Tag Archives: Iran

Belligerent “Israel” Threatens World Peace After Afghanistan

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What Israel would ideally like to see happen is for the US to issue a credible military threat against Iran.

Based on the threats from Israel in recent days, it could be that this is the direction Israel is once again headed.

It wants to get Iranians to think it is preparing an attack, but no less important is getting the world and specifically Biden to think that scenes of Israeli fighter jets flying to Iran is a realistic option.

Everyone knows their part. Gantz and Kohavi are making the threats, Lapid is working the diplomats, and Bennett is trying to get Biden on board.

Israel Instructs Biden Not to Lift Trump-era ICC Sanctions

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“Israel may have the right to put others on trial, but certainly no one has the right to put the Jewish people and the State of Israel on trial.” — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon*

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged United States President Joe Biden not to lift sanctions imposed on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials by the administration of former President Donald Trump, according to a report by Axios.

The Biden administration had pledged to “thoroughly review” the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, which had accused the Hague-based tribunal of infringing on US sovereignty by authorising an investigation into alleged war crimes by the US forces in Afghanistan.

Israel has increased pressure on the ICC following its ruling in early February that the court’s jurisdiction extends to the occupied Palestinian territories, paving the way for it to open investigations into war crimes committed by both Israelis and Palestinians, according to the report.

Israel and the US were quick to condemn the court’s announcement, with Israel accusing the court of “pure anti-Semitism” and the US saying it had “serious concerns” about the court’s decision and adding that it was reviewing the ruling.

Neither ally is party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the ICC, and both have sought to shield their citizens from prosecution in the court.

Washington, however, has supported and engaged with the court in various forms since it began operations in 2002.

The fight over the court’s jurisdiction has presented an early challenge for the Biden administration, which is seeking to re-engage in multilateral organizations.

Israel, meanwhile, has reportedly urged allies to pressure ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, one of the officials currently under US sanctions, no to move forward with any investigation involving Israelis.

On February 13, British lawyer Karim Khan was elected as the next prosecutor of the ICC to replace Bensouda, who retires in June. Khan, 50, led a United Nations probe into atrocities by the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.

Axios reported that Israeli diplomats are urging US officials to keep the sanctions as leverage and that the issue was also raised during a call between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Israeli counterpart Gabriel Ashkenazi.

Source: Al Jazeera

How ‘IsraHell is shaping Biden’s Iran policy

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First published … March 10, 2021

While Joe Biden the candidate wanted to quickly normalize relations with Iran and re-enter the JCPOA, Joe Biden the president has, as the developments that have happened so far, deviated from his stated course of action.

To a large extent, Biden has appropriated Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy and has refused to lift sanctions on Iran and simply make the US a part of the Iran nuclear deal.

To a significant extent, this dramatic change in policy, while not completely surprising for the Iranians, is a result of the way Israel is pushing the Biden administration away from reconciliation and normalisation.

In fact, a crucial reason for Biden’s appropriation of Trump’s “maximum pressure” strategy is the way the Israelis have very quickly implanted their own discourse vis-à-vis Iran in the mindset of the Biden administration.

Echoing what the Israelis have been saying for years, Anthony Blinken recently remarked that Iran was only “weeks” or “months” away from making a bomb.

Blinken and constituents

Although there is a huge difference between having the capacity to build a bomb and actually building and using a bomb, the US sees this [doubtful] proximity to building a bomb as a crucial factor that has made the Biden administration change its plans from re-joining the JCPOA to emphasising renegotiations. It has led it to refuse to lift sanctions.

The hard-line position that the Biden administration has taken feeds directly into the Israeli narrative.

What Blinken said matches perfectly with what Israeli officials have also recently claimed.

According to a recent assessment issued by Israel’s Militray Intelligence Directorate, “Iran may be up to two years away from making a nuclear weapon if it chooses to do so.”

The report further says that Iran’s current enrichment level brings it closer to various “breakout” estimates about how quickly it could enrich uranium to 90%, and also begin to build better missiles and a weapons system that might lead to a nuclear weapon.

For Israel, therefore, it is of utmost importance that the US remains focused on the “violations” that Iran has committed by enriching uranium beyond the limits imposed by the JCPOA.

A recent report of The Jerusalem Post thus sums Israel’s current approach.

It says, “What is important for Israel is that the brinkmanship continue, and that Iran’s violations and Israel’s concerns continue to be recognized.

