Saturday, 28 January 2017

Reality Reversal: It’s Really the Jews Who Are Discriminated Against, Says Jerusalem Editor





By Richard Edmondson
Caroline Glick is an editor at the Jerusalem Post. In the talk above, she seems to have forgotten who is occupying whom. Glick obviously believes it is Palestinians who are discriminating against Jews, rather than the other way around.
“What they (Palestinians) are saying essentially is that Jews should not be allowed to live there just because they are Jews.”
Glick tries to advance an argument that Israeli settlements are not an obstacle to peace, that the real problem is Palestinian racism, and she alleges that a Palestinian state in “Judea and Smaria” would be so “inherently bigoted” that Jews wouldn’t even be “allowed to live there.” She further claims that dismantling the illegal settlements that have been built would be tantamount to “ethnic cleansing.”
Are Palestinians calling for a state that would be ethnically cleansed of all Jews? I have never heard any Palestinian official issue such a call, but Glick is repeating a talking point that has been made by other Israelis, including Benjamin Netanyahu.
This is not simply a case of twisting the truth; it is standing reality on its head.
Three questions here should be asked:
  1. Does a sovereign state have the right to deport aliens who have entered the country illegally?
  2. Should sovereign states have the right to set immigration policies based upon concerns about national security and public safety?
  3. Should a sovereign Palestinian state in the West Bank, were one to be established, have the right to expel settlers who have carried out, for instance, arson attacks on Palestinian homes, or poisoned Palestinian livestock, or destroyed olive trees?
The answer to all three of these questions is yes. But this is not the same as saying “No Jews allowed.” To the contrary, were Jews who have demonstrated their good will, and there are a number of these, a few of them quite prominent and whose names come readily to mind–were Jews such as these to apply for residence permits or even citizenship in the new Palestinian state, would they be turned down? The answer almost surely is no. But in Glick’s view “this is a racket.” She goes on:
Jews don’t have civil rights. We’re not allowed to live wherever we have property rights to build–just because we’re Jewish? And this is a moral argument? This is a reasonable argument? This is establishing what, exactly? Ethnic purity? This is where we’ve come to?
But wait–is it not Israel which demands to be recognized as a “Jewish and democratic state”?
Recently Stuart Littlewood published a commentary on a publication put out by a pro-Israel advocacy group called The Israel Project. The publication is a 116 page booklet entitled “Global Language Dictionary,” a document intended as a “guide to visionary leaders who are on the front lines of fighting the media war for Israel,” as an official with The Israel Project describes it.
Basically you could think of this as a manual designed to teach people how to stand reality on its head. Littlewood’s commentary on the Global Language Dictionary can be found here. The full PDF is here. Included is a whole chapter devoted to settlements. The following, described as “the best settlement argument,” provides the opener for the chapter:
“If we are to have real peace, then Israelis and Palestinians will have to live side by side. The idea that anywhere that you have Palestinians there can’t be any Jews, that some areas have to be Jew-free, is a racist idea. We don’t say that we have to cleanse out Arabs from Israel. They are citizen (sic) of Israel. They enjoy equal rights. We cannot see why it is that peace requires that any Palestinian area would require a kind of ethnic cleansing to remove all Jews. We don’t accept it. Cleansing by either side against either side is unacceptable.”
You’ll notice that the future state of Palestine is referred to not as a country or nation, but as a “Palestinian area,” and that the passage fails to take into account any Jewish responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages that occurred in 1948, or for the near 70 years of home demolitions and denial of building permits that have occurred since. Moreover, the idea that Palestinian citizens of Israel enjoy “equal rights”–as this “best argument” does claim–is preposterous to say the least. The chapter goes on:
The settlements are the single toughest issue for Israel and the hostility towards them and towards Israeli policy that appears to encourage settlement activity is clearly evident. Unless and until Israeli government policy changes, here’s the best communication approach:
The document then proceeds to list four talking points, followed by tips on how to obfuscate the whole issue with such irrelevant declarations as:
“Peace is not just about settlements. It’s about jobs, prosperity, and hope for all sides of the conflict–for Palestinians and Israelis alike. Every Palestinian child deserves a better future, and so does every Israeli child. If we can agree on that, and stop doing those things that hurt our children, we can start on the road to mutual understanding and mutual respect.”
And if you’ve any doubts this manual for standing reality on its head was written as a guide for fooling Americans especially, then consider that it also advises readers to:
Emphasize solutions wherein nobody has to leave their own homes. Americans are far more favorable towards solutions that are “just a redrawing of borders on the map” and do not require anyone–Israeli or Palestinian alike–to leave their own homes, businesses, and communities. Again–mutuality and the right to live in your home are the key themes to weave in.
Basically, the whole approach comes down to a simple tactic: accuse the Palestinians of being racists while portraying Israeli Jews as the very embodiment of liberal tolerance. And this in effect is the approach Glick takes in the video above. Glick, of course, is Jewish, and the Jerusalem Post, where she works, is one of the most prominent newspapers in Israel. In other words, she is a Jew who holds a high-ranking position in a major media outlet (albeit in Israel).
