Saturday, March 12, 2022

Giving nukes to Iran will be the greatest error of the 21st century - opinion - Sacha Roytman Dratwa

 

​ by Sacha Roytman Dratwa

The nuclear deal is close to being signed in Vienna.

 

IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech in Tehran earlier this month.  (photo credit: OFFICIAL KHAMENEI WEBSITE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
IRAN’S SUPREME LEADER Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a televised speech in Tehran earlier this month.
(photo credit: OFFICIAL KHAMENEI WEBSITE/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

One of the greatest lessons of the Holocaust should be that when someone threatens war, invasion and genocide against a people, we should believe they mean it. 

Whether in the media or by Western politicians, many in the 1930s dismissed Hitler’s violent statements and acts against Jews as mere grandiloquence. Some claimed he was just using rhetorical devices about Jews for other political purposes.

As Andrew Nagorski, author of Hitlerland, a book that discusses Western reactions to the early days of the Third Reich, said in an interview about types of international reaction to Hitler and Goebbels’s talk of exterminating the Jews, “Oh, that’s just a figure of speech. They don’t really mean it. It’s just a way to whip up supporters.”

Even today, we see that the West did not believe that Vladimir Putin would invade Ukraine in the way that he has. Many thought the rhetoric and the mass buildup of troops on the borders were just muscle-flexing and jockeying for a better negotiating position vis-à-vis NATO.

Unfortunately, even now in the middle of the bloodiest war in Europe since the end of World War II, we see that few are learning these lessons.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gestures as he speaks at Tehran's Friday prayer on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in Tehran, Iran, February 11, 2022. (credit: PRESIDENT WEBSITE/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi gestures as he speaks at Tehran's Friday prayer on the occasion of the 43rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in Tehran, Iran, February 11, 2022. (credit: PRESIDENT WEBSITE/WANA (WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY)/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

At the same time, in Vienna, the world’s powers are about to sign an agreement that would eventually allow one of the most radical and antisemitic regimes in the world to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

If ignoring Hitler’s intentions in the 1930s was arguably the greatest mistake of the 20th century, permitting the ayatollahs in the Islamic Republic of Iran to have nuclear weapons capability could well become the most costly and bloody error of the 21st century.

For decades, Iranian leaders have used genocidal rhetoric against Israel and the Jewish people. 

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei followed his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini by continuously making statements like “the cancerous tumor called Israel must be uprooted from the region” and “the foundation of the Islamic regime is opposition to Israel and the perpetual subject of Iran is the elimination of Israel from the region.”

If anyone was in any doubt how the “uprooting” and “elimination” of Israel should take place, these types of quotes are regularly draped over missiles during the Islamic Republic’s military parades.

In case anyone thought the language of antisemitic hate and incitement is solely that of the supreme leader, other Iranian leaders have used terms like “cancer,” “cattle,” “blood-thirsty barbarians,” and “criminals” repeatedly throughout the years.

This type of dehumanizing language has been used elsewhere to justify mass murder, for example in the lead up to the Rwandan Genocide. Another example of how many in the international community dismissed the words before the deeds.

Even today, while the P5+1 meets in Vienna to hammer out the contours of a return to the JCPOA, the violent and genocidal rhetoric is not a matter for debate. Iran’s constant arming of the enemies of Israel, the West and its allies, whether of the Houthis in Yemen, Shi’ite terrorist groups in Iraq or Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Islamic Republic’s lust for chaos, violence and bloodshed is almost a sideshow in the negotiations.

Unfortunately, for Israel, this is what matters.

Israel is a country that does pay an inordinate amount of attention to rhetoric, and rightfully and necessarily so. 

The Jewish state was established only three years after the crematoria ceased operating. While much of the world expressed horror and disbelief about man’s inhumanity to others, the scars of the Jewish people, whether physical or psychologically has inured us against the idea that violent antisemitic rhetoric is just talk.

Israel’s very existence is built around the slogan of “Never Again!”

This is not just a rallying call for self-preservation, but also a demand that genocidal antisemitism be taken very seriously. 

The Jewish state expects the international community to ensure two things.

Firstly, that its leaders make it clear that antisemitism and genocidal language will not be tolerated in any shape or form, and take active steps to stop it. 

Secondly, a regime that aims to destroy another people should not be given the means to do so.

For Israel and the Jewish people, these two issues are irrevocably intertwined. For others, they are two largely unconnected issues.

Nuclear weapons in the hands of those who have shown no qualms about mass bloodshed and claim that one of the central goals of their existence is the violent destruction of a neighboring state is a recipe for disaster. 

It is the greatest challenge that the international community faces.

Let there be no doubts about that.

 

Sacha Roytman Dratwa is CEO of the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM), a global coalition of 440 diverse organizations with the common mission of fighting the world’s oldest hatred.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-700962

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Why Are the Biden Administration, EU, Appeasing the Iranian Regime? - Majid Rafizadeh

 

​ by Majid Rafizadeh

The Biden administration and the other members of the JCPOA nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 (China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany) -- with the European Union -- instead of holding Iran to account, are evidently determined to reward it. It is not quite clear for what.

  • Many Iranians, meanwhile, in defiance of Iran's regime, gathered outside the Ukrainian embassy in Tehran to express their support for the Ukrainian people, criticize the Iranian government for supporting Russia, and chanted "Death to Putin".

  • As police began cracking down on the protesters, the Biden administration and the EU remained silent.

  • Why are the Biden administration and the EU appeasing the Iranian regime, which has for four decades attacked Americans and carried out terrorist activities and assassinations?

  • The Biden administration and the other members of the JCPOA nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 (China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany) -- with the European Union -- instead of holding Iran to account, are evidently determined to reward it. It is not quite clear for what. For years of unspeakable behavior, both to its own citizens and internationally?

  • Meanwhile, as the US has been negotiating this new agreement, US intelligence services have just identified "at least two Iranians" as trying to assassinate former officials of the Trump administration. The Biden administration is said to have been trying to cover up the plot lest it derail the negotiations to shower Iran with "rewards".

  • The Iranian regime, an official state sponsor of terrorism, has carried out terrorist activities around the world for almost four decades. Why are the Biden administration and the EU not implementing the same policies towards Iran's regime as they are towards Russia?

Iran's theocratic regime, an officially designated state sponsor of terrorism, has carried out terrorist activities around the world for almost four decades. Why are the Biden administration and the EU not implementing the same sanctions and policies towards Iran's regime as they are towards Russia? Pictured: Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hosts Russian President Vladimir Putin in Iran on November 23, 2015. (Image source: khamenei.ir via Wikimedia Commons)

While the European Union has leveled different kinds of sanctions on Russia, including restricting access to the EU's capital and financial markets, the EU nevertheless continues to appease Moscow's staunch ally, the world's largest sponsor of state terrorism, Iran.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is opportunistically using the humanitarian tragedy in Ukraine to spread the narrative that the war is not Russia's fault, but rather that the West and the "mafia regime" of the US, which is trying to negotiate a new nuclear deal with the mullahs, are to be blamed. Meanwhile, he is trying to advance his country's revolutionary principles and hegemonic ambitions and promoting his long-held anti-American and anti-Western policy.

