Uprooted Palestinian: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM – سلام القدس عليكم

Thursday, 29 November 2018

Yemen’s Al-Masirah Network is Blocked! Don’t be Happy, Crimes will always be Uncovered

In the battle between good and bad, surprises are not much surprising!

On Wednesday morning, Yemen’s al-Masirah TV, the voice of resistance amid the ongoing Saudi war on Yemen, was noticed by the company hosting its frequency on the NileSat satellite’s orbit that it submitted to the many political pressures by the US-Saudi aggression block the channel.

An hour and a half later, the measure went into effect. It happened for the second time in less than a month.

Commenting on the latest development, Mr. Hamed Rizq, Head of Political Programs at al-Masirah TV, told al-Ahed News:

“Targeting and banning al-Masirah TV off its audience in Yemen and the Arab world is not new; it is very much related to the field failure of the US-Saudi coalition countries in their aggression in Yemen, especially in the Western Coast battle in which they were inflicted heavy military failure. They were also exposed on the media level because they were promoting their ‘victories’ saying that they controlled al-Hudaydah, while al-Massirah TV and the Military Media was proving the opposite of all such rumors.”

He went on to list the reasons behind the measure as saying: “They also wanted to ban al-Masirah because of its educational role among the Yemeni people, which was clearly witnessed through the success in massive commemoration of the birth anniversary of Prophet Mohammad [PBUH]. This made them rise against the channel that proved influential among the people as well as in raising their morale, in addition to rising against the aggression in all forms and domains.”

While the opposite media proved its failure in the face of the Yemeni media, especially al-Masirah, they were obliged to deal with this failure by covering the truth of al-Masirah TV, the mirror that reflects the true situation, Rizq added.

“Moreover, the massacres committed by the aggression forces, and the escalating humanitarian situation that has been exposed and criticized by the world represent one of the reasons behind this practice.” The man stressed that al-Masirah plays a significant role in uncovering the “coalition’s” massacres and crimes.

A reason added is the Arab people’s solidarity with Yemen. The Yemeni media, al-Masirah in particular, play a key role in delivering injustice happening in Yemen to the world. Now in Tunisia, Morocco, Iraq, Lebanon and many other countries, there are popular movements standing in solidarity with Yemen and denouncing the Saudi crimes there, the Yemeni journalist said.

The previous causes are related to the meantime; but what about the coming days?

According to Mr. Rizq, targeting the channel would signal to an upcoming military escalation. It is an attempt to cover up more crimes the coalition is tending to commit against civilians in Yemen. It is also an early announcement of the failure of political path and negotiations being discussed, especially by UN envoy to Yemen Martin Griffiths.

Anyhow, al-Masirah considers that this step is a testimony by the enemy about its effectiveness. We are not the first channel to be banned, which if it means something, then it is the bankruptcy of the opposite side, as well as the influence the channel is making among the public. This happens with al-Manar TV, the number one channel in the fight against the “Israeli” enemy. Al-Aqsa TV in Gaza was also banned.

“The battle of words between us and them will continue, and we will certainly prevail,” Rizq stressed.

Indeed, in the time of open media, they cannot hide the truth or blind the people’s eyes from following up the updates in Yemen and in any other place.

Al-Masirah channel noted that its broadcast can be followed instead on the Russian satellite AM 44, at frequency 11177 vertical, coding rate 3000.

It is also possible for people inside Yemen to follow the broadcast via radio, online and live streaming, in addition to the social media networks that will continue to operate as usual.

In the same respect, al-Masirah considered that act is a legal breach under the signed agreements, and that the network has the full legal right to continue broadcasting.

Source: Al-Ahed News, Lebanon

Hezbollah: Blocking of Resistance Media Outlets Proves Their Efficiency

Hezbollah denounced on Wednesday NileSat’s decision to block the broadcast of Yemen’s Al-Massira TV Channel, considering it as an Immoral move aimed at subduing Arab people.

In a statement, Hezbollah maintained that NileSat move reflects its complete obedience to the will of the forces launching the Saudi-led aggression on Yemen and proves the efficiency of the honest media in exposing their war crimes as well as cases of failure in the battlefield.

Hezbollah demanded NileSat administration to undo its decision, expressing solidarity with Al-Massira TV and the “brave” people of Yemen.

Hezbollah also condemned the Zionist step of blocking the Palestinian resistance websites, stressing that this proves the success of the resistance media in exposing the enemy’s crimes and raise the morale of the Palestinian people.

Hezbollah expressed solidarity with the resistance media outlets, reiterating support to them in their struggle to liberate the land and the sanctities.

