People are saying Iran is behind this war between Hamas and Israel.
But my question is why.
Why would Iran do something like this at this particular juncture when they have everything to lose? The last thing they’d want to be credited with is whipping the Middle East up into a frenzy and starting WWIII.
Which is why I think this war was staged to pin it on Iran. Actually, it meets a variety of needs.
Netanyahu could have easily engaged factions of Hamas (or factions pretending to be Hamas) to make it look like Israel was the victim to enable the U.S. to fork over the big bucks to help out our “only ally outside of NATO.” (If NATO can’t keep Ukraine going, what are they supposed to do? Risk having peace in the world? Ask Hillary Clinton what she thinks of this idea.)
The Palestinians, who finance Hamas, were as surprised as the Israelis when this happened. If Hamas, the Palestinian “protectors,” were going to attack Israel, you’d think they would have moved the Palestinians out of harms way. If the Palestinians live like paupers, it’s because Hamas takes so much off the top of everything that is given to them.
If for no other reason, Hamas would want to move them to safety to protect their income before they attacked Israel.
IMO, this was one last “screw you” by Netanyahu before they haul him off with the other war criminals to places from which you don’t return. Hamas’ motive? They may have wanted to bring the militant group back into the spotlight. But this was a highly unusual beginning for a very bloody massacre, even for them.
When was the last time you saw Hamas open with a Cirque du Soleil act?! A fake beheading in front of a green screen, sure. But hand gliding? Really???
The fact that the Wall Street Journal and New York Times say Iran is behind it should tell you it’s not true. I’m a big fan of Scott Ritter but unfortunately he can’t be trusted on this particular subject either. He’s way too emotional when it comes to Israel. Don’t know what his issues are, but that he has them is not in dispute.
So why do I think it’s NOT Iran?
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced the establishment of a China-Syria strategic partnership just a few short weeks before this happened. This dovetails nicely with Syria’s existing relationship with Russia. They’re the 3 musketeers now. You mess with them, you’re messing with BRICS.
Syria was told to stand down. Lebanon moves in lock step with Syria and is the home of Hezbollah. Hezbollah can be counted on to do what Hezbollah does best: Stand there and look menacing. Skirmishes here and there are not unusual. Taking advantage of a situation is also not unusual. But they are not acting as if they started this thing. People need to remember they were strong enough to push Israel out of Lebanon. But to be a similar contender in this scenario, one would have to explain why now? What do they hope to gain? Israel is busy with Hamas. They’re not in Lebanon.
Hezbollah is <em>re</em>-acting.
If they were acting, they’d be using those precision missiles they have and Israel would have a real problem on their hands. Hamas, however, is not Hezbollah. Israel’s 169,500 active-duty personnel—maintained through conscription—have been boosted by 360,000 reserves. Hamas, on the other hand, is thought to have up to 40,000 fighters, although the exact strength and the composition of these forces is unclear. https://www.newsweek.com/
Iran has the most to lose which may be one of biggest reasons this is happening: to keep Iran out of BRICS. What do BRICS invitations mean for the Middle East? Saudi Arabia, UAE can balance relations between east and west, while Iran and Egypt benefit financially.
Recently, Palestine has applied to join the Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa (BRICS) bloc alongside seven other Arab countries: Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Morocco. At the grouping’s Johannesburg summit in August, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, along with Ethiopia, Argentina and Iran were formally declared as the next entrant into BRICS.
Yet while Palestine wasn’t invited to the summit, and is not among those who will join the grouping soon, BRICS could help bring — and in some ways already is bringing — the issue of Palestinian statehood to the international centre stage. After years of hiatus due to the abandonment of the peace process by the United States and Israel, and Washington’s emphasis instead on brokering peace normalisation deals between Israel and Arab states, this is welcome.
For while BRICS’s support for Palestine is not new, the recent context is.
The Johannesburg summit concluded with a declaration calling for direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine based on international law and the Arab Peace Initiative, towards a two-state solution, leading to the establishment of a sovereign, independent and viable State of Palestine. The text echoed that of the Palestinian-Chinese Strategic Partnership signed in June. Days before the summit, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised support for Palestine’s liberation.
The Palestinian leadership has expressed support for the BRICS’s call to start direct negotiations with Israel and without US involvement. The message to the US? The era of American unilateralism is ceasing.
Signifying the revival of the issue through the Arab Peace Initiative and backing the BRICS’ steps, Saudi Arabia appointed its first-ever non-resident ambassador to Palestine and consul general in Jerusalem without consultation with Israel.
On the Israeli side, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit China in the coming few months partly to discuss a China and Russia-led negotiation process with the Palestinians. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited China in June where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping who iterated China’s commitment to supporting Palestinian statehood. Netanyahu also visited China in May.
In effect, BRICS countries are tacitly rejecting the US Abraham Accords-driven stance on Palestine. This is not to say they do not support the accords, but rather that they believe that the absence of a clear and sustainable position on resolving the Palestinian issue will end the possibility of the two-state solution.
Second, Palestine’s warmer ties with BRICS come amid a growing domestic crisis engulfing the very existence of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Palestinian decision to drop the US as a mediator is a demonstration of worsening ties with Washington and Israel. It reveals a belief by the Palestinian leadership that Washington and Israel’s newly elected far-right government have decided to weaken or dismantle the PA and abandon the peace process in pursuit of annexing the occupied West Bank.
The lack of a political horizon coupled with economic pressures and a domestic legitimacy crisis are increasing the internal tensions for the PA. Young Palestinian fighters are increasingly confronting what they see as excessive settler violence and encroachment on their communities in the occupied West Bank.
This has led to clashes between them and the PA, which under the Oslo Accords, conducts extensive security coordination with Israel, including preventing armed attacks. All of this is forcing the PA to seek in BRICS a vehicle for negotiations that can help it restore lost domestic support.
Given the continuing Russian influence in Syria, and the central Chinese role in mediating a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Palestine is also seeking to capitalise on the intensifying great power competition in its neighbourhood to kickstart a new, non-aligned peace process.
That is easier said than done.
For the moment, BRICS support for Palestine remains mostly rhetorical. BRICS, collectively or as individual nations, has not declared any increase in aid for the PA. Nor has the grouping given Israel any financial incentive to Israel to entice it to join negotiations. There is no question of the BRICS nations involving themselves militarily in the conflict.
The BRICS bloc appears, for the most part, unwilling to tackle the key cause of the Palestinian crisis — Israel’s illegal occupation and policies that global human rights groups have described as apartheid. Against that backdrop, it is natural to wonder if the solidarity extended by the BRICS to Palestine will stay symbolic and on paper.
Israel’s overwhelming military and economic power, coupled with the unwavering support of the US that it has, mean that it will not be under any serious pressure to engage in direct negotiations. Israel also has strong ties with individual BRICS members — especially China, India and Russia. And there is no evidence to suggest that they will risk those ties to push Israel into talks.
The Palestinian national divide will also hinder the potential success of any negotiations even if they do occur.
Still, it is important to remember that BRICS’s commitment to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in its nascent stage. Now, the bloc must be ready to deploy hard or soft power tools if it is to meaningfully emerge as a player capable of prodding Israel into direct negotiations. Without that, BRICS will not be able to prevent Israel from annexing the West Bank and abandoning the two-state vision.
And a test could arrive for the grouping before too long. Hamas and Israel have been preparing for a multifront war which both claim will change the regional balance of power. In such a scenario, BRICS could play a greater and more meaningful role in ending the conflict.
The question is: Does it really want to? https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/8/28/palestines-betting-on-brics-but-is-brics-betting-on-palestine
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
BRICS is forming a Middle Eastern bloc. If this war is pinned on Iran, they will lose their place at the table. Every conversation about this war that does not include a discussion about BRICS is fatally flawed in my opinion.
So if Iran didn’t orchestrate this, who did?
My guess is Biden and his war mongers, which would include Netanyahu. They have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. If the U.S. sends money, it will find its way back to into the pockets of the people who sent it.
Just like in Ukraine.
The support of the U.S. helps Israel establish the legitimacy it needs to clear out the Palestinians and Hamas (to make way for their 15-minute cities “don’t cha know”) and it can all be blamed on Iran.
Yeah, that’s the ticket! Another long drawn out war where a lot of people die. Yippee! Right up their alley.
Notice the war in Ukraine is effectively OVER but the news barely mentioned it. The money (our money), which kept that war going, has dried up. No money. No war.
Then there is the strong possibility Trump will be coming back (if he even left) and Biden and his cronies on both side of the aisle know it. They’ve got to get this new war thing going before Trump starts up with his “peace to the Middle East” thing again.