Iranian politicians are also pointing the finger at NATO concerning the Ukraine crisis. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, who was part of the "Death Committee" in the 1988 massacre, telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin expressing his support and stating, according to Iran's state-controlled Mehr News Agency: "The continued expansion of NATO is a serious threat against the stability and security of independent countries in various regions of the world."

Many Iranians, meanwhile, in defiance of Iran's regime, gathered outside the Ukrainian embassy in Tehran to express their support for the Ukrainian people, criticize the Iranian government for supporting Russia, and chanted "Death to Putin".

As police began cracking down on the protesters, the Biden administration and the EU remained silent.

The protestors, however, mobilized on social media outlets and disseminated chants such as "the Russian embassy is a den of spies", "Putin murders, the stupid ones support him", "Long live Ukraine" and "Long live peace."

No matter how much blood is shed in Ukraine, it is extremely unlikely that the Iranian regime will abandon its favorable policy towards Russia. As the current tensions continue between Russia and the West, based on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Moscow also finds no better geopolitical ally than the Iranian regime. The Ukraine crisis brings Russia and Iran's theocratic establishment closer together, as both of them confront the West.

Both Putin and Iran's leaders seem to be attempting to restore their empires and their wounded prestige and pride, both regionally and internationally. Iran and Russia have been attempting to reinforce how the international community views them, for example, presenting themselves as influential state actors in Syria, by significantly ratcheting up the political and economic capital they spend to secure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's hold on power. Assad, a physician who in 2011 had promised to push for more political reforms, has, a decade later and with Russia's help, piled up a record of massive abuses and war crimes that include gassing innocent civilians with chemical weapons, bombing schools and hospitals, and causing thousands to disappear.

Why are the Biden administration and the EU appeasing the Iranian regime, which has for four decades attacked Americans and carried out terrorist activities and assassinations?

Iran's proxy, Hezbollah, has been accused of terrorist attacks, such as the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, in which 241 U.S. Marines were killed; the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut; the 2000 attack on the USS Cole in which 17 sailors were killed; the 1984 United States Embassy annex bombing in Beirut; as well as the 9/11 attacks in the United States, for which federal courts ordered Iran to pay the families of the victims $7.5 billion. Hezbollah and Iran were also reportedly behind the 1992 attack on Israel's Embassy in Buenos Aires, in which 29 people were killed.

A Washington, DC district court found:

"The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran ("Iran") has a long history of providing material aid and support to terrorist organizations including al Qaeda, which have claimed responsibility for the August 7, 1998 embassy bombings."

It was also the Iranian government that provided aid to Al Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks against the US in general. The court added:

"Iran had been the preeminent state sponsor of terrorism against the United States and its interests for decades. Throughout the 1990s — at least — Iran regarded al Qaeda as a useful tool to destabilize U.S. interests. As discussed in detail below, the government of Iran aided, abetted and conspired with Hezbollah, Osama Bin Laden, and al Qaeda to launch large-scale bombing attacks against the United States by utilizing the sophisticated delivery mechanism of powerful suicide truck bombs."

Iran has also been funding and supporting at least three proxy terrorist groups: Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip; Hezbollah, which has effectively taken over Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, who, under Iranian supervision, seem to be trying to help Iran displace Saudi Arabia's monarchy. According to the Wilson Center in Washington, DC:

"Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the elite Qods Force provided arms, training and financial support to militias and political movements in at least six countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Yemen.... In 2020, the State Department estimated that Iran gave Hezbollah $700 million a year. In the past, Tehran had historically given $100 million annually to Palestinian groups, including Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. "

The Biden administration and the other members of the JCPOA nuclear deal negotiated in 2015 (China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany) -- with the European Union -- instead of holding Iran to account, are evidently determined to reward it. It is not quite clear for what. For years of unspeakable behavior, both to its own citizens and internationally? The new deal, which has been has been called the "worst deal ever," would reportedly provide the mullahs with the ability to enrich uranium, the ability soon to have an unlimited number of nuclear weapons, the missile systems to deliver them, removal of from the US list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, international legitimacy and billions in cash. If anyone thinks that this arrangement will stop, or even slow down, Iran's malign activates at home or abroad, they are living in a world of make-believe. Iran never even signed the 2015 deal, let alone honored it.

Meanwhile, as the US has been negotiating this new agreement, US intelligence services have just identified "at least two Iranians" as trying to assassinate former officials of the Trump administration. The Biden administration is said to have been trying to cover up the plot lest it derail the negotiations to shower Iran with "rewards".

The Iranian regime, an officially designated state sponsor of terrorism, has carried out terrorist activities around the world for almost four decades. Why are the Biden administration and the EU not implementing the same sanctions and policies towards Iran's regime as they are towards Russia?

 

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh is a business strategist and advisor, Harvard-educated scholar, political scientist, board member of Harvard International Review, and president of the International American Council on the Middle East. He has authored several books on Islam and US foreign policy. He can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@Post.Harvard.Edu

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18315/biden-administration-eu-iran

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Putin's War Crimes: Reported Heroes and Others - Lawrence Kadish

 

​ by Lawrence Kadish

"[M]ajor brands... have come under intense pressure to cut business ties with Russia, as social users continue to express outrage over Putin's invasion of Ukraine."


It is important immediately to follow the impressive example of worldwide heroes, above all, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Elon Musk immediately made his Starlink satellite broadband internet service available in Ukraine and donated Starlink terminals to the people of Ukraine, in the event that their cyber capability was downed. Pictured: Musk gives a keynote speech by video conference at the Mobile World Congress fair in Barcelona on June 29, 2021. (Photo by Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)

While many extraordinary American companies have voluntarily taken serious financial setbacks as their contribution to defending Ukraine -- now the front line in a war on the Free World by Russian President Vladimir Putin -- other companies have revealed themselves as indifferent at best.

Putin has curated a long track record of turning Grozny to rubble, flattening Aleppo, devouring Georgia and Crimea, and now has been dropping cluster and vacuum bombs, banned by the Geneva Conventions, on civilian targets in Ukraine. His troops have also attacked and taken over nuclear reactors, and Putin has repeatedly agreed to humanitarian evacuation routes that, when people emerge, the Russians shell -- all in sub-zero, dead-of-winter weather. The problem: if Putin is allowed to take Ukraine, it will result in further annexations in Europe. The failure to contain aggressive acts results in further aggressive acts.

It is important immediately to follow the impressive example of worldwide heroes, above all, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. British Petroleum willingly absorbed a $25 billion loss. Elon Musk immediately made his Starlink satellite broadband internet service available in Ukraine and donated Starlink terminals to the people of Ukraine, in the event that their cyber capability was downed.

Musk also tweeted that the US must resume energy independence "immediately," even though such a proposal would harm his Tesla electric car company:

"Hate to say it, but we need to increase oil & gas output immediately. Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures."

