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Israel MK: 'Future confrontation with Gaza will not have guaranteed outcome'


MEMO
Sat, 28 Aug 2021 10:49 UTC
Chikli/Infantry
© Yonatan Sindel/Flash90/Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images/KJN
Israeli MK Amichai Chikli • Israeli infantry soldiers near border with Gaza Strip
Israeli MK Amichai Chikli announced on Friday that the Israeli army had lost its deterrence against the Palestinian resistance, mainly Hamas, warning that any future confrontation with Gaza will not have a guaranteed outcome.

As reported by Israeli Channel 7, Chikli stated:
"We lost the soldier, who was killed at the borders with Gaza, due to losing deterrence."
The MK, of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's party, spoke about the "failure" of the Israeli army, which, according to him:
"Is represented by a Hamas activist coming close to the border and opening fire at an Israeli soldier from a zero distance."
Commenting on the shooting of the Israeli soldier, who shot and wounded 41 Palestinian demonstrators before a Palestinian security officer responded, Chikli expressed:
"The Israeli army did not immediately repair its deterrence; therefore, it will not be able to win in the future confrontation with Hamas."
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Magnify

Crimes by US military must be investigated, Beijing says after reports that American troops fired on civilians after Kabul bombing


RT
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:18 UTC
US soldier, Afghanistan
© REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
Afghanistan (FILE PHOTO)
China's Foreign Ministry has demanded probes be opened into numerous allegations of crimes committed by the US military against Afghans during the 20-year occupation of the now-Taliban controlled nation.

Speaking on Wednesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was asked to respond to reports that US troops had fired on Afghan civilians following the suicide bombing at Kabul airport last Thursday.

The incident has claimed nearly 200 lives but reporters, including RT International correspondent Murad Gazdiev, have relayed accounts from eyewitnesses who claimed US troops fired at the crowds after the explosion, potentially causing more casualties.

Comment: See also:

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Bulb

Afghan crisis shows EU needs more autonomy


DW
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:19 UTC
Afgan refugees

Several EU member states were involved in the scramble to evacuate citizens and local Afghan supporters from Kabul
EU Council President Charles Michel said on Wednesday that the European Union needs to pursue decision-making autonomy in the wake of the chaotic evacuations from Afghanistan that ended last week.

"In my view, we do not need another such geopolitical event to grasp that the EU must strive for greater decision-making autonomy and greater capacity for action in the world," he told the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia.

Influence is EU's 'greatest challenge'

Looking to the future of the EU's role in the world, the EU Council president discussed the importance of maintaining the bloc's influence in an interdependent world.

"European influence will be our greatest challenge in the coming years, and Afghanistan has offered a stark demonstration," he said.

Comment:

Dear Charles Michel, the EU is just as beholden to the US as it ever was. You're not fooling anyone. The EU's Afghan refugee program is a case in point.

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Bad Guys

WHO monitoring new coronavirus variant named 'Mu' that appears resistant to vaccines


France24
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 18:10 UTC
coronavirus
The World Health Organization has said it is monitoring a new coronavirus variant known as "Mu", which was first identified in Colombia in January 2021.

Mu, known scientifically as B.1.621, has been classified as a "variant of interest", the global health body said Tuesday in its weekly pandemic bulletin.

The WHO said the variant has mutations that indicate a risk of resistance to vaccines and stressed that further studies were needed to better understand it.

"The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape," the bulletin said.
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Eye 2

Report says US 'negotiated secret arrangement with Taliban' to help get some Americans to Kabul airport

Ryan Saavedra
The Daily Wire
Tue, 31 Aug 2021 17:08 UTC
Airport Kabul
© U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Isaiah Campbell
Evacuees wait to board a US Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 23.
The Biden administration reportedly worked out a previously undisclosed arrangement with Taliban extremists to help bring U.S. citizens to the airport in Kabul.

"The U.S. military negotiated a secret arrangement with the Taliban that resulted in Taliban members escorting groups of Americans to the gates of the Kabul airport as they sought to escape Afghanistan," CNN reported.
"The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the arrangements, which have not been disclosed until now because the US was concerned about Taliban reaction to any publicity as well as the threat of attacks from ISIS-K if its operatives had realized Americans were being escorted in groups."
The Taliban allegedly escorted some Americans a few times a day from a staging area near the airport to a gate that was manned by U.S. forces. U.S. forces were able to watch some of the escorts take place.

Comment: Biden's administration has gone on as it began, in confusion and chaos. All according to a larger plan?