A little history: In addition to the Abraham Accords, Trump was involved with the Alliance that turned into BRICS and there was a reason Trump acknowledged Jerusalem as the capital which was also a move toward peace. A 1980 Jerusalem Law declared unified Jerusalem the capital of Israel, formalizing the effective annexation of East Jerusalem. Palestinians and many in the international community consider East Jerusalem to be the future capital of the State of Palestine which is why globalists, like Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, hated the idea. He hated it so much he felt he should be in Jerusalem protesting it instead of with his 500 brother bishops in Russia, which included Antioch, Jerusalem, and the OCA. Priorities! Clearly the Church is not one of them. https://mospat.ru/en/news/47917/ https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/metropolitan-tikhon-addresses-bishops-council-of-roc
Looking at any war without BRICS being a part of the conversation is a mistake. If Iran is behind it, they sure are keeping quiet about it. But, hey, if The Wall Street Journal leads with the story, “Iran Helped Plot Attack on Israel Over Several Weeks,” it must be true. We can all trust the MSM, right? https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/iran-israel-hamas-strike-planning-bbe07b25
Agreed. Another interesting thing to note is the minerals/oil under Palestine that Israel was planning to exploit. Can’t help but think that is playing into all of this. That would explain the Israelis wanting to completely annihilate the Palestinian people and level the area. I’m sure Biden, needing a win, was thinking that he would get a PR boost by eliminating Hamas AND tapping into more energy reserves. Well, like everything else Biden has touches its turning to sh**
Of course we already knew this. I have to imagine in his list of priorities the well-being of the Orthodox world is probably last on the list.
But, Barts usefulness is at an end. Why? Because he hitched his wagon hook, line and sinker to Project Ukraine – he’s one of its chief architects – thinking he was going to be victorious. Instead, he is going to be another casualty in the long line of the Zelensky Curse. He’s all but lost his place in the diptychs, and now that Antioch & Jerusalem has reconcilied, the Church should be able to come together and be unified on the OCU/EP as now there is only one schism left, MP-EP, with the others having already been healed.
This might just be my opinion but I don’t think Bart is going to make it (figuratively) to the potential 2025 Unia with Rome. He’s spiritually bankrupt, and soon to be financially so after the $$ stops rolling in. Russia has won the war and will now dictate what Ukraine will do, and you better believe the OCU question will be one of them.
The rest of the Church knows all of this.
It can’t come too soon for me. I want him to go.
I agree with you about BRICS and the fact that licensing agreement were signed a few years back with six oil companies to excavate the oil sitting under Palestine. As for Bart, he is a murderer.
Everything associated with Iran has been striking at Israel and America, including the Houthies in Yemen, since October 8th. Juan Cole states clearly in his interview posted by Jane that Iran has funded, supplied and trained Hamas to do exactly what they did, yet only stops just short of saying they helped plan it. Their plan was textbook Hezbollah and Hezbollah is Iran. Even a broken clock is right twice a day. The fact that the neocons or the msm assert it does not therefore mean it is false. Their remedy is foolish, but the evidence is pretty clear.
This is no coincidence.
So what does Iran have to gain?
Both Iran and Russia want to increase their power in the Middle East by marginalizing the US. This is the perfect way to do it. Making the US look weak and having BRICS be the ones that broker a deal and a Palestinian state is a great way to expand its influence and contain America. China’s BRI passes directly through the ME and they want it opened up as well. So BRICS+ has a strong interest in weakening Israel, America’s military base, and America in the ME.
A good part of my next program which I hope to have up today or tomorrow addresses the cui bono of the situation. Iran, Russia and China clearly benefit from this.
Looking forward to your next program.
One thing I will say though. I have thought that Iran instigated this in order to spark a wide conflict. I’m not entirely convinced that that is incorrect; however, they do not need a wide conflict in order to obtain their objectives. This may explain why Iran seems to be making some effort to contain the conflict while at the same time making military attacks on US assets wherever it can get to them.
All they really need is an intractable quagmire in Gaza and a brewing conflict in northern Israel. Hamas and Hezbollah can manage that. Tzahal may very well have to retreat again from Gaza and thus allow Hamas to rinse and repeat in order to keep the conflict brewing as long as needed in order to obtain a Palestinian state brokered by BRICS.
Arab states are breaking diplomatic relations with Israel. Nine states in total, as of yesterday, have done so. So the division is definitely forming. That is enough to get a peace deal imposed that creates a Palestinian state. The President of Iran is attending a summit with other Muslim leaders in the Organization for Islamic Cooperation in Saudi on Sunday in order to discuss the Israel-Hamas conflict. Hamas leader Haniyah was also in Teheran over the last few days to talk with Khameini about the situation.
So they’re moving forward regardless of whether or not other Muslim countries attack Israel or not.
It’s Israel that needs a wide conflict. Unless they are attacked, they can’t get the $1B from the US. Plus, some very colorful people lives are on the line in Israel. They can hide for awhile in a war . . . they think.
Here’s the thing that is really upsetting people, Galinushka. It’s the thought that Israel could lose this. Now you have Jews writing for neo-con think tanks ruminating on the possibility in public:
Jon B. Alterman
Senior Vice President, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, and Director, Middle East Program
. . . and this directly after effectively losing in the Ukraine.
George and Gail, spot on. And isn’t it a crazy coincidence that American MSM just happened to be embedded with Hamas at the time of their incursion into Israel? https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2023/11/09/netanyahu-demands-answers-from-cnn-nyt-ap-reuters-on-embedded-hamas-photographers/
The MSM is always, “Johnny on the spot,” aren’t they?
If the US helped orchestrate it per my remarks below, it would kind of make sense.
Ben Gurion Canal project, anyone here familiar with it? Apparently meant to be an alternative to the Suez Canal, and two-way, which will mean billions of revenue for Israel and the US. I’ve been asking the same question as you, Gail, and this is the first thing I’ve seen that might explain things, came across it a few days ago.
The idea has been around for a long time, but now apparently plans are for it to go through the north end of the Gaza strip and southward to the Red Sea, and turn the surrounding region into high-priced resorts, hotels and restaurants, a big tourist region. The secret US military base being built in the southern Israel desert (someone mentioned in a comment on another article here) is apparently a construction base for the canal, or so some are speculating.
It’s the first thing I’ve read that explains why Israel might have allowed the horrible massacre of their own people despite advance notice, if it gives them cover to go after Hamas/Gaza the way they are. Makes it possible to level and take over Gaza so they can redevelop it for the canal. If built, it will be the biggest shipping trade route in the world, with much bigger economic implications than the massive gas reserve found in Gaza waters.
Here’s a short video that discusses how it would reshape the region economically, including the effect on Iran: https://youtu.be/0WuyCiqSkr4?si=URDcHK0qawwF437a
A more detailed one by independent journalist Richard Medhurst: https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1719843625784266992
If anyone here knows about this, I would love your opinion of it.
RE: “It’s the first thing I’ve read that explains why Israel might have allowed the horrible massacre of their own people despite advance notice, if it gives them cover to go after Hamas/Gaza the way they are. ”
Is it possible that Israel might have orchestrated this horrible massacre? Make it look like they were attacked by Hamas? Could that be the reason for all those videos out there of men with kippahs staging bodies of (live) children in the street with fake blood everywhere? Could they have hired some Hamas look-a-like mercenaries to do the deed and given them ample time to do some serios damage?
I think so for all the reasons you’ve introduced.
Or consider this: Hamas leadership, rumored to be a Mossad/CIA operation, is in Qatar, which hosts the biggest US military base in the Mideast and gives millions to the US. Did the US via Qatar help orchestrate the attack on Israel with Hamas leadership, using Hamas subordinates, which Hamas leadership might not care about if paid enough? So Israel with US support could invade Gaza? It’s a terrible thing to speculate about, but nothing would surprise me anymore.
In addition, trillions of cubic feet of liquefied natural gas have been identified right off the Gaza Strip.
In my opinion, the Palestinians dropped the ball long ago when they could have made the Gaza a free port, much like Hong Kong or Singapore. While the Israelis may have tried to sabotage this effort, it could have been part of an authentic two-state solution.
Regrettabky, I think that ship has sailed.
Wow. Great info!
Gail, thanks for posting this article. A lot of good points to ponder
Meanwhile, it looks like we are taking significant casualties from the Middle Eastern theater of operations: https://sonar21.com/u-s-inching-towards-world-war-iii-while-biden-administration-hides-u-s-casualties/
Worse than the Wall Street Journal blaming Iran is
Lindsey Oily [sorry – Olin] Graham blaming Iran.
This is reason enough to doubt the truth of the tale.
OK, I close my case. If Miss Lindsey is blaming Iran I’m pretty sure Iran didn’t do it! Maybe the U.S. did it to start something.
Of course, it makes perfect sense:
The US CIA had the Mossad direct Hamas to stage the attack and then somehow got Hezbollah to start attacking Israel in the north (and threaten to invade if the Israelis began actually succeeding in eradicating Hamas and driving the Gazans into Egypt) in order to blame the Iranians for the whole mess and start a war.
Completely logical.
And the Mossad must be controlling the Houthis and they’re also actually behind all the attacks on US bases that the government is suppressing that Larry Johnson discusses here too.
I’m so glad we cleared that up!
If they would just put me in charge over there, I would knock their heads together and tell them each to go home. I wouldn’t let them “play” together again until they straightened up.
And if that doesn’t work, my mom’s tactic could be used. Whenever there was conflict, she would never intervene. Her one-line response to just about everything was: “Work it out yourself.” It taught us to be responsible and accountable to ourselves and each other. I wish more parents would take a step back and allow their kids to learn this.
If we had our own Iron Dome, a strong Navy on both coasts, a north and south border enforced by the Army, Marines, National Guard and AI, and a customs system that actually worked, America could defend herself here at home. And we could comfortably withdraw our troops and military equipment from the rest of the world and say: “Work it out yourself.”
I believe that’s what Trump did/attempted.
No BS. Here’s what needs to happen or your fired!
