West Asia News and Discussions (YEMEN, gulf)

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 07 Feb 2015 04:11

Yes. However Jordan provided extra F104s to provided air support to fizzleya in 1965 also.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 07 Feb 2015 06:25

Lokesh,

Your information is incomplete. The pilot was dead in January, more or less right away. Check the social media traces.

Re. Jordan, there is this, and then there is this:

71 war wrote: The PAF played a more limited part in the operations, and were reinforced by F-104s from Jordan, Mirages from an unidentified Middle Eastern ally (remains unknown) and by F-86s from Saudi Arabia. Their arrival helped camouflage the extent of Pakistan's losses. Libyan F-5s were reportedly deployed to Sargodha, perhaps as a potential training unit to prepare Pakistani pilots for an influx of more F-5s from Saudi Arabia.

Just why should jordan be praised at these levels? Might as well find "benovelent aunts" in pakistan then.

Re. the american hostage, isnt it convenient for her to die in air strikes? We choose to believe that from IS after the la-affair-japanese? That hostage was probably bumped off long ago as well, and not in a way that a video could be shown.

Why not propose the lady for your female mujahid, when you had killed the pilot? There was an opportunity, jordan would have been under pressure to save the american too.

This is a fight between saudi/british jeehardis and saudi/british/us kings and cohorts. Who gives two hoots about the ordinary lot?

Paul · Post by **Paul** » 07 Feb 2015 07:14

ramana wrote:Lal Mullah, Kissinger mamu brokered the 1971 transfer of F104. Who brokered the 1965 transfer! King Hussein himself.
And as for the warmth it could be because the current King's aunt is an Indian Muslim a very gracious lady who do a lot of development work.

Princess Sarwat, VP Hidayatullah's niece married to Prince Hassan. Incidentally that was one of the reasons he was passed over for the king title

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 07 Feb 2015 08:44

Meanwhile, Presidential Elections in Yemen

So now BO has to intervene on the side of ISIS and KSA and Israel, against the Shiite (makes them Pro-Eyeranian) regime in Yemen? Wonder if they would send either Muddlin' Halfbright or Christianne Amanpour as US Ambassador to Reconstructed Yemen?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 07 Feb 2015 13:04

houthi rebels have dissolved parliament and taken over.
being shia, they will be having support of the suppressed shias in saudi eastern provinces.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 07 Feb 2015 13:20

Saudis are a side show. Now Bahrain, that can set the cat among the pigeons. And by this, I mean the next revolution. Yemen itself doesnt really need any saudi support.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 07 Feb 2015 18:33

seems to me that ISIS was set up to counter the shia-fication of iraq and therefore to resist the iranian domination issue. therefore their most likely backers are the saudis and qataris - very much like the good talibs and bad tallies from the tactically brilliant handbook for herrows. now that ISIS possibly has a psychotic mind of its own and wants to destroy the soft regimes of the decadent gulf... its all gone a bit pear shaped. jordan is very vulnerable here, they could be tipped over the edge into becoming a new member of the caliphate... (after the usual heads on spikes routines are done)

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 07 Feb 2015 18:59

Lalmohanji: How do u c the current events in the context of those Great Revolutionaries? I mean the KendoStix Sistahs (r.i.p.) of the Lal Masjid? I feel that understanding that is key to understanding the ISIS

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 07 Feb 2015 20:55

yakmeister: there is an unbroken creed from the days of old about the pious and the kaffir. nothing changes - same as it ever was

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 08 Feb 2015 06:41

Lal Mullah, You are right ISIS wants Jordan. However initially they were formed to take down Assad. And when he resisted he ISIS wave reflected into Sunni areas of Iraq and benefited from looting Iraqi weapons and money. Recall the Iraqi army was US equipped and trained.

Now ISIS is grazing in Sunni lands. Taking Jordan will be like their Medina. And Jordan now gets it. But KSA and US dont.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 08 Feb 2015 07:03

But who ARE the ISIS? They definitely cannot exist without tacit go-ahead from KSA. So far no fatwas from KSA against them, are there?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 08 Feb 2015 07:10

Do you recall the Sunni terrorists in Al Anbar province?

Its being called the new Sunni revolution. Sort of after the Khomeini Shia revolution.

Essentially the former was a reaction to excess of Shah with US support.

Now same story repeated.

jus like old man Mo and his band had to fight two major battles and became ruler of Middle East same with these dregs.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 08 Feb 2015 07:43

The Brits created two modern state models for political Islam in Middle East.

Old time Arab sultans were out and new type Kings were in. KSA.

The Gulf sheikdoms were postage stamp outposts and still retained Sheiks.

The others got republic state structures with Presidents, bicameral legislature etc. Pakistan etc.
Egypt, Iraq had Kings whom got overthrown in military coups.

Jordan's time is coming.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 08 Feb 2015 20:52

Hundreds of rabbis from around the world call on Israel to halt demolition of Palestinian homes
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 031166.htm
Rabbis for Human Rights has submitted an open letter to Benjamin Netanyahu

More than 400 rabbis from Israel, Britain and around the world have called on Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes.

Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) has submitted an open letter to the Israeli Prime Minister claiming his stance is not in line with “international law and Jewish tradition”.

It came after Mr Netanyahu announced the destruction of more than 400 Palestinian homes in the Israel-controlled part of the West Bank known as Area C.

The pre-fabricated bungalows were funded by the European Union, the Daily Mail reported, but did not have building permits and are being demolished as illegal structures.

“Thousands have been forced to build without permits, and great human suffering is caused when hundreds of homes are demolished each year,” the letter said.

