Unintended Consequences: Did Trump Just Give the Middle East to China and Russia?
Neocon Zionist Plot to Conquer Iran and Subjugate Iraq Exposed
________
Source: MPN
Sealed Off and Forgotten: What You Should Know About Israel's West Bank "Firing Zones"
Throughout the 1970s, the Israeli military declared roughly 18% of the West Bank as "firing zones," effectively wresting control from the local Palestinian population.
by Ramzy Baroud | January 15, 2020
A seemingly ordinary news story, published in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on January 7, shed light on a long-forgotten, yet crucial, subject: Israel's so-called "firing zones" in the West Bank.
"Israel has impounded the only vehicle available to a medical team that provides assistance to 1,500 Palestinians living inside an Israeli military firing zone in the West Bank," according to Haaretz
The Palestinian community that was denied its only access to medical services is Masafer Yatta, a tiny Palestinian village located in the South Hebron hills.
Masafer Yatta, which exists in complete and utter isolation from the rest of the occupied West Bank, is located in 'Area C', which constitutes the larger territorial chunk, about 60 percent of the West Bank. This means that the village, along with many Palestinian towns, villages and small, isolated communities, is under total Israeli military control.
Do not let the confusing logic of the Oslo Accords fool you; all Palestinians, in all parts of the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the besieged Gaza Strip, are under Israeli military control as well.
Unfortunately for Masafer Yatta, and those living in 'Area C', however, the degree of control is so suffocating that every aspect of Palestinian life – freedom of movement, education, access to clean water, and so on – is controlled by a complex system of Israeli military ordinances that have no regard whatsoever for the well-being of the beleaguered communities.
It is no surprise, then, that Masafer Yatta's only vehicle, a desperate attempt at fashioning a mobile clinic, was confiscated in the past as well, and was only retrieved after the impoverished residents were forced to pay a fine to Israeli soldiers.
There is no military logic in the world that could rationally justify the barring of medical access to an isolated community, especially when an Occupying Power like Israel is legally obligated under the Fourth Geneva Convention to ensure medical access to civilians living in an Occupied Territory.
A Palestinian medic sits in an ambulance with graffiti sprayed by Jewish settlers near the West Bank city of Nablus. Nasser Ishtayeh | AP
It is only natural that Masafer Yatta, like all Palestinians in 'Area C' and the larger West Bank, feel neglected – and outright betrayed – by the international community as well as their own quisling leadership.
But there is more that makes Masafer Yatta even more unique, qualifying it for the unfortunate designation of being a Bantustan within a Bantustan, as it subsists in a far more complex system of control, compared to the one imposed on black South Africa during the Apartheid regime era.
Soon after Israel occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, it devised a long-term stratagem aimed at the permanent control of the newly occupied territories. While it designated some areas for the future relocation of its own citizens – who now make up the extremist illegal Jewish settler population in the West Bank – it also set aside large swathes of the Occupied Territories as security and buffer zones.
What is far less known is that, throughout the 1970s, the Israeli military declared roughly 18% of the West Bank as "firing zones".
These "firing zones" were supposedly meant as training grounds for the Israeli occupation army soldiers – although Palestinians trapped in these regions often report that little or no military training takes place within "firing zones".
According to the Office for the UN Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Palestine, there are around 5,000 Palestinians, divided among 38 communities that still live, under most dire circumstances, within the so-called "firing zones".
The 1967 occupation led to a massive wave of ethnic cleansing that saw the forced removal of approximately 300,000 Palestinians from the newly-conquered territory. Many of the vulnerable communities that were ethnically cleansed included Palestinian Bedouins, who continue to pay the price for Israel's colonial designs in the Jordan Valley, the South Hebron Hills and other parts of occupied Palestine.
This vulnerability is compounded by the fact that the Palestinian Authority (PA) acts with little regards to Palestinians living in 'Area C', who are left to withstand and resist Israeli pressures alone, often resorting to Israel’s own unfair judicial system, to win back some of their basic rights.
The Oslo Accords, signed in 1993 between the Palestinian leadership and the Israeli government, divided the West Bank into three regions: 'Area A', theoretically under autonomous Palestinian control and consisting of 17.7 percent of the overall size of the West Bank; 'Area B', 21 percent, and under shared Israeli-PA control and ‘Area C', the remainder of the West Bank, and under total Israeli control.
Please go to MPN to read the entire article.
_________
Source: Mondoweiss
Israel begins extending 'silent annexation' over the West Bank, with the blessings of the Trump administration
News Yumna Patel on January 15, 2020 | 4 Comments
The Israeli Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that it had approved the creation of seven new Israeli nature reserves in Area C of the occupied West Bank.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the move — which also includes the expansion of 12 existing nature reserves — is the first time since the Oslo Accords that an approval of its kind has been issued.
