Is Israel an ally? Important speech by former CIA officer Philip Gieraldi
Folks, you think Biden is bad? You're right. He is. But Trump promises to be lots worse...
A recent poll taken in Israel shows that a bigger % of Israelis want Trump to win the next election.
That is a BAD sign.
We like to say that Trump is more peacelike than Biden, and that may be true.
(Your air strike update follows below this report)
But let's recall that it was Trump who ordered the illegal extrajudicial execution of Iranian Quds Force commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Now, as Philip Giraldi pointed out in the video linked above, Iran is NOT an enemy of the US. Israel has taken upon itself to call it an enemy and to use its considerable propaganda power to make Americans – both grassroots and elites – think that Iran and Iran-backed organizations are evil. Yet, as I pointed out earlier, the fact that the US wholeheartedly supports the Palestinian genocide while Iran-backed groups vehemently protest it and even risk the lives and treasure to fight the perpetrators – US and Israel – should tell us all we need to know about who is the good guy and who is the evil perpetrator in this drama.
The fact is, if it were not for Iran-backed Hezbollah, there would likely not be a state called Lebanon today. Israeli almost destroyed that country on several occasions. It is complicated, but here is a brief summary: List of wars involving Lebanon - Wikipedia. Hezbollah is ONLY listed as a terrorist organization by the US (in genuflection to Israel) and some of its allies.
Objectively speaking, it is a resistance force, so NOT a terrorist group. But the US government hates and fears objectivity.
Another group that the US Neocons have falsely designated as a terrorist group was the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, which is primarily tasked with fighting ISIS. What mental gymnastics must we employ to call this a terrorist group if it fights terror – and does so quite effectively? Only the mentally ill group of Israel stooges known as Neoconservatives in Washington know the answer to that.
Then there is Kata'ib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group of terror fighters (falsely designated as terrorists by the Israel-loyal State and Defense Departments) that belong to this larger umbrella group.
One of the gentlemen murdered along with Soleimani was his ally Abu Mahdi al Muhandis, the commander of said Kata'ib Hezbollah.
I say all of this to say that Trump's order to assassinate Soleimani and ally Muhandis caused a seismic shift in US-Middle East relations.
It seems that Gen. Soleimani was a kind of folk hero in Iran and when he was killed, the Iranian people became galvanized around their government like never before. One of the biggest marches in world history was held in his honor at the time of his funeral in Iran.
Likewise, a massive march was held in Iraq in honor of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was also a folk hero in Iraq. This march was held in part to honor Soleimani as well, one of the most beloved leaders in the Muslim world.
But that was not all that Trump accomplished with this illegal and, let's admit it, immoral assassination of these 2 men.
Probably the most important thing that Trump achieved was to cause a backlash in the form of an Iranian precision ballistic missile strike on a base in Iraq, ie, Ayn al-Asad, which hosted numerous American troops, at least 100 of which were, as a result of the strike, hospitalized in Germany with severe brain trauma.
The key fact in this strike was the fact that Trump had no answer to it. His hands were tied because the high precision of the strike demonstrated for the first time that Iran had a long-range precision missile that could cause enormous damage and could almost certainly wipe out all or most of the US bases in the region.
This was a turning point, but few Americans – least of all the MAGA followers – noticed the momentous nature of Trump's stupid blunder.
Thus, Trump largely kept the US out of war but at the price of turning the Middle East against the US more than ever before and hardening its resolve to distance itself from the US government.
Indeed, within a few days of the disastrous murder of these men, the Iraqi parliament voted to demand that all US troops withdraw from Iraq.
Of course, the US being tone deaf and callous, it chose to ignore the demand and kept stealing Syrian oil and garrisoning troops in Iraq and Syria, against the will of the people there.
But Iran's brash act of firing that ballistic missile set the stage for the Houthi attacks on Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea and the Strait of Bab el Mandeb and the cutting of submarine internet cables.
It will only get worse before it gets better.
**
Here’s your air strike update for Mar 13, 2024
Use this map to locate oblasts mentioned in the below report.