READ MORE:
• UN committee head investigating alleged war crimes resigns
• Israeli plans for new settlement homes will 'inflame tensions'
• Comment: The open loathing between Obama and Netanyahu just got worse

“The State of Israel has an obligation to ensure that every human being under her control, each created in God’s Image, has a fair chance to build a home for him/herself and his/her family, irrespective of the current state of the peace process or differing opinions about what areas will be under Israel’s control in a future final status agreement.”

A United Nations envoy for the Occupied Palestinian Territories raised opposition to house demolitions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem last month.

“In the past three days, 77 Palestinians, over half of them children, have been made homeless,” said James Rawley, the UN’s Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator.

“Some of the demolished structures were provided by the international community to support vulnerable families.

“Demolitions that result in forced evictions and displacement run counter to Israel’s obligations under international law and create unnecessary suffering and tension. They must stop immediately.”

From 20 to 23 January, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded the Israeli authorities’ demolition of 42 Palestinian-owned structures in the Ramallah, Jerusalem, Jericho and Hebron governorates.

The planning policies applied by Israel in Area C discriminate against Palestinians, making it extremely difficult for them to obtain building permits, office said.

In 2014, OCHA recorded 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and East Jerusalem destroyed by Israeli authorities, displacing 1,177 people. It was the highest number since the agency started monitoring displacement in 2008.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 08 Feb 2015 21:14

What is Rabbis for Human Rights?
Who are hey and where do they live?
Looks like a US gov pressure group.

The problem is US changes policy every four or eight years. The world is on longer spans. And suddenly the next President finds the balloon went up and needs to change. A new pressure group gets created and drama goes on.

And when Hamas terrorists attack these nameless open lettter RHR will be no where to be seen or heard.

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 08 Feb 2015 21:28

Haha, much like ones in India who maintain silence, and keep at it, about ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits. Holocaust of Jews and ethnic cleansing of Jews from "religious" arab lands (post 1971 six day war) must have created kind of "capture-bonding" phenomena wherein those who face violence are made to feel empathy for barbarians.
From wiki

Mobs attacked Jewish neighborhoods in Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Tunisia, and Morocco, burning synagogues and assaulting residents. A pogrom in Tripoli, Libya, left 18 Jews dead and 25 injured; the survivors were herded into detention centers. Of Egypt's 4,000 Jews, 800 were arrested, including the chief rabbis of both Cairo and Alexandria, and their property sequestered by the government. The ancient communities of Damascus and Baghdad were placed under house arrest, their leaders imprisoned and fined. A total of 7,000 Jews were expelled, many with merely a satchel.[170]
..
a series of antisemitic purges began in Communist countries.[171][172] Some 11,200 Jews from Poland immigrated to Israel during the 1968 Polish political crisis and the following year

The capture-bonding (also called Stockholm syndrome) is misused to cover violence and suddenly mobs and barbarians are made to look civilized.

RSoami · Post by **RSoami** » 09 Feb 2015 00:54

http://rt.com/news/230287-gulf-states-yemen-coup/

Gulf States accuse Yemen Houthis of staging coup

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 09 Feb 2015 02:25

i am guessing that the core ISIS was meant to resist the shia dominated iraqi government and stop them getting closer to tehran. assad as an alawite was the next obvious target. removing him is on the KSA agenda, especially because he is friendly with tehran. hence the US got sucked into the game, i would say at riyadh's behest, but eagerly enough by themselves. i get the feeling that al-baghdadi has done a bhindranwale on the old sheikh and right now, whilst jordan is doing what it needs to do, riyadh and doha haven't yet figured out that bluestar is going to be needed. when the time comes, they won't have the go-go's to take them on, like the UAE has already dropped its pants and run. half of riyadh is ISIS anyway, and the other half want their own ubersunni model to prevail but funded by the west (complete with summers in western capitals with fine wines and goris)

iran is being very quiet, but apparently their special forces have been active in the kurdish areas and they have lost atleast one senior officer to an ISIS sniper. they are probably biding their time and watching turkey, and besides there are talks under way with the great satan... so its a complex dance.

seems increasingly likely that kurdistan of some sort is soon going to be a reality. i also think that assad has survived and depending on how the talks between unkil and ayatollahs go, some sort of ceasefire is going to be arrived at. the part time ISIS hoodlums will go home and the hardcore will be slaughtered.

most of their 'international brigade' will meet their 72's and some will go back to their homes and do charlie hebdo attacks for the next 5-10 years

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 09 Feb 2015 03:56

So v r getting close to the truth. Let us list the points.
1. ISIS was set up to prevent Eyerak govt (read democratically elected, since Eyerak is majority shia) from 'getting too close to Teheran'.
2. Eyerak 'police' and 'military' were being trained to take over security of Iraq. By 'NATO'
4. Eyerak was being supplied with modern weaponry and ammo by .. 'NATO'.
5. There was a ban on supplying Syrian anti-Assad gangs with lethal weapons.
6. Someone needed a heavily-armed, well-trained mercenary force to take on the Syrian Army.
7. When ISIS first 'came out' they were riding US-supplied HumVees, APCs, tanks, and carrying US rifles and mijjiles, and were perfectly competent in using them.
8. When ISIS first 'came out' they knew exactly how to attack the Iraqi army, as if they had received the same training...
9. It seems incredibly difficult to trace the funding that goes to these sh1ts, despite all the post-911 investment in tracing money through international channels.

R U saying that there was no 'deliberate' connection between the above 6 items? The no one could foresee that chain of events?

Bridges 4 Sale in Ulan Bator! One Owner! Lo -lo Miles! Like New! Must sell- going cheap - CAN'T LAST!!