We did have peace in the East for a brief moment. But the evil/demonic forces are desperately trying to prevent peace bcz its so uncomfortable to them…
Yea. Verily…
Add this to the pile: Iran US conflict getting very hot.
Many US soldiers hospitalized.
https://youtu.be/eqcUZSuAqOU?si=W3tFg6AIiW8NFFaN
WASHINGTON, Oct 23 (Reuters) – The United States has not seen a direct order from Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to attack U.S. troops in the region, the Pentagon said on Monday following a rise in attacks in Iraq and Syria by suspected Iran-backed groups.
https://www.reuters.com/world/no-direct-iran-order-proxies-attack-us-troops-pentagon-says-2023-10-23/
Isn’t it convenient that United States sent an additional 300 troops to the Middle East with a focus on providing support in areas like explosive ordnance disposal and communications? You know what these people do? Detect, disarm and dispose of explosive threats. A useless endeavor and very dangerous. But our people have to be there, our BEST people. They have to be there in harm’s way so they’ll end up in hospitals and coffins. Because this is what upsets the American people, which is what they want so we’ll get into yet another war. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-security-detectors/from-beirut-to-baghdad-useless-bomb-detectors-guard-against-disaster-idUSKCN1061VK
“Everyone around us is emoting. There is no thinking anywhere, ” says MacGregor. He is the news. The closest thing we have to it, anyway. The others are just commentators.
The following is in two parts. The second part is with Tucker.
https://beforeitsnews.com/war-and-conflict/2023/11/col-douglas-macgregor-an-analysis-of-the-current-situation-must-video-2480453.html
Col. Doug is great. He has wonderful sources.
I don’t think the Biden Regime wants a war with Iran. They seem to be doing everything they can to shield Iran from the actions of its proxies. That is disingenuous to a certain extent but understandable given the present context. The Pentagon has a pretty good idea of Iran’s capabilities. They are suppressing the magnitude of the attacks that are being launched on American bases in the region. They are serious and continuous.
MacGregor is probably right about Russia eventually getting involved if Iran is directly attacked in such a way as to actually threaten the regime there. Russia and Iran are at least de facto allies at this point. Iran is joining BRICS and there are a number of other agreements linking them and Russia. Many even consider Russia to be part of Iran’s network of Resistance.
Russia’s neutrality is fading rather quickly in all of this. I’m not sure that they can be a mediator at this point. China may be able to play the role, or BRICS in general since it is diversified. But Israel made a huge mistake by supplying Ukraine with defensive weapons systems and advisors (Mossad) during the war. This opens up the room for Russia to supply more defensive weapons to Hezbollah to counter Israeli air power. Pepe Escobar has a good article on all of this, though I disagree with his opinion that a two state solution is dead:
https://new.thecradle.co/articles/russias-public-pivot-to-palestine
It’s a powder keg. I think Nasrallah speaks again today as well.
Apparently Netanyahu saying that their Bible says to take the land and kill all the residents in it and etc, is stirring up thoughts about what kind of God do the Jews worship.
Any thoughts?
Again, it’s those 15-minute cities they’re enamored with at the moment. For the Middle East: https://youtu.be/bRh_oy6yItI
They still worship Moloch.
Remember all the Jews crying that a ban on abortion restricts their freedom of religion during the recent Roe vs Wade debate?
This was the case over three thousand years ago when Israel was founded, no doubt by ethnic cleansing ordered by God. And I certainly don’t exclude the possibility that such a thing might be necessary for God’s people to execute given similar circumstances. What’s truly necessary cannot be evil and God evidently thought it was justified way back then. So, under certain circumstances, it is justified.
However, modern Israel is not the Israel of God; that is the Church. Modern Israel is a political machination of European Jews who have displaced and subjugated a gracious plenty Arabs in and from Palestine, keeping them in appalling conditions and ignoring a stack of UN resolutions calling for them to allow the Palestinian Arabs their own state and calling for Israel to retreat to its pre-1967 borders.
So, Israel asked for this mess and cannot hide behind “Amalek” in order to justify further injustice to the Palestinians, some of whom are Christians, btw. The Jews lost the land. That’s a shame. But that was long ago and their own rabbis used to tell them that only when the King Messiah comes will the Jews return and establish a Jewish state there. Originally, the Orthodox Jews were against Zionism. Only over time were they won over. Many “ultra-Orthodox” are still implacably opposed. Some of them even live in the Holy Land and did so before the establishment of the State of Israel.
Modern Judaism is a false religion because it rejects the Messiah, Christ Jesus. All of these problems flow from that particular sin.
It doesnt matter if Iran funded this or that group. The United States is hell bent on war as it’s the only thing propping up it’s GDP. The saying is America can’t afford another war BUT it can’t afford NOT to go. And guess what? They will badly lose that war as well. They have no chance in hell in any rregime change in Iran. If your in the U.S. military let me just say you are a joke and do not defend me you defend the federal reserve which prints money to fund the forever wars and keep America’s economy from collapsing.
RE: “The United States is hell bent on war. . .”
Yep. It sure seems so which is why I could see them as the instigators.
How to stop a war.
https://rumble.com/v3uk000-how-to-stop-a-war.html
It worked before.
Scott Ritter: “Why Israel is FINISHED!
Prepare for MILLIONS to LEAVE to the WEST!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4nT64MiLyc
[Video – 23:30]
‘ In this thought-provoking article, Scott Ritter delves into the contentious topic of Israel’s future, presenting a compelling argument on why he believes the nation is on the brink of decline. Drawing upon his expertise, Ritter explores the various factors contributing to Israel’s perceived demise and goes on to predict a mass exodus of millions of Israelis seeking refuge in the West. Through a thoughtfully crafted analysis, Ritter challenges conventional notions, inviting readers to contemplate the potential implications of such a hypothetical scenario. ‘
The headline is editorial and misleading.
Nevertheless, Scott gives a sound political analysis
of what has gone wrong, why and how to fix it.
Don’t forget about all those Oligarchs from Ukraine that were hoping to flee to Israel. They’re going to have to find a place to live, as well.
That’s just one of the many ironies involved here. Many a couple of hundred thousand Palestinian refugees could be sent to Martha’s Vineyard or the Hamptons? Some reliably Blue State would be acceptable as well.
What the Neocons don’t know (or never understood) is that there is no way to plan for all contingencies. As von Clausewitz said (paraphrase): “the enemy gets a vote”.
I like Ritter, but he is quite naive about two things:
1. He says that a one state solution with Jews, Muslims and Christians living side by side may be the best way forward. That is multiculturalism and doomed to failure. It’s just a matter of time. It would not end the violence on either side nor the political tensions. The two groups have to be separate and respectively sovereign. MultiKulti hasn’t worked in America or anywhere else and it won’t work in Israel.
2. He is just dead wrong when it comes to the Sunni/Shia thing, oil and water. That is simply not true. In the past, there is some truth to it. And he is right that Hamas fought against Shia in Syria against Assad. But that is all water under the bridge now.
Iran funds both Islamic Jihad in Palestine and Hamas and they are both Sunni organizations. The real dichotomy in the ME is between those implacably opposed to Israel as an occupier and those willing to overlook it and make a deal. And the Overton Window is moving away from the dealmaker position toward the Palestinian position. The Shia are, as a group, more hostile to Israel at this time. That is also true of Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Palestine.
Hamas and Assad
Hamas and Iran
That’s where the game is.
Off topic from the post (sorry), but looks like Elpi is still making waves, and seemingly more enemies, because of his constant talking about the Charter revision, even though he has been directed to stop by the EP Synod:
Some relevant quotes:
You have to wonder why he keeps brining up the Charter despite literally everyone telling him to stop. Very interesting.
Very unpopular it appears. To me this is very encouraging from the Metropolitans.
Controversial opinion: Have a priest with actual pastoral school oversee HCHC, not some millionaire on the L100.
Thisis very interesting.
The article goes on to talk about how they’re going to pay the salaries of those working at the St. Nicholas shrine and other seemingly money issues
So what’s your take on this? Why is he so enamored with the idea of a Charter? I’m thinking he’s worried about the monasteries bailing with all this talk about Rome. No charter: no contract.
I can’t figure out what it is. He’s literally been told by everyone from Bart to parish priests throughout the Metropolises to stop talking about it, yet he persists.
Im not sure, because union with Rome is Bart’s radar too so you would think they would all be worried about losing monasteries/parishes when they decide to leave. If that’s the case then it seems like Bart & Co., would be pushing harder for the Charter revisions.
Another option is that Elpi is being pressured by people outside of Orthodoxy. My guess is that for him to be able to implement every heterodox practice that he wants to he needs to subsume all authority under himself. In all actuality he’s only over a very small geographic area.
It seems as though he’s gone rogue from the patriarchate. That’s the only real thing that I can think of.
What’s your take?
What you’re saying is all true. Something’s up.
One thing is pretty clear, at least IMHO: Elpi has fallen out of favor with literally almost everyone in the Patriarchate. I know there was speculation that he would be the next patriarch after Bart. I’m not so sure that’s the case anymore. He’s viewed negatively through pretty much the entire Orthodox world, was banned from Athos, was admonished by the synod of the Church of Greece, has been admonished more than once by the AOB.
I’d say that the EP Synod can’t be stupid enough to make him patriarch, but, it’s the EP we’re talking about. But, in all fairness I’m not sure that Emanuel wouldn’t be exponentially worse.