A couple of days ago I put up a post that included the following graphic:
 photo medialies_zpsefpioihs.gif
One picture is worth a thousand words, as they say, and the artwork provides a perfect illustration of how the western mainstream media basically stand reality on its head. In addition to the Palestine-Israel conflict, other areas in which mainstream media news organizations are hard at work inverting truth into its mirror opposite include:
  • Syria, where a democratically elected president is depicted as a dictator and where terrorist, head-chopping cannibals are rendered as “moderate rebels” deserving of Western support;
  • Russia–accused of “aggression” even as NATO builds bases and holds war game exercises on its borders;
  • Ukraine, a country portrayed as a peace-loving democracy but which in reality is ruled by a US-installed puppet government that has been rejected by a sizeable portion of the population–ethnic Russians who have broken away and established a de facto independent state in the country’s eastern region
So far as I’m aware, “Global Language Dictionaries” have not been published in these other areas, but the pattern of “reality reversal” is the same. Reporting on 9/11 has also followed the same pattern, with the “terror attack” vs. “false flag attack” dichotomy serving as the antipodal opposites, and in this case the equivalent of a “Global Language Dictionary” has been published–in the form of the official 9/11 report. The most obvious tip-off that the media are engaged in willful deception on 9/11 is the stubborn and persistent refusal to report the overwhelming body of evidence assembled by Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth pointing to controlled demolition as the cause of the collapse of Building 7, but were the media to report even a sliver of this information it would cause the whole house of cards to fall.
So here we have a small group of people who together enjoy the vast majority of ownership and/or executive control of the mainstream media, now engaged, in almost perfect sync with each other, in a number of deceptions so utter and absolute that the truth in each case is almost literally inverted.
Never before in history has one group of people exercised such power.
isrlunatics
So what can be said of such people? Well, a starting point might be their “singularity.”  That at least is the word used in a book review, here, published by Daniel Lazare, a liberal Jewish writer whose articles have appeared in The Nation.
“Eventually, nearly every discussion of the Jews, pro or con, sympathetic or hostile, gets around to their alleged singularity,” Lazare writes in an article which poses the question: “Are the Jews Unique?”
Jews, he says, have always been “stubborn, clannish and standoffish, and even when they stopped wearing those funny clothes in the modern era and tried to blend in–especially when they tried to blend in–something about them remained at odds with the larger society.”
The article, as I say, is a book review. The book Lazare is reviewing is The Jewish Century, by Yuri Slezkine, a Russian-American Jew who holds a faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley. Slezkine’s thesis is that the human race is comprised of two different types of people, “Apollonians,” or food producers, and “Mercurians,” who provide a variety of services to the food producers. Comments Lazare by way of his review:
In Greek mythology, Apollo is the god of livestock and agriculture and hence of settled existence in general. Hermes–Mercury to the Romans–is, by contrast, a trickster god who serves as “the patron of rule breakers, border crossers, and go-betweens,” i.e., less permanent types who prefer to live by their wits. Rather than settling down and blending in, the Mercurians seek the opposite goal: to keep themselves apart by deliberately cultivating strangeness‚ strange customs, strange languages and so on.
In what seems to be an exercise in public relations (perhaps not unlike the Global Language Dictionary), Slezkine argues that the Jews are not the only population group that has played the Mecurian role, and he names others, including the Koli such’ok people of medieval Korea along with a number of tribal groups in northern Africa, who have played similar roles–but of course none of these peoples presently find themselves perched at the pinnacle of world power.
So in evaluating Glick’s comments in the video above, along with similar speeches and commentaries by other Zionist speakers, should we perhaps keep in mind the “trickster” and “Mercurian” tendencies which may be at play?
Back in December I wrote and posted an article entitled “Light and Darkness,” which included a commentary on the following passage from the first epistle of John:
Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.
Modern day scholars, as I noted, have argued that the “antichhrists” John referred to were the Gnostics, but the early Gnostics–as I also noted–held a reverence for Christ, and I argued that the reference in reality is to Jews–specifically Jewish Christians who, at the end of the first century, abandoned the faith and returned to Judaism. This is what John means by “they went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.”
Jewish Christians were persecuted (by other Jews), thrown out of the synagogue, and following the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 AD, the intensity of these persecutions increased. The “Mercurians” apparently wanted nothing to do with any teaching about loving one another or seeing all peoples as fellow children of God.
In the video above, Glick seems well aware that the settlements are “the single toughest issue for Israel,” and she lays the blame for the turbulent situation on the Palestinians, the Egyptians, the Iraqis, Syrians, the British–everybody pretty much is at fault…except of course for the Jews.
And so we find ourselves in a world of inverted realities–where Palestinians who have had their lands stolen are the “racists” and Jewish settlers who believe that “one million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail” are absolved of blame; where Russia is an “aggressor”; where terrorists are “moderates”; where light becomes darkness and where darkness is celebrated.

