.jpg)
++++++++++++++++++++++
Caption: On 23 May 1963, at a meeting marking the friendship between the peoples of the Soviet Union and the
Republic of Cuba, Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, summarises the
Cuban crisis.
Source: KHRUSHCHEV, N. S. To avert war, our prime task. Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1963. 175
p. p. 48-50.
Copyright: All rights of reproduction, public communication, adaptation, distribution or dissemination via Internet,
internal network or any other means are strictly reserved in all countries.
The documents available on this Web site are the exclusive property of their authors or right holders.
Requests for authorisation are to be addressed to the authors or right holders concerned.
Further information may be obtained by referring to the legal notice and the terms and conditions of use regarding this
site.
URL: http://www.cvce.eu/obj/speech_by_nikita_khrushchev_on_the_cuban_crisis_23_may_1963-en-7a223f24-7d74-
434c-928b-85724626734d.html
Last updated: 03/07/2015
1 / 3 03/07/2015
Speech by Nikita Khrushchev on the Cuban crisis (23 May 1963)
[...]
No matter how much imperialist reaction, headed by the United States, tries to stop or check the great
revolutionary process of liberation of mankind, it is powerless to do so. People fighting for their freedom
and independence are strong enough to defend their gains with the backing of all the forces of peace and
socialism. This was convincingly demonstrated by what took place in the Caribbean towards the end of last
year.
Today, six months later, the extent of the danger threatening peace as a result of the treacherous actions of
the aggressive forces of American imperialism has become even clearer. At that time, the bellicose circles in
the United States took steps which brought mankind to the brink of world thermonuclear war.
The Caribbean crisis was one of the sharpest clashes between the forces of socialism and imperialism, the
forces of peace and war in the entire post-war period. When they prepared their invasion of Cuba, the
American belligerents thought that the Soviet Union and other socialist countries would not be able to render
effective aid to the Cuban Republic.
The imperialists reckoned on the geographical remoteness of Cuba from the socialist countries allowing
them to utilise their overwhelming military superiority in this area and attack the Cuban people and wipe out
their revolutionary gains. As everyone is aware the American imperialists are no greenhorns when it comes
to suppressing the liberation struggle in Latin America and other areas of the world.
The imperialists' plans to strangle the Cuban revolution came to grief thanks to the firm stand of the Cuban
Government headed by Comrade Fidel Castro, the fighting solidarity of the Cubans, the military might of
the Soviet Union and the powerful political and moral support of the socialist countries and all the peaceloving forces which joined the united front to defend the heroic Island of Freedom. Due to the fact that a real
danger arose of an open conflict between two nuclear Powers, the Soviet Union and the U.S.A., the Cuban
crisis turned from a local one to a world crisis. In these circumstances it was necessary to seek a way out of
the situation on the basis of sensible compromise.
The settlement of the crisis in the Caribbean meant upsetting the plans of the American military clique. The
unity and solidarity of all peoples who came together to repulse the most aggressive and reckless imperialist
circles tied the hands of those who were ready to doom millions of people to death and destruction just
because of their own selfish interests. This was the triumph of the policy of peace and peaceful coexistence,
thanks to which the revolutionary gains of the Cuban people were successfully defended, the prestige of the
socialist countries was raised even higher and the threat of world thermonuclear war, which would have
resulted in untold suffering, sacrifice and destruction to people of every country, was averted.
In the United States of America, we hear again the voices of the "wild men" calling for a blockade and even
an armed attack on Cuba. Some Senators and the Pentagon leaders have been talking of the need to conduct
a more tough policy in relation to Cuba. All this cannot but put us on our guard. Are these big noises once
more thinking of creating a crisis like the one which existed in the Caribbean last October?
I must declare with the utmost gravity that if the U.S. Government does not display the necessary common
sense and appreciation of the situation and lets itself be dragged onto a dangerous path, an even more
threatening situation could occur in the world than did last October. If the bellicose imperialist forces were
to create such a situation it would apparently be considerably more difficult to find a way out of the crisis
than in 1962.
A violation of the pledges given by the United States of America could only be judged as perfidy. It would
gravely undermine good faith and would thus make the possibility of reaching agreement harder. From this
it is obvious that if the Government of the United States of America does not firmly adhere to the agreement
which has been reached and aggravates the situation, peace may hang by a more slender thread than at the
2 / 3 03/07/2015
time of last year's Caribbean crisis.
If this happens we shall be obliged to carry out our international duty, our pledges to the fraternal Cuban
people and come to their aid. We declare with the utmost gravity: "Don't play with fire, gentlemen, and don't
play with people's destinies!"
