Blinken blind to Iranian nuclear threat but clear eyed when it comes to pressuring Israel
If someone holds a gun to your head and your supposed friend supplies them the bullets what are you to think and do?
Secretary of State Blinken pressures Israel
Secretary of State, Antony Blinken – the chief architect of President Biden's foreign and national security policy – is pressuring Israel to embrace his (classic State Department) policy on the rogue regime of Iran's Ayatollahs and the Palestinian issue.
*Irrespective of the systematic track record of Iran's Ayatollahs – since their 1978/79 ascension to power with the active support of the State Department and the CIA – Secretary Blinken is leaning on Israel to accept the mindset that the Ayatollahs are amenable to peaceful-coexistence with the neighboring Sunni Arab regimes; ready to abandon their core, fanatic, imperialistic vision; and refrain from regional and global terrorism and wars, in exchange for generous financial and diplomatic benefits. Blinken considers Iran's Ayatollahs to be constructive partners for negotiation, worthy of waiving the US military option, which Blinken believes should be superseded by diplomacy.
*Irrespective of the systematic Palestinian track record and the Arab walk (not talk!) on the Palestinian issue, Secretary Blinken genuinely believes that the Palestinian issue is a core cause of Middle East turbulence, a crown-jewel of Arab policy-making and the crux of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Therefore, he considers the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) a prerequisite to peace, in addition to the redivision of Jerusalem (hence his determination to reestablish in Jerusalem a de-facto US embassy/consulate for the Palestinian Authority) and freezing construction in the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria and in East Jerusalem (while encouraging construction in Arab communities). Blinken is urging Israel to retreat to the 1949 ceasefire lines, which were labeled as "Auschwitz Lines" by Abba Eban, who was Israel's very dovish Foreign Minister.
According to Blinken's roadmap – which ignores the impact of the proposed Palestinian state on US interests - Israel should revert back to an 8-15 mile sliver along the Mediterranean, over-towered by the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, in the stormy, unpredictable, violent, intolerant Middle East, which has yet to experience democracy and intra-Arab and intra-Muslim peaceful-coexistence.
*Secretary of State Antony Blinken takes lightly the frustrating well-documented past track record of Iran's Ayatollahs and the Palestinians, while highlighting a palatable, speculative future track record. He ignores that fact that the land-for-peace theory has yielded a land-for-terror reality, as evidenced by the outcome of the 1993 Oslo Accord and the 2005 Gaza Disengagement. The Palestinian land-for-terror reality also plagued Jordan from 1968-1970, Lebanon from 1970-1983 and Kuwait in 1990.
US pressure on Israel – track record
Is US pressure of Israel consistent with Middle East reality?
Does US pressure of Israel advanced US interests and the pursuit of peace?
Can Israel afford to defy US presidential pressure to refrain from critical, independent national security actions (e.g., in the face of the Iranian clear and present threat), and to withdraw from land, which is historically and militarily critical to the survival of the Jewish State?
A well-documented 1948-2016 track record of US presidential pressure of Israel demonstrates that US pressure was driven by the worldview of the State Department, which has systematically misread the Middle East (e.g., the stabbing in the back of the Shah of Iran, "The US' Policeman of the Gulf," while embracing Ayatollah Khomeini, Saddam Hussein and Arafat). The US pressure on Israel forced the Arabs/Palestinians to outflank the US from the radical side, intensified Palestinian terrorism, undermined US interests, and failed to advance the cause of peace.
For example,
*In 1948, the State Department – along with the Pentagon, the CIA, the New York Times and the Washington Post – led the diplomatic, military (embargo) and economic pressure on David Ben Gurion (Israel's Founding Father) to refrain from a declaration of independence and accept a UN Trusteeship. The State Department and the CIA contended that Israel would be an ally of the Soviet Bloc, would be slaughtered by the Arabs ("a second Holocaust in less than ten years"), and would undermine US-Arab relations, risking the US access to Persian Gulf oil. During and following Israel's 1948/49 War of Independence, the US pressured Ben Gurion to retreat from "occupied land" in the Galilee, Negev, the coastal plain and West Jerusalem, accept the internationalization of Jerusalem and absorb 75,000 Palestinian refugees (who partook in the Arab war on Israel).
It was Prime Minister David Ben Gurion's defiance of US pressure which transformed Israel from a burden on – to a unique strategic ally of – the US. In 1950, General Omar Bradley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, recommended that Israel should be considered as a major strategic ally due to its military performance. The recommendation was dismissed outright by the State Department and the White House.
