Displaying posts categorized under

FOREIGN POLICY

FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Yes, the Abraham Accords Were a Historic Success By David Harsanyi

By on May 12th, 2021

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/yes-the-abraham-accords-were-a-historic-success/?utm_source=recirc-desktop&utm_medium=blog-post&utm_campaign=river&utm_content=top-bar-latest&utm_term=second

David Frum
@davidfrum
Remember all the Trump-Kushner self-congratulation about their Middle East successes?

The Abraham Accords were predicated on the idea that the United States could broker peace between Israel and once-antagonistic Arab nations by bypassing the intractable Palestinians, who have actively stood in the way of every agreement since 1994. Though they are mentioned in passing, the agreement has nothing to do with Palestinians, who grumbled at the time, “Our Arab brothers have abandoned us.”

Jared Kushner, whose approach had more results than anything tried by the Obama administration retreads who now populate the Biden administration, never claimed the normalization deals would fix the Palestinian situation.

Here is what he said at the time:

You have 5 million Palestinians who are really trapped because of bad leadership. So what we’ve done is we’ve created an opportunity for their leadership to either seize or not. If they screw up this opportunity — which again, they have a perfect track record of missing opportunities — if they screw this up, I think they will have a very hard time looking the international community in the face, saying they are victims, saying they have rights. This is a great deal for them. If they come to the table and negotiate, I think they can get something excellent …

The Palestinian leadership have to ask themselves a question: Do they want to have a state? Do they want to have a better life? If they do, we have created a framework for them to have it, and we’re going to treat them in a very respectful manner. If they don’t, then they’re going to screw up another opportunity like they’ve screwed up every other opportunity that they’ve ever had in their existence.

Indeed, the Palestinians have extended their perfect track record of “missing opportunities” (really, more like blowing them up). And the fact that Iranian-funded Hamas rockets are falling on Jewish cities or that riots are being perpetuated by the Palestinian Authority only further proves that Kushner was right: Waiting around for the theocrats in Gaza or corrupt former PLO officials in West Bank is a foolish endeavor. Now, maybe Frum and others believe that those who indiscriminately fire Qassam rockets at civilians deserve their own state. But that has nothing to do with the Abraham Accords.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

America Playing With Fire by Evelyn Markus

By on May 12th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17351/america-playing-with-fire

The Nazi’s were obsessed with race. They suppressed dissent, controlled the dissemination of news and controlled culture. In 1933, the German Student Union started to burn books in an effort to align German arts and culture with Nazi ideas. Books of authors such as Hemingway, Helen Keller and Jack London were considered dangerous and had to be “canceled.” The students did not see themselves as suppressing culture; they saw themselves as advancing a just culture.

“The first thing every totalitarian regime does, along with confiscation and mutilation of reality, is confiscation of history and confiscation of culture. I think they all happen almost simultaneously.” — Iranian professor and author Azar Nafisi, whose book Reading Lolita in Tehran was canceled in Iran.

What used to be unimaginable is now taking place in America. We see certain aspects of totalitarianism in the United States: the obsession with race, declaring an ethnic group collectively guilty, shaming, humiliations based on ethnicity, lootings, arson, racist violence, intimidation of opponents, cancel culture, controlled dissemination of news, and indoctrination of children in schools. We see fake news, conspiracy theories, an overhaul of history, a new language imposed, and unprosecuted theft. All in the name of a more just culture.

On May 8, 1945, men and women rushed to the streets of New York, London and Moscow to hug, kiss and dance. Germany had just surrendered. The war against Nazi Germany was over. The killing had stopped. A great evil had ended. Yet many had mixed feelings of joy and grief. More than 100,000 US soldiers had given their lives and almost another 450,000 had been wounded. In all, 15 to 20 million Europeans had been killed. May 8 is still celebrated in our times as Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

America Needs An Honest Debate About Red Lines In Defense Of Taiwan Politicians and military analysts should be blunt about their plans regarding the defense of Taiwan from possible Chinese invasion.By Sumantra Maitra

By on May 11th, 2021

https://thefederalist.com/2021/05/10/america-needs-an-honest-debate-about-red-lines-in-defense-of-taiwan/

The greatest present challenge facing America and its allies is arguably a small democratic island off the coast of the biggest rising naval hegemon. Detached historians might see an amusing parallel from ancient Greek history, but history has rarely been kind to small islands caught in the middle of a great-power rivalry. The same argument has now reached Washington D.C., as China embarks on one of the fastest and largest naval build-ups in human history.