As for what’s up with Elpi pushing the Charter. I have to imagine that if he’s been told not to and he’s being indignant either someone behind the scenes at the Fanar is telling him to do so, or, like I said someone outside of Orthodoxy is pushing this. That’s the only thing that can explain it. He clearly feels like he’s above reproach and can’t be punished.
Give yalls vast network, I’d be curious if there is someone “in the know” that reads Monomakhos.
He is indeed being pressured by people outside of Orthodoxy, Petro. Of that we can all rest assured.
As a side note, with the glorification of St. Olga of Alaska by the OCA, you have to imagine there will be a pan-Orthodox event commemorating St. Olga. A new American Saint is of course a very big deal.
I can’t imagine the OCA not inviting ROCOR given the ties Russian Orthodoxy has with Alaska.
I also assume Elpi will be invited as well.
If ROCOR can’t concelebrate with the GOA, wonder how that will play out?
Saint Olga pray for us ☦️
I would be surprised if Elpi showed up.
Petros, please continue to flesh this out.
If I may:
1. Are we to understand that there is no Charter at present? And, if so,
2. Is the GOA subject to legal peril without a legal Charter? By this I mean not only the GOA but its dioceses, parishes and various parochial institutions.
I’m not a lawyer but I’ve seen some reasoning along these lines. Any help in this matter would be appreciated.
I’m also not a lawyer but I think that if the Charter is not in effect or has been rendered null then I think the rules don’t apply to the various parishes.
My guess is that Elpi is still pushing Barts original plan and Bart has gone silent given how extraordinarily unpopular the proposed revision is.
What’s interesting is that the Greek Archdiocese of Australia operates the way Elpi is pushing for here in America, an Archbishop with “districts” instead of Metropolises. Given how people on the Charter committee at the Fanar have stated that model is not canonical then I wonder if the Greek Archdiocese of Australia will actually be the one that is made to be more like the GOARCH model.
Re: Islam terror in U.S.
Worth your read.
https://leohohmann.com/2023/11/06/islam-is-getting-restless-at-home-and-abroad-and-the-u-s-government-loves-it/
With the millions of illegals that have crossed the border who knows how many terrorists are here. I’m sure Hamas, Hezbollah and every other group has militants here.
America decides to attack Iran -> Activate those groups in America
They do indeed. Especially Hezbollah. But mostly these are UN recruits with bank cards waiting to be called into duty. They’ve actually been able to interview them. I have a picture of a couple of dozen of them all wearing the same exact shoes, courtesy of the UN I presume.
Hellenic College is hosting the heretical St. Phoebe center for deaconesses, which is very clearly pushing for women’s ordination in Orthodoxy.
Unfortunate to see HCHC host this and I pray the seminarians push back on this event.
The same people probably show up at these things. The Fordimites are always well represented.
Yep, it’s the same sycophants talking to themselves and their inner circle.
Just sad to see HCHC even give them a platform.
Chances are, they won’t. From what I hear, the trads are in the minority at HC. I could be wrong however. If anybody knows differently, please let us know.
I can’t speak to Hellenic College but as for Holy Cross I’ve had a couple of friends go through seminary there the past few years and they’ve had nothing but great things to say. Does it have its problems? Sure. Is it Jordanville? Nope. But, they were very impressed with the theology program and said it was very Orthodox.
Now Hellenic College, that’s another story, and though the two share the same campus I can’t speak to the “orthodoxy” of Hellenic College.
Israeli Tanks Have Gaza Hospitals Surrounded As UN Decries “Hell On Earth”
Sickening. We dare not criticize or be labeled antisemitic with the holocaust thrown in our face.
See: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israeli-tanks-have-gaza-hospitals-surrounded-un-decries-hell-earth
Latest info on Al Shifa Hospital
https://youtu.be/Drnx4dhBFNI?si=CQzLGIzerWz_lwIO
I find it funny that folks who hate globalization, who say “don’t trust the mainstream media,” who love Donald Trump, and who promote Christian Orthodoxy are now…
trusting UN reports about Israeli atrocities (the UN! The driving force behind globalization!), honoring persecutors of Christians (Iran and Hamas), embracing the non-American mainstream media who have always hated Israel, siding with far leftists who love Palestine, piling on America’s only ally in the ME, trusting the word of a country that has repeatedly lied to the USA and is run by an apocalyptic cult of Islam (Iran).
I’m certain very much against sending US troops to the ME, but i can’t get behind this “Iran and Hamas are the good guys now” talk.
🆘The illustrious Paul Craig Roberts posted this profound article by Norman Finkelstein regarding Bernie Saders position on the bombing of Gaza.
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: People For Global Justice – Since 2001
🆘https://informationclearinghouse.blog/2023/11/07/norman-finkelstein-responds-to-bernie-sanders-statement-opposing-gaza-ceasefire/
Re Norman Finkelstein, in case it hasn’t already been posted, here is a link to his video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R49v3K29mM . He said some interesting things about which I did not know, such as Hamas’ efforts back in the mid-oughts to negotiate toward a two-state solution along the lines of the international consensus. (at 12:40) The video is long but all of it is well worth watching.
Norman speaks with passion
and the voice of truth.
I have been watching a lot of Finklestein videos. He is truly well versed on the issues. I also watched the video you posted. Finklestein is brilliant!
Bernie Sanders joins RFK Jr, keep bombing Gaza!
Paul Craig Roberts reports
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2023/11/10/bernie-sanders-joins-robert-f-kennedy-jr-in-supporting-israels-massacre-of-palestinians/
Sad! I had hopes for RFK, but he and Tulsi Gabbard both have bowed the knee to (((power))).
It occurred to me when reading Anne Applebaum’s latest column (I’ll spare you a link, find it if you like that kind of thing) about why the West must defeat Russia that most everything she advocated was already being done and the West is still losing. And part of what she was advocating was, of course, economic. And it also then occurred to me, though of course we all have said it before in one way or another over the course of the Ukraine war, that not only is the Eurasian Alliance working to contain and rollback the West, but it is bankrupting it internally, much the way the West did the former Soviet Union. Though the fact is, the West is doing a pretty good job of bankrupting itself even without foreign help.
That was the strategy that America and Europe applied during the Cold War – increase military production dramatically and challenge the Soviets on every front and wait for their economy to collapse under the weight of it all. Now, we are pouring money into the Ukraine and into the Middle East as well as pouring it into East Asia in anticipation for a conflict there. And the Balkans may heat up again in short order as well.
Our military budget alone is approaching a trillion dollars (some would say more if you count all budgetary resources of the DoD).
Now, the Soviet Union broke up into its constituent republics. At present, Europe and America are increasingly divided politically between a nationalistic Right and the Liberal normies (both progressive and “conservative”). All the ingredients are there for Western decline to be accelerated significantly by the burden of its economic load. At some point the drain becomes politically unsustainable due to inflation, higher interest rates and general economic mayhem. Bear in mind, though China has its own difficulties, they pale in comparison to this. And Russia’s semi-wartime economy is operating smoothly outpacing Western military production.
This would seem ominous to me if I were on the side of the West, as Applebaum is.
FORMER HEAD OF ANTIOCHIAN ARCHDIOCESE SUES OVER SEVERANCE PACKAGE—ALLEGES PROMISES WERE BROKEN
The former head of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America is suing the Archdiocese and several Board members a year after he stepped down amidst accusations that he had been romantically involved with a married (later divorced) woman for many years.
According to Metropolitan Joseph (Al-Zehlaoui), he has not been given the generous severance package he was promised.
Met. Joseph was enthroned as head of the Archdiocese in December 2014, having already served as a bishop for more than two decades in Syria and the U.S.
In 2022, Helena Ditko revealed to Archdiocesan officials that she had been romantically involved with the Metropolitan from 2001 to 2017 (she was divorced in 2004), and that she could no longer remain silent. The accusations and investigation were leaked and published online, and the resulting scandal led to the Metropolitan’s retirement last September.
Now, Met. Joseph alleges that the defendants Emile Sayegh (general counsel and Chancellor of the Board of Trustees), Fawaz El-Khoury (Vice Chairman of the Board), and Salim Abboud (CFO of the Board), have broken oral promises that they made concerning his severance package.
According to a civil court summons filed in Rockland County, New York, the Metropolitan says he was promised his existing salary for life, a vehicle, control of a discretionary fund (with a balance of $1.4 million at that time), health insurance for life, reimbursement for moving expenses, and continued funding of Sarah Ahmar, a disabled girl supported by Met. Joseph.
The former Archdiocesan head argues that the defendants’ promises are “evidenced by contemporaneous notes taken by Jasminka Gabrie, Metropolitan Joseph’s accountant, on September 8, 2022.” The document doesn’t specify whether Gabrie was physically present during the meetings.
The Metropolitan’s accountant is a professional art dealer and has owned and operated Galerie Gabrie for the past 27 years.
Regarding the discretionary fund, the document filed by Met. Joseph’s lawyer notes it was his to “handle, control, and disperse as he saw fit, as Metropolitan” (emphasis added). And though the Church put the account at his disposal due to his role as the ruling hierarch, the document argues that, “This account has never been in the rightful possession of the Orthodox Church” (emphasis added).
The document also argues that the defendants “have cruelly turned their back on him and his lifetime of serving the Orthodox Church, threatening him with eviction and refusing to provide any meaningful support to him in his retirement.”
