China’s Territorial Disputes Don’t Add Up to Rampant Expansionism
By Joseph Solis-Mullen | The Libertarian Institute | November 14, 2023
Having covered China’s ongoing territorial dispute with the Philippines last week, further details of China’s existing, and settled, territorial disputes seemed in order. For not only has Washington explicitly committed Americans to fight and die over several of these disputes, as in the cases of the Philippines and Japan, but understanding their wider context does much to inform and dispel the fake China threat narrative of a red wave poised to wash mercilessly over its weaker neighbors.
We’ll start with Japan. Like the dispute between China and the Philippines over the Spratly Islands or Scarborough Shoal, the origins of China’s dispute with Japan over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands stretch back over a century, and their claims are rooted in differing interpretations of vaguely worded treaties and conflicting historical accounts. Really, though, as then-Premier Zhou Enlai bluntly stated, it was the question of potential undersea oil reserves that made sovereignty over the islands worth disputing. And once the United States, which had been administering the territories in question since the end of World War II, gave up its administrative role, both Tokyo and Beijing got back to disputing possession between them.
For decades Washington took no part. From 2012 to 2014, however, as part of its pivot to Asia, the Barack Obama administration worked with the government of the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to clarify that the United States’ 1960 mutual defense treaty obligations pertained to Japan’s claimed maritime possessions. As in the Philippines, then, Washington has deliberately expanded the possibility of direct conflict between the United States and China.
Meanwhile, while New Delhi and Beijing have several areas of overlapping territorial claims along their 2,000 mile border, the most contentious of these is in Ladakh, in the mountains and on the Depsang Plains. A short, ferocious war between India and China in 1962 established the present status quo, but things have been far from quiet. In 2020-2021 a series of melees resulted in deaths on both sides. Despite this, the most recent statements from both sides consist of pledges to maintain “peace and tranquility” along their shared border. This is well, because while Washington has no mutual defense treaty with India, it has formed an increasingly close security partnership. And the more adversarial relations between Beijing and New Delhi are perceived to be the more empowered to pursue its containment strategy Washington will feel.
Lastly, the complicated case of Vietnam. Like Japan and the Philippines, Hanoi’s disputes with Beijing are entirely maritime in nature. Like India, however, Vietnam shares a land border with its larger neighbor and has fought a relatively recent war against China, that in 1979. But then, like several of China’s smaller and less developed neighbors, Vietnam’s concern for the preservation of its sovereignty and autonomy have to be carefully balanced with its critical economic relations with Beijing. Indeed, the crux of the dispute between the two has to do almost exclusively with the economic benefits to be derived from sovereignty over the disputed islands in question; the Paracels and Spratly among them. While Hanoi is unlikely ever to be in Washington’s pocket, its apprehension over Beijing’s assertion of its privileges under the so-called “nine-dash line” means it will welcome Washington’s conduct of so-called “freedom of navigation” exercises in these disputed waters. Sailing U.S. warships into waters claimed by China and near its shores in the name of securing oil and fishing rights for Vietnam may not sound like it’s in the interest of America or Americans—but hey, that’s why you’re not in Washington making these decisions.
Despite its almost uniformly cartoonish depiction in the western corporate media as aggressively seeking to bestride the globe, and for all its outstanding border disputes, Beijing has already peacefully settled several such similar long-standing disputes with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Mongolia, the two Koreas, Laos, Myanmar, and Pakistan. In many of these cases, such as the Koreas, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan, China accepted a far smaller portion of the territory for itself in the final settlement. In several others, such as the smaller states along its south and southwest, Beijing was equally generous in the terms it accepted.
Make no mistake: this was not because China or its leaders are “generous.” Rather, the logic of China’s position dictated its policies. Relations with Mongolia, for example, need be nothing but normal, for as things stand Mongolia is effectively an economic colony of China. In the cases of Laos and Myanmar, failure to pursue peaceful settlements on terms acceptable to its neighbors could have caused headaches for Beijing among its many potentially resistive minorities along its long, jungled frontier.
Finally, it is worth pointing out that the government in Taipei, Taiwan, also lays claim to many of the above disputed territories—including several that Beijing has already negotiated away. Further, that it was Chiang’s Republic of China that first produced the modern “nine dash line” map laying claim to sovereignty over the South and East China Seas—so the idea that a democratically transformed China would have been some peaceful, pliant good neighbor is oh so much more of Washington’s predictable balderdash.
As Joe Biden prepares to meet with Xi Jinping this week, we can only hope that more sensible heads will prevail when it comes to relations with China. The relationship need not be that of best friends, but that does not and should not mean that China is cast in the role of foe instead. Azerbaijan faces no consequences for its recent conquest, nor Egypt for its long and paltry human rights record. Washington needs some grownups at the wheel, ones who will deal pragmatically with the world as it is, not as they envision forcing it to be.
Eyewitness Reveals How Family of Four Died During Israeli Strike in Southern Lebanon
Samira Ayoub with her daughter Huda, granddaughters Rimas, Talin and Lian; her elder brother Samir Ayoub with his son before the tragedy
By Christina Malyk – Sputnik – 14.11.2023
Samir Ayoub, a Russian-Lebanese journalist, lost four of his family members – younger sister Samira (60) and her granddaughters Rimas (14), Talin (12) and Lian (10) – during an Israeli drone strike on the village of Aitarun near the Lebanese-Israeli border. The tragedy occurred right before his eyes.
Samir highlighted that he did not expect that an Israeli drone would attack the civilians who “have nothing to do with the military.” That tragic day, his sister Samira, her daughter Huda, and granddaughters Rimas, Talin, and Lian were packing their things and moving to Beirut, while schools were closed near the Israeli border, and asked Samir for help.
“We, who live near the border, already know that the drone sees everyone and everything that is on earth, even animals. Therefore, I asked the children to play near the car. I thought they would see the children and definitely not touch us. The youngest of the girls even jumped on the hood of the car. Therefore, I am absolutely sure they saw that only children and women got into the car,” he added.
Then, when the family started driving to Beirut, the tragedy suddenly occured. Samir Ayoub described the moment:
“We left Aitarun for Beirut in two cars. I was driving in front. Suddenly, I heard a sound as if pyrotechnics had gone off. The car received a direct hit, and it burned to the ground. My sister was sitting in the passenger seat, she died on the spot. The girls, my niece’s daughters, were burned alive in the back seat. Only my niece survived – she was driving.”
According to him, Huda, mother of the murdered girls and his niece, is still in hospital with serious injuries, but her life is not in danger now. She remembers what happened to her car that day.
“Huda remembers the tragedy every day. Although she is recovering physically, it is extremely difficult for her mentally. We all try to support her as best we can. Her husband also holds on despite such a terrible loss. He and I constantly come to the hospital to visit her,” Samir noted.
Samir wants to remember the murdered girls as “wonderful children,” who had their own dreams about the future. He revealed:
“The eldest, Rimas, was 14, she wanted to become a doctor. The middle one, Talin, was 12 and dreamed of becoming a designer. The youngest, Lian, was 10, and she dreamed of becoming an artist. But, alas, due to the actions of the Israeli army, their dreams will no longer be able to come true.”
The Lebanese government condemned the actions of the Israeli military and filed a formal complaint to the UN for committing a war crime.
“The Israelis reported they had eliminated three terrorists in the south of Lebanon. But what kind of terrorists? These were my sister, a pensioner, and her schoolgirl granddaughters. All we want now is truth and justice,” he concluded.
Report: Israel killed 3,100 school students, 130 teachers in Gaza
MEMO | November 14, 2023
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said as many as 3,141 Palestinian students have been killed by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank since 7 October, along with 130 teachers and administrators.
In a statement, the PCBS said 3,117 Palestinian students were killed in the Gaza Strip between 7 October and 11 November while 24 students were killed in the West Bank. A further 4,863 have been injured during this period; 4,613 of them in the Gaza Strip and 250 in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli occupation forces have also arrested 67 students, all of them from the West Bank, during that period.
As many as 403 teachers and administrators were wounded by the Israeli raids on the besieged Gaza Strip while more than 40 teachers and administrators were arrested in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli warplanes have purposefully targeted 239 government schools in the Gaza Strip with air strikes, causing severe destruction to 45 schools while 50 schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Refugees (UNRWA) have been attacked. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli army has attacked 27 government schools, the PCBS report found.