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 09 Feb 2015 04:31

Never mind the bridges, get in on this fire sale.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 09 Feb 2015 04:35

Lalmohan wrote:i am guessing that the core ISIS was meant to resist the shia dominated iraqi government and stop them getting closer to tehran. assad as an alawite was the next obvious target. removing him is on the KSA agenda, especially because he is friendly with tehran. hence the US got sucked into the game, i would say at riyadh's behest, but eagerly enough by themselves. i get the feeling that al-baghdadi has done a bhindranwale on the old sheikh and right now, whilst jordan is doing what it needs to do, riyadh and doha haven't yet figured out that bluestar is going to be needed. when the time comes, they won't have the go-go's to take them on, like the UAE has already dropped its pants and run. half of riyadh is ISIS anyway, and the other half want their own ubersunni model to prevail but funded by the west (complete with summers in western capitals with fine wines and goris)

iran is being very quiet, but apparently their special forces have been active in the kurdish areas and they have lost atleast one senior officer to an ISIS sniper. they are probably biding their time and watching turkey, and besides there are talks under way with the great satan... so its a complex dance.

seems increasingly likely that kurdistan of some sort is soon going to be a reality. i also think that assad has survived and depending on how the talks between unkil and ayatollahs go, some sort of ceasefire is going to be arrived at. the part time ISIS hoodlums will go home and the hardcore will be slaughtered.

most of their 'international brigade' will meet their 72's and some will go back to their homes and do charlie hebdo attacks for the next 5-10 years

There is 2000 strong contingent from poodlistan alone. The ISIS isnt going anywhere without boots on the ground. By the time this hapoens they will have razed, burnt, pillaged any civilzation in syria/iraq. Nothing but a scorched earth will cleanse the place now.

Yes, those coming back are being "de-radicalized" carefully. But they will still break out in natural form every now and then. Thats acceptable as propaganda, and to push new laws.

vijaykarthik · Post by **vijaykarthik** » 10 Feb 2015 07:11

I think I saw a post on people expecting oil to zoom to 100/200 by 2015 yr end. Seems unlikely. All reports that I have seen so far have been pointing to 50-55-58-60. 60 being higher end. Oil can possibly rise up.

however these need to happen for that to occur:

a. Uk-Russia fight has to reduce or possible even recede.
b. Shale producers have to produce much lower
c. No n-deal between Iran and US
d. China needs to show stronger growth
e. If China can't, India should [and not the magic 7% growth that came because of a calc with new series and market prices GDP statistics that was shown yesterday. Real growth comes slower. Much slower]

EU i in doldrums. Brazil might get into a recession. Russia is down on its knees already. ME is in a mess. India is playing hot and cold. Seems really difficult for oil to reach even 75 from here.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 10 Feb 2015 19:45

The Pharaoh and the Czar strike a common chord! How the wheel is turning...esp. for the US in the region.O'Bomber's desperate attempt to isolate Russia and Putin is backfiring in many places and if Egypt embraces Russia,be sure for more states in the region to follow.

A meeting of minds in Cairo: Billion-dollar arms deal on table as Putin and Abdel Fattah al-Sisi seek closer trade links and alliance against 'terror'
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 34972.html

Vladimir Putin will have much to talk about with his Egyptian counterpart, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and will recognise a kindred spirit in an autocratic nationalist ruler buffeted by Western criticism, writes
Robert Fisk.
Monday 09 February 2015

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 34972.html

Vladimir Putin arrived in Egypt last night for talks with his Egyptian opposite number on new roubles-only trade deals, the sale of billions of dollars’ worth of guns and tanks, and quite probably a new “anti-terrorist” alliance of the kind Russia already boasts in Syria.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi personally escorted Mr Putin from Cairo airport to an Egyptian Opera House performance of extracts from Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Verdi’s Aida, a combination of Tsarist bourgeois fantasy and ancient Egyptian myth that might reflect the characters of both men.

Egyptians walk past posters celebrating the arrival in Cairo yesterday of Vladimir Putin for a two-day official visit Egyptians walk past posters celebrating the arrival in Cairo yesterday of Vladimir Putin for a two-day official visit

Their first meeting on Tuesday will be partly ceremonial but will by all accounts go well, for the Russian president has exhibited a dark contempt for all things “Islamist” and finds common cause in ex-Field Marshal, President and national “Saviour” al-Sisi.

After crushing Muslim fighters in Chechnya, Mr Putin supports Bashar al-Assad’s ferocious war against the "Islamic State" in Syria and will be more than happy to put his arm around the chubby Egyptian whose courts have been sentencing Muslim Brotherhood members to the scaffold by the hundred. Mr Sisi has met Mr Putin before, in Moscow, and a Russian leader known for his cynicism can only enjoy meeting a military autocrat who was elected president after staging a successful coup d’etat against a previously elected president. Even the old Soviet Union could never quite achieve this.

Not that the age of “fraternal relations” felt that far away in Cairo. Al-Ahram, the Egyptian government’s most obedient newspaper, ran a full-page encomium on the Russian president at the weekend – “Putin, hero of this era”, ran the grovelling headline – which might have welcomed Khruschev when he visited in 1964. In true politburo fashion, the Sisi government swamped central Cairo streets with posters of their Russian guest, each carrying “Welcome” in Arabic, Russian and English. But the world should not imagine Egyptians to be as lickspittle as the posters or the Al-Ahram headline imply. For in Cairo, they call Mr Putin the “Tha’aleb” – “The Fox” – not just because Arab children love animal stories, but because the Russian president’s high cheek bones and narrow eyes remind them of an animal which can outwit a larger and more blundering creature of the forest.