Met. Joseph hopes to continue living at the Los Angeles chancery, though he also owns a home in Post Falls, Idaho, that is valued at nearly $1.7 million.
The hierarchs also alleges that it was the defendants who leaked information about the allegations against him online, which caused him to be painted as a “sexual predator”—“when of course he is not,” the court document reads.
Met. Joseph is seeking at least $5 million in compensatory damages, as well punitive damages and declaratory and injunctive relief.
In another context, Met. Joseph vigorously denounced the idea of a cleric or hierarch bringing legal action against the Church.
Before the scandal and his retirement, Met. Joseph was among the leading hierarchs from the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America who opposed the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese’s plans to consecrate Alexander Belya, a defrocked former priest of ROCOR, to the episcopacy.
In the bishops’ second letter of protest to Archbishop Elpidophoros, signed by Met. Joseph, they specifically argued that Belya is unworthy of becoming a hierarch because, among other things, he has brought a civil lawsuit against ROCOR, “in direct violations of both Holy Scripture (1 Corinthians 6:1-8) and the Holy Canons (Canon 9 of the Council of Chalcedon and Canon 6 of the First Council of Constantinople). This fact alone should prevent him from becoming a bishop.”
See: https://orthochristian.com/157279.html
Actually he doesn’t own the home in Post Falls as it was turned over to his brother.
Edward Curtin | An Epistle to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/11/edward-curtin/an-epistle-to-robert-f-kennedy-jr/
‘ … For both the U.S. and Israel, the Bible has been used to cover up the crimes of their foundings. They have analogous histories rooted in religious myths. In both cases, the indigenous peoples were considered less than human – savages, infidels – or in the description of Palestinians by the current Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, “human animals.” Such racist, dehumanizing language has been repeated time and again throughout the American and Israeli narratives used to justify their crimes against those they killed and whose land they stole. The gloss of civilized hypocrisy has been unmasked by such language, just as it was when Hitler repeatedly called Jews “vermin.” Irony aside, the Nazi rhetoric of denigration and racial superiority to justify exterminating Jewish people has been repeatedly mirrored by American and Israeli leaders, whether it was against the Original Free Peoples of North America, Vietnamese, Koreans, Iraqis, etc. or the Palestinians. It is the master/slave mentality deeply rooted in U.S. and Israel history. …
One can learn this in Peter P. d’Errico’s important recent book, Federal Anti-Indian Law: The Legal Entrapment of Indigenous Peoples, where he makes clear how U.S. law was used to codify such “legal” theft and killing. Such federal law was, as d’Errico writes, a claim of unlimited U.S. power and not really law at all but the suspension of law as it granted the U.S. government complete authority over Native peoples, their lives, and their land. Legal theft, in other words. Like the English justification for their claim to their colonies – the “right of discovery” proclaimed in Henry VII’s commission to John Cabot: “to subdue and take possession of any lands unoccupied by any Christian Power” – a series of three Supreme Court rulings in the 1830s by Chief Justice John Marshall were based on the claim of “Christian discovery,” which in turn was based on a papal grant from Pope Alexander the Sixth in 1493 that gave to Christopher Columbus’s sponsors, Ferdinand and Isabella, ownership of any land Columbus might discover. This divine right required the killing and subjugation of non-Christian infidels and heathens who were considered brute animals, just as the Palestinians are today.
Similar justifications have been used by Zionists for the killing of Palestinians and the seizure of their land in the name of the Biblical Jewish God and his instructions to them. This myth claims that God gave them the ancestral Palestinians’ land, therefore, like native peoples of North America who, according to the non-law U.S. Indian law, only had the right of occupancy, the Palestinians could be killed and dispossessed by the God-given rightful owners, which they were in 1948. Netanyahu has made such claims many times, as have his predecessors. He calls for a holy war of annihilation against the Palestinians, based on the Hebrew Bible. This is widely known and has a long history in the Zionist propaganda narrative that has allowed for seventy-five years of killing and the systematic shrinking of Palestinian land to its pitiful size today.
It is interesting to note that the three primary countries that intersect in the use of religious justification for colonial and imperial policies are England, the U.S., and Israel – together with the Papacy and its May 4, 1493 bull Inter Caetera issued by Pope Alexander the Sixth to declare Christian discovery. I mention this since I am an Irish-American Catholic, and it was the Irish uprising against the English colonial occupiers that has become a key inspiration for anti-colonial rebels throughout the twentieth century and beyond. I have taken inspiration from my Irish ancestors. This is your heritage also, Bobby, so it becomes even more surprising that you, even as you tout the American Revolutionary War rebel fighters against the English colonialists, would support the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians. …
Yes, the question is why such silence, which you can break now. I beg you to speak out. You are a man of conscience. MLK, Jr. speaks to us all still.
“And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular – but one must take it simply because it is right.”
Pax tibi,
Ed’
He’s a cover for Trump. You watch. He’ll turn all his voters over to him.
RFK Jr. played us. Bye bye. Anyone who wants to be President must bow down.
Brendan, I just read the article you posted. Painful truth.
It’s painful for me too Jane. I have Irish ancestry
and Ireland today has bowed to the COVID lie
and turned from Catholicism to abortionism.
Brendan,
Everything natural has become unnatural. Fr. Peter Heers discusses Revelation. He points to where we are today. The second half of this video is riveting.
https://www.youtube.com/live/U8evI1dVVeE?si=RsMJfH_ik48hvhI9
Thank you for this, Jane.
I will watch it when I get the time.
PS: It appears that YouTube has removed it.
Yes. There is the book, though, on Uncut Mountain Press.
“Antichrist: The Fulfillment of Globalization”
The Ancient Church and the End of History, by G.M.Davis PhD.
I guess YouTube did not like Father Peter Heers revelations. They banned his video since last night.
YouTube like little, it would seem.
First of all, the Bible is not just a “religious myth”. It is actual history. And God Himself did order the Israelites to do what they did to conquer Canaan and hold it decisively. Not only that, but the paradigm remains as a last refuge of self-defense for a Christian nation state: The War of Anathema.
Now, that has nothing to do with modern Israel or American exceptionalism, however.
Regarding America, we tend to charge the British folk who colonized and conquered North America as being liable for modern liberal morality. They are not. They held an older worldview despite being completely superior militarily to the indigenous population of the Americas. The North American aborigines were stone age tribesmen with no written language. It is little wonder that 18th and 19th century settlers of European descent would not consider them equals. They did not even consider each other equals. There were clear class differences among the Euro-Americans, there was slavery and indentured servitude. Their society was more openly hierarchical than ours and it should not surprise us that they considered Native Americans to be near the bottom of that food chain. That was the nature of power in that culture. They knew nothing different.
Now, are we more compassionate now? Perhaps. In theory, at least. And that is the only reason why people have begun to question our actions over the ages. But the necessary paradigms were not there in former times. And no amount of self-righteous indignation can change the past. One might even say that American conquerors were smart enough to eradicate enough of the indigenous population so that even bleeding hearts would have no one to whom to return the conquered land. But the fact remains that the laws of Discovery and Conquest were accepted at the time.
Now Israel itself is another case entirely. People who had just been the victims of massive extermination and displacement proceeded to ethnically cleanse themselves a new state for their tribe among people whom they obviously considered inferior and expendable – much as the Germans had considered them inferior and expendable. One can ask how supposedly educated, civilized people would do this. However, these were European Jews at the spearhead of this movement and they thought mostly like Europeans did at the time, looking with Orientalist, colonial condescension upon the populace of the East. And, moreover, the justification they gave seemed to them to be an existential imperative, or at least they characterized it as such.
But times change and the sheen of European and American exceptionalism has worn off. And we are in the midst of a second anti-colonial period, much like the one that gripped Africa and Latin America in the 20th century. This time, for much of the world, the objective is to throw off soft economic colonialism.
But real, physical colonialism remains here and there. And Israel is such a place. The only Jews who really belong in Israel are the Mizrahis. Their ancestors fled from the East upon the establishment of Israel in a massive exchange of populations spurred by Ashkenazi Jewish ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs. And the Mizrahis, through Divine Providence and demographics, are taking over. So we are in a difficult, turbulent period as a result.
Because you have a coalition of ascendant, largely Mizrahi, religious parties led by an Ashkenazi (Netanyahu) guarding the walls of the Alamo.
What could go wrong?
Despite Orthodox disagreement with Curtin,
with the terms in which his makes his case,
his argument is interesting precisely because
he comes from the same intellectual background
as RFK Jnr: religiously, politically and historically.
Yet it is on these very grounds that he bases
his opposition to Kennedy’s support for Israel,
an Israel which Kennedy describes as if it were
(in pure Orwellian terms) Airstrip Two…
The Green Brigade of Celtic Football Club supporters
(that I have described elsewhere on Monomakhos),
who come from the same background as both men,
would be unequivocally on the side of Edward Curtin.
Brendan,
Here’s the thing about the Palestinian cause. Most Palestinians are not Christians, they are Muslims. And perhaps 1-2% percent at most are Palestinian Christians in Gaza.
Now it is not that Muslim lives are worth less than Christian lives or anybody else’s. It is a matter of sympathy. Muslims in general were ecstatic, for example, over 9/11, especially in Palestine. Yasir Arafat had to rebuke them from celebrating and handing out candy. This has nothing to do with Muslim hate of Jews. Given Israel policy, I get that. But that hatred is not confined to Jews and Israel. When a Syrian Muslim man cuts the throat of a little Syrian Christian girl wearing a cross around her neck in a refugee camp, it is indicative of a cultural phenomenon which in the West would be called “Christophobia” if Western liberals cared at all about such a thing.