For that to happen, it is also important for close US-Israel cooperation and discussion in order to prevent nuclear proliferation by the Tehran regime.”

The report refers to an IDF intelligence officer Maj.-Gen. Tamir Heiman who said in a briefing on the IDF assessment that Iran is at an unprecedented low point and is “battered, but on its feet,” following actions carried out by Israel and the US.

Tehran is banking on the Biden administration for some breathing room. It is incumbent on the US – and Israel – to make sure that is not allowed to happen for nothing.”

Now, the fact that the Biden administration has refused to take a step back and lift its sanctions to pave the way for the US’ re-entry shows how closely the US and Israel are already coordinating their policies vis-à-vis Iran.

The Biden administration’s announcement that the US would not re-join the agreement or even lift sanctions unless Iran halts enrichment dovetails perfectly with what Netanyahu had said just before the US elections.

To quote him, “There can be no going back to the previous nuclear agreement. We must stick to an uncompromising policy of ensuring that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons.”

The Biden’s administration’s capitulation to Israel’s uncompromising policy vis-à-vis Iran has led Iran to stick to its own path. An official Iranian statement released on February 28 said that:

“the way forward is quite clear. The US must end its illegal and unilateral sanctions and return to its JCPOA commitments.

This issue neither needs negotiation, nor a resolution by the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Islamic Republic of Iran will respond to actions with action and just in the same way that it will return to its JCPOA commitments as sanctions are removed…”

The hardening of US and Iranian position serves Israeli interests in the best possible way. An unresolved nuclear power tussle in the Middle East would keep Israel at the centre stage of regional politics.

Given Israel’s recent rapprochement with the UAE and other Gulf states, tensions in the Gulf would not only reinforce Israel’s direct security ties with these Gulf states, but the scenario could very well make other Gulf states join The Abraham Accords.

Tensions with Iran, therefore, could allow Israel to establish itself as the new regional hegemon.

Israel has already got supporters in the form of not only the UAE but Saudi Arabia as well.

They have both stated that they would be open to a deal only if it went well beyond the previous one. According to them, any deal, in addition to putting limits on Iran’s nuclear program, must include provisions aimed at reversing Iran’s ballistic missile program, ending its “meddling” in other countries and the militias it supports in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere.

Israel, as it stands, is already leading the Gulf states in lobbying the US for an agreement that not only limits Iran’s nuclear program, but also curtails its national power potential in many other ways.

As some reports in the US mainstream media show, the Mossad chief, Yossi Cohen, and a team of experts will soon travel to Washington to brief senior American officials about what they see as the threats still posed by Iran, hoping to persuade the US to hold out for harsher restrictions on Iran in any deal.

Iran, on the other hand, is unlikely to change its position vis-à-vis any new deal, especially the one that tends to force it into a virtual capitulation.

China and Russia continue to support an unconditional US return to the JCPOA in exchange for Iran’s return to full compliance with the deal.

An unconditional return “is the key to breaking the deadlock,” said Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, in a recent news conference.

But “breaking the deadlock” is not what Israel and its allies in the Gulf are seeking to achieve.

They are pushing the US to adopt a policy that keeps the deadlock alive unless Iran’s power and regional influence can be fully and permanently curtailed.

For the Israelis, the path to Iran’s capitulation demands a US capitulation to Israel first so that they can shape the US policy in a way that best serves their interests. So far, the Israelis have been successful.

israel’s top military chief has ORDERED Biden not to return to the Iran nuclear deaL

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Another headline for the same story:
World War 3: Israel military chief orders plans to attack Iran – Biden given ultimatum
ISRAEL is ready to launch an attack on Iran and has warned the US against a return to the Iran nuclear deal. Historically, the israel regime will bait the US regime into war. This Zionist imperialist outpost is like NATO: all the allies must come to it’s aid and support anything israel does. That’s the rule. israel doesn’t ask us.

Israel’s top military chief has said the army is preparing to combat the threat posed by Iran and has ordered US President Joe Biden not to return to the Iran nuclear deal – even if the accord is strengthened.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told Fox News that the Israeli military is updating its plans to strike Iran’s nuclear program and is prepared to act independently.

United States is only superpower in the world and it gives billions of aids to Israel every year. it is easy to believe U.S. is the boss of Israel. However, israel is doing what ever they want in the middle east. We are trapped in Iraq and now there is Iran. And they opens a new front in Lebannon and bomb that little country to hell.