The news comes on the heels of a controversial forum of right-wing activists and academics last week in Jerusalem, where Naftali Bennett, the current Minister of Defense, stood in front of the crowd and declared that Area C of the occupied West Bank “belongs to Israel."
"We are embarking on a real and immediate battle for the future of the Land of Israel and the future of Area C," Bennett told the Kohelet Policy Forum, referring to the more than 60% of the West Bank that was designated by the Oslo Accords as being under control by Israel.
As the leader of the "New Right" party, Bennett has long been a champion of the settler movement and a proponent of Israeli annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories. The expression of his sentiments towards Area C were by no means surprising, but given the support of the current U.S. administration, were extremely alarming.
Support from the United States
The Kohelet Policy Forum opened with a video message from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said “we’re recognizing that these settlements don't inherently violate international law. That is important. We’re disavowing the deeply flawed 1978 Hansell memo, and we’re returning to a balanced and sober Reagan-era approach."
The Trump administration’s position on settlements has drawn widespread criticism from Palestinian leaders and activists, as well as from the international community, which largely considers settlements to be the major roadblock to peace in the region.
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, also addressed the conference, and emphasized the new U.S. position that the some 200 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were not in violation of international law.
"Israelis have a right to live in Judea and Samaria," Friedman said, praising U.S. President Trump's previous decisions to recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
It would appear that there has already been coordination between the Netanyahyu and Trump governments on extending Israeli sovereignty over the West Bank.
In his speech Bennett also said that one month ago he began moving forward with plans to enforce Israeli sovereignty over the land, and indicated that he held discussions with the Trump administration to "[explain] the ways that the State of Israel will do everything possible to ensure that these areas will be part of the State of Israel."
Please go to Mondoweiss to read the entire article.
________
Source: If Americans Knew
Senators introduce another bipartisan bill to give Israel billions of dollars
Bu ALISON WEIR | JANUARY 12, 2020
Left to right: Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Chris Coons (D-DE). Photo from AIPAC website.
After original bill stalled in 2019, Rubio & Coons introduce new bill expected to give Israel at least $38 billion over the next 10 years – over $7,000 per minute.
Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Chris Coons have introduced legislation expected to give Israel a minimum of $38 billion over the next 10 years. (The text for the bill, S.3176, is not yet available on the Congressional website.)
The new bill has been introduced because a similar one introduced last year, S.1, had stalled. The new version reportedly omits a section that would have let state governments punish Americans for boycotting Israel, which had caused some Senators to oppose it on First Amendment grounds.
The new bill is expected to contain the same financial provisions as the previous one: solidifying into federal law a 2016 Memorandum of Understand (MOU) with Israel procured by the Obama administration, which had been a non-binding agreement, while changing the $38 billion in the MOU from a ceiling to a floor.
Given the influence of the Israel lobby, that change would likely lead to an increased amount of US tax money going to Israel in coming years, possibly even in 2020.
The bill text said it was "the largest single pledge of assistance ever." The money works out to $7,230 per minute to Israel, and equals about $23,000 per each Jewish Israeli family of four.
The aid is broken into two parts: $33 billion in direct military aid and $5 billion in certain weapons programs.
The previous bill also required NASA to cooperate with Israel's space agency, despite accusations of Israeli espionage, and some additional perks. It is unknown if those provisions are also in this year’s legislation. [UPDATE, Jan. 13: I have now obtained the text of the new bill and have posted it here and below; the section about NASA is not included.]
Please go to If Americans Knew to read the entire article.
________
Ed.'s note: As this article is read keep in mind that Iran's President Hassan Rouhani who represents one group in Iran, was educated in Glasgow, Scotland and is close to Jack Straw. Jack Straw is very close to Lord Levy. And Lord Levy is close to Lord Rothschild. When you check Rouhani's background, he was considered "working in the shadows" of Shia law inside Iran's Velayat-e Faqih's key institutions as "the man in power but in the shadows." Basically keeping Iranians in a state of primitive religious superstition for the City of London. Rouhani studied law in Glasgow with his thesis titled The Flexibility of Shariah (Islamic Law) with reference to the Iranian experience. That way they can arm each of these countries to the hilt including Iran's continuing purchases of billions in Russian military hardware. So it could quite legitimately be described as representing the City of London with the group inside Iran that Rouhani represents. It is conceivable that this group in Iran approved of the assassination of General Soleimani. There is a tremendous amount of coordination going on at the highest levels of diplomacy where all these countries are cooperating including between Israel and Iran. All these people involved have Swiss bank accounts. Explains why President Trump had a back channel to the Swiss embassy in Iran to de-esacalate tensions.
