Tag: middle east

Righty Tighty: A Simple Way Donald Trump Can End The Ukraine & Israel Wars

Upon his inauguration as president, Donald Trump will become the leader of a United States executive branch mired in two major wars via its continuing pumping of money, weapons, and intelligence into support of the Ukraine and Israel governments. Trump has declared his opposition to the continuation of these wars. But, how can he end them?

The means by which Trump can end the wars is simpler than many Americans think. This means just does not come to mind for many Americans because it is far removed from the course US presidents have tended to pursue over the last few decades.

Righty tighty. That’s it. Taking the US out of these wars is as simple as turning off a standard outdoor water faucet. President Joe Biden has turned the handle all the way lefty loosey. Trump should just turn it back all the way. Shut off the money flow. Shut off the weapons flow. Shut off the intelligence flow.

And there is no good reason for Trump to take his time about it. He should turn off the flow of aid in all forms promptly in his presidency.

Doing so would comport with Trump’s stated objectives regarding the Ukraine War and the Israel War during his campaign and since. Trump has repeated his promise to end the Ukraine War in a day. He has also commented on multiple occasions that he wants the Israel War over before he is even sworn in as president.

Without US support, Ukraine and Israel lack the means to continue their wars. Deprived of the means to continue fighting in anywhere near the strength they have, both governments will immediately find themselves in a new situation where their best option is to seek peace.

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“The End of Pluralism in the Middle East”

A truly seismic change in the Middle East appears to be happening very fast. At its heart is a devil’s bargain – Turkey and the Gulf States accept the annihilation of the Palestinian nation and creation of a Greater Israel, in return for the annihilation of the Shia minorities of Syria and Lebanon and the imposition of Salafism [Sunni fundamentalism] across the Eastern Arab world.

This also spells the end for Lebanon and Syria’s Christian communities, as witness the tearing down of all Christmas decorations, the smashing of all alcohol and the forced imposition of the veil on women in Aleppo now.

Yesterday US Warthog air-to-ground jets attacked and severely depleted reinforcements which were, at the invitation of the Syrian government, en route to Syria from Iraq. Constant, daily Israeli airstrikes on Syria’s military infrastructure for months have been a major factor in the demoralisation and reduced capacity of the Syrian government’s Syrian Arab Army, which has simply evaporated in Aleppo and Hama.

It is very difficult to see the tide turning in Syria. The Russians now have either to massively reinforce their Syrian bases with ground troops or to evacuate them. Faced with the exigencies of Ukraine, they may do the latter, and it is reported that the Russian navy has already set sail from Tartus.

The speed of collapse of Syria has taken everybody by surprise. If the situation does not stabilise, Damascus could be besieged and ISIS back on the hills above the Bekaa valley within a week, given the speed of their advance and the short distances involved.

A renewed Israeli attack on Southern Lebanon to coincide with a Salafist invasion of the Bekaa Valley would then seem inevitable, as the Israelis would obviously wish their border with their new Taliban-style Greater Syrian neighbour to be as far North as possible. It could be a race for Beirut, unless the Americans have already organised who gets it.

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‘Greater Israel’ Is Being Born

It is a fact that The Jewish State has expanded the territory under its control after victory in war, conflicts started by those wishing to destroy the concept of the state of Israel.

We are witnessing history in the moment as the same phenomenon is happening again as we speak.

Hamas is essentially defeated in Gaza, and there will be some form of occupation military force in the territory. That has been confirmed by the Israeli government, to prevent the reconstitution of Hamas’ combat capability. It remains to be seen what this force will consist of – foreign troops? Mercenaries? Or IDF? However, one can be sure the Israeli defense establishment will not allow Hamas to regroup.

In southern Lebanon, there is a ceasefire, that is shaky at best. The IDF continues operations there against Hezbollah militants. The Lebanese army is in place but Israel could easily reoccupy the buffer zone established prior to the ceasefire by the Israeli military.

In Syria, the IDF has entered the country along the southern border and established another buffer zone to Sunni jihadist elements which now control most of the country once known as Syria. This IDF buffer zone will likely not be reversed in the near future, if ever at all.

Not only is Israel destroying all weapon storage and manufacturing facilities of the Syrian army to prevent them from falling into the hands of jihadist rebels, but it is also stripping Syria of all its air defense systems. This ensures Israel’s free access to any targets it might want to attack in the future. In the coming hours and days, Israel is shaping its reality for years to come. By amending border lines that were based on an agreement with a regime that no longer exists, and by denying the new enemy its military capabilities, we are working hard to ensure a safer future free of Iran’s proxies on our borders, wrote Israeli journalist Amir Tsarfati on his Telegram channel.

