‘When you have a genocidal state in the neighbourhood, people get concerned’ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/live...s-iranian-missiles-intercepted?update=2837235 Foad Izadi, a professor in the Faculty of World Studies at Tehran University, spoke to Al Jazeera about what Iranians feel about last night’s attacks on Israel. He said Iranians have seen pictures coming out of Gaza and realise that “Israelis have no ethical standards”. “When you have a genocidal state in the neighbourhood, people get concerned. That’s the bad news. The good news is that Iran is able and willing to defend itself, and that’s what last night’s attack was all about,” he said. He said Iranians are now confident that the country is able to defend the territory of Iran. “It may be true that most of the rockets were intercepted, but some got in,” he noted, adding, “and with a few of those missiles, you can achieve the policy objective, which is creating deterrence – the idea of don’t attack Iran because if you attack Iran, there’s going to be a cost.”
Zelenskyy warns against Russia's and Iran's coordinated 'terror' attacks April 14, 2024 By VOA News Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy inspects newest samples of military equipment and weapons, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv region, April 13, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Sunday decried Iran’s drone strikes on Israel, saying the “obvious collaboration” between Russia and Iran in “spreading terror” must be met with “a resolute and united response from the world.” "Iran's actions threaten the entire region and the world, just as Russia's actions threaten a larger conflict," Zelenskyy wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Zelenskyy linked Israel’s situation to Ukraine by saying that like Israel, Ukraine has been attacked by Iranian-made Shahed drones and missiles. "We in Ukraine know very well the horror of similar attacks by Russia, which uses the same 'Shahed' drones and Russian missiles, the same tactics of mass air strikes," he wrote. A coordinated Western response intercepted most of the 300 drones and missiles that Iran launched against Israel Saturday, prompting many Ukrainians to criticize Western allies for not displaying the same decisive and wide-reaching support for Ukraine they showed for Israel. Zelenskyy said that only "tangible assistance" can protect Ukraine from missiles and drones — and urged the release of U.S. war aid for Ukraine that has long been blocked by Congress. "It is critical that the United States Congress make the necessary decisions to strengthen America's allies at this critical time," he said. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group, warned that further delays in U.S. military assistance would increasingly undermine Ukraine’s capacity to repel Russian advances. Patriot air defense systems, military training As Kyiv awaits the desperately needed U.S. aid that is stuck in Congress, Germany announced Saturday it would deliver a Patriot air defense system to Ukraine, its third so far, citing "massive and ongoing Russian airstrikes." Zelenskyy thanked German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for "a real manifestation of support for Ukraine at a critical time for us." Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks on the phone with Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, April 13, 2024. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters) The German chancellor said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that he had discussed the “massive” Russian air attacks on civilian energy infrastructure with Zelenskyy on Saturday, and that Berlin will “stand unbreakably by Ukraine’s side.” The Ukrainian military also is hampered by the lack of adequate training it requires to improve its capabilities of operating “military equipment and Western weapons,” Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, noted. Ukraine’s European allies are engaged in a training push for Kyiv’s forces. French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Friday that future Ukrainian fighter pilots likely to fly American F-16 aircraft were receiving their initial training in the south of France. Other countries including Denmark, the Netherlands and Romania are helping Ukraine to train its pilots. Some Ukrainians, after receiving initial training in Britain, are now undergoing "advanced training" in an undisclosed location to learn how to fly fighter jets, according to a military source. On the ground At least five people died across Ukraine Sunday from Russian and Ukrainian attacks. One man was killed by a Russian drone striking his truck in the Sumy region, the local prosecutor’s office said. In Kharkiv, officials recovered the bodies of a 61-year-old woman and 68-year-old man killed by a Russian strike Saturday. In the Russian-occupied Kherson region, two civilians were killed Sunday, according to Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo. Ukrainian drones were also reported in Russia’s Krasnodar and Belgorod regions and over the Black Sea, the Russian defense ministry said. Russian troops are making significant gains in Ukraine’s eastern region near the Russian-occupied industrial town of Avdiivka, Syrskyi said Saturday on his Telegram channel. “The situation on the eastern front has deteriorated significantly in recent days," he said, adding that the Russian army intensified its offensive along several stretches of the more 1,000-kilometer-long front line after the presidential elections in Russia last month. Warmer, drier weather also is playing a factor in Russia’s surging offensive, allowing its heavy vehicles to move quickly across the drying terrain. Russia's defense ministry announced its troops had "liberated" the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk region, about 11 kilometers west of the largely destroyed town of Avdiivka, which Russia captured in mid-February. Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of Pervomaiske, and its army asserted Friday that it had repelled attacks on the village. In a Telegram update Saturday, the Russian military said Moscow’s forces also had taken Bohdanivka, another eastern village close to the city of Bakhmut — known for its bloody siege and subsequent capture by Russian forces nine months ago. Shortly afterward, Ukraine’s defense ministry denied that Bohdanivka had been captured and said “intense fighting” there is ongoing. Ukraine has also said the situation around the eastern front-line city of Chasiv Yar, west of Bakhmut, remains "difficult and tense" with the area under "constant fire." Syrskyi acknowledged that Russian forces have been “actively attacking” Ukrainian positions in three areas of the eastern Donetsk region, near the cities of Lyman, Bakhmut and Pokrovsk. He said Ukraine was planning to "strengthen the most problematic defense areas with electronic warfare and air defense." Russia has an advantage in firepower and personnel over Ukraine, which is running low on ammunition, to increase attacks across eastern Ukraine. Additionally, Russian forces are increasingly using satellite-guided gliding bombs that allow planes to drop them from a safe distance and overwhelm Ukrainian forces. Some information for this report was provided by Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