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
DMITRY KUNTSOV
STRIKES ON UKRAINE ON MARCH 13: WHAT KAMIKAZE DRONES TARGETED, SITES OF EXPLOSIONS
Strikes by the Russian army with missiles, as well as drones, are carried out along the entire length of the line of contact, as well as far in depth at the rear military facilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The past 24 hours were no exception. We talk about the situation in the special operation zone in Ukraine and beyond.
Strikes on Ukraine
Over the past 24 hours, the Russian army again struck at Ukrainian Armed Forces targets in various regions of the so-called. Ukraine, hitting targets in the Ternopil, Vinnytsia and Lvov oblasts, Krivoy Rog [Dnepropetrovsk oblast], and the part of Kherson controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In turn, the Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out a drone raid on fuel and energy facilities in Russia.
In the morning explosions in Ukraine were recorded in Odessa and Sumy.
The crews of Su-34 fighter-bombers attacked the command post and manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
South Donetsk area. The strike was carried out with FAB-500 unguided aerial bombs with a universal glide and correction module. Having received information about the destruction of targets, the planes returned to the departure airfield.
In Sumy, after the Shahed [Shahed is the name given in UKRAINE to the Russian drone called Geran in Russian. This Russian author is carelessly copying Ukrainian reports verbatim] strike on a five-story building, there were dead and injured, the regional administration reports. The death toll is being determined.
30 apartments were damaged, 15 were completely destroyed. Ten people were rescued from the rubble.
Results of the shelling of Selidovo, Donetsk oblast, with S-300 missiles. [As far as I know, the Russians do not use S-300 missiles to attack anything. The S-300 is an air defense systems used almost exclusively to shoot down incoming threats. However, the Ukrainian MoD and media do report, falsely, Russian attacks with this missile. This happens when the Ukrainian S-300 is used to target incoming Russian munitions, and the Ukrainian interceptor missile then goes astray and hits civilian infrastructure, whereupon the Ukrainian authorities invariably report this as a deliberate Russian strike. It is disinformation aimed at damaging the Russians’ reputation. I suspect the Russian author of the above report is green and doesn’t know much about armaments and Ukrainian lies yet]. No people were injured, the prosecutor's office said. [Yes, this report came from Ukraine because the prosecutor there is investigating. No Russian authorities are authorized to conduct investigations behind enemy lines in Ukraine]
About 18 private and 14 multi-storey houses, administrative buildings, 2 garages, 5 cars and power lines were damaged. [Yes, civilian facilities that the Ukrainians want the West to believe was ruthlessly targeted by Russia. ONLY the Ukrainians deliberately target known civilian property in Russia or Russian controlled territory – except in cases where Ukrainians troops and officers and mercenaries are housed in private hotels and the like.]
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Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
https://ria.ru/20240313/patriot-1932618283.html
"The most perfect." Russia's attack on the Armed Forces of Ukraine caused shock in the United States
NI: the loss of the Patriot air defense system was a serious blow to the air defense of Ukraine
MOSCOW, March 13 – RIA Novosti. Russia dealt a serious blow to the air defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, destroying the American Patriot air defense system in the Pokrovsk [Donestsk oblast] area, wrote columnist for the American National Interest magazine Peter Suchiu.
“The Ukrainian air force has become too dispersed, trying to protect cities, troops and convoys. As a result of this loss, their resources will have to be dispersed even further,” the journalist noted.
According to Suchiu, American air defense systems were one of the most advanced types of weapons that Kyiv received from the United States. Each of them has become a key element of Ukraine's air defense, he added.
…
“The loss of the Patriot system <...> highlights the intensity of the current fighting and speaks of the strategic consequences for Ukrainian air defense,” the observer concluded.
At the end of last week, a RIA Novosti source in the security forces reported that in the Pokrovsk area in the DPR, an Iskander-M missile destroyed air defense systems, including two vehicles of the American Patriot complex.