We consider that a normalisation of the Caribbean situation could be achieved on the basis of the
implementation of the five points put forward by Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of the Revolutionary
Government of the Republic of Cuba. The just demands of the Cuban people are supported by the Soviet
Union, by all the socialist countries and by all progressive mankind.
(Speech at a Cuba-U.S.S.R. Friendship Meeting, May 23, 1963. Pravda, May 24, 1963.)
+++
Rockets fired at Jerusalem area and south, shattering calm amid Gaza truce efforts
No injuries, but homes, greenhouse damaged as West Bank settlement bloc and Beit Shemesh bombarded for first time in this round of fighting, ending over 10 hours of relative quiet
Today, 12:29 pm
Gazan terrorists fired dozens of rockets at Israel late Friday morning, breaking several hours of calm and likely setting back efforts to end the fighting after several days.
Rocket fire was directed at areas near the Strip, and a short time later long-range projectiles were launched toward areas south of Jerusalem, setting off sirens in the Etzion settlement bloc and Beit Shemesh for the first time since violence erupted.
According to a military source, two rockets fired from Gaza toward Jerusalem were intercepted, one by the Iron Dome, and the second by David’s Sling. It marked the second-ever David’s Sling interception, after a rocket fired at Tel Aviv on Wednesday was downed by the system.
The medium-range David’s Sling is expected to fill a hole in Israel’s missile defense array, which includes the short-range Iron Dome and the Arrow system, which is designed to intercept long-range ballistic missiles.
One projectile also apparently landed outside the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin.
Dozens of rockets were fired at the southern city of Sderot and other towns near the border with the Gaza Strip in successive volleys starting at 11 a.m.
Smoke is seen from the West Bank settlement of Bat Ayin after Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at Israel, May 12, 2023. (Courtesy)
Homes were hit by rockets and shrapnel in Sderot and Nir Am, and the Eshkol Regional Council said one rocket caused minor damage to a greenhouse.
The rest of the rockets were downed by the Iron Dome air defense system or landed in open areas, local officials said.
No injuries were reported in the attacks.
This handout photo shows damage at a home in the southern town of Sderot that was struck by a rocket launched by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, May 12, 2023. (Sderot Municipality)
The rocket fire, which was claimed by Islamic Jihad, came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was holding a meeting with top defense officials in Tel Aviv to examine steps forward after both sides had refrained from cross-border fire for nearly 10 hours, raising hopes that the latest bout of violence between Israel and the Palestinian enclave had ended.
Shortly after the attack, the Israel Defense Forces said it carried out strikes against four Islamic Jihad military sites, a mortar launching position, and the area used to fire rockets at Israel.
Meanwhile, the IDF extended restrictions on movement and gathering for residents living up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the Gaza Strip, to Saturday at 8 p.m.
The IDF said the extension of the restrictions comes following an assessment held by military officials, following renewed rocket fire from Gaza at Israel. The rules were supposed to end at 2 p.m. on Friday.
The Home Front Command rules mandated school closures, work closures — unless employees have a bomb-safe room they can reach in time — and limited outdoor gatherings to no more than 10 people.
Indoor gatherings in towns near the Gaza border were restricted to 50 people, while those up to 40 kilometers from the border with the Strip were limited to 100 people.
Additionally, special education schools were permitted to operate, provided there is a bomb-safe room that school kids and teachers can reach in time.
The rocket attacks Friday morning marked the first launch out of Gaza since 10 p.m. Thursday, according to the IDF. The Israeli military said it continued to strike Islamic Jihad sites in Gaza until 2 a.m.
This handout photo shows a greenhouse in the Eshkol Regional Council that was struck by a rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip, May 12, 2023. (Eshkol Regional Council)
In the intervening hours, a tense calm had returned to parts of Israel brought to a practical standstill since fighting erupted on Tuesday.
“We’re making it so citizens can [return] to routine, and it demands patience,” Military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters early Friday morning. “We don’t have towns locked down, you can leave your homes and do Friday shopping.”
The Iron Dome missile defense system fires interceptors at rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, May 11, 2023. (AP/Tsafrir Abayov)
Hagari said restrictions put in place at the start of fighting on Tuesday were still valid until 2:00 p.m., but the IDF would assess the situation in the coming hours and decide whether to lift, adjust or even extend them.
In Gaza, Palestinians used the break in the fighting Friday to survey the wreckage wrought by over 200 Israeli strikes.
“The dream that we built for our children, for our sons, has ended,” said Belal Bashir, a Palestinian living in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, whose family home was reduced to a heap of rubble in an airstrike late Thursday.