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Astana is the dilemma of whom? And the powerful card of whom? أستانة مأزق مَن؟ وأوراق مَن؟

Astana is the dilemma of whom? And the powerful card of whom?
Written by Nasser Kandil,

The Turks have arranged their cards before going to Astana on the political data basis that is ready to be accepted by the announcement of the willingness to participate with Russia and Iran in the war on terrorism including Al Nusra front, and the agreement with Iran on restricting the auspices of the understandings with Russia as an acceptable mediator by everyone, after it was notified the refusal of Syria of Ankara as a mediator, and after it was notified the refusal of the militants of Iran as a mediator. Ankara has left the political ceiling of the Syrian settlement for the stage of the political talks which it is supposed that Astana will pave the way for it, preparing it for the next phase. Astana is interested in ceasing –fire, so the Turks have prepared a project for Astana entitled guarantees of ceasing –fire and the sanctions on who violates it, in addition to the procedures to verify the compliance with it.
In return, Syria has arranged its cards on the basis that it will be with its Russian ally in one trench and one goal, and as long as Moscow considers the available opportunity for the transition of Turkey from position to another in the light of the victories of Aleppo and the change of the balances of the international and regional forces, after the fall of the bet on the winning of Hillary Clinton to continue the war on Syria under US support and the instability of the Saudi position in the region, so there is no objection for Syria to test the opportunity, as long as the opportunity affects the armed groups which work under the Turkish mantle and their positioning is outside the coordination with Al Nusra front. Moreover, there is no objection from putting a test for these groups that equals their position in the process, the Syrian cards were arranged to serve achieving the test and grants Moscow the opportunity of assessment and the moving in the light of the reactions and how to interact with these tests.
Iran and Hezbollah are supportive forces to the Syrian movement which aims to reveal the Turkish intentions as well as putting the commitments of Turkey on the behalf of its groups in front of these groups in a clearer unambiguous way. The Syrian cards are arranged in a way that says: let us not manipulate in the terminology, if some see the sitting on the negotiating table requires changing the characteristics to say that we did not accept to sit with an occupier and a terrorist, so we will change this equation and say: yes we are sitting with an occupier, but he remains an occupier till this characteristic is denied from him, we are sitting with him to test the credibility of his intentions that he will change, so we will describe him as a force of occupation, as we will say to the terrorist, yes you are a terrorist, we sit with him to know the credibility of what was said about his intention to change. The Turkish is an occupier and the participated factions as terrorist till the contrary is proved, from here we will start.
Among the cards there was welcoming of any attempt to resolve with Al Nusra Front and the positioning on its classification as terrorism. But Turkey and the participated factions have to explain with derails the answer of the question entitled with board red line what are your procedures to translate this classification? They must separate between the Turkish answer and the militants’ answer. Simply the Ambassador Bashar Al-Jaafari presented this question and said give us your written answers in tomorrow’s session. But they returned to say confusedly as their
cards said about the priority of ensuring ceasing-fire. Syria has arranged its cards explaining elaborately the importance of ceasing –fire and its welcoming of the procedures to ensure it and the verification of the compliance with its requirements and determine its violations. But the written question here is about the maps, would you please let your military experts determine the sites for us which you do not share with Al Nusra in order to include them with ceasing-fire after checking and getting the correctness of the information from the three sponsors, each area which is fully under the control of those who are around this table , they can only form a delegation to visit it safely to check its conditions, but when the Turks started to sweat and their armed groups started to get confused, the Ambassador Al-Jaafari asked whether is it possible to have the maps on the next day before the closing secession and to be ratified from the sponsors, they became more confused.
Among the Syrian cards there is an “innocent” question for every participant whether host or guests, sponsors or participants; are we ensure cease-fire as a truce between fighters who want to return back to war, or who are preparing themselves to go to peace?. In the first part, Syria is not tired from the war to stop it in preparation to resume it, and it will not grant the one who wants the truce to return to the war what he wants , so is cease-fire a step towards the peace?, if the answer is yes as it is supposed to be, so what will be the road map of the transition from cease-fire to the peace talks?, and how long the cease-fire will take before this transition?, does the ambiguous of the deadline mean the intentions of some parties of turning the cease-fire into a truce that paves the way for a new round of war?. Here the silence prevailed, but there was a completion; then write down a supposed deadline, one month, two months, three months or a political deadline or say till the position of the new US administration becomes clear and its intentions towards continuing the war on Syria or towards the bilateral relationships with the partners of the war on Syria.
The Turks and their groups have got angry before they calmed down and discovered that the margins of the maneuver is getting narrow and they have to choose between the return with fragile truce which may fall at any time where Idlib as Aleppo will be recaptured by the Syrian army before knowing the US position or to proceed forward and fill the spaces in the cards and the maps for which Al-Jaafari has invited them to present before the end of the conference
Translated by Lina Shehadeh,

أستانة مأزق مَن؟ وأوراق مَن؟

يناير 24, 2017

ناصر قنديل

– رتّب الأتراك أوراقهم قبل الذهاب إلى أستانة على قاعدة بيانات سياسية جاهزة للقبول بالإعلان عن الاستعداد للمشاركة مع روسيا وإيران في الحرب على الإرهاب، بما فيه جبهة النصرة، والتراضي مع إيران على حصر الرعاية للتفاهمات بروسيا كوسيط مقبول من الجميع، بعدما تبلغت رفض سورية لأنقرة وسيطاً وأبلغت رفض المسلحين لإيران وسيطاً. وتركت أنقرة السقف السياسي للتسوية السورية لمرحلة المحادثات السياسية التي يفترض أن يؤسس لها أستانة ويتركها لمرحلة مقبلة، ويهتم بتثبيت وقف إطلاق النار، فجهز الأتراك مشروعاً لأستانة عنوانه ضمانات وقف النار والعقوبات على مَن يخرقه والآليات للتحقق من الالتزام به.

