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Israel’s Threat To Wage War On Hizbullah Is Getting More Serious
Yesterday the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahoo threatened to fire his Defense Minister Yoav Gallant:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to oust Defense Minister Yoav Gallant from his position, a senior political official said on Monday. Netanyahu planned to add Gideon Saar's New Hope party to the coalition adding four seats to his Knesset majority.
The move raised concern among the families of hostages currently held in Gaza because of Saar's position opposing a deal with Hamas that would see hostages freed. Stocks fell and gas prices spiked amid expectations of the government reshuffle.
The rift between Netanyahu and Gallant has widened in recent months after the defense minister opposed the prime minister's refusal to agree to a deal that would free hostages. The position of the Defense Ministry, the IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad is that Israel can deal with the security risks that would emerge from such a deal and that the release of hostages must be a priority.
Gallant, despite being as radical as Netanyahoo, is the only asset the U.S. government still has in the cabinet:
U.S. officials are concerned over the possible Gallant ousting, claiming he is the 'only adult in the room' in Netanyahu's government after the relations between the prime minister and U.S. President Joe Biden have again soured …
Gallant is opposed to several of Netanyahoo's policies:
- He wants a ceasefire deal in Gaza that would allow the hostages to be freed. Netanyahoo rejects a ceasefire.
- He wants to prevent a law that would exempt Haredi men from military service. The Ultraorthodox members of the cabinet press Netanyahoo to pass the exemption.
- He is skeptical about an attack on Hezbollah in Lebanon. Other parts of the coalition are pressing for it.
After being threatened to be fired Gallant conceded on the last point:
Cont. reading: Israel’s Threat To Wage War On Hizbullah Is Getting More Serious
West Experiences Blowback From Fostering Fascists In Ukraine
At the start of the Special Military Operation in February 2022 I warned of the blowback that, I asserted, would likely come if the West continued to pamper Nazi groups in Ukraine:
The U.S. aim is to create an insurgency in the Ukraine.
The Coming Ukrainian Insurgency – Foreign Affairs
Russia’s Invasion Could Unleash Forces the Kremlin Can’t Control
Since 2015 the CIA has trained Ukrainian groups for exactly that purpose.
CIA-trained Ukrainian paramilitaries may take central role if Russia invades – Yahoo
CIA support for Ukrainian Nazis has a long history.
Op-Ed: The CIA has backed Ukrainian insurgents before. Let’s learn from those mistakes – LA Times
A new Nazi insurgency in eastern Europe is an exceptionally bad idea. Fascist groups from everywhere would join in. A few years from now it may well lead to Nazi terror in many European countries. Have we learned really nothing from the war on Syria and the ISIS campaign?
Me and Ivan Katchanovski were probably the only ones who had warned of this:
Katchanovski adds that, “This is also going to have a dangerous effect on Ukraine and potentially other countries because now, basically, Nazis in Ukraine are made into national heroes.” He also noted that Azov (as well as Western governments) has consistently pressured Zelensky — including with threats, and even before Russia invaded — not to seek a peace deal with Russia or withdraw forces from the Donbas region. In February, Azov branded Zelensky a “servant of the Russian people” after he suggested that he might negotiate with Moscow.
Katchanovski said that the valorization of the Azov Regiment is comparable to how the West initially supported the predecessors of the Taliban in their fight against the Soviet Union’s intervention in the war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and also risks inspiring yet more far-right activists from other countries to join the conflict in Ukraine in order to gain military experience, potentially causing a blowback effect if they make it home.
Yesterday one avid U.S. supporter of the fascists in Ukraine tried to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump:
Cont. reading: West Experiences Blowback From Fostering Fascists In Ukraine
Palestine Open Thread 2024-221
News & views related to the war in Palestine …
Ukraine Open Thread 2024-220
News & views related to the war in Ukraine …
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-219
Ukraine:
War with Russia:
Election:
Palestine:
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-219
Biden Admin Decides – For Now – Against Long Range Strikes On Russia
It seems that Biden administration for once decided to listen to what President Putin of Russia had to say.
Putin had warned of a war between Russia and NATO should the U.S. and its allies allow Ukraine the use the long-range weapons they donated against targets in Russia. Putin correctly asserted that these weapons can only be programmed and fired by trained personnel from the donor country.