Muslims too believe they are the “master race” It is in their supersessionism vis a vis Christianity. They believe as a matter of their religious identity that they have the right to reduce us to dhimmi status, second or third class subordinates. There is a long history of this and we need not argue about the reality of the Muslim belief and historical action on the subject.
I could make an airtight case on this subject if I chose to cite all the primary sources and application over the centuries, but the short version is that early Islam, from its inception, claimed the right to conquer everyone in all directions to the end of the earth. Those “people of the Book” – Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians – would be tolerated as subject, subservient monotheists and spared the choice of Islam or the sword. But everyone else had to face that terrible choice. Look at their activities in northern India if you doubt that.
The disease that causes that mass murder and oppression has a name and all Muslims carry it – it is called “Islam”, which means “Submission [to the will of Allah].
Now, do I encourage mistreatment of Muslims? No, merely containment and, eventually, rollback. Do I think what the Israelis have done is justified? No. The Israelis have created a monster and are constantly creating more “terrorists” by pursuing their policies. They should separate themselves, defend their borders and be done with it. But do I actually, truly sympathize with Muslim civilian casualties in Gaza, etc.?
No, hell no, not at all, not on your life.
Because they would do worse to me and you and other non-Muslims if they could. This is a matter of historical certainty. We need not argue about it. I’m not going to weep over women and children not-z’s. That is the cold hard truth of the matter and that is my final answer so long as they adhere to Islam.
Now, I don’t have a much more favorable opinion of the Israelis. In fact, I will simply remark that they have sowed the wind and are reaping the whirlwind. I do not sympathize with them in the least either. I could not care less if Israel endures or is destroyed by this conflict. If the Jews were driven out, it would not bother me in the slightest.
There are no heroes nor good guys in this conflict, other than that miniscule slice of Palestinian Christians caught in the conflict.
HOWEVER
There is a greater conflict going on here and this little tempest in a teapot is merely a part of it. In that conflict, Mother Russia has made the strategic decision, which I believe to be correct, to ally with the Ummah against the Liberal Borg. I don’t like the Ummah. Not at all. I do respect the Shia more than the Sunni for reasons I won’t go into. Nonetheless, the enemy of my enemy is sometimes my ally.
Ally, not friend.
So were the dancing Israelis.
The Corbett Report on the subject is excellent:
https://www.corbettreport.com/911-suspects-dancing-israelis/
In their attitudes to others, there is little to choose
between Islamic doctrines and Jewish doctrines.
Nevertheless, I don’t support this one killing that.
INFANT MORTALITY SKYROCKETS
https://thehighwire.com/ark-videos/infant-mortality-skyrockets/
[Video – 13:37]
Jeffrey Jaxen and Del Bigtree discuss a disturbing trend…
PATRIARCH ILIA ON GEORGIA’S BID TO JOIN EUROPEAN UNION
I’ve got a bad feeling about this….
See: https://orthochristian.com/157307.html
Yes, exactly…. sometimes you can be too trusting…. sometimes folks like Patriarch Ilya are so holy and have so much good in them that it may make it difficult to detect wolves in sheep clothing?
On the other hand, the years of animosity between the country of Georgia and the Russian empire might make the EU an attractive option to Georgians? Plenty of Georgians are anti-Russia, so perhaps to them, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” ?
Regardless, we who live in the West know that the folks who run the EU are more or less inveterate, aggressive secularists and atheistic globalists. Maybe that reality is harder to see if you don’t live in secular Western culture?
His bishop may have the same problem.
The scary thing about Europes borders spreading eastward and now basically encompasses all the Caucuses and the Levant, is the hijacking of the Christian religion as nothing more than a regional European religion. Armenia and Georgia is both looking to join the EU because the EU and the natives of these countries surmise that being Christian (unlike Azerbajian) means they belong to secular European culture. The Christian laity along with their bishops are putting the final nails into the coffin of the Christian religion. All over the world Christianity has now been exposed as a regional “white mans” religion that he wields as a weapon of colonialism. I was in a FB comment section just last week where Georgians were using this very argument that since they are Christian that automatically makes them European. Keep in mind how being European has become itself a quasi-ethnicity in of itself, a kind of ethnic identifier. When I brought up their Arab Orthodox brethren near them they shrugged it off as an anomaly.
The scary thing about Europes borders spreading eastward and now basically encompasses all the Caucuses and the Levant, is the hijacking of the Christian religion as nothing more than a regional European religion. Armenia and Georgia is both looking to join the EU because the EU and the natives of these countries surmise that being Christian (unlike Azerbajian) means they belong to secular European culture. The Christian laity along with their bishops are putting the final nails into the coffin of the Christian religion. All over the world Christianity has now been exposed as a regional “white mans” religion that he wields as a weapon of colonialism. I was in a FB comment section just last week where Georgians were using this very argument that since they are Christian that automatically makes them European. Notice how the marketing that being European is a kind of quasi-ethnicity in of itself. When I brought up their Arab Orthodox brethren near them they shrugged it off as an anomaly.
How about African Christians, Chinese Christians, South American etc
As Chesterton wrote, Christianity is like its founder, it dies and rises again. Or something to that effect.
My favourite Chesterton quote on the subject is this:
https://www3.nd.edu/~afreddos/courses/The%20Grade%20-%20Christmas%20Seminar/EverlastingMan.pdf
At least five times, therefore, with the Arian and the Albigensian,
with the Humanist sceptic, after Voltaire and after Darwin,
the Faith has to all appearance gone to the dogs.
In each of these five cases it was the dog that died.
Yeah, though we’re definitely at the point in America where being Christian means to be a deliberate follower of Christ…. that is one benefit of the melting pot of American secularism….. you don’t carry labels of your tribe necessarily. You must be deliberate about it.
Perhaps in some small ethnic pockets, “cultural Christianity” remains, but it is no longer the norm in America.
Being deliberate and purposeful about being Christian is how Christ wants it anyway, I firmly believe.
It’s unfortunate the Georgians don’t see that “cultural Christianity” is dead in the West – perhaps because in Georgia, a country where >98% of the population is nominally Orthodox Christian – cultural Christianity remains a thing there, and they then project this false assumption onto the rest of the “Christian West”?
They’ll learn the truth soon enough, I’m afraid.
Their only experience with cultural Christianity in the U.S. would be their two monasteries which have their own draw. The people who usually show up don’t have any expectations as many are not even Orthodox. . . yet. Lots of baptisms.
My concern with the Christians of the Caucasus (Armenians, Georgians, etc.) are that they have no idea how debauched Western culture has become. They’ve fallen too easily to the swansong of Liberalism, not realizing that Liberalism in its present state, is a degenerate swamp.
We saw inklings of this four years ago when the newly-arrived Elpidophoros was positively star-struck, having a 1970s understanding of what America was.
Yeah, I’m concerned that with Patriarch Ilia’s age, maybe someone got ahold of his digital signature, like the allegations surrounding Met. Hilarion/Belya.
That’s a thought, but I’ve heard every one of those bishops on the Synod are conservative accept for one.
Somehow we managed to get the one liberal Georgian bishop here in America lol, of course.
Georgians seem to have a big dislike of Russia (the government, not the people), BUT, they also have an enormous love for the Church and in fact the Church & Patriarch Illia are the two most trusted figures in the country.
The main front-runner for patriarch after Patriarch Illia dies is Bishop Shio who is the current locum tenens for the Georgian Church. He’s very staunchly Orthodox so God Willing he will be the next patriarch.
From your lips to God’s ears, Petro!
That is worrisome, I must say.
Given how Ukraine is about to suffer a definitive defeat it’s interesting to highlight what was recently said by the UOC Metropolitan of Zaporizhzhia, I’m paraphrasing but it’s essentially “Because the Ukrainian authorities have decided to persecute Orthodoxy, Russia has no option but to go all of the way to the Polish border to free the Church.”
I agree with the bishop and I wish the Russian government would actually speak more about the persecution of the Church, Patriarch Kirill of course has but you don’t hear it as much from the politicians.
I wonder what the prospects are for doing this? Because if they don’t go all of the way to the Polish border then the UOC is going to be safe where Russia has taken territory, but, for the rest of Ukraine the UOC will be outright banned, I can 100% guarantee that as it’s what they’re doing now.
So, what will Russia do?
Petros,
From the developing picture painted by his speeches and comments over the past year and a half, my expectation would be that Russia will continue with the current SMO pressing toward the Dnieper and across to Odessa in the South and Transnistria, annexing perhaps four or five more provinces in Eastern/Central and Southern Ukraine. All of that will become Russian Federation territory. The area around Kiev and adjacent oblasts may survive as a rump satellite vassal state of the RF as The Ukraine. I don’t think Putin is concerned with much of Western Ukraine, seeing it as more trouble than it is worth and not historically Russian.
It is hard to say what might happen in the westernmost oblasts. But they are the least Orthodox in any case. In all the territory Russia will control either directly or indirectly, the UOC will be supported as the Orthodox Church. I assume the OCU will lose all status in those areas and perhaps the property will be turned over to the UOC.
Misha, what are your thoughts on what the status of the UOC will be outside of the territories that will become part of the RF (Kiev, Lvov, etc)?