Gantz falsely portrayed Iran’s recent steps to advance its civilian nuclear program as the Islamic Republic racing to develop a bomb, something he said Israel would stop.

“If the world stops them before, it’s very much good.

But if not, we must stand independently and we must defend ourselves by ourselves,” he said.

Gantz cited nuclear activity that Iran is willing to quickly reverse if the US lifts sanctions and returns to the nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

But Gantz, like most Israeli officials, is opposed to a revival of the agreement.

Israeli officials have been making veiled threats about attacking Iran if President Biden rejoins the JCPOA.

Other incidents in the region that are being blamed on Iran are causing some to fear that Israel might be preparing an attack sooner rather than later.

Without providing evidence for the claim, Israel blamed Iran for an explosion on an Israeli-owned cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman that happened last week.

No crew members were hurt, and the ship was back at sea a few days after the incident.

When asked about possible retaliation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was “striking at” Iran throughout the region.

On Wednesday, Israel blamed Iran for another incident in the region.

Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel claimed Iran was responsible for a large oil spill that hit Israel last month.

Surprisingly, Israeli military and intelligence officials doubted Gamliel’s claim, as did other officials in the Environmental Protection Ministry.

Regardless of whether Iran was responsible or not, Israel could be planning a strike against the Islamic Republic over the two incidents.

Sources told Business Insider that the Biden administration and its European allies are fearing that Israel is planning a “substantial” attack on Iran.

‘israel’ Blames Iran for Vessel Attack

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Israeli’s defense minister Benny Gantz said an initial assessment found Iran was responsible for the explosion.

Of course!

28 Feb 2021

Emirati officials did not immediately acknowledge or respond to requests for comment on the vessel docking in the country.

The blast on the ship, a Bahamian-flagged roll-on, roll-off vehicle cargo vessel, recalled a string of attacks on foreign oil tankers in 2019 that the US Navy blamed on Iran.

Tehran denied any role in the suspected assaults, which happened near the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil chokepoint.

On Saturday, Israeli’s defence minister Benny Gantz said an initial assessment found Iran was responsible for the explosion.

Gilad Erdan, Israeli ambassador to the US and United Nations, told Israel’s Army Radio on Sunday “it was no secret that the Iranians are trying to harm Israeli targets”, adding the explosion on the ship bore the hallmarks of other Iranian attacks.

Haaretz newspaper reported that Israeli defence officials flew to Dubai on Saturday to investigate the incident.

‘Espionage’ mission

The Helios Ray discharged cars at various ports in the Gulf before making its way out of the Middle East towards Singapore.

The blast hit as the ship was sailing from the Saudi port Dammam out of the Gulf of Oman, forcing it to turn to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, for inspection.

Iranian authorities have not publicly commented on the ship.

The country’s hardline Kayhan daily, whose editor-in-chief was appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, alleged the Helios Ray was “possibly” on an “espionage” mission in the region, without offering any evidence to support the claim.

The Sunday report speculated the ship may have been “trapped in an ambush by a branch of resistance axis”, referring to Iranian proxies in the region.

Iran also has blamed Israel for a recent series of attacks, including a mysterious explosion last summer that destroyed an advanced centrifuge assembly plant at its Natanz nuclear facility and the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a top Iranian scientist who founded Iran’s military nuclear programme two decades ago.

Iran’s repeated vows to avenge Fakhrizadeh’s killing have raised alarms in Israel, particularly as the Gulf sees an increase in traffic from Israel following its normalisation deals with the UAE and Bahrain.

Source : News Agencies

U.S. stands by demand Iran return to nuclear deal before U.S. does

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The insistence that the US will reenter the JCPOA only after Iran resumes full compliance has been met with disbelief in Tehran. It makes no sense for the government that violated all of its commitments to make demands of one of the governments that is still a party to the agreement, and by refusing to rejoin the agreement first Biden is jeopardizing the agreement’s survival for no good reason. And they are tacking on more bullshit for a ‘new’ deal. I’m sure ‘Israel’ helped with that.

The White House later issued a statement saying that Biden “affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to’ Israel’s security’ and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the U.S.-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation.”

Listening to Blinken here,there are strings attached. He doesn’t even sound hopeful, because it’s bullshit.

The White House later issued a statement saying that Biden “affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel’s security and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the U.S.-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation.”