Racist and genocidal: Zionist leaders and cheerleaders in their own words
By David Miller | Press TV | November 14, 2023
Although they spend a lot of time and resources pretending that they are “democrats” and not racists, Zionists are often, especially in a crisis situation, very clear about what they believe.
We see settlers regularly on the streets of occupied Palestine chanting provocative slogans such as “may your village burn”, and “death to Arabs” and also calling for a second Nakba.
But the racist and genocidal nature of Zionism goes right to the top.
What follows is a series of inflammatory and deeply racist statements by Zionists, all uttered after 7 October 2023 and the launch of the Al Aqsa Storm (also known as Al Aqsa Flood) operation by the Hamas-led Palestinian resistance.
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals.”
Yoav Gallant, Israeli military affairs minister, 9 October 2023
“Israel needs to increase the humanitarian pressure on the Gaza Strip so that eventually hundreds of thousands of hungry and thirsty Gazans will break through the Rafah crossing.”
Tzachi Levi, Israel National News, 20 October 2023
“I am very puzzled by the constant concern which the world, … is showing for the Palestinian people and is actually showing for these horrible inhuman animals who have done the worst atrocities that this century has seen.”
Dan Gillerman, Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, 25 October 2023
“We are sons of light, they are sons of darkness. And light will prevail over darkness.
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, 25 October 2023
“Do not leave a stone upon a stone in Gaza. Gaza needs to turn to Dresden, Yes! Complete incineration, No more hope…. Annihilate Gaza Now! Now!”
Moshe Feiglin, leader of the libertarian Zionist party Zehut, former Knesset member, 26 October 2023
“If we were dealing with humans, we’d send humanitarian aid, but we’re dealing with animals.”
Rabbi Meir Mazuz, October 2023
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog, 12 October 2023.
“You have to be very careful. Let me tell you we are going to finish this war, we are going to win, because we are stronger. After this Russia will pay the price. Russia will pay the price. Russia is supporting the enemies of Israel. Russia is supporting Nazi people who want to commit genocide on us. And Russia will pay the price.”
Amir Weitmann, a senior member of Likud party, on RT, 19 October 2023
“This is not Auschwitz – This is Hamas! We are not fighting against humans – we are fighting monsters! Israel will not stop until Hamas is destroyed! This is what I said at the General Assembly podium when I showed footage of Israeli civilians burnt alive by Hamas and of Hamas savages.”
Gilad Erdan, Israel ambassador to the United Nations, 26 October 2023
“Are you serious asking about Palestinian civilians? What’s wrong with you?”
Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett on Sky News after being asked – “What about the babies in incubators in Gaza whose life support has been turned off because the Israelis have cut off the power”, 12 October 2023
“Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join!”
Ariel Kallner, Likud party, member of the Knesset
“Be triumphant and finish them off and don’t leave any behind. Erase the memory of them Erase them, their families, their mothers and their children. These animals can no longer live.”
Ezra Yachin, 95, former Stern Gang terrorist, now back in the occupation forces. October 2023
These are only a sample of the many genocidal statements issued by Zionist leaders and cheerleaders from the past month alone.
Many more can be found online in various useful threads, compilations and videos.
The epidemic of genocidal statements in the period after October 7 has shocked the world and rightly so. But, of course, Zionism has always been an ideology and a practical movement that is intrinsically racist and inherently genocidal.
To establish a “Jewish state” in historic Palestine, Zionists deemed it necessary to find a way to eliminate the natives either by killing them or forcing them to leave.
In his 1896 book The Jewish State, a foundational text for the Zionist racist movement, Theodor Herzl explained that the Zionist movement should appeal to European imperial powers to support the creation of a “Jewish state” in Palestine.
To help bolster support for Zionism among European imperialists, Herzl presented Zionism as a civilising mission, saying, “To Europe, we would represent a part of the barrier against Asia; we would serve as the outpost of civilization against barbarism.”
During his trip to Palestine in 1898, Herzl said that “large-scale drainage operations and the elimination of swamps … could make [Palestine] habitable [for Europeans]” and that, “Such Arabs, as are immune to the fever, might be used for the work”.
He went on to say “If we move into a region where there are wild animals to which the Jews are not accustomed – big snakes, etc. – I shall use the natives, prior to giving them employment in their transit countries [i.e. before they are deported], for the extermination of these animals.”
In April 1905, at a talk in Manchester, England, leading Zionist ideologue Israel Zangwill said, “[We] must be prepared …. to drive out by the sword the [Arab] tribes in possession … or to grapple with the problem of a large alien population, mostly Mohammedan”.(Masalha, The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem, Pluto Press 2003: 15)
The Council of the Jewish Agency responded to the 1938 Peel Commission by constituting a Population Transfer Committee, to plan the compulsory removal of Palestinians, to take place, as they put it, not “by preaching ‘sermons on the mount’ but by machine-guns”.(Porter et al. (eds), Faith in the Millennium Sheffield Academic Press 2001: 79)
Later, in 1941, Ben-Gurion, the Labour Zionist leader and first Prime Minister of the Zionist entity said, “It is impossible to imagine general evacuation [of Palestinians from the land] without compulsion and brutal compulsion”. (Masalha: 19)
Today the ‘brutal compulsion’ continues as the Zionists try and finish the job of eliminating the natives either by killing them or by forcing them out into the Sinai or Jordan.
It’s not just the “far right”, it’s not just the revisionists, it’s not just the centrists, it’s not just the labour Zionist tradition, it’s not just the “socialist” Zionists.
Zionism at its root is a racist and genocidal ideology. It must be eradicated.
David Miller is the producer and co-host of Press TV’s weekly Palestine Declassified show. He was sacked from Bristol University in October 2021 over his Palestine advocacy.
EU retail giant explains ‘mislabelling’ Israeli products
RT | November 14, 2023
Lidl supermarkets have come under fire in France for allegedly trying to disguise the origin of products from Israel, local media reported over the weekend.
According to the reports, French netizens have spotted Lidl labeling Israeli avocados and pomegranates as being of African or even Spanish origin. A number of users posted photos featuring the products and their labels, both the original and those added by the store, on X (former Twitter) as proof of the misrepresentation, calling the situation “a scandal at Lidl.”
“The item is supposed to come from Morocco according to its label, but after examining it, it turns out that the real origin is Israel,” wrote one user.
“Same thing [happened to me] this morning at the Lidl in Vallauris – avocados from Morocco on the store label, and on the avocado, an Israeli label… I think there are plenty of stores doing this to sell their stocks,” another X user recounted. Similar discrepancies have also reportedly been sighted in Auchan and Carrefour stores.
Commenting on the reports, Schwarz Group, which owns Lidl stores, said that the supposedly intentional mislabeling was nothing more than “a display error, due to the fact that we regularly have avocados and pomegranates from different sources on the shelves.”
While some alleged instances of mislabeling predated the Israel-Hamas conflict, their number reportedly surged when the hostilities began in early October and calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott Israel-linked goods became more frequent. Some users believe that these calls prompted the stores to intentionally misrepresent products of Israeli origin so that customers would continue to buy them.
“In view of the recent events in the Middle East, we are dismayed by what is hap-pening [in our stores] and are observing the situation with great concern. Schwarz Group companies reject all forms of violence. Our thoughts are with the victims of the conflict,” the company’s press service told the news outlet.
According to the news outlet Actu Strasbourg, France’s Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) has been aware of the complaints and is currently investigating the situation.
“These incidents were the subject of a small number of reports to our services, spread over several months. These, like any consumer report, are taken into account by DGCCRF investigators,” the organization told the news outlet.
The media’s Nord Stream lies just keep coming
Why do billionaires and governments scramble to control the media? Because the power over our minds is the greatest power there is.
BY JONATHAN COOK | NOVEMBER 14, 2023
Want to understand why the media we consume is either owned by billionaires or under the thumb of government? The latest developments in the story about who was behind the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines that brought Russian gas to Europe provide the answer.
Although largely forgotten now, the blasts in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 had huge and lasting repercussions. The explosion was an act both of unprecedented industrial sabotage and of unparalleled environmental terrorism, releasing untold quantities of the most potent of the greenhouse gases, methane, into the atmosphere.