**
Lavon affair: The Israeli false flag intended to drag the US into a war!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair
The Lavon affair was a failed Israeli covert operation, codenamed Operation Susannah, conducted in Egypt in the summer of 1954. As part of a false flag operation,[1] a group of Egyptian Jews were recruited by Israeli military intelligence to plant bombs inside Egyptian-, American-, and British-owned civilian targets: cinemas, libraries, and American educational centers. The bombs were timed to detonate several hours after closing time. The attacks were to be blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood, Egyptian communists, "unspecified malcontents", or "local nationalists" with the aim of creating a climate of sufficient violence and instability to induce the British government to retain its occupying troops in Egypt's Suez Canal zone.[2] The operation caused no casualties among the population, but resulted in the deaths of four operatives. The overseer of the operation allegedly informed the Egyptians, after which 11 suspected operatives were arrested. Two committed suicide after being captured, two were executed by the Egyptian authorities, two of them were acquitted at trial, and the remaining five received prison terms ranging from 7 years to life in prison.
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Translation from Arabic with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
BTW, I need to set the record straight. Though I have been studying Arabic for close to 30 years, I am not fluent and cannot read these articles fluently or translate them. These are all “machine” translations but very well executed thanks to some very fine technology. My contribution is only in polishing and making a few corrections as needed. Which is not to say that I may not some day be reading the articles with greater ease.
Friday 4 August 2023 04:33
What did Washington propose to Sanaa to stop the war?
The faltering negotiations to stop the war in Yemen reveal the divergence of the Saudi-American agenda regarding the outcomes of the crisis. While the Kingdom sees that ending the war without “crippling” Sana’a, in addition to maintaining its influence in the oil governorates and the coast, is a threat to Saudi national security, the United States thinks in different logic, having apparently benefited from the experience of former President Jimmy Carter, where Yemen was One of the shocks of the late 1970s. [Though Carter has gained, but not earned, the reputation of being a “peace president,” he was pulled down by the virulent Neocon Zbigniew Brezinski. It was, in fact, Carter, under the latter’s influence, who indirectly created the Taliban and dragged Afghanistan back into the Middle Ages. When Russia intervened in that country, it began to develop for the first time into a Western style democracy, where women were given the right to study in the university. But the Carter-Brzezinski meddling led to the debacle that we see in Afghanistan today. The same disastrous effects are seen in the Middle East]
The American role at the beginning of the war was limited to some political and military logistical support, most of which was in deals for which Riyadh paid in full, even though the announcement of the start of the aggression came from the White House. Later, Riyadh was able to persuade the American administration to increase armaments, and the growing power of Sanaa and the qualitative strikes it carried out - including targeting the American warship USS Mason, in October 2016 - were some of the talking points of Saudi persuasion.
The Saudi enthusiasm to drag Washington into the quagmire was much greater than the latter’s desire. The American agenda in Yemen is based on three determinants, which it has been trying to convince Sana'a of over the past period, without giving Riyadh's opinion a wide margin in the authority to decide whether to stop the war or not. According to a source familiar with the negotiations, Al-Khanadaq website said that the US administration indirectly informed Sanaa, through diplomatic channels, of a list of 3 demands, according to which it would stop the war and lift the siege:
- Bab al-Mandab is international, not Yemeni: The name of the strait is related to an unpleasant memory for the United States and the occupying entity. [it was in this strait that Yemen allegedly cut undersea cables late in February] To prevent a repeat of what happened in the October War of 1973, with the US administration confident that Sanaa has the ability to repeat it - if it wants - Washington is trying hard to keep the fire away from that region, which it exploits navigationally, commercially, and militarily for espionage, surveillance, and threats.
