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Ukraine's Maidan 10 Years On


Strategic Culture Foundation
Mon, 27 Nov 2023 22:24 UTC
Maidan independence square Ukraine government coup overthrow riot destruction
© Andrey Stenin/Sputnik
Police officers and opposition supporters are seen on Maidan Nezalezhnosti square in Kiev, where clashes began between protesters and the police February 19, 2014.
The Western-backed coup unleashed Nazism, war and destruction that ultimately exposes Western fascism

Ten years on from the Maidan uprising in Kiev, the country of the Ukraine has descended into utter chaos, corruption, fascism, destruction and suffering. And yet the Kiev regime and its Western state supporters have the audacity to call the tragic, bloody morass "a decade of dignity".

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen declared this week: "Ten years of dignity. Ten years of pride. Ten years of striving for freedom. The cold November nights of Euromaidan changed Europe forever. The whole country took to the streets and spoke with one voice... The future for which Maidan fought has finally begun. Glory to Ukraine! Long live Europe!"

It is nauseating to hear such bare-faced lies and distortions. "The whole country took the streets"? It was a minority of Nazi ideologues bankrolled by Western powers. "Speaking with one voice"? The Maidan coup leaders murdered and burned opponents to death as in the Odessa pogrom on May 2, 2014, or in the deadly air strike on unsuspecting Lugansk civilians on June 2, 2014.

Comment: The mentioned documentary:



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Bad Guys

Israel's ground war conundrum

Hasan Illaik
The Cradle
Mon, 27 Nov 2023 12:00 UTC
israel gaza
© The Cradle
While Tel Aviv may intensify its bombardment of Gaza after the truce, this disguises the fact that its ground incursion is facing unprecedented dangers ahead.
Before dusk on 26 November, fighters from Hamas' military wing, Al-Qassam Brigades, began the process of handing over to the International Red Cross a number of Israeli captives taken during the 7 October Al-Aqsa Flood operation. The transfer of these women and children took place in the Gaza Strip amid what appeared to be a security parade. Al-Qassam fighters arrived in four-wheel-drive vehicles and deployed themselves around the site, wearing full uniforms and bearing arms. Surrounded by civilians cheering on the resistance, the transfer of the Israeli captives was completed smoothly and quietly.

This event took place in Palestine Square in Gaza City on the third day of the truce that followed a 49-day war. Throughout the war, Gaza City has been subjected to a suffocating siege and an unprecedented Israeli air and artillery assault, not seen since at least 1982.
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Broom

Palestine's new leadership

Abdel Bari Atwan
Rai Al Youm.
Sun, 26 Nov 2023 21:22 UTC
Hamas’ Gaza leader Yahya al-Sinwar
© Said Khatib/AFP/Getty
The leader of Hamas in Gaza, Yahya al-Sinwar
"Israel's agreement to negotiate prisoner swaps with Hamas is a mark of defeat."

It may be premature to make a definitive evaluation of the first 50 days of the Israeli onslaught against the Gaza Strip, or foresee what will happen the day after the four-day truce that began on Friday along with the first batch of prisoner-swaps.

What is clear, however, is that Hamas' Gaza leader Yahya al-Sinwar — who fired the first shot in this war with the 7 October raid on military bases and settlements in the Gaza 'Envelope' that stunned the Israeli military and political establishments — has succeeded in imposing his terms.

Sinwar and his right-hand man, Qassam brigades commander Muhammad Deif, spent three years preparing methodically for this war. They have managed it with a high degree of skill and intelligence acumen that has amazed friend and foe alike. In contrast Israel's leaders, the Netanyahu-Gantz-Gallant trio, have pursued a vindictive nihilistic approach that has caused them major military, political, and diplomatic losses, while failing to achieve their declared aim of destroying Hamas and other resistance groups despite 47 days of vicious carpet bombing of defenceless civilians.
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Russian Flag

Russian Ambassador blasts American 'falsehoods' on Soviet-era famine


RT
Mon, 27 Nov 2023 21:14 UTC
Holodomor Monument in Los Angeles, CA
© Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
FILE PHOTO: A memorial service at the Holodomor Monument in Los Angeles, CA.
Russia's Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov on Sunday criticized 'false' claims by the administration of US President Joe Biden that the Soviet leadership used famine as a weapon against Ukrainians in the 1930s and that Russia has adopted a similar policy.

He dismissed the Holodomor narrative, which he said was adopted by Ukrainian nationalists and their Western backers to depict the policies of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin as inherently anti-Ukrainian.