This from a Jewish perspective..... (I didn't realize Blinken was Jewish, but now it adds up why this guy is so useless) Anyhow this made me laugh out loud. Blinken crosses the line by saying Israel could become indistinguishable from Hamas https://allisrael.com/blog/blinken-...ael-could-become-indistinguishable-from-hamas U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference, at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 4, 2024. (Photo: REUTERS/Johanna Geron/Pool) It’s almost unimaginable to listen to what depths a political appointee will go in order to please his boss. That applies to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken who, while attending a ceremony at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on April 4th, shamefully attempted to draw a comparison between the barbaric and savage massacre, rape and brutalizing of women, beheading of babies and burning of whole families to the State of Israel by making the false accusation we have not provided enough food for Gazans. This was the report by Times of Israel, stating, “US Secretary of State Blinken warns that Israel risks becoming indistinguishable from Hamas if it continues to fail to protect civilians amid the Gaza war.” The libelous parallel would be stunning coming from most anyone, but from a fellow Jew is beyond malicious. It is nothing more than a cruel betrayal of his people and the Jewish homeland, both of whom he knows better than to accuse of wantonly starving others – even those who cheered and celebrated the attack which left everyone breathless after hearing the shocking details of what had taken place. How callous and self-interested does one have to be in order to sell out his own – by suggesting that we are on the brink of becoming monstrous terrorists who lack all morality and decency? There are simply no words for such an equating of good with evil, yet, when told to do it, Blinken rises to the occasion.........
Germany bans Greece ex-finance minister from speaking at events over pro-Palestinian views Germany’s Interior Ministry has issued a ban against former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis from entering the country in what has been condemned as an attack on free speech and an authoritarian overreach by the government. Varoufakis was set to speak at the Palestine Congress in Berlin. German authorities extended the ban to digital participation, preventing him from delivering his speech via Zoom or a video recording as German police cracked down on the event and eventually cancelled it. Varoufakis has, nonetheless, posted his speech online advocating for universal human rights in Israel-Palestine. British-Palestinian surgeon and rector of the University of Glasgow Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, as well as Palestinian academic and historian Salman Abu Sitta have faced similar bans on participation in the event. On his way to Germany to take part in the event, Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta was detained at Berlin Airport and subjected to a three-hour interrogation. April 14, 2024 https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/2...peaking-at-events-over-pro-palestinian-views/ Germany has banned Greece’s former finance minister from speaking in the country even through online means, amid Berlin’s increasing crackdown on freedom of speech regarding Palestine and Israel. In a statement on X, former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis announced that “Germany’s Interior Ministry has issued a ‘Betätigungsverbot’ against me, a ban on any political activity. Not just a ban on visiting Germany but also from participation via Zoom.” The ban was reportedly caused by a speech Varoufakis published on multiple platforms including X, in which he advocated for the rights of Palestinians and condemned Israel’s ongoing offensive on Gaza and the genocide it is committing there. “Universal human rights are either universal or they mean nothing”, he said in his speech, which he was meant to read out at the Palestine Congress – set to take place in Berlin from April 12 to April 14 – before the event was shut down by German police. “You accuse us of antisemitic hatred. We accuse you of being the antisemite’s best friend by equating the right of Israel to commit war crimes with the right of Israeli Jews to defend themselves”, he stated. “You accuse us of supporting terrorism. We accuse you of equating legitimate resistance to an apartheid state with atrocities against civilians which I have always and will always condemn, whoever commits them — Palestinians, Jewish settlers, my own family, whoever.” Greece’s former finance accused critics such as German authorities “of not recognizing the duty of the people of Gaza to tear down the wall of the open prison they have been encased in for eighty years — and of equating this act of tearing down the wall of shame, which is no more defensible than the Berlin Wall was, with acts of terror.” Varoufakis further said that he defends the Palestinian cause because “we cannot rely on the silenced who are also massacred and starved to tell us about the massacres and the starvation”, as well as because “a proud, decent people, the people of Germany, are led down a perilous road to a heartless society by being made to associate themselves with another genocide carried out in their name, with their complicity.” Germany’s ban on Varoufakis was issued alongside bans on other prominent pro-Palestinian figures such as academic Salman Abu Sitta, as well as the surgeon and University of Glasgow rector Ghassan Abu Sittah, who was arrested and subjected to a three-hour interrogation at Berlin airport on Friday.