The lull came as Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations were involved in intense efforts to broker a ceasefire, hosting an Islamic Jihad delegation in Cairo for indirect talks.
Hagari confirmed to reporters that talks were taking place.
“There have been contacts for over a day. We don’t comment on them, we don’t know when it will happen. We are busy defending and attacking,” he said.
Israel generally avoids confirming ceasefire agreements with terror groups, but several previous rounds of fighting between the IDF and Gaza have come to a close with international mediation.
The Iron Dome anti-missile system fires to intercept a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip, near Sderot, May 10, 2023. (Flash90)
Hamas officials told local media early Friday that Egypt was ramping up its diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting through “intensive contacts” with both Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
Islamic Jihad figures have sent mixed signals about the ceasefire talks. Senior official Ihasan Attaya complained early Friday that the mediators “have been unable to provide us with any guarantees.” A sticking point has been Islamic Jihad’s demand that Israel ceases its policy of targeted killings, Attaya said. Israel has flatly rejected the condition.
This week’s battles began when Israel launched simultaneous airstrikes early Tuesday that killed three Islamic Jihad commanders along with some of their wives and children as they slept in their homes. Israel said it was retaliating for a barrage of rocket fire launched last week by Islamic Jihad following the death of one of its West Bank members, Khader Adnan, from a hunger strike while in Israeli custody.
Islamic Jihad political bureau member Mohamad al-Hindi told media from Cairo that he hoped both sides “would reach a ceasefire agreement and honor it today.”
Talks had been set back a day earlier after an Israeli man was killed by a rocket that slammed into a Rehovot home, the country’s first fatality in the current conflict. Israel responded with strikes that killed the commander of an Islamic Jihad rocket division and his deputy.
Bomb squad unit troops search for rocket fragments after rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit the southern town of Sderot, May 11, 2023. (AP/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Hagari said Israel struck 215 Islamic Jihad targets from the start of Operation Shield and Arrow until Friday morning.
At least 31 people in Gaza have been killed since Israel launched the offensive, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza, and at least 93 more injured.
The military spokesman said Israel had killed 16 terrorists but admitted the IDF was responsible for the deaths of 10 civilians during the initial strikes, which destroyed residential structures where families were sleeping. He said four Gazan civilians had been killed by Islamic Jihad rockets impacting inside Gaza.
Gazan fighters, who only began firing rockets in response to the bombing on Wednesday afternoon, launched 866 projectiles during the conflict, 163 of which fell short of the border and 260 of which were intercepted, Hagari said. Most rockets targeted towns in southern Israel, but some reached as far north as Tel Aviv.
Netanyahu held a security briefing Thursday night with his security chiefs at the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv. As it ended, Hebrew media cited a message from the premier’s office that Israel would continue its operation in Gaza “as needed” and “continue to exact a heavy price from Islamic Jihad for its aggression against Israel’s citizens.”
However, reports indicated that those at the meeting had come to the conclusion that the operation had met its objectives and that pressure should be piled on Islamic Jihad to agree to a ceasefire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a meeting with security chiefs at the Kirya military headquarters in Tel Aviv on May 11, 2023. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
Israel generally avoids confirming ceasefire agreements with terror groups, but several previous rounds of fighting between the IDF and Gaza have come to a close with international mediation.
Both the European Union’s foreign policy chief and foreign ministers of France, Egypt, Germany and Jordan issued public statements Thursday urging a ceasefire.
They also praised Egypt for its mediation efforts and called on Israel and the Palestinian Authority to implement commitments made at summits in Aqaba in February and in Sharm El-Sheikh in March.
Officials earlier said Israel was in talks with Arab countries on a potential ceasefire, but denied reports claiming Israel would agree to a number of controversial concessions, such as the halting of targeted killings and the return of the body of Adnan.
And:
Open in app or online
As Gaza’s rockets are fired at Israel, so are media missiles
Behind western hostility to Israel and indifference towards Iran lies a baleful explanation
By MELANIE PHILLIPS
We know it’s coming. We can write the script in advance. Yet it never fails to sicken and to shock.
This week, Israel was once again forced to take military action to defend itself against increasingly deadly attacks. As ever, western media presented this as if Israel wakes up in the morning and decides to bomb Gaza through some insatiable lust for violence.
Once again, such media outlets omitted or downplayed the crucial context for this military action. Once again, questions asked by some interviewers were framed through a maliciously distorted prism.
The most notable element of Israel’s Gaza strikes this week has been their pinpoint accuracy and limited collateral civilian deaths.