Musk followed up with:

"Obviously, this would negatively affect Tesla, but sustainable energy solutions simply cannot react instantaneously to make up for Russian oil & gas exports."

Who, then, has been acting responsibly? Fortunately, according to Ariel Zilber in the New York Post, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, head of the Chief Executive Leadership Institute at Yale, has been compiling a list of 280 companies, so far, that have "scaled back their ties to Russia."

According to the article, "[M]ajor brands... have come under intense pressure to cut business ties with Russia, as social users continue to express outrage over Putin's invasion of Ukraine."

 

Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18314/putin-war-crimes-heroes

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Erdogan is a Turkish wolf in sheep's clothing - opinion - David M. Weinberg

 

​ by David M. Weinberg

President Isaac Herzog visited Turkey this week amid warming relations between Israel and Turkey.

 

PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG is welcomed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday.  (photo credit: Presidential Press Unit/Reuters)
PRESIDENT ISAAC HERZOG is welcomed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Wednesday.
(photo credit: Presidential Press Unit/Reuters)

Allow me to remain extraordinarily skeptical and extremely wary about the nascent Turkish-Israeli rapprochement.

While meeting President Isaac Herzog in Ankara on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he believed “this historic visit will be a turning point in relations between Turkey and Israel. Strengthening relations with the State of Israel has great value for our country.” He said he believed “the coming period will bring new opportunities for both regional and bilateral cooperation.”

Erdogan went on to call antisemitism “a crime against humanity,” saying “hate crimes continue to take place all over the world and we will continue to tackle xenophobia, racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia.”

Herzog responded by saying he held “productive” talks. “This is a very important moment in relations between our countries, and I feel it is a great privilege for both of us to lay the foundations for the cultivation of friendly relations between our states and our peoples, and to build bridges that are critical for all of us,” he said.

“Our peoples’ relationship is an ancient one, with strong historical, religious and cultural roots. The long line of magnificent Jewish leaders, rabbis, poets, sages, merchants and entrepreneurs represents only part of the Jewish people’s history here in this land,” Herzog said.

President Isaac Herzog advances Israel-Turkey ties in meeting with Erdogan March 9, 2022. (credit: CHAIM TZACH/GPO) President Isaac Herzog advances Israel-Turkey ties in meeting with Erdogan March 9, 2022. (credit: CHAIM TZACH/GPO)

“I believe that the relationship between our countries will be judged by deeds reflecting a spirit of mutual respect and will enable us to better confront the regional and global challenges that are common to us all.”

Herzog’s trip marks the highest-level visit by an Israeli official since former prime minister Ehud Olmert made the trip in 2008, and is seen as an important step toward rekindling the two countries’ long-floundering relationship. Herzog was greeted by Erdogan and an honor guard, as a band played the Israeli anthem for the first time since 2008. Herzog and his wife, Michal, were hosted by Erdogan for a state dinner.

So nice. Such apparent sweetness. How hopeful!

Turkish-Israeli reconciliation, of course, would be a good thing, with important strategic benefits for Israel. For example, it is important to ensure Turkish cooperation in, instead of opposition to, Israel’s gas export plans. Overall, a Jerusalem-Ankara détente would usefully enhance regional stability.

EXCEPT THAT it is hard to believe. Erdogan is a true-blue believing antisemite of the old school, who believes in classic antisemitic myths like the Protocols of the Elder of Zion (where Jews control the global banking and media conglomerates, etc.). He honestly hates Israel, and his preference is to lead a pan-Islamic coalition to crush Israel.

Erdogan’s state-controlled press has driven an aggressive, antisemitic and anti-Israel public discourse in Turkey, clearly aimed at delegitimizing Israel. (Will that now change? Israel should be watching this closely.)

Erdogan continues to lead anti-Israel campaigns at every opportunity, including the global assault on Israel regarding Gaza border riots and other conflicts with the Palestinians. His favorite accusation is Israeli “genocide” against the Palestinians, and his favorite Palestinians are Hamas leaders. Saleh al-Arouri, a top commander of Hamas’s military wing and the terror group’s deputy political chief, operates from Turkey.

At a summit that Erdogan summoned a few years ago in Istanbul of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, he libeled Israel with torture of Palestinian children “like the concentration camps during World War II, with methods that would put Nazis to shame.”

All the while, Turkey continues to considerably weaken the Western strategic alliance by problematic collaboration with Syria, Iran, China and Russia – despite Turkey’s NATO membership. (There is no mechanism for turfing Turkey out of the alliance).

On the nuclear issue, Erdogan has sided throughout with Iran, declaring Turkish support for Tehran’s “peaceful nuclear program” and voting repeatedly against American-initiated sanctions against Iran. Turkish banks openly cooperate with Iranian banks to circumvent Western sanctions. In 2012, Turkey blew the cover of an Israeli spy network in Iran. More recently Erdogan threatened Israel with war over gas fields in the Mediterranean.

At home, Erdogan has jailed more journalists, judges, generals and academics than any other country in the world, including China. He is building 40,000 new jail cells to handle the overload. He is creating an authoritarian system to suit his imperial ambitions, especially after the supposed “coup” attempt in Turkey several years ago (which may have been manufactured by Erdogan himself in order to justify this draconian crackdown).

Furthermore, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has led a Turkish invasion of Jerusalem. He is investing tens of millions of dollars per year in Islamic missionary (dawah) activities, renovation of Muslim institutions, holiday handouts and social networking in eastern Jerusalem – glorifying terrorists and explicitly calling for violent resistance to Israel. Turkish-backed clerics and other radical Islamist actors have led troublemaking on the Temple Mount and other subversive activities.

The Turkish Consulate in Jerusalem and two Turkish quasi-governmental agencies (Mirasimiz and TIKA) are directly implicated in this activity; by their own admission, to the tune of over $40 million a year. Erdogan’s former chief of staff personally oversees much of this activity, which includes trips for youth to radical Islamic conferences in Turkey, and the busing to Jerusalem of posses of men and women (known as the Murabitun and Murabitat, respectively) who heatedly harass Jewish visitors to Har HaBayit (Temple Mount). As a result, Turkish flags today fly everywhere in eastern Jerusalem and prominently on the Temple Mount too.

The Turkish purpose is not at all innocuous. It is, rather, to weaken Israel’s hold in the holy city, and to bolster Erdogan’s claim to leadership of the Muslim world on a path to a global Islamic sultanate.

According to Jerusalem and Turkey experts, like David Koren and Eytan Hay Cohen Yanarocak of Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, and Seth J. Frantzman of The Jerusalem Post, there has been significant erosion in the status of veteran mukhtars (Arab neighborhood leaders) and secular Palestinian leaders in eastern Jerusalem. Into the vacuum have stepped elements identified with Hamas, the northern faction of the Islamic Movement in Israel, the Muslim Brotherhood in its wider context and especially Turkey.