Deciding against allowing such strikes was the right thing to do but it could unfortunately be revised on a later day:
Sir Keir Starmer was set to leave Washington on Friday night without any announcement on allowing Ukraine to fire long-range missiles into Russia.
The Prime Minister held talks with Joe Biden in the White House to discuss pleas from Volodymyr Zelensky to let the country use the Storm Shadow missiles.
But John Kirby, a spokesman for the US national security council, said there would be no announcement on long-range missiles after the meeting. He did not rule out one at a later date.
Foreign Office sources had briefed against expecting the green light at the end of Starmer’s visit, but it will come as a disappointment to leave without a decision.
After the meeting, Sir Keir said the pair had come to a “strong position” but suggested a final decision on Storm Shadow had been deferred to the UN General Assembly at the end of the month.
There seems to have been a fight within the Biden administration where a hawkish part within the State Department and National Security Council had been briefing media towards a decision in favor of deep strikes while the Pentagon was strongly against any further provocation of Russia.
The generals know what Russian weapons could do to their assets should Russia decide to let someone shot back at them.
Vladimir Putin Does Not Make Empty Threats
A few month ago a leak of a call between high ranking German officers appeared. They were discussing the possible deployment of a German Taurus cruse missile to Ukraine to be used against Russian targets.
It became obvious from the leak that any such deployment, aiming and firing of such a weapon can not happen without the participation of staff from the country that donated the weapon. This applies to the U.S. ATAMCS missiles, to the French/British SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles just as it would apply to the German Taurus cruse missile:
Gerhartz, [commander of the Luftwaffe], and his subordinates discussed how much Taurus training and support Germany might need to provide if Taurus missiles were sent to Ukraine, and whether this would include targeting and programming information.
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Gerhartz said: ″When it comes to mission planning, for example, I know how the British do it, they do it completely in reachback [i.e. with support from people who are not forward-deployed]. They also have a few people on the ground, they do that, the French don't. So, they also QC the Ukrainians when loading the SCALP, because Storm Shadow and SCALPS are relatively similar from a purely technical point of view. They've already told me that, yes, for God's sake, they would also look over the shoulders of the Ukrainians when loading the Taurus.
The U.S. is currently discussing (archived) to allow Ukraine to use of long range weapons against targets within Russia, that is beyond targets on Ukrainian and former Ukrainian ground.
This would be qualitative transformation of the war in Ukraine into a NATO war with Russia.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin made this unequivocally clear.
Answer to a media question, September 12 2024, Kremlin.ru
Question: Over the past few days, we have been hearing statements at a very high level in the UK and the United States that the Kiev regime will be allowed to strike targets deep inside Russia using Western long-range weapons. Apparently, this decision is either about to be made, or has already been made, as far as we can see. This is actually quite extraordinary. Could you comment on what is going on?
President of Russia Vladimir Putin:
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[T]he Ukrainian army is not capable of using cutting-edge high-precision long-range systems supplied by the West. They cannot do that. These weapons are impossible to employ without intelligence data from satellites which Ukraine does not have. This can only be done using the European Union’s satellites, or US satellites – in general, NATO satellites. This is the first point.
The second point – perhaps the most important, the key point even – is that only NATO military personnel can assign flight missions to these missile systems. Ukrainian servicemen cannot do this.
Therefore, it is not a question of allowing the Ukrainian regime to strike Russia with these weapons or not. It is about deciding whether NATO countries become directly involved in the military conflict or not.
If this decision is made, it will mean nothing short of direct involvement – it will mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries are parties to the war in Ukraine. This will mean their direct involvement in the conflict, and it will clearly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict dramatically.
This will mean that NATO countries – the United States and European countries – are at war with Russia. And if this is the case, then, bearing in mind the change in the essence of the conflict, we will make appropriate decisions in response to the threats that will be posed to us.
Russia has many means to respond to such threats. This includes direct fire on targets within France, the UK and the U.S. itself.
Vladimir Putin is not known for making empty threats.
Palestine Open Thread 2024-218
News & views related to the war in Palestine …
Ukraine Open Thread 2024-217
News & views related to the war in Ukraine …
Open (Neither Ukraine Nor Palestine) Thread 2024-216
News & views not related to the wars in Ukraine and Palestine …
Ukraine SitRep: End Of The Kursk Incursion – Long Range Missiles – Ending The War
The Ukrainian incursion into the Russian Kursk oblast is coming to an end.