On March 15, 2017, the Supreme Commander of US forces in the region, Joseph Votel, briefed the Congressional Armed Services Committee on events: “Vital American interests are at stake... With the support of Iran, the strait has become militarized, with a multi-layered defense.” From coastal missiles, radar systems, mines and boats loaded with explosives... this is a threat to our security operations.” After that, the US Navy strengthened its presence, and the destroyer Cole was brought to that region. [In fact, Iran has assumed the role of protecting navigation, but the US doesn’t see this as positive. Iran’s main objective now is to force Israel to stop the genocide. The US goal is to perpetuate it]
Does Yemen not pose a threat to Israel? The American administration recognized the Faithful Youth Movement, then Ansar Allah, with the cry launched by the martyr, Mr. Hussein Badr al-Din al-Houthi. Before that, Yemen was marginal in American foreign policy, with the presence of a Yemeni president loyal to Washington, and a number of events that received greater attention, such as the events of September 11 and then the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The slogan was enough to make it clear: The demise of Israel is a creed they believe in. [The genocide, broadcast to the world in all media and verified by the highest court in the world, is exonerating Iran and denigrating the US and its allies]
Today, after the leader of the movement, Mr. Abdul Malik Badr al-Din al-Houthi, announced entry into the regional equation, launched by the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Mr. Hassan Nasrallah, and possessing the military and human capacity to do so, in addition to the direct Israeli intervention in the Yemen war, American and Israeli concerns have been increasing, especially After the Yemeni armed forces targeted Ras Tanura, in a message that reached Tel Aviv directly. [The name Ras Tanura applies both to a gated Saudi Aramco employee compound (also referred to as "Najmah") and to an industrial area further out on the peninsula that serves as a major oil port and oil operations center for Saudi Aramco, the largest oil company in the world.]
- Ending Iranian influence in Yemen: Washington believes that “Iranian influence” is increasing, and believes that the extension of this presence to a strategic region such as Yemen will have a significant impact on a number of regional issues. Meanwhile, its demand on Sanaa to limit this influence, and its refusal to receive any support or sever any relationship, means that it [Washington] is not aware of the nature of the relationship between the two sides, which was recently made clear by the events that took place after the signing of the Saudi-Iranian agreement. At a time when Riyadh believed that signing the agreement would end the Yemen war, Sanaa once again threatens escalation if it [apparently refers to Washington, which has the power to force Israel to lift the Gaza siege but pretends it can’t] continues to procrastinate in implementing the conditions and lifting the siege.
Sana'a rejected all of these demands. Emphasizing that it will not carry out any military actions that harm maritime navigation routes or affect the security of the region, in addition to that it is not a “follower” of Tehran, but rather a friend of it. Stressing that it will not accept the proposal or discussion of the second item in particular, as it considers it a violation of its identity and Islamic principles. [Washington is run by imbeciles, who don’t understand that none of the Iran-linked groups, such as Hezbollah, the Popular Mobilization Forces, Hamas, etc, are controlled by Iran, they are simply dependent on it for assistance. The lie that countries sheltering these groups are controlled by Iran is propaganda pure and simple]
What is behind this discrepancy?
Upon the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the United States felt that it had lost a historic strategic ally in the region. That is why, throughout the period preceding his fall, it was striving to prevent this. Today, Saudi Arabia has the same feeling: “The loss that will undermine influence and establish a new phase.” The decline of its influence in Yemen means its loss of oil reserves at its borders and inside, and the frustration of its [Yemen’s?] project to dispense with passage through the Strait of Hormuz, through the land corridor from Hadramaut to Mukalla, in addition to the Yemeni consumer markets that flood it with its products, transit, trade, and ports, and then the political dependency that it enjoyed. During the past decades. While the former believes that reaching a comprehensive ceasefire agreement can be discussed with Sana’a on some matters, Riyadh believes that recognizing Sana’a’s right to negotiate and dealing with it as a fait accompli is a problem in itself, after it had launched the war to eliminate it.
How did Yemen influence the construction of the Carter Doctrine? [See the explanation of the Carter Doctrine above.]
On March 7, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed Presidential Resolution 79–6, approving the sale of aircraft, tanks, and armored personnel carriers to the Yemen Arab Republic (North Yemen). On the same day, he ordered the aircraft carrier USS Constellation to head to the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Yemen. The arms sale, according to the resolution, was “in the national security interest of Washington.”
Relations between the United States and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen have been tense since the latter gained its independence in 1967, as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Yemeni position against the occupation of Palestine, plus differences of interests in a number of issues in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula...
Diplomatic relations with the United States were severed in 1969, and hostility between the two countries continued throughout most of the 1970s, for several reasons, the first of which was the strong presence of the Soviet Union in the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen. According to a 1977 congressional staff survey mission, “several hundred Cubans, 116 East Germans and a large number of Soviets came to Yemen as military advisors at training centers.”