While it is important not to exaggerate the Turkish threat, Erdogan’s interference in Jerusalem clearly needs to be checked. His incendiary activities in Israel’s capital touch the deepest chords of Israeli sovereignty in the eastern part of the city. At a minimum, the flow of Turkish money into Jerusalem must be blocked.

Israel knows why Erdogan is all of a sudden seeking photo-ops with the Israeli president (and, one assumes, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, sometime soon, too). It is because Turkey is in the dumps internationally, with the Biden administration and global business leaders shunning Turkey. The Turkish economy is in big trouble. Herzog specifically, and Israel more broadly, is Erdogan’s teudat hechsher, his koshering certificate, his badge of renewed respectability.

Israel should give this hechsher to Erdogan only if the Turkish dictator broadly cleans up his act.

I hope that the Prime Minister’s Office, National Security Council, Foreign Ministry and other Israeli security agencies overseeing the new attempt to patch things up with Turkey – are paying attention to all this with sufficient alacrity.

Erdogan not only needs to be handled cautiously and, yes, respectfully. He also needs to be cut down to size.

 

David M. Weinberg is a senior fellow at The Kohelet Forum and in the research department of Habithonistim: Israel’s Defense and Security Forum. His diplomatic, defense, political, and Jewish world columns over the past 25 years are archived at davidmweinberg.com.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-700965

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Turkey: Occupies Northern Cyprus, Goes for the Rest - Uzay Bulut

 

​ by Uzay Bulut

The West, however, remains silent -- not merely empowering Turkey to commit further atrocities but rewarding it.

  • "The air and sea invasion yesterday devastated the resort strip of tourist hotels on the north coast of Cyprus. Greek Cypriots and foreigners huddled under mattresses in the cellars of ruined buildings." — The New York Times, July 22, 1974.

  • "But back in Ankara today, the newspapers were full of photos of smiling Turkish troops clustered in front of tanks draped with the star and crescent flag, holding their weapons high, and of Greek Cypriot hostages being given water by Turkish soldiers." — The New York Times, July 28, 1974.

  • Currently, Turkey appears to be targeting the rest of the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union. The government of Cyprus is now dealing with an "illegal immigration crisis" which it says Turkey is orchestrating. Government authorities state that the majority of migrants entering the free part of Cyprus are being smuggled illegally through the Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

  • Meanwhile, according to Turkish media, Turkey is planning to construct a military naval base in the Karpasia Peninsula in the Turkish-occupied north.

  • Despite the uncountable war crimes Turkey has committed in Cyprus, the Turkish government has condemned the UN for having its "peacekeeping forces" there.

  • The West, however, remains silent -- not merely empowering Turkey to commit further atrocities but rewarding it. The US recently killed, at Turkey's request, the EastMed natural gas pipeline project, which would have transported gas from US allies Israel and Cyprus, via Greece, to Western Europe. The EastMed pipeline would have been particularly important in light of Russia's ability, with the Nord Stream and other pipelines, to blackmail the continent in winter by cutting off much of its gas supplies.

  • Turkey will now be able to continue its crimes against the Yazidis in Iraq, the Kurds in Syria and the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh with no repercussions.

  • "Turkey's occupation of Cyprus has now become the first modern Islamist fundamentalist attempt to capture Western world territory and resources." — Philip Christopher, president of the International Coordinating Committee - Justice for Cyprus, Ekathimerini, May 20, 2018.

Aggression by Turkey's military appears to be on the rise in Cyprus -- in areas it does not yet occupy. According to the Cypriot media, on February 8, Turkish soldiers approached Greek Cypriot farmers working in fields near the village of Denia in the United Nations "Buffer Zone," and threatened to kill them if they did not leave. Pictured: Turkish Army soldiers and tanks on parade in Nicosia, in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, on July 20, 2021. (Photo by Iakovos Hatzistavrou/AFP via Getty Images)

Aggression by Turkey's military appears to be on the rise in Cyprus -- in areas it does not yet occupy. According to the Cypriot media, on February 8, Turkish soldiers approached Greek Cypriot farmers working in fields near the village of Denia in the United Nations "Buffer Zone," and threatened to kill them if they did not leave.

The Turkish soldiers threatened the Greek Cypriot farmers about ten days after Turkey "slammed" the UN for extending its Cyprus peacekeeping mandate.

When the UN Security Council approved a six-month extension of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) on January 27, 2022, the government of Turkey was not pleased. They condemned the UN decision on the grounds that the UN had not received "the consent of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)", an illegal entity recognized only by Turkey.

"Reiterating that Turkey supported the TRNC's condemnation of the U.N. resolution on the extension, the statement said that Ankara will fully back the steps the [TRNC] administration chooses to take in this regard," the Turkish newspaper Daily Sabah reported.

To accompany its news report, Daily Sabah published an aerial photo of the "flag" of the TRNC next to a quote by the founder of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk that reads (in Turkish): "Happy is the one who says 'I am a Turk'". The "flag" had been painted on the Kyrenia mountain range, north of Nicosia, in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

The Turkish presence in Cyprus dates back to 1570: Ottoman troops invaded and plundered the island. Thousands were murdered, many churches were converted into mosques, and some Muslims from Anatolia were transplanted to Cyprus. In 1878, Britain assumed administration of Cyprus; in 1914, it annexed Cyprus, which became an independent republic in 1960. Britain, Greece and Turkey became guarantors of the constitution and territorial integrity of the Republic of Cyprus under the 1960 "Treaty of Alliance". Fourteen years later, however, Turkey would violate the treaty and commit an ethnic cleansing there.

So, how did that "Turkish flag" end up on the Kyrenia mountain range?

Noted for its historic harbor and castle, Kyrenia is a Greek Cypriot city built by the ancient Greeks, who were named Achaeans. Since the 1974 Turkish invasion, however, Kyrenia has been under unlawful Turkish occupation and the city's population consists now almost completely of illegal settlers from Turkey, who were allocated properties stolen from Greek Cypriots. The city -- like the rest of the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus -- is now controlled by the TRNC, which is not recognized by international law.

Turkey's massive military invasion against Cyprus in 1974 was purportedly meant to restore constitutional order after a Greek coup, which lasted for less than a week. Turkey's actions, on the other hand, indicated that their goal had actually been ethnic cleansing and colonization. Until the 1974 invasion, the northern part of Cyprus - like the rest of the island – had been majority-Greek. The Turkish invasion forcibly changed that. Today, more than 40,000 Turkish troops are illegally stationed in the occupied area. The indigenous Greek Cypriot residents have never been allowed to return and reclaim their homes and lands.

The democratically-elected mayoral officials of Kyrenia, who had to leave the city after the invasion, wrote:

"The Turkish invasion of July 20th 1974 destroys everything. The Greek residents of Kyrenia, terrified by the gunfire of the Turkish air force, scatter and seek shelter in basements. Three days after the invasion a cease fire agreement is achieved, but the Turkish troops violate it, invade and loot the city while many citizens are slaughtered. Most of the Kyrenians who choose to stay find themselves trapped and are transferred to the Dome hotel from where the Turks force them to gradually abandon the city along with the rest of the Greeks in the district."

