Israel, Palestine and Iran

[sne]

Currently watching the Trump presser on the Israel-Palestine "peace process".

Such a bizarre thing. He's basically doing a stand up gig in front of an all pro Israeli crown and he is 100% giving them all they want while giving the Palestinians basically nothing but crumbs.

Israel has apparently done nothing wrong in their entire existence while the Palestinians are terrorists.

What a farce, he's offering them a deal far worse than the one they gave the native Americans back in the day. A Palestinian petting zoo, and with petting they mean phosphorous bombs.

Edited January 28, 2020 by sne

[villakram]

On 28/01/2020 at 12:28, sne said:

Currently watching the Trump presser on the Israel-Palestine "peace process".

Such a bizarre thing. He's basically doing a stand up gig in front of an all pro Israeli crown and he is 100% giving them all they want while giving the Palestinians basically nothing but crumbs.

Israel has apparently done nothing wrong in their entire existence while the Palestinians are terrorists.

What a farce, he's offering them a deal far worse than the one they gave the native Americans back in the day. A Palestinian petting zoo, and with petting they mean phosphorous bombs.

So VT is now allowing anti-semitism. Charming.

Edited January 30, 2020 by villakram
;)

[sne]

So that little publicity stunt by Trump and Netanyahu seem to have worked as intended with Abbas now saying the are ending all security ties with the US and Israel.

[villakram]

4 hours ago, sne said:

So that little publicity stunt by Trump and Netanyahu seem to have worked as intended with Abbas now saying the are ending all security ties with the US and Israel.

Abbas is a shill and sold out for his personal gain long ago. Such a pity that no proper politics can develop there due to the divide and conquer strategy of those managing the colonization and occupation project.

[sne]

Turkey preparing a major attack in the Idlib region in Syria according to Erdogan.

What a mess this is

[snowychap]

 

[LondonLax]

Russia no longer have anyone acting as a check on their ambitions for that region. 

[villakram]

10 hours ago, LondonLax said:

Russia no longer have anyone acting as a check on their ambitions for that region. 

Russia are taking part at the invitation of the sovereign government of the nation state of Syria.

USA/Turkey/UK/Saudi etc?

It's Turkish ambitions due to the leadership of Sultan Erdogan that are the immediate problem. 

[chrisp65]

2 hours ago, villakram said:

Russia are taking part at the invitation of the sovereign government of the nation state of Syria.

USA/Turkey/UK/Saudi etc?

It's Turkish ambitions due to the leadership of Sultan Erdogan that are the immediate problem. 

I dunno, you may have tarnished your credibility there Vladakram.

[villakram]

2 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

I dunno, you may have tarnished your credibility there Vladakram.

Facts do that these days. Vodka anyone?

[Awol]

Russian Air Force gave the Turks a bit of a pasting in Idlib today - actual Turkish army, not Turkey’s pet Jihadist fighters. 

As a result Erdogan is opening his borders to Europe (land and sea) to try and cause another refugee crisis, hoping to pressure NATO into supporting his Syrian adventure/invasion/Jihadist project. 

This is going to get really interesting, 2020 is shaping up to be a belter so far. 
 

Edit:

Reports of up to 35 Turkish soldiers killed, and as of 30 mins ago Turkey has cut access to Twitter (except for those with VPN’s!) within the country. 

Fun fact: this is the first time the Russian military has attacked and killed Turkish soldiers since WW1. 

Edited February 27, 2020 by Awol

[Tayls]

29 minutes ago, Awol said:

Russian Air Force gave the Turks a bit of a pasting in Idlib today - actual Turkish army, not Turkey’s pet Jihadist fighters. 

As a result Erdogan is opening his borders to Europe (land and sea) to try and cause another refugee crisis, hoping to pressure NATO into supporting his Syrian adventure/invasion/Jihadist project. 

This is going to get really interesting, 2020 is shaping up to be a belter so far. 
 

Edit:

Reports of up to 35 Turkish soldiers killed, and as of 30 mins ago Turkey has cut access to Twitter (except for those with VPN’s!) within the country. 

Fun fact: this is the first time the Russian military has attacked and killed Turkish soldiers since WW1. 

I might be horrendously wrong here but, weren’t they bezzies until recently during all of this? 

[Awol]

20 minutes ago, Tayls said:

I might be horrendously wrong here but, weren’t they bezzies until recently during all of this? 

Kinda. Turkey shot down a Russian jet in 2015, Putin growled and Erdogan fell into line. He’s drifted towards Russia and away from NATO since then, but they were always at odds over the future of the Assad regime and who governs Syria.

Turkey has invested a lot into Jihadi groups to oppose Assad, directly assisting ISIS, AQ and a whole constellation of others over the course of the Syrian war. They’ve gradually been squeezed back into the Idlib pocket and have nowhere else to retreat to except Turkey proper.

Now Assad is trying to finally finish the war with Iranian and Russian help, both side’s core interests are pitted against each other in a zero sum game.

