Russia seems to somewhat de-russify the conflict in Ukraine:

15:39 GMT: – Igor Strelkov, the field commander and defense minister of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk, has resigned, according to a statement published on the local militia’s website. He will be replaced by Vladimir Kononov as military commander, the website said.

08:36 GMT: – Head of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic Valery Bolotov has resigned his position, citing an injury that prevents him to work to the full extend. He said the republic’s Defense Minister Igor Plotnitsky is likely to replace him and that he will remain among the officials of the unrecognized entity in another capacity.

Last week the Donetsk People’s Republic, the other of the two self-proclaimed entities in eastern Ukraine, had its head Aleksandr Boroday replaced.

At least Strelkov and Boroday are Russian citizens. Bolotov was born in Russia. Their replacements seem to be from Ukraine.

This step was probably taken to distance Russia from the insurgency.

Meanwhile 12 Red Sektor nazis from an Einsatzgruppe on its way to the battlefield were killed yesterday in an ambush by the insurgents. The city center of insurgency held Donetsk was under artillery fire today and several civilians died. Over thousand have died in the last two weeks alone and the situation in the insurgency held cities is bad with water and electricity distributions destroyed by Ukrainian government bombardments.

The Ukraine government seems unable to decide if it will allow an aid-convoy of 280 trucks with humanitarian supply from Russia into the areas of conflict. Letting the trucks in would require at least a temporary cease-fire and a stop of the continued artillery bombardment. Not letting in the urgently needed goods puts the Ukrainian government into a very bad light.

The sanctions the European Union was pressed to push onto Russia prove very effective in sending Europe back into a recession. While Europe’s economic growth in the second quarter was flat and is likely to turn negative Russia’s economy continues to grow.

This is the well deserved punishment for following the crazy foreign policies of the United States which are designed to keep Europe and Russia weak and apart.

Eight years after the United States and Iran agreed to enthrone Nouri al-Maliki as prime minister of Iraq they agreed to replace him with the relatively unknown Haider al-Abadi.

The United States claims it wants a more "inclusive" government while Iran goes along just making sure someone friendly to its own plans is at the top. Al-Abadi seems to fit both their ideas. But the hope that changing a head will change the path Iraq is on is vain. It is only very seldom the man at the top who is a country's problem.

It is a U.S. foreign policy fallacy that changing the man at the top, always likened to Hitler, will solve everything. The fallacy is somewhat self enforcing. Some "senior administration official" leaks to the media that X is probably not such a good man. The media then go around and collect anecdotes, rumors and quotes which support the unspecific claims about X. The next day the "senior administration official" reads the New York Times or watches CNN and fells affirmed in his position because, you know, X is really a very bad man and the sole problem and all you need to confirm that is right there in the media.

But usually it is not the person who manages a nation who is forming that nation. The nation and its situation are just as much forming the person leading it. Ghaddafi wasn't the way he was because he created Libya to his likeness but because successfully leading a united Libya required him to be the way he was. Russia is not re-surging because of Putin but because Putin formed his policies to the way Russia is. It is that, not his personality, that gives him sky high poll ratings. Maliki led Iraq in a way that gave him the support of the majority of its people. He did not give in to the blackmail by Sunni tribes which had become accustomed to the bribes the U.S. military had showered them with. It is that "lack of inclusiveness" that made him successful:

Mr. Maliki’s bloc won the most seats in April’s national election, and Mr. Maliki personally won more votes than any other politician.

If al-Abadi changes Maliki's major policies he will have no support from the majority of his country and will either end up as a brutal dictator or dead.

The rules of the political cycle in unruly countries apply:

1. A strongman is replaced by a weak man who resorts to force to rule over a fractured society
2. See #1

Replacing Maliki, a still complicate and uncertain process, will not change Iraq, its problems, like the U.S. support for a Kurdish oil state, or the policy decisions its leaders will have to make to stay liked and alive.

Some meta issues:

If your comment does not appear it is usually hanging in the automatic spam filter over which I have NO influence. I manually check the spam queue at least once a day and release non-spam comments falsly caught in there. It does not help when you repeatedly try to publish the same comment over and over again filling up the spam queue. It just makes it more laborious for me to clean up the queue.

