“Although the US says it favors a state of Palestine, in fact it has been rather gleefully helping screw over the Palestinians since 1948 and has de facto gone along with virtually any new outrage the Israelis could think up to inflict on them, from putting the children of Gaza ‘on a diet’ to gradually usurping the best land and water resources on the West Bank. Whenever the international community tried to pressure Israel to stop, and to allow stateless Palestinians to have the basic rights of citizenship and property, the US used its veto at the UNSC to ensure the Palestinians were kept down. Now, for the sake of making sure no one recognizes Palestine as a state, the US has cut off its $22 million a year dues to Unesco and has lost its voting rights on the committee. This childish behavior, of taking your marbles and going home if you can’t win the playground game………………….”
It happened in 2011, toward the end of the first Obama term. I have noted here in the past that this administration (Obama) is more under the Israeli spell, nay influence, than any other in American history has ever been under the influence of a ‘foreign’ power. This UNESCO fiasco is just one example of trying to subvert international organizations, especially the United Nations and its affiliates. Clearly deliberately losing influence within the organization was a mistake. As Lyndon Johnson is quoted to have said (and I know I am paraphrasing LBJ here): it is better to be inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.
“Hard-line Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman has been sworn in as the country’s foreign minister. Lieberman returns to the post after being cleared last week of all charges in a long-running corruption case………….”
I am told by my very private source that Netanyahu picked Avigdor Lieberman not necessarily for ‘political’ reasons. She claims he was picked in order to soften the image of the Likud coalition government. In other words, just another pretty face, sort of like Iran’s Rouhani.
“”We believe that Khamenei allowed Rohani to be elected in order to become Iran’s ‘pretty face‘”. Also sprach Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon. That may be so. On the other hand, that evokes the expected inevitable comparison. Which is that: what is even more certain is that most people in the Middle East believe that Benyamin Netanyahu is Israel’s ‘ugly face’. Has been for several years (there might be a few secret exceptions to this opinion among some princes and potentates in recent months). Amend that: most people around the world including many in official Washington believe that Netanyahu is Israel’s ugly face. With the exception of his fans and groupies in both parties in both houses of the U.S. Congress.
“In the wake of a forensics report claiming that Yasser Arafat was killed by radioactive material, the Palestinian committee investigating his death accused Israel on Friday of poisoning the Palestinian leader. Speaking at a news conference in Ramallah about the findings of Swiss and Russian experts who conducted tests on Arafat’s remains after exhuming his body last November, Tawfik Tirawi, head of the Palestinian committee, said reports from both groups confirmed that Arafat did not die of old age, illness or natural causes, but that he was poisoned……………”
By the time he died, Yasser Arafat was not a threat to Israel, if he ever was much of a threat. Before his death he was not a threat to anyone except some other Palestinian leaders. Does anybody outside Ramallah believe this new charge? Okay, does anybody outside Ramallah and the Arab League bureaucracy believe this? You would be surprised. It is a good thing they did not point the finger to his widow. Come to think of it………
“Officials in Ankara described the Washington Post article claiming Turkey deliberately blew the cover of an Israeli spy ring working inside Iran in early 2012 as part of an attempt to discredit Turkey by foreign powers uncomfortable with its growing influence in the Middle East. A senior official from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party said such accusations were part of a deliberate attempt to discredit Turkey and undermine its role in the region following election of Iran’s relatively moderate president Hassan Rohani. “Turkey is a regional power and there are power centers which are uncomfortable with this … …. Stories like these are part of a campaign,” the official said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject. “It’s clear the aim of some is to spoil the moderate political atmosphere after Rohani’s election … and to neutralize Turkey, which contributes to solving problems in the region and which has a relationship with Iran.”…………….”
So the Iranians were correct when the announced the busting of an Israeli espionage and terrorism cell almost a couple of years ago. Which also means some of the Israeli agents (be they Israeli or Iranian exiles) probably went through Turkey to enter Iran, perhaps also through part of Northern Iraq. I am not sure why the Turks are upset that this is out now, they did the right thing from their point of view. Unless the Mossad has some inalienable right to spy and kill civilians in other countries with impunity. Maybe the Turks worry about the reaction in the U.S. Congress in the future. Let me put it this way: Erdogan now has as much a chance to be invited to address a joint session of Congress as Mr. Rouhani has. Which is about as much of a chance as Hassan Nasrallah has, probably somewhat lower than Fidel Castro’s chance. Imagine being denied the honor once accorded Winston Churchill (and King Abdullah of Jordan and Benyamin Netanyahu of Israel and Ayad Allawi, among others). Wait a minute, did I say Churchill AND Netanyahu and King Abdullah and Ayad Allawi, all in one sentence? Is the world coming unhinged? Is the unique honor of addressing the U.S. Congress been so devalued? Could it be all of the above? You betcha………….