Put Your Seat Belts On For This One
Source: Voltaire Network
Behind the Scenes of U.S./Iran Relations
By having Iranian General Qassem Soleimani assassinated in Iraq, President Trump nearly provoked the Third World War. At least that is the version of the US opposition and the international press. For Thierry Meyssan, what happens behind the scenes is very different from the show on stage. According to him, there is a move towards a coordinated military withdrawal of the United States and Iran from the Middle East.
by Thierry Meyssan VOLTAIRE NETWORK | DAMASCUS (SYRIA) | 14 JANUARY 2020
President Trump's reference to the 1979 "hostage crisis" between President Carter and Iran was a source of pride for the United States. But the story is a biased presentation by journalist Walter Cronkrite. In referring to it, he was sending a message to Iran, which had successfully negotiated a successful outcome with President Reagan.
Two countries divided
Relations between the USA and Iran are all the more difficult to understand because these two states are deeply divided:
- The United States is ruled by President Donald Trump, but all experts see that the federal administration is strongly opposed to him, does not implement his instructions and is involved in the ongoing parliamentary process for his removal.
- This is not a political division between Republicans and Democrats, since President Trump is not from that party, even though he has been nominated, but from a cultural divide: that of the three Anglo-Saxon civil wars (the British Civil War, U.S. Independence and the Civil War). Today it opposes the culture of the Rednecks, heirs of the "conquest of the West", and that of the Puritans, heirs of the "Pilgrim Fathers" of the Mayflower [1].
- There are two competing powers in Iran: on the one hand the government of Sheikh Hassan Rouhani and on the other the Guide of the Revolution, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Contrary to the claims of the Western media, it is not this or that group that is paralyzing the country, but the death struggle that these two groups are waging against each other.
- President Rohani represents the interests of the bourgeoisie in Tehran and Esfahan, merchants oriented toward international trade and hard hit by U.S. sanctions. Sheikh Rohani is a long-time friend of the US deep state: he was the first Iranian contact between the Reagan administration and Israel during the Iran-Contra affair in 1985. It was he who introduced Hashem Rafsanjani to Oliver North’s men, allowing him to buy arms, to become the commander-in-chief of the armies and incidentally the richest man in the country, and then the President of the Islamic Republic. Sheikh Rohani was chosen by the Obama administration and Ali-Akbar Velayati during secret negotiations in Oman in 2013 to put an end to the secular nationalism of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and restore relations between the two countries.
- On the contrary, the Guide of the Revolution is a function created by Imam Rouhollah Khomeini on the model of the sage of Plato's Republic - there is nothing Muslim about it. Ayatollah Khamenei is supposed to ensure that political decisions do not contravene the principles of Islam and those of the anti-imperialist Revolution of 1978. He is the head of the Revolutionary Guard militia, of which General Qassem Soleimani was a member. His budget is extremely variable according to unforeseen fluctuations in oil revenues. It is therefore he - and not the Rohanian administration - that is most affected by the US sanctions. In recent years, he has tried to establish himself as a reference point within Islam in general, inviting to Tehran all the religious and political leaders of the Muslim world, including its fiercest opponents.
Most of the decisions taken by either power, both in the US and in Iran, are immediately contradicted by his competitor.
Another difficulty in understanding what is happening comes from the lies that these two powers have accumulated over the years, many of which are still very much present. We will only mention those that have been mentioned in recent days:
- There was never a hostage crisis in 1979. US diplomatic personnel who were taken prisoner were arrested in flagrante delicto for spying. The embassy in Tehran was the CIA headquarters for the entire Middle East. It was not the Iranians but the United States that violated the obligations of diplomatic status. Two Marines of the embassy guard denounced the CIA’s actions, the espionage material is still visible in the embassy premises and the top-secret documents seized there have been published in more than 80 volumes.
- The Islamic Republic of Iran has never recognized the State of Israel, but has never had the objective of annihilating the Jewish population. It advocated the principle of "one man, one vote", while persisting in considering that it also applied to all Palestinians who had emigrated and acquired foreign nationality. In 2019, it submitted a proposal for a referendum on self-determination in geographical Palestine (i.e. both Israel and political Palestine) to the UN Security Council.
- Iran and Israel are not irreducible enemies since they jointly operate the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, which is jointly owned by the two states [2].
- Iran stopped all research on atomic weapons in 1988 when Imam Khomeini declared weapons of mass destruction incompatible with his vision of Islam. Documents stolen by Israel and revealed by its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 show that subsequent research has focused only on a shock wave generator (part of an atomic bomb detonator) [3]. It is not a nuclear part, but a mechanical part that can be used for other purposes.
Seen from the West, President Trump has just added Qassem Soleimani to his list of murdered terrorists. But seen from the Middle East, he has just changed sides: after having shot Caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, he has killed Daesh’s main enemy, Qassem Soleimani.
The assassination of the hero
With these foundations in place, let us look at the assassination of General Qassem Soleimani and the crisis it provoked.