Some commentators are blocked from this blog and I will continue to aggressively block those who fall in one of these categories:

• One issue folks: Everything happening in this world must be the result of the deft work of the Zionists, the British royals, the freemasons, the Jews, Islam, the Pope or who/whatever your favorite personal demon is. Sorry, the world is not that simple. If that fact is beyond your mental capacity go elsewhere. Such simpleminded themes do not help to gain knowledge but detract from the discussion of the issues at hand.
• People who use (too many) four letter words and lack general manners.
• Those who constantly attack other commentators or the proprietor of this blog. If you have a difference in opinion use arguments, not foul speech.
• People who only comment to promote another blog.
• Folks who use many many one-liner-comments thereby disrupting the flow instead of collecting their thoughts and writing one comment that fits the purpose.

Solely depending on my mood and personal judgement I may ban folks for other reasons. It is my time and money that keeps this blog up and the blocking privilege is part of the gratification. Deal with it.

—

Use as open thread …

A month ago I wrote that the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) is now the only game in town when it comes to insurgents fighting against the Syrian (and now also Iraqi) state:

In a few month the Islamic Front will no longer exist. It will vanish like that phantasy of a Free Syrian Army. Parts of it will swear allegiance to the Islamic State, parts will give up fighting and parts will change over to the government side. Then the real war against ISIS will start.

The "moderate rebels" Washington has been searching for for years are a unicorn. Whomever the U.S. gave weapons to and trained in Jordan and Turkey is now part of ISIS.

The Islamic State consolidates itself (recommended) in west Iraq and across the east and north of Syria:

The frontiers of the new Caliphate declared by Isis on 29 June are expanding by the day and now cover an area larger than Great Britain and inhabited by at least six million people, a population larger than that of Denmark, Finland or Ireland. In a few weeks of fighting in Syria Isis has established itself as the dominant force in the Syrian opposition, …

By now IS generates enough money from oil sales and blackmail to support itself. It has taken an immense haul of weapons from four Iraqi divisions and now also from the Syrian Brigade 93 which it defeated a week ago:

In addition to 5+ 122mm D-30 howitzers, the IS captured approx. 20 T-55 tanks & 1 ZSU-23-4 Shilka SPAAG

Note: The haul in Iraq was much, much bigger than this one.

The Islamic State has enough experienced soldiers to handle these weapons. How good its logistics are run though is an open questions. Those may eventually turn out to be its weak point.

The Islamic State also gained in numbers. Even the ardent promoter of the non-existent Syrian Free Army Hassan Hassan now admits that all these folks are under IS control. International forces so far aligned with Al-Qaeda are moving over to IS. Tribes in the newly captured areas pledge allegiance to the Islamic State and add to its forces.

One military expert says:

Cont. reading: The Islamic State Prepares For A Big Attack – Baghdad Or Aleppo?

by Malooga
lifted from a comment

@Noirette, et al, from previous thread: Evgeny Fedorov's presentations are very good; certainly in communicating the level of threat Russia feels. Also recommended are the various audio and video presentations of Joaquin Flores to be found around the web and on his website – Center for Syncretic Studies. He's quite young and a bit of an odd bird — a former radical leftist from LA, now Dugin acolyte, or so he claims — one never knows just who anyone really is these days on the innertubes. But he is quite humble and he has the big picture of a multi-polar world — something which can unite people over many political persuasions — foremost in his mind. Both give a good sense of what might be expected over the long game, and why Russia is taking things slow. Essential background.

But the most concise and prescient background on the current world situation are two brief articles Christof Lehmann, proprietor of the nsnbc website, wrote: first, "Russia – E.U. Meeting in Brussels: Risk of Middle East and European War increased," way back on Dec 22, 2012, and the second, "The Atlantic Axis and the Making of a War in Ukraine", written last week.

In the former article he begins: "On 21. December 2012 the political leaders of 27 E.U. countries and Russia´s President Vladimir Putin met in Brussels. On the top of the agenda were problems which are directly related to the ongoing war in Syria. Russian control over major parts of the energy which the European Union will require over the course of the next 100 years, Russian-Iranian dominance over the most competitive gas resources and pipelines in the Middle East, US-American and British initiatives to change the energy-dynamics militarily and a European dilemma between Trans-Atlantic allies who are pushing Europe toward a war with Russia to save the Petro Dollar and greater integration of Russian and European energy sectors and market economies."

