♫ Everything I want the world to be is now comin' true especially for me, somethin' in the wind has learned my name, and it's tellin' me that things are not the same...."♫
"Shifting Dynamics of the Mideast Pushed Israel and UAE Together" by David M. Halbfinger and Ronen Bergman New York Times, August 15, 2020
JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu buoyantly approached the microphone, beaming at his diplomatic coup.
“I told you,” he told Israelis in a triumphant news conference Thursday night.
Indeed he had.
At least since 2009, Netanyahu had been insisting, against conventional wisdom, that Israel could build full diplomatic and trade relationships with Arab countries in the Middle East without settling the Palestinian conflict first.
At every opportunity, he badgered the Persian Gulf monarchs to bring their not-so-secret cooperation with Israel into the open.
Again and again, they demurred. Settle the conflict with the Palestinians, they said, then we’ll talk.
That was the answer so many times from so many Arab countries for so long that Netanyahu’s persistence seemed disconnected and quixotic.
When he sealed a deal to normalize relations with the United Arab Emirates this past week, it was not because he had suddenly become more persuasive. What had changed, analysts and former aides to Netanyahu said, was the dynamics of the region and the world.
This coming so soon after what happened in Beirut makes me think that Israel must have shown off a new weapon, and now the world quivers at such a fearful thunderbolt.
What nation on earth wants a port blown to Kingdom Come?
Isn't the UAE an island?
Didn't the Saudis seal them off back in the days of Tillerson?
Didn't they cut and run in Yemen?
The Arab Spring uprisings had shown Persian Gulf monarchs that popular anger over repression and corruption were bigger threats to their rule than any blowback over their failure to maintain solidarity with the Palestinians.
Looking back on that and who benefited?
Hmmmm!
Other events changed their security calculus. Washington stood by as a staunch ally, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, was ousted in a popular uprising, and failed to respond militarily when Syria gassed its own people and Iran was blamed for an attack on Saudi oil facilities.
Syria did not gas their own people, arrrrrgh!
Obama wanted Mubarak out and got Morsi, who threw open the gates of Gaza to those long-suffering people and was thusly soon removed, as Washington stood by Sissi, before Morsi was rubbed out, and the Iran attack was from Yemen where the Saudis are slaughter civilians and warring with Houthis.
It became increasingly clear to the Persian Gulf states that the Western allies they had relied on for decades to come to their rescue might not be there in a pinch.
Finally, as Iranian-sponsored proxy forces grew more powerful across the region — in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen — the Persian Gulf states increasingly saw Iran as their greatest threat, and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal persuaded them that Washington was not committed to destroying Iran’s nuclear ambitions or keeping Iran pinned down by sanctions.
That deal was abrogated three years ago, so what's their beef now?
Demographic changes in the Persian Gulf states also reordered their priorities, forcing a focus on creating jobs for their young people more than standing up for the Palestinians. And Persian Gulf leaders admired Israel’s economy and tech sector.
If the agreement with the UAE holds, it would be the first flowering of the redemption Netanyahu has been promising Israelis for 11 years.
His hope is that other countries will follow suit. On Friday, Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, said that normalized relations with Saudi Arabia were “an inevitability.” On Saturday, Israel’s intelligence minister, Eli Cohen, predicted that Sudan would open full relations with Israel by the end of the year.
They ran Bashir out of the Sudan and jailed him a while back, and now the Saudis have been put on notice.
Netanyahu had inherited a rich tradition of Israeli prime ministers seeking pacts with Arab adversaries, but they were mostly “ad hoc alliances of convenience,” said Uzi Arad, a foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu in the 1990s.
In the 1960s, Israel airdropped weapons to Yemen to help Saudi Arabia, which was propping up the royalist regime there against revolutionary republicans backed by Egypt.
To counter Nasser, the great pan-Arabist.
Israel had maintained secret links with Oman since the 1970s. In 1996, after the Oslo Accords, Israeli opened diplomatic interest offices in Qatar, Oman, Morocco, and Tunisia. They were later closed after violent clashes between Israel and the Palestinians.
In some ways, the Persian Gulf countries held more potential for Israel than its “cold peace” with Egypt and Jordan, countries it had fought wars with.
Israel ramped up its secret liaisons in the Arab world and found that despite Arab leaders’ public condemnations of Israel — and a Saudi peace initiative that made resolving the Palestinian conflict a requirement for normalization — in private many were accommodating and practical.
Taufiq Rahim, an Emirates-based senior fellow at New America, a research institute, said that the relationship had been building quietly for years and that it was only been a matter of time before it became public. “There is only so much you can gain by having covert relations, and that also applies to the investment, the business and technology side as well,” he said.
The New America is another $ickening $tink tank with funding from, among others, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- the same evil creatures that dreamed up COVID and Lockstep lockdowns to create their New AmeriKa.
With the Emiratis, the question became how to bring their relationship into the open. In 2018, Netanyahu and Yousef al-Otaiba, the Emirati ambassador to Washington, ran into one another at a Washington restaurant and chatted openly about better relations. Otaiba said he hoped to greet Netanyahu in Jerusalem someday.