From an American point of view, this necessitated the need to maintain a strong army for the Arab Republic of Yemen to achieve balance against the threat to the interests of the United States and the Kingdom.
There are those who say that the two most important events in changing Carter's policy in the Middle East were the Soviet "invasion" of Afghanistan and the Islamic Revolution in Iran, which they called the "shocks of 1979." There is no doubt that both events had a profound impact on Carter's thinking, but the shift in his view of defense and foreign policy had already begun to take shape long before they occurred. The so-called “Second Yemeni War” was the smallest of these shocks, but it played an active role in establishing the Carter Doctrine.
Over the past years, the United States has reached a conviction that it is necessary to avoid direct military involvement in any arena, contrary to the Carter Doctrine, and accordingly, its intervention in the war was not up to Riyadh’s expectations and will, just as it was in its effort to get out of it and end it.
Writer:
Maryam Al-Seblani
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https://newsletters.mondoweiss.net/emails/webview/59730/115698386691163422
Today's headlines
‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 159: Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah
Leila Warah
Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel "will finish the job in Rafah" despite growing international concern over an invasion, including from the U.S. Meanwhile, Israeli forces kill 5 Palestinians in the West Bank in the last 24 hours, including 3 children.
Read more
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Is genocide THAT important to Columbia U? Is it a cherished university value?
Columbia U sued for suspending student groups over pro-Palestine protest
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Ilan Pappe, foremost expert on Israeli history and Zionism, author of the book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine:
“This is the beginning of the end of the Zionist project”
https://twitter.com/i/status/1767826940994486388
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Surprisingly, and encouragingly, this was all reported on BBC News at 10pm on 12/3/2024, together with the usual lies from Israel. Cameron says he is "worried".
A bit late after the deliberate genocide of over 31,000 innocent Palestinians, including thousands of children, for the West to accept the truth about Israel's mass murder in Gaza.
See if you can watch it on BBC iPlayer.
Also important:
AN
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BY MUSTAFA ABU SNEINEH
Casualties
31,184+ killed* and at least 72,889 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
423+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,147.
589 Israeli soldiers killed since October 7, and at least 3,221 injured.***
*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to 35,000 when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to PA’s Ministry of Health on March 6, this is the latest figure.
*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.”
**
https://www.diwaninc.com/palestine-digest/
Key Developments
UN chief says, “my appeal is to honour the spirit of the holy month by silencing the guns & removing all obstacles to the delivery of lifesaving aid.”
Only 500 Palestinians perform Tarawih prayers at al-Awda Mosque in Rafah, few hundred others pray near destroyed a-Huda Mosque in al-Shabboura.
UNRWA chief says Israeli forces turned back truck loaded with aid to northern Gaza “because it had scissors used in children’s medical kits.”
Gaza’s Ministry of Health says very few aid trucks arrived in northern Gaza by land, and that “[Israeli] bombing of hungry people’s gatherings has become a daily routine.”
World Central Kitchen sends ship from Cyprus bound to Gaza with “almost 200 tons of food — rice, flour, legumes, canned veggies and proteins.”
Israeli navy boats fire at Palestinian fishermen near Nuseirat, killing brothers Muhammad and Youssef Adel Abu Riyala.
Rescue teams recover bodies of 11 martyrs following Israeli airstrike on residential building in al-Qarara, north of Khan Younis.
Palestinian Authority says Israel turned West Bank into “military barracks,” installing 750 military checkpoints and deploying thousands of soldiers.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah fires over 100 missiles toward Israeli military sites in Upper Galilee and occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday morning, following Israeli bombing of Lebanese city of Baalbek.
The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claims it launched drone attack on Ben Gurion Airport, near Tel Aviv, on Monday.
Israeli tyrant, Benjamin Netanyahu, is a paranoid madman whose current hold on power can be compared to Adolf Hitler in his last days otherwise known as "Hitler in the Bunker". He knows his days are numbered, with or without 'Genocide Joe' Biden backing him.