Targeted Israeli air raids killed three senior members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in simultaneous strikes on their apartments. Hundreds of rockets were subsequently fired from Gaza at southern Israel.
Israeli bombers then targeted PIJ rocket and mortar launch sites. Another strike killed the head of the PIJ rocket launching force in his apartment, along with two other PIJ operatives. Later in the day, a further strike killed his deputy.
As The Spectator noted, the BBC World Service Newsday show omitted crucial context. On Wednesday morning, it reported Palestinian officials saying, “Two young men have been killed during an overnight Israeli army raid near Jenin … hours after Israel carried out air strikes on Gaza, targeting militant commanders. Fifteen people were killed, including ten civilians. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinian militants that any retaliation would be met with a crushing response”.
As Israeli journalist Lahav Harkov pointed out to the Newsday presenter, the report failed to say that the operation in Jenin followed the start of the rocket barrage from Gaza and that the “two young men” had been shooting at Israeli soldiers.
Worse, however, was to follow. If the operation was to target PIJ and ten civilians were now dead, said the presenter, did this reveal “where the thought process of Mr. Netanyahu and the coalition government and the leadership is at the moment?”
From that question, we could see this presenter’s assumption that Israel’s prime minister and his coalition partners were motivated by a lust for killing innocent Palestinian Arab civilians. This was not only a malevolent and twisted prejudice —from a supposedly objective BBC journalist — but directly contradicted by the remarkable precision of the Israeli air strikes.
While the apartments of the targeted terrorists were destroyed, the buildings remained largely intact with damage limited to adjoining apartments.
At time of writing, some 25 Gazans have been killed, of whom at least ten were civilians, some of them family members of the targeted terrorists and others who lived next door or downstairs.
The killing of any civilian is to be regretted. However, while PIJ and Hamas deliberately place their civilians in harm’s way, Israel makes every effort to avoid killing them. No other country in the world goes to such lengths to do so.
On Twitter, the IDF published video footage showing an IAF pilot aborting a strike on a PIJ target when two children were spotted nearby.
Yet rather than note the technological marvel and moral example of such unique military precision, journalists implied that Israel was engaged in reckless slaughter.
The Gaza rocket attacks are a double war crime. They target Israeli civilians while using Gaza’s population as hostages and human shields. More than 100 rockets have reportedly fallen short and landed inside Gaza, with Israel claiming that they killed four people, including three children.
Yet one CNN interviewer suggested that Israel has “an obligation to work around” the Gazan civilians used as human shields and claimed that Israel targeted civilians.
In their coverage of Israel, many western journalists behave like sheep following the dominant western narrative. This narrative holds that Israel is a rogue state that rides roughshod over international law, is drunk on military power and behaves with reckless lack of concern for Palestinian life.
The media therefore starts from a prior position of lies, distortion and malevolence. As a result, it fails to ask the really important question of whether such limited, pinpoint operations are adequate for the situation in which Israel finds itself.
Israel’s strategy is to “mow the lawn” — to deal with terrorist upticks when they occur and then repeat the exercise over and over again. This may no longer be appropriate.
Nothing happens in Gaza without Hamas’s permission. This week, however, Hamas stayed out of the fray while tacitly permitting PIJ to launch its rocket barrages.
Hamas reportedly has a new strategy. This is to avoid Israel mowing the lawn in Gaza while the terror group exports its apparatus of war to the disputed territories of Judea and Samaria.
This would shift the target area from the communities of southern Israel to its geographical heart. With the same aim, one of the PIJ commanders killed by Israel had been creating a cell building rocket launchers in the disputed territories.
Behind all this is Iran, which seeks to trap Israel through a pincer movement that would target it simultaneously from Lebanon, Gaza and the disputed territories. A nerve centre has been established in Beirut bringing together Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hezbollah, PIJ and Hamas — which last month fired 34 rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon.
Fuelling Iran’s ability to advance its infernal aims is America’s incomprehensibly incoherent Middle East strategy. Last month, the US deployed a guided missile submarine to the Middle East as a warning to Iran. Yet the US has persistently refused to take appropriate measures in response to Iranian aggression.
Worse, the US is even now hoping to cut a deal with Tehran over its nuclear weapons programme, which would facilitate an Iranian nuclear weapon after at best a limited delay and channel billions in sanctions relief into the regime’s coffers.
Meanwhile, the rest of the west seems indifferent to the Iranian threat. Although the regime has been at war with the west since it came to power in 1979, there seems to be a pervasive belief that the only target in Iran’s sights is Israel.
