West Asia News and Discussions

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Ambar
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Unofficially Israel and Israelis have had a lengthy relationship in UAE. There are many Israeli funded businesses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and frequent travelers from Israel who visit UAE for leisure and business. I remember reading about Israel's operation opera in the early 80s it was said that Israel has always maintained a secret relationship even with Saudi Arabia , and their interests align in trying to contain Iran and Iraq. I wouldnt be too surprised if Saudi Arabia too under MBS normalize relationship with Israel at some point, and when benefactors of pakis accept Israel, can the pakis stay too far ? This has wide reaching implications.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by mmasand »

Fun fact: Netanyahu met with Otaiba (UAE Ambassador to the US), Bahrain several times in DC, in addition to the Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed in NY in the last two years. Recently they have jointly engaged lobbying organisations to shore up support to extend sanctions against Iran. Relations have been warming up for a while now, except for Mahbouh's sloppy assassination by Mossad.

A few years ago, I was interviewed by an Israeli (dual citizen) for a job ,who was handpicked to head a state funded educational enterprise in Abu Dhabi.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Wonder what's going on in UAE ? Two explosions in two different places , multiple casualties reported. Saw some disturbing images of people on fire. This follows a large fire in Ajman market earlier this month. I suspect Qatar/Iranian proxies at play here probably to further weaken UAE's economy and maybe to sow some sort of doubt in its citizens about the UAE-Israel normalization .
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

X-Posting from Intelligence thread.
Mukesh.Kumar wrote:Very interesting development in UAE on hawala operators. This had potential of radically cutting down on money laundering, terror financing, crime.

Gulf News Report- for hawala service providers to register
The UAE has made it mandatory for Hawala service providers in the country to register, as the country strengthens its anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CFT) framework, the Central Bank said in a statement on Monday.
....
Hawala, or hundi, is an unofficial and informal channel to transfer money mainly used among South Asians whereby they give money to agents who then instruct their associates in the country to deliver it to the customer's house. It is estimated that between $100 billion to $300 billion flow through this informal transfer system globally every year.

With UAE being a one of the major markets for remittances, regulating this informal industry will help monitor money-laundering and counter terror funding. Remittances from the UAE amounted to some Dh165 billion in 2019, led by India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Egypt, the UK, and Bangladesh.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by SSridhar »

Spurned by allies, Saudi Arabia rethinks chequebook diplomacy - AFP
From Pakistan to Lebanon, Saudi Arabia is scaling back its famed chequebook diplomacy, a longstanding policy of splashing petro-dollars in exchange for influence, which observers say has yielded few tangible gains.

For decades, the wealthy kingdom funnelled billions in aid to its allies -- and to its enemies' enemies -- in a bid to bolster its position as an Arab powerhouse and leader of the Muslim world.

But as plummeting demand has sapped its oil revenues, the kingdom is rethinking old alliances that Saudi observers say have swallowed their cash while offering little in return, at a time when its quest for regional supremacy is increasingly challenged by rivals Iran, Turkey and Qatar.

A swathe of regional countries, from Jordan and Lebanon to Egypt, Palestine and Pakistan, have been the top recipients of Saudi aid over the past decade, said Middle East expert Yasmine Farouk.

"The dual economic impact of the coronavirus and low oil prices, however, may lead Saudi Arabia to restructure and rationalise its aid," said Farouk, from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"The country is already seeking to end the perception of being 'an ATM'."

The kingdom has contributed billions to Lebanon's post-civil war reconstruction, but it has voiced frustration over its failure to rein in Hezbollah, a powerful group backed by its arch-enemy Iran.

"Saudi Arabia will not continue to pay Hezbollah's bills, and the Lebanese have to shoulder their responsibilities towards their country," Saudi columnist Khalid al-Sulaiman wrote recently for the pro-government Okaz newspaper.

"It is no longer possible for Saudi Arabia to continue paying billions to Lebanon in the morning and receive insults at night.

"This situation is no longer compatible with the new Saudi foreign policy, as Saudi money does not fall from the sky or grow in the desert."