The Russian President has received a warm welcome from an Egyptian government facing many similar problems (AFP) The Russian President has received a warm welcome from an Egyptian government facing many similar problems (AFP)

The latter’s role has been ably filled by the United States, whose flirtation with the Muslim Brotherhood before Hosni Mubarak’s fall in 2011, its sultry embrace of the Brotherhood’s president Mohamed Morsi, and its stilted expressions of condemnation after Mr Sisi’s anti-Morsi coup, have opened Egypt’s doors to Mother Russia for the first time since the late Anwar Sadat chucked Soviet military personnel out of the country in 1972. The beauty of it all is that both leaders want the same thing – to emerge with a new ally after suffering the slings and arrows of Western criticism for their bloody behaviour. The Egyptian president oversaw the shooting massacre of hundreds of Brotherhood supporters in 2013. The Russian president oversaw the bloody occupation of parts of eastern Ukraine a year later. They will have much to talk about.

President al-Sisi his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attended a concert at the Egyptian capital's Opera House on Monday night (AFP) President al-Sisi his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attended a concert at the Egyptian capital's Opera House on Monday night (AFP)

They can discuss Washington’s delayed weapons deliveries to Egypt, for example, its withholding of military aid, and the collapse of the so-called “strategic dialogue” between the US and Egypt with which Messrs Sadat and Mubarak used to preen themselves. Why, there’s even talk of Mr Putin wanting to build a nuclear power plant in Egypt, something which even Mr Mubarak regarded with a mixture of financial concern and well-founded scientific fear.

As Western sanctions on the Putin regime took effect last year, Egypt offered to increase agricultural exports to Russia by 30 per cent. Bilateral trade, Mr Putin told Al-Ahram, was now $4.5 bn per annum.

More important right now, Moscow’s estimated $3.5bn arms deal last year and a new bilateral trade agreement to be settled in roubles rather than dollars – a proposal Mr Putin made in the ever-servile Al-Ahram – provide a suitable foundation for a new “anti-terror” treaty between Russia and Egypt. Since Mr Sisi has turned his back on the Brotherhood’s Hamas allies in Gaza, Israel will have no complaints. And since Mr Putin has demonstrated he has no qualms about the brutalities committed by his Syrian ally, a few thousand broken bodies in the Egyptian Islamist camp are not going to keep “the fox” awake at night.

Mr Sisi will remember that Bashar al-Assad himself sent a congratulatory telegram to him when he crushed the Brotherhood, and Mr Putin will be content if he can bring Egypt into a triple Cairo-Damascus-Moscow alliance against “terror”; given the flurry of self-congratulatory but largely undeserved praise which the US is heaping on itself for bombing Isis, the Russian leader might well appear a more dependable partner in the war against “terror” than Washington.

Russia and America have always suffered an addiction to obedient military rulers; and Mr Putin, who only retired from the KGB with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel – against Mr Sisi’s Field Marshal status – understands all too well how a “deep state” works. Patriotism, nationalism and corruption are a potent blood group for autocratic survival in the Arab world.

As if the US/WEst supports true blue-blooded democracires in the region like the Saudis,Qataris,Sheikdoms of the Gulf,et al.!

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 10 Feb 2015 21:01

Unleaded regular has gone from 1.95 2 weeks ago to 2.19 per gallon this morning.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 11 Feb 2015 06:17

Philip, Times of Israel has an article "Why don't the British Like Israel?" by Alexander Joffe. It has interesting new info about Perfidous Albion, loss of Empire, covert wars fanned in Middle East.
will post if someone already hasn't posted it.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 11 Feb 2015 09:30

UlanBatori wrote:Unleaded regular has gone from 1.95 2 weeks ago to 2.19 per gallon this morning.

A $1 expectation, like the $3 expectation this year is unrealistic. It is a particularly brutal winter. Some comeback was inevitable. The supply will remain a glut. Will that ensure a perpetual low price, I hardly think so.

Prices will remain in the 2s this year simply due to Russia. But the shale folks will force 3s in the coming years.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 11 Feb 2015 10:23

ramana wrote:Philip, Times of Israel has an article "Why don't the British Like Israel?" by Alexander Joffe. It has interesting new info about Perfidous Albion, loss of Empire, covert wars fanned in Middle East.
will post if someone already hasn't posted it.

Why Don't the British Like Israel?

by Alexander H. Joffe
The Times of Israel
February 5, 2015

http://www.meforum.org/5018/why-dont-th ... ike-israel S

A recent poll shows that Britons regard Israel less favorably than any other country besides North Korea. The results came as a shock to Israelis and supporters of Israel, but they shouldn't have. After all, British supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement are widespread, blood libels about the Palestinian 'genocide' and Israeli organ harvesting are heard from members of the peerage, and Israel remains one of the few countries the British royal family hasn't visited.

True, Jews are deeply integrated into British society and have felt secure for decades. But incidents of antisemitic violence have been escalating and even notables like the Jewish director of television of the BBC have expressed fear about the future of Jews in the country. Antisemitism, interwoven and often indistinguishable from anti-Zionism, has reemerged full force. New statistics on antisemitic incidents prove that the British climate is changing for the worse.

Why the animosity against Israel, which extends from the political left to the right, and across all social classes? Four sources may be suggested, each with roots in the 20th century.

The British Establishment arguably never recovered from the loss of the Empire.

First, the British Establishment, comprised of elite schools and universities, government and idea setting industries like the media, arguably never recovered from the loss of the Empire. This should not be understood as a lament for the Empire so much as the manner in which it was lost, and for what the upper classes have come to believe should have been the outcome.