The Turkish invasion, launched on July 20, 1974, was reported by The New York Times, which noted that that Turkish forces started bombing northern part of Cyprus indiscriminately:

"Striking at dawn, Turkish troops borne by transport ships and assault boats stormed ashore on the north coast near Kyrenia and on the south coast near Limassol. Simultaneously, hundreds of paratroopers dropped into the capital of Nicosia.

"Turkish jets bombed and strafed a variety of targets, including the Nicosia airport, a Greek Army encampment and other garrisons. Turkish Warships, meantime, pounded Greek‐Cypriot/shore installations on both coasts...

"A pooled dispatch said that Turkish fighter‐bombers had struck a mental hospital in Nicosia, killing at least 20 persons and wounding 60."

The next day, the New York Times continued:

"The air and sea invasion yesterday devastated the resort strip of tourist hotels on the north coast of Cyprus. Greek Cypriots and foreigners huddled under mattresses in the cellars of ruined buildings.

"Turkish warships shelled the northern port of Kyrenia and smaller communities to the west as American‐made A4 Skyhawks of the Turkish Air Force bombed roads, bridges, hotels and other buildings.

"The shelling and bombing seemed indiscriminate, with no regard for civilian areas or casualties."

On July 28, 1974, according to the New York Times:

"The reporters said that for many people being held by the Turks at the Kyrenia's Dome Hotel there was 'confusion, despair and terror.'

"One correspondent related the tale of one tourist, Margaret Gavrielides, a British citizen, who with her son Andreas was being held in the Dome Hotel .

"The Gavrielides family... crawled under beds. They heard an artillery shell explode in the backyard, and then voices.

"Mr. Gavrielides went to the door. A Turkish soldier fired, according to his wife.

"Her husband was taken to a medical station. She has not heard of or from him, since that day a week ago. The Turkish soldiers separated the men and threatened to rape the women, Mrs. Gavrielides said.

"But back in Ankara today, the newspapers were full of photos of smiling Turkish troops clustered in front of tanks draped with the star and crescent flag, holding their weapons high, and of Greek Cypriot hostages being given water by Turkish soldiers."

The Turkish military campaign was accompanied by murders, unlawful detention of both soldiers and civilians in what amounted to concentration camps, systematic execution of civilians, as well as the torture and mistreatment (including systematic rapes) of Greek Cypriots. These crimes were documented by the two volumes of a historic report by the then European Commission of Human Rights, adopted in 1976, initially covered up, but then leaked to the British Sunday Times in 1977 and eventually declassified in 1979.

On August 6, 1974, the New York Times reported:

"Greek Cypriots from small villages around Kyrenia told stories today of murder, rape and looting by the Turkish Army after its invasion of Cyprus. The villagers are among 20,000 civilians driven from their homes by the Turks along the northern coast of the island.

"One ashen-faced man told tearfully how his wife and two young children were shot before his eyes by Turkish soldiers who rounded up villagers before shooting them. A married woman whose husband was shot by the Turks and young girl who saw her fiancé shot told how they were then raped at gunpoint by Turkish soldiers...

"Eleni Andrea Mateidou, 28, who was married with two children, told of another mass shooting of able-bodied men at her village, Trimithi. Her husband Andreas, 27, and father-in-law were among them. Later she was among village women raped at gunpoint by the Turkish soldiers, she alleged. 'We went out with our hands raised but the Turks started beating us,' she said. 'They took off the top clothes of my husband and father-in-law and led them to the river bed in the village. Then they were shot. The women of the village were taken to the house of a British woman who had been evacuated. They were there raped at gunpoint.'

"'At one point another soldier came up with a baby in his arms. He asked who the mother was. I thought if I said it was mine it might save me. However, when I said I was the mother he threw it to the ground.'"

Despite the collapse of the coups in Greece and Cyprus by July 23, 1974, restoration of the legitimate government of Cyprus, and a ceasefire agreement, Turkey launched a second invasion of Cyprus three weeks later, on August 14, 1974. This time, Turkey gave no pretext but its second military campaign was even more violent, terrorizing more Greek Cypriot natives into fleeing their homes and lands. Those two invasions resulted in the Turkish occupation of 36% of the territory of Cyprus and 57% of its coastline.

On August 15, the New York Times reported:

"Turkish forces, which began a heavy air and ground attack early yesterday, appeared today to be on their way toward seizing control of much of northern Cyprus... A strong air strife [sic] on Nicosia sent thousands of Greek Cypriots fleeing southward.

"A psychiatric hospital close by a Greek Cypriot camp was hit for a second time in less than a month. Three bombs struck outbuildings, injuring 36 patients and 3 staff members. In the previous attack, a direct hit on a ward killed 27 patients and wounded nearly 100."

Despo Marango, a 17-year old from the village of Ashia in the Famagusta District, fled in her father's truck after Turkish tanks entered the town. "We took 20 people on the truck including old women," she recounted. "The Turkish troops came and fired on us and hurt four people. The Turks came into our homes and stole things."

On August 17, 1974, the New York Times wrote:

"Turkey's invasion forces completed the division of Cyprus into two areas yesterday and declared a ceasefire... on the 14th anniversary of the independence of Cyprus from Britain."

To this day, approximately 170,000 Greek Cypriot refugees are still denied by Turkey their right to return home. Over 160,000 illegal settlers or colonists have been transferred to the occupied area by Turkey (the exact number of the illegal settlers is not known; Turkey has not revealed the data). More than a thousand persons in Cyprus are still listed as missing.

Meanwhile, the ancient culture and history of the occupied north are being wiped out to perpetrate the myth that the area is Turkish. Geographical names have been Turkified and many Christian churches and monasteries have been destroyed or used for sacrilegious purposes.

The Archangelos Michael Church, built in Kyrenia in 1860, was converted into "an icon museum" in 1990 after its congregants had fled the invading Turkish soldiers in 1974. According to a 1994 report, icons were "stolen from the church". According to a 2021 news report:

"The church, which was closed for renovation years ago due to the crookedness of its minaret [tower], is kept in ruins despite the completion of the renovation. A shopkeeper said: 'Since the minaret of the icon museum was crooked, it was considered dangerous so the minaret was rebuilt. It took several years to build. They built it, and it has been 6-7 years since it's finished, but it [the museum/former church] is still waiting in ruins.'"

Currently, Turkey appears to be targeting the rest of the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the European Union. The government of Cyprus is now dealing with an "illegal immigration crisis" which it says Turkey is orchestrating. Government authorities state that the majority of migrants entering the free part of Cyprus are being smuggled illegally through the Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus. The Cypriot government added that Cyprus was facing "significant demographic change", "ghettoisation in urban areas" and "acute socio-economic effects" as a result of the illegal migrant crisis.

Meanwhile, according to Turkish media, Turkey is planning to construct a military naval base in the Karpasia Peninsula in the Turkish-occupied north.