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UK Arms Exports Find Loopholes in Israeli Embargo

Britain has continued exporting components for use by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) because of gaps in the government’s restrictions on arms sales, it can be revealed.

At least two shipments of parts for IAF planes have been dispatched from Britain since September, when Labour suspended some arms export licences due to human rights concerns.

The information is contained within cargo documents reviewed by The Ditch and Declassified.

The documents show how items were dispatched by U.K.-based engineering firm Martin-Baker to an Elbit Systems factory in Karmiel, Israel, in October.

Martin-Baker specialises in ejection seats, which are found in military planes across the West, including in the cockpit of the IAF’s T-6 training fleet.

These aircraft are maintained by Elbit – Israel’s largest arms firm – under a $38m contract.

The revelation shows how British arms exports are continuing to support the IAF — a key player in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza — because Labour has not implemented a complete embargo.

Emily Apple, a spokesperson for Campaign Against Arms Trade, told Declassified: 

“The current arms suspension is a farce. This government is making up the rules as it goes, making a mockery of international law and prioritising the profits of arms dealers over Palestinian lives.

“There can be no excuses and no exceptions. The U.K. must impose an immediate, full, two-way arms embargo”.

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Game Of Chess: US Prepares Next Move With More B-52s, Warships To Middle East 

It’s been a week since Israeli fighter jets pounded high-value Iranian military sites and assets with missiles and bombs. Iran has since delayed a retaliatory strike on Israel as the US presidential election is just days away, and now the US appears to be bolstering defense capabilities in the Middle East as regional war risks remain elevated. 

Pentagon officials confirmed to Fox News on Friday that US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered several B-52 Stratofortress bomber aircraft, refueling aircraft, and Navy destroyers to the Middle East. 

In a statement to Reuters, Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Major General Patrick Ryder said additional military assets will begin arriving in the region in the coming months. 

“Should Iran, its partners, or its proxies use this moment to target American personnel or interests in the region, the United States will take every measure necessary to defend our people,” Ryder said. 

The strategic positioning—think of it as a game of chess—of additional US military assets in the region in the very near term may only suggest broadening war risks after the US election cycle ends. In other words, the Pentagon may finally get serious about Iranian-backed Houthis, other Iranian proxies, and even Tehran, which have sparked chaos in critical maritime chokepoints.

Ryder said Austin’s latest order shows the “US capability to deploy worldwide on short notice to meet evolving national security threats.” 

One week ago, the US signaled defense guarantees to the Saudis – in the event Tehran or its proxies attempt to weaponize crude oil by targeting the Kingdom’s Abqaiq refinery (the largest crude oil stabilization plant in the world) with drone swarms or hypersonic missiles. 

Austin revealed last month that B-2 stealth bombers targeted underground Houthi weapons storage facilities – indeed, a message to Tehran.

“This was a unique demonstration of the United States’ ability to target facilities that our adversaries seek to keep out of reach, no matter how deeply buried underground, hardened, or fortified,” Austin said at the time, adding, “The employment of US Air Force B-2 Spirit long-range stealth bombers demonstrates US global strike capabilities to take action against these targets when necessary, anytime, anywhere.”

On Saturday morning, Iran’s supreme leader threatened Israel and the US with “a crushing response” … 

Meanwhile, the geopolitical risk premium in Brent crude oil has all but evaporated. 

But will that all change after the US presidential election?

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Israel’s War on Journalism

There are some 4,000 foreign reporters accredited in Israel to cover the war. They stay in luxury hotels. They go on dog and pony shows orchestrated by the Israeli military. They can, on rare occasions, be escorted by Israeli soldiers on lightning visits to Gaza, where they are shown alleged weapons caches or tunnels the military says are used by Hamas.

They dutifully attend daily press conferences. They are given off-the-record briefings by senior Israeli officials who feed them information that often turns out to be untrue. They are Israel’s unwitting and sometimes witting propagandists, stenographers for the architects of apartheid and genocide, hotel room warriors.

Bertolt Brecht acidly called them the spokesmen of the spokesmen.

And how many foreign reporters are there in Gaza? None.

The Palestinian reporters in Gaza who fill the void often pay with their lives. They are targeted, along with their families, for assassination.

At least 134 journalists and media workers in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, have been killed and 69 have been imprisoned, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, marking the deadliest period for journalists since the organization began collecting data in 1992. 

Israel bombed a building on Friday in southern Lebanon housing seven media organizations, killing three journalists from Al Mayadeen and Al Manar and injuring 15 others. Since Oct. 7, Israel has killed 11 journalists in Lebanon.  

Al Jazeera cameraman Fadi al-Wahidi, who was shot in the neck in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza by an Israeli sniper earlier this month, is in a coma. Israel has refused permission for him to seek medical care outside of Gaza.