The Ukrainian command had sent its best troops and equipment into the area. It had even pushed its last motorized reserves into the operation. Last week it reinforced the contingent. But four weeks of steady Russian bombing and artillery attacks have taken their toll.
Whatever the aim of the incursion was has not been achieved. It created a short sugar-high in Ukrainian morale but that has already dissipated.
The price was high. Half of the troops and material invested in the incursion are now gone.
Russia seems to believe that there is not much more for it to gain from this trap and started to shut it down. Yesterday a fast attack by Russian Marines and paratroopers cleared ten towns and hamlets of Ukrainian forces. Today at least three additional towns were liberated.
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Most of the tanks and armored fighting vehicles the Ukrainians had brought to the fight are gone. They will have to retreat in whatever vehicle they may find. This while being under steady bombardment. In two or three weeks the Ukrainians who survive will likely be back inside of their borders.
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken is in Kiev today. He will likely inform the Ukrainians that they will now be allowed to use U.S. weapons, especially longer range missiles, against targets in Russia.
There are two questions:
– How many U.S. missiles with longer reach does Ukraine still have?
– How many military targets are there left in Russia that have not yet been evacuated or have not received additional protection?
I believe that both of those numbers are low.
There was a fight within the Biden administration about the issues. The Pentagon was reportedly against allowing Ukraine to do such. The generals know what Russia can do and fear that it will retaliate. The warmongers in the State Department though seem to have won the discussion.
But it is the Pentagon that will, or will not, carry out any resupply. The Ukrainians wont get any additional missiles if the generals are determined to block those.
The Wall Street Journal reports about pressure on Ukraine to think of an endgame:
Some European diplomats say Ukraine needs to be more realistic in its wartime aims. That could help Western officials advocate to their respective voters the need to funnel arms and aid to the country.
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Senior European officials say Kyiv has been told that a full Ukrainian victory would require the West to provide hundreds of billions of dollars worth of support, something neither Washington nor Europe can realistically do.
Zelenski will have to present a Plan B, something that is more realistic than his current uncompromising stand on negotiations. For any ceasefire or peace Ukraine will have to give up on land, on quite a lot of it, and will have to fulfill additional conditions.
Should Zelenski be unable to come to such a solution someone else will be found to take up his role.
Harris And Trump Debate Whatever
Tonight the U.S. will have an election debate and the media will accompany it with their usual horse race reporting.
The pre-debate attack on Donald Trump claims that his rambling way of public talking is a sign of his old age:
At 78, former President Donald J. Trump exhibits more energy and speaks with more volume than President Biden does at 81, but he, too, has mixed up names, confused facts and stumbled over his points. Mr. Trump’s rambling speeches, sometimes incoherent statements and extreme outbursts have raised questions about his own cognitive health and, according to polls, stimulated doubts among a majority of voters.
In 2016, during his first campaign, Trump also held rambling speeches, confused facts and stumbled over points. It was and is his special way of talking to crowds and his followers love him for it.
To now claim that this very unchanged style is a sign of old-age Trump is inconsistent with that history.
But the point will be repeated as soon as the debate is done.
Trump'ss program, as far as he has one, does not differ much from his previous one. Some social red meat for cultural conservatives and economic lunacies for libertarians. Add a few crud ideas he will soon forget about. I generally like his somewhat isolationist stand on foreign policy but there is little chance that any of it will be implemented should he win the election.
The be-partisan foreign policy blob which rules in Washington will sabotage any attempts to make peace with Russia and/or to discard NATO.
Kamala Harris, the Democratic candidate, is an empty vessel. Voters have never liked her. I have seen her nicknamed Incitata. It fits. The favorite horse of Roman Emperor Caligula was named Incitatus (from Latin 'incitare' – 'to encourage'):
According to Suetonius, in the Lives of the Twelve Caesars (121 AD), Caligula planned to make Incitatus a consul, and the horse would "invite" dignitaries to dine with him in a house outfitted with servants there to entertain such events. Suetonius also wrote that the horse had a stable of marble, with an ivory manger, purple blankets and a collar of precious stones.
Calligula's idea was to mock the Senate.
The blob is doing likewise with the public by offering someone who has no initiative of her own but will faithfully defend the implementation of anything the blob will desire. She is the most more-of-the-same candidate I can think of.
Harris and Trump are the two politicians with the most negative public ratings. That they are the only choices available makes the whole theater a mockery of the public.
