[Majorityrights News] Alex Navalny, born 4th June, 1976; died at Yamalo-Nenets penitentiary 16th February, 2024 Posted by Guessedworker on Friday, 16 February 2024 23:43.
[Majorityrights Central] A couple of exchanges on the nature and meaning of Christianity’s origin Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 25 July 2023 22:19.
[Majorityrights News] Is the Ukrainian counter-offensive for Bakhmut the counter-offensive for Ukraine? Posted by Guessedworker on Thursday, 18 May 2023 18:55.
Netanyahu had a significant role in arranging the Trump-Putin meeting along with some of its key objectives. Note that Netanyahu has been close to the highly corrupt Kushner family since Jared was a child; and it was Jared who negotiated Trump’s route to the White House by means of an avowal to undo the Iran Deal.
The Jerusalem Post, “Intelligence Report: Israel needs Trump and Putin in Syria”, 15 July 2018:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin . (photo credit: KOBI GIDEON/GPO)
Though he hasn’t been present there, the spirit of Israel’s prime minister hovered all over the summit meeting between the US and Russian presidents in Helsinki in mid-July. Benjamin Netanyahu worked laboriously mobilizing all his influence in Washington to persuade Donald Trump to meet Vladimir Putin.
The two leaders have mysterious relations that are unfolding as a special investigation of former FBI director Robert Muller into alleged Russian meddling in the last US presidential elections is progressing. Trump and Putin were scheduled to discuss international matters from North Korea to the Russian occupation of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine to the trade wars declared by Trump and the conflicts in the Middle East.
The Israeli prime minister, however, is mainly interested in two topics: Iran and the civil war in Syria. He needs both leaders to back his policy on these fronts.
On July 11, four days before the summit, Netanyahu was set to meet Putin and sit next to him in his private box at a Moscow soccer stadium watching together one of the two World Cup’s semi-finals.
It will be Netanyahu’s 10th meeting with the Russian leader in the last three years. He has more Putin’s hours than any other leader in the world.
The frequency and urgency of his encounters with Putin are a result of the fact that the Syrian civil war appears to be reaching its end and the army of President Bashar Assad is on its way to regain its position along the Israeli border on the Golan Heights.
Israel’s interests are to allow the Syrian army to return to its posts along the border as mandated by the 1974 agreement on “Disengagement of Forces” between the two sides, which ended the 1973 Yom Kippur War, while preventing any presence of Iranian, Lebanese Hezbollah or Shi’ite militias in undefined areas near the border.
After seven-and-a-half years of violence and bloodshed, including the use of chemical weapons, the death toll among Syrian government forces, opposition forces and civilians is estimated by UN and civil rights groups to be more than 500,000. As of December 2017, approximately 13.1 million people were in need of humanitarian assistance in Syria, with 6.3 million people displaced internally, and an additional 5.4 million registered refugees, making the Syrian situation among the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
Throughout the war years, Israeli policy remained more or less unchanged. Though some of the Israeli intelligence estimates were wrong (“Assad will be toppled within three weeks,” then- defense minister Ehud Barak predicted in 2011), the policy of non-intervention and not taking sides was consistent, with a few minor exceptions.
The Israeli “red lines” set by Netanyahu and the three defense ministers who served under him during this period – Barak, Moshe Ya’alon and Avigdor Liberman – consisted until a year ago of the following.
• To ensure the peace on the Israeli side of the border by responding to any violation of its sovereignty, deliberate or errant, by the Syrian army or rebel groups.
• To provide humanitarian aid to the villages next to the border, thus ensuring their gratitude and minimizing their incentives to act against Israel. So far, Israel has treated in its hospitals 3,500 victims, many of them children and women, and supplied more than a hundred tons of medical aid, food, clothes and tents worth nearly $100 million, which mostly was financed by contributions from evangelical communities in the US.
• According to foreign reports, the “good border” relations also included a supply of light weapons, ammunition and communication gear to the moderate, national-secular rebels groups near the border. In return, according to these reports, Israel, gleaned good intelligence on what was happening in Syria and beyond.
• To secure the safety of the Syrian Druze community (roughly half a million people), in order to calm down Israel’s own small Druze community (about 120,000), whose members serve in the Israeli armed and security forces and are considered loyal citizens of the Jewish state.
• To crush by military force efforts by Iran and Hezbollah to create a terrorist infrastructure on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.
• To conduct air strikes and demolish transfers from Iran via Syria to Hezbollah of sophisticated weapons.
These goals were more or less achieved by a wise policy of the Israeli military and government by employing the tactics of a tightrope dance that combined determination, sensitivity and caution.