Charles Glaser writes for Foreign Affairs that China is geographically poised to take Taiwan if it so desires, yet defending Taiwan militarily is a fool’s errand — impossible to do without an uncomfortable, civilization-destroying cost. According to Glaser, the defense of Taiwan isn’t imperative to the balance of power in Asia, and unlike other allies — such as Japan and Australia — Taiwan is uncomfortably placed in a region where geography gives China an advantage.

That said, in a war the United States might be able to prevail, but the cost of that would be unbearable to generations who have no idea what a genuine great power war might look like. Therefore, Glaser argues that America shouldn’t tie its fate to Taiwan or promise to do something it cannot. Countering Glaser’s assessment in Foreign Policy, Blake Herzinger accuses Glaser of Chamberlain-esque appeasement, arguing that if the United States abandons Taiwan, all hope is lost.

Their debate frames the situation in simplistic Manichean terms, providing only two options: complete abandonment of Taiwan, or catastrophic war mounted in Taiwan’s defense. Yet such bifurcation is flawed, not least of which because it fails to mention a whole host of additional options, from deterrence by a vigorous arming of Taiwan, or by “bleeding” China by way of asymmetric escalation.

Yet the balance of power in place for the last three decades is, unfortunately, unlikely to hold. As scholarly literature suggests, the relative power difference between China and the United States has changed since the early 1990s. As such, any debate about Taiwan should start with these three questions.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

As Biden Tries To Get the Band Back Together, Iran’s Ally Attacks By Benny Avni

By on May 11th, 2021

https://www.nysun.com/foreign/as-biden-tries-to-get-the-old-band-back-together/9

Let’s retire the phrase “fake news.” The right word for the statements from the Biden White House, the State Department, the Europeans and the United Nations, all of whom are calling for a de-escalation of the violence in Jerusalem, is counterfactual. The fact is that the sudden escalation in violence, centered in a real estate dispute in east Jerusalem, is dictated, mostly, by Hamas.

The Gaza-based terror organization decides when to shoot and at what targets. It is in a fury because the Palestinian Authority decided to cancel a scheduled election that Hamas was predicted to win. Eventually Hamas will also decide to end the current round of hostilities and beg for a ceasefire. Israel will quickly abide. Meantime, Hamas has decided to turn its fire to Israel.

The terrorist organization hitched a ride on a confluence of events, including the end of the holy month of Ramadan; Arab unrest over a real estate dispute at East Jerusalem; Israel’s annual celebration of Jerusalem Day; and riots at the al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. On Monday, Hamas announced an ultimatum for Israel to end its activities on the Temple Mount by 6 p.m. local o’clock.

When the deadline arrived, the al Aqsa area was actually fairly quiet. Yet Hamas launched a barrage of missiles from Gaza a few seconds after the 6pm deadline. Seven missiles were aimed at Jerusalem, far beyond the usual targeting range. One missile fell in Kiryat Anavim. At the same time, several rockets were launched at Sderot and other towns near the Gaza border that are all too familiar with such attacks.

All this is unfolding amid one of the bitterest feuds in the history of parliamentary democracy — the scramble to try to form a new government. Despite this, Israeli politicians, almost to a man and woman, vowed to back the decisions to respond forcefully that are being made by the premier nearly everyone outside of Likud wants to replace, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

The Realignment In the Middle East, Biden is finishing what Obama started. And his top advisers are all on board. By Michael Doran & Tony Badran

By on May 11th, 2021

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/realignment-iran-bid

“Biden chose Iran, fracturing the U.S. alliance system and setting back the cause of peace. His choice also delivered a victory to China and Russia, who are working with Iran, each in its own way, toward America’s undoing. In a perverse effort to liberate itself from its allies, the United States is soiling its own nest.”

On Sunday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan phoned his Israeli counterpart and turned back the hands of time. According to the American readout of the conversation, Sullivan called “to express the United States’ serious concerns” about two things: the pending eviction, by court order, of a number of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem, and the weekend’s violent clashes on the Temple Mount between Israeli police and Palestinian rioters. The Biden administration, in other words, publicly asserted an American national interest in preventing the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, regardless of the dictates of Israeli law—just as Hamas was sending rockets and incendiary devices into Israel with the same message. This conscious effort to put “daylight” between the United States and Israel marked a clear return to the approach of President Barack Obama.