– بالمقابل رتبت سورية أوراقها على قاعدة أنها وحليفها الروسي في خندق واحد وهدف واحد، وطالما أن موسكو تعتبر الفرصة المتاحة لانتقال تركيا من موقع إلى موقع في ضوء انتصارات حلب وتغير موازين القوى الدولية والإقليمية بسقوط الرهان على فوز هيلاري كلينتون لمواصلة الحرب في سورية بدعم أميركي وتضعضع الموقع السعودي في المنطقة، فلا مانع لدى سورية من اختبار الفرصة. وطالما أن الفرصة تطال الجماعات المسلحة التي تعمل تحت العباءة التركية وتموضعها خارج التنسيق مع جبهة النصرة فلا مانع أيضاً من وضع اختبار لهذه الجماعات يعادل مكانتها في العملية. فجاءت الأوراق السورية مرتبة بما يخدم تحقيق الاختبار ويمنح موسكو فرصة التقييم والتحرك بضوء ردود الأفعال وكيفية التفاعل مع الاختبارات.

– إيران وحزب الله قوى داعمة للحركة السورية الهادفة لوضع إعلان النيات التركي أمام آلة كشف الكذب، ومثلها وضع التزامات تركيا بالنيابة عن جماعاتها أمام هذه الجماعات بلغة أشد وضوحاً تزيل عنها الضباب، والأوراق السورية مرتبة بطريقة تقول، تعالوا لا نعبث بالمصطلحات، فإذا كان البعض يرى أن الجلوس على طاولة تفاوض يستدعي تغيير الصفات للقول بأننا لم نقبل بالجلوس مع محتل وإرهابي فسنقلب المعادلة ونقول، نعم نحن نجلس مع محتلّ فهو يبقى محتلا حتى تنتفي عنه هذه الصفة ونحن نجلس معه لاختبار صدق نياته بأن يتغير، فسنصفه كقوة احتلال، كما سنقول للإرهابي أنت إرهابي ونجلس معه لتبين صدقية ما قيل عن نيته بالتغير، فالتركي محتلّ والفصائل المشاركة إرهابية حتى يثبت العكس، ومن هنا نبدأ.

– في باطن الأوراق ترحيب بكل استعداد للحسم مع جبهة النصرة والتموضع على خط تصنيفها إرهاباً، لكن فتح قوسين كبيرين يبقى بينهما فارغاً على تركيا والفصائل المشاركة ملؤه بالتفاصيل، جواباً على سؤال عنوانه بالأحمر العريض ما هي إجراءاتكم لترجمة هذا التصنيف؟ ويُرجى الفصل بين الجواب التركي وجواب المسلحين. بكل بساطة يطرح السفير بشار الجعفري السؤال ويقول أعطونا الأجوبة خطياً في جلسة الغد، وعندما يعودون بارتباك، كما تقول أوراقهم، للحديث عن أولوية تثبيت وقف النار، رتبت سورية أوراقها على الإطالة في شرح أهمية وقف النار، وترحيبها بآليات لتثبيته والتحقق من الالتزام بمقتضياته وتحديد خروقه، لكن السؤال الخطي هنا على الخرائط، لو سمحتم دعوا خبراءكم العسكريين أن يحددوا لنا المواقع التي لا تتشاركون فيها مع النصرة لتشميلها بوقف النار بعد التدقيق فيها وصحة المعلومات من الرعاة الثلاثة، فكل منطقة تخضع بالكامل للموجودين حول هذه الطاولة حصراً، إذ يملك الموجودون حول الطاولة تشكيل وفد لزيارتها بصورة آمنة للتحقق من أحوالها، وعندما يبدأ الأتراك بالتعرق وجماعاتهم المسلحة تحمرّ وجوههم ويرتفع سعالهم يسأل السفير الجعفري عما إذا كان ممكناً للخرائط أن تجهز في اليوم الثاني قبل جلسة الختام لتوقيعها وتصديقها من الرعاة، فيبلع الجميع لعابهم.

– في باطن باطن الأوراق السورية سؤال «بريء» موجّه لكل من يشارك على الطاولة من مستضيف وضيوف، ورعاة ومشاركين، هل نحن نثبت وقف النار كهدنة بين متحاربين يريدون العودة للحرب أم يستعدون للذهاب إلى السلام، وفي الأولى سورية ليست تعبة من الحرب لتوقفها تمهيداً لاستئنافها، ولن تمنح من يريد هدنة ليستعد للعودة إلى الحرب ما يريد، فهل وقف النار خطوة على طريق السلام، وإذا كان الجواب نعم، كما يفترض أن يكون فما هي خريطة طريق الانتقال من وقف النار إلى محادثات السلام، وكم هي المدة اللازمة لوقف النار قبل هذا الانتقال، وهل غموض المهلة يعني غير نيات البعض بتحويل وقف النار إلى هدنة تمهّد لجولة حرب جديدة؟ هنا اسودّت وجوه واكفهرّت وجوه، فجاءتهم التتمة، إذن اكتبوا مهلة مفترضة، شهراً، إثنين، ثلاثة، أو مهلة سياسية فقولوا حتى يتوضح موقف الإدارة الأميركية الجديدة ونياتها تجاه مواصلة الحرب على سورية، أو تجاه العلاقات الثنائية بشركاء الحرب على سورية.