The blowing up of the pipelines plunged Europe into a prolonged energy crisis, tipping its economies deeper into a recession from which they are yet to recover. Europe was forced to turn to the United States and buy much more expensive liquified gas. And one of the long-term effects will be to accelerate the de-industrialisation of Europe, especially Germany.
There can be almost no one in Europe who did not suffer personal financial harm, in most cases significant harm, from the explosions.
The question that needed urgently answering at the time of the blasts was one no media organisation was in a hurry to investigate: Who did it?
In unison, the media simply recited the White House’s extraordinary claim that Russia had sabotaged its own pipelines.
That required an unprecedented suspension of disbelief. It meant that Moscow had chosen to strip itself both of the lucrative income stream the gas pipelines generated, and of the political and diplomatic leverage it enjoyed over European states from its control of their energy supplies. This was at a time, remember, when the Kremlin, embattled in its war in Ukraine, needed all the diplomatic influence it could muster.
The need to breathe credibility into the laughably improbable “Russia did it” story was so urgent at the time because there was was only one other serious culprit in the frame. No media outlet, of course, mentioned it.
The United States had both the motive and the means.
US officials from Biden down had repeatedly threatened that Washington would intervene to make sure the Nord Stream pipelines could not operate. The administration was expressly against European energy dependency on Russia. Another gain from the pipelines’ destruction was that a more economically vulnerable Europe would be forced to lean even more heavily on the US as a guarantor of its security, a useful chokehold on Europe when Washington was preparing for prolonged confrontations with both Russia and China.
As for the means, only a handful of states had the divers and technical resources enabling them to pull off the extremely difficult feat of successfully planting and detonating explosives on the sea floor undetected.
Had we known then what is gradually becoming clear now, even from establishment media reporting – that the US was, at the very least, intimately involved – there would have been uproar.
It would have been clear that the US was a rogue, terrorist state, that it was willing to burn its allies for geostrategic gain, and that there was no limit to the crimes it was prepared to commit.
Every time Europeans had to pay substantially more for their heating bills, or filling up their car, or paying for the weekly shop, they would have known that the cause was gangster-like criminality by the Biden administration.
Which is precisely why the establishment media were so very careful for the first months after the explosions not to implicate the Biden administration in any way, even if it meant ignoring the mass of evidence staring them in the face.
It is why they ignored the incendiary report by legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh – who has broken some of the most important stories of the last half century – detailing exactly how the US carried out the operation. When his account was occasionally referenced by the media, it was solely to ridicule it.
It is why, when it became obvious that the “Russia did it” claim was unsupportable, the media literally jumped ship: credulously reporting that a small group of “maverick” Ukrainians – unknown to President Volodymyr Zelensky, of course – had rented a yacht and carried off one of the most daring and difficult deep-sea stunts ever recorded.
It is why, later, the media treated it as entirely unremarkable – and certainly not worthy of comment – that new evidence suggested the Biden administration was warned of this maverick Ukrainian operation against the whole of Europe. It apparently knew what was about to happen but did precisely nothing to stop it.
And it is why the latest reporting from the Washington Post changes the impossible-to-believe “maverick” Ukrainian operation into one that implicates the very top of the Ukrainian military. Still, the paper and the rest of the media steadfastly refuse to join the dots and follow the implications contained in their own reporting.
The central character in the new drama, Roman Chervinsky, belongs to Ukraine’s special operations forces. He supposedly oversaw the small, six-man team that rented a yacht and then carried out the James Bond-style attack.
The ingenuous Post claims that his training and operational experience meant he was “well suited to help carry out a covert mission meant to obscure Ukraine’s responsibility”. It lists his resistance activities against Russia. None indicate that he had the slightest experience allowing him to mastermind a highly challenging, extremely dangerous, technically complex attack deep in the waters of the Baltic Sea.
If the Ukrainian military really was behind the explosions – rather than the US – all the indications are that the Biden administration and Pentagon must have been intimately involved in the planning and execution.
Not least, it is extremely unlikely that the Ukrainian military had the technical capability to carry out by itself such an operation successfully and undiscovered.
And given that, even before the war, the Ukrainian military had fallen almost completely under US military operational control, the idea that Ukraine’s senior command would have been able to, or dared, execute this complex and risky venture without involving the US beggars belief.
Politically, it would have been quite extraordinary for Ukrainian leaders to imagine they could unilaterally decide to shut down energy supplies to Europe without consulting first with the US, especially when Ukraine’s entire war effort was being paid for and overseen by Washington and Europe.
And of course, Ukrainian leaders would have been only too aware that the US was bound to quickly work out who was behind the attack.
It would be telling indeed that, in such circumstances, the Biden administration would apparently choose to reward Ukraine with more money and arms for its act of industrial sabotage against Europe rather than punish it in any way.
It would be equally astonishing that the three states supposedly investigating the attack – Germany, Sweden and Denmark – would not also soon figure out for themselves that Ukraine was culpable. Why would they decide to cover up Ukraine’s attack on Europe’s economy rather than expose it – unless they were worried about upsetting the US?
And of course, there is the elephant in the room: the Washington Post’s earlier reporting indicated that the US had prior knowledge that Ukraine was planning the attack. That is even more likely if the pipeline blast was signed off by Ukrainian military commanders rather than a group of Ukrainian “mavericks”.
The Washington Post’s new story repeats the line that the Biden administration was forewarned of the attack. Now, however, the Post casually reports that, after expressing opposition, “US officials believed the attack had been called off. But it turned out only to have been postponed to three months later, using a different point of departure than originally planned”.
The Washington Post simply accepts the word of US officials that the most powerful country on the planet fell asleep at the wheel. The CIA and Biden administration apparently knew the Ukrainian military was keen to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines and plunge Europe into an energy crisis and economic recession. But US officials were blindsided when the same small Ukrainian operational team changed locations and timings.
On this account, US intelligence fell for the simplest of bait and switches when the stakes were about as high as could be imagined. And the Washington Post and other media outlets report all of this with a faux-seriousness.
Either way, the US is deeply implicated in the attack on Europe’s energy infrastructure and the undermining of its economy.
Even if the establishment media reporting is right and Ukraine blew up Nord Stream, the Biden administration must have given the green light, overseen the operational planning and assisted in the implementation and subsequent cover-up.
Then again, if as seems far more likely, Hersh is right, then there was no middle man – the US carried out the attack on its own. It needed a fall guy. When Russia no longer fitted the bill, Ukraine became the sacrificial offering.
A year on, these muffled implications from the media’s own reporting barely raise an eyebrow.
The establishment media has played precisely the role expected of it: neutering public outrage. Its regimented acceptance of the initial, preposterous claim of Russian responsibility. Its drip-feed, uncritical reporting of other, equally improbable possibilities. Its studious refusal to join the all-too-visible dots. Its continuing incuriousness about its own story and what Ukraine’s involvement would entail.
The media has failed by every yardstick of what journalism is supposed to be there for, what it is supposed to do. And that is because the establishment media is not there to dig out the truth, it is not there to hold power to account. Ultimately, when the stakes are high – and they get no higher than the Nord Stream attack – it is there to spin narratives convenient to those in power, because the media itself is embedded in those same networks of power.
Why do billionaires rush to own media corporations, even when the outlets are loss-making? Why are governments so keen to let billionaires take charge of the chief means by which we gain information and communicate between ourselves. Because the power to tell stories, the power over our minds is the greatest power there is.
Where are yesterday’s experts on the Crimea conquest?
BY PAWEŁ LISICKI | DORZECZY.PL | NOVEMBER 14, 2023
As reports of a stalemate in Ukraine emerge, Paweł Lisicki, the editor of the conservative weekly Do Rzeczy, asks where all the experts are who had predicted a swift Ukrainian victory and a Russian retreat.
I am reminding everyone, without naming names since I already have many adversaries, of the propaganda that saturated Poland and all media after February 2022. The narrative then seemed convinced that Ukraine would imminently crush a hapless and incompetently managed Russia. The Russians were portrayed as incapable of combat, with widespread desertion, malfunctioning rockets, and crumbling tanks, and their finest weapons humorously were said to originate from modified refrigerators or lawnmowers.
A sense of demoralization was said to pervade their army, and Putin was depicted as perpetually dying. Moreover, a fear of an impending military coup was rumored to haunt him. American and British generals, whose wisdom was parroted by Polish experts, forecasted the swift capture of Crimea, the total encirclement of Russian forces, and a great victory. Poland was promised greatness and a leading role in Eastern affairs.