Sullivan’s call invites us to reopen an unresolved debate that began even before President Joe Biden took the oath of office. Is the new president forging his own path in the Middle East, or is he following in the footsteps of Obama? Until now, those who feared that his presidency might become the third term of Obama fixed their wary eyes on Robert Malley, the president’s choice as Iran envoy. When serving in the Obama White House, Malley helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, which sought accommodations with Tehran that came at the expense of America’s allies in the Middle East. In a revealing Foreign Affairs article, written in 2019, Malley expressed regret that Obama failed to arrive at more such accommodations. The direction of Obama’s policy was praiseworthy, Malley wrote, but his “moderation” was the enemy of his project. Being “a gradualist,” he presided over “an experiment that got suspended halfway through.”

Malley, the article leads one to assume, is now advising Biden to go all the way—and fast. But surely it is the president, not his Iran envoy, who determines the direction and pace of policy. Over the course of a career in Washington spanning nearly half a century, Biden has never cut a radical profile. Nor have Sullivan or Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The presence of this pair at Biden’s side signaled to many that Malley would not drive Iran policy. Shortly after the election, a veteran Washington insider noted to a journalist that “Blinken and Sullivan are certainly from the more moderate wing of the party, and that is reassuring.”

At his Senate confirmation hearing in January, Blinken continued to reassure by expressing his intention to fix the defects of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran nuclear deal is known. The following month, Foreign Policy reported that a split had opened up inside the government, with Sullivan and Blinken fulfilling the hopes placed on them. When Malley argued in favor of giving “inducements” to Iran to convince it to return quickly to the JCPOA, Sullivan and Blinken “dominated the discussion” by “toeing a harder line.”

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

Accessories to evil The US and EU are conniving at murderous violence against Israeli Jews Melanie Phillips

By on May 10th, 2021

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/p/accessories-to-evil?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjox

Jerusalem tonight is very tense, with the planned Jewish celebrations of Jerusalem Day on Monday provoking fears of a further escalation of the recent violence that has been erupting in the city and which has rippled into attacks against southern Israel.

In the last few days, there have been violent Arab riots around Temple Mount, the Jerusalem religious site sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims; on Saturday night, a rocket was fired into southern Israel from Gaza, and two more were launched from there on Sunday; and incendiary balloons are once again also being fired from Gaza to attack Israeli civilians, their property and farmland, causing on Sunday some 39 fires, mainly in open areas. 

On Friday, around 200 Arabs and 17 Israeli police officers were wounded when hundreds of Arabs rioted on Temple Mount. There were reports that, once again, the Al Aqsa mosque on the site was being used to store ammunition to use against Israelis.

On Saturday night, clashes continued around Temple Mount causing some 90 Arab injuries while Arabs rioted along the Gaza border fence with Israel, burning tyres and throwing explosives at Israeli troops before being dispersed by tear gas.

Times of Israel reported yesterday: 

The central committee of Fatah, the movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, warned Saturday night that “the continuation of the settler attacks on the holy places and the homes of Palestinian residents, their expulsion and expansion of settlements — will lead to an all-out conflict in all the Palestinian territories.”

According to Channel 12, current discourse in the Palestinian street is of a “war for Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.” The network also said Hamas is encouraging its West Bank operatives to carry out attacks there and inflame tensions.

In Britain and America, this is being mostly reported as Palestinian “resistance” to Israeli attempts to evict some 70 Palestinians Arabs from the contentious east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah — protests that have been met by what is being presented as brutal and heavy-handed reaction by Israeli security forces. Some seven Palestinians were injured in clashes there late on Sunday.

This media narrative is wickedly selective, twisted and misleading. The Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which is currently in progress, is always a time of heightened tension. This has been deliberately stoked up this year through Palestinian incitement to violence, a situation exacerbated in turn by militant Jewish nationalists — and with the fuel to this murderous Arab fire supplied by none other than the White House. 

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

After Violent Muslim Riots in Jerusalem, AOC, Warren, Sanders Attack Israel Daniel Greenfield

By on May 10th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/05/after-violent-muslim-riots-jerusalem-aoc-warren-daniel-greenfield/

During Israel’s War of Independence, the country was invaded by multiple Muslim countries and armies. While these forces were defeated in some areas, they succeeded in seizing and colonizing parts of Jerusalem. When Israel liberated the conquered part of Jerusalem in the Six Day War, the Jewish owners of some houses in Jerusalem began a prolonged Dickensian process of trying to reclaim their former homes.

The Arab Muslim colonizers were backed by international organizations and local lefties who prolonged the process as much as possible.

Losing court cases didn’t stop them, and getting a ruling evicting them meant riots. That’s exactly what happened in Jerusalem.