Saudi Arabia also appears frustrated with Pakistan after the longstanding ally pushed Riyadh to take a firm stand on Kashmir and threatened to take the issue to other Muslim forums.

Such a threat is particularly disconcerting for Saudi Arabia, which is home to Islam's holiest sites and views itself as the leader of the Muslim world.
The kingdom recently recalled $1 billion of a $3 billion loan from cash-strapped Pakistan, and an expired multi-billion dollar oil credit facility to Islamabad has not been renewed, a diplomatic source told AFP.

"Pakistani elites have a bad habit of taking Saudi support for granted, given what Saudi has done for Pakistan over the decades," tweeted Ali Shihabi, a Saudi author and analyst.

"Well the party is over, and Pakistan needs to deliver value to this relationship. It's no longer a free lunch or a one-way street."


Riyadh's ties with Pakistan have historically been "very warm" but the relationship has been lopsided, said Saudi prince Talal bin Mohammad al-Faisal.
"It (has) only benefited one side in 'real world' terms," he tweeted.


"That side is Pakistan."

Pakistan and Egypt, another ally which has received billions in aid, rebuffed calls for ground troops to support the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen against Iran-linked Huthi rebels.

Further stirring consternation in Riyadh, a leaked 2015 audio recording showed Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi allegedly mocking Gulf powers including Saudi Arabia, saying they were rolling in money "like rice".

That sentiment was echoed in 2018 by US President Donald Trump when he hosted Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office and held up a chart listing military hardware sales worth billions to Riyadh.

"Take their money," Trump told NBC News the following year, justifying backing the kingdom's rulers after journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder sparked global uproar.

With so many of its relationships rendered transactional, Riyadh is struggling to win respect and its once-leading role in the Muslim world is increasingly challenged by its rivals, observers say.

The Saudis are increasingly resentful of "ungrateful" allies, said Farouk.

States that have traditionally benefited from Saudi largesse, including Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, have "already seen instances in which aid was frozen, decreased or cut off", she added.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by V_Raman »

The natural protector of the sunni saudi world is India - a non-transactional power interested in the welfare of the people. But India has to solve the Pakistan problem.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by anmol »

Steve Herman
@W7VOA

Senior administration official tells reporters on Air Force One to expect an announcement tomorrow on further US troop withdrawals from #Iraq and another announcement in the coming days about #Afghanistan.
https://mobile.twitter.com/W7VOA/status ... 4233508864
New York Times World
@nytimesworld

Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan’s senior vice president and a staunch opponent of the Taliban, survived a bombing in Kabul that killed at least 10 people, the second deadly attack against him in a little over a year
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/worl ... &smtyp=cur
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/ ... 39884.html
United States: End of Qatar blockade possibly 'in weeks'
Top US diplomat for Middle East expresses cautious optimism that three-year siege of Qatar by Arab states may soon end
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by pankajs »

https://twitter.com/AmichaiStein1/statu ... 3042684940
#BREAKING: #Bahrain will normalize ties with Israel, Bahrain Crown prince will be in DC Monday, officials confirm to me
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Wonder how long before the Pakis follow their masters ? Its rumored that US has negotiated with UAE/Saudi Arabia/Bahrain to lift sanctions and open airspace to Qatar, i get a feeling that this entire orchestration is to alienate Iran and Turkey. Net net i think its a positive development for India overall.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

Happy Rosh- Hashanah to all our Jewish friends around the globe!
The Jewish New Year. Wishing all " Shana Tova U'Metukah."
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/worl ... alman.html
Israeli Reports Say Netanyahu Met Saudi Crown Prince. Saudis Deny It.
Clashing reports about the meeting, which would be the first between high-level Israeli and Saudi leaders, show how far apart the two countries remain.
By Ben Hubbard, David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman, Nov. 23, 2020