– انفجر الأتراك وجماعاتهم غضباً، قبل أن يهدأوا ويكتشفوا أن هوامش المناورة تضيق، وعليهم الاختيار بين العودة بهدنة هشة قد تسقط في أي وقت وتسقط فيها إدلب، كما سقطت حلب بيد الجيش السوري، وقبل أن يتسنى استيضاح المخبوء الأميركي، أو أن يتقدموا خطوة إلى الأمام وملء الفارغ في الأوراق والخرائط التي دعاهم الجعفري لتقديمها قبل انفضاض أعمال المؤتمر.

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Hope this is true, but somehow I doubt it: Days of US, UK interventionist policy over: May

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat at Loews Philadelphia Hotel on January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by AFP)
British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the Congress of Tomorrow Republican Member Retreat at Loews Philadelphia Hotel on January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by AFP)
The British prime minister says the United Kingdom and the United States must not intervene in other sovereign countries’ affairs in an attempt to “remake the world in our own image.”
Theresa May told a meeting of Republican lawmakers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on Thursday that the “days of Britain and America intervening in sovereign countries in an attempt to remake the world in our own image are over.”
However, she insisted that the two powers should still lead the world and take on “new global challenges,” including the Syrian crisis and the fight against the Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group.
“This cannot mean a return to the failed policies of the past. But nor can we afford to stand idly by when the threat is real and when it is in our own interests to intervene,” she said.
“We must be strong, smart and hard-headed. And we must demonstrate the resolve necessary to stand up for our interests,” she added.
May heaps praise upon Republicans
UK Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during the Congress of Tomorrow, Republican Member Retreat, at the Loews Philadelphia Hotel on January 26, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by AFP)
The British premier congratulated the Republican Party on its election victories in November, particularly Donald Trump’s triumph in the presidential election, saying it came in defiance of “pundits and polls.”
“Because of this, because of what you have done together, because of that great victory you have won, America can be stronger, greater, and more confident in the years ahead,” she said.
“And a newly emboldened, confident America is good for the world,” May argued.
She received a standing ovation when she pledged her commitment to the “special relationship” between London and Washington.
May told Republicans that like them she is also a conservative and believes in transferring power to the people, wooing GOP lawmakers ahead of her meeting with President Trump on Friday at the White House.
She will become the first foreign leader to meet with the US president following his inauguration last week.
‘Engage with Russia but beware of Putin’
Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attend the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) leaders summit in Astana on October 16, 2015. (Photo by AFP)
Elsewhere in her speech, May urged the Trump administration to engage with Moscow but “beware” of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“When it comes to Russia, as so often it is wise to turn to the example of President (Ronald) Reagan who — during negotiations with his opposite number Mikhail Gorbachev — used to abide by the adage ‘trust but verify,’” she said.
“With President Putin, my advice is to ‘engage but beware,'” the UK prime minister told US Republican lawmakers.
Trump has said on many occasions that he would push for warmer relations with Moscow.
He indicated in recent interview with The Wall Street Journal that he might even remove US sanctions against Moscow and consider a meeting with his Russian counterpart.
May echoes Trump’s concerns about NATO
US President Donald Trump during a reception with Congressional leaders at the White House in Washington, DC, January 23, 2017. (Photo by AFP)
Echoing some of Trump’s concerns about NATO, May said the US-led military alliance must be reformed and also other international institutions such as the United Nations.
She said the allies of the US and UK “should not undermine the alliances that keep us strong by failing to step up and play their part.”
“But those multinational institutions need to work for the countries that formed them, and to serve the needs and interests of the people of those nations. They have no democratic mandate of their own,” she said.
In an interview prior to the US visit, the British premier said she was sure that Trump “recognizes the importance and significance of NATO.”
“I’m also confident the USA will recognize the importance of the co-operation we have in Europe to ensure our collective defense and collective security,” she added.
In a recent interview with two European newspapers, Trump said NATO was “obsolete, because it was designed many, many years ago” and that “because it wasn’t taking care of terror.”
European nations have said they are “astonished” by Trump’s comments about NATO, which has been a cornerstone of Europe’s defense policy since the end of World War II.