One can conclude that U.S. is some form of oligarchy with a facade that is supposed to look like – but is not – a democracy.
Zionists Are Calling For More War And May Well Get It
The daily Israeli murder campaign in Gaza continues unabated.
Netranyahoo is blocking (vid) any proposal for a ceasefire by adding new conditions to the already agreed upon details. His latest quest is to get permanent military control of the so called Philadelphia Corridor which designates the borderline between Egypt and Gaza.
There are two international agreements, brokered by the U.S. and agreed upon by Egypt and Israel, which prohibited anything more than a temporary light force in the corridor:
The US had assured Egypt that Israel's actions along the border would comply with both the 1978 Camp David Accords and the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding. These agreements place clear limitations on Israel’s military presence near Egypt's borders, allowing only small Israeli units for security purposes, and were designed to ensure stability and avoid prolonged occupation in sensitive areas.
Netanyahoo does not care at all what the White House might have promised to Egypt. Biden's timidity in punishing him lets him ignore all interventions.
Zionist settler pogroms in the West Bank, supported by the government, threaten to turn the situation there into the same as in the Gaza strip. As Haaretz editorializes (archived):
Cont. reading: Zionists Are Calling For More War And May Well Get It
Palestine Open Thread 2024-215
News & views related to the war in Palestine …
Ukraine – CIA/MI-6 Chiefs Push For New Terror Campaign Against Russia
U.S. officials admit that there is no way left for Ukraine to win the war.
The acknowledgment should lead to change in policies. But the U.S. is out of ideas. It will continue to push the downtrodden Ukraine along the Primrose path.
Here is Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin:
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin cautioned on Friday there was "no one capability" that would turn the war in Ukraine in Kyiv's favour after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the West to let his forces use its long-range weapons to strike Russia.
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"There's no one capability that will in and of itself be decisive in this campaign," Austin told reporters at the end of the meeting.
There are no super weapons left on the shelves that could change the picture. Everything that could be used has been used and failed.
The Kursk incursion was the last but short lived attempt to change the picture.
It did create some illusions …
The War in Ukraine Is Already Over—Russia Just Doesn't Know it Yet – Reason
A front-line report from the Kursk offensive reveals that in the battle for hearts and minds, Ukraine’s resolve outpaces Russia’s crumbling morale, signaling an inevitable conclusion.
… only to soon be caught up reality:
Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine’s military is struggling with low morale and desertion – CNN
The Kursk incursion has failed.
Cont. reading: Ukraine – CIA/MI-6 Chiefs Push For New Terror Campaign Against Russia
The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-214
Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:
Palestine:
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Other issues:
Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – OT 2024-214
Caitlin Johnstone – Trump Vs. Cheney
Busy.
But please read Caitlin:
It’s The Trump Party Vs The Cheney Party
One of earth’s most evil living beings, Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney, has officially endorsed Kamala Harris for president.
I agree and see nothing that could be done about it.
Ukraine SitRep: Ukrainian Army Chief Reveals Lack of Strategy Behind Kursk Incursion
With the help of a CNN interview the Ukrainian Commander in Chief General Syrski is hoping to gain more support from western sources.
Exclusive: Ukraine army chief reveals the strategy behind Kursk incursion – CNN, Sept 5 2024
In his first television interview since becoming military chief in February, the general told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that he believed the Kursk operation had been a success.
“It reduced the threat of an enemy offensive. We prevented them from acting. We moved the fighting to the enemy’s territory so that [the enemy] could feel what we feel every day,” Syrskyi said, in a rare interview that offered a candid assessment of the war.
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Speaking to Amanpour at an undisclosed location near the frontline, the general, who took over as army chief in February, said Moscow moved tens of thousands of troops to Kursk, including some of its best airborne assault troops.
And while admitting that Ukraine was under immense pressure in the area around Pokrovsk, the strategic city that has for weeks been the epicenter of war in eastern Ukraine, Syrskyi said his troops have now managed to stall the Russian advances there.
“Over the last six days the enemy hasn’t advanced a single meter in the Pokrovsk direction. In other words, our strategy is working.” he said.
Maps as provided by the pro-Ukrainian LiveUAmap:
Cont. reading: Ukraine SitRep: Ukrainian Army Chief Reveals Lack of Strategy Behind Kursk Incursion
Palestine Open Thread 2024-213
News & views related to the war in Palestine …
Ukraine Open Thread 2024-212
News & views related to the war in Ukraine …
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