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Only for news & views directly related to the war in Ukraine.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

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Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:

Palestine:

• November 13 – Not Getting It
• November 15 – Shifa Hospital Bunker – How Would They Know?
• November 17 – One Religion's War Against All Others
  Related:
  – Were the Biblical Prophets Anti-Semitic? – Michael Hudson / UNZ
  – Israel’s War on American Student Activists – The Nation
  – TikTok Says It's Not the Algorithm, Teens Are Just Pro-Palestine – Vice
  – Israel told Palestinians to evacuate to southern Gaza — and stepped up attacks there – NPR
  – Gaza Shows the Difference Between International Law and the “Rules-Based International Order” – The Nation
  – Israel admits burning hundreds of people on 7 October – Electronic Intifada
  – Assessment: Hamas did not know about the Nova festival in advance – Haaretz (archived)
  The police investigation found that Hamas planned to go to Kibbutz Reim and other kibbutzim, and found out about the party in real time. It also emerged that a military helicopter that fired at terrorists apparently also hit several ravers

Ukraine:

• November 14 – Ukraine's Demographics Dictate To End The Fight
• November 18 – Urging Ukraine To Sue For Peace
  Related:
  – Why Ukraine may embrace China’s peace plan – Asia Times
  – Poland truck protests leave Ukrainian drivers stranded – BBC
  – BBC says nearly 20,000 men fled Ukraine to avoid conscription Pravda.ua

China

• November 16 – And Then Biden Blew It … Again
  Related:
  – A Better Summit – Stephen Roach
  – Joe Biden’s failures on trade benefit China – Economist
  – U.S.-China Extinction-Level Event Narrowly Averted – Eve Ottenberg / Counterpunch
  – No serious effort to reset US-China relations at San Francisco summit – Indian Punchline
  – Canada’s Michael Spavor blames fellow prisoner Michael Kovrig for China arrest – SCMP

—
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2023-276

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Larry Johnson has spotted one of the many signs that "the West" is giving up on its war in Ukraine:

This week’s “No Shit Analysis” award goes to Eugene B. Rumer for his Wall Street Journal op-ed, It’s Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia’s Defeat. Only took him 22 months to figure this out. He may be a slow learner but give him some credit, he finally awakened from his dream world and is beginning to grasp that the Ukraine project is swirling down the toilet.

Eugene B. Rumer is a Senior Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University, Washington DC. Previously, he served at the State Department, on the staff of the National Security Council and at RAND.

Despite his pedigree, he is struggling to acknowledge reality and still feels the need to spin nonsense. Here is an example:

Putin has reason to believe that time is on his side. At the front line, there are no indications that Russia is losing what has become a war of attrition. The Russian economy has been buffeted, but it is not in tatters. Putin’s hold on power was, paradoxically, strengthened following Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed rebellion in June. Popular support for the war remains solid, and elite backing for Putin has not fractured.

Yep. Russia’s economy is so battered that it is headed toward 4% growth, its defense industry is out producing Europe and the United States combined, it is manufacturing new, more deadly drones and the stores across Russia are filled to the brim. If that is “battered” give me some.

More signs that the official foreign policy establishment is throwing the towel can be found in the current edition of Foreign Affairs. There the former head of the Council of Foreign Relations, Richard Haass, is urging the Biden administration to push the Ukraine towards negotiations:

Redefining Success in Ukraine – A New Strategy Must Balance Means and Ends – Foreign Affairs – Nov 17 2023

Well, yes, the U.S., NATO and the Ukraine have lost their war on Russia. Let's redefine that as victory and forget about the rest:

Cont. reading: Urging Ukraine To Sue For Peace

Alastair Crooke in Al Mayadeen:

Israeli popular sentiment — even amongst former liberals — is moving toward a Greater Nakba. Gaza is under Nakba pressures. So is the West Bank, as settler violence against Palestinians surges. Even a ‘liberal’ such as former opposition leader Lapid now agrees that ‘settlers’ in the occupied West Bank are not ‘settlers’ at all, since the land is but the ‘Biblical land of Israel’.