Antonov instead insisted that the early Soviet-era famine was "a common tragedy for Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs and many other ethnic groups of the huge country." Attempts by the US to make a parallel between those events and Moscow's special military operation against Ukraine are "nothing more than a new attempt to demonize Russia," Antonov added.

The envoy's remarks were a reaction to unspecified statements by American officials on the occasion of Holodomor Remembrance Day, which was observed by Ukraine on Saturday.

Comment: Everyone continuously gets it wrong when it comes to the Holodomor because every side has a bias that keeps the truth out of reach. It wasn't a disaster with natural origins and it wasn't a deliberate genocide. It was the consequence of enacting idiotic, ideologically driven policies. The Soviet leadership tried to make Mother Nature bend to the Soviet will, and Mother Nature doesn't conform to ideological delusions. That is what created the famine and led to the deaths of millions, trying to force reality to fit an ideological construct. See:

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Arrow Down

Few options in wake of the Al-Shifa debacle, the war lengthens and widens

Alistair Crooke
Almayadeen.net
Fri, 24 Nov 2023 01:07 UTC
Gaza
© Hadi Dbouk
Notwithstanding the Biden Op-Ed, the Biden Administration may prove vulnerable to pressure, as the Democratic electoral prospects for 2024 take a hit.

US and Israeli intelligence had earlier expressed their settled certainty that Hamas leaders and their command HQ were to be found under Al-Shifa hospital. It was widely believed that, with the hospital surrounded, the world was about to witness the collective Hamas leadership arise from the dark depths of their hospital bunkers with their hands up, only to be led away, ignominiously, as captives.

That was the script. Only it didn't pan out. Rather, the Israeli inept public relations efforts - that are still continuing - to prove the validity of Israeli Intelligence's claim of there having been a Hamas HQ under the hospital have been roundly ridiculed around the globe. What has followed however, is the grave sequella of Palestinian hospitals generally being either surrounded or attacked, thus lending credence for many to the notion that the original intelligence claim has become the pretext to the wider destruction of the Strip's humanitarian infrastructure - so as to sear the Palestinian consciousness with the conviction that with homes, schools and hospitals destroyed, how could they return? There would be nothing there to support social existence.

I recall a similar episode during the 2006 war on Hizbullah. The Israelis were convinced they knew the precise location in Dahiya in Beirut where the Hizbullah Command was hidden; they bombed it flat. Only Hizbullah -- like Hamas today -- wasn't there. I wrote in 2006 a two-part analysis, which described how Hizbullah in 2006 had won the intelligence 'war', and had fed false human intelligence to Tel Aviv. Perhaps Hamas may have learnt a thing or two...
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Arrow Down

US-German 'peace talks plot' shows West on brink of losing Ukraine

Ekaterina Blinova
Sputnik
Sat, 25 Nov 2023 00:00 UTC
Estaviev
© orientalism.org
Russian political scientist and University professor Dmitry Evstafiev
The two Western powers are reportedly trying to force Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into entering into talks with Russia, per German newspaper Bild. What's behind the report and its timing?

Washington and Berlin have reportedly kicked off a plot to push Ukraine for negotiations with Russia by slashing military supplies to Kiev and leaving Volodymyr Zelensky with little if any options, according to the German publication.

According to Bild, there is also a plan B envisaging a frozen conflict that would solidify a new quasi-border between Ukraine and Russia along the contact line.

Dmitry Evstafiev, a political scientist and High School of Economics (HSE) University professor, told Sputnik:
"First, [this report] should be seen in a specific temporal context. This is not a statement, of course, this is a publicity stunt. It appeared in the media almost immediately after the end of the meeting of the notorious Ramstein group that has made an essential decision to create the [Ground Based] Air Defense coalition to strengthen air defense. Moreover, it is quite obvious that they will strengthen not so much the air defense of Ukraine, but the air defense of the countries bordering Ukraine. Therefore, this is a kind of first proposal that it is necessary to take certain political steps that would indicate that Ukraine is ready for negotiations."
The second aspect is an interview given by the leader of the Servant of the People faction, Davyd Arakhamia, which, according to Evstafiev:
"Is clearly synchronized with the West even more indicative against the backdrop of problems at the front."
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Boat

China and US dispute over US warship in South China Sea

Mike Brest
Washington Examiner
Sun, 26 Nov 2023 12:01 UTC
US Navy
© Facebook
US naval vessel plies the South China Sea
The United States and Chinese military have engaged in a verbal dispute regarding a U.S. naval vessel that sailed through the South China Sea over the weekend.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Southern Theatre Command said the Chinese military deployed its naval and air forces to "track, monitor and warn away" a U.S. Navy destroyer, while the U.S.'s 7th Fleet said the USS Hopper "asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Paracel Islands, consistent with international law."