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Arrow Down

Putin calls it: US has nothing to show for two decades of fighting in Afghanistan, despite efforts to impose Washington's own values

Rachel Lloyd
RT
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:55 UTC
US soldiers evacuate afghanistan bagram
© Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
US Army soldiers walk to their C-17 cargo plane for departure May 11, 2013 at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the crisis in Afghanistan is of Washington's making, arguing that efforts to reform the country have failed and saying the global community must now work together to prevent tragedy.

In a meeting with students on Wednesday, Putin criticized what he said amounted to the US' mishandling of its presence in Afghanistan, which ended abruptly in August when the Taliban took the capital, Kabul.

"The result is one tragedy, one loss... American troops were present in this region, and for twenty years they tried to civilize people, and to introduce their own norms and standards of life in the broadest sense... including in the political organization of society," he continued. "The result is zero, if not to say that it is negative."

Comment: Russia has been consistent in its message that peace will only be possible with respectful dialogue, not the imposition of one group's views over another.

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Bad Guys

Biden takes 'responsibility' for disastrous Afghanistan withdraw, spins mission as 'extraordinary success'

Brooke Singman
Fox News
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:07 UTC
Biden head down
President Biden, in a defiant address to the nation Tuesday, defended his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan and shouldered full "responsibility" for the move -- while also blaming former President Trump and the Afghan security forces for the crisis leading to the Taliban takeover of the country.

The president, from the White House Tuesday, addressed the nation just a day after the last U.S. troops left Afghanistan, marking an end to America's longest war.

The president touted one of the "biggest airlifts in history," noting more than 120,000 individuals were airlifted to safety from Kabul, saying that "no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history," calling the mission an "extraordinary success."

The president described the rush to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies as a mission of "mercy." But he also noted the terrible toll.
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Attention

July transcript reveals Biden pressured Afghan President Ghani to create 'perception' Taliban wasn't winning 'WHETHER TRUE OR NOT'

Rob Crilly & Ariel Zilber
Daily Mail
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 09:21 UTC

Comment: This is exactly the thing they impeached Trump for!!!


Joe Biden President Ashraf Ghani
President Joe Biden wanted the now-departed Afghan president to create the 'perception' that his government was capable of holding off the Taliban - an indication he knew it was only a matter of time before the US ally fell to the Islamic group even while reassuring Americans at home that it would not happen.

In the last phone call between Biden and his Afghan then-counterpart Ashraf Ghani, the American president said they needed to change perceptions of the Taliban's rapid advance 'whether it is true or not,' according to excerpts published on Tuesday.

The call took place on July 23 - weeks before the fall of Kabul - but Biden on Tuesday repeated his assertion that his team was caught flat-footed by the rapid Taliban takeover of the country.

Comment:


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Eye 1

RAF prepared to attack Afghanistan despite western withdrawal, officer says

Sam Hancock
Independent
Wed, 01 Sep 2021 10:37 UTC
Afghanistan RAF
© MoD/Reuters
The RAF is prepared to launch air strikes against Islamic State fighters in Afghanistan - if the situation presents itself, according to a senior officer.

It comes after the terror network's Afghan offshoot, Isis-K, claimed responsibility for the attack on Kabul airport, which was carried out on Thursday and killed two Britons, the child of a British national, as well as 13 US service personnel and hundreds of Afghan civilians.


Comment: Except it seems that not only did the Pentagon know about the upcoming attack, a significant number of those who died did so as a result of gunfire coming from the US side: Who profits from the Kabul suicide bombing?


While the international community appears to have accepted the reality of Taliban rule, the UK and US remain willing to take on Islamic State, also known as Daesh.

Comment: Similar comments were made by the UK's defence minister back in April, that it 'reserved the right to attack the ungoverned spaces', so clearly they had this option in mind even before the shameful events of the withdrawal.

It's unlikely that the West is going to leave Afghanistan alone anytime soon - it's a critical node in China's Belt & Road Initiative after all - but it has sufficient nefarious resources at its disposal that it doesn't necessarily need to wage an open war: Also check out SOTT radio's: NewsReal: Kabul Airport Atrocity - What Actually Happened?



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Info

Biden Administration launches civil-rights probes against five states over mask-mandate bans

Caroline Downey
National Review
Mon, 30 Aug 2021 13:41 UTC
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona
© Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona addresses the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington, D.C., August 5, 2021.
After President Biden gave the cue to Education Secretary Cardona, the Department of Education has launched civil-rights probes against five Republican-led states that banned mask mandates in public institutions.

"The Department has heard from parents from across the country - particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions - about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally," Cardona said in a press release.

OCR will investigate whether the states in question have violated Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which deal with discrimination.

Comment: See also:

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