We were to be America’s hub, a key ally, instantly replacing Germany. Analysts didn’t stop there. The boldest spoke of an emerging grand Polish-Ukrainian alliance, even hinting at a new joint statehood, a confederation that would reverse the historical curse of the 18th century and elevate Poland to superpower status.
Ukraine was to be forgiven for past grievances, having shed enough blood defending us from eastern hordes. Instead, Kyiv was seen as the West’s defender, a bastion of democracy, and its leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, was embraced by Polish leaders, including President Andrzej Duda, as a sage and flawless hero.
Now, it turns out these stories were worth less than nothing.
Despite hundreds of billions of dollars and euros and massive NATO military support, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military commander, admitted as much recently. He stated in The Economist magazine that the war with Russia is at a stalemate and breaking it would require a significant technological breakthrough, which is unlikely. Zaluzhny also acknowledged that speculations about retaking Crimea, annexed in 2014, were a mistake.
These sober comments incited Zelensky’s anger, who retorted that without victory, the country wouldn’t exist, while his circle suggested that Zaluzhny’s statements serve only Russia. In mysterious circumstances, the general’s personal aide was recently found dead. Soon after, Zelensky dismissed another general, Viktor Khorenko, from the command of Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.
All this points to a growing internal conflict, including comments from Zelensky’s former advisor, Oleksiy Arestovych, who speaks openly of the current president as a dictator and criticizes the ongoing war. President Zelensky has announced that due to the war with Russia, the 2024 presidential elections in Ukraine will not take place. It is undeniable that he is undertaking actions that can be seen as violations of fundamental rights and freedoms, such as harassment and now a ban on the activity of the church that recognizes the canonical authority of Moscow.
What’s happening is precisely what could have been assumed by anyone with reason and not swayed by the fanciful propaganda eagerly served by Western lobbyists.
The outbreak of conflict in the Middle East has decisively turned U.S. attention to that region. It’s also clear that Americans are tired of supporting Kyiv, evidenced by the rising support for Donald Trump, the main opponent of Joe Biden’s policies. The Americans have grown weary of Ukraine. The costs of aid are mounting, and the anticipated collapse of Russia has not occurred.
If a coup is to happen, it is likely to be in Kyiv rather than Moscow.
Worse, after an initial period of weakness and chaos, Russia has regained the initiative and is now more dangerous than at the conflict’s start. Back in March and April 2022, a beneficial truce for Ukraine was possible. However, as former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett indicated, talks were halted by the West. Americans and Britons encouraged Ukraine to continue the war, promising the crushing of Russia. Polish experts, predictably, echoed this. Today, it’s apparent what a grave mistake this was. The immense human costs borne by Ukraine may yield no results, and it now risks not only losing territory but also plunging into chaos.
Missing soldier’s wife accuses Ukrainian army of corruption: ‘If you want to live, pay them’
By Ahmed Adel | November 14, 2023
In a video posted on social media, Tatiana Ivchuk, the wife of a missing Ukrainian soldier, accused the leadership of her country’s military of corruption. She revealed in a video first posted on TikTok that there is a list of prices that soldiers are obliged to pay to commanders.
“If you want to live, pay them,” Tatyana said in the video, adding that Ukrainian soldiers are even forced to pay for weapons and ammunition during combat.
According to Ivchuk, a rifle magazine would cost between 750 and 1,000 hryvnias (1000 hryvnia = USD$27). Bribes are accepted for soldiers not to carry out a combat mission, with amounts ranging from 30,000 to 70,000 hryvnias; for a ten-day leave from the Armed Forces costs 20,000 hryvnias; and even evacuation from the battlefield costs 10,000 hryvnias.
Corruption among the Ukrainian Armed Forces even occurs in humanitarian aid. Ivchuk revealed that items delivered by volunteers barely reach soldiers on the front line. She said all evidence of the crimes was handed over to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Reports like Ivchuk’s are becoming more and more frequent. On other occasions, Ukraine’s military personnel have revealed problems with extortion in the army, complaints against the command, and difficulties in planning operations. It is recalled that in Lviv, a city with more than 800,000 inhabitants close to the Ukraine-Poland border, the deputy commander of a military unit was denounced for encouraging soldiers to build their own houses and conducting clandestine trade.
Since June 4, the beginning of the so-called counteroffensive, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have suffered 90,000 soldiers, including deaths and injuries, according to data from the Russian Ministry of Defence. The emptying of the ranks is so great that earlier this month, after Ukrainian authorities ordered an attack on Gorlovka, Army officers responded only: “With what?” referring to the lack of troops and weapons.
A Time magazine publication also reports that some Ukrainian military personnel are in open insubordination, refusing to go on the offensive even under direct orders from President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. The strength of Russian defence and the worsening of the conflict in Israel, which took attention away from Ukraine, increased the feeling of hopelessness not only among Ukrainian soldiers but also among the top brass, which, according to the article, is even more corrupt.
“People are stealing like there’s no tomorrow,” said Andriy Yermak, Zelensky’s chief of staff.
Despite the West’s propagandistic claims about Ukraine’s imminent victory, this did not happen, and the country is plunging deeper into chaos. The reality is that despite hundreds of billions of dollars and euros received from the West, Ukraine’s counteroffensive has failed, just as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhny, admitted on November 1 before adding that speculation about the possibility of taking Crimea was unfounded.
Notably, a split is emerging in the Kiev regime between Zelensky and his generals. In addition to the internal problems that Ukraine is facing, the world’s attention has focused on the Middle East.
Also, Americans are tired of supporting Zelensky, evidenced by the rise in popularity of Donald Trump – the main political opponent of current US President Joe Biden. It is virtually certain that when Trump enters the presidential election debates, wasted billions of dollars of US taxpayer money to Ukraine will become a main point to attack Biden and the Democratic Party.
Since February 2022, the US has allocated $113.4 billion in emergency funding to support Ukraine in wartime, most of this in funding and equipment through military, economic, and humanitarian aid. How many billions of dollars in US taxpayer’s money have gone missing in Ukraine because of corruption is as good as anyone’s guess, but this is a major issue in Washington and why there is great hesitation in assigning more money to the Eastern European country.
Every person at every level in Ukraine is engaged in corruption, whether it be the upper echelons of the regime or lowly military personnel who will accept bribes so that Ukrainians can avoid active duty or be assigned to easier tasks.
Although this has been reported widely over the last few months, what makes Tatiana Ivchuk’s testimony perhaps the most shocking is that soldiers need to pay for their own ammunition and weapons. Corruption is so deep-rooted in Ukraine that it renders efforts to fight Russia useless because profiteering rather than fighting is now the priority of the Ukrainian military.
Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.
23 percent of 383 Israeli armored vehicles were destroyed in 5 days
By Boyko Nikolov | Bulgarian Military | November 13, 2023
Based on recent satellite images from northwest Gaza, it appears that the Israeli Army has sustained substantial losses, with 88 armored vehicles reportedly missing over five days. This accounts for approximately 23 percent of the 383 vehicles that could be seen in the area via satellite imagery.
Israeli forces have made notable progress, successfully dividing Gaza into two parts – north and south. However, through multiple video evidence, it’s clear that Hamas, along with other Palestinian militant groups, have managed to effectively incapacitate Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers on several occasions.
Militias have employed a range of sophisticated techniques, among them are the use of explosives strategically placed on vehicles with the aim of neutralizing tanks’ active protection systems. This is typically followed by a storm of rocket-propelled grenades. Since the beginning of October, there have been verified reports of successful drone strikes on Israeli armored units operating outside the Gaza Strip.
Additional damage
The impact of the losses in Gaza is further underscored by the additional damage incurred by the Israeli armor on the Lebanon border in the North. As part of the ongoing tensions, Hezbollah’s anti-tank units have been particularly focusing on these vehicles. They are using anti-tank weapons that are far more sophisticated than those available to Palestinian militias.
Reports from regional media channels have revealed a concurrent rise in the attrition rates of Israeli armored vehicles. This correlates with the unfortunate news of the death of a tank brigade commander, Colonel Sheldag Zior. His loss signifies the most senior casualty within the Israeli force to date.
The rise in attrition rates correlates directly with the more frequent sightings of older tanks such as the Merkava IIIs, during the conflict in Gaza. Especially notable was the second week of October, when the number of Israeli armored losses surged.