 

Iran Foreign Minister Tells Biden US ‘Violated’ Nuclear Deal, So It Is US ‘That Has to Return’

While U.S. President Joe Biden insisted Sunday that Tehran must halt its uranium enrichment program before the U.S. rejoins the Iran nuclear deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif countered that it was former President Donald Trump who abandoned the agreement and deprived Iranians of food and medicine—and therefore the onus is on Washington to bring the U.S. back into compliance with the pact by lifting all sanctions on Iran.

“The sooner the current administration returns to international obligations, the sooner it can start rebuilding its reputation across the globe.”
—Javad Zarif, Iranian Foreign Minister

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has demanded that Tehran adhere to the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) before the U.S. does. When asked by CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell on Sunday if the U.S. will “lift sanctions first in order to get back to the negotiating table,” Biden responded curtly: “No.” And White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Monday reiterated that “it’s really up to Iran to come back.”

But Zarif made the case that “it was the United States that left the deal [and] it was the United States that violated the deal” in 2018 when Trump withdrew from the agreement and imposed sanctions on Iran. “So it is for the United States to return to the deal to implement its obligations.”

“Iran never left the deal,” Zarif told CNN host Fareed Zakaria on Sunday. “Iran is in the deal. Iran has reduced some of its commitments, in line with the deal,” he said, referring to Iran’s decision to resume uranium enrichment—though well below levels required to develop nuclear weapons— after the U.S. breached the agreement by reinstating sanctions.

“The way to go back to full compliance, on the part of Iran, is for the United States, which has totally left the deal, to come back and implement its obligations,” Iran’s foreign minister added. “Now it’s clear, it’s a decision that President Biden and his advisers need to [m]ake. Whether they want to break with the failed policies of President Trump, or whether they want to build on his failures.”

“If they want to build on his failures” Zarif warned, “they will only get failure as a result.”

According to Zarif, Iran has “a statutory requirement to reduce the presence of U.N. inspectors… somewhere around February 21,” at which point “you will not see the additional protocol implemented in Iran,” a reference to Tehran’s plan to expel United Nations nuclear inspectors if the U.S. does not lift sanctions in the next two weeks.

When you withdraw from Syria because you say you want to bring the troops home but then assassinate an Iranian general while he’s abroad.

“That doesn’t mean the window [for diplomacy] is fully shut,” Zarif added, stressing that “if the United States and its partners return to the deal, return to full compliance, Iran will reverse its actions. All the actions we are taking are reversible.”

“But obviously,” Iran’s top diplomat noted, “it would be much simpler if the United States decided to make good on its commitments earlier rather than later. And it is good for the United States’ reputation because President Trump not only destroyed the reputation of the United States domestically but he destroyed the reputation of the United States internationally.”

Emphasizing that an “international agreement is not a revolving door” enabling one party “to simply come and go as they please,” Zarif said that “the United States must make it clear and must give guarantees to Iran and other members of the deal that the behavior of President Trump will not be repeated because the international community has suffered enough from the lawlessness of somebody who acts on a whim.”

Psaki on Monday claimed that “if Iran comes into full compliance with its obligations under the JCPOA, the United States will do the same, and then use that as a platform to build a larger and stronger agreement that also addresses other areas of concern.”

“The entire nuclear deal is non-negotiable because it was fully negotiated. We need to implement something that we negotiated.”
—Zarif

With respect to U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s previously stated desire to make negotiating limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program a precondition for U.S. reentry into the deal, Zarif said that Sullivan, who was part of the Obama team that negotiated the JCPOA in 2015, “should know better.”

According to Zarif, “It was because of the United States’ inability to address its own military sales to our region, hundreds of billions of dollars of military sales… going to the countries that are committing genocide and war crimes in Yemen and elsewhere” that restricting Iran’s ballistic missile program was not on the negotiating table more than five years ago.

“We agreed on what to deal with and what not to deal with,” added Zarif. “The United States cannot base its policy on ‘what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable.'”

Stressing that “we do not buy the horse twice,” Zarif clarified that “the entire nuclear deal is non-negotiable because it was fully negotiated. We need to implement something that we negotiated.”

Iran’s foreign minister continued:

Put yourselves in our shoes. You agreed to a deal. You agreed to give and take. You agreed to sacrifice certain demands that you had because you agreed not to deal with certain issues…

We waited for five years. The United States did not implement the deal, but we did implement the deal. And we did fulfill our promises, and we are going to fulfill our promises again if the United States fulfills its promises…

We agreed on the JCPOA. The United States should start making good on its promises that it violated for four very, very long years for Iranians.