Source: Hezbollah Media Relations (Translated by Al-Manar English Website)

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Pentagon says Riyadh is too important to whip, rolls out $15bn THAAD arms deal instead

Published time: 29 Nov, 2018 16:05

Edited time: 29 Nov, 2018 16:51

Pentagon says Riyadh is too important to whip, rolls out $15bn THAAD arms deal instead

The US rarely has ‘unblemished’ partners so it will pour more defensive weapons into Saudi Arabia despite outrage over Khashoggi and Yemen, Pentagon chief James Mattis admitted as the nation handed the kingdom a big new deal.

The most-recent major US-Saudi arms deal was rolled out on Wednesday. Riyadh is seeking to get THAAD air defense missile systems, and the terms of the purchase were quietly formalized this week, the State Department announced. Under the $15 billion contract, Riyadh will receive 44 THAAD launchers, missiles and related equipment.

The news of a yet another lucrative contract came the very same day Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rushed to defend the kingdom against the mounting anger in the Senate over the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the bloody war in Yemen. Speaking at a closed-door briefing, they explained that Saudi Arabia is simply too important to scrap existing bonds.

The Pentagon’s chief called Riyadh “fundamental” to regional and Israeli security, as well as crucial for the US’ own interests.

“We are seldom free to work with unblemished partners,” Mattis bluntly admitted. He went on to argue that the ties with the kingdom “cannot be dismissed” even as Washington condemned Khashoggi’s death.

Protest against Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Tunis, Tunisia © Reuters / Zoubeir Souissi

The officials also came out of their way to shield Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MBS, against the allegations that he might have been in on the plan to kill Khashoggi all along.

“We have no smoking gun the Crown Prince was involved, not the intelligence community or anyone else. There is no smoking gun,”Mattis told reporters. Pompeo agreed with him, claiming there is “no direct reporting” connecting MBS with the order to kill the journalist.

Their statements seemed to run contrary to the CIA. According to media reports, intelligence officials, in fact, have believed “for weeks”that there is no way that Jamal Khashoggi’s murder could have happened without the Crown Prince’s approval.

Earlier, President Donald Trump went even further, suggesting that “maybe” MBS “had knowledge” of Khashoggi’s killing. But that still doesn’t change much. As Trump poignantly explained, it would we “foolish” to ditch the $450 billion of investments the Saudis promised the US. He singled out the $110 billion of existing arms contacts Washington can’t afford to lose, especially to rivals Russia and China. The president also praised the Arab kingdom as the centerpiece in the fight against arch-nemesis, Iran.

Washington’s steadfast defense and loyalty to Saudi Arabia is nothing new. Over the years, numerous rights groups have been begging the White House to stop aiding Riyadh, citing its abysmal track record on human rights. Before the Khashoggi case shocked the world and launched the Saudis in a PR nightmare, there was the dissident Raif Badawi. The creator of the blog ‘Free Saudi Liberals’ was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for criticizing the government. Human rights campaigners called on the kingdom’s Western allies, including the US, to pressure it into releasing Badawi. Washington’s efforts to have the dissident freed went little beyond the generic statements of “concern.”

In the case of Khashoggi, the US sanctioned 17 Saudi officials but fell short of targeting the country’s leadership. The criticism of the nation’s ruling royal family is largely absent from the rhetoric coming from the White House. And when it does, it gets sandbagged with praise of the kingdom’s strategic role in the region. The US, nevertheless, stays true to the long-standing tradition of backing its principal ally in the Middle East. It does so despite multiple allegations and reports of human rights abuses by Riyadh.

Similarly, little to no action was taken to address the harrowing reports on the kingdom’s role in the bloody conflict in Yemen. The US-made weapons and military gear is frequently used during the Saudi-led bombing campaign which regularly claims lives of civilians, the rights groups warm. Yet, Riyadh’s status as a close and valuable ally effectively deterred politicians in Washington from attacking the Gulf nation.

Only on Wednesday did the US senators vote to launch debates whether the state should stop supporting the Saudi war in Yemen. Several lawmakers earlier penned a letter urging Trump to investigate the role of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Khashoggi’s death.

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West Bank Settler and American Patriot

November 25, 2018 / Gilad Atzmon

Yonatan Stern interviewed by Gilad Atzmon

http://www.unz.com/

After the Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, I posted a short news item about Cherev Gidon, an ‘Israeli Tactical Training Academy’ in Pennsylvania. The Israeli-style military school teaches American Jews some of the IDF commando’s essential manoeuvres. Yonatan Stern, Cherev Gidon’s founder, contacted me a day later. He said that my report had been balanced. He wrote an open and intellectually engaging note. I replied, asking whether he would agree to an interview. We met earlier this week in a kosher pizzeria in Monticello, a small town in the Catskills of New York.