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A covert meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia would be a historic first, suggesting that the two countries were making progress toward establishing formal diplomatic relations.
But the contradictory news on Monday about such a meeting — with unsourced Israeli media reports saying it had taken place clashing with a denial from the Saudi foreign minister — highlighted the domestic politics in each country and signaled how far apart the two countries remained from the prospect of exchanging ambassadors.
Israeli news outlets reported early Monday that Mr. Netanyahu and the head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency, Yossi Cohen, had flown to Saudi Arabia on a private jet on Sunday evening. In a meeting with Prince Mohammed in Neom, a futuristic city planned near the Red Sea coast, the three men discussed Iran, which both countries consider a threat, and the possible normalization of relations, the Israeli reports said.
Mr. Netanyahu refused to comment, but Israeli journalists close to him were among the first to report the story. Flight tracking websites documented the jet’s trip from Tel Aviv to Saudi Arabia, and three officials close to Mr. Netanyahu alluded to the meeting’s significance, appearing to confirm that it happened.
“The fact that the meeting took place and was made public — even if it was in only a semiofficial way — is something of great importance,” Yoav Galant, the education minister, said in a radio interview. “This is something our ancestors dreamed about.”
But hours after the news echoed around the world, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, denied that any meeting with Mr. Netanyahu had taken place, insisting that Prince Mohammed had met only with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was completing a seven-nation farewell tour.
“There was no meeting,” Prince Faisal wrote in a text message. He said that he had accompanied Mr. Pompeo throughout his visit and that “Saudi and American officials were the only ones present.”
The conflicting statements reflected different priorities: Israel and the Trump administration have promoted the idea that a diplomatic opening between Saudi Arabia and Israel is only a matter of time, while the Saudis have insisted that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal must come first.
Mr. Netanyahu, who has often been accused of leaking reports for political gain, had ample reason to trumpet any incremental steps in building relations with Saudi Arabia. He is eager to improve his standing at home as a leader who can turn Israel’s foes into friends and to divert attention from corruption allegations.
.....
Gautam
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by SRajesh »

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/wor ... 383132.cms
Here we go
bombs going off in Baghdad
Will we see a spate of sectarian killings stretching from Bosporus to Indus!!!
Wonder what will happen to Afghan peace process now!!
What will the new accord between Isreal and Saudi/UAE amount to if the killings start and Eyran muddy the waters along Turdogan!
Gurus on the panel: what will be the impact to India from all this?? if and ??if the killings start
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by srikandan »

https://twitter.com/NoufMarwaai/status/ ... 2852538379
Saudi Arabia’s new #vision2030 & curriculum will help to create coexistent,moderate & tolerant generation. Screenshots of my sons school exam today in Social Studies included concepts & history of Hinduism,Buddhism,Ramayana, Karma, Mahabharata &Dharma. I enjoyed helping him study
Saudi Arabia does this while USA educational institutions preach hatred for India and hinduism and protects bigots like Fraudrey and institutionlize bigotry and disinformation about India, whether it is Harvard, Rutgers, or university of chicago.

I would not have thought this likely a couple of decades ago, but here we are.

I daresay Indian school curriculum on Indian history is a lot sh*ttier than this, even today.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by ricky_v »

