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Tue, 26 Oct 2021
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Star of David

Netanyahu presents his 'experts' on Palestine, one of whom advocates rape as a tool of war

Shujaiya Gaza
© Ali Jadallah / APA images
Israel promotes apologists for the kind of violence that leveled Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood as “experts,” including one advocating rape.
As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in the United States for the UN General Assembly on Sunday, the Israeli government press office emailed journalists a list of supposed experts to contact on various issues related to his visit.

All those listed hail from the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, a hotbed of right wing nationalism in Israeli academia.

Appearing twice on the Israeli government-approved list is Mordechai Kedar, a professor of Arabic literature at Bar-Ilan University who recently advocated for the Israeli army to use rape as a tool of war.

Comment: Since the psychopathic government of Israel obviously does not want peace, it is only fitting that their so-called experts on the Palestinian issue advocate the usual: rape, slaughter and complete ethnic cleansing.


Stormtrooper

History repeats itself: Germans set to send first troops to Ukraine since WW2

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Chancellor Angela Merkel about to straighten out her elbow
(rumours about goose-stepping lessons remain unconfirmed).
* Move to send 200 peacekeepers including paratroopers under consideration

* Chancellor Angela Merkel has led European plans to secure peace in Ukraine

* More than 3,600 people have died in the conflict in 2014, according to the UN

Germany is poised for its first deployment of troops in Ukraine since the Nazi invasion of then Soviet territory in 1941 which led to millions of deaths.

An historic move to send 200 peacekeepers - including 50 paratroopers - was under active consideration last night.

It comes as the crumbling ceasefire between pro-Russian rebels and the Ukrainian government was under its strongest pressure since coming into effect a month ago.

Bad Guys

Can China and Russia Squeeze Washington out of Eurasia?

There could soon be a trade alliance between Beijing, Moscow and Berlin - but you wouldn't know it from the triumphal tone in Washington.

Putin_Jinping
© AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in the Kremlin in Moscow.
A specter haunts the fast-aging "New American Century": the possibility of a future Beijing-Moscow-Berlin strategic trade and commercial alliance. Let's call it the BMB.

Its likelihood is being seriously discussed at the highest levels in Beijing and Moscow, and viewed with interest in Berlin, New Delhi, and Tehran. But don't mention it inside Washington's Beltway or at NATO headquarters in Brussels. There, the star of the show today and tomorrow is the new Osama bin Laden: Caliph Ibrahim, aka Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the elusive, self-appointed beheading prophet of a new mini-state and movement that has provided an acronym feast -- ISIS/ISIL/IS -- for hysterics in Washington and elsewhere.

No matter how often Washington remixes its Global War on Terror, however, the tectonic plates of Eurasian geopolitics continue to shift, and they're not going to stop just because American elites refuse to accept that their historically brief "unipolar moment" is on the wane. For them, the closing of the era of "full spectrum dominance," as the Pentagon likes to call it, is inconceivable. After all, the necessity for the indispensable nation to control all space -- military, economic, cultural, cyber, and outer -- is little short of a religious doctrine. Exceptionalist missionaries don't do equality. At best, they do "coalitions of the willing" like the one crammed with "over 40 countries" assembled to fight ISIS/ISIL/IS and either applauding (and plotting) from the sidelines or sending the odd plane or two toward Iraq or Syria.

Bomb

Blatant 'dirty war' attack by West: Suicide blast kills 4 police outside concert hall in Chechnya, Russia

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© Video still from RT broadcast
Four police officers have been killed and another three sustained injuries in Russia's Republic of Chechnya as they attempted to detain a suspected suicide bomber. The young man detonated improvised explosive when police attempted to search him.

The incident happened ahead of a concert dedicated to City Day. According to the Internal Affairs Ministry, police forces noticed a suspicious man outside a concert hall.

"Police officers who were manning metal detectors at the entrance of the concert hall noticed a suspicious young man. When the police officers decided to check the individual, the man blew himself up," a local police officer told RIA news agency.