Merkava tanks to Hamas hands
This was attributable to Hamas making significant progress, successfully seizing numerous military facilities and arms storage outside of Gaza. As a result, a considerable amount of new Merkava tanks and countless other armored vehicles fell into their hands.
Reports have been surfacing about substantial numbers of these vehicles undergoing destruction. As early as 2005, Israel embarked on the process to gradually retire the Merkava III from their primary service. The aim is to substitute the majority of the remaining Merkava III units with the upgraded Merkava V, commencing towards the end of 2023. Given the significant number of Merkava IIIs in use, analysts predict a possible shortage of the newer models.
However, obtaining accurate assessments of the casualties on both sides has become challenging due to the continued instability in the area.
“Too Favored to Fail:” Taxpayers Bailout Biden’s Green Friends
By Larry Behrens | RealClear Energy | November 06, 2023
While America struggles to buy groceries, President Joe Biden has a green slush fund worth billions of dollars, and he’s not afraid to use it.
Recent revelations uncovered that the CEO and lobbyists of Rivian, an electric vehicle manufacturer, held a quiet meeting at the White House with Biden’s Climate Czar, John Podesta. That’s right, the same John Podesta who served as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 presidential campaign before being pulled from the ranks of profitable green consulting to oversee distribution of $369 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Biden selected a political operative with green company ties to dole out the goodies from one of the largest slush funds in history. Now green CEOs who are hemorrhaging cash are beating a path to his White House office, presumedly with hat in hand.
According to media reports, Rivian is deep in the red. Last year, they lost $6.8 billion. In 2021, it was $4.7 billion, which is in addition to the $1 billion lost in 2020. These massive losses happened as EV manufacturers enjoyed large subsidies both to build and sell their vehicles. In fact, President Biden went out of his way to praise Rivian in early 2022, even though their stock had already lost half its value on its way to losing 87% of its value since 2021. Losing over $12 billion in less than three years would normally be a problem in the business world, but in the upside-down reality of Biden’s green agenda, that gets you a meeting at the White House.
Tax dollars are flowing from the IRA so quickly that the Department of Energy’s Inspector General (IG) may be running out of adjectives. Earlier this month in testimony before the Senate, the IG said, “the current situation brings tremendous risk to the taxpayers.” Red flags about American dollars flowing to foreign companies or just being wasted here at home are going up, yet according to budget watchdogs, their concerns are met with deaf ears by senior Biden Administration officials. The IG notes there were “billions and billions of dollars lost or stolen” from federal Covid funds, and Biden’s slush fund is even bigger. To put it bluntly, the green vault is wide open and the grifters are lining up.
Here’s a particular galling example. One little known aspect of the IRA are so-called “green banks.” For greenies, the scheme is simple: regular banks will not fund their boondoggles, so they need a taxpayer backed entity to dole out cash. Unlike regular banks, these green banks do not need to make a profit to stay afloat because the government is their funder.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham was caught trying to set up a green bank without the trouble of going through the elected legislature. The board of the bank will be green non-profits who will be in charge because as the New Mexico climate czar put it, “We’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars… This greenhouse gas reduction fund is a remarkable little beast.” Recently, Grisham announced the green bank anyway. The slush fund is open for business, and everyone has their hand out.
Congress is watching the “green bank” scheme because they know it is ripe for abuse. The problem is clear: The White House put a political operative in charge of what is nothing more than a political fund. For Barack Obama, they were too big to fail, but Joe Biden is taking it further. When it comes to his failed agenda, his green boondoggles are “too favored to fail.”
Larry Behrens is the Communications Director for Power The Future and is the author of the book, “Sabotage: How Joe Biden Surrendered American Energy Independence.”
Ukraine ‘cynically’ not interested in minority rights – Hungary
RT | November 13, 2023
Ukraine has no intention of resolving concerns about its treatment of Hungarians and other minorities living in its western province, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters in a meeting broadcast on his Facebook page on Monday.
Instead, the government in Kiev has focused on duping the rest of the world into believing the minority rights issue is “resolved or almost resolved” – even as the situation for Hungarians living in the province of Transcarpathia “deteriorates” even further.
“I think it’s very cynical on the part of Ukrainians that, as can be clearly seen, they in no way want to resolve issues that are important to us, in no way want to return the rights taken away from Transcarpathian Hungarians,” Szijjarto said.
To illustrate the minority’s worsening plight, Szijjarto described a letter sent by the Ukrainian Ministry of Education instructing schools that the Ukrainian language “should be used as the state language not only during classes, but also during breaks between teachers and students,” even in schools where the majority of students – and teachers – are Hungarian.
Last month, Szijjarto demanded Ukraine repeal several laws seen as impinging on the rights of ethnic Hungarians, warning that Budapest would block Kiev’s efforts to join the EU so long as the discrimination continued.
Hungarian President Viktor Orban took things one step further, declaring Hungary would not support its neighbor “on any issue in international life until it restores the laws that guaranteed the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians.”
Approximately 156,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine have seen their situation worsen dramatically since 2015, according to Szijjarto. The nation’s other ethnic minorities – including 150,000 Romanians and 250,000 Moldovans – have similarly suffered under a series of laws mandating the use of the Ukrainian language in official settings.
The legislation, which has come under fire from human rights groups and the Council of Europe, has led to the closing of some 100 Hungarian schools in Ukraine, leaving just 20% of the country’s Hungarian population receiving lessons in their own language.
The Council of Europe’s Venice Commission urged Ukraine to improve the recognition of its national minorities if it hopes to enter the EU in a report published earlier this year. Its proposed reforms include publishing official state documents in minority languages, delaying the introduction of Ukrainian as a principal language in schools, providing interpreter services at Ukrainian public events, and ditching Ukrainian-language content quotas for minority media outlets. Currently, just 10% of a media outlet’s content can be broadcast in the minority language.
War in Gaza: Decoding Nasrallah’s speeches
by lecridespeuples | Resistance News | November 13, 2023
Since he was elected Hezbollah Secretary General in 1992, following Israel’s assassination of his predecessor and mentor Sayed Abbas Mousawi, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah has achieved a very special status in the history of Arab & Muslim leaders. As Norman Finkelstein put it, “Nasrallah is the only political leader in the world from whom you learn in the speeches. He is a teacher. He is among the shrewdest and most serious political observers in the world today. Israeli leaders carefully scrutinize Nasrallah’s every word.” And denouncing the relentless censorship suffered by my translation of Nasrallah’s speeches on the Internet and social networks, he added: “Why are the rest of us denied this right? One cannot help but wonder whether Nasrallah’s speeches are censored because he doesn’t fit the stereotype of the degenerate, ignorant, blowhard Arab leader. It appears that Western social media aren’t yet ready for an Arab leader of dignified mind and person.”
Why is Nasrallah so feared, and paradoxically so listened to, by friends and foes alike? Why did the majority of Israeli citizens themselves, in the midst of war, trust his statements more than those of their own leaders? The reason is that Hezbollah’s credibility rests not only on two humiliating defeats inflicted on Israel in 2000 and 2006, the first in its entire history; but above all, it is because Nasrallah is a man of his word, who, if he doesn’t say everything he does or intends to do, scrupulously does everything he says. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, Nasrallah never lies, or at most by omission. In over 30 years, there has never been a false statement, a lie or an exaggeration from him, not even in the framework of his ongoing psychological warfare against Israel, where lies wouldn’t be a sin (“War is deception”, says a famous hadith of the Prophet). To quote Professor Finkelstein again, “Gamal Abdel Nasser was not serious. He gave all of these big speeches, this bombast, but there was nothing behind it. Every time he went to war, he said ‘We’re going to do this and that’, but he was defeated. I’m sorry, it’s just a fact. The first time you have a leader who’s serious, it’s Nasrallah. He says ‘We’ll do A’, we do A; ‘We’ll do B’, we do B. There’s no empty talk. That’s serious and I have to respect that.”
With Nasrallah’s credibility established, let’s ask ourselves what he really said during his speeches on November 3 and 11, and what this portends for the future.