https://ecfr.eu/publication/useful-enem ... ddle-east/
Despite the asymmetry in their size, population, and military prowess, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are engaged in a decade-long feud that is reshuffling the geopolitical order in the Middle East and North Africa. The confrontation is not only feeding instability in areas that have an immediate impact on European interests, such as Libya and the Horn of Africa, but is also seeping into Europe itself, in the eastern Mediterranean. The rivalry is deepening Europe’s divisions, making it more difficult for the European Union and its member states to develop a cohesive policy on the Mediterranean.
As the two countries fed the Libyan war, France backed the Emirati-sponsored forces of General Khalifa Haftar and Italy aligned with Turkey by supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA). Similarly, by providing strong political and military support for Cyprus and Greece in their dispute with Turkey over maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean, the UAE has inflamed an already volatile situation and leveraged the enmity between Paris and Ankara – making it nearly impossible for the EU to develop a common policy on Turkey’s assertive posturing. These conflict dynamics have also affected NATO: Turkey’s veto has prevented the organisation from engaging in closer cooperation with the UAE and, therefore, strengthening its role in the Gulf.As the two countries fed the Libyan war, France backed the Emirati-sponsored forces of General Khalifa Haftar and Italy aligned with Turkey by supporting the Government of National Accord (GNA). Similarly, by providing strong political and military support for Cyprus and Greece in their dispute with Turkey over maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean, the UAE has inflamed an already volatile situation and leveraged the enmity between Paris and Ankara – making it nearly impossible for the EU to develop a common policy on Turkey’s assertive posturing. These conflict dynamics have also affected NATO: Turkey’s veto has prevented the organisation from engaging in closer cooperation with the UAE and, therefore, strengthening its role in the Gulf.
By 2011, AKP elites had begun to express neo-Ottoman sentiments and wanted Turkey to play a bigger role on the world stage. They regarded then-foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s doctrine of “zero problems with neighbours” and his desire to expand Turkey’s soft power across the Middle East as the best instruments to help Turkey become a geopolitical powerhouse.
In this context, the UAE made the strategic assessment that the regional order was being redrawn, that the United States and Europe were reluctant to take the lead, and that, as UAE-based analyst Mohammed Baharoon puts it, “the unipolar world order was going to be substituted by a network world order, in which regional players could become catalysts”. (This concept refers to a geopolitical order in which great powers rely on and support regional allies to gain access to, and influence on, political and economic networks.)
Moreover, Ankara could join forces with a wealthy partner in Qatar – which, unlike other Gulf monarchies, saw Islamist movements as a vehicle to reinforce its influence in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and beyond. The Emiratis feared that Ankara and Doha would position themselves at the heart of a region-wide Islamist network, and the UAE would be cornered.
The real fallout between Ankara and Abu Dhabi began in 2013, when the Egyptian military deposed Morsi in a coup backed by the Gulf monarchies and led by General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi. Erdogan and other AKP leaders were outraged by the removal of a friendly government; they often expressed their bitterness publicly.
This prompted the UAE to lead Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Egypt into a coordinated political and economic embargo on Qatar in June 2017, with the aim of limiting Doha’s ability to finance Islamist policies and Turkish adventurism in the region. The result was that Qatar redirected some of its vast financial resources towards dealing with domestic issues – between 2017 and 2018, at least. But, ultimately, the growing threat from its neighbours pushed Qatar much closer to Turkey and turned their diplomatic alliance into a military partnership.
Since 2018, the UAE has invested time and resources in cultivating ties with Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somaliland to reduce Turkish influence or confront Turkish-backed leaders there, such as Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed. The UAE brought Sudan under its influence unchecked by taking advantage of the revolution of 2018 and 2019 that deposed the regime of Omar al-Bashir, who was close to Turkey and Qatar. Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak, which often reflects Ankara’s views, interpreted the Sudanese coup as an effort to reduce Turkey’s political and economic influence in Sudan, and to install an administration close to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The Libyan conflict brought about the formation of a battleline on Europe’s southern border, with Turkey supporting the GNA while Egypt, the UAE, Russia, and France backed Haftar forces. The conflict bled into the eastern Mediterranean in 2020, branching out into European countries’ confrontation with Turkey over both territorial sovereignty and energy resources. Having discovered large gas fields off the coast of Israel, Cyprus, and Egypt, eastern Mediterranean actors wanted to quickly develop opportunities to access and trade these resources. In 2019 Greece, Israel, and Cyprus signed an agreement to build a pipeline linking Israel’s Leviathan and Cyprus’s Aphrodite gas fields to mainland Europe. The pipeline would run through Greece and, notably, bypass Turkey. In January 2020, Egypt spearheaded the establishment of the EastMed Gas Forum, an international organisation it led with Cyprus and Greece, before being joined by Israel, Palestine, and Italy – with the UAE becoming an observer in 2021.
Dubai Port World (DP World) is now a global leader in port management and infrastructure development. While it is a Dubai-based private company driven by commercial interests, DP World has signed deals that can become conduits for strengthening the UAE’s political ties. Indeed, DP World has often conducted operations that overlap with Emirati foreign policy. The multinational now has privileged access to coastal facilities in southern Yemen, Eritrea, Somalila, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Cyprus, and elsewhere. In many of these locations, the UAE has explicitly moved in as an alternative to Turkey. In Sudan, Abu Dhabi has derailed negotiations between Ankara and Khartoum to develop and operate the port on Suakin Island, on the Red Sea.