Arriving at the scene, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said the suicide bomber approached security forces and introduced himself as "a law enforcement staffer." Police still proceeded to search him, Kadyrov added.

There were no immediate reports of civilian deaths or injuries, the Ministry said.

Comment: Interesting timing. The only question is, whodunnit: USrael, or USrael with Arab Monarch partners?

The U.S. recently began bombing Syria - supposedly to eradicate IS (which it created) but actually to pursue its agenda of toppling the Assad government and gaining a new geopolitical foothold in the region. The only thing standing in its way is Moscow's complete refusal to allow this to happen, as demonstrated last year when the Russians placed naval ships off the shore of Syria as a show of its willingness to defend the country militarily, and helped diffuse an impending attack on Syria through some impressive diplomatic moves, ie. the negotiated destruction of Syria's chemical weapons. Now the U.S. is coming very close once again to crossing the line of death and destruction in the name of humanitarianism. And the U.S. knows that Russia knows this. But 'gosh-golly-darn', those freedom-loving Americans just can't help themselves, can they?

Saudi Arabia has a big stake in toppling Assad and is closely aligned with the U.S.'s objectives. They have not only helped foment the rebels in Syria, but would like to have a large financial cut in the gas pipeline that will be built within it. So this recent, seemingly isolated lone suicide bomber, could well be a message from both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.: don't interfere with what we're trying to do, or we'll make trouble for you within your borders. But as the U.S. and Saudi Arabia probably should have gathered by now, Putin doesn't scare easily.

See also:


Dollars

Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk confuses gas debt repayment with Eurobonds pay-off

Ukraine gas
© Reuters/Valentyn Ogirenko
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk's statement that $1.67 billion was transferred as part of the country's gas debt payment actually refers to the repayment of Eurobonds which Ukraine's Naftogaz received under state guarantees, Russia's Gazprom says.

Arseny Yatsenyuk made the statement live on-air on Ukraine's "First" TV channel, specifically stating that the recent payment was connected to "gas debt."

"They [Russia] hoped that we will not pay off our gas debts. The day before yesterday, we paid every single penny of the [US$]1.67 billion debt," Yatsenyuk stated.

But Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov did not confirm receiving any money from Kiev, TASS reported. Kupriyanov added that he believes Ukraine's prime minister was talking about Eurobonds.

"It is hard to imagine that the payment for gas went through before the agreement was signed," Kupriyanov said, referring to the final agreement between Ukraine and Russia that is not expected to be signed until next week.

September 30 was the maturity date of Eurobonds given to Naftogaz. The sum which Ukraine had to pay back equaled $1.67 billion.

Bizarro Earth

The siege of Kobani: Obama's coalition of the disingenuous at work

Another humanitarian catastrophe may be just hours away at Kobani. The latter is the Syrian Kurdish town on the border with Turkey that is now surrounded by ISIS tanks and is being pounded day after day by ISIS heavy artillery. Already this lethal phalanx, which fuses 21st century American technology and equipment with 12th century religious fanaticism, has rolled through dozens of Kurdish villages and towns in the region around Kobani, sending 180,000 refugees fleeing for their lives across the border.

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Self-evidently the lightly armed Kurdish militias desperately holding out in Kobani are fighting the right enemy - that is, the Islamic State. So why has Obama's grand coalition not been able to relieve the siege? Why haven't American bombers and cruise missiles, for instance, being able to destroy the American tanks and artillery which a terrifying band of butchers has brought to bear on several hundred thousand innocent Syrian Kurds who have made this enclave their home for more than a century? Why has not NATO ally Turkey, with a 600,000 man military, 3,500 tanks and 1,000 modern aircraft and helicopters, done anything meaningful to help the imperiled Kurds?

Let's see. The US is making perfunctory air strikes. Yet with no boots on the ground in the context of close urban combat in a city of 50,000 - a major air onslaught would result in massive civilian casualties. Although Obama already has much blood on his hands, he is apparently not ready for a Gaza-on-the-Euphrates.