He begins the later article thusly: "The war in Ukraine became predictable when the great Muslim Brotherhood Project in Syria failed during the summer of 2012. It became unavoidable in December 2012, when the European Union and Russia failed to agree on the EU’s 3rd Energy Package. The geopolitical dynamics which are driving the war in Ukraine were known in the early 1980s."

Remember that the real game is the breaking of the PetroDollar, not the back of poor "Chocula" Petrodollarshenko, and so every day that a major conflagration can be forestalled is a day closer to the real goal; and also that what we are witnessing in the Ukraine is cutting-edge 4th generation warfare — sort of a quietly lethal pas de deux. One should not be so naive as to believe that this conflict has taken any of the world powers by surprise — They all have had close to two years notice, at minimum. In a sense, we are still in the "chess opening" stage, where the majority of the moves have been charted out by both sides. But the middle game is very close at hand. And, yes, it is theoretically possible for the three sides to come to a backroom agreement before the deadly endgame closes in upon us.

Cont. reading: Malooga On WW III: “All the World’s a Spectacle”

U.S. F-18 jets bombed two U.S. made artillery pieces the Islamic State was using to prepare its attack on Erbil in the Kurdish part of Iraq.

The attack came after Obama addressed Caliph Pol Pot II yesterday to suggest that the Islamic State should leave the few the areas which are of positive American interests off its target list:

Obama, in a statement delivered at the White House late Thursday, said that strikes would be launched against extremist convoys “should they move toward” the Kurdish capital of Irbil, where the United States maintains a consulate and a joint operations center with the Iraqi military.

“We intend to take action if they threaten our facilities anywhere in Iraq . . . including Irbil and Baghdad,” he said.

What Obama did not say is the actual message Caliph Pol Pot II will have received:

• "You are free to target anything you like but the U.S. embassy in Baghdad and the Kurdish part of Iraq. There U.S. companies are invested in oil, there we have this big new intelligence station and and there the Israelis have their large, long running intelligence operation targeting Iran."
• "Otherwise you are free to attack anybody in Syria or the rest of Iraq. We will do nothing, not even bomb the heavy weapons you have, to deny you total victory. Just like you we do not care what will happen to this or that minority or majority there. Fuck the Yazidis. (But do you really have to make these bombastic public relation efforts with all its massacre movies? They rill up these R2P idiots who don't understand the real purpose of that doctrine.)
• "You took about four Iraqi divisions worth of fine heavy weapons and ammunition 'Made in U.S'. It is excellent stuff. Feel free to use it. We could of course bomb all of it without setting a foot on the ground. But that's not in my interest. Say 'Tanks for the memories', hehe. We will sell another set to those dupes in Baghdad. We hope to have them resupplied and ready for your next raid before you run out of your current stock."
• "By the way – in case you need some additional anti-tank weapons. We have just given several dozens of TOW to some groups in north-west Syria. There is a good chance for you to 'negotiate' access to some of them."
• "I am told you announced that you are preparing something big, like really big, like 9/11. Fine, but please leave us out of it. We are busy with our war on Russia. How about Jeddah?"
• "Hey, or what about attacking Iran? I'd like to do that myself but my people won't let me."
• "I really like your new Jihadi gift shop in Istanbul. My kids were asking for some of that merchandize. Do they take Visa?"

The talks in Cairo during the agreed 72 hour cease-fire failed. Israel and Egypt would not commit to the Palestinian demand to lift the siege on Gaza and to open the border crossings. The Israeli delegation left the talks even before the truce period ended at 8 am local time today (Notice how the Washington Post is lying about this fact.)

As soon as the 72 hour period ended the Islamic Jihad military wing in Gaza started to launch rockets at Israeli targets near the Gaza border. Hamas did not join in – a signal that there was still a chance for further negotiations. But about an hour later Israel launched new air strikes at northern Gaza. Palestinians near the border areas flee towards Gaza city.

The Israeli prime minister Netanyahoo had claimed that his recent war on Gaza had "restored Israel's deterrence". That was obviously an illusion.

Hamas had announced that it would next target Israel's only international airport near Tel Aviv. Stopping international air traffic brings serious damage to Israel's economy. Hamas will also try to bait the Israeli army into re-invading the Gaza strip. Its calculation is that more Israeli casualties, as would be certain in close-in fighting, might push the Israeli government to finally lift the seven year old siege.