Nakba ‘ambitions’ are widening to South Lebanon (up to the Litani River) too. The radical members of Netanyahu’s government say Israelis will never return to the kibbutz adjacent to Lebanon, without Hezbollah’s removal from the border area.

So, the call is heard for "Israel" to ‘take’ Lebanon up to the Litani (a key water source) — and ‘serendipitously’ the Israeli air force has begun operating up to 40 kms inside Lebanon. Cabinet members now openly speak of the IOF needing to turn its attention to Hezbollah once Hamas has been ‘obliterated’.
…
Plainly, the White House is struggling to avoid the slide towards full regional war, as both the Lebanese front and the Iraqi front heats up: On Sunday, Iraqi movements again fired missiles at the American base in Shaddadi.

"Israel" is sensing the present crisis to be both an existential risk, but an ‘opportunity’ too – an opportunity to establish "Israel" across ‘its Biblical lands’ over the long term. There is no mistaking it — this is the direction of travel of Israeli popular sentiment, from both Left and Right wings, to bloody eschatology.

As I had pointed out three weeks ago President Joe Biden had supported that Israeli Nakba strategy before he was forced to pull back:

Cont. reading: One Religion’s War Against All Others

In June U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was on a long desired trip to China. Just 24 hours after a somewhat positive statement of the meeting came out Biden blew it by calling Xi Jinping a 'dictator'.

The Chinese government was not amused:

China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning called Mr Biden's remarks "extremely absurd and irresponsible". Speaking at a regularly scheduled press conference on Wednesday, she said that the comments were "an open political provocation" that violated diplomatic etiquette.

Yesterday President Xi Jinping of China met U.S. President Joe Biden near San Francisco.

The Chinese spokesperson had set out the agenda:

Hua Chunying 华春莹 @SpokespersonCHN – 11:25 UTC · Nov 16, 2023

President Xi Jinping noted that there are two options for China and the U.S. in the era of global transformations unseen in a century: One is to enhance solidarity and cooperation and join hands to meet global challenges and promote global security and prosperity; …
… and the other is to cling to the zero-sum mentality, provoke rivalry and confrontation, and drive the world toward turmoil and division. The two choices point to two different directions that will decide the future of humanity and Planet Earth.

Xi wanted to chose the first path. But shortly after their meeting Biden walked on the second.

He again blew it:

Remarks by President Biden in a Press Conference | Woodside, CA – Nov 16, 2023 – White House

Q And, Mr. President, after today, would you still refer to President Xi as a “dictator”? This is a term that you used earlier this year.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, look, he is. I mean, he’s a dictator in the sense that he — he is a guy who runs a country that — it’s a communist country that is based on a form of government totally different than ours.

Anyway, we made progress.

The Chinese view certainly differs.

The Democracy Perception Index (pdf) is the world’s largest annual study on how people perceive democracy. In the U.S. 76% believe that 'democracy is important' but only 54% answer yes when asked if their country is democratic. In China the agreeing percentages for the same questions are 88% and 73%.

Only for news & views directly related to the war in Palestine.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

Only for news & views directly related to the war in Ukraine.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

News & views (not related to the war in Ukraine or Palestine) …

Big claims:

Israel claim Hamas headquarters is hidden under the Shifa Hospital in Gaza – news.com.au – October 31 2023

Israel-Gaza war: US says Hamas has command centre under Al-Shifa hospital – BBC – November 14 2023

But how would they know?

Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed – Tablet – July 29 2014 (!!!)

The Israelis are so sure about the location of the Hamas bunker, however, not because they are trying to score propaganda points, or because it has been repeatedly mentioned in passing by Western reporters—but because they built it. Back in 1983, when Israel still ruled Gaza, they built a secure underground operating room and tunnel network beneath Shifa hospital—which is one among several reasons why Israeli security sources are so sure that there is a main Hamas command bunker in or around the large cement basement beneath the area of Building 2 of the Hospital, which reporters are obviously prohibited from entering.