The UAE may strengthen DP World’s posture in the eastern Mediterranean beyond the Cypriot terminal of Limassol by obtaining privileged access to more local coastal assets. This would allow Abu Dhabi to establish a ‘string of pearls’ running from Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port to the heart of Europe, bypassing Turkey.
Nonetheless, Turkey and Italy agreed in 2019 to form a transport network that “slices across the center of the Mediterranean, creating an arc of commercial connectivity from the Maghreb to the wider Black Sea”, as political scientists Dimitar Bechev and Michaël Tanchum put it. This has brought Turkey and Italy closer in the Libyan conflict, and – following a sizeable Turkish investment in the port of Taranto, on the southern tip of Italy – could lead to the creation of a major Turkey-Italy-Africa trade corridor and a new gateway to Europe.
French President Emmanuel Macron, in particular, has accepted the UAE’s version of the schism within the Muslim world, positioning Turkey as a force that promotes anti-secular views and organisations inside Europe. France has developed closer political and diplomatic relations with the UAE – often to the detriment of those with Turkey. France also adopted a position similar to the UAE in Libya and the eastern Mediterranean. In 2020 Erdogan and Macron engaged in several diplomatic spats, which escalated into a naval stand-off between Turkish and French naval ships in the Mediterranean.
But, as yet, there has been no real prospect of reconciliation between Turkey and the UAE. Saudi Arabia’s decision to seek a detente with both Qatar and Turkey has not been received well in Abu Dhabi, which remains sceptical of Ankara’s geopolitical ambitions and the Turkish president personally.[8] Abu Dhabi acknowledges that the detente is Riyadh’s way to end its international isolation and to seek Biden’s approval, as he has been critical of Saudi Arabia and the conduct of US-Saudi relations under Trump. The Emiratis worry that Ankara and Doha will work hard to turn this detente into a warmer geopolitical dialogue, which they firmly oppose – particularly in relation to, for example, Qatari-Turkish support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen, where the Saudi and Emirati strategies are not fully aligned.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 45740.html

Israel getting pounded by rockets from Palestine
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by ernest »

https://twitter.com/DrRonMalka/status/1 ... 34626?s=20

An Indian citizen was killed by terrorist Palestinian rocket attack , while loads of Indian folks that call themselves liberal are cheering for the terrorists
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-57074460

typical BBC outlook: Israel at fault
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

https://twitter.com/danielocarmon/statu ... 53155?s=20
dramatic footage of Iron dome intercepting rockets however some of them do land and explode
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Zynda »

^^It seems the current tactic is to overwhelm the Iron Dome system...apparently, all ID batteries are activated at max capacity. Scary videos on Twitter of rocket shells landing hundred of meters away from civilians on streets and going up in flames. IDF will respond in kind...
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

IDF has already responded, they have pounded the living daylights out of Hamas and has sent over 26 to meet their 72.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

in city of Lod Israel
Arabs & Jews are fighting it out on streets. Border forces being moved from Gaza to Lod.
Arabs are 21% in Israel, add wokes and liberals in Israeli society (like Gal Gadot), it is only matter of time Israel will also follow fate of other secular democratic nations!
This while UAE, Saudi dislike Palestinians, are building bridges with Israel. Hence Palestine championing left to Qatar Iran .
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Tel Aviv has just been hit. It looks like Iran has been providing plenty of technical support to Hamas in improving the range of the rockets. It looks like things will escalate from here and it only a matter of time before Hezbollah starts firing the rockets into Israel. 1 out of the 3 Israeli deaths is reported to be an Indian citizen.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Sachin »

