escape it. He too is stuck in this cycle of exile and return whether he likes home or not.

[babehog]

pker on osrs named "IDFcommander" screwed up their attempt at killing me so badly I had time to say "zionist lol" and still get away completely unscathed. 3v1 and he said israel ftw after freezing and killing my scout 😂tbh more embarrassing than the pker that I saw dying to venenatis while trying to kill me LOL