Even the arrival of the thousands of members of the Russian contingency and especially its air force and state-of-the-art anti-aircraft batteries didn’t stop Israel from preserving and enhancing its national interests. This was possible by establishing direct “hotlines” between Hmeimim Air Base in northwestern Latakia, where Russian headquarters is located, and the IDF and Israel Air Force headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The occasional talks between Israel and Russian officers helped “deconflicting” and the prevention of dog fights between Israeli and Russian pilots. On top of that, in his rounds of meetings with Putin, it seems that Netanyahu obtained from the Russia leader the license to almost freely operate in Syria as long as targets were not fully identified with the Assad regime.
But a year or so ago, Israel’s red lines were redefined and extended. While all the above interests are still in place, Israel has added a more important goal: to remove the presence of Iranian, Hezbollah and Shi’ite militias as far as possible from the Israeli border.
On Thursday 28 and Friday 29 of June the leaders of the 28 Member States of the European Union met in Brussels for a summit to discuss in particular migration policy at a European scale. A summit that has brought some progress but which is not a decisive victory for anyone, even if the V4 can celebrate having imposed its themes and some of its solutions, as well as having overcome the domination of the immigrationist paradigm.
Belgium, Brussels – Once again, the European Union seems to be paralyzed. The leaders of the 28 EU Member States, however, all wanted to move the debate on the migration issue forward, and the discussions dragged on late into the night. Nothing helps, the migration issue is not settled, and no idea is unanimous.
The Hungarian Prime Minister represented the Visegrád countries during the V4-France meeting preceding the summit, in order to negotiate with Emmanuel Macron. The immigrationist governments, like those of the French Republic or Germany, have agreed to abandon the idea of mandatory quotas for all, which is already a great victory for Viktor Orbán and V4. For the strong man of Budapest, who announced on his arrival in Brussels his willingness to put an end to massive and uncontrolled immigration to Europe and initiate remigration, the summit can not however be seen as a total victory.
Certainly, the EU is starting to be in tune with the solution proposed by the V4 three years ago, namely the setting up of refugee camps outside the EU borders – to make the registration of applications and to distinguish refugees from cheaters and economic migrants – and Frontex control over the Mediterranean Sea. But if we do not know the exact content of the negotiations, we understand that each side had to make concessions.
Quotas will only apply to Member States wishing to participate in the relocation of immigrants, but those who oppose it may well be required to participate more heavily in the funding of protection structures. Frontex should indeed significantly increase its workforce in the coming years, and that will have a cost. Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini announced that Slovakia was volunteering to temporarily accommodate 1,200 migrants to relieve neighboring countries – referring to Austria. He insisted, however, that every migrant should be accepted by the government, and that none of them could enter and stay in Slovakia without prior government control and acceptance.
No details on the technical solutions: the EU is talking about increasing aid to the countries of origin of the migrants, but the population of these countries is expected to double by 2050. And what about the migrants which will be refused in the registration camps? Many questions still arise.
A concrete progress for the Visegrád group, certainly because of the Italian pressure on the issue, is that NGOs should now stop picking up in the Libyan territorial waters migrants on smugglers’ ships, and let the Libyan coastguard do their work. This should considerably dry up the massive influx of illegal immigrants into Italy, and therefore into Europe.
So if the V4 has managed to establish itself as a key and influential trading partner, it has not – yet? – obtained total gain of cause. The fight within the EU on the migration issue has not been resolved this week.
Euractiv, “EU summit approves tortured conclusions on migration after sleepless night”, 29 June 2018:
EU leaders reached a much-needed deal on steps to tackle migration after resolving a bitter row with Italy’s inexperienced prime minister. Extended talks lasted through the night and only wrapped up on Friday morning (29 June).
Europe’s leaders got the bitter taste of what anti-system diplomacy, or creative disruption means. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who heads Italy’s month-old populist and anti-immigration government, took the entire summit as hostage.
Conte blocked the summit conclusions in a bid to get his reluctant counterparts to share responsibility for asylum seekers landing on Italian shores.
A summit ending without conclusions would have been a political disaster with unpredictable negative consequences for the EU bloc, so the stakes were high
A relieved Merkel in backround as an agitated Conte gets a pat on the back from Tusk and Macron
Disruptive diplomacy
Former law professor Conte, until recently a virtual political unknown, came to Brussels emboldened by the announcement of an upcoming visit to Washington to visit US President Donald Trump, who has hailed Rome’s tough stance, and who himself blocked the conclusions of a recent G7 leaders meeting on trade.