I bet 100 to 1 that nothing Hamas is present in the well known bunker beneath the Shifa hospital.

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The current open thread for other issues is here.

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The knives are out in the fight over the Ukrainian throne.

Various Ukrainian media (in Russian) report of plans to fire this or that general. Andrei Yermak, Zelenski's chief of office and the real power behind him, is currently in the U.S., allegedly to get the okay for firing the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army General Zaluzny. Other Ukrainian media are calling for Zaluzny to become the new president. Tomorrow CIA director Burns is expected to be in Kiev to tell Zelenski that his time is up and that he, Zelenski, will have to go.

Simplicius writes:

It appears obvious that two competing factions are trying to outdo each other in the sphere of Western media. Zaluzhny fired his shot in the unsanctioned Economist piece, and it would seem that Zelensky backers are doing their own parallel counter-work.

Larry Johnson reminds of the larger powers who are behind this fight:

One critical point I failed to make in yesterday’s article regarding the competing narratives regarding Zelensky and General Zalushny — it looks like the Brits are backing Zalushny while the CIA is trying to save Zelensky and dump Zalushny. I base that conclusion on the fact that the Economist, a British publication with close ties to MI-6, gave Zalushny the celebrity treatment, while the Washington Post, the go-to rag for the CIA, blamed Zalushny for Nord Stream.

Fun to watch, unless you are on the frontline.

There, things are getting worse for the Ukrainian army day by day.

The Ukraine wasted so many troops for impossible endeavors, to hold Bakhmut and in its the senseless 'counter-attack' against impregnable Russian lines, that it now lacks the troops to hold its defense lines.

Cont. reading: Ukraine’s Demographics Dictate To End The Fight

Scoop: Austin warned Gallant about Israeli military actions in Lebanon– Axios, Nov 12 2023

Biden administration officials are satisfied that Hezbollah's leader Hasan Nasrallah's speeches over the last week didn't include a call for further escalation and saw that as a sign that their messages were being heard, one source said.

Nasrallah's Second Speech On Gaza – Moon of Alabama, Nov 11 2023

"What happens on the battlefield is more important than my speech."

Only for news & views directly related to the war in Palestine.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

Only for news & views directly related to the war in Ukraine.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Please stick to the topic. Contribute facts. Do not attack other commentators.

Last week's post on Moon of Alabama:

Ukraine:

• November 7 – Ukraine SitRep: Assassinations, Election Talk, Language War
  Related:
  – Michael von der Schulenburg, Hajo Funke, Harald Kujat – Peace For Ukraine – Brave New Europe
  – Ex-Nato chief proposes Ukraine joins without Russian-occupied territories – Guardian
  –Why is the West moving to replace Zelensky? – Asia Times

Palestine:

• November 8 – Another Interview With Dominique De Villepin On The Conflict In Palestine (As Translated By Arnaud Bertrand)
• November 10 – A Few Notes On The War On Palestine
• November 11 – Heads Up
• November 11 – Nasrallah's Second Speech On Gaza
  Related:
  – The post-America war has begun – Unherd
  – The Extreme Ambitions of West Bank Settlers – New Yorker
  – The Israeli public has embraced the Smotrich doctrine – 972
  – Key points from Nasrallah's speech on Saturday – L'Òrient today
  – Levelling Gaza is No ‘End-Game’ For Biden – Alastair Crooke / Al Mayadeen
  – Text Translation: The Israeli plan for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza – Mondoweiss
  – The Escalating Violence Between Israel and Lebanon – Raina Aboudzeid / New Yorker
  – Biden administration privately warned by American diplomats of growing fury against US in Arab world – CNN
  – Historic meeting today in Riyadh of Iranian president Raisi and Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) – Gilbert Doctorow

—
Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2023-268

This afternoon Beirut time Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered a speech on the occasion of Hizbullah's Martyr's Day.