Erdogan has been slapped hard today by Putin and is trying to take out that humiliation on Europe, which he (correctly in my view) sees as weak and unwilling to push back.

The paradox is that if he thinks Europe won’t stand up against him, it’s weird to imagine why the pressure of a new refugee crisis would persuade them/us to stand up to Russia militarily?! 

Erdogan bought his own hype unfortunately, as dictators often do. I don’t think he’s dumb enough to go to war with Russia, but domestically he’s going to be in a tight spot now. 

[villakram]

1 hour ago, Awol said:

Kinda. Turkey shot down a Russian jet in 2015, Putin growled and Erdogan fell into line. He’s drifted towards Russia and away from NATO since then, but they were always at odds over the future of the Assad regime and who governs Syria.

Turkey has invested a lot into Jihadi groups to oppose Assad, directly assisting ISIS, AQ and a whole constellation of others over the course of the Syrian war. They’ve gradually been squeezed back into the Idlib pocket and have nowhere else to retreat to except Turkey proper.

Now Assad is trying to finally finish the war with Iranian and Russian help, both side’s core interests are pitted against each other in a zero sum game.

Erdogan has been slapped hard today by Putin and is trying to take out that humiliation on Europe, which he (correctly in my view) sees as weak and unwilling to push back.

The paradox is that if he thinks Europe won’t stand up against him, it’s weird to imagine why the pressure of a new refugee crisis would persuade them/us to stand up to Russia militarily?! 

Erdogan bought his own hype unfortunately, as dictators often do. I don’t think he’s dumb enough to go to war with Russia, but domestically he’s going to be in a tight spot now. 

I think Erdogan will find Europe to be a less willing place now and the virus provides perfect context for any not on the explicit nationalist side of things to close up shop too.

[Awol]

So the Turks gave the Syrian Arab Army, Iranian IRGC & Hezbollah units a hammering last night, with armed drones hitting 100’s of targets in Idlib province of Syria. 

Seems to be shaping up the same way again this evening. If Russia allows this to continue unchallenged then Turkish army & their AQ allies will start taking non-trivial tract’s of ground from their current SAA owners.

Meanwhile Erdogan’s boys have been busily busing various flavours of refugee to the Greek border, advising them not to cross using official checkpoints. 

Pretty unfortunate timing for all this given the Coronavirus outbreak, enlarging the area where it could spread unchecked, right on Europe’s doorstep.

 

[sne]

Never waste a good crisis and so on

Quote

US to recognise annexation of occupied West Bank, Jordan Valley

Palestinians reject application of Israeli law on occupied WB areas, saying it will shut the door on two-state solution.

The United States said it was ready to recognise Israel's annexation of much of the occupied West Bank, but asked the new unity government also to negotiate with the Palestinians.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has reached a power-sharing deal to remain in office after three inconclusive elections, has vowed to press ahead with annexations that the Palestinians say will shut the door on a two-state solution.

"As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognise Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the vision foresees as being part of the State of Israel," a US State Department spokesperson said on Monday.

The step would be "in the context of the Government of Israel agreeing to negotiate with the Palestinians along the lines set forth in President Trump's Vision," she said.

The statement came after Netanyahu said on Monday he was confident the US would give Israel the approval within two months to move ahead with the de facto annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/recognise-israel-annexation-west-bank-jordan-valley-200428080228123.html

[HanoiVillan]

'in the context of the Government of Israel agreeing to negotiate with the Palestinians along the lines set forth in President Trump's Vision'

What a **** sentence.

[sne]

Likely about to kick off in Israel as well after the police shoot dead an unarmed Palestinian man living in a home for people with special needs. "They thought he had a gun"

Add this to the scheduled annexation of even more Palestinian soil on the West Bank and it will be a hot summer down there.

 

[sne]

Been shockingly quiet about this.

Quote

 

The slaying of 32-year-old Iyad al-Halak in east Jerusalem on Saturday by Border Police, who shot him after a pursuit outside Jerusalem’s Old City, has sparked anger once again among Israel’s Arab community over police treatment of Arab citizens.

The police have said the officers involved believed that Halak was holding a gun, although he was actually unarmed. A caretaker who was escorting Halak — who was autistic and on his way to a special needs institute — said she told the police numerous times that he was “disabled” before they shot him.

The incident was the third of its kind in May, during which an Arab citizen was killed by police personnel or security guards, and the 15th incident in the last decade in which an Arab citizen has been killed by police.

https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/iyad-al-halaks-killing-raises-concerns-over-police-behavior-towards-arabs-629960

Apparently the officers shot him an extra 3 times in the back for good measure when he was laying on the ground already shot and with his caretaker pleading with them that he was autistic and unarmed.

Edited June 7, 2020 by sne

[Demitri_C]

Iran blaming human error for the shicking downing of the Ukrainian flight in January (remember that?)

Not sure why this story isn't getting more coverage as this was heinous crime by the iranians even if it was a accidnet or not.