Of the hundreds of speeches he has given over the past 30 years, the one on November 3 was undoubtedly the most eagerly awaited. The whole world hung on his every word, waiting to hear what Hezbollah would do to help the people of Gaza. Since Hamas’s spectacular operation on October 7, which caused an enormous earthquake felt not only in Israel but throughout the world, particularly in the largely pro-Zionist centers of Western power, the Palestinian population of the enclave has been subjected to a methodical war of extermination. And Hezbollah has always vowed solidarity with the Palestinian cause. So what was Nasrallah going to say during his first intervention, almost a month after the war began? Was he going to issue an ultimatum to stop the genocidal aggression against Gaza? Would he declare war on Israel and open a new front? Would he, as spokesman for the Axis of Resistance, announce the launch of the long-heralded “Great War of Liberation”, with, echoing the Palestinian “Al-Aqsa Flood”, a deluge of missiles on Haifa and Tel Aviv from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran and Yemen? These expectations were not reasonable, nor even rational. While Putin did announce the “Special operation” in Ukraine, which had been denied right up to the last second by his government, starting a war is not something that is usually announced, especially by Resistance movements based on guerrilla tactics. And Hezbollah, in such contexts, is used to acting before speaking, as demonstrated by the launch of operations against Israel on the Lebanese border in support of Gaza as soon as October 8.
When expectations are exaggerated, even on the part of the most reputable journalists and commentators, disappointment is inevitable. “Nasrallah barks but doesn’t bite”, ran the headline in an Italian newspaper, expressing the frustration of many, including his admirers. But a careful analysis of his words shows that there was no reason for disappointment. Quite the contrary, in fact.
A clear commitment
First of all, it was clear from the third minute of the speech that Nasrallah was not going to announce anything truly historic: referring to his forthcoming annual speech on November 11, Hezbollah’s Martyr’s Day, during which he would talk more about the martyrs, those of Hezbollah, the Palestinian Resistance and the people of Gaza, it was already clear that no major upheavals were planned. But what he announced was enough to reassure those hoping for a “miracle”: Nasrallah made it clear that even if Israel’s objectives in Gaza are illusory (to annihilate Hamas), and that yet another military failure was very likely and foreseeable, he assured us in no uncertain terms that if Hezbollah remained in the background for the time being and contented itself with forming a support front, if need be, Hezbollah would do everything necessary to ensure victory for Gaza, and for Hamas in particular. This included waging open, all-out war against Israel, which he insisted on, in order to deter Israel and reassure the Palestinian people & Resistance, and also to psychologically prepare the Lebanese population (and, beyond that, the populations of Middle Eastern countries and indeed the whole world) for the eventuality of Armageddon. Here are a few significant extracts of his speech:
“In 1948, when the world abandoned the Palestinian people, this entity was founded, and the Palestinian people and all the countries and peoples of the region paid the price. The Palestinians paid the highest price, but other peoples also suffered the tragic consequences: the Jordanians, the Egyptians, the Syrians, the Lebanese. And it may well be that Lebanon is the country that has suffered most from the consequences of the existence of this bellicose, usurping entity whose appetites (territorial & bloodlust) are insatiable. This is an undeniable historical truth. And today, the same thing is happening.
What is happening today in Gaza is not a war like other wars in the past. It’s not an event like any other. This is a pivotal, decisive, historic battle. What comes after will be nothing like what came before. And that means we all have to assume our duties. When we talk about assuming our duty, we have to determine the short-term objectives we all have to work towards. And as far as we’re concerned, there are two objectives: the first is to put an end to the aggression against the Gaza Strip. And the second objective is for Gaza to be victorious, for the Palestinian resistance in Gaza to be victorious, and in particular for Hamas itself to be victorious. These goals must be ours, resolutely, and we must work tirelessly to achieve them.
The first objective, to put an end to the war, has clear and indisputable reasons: they are humanitarian, moral, religious and legal. As for the second objective, o brothers and sisters, o listeners, it is in everyone’s interest. Certainly, victory in Gaza is first and foremost in the interest of the Palestinian people, of all the Palestinian people: victory in Gaza would mean victory for the Palestinian people, victory for the prisoners in Palestine, victory for the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Al-Quds (Jerusalem), Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. But it would also be the victory of the countries and peoples of the region, and above all of the neighboring countries. Victory in Gaza today is Egypt’s national interest. Victory in Gaza today is Jordan’s national interest. Victory in Gaza today is Syria’s national interest. And first and foremost, victory in Gaza today is Lebanon’s national interest. For what would an Israeli victory in Gaza mean, if the Resistance were defeated in Gaza? What would be the consequences for Palestine, for the Palestinian cause? And above all, what would be the consequences of an Israeli victory for Lebanon, in security, political, popular and demographic terms? […]
What happens on our front is very important, and has a great influence. Some people, who expect or demand that Hezbollah should quickly enter into a comprehensive and all-out war with the enemy, may think that what we’re doing is modest, but if we look objectively at what’s happening on the Lebanese border, we’ll see that it’s very important and meaningful. Of course, whatever happens, we won’t be satisfied with that. We won’t be satisfied with what we’re already doing, and we’ll do more. […]
If our position were simply one of political support, speeches and daily demonstrations, Israel would be reassured on its northern border, and would have sent all its forces to Gaza, and some to the West Bank. But this is what the Lebanese front has accomplished. Today, Hezbollah has been able to mobilize (and thus neutralize):a third of the Israeli army is blocked at the Lebanese border against our mujahideen who are fighting it at the border; and a large part of these forces are elite troops and essential units of the Israeli army that could have been sent to Gaza;
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half of Israel’s naval forces are present in the Mediterranean, opposite us and opposite Haifa;
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a quarter of the air force is mobilized in the direction of Lebanon;
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almost half of Israel’s missile defenses (Iron Dome, Patriot batteries, etc.) are turned towards Lebanon;
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almost a third of its logistical forces are directed towards Lebanon.
This is one of the direct results of our action on the border. These figures are precise and verified. So much for the first point.
Secondly, tens of thousands of settlers have been evacuated by the army or have fled the north of occupied Palestine on their own. 43 settlements have been evacuated. And the majority of those still there are soldiers, not civilians. In the south, around Gaza, 58 settlements have been evacuated. And all these settlers evacuated from the north and south represent a very strong psychological, moral, financial and economic pressure on Israel, to the point that the Israeli Finance Minister raised the alarm in this regard, and this is very important to apply pressure and play for time.
Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the operations we are launching on the border and in the Shebaa farms have created a state of anxiety, expectation, fear and even panic among the enemy’s political and military leaders, as well as the United States. They fear that this front will escalate into a full-scale war, or even spread into a regional war. And this is a realistic fear: it can happen, and the enemy must take it into account in his calculations. And this is what he is doing with the utmost seriousness, constantly expressing this fear and talking about it, and giving it great importance in his decisions. […]
On the Lebanese front, things are going to develop and even escalate in any direction depending on two things, one of two fundamental things: firstly, the development and outcome of events in Gaza. Our front is a front of support and solidarity with Gaza, and therefore it develops and escalates in the light of events there, and according to what the nature of events, threats and developments on the ground in Gaza really demands. And the second thing that will decide what happens on our Lebanese front is the behavior of the Zionist enemy vis-à-vis Lebanon.”
In the light of these statements, it seems clear that all those who have attributed to Hezbollah a position of neutrality, withdrawal or even cowardice and treachery, likening his promises to vain Nasser-style bombast, have not been paying close enough attention. If Hezbollah is content to be a supporting front, it’s because it believes that Gaza is capable of prevailing, and that a victory for Gaza alone would serve the cause of the Liberation of Palestine far better.
And as for thunderous announcements, Nasrallah’s first speech did contain one quite remarkable one: the threat to go to war directly against the United States itself, or even to neutralize its aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, which is far more consequential than any kind of threats against Israel:
“I declare with all sincerity, frankness and clarity, while maintaining strategic uncertainty: all scenarios on the Lebanese front are possible, and all options are on the table. We can make the choice (of all-out war) at any time. And we must all be ready and prepared for any scenario. And I say to the Americans: threats and intimidation are useless with us and with the Resistance movements in the region. They are of no use either against the Resistance movements or against the countries of the Axis of Resistance. Threats and intimidation against the Resistance will lead you nowhere.