If there is indeed a rump state of the RF centered around Kiev, what will become of the UOC there? Will the hypothetical rump state be governed by a pro-Russian? Will western Ukraine be subsumed and broken up by Poland, Hungary, etc?
It’s hard to believe that Russia has done all of this work just to let what will exist of Ukraine continue to be hostile towards Russia or join NATO/EU because they will just be in the same situation in the next decade. Western Ukraine is also where the majority of nz’s reside, are they to be continued to allowed to exist?
Russia has been moving slowly and methodically over the past almost two years, but given how Ukraine is being dropped like a hot potato by the “collective West” you have to wonder when they’ll say enough is enough and just blitz it.
In the end, my main concern is for the Church, what will become of the UOC. I can’t imagine the Russians will allow what is left of Ukraine to treat the UOC like it currently is. Just in terms of demographics I also don’t think the OCU will be around for very long. In the majority of pictures that you see of OCU “services” there’s almost literally no one there. Like the “living church” during the Soviet Union, it seems the OCU will die out soon enough as it’s a political movement and it’s whole identity is to be not Russian. And like the living church during the soviet union, the EP has yet again hitched it’s bandwagon to the wrong side of history (this seems to happen a lot with them), but, unlike previously with the living church where the Church of Russia did not condemn the EP, it will not be the same this time. My personal belief is that the Church of Russia and the other non-Greek Churches (minus Albania & Jerusalem) have about reached a collective “we’ve had enough” with the EP, and now that the schism between Antioch-Jerusalem is healed they can present a united front. This seems especially true for the Church of Poland as they are directly dealing with millions(?) of Ukrainian migrants and are having to deal with the OCU directly.
Petros,
My instincts tell me that Russia wants a decisive resolution, as you imply above, regarding the whole matter. It just may be slow in coming. I used to think that Russia was going to have to press all the way to L’vov. However, you have to look at it from the perspective that if the Kiev government collapses, there will be nothing keeping Western Ukraine from falling into the hands of its neighbors, mainly Poland. I mean, the Ukrainian Army would no longer be there.
What I’m hearing from Moscow is that it will annex more of Eastern and Central Ukraine, leave a rump state around Kiev with a puppet government and nominal force to hold that territory down – all under Russian control. And beyond that, Russia may not exercise authority over the remnant in the West.
But I don’t think they will leave a vacuum and I don’t think they will leave a Banderist entity there. They may use missile strikes to devastate any military power in the area and allow other countries to move in. They may have to send in some force from the Kievan rump state to clean things up, calling in missile strikes as necessary, to clear it of problematic forces. There will be some ragged remnant left of the Ukrainian Army when it’s all said and done. I would use them to police both the Kievan rump state and to do whatever dirty work needed to be done in the West. But they may have to send in the Russian army here and there, ad hoc.
It’s very hard to say at this point. I have seen no formal plan and they wouldn’t release one so as to allow the enemy to plan against it.
All I can say is that I do not believe there will be any such thing as an independent Ukrainian government. It will be either annexed into Russia, controlled as a puppet state (Kievan area) or divided among other nations. What Russia needs is for that area to be accountable to some other nations that are, frankly, attackable. These nations would not allow Banderists to stage strikes into Russian controlled territory for fear of dragging NATO into a broader conflagration. Right now, as it stands, Ukraine is not in NATO so NATO could use Western Ukraine as a staging ground and continue to pour armaments into it.
That will cease, one way or another.
I can see how the OCU might survive in the abandoned western territories annexed into other countries. Lviv Oblast and Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, for example, are each about 60% Greek Catholic but, nonetheless, there is a substantial Orthodox presence out there which may end up as OCU.
“There will be some ragged remnant left of the Ukrainian Army when it’s all said and done. I would use them to police both the Kievan rump state and to do whatever dirty work needed to be done in the West. … ”
Apart from the decision to invade,
the worst mistake in Iraq War II
was to dismiss the Army and Police.
There was no one left to keep order
apart from the invaders themselves;
and they were not exactly welcome.
The result, naturally, was chaos…
Misha, another question concerning Orthodoxy that I’d like to get your opinion on.
I could be wrong, but, here’s my perception:
The walls are closing in on Patriarch Bartholomew.
– The U.S/West is cutting aid to Ukraine
– Russia has won and is still pushing West.
– Tens, and perhaps hundreds, of millions of people around the world have seen what is happening to the UOC thanks to Tucker and others.
– This is all tied back to Patriarch Bartholomew
– Orthodoxy is united as all schisms minus the current MP-EP one have been healed.
– Turkey is pivoting East and the EP is already in a precarious situation there.
– The U.S has seemingly no need for Patriarch Bartholomew anymore
– Patriarch Bartholomew, because of Turkeys pivot, is in an even more precarious political situation than he normally is.
– He seems to have really toned down his rhetoric as of late.
– Here domestically, Archbishop Elpidophoros is all but a social pariah on the AOB and seemingly with most of the clergy of the Archdiocese.
With all of that my perception is that Bartholomew is done for and the Church is getting ready to address the situation. The couple of Churches that have accepted the OCU is pretty much where the buck stops. I highly doubt there will be anymore.
What are your thoughts?
Petros, Misha:
useful to translate:
https://www.dimokratia.gr/ellada/570279/etoimazoyn-ton-makario-gia-diadocho-toy-vartholomaioy/
Interesting, Ioannis.
In all fairness, of all the Constantinoplitan episcopacy, Archbishop Makarios is one of, if not the, best bishop in that Patriarchate. Does he have some issues? Sure. But, for the most part he is solid.
He’s been doing a good job healing some of the schisms in Greek Orthodoxy in Australia and he’s supported ProLife causes.
Two out of three in the picture look happy.
One does not. I wonder why…
Petros,
As to your last point, I agree that the OCU will not likely gain any more traction, rather just the opposite. And your list of observations is spot on.
I’m not sure “the Church is getting ready to address the situation”, however. Of course, hope springs eternal. But I’m not sure what the Church would do beyond what Russia has already done. I don’t really expect a string of severances of communion with the Fanar, et al. It seems more likely that Constantinople will face the choice of dying on the vine or crossing the Bosphorus.
So long as the Fanar is intransigent, the MP/ROCOR will maintain their excommunication, which also means no participation in inter-Orthodox forums which include C’pol. Yet the Church of Russia constitutes about half of the entire Church. As time goes by, this will isolate the Fanar and its satellite local churches. How can it not? If there are to be meetings at all, the rest of the local churches will have to choose which of the two will be attending, or which meeting hosted by one of the two they will attend. While many might prefer to keep both doors open, this may not be feasible in the long term.
Things change uber-slowly in the Orthodox world. Bartholomew and crew are just as likely to die off, solving the whole problem.
The Church addressed the situation when they failed to show up for Epiphany when Poroshenko handed him the tomos. (It didn’t come directly from Bartholomew.) And every day, thereafter. It will go back to its official status as a schismatic church.
Unfortunately it seems as though Elpi will be allowed on Athos in January. Hopefully the majority of monasteries & sketes (which do not support the OCU) forbade him like they did last time.
Gail/George, have y’all ever thought about starting a Telegram group?
We probably should.
Yeah, I guess we’ll *shudder* look into it. (I’m very tech-unsavvy.)
Looks like they aren’t satisfied. The “neocons” want war not only in Gaza, not only in Syria (who they have been bombing for years), Ukraine, and Iran. They’re threatening Lebanon, now, too. Monsters.
Israel Warns: “What We Are Doing in Gaza, We Can Do In Beirut”
See: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/israel-warns-what-we-are-doing-gaza-we-can-do-beirut
‘ Israel Warns: “What We Are Doing in Gaza, We Can Do In Beirut” ‘
Indeed they can. But for how long?
Until their economy collapses?
What will they do then?
Israel is like a pumped-up gym junkie:
much steroidal white muscle power,
not much red muscle stamina.
The neo-cons and Israel should be very, very careful what they wish for. It is obvious that America cannot deal with this conflict. America’s normal role would be to save Israel from itself and call for a ceasefire. But the Biden Regime is intimidated by Bibi and the Israel lobby. So America is impotent to do anything but escalate, which the Biden people do not seem to be agreed is the right course. Though moving assets into the region as they have is arguably an escalation all of its own.
The Muslims just had a pow-wow in the Saudi and resolved only to engage in legal machinations and voluntary sanctions against Israel for the moment. But they also have called for the US to make Israel enter a cease fire AND they are calling for an international conference to settle the Palestinian Question. This was originally proposed, you may recall, by Russia (as a project for BRICS) and echoed by China. Their constant refrain has been a narrative of American impotence and mismanagement of the situation since 10/7.
So they want to be the cavalry, coming in to settle the turbulence. Of course, this may have been someone’s plan all along. But the alternative is to let it fester and thus provoke a wider war. But Iran and Turkey are probably strong enough, backed by Russia, to win that conflict and not in Israel’s favor.
It may not be the perfect storm, but it is an impressive one.
Misha, what’s you’re describing re Gaza is the very definition of an “intractable mess”. Another word that springs to mind is FUBAR. It also highlights how time is not on Israel’s side.
It was delicious seeing Dem partisans storming the DNC HQ in DC the other day.
If you ever wanted to know the death knells are ringing for the Greek Archdiocese, here ya go:
Speaking of Iran:
* * *
The head of Iran’s elite Quds Force has vowed to do “whatever it takes” to back Hamas in its war with Israel, claiming that the Palestinian militant group is headed for an “impressive victory” in Gaza.