This largely meets with western indifference. So, as many have long wondered, why is the west so hostile to Israel’s very existence?
One answer is the new antisemitism, with irrational hatred of Jews replicated exactly in irrational hatred of the collective Jew in Israel. Another reason is that Israel is regarded as fundamentally illegitimate by those who are profoundly ignorant of both Jewish and Middle Eastern history.
However, if this hostility towards Israel is put alongside the refusal to acknowledge the dire threat that Iran poses to the west, a yet more baleful explanation suggests itself.
Consciously or unconsciously, the west expects Israel to do its dirty work for it. It assumes that Israel will deal with Iran by itself because that’s the kind of thing Israel does.
Israel’s feats of military derring-do are indeed legendary. But there’s good reason to think it can’t take out the Iranian threat by itself.
Most importantly, any strike against Iran carries the very real risk of simultaneous and devastating attacks on Israel from the 150,000 rocket batteries in Lebanon targeting the whole country, missiles from Gaza and the infrastructure of mass murder in the disputed territories.
And here’s the most terrible thought of all. The prospect of widespread carnage in Israel doesn’t concern the west because, to its way of thinking, the historic role of Jews is to die in large numbers.
Then the west will eulogise them, weep crocodile tears over them and sentimentalise their memory. While the west refuses to tolerate the idea of Jewish power — and so will always demonise Israel for using it to defend Israeli lives — what it loves is dead Jews.
Harsh? Certainly. But harsher and more terrifying by far for Israel
Finally:
Netanyahu and Gallant order: Continue exacting a heavy price from the Islamic Jihad
Prime Minister's Office issues statement following security assessment: The campaign will continue as long as necessary.
Netanyahu during security assessment
The Prime Minister's Office issued a statement at the conclusion of a security situation assessment conducted on Thursday evening by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense praised the IDF and the Shin Bet for the achievements during Operation Shield and Arrow and instructed them to continue to exact a heavy price from the Islamic Jihad for its aggression against the citizens of Israel. The campaign will continue as long as necessary."
Earlier, a senior diplomatic official commented on the continued rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and the direct hit in Rehovot which resulted in the death of one person, and said that these rocket attacks make the possibility of a ceasefire much more distant.
"If the firing at Israel continues, the attacks in the Gaza Strip will continue, including the continuation of the countermeasures and the exacting of another heavy price from the Islamic Jihad. Fire will be answered with fire," said the official.
He noted that "in the last day, despite Egypt's efforts to bring about a ceasefire, the Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of rockets at Israel. In response, a fourth significant senior official in the Islamic Jihad was eliminated, and the organization continued to suffer severe damage."
"The equation has changed: Israel will exact a price for directing terrorism from the Gaza Strip to Judea and Samaria. The IDF is prepared to continue to protect the citizens of Israel with strength, and at the same time, attacks terrorist targets and is ready for any scenario," he added.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Would this end the Ukraine War?
+++
What Happens Next If Putin Dies
Some analysts are speculating that if Russian President Vladimir Putin dies then the war in Ukraine will come to an end and peace will be achieved. Others believe that democracy will be achieved in Russia if Putin is killed or ousted, according to a report by the defense and national security website 19FortyFive.
The speculation comes after a failed assassination attempt that saw a drone hit the presidential palace, the Kremlin. While some are suggesting this was a false flag operation to justify Putin’s expansion of his war in Ukraine, Moscow is once again pointing its finger at the United States for the orchestration, according to The Daily Mail.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov reportedly said that Ukraine does what it is told, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied the allegations and claimed that Ukraine was not behind the attack. White House national security spokesman John Kirby denied the Kremlin’s claims on MSNBC, saying that the U.S. does not encourage Ukraine to strike outside of its borders.
But there is the possibility that Ukraine is responding in kind after Russia reportedly targeted the country’s leadership in 2022. Reports are also circulating that Putin’s inner circle is trying to oust him. But what happens when Putin does die?
Russia is caught between a hard place and the ground as their belief in the “iron fist” means that a strong leader, an autocrat, is needed to keep Russia afloat. While Putin is experiencing some dissent among the country’s elites, many are reportedly afraid that taking him out would bring about Russia’s collapse.
One rumor going around is that Putin’s mistress, the former gold medalist Alina Kabaeva, who is also the mother of his two children, is seeking to replace Putin’s senior-most female official Valentina Matviyenko as the speaker of the senate in the Federation Council. Others are tossing in former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Nikolai Patrushev, a former KGB officer.
++++++++++++++++++++
No comments:
Post a Comment