Despite the uncountable war crimes Turkey has committed in Cyprus, the Turkish government has condemned the UN for having its "peacekeeping forces" there.

Turkey has also refused to comply with its obligations under the UN resolutions concerning Cyprus and many international conventions it has signed. In 2018, for instance, in response to a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) demanding the release of Selahattin Demirtaş, former co-chair of Turkey's pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said: "ECHR's rulings are not binding on us."

The West, however, remains silent -- not merely empowering Turkey to commit further atrocities but rewarding it. The US recently killed, at Turkey's request, the EastMed natural gas pipeline project, which would have transported gas from US allies Israel and Cyprus, via Greece, to Western Europe. The EastMed pipeline would have been particularly important in light of Russia's ability, with the Nord Stream and other pipelines, to blackmail the continent in winter by cutting off much of its gas supplies.

Turkey will now be able to continue its crimes against the Yazidis in Iraq, the Kurds in Syria and the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh with no repercussions.

Philip Christopher, president of the International Coordinating Committee - Justice for Cyprus, wrote: " Turkey's occupation of Cyprus has now become the first modern Islamist fundamentalist attempt to capture Western world territory and resources."

 

Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute.

Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/18228/turkey-cyprus-agression

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Dialectical Faucism - Lloyd Billingsley

 

​ by Lloyd Billingsley

Biden’s martial law, ready for deployment against the people.

 


In response to plunging polls, Joe Biden wants to roll back the public health security state but keep his emergency powers. The key figure in that quest is White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, profiled at length in The Real Anthony Fauci, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Fauci earned a medical degree in 1966 but in 1968 hired on with the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Fauci’s bio showed no advanced degrees in molecular biology or biochemistry, but in 1984 he became head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

According to Nobel laureate Kary Mullis, inventor of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Fauci did not understand electron microscopy, did not understand medicine, and was thus unqualified for the post. Fauci’s prediction that AIDS would ravage the general population was hopelessly wrong, but he remained at the helm of NIAID, steadily gaining power.

Fauci knew that gain-of-function research, which makes viruses more transmissible and lethal, could launch a pandemic, but in 2019 he funded such research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which also received a cargo of deadly pathogens from Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory, courtesy of Chinese national Dr. Xiangguo Qiu.

In early 2020, Fauci opposed President Trump’s ban on travel from China. He backed the lockdowns that caused widespread suffering and loss for the American people.

The NIAID boss maintained that the covid virus was the product of “natural evolution from an animal reservoir to a human,” which was pure speculation, not a matter of science. When researchers found evidence that the virus was engineered in a lab, Fauci pressured them to change their position and parrot his. When CDC boss Robert Redfield found evidence of a lab leak, he got death threats.

If the virus arose naturally in the wild, as Fauci theorized, endless variants could suddenly appear in distant lands. Omicron, for example, was first announced in South Africa, and last November Fauci said Omicron could already be in the United States, where the super-transmissible variant would “find just about everybody.”

Like other Fauci prophecies, that turned out wrong, and covid restrictions are being relaxed as the number of cases drop. The late Angelo Codevilla, who quickly pegged Fauci as a “deep state fraud,” understood the dialectic.

“The ‘softness,’ the very plasticity of the number by which the oligarchy scared the hell out of America in 2020,” Codevilla explained, “makes it possible, presto magico, gradually to ease the fear.” The changing definitions of the term “case” made it possible to substitute the oligarchy’s agenda for covid reality in the minds of Americans, and “the same dishonest process can be used in reverse.”

That is now going on as Biden’s poll numbers plunge to new depths, with good reason. The Delaware Democrat botched the Afghan withdrawal, in which a terrorist bomb killed 13 Americans, and called it an “extraordinary success.” Biden opened the southern border to all comers, regardless of background and with none of the covid mandates he forces Americans to endure. As Biden said, this is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and “our patience is running thin.”

Under President Trump, America became self-sufficient in energy, but Biden destroyed that in one day by halting pipelines, and slapping a ban on drilling on federal lands. That sent energy costs soaring, a blow to all Americans, particularly the workers. When a reporter dared to ask about inflation, Biden called him a “stupid son of a bitch.”

The addled Biden seems reluctant to accept any blame, and the people are starting to push back. As in Poland during the 1980s, this is basically a revolt of the workers.

Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, who imposed martial law, was a “Soviet general in a Polish uniform,” as Reagan’s secretary of defense Caspar Weinberger said. In Conrad Black’s phrase, Joe Biden is a “wax-works effigy of a president,” and covid mandates are his form of martial law.

Like their Canadian counterparts defying Trudeau, convoys of American workers are now headed for Washington. As the midterm elections approach, Americans will be taking to the streets to protest voter fraud, vaccine mandates, and racist indoctrination in the schools. Joe Biden won’t like it, and as the peaceful protests ramp up, look for Dr. Fauci to justify Biden’s emergency powers.

Since covid arises naturally in the wild, as dialectical Faucism contends, a new “Bwamaku-Sfonga” or some such variant could spring forth, presto magico out of Africa, where Fauci prefers to conduct his dangerous drug trials. The new threat could perhaps be announced by the World Health Organization, or someone on Dr. Fauci’s NIAID extensive payroll, backed by a budget of more than $6 billion.

“Dealing with Tony Fauci is like dealing with organized crime,” Dr. Jonathan Fishbein told RFK Jr. “He’s like the Godfather. He has connections everywhere. He’s always got people that he’s giving money to in powerful positions to make sure he gets his way, that he gets what he wants.”

Dr. Fauci, who claims “I represent science,” could proclaim a new variant already present stateside, and in the style of Omicron tracking down everybody. So “cases” will suddenly soar and Biden must deploy emergency measures. This scenario is much more likely than any expansion of freedom, accountability and prosperity under Joe Biden, who jokes that Fauci is the real president.

Dialectical Faucism is a variant of white coat supremacy, unelected bureaucrats ruling over the people. Executive-level power comes from a mandate from the masses, not some megalomaniac Lysenko figure. If American democracy is to survive, white coat supremacy has to go.

 

Lloyd Billingsley

Source: https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/03/dialectical-faucism-lloyd-billingsley/

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Erdogan’s interests and Israel’s morality paradigm - Ruthie Blum

 

​ by Ruthie Blum

Experts have been prioritizing morality over interest in relation to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

 

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, November 27, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS)
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, November 27, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/UMIT BEKTAS)

Given the current climate, the fanfare in Israel surrounding President Isaac Herzog’s historic trip to Turkey on Wednesday is both disconcerting and puzzling.

Since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, there has been a tendency among pundits to prioritize morality over interests when discussing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked aggression against the populace of a neighboring sovereign state.

There’s no doubt that the tragic refugee crisis he created has pressed emotional buttons that make debate about Jerusalem’s ostensibly mild response inevitable. Nor is it the least bit surprising that Israeli hospitals and humanitarian organizations have been rushing to provide aid to the displaced people of Ukraine.

Though there’s a controversy among government ministers about the number of refugees that the country can or should take in, much of the Israeli public wants the borders open, at least temporarily, to as many as wish to come.