Britain won World War II but quickly lost the peace. Bankrupt, Britain was only preserved by an enormous loan in 1946 from the United States. Britain's most important colony, India, became independent in 1947 and promptly split with Pakistan at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives and tens of millions of refugees. But it was Palestine, which at its peak was garrisoned by 100,000 British soldiers unable to keep the peace, which rankled most.

Losing the empire was bad enough, but losing Palestine to the Jews was a unique humiliation. Zionist anti-British violence, above all the destruction of the King David Hotel, resonated strongly for decades. It is also only now being understood that the British establishment had fought a covert war for decades against France in Syria and Lebanon, and had encouraged Arab states to invade the infant State of Israel. This strategy also backfired, helping usher in revolutionary regimes that overthrew British allies and reducing British influence still further. These multiple failures embittered the British Establishment for decades.

The British media focuses relentlessly on alleged Israeli wrongdoing.

More recently, however, a wave of politically correct guilt has swept over the British Establishment. In this revisionist view the British Empire, unlike any other empire over the preceding 5000 years, was a singular source of evil in the world, and the impact in Palestine, uniquely so.

In this view, Britain's contradictory promises to Arabs and Jews, alleged favoritism towards Zionism and repression of local Arabs, and the British role in maintaining an international system that has permitted Israel to exist, are deep wrongs, yet to be righted. Little wonder that the BBC and British media focus relentlessly on Israeli wrongdoing, real and imagined, while glossing over those of its neighbors. In contrast, the British attitude toward Palestinians is marked by expressions of guilt and patronizing behavior.

The labor movement has become one of the centers of virulent anti-Israel bias in Britain.

A second reason for current British attitudes is the gradual conversion of the British labor movement to the Palestinian cause. Until the 1960s the British labor movement saw Israel as a fellow socialist state with anti-imperialist leanings. But in the wake of the 1967 and 1982 wars Israeli success (and alignment with the United States) became increasingly unpalatable to a labor movement that could only see Jews as underdogs or victims. Coupled with an orientation towards the Soviet worldview, implacably anti-Israel and pro-Arab, that grew from the 1960s onward, the labor movement has become one of the centers of virulent anti-Israel bias in Britain.

The dramatic changes in British Christianity must be counted as a third cause. Jews like to point to British Christian Zionism, but in truth this was a spent force even before the Balfour Declaration in 1917. Indeed, Anglicanism is deeply supersessionist and regards Judaism as retrograde, a community forsaken by God.

Though the Anglican Church has been in steep decline in recent decades, it has been reinvigorated in part by Palestinian Christians who have reinvented traditional Christian antisemitism, converting Israelis into Romans and themselves into the new Jews. The impact of this old/new Anglican theology is seen in the degree to which the church, like the labor movement, leads the BDS movement in Britain.

Finally, there is the role of Muslims in the United Kingdom. Until the early 21st century Muslims were a small minority. Now, in part thanks to the Labour Party's covert strategy of encouraging immigration under Tony Blair, including from backwards places like Pakistan, precisely to change the demographic and electoral composition of Britain, Muslims number around 5% of the total population. Muslims in Britain are at the forefront of antisemitic agitation in Britain and maintain a dizzying network of organizations to support BDS and the Palestinian and Islamist causes.

There are few reasons to think that Israel's position will become more favorable with Britons or other Europeans in the future. Ever increasing Muslim populations alone appear to ensure that political establishments will adopt voter-friendly anti-Israeli rhetoric and policies. And while local anti-Muslim sentiment is at an all-time high, the Establishment remains intent on repressing this officially through speech and thought codes, and unofficially, by denying such voices media access and legitimacy. The media in particular remains intent on making Israel the villain, regardless of the issue.

The rise of local independence movements that threaten the United Kingdom will also likely increase pro-Palestinian sentiment, since at least some of these (such as the Scottish National Party) have anti-imperialist sentiments and compete for immigrant voters. Record trade relations between Israel and Britain are one bright spot. But with BDS calls expanding in Britain there should be few expectations that trade will continue without several challenges.

Britain struggles to define itself in the 21st century – as a European or Atlantic state, as a multicultural or British society. In the end, Israel's continued belief in its own religious and national identities, and the vigor with which it defends itself, may be too much like the Britain of old for today's British to regard with much favor.

Alex Joffe is a historian and archaeologist. He is a Shillman-Ginsburg Fellow of the Middle East Forum.

One could replace Israel with India and the article would read the same sense!!!

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 11 Feb 2015 10:33

Clearly oil prices are low also because of high output from the Gulf countries. What needs to be considered additionally, going forward, is that OPEC is for all intents and purposes thoroughly undermined (if not yet dead). The implication? Keep a close eye on those who are expanding production capacity this year and next. These will take the "slack" in case the Gulf states decide they had enough of hitting prices below what they need to keep economies growing. In short, the Gulf countries are currently mainly capable of taking prices down at any time of their choosing, not taking them up at whim or diktat. Everytime price goes up to a certain point because of tightened production by Gulf states who need higher oil prices, those now under pressure to shut shop because of unprofitably low oil prices will come back on stream (small US producers, Russia and others) and bring things down. The natural consequence of this will be loss of market share for the Gulf states, gradually and perhaps irrecoverably. The only people with an in principle problem with such a turn of events will be the Gulf countries, in particular the Saudis - the Emiratis have a very small local population and they have excellent sweet crude which is bolstered by well over a trillion in sovereign reserves.

So, keep a close eye on those pushing ahead with exploration & production activity, and those trying to commercialise reserves regardless of the current low prices. They will become subject, in one way or another, to Islamist terror attacks.