“The sooner… the current administration returns to… international obligations,” said Zarif, “the sooner it can start rebuilding its reputation across the globe.”

US shows off nuclear-capable B-52 bombers on Iran’s doorstep

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The US Air Force has published footage of its B-52 Stratofortress nuclear-capable bombers flying over the Persian Gulf in what was described as a mission showcasing America’s “global reach capability.”

The mission that saw B-52s flying non-stop from the Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana was conducted on Wednesday, just a week after President Joe Biden’s inauguration. During their flyover of the Gulf, the American bombers were accompanied by US Navy and US Marines’ fighters as well as Saudi Air Force jets.

A video released by the US Army Central Command on Saturday shows at least two bombers in the skies of the Middle East accompanied by a total of four American and Saudi fighter jets.

The “defensive” mission was aimed at “strengthening partnerships” and demonstrating the US military’s ability to “deploy airpower anywhere in the world to deter potential aggression,” the US Air Forces Central said in a series of Twitter posts.

The US military did not explicitly mention Iran in its statements but some media still said it might have been a signal to the Islamic Republic amid ongoing tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Relations between the two nations became increasingly hostile under Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.

Under the Trump administration, the US unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal and reimposed all previously lifted sanctions against Iran as well as introduced new ones, vowing to bring Iranian oil exports to “zero.”

In January 2020, the US assassinated a high-ranking Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a targeted drone strike during his visit to Iraq, further leading to a spike in tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The Biden administration has so far demonstrated a more reserved attitude toward Tehran and repeatedly signaled the US’ intention to return to the nuclear deal.

However, the Wednesday flight also showed that Washington apparently is not ready to abandon such demonstrations of force when it comes to its adversaries, particularly in the Middle East.

Earlier, Tehran urged Biden to return to the deal and lift all sanctions imposed during Trump’s time in office, adding that only after that would it return to its own commitments under the agreement related to the uranium-enrichment levels and the limits on the stock of enriched uranium Iran can possess.

Also on rt.com Tehran says Biden administration must remove crippling sanctions if they want Iran to cut enhanced enrichment program

Israel warns Biden against reviving the Iran nuclear deal

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Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Holds 45-Second Silence in U.N. Speech on Make a GIF
Aviv Kohavi said the Biden administration should not return to JCPOA

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi said on Tuesday that he ordered the military to draw up new plans to attack Iran’s nuclear program.

He also warned the new Biden administration against reviving the Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

“I have ordered the IDF to prepare a number of operational plans, in addition to the existing ones,” Kohavi said. “We are studying these plans and we will develop them over the next year.”

Kohavi’s comments are just the latest threatening comments towards Iran from Israeli officials. Earlier this month, an Israeli minister from the Likud party said Israel will have to attack Iran if the Biden administration returns to the JCPOA.

Warning against a revival of the JCPOA in his comments on Tuesday, Kohavi said the new administration should not let up the pressure that the Trump administration left on Iran in the form of crippling economic sanctions.

“These pressures must continue. No matter what happens. Anything that releases that pressure gives them oxygen gives them air and will allow them to continue to violate the current agreement,” he said.

Kohavi, like most Israeli officials, warned that Iran is racing to develop a nuclear weapon.

He cited Iran’s recent decision to increase uranium enrichment to 20 percent as an example of this.

But uranium enriched at 20 percent has a civilian purpose. It is used to make fuel rods for the Tehran Research Reactor, a facility built by the US in the 1960s that can make medical isotopes.

The Iranians only recently decided to increase enrichment to 20 percent as a response to the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the prominent Iranian scientist who was killed in an apparent Israeli plot.

Iran has also made it clear that they will return to compliance with the JCPOA if the US lifts sanctions.

Returning to compliance means reducing uranium enrichment and other violations of the deal that Kohavi cited as reasons to plan an attack on Iran.

Pentagon arming the Talibans

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The Pentagon is still going after the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy

Officially the Pentagon is fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, but according to the Washington Post [1], it is secretly arming them, professedly to help them fight ISIS (aka Daesh), another official enemy of the United States.

At the same time, however, numerous testimonies from several countries of the “Greater Middle East” reveal that the very same Pentagon, who is officially fighting ISIS there, is covertly arming it.

These facts prove that the Pentagon is still going after the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski strategy: to provoke “endless wars” aiming to deprive all states in the “Greater Middle East” of the ability to stand up against financial imperialism.

