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Tough guy Barak accuses Netanyahu of 'restraint' on Gaza - and makes his leftwing partners uncomfortable

Jonathan Ofir
Mondoweiss
Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00 UTC
Ehud Barak

Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister, speaking at Herzliya conference, published June 22, 2017
Ehud Barak's new Israeli Democratic Party has authored talking points, including some about getting tougher than Netanyahu on Gaza. The points were distributed to the candidates of the new merger slate, Democratic Union, which includes the Meretz list as well as former Labor member Stav Shaffir.

This was too much for Meretz, which is supposed to mark the far left of the Zionist spectrum.

The clause that upset the Meretz members, as Haaretz reported, said:
Before anything, we must restore the deterrence equation in Gaza. Netanyahu chooses restraint and pays protection to Hamas, and thus forfeits the security of residents of the border region.
The document also gave preeminence to generals:
Gaza creates a different challenge for the military echelons and the political echelons. The military echelons, the chief of general staff, the head of Military Intelligence and the head of Southern Command are the ones who will recommend to the government when and how to restore the deterrence against Hamas.

Comment: As this article demonstrates, there is little to no effort among Israel's main political body at being constructive towards the Palestinians. Rather, there seems to be a contest among many as to who can sound and act the most pathological.

More on the truly despicable Ehud Barak:

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Megaphone

Russia accuses German broadcaster & foreign NGOs of meddling in election protests


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 21:43 UTC
police protestors
© Sputnik / Alexey Kudenko
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle and several foreign NGOs interfered in Russia's internal affairs by calling on people to join the unsanctioned protests in the capital, Russian authorities say.

"Such media escapades are against to the norms of professional journalist ethics and constitute an attempt by the German media corporation to meddle in the internal affairs of Russia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement, warning that Moscow will respond in line with the country's legislation in case of a repeat violation.

Germany's ambassador to Moscow, Beate Grzeski, was called up to the ministry on Thursday for explanations.

"Moscow, come out!" Deutsche Welle's bureau in Russia wrote on Twitter on July 27, when 3,500 participated in an unsanctioned rally in central Moscow. Demonstrators took to the streets after opposition candidates were disqualified from the upcoming City Council election over paperwork irregularities. The event was marred by clashes, which resulted in around 1,000 detentions.
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Question

Special forces arrest ex Kyrgyz president after storming compound three times


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 11:04 UTC
kyrgyz police
© RIA Novosti / Mirbek Sakenov
Armed troops returned to try and arrest Almazbek Atambayev, after being repelled by his supporters the day before, leaving over 50 injured and a soldier killed. Sticks, stones and live shots were used to defend his mansion.

Special forces managed to gain entry into the compound, with reports of flash grenade and gunshots. A fire is also said to have broken out inside, though it's unclear what exactly was burning. Gunfire was heard as special forces targeted the crowd with rubber bullets, stun grenades, and tear gas.

The Interior Ministry had also stationed armored vehicles, including trucks equipped with water cannons, around the mansion. Later, it was reported that one of these vehicles rammed into the building's gate, allowing assault teams to enter the compound.

Comment: RT reports they stormed Atambayev's residence a third time:
Almazbek Atambayev has given himself up to security forces, who stormed his residence three times over two days, stirring up bloody clashes with numerous supporters of the ex President, resulting in one fatality.

Atambayev was apprehended on Thursday evening, his office told the media, after he gave himself up to law enforcement officers. He ruled the former Soviet republic from 2011 to 2017, surrendered to police following several hours of talks. He left the house of his own accord, it turned out.

The ex leader is now being interrogated by the Kyrgyz Ministry of Internal Affairs, news outlet 24.kg reported. He is reportedly being questioned for the suspected murder of a law enforcement officer during the assault on his residence on Wednesday, and on the taking of six hostages.

Earlier in the day, the assault teams managed to finally gain entry to his mansion in the village of Koi-Tash, using heavy armor, rubber bullets and flash grenades.

Media reports suggested that the convoy carrying the detained ex-President was blocked by crowds of his supporters on its way out of the village, but a spokesman for the ministry said that the situation "remains stable and law enforcement officials have everything under control," Russian news agency TASS reported.

Atambayev
© RIA Novosti / Nurys Alymbayev
Atambayev's supporters confront police
Gunfire and blasts were heard in the area, with security forces reportedly having to take a detour to leave the embattled village.

Atambayev is accused of involvement in corruption schemes relating to the construction of a thermal power plant and historical museum. He is also accused of illegally releasing a detained mob boss, illegally delivering coal to power plants, and illegally obtaining the land his Koi-Tash residence is built on. He claims he is being persecuted for political reasons.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament voted in June to strip Atambayev of immunity and his ex-president status. Atambayev's lawyer called the move unconstitutional.
See also:

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Popcorn

Italy's Salvini goes for it: Pronounces coalition govt with Five Star Movement dead, calls for new elections


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 18:10 UTC
salvini
© Reuters/ RC/zuz
Italy's Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini at Senate
Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has said that there is no longer a majority to support the government and fresh elections must be held.