This is of course excepting the case where major producing areas are taken out of the equation (but then again guess where that's going to be - and who will benefit). We are all heading into some seriously uncharted waters. We are either going to view sunlit highlands and tropical shores with golden beaches, or some grey monstrous mechanical leviathan rising out of the water.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 11 Feb 2015 12:06

Sh*t hitting the fan in Yemen.Brits pulling out,yet another instance of "beating the retreat" from Islamic hordes and "following the leader" Uncle Sam what?

What Sunni "ISISy's" (and its sponsors the Saudis and Qataris) can do the "Shiitties" can do equally well!

British embassy in Yemen evacuated and closed amid growing crisis
Foreign office urges all British nationals to leave the country immediately
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/f ... ing-crisis

The British government says it has closed its embassy in Yemen and evacuated all its diplomatic staff amid turmoil there following Shiite rebels seizing power in the Arab world’s poorest country.

In a statement Wednesday, Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood said all embassy staff in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, left early Wednesday morning.

The statement also calls for all British nationals to “leave immediately.”
The UK’s decision comes after the US Embassy there closed and America evacuated its staff.

US employees said their mission had been getting rid of documents and weapons and the evacuation had been in progress over the past few days.

The US ambassador had informed them that Washington may ask the Turkish or Algerian embassies in Sana’a to look after US interests in the country while the embassy was closed.

“The ambassador and the rest of the staff will leave by Wednesday evening,” one employee, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Employees at the French and German embassies said their missions had also been getting rid of documents and have given local staff two months’ paid leave. But there was no immediate word on the missions closing down.

The US embassy had reduced its staff after Shia Muslim rebels from the Houthi movement moved against President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last month, capturing his presidential office and confining him to his private residence.

Hadi and his government subsequently resigned.

On Sunday, the US embassy said on its website it had “suspended all consular services until further notice“, citing the security situation in Sana’a

Yemen has been in crisis for months, with Shiite Houthi rebels besieging the capital and then taking control.

If the Shiite rebels take over,they will certainly obtain-if they have not already material help from Iran,which will certainly welcome the advent of the Shiites ion control over a very strategic piece of land in the Arabian Sea/IOR astride the Red Sea just as Iran dominates the approaches to the Gulf and its oil. The recent naval flag flying by the Iranian Navy in the IOR to African and Lankan ports indicates the seriousness with which Iran attaches to keeping its sea lanes open. A friendly govt. in Yemen will allow it port facilities for the Iranian navy and enhance its ability to keep its naval forces active in a wider arc in the IOR.

symontk · Post by **symontk** » 11 Feb 2015 14:01

Jordan should not have attacked ISIS, well there was no choice for them as they only had US weapons. Now they will be ransacked literally by ISIS with ISIS troops reaching borders of Israel

abhischekcc · Post by **abhischekcc** » 11 Feb 2015 14:26

symontk wrote:Jordan should not have attacked ISIS, well there was no choice for them as they only had US weapons. Now they will be ransacked literally by ISIS with ISIS troops reaching borders of Israel

Irresistible force meeting immovable object.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 12 Feb 2015 15:41

http://www.businessinsider.in/Russia-is ... 168686.cms
Russia is getting military bases in an EU state
Elena Holodny0Feb 9, 2015,
Yuri Maltsev/Reuters

A Russian sailor watches amphibious vehicles move during a naval parade rehearsal in the far eastern port of Vladivostok, July 25, 2014.

Cyprus has offered Russia to have air and navy bases on its territory.

Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades announced that the country is ready to host Russian aviation and naval bases. The official agreement on military cooperation between the two nations is expedcted be signed on February 25, 2015, according to Lenta.ru.

"There is an old [defense] agreement, which should be renewed as is. At the same time, some additional services will be provided in the same way as we do with other countries, such as, for example, with France and Germany," Nicos Anastasiades said. "Cyprus and Russia have traditionally had good relations, and this is not subject to change."

Cyprus' announcement comes after Russia expressed interest in having a military base in Cyprus in late January, according to the Global Post and Greek Reporter.

Notably, Cyprus is one of the 28-member states in the EU, which have been imposing sanctions on Russia over the past year in response to the actions in Ukraine.

And just like Greece has recently caused a stir by complicating the process of extending sanctions on Russia, Cyprus, too, just voiced some opposition to the additional sanctions on Russia, adding that many EU members share that opinion.

"We want to avoid further deterioration of relations between Russia and the European Union," the Cypriot president reportedly said.

So military cooperation between Cyprus and Russia is yet another red flag for the EU.

Presumably, the Russian Air Force will use the airbase "Andreas Papandreou," along with the international airport of Paphos in the southwest of the island, approximately 50 kilometers from the air base of the British Royal Air Force "Akrotiri." Additionally, the Russian navy will be able to permanently use the base of Limassol, according to Lenta.Ru.

"The Limassol port borders on the British air base of Akrotiri which serves NATO operations and is also an important hub in the electronic military surveillance system of the alliance," according to the Global Post.

Given Russia and Cyprus' shady economic relationship over the last wo decades (ever since the fall of the USSR), perhaps this isn't all that surprising.

In 2013, during the Cypriot financial crisis, analysts estimated that over a third of bank deposits in Cyprus may have had Russian origin, and reportedly, many Russian companies are registered on the island. Some reports even went as far as saying that Cyprus has become "a major money laundering machine for Russian criminals" back in 2013.

Even today, Russia's current economic problems are reportedly further dragging down Cyprus.

"Russia's presence in the economy has been a huge supporting factor. Its footprint is everywhere from tourism to real estate, so it is worth monitoring the impact," said Michael Florentiades, chief economist and head of investment research at XM.com, an online financial services company in Limassol.

cyprus russia
REUTERS/Yorgos Karahalis

Two Russian businessmen smoke from hookahs inside a restaurant in Limassol, a coastal town in southern Cyprus on February 20, 2013.