Like most of the targeted journalists, including his murdered colleague Shireen Abu Akleh, he was wearing a helmet and flak jacket that identified him as press.

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Israel is acting with the same tools against Gaza, Lebanon and now starting in Syria

Because of the time limits I have at the moment, I will provide shorter posts until I can get internet and computer usage for long enough to follow up with a full article. This section of an article by the editor of Lebanese media outlet Al Akhbar, Ibrahim Al Amin provides a succinct and accurate description of what Israel’s agenda is in the region:

“Yesterday the clown Hochstein returned from a new show. To be honest, the problem is not with the man who does what is good for him or what is required of him, but with those who still listen to him and take him seriously, With those who believe that the Americans are in a position to pressure Israel to stop the war in Lebanon.”

“In practice we are facing one truth and that is that Israel is acting with the same tools against Gaza and against Lebanon. It started the same thing in Syria and is preparing to move to Iraq and then to Yemen. Netanyahu does not hide his continued preparations to strike Iran. Those who demand to separate the arenas do not want to understand that what Israel is doing with the support of the United States, Britain, Germany, and with the partnership of several Arab countries, is the unification of the arenas by force.”

“Since this is the case, the resistance project is the only option and the alternative is life or death by starvation in oppression and humiliation. And anyone who continues to accuse the resistance (Hezbollah) of being responsible for what is happening should know that from now on he is a partner in this aggression.”

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Netanyahu’s Boss: Ultimate Goal is for a ‘Greater Israel’ from Damascus to Saudi Arabia

Bezalel Smotrich, the extremist Israeli finance minister, said it is “written” that Israel’s future is its expansion to Damascus and parts of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, according to a French documentary titled: “Israel: Extremists in Power.”

“It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus,” he said in the documentary, according to The New Arab.

Smotrich is an Israeli settler who has argued that it is moral to starve Gazans. He admitted that Israel will not achieve its goals quickly, but rather “little by little.”

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NATO Disgraces Itself in Azerbaijan

Two years ago this October, Azerbaijan committed what had been, until the Israeli rampage of the past year, among the most egregious cases of ethic cleaning since the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s, when in the matter of days its armed forces took control of the Armenian enclave Nagorno Karabakh in which 120,000 Christian Armenians were forced to flee the land which had been their home for centuries. 

In the months that followed, Azerbaijan’s dictator, Ilham Aliyev, claimed that “present-day Armenia is our land.” An agreement reached between Armenia’s U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Aliyev ceded four Armenian villages to Azerbaijan the following April.

Fast forward to the last week of September, when the U.S. ambassador to Armenia, Kristina Kvien, attended a memorial service the Armenians who died fighting Azerbaijan. To mark the occasion, the U.S. embassy issued a statement that read, in part, that “the United States is committed to working with the Armenian government to assist those who have lost their homes and livelihood.”

Yet such sentiments are difficult to take seriously when roughly a week later NATO sent a high-level delegation to Baku to kiss Aliyev’s ring.  According the contemporaneous reporting from Sergei Melkonian, a Research Fellow at the Applied Policy Research Institute of Armenia, “In just four days of October this year, Azerbaijan held two high-level meetings with NATO representatives,” including meetings between the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan, Karim Valiyev, and the director general of the NATO International Military Staff, Lieutenant General Janusz Adamczak, in which they discussed, according to a statement released by NATO, “a new framework for cooperation with Azerbaijan with a special focus on defense education, interoperability, resilience and defense capacity building.” That a Pole like Adamczak finds himself, on behalf of an American-led alliance, supporting Islamist aggression against a Christian nation shows just how deep the rot goes in the West. 

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Do they WANT American Troops to Die?

Biden Administration mismanagement – or worse – from day one of the latest Israeli multi-front war in the Middle East has led us to where we are today, at the brink of an all-out regional war with some 40,000 US troops and multiple US military bases in the region with targets on their back.

Biden’s blank check to Israel after the attacks of October 7, 2023, to launch multiple wars against its neighbors and carry out the mass murder of Palestinian civilians in Gaza has drawn the US right into the middle of a bubbling cauldron of WWIII. And rather than take a sober look at actual US national security interests, Biden and his neocon incompetents are busy adding fuel to the fire hanging on to the pipe dream that they could do what they failed to do so many times before: remake the Middle East in their neocon image.

According to an article in Politico this past week, while Biden Administration officials publicly urged restraint and a reduction in violence, they privately were working with the Israeli government to encourage a widening of Israel’s military operations to include its northern neighbor, Lebanon. Two top Biden Administration officials, Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk, urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to shift Israel’s military focus from the already-flattened Gaza northward to Lebanon. 

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