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British navy to lead Gulf 'war games' amid Iran tensions

A British marine with a high-powered rifle on deck of HMS Ocean during Gulf exercises in 2003 (AFP)
A Royal Navy-led strike group of American, British and French warships is preparing for “war games” in the Gulf, including a simulated confrontation with Iran, amid ongoing disputes with Tehran’s naval forces and bellicose rhetoric against the country by the new Trump administration.
Exercise Unified Trident, due to begin next week, has been planned for some time but is the first major deployment of British and American warships in the area since Donald Trump entered the White House. 
US Navy warships from the strike group have been involved in a string of confrontations with Iranian forces in recent months, including an incident earlier this month when destroyer USS Mahan fired warning shots at four fast-attack Iranian patrol boats.
‘There is no doubt that tensions are rising and that loose talk by President Trump is escalating the situation’ – Admiral Lord West
The show of force next week will see Royal Navy flagship HMS Ocean and Type 45 destroyer HMS Daring deploy to the Gulf in a show of “deterrence and reassurance” alongside American warships USS Hopper and USS Mahan and French anti-aircraft frigate FS Forbin.
Former head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West, told Middle East Eye that the timing of the drills was “worrying” and that military commanders would be “acutely aware of rising tensions” in the region in the wake of comments by Trump.
The admiral, whose ship HMS Ardent was lost in the 1982 Falklands conflict, said: “There is no doubt that tensions are rising and that loose talk by President Trump is escalating the situation.

US navy fired warning shots at Iranian vessels

“I personally think the Iranian nuclear deal was a good deal that stopped Iran developing nuclear weapons. Trump disagrees though, and his views on Iran are far more strident.”
HMS Ocean, the Royal Navy helicopter carrier and assault ship leading the exercise, is the current flagship of Combined Task Force 50. This strike group is usually led by US aircraft carrier and has carried out operations against Islamic State as well as acting as a deterrent against Iranian aggression in Straits of Hormuz.

Trump on Tehran

The new US president has made no secret of his desire to take a hard line with Iran and to “dismantle” President Obama’s landmark nuclear agreement with the country. Earlier this week he pledged close co-operation with Israel in “addressing the threats posed by Iran”.
His newly appointed defence secretary, James Mattis, is also a fierce critic of Iran. Mattis has called for stronger responses to Iranian harassment of US vessels and aircraft and called the country “the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East”.
Security experts fear the Unified Trident drills could see a repeat of tensions last summer when Iranian naval boats made a series of dangerous manoeuvres around US warships in the Persian Gulf.
US sailors fired warning shots during one episode, underscoring the risk of an armed clash between Iran and the US Navy in the hotly contested area.
Peter Roberts, director of military sciences at defence think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told MEE: “It looks like the policy of the new administration towards Iran will be hardline, and as such Iran may feel that it has little to lose, and therefore could try something.”
Roberts said potential attacks could range from a “USS Mahan type incident” to a “more significant attack on an allied warship”.
He added: “This could meet the desires of Iran to be seen to be powerful within the region, but also to test the US alliance commitment. Even in such circumstances, Trump’s response would not be predictable – anything from ignoring it, to massive retaliation.”
“Rational (in a western sense) leaders would try and avoid this until they had a feel for what such a response might be. But can we view the Revolutionary leadership of Iran as rational or logical from our perspective?”


Marines fire a machine gun on HMS Ocean during Gulf exercises in 2003 (AFP)
Few details about the exercise have been released and US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain did not respond to requests for comment from MEE.
Tensions are thought to be high though, and earlier this month Rear Admiral Alex Burton, commander of UK Maritime Forces, revealed that HMS Daring has already spent 100 hours at “action stations” and 39 days at heightened state of readiness since it deployed to the region in October.

UK to help Gulf ‘push back Iranian aggression’

Roberts added: “It would be surprising if the Allied naval readiness was not increased during the exercise, but similarly a cancellation would signal Iran had the upper hand in setting the Allied agenda in the region and is also unlikely.
“The US will be watching extremely closely, and have – like all states – prearranged ways to bypass British commanders if they prove to be too slow or insufficiently robust.”

Theatre of war

During the exercise HMS Daring and HMS Ocean are likely to join with US and French warships to simulate destroying Iranian combat jets, ships and coastal missile batteries.
In the event of war, the main threat to the US-led coalition in the Gulf will come from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ navy. This force is expected to use an “access-denial” strategy by attacking American and British warships, targeting merchant shipping and mining vital maritime chokepoints in the Gulf.
Defence experts say that although Iran’s capability is limited and it is outclassed by American and British forces, it could still deliver a series of lethal blows using a combination of mini-submarines, fast attack boats, mines and shore-based anti-ship missile batteries.
The Gulf is among the world’s busiest waterways. Last week the waters were crowded further still as three Chinese warships including a guided-missile destroyer, embarked on a tour of the region.

Chinese warships tour Gulf Arab states for first time since 2010

It is the first such tour in six years and comes as Beijing signalled a desire to play a bigger role on the global stage. Defence sources said it would likely that the Chinese vessels would “keep an eye” on the Royal Navy-led exercises.
Roberts added: “Trump is not going to be predictable in his responses – no one knows what would trigger a big reaction, or none at all. Given that, and the stakes that the president of the United States is prepared to play for, I suspect both China and Russia will calm their military challenges somewhat. Iran, on the other hand, is more difficult to forecast.”
A Royal Navy spokesman said: “HMS Ocean and a Type 45 Destroyer will be the RN participants in Exercise Unified Trident. This is a routine exercise that has been planned for a considerable time. We don’t comment on force protection measures.”