Naturally, Russia's heavy-duty financial involvement in a EU state "raised concerns among the island country's Western allies" over the past few years, according to Euractiv.

But the most alarming Russia-Cyprus dalliance came during the height of the Cypriot financial crisis when Cyprus was reportedly negotiating with Russia for a bailout in 2013. The EU was particularly nervous about this because there was speculation that Russia might ask for a naval port and access to the country's gas reserves in return.

Ultimately, however, Cyprus opted for a "10 billion bailout agreed with the troika, in return for closing the country's second largest bank Laiki, and imposing a one-time levy on all uninsured deposits, including those held by foreign citizens."

Russian signs in Limassol cyprus
Reuters

On top of all of that, it's notable that Russia made some major moves in the Mediterranean recently.

In mid-January, Russia announced that it will shift all its natural gas flows to Europe via Turkey, instead of Ukraine.

"Our European partners have been informed of this and now their task is to create the necessary gas transport infrastructure from the Greek and Turkish border," the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller said in a statement.

Additionally, Russia and Greece's new government have taken initiatives to explore their military and economic relationship (for example, here, here, and here).

In fact, the new Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras even stated in early February: "Greece and Cyprus can become a bridge of peace and cooperation between the EU and Russia."

So this part of the world could soon become very interesting - and a huge pain for Europe.
[/quote]

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 12 Feb 2015 19:26

Phillip, above is nonsense. Fantasy carried by Reuters.

Russia has not requested it, and Cyprus has not offered it. Neither country will provoke anyone like this unless in extremis. Their relations are close and excellent as is.

Shreeman · Post by **Shreeman** » 13 Feb 2015 11:20

Yemen is seeing the emergence of the anti shia ISIS too. Embassies have left. A military base taken/defected to ISIS today. When is the civil war starting?

Now Yemen through Syria is not a small tract of land. Add in jordan and the lackeys lebanon, egypt will follow. Eventually it will come down between saudis and turkey if things keep deteriorating. The IS probably becomes the largest arab state after the yemen fight gets going in real earnest.

ManSingh · Post by **ManSingh** » 15 Feb 2015 00:52

Apparently all hell broke loose on the fourth anniversary of the uprising in Bahrain.

Molotov cocktails, tear gas, chemical bombs everything seems fair game.

https://www.facebook.com/D.Bahrain

A few photos and videos that describe peace on the page. Also apparently the police force( ssfc ) dealing with it seems to have a lot of pakis..

Still looks professional though not exactly first world.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 15 Feb 2015 07:33

US brigade of 4,000 soldiers headed to Kuwait - AP, Economic Times

More than 4,000 US soldiers based at Fort Carson, Colorado, are heading to Kuwait, where they will take over as one of America's largest ground forces in the region after President Barack Obama asked Congress to authorise military action against Islamic State militants.

Obama ruled out large-scale US ground combat operations similar to those in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he asked for the option to use military force against Islamic State fighters for three years.

The fight could be extended to any "closely related successor entity" to the Islamic State group that has overrun parts of Iraq and Syria, imposed an extreme form of Sharia law and killed hostages it has taken, including several Americans.

The US Army has kept a brigade in Kuwait since the end of the Iraq war in 2011. Those soldiers, including two units from Fort Carson, have worked to train local troops from throughout the Middle East.

In its most recent deployment to Kuwait, a combat team from Fort Carson conducted training missions with allies including Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, which have joined the coalition against Islamic State fighters.

The unit headed to Kuwait is Fort Carson's heaviest force, armed with tanks and Bradley Fighting Vehicles. Many of its soldiers are veterans of one or more of the brigade's previous combat tours in Iraq.

"We're no strangers to deployment," said the brigade's commander, Col Greg Sierra.

The brigade has trained more than a year for the Kuwait mission. The soldiers practiced combat skills last used in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

The brigade's training regimen readied soldiers for a range of missions from humanitarian relief to nonstop combat, Sierra said.

Sierra told soldiers and their families that if his brigade tangles with Islamic State fighters, the outcome won't be in doubt. "In the end, if we do get into fights, we win decisively," he said.

Lalmohan · Post by **Lalmohan** » 15 Feb 2015 18:55

"win decisively" against regular units for sure, but against guerrillas its not quite so simple unfortunately

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 16 Feb 2015 12:57

Britain,sliding into the abyss of irrelevance!

Ramana,the use of Muslims to further British interests in the MEast and S.Asia is a key factor in the wars and conflicts of today. T.E.Lawrence and his "Arab army" were used to boot out the Turks,but afterwards the remnants of the Oottman Empire was split up between Britain and France and trusted artificial kingdoms and sheikhdoms created beholden to Britain to control the oil. India was also thus partitioned and it was the British who urged the Pakis to invade Kashmir and prevent it from joining India,the Paki army being under British generals at that time too.

Thanks to the asinine and selfish immigration politics of the Labour/Socialist bloc in the UK/Europe,the Islamic invasion has taken place with a vengeance,with all its evils. Britain's once renowned foreign service and dipolomacy is today being ridiculed and ignored as this report indicates,especially in recent days in the UKR ceasefire deal where it was excluded totally from any involvement being seen as a yanqui poodle.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/com ... 45760.html

Is Britain giving up on foreign policy?
Denis MacShane
Friday 13 February 2015
It's taken so long for people to wake up to its marginalisation under the coalition government in Britain

Are the Generals falling out of love with their Prime Minister? General Sir Richard Shirreff has publicly criticised David Cameron’s absence from team Europe’s efforts to try and stop Ukraine sliding into unstoppable conflict. As he told the BBC: "The UK is a major Nato member, it is a major EU member, it is a member of the UN security council, and it is unfortunate that the weight that the British prime minister could bring to efforts to resolve this crisis appear to be absent."