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The chances of a Palestinian state are now dead after Trump's thrust of the sword.
That gets us the bomb in Beirut, if you can locate it on a map, and who is the prime suspect:
"FBI team arrives this weekend to take part in Beirut probe" by Bassem Mroue and Andrea Rosa Associated Press, August 15, 2020
The only thing they help do is cover up crimes or frame someone else.
I mean, they used an Egyptian general and gave him real explosives in 1993 when the bombers did a dry run for 9/11 and blew up a truck in the underground garage. They decided for a much more visceral set of images on that infamous September morning.
BEIRUT — A team of FBI investigators was due to arrive in Lebanon this weekend to take part in the probe of Beirut’s massive explosion, a senior US official said Saturday after visiting the location of the blast.
Since when did they become an international law enforcement agency?
David Hale, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, called for a thorough and transparent investigation. He said the FBI team is taking part at the invitation of Lebanese authorities to find answers about what caused the Aug. 4 explosion that killed nearly 180 people and wounded thousands.
The cause of the fire that ignited nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate at Beirut’s port remains unclear. Documents have emerged showing the country’s top leadership and security officials were aware of the chemicals stored at the port. French investigators are also taking part in the Lebanese-led probe.
“We really need to make sure that there is a thorough, transparent, and credible investigation. I know that is what everyone is demanding,” Hale said.
HA!
I have one word for you: Clinesmith
Late on Friday, the leader of the powerful Hezbollah group said he did not trust any international investigation, a clear reference to the FBI assistance. Hassan Nasrallah said the cause of the explosion is still unclear, adding that any international probe would likely seek to clear Israel of any responsibility in the port explosion, if it had any. Nasrallah added that Israel will be met “with an equally devastating response” if the investigation points to its involvement.
They are no fools!
Israel has denied involvement and no evidence has emerged suggesting otherwise; however, President Michel Aoun, who is supported by Hezbollah, has said it’s a theory being investigated.
That is why the FBI is there, so no evidence will emerge of their involvement.
On Saturday, French investigators were seen in boats and on the ground near the scene of the blast. A French helicopter carrier was docked at the port as troops unloaded equipment. French troops on foot and in vehicles were moving around the port. The United Nations says 30 percent of the port remains operational.
Lebanon, now back under French occupation.
Hale stressed the need for full state control over ports and borders in an apparent reference to claims that Hezbollah holds influence over both in Lebanon.....
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I'm not exactly sure what blew up in that port; it looks now like it was below the nuclear threshold but some type of devastating concussion blast of some sort. In any event, its motive, aims, and message have been received loud and clear.
"Belarus president: Russia willing to help counter protests" by Yuras Karmanu Associated Press, August 15, 2020
MINSK, Belarus — Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed to provide protest-engulfed Belarus with security assistance to counter protests if the country requests it, the president of Belarus declared Saturday after more people took to the streets demanding that he resign.
Belarus is a buffer zone against invasion from the west, a lesson Russia has learned twice before.
President Alexander Lukashenko made the comment Saturday evening, several hours after a phone call with Putin and after protesters again demanded that he resign after 26 years in power. Thousands of demonstrators rallied Saturday at the spot in the capital of Minsk where a protester died this past week in clashes with police. Some stripped off their shirts to display deep bruises they said came from being beaten by police.
It was the seventh consecutive day of large protests against the results of the Aug. 9 presidential election in which election officials said Lukashenko won a sixth term in office in a landslide. Opposition supporters believe the figures have been manipulated.
Well, the "results in Minsk, the capital city, were over 60%; his main competitor received 15%, while for the whole country he received about 80% of the vote, an impressive result, and in any case, there is no doubt he carried the majority of his countrymen."
They used to call that democracy around here, and it was once respected.
Luksahenko did not specify what sort of assistance Russia would be willing to provide, but he said, “When it comes to the military component, we have an agreement with the Russian Federation” in the framework of the countries’ union agreement. “These are the moments that fit this agreement,” he added.
Despite harsh police crackdowns against the protesters, including the detention of some 7,000 people, the demonstrations have swelled into the largest and most sustained anti-government movement since Lukashenko took power in 1994.
Earlier, the 65-year-old Lukashenko on Saturday rejected suggestions that foreign mediators become involved in trying to resolve the country’s political crisis.
The guy is one shrewd operator and a hero.
He discussed the situation in a call Saturday with Putin, the first publicly known direct contact between the two leaders since the election. A Kremlin statement said Putin and Lukashenko both expressed hope for a quick resolution to the tensions.
Russia and Belarus reached an agreement in 1997 about closer ties between the neighboring ex-Soviet countries in a union that stopped short of a full merger, although that has collided with recent disputes between the countries and Lukashenko’s suspicions that Putin’s government wants to absorb Belarus.
Like that guy from 80 years ago, right?
Boy, stand in the way of a certain project and some chosen people get after you.
Later, in a meeting with Defense Ministry officials, Lukashenko declared: “Listen — we have a normal country, founded on a constitution. We don’t need any foreign government, any sort of mediators.” He appeared to be referring to an offer from the leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to become involved.