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Friday, 27 January 2017

Syria: «There are No Moderates», Tulsi Gabbard’s Reports from Syria




Syria: «There are No Moderates», Tulsi Gabbard’s Reports from Syria
EDITOR’S CHOICE | 27.01.2017

Syria: «There are No Moderates», Tulsi Gabbard’s Reports from Syria


Vanessa BEELEY
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has recently returned from an “under-wraps” fact finding mission to Syria where she met with Syrian people across a wide spectrum of Syrian society, including those recently liberated from Nusra Front-led terrorist occupation in East Aleppo. What she found, confirmed that the corporate media, NATO-aligned NGOs and the US interventionist coalition have been misrepresenting the facts on the ground in Syria for the last six years, funding terrorism and fanfaring an illegal regime-change programme. The globalists are not happy! 
Gabbard had already caused major shock-waves in Congress with her “Stop Arming Terrorists” bill that exposed Washington’s violation of anti terrorism laws by providing money, weapons and intelligence to terrorist organisations working on their behalf inside Syria to topple the Syrian government.
This is the interview with Jake Tapper of CNN who starts the programme rolling with the familiar corporate media child exploitation tactics, introducing us to Bana Alabed, a child who has been co-opted into the war effort.. Watch ~
Tulsi Gabbard’s Report from Syria ~ The Syrian People Desperately Want Peace
As much of Washington prepared for the inauguration of President Donald Trump, I spent last week on a fact-finding mission in Syria and Lebanon to see and hear directly from the Syrian people. Their lives have been consumed by a horrific war that has killed hundreds of thousands of Syrians and forced millions to flee their homeland in search of peace.
It is clear now more than ever: this regime change war does not serve America’s interest, and it certainly isn’t in the interest of the Syrian people.
Hanano, East Aleppo, 48 hours after liberation from Nusra Front led occupation, by SAA and allies (Photo: Vanessa Beeley)
I traveled throughout Damascus and Aleppo, listening to Syrians from different parts of the country. I met with displaced families from the eastern part of Aleppo, Raqqah, Zabadani, Latakia, and the outskirts of Damascus. I met Syrian opposition leaders who led protests in 2011, widows and children of men fighting for the government and widows of those fighting against the government. I met Lebanon’s newly-elected President Aoun and Prime Minister Hariri, U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard, Syrian President Assad, Grand Mufti Hassoun, Archbishop Denys Antoine Chahda of Syrian Catholic Church of Aleppo, Muslim and Christian religious leaders, humanitarian workers, academics, college students, small business owners, and more.
Their message to the American people was powerful and consistent: There is no difference between “moderate” rebels and al-Qaeda (al-Nusra) or ISIS — they are all the same. This is a war between terrorists under the command of groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda and the Syrian government. They cry out for the U.S. and other countries to stop supporting those who are destroying Syria and her people.
I heard this message over and over again from those who have suffered and survived unspeakable horrors. They asked that I share their voice with the world; frustrated voices which have not been heard due to the false, one-sided biased reports pushing a narrative that supports this regime change war at the expense of Syrian lives.
I heard testimony about how peaceful protests against the government that began in 2011 were quickly overtaken by Wahhabi jihadist groups like al-Qaeda (al-Nusra) who were funded and supported by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar, the United States, and others. They exploited the peaceful protesters, occupied their communities, and killed and tortured Syrians who would not cooperate with them in their fight to overthrow the government.
I met a Muslim girl from Zabadani who was kidnapped, beaten repeatedly, and raped in 2012, when she was just 14 years old, by “rebel groups” who were angry that her father, a sheep herder, would not give them his money. She watched in horror as masked men murdered her father in their living room, emptying their entire magazine of bullets into him.
I met a boy who was kidnapped while walking down the street to buy bread for his family. He was tortured, waterboarded, electrocuted, placed on a cross and whipped, all because he refused to help the “rebels” — he told them he just wanted to go to school. This is how the “rebels” are treating the Syrian people who do not cooperate with them, or whose religion is not acceptable to them.
Although opposed to the Assad government, the political opposition spoke strongly about their adamant rejection of the use of violence to bring about reforms. They argue that if the Wahhabi jihadists, fueled by foreign governments, are successful in overthrowing the Syrian state, it would destroy Syria and its long history of a secular, pluralist society where people of all religions have lived peacefully side by side. Although this political opposition continues to seek reforms, they are adamant that as long as foreign governments wage a proxy regime change war against Syria using jihadist terrorist groups, they will stand with the Syrian state as they work peacefully toward a stronger Syria for all Syrians.
Originally, I had no intention of meeting with Assad, but when given the opportunity, I felt it was important to take it. I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people so much suffering.
I return to Washington, DC with even greater resolve to end our illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government. From Iraq to Libya and now in Syria, the U.S. has waged wars of regime change, each resulting in unimaginable suffering, devastating loss of life, and the strengthening of groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS.
I call upon Congress and the new Administration to answer the pleas of the Syrian people immediately and support the Stop Arming Terrorists Act. We must stop directly and indirectly supporting terrorists — directly by providing weapons, training and logistical support to rebel groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and ISIS; and indirectly through Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States, and Turkey, who, in turn, support these terrorist groups. We must end our war to overthrow the Syrian government and focus our attention on defeating al-Qaeda and ISIS.
The U.S. must stop supporting terrorists who are destroying Syria and her people. The U.S. and other countries fueling this war must stop immediately. We must allow the Syrian people to try to recover from this terrible war.
Thank you,
Tulsi
Tulsi Gabbard’s Video Depicting Life in Aleppo and Across Syria
“The U.S. must stop supporting terrorists who are destroying Syria and her people. The U.S. and other countries fueling this war must stop immediately. We must allow the Syrian people to try to recover from this terrible war.” ~ Tulsi Gabbard on Facebook
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard Returns From Syria with Renewed Calls: End Regime Change War in Syria Now
“With my feet I walk, with my eyes I see, with my ears I listen, with my senses seek truth, my duty to speak out. A light more worthy than all the mobs demonstrating, both she (Tulsi Gabbard) and the other women who have supported the Syrian children and truth, great credit to you all.” ~ Patrick Leslie, Facebook
“Forget about Trump for a moment, forget about the sides we take and don’t take in politics and read this testimony from Tulsi Gabbard who went to Syria to witness the testimony from Syrians about what really happened in this dirty war.
There’s a certain character to the writings of the people who have taken it upon themselves to visit Syria with only the desire for truth. These writings, if approached with an open heart, will change you.” ~ Michael Swifte on Facebook