Your aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea don’t scare us, and never will. And I’m telling you in all honesty, those aircraft carriers you’re threatening us with, we’ve prepared everything we need to deal with them! O Americans, remember your defeats in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan, and your humiliating retreat from Afghanistan. O Americans, those who defeated you in Lebanon in the early 1980s [on October 23, 1983, a suicide attack on the Marines’ headquarters in Beirut killed 241 US soldiers and officers who were taking part in the Lebanon war on the Israeli side, and drove them out of Lebanon; this attack is widely attributed to Hezbollah] are still alive, and at their side today are their children and grandchildren, and all are waiting for you with bated breath.“
As sensational statements go, this one is hard to beat.
Doublespeak?
The preceding analysis seems to me indisputable enough. The one I’m about to propose is more questionable – and more likely to please those who hope we’re witnessing the Final Liberation War.
As I said in my previous article, even if certain forces of the Axis of Resistance, whether Hezbollah or others, had already decided to go to full-blown war, it would be in their interest to make Israel believe the contrary, so as to let it engage meaningfully and get bogged down in Gaza, then attack it by surprise when, as happens in every war (because Israel never learns from its mistakes and keeps at it), finally understanding the imminence of a military, economic and moral disaster, it would call its US godfather to the rescue and ask him to vote for a ceasefire in order to save face. In this scenario, Hezbollah and its allies would only have to divide the enemy’s forces and paralyze part of them to ensure the failure of the troops in Gaza, while sending signals to the Israeli army (and the Americans) that they would go no further. And perhaps these signals were what so disappointed all those who had hoped to see Hezbollah unleash an all-out war against Israel, for at the end of his speech – a crucial moment – Nasrallah seemed to assert that the moment of Liberation was still a long way off:
“Concerning our horizon, I declare to our Palestinian people, to our brothers and sisters in Gaza, to all Resistance fighters and dignified men in Palestine and in our region, that since the Resistance movements were founded after the creation of the Zionist entity, we have been waging the battle of endurance, resilience and patience. Our battle has not yet reached the stage of dealing the fatal blow. We still need time before we can deliver the final blow to Israel. Let’s be realistic. We win step by step, we win by a succession of small victories. That’s how we won in Lebanon in 1985 [expulsion of Israel from ¾ of occupied Lebanese territory], then in 2000 [expulsion of Israel from southern Lebanon], then in 2006 [release of all Lebanese prisoners held in Israel]. That’s how the Resistance won in Gaza, how the Resistance achieved things in the West Bank. That’s how the Resistance won in Iraq. That’s how Afghanistan won. Through endurance, resilience, the ability to endure the sacrifices inflicted by the enemy. Here lies our main strength.”
Did Nasrallah need to spell it out so clearly, so bluntly, so explicitly, instead of leaving further doubt? Isn’t this a kind of “green light” to Israel and the US? Or was it something else? What if, in reality, he skilfully measured his words throughout the whole speech, so as to say enough, on the one hand, to reassure the Palestinians, Lebanese and Arab peoples who were eagerly waiting for him and direly needed moral support, and dissuade Israel and its allies from going too far, while reassuring, on the other hand, the American-Zionist enemy by making it believe that in reality, Nasrallah is only doing what’s necessary to maintain his credibility (saving face is paramount for imperialist forces, who are incapable of understanding that this concern may be indifferent to their adversaries), and isn’t prepared to risk a regional conflagration? This would be a real balancing act, which he would appear to have pulled off with flying colors, since after his speech, Israel and the United States seem to have received what they interpreted as Hezbollah’s subliminal “green light” and have stepped up their campaign. By the way, Hezbollah and the Axis of Resistance have done likewise, and continue to erode and exhaust the enemy: as Nasrallah announced in his speech on November 11, Hezbollah strikes are slowly but surely becoming more frequent and more severe, hitting Israel further and further away, using kamikaze drones and “Volcano” missiles with an explosive charge of up to 500 kilograms for the first time, and even retaliatory strikes targeting and killing settlers, as a retaliation for murdered Lebanese civilians: Israeli deaths and injuries on the Lebanese front number in the hundreds (Nasrallah mentioned 350 wounded, including many critical cases, in one hospital alone) and may already have paralleled those of 2006. Despite all this, the Axis of Resistance is still careful to maintain a measured escalation, to climb its ladder “step by step” indeed, and not to go beyond the stage that will trigger a loss of control of the situation and a regional war: for while the Resistance movements have the advantage when it comes to the war of attrition, aimed at provoking a gradual collapse of the enemy until the moment comes to deliver the “fatal blow”, the most devastating firepower is on the American-Israeli side. And it’s worth pointing out that, had Hezbollah and the other factions of the Resistance struck Israel and the US bases on October 8 as hard as they are doing now, the great war would already have broken out: but the more time passes, the more Israel’s hopes, capabilities and resources are drained, the more the US diplomatic cover is exhausted, and the less likely it is that a new front will be opened.
Indeed, it’s quite possible that the time for the “coup de grâce” is imminent: not only against the Israeli entity, but perhaps even against the United States itself, whose bases in Syria and Iraq are being struck daily and with increasing intensity, with the avowed aim of expelling their forces. A few passages from Nasrallah’s first speech directly suggest this:
“After the October 7 operation, the panic in Israel was such that from the very first day, the United States opened its strategic arms depots to the Israeli army. In the very first days, Israel asked for new weapons, new missiles, 10 billion dollars… While the Axis of Resistance had not even begun anything serious! Is this Israeli entity a powerful country? It can barely stand upright! The fact that all the European and Western presidents, prime ministers, ministers, generals, politicians rushed to revive this moribund country demonstrates its extraordinary fragility. […]
We must realize that the United States are the real cause of this war, and that Israel is merely its instrument. The United States is preventing the Security Council from condemning Israel, preventing a ceasefire, preventing an end to the aggression in Gaza. They are indeed the ‘Great Satan’, as described by Imam Khomeini. They are primarily responsible for all the massacres of the past and present century, from Hiroshima to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine and the whole region. And they must be held accountable for their crimes and massacres, and punished for everything they have perpetrated against the peoples of our region. And within this framework, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq has decided to attack the military bases of the American occupier in Iraq and Syria to drive him out, considering that it is the United States that is leading the battle in Gaza, and that it must pay the price for its aggression and support for Israel, its occupation and crimes in Iraq, Syria and Palestine.”
Has the time come for the extirpation of the Israeli “cancerous tumor” AND the expulsion of US forces from the Middle East, the promised “just retribution” for the murder of Qassem Soleimani? Many objective elements suggest that the time is more propitious than ever, from the earthquake of October 7 to the terminal disintegration of Israeli society even before these events (let’s not forget that Netanyahu was already disgraced and that the whole country was on the brink of civil war because of the judicial reform project), the draining of Western financial and military resources in Ukraine, the economic and energy crisis, and, above all, the unprecedented orgy of bloodshed unleashed in Gaza, which has massed populations all over the world against Israel. More than ever, public opinion is ready to accept the necessity of Israel’s demise, as the two-state solution is clearly nothing more than a joke. Nasrallah emphasized this point in his November 11 speech:
“Through its aggression and massacres, Israel aims to make Gaza bend and obtain surrender not through military victory but through mass terror, and also to regain its deterrence capacity towards the entire Axis of Resistance, but it will not achieve this objective: on the contrary, the choice of Resistance will be more and more massive, as has happened since 1948. And in so doing, Israel is inflicting many defeats on itself: for example, its monstrous and barbaric nature is becoming increasingly clear to the world’s peoples and governments alike. For over 20 years, the international media, and unfortunately even some Arab media, have worked tirelessly to portray Israel, its leaders and its settlers, illegitimately called “a people”, as good and decent fellows who aspire only to peace and peaceful coexistence. But all that is falling apart today. Israel is dealing a fatal blow to the project of normalizing its relations with Arab-Muslim countries, which was so dear to its heart, and which all the Arab & Muslim peoples had already rejected. But more important than this is the change in world public opinion, which has seen Israel’s true face behind the cloak of lies: Israel claims to protect children, but kills them by the thousands; the same goes for women. This current transformation is in the interests of the Resistance, its project and its peoples, as well as Gaza. The daily demonstrations being organized in our Arab and Islamic world are very important, but they are also happening in Washington, New York, London, Paris and other European and Western countries, whose people are putting massive pressure on their governments to end the aggression against Gaza. Even leaders who initially expressed unconditional support for Israel and opposed the ceasefire as a gift to Hamas are now calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities, with the exception of the USA and its UK servants. But the bloody aggression against Gaza, the massacres, the shredded bodies of women and children, deliberately and openly targeting hospitals, are making this war unbearable for the whole world, and putting pressure on the aggressors. Time is against the enemy and those who support him.”