*In 1967, on the eve of the Six Days War, when a concerted military force of Egypt-Syria-Jordan was about to invade Israel, President Johnson warned Prime Minister Eshkol against a preemptive strike: "If you act alone, you shall remain alone…"
However, Eshkol repulsed that US pressure, preempted the Soviet-backed Egypt-Syria-Jordan military assault, which aimed to annihilate Israel and facilitate a pro-Soviet Egyptian hegemony of the Arab World, and topple the pro-US Arab oil-producing regimes, at a time when the US was heavily dependent upon the importation of Persian Gulf oil. Israel's defiance of US pressure resulted in the devastation of Egypt's military, and spared the US a horrifying national security and economic setback. It bolstered the stability of the highly-vulnerable pro-US Arab regimes, and denied the USSR a dramatic regional and global bonanza.
It was Prime Minister Eshkol's defiance of US pressure – to refrain from a preemptive strike, reuniting Jerusalem and establishing Jewish communities in East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria - which transformed Israel from a supplicant to a unique force-multiplier for the US, fulfilling the role of the largest US aircraft carrier, without a single US soldier on board, deployed in a critical region of the world. This has spared the US the mega-billion-dollar necessity of manufacturing, deploying and maintaining a few more real aircraft carriers and a few ground divisions in the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.
*In 1981, the US brutally pressured Prime Minister Begin against bombing Iraq's nuclear reactor. Had Begin surrendered to US pressure, he would have aborted the bombing of Iraq’s nuclear reactor, which spared the US a traumatic 1990-91 confrontation with a nuclear Saddam Hussein. The Begin Preemptive Doctrine was adopted in 2007 by Prime Minister Olmert, who ordered the bombing of Syria's nuclear reactor – with the acquiescence of the US – which spared the world the plague of a nuclearized civil war in Syria.
*In 1981, Prime Minister Begin applied Israeli law to the Golan Heights – located on the trilateral border of Israel, Syria and Jordan - irrespective of brutal US pressure, which led to the suspension of a vital US-Israel defense cooperation agreement. However, Israel's control of the Golan Heights has benefitted the US, by playing a key role in constraining the maneuverability of Iran, Russia, Syria and Islamic terrorists, and buttresses the pro-US Hashemite regime in Jordan.
*In 1989-1992, Prime Minister Shamir was targeted by a campaign of slanderous pressure by the State Department and the White House, aimed at pushing Israel back to the pre-1967 lines. Had Shamir acceded to US pressure, retreating from the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, he would have downgraded Israel from a national security producer for US, into a national security consumer, and a burden upon the US. Israel would have been demoted from a credible "life insurance agent" for the pro-US Arab regimes, into a "life-support" case, fully dependent upon the US military. It would have demolished Israel's posture of deterrence, which has been a critical line of defense for Jordan's Hashemite regime. It has prevented an anti-US avalanche from consuming the pro-US Arab regimes, and a dramatic tailwind for regional and global Islamic terrorism, which would have benefitted Iran's Ayatollahs, the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS, as well as Turkey, Russia and China, at the expense of dire US economic and military interests.
The bottom line
*US pressure has been a leadership-litmus test for Israeli prime ministers, whose challenge has been to overcome – not to avoid – pressure, while adhering to core ideology and strategic goals, refraining from the sacrifice of deeply-rooted ideology and long-term national security on the altar of short-term, tenuous convenience. Genuine leaders are ready to forgo frivolous popularity, while enhancing durable respect.
*On a rainy day, the US prefers a defiant, rather than a vacillating, Israel on its side. At the end of a 1991 meeting between Prime Minister Shamir and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, Senators George Mitchell and Bob Dole – which I attended - the latter (who was, generally, critical of Israel) said: “Mr. Prime Minister, do you know why the Majority Leader and I absolutely disagree with you, but immensely respect you? Because you’re tough!”
* Simultaneously with the systematic 1948-2016 presidential pressure, and occasional suspension of the delivery of vital military systems, the mutually-beneficial US-Israel strategic cooperation has expanded in a staggering manner. It expanded due to the systematic support of the Jewish State by most Americans and their representatives in the House and Senate, as well as Israel's exceptional reliability and unique technological and military effectiveness, along with the growing realization that Israeli contributions to the US outweigh foreign aid to Israel.
*Will President Biden learn from past mistakes, by avoiding self-defeating pressure on his most reliable, effective, democratic and unconditional ally, the Jewish State?
*Will Prime Minister Bennett follow in the footsteps of Prime Ministers Ben Gurion, Eshkol, Golda Meir, Begin and Shamir, who did not seek popularity and convenience, and defied US pressure, and therefore earned a long term geo-strategic esteem, and catapulted Israel's national security and the mutually-beneficial US-Israel cooperation to unprecedented heights?