There may be chance for that as the UN as well as the U.S. have lately spoken out against the continued blockade. But Israel's hardliners will disagree. They still believe in "deterrence" even though such never works when there is no alternative left for the other side but to slowly die. When and how this war on Gaza may now end is not obvious while the nightmare in Gaza continues.

The most aggressive man in the Ukrainian government, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Andrey Parubiy resigned today:

The media stated that Parubiy decided to resign after he was ordered [by President Petro Poroshenko] to declare another ceasefire in Kiev’s military operation in the southeast of the country, but he refused to do so.

Parubiy was co-founder of the far-right Social-National Party of Ukraine and was creator and commander of the Einsatzgrupppen like volunteer National Guard forces which are currently suppressing the people in the east.

It seems that the indiscriminate shelling of major cities in the east under Parubiy's command had finally had enough negative publicity effects. The UN is alarmed about the refugee streams and the humanitarian situation and even Amnesty International is now accusing Parubiy's Einsatzgruppen of abductions and ill-treatment of the eastern population. Poroshenko needs to stop the war before public support for him  completely disappears.

An attempt today by the new rulers to clear away the Maidan protesters who helped them into power ended, like before, in outright street fights. These protesters are still waiting for any change. Corruption in Ukraine is as big as ever. Only the oligarchs who end up with the peoples money have changed.

NATO chief Rasmussen, who is currently in Kiev, will be disappointed if Kiev decides to stop the war. He is dearly hoping for Russia to militarily intervene in Ukraine which would then justify further NATO aggressions. If Kiev keeps shelling the local population Russia will need to send peacekeepers to stop the killing. If the shelling stops there is no reason for Russia to step in.

The outright stupid sanctions the EU put on Russia are creating the well deserved blowback. The Russian president Putin's approval rating soared to 87%. The counter sanctions Russia is implementing by rejecting food imports from the countries sanctioning it will be great for Russia's local producers. Some "western experts" believe that sanctions will over time push the Russian middle class against Putin. Anyone with a slight insight into Russia's social history will call this bullshit.

Under pressure Russia always unites and the national character is one that will rather do without any luxury at all before giving in to foreign pressure. Russia has enough land, people and resources to produce everything it needs. There is no way sanctions on Russia will have any of the allegedly desired effects.

A few days ago the Leveretts looked at the effects of U.S. financial sanctions and the other ways the U.S. pisses off major countries. They find that the current path of U.S. foreign policy will erode the U.S. dollar hegemony and lead to a destruction of the “extraordinary privilege” (de Gaulle) the U.S. has had with the ability to print the world’s reserve currency. The political erosion of the dollar will be felt in the commodity markets and especially in energy deals which will then have further effects in foreign relations: Petrodollars, Petroyuan, and the Ongoing Erosion of American Hegemony

Looking ahead, use of renminbi to settle international hydrocarbon sales will surely increase, accelerating the decline of American influence in key energy-producing regions. It will also make it marginally harder for Washington to finance what China and other rising powers consider overly interventionist foreign policies—a prospect America’s political class has hardly begun to ponder.

Sadly, only few will listen to the Leveretts but now Bloomberg picked up the theme: Russia Sanctions Accelerate Risk to Dollar Dominance

While no one’s suggesting the dollar will lose its status as the main currency of business any time soon, its dominance is ebbing. The greenback’s share of global reserves has already shrunk to under 61 percent from more than 72 percent in 2001. The drumbeat has only gotten louder since the financial crisis in 2008, an event that began in the U.S. when subprime-mortgage loans soured, and the largest emerging-market nations including Russia have vowed to conduct more business in their currencies.

“The crisis created a rethink of the dollar-denominated world that we live in,” said Joseph Quinlan, chief market strategist at Bank of America Corp.’s U.S. Trust, which oversees about $380 billion. “This nasty turn between Russia and the West related to sanctions, that can be an accelerator toward a more multicurrency world.”

Some five years ago we already looked at this decline of the U.S. dollar as reserve currency and its effects:

So far the U.S. could borrow cheaply and pay back less in real value than the original loan. That privilege is now going away. The trillions the U.S. currently needs to borrow from abroad will have to be payed back in full. That is a major change in its global power status and will seriously decrease its influence in international policy questions.

The European Union which stupidly followed the U.S. sanctions on Russia with its own is also hurting itself:

Financial interdependence offers a powerful opportunity for coercive diplomacy.