Between their disgust at the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which will eventually convince them that Israel, since its genesis, has been a Judaic equivalent of ISIS, and the economic backlash of American and European sanctions against Russia following its intervention in Ukraine, Western peoples, who are demanding an end to the aggression from their governments in unprecedented demonstrations, will also weigh in to prevent their leaders from embarking on a military operation to rescue Israel that could trigger World War III, and a planetary economic and financial collapse. And as the idea of deporting 2 million Gazans to the Sinai desert has left Western leaders cold, the “remigration” of 6 million Jews to the most beautiful cities in Europe and America will seem like a much easier pill to swallow.
Finally, let’s remember that while Nasrallah has indeed repeatedly envisaged Israel’s demise following the collapse of the United States on the Soviet model, with no risk of triggering World War III (because without the protection of their US sponsor, the Zionist settlers would feel powerless and leave on their own in their millions), he did envisage another, far more dramatic scenario in a October 1, 2017 speech, which clearly contradicts his “small gradual victories” theory:
“I want to send a clear message to Israelis and Jews in Occupied Palestine and (all over) the world: from the beginning, within the Resistance, we have emphasized that our battle is directed against the Zionist invaders who occupy the land of Palestine and our Arab territories. Our battle is not against the Jews as followers of the heavenly Jewish religion (recognized by Islam) or as people of the Book [the Torah]. It was the Zionist movement that used Judaism and Jews to carry out a project of colonialist occupation in Palestine and the region, in the service of the British a hundred years ago, then later in the service of US policies.
Jews who have been brought from all corners of the world must know that they are but cannon fodder in a Western colonialist war against the Arab and Islamic peoples in this region. And today they are fuel for US projects and policies that target the people of the region. And when our people defend their existence, their land and their honor against Zionist gangs, they are unfairly accused of anti-Semitism. This accusation is found in every corner of the world.
I say today to the Jewish scholars, to their eminent personalities, to their thinkers: those who brought you from all corners of the world to Palestine for their own interests are ultimately working towards your destruction. You must know this, because it is written in your religious books.
The current Israeli government, led by Netanyahu, is leading your people to annihilation and destruction. For he only plans for war, and keeps seeking it. He worked in the past to prevent the signing of the nuclear deal with Iran, and he failed. And he is currently working with Trump to tear up that agreement and push the region into a new war. If Trump and Netanyahu push the region into another war, it will come at your expense, and it is you Israelis who will pay a very high price for these stupid policies of your head of government.
And Netanyahu is also pushing the region towards war against Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and the Resistance movements, under false titles and defensive pretexts, and a preventive war as he claims. And here, I hope that all Israelis will listen carefully to what I am going to say: Netanyahu, his government and his military leadership do not have a correct assessment of the magnitude this war will have if they manage to kindle its flames. How big will it be, what will be its battlefields, who will participate in it, who will enter it… Netanyahu, his government and his military leaders do not know how this war will end if they start it.
And I also confirm to you on this subject that they do not have a fair image of what awaits them if they undertake an act as stupid as this war. They have neither clarity (of vision), nor precise evaluation, nor fair picture of what awaits them. If they light the blaze of the next war, (they have no idea) how far it will reach, what areas it will embrace, and who will participate in it.
This is why today I call first and foremost on all Jews except Zionists to detach their considerations from Zionist calculations which themselves lead to final destruction.
And I call on all those who came to occupied Palestine believing in the promises that they would find the land of milk and honey to leave it. I call on them to leave Palestine and return to the countries from which they came so as not to be fuel in any war that the government of the fool Netanyahu leads them into. Because if Netanyahu launches a war in this region, there may not be time for them to leave Palestine, and there will be no safe place for them in occupied Palestine.
The enemy government must know that times have changed, just as it must know that those with whom it hopes for an alliance will be a burden to them, because they are themselves in need of protectors (and cannot help anyone). And the scale of the massacres committed by Israel against the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region, its partnership with ISIS and its open complicity in the project of partition of the region through its open and eager support for the secession of Kurdistan, all of this will cause the peoples of the region to render a momentous verdict against them.
And I conclude by saying to the Israelis, to the grassroots Israeli people in this usurping entity: you know that what your political and military leaders tell you about Israel’s ability to achieve victory in any upcoming war is largely made up of lies and illusions. What you have been told is largely made up of lies and illusions. And you know the extent of the flaws and breaches that exist within your army and your society.
And that is why you must not allow stupid and arrogant leaders to lead you into an adventure in which there may be the end of all things and this whole entity.”
While this scenario may have seemed a ludicrous fantasy in 2017, it is undeniable since October 7th, with Israel being humiliated and hit from all sides (Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen). Israel didn’t listen to Hamas’ warnings and got October 7. If they don’t heed Nasrallah’s much more ominous warning, they may well be on their last breath.
What happens next?
While neither imperialism nor Zionism cares about human lives, not even those of their own soldiers and citizens, who are effectively nothing more than fuel for their plans for domination (the “Hannibal procedure” in Israel, applied massively on civilians since October 7th, is a clear proof of this), the Axis of Resistance wants to preserve human lives at all costs, first and foremost its own, but also those of others, Zionists included: they want to kick out the invaders, not to kill them. This is why they have been repeatedly urging them to leave on their own before it’s too late. According to Islamic morality, which has nothing to do with the genocidal Talmudic teachings, an innocent life is worth an innocent life. And the cadres of the Axis of Resistance, who act on the basis of rational calculations, empirical analysis and a long-term vision, not on the spur of the moment, will know better than anyone how to wait and seize the best moment to deliver the “final blow” to the “temporary usurping entity”. There’s no point in trying to predict this fateful moment by focusing on speeches: at the end of his speech on November 11th, Nasrallah made it clear that for Hezbollah, it’s the ground and the weapons that speak first. Speeches and comments only come afterwards:
“In Lebanon, it’s the battlefield that speaks. Because the battle we are waging is unique. I don’t announce things in advance, only for the fighters to carry them out. Our policy in battle is that it’s the field that acts, it’s the field that speaks. And only then do we explain and comment on the actions in the field. That’s why eyes must remain riveted on the battlefield, and neither on our statements nor on my lips.”
It is therefore to the battlefield that we must turn our eyes, and despite the atrocious martyrdom of the people of Gaza, we must above all consider their indomitable character, their legendary courage and the heroic struggles of the Hamas & Islamic Jihad Resistance, backed by forces in Lebanon, Irak and Yemen. This is a sight for sore eyes, and it should reassure us about the outcome of this battle. Time is clearly on the Resistance’s side. Whether the final War of Liberation is near or far, if the “Sword of Al-Quds” in 2021, which was the first battle between Gaza and Israel deliberately instigated by the Palestinian Resistance, had already given us a glimpse of it with its unforgettable images of settlers hastily packing their bags and fleeing by the hundreds, the “Al-Aqsa Flood” has brought us closer than ever.
Whatever happens, Israel has lost the initiative, and will probably never regain it. On May 25, 2000, in his Liberation speech in Bint Jbeil, Nasrallah famously declared that “Israel is weaker than a spider’s web”, provoking bewilderment and mockery, but as he pointed out quoting Israeli media, today, many Israelis are more convinced of this truth than he is. In the same speech, Nasrallah also said that “The time of defeats is over, and we have well and truly entered the era of victories”. This prediction has been confirmed over and over, in ever more spectacular fashion, and can infallibly serve as our compass to predict the future.
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BRITAIN’S WARNING: PREPARE FOR WAR
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From the Archives
British weapons and personnel doing much of the killing in Yemen
Press TV – June 18, 2019
A detailed report published by the Guardian newspaper has shown how Britain is massively contributing to Saudi Arabia’s devastating war on Yemen as it suggests that London is not only supplying the bombs that fall on Yemenis, but it provides the personnel and expertise that keep the war going.
The comprehensive report by Arron Merat published on Tuesday showed that Britain was doing much of the killing in Yemen as the country continues to provide Saudi Arabia with everything it needs to turn its southern impoverished neighbor into a graveyard.
“Every day Yemen is hit by British bombs – dropped by British planes that are flown by British-trained pilots and maintained and prepared inside Saudi Arabia by thousands of British contractors,” said Merat in the report. … continue
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