Those who follow my work know that despite my sharp disagreements with Zionism, Israeli politics and West Bank setters in particular, I find more honesty in Right Wing Zionism than in the entire spectrum of the Jewish Identitarian Left. Although I probably agree on many crucial political matters with JVP activists and Mondoweiss readers, I see the Jewish left as an inherently duplicitous project. My point is that notwithstanding my almost complete ideological differences with right wing Zionists, their frankness about their principles allow our disagreements to be honestly debated. Unlike the Jewish Left that speaks of universal principles but thinks and acts tribally, the Jewish nationalist position is as coherent as it is immoral.

At the Kosher pizza place in Monticello, I met a nice and friendly young man. Yonatan’s political views were well developed: authentic, rational and totally consistent with his core beliefs. He had no gated enclaves, no ‘no go’ zones that he attempted to keep out of our discussion.

Yonatan was born about 100 miles outside of New York City, not far from where we were in the Catskill mountains. His parents made Aliyah when he was a child. The family settled in Kiryat Arbah, in what was probably the most radicalised, belligerent West Bank settlement. The second Intifada caught Yonatan when he was 16 years old. He was practically living in a war zone for the next seven years, and according to him, it was this extended experience that shaped his worldview. “I spent my formative years from ages 16 to 23 in Hebron during the 2nd intifada. You saw gun battles day after day, you saw people being hit.” In his early twenties, Yonatan left Israel and returned to the United States.

In a recent Israeli TV interview, Yonatan explained that he was motivated to form an Israeli military training school in America by the March in Charlottesville. The chants of “Jews won’t replace us” reminded him of the rise of the Nazis. But he doesn’t like the leftists either. The Antifa evokes in him bad memories of Stalin’s antisemitsm. So I asked Yonatan why Jewish history repeats itself. How is it possible that Jews are once again opposed by both the right and the left? The ex settler’s answer may take some readers by surprise.

“In your work” he said, “you, Gilad, argue that Jews need to do introspection. Rather than saying ‘the world hates us,’ we should ask whether there is anything we are doing to provoke this antisemitsm. This is an essential question that Jews both left and right refuse to ask themselves. It is the one question you [Gilad] ask, it is the one question I ask.”

I was thrilled that Yonatan was familiar with my writings. I mentioned that I didn’t invent this question. The theme was thoroughly explored by early Zionists who tried to grasp the logos in the anti-Semitic argument.

“There is a very good reason history repeats itself,” Yonatan continued. “Antisemitsm is not about evil goyim who want to kill us. A lot of Antisemitsm is a result of actions Jews take which cause antisemitsm. We cannot effectively counter antisemitsm just by the ADL shaming people who say things about Jews, I don’t support this approach at all. I believe in freedom of speech. I don’t even support laws against holocaust denial and as a grandson of a holocaust survivor I know how real the holocaust was… I believe that Jews play a large part in antisemitsm and in order to fight antisemitsm we have to fight it in two ways and I am fighting it in both ways: I am reacting physically to the symptoms but I also try to challenge the basis of antisemitsm by speaking out, telling Jews that the root of a lot of antisemitsm in America is the adoption by many Jews in the last century of multi-culturalism, leftism, socialism, cultural Marxism, communism, all these evil ideologies of the left which started with Karl Marx and even before him. All these ideologues corrupted Jews to the core.”

Yonatan is clearly not a liberal Jew.

“You, Gilad, speak about Jewish exceptionalism. We [Jews] are supposed to be a light to the nations, but we do the opposite… When Jews promote open borders they actually undermine the nations in which they live. When the average white Christian American sees Jews pushing for thousands of Islamic terrorists and Somali refugees and Latin American criminals and members of cartels to come into the country and pushing for affirmative action and a homosexual agenda and they do all of it in the name of Judaism… What they do, they tell people , ‘this is Judaism, we exploit your gratitude, we are coming to your country, we are undermining it from within, [we] cause the country to collapse on itself and if you call us ‘dirty Jews’ we will say you are a ‘filthy anti-Semitic Nazi’.”

Yonatan, an ultra Zionist Jew, is presenting what many liberals may identify as the core right wing anti-Semitic argument. Although it would be practically impossible for a goy to survive after making such statements, I somehow don’t think that Yonatan suffers any form of exclusion for saying what he thinks about his people.

“You seem to have predicted the synagogue shooting; you saw it coming, how?” I asked him.

“For decades now so many liberal Jews have been pushing for cultural Marxism. So many Jewish political leaders are behind this. The movement is funded by George Soros who is clearly a Jew. But I consider him the opposite of a Jew. I see him as a malevolent force and other Jews who are in government and the Left … all of it really started with Saul Alinsky who set the foundation for the Antifa. They have been pushing it for 50 years. Of course, not all Jews subscribe to these ideas. There are many orthodox Jews who believe in the complete opposite. But because these people do it in the name of Judaism [so naturally] we all get pushed into the same boat. It was obvious that at some point somebody would snap…. the only question was when.. someone on the right would have to take action to respond to what they see as an assault on American heritage.”