But the unintended message Europe’s leaders sent is that financial interdependence is a source of vulnerability that countries like Russia, but also China, Iran and others, would be wise to avoid.
…
Europe’s financial sanctions against Russia likewise add incentives for countries to look for alternative arrangements that reduce financial interdependence.

Moreover, those incentives will only increase if the sanctions are successful. Even if Europe encourages the Russian government to change its policy toward Ukraine, the Russian government will respond over the longer term by seeking financial arrangements that leave it less exposed to such coercion.

It will take years until the dollar will lose its reserve status but the decline is already visible. More and more deals are now made bilateral between partners in their own currencies and get settled outside of the financial channels the U.S. tries to sanction, block, spy on or to criminalize.

The U.S. foreign policy reliance on sanctions, pressure and war is sawing off the high branch the U.S. is sitting on.

Until mid 2012 US AID, the alleged "development organization" known for clandestine work against U.S. enemies, ran a secret Twitter like service in Cuba to "promote democracy", i.e. incite opposition to the government there. It also ran, as the Associated Press now reports ( long version, documents), another undercover program aimed at recruiting Cuban youth as U.S. agents:

An Obama administration program secretly dispatched young Latin Americans to Cuba using the cover of health and civic programs to provoke political change, a clandestine operation that put those foreigners in danger even after a U.S. contractor was hauled away to a Cuban jail.

The U.S. contractor, one Alan Gross, was hauled to jail in Cuba because he secretly distributed U.S. communication devices like satellite phones for U.S. supervised Internet access. He allegedly also worked for US AID.

But the scheme uncovered now is even worse. Poor young Latin American people were hired for very small money to go to Cuba under cover and to find Cuban "activists" who could be recruited for U.S. political purposes. This not only endangered the little trained Latin American agents and those they recruited but it also abused health services and other legitimate needs as a cover:

In one case, the workers formed an HIV-prevention workshop that memos called "the perfect excuse" for the program's political goals – a gambit that could undermine America's efforts to improve health globally.

As in Pakistan, where the CIA abused a polio prevention program to spy on the suspected Osama Bin Laden, the blowback will not only hit "America's efforts" for health projects but also those of everyone else. It will literally hit and possibly kill the persons that do the health work on the ground.

Using an fake HIV project in Cuba also shows the utter stupidity of the wannabe spies at USAID. Cuba is the state with the lowest HIV infection rate in the Caribbean. Its rate is even lower than the rate in Canada and Switzerland and only a third of the HIV rate in the United States. Anyone who starts a HIV prevention service in Cuba rather than in a hundred other countries sticks out like a large red pole in the blue Caribbean sea.

All three secret USAID infiltration attempts in Cuba, the "communication equipment", the "Twitter service" and this "activist recruiting" drive were launched under Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Both had promised better relations with Cuba and then immediately started secret "regime change" programs which, when becoming public as they did, would undermine all such efforts.

This only shows again why every nation on this world must distrust ANY word that comes out of official Washington. The leaders from African countries who are just now visiting Washington should keep the Cuban example in mind when Obama tries to charm them into U.S. dependency. None of his words can be trusted or be accepted as having any real meaning.

Obama's Russia policies are based on ignorance and driven by illusions:

President Barack Obama dismissed Russia as a nation that "doesn't make anything" and said in an interview with the Economist magazine that the West needs to be "pretty firm" with China as Beijing pushes to expand its role in the world economy.
…
"Immigrants aren't rushing to Moscow in search of opportunity. The life expectancy of the Russian male is around 60 years old. The population is shrinking," he said.

Fact: Russia is making and exporting not only raw materials but also lots of industrial goods, machinery (65% increase over 5 years) and weapons:

Russia has cemented its place as the world's second largest suppliers of arms. In 2012, the country shipped $15.13 billion worth of weapons, up $2 billion from the year before.
…
Although Russian arms manufacturers still sell only a third of what their American counterparts achieve, the yearly rate of growth in exports and the over-fulfillment of annual plans cannot fail to please the authorities and defense industry chiefs.

Fact: Russia has strong, net positive migration:

Russia experiences a constant flow of immigration. On average, close to 300,000 legal immigrants enter the country every year; about half are ethnic Russians from the other republics of the former Soviet Union. There is a significant inflow of ethnic Armenians, Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and Tajiks into big Russian cities, something that is viewed unfavorably by some citizens. In addition, there are an estimated 4 million illegal immigrants from the ex-Soviet states in Russia.