Ambar wrote:1 out of the 3 Israeli deaths is reported to be an Indian citizen.
And that Indian citizen is a lady from Kerala, Soumya Santhosh. She was speaking to her husband when the missile attack happened. The sad part is that even offering condolences in her death became a controversy as politicians also have to keep in mind 'secularism' (i.e Muslim community as vote bank, and their support to Palestine).
Zynda wrote:It seems the current tactic is to overwhelm the Iron Dome system.
Ambar wrote:Tel Aviv has just been hit. It looks like Iran has been providing plenty of technical support to Hamas in improving the range of the rockets.
What caught my attention was the relative success of the Jehadi rockets. For quite some time, Israel clearly had the upper hand and things were firmly under control. But this time the Jehadis seems to have improvised their weapons and also seems to have them in large quantities. Do not know if this attack caught Israelis by surprise as well.
IndraD wrote:typical BBC outlook: Israel at fault
Indian main stream media is not much different either.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Aditya_V »

I looked at the videos, these are not garage rockets, but clearly MLRS ones like BM-21, surely the Israelis could have intercepted these from getting into Gaza, I suspect they want to achieve a few things

1) That the Palestinians are not completely harmless, keep reminding their population and not make them fully complement.
2) Use this opportunity to develop Iron Dome, Arrow and layered defence- given their geographical limitations, the Israeli's need systems which can work a 1st strike in case Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Saudi- all pretty close to launch MLRS. This is the best way to test these defenses.
3) It also demonstrates to Arab leaders that Israel has a working defence system and pre emptive strike may not work.
4) They can slowly expand further into West Bank achieve their long term objectives.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

No ways did Israel intentionally allow deadly MLRS (although i dont think they are launched by a MLRS) just to prove to the world that the Palestinians are the aggressors, those who know peacefuls know that already and for the bleeding heart kaffiyeh wearing liberals no amount of proof is sufficient, for them Israel was, is and will always be the fascist,leatherboots nazis oppressing the poor Palestine. It is hard to intercept everything all the time because much of the smuggling into Gaza takes place through Egypt, besides, once technology has been transferred they can locally produce the rockets too.

The recent uprising in Jerusalem has Qatar/Iran signature all over it. There is a election in west bank where Hamas is increasingly getting popular especially among young men, they see PA as soft,corrupt old men who are happy to do lip service while buying multi-million dollar properties in UK or UAE, whereas Hamas is seen as the doers .

Whatever it is with 200 rockets now hitting a city as far as Tel Aviv there is no doubt that things will get ugly. I do not understand IDF strategy of giving hours long warning to Gazans about a target destruction and then striking an empty building, what does it achieve other than loss of property ? If these are indeed launch pads and offices of Al-Qassam brigades then you are giving the enemy plenty of time to vacate before striking empty brick and mortar .
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by chetak »

Image
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Zynda »

LOL now Gal Gadot is being ripped in US for a tweet where she mentions Palestinians as "neighbours" rather than naming them. I think considering her surroundings (liberal Hollywood), I think her stance on Israel has softened over the years. To me the Tweet itself comes across as a moderate patriot. In the past, her movies have not done well, especially in ME due to the politics. Since she has plans on continuing her career in Hollywood, I am sure her PR team would have advised her to put out moderate tweets.

Here is what her Tweet says:
“My heart breaks. My country is at war,” Gadot posted in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday. “I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days.”
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Lisa »

So very strange, the pukis send over terrorists (PA in civilian clothing) on a daily basis to kill Indians, fire artillery at our solders regularly and not one of these SOB has a single tweet condemning the pukis in their timelines. Very, very strange.

P.S. 250,000+ dead in Yemen, please do not mention them because a non believer is not involved.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Does Chicago have a huge shantidoot population ? The images of Israeli flag burning and thousands of keffiyeh wearing masses occupying the city's streets looks straight out of Paris or London or Mumbai.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by vimal »

^^ Yes, a massive presence. Its one of the few places where loudspeakers blare to call the shantidoots.
Rudradev
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Rudradev »

Chicago was where David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana planned and organised 26/11. It was also where a jury found Rana guilty of conspiring in the aborted attack against Jyllands Posten in Denmark-- but NOT guilty for his role in the ACTUAL attack of 26/11.