In a letter addressed to the commander of Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Quds Force leader Esmail Qaani declared that Tehran and its allies “will not allow this brutal enemy and those standing behind him to conquer Gaza and its heroic people.”
“We will do whatever it takes in this historic battle,” Qaani said, adding that Hamas had “proved to everyone that the resistance in Gaza is capable of initiative and innovation, while maintaining its organization and field capabilities.”
Published on Thursday by the state-backed Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), the letter comes just one day after Reuters reported that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had informed Hamas that his country would not get directly involved in the Gaza war. Instead, Khamenei reportedly restated Iran’s long standing “political and moral support” for Hamas, but ruled out military intervention. [bold added]
* * *
And so, epistemology, again, is an issue.
“We will do whatever it takes…”
And where have we heard these words before?
Oh, yes…in Ukraine…
At this point, I’m going I was wrong about Iran’s involvement in the Oct 7 Al-Aqsa Flood operation. Like many, I believed that Iran orchestrated it. Gail disagreed with me almost from the very start. In the interim, we have been told by reliable sources (MacGregor, Ritter, et al) that the Iranians berated the leader of Hamas recently, more or less for “jumping the gun” and possibly dragging them into a regional war.
One of Gail’s points is that Iran is going to be part of BRICS and that in order to expand it, the Chinese are big on trade and not on war, hence the Iranians wanting to play along with China’s peaceful narrative. If so, then we have to ask cui bono? Why should war be breaking out? Answer: to scuttle BRICS expansion.
That raises a whole other question: i.e. who initiated hostilities? As of yet, I have no answer.
George,
It is indeed murky. I read the Reuters report and thought, “Well, that’s just the UK shoveling it.” Hamas denied it, Iran refused to comment, then Iran released the statement on govt TV by a commander I cited above. Yet both Hezbollah and Iran did seem to put some distance between themselves and the actual “go” of the operation. I understand why Iran and Hezbollah would hold back if they were taken by surprise. What is less clear is why they piled on in the beginning if they were not in on it.
We know Iran trained them, funded them and supplied them. We know Hezbollah, Iranian proxies, immediately opened fire in the north and threatened to invade northern Israel. We know the Houthis, also Iranian proxies, also started firing missiles. And we know Iranian proxies throughout the region shortly thereafter began attacking US military bases in the region. Coincidence?
So it was either that Iran was in on the initiation of it, or Iran piled on after they were taken by surprise. I’m not sure anyone can say definitively.
I don’t think this hurts BRICS expansion at all. Most of the world is against Israel except the West, who are not welcome in BRICS. Reducing America’s interference in the Middle East helps China who intend for their BRI to pass directly through the region. BRICS benefits from a limited war that ends with a peace conference imposing a Palestinian State to reduce America’s influence in the region.
I don’t think America wanted this war, though it diverts attention from Ukraine. We’re going into an election year and this is the last thing that Biden needs. Obviously the neocons want it but they aren’t running for office. It helps Russian and Chinese standing in the region if they end up being the peacemakers and establishing the State of Palestine. And they are courting the Muslim world for the Eurasian project.
Now, Israel certainly exploited the Hamas attack for its own purposes, and rather ham handedly. But if I see a benefit to anyone besides them getting to clear Gaza, which will backfire on them, it is a benefit to the East, not the West. Muslim opinion is solidifying hard against Israel and America. And, in fact, this is a disgrace that will not be forgotten by the Global South, probably in our lifetimes. Constant news on TV (unlike our censored media) showing mangled corpses of Palestinian women and children being pulled out of the rubble left by indiscriminate carpet bombing.
And, as you say, this has split the Democratic Party. I do not believe that is a coincidence either. That is completely foreseeable by someone who was considering restarting the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Someone considered that a benefit to themselves.
I keep saying this: This altercation is the LAST thing Iran would want. BRICS is not about expansion, although that is the inevitable outcome. It is about TRADING and the leverage it brings. But it comes with expectations. If Iran were behind this thing with Hamas, their invitation in January would disappear. Apparently the boys believe Iran and are trying to help them work through this. I would not be surprised to see Turkey march right through Syria to take care of the situation. (Turkey wants into BRICS, too.)
– This altercation has the West written all over it.
– Israel orchestrated it as their allegiance is to the globalists. (Just one more reason why the Israeli people HATE Netanyahu.)
– The missile that hit that hospital parking lot was a Hamas misfire.
– Hezbollah was not lining up on the northern border to open up a second front.
– Assad met with China (as did Russia) telling him Syria should step down if BRICS decides to use Turkey as the solution to go in there and fix this mess. (Turkey wants to ditch NATO for BRICS.)
– Ultimately, this will all lead to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital; Trump laid the groundwork when he acknowledged Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017.
Yeah, I don’t see evidence for much of that, and do see evidence to the contrary, which I have laid out, to some of it, but you’re entitled to your opinion, Galya.
Actually, I think you do see evidence of what I am saying.
1) I said, this altercation (between Israel and Hamas) has the West written all over it. – You’re a fan of MacGregor and may have referenced a clip of his entitled, Douglas MacGregor: Gaza conf became regional war, Israel killed itself before Iran & Turkey do that, where MacGregor talks about Erdogan who said, “the world was appalled there was nothing but silence from the U.S. and its allies. He goes on to say, “One cannot help but conclude we are watching an alliance coalless against what is happening with Israel and US. Meanwhile, we are attacking what we say are Iranian backed militias and other targets . . . on the assumption they all take orders from Iran which is not really true. . . we’re dealing with an entire region that is enraged by what happened in Gaza.” (Begins @ 2:30 and continues.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4s44WnKXwY – Iran wasn’t and won’t be involve. As recently as yesterday in Tehran, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered a significant blow to Hamas by stating that Iran would not directly enter the war with Israel.
2) I said Israel orchestrated what happened in Gaza in allegiance to the globalists and this was one more reason why the Israeli people HATE Netanyahu. Certainly I don’t have to provide you proof of that, I hope. Look at the crowds and the calls to end the war. – MacGregor continues on the above clip: “What most of your listeners probably don’t understand, I hope they do, is people like Lindsey Graham are out there essentially dishing for money. He makes these ridiculous statements. He and Blumenthal are essentially saying, ‘If you want to go to war with Iran, we’re all for you. We’ll do whatever you like.’ That means big donors or money into their political action committees and support structures. They have no accountability in this thing. They’re not in charge of anything. They’re not responsible for the armed forces. When there is no accountability people say and do all sorts of things. They don’t have any accountability. So it’s all nonsense.”
3) I said the missile that hit that hospital parking lot was a Hamas misfire. – This fact is all over the Internet. If I’m wrong, so is every credible news outlet. That you don’t agree or want to acknowledge what I’m saying, is one thing. I don’t think it speaks well of you, but at least it’s understandable. To say you see no evidence of what I am say (2 or 3 times) is blatantly untrue.
4) I said Hezbollah was not lining up on the northern border to open up a second front. Even the Times has acknowledged they Hamas was caught unaware: “Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, has found itself in an awkward position since its ally Hamas launched a deadly, surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Now, after years of spoiling for a fight with Israel, Hezbollah is torn between maintaining its credibility as a defender of the Palestinians, and its hesitation to get involved in a full-scale war. Throughout its 40-year history, Hezbollah has defined itself as a resistance movement dedicated to protecting Lebanon, battling Israel and backing the Palestinians’ quest for statehood. Yet after three days of Israeli ground incursions into Gaza and as the Palestinian death toll climbs over 8,000, Hezbollah’s response has so far been worrying but restrained.”
5) I said Assad met with China (as did Russia) and told him to step down should BRICS decide to use Turkey as the solution to fix this problem. Like Iran, Turkey wants to be a member of BRICS so they’re unlikely to go against any recommendations. Again, it was widely reported that on September 22, 2023, President Xi Jinping met at the West Lake State Guesthouse in Hangzhou with President of Syria Bashar al-Assad and the two heads of state jointly announced the establishment of China-Syria strategic partnership. If Middle Eastern bloc wants Turkey to march through Syria to get to Israel to resolve this, they have the manpower and wherewithal to comply. Again, if you Google this you’ll find stories like this all over the Internet: https://www.newarab.com/analysis/will-turkey-israel-ties-reach-breaking-point-amid-gaza-war
6) I said ultimately this will all lead to a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital; Trump laid the groundwork when he acknowledged Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in 2017. This is history. With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing by his side, US President Donald Trump unveiled his long-delayed Middle East plan, claiming that it would lay the foundations for a “realistic two-state solution” in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Of course, the Palestinian leaders rejected the plan even before its release and were absent during its unveiling, but that’s no surprise. They are their own worst enemy. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/1/29/what-does-trumps-plan-propose-for-palestinian-territories
These are not opinions, LM. The evidence is absolutely there and if you don’t see it, it is because you don’t want to. I get tired of being dismissed. I’m not your kid sister. In the future (if you decide there is one), it is perfectly acceptable to say nothing if you’ve got nothing of value to offer. But don’t dismiss people as being wrong or uninformed if that is not the case.
Well, I guess we now know what the recent Xi slap-down of Biden included: he was told to meet with the Russians at the APEC conference and act like he wasn’t a moron: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95_zgVrGEcU