Fact: Over the last decade life expectancy in Russia has significantly increased:

Russia – Life expectancy at birth

Date	Life expectancy	Life expectancy – Men	Life expectancy – Women
2012	70.46	64.90	76.30
2011	69.66	64.00	75.60
2010	68.86	63.10	74.90
2009	68.70	62.80	74.70
2008	67.90	61.80	74.20
2007	67.50	61.40	73.90
2006	66.60	60.40	73.20
2005	65.47	58.87	72.40
2004	65.42	58.87	72.30
2003	65.01	58.51	71.83
2002	65.09	58.50	72.00
2001	65.49	59.00	72.30
2000	65.34	59.00	72.00

Fact: Russia has genuine population growth:

[L]last year [..] Russia recorded its first year of natural population growth since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, with the number of births exceeding the number of deaths by 24,013. The trend continued through the beginning of this year, according to data released by the State Statistics Service at the end of May.

All four claims Obama made in the Economist interview quoted above are demonstrably false. They are mere illusions.  How qualified then is he to decide on policy issues with regard to Russia?

The Islamic State is on the march. Over the last days it had conquered several villages in Iraq and today it attacked and conquered the city of Sinjar and the surrounding province of the same name. This is in the north west of Iraq in the Nineveh governorate and the province, next to Mosul, was held by Kurd Peshmerga forces. These folded and fled after they ran out of ammunition. Many villages in the area are inhabited by Yazidi, an Kurd ethno-religious community with an ancient religion comparable to Zoroastrianism.

According to the UN over 200,000 Yazidi have fled from their homes for fear of getting killed by IS savages.

The fighting is moving to the Mosul dam, a strategic target more important than the city it is named after. Today the dam is still held by Kurd forces but as the Islamic State can now attack them from two sides their current position is in trouble.

It only now becomes clear how much material power IS has gained after some divisions of the Iraqi army around Mosul simply dissolved under its first attack. IS has salvaged the nearly complete inventory of four army divisions including tanks, missiles and thousands of tons of ammunition. This is enough material to fit out a mechanized army of some 60,000 men. IS also gained access to air-defense capabilities far beyond the usual Man Portable Missiles (MANPADs). The United States ordered its airlines to fly at higher altitudes over Iraq:

U.S. airlines are now prohibited from flying over Iraq below 30,000 feet, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The agency, which had previously restricted airlines from flying below 20,000, issued the new requirement because of "the potentially hazardous situation created by the armed conflict in Iraq."

The Islamic State is not only attacking in Iraq. In Syria, near the Lebanese border, the Syrian army supported by Hizbullah is clearing the western Qalamon mountain area were several thousand of insurgents had fled to. The Lebanese town of Arsal, just across the border, is the insurgents main support base. The Lebanese army had for some time isolated the town but in the last 24 hours was attacked by major Islamic State forces. Several Lebanese army and policemen were killed and some were captured. The Lebanese army is pouring in more forces but the fighting seems to be very serious. Breaking the isolation of Arsal would allow the Islamic State to attack other areas in Lebanon including those supporting Hizbullah.

The New York Times report on the attack of Arsal is somewhat astonishing (or intentionally) naive about the attacking forces. It takes some ten paragraphs for the reader to find out that the attackers are savages loyal to the Islamic State. The mess starts with the headline: Gunmen From Syria Hit Army Checkpoints in Lebanon

Gunmen who crossed into northeastern Lebanon from Syria attacked several army checkpoints in a border town on Saturday in what appeared to be an effort to win the release of a Syrian rebel who had been detained by Lebanese troops.
…
… the gunmen, identified as rebel fighters from across the border in Syria.
…
… attacks by the gunmen …
…
… gunmen had also attacked homes … seized by rebels …
…
… the gunmen had also seized 17 members of the security forces at a police station and wanted to exchange them for the Syrian rebel, Imad Ahmad Jomaa, …
…
… rebel fighters cross into Lebanon …
…
… the army had detained Mr. Jomaa, who was accused of being a commander of a rebel brigade that had joined the Nusra Front, …
…
… in a video posted on YouTube late last month, Mr. Jomaa and members of his brigade can be seen pledging their allegiance to a more extreme group, the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, or ISIS. …
…
The rebels who attacked …
…
…at least at a local level, Mr. Jomaa and his fighters have publicly embraced ISIS recently.