The summit which is expected to end today by noon, was called the “mother of all summits”, in particular because of the potential impact on the political future of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is wrestling to preserve her fragile government at home.
“Europe has many challenges but migration could end up determining Europe’s destiny,” Merkel told German lawmakers hours ahead of the summit.
There are very few migrants arriving in Germany recently but Merkel’s conservative CSU ally warned it would send back migrants who reach the German border after having registered in other EU states.
Such a move could see a domino effect of re-introduction of internal borders and the collapse of the Schengen area.
In contrast, Italy is actually under migratory pressure from the Central Mediterranean route with significant numbers of arrivals salvaged at sea and brought to its ports. Since the new government took over, Italy has refused to let several migrant rescue boats dock at Italian ports, reopening EU divisions.
“Italy does not need more words, but concrete actions,” Conte told reporters as he arrived at the summit, adding that if EU leaders did not offer more help “we will not have shared conclusions”. Italy wants the responsibility for migrants on ships arriving on its shores to be shared out across the 28-nation European Union.
Drama at summit
European Council spokesman Preben Aamann said that after several hours of talks, conclusions on all issues from the summit – which is also dealing with trade and defence in addition to the core subject of migration – had been blocked.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” an Italian source added.
Other sources said the other 27 EU leaders were “astonished” and unhappy over Italy hardening its position and that “it was a very virulent discussion and everyone jumped on the Italian”.
The ‘mother of all summits’ wrapped up earlier. Check out how it all unfolded here. It was all supposed to be about unity but there wasn’t even a family photo, in what seems like a new tradition.
Jean-Claude Juncker was in full House of Cards mode about his upcoming trip to Washington to try and avert an all-out trade war. Conclusions on the eurozone were, as expected, the bare minimum.
Brexit barely got a mention, except on “insufficient progress”. Emmanuel Macron has lost patience and wants a final withdrawal deal done by the autumn. British actor and repentant Leave voter Danny Dyer summed up ex-PM David Cameron’s role in one moment of genius.
One overlooked result of the summit was an agreement between the Baltics, Poland and the Commission on decoupling Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from Russia’s power grid and sphere of influence.
Euractiv, “EU, Baltics, Poland target Russia grid separation by 2025”, 29 June 2018:
The Baltic nations, Poland and the European Commission agreed Thursday (28 June) on a roadmap to synchronise the region’s electricity network with the rest of continental Europe’s by 2025 and end their reliance on the Russian grid.
The leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the European Commission all signed up to a political agreement during a special ceremony on the sidelines of the ongoing European Council summit.
According to the roadmap, the deadline for concluding the synchronisation of the Baltic grid is set for 2025, using an existing electricity interconnector between Poland and Lithuania, as well as a planned undersea cable.
The latter project will only be undertaken if results of a study by the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) show that it guarantees energy security, security of supply and if costs are within reason. Results due in September.
Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said that “since the beginning of our mandate, my Commission has been committed to having full integration of the Baltic states’ grids with the rest of Europe”.
Energy Union boss Maroš Šefčovič called the deal “solidarity at its best“, adding that the project will “cost us a lot from the European budget”, through the Connecting Europe Facility.
Poland’s role in the preliminary deal is crucial as it will act as the primary link between the Baltics and the rest of Europe. In March, the three countries revealed they would not support any EU sanctions against Warsaw as part of the ongoing rule of law spat with Brussels.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L-R), Estonian Prime Minister Juris Ratas, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Latvia’s Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis during Prime Ministers Council of the Baltic Council of Ministers with Polish counterpart in Vilnius, Lithuania 9 Mar 2018. [EPA-EFE]
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have confirmed that they are against imposing EU sanctions on Poland for alleged breaches to the rule of law. EURACTIV Poland reports.
Thursday’s agreement was long overdue, after disputes about how best to cut ties with the Russian-Belorussian network stood in the way of any progress.
Estonia and Latvia initially both favoured setting up a second alternating current (AC) connection with Poland to complement the existing LitPol link but Lithuania and Poland did not support that idea, despite studies showing that two AC connections would be best.
New Observer, “Israel’s Jewish Agency Head: Non-Jews Marrying Jews is an ‘Actual Plague”, 30 June 2018:
The newly elected head of the Jewish Agency for Israel—the official organization which brings Jews to that ethnostate—Isaac Herzog, has described marriages between Jews and non-Jews as “an actual plague.”
Making the remarks on Israeli TV following the announcement of his appointment to the post, Herzog—former leader of the “left wing” Zionist Labour Party added that he was desperately seeking a “solution” to the “plague.”
I’ll tell you a personal story.