China said the incident "proves that the United States is an out-and-out 'security risk creator' in the South China Sea," while the U.S. military routinely argues it conducts these operations in order to challenge excessive maritime claims across the globe.

China, Vietnam, and Taiwan each claim sovereignty over the Paracel Islands, which are in the South China Sea. The U.S. Navy conducted the freedom of navigation operation (FONOP) to challenge each country's requirement that outsiders seek permission or provide advance notification prior to a military vessel or warship passing through the sea, which the U.S. argues is a violation of international law.

Commander Vice Admiral Karl Thomas, U.S. 7th Fleet Public Affairs, said in a statement:
"The unilateral imposition of any authorization or advance-notification requirement for innocent passage [is] unlawful. By engaging in innocent passage without giving prior notification to or asking permission from any of the claimants, the United States challenged these unlawful restrictions imposed by the PRC, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The United States demonstrated that innocent passage [is] not subject to such restrictions."
China frequently criticizes the U.S. Navy's freedom of navigation operations in the Pacific as Beijing seeks to dominate the region and push the U.S. out of the Pacific.

Comment: Governments choose contention. Military complies. Sea captains don't give a dam.

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Vader

A hard truth about the Russia-Ukraine conflict is finally dawning on the Empire


RT
Mon, 27 Nov 2023 20:50 UTC
putin biden
American observers are finally snapping out of "magical thinking" about Moscow's defeat

On November 16, the Wall Street Journal, one of the most prestigious and influential American media outlets, published an essay under the title "It's Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia's Defeat."

The authors, Eugene Rumer and Andrew S. Weiss, are influential representatives of America's national security and international relations establishment. After a career in government service, Rumer now directs the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Weiss is Carnegie's vice president for studies. This is an important text, and both its message and the timing of its publication matter.

The message is simple: "Putin" (by which they mean Russia) has "withstood the West's best efforts" to roll back the military operation against Ukraine; Moscow's political system has proven resilient and even become stronger; and "America and its allies" must now switch to a strategy of "containment."
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Star of David

Netanyahu turfed out defense minister in July because he warned of a Hamas attack

Gaia Edwards
Voltaire.net
Mon, 27 Nov 2023 20:39 UTC
General Amit Saar IDF
© Screenshot/Youtube
Brig. Gen. Amit Saar, head of the Military Intelligence research department, December 5, 2022.
According to the Israeli media, the July Israeli governmental crisis can be explained by IDF admonitions that Hamas was preparing to launch, from Gaza, "a perfect storm" against Israel.

General Amit Saar, head of the IDF Military Intelligence Research Department, wrote to the Prime Minister on 19 March and 16 July, warning him of an impending Hamas attack. He explained that Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran interpreted the domestic debate taking place over fundamental legislative reforms as a sign of Israel's internal weakness.

Comment: More evidence that Israel welcomed the attack to give an excuse to level Gaza and attempt to expel the population. It's not just about new settlements either:
gaza gas fields

Gaza's potential natural gas reserves
NewsReal: Hamas 'Invasion' of Israel: Surprise or LIHOP?

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Star of David

WaPo outs Netanyahu: Was 'protecting' Hamas


RT
Mon, 27 Nov 2023 20:25 UTC
hamas netanyahu
Israeli prime minister had stopped any attempt to remove the Palestinian militant group from Gaza, a historian told the newspaper

Benjamin Netanyahu has had an "odd symbiosis" with the Palestinian militant group Hamas that has ruled Gaza for the decades he has been Israel's prime minister, the Washington Post (WaPo) reported on Sunday, citing a host of experts on Israel.

The politician reportedly has found Hamas useful for stalling the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and for disrupting the establishment of the Palestinian state, the paper claimed.

Netanyahu, who headed the Israeli government uninterrupted between 2009 and 2020 and then returned to power in December 2022, has repeatedly vowed to destroy Hamas throughout his tenures but instead pursued policies that helped the group keep its grip over the enclave, the US media outlet reported.

Comment: The knives are definitely out for Bibi. Such an article in the August Washington Post would have been unthinkable even six months ago.

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