And top Socialist Democrat, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, and Bernie Sanders, are siding with the Muslim colonizers and rioters.

“The forced removal of long-time Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah is abhorrent and unacceptable. The Administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately,” Senator Elizabeth Warren falsely tweeted.

“Forced removal” is what happens when you’re living in a house you stole and refuse to relinquish. It’s called an eviction. And it’s fully legal.

“We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem. Israeli forces are forcing families from their homes during Ramadan and inflicting violence. It is inhumane and the US must show leadership in safeguarding the human rights of Palestinians,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez wrongly tweeted.

There’s plenty more, but this comes down to leftist Democrats choosing to stand with the colonizers who stole the property of Jewish homeowners over their rightful owners.

And that, in a nutshell, is the position of the Left on Israel.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, HISTORY, WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

Bay of Pigs 60th Anniversary Part III – Humiliating Che Guevara and John Kerry A brave Cuban freedom fighter confronts Kerry’s lies. Humberto Fontova

By on May 10th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/bay-pigs-60th-anniversary-part-iiihumiliating-che-humberto-fontova/

”This is the history of a failure.” — The oddly frank opening lines of Che Guevara’s Congo Dairies.

“Those Cuban-CIA men [Bay of Pigs vets] were as tough, dedicated and impetuous a group of soldiers as I’ve ever had the honor of commanding.” — Legendary anti-communist mercenary “Mad Mike” Hoare, commander of the “Wild Geese,” in his book Congo Mercenary.

“I stood above Che Guevara, my boots near his head, just as Che had once stood over my dear friend and fellow 2506 Brigade member, Nestor Pino. ‘We’re going to kill you all,’ Che said to Pino. Now, the situation was reversed. Che Guevara lay at my feet. He looked like a piece of trash. I said, ‘Che Guevara, I want to talk to you.'” — Former President of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association Felix Rodriguez (pictured above), recalling Che Guevara’s capture in Bolivia, where he played a key role.

“Senator [John Kerry] your committee’s slander against me was in every g*dd*mmed newspaper after your committee’s last closed hearing! Saying I solicited drug money for the Contras. THAT, senator Kerry, is a D*MNED LIE!…and it difficult for me to answer questions from a man (you, the chairman of the committee) I do not RESPECT!” — Felix Rodriguez testifying for Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics, and International Operations hearings chaired by Senator John Kerry in 1986. These evolved into the Iran-Contra hearings.

After being ransomed back by the guilt-stricken JFK after his Bay of Pigs betrayal, many of these Cuban freedom-fighters were itching to get back into the fight (but with ammo and air cover this time). The CIA obliged and sent a group of them with ex-marine Rip Robertson to the Congo in ‘64 where Castro (with tongue tucked deeply in his cheek) had sent Che Guevara to foment a “war of liberation,” training and commanding the alternately Chinese-and Soviet-backed “Simbas” of Laurent Kabila, who were murdering, raping and munching (many were cannibals) their way through the defenseless Europeans still left in the recently abandoned Belgian colony.

Together, Mad Mike, Rip and the Cubans made short work of Che and Kabila’s Simbas. Guevara himself barely escaped by hightailing it with his tail tucked firmly between his legs across Lake Tanganyika into Tanzania, with the Cuba-CIA men in hot pursuit.

Too bad Hollywood never picked up on this exploit for one of their many glorifications of Che — worse still that Monty Python’s Flying Circus didn’t pick it up. I’ll even start the script for them: “In 1965, while planning a military campaign in the Congo against crack mercenaries commanded by a professional soldier who helped defeat Rommel in North Africa, Che confidently allied himself with ‘soldiers’ who used chicken feathers for helmets and stood in the open waving at attacking aircraft because a muganga (witch doctor) had assured them that the magic water he sprinkled over them would make .50 caliber bullets bounce harmlessly off their bodies. Six months later, Che fled Africa, narrowly escaping with his life and with his tail tucked tightly between his legs.”

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY Comments turned off

Biden’s SecState brims with misplaced optimism on China By Gunnar Heinsohn

By on May 9th, 2021

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/05/bidens_secstate_brims_with_misplaced_optimism_on_china.html

On May 2, 2021, Sixty Minutes (CBS) interviewed U.S. secretary of state Antony Blinken on the future of America’s competition with China.  Blinken expressed confidence because the Middle Kingdom “has an aging population,” whereas “we’re in a much better place to maximize … human potential than any country on Earth.”