(Rough transcript from listening to the English translation of the speech by Press TV)

—Begin of speech—

In the first part Nasrallah explains why the date for Martyr Day was chosen. It goes back to a successful attack on the Israeli occupation troops in Beirut on November 11 1982. He goes on to explain the role and importance of martyrs and their relation with god. He congratulates the families of the martyrs. He also congratulates those who sacrifice for Gaza.

Nasrallah then turns to events in Gaza.

The first issue is the attack of Israel on civilians. The second is the resistance there.

He describes the crimes of Israel against helpless civilians in full view of the world. It is relentless revenge. But there is a second aspect in the word of Israeli politicians. They say that all of this killing has a goal. One is to force the people of Gaza and people of the region to surrender. To give up on resistance because the costs are too high. The other is to make them surrender all their rights. To make them hopeless. After Gaza and the West Bank they will aim at Lebanon.

Israel is mistaken. Its aims will not be achieved.

We know that they did not achieve their aims in Lebanon in the 1982 invasion and the 2006 war despite all their killing and destruction of homes. The Lebanese peoples' support for resistance only grew. Their choice was not to surrender but to increase their resistance.

That is also why we should resist normalization with Israel.

Cont. reading: Nasrallah’s Second Speech On Gaza

Just in:

Elijah J. Magnier 🇪🇺 @ejmalrai – 7:21 UTC · Nov 11, 2023

This is THE most serious attack and escalation for many years & its consequences are critical, much more than what the eye can see:

#Israeli warplanes attack a truck in Zahrani, south of Lebanon, 40 kilometres from the border, breaking all red lines in #Lebanon after #Syria.

The escalation between #Israel and #Hezbollah has started TODAY (you may disagree if you don't see the full picture).

It seems the occupation of north of #Gaza won't take too long and @netanyahu doesn't mind starting a war on another front.

The next hours/days are crucial.

Can you imagine to live or even sit next to this sniper?

One person killed, many children wounded after Israeli snipers target al-Quds hospital, according to Palestinian Red Crescent

The Red Cross statement calling for the protection of patients, healthcare workers, medical facilities in Gaza comes as the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PCRS) said Israeli forces opened fire on the intensive care unit at al-Quds hospital in Gaza City.

One person was killed and 28 others were wounded in sniper fire by Israeli forces at the hospital, the organisation said.

The majority of the injured were children, it said, two of whom are in critical condition.

Having been lightly prodded by the Biden administration the Netanyahoo regime in Palestine agreed to split its days into a 20 hours block dedicated to genociding Palestinians and a 4 hours block for ethnic cleansing.

Israel agrees to 4-hour daily pauses in Gaza fighting to allow civilians to flee, White House says – Chicago Tribune, Nov 9 2023

Neighbor countries have rejected to accept ethic cleansed Palestinians from Gaza. This leaves Netanyahoo with no real plan for what is to happen with Gaza. He is changing his war aims by the minute.

Netanyahu says not seeking to ‘occupy’ Gaza but ‘demilitarise’ it – AlJazeera, Nov 10 2023

> Netanyahu’s comments come days after he said Israel would take responsibility for Gaza’s security for an “indefinite period” after the end of its war with Hamas, prompting pushback from the United States. <

Meanwhile it has become obvious that many of the casualties of the Palestinian Al-Aqsa flood were killed by indiscriminate fire from Israeli Apache helicopters as well as its ground troops.

Israeli Apache helicopters killed own soldiers, civilians on 7 October: Report – The Cradle, Nov 9 2023

Craig Murray's Twitter account has been hacked to discredit him.

The Curious Hacking of @craigmurrayorg – Craig Murray, Nov 10 2023

Day by day the members of the resistance axis in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen are taking steps up the escalation ladder.

Ibn Riad – ابن رياض @IbnRiad – 20:48 UTC · Nov 9, 2023

In the context of this equation, we need to understand that every single faction of the wider Resistance Axis is holding back an significant amount of their capabilities and firepower, to be brought to bear in further stages of escalation, and especially in the case of total war.

Escalation of Gaza aggression makes battle expansion inevitable: Iran – Al Mayadeen, Nov 10, 2023

The message to the U.S. and Israel is 'bring it on'.