Yonatan asked to make it clear that he was by no means justifying the attack on the synagogue. What he did, instead, was to attempt to understand the rationale that led to the Pittsburgh attack. Yonatan further predicted that “the next attack will come from the Left. They are very violent, subversive in the spirit Lenin and Trotsky.”

In the Israeli TV item about Cherev Gidon, Yonatan mentioned that the goal of his training unit is for “every synagogue to have an armed Jew ready to defend it.” I asked Yonatan if he believes that American Muslims should be entitled to explore the same right. Should they also train with submachine guns and automatic riffles and be ready to defend their mosques?

As you might expect, Yonatan wasn’t enthusiastic about the idea. “If they [the Muslims] were peaceful people yes, but the reality is that they, through their own actions, are showing us that they are not a peaceful people for the most part. There is a tremendous radicalism amongst Muslims these days.”

I challenged him again. “Let’s try to understand what is going on here. You clearly see yourself as entitled to enjoy the 2nd amendment but you think Muslims are not.”

“In regard to Muslims as a group, once they are in a mosque in America and across the West they are extremely radicalized, they use armaments for the purpose of terrorism and not for the purpose of self defense. We have to understand the difference, Judaism is not a religion that is looking to attack anyone.”

I told Yonatan that his statement can be easily challenged: Baruch Goldstein, an American-Israeli physician, a settler and an orthodox Jew like himself, was a mass shooter in 1994 at the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in Hebron, killing 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers and wounding 125. Goldstein didn’t use his automatic riffle for ‘self defense.’ Nor is the Jewish State deploying its F16s and drones in a ‘self defense’ mode in Gaza, Lebanon or Syria. Statistics of casualties in the region do not really help the Israeli or the Jewish case.

I asked Yonatan, “Do you want to live in a society where people defend their shrines with sub machine guns and automatic rifles?”

“Yes, absolutely,” was Yonatan’s answer; “an armed society is a polite society.”

“So you basically believe that it is a good idea to live in a society where people are armed to their teeth?”

“I think that it is a wonderful idea. This is the America I want to live in. People respect each other when everyone is armed.”

Since Yonatan was immersed in part of the American ethos, I wanted to examine his approach to the American ideals of equal opportunity and no discrimination. “Will you agree to train Hammed or Ibrahim and to share with them the deep secrets of Israeli tactics?”

Yonatan was absolutely clear. “I have the right to deny service to anyone I want…I train many non Jews, what you may call rednecks, Mexicans, but if a Jewish Lefty, a Jew member of Antifa, asks to join my course I will tell him as well to go away.”

I guess that Hamed and Ibrahim aren’t going to be amongst Cherev Gidon’s graduates. They may have to enrol in another military training gymnasium.

Before we ended, I asked Yonata

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

أهم من بقاء ورحيل محمد بن سلمان

نوفمبر 29, 2018

ناصر قنديل

– يقع البعض في التسطيح عندما يقارب المشهد الدولي الإقليمي المنعقد حول عنوان هو الوضع الجديد للسعودية في ضوء الحملة المرافقة لقتل جمال الخاشقجي، من خلال جعل القضية محصورة بالإجابة عن سؤال هل تتم تنحية محمد بن سلمان من ولاية العهد وهل تتم معاقبته أم لا؟ فالأكيد أن أي بديل لإبن سلمان سيكون من كنف البطانة العائلية والسياسية ذاتها وسيكون في ظل المرجعية الأميركية ذاتها، وفي إطار الخيارات العدائية ذاتها تجاه قوى المقاومة، والعناوين ذاتها للسير بالتعاون مع كيان الاحتلال والتطبيع معه، لذلك سيكون تضييعاً للوقت تعقب الأمور من زاوية هذا المسار، والتسطيح الأشد طبعاً هو توهّم أن ما يجري حملة حقوق إنسان ودعوة لمعاقبة قاتل. وما يجري سياسيا هو أن السعودية وقعت في اطمئنانها لحلفائها فأوقعوا بها، وما يجري تاريخياً هو أن ما دبّره السعوديون ومَن معهم في لبنان لسورية والمقاومة وأصدقائهما وحلفائهما في قضية اغتيال الرئيس رفيق الحريري وقعوا هم في حفرته في ما سبق وما سيلي في قضية قتل جمال الخاشقجي، والأكيد أنه لو سارت الأمور نحو تحقيق دولي فهذا لن يعني اقتراباً من العدالة ولا من الحقيقة، بل سيعني توافقاً على إطالة أمد الاستعمال للقضية في تحقيق أهداف أبعد تصبح أمراً واقعاً كلما تمادى حضور القضية.