Salvini, who leads Italy's ruling League party, said he told Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte that it is necessary to formalize the crisis in parliament.

Conte met with President Sergio Mattarella earlier amid mounting speculation that the ruling coalition could fall apart.

Salvini has clashed a number of times with fellow deputy prime minister Luigi di Maio, who heads the Five Star Movement.

Comment: Salvini may feel confident his party will benefit from a fresh election but it's still a dignified move. Yet again, Salvini stands out among Western politicians, many of whom are also in coalition governments.

Most pols dread the thought of calling fresh elections because they know they risk losing the measly majority they'd only just managed to scrape together a few years or even months before.

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Newspaper

Pepe Escobar: Hong Kong, Kashmir: A tale of two occupations

Pepe Escobar
Strategic Culture
Wed, 07 Aug 2019 21:55 UTC
hong kong riots kashmir india

Two hotspots bordering/in China, both coming to the boil...
Readers from myriad latitudes have been asking me about Hong Kong. They know it's one of my previous homes. I developed a complex, multi-faceted relationship with Hong Kong ever since the 1997 handover, which I covered extensively. Right now, if you allow me, I'd rather cut to the chase.

Much to the distress of neocons and humanitarian imperialists, there won't be a bloody mainland China crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong - a Tiananmen 2.0. Why? Because it's not worth it.

Beijing has clearly identified the color revolution provocation inbuilt in the protests - with the NED excelling as CIA soft, facilitating the sprawl of fifth columnists even in the civil service.

Comment: Escobar takes a hardline regarding Indian policy towards Kashmir. Whataboutery isn't the best argument against that, but we have to ask: what then of how China handles the majority-Muslim Uyghur population of Xinjiang province, aka East Turkestan?

Then there's the geopolitical calculation of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), mentioned by the author. India resents Chinese influence in its 'far north' or what it considers its sphere of influence, so its decision to 'strike' there now is almost certainly informed by 'containing China'. Additionally, there is even a pocket of the disputed region that China claims...

India certainly has a 'democracy issue' it will have to justify; the fact that the population of Kashmir is overwhelmingly Muslim. Ideally, it would have done as Russia did wrt Crimea; delivered a positive referendum result. But this is where characterizations of Modi's India as 'fascist-Hindu' are distinctly unhelpful. The fact is, Muslim Indians voted for Modi in droves, both in 2014, and more so in 2019.

See also:

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Star of David

State Dept shields Israel from criticism: Updates antisemitism definition to include comparisons to Nazi Germany

Michael Arria
Mondoweiss
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 21:14 UTC
protest gaza war 2014 new york city

Protest in New York city against Israeli attacks on Gaza in July 2014
The State Department has updated the working definition of anti-Semitism detailed on its website to include comparisons between current Israeli policies and those of the Nazis. The move comes just two weeks after the House passed a resolution denouncing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and amidst consistent attacks on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for introducing a bill that affirms the right to boycott foreign countries in the name of human rights.

The revised definition was first spotted by Israeli-American Council chairman Adam Milstein. On August 6 he tweeted, "The State [Department] just updated the definition of #Antisemitism to include "Drawing Comparison of Contemporary #Israeli policy to the of #Nazis". Kudos to [Secretary of State Mike Pompeo] and Special Envoy Elan Carr. It's more clear now, the BDS Movement is disgustingly Antisemitic."

Comment: Step by step.

They're almost there!

Any day now, criticism of Israel... will mean criticism of Jews... will mean the dreaded anti-semitism.

Everywhere.

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Star of David

Mega Group, Maxwells And Mossad: The Spy Story at The Heart of The Jeffrey Epstein Pedo Scandal

Whitney Webb
MintPress News
Wed, 07 Aug 2019 19:50 UTC
epstein wexler mossad
© Claudio Cabrera

Comment: Part Three of Whitney Webb's deep expose of the decades-long history behind the rise of Jeffrey Epstein.

Read Part One: How 1920s prohibition gave rise to the likes of Jeffrey Epstein

and Part Two: Jeffrey Epstein, Trump's mentor and the dark secrets of the Reagan era: Governing by blackmail


As billionaire pedophile and alleged sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein sits in prison, reports have continued to surface about his reported links to intelligence, his financial ties to several companies and "charitable" foundations, and his friendships with the rich and powerful, as well as top politicians.