War may be a racket, as General Smedley Butler claimed long ago, but who cares these days since business is booming?

And let’s add to such profits a few other all-American motivations. Start with the fact that, in some curious sense, war is in the American bloodstream.

As former New York Times war correspondent Chris Hedges once put it, “War is a force that gives us meaning.”

Report: Israel’s Military Drawing Up Plans to Strike Iran

Historically, we Americans are a violent people who have invested much in a self-image of toughness now being displayed across the “global battlespace.” (Hence all the talk in this country not about our soldiers but about our “warriors.”)

As the bumper stickers I see regularly where I live say: “God, guns, & guts made America free.” To make the world freer, why not export all three?

CHANEL” – Vietnam Anti-War Poster Project

Add in, as well, the issue of political credibility. No president wants to appear weak and in the United States of the last many decades, pulling back from a war has been the definition of weakness.

No one — certainly not Donald Trump — wants to be known as the president who “lost” Afghanistan or Iraq.

As was true of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon in the Vietnam years, so in this century fear of electoral defeat has helped prolong the country’s hopeless wars.

Generals, too, have their own fears of defeat, fears that drive them to escalate conflicts (call it the urge to surge) and even to advocate for the use of nuclear weapons, as General William Westmoreland did in 1968 during the Vietnam War.

Washington’s own deeply embedded illusions and deceptions also serve to generate and perpetuate its wars.

Lauding our troops as “freedom fighters” for peace and prosperity, presidents like George W. Bush have waged a set of brutal wars in the name of spreading democracy and a better way of life.

The trouble is: incessant war doesn’t spread democracy — though in the twenty-first century we’ve learned that it does spread terror groups — it kills it.

At the same time, our leaders, military and civilian, have given us a false picture of the nature of the wars they’re fighting.

They continue to present the US military and its vaunted “smart” weaponry as a precision surgical instrument capable of targeting and destroying the cancer of terrorism, especially of the radical Islamic variety.

Despite the hoopla about them, however, those precision instruments of war turn out to be blunt indeed, leading to the widespread killing of innocents, the massive displacement of people across America’s war zones, and floods of refugees who have, in turn, helped spark the rise of the populist right in lands otherwise still at peace.

Lurking behind the incessant warfare of this century is another belief, particularly ascendant in the Trump White House: that big militaries and expensive weaponry represent “investments” in a better future — as if the Pentagon were the Bank of America or Wall Street.

Steroidal military spending continues to be sold as a key to creating jobs and maintaining America’s competitive edge, as if war were America’s primary business. (And perhaps it is!)

Those who facilitate enormous military budgets and frequent conflicts abroad still earn special praise here.

Consider, for example, Senator John McCain’s rapturous final sendoff, including the way arms maker Lockheed Martin lauded him as an American hero supposedly tough and demanding when it came to military contractors. (And if you believe that, you’ll believe anything.)

Put all of this together and what you’re likely to come up with is the American version of George Orwell’s famed formulation in his novel 1984: “war is peace.”
The War the Pentagon Knew How to Win

READ MORE…

Hello Biden: A War With Iran Predicted

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Since the days of the Tower of Babel, there has been no defilement in the world like the defilement of Zionism. ~Rabbi Yehuda Greenwald

Terrorist acts, economic sabotage and the nuclear threat all violate the Charter of the United Nations, but Israel is the only member state of that organization that does not to abide by its rules, and has not done so for three quarters of a century.

The designation of regular Americans, who exercised their right to protest on Capitol Hill, as “Domestic Terrorists”, along with Biden’s plan to introduce a “Domestic Terrorism” bill or Patriot Act 2.0, seems to be in preparation prior to bombing Iran and thereby cowering the opposition and preventing “right-wingers” (aka the millions upon millions who voted for Trump and are against such a war) from protesting in mass.

“And as the inevitable companion to Patriot Act 2.0, there will be war overseas,” predicts Pepe Escobar.

So prepare for a possible war with Iran under Biden. A war that could start by hitting Syria first. And since Syria and Iran have a mutual defense pact, Iran would be dragged in, followed by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

All in all, the ultimate target is Iran, the head of the axis of resistance against Apartheid Israel’s destructive expansion in the Middle East.

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How Can “Israel” Find Peace?

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This building [of the Holy Land] is nothing but destruction… but such a group is very dangerous to the Jewish people, and we must stay as far as possible from them… Worse than all of the above is Zionism and their shekels that they give to strengthen the sinners in Jerusalem, who anger G-d in His palace and His city.