– المعلوم أن الثلاثي الذي يقود الحملة حول الخاشقجي والعدالة وملاحقة إبن سلمان يتكون من تركيا ومعها طبعاً قطر والأخوان المسلمون وقناة الجزيرة في ضفة، ووكالة المخابرات المركزية الأميركية ومن تستطيع تحريكهم والتأثير في تحريكهم داخل أميركا وخارجها من منظمات مجتمع مدني وهيئات حقوقية وشخصيات نيابية وحكومية، في ضفة ثانية، وفي ضفة ثالثة صحيفة الواشنطن بوست ومِن حولها الغاضبون من إدارة الرئيس دونالد ترامب من الحزبين الجمهوري والديمقراطي وخارجهما ولأسباب ليست العلاقة بالسعودية ولا الجرائم الوحشية في اليمن ولا قتل جمال الخاشقجي في أولوياتهم، بل السياسات العنصرية لترامب في قضايا الجنسية والمواطنة، والتأمين الصحي، والفشل في سياسات الحماية الجمركية والعقوبات بتحقيق الطفرة الاقتصادية الصناعية الموعودة، والخطاب المبتذل لترامب في قضايا المرأة والإعلام والحريات والتعدّد العرقي الاجتماعي، لكن المعلوم أيضاً أن صفقة غامضة تمّت بين تركيا ووكالة المخابرات الأميركية انتهت بالإفراج عن القس الإنجيلي أندرو برانسون الذي بقي معتقلاً لمدة عامين إثر محاولة الانقلاب التي استهدفت الرئيس التركي رجب أردوغان ووجّهت أنقرة لواشنطن الإتهام بدعم المحاولة عبر المعارض الداعية فتح الله غولن، وطلبت تسليمه مقابل الإفراج عن برانسون. والمعلوم أن صفقة غامضة ايضاً تمت بين الواشنطن بوست والمخابرات الأميركية رعاها المالك الجديد للصحيفة الأميركية صاحب شركة أمازون جيفري برستون بيزوس وتتصل بالتعاون في مجال تبادل المعلومات والخدمات وقعت علناً منذ عام تقريباً، ومن مفاعيلها إفادة الواشنطن بوست من التحقيقات في قضايا حقوق الإنسان التي تجريها السي آي أي، والسي آي أي لا تجري التحقيقات لأجل إقامة عدالة، بل لإجراء تغيير في السياسة، وقيمة الصفقة المستغربة في أوساط أهل الإعلام كانت ستمئة مليون دولار، والبعض يقول إن استضافة الواشنطن بوست لجمال الخاشقجي كاتباً على صفحتها الأولى كان من ضمن مفاعيل التفاهم.

– يختال محمد بن سلمان في زيارات مفبركة لإثبات أن شيئاً لم يتغير في وضعه، رغم الحملات التي تستهدفه، كأنه يصدّق أن القضية هي اعتقاله، لكن الأشياء الحقيقية تحدث في العمق، وتتثبت بصورة لا رجعة عنها. فالسعودية فقدت مهابتها وهالتها، ولم تعد تلك الدولة الممنوع التداول باسمها في الصحافة الغربية إلا بالترويج المدفوع، ورموزها صاروا في التداول وصورهم تنشر على الصفحات الأولى تحت عنوان قاتل ومجنون ومعتوه ومجرم وسواها من التوصيفات المشابهة. وباتت التظاهرات تنتظر مسؤولي المملكة في أي عاصمة يقصدونها، وانتقلت السعودية من صانع سياسات إلى موضوع للسياسات، ومن موقع كونها لاعباً إلى أنها صارت ملعباً، ومن صفة مَن يقرّر مصير الآخرين إلى صفة من يقرّر الآخرون مصيره، وثانياً انتقلت تركيا إلى موقع الزعامة البديلة للسعودية في الضفة الأميركية من العالم الإسلامي، برصيد علاقاتها المميّزة بروسيا وإيران، وثالثاً وضعت حرب اليمن على الطاولة، ورابعاً وضعت العلاقات الأميركية السعودية قيد البحث، وخامساً انتقل الرئيس الأميركي وفريقه من نكسة الانتخابات النصفية إلى نكبة إبن سلمان حيث تلاشت كل قدرة على الهجوم وصار حكماً في حال الدفاع.