While Part I and Part II of this series, "The Jeffrey Epstein Scandal: Too Big to Fail," have focused on the widespread nature of sexual blackmail operations in recent American history and their ties to the heights of American political power and the U.S. intelligence community, one key aspect of Epstein's own sex-trafficking and blackmail operation that warrants examination is Epstein's ties to Israeli intelligence and his ties to the "informal" pro-Israel philanthropist faction known as "the Mega Group."

The Mega Group's role in the Epstein case has garnered some attention, as Epstein's main financial patron for decades, billionaire Leslie Wexner, was a co-founder of the group that unites several well-known businessmen with a penchant for pro-Israel and ethno-philanthropy (i.e., philanthropy benefiting a single ethnic or ethno-religious group). However, as this report will show, another uniting factor among Mega Group members is deep ties to organized crime, specifically the organized crime network discussed in Part I of this series, which was largely led by notorious American mobster Meyer Lansky.
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Bad Guys

US continues throwing fuel on the Farmageddon fire

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:59 UTC
agriculture farming
President Trump on Tuesday morning hinted at what appears to be yet another farm bailout (the third one must be the charm), as farm bankruptcies soar and agricultural debt loads become unbearable.


A farm crisis on par to what was observed in the early 1980s could be coming, especially since the US Senate passed a bill late last week that makes it more accessible for farmers with larger debt loads to file for bankruptcy protection, reported Reuters.

The bipartisan bill, designated as the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019, increases the total debt load of how much a farmer can have to meet the qualifications to file Chapter 12 bankruptcy, to $10 million from the prior $4 million ceiling.

Comment: Trump has already approved $28 billion in aid over the past two years (separate from existing $20 billion already spent annually for agricultural subsidies), and now he's hinting at a continued bail out. Not only that, farmers struggling under staggering debt can saddle themselves with even more debt! There are some valid criticisms about China's trade practices, however, the US trade war isn't fixing things. China has plenty of options and it is moving toward a world where US pressures are not only irrelevant, but also end up only causing harm to the US economy and its citizens.

See also:



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Attention

John Pilger: Assange being 'treated worse than a murderer' in prison


RT
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 18:06 UTC
assange arrest
© Reuters/Henry Nicholls
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seen in a police van, after he was arrested by British police, in London, Britain April 11, 2019.
Julian Assange is suffering from poor health as a result of mistreatment in prison, according to journalist John Pilger, who recently visited the WikiLeaks founder. Pilger said that he now fears for Assange.

Describing Assange's "deteriorating" condition, Pilger tweeted that he was being treated "worse than a murderer" at London's Belmarsh prison.

"[H]e is isolated, medicated and denied the tools to fight the bogus charges of a US extradition. I now fear for him. Do not forget him," Pilger wrote.

Comment:

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Binoculars

Infighting Between Saudi And UAE Militias Amid UAE-Iran Agreement

Drago Bosnic
Fort Russ News
Thu, 08 Aug 2019 17:31 UTC
UAE tank soldier Yemen

This file photo shows an Emirati soldier waving while riding on a tank in an undisclosed location in Yemen.
Yemen's port city of Aden — which bases the ex-government — has been rocked by deadly clashes between Emirati-backed separatists and Saudi-backed militants, amid a widening rift in the Riyadh-led military coalition waging war on the Arabian Peninsula state.

According to reports, the infighting broke out Wednesday after the southern separatists attended a funeral for dozens of fellows, including a senior militant commander, who all were killed in last week's retaliatory missile attack by Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement on a military parade, PressTV reported.

Both the UAE-backed separatists and the militants loyal to the former Saudi-allied Yemeni government serve the Riyadh-led coalition, which has been engaged, since 2015, in a bloody military campaign against Yemen aimed at reinstating ex-president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who resigned in 2014 and later fled to the Saudi capital.

During the funeral, the mourners chanted slogans against the self-proclaimed Hadi administration and exchanged gunfire with the guards at the presidential palace in Aden — where Hadi was supposed to be based but which remains largely empty as the ex-president lives in Riyadh.

The two sides pursue different agendas for Yemen's future; the separatists want independence from Yemen, while the other militants seek to bring Hadi back to power, but the two camps have joined forces in the Saudi-led battle against Yemen's Houthi movement, which has been both running state affairs and defending the country against the aggression.

Comment: From Elijah Magnier's latest:
The new war is essentially economic; it is a war of sanctions and limiting free movement of ship movements around the globe. It is a war of tankers and oil platforms. It is a starvation war where no one can threaten the enemy with a return to the "stone age" because the firepower is now universally available. Yemen is the best example: the threat of bombing Dubai forced the Emirates to seek Iranian mediation to prevent a missile attack against them. The Houthis, despite years of Saudi bombing of Yemen, have also managed to bomb Saudi airports, military bases and oil stations in the heart of Saudi Arabia, using cruise missiles and armed drones.
Alliances are shifting, and not in Saudi Arabia's favor.

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