One really has to read down to last paragraphs of the NYT piece to find out that the local "gunmen" and those glorified "Syrian rebels" involved in attacking the Lebanese army here are fighters loyal to the Islamic State.

Why is the NYT burying this fact? Alarm bells should go off when these radicals, with their now enormous military potential, are launching an all out attack against Lebanese security forces.

Without taking many more military casualties Israel can not reach any of its declared objectives in Gaza. Netanyahoo is giving up for now and has ordered the retreat of all Israeli forces. He rejects any negotiated cease fire as he politically would win nothing but possibly loose a lot through it. Hamas is thereby free to do whatever it decides to do.

As soon as the fighting dies somewhat down the censorship over the Israeli press will have to be lifted. The reports then will show that the political decision making over the attack on Gaza was crude and panicked. It will also show that the IDF’s operations were hapless and with only few successes. The army lost at least 64 soldiers to enemy fire while in its last incursion into Gaza only 6 were killed by the opposition. There will be many questions asked to the high command and heads will roll.

Some commission may even ask why Netanyahoo decided to start this unsuccessful campaign at all. I also expect that Obama and Kerry will be looking for some revenge for the insults Netanyahoo publicly threw at them. His career as politician will be damaged and possibly even over.

Meanwhile the ordeal of Gaza and its peoples will continue.

The news from Ukraine is quite vague. It is not exactly clear to me who is gaining in the military field. While the Ukrainian military claims to have some successes it is also losing quite a lot of material and personal. At least ten Ukrainian soldiers, probably many more, were killed in an ambush yesterday. Add to that many pictures of destroyed tanks and APCs.

So what is really the military and political situation? Is there a reliable side or source for information on it?

One would think that a sad, sorry history of ones own people would create some sensitivity towards other people. But it does not. At least some people rather seem to take the horrors their ancestors had to endure as behavioral guidance for their own attitude towards other people in similar sorry circumstances.

The Times of Israel now removed the piece (image of full text, full text on pastebin) from its website but it is still up at the U.S. paper 5 Towns Jewish Times and the writer is defending it on Twitter (screenshot):

5 Ceasefires all breached through missiles and kidnappings. There is only one way to neutralize the threat. Wake-up!

Some core sentences of the screed:

What other way then is there to deal with an enemy of this nature other than obliterate them completely?
…
If political leaders and military experts determine that the only way to achieve its goal of sustaining quiet is through genocide is it then permissible to achieve those responsible goals?

In the 1930s/40s Reinhard Heidrich and some other mass murderers agreed with the author of the piece and answered those questions in the affirmative.

Judging from online comments by Israel supporters many of them would support at least the thrust of the piece. There is also another piece calling for genocide at the Times of Israel site:

Just as the Amalekites were the victims of their own king, whom Saul left alive and why today, we fight the modern day Amalekites in every generation.

It’s time to take heed of the words of the L-rd, it is time to do what the people of Israel demand, it is time to kill Agag.

Calling to genocide Palestinians is seemingly not just a singular opinion. Why then was one genocidal piece removed by the Times of Israel while others are still up?

A cease-fire between Gaza and Israel was announced for this morning at 8am local time. The Israeli defense forces continued to operate in Gaza and to destroy the Palestinian tunnels. Shortly before the official cease-fire start, according to Palestinian sources, a commando of Islamic Jihad fighters infiltrated the Israeli line through a tunnel, attacked a group of Israeli soldiers, killed several and captured one of them alive. This happened near the southern Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

The Israelis took a while to notice that a soldier had been captured but when they found out they immediately responded according to the Hannibal directive which demands to do everything possible to prevent that an Israeli soldier captured alive stays captured alive.

Accordingly, even before the capture of its soldier was publicly known, the Israeli army opened a barrage of artillery fire over south Gaza killing some 50 Palestinians and wounding more than 200 of them. These people were out in the streets and markets because they thought that the cease-fire was in place.

The cease-fire is for now over. It is unlikely that the Israelis have a chance to find their soldier.

Will they now again escalate and risk more possible captures or will they negotiate a new cease-fire and later the captured soldier's release?