– مسارات جديدة لخريطة إقليمية ودولية جديدة ترتسم، ربما تنتهي خلال عامين وربما أكثر، ستبقى خلالها قضية الخاشقجي وإبن سلمان في التداول، وربما تنشأ لها محكمة دولية خاصة، لكن هذه المسارات هي التي تتقدّم، ولا يعود مهماً بعدها بقي إبن سلمان ولياً للعهد أم لا، بقي حراً أم تمّت معاقبته أم لا، فتلك نقاط على جدول أعمال المعنيين، وعندما تتم فلأنها من ضرورات المضي قدماً في تثبيت المسارات، وليس لأنها مطلوبة بذاتها، تذكروا كيف عندما تمت السيطرة على أجهزة الأمن اللبنانية لم يعد مهماً إثبات مسؤولية الضباط الأربعة الذين كانوا يتولونها عن التورّط في اغتيال الريس الحريري، وكيف أن اعتقالهم والإفراج عنهم لم ترافقه أي تصرّفات توحي باحترام حتى الشكليات القانونية، وعندما تمّ ضمان خروج القوات السورية من لبنان وتمّت السيطرة على الأغلبية النيابية التي كانت مستحيلة في ظل بقاء الرئيس الحريري حياً، لم تعُد مهمة ملاحقة سورية بتهمة الاغتيال، وكيف أن حزب الله وهو الطرف الذي بذل كل شيء للتعاون في كشف الحقيقة وأظهر الحرص على تقديم التنازل لمنع الفتنة، لم يوفر له ذلك الحصانة من التحوّل إلى متهم أول بالاغتيال بموافقة عائلة الرئيس الحريري الشاهدة على كيف سلم الأغلبية النيابية طوعاً في الحلف الرباعي، وكيف تغاضى عن ملاحقة أصدقائه بتهمة الاغتيال حرصاً على اطمئنان العائلة، وها هو اليوم متهماً أول لأن مصلحة «إسرائيل» ذاتها باغتيال الرئيس الحريري لإنعاش قوى التطرف في الساحة الإسلامية، ليتهيأ استعمالها الذي شهدناه في الحرب على سورية، هي المصلحة ذاتها لملاحقة حزب الله بتهمة الاغتيال، وها هي السنة الثالثة عشرة على الاغتيال والمسارات لم تقفل.

Russia Is Disadvantaged by Her Belief that the West Is Governed by Law

Paul Craig Roberts

Ukrainian military ships have violated Russian restrictions in the Sea of Azov and Articles 19 and 21 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Ukrainian Navy crossed the Russian sea border and entered a closed area of Russian territorial waters. Clearly, Washington was behind this as Ukraine would not undertake such a provocation on its own. Here is an accurate explanation of the event: https://www.rt.com/news/444857-russia-ukraine-kerch-strait-standoff/

The Russian Navy detained the Ukrainian ships. Of course, the Western presstitutes, most of whom are CIA assets, will blame “Russian aggression.” Washington and its presstitutes are doing everything they can to make impossible Trump’s expressed goal of normal relations with Russia. NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu quickly aligned NATO with Ukraine: “NATO fully supports Ukraine’s sovereignty and its territorial integrity, including its navigation rights in its territorial waters.” https://twitter.com/NATOpress/status/1066796714672222210/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1066796714672222210&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rt.com%2Fnews%2F444853-russia-ukraine-ships-conflict%2F

The US military/security complex prefers the risk of nuclear war to any diminution of its $1,000 billion annual budget, a completely unnecessary sum that is destined to grow as the presstitutes, in line with the military/security complex, continue to demonize both Russia and Putin and to never question the obvious orchestrations that are used to portray Russia as a threat.

The Russian goverment’s response to Ukraine’s provocation and violation of law was to call an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, as if anything would come of this. Washington pays such a large percentage of the UN budget, that few countries will side against Washington. As President Trump’s crazed UN ambassador Nikki Haley said, “we take names.”

From all evidence, the Russian government still, despite all indications to the contrary, believes that presenting a non-threatening posture to the West, which appeals to law and not to arms, is effective in discrediting Western charges of aggression against Russia. If only it were true, but no sooner than a high Russian official announced that, despite the overwhelming elections for independence from Kiev in the breakway Russian provinces of Ukraine, Russia would not recognize the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk than “the Ukrainian army opened massive artillery fire on Sunday, shelling residential areas of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic.” https://sputniknews.com/europe/201811261070125114-ukraine-kerch-strait-crisis-martial-law-poroshenko/

By trusting that there is a rule of law in the West, the Russian government is digging Russia’s grave while it allows Washington’s Ukrainian Nazis to murder Russian people. The Russian government is discrediting itself by trusting US vassals, such as Germany, to enforce the Minsk agreement and, despite all evidence to the contrary, believing that there is a rule of law in the West. Russia continues, year after year, to appeal to this non-existent entity called the Western Rule of Law.

This policy reassures the Zionist Neoconservatives who rule Washington’s foreign policy that Russia is incapable of defending its interests.