Last summer I traveled [with my wife] to the USA for a vacation. I graduated from a Jewish school in New York.
And we went to meet friends. I have a ton of friends in the U.S.A.
And I encountered something that I called an actual plague.
I saw my friends’ children married or coupled with non-Jewish partners! And the parents beat their breasts and ask questions, and are suffering.
Listen, it’s every [Jewish] family in the U.S.A.! And we are talking about millions. And I said there must be a campaign, a solution. We have to rack our brains to figure out how to solve this great challenge.
The Jewish Agency is funded by the Jewish Federations of North America, the Keren haYesod (a registered corporation of the State of Israel, and which serves is the official fundraising organization for Israel the world over), and the World Zionist Organization—and is therefore fully representative of world Jewry.
Herzog’s remarks underline the point that there is no real difference between “left wing” Jews and “right wing” Jews when it comes to the topic of preserving the Jewish race, and that the only real difference between them is how the case of Israel is presented to the world.
While no-one would question the right of Jews to remain Jews and to take steps to ensure that they remain in existence as a distinct genetic entity—after all, this is a natural right of every race and people in the world—the reality is that these same Jews are the first to attack any European person, party, or group which says the exact same thing…
Sure, “Whites should be strictly against ‘Hispanics’ and ‘Hispanics’ should be against Whites”, while “black Americans are ‘really ok’...they just need to get back to the days where the black father headed the family with authority”.... if you listen to right wing fools like Dr. Dupe and have the capacity to nerd-rationalize your way around the racial reality, you might even buy that.
In fact, when choosing sides in a friend enemy distinction between so called “Hispanics” and blacks, i.e., regarding whom to form coalitions with, there is no question; and if the Hispanics are truly wise, they will side in coalition with White groups and Asians against blacks, YKW and Muslims.
It won’t be easy to form this coalition, perhaps some form of coordination will have to suffice for now ..the negotiation of coalition with White Hispanics should be easier, of course, except for our dumb White right wing American element, which virtually sees people who don’t have blue eyes and blonde hair as non-White, but White Left Ethnonationalism should reach out to build coalitions with “la Raza”, or some facsimile thereof, not only the ones who are primarily White, but also the ones who are part White and part Indian and ones that are primarily Amerindian.
We have to convince them that the issue of “Hispanics” and Whites is one of negotiation and coordination - critically, of carrying capacity of the nations and resources; and in defense against YKW and Islam and blacks -
The later group of which they are notoriously good at defending themselves against in a perennial fight of theirs; against blacks who would stay on their turf. That defense can help us sort out, and with coordination, achieve separatism from blacks and those “Hispanics” who are significantly black…..
Sooner or later “Hispanics”, not being so flighty and disposed to take recourse in nerd-dome and “intellectual rationalizations” as Whites do, realize that it is absolutely necessary to fight for their women, their people and turf against blacks, to discriminate against them. And they are correct about that. The problem is not that “blacks used to be ok when they were not misled by Jewry” as Dr. Dupe alleges. This their nature, this is reality.
So, when it comes to that fight, we should say, ‘go La Raza Unita!’ or whatever potentially White allied “Hispanic” group is defending their women and themselves against blacks.
Furthermore, they won’t be shedding too many tears about historical Jewish victimhood, nor see much common ground with Israel. La Raza was founded in wise skepticism of Jewry.
Of course WN should go with the angle that it was the prerogative of the restaurateur to discriminate and throw her out as a matter of private business/property and freedom of association. This can begin to challenge the (((64 Civil Rights Act))) which violates the capacity (of Whites, anyway) to discriminate on behalf of their private property, business and prerogative of association.
Telegraph, “Restaurant owner who asked Sarah Sanders to leave says she was taking moral stand against Donald Trump”, 24 June 2018:
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, was refused service at a restaurant on Friday, sparking angry accusations that Donald Trump’s aides are the target of liberal “bigotry”.
Mrs Sanders said she had been asked to leave by the owner of the Red Hen, about three hours drive outside Washington.
The story was confirmed by the restaurant’s owner who said she felt she had to take a stand against for “honesty” and “compassion”.
Mrs Sanders wrote on Twitter: “I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia to leave because I work for the president and I politely left.
“Her (the owner’s) actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
The confrontation comes at a particularly tense time in American politics, with protests growing over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border policy that has separated children from parents. It follows months and years of growing polarisation in American politics - the cause and effect of Mr Trump’s rise to power.
Republicans lost no time in accusing liberals of policing restaurants.
Mrs Sanders’ father Mike Huckabee, the former Republican presidential candidate, said: “Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Or you can ask for the ‘Hate Plate’. And appetisers are ‘small plates for small minds’.”