Until 2014 Sir Richard was the UK’s highest ranking Nato commander. He was echoing the criticism from General Jonathan Shaw who commanded Britain’s special forces (SAS). In his new book Britain in a he describes David Cameron as "a PM seemingly more interested in the instant gratification of action rather than the tedious discipline of deep, coherent thought".
Perilous World (Haus Books)
This is remarkable language from an Oxford-educated senior army officer and one who is the son of a former Conservative MP – so not to be suspected of left-liberal deviationism.

But the impression of Britain opting out of joined-up foreign policy just as Chancellor Angela Merkel and President François Hollande get serious about what happens beyond their frontiers is gaining ground abroad.

At a recent French cabinet meeting French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius complained openly to his fellow ministers that Britain was consistently unhelpful in developing a European response to global challenges that Paris, Berlin and other EU capitals now cooperate on. This was underlined by Chancellor Merkel’s visit to President Obama as part of her shuttle diplomacy between Kiev, Moscow, Washington, Minsk and Brussels in recent days.

The French paper Figaro published an article "David Cameron Shines by His Absence on the International Diplomatic Stage" on the prime minister’s absence from the common efforts to present a united front to Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times was cruelly dismissive about the irrelevance of Chancellor George Osborne in the current work in Europe to solve the Greece crisis with the scathing "Britain’s bystander role is at its most absurd when delusions of importance persuade domestic policy makers to tell the Eurozone how to run its affairs."

Yet what is odd is why it has taken so long for Generals, French ministers and the serious press to wake up to the marginalisation of foreign and security policy under the coalition government in Britain.

The briefest glance at Cameron and his successive foreign and defence ministers would throw up the following examples of failure:

• More than 450 men have died pointlessly in Afghanistan on Cameron’s watch because he had no strategy to wind up an unwinnable conflict and no courage – in contrast to leaders of Canada and Nato allies in Europe – to stop having young men used as Taliban target practice.

• The utter failure of Libya when Cameron sought to walk tall with the equally un-strategic Nicolas Sarkozy has turned Libya into Jihad Central – both an armoury and training ground for Islamist violence. Moreover it is the funnel through which African migrants pour by their thousands into Italy, Malta or other Mediterranean states before heading north to England.

• The contemptuous treatment of our European partners and allies has lost friends and influence. The obsession with out-Ukipping UKIP with attacks on the EU as well as unsavoury alliances with nationalists in the European Parliament, including anti-Jewish politicians from Poland and Latvia, has damaged Britain’s status in Europe.

• The decision to scrap aircraft carriers has left Britain without serious naval projection capability this decade for the first time in 300 years. There are now more prisoners in British prisons than soldiers in the British army.

• William Hague’s mercantalist policy imposed on the Foreign Office has seen Britain’s balance of trade deficit increase to record levels. Every country Hague visited as Foreign Secretary saw a rise in trade deficits.

• The scrapping of the FCO’s human rights report first published by Labour’s Robin Cook has lost Britain’s voice as a leader in this field. Cameron has still never pronounced a word on the fate of Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate, while Nick Clegg admitted he had not heard of the flogging of the Saudi journalist Raif Badawi.

• Cameron’s dismissal of the unanimous resolution of the House of Commons calling for sanctions on the Putin officials responsible for the death in atrocious conditions of Sergei Magnitsky, a tax lawyer employed by a British firm contrasts with President Obama signing the US Congress ‘Justice for Magnitsky Act’ into law. It is worth reading the new book Red List. How I Became Putin’s No 1 Enemy (Bantam Book) by Bill Browder, the British investment fund boss turned human rights campaigner, to see how much Russian oligarch money influences Cameron’s idea of Britain.

Unlike the blunt Generals Shirreff and Shaw, Britain’s diplomats are too polite to rock the boat but they are deeply unhappy at the marginalisation of diplomacy, frightened about a Brexit referendum, and dismayed at the absence of any clear vision of what Britain’s role in the world should be.

In 1980, Britain spent 8 per cent of gross domestic product on defence and security and 7 per cent on health. Now we spend 12 per cent of GDP on health and 2 per cent on security without much evidence that we are a healthier or more secure nation.

Despite the UK’s excellent think-tanks on foreign policy from the venerable Chatham House to the newer European Council on Foreign Relations and Centre for European Reform fewer and fewer MPs of any party show an interest and very rarely attend foreign policy seminars and conferences.

Britain is becoming an introverted nation just wanting to pull the duvet over its collective head and hoping the rest of the world, especially Europe will simply go away.

Denis MacShane was PPS and Minister in the FCO 1997-2005, then UK delegate on the Council of Europe for five years. His book, Brexit: Why Britain Will Leave Europe, is published by IB Tauris on 25 February

svenkat · Post by **svenkat** » 16 Feb 2015 17:01

http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/02/15/397755/ISIL-claims-killed-21-Egypt-Christians

ISIL terrorists have released a new video allegedly showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians kidnapped in Libya following an earlier announcement of the terror act in an issue of their magazine, Dabiq.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi offered his condolences to the Egyptian people, called for urgent security talks and announced a seven-day mourning period in the African country.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Feb 2015 23:54

Philip,
It means Britain has slipped back to its position prior to War of Spanish Succession during the time of Queen Anne.

Its back to the old normal as Kishore Mahbubani was saying.