Biden and the West have been sleepwalking into a Middle East war. Now it is becoming a reality Fear of nuclear apocalypse during the Cold War led West to do three very stupid things. What we’re seeing play out are the consequences Iranian pro-government supporters in Tehran celebrate Iran's attack on Israel. Photograph: Hossein Beris/Middle East Images/AFP/Getty Images Fintan O'Toole Mon Apr 15 2024 https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/...middle-east-war-now-it-is-becoming-a-reality/ What happened on Saturday night was something the world has not seen before: it was the first time Iran directly attacked Israel from its own territory. Because there has already been in effect a proxy war between the two countries for decades, it is easy to underestimate the danger to the world. Doing so would be fatal. What we’re seeing now is the working out of a terrifying truth: allowing the question of Palestine to fester doesn’t just bring misery to Palestinians. It has always threatened a much wider catastrophe. Complacency and myopia have brought that disaster one big step closer. Almost as soon as the second World War was over, the United States and Britain began planning for the third. They assumed it would probably start in the Middle East and involve Iran. In 1946, the US Joint War Plans Committee imagined that the spark for the next great conflagration would be attempts by the Soviet Union to bring Turkey and Iran under its control. This would “force” Britain to retaliate to protect its interests in the region, triggering an all-out confrontation between the western and eastern blocs. None of this happened, of course. But for a lot of my lifetime, the idea that a Third World War would start in the Middle East was part of the background noise of life. It’s hard for people born after the end of the Cold War to grasp how weirdly normal was the assumption that some local war could light a fuse that would burn all the way to the nuclear apocalypse. Korea, Cuba and Vietnam all appeared at one time or another as likely candidates, but the Middle East was the default location for these dark imaginings. Ironically, these fears led the West to do three very stupid things whose long-term consequences we are now experiencing. One of them was to overthrow democracy in Iran. In August 1953, the Americans and the British funded and organised a military coup d’etat against the democratically elected Iranian government of Mohammad Mosaddegh. Though he was in fact an anti-communist, Mosaddegh had angered the British by nationalising the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. They persuaded the Americans that he was a pawn of the Soviets and must be removed. The CIA and MI6 ran a covert operation (detailed most vividly in Taghi Amirani’s remarkable documentary film Coup53) that returned the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to power. His vicious but western-approved regime was overthrown in 1979, leading to the creation to the equally vicious Islamic Republic. The West, in deliberately destroying Iranian democracy, created its own monster. The second terrible mistake was to allow Israel to introduce nuclear weapons into the world’s most volatile region. France provided the raw materials and much of the technology for the development of Israel’s bomb. The US turned a blind eye. After the 1967 war, a nuclear-armed Israel was tacitly accepted by the West as a fait accompli – don’t ask, don’t tell. It was the Cold War that made this insanity acceptable: if the Third World War was going to start in the Middle East, was it not useful to have a nuclear-armed western ally already on the spot? The effect, though, was to provide the excuse for the Iranian regime to develop its own nuclear weapons programme. A deadly logic was being locked in: a regional rivalry would sooner or later become a nuclear rivalry. And nuclear rivalries cannot remain regional. By allowing Israel to become a nuclear power, the West ensured that, in the long term, its wars would be global. The third great mistake was to see the fate of the Palestinians as a matter of great power rivalry rather than of basic justice. To be pro- or anti-Palestinian became a proxy for identification with one or other of the Cold War blocs. This obscured the reality that allowing millions of people to remain displaced in one of the world’s most unstable regions was not just wrong but highly dangerous. The irony is that though these terrible errors were driven by the apocalyptic fears of the Cold War, they have been sustained by the opposite phenomenon: post-Cold War complacency. Once the Cold War was over, the Middle East it had created no longer mattered so much. The disastrous effects of western policies on the region could be forgotten – the conflict could be reimagined as an ahistorical “clash of civilisations” fuelled by “ancient hatreds”. In particular the Palestinian problem could, like the Palestinians themselves, remain indefinitely in suspended animation. For Israel this meant, in its repulsive terminology, “mowing the grass” – tacitly supporting Hamas’s tyrannical rule in Gaza but containing it by periodically engaging in short, sharp episodes of violent conflict. For the US and the EU it meant maintaining a “commitment” to a two-state solution that demanded no real action. This swing from irrational fear to irrational smugness has created a kind of cognitive dissonance: the West does not know how scared it should be about the Middle East. The long-term consequences of its own dreadful mistakes in the region are coming back to haunt it, but it has spent too long pretending not to see those ghosts. According to NBC News in the US, “president Joe Biden has privately expressed concern that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag the US more deeply into a broader conflict”. It makes complete sense for Netanyahu to do so, to preserve his own power and to stop the haemorrhaging of support for Israel over Gaza. So much sense, indeed, that Biden and those around him ought to have been able to see this coming – what else was Netanyahu going to do? But Biden and the West have been sleepwalking into a Middle East war for so long that it is hard to awaken to its approaching reality. If events are left to take their course, they will be driven by those in power in Jerusalem and Tehran who dream of final reckonings and pray for Armageddon.