So then why doesn't Turkey put some infantry and spotters on the ground - highly trained "boots" that are literally positioned a few kilometers away on its side of the border?

Comment: Obviously this coalition is not about bringing "peace and stability" to the region. This "War on Terror" is meant to continue unabated. Perhaps as a distraction to the coming cosmic and Earth changes in progress?


Bad Guys

U.S. Vice President Biden lies and apologizes to Turkish president for ISIS remarks

Joseph Biden
© Reuters/Larry Downing
U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden.
US Vice President Joe Biden has apologized to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after alleging that the leader allowed foreign fighters allied with the Islamic State to cross into Syria. Erdogan was outraged over the remark.

Biden presented his apology in a phone call to Erdogan on Saturday, the White House said.

Speaking at Harvard University on Thursday, Biden claimed that "President Erdogan told me, he is an old friend, said you were right, we let too many people through, now we are trying to seal the border."

Responding to the remark, Erdogan said he "never admitted any mistakes."

"If Biden told these words, then he will be history to me. I never uttered such remarks," the Turkish leader said. "He should apologize. I'm saying this clearly. And we won't accept slender, indirect explanations."

Comment: The US supported all these regimes in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to equip ISIL and are now trying to blame them for its publicity. At least some are fighting back.


Pistol

Pakistani Taliban splinter group pledges support to ISIS

Armed Pakistani militants
© AFP Photo
Armed Pakistani militants loyal to pro-Taliban cleric Mullah Fazlullah stand at a police station at Matta in Swat district
The threat of a formidable Islamic State grows, as the Pakistani Taliban pledged support to the fearsome terrorist group and urged other Middle Eastern extremists to be part of the effort to repel the alleged Western campaign against Islam.

As the Muslim world celebrated the holy festival of Eid al-Adha, the Pakistani branch of the Taliban (TTP) has expressed their support for the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in an email to Reuters, sent from an unknown location.

"Oh our brothers, we are proud of you in your victories. We are with you in your happiness and your sorrow," read the emotional message from their spokesman.

"In these troubled days, we call for your patience and stability, especially now that all your enemies are united against you. Please put all your rivalries behind you...

"All Muslims in the world have great expectations of you ... We are with you, we will provide you with Mujahideen [fighters] and with every possible support," the confession reads.

Binoculars

UK war on ISIL: Dragged into a war by clowns who can't even run a railway

Wars cause far more atrocities than they prevent. In fact, wars make atrocities normal and easy. If you don't like atrocities, don't start wars. It is a simple rule, and not hard to follow.

The only mercy in war, as all soldiers know, is a swift victory by one side or the other. Yet our subservient, feeble Parliament on Friday obediently shut its eyes tight and launched itself yet again off the cliff of war. It did so even though - in a brief moment of truth - the Prime Minister admitted that such a war will be a very long one, and has no visible end.

The arguments used in favour of this decision - in a mostly unpacked House of Commons - were pathetic beyond belief. Most of them sounded as if their users had got them out of a cornflakes packet, or been given them by Downing Street, which is much the same.
War planes
© Getty Images
Those who favour this action claim to care about massacres and persecution. But in fact they want to be seen to care, writes Hitchens

Newspaper

Rouhani criticizes Cameron's anti-Iran remarks

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has criticized anti-Iranian comments by British Prime Minister David Cameron at the United Nations, calling them "inappropriate and unacceptable."

Rouhani
© Unknown

Rouhani made the remarks at a press conference upon his arrival at the capital Tehran after a tour that took him to New York and the Russian city of Astrakhan.

The Iranian president said his meeting with Cameron had been held upon a request by the British government.

"The meeting with David Cameron, the English premier, was requested by London and during his address he made a statement that was inappropriate," President Rouhani said.

Rouhani said the meeting focused on Iran's nuclear energy program, the issues of "violence," and "instability" in the region along with Tehran-London bilateral ties.