“PM warns Europe against Iran: ‘Don’t let them have enrichment’
Netanyahu holds interviews with European media outlets to warn against reducing sanctions to Islamic republic, urges world not to ‘let a radical regime have awesome power’. As Europeans are suggesting that economic sanctions against Iran may be reduced, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held several interviews with European media to stress the dangers of the Tehran regime. In interviews with representatives from the Frankfurter Allgemeine, the French daily Le Monde, the British Financial Times; as well as the the German ARD television station, the French France-24 and the British Sky News, Netanyahu addressed the issue of nuclear Iran………………”
Netanyahu is also quoted to have said to the Europeans: “Don’t say I didn’t warn you ……………”
He sure did warn them. He has been warning them for more than twenty years now that the Iranians are only six months away from a nuclear bomb. From way back in the 1990s, when he was fear-mongering to win his first election, he claimed that the mullahs were about to go ‘nuclear’. I am surprised Europeans still listen to him (American politicians are different, they have their own ‘compelling’ excuses for listening to him).
Over two decades, Mr. Netanyahu and his ministers have promised the world a lot of unrealized nuclear slam dunks about Iran. I am beginning to suspect they are not serious about their predictions, that they don’t do the necessary “due diligence”. Unless the Iranians pull back in time just to frustrate them. I suspect Netanyahu has been programed to repeat this nuclear Iran mantra; he feels that it is his “raison d’etre”. And what would he do once it is gone? I can imagine him continuing, long after the nuclear issue is settled, picketing the UN headquarters, or the offices of the net Israeli prime minister, urging them not to ease their vigilance. I can imagine the NYPD arresting him for disturbing……… no I don’t think they’d do that. It is a thought.
“Mojtaba Ahmadi, who served as commander of the Cyber War Headquarters, was found dead in a wooded area near the town of Karaj, north-west of the capital, Tehran. Five Iranian nuclear scientists and the head of the country’s ballistic missile programme have been killed since 2007. The regime has accused Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad, of carrying out these assassinations. Ahmadi was last seen leaving his home for work on Saturday. He was later found with two bullets in the heart..…………..”
Like the murders of the scientists and physics academicians in Berkeley Tehran, it is probably all part of a war of terror. Unless there is a personal angle, which is not likely.
“Rapprochement with Iran won’t come at the expense of Israel’s security or its relationship with the United States, top Obama administration officials said Thursday, but they added that it would be “diplomatic malpractice” not to explore whether Iran’s nuclear program can be defused peacefully. The forceful defense of engagement made by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John F. Kerry during a visit here with their Japanese counterparts was the first high-level U.S. answer to a blistering rebuke delivered Tuesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader warned that the West is being fooled by the new, friendlier face of Iranian leadership that is being offered by President Hassan Rouhani……………..”
My slightly eccentric but insightful source tells me that, privately, Kerry has added that: “It is enough that we get so much bullshit from the likes of Netanyahu and we have to take it all with a smile. Now we will not take the same type of BS from Rouhani”. For his part, Hagel is reported to have mused: “Besides, how many lobbyists does Rouhani have in Washington, New York, and Hollywood?”
“JERUSALEM—As part of their continuing efforts to bring peace to the conflict-stricken region, Israeli government officials announced today the construction of a new settlement on Palestinian lands where future peace talks can be held. “After years of failed diplomacy, it has become clear that we need to make a fresh start, and what better way to do so than by appropriating a small amount of Palestinian territory where Israeli citizens can live and negotiators from both sides can talk about a peaceful way forward?” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to the civilian Jewish community that will be constructed in place of multiple razed city blocks in the West Bank. “With this new settlement in place, I believe that our prospects of peace and unity will be brighter than ever. In fact, we should build more settlements so there can be even more places to negotiate.” Netanyahu noted that any individuals currently living on the future site of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks have exactly 36 hours to leave before they are forcibly removed….…………..”
It almost makes sense. Given the way things have gone these past few years, like declaring new illegal settlements on the eve of so-called “peace talks”, it is quite possible that Netanyahu will expropriate some more Palestinian lands in the name of peace. The term “chutzpah” seems to have been coined just to describe Netanyahu. Cheers
mhg
“Yitzchak Bergel, 46, of the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Jerusalem allegedly spied for Iran and offered to kill Zionists. The man has six children, three sons and three daughters. His sons attend the Talmud Torah Torah V’yirah religious school and his daughters attend the Bnos Ruchel religious school. Bergel attends prayer services at the Toldos Aharon synagogue in Jerusalem. As we reported earlier, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man was arrested after he was caught spying for Iran, according to a report by the Tazpit News Agency. Israel Police said that an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man, a member of the radical Neturei Karta sect in Jerusalem, has been arrested in July on charges of attempting to spy on Israel for Iran…………….”
An unusual story. This man was like the Israeli equivalent of the Mujahideen Khalq, the Iranian group that does Israel and Mossad’s bidding inside Iran. Cheers
mhg