Earlier in the week, Mr Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, cut short a dinner at a Mexican restaurant after protesters shouted “Shame!” until she left.
The Red Hen Credit: Daniel Lin
Mrs Sanders’ treatment at the restaurant created a social media commotion with people on both sides weighing in.
On Yelp, a reviewer of the restaurant wrote: “Don’t eat here if you’re a Republican, wearing a MAGA hat or a patriot.”
But other reviewers supported the restaurant owner’s actions.
Both sides of the debate have been leaving comments on the restaurant’s social media sites Credit: Daniel Lin/AP
One said: “12/10 would recommend. Bonus: this place is run by management who stuck up for their beliefs and who are true Americans.” The restaurant was in the town of Lexington, population 7,000, which voted heavily against Mr Trump.
Stephanie Wilkinson, co-owner of the tiny 26-seat eaterie, said she was at home when staff called to tell her Mrs Sanders was dining and she went to see.
She told the Washington Post: “I’m not a huge fan of confrontation. I have a business, and I want the business to thrive.
“But this feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”
When she got there Mrs Sanders, her husband and several others had cheese boards in front of them.
Ms Wilkinson consulted her staff who had all seen Mrs Sander defending the separation of illegal immigrant families at the border. The staff said they wanted Mrs Sanders to leave.
Ms Wilkinson said she went to Mrs Sanders, told her she was the owner, and asked her on to the patio “for a word”.
She said: “I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion. I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation. I said ‘I’d like to ask you to leave’.”
Mrs Sanders was polite and said simply: “That’s fine. I’ll go.”
Her party followed her out, offering to pay, but were told they did not need to.
Someone claiming to be a member of the waiting staff posted details of the incident on social media, including a memo about Mrs Sanders being 86ed - slang for ejecting someone.
The details were forwarded in a tweet by Brennan Gilmore, the executive director of environmental group Clean Virginia.
Posted by DanielS on Saturday, 23 June 2018 07:26.
One of the victims has a surprising message for his attacker. Victims want their attackers caught, but they’re hoping whomever did that can turn their lives around - Brandon Aruffo said: “I’m still not thinking clearly, I don’t remember much. ...everybody’s alive, we’re ok, so that’s what matters.” Words for the suspects: “I forgive you. I hope that you find whatever in life that you’re looking for. And may god bless you. And I hope that you start living a better way.”
DFWCBSlocal, “Pair Attacked In Deep Ellum Share Story”, 18 June 2018:
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Over the weekend a violent attack was captured on camera in Deep Ellum. It happened around 2:30 a.m. Saturday outside of The Bomb Factory and left two people badly injured.
Brandon Aruffo and Mikaela Benatti said they were heading home after a night out when it happened.
“It just happened so quickly,” Benatti said. “We were walking down Henry and took a left on to Canton. These guys came out of nowhere.”
In the surveillance video you can see Aruffo is punched from behind. He hits ground and is knocked unconscious. One of the men then moves to Benatti. He knocks her to her knees and tries to take her purse.
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:
“He just started hitting me and I have a crossbody, a little clutch that wraps around, and he was trying to pull it off of me,” Benatti said. “The worst part to me is the strap broke and they just walked off. They didn’t run. It definitely seemed like something they had done before.”
Benatti said the two men walked off with her purse and Aruffo’s wallet. She called 911 and waited for an ambulance to arrive. They were both treated for bad injuries.
“I have a concussion, some staples back here, some stitches in my lip” Aruffo said.
Benatti has face fractures and bruised knees.
The two said they won’t be coming back to Deep Ellum any time soon. They believe the area is becoming too dangerous.
“I just don’t feel safe going there,” Aruffo said. “If you do go to Deep Ellum it’s safer to travel in a pack,” Aruffo said.
Saturday’s incident is just one of a series of violent attacks in Deep Ellum recently.
In late May a woman was jumped outside of Bucky Moonshine’s and in April a woman was violently punched outside of Adams Hats Lofts. It happened just across the street from where Aruffo and Benatti were attacked.
Police are trying to identify the two men seen attacking Aruffo and Benatti in the video.
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaité during the signing ceremony with Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker. [European Commission]
A relieved Merkel in backround as an agitated Conte gets a pat on the back from Tusk and Macron
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L-R), Estonian Prime Minister Juris Ratas, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Latvia’s Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis during Prime Ministers Council of the Baltic Council of Ministers with Polish counterpart in Vilnius, Lithuania 9 Mar 2018. [EPA-EFE]