However, the CIA Factbook reports a median age of 38.4 years for China’s 1.44 billion citizens (2020), but a slightly higher 38.5 for the 330 million Americans.  For the ca. 200 million “whites,” with a 2019 total fertility rate of 1.6 (children in a woman’s lifetime) against China’s 1.7, it is 44 years.  America’s white majority, thus, is aging faster than, for example, the Swiss (42.7) and hardly slower than Austrians (44.5) or Germans (45.7).

In terms of human capital development, these three Central European countries are well ahead of Blinken’s homeland.  In the 2018 PISA tests, published at the end of 2019, among 1,000 children (younger than 15), there is the following ranking for top achievers and failures: Switzerland (49/168), Germany (28/211), Austria (25/211), and the USA (15/271).  China, on the other hand, plays in a higher-skilled league, with 165 scholastic aces and only 24 failures.

It could be argued that only four Chinese provinces with a population of less than 200 million took part in PISA, and that Beijing conducted an unfair selection process.  But even if one only applies South Korea’s scores (69 at the top and 150 at the bottom) to China, there are more than 17 million of its 249 million children (in 2019) who will be able to perform exceptionally well as adults.  Among some 61 million American children, there are only 915,000 who reach this level, many of them hailing from East Asia.  With the odds almost 19:1 in favor of the People’s Republic, one could wish the U.S. had better informed advisers for its most senior politicians.

As for Europe, even if we add the finest pupils, who are under the aegis of Berlin (320,000), Vienna (32,000) and Bern (64,000), things hardly look better for the core economic regions of the Western world.  The 455,000 talented young students among 50 million South Koreans alone surpass those three.

Even among the best, there seem to be differences in quality between East Asia and Europe or North America.  South Korea demonstrates this in the strictly screened PCT patent applications of 2020, when it clearly outpaced Germany with 20,060 to 18,643.  In 1994, the balance of patent applications was still 4,294 to 190 in favor of the Federal Republic.  That curious higher cognitive intensity is confirmed by the 2019 SAT tests, in which 37 percent of Asians but only 10 percent of whites scored at the top proficiency level.

Continue reading →
FOREIGN POLICY, ISRAEL Comments turned off

U.S. to Israeli Delegation: Come If You Must, But Our Minds Are Made Up The Jewish state . . . all on its own. Hugh Fitzgerald

By on May 7th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/05/us-israeli-delegation-come-if-you-must-our-minds-hugh-fitzgerald/

While Robert Malley sends, via intermediaries, his billets-doux to Iran’s negotiator Mohammed Javad Zarif in Vienna, Israel is sending a high-level delegation of security personnel, headed by Yossi Cohen, the director of Mossad, to Washington, hoping to make the case for American caution, rather than insensate haste, in returning to the JCPOA and lifting sanctions on Iran. A report on this difficult mission is here: “Israeli Security Officials Head to Washington to Share Iran Threat Intel as White House Says It Can’t Be Swayed on Nuclear Deal,” by Sharon Wrobel, Algemeiner, April 26, 2021:

A high-profile Israeli security delegation, headed by Mossad Director Yossi Cohen, is arriving in Washington this week to discuss the dangers of restoring the original 2015 Iranian nuclear accord just days after the White House signaled that the Biden administration will not be swayed to change its policy on the deal.

Ahead of the arrival of the delegation of Israeli senior security officials, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Friday answered “no” when asked at a press briefing whether the visit was likely to change the US administration’s stance on reviving the nuclear deal, to which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is strongly opposed.

How indecent of the Bidenites to proclaim to the Israelis, even before they arrive, in front of the whole world, that there is nothing they can say to the Americans that will change their minds. Their minds are made up. The Americans don’t want to be reminded that just a few months ago they were themselves talking about the need “to lengthen and strengthen” the agreement with Iran. They are in no mood to listen to their closest ally in the Middle East. They don’t want to listen to the Israelis, who know better than anyone what Iran is up to with its nuclear program, understand how it plans to comply, or to pretend to, with the JCPOA, and what it will do in 2030 when it is allowed its “break out” and can manufacture, completely legally, nuclear weapons. They don’t want to listen to the Israelis, even though Israel, not America, is the main target of Iran’s nuclear program. How many times has Iran threatened to destroy the Jewish state? The Bidenites don’t want to hear about it. They don’t want to listen to the Israelis, whose tiny country’s very survival may depend on what agreement is concluded with Iran in Vienna and who, therefore, have beyond all others earned the right to be heard. The indifference of the Biden people to Israel’s attempt to present its arguments against a return to the Iran deal is unspeakable.

Continue reading →