Satan himself disguises himself at the head of the Zionist organization.

(Mishkenos Haro’im volume 6)

Report: Israel Plotting How to Sabotage Biden’s Return to Iran Deal

Israel’s PM and defense minister at odds over Biden’s Iran policy

With the incoming Biden administration expected to return to diplomacy with Iran, Israeli officials are working on ways to sabotage a revival of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

An Israeli source told Bloomberg that Israeli officials are weighing their options and deciding between a public crusade against the JCPOA or a quieter strategy through behind-the-scenes engagement with the Biden administration. In the coming weeks, Israel is expected to send a stream of envoys to Washington to discuss the JCPOA.

Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have made their opposition to Biden’s known. Reports from Israeli media said Netanyahu is at odds with Defense Minister Benny Gantz over handling Biden’s Iran policy.

Netanyahu is looking to box Gantz out of Iran talks with the Biden administration. Gantz was set to take over as prime minister in November 2021 as part of a power-sharing deal between his Blue and White party and Netanyahu’s Likud. But the coalition collapsed, and Israelis are heading back to the polls for another election in March.

The upcoming election could cause Netanyahu to move hard and fast against Biden’s attempts at diplomacy with Iran. Considering he likely signed off on the November assassination of Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, an aggressive move is not out of the question for Netanyahu.

Any hardline moves from Netanyahu could impede Biden’s plans. It might require Biden to take a strong public stance against Netanyahu and Israel early in his administration.

Russia Calls Israel ‘the Problem’ in the Middle East

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Israelis have steadily annexed and settled across territories deemed Palestinian by the United Nations.

This 45 percent lives illegally on Palestine lands. Every land owner who emerges from the rubble and protests is a terrorist.

— “Zionism (is) the moral legatee of the victims of the Holocaust….the most pervasive and insidious of the Zionist myths; in fact, Zionists, like future prime minister Yitzhak Shamir, openly colluded with the Nazis for their own purposes – to use persecution as justification for a future Zionist state and more.” _Jews against Zionism

In a noteworthy interview with an Israeli newspaper on Tuesday, Russia has accused Israel of being responsible for the unrest in the Middle East, while relieving Iran and its allies of blame.

“The problem in the region is not Iranian activities,” Russian ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov told the Jerusalem Post in comments later shared by Moscow’s embassy in Tel Aviv.

“It’s a lack of understanding between countries and noncompliance with U.N. resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

Israelis have steadily annexed and settled across territories deemed Palestinian by the United Nations.
Everybody Says That Israelis Are a Bunch of Warmongers but the Truth Is WE JUST WANT PEACE fbPray4Pal a Piece of Lebanon a Piece of Jordan a Piece of Syria #Israel Is
Violence between the two sides has stymied peace efforts for decades, though frictions between Israel and Iran, along with fellow pro-Palestinian partners such as Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, have taken precedence.

“Israel is attacking Hezbollah, Hezbollah is not attacking Israel,” Viktorov said, arguing there is “no proof Hezbollah created the tunnels” Israel has uncovered along its contested northern border with Lebanon.

Newsweek recently spoke to both Israeli and Hezbollah officials who said they were ready for another possible conflict between them as tensions ran high.

In response to Israeli strikes on Syria, Damascus’ mission to the U.N. expressed to Newsweek last month that countries, especially permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, should stand against such aggression.

Viktorov heeded the call.

He said Israel must “not attack the territories of sovereign U.N. members.” He acknowledged that Israel gave Russia prior notice before such strikes because “coordination is about the safety of the Russian military in Syria,” but emphasized that “there is no way that we are approving any Israeli strikes on Syria, never in the past and never in the future.”

Russia has largely blamed foreign powers acting in Syria without the government’s position for disrupting work to achieve peace in the war-torn nation.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov touted Moscow’s efforts to “break the back” of terrorism in Syria since the 2015 military intervention there, and criticized the ongoing U.S. presence in the country.

“The tasks of providing decent life conditions for millions of Syrians, who have survived that devastating war, are coming to the fore.

It requires the participation of the entire world community,” Lavrov told the Rome 2020 Mediterranean Dialogues.

“We have to state with regret that in response to constructive shifts in political settlement, Damascus receives illegal presence of U.S. forces on its territory, which is overtly used for encouraging separatism and for hindering the restoration of the country’s unity.”