And 26/11 was 13 years ago. Just imagine what Chicago must be now, with "woke" HINO representatives like Ameya Pawar bashing the 2018 World Hindu Congress as "fascist" just so that he could get CAIR/ICNA electoral support and bank on peaceful votes.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Image

I wonder what goes on inside the heads of politicians and bureaucrats. The smart thing to do is to learn from Europe's mistakes, EU is at a point of no return now with rapidly falling native population and rapidly increasing shantidoot population, in 20 to 30 yrs time they'll lose large parts of Europe to shariah. If this is how Chicago looks like today, i wonder what it will look like in another few decades. How do they get in ? In EU they either overstay the visas with no consequences thanks to lax immigration enforcement or just hop on trucks and boats from Turkey and Libya and crossover.

I am also keen to see what Canada will look like in the coming years. The massive increase in immigration after Justin Trudeau tookover got to bite them back at sometime. How they have gotten away so far without any major incidents is beyond me. I feel Canada is where UK was in the 1990s.

Back to current situation it looks like Israel is preparing for a limited ground invasion. I hope they have taken into account that Iran and Hezbollah have created all sorts of traps, if 2006 conflict and IDF casualties was bad this time it will be even worse. A very worrying image was that of a "suicide drone" which Hamas used on a IDF vehicle yesterday killing a 22 yr old infantry soldier. The Iranians have been using these "use it and lose it" drones with great success against KSA/UAE in Yemen, and they must be eager to see what success they can extract by using the same strategy against Israel.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by sanjaykumar »

In Canada, Sikh immigration seems to be the problem not Muslim.

There was a killing near Vancouver airport recently. Several gang killings in a 10 day period in British Columbia.

A massive drug bust in the Toronto area. Again unfair to single out Muslims. It was a Sikh affair.

There is a massive abuse of the immigration system that is politically inexpedient to publicise.

One needs to get one’s own house in order.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by vinod »

Don't Israel have weapon locating radars like swati to smash the rocket origin location!? Are the rockeys being deployed from heavily populated buildings or streets?
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Rudradev »

uddu
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by uddu »

^^^This is not actually correct. The so called liberals are neutral in their stance, especially the toolkit gang. The only one''s who are vocal are the Jihadist elements who are always pro Jihad. The U.S government is highly religious in nature. Their major link to the middle east is Jerusalem . As long as Jerusalem is under the Jews, they will get all support to keep it that way. Be it the Toolkit gangs or even direct involment in support of Israel to help them hold onto Jerusalem. The moment Jerusalem is not under Jewish control, crusaders will arrive and Jews and Arabs will be treated like during Nazi times. The Christian West will always have a religious view of the world and all their actions have religious connotations. Dharmics usally don't realize this and go with the "Sarva Dharma Sambhav" way of thinking, planning and behaving.

Also the support that the U.S administration giving to Muslims is not a kind of support based on ethics. Its because the Muslims can easily be manipulated and driven to achieve West's objectives. In Short the objective of the Christian west to be dominant by manipulating Muslims, utilizing BLM to control black population, further narratives that eventually benefit them while keeping the black people enslaved and even within India the so called liberals, fundamentalist Jihadist elements to create riots and weaken the Indian nation. These things were going on for so long and people has not realized that the Hindu-Muslim issues, the infighting is all controlled on a larger basis from the West through their puppets brought out for money and share of power.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

The current violence in Israel is tragic but also very interesting. Apart from the usual barrage of rockets we are also seeing Israeli-arabs riot, burn and loot jewish neighborhoods , cities like Lod are seeing violence like never before. Also what makes this round of violence different from the past are shantidoots trying to cross the border from Jordan and Lebanon in support of their brethren in Gaza ! This is why demographics is so important. What happens someday when hundreds of thousands decide to rush the border from all sides ?
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by kumarn »

Will look like zombie apocalypse
sanjaykumar
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by sanjaykumar »

It’s no big deal. Only a family misunderstanding amongst the ahle kitab.

The trees are not calling out yet.
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