The Putin government seems to think that in order to prove that it is democratic, it must tolerate every Russian traitor in the name of free speech. https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/11/25/if-the-united-states-can-arrest-julian-assange-why-cant-russia-arrest-these-real-traitors/

This makes Russia an easy mark for Washington to destabilize. We see it already in Putin’s falling approval ratings in Russia. The Russian government permits US-financed Russian newspapers and NGO organizations to beat up the Russian government on a daily basis. Decades of American propaganda have convinced many in the world that Washington’s friendship is the key to success. The Russian Atlanticist Integrationists believe that Putin stands in the way of this friendship.

China is also an easy mark. The Chinese government permits Chinese students to study in the US from whence they return brainwashed by US propaganda and become Washington’s Fifth Column in China.

It sometimes seems that Russia and China are more focused on gaining wealth than they are on national survival. It is extraordinary that these two governments are still constrained in their independence and remain dependent on the US dollar and Western financial systems for clearances of their international trade.

As Washington controls the explanations, surviving Washington’s hegemony is proving to be a challenge for both countries.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Israel’s Dilemma – International Walls Are Closing In As they Build More Apartheid Walls Of Their Own

NOVEMBER 27, 2018 BY REBELVOICEBLOG

The recent conflict between the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza and the IOF of Israeli has served to intensify the tension that exists in the region. The Israeli regime got a very bloody nose from the encounter. This came as no small surprise to a Zionist state so previously confident of their superiority over the Palestinians of Gaza. A similar thing happened in 2006 in Lebanon when Israel picked a fight with a rejuvenated Hezbollah and got a lesson in humility.

With both al-Qassam and Hezbollah now stronger than ever, Israel has had to take a step back from its usual military tactics of invasion. This decision has prompted the continuing disintegration of the Israeli coalition government. Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been forced to suffer a humiliating defeat at the hands of the much smaller Hamas. His political colleagues now smell his blood and are gradually positioning to remove him from power. Israel has taken blow after blow on the international stage. It’s not going to get any better for them.

Sadly, the backdrop to all of this is the continuing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Apartheid policies are ongoing. Illegal squats are still being built. Children across Palestine are still being killed by the rogue Israeli state. The people of Gaza are braced for a severe and bloody response by a smarting Zionist military used to winning.

The following article from Latin America looks at the predicament that the Israeli PM finds himself in. Does he lend himself easily to international sympathy? Or is it a case of karma coming round to say hello?

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

U.S. Foreign Policy Has No Policy

Why can’t we just leave everyone alone?

By Philip Giraldi
Source

President Donald Trump’s recent statement on the Jamal Khashoggi killing by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince might well be considered a metaphor for his foreign policy. Several commentators have suggested that the text appears to be something that Trump wrote himself without any adult supervision, similar to the poorly expressed random arguments presented in his tweeting only longer. That might be the case, but it would not be wise to dismiss the document as merely frivolous or misguided as it does in reality express the kind of thinking that has produced a foreign policy that seems to drift randomly to no real end, a kind of leaderless creative destruction of the United States as a world power.

Lord Palmerston, Prime Minister of Britain in the mid nineteenth century, famously said that “Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.”The United States currently has neither real friends nor any clearly defined interests. It is, however, infested with parasites that have convinced an at-drift America that their causes are identical to the interests of the United States. Leading the charge to reduce the U.S. to “bitch” status, as Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard has artfully put it, are Israel and Saudi Arabia, but there are many other countries, alliances and advocacy groups that have learned how to subvert and direct the “leader of the free world.”

Trump’s memo on the Saudis begins with the headline “The world is a very dangerous place!” Indeed, it is and behavior by the three occupants of the White House since 2000 is largely to blame. It is difficult to find a part of the world where an actual American interest is being served by Washington’s foreign and global security policies. Indeed, a national security policy that sees competitors and adversaries as enemies in a military sense has made nuclear war, unthinkable since the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, thinkable once again. The fact that no one is the media or in political circles is even talking about that terrible danger suggests that war has again become mainstreamed, tacitly benefiting from bipartisan acceptance of it as a viable foreign policy tool by the media, in the U.S. Congress and also in the White House.

The part of the world where American meddling coupled with ignorance has produced the worst result is inevitably the Middle East. Washington has been led by the nose by Israel and Saudi Arabia, currently working in sync, to have the United States destroy Iran even though the Iranians represent no threat whatsoever to Americans or any serious U.S. interests. The wildly skewed view of what is taking place in that region is reflected in Trump’s memo in the first paragraph, which reads:

“The country of Iran, as an example, is responsible for a bloody proxy war against Saudi Arabia in Yemen, trying to destabilize Iraq’s fragile attempt at democracy, supporting the terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, propping up dictator Bashar Assad in Syria (who has killed millions of his own citizens), and much more. Likewise, the Iranians have killed many Americans and other innocent people throughout the Middle East. Iran states openly, and with great force, ‘Death to America!’ and ‘Death to Israel!’ Iran is considered ‘the world’s leading sponsor of terror.’”