Meanwhile, the argument over the wisdom of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s quick visit to the Kremlin last weekend hasn’t been resolved. Whether he should have inserted himself in a conflict unrelated to Israel is a matter of opinion. But Jerusalem’s need for cooperation with Moscow on the IDF’s freedom to act against Iranian targets and proxies in Syria is not.

PRIME MINISTER Naftali Bennett arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Sunday, on the heels of his talks in Moscow and Berlin. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS) PRIME MINISTER Naftali Bennett arrives for a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on Sunday, on the heels of his talks in Moscow and Berlin. (credit: RONEN ZVULUN/REUTERS)

The latter fact hasn’t prevented most Israelis from coming down squarely on the side of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom they’re depicting as a heroic, modern-day David battling an obviously evil Goliath. Some have even echoed Zelensky’s comparing of Putin to Adolf Hitler – though Joseph Stalin would be a more apt analogy.

IT’S HARD to fault the press or the public for framing the Ukraine war in such terms when Bennett and his ministers continue to do so. Following his meetings on Saturday with Putin in the Russian capital and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin, interspersed with phone calls to Zelensky, he opened the weekly cabinet meeting by saying it was Israel’s “moral responsibility to make every attempt” to help end the suffering.

Critics of his pilgrimage to Putin are saying the opposite, but using the same language, claiming that it was immoral of Bennett to engage in any dialogue with him whatsoever. A common refrain has been that it’s Israel’s moral obligation to remember the Holocaust and not turn its back on the victimized Ukrainians, regardless of geopolitical interests.

Stunningly, the moral outrage directed at Putin has overtaken that, warranted in relation to the fast-approaching nuclear agreement in Vienna. Led by the United States, the P5+1 countries are pushing the regime in Tehran to accept a new version of the disgraceful 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). And it’s a “much, much worse” one, according to former US State Department Special Advisor for Iran Gabriel Noronha, who’s been informed by sources in the know of many of the details being ironed out in Austria.

In an ironic twist, Russia is now placing a spoke in the wheels of the deal, demanding that Iran be exempt from any US trade sanctions imposed on Moscow over its Ukraine invasion. Given how anxious the administration of President Joe Biden is to hand over billions of dollars to the ayatollahs in exchange for false promises, that obstacle is likely to be removed in the very near future.

However, it’s astonishing that Biden is calling Putin a “pariah on the world stage,” while kissing up to the regime of Iranian President Ebrahim “The Butcher” Raisi. After all, unlike Russia, the Islamic Republic actually does deserve the Nazi label. Not only does it openly seek and vow to carry out the annihilation of the “Zionist entity,” but it continues to attack the Jewish state through the terrorist proxies that it funds, trains and arms.

THIS IS a concrete danger that directly affects Israel. Yet, there’s little mention of Israel and the West’s moral obligation to rise up against Tehran. On the contrary, the signatories to the original JCPOA keep insisting that it’s in the world’s interest to appease Iran into signing another useless document.

Having learned from decades of experience, Israelis don’t tend to hold with that view of Middle East diplomacy. Even the current coalition, which boasts of such warm relations with Team Biden that it promised not to take any action without receiving Washington’s blessing, has warned that it won’t sit by and let Iran obtain nuclear weapons.

At an event organized for the Mossad on March 1, Bennett stated that Israel won’t be bound by the imminent deal in Vienna. He stressed that Israel would do what it takes to safeguard its own interests.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz made similar comments this week on social media. In a Facebook post on Monday, he urged the world to mobilize against Iran. Still, neither Bennett nor Gantz uttered a word about morality.

THE DISCUSSION of morality was also absent ahead of, during and in the wake of the Herzog-Erdogan summit. Israeli correspondents on the scene, as well as their in-studio counterparts at home, have been too busy hailing the happening almost breathlessly, expressing shock and awe at the greeting that President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, received upon their arrival at the Presidential Complex in Ankara – replete with Israeli flags and a military band playing the national anthem, “Hatikvah.”

Due to Erdogan’s record as a radical Islamist, anti-Semite, Muslim Brotherhood ally and patron of Hamas – which has a command center in Istanbul that plots, recruits Palestinian for and executes terrorist attacks on Israelis – these journalists have included the caveat in their commentary that Israel must tread carefully and not simply grab Erdogan’s olive branch unconditionally. Even they realize that his hand is outstretched for a reason: To reap financial and other sorely coveted benefits.

In other words, one thing on which Herzog and all observers of this sudden turn of events agree is that Erdogan is acting on behalf of his interests. The only question being asked, by both optimists and skeptics, is what Israeli interests will be served by following his lead.

Not a peep about the moral stand that Israel should be adopting towards this evil autocrat who, since becoming president in 2014 after an 11-year stint as prime minister, has imprisoned tens of thousands of citizens for the crime of insulting him.

Not a whisper about Israel’s moral obligation”to shun Turkey as long as it’s ruled by Erdogan, who foments riots on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, champions rocket barrages from Gaza on Israeli cities, accuses Israeli of Nazi-like war crimes and a mere four months ago arrested and jailed an innocent Israeli couple vacationing in Istanbul on bogus espionage charges.

When he finally intervened to have the middle-aged husband and wife released, after groveling appeals by Bennett, Herzog and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, Israeli officialdom thanked him profusely, rather than warn him to watch his step.

Erdogan probably wasn’t surprised. He is versed in capitalizing on crises of his own creation. It’s how he managed to exact an apology from Israel, and bundles of cash, after the deadly 2010 Mavi Marmara affair that he himself instigated.

MEANWHILE, TURKEY has been occupying Afrin in Syria since 2018, when it launched Operation Olive Branch (of all misnomers) to ethnically cleanse the area of Kurds. It accomplished this through the brutality of militias that banded together, under Turkish auspices, to form the Syrian National Army (SNA).

Suffice it to say that the SNA doesn’t need lessons in cruelty from the Russian Armed Forces any more than Erdogan does from Putin. Herzog, like the government that gave the go-ahead for his jaunt to Ankara, is aware of this.

But it might not stop him or Israel’s actual political leaders from coming down with amnesia and imagining that the Turkish despot who fiercely opposed the Abraham Accords is now gushing to become a full partner in the genuinely historic normalization treaties.

A clue to the direction that the wind is blowing in Jerusalem on this score will lie in the discourse. A safe bet is that those in favor of embracing Erdogan’s courtship will refer to it as an Israeli interest, while the ones opposed will reject it on moral grounds.

Though the second group will have an easy time making a convincing case, the first is more likely to be made up of the policy-makers and their cheerleaders in the press.

From now on, Bennett and his crew ought to pay more mind to their rhetoric.

 

Ruthie Blum

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-700974

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How Israel's Air Force uses air superiority as a bridge to regional stability - Yaakov Katz

 

​ by Yaakov Katz

Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin's tenure stands out for the pace and intensity of operations.