Lukashenko’s main election opponent, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, fled to Lithuania the day after the election, knowing that several previous presidential challengers have been jailed for years on charges that supporters say were trumped up.
A funeral was held Saturday for Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester who died Monday in Minsk under disputed circumstances. Belarusian police said he died when an explosive device he intended to throw at police blew up in his hand.
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Are you ready for WWIII?
Might as well go fish:
"After months of exemptions and tensions with regulators, New England fishermen must resume taking observers to sea" by David Abel Globe Staff, August 15, 2020
Commercial fishermen have long had their gripes about the government-trained observers required by regulators to monitor their catch.
When the pandemic began sweeping across the nation in March, federal officials halted their work, which involves long hours at sea, often in close quarters with fishermen, but with many captains and deckhands still hauling in their prey, observers resumed their duties in early May in nearly every major port around the country — except those in the Northeast.
The region’s mighty fleet has since received seven exemptions from observer requirements, which the federal government subsidizes at an annual cost of more than $50 million to prevent overfishing.
Just another way government is tightening the vital food supply, as well as cutting off water (must be needed to fight the fires).
Now, with observers resuming their work this weekend in ports from North Carolina to Maine, fishermen and their representatives are urging the agency to halt the program again, saying it could have an adverse impact on an industry that lands about $2 billion worth of seafood a year.
“Fishermen are feeling like third-class citizens,” said David Goethel, who fishes for cod and other bottom-dwelling fish out of Hampton, N.H. “Government cannot perform essential services, because their people might contact the virus, but we are expected to carry observers …. The hypocrisy here is well beyond anything out of a Kafka novel,” but environmental advocates say that if fishing continues, so must the vital work of maintaining sustainable fisheries and collecting important data.
They are treated like third-class citizens because they stink of fish, but they sure do see things clearly.
“Without proper monitoring tools, New England’s fisheries will go unchecked,” said Gib Brogan, a fisheries policy analyst at Oceana, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group.....
Why don't you come out on the boat, and wait, man overboard!
The sharks will have a little feast.
Where is Captain Quint when you need him?
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Related:
"The tradition of a young girl flying over the crowds at the Fisherman’s Feast is so entrenched in the North End that the apartment she flies from has a special provision in the lease to allow it. The building even has a permanent hook used to hoist the angel above the noisy, packed streets. Those streets are quiet this year, but the angel has flown again, carrying on a Sicilian tradition that dates back over century in Boston. Boston’s five Italian street festivals were canceled due to restrictions imposed to stop the spread of COVID-19, but the Fisherman’s Feast has a reputation to uphold as the neighborhood’s oldest “continuously running” festival, said said Dom Strazzullo, vice president of the Madonna del Soccorso di Sciacca of Boston Society....."
Now tear down that statue of Columbus.
Also see:
"Forecasters are warning beachgoers in the eastern part of the state to be cautious of strong rip currents over the weekend as a tropical storm stirs up the waters. Beaches along the coast and on the Islands have a high risk of rip currents for Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. The rip currents, which can be life-threatening, are tied to Tropical Storm Kyle. “While we’re not seeing much in terms of impacts from the storm itself, it’s still big enough to stir up the ocean” and generate rip currents, according to Torry Gaucher, a meteorologist with the weather service. Rip currents can be dangerous for swimmers if they aren’t aware of the risks, Gaucher said. Lifeguards often mark off areas that swimmers should avoid when a high risk of rip currents is present. “You can get pulled out into the ocean by these currents, so we want people to be aware before they go to the beach,” Gaucher said in a phone interview."
I'm starting to get ripped and need to cool down:
"The warning comes as many parts of the state experience “a touch of fall,” according to the National Weather Service. High temperatures will reach only into the 70s over the weekend, and gusty winds are expected. Weather will be “unseasonably cool and blustery making for sweatshirt weather in Eastern MA and RI” until 6 p.m., according to the weather service. “Western MA and CT will be considerably warmer with more sunshine.” Coastal areas may experience a few spot showers later in the day and into the night, but dry weather is expected for the majority of the state, according to the service. The Cape and Islands maybe get a period of steady showers Sunday night. Dry weather is expected during the day on Monday, and scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms may occur at night, according to the forecast. Warm temperatures and dry weather are expected to continue Tuesday and through the week. The period of dry weather follows the state’s Significant Drought declaration on Friday. Because of an abnormally dry July and August, state officials urged residents and businesses to be cognizant of their water consumption. “The combination of three months of limited rainfall and well above normal temperatures through July and early August have led to very dry conditions in every region of Massachusetts,” said Kathleen Theoharides, secretary of energy and environmental affairs, in the statement on Friday. “All levels of government are coordinating to address these critical drought conditions.”
How long until the water is shut off and you must leave your home for a camp, and how can we be in drought when a tropical storm just dumped inches on us a couple of weeks ago with another one coming in?
There isn't a drought at all, is there?
This is about something else entirely -- like getting you out of your home and into a COVID extermination camp.
WAKE UP, CITIZENS!
WAKE the FUCK UP!