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Biden's AG would have made one stink weed garland of a Justice.
About Those Domestic-Terrorist Parents
Merrick Garland should rescind his misguided school boards memo.
By The Editorial Board
It took a few weeks, but the National School Boards Association has apologized for sending a letter to President Biden suggesting that “threats and acts of violence” at school board meetings might be “domestic terrorism.” The NSBA now admits there was “no justification for some of the language included in the letter,” which could have parents investigated under the Patriot Act for trying to influence what their children are taught.
The retraction comes after tremendous blowback. First came parents at school board meetings with T-shirts saying “Parents are not domestic terrorists.” Then 21 state school board associations distanced themselves from the letter. The Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania state associations cut ties altogether.
It turns out that when Chip Slaven, the NSBA interim executive director and CEO, and president Viola Garcia sent the letter, they did so without consulting their own board. But according to one of Mr. Slaven’s emails, they did work with White House staff.
The NSBA has owned up to its mistake, but what about the Biden Administration? Days after the NSBA letter was sent, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys to intervene—without spelling out the federal authority or hard evidence for what the AG called a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence.” This directive still stands.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced on Oct. 13 that he appointed Ms. Garcia to the National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the standardized tests known as “the Nation’s Report Card.” This appointment stands too, even after Ms. Garcia’s organization had to apologize for her letter.
Time for Mr. Garland to formally rescind his memo, calling off the FBI, and for Mr. Cardona to consider the message he is sending by elevating Ms. Garcia after she’s shown such poor, partisan judgment.
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Another stink weed but this time a so called artist addict:
Hunter Biden gets all the attention he deserves as 3 people show up for his luxury art gallery sale, by passer calls it “sh**”!
Hunter Biden, with his murky business dealings, drinking and drug binges with prostitutes, his in-family relationships, and his nasty obnoxiousness seems to be as abysmal a human being as his father is “president.” One of the most morally questionable aspects of Hunter Biden’s public appearance – an ...
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Headwinds
WORLD
The coronavirus pandemic disrupted global energy supplies. Now it’s not clear if world leaders can fix the problem.
In China, where officials curbed coal mining to meet greenhouse gas emissions targets, President Xi Jinping is asking coal companies to dig more and faster as the country deals with rolling blackouts, reported BNN Bloomberg. In Britain, which produces almost a quarter of its electricity through wind, a windless summer cut into fuel supplies while Brexit has exacerbated the problem by cutting off the supply of drivers from the European Union, wrote Macquarie University Finance Lecturer Lurion De Mello in the Conversation. Gas prices at the pump in the US, meanwhile, have risen 50 percent compared to a year ago.
As the Wall Street Journal explained, myriad factors have caused the spike. Demand slumped during the pandemic. Suppliers reacted. Now demand has skyrocketed as the pandemic wanes. The summer was unusually hot. This winter is forecast to be especially cold. Investors are reducing their exposure to fossil fuels amid calls for measures to combat climate change. But renewable sources of energy aren’t robust enough to replace petroleum.
Writing in the Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria demonstrated the scale of the problem. Oil, coal and gas generated 80 percent of the energy consumed worldwide before the pandemic hit in 2019. Wind and solar-generated 3 percent together. Investors, governments and others would need to increase spending on renewable by 2,500 percent for green energy to replace polluting energy.
Now, analysts are worried about the potential knock-on developments from the situation.
The International Energy Agency recently warned that the energy crisis could undercut the post-Covid-19 economic recovery. Low supplies have already caused inflation, for example, as buyers are increasingly willing to pay higher prices for scarce energy to keep the lights on and factories humming, Reuters reported. China is already preparing for more supply chain disruptions, too.
If fertilizers become more expensive either because they are petroleum-based or require fossil fuels for their production, poorer countries could experience famines, the Guardian added.
Also, higher energy prices could lead world leaders to double down on the cheapest fuels available, like coal. As Axios wrote, if countries like China and India decide they must ramp up carbon-based fuel production, everyone on the planet will suffer as that carbon further warms the planet.
Optimists, like the Eurasia Group Director of Energy, Climate and Resources Henning Gloystein, believe these pressures will hasten, not slow, the green revolution. But in a recent CNN op-ed, Gloystein admitted that fossil fuels are still necessary as the transition occurs.
For years, people have been told fossil fuels were harmful. It turns out their absence is, too.
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List of Reasons for Terry McAuliffe's Struggling Somehow Doesn't Include Terry McAuliffe
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Loudoun County: When You Cover Up Alleged Rapes...You Can Expect These Sorts of Things to Happen
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Big Tech May Be Canceling More Than Just Your Voice
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