 

IAF COMMANDER Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin.  (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)
IAF COMMANDER Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin.
(photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

On Sunday night, an explosion rocked the outskirts of Damascus. Two Iranian military officers were said to have been killed, and pictures from the scene showed a building turned into rubble and a burnt-out pickup truck. What the target was, no one revealed. Who was behind it, no one said either.

The most likely suspect was Israel, which has carried out hundreds of attacks against Iranian targets in Syria in the last few years. Israel, of course, did not confirm its involvement, but there is one thing for certain: if it was Israel, Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin, commander of the Israeli Air Force, would have been in his command post that night watching as another successful mission was carried out by his pilots.

Norkin, 55, will retire in a few weeks, ending a nearly five-year term as commander of Israel’s vaunted Air Force, often referred to as the Jewish state’s insurance policy. He graduated from the IAF’s prestigious pilot’s course in 1985, becoming one of the youngest F-15 pilots in the world, and was one of the first squadron commanders when the F-16i “Sufa” arrived in Israel. Norkin went on to command bases and serve as head of the IAF’s Operations Directorate, overseeing, for example, the bombing of Syria’s nuclear reactor in 2007.

But where Norkin’s career really stands out is in the intensity of that tenure. He is not the first IAF commander to use force and oversee combat operations – there were others before him who commanded wars on multiple fronts – but the intensity of the last five years has been something not seen before in Israel.

Almost every week – sometimes more than once – Israeli pilots are crossing borders and flying throughout the region on intelligence-gathering operations, and, like what might have happened on Sunday near Damascus, bombing missions. This is part of what is referred to as the “War between Wars,” widely known by its Hebrew acronym MABAM.

A US Air Force B-1b heavy bomber was escorted by an IAF F-15 fighter jet above Israeli airspace on October 30, 2021 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) 

A US Air Force B-1b heavy bomber was escorted by an IAF F-15 fighter jet above Israeli airspace on October 30, 2021 (credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT)

Here is just one statistic to illustrate the intensity of IAF missions: until 2015, only five surface-to-air missiles were fired at Israeli jets from Syrian territory. Since then, there have been more than 1,200.

The intensity is a mix of almost everything – different Russian systems in use by the Syrian military as well as new Iranian systems deployed there about a year ago, a sure sign of how the challenge is only growing.

Some are small-scale strikes against single targets. Others are bigger, louder and riskier. For each, Norkin is in the underground IAF command center overseeing the operation and ensuring that the pilots return home safely.

Beyond the operations, Norkin has altered the structure of the IAF. The Hatzor Base – once a mix of F-16s and unmanned aerial vehicles – is now solely for UAVs and air defense. The F-16s have moved to a base in the North.

The idea is to concentrate capabilities and improve them, keeping the force more focused on missions to try to make them more effective. Drones will operate from Hatzor as will a new command center for missile defense, a single place that will have eyes on all of Israel’s systems that protect the country from enemy missiles: Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow.

The same has happened with the IAF’s special forces. The three elite commando units that operate under the IAF – the Shaldag unit, the 669 search-and-rescue unit, and a small squad that specializes in assisting Hercules transport aircraft on land in makeshift runways behind enemy lines – were each previously independent. Norkin changed that, consolidating them into a special Air Force wing. The idea was to ensure that all units retain the IAF standard and stay focused on their main mission and goal of ensuring Israeli aerial superiority.

One great example is Shaldag. Teams from the elite commando unit have participated over the years in dozens of operations not connected to the Air Force, including for example some two dozen missions during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. While Norkin does not have a problem outsourcing the units and their capabilities, he does want them more focused.

One place where Norkin has left an indelible mark has been his growing of IAF ties with other air forces across the globe. An example was the recent bi-annual Blue Flag aerial exercise held in Israel in October. More than 1,500 people participated in the drill, which brought to the country jets from India, the United States, Italy, the UK, Greece and France.

It was the first time that a British fighter squadron deployed in Israel since the establishment of the state, as well as the first time that India sent a Mirage fighter squadron to Israel. The highlight was the arrival of UAE Air Force chief Maj.-Gen. Ibrahim Nasser Mohammed al-Alawi to watch the drills. A month later, Norkin flew to Dubai and met with Alawi as well as with a top Jordanian air force commander.

Norkin believes that air superiority is a bridge for regional stability. The first derivative is the joint training done at exercises like Blue Flag, which was in such high demand that the IAF had to reluctantly turn away some countries, as Israel’s narrow skies just could not accommodate so many airplanes.

The second derivative is that these opportunities foster intimacy between air forces, which helps Israel cultivate legitimacy for its operations. When these commanders visit and train alongside the IAF, they gain an appreciation for how the IAF operates. That alone helps create a better level of understanding the next time Israel launches an operation against Hamas in Gaza, or strikes at a mysterious Iranian target in Syria.

An example of this was felt in November 2019, when the Air Force targeted a top Islamic Jihad commander in Gaza in a surprise strike that set off a few days of fighting. Some foreign air force commanders happened to be in Israel for a drill they had come to observe, so when they left their hotel in Tel Aviv and saw Iron Dome interceptors flying through the sky they thought it was part of the drill. And no one left the country despite the ongoing clashes.

Within the region, the opportunities remain to be tested. While Israel is still far from the day when its pilots will launch joint operations with Emirati or Bahraini pilots, the alliance between the countries creates greater maneuverability and flexibility for Israel as it faces greater threats to its aerial freedom of operations.

And the threats are growing. Air defense systems are proliferating throughout the region, with constant attempts being made to down IAF jets. UAVs are flown across the border into Israel from Syria, Gaza and beyond. This demands that the IAF constantly adapt and refine its tactics and technology, which it did by initiating, for example, the development of radar systems that can pick up the signature of even small drones.

The situation in Syria is delicate and has Norkin and his pilots worried. If Israel loses the ability to coordinate operations with Syria – through what the IAF calls a “safety mechanism” – then it would face a challenge of strategic proportions. Iran will be able to take advantage of the suspension in Israeli action to move more weapons into Syria and Lebanon, and the IAF will have its hands tied.

Ultimately, the decision of how to proceed is up to the political echelon, but Norkin has made his and his pilots position clear to those who need to know: Israel must retain the ability to operate in Syria.

Over the last few weeks, Norkin has crisscrossed the country, bidding farewell to the bases that made up the milestones of his long flight career. It has been a hectic five years for Norkin, and he has earned a break.

Looking at the different moments that made up his tenure, one stands out: the time he flew a Baz-model F-15 over the Knesset alongside a Eurofighter painted with the flags of Israel and Germany and piloted by the commander of the Luftwaffe, Lt.-Gen. Ingo Gerhartz. It was an emotional moment and illustrated how even among the daily battles, history cannot be forgotten.

“The sounds of our wings of history are heard throughout the skies of Israel’s capital,” Norkin said over the air force’s internal communications system, as he and Gerhartz flew in formation over the Knesset. “With the memory of a dark past, we look toward a hopeful future while retaining a deep commitment to Israel’s freedom.” 

 

Yaakov Katz

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-700975

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