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Trump Considers Elliott Abrams for No. 2 Position at State Dept.

 photo abrams45_zpsyiqomjzk.jpg
[ Ed. note – Elliott Abrams, a longtime Washington insider who in the 1980s attempted to coverup atrocities committed by death squads in Central America, is reportedly now being considered by President Trump for the position of Deputy Secretary of State. ]
Who is Elliott Abrams?
By David Kinzer
With Rex Tillerson inching ever closer to being confirmed as secretary of state, the Trump transition team is now focusing on Tillerson’s number 2, and today, The Wall Street Journal reports that Elliot Abrams is a front-runner for the position.
But who is Elliot Abrams?
Unlike Tillerson, who is new to the political stage, Abrams is an experienced diplomat and a true-blue Neoconservative who was convicted and later pardoned of crimes committed while serving in the Reagan Administration.
In short, he is a man with credentials. And baggage.
Born to a Jewish family in New York City in 1948, Abrams’s life followed the emblematic Neoconservative trajectory, with degrees from prestigious institutions (Harvard for his B.A. and J.D., with a Master’s from the London School of Economics on the side) and brief forays into liberal politics, working for two Democratic Senators. He ultimately switched over to the Republican Party in 1980, after growing disattisfied with liberal diplomacy.
By 1981, Abrams was appointed to President Ronald Reagan’s State Department. There he held several positions, including Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. That experience may be meant to balance out Tillerson, who was criticized after his confirmation hearings for appearing weak on human rights.
However, it was Abrams’s subsequent post that landed him the most attention, not all of it good. As Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, he supported the government of El Salvador while it committed war crimes like the El Mozote massacre and was a key participant in the Iran-Contra affair, secretly coordinating deals with foreign governments to help the right-wing Nicaraguan Contras obtain weapons. He did this even though Congress had specifically forbidden the US from assisting the Contras in acquiring weapons or overthrowing the Nicaraguan government.
Despite the negative scrutiny, Abrams held onto his post until the end of the Reagan administration. Afterward, he cooperated with Iran-Contra investigators and pled guilty to two counts of withholding information from Congress in 1991. The following year, President George H.W. Bush pardoned him.

The Wikipedia article on Abrams contains some interesting information on Abrams, for instance the following:
In early 1982, when reports of the El Mozote massacre of hundreds of civilians by the military in El Salvador began appearing in U.S. media, Abrams told a Senate committee that the reports of hundreds of deaths at El Mozote “were not credible,” and that “it appears to be an incident that is at least being significantly misused, at the very best, by the guerrillas.”[14] The massacre had come at a time when the Reagan administration was attempting to bolster the human rights image of the Salvadoran military. Abrams implied that reports of a massacre were simply FMLN propaganda and denounced U.S. investigative reports of the massacre as misleading. In March 1993, the Salvadoran Truth Commission reported that over 500 civilians were “deliberately and systematically” executed in El Mozote in December 1981 by forces affiliated with the Salvadoran government.
And it seems he also may have played a role in the attempted coup in Venezuela in 2002:
The Observer has claimed that Abrams had advance knowledge of, and “gave a nod to,” the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002 against Hugo Chávez.[29] However, a review by the State Department’s inspector general made the following conclusion: “Our government’s opposition to the use of undemocratic or unconstitutional means to remove President Chávez was repeated over and over again during the relevant period by key policymakers and spokespersons in Washington and by our representatives in Caracas in both public and private forums. And, far from working to foment his overthrow, the United States alerted President Chávez to coup plots and warned him of an assassination threat that was deemed to be credible.”[30] Yet the U.S. government gave tacit approval to the coup initially, refusing to condemn the coup until after the president installed by the coup had already been forced to resign by the people.
It seems Trump is falling into the same trap Obama fell into: surrounding himself with neocons. Is he really this politically naive? Or was that maybe his intention all along?
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