General Soleimani was an exceptional soldier. He launched his military carreer during the war imposed by Iraq (1980-88). His Special Forces, the Al-Quods section (i.e. Jerusalem in Arabic and Persian), came to the rescue of all the peoples of the Middle East who were victims of imperialism. For example, he was present alongside Lebanese Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Syrian General Hassan Turkmani in Beirut in the face of the Israeli attack in 2006. He distinguished between imperialism and the United States and negotiated many times with Washington, even proposing detailed alliances, for example in 2001 with President George Bush Jr. against the Afghan Taliban. However, from May 2018, he was only allowed to fight alongside the Shiite communities. Violating the ceasefire of the 1973 war, he launched attacks against Israel from Syrian territory, placing Damascus in the greatest embarrassment.
Although President Trump understood the military role he played under Ayatollah Khamenei, he did not understand the symbol he had become and the admiration he enjoyed in almost every military academy in the world. He took a major risk in allowing his elimination and damaged his own reputation in the Middle East. Indeed, while as US president he had consistently opposed his country’s support for al-Qaeda and Daesh, he was responsible for the death of a man who embodied that fight in many theatres of operation through his blood. There is no need to dwell on the illegality of this assassination. This has not changed much in the behaviour of the United States since its inception.
Please go to Voltaire Network to read the entire article.
________
Ed.'s note: In the US, the reason for the SPLC continuing to operate like some kind of a hydraulic conveyor belt of hate as well as the Christian-Zionists in America with their absurd and preposterous religious claims are trying to force Jews to Israel. In its extreme form the Christian right in America represented by people like Vice President Mike Pence and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is a very dangerous fascist undercurrent. There are many decent wonderful Jews living in America who just want to be left alone and have absolutely no interest in going to Israel. Keep stoking for the fires of hatred...the more the "anti-Semitism" the better.
Southern Poverty Law Center Official Who Led Armed Communist Paramilitary March Calls for Government Action Against Funding of "Hate Groups"
Reclaiming the Narrative: How to Combat Israel's Misuse of "Antisemitism"
Meanwhile in the UK, the "anti-Semitism" charged against the UK Labour Party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn was all contrived. The ultimate beneficiary was Israel. It was a well financed and massive media campaign against Jeremy Corbyn.
Labour's fake anti-Semitism crisis outlives Corbyn
'I am a passionate Zionist,' declares Boris Johnson
More:
Why Israel's So-Called "Occupation" of "Palestinian Territories" is a Farce
How Israel tortures Palestinians
Israel's Yinon Plan, Saudi Wahhabism & US Wars: Arab Christians Pushed Into Mass Exodus
Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell reportedly hiding in Israel
There is just that little problem with a few uppity and pesky Iranians who require taking care of for this plan to be carried out successfully.
Explained: Why the US Hated and Assassinated Iran's General Soleimani
What good is the Yinon Plan or the Greater Israel Project without all the technology? How totally bizarre? Not only is the US providing billions in "aid" to Israel, it is also allowing Israel to transfer American technology to Israel which is used to build the technological infrastructure for China's B&RI. The amounts of investment capital flowing into Israel hasn't stopped.
How NeoCon Billionaire Paul Singer Is Driving the Outsourcing of US Tech Jobs to Israel
Intel green lights $5 billion investment in Israel plant
$2.8 billion invested in Israel in first half of 2016
Tech investments in Israel hit new high
Qualcomm launches $100m AI fund, invests in Israel's AnyVision
Private equity investment in Israel totals $316 million in 1Q
Big money flowed into the Trump operation with the Jewish oligarch Sheldon Adelson:
Sheldon Adelson backs Trump trip to Israel after $100m pledge, sources say
Israel's Money Man Sheldon Adelson Gets USA to ban ALL online gambling
Sheldon Adelson spending $100 million to keep control of U.S. policies on Israel
Meet America's Top 20 "Zionaires": Billionaires Who Support Israel
Then there is the prospect of Israel having a free trade agreement with China while the US and China are working out trade agreements resulting in the US-China trade war. There are billions of dollars of private equity investments flowing into Israel while Israel and China are setting up free trade agreements? A betrayal? By what country? Israel or China? Or both Israel and China?
China and Israel are poised to sign a free trade deal. Will Donald Trump see it as a betrayal?
With Strong Tech Ties, Is Israel China's New Best Friend?
Israeli Exit Deals Soar To $21.7B In Record High For The Decade
CHINESE DEAL TO TAKE OVER KEY ISRAELI PORT MAY THREATEN U.S. NAVAL OPERATIONS, CRITICS SAY
China and Israel in the Belt and Road Initiative
This is America..."can't find my way back home..."
Blind Faith ~ Can't Find My Way Home
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.