Almost all of that is either patently untrue or grossly exaggerated, meaning that Trump’s profoundly ignorant statement is remarkable for the number of lies that it incorporates into 631 words which are wrapped around a central premise that the United States will always do whatever it wants wherever it wants just because it can. The war being waged by the Saudis against Yemen, which reportedly has killed as many as 80,000 children, is not a proxy struggle against Iran as Trump prefers to think. It is naked aggression bordering on genocide that is enabled by the United States under completely false pretenses. Iran did not start the war and plays almost no role in it apart from serving as a Saudi and Emirati excuse to justify the fighting. Other lies include that Bashar al-Assad of Syria has killed millions of his own citizens and that Saudi Arabia is fighting terrorism. Quite the contrary is true as the Saudis have been a major source of Islamic terrorism. And as for Iran being the “world’s leading sponsor of terrorism,” that honor currently belongs to the U.S., Israel and the Saudis.

The core of Trump’s thinking about Khashoggi and the Saudis comes down to Riyadh’s willingness to buy weapons to benefit America’s defense contractors and this one sentence: “The United States intends to remain a steadfast partner of Saudi Arabia to ensure the interests of our country, Israel and all other partners in the region.” Yes, once again it is Israel pulling Trump’s strings, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leading the charge to give Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman a pass on the gruesome murder of a legal resident of the United States who, once upon a time, might have actually had the U.S. government on his side.

The reckless calibrations employed to set American policies in other parts of the world are also playing out badly. Russia has been hounded relentlessly since the 2016 election, wasting the opportunity to establish a modus vivendi that Trump appeared to be offering in his campaign. Russian and American soldiers confront each other in Syria, where the U.S. has absolutely no real interests beyond supporting feckless Israel and Saudi Arabia in an unnecessary armed conflict that has already been lost. There is now talk of war coming from both Moscow and Washington while NATO in the middle has turned aggressive in an attempt to justify its existence. The bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Russia is now worse than it was towards the end of the Cold War while the expansion of NATO up to Russia’s doorstep has threatened the Kremlin’s vital interests without advancing any interest of the United States.

Afghanistan has become the longest war in U.S. history with no end in sight and China too has seen what began as a dispute over trade turned into something more vitriolic, a military rivalry over the South China Sea that could explode. And North Korea? A love fest between two leaders that is devoid of content.

One might also add Venezuela to the list, with the U.S. initiating sanctions over the state of the country’s internal politics and even considering, according to some in the media, a military intervention.

All of the White House’s actions have one thing in common and that is that they do not benefit Americans in any way unless one works for a weapons manufacturer, and that is not even taking into consideration the dead soldiers and civilians and the massive debt that has been incurred to intervene all over the world. One might also add that most of America’s interventions are built on deliberate lies by the government and its associated media, intended to increase tension and create a casus belli where none exists.

So what is to be done as it often seems that the best thing Trump has going for him is that he is not Hillary Clinton? First of all, a comprehensive rethink of what the real interests of the United States are in the world arena is past due. America is less safe now than it was in 2001 as it continues to make enemies with its blundering everywhere it goes. There are now four times as many designated terrorists as there were in 2001, active in 70 countries. One would quite plausibly soon arrive at George Washington’s dictum in his Farewell Address, counseling his countrymen to “observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all.” And Washington might have somehow foreseen the poisonous relationships with Israel and the Saudis when he warned that “…a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification.”

George Washington or any of the other Founders would be appalled to see an America with 800 military bases overseas, allegedly for self-defense. The transfer of wealth from taxpayers to the military industrial complex and related entities like Wall Street has been catastrophic. The United States does not need to protect Israel and Saudi Arabia, two countries that are armed to the teeth and well able to defend themselves. Nor does it have to be in Syria and Afghanistan. And, by the way, Russia is no longer the Soviet Union and NATO should be abolished.

If the United States were to withdraw its military from the Middle East and the rest of Asia tomorrow, it would be to nearly everyone’s benefit. If the armed forces were to be subsequently reduced to a level sufficient to defend the United States it would put money back in the pockets of Americans and end the continuous fearmongering through surfacing of “threats” by career militarists justifying the bloated budgets.

Will that produce the peaceable kingdom? Probably not, but there are signs that some in powerful positions are beginning to see the light. Senator Rand Paul’s courageous decision to place a “hold” on aid to Israel is long overdue as Israel is a liability to the United States and is also legally ineligible for aid due to its undeclared nuclear arsenal and its unwillingness to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The hysterical reactions of American Jews and Israel suggest that any redirection of U.S. Middle East policy will produce a hostile reaction from the Establishment, but even small steps in the right direction could initiate a gradual process of turning the United States into a more normal country in its relationships with the rest of the world rather than a universal predator and bully.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!